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Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to:
1. Describe share of voice (SOV) and its role in creating budget objectives.
How Loud Are You?
Share of voice (SOV) is the relative fraction of ad inventory a single advertiser uses within a defined market over a specified time period. It measures how you are doing relative to competitors and relative to all the ads within your given space. It tells you the total percentage that you possess of the particular niche, market, or audience that you are targeting. The obvious way for a client to attain high SOV is to buy a lot of ad space. Another way is to have competitors that don’t advertise very much; remember SOV is a measure of relative activity.
Online, Google uses a similar metric it calls Impression Share to represent the percentage of times your ads were actually shown in relation to the total number of chances your ads could have been shown, based on your keyword and campaign settings.“Discover your Share of Voice with Impression Share Reporting,” Google AdWords, http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/07/discover-your-share-of-voice-with.html, (accessed July 23, 2008).
SS+K Spotlight
As msnbc.com’s marketing budget is nowhere near those of its largest rivals like CNN or the New York Times, SS+K didn’t even think about attaining competitive SOV share in this campaign. However, since a major objective for the campaign was to increase awareness and impressions, the agency deliberately used tactics that resulted in large SOV on a particular day. For example, when they placed their ads on Web sites they would try to engineer a “homepage takeover” or a “roadblock,” meaning that all the available ad units on the homepage are dedicated to one advertiser.
In situations where big clients compete on a fairly even playing field (unlike SS+K’s “David and Goliath” situation with msnbc.com), share of voice is an important indicator of competitiveness. It reflects the extent to which your customers are being influenced by your ads versus those of rivals who also try to get their attention with similar messages. Long-term analysis shows that brands that increase their share of voice with powerful advertising stand a better chance of increasing their market share.
High SOV helps provide top-of-mind awareness and provides a company with a competitive advantage because this awareness allows it to dictate what criteria consumers use to evaluate products.“Pepsi introduces freshness dating,” Chain Drug Review (April, 1994), http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3007/is_199404/ai_n7964159, (accessed July 23, 2008). For example, in the last century (1994, to be exact) the heavy advertiser Pepsi introduced “freshness dating” on its products and convinced many consumers that it’s important to buy cans of soda that are less than a year old.“Research Ensures Rewards,” Marketing Week (July 5, 2007), p33. This campaign was pretty successful—even though in reality a very small percentage of soft drink inventory in a grocery store would linger on the shelves for that long. In the ad biz, it’s often true that “he who has the bucks, makes the rules.”
Using SOV
How much share of voice can you afford? How much would it cost to buy every minute of commercial time in the Super Bowl? You can’t afford to buy it all, but you can buy some fraction of it.
Attaining high SOV usually means spending more than your competitors. If your analysis suggests that your competitors spend \$5 million on media buys, then you need to spend \$5 million just to match them and achieve a 50% SOV. If the competition has cut back on spending (such as during an economic downturn like we’re now experiencing), then you might maintain your current level of ad spending and still garner a high SOV. If your company has many competitors or bigger competitors, you may find it impossible to outspend them to achieve a high SOV.
Dig Deeper
To promote its DVD of Hollow Man, movie studio Columbia Tri-Star asked its ad agency, Universal McCann Los Angeles, to reach as many consumers as possible with a relatively low budget. Like SS+K did for msnbc.com, the agency created a “roadblock” campaign on the top online portals, entertainment properties, and sci-fi sites over a few hours in one specific day. During a roadblock, the only ads that appear are those for that company. Thus, on one Friday during the lunch hour and during 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., the only ads shown on these sites were for Hollow Man, achieving 100% SOV for those hours.
Did this saturation strategy work? Several online vendors reported huge sales spikes of Hollow Man, and one vendor reported a 25% sales increase during the time the campaign was live. In addition, the DVD debuted in the number one position for sales and remained in the Top-Twenty Chart for three months.Joseph Jaffe, “Dominate Online Share of Voice,” iMedia Connection (February 24, 2003), http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/1050.asp, (accessed July 23, 2008).
SOV for Small Companies
For small companies, share of voice is often not an appropriate metric because there are so many bigger competitors who will outspend the smaller company. The online roadblock tactic might be one way of achieving share of voice that is less expensive. Perhaps a better way to set budgets, however, might be to use the return on investment approach, as we’ll see next.
Key TakawayS
Share of voice is a way to think about the impact one brand’s advertising has on its audience—relative to what its competitors are doing. Clients with reasonably equal resources can compare how active they are (i.e., how many messages the campaign sends out). Clients who are at a financial disadvantage have to be a bit more creative. Sometimes they prefer to concentrate their limited resources to get a bigger bang for the buck during a limited time period and forgo the opportunity to send out their messages at other times.
EXERCISES
1. Explain the concept of share of voice (SOV) and its importance to the budgeting process.
2. Discuss roadblocks and how they may be used to enhance share of voice (SOV). | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/07%3A_Decide_What_You_Can_Afford_to_Say_-_msnbc.com_Sets_the_Budget/7.03%3A_Share_of_Voice_%28SOV%29.txt |
Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Define and evaluate return on investment (ROI).
2. Explain why return on investment (ROI) can make advertising accountable.
3. List and discuss the keys to using return on investment (ROI) successfully in the pursuit of profit and channel effectiveness.
Did You Get What You Paid For?
Return on investment is the amount of profit an investment generates. In other words, did your action result in more (or less) than what it cost to implement? The ROI approach to budgeting looks at advertisement as an investment, not a cost. And like any investment, the company expects a good financial return on that investment. By making the investment in advertising, the company expects to see profits from that investment.
The idea behind ROI is that for every dollar you spend on advertising, you get a dollar-plus-something of profit in return. The challenge with ROI is that it’s difficult to interpret and analyze the contribution of a specific ad, media channel, or campaign to overall profit. Is the profit coming from a short-term sales blip or is it contributing to longer-term profits?
Why ROI Is Important
ROI is the language of business. Although many marketing people traditionally evaluate a campaign’s success in terms of intangibles like brand awareness, top management insists on more tangible results: ka-ching! Advertisers face increasing pressure to translate the results of what they do into ROI terms. If they succeed, they can assure the bean counters that if they’re given a certain amount of budget, they will earn the company x percent more. But it’s not so easy to quantify the effects of ad messages, and it never has been. One well-known quote (so well known it’s practically a cliché) that has at times been attributed to Henry Ford, retailing executive John Wanamaker, and others sums up this dilemma: “I know that half of my advertising works—I just don’t know which half.”
Dig Deeper
How many people watch TV commercials, and how effective are these spots in influencing actual purchases? These are vitally important questions—especially because the networks set their rates for advertising based upon how many people see their shows. To date there still is no foolproof way to deliver these metrics, and it’s the source of a lot of controversy in the advertising industry.
The dominant measurement system is the Nielsen Television Ratings that the networks have relied upon since the earliest days of television. The Nielsen Company collects these measures by recruiting a panel of consumers who keep a diary of what they watch and by so-called set meters that it connects to members’ TV sets to transmit data about which channels get selected. These methods suffer from obvious problems—for example, our memories about what we watch often are distorted and biased, and just because a set is tuned to a channel doesn’t mean anyone is actually watching. Nielsen is working hard to update its technology with People Meters that individual members of the household use to record their viewing behaviors. GfK AG’s Mediamark Research Inc. also is developing a pager-size media-measurement device. And, to keep pace with consumers’ changing habits, Nielsen has started to measure out-of-home viewing (in bars, dorms, and other locations) as well as the usage of digital video recordings like TiVo. Nielsen is also working on a new measurement system it calls Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement. This system will track a group of sample viewers—but it will monitor their usage of several different media including the Internet, mobile devices like iPods, and traditional television.Emily Steel, “Who’s Watching Those Webisodes? As TV Programs Fan Out to Cellphones and Beyond, a Race to Measure Audience,” Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2006, B4.
The company that comes up with a truly reliable system to measure how consumers interact with media (and the advertising they contain) will be worth its weight in gold. One new research firm called TRA (True ROI Accountability for Media) is trying another strategy: it merges data from people’s cable set-top boxes with consumer-purchase databases, such as the information stores gather from frequent-shopper cards. For instance, a company could see whether households that watched an ad for its toothpaste later bought that brand of toothpaste. In a test of its system, TRA is using data from cable boxes to measure second-by-second viewership of TV programs and commercials in three hundred thousand households in Southern California, and it aims to sign up more than one million U.S. households across the country in the near future.Stephanie Kang, “Couch to Supermarket: Connecting Dots,” Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2008, B7.
A different approach hopes to use cell phones to measure what consumers listen to and see. The startup firm Integrated Media Measurement Inc. has developed software that enables specially adapted cell phones to take samples of nearby sounds, which it then identifies by comparing these to a large database. The company claims that this technology can track exposure to television, radio, CDs, DVDs, video games, sporting events, audio and video on portable gadgets, and movies in theaters. These are some of the questions the company hopes to answer:Don Clark, “Ad Measurement Is Going High Tech: Explosion of Media Offerings Complicates Finding whether Message is Getting Through,” Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2006, B4.
• How often are TV shows watched outside the home?
• Which songs prompt listeners to change radio stations?
• Which movie trailers get viewers to go to the theater?
• Which technology will prevail?
Stay tuned…
ROI Is the Real Goal (SOV Is Only the Means to an End)
At the end of the day, then, share of voice is only a means to the end. Ultimately, advertisers want consumers to purchase what they make, not just think their ads are awesome. If the money spent on advertising never generates any returns, then what is the point—other than to improve the bottom lines of ad agencies and enrich the portfolios of creative directors? As Gavin Ailes, business director at The Search Works in the United Kingdom, explained, if a company gets two dollars back for each dollar they invest, “that’s great, they shouldn’t really worry too much whether they have ‘share of voice’ or whatever among a particular group.”Quoted in Sean Hargraves, “Made to Measure,” New Media Age, June 21, 2007, 21.
ROI Makes Advertising Accountable
An Institute of Practitioners (IPA) report entitled Marketing in the Era of Accountability is based on the IPA’s database of effectiveness awards case studies. The report found that advertising campaigns that set hard objectives, such as to “improve profits,” are more effective than those that focus on intermediate goals, such as degree of brand awareness. Fewer than 20 percent of companies evaluate their communications campaigns on the basis of their effect on profits, however, because it is easier to measure an intermediate metric than an ROI metric.“Marketing Theory: Everything You Know Is Wrong,” Marketing, June 13, 2007, 28.
SS+K Spotlight
As msnbc.com set its goals for the branding campaign, the client had to identify what metrics (measures of effectiveness) would be most meaningful to their mission. All marketers ultimately aim to increase revenue for their business as a result of marketing efforts. Every element of a campaign has accountability to perform or meet that goal; otherwise it’s not likely to appear again.
With the first round, msnbc.com decided to invest in some short-term vehicles—Web ads and click-through rates—to determine ROI. They also invested in some long-term vehicles such as the screensaver and the NewsBreaker online game we’ll check out later.
Keys to Using ROI
Using ROI effectively depends on several factors, including visibility, the difference between revenue and profit, channel effectiveness, and taking a long-term perspective.
Visibility: Can You See the ROI?
Some firms are in the enviable position of seeing a return on their investment more directly than others. For example, Domino’s Pizza can see the results of its advertising almost immediately—a TV ad immediately spurs calls to its outlets as people order the ExtravaganZZa Feast the spot featured. As the chain’s marketing director explained, “The time it takes from initial consideration to consumption can be less than an hour. We can see the impact of a TV ad almost immediately.”Quoted in “The Marketing Society Forum—Is a Focus on ROI Hindering Marketing’s Effectiveness?” Marketing, June 20, 2007, 24.
Online advertising is also amenable to rigorous ROI measures. Watching impressions, counting click-throughs, and using cookies let advertising managers know how many people saw an ad, clicked on the ad, and bought from the ad. Web traffic can be tracked, and advertising spending can be aligned to sales.“The Self-Assured Industry,” Marketing Week, June 14, 2007, 28.
Dig Deeper
As difficult as the ROI of traditional advertising vehicles is to measure, word of mouth is even harder to measure. As online content chatter on blogs and Web sites continues to mushroom, advertisers need to measure just what consumers are saying about their products and how active they are in spreading the word about viral marketing campaigns or other online promotions. Buzz Metrics, a subsidiary of the Nielsen Company, offers marketers research services to help advertisers understand how CGM (consumer-generated media) affects their brands. Nielsen’s Buzz Metrics search engines identify online word-of-mouth commentary and conversations to closely examine phrases, opinions, keywords, sentences, and images people use when they talk about a client’s products. The company’s processing programs then analyze vocabulary, language patterns, and phrasing to determine whether the comments are positive or negative and whether the authors are men, women, young, or old to more accurately measure buzz. BuzzMetrics’ BrandPulse and BrandPulse Insight reports tell advertisers who is talking about their products online and what they say about the ads they’re seeing.Keith Schneider, “Brands for the Chattering Masses,” New York Times Online, December 17, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/business/yourmoney/17buzz.html (accessed December 17, 2006); Nielsen Buzzmetrics, www.nielsenbuzzmetrics.com/products (accessed April 14, 2008).
ROI Requires More Profit, Not Just More Revenue
Ideally, payback should be about profit, but many companies confuse added profit with added revenue. To avoid these mistakes, clothing manufacturer VF Corp (whose brands include Lee, Wrangler, Nautica, and The North Face, among others) spent two years and millions of dollars studying consumer responses to its marketing efforts while seeking to determine which of its brands have gotten the best ROI from advertising. “We are convinced we can be more effective by having a better understanding of marketing return on investment and will get paid back on our investment several times over,” said Eric Wiseman, president/COO at VF.
In 2006, VF spent about \$325 million on advertising across all its brands. The Nautica brand is already reaping the benefits of VF’s ROI research. The company increased Nautica’s marketing budget the next year. “Our budget is up and we are moving the mix around,” said Chris Fuentes, vice president of marketing at Nautica. “We’ve looked at each element of our marketing—magazines, newspaper, outdoor, sponsorship, public relations—[and] we can isolate what is working. We’re understanding now what is driving consumption and building brand equity.”
The research helped the company decide that Nautica’s advertising budget should be increased because the advertising was providing a good return on investment. What’s more, the research helped Nautica pinpoint which of its campaigns were most effective in bringing that return. Nautica is using that information to decide how to allocate its advertising budget. Nautica uses an integrated marketing program of print, outdoor, and Internet advertising. The research showed that newspaper ads generated underachieving results, so Nautica will spend less on them, but it will boost its Internet presence to target young men for its new N series jeans. Nautica spent \$20 million on ads in 2006.Quoted in Sandra O’Loughlin, “VF Designs Dynamic Future for Lee, Wrangler, Nautica: ROI Study Spurs Aggressive Marketing Plans at \$7B Company,” Brandweek April 9, 2007, 16.
ROI for Channel Effectiveness
ROI can also help manage an advertising campaign as effectiveness measures help identify which specific media platforms deliver the best bang for the buck. Nautica relies on its ROI research to drive budget allocation among different campaigns, allocating more to those that have provided the best return in the past. For example, Nautica’s sponsorship of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour produced good results. So, in 2007, Nautica increased its presence there, adding on-court billboards and a scoreboard bug on the TV screen, and having announcers and pro Misty May outfitted in Nautica apparel.
Dig Deeper
One promotional channel that’s been getting a lot more attention in recent years is POP (point-of-purchase) advertising—ad messages that shoppers see when they are physically located in a purchasing environment. Like traditional advertising, it’s hard to determine how effective these messages are—though we know that in some categories (e.g., grocery) many shoppers don’t make their final decisions until they’re wheeling their carts through the aisles (never go food shopping when you’re hungry!).
A major new initiative called P.R.I.S.M. (Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric) is attempting to quantify the impact of these messages. Participating companies include Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, ConAgra, General Mills, Kroger, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, 3M, Walt Disney, Kellogg, Miller Brewing, and even Nintendo. Ad agencies OMD and Starcom MediaVest Group, as well as multiple retailers, are also involved. The measurement model predicts consumer reach by category or area of the store, by retail format, and by day of the week, delivering unprecedented insight into the store as a marketing channel.
The consortium’s research team began working on the theory that, by predicting in-store traffic, then determining what marketing communications are in the store, it could calculate the “opportunities to see” a specific communication. By using existing statistical models that factor out duplicate impressions (accounting for multiple “visits” to the area by the same people) a measurement for consumer reach could be calculated for specific locations in the store. Initial tests have been promising. The CEO of Procter & Gamble recently predicted, “P.R.I.S.M. will transform how we think about in-store consumer communications and behavior.”Quoted in David Goetzl, “P&G CEO Endorses In-Store Marketing Measurement,” Marketing Daily, February 25, 2008, www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=77117 (accessed February 25, 2008); “The P.R.I.S.M. Project: Measuring In-Store Reach,” In-Store Marketing Institute, September 2006, http://www.instoremarketer.org/?q=node/5779 (accessed July 23, 2008).
Avoid Overemphasis on Short-Term ROI
Most advertising ROI metrics tend to focus on short-term profits from the immediate response to an ad. This emphasis is appropriate in some contexts; for example, that’s one of the big advantages of direct marketing, because the firm can immediately trace the impact of a mailing or e-mail blast and decide right away if it boosted orders.
On the other hand, brand-building campaigns produce a low ROI in terms of short-term profits, but they are crucial for the long term. In these cases managers may need to adopt a broader field of vision and be patient, even if they are bleeding red right now. For example, one company discovered that every dollar the company spent on TV advertising yielded only eighty cents back in short-term sales. Executives were thinking of chopping the TV budget, but the general manager said, “Just because print and promotion activities have the highest ROI, doesn’t mean they should get the majority of the money. Print only accounts for a small fraction of total sales, and while TV has a lower ROI, it’s responsible for a huge amount of ongoing sales.”Quoted in Randy Stone, “When Good Returns Mean Anything But,” Brandweek, April 9, 2007, 20. This reasoning shows that the bigger picture must be taken into account when managers make budget decisions. Making this case can be a daunting task for advertising agencies, especially when their clients are under pressure to show profitable returns to their shareholders.
Key Takaway
At the end of the day, it’s all about ROI. Ad agencies and other promotional companies are coming under increasing pressure to show specifically how their activities deliver value to the client—by quantifying how much financial return the client receives in exchange for the money it spends to advertise. Showing ROI is difficult when many campaigns are more about building long-term awareness and loyalty than prompting immediate purchases (sales promotions, online advertising, and direct marketing are better able to link specific messages to specific results). However, there is a silver lining: this greater discipline forces advertising agencies to be more accountable—and in the process perhaps change the mindset of managers who tend to view advertising as a cost they need to minimize rather than as an investment in the brand’s performance.
EXERCISES
1. Explain the concept of return on investment (ROI) and its importance to the budgeting process.
2. Give two examples of how industry uses return on investment (ROI) to measure how consumers interact with media.
3. Explain how return on investment (ROI) makes advertising accountable.
4. List and describe four keys to using return on investment (ROI) successfully. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/07%3A_Decide_What_You_Can_Afford_to_Say_-_msnbc.com_Sets_the_Budget/7.04%3A_Return_on_Investment_%28ROI%29.txt |
Now that you understand the importance and implications of marketing investments, it’s important to set up your budget specific to the needs of the campaign and the client. From Figure 7.3 "msnbc.com Budget Allocation" we know that msnbc.com had to monitor its spending by month and by category (agency fee, production, media, promotions, etc.). This budget was set up to reflect the contract between SS+K and msnbc.com that spelled out the categories and the amounts of the client’s money that the agency was entitled to spend.
The open collaboration and understanding of financials is key to the success of any business partnership. Both sides are responsible for staying in budget, and the agency is specifically responsible for justifying anything it spends for any purpose to a client. Former Ogilvy and Mather executives Shona Seifert and Thomas Early learned this lesson the hard way. In 2005, both were convicted and sentenced to prison for their roles in overbilling one of the agency’s clients, the Office of National Drug Policy. Seifert also was ordered to write a code of ethics for the entire ad industry as part of her sentence.Matthew Creamer, “Shona Seifert Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison,” Advertising Age, July 14, 2005, adage.com/abstract.php?article_id=46288 (accessed February 1, 2009).
There are a few key pieces to managing the budget: bids, estimates, invoices, and actuals. A bid is the estimated cost that a vendor will charge for a service. In some cases, the agency will have an exclusive partnership, and only one bid is needed. In other cases, a producer will take bids from multiple potential vendors or partners in order to understand the scope and price of that service.
Once the agency collects the bids, it will recommend the partner to the client. The formal acceptance of costs is the estimate. It is generated from the producer or accounting department. The agency outlines the job, a description, and the costs associated with the job. A job number is assigned to every estimate, and this job number and cost are inserted into the budget.
The agency invoices the client, and the client then pays the agency on the agreed-upon schedule. Sometimes jobs are billed at 100 percent of an invoice. Another common practice is to bill 50 percent of an invoice up front and 50 percent upon completion. It is important for the account manager to establish a system that works both for the agency and for the client when it comes to billing.
Actuals are the final cost of a job upon completion. In the SS+K/msnbc.com budget tracker that Figure 7.3 "msnbc.com Budget Allocation" shows, the bid is indicated in italics, the estimate is indicated with no treatment, and actuals are indicated in bold. This helps the agency and the client understand the money flow and make future spending decisions accordingly.
Key Takaway
The open collaboration and understanding of financials is critical to the success of any business partnership. Both agency and client are responsible for establishing and maintaining the budget. The agency is specifically responsible for justifying anything it spends for any purpose to a client. The key components that an agency must manage are bids, estimates, invoices, and actuals. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/07%3A_Decide_What_You_Can_Afford_to_Say_-_msnbc.com_Sets_the_Budget/7.05%3A_Managing_a_Budget.txt |
Tie it All Together
Now that you have read this chapter, you should be able to determine how the various budgeting methods can be applied to marketing and advertising:
• You can identify the two primary top-down budgeting methods.
• You can list the pros and cons of the top-down budgeting methods.
• You can identify the two primary bottom-up budgeting methods.
• You can evaluate the usefulness of the bottom-up budgeting methods.
• You can describe the usefulness and necessity of share of voice (SOV) when creating budget objectives.
• You can define and evaluate return on investment (ROI).
• You can explain why return on investment (ROI) makes advertising accountable.
• You can list and discuss the keys to using return on investment (ROI) successfully in the pursuit of profit and channel effectiveness.
USE WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED
1. It’s not exactly new news that cosmetic companies are interested in what’s going on in Hollywood or in who’s wearing their makeup. It is news, though, when the company that’s interested is Avon. In our mothers’ generation, Avon’s business model emphasized personal contact, consumer parties, online and hard-copy catalogs, and word-of-mouth advertising as the primary formats for attracting consumer attention.
Under the leadership of CEO Andrea Jung, for the past decade Avon has been venturing into more mass media-driven ways of promoting and marketing its product lines. The “Just Another Avon Lady” campaign featuring Olympic athletes and the “Let’s Talk” campaign were among the first such efforts. More recently, Hollywood stars Reese Witherspoon and Patrick Dempsey are promoting Avon products in print ads and acting as spokespersons to the press. Will this new “sizzle” help the sagging brand? Time will tell.
Research recent events at Avon (see www.avon.com) and review their new strategies and advertisements for reaching consumers. Construct a new communication plan that will increase the company’s share of voice (SOV). Explain how metrics can be used to monitor Avon’s SOV progress. Evaluate Avon’s chances for success in increasing SOV if they adopt your plan.
2. All of the budgeting methods presented in the chapter have advantages and disadvantages. Many of the disadvantages occur when the budgeting method is misapplied or used in the wrong circumstances. There appears to be no safe and sure way to decide which budget method is most appropriate. The “school of hard knocks” tells us that budgeting is as much of an art as it is a science.
Research a company of your own choosing and make a “best guess” about the budgeting form being used for advertising and promotional expenditures. Why do you think the company chose its budgeting method? Next, take each of the top-down and bottom-up budgeting methods described in the chapter and determine if any or all of the methods would be more appropriate for your chosen company. Comment on how you conducted your investigation and research process, how you made your “best guess,” and why the company should consider your budgeting advice. Discuss your findings with peers.
DIGITAL NATIVES
Do you Twitter? An increasing number of consumers do. According to the company’s Web site (http://www.twitter.com), “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and coworkers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question—what are you doing?”
There are various ways to “tweet” (send a Twitter message): use the Web site, instant message, and text message via cell phones. If a consumer chooses to use the Twitter Web site to make connections, he or she can microblog or information burst friends and acquaintances with up to 140 characters (short thoughts only). Such questions as “Where are you?” “What are you doing?” and “Where can we meet?” seem to be the most popular. This may all seem just like just another “texting” service, but Twitter is betting that consumer users will find new ways to make the “Twitter” experience special and more customized.
After researching the Twitter service and the implications for marketing and advertising of such services, assume the role of a creative director in an advertising agency and devise a plan for showing potential advertising clients how to use Twitter to advance their “share of voice (SOV)” objectives. Your plan should indicate new and creative ways to bring advertising client messages to consumers using the “texting” and “Twittering” formats. Discuss your ideas with peers and forecast the future of Twittering as a means of distributing advertising information and communication.
AD-VICE
1. A company is trying to decide whether it should use the percentage-of-sales method or the objective-and-task method for budgeting its advertising expenses and costs. What factors should the company consider when making this choice? Be specific.
2. M&Ms has just introduced a new dark chocolate M&M that it hopes will add to the company’s bottom line. The company has decided to use a stage-based spending approach as its advertising budgeting method. Critique this method as it might be applied to the M&M dark chocolate product launch. What critical factors do you think might be important for the company to consider if it uses the stage-based spending approach?
3. After reviewing chapter materials in Figure 7.4 "Budget Snapshot of the Elements and Timing for the msnbc.com Campaign" evaluate the budget health of the msnbc.com campaign. What information did you consider? What comparisons did you make? Explain your thought process and how you made your evaluation. Comment on information that you would like to have to make a better evaluation.
4. Given what you have read so far, how can msnbc.com make better use of share of voice (SOV) to reach its goals and objectives? What roadblocks would you recommend (if any)? What is the connection (if any) between share of voice (SOV) and return on investment (ROI)? Comment.
ETHICAL DILEMMA
According to information in the chapter, “return on investment (ROI) makes advertising more accountable.” Advertisers spend vast sums to further their communication objectives. Studies have indicated that advertising campaigns that set hard objectives (e.g., to improve profits) are more effective than campaigns that focus on intermediate or short-term goals (e.g., brand awareness or increased daily sales of product). Strangely, however, only about 20 percent of companies use return on investment or contribution to profit as important indicators of communication success. Why don’t more companies consider bottom line profits when evaluating success? The simple answer is that it is easier to measure an intermediate metric than an ROI metric.
Take a position that considers the ethics of accountability. Position One: Communication and delivery of emotional message objectives should not be tied directly to profits because of the difficulty of tracing profits back to specific emotional messages. Position Two: In an era of accountability, all messages should be more rational and have profit enhancement as their fundamental purpose.
Pick one of the two positions and support your position. Be prepared to defend your position among peers. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/07%3A_Decide_What_You_Can_Afford_to_Say_-_msnbc.com_Sets_the_Budget/7.06%3A_Exercises.txt |
We are now eight months prior to the public launch of the msnbc.com campaign. The team at SS+K and Catherine Captain from msnbc.com have studied their customers. They have spent a considerable amount of time breaking down their prospective audience into segments. They have begun to identify where the competition is positioned and where there may be opportunities to serve a segment of customers better.
Now the work really begins. We must devise a strategy for this campaign. This will lead us into establishing our overall marketing strategy, and more specifically the strategy to position msnbc.com in this crowded marketplace.
Get ready. We only have eight months to Launch! It’s going to be a wild ride!
SS+K Spotlight
No false starts: “If this didn’t go well, there would be no more marketing as msnbc.com.”
When Catherine Captain left her job as USA Today’s Director of Marketing Research in April 2006 to become the VP-marketing for msnbc.com, she declared, “I have left the number one print newspaper in the country to join the number one online news site in the country. Who could ask for more?”
The aptly named Captain did ask for more—quickly, for she realized that a rapidly changing online news industry was threatening the market dominance msnbc.com had enjoyed for over a decade. Within less than a year of assuming her new post, Captain had requested and secured a \$7 million marketing budget and had chosen strategic communications firm SS+K to oversee development of the online news giant’s first marketing campaign. Catherine’s challenge was clear.
Planning Is Everything. Although it’s tempting to just jump in and create some cool commercials, in reality the advertising you see or hear is just the tip of the iceberg. As Catherine at msnbc.com knows all too well, there are plenty of competitors out there who also can do cool advertising. Devising a strategy requires careful thought about your strengths and weaknesses. In addition, the only thing we can count on is that things change: a company must take stock of its environment and monitor what consumers think of it over time so it can anticipate changes instead of waiting to be surprised by them. By the time changes take place, it’s too late to react to them effectively. So, by strategy we mean a detailed plan that specifies overall objectives the client wishes to reach based upon a realistic assessment of its environment and what it is capable of achieving, as well as its general approach to reaching those objectives.
8.02: The Power of Branding
Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Define branding and branding strategy.
2. Identify the characteristics of a solid branding strategy.
3. Explain the concepts of brand equity and value proposition.
4. List and discuss the benefits of branding from the advertiser’s and buyer’s point of view.
What does your product or service mean to consumers?
Catherine and her team realized that the meaning of msnbc.com in the minds of their customers was not as strong as they desired. In essence, the Web site did not have a brand positioning that was distinctive, or as distinctive as they wanted. This section will discuss the power of brands. We’ll learn why creating that distinct positioning of your product or service, and often your entire company, is so vital.
Video Highlight
Rob Frankel on Branding
(click to see video)
Rob Frankel, a branding expert, talks about what it takes for a brand to be successful.
Branding is a way to distinguish your product or service from others using a trademarked name or logo. Brands have been around for centuries. Early craftsmen put their marks on their wares to identify who made them, and artists have long signed their artwork. Since that time, however, branding has expanded well beyond just differentiation through marks and logos. Modern brands such as Apple, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, and Wal-Mart now communicate meaning through attributes such as accountability, consistency, and even personality traits that their names have become associated with. These meanings translate to monetary value for the firm because their brand names acquire value—consumers willingly pay a premium to buy a product carrying a respected brand name as opposed to a similar product that carries an unknown brand name.
Developing a branding strategy creates a clear picture of the values your product or service represents. Why is that so important? The answer is simple, yet profound: People don’t buy things because of what the things do. They buy things because of what they mean. There are many MP3 players out there that do just as good a job as an iPod, but they don’t convey the same image to consumers. So, one result of a solid branding strategy is to create a barrier to entry so that competitors will find it difficult to persuade loyal consumers to abandon their favorite product for a newcomer.
Accountability
Brands impose a sense of accountability on the maker of a product. If you buy an Acme shoe and it performs poorly, you’re unlikely to buy Acme shoes again. On the other hand, if you’ve had a good experience with Acme, you’re likely to buy its shoes again and perhaps its socks, shirts, or golf clubs as well. In this way, the brand is a shorthand way of signaling quality that simplifies decision making for customers. People who know and like a given brand are more likely to buy it again.
Consistency
Brands don’t have to be high end to command loyalty; they just need to communicate a consistent meaning to consumers. That might mean projecting an image of quality, but it can also mean being associated with consistently low costs (e.g., Wal-Mart), trendy fashion (e.g., Juicy Couture), or a particular lifestyle (e.g., Whole Foods Market). A brand thus serves to express key properties of the products the company produces.
Brand Personality
Just as people have personalities, so do brands. Personality refers to the traits that a person exhibits. The person may not exhibit those characteristics all the time, but they tend to exhibit them regularly. A brand personality is a set of traits that people attribute to a product as if it were a person.
Dig Deeper
Identify a brand that claims each of these personality traits. How much do you and your classmates agree on each of these choices?
• self-confident
• sincere
• serious
• wholesome
• hip
• romantic
• rugged
• sophisticated
• athletic
Creating a Corporate Image
Corporations often engage in image advertising to enhance the public perception of the firm in the eyes of its most important constituencies—typically the firm’s customers, employees, and local communities. Although these campaigns aim to promote the company’s public identity rather than sell a specific product, a corporation’s image is intimately tied to its brand personality. The image of the firm reflects on the image of its brands.
In 2007, for example, Dow Chemical Company allocated over \$25 million for a corporate ad campaign it called “the human element.”Rance Crain, “Dow’s Corporate Ads Have Great Chemistry, but Will Respect Follow?” Advertising Age, August 6, 2007, 13. The campaign was meant to appeal to local communities (who may or may not welcome Dow into their backyards), as well as legislators, journalists, environmentalists, employees, and shareholders. The idea behind the campaign is to show what the “human element” can do to solve some of the world’s problems, such as countering climate change and providing clean water, decent housing, health, safety, and an affordable and adequate food supply. Dow’s goal for the campaign is “to be acknowledged as the largest, most profitable, and most respected chemical company in the world.” Its CEO, Andrew Liveris, will consider the campaign a success “when a Dow employee in a bar anywhere in the world can tell the guy next to him where he works and get the response, ‘Oh, Dow. That’s good.’”
The Holy Grail: Brand Equity
Brand equity is the extent to which a consumer holds strong, favorable associations with a brand and is willing to pay more for the branded version of a product. Differentiation, accountability, consistency, and personality all support brand equity by creating a clear sense of the brand’s value proposition: the clearly identifiable benefit it provides relative to competing brands. As Roger Adams, senior vice president–CMO of Home Depot, said, “If you go to a grocery store or department store, there are brands on the shelf that have fundamentally the same function and one is 20 percent more than the other one. But people are paying that because there’s a belief in the brand or there’s an experience with the brand that builds trust, or they know if there’s a problem they can get service, that type of thing. And people do it every day.…That’s pretty much what brand marketing is about.”
Dig Deeper
Identify your five favorite brands. What makes them special? How do they differ from other, similar products you might choose instead? Interview a set of friends about their brand preferences and determine how much their preferences agree with each other. How do you explain what you found?
Summary: Benefits of a Brand
The benefit of a brand for advertisers is higher profitability: it is less expensive to attract repeat buyers than to find new customers. Moreover, satisfied buyers may pay a higher price for a trusted brand.
Brands have benefits for the buyer:
• Signals known properties (quality, performance, cost, etc.)
• Simplifies decision making
• Simplifies repeat purchase with a memorable name or logo
Brands have benefits for the manufacturer:
• Offers legal protection (through trademarks)
• Creates a barrier to entry for competitors
• Translates to financial benefits (both for the company’s bottom line and to impress Wall Street)
Key Takaway
The power of branding derives from brand differentiation, accountability, consistency, and personality. Utilizing these principles helps to establish valuable brand equity.
EXERCISES
1. List the common traits that a brand’s personality might include. Create an example to illustrate how some of the traits might be included in an ad.
2. Summarize the benefits of a brand. Create one benefit list for the buyer and one benefit list for the advertiser/maker of the brand. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/08%3A_Create_a_Strategy_-_SSK_Puts_Its_Research_to_Use_as_the_Agency_Creates_the_Brief/8.01%3A_Chapter_Introduction.txt |
Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Describe the strategic framework that can be used to solve problems.
2. Discuss how to conduct a situation analysis to understand problems and opportunities.
3. Explain the function of a brand audit.
4. Discuss the SWOTs and apply them to the solution of a problem.
Now that we understand the value of brands, it is time to get down to the business of strategy creation. Plan now, or regret it later! Here’s what an advertising strategist needs to do:
• Identify Your Situation. What are your strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities?
• Define Where You Want to Go: Set Objectives. What do you want your marketing and advertising to accomplish?
• Outline How You Want to Get There: Create a Strategy. What is your plan to accomplish these objectives?
Fundamentally, our goal is to take a thorough internal look at our product, service, and firm. We must be objective. This is hard. Catherine joined msnbc.com and immediately began to understand the product itself and the brand. She must summarize where the current offering is positioned, identify where she wants it to be positioned, and then create an overall strategy to connect those dots. Getting this part right makes the rest of the challenge (and this book) easy. Getting it wrong…
Video Spotlight
Catherine Captain
(click to see video)
Catherine Captain discusses her arrival at msnbc.com and the importance of establishing the brand in the consumer’s eyes.
Situation Analysis
Before you can decide where to go, you need to understand where you are (the current marketing situation or environment). Use secondary and primary research as discussed in Chapter 7 "Decide What You Can Afford to Say: msnbc.com Sets the Budget" to inform your assessment of the full situation. The situation analysis is an important tool to help you with this process.
Competitive Situation
A situation analysis begins with a review of the client’s industry and of the competitors vying for the consumer’s attention and dollars. For example, a situation analysis might reveal that some companies in the industry may not actually be competitors; buyers of Hyundais are unlikely to be buyers of BMWs as well. It may also reveal indirect competition in an industry. Southwest Airlines, for example, tries to price its airline tickets low enough to compete with buses and automobiles.
msnbc.com understood its competitors to reach beyond just other online news sites such as CNN.com or NYTimes.com. Its competition also included news aggregators or portals such as Google News as well as broader and new information sources such as Digg and Gawker.
Customer Situation
The situation analysis also evaluates the potential customers (prospects) for your product. This might include estimating the potential population of customers, demographic changes (such as aging Baby Boomers), potential sales per customer, trends in willingness to pay, and so on. Note that for consumer goods companies, the “customer” may be either the end consumer or the retailer. Thus, Wal-Mart is a major customer for consumer goods companies like Procter & Gamble.
As we learned in the section in Chapter 6 "Segment, Target, and Position Your Audience: SS+K Identifies the Most Valuable News Consumer" on segmenting the audience, msnbc.com started understanding its audience as a broader group of online news users. As the research progressed, it learned about msnbc.com lovers and news junkies—users who need more and more stimulation from what they read in order to be satisfied—ultimately leading to the definition of the News Explorer as the most valuable audience for the upcoming branding campaign.
SS+K Spotlight
Target identification: “What was it about explorers and addicts and junkies that sets them apart from the rest of us?”
In order to develop authentic, relevant communication with a target audience, you need to understand who they are. Think about trying to categorize the vast numbers and types of people who might prefer msnbc.com. Then overlay that image with all the different regular uses for the site—news, entertainment, research, passing time—and the task of defining a target consumer can seem mind-boggling. Demographics alone don’t sketch an adequate picture of the intended audience. As discussed in Chapter 6 "Segment, Target, and Position Your Audience: SS+K Identifies the Most Valuable News Consumer", instead of targeting a group bounded by readily identifiable markers such as socioeconomic class, age, or gender, SS+K wanted to discover how its audience might be unified by a mindset.
Economic and Cultural Trends
Finally, the situation analysis examines overall economic and environmental trends that may affect a company’s marketplace situation. Economic growth or recession affects total demand for a product. Fewer people buy expensive houses when companies are downsizing. Foreign exchange rates may change the costs or make the company more competitive in foreign markets because the dollar may be worth less in another country—as a result it costs more dollars to manufacture the product elsewhere. Changes in costs can affect both prices and profits. For example, a drop in technology costs might cause a company to lower the prices on the goods it produces, possibly reducing profits. By contrast, a rise in fuel costs might force a company like Delta Airlines to raise its prices; if the company can’t increase prices enough to make up for the additional costs, its profits will decline. Changes in the cultural environment also exert a huge impact on a company’s fortunes. For a news Web site like msnbc.com, for example, the number and types of people who visit the site is influenced by the penetration of Internet access in different areas, the lure of alternative online platforms like virtual worlds or even Twitter, and the number of people who begin to use their cell phones as their primary “screen.”
Video Spotlight
Michelle Rowley
(click to see video)
Michelle Rowley discusses the competitive and consumer situation faced by msnbc.com.
Brand Audit
A brand audit helps a company understand the health of its brand, identify areas of additional value, and improve brand equity. A firm should conduct brand audits regularly—at least yearly—to ensure that the brand stays relevant, unique, and strong.
The story of Nortel, a telecommunications equipment maker, offers an example of the importance of a regular brand audit. Nortel was struggling during an industry downturn and an accounting scandal. Its chief competitor, Cisco Systems, had an advertising budget almost six times the size of Nortel’s. Nortel’s new chief marketing officer, Lauren Flaherty, decided it was time to undertake a global brand audit to get a feel for how customers, employees, and shareholders perceived Nortel and what the company needed to do to reshape its brand.
Before the audit, Flaherty met with marketing executives throughout the company to assess Nortel’s marketing communications capabilities, as well as the capabilities of its ad agency and public relations firm. “The first priority is to understand, by target audience, what is the communications challenge with each constituency,” she said. “We will create a very systematic blueprint for who we communicate with, how we communicate, and the whole marketing mix.”Kate Maddox, “Nortel CMO Begins Global Brand” B to B, May 8, 2006, 3. Nortel’s audit allowed the company to get a more realistic feel for its market position so that its advertising could more precisely communicate its value proposition.
SS+K Spotlight
msnbc.com’s brand audit highlights:
On the surface, the marriage of Microsoft’s technology with NBC’s content looked like a happy one, but beneath the surface there was confusion. Many of msnbc.com’s people defined the brand based on their role at the organization. As discussed in the Chapter 5 "Know Your Audience: SS+K Learns All About msnbc.com, Inside and Out" section on research and the msnbc.com stakeholder interviews, the technology side of the organization (the people who make the site function) identified more heavily with Microsoft, while employees who worked on the news side identified more with the NBC brand. By defining the brand based on their roles at msnbc.com, they lacked a cohesive umbrella definition, and as a result the organization wasn’t yet able to articulate its meaning to the outside world. Additional points contributed to the lack of clarity:
• msnbc.com is laden with brands: MSNBC cable TV, specific NBC TV program brands like The Today Show, branded personalities like Brian Williams, and brands they do not own but host on the site, such as Newsweek. Add to this mix the connection to MSN, and there was plenty of complexity and confusion regarding just what msnbc.com consists of.
• MSNBC cable has run a distant third in the twenty-four-hour news channel race. As a result, it hasn’t endowed msnbc.com with the brand equity afforded its rivals like CNN and the New York Times, which have strong cross-channel representation.
• The association with NBC News lends an important credibility and character to the site, but broadcast news channels in general have failed to attract users in large numbers to their Web versions. The success of msnbc.com hadn’t depended on drawing users to TV news online, and its future did not lie in repurposing broadcast news.
SS+K Spotlight
SS+K conducted a situation analysis for its client, msnbc.com. It was vital for the agency to understand how people thought about the news service—especially compared to its major competitors. What products did it deliver well? What kind of personality did it have? The documents below reflect some of the agency’s findings.
Identifying a competitive opportunity. The picture was a bit muddy: although the marriage between Microsoft and NBC made the news service unique, there was confusion about the best way to tell the client’s story to consumers. Was the site about cutting-edge technology or unique content? Should it focus on breaking news or on in-depth feature stories?
Further probing with consumer focus groups, however, revealed an opening. When asked to compare the client’s personality to other news Web sites, people described msnbc.com as more friendly, colorful, and younger—if the site came to life, they thought it would be the characteristics that popular news anchor Katie Couric represented. This was a more positive personality description than the groups gave for the serious demeanor of CNN.com (who would have characteristics of an Englishman) or of the nondescript Yahoo! + Google News (whose traits would be like a traffic cop!). As a result, msnbc.com saw an opportunity to position itself as entertaining news.
Further probing revealed that people regarded msnbc.com as less biased than other news sites—either to the left (CNN.com) or to the right (Fox News). Compared to CNN.com, people felt that msnbc.com offered more variety, emotion, and potential to discover interesting things. In other words, the competition provided plenty of information, but not content that excited the imagination. At last, here was an advantage SS+K could run with: let’s think of the core customer as a News Explorer who enjoys the experience of discovering and unearthing new pieces of news and information from what he or she reads.
SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
Agencies typically synthesize the results of situation analyses and brand audits into a SWOT analysis, which organizes internal and external factors affecting the product or business into separate categories for study. A SWOT analysis gives a company a quick overview of its competitive situation and helps it decide which actions to take that will address trends in the environment in ways that are consistent with its capabilities.
Internal Situation: Strengths and Weaknesses
This refers to strengths and weaknesses inherent to the product or business itself. A financial firm’s strengths might include a stable financial position or its strength or expertise at operating overseas. Weaknesses could include bureaucratic inertia or slowness to develop new products.
External Situation: Opportunities and Threats
In contrast, opportunities and threats describe factors that lie outside the product or business. For example, aging Baby Boomers could be an opportunity to the makers of Tempur-Pedic mattresses that promise a more comfortable night’s sleep. For a bicycle firm like Schwinn, on the other hand, aging Boomers might be a threat, since people are likely to bicycle less as they grow older.
Video Spotlight
Michelle Rowley
(click to see video)
Michelle Rowley discusses an external factor that affects msnbc.com—would you define it as a threat or an opportunity?
Key Takaway
Know where you are before you decide where you’re going. Conduct an honest SWOT analysis to identify good and bad aspects of your situation.
EXERCISES
1. Describe what happens during situation analysis. Explain each of the various situations that are investigated.
2. Discuss each stage of the SWOTs process. How do you identify a competitive opportunity? | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/08%3A_Create_a_Strategy_-_SSK_Puts_Its_Research_to_Use_as_the_Agency_Creates_the_Brief/8.03%3A_Describe_Where_You_Are_-_A_Strategic_Framework.txt |
Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Distinguish between marketing objectives and advertising objectives in a strategy.
2. Explain the DAGMAR model for setting objectives.
Marketing Objectives
Objectives state what outcomes will be achieved, while strategy defines how each objective will be achieved. Once you understand the marketing environment, the next step is to develop specific marketing objectives. Marketing objectives state what the marketing function must do so that the company can achieve its overall business objectives (such as growth, expanding its market share, or increasing profits). Marketing-related objectives are specific to the firm’s brands, customer segments, and product features. These might include “Grow sales of product X by 30 percent over the next twelve months” or “Increase market share among affluent consumers aged forty-five to sixty-five.” Samsung, for example, sells fourteen product categories in more than two hundred countries, which yields 476 category-country combinations. Samsung collects data systematically on each combination and uses that brand data to set better marketing objectives by country and product.Thomas Davenport and Jeanne Harris, “Competing with Multichannel Marketing Analytics,” Advertising Age, April 2, 2007, 16.
Advertising Objectives
Advertising objectives are the specific communication tasks that an advertisement seeks to achieve. These tasks include trial (informing the consumer about a product), continuity (reminding the consumer of the product), and brand switching (persuading the customer to change from one brand to another). Often, the advertising objectives are tied to the product’s life cycle. For example, trial is usually employed at the start of a product’s life cycle to encourage customers to try the product. A firm pursues continuity objectives when a product is mature in order to remind current customers to continue buying the product. Brand switching, or switchback, occurs at later stages of the life cycle—particularly the rejuvenation phase, when the company highlights new product features or lowers the price of the product.
DAGMAR Objectives
The DAGMAR model (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results), developed by Russell Colley, is a way to set objectives and measure the results of advertising. Colley stated that the process of achieving an advertising objective can be broken down into four phases:
• Awareness. Consumers must first be made aware that a particular brand or offering exists (“I’ve heard of it”).
• Comprehension. Consumers must understand what the offering is and how it will benefit them (“I know what it is”).
• Conviction. Consumers must decide to want to buy the product (“I want it”).
• Action. Consumers must actually buy the product (“I’ve bought it”).
Communications Objectives
The DAGMAR model states that advertising objectives must be concrete and measurable. That is, you want to have a precise statement of the message to communicate to the target audience and have a way to measure whether the intended message has been communicated properly. The measurement can be straightforward. For example, if your objective is that people perceive your product as the healthy alternative, you can measure the objective by asking shoppers whether they think your product is healthier than the competition.
Creative Objectives
The creative objectives deal with the form and content of the advertising. They define key elements of the message (what you want to say), emotional tone (how you say it), and production objectives (what the ad looks like). For example, the creative objective might specify that the advertising will reinforce existing aspects of the brand personality, modify old perceptions of the brand, or instill new brand characteristics.
Media Objectives
Media objectives define the who, where, and when of the target audience in the context of an overall marketing plan and budget. Note that media objectives don’t state which media will be used, because how you reach the audience is part of setting a media strategy. Elements of media objectives can include:
• Who: target audience objectives
• Where: geographic objectives
• When: timing, scheduling, reach, and frequency objectives
• Marketing coordination: sales promotion objectives
• Money: media budget objectives
You’ll learn more about how these objectives are put into motion in Chapter 9 "Choose Your Communication Weapons: SS+K Decides Upon a Creative Strategy and Media Tactics" and Chapter 10 "Plan and Buy Media: SS+K Chooses the Right Media for the Client’s New Branding Message".
Dig Deeper
Identify a TV commercial you’ve seen in the last month. Conduct an unofficial DAGMAR analysis for it: to what extent does it meet the criteria of creating awareness, comprehension, conviction, or action?
Key TakawayS
Now that you have read this section, you should be able to understand the power of branding and how to construct a strategic framework for solving problems:
• You have reviewed the power of branding and its relationship to brand differentiation, accountability, consistency, and personality.
• You can explain the concept of brand equity.
• You can recognize the benefits of branding for advertisers and buyers.
• You can describe the strategic framework for solving problems.
• You can explain the function of a brand audit.
• You can apply SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis to a marketing situation.
• You can construct advertising and marketing objectives that can be applied to your plans and strategies.
• You can create advertising and marketing strategies that provide direction to creative teams.
• You can create a creative brief that describes the intricacies of the proposed advertising strategies and how those strategies can be implemented by the creative team.
EXERCISES
1. Describe the differences between marketing objectives and advertising objectives in formulating a marketing and promotion plan.
2. List and discuss the four phases of the DAGMAR model.
3. Compare and contrast creative objectives and media objectives. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/08%3A_Create_a_Strategy_-_SSK_Puts_Its_Research_to_Use_as_the_Agency_Creates_the_Brief/8.04%3A_Define_Where_You_Want_to_Go_-_Set_Objectives.txt |
Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Create a marketing strategy that demonstrates correct usage of the marketing mix.
2. Create an advertising strategy that demonstrates how creative and media strategy are combined to solve an advertising problem.
Marketing Strategy
A marketing strategy consists of the activities a company must take to achieve its marketing objectives. For example, one step it must take is to decide on the appropriate mix of the Four Ps:
• Product definition. What features should the product have? What should the product packaging look like? Should there be accompanying support services, such as maintenance?
• Pricing strategies. How much are customers willing to pay for the product? What should be the selling price for retailers and wholesalers?
• Promotion strategy. What methods will the company use (e.g., advertising, PR, direct sales) to reach the target market? What is the goal of each promotion—to entice new customers, to boost repeat sales, to increase sales volumes?
• Place (distribution) strategies. Will the product be sold directly to consumers (such as via the Web) or through retailers and wholesalers? For decades, airlines sold tickets through travel agencies, but now most of them sell e-tickets over the Web. This distribution strategy saves the airlines money (by eliminating commissions to travel agents) and lets customers buy tickets any time of the day or night.
Creative Strategy
Creative strategy defines what the advertiser’s message will say and how it will say it. Being creative does not mean simply being clever or unique—the advertisement must communicate the intended message to the target audience.
Media Strategy
Media strategy matches the potential customers of a product with users of specific media. For example, a media strategy might attempt to find out if members of the target market prefer to watch TV, listen to the radio, or read magazines. It may also try to determine which TV programs, radio broadcasts, or magazines the target market prefers.
The media strategy must be well timed to ensure that ads are produced or commercials are filmed in time for their airing. Other important timing decisions include determining how long the advertising campaign will run and how many times to expose the audience to the ad during the product-purchase cycle.
Key Takaways
Determine where you are with respect to the situation facing the company (internal analysis) by constructing a situation analysis, a brand audit, and a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis.
Decide where you want to go (your desired positioning) by establishing advertising and marketing objectives that can be applied to your plans and strategies.
Create advertising and marketing strategies that provide direction to the creative team. The creative team is assembled to bring the product or service’s message to the target markets.
EXERCISES
1. Briefly discuss each of the four variables (Four Ps) that must be considered when constructing a marketing strategy.
2. Compare and contrast creative strategies and media strategies.
8.06: The Creative Belief
Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Create a creative brief that demonstrates the Big Idea and is applied to an advertising opportunity.
2. Describe and evaluate the asymmetric communications brief.
How do you communicate your strategy to your creative team?
The fruits of your labor are now turning into a real plan and a real document. After learning about the Four Ps and branding, and after identifying your current positioning and more desired positioning, you are ready to put words and actions into motion.
In this final section of this chapter, you will learn about SS+K’s and msnbc.com’s official plan: the creative brief. Preparing a creative brief is a collaborative process between the client (msnbc.com) and the agency (SS+K). Of course, a creative brief is never truly finalized; it is a living document that needs to be constantly reexamined for overall market appropriateness.
The Brief
The creative brief is a document that outlines the information and objectives to inspire the creative idea. Creative briefs may take different forms and include a variety of elements, including describing what the advertising is trying to achieve, identifying the main idea to be communicated, and outlining the target audience for that idea.
Video Highlight
The Creative Brief
(click to see video)
This video shows how a creative brief is used within an agency.
Proposing the Big Idea requires client agreement that the idea is right. Thus, both the advertising agency and the client must agree upon the final brief. The best briefs are written by account planners collaboratively with input from the client, account team, and creative director. One of the key functions of the SS+K brief is to come up with a single essential thought that summarizes the idea that will convince consumers to do what it is that the communication aims to do. Every agency has a proprietary brief template it uses to spell out the types of content it will need to include, such as specifying the audience, the product features, media placement ideas, and key point.
Briefs provide a foundation that allows all decision makers to provide initial input and subsequently gauge how well the chosen communication ideas, from advertising to media and PR, stay true to the strategic plan. In this way, clients rely on creative briefs as much as copywriters and art directors do.
SS+K uses only one brief, and the creative director has input on that brief. Other agencies may use different briefs for different purposes depending on the needs of the client. For example, a retailer may have a brief for its national campaign, and other briefs for local ads that may have different emphases. It is important to remember that there is no standard brief across the advertising industry, but most of the information found on briefs is fairly similar.
The first step in the SS+K brief is to use consumer and brand truths to establish the client’s noble purpose. The noble purpose expresses the brand’s “true north,” its reason for being on the earth. It is single-minded, concise, and written in such a way as to excite the imagination of the reader.
SS+K Spotlight
Marty Cooke is a partner and chief creative officer of New York–based SS+K. When he joined the agency, he’d already had substantial creative experience in some of the most influential advertising agencies in the world. He brought with him a defining vision for how creative solutions would be different at SS+K.
Video Spotlight
Marty Cooke
(click to see video)
Marty Cooke describes the importance and elements of the noble purpose.
Video Spotlight
Catherine Captain
(click to see video)
Catherine Captain recalls the process of refining the brief from the client’s perspective.
Video Spotlight
Michelle Rowley
(click to see video)
Michelle Rowley explains the full msnbc.com brief from Consumer Truth to Big Idea.
SS+K Spotlight
The manifesto: “Catching lightning in a bottle.”
Agency creative teams typically develop creative executions immediately after receiving the brief. SS+K, however, takes an interim step between the development of the brief and the execution of the campaign. SS+K copywriter Sam Mazur was asked to capture the essence of the branding in a conceptual piece of work that is not an advertisement. This is a tricky proposition. If it is effective, the manifesto is a useful tool for explaining the thinking of the marketing team. On the other hand, if the piece generates too much enthusiasm, the agency may find itself in the position of trying to explain the difference between an expression of the brand and an advertisement for the brand.
Video Spotlight
Russell Stevens
(click to see video)
Russell Stevens discusses the articulation of the brief with creative contribution and the manifesto video interview.
Video Spotlight
(click to see video)
Sam Mazur and Amit Nizan discuss the creation of the manifesto.
Video Spotlight
The msnbc.com Manifesto
(click to see video)
Video Spotlight
Catherine Captain
(click to see video)
Catherine Captain discusses the internal reaction to the manifesto.
Key Takaway
This section described how to devise a creative brief that more fully describes the intricacies of the proposed advertising strategies and how the creative team can implement those strategies.
EXERCISES
1. Describe the components and purpose of a creative brief. What are the differences between the creative brief and the creative director’s brief?
2. Use a step-by-step or model approach to characterize the asymmetric communications brief. Explain the difference between the noble purpose and the asymmetric communications brief. What is the main advantage of using this form? | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/08%3A_Create_a_Strategy_-_SSK_Puts_Its_Research_to_Use_as_the_Agency_Creates_the_Brief/8.05%3A_Decide_How_You%27ll_Get_There_-_Create_a_Strategy.txt |
Tie it All Together
Now that you have read this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
• You can define branding and brand strategy.
• You can identify the characteristics of a solid branding strategy.
• You can explain the concepts of brand equity and value proposition.
• You can list and discuss the benefits of branding from the advertiser’s and buyer’s points of view.
• You can describe the strategic framework that can be used to solve problems.
• You can discuss how to conduct a situation analysis to understand problems and opportunities.
• You can explain the function of a brand audit.
• You can discuss the SWOTs and apply them to the solution of a problem.
• You can distinguish between marketing objectives and advertising objectives in a strategy.
• You can explain the DAGMAR model for setting objectives.
• You can create a marketing strategy that demonstrates correct usage of the marketing mix.
• You can create an advertising strategy that demonstrates how creative and media strategy are combined to solve an advertising problem.
• You can create a creative brief that demonstrates the Big Idea and is applied to an advertising opportunity.
• You can describe and evaluate the asymmetric communications brief.
USE WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED
1. Have you seen the new Smart car? If you have, you are probably part of the buzz that has been heard recently about this new concept car that has made it to the streets. The car seats two, is available in three different models, and costs between about \$12,500 and \$17,000. The most significant fact about the Smart car is that it gets about forty-five miles per gallon. That fact alone has become central to Smart car’s initial introduction to the driving public. Has “small” finally become better than “large, extralarge, and supersize”? The manufacturer of the Smart car is betting on it. Investigate the Smart car. Once this is done, construct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis for the Smart car. Evaluate the car’s likelihood of success.
2. Is there a Chick-fil-A in your neighborhood? If there is, you’ve probably eaten at one of the fastest-growing food franchises in the southern United States (see http://www.chickfila.com). Chick-fil-A has a unique approach to running their business. Using the company’s Web site and search engines, your task is to investigate the Chick-fil-A organization in order to conduct a situation analysis. During your investigation be sure to comment on the perceived competitive situation, customer situation, and economics and costs that impact or affect the company and its industry. Once you have completed your situation analysis, conduct a brief brand audit of Chick-fil-A. What are your conclusions about Chick-fil-A and its business model? Discuss your audit and opinions with peers.
DIGITAL NATIVES
Most young adults have had some experience with MySpace or other Web communication sites. Security issues aside, millions of people are communicating in previously unheard-of ways via the Internet. One area of concern, however, is how to protect younger communicators from the dangers of an open Internet. Many parents of preteens have banned them from popular more adult social networking Web sites. A relatively new social networking Web site, however, has been designed with the preteen in mind. Stardoll (http://www.stardoll.com) provides a mechanism for preteens to communicate and chat with other preteens via a “MeDoll” that can be dressed and accessorized from a long list of celebrity avatars.
Go to the Stardoll Web site and familiarize yourself with its components. Your challenge is create a short creative brief to promote this Web site. The objective of the communication is to attract more viewers and participants. Present your brief in class if time permits.
AD-VICE
1. Describe the role that Catherine Captain plays in the SS+K Spotlight feature in this chapter. Assess her communication skills. Illustrate a positive skill and a negative skill that she seems to possess.
2. Pick one of your favorite brands and summarize its history in the marketplace. As you research your favorite brand, comment on any brand strategies that you notice. Comment on your brand’s perceived brand personality, brand equity, and viability.
3. Pick any brand and apply the summary benefits of branding to your choice. Remember to discuss the benefits of branding to both the buyer and the advertiser or maker of your brand.
4. Pick any company and create a new product for them to manufacture. Following the guidelines in the chapter, create a situation analysis of the firm and of your new creation. Examine the differences between the two “situations.” Should the company make your product? Explain.
ETHICAL DILEMMA
According to information presented in the Digital Natives section, preteens and teens can go to a monitored Web site and participate in a communication community that is structured just for them. The Web site (http://www.stardoll.com) advocates protection for its viewers and participants from controversial topics, visuals, and conversations that plague more adult-oriented Web sites.
One of the purposes of this Web site appears to be the protection of its young participants from more adult-oriented content and exploitation. Examine the Web site and its policies. From an ethical point of view, assess the Web site and its capabilities for protecting its visitors. Can the organization’s implied protection promise be delivered? Summarize your thoughts. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/08%3A_Create_a_Strategy_-_SSK_Puts_Its_Research_to_Use_as_the_Agency_Creates_the_Brief/8.07%3A_Exercises.txt |
The advertiser’s toolbox is a deep one, and it’s expanding by leaps and bounds. Indeed, the problem often is to figure out which tool—or even better, combination of tools—will work best to solve a specific strategic issue. In the old days (say, fifteen to twenty years ago), agencies tended to have one approach that they used over and over for every client. Good at doing TV commercials? Shoot them for everyone. Specialize in outdoor? Roll out the poster boards. But yesterday’s “hammer in search of a nail” approach won’t cut it anymore.
Today it’s more common for agencies to think about themselves as being not so much in the advertising business as in the communications business. Sure, that’s just a word change—but the implications are huge. This switch is a constant reminder that we need to consider any way to communicate with customers that makes sense for that particular segment—and there’s often more than one way to skin a cat.
The integrated marketing communications perspective emphasizes the careful, strategic blending of many diverse elements to be sure that the client’s message touches the customer in the same way regardless of where this interaction occurs. That sounds like plain common sense, but you’d be surprised how often it’s a problem—especially in an industry where a client might give its advertising business to one agency, hire a separate firm to handle its public relations, and have still another conduct sales promotions.
Most major agencies today practice the integrated marketing approach in some way, often by starting new divisions to handle areas they didn’t tackle before, or buying (or allying with) smaller, specialized shops that are already experts. The client is ultimately accountable for managing its agencies in a way that supports its overall communications vision. For example, SS+K worked with msnbc.com’s search agency 360i to support the integrated branding campaign. (You’ll learn more about the way they worked together soon.) Marketers are the people most conscientious about coordinating all of the messages that customers receive, but they rely on their agencies to be vigilant about this as well. So, let’s summarize what an integrated perspective emphasizes:
• Use, and especially coordination, of all promotional tools available to support a communications strategy. These include sales promotions, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing, as well as advertisements.
• Identification of the tools over and above traditional advertising at your disposal. These might include placing branded billboards in videogames, dressing actors in costumes and having them take to the streets as “brand ambassadors,” or perhaps sending IMs to kids on their cell phones.
• Creation of a coordinated promotional plan. Such a plan starts by specifying communications objectives and then details how to reach each of these.
• Maximization of resources. Especially for small businesses, maximize available resources even when they are scarce. Repurposing ads and utilizing connections are strategies that maximize resources.
SS+K Spotlight
All of us are better than each of us.
The point of strategic communication is to use the best tools available to effect the desired change in the marketplace. SS+K, like some other agencies, no longer draws hard-and-fast distinctions among functions such as advertising, promotions, direct marketing, and digital and public relations. SS+K’s goal is to achieve synergy among all the efforts that emanate from the msnbc.com brand—to choose the best tools for the job, not the ones that are most expected or familiar.
Compared to the “silos” that pervade some agencies, agency creative director Marty Cooke sees more value in combining disciplines than isolating them:
“The basic core idea of SS+K…is to get the different disciplines of communications, writers, art directors, designers, planners, strategy people, researchers, public relations guys, public affairs guys, digital people, direct mail people, whoever else you need, around the table, the biggest brains you can get and let the sparks fly. And that’s been kind of the magic of this place ever since we started it, and it’s worked out very well.”—Marty Cooke, Agency Creative Director
Video Spotlight
Thinking Differently
(click to see video)
Marty describes how SS+K found the integrated approach. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/09%3A_Choose_Your_Communication_Weapons_-_SSK_Decides_Upon_a_Creative_Strategy_and_Media_Tactics/9.01%3A_Chapter_Introduction.txt |
Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Describe the integrated marketing communications perspective.
2. List the various forms of marketing programs that are united by integrated marketing communications.
The punk band Paramore is getting noticed; the group from a small town in Tennessee sold more than 350,000 copies of its recent second album “Riot!” and it’s packed the house on the Vans Warped Tour. Part of the band’s appeal is the cult following for lead singer Hayley Williams (and legions of young girls imitating her shaggy blonde and orange hairstyle). But the group’s success is also due to a new business model in the music industry, where musicians work with their label to coordinate a marketing campaign that includes album sales, concert tickets, and merchandise. This model is called multiple rights or “360” deals; the biggest to date is Madonna’s recent \$120 million package with the concert promoter Live Nation. Lordi, a Finnish metal band, has its own soft drink and credit card, and the Pussycat Dolls opened a Dolls-themed nightclub in Las Vegas.Jeff Leeds, “The New Deal: Band as Brand,” New York Times Online, November 11, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/arts/music/11leed.html (accessed November 11, 2007). Welcome to the new look of integrated and cross-channel marketing.
Integrated marketing communications unites all forms of marketing programs aimed at a target audience, including magazine ads, TV commercials, coupons, an opportunity to win a sweepstakes, a display at the store, and a visit from a company sales rep. There’s good reason to integrate: by coordinating the messages across all the communication tools, a company will speak to its customers and potential customers in a single, unified voice. This unified voice creates a more powerful and memorable message than disjointed efforts produce.
Dig Deeper
When Unilever introduced its All Small & Mighty detergent, it used a traditional ad campaign (TV and print) to make the point that the new detergent is concentrated, packed in a smaller bottle to create a smaller ecofootprint while delivering the same results. In addition, Unilever handed out samples from a bus; it made the bus noticeable by draping it in laundry. Anyone who spotted the bus could also send a text message to enter a sweepstakes. Unilever also projected “videoscapes” onto buildings and did a product placement on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, in which the studio audience did their laundry.Sarah Heim, “The Spin Cycle,” Adweek, July 23, 2007, 22.
Campaigns that utilize multiple media platforms make a lot of sense, especially in today’s media environment. The simple truth is that consumers increasingly rely on a greater mix of media for news, entertainment, and product information. According to a late 2007 survey, 55 percent of consumers who watch TV watch some type of video on devices other than their TV sets, including their computers, mobile phones, and digital media players (e.g., iPod). Not surprisingly, video watching on these alternative devices is more popular among younger consumers (66 percent) than older ones (36 percent).Jack Loechner, “Over Half of Connected TV Viewers Also Watch on Alternative Devices,” www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.show Article&art_aid=73291 (accessed January 2, 2008).
Audio Spotlight
Joe Kessler
http://app.wistia.com/embed/medias/b837825e42
Joe Kessler, SS+K partner and director of the agency’s L.A. office, speaks about the evolution of integrated marketing—how it was practiced in the past (referred to as IMC) and the mistakes that agencies continue to make now.
Creating integrated marketing communications requires deciding what kind of campaign the client needs and identifying the best tools to deliver on those objectives. The integrated program will include anything from advertising, consumer sales promotion, and trade promotions to public relations, personal selling, direct marketing, and more. The messaging works across platforms, and is also referred to as cross-platform marketing. Let’s look at each of these in turn.
Key Takaway
Traditional agencies tend to focus on what they do well, but customers touch clients’ products in many ways. An integrated perspective recognizes the value and efficiency of carefully planning and coordinating all of the communications tools—from glitzy TV commercials to employees’ uniforms—that impact the impression the client makes in the marketplace.
EXERCISES
1. Describe the integrated marketing communications perspective and comment on its usefulness to advertising professionals.
2. Explain how the SS+K advertising agency seems to differ from other advertising agencies with respect to communications and media focus. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/09%3A_Choose_Your_Communication_Weapons_-_SSK_Decides_Upon_a_Creative_Strategy_and_Media_Tactics/9.02%3A_Integrated_Marketing_Communications_-_United_We_Stand.txt |
Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. List and describe each of the elements of the promotional mix.
2. Characterize the various forms of sales promotion.
3. Describe the purpose of public relations.
4. Characterize the tools used to implement PR objectives.
5. Discuss how personal selling can be used effectively in the promotional mix.
6. Discuss the value of direct marketing in the promotional mix.
7. Explain the concept of database marketing and how it can benefit advertisers.
8. Explain the benefits of using customer relationship management (CRM) in the marketplace.
We’ve already learned about the Four Ps that go into the marketing mix; these are the tools marketers use to create a value proposition for their idea, product, or service in the marketplace. When we drill down to the crucial P of Promotion (the reason you’re reading this book), you won’t be surprised to learn of an equivalent set of tools that advertisers use (either singly or, more often, in concert) to communicate the important elements of that value proposition. We call these tools the promotional mix.
Sales Promotions
A sales promotion is activity intended to produce some short-term change in behavior. This can range from a cents-off coupon that motivates a customer to buy a box of cereal today to a sales contest that inspires an employee to sign up as many customers as he can by the end of the month.
When the Target Is Consumers
Sales promotions targeted to consumers encourage purchase or build interest in a product during a specified time period. The key element of sales promotions is its limited-time nature. Consumer sales promotion tools include the following:
Price or Value Discount Promotion Tools
Price or value discount promotion tools include coupons for packaged-goods products like deodorant. These offer cents off the price and have an expiration date of a few months out, encouraging immediate purchase. Similarly, pizza delivery companies located near colleges typically have special deals at the start of the semester to entice new customers.
In addition to coupons companies place in newspapers, send by mail (or by mobile phone), or offer on a Web site, a marketer may offer a temporary price reduction at the store or offer a rebate. Unlike a coupon, which gives the discount immediately upon purchase, a rebate refunds part of the purchase price to the consumer after the consumer fills out and returns a form along with a sales receipt to the company.
Bonus packs deliver more product without more cost, such as 20 percent more nuts in a canned nut mix, or 33 percent more liquid soap for the same price. Some companies offer bonus packs twice a year as a way to reward customers with special offers. Other companies time their bonus packs to economic cycles. “Whenever there is a downturn in the economy, we do very well with bonus packs and opening price shampoos like Suave, VO5 and Jheri Rhedding,” said Larry Vick, divisional merchandise manager for ShopKo. During difficult economic times, people are careful with their money and like to buy products that offer more of the good for the same amount of money.Liz Parks, “Value-Priced Bonus Packs Revive Limp Hair Care Segment.” DSN Retailing Today, April 22, 2002, 19. Hint: With all of the economic woes surrounding us, the coupon business is a pretty nice place to be right now.
Visibility-Increasing Promotion Tools
A premium is a free item you receive if you purchase another item. Sexy Hair Concepts, for example, offered free styling gel with purchase of their shampoo or conditioner during the “Girls Night Out” days at Beauty Brands retail stores. In some cases, the premium may directly encourage future product sales, such as the Campbell’s Soup Cookbook containing new recipes that just happen to call for additional soup flavors.
Contests and sweepstakes offer the opportunity to win an exciting prize like a vacation to Hawaii or a \$1,000 shopping spree. The difference between the two is that a contest is a test of skill, whereas a sweepstakes is simply based on luck. For example, a contest may ask consumers to bake a cake using the brand as an ingredient, whereas a sweepstakes simply requires filling out the entry form.
By law, sweepstakes cannot be tied to a purchase, which means that any consumer can be eligible to win the prize if they fill out the entry form. Therefore, it’s best to use sweepstakes to build awareness of your brand, not to drive immediate sales. The sweepstakes should be cleverly tied to your brand. For example, if your product is canned pineapple, a sweepstakes with the grand prize of a trip to Hawaii makes sense. If your product is motor oil, a sweepstakes in which the grand prize is a chance to be on a NASCAR pit crew team is more relevant and effective than winning a lunch date with Hannah Montana (Danica Patrick is another story). Sweepstakes also offer an opportunity to generate publicity (discussed below) during a time when you are not introducing new products.
Volume-Increasing Promotion Tools
Sampling is a popular (though expensive) promotional tool. Food and beverage companies often provide free samples to consumers to give them a chance to try a new product for free. More than one college student has feasted for free by timing strategic visits to stores like Sam’s Club that provide tastes of new food items. Sometimes the packets will be a smaller trial size, such as two packets of Celestial Seasonings tea rather than a box; other times the sample will be full size, like a cup of Silk yogurt. In the example we mentioned previously, Unilever handed out free samples of its new detergent. Sampling intends to increase future sales volume by acquiring new customers for the product.
Loyalty programs reward consumers for their frequent, continuing purchase of a product. Frequent flyer programs such as the United Airlines Mileage Plus program offer free miles to their customers with each flight they purchase. The more miles they fly per year, the bigger the bonus mileage. For example, customers who fly fifty thousand miles or more per year get double bonus miles (a hundred thousand miles or the equivalent of four free airline tickets in the United States) for the miles they’ve purchased. These loyalty programs offer additional perks, such as shorter lines, to their loyal customers. Restaurants or coffee shops often have punch cards that reward customers with a free coffee or sandwich after the purchase of nine coffees or sandwiches.
Video Highlight
Loyalty Programs, Discounts, and Database Marketing Report from CBS News
(click to see video)
Loyalty programs and other discounts can drive purchases, but do they really result in loyalty or do they encourage consumers to shop for the best deal?
When the Target Is Trade Partners (Employees, Distributors, and Retailers)
As consumers we probably don’t see many of the more aggressive promotions that companies sponsor. Trade promotions are for a company’s employees or for channel partners such as retailers or wholesale distributors who help get the product in the hands of the ultimate customer.
Trade promotions fall into two main categories: discount promotions and industry visibility. Discount promotions offer the trade partner a reduced cost on the product or help to defray the partner’s advertising expenses. The goal is to encourage the partner to stock the item and bring attention to it. Promotions that increase industry visibility, on the other hand, focus on creating enthusiasm and excitement among salespeople and customers.
Discount Promotions
Merchandising allowances are price breaks the manufacturer offers to its channel partners when it reimburses the retailer for in-store support of a product, such as a special off-shelf or end-of-aisle display of the product. For example, when Volvo wanted to double the sales of its certified used vehicles, it offered dealers a \$200-per-vehicle cooperative advertising allowance.
Case allowances are a discount the manufacturer offers to the channel partner based on the volume of products it buys during the deal period. The greater number of products the partner buys, the greater the discount.
Visibility-Increasing Promotions
Industry trade shows are events at which manufacturers showcase their products, often in elaborate, attention-getting booths or through giveaway samples and product information. Distributors and retailers learn more about a company’s products and can ask questions or experience the product directly. The manufacturer, in turn, collects business cards and sales leads on potential partners. For example, to draw customers into its booth at fluid industry shows, ITT (a company that manufactures fluid technology systems) built a water fountain branded with ITT and placed a sixty-by-eighteen-foot, three-dimensional banner at the entrance to the convention hall.Kate Maddox, “The Future Looks Bright, with Marketing Expanding and Online Exploding,” B to B, December 11, 2006, 28.
Dig Deeper
The trade show industry generates billions of dollars a year and affects the economies of many other sectors such as travel and hospitality. Some major trade shows dwarf the size of small cities when they’re running; shows like MAGIC (menswear apparel) and CES (computers and technology) easily attract over a hundred thousand attendees. In a typical (2009) show, CES features twenty-seven hundred exhibitors spanning thirty product categories. Approximately twenty thousand new products will launch at this event.International CES, www.cesweb.org/exhibitorDirectory/default.asp (accessed July 12, 2008). Trade shows are a major expenditure for companies; the typical mid- to large-size firm spends well over half a million dollars each year to display at shows. That’s a lot of free T-shirts, tote bags, and sore feet by the end of the day.
Despite the appeal of these shows where freebies, parties, and networking (and the occasional drunk conventioneer) abound, there are alternatives to these massive schmoozefests. As travel costs continue to escalate along with concerns about the sizeable carbon footprint that a hundred thousand people create when they converge on convention sites like Las Vegas, some industries are starting to experiment with virtual trade shows that you attend from your desktop. Both IBM and Cisco are proponents of this alternative.
Some of these virtual shows are accessible via Web sites that give you access to hundreds of exhibitors, job listings, and so on. Others are even more adventurous; they are held in virtual worlds where your avatar can wander among aisles of exhibitors, look at new products, dialogue in real time with company representatives, even taste the free hors d’oeuvres (well, maybe not quite yet). Startup companies like Unisfair are moving aggressively into this virtual space.
One of the biggest advantages of a virtual trade show is that the exhibitors can track the behavior of potential customers who visit the show. Since attendees are anonymous, they won’t be intimidated by pushy salespeople, so they’re free to stay or leave when they choose.Janet Meiners, “Trade Shows Go Virtual,” Marketing Pilgrim, November 16, 2007, http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/11/trade-shows-go-virtual.html (accessed July 12, 2008); http://www.unisfair.com (accessed July 12, 2008).
Check out Unisfair (http://www.unisfair.com) and sample some virtual trade show environments. What’s your verdict—is this a viable substitute for that Vegas junket you’re hoping to glom onto?
Incentive programs, also known as push money, give salespeople or channel partners free trips, cash bonuses, or other gifts as a reward when they sell the manufacturer’s product. For example, Revlon may give incentives to manicurists to recommend Revlon products to their clients.
Promotional products are the “swag” that companies give out, stuff like free pens, polo shirts, coffee mugs, and key chains emblazoned with a company’s logo. The purpose is to keep the brand top of mind by keeping it visible in the channel partner’s daily life. The most effective promotional products are ones that are attractive and convey a positive message about your product or services. They often keep a brand or company top of mind because the logo is hard to miss when you use or wear the premium. To get an idea of the mind-boggling array of swag that’s available out there, visit The Gifts & Premiums Manufacturers Directory at http://www.globalsources.com/suppliers/Gift-Premium/3000000151985.htm. And you thought scoring a free pen was a major coup!
Public Relations
The purpose of public relations (PR) is to build good relationships with the advertiser’s publics, namely consumers, stockholders, legislators, and employees. We define PR as “communication that attempts to earn public understanding and acceptance of the firm by stressing the practices, policies, and procedures of an individual or the organization. This can be accomplished by identifying donations to charitable organizations, sponsorship of esteemed causes or events, contributions to individual, community, or societal well-being, and so on.”Quoted in Stephen J. Grove, Les Carlson, and Michael J. Dorsch, “Comparing the Application of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) in Magazine Ads Across Product Type and Time,” Journal of Advertising 36, no. 1 (Spring 2007): 37.
Although it’s difficult to agree on a definition (depending who in the industry you ask), public relations frequently focuses on identifying and making public noteworthy information about clients, or creating newsworthy events for the purposes of heightening their clients’ public profiles. Traditionally, communications professionals have perceived public relations differently from advertising, which is persuasive, controlled content paid for by an identified sponsor. To the contrary, PR messages are not purchased and placed, or ultimately controlled, by clients. If news or information pieces originating with PR sources ultimately make it into the public discourse, it is presumably because the items warrant attention on their own merits and the original source of the information—the public relations professional—is obscured.
Today, distinctions between the disciplines are less clear-cut: frequently, advertising agencies are instrumental in trying to cultivate social networks and free, word-of-mouth exposure for their clients. Guerrilla marketing, like events staged by public relations professionals that “ambush” consumers with messages in places they’re not expecting to encounter them, can be effective ways of attracting highly valued news coverage for clients. Advertising agencies initiate and exploit consumer-generated content that is used for commercial purposes, thereby relinquishing control of the creative product in the process, much as PR professionals do when they issue press releases for editors to reformulate for their audiences. Some agencies take advantage of the relative anonymity of the Internet to develop positive chat and “consumer” reviews about their clients’ products—the source of content promoting products is not always clearly linked to an agency source, as public relations sources are seldom identified as the source of stories featuring their clients.
Video Highlight
Guerilla Marketing (and Integrated Marketing Communication)
(click to see video)
The Chiquita Beach Tour is an example of an integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan that includes guerilla marketing.
Press Release
One core tool of public relations is the press release, which can be anywhere from a paragraph to several pages long. The press release is a report of an event that the marketer (or the marketer’s PR agency) writes and distributes to the media in hopes that they will write about or feature the event. Related to the press release is the video news release (VNR), which describes the event via video rather than words. The topics covered by press releases are wide ranging, but the common thread is that they are topical and newsworthy, such as announcing a new product, new research, or timely helpful information to consumers, such as romantic getaway ideas a travel company publishes ahead of Valentine’s Day.
Video Highlight
Press Release on Skin Care
(click to see video)
This Be Fine skin care video news release (VNR) demonstrates how a company can provide information about its products in a news format.
Press releases always conclude with contact information for the marketer and sometimes the PR company. This key piece is so that reporters can call for more information or an interview. A popular disseminator of press releases is PR Newswire; go to http://www.prnewswire.com to see the latest news releases.
Media Event
A company will often preannounce a forthcoming media event to garner attention for a product introduction, new channel partner, or major change in strategy. The goal is to give the media time to create background stories and bring reporters and news crews to the event to ensure the broadest possible audience. For example, when Apple brought the iPhone to the United Kingdom, it told the press that Steve Jobs, the company’s CEO, would be making an announcement at Apple’s London store in the heart of the city’s main shopping district.
Publicity
Public relations often aims to generate publicity, which is unpaid communication about an organization that appears in the media. The success of a PR campaign is measured in terms of impressions—the number of times a company is mentioned in the media. For example, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream created the world’s largest baked Alaska for Earth Day 2005. It placed a 1,140-pound, four-foot-tall dessert made from Ben & Jerry’s Fossil Fuel flavor in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to symbolize the environmental damage that drilling in the wildlife preserve would cause. The program cost only \$40,000 but generated more than thirty million media impressions. The publicity program reinforced Ben & Jerry’s brand as a socially conscious, green company while bringing attention to its ice cream products.“Ben & Jerry’s: A Green Pioneer,” Advertising Age, June 11, 2007, S-8.
Dig Deeper
A publicity campaign for a late-night cartoon show backfired when it aroused fears of a terrorist attack and temporarily shut down the city of Boston in 2007. To promote the Cartoon Network TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force (a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries, and a meatball), an agency placed prominent blinking electronic signs with hanging wires and batteries on bridges and in other high-profile spots in several U.S. cities. Most depicted a boxy cartoon character giving passersby the finger. Bomb squads and other police personnel required to investigate the mysterious boxes cost the city of Boston more than \$500,000—and a lot of frayed nerves.Suzanne Smalley and Raja Mishra, “Governor, Mayor Livid as Boston Ad Stunt Spurs Chaos,” Boston Globe, January 31, 2007, http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/01/31/governor_mayor_livid_as_boston_ ad_stunt_spurs_chaos/ (accessed February 13, 2009). Can you identify other publicity stunts that ended badly? Or (as the saying goes) is it true that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” if the stunt calls attention to the client?
Crisis Management
As the Cartoon Network found out, publicity can cut both ways. Sometimes negative events happen to the company and the media reports these in great and glaring detail. Product defects, a serious accident at a company facility, management malfeasance, or major layoffs can tarnish the reputation of the firm. A company must be prepared to deal with such negative publicity.
Once the negative story is out there, there’s nothing you can do except minimize the damage. That calls for crisis management. During such a time it’s important to present your side of the story as clearly as possible and to demonstrate integrity as you correct any mistakes. The best way to do this is to have a single spokesperson talk with the media. This may mean “locking the business down” by asking everyone on the staff not to comment on the news story but to refer the question to the spokesperson so that the message is consistent and accurate. The most trustworthy spokesperson for the company is usually its CEO, because such high-level attention will show that the CEO stands behind the company.
When U.S. toy brand Mattel was forced to recall eighteen million toys after Chinese-made products were shown to be potentially unsafe, Mattel’s CEO, Bob Eckert, explained what went wrong, apologized, accepted responsibility, and took action. During the time of crisis, it’s crucial for the CEO or spokesperson to be upfront, direct, and very proactive. In addition to holding a press conference, Eckert filmed a separate online video apology. In his statements, he sympathized with parents, saying, “I’m a parent of four kids as well.” Mattel also took out full-page ads in major newspapers: the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Finally, Mattel’s Web site posted comprehensive recall details and explained how to receive a free replacement toy of equal value. Posting a response on their Web site is a faster way for companies to get the message out than might be possible through traditional media.Donna Goodison, “Weathering Toy Recall Crisis,” Boston Herald, August 16, 2007, 32.
Personal Selling
Personal selling involves direct interaction between a company representative and the customer. The main advantage of personal selling is the ability to tailor the message to the customer in real time, responding not only to their questions but also to their body language and tone. This type of direct contact lets the salesperson address customer concerns, sometimes even when the customer hasn’t voiced them aloud. Salespeople in fashion retail stores are ready (or at least they should be) with advice on how to accessorize an outfit or to help in deciding among outfits. Personal selling is even more important in products that are complex and require significant customer education or custom configuration. A sales force is a key part of medical products sales, information technology and solutions sales, or other complex products and services selling.
Team Selling
Personal selling can also be done through an outside network of sales reps. For example, Barefoot Parties sells loungewear, accessories, and gifts for women through at-home parties held by its sales agents. Agents get bonuses based on the amount of income the party generates in addition to a minimum base commission of 20 percent from the party sales.Tim Parry, “Get in on the Party,” Merchant, January 1, 2007, n.p.
Some products and services are so complex and intertwined that a team sales approach is needed, in which the selling is handled by a team of salespeople, technical specialists, field engineers, and supply chain specialists who coordinate the timetable from order to production to delivery. Telecommunications equipment provider Lucent uses this kind of team approach, pairing supply chain executives with sales reps on the sales team. Technical specialists work with the customer to design a cell phone network, for example. In one case, Lucent created a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) cell phone network for a customer in India. The network included over fifty switching centers, twenty-five hundred base stations, and three hundred thousand circuit pack and cables. Such complexity demands a team sales approach.
Sales Force Automation (SFA)
Marketing information systems and CRM systems often include tools to help the sales force. Sales force automation (SFA) includes a myriad of functions such as contact management, sales quote automation, sales order information, and reporting functions. The tools use CRM and other data to maximize the productivity and effectiveness of the sales force. For example, salespeople who use a service like Salesforce (http://www.salesforce.com) can keep track of their sales leads and construct their call schedules to be most efficient, while their managers can track their performance and identify bad and good performers easily.
Downsides of Personal Selling
The disadvantages of personal selling are its high labor costs and the corollary: it’s difficult to reach large numbers of people when you try to speak them to one-to-one. Also, the information communicated may vary from the intended message. Sometimes salespeople, in an effort to “get the sale” or “go the extra mile” for their potential customer, may bend the rules in a way that’s detrimental for the company, such as by promising a delivery date that forces the company to pay extra in expediting costs or overtime in an effort to meet the promised date. Worse, a company might suffer bad publicity as a result of a salesperson’s unethical actions.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing refers to sales communications delivered directly to individual customers through e-mail, direct mail, and telemarketing. The goal is to use information about individuals in order to present them with messages relevant to their needs and interests. The growth of consumer databases and improvement of technology and methods (such as advanced modeling and segmentation strategies) has led to increased use—and increased success—of direct marketing. For example, in the United States in 2006 direct marketing generated incremental sales of \$1.93 trillion, which was 10 percent of the GDP. Each dollar spent on direct marketing yields, on average, an ROI (return on investment) of \$11.65, compared to an ROI of \$5.29 for traditional advertising.Direct Marketing Association, The Power of Direct Marketing: ROI, Sales, Expenditures and Employment in the US, 2006–2007 Edition (New York: DMA, 2006).
How does direct marketing fit into an integrated campaign? One application is to send a direct mail piece (usually a letter or package) to a targeted list of customers inviting them to visit a Web site where they can receive further information. For example, Pitney Bowes Mapinfo (a company that provides software and services to help business executives make location-based decisions, such as site selection) mailed executives one-half of a CD to drive the message that without the dimension of location, their analysis is not complete. The mail piece gave executives a Web address from which they could download a free white paper to learn more about location intelligence. Mapinfo combined the direct mail piece with banner ads on business-publication Web sites (such as BusinessWeek [http://www.businessweek.com], Forbes [http://www.forbes.com], CNNMoney [http://money.cnn.com], and MSNMoney [http://moneycentral.msn.com]) to drive executives to the white paper. The result? Mapinfo received more than three thousand white paper downloads, of which more than 70 percent were senior management executives; more than thirteen hundred opt-ins to receive e-mail communications from MapInfo; and more than two hundred registrations for Mapinfo’s webinar.“Pitney Bowes Intelligently Plots Strategy for MapInfo,” B to B, August 13, 2007, 28.
In another example, Babcock & Jenkins, a direct-marketing agency, developed an integrated campaign for Sun Microsystems. The campaign included direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing, and online marketing to drive potential new Sun customers to a Web site where they could register to win prizes in a sweepstakes. The campaign was a B2B (business-to-business) campaign in which Babcock & Jenkins helped Sun deliver leads to its channel partners (namely the resellers who sell Sun systems). The campaign generated 120 percent more registrations than expected. The success was due in part to demographic profiling that identified potential customers and why they buy, and then used an integrated campaign to reinforce the messages and reach customers in different ways. “We use an approach we call connected strategy,” said Denise Barnes, president of Babcock & Jenkins, “integrating direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing, banners, newsletters, print, microsites, events, podcasts, webcasts and social media into one-to-one communications for our clients.”Kate Maddox, “Babcock & Jenkins Focuses on Database-Driven Marketing; Runner-up Direct Agency of the Year,” B to B, October 9, 2006, 30.
Dig Deeper
One of the issues direct marketing raises is that of violating people’s privacy and of controlling a flood of offers that can be sent en masse to consumers, defeating the purpose of targeted, individual communications. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) helps stem the tide of unwanted phone calls and e-mail (spam) through initiatives like e-mail authentication and by giving consumers the option to remove themselves from mailing lists (www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing) or from prescreened credit card offers (by calling 1-888-5optOut). What rights to privacy (and to not being disturbed at dinnertime) do consumers have? What happens to direct marketers who violate those rights?
Database Marketing
Many sophisticated advertisers understand that it makes sense to keep track of their customers—and perhaps even those who aren’t their customers (at least yet!). Database marketing is a system of marketing that collects information from consumers and then uses it to build a long-term relationship with a customer. Today this strategy underpins many promotional tools, especially those that have an element of direct communications with the customer, such as personal sales and direct marketing. Databases contain customer names, addresses, purchase profiles, psychographic and demographic details, purchase patterns, media preferences, credit ratings, and other information that helps a company target and create the right message and offer for each customer. This data can come from sources such as internal sales data, online opt-in registrations, loyalty program data, contest forms, third-party database sellers, and public government records (e.g., home sales).
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
For this reason, database marketing has evolved to be called customer relationship management (CRM). CRM uses the specific information about individual customers to create more effective marketing communications specific to them. For example, if you know that an individual customer has a ten-year-old child, you can target her with offers relevant to children in that age group, Or, if you know that the customer has bought Lunchables, you can send her a coupon to stimulate a repeat purchase or to cross-sell a related product.
Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs that reward customers for continuing to purchase from the company make extensive use of CRM. For example, the retailer Brookstone uses its loyalty program to recognize customers who have purchased from its store, catalog, or Web site before (using an e-mail address, phone number, or membership number to recognize the customer). Brookstone records every sales transaction across every channel (whether at the store, online, or through a catalog) and rewards the customer with credits based on how much they have purchased from the company. Customers can apply these credits toward future purchases; this cements their relationship with the company.Connie Robbins Gentry, “Personal Recognition: Multichannel Retailers Market One-On-One to Loyal Shoppers,” Chain Store Age, January 2007, 78.
Behavioral Targeting
For better or worse, technological advances make it easier and easier for marketers to track us and our preferences very precisely. As we saw when we discussed target marketing, one hot trend is behavioral targeting, which refers to presenting people with advertisements based on their Internet use. For example, Microsoft combines personal data from the 263 million users of its free Hotmail e-mail service—the biggest in the world—with information it gains from monitoring their searches. When you sign up for Hotmail, the service asks you for personal information including your age, occupation, and address (though you’re not required to answer). If you use Microsoft’s search engine it calls Live Search, the company keeps a record of the words you search for and the results you clicked on. Microsoft’s behavioral targeting system will allow its advertising clients to send different ads to each person surfing the Web. For instance, if a twenty-five-year-old financial analyst living in a big city is comparing prices of cars online, BMW could send her an ad for a Mini Cooper. But it could send a forty-five-year-old suburban businessman with children who is doing the same search an ad for the X5 SUV.Aaron O. Patrick, “Microsoft Ad Push Is All about You: ‘Behavioral Targeting’ Aims to Use Customer Preferences to Hone Marketing Pitches,” Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2006, B3; Brian Steinberg, “Next Up on Fox: Ads That Can Change Pitch,” Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2005, B1; Bob Tedeschi, “Every Click You Make, They’ll Be Watching You,” New York Times Online, April 3, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/03/business/03ecom.html (February 10, 2009); David Kesmodel, “Marketers Push Online Ads Based on Your Surfing Habits,” Wall Street Journal on the Web, April 5, 2005, http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111202090636790858,00.html? mod=mm_hs_advertising (February 10, 2009).
Going a step further, CBS recently announced that it is testing a system that customizes the ads you’ll see on your cell phone based on your location. Its CBS Mobile unit is teaming up with the social networking service Loopt, which allows its subscribers to track participating friends and family on their mobile phones.Laura M. Holson, “In CBS Test, Mobile Ads Find Users,” New York Times Online, February 6, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/technology/06mobile.html (accessed February 10, 2009). In the (near?) future, you might well find ads popping up on your cell phone from stores you are literally walking past on the street. Yes, they are watching you…
Dig Deeper
A 2006 survey found that 57 percent of the consumers it polled say they are willing to provide demographic information in exchange for a personalized online experience. And three-quarters of those involved in an online social network felt that this process would improve their experience because it would serve to introduce them to others who share their tastes and interests. However, a majority still express concern about the security of their personal data online. “Consumers Willing to Trade Off Privacy for Electronic Personalization,” Marketing Daily, http://www.mediapost.com (accessed January 23, 2007).
How big a problem is this—and are consumers getting more or less concerned about potential invasions of privacy as behavioral targeting strategies proliferate? How do you feel about sharing your online behavior with advertisers?
Key Takaway
Advertisers have many tools to include in the promotional mix they design for a client; these include sales promotions, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing. No one tool is perfect; each has strengths and weaknesses, and often the tools are most effective when they’re combined. For example, an ad campaign for a new movie can be paired with a sales promotion in partnership with a retailer—like when Burger King featured its “Which Spidey Suits You?” scratch-and-win game pieces on specially marked menu items.
EXERCISES
1. List and describe each of the elements of the promotional mix.
2. Identify which of the sales promotion tools can be personalized and customized, which reward customers for frequent patronage, and which reward distributors for sales performance.
3. Define public relations and demonstrate how marketers can use PR to meet communication objectives.
4. Explain the importance of “impressions” in gaining publicity.
5. Explain the role played by personal selling in the promotional mix.
6. Describe the role of direct marketing in increasing an organization’s promotion return on investment (ROI).
7. Discuss how database marketing can be used to further promotional mix objectives. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/09%3A_Choose_Your_Communication_Weapons_-_SSK_Decides_Upon_a_Creative_Strategy_and_Media_Tactics/9.03%3A_Elements_of_the_Promotional_Mix_-_The_Advertiser%27s_.txt |
Learning Objectives
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Create a promotional plan by following the suggested execution steps.
2. Describe how small businesses can use integrated or cross-channel promotional planning to meet their objectives.
Like a traditional advertising strategy, before you craft an integrated strategy, it’s important to be clear about what you hope to achieve, how much you can afford to spend to achieve it, and what the promotion will say.
What, Who, Where—and How Much?
We have to be able to answer these four basic questions before we move forward:
• Objectives for the promotion: What measurable change do you wish to achieve?
• Budget: How much do you intend to spend?
• Messaging strategy: What do you plan to say? Who is the target of the message?
• Media strategy: Which channels do you plan to use?
An integrated promotional plan needs to address these four questions. To see how this works in the real world, let’s look at how Kellogg’s developed such a plan for its Special K cereal brand. First, the company set sales objectives, which included targets for existing products as well as for new launches. Then, Kellogg’s promotion team worked with its ad agency to define the messaging strategy. The focus was on losing weight and maintaining that weight loss by using Special K products. Then, the question was how to implement the strategy and how to allocate the client’s promotional budget to each part of the plan. The team divided the campaign into a series of initiatives timed to different seasons, and it earmarked a specific amount to spend on each initiative:
• The campaign started with a “Special K Challenge” to lose six pounds in two weeks. This part of the campaign drew in new customers to the brand. The campaign launched to coincide with New Year’s resolutions to lose weight.
• In spring, the agency launched a new campaign it called “Are You Beach Ready?” This campaign featured a beach towel and bag as a premium.
• The third campaign in the series began in the fall, this time with a “Drop a Jean Size!” theme, giving customers a free pair of jeans in an instant-win sweepstakes when their weight loss goal was achieved.
• In winter, Special K urged consumers to lose the pounds with a free-in-mail personal training DVD.
• Throughout the year, coupons were put onto Special K packages. The coupons boosted multiple purchases. Print ads in publications targeting women (fashion and parenting magazines) and TV commercials during programs with high female viewership supported ongoing brand awareness.
The integrated campaign worked well: Special K saw growth across all of its product lines, with double-digit growth for the brand for the year. Special K exceeded its targets for existing products as well as new products. “Integration is the key to consumer engagement,” said Marta Cyhan, Kellogg’s VP-worldwide promotions. “The goal of promotion is to build the brand while motivating consumer interaction.”Kathleen M. Joyce, “Motivating Out of the Box.” Promo, November 1, 2006, n.p.
Video Spotlight
Russell Stevens Discusses Integration
(click to see video)
Russell Stevens emphasizes that clients and agencies have to not only embrace but also organizationally execute integration. Silos are not unique to agencies; often clients aren’t set up to handle this kind of synergy.
Raisin’ Awareness: How the CRMB Executed Its Plan
Now that we’ve looked at all the elements in turn, let’s put it all together to see the execution of an integrated marketing campaign. We’ll use the example of the California Raisin Marketing Board (CRMB), whose goal is to promote California raisins.
Set the Objectives
The first step was to set the objectives for the campaign. The target audience was women with children at home. The CRMB began with research, which showed that moms—and adults in general—were aware of health-related issues but felt they were too busy to always eat healthy foods. The CRMB could capitalize on this opportunity to promote raisins as a healthy, easy snack for moms and kids alike. With this objective in mind, the CRMB set three specific goals for the campaign:
1. To create a personality for raisins that would appeal to the target audience
2. To generate excitement among trade partners (food service operators, manufacturers, supermarkets) to offer raisins and raisin-based products
3. To raise awareness and demand for raisins among the target audience
The CRMB hired ad agency MeringCarson to design an ad campaign. MeringCarson developed different concepts and then tested these concepts through focus group research. The research revealed that the most effective campaign was one that spoke to the target audience as women, not just mothers. “One campaign in particular featuring serene images of women consuming raisins as a part of their daily lives struck a responsive chord,” said Greg Carson, partner and Creative Director of MeringCarson. “Consumers loved the use of peaceful colors and imagery and the messages of health and empowerment embodied in the ads.”
Define and Execute
With the concepts and copy strategy complete, CRMB next devised the integrated brand promotion plan, which included print, online, PR, and sweepstakes.
• The print campaign included ads in women’s magazines as well as trade publications aimed at foodservice, industrial, and retail sectors.
• The online campaign included the launch of http://www.LoveYourRaisins.com using the same artwork as the print ads and providing additional information (like recipes and nutrition facts) as well as a free newsletter that provides timely seasonal recipes using raisins.
• Sweepstakes included a back-to-school sweepstakes that consumers can enter at http://www.LoveYourRaisins.com to win a three-night, two-day trip to a major theme park in Florida or California for a family of four. Other sweepstakes included a weekend spa getaway at Miramonte Resort and Spa, along with a free on-the-go bag featuring the advertising artwork and filled with a plush California raisins character, California raisin samples, a compact mirror from the spa, relaxation lotion, and a refrigerator magnet to keep raisins top of mind.
• The public relations campaign featured Valerie Waters, a celebrity fitness trainer, who acted as a spokesperson for California raisins during her satellite and radio media tour. Each sweepstakes was announced by a press release. Press releases aimed at trade publications discussed the health benefits of raisins and announced industry news such as CRMB’s sponsorship of new raisin pie categories in the American Pie Council’s Crisco National Pie Championships.Kim Bedwell, “Consumer Marketing: California Raisins Launch New Campaign,” Agri Marketing 44, no. 9 (November–December 2006): 37.
While registering for the sweepstakes, moms could get a premium such as a free California Raisin lunch bag filled with a California Raisin plush toy; California Raisin snack packs, water bottle, and magnet; and tips from Valerie Waters.
In Chapter 13 you will see msnbc.com’s fully integrated and launched campaign.
Video Spotlight
Danielle Tracy Discusses Her View of PR
(click to see video)
Danielle Tracy is in charge of the msnbc.com public relations efforts. She discusses the collaborative relationship she has with her colleagues at SS+K and why she refers to herself as a generalist rather than a PR person.
Integrated Campaigns for Small Businesses
How does a small business, say one that has less than six figures to spend on an ad campaign, advertise successfully against competitors with \$20 million to spend annually? The point is not how much you spend, but how well you spend it on a set of well-coordinated marketing communications.
Pool Resources with Associations and Loyal Customers
One way to extend the reach of a small budget is to pool resources through a trade association. For example, small whiskey distilleries pool their ad money through the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Similarly, the California Raisin Board is an association of raisin growers throughout California; we’ve already seen how effective this group is. Using word of mouth is another key strategy: loyal customers become de facto brand ambassadors who spread the word to others. Third, develop Web initiatives that allow people to interact with the brand. Small companies rely on creative ideas to generate curiosity and conversation that will draw free publicity.
Go Small and Local
Another low-budget option is to sponsor local or niche events. Red Bull energy drink drove its growth by sponsoring niche extreme sports that traditional big-budget corporate sponsors ignored. Finally, companies that make products can consider conducting local tours of their factories or facilities as a way to introduce new customers to their products, become a tourist destination, and build publicity around that.
Key Takaway
A strategy requires several pieces: First, set objectives for the promotion—and be sure to specify measurable changes you hope to achieve so you can determine how successful your strategy is. Second, set a budget (be realistic). Third, devise a messaging strategy where you decide what you want to say and to whom. Finally, identify your promotional mix, being sure it fits the target customer you’ve decided you want to reach (don’t just pick the media you’re used to, or the ones that are “sexy,” if these aren’t the best fit to your customer). Even small businesses can implement an IMC strategy, but they have to be more creative when they harness local communications platforms to tell their story.
EXERCISES
1. List and describe the integrated marketing communications planning steps used in the California Raisins promotional plan.
2. Explain how small businesses can use integrated marketing communications planning to enhance their promotional planning ability. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/09%3A_Choose_Your_Communication_Weapons_-_SSK_Decides_Upon_a_Creative_Strategy_and_Media_Tactics/9.04%3A_Create_the_Promotional_Plan.txt |
Tie it All Together
Now that you have read this chapter, you should be able to determine how to choose the best media weapons to solve communication and advertising problems:
• You can identify the integrated marketing communications (IMC) perspective and comment on its usefulness.
• You can list some ways advertising agencies use the integrated marketing communications approach.
• You can describe SS+K partner Joe Kessler’s thoughts on the evolution of integrated marketing communications and media choices in the marketplace.
• You can identify and describe the tools of the promotional mix.
• You can characterize the various forms of sales promotion and how they can be best used to solve problems.
• You can describe the purpose of public relations and characterize the tools used to implement PR objectives.
• You can discuss how personal selling can be used effectively in the promotional mix.
• You can compare and contrast direct marketing and database marketing as means to enhance relations between the company and its customers.
• You can create an IMC promotional plan by following the execution steps described in the chapter.
USE WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED
1. You may not be a NASCAR fan, but this fast-paced sport is hoping to catch your attention in the days ahead. NASCAR is an aggressive marketing and promotion organization (see http://www.nascar.com) with an ever-expanding fan base. This expanding fan base is changing the face of NASCAR and its races. Some say that a NASCAR event today is like going to a “celebrity night out.” Most NASCAR purists, on the other hand, believe that NASCAR is all about cars, cars, and more cars. After seven years of research and design experimentation, NASCAR has unveiled its “Car of Tomorrow” and believes that this speedy but safer car will help advance the popularity of NASCAR even more in the next decade. Considering how NASCAR must appeal to loyal fans and find new ones, design an integrated marketing communication (IMC) promotional plan that would help to spread NASCAR’s message about its new car to its markets. Be sure to specify the various elements of the promotional mix that you would recommend to NASCAR. Do research on NASCAR and its rise in the sports world before designing your IMC plan.
2. Integrated marketing communications (IMC) help advertisers attack communication problems from a variety of points of view. This multimedia approach has been applied to communication by many advertising agencies over the past few years. One challenge for IMC planners, however, is the U.S. Hispanic market. Broadly defined, the Hispanic market includes those of Spanish, South American, Mexican, and Caribbean descent. As the number one minority in the United States, Hispanics comprise a market that is diverse with respect to preferences and lifestyles. Many in this market still speak Spanish (or native country dialect) as their primary language.
Investigate the Hispanic market by going to www.demographics.com or a favorite search engine. After you have reviewed marketing and advertising efforts toward this target market, propose an IMC promotional mix that you believe would be ideal for carrying a shopping mall’s message to Hispanics. The basic message would be “Come to the Mall—We’re Here to Serve Your Needs.” The shopping mall believes that as they attract Hispanics, sales and profits will increase. Discuss your promotional mix plan with peers.
DIGITAL NATIVES
When you think of Hershey’s, you think of chocolate, right? You might be surprised to know that industry professionals see Hershey’s as a marketing and advertising machine. This is somewhat surprising, given that Hershey’s shunned advertising of any kind for years. Today, however, Hershey’s has embraced a multifaceted approach to its communications, marketing, and advertising. One of these facets is its interactive Web site (see http://www.hersheys.com). After reviewing the basic structure of the Hershey’s Web site, click on the “promotions” button on the opening page. Once you have done this, you will see all the current Hershey’s promotions. Review each of these promotions. Take each highlighted promotion and describe what you believe to be: (a) the primary market for the promotion, (b) the promotional mix tools that would be most useful to the promotion, and (c) an assessment of Hershey’s chances of success for the promotion. Discuss your findings with peers.
AD-VICE
1. Assume that you are a proponent of using integrated marketing communications to solve communications problems. Prepare a short two-page paper that could be used to support your position. Next, looking at an integrated media approach from the perspective of someone who advocates a traditional mass media approach for solving communication problems, attack the ideas you just formulated. Summarize the arguments against integrated campaigns. Discuss your findings with peers.
2. Assume that you have just been given a \$10 million budget to spend on sales promotional tools. The purpose of your budget is to convince consumers to begin to use reusable grocery bags when shopping for food. This environmental initiative is favored by most grocery chains. The bags (if purchased) would be sold for one dollar at grocery stores. Outline your plan for changing consumer preferences in this area. Be sure to consider all of the sales promotional alternatives as you formulate your plan. Designate how much money should be spent for your designated tools. Share your ideas with peers.
3. Guerrilla marketing is becoming more popular as costs of promotions continue to increase. Public relations (PR) specialists have learned to use this unique form of marketing because of its low cost and highly creative nature. Your task is to design a guerrilla marketing effort that will introduce a new flavored bottled water to the Asian market in San Francisco. Initial distributors would be convenience stores, street vendors, and neighborhood vending machines. Be specific in what you would plan to do and how much you think it might cost. Share your plan with peers.
4. Many universities and colleges have turned to database marketing to help target student populations. Describe how your university could use database marketing to reach potential freshmen students. Be sure to indicate how these students would be found and eventually reached by the university’s or college’s efforts.
ETHICAL DILEMMA
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is an advocacy organization whose intent is to encourage the ethical use of direct marketing to solve advertising and communication problems. The association’s task is not easy, given the ethical tension between members of the industry and consumer advocacy groups. Many of the complaints about invasion of privacy, high pressure tactics, and false information are directed against the direct marketing industry. Visit the DMA Web site at http://www.the-dma.org. Examine how the DMA addresses ethics complaints and advocates for the industry. What ethical issues do you think were adequately addressed by the DMA? What ethical issues do you think still need to be resolved? How would you rate the organization’s effectiveness based on what you have seen and read? Discuss your findings with your peers. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/09%3A_Choose_Your_Communication_Weapons_-_SSK_Decides_Upon_a_Creative_Strategy_and_Media_Tactics/9.05%3A_Exercises.txt |
Advertisers like msnbc.com face tough choices. An ever-growing portfolio of media offers the promise of reaching different consumers in different contexts and at different times. The tools available to us range from an 8.5-by-11-inch ad tacked to your classroom wall by one of your fellow students who wants to sell his used textbooks (good thing we don’t need those anymore in our new “Flat World!”) to a high-tech mystery game where thousands of people text, IM, or Twitter one another with clues to help each other figure out the message.
SS+K and msnbc.com were ready to start pairing the objectives of the campaign with tactics they would use to achieve these, so they engaged a partner agency called The Media Kitchen to help. The Media Kitchen is the media arm of creative shop Kirshenbaum Bond and Partners, which is owned by the holding company MDC Partners (which also owns the innovative ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky). The basic philosophy at The Media Kitchen is to evaluate the research and information about the target audience—the news consumers that SS+K has dubbed News Explorers—and then decide which vehicles fit best. The first thing TMK had to do was to obtain demographic and media usage information about the News Explorers in order to understand where SS+K could find them. Once the agency understood more about which media these people relied upon, its planner would be able to coordinate the campaign’s messages and make media choices to ensure that the right people would see or hear these messages. After all, if an ad plays in the forest and nobody hears it, is it an ad?
Choosing the right media mix means understanding the primary advantages and disadvantages of each media format, from magazines to IMs. Media planning is the process of selecting which media vehicle to use, as well as when and where. Before we talk about how we mix and match media to meet our campaign objectives, let’s review the options and discuss some of the pros and cons of each.
10.02: Traditional Advertising Media
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Define media mix and media planning.
2. List and characterize the various forms of traditional advertising media.
3. Compare and contrast print media versus broadcast media.
4. Describe the usefulness of out-of-home media, sponsorships, and direct-response media for carrying advertising messages.
Newspapers
Information-dense ads. Newspapers are well suited to deliver complex messages like pharmaceutical ads. The vehicle lets the advertiser present in-depth information at less cost than would be possible on TV or in linear media like radio or quick-glance billboards. What’s more, readers are used to getting in-depth information from the newspaper, so the ad fits into that style. The print ad provides room to present the information and provide all the supporting reasons. Also, the consumer can keep the print ad for future use or reference.
Local. Newspapers work well for local reach—you can target newspapers by region. This also lets you tie the ad to action. The local ad can tell consumers exactly where and when to get the product.
Declining and aging readership. On the other hand, newspaper circulation continues to fall as existing readers age and younger consumers choose to get their news from the Internet. Daily circulation decreased 2.1 percent and Sunday circulation fell 3.1 percent, according to the spring 2007 report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Magazines
Specificity. Magazines can be more finely targeted because many of them address readers who share very specific interests, such as Cat Fancy, Guns & Ammo, or Cosmopolitan. Others attract a well-defined demographic readership; for example, airlines’ in-flight magazines boast an affluent audience. The median household income for adults who read United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine or American Airlines’ American Way magazine is \$147,000, according to Mendelsohn Media Research. The average reader of these magazines is a forty-five-year-old highly educated businessperson—someone very desirable for advertisers of technology, travel, and real estate products to reach. There’s a good chance many of these travelers will pick up the magazine at some point during the flight.Matthew Schwartz, “In-Flight Magazines Take Off for B-To-B; Advertisers Take Opportunity to Reach Captive Audience,” B to B, January 15, 2007, 3.
National reach. Whereas newspapers are local, magazines have national or international reach. Some magazines, such as Time, also print regional editions to support regional demographic differences and more targeted advertising.
Multiple impressions per copy. Magazines last longer than newspapers and are often passed from person to person (magazines often cite this number of pass-along impressions to justify charging higher prices to advertisers). The targeted nature of magazines, the good visual quality of their images, and the high credibility of the medium means that the ads are likely to reach and influence the right audience.
Long lead time. On the other hand, the production and distribution schedules of magazines require months of lead time. A monthly magazine slated to stay on newsstands through the end of December may have been printed in early November with a deadline for ad copy in September. This reduces the medium’s flexibility to respond to market changes.
High cost. A general-audience magazine typically charges more than \$100,000 for a full-page four-color ad. Costs can grow if the advertiser wants guaranteed placement (e.g., near an article with the same theme as the product) and even more for ads on the back cover or directly inside the cover page. Moreover, advertisers often need to buy ads in multiple magazines to reach a wide audience. Despite the costs, ad spending in consumer magazines increased 4.6 percent in 2006.Gregg Cebrzynski, “And Now a Definitive Statement on the Future of Marketing and Media: Who Really Knows?” Nation’s Restaurant News, April 9, 2007, 14.
SS+K Spotlight
When it came time to launch the msnbc.com branding campaign, the team strongly considered magazine print media.
Network TV
Mass audience. TV attracts mass audiences, and network TV is the highest-exposure medium every hour of the day, according to “The Middletown Media Studies: The Media Day,” a study of consumer media habits by Ball State’s Center for Media Design. At least 30 percent of the study’s participants were exposed to TV programming during the day, and at times as many as 70 percent were watching. The study also found that consumers watch TV and use the Internet more than ten times as often as they read newspapers and magazines.Gregg Cebrzynski, “Taking on the Media Circus,” Nation’s Restaurant News, July 9, 2007, 33.
Very creative visual medium. TV supports dynamic content and creative storytelling. Advertisers can demonstrate the product and show the faces of the characters in the ad to convey both emotion and information.
Video Highlight
(click to see video)
This MacBook Air commercial creatively demonstrates the unique benefit of the product.
The leading medium and growing revenues. Ad bloggers and ad experts have predicted the demise of traditional TV spots for years. Yet TV ad spending rose 5.3 percent in 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence, and accounted for nearly 44 percent of all advertising spending in 2006. In addition, Nielsen Media Research reported that consumers spent more time watching conventional TV in 2006 than they did in 2005. They increased their viewing by twenty minutes a week. “Some people assume that in this digital era, somehow TV is not as important as it once was,” said Advertising Age editor Jonah Bloom. “Nothing could be further from the truth. Mass audiences are harder than ever to get together.…TV is set to become more measurable and even more relevant and even more important in the marketing landscape.”Quoted in “What to Expect from This Year’s Upfront,” Advertising Age, May 14, 2007, S-18.
Aging viewers. On the other hand, younger consumers spend less time watching TV, so this medium is steadily aging. Consumers younger than thirty-five spend more time on the Internet than they do watching TV, according to a study by New York-based Jupiter Research. This trend is only going to increase as more video content from sites like Hulu, YouTube, and iTunes migrates to online formats.
High cost. TV advertisements have high production and placement costs. A thirty-second ad on a popular prime-time network program can cost \$250,000 each time it runs. Companies also spend more to create, produce, and pretest TV ads. A-list celebrity spokespeople and high-end special effects add to the costs. It can cost 350,000 to create a professional thirty-second spot, although small business can often create ads for much less.
Ad-skipping. Whether they take a bathroom break, hit the skip button on their TiVo, or turn to the Internet for a few minutes, consumers pay less and less attention to commercial breaks in the programs. Expensive thirty-second ads may be playing to almost no one. To combat this, advertisers are turning to branded entertainment such as inserting the product into the scenery, dialog, or plot of the show. We’ll talk about that important new trend later.
Cable/Satellite TV
Cable offers specificity. Whereas network TV attracts a mass audience, cable TV lets advertisers pick demographic segments. Companies can target women with ads on the Oxygen or Lifetime cable networks. Well-heeled male audiences tune in the Golf channel while a younger male demographic hangs out on channels such as Sci-Fi. The Food Network and Travel Channel represent natural choices for advertisers in those respective arenas.
Local distribution through cable. Cable providers offer more targeted opportunities than do the national networks or even local broadcasters. Cable operators sell ad slots for local ads that can be targeted to specific sections of a city or even to specific neighborhoods. This lets the advertiser pay for the media impressions that matter.
Radio
Breadth. Radio reaches 232 million listeners during the week, according to figures from Arbitron’s RADAR 93 June 2007 Radio Listening Estimates. Drive-time radio aimed at commuters remains popular with marketers. Conventional radio (as opposed to satellite radio and other subscription audio) continues to be the medium of choice for 75 percent of all drivers.
Local. Smaller, local retailers use radio to keep their name top of mind. For example, Bishop’s Promart hardware store advertises on five radio stations in its Ithaca, New York, market area. On talk radio and easy-listening stations, the retailer runs ads it targets to more upscale customers and advertises grills and heaters. The store runs ads for house painting materials, however, only on country radio, because of its generally lower-income audience. “The upscale customer is probably going to hire out their painting. So we try to focus on people who are going to be doing it themselves,” explained Bishop’s Promart owner Forest Putney. Putney also gets involved in occasional promotional events, such as the annual backyard giveaway hosted by one of the local radio stations. He says it is a good opportunity to advertise in the community to maximize name recognition.Quoted in “Radio Ads Generate the Right Customer Frequency for Bishop’s,” Hardware Retailing 193, no. 4 (October 2007): 26.
Cost effective. Research has found that the best radio ads can have as much impact as the average TV ad, yet at a fraction of the cost.
Shrinking listener base. Although millions do listen to radio, the number is not growing. Cell phones and iPods compete for the ears of radio listeners, and other listeners are switching to commercial-free satellite radio. Then, too, even when people are listening to ads, they may not be paying attention.
Second-class citizen. Another disadvantage of radio is that ad agencies see it as a medium of secondary importance and often assign their junior people to work on the campaigns. “There is a crisis in radio creativity within the world of full-service agencies,” said Stephen Donovan, the managing director of radio agency Radioville. “There tends to be an inherent snobbery towards the medium. Unless you’re lucky enough to have someone who loves radio working on your brief, it’s more likely it will get dumped with the junior creatives.”Quoted in “Is There a Crisis in Radio Creativity?” Campaign, March 30, 2007, 19.
SS+K Spotlight
SS+K’s client My Rich Uncle used radio as part of a campaign to get parents to think about other options when they consider taking out a student loan. They intercepted the target audience of parents during the time period when students apply for college and for the loans to pay for it (assuming they get in).
Audio Clip
My Rich Uncle “Lost and Found” Radio Spot
http://app.wistia.com/embed/medias/179900cc9a
The spot “Lost and Found” ran in over twenty markets across the United States as part of a campaign that ran from June through September 2008.
Out-of-Home
Billboards, bus stops, and point-of-sale displays provide a way to reach people as they go about their daily lives. And advertisers keep finding new places, such as ads that cover entire buses, go on airline tray tables, cover bathroom walls, and shine down on sidewalks. New technologies such as computer-driven flat-screen displays now enable dynamic, interactive ads that respond to passersby. Place-based media like The Airport Channel transmit messages to captive audiences in public places, such as the waiting areas in doctors’ offices, hospitals, and airports.
Place-based video screens are now in thousands of shops, offices, and health clubs across the country, including stores like CompUSA, Best Buy, Borders, Foot Locker, and Target. The Wal-Mart TV Network has more than 125,000 screens in 2,850 Wal-Mart stores, and patients who wait in over 10,800 doctors’ offices watch medical programming and ads. NBC Universal has its shows on screens installed in office building elevators and on United Airlines flights.Louise Story, “Away From Home, TV Ads Are Inescapable,” New York Times Online, March 2, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/business/media/02adco.html (accessed February 24, 2008).
As traditional advertising canvases like TV and newspapers get painted in, agencies search for new places to put their messages. It seems as if no space is beyond reach; in recent years we’ve seen ads pop up in front of public urinals, on rockets, imprinted on flowers, and even on sheep (yes, one enterprising company in the Netherlands puts ad messages on blankets that adorn grazing sheep). In the spirit of “advertising abhors a vacuum,” now several airlines fill the white spaces on their boarding passes with ads that include coupons and dining recommendations.Michael Bush, “Airlines Stamping Ads onto Boarding Passes: Messages Will Include Coupons, Local Restaurant Picks,” Advertising Age, July 15, 2008, www.adage.com/article?article_id=129637 (accessed July 15, 2008).
And now, some retailers can even follow you around the store to deliver more up-close and personal messages: A new technology called RFID (radio frequency identification) tracks customers as they make their way through the aisles. So a shopper might receive a beep to remind him he just passed his family’s favorite peanut butter.Jeremy Wagstaff, “Eyes on You, the Shopper,” Wall Street Journal Online, July 31, 2003, http://www.wsj.com (accessed July 28, 2008). What’s the next frontier? At least one sighting has already been reported for an ad at a cemetery—for a dating service.http://dailyyeah.com/tag/graveyard-advertising (accessed July 26, 2008).
Highly contextual. Out-of-home ads can be situated for maximum impact in terms of both whom the ad reaches and when it reaches them. To find health-conscious consumers, Jennie-O targeted health clubs. The company put ads in twenty-five hundred health clubs across the United States, locating them near water fountains and in locker rooms. Attention-getting headlines included “Make your pizza lean,” encouraging the use of turkey. The ads put the brand in front of exercising Americans—who frequently go to the grocery store after their workout.
Reach. Outdoor ads can be used to visually saturate an area at a relatively low price. 1-800-Flowers blanketed major metropolitan areas with ads for Valentine bouquets. “You couldn’t be in a city like New York without seeing it,” said Steven Jarmon, vice president of brand communication and partnership marketing for 1-800-Flowers.com.Quoted in “The Results Issue,” Brandweek, July 23, 2007, 28.
Frequency. Outdoor campaigns “interact with so many consumers at numerous touch-points during the day, which is important,” according to Jodi Senese, executive vice president of marketing at CBS Outdoor, New York. A month-long billboard might provide more than twenty exposures for daily commuters.Quoted in “The Results Issue,” Brandweek, July 23, 2007, 28.
Short exposure duration. Unfortunately, many forms of outdoor advertising only catch a few seconds of attention as people drive or pass by the ads. Such ads need a simple, engaging image and just a few words of copy. For example, 1-800-Flowers ads for “Happy Hour Bouquets” featured flowers arranged in vases shaped like margarita or martini glasses. The ads were so visual that they made an immediate impact. Results: Happy Hour sales grew 274 percent during the Valentine’s Day period, compared to Christmas (which is the third-largest selling season for flowers), prompting CEO Jim McCann to call the outdoor effort “[our] most successful floral campaign ever.”Quoted in “The Results Issue,” Brandweek, July 23, 2007, 28.
Uncertain (and unappreciative) audience. The actual audience of out-of-home advertising is hard to measure and hard to segment. The people who see an ad on the side of an urban bus might be homeless or they might be millionaires. Moreover, some people dislike out-of-home advertising, feeling that it creates visual clutter or gives them no escape from commercials.
Sponsorships
Some companies generate publicity by sponsoring an event, team, or sports arena. The company provides funding or some other material help to the event (such as food) in exchange for being mentioned as the event’s sponsor during the event and in the promotional material about the event.
Large exposure. Sponsorship provides large audience exposure and repeat brand impressions. Coors’ sponsorship of the NFL guarantees that the brand is mentioned numerous times during each game, along with a logo or brand image.
Favorability by association. The Coors deal lets the brewer use all NFL and team logos in its marketing. This transfers the goodwill of the fans from their sport to Coors. Coors hopes that fans will support the beer the way the company supports the sport.
Lack of messaging. Although sponsorship reminds viewers of the brand, it offers little opportunity to convey detailed brand messages or to present a unique selling proposition (defined below).
High cost. In 2005, Coors Brewing Co. signed a deal to pay \$500 million over five years to be the official sponsor of the NFL, a 67 percent increase from its previous deal.
Clutter of competing sponsorships. Coors might sponsor the NFL, but Pepsi’s name might be on the stadium while one of the teams is sponsored by Gatorade. Coors is the official sponsor of the league, but rival Anheuser-Busch has individual deals with twenty-eight teams at an estimated cost of \$30 million annually. In other cases, the event sells so many sponsorships that no single sponsor gets much play.
In addition, there is always the pitfall of ambush marketing: You pay a premium to be an “official sponsor” of an event, but your competitors advertise there as well and give the impression that they also are underwriting it. This is a big issue at the Olympics; for example, the 2008 Beijing Games had twelve global sponsors who together paid almost a billion dollars for bragging rights. China tried to crack down on other companies that used the five-ring logo or sold unauthorized versions of the mascot. These ambushes have a long history: at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, Nike placed advertisements near the stadiums and established a “Nike village” even though it was not an official sponsor. Visa Inc. sponsored the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer; American Express ran a campaign saying Americans did not need a “visa” to travel to Norway.Robert Woodward, “Olympic Sponsors Steeled for Ambush,” Reuters, June 4, 2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2975740220080604 (accessed July 26, 2008).
Direct Response
Direct response methods are forms of communication addressed to specific recipients so that the sender can track whether or not the person took action after receiving the message.
Segmentation and customization. Extensive databases and lists mean that advertisers can pick who they want to contact and tailor the message to that group. Public and private commercial data sources let advertisers know and pick the audience. A direct marketer can know how much a consumer paid for their house (public land records), what kind of car they drive (motor vehicle records), and which clubs they belong to or charities they support (donor lists).
Immediacy. Direct response offers just that—people can respond directly to the advertisers’ pitch by returning a reply card, saying yes to a telemarketer, or clicking a link on an e-mail.
High cost per impression. Both direct mail and telemarketing have a high cost per impression due to physical production and labor costs, respectively.
Intrusiveness. Many consumers feel inundated by direct marketing and resent it.
Popular forms of direct response include:
Telemarketing. Although the telephone offers the most interactive channel to reach consumers, many despise it for its intrusiveness. The fact that there are over 149 million phone numbers on the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry, which has only existed since 2003, shows the breadth of the public’s dislike for getting unwanted sales calls in the middle of dinner.
Direct mail. Direct mail is tangible—people can hold it, interact with it, even smell it. New printing techniques support customization. Advertisers can also include physical premiums such as fridge magnets or software disks. But a full mailbox may mean that much of it is simply thrown away unopened. Worse, consumers are beginning to see mail as wasteful and bad for the environment.
E-mail. E-mail supports customization—a company can tailor each e-mail to each recipient. For example, an airline can notify an individual customer about airfare deals from her home town. E-mail, however, suffers from the taint of spam. Nine out of ten e-mail messages are spam (unsolicited e-mail sent to multiple addresses), creating a different kind of pollution. Increasingly, consumers want tougher action to eliminate spam.“Direct Marketing: Quality Replaces Quantity,” Marketing Week, August 30, 2007, 33. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 is a step in eliminating unwanted spam, and marketers must abide by the rules laid out in that act, including supplying an opt-out button, relevant subject lines, a physical address, and a warning if content is explicit.
Dig Deeper
General Motors is known for its TV ads and NFL sponsorship, but it also makes use of direct mail. For example, GM sent out five million personalized cards by mail to customers who’d bought GM cars between 1998 and 2004. The list of customers was generated from dealer databases. The card gave customers a \$10 credit toward any needed repair. The campaign generated \$15 million in revenue solely from the coupon-generated visits. On top of that was the incremental benefit: when people are getting their car repaired, they wander around the showroom and look at the new models. So the secondary effect of the cards is that one in a hundred people may decide to buy a new car while getting their old one repaired.“The Results Issue,” Brandweek, July 23, 2007, 28.
Key Takaway
Traditional media include print, TV, radio, out-of-home, sponsorships, and direct mail. Each platform is useful depending on a campaign’s objectives and budget. For example, network television lets you speak to many people at once (though not quite as many as in the past), but you need deep pockets to use it.
EXERCISES
1. List and characterize the traditional advertising media.
2. Compare and contrast the print media against the broadcast media.
3. Describe the usefulness of out-of-home, sponsorships, and direct-response media in reaching target markets. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/10%3A_Plan_and_Buy_Media_-_SSK_Chooses_the_Right_Media_for_the_Client's_New_Branding_Message/10.01%3A_Chapter_Introduction.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. List and characterize the new media forms.
2. Explain how word-of-mouth (WOM), viral, and buzz marketing can be used by advertisers.
3. Discuss how marketers and advertisers can use virtual worlds to bring messages to consumers.
4. Review how social media and social networking sites can be used to advocate brands and brand messages.
It was very important to SS+K and msnbc.com to explore nontraditional and new ways to reach the News Explorer. The msnbc.com target audience is very tech savvy, so aligning the msnbc.com brand with the latest forms of communication was critical. The agency knew that it had to embrace new media in addition to traditional platforms.
New media covers a spectrum of nontraditional methods to communicate with customers. These fall into two categories. First, new communication channels are new technologies (e.g., the Internet, cell phones, and computer games) that support the potential for advertising. Second, new promotional techniques let companies move away from the traditional “advertisers speak, consumers listen” model.
Online Advertising
Online advertising includes a spectrum of text, still-image, animated graphics, streaming-video, and interactive advertising on the Web. Advertisers create their ad and then find a Web site or service to host the ad. The ad might show on the Web site as a separate pop-up window or as a banner embedded in the content of the site or running down the side of a Web page. The site might display the ad at certain times of day, a certain number of times, or in certain contexts. For example, search ads let advertisers associate their ad with the keywords that Web users enter into search engines like Google and Yahoo!.
Video Highlight
Online Paid Search Advertising; Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
(click to see video)
This video provides an overview of paid search and how it works.
Online advertising is relatively inexpensive, which means that small businesses can afford it. However, search ads can get pricey because bidding for coveted keywords can be fierce. For example, asbestos lawsuit attorneys bid \$150 for each click-through from searches for the term “mesothelioma.”
Stickiness—keeping consumers at your site—is an important component of good design. For example, the SciFi Channel keeps fans of Battlestar Galactica engaged by letting fans see the inner workings of the show. Executive producer Ronald Moore posts concept art, scripts, and outtakes on the Web site. “From the beginning, I wanted a very open policy; let’s put as much on the Internet as we can,” he said. Moore supports viewers who want to download parts of the show, right down to letting fans edit their own versions of the show.Quoted in “Inside the Mind of a Cyclon,” Fast Company, November 2007, 27.
Online ads support both specificity and tracking. “We can see what sites, pages, types of ads perform the best,” said Kathleen Cunningham, president of Advanced Marketing Strategies. She has found that the best way to use the Internet for client companies is to get e-mail addresses volunteered by customers of IKEA, for instance, and then put out occasional e-mails to them about in-store deals. “The trick is to not bombard them with e-mails,” Cunningham said.Quoted in Mark Larson, “Digital Format Presents Rubik’s Cube of Challenges to Advertisers,” San Diego Business Journal, July 9, 2007, 14.
Unfortunately, online is a very fragmented media outlet due to the tens of millions of Web sites in existence. Although more and more consumers are spending more and more time online, their time is being subdivided, making it hard to reach a mass audience.
M-Commerce
Mobile commerce refers to the growing trend of reaching consumers through their cell phones and wireless PDAs. For example, Absolut brand vodka partnered with Free411, an ad-supported directory-assistance service. Free411 is just like the phone company’s service, except that it’s free. Each time the service’s forty-five thousand users called to get the number for a club or bar, they first heard a fifteen-second spot for Absolut’s new Pears vodka. Callers were then offered a drink recipe that would be text messaged to their cell phones to give to their bartender. Nearly two thousand callers said yes, which was roughly 4 percent of the total call volume. (That’s actually eight times the average response rate for such an offer.) The cost of the promotion was under \$50,000.“The Results Issue,” Brandweek, July 23, 2007, 28.
Cell phone advertising is still in its infancy in the United States, but it’s much more common in some other countries, especially those where a large number of people carry Web-enabled phones—in some parts of Europe this proportion is as high as three-fourths of the population. Some advertisers are skeptical about the future of m-commerce because they feel that many consumers will resist the practice of seeing a lot of ad messages clog up their phones. One recent survey reported that only 18 percent of American respondents said they were receptive to the idea of watching ads in exchange for free mobile content. But 37 percent of Europeans like the idea. And large numbers of respondents said they visited a Web site or requested more information about a product after seeing a mobile ad.Eric Pfanner, “Marketers Have Eyes on the ‘Third Screen,’” New York Times Online, March 22, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/business/media/22adco.html (accessed February 10, 2009).
The pace of cell phone advertising is likely to pick up as more people get used to the idea of accessing content (other than IMs) on their mobiles. Already, major phone companies including Verizon Communications and AT&T have signed deals to distribute programming—including Saturday Night Live clips and user-generated video—to cell phone customers along with ads to support this effort. Expect to see further integration of viewing platforms; even now AT&T is working on a system to coordinate digital purchases so that when a customer buys a movie on his laptop, it’s instantly available for streaming to his cell phone and on-demand on his TV.Amol Sharma, “Phone Giants Roll Out ‘Three Screen’ Strategy: Video Programming and Ads to be Served on TV, Cell Phones, Web,” Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2008, B7.
In addition to using cell phones to send broad-based ad messages, the coupon business is due for a radical makeover as mobile couponing takes off. Today cell phone users can sign up to receive mobile coupons that offer discounts on products ranging from CDs and DVDs to fast food. To cash in the coupons, consumers show their cell phone screen that displays the coupon to a store cashier. Virgin Megastores, Hollywood Video, Domino’s Pizza, and Quiznos Subs participate in this program, and about one million people have signed up for the service.Stephanie Kang, “Coupons Gain New Market on Cell Phones,” Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2007, B8.
Picture this scenario: you’re strolling down the street and as you pass a Starbucks your trusty phone beeps and invites you to stop in to receive a discounted Grande Vivanno Chocolate Banana smoothie. Sound far-fetched? For now, yes—but probably not for long. The exciting evolution of GPS technology creates the capability for advertisers to beam coupons to phone users depending on their location. In one early test of this method, Coupon CBS partnered with the social networking service Loopt, which already allows its subscribers to track participating friends. Ads appear on two Web sites tailored for mobile devices, CBS Mobile News and CBS Mobile Sports. People who choose to participate might see an ad from a business within a block or two of where they live.Laura M. Holson, “In CBS Test, Mobile Ads Find Users,” New York Times Online, February 6, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed February 6, 2008).
SS+K Spotlight
Melinda Moore
SS+K’s VP of Marketing from the Los Angeles office, Melinda Moore, talks about prospective mobile ideas for msnbc.com.
http://app.wistia.com/embed/medias/af2077461b
Melinda discusses mobile marketing.
Product Placement
In the 2008 season finale of CSI: NY one of the show’s characters asks the detectives to gather on a sophisticated videoconferencing system to discuss a shooting. But it wasn’t just any system—one of the other investigators elaborates, “She wants everybody on a TelePresence call.” This happens to be a system that Cisco sells—and it has a way of showing up prominently in TV shows, including 24 and Heroes, as well as in movies like You, Me and Dupree and I Am Legend.Stephanie Clifford, “Product Placements Acquire a Life of Their Own on Shows,” New York Times Online, July 14, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed July 14, 2008). Product placement, where a show’s story line incorporates a branded product, is a strategy to reach consumers on a traditional medium. This technique is now quite common in TV shows and movies, but it even pops up in Broadway shows and the occasional novel.
This practice is so commonplace (and profitable) now that it’s evolving into a new form of promotion we call branded entertainment, where advertisers showcase their products in longer-form narrative films instead of brief commercials. For example, SportsCenter on ESPN showed installments of “The Scout presented by Craftsman at Sears,” a six-minute story about a washed-up baseball scout who discovers a stunningly talented stadium groundskeeper.Nat Ives, “‘Advertainment’ Gains Momentum,” New York Times Online, April 21, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed July 28, 2008).
The inclusion of branded products in shows is not new; the first recorded instance dates to 1896, when an early movie shows a cart bearing the brand name Sunlight (a Lever Brothers brand) parked on a street.Stuart Elliott, “Greatest Hits of Product Placement,” New York Times Online, February 28, 2005, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed February 28, 2005). Perhaps the greatest product placement success story was Reese’s Pieces; sales jumped by 65 percent after the candy appeared in the film E.T.Benjamin M. Cole, “Products that Want to Be in Pictures,” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, March 5, 1985: 36; see also Stacy M. Vollmers and Richard W. Mizerski, “A Review and Investigation into the Effectiveness of Product Placements in Films,” in Proceedings of the 1994 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, ed. Karen Whitehill King (American Academy of Advertising, 1994), 97–102; Michael R. Solomon and Basil G. Englis, “Reality Engineering: Blurring the Boundaries between Marketing and Popular Culture,” Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising 16, no. 2 (Fall 1994): 1–18. As was the case with Reese’s Pieces, new products can get a huge boost if they happen to show up in a popular media vehicle (just ask all the authors whose books hit the bestseller list because Oprah recommended them). The startup accessories company Bag Borrow or Steal Inc. discovered this to its delight when the movie version of Sex and the City was released. Carrie Bradshaw’s assistant, played by actress Jennifer Hudson, admits to her that she “borrows” her pricey handbags from Bag Borrow or Steal instead of buying them.Simona Covel, “Bag Borrow or Steal Lands the Role of a Lifetime: Online Retailer Hopes to Profit from Mention in ‘Sex And The City,’” Wall Street Journal Online, May 28, 2008, Online.Wsj.Com/Article/Sb121184149016921095.Html?Mod=2_1567 (accessed May 28, 2008).
Getting a plug is nothing new. What is new, however, is that product placement has evolved from a practice of convenience (directors like to include actual products as props to enhance realism) to a deliberate and lucrative business practice. A typical placement deal between Staples and NBC illustrates how this works: when the office products retailer introduced a new paper-shredder called the MailMate in 2006, it engaged a company that specializes in placements to handle this part of its media strategy. The company made a deal with the producers of The Office to include the product in two episodes of the hit show. In one show, the character Kevin Malone shreds paper with the MailMate; in the second, the character Dwight Schrute leaves the company and takes a job at Staples. To emphasize the small size of the paper shredder, it sat on Kevin’s desk. To show how sturdy it is, he shredded his plastic credit card with the device. And the episode closed with Kevin shredding lettuce to make a salad; when a colleague asked where he got the salad, he replied, “Staples.”Stephanie Clifford, “Product Placements Acquire a Life of Their Own on Shows,” New York Times Online, July 14, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed July 14, 2008). Nothing subtle about that placement.
Unless the FCC severely clamps down on this practice, it’s probably here to stay—unless (or until) such blatant messaging suffers from the problem it’s designed to address: advertising clutter. As the number of placements continues to grow, advertisers may discover they’ve created a monster that’s no longer very effective. In the first quarter of 2008, here are the leaders in the number of branded products that appear during the show, according to Nielsen Media Research:Amy Schatz and Suzanne Vranica, “Product Placements Get FCC Scrutiny: Concern Focuses on Rise in Use by Advertisers, Disclosure to Viewers,” Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2008, B3.
• The Biggest Loser (NBC): 3977 placements
• American Idol (Fox): 3291 placements
• The Apprentice (NBC): 1646 placements
Dig Deeper
Seeing real brands pop up in TV dramas, sitcoms, or reality programs is no longer notable—but how about on a news program? The Fox affiliate in Las Vegas made a deal that gets news anchors to sit with cups of McDonald’s iced coffee on their desks during the news-and-lifestyle portion of their morning show. Is this a conflict of interest? According to the account supervisor at the ad agency that negotiated the deal, “If there were a story going up, let’s say, God forbid, about a McDonald’s food illness outbreak or something negative about McDonald’s, I would expect that the station would absolutely give us the opportunity to pull our product off set.”Quoted in Stephanie Clifford, “A Product’s Place is on the Set,” New York Times Online, July 22, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed July 22, 2008). What do you think—does this form of product placement cross the McLine?
Advergaming
Product placement is also slowly but surely making its way into videogames. Computer gaming is an \$18 billion business. Advergaming brings real-world brands into the game. Many advergaming executions resemble outdoor advertising in the game—game makers sell posters and billboards in the game’s virtual world. The advertiser takes advantage of the computer game manufacturer’s distribution to get its ads seen. And, because gamers pay upwards of \$50 for the game, they’re likely to play it over and over.
Video Highlight
Advergaming
(click to see video)
Ford uses advergaming to attract a younger audience.
The problem with ads in commercial games is that many players are too immersed in the game to notice them. For that reason, advertisers such as Burger King create purpose-built advergames. These types of games use the advertiser’s branded mascots, themes, and venues to make the brand a key element of the game. Purpose-built advergames “let you have complete control over your brand message since you’re the one making the game,” said Darren Herman, the cofounder of IGA Worldwide. “But the biggest problem with advergames is in their distribution. Most companies don’t have the resources of, say, a Burger King, to do that correctly. For every successful advergame—like Burger King’s—there’s a ton of failures, usually due to distribution. How do you get your game out there and who do you get it to?”Quoted in Paul Hyman, “Burger King Has It Their Way with Advergame Sales,” Hollywood Reporter, February 7, 2007, www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/features/columns/playing.../e3i19a1b95e867baa 55b5c3c3c6d5061b53 (accessed February 10, 2009).
Herman raises a valid point, but videogames seem poised to become a distribution platform in their own right. As gaming becomes more of a mainstream activity, we can expect to see more advertising targeted to players. While many media planners still have a stereotype of a typical gamer as a greasy-haired teenager who eats a lot of cold pizza, the reality is that 40 percent of gamers are women, and the average age of game players is thirty-five. And 65 percent of American households play computer and video games.
As the tip of the iceberg, MTV recently announced that the sequel to its popular Rock Band game (Rock Band 2, not surprisingly) will include a track from the first Guns N’ Roses album in more than a decade. As a music industry executive observed about the potential of videogames to sell music products, “These games absolutely have an impact because the opportunity to hear these songs on radio is dwindling. This is becoming an important piece of the marketing puzzle.”Quoted in Robert Levine, “Planned Guns N’ Roses Deal Underscores Power of Video Games to Sell Songs,” New York Times Online, July 22, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed July 22, 2008).
WOM/Viral/Buzz
One new communication model seeks to get consumers and the media talking about the product, brand, or campaign. Rather than pay for every media impression, advertisers influence their customers to work with them to create media impressions. Word of mouth (WOM) causes people to share stories about the product, brand, or campaign. Every water cooler conversation about the ad creates an impression.
Viral marketing gives people a reason to recruit their friends and family to the product. For example, friends-and-family cell phone programs give subscribers an incentive (free minutes) to recruit people they know. Viral campaigns challenge agencies to create truly remarkable ads, online games, or Web sites—remarkable enough that people will want to share them with their friends. For one noteworthy example, check out Burger King’s notorious Subservient Chicken that agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky developed (http://www.subservientchicken.com).
Buzz creates newsworthy events—a thirty-second story on the major news networks for an eccentric promotion is worth far more than buying thirty-second ads on those channels. To identify the spark that ignited the fire of buzz marketing, perhaps we need look no further than to The Blair Witch Project, a horror movie that was made for \$22,000 and earned \$248 million at the box office. How did this low-budget production pull this off? The answer is the buzz campaign that began long before the film was released. While the story of a group of young people who get massacred in the woods was fiction (sorry to burst the bubble), the producers cleverly perpetuated the idea that the movie was a true documentary. By the time the film actually was released, it had built an avid following.
Some of the veterans of that effort also have pioneered a form of viral marketing the industry calls alternate reality games, where fans interact with the company as they try to solve a puzzle. In one of the best-known executions (that these same producers created), carmaker Audi staged a heist of an A3 from Audi’s Park Avenue showroom in New York City. It enticed millions of consumers to solve the mystery. As consumers joined in the chase, they were exposed to the car’s unique features and attributes. The buzz seemed to translate to behavior, too, as sales increased during the three-month campaign.Douglas Quenqua, “The Vampires are Coming, but Only After Months of Warnings,” New York Times Online, July 15, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed July 15, 2008); Alison Lange Engel, “The Best of the Buzz: A Judge Shares Highlights from the Buzz Awards Submissions,” Adweek, September 11, 2006, 22.
More recently, some gamers were surprised to discover the unnamed force behind The Lost Ring, an online game with an Olympics theme. The game kicked off when fifty people received packages with an Olympic-themed poster and a clue pointing them to TheLostRing.com Web site. At the site, a video presented scenes of a woman waking up in a field with “Trovu la ringon perditan”—an Esperanto phrase—tattooed on her arm. As players searched for clues to solve the mystery, they eventually discovered that none other than McDonald’s, in partnership with the International Olympic Committee, was behind the game.Stephanie Clifford, “An Online Game so Mysterious Its Famous Sponsor is Hidden,” New York Times Online, April 1, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed April 1, 2008).
Virtual Worlds
The Internet has spawned numerous virtual worlds in which people take the form of avatars (digital representations of themselves) as they play, interact, and virtually live in an online space. Some communities, such as Linden Lab’s Second Life, mimic real life with 3-D graphics that give people a chance to live a different identity (or several) online. Many users choose elaborate characters, either fantasy figures or idealized men or women with exaggerated “attributes.”
Numerous companies have set up shop in one or more of these virtual worlds. In some cases (as in advergaming) they simply advertise their product on virtual billboards. For example, billboards in Second Life advertise the Honda Acura RDX. Clicking on the billboard gives the user a virtual copy of the car that they can drive around Second Life and even use in racing games in the online world. In other (typically more successful) cases the brand becomes part of the world, as when avatars who receive virtual Nikes actually get the ability to run faster in the virtual world.
Currently well over a hundred virtual worlds are operating live or are in development. The research firm Gartner predicts that by the year 2011, over 250 million people will be involved in these immersive digital environments. U.S. firms spent an estimated \$15 million on advertising in virtual worlds in 2006. This figure is expected to reach \$150 million by 2012.
To date, virtual worlds have received a lukewarm reception by advertisers. Some early campaigns fizzled because they failed to generate interest among virtual world inhabitants—simply putting up a billboard just won’t do it for most avatars. In other cases, disappointed clients didn’t see the kinds of numbers they are used to getting from real-world campaigns that might touch millions of people. This platform is still in its infancy, so many consumers don’t even know yet that it exists.
This is a very short-sighted perspective: virtual worlds will most likely continue to mature and evolve into a major media platform over the next five or ten years. Major media companies, including MTV Networks and Disney, continue to invest millions of dollars as they develop their own virtual worlds. Media planners who doubt the staying power of these platforms need look only to the next generation of consumers, who already are logging serious time in their own virtual worlds. Habbo Hotel (based in Finland) targets thirteen- to eighteen-year-olds and boasts over 100 million registered users worldwide and over 8.5 million unique users each month. Gaia Online attracts more than 2 million unique visitors each month; \$300,000 of the members log in for an average of two hours per day. You heard it here first: virtual worlds are the future of advertising.
Consumer-Generated Media (CGM)
What if you could get your customers to make your ads for you? In a twist to the old practice of using customer testimonials, companies are giving customers the power and the tools to make their own ads, a phenomenon known as consumer-generated media (CGM). The rise of PC video and image editing tools means that millions have the ability to create content. For example, snack-maker Doritos posted media clips online for consumers to tweak and make a commercial for the product, with the winning commercial being aired during the Super Bowl. The company received over a hundred entries.Sonia Reyes, “Packaged Foods” Adweek, April 30, 2007, SR19.
Other companies, like McDonald’s, found user-created video on YouTube. “The whole idea behind the ‘I’m lovin’ it’ campaign is that it’s from the consumers’ point of view, and what better way to show that than with these two guys who did their own video? Since our target has a very keen bull** meter…it gives a different perspective on McDonald’s, making it seem [less] corporate,” said Chris Arnold, creative director for Arnold Worldwide, who handles some McDonald’s work in New York and purchased the rights to make the video into a spot for McDonald’s.Quoted in “The Results Issue,” Brandweek, July 23, 2007, 28.
But what if some ads insult the brand? When Chevy let consumers make ads about its new Chevy Tahoe, some consumers created ads attacking the large SUV’s gas-guzzling ways. But Chevy didn’t remove the negative submissions, because it showed that the brand could take a good-natured teasing and stay open to customer’s opinions. Besides, everyone knows there are trolls on the Internet, so negative content is often ignored. Chevy Tahoe found that despite (or because of) the full range of ads, consumers did visit the site and did visit the car dealers’ showrooms in response.
Of course, there are limits to what’s acceptable. For example, liquor makers need to promote sensible drinking habits, which homemade videos may not convey. “For the liquor industry, any user content has to meet regulations and standards,” said Mike Church, media director for Diageo PLC, which owns brands Smirnoff and Guinness, among others.Quoted in “Brand Building in the Digital Age: A Dizzying Array of Choices,” Knowledge@Wharton, April 11, 2007, www.knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu (accessed July 28, 2008). Procter & Gamble, the nation’s largest advertiser, invites viewers to help decide what is acceptable: it set up an option on its main consumer toll-free line in response to a drive from a coalition, dubbed Enough Is Enough, that was urging the company to stop sponsoring hip-hop programs on MTV and BET laced with profanity and scenes the group believes degrade and objectify women. Another option asks callers to weigh in on the story line for its soap opera As the World Turns, which includes passionate kisses between daytime TV’s only gay couple.Jack Neff, “P&G Lets Consumers Act as Media Planners: Asks Customers to Weigh in on Gay Kissing and Hip-Hop Programming,” Advertising Age, April 29, 2008, http://www.adage.com (accessed April 29, 2008).
When the inmates take over the asylum, there’s bound to be resistance: a lot of advertisers aren’t happy about giving up control of their brand messages. According to results of a survey released by Accenture, media and entertainment executives see the ability and eagerness of individuals to create their own content as one of the biggest threats to their business. As the saying goes, however, when it comes to CGM, “you’re either on the train or under it.” Surveys show that in a typical month about half of all online users either create user-generated content (UGC) or read items posted by others. And the phenom is even bigger among youth (but you knew that): three-quarters of users eighteen to twenty-five are reading or writing UGC.Karl Greenberg, “Study: Half of Online Users Create or Read UGC,” Marketing Daily, May 15, 2007, http://www.mediapost.com (accessed May 15, 2007). Indeed, one survey conducted in late 2007 reported that almost half of millennials (people aged thirteen to twenty-four) agreed with the statement “With all the technology available, I actually consider myself to be a ‘broadcaster’ of my own media.”“Attitudes of US Internet Users toward Digital Entertainment, by Age, October 2007,” eMarketer, January 7, 2008, http://www.emarketer.com (accessed January 7, 2008).
Dig Deeper
A new PepsiCo promotion for its Mountain Dew brand illustrates the new perspective on involving consumers as partners in a campaign and taking this initiative into a virtual world. Indeed, the promotion is aptly named “DEWmocracy.” The campaign includes a story-based game that features a live-action short film (directed by actor Forest Whitaker, who also provides a voice-over). Upon logging on to the site, http://www.dewmocracy.com, players are sent to a virtual world, where they are invited to join one of three teams. A video lays out a vision of a world where corporate profits rule over all; players need to fill a “magic gourd” (i.e., a bottle) to “restore the soul of mankind.” Players move into different chambers, where they select the flavor of their drink, its color and marketing characteristics. The gamers eventually will be given the opportunity to persuade the company to produce their drink in the real world. An executive boasted, “To the best of our knowledge, a brand has never given consumers this much control. We felt that the best way to fully engage consumers would be to give them the power to create a new product.”
Social Media
Virtually everyone who reads this book is well acquainted with social media; in fact, you’re using one form of it now, since the book is “open” to users. This term refers to the many new platforms that combine technology with community to allow users to contribute their own content and to react to what other users post. Social media applications will attract over one billion broadband users globally within five years (yes, we said billion).Martin Olausson, “The People’s Revolution: Implications of Web 2.0 and Social Media Applications,” Strategy Analytics, November 30, 2007, http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=ReportAbstractViewer &a0=3690 (accessed February 13, 2009).
Some familiar forms of social media include e-mail, IMs, blogs, wikis, and podcasts. Popular applications include Wikipedia, MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, with new ones arriving almost daily. Even big companies are moving to the new communication technologies and models. Many major advertisers are shifting their media mix to include social media, especially those that want to speak to young people. For example, Frito-Lay cut its prime-time network ad spend by about 20 percent to \$30.1 million in 2006, as it focused more attention on Internet and viral platforms.Sonia Reyes, “Packaged Foods,” Adweek, April 30, 2007, SR19.
Blogs and Online Reviews
Customer reviews are the most prevalent source of online content. For example, research finds that 81 percent of shoppers who spend more than \$500 online each month use product reviews when they make buying decisions. The authors of reviews are known as brand advocates. A senior executive at Yahoo! estimates that 40 percent of the online buying population are advocates, and their communications with other buyers are extremely influential. Yahoo! finds that three-fourths of brand advocates versus one-third of nonadvocates use social media several times a week. When PetCo launched an advertising campaign that incorporates user-generated reviews, the company found that it got a 500 percent increase in its click-through rate, that crucial number that tells an online advertiser how many people click on a link to learn more about the advertised product.Emily Burg, “Leverage User-Generated Content to Boost Brands,” Marketing Daily, March 13, 2007, http://www.mediapost.com (accessed March 13, 2007).
Many of these user-generated reviews (warts and all) appear on blogs (short for Web log). A blog is a Web site an individual maintains, usually with commentary about a specific topic to which others can respond. Increasingly these forums add sophisticated graphics, including video capability, so that video blogging allows individuals to present any kind of visual or written material to the blogosphere (the universe of blogs).
How widespread is the practice of blogging? In 2008, over half of all U.S. Internet users read at least one blog per month, and analysts project this number will rise to two-thirds of all users by 2012. Advertising spending is growing to match this increase; in 2008 U.S. spending in blog formats was \$411 million, and this number will grow to \$746 million by 2012.Lisa Stone, “Compass Partners 2008 Social Media Benchmark Study: Blogging Mainstream, ‘Reliable’ for Fun, Advice and Information,” Blogher, www.blogher.com/blogher-compass-partners-2008-social-media-benchmark- study-blogging-mainstream-reliable-fun-advice-a (accessed February 13, 2009).
In addition to the sheer numbers involved, blogs are catching advertisers’ attention because of the diversity of consumers who participate. For example, more than one-third (35 percent) of all women in the United States aged eighteen to seventy-five participate in the blogosphere at least once a week. Three in ten female blog readers said they made a decision to buy a product based on information they found in a blog post—and the same number said they decided not to buy something based on a blogger’s thumbs-down recommendation.“2008 Social Media Benchmark Study,” BlogHer/Compass Partners, www.blogher.com/blogher-compass-partners-2008-social-media-benchmark- study-blogging-mainstream-reliable-funadvice-a (accessed July 28, 2008). The director of external relations for P&G baby care affirms this trend saying, “It’s official: Mom bloggers are the new influencers…the company is elevating them to the level of celebrities, mainstream media and health professionals in terms of influencer importance.”Jack Neff, “P&G Relies on Power of Mommy Bloggers; Giant Calls Them the ‘New Influencers,’” Advertising Age, July 14, 2008, adage.com/digital/article?article_id=129580 (accessed July 14, 2008).
Video Highlight
Isaac’s Video Blog
(click to see video)
Isaac Mizrahi tells it like he sees it in his video blog.
Social Networking
You would have to be living in a deep hole not to be aware of the impact of social networking sites, especially the twin powerhouses MySpace and Facebook or more specialized sites like the business networking platform LinkedIn. This term describes online communities of people who share interests, activities, or relationships—and who typically are interested in following the activities of other members.
Despite their huge popularity (who do you know who doesn’t have either a Facebook or MySpace page?), until recently advertisers struggled to figure out how they could use these platforms to talk to consumers. The sites’ owners didn’t make this easy, because they tightly controlled access to outside application developers. That stance is changing—MySpace now lets advertisers directly manage their branded profiles on the site. MySpace continues to monitor brand profiles for content.Abbey Klaassen, “MySpace Tool Allows Marketers to Manage Their Own Profiles; Brands Will be Able to Gain a Presence on the Social Network More Efficiently and Keep Creative Control,” Advertising Age, April 21, 2008, http://www.adage.com (accessed April 21, 2008).
Facebook is ramping up its involvement with the advertising community as well. The company signed a deal in 2008 with Microsoft to let it provide Web search services and associated advertisements directly on the site—at least on the American portion of the social network. Microsoft already sells and manages display advertisements on Facebook, but the additional search function could allow the software giant to catch up to Google (which provides search on MySpace) and Yahoo! (which does the same for Bebo) in the search business. More than twenty-nine million people actively use Facebook in the United States; soon they will see Microsoft’s Live Search box on Facebook pages.Brad Stone and Miguel Helft, “Microsoft Seeks an Ad Friend in Facebook,” New York Times Online, July 25, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/business/media/25adco.html?ref=media (accessed February 10, 2009).
The Dark Side of Social Media
New media is still a baby in the media world, so there’s a lot of trial and error going on out there (as well as some dirty diapers). Although many marketers may have theories about what should work, the nature of new media means that these theories largely are untested. Consumer acceptance, response, and cost effectiveness can all be unknown. In some cases advertisers find themselves in uncomfortable territory, such as when their online banner ad inadvertently appears on a pornographic site, a Web page belonging to a hate group, or a blog critical of the advertiser.
Privacy issues, combined with the fact that consumers have only so much free time, also could damp the boom in social networking on the Web. “Nobody has 5,000 real friends,” says Tim Hanlon, senior vice president of Denuo Group, a media and advertising consulting firm owned by Publicis. “At the end of the day it just becomes one big cauldron of noise.” For marketers, he says, that will mean the sites will be much more effective as a consumer research tool than as a venue to peddle products.Suzanne Vranica, “Ad Houses Will Need to Be More Nimble; Clients are Demanding More and Better Use of Consumer Data, Web,” Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2008, B3. Log onto your Facebook page to see what your friends have to say about that.
Key Takaway
New media offers the advertiser a chance to be a pioneer and to push the company’s brand in new directions. These platforms lets brands stay hip and fresh to reach younger audiences and to create buzz when news outlets cover the innovation. And because the new media are untried, they may be cheaper on a per-impression basis than traditional media. But handle with care.
EXERCISES
1. List and characterize the new media forms. Describe each of the elements of the promotional mix.
2. Explain how online advertising and m-commerce are vital to the success of e-commerce efforts.
3. Explain the concept of product placement and why it is a valuable new media advertising tool.
4. Characterize word-of-mouth (WOM), viral, and buzz marketing.
5. Explain why advertisers are interested in consumer-generated media (CGM).
6. Describe how social media and social networking are impacting advertising media decisions. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/10%3A_Plan_and_Buy_Media_-_SSK_Chooses_the_Right_Media_for_the_Client's_New_Branding_Message/10.03%3A_New_Media.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. List and describe the four forms of message objectives.
2. Demonstrate how media planning is accomplished.
3. Identify and explain the media planning analysis tools.
Message Objectives
Message objectives take four forms that generally parallel the adoption life-cycle of the product:
Awareness is the first step in introducing a new product or brand to consumers or introducing an existing product to a new population of consumers.
Association means giving the consumer a clear, memorable reason to buy the product—associating the brand with a relevant quality. This reason is known as the unique selling proposition (USP), and is usually just one short sentence. For example, when FedEx first introduced its overnight package delivery service, its USP spelled out, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
Reminder messages help the consumer recall the brand and remember to buy the product again. Reminder is used for more mature products, especially seasonal ones. For example, 1-800-Flowers’s outdoor strategy works because “flowers aren’t something we contemplate frequently,” said Jodi Senese, executive vice president of marketing at CBS Outdoor.Quoted in “The Results Issue,” Brandweek, July 23, 2007, 28.
Persuasion tries to convince consumers of a mature product category to switch brands.
Media Planning
Media planning is the process of choosing one or more media vehicles to reach the target audience and achieve the message objectives. This means deciding which media vehicle to use, when to use the media vehicle, and where to use the media vehicle.
Planning decisions include audience selection and where, when, and how frequent the exposure should be. Thus, the first task for a media planner is to find out when and where people in the target market are most likely to be exposed to the communication. This is the aperture, the best “window” to reach the target market.
SS+K Spotlight
SS+K, msnbc.com, and The Media Kitchen worked through a few iterations of media plans before they settled on the final buy. As the lead agency, SS+K was responsible for ensuring that the paid media, nonpaid media, PR, and asymmetric efforts all contributed to the goals set out for the campaign.
Dig Deeper
Media Negotiations
Within the media agency, there are a few key people responsible for the planning and implementation of the campaign. The media planner strategically lays out the plan with standard media rates in the budget line. Once the plan is approved, the media buyer negotiates the rates and costs with the media sales representative. The media sales representative negotiates on behalf of the media, whether it be a rep from the Wall Street Journal, ESPN, or Rotten Tomatoes.
During the negotiation process, rates can change based on how much the advertiser will commit to, how long they will commit the funds, and other factors that support the business relationship. One thing that comes out of this for the advertiser is “added value.” Added value can be additional pages or runs in a particular medium; it can also be a survey or access to a medium’s database.
A common place for these negotiations to take place is the media upfronts. Starting in spring, media outlets will host parties and meetings with various media buyers, planners, and advertisers. Networks share their programming in order to excite advertisers about where their ads can air in the future.
Market Coverage
Media vehicle choice is driven by market coverage, which is the extent to which a given media vehicle reaches the target audience. For example, local newspapers, radio stations, billboards, and direct mail campaigns are cost effective when they target a population that lives in a specific region, whereas national newspapers, TV, and online are better for nationwide campaigns. Specialized magazines and online media are particularly useful for target consumers who have specific interests. Online media also offers the advantage of real-time tracking—you know instantly whether consumers are clicking through to your site and how much time they spend at the site.
Market coverage tells advertisers what a specific vehicle can do for them, but that doesn’t mean that any one vehicle can do the whole job. Often, a media plan requires multiple media to achieve the advertiser’s goals. The media schedule outlines the planner’s best estimate of which media will be most effective to attain the advertising objective(s) and which specific media vehicles will do the most effective job.
When she creates the media schedule, the planner considers factors such as the match between the demographic and psychographic profile of a target audience and the people a media vehicle reaches, the advertising patterns of competitors, and the capability of a medium to adequately convey the desired information. The planner must also consider factors such as the compatibility of the product with editorial content. For example, viewers might not respond well to a lighthearted ad for a new snack food during a somber documentary on world hunger.
When she analyzes media, the planner assesses advertising exposure, the degree to which the target market will see an advertising message in a specific medium. Media planners speak in terms of impressions, the number of people who will be exposed to a message that appears in one or more media vehicles. For example, if fifty million people watch American Idol on Fox, then each time an advertiser runs an ad during that program, it gets fifty million impressions (clue: that’s a lot). If the advertiser’s spot runs three times during the program, the impression count would be 150 million (even though some of these impressions would represent repeated exposure to the same viewers).
Reach refers to the percentage of the target audience that is exposed to any of the media vehicles in the media plan during a specified time period. Choosing the media vehicle with highest reach means that more people will be exposed to the campaign. For example, if a media plan targets the roughly five million women who are eighteen to twenty-five years old, then a reach of fifty means that 50 percent, or 2.5 million, of the target audience will see at least one of the media vehicles in the media plan. Reach only counts viewers once. If a person sees the same ad multiple times in one medium, or even if they see the ad in different media, it still counts as only one person for the purposes of calculating reach.
A related term, frequency, refers to the average number of times that target consumers are exposed to the media plan. Frequency is important if the advertiser believes that consumers need multiple exposures to the campaign before buying the product or taking action. Achieving both broad reach and high frequency is very expensive—doubling the reach and doubling the frequency at the same time requires buying more than four times as many media impressions.
Say that a media planner wants to be sure her advertising for the Rockstar energy drink effectively reaches college students. She learns that 10 percent of the target market reads at least a few issues of Wired each year (that’s reach). She may also determine that these students on average are likely to see two of the ten ads that Rockstar will run in Wired during the year (that’s frequency). Now, she calculates the magazine’s gross rating points (GRPs) by multiplying reach times frequency, which in this case allows her to compare the effectiveness of Wired to that of alternative media vehicles. By using this same formula, the planner could then compare this GRP number to that of another magazine or to the GRP she would get if she placed an ad on TV or sponsored a Maroon 5 concert tour on college campuses.
Although some media vehicles deliver superior exposure, they may not be cost efficient. More people will see a commercial aired during the Super Bowl than during a 3:00 a.m. rerun of an old Will Ferrell movie. But the advertiser could run late-night commercials every night for a year for the cost of one thirty-second Super Bowl spot. To compare the relative cost effectiveness of different media and of spots run on different vehicles in the same medium, media planners use a measure they call cost per thousand (CPM). This figure reflects the cost to deliver a message to one thousand people. CPM allows advertisers to compare the relative cost effectiveness of different media vehicles that have different exposure rates.
Table 10.1 Cost Per Thousand Example
Cost per thousand (CPM) Calculation
CPM =
ad cost × 1,000
circulation
Cost of 4-color ad in Sports Illustrated = \$320,000
Circulation of Sports Illustrated = 3,150,000
CPM for Sports Illustrated ad =
\$320,000 × 1000 = \$101.59
3,150,000
To reach 1,000 Sports Illustrated readers
A media vehicle’s popularity with consumers determines how much advertisers must pay to put their message there. Television networks are concerned about the size of their audiences because their advertising rates are determined by how many viewers their programming attracts. Similarly, magazines and newspapers try to boost circulation (that explains all the free issues you get) so they can charge higher rates to their advertising clients.
SS+K Spotlight
Part of the media planning process includes keeping track of your target reach and frequencies so that you can measure success at the completion of the campaign.
See the results from msnbc.com’s effort later in Chapter 14 "ROI: msnbc.com Decides if the Campaign Worked".
Buying Eyeballs: Length of Ads and Scheduling Strategies
Size matters: ad space costs money, so advertisers think carefully about the size of ads. Larger or longer ads cost more but provide more in terms of space to tell a story and exposure to catch the consumer’s eye. A double-page magazine ad is more noticeable than a half-page ad. Short or small ads allow more frequency, more reach, or a longer campaign—an advertiser can afford to buy many more impressions in many more media vehicles with a small ad.
Historically, TV advertisers only bought sixty-second spots. But allocating the budget to thirty-second or fifteen-second spots improves the advertiser’s reach. The company can reach more people and get a better reach frequency at a lower cost. Shorter spots may direct viewers to a Web site where they can get additional information. Still, sometimes longer is better. In radio, advertisers have found that longer ads work better than short ones: spots of forty-five seconds or more were more effective than shorter spots.Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab, “Radio Effectiveness and Execution,” March 2004, http://www.rab.com, by paid subscription (accessed February 12, 2009).
Media planners rely upon three basic scheduling patterns:
Continuity scheduling means spreading the media spend evenly across the duration of the campaign.
Flight scheduling alternates periods of heavy advertising with periods of no advertising. For example, Moët brand champagne traditionally uses flight advertising; it schedules the bulk of its advertising around the holidays and year end.
Pulse scheduling is a combination of continuity and flight scheduling. With pulse scheduling, advertisers maintain an ongoing low level of advertising to remind the consumers of the brand, interspersing heavy advertising around particular times of the year.
The Media Mix
Often one vehicle can’t accomplish all the goals of the campaign. For instance, no single vehicle might have the market coverage needed for the desired reach. Or it may be too expensive to achieve the desired frequency. Furthermore, some media vehicles lack the needed reach, are too expensive for the desired frequency, or are not effective for some aspects of the campaign. TV is expensive but lets the advertiser tell a good story about a new product. Magazines and print can reach specific demographics and deliver persuasive information. Billboards and other out-of-home vehicles are cheap and provide the reach and frequency to strengthen brand awareness and remind consumers of the product.
New media can stimulate buzz that spreads the message further. A recent report based on data from three thousand panelists in six major markets found that multiplatform advertising increases reach over individual platform advertising in a nonadditive way; in other words, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. When consumers are exposed to the same ad message on multiple platforms, the campaign’s effectiveness gets a bigger boost in awareness or intention to buy.“Cumulative Value of Multi-Platform Advertising,” Center for Media Research, July 17, 2008, http://www.mediapost.com/ (accessed July 17, 2008).
Dig Deeper
With not a lot of money to spend, the California Avocado Commission (CAC) created an integrated campaign to “reach the consumer wherever he or she might be—in the car, at work, at home, in the grocery store and at restaurants—with the ‘Irresistible California Avocado’ message,” said Jan DeLyser, CAC’s vice president of marketing. “All of the elements worked together to build brand awareness and strengthen demand for California Avocados.” The CAC used a combination of radio spot advertising, outdoor advertising, online banner ads, trade communications, public relations, POS (point-of-sale) materials, and a dedicated Web site.
To encourage retailers to put up an in-store display, CAC provided them with the POS materials. Retailers could then enter their display in a retailer-only challenge. Every qualified entry automatically received a \$20 Amazon.com gift card, and five randomly selected grand prize winners were awarded an Apple 30GB iPod. Dozens of stores participated.
Results: the campaign generated millions of impressions and over a hundred thousand consumer entries to its game show–style “California Avocado Irresistible Challenge” to win a 2007 Toyota Prius.Quoted in “California Avocado ‘Irresistible Challenge’ Attracts Nearly 400K Web Hits,” Progressive Grocer, October 10, 2007, 1.
As media vehicles proliferate and consumers divide their time between TV, magazines, outdoor activities, computer games, etc., advertisers feel the need to diversify their media mixes. “You are going to see us more and more fragmented in our spending,” said Jim Stengel, P&G’s (recently retired) chief marketing officer. “We are spending a lot more on interactive and a lot more on mobile as that makes its way around the world. The trend of the past five years will continue, which is that TV advertising will go down as a percentage of our spending, and we will continue to move money to where the consumers are. The interesting news in all of this is that consumers are spending more time with media than ever. If the content is good, consumers will spend an awful lot of time with media.”Quoted in Geoff Colvin, “Selling P&G,” Fortune, September 18, 2007, http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/09/17/100258870/index.htm?postversion=2007090511 (accessed September 18, 2007).
SS+K Spotlight
SS+K pulls together its launch plan: the msnbc.com campaign aimed to reach News Explorers in ways that would get them to pay attention to the brand. The campaign combined elements of the paid media plan that were designed to increase reach and impressions above with elements of product enhancement (new logo, site design, screensaver) and nonpaid media (public relations, new and interesting asymmetric ideas).
Key Takaway
Media planning is the process of choosing one or more media vehicles to reach the target audience and achieve the message objectives. In most cases the best plan combines several media platforms to ensure that the message breaks through advertising clutter. Media planners assess the characteristics of different media including their cost and effectiveness to decide upon an optimal mix. They use standard measures such as reach and frequency to compare apples and oranges (e.g., TV and billboards), though the increasing use of new media makes this comparison more difficult because industry standards have not yet evolved.
EXERCISES
1. List and describe message objectives.
2. Demonstrate how media planning is done by advertising professionals.
3. Define and discuss impressions, reach, frequency, gross rating points (GRPs), and cost per thousand (CPM). | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/10%3A_Plan_and_Buy_Media_-_SSK_Chooses_the_Right_Media_for_the_Client's_New_Branding_Message/10.04%3A_Media_Strategy.txt |
Tie it All Together
Now that you have read this chapter, you should be able to determine how to choose the right media for client messages:
• You can define media mix and media planning.
• You can list and characterize the traditional advertising media.
• You can compare and contrast the print media against the broadcast media.
• You can describe the usefulness of out-of-home media for carrying advertising messages.
• You can recognize the strengths and weaknesses of integrating sponsorships into a promotional mix.
• You can list and describe three forms of direct-response media.
• You can list and characterize new media forms.
• You can explain how advertisers might use new communication channels to solve advertising and marketing problems.
• You can characterize word-of-mouth (WOM), viral, and buzz marketing.
• You can explain how marketers and advertisers can use virtual worlds to bring messages to consumers.
• You can describe consumer-generated media (CGM) and its uses to advertisers and marketers.
• You can explain how social media and social networking sites can be used to advocate brands and brand messages.
• You can list and describe message objectives.
• You can demonstrate how media planning is accomplished.
• You can identify and explain the media planning analysis tools presented in the chapter.
USE WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED
1. Whether you use Amway products or not, you’ve most likely heard of this direct marketing organization. In 1999 Amway changed its U.S. name to Quixtar as a means to deal with increasing complaints and accusations that it was running a pyramid marketing scheme. The name change didn’t work, and Amway is now attempting a contemporary rebranding of its old Amway name. For more information on the company and its current promotions see www.amway.com for details.
Assume that your advertising agency has just been hired by Amway to rebrand the corporate name and provide a positive response strategy to address critics’ concerns. Develop a media strategy and plan for your rebranding idea. Outline your response strategy. Discuss your ideas and plans with peers.
2. Are you wearing a cool timepiece? Watches in all shapes and forms can be found in our society. One issue that is troubling to watch designers and manufacturers is the trend among youth to reject watches in favor of getting their time updates from cell phones or other personal data assistants. One company that is trying a unique approach to attract the fashion-conscious youth element is Xezo (see http://www.xezo.com for information). This company specializes in solid silver watches and timepieces, writing instruments, and eyewear.
Assume that your advertising agency has just been hired by Xezo to develop a “new media” campaign that will extend beyond their present media choices (e.g., magazines and Web site). Review the “new media” options and recommend a “new media” plan for the company. Describe the target market that is the focus of your plan. What message do you think the company should use if they were to follow your recommendation? Discuss your “new media” plan and message with peers.
DIGITAL NATIVES
Doing research on traditional and “new” media is not an easy task. How can advertisers and their ad agencies find up-to-date information on media rates and deadlines from media across the country? One of the most popular information sources for advertising professionals is Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS). According to information provided by the SRDS Web site, “The SRDS database of media and information is the largest and most comprehensive in the world.”
Go to the SRDS Web site at http://www.srds.com and review the information provided. Choose one of the information sources provided and see what you can find on media rates. Be sure to check out the information directed to students and educators. Once you have completed your review, summarize how you might be able to use this resource to find information on media rates. Lastly, using a search engine, see what other data services might be available to investigate media rates. Review and then compare and contrast a few of the more interesting alternatives you found. How does SRDS stack up against its competitors?
AD-VICE
1. Go to your local newspaper’s Web site. Once there, assume that you are an advertiser seeking to place an advertisement with the paper. Attempt to find the advertising rates, size restrictions, availability of color, and any other useful information for placing an ad. Evaluate your search experience. Evaluate the attractiveness of the newspaper’s rates.
2. Go to at least one television and two radio station Web sites. Once there, assume that you are an advertiser seeking to place an advertisement with the television station and the chosen radio stations. Attempt to find the advertising rates, special advertising discounts, availability, market coverage, and demographic reached. Evaluate your search experience. Evaluate the attractiveness of the television and radio rates.
3. Assume that you are applying for a marketing management job in direct marketing. The interviewer asks you the following questions: “If you were to take your list of friends, what would be the best way to reach them with a direct marketing message? How would you get their attention with the message?” The interviewer then says, “If you can be creative and answer my questions, you have a future in direct marketing.” Answer the interviewer’s questions and explain briefly what you have learned about direct marketing through this exercise.
4. Using the “new media” described in the chapter, construct a media plan for introducing a new line of skateboards that allow the boarder double the surface speed of the skateboard. A new wheel design is the secret to the skateboard’s astonishing speed. Discuss your plan with peers.
ETHICAL DILEMMA
As indicated in the chapter, “Product placement is also slowly but surely making its way into videogames. Advergaming brings real-world brands into the game.” On the surface this seems like a natural extension of product placements that we see every day in our TV programs, movies, and online surfing adventures. Adult gamers would think it unusual if the street scenes where high-speed chases and gun battles took place didn’t have billboards and signs that advertised real products. Should product placements in youth-oriented video games have stronger standards?
Assume one of two roles: (a) You are a proponent of product placements in video games, or (b) You are an opponent of product placements in video games. Develop an effective argument for your position. Remember that your argument must address the ethics of using product placements in youth-oriented games. Discuss your argument with peers. Debate the opposition. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/10%3A_Plan_and_Buy_Media_-_SSK_Chooses_the_Right_Media_for_the_Client's_New_Branding_Message/10.05%3A_Exercises.txt |
The process of execution determines how the message will look, read, or sound in its final form. Does it convey the right tone and attitude? Is it suited to its medium, be it print, TV, radio, outdoor, online, or alternative media? Each media vehicle offers advantages over the other vehicles on specific dimensions and requires the campaign team to create a message that takes advantage of that media vehicle’s strengths. For example, television is a cool medium (despite the “hot” images you might watch on it) because it requires a passive viewer who exerts relatively little control (remote-control “zipping” notwithstanding) over content. In contrast, print is a hot medium. The reader is actively involved in processing the information and is able to pause and reflect on what she has read before moving on.Herbert E. Krugman, “The Impact of Television Advertising: Learning without Involvement,” Public Opinion Quarterly 29 (Fall 1965): 349–56.
In this chapter, we’ll revisit the media platforms that advertisers like msnbc.com can use in their campaigns; this time we’ll dive a little deeper into some of the factors that make each platform work or not. Then, we’ll have a look at some of the metrics (measures of effectiveness) advertisers use to figure out if what they did actually worked—or if they just looked pretty.
11.02: Execute on Media Platforms
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Define the execution process.
2. List and characterize the various media platforms available to the advertiser.
3. Describe the role music plays in the execution process.
4. List the factors that impact the effectiveness of radio ads.
5. Describe the similarities and differences between online advertising and other media advertising.
6. Explain how search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) are related to behavioral targeting.
7. Discuss the concept of branded entertainment and its usefulness to marketing and advertising.
SS+K Spotlight
Before diving into the many elements of the new branding campaign, SS+K had to crack the creative code and come up with the concept of the campaign. Sam and Matt worked off of the brief we showed in Chapter 10 "Plan and Buy Media: SS+K Chooses the Right Media for the Client’s New Branding Message" and proposed three options for msnbc.com.
Amit organized an internal meeting in preparation for the client creative meeting. There, the team reviewed each of the creative approaches that Matt and Sam presented and ensured that everything was “on brief” or “on strategy”; this means that it communicated in a way that would motivate the News Explorer to check out msnbc.com.
Then Joe Kessler and Amit, Matt, and Sam held the initial creative meeting with Catherine Captain and a few members of her executive team—Charlie Tillinghast (president of msnbc.com) and Jennifer Sizemore (editor-in-chief of msnbc.com). The SS+K team presented three campaign options. You can see each of these in the figures below.
Also, as you’ll notice in Figure 11.4, SS+K proposed an update to the previous msnbc.com logo. Matt Ferrin started with the idea of a pinwheel to visually communicate the ideas of the full spectrum. This idea generated discussion about changing the client’s logo (never an easy decision) to make it part of the new branding effort.
Can you guess which campaign the team decided to use? If you were the client, which would you choose, and why?
Video Spotlight
Amit Nizan, Matt Ferrin, and Sam Mazur
(click to see video)
Amit, Matt, and Sam discuss the significance of this decision from the agency’s perspective.
Now that the campaign creative approach was decided (as you learned in Chapter 9 "Choose Your Communication Weapons: SS+K Decides Upon a Creative Strategy and Media Tactics"), and the media planning was done (as you learned in Chapter 10 "Plan and Buy Media: SS+K Chooses the Right Media for the Client’s New Branding Message") it was time to start planning the full production.
Once msnbc.com had the strategy laid out with SS+K, it was time to start producing the materials for the media that had been bought, as well as materials for other marketing efforts outside of unpaid media, which we’ll cover later. The team was also hard at work on the new logo. In developing the new logo, Matt and Sam worked very closely with the design team at SS+K led by Alice Ann Wilson.
The team also needed to develop a set of brand guidelines. These guidelines, established and approved by the agency and the client, dictate how the brand should behave, look, and feel. All communication must stay consistent in order for the brand to project a clear image in consumers’ minds rather than confusing them with different messages about the brand’s identity.
Print
Print advertising works well for factual information, especially complex messages and topics that the consumer wants to investigate, such as health-related messages. The best executions are those that we specifically develop for print, especially when the message requires us to lay out detailed, logical arguments in favor of our cause or brand.
Newspapers
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer, maker of the Nicorette brand of smoking cessation products, works hard to refine its print executions. Ben Peters, Pfizer’s Nicorette sector marketing manager for UK/Ireland/Central and Eastern Europe/Russia, explained the elements of successful print execution: “Key learnings that we have found at Pfizer include making sure the core message is communicated, that the reader is engaged quickly and can easily read the supporting text. The execution must also be placed in an appropriate section within the newspaper.”Alasdair Reid, “Newspaper Advertising—The Creative Potential: What Makes a Great Newspaper Ad,” Campaign, January 20, 2006, 32. Engaging the reader quickly means a catchy headline that grabs attention. To reinforce the brand even among readers who are simply scanning the pages, the branding element should be prominent within the ad.
Newspaper ads that work well provide news value, blending into the newspaper medium. “Great ads combine headline, layout, illustration and copy with a creative dynamic to add news value and talk in my language,” claims Jerry Hill, executive vice president of Initiative.Alasdair Reid, “Newspaper Advertising—The Creative Potential: What Makes a Great Newspaper Ad,” Campaign, January 20, 2006, 32.
SS+K, The Media Kitchen, and msnbc.com agreed that newspaper wasn’t the best medium for this particular branding campaign. The print production manager at SS+K, Jeannie O’Toole, was part of this discussion. Because the color blocks used in “Spectrum” are so distinctive, Jeannie advised that re-creating the art on newsprint would not be adequate. Newsprint absorbs ink so well it causes a phenomenon referred to as dot gain and the ink has a greater chance of bleeding outside its designated boxes. These issues could result in an unclear communication: each of the color boxes represents a story, so if the ad isn’t executed properly, it will just look like a bunch of fuzzy boxes and the story will be lost.
Dig Deeper
As newspapers confront declining readership rates among young people, some of them are hedging their bets as they develop online versions. Since people increasingly access their news on the road, some see the future of newsprint as real estate on a cell phone screen. However, it’s not a simple matter to transfer a newspaper page to a much smaller reading area—the fine print becomes unintelligible. Information needs to be presented in more compact “bytes” rather than in prose-length paragraphs. For this reason, a new niche is opening as providers spring up to create mobile versions of newspapers. One such company is Verve Wireless; it provides mobile versions of four thousand newspapers. It recently developed an iPhone application for the Associated Press that allows a user to scan the day’s headlines, send articles to friends, and save articles to read later. Publishers can upload local ads to their cell phone sites, and the service can deliver targeted ads to specific readers who have searched for articles in past editions of the (mobile) newspaper.Claire Cain Miller, “A Means for Publishers to Put a Newspaper in Your Pocket,” New York Times Online, July 28, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/technology/28verve.html (accessed July 28, 2008). Is this the future of today’s hard-copy newspaper?
Magazines
Executing advertising in magazines requires not just good copywriting but also clever use of powerful images. The visuals that get people’s attention often offer some element of surprise. One of the photos considered the best in the history of advertising was created by the Saatchi and Saatchi agency to encourage use of contraceptives. It featured the photo of a man—pregnant—with the caption, “Would you be more careful if it was you that got pregnant?”
Magazines support higher resolution images and better color reproduction than do newspapers. Thus, good execution of magazine ads involves a tight link between the art and copy. For example, the headline, “And you think seat belts are too confining?” makes a powerful statement when it’s coupled with a photo of a covered dead body strapped tightly to a gurney.
Video Spotlight
Matt Ferrin, Sam Mazur, and Amit Nizan
(click to see video)
Hear about the relevance and production stress related to the print media buy.
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words—If It’s the Right Picture
Subject matter, composition, color, and lighting all play a role to create the proverbial thousand words that an image can convey. These principles apply to camera angles on still images in print as well as on billboards or in moving images like TV.
Among the key decisions creatives make on a photo shoot is the camera angle onto the subject. The angle of the camera establishes a relationship between the viewer and the image. If the camera angle is straight on, the viewer is in a position of equality with the person or object in the image. If the camera looks down on the image, it suggests that the character or object is in a subservient role relative to the viewer. Conversely, a camera angle looking up at the character or object puts the viewer into the less dominant role. When the Burton Snowboard Company started to sell gear for women, the company redesigned its Web site after it got negative feedback from female riders who complained that the images made them look like snow bunnies. Now, it shoots female models from the bottom looking up, which makes them look more empowered.Rebecca Gardyn, “Granddaughters of Feminism,” American Demographics (April 2001): 43–47.
Framing also plays a role in our reaction to and interpretation of the image. A close-up puts us in an intimate or personal relationship with the image, whereas a long shot represents an impersonal relationship. Similarly, a frontal angle involves us with the character, whereas an oblique angle detaches us from the character. Burton Snowboard framed the product shots in its men’s section feature to feature tighter shots of the gear itself, since Burton’s research showed that males are interested in the board’s technical details.Rebecca Gardyn, “Granddaughters of Feminism,” American Demographics (April 2001): 43–47.
The art director is responsible for selecting the image that will be used in the print communication (and all communication for that matter). An image can either be bought or shot. Stock photo agencies like Getty Images are an example of a resource where art directors can search a database to see if the image they have in mind for an ad already exists. If it does, the art director works with the art buyer at the agency to secure the rights to use that image.
If the image doesn’t exist in stock, a photo shoot is recommended. The art buyer reviews and selects different photographers or visual specialists to present to the art director. The art director evaluates their portfolios and may have a few meetings with the different photographers to determine their comprehension of the creative vision. Once a photographer is selected by the art director, the associated costs are compiled by the art buyer. The account manager is responsible for keeping the client involved in the status of the project and staying within budget.
TV
As a medium, TV is powerful because it combines elements that can’t be used in print or radio alone. Art directors can blend words with images—real or animated—and music. TV can demonstrate products, but it also can create moods via graphic images and sounds. Coordinating all these elements requires multiple participants on the agency side to manage the creative process, storyboards, and copywriting, as well as a producer to oversee all the activities related to the broadcast production.
Producing the TV commercial often requires hiring a production company, which will have its own director in charge of film, a producer in charge of the production crew on each shoot, a production manager who oversees logistics like dressing rooms and food service, a camera department, an art department, and editors who create the final commercial, or “spot,” in postproduction through cutting and joining frames and audio. There are different considerations that the producer must manage depending on whether the spot is live action or animation. Live action also involves casting, auditions, wardrobe, talent contracts, and so forth. Animation projects may not involve a traditional “shoot,” but as the production process is very exacting, it is important for all producers to manage the steps of the process and for account managers to identify the correct points of client approval.
Video Highlight
Justin Timberlake 2007 Super Bowl Commercial—Behind the Scenes
(click to see video)
This video includes an interview with Justin Timberlake and behind-the-scenes footage to show how the commercial was made.
Another very important function of producing television spots is sound. Dialogue between characters in a spot is one main sound, and VO or voice-over is another common sound element used in television spots. A voice-over is used sometimes as an announcer and sometimes as a legal blip at the end of a spot.
The music supervisor oversees the sound design, the music, and the mix. Sound design refers to the audio elements that enhance the story being told by the visual. These elements are specific to frames or movements within the spot. Music is a background track that runs throughout a commercial spot. The purpose of this sound is to create and reinforce the emotional tone throughout the communication. The mix or final mix blends the married elements of dialogue or VO, sound design, and music so that the desired story is achieved. Executing well in TV requires great attention to all these details.
Video Spotlight
Matt Ferrin, Sam Mazur, and Amit Nizan
(click to see video)
Matt, Sam, and Amit discuss the TV production process for the msnbc.com TV spots.
Radio
Executing well in radio requires strong copywriting. “The mistake that people make is in thinking that radio is just sound without any visuals,” said Paul Brazier, executive creative director, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. “In truth, radio is one of the most visual mediums that demands discipline and tightness of communication. Radio script writing teaches you about tone of voice and forces creatives to think visually.” Sound effects reinforce the images copy creates. The “PSST!” of a beer bottle being opened or the reverberating sound effect of a stadium sound system helps pull the listener into the ad’s storyline.Quoted in Martin Pazzani, “Making the Most of Music,” Advertising Age, June 11, 2007, 21.
Executing well in radio also means paying special attention to music. Indeed, the music itself can be part of your brand (such as NBC’s three-tone sound trademark, heard for many years at the beginning of NBC TV shows when the peacock logo was displayed). Some companies simply license a current hit or a classic song to convey a feeling. Although it’s true that music gets attention and creates an emotional conduit, licensing an existing song has three downsides:
1. Consumers already have preexisting connections with the song that may not fit with your brand or may add unneeded baggage that distracts from the brand.
2. If the artist falls out of favor, the money you’ve invested linking your brand to the artist is threatened (e.g., singer Michael Jackson’s endorsement of Pepsi lost value when he admitted he doesn’t drink soda; his troubles with the legal system didn’t help either).
3. Your target audience may tire of the tune.
To avoid these downsides, some companies feel it’s worth the money to commission original music to uniquely suit the brand. Rather than being an add-on, the music becomes a branding tool in itself. Original music can grow with the brand as needed. It can also be written with specific ethnicities or demographics in mind while it maintains the core theme.
Two companies understand the strategic role of music particularly well. McDonald’s’ “I’m Lovin’ It” tagline and audio logo has become a powerful mnemonic device for brand recognition. McDonald’s Chief Marketing Officer Mary Dillon believes that “marketers who do not understand the power of music will quickly be left behind.” And the TBWA/Chiat/Day agency has created a unique and distinctive sonic personality for Infiniti that perfectly matches the cars themselves. The original music and sound, which is unlike any other brand’s jingle, creates a very contemporary feel.“Those Who Get It—And Those Who Just Don’t,” Advertising Age, June 11, 2007, 21.
Research on effective versus ineffective radio ads identifies these factors as having the greatest impact:“Is There a Crisis in Radio Creativity?” Campaign, March 30, 2007, 19; Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab, “Radio Effectiveness and Execution,” March 2004, http://www.rab.com, by paid subscription (accessed February 12, 2009).
• Number of words (more is better, all else being equal)
• Brand mentions (more is better; early in the ad is better)
• Number of different ideas (more than four or five is bad)
• Execution format (straight announcement and “sing-and-sell” were weakest)
• Simple duplication of a TV soundtrack (not good)
• Duration (spots of forty-five seconds or more are more effective)
Dig Deeper
Fans of R&B singer Chris Brown may have noticed a brief reference to an old chewing-gum jingle in his hit song, “Forever,” when he sings, “Double your pleasure/double your fun.” They found out why when the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. revealed in a press conference that the song actually is an extended version of a new commercial jingle that the singer wrote to promote Doublemint gum. The ad agency Translation Advertising signed three different performers to update the company’s chewing gum brands with new jingles: in addition to Brown, R&B singer Ne-Yo does his own version of Big Red’s “Kiss a Little Longer” jingle, and Dancing With the Stars regular Julianne Hough recorded a twangy version of Juicy Fruit’s “The Taste Is Gonna Move Ya.” The Wrigley campaign shows how the deep the ties run between advertising and the music industry—and how much deeper they’re getting. As the head of the agency noted, the strategy was to connect the song with the jingle from the start: “By the time the new jingle came out, it was already seeded properly within popular culture.”Quoted in Ethan Smith and Julie Jargon, “Chew on This: Hit Song is a Gum Jingle,” Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2008, B1.
Outdoor
Outdoor advertising has been around since the late 1800s, when posting “bills” on wooden boards led to the birth of the term “billboard.” Today, the out-of-home category includes not only the roadside billboards but also “car cards” in public transportation; in-store displays; and displays in airports, sports arenas, transit shelters, and ski areas—even on rocket ships!
Billboards: More than Just a Big Print Ad
Although a billboard seems like a magazine ad that’s just printed on a mega scale, that’s not the case. Billboards use more images and less copy than do print ads. Executing well on billboards means creating a visual image or short phrase that gets the message across quickly—literally in the blink of an eye.
One key characteristic of outdoor advertising is that it is situated in a fixed context: a physical environment that provides room for the ad to connect to or play with. Billboards are not restricted to their rectangular spaces, like print or TV ads; they can burst out into space. For example, a Bic Shaver billboard shows the shaver seemingly trimming the surrounding grass. Adidas created a larger-than-life David Beckham billboard that has him lunging to catch a soccer ball across the highway. The Adidas billboard stretched across above the highway, with traffic from one side seeing Beckham from the front and traffic from the opposite direction seeing him from the back. These types of billboards are referred to as “spectaculars,” because they are just that!
Outdoor advertising is branching off in new directions as billboards morph into stages that let onlookers interact with them. As an example of how outdoor advertising can go viral, a recent commercial for Oreo revolves around passersby who react to the sight of an elevator done up as one of the cookies repeatedly dunking itself into a glass of milk when it descends. The spot got a lot of attention on YouTube.
Video Highlight
Oreo in an Elevator
(click to see video)
Outdoor advertising, like this Oreo in an elevator, can attract attention in nontraditional ways.
Some of these attempts may backfire or fail to deliver a clear message as they push the envelope. A Chevrolet billboard that used real pennies was stripped clean within thirty minutes. In Singapore, advertisers painted an extra yellow safety line on a train platform with the name “Wonderbra” on it, leaving commuters to figure out the message (that the bra’s lifting qualities were so forceful that wearers would have to stand back). A recent outdoor campaign for Right Guard in London is a contender for biggest flop (at least for now): teams of actors invaded subway cars with tiny video screens in the armpits of their shirts. Whenever one of them reached up to grab a strap while riding the train, a commercial for Right Guard played in the face of a “lucky” fellow strap-hanger.Stephanie Clifford, “Summer Silliness Brings a Pizza Field and a Giant Oreo,” New York Times Online, August 1, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/business/media/01adco.html (accessed August 1, 2008).
Enter the Digital Billboard
Technology is transforming the humble billboard in fascinating ways. Digital billboards change messages instantly. They can also be Bluetooth-enabled. For example, billboards in the London subway let passersby download selections from the latest Coldplay album. Other billboards, in shopping malls, have virtual footballs teed up that passersby can “kick” on an interactive floor display. These new technologies let consumers interact with—and be immersed in—outdoor advertising as never before. This floor technology is similar to an interactive projection that inspired the msnbc.com interactive movie game NewsBreaker Live.
Video Spotlight
Amit Nizan, Matt Ferrin, and Sam Mazur
(click to see video)
Matt Ferrin, Sam Mazur, and Amit Nizan discuss the technological inspiration that led to the interactive NewsBreaker Live game that played in movie theaters.
Jack Sullivan, senior vice president of out-of-home media at Starcom, sees this trend increasing as the population becomes even more wireless. “Consumers are out there with downtime on the streets. If you can get them to play, to interact with your sign, you are being invited into that decision maker’s lifestyle and they are opting in to share their personal time with you; it hopefully is having a heck of a lot more impact and is leading to increased sales.”Quoted in Tony Case, “Take it Outside: A Surge in Interactive Out-Of-Home Messages Revitalizes the Oldest Ad Medium,” Brandweek, November 6, 2006, 16.
Dig Deeper
As SS+K discovered, movie theaters are a prime venue to reach consumers, and (like it or not) it’s common for commercials to appear before the feature. Now, a company called Cinescent is testing a system that pumps out the scent of an advertised brand along with the video. The first execution occurred recently in Germany for Nivea; a sixty-second spot showed a typical sunny beach scene and then suddenly the scent of Nivea sun cream was released along with the Nivea logo on the screen with the words, “Nivea. The scent of summer.” This test made quite an impression: exit polls showed a 515 percent rise in recall for the Nivea ad compared with moviegoers who saw the spot without the odor.Emma Hall, “What’s That Smell in the Movie Theater? It’s an Ad,” Advertising Age, July 24, 2008, http://www.adage.com (accessed July 28, 2008). This kind of creative execution seems to make sense—though there are some advertisers who should probably avoid the temptation to pump smells people associate with their products into crowded places (we’re talking to you, Nike).
Point-of-Purchase (POP)
Point-of-purchase (POP) advertising is designed to drive immediate—and usually impulse—purchases. Effective POP messages appear as close as possible to the time and place when the consumer makes the purchase decision. The message must either provide news about the product or offer a price incentive.
Just as billboards are going digital, so are POP displays. Digital technology adds value to POP because it lets the message change hourly, daily, or weekly—whenever the advertiser chooses. This lets advertisers keep the message fresh and new.
Digital POP also lets advertisers use motion or animation to attract the consumer’s eye or to time offers to suit the time of day or even the weather. “The cliché example is to offer soup on cold days and ice cream on hot, but it can be infinitely more clever than that,” said Angela Walters of Eye Shop, a company that designs digital POP systems.Quoted in “Viva La Revolution: The T-Shirts Read Born to Shop; Indeed, Shopping’s Been Called a National Pastime,” AdMedia, August 2007, 28.
Online
In many ways, online advertising blends the properties of the other media while it adds unique characteristics of its own. Executing in the online medium means drawing on the lessons of other similar media, while taking advantage of its unique capabilities.
How Online Ads Are Similar to Other Media
Billboards: Online advertising borrows from billboard sensibilities because it relies more on images and less on verbose copy. A banner ad is like a billboard on the information superhighway.
TV: Online ads are like TV commercials in that they can show moving images that tell a story or create dynamic visual interest. With the rise of broadband, advertisers also can use full-motion video. But executing video for a Web ad is different from regular TV in that the low resolution and frame-rate of images forces the production to avoid overly detailed and fast-moving scenes.
Print: Online text ads, such as Google’s AdWords, have similar executional issues as do print ads, especially small classified ads. The advertiser has but a few words in which to interest and motivate the viewer.
POP: Online ads share executional qualities of POP ads in that well-executed online ads trigger the impulse to click through and respond to the advertised product or service. These messages also offer the immediacy of POP ads in that both ad forms encourage the consumer to put the items directly into her shopping basket.
SS+K Spotlight
The team’s research clearly showed that the News Explorer would most likely be found online. SS+K worked with BEAM Interactive to create new and dynamic Web-based ads that would resonate with this wired consumer and support the msnbc.com brand.
Video Spotlight
Amit Nizan, Matt Ferrin, and Sam Mazur
(click to see video)
Sam Mazur, Matt Ferrin, and Amit Nizan discuss the production of the banner ads for the “Spectrum” Campaign and the importance of trust between collaborating agencies and the client.
How Online Ads Differ from Other Media
Interactivity: The biggest difference between online ads and other advertising forms is the ability to interact with the ad. In some online ads, even the act of moving the mouse can cause the ad to change in response. Interactive ads let viewers access more information, tell the advertiser about themselves, interact with the product in simulations, or be entertained by a game. Executing for interactivity means crafting an invitation to the viewer to interact with the ad, creating a user interface or game play that is both simple and engaging, and developing an interactive space that reflects the values of the brand (e.g., a youthful game versus a serious, informative presentation).
Specificity: Online advertising permits great specificity in terms of who sees the ad and in what context. The use of cookies tells site owners and advertisers who views the ad. Many registration-based sites collect key demographic data such as the user’s address, age, interests, and browsing history. The use of this information in planning online media is called behavioral targeting. The ability to “buy” keywords means that advertisers can target very narrow contexts. Executing well in interactive media means picking the target demographic and choosing keywords that reflect the type of customer you seek.
Another element of the msnbc.com campaign was search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). Interactive agency 360i worked with msnbc.com to internally optimize the site setup so that search engines could find data more easily, thus resulting in higher natural search results, which are the results of a Web search that are not sponsored. 360i also ran the SEM campaign by identifying keywords specific to msnbc.com, the new brand, and timely news. These paid search results show up in the “sponsored” section of search engines.
To keep advertising dollars from bleeding away from their newspaper pages, dailies have moved online themselves, putting up Web sites with news and information to attract online readers and advertisers. But simply posting a full-page print ad on the newspaper’s Web site doesn’t work. “People don’t want to see a flat ad on the Internet,” said Kathleen Cunningham, president of Advanced Marketing Strategies. “They want it interactive with multiple pictures.”Mark Larson, “Digital Format Presents Rubik’s Cube of Challenges to Advertisers,” San Diego Business Journal, July 9, 2007, 14.
One solution to building in interactivity is the new genre of advertising we have called branded entertainment, where the ad seamlessly integrates a product into a piece of entertainment. BMW pulled this off masterfully with its series of Internet movies several years ago. BMW’s agency GSD&M was inspired when they discovered that 85 percent of Beemer drivers visited the company’s Web site before they bought a car. The campaign team hired eight top film directors to make short films featuring BMW cars. The films were a great success—they were viewed ten million times in the first year—and two million people registered on the BMW site after watching them. In addition, 60 percent of those who registered on the site opted in to receive e-mails.
One of the best BMW movies, entitled Hostage, worked so well because it put emotion to work for the brand. It built the image of the brand in the mind of the consumer by putting the driver into a heroic role of a modern-day gunfighter who saves the day with the help of his BMW Z4. The movie worked because the car wasn’t simply a product placement—it was the instrument of the story. If the car weren’t so fast or didn’t have superior handling, it wouldn’t have let the driver triumph. One of the series’ producers remarked, “The BMW brand is in there as a character, but these aren’t really commercials. We think it’s the way lots of things will go in the future. More product placement than advertising.” When consumers were tested after seeing the movie, they perceived the BMW brand as: “a leader in innovation” and “dominating the luxury car category” and “an exhilarating driving experience.”Quoted in Aaron Barnhart, “The Internet Driving Machine; BMW Films Web Site Makes the Most of Ultimate Product Placement,” TV Barn, June 19, 2001, blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2001/06/the_internet_dr.html (accessed July 29, 2008).
Alternative Media
The total spending on alternative media in 2006 was \$387 million, which is a small fraction of the total spent on all advertising. How effective these media are remains to be seen, although it’s clear that they are attracting attention. One of the challenges for alternative media is simply finding new places to advertise. “We never know where the consumer is going to be at any point in time,” says Linda Kaplan Thaler of the Kaplan Thaler Group, a New York ad agency, “so we have to find a way to be everywhere.” New alternate media vehicles include Chinese take-out cartons and pizza boxes, school buses that play kid-friendly radio ads, and tray tables on airlines.
Marketers constantly experiment with novel ways to reach audiences that get harder and harder to reach. Procter & Gamble created a new medium when it printed trivia questions and answers on its Pringles snack chips with ink made of blue or red food coloring, whereas a company called Speaking Roses International patented a technology to laser-print words, images, or logos on flower petals.“Read My Chips? Pringles Has Plans to Print Jokes, Trivia on Its Potatoes,” Wall Street Journal on the Web, May 20, 2004, C13; David Serchuk, “A Rose with Another Name,” Forbes, December 27, 2004, 52.
School buses and airplanes boast “captive” audiences—the consumers who are there almost can’t help seeing or hearing the ad. Walt Disney has even ventured into the doctor’s office, advertising its “Little Einsteins” DVDs for preschoolers on the paper liners of examination tables in two thousand doctors’ offices. US Airways sells ad space on its motion-sickness bags—although we’re not sure if a passenger using the bag is the best target for an ad, unless it’s for a product like Pepto-Bismol or Dramamine. Some supermarket eggs show up stamped with the names of CBS TV shows on their shells. However, these innovative executions risk alienating people if they become too intrusive. “Got Milk?” billboards at some San Francisco bus stops emitted the aroma of chocolate chip cookies; they prompted enough complaints from citizens that the city asked the California Milk Processing Board to turn off the smell.Louise Story, “Is There No Escape? In Their Efforts to Grab Consumers’ Attention, Advertisers Seem Determined to Fill Every Available Space,” New York Times, April 2, 2007, 6.
As we’ve seen, mobile advertising continues to evolve as a message platform. Recently, several companies introduced innovative technologies to make this medium more effective for the growing army of iPhone users (85 percent of whom already access the mobile Internet). For example, a firm called JumpTap launched technology that allows an advertiser to place an “Action” icon within an ad that appears on the phone; this in turn allows users to launch video (via YouTube), audio, maps, and Web sites. Universal Pictures promoted the movie The Mummy with mobile ads that included a trailer of the flick and a tool to find local showtimes.Mark Walsh, “iPhone Spawns New Ad Networks,” Online Media Daily, July 25, 2008, www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=87317 &Nid=45412&p=407056 (accessed July 25, 2008).
Dig Deeper
If you’ve got \$10,000–15,000 eating a hole in your pocket, you can even put your own illuminated personal ad or a corporate logo on your tire rims. Check out the bling at http://customwheel.com/custom_wheels/product_info.php/products_id/1687.
Key Takaway
Each media platform possesses unique characteristics; some executions work better on one than another. Print (especially newspaper) works best to present factual information, while TV, magazines, and billboards are image intensive. Online works best when the advertiser builds in a great deal of interactivity; many advertisers still make the mistake of transferring a static print ad to a Web site. Alternative media options continue to evolve and can be a great way to break through the clutter of traditional media. However, advertisers risk crossing the line when their messages become too obtrusive.
EXERCISES
1. Discuss the differences between cool and hot media.
2. Discuss when print advertising makes the best executions.
3. Describe the key decisions creatives make on a photo shoot.
4. List and discuss the key functions in producing a TV commercial.
5. Characterize the downsides of licensing music for commercials.
6. Discuss how technology is changing billboards.
7. Explain how online ads are similar and different from other media ads. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/11%3A_Execute_on_All_Platforms_-_SSK_Goes_into_Production_Overdrive/11.01%3A_Chapter_Introduction.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Summarize how advertisers evaluate ad executions.
2. Explain how copy research is conducted.
3. Illustrate how pretesting and posttesting of advertisements takes place.
Recall and Recognition
Executing advertising effectively requires that consumers notice the ad, recall the brand, and remember it favorably when they make a purchase decision. Recall means that viewers can remember and retell the specific marketing messages to which they were exposed. Recognition means they recognize the brand or message when they see or hear it again, even if they can’t recite it from memory.
Because marketers pay so much money to place their messages in front of consumers, they are naturally concerned that people will actually remember these messages at a later point. It seems that they have good reason to be concerned. In one study, fewer than 40 percent of television viewers made positive links between commercial messages and the corresponding products, only 65 percent noticed the brand name in a commercial, and only 38 percent recognized a connection to an important point.“Only 38% of T.V. Audience Links Brands with Ads,” Marketing News, January 6, 1984, 10.
Ironically, we may be more likely to remember companies that we don’t like—perhaps because of the strong negative emotions they evoke. In a 2007 survey that assessed both recall of companies and their reputations, four of the ten best-remembered companies also ranked in the bottom ten of reputation rankings: Halliburton Co., Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., and Exxon Mobil Corp. In fact, Halliburton, with the lowest reputation score, scored the highest media recall of all the sixty companies in the survey.Ron Alsop, “News, Ads Shape Corporate Images,” Wall Street Journal Online, January 31, 2007, http://online.wsj.com, by paid subscription (accessed October 15, 2007).
Metrics related to recall and recognition ignite controversy even among agencies themselves. For example, Carat Insight uses recognition techniques rather than recall. Mary Jeffries, the agency’s head of evaluation, explains: “Most research techniques have relied on consumers’ ability to remember advertising messages and they then use this as a proxy for effectiveness. This means that media such as radio, outdoor, press, cinema and online suffer terribly, as they do not get recalled. Our belief is that ads can work even if you can’t spontaneously recall them. This is why [we] use a recognition technique, which is a more accurate measure of likely exposure to advertising than recall.” Carat Insight provides a service it calls integrated communications evaluation (ICE), which uses recognition techniques and statistical modeling to identify the relationship between media channels and creative executions.“Marketing League Table,” Marketing, September 5, 2007, 35.
In contrast, Intermedia Advertising Group is a research firm that measures advertising effectiveness by monitoring the TV-viewing population’s ability to remember an ad within twenty-four hours. The firm assigns a recall index to each ad to indicate the strength of the impact it had. In one recent year, while ads with well-known celebrities like Britney Spears, Austin Powers, and Michael Jordan had very high recall rates, three of the top five most remembered ads starred another (and taller) celebrity: Toys “R” Us spokesanimal Geoffrey the Giraffe.Vanessa O’Connell, “Toys ‘R’ Us Spokesanimal Makes Lasting Impression: Giraffe Tops List of Television Ads Viewers Found the Most Memorable,” Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, January 2, 2003.
Under some conditions, these two memory measures tend to yield the same results, especially when the researchers try to keep the viewers’ interest in the ads constant.Richard P. Bagozzi and Alvin J. Silk, “Recall, Recognition, and the Measurement of Memory for Print Advertisements,” Marketing Science 2 (1983): 95–134. Generally, though, recognition scores tend to be more reliable and do not decay over time the way recall scores do.Adam Finn, “Print Ad Recognition Readership Scores: An Information Processing Perspective,” Journal of Marketing Research 25 (May 1988): 168–77. Recognition scores are almost always better than recall scores because recognition is a simpler process and the consumer has more available retrieval cues.
Both types of retrieval play important roles in purchase decisions, however. Recall tends to be more important in situations in which consumers do not have product data at their disposal, so they must rely on memory to generate this information.James R. Bettman, “Memory Factors in Consumer Choice: A Review,” Journal of Marketing (Spring 1979): 37–53. On the other hand, recognition is more likely to be an important factor in a store, where retailers confront consumers with thousands of product options (i.e., external memory cues are abundantly available), and the goal is simply to get the consumer to recognize a familiar package.Mark A. Deturck and Gerald M. Goldhaber, “Effectiveness of Product Warning Labels: Effects of Consumers’ Information Processing Objectives,” Journal of Consumer Affairs 23, no. 1 (1989): 111–25.
SS+K Spotlight
SS+K and msnbc.com also wanted to be able to measure the effects of the first effort. All parties agreed that given the size of the audience and the budget, the expectation was not to convert a huge number of people but rather to articulate the brand to the target audience. Michelle Rowley and John Richardson led the research effort by enlisting a firm called Russell Research to conduct surveys before the launch and then again after the launch to be able to understand any changes. Catherine Captain’s research background also came in quite handy here, as all agencies worked together to set up the appropriate parameters. We’ll reveal the results of this research in Chapter 14 "ROI: msnbc.com Decides if the Campaign Worked".
The Stopping Power of Creative Ads: Are They Effective, or Just Cool?
Other agencies maintain that above all, the ad must get noticed. And very creative ads do get noticed—they break through the clutter. Ads that win creative awards have twice the “stopping power” of regular non-award-winning ads. They get your attention. Moreover, award-winning ads create buzz. Even after two decades, people still talk about Apple’s “1984” ad.
Video Highlight
Apple’s “1984” Ad
(click to see video)
This commercial, which aired during the 1984 Super Bowl, is an example of a breakthrough creative message.
But, although they are more entertaining, creative ads also can confuse the very people they’re intended to persuade. Sometimes a clever ad can be too hip for its own good. Research on award-winning ads finds that consumers are more likely to say “I couldn’t tell what that brand had to do with what was said and shown.” This means that executions may require tweaks (which copy testing can guide) so that the ads are able to generate sales for the brand as well.Charles Young and Larry Cohen, “Creative Awards vs. Copytesting,” Quirk’s Marketing Research Review, April 2004.
Cheer up: advertisers do not have to simply sit back and hope for the best. By being aware of some basic factors that increase or decrease attention, they can take steps to increase the likelihood that product information will get through. An advertiser who wants to wake people up can:Parts of this section are adapted from Michael R. Solomon, Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having and Being, 8th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009). Cf. also David W. Stewart and David H. Furse, “Analysis of the Impact of Executional Factors in Advertising Performance,” Journal of Advertising Research 24 (1984): 23–26; Deborah J. MacInnis, Christine Moorman, and Bernard J. Jaworski, “Enhancing and Measuring Consumers’ Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability to Process Brand Information from Ads,” Journal of Marketing 55 (October 1991): 332–53.
• Use novel stimuli, such as unusual cinematography, sudden silences, or unexpected movements. When a British online bank called Egg Banking introduced a credit card to the French market, its ad agency created unusual commercials to make people question their assumptions. One ad stated, “Cats always land on their paws,” and then two researchers in white lab coats dropped a kitten off a rooftop—never to see it again (animal rights activists were not amused).Elaine Sciolino, “Disproving Notions, Raising a Fury,” New York Times on the Web, January 21, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/21/business/media/21ADCO. html?ex=1234501200&en=eafd1f9635946454&ei=5070 (accessed February 10, 2009).
• Use prominent stimuli, such as loud music and fast action, to capture attention. In print formats, larger ads increase attention. Also, viewers look longer at colored pictures than at black-and-white ones.
New Ideas Support New Brand Launches
Attention-getting ads are particularly valuable when the communication objective is to help launch a new brand by boosting awareness and generating buzz. Apple’s “1984” ad is a case in point; the classic spot elevated the Apple brand from simply a utilitarian message (how a computer makes you productive) to an icon representing an attitude and point of view. Before the breakthrough “1984” ad, Apple’s TV commercials used slice-of-life and problem-solution frameworks. The “1984” commercial—shown only during the Super Bowl—created huge buzz for its allegory and cinematic distinctiveness. It created a position for Apple as revolutionary, liberating—much more strongly than a recounting of Macintosh’s user-friendly features would have done.
Copy Research
Copy research provides evidence that your ad gets the audience’s attention and delivers a message that motivates the consumer to consider buying your product or service. The overall effectiveness of an ad is a combination of three variables:
1. Attention: Entertainment value is a major predictor of attention-getting power, but if consumers don’t see the connection of the ad to the brand, the ad won’t lead to a sale.
2. Branding: Communicating an idea or feeling that the consumer already has about the brand confirms the value of reminder advertising. Even better is advertising that communicates a new idea or a new feeling, but one that still fits the brand in the eyes of the consumer. This kind of advertising helps consumers to see the brand in a new light, to think about it in a new way.
3. Motivation: Finally, an effective ad makes the viewer want to take action and buy the product. Pretesting asks the test subject whether they are more likely to buy the product now or in the future.
Pretesting and Posttesting
Copy research involves two phases: pretesting and posttesting. Pretesting takes place before the campaign starts. Posttesting takes place after the campaign, to evaluate the effectiveness of the copy in communicating its message.
The idea behind pretesting is to verify that the product claims and technical aspects of the ad resonate with the target audience. Pretesting also identifies weak spots within an ad campaign. Pretesting can also be used to edit a longer commercial into a shorter one, or to select images from the spot to use in an integrated campaign’s print ad.Charles E. Young, The Advertising Research Handbook (New York: Ideas in Flight, 2005), 27–30. This process often involves asking consumers to place the ad into one of these categories based on their perception of the brand:
• Reinforcement: The ad fits the way I already think and feel about the brand.
• Augmentation: The ad gives me a new idea or feeling toward the brand, and I can see how it fits the brand.
• Dissonance: The ad does not fit the brand at all.Charles E. Young, “Finding the Creative Edge: Research as Flow,” Admap, December 2006.
Copy Testing: Comparing Appeals
A related term, copy testing, refers to testing one type of execution over another, or one kind of product feature, benefit, or price over another. Copy testing is done before launching the campaign to fine-tune the ad to be most effective.
Copy research involves assessing that the consumer noticed the ad, was able to recall the brand name, learned something about the brand, and became favorably disposed to trying or buying the product. Companies like Ameritest, Anderson Analytics, and Millward Brown specialize in providing copy testing and related research to ad agencies and advertisers.
The Starch test, the product of a research service founded in 1932, is a widely used commercial measure of advertising recall for magazines. This service provides scores on a number of aspects of consumers’ familiarity with an ad, including such categories as “noted,” “associated,” and “read most.” It also scores the impact of the component parts of an overall ad, giving such information as “seen,” for major illustrations, and “read some,” for a major block of copy.Adam Finn, “Print Ad Recognition Readership Scores: An Information Processing Perspective,” Journal of Marketing Research 25 (1988): 168–77. Factors such as the size of the ad, whether it appears toward the front or the back of the magazine, if it is on the right or left page, and the size of illustrations play an important role in affecting the amount of attention readers give to an ad.
Dig Deeper
Believe it or not, only 7 percent of television viewers can recall the product or company featured in the most recent television commercial they watched. This figure represents less than half the recall rate recorded in 1965. We can explain this drop-off in terms of such factors as the increase of thirty- and fifteen-second commercials and the practice of airing television commercials in clusters rather than in single-sponsor programs.“Terminal Television,” American Demographics (January 1987): 15.
Television commercials tell a visually compelling story with moving pictures. During a TV commercial, the audience’s feelings change as they move through the film. Copy research company Ameritest calls this the “flow of emotion” and uses it as a measurement device based on frame-by-frame testing. This technique involves taking a deck of photographic images—created by grabbing key frames from the commercial—that represent the visual content of the ad. Consumers sort the images into a one-to-five scale from “very negative” to “very positive” feelings. The number of frames in a test varies with the visual complexity of the ad rather than its length. A typical thirty-second commercial will break down into about ten to thirty frames for viewers to evaluate. The resulting sort by the consumer shows how (or whether) their emotional response changed during the commercials. Frames can also test whether the commercial prompted the viewer to think about the brand (on a one-to-five scale from “did not make me think” to “made me think a lot”).Charles E. Young and John Kastenholz, “Emotion in TV Ads,” Admap, January 2004.
Creativity versus Safety
Many creatives believe that testing a campaign will drain the creativity from the campaign—that the only messages audiences will “approve” will be those that are safe and predictable, and hence, boring. Advertising legend David Ogilvy, however, disagreed. Near the end of his career he commented, “Most creative people detest research, and I’ve never understood why.…In my day, I used research very often to give me the courage to run campaigns that were risky.”
In fact, copy research can actually give you the evidence to go with a radical or risky idea that company executives might not have approved otherwise. Boring ads that don’t tell the consumer anything new aren’t very effective. The most effective ads are those that stretch the meaning of the brand in the mind of the consumer. That is, the consumer learns something new about the brand, or the ad pushes the frontier of the brand. An effective ad is neither too far removed from the brand nor too staid.
Key Takaway
The harsh reality is that consumers don’t remember the large majority of advertising messages they see or hear. And if they do recall an ad, this doesn’t mean they’ll associate the image with the brand. Even slight differences in the elements of an ad influence its effectiveness (for example, the colors or fonts in a print ad). Careful pretesting increases the odds that a message will accomplish its objective. Copy research provides evidence that your ad gets the audience’s attention and delivers a message that motivates the consumer to consider buying your product or service. Advertisers typically try to determine if people can recall an ad’s contents, or at least recognize it when they see or hear it again. Both measures have their supporters; overall recognition is used more widely. Novel or innovative ads are most effective when the objective is to create buzz or brand awareness, but more straightforward executions do a better job when the objective is to deliver information or move consumers from one well-known brand to another.
EXERCISES
1. Define recall and recognition.
2. Explain how the stopping power of creative ads can be increased.
3. List and describe the three variables that contribute to overall ad effectiveness.
4. Explain pretesting and posttesting.
5. Describe how a Starch test is conducted. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/11%3A_Execute_on_All_Platforms_-_SSK_Goes_into_Production_Overdrive/11.03%3A_How_Do_We_Know_What_Worked_Evaluating_Ad_Executions.txt |
Tie it All Together
Now that you have read this chapter, you should be able to determine how to execute on media platforms:
• You can define the execution process.
• You can list and characterize the various media platforms available to the advertiser.
• You can compare and contrast the print media against the broadcast media with respect to ability to solve creative problems.
• You can describe the role music plays in the execution process.
• You can recognize the downside of licensing music for advertising purposes.
• You can list the factors that impact the effectiveness of radio ads.
• You can characterize outdoor advertising and some of its new technologies.
• You can describe the similarities and differences between online advertising and other media advertising.
• You can explain how search engine marketing and search engine optimization are related to behavioral targeting.
• You can discuss the concept of branded entertainment and its usefulness to marketing and advertising.
• You can summarize how advertisers evaluate ad executions.
• You can explain how copy research is accomplished.
• You can illustrate how pretesting and posttesting of advertisements takes place.
USE WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED
1. The big winner at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China, was the American “swimming machine” Michael Phelps. Phelps has won fourteen Olympic gold medals in swimming, and eight of those came in the 2008 games. Phelps has signed endorsement deals with companies such as Visa, Speedo, Omega, Hilton, and AT&T. According to Facebook, more than 750,000 people have declared themselves to be fans of Mr. Phelps.
Examine the various mass media reviewed in the first part of the chapter for execution characteristics. After learning more facts about Mr. Phelps and his skills, devise a media mix that would make the best use of Mr. Phelps’s endorsement for any of the given companies listed previously (pick one company). What do you believe is the key to effective execution in Michael Phelps’s case? What should potential advertisers guard against in using Michael Phelps to endorse products? What do you think the future holds for Michael Phelps as an advertising spokesperson and personality? Share your comments and findings in a class discussion.
2. The Outdoor Advertising Association of America Inc. is the place to go to get information on the outdoor industry and its campaigns (see http://www.oaaa.org). The OAAA is famous for donating time and energy to help with social causes that are in the public interest. Go to the organization’s Web site and review the current public service campaigns. Pick one of these campaigns and critique the execution effort. Be sure to examine the creative itself, prospective target audiences, and locations of the message boards. After examining the information, assess the usefulness of outdoor advertising in public service advertising. What do you think should be added or withdrawn from the industry’s and the OAAA’s effort? Discuss your conclusions in class.
DIGITAL NATIVES
Daniel Starch was one of the advertising industry’s first researchers. He developed the famous Starch test that has been used to test advertising effectiveness. The Starch test is still in existence today. Using Google or another search engine, research Daniel Starch and his famous readership effectiveness test (see http://www.starchresearch.com). Using the information you find, compare the Starch test with other advertising readership effectiveness tests you will find mentioned during your general search. Summarize your findings on Starch and other sources of readership effectiveness. What are the similarities and differences between the tests? Which one do you think has the most potential for advertising research? Explain. Bring in an example of the Starch test to class (it can be downloaded from most search sources).
AD-VICE
1. Find a nationally advertised product that uses both broadcast and print advertising. Collect (or describe) samples of the product’s advertising from both the broadcast and print media. Briefly describe which of the general media formats provides the best execution of the product’s advertising. Explain your position. Be specific in your justifications.
2. Assume that you have just been hired to devise a new outdoor advertising campaign for Coca-Cola; design (or characterize) two ads for any Coca-Cola product for the outdoor medium. One ad should be for the standard outdoor poster. The other ad should be for some new technological form of outdoor advertising (such as mentioned in the chapter). Critique your creative effort. Which execution is best? Why?
3. Describe how keyword searches can be used by advertisers to find the “right customers.” Find an illustration that you believe uses your keywords to alert an advertiser to your potential interest in particular products. Comment and explain. Discuss your findings in class.
4. As indicated in the chapter, the overall effectiveness of an ad is a combination of three variables. List and describe these three variables. Pick a print ad and demonstrate how these three variables can be used to determine the effectiveness of the ad. Explain your assumptions and conclusions. Discuss the ad and your evaluation in class.
ETHICAL DILEMMA
Do you think it’s a good idea to place “cookies” on a consumer’s computer? The use of cookies tells Web site owners and advertisers who views the ad. Nothing wrong with that—right? After all, many registration-based sites collect key demographic data such as the user’s address, age, interests, and browsing history. This information, however, allows the organization to use online media for behavioral targeting. As mentioned in the chapter, the ability to “buy” keywords means that advertisers can target very narrow contexts. Again, there seems to be nothing wrong with this approach to marketing. So where might the ethical dilemma reside?
Critics point out that cookies are data sources that just “keep on giving.” Many consumers complain that cookies never go away and are the source of endless viruses. This little back door into the consumer’s purchasing habits, preferences, and demographics has become a big issue. Consumers with health problems (e.g., cancer), risky behavior (e.g., sky diving), addictions (e.g., alcohol or smoking), or alternative lifestyle choices claim that cookies allow them to be profiled and discriminated against by product, health, and insurance companies. In some instances, the U.S. government even uses this technology to track consumer actions and preferences.
Investigate the use of cookies and organizational policies that are intended to protect consumer information (see company Web sites for disclosure and privacy statements). Take a stance: (a) Cookies are harmless and help marketers target the correct market with messages and don’t significantly invade privacy; or (b) Cookies are harmful, invade privacy, lead to discriminatory practices, and should be banned. Summarize your stance. Participate in a minidebate in class. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/11%3A_Execute_on_All_Platforms_-_SSK_Goes_into_Production_Overdrive/11.04%3A_Exercises.txt |
You’ve done your homework. You understand your audience, you’ve identified the objectives and strategy for your campaign, and you know what media you’ll use to reach your target consumers. You’re almost there—but you’ve still got to decide how to say what you want to say.
Should you focus on reason or appeal to the heartstrings? Should you spell out the arguments or show visually why your idea, product, or service is worth a serious look? Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words; other times it’s just a pretty picture. Usually, you need both words and images to get your ideas across, so you need both copywriters and art directors to do their magic. In this chapter we’ll take a look at some of the options the advertiser has available to make it sell.
12.02: Keys to Superior Advertising
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Define relevance and resonance.
2. Explain why having an emotional connection is the common denominator for most successful ads.
3. List and describe the five factors that constitute an ad’s likeability.
The keys to superior advertising are resonance and relevance. A great ad makes a deep impression that reverberates inside you and stays with you, while it creates a bond between you and the product. “Just do it.”
Relevance and Resonance
Relevance is the extent to which the images, ideas, concepts, and advertised product attributes overlap with the target’s needs, wants, values, context, or situation. Resonance is the extent to which these images, ideas, concepts, and advertised product attributes connect more deeply in the target’s heart and mind. Let’s look at a few examples of how the two factors work together and then dig into more detail about how exactly to make a message sell.
Example: Household Challenge Meets Household Humor
Say your client is a bank that wants to promote its home mortgage product—an especially tough proposition in this era of foreclosures and banking scandals. The objective of the message is to show that your mortgage terms won’t be as burdensome as the competition’s. How can you get this message across? It’s not the sexiest idea in the world, but then again, saving money does turn a lot of people on.
Ad agency Hall Moore CHI faced this challenge with its client NatWest, a British bank. Art director Richard Megson and copywriter Matthew Davis worked together to create an animated TV ad that showed a man struggling under the weight of a huge mortgage. He threw his burden into a washing machine and shrank it to manageable size. The message was simple and clear—the idea of shrinking a huge mortgage was appealing and relevant to the target audience of homeowners.“Simplicity Originality Relevance,” Precision Marketing, August 24, 2007, 17. This execution delivers both relevance with its image of a large mortgage (as many consumers struggle with these today) and resonance as it graphically depicts the tempting process of shrinking one’s debt in the wash. If only it were that easy in real life!
Example: The Resonance of Personal Stories
Now let’s consider Adidas’ “Impossible Is Nothing” campaign. The campaign originally launched in 2004 to coincide with the Olympics. Ads featured great athletes of the day in clever integration with great athletes of the past. The visuals made it seem as though the athletes were interacting across the ages. For example, in the ad “Laila,” boxing great Muhammad Ali goes into the ring with his boxer daughter, Laila Ali. The two spar and Laila eventually lands a punch that sends her dad backwards into the ropes. The film of Muhammad was culled from two of his fights from the 1960s, while Laila was shot in front of a blue screen so the two images could appear together.Art Smith, “Achieving the Impossible: Adidas Seamlessly Marries Past Olympians with Their Contemporaries,” SHOOT, August 20, 2004, 18. Although the athletes and the special effects were fun to watch, they were not driving home the message because, ironically, the events depicted in the “Impossible Is Nothing” ads were impossible. The impossible was made possible only via an optical illusion, and that didn’t resonate with the audience.
Fast-forward to 2007. This time, Adidas found a better way to express the idea of doing the impossible. Its new ads featured personal stories from athletes, both famous (David Beckham) and not so famous (Boston Marathon runner Kathryn Smolen). In the spots its agency 180 Amsterdam/TBWA created, the athletes told true stories of challenges that they had overcome—their own “impossible.” For Olympic swimming superstar Ian Thorpe, the challenge was an allergy to chlorine—an allergy that sidelined him until he gradually overcame it.
The athletes hand-draw a picture as they talk. The simple drawings are primitive; they remind us of childhood and thus echo the storyline. For example, twenty-two-year-old American sprinter Allyson Felix draws herself as a stick figure with legs that look like ski poles as she explains that kids taunted her with the name “chicken legs” when she started out as a little kid playing basketball. Later, she says, “I came out for the track team and kind of wanted to prove everybody wrong.” Next we see her as she wins an Olympic medal. “People putting you down can drive you to do things you didn’t even think you could do yourself,” she proclaims.Barbara Lippert, “The Impossible Dream: Super Athletes, Simple Drawings Make Adidas Ads Hypnotic,” Adweek, April 16, 2007, 44; www.adidas.com/campaigns/usiin/content. Although the drawings are animated by artists at Passion Pictures, the feeling is personal and human. As Jason Oke of ad agency Leo Burnett Toronto commented, “After watching these I get inspired and I actually get what it means to attempt something that everyone else thinks you can’t do.”
Just as an ad can resonate with a person, elements of an ad ideally work together to reinforce each other as the childhood stories and drawings of the Adidas campaign did. Another example is an ad for a diet strawberry cheesecake that pairs the luscious image of the cake with the words “berried treasure,” to evoke the connotation of hidden delights and richness that lies inside. The play on words requires some thought, which rewards viewers with satisfaction when they “get it” and strengthens the connection among all the elements—words, images, product, brand, and meaning.
Emotion, the Common Denominator
The common denominator among the most successful ads is that they create an emotional connection with the brand. They appeal to the heart, not just the mind.
Video Highlight
Zales: Greatest Marriage Proposal Ever
(click to see video)
This Zales commercial uses an emotional appeal to sell its celebration diamond.
A large-scale study that analyzed award-winning campaigns found that the most effective ones focus on emotional, rather than rational, appeals.“Marketing Theory: Everything You Know is Wrong.” Marketing, June 13, 2007, 28. What’s more, the Gallup organization reports that customers who are “passionate” about a brand deliver two times the profitability of average customers.
We simply can’t take the emotional contact a company has with customers and the emotional impact of its brand for granted. For example, Procter & Gamble traditionally advertised its Pampers diapers on the basis of their performance in keeping baby dry. But, as Jim Stengel (recently retired), chief marketing officer at Procter & Gamble, said, “Our baby-care business didn’t start growing aggressively [in the early 2000s] until we changed Pampers from being about dryness to being about helping Mom with her baby’s development. That was a sea change.”Quoted in Geoff Colvin, “Selling P&G,” Fortune, September 18, 2007, http://money.cnn.com (accessed October 12, 2007). The lesson: wrap your practical products with an offer that appeals to emotions. People are more loyal to brands they “feel,” not just those they think about.
Of course, not all brands necessarily bring a tear to the eye—the point is to figure out just how the brand resonates with its audience and to develop messages that reinforce this relationship. One well-known branding consultant argues that there are three ways a brand can resonate: it can hit you in the head, the heart, or the gut:Marc Gobé, Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People (New York: Allworth Press, 2001).
• Aveda hits the consumer in the head. The brand is smart, intriguing, and stimulating.
• Godiva hits the consumer in the heart. The brand is sensual, beloved, and trusted.
• Prada hits the consumer in the gut. The brand is sexy and cool, and you “have to have it.”
What Makes an Ad Work: It’s Like, Likeability
A large-scale study of prime-time commercials found that the likeability of a commercial was the best single predictor of its sales effectiveness.Alex Biel, “Love the Ad. Buy the Product? Why Liking the Advertising and Preferring the Brand Aren’t Such Strange Bedfellows After All,” Admap, September 1990; Wendy Gordon, “What Do Consumers Do Emotionally with Advertising,” Journal of Advertising Research 46, no. 1 (March 2006): 2–10. The author noted that “consumers first form an overall impression of an advertisement on a visceral or ‘gut’ level. To the extent that this impression is positive they are likely to continue to process the advertising more fully.”
He found five factors that constitute an ad’s likeability:
1. Ingenuity—clever, imaginative, original, silly, and not dull
2. Meaningfulness—worth remembering, effective, not pointless, not easy to forget, true to life, convincing, informative, and believable
3. Energy—lively, fast moving, appealing, and well done
4. Warmth—gentle, warm, and sensitive
5. Does not rub the wrong way—not worn out, not phony, and not irritating
So, at the end of the day, no matter how you do it, you want people to like your ads. That sounds like a “no-brainer,” though many advertising messages don’t achieve this simple objective. Why is it so important that people like your ad?
• Likeable commercials are less likely to be avoided (zapped).
• Likeability is the “gatekeeper” to further processing: once a likeable ad gets our attention, we’re more likely to think about the message it’s conveying.
• The positive feelings the ad evokes transfer from the advertisement to the brand.
SS+K Spotlight
Refer back to Chapter 11 "Execute on All Platforms: SS+K Goes into Production Overdrive" and the three campaign options SS+K presented to msnbc.com. Which of these do you think has the most emotional resonance for the News Explorer?
Key Takaway
An advertisement can grab you in a lot of different ways—but it needs to grab you in some way. One way is to be relevant to your situation and needs; another is to be resonant with your desires. If nothing else, be sure people like your ad—it’s all downhill from there.
EXERCISES
1. Explain why resonance and relevance are the keys to superior advertising.
2. Discuss the “common denominator” that most successful advertisements have in common.
3. List and characterize each of the five factors that constitute an ad’s likeability. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/12%3A_Make_the_Message_Sell_-_SSK_Ensures_that_All_Components_Tell_the_Brand_Story/12.01%3A_Chapter_Introduction.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. List and discuss five advertising appeals that a creative team can use to structure advertising.
2. Recall and explain the six categories of values that are universal in advertising.
3. Understand how media and social networking sites can be used to advocate brands and brand messages.
All ads need some type of appeal—a psychological basis that motivates the viewer toward the advertiser’s goals. The creative team can choose from a variety of appeals to help structure the advertising. Let’s have a look at the most common ones.
Sex Appeal
Does sex sell? A sex appeal can be vaguely suggestive and subtle, or it can hit you over the head—like the Carl’s Jr. ad that shows a soapy Paris Hilton washing a car (as if she would ever wash her own car!). It’s important to consider cultural differences in gauging sex appeal, as some countries allow more exposure of skin or sexual situations than others. In the United States, a passionate kiss between man and woman is perfectly fine, whereas in India such a display in public could be punishable by a fine, three months of jail time, or both.
There’s no doubt that sex gets our attention—and companies often deliberately push the envelope. Yves Saint Laurent promoted its men’s fragrance M7 with a full frontal nude photo of former martial arts champion Samuel de Cubber in fashion magazines like the French edition of Vogue. “Perfume is worn on the skin, so why hide the body?” said the ad’s designer, Tom Ford. Some mainstream publishers, however, featured a cropped version of the ad.“YSL Goes Full-Frontal with Men’s Fragrance Ad,” October 18, 2002, http://news1.iwon.com/odd/article/id/275228%7Coddlyenough %7C10-18-2002::10:43%7Creuters.html (accessed August 7, 2008). Similarly, Abercrombie & Fitch used nude models in its quarterly magalog but ended up dropping the campaign after loud and sustained protests from feminist groups and groups like the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families.David Carr and Tracie Rozhon, “Abercrombie & Fitch to End its Racy Magazine,” New York Times Online, December 10, 2003, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage. html?res=950CE2D71F3DF933A25751C1A9659C8B63 (accessed August 7, 2008).
Given the potentially negative reaction, do sexual appeals work? Products for which sex appeals work best are those aimed at teen or college-age buyers or for products like wine, perfume, beauty products, and lingerie. Advertisers need to tread lightly and avoid the temptation to go all-out: although erotic content does appear to draw attention to an ad, a sex appeal runs the risk of alienating the audience. And ironically, titillating the viewer may actually hinder recall of the advertised product. In one survey, an overwhelming 61 percent of the respondents said that sexual imagery in a product’s ad makes them less likely to buy it.Rebecca Gardyn, “Where’s the Lovin’?” American Demographics (February 2001): 10.
In 2007, Dial rebranded its Soft & Dri deodorant with a focus on the sexy rather than on the functional attributes of the deodorant. “We’re trying to take the brand to a more emotional and less functional area,” said Vanessa Kamerer, Dial’s brand manager for Soft & Dri. To revive the brand, Dial conducted research and learned that consumers associated Soft & Dri with soft and sexy. Kamerer thought this was an important advantage and distinction for the brand because most other brands in the sector focused on technology. Kamerer pointed out, however, that the brand had to be careful with the “sexy” positioning. “Sexy is a tricky one with women,” she said. “For a lot of women sexy can be trampy or slutty and that’s not what we wanted.”Constantine Von Hoffman, “Dial Corp. Tries Bringing ‘Sexy’ Soft & Dri Back: Rebranding Makes an Emotional Appeal to Women,” Brandweek, January 29, 2007, 9. She’s right: research shows that female nudity in print ads generates negative feelings and tension among female consumers, whereas men’s reactions are more positive.Michael S. LaTour, “Female Nudity in Print Advertising: An Analysis of Gender Differences in Arousal and Ad Response,” Psychology & Marketing 7, no. 1 (1990): 65–81. In a case of turnabout being fair play, another study found that males dislike nude males in ads, whereas females responded well to undressed males—but not totally nude ones.Penny M. Simpson, Steve Horton, and Gene Brown, “Male Nudity in Advertisements: A Modified Replication and Extension of Gender and Product Effects,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 24, no. 3 (1996): 257–62.
In some cases, the purpose of the nudity is simply to create buzz. In autumn 2007, actress Alicia Silverstone posed nude (though strategically covered) in a print and a thirty-second TV ad for activist group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), saying that she attributes her slim figure to not eating meat. Comcast Cable pulled the ad, however, saying that it was too racy.
A campaign by Scotch-maker Johnnie Walker was a bit more subtle; billboards in California featured a seductive “Julie” and the message, “My number is 213-259-0373. And I drink Johnnie Walker.” Drinkers who called the number heard a prerecorded female voice deliver a sales pitch and then an invitation to order Scotch by phone. During the eight months that the billboards were up in nineteen cities, 526,000 people called Julie (perhaps hoping for more than a sales pitch). This response sounds impressive. But did the campaign motivate callers to buy the brand? Unfortunately not. In fact, sales of Johnnie Walker declined 5 percent during the year of the campaign.Randall Rothenberg, “Age Hasn’t Mellowed This Agency,” New York Times, April 13, 1990, D1.
Fear Appeals
Students who don’t read Launch! will never land a job when they graduate.
A fear appeal dwells upon the negative consequences that can result unless a consumer takes the recommended action. A recent advertising campaign for the Volkswagen Jetta took this approach; spots depict graphic car crashes from the perspective of the passengers who chatter away as they drive down the street. Without warning, another vehicle comes out of nowhere and brutally smashes into their car. In one spot, viewers can see a passenger’s head hitting an airbag. The spots end with shots of stunned passengers, the damaged Jetta, and the slogan “Safe happens.” The ads look so realistic that consumers have called the company asking if any of the actors were hurt.Brian Steinberg, “VW Uses Shock Treatment to Sell Jetta’s Safety, Ads Test a Risky Approach with Graphic Car Crashes; ‘Any of the Actors Hurt?’” Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2006, B4.
Video Highlight
Brinks Home Security
(click to see video)
This Brinks commercial uses a fear appeal.
Advertisers often resort to fear appeals when they want to bring about a radical behavior change, such as driving responsibly, eating healthily, or quitting smoking. Other fear appeals use ostracism by others—due to body odor or bad breath or limp hair or yellowed teeth or using outdated products—to create feelings of insecurity that the consumer can overcome by doing—guess what? A British print ad for a deodorant depicts a geeky young guy with the caption: “Yo, Sewer Boy!” Subtle.
How well fear appeals work depends on how easy it is to comply with the ad’s message. A switch to a stronger, longer-lasting deodorant to avoid embarrassing stains is quite doable, and it is easy to see a benefit (if indeed the deodorant works). In contrast, fear appeals that discuss the negative consequences of smoking have to climb a higher hill because the behavior is extremely hard to change (despite good intentions) and it’s harder to detect the (long-term) health benefits. Sometimes the fear appeal is too strong and makes consumers tune it out, especially if the ad does not present a solution. Scare tactics may also backfire as people cope with the negative feelings or guilt the ad inspires by deciding the threat does not apply to them.
One famous TV commercial that relied on a heavy dose of fear was an ad for presidential candidate Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964. The campaign showed a little girl counting daisy petals in a field, “1, 2, 3.…” Then, a voice-over started a countdown, “10, 9, 8…” leading to the image of a telltale mushroom cloud as an atomic bomb exploded. “These are the stakes,” the voice-over said, concluding with “the stakes are too high for you to stay home” while the screen displayed the words “Vote for President Johnson on November 3.” This classic spot stirred up voters’ fears about the heavy trigger finger of Johnson’s opponent, the conservative politician Barry Goldwater, and (analysts say) contributed to his huge defeat in the election.
Humor Appeals
“A guy walks into a bar.…” A humor appeal makes us laugh and feel good. But it’s often difficult to execute well, because people have to understand the humor and they have to get the link to the brand. Like sex appeals, sometimes the very humor that gets our attention distracts us from remembering the ad or from influencing our behavior.
Video Highlight
Funny Commercial
(click to see video)
This E*Trade commercial uses humor to tell the story.
It also helps when viewers don’t get offended; this can be an iffy proposition especially when ethnic or national stereotypes are involved. An outdoor ad in Belgium to promote the speedy new Eurostar train service from Brussels to London via the English Channel backfired when a group of British journalists discovered it. For some reason they didn’t appreciate a poster that showed a shaven-headed English soccer hooligan urinating into a teacup. For Belgians this imagery made sense because the fan’s pose mimicked a very famous Brussels landmark, the Manneken Pis statue.Eric Pfanner, “Ad for New Train Service Strains European Taste,” New York Times Online, December 3, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/business/world business/03eurostar.html (accessed February 10, 2009). The Brits didn’t appreciate the architectural reference.
One advantage of humor is that it reduces counterarguing; this occurs when a consumer thinks of reasons not to agree with the message. Because the comedy distracts us from our tendency to come up with reasons why we shouldn’t change our opinions, we are more likely to accept the message a humorous ad presents, as long as it does not insult or make fun of us (somehow laughing at the other guy is OK).
Humorous appeals are seldom used by banks, which tend to project a more staid image. That’s why Community Bank System decided to use a lighthearted campaign with the message “Bank Happy.” “We really wanted to find something different, something that was unbank-like and, if you look at those headlines and the disclosures, there’s humor built in,” said Hal Wentworth, the bank’s director of sales and marketing. The campaign was designed by Mark Russell and Associates and took five months to produce. How does the bank use humor? To establish the tie to happy experiences, one ad says, “The feeling you get when you eat chocolate. Now available in a bank.” It even brings amusement to the fine-print copy at the bottom of the page. Although most people skip this, the fine print in the “Chocolate” ad says, “If you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking there’s some kind of catch. Something that requires us to write more about it in the fine print. But there isn’t. Oh sure, we could go on and on about ourselves. Like how we’re committed to serving rural areas. And how most of our people have been working with us for years. And how all of our loan decisions are made locally by folks you’ve probably cheered with at soccer or baseball games. But we won’t. Instead, we’ll just tell you that when we say ‘Bank Happy,’ we mean it. We don’t want you to ‘Bank Reasonably Contentedly’ or ‘Bank Kinda Sorta Pleased.’ We want you to Bank Happy. And we’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.”Quoted in Karen Krebsbach, “Community Bank’s ‘Bank Happy’ Sets Cheerful, Playful Tone,” US Banker 117, no. 7 (July 2007), 28. These days, more people in the banking industry could probably use a good laugh.
Dig Deeper
Hillary Clinton and several other presidential candidates introduced humor into their political ad campaigns in late 2007. Surveys showed that the public thought humor was a good idea and a welcome change from negative ads. By the fall of 2008, candidates were practically becoming regulars on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show, and Saturday Night Live. People enjoy laughing, and it makes them more comfortable with the candidates. “Of course, the humor had better be funny,” added Rob Earl, of Watson, Earl & Partners. Nancy Newnan of Catapult Communications also welcomes jokes—within limits. “A dose of humor is always welcome, as long as they keep it in its place and not forget the importance of projecting the image of a world leader.” But not everyone wants punch lines from politicians. Humor is too subjective, said Alienware’s Juan Carlos Hernandez. “Humor…leaves a lot to the public’s interpretation, which at the end is negative because what I may think is not actually what the candidate was aiming for.”Quoted in Ken Wheaton, “Political Ads that Provide a Laugh?” Advertising Age, August 6, 2007, 4. What’s your take on this issue—does humor have a place in political campaigns, where the issues are serious and the stakes high? Should Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert do campaign ads—or run for President themselves?
Logical Appeals
The logical appeal is a rational one; it describes the product’s features, advantages, and price. Although most of the appeals we’ve talked about so far have emphasized emotion, that doesn’t mean that logic has no place in ads. Indeed, advertising that provokes a strong emotional response without providing sufficient product information is unlikely to change behavior and increase market share. It breaks through the clutter but doesn’t necessarily induce people to buy. This is what the Center for Emotional Marketing discovered when it performed a meta-analysis that combined the results of eight separate research studies. The results held true across a range of consumer product categories from food and health and beauty to automotive and technology.Leslie Picot-Zane, “Is Advertising Too Emotional?” Brandweek, January 9, 2006, 18.
Purely emotional advertising is memorable but doesn’t build business. The advertising connects with consumers, but it fails to make use of that connection with the credible information needed to change people’s minds. This is particularly true of humor appeals. A study conducted by McCollum/Spielman shows that 75 percent of funny ads have an attention response rating equal to or higher than average, but only 31 percent are actually more persuasive.
The solution? Advertisers need to strike a balance with campaigns that integrate product information and emotion. Logic and emotion work in concert to help consumers make decisions.Sang-Pil Han and Sharon Shavitt, “Persuasion and Culture: Advertising Appeals in Individualistic and Collectivistic Societies,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 30 (1994): 326–50. Effective advertising needs to convey both seamlessly.
Values Appeals
Finally, advertising can be relevant to consumers when it uses a values appeal; this type of message relates to people’s strong underlying beliefs about priorities in their lives and morality. A research team conducted a comprehensive study of values across thirty countries to identify universal values that people hold regardless of where they live. The researchers found six categories of values that are universal:
1. Striver: Ambitious people who seek power, status, and wealth
2. Fun-Seeker: Individualists who seek excitement, leisure, variety, and adventure
3. Creative: Open-minded people who want freedom, fulfilling work, and self-reliance
4. Devout: Spiritual people who are traditional, respectful, modest, and obedient
5. Intimate: Supportive people who create strong, deep bonds with friends and family
6. Altruist: People who want equality and justice for everyone in society and care about the environment
Certain countries exhibit a predominance of some of these values over others. For example, more than one-half of all Swedes are Intimates, which means that they emphasize social relationships as guiding principles in their lives. In contrast, 46 percent of Saudi Arabians identify Devout values as their guiding principles, while 52 percent of South Koreans are Strivers. Another study found that North Americans have more favorable attitudes toward advertising messages that focus on self-reliance, self-improvement, and the achievement of personal goals, as opposed to themes stressing family integrity, collective goals, and the feeling of harmony with others. Korean consumers exhibited the reverse pattern.
Creating advertising messages that resonate with your target audience means identifying and appealing to the values that motivate their behavior. For example, Taco Bell’s advertising campaign “Think Outside the Bun” appeals to Creatives who seek novelty and learning new things. In contrast, the “Night Belongs to Michelob” campaign appeals to Intimates who value romance and friendship. Finally, British Petroleum’s “Beyond Petroleum” campaign appeals to Altruists who value social responsibilities and preservation of the environment.Simeon Chow and Sarit Amir, “The Universality of Values: Implications for Global Advertising Strategy,” Journal of Advertising Research 46, no. 3 (2006): 301.
Dig Deeper
Occasionally ad executions invoke a values appeal when they show how a product goes against a group’s values. This approach appeals to target consumers who are rebellious or nonconforming. To appeal to teenage viewers, the CW network launched a campaign to promote the TV show Gossip Girl that includes quotes from the Parents Television Council, an advocacy group that has criticized the show for its graphic inclusion of sex and drugs. One ad shows two of the underage characters together in bed, below a caption that reads “Mind-blowingly inappropriate!”Brian Steinberg, “Need a Slogan? Ask Your Harshest Critic; CW Proudly Declares ‘Gossip Girl’ Is ‘Mind-Blowingly Inappropriate,’” Advertising Age, July 23, 2008, adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=129837 (accessed July 24, 2008).
It’s interesting to note that individuality is a value most closely associated with the Fun-Seeker segment. Countries that have a high percentage of Fun-Seekers in their population include the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Germany. Creating a winning brand position in these countries might entail targeting the Fun-Seeker buyers with a brand that can offer an avenue to self-expression. In contrast, countries where individuality ranks lowest are the Devout-dominant countries of Indonesia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, where duty and faith outweigh personal expression. Self-expression appeals would not work well in those countries.
Key Takaway
An advertising appeal is the psychological basis the agency uses to create relevance and resonance with the target audience. Common appeals include sex, humor, fear, logic, and values. There is no one perfect appeal; the advertiser needs to calibrate the characteristics of the consumers with the message to ensure that consumers aren’t turned off or don’t tune out the message because they don’t care for the appeal.
EXERCISES
1. List and briefly describe each of the five appeals that an advertiser can use to connect with the target audience.
2. List and describe the six categories of universal values. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/12%3A_Make_the_Message_Sell_-_SSK_Ensures_that_All_Components_Tell_the_Brand_Story/12.03%3A_Types_of_Appeals_-_How_Ads_Generate_Resonance.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Compare and contrast the five types of executional frameworks.
2. Characterize “star power” and its usefulness to advertising.
An executional framework defines how the ad is structured. Executional frameworks get your interest, create the desire for the good or service, and motivate you to purchase it. Let’s look at five types of executional frameworks.
Lifestyle Framework
A lifestyle framework shows how the product fits into your life. For example, the “Denny’s Always Works” campaign emphasizes that the nation’s largest full-service family restaurant chain is open twenty-four hours and has a variety of meal choices that meet a range of unique dining needs. Each TV commercial opens with a consumer describing why Denny’s fits perfectly into his or her life. The ads are shot on a striking yellow background with simple, fun animation that accents what the person is saying. An actor portraying a Denny’s guest customer speaks, and then the spot closes with a close-up of delicious food footage. To show different lifestyles, one of the fifteen-second spots opens on a frazzled mom who is amazed that Denny’s breakfasts can fill up even her teenaged boys. “I didn’t think that was possible,” she says. Another fifteen-second spot features a young twenty-something guy saying how Denny’s extends his late night fun, because after the club scene winds down he can still get great food at Denny’s.“Denny’s New National Advertising Campaign Presents Real-Life Customer Dining Solutions,” Business Wire, June 26, 2006.
Scientific Framework
A scientific framework uses research and evidence to show the brand’s superiority over other brands. This executional style is popular with pharmaceuticals or with food products or beauty products that distinguish themselves in terms of their health benefits. For example, when the German pharmaceuticals maker Beiersdorf relaunched its Nivea Baby line of skin care products in Europe, it put a greater emphasis on the line’s extensive dermatological testing. “Clinical tests have always been a standard in the development of Nivea Baby products,” said Ingo Hahn, Beiersdorf’s lab manager for skin care product development. “However, with rising expectations of parents regarding product safety and skin compatibility in baby care, we decided to put more emphasis on this fact with the brand relaunch in 2005, providing our consumers with even more insights in the extremely high standards of the Nivea Baby product safety policy.”Quoted in Christine Esposito, “Efficacy is Everything: Claims Sell Products,” Household & Personal Products Industry, October 2006, 51.
Dig Deeper
Drug makers spend \$30 billion per year on marketing in the United States—triple what they spent just a decade ago. Are the numerous drug commercials of “shiny, happy people” we constantly see on TV too emotional and not factual enough? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suspects they are, and it plans to produce commercials for a make-believe blood-pressure medicine to test whether images in ads distract attention from required safety warnings. The FDA frequently issues warnings to pharmaceutical advertisers about ads that it says mislead consumers to believe that drugs are safer or work better than the evidence supports. Advertisers use a variety of techniques to convey the mandatory information about their products’ dangers. These range from recitations by actors dressed as doctors to the phrases that stream across an animated blue landscape in a commercial for Pfizer’s painkiller Celebrex. In a large-scale online study involving several thousand respondents, the FDA plans to create a number of ads for the fictitious medications that include different images and text on the screen while a narrator reads the risk information. Some of the visuals will focus on the benefits of the drug, to see if that diverts attention from the safety warnings.Catherine Larkin, “FDA Hoping Fake Ads Help Monitor Real Ones,” Bloomberg, August 6, 2008, Bloomberg News, www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-10/1217998570130990.xml&coll=1 (accessed August 6, 2008).
Spokesperson/Testimonial
Using a spokesperson/testimonial framework, a “man on the street” or a celebrity praises the product or service. The spokesperson who endorses the product need not be famous. A testimonial features an everyday consumer to whom the target audience can relate. This representative consumer praises the product or describes his experience with it. The framework implies that if the product worked for this person, it will work for you.
Star Power
In the case of the celebrity, the reasoning is that if a famous person believes the product is good, you can believe it, too. For the advertising to be effective, however, the tie between the product and the celebrity should be clear. When Louis Vuitton featured Mikhail Gorbachev in an ad in Vogue, the tie was not clear. Why would the association with the former Soviet leader who brought an end to Communism motivate a consumer to buy a luxury brand bag?
This framework is effective because celebrities embody cultural meanings—they symbolize important categories such as status and social class (a “working-class hero,” such as Peter Griffin on Family Guy), gender (a “tough woman,” such as Nancy on Weeds), or personality types (the nerdy but earnest Hiro on Heroes). Ideally, the advertiser decides what meanings the product should convey (that is, how it should position the item in the marketplace) and then chooses a celebrity who embodies a similar meaning. The product’s meaning thus moves from the manufacturer to the consumer, using the star as a vehicle.Grant McCracken, “Who Is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the Endorsement Process,” Journal of Consumer Research 16, no. 3 (1989): 310–21.
For celebrity campaigns to be effective, the endorser must have a clear and popular image. In addition, the celebrity’s image and that of the product he or she endorses should be similar—researchers refer to this as the match-up hypothesis.Michael A. Kamins, “An Investigation into the ‘Match-Up’ Hypothesis in Celebrity Advertising: When Beauty May Be Only Skin Deep,” Journal of Advertising 19, no. 1 (1990): 4–13; Basil G. Englis, Michael R. Solomon, and Richard D. Ashmore, “Beauty Before the Eyes of Beholders: The Cultural Encoding of Beauty Types in Magazine Advertising and Music Television,” Journal of Advertising 23 (June 1994): 49–64. A market research company developed one widely used measure called the Q-score (Q stands for quality) to decide if a celebrity will make a good endorser. The score includes level of familiarity with a name and the number of respondents who indicate that a person, program, or character is a favorite.Kevin E. Kahle and Lynn R. Kahle, “Sports Celebrities’ Image: A Critical Evaluation of the Utility of Q Scores” (working paper, University of Oregon, 2005).
A good match-up is crucial; fame alone doesn’t work if people know someone but dislike him. The celebrity may bring the brand visibility, but that visibility can be overshadowed by controversy that the spokesperson can generate. That’s a lesson MasterCard learned when it hired Nick Lachey for its “Major League Dreams” promotion. Shortly before the launch of the campaign, nude photos of Lachey and his girlfriend, Vanessa Minnillo, surfaced. The buzz surrounding the photos and Lachey’s refusal to talk about them during an interview completely overshadowed the MasterCard brand and promotion.Cathy Yingling, “Beware the Lure of Celebrity Endorsers,” Advertising Age, September 24, 2007. It also helps when your spokesperson actually uses the product. The Beef Board faced negative publicity when its spokesperson, Cybill Shepherd, admitted she did not like to eat beef.
Because consumers tend to view the brand through the lens of its spokesperson, an advertiser can’t choose an endorser just based on a whim (or the person’s good looks). Consider Tupperware, which decided to mount an advertising campaign to support its traditional word-of-mouth and Tupperware party promotional strategies. The brand is sixty years old and harkens back to 1950s-style June Cleaver moms. In its attempt to stay relevant and up-to-date, the company looked for a modern image of the working mom. Rather than going with a spokesperson like Martha Stewart, who would reinforce the old image of Tupperware, the company chose Brooke Shields as their spokesperson. “We’ve seen her go from a model to an actress to a Princeton graduate…then be open with issues she’s had with depression,” said Tupperware Chairman-CEO Rick Goings. That, he said, meshed perfectly with the company’s new “Chain of Confidence” campaign, which is dedicated to building the self-esteem of women and girls.Jack Neff, “How Tupperware Made Itself Relevant Again,” Advertising Age, June 4, 2007, 19.
Dig Deeper
In the “old days,” a celebrity got paid to endorse an advertiser’s product. Today, it’s quite possible she got a piece of the company instead. Increasingly, stars insist on greater involvement with the brands they hawk. Rapper 50 Cent owned part of Energy Brands Inc., the maker of Vitaminwater, before Coca-Cola bought the company for a lot of money. He personally endorsed a drink called Formula 50 that the company named after him.
Ellen DeGeneres endorses Halo pet products—but this celebrity pet fanatic (she has two dogs and three cats) also owns about 15 percent of the company. As one of the executives involved with the company explained, “Most people see an awful lot of endorsements where there is no real connection between the celebrity and product. We wanted someone who would help get the Halo brand on the map and make us known to a broader audience.” DeGeneres agrees: “Me being famous will help this company grow.”
Should a spokesperson be required to divulge a financial interest in a company she endorses?Quoted in Suzanne Vranica, “New Breed of Celebrity Endorsements,” Wall Street Journal, February 29, 2008, B3.
Spokescharacters
Celebrities can be effective endorsers, but there are drawbacks to using them. As we previously noted, their motives may be suspect if they plug products that don’t fit their images or if consumers begin to see them as never having met a product they didn’t like (for a fee). They may be involved in a scandal or upset customers, as when the Milk Processor Education Program suspended “Got Milk?” ads featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen after Mary-Kate entered a treatment facility for an undisclosed health issue.
For these reasons some marketers seek alternative sources, including cartoon characters and mascots. After all, as the marketing director for a company that manufactures costumed characters for sports teams and businesses points out, “You don’t have to worry about your mascot checking into rehab.”Nat Ives, “Marketers Run to Pull the Plug When Celebrity Endorsers Say the Darnedest Things,” New York Times on the Web, July 16, 2004, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E1D8143AF935A25754C0A9629C8B63 (accessed February 10, 2009). And researchers report that spokescharacters like the Pillsbury Doughboy, Chester the Cheetah, and the Snuggle Bear do in fact boost viewers’ recall of claims that ads make and also yield higher brand attitude.Judith A. Garretson and Scot Burton, “The Role of Spokescharacters as Advertisement and Package Cues in Integrated Marketing Communications,” Journal of Marketing 69 (October 2005): 118–32.
In the early days of advertising, product spokescharacters were simply still-life visuals, but the decreasing cost and increased power of computing has made animation much easier. Claymation California Raisins sing and dance, and the bald, muscular Mr. Clean comes to the rescue of a housewife in distress.
An avatar is an increasingly popular alternative to flesh-and-blood endorsers. This word is a Hindu term for a deity that appears in superhuman or animal form. In the computing world it means a character you can move around inside a visual, graphical world. Now, some advertisers turn to avatars that can come to life on Web sites and in virtual worlds like Second Life. The advantages of virtual avatars compared to flesh-and-blood people include the ability to change the avatar in real time to suit the needs of the target audience.Tran T. L. Knanh and Regalado Antonio, “Web Sites Bet on Attracting Viewers with Humanlike Presences of Avatars,” Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, January 24, 2001; Brian Morrissey, “Taco Bell to Cast User Avatars in TV Spot,” Adweek, July 10, 2007, http://www.adweek.com (accessed July 12, 2007). As one example of a company that designs avatars to represent brands or companies, check out http://www.sitepal.com.
Demonstration
A demonstration framework shows the product in use to illustrate its performance and effectiveness. Television and video are the best media for demonstrations. This framework is a favorite for cleaning products of all kinds (household, laundry, automotive) and to showcase the unique benefits of traditional products. Just think about all those crazy gadgets you see on TV infomercials—“It slices, it dices, it washes your car.…”
A new format for a traditional product also benefits from demonstration, such as the headache medicine HeadOn. This product’s advertising includes demonstration and (seemingly endless?) repetition of the slogan: “HeadOn, Apply direct to the forehead.” From a creative standpoint, the execution is mundane and campy, but someone is buying this stuff: the commercials have more than doubled sales.Mya Frazier, “This Ad Will Give You a Headache, But It Sells,” Advertising Age, September 24, 2007.
Slice-of-Life Framework
A slice-of-life framework presents everyday people in an everyday situation, like riding in a car with friends. Wal-Mart used this kind of execution in a commercial that showed a young family going on vacation. The bored kids torment each other in the minivan until they finally arrive in Orlando. The title card then explains what you’ve seen: “Wal-Mart saves the average family \$2,500 a year. What will you do with your savings?” The value proposition is clear: shopping at Wal-Mart throughout the year will save you enough money for a vacation. The spot ends with the slogan: “Save money. Live better.”Bob Garfield, “Long-Awaited Wal-Mart Ads are Obvious…Yet Brilliant,” Advertising Age, September 17, 2007, 69.
Andrea Learned, coauthor of the book Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy has found that when selling cars to women, slice-of-life frameworks are the most effective. The best car ads show average looking women and men in slice-of-life situations. “Women respond when an advertiser fits the car into consumers’ lifestyles instead of putting it on a sporty pedestal with overly gorgeous models,” she explained.Quoted in Joan Voight, “The Lady Means Business,” Brandweek, April 10, 2006, 28.
Key Takaway
An executional framework defines how the ad is structured. Like advertising appeals, different frameworks are appropriate to different advertising contexts. These include lifestyle, scientific, testimonial, demonstration, and slice-of-life.
EXERCISES
1. List and briefly characterize the five executional frameworks that provide an advertisement’s structure.
2. Describe why “star power” is important to the advertiser.
3. Explain how an avatar can be used to connect with a target audience. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/12%3A_Make_the_Message_Sell_-_SSK_Ensures_that_All_Components_Tell_the_Brand_Story/12.04%3A_Executional_Frameworks_-_How_Ads_Generate_Relevance.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Characterize the members of an advertising creative team.
2. Explain how copywriters use various literary forms and devices to construct the advertising message.
Ads use both words and images—indeed, all the senses. Achieving this result requires close cooperation within the creative team between copywriting and art direction.
Copywriting
Copywriters create memorable and motivating text that will be spoken or written within the ad. Because short headlines and copy are generally more effective, copywriters must make each word contribute to the ad’s goals.
What’s in a Word?
The copywriter works with the art director to develop the concept for the ad. Copywriters must understand the meanings (both plain and hidden) behind words. For example, words like “new” are used a lot in ads because they capture our attention and pique our curiosity. Other words, such as “don’t miss” and “urgent,” arouse fear, while “how to” promises practical advice.
Words can convey facts, create musical poetry, re-create history, command action, plead, and paint pictures. Copywriting makes use of the language centers of the brain to instill emotion and create memories. “Fundamentally, I value a good combination of image and message in an eye-catching way. You want something that makes you say: ‘What’s going on here?’ The visual itself can be simple,” observes one marketing director.Quoted in Alasdair Reid, “Newspaper Advertising—The Creative Potential: What Makes a Great Newspaper Ad,” Campaign, January 20, 2006, 32.
Copywriters also work on the pacing and sounds of words to reinforce the message and emotional tone. For example, Apple Computer’s three-word “Rip. Mix. Burn.” campaign used a staccato of short imperative verbs that resonate with a fast-paced youth culture and create a subtext that Apple’s computers let you do these tasks very easily and quickly.
SS+K Spotlight
Sam Mazur, the copywriter on the msnbc.com campaign, worked very closely with the art director, Matt Ferrin, on each concept. While they collaborated on the overall vision, the tasks required to complete that vision are clearly split. Sam would scour the msnbc.com headlines and pair them together; he and Matt would choose the brick colors for each; and Matt would set up the art layout accordingly.
Literary Forms and Devices
Advertisers structure commercials like other art forms; they borrow conventions from literature and art to communicate.Cf. Linda M. Scott, “The Troupe: Celebrities as Dramatis Personae in Advertisements,” in Advances in Consumer Research 18, ed. Rebecca H. Holman and Michael R. Solomon (Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 1991), 355–63; Barbara Stern, “Literary Criticism and Consumer Research: Overview and Illustrative Analysis,” Journal of Consumer Research 16 (1989): 322–34; Judith Williamson, Decoding Advertisements (Boston: Marion Boyars, 1978); John Deighton, Daniel Romer, and Josh McQueen, “Using Drama to Persuade,” Journal of Consumer Research 16 (December 1989): 335–43. Two important structures are dramas and lectures (you’re certainly familiar with that one!). A lecture is like a speech; the communicator addresses the audience directly to inform them about a product or persuade them to buy it. In contrast, a drama is similar to a play or movie. Whereas an argument holds the viewer at arm’s length, a drama draws the viewer into the action. The characters only indirectly address the audience; they interact with each other about a product or service in an imaginary setting. Dramas attempt to be experiential—to involve the audience emotionally. In transformational advertising, the consumer associates the experience of product usage with some subjective sensation—like the feeling you get when you watch a silhouetted actor on TV dancing energetically to his iPod.
Advertising creatives also rely (consciously or not) on literary devices to communicate these meanings. For example, characters like Mr. Goodwrench, the Jolly Green Giant, and Charlie the Tuna may personify a product or service. Many ads take the form of an allegory; a story about an abstract trait or concept that a person, animal, or vegetable stands for.
A metaphor places two dissimilar objects into a close relationship such that “A is B,” whereas a simile compares two objects, “A is like B.” A and B, however dissimilar, share some quality that the metaphor highlights. Metaphors allow the marketer to activate meaningful images and apply them to everyday events. In the stock market, “white knights” battle “hostile raiders” using “poison pills” (unfortunately the knights don’t seem to be winning, at least for now) while Tony the Tiger equates cereal with strength.Barbara B. Stern, “Medieval Allegory: Roots of Advertising Strategy for the Mass Market,” Journal of Marketing 52 (July 1988): 84–94.
Video Highlight
(click to see video)
This British Airways commercial for Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport uses the smooth movements of fish as a device to demonstrate how fluid it is to move through the new terminal.
Art Direction
The term “art direction” goes beyond choosing or creating images that go into marketing communications. It is more encompassing and holistic; a good art director blends the elements of an ad into a powerful message that strongly resonates with the viewer.
The art director is the chief designer of the ad. She is responsible not only for creating the visuals but also for deciding how the message will communicate the desired mood, product qualities, and psychological appeals. In addition to the illustrations in an ad (photo, cartoon, drawing), the art director uses principles of design to unify the elements of the ad and direct our attention to the point of emphasis.
Art direction has grown in importance as advertising has become more visual. Pictures tell a story more quickly than words, and they let advertisers put the brand in a social context, which links the brand to certain “types” of people or lifestyles. According to Marie-Catherine Dupuy, vice chairman and chief creative officer, TBWA/France, “Art direction is crucial. You can find the best idea—but if it’s not well art directed, it’s killed. I say that even though I’m a former copywriter. For me, art direction is 80 per cent of the effectiveness. That’s also the place where artists from every side can express themselves and bring their full talents to the ad.”Quoted in Alasdair Reid, “Newspaper Advertising—The Creative Potential: What Makes a Great Newspaper Ad,” Campaign, January 20, 2006, 32.
Key Takaway
Copywriters and art directors turn intangible ideas into tangible realities. The messages they create that use words or images capture the essence of the advertising strategy and translate it into something that the target understands—and hopefully resonates with.
EXERCISES
1. Describe the copywriter’s responsibility in advertising.
2. List and describe the literary forms and devices that can be used in advertising.
3. Describe the art director’s responsibility in advertising. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/12%3A_Make_the_Message_Sell_-_SSK_Ensures_that_All_Components_Tell_the_Brand_Story/12.05%3A_The_Creative_Team.txt |
Tie it All Together
Now that you have read this chapter, you should be able to determine how to choose the right media for client messages:
• You can identify and define the two keys to superior advertising.
• You can provide illustrations of relevance and resonance.
• You can explain why having an emotional connection is the common denominator for most successful ads.
• You can list and describe the five factors that comprise likeability of an ad.
• You can list and discuss five advertising appeals that a creative team can use to structure advertising.
• You can provide illustrations of the five advertising appeals.
• You can recall the six categories of values that are universal in advertising.
• You can compare and contrast the five types of executional frameworks.
• You can characterize “star power” and its usefulness to advertising.
• You can characterize the members of an advertising creative team.
• You can classify the various literary forms and devices used by copywriters to create advertisements.
USE WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED
1. What’s your favorite energy drink? America’s consumers who want a boost without drinking coffee or cola have made energy drinks an energized product line for most beverage makers. Go into any convenience store and note the amount of shelf or refrigeration space that is devoted to these high-pep drinks. Most stores have at least one POS display for this drink category.
Which energy drink is number one? This obviously varies at any given point in time but it appears that Red Bull is the consistent leader in the industry, followed by Monster, Rockstar, AMP Energy, and Who’s Your Daddy, to round out the top five. With the popularity of the drink category we can expect more entries in the future. See any of the above products’ Web sites for more information on the appeals used to reach target markets.
Your assignment is to demonstrate how relevance and resonance have been used by the makers of energy drinks to make their product category a success. Use at least one manufacturer’s product as an illustration of your ideas.
2. Tired of using your hands to type and text? Are you unsure that voice-activated controls of electronic devices and PCs really work? “Thought control” may have just solved your problems. Emotiv Systems specializes in creating systems that can be controlled by brain-computer interfaces or a computerized version of thought control. The company’s Epoc sixteen-sensor headset communicates wirelessly with a PC. The user is able to think a command and have that command activated on a computer. Since the device is tuned to an individual’s processing thoughts, security of thought protection seems to exist. See http://www.emotiv.com for more details on the technology and products.
Your assignment is to designate a target market for initial introduction of the product. Next, describe the appeal format that you think would be best for the Epoc headset to use to reach the designated market. Explain your appeal choice. Conclude your assignment by selecting an executional framework that is consistent with your chosen target market and appeal. Describe the ad you would construct from such choices.
DIGITAL NATIVES
Do you remember what a Q-score is? A Q-score is a way to measure the familiarity and appeal of a brand, company, celebrity, cartoon character, or television show. The higher the Q-score, the more likely the subject measured is familiar and appealing to viewers. See Wikipedia, Google, or http://www.qscores.com for more information on Q-scores and the “star power” behind them.
After exploring information about Q-scores via your online connections, select three to five subjects and obtain their Q-scores. If you are unable to find the scores for some of your subjects, either choose other subjects or estimate what you think the score might be (be sure to put “est.” after any such score). Once you have your Q-score list, match each of your subjects to at least one product line. Note how the Q-scored subject would be an asset to the advertising for that product line. Explain your rationale and justification for your picks. Discuss the findings of this assignment in class with peers.
AD-VICE
1. Go to your favorite Web sites that contain advertising and find at least one example of relevance and resonance in the advertising. Explain why you believe your choices match for the two terms.
2. Go to at least one favorite magazine and find an illustration of an advertisement that makes an emotional connection with its readers or viewers. Clearly explain how this connection is made. It is OK to use yourself as an example; however, be specific in your description of how the emotional connection was made. What magazine elements were used to make the emotional connection?
3. Go to at least one favorite magazine and find an advertisement that would rate high on your likeability scale. Using the factors listed in the chapter that constitute the likeability of an ad, illustrate how well your ad embodies each of these five factors. Next, take an ad that you like somewhat, but not as much as your first choice. Illustrate how, by using the five factors, you could make the second ad more likeable. Explain your thinking and illustrations.
4. According to this chapter, copywriters use literary forms and devices to structure commercials. Take the terms lecture, drama, allegory, metaphor, and simile and find examples of them in specific ads from magazines you read, television shows you watch, and online browsing and surfing experiences. List the phrase from the chosen ads and indicate why the phrase matches one of the terms. Please provide a brief description of the ad itself. Comment on the importance of word choice in copywriting. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/12%3A_Make_the_Message_Sell_-_SSK_Ensures_that_All_Components_Tell_the_Brand_Story/12.06%3A_Exercises.txt |
Once all the planning, preparation, and production was complete, it was time for the campaign to come to life. On April 2, 2007, the first-ever msnbc.com branding campaign launched to the public in TV, print, and online media. Think of this chapter as a campaign portfolio. It will show you the executions and take you through the exact sequence of events as SS+K introduced the “Fuller Spectrum of News” campaign.
13.02: msnbc.com - A Campaing Portfolio
The campaign consisted of many interrelated pieces. All of them tied back to the major campaign objective of building a solid and positive brand image for msnbc.com. SS+K and its partners accomplished this by designing multiple executions using multiple platforms, from conventional print to innovations including the first-ever in-cinema game that allowed the audience to participate in the execution.
In order to keep track of all these elements, SS+K referred to a status chart, a tool many agencies use to keep track of the progress of the many moving parts involved in a campaign. Status charts are tailored to specific account or campaign needs and are managed by the account management and project management teams.
Here’s what all the pieces of the campaign looked like at launch.
The first part of the work centered on the logo.
13.03: Logo
While part of the team concentrated on the creative production elements, Danielle and Katie focused in with Catherine and her colleague Gina Stikes on how to present the campaign to the press.
SS+K used a press release, as you learned about in Chapter 9 "Choose Your Communication Weapons: SS+K Decides Upon a Creative Strategy and Media Tactics", to disseminate information about the campaign launch. But even before that, the PR team had given the Wall Street Journal an exclusive or first chance to cover a story. The reporter interviewed Catherine as well as Marty and some other folks from SS+K so that on the same day the campaign launched, the world was reading about it.
13.04: Print
As you saw in the media plan we presented in Chapter 10 "Plan and Buy Media: SS+K Chooses the Right Media for the Client’s New Branding Message", SS+K ran print media in a variety of publications that appealed to the News Explorer.
In addition to full-page print ads within weekly magazines, the media buy can include other segments of a page. In the case of msnbc.com, The Media Kitchen bought one-third-page vertical ads on opposite sides. SS+K creatively used this buy to form “goalposts” around the page. Where possible, the editorial content of the page was taken into consideration when the team wrote headlines for the ads.
13.05: TV
Another important element of the launch campaign was the television spot. This spot is created with building the understanding of the target audience, the News Explorer, and creatively communicating the “fuller spectrum of news” concept in mind.
Television was an important medium in the launch campaign because part of the objective was to reach a mass audience. Although media is continually becoming more and more fragmented through sites and niche channels, television remains one of the most effective ways to reach many people at once.
A new bonus of creative materials created for TV is the growing popularity of online video. While some argue that each execution should be created specifically for the medium, others argue that repurposing (reusing existing clips in new ways) is a great way to get the most bang for your production buck.
Video Spotlight
The Thirty-Second “Spectrum” Spot
(click to see video)
The thirty-second “Spectrum” spot is the anthem for the msnbc.com campaign. It is a visual journey through the fuller spectrum of news. SS+K worked with Charlex on animation, Driver on production, and Endless Noise and Nutmeg on sound design and music to create all the TV spots.
Video Spotlight
The Ten-Second “Spectrum Rain” Spot
(click to see video)
The ten-second “Spectrum Rain” spot told the story of the spectrum through simple visuals as well as sound. “Spectrum Rain” also ran as online video prerolls.
Video Spotlight
The Ten-Second “Spectrum Wall” Spot
(click to see video)
The ten-second “Spectrum Wall” spot had each of the story bricks build the wall of the spectrum, while it reinforced the significance of the bricks with strong sound design. “Spectrum Wall” also ran as online video prerolls. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/13%3A_Launch_msnbc.coms_First-Ever_Branding_Campaign/13.01%3A_Chapter_Introduction.txt |
The creative elements of the online campaign had to be engaging in order to deliver on the Big Idea of enjoying the journey (“Dive In. Swim Around.”), so the team set out to make interactive and engaging banners. The banners appeared on different sites from ESPN (http://espn.go.com) to The Weather Channel (http://www.weather.com), with unique messaging and links for each of those unique placements.
The press started, and the initial paid launch elements ran heavily through the first six weeks. As they continued through the rest of the communications plan, more elements were introduced. The marketing elements were devices that, while introduced during the campaign, would live on after ads stopped running. You can still find these interactive elements by going to msnbc.com; there are even more of them since the first campaign launch in April 2007.
13.07: Screensaver
Video Spotlight
Amit Nizan, Matt Ferrin, and Sam Mazur
(click to see video)
Sam Mazur, Matt Ferrin, and Amit Nizan explain the NewsSkimmer.
13.08: NewsBreaker Game
Another insight was that many News Explorers were casual game users. Because their demographics skewed a little older, SS+K recommended updating an old favorite. As a result, its new version of the classic “brick breaker” game used the treatment of the spectrum, in which each brick is a story, and made a game of collecting news while reaching the next level.
The game, which is RSS fed and was given the name NewsBreaker, was unveiled in April to time with the NewsSkimmer screen saver. Play the game yourself at www.newsbreakergame.com.
Video Spotlight
Matt Ferrin, Sam Mazur, and Amit Nizan
(click to see video)
Matt, Sam, and Amit talk about the reactions to the NewsBreaker game.
As the advertising and marketing elements came to life, msnbc.com and SS+K were preparing to launch the riskiest element of the marketing campaign.
As leaders and innovators, it was important for msnbc.com to flex its leadership muscle when it came to understanding technology. The team didn’t recommend any element of the campaign that didn’t answer to one of the stated goals, and they dismissed a few asymmetric ideas due to those qualifications. But NewsBreaker Live became the anchor of the campaign, and ultimately msnbc.com created a new medium. The technology had only been proven on a small scale, and the crowd reaction was unpredictable. Would they hate it, or would they love it? Would they remember who it came from, or would they ignore it completely?
13.09: NewsBreaker Live
The final push of the campaign came in June with the launch of the first-ever in-cinema interactive audience game, NewsBreaker Live. The game premiered in Los Angeles before the movie Spider-Man 3 and then moved on to Philadelphia and White Plains, New York.
The campaign centered on the overarching brand message, but there are also instances where you use your media buys to promote elements of your company or other marketing efforts. A few examples would be a flyer about an event or a newspaper ad about a sponsorship. Each print ad had the URL www.spectrum.msnbc.com.
Press coverage and management was ongoing throughout the campaign. It was led by Danielle Tracy and supported and implemented by Katie O’Kane and others.
Video Spotlight
Danielle Tracy
(click to see video)
Danielle Tracy talks about launching the PR effort around the msnbc.com campaign.
13.10: E-mail Blast
Late in the campaign SS+K utilized the e-mail blast to promote the NewsBreaker Live game as it appeared in White Plains, New York. Each print ad had the URL www.spectrum.msnbc.com. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/13%3A_Launch_msnbc.coms_First-Ever_Branding_Campaign/13.06%3A_Online_Banners.txt |
“Cool ad! But did it work?”
That’s the million dollar question (or often even more). Advertising serves many roles, from building awareness of a new acid jazz group to informing us of an asthma drug’s side effects. But at the end of the day, advertising is a call to action: it can be pretty, funny, sexy, or cute—but if an ad doesn’t sell the client’s product or service, or create the behavioral change a nonprofit hopes to achieve, it’s nothing more than an entry on an art director’s “reel” that may land him another juicy assignment.
SS+K is keenly aware of the need to show results. Its client msnbc.com is counting on the new brand-building campaign to start to move the brand building, awareness, and traffic needle. Did the agency succeed in this quest? Let’s find out.
Video Spotlight
Amit Nizan and Michelle Rowley
(click to see video)
Amit Nizan and Michelle Rowley discuss the results of the campaign, and some outside influences that affected the results.
14.02: ROI - Show Me the Money
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Define return on investment (ROI).
2. Describe the value of using metrics to gauge the direct impact of a marketing communication.
3. Define brand equity.
4. Demonstrate how msnbc.com measured the ROI of the campaign using five parameters.
Advertising is “sexy,” no doubt. Especially in the “golden years” of the ad biz in the 1960s, as the hit TV series Mad Men depicts, it seems like the executives smoke and drink their way through the day while the poor souls in manufacturing or accounting do the heavy lifting. Anyone who actually works in advertising will readily tell you that the halo of glamour is a myth—but nonetheless that’s the stereotype many people (including some advertising and marketing majors) hold.
The reality is that advertising is hard work—and it’s an essential part of doing business. It’s also expensive. There’s no question (at least in our minds) that advertising returns considerable value to the client. But how do you prove that to the bean counters? Unlike most other areas of business, alas, it’s not always so easy to assess the value of advertising and marketing activities. How does the “warm and fuzzy” feeling an ad creates translate into cold hard cash on the bottom line?
As competition for sales, eyeballs, souls, or whatever unit is in play continues to escalate in virtually every category (both profit and nonprofit), advertisers are under pressure as never before to justify their existence. This challenge is compounded by the way a firm traditionally states its objectives: a marketing strategy typically uses vague goals like “increase awareness of our product” or “encourage people to eat healthier snacks.” These objectives are important, but their lack of specificity makes it virtually impossible for senior management to determine marketing’s true impact.
Return on Investment
Because management may view these efforts as costs rather than investments, advertising is often the first item to be cut out of a firm’s budget when money is tight (like today). To win continued support for what they do (and sometimes to keep their jobs), advertisers are scrambling to prove to management that they generate measurable value by aligning what their work achieves with the firm’s overall business objectives.Jeff Lowe, “The Marketing Dashboard: Measuring Marketing Effectiveness,” Venture Communications, February 2003, www.brandchannel.com/images/papers/dashboard.pdf (accessed February 9, 2009); G. A. Wyner, “Scorecards and More: The Value Is in How You Use Them,” Marketing Research, Summer, 6–7; C. F. Lunbdy and C. Rasinowich, “The Missing Link: Cause and Effect Linkages Make Marketing Scorecards More Valuable,” Marketing Research, Winter 2003, 14–19. The watchword in business today is return on investment (ROI). In cold, hard terms: what did I spend, and what did I get in return?
(Gross Profit generated by advertising − Cost of advertising) / Cost of advertising = ROI
The race is on to generate metrics—quantifiable measures that gauge the direct impact of a marketing communication. Businesses increasingly mandate that their divisions create scorecards (or “dashboards”) that allow senior management to monitor what actions they’re taking and to see how these efforts affect the bottom line. And they’re not just asking for proof that advertising moves products—increasingly they demand to see a link between tactical actions, such as specific promotions, on a firm’s market share and even on a firm’s overall financial value (as measured by market capitalization).Cf. Roland T. Rust, Tim Ambler, Gregory S. Carpenter, V. Kumar, & Rajendra K. Srivastava, “Measuring Marketing Productivity: Current Knowledge and Future Directions,” Journal of Marketing 68 (October 2004): 76–89.
This is no small task for advertisers, whose goals are often intangible and whose results may not be readily apparent in the next quarter. Another problem they face is the skepticism of many who hold the purse strings in companies; executives in other parts of the business may believe (rightly or wrongly) that a marketer never met a budget item she didn’t want. According to one study, six in ten financial executives believe their companies’ marketing departments have an inadequate understanding of financial controls, and seven in ten said their companies don’t use marketing inputs and forecasts in financial guidance to Wall Street or in public disclosures.
Marketers echo this pessimism; many acknowledge they have some distance to go before they understand (and quantify) the impact of what they do. In the same study, only one in ten marketer respondents said they could forecast the effect of a 10 percent cut in spending. Just 14 percent of marketing executives said senior management in their companies had confidence in their firms’ marketing forecasts. One of the analysts who conducted the study commented, “The thing that scared me most is that marketers don’t believe their numbers either.”Quoted in Bradley Johnson, “Survey Finds CFOs Skeptical of Their Own Firms’ ROI Claims: ANA Confronts Lack of Confidence at Marketing Accountability Conference,” Advertising Age, July 15, 2008, adage.com/article?article_id=129629 (accessed July 16, 2008).
The difficulties in quantifying marketing’s contribution to the bottom line—and the growing pressure from CEOs to do so—helps to explain why a recent BusinessWeek survey of the shelf life of top-level functional executives revealed that the average job tenure of a chief marketing officer (CMO) is the lowest among the areas—26 months, compared with 44 months for CEOs, 39 months for chief financial officers (CFOs), and 36 months for chief information officers (CIOs). The pressure to provide tangible results is intense.Ian Ayers, Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way To Be Smart (New York: Bantam, 2007); Jerry Adler, “Era of the Super Cruncher,” Newsweek, September 3, 2007, 42; “The Short Life of the Chief Marketing Officer,” BusinessWeek, December 10, 2007, 63–65.
So when a company looks to shave costs to improve its return to stockholders, advertising is a particularly easy target for cost cutting because few companies have developed reliable ways to track or predict the ROI for such spending. Lacking such measures, management often computes an advertising budget strictly as a percentage of revenues, or they base it on the previous year’s budget. As any fan of advertising’s impact (those who remain) can attest, this logic is seriously flawed: if revenues are falling, it may be because you’re not advertising enough! The last thing you want to do is reduce your investment to inform the market about your product or service.
Metrics
How can advertisers make that case credibly? As we’ll see, it depends on the type of advertising they do and how they measure its results. Typical metrics for traditional advertising (i.e., magazine ads, TV, etc.) include these:
• Advertising awareness: How many people saw your ad and recognized the brand?
• Trial: Did more people try the product after they saw your ads?
• Qualitative evidence: Working mothers in four focus groups absolutely loved the ads.
• Sales volume: Did sales increase from the time period before the ad campaign to the time period after it? Warning: While it’s tempting to conclude that this is the only metric you need, this measure can be deceiving. You need to consider other factors:
1. What else was going on in the external environment that might have influenced this activity? The best ad campaign ever devised probably couldn’t move a lot of gas-guzzling Hummers today.
2. How much did you have to spend to get the results? You could sell a record number of Hummers (even today) if you priced them at \$49.99—but do you want to?
A single best all-around ROI formula is the Holy Grail today, but in reality companies vary widely in the way they tackle this issue (the notable thing is that many are tackling it at all). Some rely on sophisticated statistical analyses while others are content to track general changes in sales trends or brand awareness. General Mills decides how much to invest in marketing and advertising by examining the historical performance of the brand as well as market research metrics on previous advertising effectiveness, growth versus competition, and other changes in the marketplace.
Another approach is to use the statistical technique called regression analysis, which identifies the amount of an effect we can attribute to each of several variables that operate simultaneously. One analyst calculates the percent of total sales attributable just to a brand’s existing sales momentum and brand equity (the value of a brand name over and above the value of a generic product in the same category). He determines brand equity by identifying the financial value the brand contributes compared to product value, distribution, pricing, services, and other factors. He calculates the short-term incremental impact of advertising on sales by looking at several years of sales data and creating a sales trend line. Waving his statistical magic wand, he then looks at whether a specific promotion results in incremental sales, or sales over what would we expect based on normal conditions.
Indeed, consulting firms such as Corporate Branding LLC and Interbrand, as well as a few big ad agencies like Young & Rubicam (Y&R), develop their own proprietary methods to arrive at a brand’s financial value. They track these values over time to help clients see whether their investments are paying off. Y&R’s Brand Asset Valuator is based on field research of consumers on thousands of brands. When the agency studied just what builds brand equity, it identified one crucial element: does the consumer believe the product is different in a relevant way—does the message offer a clear, memorable reason to buy the product, also known as a unique selling proposition (USP)? Y&R tracks how well various advertising campaigns differentiate brands and the degree to which they increase brand value as a result.Kris Frieswick, “New Brand Day: Attempts to Gauge the ROI of Advertising Hinge on Determining a Brand’s Overall Value,” CFO.com, November 1, 2001, http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3001802/1/c_3046511 (accessed August 15, 2008).
SS+K Spotlight
The ROI for any campaign must relate to its original strategy. Every action the agency takes needs to tie back to the results it produced. As msnbc.com and SS+K planned out the elements of the campaign, the team aligned each element to one of the goals:
• Increase overall traffic to the site
• Increase awareness of the brand
• Establish a unique identity for the site
Then msnbc.com measured the ROI of the launch campaign with the following parameters:
Paid Media + Added Value: Media bought and negotiated added-value.
Earned Media: Any coverage or impressions that are not paid for but are earned through commentary, press, and so forth.
Engagement: Measures of engagement include time spent on the site and number of clicks to show how the consumer interacted with the brand message.
Awareness: Measure of consumers’ knowledge of a brand, or of a particular communication. As we saw in Chapter 11 "Execute on All Platforms: SS+K Goes into Production Overdrive", when a consumer remembers a brand or message, this is recall. If a consumer recognizes a brand or message from a list, this is recognition.
Traffic: Using sophisticated tracking software and code, analysts can track the number of people who visit a certain site or page on a site. Thanks to cookies that get inserted into computers when we visit Web sites, repeat visits and other behavioral patterns can be uncovered as well.
These were the specific goals for the msnbc.com campaign and how they were measured:
• Increase in unique users: comparing April, May, June unique users in 2006 to 2007
• Increase in engagement with the brand:
• An increase in use of features on the site, like page views and video streams
• Creation of new tools and experiences that would engage users
• Buzz generated by earned media
• Internal buy-in of the brand: in-depth interviews with key msnbc.com stakeholders before and after the campaign
Key Takaway
Return on investment (ROI) is the Holy Grail for advertisers, who face increasing pressure to demonstrate that their efforts contribute tangibly to a client’s bottom line. Demonstrating this financial value is a challenge, especially in cases where a firm’s objectives are long term or hard to quantify—for example when the goal is to build a favorable image for a brand over the long haul. Firms employ a variety of metrics to gauge ROI, but there is as yet no single magic formula that works to everyone’s satisfaction.
EXERCISES
1. Explain why it is important to measure ROI (return on investment) in advertising.
2. Discuss the metrics marketers use to measure the effectiveness of traditional advertising (e.g., magazine ads).
3. List the five parameters msnbc.com used to measure the ROI of the launch campaign. Discuss the “new” metrics that some companies apply to advertising today. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/14%3A_ROI_-_msnbc.com_Decides_if_the_Campaign_Worked/14.01%3A_Chapter_Introduction.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. Discuss the usefulness of the metric CPM (cost per thousand).
2. Characterize the usefulness of network TV metrics for providing evidence of message usefulness.
3. Recall the various radio day-parts.
4. Distinguish among the three primary Starch scores.
5. List and discuss the basic principles that increase a print ad’s likely impact on the reader.
Traditional (broadcast) media struggle to demonstrate a direct impact on the bottom line. These advertising messages reach many consumers at the same time, and these receivers also get bombarded by a multitude of competing ads and other stimuli that vie for their attention. It’s not easy to connect the dots between a single commercial (or even an entire ad campaign) and the purchases of thousands of people who may or may not have noticed the message in the first place.
As we’ve seen, it’s fairly easy for media planners to compute a metric that lets them compare the relative cost-effectiveness of different media and of spots run on different vehicles in the same medium. This metric is cost per thousand (CPM); it reflects the cost to deliver a message to one thousand people. Because it provides an apples-to-apples perspective, it’s very helpful to have this information in hand.
Unfortunately, CPM alone is not a great indicator of ROI: it tells us how good we are at getting our message to an audience but nothing about the impact that message has when it reaches the target. Let’s briefly review some of the other ways advertisers try to provide evidence that the messages they create actually generate value for the client and its stockholders.
Network TV
For some time now network television has been in a defensive posture as the industry struggles to justify its existence. Some skeptics predict the demise of this medium as an advertising platform because our society is too fragmented for it to be effective. Note: this criticism certainly doesn’t apply to direct-response TV (DRTV), where sales are directly linked to on-air programming or “call now” ads. When a shopping channel like QVC puts that unique cubic zirconium ring on the air, the network knows within minutes whether it’s a winner.
While an advertiser in the 1960s could be confident that he could reach a hefty proportion of the American public with a commercial on one of the three networks in existence at the time, today the (TV) picture is much different. Consumers can choose from hundreds of channels—when they’re not surfing the Web or listening to podcasts and MP3 files. Young people in particular are migrating away from TV and spending more time online—especially as programming that used to appear exclusively on TV becomes available as streaming video. To rub salt into the wound, viewers today can exercise control over what they see as they gleefully TiVo or DVR their way into commercial-free entertainment on their big flat-screen TVs.
For now, estimates vary widely—one study found that the average ROI of TV advertising is 0.54 to 1 for packaged goods and 0.87 to 1 for nonpackaged goods. According to this research, these media on average actually lose money for the advertiser!Bill Harvey, “ARF Engagement Recipe: Surprise, Utility and Emotion,” Next Century Media, www.nextcenturymedia.com/2006/03/arf-engagement-recipe- surprise-utility.htm, March 3, 2006 (accessed August 16, 2008). Another estimate, by well-known media analyst Kevin Clancy, is a bit more sunny: he states that the average ROI of TV advertising campaigns ranges from 1 to 4 percent—still a small number, but at least it’s in the positive column.“How to Improve Marketing ROI: Free Kevin Clancy Web Seminar Offers Five Ways to Improve Marketing Performance,” The Copernicus MZine, November 2003, www.copernicusmarketing.com/about/mzine/monthlyeds/nov03.shtml (accessed August 16, 2008); www.copernicusmarketing.com/about/mzine/monthlyeds/nov03.shtml (accessed August 16, 2008).
Traditionally the metric this industry uses is viewership ratings, particularly those Nielsen compiles. Again, these data have questionable relevance to ROI because they only show whether people watch the shows and not necessarily whether they use the commercial breaks to hit the bathroom or make a sandwich. And these ratings often get collected in a finite period of time—sweeps week—so networks pump up their schedules to attract as many viewers as they can during this window. There is widespread consensus among advertisers that the TV industry will need new audience metrics—other than reach and frequency information it uses to calculate CPM—to report commercial ratings.
To get a sense of the pessimism surrounding this industry, consider some results from a recent study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Forrester Research:
• Almost 70 percent of advertisers think that DVRs and video-on-demand will reduce or destroy the effectiveness of traditional thirty-second commercials.
• When DVRs spread to thirty million homes, close to 60 percent of advertisers report they will spend less on conventional TV advertising; of those, 24 percent will cut their TV budgets by at least 25 percent.
• Eighty percent of advertisers plan to spend more of their advertising budget on Web advertising and 68 percent of advertisers will consider (Web-based) search engine marketing.
• Advertisers are also looking at alternatives to traditional TV advertising, and almost half plan to spend more of their advertising budgets on emerging platforms (which we’ll address later) such as TV program sponsorships, online video ads, and product placement.ANA / Forrester, “Beyond the 30 Second Spot: Marketers Adding Alternatives to Television Advertising,” Marketing Today, March 22, 2006, www.marketingtoday.com/research/0306/tv_advertising_less_effective.htm (accessed February 9, 2009).
With all that negativity, is network television dead? Don’t write its obituary yet. Although it’s undeniable that our world is a lot more fragmented than it used to be, there still are large-scale events that unite us and continue to command a huge mass television audience. These include the Super Bowl, the Olympics (with an estimated four billion viewers) and, of course, American Idol.
Advertisers also are getting more creative as they search for ways to draw in audiences—and entice them to stay for the commercials. For example, some are experimenting with bitcoms that try to boost viewers’ retention of a set of ads inserted within a TV show (we call this a commercial pod). In a typical bitcom, when the pod starts a stand-up comedian (perhaps an actor in the show itself) performs a small set that leads into the actual ads.David Goetzl, “Turner: We’ll Get Your Brand into Our Programming,” Marketing Daily, http://www.mediapost.com (accessed March 14, 2007).
Finally, the networks are taking baby steps toward getting more credit for viewership that occurs in places other than people’s living rooms. Our mobile society exposes us to television programming in bars, stores, hospital waiting areas, and dorm rooms—current ratings systems don’t reflect this. In early 2008 Nielsen fielded a new service it calls The Nielsen Out-of-Home Report; this is a cell-phone based service that provides metrics for television viewing that occurs outside of the home in bars, hotels, airports, and other locations. CNN has already started to use this service. In addition, the Nielsen Online VideoCensus will measure the amount of television and other video programming people view over the Internet.Anthony Crupi, “CNN Orders Out-of-Home Study on TV Viewership,” Mediaweek, August 11, 2008 (accessed August 16, 2008).
SS+K Spotlight
There was a unique advantage for msnbc.com; as part of the NBC and Microsoft families it could tap into these resources. The client was able to request in-kind media, which is placement on their properties at no media cost. The TV spots ran during launch week of the campaign.
Dig Deeper
Cable television has prospered at networks’ expense because it is much more targeted—and a lot cheaper. Travel, cooking, science, history, weight loss: it’s all available to a well-defined audience that’s self-selected to be interested in ads that relate to these categories. Still, like its older brother, network TV, cable lacks precise metrics. In some cases an advertiser will take advantage of cable’s targeting capabilities to conduct an A-B test of a commercial. This means that it will show one execution to a select group of viewers who live in one part of a city and a different version to another group—and then examine the product’s sales in each region to identify any results. But this is still an indirect metric and is not routinely used.
MTV Networks—one of the biggest cable success stories—is trying to remedy that problem now. The network has contracted with a firm called Marketing Evolution to develop a system for its advertisers based on meeting benchmarks including awareness, relevancy, new purchase intent, purchase loyalty, and advocacy. Advertisers may still pay on a CPM basis, but also have the option to contract with Marketing Evolution to measure the success of their buys.Steve Miller, “MTV Networks Puts New Advertising ROI Metrics into Rotation,” Brandweek, June 29, 2008, www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i3a6a726c3dd89a140cfb16d45053c8ec (accessed August 15, 2008). Time will tell if this new project will rock the metrics world.
Radio
Radio stations design their programming to attract certain listeners and then sell those listeners to advertisers in tiny increments. As with TV, advertisers look carefully at listener ratings to determine who and how many listeners their ad will reach on a given station—the leading industry ratings are provided by Arbitron. The company used to collect these data by asking listeners to keep a diary of the stations they listen to, but now it uses a Portable People Meter to automate the process and deliver more reliable results.http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/arbitron2008mediaplan.pdf (accessed August 16, 2008).
A radio station has an ad time inventory of about eighteen minutes per hour, which it sells in increments of fifteen seconds, thirty seconds, and sixty seconds (:15s, :30s, and :60s). But not all minutes are valued equally. Audience size shifts dramatically throughout the day, and radio rates vary to reflect the change in the estimated number of listeners your ad will reach.
The radio industry divides up the time it sells in terms of day-parts:
• A.M. drive time, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., has the most listeners. They tend to be highly receptive to learning about products (perhaps because they’re wired on their morning coffee!).
• Midday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: This day-part offers fewer listeners, but they tend to be very loyal to a station. A good way to build brand awareness is to advertise at the same time each day with the same message.
• P.M. drive time, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., also has a large number of listeners. They may be more inclined to buy what you’re selling than in the morning when they’re rushing to get to work.
• Evening, 7 p.m. to midnight, has fewer listeners but they tend to be highly loyal—they’ve made the conscious decision to switch on the radio rather than veg out in front of the TV.
• Late night lasts from midnight to 6 a.m. As you might expect, you’ll reach far fewer people at this time. But they may be more receptive to creative executions that capture their attention during those long, lonely hours.“Radio Advertising,” www.businesstown.com/advertising/radio-buying.asp (accessed August 15, 2008).
Print
The Starch test, as you learned in Chapter 11 "Execute on All Platforms: SS+K Goes into Production Overdrive", is a widely used metric that measures the performance of print advertising. Starch Research conducts quantitative research with magazine readers to identify what type of impact an ad had on them.http://www.starchresearch.com/services.html (accessed August 16, 2008). The service calculates these scores:
• Noted: The percentage of readers of the specific issue of a magazine who remember having previously seen the ad. This metric indicates whether the ad made an initial impact.
• Associated: The percentage of readers who can correctly associate the ad with the brand or product name.
• Read Most: The percentage of readers of the specific issue of the magazine who read 50 percent or more of the copy contained in the ad. This score shows how well the ad impacted the reader by engaging them with the copy.
Another metric that can be useful is pass-along readership. A magazine that readers share with others most likely displays a higher level of engagement, so it’s probably a good environment in which to place a relevant message. Research shows that readers have positive feelings about pass-along copies. Those who receive a magazine from others exhibit the same levels of recall and brand association for the issue’s ads as those who initially received the copy (plus, they get a “freebie,” so perhaps that puts them in a good mood).“Reader Dynamics and Ad Impact on Readers of Pass-Along Copies,” magazine.org, 2006, www.magazine.org/content/Files/valReadershipPassAlong.pdf (accessed August 15, 2008).
What makes a print ad effective? One recent study reported that we are far more likely to remember spectacular magazine ads, including multipage spreads, three-dimensional pop-ups, scented ads, and ads with audio components. For example, a Pepsi Jazz two-page spread with a three-dimensional pop-up of the opened bottle and a small audio chip that played jazz music from the bottle’s opening as well as a scratch-and-sniff tab that let readers smell its black cherry vanilla flavor scored an amazing 100 percent in reader recall.Erik Sass, “Study Finds Spectacular Print Ads Get Spectacular Recall,” http://www.mediapost.com (accessed February 23, 2007).
What makes a print ad effective? One recent study reported that we are far more likely to remember spectacular magazine ads, including multipage spreads, three-dimensional pop-ups, scented ads, and ads with audio components. For example, a Pepsi Jazz two-page spread with a three-dimensional pop-up of the opened bottle and a small audio chip that played jazz music from the bottle’s opening as well as a scratch-and-sniff tab that let readers smell its black cherry vanilla flavor scored an amazing 100 percent in reader recall.Erik Sass, “Study Finds Spectacular Print Ads Get Spectacular Recall,” http://www.mediapost.com (accessed February 23, 2007).
Unfortunately, that kind of multimedia treatment is very expensive; not every ad can mimic a Broadway production! Still, there are basic principles that increase a print ad’s likely impact on the reader:
• One popular dimension is the ad’s position in the magazine or newspaper. The industry refers to the ideal placement with the acronym FHRHP: first half, right hand page.
• Ads that appear in key cover positions (inside front cover, inside back cover, outside back cover) on average receive a Starch Noted score that is more than 10 percent higher than those that appear inside the magazine.
• Double-page spreads and bound multiple page inserts have significantly greater impact than full-page ads. Readers also are more likely to remember the brand name associated with the ad and to actually read the copy.
• A scent strip increases both the immediate impact of the advertisement and also the brand name association.
• Color has a significantly greater impact than monotone.
• Large advertisements on average have greater immediate impact than smaller ads.
• Sampling opportunities engage a reader with the product for a longer period of time. This strategy also shows that you are prepared to support your advertising claims.
• Placing an ad near editorial content that is relevant to the product enhances the ad’s impact.“Starch Research,” edsites2.itechne.com/Acp3Images/edDesk/0b531cdd- eaf7-4c3e-82a7-1980552a775c/AboutStarch.pdf (accessed August 15, 2008).
Key Takaway
Traditional broadcast media platforms are under great pressure to demonstrate that they contribute to a client’s bottom line. Unfortunately, there’s no consensus regarding the single best way to do this—especially because these messages often intend to shape opinions or slowly evolve or reinforce a brand’s image over time rather than motivating an immediate purchase. For now, most metrics estimate the number and characteristics of consumers who get exposed to the message, while in some cases focus group or survey data based upon a sample of these people can suggest that these messages are likely to result in the desired action. Media companies in the television, radio, magazine, and newspaper industries continue to work on innovations that will allow them to show more direct results to advertisers who need to decide where to place their dollars.
EXERCISES
1. Explain the metric cost per thousand (CPM) and how it’s used in advertising.
2. Explain how network TV measures advertising effectiveness.
3. Characterize radio day-parts and the different markets that match these day-parts.
4. Describe how Starch scores are used to measure advertising performance.
5. Identify the basic principles that increase a print ad’s likely impact on the reader. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/14%3A_ROI_-_msnbc.com_Decides_if_the_Campaign_Worked/14.03%3A_ROI_for_Broadcast_and_Print_Media.txt |
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this section, students should be able to do the following:
1. List and discuss ROI for alternative media.
2. Define media impressions.
It’s no secret that traditional advertising venues no longer provide the punch they used to. Advertising clutter makes it more difficult to get noticed in a crowded media environment, and even if people see or hear your ad, they are so busy multitasking that they may not react to it as you’d like. For this reason many advertisers look to alternative media either to replace or, more likely, to supplement their broadcast efforts. These options can be especially powerful for the client who needs short-term results (buy something now) rather than a longer-term brand building effort.
Point-of-Purchase
As the effectiveness of traditional media platforms continues to come under scrutiny, a lot of companies are allocating a greater proportion of their advertising dollars to point-of-purchase advertising (POP, also called marketing-at-retail). U.S. companies spend more than \$13 billion each year in this category. A POP can be an elaborate product display or demonstration, a coupon-dispensing machine, or even someone giving out free samples of a new cookie in the grocery aisle.
Coupons and other short-term sales promotions (e.g., “buy one, get one free”) are forms of POP that are extremely trackable—it’s fairly easy to monitor redemption rates to the nth degree so an advertiser knows exactly which offers resulted in purchases. The eventual impact on the bottom line? Not always so obvious—a rush of purchases in the short-term to take advantage of a big price reduction ironically might decrease the brand’s long-term value if these cuts cheapen its image! And you thought this was going to be easy.…
As we all know, the experiences we have in a retail environment exert a big impact on the likelihood we’ll purchase—though, again, these can be hard to quantify. However, POP industry experts claim that a well-designed in-store display can boost impulse purchases by as much as 10 percent. One study that compared short-term sales increases among a number of different media across three hundred campaigns reported that in-store fixtures yield an average of 160 percent, and in-store posters delivered a 136 percent return.“In-Store Marketing Gives Highest Return,” November 2003, www.popai.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search§ion=June&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=897 (accessed August 16, 2008).
Due to the high stakes involved, several initiatives are under way to employ high-tech methods that more precisely measure just what happens in the store when consumers encounter advertising messages. The industry trade association POPAI (Point-of-Purchase Advertising Institute) is spearheading a major initiative with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) to establish measurement standards for the industry.“The Association of National Advertisers and POPAI Lead Global Marketing at-Retail Initiative (MARI),” http://www.popai.com, October 7, 2005 (accessed August 16, 2008).
In addition, an alliance of major marketers including Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, 3M, Kellogg, Miller Brewing, and Wal-Mart is using infrared sensors to measure the reach of in-store marketing efforts. Retailers have long counted the number of shoppers who enter and exit their stores, and they use product barcode data to track what shoppers buy. But big consumer-products companies also need to know how many people actually walk by their promotional displays so they can evaluate how effective these are. Although it’s possible to fool these sensors (they still can’t tell if someone is simply cutting through to reach the other end of the store), this sophisticated measurement system is a valuable first step that many advertisers eagerly await.Ellen Byron and Suzanne Vranica, “Scanners Check Out Who’s Browsing Marketers, Retailers Test Sensors to Weigh Reach of In-Store Promotions,” Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2006, B2.
Finally, the marketing research company TNS is about to launch a new system to measure POP in grocery stores. The TNS Insight Dashboard will be a syndicated service that provides a report each quarter on the effectiveness of in-store marketing strategies. The Dashboard monitors where shoppers are in a grocery store at any given time, tracks the number of seconds they spend at any display and the amount of time they spend with other products, and then overlays these results with sales information so TNS can determine which displays actually lead to purchases. As a TNS executive observed, “A display’s stopping power is a good thing when it generates a lot of purchasing, but if people are spending many seconds there and not buying, something isn’t speaking to customers properly.”Quoted in Sarah Mahoney, “TNS Unveils New In-Store Metrics For Grocers,” Marketing Daily, July 14, 2008, http://www.mediapost.com (accessed August 16, 2008).
Out-of-Home Media
Surprise—there is no standard metric for traditional billboard advertising. However, common sense suggests that these messages are more useful in some contexts than in others. Because passing motorists only see a billboard for a few seconds, this medium is more effective to convey a quick visual message than substantial information. Billboard messages need to be kept to five or six words at the most. In this case a picture truly is worth a thousand words. Again, it’s awfully hard to quantify the impact a vivid picture can make, though this could be substantial if it’s sufficiently interesting and differentiates the product (especially when people see it repeatedly).
Outdoor advertising is quickly moving to more sophisticated digital technology that people can see at a greater distance and that can present more detailed verbal information. In research conducted by OTX, a global consumer research and consulting firm, 63 percent of adults said that advertising on digital signage “catches their attention.” Respondents consider advertising in this media to be more unique and entertaining and less annoying than both traditional and online media. The study also reports that awareness of digital out-of-home media is high—62 percent of adults have seen digital signage in the past twelve months—and is at levels comparable to billboards, magazines, and newspapers. On average, people notice digital signage in six different kinds of locations during their week, giving advertisers the opportunity to intercept people with their brand message at various touchpoints during their weekly routines as they work, play, and socialize. It’s even more effective at reaching eighteen- to thirty-four-year-olds, who rate this medium higher than the general population.“Report: Digital Signage More Effective than Traditional Media,” October 24, 2007, www.digitalsignagetoday.com/article.php?id=18696&prc=407&page=190 (accessed August 16, 2008).
Cinema advertising is one form of out-of-home media that is gaining in popularity—as SS+K discovered when they launched the in-cinema NewsBreaker Live game. An organization called The Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) is developing guidelines to allow potential advertisers to measure the effectiveness of this new medium. At this point twenty-five companies belong to this group.“Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) Expands Adding Screenvision and Target…,” Reuters, January 14, 2008, www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS108048+14-Jan-2008+PRN20080114 (accessed August 16, 2008).
SS+K Spotlight
In order to measure the effectiveness of their innovative in-cinema effort, msnbc.com and SS+K considered all the possibilities to show impact and impressions.
NewsBreaker Live yielded incredible results in terms of players’ recall of msnbc.com and enjoyment of the new innovative messaging. The team also aimed to measure impressions by counting tickets sold for the showtimes and films in which NewsBreaker Live played. The game ran in summer blockbusters such as Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Ocean’s 13, and Ratatouille, so a large number of people were exposed to it.
Product Placement
In 2008 advertisers spent \$3.6 billion to place their products in TV shows and movies. Until fairly recently, product placement was a casual operation where prop masters made informal arrangements to procure products they needed to dress a set. Today, it’s big business—but the effectiveness of these placements is anyone’s guess.
Nielsen, the company that compiles TV program viewership ratings, is working on a process with another company, IAG, to quantify when products appear in shows. IAG currently produces product placement ratings that are based on viewer recall; it asks 2.5 million people to respond to surveys online after they watch their favorite shows. These ask whether viewers remember the brand, think more positively about it, or want to purchase it, and whether the placement disrupted their viewing experience. Another firm called ITVX uses a system that measures up to sixty variables to determine a placement’s effectiveness, including whether a product appears in the foreground or background, whether a viewer is aware that a brand is on screen, and whether the show’s commercials are coordinated with the product placements.Alana Semuels, “Research Firm Nielsen Tallying Product Placement Ads,” Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2008, http://www.latimes.com (accessed August 16, 2008).
Video Advertising
Odds are you’ve watched a clip on YouTube recently. Advertisers want more access to viewers like you as online video advertising comes into its own. Some companies including CBS and Electronic Arts have reversed their positions about prosecuting users who post unauthorized clips of their content and have instead started to sell advertising on these spots. Interestingly, CBS is doing this even though its sister company Viacom is involved in a billion-dollar copyright lawsuit against Google, which owns YouTube.Brian Stelter, “Some Media Companies Choose to Profit from Pirated YouTube Clips,” New York Times Online, August 15, 2008 (accessed August 16, 2008).
Reflecting the newness of this media platform, in 2006 the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) developed a set of guidelines to help the industry determine at what point a piece even qualifies as a video commercial. It defines a video ad as a commercial that may appear before, during, and after a variety of content including streaming video, animation, gaming, and music video content in a player environment. For now, the industry still uses CPM as its primary metric. The majority of video ads are repurposed fifteen- and thirty-second television commercials, but as yet there is little data about how these translate to the online environment, which length is most effective, and so on.
Advergaming
Advergames, as you learned in Chapter 10 "Plan and Buy Media: SS+K Chooses the Right Media for the Client’s New Branding Message", are custom-made videogames specifically designed around a product or service, such as Sneak King by Burger King. Many advertisers are intrigued by the possibilities they see here, especially since the elements within an online game can be changed over time. Videogames also can show digital video ads before play, during breaks in a game, or following completion of the game. A client can introduce its products directly into the game in the form of beverages, mobile phones, cars, and so on.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is at work to define standard metrics for this new medium. The videogame platform shares some characteristics of online ads because when people play online, clients can track which specific elements in a game yield a response (e.g., when a player clicks on a sponsored link). The IAB has identified basic metrics that include:
• Cost per thousand (CPM)—Advertising inventory is sold on the basis of “number of impressions delivered.” But just what constitutes an “impression” has yet to be agreed upon. For example, it may be defined as ten seconds of cumulative exposure to an ad format or element within a game session. In order for each one second to be counted, the scene the gamer sees must meet defined parameters for the angle of view to the ad in addition to the size of the ad unit on the screen. Other measurement methods count “interactive impressions” once there is an interaction between the gamer and the interactive ad unit.
• Cost per click (CPC)—A media company or search provider is paid only when the user or visitor clicks on an ad.
• Cost per action (CPA)—Performance ad networks often use this model where the revenue event is triggered only when the user or visitor takes the desired action with the advertiser (i.e., makes a purchase).
• Cost per view (CPV)—This relatively new model triggers the revenue event only when the user or visitor opts in to view the ad, often by clicking on a prompt or “bug.”
• Cost per session (CPS)—A session-based sponsorship where the user or visitor’s play experience is branded.Game Advertising Platform Status Report: Let The Games Begin, Interactive Advertising Bureau, October 2007, http://www.iab.com (accessed August 14, 2008).
SS+K Spotlight
SS+K created msnbc.com’s NewsBreaker game because the agency realized that its target segment of News Explorers also tend to be active in casual online games. The chart below illustrates two types of engagement with the NewsBreaker game: number of times played and how long the user plays.
As you can see, users spent an average of 55.4 minutes playing the game. Game enthusiasts have enjoyed playing the game well past the media buy, which ended in June 2007. The total time people spent playing the game from April 12 through the end of August is 8,714,295 minutes—around seventeen years!
The number of people playing peaked on April 20 at a whopping 17,985 people. That was at the beginning of the campaign; toward the end the numbers were closer to 750 per day, indicating that the media efforts attracted News Explorers to the game.
Direct and Online Advertising
In 2007, marketers—commercial and nonprofit—spent \$173.2 billion on direct marketing in the United States. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) claims that each dollar spent on direct marketing yields, on average, a return on investment of \$11.69.The Power of Direct Marketing: ROI, Sales, Expenditures and Employment in the US, 2007-2008 Edition, Direct Marketing Association, http://www.the-dma.org/aboutdma/whatisthedma.shtml (accessed August 15, 2008) The strength of direct marketing is that it allows the advertiser to track the impact of a mailing or online ad directly. As direct marketers like to say, “What gets measured, gets managed.”
E-commerce marketers often use a metric they call the conversion rate—the percentage of visitors to an online store who purchase from it. Because each action online is trackable, it’s possible to go even further by breaking down the Web experience to understand which aspects of it are effective and which are not. For example, IBM computes microconversion rates to pinpoint more precisely how companies can improve their online shopping process.Joan Raymond, “No More Shoppus Interruptus,” American Demographics (May 2001): 39. This technique breaks down the shopping experience into the stages that occur from the time a customer visits a site to if or when she actually makes a transaction:
• Product impression: Viewing a hyperlink to a Web page that presents a product
• Click-through: Clicking on the hyperlink and viewing the product’s Web page
• Basket placement: Placing the item in the “shopping basket”
• Purchase: Actually buying the item
These researchers calculate microconversion rates for each adjacent pair of measures to come up with additional metrics that can pinpoint specific problems in the shopping process:
• Look-to-click rate: How many product impressions convert to click-throughs? This can help the e-tailer determine if the products it features on the Web site are the ones that customers want to see.
• Click-to-basket rate: How many click-throughs result in the shopper placing a product in the shopping basket? This metric helps to determine if the detailed information the site provides about the product is appropriate.
• Basket-to-buy rate: How many basket placements convert to purchases? This metric can tell the e-tailer which kinds of products shoppers are more likely to abandon in the shopping cart instead of buying them (believe it or not, this is a major problem for e-commerce businesses). It can also pinpoint possible problems with the checkout process, such as forcing the shopper to answer too many questions or making her wait too long for her credit card to be approved.
In some cases advertisers evaluate how much they spend on various ads compared to the visits or clicks they each create and then reallocate their ad spend to the ones with the highest ROI, as measured by cost per visit or cost per click. This method is easy to implement, but it can be misleading because it’s short-term oriented: one execution may result in a low cost per action, but customers may be “one-timers” who don’t return. Another execution might be more expensive, but customers may respond to it repeatedly over time, generating additional profits with no additional costs.“True Campaign ROI Links to LTV (Lifetime Value),” http://www.jimnovo.com/ROILTV.htm (accessed August 15, 2008).
Online advertising formats have historically faced problems with declining response rates over time. Banner ads debuted with click-through rates above 50 percent but faded to about 2 percent after their novelty wore off. Today, banners get fewer than five responses for every thousand advertisements shown, a response rate of about 0.5 percent.“IAB on Advertising ROI,” ZDNet Research, November 14th, 2003, http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFacts/?p=4928 (accessed August 15, 2008). That’s why advertisers now resort to other methods to capture surfers’ attention, such as pop-up ads that open on top of the Web site a person visits (also on their way out because they tend to be more annoying than entertaining) and, more lately, pop-under ads that open a new browser window under the active window so they allow the user to continue browsing at the intended site.
Numerous Web sites provide online calculators to determine ROI—of course these assume that you have accurate information to use (garbage in, garbage out). They typically consider these inputs:
• Site traffic: How many people visit your site in a typical month?
• Investment: How much do you spend on Web development, hosting, search engine marketing, or other advertising?
• Responses: What percentage of visitors do you expect to request more information, request a quote, or place an order?
• Conversions: What percentage of those who make one of the responses above do you realistically expect will buy?
• Average sale: How much do you expect each buyer to spend?
• Gross profit margin: What is the average percentage margin of your sales?
With this information in hand, you can calculate how much you spend to attract each visitor, how much you spend to attract each visitor who actually buys from you, and your net return on your investment. Blitz Media Design, http://www.webrefinements.com/seo/web-roi.html (accessed August 15, 2008).
SS+K Spotlight
Since its core product is delivered online, it was a no-brainer that msnbc.com’s new branding campaign would include an online element.
Buzz, PR, and WOM
Public relations campaigns traditionally measure impact in terms of the extent to which the client obtains media coverage. A basic metric is media impressions; as you learned in earlier chapters, this is an estimate of the number of people who see the plug in a magazine or newspaper or on a talk show or who hear about it in a radio interview. A PR firm typically delivers a comprehensive list of media citations to the client, and it may rank these in terms of the prestige or circulation of the outlet or how prominent the mention was in this outlet. Again, this metric doesn’t really speak to any impact the citations have on actual purchases or attitude change.Deborah Holloway, “How to Select a Measurement System That’s Right for You,” Public Relations Quarterly (Fall 1992): 15–17.
As WOM (word-of-mouth) assumes a greater role in many advertisers’ strategies—especially online buzz—the pressure is on for agencies to demonstrate that this approach does more than just make people talk about a brand. In fact, one prominent WOM agency called BzzAgent recently took a bold step to back up its claims that its buzz campaigns yield attractive ROI. With its “WOM Impact Guarantee” program the agency invites any brand marketer and its agency partners to take part in a challenge in which BzzAgent and the agency partner will run competing campaigns. If BzzAgent does not top the competing agency by 20 percent across four metrics—brand awareness, consumer opinion, purchase intent, and actual sales—the agency will refund the marketer the cost of its word-of-mouth campaign and measurement costs.Michael Bush, “Better ROI or Your Money Back, Says Buzz Agency,” Advertising Age, July 14, 2008, adage.com/article?article_id=129593 (accessed July 16, 2008). That’s putting your money where your (word-of-) mouth is.
The explosion of blogs, chat rooms, and Web sites that let consumers spread the word about products they love and hate opens an entire new realm of possibilities to develop metrics for WOM. Contrary to the assumptions of many students who brazenly post embarrassing photos of themselves on Facebook, the Web is forever—most content that goes online can be traced and analyzed long after it’s been put there. That photo of you from last weekend’s wild party might come back to haunt you someday!
BuzzMetrics, a subsidiary of the Nielsen Company, offers marketers research services to help them understand how this consumer-generated content affects their brands. BuzzMetrics’ search engines identify online word-of-mouth commentary and conversations to closely examine phrases, opinions, keywords, sentences, and images people use when they talk about a client’s products. The company’s processing programs then analyze vocabulary, language patterns, and phrasing to determine whether the comments are positive or negative and whether the authors are men, women, young, or old to more accurately measure buzz. BuzzMetrics’ BrandPulse and BrandPulse Insight reports can tell advertisers how many people are talking about their products online, the issues they’re discussing, and how people react to specific ads or other promotional activities.Keith Schneider, “Brands for the Chattering Masses,” New York Times Online, December 17, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/business/yourmoney/17buzz.html?scp=4&sq=buzzmetrics&st=nyt (accessed April 14 2008); Nielsen Buzzmetrics, www.nielsenbuzzmetrics.com/products (accessed April 14, 2008).
SS+K Spotlight
In addition to measuring elements of the campaign, msnbc.com took some internal measurements. Taking these additional steps allowed them to see how the messaging impressions were affecting the site traffic. Using Omniture tracking, msnbc.com was able to analyze the action on their site while the campaign was in effect and to determine whether they met their goals.
A few months after the campaign wrapped, SS+K conducted a set of interviews with the same internal stakeholders they’d interviewed when they won the account. One of the goals of the marketing campaign was to unite their multiple views of what the brand stood for. It turned out that even before it launched, stakeholders felt the campaign was successful in that it gave msnbc.com a clear story. It gave them a common lens they could use to evaluate new design concepts and editorial content, while it gave msnbc.com the cachet stakeholders felt was long overdue. It successfully overcame the past ambiguity about whether the site was primarily an offshoot of NBC versus Microsoft and promised stakeholders a clearer future. The head of msnbc.com ad sales noted: “Clients have called us asking, ‘How do we do something similar?’ It’s opened up doors.”
Video Spotlight
Catherine Captain
(click to see video)
Catherine Captain summarizes the campaign’s success from her point of view.
Table 14.1 Final Takeaway and Lessons from the msnbc.com Branding Campaign
A BRAND IS BORN
“This is a good thing, we now have an independent identity.”
—msnbc.com key stakeholder
INTERNAL RALLYING CRY
“It’s now visually clear that we are different and we’ve arrived somewhere special and unique, and it works because we brought it out ourselves, it’s who we are.”
—msnbc.com key stakeholder
STARTING TO GET THE WORD OUT
Paid media impressions: Over 730 million
Earned media impressions: Over 175 million
LOW CONSUMER AWARENESS
Statistically insignificant changes in awareness and ad recall among News Explorers
HIGH CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT
Large amount of time spent playing online game
High recall of game sponsor in-cinema
CLARIFIED IDENTITY HELPS DEVELOP AS NEWS SOURCE, NOT JUST A NEWS SITE
“The key is, we have to keep at it, this can’t be a one shot deal, we have to get it out there more.”
—msnbc.com key stakeholder
KEEP EVOLVING THE PRODUCT
“We know that CNN.com beat us to a redesign, and we know that we are behind them, we are working on getting our flexible design out there.”
—msnbc.com key stakeholder
Since the campaign, msnbc.com has been decorated with more than a dozen honors and accolades, including these awards. As you’ll note, these awards are in different categories from effectiveness to creativity. Visit each of their Web sites to learn more about the prestige of each of these awards.
• Winner of the prestigious international Webby Award for best Integrated Campaign, honoring excellence on the Internet
• Winner of a Gold EFFIE award (small budget campaign) for effective advertising, honoring the most significant achievement in the business of marketing communications: ideas that work
• Winner of the Gold One Show Interactive award for brand gaming
• Winner of the Gold One Show Interactive award for its integrated campaign (interactive and noninteractive)
• Winner of a Bronze ANDY award from the Ad Club of New York for creativity in advertising
Key Takaway
Advertisers continue to search for new platforms as they compete for the attention of media-saturated consumers. Today virtually anything—from a cemetery to a rocket ship—can be used to get across a message. But these emerging venues don’t necessarily have a tradition (yet) of measuring direct impact. An exception is direct marketing; its lifeblood is about tying a message directly to a result. Whether via mail catalogs or online ads, direct marketers carefully track the effectiveness of each and every message they send. This sounds great, and it usually is—but remember, as we’ve already noted, short-term purchases may boost your bottom line this quarter but still come back to bite you in the long term if these messages don’t contribute to a more fundamental shaping of customers’ deep-seated feelings and beliefs about the product or service. And so, the search for the Holy Grail continues.
EXERCISES
1. List and briefly characterize each of the alternative media forms listed.
2. Identify and describe each of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) five basic metrics for advergaming.
3. Describe how e-commerce marketers use the conversion rate metric to track customer activity. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/14%3A_ROI_-_msnbc.com_Decides_if_the_Campaign_Worked/14.04%3A_ROI_for_Alternative_Media.txt |
Tie it All Together
Now that you have read this chapter, you should be able to determine how to choose the right media for client messages:
• You can identify and explain the term return on investment (ROI).
• You can describe and illustrate the value of using metrics to gauge the direct impact of a marketing communication.
• You can explain brand equity and why it is an important brand concept.
• You can demonstrate how msnbc.com measured the ROI of the campaign using five parameters.
• You can define and discuss the usefulness of the metric CPM (cost per thousand).
• You can characterize the usefulness of network TV metrics for providing evidence of message usefulness.
• You can recall the various radio day-parts.
• You can distinguish the three primary Starch scores.
• You can list and discuss the basic principles that increase a print ad’s likely impact on the reader.
• You can list and discuss ROI for alternative media.
• You can define and discuss media impressions.
USE WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED
1. The famous ad line “What’s in your wallet?” might just become “Who’s in your car?” Progressive Corp. insurance now offers a device for its insured drivers that will assist in lowering the drivers’ insurance rates. The device is about the size of a box of Tic-Tacs and monitors one’s driving time, number of miles driven, and acceleration and braking patterns. The company then adjusts driver rates to reflect the presence or absence of risky driving habits. The hope is that insured drivers will adjust their risky driving habits or at least be more aware of what they are doing that is unsafe. The product and others like it are at least partially targeted toward teens and beginning drivers who are in the habit formation stage of driving. Obviously, there are those who see this form of monitoring as excessive, an invasion of privacy, and biased against those who don’t match Progressive’s “ideal driver” profile.
As an advertising director, what metrics would you suggest that your client Progressive use to determine the effectiveness of its future ads featuring the device? You will need to consider a target market for Progressive’s ads. Discuss your ideas in class. For more information on Progressive and its policies go to http://www.progressive.com.
2. One of the central concepts associated with product placement in different media forms is the idea that the product appears in a natural setting and is perceived as being something other than an ad. This rationale would then assume that the viewer, reader, or Web surfer receives a different type of message than one received in a traditional advertisement. Additionally, since most product placements are not blocked by the consumer’s screening process, the advertiser has a higher chance of reaching the chosen market.
Do you use TiVo or some other product to block or zap ads in your favorite TV shows? Do you try to fast-forward past any ads that appear on your DVD disks? If so, you have just made the case for product placement within those shows or DVDs.
Your assignment is to watch several TV shows or DVDs over three to five days. Keep a diary of product placements in those shows or DVDs. Based on what you have recorded, comment on metrics that could be used to test the effectiveness of those placements. Explain your comments and choices.
DIGITAL NATIVES
The Point-of-Purchase Advertising Institute (POPAI) has a wealth of information about point-of-purchase (POP) advertising. One does not usually associate POP with the “wired world.” POPAI hopes that its Web viewers will learn more about POP and how it can be used in advertising. Who knows, in tomorrow’s world POP may appear in the e-commerce stores or in your personal Web spaces. Sound too strange? Data indicate that many alternative media forms are being adapted by industry and consumers to the “wired world.” Since POP is highly effective in the retail environment, you might be able to consider how useful it might be to capture the attention of the digital consumer.
Go to the POPAI Web site at http://www.POPAI.org and read the summary of one of the books available for viewing. You’ll find your book options at the bottom of the opening page of the organization’s Web site. Summarize what you have learned from the chosen e-book. Lastly, comment on what you perceive the future of POP to be.
AD-VICE
1. Pick two magazine ads that demonstrate competitive products. Design a list of at least four metrics that could demonstrate which of the two ads is more effective in reaching the target market. Explain your reasons for your metric choices.
2. According to material presented in the chapter, traditional (broadcast) media struggle to demonstrate a direct impact on the bottom line. Explain what is meant by this phrase. Explain the relationship between cost per thousand (CPM) and return on investment (ROI).
3. Go to Google or another search engine and find information that lists the top five television ads from last year’s Super Bowl based on either viewers or critics’ choices. Next, find information on the advertising rates for that Super Bowl. Evaluate whether the exposure justifies the cost. Explain your evaluation procedure.
4. Go to the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) Web site at http://www.ovab.org. Once there, explore the Web site to determine the function and services of the organization. Choose the Network Planning Guide option on the opening Web page and download the planning guide. Comment on what you find and how useful it appears to be for the advertising planner. What other information do you think the advertising planner might need to make a wise buy in this media category?
ETHICAL DILEMMA
Do you download software, movies, or songs without considering the legality of what you are doing? Even though this practice has consequences for some, many don’t see unauthorized downloading as necessarily bad or harmful to anyone. Using Google or another search engine, research copyright, file sharing, and music downloads to learn more about the current state of the downloading practice and any penalties associated with it. A good starting place would be the United States Copyright Office’s Web site at http://www.copyright.gov.
Visit RealNetworks at http://www.realnetworks.com. RealNetworks has developed a software product (see the RealPlayer product category) that allows computers to rip information from a disk in just a few moments. This information can later be transferred to other disks. At present this process is legal. Examine RealNetworks’ description of their products and services.
What future ethical dilemma do you think such products as RealPlayer might cause? As a consumer, do you think a positive or negative buzz should be started about such products? As an advertising executive, what would be your stance on accepting companies that made software of this nature as clients? Take a stance and discuss your position in class. Discuss your position with peers or have a minidebate about the issues and positions. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_Launch__Advertising_and_Promotion_in_Real_Time/14%3A_ROI_-_msnbc.com_Decides_if_the_Campaign_Worked/14.05%3A_Exercises.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• How to define and distinguish business strategy and marketing strategy.
• How to think about digital audiences.
• The key building block concepts that are essential to any strategy.
• The questions that need to be asked when assembling a digital marketing strategy.
01: Think - Strategy and Context
A strategy indicates the most advantageous direction for an organisation to take over a defined period of time. It also outlines which tactics and means should be used to execute this direction. Originating as a military term, strategy is about using your strengths, as well as the context in which you are operating, to your advantage.
In marketing, strategy starts with understanding what the business wants to achieve, or what problem it wants to solve. It then considers the context in which the business and its competitors operates, and outlines key ways in which the business and brand can gain advantage and add value.
In the early days of TV, when the medium was new and not yet entirely understood, there were separate ‘TV planners’ who created a ‘TV strategy’ for the brand. Over time, this was incorporated into the overall marketing strategy (as it should be). The same has happened with digital. Digital thinking should be incorporated into marketing strategy from day one. This chapter considers digital strategy separately in order to highlight some ways in which digital has affected our strategic approach to reaching customers and solving marketing problems.
1.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 1.2.1
Term Definition
Cluetrain Manifesto A set of 95 theses organised as a call to action (CTA) for businesses operating within a newly connected marketplace.
Market share In strategic management and marketing, the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company.
Metric A unit of measurement.
Pay per click (PPC) Pay per click is advertising where the advertiser pays only for each click on their advert, not for the opportunity for it to be seen or displayed.
Return on investment (ROI) The ratio of cost to profit.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) SEO is the practice that aims to improve a website’s ranking for specific keywords in the search engines.
Short Message Service (SMS) Electronic messages sent on a cellular network.
Strategy A set of ideas that outline how a product line or brand will achieve its objectives. This guides decisions on how to create, distribute, promote and price the product or service.
Tactic A specific action or method that contributes to achieving a goal.
1.03: What is marketing
A simple definition for marketing is that it is the creation and satisfaction of demand for your product, service or ideas. If all goes well, this demand should translate into sales and, ultimately, revenue.
In 2012, Dr Philip Kotler defined marketing as “The science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential” (Kotler, 2012).
The American Marketing Association (AMA), defines marketing as “The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (AMA, 2017).
In order to motivate people to pay for your product or service, or to consider your organisation superior to your competitors, you need to create meaningful benefits and value for the consumer. The design of the product or service itself can arguably be a function of marketing. The value that a marketer should seek to create should be equal to or even greater than the cost of the product to the consumer. Doing this often and consistently will grow trust in, and loyalty towards, the brand and create strong brand equity.
1.04: What is digital marketing
How does digital marketing fit into this definition? There is, in fact, no difference between ‘traditional’ marketing and digital marketing. They are one and the same, apart from digital being specific to a medium.
Ultimately, the aim of any type of marketing is to keep and grow a customer base and stimulate sales in the future. Digital communication tools contribute towards connecting and building long-term relationships with customers.
What is digital? Bud Caddell defines ‘digital’ as “A participatory layer of all media that allows users to self-select their own experiences, and affords marketers the ability to bridge media, gain feedback, iterate their message, and collect relationships” (Caddell, 2013). In other words, digital is a way of exploring content and ideas (for users) and connecting with and understanding customers (for marketers).
Digital marketing is powerful in two fundamental ways. First, the audience can be segmented very precisely, even down to factors like current location and recent brand interactions, which means that messages can (and must) be personalised and tailored specially for them.
Second, the digital sphere is almost completely measurable. Every minute and every click by a customer can be accounted for. In digital you can see exactly how various campaigns are performing, which channels bring the most benefit, and where your efforts are best focused. Cumulatively, access to data that measures the whole customer experience should lead to data driven decision making.
Note
Learn more about this in the Data driven decision making chapter.
The complete scope of marketing is practised on the Internet. Products and services are positioned and promoted, purchased, distributed and serviced. The web provides consumers with more choice, more influence and more power. Brands constantly have new ways of selling, new products and services to sell, and new markets to which they can sell.
Digital marketing helps to create consumer demand by using the power of the interconnected, interactive web. It enables the exchange of currency but more than that, it enables the exchange of attention for value.
An exchange of value
If marketing creates and satisfies demand, digital marketing drives the creation of demand using the power of the Internet, and satisfies this demand in new and innovative ways.
A brand on the Internet can gain value in the form of time, attention and advocacy from the consumer. For the user value can be added in the form of entertainment, education and utility. Brands build loyalty among users who love their products or services and must align with users’ values and aspirations. Users fall in love with products and services when their experience is tailored to their needs, and not the needs of the brand. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/01%3A_Think_-_Strategy_and_Context/1.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Business and brand strategy
Before you can delve into marketing strategy, take a step back and consider the business and brand with which you are working.
The end goal of any business is to make money in one way or another. Business strategy asks the questions, “What is the business challenge we are facing that prevents us from making more revenue?” and, “What business objective should we strive for in order to increase the money in the bank?”
The brand is the vessel of value in this equation. The brand justifies why the business matters, what the business’ purpose is and what value the business adds to people’s lives.
The AMA defines a brand as, “A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The usual expression of a brand is its trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller” (N.A., 2011). To quote Cheryl Burgess, a brand presents, “A reason to choose” one product or service over another.
The value of the brand is measured in terms of its brand equity i.e. how aware are people of the brand? Does it hold positive associations and perceived value? How loyal are people to the brand?
When you have the answers to these questions, you can formulate a marketing strategy to address the challenge or objective you’ve discovered.
Marketing strategy
The purpose of a marketing strategy is to determine what the business is about, and to then address the business or brand challenge, or objective that has been revealed. An effective strategy involves making a series of well-informed decisions about how the brand, product or service should be promoted. The brand that attempts to be all things to all people risks becoming unfocused or losing the clarity of its value proposition.
For example, a new airline would need to consider how it is going to add value to the market and differentiate itself from competitors. Whether their product is a domestic or international service; whether its target market is budget travellers or international and business travellers; and whether the channel is through primary airports or smaller, more cost-effective airports. Each of these choices will result in a vastly different strategic direction.
To make these decisions, a strategist must understand the context in which the brand operates, asking, “What are the factors that affect the business?” This means conducting a situational analysis that looks at the following four pillars:
1. The environment
2. The business
3. The customers
4. The competitors.
Here are some considerations and tools for conducting your brand’s situational analysis.
Understanding the environment
The environment is the overall context or ‘outside world’ in which the business functions. It can involve anything from global economics (how well is the local currency performing these days?) to developments in your industry. Every brand will have a specific environment that it needs to consider, based on the type of product or service it produces.
An analysis of the business and brand environment will typically consider political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental (PESTLE) influences to identify a clear set of considerations or issues pertinent to the marketing strategy.
Understanding the business
There are several marketing models that can be used to understand the business and brand with which you are working. Since it’s essential for all marketing messages to encapsulate the brand’s identity and objectives, this is a very important step. A crucial consideration is the brand itself. What does it stand for? What does it mean? What associations, ideas, emotions and benefits do people associate with it? What makes it unique?
Out of this, you can determine what the brand or product’s unique selling point (USP) is. A USP is the one characteristic that can make your product or service better than the competition’s. Ask yourself, ”What unique value does it have? Does it solve a problem that no other product does?”
Understanding customers
To understand your customers, you need to conduct market research. Try not to make assumptions about why people like and transact with your brand, you may find their values and motives are quite different from what you thought. Ongoing research and a data driven business will help you to build a picture of what particular benefit or feature your business provides to your customers allowing you to capitalise on this in your marketing content.
One important area on which to focus here is the consumer journey which is the series of steps and decisions a customer takes before buying from your business (or not). Luckily, online data analytics allow you to get a good picture of how people behave on your website before converting to customers; other forms of market research will also help you establish this for your offline channels.
On the Internet, a consumer journey is not linear. Instead, consumers may engage with your brand in a variety of ways, for example, across devices or marketing channels, before making a purchase.
The goal is to reach customers with the right marketing message at the right stage of their journey. For example, you may want to use aspirational messages for someone in the exploration phase, but focus on more direct features and benefits (such as a lower price) when they’re almost ready to buy.
Understanding competitors
Finally, it’s important to know who else is marketing to your potential customers, what they offer, and how you can challenge or learn from them. Many competitors target the same needs in a given customer, sometimes through very similar products. Positioning places your brand in a unique place in people’s minds. It is impossible to create a strong value proposition or USP without knowing your competitors’ positioning strategy.
On the Internet, your competitors are not just those who are aiming to earn your customers’ money; they are also those who are capturing your customers’ attention. With more digital content being created in a day than most people could consume in a year – for example, over 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute (YouTube, 2017) – the scarcest resources these days are time, focus and attention.
When considering competition it’s also worthwhile looking at potential replacements for your product. The Internet is disrupting and accelerating the pace of disintermediation in a number of industries, meaning that people can now go directly to the business instead of transacting through a middleman (look at the travel industry as an example). To stay ahead, you should be looking at potential disruptors of your industry as well as the existing players.
Digital marketing strategy
Once you have a clear sense of what the business challenge or objective is, you can define how your marketing strategy will leverage digital channels to fulfil it.
As discussed in the introduction, digital should not be considered as separate from your core strategy. Digital marketing builds on and adapts the principles of traditional marketing using the opportunities and challenges offered by the digital medium.
A marketing strategy should be constantly iterating and evolving. Since the Internet allows for near-instantaneous feedback and data gathering, marketers should constantly be optimising and improving their online marketing efforts.
User-centric thinking, which involves placing the user at the core of all decisions, is vital when looking at building a successful marketing strategy. The marketing strategist of today is offered not only a plethora of tactical possibilities, but also unprecedented ways of measuring the effectiveness of chosen strategies and tactics. Digital allows greater opportunities for interaction and consumer engagement than were possible in the past, so it is important to consider the ways in which the brand can create interactive experiences for consumers, not just broadcast messages.
The fact that digital marketing is highly empirical is one of its key strengths. Almost everything can be measured: from behaviours, to actions and action paths, to results. Insight tools can even be used to track the sentiment of users towards certain elements online. This means that the digital marketing strategist should be constantly measuring and adapting to ensure the highest ROI. Built into any strategy should be a testing framework and the ability to remain flexible and dynamic in a medium that shifts and changes as user behaviours do.
If we defined strategy as ‘a plan of action designed to achieve a particular outcome’, the desired outcome of a digital marketing strategy would be aligned with your organisation’s overall business and brand building objectives or challenges. For example, if one of the overall objectives was acquisition of new clients, a possible digital marketing objective might be building brand awareness online. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/01%3A_Think_-_Strategy_and_Context/1.05%3A_Understanding_marketing_strategy.txt |
The following building-block techniques will help you structure a marketing strategy, both online and offline, that addresses your core business challenges. These strategy models are just starting points and ways to help you think through problems. As you grow in experience and insight, you could find yourself relying on them less or adapting them.
Porter’s Five Forces analysis
Porter’s Five Forces analysis is a business tool that helps determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of a market. The Internet’s low barrier to entry means that many new businesses are appearing online, providing countless choices for customers. This makes it important to consider new factors when devising a marketing strategy.
The Four Ps
The Four Ps of marketing help you structure the components that make up a brand’s offering, differentiators and marketing. They have been fundamentally changed by the Internet and need to be looked at in the context offered by digitally connected media and from the perspective of the consumer. How your brand is positioned in the mind of your consumer will ultimately determine your success.
1. Products (and services)
Products and services are what a company sells. The Internet enables businesses to sell a huge range of products, from fast-moving consumer goods and digital products such as software, to services such as consultancy. In fact, the Internet has in some cases made it possible for a product or service to exist. Consider Uber and Airbnb. Online, the experience the user has in discovering and purchasing can be considered part of the product the brand provides, or be the product itself.
The Internet has enabled hyper-personalisation. For example, Nike (nikeid.nike.com) and Converse (www.converse.com) allow customers to customise their own trainers. The Internet as a distribution medium also makes it possible for products, such as software and music, to be sold digitally.
2. Price
The prevalence of search engines and of shopping comparison websites, such as www.pricerunner.co.uk, and www.nextag.com, makes it easy for customers to compare product prices across a number of retailers. This makes the Internet a market of near-perfect competition (Porter, 2008). The internet allows for personalised and flexible pricing strategies to a level that traditional retailers would find almost impossible to achieve.
With price differentiation becoming a challenge, especially for smaller players in the market, businesses need to consider differentiating on value. Value is a combination of service, perceived benefits and price, where customers may be willing to pay a higher price for a better experience or if they feel they are getting something more than just the product.
3. Placement (or distribution)
Product distribution and markets no longer have to be dictated by location. By simply making their products visible online (for example, on a website or Facebook page), brands can reach a global market. The key is to reach and engage customers on the channels they are using. This is why choosing your digital tactics is vital. You want to engage customers on their terms, not yours.
4. Promotion
The Internet, as an information and entertainment medium, naturally lends itself to promoting products. The online promotional mix is an extension of the offline, but with some significant differences. For one, online promotion can be tracked, measured and targeted in a far more sophisticated way.
Promotion doesn’t just mean advertising and talking at customers. On the Internet, it’s crucial to engage, collaborate and join conversations, too. Interacting with customers helps build relationships, and the web makes this sort of communication easy. That’s why a good portion of this book is devoted to engagement tactics and tools.
Note
Many additional Ps have been suggested and debated over time. We’ve restricted our discussion to the four listed here, but you should do some research and join the debate with your own point of view.
SWOT analysis
A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is an ideal way to understand your business and your market.
Always have a purpose in mind when conducting a SWOT analysis. For example, study the external threats to your business, and see how learning from these can help you overcome internal weaknesses. This should tie back in to your business and marketing objectives and strengths should be promoted, opportunities should be sought out, while threats and weaknesses should be minimised as much as possible. A SWOT analysis is part of a situational analysis and identifies the key issues that direct the marketing strategy. Be mindful of the fact that weaknesses can be opportunities and strengths threats, especially in the world of digital disruption.
1.07: References
AMA, 2017. About AMA. [Online] Available at: https://www.ama.org/AboutAMA/Pages/D...Marketing.aspx [Accessed on 27 October 2017]
Brilliant Noise, 2012. Brilliant Model: the Loyalty Loop. [Online] Available at: brilliantnoise.com/brilliant-model-the-loyalty-loop/#more-3873 [Accessed 20 October 2017].
Caddell, B. 2013. Digital strategy 101. [Online] Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/bud_cadde...y-101-24081694 [Accessed 27 October 2017]
Kotler, P., 2012. What is marketing? [Online] Available at: www.kotlermarketing.com/phil_questions.shtml#answer3 [Accessed 30 October 2017].
Marketing Society, 2017. Star Awards. [Online] Available at: http://starawards.marketingsociety.com/results/ [Accessed 27 October 2017]
Porter, M., 2008. The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy in Harvard Business Review, January 2008, p86–104. YouTube, 2017. Statistics. [Online] Available at: www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html [Accessed 30 October 2017]. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/01%3A_Think_-_Strategy_and_Context/1.06%3A_The_Building_Blocks_of_Marketing_Strategy.txt |
Any activity with an end goal (whether it’s winning a war, building a city or selling a product) should have a blueprint in place for every person in the organisation to follow. In digital marketing, however, there is no single definitive approach so each business must create its own roadmap. However, there are questions you can use to guide this process.
A strategy needs to cover the questions of who you are and who you are not. It should also include what you are offering and to whom, as well as why and how you are doing so. The steps and questions below cover what an organisation should be aware of when creating and implementing a strategy that will meet its marketing objectives and solve its challenges.
1. Context
The first step in crafting a successful strategy is to examine the context of the organisation and the various stakeholders. We covered this under marketing strategy earlier in this chapter, but it bears repeating.
• What is the context in which you are operating (PESTLE factors) and how is this likely to change in the future?
• Who are you, why does your brand matter and what makes your brand useful and valuable?
• Who are your customers, and what needs, wants and desires do they have?
• Who are your competitors? These may extend beyond organisations that compete with you on the basis of price and product and could also be competition in the form of abstracts such as time and mindshare. Thorough market research will reveal the answers to these questions.
2. Value exchange
Once you have examined the market situation, the second step is an examination of your value proposition or promise: in other words, what unique value your organisation can add to that market. It is important to identify the supporting valueadds to the brand promise that are unique to the digital landscape. What extras, beyond the basic product or service, do you offer to customers?
The Internet offers many channels for value creation. However, the definition of what is ‘valuable’ depends largely on the target audience, so it is crucial to research your users and gather insights into what they want and need. Gathering the right data can help you evolve this value exchange over time.
3. Objectives
When setting your digital marketing goals, there are four key aspects to consider: objectives, tactics, key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets. Let’s look at each one in turn.
Objectives
Objectives are essential to any marketing endeavour, without them your strategy would have no direction and no end goal or win conditions. It’s important to be able to take a step back and ask, “Why are we doing any of this? What goal, purpose or outcome are we looking for?”
• What are you trying to achieve?
• How will you know if you are successful?
Sometimes, words like ’objective’ can be used in different situations with slightly different meanings. Remember, the objective of a website or online campaign is aligned with the strategic outcomes of the business. The objective of a campaign may be to create awareness for a new business or increase sales of a product. The objective answers the question, “What do we want to achieve with this marketing campaign?” For example, an objective might be to increase the sales of a product, grow brand awareness or increase website traffic. A business objective (something that your business will either do or not do) and a marketing objective (a change in customer behaviour that your business wants to achieve) are not the same thing!
Objectives need to be SMART:
• Specific – the objective must be clear and detailed, rather than vague and general.
• Measurable – the objective must be measurable so that you can gauge whether you are attaining the desired outcome.
• Attainable – the objective must be something that is possible for your brand to achieve, based on available resources.
• Realistic – the objective must also be sensible and based on data and trends; don’t exaggerate or overestimate what can be achieved.
• Time-bound – finally, the objective must be linked to a specific timeframe.
Goals
The goal of a website or campaign in web analytics refers to an action that a user takes on a website or a type of user behaviour. This action could be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or viewing a certain number of pages in a visit. A completed goal is called a conversion. Goals are derived from objectives and answer the question, “What do we need users to do in order to achieve our objective?”
Note
Goals related to visitor behaviour, such as time spent on site or pageviews per visit, are referred to as engagement goals.
Tactics
Objectives are not the same as tactics. Tactics are the specific tools or approaches you will use to meet your objectives, for example, a retention-based email newsletter, a Facebook page, or a CRM implementation. As a strategy becomes more complex, you may have multiple tactics working together to try to achieve the same objective. Tactics may change (and often should), but the objective should remain your focus. We’ll look at tactics in more detail in the next section.
Key performance indicators (KPIs)
Key performance indicators or KPIs are metrics that are used to indicate whether tactics are performing well and meeting your objectives. There are many metrics to be analysed, and determining which are important will help to focus on what really matters to a particular campaign. KPIs relate closely to goals, and answer the question, “What data do we need to look at to see if goals are being completed?” For example, if your objective is to increase website traffic, you may look at the number of website visitors, the percentage of new visitors, and how long users stay on the site.
KPIs are determined per tactic, with an eye on the overall objective. The diagram below shows how a number of KPIs can feed into one goal, and a number of goals can in turn feed into one objective. A single objective can have a number of goals, each with their own number of KPIs, to ensure it is achieved.
Targets
Finally, targets are the specific values that are set for your KPIs to reach within a specific time period. That is, they are the actual target values that KPIs need to meet in order for the campaign to be declared a success. Sportspeople need to reach targets to advance their careers, for example, come in the top ten to qualify for the final, or run 10 km in under 27 minutes. If you meet or exceed a target, you are succeeding; if you don’t reach it, you’re falling behind on your objectives and you need to reconsider your approach (or your target). If one KPI is ‘newsletter subscriptions’, then a target might be ‘100 subscriptions every month’ so if one month falls short at 70, this will quickly reveal that a fix is required.
When setting objectives and targets for any campaign, remember to think about overlaps in customer behaviour that might impact how you measure your success. People might click on an ad and visit your website to buy something, but they could also browse and then go and buy something in the brick-and-mortar store. The total economic value of online activities needs to account for this so that you can get an idea of the true contribution digital is making.
Example \(1\)
Here is an example:
SMART objective:
• Increase sales through the eCommerce platform by 10% within the next six months.
Tactics:
• Search advertising
• Social media marketing using the Facebook brand page
KPIs per tactic:
• Search advertising – number of search referrals, cost per click on the ads
• Facebook brand page – number of comments and shares on campaignspecific posts
Targets per tactic:
• Search advertising – 1 000 search referrals after the first month, with a 10% month-on-month increase after that
• Facebook brand page – 50 comments and 10 shares on campaign-specific posts per week
4. Tactics and evaluation
Many digital tools and tactics are available once you have defined your digital marketing objectives. Each tactic has its strengths – for example, acquisition (gaining new customers) may best be driven by search advertising, while email is one of the most effective tools for selling more products to existing customers. The table below expands on some of the most popular tactics available to digital marketers and their possible outcomes. These will be covered in far more detail in the Engage section of this book.
Table 1.7.1: Marketing tactics.
Tactic Outcome
SEO Customer retention and acquisition
This is the practice of optimising a website to rank higher on the search engine results pages for relevant search items. SEO involves creating relevant, fresh and user-friendly content that search engines index and serve when people enter a search term that is relevant to your product or service. SEO has a key role to play in acquisition, as it ensures your organisation’s offering will appear in the search results, allowing you to reach potential customers. A site that is optimised for search engines is also a site that is clear, relevant and well designed. These elements ensure a great user experience, meaning that SEO also plays a role in retention.
Search advertising Sales, customer retention and acquisition
In pay-per-click or search advertising, the advertiser pays only when someone clicks on their ad. The ads appear on search engine results pages. The beauty of search advertising is that it is keyword based. This means an ad will come up in response to the search terms entered by the consumer. It therefore plays a role in sales, acquisition and retention. It allows the advertiser to reach people who are already in the buying cycle or are expressing interest in what they have to offer.
Online advertising Branding and acquisition
Online advertising covers advertising in all areas of the Internet – ads in emails, ads on social networks and mobile devices, and display ads on normal websites. The main objective of online advertising is to raise brand awareness online. It can be more interactive and therefore less disruptive than traditional or static online advertising, as users can choose to engage with the ad or not. Online advertising can be targeted to physical locations, subject areas, past user behaviours, and much more.
Affiliate marketing Sales and branding
Affiliate marketing is a system of reward whereby referrers are given a ‘finder’s fee’ for every referral they give. Online affiliate marketing is widely used to promote eCommerce websites, with the referrers being rewarded for every visitor, subscriber or customer provided through their efforts. It is a useful tactic for brand building and acquisition.
Video marketing Branding, customer retention and value creation
Video marketing involves creating video content. This can be wither outright video advertising, or can be valuable, useful, content marketing. Since it is so interactive and engaging, video marketing is excellent for capturing and retaining customer attention. Done correctly, it provides tangible value – in the form of information, entertainment or inspiration – and boosts a brand’s image in the eyes of the public.
Social media Branding, value creation and participation
Social media is media in the form of text, visuals and audio, that can be shared online. It has changed the face of marketing by allowing collaboration and connection in a way that no other channel has been able to offer. From a strategic perspective, social media, is useful for brand building, raising awareness of the brand and its story, and encouraging the customer to become involved with the brand. The shareable and accessible nature of social media platforms allows brands to communicate and engage directly with their customers. Social media also offers brands a way to interact with their customers, instead of just broadcasting to them.
Email marketing Customer retention and value creation
Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that delivers commercial and content-based messages to an audience. It is extremely cost effective, highly targeted, customisable on a mass scale and completely measurable – all of which make it one of the most powerful digital marketing tactics. Email marketing is a tool for building relationships with potential and existing customers through valuable content and promotional messages. It should maximise the retention and value of these customers, ultimately leading to greater profitability for the organisation a whole. A targeted, segmented email database means that a brand can direct messages at certain sectors of their customer base in order to achieve the best result.
Once the objectives and tactics have been set, these should be cross-checked and re-evaluated against the needs and resources of your organisation to make sure your strategy is on the right track and no opportunities are being overlooked.
5. Ongoing optimisation
It is increasingly important for brands to be dynamic, flexible and agile when marketing online. New tactics and platforms emerge every week, customer behaviours change over time, and people’s needs and wants from brand evolve as their relationship grows.
This process of constant change should be considered in the early stages of strategy formulation, allowing tactics and strategies to be modified and optimised as you go. After all, digital marketing strategy should be iterative, innovative and open to evolution.
Understanding user experience and the user journey is vital to building successful brands. Budget should be set aside upfront for analysing user data and optimising conversion paths.
Social thinking and socially informed innovation are also valuable and uniquely suited to the online space. Socially powered insight can be used to inform strategic decisions in the organisation, from product roadmaps to service plans. Brands have moved away from being merely present in social media towards actively using it, aligning it with actionable objectives and their corresponding metrics. This is critical in demonstrating ROI and understating the opportunities and threats in the market.
Managing the learning loop (the knowledge gained from reviewing the performance of your tactics, which can then be fed back into the strategy) can be difficult. This is because brand cycles often move more slowly than the real-time results you will see online. It is therefore important to find a way to work agility into the strategy, allowing you to be quick, creative and proactive, as opposed to slow, predictable and reactive. The data collected around success of your marketing strategy should feed into a larger pool of information used to drive business decisions. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/01%3A_Think_-_Strategy_and_Context/1.08%3A_Crafting_a_digital_marketing_strategy.txt |
One-line summary
Vets now, an industry-known UK accident and emergency veterinarian service, wanted to become the brand of choice amongst consumers and veterinarians.
The challenge
Vets now provided their accident and emergency service to over 1 000 veterinary practices across the UK. But, with more and more smaller local emergency veterinary clinics opening, and day clinics starting to offer out-of-hours services, Vets now was experiencing intense competition. They decided to target pet owners directly and make themselves the brand of choice for pet owners, if and when their pet required emergency care.
However, the brand didn’t deal directly with clients too often, and brand awareness of Vets now among pet owners was at about 8% (despite 1 in 4 UK vet practices using the service). The brand was also offering inconsistent sub-brands, which confused pet owners.
Vets now wanted to improve brand awareness, consolidate their offering, and offer a pet-owner led approach.
The solution
Vets now recognised that they needed to conduct a brand audit to determine their unifying core purpose. A brand workshop was held, and the key insight was that emergency and critical care was the heart of the brand. All other sub-brands and straplines were negating from this core message. The brand wanted to present a singular pet owner brand proposition and developed the single unifying strapline: Introducing Vets now – Your pet emergency service.
To appeal to customers directly, they needed to know who their potential customers were and what their feelings were towards their pets. Vets now conducted surveys, interviews and focus groups with over 1 000 pet owners. They identified 8 pet owner types, and highlighted the key drivers behind pet ownership in the UK. They then mapped out the owner types against these drivers.
The key insight was that pet owners expect others to treat their pets as they would other human beings. This means that the care and professionalism offered to pets is paramount. Pet-owners are dedicated to keeping their pet happy and healthy, and want the best care possible if an emergency were to occur. Pet owners needed emotional support and reassurance when dealing with an emergency involving their pet.
Vets now also identified three touchpoints of customers with the brand.
• Search and online – finding an emergency vet
• Clinical – referred to Vets now by another veterinary clinician
• Social space – engaging with other pet owners and online content.
Using these insights, the brand consolidated itself as one single brand offering. The brand also identified its essential brand principles and used these to inform all its branding and marketing communication. Vets now created new branding and imagery and chose a reassuring and expert but friendly and straightforward tone of voice to use across all communications. This unified and consolidated look and feel conveyed the core purpose of the brand and offered consumers brand recognition.
This new look and feel was rolled out across the website, Vets now hospitals and clinics, internal branding, and in print and digital marketing campaigns. These were chosen to ensure the new branding reached consumers at all three touchpoints.
The marketing campaign included various platforms and a mixture of traditional and digital tactics. There were print and digital ads, as well as content delivered across the website, social media, printed flyers and in-clinic posters. Content included emergency plans for if a pet becomes ill or has an accident, dangers that are present in the home over the Christmas holiday period, and how to ensure a pet stays happy and healthy over the festive season. This content was specifically created to resonate with the audience and used the insights gained from the in-depth research conducted by the brand to inform content development and creation.
The results
The research and ensuing strategy ensured the brand’s awareness among customers increased. After the campaigns and rebranding, 59% of respondents had an unprompted recall of Vets now, up 20% from before the campaign. Within the sample of respondents, propensity to use Vets now after the campaign was up 138% from before. These were strong indicators of positive performance. The new website also saw a 23% drop in bounce rate within 5 days of going live, showing that the brand was now more in line with what users were searching for.
The importance of relooking at your brand and really investigating your customers is clearly demonstrated in this case study. It shows how a B2B brand can reposition itself as B2C with the right analysis and strategy. Clearly laying down your objectives, doing the necessary research and identifying how to address your customer across all touchpoints is essential to marketing strategy (Marketing Society, 2017).
1.10: The bigger picture
All of the chapters in this book are linked to digital marketing strategy in one way or another.
A solid business and brand strategy should be the starting point of any marketing venture, and you should always keep one eye on it as you develop specific campaigns, platforms and approaches. After all, you should always remember that you are trying to reach your chosen audience by communicating to them in the most effective way, to build rewarding and lucrative long-term relationships.
While strategy helps you understand the questions you should ask, data collected across your business, including market research, provides the information you need to answer them.
1.E: Digital Marketing Strategy(Exercises)
Case Study Questions
1. What was Vets now’s new brand strategy?
2. Why was it necessary for Vets now to do such extensive customer research?
3. Could it be argued that this case study covers a business strategy rather than a marketing strategy?
Chapter Questions
1. Why is it important to consider the business context when planning your marketing strategy?
2. How has the Internet affected marketing and the models we use to understand it?
3. Do you agree with the idea that customers are more empowered than they were before digital communications were so prevalent? Justify your answer.
Further reading
www.sethgodin.typepad.com – Seth Godin’s popular blog provides regular insight and food for thought.
smithery.co – A marketing and innovation blog that teaches marketers to ‘Make Things People Want, rather than spend all their energy and resources trying to Make People Want Things’.
www.gigaom.com – GigaOM’s community of writers covers a wide range of technological copies.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind – This book by Ries & Trout published in 2002 offers excellent advice claiming space in the minds of consumers.
1.S: Digital Marketing Strategy(Summary)
Strategy is the essential first step in positioning your brand within the market and creating a roadmap for achieving your business goals. While there are many different paths one can take, there is a clear process for understanding where you are, where you need to be, and how you will get there.
It all starts with understanding the business challenges that your brand faces. From here, an effective marketing strategy looks at the market context, weighs the available options and makes important choices, based on solid research and data. Digital marketing strategy adds a layer of technology, engagement and iterative optimisation into the mix. The wide variety of tools and tactics offered by the digital medium should inform your strategic choices.
Digital marketing strategy is highly empirical and your strategic thinking should be mindful of ROI and how it can be measured. This will allow you to optimise your tactics and performance in order to create a valuable brand story, an excellent user experience, the most optimised conversion funnels, and the highest ROI. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/01%3A_Think_-_Strategy_and_Context/1.09%3A_Case_study_-_Vets_now_-_Taking_care_of_the_brand.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• Conceptual tools for understanding your customer.
• Key concepts for thinking about your target audience.
• Some Behavioural economic theories.
• How digital has affected customer behaviour
02: Think - Understanding customer behaviour
Although marketing is a business function, it is primarily an exercise in applied human psychology. The role of marketing is to address customer needs and provide value. In either case, success requires a nuanced understanding of how people think, process and choose within their environment.
To achieve this, one must strike a balance between awareness of global shifts and impacts on people’s behaviour and the fiercely intimate motivations that determine where individuals spend their time and money. This chapter outlines an approach for understanding customer behaviour and introduces some conceptual tools used to frame and focus how you apply that understanding to your marketing efforts.
2.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 2.2.1
Term Definition
Attention economy The idea that human attention is a scarce commodity i.e. seeing attention as a limited resource.
Customer experience map A visual representation of the customers’ flow from beginning to end of the purchase experience, including their needs, wants, expectations, and overall experience.
Customer persona A detailed description of a fictional person to help a brand visualise a segment of its target market.
Global citizen A person who identifies as part of a world community and works toward building the values and practices of that community.
Tribe A social group linked by a shared belief or interest.
Product An item sold by a brand.
Story A narrative that incorporates the feelings and facts created by your brand, intended to inspire an emotional reaction.
2.03: Understanding customer behaviour
The study of consumer behaviour draws on many different disciplines, from psychology and economics to anthropology, sociology and marketing. Understanding why people make the decisions they do forms part of a complex ongoing investigation.
Marketing and product design efforts are increasingly focusing on a customercentric view. Rather than making people want stuff, successful organisations are focused on making stuff people want. Given the plethora of options, product or service attributes, pricing options and payment choices available to the connected consumer today, competition is fierce, and only the considered brand will succeed. Understanding the consumers’ behaviour lies at the heart of offering them value.
Consider that no point of engagement with your brand occurs in isolation for your customer. Their life events, social pressures and motivations impact on their experience with your brand. Something happened before and after they bought that box of cereal, and their experience with it does not start or end at the point of sale.
2.04: Key digital concepts influencing customer behaviour
The impact of digital
Digital disruption, which is discussed throughout this book, can appear in many small and large ways. If there’s one thing the past 10 years has taught us, it’s that there is constant disruption and upheaval in the digital world. How we communicate with one another, how we shop, how we consume entertainment, and ultimately how we see ourselves in the world, has all changed because of digital. And these changes are continuing, even accelerating.
One of the results of digital tools and media is a destabilising of the status quo. All industries are vulnerable to change when a product or service comes along that meets user needs in an unprecedented way. Netflix has disrupted the media industry, Airbnb has changed travel, and Uber has dramatically impacted what individuals can expect from transport options.
Consider that people born after 1985, more than half the world’s population, have no idea what a world without the Internet is like. They only know a rapid pace of advancement and some tools that serve them better than others.
The Internet seeks no middlemen. Established industries or organisations can be bypassed completely when people are placed in control. Your customers can find another option with one click, and are increasingly impatient. They are not concerned with the complexity of the back end. If Uber can offer them personalised cash-free transportation, why can’t your product offer something comparable? People will use the service that best serves them, not what best serves an industry or existing regulations.
The global citizens and their tribe
Coupled with these empowered digital consumers, who are changing digital and driving disruption as much as digital is changing them, is the contradiction evident in the relationship between a global citizen and increasingly fragmented and differentiated tribes built around interests. National identity, given global migration and connectivity, has shifted as the world has gotten smaller. On the other hand, the Internet has created space for people to create, form, support and evolve their own niche communities. This duality forces marketers to keep cognisant of global shifts while tracking and focusing on niche communities and specific segments within their market.
The attention economy
The attention economy is a term used to describe the large number of things competing for customer attention. Media forms and the mediums through which they can be consumed have exploded over the last decade, and it’s increasingly difficult to get the attention of those you are trying to reach. Your customer is distracted and has many different things vying for their attention. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/02%3A_Think_-_Understanding_customer_behaviour/2.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Despite the complexity of the customer landscape, various tools and frameworks are available to consider your customer. The goal with many of these is to inform your decision making and help you think from the perspective of your customer.
Developing user personas
To understand all your customers, you must have an idea of who they are. While it's impossible to know everyone who engages with your brand, you can develop representative personas that help you focus on motivations rather than stereotypes.
A user persona is a description of a brand-specific cluster of users who exhibit similar behavioural patterns in, for example, their purchasing decisions, use technology or products, customer service preferences and lifestyle choices. We revisit the user persona at multiple points during this course, as it shouldn't be seen as an end in itself.
A user persona is a consensus-driving tool and a catalyst that can be applied when you try to understand your entire customer experience, or when you decide on the implementation of specific tactics. Every organisation should have four to five user personas to help strategists target their efforts.
To create a user persona and inform decisions with your customers point of one must prioritise real information over your team's assumptions and gut feelings.
Desktop research, drawn from sources such as existing reports and benchmarking studies, help you to frame the questions you need to ask when delving deeper into the data available to you elsewhere through online platforms like your website or social media presence. The Internet provides an increasing number of viable alternatives to offline primary research.
Note
Market research methodologies are explored in more detail in the Market research chapter.
A combination of habits and specific needs are combined into a usable overall picture A key feature of the user persona below is how it accounts for customer motivation Summer is driven by emotion rich storytelling and social belonging. This knowledge should drive how the brand communicates how the brand experience is tailored to make her feel tike part of a community.
To build a robust user persona, you should consider the demographics, psychographics, and motivators for your customers.
Demographics and psychographics
Understanding customers can involve two facets:
1. Understanding the physical facts, context and income of their 'outer world" i.e. their demographics. These include their culture, sub cultures, class and the class structures in which they operate, among other factors.
2. Understanding the motives, desires, fears and other intangible characteristics of their 'inner world' i.e. their psychographics. Here we can consider their motives, how they learn and their attitudes.
Both facets above are important, though some factors may be more or less prominent depending on the product or service in question. For example, a women's clothing retailer needs to consider gender and income as well as feelings about fashion and trends equally, while a B2B company typically focuses on psychographic factors, as their customers are linked by a job function rather than shared demographics.
Demographics can be laborious to acquire but are generally objective and unambiguous data points that change within well-understood and measurable parameters, for example, people get older, incomes increase or decrease, people get married or have children. Data sources like censuses, surveys, customer registration forms and social media accounts are just a few places where demographic data can be gathered either in aggregate or individually.
Psychographics, on the other hand, are fluid, complex and deeply personal because, after all, they relate to the human mind. This information is very hard to define, but when complementary fields work together, it's possible for marketers to uncover a goldmine of insight.
Understanding motivation
People make hundreds of decisions every day, and are rarely aware of all of the factors that they subconsciously consider in this process. That's because these factors are a complex web of personal motivating factors that can be intrinsic or extrinsic, and positive or negative.
Extrinsic motivators
Extrinsic factors are external, often tangible, pressures, rewards, threats or incentives that motivate us to take action even if we don’t necessarily want to. For example, a worker in a boring or stressful job may be motivated to keep going by their pay check, and drivers are motivated to obey traffic rules by the threat of getting a fine or hurting someone.
Marketing often uses extrinsic motivators to provide a tangible reward for taking a desired action. Some examples include:
• Limited-time specials and discounts, where the customer is motivated by a perceived cost saving and the urgency of acting before the offer is revoked.
• Scarcity, where the limited availability of a product or service is used to encourage immediate action.
• Loyalty programmes, which typically offer extrinsic rewards like coupons, exclusive access or free gifts in exchange for people performing desired behaviours.
• Ancillary benefits, such as free parking at the shopping centre if you spend over a certain amount at a specific store.
• Free content or downloads in exchange for contact details, often used for subsequent marketing activities.
For example, Booking.com uses a range of extrinsic motivators to encourage customers to book quickly, including a price discount exclusive to their site and urgency through the use of the words “High demand”, “Only three rooms left” and, “There are two other people looking at this hotel”. All of these factors nudge the customer to book quickly to avoid missing out on what is framed as a limited-time opportunity.
The problem with extrinsic motivation is that a customer can often perform the desired action to get the reward or avoid the threat without fully internalising the meaning or marketing message behind the gesture. Or worse, the required action becomes ‘work’ which diminishes the enjoyment of the task and the reward.
For example, some people will swipe in at the gym with their membership card to avoid losing their access, but won’t actually exercise. Some might log in to a website every day to accumulate points without actually looking at the specials on offer.
Kohn (1993 ) summarised the three risks of extrinsic rewards as:
1. “First, rewards encourage people to focus narrowly on a task, to do it as quickly as possible and to take few risks.
2. Second, people come to see themselves as being controlled by the reward. They feel less autonomous, and this may interfere with performance.
3. Finally, extrinsic rewards can erode intrinsic interest. People who see themselves as working for money, approval or competitive success find their tasks less pleasurable, and therefore do not do them as well.”
Intrinsic motivators
Somebody who is intrinsically motivated performs an action for an intangible benefit simply because they want to, or for the pleasure, fun or happiness of it. Intrinsic motivators are much subtler and more difficult to quantify, but are also more powerful and longer-lasting drivers of human behaviour.
Some common forms of intrinsic motivation include:
• Love – not just romantic love, but also the love of an activity or outcome.
• Enjoyment and fun – few intrinsic motivators are as powerful as the desire to have a good time.
• Self-expression – some people act in a certain way because of what they feel the action says about them.
• Personal values – values instilled through cultural, religious, social or other means can be powerful motivators.
• Achievement or competence – when people challenge themselves, take a meaningful personal risk, or attain a long-desired goal, they are acting because of an intrinsic motivation.
• Negative intrinsic motivators – fear, embarrassment and inertia are some powerful drivers that rely on negative emotions.
Finding the right motivators
Many brands develop elaborate marketing campaigns with gimmicks and rewards, but find that these fall flat. Often this is because of a misunderstanding of the motivators that drive customers to take action in the first place. Marketers tend to overvalue how much people like, understand and care about brands, which can lead to a disconnection from the audience.
The most important factor to consider in choosing a customer motivator is relevance to the customer, to the brand and to the campaign. Ask yourself, “Is the incentive you are offering truly relevant and useful?”
Most complex human actions involve a combination of factors. For example, we work because of the external pressure to earn money, and some also get an intrinsic reward in the form of achievement, self-expression or making a difference in the world. Both factors are important, and if one is missing, the other needs to compensate strongly for this. For example, interns working for free to get ahead quickly in their careers; people being paid more to stay in a difficult or unfulfilling job.
The success of your customer persona will depend on how carefully you interrogate assumptions about your customer, how carefully you draw on research, and how you prioritise understanding their motivations and the way decisions are made.
Decision making and behavioural economics
One significant shift in understanding customers over the past few years has come from the fields of psychology and economics. This area of inquiry, behavioural economics, looks at what assumptions or behaviours drive decision making. An understanding of individual motivations and interactions between customers and your brand can help you cater to what your market really wants or needs.
As an example, industrial designer Yogita Agrawal designed an innovative and much-needed human-powered light for people in rural India. Although the product ingeniously took advantage of the locals’ mobile lifestyle – the battery is charged through the action of walking – and the idea was well received, initially no one actually used the product. Agrawal eventually discovered the simple reason for this, the device had a plain, ugly casing that did not match at all with the vibrant and colourful local dress. When she added a colourful and personalisable covering to the device, usage shot up dramatically. Although she had found the big insight, that walking can generate energy to power lights in areas not served by the electrical grid, it took a further understanding of regional customs to truly make the device appealing.
If marketers can apply this insight to their strategies and campaigns, it means that they may be able to get more customers to take desired actions more often, for less cost and effort. This is the ideal scenario for any business.
Biases
Cognitive biases
Cognitive biases are our own personal prejudices and preferences, as well as common ways of thinking that are inherently flawed. A classic example is confirmation bias, where we take note of information that confirms our beliefs or world view, but discount or ignore information that doesn’t.
Try it for yourself! The next time you are driving or commuting, pay attention to all the red cars on the road. Does it begin to seem like there are more red cars than usual?
Below are some of the most important biases that marketers should be aware of taken from Psychology Today (2013).
Table 2.5.1
Category: Bias: Elaboration:
Information Knee-jerk bias Making a quick decision in a circumstance where slower, more precise decision-making is needed.
Occam’s razor Assuming that an obvious choice is the best choice.
Silo effect Using a narrow approach to form a decision.
Confirmation bias Only focusing on the information that confirms your beliefs (and ignoring disconfirming information).
Inertia bias Thinking and acting in a way that is familiar or comfortable.
Myopia bias Interpreting the world around you in a way that is purely based on your own experiences and beliefs
Ego Loss aversion bias Tending to favour choices that avoid losses, at the risk of potential gains.
Shock-and-awe bias Believing that our own intelligence is all we need to make a difficult decision.
Overconfidence effect Having too much confidence in our own beliefs, knowledge and abilities.
Optimism bias Being overly optimistic and underestimating negative outcomes.
Force field bias Making decisions that will aid in reducing perceived fear or threats.
Planning fallacy Incorrectly judging the time and costs involved in completing a task.
Pricing bias
There is also a lot of bias around the price of an item. Generally, we perceive more expensive to be better, and we can actually derive more psychological pleasure from them, even if the cheaper alternative is objectively just as good.
A classic example of this is wine-tasting, where in repeated experiments participants agree that the more expensive wine tastes better where, in fact, all the wines were identical. Taken even further, however, researchers discovered that people tasting the more expensive wines actually had a heightened pleasure response in their brains, showing that researchers could generate more enjoyment simply by telling them they were drinking an expensive wine (Ward, 2015).
Loss aversion
One of the most powerful psychological effects is the feeling of loss, when something we possess is diminished or taken away. The negative feeling associated with loss is far stronger than the positive feeling of gaining the equivalent thing. In other words, we feel the pain of losing \$200 more acutely that the joy of gaining \$200.
Marketers can use loss aversion very effectively in the way they frame and execute marketing campaigns. Here is an example:Giving a customer a free trial version of a service for long enough that it becomes useful or important to them at which point they would be happy to pay to avoid losing it. On-demand TV service Netflix uses this to great effect with its 30-day free trial, especially since they ask for credit card details upfront so that shifting over to the paid version is seamless.
Heuristics
A heuristic is essentially a decision-making shortcut or mental model that helps us to make sense of a difficult decision-making process or to estimate an answer to a complex problem.
Some classic examples include:
• The availability heuristic – we overemphasise the likelihood or frequency of things that have occurred recently because they come to mind more easily.
• The representativeness heuristic – we consider a sample to represent the whole for example, in cultural stereotypes.
• The price-quality heuristic – more expensive things are considered to be better quality. A higher price leads to a higher expectation, so this can work both to the advantage and disadvantage of marketers. For products where quality is measurable and linear, the price needs to correlate, and a higher price needs to be justified tangibly. For products or services where quality is less tangible or more subjective such as food, drinks, experiences and education, in many ways the price can heighten the perceived quality and experience even on a neurological level.
• Anchoring and adjustment heuristic – we make decisions based on relative and recent information rather than broad, objective fact. In marketing, this can be used to steer customers to the package or offer that the brand most wants them to take.
Choice
How do people choose? This is a difficult question to answer because people decide based on irrational, personal factors and motivators, objective needs and their immediate circumstances.
Word of mouth or peer suggestions
We are very susceptible to the opinions of other people, and tend to trust the opinions of friends, family, trusted experts and ‘people like us’ over companies or brands. We are also much more likely to join in on an activity like buying a specific product if we see others like us doing it first. This is the notion of social proof. Human beings generally rely on early adopters to lead the way, with the vast majority waiting for a new product or service to be tested before jumping on board.
This is why many brands use spokespeople or testimonials. They act as a reassurance to the potential customer that other normal people actually experienced the benefits that were promised. This also highlights the importance of positive online word of mouth. As you will learn when we discuss the Zero Moment of Truth, people do extensive research online before important purchases and can have their minds swayed by the reviews, experiences and opinions of others who are often strangers.
Personal preferences and history
Some of our decisions are based on very personal factors, such as a favourite colour, a positive past experience or a historical or familial association. For example, some people may choose to buy the same brand of breakfast cereal that they remembered eating as a child, regardless of the price or nutritional benefits. For them the total experience and good feelings form part of the overall value they derive. This is why many brands place emphasis on their long and prestigious histories.
Habits
In other cases, we buy the same thing because we’ve always bought it, and it’s simply the easiest option.
Habits are typically triggered by an outside or environmental factor (the cue), which then causes us to act out our habit (the action) after which we receive a positive boost (the reward). This sequence is referred to as the habit loop.
In marketing, the goal is to get a customer to form a habit loop around purchasing or using the brand’s offering. For example, many snack brands try to associate the environmental cues of hunger or boredom with their products such as Kit Kat’s “Have a break” or Snickers’ “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaigns.
Loyalty programmes can play a key role in helping customers solidify a habit. For example, given the choice of two similar coffee shops on the morning commute to work, a person may be more inclined to visit the one offering a free coffee once they’ve collected a card full of stamps (even if that means going out of their way or paying a bit more for what is essentially a small discount). Eventually, the routine becomes set and it becomes easier to stick to the safe, familiar option.
Here are some examples from brands that encourage habit formation.
Table 2.5.2
Brand Cue Routine Reward
Starbucks Walking to work in the morning Get my regular coffee order A caffeine hit and a friendly interaction with the barista
Nike Mobile app reminder to go for a run Put on Nike shoes, go to the gym Endorphins, satisfaction at living a healthy aspirational lifestyle
Movie theatre Smell of popcorn Buy a snack set from the counter Tasty snack, experiencing the ‘full’ movie-going experience
How do habits form? To create a habit, you need to perform a repeated action many times in a row. The harder the action such as going for a jog each morning, the longer and more consistently you need to practice the behaviour. Once the habit sets, it becomes a mental ‘shortcut’ that will take conscious effort to override in future.
Decision load
Making decisions is hard even if the decision is a low-stakes, low-impact one. Generally, psychologists agree that we have a certain quota of decisions that we can make every day, after which subsequent decisions become harder and more taxing, and often result in poorer outcomes called ‘decision fatigue’. This is why leading thinkers try to cut out as many trivial decisions as possible. Steve Jobs of Apple famously wore the same blue-jeans-and-turtleneck outfit every day to save himself making that one extra decision every morning.
This is also why we tend to subconsciously eliminate unnecessary decisions and stick to reliable, tested habits. This is especially true for the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. Consider your habits when buying toothpaste. Typically, you will purchase the same brand you always do without really thinking about it. Unless you had a terrible experience with the product, one toothpaste seems as good as the other and there’s no incentive to switch. You certainly won’t pause for five minutes in front of the shelf each time to carefully study each option before making your decision. It doesn’t matter enough to get the best one.
Now imagine that your usual brand is out of stock. Suddenly, instead of relying on the existing habit, you are forced to make the decision from scratch at which point marketing factors and price can play an important role. But, crucially, it is the experience that the new product delivers that will be the deciding factor. If the new toothpaste is similar or inferior to the usual brand, there’s no incentive to change the buying habit.
Defaults
Providing a ‘default option’ can be a powerful decision-making shortcut, because it removes the need to make an active decision. Defaults work for a number of reasons.
• They offer a path of least resistance. The default setting is perceived to be the one that is good enough for most people, and requires the least amount of thought and customisation. This is ideal for reducing effort.
• They serve as a social signal. The default is seen as the socially approved option, as the presumption is that the majority will choose this and there is safety in aligning with the majority.
• They offer assurance. Similarly, we also presume that the default choice has been selected by an expert because of its merit to the end user.
• They take advantage of loss aversion. When it comes to sales and marketing, effective default packages typically include more products or services that are strictly needed to increase the value and therefore the price. This is done simply because opting for a more basic version involves the customer taking elements away, and therefore suffering a loss. Once the default price has been anchored in the customer’s mind, there is less incentive to remove unwanted elements, even if the price gets reduced. For example, when buying a new laptop, the customer may be offered a package deal that includes antivirus software, a laptop bag, a wireless mouse and other related accessories.
Choice architecture
You can simplify your customers’ decision-making processes by cleverly designing the choices you offer. This is called choice architecture.
While the following are guidelines only, and should be tested thoroughly based on your own individual context, brand and customers, generally speaking a good choice architecture has the following characteristics:
• A small number of choices, usually not more than five, though ideally three. The smaller the number of options to choose from, the easier it is for the customer to distinguish the differences between the options, and to avoid a feeling of missing out.
• A recommended or default option. Because people consider expert advice and social preferences when choosing, highlighting one option as ‘the most popular choice’ or ‘our top-selling package’ can direct people to the option you most want them to take.
• A visual design hierarchy, typically using colour and size. To make your preferred option stand out, one easy trick is to make it bigger and brighter than the options around it.
Mixpanel strongly emphasises its Business plan as the ideal choice, not only is it highly emphasised compared to the surrounding options, it includes a ‘best value’ assurance.
Customer experience mapping
Once you have carefully crafted personas to guide you around who your customer groups are, you need to understand how and where they are engaging with your brand. This is where customer experience mapping comes into play.
A Customer Experience map visually identifies and organises every encounter a customer has (or could have) with your company and brand. These interactions are commonly referred to as “touchpoints”. (Kramp 2011)
You can use it as a tool to map your entire customer experience, or to drill down into detail for particular parts of that experience. Examples include in-store purchasing or someone trying to buy something on your website.
The map should detail how customers are feeling at various points in their interaction with you, and also highlight any pain points that they may be experiencing. Identifying these problems or dips in their experience presents opportunities for engagement, and also helps to explain your customer behaviour in context.
Towards creating your map
Customer experience maps should vary from business to business, so one shouldn’t just follow a blueprint. Consider the customer journey introduced in Strategy and context, taking someone from consideration through to purchase and hopefully loyalty. The experience map looks at the progression from consideration through to post purchase in great detail and visually synthesises your customer’s behaviour and motivations at every point of contact with your brand. Look at the example above, which includes some key sections:
• Phase – Where is your customer in their interaction with your brand?
• Doing, thinking, feeling – How does what they are feeling and doing vary from stage to stage?
• Channels – What channels or contact points are involved in facilitating this stage of their journey?
• Opportunities – What opportunities exist to solve pain points for your brand? | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/02%3A_Think_-_Understanding_customer_behaviour/2.05%3A_Tools_for_understanding_your_customer.txt |
The ultimate test of how well you understand your customers is evident in the success of your product or service. Targeted and relevant communications can only drive the sales of a relevant and well-positioned product.
Data on the success of your campaigns, from social media analytics through to site visits and customer service feedback, should both act as measures of success and feed into course correcting your marketing efforts or, where relevant, the nature of your actual product or service.
Every measure and data source discussed throughout the rest of this book should feed into your evolving picture of your customer. Personas and user experience maps should be living documents and tools
2.07: Case study - Argos
One-line summary
Leading UK retailer Argos uses data analysis to deliver an overall year-on-year net margin increase of 170%.
The challenge
Argos wanted to increase the effectiveness of their budget and spending and increase revenue from paid search by 30%, without increasing the cost of sales.
The solution
Argos’ marketing agency came up with a six part strategy to achieve this goal.
1. It used predictive analytics models to forecast optimised budget spend and expected revenue for each day, week, and month.
2. It aligned creative messages with stock and price changes to make sure the right ads were shown to the right people on the right device and at the right time.
3. It used a bespoke attribution model to measure the contribution that each click and keyword made to a sale.
4. It ran models to see how weather, location, seasonality, and other factors caused changes in customer buying behaviour, then synchronised campaigns to those changes.
5. It adapted the messaging, scheduling, and positioning of paid search ads to take advantage of expected traffic increases after the airing of a TV ad.
6. It changed the focus from revenue as a measure of success to profit as a measure of success, so instead of looking only at cost of sale, they examined net margin contribution to product sales.
By reviewing Google data, ROI targets, conversion rates, and transactional data, they were able to build predictions for keywords related to over 50 000 Argos products. Argos also used software to analyse data from customer buying triggers like location, weather, and TV ads.
Using this data, Argos and their marketing team was able to map season trends across all Argos products, including events like back to school, Argos catalogue launches, Easter, Christmas, and more. Using this data, they could anticipate customer demand and predict changes in impressions, clickthrough rate, cost per click, and conversion rate.
They used the same software to map weather-dependent products to weather-related digital campaigns for Argos, identifying the effects of temperature on each product all through the year. These seasonal and weather triggers were used in conjunction with daily weather forecasts for each region and store area to automate campaign adjustments and propose bid changes.
Finally, Argos aligned online marketing with TV ad broadcasts for both Argos and competitors, making changes in Google within seconds of an ad being broadcast. This enabled them to take advantage of people who use dual screens while watching TV.
Daily diagnostic reports were provided to identify and correct any underperforming campaigns.
Results
The marketing agency delivered a 170% increase year-on-year net margin increase across all product categories. The increase was over 100% in all categories, and in some categories as much as 900%. Other results included:
• Total annual revenue from search increased by 52% compared to the previous year
• PPC delivered a 46% increase on the previous year over Christmas
• Web traffic from PPC and Shopping increased by 33% on the previous year
• Cost of sales outperformed their target
• They lifted conversion rates and average order value
• The total number of orders via PPC increased by 31%. (Forecaster, n.d)
2.08: The bigger picture
An understanding of your customer ties to absolutely everything you do in the marketing process. It should inform and drive strategy, and aid in matching tactics to outcomes.
Feedback on how well you’ve understood your customer can come from various digital channels, social media, conversion optimisation, CRM, data and analytics. While there are many sources of data, only when they are combined into a holistic picture can they help you get to the ‘why’ about your customers.
2.09: References
Eisenberg, B. and Eisenberg, J., 2006. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing. Thomas Nelson Publishers: USA
Forecaster, n.d. Argos Case study. [Online] Available at: https://www.forecaster.com/argos-case-study/ [Accessed 27 October 2017]
Kohn, A. (1993). Punished by Rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A’s, praise and other bribes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Kramp, J., 2011. What is a Customer Experience Map? [Online] Available at: touchpointdashboard.com/2011/08/what-is-a-customer-touchpoint-or-journey-map [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Psychology Today, 2013. Cognitive Biases Are Bad for Business. [Online] Available at: www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201305/cognitive-biases-are-bad-business [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Risdon, C., 2011. The Anatomy of an Experience Map. [Online] Available at: adaptivepath.org/ideas/our-guide-to-experience-mapping [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Ward, V. 2015. The Telegraph: People rate wine better if they are told it is expensive. [Online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shop...expensive.html
2.E: Understanding Customer Behaviour (Exercises)
Case study question
1. Why did Argos need to use software for this campaign?
2. What kind of data was important for this campaign, and how was it collected?
3. What can you learn from the campaign’s use of big data?
Chapter questions
1. What is behavioural economics?
2. What traps should you avoid when developing a consumer persona?
3. What is the relationship between a consumer experience map that maps your customers’ entire journey, and an experience map used in the user experience design discipline?
Further reading
This presentation offers a good summary of the key topics and ideas within behavioural economics: www.slideshare.net/philipdemeulemeester/behavioural-economics-in
Eisenberg, B. and Eisenberg, J., 2006. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing
2.S: Understanding customer behaviour(Summary)
People have come to depend on and shape the digital channels that enable connection, individual interest and the disruption of industries. Your consumers are connected, impatient, fickle and driven by a number of motivations and contextual realities. Only through targeting and understanding specifically can you reach them and ensure the success of your brand.
Some tools can help you to paint a picture of your customers and their experience of your brand by depicting complex motivations, both external and internal. This enables real customer data and research, and considering the complex and sometimes irrational influences on how people make decisions. Customer personas, customer experience maps and the field of behavioural economics can all help to shape your thinking and drive your approach. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/02%3A_Think_-_Understanding_customer_behaviour/2.06%3A_Measuring_success.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• The importance of data in our data-driven world.
• What data you should be collecting.
• How data is used to improve the user experience and increase conversions.
• How knowing your customers is integral to improving their experience with your brand.
03: Think - Data driven decision making
Belarbi, M.A., n.d. Startup From The Bottom: Here Is How Uber Started Out. [Online] Available at: gulfelitemag.com/startup-bottom-uber-started [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Digital Training Academy, 2017. Mobile case study: Royal Canin runs “Offers Factory” for pets in Russia. [Online] Available at: www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/casestudies/2017/02/mobile_case_study_royal_canin_ runs_offers_factory_for_pets_in_russia.php [Accessed 8 November 2017]
Hobo, 2017. How Fast Should A Website Load in 2017? [Online] Available at: www.hobo-web.co.uk/your-website-design-should-load-in-4-seconds [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Wnep.com Amazon’s ‘Dash Button’ Offers Ordering Convenience. [Online] Available at: wnep.com/2015/03/31/amazons-d...rite-products/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
3.02: Introduction
The strength of the decisions you make depends on the quality and completeness of the information that informs these decisions. This chapter will examine the role of data in delivering meaningful insights into connected, evolving consumers. Data can be used to change and adapt marketing strategies to better meet changing consumer needs. A dynamic view of data is necessary to create an extremely detailed, regularly updated picture of your consumers. This means that you need to be collecting data all the time, at every stage of the marketing process, to ensure that your view of the customer does not become obsolete.
Definition: The evolving consumer
‘The evolving consumer’ refers to the fact that people are constantly changing. People change on an individual level and are influenced by technology, the macroeconomic climate, financial stability, and a host of other factors that are always in flux.
A current, accurate view of the customer is essential for marketers because consumers expect to be addressed as individuals. You want to deliver targeted communication that reaches the right audience, at the right time, when they are displaying the right intent, to lead them to purchase your product. Data helps make this happen by providing an individual view of each consumer and helping with segmentation and targeting. Data will also show how well your campaigns are performing, enabling you to improve them and make them more effective. In short, data is used to make logical decisions based on real information to create a customer-driven, data-led business. It must be considered not only at the beginning of your engagement with marketing and digital, but throughout.
3.03: Key terms and concepts
Table 3.2.1
Term Definition
Business intelligence/ insights Data that can help businesses understand the factors influencing their success and how these can be used to benefit them.
Connected customer Consumers are increasingly connected, using ever-growing numbers of Internet-enabled devices. These offer opportunities for data collection.
Current indicators Information from the present time that can help businesses to understand their customer and themselves.
Customer intelligence The process of gathering and analysing information about customers to improve customer relationships and allow for more strategic business decisions.
Data intelligence The process of gathering and analysing data from all available sources to improve customer relationships and make more strategic business decisions.
Disruption When a disruptive innovation changes the market and displaces established players.
Dynamic data Data that is constantly updated and evaluated to provide a dynamic, changing view of the customer
Future/leading indicators Information that can help a brand to make decisions about the future.
Goals Specific actions taken by a user, or specific user behaviour
Internet of things The interconnection of everyday objects to the Internet via embedded computing devices, giving them the ability to send and receive data.
Key performance indicators (KPI)
The metrics that are examined to determine the success of a campaign.
Lagging indicators
Older data that gives information on how a brand performed in the past.
Metric
A quantifiable measure used to track the performance of a campaign. The most important metrics are called KPIs. Net promoter score (NPS)
The KPI used to measure customer loyalty.
Segmentation
The process of breaking an overall audience or target market into smaller groups based on specific commonalities for more accurate targeting.
Single view of customer
Single view of customer is achieved when all customer information is available in a single central location.
SMART objectives A marketing objective that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound.
Target The specific value that a marketer wants a metric to achieve. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/03%3A_Think_-_Data_driven_decision_making/3.01%3A_References.txt |
Consumers, technology and data
To understand data and its role in a business, you need to understand consumers and their relationship to technology. Many people believe that technology changes and consumers adapt in response. Really, consumers are leading the change themselves through the technological choices they make. They decide which technology to embrace, usually favouring whatever facilitates speed and ownership of their own experience. This is particularly true on mobile.
Brands need to meet consumers in the technological spaces they have chosen. The consumer relationship with technology is about accessibility, theirs to brands and products, and brands’ to theirs. This has shifted a large deal of power to the consumer.
This connection to technology offers many opportunities for marketers. Every new technology embraced by a consumer offers brands new ways to collect information about them. This leads to more granular segmentation and more targeted marketing messages.
The Internet of me
Consider the Internet of Things, which is the idea that more and more everyday objects are technologically enabled to send and receive data via the Internet. The information these objects transmit is, for the most part, related to the consumer using the objects rather than about the objects themselves. Consumers use this connected technology to communicate, create content such as social media posts, and consume and share products.
More than an Internet of Things, you can think of this as an Internet of ‘Me’. ‘Me’ is the consumer, and the technology-enabled connection between objects and the consumer allows brands to access reams of data about consumers that they could never have considered a few years ago.
What is data?
Put simply, data is all the available information about your business. It includes information about your consumers, your products and their performance, your owned digital properties, and any other information that exists that might affect your business. The mountains of data that your business has access to is good for one thing: it helps you create a strong, data-driven business strategy that lets you connect with consumers and, ultimately, sell more products.
Remember the difference between owned, earned, and paid coverage in the digital sphere? Your owned properties cover your websites, social media profiles, and anything else your brand controls. Read more about this in the Social media and strategy chapter.
The intention behind the collection and careful use of data is to create more value for your customers. Value can be defined as any means through which the brand delivers on its purpose. Whatever that value is, it needs to be something that customers actually want and that is relevant to them. Data can help you identify what is relevant and useful and what really works.
Forms of data
There are four main forms of data relevant to brands:
1. Algorithmic intelligence – the algorithmic methods used by companies such as Google and Netflix to help drive revenue. In the case of Google, to assess what people want to read, and in the case of Netflix, to assess what they want to watch.
2. BI: Business intelligence – the technology-driven process for analysing an organisation’s raw data, about profits and performance, and presenting that information to help brands make better informed business decisions.
3. CI: Customer intelligence – information derived from customer data, that comes from internal and external sources, to build better customer relationships and make stronger strategic decisions.
4. SI: Software intelligence – software tools and techniques used to mine data for useful and meaningful information, the result of which is similar to BI.
By combining all four forms of data, you could say that you are using data intelligence (DI), and this can easily make you the most powerful brand in your field.
Sources of data
Data can come from any number of sources, particularly thanks to the Internet of Things. You don’t need to restrict yourself to website-based analytics. To get a full picture of audience insights, try to gather as wide a variety of information as you can. Some places to look:
Note
Take a look at this video on the Internet of Things , how it works, and what we can do with the data: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=QSIPNhOiMoE.
• Online data – everywhere your audience interacts with you online, such as social media, email, forums and more. Most of these will have their own datagathering tools. For example, look at Facebook Insights or your email service provider’s send logs.
• Databases – look at any databases that store relevant customer information, like your contact database, CRM information or loyalty programs. These can often supplement anonymous data with some tangible demographic insights.
• Software data – data might also be gathered by certain kinds of software, for example, some web browsers gather information on user habits, crashes and problems. If you produce software, consider adding a data-gathering feature (with the user’s permission, of course) that captures usage information that you can use for future updates.
• App store data – app store analytics allows companies to monitor and analyse the way customers download, pay for and use their apps. Marketplaces like the Google Play and Apple App stores should provide some useful data here.
• Offline data – in-store experience data, customer service logs, in-person surveys, in-store foot traffic, and much more.
You should consider looking for data in unusual places or consuming data in an unconventional way.
Example \(1\)
Amazon Dash is an excellent example. Amazon Dash is a Wi-Fi-connected service that reorders products with the press of a button. It consists of three components.
1. A scanning device used to inventory consumer goods in a house.
2. The Amazon Dash Button, which can be placed anywhere in a house and programmed to order products of the consumer’s choosing.
3. The Amazon Dash Replenishment Service, which allows manufacturers to add a button or auto-detection capability to their devices.
Consumers see this as a brilliant innovation that gets them the product they want, when they want it. They see it as being about convenience, and it is! As an example of incremental innovation, it stands out, and convenience will drive the use of the product. It is also an excellent data collection tool that helps to gather data for granular segmentation. This is good for both the customer and the brand.
Lagging, current, and leading indicators
Your data-driven, customer-first strategy should be built around three data indicators.
1. Lagging indicators are past data such as financial results, sales history and past campaign results. Profits can be seen as a result of your marketing efforts and how you responded to the competition. These indicators are important because they show your past performance, but they are only one part of the whole.
2. Current indicators are pieces of information from right now. For example, you can use website analytics to see what customers are doing on your site and which pages they visit. You can use this data to segment around that. The immediate environment is also a current indicator, for example, the #deleteuber hashtag was a huge current indicator for the Uber group about how their customers were reacting to their political actions. Current indicators can encourage you to think about what you can do to be agile in response to them.
3. Leading or future indicators help you think about where the company might be headed. Your brand can make a strategic decision about where you’re going to be in the future. Look at other brands that are already established in that area, and examine what people search for in that space. What words do they use in their searches? What ideas are they looking for? What kind of innovations are coming out now that may affect the way your brand does business in the future? Is there any economic or environmental data that could affect how your brand performs? Future indicators help you define your strategy for moving the business forward. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/03%3A_Think_-_Data_driven_decision_making/3.04%3A_Understanding_data.txt |
Enabling dynamic data
Consumers today expect increasingly personalised communication from brands. Personalisation is all about relevance. You can only successfully communicate with and add value to a customer if you understand who they really are. The only way you can do this is through dynamic data.
Many businesses make the mistake of not collecting and storing their data in a single place that can be accessed by everyone. For example, the sales department might have a list of qualified leads, the marketing department might have customer reactions to marketing material, and the CRM department might have access to customer complaints. Multiple data sets within a business pose a risk to customer communication, especially where they lead to irrelevant or outdated information being shared with customers.
Businesses should aim for a single view of customer (SVOC). This is when businesses have one view of customer data, which is all collected in one place and can be accessed by different departments. However, SVOC on its own is insufficient in today’s data-rich environment. A SVOC is important as a starting point for storing clean data, but because it is collected at a single point in time, it doesn’t account for customer change.
Note
Read more about the importance of database hygiene (keeping data fresh) in the Customer relationship management and Direct marketing: Email and mobile chapters.
Because customers are evolving in the way that they use technology and how they consume products, businesses need to evolve their approach to data to keep up. What is relevant to a customer today might be completely different to what was relevant yesterday. For example, customers listed on the database as married may now be divorced, and customers listed with certain political or product preferences may well change these preferences over time. Businesses need to move away from master data focused on a SVOC and toward dynamic data that keeps this evolution in mind.
As an example, consider a student living away from home, who is provided with a credit card by her father. A SVOC would result in sending marketing material to the father who signed up for the card, when a more dynamic view would take into account who is actually doing the shopping and send the material to her instead.
Data and customer strategy
A data-driven view of the customer allows a business to move from organisationcentric to customer-centric thinking.
A customer-centric brand will use these five principles in their customer strategy:
1. You are not the customer. No members of staff should presume to know what customers will like or want. No one person’s hunches or intuition will be as accurate as a large data set. Use research and data to understand what your customers will like and how they will act accordingly.
2. Your brand does not know the customers as well as they know themselves. The brand should understand their customers, realise that the customers are changing, and be willing and able to use data to track and respond to that change.
3. Customers are all different: broad segmentation is the same as generalisation. With the amount of data available, brands are capable of very granular segmentation so instead of talking about “All women between 18 and 30 who use makeup”, they can narrow it down to “Women between 18 and 30 who use makeup, are interested in X and Y, who like to consume Z, and who are friends with A and B.”
4. Customers are constantly changing. Dynamic data is essential to ensuring your view of your customer is accurate and relevant.
5. Data drives the customer-centric view. You cannot give your customers what they want unless you know what that is and who they are.
When thinking about different customers using the same type of product, consider makeup brands like MAC and Rimmel. Both brands would target women aged 18–30 years old who wear makeup. However, these brands differ in what their respective customers want from their makeup, what they are willing to pay, what skincare benefits they expect, where they socialise, and what jobs they may have. The more detail you have about your customers, the more you are able to set your brand apart and create marketing messages that speak to individuals.
In a customer-first strategy, dynamic data means creating that never-ending feedback loop we’ve looked at, of experience out and data in. Everything you do should push out an experience for the customer, and your customer expects that experience to be relevant, personalised, and built for them but in a way that’s not too obvious. Larger, established companies may find it difficult to carry out this major shift in thinking to a customer-first approach, which puts new businesses at an advantage.
Data and trust
Consumers are increasingly concerned about privacy. To comfortably share with you the data you need, consumers must believe you will treat that data responsibly and respectfully. Any brand collecting data about its consumers, which should be every brand, needs to work on establishing and maintaining this trust. Trust has three components:
1. Security: You need to make sure that you can protect customer data from being hacked or stolen.
2. Privacy: You need to ensure that your brand is compliant with legal requirements regarding what data it is and is not allowed to be collected and what it is allowed to do with that data. You should have a privacy policy outline that is easily accessible to the consumer.
3. Transparency: Give consumers insight into how their data is being used. Demonstrate how providing access to their data is contributing towards improving their experience.
Once you establish trust with a consumer, that trust can become a bond that leads to a relationship. The more trust you have, the better the relationship will be. However, if you break the trust by overstepping your bounds in personalisation, spamming the customer, or not keeping their data safe, they will go elsewhere
Different countries will have different legislation around what brands need to do to protect consumer information, such as the European Union Data Protection Directives of 1995, South Africa’s POPI (Protection of Personal Information Act) of 2013, or Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Make sure you are compliant with the laws of the country in which you operate. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/03%3A_Think_-_Data_driven_decision_making/3.05%3A_Approaching_data.txt |
Reporting
The process of becoming a customer-centric organisation does not end with gathering data. You need to report on that data to the people who will act on it, in a format that will actually be consumed. For example, if you give everyone a 27-page financial report filled with spreadsheets and nothing else, very few people will read or try to interpret it.
You need to consider your audience: who is going to receive your data, and what format works best for them? The marketing team would receive different data to the managerial team, who would receive different data to the sales team, and so on. Make the data available, but communicate only what is relevant to that audience to facilitate their path to taking action.
Ideally, and while acting within the bounds of legal requirements, your organisation should place no restrictions on who can or cannot see existing data. Everyone in the company should have access in order to facilitate improvements. Make the data available to customer-facing staff as well as product designers, for example.
Why is this so important? Why does every part of the organisation need access to the data you are giving them? Data takes the emotion out of decisions, moving the organisation toward a customer-centric viewpoint. Managers can no longer say, “I’m experienced in this field, so I know what to expect” because opinion no longer matters. Instead, look at what the data is saying to drive your personalisation strategy and deliver relevant customer experiences.
Analysing data
The data feedback loop should never stop after a report. If you want to be agile, you need to consume, interpret, and understand data and turn it into an effect that will result in an immediate reaction.
You can read more about analysing data in the Data analytics chapter. For now, remember that the goal of analysing your data is to look for patterns such as similarities, trends, deviations, and any other relationship, and thinking about what those mean. This process can help you solve problems both on a small scale, at the level of websites and campaigns, and on a larger business-wide scale that you may not have realised you had.
3.07: Becoming a data led organisation
The journey to becoming a data-led organisation is not an easy one, particularly for an already established business. Where would this change happen in how data, and its impact on the customer, is viewed?
A data-driven business needs to involve people who obsess about data and cultivate an organisational culture that puts data and the customer first. The organisational design that enables this data-first approach would look something like this:
The journey should follow certain steps. These steps don’t all have to happen in the same order, but they do tend to focus on three different areas.
Internal preparation
First, you will need to internally prepare your organisation for a data-first, customerdriven view. The very first thing your organisation needs to do is understand and validate the financial and emotional investment the company must make to deliver this new approach (investment in technology, hardware, people, and change management). Then, you will have to:
• Gather and analyse collective data to discover how and where your customers are connected (what channels and with what devices).
• Appoint a cross-functional team to champion the Customer Experience strategy. This requires customer officers to evaluate customer experience and data officers who can assess your current back-end architecture and data storage. Remember, you need the right infrastructure to support dynamic data storage and use.
• Architect the best toolset that supports your existing platforms to drive and support the changing customer experience. Remember to consider the kind of reporting you’ll need to do.
• Consider the three components of trust – security, privacy, and transparency – and put people and processes in place to monitor this.
Customer focus
Second, your organisation will need to start moving toward actually analysing the customer and making their experience with your brand a better one. This means you need to:
• Identify granular segments within your user base.
• Update your consumer engagement processes and governance strategy accordingly.
• Shift toward a world where every customer has a unique view of your product.
• Start mapping relevant user journeys that leverage new channels of access to the consumer.
• Use the collective data to map the journey.
• Consider customer touchpoints and feedback loops.
• Use the data in part of the feedback loop to map the change in the customer journey.
External evaluation
Finally, you need to keep an eye on what is happening outside your business that could have an impact on it. This means you should:
• Evaluate competitors for their use of data influencing their personalisation strategies.
• Identify emerging technologies that could drive your incremental/disruptive innovation strategy.
A focus on data will impact and improve every aspect of your organisation, not only your marketing efforts, so start your journey now. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/03%3A_Think_-_Data_driven_decision_making/3.06%3A_Working_with_data.txt |
The advantages of a data-driven organisation are enormous. It:
• Drives a customer-centric focus
• Enables innovation in highly competitive markets
• Improves ROI on campaigns and other marketing efforts
• Allows for tactical decisions
• Means no opinions are involved as it is evidence-based decision making.
However, one cannot simply decide to be data-driven and have everything work out immediately. To be data-driven you:
• Have to be data-driven in everything, no picking and choosing.
• Have to persuade the entire organisation to adopt this mindset.
• Need to set up an organisational structure that will enable data to flow easily.
• Have to invest in the cycle and you need to invest in data to apply the insights that will help you get more data.
• Need to keep in mind that the huge amount of data available can make finding meaningful patterns tricky.
3.09: Measuring success
Success should primarily be measured against your objectives. Gathering an idea of the total economic value of your online efforts can be difficult, but you can do it by examining the following, among others:
Site measures
• Audience behaviour statistics (measuring new against returning customers)
• Audience (unique users, page impressions, bounce rates, and visit duration)
• Frequency and engagement
• Conversions across all channels.
Sales
• Net sales
• Average order value
• Gross or median order value
• Customer acquisition rate
• Customer retention rate (remember, a retained customer is worth three to five times more than a once-off customer, and it is cheaper to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones)
• Offline sales as a result of online drivers (if someone visits the website or sees an ad online and then walks into the physical store, think about how you can measure this).
Services
• Retention
• Acquisitions.
Technical performance
Measuring your technical performance is important to ensure that your customer has a good experience on your online properties and will return. You should always have goals for how you want the user to experience the website, considering elements such as:
• Site maintenance, speed and performance
• Time per page load (average should be 3 seconds)
• Capacity and reach
• IT services support
• SEO.
Remember, your user will give you three to four seconds of engagement time on a landing page and seven seconds on a homepage before they leave if you haven’t answered their question, so make sure you know what the user wants and how to give it to them.
Operations
• Order processing time (an improvement on this based on digital technology is a contribution of online to the business, and it should be counted as a success)
• Fulfilment rates
• Substitution (if a product isn’t available, how successful are you at substituting a different one?).
Marketing
• Campaign results against set objectives
• Customer loyalty NPS.
• Channel optimisation
• Customer surveys.
The idea of benchmarking can cause some confusion for brands wanting to measure their success. While industry benchmarks for things like marketing campaigns can be useful for seeing your standing in your industry, you should really be benchmarking against your own previous performance to ensure that you are always improving as a brand.
On the other hand, harder, more technical aspects of your digital performance should absolutely be measured against universal standards. Page load times have a measurable effect on SEO and customer engagement, so although decreasing your time from twelve to eight seconds is a good effort, you would still be well above the expected three seconds, and this will impact your site’s overall performance in multiple areas (Hobo, 2017).
Note
Uncertain how to measure customer loyalty? Take a look at this article on the net promoter score (NPS), which is the KPI used to measure this: blog. emolytics.com/kpi/ net-promoter-scorecustomer-loyalty.
The time you take to respond to consumers or to make a sale should be measured against universal benchmarks for similar reasons. That is, consumers have come to expect a certain standard in some areas, and anything not meeting this standard will result in a negative customer experience.
Each chapter in this book will give you an indication of the kind of metrics you should look at to determine success in particular areas. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/03%3A_Think_-_Data_driven_decision_making/3.08%3A_Advantages_and_challenges.txt |
Many tools exist to help you make the most of your data!
Customer insight tools can help you find out more about your customers and what they think of you. These are tools that help you with online reputation management (ORM). For example:
• Google Alerts: www.google.com/alerts
• Hootsuite: hootsuite.com
• BrandsEye: www.brandseye.com
Data gathering tools:
• Google Analytics: analytics.google.com/analytics/web
• Quantum Leap Buzz: www.quantumleapbuzz.com
• Wolfram Alpha: www.wolframalpha.com
Data visualisation tools:
• ClickView: www.clickview.com
• Plotly: plot.ly
• Tableau: public.tableau.com/s
• Open Refine: openrefine.org
• Fusion Tables: support.google.com/fusiontables/answer/2571232
3.11: Case study - Royal Canin Russia
One-line summary
Royal Canin used existing data to create personalised email coupons and local offers tailored to individual subscribers, tapping into the love pet owners have for their unique animals.
The challenge
Royal Canin’s customer database was very outdated, and most people still bought their products in stores rather than online, a more efficient channel. Loyalty programmes for pets were usually seen as retailer initiatives rather than giving the brand recognition for these.
They wanted to create a loyalty programme that would encourage an image of Royal Canin as an expert in the field of pet food, across different breeds and it wanted to establish a relationship with consumers that would cause them to buy their pet food directly from the brand rather than at stores.
The solution
Royal Canin targeted dog and cat owners in the top six Russian cities, regardless of breed. They ran an algorithmic analysis of their CRM platform so that they could segment their audience and send offers according to:
• Type of pet
• Size of pet
• Upcoming ‘events’ such as a birthday or growth stage
• Medical records and any other data they had on the pet owner.
They could then send personalised email coupons to owners with deadlines for redemption. The unique link in the coupon would send the owner to a page already populated with a list of products chosen specifically for their pet, where they could place an order without leaving the platform. The online orders also facilitated brand communication by connecting pet owners to special events and programmes in various cities.
Customers could choose whether they wanted the food delivered to their home or whether they wanted to pick up their merchandise at a store near them.
Data from the mailed coupons was loaded into the CRM database, including whether the recipient used the coupons they were sent. The regular database updates helped the team assess a customer’s level of involvement with the platform.
It also affected the everyday aspects of the business. Based on coupon redemption and other information gleaned from the campaign, the brand could adjust the availability of items in online and offline retail platforms according to demand. It also gave them the data needed to understand how much inventory they needed for different products based on their popularity.
The results
The campaign was a resounding success. Because of the data-focused approach, Royal Canin:
• Reduced logistics costs
• Minimised waiting time for orders
• Improved the customer experience
• Showed the customer that the order was implemented by the brand and not a retail store
• Created an adaptive platform for mobile orders after finding that 80% of recipients opened the initial offer on mobile.
The campaign also worked very well for consumers.
• Push SMS messages sent using geolocation helped monitor special offers at retail stores. Subscribers in the area could then receive unique promotional codes to redeem at those stores
• 65% of respondents opened the campaign messages
• 74% of those who opened the message went to the online ordering platform
• 46% of orders implemented coupons
• 75% of customers participating in the programme said they used Royal Canin food for their pets.
(Digital Training Academy, 2017)
You can view the video for this campaign here: www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/casestudies/2017/02/mobile_case_study_royal_canin_runs_offers_ factory_for_pets_in_russia.php | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/03%3A_Think_-_Data_driven_decision_making/3.10%3A_Tools_of_the_trade.txt |
Data driven innovation
The view of data and its place in a business is evolving, but it is still lagging behind where it needs to be. Data tends to be focused on customer intelligence (CI), which includes customer profiling, or business intelligence (BI), which includes transactional behaviour. Businesses use these to decide what to do next. Some businesses are forward thinking and combine the two so that they have two different indicators of what the consumer might need.
CI and BI are the bare minimum of what businesses should be doing with data. Consider the notorious example of Target, a U.S. retailer that used data about customer shopping habits to send relevant marketing material to their customer. One father of a teenage girl complained to the store about sending his daughter coupons aimed at pregnant women. A short while later he apologised after discovering that his daughter was indeed pregnant (Business Insider, 2012).
That Target knew the teenage girl was pregnant is impressive. If they had combined CI and BI, they would have realised that they were about to market pregnancy-related products to a teenager. They could have avoided a great deal of embarrassment!
Both BI and CI are lagging indicators, data that the brand has collected about the past behaviour of consumers and the past performance of products. Many businesses only look at data with this traditional view, but it can tell us much more. A business that focuses on how to collect and analyse data can predict future customer behaviour, work on forward-path product development and improve personalisation.
Technology-enabled innovation is all about the customer experience. If the customer enjoys their experience with your brand, no matter what the product, they will keep using it. If your product is connected to the Internet, you can gather customer data that will further inform your product development. This creates a feedback loop in which you gather data, improve the customer experience, and gather more data, and so on.
Withings, a brand connected to Nokia, has created a weight scale that connects to a database, tracks your weight on a graph, and feeds it back to you in an app. The app can also connect to Withings’ other lifestyle devices such as smartwatches and blood pressure monitors. This gives the user a lot of useful data, but it’s also a great way for the company to collect data about its customers.
Any object that is both connected and information-intensive has the capability to do things in new and different ways, in other words, to disrupt.
Technology-enabled innovation should focus on the customer experience and should be data-led. It comes in two forms:
• Incremental innovation − doing things better in your everyday business practice to improve your customer’s experience.
• Disruptive innovation − positioning your business for future customers.
Both are equally important. Incremental innovation is sometimes downplayed, but changing one small thing might have a big impact on how your customers perceive your brand. People often associate ‘innovation’ in a business context with innovation labs, or assume that it belongs to an innovation team and is someone else’s problem. However, when you have a data-driven customer experience, because you have such a thorough understanding of where your customer is and who they are, a tiny incremental innovation plan can fundamentally change your customer experience.
Disruptive innovation is about positioning your business for the future customer. It refers to big changes that will change how customers interact with your business (and possibly your whole industry), and it generally ends up displacing whatever technology preceded it. For example, cell phones have almost replaced landline phones. For innovation to be relevant to your consumer, you need the right data.
An obvious example of a brand that did this, and in turn completely disrupted an industry, is Uber. They saw people struggling to find taxis and a lot of people who owned cars not driving them (Belarbi, n.d.). They then thought about how to add technology to bring the two together, took a map (information), added a layer of connection (person to person), and invented an app that has almost toppled traditional taxi brands. Uber used already existing GPS technology to solve a problem in a way no one had considered before.
Uber also uses incremental innovation by regularly rolling out updates to its app and services that will positively affect customer experience. For example, Uber noticed that many potential customers in their South African locations did not have access to a credit card, so they piloted experiments with cash payments in that country.
Think about how Uber gathers the data it needs to make these incremental improvements. They receive a huge amount of data every time someone uses their app. Updates of where people are going, their most frequently visited locations, times of day during which travel takes place, and more. This kind of data-first thinking allows them to provide more value to customers, track their improvements and thus establish a powerful data feedback loop.
3.E: Data driven decision making(Exercises)
Case study questions
1. What role did data play in the planning and execution of the Royal Canin campaign?
2. Why was it so important for Royal Canin to continuously monitor the campaign results and update their CRM database?
3. What beneficial effects did the data generated by the Royal Canin campaign have on the running of the business overall?
Chapter questions
1. Why should a business try to be data-driven?
2. What should be done with data once it has been collected?
3. What are some of the most important sources of data?
4. What are some up-and-coming data collection tools/sources that you foresee being useful in the near future?
Further reading
Personalisation is important for great customer experiences, but read about how this might be a problem for small businesses here: adage.com/article/digitalnext/personalization-a-problem-brands/305554
Check out the Kissmetrics blog for articles about analytics and testing: blog.kissmetrics.com
The Analytics Vidhya blog has some more complex data information: www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog
Take a look at the Freakonomics blog: freakonomics.com
3.S: Data driven decision making(Summary)
The more data you collect, the more relevant you can make your customer experience. Relevance leads to a better customer experience, which leads to more opportunities to collect data. A customer-focused, data-driven organisation needs to embrace this cycle, which enables both incremental and disruptive innovation.
Businesses need to embrace dynamic data that enables them to keep a clear view of their evolving customer. This data strategy should be built around lagging, current, and leading or future indicators, each of which can give you a different piece of the data puzzle. If this happens, the business will have a clear view of past and current performance as well as where they can go in the future. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/03%3A_Think_-_Data_driven_decision_making/3.12%3A_The_bigger_picture.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• Key concepts in conducting market research.
• Several methods for conducting online research, including surveys, online focus groups and data sentiment analysis.
• Possible problems and pitfalls to look out for when researching online.
04: Think - Market Research
The Internet is built for research. Whether it’s a consumer shopping around for prices, a researcher exploring a topic or a fan looking up their favourite band, the Internet has provided new ways for gathering and analysing data.
Customers are able to research companies and products easily, gathering information to compare prices and services with a few clicks. Customers are also able to share likes and dislikes easily, whether that information is shared with companies or with friends.
As a result, brands can study who their customers are, what they are interested in, how they feel about the brand, and the best times and places to engage with them. Insights can be gathered from ongoing market research, making it possible to course correct and apply data driven decision making. This chapter will focus on tools and methodologies for gathering useful data.
4.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 4.2.1
Term Definition
Bounce rate The number of people who view one page and then leave a website without viewing any other pages. Data statistics and facts collected for analysis.
Data sentiment analysis The systematic analysis of subjective materials, such as survey responses or social media posts, in order to determine the attitude and intended emotional communication of the customer
Focus group A form of qualitative research where people are asked questions in an interactive group setting. From a marketing perspective, it is an important tool for acquiring feedback on new products and various topics.
Hypothesis A supposition that is tested in relation to known facts; a proposition based on reason but not necessarily assumed to be true.
Listening lab A testing environment where the researcher observes how a customer uses a website or product.
Observation/online ethnography When a researcher immerses themselves in a particular environment in order to gather insights.
Primary research The collection of data to present a new set of findings from original research.
Qualitative data Data that can be observed but not measured. Deals with descriptions.
Quantitative data Data that can be measured or defined. Deals with numbers.
Research community A community set up with the intention of being a source for research.
Research methodology Methods employed in research for reaching results
Sample size The number of respondents in a sample of the population.
Secondary research The collection of existing research data.
Sentiment The emotion attached to a particular mention which is positive, negative or neutral.
Statistically significant A sample that is big enough to represent valid conclusions.
4.03: The importance of market research
The modern world can feel unpredictable. It is increasingly difficult to keep up with trends, customer needs, popular opinions and competitors. So, how can you keep your brand and products relevant to ensure you are meeting your customers’ needs?
The answer is to conduct market research. Market research helps you make informed business decisions. It involves systematically gathering, recording and analysing data about customers, competitors and the market, and turning this data into insight that can drive marketing strategies, product design and positioning and communications strategies.
Online market research is the process of using digital tools, data and connections to glean valuable insights about a brand’s target audience. In other words, it’s the process of learning about your audience by engaging and observing them online. Technology plays a key role in gathering data and connecting with research participants, and can make the whole process quicker and easier to manage than traditional offline research methods.
Traditional and online market research have the same goals and underlying principles, but online market research has the benefit of using digital technology, which provides a range of benefits.
• The Internet is always on, meaning that data is readily available at any time.
• Many of the processes for finding, gathering and storing data can be automated. For example, you can get an automatic email alert if someone mentions your brand, or you can set up self-administered digital surveys.
• You have access to a large number of participants around the world at the click of a button. A lot of the information you will use is already being automatically collected such as web analytics and social media data all you need to do is access it.
Note
Remember that comments made on social networks cannot represent the views of your entire target market. The validity of any data must be considered in light of your research design.
People are often happy to share their own research, insights and methodologies online, so you can access this trove of resources to inform your own research.
Online market research can be much more cost effective and quick to set up than traditional research techniques.
There are many reasons why you should conduct regular market research:
• To gain insights into your consumers, this can include:
• What customers want and need from your brand
• What customers like and dislike about the brand
• Why customers buy the brand’s products or services
• Why potential customers might choose your brand over another
• Why (or why not) customers make repeat purchases
• Understand the changes in your industry and business
• Discover new market trends on which you can capitalise
• Find new potential sales avenues, customers, products and more
• Find and engage new audiences
• Allow customers to help steer your business.
If you are able to understand your customers and the greater business context, you will be able to market more effectively, meet their needs better, and drive more positive sentiment around your brand. All of this adds up to happier customers and, ultimately, a healthier bottom line. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/04%3A_Think_-_Market_Research/4.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
While the research field can be full of complex terminology, there are four key concepts to understand before conducting your own research:
1. Research methodology
2. Qualitative and quantitative data
3. Primary and secondary research
4. Sampling.
Research methodology
Research methodology refers to the process followed in order to conduct accurate and valuable research. The research process should involve certain steps.
1. Establish the goals of the project
2. Determine your sample
3. Choose a data collection method
4. Collect data
5. Analyse the results
6. Formulate conclusions and actionable insights (for example, producing reports)
Most often, market research is focused around specific issues unique to a business or brand. It is therefore not always possible to freely obtain comparable information to aid decision making. This is why it can be useful to start from a specific research problem or hypothesis when kicking off a research project. Your research question should guide your entire process, and will determine your choice of data collection method. We will discuss more on those later.
Another approach involves ongoing data collection. As discussed in the Data driven decision making chapter, unbiased decision making is far more accurately driven when aided by market insight. Many have argued that less expensive, ongoing data collection is increasingly a route proven to be useful to organisations.
Primary and secondary research
Research can be based on primary data or secondary data. Primary research is conducted when new data is gathered for a particular product or hypothesis. This is where information does not exist already or is not accessible, and therefore needs to be specifically collected from consumers or businesses. Surveys, focus groups, research panels and research communities can all be used when conducting primary market research.
Secondary research uses existing, published data as a source of information. It can be more cost-effective than conducting primary research. The Internet opens up a wealth of resources for conducting this research. The data could have originally been collected for solving problems other than the one at hand, so they may not be sufficiently specific. Secondary research can be useful for identifying problems to be investigated through primary research.
The Internet is a useful tool when conducting both primary and secondary research. Not only are there a number of free tools available when it comes to calculating things such as sample size and confidence levels (see section 4.7 on Tools of the trade for some examples), but it is also an ideal medium to reach large numbers of people at a relatively low cost.
The Internet and secondary research
Research based on secondary data should precede primary data research. It can be used in establishing the context and parameters for primary research.
Secondary data can:
• provide enough information to solve the problem at hand, thereby negating the need for further research.
• provide sources for hypotheses that can be explored through primary research.
• provide information to inform primary research, such as sample sizes and audience.
• used as a reference base to measure the accuracy of primary research.
Companies with online properties have access to an abundance of web analytics data that are recorded digitally. These data can then be mined for insights. It’s worth remembering, though, that it’s usually impossible for you to access the web analytics data of competitors so this method will give you information only about your own customers.
Customer communications are also a source of data that can be used, particularly communications with the customer service department. Committed customers who complain, comment or compliment are providing information that can form the foundation for researching customer satisfaction.
Social networks, blogs and other forms of social media have emerged as forums where consumers discuss their likes and dislikes. Customers can be particularly vocal about companies and products. This data can, and should, be tracked and monitored to establish consumer sentiment. If a community is established for research purposes, the resulting feedback is considered primary data, but using social media to research existing sentiments is considered secondary research. The Internet is an ideal starting point for conducting secondary research based on published data and findings. With so much information out there, it can be a daunting task to find reliable resources.
The first point of call for research online is usually a search engine, such as www.google.com or www.yahoo.com. Search engines usually have an array of advanced features, which can aid online research. For example, Google offers:
Many research publications are available online, some for free and some at a cost. Many of the top research companies feature analyst blogs, which provide some industry data and analysis free of charge.
Some notable resources are:
www.experian.com/hitwise
www.pewinternet.org (US data)
www.nielsen.com
The Internet and primary research
Primary research involves gathering data for a specific research task. It is based on data that has not been gathered beforehand. Primary research can be either qualitative or quantitative.
Primary research can be used to explore a market and can help to develop the hypotheses or research questions that must be answered by further research.
Generally, qualitative data is gathered at this stage. For example, online research communities can be used to identify consumer needs that are not being met and to brainstorm possible solutions. Further quantitative research can investigate what proportion of consumers share these problems and which potential solutions best meet those needs.
Quantitative and qualitative data
Note
With larger sample sizes, qualitative data can be analysed quantitatively.
Data can be classified as qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative research is exploratory and seeks to find out what potential consumers think and feel about a given subject. Qualitative research aids in identifying potential hypotheses, whereas quantitative research puts hard numbers behind these hypotheses. Quantitative research relies on numerical data to demonstrate statistically significant outcomes.
The Internet can be used to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. In fact, the communities on the web can be viewed as large focus groups, regularly and willingly sharing their opinions about products, markets and companies.
In robust research studies, both qualitative and quantitative research can be applied at different stages of the study.
The main differences between quantitative and qualitative research are represented in Table 2 below.
Table 4.4.1
Quantitative Qualitative
Data gathered Numbers, figures, statistics objective data Opinions, feelings, motivations, subjective data
Question answered What? Why?
Group size Large Small
Data sources Surveys, web analytics data Focus groups, social media
Purpose
Tests known issues or hypotheses.
Seeks consensus, the norm
Generalises data
Generates ideas and concepts – leads to issues or hypotheses to be tested.
Seeks complexity
Puts data in context
Advantages Statistically reliable results to determine if one option is better than the alternatives. Looks at the context of issues and aims to understand perspectives.
Challenges
Issues can be measured only if they are known prior to starting.
Sample size must be sufficient for predicting the population
Shouldn’t be used to evaluate pre-existing ideas.
Results are not predictors of the population.
Both quantitative and qualitative research can be conducted online.
Web analytics packages are a prime source of data. Using data such as search terms, referral URLs and internal search data can lead to qualitative information about the consumers visiting a website. However, when data is measurable and specific, such as impressions and clickthrough rates, it leads to quantitative research.
Note
Read more about this in the Data analytics chapter.
Sampling
Qualitative research is usually conducted with a small number of respondents in order to explore and generate ideas and concepts. Quantitative research is conducted with far larger numbers, enough to be able to predict how the total population would respond.
You should ensure the sample is representative of the population you are targeting as a whole. If your business transacts both online and offline, be aware that using only online channels for market research might not represent your true target market. However, if your business transacts only online, offline channels for your market research are less necessary.
Because quantitative research aims to produce predictors for the total population, sample size is very important. The sample size needs to be sufficient in order to make statistically accurate observations about the population.
For example, if you have 4 000 registered users of your website, you don’t need to survey all of them in order to understand how the entire population behaves. You need to survey only 351 users to get a sample size that gives you a 95% confidence level with a ±5% confidence interval. This means that you can be 95% sure your results are accurate within ±5%.
There are several sample size calculators mentioned in section 4.7 on Tools of the trade. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/04%3A_Think_-_Market_Research/4.04%3A_Key_concepts_in_market_research.txt |
There are many online market research methodologies. This chapter touches on three of the most popular and useful ones: surveys, online focus groups and social media monitoring.
Which methodology should you choose?
That all depends on a variety of factors, from your research question and purpose to your budget and time. Here are some general pointers:
• Surveys: Ideal for collecting large amounts of quantitative data, and some qualitative data. They are quick and easy to set up, and can run automatically.
• Online focus groups: Ideal for engaging consumers and collecting qualitative data such as opinions, ideas and feelings about the brand. They require a larger time investment and a willing group of participants.
• Online monitoring: Ideal for collecting qualitative data on brand sentiment, and can also provide some quantitative data around volume of interest in the brand. This data can be collected passively, and there are several tools that can automate this.
Surveys
Surveys are questionnaires that contain a series of questions around a specific topic. Their purpose is to gather large volumes of quantitative data easily, though they can also collect some qualitative data.
Conducting surveys online allows for data to be captured immediately, and data analysis can be performed easily and quickly. By using email or the Internet for conducting surveys, geographical limitations for collecting data can be overcome cost effectively.
Technology allows you to compile sophisticated and user-friendly surveys. For example, as opposed to indicating impressions on a sliding scale, respondents can indicate emotional response. Or the survey can be tailored depending on previous answers, such as questions being skipped if they are not relevant to the respondent.
You can run ongoing online surveys at minimal cost. Simple polls can be used in forums and on blogs to generate regular feedback. Website satisfaction surveys are also an easy way to determine the effectiveness of a website or marketing campaign.
One application of surveys is allows for instant feedback on questions or ideas from an existing community, such as a trusted group of thought leaders, your brand’s social media fans, or a pre-created research community. Examples include Facebook polling apps and real-time mobile survey platforms.
Designing surveys
How you design a survey and its questions will directly impact on your success. A survey can include any number and type of questions, and more complicated questions should appear only once users are comfortable with the survey. Be careful that you do not introduce bias when creating questions by asking leading questions.
Example \(1\)
Incorrect: We have recently introduced new features on the website to become a first class web destination. What are your thoughts on the new site?
Solution
Replace with: What are your thoughts on the changes to the website? In general, you will also find that you get more accurate answers when phrasing questions in the past tense than in the continuous tense.
Example \(2\)
Incorrect: How many times a week do you buy take-away food?
Solution
Replace with: In the past month, how many times did you buy take-away food? Questions in the survey should be brief, easy to understand, unambiguous and easy to answer.
Types of survey questions
1. Open-ended
Open-ended questions allow respondents to answer in their own words. This usually results in qualitative data.
Example \(3\)
What features would you like to see on the website for the digital marketing textbook (https://www.redandyellow.co.za/cours...tbook-digital/)?
2. Closed
Closed questions give respondents specific responses from which to choose. These are typically multiple-choice questions with either one or multiple possible answers. This results in quantitative data.
Example \(4\)
Do you use the digital marketing textbook website?
1. Yes
2. No
or:
What features of the digital marketing textbook website do you use? Tick all that apply.
1. Blog
2. Case studies
3. Free downloads
4. Additional resources
3. Ranked or ordinal
These questions ask respondents to rank items in order of preference or relevance. Respondents are given a numeric scale to indicate order. This results in quantitative data.
Example \(5\)
Rate the features of the digital marketing textbook website, where 1 is the most useful and 4 is the least useful.
• Blog
• Case studies
• Free downloads
• Additional resources
4. Matrix and rating
These types of questions can be used to quantify qualitative data. Respondents are asked to rank behaviour or attitude.
Example \(6\)
Rate the features of the digital marketing textbook website according to the following scale:
1 = love it, 2 = like it, 3 = no opinion, 4 = dislike it.
• Blog
• Case studies
• Free downloads
• Additional resources
Focus groups
Online focus groups involve respondents gathering online and reacting to a particular topic. Respondents can be sourced from all over the world and react in real time, arguably being freer with their responses since they can be anonymous in an electronic environment.
Online focus groups are ideal for having frank, detailed conversations with people who have an interest in your brand. This means they result in primary, qualitative data. This information can then be used to create quantitative research questions.
Online focus groups can be conducted using a range of technologies. The simplest is to use a text-based messaging program or online forum and there are many options available. More sophisticated tools allow for voice or video conferencing, and can make it easier for the researcher to pick up clues from the respondent’s voice and facial expressions. Some tools allow the researcher to share their desktop screen with respondents in order to illustrate a concept or question.
Good options for conducting online focus groups include:
Google Hangouts: www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts
Skype: www.skype.com/en
GoToMeeting: www.gotomeeting.com/fec
Focus groups are less formal than surveys meaning the researcher will have specific questions to ask, but the conversation usually grows and develops organically as participants discuss their impressions. Usually running for between one and two hours, focus groups are used to get consumer views on:
• New products or marketing campaigns
• Existing products and campaigns, and how they can be improved
• Sentiment around the brand
• Views on a brand’s new direction or visual style
• Ideas for how the brand could improve its position or branding.
Online focus groups are excellent for collecting a lot of qualitative data quickly. When setting up the group, try to include enough participants to keep the conversation alive, but not too many so that some get drowned out by others, eight to ten is a good range. Also consider that you may run into technical troubles if people are connecting from different locations and Internet connections so be prepared to do some basic troubleshooting if this happens.
There are a number of different ways that you can recruit participants for an online focus group. This could include inviting people from your existing customer database, going through a traditional market research recruiting agent, or putting a call out on your website or social media communities. It is common practice to offer a small incentive to people who participate in a focus group, as it is a fairly time-intensive activity.
Sentiment analysis
Finding out if people are talking about you is quite difficult in the offline world, but almost effortless online. Rather than having to conduct real-world surveys and interviews, in the digital world you can simply ‘listen’ to the conversation happening about you.
Keywords – the foundation to categorising and indexing the web – make it simple to track conversations taking place online. Customers don’t always use channels designated by a company to talk about that organisation, but the good news is that the Internet makes it easy for a company to identify and use the channels that customers have selected.
Online tools allow a company to track mentions of itself, its staff, its products, its industry and its competitors or anything else that is relevant. This is called online monitoring, online listening, or data sentiment analysis. It involves using digital tools to find and tap in to existing conversations. The tool then gathers and collates all the mentions it finds, so that you can analyse the data for insights.
Typically, searches include the following main focus areas:
• Company
• Brand name
• Key products
• Key personnel (names, job titles, etc.)
• Key campaigns and activities
• Industry
• Conferences
• Patents
• News
• Competitors
• Brand names
• Product launches
• Website updates
• Job vacancies
• Key people.
There are four different types of searches you can perform to track relevant brand keywords. Each modifies the specific type of data collected and aims to improve the quality and depth of the data you gather.
The four operators are:
1. Broad match – for example, Apple Computers. This is when any of or all words must be found in the mention.
2. Direct match – for example, “Apple Computers”. This is denoted by quotation marks and dictates that the tool should find mentions only where the phrase appears complete and in order in the content.
3. Inclusive match – for example, Apple +computers. This is denoted by a plus sign directly before a word or phrase. This will direct the tool to search for any mention that contains both Apple AND computers, although not necessarily in that order.
4. Exclusive match – for example, Apple –fruit. This is denoted by a minus sign directly before a word or phrase. This will instruct the tool to include only mentions that contain the first word or phrase but not when the second word is also in the same mention.
Combinations of these four types of searches (operators) can be used to improve accuracy.
Example \(7\)
“Apple Computers” +”steve jobs” –fruit.
Applying this theory to the groupings above, some keywords used for Apple might be:
Company
• “Apple computers”
• “www.apple.com”
• Apple +Macbook, “iPod Nano”, “Macbook Air”, “iTunes” +music –radio
• “Steve Jobs”
Industry
• “Consumer Electronics Show” +“Las Vegas”
• “CEBIT”
Competitors
• Microsoft
• www.microsoft.com
It is also important to track common misspellings and typos, all related companies and all related websites.
Tracking the names of people key to a company can highlight potential brand attacks, or can demonstrate new areas of outreach for a company.
Brand names, employee names, product names and even competitor names are not unique. To save yourself from monitoring too much, identify keywords that will indicate that a post has nothing to do with your company, and exclude those in your searches.
For example, “apple” could refer to a consumer electronics company, or it could appear in a post about the health benefits of fruit. Finding keywords that will indicate context can help to save time. So, you could exclusive-match words such as “fruit”, “tasty” and “granny smith”.
Tools for data sentiment analysis
Thankfully, online listening does not entail hourly searches on your favourite search engine to see what conversations are taking place online. There are many different tools that monitor the web, and supply the results via email alerts or a web dashboard.
Note
The ideal gas law is easy to remember and apply in solving problems, as long as you get the proper values a
Google has several bespoke search services, and periodically adds more to the list.
• Google Alerts: www.google.com/alerts. Google Alerts will send an email when the keyword is used in either a credible news item or a blog post.
• Google News: news.google.com. Google News searches all news items for mentions of a keyword.
• Google Patent Search: https://www.google.com/advanced_patent_search. Google Patent Search allows you to keep track of all filings related to an industry, and searches can be done to see if there are patent filings which might infringe on other patents.
• Google Video Search: https://www.google.com/videohp?hl=En. Video Search relies on the data that have been added to describe a video, and will return results based on keyword matches.
In addition to these mostly free tools, there are also a number of premium paid tools available to make the process easier and more robust. See section 4.7 on Tools of the trade for more suggestions.
Other avenues for online research
Personal interviews
There are various tools available to the online researcher for conducting personal interviews, such as private chat rooms or video calling. The Internet can connect a researcher with many people around the world and make it possible to conduct interviews with more anonymity, should respondents require it.
Observation/Online ethnography
Taking its cue from offline ethnography, online ethnography requires researchers to immerse themselves in a particular environment. In this way insights can be gathered that might not have been attainable from a direct interview. However, they do depend more heavily on the ethnographer’s interpretation, and are therefore subjective.
Online research communities
Although online communities are a valuable resource for secondary research, communities can also provide primary data. BeautyTalk is an example of an online research community that helps gather research data. The community platform can be used as a means to elicit feedback about products and can generate ideas for new products. This is qualitative data that can aid the company in exploring their research problem further. In many cases, social media can be used to gather insight about a brand or customer experience. It is important to remember, however, that a representative sample is necessary for making solid conclusions.
Listening labs
When developing websites and online applications, usability testing is a vital process that will ensure the website or application is able to meet consumers’ needs. Listening labs involve setting up a testing environment where a consumer is observed using a website or application.
Conversion optimisation
Conversion optimisation aims to determine the factors of an advert, website or web page that can be improved in order to convert customers more effectively. From search adverts to email subject lines and shopping cart design, tests can be set up to determine what variables are affecting the conversion rate.
The Conversion optimisation chapter covers tools for running tests, such as A/B split testing and multivariate testing.
How to get responses: Incentives and assurances
As the researcher, you know what’s in it for you when sending out a survey. You will receive valuable insights that will aid in making business decisions. But what is in it for the respondents?
Response rates can be improved by offering respondents incentives for participating in the research, such as a chance to win a grand prize, a discount or special offer for every respondent, or even the knowledge that they are improving a product or service that they care about.
Some researchers feel that monetary incentives are not always a good thing. Some respondents may feel that they need to give ‘good’ or ‘correct’ answers that may bias results. Alternatively, you may attract respondents who are in it just for the reward. One approach could be to run the survey with no incentive, with the option of offering one if responses are limited.
Designing the survey to assure respondents that a minimal time commitment is required and their privacy is assured can also help to increase responses.
Room for error
With all research there is a given amount of error to deal with. Bias may arise during surveys and focus groups, for example, interviewers leading the respondents. Or bias may be present in the design and wording of the questions themselves. There could be sample errors or respondent errors. Using the Internet to administer surveys removes the bias that may arise from an interviewer. However, with no interviewer to explain questions, there is potential for greater respondent error. This is why survey design is so important, and why it is crucial to test and run pilots of surveys before going live.
Respondent errors also arise when respondents become too familiar with the survey process. The general industry standard is to limit respondents to being interviewed once every six months.
Sample error is a fact of market research. Some people are just not interested, nor will they ever be interested, in taking part in research. Are these people fundamentally different from those who do? Is there a way of finding out? To some extent, web analytics, which track the behaviour of all visitors to your website, can be useful in determining this.
When conducting online research, it is crucial to understand who is in the target market, and what the best way to reach that target market is. Web surveys can exclude groups of people due to access or ability. It is vital to determine if is this is acceptable to the survey, and to use other means of capturing data if not. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/04%3A_Think_-_Market_Research/4.05%3A_Online_research_methodologies.txt |
Regular research is an important part of any business’ growth strategy, but it can be tough to justify the budget necessary for research without knowing the benefit. Conducting research can cost little more than an employee’s work hours, depending on his or her skills, or it can be an expensive exercise involving external experts. Deciding where your business needs are on the investment scale depends on the depth of the research required, and what the expected growth will be for the business. When embarking on a research initiative, the cost to benefit ratio should be determined.
Testing should be an ongoing feature of any digital marketing activity. Tracking is a characteristic of most digital marketing, which allows for constant testing of the most basic hypothesis: Is this campaign successful in reaching the goals of the business?
4.07: References
BrandsEye., (2016) How BrandsEye Analysed the US Elections. [Online] Available at: https://www.brandseye.com/news/how-b...-us-elections/ [Accessed 30 October 2017 ].
Cnet, 2017. Google Hangout’s new features make work meetings slightly less annoying. [Online] Available at: https://www.cnet.com/news/google-hangouts-meet-chat/ [Accessed 30 October 2017 ]
Manufacturing control Tower (2017). Testbed Areas/Customer Sentiment Analysis. [Online] Available at: https://www.a-star.edu.sg/Portals/69...sentiment.html [Accessed 30 October 2017 ]
Press, E., (2016) Data-as-a-service Lessons from a Company That Was Right About Trump. [Online] Available at: http://dataconomy.com/2016/11/data-l...-donald-trump/ [Accessed 30 October 2017 ].
4.08: Tools of the trade
Creating and managing online surveys:
• SurveyMonkey: www.surveymonkey.com
• Google Forms: accessed through Google Drive drive.google.com
• Split test calculator: www.usereffect.com/split-test-calculator
• Sample size calculator: www.rogerwimmer.com/mmr/samplesizecalculator.htm
• Internet Usage World Stats: www.internetworldstats.com
• Google Think: www.google.com/think
• Silverback usability testing software: www.silverbackapp.com
• Mobile-based survey tools: www.ponderingpanda.com (focused on the African continent), Survey Swipe www.surveyswipe.com/mobile-surveys.html
• Ideo Method Cards app (ideas for qualitative research): www.ideo.com/work/ideo-method-card-app
• Premium online monitoring tools: BrandsEye: http://www.brandseye.com/, SalesForce Marketing Cloud: http://www.salesforcemarketingcloud.com/
4.09: Adantages and challenges
Market researchers are increasingly turning to online tools in their research processes. The Internet allows for research at a far lower cost; it can also more easily cross geographic boundaries and can speed up the research process.
This is not to say there are not downsides. While the Internet makes it possible to reach a far larger group of people without the cost of facilitators, this does come with some challenges. For example, you cannot control the environments in which information is being gathered. For an online sample, it’s important to focus on getting the correct number of people to make your study statistically viable. If your questions are not carefully drafted, confusing questions could lead to answers that are flawed or not relevant. Additionally, online incentives could lead to answers that are not truthful, meaning that the value of the data could be questionable. Certain target groups are not accessible via the Internet, and so it’s important that you carefully consider who you are trying to reach.
The value of Internet research should by no means be discounted, but it is important to consider the nature of the study carefully, and interrogate the validity and legitimacy of the data as a valid representation. Data is meaningful only if it is representative, so be sure to establish goals and realistic expectations for your research. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/04%3A_Think_-_Market_Research/4.06%3A__Justifying_the_cost_of_research.txt |
One-line summary
BrandsEye, is an opinion mining company based in South Africa, who accurately predicted two significant political outcomes in 2016, outperforming traditional polling methods and showcasing the value of analysing social media analysis at scale.
The problem
The controversial referendum resulting in Britain leaving the European Union, and the election victory for Republican nominee Donald Trump in the US presidential race in 2016, arguably came as surprises to the global community. This is largely due to the fact that the traditional polling methods used to predict the results of these separate national votes indicated that neither of these things would happen.
The Pew Research Centre listed a number of reasons for traditional polling methods falling short:
• Non-response bias: The sample population who took part in these polls were not representative of those who actually turned out to vote.
• Shy Trumper: Choosing to vote for Trump was not seen as socially desirable, and so many would not admit to this in the poll.
• Failed voter turnout: Many people who planned to vote, and stated their intentions in polls, did not in fact do so (Press 2016).
The solution
BrandsEye’s methodology, in both cases, accurately predicted the outcomes of these votes because it relied on real time organic conversations happening on multiple online platforms, and used machine learning and a crowd sourcing approach to analyse the sentiment of the general conversation. Those who may have been reticent to take part in a poll, or to declare their political affiliations in official channels, did feel comfortable doing so on their own social media channels.
As explained on the BrandsEye website,
“…the traditional approach to social media analysis has been algorithmically driven, even though it is well known that machines fail to understand sarcasm and nuance, particularly in the social media context. With our unique crowd-sourcing approach to sentiment analysis, BrandsEye used people to understand the referendum commentary. Every online comment was independently analysed by several trained contributors to create a 95% confidence level with a 2.5% margin of error, an unheard of amount of precision in social media analysis. (N.A. 2016)”
The results
The results speak for themselves. In contrast to traditional polling, BrandsEye’s weighted average approach, matched the outcome of 9 of the 11 key swing states. As with Brexit, accurate social media analysis had once again proven to be the best way to understand the voice of the people. That voice is a human voice and BrandsEye’s use of trained humans to efficiently and effectively understand the sentiment of millions of citizens was the key to unlocking how they truly felt.
As the world becomes more connected, differences between decision makers and their stakeholders are becoming more visible and volatile than ever. Traditional methods of understanding a broad group of people are breaking down because they can neither measure the intensity nor the commitment of the emotions. Sophisticated analysis of social media, however, offers a more reliable understanding of what is happening in today’s world by combining world class tech and human understanding to provide a window into how people really feel and the factors driving that emotion.
4.11: The bigger picture
Understanding your market is the foundation of every marketing activity, online or off. If you don’t know who you’re speaking to, or what your audience cares about, it’s unlikely that your message will resonate with them.
Market research will define the content you create across channels like email marketing, digital copywriting, SEO and online advertising. It helps you find your audiences on social channels by indicating where they spend most of their time, and how they like interacting with your brand. It also helps you meet their needs by defining the touchpoints they expect from your brand, especially when it comes to creating web and mobile channels.
The more data you can gather about your audience, the better you will be able to optimise and improve your marketing efforts. Market research is an excellent supplement to the quantitative data you can gather through data analytics.
4.E: Market Research(Exercises)
Case study questions
1. What is sentiment data?
2. How could a tool like BrandsEye be used to gather information about your customers? Suggest some ideas.
3. Why was BrandsEye able to correctly predict the results of the national referendum on Brexit and the US Presidential Elections?
Chapter questions
1. Discuss the relationship between the ideas discussed in the Data chapter and this one.
2. What is primary research?
3. What role does online research play in the overall market research toolkit?
Further reading
http://s3.amazonaws.com/SurveyMonkey...martSurvey.pdf – The Smart Survey Design is a useful white paper that will help you master drawing up relevant web surveys.
Learn about probability sampling: https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/sampprob.php
4.S: Market Research(Summary)
Market research means gathering and analysing data in order to gain insight to consumers, understand a market and make business decisions. Information can be gathered about customers, competitors and the market.
Research can be conducted based on secondary data, which refers to information or data that is already published, or based on primary data, which is data gathered specifically for a particular research problem.
Research can also be qualitative or quantitative. The Internet provides the tools for gathering qualitative data, while online tools such as surveys and web analytics packages are ideal for gathering quantitative data.
Surveys, online focus groups and online monitoring are three excellent ways to conduct research online.
Analytics and online report tools play a big role in providing data. While these are digital marketing tactics in themselves and are covered later in this book, keep in mind that they also provide information that can feed into research conducted for a particular purpose. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/04%3A_Think_-_Market_Research/4.10%3A_Case_study_-_Sentiment_data_mining_predicts_political_outcomes.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• To think about web projects with a UX mindset.
• To recognise and create usable and enjoyable experiences for desktop and mobile users.
• The nuts and bolts of implementing UX strategy step by step.
• About a variety of awesome UX tools.
05: Create - User Experience Design
Have you ever visited a website that was confusing, with broken links and long, rambling text? Or, conversely, have you had a web experience that just worked, where everything was clear, easy and enjoyable to use? If so, you’ve encountered the extremes of user experience design. Excellent UX can delight and convert customers. Bad UX can lead to lost revenue and less chance of repeat visitors.
In practice, great UX can differ based on the audience and context. The principle remains the same, make it easy for your users to find what they need and to convert to your desired goal. UX is the first, foundational step of an effective digital asset.
5.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 5.2.1
Term Definition
Above the fold The content that appears on a screen without a user having to scroll.
Accessibility The degree to which a website is available to users with physical challenges or technical limitations.
Breadcrumbs Links, usually on the top of the page, that indicate where a page is in the hierarchy of the website.
Call to action (CTA) A phrase written to motivate the reader to take action such as sign up for our newsletter or book car hire today.
Content audit An examination and evaluation of existing content on a website.
Content strategy In this context, a plan that outlines what content is needed for a web project and when and how it will be created.
Convention A common rule or tried-and-tested way in which something is done.
Conversion Completing an action or actions that the website wants the user to take. Usually a conversion results in revenue for the brand in some way. Conversions include signing up to a newsletter or purchasing a product.
Credibility In this context, how trustworthy, safe and legitimate a website looks
Fidelity An interface design. A low-fidelity prototype will be basic, incomplete and used to test broad concepts. A high fidelity prototype will be quite close to the final product, with detail and functionality and can be used to test functionality and usability.
Information architecture The way data and content are organised, structured and labelled to support usability.
Navigation How a web user interacts with the user interface to navigate through a website, the elements that assist in maximising usability and visual signposting so users never feel lost.
Prototype Interactive wireframes, usually of a higher fidelity, that have been linked together like a website, so that they can be navigated through by clicking and scrolling.
Responsive design A design approach that enables a website display to change depending on the size of the viewport or screen, regardless of the device on which it is displayed.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) The process of improving website rankings on search engine results pages.
Sitemap On a website, a page that links to every other page in the website, and displays these links organised according to the information hierarchy. In UX terminology, this is the visualised structural plan for how the website’s pages will be laid out and organised.
Usability A measure of how easy a system is to use. Sites with excellent usability fare far better than those that are difficult to use.
User-centred design (UCD) The design philosophy where designers identify how a product is likely to be used, taking user behaviour into consideration and prioritising user wants and needs. UCD places the user at the centre of the entire experience.
User experience design (UXD) The process of applying proven principles, techniques and features to create and optimise how a system behaves, mapping out all the touchpoints a user experiences to create consistency in the interaction with the brand.
User interface (UI) The user-facing part of the tool or platform i.e. the actual website, application, hardware or tool with which the user interacts.
Wireframe The skeletal outline of the layout of a web page. This can be rough and general, or very detailed. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/05%3A_Create_-_User_Experience_Design/5.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
User experience (UX) can be defined as all the experiences for example, physical, sensory, emotional and mental, that a person has when interacting with a digital tool. The field of UX is full of similar sounding jargon, so here’s a quick guide to the terms you should know.
User experience (UX|) is the overall satisfaction a user gets from interacting with a product or digital tool.
User experience design (UXD, sometimes UED) is the process of applying proven principles, techniques and features to a digital tool to create and optimise the user experience.
User-centred design (UCD) is the design philosophy that prioritises the user’s needs and wants above all else, and places the user at the centre of the entire experience. This often entails research and testing with real users of the site or product.
User interface (UI) is the user-facing part of the tool or platform and is the part of the actual website, application or tool that the user interacts with.
Usability refers to how user friendly and efficient a digital product is.
Online UX can be divided into two broad categories.
• Functional UX. This covers the elements of the user experience that relate to actually using the tool such as working technical elements, navigation, search and links.
• Creative UX. This is the bigger, harder to define impression created by the tool. The so-called ‘wow’ factor that covers visual and creative elements.
Note
User experience design roles differ in the skills needed and the functions performed.
There are six qualities that make up good UX:
• Findability – Can I find it easily? Does it appear high up in the search results? How long does it take me to find something on the site? Does the three click rule work on this site?
• Accessibility – Can I use it when I need it? Does it work on my mobile phone, or on a slow Internet connection? Can I use it as a disabled person?
• Desirability – Do I want to use it? Is it a pleasant experience, or do I dread logging in? • Usability – Is it easy to use? Are the tools I need intuitive and easy to find?
• Credibility – Do I trust it? Is this website legitimate?
• Usefulness – Does it add value to me? Will I get something out of the time I spend interacting with it?
The benefits of UX
Note
The three click rule suggests that a user should be able to access what they need from your site with no more than three mouse clicks.
There are some real, tangible benefits to applying UX design to digital marketing strategies.
Good UX is an excellent way to differentiate your brand in the market and give yourself a competitive advantage. If your online touchpoints are easy, intuitive and awesome to use, your customers won’t have any reason to look elsewhere.
Good UX research and design allows you to find the best solution for your needs.
Every business, website and online service is unique in some way, which means that the way it is constructed must be unique too.
Example \(1\)
Amazon’s US \$300 million button is perhaps the most dramatic example of how a simple UX fix can impact the business. Amazon managed to gain an extra US \$300 million worth of sales simply by changing their ‘Register’ button to one that read ‘Continue’ instead. The number of customers increased by 45% because they no longer felt they needed to go through an onerous registration process simply to fulfil a basic shopping action. In fact, nothing else about the purchase process had been changed! (Spool, 2009).
Every marketer knows that the ideal customer is a happy customer. Customers who love the experience you give them will become loyal clients, and possibly even brand evangelists.
Applying UX principles allows you to get your digital tools working earlier, with much better functionality, at a lower cost. You can cut out features and elements that you simply don’t need, and focus on the core user experience. This optimised development process in turn leads to sites that are easier and cheaper to maintain, upgrade and support across multiple platforms. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/05%3A_Create_-_User_Experience_Design/5.03%3A__Understanding_UX_design.txt |
User-centric design
While this may seem like the most obvious point, it’s surprising how often the user is forgotten in the user experience. Business owners, marketers and web developers frequently focus on creating the web platforms they want and think are best, instead of really interrogating what the user needs. Often, the performance of web assets is compromised when the design process is driven only by internal business needs, for instance, ensuring that each department in the company has a space that it controls on the home page at the expense of what the user needs. When designing for the user, you need to ask the following questions:
• Who is the user?
• What are the user’s wants and needs from your platform?
• Why is the user really coming to your website?
Note
The customer journey is introduced in the chapter on Strategy and context. It refers to the steps your customer takes when engaging with your brand.
• Where is the user most likely to be in their customer journey when they visit your site?
• What are the user’s capabilities, web skills and available technology?
• How can the site facilitate the customer journey to conversion and purchase?
• What features would make the user’s experience easier and better?
The answers to these questions will come out of user research, as discussed in the Market research chapter earlier in this book.
Of course, many users may not know exactly what their wants and needs are. It is the UX practitioner’s job to discover these through research and interpret them in the best way possible. Keep Henry Ford’s famous quote in mind here: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
(www.goodreads.com)
Mobile users When discussing user-centric design, whatever you have gleaned about the user context must be considered. Today more than half of web traffic originates from a mobile device, with users accessing the Internet through either a smartphone or tablet (think with Google, 2016). This number is increasing every year and is expected to be over 70% by 2019 (Internet Society, 2015). Therefore, designing for mobile must be a priority. The context of mobile users affects the way in which they use their devices. Mobile users are:
• Goal orientated. Mobile users turn to their mobile devices to answer a question, quickly check email, find information or get directions. They often have a distinct purpose in mind when using their phone.
• Time conscious. There are two aspects to this. On the one hand, mobile users are often looking for urgent or time-sensitive information such as the address of the restaurant they are looking for, so answers should be available as quickly as possible. On the other hand, the mobile device is also frequently used to kill time or as a source of entertainment such as reading articles on the couch, or playing games while waiting in a queue, so content is also crucial. User research will tell you which of these groups your users fall into and how you need to structure your site accordingly.
Note
Some mobile users use their phones for browsing in a similar way one would use a desktop computer. How does your audience use their devices?
• Search dominant. Even users who know what they are looking for tend to navigate there via search, for example, typing the brand name into Google, rather than accessing the page from a bookmark or typing the URL directly into the browser bar.
• Locally focused. According to Google search data 30% of all mobile searches are for location (think with Google, 2016). Since mobile phones are always carried, users turn to them to find information on things in their surroundings from local businesses to more detail on a product they have just seen.
Usability is especially challenging with mobile. One of the biggest challenges is the sheer number of different device categories and models available. The OpenSignal report from 2014 identified 18 796 distinct android mobile devices, running a myriad of operating systems (The Next Web, 2014).
The limitations of mobile create additional considerations for the UX designer to address to ensure that visitors have a pleasant user experience while visiting the site. These limitations include:
• Small screens. Even the largest smartphones are screens many times smaller than a standard laptop and tablets fall somewhere between the two. This means that the user has a much smaller window through which to perceive and understand the website, so it may be difficult to get an overall impression of where things are or what’s important.
• Difficult inputs. Mobile phones don’t come with full-sized keyboards and mice, so they are usually a lot more difficult to operate fluidly and accurately than desktop computers. Touchscreens may be the exception here, although they also have their own pitfalls.
• Slow connection speeds. Many mobile phone users, especially in developing countries, are on slow Internet connections. Even fast options such as 3G can often be more sluggish than a desktop equivalent. This makes loading large websites or images slow and frustrating and can be expensive in terms of data costs.
Note
One design approach places ‘content first’. This means that you should decide which content to provide on your site depending on whether users are viewing it from a mobile or a desktop computer, and then adapt the layout and material to that device.
• Slow hardware. Sometimes the slowness comes from the hardware itself. The more basic the phone, the slower its processing components are likely to be making the simple act of opening the browser and loading a page time consuming.
There are three main approaches to creating mobile-accessible content.
1. Mobile websites (called mobi sites)
2. Native and web applications (called apps)
3. Responsive websites (websites that adapt to the device).
Usability and conventions
Note
Read more about this in the Web development and design chapter.
Usability is about making the digital assets we build easy and intuitive to use. To paraphrase Steve Krug, don’t make your users think: they should just do (Krug, 1997−2013).
One of the most important aspects of usability involves sticking to conventions, which are simply common rules or ways of displaying or structuring things on the web. Popular conventions include:
• Links that are blue and underlined
• Navigation menus at the top or left of the web page
• The logo in the top left hand corner which is linked to take the user back to the home page
• Search boxes placed at the top of the page, using standard wording such as ‘search’, or a magnifying glass icon.
Note
Can you think of any other web conventions? How have these evolved over time, and how important is it to stick to the rules?
Ensure that all website elements such as menus, logos, colours and layout are distinct, easy to find and kept consistent throughout the site. There are some key ‘dont’s’ when it comes to building a user-friendly and usable website:
• Never resize windows or launch the site in a pop-up.
• Do not use entry or splash pages i.e. a page that site visitors encounter first before reaching the home page.
• Flash is no longer used to design websites. Unaided, most search engine spiders cannot effectively crawl Flash sites, and Flash usually doesn’t work on many mobile devices.
• Don’t distract users with ‘Christmas trees’ such as blinking images, flashing lights, automatic sound, scrolling text and unusual fonts.
And finally, while the following principles apply to desktop as well, they are especially valid for mobile:
• Reduce loading time. Try to keep content and actions on the same page as this ensures better performance as there are fewer page loads. Encourage exploration especially on touchscreens, users like to browse elements and explore. This makes them feel in control.
• Give feedback. Ensure that it is clear when the user performs an action. This can be achieved through animations and other visual cues.
Note
Some note the increasing presence of one page websites, especially for sites with limited content and large images, which enables the site to load quicker. Check out this article that provides guidance on what types of sites should opt for one page sites: www.webinsation. com/should-i-havea-one-page-website. This approach is less effective in countries where data costs are prohibitive.
• Communicate consistently. Ensure that you deliver the same message across all your touchpoints, for example, using the same icons on the website as you would on the mobile app prevents users from having to relearn how you communicate.
• Predict what your user wants. Include functionality such as autocomplete or predictive text. Remove as much manual input as possible to streamline user experience.
It’s useful to consider usability guidelines to ensure that your website is on track. Stay In Tech provides a usability checklist online at https://stayintech.com/info/UX.
Note
Mobile users prefer to scroll in one direction.
Simplicity
In UX projects, the simpler option is almost always the more user-friendly one. Even if your service or product is complex your customer-facing web portals need not be. In fact, it’s important to remember that most customers want the most basic information from you, such as “What is this?” and “How does it work?” Simplicity can mean several things:
• Lots of empty space. In design terms, this is referred to as negative or white space. Though, of course, it need not specifically be white. Dark text on a light background is easiest to read. In general, the more effectively ‘breathing room’ is placed between various page elements, lines of text, and zones of the page, the easier it is for the user to grasp where everything is.
• Fewer options. Studies have found that people faced with fewer choices generally choose more quickly and confidently, and are more satisfied with their decision afterwards (Roller, 2010).
• Plain language. Unless your website is aimed at a highly specialised technical field, there’s usually no need to get fancy with the words you use. Clear, simple, well-structured language is the best option when creating a great user experience.
Note
Read more about this is in the Digital copywriting chapter
• Sticking to conventions. As we’ve said before, conventions are excellent shortcuts for keeping things simple for users. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel and try to teach your users a whole new way of navigating a website.
When it comes to mobile, it’s even more important to simplify. Show information only when it’s needed. While you should ensure that the mobile asset provides all the same information as the desktop equivalent, this doesn’t need to be presented in the same format or volume.
Credibility
Credibility refers to how trustworthy and legitimate something looks, and is a big consideration for web users when deciding to use your website or not. Here are some of the cues that visitors use to determine the credibility of a website:
• Looks – does it look professional and beautiful?
• Prominent phone numbers and addresses are easy to locate – this assures the visitor that there are real people behind the website, and that they are easily reachable.
• Informative and personal ‘About us’ – some customers want to see the inner workings of a company and are interested in the head honchos. Consider including employee pictures and profiles to add personality to the site.
• Genuine testimonials – testimonials are a great way to show potential customers what your current customers have to say about your organisation. Trust is vital, and this is one way to encourage it. Video testimonials can be particularly effective, assuming your audience does not face data restrictions.
• eCommerce – using a reputable sales channel helps your websites credibility.
• Social media – having a social media presence often goes further towards establishing credibility than testimonials, which could have been faked.
• Logos of associations and awards – if you belong to any relevant industry associations or have won any awards feature them. Not only does this go a long way towards establishing your credibility, but it will show that you’re at the top of your game, a notch above the competition.
• Links to credible third-party references or endorsements – this is a way to assert your credibility without tooting your own horn.
• Fresh, up-to-date content – a news section that was last updated a year ago implies that nothing has happened since or that no one cares enough to update it.
• No errors – spelling and grammar mistakes are unprofessional, and while the large majority of readers may not pick them up, the one or two who do will question your credibility. This extends to broken links, malfunctioning tools, and interactive elements that don’t work as advertised. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/05%3A_Create_-_User_Experience_Design/5.04%3A__Core_principles_of_UX_design.txt |
The UX design process happens before, during and after the website is being built. It ties in very closely with strategy and research, web development and design, SEO, content strategy and creation, and later conversion optimisation.
As discussed in section 5.4, Core principles of UX design, mobile should not be an afterthought, in UX or any other digital endeavour. It should be prioritised in strategy, design and implementation. The ‘mobile first’ movement supports this notion, and aims to create mobile user experiences first, and then adapt these for the web (instead of the other way around). Designing this way has many advantages, since the principles of good mobile UX works just as well on full sites using simple designs, linear interfaces and clear buttons and features.
Conduct research and discovery
Step one involves conducting detailed research on the business, the users, and the technology involved. This is covered fully in the Data driven decision making chapter, which includes user research. Doing this lets UX practitioners know exactly what they need to do to address the needs of the business and audience. This will generate a lot of data that needs to be filtered and organised.
Create the site’s basic structure
Information architecture (IA) is about managing information, taking a lot of raw data and applying tools and techniques to it to make it manageable and usable. Categories and pages should flow from broad to narrow. An intuitively designed structure will guide the user to the site’s goals.
IA operates on both the micro and the macro level covering everything from the way individual pages are laid out, for example where the navigation and headings are, to the way entire websites are put together.
Most websites have a hierarchical structure, which means there are broad, important pages at the top, and narrower, more specific and less important pages further down. Hierarchical structures can be very broad and shallow having many main sections with few lower pages or very narrow and deep with few main sections and many pages below. It’s up to the UX practitioner to find the right balance of breadth and depth.
Analyse content
If you’re working on a website that already exists, it will be populated with a wide variety of content. In this case, you need to perform a content audit, which is an examination and evaluation of the existing material.
If the website is new or if you plan to add new content to an existing website you need to put together a content strategy. This is a plan that outlines what content is needed and when and how it will be created. There’s no single template or model for this so every content strategy will be unique.
The content strategy is largely the responsibility of the strategy, copy and concept teams, but the UX practitioner needs to get involved in a few key roles. The points that UX needs to address are:
Note
Read more about this in the Content marketing strategy chapter.
• What the site should achieve. Naturally, the content should work towards achieving the site’s and business’ objectives.
• What the user wants and needs. By conducting thorough user research you should be able to answer this question. Provide only content that will add real value to the user.
• What makes the content unique, valuable or different. Content needs to provide value to the user. A content strategy will help ensure content is updated regularly and will include up to date information.
• The tone and language used. You need to consider the tone, whether it’s fun, light or serious, the register, whether it’s formal or informal and the style you will use across your content. Make sure tone, style and register are consistent across text, images, videos and other content types. Correct grammar and spelling are important considerations as they speak to the credibility of the site.
Principles of creating content
There are three key points you should consider here.
1. Structure
Content needs to be written so that users can find the information they need as quickly as possible. The chapter on Digital copywriting will cover this in more detail. Copy can be made more easily readable by:
Note
Don’t forget SEO. There are lots of ways in which a website can be optimised during the UX planning process. Have a look at the SEO chapter for some guidelines on what to include.
• Highlighting or bolding key phrases and words
• Using bulleted lists
• Using paragraphs to break up information
• Using descriptive and distinct headings.
2. Hierarchy
On the page, use an inverted pyramid style or F structure for your copy. The important information should be at the top of the page, to make for easy visual scanning. The heading comes first and is the largest and boldest type on the page. The subheading or blurb follows this, and then the content is presented in a descending scale of importance. Sentences should be short and important words should appear early in the sentence, especially in bullet points. Eye-tracking research has shown that the F structure is the still the most user friendly structure, as this is the natural flow of the eye (Hanes, 2016).
3. Relevance
Above all, the content on the page must be relevant to the user and the purpose of the page itself. If a user clicks to read about a product but ends up on a page with content about the company, their experience is going to be tarnished.
Create a sitemap
In UX terminology, a sitemap is the visualised structural plan for how the website’s pages will be laid out and organised.
To create the visuals for your sitemap, you can follow this process:
1. Start by defining your home page. This should be the top item in the hierarchy.
2. Place the main navigation items below this.
3. Arrange your pages of content below the main navigational items, according to the results of your user testing and insight, and your information architecture structure.
4. Add pages below this until you have placed all your content. Make sure that every page is accessible from at least one other page. It may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how often this is overlooked!
5. Define any other static navigation elements i.e. the footer, sidebar, header navigation, search tools. Place these in your diagram in a logical place possibly branching off directly from the home page, or as separate blocks.
Which sitemap is which
The term ‘sitemap’ can have two meanings. One is the way it’s defined above – the structural plan of the website. The other is a page on your website that lists all the pages available in a logical and accessible way. An example is the Apple website’s sitemap: www.apple.com/sitemap. This sitemap should be available from every page. Dynamic sitemaps can be employed so that the sitemap is updated automatically as information is added to the website. Different sitemaps exist for different purposes, so investigate what your users would find most useful.
Build the navigation
The navigation should guide users easily through all the pages of a website; it is not just about menus. Successful navigation should help a user to answer four basic questions:
1.Where am I?
Navigation should let the users know where they are in the site. Breadcrumb links, clear page titles, URLs and menu changes all help to show the user where he or she is. The larger your site is and the more levels it has, the more important it becomes to give your users an indicator of where they are in relation to everything else on the site. This helps the users to understand the content of the page that they are on, and makes them feel more confident in navigating further through the site.
2. How did I get here?
Breadcrumb navigation often indicates the general path a user may have taken. In the case of site search, the keyword used should be indicated on the results page.
3. Where can I go next?
Navigation clues let a user know where to go to next such as ‘add to cart’ on an eCommerce site, or a contextual link that indicates ‘read more’. The key is making the options clear to the user.
Note
There is a tendency, when thinking about navigation, to plan in only one direction, from the home page down the chain of pages in the hierarchy. But very often, users arrive at the site from a link or search result that drops them deep in the website. This makes it equally important to look at reverse navigation getting from the bottom level pages back to the top.
4. How do I get home?
It has become convention that the logo of the website takes the user back to the home page, but many users still look in the main menu for the word ‘home’. Make sure that they can get back to the beginning quickly and easily.
Create the layout
A web page can be broken down roughly into four zones:
Each of these typically contains certain types of elements and content, such as:
1. The header (at the top of the page) – used to identify the site and provide basic tools: Logo or identifying mark (possibly including the brand’s tagline) Main navigation Login feature Search bar
2. The central content area – used to present the main content The actual content specific to the page such as text, images, videos and more (this can be broken into several columns) CTAs of various kinds such as “Sign up”; “Get started”; “Claim your free trial”
Note
Users consider information in side bars to be less important, so don’t put your key message here.
1. The sidebar (either on the left or the right, or sometimes on both sides) – used to present secondary content and tools Secondary navigation bar, or other navigation features (for example, blog article archive by date)
CTAs, including buttons and signup forms
Additional content, like links or snippets.
1. The footer (at the bottom of the page) – used for important but non prominent content and resources
Legal information, privacy policy and disclaimers
Additional navigation elements.
The most important consideration for any page layout is the content i.e. what needs to be included, what is the most important action or piece of information, and how can this be structured to meet the user’s needs? After all, web pages are created to support a user’s journey. All pages on your site should not necessarily look identical.
Creating sketches, wireframes and prototypes
Wireframes are the skeletal outlines of the layout of a web page. Their purpose is to map out the placement of various elements on the page as a guide for the designer to create the visual design, and the web developer to create the code and interactivity required. Wireframes can be low fidelity (very rough and basic sketches, barely resembling the final output) or high fidelity (very detailed, complex layouts including creative elements). Any website project will have several wireframes, at least one for each template page. Capture your first ideas on paper; it’s the fastest and best way to capture good ideas.
Prototypes are a step up from wireframes, in that they are interactive. Prototypes are essentially sets of wireframes that have been linked together like a website, so that they can be navigated through by clicking and scrolling.
Prototypes are excellent tools for testing the flow and function of a proposed website before diving into the costly and lengthy design and development phases. They can save a lot of time, money and effort by helping to identify problems and improvements upfront. Again, paper prototyping is the best method for fast, iterative UX design.
Assemble the other elements
Once you’ve defined your content and mapped out the basic layout of each page, you need to add all the extra elements that your website will need. Remember that the page should only ever contain the elements a user might need to support them in their task. These can include:
Note
Paper prototypes make testing quick and easy. They’re portable, easy to use, and don’t require complex tools, Internet connections or user skills. Mobile Apps like Pop (popapp.in) easily turn paper prototypes into clickable demos. See section 5.8, Tools of the trade for more information on the Pop App
Calls to action. CTAs can take a variety of shapes and forms, from in text links to large buttons.
Forms. These are interactive fields where users can enter their contact details or other information, for example, to sign up for a newsletter or enter a competition.
Search. Many sites can benefit from having a search function, both to help users navigate and to make finding specific information easier.
Calls to Action
Successful CTAs are simple, quick, clear actions that don’t require the user to do anything scary or to make a commitment. They should always do exactly what they state in order to instil confidence and clarity. It’s all about managing user expectations, do they actually go where they think they will, or perform the action users expect?
Positioning
The primary CTA should usually appear above the fold to capture the attention focused here. Other CTAs can appear below the fold, and the main CTA can also be repeated lower down.
Prioritisation
A single web page can be built around one CTA, or could incorporate a wide range of possible desirable actions. This all comes down to what the page and website overall is seeking to achieve, based on the business requirements.
When multiple CTAs are used, there should be one primary one that stands out strongly and the others should be more muted, playing a supporting role. CTAs can be differentiated through colour, shape, placement and size; the fewer choices, the better.
Clickability
Any CTAs that can be clicked must look tactile or touchable. This means they must stand out somehow from the background and from static elements. One approach is to make the button look like a real button, standing out from its environment. Another train of thought advocates for the flat design approach as a more elegant and modern expression of this.
Quantity
Finally, be sure not to overwhelm users with too many choices. Stick to one central CTA per page, making it obvious to users what the main goal, action or outcome of the page is.
Forms
Forms are extremely useful tools for gathering user information and encouraging interaction on the site. Users are generally familiar with them and have some experience filling them out, and there are lots of web conventions that govern how these should be set up. As a general rule, the shorter you make your form, the better. The fewer fields users have to fill out, the more likely they are to complete the process.
Steps and sections
Simple forms with only a few fields can be assembled as a series of boxes. For forms that are longer, for example, those in eCommerce checkouts or complex registration processes, it makes sense to split them up into manageable portions. Manage users’ expectations by clearly indicating what the next step is.
Relevance
Simplicity is a key consideration, forms should be as short and clear as possible. The effort must be equal to the reward gained. All of the fields included must be clearly relevant to the purpose of the form, otherwise users may get confused or suspect that you are harvesting their information.
It is important that users are notified about which fields are required and which are optional. If all the fields are required, then the form should indicate this clearly.
Note
Be aware of local laws that define what information you’re allowed to collect, and how you can use it.
Assistance
It is a good idea to include help for users filling out forms. This is especially the case where a specific field requires inputs to be entered in a certain way and doubly so for password fields with special rules. Users will not instinctively know the rules associated with specific fields, so you must provide plenty of guidance along the way.
A form should be well designed and intuitive rather than provide tips and text to users on how to complete it. Ideally, users shouldn’t need any help at all.
Validation
Validation means giving the user feedback on the inputs they have submitted whether correct or incorrect. Validation can happen at two points, after the user has submitted the form, which is submission validation, or during the process of filling out the form which is live inline validation. Submission validation is essential for protecting the database, but will also assist in catching user errors. Live inline validation usually results in much better user experiences as the users then know that their information is correct before submitting the form.
Error messages are an important part of validation that is shown to users. Error messages are often ignored in UX development and are a huge source of frustration for users.
Some best practice to consider:
• These messages should be easy to understand meaning the user should not struggle to understand the error or how to fix it.
• The error message should stay visible until the error has been corrected.
• The tone of the message should match the rest of the site.
• It is important to remember that a form is a conversation with users. It’s an interactive dialogue even though you are not present.
reCAPTCHA
reCAPTCHA is a free service offered by Google that requires users to answer questions to prove they are not bots. It helps to protect websites from spam and abuse, but does reduce conversions and in certain instances can render the site unusable for users. Despite these accessibility issues, reCAPTCHA is still an important factor when developing forms in order to protect your website.
Search
Search has three useful functions on a website. Not only does it help users to find specific things, it also serves as an essential navigation aid for larger sites, and collects valuable data from keyword research about what the user is looking for. From the UX practitioner’s perspective, there are some important non-technical principles to bear in mind.
For large sites, it can be useful to allow users to search within categories. On Amazon, for example, you can search just within the category ‘books’.
Positioning
Search will either be the primary starting point for your site, or it will be a useful additional tool. In the former case, for example, on a large eCommerce site such as Amazon, the search tool should be positioned centrally and visibly to encourage the user to use this as the main navigational tool. In the latter case, best practice dictates that it should be in the top right corner, or easily accessible in the sidebar.
Accuracy
The better you can interpret what your user is searching for, the more relevant and accurate the search results can be. Google works very hard to fine-tune its search algorithm to ensure that users don’t just get what they searched for, but what they actually wanted in the first place.
User research can suggest why users would search your site in the first place, and what they would typically be looking for. Popularity and recentness of content are other key considerations.
Results
When it comes to displaying search results, there are a few key questions to ask:
How many results should be displayed per page?
Ten to 20 results per page is generally a good benchmark.
What order should results be in? Most popular first? Cheapest? Newest? Closest match?
This will depend on the nature of the site.
Can results be filtered?
Some websites allow users to do a second search constrained to the results of the first one.
What happens if there are no results?
If no search results are found, the search function should provide hints and tips to the user on how to search better on the site. The fact that there are no results should be stated clearly, followed by a list of the closest match of content to the search query. It’s quite possible the searcher didn’t know the exact term from what they are looking for or made a typo, though the site should be forgiving of these. Hints could include wildcards or breaking up the terms into smaller pieces. The message shown to users should be helpful and relevant, and not simply copied from Google’s advice.
Define the visual design
Before users interact with your carefully considered content, your excellent navigation structure and slick search bar, their first impression comes from the look of the website such as the colours, graphics, and overall design elements. As people are spending more and more time on the web, they are less tolerant of websites that don’t look good or credible. While a website is not an art installation, it is a design project, and the fundamentals of good design apply.
Note
Read more about this in the Web development and design chapter
While much of the visual design expertise will come from the graphic designer, it’s valuable for the UX practitioner to know the following principles of visual design:
Colour
Colour has an incredible psychological effect on people. Based on our culture, preferences and learned cues, people interpret colours in very specific ways and this can be used to inform and steer user experience. When choosing the colour palette for your website, be aware of legibility and accessibility concerns. Using a lot of open or white space often makes sites appear simple and easy to read.
Imagery
The choice of images used on the website can have a massive effect on how users behave and interact on the page. You can never be quite certain which images will have the best results, so this is one area where you will need to do a lot of testing (more on that below). Humans tend to gravitate towards and identify with pictures of other humans. Content strategy should include an image strategy, especially if the site is rich in images. Camera angles, content, brand strategy and the tone of the visuals all need to be considered. Images must always be relevant and not used as fillers or pure decoration. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/05%3A_Create_-_User_Experience_Design/5.05%3A_Implementing_UX_design.txt |
Ensuring you adhere to all the principles of UX design can be costly and time consuming. Testing each development or aspect of the site can be very drawn out. However, the advantages that UX provides far outweigh the costs.
Good UX means users will have a pleasurable experience on your site, are more likely to return and recommend your site, both of which lead to sales and help you to meet your business objectives. Poor UX means users have negative and disappointing experiences; they may not return and may relate their negative feedback to others, which in turn loses any potential sales.
Including UX from the beginning helps to keep costs low and on budget. It is estimated that for every US \$1 spent in the initial phases to improve UX, it would cost US \$10 to fix during development, and upwards of US \$100 to fix after the product is released (Gray, 2016).
5.07: References
Charlton, G. 2014. 21 First class examples of effective web form design https://econsultancy.com/blog/64669-...eb-form-design [Accessed 30 October 2017]
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1529...ted-they-would [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Gray. C. 2016. 6 Benefits of UX Design. Available at: http://www.nomat.com.au/6-benefits-ux-design/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Hinderer, D. and Nielsen, J. 2003. 234 tips and tricks for recruiting users as participants in usability studies. https://media.nngroup.com/media/repo...ty_Studies.pdf [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Idler, S. 2013. The effect of the human face in web design. Available at: http://blog.usabilla.com/effect-huma...es-web-design/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Kolowich, L. 2016 16 of the best website homepage design examples [online] http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6...Design.aspx#sm .0010tgydx19ivep1tlq2gi1yw97c4 [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Kolowich, L. 2016. 11 testimonial page examples you will want to copy [online] http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/te...1tlq2gi1yw97c4 [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Krug, S., 1997-2013. Advanced common sense. [Online] Available at: http://www.sensible.com/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Madaio, M. 2016. The new rules of form design. [Online] Available at: http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/the-...of-form-design [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Spool, J. 2009. The \$300 Million Button. [Online] Available at: https://articles.uie.com/three_hund_million_button/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Sterling, G., 2012. Google: 50% of Mobile Search Is Local. [Online] Available at: http://screenwerk.com/2012/10/01/goo...arch-is-local/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
The next web. 2014. There are 18 796 distinct Android devices, according to opne signals latest fragmentation report. [Online] Available at: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2014/08...n-report/#gref [Accessed 30 October 2017]
thinkwithgoogle.com. 2016. How mobile search connects consumers to stores. [Online] Available at: www.thinkwithgoogle.com/info...to-stores.html [Accessed 30 October 2017]
whatsuersdo.com. nd. How UX Testing increased sales by 9.5% at ao.com [Online] http://whatusersdo.com/clients/resou...sales-95-aocom [Accessed 30 October 2017]
5.08: Conduct Testing
Measuring how successful your UX has been cannot be left until the final website is complete and ready for launch. The key to an effective user friendly site is testing each step of the way during the design, development and implementation process. User testing is crucial to UX.
User testing means giving one or more users access to a website or prototype and observing how they behave when using it. The purpose of this is to discover problems and gain insights that can be used to improve the final product.
The goal of user testing is not to eliminate every potential problem on a website; that’s simply not possible, especially if you consider how subjective this can be. The goal is to work towards creating the best possible experience for users by constantly improving and optimising.
The two biggest questions around testing tend to be “What do I test?” and, “When do I test it?” The answers are simple: Test as much as possible, as often as possible, and as early as possible.
Note
Of course, in the real world, time and budget limitations will certainly have an impact on how much you can test but our goal should always be to maximise testing, in whichever way you can. Learn more in the Conversion optimisation chapter.
User testing follows a set process:
1. Formulate a question to test
2. Choose a test and prepare
3. Find subjects
4. Test
5. Analyse
6. Report
7. Implement
8. Start again
5.09: Tools of the trade
UX tools range from rudimentary (pen and paper) to highly sophisticated (web applications and tech tools). Here is a brief roundup of popular options.
Balsamiq (https://balsamiq.com) bills itself as a ‘rapid wireframing tool’ and is great for creating fun, low-fidelity wireframes and simple prototypes.
Axure (www.axure.com) is an all-purpose prototyping tool that allows you to create fully interactive wireframed websites without needing to code anything. A useful feature is that it also generates technical specifications for developers to work from based on the interactions and links created in the prototyping process.
Gliffy (www.gliffy.com) is a web-based tool that allows you to create a wide range of diagrams, everything from wireframes to sitemaps to charts.
Invision (www.invisionapp.com) is a web based tool that allows you design prototypes across web and mobile.
Morae (www.techsmith.com/morae.html) is a good place to start if you’re looking for a web-based replacement for user labs.
Pop (https://marvelapp.com/pop/) or Prototyping on Paper, is a free app for prototyping apps on mobile. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/05%3A_Create_-_User_Experience_Design/5.06%3A_Advantages_and_disadvantages_of_UX_design.txt |
One-liner
UX testing increased sales at ao.com, a UK based online large kitchen appliances (white goods) store, by 9.5%,
The challenge
ao.com was using its senior management’s hunches to inform its development roadmap and was not considering customers’ needs. The conversion manager knew that to become a market challenger in the online white goods market, the company needed to become customer centred.
The solution
To become properly customer centred, the brand needed to work on identifying true customer needs and tailoring the website to provide the best possible user experience. But how did ao.com go about doing this?
The first step was research. Complex research was carried out by WhatUsersDo.com, an expert in UX testing. Users were asked to purchase white goods online from either ao.com, a competitor, or via Google search. Users were observed via their screens and asked to speak their thoughts as they proceeded.
Those who bought directly form ao.com were monitored to observe friction points in the buying process. Those who bought from competitors were monitored to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, and lastly those using Google were watched so see how users would naturally search to buy white goods.
Next, the videos, over 250 hours of footage, were assessed and shown to senior managers who could now clearly see where customers were having problems with the site. Senior managers now started to look at their business from the customer’s point of view and the roadmap was re-prioritised to focus on customer needs.
The results showed that the product pages needed the most improvement. There needed to be clearer product descriptions, more compelling videos and much stronger calls to action. The sizes of images and buttons placement were also adjusted according to the feedback.
The results
Improved user experience definitely yielded great results for ao.com:
• Online sales increased by 9.5%
• The number of calls to the customer support team was reduced by 33%
• Customer reviews increased by 110% demonstrating increased customer engagement.
The changes made may have seemed obvious, but were not recognised by senior managers. Exposure to real clients and their needs is essential in determining a good user experience. To ensure ao.com maintains their customer centred approach, they run weekly sessions where employees watch how users use their website. Any changes can be made as required in order to continue providing customers with the best user experience possible.
5.11: The bigger picture
UX touches on so many aspects of digital marketing that it’s hard to list them all. It’s involved right up front at the strategy and research phase, and then touches on all the create disciplines such as web development, design, copywriting and SEO.
For example, when it comes to SEO, Google’s algorithm assesses the UX design on a website as part of the overall decision on where to rank it.
Social media, email marketing, display advertising, video marketing and other fields can also benefit from solid UX thinking such as, “What do users want, need and expect from you on these channels?” Finally, UX goes hand in hand with web analytics data as both disciplines aim to understand users and create real, actionable insights from the data gathered about them.
5.E: User Experience Design(Exercises)
Case study questions
1. What do you think about the methods ao.com used to test their UX? What other methods could they have used?
2. What elements would you have included in the new improved UX design of ao.com?
3. Why do you think UX research helped increase sales and improve customer engagement for ao.com?
Chapter questions
1. What are the six qualities that make up a good user experience?
2. Are there any mobile specific issues that UX designers should keep in mind? What growing trend should UX designers keep in mind when designing any user experience?
3. Explain why testing is so important with UX?
Further reading
www.smashingmagazine.com – Smashing Magazine posts regular, in-depth articles and research focused on UX, technology and web design.
http://www.lukew.com - The blog of Luke Wroblewski, one of the world’s foremost UX experts. It’s filled with research and practical advice for working UX practitioners. [Accessed 30 October 2017]
http://ww.sitepoint.com/11-free-ux-e...h-reading-2016 - a list of books on UX that are free and well worth reading. [Accessed 30 October 2017]
5.S: User Experience Design(Summary)
Users come first when creating any web-based marketing channels. Core UX principles such as user-centric design, web conventions, simplicity and credibility are essential for creating web experiences that are seamless, memorable and valuable to users.
Mobile UX is a special subset of the discipline that takes the unique context and characteristics of mobile users into account – whether for designing a mobi site, an app or a responsive website. When it comes to implementing a UX process, the following steps should be followed:
1. Identify business requirements – what does the business need to get out of the site?
2. Conduct user research – who are you building the site for, and why? What information do they need? How will they move through the site? Does the user need this?
3. Create the basic structure – what goes into solid information architecture?
4. Analyse and plan content – how should content be put together here?
5. Design the sitemap – how will the overall website be structured?
6. Build and develop the navigation – how will users get to where they need to go?
7. Create the layout – what will each page look like, from top to bottom? Does the layout support the functional purpose of the website? What content is needed for this page to achieve its business goals?
8. Add other useful elements – how will CTAs, search tools and forms behave? Where will they be best placed to achieve the business goals?
9. Conceptualise the visual design – how will the visual layer add to the overall UX impact?
10. Conduct user testing – are there any errors on the site, and is it easy to use? Testing should be done at each step in the UX process. The earlier errors or difficulties in the UX are picked up the more cost effective it is to correct and change. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/05%3A_Create_-_User_Experience_Design/5.10%3A__Case_study_-_AO_Becomes_customer_centred.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• How the web development process works, from planning through to design and launch.
• Development and design best practices and the principles of designing for persuasion.
• How to assess the quality and effectiveness of web development and design implemented by suppliers or agencies.
• How to evaluate the need for either a static or CMS website.
06: Create - Web Development and Design
Websites are, in many ways, at the heart of successful digital marketing. They are your home on the web, a shop window over which you have full control, and often the first place people stop to find out more about you.
Web development and design applies to more than just websites, the principles can be used for any digital assets you create, from mobile platforms to social media profiles.
Creating online assets involves three key processes: planning and design, which create the appearance, layout and style that users see; and development, which brings this imagery to life as a functioning web tool.
Note
Unlike social media properties, your website is not subject to changes in policy, and content remains easily accessible regardless of its age.
The fundamental principle of good development and design is to understand your users, they are the people who will actually be using and interacting with your website. What are they looking for? What are their objectives? Your offering must have user experience central to the process.
6.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 6.2.1
Term Definition
Accessibility The degree to which a website is available to users with disabilities, such as the visually or hearing impaired, and those technically disadvantaged by not having the necessary device, software or browser.
Adaptive web design Websites that respond to a user’s screen size by loading predefined layouts.
Alt text Alt text means alternative text. The ‘alt’ attribute is used in HTML to attribute a text field to an image on a web page. It normally has a descriptive function, telling a search engine or user what an image is about and displaying the text in instances where the image is unable to load. Also called Alt tag.
Anchor text A text link, or backlink, that refers visitors to your site from another with SEO benefits, passing relevance and authority from the referring site.
Bounce When users leave a site before navigating from their landing page to another.
Branding (or visual identity or corporate identity) These terms refer to the look and feel of your brand. In this context it is used when discussing how your logo, colours and styling elements are translated from traditional print-based assets to digital.
Breadcrumbs Links, usually on the top of each page, indicating where a page is in the hierarchy of the website. Breadcrumbs can be used to help users navigate through the website, as well as act as a page index for search engines.
Cache Files stored locally on a user’s browser to limit the amount of data called from the server on a return visit.
Call to Action A phrase written to motivate the reader to take action (sign up for our newsletter, book car hire today etc.). Calls to action are usually styled differently from other copy on a page so that they stand out and draw attention.
Content Management System (CMS) A software system that allows an administrator to update the content of a website, so that a developer is not required.
Common page elements Items that appear on every page of a website.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) A programming language that defines the styles such as fonts and colours, used to display text and content. Web pages are one of the places that this language is used.
Client-side Scripts that run in a user’s browser, rather than on a web server.
dpi Dots per inch (in an image). On the web, the screen resolution is 72dpi.
Graceful degradation The use of both modern and antiquated web techniques and code to provide a safety net, or fallback, for users with older browsers and technologies.
HTML5 HTML5 is the most current iteration of the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) standard. It is a broad range of technologies that allow for rich media content and interaction on websites that do not require additional third-party plugins. It allows rich multimedia content to be displayed and easily viewed by users, computers and devices.
Information architecture The way in which data and content are organised, structured and labelled to support usability.
JavaScript A high-level, dynamic programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers.
Landing page The page a user reaches when clicking on a paid or organic search engine listing. The pages that have the most success are those that match up as closely as possible with the user’s search query.
Landing page The website page that a user is sent to after clicking on any link or CTA, for example, in an email or affiliated site, in a display ad, or a paid or organic search engine listing. The landing pages that have the most success are those that match up as closely as possible with the user’s search query or intention.
Meta data Information that can be entered about a web page and the elements on it to provide context and relevant information to search engines. Metadata includes meta and title tags.
Native mobile application A mobile application designed to run as a program on a specific device or mobile operating system.
Navigation How a web user moves through a website, and the elements that assist the user in doing so.
Open source Unlike proprietary software, open source software makes the source code available so that other developers can improve on or build applications for the software.
Plug-in Often referred to as a module or extension, a piece of third-party code that extends the functionality of a website.
Progressive enhancement The development of web technologies in a layered fashion, prioritising basic content and functionality for all web browsers, while allowing users with higher bandwidth or browsers access to an enhanced version of the page.
Proprietary software Any software that one or more intellectual property holders own and licence to others in exchange for compensation, subject to certain restrictions. Licensees may not be able to change, share, sell or reverse engineer the software.
Responsive web design Websites that fluidly respond to a user’s device or screen resolution based on media queries sent between the site and the device regarding the specs of the device.
Search engine results page (SERP) The actual results returned to the user based on their search query
Server-side Scripts that run on a server, as opposed to a user’s browser
Sitemap On a website, a page that links to every other page in the website and displays these links organised according to the information hierarchy. While this is often physically available on a website (HTML sitemap), it should also be created as an XML file and included within the Robots.txt.
Universal Resource Locator (URL) A web address that is unique to every page on the Internet.
Usability A measure of how easy a system is to use. Sites with excellent usability fare far better than those that are difficult to use.
Web application framework Software used to help create dynamic web properties more quickly. This is done through access to libraries of code for a specific language or languages and other automated or simplified processes that do not then need to be coded from scratch.
W3C standards A common approach to development that focuses on accessibility and standardisation, overseen by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Web server A computer or program that delivers web content to be viewed on the Internet. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/06%3A_Create_-_Web_Development_and_Design/6.01%3A__Introduction.txt |
Web design is the process of creating all the visual aspects of the interface. This covers the layout, colour scheme, images, logos, type, design elements (such as buttons and links), and anything else that you can see.
The web is a visual medium, so design is an important part of creating assets that are both engaging and effective. Designers need to keep in mind the technical aspects of design, while prioritising the human factor. Digital properties shouldn’t just be beautiful. They need to create a good experience for the visitor and meet business objectives, such as increasing sales, creating brand ambassadors, as well as encouraging signups and, ultimately, conversions.
Visual identity and designing for persuasion
The visual interface or, the design of a website, is what user see and interact with. It’s the visual representation of all the hard work that goes into developing a website. It’s what the site will first be judged by and is the initial step in creating a delightful user experience. It matters a lot.
There is a close relationship between UX and visual design. Ideally the visual designer will use the documents created by the UX designer and add the visual skin, but often the designer has to manage both UX design and visual design. Design is not just about aesthetics, although looks are very important.
Design is about the visual clues we give users so that they know what to do next. It assures web visitors of our credibility and turns them into customers.
Good interface design involves many things, but here are a few basic considerations. These are closely linked to UX, and the visual designer plays a key role in defining them.
• Navigation: the signage of the site, indicating to users where they are and where they can go.
• Layout: how content is structured and displayed.
• Headers: the element with a fixed position at the top of every page. It usually includes all primary navigation items which need to be presented on every page such as main menu, login and search.
• Footers: the usually consistent bottom part of the page.
• Credibility: telling users that you are who you say you are.
Visual identity
The visual identity answers the question, “How do users know it’s us?” Certain design elements should be carried through on all web assets created for a brand, as well as print and traditional communication media. Often, the visual identity guidelines for the web are codified into a digital style guide document to ensure consistency across different agencies, designers and teams. This document can include guidelines for creating all manner of web assets, including banners, social media content, and website design elements.
The logo is the most prominent way to reinforce your brand identity on the website. The logo is part of a brand’s corporate identity (CI).
The primary font is typically used for prominent headings on the site, while body copy is often set in a standard web font that closely matches the primary font.
Menu and button style, as well as icons, are also part of a site’s visual identity. Even when a user is viewing a small part of a site or page, it should look as if it belongs to the site as whole.
Design theory
Design can be a pretty precise science and there is a lot of research on what makes for effective design. A lot is also common sense and practice based on accepted web standards. Design theory is discussed in the User experience design chapter.
Collecting and collating design assets
Elements such as your logo and brand colours represent your brand and form part of your brand expression. The latest versions of these brand assets need to be available to the designer or marketing agency designing your website.
Getting the right brand assets to designers in a good quality format that they can easily access saves time and avoids expensive mistakes. Here is a list of brand assets that a designer requires to start working on a site. The quality, format (or file type) and file size are all important considerations. You need to provide:
Note
The brand guidelines or style guide would be created in Illustrator, PS or Sketch, but saved for the client as a PDF doc.
• Brand guidelines or style guide. In Adobe Reader (PDF) format.
• Logo and other key brand elements. These could be in Illustrator format (ai) or Photoshop format (psd). Best practice is to have your logo designed using vector graphics. If your logo or other brand assets are created in this format, they can be enlarged without losing quality. If you do not have a vector version of your logo available, then you should make sure that your image is at least 1 000 pixels wide.
• Image libraries. Photographs and images can be hosted online, where the designer can access them with a login. They can also be sent via Cloud file sharing services. Make sure the images are of sufficient quality. It is best practice to provide images that are 300dpi. Although all images on the web are displayed at 72dpi, a higher quality image will give your designer room to optimise and resize and crop or cut images where needed. It may also be necessary to consider different images for mobile vs. desktop because the viewpoint on mobile is so much smaller. You may need to consider using much fewer images for mobile or even none at all.
If you do not own the image and its copyright, it is illegal to use the image on your site without permission from the owner. If you require these images, they can be purchased from stock libraries online such as iStock or Shutterstock. Avoid using images from Google Image Search on your pages.
• Fonts folder. You will need to provide both Apple Mac and PC versions of the fonts that are listed in your Style Guide. Many designers work on Macs, which use different font versions from those read by PCs.
• Brand colours need to be given to digital designers in RGB format. RGB stands for red, green and blue and is the standard for colours online.
• Any existing creative assets that have been created for your brand over time, such as:
• Print designs
• TV ads
Website copy should be made available before the final design is required. This prevents delays caused by designers waiting for material. This applies to any additional assets your designer may need that can be downloaded or sent, such as your price guides or product descriptions.
Fonts
Copy conveys your brand message to your client or customer and should be easy to read and search engine friendly. The CI is expressed through fonts, also known as typefaces.
Typographic layout can draw attention to the content users should see first. Indicate which pieces of information take precedence. Importance can be signified by text size, colour, weight, capitalisation and italics. Placement also contributes to how important text appears.
Some fonts are common to all computer users. These fonts are known as web safe fonts. Anyone accessing websites that use these fonts will be able to view them as the designer intended and search engines will be able to search these websites easily.
Note
Some web safe fonts are: Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Courier New, and Lucida Console. See the full list here: www.w3schools.com/cssref/ css_websafe_fonts.asp.
To drive impact, designers typically prefer not to be limited to using only web safe fonts, and brand guidelines in most instances don’t take web safe fonts into account. This means that fonts must be embedded by a developer using tools such as Typekit, or loaded dynamically from tools such as Google Fonts.
Note
You can also use Google Fonts as an alternative, which are more stylish than standard fonts but which are still viewable by most people. The developer will need to implement these. See www.google.com/fonts. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/06%3A_Create_-_Web_Development_and_Design/6.03%3A_Web_design.txt |
Web development is the process of taking finished web designs and transforming them into fully functioning, interactive websites. Development is what gives life and movement to static designs, and enables users to access the website through their web browsers. This is done by translating the designs into web coding languages that can be interpreted and displayed by web browsers.
Learning to code your own website is not in the scope of this textbook and requires years of practice and some considerable technical know-how. But we can teach you to understand the aspects that go into creating a website, the process that should be followed, and how to help in making key choices about your website.
Assessing your development needs
It is important to identify what your development needs are as these fundamentally impact the options that are most appropriate to your site’s development. Will you use a CMS? Will you need complex content management? Is it for eCommerce, or is it simply a brochure site? For instance, if you’re building a small brochure site, you don’t need someone to come up with a bespoke development solution.
Content management
The majority of websites today are built using a content management system, or CMS. Content management simply means a system for managing any forms of content. A web CMS is a software application that assists in managing your digital assets and content for your website. It needs to facilitate the creating, collecting, managing and publishing of any material for your site.
Managing a website is collaborative and involves various people, in various roles, working on the material, such as creators, editors, publishers, administrators and even visitors to your site. A CMS provides tools to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content. A CMS enables a business to manage and update their own website without needing a web developer (Johnston, 2015).
Ideally, the CMS becomes a set of automated processes that facilitate the functioning, updating and management of your site. Using a CMS means it is cheaper and easier to update, manage and create new content as web developers are not required for each change. A CMS also allows for the content of websites to be updated from any location in the world by means of signing in to the system.
eCommerce
eCommerce, or electronic commerce, refers to any trading of products or services on the Internet. eCommerce sites are necessary across a range of businesses, from consumer based retail, through auction, music and video subscription sites, to intercorporate trading.
Learn more in our eCommerce chapter.
Brochure site
A brochure site is a static site. It provides content that does not need to be updated regularly, and there is very little interaction with the visitor. A brochure site is essentially a brochure of a company’s offering, providing relevant information and contact details to prospective customers. The site does not ‘do’ anything. The user cannot interact with the site in any way; they are unable to place orders, make payments or engage with the site.
Brochure sites are a means of getting your business an online presence quickly and relatively cheaply, and if it meets all your business requirements then such a simple site may be sufficient. Consider the limitations of a brochure site before making a choice, as they can be difficult or impossible to build on later.
Development options
When selecting how to proceed with your website development, you have a few options at your disposal. The choice between an off-the-shelf solution and bespoke development comes down to how flexible the off-the-shelf solution is. If too much customisation is required, or it does not support the business’ requirements, it may be better and cheaper to develop a bespoke solution.
Off-the-shelf solution
The CMS you choose can be pre-built by an external company or developer. This can be bought like any other software on the market. While this option may provide fewer custom features, it’s potentially a more cost-effective option than a bespoke CMS. It is certainly quicker if little customisation is required.
Bespoke development
This involves a CMS that is built specifically for a certain website. This option is highly tailored and customised to your website, and can be more expensive than other options. It is possibly less future proof, as finding alternative agencies to support custom-built code is challenging.
Advantages and disadvantages of off-the-shelf and bespoke development
Table 6.4.1 (Cooper, 2015)
Off-the-shelf Bespoke
Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages
Cheaper Overly complex with large sections you will never use Created specifically for the business’ needs More expensive
Sophisticated software due to wide range of resources input for development Compromise of features Tailored and unique Requires experienced developers to maintain
Easy to find support and literature widely available Long time to learn and in-house training required Customised to interface with software you already use Less future proof as tied to specific agency to maintain
Easy to share files as software widely used and available Workflow may have to change to meet software design More intuitive to your business’ way of working Large investment of time for development, testing
No company time needed for specs and testing Features you need may not be available More flexible, can be modified and changed as required Takes much longer to implement
Available sooner Individual requests to overall developers will not carry weight Receive better support Difficult to get support if developer does not provide it
Long time to have things fixed if through the corporation that developed the software Provide significant business advantage Difficult to choose appropriate developer that will provide reliable and stable software.
Difficult to gain competitor advantage Option to sell application to others (if you own rights)
Open source vs. proprietary
There are many open source, pre-built CMS options available, some of which are free. Open source means that anyone can see the code that the CMS is built with, and can manipulate or improve it and share this with everyone else using the CMS. An open source CMS can be more rudimentary than paid options, but is also easy to tailor to your needs, and there is often a community that can create the solutions you need.
Some widely used open source CMS solutions include:
WordPress (www.wordpress.com)
Drupal (www.drupal.com)
Blogger (www.blogger.com)
Joomla (www.joomla.org)
Table 6.4.2 (Robbins, 2015)
Proprietary Open source
Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages
Predictability Less current so large investments in legacy systems Customisation Upfront cost can be high if you want highly customised product
Plenty of options Licensing fees Flexibility Less ‘Out of the box’ features and features you need may be expensive to create
Robust and filled with features Supported only by the company that sells it or its agents Supported by an online community and not a company Less predictable support which only happens as needed and not regularly
Relatively cost effective to implement Lack of customisation Existing frameworks to work from Less predictable
Lack of flexibility New technology helps to stay up to date with bugs and fixes
You own the customised versions
A CMS should be selected with the goals and functions of the website in mind. A CMS needs to be able to scale along with the website and business that it supports, and not the other way around. Many content management systems have become famous for certain needs.
Examples include:
• WordPress for personal blogs or brochure type sites
• Drupal for more complex community and publishing sites
• Magento for eCommerce sites.
Development frameworks
The back-end of a website refers to the server-side layer. This layer is hidden from the user’s view. The interaction between the user and the back-end is handled via a presentation layer known as the front-end or client-side layer. A website is a marriage between these layers (Ferguson, 2016).
Back-end/server-side languages and frameworks
Server-side languages are the hidden web coding languages that determine how your website works and communicates with the web server and your computer.
When choosing a server-side language, you need to consider:
Cost: The cost varies depending on the language you choose for your web development project, as some are more intricate than others, the developer may charge more. So the language chosen may directly influence the salary of the developer. If information is processed where your website is housed, as opposed to on the client’s computer, it increases the costs. Some languages also require ongoing website management and maintenance, which is an additional cost to consider.
Scalability: When planning a project where scalability is a factor, consider whether there are developers readily available to develop in this language. Also find out if there are supporting libraries and frameworks available that may suit possible changes to your project.
Some of the most common and popular server-side languages include PHP, Java, Ruby, .NET and Python. Ask your web developer to advise you on the best language for your specific project (Ferguson, 2016).
Some common back-end frameworks are Django, Zend Framework and Ruby on Rails.
Front end/client side development languages and frameworks
Note
There are many free resources online that teach you how to code. One is Codeacademy: www.codeacademy.com
Web users have come to expect rich, interactive experiences online, and interactive website interfaces are a part of that. Front-end languages, or client-side languages, are languages that are interpreted and executed in users’ browser rather than on the web server.
These experiences range from simple animations through to highly responsive interfaces that require input from the user. There are several technologies available to create such experiences, each with its own opportunities and challenges.
As with server-side languages, you need to consider a few properties of the front-end language you want to use. Bear in mind that server-side languages and front-end languages are often used together, as all web projects require front-end languages for development.
Cost: Front-end language development costs are comparatively lower than backend costs; although rich interface developers often demand premium rates.
Features: HTML, CSS and JavaScript open source languages are often used together and are compatible with most hardware and software. Content developed in these is also more search engine friendly. Today, Flash is rarely used despite its interactive multimedia capabilities. In many cases, richer experiences can be achieved with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. What your end users will be able to view should always be the most important consideration.
Scalability: Depending on the capabilities of the device executing the language, certain features may not be available or certain code may run too slowly to create a good user experience. The development of front-end code needs to take all the considered devices into account.
Browser and OS support: With front-end languages, you have to cater for browser and operating system support. A website will look different on each browser and operating system, and this needs to be factored in. If a feature cannot be displayed under certain conditions, workarounds have to be implemented. This is typically the case for older versions of Internet Explorer.
Open source or proprietary software: Any developer can create add-ons for or improve on open source software, while proprietary software is owned and its use is restricted. It can be cheaper to develop in an open source front-end language such as HTML, but as HTML is needed to host all web pages, combinations of open source and proprietary software are sometimes used. However, in most cases and for the languages we cover this is not a major consideration.
There are several front-end language options to choose from although the most popular by far is HTML coupled with CSS and JavaScript.
HTML5
HTML is the language for creating websites, and HTML5 is the fifth iteration of the language. It is also the name for a range of technologies that enable modern web browsing features. It’s a specification published by the web standards body, W3C, describing what features are available and how to use them. HTML5 is different from proprietary web software such as Adobe Flash in that the specification is the result of contributions from many organisations and can be implemented by anyone without having to pay for royalties or licensing fees. You do, however, pay for the development tools provided by the companies.
HTML5 simplifies many common tasks when building a web page, such as including multimedia content, validating forms, caching information and capturing user input data such as date and time.
HTML5 allows browsers to play multimedia content without the use of Flash or a similar plug-in. There is also a technology called Canvas, which allows developers to create rich, interactive experiences without the constraints that came with previous versions of HTML. For example, a 3D animated video can now be played, something that used to require the use of Flash or Silverlight.
The goal is a website that just works, without the need for particular browsers or plug-ins to enable certain functionality. Having a standardised way of implementing common features means that the web is open and accessible to all, regardless of competency.
CSS
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets and is a style sheet language used to instruct the browser how to render the HTML code. For example, the plain text on a web page is included in the HTML code, and CSS defines how it will appear. CSS can set many properties including the size, colour and spacing around the text, as well as the placement of images and other design-related items. CSS pre-processors such as LESS, SASS and Stylus are also available to make CSS more easily maintainable and scalable. They allow for more functional CSS compilation. The latest standard of CSS is CSS3. It is backwards compatible with all versions of CSS and provides many more useful features such as text effects, 2D/3D transformations and animations to name a few (w3schools, n.d).
JavaScript
This is the most common client-side language used to create rich, dynamic web properties. Because it is an open source language, many developers have added functionality that can be more quickly implemented. For example, there are over 1 000 different gallery systems created by JavaScript developers for JavaScript developers.
Flash
Adobe Flash is a language for creating rich, interactive experiences. It supports video and is often used to create game-like web experiences. Although widely supported by desktop browsers, it has limited (and lessening) support on mobile devices and is not usable on Apple devices such as the iPhone and iPad. It has a history of being problematic for SEO, although there are ways to work around much of this.
Flash usage has been on the decline since some security holes were exposed, and many believe that it is on its way out. In February 2016, Google announced that its advertising networks, AdWords and DoubleClick, would no longer be supporting Flash. The ads would have to be updated to HTML5 (Google AdWords, 2016). YouTube announced that it would not be using the Flash player by default anymore. It switched to HTML5 for all the latest browsers. Adobe discontinued Adobe Professional CC and released Adobe Animate CC which is now Adobe’s premier tool to support HTML5 content. There are still a few traces of Flash left as it is still used as a video player and for the creation of online games.
Frameworks
Frameworks are packages that are made up of a structure of files and folders of standardized code (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for example) which can be used as the basis for developing websites. Essentially, frameworks are templates to provide the common structure for websites so that developers don’t need to start from scratch each time. Frameworks save a lot of time and money.
Some examples include Backbone.js, AngularJS, EmberJS, React.js and the very popular jQuery libraries. Bootstrap is also increasing in popularity as a front-end framework.
Development best practice
Meta and title tag customisation
The CMS you have either selected or created should allow you to enter your own meta tags for each page, as well as allow full customisation of title tags for each page. It is important to note that Google does not use keyword meta tags for ranking anymore (Lincoln, 2015).
URLs
Instead of using dynamic parameters, the CMS should allow for clean URLs by using server-side rewriting. Clean URLs consist only of the path to a webpage without extra code. A clean URL could look like this: example.com/cats, while an unclean URL could look like this: example.com/index.php?page=cats. It should allow for the creation of URLs that are:
• static
• rewritable
• keyword rich.
Be careful when building clean, descriptive and dynamic URLs from CMS content. Should you use a news heading, for example, ‘Storm’, as part of your URL (www.site.com/cape/storm) and someone changes the heading to ‘Tornado’ (www.site.com/cape/tornado), this will alter the URL and the search engines will index this as a new page, but with the same content as the URL which had the old heading. Bear this in mind before adding dynamic parameters to your URLs.
Customisable navigation
A good CMS will allow for flexibility when creating the information architecture for a website. For the purposes of adding additional content for search engines, a CMS should not require that all content pages be linked to from the home page navigation. Responsive considerations also need to be in place for mobile devices.
The CMS needs to have good support for managing SEO considerations such as URL rewriting and avoiding duplicate content issues.
Customisable image naming and alt tags for images: A good CMS will allow you to create custom alt tags and title attributes.
robots.txt management: robot.txt files are .txt files that restrict search engines from indexing certain pages of information Ensure that you are able to customise the robots.txt to your needs, or that this can at least be managed using the meta tags.
Finally, using a CMS that supports standards compliant HTML and CSS is very important, as without it, inconsistencies may be rendered across various browsers. It also ensures faster loading time and reduced bandwidth, makes markup easier to maintain, supports SEO efforts and ensures that every visitor to a website, no matter what browser they are using, will be able to see everything on the site.
Developing for multiple screens
Note
Read more about this in the User experience design chapter.
Accessing the Internet has changed drastically over the last few years. Desktop is no longer the only or even primary means of accessing the web. Mobile Internet usage surpassed desktop in 2014 and continues to grow year on year, while desktop usage is declining (Chaffey, 2016).
Because of this, it’s important for all brands to be accessible on mobile devices. As you learnt in the User experience design chapter, mobile devices can fall into a range of categories, and not all mobile devices have the same features and screen size. This means that websites need to be designed to be accessible and are optimised for a variety of screen sizes and devices.
Developing for a variety of screens and mobile requires an understanding of the opportunities and challenges presented by mobile technology. Challenges include the obvious, such as a smaller screen and navigation limitations, different operating systems as well as more complex issues such as file formats and bandwidth restrictions.
Mobile devices
A mobile device is a small device with computer-like functionality. It allows for an Internet connection and various features such as Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi and GPS. These include smartphones and PDAs (MDN, 2016). Remember, mobile goes beyond just the mobile phone, also consider tablets, game consoles, netbooks, wearables and a range of other web-enabled devices.
The constraints with developing for a range of devices [c head]
Due to the size constraints of mobile device screens, various considerations must be taken into account to allow your website to render correctly.
Fluid CSS layouts will allow the site to manipulate its contents based on screen size. Additionally, CSS media queries can use target styles for a specific screen width, height and pixel density.
Working with touchscreen means that no hover effects will work. Adequate space must be allowed around inputs due to the touch-area of some user’s fingers being larger than a mouse cursor.
Images must be optimised for mobile screens and bandwidth restrictions.
Note
A great online JPEG/ PNG compression tool is tinyPNG.org. Simply upload your images and let them compress it for you (MDN, 2016).
Development approaches
Specialised mobile development
Mobile devices allow users to access information about your brand on the move. Because mobile penetration is so heavy and many users worldwide will access the Internet first and primarily through mobile (Chaffey, 2016), every website needs to be designed with the mobile device in mind. Mobile website interfaces demand a simpler approach and a consideration of screen size and input method. A specific design for various mobile screen sizes in the form of an adaptive design may be an option. However, Google prefers responsive to adaptive sites, so creating an adaptive site may not be within the best interest of your business in terms of SEO.
A native mobile app is software designed to help users perform particular tasks. Examples include a tool for checking the weather, a fuel calculator, or an airlines app to check-in or to track flight progress.
Mobile apps can be sold or made available for free. Many developers create apps to derive an income, while free apps that offer users value are often sponsored by brands or advertising. An app can be an excellent tool for connecting with your customer.
The key difference between native applications and mobile-optimised websites is that native applications are designed for particular handsets and operating systems and have to be downloaded to the mobile device. Whereas mobile-optimised websites can be accessed using any Internet-enabled mobile device. That said, mobile apps can allow for more integration with the device and hence a better user experience, depending on the complexity of the functionality.
It is a good idea to focus on mobile-optimised sites when targeting a broader group and building an application when wanting to reach a niche or targeted audience.
Some brands still create a separate mobi site just for their mobile users, but this is falling out of fashion as Internet access via mobile increases. Google recommends responsive sites as best practice.
Note
Read more about mobile-optimisation in the Mobile channels and apps chapter.
A responsive site
A responsive website is a website that changes its layout depending on the device it is displayed on so it looks one way on a desktop computer, but then adapts to the smaller screen size and layout on a tablet or mobile phone. In this way, a single development project can cater for multiple device form factors.
A responsive website is not the same as an adaptive website. A responsive site uses the browser’s screen space to determine how to reflow the original design content that was probably optimised for desktop, while an adaptive site provides a specifically tailored design for the device you are using. Designing an adaptive site requires multiple fixed layout sizes, usually the six most common screen widths, and the relevant one is deployed depending on the screen size of the device.
Many users prefer responsive design as it provides familiarity, uniformity and seamlessness, which are important considerations in user experience (Soegaard, 2016). Responsive design should be mobile friendly. This helps to maintain usability when reflowed for a mobile device’s screen.
Adaptive designs are more labour intensive and more expensive. As an approach it’s being used less and less. Although industry professionals often prefer adaptive sites, industry preference won’t translate into higher listings on SERPs while Google’s ranking methodology favours responsive design.
Note
Try visiting http://roxik.com/cat/ and resize your browser to see the cat change shape based on the screen width. This is a great illustrative example of a fluid responsive layout.
Creating a responsive website means you only need to build one website for the full range of devices, from desktop to mobile. This can be a technically challenging exercise and will require a lot of planning upfront to make sure that the site displays correctly on each device.
Here is a table that compares the relative strengths and weaknesses of each option. There’s no right or wrong answer on which one to pick. Choose the option that best suits your brand, target audience and digital objectives.
Table 6.4.3
Strengths Weaknesses
Mobile-specific adaptive sites
• Design best suited to screen size
• More aesthetically pleasing and provide better UX
• Fully optimised for mobile
• Google prefers responsive sites
• Need at least 6 different specific screen-size designs
• Expensive
• Labour intensive
Native app
• Versatile and creative tools can be created
• Interactive and fun
• Can create real added value through innovative approaches not possible via a web browser
• Ideal for frequently repeated or routine tasks
• Promote brand loyalty
• Enables access to core phone functions such as GPS, camera, etc.
• Could generate income as a ‘paid application’
• Performance benefit in some cases
• Doesn’t work on feature phones
• Different versions needed for different phone makes and models
• Entirely different and complex development process
• User needs to choose to download them
• Users without additional phone storage may not have enough space to install the app
• All apps must go through formal app stores, and need to be approved in some instances
• Changes need to be released through version updates
Responsive site
• Device is an‘agnostic’ solution
• One consistent site accessible across many devices
• One data set to work from
• Future-proof option that will work on most devices
• Preferred by Google and scores highly in algorithms for SEO
• Users prefer the uniformity and consistency from responsive sites used across devices
• Could be complex to develop
• Site needs a lowest common denominator approach to cater for all devices
• May not work correctly on all sizes and shapes of devices
• No agreed standard way yet to develop responsive sites
Designing for multiple screen sizes
Designing a site that will display consistently across multiple devices and screen sizes is difficult, but understanding and sticking to web standards will bring you closer to this goal.
Design your site so that the information your users want is not only on display, but also easy to get to. The limited screen space is valuable, so you can’t necessarily have the full site navigation on every page. Well thought-out information architecture is essential to ensuring you make the most logical use of navigation in line with what your site visitors need.
Standards
There are few standards currently in place to ensure your design will be optimised across multiple screens. Creating content including images, text and beyond that can be correctly formatted on most mobile devices, or at least legible on phones where formatting is flawed, is still not entirely possible. There is therefore a certain amount of trial and error involved in designing a site optimised across a variety of devices. The process is certainly worth it, though, considering that there are 4.7 billion unique mobile subscribers, and the majority of these are accessing the mobile web (GSMA Intelligence, 2016).
Web standards are managed by the W3C. The standards were created to promote consensus, fairness, public accountability and quality. Complying with web standards means the site uses valid code and adheres to stipulations from the W3C. Read more about web standards at https://www.w3.org/standards/ about.html.
Mobile handset emulators allow you to see how your work-in-progress website will be formatted, depending on which device you are emulating. It has been suggested that nothing can replace testing on actual mobile devices, so if you are doing the testing, recruit contacts with different handsets to show you the difference in display. Some emulators:
• BrowserStack – www.browserstack.com
• TestiPhone – www.testiphone.com
• Mobile phone emulator – for Samsung, iPhone, BlackBerry and other - www.mobilephoneemulator.com
Safari on the iPhone can be tested with IOS simulator.
Responsive design
Responsive websites are designed for a range of screen widths. When deciding whether to create a responsive site or adapt desktop sites, consider your customer first:
• How much of your website traffic comes from specific mobile devices? If this is a large percentage, consider building a responsive site designed for optimal viewing on mobile screen sizes.
• Do your desktop users have the same goals as your mobile users? Here you need to keep in mind your CTAs, drop down menus and the like and ensure they can be accessed correctly by the relevant device.
• What is your budget and how quickly do you need your website to be built? Responsive websites take a while to build and can be expensive. You could save money long term by going this route, but there is a sizeable upfront investment.
• Do you have an existing site, and can it be converted into a responsive website, or will it need to be rebuilt (Du Plessis, 2012)?
• Responsive design comes with a fair bit of terminology, but you should be familiar with three key concepts.
Flexible grid
Typical websites are designed as large, centred, fixed-width blocks. With responsive design, the page elements such as the heading, the text or copy, the main image, and other blocks of information are arranged in a grid of columns that have predefined spacing. Each element relates proportionally to the other elements. This allows elements to rearrange or resize in relation to each other whether the screen is tiny or huge and the screen quality is high or low. Although this system allows for flexibility, an extremely narrow screen can cause the design to break down. In this case we can make use of media queries.
Media queries
Media queries are bits of code that allow websites to ask devices for information about themselves. The website style that will suit the device best is then selected from a list of styles defined in a CSS. Media queries ask for information about the device’s browser window size, orientation (landscape or portrait) and screen display quality.
Note
Is responsive design right for your company or client? See how some companies tackled this question here: www.zdnet. com/does-yourcompanys-websiteneed-responsivedesign-7000021417
Flexible images
Images are designed to move and scale with the flexible grid. How fast the website loads is an important consideration, so high-quality images are made available for larger screens and lower-resolution images are made available for smaller screens. Parts of images can also be displayed for smaller screens to maintain image quality. Images can even be hidden completely. Image optimisation is done in CSS, which queries the screen height, width and pixel ratio of the device and then adjusts the images accordingly (MDN, 2016).
For more information about responsive websites watch Methods for mobile (Responsive vs. Adaptive) from Brian Wood Training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgojC1D3QpU [Accessed 30 October 2017] | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/06%3A_Create_-_Web_Development_and_Design/6.04%3A__Web_development.txt |
This section discusses the process of building a website from the client’s perspective.
Step 1: Discovery and planning
Planning a website starts with research of your market, your users, your competitors and your business. If you already have a website, you can use existing web analytics data to understand how well you are meeting your users’ needs. It’s also worth running some user labs to watch how users interact with your existing site. Have a look at the Market research chapter for a detailed discussion of this.
Note
Read more about this in the Market research chapter.
Key questions you need to ask.
Business: What are your business objectives? How should this digital property help you to achieve those objectives? (For example, should it generate leads for you to follow up on? Is it an eCommerce store?)
Users: Who are your users, your potential customers? What problem does your website need to help them solve? For example, to collate travel information in one place, such as with www.tripit.com. [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Note
Read more on users in the User experience design chapter.
This research helps you to plan your website strategically, ensuring that it is aligned with both user needs and business objectives.
In research and planning, you should also reach an understanding of what tasks or actions users need to do on your website. These are usually in line with your business objectives. Some tasks a user may need to do include checking the availability of a hotel, signing up to a newsletter, or printing information.
Before any web design project starts, decide what browsers, operating system and devices you will develop for. Usually for browsers you use the latest, plus one before. For devices, iOS and Android are quite different so if you are optimising for both this can be quite expensive. Technology moves so fast, you cannot keep up with all the latest OS and devices.
Choosing a domain name
Domain names are important. They are part of the URL of a website. A domain name looks something like this: www.mycompany.com
A lot more information can be included in this. Domain names can carry the following information: subdomain.domain.tld/directory
Domain – the registered domain name of the website
Subdomain – a domain that is part of a larger domain
TLD – the top level domain, uppermost in the hierarchy of domain names
directory – a folder to organise content
The TLD can indicate the country in which a domain is registered and can also give information about the nature of the domain.
com – the most common TLD
co.za, .co.uk, .com.au – these TLDs give country information
.org – used by non-profit organisations
.gov – used by governments
.ac – used by academic institutions
Domain names must be registered, and in most cases there is a fee for doing so. Many hosting providers will register domain names on your behalf, but you can also do it yourself.
Domain names should be easy to remember, and if possible, include important search keywords for your business. For example, if you were building a website for your restaurant named Omega, www.omegarestaurant.com could be a better choice than www.omega.com as it contains the important keyword ‘restaurant’.
UX and content strategy
You also need to gather, analyse and map out what content is needed on the website. This content is then structured in a process called information architecture. A sitemap should reflect the hierarchy of content on the website and the navigation (how users make their way through a website).
Note
Read more about this in the User experience design chapter.
Note
See this link (designmodo. com/wireframingprototypingmockuping/) for a good explanation about the differences between wireframing, prototyping and mocking up.
At the same time, consider what content you want to include on your site. Will it be a relatively static site that doesn’t change often, or will you need an editable CMS to regularly add and update content, such as blog posts, images and products?
Note
Have a look at the discussion on choosing a static versus a CMS website earlier in this chapter
Should the website be large enough to require it, a functional specification document should be created, using all the information compiled so far. This document should detail the development requirements for the website and can be used to communicate any specific design constraints.
It’s now time to move on from planning to building.
Search engine visibility
Search engine traffic is vital to a website; without it, the chances are that the site will never fulfil its marketing functions. It is essential that the search engines can see the entire publicly visible website, index it fully, and consider its relevance for its chosen keywords.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) has its own chapter in this textbook, but here are the key considerations for web development and design.
Note
Read more about this in the Digital copywriting and Search engine optimisation chapters.
In web development, the copy that is shown on the web page needs to be kept separate from the code that tells the browser how to display the web page. This means that the search engine spider will be able to discern easily what content is to be read and therefore scanned by the spider and what text is an instruction to the browser. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) can take care of that.
If the search engine cannot see the text on the page, it means that it cannot crawl and index that page.
Step 2: Design
Design usually happens before development. According to the steps explained earlier in this chapter, the designer will transform the wireframes and basic planning materials into beautifully designed layouts. These are static images that show how the website will look once it’s coded.
Step 3: Development
The development phase usually kicks in once the design is finished. Developers will sometimes start their involvement as early as the wireframe stage by creating low-fidelity prototypes to support the user-testing process. Normally, the developer uses the design templates to code the actual website, using the front-end language that you have chosen. Server-side development and CMS considerations may also be part of this phase.
Step 4: Testing and launch
Once you have planned an amazing site, designed it beautifully, built it skilfully and filled it with fantastic copy, it’s time to test it fully and then take it live!
Testing is an important part of website development and design, and it should take place throughout the process of planning, designing and building, leaving just final quality assurance (QA) testing before the site goes live. Test subjects should be real potential users of the website, not just members of the development team. The site needs to be tested in all common browsers and devices to make sure that it looks and works as it should across all of them. All links should be tested to make sure that they work correctly, and it’s always a good idea to get a final check of all of the copy before it goes live.
Tools such as W3C’s HTML validator, validator.w3.org should be used to validate your HTML. See more about testing in Section 6.7 Quality assurance.
Make sure your web analytics tracking tags are in place, after which it will be time to take your site live. Now, you need to move on to driving traffic to your newly launched site, that’s where all the Engage tactics in this textbook come in handy. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/06%3A_Create_-_Web_Development_and_Design/6.05%3A_The_web_development_process.txt |
Note
Read more about this in the Data analytics chapter.
There are different approaches to building a website. The one described above is the waterfall process, where one step follows the other. This is in contrast with other methods such as the agile methodology, which involves faster iteration and greater collaboration, but doesn’t afford clients as much control and upfront clarity on the deliverables and timelines.
The Agile method is a series of sprints, and involves working through iterative, incremental cycles. Agile methodology is more collaborative, less rigid and requires incremental investments. It often results in being able to release the final product to the market faster. The collaborative approach means that instead of handing over the project to the next person in the chain, you work together catching any issues and working on each iteration as you move through each process. The agile method often involves scrum methodology and requires (or at least tries for) each sprint to produce something that has an increment of product functionality (Joel, 2015).
Note
Read more about scrum methodology here: www.scrumalliance.org/whyscrum
Careful consideration of the specific project, the goals and ultimately the client’s needs will inform the decision on which of these method is appropriate for a specific project. The method chosen should be the one that will best fit the required project goals.
6.07: References
AppPerfect, 2016. Web functional Testing. [Online] Available at: http://www.appperfect.com/products/w...l-testing.html [Accessed 31 October 2017]
Chaffey, D. 2016. Mobile Marketing Statistics Compilation. [Online] Available at: www.smartinsights.com/mobile-...ng-statistics/ [Accessed on 10 January 2017] -Link no longer active
Cooper, S. 2015. Bespoke vs Off-the-shelf software, www.hero-solutions.co.uk/arti...fftheshelf.asp [Accessed 31 October 2017]
du Plessis, J., 2012. Responsive versus mobile website design comparison. [Online] Available at: www.gottaquirk.com/2012/09/17...gnacomparison/ [Accessed 8 January 2013] -Link no longer active
Ferguson, N. What’s the difference between frontend and backend? [Online] Available at: blog.careerfoundry.com/web-de...endand-backend [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Google Adwords, 2016. Google display ads go 100% HTML5 [Online] Available at: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+GoogleA...ts/dYSJRrrgNjk [Accessed 30 October 2017]
GSMA Intelligence, 2016. [Online] Available at: https://gsmaintelligence.com [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Guru99, n.d. Complete guide for GUI testing. [Online] Available at: http://www.guru99.com/gui-testing.html? [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Johnston, M. 2015. CMS or WCM – Which is Which? [Online] Available at: https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-or-wcm-which-is-which/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
ImproveIt, 2015. What should a CMS be able to do? [Online] Available at: improveit.org/understandit/m...cms-be-able-do [Accessed 25 October 2016) -Link no longer active
Joel, 2015. A Designer’s Introduction to “Agile” Methodology. [Online] Available at: https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/artic...-methodology-- cms-23349 [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Lincoln, J. 2015. Google Meta tags for SEO, what does Google actually understand? [Online] Available at: https://ignitevisibility.com/google-...ly-understand/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Moz, 2016. Case Study: Here’s how moving to responsive design website helped our brand [Online] Available at: moz.com/ugc/case-study-heres...elpedour-brand [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Mozilla Development Network (MDN), 2016. Mobile Web Development. [Online] Available at: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/...b/Guide/Mobile [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Network Solutions, n.d. What is eCommerce? [Online] Available at: http://www.networksolutions.com/educ...-is-ecommerce/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Robbins, Z. 2015. Proprietary vs. open source content management systems [Online] Available at: www.viget.com/articles/proprietary-vs.-open source-content-management-systems [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Soegaard, M. 2016.Adaptive vs. Responsive Design. [Online] Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/l...ponsive-design [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Sharp, 2014. Why a brochure website doesn’t work anymore. [Online] Available at: http://www.protofuse.com/blog/why-br...-work-anymore/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Thompson, G. 2015. What is Quality Assurance on the Web? [Online] Available at: https://www.unleashed-technologies.c...-assurance-web [Accessed 30 October 2017] | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/06%3A_Create_-_Web_Development_and_Design/6.06%3A_Development_methodologies.txt |
The software development cycle has one final step before the website goes live, quality assurance. This is often referred to as QA. It is a crucial step to ensure that website delivery is of the highest standard and that the client expectation is in line with the agreed Statement of Work. This step is independent of the design and development phases and involves various end-user test cases. Test cases ensure that the graphical user interface (GUI) promotes a great user experience (UX). QA involves two steps: functional and user-interface testing (Thompson, 2015).
Functional testing
This involves testing the features of a website to ensure that they are functioning correctly. Functional testing should be done early in the development cycle as it speeds up development, increases quality and reduces the risk of errors towards the end of the project. Testing can take place either manually by a tester or be completely automated using an application (AppPerfect, 2016).
User interface testing
This is the process of testing whether users can engage with the site as envisioned during development. It also includes testing all features such as screens with controls, like menus, dropdowns, buttons, icons, toolbars, dialogue boxes, forms, and all other user interface features on the site.
User interface testing is crucial as it is the users’ experience of the site that will determine if they will use the site or application in future or not. If an interface is not intuitive and is difficult to understand users are unlikely to use that product again. Testing is essential.
The following should be checked during GUI testing:
• Can users input the necessary information into the user fields?
• Does the feature execute the desired function when activated?
• Are error messages displayed correctly and for the correct function?
• Is the font appropriate?
• Is the text aligned?
• Are the colours and fonts, and even error messages, visually appealing?
• Are the images clear and displaying correctly?
• Are the images correctly aligned, and do they appear where they are supposed to?
Note
You can read more about GUI testing at www.guru99.com/guitesting.html.
• Are the GUI elements positioned correctly for different screen sizes and resolutions?
(Guru99, n.d.)
Cross browser and device testing
With the myriad of browsers and devices available, developers need to ensure that their websites render acceptably across all of them. Perfection is extremely difficult as each browser and device renders a website slightly differently. To ensure compatibility, developers write cross-browser code. If a feature is not supported, a fallback must be in place to ensure that it degrades gracefully.
If you are deploying your site across a range of devices, each version needs to be checked. And if the site is designed to be responsive, check the GUI across a range of devices to test the responsiveness of the design and that all the elements work across the various devices and possible views.
Test websites on different browsers and operating systems, for example Google Chrome on IOS and Google Chrome on Android devices. Various tools are available to assist in this process, one being BrowserStack (/www.browserstack.com). BrowserStack allows you to test various operating systems and devices from within your browser (MDN, 2016). | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/06%3A_Create_-_Web_Development_and_Design/6.08%3A_Quality_assurance.txt |
One-line summary
How moving to a responsive design website helped a UK-based online sneaker store called Offspring to increase mobile conversion rate and mobile revenue.
The problem
Offspring (http://www.offspring.co.uk) had no mobile website, and mobile users were having a poor user experience when accessing the site on their devices. This caused poor conversion rates and low revenue for mobile.
Mobile users are the largest growing online market and Offspring witnessed a consistent increase in mobile traffic to their website. Their current site was not mobile-friendly, and was not providing a good user experience. This was also impacting on their SEO score. Offspring knew they needed to ensure mobile users had a good user experience to improve conversions, revenue and SEO.
The solution
Offspring considered a mobile-friendly site, but decided to opt for a fully responsive site to provide an optimised viewing experience irrespective of the device used to access the site. Offspring wanted to ensure that tablet users were also catered for in the design.
The brand also wanted to ensure that they provided existing customers with a familiar look and feel so that they could still easily access and navigate the site.
Certain key design features were included to improve user experience. A new sticky header was included that followed users down the page as they scrolled, providing easy navigation without having to scroll back to the top each time.
A new search bar was included with predictive search. This allowed users to search for their product more quickly.
Other design features included:
• A new product listing page that was three columns wide on a desktop that could automatically scale down to two or one depending on the size of any different device used.
• New image view and selection process was included on the product detail pages.
• A ’Don’t forget’ section was included on the basket page so that users could automatically add items to their basket.
• An improved checkout process was created with new delivery options.
The intuitive navigation process was crucial to ensuring that users on any device would be able to find the information they needed quickly and easily.
The results
Users spent more time on the site, which lead to an increase in conversions and sales. The SEO visibility of the site showed dramatic improvement after moving over to the responsive site mainly due to the mobile site usability score on Google rocketing from 60/100 to 100/100. This saw organic traffic to the site increasing by over 25%.
Revenue increased as well, with:
• A 15.19% increase in mobile/tablet conversion rate
• A 102.95% uplift in mobile/tablet revenue year on year
• A 20.25% increase in the e-commerce conversion rate from tablet users alone.
6.10: The bigger picture
Web development and design can be seen as the thread that holds digital marketing together. After all, websites are the first thing we think of when talking about the Internet.
With the crucial role that search engines play in the way people explore the Internet, web development and design go hand in hand with SEO. And of course, online advertising campaigns, social media channels, email marketing newsletters and even affiliate programs lead people to click through to your website and sometimes to a customised landing page. That’s web design jumping into the mix again.
Setting up analytics correctly on your website is also essential to managing and monitoring your marketing success.
Successful website development and design is all about the right preparation, and the resulting website usually forms the foundation of any digital marketing to follow. Make sure you understand your users’ needs, and that you’re building on a strong base.
6.E: Web Development and Design(Exercises)
Case study questions
1. When deciding on which type of site to choose, why did Offspring opt for a responsive site?
2. Which two elements of the responsive design were most important in optimising the user experience across a variety of devices?
3. Would you have made the same design decisions? Are there any further considerations you would have designed for?
Chapter questions
1. What are some key design elements you would ensure were included when designing a website?
2. Why is it so important to realistically assess the needs of your site before development?
3. What do you think are the biggest challenges for optimising your design across multiple devices?
4. What, to you, is the most important step in web development?
5. What role does a website play in an overall digital marketing strategy?
Further reading
www.alistapart.com – a website for people who make websites, A List Apart has regular articles from web designers and developers on building user-friendly, standards-compliant websites.
www.html5weekly.com – a weekly newsletter filled with the latest must-know HTML5 tips and trends.
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/ - a website for web designers and developers
6.S: Web Development and Design(Summary)
Successful websites come from strong planning with a focus on user needs. Websites should be built to be accessible and usable, search engine optimised, and shareable.
Key considerations include:
• Designing your website according to best practices, following the process of developing a website from start to finish.
• Developing a strong, stable and usable website.
• Creating a suitable mobile web experience for your users.
• Enhancing user experience through design and guiding a visitor seamlessly through a website, as opposed to distracting visitors from their goals.
• Ensuring consistency in visual messaging across all properties.
• Supporting a wide range of web browsers and mobile devices. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/06%3A_Create_-_Web_Development_and_Design/6.09%3A_Case_study_-_Offspring.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• The important principles that govern mobile-specific channels.
• To recognise the importance of location in marketing via mobile.
• To identify the mobile channels available to marketers.
• What to consider when creating an app.
• To describe first steps for implementing marketing via certain mobile channels.
07: Create - Mobile channels and apps
A few years ago, considering mobile as part of your digital marketing strategy was optional, this is no longer the case. In 2015 the number of mobile-only internet users in the US exceeded the number of desktop-only users for the first time (ComScore, 2015). The idea of a mobile device being someone’s first, and often only, access point to the Internet is nothing new in developing nations where desktop devices and fixed internet connections are too expensive for much of the population.
This means that mobile is not a marketing strategy that can be considered separately. It’s a necessary part of every digital marketing endeavour because chances are good that at least some of your audience will see that marketing on a mobile device.
In this chapter we will discuss some mobile-specific channels and apps. Remember, digital marketing is about looking at where your audience is and working to reach them, and your audience is almost certainly on mobile.
7.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 7.2.1
Term Definition
App Short for ‘application’, which in a mobile context, means software developed specifically for smartphones and other mobile devices. These come in two types, web apps and native apps.
Augmented reality (AR) A form of virtual reality in which computer graphics are superimposed onto the physical space around the user by way of a mobile device. These graphics can be 3D images or information tags.
Bluetooth A short-distance wireless transfer protocol for connecting devices.
LTE ‘Long term evolution’. A fourth-generation mobile communications standard and a name given to technology used in pursuit of faster data communication.
NFC ‘Near-field communication’. A set of communication protocols that enable two devices, one of which is usually a mobile device, to communicate when they are within 4 cm of each other.
Push messaging A notification from an app that displays on a smartphone while the app is not actively in use. This is triggered by an external event within the context of a connected device.
QR code Quick response code. A machine-readable code, like a barcode, that can be used to store information like URLs and can be read by an app through the camera of a smartphone.
SMS Short message service, a text message of up to 160 characters that can be sent from one mobile phone to another. MMS, Multimedia Messaging Service, is similar, but can include multimedia content and longer messages. This works on a regular cell phone connection, so it does not require a data connection or smartphone.
Virtual reality (VR) Computer-generated simulations of a 3D image or environment. Using the right equipment, a person can interact with that environment in a seemingly real way
Wi-Fi The transfer of information from one device to another over a distance without using wires. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/07%3A_Create_-_Mobile_channels_and_apps/7.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Nine principles
Certain features are specific to certain mobile phones, and don’t apply to desktop or notebook computers or any other mobile devices. These features highlight the importance of mobile to marketers as a whole and affect the way both consumers and marketers create and share content.
Personal
Mobile phones are very personal devices. People don’t usually share their phones, so data attributed to a specific device can be attributed to a specific user. People also tend to keep their devices nearby, so they can offer valuable information about their location and great opportunities for location-based target marketing.
The implication for marketers: Since mobile phones are so personal, respect for privacy and permission is extremely important. Attributing data to a single user allows marketers to offer personalised interactions, communications, and experiences.
Always carried
Everyone is reluctant to leave their phone behind. Consider your own behaviour, what do you take with you when you leave your house? Your wallet, keys, and mobile phone? Various research has shown that smartphone owners in particular check their phone anywhere from every few minutes to at least once an hour and that people can spend up to 2.5 hours typing texts, swiping through apps or scrolling through Facebook (Gallup, 2015; Dscout, 2016).
The implication for marketers: The mobile device is present at every single step of the consumer journey, arguably the only channel that is. Messages sent to mobile phones are usually accessed within minutes of being received. Location services can also allow you to send contextual messages depending on the user’s real-time location.
Always on
The mobile phone is used to send and receive messages and phone calls. Messages and services can be sent and responded to at all times of the day.
The implication for marketers: This feature changes the services and messages that you can develop. Marketers need to be sensitive with their marketing communications; few people would enjoy a 4 a.m. SMS with a promotional offer. The flip side of this is that you can send time-sensitive offers, such as dinner messages just before work ends or a weekend coupon on a Friday afternoon.
Built-in payment system
This is one of the key features of the mobile phone, and a major source of mobile revenue. Every mobile phone has a built-in payment mechanism, the SIM card. Billing is easily handled through the user’s mobile network. NFC and QR codes allow other payment options.
A number of services, like Android Pay, Google Wallet, Snapscan or Zapper can turn the mobile into a virtual wallet or bank card, bringing banking and payment services to people globally. Apps like Uber have their own built-in payment services to make payment for users as easy as possible.
The implication for marketers: Consumers will pay for services and content on their mobile, which is enabled to make payments. This means that advertising is not the only way to generate revenue on mobile.
Available at the point of creative inspiration
Because the mobile phone is always close at hand, and many phones today offer tools such as cameras, videos, or note pads for jotting down ideas, it has become a permanent creative tool. It also makes access to social media very easy.
The implication for marketers: Users can be encouraged to interact with brands through campaigns created for mobile devices. Mobile is a useful tool in viral campaigns based on consumer-generated content. Because the amount of effort required to criticise or praise a brand on social is minimal, the social aspect of a mobile can be helpful or harmful or can be used to encourage social engagement or consumer feedback.
Accurate audience measurement
Every transaction made on a mobile phone can be uniquely tracked to that mobile phone number including voice calls, SMS, or Internet access. Mobile phones also allow for real-time tracking allowing you to edit campaigns as they are run. Google’s Universal Analytics also allows you to track user experience across devices.
The implication for marketers: The extra data gathered by mobile phones offers marketers profiling and segmenting opportunities for targeting the right audience. Because mobile phones are personal, measurement is improved overall. Campaigns can also be accurately measured and tracked for their return on investment (ROI) and the mobile phone offers many more ways to collect data, including location, web analytics, SMS response rates and Bluetooth.
Even with mobiles that are on a prepaid or pay-as-you-go contract, meaning that network operators do not have a name or demographic details to accompany the mobile number, you can still track and measure every transaction made by the user of a particular phone. This information is limited by networks, which determine the data they are willing to share with marketing companies.
Social context
Mobile can capture ‘the social context of our consumption’, which means capturing who we are sharing with. If you are using a product like an eBook, for instance, your mobile phone holds information on who you talked to while reading it, whom you shared it with, and whether you recommended it to a connection who then purchased the item (Ahonen, 2008).
The implication for marketers: Marketers can get insight from the way that mobile users share their products and socialise while using them and use this information to increase sales.
Augmented reality
The mobile phone makes it possible to add a layer of information to the real world through augmented reality (AR). For example, Layar, an augmented reality mobile browser, allows users to see embedded digital content in a number of sources such as posters, magazines, advertisements, or QR codes. This can lead to extra content such as movie trailers, discount codes and videos (Layar, 2016).
The implication for marketers: Cost and accessibility for this technology can sometimes be a concern, but adding a layer of interaction to the real world can be a powerful tool in a marketing campaign.
Digital interface
Various mobile technologies can enrich a user’s life by adding a digital layer to a real-world experience as with augmented reality. A mobile phone can also be used to control things in the real world, like switching on a light or opening a door.
The implication for marketers: Marketers can create memorable and emotive experiences that users will want to share and therefore broaden marketers’ reach. It also broadens the potential user interface options for a brand or product.
Location and mobile
Two of the most important contributions of mobile to the marketing world are location and convenience. If services and useful information can be shared based on a user’s location, the possibility for conversions naturally increase. The more contextually relevant your marketing message is to the user, the more likely they are to engage.
Research by Social Media Today showed that 88% of consumers who search for a local business on a mobile device call or visit that business within 24 hours, and seven out of 10 interact with their device while shopping in-store (Impact, 2016). Businesses should absolutely take advantage of the location-specific possibilities of mobile, making themselves easily findable online and ensuring a good mobile experience on their site.
Geolocation
Providing customers with what they really need becomes easier when combining marketing techniques with geolocation. For example, someone searching for a local business would find it very useful to see the closest one along with a map to its location. Google is well aware of this and will give users location-specific results, so it’s essential for a local business to list itself on Google Business.
Local news results can also offer a better user experience for people conducting news searches, and combining QR codes or short codes with print advertising is one way to provide consumers with geo-relevant information. A QR code on a poster could offer a discount voucher to someone coming to the local retail outlet, for example.
A business can also find new options to reach users by providing free wireless to users visiting its location, as Starbucks does.
To reach customers in areas of the world where data is scarce and more expensive, some online services turn to a ’zero rating’ system, which means that users don’t pay for data when accessing that particular service. While this is somewhat controversial, examples include Facebook Zero, and a carrier in the United States announced in 2016 that YouTube would be zero rated for its users, so video content for YouTube would not be counted against data caps (Brookings, 2016).
Some apps have stripped down user interfaces to use less data and work better with poor data connections and low-end phones. Examples here are Facebook Lite and YouTube Lite. These apps demonstrate an important lesson, that marketers need to tailor the mobile experience to their audience.
Mobile search combined with location awareness offers a targeted user experience. If a website can detect what device someone is using and where they are (which they can), they can deliver content customised to user location, either automatically or after user input.
Mobile social networks
Several social networks, like Instagram and Snapchat, have been created specifically for mobile phones, and the others focus heavily on a mobile-friendly user experience, since most people access social networks via mobile. For example, more than half of Facebook’s monthly active users access it only on mobile (VentureBeat, 2016).
Many social networks also encourage geotagging when users make or comment on posts so if you upload a photo to Facebook it will ask if you want to add a location. Networks like Foursquare encourage check ins at various locations by offering incentives like discounts or vouchers.
Consider the potential of social search as well. Product or brand searches based on social networks and location can be a powerful tool. Personal referrals are now combined with location-specific information.
Note
Learn more about this in the Search engine optimisation chapter.
There is a strong strategic incentive to provide free Wi-Fi to customers at physical outlets like Starbucks mentioned above, as this not only provides a great selling point but also gives the marketer a channel to communicate with and gain information from customers. It lets you track their mobile behaviour and location (with permission, of course), send coupons and offers, engage in CRM-related questionnaires and provide helpful information and support. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/07%3A_Create_-_Mobile_channels_and_apps/7.03%3A_Core_principles.txt |
While mobile is increasingly and inextricably interwoven with all aspects of marketing and as such shouldn’t be considered in isolation, there are some methods of communication that are only accessible via a mobile device.
Note
Read more about these in the Direct marketing - email and mobile chapter.
SMS/MMS
SMS (short message service) and MMS (multimedia messaging service) are standard text messages sent via mobile phone over a cellular network. An MMS can also include various types of media such as images, audio, or a short video.
These are push methods for messaging, where the brand sends out the message to the customer. They also offer the opportunity to receive messages from consumers, for example, as feedback or in a competition. Google has released a click-tomessage ad extension that allows users to directly SMS a company from the search engine results pages, without having to look for a number on a web page.
Note
Read more about ad extensions in the Search advertising chapter
Despite the ever-increasing popularity of smartphones and the associated instant messaging programs, SMS and MMS can still have their place in a good marketing strategy, particularly for relaying information, reminders, and automated confirmation.
USSD
USSD is a pull method of reaching your customer in that they need to come to you. The caller dials a number, usually starting with a * and ending with a #, and is sent a menu with various options. They can then enter the number that corresponds to their request.
USSD is a good way of collecting data from your user. Some brands use it to capture competition entries and survey answers. It can also be used for mobile commerce like when you buy more data for your phone by using airtime and can be used with location-based technology.
Bluetooth beacons
A beacon is a small low-energy Bluetooth device. It can transmit small packets of information across short distances. If a smartphone with the brand’s app installed comes into range, it can receive a notification of a discount, reward, suggestion, or anything else you want to send. This is still permission marketing, as the app has to be installed for it to work.
Also known as proximity marketing, this takes location-specific marketing from a general area to an exact location inside a store. It can be used to send targeted discount coupons, demonstration videos for products or directions to a nearby product.
AR/VR
Augmented reality superimposes computer graphics into the physical space around the person using an AR device (usually a smartphone or tablet). Virtual reality takes this a step further using products like Google Cardboard and 360-degree videos in an attempt to create an even more immersive interaction.
AR can use image recognition to turn images without markers, without a barcode, QR code, or other visible stamp, into triggers that launch an AR or VR experience. It can launch a link, open an app, dial a number and give directions. This can also be location-based, so a user in a store could start an app and see more information about the products in front of them.
AR and VR are not about direct marketing, but engagement, creating an exciting experience for their consumers that makes them want to engage with the brand.
Note
Check out some good uses of augmented reality here: https:// www.lifewire. com/applicationsof-augmentedreality-2495561
Apps
An app is a software program designed to run on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet. ’App’ can also refer to a web app or online app, which is software that you use while online via a browser. Most apps perform a very specific, narrow purpose, though some do not. The best apps take user needs into account, become a strong touchpoint for the brand, enable the sales of products, and importantly solve user problems. They can extend the reach of your business and, assuming you understand the needs of your audience and create an app that meets those needs, can also help build a relationship with your customers.
Apps vs. websites
Should your brand even have an app or can it afford to live without one? Every company seems to be releasing its own app these days, which is understandable, given that consumers spend 90% of their time on mobile in apps rather than a browser. These include social media apps, entertainment apps, games and news (Smart Insights, 2016).
Until about 2015, mobile browsers weren’t very good and even as they improved, websites became more bloated, hindering performance. Apps enable people to do something or access something quickly and easily on mobile. This means that many apps are essentially browsers designed for a specific purpose. SurveyMonkey lists the top five most popular apps in the USA for January to June of 2016 as:
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Messenger
• Google Maps
• Play Store.
The popularity of these apps demonstrates user interest in social networks, entertaining content and practical utility.
Despite arguably being glorified browsers, the advantages of apps are numerous.
• The easy access button on a home screen.
• Integration with the device’s operating system and the speed that comes with that and being locally installed.
• Access to native functions.
However, if your website isn’t already getting traffic, an app will not solve that problem.
In the USA, the number of app downloads is decreasing. Globally, because the mobile phone market is still increasing, app downloads are increasing too but, with a few exceptions, not by very much. Of course, once the apps are downloaded, they are of no use unless the smartphone user actually uses them. A survey from the Pew Research Center found that 46% of respondents use six to ten apps per week, and 35% use six to 10; AppsFlyer found that most apps aren’t even kept for a full day, with only 3.3% of Android apps and 3.2% of iOS apps still boasting active users after 30 days (eMarketer, 2015).
With more than 2.5 million available apps and users averaging 17−20 apps per device, the app market is saturated, which means that to stand out, you need to offer users something they really want.
Does this mean that you shouldn’t bother with an app, should you just stick to a website and make sure that it offers the user an excellent browsing experience? Not necessarily. If you do decide to make an app, make sure there is a need for it, for instance:
• If the user needs to do something location-specific.
• If you need to do push messaging (see below).
• If you need to do something graphics-heavy that can’t be done with videos on YouTube or Facebook.
• If your service requires the storing of sensitive user information like credit card information on the users’ phone.
Look at your connected consumer and ask how an app will make a large, continuous improvement to the service you offer. Creating an app simply for its own sake will lose you time and money.
One example of a brand having great success with its app is Starbucks. The app does very well because:
• It is location-specific: The app makes finding the nearest Starbucks very easy. It also uses GPS to determine which store a user is at and then shares music information for that location. Users can then save songs they hear in the store to a playlist within the app and access and keep listening to the music after they leave.
• It uses gamification: The loyalty programme is tiered, with extra freebies and benefits for people higher up.
• It uses functions that are specific to the mobile phone, like GPS.
• It allows people to order and pay in advance by mobile before picking up the drink.
• It engages customers using special incentives and bonuses to encourage continued app use.
• It encourages a social aspect, the rewards offered by the loyalty programme make customers feel exclusive, and they are then more likely to share updates on social media.
• It makes access to user data very easy. It also uses in-app messages to encourage users to fill out surveys in exchange for more stars for the loyalty programme.
• It offers a lot of opportunity for branding.
• It plans to expand the app to make personalised recommendations, which will increase in-app purchases.
(Digital Turbine, 2016).
Starbucks has used its app to expand on its existing offering and to differentiate its loyalty programme from those of similar brands by catering to the needs of its mobile audience.
Push notifications
Push notifications let your app send messages to the user even when your app is not active. The app’s icon and a message appear in the status bar, for example when you receive a message on Facebook or WhatsApp or when Memrise sends you a daily reminder to study.
Push notifications, like anything else on mobile, rely on permission marketing; people have to opt in to receive these notifications. The notifications do need to be optimised to ensure that the user pays attention (the majority of users are annoyed by them).
People want personalised push messages that are relevant to their needs, arrive at the right time, and don’t come too often.
Other
Other mobile-specific channels exist, such as QR codes and near-field communications (NFC). For the most part, these will fall into other areas of digital marketing. NFC can be used for payment or ticketing, QR codes for launching AR experiences or for payment, so we will not go into detail on those here.
Wearables such as smartwatches and fitness monitors are a rapidly expanding market, though apart from gathering data, marketers are still struggling to determine their impact on our behaviour, expectations, and marketing strategies.
Their biggest strength is their ability to reduce the time between a user developing intent and taking action. On the other hand, people don’t check their phones as often if they have a wearable to alert them when something happens, which will reduce the number of impressions your marketing messages receive.
For now, the best advice we can give for approaching wearables is to consider what kind of information people want and need to see and how you can use that to encourage engagement. Wearables are something that marketers need to experiment with.
Take a look at Emirates NBD bank’s use of wearables synched to mobile devices to promote its savings accounts by giving better interest rates to customers who kept fit: www.digitaltrainingacademy.co...udies/2016/10/ gamification_case_study_emirates_bank_rewards_exercise_with_better_ savings_via_fitness_app.php
It’s important to remember that mobile is a layer on top of all of your other marketing activities. As a marketer, you should never start by deciding what mobile channel you’re going to use and then plan a campaign. Instead, find out where your audience is and what kind of devices they use to access the Internet, and use that to inform what kind of channels and campaign you will plan. For example, if they are more likely to access your campaign at work, desktop channels might be the best way to go. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/07%3A_Create_-_Mobile_channels_and_apps/7.04%3A_Defining_mobile_channels.txt |
Do you REALLY need one?
We’ve already looked at why you might not want to use an app and what kind of value you need to be able to offer your consumer. Before you decide to make one, ignore all the people telling you that an app is a basic necessity. Think about the following:
• Can you define in one sentence what you want your app to accomplish?
• What problem does your app solve? How can your app make things better for your user?
• What can you give your consumer that they can’t get from another app?
• Does your target market download and use apps? Will they use your app?
• Do you have enough engaging content to keep them coming back?
Note
Read more about responsive websites in the Web development and design chapter.
• Will it help you sell a lot more products/services?
• How much are you willing to invest? Remember, apps are expensive. Could you get by with just a responsive website?
Planning
Once you’ve decided that you really do need an app, it’s time to get into the process of planning it.
Choosing a platform
Before you even choose an app developer, you need to know what operating system you’ll be developing for. Developing for multiple operating systems (OS) at a time can get expensive; so many companies start with one and then expand if the app is a success. Generally, this involves doing market research to find out what kind of OS your users are most likely to use. The most common, of course, are Android and iOS.
This research is important, if you build your app for the wrong OS, you’re failing before you even start. For example, the iPhone is very common in developed markets like the USA, but Android is far more popular in developing markets and is in fact gaining market share from Apple.
These days, Android has the largest market share, but there is an argument to be made for developing for iOS first. Take a look at these pros and cons (Savvy Apps Blog, 2016).
Table 7.5.1
Android iOS
Audience demographics Large platform share, common in developing nations and areas with lower income Tend to have a higher income and spend more per app. Can show more engagement
Revenue More ad-supported apps More paid-for apps
OS version U Users don’t adopt new OS releases quickly Users adopt new versions quickly
Features Similar to iOS, but can involve more features Similar, but fewer features
Start by finding out which platform your target users are most likely to be on. After that, consider the other elements.
User stories
Before you hire an app developer, you should have a one-sentence description of what you want your app to accomplish. From that, you will consider what kind of features your app will include. However, that alone is not enough to let your developers know what you want the end product to look like. The solution: User stories. A user story is a brief, simple description of one of the features of your app. This should be told by the point of view of your user, the person who wants to use that feature. They look like this:
As a [user type/customer persona], I want to [goal/objective – what they want to do] so that [reason/benefit/value].
This will cover who you are building the feature for, what the feature is, and why you’re building it. For example:
As a food lover, I want to pull up restaurant reviews so that I can choose the best place to eat.
As a hungry person, I want to find directions to the nearest restaurant so that I can eat right now.
Note
For mobile, you may also want to consider where and when your users are using the app. Your user story would then include a where/ when element.
As someone who loves cooking, I want to find recipes for my favourite restaurant food so I can make it myself at home.
Write as many user stories for your app as you can and give them to your app developer. This will help them create exactly the app you want.
Timing
Developing an app can take at least three tosix months, depending on the complexities involved. The back end tends to take longer than the front end to develop (see below). Timing can be impacted by, among other things:
• budget
• intention (is this a long-term or a small campaign-specific app?)
• number of features
• size of the team.
Android apps can take longer to develop than iOS apps. Make sure you keep this in mind when you decide on a desired completion date for your app.
Front-and back-end
Think about the UX process and what the app (front-end) will look like before development starts. After you have working prototypes, you can think about what kind of information you need from your users (back-end).
Front-end development involves:
• Mock ups and wireframing
• Prototyping
• Designing and developing the user interface
• Remote data access
• Data caching (storing data locally)
• App data synchronisation so that the app can be accessed offline
• Testing
• Deployment.
Back-end development involves:
• Secure data access over network.
• Database management (including user data and other types of data), user accounts and authentication.
• Scaling your database to handle increasing numbers of users and avoid crashing from overload.
• Customising the user experience and how the user goes through the application (relevant to UX design).
• Data integration, how users share information to third-party websites.
• Sending data to front-end devices (push notifications).
Front- and back-end developers need to collaborate because they need to interface with the servers to send and receive data to and from the servers, which happens when they begin implementing the app’s functionality.
Testing
App creation should be an iterative process. As the app is being developed, each element should be evaluated and improved as far as possible meaning you prototype something, test it, get feedback, and send it back to the developers to implement improvements. Even after the app is released, the process continues as feedback from users comes in. Remember, your app is a product or at the very least a consumer touchpoint that needs to be managed.
Before launch, you will need to run usability tests, quality assurance testing, and beta testing when a sample of your intended audience tries out the app. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/07%3A_Create_-_Mobile_channels_and_apps/7.05%3A_Creating_an_app.txt |
Before implementing any kind of marketing via mobile, you need the permission of your customers via an opt-in mechanism. This means that they either need to sign up or grant an app permission to show them marketing materials. Always be honest about what kind of messages users can expect, and don’t try to hide an opt-in acknowledgement, for example deep in the terms and conditions of a competition.
For something like SMS/MMS, you will need to build up a database of phone numbers from willing customers. For push messaging, your app will need to ask permission to send push notifications to users’ home screens. For AR and VR, the users need to download an app and deliberately scan an image, code, or other trigger to launch the experience, so you don’t need to actively ask permission for this.
SMS/MMS
For an SMS marketing campaign, you need to use shortcodes and keywords. A shortcode is a simple, short number to which a customer can send an SMS and opt in to the campaign. The keyword is the word they place in the SMS itself.
They can also opt in online or by checking a box on an order form, among other methods. Once the customer has opted in, you can send them an automated response or add them to your database to receive more texts over time. These can include, among others:
• Coupons
• Very short surveys/votes
• Contests/competitions
• Photos/videos via MMS (such as a flyer or menu).
You don’t need special permission to contact a customer about a transaction you have already agreed on, for example, as a notification that a product is on its way.
Push messaging
Push notifications need to involve a lot of security so that no one else can send these notifications to your users. You will need to register your app for push notifications and obtain the user’s permission before you can start. If you are interested in the more technical side of this, beyond just asking your app developer to do it, you can read about it in this Push Notifications Tutorial: www.raywenderlich. com/123862/push-notifications-tutorial.
AR/VR
For AR, the user needs to download an app, and then scan an image, code, or other trigger to view the experience you have created. These extra steps can make people reluctant to engage with your campaign, so you need to make sure that the instructions are clear and the procedure is both easy and worthwhile. Make sure there’s something in it for the user, whether that’s real entertainment or something more tangible.
Apps
A branded app is not complete once all the programming is done and you can view the final product on your phone. There are still a few steps to be followed before people will start downloading the app.
The App/Play Store
First, you need to optimise your app’s page on the App Store or the Google Play store. Search is responsible for most organic downloads, so you want to make sure people can find your app. This involves some SEO tactics. For Google Play:
• Put your main keyword in the app title.
• Use the keyword repeatedly in the app description.
• Make sure your design and screenshots are eye-catching and engaging.
• Include a demo video.
• Do what you can to ensure good reviews.
• Try to make sure your app will be used often.
For the App Store:
• Again, use your main keyword in the title, the keyword that is searched most often.
• Track your keywords and update them.
Note
Read more about keywords in the SEO chapter.
• Good ratings and reviews are important.
• A high number of downloads will move you up the rankings in the App Store
Discoverability
Next, you want to make people aware that your app exists otherwise they won’t know what to search for. You can do this using:
• Your other digital marketing channels
• Email
• Your website
• our social media pages
• Online advertising
• Print ads
• In-store signs
• Your existing customers (they can share the app)
• Event-based promotions
• Search optimisation (discussed above).
Once they’re aware of your app, you still need to convince them to download it.
Acquisition
How can you convince people to download your app once they realise it exists? You have a few options.
• One of Facebook’s ad options is specifically aimed at convincing people to download your app. You’ll want to make sure that you understand your audience well so that you can customise campaigns to different segments of your target audience. Remember to follow social media advertising best practice.
• Referral rewards work well for certain apps. For example, Uber offers discounts to both the referrer and the referee if the app is downloaded. Word of mouth is always a powerful tool.
• Find influencers in your industry, or popular bloggers, and ask them to preview your app. You can also submit the app to app review sites.
• If your app is location-specific, make sure you advertise in the relevant locations.
Of course, there are other ways to market your app; these are just a few to get you started. Now that your users have downloaded it, the onus is on your app to prove that it’s actually worth using. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/07%3A_Create_-_Mobile_channels_and_apps/7.06%3A_Implementation.txt |
The Internet of Things (IoT) stems from the idea that any device can be connected to the Internet or to another device. The IoT itself is a massive network of connected ‘things’, people, coffee makers, cars, front doors, and almost anything else that can be given a connection to the Internet. Think about the concept of a ‘smart house’ that can read your calendar, see your meetings for the day, set an appropriate time for your alarm to go off, have coffee ready and waiting and send the fastest route to work straight to your car. According to some estimates, there were 10 billion connected devices in 2015, expected to increase to 75 billion by 2020. (The Marketing Journal, 2016)
For some interesting takes on the security problems surrounding the Internet of Things, check out Bruce Schneier’s blog: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/02/security_and_pr.html.
The quantified self is related to this, it’s all about using technology to measure every aspect of our lives. Fitness wearables like Fitbits are worn every day and can track elements such as your steps, sleeping patterns and eating habits.
The biggest impact on marketing for the quantified self is data, the sheer amount of it being created every day gives marketers incredible opportunities to mine that data for insights to help target their marketing opportunities.
Increased data access is also inevitable with the IoT online devices can be connected to social data. The marketer will have to be something of a data scientist, using this new data to gain insight into the customer journey, but it goes a little further, the IoT means that brands can connect to customers and encourage interactivity much more easily by sending the right message to the right device and at the right time.
The amount of data available because of IoT allows real-time interaction and targeted, contextual ads.
7.08: Advantages and challenges
The benefits of mobile are numerous.
• Most mobile marketing mediums don’t require you to educate the audience.
• Mobile is location-specific, offering opportunities to localise marketing and sharpen targeting efforts.
• Mobiles are very immediate devices, with messages delivered instantly and very often acted on quickly.
• Campaigns delivered via mobile can be very cost-effective.
• Mobiles give you the opportunity to reach a target audience that may not have access to desktop computers.
• Mobiles are ideal devices for well-optimised content delivery.
Of course, it also comes with its own unique challenges.
• Privacy is paramount because the mobile phone is personal, so campaigns need to ask users’ permission and assure them of privacy.
• Mobiles vary widely in screen size, operating systems and browsers, so standardising websites and campaigns can be a challenge.
• The small screen size associated with mobile limits options for browsing and inputting information.
• Ensuring that brands provide value to users over mobile can take some careful thought.
• Smartphone penetration is far from 100% in developing areas, and data costs can impact user access as well.
7.09: Measuring success
Mobile analytics are important for improving cross-channel marketing campaigns as well as optimising your mobile channels. Analytics for how your website and ads perform on mobile devices can be found in Google Analytics. SMS reporting can show you open rates, which messages were successful, and who received your message, among other things. Your mobile metrics should be measured across websites, apps, and any other aspect of mobile campaigns to help you measure ROI. Important metrics to measure include:
• Mobile device type
• Operating system
• Screen size
• How mobile visitors came to your site/app
• On-site engagement metrics like number of page views, time on site, and bounce rates.
With apps in particular, it’s easy to focus on the wrong metrics as important. Most people’s instinct is to look at number of downloads and installations, but that’s not enough to show success. Many users download an app, open it once, and never look at it again.
Important app metrics, then, can include:
• Number of active users
• Lifetime value/revenue per user
• Retention rate
• Session length
• Exit screen (to see if one screen is causing people to leave your app in frustration)
• Number of user sessions per day (users who engage more with an app are more likely to become loyal users)
• Crash analytics (tracking your app’s crashes per user to identify technical barriers).
Always remember that you need to focus on metrics that show whether the user is using and enjoying your mobile properties.
7.10: Tools of the trade
POP app is an app prototyping application that helps you create a working prototype quickly and easily: https://marvelapp.com/pop
Flurry (recently acquired by Yahoo) is an app analytics platform that can also give you metrics on ad performance and detailed user acquisition reports: developer. yahoo.com/analytics/
Vuforia is an augmented reality app creation tool: www.vuforia.com/
TestFairy is an app testing tool for android and iOS: http://testfairy.com/ | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/07%3A_Create_-_Mobile_channels_and_apps/7.07%3A_The_Internet_of_Things_The_Quantified_Self.txt |
One-line summary
ASB, a leading Australian bank, developed a digital piggybank to help children save and learn about money in a world where money is increasingly digital rather than tangible.
The challenge
ASB wanted to build a base of future customers and simultaneously help children save money. They found that because money is increasingly abstract in a cashless society, it can be difficult to teach children the value of money, which can make it harder to encourage them to save.
The solution
ASB, with Saatchi and Saatchi, created Clever Kash, a toy elephant with a digital screen that connects to an app via a secure, encrypted Bluetooth connection. It can be recharged every two weeks or so using a micro USB.
The device connects to an app and allows parents to swipe virtual money from the app into the Clever Kash elephant, which is actually the child’s savings account at ASB. It makes use of gamification with sounds being triggered and badges awarded when a child sends money to the piggybank, reaches a milestone, or completes a savings goal.
The invention also keeps privacy and security in mind as the connection between app and elephant is encrypted, communication is one-way from the app to the piggybank, and data sent from the app is controlled by the parent. The child has no transactional ability, and the piggybank stores no account information.
The results
The campaign won a Cannes Lion Gold award in 2016, and by this time 38 000 people had signed up for the app. More than this, the brand gave customers something they valued and helped build strong relationships starting with the children who were using the piggybanks. It was also the beginning of the bank moving into an innovative tech space, thus expanding its options for the future.
7.12: The bigger picture
Mobile communications should always be considered in context with your other marketing communications. Rather than being a separate channel, mobile is a way to access and integrate with many other forms of communication. It is inextricably intertwined with every aspect of digital and must be considered in that way.
One of mobile’s powerful characteristics is its ability to stitch media together, especially as a way to bridge online and offline marketing activities, because it is located in the real-world space and can simultaneously access the digital world. Apps such as those that scan triggers to access media can play a major role in this stitching, as can other mobile-focused channels such as Bluetooth.
7.13: References
Ahonen, T. (2008) Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media: Cellphone, cameraphone, iPhone, smartphone. London: Futuretext.
Brookings. (2016) Zero rating: a boon to consumers, or a net neutrality nightmare? [Online] Available at: www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/03/23/zero-rating-a-boon-to-consumers-or-a-netneutrality-nightmare [Accessed 21 October 2016] - Link no longer active
ComScore. (2015) Number of Mobile-Only Internet Users Now Exceeds Desktop-Only in the U.S. [Online] Available at: www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/Number-of-Mobile-Only-Internet-Users-Now-ExceedsDesktop-Only-in-the-U.S [Accessed 31 October 2017]
Convince & Convert. (n.d.) Why Apps May Become More Important Than Your Website. [Online] Available at: www.convinceandconvert.com/mobile/why-apps-may-become-more-important-than-yourwebsite [Accessed 31 October 2017]
Dscout. (2016) Putting a Finger on Our Phone Obsession. [Online] Available at: blog.dscout.com/mobile-touches [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Digital Training Academy. (2016) App case study: ASB bank Digital piggybank for kids. [Online] Available at: www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/casestudies/2016/07/app_case_study_asb_bank_digital_ piggybank_for_kids.php#more [Accessed 31 October 2017]
Digital Turbine. (2016) Starbucks: A Case Study in Effective Mobile App Marketing. [Online] Available at: www.digitalturbine.com/blog/starbucks-a-case-study-in-effective-mobile-app-marketing [Accessed 30 October 2017]
eMarketer. (2016) How Many Apps Do Smartphone Owners Use? [Online] Available at: www.emarketer.com/Article/How-Many-Apps-Do-Smartphone-Owners-Use/1013309 [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Gallup. (2015) Most U.S. Smartphone Owners Check Phone at Least Hourly. [Online] Available at: www.gallup.com/poll/184046/smartphone-owners-check-phone-least-hourly.aspx [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Impact. (2016) 31 Mobile Marketing Statistics to Help You Plan for 2017. [Online] Available at: www.impactbnd.com/blog/mobile-marketing-statistics-for-2016 [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Layar. (2016) Quick & Easy Self-Service Augmented Reality. [Online] Available at: www.layar.com/features/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Marketing Journal. (2016) “Marketing and the Internet of Things: Are You Ready?” – Jamshed Dubash. [Online] Available at: www.marketingjournal.org/mark...amshed-dubash/ [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Savvy Apps Blog. (2016) Android vs iOS: Which platform to build for first? [Online] Available at: savvyapps.com/blog/android-vs-ios-which-platform-to-build-for-first [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Smart Insights. (2016) Percent time spend on mobile apps 2016. [Online] Available at: www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketingstatistics/attachment/percent-time-spent-on-mobile-apps-2016 [Accessed 25 October 2016]
SurveyMonkey. (2016) The 60 most popular apps of 2016 (so far). [Online] Available at: www.surveymonkey.com/business/intelligence/most-popular-apps-2016 [Accessed 25 October 2016] - Link no longer active
VentureBeat. (2016) Facebook passes 1.65 billion monthly active users, 54% access the service only on mobile. [Online] Available at: venturebeat.com/2016/04/27/facebook-passes-1-65-billion-monthly-active-users-54-accessthe-service-only-on-mobile [Accessed 31 October 2017]
7.E: Mobile channels and apps(Exercises)
Case study questions
1. Describe how this campaign combined real-world experience with digital options.
2. Why was an app the right way to go for this brand?
3. Would you have included any other digital or mobile-specific channels in this campaign? Which ones/why?
Chapter questions
1. What makes mobile such a powerful medium for marketing?
2. What are the biggest concerns for mobile-focused marketing?
3. When is it a good idea to create an app for your brand?
4. How would you go about deciding which engagement method is the best to use for your target market?
Further reading
www.mmaglobal.com - The Mobile Marketing Association contains research and insights, case studies, and educational material for mobile.
www.mobilemarketer.com – Mobile Marketer covers different forms of mobile marketing, offering news and developments in the industry.
mobilemarketingwatch.com – Mobile Marketing Watch is a blog covering all things related to mobile marketing and advertising.
www.apptamin.com/blog - The Apptamin blog focuses specifically on apps and app marketing.
savvyapps.com/blog – A great, informative resource focusing on app development.
7.S: Mobile channels and apps(Summary)
Mobile has several factors which make it ideal for communicating with your customers at their moment of need, provided you respect the need for privacy and permission. It also allows for hyper-local and interactive marketing, which can greatly increase engagement.
People spend more time online than with any other media. Much of that time on mobile, and most time on mobile is spent in apps, which makes apps a dominant form of digital interaction (Convince & Convert n.d.). Consider carefully whether your business really needs an app.
If you do decide to run a mobile-focused campaign or create an app, you need to make sure that you implement it carefully and, as always, measure and optimise as you go along. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/07%3A_Create_-_Mobile_channels_and_apps/7.11%3A_Case_study_-_ASB_digital_piggybank.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• How search engines work and how they deliver results.
• How to plan, research and implement an effective keyword strategy across text and other content.
• Techniques for link building, an essential aspect of SEO.
• How specialised search, such as mobile, social and local search, can affect your rankings and how to optimise for these.
08: Create - Search engine optimization (SEO)
Chung, K., 2015. Google’s AMP Project: what will be the impact on publishers? [Online] Available at: searchenginewatch.com/sew/opinion/2430844/google-s-amp-project-what-will-be-theimpact-on-publishers [Accessed 16 January 2017] - Link no longer available
Dean, B., 2016. Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List. [Online] Available at: backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Digital Training Academy, 2016. SEO Case Study: Lloyds Pharmacy Online Doctor boosts organic search. [Online] Available at: www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/casestudies/2016/10/seo_case_study_lloyds_pharmacy_ online_doctor_boosts_organic_search.php [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Google, n.d. Webmasters. [Online] Available at: www.google.com/webmasters [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Internet Live Stats, 2017. [Online] Google Search Statistics. [Online] Available at: www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics [Accessed 30 October 2017]
Martin, J., 2016. Top 6 SEO ranking factors of 2016. [Online] Available at: www.cio.com/article/3104104/search/top-6-seo-ranking-factors-of-2016.html [Accessed 31 October 2017]
Sandmann, S., 2016. Digital Marketing Innovation with Google Voice Search. [Online] Available at: www.searchenginecompany.co.za/digital-marketing-innovation-google-voice-search [Accessed 30 October 2017]
8.02: Introduction
With millions of people performing billions of searches each day to find content on the Internet, Google alone processes over 40 000 searches per second (Internet Live Stats, 2017). It makes sense that marketers want their products to be findable online. Search engines, the channels through which these searches happen, use closely guarded algorithms to determine the results displayed.
Determining what factors these algorithms take into account has led to a growing practice known as search engine optimisation (SEO).
SEO is the practice of optimising a website to achieve the highest possible ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Someone who practices SEO professionally is known as an SEO (search engine optimiser).
Google uses about 200 different factors in its algorithm to determine relevance and ranking (Dean, 2016). None of the major search engines disclose the elements they use to rank pages, but there are many SEO practitioners who spend time analysing patent applications to try to determine what these are.
Note
Take a look at this speculative list of Google’s 200 algorithm factors from BackLink: http://backlinko.com/ google-ranking-factors.
Other types of websites that rely on search, like YouTube and Facebook, have their own algorithms. Facebook’s News Feed algorithm, for example, uses around 100 000 factors to rank and sort content that appears in users’ news feeds.
SEO can be split into two distinct camps, white hat SEO and black hat SEO, with some grey hat wearers in between. Black hat SEO refers to trying to game the search engines. These SEOs use dubious means to achieve high rankings and their websites are occasionally blacklisted by the search engines. White hat SEO, on the other hand, refers to working within the parameters set by search engines to optimise a website for better user experience. Search engines want to send users to the website that is best suited to their needs, so white hat SEO should ensure that users can find what they are looking for. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/08%3A_Create_-_Search_engine_optimization_(SEO)/8.01%3A_References.txt |
Table 8.2.1
Term Definition
Alt text The ‘alt’ attribute for the IMG HTML tag. It is used in HTML to attribute a text field to an image on a web page, normally with a descriptive function, telling a search engine or user what an image is about and displaying the text in instances where the image is unable to load. Also called alt tag. Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a link.
App store optimisation (ASO) The process of optimising mobile and web applications for the specific web stores in which they are distributed.
Backlink All the links from pages on external domains pointing to pages on your own domain. Each link from an external domain to a specific page is known as an inbound/backlink. The number of backlinks influences your ranking, so the more backlinks the better, get linking!
Canonical In SEO, canonical refers to a definitive URL. The canonical version is the definitive version. Domain name**The easy-to-read name used to identify an IP address of a server that distinguishes it from other systems on the World Wide Web: our domain name is redandyellow.co.za.
Flash A technology used to show video and animation on a website. It can be bandwidth heavy and unfriendly to search engine spiders.
Heading tags Heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are standard elements used to define headings and subheadings on a web page. The number indicates the importance so H1 tags are viewed by spiders as being more important than H3 tags. Using target keyword s in your H tags is essential for effective SEO.
Home page The first page of any website. The home page gives users a glimpse into what your site is about very much like the index in a book, or contents page in a magazine.
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) Certain HTML tags are used to structure the information and features within a web page.
Hyperlink A link in an electronic document that allows you, once you click on it, to follow the link to the relevant web page.
Internal link A hyperlink on a website that points from one page to another on the same website / domain.
Internet Protocol (IP) address The Internet Protocol (IP) address is an unique number that is used to represent every single computer in a network.
Keyword frequency The number of times a keyword or key phrase appears on a website.
Key phrase Two or more words that are combined to form a search query are often referred to as keywords. It is usually better to optimise for a phrase rather than for a single word.
Keyword rankings Where the keywords or phrases targeted by SEO rank in the search engine results. If your targeted terms do not appear on the first three pages, start worrying.
Landing page The page a user reaches when clicking on a paid or organic search engine listing. The pages that have the most success are those that match up as closely as possible with users’ search queries.
Link A URL embedded on a web page. If you click on the link you will be taken to that page.
Link bait A technique for creating content that is specifically designed to attract links from other web pages.
Meta tags Tags that tell search engine spiders exactly what a web page is about. It’s important that your meta tags are optimised for the targeted keywords. Meta tags are made up of meta titles, descriptions and keywords.
Referrer When a user clicks on a link from one site to another, the site the user has left is the referrer. Most browsers log the referrer’s URL in referrer strings. This information is vital in determining which queries are being used to find specific sites.
Robots.txt A file written and stored in the root directory of a website that restricts the search engine spiders from indexing certain pages of the website.
Search engine spiders Programs that travel the web, following links and building up the indexes of search engines.
Universal Resource Locator (URL) A web address that is unique to every page on the Internet.
Usability A measure of how easy it is for a user to complete a desired task. Sites with excellent usability fare far better than those that are difficult to use.
XML sitemap A guide that search engines use to help them index a website, which indicates how many pages there are, how often they are updated and how important they are. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/08%3A_Create_-_Search_engine_optimization_(SEO)/8.03%3A_Key_terms_and_concepts.txt |
Understanding SEO
Search engines need to help users find what they’re looking for. To make sure, they list the best results first, looking for signals of:
Note
Want to see how search works? Check out this resource from Google: www.google.com/insidesearch/ howsearchworks/thestory
• Popularity
• Authority
• Relevance
• Trust
• Importance.
SEO, also called organic or natural optimisation, involves optimising websites to achieve high rankings on search engines for certain selected keywords. Generally, techniques used for optimising on one search engine will also help efforts across others.
SEO can be divided into two main strategies:
1. On-page optimisation, achieved by making changes to the HTML code, content and structure of a website, making it more accessible to search engines and by extension, easier for users to find.
Note
A good place to keep track of Google search algorithm updates is this handy resource from Moz: moz.com/google-algorithmchange.
1. Off-page optimisation, generally focused on building links to the website and covers activities like social media and digital PR.
SEO is an extremely effective way of generating new business to a site. It is a continuous process and a way of thinking about how search engines see your website and how users use search engines to find your website. It’s search psychology.
Search engine optimisation is a fairly technical practice but it can easily be broken down into five main areas:
1. A search engine friendly website structure
2. A well-researched list of keywords
3. Content optimised to target those keywords
4. Link popularity
5. User insights.
Search engine friendly website structure
Search engines encounter two kinds of obstacles:
1. Technical challenges that prevent the search engine spider from accessing content.
Note
Read more about this in the Web development and design chapter.
1. A competitive marketing environment where everyone wants to rank highly.
To ensure that search engines can access your content, you must remove technical barriers. Those who want to achieve the best results must follow best practices.
The key is to make sure that there are direct HTML links to each page you want the search engines to index. The most important pages should be accessible directly from the home page of your website.
The information architecture or, how content is planned and laid out, has important usability and SEO implications. Users want to find what they are looking for quickly and easily, while website owners want search engine spiders to be able to access and index all applicable pages. Google consistently points out that it wants users to have a good user experience. Content relevance, user engagement and user experience are all crucial to SEO (Martin, 2016).
Note
Read more about this in the User experience design chapter.
There are times when user experience and SEO can be at odds with each other, but usually if you focus on building usable, accessible websites, then you have made them search engine friendly as well.
Another technical challenge to search engines is Flash. For the most part, search engines struggle to crawl and index Flash sites. There are some workarounds, but the best approach from an SEO perspective is to avoid building sites or delivering key content in Flash. Instead, use HTML5, which provides similar interactivity and visuals while remaining easily crawlable.
The chapter on web development and design delves more deeply into building a search engine friendly website.
Voice search
As digital marketers, we must evolve with the times to stay effective. The ‘’no interface trend’ refers to the way people want new, natural forms of interaction with technology. onsider Stephen Sandmann’s (2016) observation that, “Speech, gesture, touch and sight: truly intuitive technologies are set to transform your customer interactions forever”.
When people think of SEO, they usually think of only the traditional type of SEO, based on desktop and mobile Google search. SEO has evolved to be mobile-centric, which now includes voice search.
Many consumers use Google search on their mobile phones to find answers to their everyday questions. This means you can encourage your consumers to engage with your brand via voice search-accessed mobile search. The Google app allows a person’s voice to access mobile Google search results on their smartphones. Google voice search is a default app in all of the latest Android smartphones.
Other voice search tools include Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa.
Voice searches are usually made through mobile devices because of their on-the-go convenience factor which means that the mobile context will generally apply. This means:
• The user behaviour relating to voice search differs from traditional mobile search. This may seem obvious, but you have make a conscious effort to accommodate voice search in your Mobile SEO strategy.
• In most cases, voice searches appear in the form of questions, such as, “What movies are showing at Brooklyn Mall?”
• Voice-derived search queries are also usually longer than the average traditional search query.
These differences should be factored into your content by adding local keywords that are geographically relevant and by writing content that answers common questions that your intended audience may ask.
The future
Google’s revamped Google Now, called Google Now on Tap, is incredibly intuitive. Now on Tap is a Google voice search that has contextual awareness. When you do a search via Now on Tap, it scans your phone’s screen and recent activities to help give it context for your search, thereby better answering your query to fill in the gaps of a vague search query. Google also makes use of a personal index of what you do on your Android phone as a means of learning more about you.
Siri and other voice search platforms are also making major headway in terms of technological advancements and additional predictive features. Voice search is here to stay and will become more widely used going forward. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/08%3A_Create_-_Search_engine_optimization_(SEO)/8.04%3A_Core_principles.txt |
SEO and keywords
How do you start building your keyword list? It requires a little thought and a fair amount of research and insight, using tools that are readily available to help you grow and refine your list of keywords.
Note
Keyword or key phrase? These are usually used interchangeably to refer to single or multiple words used for optimising websites. We largely use ‘keyword’ in this book, but they are essentially the same.
Keywords are the very foundation of search. When users enter a query on a search engine, they use the words they think are relevant to the search. The search engine then returns those pages it has calculated to be most relevant to the words the searchers used and, increasingly, the implied meaning of the search.
Developers of search engines have built a sophisticated understanding of semantics and the way in which we use language. So, if a user searches for ‘car rental’, the search engine will look for pages that are relevant to ‘car rental’ as well assynonyms like ‘car hire’, ‘vehicle hire’ and so forth. Search engines have also built up knowledge around common misspellings, typos, synonyms and related searches.
It is crucial that you implement keywords that are likely to be used by target audiences. Websites need to appear when potential customers are searching for them. A large part of keyword research is understanding search psychology. When we build our keyword lists, we are tapping into the mental process of searchers and putting together the right mix of keywords to target.
There are four things to consider when choosing a keyword.
1. Search volume
How many searchers are using that phrase to find what they want? For example, there is an estimated monthly search volume of over 338 million for the keyword ‘hotel’, but an estimated 6 600 searches per month for a keyword such as ‘Cape Town Waterfront hotel’.
If you’re researching keywords using the Google AdWords Keyword Planner, note that it reports only on paid search volume, not on total volume and Google has made access more difficult for free accounts.
2. Competition
How many other websites out there are targeting that same phrase? For example, Google finds over 2 900 000 000 results for ‘hotel’, but only 640 000 for ‘Cape Town Waterfront Hotel’.
3. Propensity to convert
What is the likelihood that the searcher using that keyword is going to convert on your site? A conversion is a desired action taken by the visitor to your website. Related to propensity to convert is the relevance of the selected term to what you are offering. If you are selling rooms at a hotel at the V&A Waterfront, which of the two terms, ‘hotel’ or ‘Cape Town Waterfront hotel’, do you think will lead to a higher rate of conversions?
4. Value per lead
What is the average value per prospect attracted by the keyword? Depending on the nature of your website, the average value per lead varies. Using the hotel example again, consider these two terms:
‘Luxury Cape Town hotel’ and ‘budget Cape Town hotel’. Both are terms used by someone wanting to book a hotel in Cape Town, but it is expected that someone looking for a luxury hotel is intending to spend more. That means that this particular lead has a higher value, particularly if you have a hotel booking website that offers a range of accommodation.
Step-by-step keyword research
Step 1: Brainstorm
Think about the words you would use to describe your business and about the questions or needs of your customers that it fulfils. How would someone ask for what you are offering? Consider synonyms and misspellings as well.
Bear in mind that people may not ask for your services using the same words as you to describe them. You may sell ‘herbal infusions’, whereas people may ask for ‘herbal teas’ and some might even request a ‘tisane’.
Even common words are often misspelt and you may need to consider common misspellings and typos, for example, ‘jewelry’ or ‘morgage’.
Misspellings are important, but consider what these tell you about the traffic you’re getting and analyse this traffic to ensure that you’re getting quality visitors.
Step 2: Gather data
Two ways in which to gather accurate keyword data are to survey customers and to look at your website referral logs.
Look at what terms customers are already using to find you and add those to your list. If they are already sending you some traffic, it is worth trying to increase that traffic.
Step 3: Use keyword research tools
There are several tools available for keyword discovery and some of them are free. Some tools will scan your website and suggest keywords based on your current content. Most will let you enter keywords and will then return suggestions based on past research data, along with: *
• Similar keywords
• Common keywords used with that keyword
• Common misspellings
• Frequency of the keywords in search queries
• Industry-related keywords
• Keywords that are sending traffic to your competitors
• How many sites are targeting your keywords?
Note
Try it now: Pick one of the tools listed at the end of the chapter and try a little of your own keyword research. Can you discover any useful keywords that your favourite brand should be using?
See section 8.7 Tools of the trade for some tools that you can use.
Bearing in mind the factors that make a good keyword, you need to aim for the right mix of keywords. Low-volume terms with low levels of competition may be a good way to get traffic in the short term, but don’t be scared off by bigger competition in the high-value, high-volume areas. It may take longer to get there, but once you do, the revenue can make it worthwhile.
It is a good idea to create a spreadsheet of the list of keywords, along with additional information about each one.
This will help you to choose the right keywords to target. These lists should be created for the whole website and can then be broken down for each page you want to optimise.
Optimising content for keywords
Once keywords and phrases are selected, we need to ensure the site contains content to target them. You must ensure that the content is properly structured and that it sends relevance signals. Content is the most important part of your website so create relevant, targeted content aimed at your selected keywords. Remember, search engines can recognise context and implied meaning, so synonyms are important.
Content has several roles to play on your site.
• It must provide information to visitors.
• It must engage with them.
• It must persuade them to do what you want. *
Now it must also send signals of relevance to search engines. You need to use the keywords on the content page in a way that search engines will pick up and users will understand.
Each web page used to be optimised for a set number of keywords. With the increasing sophistication of search engines and their semantic awareness, however, pages are now optimised for themes instead – search engines have moved from keywords to concept and context. For example, one page might be optimised for car insurance, with relevant keywords used as required, while another page would be optimised for health insurance, or household insurance.
Search engines consider context in three ways:
1. User intention – Google tries to match your query to what you are asking rather than the individual words used. “Song about evil ducks” gives you “March of the Sinister Ducks” as a result, rather than a page with those specific keywords.
2. Your content – Google reads your pages’ keywords to find out what they are about, conceptually.
3. Relating concepts – Google relates concepts to each other, like showing Alan Moore as author of March of the Sinister Ducks and offering related results for his work.
While keywords are still useful, then, focus has shifted from repeatedly using keywords to ensuring that each page is about something specific. Even though you should be thinking customer first rather than exact keywords, keywords are still useful. Here are some guidelines.
1. Title tag: Use the keyword in the title and as close to the beginning as possible.
2. H1 header tag: Use the keyword in the header tag and as much as possible in the other H tags.
3. Body content: Use keywords as it makes sense in context. Remember to use synonyms rather than focusing on one specific version of a keyword. You should aim for about 350 words of content. But don’t overdo it or it could look like spam to the search engines.
4. Bold: Use tags around the keyword at least once.
5. URL: Try to use the keyword in your page URL.
6. Meta description: Use it at least once in the meta description of the page, which should entice users to clickthrough to your site from the SERP.
7. Link anchor text: Try to ensure that the keyword is used in the anchor text of the pages linking to you.
Optimising media
Images, video and other digital assets should also be optimised with the relevant keywords. Search engines cannot decipher multimedia content as well as text, so they rely on the way that media is described to determine what it is about. Screen readers also read out these descriptions, which can help visually impaired users make sense of a website. In addition, media such as images and video are often also shown on the SERPs. Proper optimisation can give a brand more ownership of the SERP real estate and can also be used effectively to target competitive terms.
Note
Read more about this in the Video marketing chapter.
Just as rich media can help emphasise the content on a page to a visitor, they can also help search engines to rank pages, provided they are labelled correctly.
Here are some ways to optimise images with keywords for SEO.
• Use descriptive, keyword-filled filenames.
• Use specific alt tags and title attributes.
• Add meta information to the image. Make sure this information is relevant.
• Use descriptive captions and keep relevant copy close to the corresponding media. For example, an image caption and neighbouring text will help to describe content of the image.
• Make sure that the header tags and images are relevant to each other.
• Think about what other digital assets you have and whether these can be optimised in line with your keyword strategy. For example, consider using app store optimisation (ASO) which is the process of optimising your mobile and web apps for the specific web stores in which they are distributed.
Note
Find out how to optimise your apps in the Mobile channels and apps chapter.
Note
As search engines become ever more sophisticated and user focused, creating entertaining and readable copy will be much more important than simply including keywords in your text.
The best way to ensure results is to focus on writing quality content while sticking to a few guidelines on tags and URLs. Remember, you want search engines to rank you highly for your content, but you also want to ensure that the content is a pleasure to read.
Regularly adding fresh, valuable content will also encourage the search engines to crawl your site more frequently.
Use your website and its pages to establish and reinforce themes. Information can always be arranged in some kind of hierarchical structure. Just as a single page can have a heading and then be broken down into sub-headings, a large website can have main themes that are broken down into sub-themes. Search engines will see these themes and recognise your website as one with rich content.
Link popularity
Links are a vital part of how the Internet works. The purpose of a link is to allow a user to go from one web page to another. Search engines, mimicking the behaviour of humans, also follow links.
Besides allowing search engine spiders to find websites, links are a way of validating relevance and indicating importance. When one page links to another, it is as if that page is voting or vouching for the destination page. Generally, the more votes a website receives, the more trusted it becomes, the more important it is deemed, and the better it will rank on search engines.
Links help send signals of trust. Signals of trust can come only from a third-party source. Few people will trust someone who says, “Don’t worry, you can trust me!” unless someone else, who is already trusted, says, “Don’t worry, I know him well. You can trust him.” It is the same with links and search engines. Trusted sites can transfer trust to unknown sites via links.
Links help to validate relevance. Text links, by their very nature, contain text (thank you, Captain Obvious). The text that makes up the link can help validate relevance. A link such as ‘Cape Town hotel’ sends the message that, “You can trust that the destination site is relevant to the term ‘Cape Town hotel’.” If the destination web page has already used content to send a signal of relevance, the link simply validates that signal.
The parts of a link
Here is an example of the HTML code for a link:
<a href="www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm">Anchor Text</a>
<a href> and </a> are HTML tags that show where the link starts and ends.
www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm is the page that the link leads to. You should make sure that you are linking to a relevant page in your site, and not just to the home page.
Anchor Text is the visible text that forms the link. This is the text that should contain the keyword you are targeting.
The link sends a signal that the target URL is important for the subject used in the anchor text.
There can be a lot more information included in this anatomy, such as instructions telling the search engine not to follow the link, or instructions to the browser on whether the link should open in a new window or not.
<a href="www.targeturl.com/targetpage.htm" rel="nofollow">Anchor Text</a>
rel=“nofollow” can be included in links when you don’t want to vouch for the target URL. Search engines do not count nofollow links for ranking purposes. This was introduced by Google to try to combat comment spam.
Not all links are created equal
Of course, not all links are equal. While link volume is the number of links coming to a specific page of your site, link authority looks at the value of the links. Some sites are more trusted than others. Since they are more trusted links from those sites are worth more. Likewise, some sites are more relevant than others to specific terms. The more relevant a site, the more value is transferred by the link.
Well-known and established news sites, government sites (.gov) and university domains (.ac) are examples of sites from which links can carry more weighting.
Sites with higher authority carry more link weight.
Note
Discussion: Why are government and university websites considered to have more authority? What sorts of websites would they be likely to link to?
Search algorithms also consider relationships between linked sites. By analysing various elements, search engines try to determine if the links are natural links, or if they are manipulative, artificial links created solely for ranking purposes.
Manipulated links are worth very little compared to natural links and may even lead to a drop in search engine rankings. The Google algorithm update focused on reducing spammy links, called Penguin, was released in 2012.
The search engine algorithm will also determine the relevancy of the referring website to the site being linked to. The more relevant the sites are to each other, the better.
Also keep in mind that linking to valuable, relevant external resources can help to improve the visibility of your own site.
How does a website get more links?
With links playing such a vital role in search engine rankings and traffic for a website, everyone wants more of them. There are certainly dubious means of generating links, most of which can result in penalties from the search engines. However, here are some ways for ethical and honest website owners and marketers (that’s what you are) to go about increasing links to their websites.
Create excellent, valuable content that others want to read
If people find your site useful, they are more likely to link to it. It is not necessary (or possible) to try to write content that will appeal to the whole of the Internet population. Focus on being the best in your industry and in providing value to the members of that community. Make sure that valuable content is themed around your keywords.
Infographics are visual and graphic representations of data, and are a popular type of content that is useful to users, and can encourage lots of traffic and inbound links.
Create tools and documents that others want to use
Interview experts in your field, and host those interviews on your website. Create useful PDF guides for your industry that people can download from your site. Think outside the box for quirky, relevant items that people will link to. Calculators are popular tools, and we don’t just mean the ones that add two and two together. If you have a website selling diet books, for example, create a tool which helps users to calculate their body mass index (BMI) and target weight. Importantly, be unique!
Create games
Creating a game that people want to play is a great way to generate links. Make sure that the theme of the game is based on the keywords for your website so that when others talk about and link to the game they are using your keywords.
Capitalise on software and widgets
Widgets, browser extensions and other software that users love to use all help to generate links for a website. For example, the TripAdvisor widget enables hotels, attractions, restaurants, destination marketers, and bloggers to add TripAdvisor content such as reviews, awards, and local area attractions to their website.
Be creative! The best link-building strategies are those that provide value and automate the linking process as much as possible. The easier it is for someone to share your link, the more likely they are to do it.
Competitor analysis
You can find out who is linking to your competitors, and which non-competing sites are ranking highly for your keywords. Use this information to identify sites to target for link requests.
Until January of 2017, using Google search along with the ’link:’ command could be used to find these links and websites. Now, however, a better alternative is to use the data in your Google Search Console account, formerly known as Webmaster tools. Learn more here: www.google.com/webmasters
You can also use paid tools that provide link index data, such as:
• majestic.com
• www.linkresearchtools.com
• ahrefs.com
• www.opensiteexplorer.org.
With all link-building tactics, make sure to use your keywords when communicating. You will be telling people how to link to you, and ensuring that search engines notice your authority.
User insights
Search engines want their results to be highly relevant to web users, to make sure that web users keep returning to the search engine for future searches. And the best way to establish what is relevant to users? By looking at how they use websites, of course!
User data is the most effective way of judging the true relevance and value of a website. For example, if users arrive on a website and leave immediately, chances are it wasn’t relevant to their query in the first place. However, if a user repeatedly visits a website and spends a long time there, it is probably extremely relevant. When it comes to search engines, relevant, valuable sites are promoted, and irrelevant sites are demoted.
How do search engines access this data?
Search engines use cookies to maintain a history of a user’s search activity. This will include keywords used, and websites visited from the search engine. Search engines gather data on the clickthrough and bounce rates of results.
Site speed, that is, the performance of your website, is one of the contributing factors to ranking in Google (Dean, 2016). In fact, this is becoming increasingly important. Check out Google’s PageSpeed tool to help analyse your site’s performance. It will recommend ways to improve your site’s speed and mobile-friendliness: https:// developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/
Google’s AMP project also underlines the importance of site speed for users and thus to Google themselves (and thus, of course, to your SEO). Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) essentially simplifies HTML, CSS, and JavaScript elements to serve stripped-down pages containing only the most essential elements to mobile users. This leads to anything from a 15% to an 85% improvement in site speed (Chung, 2015).
So, what does this mean for SEO? When it comes to a website, it must: *
• Be valuable enough to attract both visitors and links naturally.
• Retain visitors and make sure they return to the website.
• Convert visitors.
Social and search
Social information is playing an ever-increasing role in search. Social content, such as Twitter messages or YouTube videos, can appear in the SERPs and there is a growing indication of social influence on search rankings.
There are several social factors to consider for social and search.
1. Use social media properties to dominate brand SERPs.
When someone searches for your brand name, you can use your social media properties to ‘own’ more of the results on that page, reducing the likelihood that a user will end up on a competitor’s website instead. Use your brand name when naming Twitter and Flickr profiles and Facebook and YouTube pages.
2. Social links are used as signals of relevance.
Links from social sites such as Twitter include ’rel=nofollow’. However, there is a strong indication that these links are in fact followed by search engines, and are used to determine relevance. If you focus on creating great content on your site and making sure that it is easy to share socially, you should see a result in your SEO efforts.
3. Personalised results are influenced by your online social network.
If you are logged in to a social network while searching such as Facebook for Bing, or your Gmail account for Google, you could see results from or influenced by your social circle. In Bing, for instance, results can include indications of what your friends have previously liked or shared via Facebook. On Google, you may be more likely to see a friend’s blog for relevant searches.
4. Optimise for social search engines.
Google is the biggest search engine worldwide, YouTube is the second biggest and Facebook is growing. Even within social properties, users still use search to find the content they are looking for. Content that is housed on these properties should be optimised for the relevant social search engine as well.
Mobile search
As web-enabled mobile devices continue to grow in the market, and become easier to use, mobile search remains a key growth area. Mobile searches tend to be different to desktop searches. They are more navigational in nature as users tend to know where they want to end up, and users are often looking for concise, actionable answers.
The need for a website that performs well on mobile became crystal clear in 2015, when Google made what is called the mobilegeddon update, that is, sites that perform well on mobile are given higher rankings, while sites that do not perform well on mobile are penalised.
You can find a good overview of mobile SEO and how to create a website easily accessible via mobile here, note that responsive design is Google’s recommendation: https://developers.google.com/webmas...es/mobile-seo/
Mobile search input can also be different from desktop search. As well as typing in search keywords, mobile users can search by voice, or by using images or scanning barcodes.
As with mobile web development, mobile SEO is a little different from desktop SEO, although the fundamental principles remain the same. Build usable and accessible sites with great content, and you’ve already come a long way.
Note
Read more about this in the Web development and design chapter.
Differences in approach for mobile SEO are largely because:
• Search engines have the ability to deliver precise location-based results to mobile users.
• Usability is critical in sites for mobile devices.
• Search engines have less data to work with compared to traditional web in terms of site history, traffic, and inbound links.
Note
Why is usability so important for mobile SEO?
The fundamentals of mobile SEO are not so different to those of desktop SEO.
1. A usable, crawlable site is very important.
Build mobile versions of your website that cater for mobile users having simple navigation and content stripped down to only what is required.
2. Content is important, and should be formatted for mobile usage.
Text and images should be optimised for the mobile experience, so no large file sizes! The meta data still matters and titles and descriptions are what users see in the SERPs.
3. Links are important.
You should link to your mobile site from your desktop site and vice versa. Submit your mobile site to relevant mobile directories.
4. Submit a mobile XML sitemap.
Mobile-specific sitemaps use the same protocols as standard XML sitemaps with the addition of a mobile tag.
5. Use the word ‘mobile’ on the mobile website, or use mobile top-level domains.
Make it explicit to search engines that this is the mobile version of your website and they are more likely to prioritise it as such.
Local search
Local search refers to search behaviour and results where location matters. Either results returned are local in nature, or results returned can be map based.
With blended SERPs, map-based results can be returned together with other types of results, depending on the type of search. As search engines become more sophisticated, location can be inferred and influence the types of results.
A user may search for ‘plumber london’, for example, and the search will know to return results for London plumbers. These may even be returned on a map.
However, a user in London may search just for ‘plumber’. The search can infer from the user’s IP address that the user is in London, and still return results for London plumbers, since someone searching for this term is likely to be looking for a nearby service.
For search engines to return location-relevant results, they need to know the location of elements being searched. This is often determined from sites that include the name and address of a business. Note that this site may not be yours. Location results are often determined from various review sites, and the results can include some of those reviews.
Note
Find the Small Business Guide to Google My Business here: www. simplybusiness.co.uk/ microsites/google-mybusiness-guide/
Search engines also allow businesses to ‘claim’ their locations. For example, Google’s Google My Business function allows small businesses to enter their information, which will then populate into all Google services. A business can set up a local or a brand page on Google which, once completed, will give them access to various page management and optimisation tools as well as making them more visible on SERPs. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/08%3A_Create_-_Search_engine_optimization_(SEO)/8.05%3A_Implementation.txt |
Black hat SEO refers to practices that attempt to game the search engines. If a search engine uncovers a website using unethical practices to achieve search engine rankings, it is likely to remove that website from its index.
Google publishes guidelines for webmasters, available through Google’s Webmaster Central (www.google.com/webmasters). As well as outlining best practice principles, Google has supplied the following list of don’ts:
• Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
• Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
• Don’t send automated queries to Google.
• Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords.
• Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicated content.
• Don’t create pages that include malicious behaviours such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other malware.
• Avoid ‘doorway’ pages created just for search engines or other ‘cookie cutter’ approaches, such as affiliate programmes with little or no original content. If your site participates in an affiliate programme, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.
• Avoid link farms and focus on attracting quality, valuable links.
The bottom line: design websites for users first and foremost, and don’t try to trick the search engines. It will only be a matter of time before they uncover the black hat techniques.
8.07: Advantages and challenges
Optimising a website for search engines should entail optimising the website for users. Done properly, it should result in a better user experience, while ensuring that search engines index and rank the website well.
It can be tempting to focus on the technicalities of SEO while forgetting that both robots and humans need to read the same website. One should not be sacrificed for the other.
Search engines update their algorithms regularly. Each update is an attempt to improve search results, but can result in loss of rankings for some websites, depending on the update. A contingency plan, such as a pre-prepared search advertising campaign, needs to be in place to cope with a sudden drop in rankings.
As with any digital marketing practice, SEO should not be the only focus of digital marketing efforts. It works best when part of a holistic online marketing strategy The SEO community is constantly sharing insights about search algorithms, whenever a new one is released, do some research on the best ways to avoid being penalised.
The SEO community is constantly sharing insights about search algorithms, whenever a new one is released, do some research on the best ways to avoid being penalised.
8.08: Tools of the trade
There are a number of tools available to assist with SEO. Some are made available by search engines, and some are developed by agencies and individuals who specialise in SEO. Most are available for free.
Google Search Console
www.google.com/webmasters
Google provides guidelines to webmasters and tools to help ensure your website is being indexed.
Open Site Explorer
moz.com/researchtools/ose
Moz provides a useful tool called Open Site Explorer, which can help you determine the value of links from particular sites.
Tools from SEOBook
tools.seobook.com
SEObook provides a number of tools that assist any SEO. For example, Rank Checker is a Firefox extension that allows you to save a number of keywords and to perform regular searches on them, giving you the ranking of your chosen URL for each keyword in the search engines selected. They also have tools to help with keyword discovery.
Keyword discovery tools
There are a number of tools available, some free and some paid for, to assist with keyword discovery. Some include:
Google AdWords Keyword Planner
adwords.google.com/keywordplanner
Trellian’s KeywordDiscovery tool
www.keyworddiscovery.com
Wordtracker
www.wordtracker.com
Bing Ads Intelligence
advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/bing-ads-intelligence
SEO PowerSuite Rank Tracker (the trial version has limited functionality)
www.seopowersuite.com/rank-tracker
Link-Assistant .Com
link-assistant.com
Online forums
Webmaster World (www.webmasterworld.com) is frequented by SEOs and webmasters aiming to stay current with latest trends and search engine updates.
Google Merchant Center
www.google.com/merchants
The Google Merchant Center allows you to mark up any products you sell through eCommerce, ensuring that they also rank for relevant search results.
MozBAr
The Moz SEO toolbar (moz.com/products/pro/seo-toolbar) gives instant metrics while viewing SERPs or web pages.
Screaming Frog
Screaming Frog (www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider) allows you to crawl website URLs and analyse the onsite SEO.
AWR
AWR (www.awrcloud.com/login.php) gives you access to rankings for desktop, mobile, and local searches. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/08%3A_Create_-_Search_engine_optimization_(SEO)/8.06%3A_What_not_to_do.txt |
One-line summary
A strong search strategy led to a 144% increase in organic sessions and a large increase in organic revenue for Lloyds Pharmacy Online Doctor (Digital Training Academy, 2016).
The challenge
Lloyds Pharmacy Online Doctor provides an extra channel for providing healthcare to patients with health problems that they may find embarrassing or inconvenient to treat using face-toface care. They needed to increase search visibility and thus organic traffic results to replace the heavy spending they were doing on PPC advertising to drive online traffic.
The solution
The brand’s agency, Click Consult, identified gaps in the Online Doctor website’s backlink profile and decided to enhance it. They invested in blogger, social, and PR outreach, identifying and creating relationships with industry influencers that would be willing to showcase innovative content to their audience.
They created the “Let’s Type About Sex” campaign, creating an app and animations, carefully placing their content, which led to strong blogger engagement.
The results
The campaign led to an increase in the authority of the site, as well as:
• An increase in the number of page 1 terms to 36
• A 144% increase in organic sessions
• A 43% increase in overall sessions
• A 77.59% increase in organic revenue
• A 17% increase in online revenue.
8.10: The bigger picture
Search engine optimisation can be influenced and enhanced by most other digital marketing campaigns and they should all be approached with this in mind.
SEO and content marketing go hand in hand, since SEO relies on fresh, relevant and popular content and content marketing can be informed by SEO keywords and insights.
For example, search advertising campaigns can provide valuable keyword research, which can then be fed into the SEO strategy. Social media marketing can generate an enormous amount of links to a website. Digital PR aims to generate links too, and these can be optimised for search engines.
User research and web analytics can generate insights into how users find the website, which can inform SEO strategy, and effective SEO techniques can provide insights into user behaviour.
8.E: Search engine optimisation (SEO)(Exercises)
Case study questions
1. Why did Click Consult decide to focus on improving Online Doctor’s backlink strategy?
2. Why did improving the site’s authority also improve their SEO results?
3. Why did Online Doctor want to focus on SEO rather than PPC?
4. Do you think search engine algorithms can help businesses become better at what they do?
Chapter questions
1. Why do links send signals of trust to search engines?
2. Why is it better to have more niche pages of content than fewer pages that cover a lot of content?
3. How can analysing the links to a competitor’s website help aid your own link building strategy?
4. Why is it important for search engines to keep updating their algorithms?
5. If metadata are no longer used for ranking purposes, why do they still have an important role in SEO?
Further reading
www.moz.com – Moz provides regular articles, guides and blog posts covering all things SEO. As well as sharing insights from their own SEO efforts, there are also vibrant forums where you can learn from others.
www.seobook.com – Aaron Wall’s SEObook.com provides training and tools for SEO, as well as regular articles and posts.
www.webmasterworld.com – a forum for webmasters, from beginners to those who’ve been around. A great resource for a budding SEO.
8.S: Search engine optimisation (SEO)(Summary)
The average website receives a significant proportion of its traffic from search engines, highlighting the importance of SEO.
There are two types of search results:
1. Organic or natural results
2. Paid results.
SEO aims to improve a website’s ranking in the organic results. Search engine optimisation is a fairly technical practice but it can easily be broken down into five main areas:
1. A search engine friendly website structure
2. A well-researched list of keywords
3. Content optimised to target those keywords
4. Link popularity
5. User insights.
Growing trends in SEO include the influence of social content on search results, mobile SEO and local search. Google is placing more and more emphasis on a mobile-first approach. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/08%3A_Create_-_Search_engine_optimization_(SEO)/8.09%3A_Case_study_-_Lloyds_Pharmacy_Online_Doctor.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• The principles of writing for your web audience.
• Which types of web copy are available to you.
• The basics of HTML for formatting online text.
• How to write for search engine optimisation (SEO), focusing specifically on keywords.
• The best practices for successful online copywriting.
09: Create - Digital Copywriting
Online copy is a hardworking multi-tasker. It must provide information to visitors, engage with them, convince them to take a desired action and, all the while, convey brand ethos. It also has to provide context and relevance to search engines. It needs to achieve all this without seeming as if the author is trying too hard to ensure a particular outcome.
You will see in this chapter that writing for digital is different from writing for more traditional media. Because of the sheer volume of information on the Internet, quality content is king. Many people argue that content is one of the most significant determinants of the success of your online campaigns. Considering it is one of the most direct lines of communication with your consumers, this is not surprising. Therefore, you will see many links between this chapter and the chapter on Content marketing strategy.
Note
Read more about this in the Content marketing strategy chapter.
Online copywriting involves everything from the text on a website to the subject line of an email and all things in between. From PR articles of 800 words to four-line search adverts, if it’s being read on a screen, no matter what the size of that screen, from desktop computer to mobile phone, it’s online copy. Writing for digital does not mean the traditional rules of writing need to be abandoned. By and large, the foundations remain.
9.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 9.2.1
Term Definition
Above the fold The content that appears on a screen without a user having to scroll.
Active verb A word that conveys action or behaviour, and in a call to action, tells a reader what to do.
Audience The group of people at which a marketing communication is targeted.
Benefit The positive outcome for a user that a feature provides.
Call to Action (CTA) A phrase written to motivate the reader to take action such as sign up for our newsletter or book car hire today
Dynamic keyword insertion In paid search advertising, this allows keywords used in searches to be inserted automatically into advert copy.
Feature A prominent aspect of a product that is beneficial to users.
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) Code used to structure the information and features within a web page.
Keyword stuffing The process of intentionally putting too many keywords into the metadata of the website or using many irrelevant keywords. Search engines can penalise websites using this practice.
Mass customisation Tailoring content for many individuals. Metadata information that can be entered about a web page and the elements on it in order to provide context and relevant information to search engines.
Persona A character created to define a group of readers in order to speak to them as though they were a unique reader, creating the feeling of a one-on-one conversation.
Paid search advertising Usually refers to advertising on search engines, sometimes called PPC advertising. The advertiser pays only for each click of the advert.
Sender alias The name that is chosen to appear in the sender or ‘from’ field of an email.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) The process of improving website rankings on search engine results pages.
Search engine results page (SERP) The actual results returned to the user based on their search query.
Tone of voice The register, formality and personality that comes through in the text.
Unique selling point (USP) The aspect that makes your offering different from your competitors’. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/09%3A_Create_-_Digital_Copywriting/9.01%3A_Introduction_to_Digital_Copywriting.txt |
Writing for an audience
In marketing and advertising, knowing your audience is vital. It will guide you in developing your content strategy, determining the topics they are interested in, and help you organise information in a way that makes sense to them. It will direct how you express your copy for your audience.
Step one of writing for digital is to ensure you have researched your audience and understand what they want. Once you have a clear idea about this, you can figure out how to fulfil those needs using your copy. Smashing Magazine (2015) recommends answering the following questions:
1. Who are you writing for?
2. What is the main message you want to get across?
3. Where does the action take place (where will it be read)?
4. When is it relevant?
5. Why is it important (what’s the goal)?
For example, your answers might look like this:
1. Who: First-time moms
2. Message: Our baby kit can help you
3. Where: Parenting forums/magazines/social media
4. When: Immediately before and after the birth of a child
5. Why: Because first-time moms need help (and because we want them to buy our product).
When you are researching your audience, there are two useful concepts to bear in mind, the audience of one, and personas.
The audience of one
According to Price and Price, audiences were traditionally thought of as a vast and vaguely defined crowd (Price & Price, 2002). Because the web provides a voice to individuals and niche groups, the concept of this mass audience is disintegrating.
Price and Price go on to argue that the Internet has led to an audience of one (Price & Price, 2002). What does this mean? While your audience is not literally one person (and if it is, thank your mum for reading your copy, but spend some time growing your readership), it is not a vast, vaguely defined crowd either. Instead, the web has many niche audiences who are used to being addressed as individuals. Indeed, The Economist Group (2015) confirms that personalised marketing is becoming more granular, helping to create specialised customer experiences that will keep them coming back.
The individual that you have in mind when you are writing could also be called a persona.
Take the time to think about how web and mobile content is consumed in the physical world. It’s usually an exclusive action, so write your copy this way.
Personas
A persona is a profile that a writer creates to embody the characteristics of the target audience for whom he or she is writing.
Personas are based on the profile of readers of your copy. Creating a profile is all about considering the characteristics of your readers and their needs and desires. When you are building this profilethere are a number of things that you should consider about your audience:
• Are they primarily male, female or a mixture?
• How old are they?
• What are their other demographics and psychographics?
Once you understand these simple characteristics, you can ask yourself some more in-depth questions. If you are selling something, questions could include:
• How do they make purchasing decisions?
• Do they compare many service providers before selecting one?
• Do they make lists of questions and call in for assistance with decision making, or do they make purchase decisions spontaneously based on a special offer?
Understanding the reader profiles of your readers is an important process and the best copy usually results from extensive time spent figuring out your audience.
Tailoring your copy to your audience does not necessarily limit you to one persona.
Digital copy can be structured so that it caters for several personas. Consider that your various marketing channels may have different audiences, so ensure that you have a persona for each main platform you use. However, you need to spend time understanding their needs before you are able to write copy that addresses these personas.
Types of web copy
Whether it is long or short, the purpose of content is to communicate a message. Communication implies that the message has been both received and understood. The considerations covered here are aimed at ensuring that when you distribute a message, it is communicated effectively to the people whom you want to receive it.
To communicate the intended message effectively, content needs to be:
• Clear and concise
• Easy to read
• Well-written
• Well-structured.
Content written for the web can be divided into two broad categories, short copy and long copy. The division is by no means scientific.
Short copy
On the web, writers often have very little time and space to get a message across to a visitor, and to entice them to take action. This is especially true of banner and search adverts but is also important across all digital marketing disciplines. Probably the most important short copy anywhere is the call to action.
Call to action
Users scan web pages and look for clues on what to do. Tell them. A call to action is a short, descriptive instruction that explicitly tells a reader what to do, for example, ‘Click here’ or, ‘Buy this now’. Any time there is an action you want a reader to take, a call to action should instruct them on what to do. This means using active verbs when you write, and crafting hyperlinks to be clear instructions that resonate with your visitors at each step in the conversion process.
Also, know where to place your call to action so that it makes sense to a reader’s eye. For example, depending on the structure of your page, it might be better to start with your call to action and then to qualify it. In other cases, ending the page with your call to action may have a stronger impact on the reader as they may be more likely to act once they have the information they need to do so. This depends on your product and the action you want your audience to take.
Banner advertising involves clear calls to action, and they can also be used in social media posts, search adverts, content marketing and more. Call to action copy is not limited to short copy. Email newsletters and promotions should also make use of calls to action and we even see them all over web pages. Each piece of online copy should be written with a CTA or at least with the question, “What’s next?” in mind.
A good call to action resonates with the action the users need to take, as opposed to the technical function that is performed. For example, if a user has entered an email address to sign up to your email newsletter, the action button should say ‘Sign up’ and not ‘Submit’. Make sure you write your instructions for humans. Think about what real people prefer to read!
Also consider what actions mean offline. For an email newsletter, ‘Sign up’ can have very different connotations from ‘Subscribe’. Furthermore, ‘Subscribe’ is very different from ‘Subscribe for free’.
Whereas subscriptions have connotations of costs, ‘Sign up’ does not carry the same burden. However, ‘Subscribe for free’ could imply greater value as something that would normally carry a cost is available to you for free.
Note
Since the call to action is key to converting customers, this is an important element to test. What iterations of your main call to action could you try?
Titles and subject lines
Note
The Huffington Post is well known for publishing articles with compelling headlines. Visit www. huffingtonpost.com to have a look at how they grab the reader’s attention.
Titles and subject lines often form part of a body of long copy. However, they are important enough to be discussed as stand-alone short copy. Titles and subject lines are there for a very important reason, they tell a reader whether or not they should read further. They are the gateway to your content.
Consider the following titles:
• Guide to online copywriting
• Ten steps to online copywriting that sells.
The second title conveys more information and excitement to the reader, which helps the reader to make a decision to read further.
Subject lines are like headlines for emails, and can make the difference between an email being deleted instantly and being opened and read. As with a headline, which should be carefully crafted like the headline of a newspaper, use the subject line to make it clear what the email is about. For example, if there is a promotion in the email, consider putting it in the subject line as well.
Note
An email subject line is the first cue your audience receives to help them decide whether to open an email or not. How can you make it count?
Titles, headlines and subject lines need to be both persuasive and enticing. Consider what need your copy is meeting for your readers, and express that first. Highlighting a benefit to your readers upfront means they are more likely to engage, even if they don’t necessarily need your product or service at the time.
Search adverts
Search adverts have very limited space and time to get a message across and there is plenty of competition for a reader’s attention. These few lines of copy need to work hard to ensure a top return on investment. Search adverts typically follow the same basic structure and have strict character limits for each line. The new Google expanded ads are as follows:
Heading1 – Heading 2 (max. 30 characters each) One description field (max. 80 characters) www.DisplayURL.com (uses your final URL’s domain with two optional “path” fields max. 15 characters each).
Note
Read more about this in the Search advertising chapter.
With a limited character count, it can seem daunting to communicate information that entices the right people to click through and also differentiates you from your competition. Testing variations of copy is the best way to determine what works best for your campaign. While copywriters are not generally responsible for writing paid search ads, they are often brand custodians and should review all copy representing a brand.
Social copy
Social media allows brands to have conversations with their customers and fans. This gives consumers a powerful voice and the ability to tell brands what they want. There are a few considerations to keep in mind when creating content for social media.
• Research is vital. Understand what type of content community members want. Meaningful and relevant content is more likely to be shared. Hashtags are fairly important for many platforms so research any hashtags you use to avoid making costly mistakes, like DiGiorno did with its use of the #WhyIStayed hashtag. This hashtag was part of an awareness campaign for domestic abuse and was used in tweets explaining why users had chosen to stay in abusive relationships.
• Remember that it’s a conversation. Your content must be personable and appealing. Use personality and convey the humanity of your brand in order to generate conversation and encourage comments.
• Write shareable content. Offer value and be insightful. Ultimately you should aim to create an overall perception that your brand is the thought leader in its industry. Shareable content is credible content.
• Avoid overly promotional content. Community members are likely to see right through a sales pitch. Instead, think about how your content can be useful to your reader. Remember, with content, value to the reader should come first, with value to the brand as a secondary consideration.
• Have a solid communication protocol. These can be internal guidelines for organisations to follow on how they use and communicate on social media platforms. This also ensures consistency, which is very important for creating a brand personality for readers to engage with.
Note
All of these points are covered in more detail in the chapters on Social media platforms and Social media strategies.
Long copy
Online copywriting is not just about short, sharp calls to action and attentiongrabbing headlines and adverts. It also covers longer pieces of content.
Longer copy has advantages. Primarily, it allows you to provide more information and encourage the reader to convert. You can foster a relationship with a reader, whether it is on a blog, through email communications, or through articles and news releases. With more words and space available, you are able to build a voice and a personality into your writing.
The expression ‘long copy’ is somewhat misleading. As online readers behave slightly differently from offline readers, it is unlikely that a skilled copywriter will be called on to create copy for the web that is longer than 800 or 1 000 words per page although, of course, there are exceptions to this.
Long copy needs to be structured and formatted so that it’s easy for attentionstarved web readers to digest. Web users tend to scan pages quickly to determine whether or not they will read further. Specifically in longer copy, you need to take this into consideration.
There are many types of long online copy including website copy! Here, we will focus on a few that are useful for marketing:
• News releases
• Articles for online syndication
• Emails
• Blog posts
• Advertorials
• Website.
Bear in mind that this is by no means an exhaustive list.
News releases
News releases are a staple of public relations. As the Internet grows, so does the overlap between PR and marketing. As a result, many copywriters are called upon to write news releases for online distribution as this is a standardised format for releasing information. Originally intended to provide information for journalists, news releases are increasingly being read by users bypassing the journalists. This means that they should be written in the brand tone, be accessible to the general public, and be optimised and formatted according to the principles of good web writing (more on those later). Also remember to focus on a compelling headline to win over your reader.
Emails
Note
Read more about this in the Direct marketing email and mobile chapter.
Email as a channel is an integral part of many online marketing strategies. Of course, content is a huge part of this; it comprises the words in an email with which a user engages.
By nature, emails are the ideal medium for communicating and building relationships with your consumers. This customer relationship marketing helps to increase retention. Successful email campaigns provide value to their readers. This value may vary from campaign to campaign. Newsletters can offer:
• Humour and entertainment
• Research and insight
• Information and advice
• Promotions and special offers.
Blogging
Blogs can be very successful marketing tools. They’re an excellent way to communicate with staff, investors, industry members, journalists and prospective customers. Blogging also helps to foster a community around a brand and provides an opportunity to garner immediate feedback. This is an audience made up of players vital to the success of a company which is why it is important to get blogging right. A key consideration is the quality of your headlines. You have to convince your reader to grant you their attention.
There is plenty to be gained from the process of blogging and obviously, the value, as with email marketing, lies in the content. This communication channel provides an opportunity for you to foster an online identity for your brand as well as giving your company a voice and a personality. This happens through the content you distribute as well as the tone you use to converse with your readers. There is more information on blogging in the chapter on Social media platforms.
Website copy
Website copy is a type of long copy, and the principles that apply to long copy in general also hold true for websites. Digital copywriters need to structure content effectively so that users want to engage with the site and read on. This is especially important when people access a site from their mobile phone, where the small screen size drastically reduces the content users will see before they scroll. Some ways to create digital copy that is usable and appropriate for an online audience include:
• Writing text that can be easily scanned
• Using meaningful headings and sub-headings
• Highlighting or bolding key phrases and words
• Using bulleted lists
• Having a well-organised site.
• Limiting each paragraph to one main idea or topic. The leading sentence should give a clear indication of what the paragraph is about. Readers can scan each paragraph without missing any essential information.
• Cutting the fluff. Get rid of meaningless turns of phrase and words that unnecessarily bulk up copy.
• Removing redundancies. These often creep into writing by accident, but you should work to eliminate them in order to get to the point.
• Including multimedia wherever relevant. Some readers may be more partial to video than reading, for example, see http://www.nytimes.com/ projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek.
Writing in the mobile age
Because of the number of people who use the internet via mobile phones, content is usually written for mobile first these days. Here are some points on creating digital copy for all screen sizes that encourages interaction and achieves marketing and business goals.
Note
Read more about this in the Mobile channels and apps chapter.
• Get to the point. With limited screen space, there really is no room for wordy text. You need to determine exactly what your message is and get to the point quickly! This is particularly true for content above the fold.
• Put the important bits up front. This includes contact information and navigation links. Word these clearly so that people know what action to take.
• Condense information to its simplest form. Ensure that it still makes sense and is grammatically sound.
Note
Once users have decided to navigate further into your mobile website, you can increase the amount of copy on the pages.
• Use a call to action upfront. Mobile web users are goal-orientated so provide them with the next step early on.
• Use headings and subheadings for scanning. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/09%3A_Create_-_Digital_Copywriting/9.03%3A_Core_principles.txt |
Apart from the information already covered, writing good copy involves a number of points and best practices that you should keep in mind.
HTML for formatting
HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and it’s the foundation of documents on the web. HTML tags tell browsers how to present content. HTML tags are written in brackets that look like arrows < >.
A good digital copywriter will also be able to use basic HTML to lay out copy knowing that the appearance of the page will get his or her words read. It should be easy for users to skip and skim the copy and it should be easy for them to find the parts that are most relevant to them.
When writing online copy you can use an HTML editor where you insert the tags yourself or, a ‘What You See Is What You Get’ (WYSIWYG) editor, which works in a similar way to a word processor.
Basic HTML is not difficult to use, and will help you format your content. Here are some basic HTML tags:
To bold: <b>phrase you want to bold</b>
To italicise: <i>phrase you want to italicise</i>
To underline: <u>phrase you want to underline</u>
To list: <li>lines you want to list</li>
To create a paragraph:
paragraph text</p>
To inert a line break: <br>
To insert a link: <a href="page url">phrase you want to link</a>
To insert a heading: <h1>Level one heading</h1>
To insert a sub-heading: <h2>Level two heading</h2>
The tags also help search engines to identify how the content has been laid out on the page.
The best way to get to grips with HTML is to start using it online, where you can see first-hand how the tags work.
Note
Right click on any web page and click ’view source’. Can you find the paragraph tab
?
SEO copywriting
A good online copywriter will have a thorough understanding of SEO and how this can be integrated into his or her writing. Key phrases can be used in long and short copy alike, to great effect.
Optimising for human and machine users
One of the most notable differences between writing for print and writing for digital is that when it comes to the latter, you are writing not only for an audience, but also for the search engines. While your human audience should always be your first priority, your copy also needs to speak to the search engines in a language they can understand. This digital tactic has been covered in greater depth in the chapter on Search engine optimisation. Optimising your copy for search engines is important because your target audience is most likely to be using a search engine to find the products or services you are offering. If the search engine is not aware that your content can give users the answers they are looking for on a particular subject, it won’t send traffic to your website.
Note
Read more about this in the Search engine optimisation chapter
Optimising your content for search is the process of telling search engines what content you are publishing. Keywords, key phrases, and themed pages are an integral part of this. Google is becoming increasingly semantically aware and can recognise synonyms, so repeatedly using specific keywords is no longer important; instead, good SEO copy focuses a page around particular themes, using keywords relevant to those themes.
SEO copywriters need to know how to blend keywords into their content and how to use them in conjunction with text formatting and metadata. In addition to assisting you with structuring your content, these tags indicate relevance and context to search engines. Some of the tags are used by screen readers, and so they assist visitors with technical limitations to access your content. The meta description can also be used by search engines on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Key phrase
A keyword refers to a single word used in a search query, while a key phrase refers to more than one word used in the search query.
Key phrase research is an important element of digital copywriting, and is covered in detail in the chapter on SEO. Having identified the themes of your web pages, keyword research should be used to identify what phrases your target audience use when searching for you. It is important to know what people are searching for, so that you can provide what they need.
Note
Read more about this in the Search engine optimisation chapter
Once you have a good idea of the words people are using to find information online (online tools exist that will guide you in this), you can create pages themed around the use of these phrases and their synonyms. A good copywriter is able to create these themed pages and use keywords/synonyms seamlessly, so that the reader cannot detect that they have been included.
Key phrases can be integrated into nearly every type of content that you write for the web. Below are a few places where Red & Yellow tend to include key phrases and synonyms on our website.
Page title
The page title appears at the top of a user’s browser and should be able to tell the user (and the search engine spiders, of course) what the main theme of the page is. The page title is usually limited to under 60 characters, including spaces. The key phrase should be used as close to the beginning of the title as possible, followed by the name of the company or website.
Page URL
The main key phrase for the page should be used whenever possible in the URL for the page. If you are using a blogging tool or content management system (CMS), the URL is generated from the page title, so using the key phrase in the page title should ensure that it is in the URL as well.
Meta description
The meta description is a short paragraph describing the page content. This summary is usually shown on the SERPs if it contains the search term, which means that it needs to entice users to click through with a strong CTA. The spiders use the meta description to deduce the topic of the page, so using targeted key phrases is important here. Copy should generally be between 150 and 160 characters, including spaces.
Note
Every page on a website must have a unique URL, page title and meta description.
Meta keywords
Meta keywords are the list of the words and phrases that are important on a web page. Using targeted key phrases is important, but remember, no keyword stuffing! The meta keywords are limited to 200 characters, including spaces. This is, however, no longer a major source of information used by search engines though it certainly doesn’t hurt to include these.
Headings and sub-headings
Spiders assign more relevance to the text used in headings, so it is important to use your key phrases in the headings on your page. It also helps you to structure your content. Headings are created with HTML tags. Heading structures are set out like this:
Having a good heading hierarchy is important as spiders use it to move through your page and understand its relevance to the search query; it also helps human readers to scan your page.
On-page copy
For on-page copy, remember that you will be optimising for a theme rather than for a set key phrase. This means you want to use relevant synonyms as well as your keywords without being overt about it meaning they should not stand out too much.
For SEO effectiveness, a page of web copy should be at least 250 words long. On this page, use keywords and synonyms that fit the theme as and when required.
The page should not be so long that the user needs to scroll continuously to get to the end of it. If you find the page is getting exceptionally long, consider breaking it into different web pages for different sections. In this way, you could add several pages of optimised copy focused on one theme instead of one very long page. This will benefit your reader if they are looking for something that is particular to the shorter page.
Links to your optimised page
The text used to link from one page to another is considered important by search engine spiders, so try to ensure that your key phrase is used when linking to the optimised page. The anchor text of links should include the key phrase of the page being linked to, and not the page being linked from.
Note
When submitting promotional copy to other sites that includes links back to your own website, which phrases would be most important to include in this link text?
Images: Alt text and title tags
Alt text refers to the ‘alt’ attribute for the HTML tag: this is the text that appears in the caption. It is used in HTML to attribute text to an image on a web page, normally to describe what an image is about and display text in instances where the image is unable to load. While this is handy for humans and aids accessibility, it is also used for another reason, namely, search engine spiders can’t read images, but they can read the alt text. The image title tag shows when you hover with your mouse over an image, depending on your browser, and can also be read by the search engine spider. This will also help users find your images on Google’s Image Search, which can also be helpful in driving traffic to your page.
Best practices for online copywriting
Now that we have covered the basic theoretical principles of writing for digital, we need to look at the best practices to apply whenever you are writing copy for publication on the web. There are several things that you need to consider.
1. Does your copy convey a creative idea?
2. Does the layout of your copy make it easier to read?
3. Is your meaning clear and direct?
4. Does the copy convey the features and benefits necessary to make your point (if applicable)?
5. Will your readers clearly understand the content of your writing?
6. Is the content of your message structured in a logical manner for desktop and/or mobile reading?
The rest of this chapter will be dedicated to ensuring that you have the knowledge and tools to answer these questions.
Conceptual copywriting
Most of the points in this chapter have focused on the practicalities of writing online copy such as getting information across and encouraging user actions and engagement.
Copy should also be creative, beautiful and thought provoking.
Your copy should express an idea that grips readers. Conceptual copywriting is about making an idea memorable merely by using words to express it. The idea is central, and the words are the vehicles that convey it. Clever wording, smart ideas and thoughtful copy should make the reader pause, think, and want to engage more deeply with your idea.
While images are often used to express powerful ideas, words can be just as effective. Consider this famous example, which demonstrates how a small change in the copy can radically affect one’s perception of an idea:
A woman without her man is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing.
Writing conceptually means conveying a brand message in a creative way to make an emotive connection with a specific audience. It’s all about bringing a big idea or concept to life.
Layout and legibility
As we have mentioned already, readers process content differently online from the way that they read offline. On the web, readers tend to scan text rather than read every word.
As a result, online copy is judged at a glance, not just on content, but first and foremost by its layout. It needs to look as if it’s easy to read before a user will choose to read it. Digital copy should be easy to scan. This means using:
• Clear and concise headings
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Short paragraphs
• Bold and italics
• Descriptive links.
It’s easy to see this in practice.
Before After
Tea has been drunk for thousands of years, and as people are growing more health conscious, tea sales are increasing. Personal preference plays an important role in making the perfect cup of tea. However, using fresh water ensures maximum oxygen in the tea, and warming the teapot first is standard practice. Tradition dictates one teabag per person, and one for the pot. Tea is served with milk, lemon, honey or sugar, according to taste.
Worldwide, tea sales are increasing as people are becoming more health conscious. Here are some tips on making the perfect cup of tea:
• Use fresh water (for maximum oxygen)
• Warm the teapot first
• Use one teabag per person, and one for the pot
The perfect cup of tea is based on personal preference and taste. Tea can be served with:
Milk or lemon
Honey or sugar
Language
The basic principles of good writing apply online, but because your audience’s attention is limited and often divided, it is best to keep it simple and tailor your language to your audience.
Tone: The tone of your content should be consistent with the brand for which you are writing. Brands will often have full tone-of-voice documentation. If they don’t, read some of the brand material to get a feel for the company’s style of communication. Compare the difference in tone in the examples below.
Example \(1\) of Tone A: Investec
We provide a diverse range of financial products and services to a niche client base in three principal markets, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia, as well as certain other geographies.
Investec’s strategic goals are motivated by the desire to develop an efficient and integrated business on an international scale through the active pursuit of clearly established core competencies in the group’s principal business areas (Investec, 2016).
Example \(2\) of Tone B: Nando's
The story of Nando’s starts hundreds of years ago with the first Portuguese explorers who set sail for the East in search of the legendary spice route.
Lured by the promises of our beautiful continent, they came ashore and there, under our famous sun, they discovered the African Bird’s Eye Chilli or as we know it (and love it), PERi-PERi. Unique in its properties, they used it to create a one-of-a-kind sauce that ignited the fires of passion inside them.
A few centuries later, in 1987, it was the same PERi-PERi sauce that inspired Fernando Duarte to invite his buddy Robbie Brozin to a small Portuguese eatery in Rosettenville, South Africa, to try some PERi-PERi marinated chicken. In his own words, “I knew nothing about the food business, I just knew that it was the best chicken I had ever tasted.” (Nando’s, 2016).
Active voice: Grammatically speaking, people expect characters to execute actions that have an impact on objects or other characters.
For example: The girl ate a chocolate.
• The girl is the subject.
• Eating is the action
• The chocolate is the object that is affected by the action
This is known as the active voice. Unfortunately, writers often use the passive voice. This turns the object into the subject forcing the reader to think more carefully about the sentence. For example: The chocolate was eaten by the girl. The human brain automatically translates this into the format that it expects. According to Price and Price, this adds 25% to the time required to understand a sentence (Price & Price, 2002).
When writing for the web, it is better to use the active voice.
Neologisms and buzzwords: Sometimes the World Wide Web is referred to as the Wild Wild Web as it is an environment where anything goes. The ever-growing numbers of social media participants, for example, habitually play fast and loose with grammar.
With new services and products being developed daily, it can feel as if the list of new words, and their uses, is growing faster than you can keep up with. Dictionaries and reference guides celebrate this regularly with a ‘word of the year’, usually one that has been in heavy use on the Internet for the three years preceding its entry into a dictionary.
For example, in 2015, the laughing emoji was voted word of the year by the editors of the New Oxford American dictionary to reflect the worldwide increase in popularity of the emoji (Oxford Dictionaries, 2015).
Online services can quickly become verbs in everyday language, so we say ‘Googling something’ instead of ‘searching on Google’, and of ‘Facebooking someone’. Bing is still trying desperately to work its way into everyday conversation in this way.
Always remember you are writing for your users so talk in the same way that they talk. If your content is aimed at cutting-edge early adopters, then pepper it with the latest buzzwords. If your audience does not know the difference between Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge, then be cautious when using a word that did not exist the day before.
Features and benefits: Writing compelling copy means conveying to readers why they should perform an action. While features may seem all-important, you need to communicate the benefits of the features to the user.
You also need to communicate the benefits in a way that makes the user think about the product’s role in their life. Write so that they imagine actually owning the product.
• Feature: a prominent aspect of a product or service that can provide benefit to users. It describes what the product does.
• Benefit: the positive outcome for a user that a feature provides. It can be the emotional component of what the user gets out of the product.
Why would your audience want to buy your product or service? Put aside the features for a moment; what will compel your audience to buy on an emotional level? How does it address their wants and needs?
For example, consider a home entertainment system. Features could include surround sound and a large flat-screen television. The benefit is a cinema-quality experience in your own home.
Features and benefits are very different. Features are important to the company that provides the product or service. Benefits are important to those who decide to use the product or service.
Persuasive writing makes use of features, benefits and active verbs to create appealing messages for your personas:
Enjoy cinema-quality movie nights in your own home with a surround-sound home entertainment system.
Logic
The structure of online copy can be compared closely to the structure of a newspaper article. The headline, usually containing the most important bit of information in a story, comes first. Online, visitors decide quickly whether or not to read a page. As a result of this, the most important information needs to be at the top.
Start with the summary or conclusion which is the main idea of the article.
While clever word play in headings can attract some attention, these need to be written in line with the objective you want to achieve. The copy is multitasking, not only is it informing visitors of what to expect; it is also telling search engine spiders what the page is about. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/09%3A_Create_-_Digital_Copywriting/9.04%3A_Implementing_writing_for_digital.txt |
The advantages of good digital copywriting are simple, your content will work better, your SEO will benefit, and your customers will find it easier to absorb your material. Clear call to actions can also help to increase response rates.
However, some challenges do exist. The primary challenge is learning what, exactly, good copy is. This is important because bad copy can really turn off your customer! Meeting SEO requirements without being spammy can be tricky, and you need a clear set of writing guidelines for your organisation to follow.
9.06: Measuring Success
Measuring copywriting performance is important. How will you know what’s working and what isn’t unless you do so?
Often, brands use conversions as the primary way to measure success. If your copy doesn’t convert, what’s the point? The goals that you measure will depend on the goals of your copy. If you want to boost subscribers to your newsletter or blog, then the number of subscribers will be your measure of success. If you want to increase sales, then the number of sales will be your measure. Because digital copywriting applies to almost every aspect of digital marketing, you can only measure its success if you have a clear idea of your goals.
However, copy isn’t always just about converting. You can also use impressions, time on page, and bounce rate to see whether your copy is keeping people interested and on-site.
9.07: References
Economist Group, 2015. An audience of one. Available at: www.economistgroup.com/marketingunbound/the-next-big-thing/nanomarketingpersonalization-real-time-marketing-memsql-gary-orenstein [Accessed 20 September 2016] - Link no longer active
Investec, 2016. Investec. [Online] Available at: www.investec.co.za/#home/about_investec.html [Accessed 1 November 2017].
Medhora, N., 2015. How I tripled Yelp’s email response rates with just 3 changes. [Online] Available at: kopywritingkourse.com/b2b-email-marketing-tips-from-yelp [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Nando’s, 2010. Nando’s. [Online] Available at: https://www.nandos.co.za/explore/the...y-of-peri-peri [Accessed 1 November 2017].
Oxford Dictionaries, 2015. Announcing the Oxford Dictionaries “Word” of the Year 2015. [Online] Available at: blog.oxforddictionaries.com/press-releases/announcing-the-oxford-dictionaries-word-ofthe-year-2015/ [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Price, L. & Price, J., 2002. Hot Text: Web Writing That Works. Indiana: New Riders.
Smashing Magazine, 2015. How Copywriting Can Benefit From User Research. [Online] Available at: www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/07/how-copywriting-can-benefit-from-user-research [Accessed 1 November 2017]
9.08: Tools of the trade
The Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) formula from Harry McLaughlin can be used to calculate the reading level of copy that you have written. A SMOG calculator, and instructions for use, can be found on here: www.readabilityformulas. com/free-readability-formula-tests.php
Alternatively, www.flesh.sourceforge.net offers a Java application that produces the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and the Flesch Reading Ease Score of a document.
For an online dictionary and an online thesaurus, you can visit www.dictionary.com and www.thesaurus.com.
Note
Read more about this in the Search engine optimisation chapter.
When it comes to keyword research there are a host of tools available. Have a look at the tools suggested in the chapter on SEO. Grammarly is a good one - www. grammarly.com.
9.09: Case study - Yelp
One-line summary
A Yelp salesperson tripled her B2B email marketing response rate by personalising and humanising email copy.
The challenge
Yelp’s sales email templates were dry and unengaging, not considering the audience to whom they were writing and included no consideration of features vs. benefits. This caused a disconnect between the brand and its audience. The emails made the salesforce sound, “Like a bunch of robots… with no personality” (Medhora, 2015)
The solution
One Yelp salesperson tested a number of more personalised emails and came up with a formula that increased response rates considerably. She focused on showing that she was a real person and on building a sense of urgency, and her formula looked like this:
Feature + Benefit + Value + Human Factor = Email more likely to earn a response
So, for example, for the feature, she would link to a business’s Yelp pages. The benefit would be a description of how the business can grow through Yelp. The value would be indicating how many leads the business had found through Yelp, and the human factor involved casual subject lines and use of emojis. The subject line for the email below was “Re: Yelp Email Per Your Request – A Response Would Be Appreciated☺.
The salesperson ran a few experiments to measure the success rates of personalised emails against Yelp template emails, added some important factors to consider – how the copy attracted attention, ignited interest and desire, and encouraged action – and then made sure that the email was interesting as well. She also tested a number of headlines, or subject lines, to see which had the best response rates.
The results
• Her response rate rose from 3.33% to 11.43% (even if some of the responses were negative!)
• She learned some important lessons about how personalising your copy, thinking about features vs. benefits, and writing for an audience of one can improve responses!
9.10: The bigger picture
It should be pretty clear by now that online copy touches every other digital marketing tactic. After all, they all need to communicate messages in text format, whether that’s a CTA button on a website, a video description, or a long-form press release written for digital PR purposes. While content marketing strategy may tell you what content to create, knowing how to create it comes down to great web writing skills.
Writing for digital overlaps strongly with SEO, since copy is the basis of all web optimisation as search engines can’t read images, videos or other rich media content, and with UX, since making a website easy to navigate involves ensuring that your copy matches user needs.
9.E: Digital copywriting(Exercises)
Case study questions
1. Why would bad copy in emails prevent users from signing up with Yelp, which aims to help businesses grow?
2. Why do you think the more targeted copy performed better than the more generic copy?
3. Identify the writing for digital principles (including audience considerations) that improved the response rate for the Yelp emails.
Chapter questions
1. Why is important to write for an ’audience of one’?
2. Why should users dictate your content? List some ways that users’ needs determine content.
3. What are some ways to make web copy easy to read and why is it important to do so?
4. For some real online copywriting practice, choose an article in a magazine or newspaper and rewrite it for an Internet audience.
Further reading
To get started on writing for digital, Hot Text: Web Writing That Works is an easy-to-read and thorough resource. The website for the book is www.webwritingthatworks.com. Another excellent resource is The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a New Media and Marketing Era (www.palgrave.com/gp/ book/9780230613881) www.copyblogger.com has regular articles and case studies on writing online copy that converts.
9.S: Writing for Digital(Summary)
Online copy is the foundation of a website. It is constantly in view and is usually the focal point of a page. Good online copy can also make the difference between a site attracting regular traffic and becoming stagnant.
Your writing needs first and foremost to have the reader in mind. The copy should be strong, clear and easily readable (remember the principles of scannability, including bullet points, bolding, short paragraphs and headings), while still making maximum use of key phrases. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/09%3A_Create_-_Digital_Copywriting/9.05%3A_Advantages_and_challenges.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• the various types of eCommerce.
• eCommerce on specific channels like mobile and social.
• eCommerce across multiple channels.
• the various considerations in setting up an eCommerce site.
10: Create - eCommerce
While credit cards and online shopping (shoes anyone?) are often associated with the term eCommerce, the field encapsulates all digital transactions. This includes the buying and selling of goods and services and the transfer of funds and data.
Due to the global recession, the retail industry as a whole has seen slow growth over the last few years. That there is any growth at all is largely due to eCommerce, with many US retailers recording flat or declining sales without their online channels (PwC, 2017). eCommerce is a trillion dollar growing industry. It is recorded as the only trillion dollar industry that continues to grow by double digit percentages each year, rising 24% in 2016 and such growth is expected to continue to 2020 (eMarketer, 2016).
The explosive growth of eCommerce in recent years can be attributed to the ever increasing reach of the Internet, the development of faster internet speeds and the convenience afforded by ordering things online. Hunting and comparing prices from the comfort of your chair is often more enticing than going from store to store.
10.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 10.2.1
Term Definition
eCommerce The buying and selling of products and services, including funds and data, electronically.
B2C Business to consumer, where a business sells products or services directly to the consumer.
B2B Business to business, where a business sells products or services to another business, such as the relationship between manufacturers and distributors or retailers.
C2C Consumer to consumer, where consumers sell products directly to other consumers.
C2B Consumer to business, where consumers sell products to business, such as freelance services.
Cross channel commerce Strategic maximization of customer relationships beyond the initial engagement channel.
m-commerce Mobile commerce, the use of wireless devices to conduct commercial transaction online.
Multi-channel commerce An online purchase experience that involves multiple channels, such as social media, company website, user reviews, in-store, traditional media and apps.
Omnichannel Retailing strategy that delivers a seamless customer experience through all available shopping channels.
Payment gateway eCommerce service that processes online payment for purchases through online stores.
Social commerce Subset of eCommerce that involves social media and online media that supports social interaction, where user contributions assist in online trade of products.
10.03: Types of eCommerce
Electronic Commerce, or eCommerce, is defined as the buying and selling of products and services, including funds and data, electronically. eCommerce can be divided into 4 main types.
Business to consumer B2C
The most common type of eCommerce is business to consumer (B2C), in which a business sells products or services directly to consumers over the Internet. All retail sites are essentially B2C, with amazon.com as the prime example, due to it being the world’s largest online retailer.
The benefits of eCommerce include the ability for retailers to have a wide variety of products available without needing the physical retail space to hold and display items. The procurement and distribution processes are also streamlined as products are shipped directly to consumers, and not via distributors or retail outlets in between. The process has fewer overheads, and is more efficient in terms of time and money, reducing inventory management costs, and ultimately being able to deliver products to the customer at less cost than retail in-store outlets.
Business to business
B2B Another type of eCommerce is business to business (B2B), which describes online transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. It can also include business related services, such as letting of commercial spaces, printing services, outsourced marketing, hiring and selling of office equipment, and so on.
Like B2C, the same benefits of lowered inventory management costs and a more streamlined procurement and distribution process, make eCommerce an efficient and attractive model for companies selling to other businesses.
Consumer to consumer C2C
Consumer to consumer (C2C) eCommerce is where consumers sell products to other consumers. Generally, a C2C business provides the platform for various users to use it to interact with each other for mutual benefit. A recent large-scale C2C eCommerce example is Uber. The business simply provides a transactional platform where consumers offer other consumers a lifting service based on location and cost preference. eBay is another globally recognised C2C online business. Sellers can list their products on eBay and interested buyers auction for it. Similar sites such as Airbnb, Gumtree and Craigslist are all C2C eCommerce platforms.
In C2C eCommerce, consumers either pay a fee to use the platform or the platform takes a percentage of all transactions processed through the site. If the platform is free to all consumers to buy and sell, then the site often generates its revenue through advertising.
Consumer to business C2B
Consumer to business (C2B) eCommerce involves consumers selling products or services to businesses and the business pays the consumer. Examples of this include Guru.com, a freelancer hiring website and websites that pay individuals for completing online surveys. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/10%3A_Create_-_eCommerce/10.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
eCommerce refers to electronic business transactions across the entire Internet. There are some specific channels on which eCommerce is gaining popularity, namely mobile and social commerce.
With mobile becoming the channel of choice for accessing the web and with Facebook, along with other social media platforms, continuing to dominate the time users spend online, businesses need to ensure they operate in these spaces if they want to continue to appeal to, and retain, their users.
In short, having eCommerce that operates across mobile and social is an online business necessity. Failure to move into these spaces means users may simply look for alternatives that do facilitate eCommerce through these channels.
Mobile commerce (m-commerce)
Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is the use of wireless handheld devices such as cellular/mobile phones to conduct commercial transactions online. While the growth of desktop eCommerce has slowed down, mobile continues to thrive, with dramatic year on year increases. Over a third of all eCommerce transactions now take place on mobile devices, and this is expected to grow by another 30% in 2017 to overtake desktop transactions. While in China, mobile shoppers already account for 68% of online purchases (SmartInsights, 2017). The importance of m-commerce is undeniable and should be included in every business’ eCommerce strategy.
Reasons for growth in m-commerce
M-commerce transactions continue to grow as a result of the following:
• The number of global mobile users is steadily increasing every year, resulting in an increased demand for mobile websites and applications.
• The rapid adoption of eCommerce means that evolving customers are looking for more options across more devices.
• Improved technology has given mobile devices advanced capabilities and faster internet access enabling m-commerce to be available on even the most affordable devices.
• Broadband technology and lowering data costs mean more consumers have access to m-commerce even on affordable devices and data plans.
• Mobile users are looking for instant gratification online; this includes their online shopping needs. Increase in m-commerce for fast food, fresh produce and basic household items such as toilet paper, nappies, bread and eggs have been driven by this need for customers to get what they need when and where they want it.
Benefits of m-commerce
M-commerce has a range of benefits over traditional eCommerce. These include:
• Access
Gaining access to the Internet through mobile is easier and more affordable than desktop options. The lfalling costs of data and improved Internet access on mobile mean more and more users have access to the Internet via mobile than any other device.
• Convenience
Mobile phones are always with us and being constantly connected enhances the benefits of anytime, anywhere use with no need to plug in to or log in to computers wherever they are situated. Mobile is an appropriate name as these devices are with us wherever we go, making it easy and convenient to transact online at any time convenient to the consumer.
• Costs
Mobile devices are more affordable than computers and offer multiple uses reducing the need for an additional computer. Calls, messaging services, social media and news content are just a few of the reasons consumers would prefer to use a single device making mobile phones the obvious choice.
• Ease of use
Mobile phones are relatively easy and simple to use, and there is no need for a particularly digitally skilled consumer. They allow consumers to make instant purchases with little technical skill.
• Mobile payments
Security around online payments remains the biggest barrier to eCommerce. Mobile payments allow alternative options for transactions via mobile currencies, mobile wallets and alternative mobile only payment methods. Such easy and secure payment options make mobile the preferred choice for many users.
• Rich content
The advances in mobile processing power and cheaper data rates mean GIFs and videos can be easily used on mobile web and mobile applications (apps). Such rich media allows brands to better demonstrate a product’s key features, to share testimonials of happy consumers, and to showcase the use/look of the product or service.
Mobile web vs. Mobile applications for m-commerce
Google is the largest search engine used by mobile consumers globally, and thus access to m-commerce sites is mostly via Google search. Email marketing, and social media are the next largest drivers to m-commerce platforms, also via mobile browsers. As a result, traffic and transactions on mobile browsers outperform traffic and transactions on apps.
However, this does not mean that mobile apps are not important. Just because most traffic is through mobile browsers, doesn’t mean that your business cannot operate mainly through the app. Mobile applications should be considered, and if applicable for your business, used in conjunction with mobile websites to enhance consumers’ overall shopping experience. If most of your mobile traffic is through apps, then you will need to consider using the app as your primary m-commerce platform.
Note
If you want to learn more about whether a mobile app or mobile website is better for your business go to Human Service Solution at www. hswsolutions.com/ services/mobile-webdevelopment/mobilewebsite-vs-apps/
Social commerce (s-commerce)
Social commerce is a subset of eCommerce that involves social media, or other online media that supports social interaction, and user contributions, to assist users with the online buying and selling of products and services. S-commerce uses social networks to facilitate eCommerce transactions – it brings eCommerce functionality directly into social media platforms. And with users increasingly spending their online time in these social media spaces, bringing eCommerce to where users are spending most of their time makes good business sense.
When customers are satisfied with your business, social media makes it easy for them to share and recommend your brand. Because of this shareable nature, social media is a place where content goes viral. This is known as social influence. Social media channels play a very important role in driving conversions if you have happy customers, but such channels can also cause brand degradation if a customer is unhappy.
Social media enables conversations to spread at lightning speed so how you will harness these conversations to drive sales needs to be considered as part of any eCommerce strategy. Enabling users to purchase the products and services that are being talked about and shared on social media is the most effective of way of using the platform to drive conversions. Various platforms now enable users to buy products directly and instantly through the platform.
To find out more on using Facebook for s-commerce go here:
https://www.facebook.com/business/in...-and-eCommerce and about Buyable Pins on Pinterest go here. www.demandware.com/pages/pinterest
Benefits of s-commerce
Just like m-commerce, there are certain benefits that s-commerce has over traditional eCommerce. These include:
• Audience growth
As of January 2017, over 2.7 billion people were on social media. This is more than a third of the global population. This number is also up over 20% from 2016. A tremendous growth, with little sign of slowing down (Chaffey, 2017). One of the most important considerations for any eCommerce business is how to reach and sell to its target customer audience, and from these statistics it is safe to say that a large proportion of any brand’s market is on social media.
• Higher search engine ranking
Using social media for s-commerce increases traffic to your website which will influence your ranking on search engine results. Sharing links to products and content on your website through social media is an excellent way to drive traffic using social media users. It also allows your audience to engage with a product, like or share it, and to reach an even larger audience.
• Authentic engagement and traffic
The most significant benefit of using social media for s-commerce is the engagement and reach that businesses can get whenever they share content. By appearing in followers’ updates or feeds on a regular basis, you’re participating in a powerful branding opportunity. Users who have regular positive contact with a company are more likely to recommend that company.
Operating on social media encourages users to connect with a business through two-way communication. This allows customers to not only engage with your business on a commercial level, but it also gives them the opportunity to use social media as an efficient customer service channel where it’s possible to solve problems. Social media word-of-mouth (sharing/ reposting) helps with audience building, as well as increased engagement and website traffic.
• Customer loyalty
S-commerce is not purely focused on selling but uses the social platforms to help the business build relationships with potential and existing customers. Such relationships can deepen trust and loyalty between consumers and the brand. This in turn creates happy, satisfied customers, who will likely be customers who make repeat purchases, i.e. a loyal customer.
• Analytics
Social media platforms make it easy to track, measure and evaluate conversions that happen through s-commerce. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn all offer built-in analytics tools for measuring traffic, clickthrough, fans/followers, likes, sentiment and actual conversions coming via the social platform. This is a huge benefit for monitoring your ROI.
Learn more about social media as a digital marketing tactic in the Social media platforms and Social media advertising chapters. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/10%3A_Create_-_eCommerce/10.04%3A_eCommerce_on_specific_channels.txt |
In addition to being available on specific channels, eCommerce also forms part of other retail approaches. It is important to understand what these approaches are and where eCommerce fits into the broader strategy of your business.
Multi-channel commerce
When your business operates across multiple sales and media channels, you are considered to be engaging in multi-channel commerce. For instance, you might sell your products on your website, a mobile app, via a call centre, in stores, on Amazon and on eBay, all while communicating with customers via many types of devices and social media channels. You utilize a variety of multiple sales and marketing channels to sell your products to different types of users and, therefore, you’re a multi-channel vendor.
Cross-channel commerce
When your business encourages its customers to interact with your business on more than one channel, you are engaging in cross-channel commerce. Essentially cross-channel commerce is the strategic maximization of customer relationships via the introduction of new channels beyond the one that originally engaged the user.
A customer would have approached a brand via a specific channel to browse and initiate purchase, and cross-channel retailers would encourage that customer to then make use of other available shopping channels, such as the website, app or social media platforms, to engage further with the brand. Cross-channel retailers encourage interactions on their terms. Such interaction across channels increases the likeliness of additional conversions and future sales.
Omnichannel commerce
An omnichannel commerce strategy can be defined as a retailing strategy that delivers a seamless customer experience through all available shopping channels. What distinguishes the omnichannel customer experience from the multi-channel customer experience is that with the latter there is true integration between channels on the back end including customer data (single view of customer), inventory management, stock movement, supply-chain, fulfilment information and customer relationship management.
The customer’s interaction with the brand is integrated across all channels. Customers can seamlessly migrate from channel to channel with no interruption or loss of data, and can pick up wherever in their customer journey they may be irrespective of which channel they choose to engage the brand.
Customers are becoming increasingly digitally savvy, and expect to be able to engage with the brand across a variety of channels, depending on what is most convenient to them. They expect these interactions to be seamless, backed by an integrated system across all channels. In short, customers expect an omnichannel commerce experience, and are frustrated by what they see as inferior brands, that fail to provide this.
Note
Further Reading: 7 Inspiring Examples of Omnichannel User Experiences by Aaron Agius: blog.hubspot. com/marketing/ omni-channel-userexperience-examples#s m.00001gxdf8f6orey1z5 ftxme7hlbh
Total retail
A seamless experience across all channels should arguably be a point of parity, rather than a differentiator. With thousands of brands competing for business, there is a need to go one better than omnichannel and offer their customers an enhanced and personalised online shopping experience if they want to satisfy and retain their customers. In 2014, PwC termed this approach of providing a seamless, enhanced and personal retail experience as going, “Total retail” (PwC, 2014).
Total retail means two things:
1. A unified brand story across all channels that promises a consistently superior customer experience.
2. An integrated back office operating model with agile and innovative technology.
Total retail is a more customer centric approach than omni-channel. It still offers a seamless experience to the user across channels, but it places the individual customer’s experience at the heart of all its business operations. The focus is on the customer, rather than the various channels that can be used to reach the customer.
According to PwC (2014) it is consumer expectations that are driving this new retail business model. Customers are quick to take their business elsewhere if they are not satisfied with their online shopping experience. Brands need to respond by doing what they can to make their eCommerce offering enjoyable, seamless and as convenient as possible. To enable this, brands need to invest in customer-focused technologies that can track customers across the various channels and aim to achieve a single view of customer. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/10%3A_Create_-_eCommerce/10.05%3A_Multi-channel_commerce_to_total_retail.txt |
When deciding to set up an eCommerce website there are 5 main considerations:
1. Which industry will you operate in and what products will you sell?
2. How will you build your website?
3. How will you physically ship your product and fulfil orders?
4. How will you drive traffic to your site?
5. What metrics will you measure to determine success, and which tools will you use?
Each of these considerations is important to having a successful eCommerce business. From choosing your product through to analysing your performance, decisions you make here will have a long-term impact on your business. So, carefully examine your options and make informed decisions to ensure future success.
Choosing an industry and product
To make your eCommerce business a success you need to be selling a product that consumers will want and are prepared to buy online. You also need to ensure that you are making a reasonable margin on your products to sustain your business’ longevity, and that you will be able to manage physically storing and delivering the product you choose to sell.
Here are some key factors to consider when choosing an industry and product.
• Price
If the product cost is too low, it will be challenging to reach a positive return on investment (ROI). If it’s too high, there is a good chance that some customers will want to speak with someone, or see, touch and feel the product prior to making the purchase.
• Margin
Many products sold online have a gross margin around 30−35% however this can change drastically depending on the industry. For example, electronics and toys typically have smaller margins while clothing and apparel are often marked up by 150% to 200%.
• Competition
Generally speaking, it is easier to drive sales online when the product can’t be bought in local stores or in a wide variety of online stores.
• Shipping costs
Larger products tend to have higher shipping costs which can negatively affect sales. Most customers not only want free shipping, they expect it. As a result, it can be difficult to sell a product with a hefty shipping fee. Many online retailers include the shipping cost in the cost of the product while raising the total price and offering ‘free shipping’. However, these increases in price can decrease sales.
• Passion
Love the product or service you wish to sell. Starting and growing an eCommerce website typically comes with a series of obstacles and frustrations. Passion for your industry can be a great source of motivation to push through any challenges that may arise.
Setting up the website
There are five important steps to follow when setting up your eCommerce website.
Step 1. Choosing your domain name
Step 2. Obtaining a secure (SSL) certificate
Step 3. Choosing the right hosting package
Step 4. Choosing an eCommerce platform
Step 5. Selecting your payment gateway.
Step 1. Choose your domain name
To get started you will need a domain name for your website. Domain names can be purchased through hosting companies or domain registrars. When choosing a domain name remember your target market, will you be targeting just your local market or an international one? If you are targeting the local market, you can register a local domain, like .co.za or co.uk, but if you are targeting a global market then it would be preferable to go with an international domain like .com
You can purchase domain names from companies like godaddy.com or www.networksolutions.com.
Here are some tips for choosing a good domain name.
• Make it easy to type
Remember you want users to be able to find you easily, and slang, complicated names or those with different spellings can make your site difficult to find. So choose words that are simple, easy to spell and type in your domain name.
• Keep it short
The longer and more complex your name, the more risk you run of users misspelling it or mistyping it. Keep it simple.
• Use keywords
Carefully think about words that describe your product or the keywords that users will type into search engines when searching for your brand or product. Using keywords will make your site rank higher on SERPs, which will drive traffic to your site.
• Target your area
If you are running a local business, try including your location in your domain name, as this will make it easier for local users to find you and may rank you higher on search engines. For example, users looking for electricians in Chicago are more likely to find ChicagoElectical.co.us than ElectricianForU.com
• Avoid numbers and hyphens
Although using numbers or hyphens appear clever and make sense to you, they can confuse users who often type out the number or forget the hyphen. If you need to use characters, try to register the different variations to ensure users will still be driven to your site and not to a competitor.
• Be memorable
There are already millions of registered domain names. Users are inundated with regular ordinary names, so coming up with a domain that’s catchy and memorable will definitely help to drive traffic to your site.
• Research it
Before you decide on a name do your due diligence and research the name for any trademarks or copyrights. You also want to check that it is not too similar to any competitors. Failure to ignore trademarks and copyrights can result in costly legal battles and having to rebrand later on.
• Use an appropriate domain name extension
When registering your domain you will need to choose the extension. Extensions are the suffix at the end of your domain name, such as .com, .net and .org. Local options like .za or .uk are also popular. The .com or .net options are the most popular however, because these have been around so long, it is often problematic to get a unique and relevant name with that extension. Extensions have specific uses, so be sure that you choose the right one for your business.
Here are some of the most popular extensions, and what they mean.
.co - an abbreviation for company, commerce, and community
.info - informational sites
.net - technical, Internet infrastructure sites
.org - non-commercial organizations and non-profits
.ac - academic institutions like universities and colleges
.biz - business or commercial use, like e-commerce sites
.me - blogs, resumes or personal sites.
• Protect and build your brand
When choosing your domain name, it is worth purchasing other domain extensions and spelling variations to prevent competitors or trolls registering other versions that will then direct traffic to these alternate sites. By owning all the domains you ensure that customers are directed to your site, even if they use the wrong extension or misspell it.
• Act fast
Once you have decided on a name, you need to act quickly. Domain names sell fast, but they are affordable, so register your chosen domain name as soon as you have decided on it. If your desired name is already in use, most of the registrars will suggest alternate names to help you (Godaddy.com, 2015).
Step 2. Obtain a secure (SSL) certificate
If you are not using a pre-packaged eCommerce service, then alongside the domain name you will also need to obtain an SSL certificate to protect and secure your website content. SSL prevents malicious users from accessing your website to steal passwords, credit card information, and sensitive data. There are many providers of SSL certificates, such as Thawte or Symantec.
A list of SSL certificate reviews can be found on the following link: https://www.sslshopper.com/thawte-ce...y-reviews.html
Step 3. Choose the right hosting package
All websites have to be hosted on a server somewhere. It is important to choose the right hosting package regarding website speed, uptime, and cloud hosting.
• Website speed
Hosting your website in the same country that you are selling to, can have an impact on how quickly the website loads. If you are selling to a global market, then consider the use of a content delivery network (CDN) to help localize your site to different target countries. Google has hinted that site speed is a ranking factor in its algorithms so there are SEO benefits to having a good host, as well as the obvious user benefits.
• Uptime and performance
The reliability of the host to keep the website up and running is vital. At certain points of the year, such as peak-trading periods, the demand on your website will increase significantly. It’s important to understand how the extra traffic will increase the load on your webserver and the impact that can have on the site’s performance. Too much traffic may even cause the server to trip over and crash, taking your site offline.
• Cloud hosting:
Cloud hosting is hosting services that are provided via multiple connected servers. These servers make up a network cloud. Cloud hosting is seen as preferable to a single server or virtual server, for the follow reasons:
• Reliability and accessibility
The content is more easily accessible, and there is less chance of server failure.
• Stability and security
The servers will interact to sustain the site, offering more stability and more security in terms of not losing any data.
• Seamless scalability
With cloud hosting you are not limited by the size and capacity of your particular physical server. The sky is the limit, unlike physical servers where you will need to expand, or move to a larger server, once you maximise that specific server’s capacity.
• Cost efficiency
The cloud removes a lot of the costs of maintaining physical servers.
Ensure that when choosing your host server, you consider the user needs as well as back-end applications that need to operate in the background to facilitate orders and other processes. Think about your business objectives, and if the hosting service you are opting for will be able to meet and facilitate your objectives.
Step 4. Selecting an eCommerce platform
When setting up your site, you need to use an eCommerce platform to assist you in building and hosting a digital storefront from which to actually sell your products and services. An eCommerce platform is the series of software technologies that enable this build and selling of products.
There is a vast range of eCommerce platforms that you can use. These various options can be classified under four main types of platforms. These are:
1. Software as a service (SaaS) storefronts
• Third-party providers host applications and make these available to customers online.
• Examples include Shopify.com and BigCommerce.
2. Open source
• Open source platforms provide a more affordable option for online businesses, and offer more control. However, you need to manage the hosting and some expertise is needed. Popular examples include Magento, WooCommerce and X Cart.
3. Licensed and hosted by the retailer
• The provider will manage the site, and offer reliable support. However, site builds are often tied to the specific provider and moving your site requires a complete rebuild. Large companies can also stagnate and not keep up to date, so ensure the provider you opt for is dedicated to development. Some popular examples include Oracle Commerce, IBM Websphere, Hybris, and the paid version of Magento.
4. Platform as a service (PaaS)
• PaaS is usually used for B2B where businesses are looking to link their eCommerce to other systems that their customers already have such as SAP or Ariba. Such integration of systems allows clients to link their purchasing systems directly to their online sales processes enabling automated purchase orders and stock management. PaaS is ideal for large corporates with complex procurement and distributions systems. Apache Stratos, Windows Azure, Force.com are all examples of PaaS eCommerce platforms.
Note
Read here about how more and more eCommerce store owners are turning to open source eCommerce platforms. selfstartr. com/open-sourceeCommerce/
For a more comprehensive discussion about the eCommerce options available and how to choose the right one for you, see ShivarWeb’s Essential Guide to Choosing an eCommerce Platform. https://www.shivarweb.com/1386/essen...erce-platform/
Step 5. eCommerce payment gateways
A payment gateway is a service that processes credit card payments for online and brick-and-mortar stores. The gateway transfers key information between eCommerce sites and the bank, and authorises such payments. There are three steps the payment gateway performs to finalise the transaction:
1. Encryption
The data to be sent is encrypted by the web browser. This transaction data is then sent by the gateway to the payment processor that the vendor’s acquiring bank uses.
2. Authorization request
The bank’s payment processor sends the transaction data to the relevant credit card association. The bank that issued the credit card will view the request, and either approve or deny the transaction.
3. Filling the order
Once the processor has received authorization, it forwards this to the payment gateway. The payment gateway then sends it on to the website to proceed with processing payment if approved, or to deny the sale if denied. The website interprets the data and creates the appropriate response for the user. If approved, the merchant will proceed with filling the order.
This process takes only a few seconds, and is almost instant for the user. Gateways can also be used to prevent fraud and many have inbuilt fraud detection tools, such as delivery address verification, computer finger print technology and geolocation among others (BigCommerce, n.d).
If you’re concerned about online fraud see this helpful article by Chargebee on types of online fraud and how you can protect your site. https://www.chargebee.com/blog/ protect-startup-online-fraud/
When considering payment gateways for your eCommerce site, you have two main options. You can either go for an onsite or offsite gateway.
Definition: onsite payment gateway
An onsite payment gateway (also known as a non-hosted payment gateway) means the gateway is integrated into your site, and users do not need to leave your site to complete their transaction. Iveri and Stripe are examples. Note that to receive online payments you will need an SSL certificate and a merchant account.
Definition: offsite payment gateway
An offsite payment gateway means the potential buyer is transferred over to the payment gateway’s website. The user completes the payment and then is returned to the online store. PayFast and PayGate are examples. It is important to note that sending users away from your site can impact on whether customers comple their payment, especially if the payment process is slowed down by the redirection, and/or the user has any security concerns regarding the redirection (GoCardless.com, n.d.)
To fully decide which payment gateway is right for you visit GoCardless’s guide on the 10 questions to find the right one for you. (https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/ payment-gateways/ )
Shipping fulfilment
Fulfilment is a big part of running a successful eCommerce store, and can have a huge impact on your customer experience. The fulfilment process starts when the order is placed and ends when the customer receives the product successfully. There are six stages to the fulfilment process.
The fulfilment process
1. Inventory management: Ensure your stock-level information is accurate and up-to-date. Accurately forecast customer demands to manage your inventory stock-levels and plan order appropriately. Shopify has a great blog post on eight inventory management techniques to help your business. www.shopify.com/blog/7060301...ent-techniques
2. Warehouse management: Ideally integrate your warehouse and stock management with a warehouse management system. This is a software application that supports the day-to-day operations in a warehouse. It will monitor stock arrivals, warehouse-store transfers and departure points. The correct and precise allocation of stock within the warehouse is critical for fast and accurate fulfilment. Some popular examples of warehouse management software include EZOfficeInventory and Zoho Inventory.
3. Order management: Ensure you know the order status throughout the fulfilment process and integrate notifications of delays/ disruptions in the order management process.
4. Destination: To offer customers a successful, fast and accurate delivery it is important to understand the destination
• Home delivery: Delivery to an individual’s house, apartment, place of work.
• In-Store collection (also known as click and collect): Online orders are delivered to a physical store, in the customer’s chosen area, for later collection by the customer
• Inter-Branch Transfers: Stock is transferred from one store to another and purchased via an online order or point-of-sale.
1. Returns: To ensure a seamless customer experience, a returns policy, should be available and well communicated to potential customers. Any returns process should be easy and convenient for online shoppers.
2. Order tracking: All orders should be tracked and their progress frequently communicated to the customer. Communication should include the status and expected delivery date and time of the order. Any changes to estimated delivery dates or times need to be communicated as soon as possible.
Driving traffic to your site
To make sales, you need users to visit your online store. Driving traffic to your store is a prominent marketing and advertising specific objective. Many of the techniques discussed in the section below to drive traffic to your site, will be covered in greater detail in the rest of the course.
You can drive traffic to your store by using the following techniques:
1. Content marketing strategy: Highly targeted and quality content can result in a positive social influence and ultimately drive traffic to your website. It is important to create meaningful content with your customer as the main subject in your storyline. Positive customer feedback can influence other customers and drive them to your online store.
Note
Read more about the power of content marketing in the Content marketing strategy chapter.
1. Product videos: Include videos/ 360 degree views of your product. Visually experiencing the product closes the gap between the ’touch and feel’ benefits of in-store shopping and the online experience. Customers enjoy and appreciate seeing the detail of the product and are then inspired to go to purchase the product.
Note
Read more about using video in the chapter on Video marketing.
1. Alias domains: To grow the traffic to your site, it is necessary to capture all potential customers trying to reach you. Whether that have misspelt the brand name or entered the wrong/similar name directly into a search engine rather than the address bar, it is important that they still reach the destination and that this does not become lost traffic. There are two strategies to owning alias domains:
1. Purchase any misspelt domain names for your brand.
2. Own the alias search terms for your brand.
2. Social Media Campaigns: There are so many channels to choose from when opting for social media, but it is important to use the right social media platform for the right type of advertising,
• Use images or videos to demonstrate the benefits and details of your product. Good platforms for this include Facebook display ads, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat
Note
Read more about advertising on social media in the Social media advertising chapter
• If your product or service targets a professional customer, use professional networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter to drive thought leadership or content marketing strategy
• For products or services that rely heavily on social influence, understand the audience then re-target to the happy customer’s network.
1. Customer Reviews: Research indicates that customers like to read reviews of a product or service prior to making a purchase. Encourage customers to leave reviews about their experience or the product itself. Customer reviews also provide meaningful feedback to the retailer indicating the response to new and changing product lines, which products to promote and potentially, which product to remove from the offering.
2. Product merchandising and SEO: All elements of online merchandising affect your search optimisation as well as directly influence the sale. Product names must be short, searchable and descriptive. Product Images must be inspiring, detailed and include specifics. Product descriptions need to be engaging and original. Text descriptions with well-chosen keywords will be picked up by search engines. Unique descriptions will prevent you being filtered out as spam by search engines.
Note
You can learn more about optimising your website for search engines in the Search engine optimisation chapter.
1. Landing Pages: Direct paid media such as search, email marketing and display media , should lead users directly to the relevant product pages and not to the homepage. These pages are called landing pages. Matching product or category landing pages to users’ intent will improve drop-off rates and increase conversion rates.
Note
Learn more about landing pages in the User experience design and Web development and design chapters.
1. Search: Besides optimizing the site for search engines and buying paid search media (Search Engine Marketing – SEM), it is critical to include sitewide search on your page. To ensure the user finds the product, service, or information that they are looking for include an easy-to-find and easy-to-use search function. Users expect this to be at the very top or top right of your site, across most pages.
2. Site speed and performance: To avoid page-abandonment ensure that the site loads quickly with the most important elements loading first. Fast engagement time and performance is essential to keeping the user engaged and if not considered during development and monitored on an ongoing basis, could result in a poor user experience or lost customers.
3. Registration and checkout: The registration process needs to be quick and relatively painless for the user. It should only request essential information. Sites that ask for too much or unnecessarily personal information will lose traffic and result in increased drop-off rates. Checkout needs to be slick, simple, secure and informative. Checkout needs be supported with transactional emails that confirm the user’s order ID, order details (product and price paid), as well as delivery and tracking information.
eCommerce analytics
As with all digital interaction, eCommerce activities can be easily tracked. There are certain key pieces of information that you need to be aware of and should be tracking. These include:
• Supply-chain management
Information about the products, and the process from the warehouse through to delivery to the customer.
• Product analytics
Details around how many times a product is viewed, positive or negative reviews, social sharing, loading of detailed information on a product and actual conversion rates.
• Online marketing analytics
Success or, conversion rates, of your marketing initiatives that enables optimization of spend for paid campaigns and strategy optimizations for earned and owned campaigns.
• Tracking the eCommerce funnel
Can customers find the products they are looking for? Can customers add products to cart and check out successfully? Analysing this data highlights site speed and performance as well as detailed information about traffic sources, high-traffic times of the day, and related conversion rates.
The most popular eCommerce analytics tool is Google Analytics analytics.google.com. Google Analytics is a powerful and detailed analytics tool. These are just some of the benefits of the platform:
• Provides a vast amount of data from conversion rates to revenue by product.
• Provides insight into customer behaviour and analyses cart-abandonment.
• Integrates digital marketing initiatives including remarketing.
• Offers detailed metrics to understand the total economic value of the online store in relation to the overall business.
Note
Read more on Google analytics in the Data Analytics and Conversion optimisation Chapters.
• Has promotion tracking, tracking internal (such as vouchers) and external promotional efforts (such as affiliate marketing).
• Tracks revenue by currency including online refunds for accuracy in revenue and reporting.
Try out Google Analytics and learn about this powerful analytics platform by using Google’s demo account. Google also offers some great guidance. https://support.google.com/analytics.../6367342?hl=en | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/10%3A_Create_-_eCommerce/10.06%3A_Setting_up_an_eCommerce_site.txt |
eCommerce is an important part of operating a business in the 21st century. Not having an online store can be detrimental to your business. Your eCommerce store needs to operate alongside your website and online presence.
Directing potential shoppers to your online store to ultimately convert is the aim of almost all your digital marketing tactics. You online store needs to be consistent with your other online messages, and should provide a seamless experience for the user. The overall user experience with your eCommerce platform needs to be sound, simple and efficient.
It is also important to note that if your eCommerce platform falls short, and does not provide a pleasant user experience, it means all your other marketing efforts have been in vain. Directing traffic to your online store is not the ultimate goal, the ultimate goal is conversion. A sloppy online store can put potential shoppers off your brand, not just in this instance and online, but as a whole.
10.08: References
BigCommerce, n.d. What is a payment gateway and what is its role in eCommerce? [Online] Available at: www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerc...-in-ecommerce/ [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Chaffey, D. 2017. Global social media research summary 2017. [Online] Available at: www.smartinsights.com/social-...edia-research/ [Accessed1 November 2017]
eMarketer, 2016. Worldwide Retail eCommerce Sales: The eMarketer Forecast for 2016. [Online] Available at: https://www.emarketer.com/Report/Wor...t-2016/2001849 [Accessed 1 November 2017]
GoCardless.com, n.d. Payment Gateways: 10 questions to fine the right one for you. [Online] Available at: https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/payment-gateways/ [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Godaddy.com, 2015. 10 tips for choosing the perfect domain name. [Online] Available at: www.godaddy.com/garage/small...ctdomain-name/ [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Haden, J. 2017. The Best Tools to start an eCommerce business in 2017. [Online] Available at: https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-b...s-in-2017.html [Accessed 1 November 2017]
PwC, 2014. Achieving Total Retail: Consumer expectations driving the next retail business model. [Online] Available at: www.pwc.com/gx/en/retail-cons...tal-retail.pdf [Accessed 1 November 2017]
PwC, 2017. Total Retail 2017: 10 Retailer investments for an uncertain future. [Online] Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries...etail-2017.pdf [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Schreiber, T. 2015. How One Couple is Making \$600,000 Per Year Selling Digital Products. [Online] Available at: www.shopify.co.za/blog/17587...gital-products [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Smart Insights, 2017. Why 2017 will be the year mobile eCommerce over takes desktop. [Online] Available at: www.smartinsights.com/mobile-...takes-desktop/ [Accessed 1 November 2017]
10.09: Tools of the trade
There are a variety of tools relevant for working with eCommerce. We have discussed many tools during the course of this chapter, and mentioned Google Analytics as an essential analytics tool in the last section. But there are many other paid and free online tools that you could opt for.
Here are of the best tools for starting an eCommerce business, according to Inc. (Haden, 2017):
Storenvy www.storenvy.com/
Free tool for building an online store. It’s a marketplace platform, but does enable you to build your own store, with your own design and branding.
Shopify https://www.shopify.com/
Possibly the most preferred tool for new online stores. Affordable with many features for your store.
Gumroad https://gumroad.com/
Considered one of the simplest ways to start an online store.
WooCommerce https://woocommerce.com/
Platform that enables you to add a store to your WordPress site or blog, providing an impressive store and business.
PayPal http://www.paypal.com/
One of the largest online payment gateways, but it can be complicated and confusing to implement.
Stripe http://www.stripe.com/
Popular payment gateway that you can integrate into your store. It works with Shopify, WooCommerce and other popular platforms.
Amazon payments https://pay.amazon.com/us/
One of the simpler payment gateways available, and run by Amazon.
10.10: Advantages and challenges
Throughout this chapter we have discussed some of the benefits of using eCommerce. In short, with online retail already a trillion dollar industry and growing each year, to stay in business, businesses need to be operating online. It is no longer simply a nice to have, but is an essential part of business in the 21st century.
The beauty of eCommerce is that it is easily tracked and monitored. Analytics tools provide incredible data that can be monitored in real time, and changes implemented quickly. It makes this space dynamic but also incredibly competitive. Online shoppers have more variety and options than any shopper has ever had before, and catching their attention is more and more difficult. But, once you have caught potential customers’ attention, your eCommerce platform has to be good enough to keep their attention and guide them through to completing their conversion.
Besides stiff competition, and being an incredibly dynamic and fast changing environment, eCommerce has other challenges. There are many factors operated by other service providers, or that are simply beyond your control. Issues such as crashing servers, slow data, errors on external payment gateways or faulty links in display ads, all impact negatively on your brand, even though you have little to no control over such issues. If a user is trying to access your online store, and these issues impact negatively on their experience, it is your store they associate this experience with.
Choosing appropriate service providers who can meet the needs and future demands of your site is key, so take time to carefully consider and review your options when setting up your site. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/10%3A_Create_-_eCommerce/10.07%3A_The_bigger_picture.txt |
One-line summary
How one couple is making US \$600 000 per year selling digital products.
The challenge
Cinnamon and Jason Miles started making and selling dolls’ clothes online. Cinnamon was an excellent seamstress who made unique and beautiful clothes for her daughter to use with her dolls. After being inundated with queries on where they got these clothes, Cinnamon and Jason started Liberty Jane Clothing selling dolls’ clothes online, initially through eBay and then through their own eCommerce website on WordPress.
Unfortunately, their business model was not very scalable and they struggled to meet demand and break through earning US \$1 000 a month. Cinnamon was maxed-out creating all the clothing herself, and having local seamstresses assist, also did not work on any scalable level. They declined the offer of getting their products made in China, as they wanted to retain manufacturing control and guarantee the integrity of their product.
The solution
Selling the physical products alone simply wasn’t scalable, so Cinnamon and Jason looked at what digital products they could sell. They hit on selling their doll patterns as downloadable PDFs, which users could purchase and use to create their own doll clothes. This model scaled well, and to date have had over 700 000 pattern downloads.
They also noticed a gap in tuition of how to actually create the clothes, so they started online classes and videos to train users on how to make the clothes with the patterns. The online training courses grew to include design, pattern-making and how to start and manage your own craft business.
They also broadened their business model to become the Internet’s largest marketplace for dolls’ clothing patterns, and feature other indie designers. Designers have to be approved by Cinnamon and Jason to sell through the site. They renamed their site Pixie Faire, but kept the Liberty Jane Clothing brand for their own doll clothing and patterns. They use a store-level pricing strategy that all designers have to comply with, similar to that of iTunes and Kindle, to keep prices at acceptable levels.
With increased demand, visits and purchases, the WordPress site struggled. Even with the shopping cart functionality the platform was simply ill-prepared to manage the volume that Pixie Faire was now dealing with. Opting for platforms that were designed to manage eCommerce specifically , such as Shopify and SendOwl, really helped to remove much of the frustration the company had experienced with its online sales. The peace of mind and ease that was provided by going the route was invaluable.
Results
Pixie Faire now generates over US \$600 000 a year, with an average monthly return of US \$50 000. This is only possible due to their move into digital products and using a platform designed to cope with the demands of larger volumes of traffic.
A physical tangible product that required so much hands-on attention simply was not scalable. Cinnamon and Jason needed an alternate digital product to provide the scale for their revenue to totally explode beyond their expectations. Careful consideration of your product and offering is necessary when determining your eCommerce needs and capabilities. (Schreiber, 2015)
This study also demonstrates the need to choose an eCommerce platform that will be able to manage with the demands of your business, should it take off. Problems with check out and crashing lead to a poor user experience that may put off potential customers. Planning your product strategy and selecting appropriate platforms are essential to eCommerce success.
10.E: eCommerce(Exercises)
Case study questions
1. Why did Pixie Faire have to consider digital products?
2. What made Pixie Faire opt for a market site as opposed to a more traditional eCommerce site?
3. What lesson can be learnt from Pixie Faire and choosing appropriate platforms?
Chapter questions
1. What are the steps involved in setting up an eCommerce platform?
2. Why is analytics so important, and which metrics in particular would be of interest to online retailers?
3. List some of the ways you can drive traffic to your eCommerce site.
4. Explain how important eCommerce is in any digital marketing campaign.
Further reading
Here are some blogs to read up more on eCommerce,
Internet Retailer https://www.internetretailer.com/
ECommerce Training Academy blog https://ecommercetrainingacademy.com/blog/
Get Elastic http://www.getelastic.com/
Shopify blog eCommerce Business Blueprint: How to build, launch and grow a profitable online store.
10.S: eCommerce(Summary)
In this chapter, you have learnt about the different types of eCommerce. You have also learnt the steps and been referred to the tools, for setting up a site to do business online. Key considerations and questions to ask when planning your eCommerce strategy were provided, as well as the importance of thinking about the possible future demands of your business.
You now have a sound understanding of the processes involved behind the scenes of eCommerce, and how eCommerce fits into your digital marketing strategy. Lastly you were shown how to go about tracking and monitoring your eCommerce activities, and why such analytics is important.
Although designing and creating your own complex and commercial eCommerce store is beyond the scope of this book, we hope you now have insight into its development, and know what to consider when commissioning and using eCommerce platforms. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/10%3A_Create_-_eCommerce/10.11%3A_Case_study_-_Pixie_Faire.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• How to put together a search advert.
• How to target your search ad at relevant users.
• The process of bidding on key phrases and how this affects your ranking.
• How to plan, set up and run your own search advertising campaign.
11: Engage - Search advertising
Search advertising, also called pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is a way to advertise your business or product directly on search engine results pages, where the advertiser pays only for each click on their advert.
Online advertising continues to evolve, and available formats range from simple text search adverts through to rich media banners and even video adverts Search ads account for 48% of online ads. And more than 75% of those search ads are through Google. Google earned nearly US\$ 25 billion in search ad revenue alone for 2016. Their market share is expected to hit over 80% by 2019, with an expected revenue of over US\$ 35 billion (Townsend, 2017).
Adverts on search engines are easy to spot as they’re clearly labelled as advertising and are separated from organic search results. They can appear on the top of the results page, usually in a box, or at the bottom of the results page.
Search advertising on search engines is keyword based. This means that it is triggered by the search term that a user enters into a search engine. Advertisers target the keywords for which they want their site to appear.
For the advertiser, the beauty of search advertising is that adverts are displayed when potential customers are already expressing intent meaning customers are searching for a product or service. It allows advertisers to present their offering to a potential customer who is already in the buying cycle.
Google is, by a wide margin, the leader in the search advertising field; because of this, the chapter is very Google-centric, though the same principle should apply to any other search advertising platforms. Other platforms to be aware of are Bing, Yahoo! and Baidu.
11.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 11.2.1
Term Definition
Clickthrough A click on a text ad link that leads to a website.
Clickthrough rate (CTR) The total clicks on a link divided by the number of times that ad link has been shown, expressed as a percentage.
Conversion rate The number of conversions divided by the number of visitors, expressed as a percentage.
Cost per action (CPA) The amount paid when a certain action is performed by a user.
Cost per click (CPC) The amount paid when a link is clicked on.
Google AdWords Google’s search advertising program, which allows advertisers to display their adverts on relevant search results and across Google’s content network.
Impression Each time an advert is shown.
Key phrase Two or more words that are combined to form a search query, often referred to as keywords.
Keyword A word found in a search query. For example, a search for ‘blue widgets’ includes the keywords ‘blue’ and ‘widgets’.
Organic results Also known as natural results. Search results served by the search engine’s algorithm. The search engine does not charge website owners to list these results.
Paid search advertising Usually refers to advertising on search engines, sometimes called pay-per-click or PPC advertising. The advertiser pays only for each click on the ad.
Quality score (QS) A measure used by Google AdWords to indicate how relevant a keyword is to an ad text and to a user’s search query.
Return on investment (ROI) The ratio of profit to cost.
Search term The keywords a user enters when searching on a search engine.
Search engine results page (SERP) The actual results returned to the user based on the search query. Sponsored results are search engine results that are paid for by the advertiser.
11.03: Defining search advertising
As discussed, search advertising involves placing online advertisements on search engine results pages to connect your product with consumers who are likely to be in the buying phase of the customer lifecycle.
Search engines display results to search queries based on proprietary algorithms. Each major search engine uses its own formula to determine what results to display for any term. The vast majority of searchers don’t click through to the second page of results (less than 10% of people do), which means they are likely to find what they’re looking for on the first page (Sharp, 2014). With search engines getting so much traffic, and delivering so much value, they need to find a way of generating revenue.
With so many search engines out there, which platform should you choose?
There are some small differences from platform to platform in terms of editorial policy, and each system has a different user interface. There is some theory that different platforms are better for different industries, for example, that Yahoo! fares better than Google on travel advertising. However, this is subjective, and most large advertisers will run PPC campaigns on a number of platforms. As with most things in digital marketing, it is all about testing.
Google AdWords is the best known and is considered the industry standard; it allows users to transact in the currency of their choice, is tied to a comprehensive analytics tool, and offers training programmes and certifications. Google AdWords also currently has the best contextual and geographical targeting worldwide, although geo-targeting is also offered by Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads and YouTube video ads (which is closely linked to AdWords).
Structuring your search advertising campaign
When you start running search advertising, you shouldn’t just create a whole stream of ads, you need to have a plan.
Your AdWords account is your home for all the ads you are currently running, and it should be structured to reflect your business and marketing strategy. Within your account, organise your search adverts in groupings, called campaigns, according to your strategy and the ads you are running. Within each campaign, you should have ad groups; these are sets of ads that have a common characteristic or focus. For example, if you are selling books online, you may have ad groups focused around a specific genre, author, event and special offer, as well as some ad groups around general themes such as promoting local stores, or making online sales.
Note
Many search advertisers create ad groups for branded terms, competitor terms and generic key phrases related to the industry.
Structuring your account in this way will help you to easily oversee your advertising spend, determine the effectiveness of your ads, manage your ads and bids, and switch off any ads that aren’t working effectively. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/11%3A_Engage_-_Search_advertising/11.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
As of October 2016, Google phased out their basic text ads and replaced them with expanded text ads to reflect their more mobile friendly approach. These ads have the following format:
Heading 1 – Heading 2
• One expanded line of descriptive advert copy, sometimes breaking over two lines depending on device size.
• www.DisplayURL.com
• Ad extension.
As you can see, these ads consist of several elements; the key is to make these work together harmoniously to get searchers to click through to your website. The three main components are:
• Keyword optimised ad text
• The link to your owned property (website, social media platform, content)
• Ad extensions.
Ad text
The ad text is the main component of a search ad. Search engines limit the characters in each line, though expanded text ads double that character limit in most cases. Google can sometimes show the headline and the first line of ad text in the same line, followed by the display URL and then the second line of ad text. There are also restrictions on what you are allowed to write in an advert. Here are some of the editorial guidelines from Google AdWords:
Expanded text ad character limits:
• Headline part 1: maximum of 30 characters
• Headline part 2: maximum of 30 characters (This will be shown after the first headline, usually separated by a hyphen, and may wrap around to the second line for mobile)
• Single description line: maximum of 80 characters
• Display URL: domain name automatically extracted from your final URL (URL path can be customised using two field options with a 15 character limit each).
General guidelines:
• No repeated exclamation marks.
Note
These character limits and guidelines are very strict. If you fail to adhere to them, Google simply won’t publish the ad.
• No word may be written in capitals only.
• No nonsense words may be used.
• No claims of ‘best’, ‘number one’ or superlatives may be used unless they can be verified by a reliable third-party source.
• Product numbers may be used.
• No phone numbers allowed in the copy.
Writing effective copy
or most PPC ads, the ad copy is the only tool available to attract attention, convey a message and entice action. This is why writing effective ad copy is such an important skill for search advertising.
Users who are searching for something usually have a specific intent; they are looking for information, guidance, comparisons, tools, or solutions to their problems. It’s important to understand why users would look for your brand or product and what keywords they would use to find it when crafting your search ads. Look at the considerations for choosing keywords that are covered in the Search engine optimisation chapter as these often overlap.
Note
Read more about this in the Search engine optimisation chapter.
Use compelling and well-crafted calls to action so that users know what to do and what to expect: ‘try now’, ‘sign up now’, ‘buy now’.
Note
Read more about this in the Digital copywriting chapter.
Many advertisers test offers in the advert copy, such as a discount or limited time voucher. Product or service benefits make for good advert copy, such as free shipping, secure shopping or fast delivery.
If you are running many ads at once, it can be quite a lot of work to create unique copy for each one. Dynamic keyword insertion (inserting the search keyword dynamically into the advert copy that appears) or using the keyword in the advert copy can help. Dynamic keyword insertion takes the keyword in your campaign that matches with the user search query and inserts it into the ad automatically. This way, your ad looks more relevant to the user than a generic ad. The search engine will mark words that match the search term in bold, making the advert stand out a little bit more.
The downside of using dynamic keyword insertion is that you have less control over when an ad is shown to a user, and the results may not be as good as with a standard SEM campaign. The goal is to generate as many clicks as possible, but sometimes the advertiser is better off with fewer, high-quality clicks that are more likely to generate actual sales.
The long tail
Internet Live Stats asserts that 16−20% of search queries on the web have never been asked before (Internet Live Stats, 2016). This means that the sum of searches that are unique is higher than the sum of non-unique searches. Looking a little more closely at search terms will show a small number of high-volume searches, and then a large number of lower volume searches stretching out to those unique searches.
Note
What’s more important to your brand, a high volume of traffic, or a smaller number of qualified leads? Consider your strategy when deciding whether to use short- or long-tail keywords.
This is sometimes referred to as the long tail of search. Discovering these lowvolume, niche search terms can do wonders for a search advertising campaign.
Generally there is not much competition for these search terms, and the search term itself is very much targeted, so it will likely be cheaper to bid on and may yield a high conversion rate. While long-tail phrases are generally cheaper and lead to a higher rate of conversions, you will need to use a much larger number of them to make up for the lower traffic volume that they generate.
Also consider that search engine users may be at various stages of the buying cycle, and it could be worthwhile to craft a long-tail keyword strategy targeting those who are at the end of the buying cycle and know specifically what they are looking for.
For example, if you sell cameras, targeting the term ‘camera’ may not bring in much targeted traffic (since users searching for ‘camera’ may be looking for information, pictures, price comparisons, or even something completely unrelated). But users looking for ‘buy Canon DSLR camera in London’ has a clear intention in mind and could be a great target for advertising.
Display URL
Search ads allow you to include a display URL. The URL shown is not necessarily the URL that the user will click through to; the display URL (what is shown on the advert) actually directs to the destination URL (what the actual URL of the page is). The display URL is sometimes also called a vanity URL.
Note
The display URL should be short, clear and meaningful to the viewer. It should indicate what type of page the user will be taken to when they click.
The display URL must be the same domain as the destination URL and Google pulls this out automatically. Google will show only one advert per domain.
The page that the user is taken to is called the landing page, which can be any page on your website, not necessarily the home page. The aim should be to send users to a web page that is as specific to their search, and the PPC advert, as possible. This is known as deep-linking.
Landing pages
Search advertising is not just about creating adverts and bidding for keywords. The process continues once a user has clicked on your advert. The page that the user reaches by clicking on an advert is called a landing page and is either an existing page on your website, or a new custom-built page for the campaign at hand (useful if you are running a competition or special offer).
Landing pages can make or break an advertising campaign. Poorly executed PPC campaigns will send all users to the home page of a website. Campaigns that convert will make sure that users land on a page that is relevant to their search with a very visible call to action. The aim is to keep the user as focused on the goal, conversion, as possible. Sending users to the home page gives them too many other options to choose from.
For example, if users searched for ‘Canon EOS 1300D’, a poorly run campaign would send them to www.canon.co.uk. A better campaign would have the user clicking through to www.canon. co.uk/for_home/product_finder/cameras/digital_slr/eos_1300d/.
Landing pages also indicate relevance to the search engine, which can increase the Quality Score of the advert, and in turn lower the cost per click (CPC) of the keyword. Adding keyword-rich pages to the website can also have SEO benefits. PPC campaigns often have thousands of keywords, which can mean that you will have a lot of landing pages to build. Creating dynamic landing pages means that with a simple script, unique keyword-rich landing pages can be created for every search. The script will take the keyword that the searcher has used, and insert it in predefined places on the landing page. The user will then be landing on a page that is highly relevant to their search.
Note
Read more about this in the Search engine optimisation chapter.
Ad extensions
Note
Google is constantly testing and adding new ad extensions so check in often to see what’s new.
Google offers several ways to add value or information to search adverts. These are referred to as ad extensions. For a search advertiser, the ad extensions offer a way to get additional information into a search advert without affecting standard advert copy limits.
AdWords currently offers six manual extensions and four automated extensions, for a total of ten. Some of these will be more useful for mobile, such as the locationspecific ones. The manual extensions are as follows:
1. Location extensions
Location extensions allow you to add location information and maps to your advert (you can add map pins, navigation assistance, and a call option). To use the extensions, you can either insert your address manually or link your AdWords account to your Google+ Local (www.google.com/local) account.
2. Call extensions
The call extension allows you to display a local phone number in a line below the standard text advert. This is particularly effective in mobile ads, where the user can click and call directly from their phone.
3. App extensions
The app extension adds a link below your ad that sends users to the app store or begins a download of your app.
4. Review Extensions
This shows positive third party reviews, generally from trustworthy sources.
5. Sitelink extensions
Sitelinks add up to six extra links to pages on your site that might help users find what they’re looking for. Sitelinks are limited to 25 characters for most languages. Sitelinks allow you to direct users to more relevant areas of your website, all from one advert. They are suitable for advertising on more general or branded keywords.
6. Callout extensions
These allow you to include additional text with your search ads, such as more information about your business, products, and services.
The automated extensions are as follows:
7. Consumer ratings
This shows your best ratings below your search ads, with a link to more ratings; this is useful if you have very high ratings!
8. Previous visits
These let users know whether they’ve visited your site before, and when. These are useful if users are trying to find their way back to your website or to encourage one-time customers to return.
9. Dynamic structured snippets
Dynamic structured snippets automatically show additional landing page details, which helps searchers to determine whether your site contains the kind of information they’re looking for. This information comes from content on your site.
10. Seller ratings
These show online business ratings with your ad, showing what kind of reputation you have for good service. The seller ratings come from reputable sources that compile a number of business reviews to help users make more informed decisions and to help your ad perform better.
Message extensions
At the end of October 2016, Google announced message extensions, which give users the change to click to text a business straight from the search engine results page. Advertisers can include a pre-written text message to make things easier for mobile users. Tests on these extensions have shown that they significantly improve mobile clickthrough rates but they cannot currently be tracked as conversions in AdWords. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/11%3A_Engage_-_Search_advertising/11.04%3A_The_elements_of_a_search_ad.txt |
Search adverts are targeted in a variety of ways, depending on how you want to reach your intended audience. Targeting your adverts means you know that the traffic you are getting is relevant to your product.
Keywords and match types
It’s not enough to simply pick the right keywords; you need to know about the different ways in which the search engine interprets and matches the search term to your chosen keyword.
Most search engines require the advertiser to provide the search keywords for which their advert should appear. Considering the massive volume of searches conducted every day, it would be impossible to determine all the possible terms potential customers might use to find you. That is why there are different keyword match types for search advertising.
Google AdWords using the following match types:
• Broad match
• Broad match modifier
• Phrase match
• Exact match
• Negative match.
Broad match means that your advert will appear for the keywords you have entered, as well as search terms that contain your keywords and any other words in any order, as well as some variations of your keywords such as misspellings and synonyms.
The broad match modifier is an additional targeting option that gives you tighter control than broad match by excluding synonyms but including other versions of the word, such as plurals. It’s implemented with a + before the keyword.
Phrase match, which is denoted with quotation marks around the keywords; ‘phrase match’ means that your advert will appear only for search terms that have your keywords in them, in the same order, though other words may also be in the search term.
Exact match, denoted by square brackets [exact match] means that the advert will appear for search terms only exactly the same as the keywords selected.
Negative match, denoted by using a dash in front of the keywords; –negative means that your advert will not appear in searches using that word, no matter what other words are used.
Advertisers can assign as many keywords as they want to an advert, but only one advert for each URL will be shown. If two advertisers are bidding to show adverts for the same domain, only one will be shown. Which advert will be shown is based on the bids being placed and on the quality of the adverts (more on that later).
Language and location targeting
Search engines have versions customised for specific regions and languages, based on the user’s settings and where in the world they are searching from. As a search marketer, you can choose the language and the location of the search engine to target. This is known as geo-targeting.
For example, you may want your advert to show only to English searches in Asia, or to French searches in Johannesburg. Targeting your advert means that your ads won’t be seen by users outside your target area, and you won’t pay for traffic that you cannot convert into customers.
Behavioural and demographic targeting
Search advertising can also be targeted based on personal behaviour. Using AdWords, you can re-target visitors who came to your site via an AdWords advert based on actions that they took. This means that if users came to your site, but did not complete a purchase, you can target adverts to them in the SERPs or through other online advertising channels, such as the Google Display Network. This is called re-marketing or re-targeting, and can be very effective for remaining top of mind until the user is ready to convert. It is usually advisable to cap the number of times a re-marketing ad is shown to an individual to avoid annoying them. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/11%3A_Engage_-_Search_advertising/11.05%3A_Targeting_options.txt |
As you know, search adverts are charged on a per-click basis. The cost that you pay for every click is determined by a variety of factors, and is based on a bidding system.
The different advertising platforms offer advanced bidding options, all aimed at helping you to run your advertising campaign better. You can bid for placement on the SERP, or you can bid based on how much you are willing to pay per click. You are also able to tailor your approach to, for example, bidding for adverts during certain times of the day only.
Search advertising is usually run as a Vickrey auction model, so advertisers place bids to appear based on certain criteria. The advertising platform determines when adverts are eligible to appear and serves them as is appropriate. The advertiser then pays the advertising platform when their advert is clicked on.
With search advertising, the advertiser:
• Creates the copy for an advertisement.
• Determines the landing page for the advert.
• Selects the keywords or criteria for which that advertisement should appear.
• Chooses the maximum amount, the cost per click (CPC), that they are willing to pay for a click on the advert.
The advertising platform:
• Checks the advert for compliance with editorial guidelines.
• Displays the advert for relevant search queries or other criteria.
• Determines the rank of the advert based on the advertiser’s maximum bid and the relevance of the advert (which includes factors such as clickthrough rate, ad copy, keyword and landing page relevance).
In Google AdWords, as well as deciding on your CPC bids for your keywords, you are able to set budgets for your campaign. You can set daily budgets, monthly budgets, or no budget. Once your total is reached, your adverts no longer run, so you can be sure that you never overspend. If you are concerned about overspending, you can set a daily budget. However, this can mean that your adverts do not run as often as you may like them to.
Conversion and clickthrough rates
Search engines look at factors such as relevancy to try to ensure that it is not just advertisers with deep pockets that can land the top ad listing. Search engines need to ensure that users find the adverts relevant, otherwise they’ll be less likely to click on them, and no click means no revenue for the search engine.
Studies repeatedly show that those adverts nearer the top of the page attract the highest clickthrough rates (CTRs) (Smart Insights, 2016). Competition for these top spots can be fierce and the cost per click can be very high.
Ads at the top of a page generally have the following qualities:
• They are very relevant to a user’s search query.
• They consistently perform well, with high CTRs over time.
• The CPC bid is competitive and outbids other ads of the same quality. (Google AdWords, n.d.)
The bidding process
Advertisers need to determine the maximum they are willing to pay for a click on their advert, and they need to decide this for each keyword they enter for an advert.
This bid is the maximum cost per click (max CPC).
However, this will not necessarily be the CPC that the advertiser must pay for a click. Every time a search query is entered, the search engine runs an auction to determine the placement of the adverts where advertisers have bid on that search term. This auction is known as a generalised second price (GSP) auction, which is a variation on the Vickrey auction.
In the GSP auction, each advertiser will pay the bid of the advertiser below him, plus a standard increment (typically US \$0.01), for a click on their advert.
Say three advertisers, A1, A2 and A3, bid US \$2.50, US \$3.00 and US \$2.35 respectively on the same keyword. The search engine has set a minimum price of US \$2.05 on that same keyword. Here is how the adverts would be positioned, and what they would each pay for a click:
AdWords Quality Score
When it comes to ranking, of course, it’s not quite as simple as that (it rarely is!).
As well as the bid an advertiser places on a keyword, the search engine will take a number of other factors into account. In the case of Google AdWords, this is known as Quality Score. Quality Score is applied on keyword, ad group and account level. It is important that your entire account has a good Quality Score, as it affects ranking and the cost per click.
The Quality Score is determined by, among other factors:
• The relevance of the keyword to the search term
• The relevance of the advert copy to the search term
• The relevance of the landing page to the search term
• The historic CTR of that advert.
Quality Score is ranked as follows:
Great (8, 9, 10): Keyword is very relevant and QS needs no improvement.
OK (5, 6, 7): Keyword is relevant, but can still benefit from a higher QS.
Poor (1, 2, 3, 4): This keyword isn’t very relevant and QS needs improvement.
Another way to think of the Quality Score is as a discount that is applied to your campaign. For instance, an advert with a great Quality Score can achieve a top position at a lower bid than a competing ad with a poor Quality Score. For example, an advertiser with a Quality Score of 5 will have to pay twice as much for a certain position as an advertiser with a Quality Score of 10. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/11%3A_Engage_-_Search_advertising/11.06%3A_Bidding_and_ranking_for_search_ads.txt |
How do you know if a campaign is performing well? You may think that more clicks are better, but is this necessarily the case? Being in the top position means that you may pay more per click. When your advertising budget is limited, it is often more cost effective not to bid too much for your keywords and to occupy the lower ad positions. Because you’ll pay less per click, you can achieve more clicks, and potential customers, for your limited search advertising budget.
Advertisers need to consider what users do after clicking through to the advertiser’s website from the search engine. When planning a search advertising campaign, it is crucial to set the goals of the campaign upfront, and make sure that these are attainable. With a goal set up, the advertiser can track how many of the users that clickthrough to the website follow through to that goal. This is called a conversion.
Goals could be:
• Buying a product
• Filling in a form or quote
• Downloading a white paper
• Sending an enquiry
• Booking a flight.
We know that the CTR of an advert is the number of clicks out of the total impressions. The conversion rate of an advert is conversions divided by clicks. The cost per action, or the cost per each conversion, is the total cost of the campaign, divided by the number of conversions. The average cost per click is the total cost of the campaign divided by the number of clicks.
As the advertiser, you also need to know the value of each conversion. If the value of a conversion is less than the cost of achieving it, you effectively lose money with every conversion. Knowing the value to your business of a conversion will enable you to run search advertising campaigns profitably.
You also want to look at your share of voice, which is your brand’s share of the total advertising exposures for that sector or product type. This helps you measure how visible you are during your campaign.
11.08: Tools of the trade
The foundation of search marketing is keyword research, and there are a number of tools that will help you grow your keyword list, and also to determine keyword volumes. Some are free and some require payment. All these tools should be used as guidelines only. They usually provide trends and estimates rather than specific values. Test the data with your own campaigns to determine what works best for you.
Keyword volume tools
• tools.seobook.com/general/keyword
Keyword suggestion tools
• adwords.google.com/keywordplanner (free account required)
• www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
• tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
Google AdWords has an Ad Preview Tool, which allows you to see whether your advert is appearing on the page without using the search engine and thereby skewing quality score data. This can be accessed at adwords.google.com/select/ AdTargetingPreviewTool.
Some paid services that aid with keyword research are: www.wordtracker.com
• www.advancedwebranking.com
• Also consider other ways to research your industry and brand, for example, Google Trends (http://google.com/trends) can show keyword search volume over time.
Spreadsheets, such as Microsoft’s Excel, are useful to aid you in building your keyword lists. Getting to grips with functions such as Concatenate and Vlookup will be useful.
11.09: Case study - Frooition
One-line summary
Frooition, a web design firm, increased conversions and cut costs by optimising its PPC and SEO campaigns.
The challenge
Frooition proves creative services and apps for more than a quarter of a million customers around the world. They wanted to overhaul their SEO and PPC efforts so that they could maintain their current levels of sales conversions while simultaneously reducing their marketing budget.
The solution
They partnered with Vertical Leap to change their SEO and PPC campaigns. Their solution operated on several levels:
• They found that eBay was limiting exposure of Frooition ads and requested removal of the restriction placed on the ads.
• They restructured the entire account using historical data so that they could better focus budget. Keywords that didn’t work well were removed, and keyword match types were refined to better targeted search terms.
• They wrote new ad copy to match the new structure of the account and improve the keyword quality score.
• They adjusted the ad schedule so that high-performing hours of the day were targeted.
• They created new ad extensions to highlight USPs and improve clickthrough rates.
Results
Because of the removal of poorly performing keywords and refining of targeting, they decreased the number of impressions by 33% and reduced overall spend by 65%. The quality score improved dramatically, and cost per click was reduced by 52%. The changes to ad copy and ad extensions, along with the targeting, increased the clickthrough rate and conversions were up as well.
In summary:
• Cost per conversion dropped by 70%
• Total conversions increased by 21%
• Conversion rate went up by 65%
• Overall costs dropped by 65%
• Clickthrough rate increased by 69% (Digital Training Academy, 2016).
By using data and actionable insights carefully, this Frooition and Vertical Leap radically improved the PPC campaign. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/11%3A_Engage_-_Search_advertising/11.07%3A_Measuring_success.txt |
Search advertising and search engine optimisation (SEO) should go hand in hand to create an effective search engine marketing strategy. The greater the part of the search results page that you own, the better.
Search advertising is an excellent source of keywords and conversions. This insight can be used to improve the SEO of a site, as you will already know the relevance of these keywords to your intended audience. In turn, improved SEO rankings and social media interactions can help to reduce the CPC of your search advertising campaign, improve your Quality Score and raise your CTRs throughout.
Search advertising can also help to give your brand immediate search engine presence for your offline campaigns, when these might not yet be highly ranked in the natural search results. Search advertising can also be used together with online crisis management. If a company is unable to combat negative search results through the natural rankings, they are always able to bid for search adverts that can present their view.
Having a firm grasp of search advertising on search engines will provide a good foundation for running digital advertising campaigns across other networks and ad types.
11.11: References
Digital Training Academy, 2016. Search case study: How Frooition cut marketing costs 65% via smart SEM. [Online] Available at: www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/casestudies/2016/02/search_case_study_how_frooition_ cut_marketing_costs_65_via_smart_sem.php#more [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Google, 2008. A guide to building successful AdWords campaigns. [eBook] Available at: www.adwordsrobot.com/en/free...aigns---google [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Google, 2013. New Image Extensions Enable You to “Show” and “Tell” with Search Ads. [Online] Available at: adwords.blogspot.com/2013/06/new-image-extensions-enable-you-to-show.html [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Google AdWords, n.d. About Google AdWords. [Online] Available at: support.google.com/adwords/answer/6349091?hl=en [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Internet Live Stats, 2016. Google Search Statistics. [Online] Available at: www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Investopedia, 2016. The Business of Google. [Online] Available at: www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/020515/business-google.asp [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Smart Insights, 2016. Comparison of Google clickthrough rates by position. [Online] Available at: www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-optimisation-seo/seo-analytics/comparison-ofgoogle-clickthrough-rates-by-position [Accessed 1 November 2017]
Townsend, T. 2017. Google’s share of the search ad market is expected to grow. [Online] Available at: https://www.recode.net/2017/3/14/148...t-share-growth [Accessed 1 November 2017]
11.12: Tracking
In order to report on campaigns all the way through to conversion, you need to use appropriate conversion tracking. Conversion tracking is usually accomplished with a small tracking pixel that is placed on the conversion confirmation page of the website.
Google AdWords offers conversion tracking tags, which will allow you to report on AdWords campaigns from impression through to conversion. The AdWords interface provides a wide range of useful reports.
In order to track many other networks, however, third-party tracking needs to be used. Most ad serving technology will also enable pay-per-click tracking, usually at a nominal additional cost per click. If you are running display campaigns through these networks as well, this has the benefit of reporting on how the campaigns might influence each other.
If you are sending traffic to a website that uses Google Analytics, you can use campaign tracking to track and report on campaigns that are driving traffic to the site. You can link your AdWords and Analytics accounts to share information across these platforms, such as the cost paid per click in Google Analytics and some basic analytics information in AdWords. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/11%3A_Engage_-_Search_advertising/11.10%3A_The_bigger_picture.txt |
Do your homework
For a successful campaign, you need a full online and offline analysis of the business, customer demographics, industry and competitors. While it is relatively quick to set up a campaign, pre-planning will show dividends later. You need a brand, an identity and a clear, unique selling point. You get only three lines to advertise, so you need to make sure you know what must be included and how to make the most impact.
Define your goals
You need to know what you want to achieve with your search advertising campaign.
Branding campaigns, for example, are very different from campaigns to increase sales. What do you want users to do once they click on your advert?
Budget, cost per action (CPA) and targets
Determine how much you are willing to spend to achieve your goal, your target CPA. Decide how much budget you are going to allocate to your search advertising campaign. If your goal is to increase revenue, your budget may be unlimited as long as revenue is increasing and you are within your target CPA.
Keyword research
You need to determine what keywords potential customers are likely to use when searching for the service that you offer. Along with that, you need to know:
• What common misspellings or typos a customer might use.
• What words would show that they are not likely to purchase from you, such as ‘free’ and ‘cheap’.
• As part of your keyword research, you need to look at expected volumes for your keywords, so that you know how to bid. There are also tools that will show you similar or related keywords, so you can expand your keyword list even further. See the Tools of the trade section (below) for some suggestions.
Write the adverts
Using your keyword research, write compelling adverts to promote your products. Adverts can be unique to one keyword, or you can group them and have a number of keywords for one advert.
Make sure you use an appropriate display URL, and that you target the landing page for each advert.
Place your bids
Based on your goals and keyword research, set the maximum bids for your keywords. Don’t set these too high at this stage as you’ll tweak the bids as you test your campaign. That being said, don’t make them too low either, or you won’t get much traffic, and it could affect your Quality Score. Test your ad to find the right balance in line with your goals. AdWords also provides tools that can help to guide your decisions.
Tracking
Get your tracking tags in place, especially any conversion tracking tags.
Measure, analyse, test, optimise!
With tracking in place, you can analyse your ROI down to a keyword level, and then focus your campaign and budget on the keywords that are converting best.
Consider how changing the text, image or video of your advert could increase the CTR, or your conversion rate. Test different landing pages to see what converts better.
Test the networks too. Your Bing campaign may perform better than Google, or your Facebook account may drive cheaper traffic. Always keep your goals in mind and work, work, work to achieve them. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/11%3A_Engage_-_Search_advertising/11.13%3A_Implementing_a_search_advertising_campaign.txt |
There are many reasons why search advertising can be an excellent addition to any digital marketing strategy.
• No to low cost barrier
You pay only for traffic, there are usually no setup fees involved, and all the tools you need to start out with can be accessed for free.
• Tracking every cent
Search advertising allows you to track your advertising spend down to a keyword level, so you can learn what works and what doesn’t on a micro scale.
• Targeted advert placement
You can make your advertising relevant by using filters, targeting your ads to specific users, or even in the way you use keywords and match types.
• You’re giving your customers what they want
Search advertising lets you put your advert in front of users who are searching for your product. It lets you provide a solution, as opposed to creating an interruption.
Search advertising campaigns are quick to set up, can provide high volumes of traffic, and are highly trackable. But there are some pitfalls that you should be aware of.
Click fraud
Click fraud occurs when your advert is clicked on by users who are not legitimate potential customers. Because an advertiser has to pay for every click, sometimes unscrupulous competitors can click on the advert to force the payment. There are even automated bots that can click on adverts, costing advertisers millions.
Search engines have taken measures to combat this and click fraud is no longer widely prevalent. Advertisers can report suspected click fraud, and the search engines will refund invalid or fraudulent clicks after investigation.
What can you do? Keep an eye on your campaign. Any sudden leap in CTR should be investigated, and you should pay particular attention to see if the conversion rate drops, which would indicate potential fraud. Pause the campaign if you suspect fraud, and alert the search engine.
Bidding wars and climbing CPCs
High-traffic keywords are expensive, and the battle to stay on top means that the CPC of these keywords is escalating. Convincing yourself that it’s number one or nothing can result in burning through your campaign budget quickly with nothing to show for it.
Keep focused on your campaign goals and ROI, and keep investigating to find less expensive niche keywords that work for you.
Keeping an eye on things
Search advertising campaigns require a lot of monitoring and the bigger your campaign gets the more time this takes. Search advertising can provide a fantastic ROI, but you need to check in and tweak regularly to make sure that it continues to perform for you.
11.E: Search advertising(Exercises)
Case study questions
1. Why was this campaign trying to reduce the number of impressions?
2. Which aspects of best practice worked together here to achieve the desired effect?
Chapter questions
1. Why would competitors commit click fraud?
2. When should you use certain search types for AdWords, and why would this matter? How does it affect the number of conversions?
3. Why should one use relevant landing pages when running a search advertising campaign, and how does this affect the number of conversions?
Further reading
www.ppchero.com – This website contains practical step-by-step guides to improving your search campaigns and provides regular posts on all things search marketing.
www.searchengineland.com – This blog covers not only search advertising, but the entire spectrum of search engine marketing, providing useful insights for all your search activities.
support.google.com/adwords/?hl=en – This is where you can find information related to Google AdWords and other search advertising concepts.
11.S: Search advertising(Summary)
Search advertising is advertising on the results pages of search engines where an advertiser typically pays for each click on an advert. These adverts consist of text, links and Ad Extensions. They are listed above and alongside the organic search results, and are marked as adverts so that users are aware that these are paid-for listings.
Search advertising is targeted according to keywords, demographics, behaviour or interest. On search engines, the CPC is determined by an auction.
The success of an advert may be determined by its CTR, but the success of a campaign will be determined by its conversion rate and its ability to achieve a target CPA. After all, it’s not enough for users just to click on your adverts, you want them to take specific actions on your site once they get there. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/11%3A_Engage_-_Search_advertising/11.14%3A_Advantages_and_challenges.txt |
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn:
• The various business objectives you can meet with online advertising.
• All about the various ad formats, payment models and ad types available.
• How and where to publish your adverts.
• How to run an online advertising campaign step by step.
12: Engage - Online advertising
Digital advertising, simply put, is advertising on the Internet. It can be found anywhere you access the web; the majority of this form of advertising is now found on mobile. Also known as online advertising, this is an integrated approach to advertising, focusing on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. This includes display adverts found on websites, adverts on search engine results pages (covered in the chapter on Search advertising), adverts placed in emails and on social networks, video and content advertising, and other ways in which advertisers use the Internet.
Note
Read more about this in the Search advertising chapter.
The terms ’digital advertising’ and ‘online advertising’ will be used interchangeably in this chapter.
The main objectives of online advertising are to increase sales, improve brand awareness, engage customers, and raise share of voice in the marketplace. It is based on the simple economics of demand and supply. Advertisers aim to stimulate a consumer need (demand) and then satisfy that need (supply).
Online advertising follows web user behaviour. Advertisers want to place their adverts where potential customers will see them. Digital advertising is not limited to one specific medium or location; it can be placed almost anywhere on the web and can consist of images, text, videos, interactive elements, and even games.
Although the Internet provides new scope for creative approaches to advertising, we see its true advantages when we realise how trackable, and therefore measurable, Internet advertising is. It is possible to track all interactions with the advert itself: the number of impressions served, how many clicks it received, post-click AdView data, and how many unique users were reached. This leads to valuable data that can be used to make sensible, effective business decisions.
12.02: Key terms and concepts
Table 12.2.1
Term Definition
Ad server The technology that places ads on websites.
Animated GIF A GIF (type of image file) which supports animations and allows a separate palette of 256 colours for each frame.
Banner An online advertisement in the form of a graphic image that appears on a web page, including mobile sites.
Clickthrough rate (CTR) Clickthrough rate = Clicks / impressions, shown as a % conversion. A visitor completing a target action.
Cost per acquisition (CPA) Refers to the cost of acquiring a new customer. The advertiser pays only when a desired action is achieved (sometimes called cost per lead).
Cost per click (CPC) Refers to when an advertiser pays only when their ad is clicked on, giving them a visitor to their site typically from a search engine in pay-per-click search marketing or programmatic CPC buying engines.
Cost per mille/ thousand (CPM) Amount paid for every 1 000 impressions served of an advertisement.
Display network Content websites that serve pay-per-click adverts from the same provider, such as AdWords.
Google AdWords Google’s PPC program, which allows advertisers to display their adverts on relevant search results and across Google’s content network.
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) A language read by web browsers. Certain HTML ‘tags’ are used to structure the information and features within a web page. As an example, HTML emails usually contain graphics and can be interactive.
Internet Protocol (IP) address The Internet Protocol (IP) address is an exclusive number which is used to represent every single computer in a network.
Internet service provider (ISP) Internet service provider; this is the company that provides you with access to the Internet, for example, MWEB, Verizon or AT&T
Key performance indicator (KPI) A metric that shows whether an objective is being achieved.
Paid search advertising Usually refers to advertising on search engines, sometimes called PPC advertising. The advertiser pays only for each click of the advert.
Tracking Measuring the effectiveness of a campaign by collecting and evaluating statistics.
Tracking code A piece of code that tracks a user’s interaction and movement through a website.
Traditional media Media that is not digitally based or bought through digital metrics, these include TV, print, radio, magazine, activation and out f home (billboards). Digital billboards and activations using digital hologram technology, along with radio ads that integrate mobile technology, are blurring the lines between media.
Unique selling point (USP) Unique selling point (or proposition) is what makes your offering different to your competitors’.
Web analytics A software tool that collects data on website users, based on metrics to measure its performance.
Web browser This is what allows you to browse the World Wide Web. Examples of browsers include Microsoft Edge, Chrome, OperaMini, and Firefox. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/12%3A_Engage_-_Online_advertising/12.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Advertising online has a number of objectives; let’s explore these.
Building brand awareness
Making users aware of a brand or product is an important long-term goal for any marketer. Once customers know about it, they are more likely to trust the brand.
The more frequently a brand message is seen, the higher the recall on the brand, advert or tag line. The better known a brand is, the more business it can do; brand awareness drives recall at the point of purchase or when considering a brand to use. Its ultimate goal is to sell more of the product or service.
Note
Brand awareness is essential for launching a new brand or product or approaching a new audience.
It is worth noting that despite low clickthrough rates, online advertising does drive awareness because the ad is seen even if it isn’t clicked. This is highly relevant when using programmatic engines to drive affiliate-based marketing tactics. This moves away from the ‘old school’ CPM buy. Refer to the section on Advertising exchanges and programmatic buying for more context.
Digital advertising is largely visual, making it an ideal channel for promoting brand imagery and making users familiar with its colours, logo and overall feel.
Creating demand
Creating customer demand is a three-step process: inform, persuade and remind. Consumers can’t want what they don’t know about. Advertising needs to convince them that they want something and let them know why they should want it. Online advertising provides a great way to communicate the unique selling points (USPs) of a product, helping to stimulate demand and reminding consumers about the product and why they want it.
Satisfying demand
Once consumers want a product, they need to find out how to satisfy that desire. At this point it is important for the marketer to show the consumer how a particular brand or product will best meet that need. Search ads are usually most useful for this (see the Search advertising chapter for more information).
Note
Read more about this in the Search advertising chapter
Driving direct response and sales
All forms of digital marketing need to drive traffic and sales in the long term.
However, the immediacy of online advertising also drives traffic and sales in the short and medium terms. Unlike traditional media advertising, online advertising can turn the potential customer into an actual customer right there and then. What’s more, it is possible to measure accurately how effective the online advertising campaign has been in this regard.
12.04: The key differentiator
Online advertising is able to drive instant sales and conversions. Unlike other advertising mediums, the consumer can go from advert to merchant in one easy click. Because of the connected nature of the Internet, online activities are highly trackable and measurable, which makes it possible to target adverts and to track and gauge the efficacy of the advertising accurately. Each advert can be tracked for success.
The long tail of successful tracking also ensures that the user is tracked from the start of their journey to their final purchase, which might not be in the traditional ‘awareness to sale’ funnel. Google has called this principle ‘attribution modelling’, and it is based on the premise that a certain digital channel might be better at assisting in purchase than another, at a certain time, in a certain chain of interactions with the brand.
For example, a user might see a display ad for the VW Golf at the beginning of the month, but not click on it. Later in the month, they receive a raise, so they decide to purchase a new car, and the VW Golf comes to mind. They search for it, and click on a Google search ad to see the vehicle on the website and evaluate costs. Then they visit a number of other vehicle websites. A week later, they see an ad on Facebook for the VW Golf on a 2% below prime sale, so they click on it and fill out the lead form for the dealer to call them. This demonstrates how different media played a part in bringing the sale or last click attribution. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/12%3A_Engage_-_Online_advertising/12.03%3A_Objectives.txt |
There are many different ways to display adverts in digital. Here are some of the most common options.
Banner adverts
A banner advert is a graphic image or animation displayed on a website for advertising purposes. Static banners are in GIF or JPEG format, but banners can also employ rich media such as video, JavaScript, HTML5 and other interactive technologies; these allow the viewer to interact and transact with the banner. Banners are not limited to the space that they occupy; some banners expand on mouse-over or when clicked. Some can capture data within the banner.
Note
Google AdWords offers a rich media banner advert builder. You can find it in the ‘Ads’ tab in the AdWords account interface.
Standard banner sizes
There are standard sizes (measured in pixels) for static, animated and rich media banner adverts. Creating banners in these sizes means the ads can be placed on many websites; advertisers sell space in these sizes as well. And here, size (both dimensions and file size) does matter, you can expect varying rates of clickthroughs and conversions across the range of sizes. Bigger is usually better, but if you want to know what works best for your brand, test.
Note
Start with the most common banner size.
Banner sizes available on the Google Display Network include (all sizes are in pixels, Width × Height):
• Banner (468 × 60)
• Mobile leaderboard (300 × 50)
• Leaderboard (728 × 90)
• Small square (200 × 200)
• Skyscraper (120 × 600)
• Wide skyscraper (160 × 600)
• Square (250 × 250)
• Medium rectangle (300 × 250)
• Large rectangle (336 × 280).
Banners may be animated, static or Flash, but must be under 150k in file size.
All adverts need to be supplied with a destination URL. Some rich media adverts allow for multiple destination URLs.
Interstitial banners
Interstitial banners are banners shown between pages on a website or, more often, between screens on an app. As you click from one page to another, you are shown this advert before the next page is displayed. Sometimes the advert can be closed.
As of 10 January 2017, Google may rank sites lower if they use pop-ups and interstitial ads, since users tend to dislike those ads. This should reduce the number of advertisers using these ad types over time.
Pop-ups and pop-unders
As the name suggests, these are adverts that pop up, or under, the web page being viewed. They open in a new, smaller window. You will see a pop-up straight away, but will probably become aware of a pop-under only after you close your browser window.
These were very prominent in the early days of online advertising, but audience annoyance means that there are now ‘pop-up blockers’ built into most good web browsers. This can be problematic as sometimes a website will legitimately use a pop-up to display information to the user. Pop-ups still occur now and then on mobile phones or when visiting somewhat unethical sites.
Floating adverts
This advert appears in a layer over the content, but is not in a separate window. Usually, the user can close this advert. In fact, best practice dictates that a prominent close button should be included on the advert, usually in the top right hand corner. Floating adverts are created with DHTML or Flash, and float in a layer above a site’s content for a few seconds. Often, the animation ends by disappearing into a banner advert on the page. Many sites these days are using pop-ups to encourage newsletter signups or social media likes rather than to advertise products.
Note
Remember: your goal is to inform and motivate customers, not annoy them. Floating ads should be engaging and easy to close.
Wallpaper adverts
This advert changes the background of the web page being viewed. It is sometimes possible to click on an advert of this type, but not always. The effect of these adverts is difficult to measure as there is often no clickthrough, and its chief purpose is branding.
Map adverts
This is advertising placed on an online map, such as Google Maps. This type of advert is ideal for local businesses and is usually based on keyword searches for the brand’s offering.
Video adverts
This is a video advert in one of the formats shown above. It starts to play on mouse over, or on arriving at a site.
Native content
Native content advertising is the online version of Advertorials. This is where the advertiser produces content that is in line with the editorial style of the site, but is sponsored or in some way product endorsed by the brand; video is an increasingly popular method of native advertising. Great examples of this exist on Buzzfeed.com. More on this later in the Native advertising section.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content advertising exists at the bottom of articles you read online. This is where the ‘suggested articles’ posts appear and in most cases, this is paid-for promotion. Advertisers pay to have their content promoted under certain categories of sites or articles. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/12%3A_Engage_-_Online_advertising/12.05%3A_Types_of_display_adverts.txt |
As well as a variety of mediums and formats, there are also a number of different payment models for display advertising.
CPM
CPM stands for cost per thousand impressions (M is the Roman numeral for a thousand). This means the advertiser pays for every thousand times the advert loads on the publisher’s page. This is how a campaign is normally priced when brand awareness or exposure is the primary goal.
CPM rates for rich media adverts are usually higher than for standard media adverts. This is often based on file size.
CPC
CPC stands for cost per click. This means that the advertiser pays only when their advert is clicked on, regardless of how many times it has been viewed. CPC advertising is normally associated with search advertising, although it has become very popular in display advertising too, especially when using ad networks. Banners can be priced this way when the aim is to drive traffic and conversions. It is also a payment method sometimes used in affiliate marketing, when the aim is to drive traffic to a new website.
Note
Read more about this in the Search advertising chapter.
CPA
CPA refers to cost per acquisition. Using this model means that the advertiser pays only when an advert delivers an acquisition after the user clicks on the advert.
Definitions of acquisitions vary depending on the site and campaign. It may be a user filling in a form, downloading a file or buying a product.
CPA is often the best option for advertisers because they pay only when the advertising has met its goal. For this reason, it is also the worst type for the publisher, as they are rewarded only if the advertising is successful. The publisher has to rely on the conversion rate of the advertiser’s website, something that the publisher cannot control. The CPA model is not commonly used for banner advertising and is generally associated with affiliate marketing.
Flat rate or sponsorships
Sometimes, owners of lower-traffic sites choose to sell banner space at a flat rate, in other words, at a fixed cost per month, regardless of the amount of traffic or impressions. This would appeal to a media buyer who may be testing an online campaign that targets niche markets. A popular way that this is employed is via a homepage or section takeover, in which a brand can buy a home page takeover on a news portal on the day of a big news event such as a big sports day or an election.
There are several variations to what a sponsorship on a website entails. Examples include exclusive adverts on all the pages and slots on a specific page, newsletter or section, and sponsoring content. Sponsorship means that no other advertiser will appear in that section. Sponsorships are often difficult to measure and are mostly used to raise brand awareness. These can be very effective when launching a new brand.
CPE
With the cost per engagement (CPE) model, advertisers pay for interactions with adverts, normally placed in videos or applications, such as Facebook applications. An interaction, referred to as an engagement, usually starts with a rollover, or mouse-over that expands the ad. An engagement can also be a like, comment, share or other platform-relevant social action.
Once expanded, an advert may contain a video, game, form, or other interactive content. The ad doesn’t take the user away from the web page, and marketers pay only when a user completes an action.
What payment model can you expect?
The advertiser rarely has a say over the payment model used. This comes down to the website owner or publisher, advertising type and other factors, such as the popularity of the site. CPM favours the publisher, while CPA favours the advertiser. Sometimes, a hybrid of the two payment models is pursued.
High-traffic, broad-audience websites, often referred to as ‘premium’ or booked media, will typically offer CPM advertising. Examples include web portals such as www.yahoo.com or news sites such as www.cnn.com.
Niche websites with a targeted audience are more likely to offer CPC or CPA advertising to advertisers with an appropriate product. These can also fall under the umbrella of affiliate marketing.
As programmatic ad exchanges (a way to purchase digital advertising inventory, see below) take over more of the digital inventory, the CPM and sponsorship buying models are starting to wane in popularity for both advertiser and publisher. The accuracy and cost efficiency with which programmatic uses remnant advertising inventory from sites that sell majority CPM inventory make it a popular way to target and buy going forward. This style of buying also allows much better targeting of the advertising over time, a big plus for advertisers. This will soon overtake the traditional CPM buy in 100% of cases.
Types of advertising can be seen on a scale from more intrusive (and thus potentially annoying to the consumer) to less intrusive. In the same way, payment models can be scaled from those that favour the publisher to those that favour the advertiser.
When planning a campaign, it is important to know how the advertising will be paid for and what kinds of advertising are offered by publishers. A lot of this can be solved by using a company that specialises in advert serving, media planning and media buying.
Which is the best payment model for you? This will depend on the purpose of your ads and the return you expect on your investment. Each payment model can be effective and lucrative if used appropriately. | textbooks/biz/Marketing/Book%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)/12%3A_Engage_-_Online_advertising/12.06%3A_Payment_Models_for_Display_Advertising.txt |
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