Today's Marketing for Building Powerful Brand Image - Literature review Example

1. Introduction Marketing today is no more about selling a product by ‘using a pinch of internet, a sprinkle of product sampling and a dash of PR’ (Vollmer and Precourt, 2008: 15). Communication options have grown to such an extent that it has become imperative for marketers to develop effective brand strategies through the right selection of the tools at disposal. Hence marketing today is about undertaking the challenge to experiment with new advertising platforms and sources of consumer insight. It is about being innovative with a more powerful marketing mix. Marketing poses a challenge because nobody yet knows how to make decisions and attain consistent success. The new media and advertising environment requires skills, insight and creative and analytic power. This requires strategic partnering with agencies, media companies and consultants. In nutshell, finding the right people with integrated talent has been difficult. The challenges have raised controversies and debates around the right form of marketing and have made this a contested social field. The debates range from the effectiveness of the new media to the returns on investment, whether they generate sales of merely create awareness. 2. Building powerful brand image The power in the marketer-consumer relationship keeps changing as there are shifts in the mode of economic production and forms of social contestation. Power today lies in the hands of the consumer and not the company. Naomi Klein points out in her book No Logo that newspapers, television stations, Internet servers, streets and retail spaces are all controlled by multinational corporate interests (The Economist, 2001). The criticism is rightly against globalization and how the so-called branded goods produced in the third world sweatshops have replaced the local goods. Today every consumer is looking for branded goods but more as a prestige issue. Earlier brands offered protection to the consumer; it was an assurance of quality and reliability. In the developing countries consumers gain in prices as competition exerts downward pressure on the prices. Consumers are prepared to pay a higher price for brands but as consumer tastes have been changing very rapidly, brands too fade fast. Companies like Coca-Cola and Nike are trying to buy customers by appealing to their emotional needs and desires like Coca-Cola trying to associate its fizzy drink with carefree fun. While some consumers may get carried away there are many that dislike such advertisements that lure a consumer. The power of the brand can also be used negatively to discourage consumers. For instance, when environmental degradation and human rights abuse or child labor is cited against certain brands, it immediately wakes up people and makes them boycott these brands. Hence brands too have an impact on the consumers which the marketers realized and make their best efforts to appeal to them through different marketing techniques. Another article in The Economist (2001a) Who’s wearing the trousers? argues that consumers are not being manipulated by big corporations and their brands. However, marketers have shifted their manufacturing base to third world countries for cheaper production and to be able to focus on marketing. They thus concentrate on building brands as brand image is the source of profit for a company. They are taking the global consumers for a ride as has been rightly pointed out by Ms Klein that the brands are being integrated into the lives of the people. Every age group, every race and community, school-going children or sport lovers is engulfed in the brandscape – nobody has been spared. Today the youth try to find their identity based on the brands endorsed by their role models. Consumers globally have become conscious and have started protesting against the unethical practices of companies like Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart and McDonalds. Today even a nation wants to be identified as a branded product to be able to attract foreign investment. This article says that brands like Kellogg’s, Kodak, Marlboro and Nescafé are no more in the top ten and the consumers are not being manipulated or exploited. If these brands are no more in the top ten it is simply because other powerful brands have come up with more appealing messages while these brands did not invest enough to save their brand image or invest enough in the new age marketing techniques. Besides, consumer demands keep changing and product life cycles have become shorter. These companies could not sustain competition in this new business environment and they had to take a back seat. Brand loyalties have shifted again for the same reason that the older brands had to phase out as more powerful brands have overtaken them. With enhancements in the standard of manufacturing and improvement in product quality firms had to find newer means to differentiate and thereby find a reason to charge a premium price. So again, it is all about building the right brand image and appealing to the senses of the consumers. Once the brand name gets established, firms introduce new products (different from their industry) under the same brand name. This happened as organizations found difficult to sustain competition in one area and were seeking avenues for diversification. Consumers definitely have vast choice but in this competitive environment it is the survival of the fittest. The strongest brand survives competition. Consumers have become difficult to reach, says this article. They are certainly busier but viral marketing and WOM have penetrated deep into the lives of the youth. They are always networking whether through the social networking sites or through their mobile phones. The messages spread much faster than they used to be. Today every one is trying to build a brand and not sell a product. For this they use new age tools like SEO, PPC and viral marketing. They sell a lifestyle and they appeal to the emotions. Sweden’s Absolut Vodka attained success not because of its taste but because of the wit in the ads. They appealed to the lifestyle of the people by their catch words, “We like certain people, but some people are just more fun and interesting”. Ethical consumerism is also an area around which companies are building their brands like Ben & Jerry’s ice-creams. No doubt consumers today are in a position to dictate to the companies but it is only after the companies have appealed to the senses of the consumers through their ad messages. 3. New media marketing Because of the advanced communications technology marketers today have several options to translate the brand into a compelling message to the consumer. They use the traditional media or the digital media. 3.1 Body as a billboard The mode of advertising has undergone a sea change. The body is used as a bill board now. This is again to attract the senses of the consumer. Something unique, something different immediately draws attention of the people. These cranial billboards are outrageous PR stunt used by companies like Air New Zealand (Newman, 2009). These human billboards are offered attractive incentives for shaving of their heads and carrying the ad copy for two weeks. Offline advertising is used by online beauty product store where the participants apply temporary tattoos with the company’s Web address on their eyelids and then wink at strangers. They are paid per wink which is like PPC or pay-per-view in web advertising. Pregnant women are paid for displaying tattoos on their bellies and bare them at malls and football stadiums. So, imagination has to run wild when a company wants to appeal to the masses. 3.2 Digital marketing Companies are gradually moving towards digital content, e-newsletter, branded entertainment, viral or word-of-mouth (WOM) programs and a strong focus on in-store programs (Vollmer and Precourt, 2008: 49). Digital tools allow market segmentation and help the marketer to manage ad campaigns. They can even create ads and manage the placements. Marketers feel that there is a difference in what the consumers actually want and between what they say they want (Vollmer and Precourt, 2008: 67) and gaining this insight makes a difference in how they market their products. They bring what actually motivates the customers by talking to them other than the product and the brand. Unilever applied this strategy and managed to capture 80% share of the US male body-spray market. 3.2.1 Search engine optimization (SEO) There are different channels like PPC (pay-per-click), SEO (search engine optimization), banner-ads, and bulk mails. Analytics helps to manage and study these channels. It is possible to obtain a detailed report on where the traffic came from, how much translated into sales, the cost per sale, and the value per visitor (Ramos and Cota, 2009: 25). Because of this, analytics is being used as a business tool to manage channels based on the business goals. Entrepreneurs are clubbing together small merchants and providing them a common platform to offer their goods to millions of consumers. NexTag shopping search engine had started with technology and consumer electronics but today has 22 top-level categories and hundreds of sub-categories (Rush, 2003). More than five million shoppers visit NexTag to research, compare, and buy products. It works on a performance-based pricing model and provides sellers valuable visibility of the shoppers. It generates highly qualified traffic and is an efficient sales channel for small businesses and individuals. Through the Self-Serve program individuals with a few items to sell can also benefit from its large customer base. 3.2.2 Viral marketing In digital marketing viral marketing has taken the world by a storm as it operates by using pre-existing social networks and connections to move around information about products and services through word-of-mouth (WOM). It has been equated to a contagious disease that spreads like a virus and has a close connection with the media culture particularly the internet. Viral marketing is a process, a philosophy and effect (Ireland, 2004). It is to spread an idea or an object like wildfire and the medium is known as the viral agent. The agent forwards the idea, object or article to an associate who buys into the idea but much depends on the agent who sends the first message and its cultural appeal. Vital marketing is known by different names like internet marketing, referral marketing, stealth marketing and buzz marketing (Cruz and Fill, 2008). WOM and viral marketing have transformed the marketing environment as marketers try to build customer relationships through loyalty and database marketing. Internet advertising is on the rise as Interactive Advertising Bureau reports that companies spent $4.9bn in the first quarter of 2007 on internet advertising which is a rise of over 5% from the previous year (Ferguson, 2008). However, the marketers find it difficult to calculate the return on investment (ROI) in WOM as viral marketing builds awareness but not market share. Viral marketing works on the principle that a small number of highly motivated customers are chosen to seed the idea, product and message and allow it to spread like virus effortlessly to reach millions (Watts and Peretti, 2007). P&G has been experimenting with viral marketing by placing video clips on Web sites like adcritic.com, boardsmag.com, buzzpatrol.com, and YouTube.com when they found selling coffee to younger consumer was difficult through the traditional media. This campaign of theirs has been able to attract the young consumers (Vollmer and Precourt, 2008: 52). Hence marketers today are not looking for short-term gains but targeting long-term relationships with their customers. The reliance on traditional media is decreasing as marketers try to establish direct-to-consumer relationships. The digital media allows for real-time changes and adjustments in advertising, marketing and promotions. Amongst the various platforms, Weblogs produce immediate results as it aids link-sharing (Ireland, 2004). Through the help of generic search terms incorporated into the referral links and making it creative has a profound effect. People judge any offer based on who has linked them and also give importance to the words used. Selecting the right target audience is essential so that message does not get lost. Once the mechanism has managed to capture the attention of the target audience, the transition to the marketers’ product or sales should be smooth. This means that first and foremost the product should be something unique and something to be excited about. This is the role of a viral marketing agent and this requires encouraging and motivating the existing customers to carry the message forward. How the consumers can be motivated so that messages and causes can be advanced has been explained by Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point. Gladwell suggests that human beings have a vital role in the spread of ideas, information and trends (Borderstores, n.d.). Ideas, trends and social behavior spread through and among people like wildfire. It is possible to turn an idea or a product into a virulent mind virus that becomes the latest fashion or trend in the society. Whether viral marketing boosts sales or not is debatable although it definitely boosts awareness and encourages traffic (SD, 2008). The intended purpose of viral marketing is WOM marketing when they describe what they have encountered in FaceBook or YouTube. The latest trend is to post videos on YouTube and then agents are employed who spread the buzz about the new product through their own social network. According to a study by Inc. Magazine 82 percent of the fastest-growing private companies are using this technique. The process is not costly but it requires creativity and innovation. However, people are very quick in spreading the news about something they have juts seen but they are equally fast in spreading negative word also. This is how some products and ideas never take off. Hence what is important is to get the delivery and message right. An effective viral-marketing strategy contains certain elements although it is not necessary all strategies should contain all the elements but the more the better. The viral messages are build on familiar cultural forms and practices. They use attractive tunes, ideas and catch phrases that can draw immediate attention of the consumers. Some product or service has to be given away to attract the consumers’ attraction and this is the most vital element according to Wilson (2005). The medium that carries the message must be easy to transfer and replicate – like email software download or website. Because it is inexpensive and easy, internet is the best platform for viral marketing and hotmail pioneered viral marketing by offering free email addresses and services. The marketing strategy should be built on common motivations and behaviours for its transmission. Today everyone has their own network of friends and marketers take advantage of such existing networks and launch affiliate programs. Marketers also place text or graphics links on others’ websites. Today the youth is very well socially connected as most people are social. Each one has a network of at least 8-10 people connected closely which may even go up to a few hundred for many. Even a waitress communicates with hundreds of her customers every week. Marketers are hence exploiting such network to transmit the message to the consumers. They recognize that WOM recommendation is better than any paid advertisement in a magazine or a TV channel. Cruz and Fill (2008) highlight the causes why WOM and viral marketing have picked up in recent years. Media has become fragmented and the media prices have become inflated while the return on media advertising is unknown. At the same time the consumers have become marketing and advertising literate. They judge a product, idea or service based on the quality of advertisements. Media also uses latest technology and all these together have forced the organizations to look for newer ways t o reach the audience. WOM is found to be very effective and powerful because its credibility is associated with the parties involved. Viral marketing is the electronic form of WOM. WOM has embraced new media marketing channels like the internet to reach the message to the audience. In viral marketing the marketers understand the motivation and behaviour of those passing on the email message. When customers are willing to recommend a product or service the purpose of viral marketing has been achieved but this according to Cruz and Fill is not the key criterion for evaluating viral marketing. However, Watts and Peretti believe that for every high-profile successful viral product there are many that fail also. It is not enough to design the messages; it is equally important to identify who will spread these messages. They propose an approach called big-seed marketing which combines viral-marketing tools with traditional mass media to yield better results than purely viral approaches like WOM. They suggest that seeds should be spread through social sharing tools. For instance the audience of an ad on the TV is not just the single audience that views the ad but each viewer forwards it to their friends and they to their friends and so on. This has a far greater reach than just using the viral tools. This method eliminates the need to identify who or how the message will spread. Evaluating viral marketing communication (VMC) has been very difficult as measuring the number of hits is not a suitable measure of the success of the campaign. The target of viral marketers is to maximize reach and an ideal viral message will be able to retain and convert a large number of recipients as new users. Hence penetration, loyalty and frequency should be the criteria to measure success (Cruz and Fill, 2008). Some other suggest that it should be measured based on the speed of transmission or how long it can sustain the efforts or the simplicity of the strategy concerning mental barriers, cost and handling. If it is measured in the proportion of the target audience reached, then the Burger King Subservient Chicken vital has achieved tremendous success. Viral marketing has several benefits apart from boosting reach and frequency of exposures. It also serves to reinforce messages and provides the campaign with an element of shock value. Shock value creates a buzz as it creates a point of differentiation and traditional media has lost its charm. Vital marketers also place their ads on paid-for sites and they ensure their content appears on the homes pages but this does not amount to viral marketing. Viral marketing travels to different audience only through WOM which does not have to be paid for. Advergames allow for high level of interaction and hence are considered exceptional form of VMC. VMC can be paid or free although some feel that viral creative should not be bound by corporate control. Conclusion Thus it can be said that marketers are using different platforms to reach their messages across. Viral marketing and new media and marketing are emerging sectors but are here to stay. The marketers are not yet sure of its effectiveness and the measure of evaluation is also debatable. Different authors have come up with different measures of success of viral marketing but no consensus has yet been reached. However, it requires insight into using it the right way, having the right message conveyed to the target audience and being able to match the product offer with the message that has been conveyed. Viral marketing is largely free although now many are investing in search engine optimization and making PPC and similar investments. The different important elements have to be considered before sending out messages. However what is important is the first channel or the person through whom the message is disseminated. If it is a person of good standing the message conveyed will bring positive results. Adverse publicity through viral is equally damaging and spreads equally fast. Hence marketers need to have clearly defined objectives or business goals. They need to segment their customers by using the analytics. Through the analytics they can collect data of prospective customers including the channel through which they can be reached. The focus nevertheless is on brand building and luring consumers into buying their products. Some are of the opinion that consumers are not duped, programmed and deceived but actually through the different marketing platforms the marketers are creating false needs and desires. This is to a large extent true because they are actually coerced into buying something or a desire is created which the customers falsely believe to be a need. Some feel that the power lies with the consumers. True the ultimate power is with the consumers as they are the ones that spread the message with the use of technology but initially it is the marketer that presents his brand in such a way to attract the customers. They play on the emotions of the consumers through catch words and phrases or through tempting offers like music download. Internet has made it easy for marketers to reach their target customers through many different ways and make many tempting offers. They create a need just to sell their products. They take advantage of the network culture that is constantly on the rise. They capitalize on the social networking that people engage in. Whichever name it is known by – stealth marketing or buzz marketing or internet marketing or referral marketing – the marketers are definitely using it as a platform to tempt the consumers with offers and attractions thereby creating a demand for their products. References Borderstores, (n.d.), Reviews for The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, accessed April, 7, 2009 from http://www.bordersstores.co.uk/_assets/books/assets/Tipping%20Point%20Reviews.pdf Cruz, D and Fill, C, (2008). Evaluating viral marketing: isolating the key criteria, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 743-758 Ireland, T (2004). Viral Marketing - An Article, Some Advice, accessed April, 7, 2009 from http://www.bloggerheads.com/business/viral_marketing_advice.asp Newman, AD, (2009). The Body as Billboard: Your Ad Here, New York Times, February 18, 2009, accessed April, 7, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/business/media/18adco.html?em Ramos, A and Cota, S (2009). Search Engine Marketing. McGrawHill. N. York. Rush, L (2003). NexTag Helps Small Merchants Ring in Holiday Season, News & Trends, accessed April, 7, 2009 from http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/trends/article.php/10417_3115451 SD, (2005), Have you got the bug?, STRATEGIC DIRECTION, vol. 4 no. 9, pp. 17-18. The Economist, (2001). The Case for Brand, Pro-logo, 2001. The Economist, (2001a). Whos wearing the trousers?, Pro-logo, 2001. Vollmer, C and Precourt, G (2008). Always On. McGrawHill. N. York. Watts, DJ & Peretti, J (2007). Viral Marketing for the Real World, Harvard Business Review, 5/2007: 22-23 Wilson, RF (2005). The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing, accessed April, 7, 2009 from http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/viral-principles-clean.htm Zambardino, A. and Goodfellow, J. (2003) "Account planning in the new marketing and communications environment (has the Stephen King challenge been met?)" Marketing Intelligence and Planning 21(7): 425-434 Read More