Monday 22 September 2014

Holistic or Sustainable Marketing

Integrated marketing:

Snickers' ad agency put together am amazingly creative PPC campaign. They compiled a list of the top 500 most commonly misspelled words in search with the help of Google (as usually Google Adwords automatically corrects misspellings and it is against the terms of service to deliberately target misspelled words) and used an algorithm to generate 25,381 different misspelled words. They used these terms to create a "You Are Not You When You're Hungry" campaign. Within two days - yes, two days - Snickers received 558,589 impressions with a stunningly highCTR of 1.05%.
That is, they reached their target of appealing to over half a million people, 558,589 people to be exact!  The three-day campaign resulted in 5,874 visitors to the site.


This humorous campaign increased mind recall for its target audience, thus creating an incredibly effective, albeit unconventional marketing campaign. It is also fair to say that Snickers most certainly got their money’s worth on this campaign, as bidding on misspelt keywords is not nearly as competitive as bidding on popular keywords or even branded search terms. It is probable that their PPC budget, was still kept looking nice and healthy. What a clever unconventional marketing campaign! Using the principles of any strong Adwords campaign – numbers, PPC/ key words and CPC, and combining it with audience interaction and humour, Snickers saw success.

Initially, the campaign was intended as solely a branding exercise and not necessarily designed to generate CTRs. However, it's important to be aware that this specific campaign might not have been successful solely off the back of the PPC campaign. The "You're Not You When You're Hungry" campaign has been in the works since at least the 2010 Superbowl. To build interest around the campaign, teaser videos and a PR outreach were released that showcased celebrities, notably Betty White. The campaign also utilized print to showcase a variety of celebrities, display ads to relevant audiences, an online video campaign, and social media to engage with the brand's Facebook community. It also appears that the campaign has, at some point, leveraged celebrity tweets, newspaper placements, and Snicker's handouts that have resulted in 705,000 additional Snicker's bars sold that year compared to the previous year, as well as double digit growth in sales.


Integrated marketing:
Snickers has a history of delivering successful integration campaigns. In 2010, Snickers used multiple ads in several media channels to share the same message. Commercial featuring then 88-year-old Betty White playing football with a group of men is shown in the Promotions page. The idea was that eating a Snicker bar would fill you with energy to be at the top of your game, no matter your physical stature.

Snicker’s simultaneously published magazine and billboard ads conveying the same message. Part of what made this Snickers campaign so memorable was the timing. An important piece of the strategy behind successful integrated campaigns has to do with when to deliver the message and on what channel for optimal brand awareness.


Social Responsible Marketing: Cause Marketing
Here’s how it works: Snickers is donating the cost of 2.5 million meals to Feeding America, the nation’s leading hunger-relief charity. On the inside of the wrapper is a code. Text that code to 45495… or enter it at snickers.com… and Snickers will donate the cost of one meal to Feeding America, up to one million additional meals.

The Feeding America website says that each dollar you donate provides seven meals. So Snickers donation might be something like $500,000.

It doesn’t hurt that 3.5 million is a much bigger number than $500,000.

By guaranteeing 2.5 million meals, the risk of a poor response to the offer is mitigated for Feeding America. Likewise the risk that the promotion could take off leaving Snickers on the hook for a much bigger donation is also allayed.

Feeding America is the biggest player in this space and the right partner for Snickers, which positions itself as the snack that ‘handles your hunger.’

Saturday 20 September 2014

Analyzing Consumer Markets

Who is your consumer?
Snickers aim consumers of all ages and sex.
However, their ads seem to be targeting young males, who requires energy or behave irresponsibly when they are hungry.

The following diagram explains that what consumer thinks and how he/she reacts is unknown to the marketer. It is the marketer's job to understand what is inside the black box.

Key Psychological Processes

Snickers till now has been tapping the right spots in the consumer's mind.

Snicker's humorous campaigns increased mind recall for its target audience, thus creating an incredibly effective, albeit unconventional marketing campaign. 

This will guide the consumers towards Snickers with relative ease.

Thursday 18 September 2014

Analyzing Business Markets

Business to Business marketing, or B2B marketing is extremely different from Business to Consumer, or B2C marketing.



In B2B, the importance of-

Integrity: High
Competence: Very High
Continuity: Very High
Caring Service: Medium
Character: High
Imagery: Low

Whereas, in B2C, the importance of-

Integrity: Medium
Competence: Medium
Continuity: Low
Caring Service: Medium
Character: Medium
Imagery: Very High

Characteristics of B2B Marketing:
  • Focus on problem solving
  • Need to support customers’ professional
  • Different customer needs (sometimes changing)
  • Different customer segments
  • One customer, many people
  • Long, step-by-step process
  • Typically higher value/bigger unit purchases
  • More technically complex products
  • Higher buyer risk
  • Longer buy times
  • More complex decision-making units
  • Professional purchasers
  • Closer buyer-seller relationships
  • Derived demand
The B2B Buyer Decision Process:
  1. Need Recognition Stage
  2. Option Evaluation Stage (matching differentiators to decision criteria)
  3. Query/Concern Resolution Stage
  4. Decision Implementation Stage

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Branding








Snickers: The Brand

Promises end of hunger pangs, reliable snack, fulfilling, tasty, satisfaction guaranteed

Why consumers choose Snickers as a brand?
  • It is well known 
  • As it is a brand name, it has lower purchase risk 
  • No need to search for snickers, thus saving cost of time and money
  • Consistent quality is expected.

Why sellers choose Snickers?
  • The brand provides a competitive advantage
  • Legal protection of product’s features
  • Leads to satisfied customers

Snickers as a brand forms the basis of purchase decision among consumers and thus are a means of financial profits. 

Brand Equity:

Brand Equity of Snickers is the value, both tangible and intangible, that a Snickers adds to a product/service. (The added value a brand name identity brings to a product or service beyond the functional benefits provided.)

The customer – based brand equity focuses exclusively on the relationship customers have with the brand

The market – based brand equity aims at producing measures in dollars, euros or yen.




Strategic Brand Management:

Snickers focuses on the following points:

· Identifying and Establishing Brand Position

· Planning and Implementing Brand Marketing Programs

· Measuring and Interpreting Brand Performance

· Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity

Sunday 14 September 2014

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Segmentation & Targeting:

Snickers identifies it's consumer group as people of all ages and of all sexes.

However, through it's ads, it seems to be targeting the youngsters, particularly males.

It also is trying to connect with the audience of the previous generation by using celebs like Betty White, Rekha and Urmila.


Positioning:

It has an emotional appeal. It positions itself as hunger satisfier meal and as an energy bar rather than a candy bar.

This is because peanuts, it's main ingredient, provides calories.


With respect to the above diagram, Snickers is
a) Product - Basic
b) Promotion - Fun
c) Price - Value
d) Distribution - Intensive

How Snickers has changed it's position

It has moved from "Hunger Satisfier" to "Energy Booster" to "Mood Adjuster".




Saturday 13 September 2014

Sales Management

What is Sale?

A SALE is the pinnacle activity involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity

What is Sales?
Sales is everything that you do to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract

Objective of Sales
  •  To Achieve Sales Targets
  •  To Achieve Market Share Targets 
  •  To Manage Dealer Network 
  •  To Organize Sales Training 
  •  To Handle Customer Complaints 
  •  To Manage Sales Promotion Campaigns 
  •  To Effectively Cover Market 

Sales management

Sales management is attainment of an organization's sales goals in an effective & efficient manner through planning, staffing, training, leading & controlling organizational resources.

Revenue, sales, and sources of funds fuel organizations and the management of that process is the most important function.








Wednesday 27 August 2014

P4: Promotions and Integrated Marketing Communication

Developing Effective Communication

1) Identify Target Audience

Going by the TV commercials, it seems that Snickers is targeting young males of the age group 20-30.
They are also aiming to connect with people of higher age groups by using iconic heroines like Betty White, Joe Pesci, Robin Williams abroad while Rekha and Urmila star in the Indian version of ads.

2) Determine Objectives

The objective of Snickers is to position itself as a snack rather than a chocolate. While this approach is working abroad, in India it is a different scenario. Indians view Snickers as a chocolate and not as a snack. Hence, they might not purchase a Snickers bar when hungry but rather go for a Vada Pav instead.

3) Design Communications

What to say: Snickers is a hunger killer
How to say: With humour
Who should say: Usage of celebrities

4) Select Channels

Snickers focuses on mass communication instead of personal.

5) Establish Budget

Snickers spends millions on it's advertising campaigns.

6) Decide on Media Mix

a) Advertising
Snickers uses pervasiveness and relies a lot on TV and digital advertising.

The budget of a product varies according to it's PLC, Market Share, Competition, Advertising frequency, Product substitutability.
Currently, in India, Snickers is in it's growth stage, has a very small market share, has enough competition from chocolates to Vada pav and is substitutable in the mind of the Indian consumer.

In May 2014, it went a step ahead and tied up with the movie Godzilla. A commercial was released in which Godzilla is shown hanging out with humans on the beach, riding dirt bikes, and water skiing; he only begins rampaging once he's hungry. After being fed a snickers bar, he resumes having fun with the humans. Needless to say, the ad was a huge hit.


Ads involving celebrities: You are not you when you are hungry

These series of ads featured young guys acting as divas when they get hungry. The humour was very well captured.



b) Sales promotion
Snickers uses the ability to get attention with it's unique and humorous ads.

It relies maximum on TV and digital media. It sometimes feature in print as well.
Since 2012, Snickers has also delved into mobile marketing through banner-ads and mobile optimized landing pages. The details of the same can be found here.

c) Events and Experiences
In 2012, SNICKERS Ice Cream is took to Twitter to award fans by giving free ice cream worth $1000 to the winner.

d) PR and Publicity
For 3 years in a row, Snickers has donated 2.5 million meals to Feeding America, an NGO that aims to end hunger in USA.

This was a part of a campaign where consumers where asked to SMS the code written on the wrapper. Each time a code was entered, Snickers would give away one meal to the NGO.

In 2012, Snickers paid several celebs in the UK to tweet pictures of themselves eating Snickers bars.



e) Direct Marketing
Snickers directly reaches out to it's consumers through the website: www.snickers.com

f) Interactive Marketing
In public places like malls, Snickers organizes games to involve the customers and consumers. This helps consumers to interact directly with people from the Snickers company.

g) Word-of-mouth Marketing
The brilliant humorous ads have started off word-of-mouth marketing worldwide.
Visit this link for some funny print ads as part of the campaign "You are not you when you are hungry".
In this, Snickers developed it's own language or words. It is called SNACKLISH. (Snacks+English)

http://adland.tv/ooh/snickers-nougetaboutit-snacklish-poster-campaign-usa

7) Manage Integrated marketing Communications


Snickers aims to build a strong consumer base by mixing all the three ways of marketing: Traditional, digital as well as promotional.