Have Them Build It, And They Will Come
Today’s consumers are control freaks, so give them something to control. Fikar points to a recent promotion Chrysler ran on YouTube, inviting people to say what they wanted to see in the auto giant’s next model. “It was their way of saying, ‘We don’t know it all. Let us know what you have to say,’” she says. “The trend is that if consumers are contributing to what’s being built, they tend to buy it.
The conversation has shifted dramatically.” Chrysler isn’t the only company trying this approach. Both Nike and Adidas give consumers an option to order customized shoes, pimped out in the colour and style they want, and golf retailer FootJoy sells customized golf gear. “It’s all about personalization,” says Fikar.
Involving your customers doesn’t have to be such a big production. When her DVD series first came out, Love recalls one of her students (she also teaches live classes) telling her that she loved the workouts but hated the “cheesy” music. So Love asked her to do the music on the next DVD. The student was thrilled and Love got a better soundtrack out of it – not to mention a more loyal customer who likely told all her friends, creating valuable word-of-mouth advertising.
See Beyond Fads And Go Viral
Within every fad lies some valuable consumer insight. The trick is being able to step back to see what change in consumer behaviour is driving the fad. “MySpace was really hot; now it’s not. Facebook is a fad. It has sold out, they’ve over-applied themselves and it’s becoming a burden to people instead of being fun,” says Mazza-Kelton. “The trend is that consumers are talking to each other.” Fikar agrees. “A lot of marketers glom onto the latest gadget and the latest trends,” she says, “but it may not make sense for their audience. If you’re too easily enticed by new fads, you risk losing sight of your target consumer. The way we interact with each other has shifted. The amount of time we spend online has changed.” So has consumer behaviour. Whether they’re posting on each other’s Facebook walls, sending links to YouTube videos, commenting on blog posts or sharing Flickr photo albums, people are done with being talked to – they want to be part of the conversation.
Ride Some Coattails
Think the Olympics are just for big sponsors like Coke, Visa and McDonald’s? Little guys can get a piece of the action, too. Take Fred Koops, for example. The owner of Toronto-based beach volleyball clothing store Overkill has gotten his “volleywear” onto Olympic volleyball team members, translating into exposure for his niche clothing line in Beijing. He discovered this tactic early on in his career, almost by accident. He founded Overkill in 1991 while still a student at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. He carefully followed the professional volleyball scene and decided to sponsor pros John Child and Mark Hesse. The move proved to be a good one: they went on to win a bronze medal for Canada at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and were filmed and photographed wearing Overkill clothing by news outlets from around the world.
Sometimes the little guys even help the big guys. Last year, Toronto-based Cadbury Adams Inc. licensed the song “Rollercoaster” by indie band Major Maker to use in a commercial for Maynards candy. People loved the song; Cadbury was overwhelmed with calls asking about it. Love for the song translated into love for the commercial, with a halo effect for the candy brand itself. And it provided a boost for Major Maker, putting them on the map for the first time.
Evaluate And Refine
Ultimately, marketing comes down to one thing: return on investment. After spending so much time and money on marketing, you’ll want to know if it’s working. Unfortunately, marketing measurement isn’t an exact science. Online ads are the easiest to track: you can look at traffic reports to see how many people have clicked on your banners and paid search ads. Mass advertising campaigns, street-level promotions and word-of-mouth referrals are a bit trickier. Obviously, if sales are up significantly the same month you’ve launched a new campaign, it’s probably safe to give it some credit.
If you are a real numbers geek (or report to one), you may want to make things a little more official and commission awareness/recall/top-of-mind surveys to see how many members of the general public saw your ads. Research firms like Dynamic Logic and the Peppers & Rogers Group could help you with that. If you want to go even deeper, you could commission a brand equity study to see if people love, hate or have even heard of your company. Brand Finance specializes in brand equity studies. If research reveals that your marketing efforts just aren’t working, don’t worry. Marketing is all about testing, evaluating and refining. So go back to tip number one and start again.U
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