How to engage Consumers with digital Promotions

The last presentation from the Brand Summit belonged to Andrew Mitchell- CEO of Brandmovers.

Power to attract means: how to design, develop, program and administer interactive consumer brand promotions.

“Figures don’t lie, but liars do figures”

Customers will be attracted by:

• Promotions
• Sweepstakes- Acquire -> Sending customized info to consumers

• Online Games and contests- having fun! Educating and entertaining consumers at the same time:

– Instant win games

– Adverganes

– Trivia games

– Time management games

– On-pack games and piece development

!!! customer focus- the discounts bring money back for the company, increase sale, and you address the interested customers in your brand

• User/content Generated Contests- Engage!

– Photo contest- and interacting on Social Networks – luxury items

– Video sharing contest

– Recipe contest

– Branded customizable e-greetings

• Rewards Promotions- Retain!

Permission marketing, offer information exclusive to those who want to receive it! Intrusive does not work, promotions go into spam so you need customers permission to contact them…

– Flexibility to choose relevant rewards- transforming points into reward products, showing their Return on Invesment ROI

– Hassle free fulfillment system

– On-demand shipping

– Integrate promotional overlays  and social media tie-ins

– Customizable online rewards catalog

• Social Media Integration- Get Viral

Nowadays the “word of mouth” is becoming “word of mouse” with the aid of Social Media Networks

– Development of Facebook Apps/tabs

– Facebook Connect Integration

– Facebook, Twitter

– Social Media Management and Integration

• Mobile Promotions- Connect

– SMS Text (Instant win, Sweeos, Trivia)

– 2D tags/QR Codes (quick response tags)

– mobi/ wap site developments

– iPhone Application Development

-Downloadable Content Delivery (mp3’s…)

Don’t make promotions only price reductive because customers will be encouraged to buy only when there are promotions- making them dependant on promotions. Make promotions to increase value of the product, for instance…

Engagement marketing is the new HOT STUFF!!!!

Style and Strategy: snapshot aesthetics in Brand Culture

The second speaker of the Brand Summit- Jonathan Schroeder, Ph. D- focused on Style and Strategy: snapshot aesthetics in Brand Culture.

We notice advances in Brand Research- adding the issues of Brand Culture- the culture surrounding the brand.

3 dimensions of branding:

• brand identity- the strategic heart of the brand
• brand image- brand are psychological
• brand culture- cultural domensions of codes of brands that influence brand meaning

A brand culture mission statement- cultural, political and ideological objects- need to be correlated with typical branding concepts : equity, strategy and value

Companies need to tell stories, build community and solve problems, create sharing stories in order to appeal to the young educated public (18-34).

Snapshot Aesthetic:

– photos taken by amateurs or photographers, they look casual and authentic, invoke the average consumer

– Or consumer generated content- the snapshot looks more authentic.

18-34 demographic don’t respond to over-produced material.

– casual image of products – consumer lifestyle brands

– brands appeal to informal consumption- from family dinners to online financial management

– visual framing for strategic images- here and now contemporary look,  you can build onto a nostalgic idea, or the photo booth usage- to show that you are having fun

Framing: is used to resonate with the legacy of the brand- Frederick John Perry

Consumer Generated Imagery- the snapshit can become a marketing tool!

Examples:

• Youtube: Catch sunglasses – Ray Ban- using consumer generated for the relaunch of their product
• Ford Fiesta Movement Agent 2010
• Polyvore- for clothing- the leading coomunity site for online style, virtual styling tool

The new market place rewards more participatory, more sincere companies…

The tendences show that people are reorienting towards:

• Real, exciting, mundane experiences
• Twitter- verbal shapshots
• Youtube- documentary aesthetics
• Blogging and viral marketing campaigns

Brand Communication

• Photography an engine of value creation
• Understanding the visual context- history legacy of memory – of contemporaru visual strategy and corporate expression
• Focusing attention on how taps to create value

Managing Identity on Virtual Marketing Platforms

 

On the 20th of October I attended my first marketing event at Manchester Business School- Brand Summit- and I was happy I can keep up with the latest trends in marketing from here.

The conference had 3 speakers that focused on 3 different themes.

The first speaker- Michael Solomon, Ph. D-   talked about Managing Identity on Virtual Marketing Platforms.

He underlined some important trends that should not be ignored by companies:

• Understanding the public and how is that changing the way we communicate
• The digital dichotomy
• Transpozing the reality- reality engineering

He also talked by the Changing role of Brands from:

– Brands as assets created and controlled by the firm to Brands as co-created entities

– Brands exist in the minds of the consumers to Brands live in cultures

– What brands mean to How brands come to mean; brand development mechanism and processes

Brand Personality has 2 components:

• Personal Resonance – high level of engagement, the brands speaks to you as an individual

Cultural Resonance- where the brand addresses some cultural characteristics you share with others Consumer Generated Content raises the issue of Risk of wrongful usage of the Brand name from the consumer side versus Control  of the company ???

Why do customers create the content:

• Intrinsec enjoyment: Create for the playful enjoyment you get out of the process
• Self- promotion:  To attract the attention of a potential employer such as an ad agency or to have as part of a portfolio for admissions to an education institution
• To change perceptions: the goal is to influence hearts and minds

Youtube Apple 1994 commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhsWzJo2sN4&feature=related

Youtube Hillary Big sister mashup- ad against Hilary Clinton- made it a campaign ad for Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo

How should firm respond strategicallyto consumer generated content :

Firm’s Actions Toward CG ads   can be negative or positve:

Repel         or       Facilitate

Disapprove    or    Applaud

Does the company have a strategy to deal with consumer generated content? Sometimes yes, sometimes no…

Cultural Resonance

• Co-creation
• Brand Community- media story telling

Person/Object integration- branded information used to define ourselves and the community

Pre- digital Identity Management: The Resume , makeovers, adornment, surgery

Images and Reality:

• indexicality= relationship between the physycal relationship between the object photographed and resulting image
• Pseudo-events- that exist only to create images
• Hyper-reality – inspiration from the past, recycling reality

Staged Reality

Identity Marketing- customers encouraged to support the brands

• Technology mediates physical “reality”
• Social identity in cyber-space
• Advergaming- product placement in video games !!!
• Virtual worlds- Second life- “the future of marketing”

“By 2011 over 250 million people worlwide will visit social networks.” Gartner Inc.

U.S virtual goods revenue expected to hit $1.6 B this year

– Social Gaming is the next fronteer

– Passed e-mail as the most popular activity

– Farmville- the most minutes spend there

Online to Offline

• Smart clothing- wearable computers….
• How online behaviour influences the offline behaviour- Cosplay
• Virtual model- to try the clothes- virtual shopping

Integration from Online to Offline

• Virtual mirror- turning shopping into a virtual experience- hybrid experience
• Super imposing virtual reality
• Physical toys unlocks virtual content- for kids- they buy a toy, receive online benefits

Emerging trends

• New product ideation: Co-branded shopper experiences
• Brand check-ins (via Foursquare)
• Badges and games
• Brand sponsored virtual worlds:

-social influences

-subcultures

-product co-design

-group shopping

-buzz building

Where do u draw the line between online and offline?

The same issues that are in the real life appear also in online life- social networks

Many of the social networks are private – but the ethics issues remain… (eg of problems online: Cyber-bulling, Porn, Gambling- which became legal)