Alberta Business Marketing

As mentioned with our last post, Brand Matters conducted research on the topic marketing in a recession; what does it take to win. This is the second installment sharing our findings with theme #2, Marketing Innovation.

As companies tighten marketing budgets, marketers are increasingly expected to do more with less. The value proposition remains at the core of a brand’s offering; however, marketers are taking an innovation angle rather than price cutting.

Experts agree, in times of economic downturn brands must continue to invest in marketing. There is increased competition with value brands growing, premium brands lowering prices, and private label brands beginning to advertise. As a result, marketers are faced with the challenge of finding more innovative/compelling strategies to break through the clutter and effectively reach consumers. Marketers need to find fresh, cost-efficient ways to not only communicate with consumers, but also attract new customers as competitors eat into market share. If competitors do slash prices, this is when brands must be innovative in order to sustain their competitive value offering.

No longer are agencies providing the ‘big idea’, instead, innovation is appearing in the form of smaller, more practical tactics – for example, digital media and community building are being used to better serve the needs of a more targeted group of high-value customers. As Brenda Truant says, “With less resources, you [marketers] must work smarter not harder.”

Examples of resourceful marketing tactics include:

(1) Co-creation with consumers – the Doritos Guru campaign successfully accomplished by achieve over 1.5 million exposures),
(2) Brand partnership – seeking out potential brands to partner with who share the same customers or have a similar brand character. For example, BMW.
(3) Gain deeper consumer insights – analyze user generated content to identify consumer insights and refine marketing communication tactics. As the insight analytics business continues to grow, there is an opportunity to review this consumer-generated content to truly understand their branding needs and identify the most appropriate marketing communications tactics.

Organizations lacking cross-functional internal alignment and trust, especially between marketing and finance, will find it more challenging to gain buy-in and support for new marketing communications initiatives.

Although new marketing communications initiatives are often tests, experts agree that they should not be referred to as ‘tests’ internally – instead they should be folded into an integrated marketing communications plan with more traditional tactics. These tests are important as they will help develop the marketing communications innovation pipeline which will result in future marketing communications programs. Marketing must own testing, as stated by one participant, “without experiments [tests] there is only measuring and tracking.”

Do you have more to add with examples of successful Innovation Tactics that have been developed by your organization?

Our firm conducted research over the past 5 months via an on-line survey and a moderated roundtable with industry experts with a focus on the topic marketing in a recession; what does it take to win. Over the next few weeks I will share each of the four themes that we uncovered as input to CMA’s Marketing Blog with the hope of stimulating more dialogue on this topic.

The four marketing themes are: (1) Trust & Community Building; (2) Marketing Innovation; (3) Canada’s Emergence as a Marketing Leader and (4) Need for Integrated Marketing Communications.

1. Trust & Community Building

As a result of the US banking failure and collapse of storied companies like GM and Nortel, a shift has occurred in today’s marketing landscape. Consumers are becoming increasingly skeptical of traditional ‘push’ marketing and as such, brands are increasingly focusing on fostering a sense of trust with consumer through ‘community building’.

There has been a value shift in the eyes of the consumer; consumers are placing additional value in brands they trust in response to increased anxiety and fear caused by recent financial collapses. Looking at drivers of demand amongst financial institution consumers, there has been a shift to ‘trust’ from ‘confidence and convenience’. Traditional media will not address this shift in consumer need, where as having more direct conversations/interactions will.

Trust can be built multiple ways. The more traditional method used is to maximize share of voice (SOV) using mass media: this visibility confirms brand strength and makes consumers more accustomed to your brand. However, brands are now beginning to incorporate ‘community building’ into their marketing communications to give consumers (who are passionate about the brand/cause) the emotional brand connection and experience of community. This tactic will reach a more targeted consumer base and could include current customers, prospects, and influencers. The need for integrated marketing communications will be examined in further detail later in this Blog series.

Community building can foster trust through the following strategies/tactics:

1. Allowing consumers to connect directly through branded programs.
For example, The Running Room invites customers to participate in company-led runs. This allows running enthusiasts (a core customer target) to connect directly and develop a sense of community – anchored by the brand. Dove’s ‘Real beauty campaign’ fostered a sense of community at all levels, while benefiting from the fame attached to the brand.

2. Being transparent allowing two-way communications.
For example, the Globe and Mail has recently added a two-way dialogue feature to its online offering allowing readers to interact directly with editorial writers. In another example, the CEO of a wireless company calls disengaged customers to understand the reasons for their dissatisfaction.

3. Consumer co-creation. A few best practices from industry experts:

• It is easier for strong passion brands (Lululemon, Starbucks, charities, etc.) to get consumer involvement (these are truly passionate customers) and the opportunity to contribute to a brand they love in a community of like-minded individuals is generally incentive enough to participate.
• When launching a new community, the optimal strategy is usually integrate the new community into established communities (for example, Facebook). This leverages existing communities and experts agree this results in higher consumer trust/participation that building a separate community.

What has your experience been in terms of the increasing popular strategy of Community Building and what Tactics have you found most sincere and successful?