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Marketing Practice
RECESSION LESSONS
After a year of economic stress, it’s time to explore changing marketing techniques and new media to achieve outstanding results
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By Dina Nazmy
Marketing Director – Egypt
LINKdotNET
Recession is a word that changes plans, and revises goals and objectives. For those in the marketing profession, the economic troubles of 2009 presented a formidable set of challenges, and we struggled to find the elusive formula that would yield growth and sustainability.
Before moving forward, it is best to go back to examine earlier global recessions to analyze the effect on consumers and how companies succeeded or failed. With regard to consumer behavior and organizational strategies in the current conditions, it is clear that tough times change both consumers and organizations. By understanding the needs of consumers, successful organizations adapted their strategies and revised the goods or services they offered. One effective strategy for defining customer segments was by using developments in the field of psychology to analyze how purchase decisions are made. Customers were divided into two types, or segments: fearful or carefree. Products and services were rated on a scale from “essential” to “expendable.”
Following are some ideas to save money without diminishing the effectiveness of the advertising:
• Concentrate media expenditure on the most visible and prime locations; variety should be less of a concern
• Deliver the message in smaller spaces or shorter time slots – 10 seconds, for example, instead of 30
• Explore and take advantage of emerging Internet and digital advertising opportunities; make decisions based on the accuracy of site content, Internet penetration and user profiles
• Exploit alternatives – try radio as a strong above-the-line medium instead of expensive TV spots
• Monitor advertising results and, if plausible, reduce the frequency of the spots – try bi-hourly instead of one per hour on radio, for example, or biweekly instead of once per week
• Avoid long-term commitments in media deals, unless the offer is financially too good to refuse
• Consider extending or broadening an existing campaign to reduce production costs. Explore all options with regard to production
Standing out in the crowd
Achieving brand visibility is becoming a real challenge because of ever-increasing media clutter. Satellite television offers myriad choices, as does the Internet, not to mention mobile Web access devices. Then there are the more traditional forms of advertising, such as outdoor signage, newspapers and radio. Count the number of online banners, TV commercials, billboards, signs or print ads you encounter each day. It seems endless. Still, we expect clients and consumers to not only notice, but react to our ads.
In his book Buy-ology, Martin Lindstrom argues that consumers have two sides when it comes to choosing a particular brand or product: rational and irrational or, to put it another way, logical and emotional. Studying the human psyche and analyzing the conscious vs. subconscious mindset to understand how consumer choices are made can lead to more effective marketing strategies. Someday, individual agencies might have access to high-tech neuromarketing research for their specific products and services. In the meantime, Lindstrom offers some advice for marketers in today’s tight economic times:
• Avoid deep discounts – it can take at least two years to return to pre-discount levels
• Bundle related products/services with special offers
• Celebrate your brand’s “traditional values” – most people can relate to the “good old days”
• Focus on the practical dimensions
• Target children – they are either influential in buying decisions or will be in the future
• Offer fewer choices to consumers – in this case, less is definitely more
• Create accessible price points
• Eliminate the fear factor
So, what’s new?
Somatic marker is a term that was virtually unknown among marketers before Lindstrom came along. A somatic marker is a bookmark in the brain linked to a particular brand.
Based on personal experience, working with strong somatic markers can make the job remarkably easy. One brand I worked with had a unique character/spokesperson/hero: the mouse. The effect of the mouse’s strong personality was that it came to be associated not only with our brand of dialup service, but with the Internet industry nationwide. For me as a marketer and, I believe, our customers, the campaign was fun.
Lindstrom mentioned in his Nielsen C360 conference that when tapping into a consumer’s emotional, irrational side, it is important to make use of the senses – smell, sight, hearing and touch. So a somatic marker could be the Fido Dido character of 7UP, which combines visuals, voice and animation-generated feelings to increase the likelihood of a desirable consumer reaction. Common, familiar somatic markers are all around us: McDonald’s trademark gold “M”; the linked double “C” logo of Chanel; or the bright red script “K” of Kellogg’s cereals, to name a few.
Viral marketing
Viral marketing is about spreading a message through social networks, SMS texts, e-mails and other tools. Exploring new techniques of marketing to target young people requires cutting-edge insight into the mindset of youth. When I was in my 20s, my boss told me I was starting to talk like older people, and I was upset. Then I realized that understanding the habits of the target audience is essential. The problem is no longer just identifying a target audience, rather it is understanding mindsets, aspirations and media usage, and, above all, engaging them.
My most memorable experience with the potential of viral marketing was launching the live streaming of US president Barack Obama’s June 4 speech at Cairo University. The idea was explored and launched in less than 24 hours, so we didn’t have the luxury of advertising or marketing it in a conventional way. So we basically formulated one strong and appealing communication message directing users to visit the site to watch the speech live. With internal marketing team efforts, we managed to circulate about 1,000 SMS texts to friends, colleagues and media contacts in both Arabic and English. An estimated 2,000 e-mails and hundreds of announcements on MSN Messenger and Facebook were generated. Other numbers were:
• 46,270 site visits (initial access to a website)
• 87,644 page visits (based on site navigation after initial access)
• 200 comments posted
• 1,600 streamers
Marketing is about experimenting and searching for the best, most effective formula. It is about being prepared for the next launch or the competition’s campaign. And it’s about being able to analyze a situation and adapt tried-and-true strategies or adopt new ones. Our ultimate goal is to win the hearts and minds of consumers. If we can do that, owning a segment or dominating the market can be done.
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