Promotion Strategy
Posted: December 18, 2007
Successful Promotions Actually Support the Brand
by Chris McCrory, Lead Strategist
Effective promotions are the lifeblood of any brand. Without them, consumers have no way of connecting. How you promote the brand can be as simple as its packaging to a fully integrated concept that includes media, the web, in-store and, in some instances, additional licensing. Too often, though brands languish because the promotions meant to bolster fall short.
There are some important reasons why many promotions don’t deliver:
- The promotion is based on a piece of technology because it is new, cool, or “everyone’s using it”.
- Someone gets wedded to an idea or catch phrase and insists on using it, even though it doesn’t promote the brand in any way.
- So called “visual vampires” take over the promotion.
- The execution is lacking.
Technology
OK, I admit it. I love new technology. Cool applications make my heart flutter, and I’m tickled by some gadgets that are out there (both the hardware and software). But simply because the technology is cool doesn’t mean that it is going to work for your promotion.
For the technology to be effective in promoting your brand, it has to connect with your target audience in a meaningful way, it must be accessible to your audience and you have to be willing and able to keep up with the demands of using the technology.
And if the technology you are hoping to use is novel by nature, what comes after that novelty wears off? Take Twitter, for example (if you are not familiar with Twitter, see this Wikipedia entry). It is a perfect platform for brands to engage consumers directly, among other beneficial uses. It is also so basic and easy to use that what could have been “a form of performance art” has become “voluptuous self-absorption” (see Adam Hanft’s FC Expert Blogs post “Report from Web 2.0: More Creativity in this World than the ‘CREATIVE’ One”). If you follow some people on Twitter, you can find useful information, once you wade past all of the random musings. More often than not, you’ll learn little more than the person sending the tweet is having coffee.
The other problem with technology is the fallacy of large numbers. The last few meetings I have attended, where the purpose was sharing best practices in developing local coalitions, many people believed they had to be on MySpace, Facebook and other popular social networks. Granted, most of them had no idea how to do it, nor were they really sure what they were. What they knew was that at any given time, millions of people were logged in and interacting.
Promoting something on a social network such as MySpace or Facebook is attempting to take traditional word-of-mouth marketing and ramp it up. And for good reason, as a recent story on Economist.com discusses:
“[Networks] benefit from Metcalfe’s Law, which says that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of its users. In other words, the more people have phones, the more useful they become. This ‘network effect’ leads to rapid adoption and puts up barriers for new entrants.
“But unlike other networks, social networks lose value once they go beyond a certain size. ‘The value of a social network is defined not only by who’s on it, but who’s excluded,’ says Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley forecaster. Despite their name, therefore, they do not benefit from the network effect.” (“Social graph-iti”, Economist.com, from The Economist print edition, October 18, 2007)
Remember, even though it seems as though having millions of people online in one place at one time should be easy pickings, they are there to interact with their “friends” and see what other people are doing. If you are not hitting the right influencers, you are wasting your time and effort (read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point).
Ideas and Catch Phrases
As I am writing this, a version of the Bud Light commercial below comes on the television.
The spot is admittedly humorous. It’s from a comedy routine I remember seeing about 10 years ago, and it may not have been new then. The problem is that you don’t even know that it is a beer commercial until the very end. Even then, since that particular “dude” nuance is referencing some non-dude-like drink, it could be any beer. What’s more the beer is apparently only for dudes.
Someone had a great idea for a memorable spot and sold the client on it. Unfortunately, the promotion is nothing about the beer.
"Visual Vampires"
An article in Brandweek from November 26, 2007 (“Beware of Visual Vampires, Warns Measurement Firm”), discusses The PreTesting Company’s findings from its recently introduced Engagement Level Factor (ELF). Briefly, ELF scores come from consumers’ interest in TV commercials, packaging and print advertising as measured by their eye movement.
Based on what their research revealed, PreTesting found that certain visual elements can overpower the product leading to a lower level of engagement when the actual product appears on the TV or when it comes time to read the print copy. As examples, they offer up Jon Lovitz for Subway, the red wigs for Wendy’s (more on that in the next section), and a dog wearing dentures for Citi.
On the positive side, they commend iPod’s TV ads and Geico’s gecko.
Execution
Almost as bad as designing a promotion that is misguided from the start is failing to execute properly on a good idea. If people responsible for the execution recognize their failings, they still have the opportunity to take corrective action.
Let’s go back to those red wigs from Wendy’s. There are numerous opportunities for tie-ins, including cardboard hats for kids, hidden wigs and web-based programs, not to mention what they could do in the stores.
The poorly written scripts, however, layer so many gimmicks that the fact these are fast-food commercials gets completely lost. Look at this example.
The end result: all the work Wendy’s has done over the last few years improving its menu and testing new business-building concepts gets kicked squarely in the gut.
Making Promotions Work
Designing successful promotions means starting with the fundamentals. A promotion is going to work if:
- It is original
- It has impact
- It is relevant
- It is consistent with the brand’s message
- It doesn’t detract from the brand itself
- It actually promotes the brand and the product
A beautiful example of a promotion that works is the UPS Whiteboard. The spots are straightforward, and UPS carries the theme through the Whiteboard section of the site, giving you exactly what you should expect. This type of integration and on-point messaging is textbook stuff.
Let Chris know what you think. E-mail him at chris.mccrory@kennen-bmc.com.