Welcome to Topic 10: Creating Advertising and Promotions Based on Consumer Insight. This topic will introduce you to the campaign management process and provide you with examples of successful integrated marketing campaigns that achieve cut through in a cluttered and noisy media environment. It will also provide insights into influencer marketing and omnichannel marketing management, which deliver a better customer experience and makes campaigns overall more effective.
In this topic, you will learn about:
- How advertising influences us
- Advertising campaigns case studies
- How consumer insight is at the heart of decision making
- Influencer marketing
- Omnichannel marketing.
These relate to the Subject Learning Outcomes:
- Discuss the current trends in consumer behaviour and apply them to the marketing mix.
- Review the effectiveness and impact of advertising, promotions and media on consumer behaviour.
- Write effective marketing plans to influence consumer decision-making.
Welcome to your pre-seminar learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these prior to attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer.
Click on each of the following headings to read more about what is required for each of your pre-seminar learning tasks.
Read Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 of the prescribed text - Solomon, MR 2020, Consumer behavior: Buying, having and being, 13th edn., Pearson Education Ltd.
Task: Reflect on your reading and answer the following review questions from the prescribed text. Submit your answers to your reflective journal. You can access the reflective journal by clicking on ‘Journal’ in the navigation bar for this subject.
- Why do you think so many organisations rely on advertising to communicate with customers and potential customers?
- What is the difference between a medium and a vehicle? Give examples of each.
- Why is direct marketing successful even though some consumers may not like it?
Read Chapter 11.4 of University of Minnesota 2015, Principles of Marketing, University of Minnesota Libraries.
Task: Summarise a minimum of five (5) key takeouts concerning advertising. Submit your answers to your reflective journal.
Watch any three (3) of the following videos:
- Visme 2020, 23 Advertising techniques used to create powerful and persuasive ads, streaming video, YouTube.
- Market Research Society 2020, How Unilever and Capgemini put consumer insight at the heart of decision making, streaming video, YouTube.
- Wendover Productions 2015, How marketers manipulate us: Psychological manipulation in advertising, streaming video, YouTube.
- Truhlar D 2021, 10 Best Super Bowl commercials 2021, streaming video, YouTube.
- WatchMojo 2016, Top 10 companies with the best advertising campaigns, streaming video, YouTube.
- ThoughtCatalyst 2019, The genius of Tesla’s $0 social marketing strategy, streaming video, YouTube.
- Wall Street Journal 2020, How brands are advertising during the pandemic, streaming video, YouTube.
- 7 Trendz 2017, World's most creative TV advertisements commercials, streaming video, You Tube.
- Digital Uncovered 2021, Burger King moldy Whopper case study, streaming video, You Tube.
- Digital Uncovered 2021, Lacoste crocodile free case study, streaming video, You Tube.
Task: Identify three (3) key takeouts from each of the videos you watched and reflect on how media and advertisement affect consumer perception and behaviour. Submit your answers to your reflective journal. Think about ideas for how you can create an effective marketing campaign as part of Assessment 3.
Read the following web articles:
- Decker, A n.d., The ultimate guide to marketing campaigns, Hubspot.
- Digital Marketing Institute 2021, How to create your first digital marketing campaign, Digital Marketing Institute.
Task: Summarise key insights from the articles in your own words and submit your answers to your reflective journal.
Read and watch the following content.
How advertising influences us
A marketing campaign (or advertising campaign) is a series of interconnected promotional efforts designed to achieve set marketing goals. It is usually aimed at potential prospects and/or existing customers using an integrated marketing communication approach to reach the target audiences.
The campaign management process includes the following stages (refer to the following figure):
- Planning and development: What are the strategic purposes and objectives? What are the tactical processes?
- Execution: Actually running the campaign.
- Analysis: How well did the campaign perform?
Campaign planning and development
During campaign planning, stage objectives are set. For example, a cruise firm that wants to acquire new customers for their existing products may adopt a market penetration strategy and target prospects similar to their existing customers.
Campaign development is the tactical process of developing the communication approach. When defining the communication strategy, firms need to determine the message content; decide on whether the focus is on customer retention or customer acquisition or both; and select the best media channels aligned to their key target market for optimum reach (Kumar & Reinartz 2006).
Two key strategies for marketing campaigns are retention and acquisition, and firms must decide which strategy to use in a campaign to optimise their limited marketing resources. Studies have shown that achieving maximum acquisition rate or retention rate is not necessarily the key to maximising customer lifetime value. Instead, it is how firms balance acquisition and retention expenditure to maximise customer lifetime value. This means that firms must set the overall budget; allocate how much to spend on customer acquisition versus retention, and determine how to spread the expenditures among different contact channels.
Conceptually, the link between acquisition and retention is essential for several reasons. Firstly, by linking the two strategies, firms will have a complete picture of the factors that drive customer selection, acquisition and relationship duration. Secondly, focusing on retention may lead to the omission of important information regarding non-acquired prospects and result in firms ignoring emerging lucrative customer segments. Focusing only on the acquisition process may lead to an erosion of the existing customer base. Finally, concentrating on retention processes may stagnate growth or not achieve incremental growth that would have come from new customers. Making the necessary trade-offs between acquisition versus retention and their needed resources requires understanding all the key dimensions of a customer–firm relationship (Kumar & Reinartz 2006).
With their stored information about customer and prospect preferences, customer relationship management (CRM) databases aid the development of effective integrated marketing communications. For example, marketing campaigns almost invariably contain an offer to entice customers to act (Kumar & Reinartz 2006).
The last stage of campaign planning and development is to conduct testing before a full-scale execution of the campaign. Testing involves comparing different ways of proceeding with a campaign, which helps to optimise campaign performance (Kumar & Reinartz 2006).
Campaign execution
The campaign execution stage involves implementation and monitoring. Implementing a campaign requires an action and a media plan. Monitoring allows the firm to conduct ongoing optimisation, often in real-time (Kumar & Reinartz 2006).
Campaign analysis
Campaign analysis involves evaluating the campaign results and comparing them to the original objectives set during the planning stage. For example, a campaign to promote the opening of a new hotel would want to compare the acquired customers (or sales) versus targets. Likewise, an event organiser would want to know if actual attendance exceeds the forecast. A key outcome of analysis is the learning that takes place. This allows firms to design and develop better campaigns in the future (Kumar & Reinartz 2006).
Advertising campaign case studies
The following case studies outline two significant marketing campaigns by the same firm, Hilton Hotels, between 2016 and 2020.
Stop Clicking Around
In 2016, Hilton Hotels launched a global marketing campaign called Stop Clicking Around. The campaign included traditional and digital channels and events. The campaign targeted a wide range of travellers, from business people, to couples and families with children, to change consumer perception and behaviour to increase direct bookings and loyalty program membership. Hilton believed that changing consumers' mindset required a disruptive idea executed by communicating to consumers “to stop clicking and start playing/relaxing/loving”.
The campaign was created based on a deep dive into consumer insights and differentiating customers by their travel behaviour and channel preferences. Hilton developed customer personas, mapped their journey and aligned channels for optimal reach. For example, using above-the-line media to appeal to Gen X's thriving families, while using online and social media to reach the city dwellers and millennials. The campaign achieved ‘cut through’ in a cluttered environment and led to more direct hotel bookings. The Hilton Honors app was rated as the number one hospitality app in the Apple Store, and Hilton’s loyalty memberships grew by more than 3.6 million people.
Learning task 1: Best Marketing Operation 2016
Hilton’s 2020 campaign, To New Memories, was another insight-driven global marketing campaign. However, this campaign was built on the notion that travel memories are consumers’ most memorable and fondest moments. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting global travel restrictions, Hilton encouraged people to relive their travel memories. The campaign aimed to remind people of their positive emotional connections with travel and reignite the desire to dream and start planning the next trip away.
Like the campaign Stop Clicking Around, the To New Memories campaign was launched using an integrated marketing communications mix including TV ads and social media (Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook). The suite of To New Memories videos on YouTube had over 25 million views (Hilton 2020).
The following tables summarises the key aspects of the To New Memories campaign:
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Distinctiveness
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Value
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Relevance
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Integrated
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Excellence
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Examine the infographic, which showcases the To New Memories campaign and outlines some key measures of its success (Dietz & Seidel 2016; Hilton 2016).
You can also read the full news release for the full details.
Learning task 2: Nike Dream Crazy
Watch the following video about Nike’s controversial, but ultimately successful marketing campaign to further your understanding of how marketers can achieve success in a cluttered advertising environment.
- Markedu 2020, Controversial campaign: Nike Dream Crazy case study – award winning marketing campaign, streaming video, YouTube.
Identify three (3) key takeouts from the video and reflect on how advertisement influences consumer behaviour. Submit your answers to your reflective journal. Think about ideas for Assessment 3.
Learning task 3: How consumer insight is at the heart of decision making
Read the following article and watch the included videos to see some examples of where consumer insight is at the heart of decision making.
Robertson, G n.d., Five ads that bring consumer insights to life, Beloved Brands.
To review more examples, check out the additional resources. Record some notes in your reflective journal.
Influencer marketing
Influencers continue to grow their communities and influence their followers' opinions and purchasing behaviours. However, not all influencers are equal. Some influencers are celebrities, brand advocates, politicians, thought leaders, industry or academic experts with strong credibility. Others may be socially savvy experts who have a vast network of admirers. Research has found that influencer marketing (IM), at large, is one of the most promising and still underutilised disciplines in the digital marketing mix of many brands. Influencers can help brands reach new target audiences, which cannot be reached as effectively through other ways of marketing and communication (Newsberry 2021).
Influencers can be clustered according to their reach into mega-influencers, macro-influencers, micro-influencers and nano-influencers. Mega-influencers typically have over a million followers across different target audiences with different interests and may sometimes be more famous than influential. Macro-influencers have between 100,000 to one million followers and usually gain fame on the internet through their inspiring content. Macro-influencers can help brands target a broad market, such as young females. Micro-influencers have between 1,000 to 100,000 followers and mainly focus on specific niches, such as high tea expertise. Finally, nano-influencers are your everyday people who tend to have smaller followers but can still be quite influential. Choosing the right influencer for a business and measuring success can be challenging and should be planned carefully. Influence is as much about popularity as it is about context. A good starting point is following an influencer over a period of time to understand their brand, establish the brand fit and understand the dynamics of engagement with their followers before making the first contact (Newsberry 2021).
Omnichannel marketing
Have you ever signed up to receive communications from a firm and then experienced a mishmash of uncoordinated advertising commercials, direct-mail campaigns and social media engagements that portrayed the brand differently? This happens to firms with no clear strategy, brand and service guidelines, or a culture where teams work in isolation and lack coordination of internal communication.
From a consumer perspective, this can be frustrating as each touchpoint creates a different experience and lacks reliability and trustworthiness. However, if firms invest in the right Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Campaign Management technology, this can be avoided. Sophisticated software makes it possible to create an ecosystem of data about customers from all touchpoints, such as call centre, websites, social media, email and intermediaries. It also enables the integration of all customer-directed communication channels to ensure personalised and consistent brand communications.
the customer-strategy enterprise ensures that its interactive, broadcast, and print messages are not just laterally coordinated across various media, such as television, print, sales promotion, e-mail, and direct mail, but that its communications with every customer are longitudinally coordinated, over the life of that individual customer’s relationship with the firmPeppers & Rogers2016, pp. 227-228
Channels can be contact, information, communication, marketing, booking or distribution channels (online or offline). They affect revenues and a firm's cost structure and should be approached at a strategic not tactical level. Customers have multi-channel habits, meaning that they may research a product or service online such as firm website, review sites, social media, buy it offline through a brick-and-mortar outlet and then talk about it on social media online (Facebook) (Peelen & Beltman 2013).
A well-crafted channel strategy begins with the target customer in mind, but this in itself cannot guarantee the success of a product or service. However, an incorrect strategy will often fail (Levens 2012).
The true goal of the CRM multichannel strategy should be to work out which channel mix creates the most value for the customer and the organisation by offering brand relevant experiences through multiple touch points that combine effectiveness in achieving relationship goals while being as cost effective as possiblePeelen & Beltman 2013, p. 255
Customer journey maps can provide firms with an insight into the current customer experience across multiple touchpoints, identify gaps in the channel mix as well as points of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
Today’s customers expect firms to service the customer in a multi-channel environment (Goldenberg 2015). While costs, accessibility, and customer experience are key, firms also need to consider the controllability and integration of the channels and how to service them competently, effectively, and efficiently. Therefore, a mixed approach across online, including mobile, and offline channels, is recommended.
Peelen and Beltman (2013, p. 267) also recommend gearing “the multichannel organisation towards dominant channels, as well as towards flexibility”. Adopting a strategic channel management view can ensure that firms consider the costs of each channel and the overall customer experience and long-term benefits of a differentiation strategy that may contribute to achieving competitive advantage. Different target segments have different channel preferences. Thus, the firm needs to determine which channels best support which customer group or customer persona at which touchpoints in their journey and how these are required to connect and interact with the customer. Therefore, matching customer groups or segments with the right channels at the right time is important (Peelen & Beltman 2013).
Points to consider when determining the channel mix:
Do not try to force customers to adopt a certain channel, as this may prove to be counterproductive. If you want to phase out a certain channel, such as a toll-free number, attaching a cost to it and changing it to a paid phone number will prove more effective.
Knowledge check
Complete the following two (2) tasks. Click the arrows to navigate between the tasks.
Key takeouts
Congratulations, we made it to the end of the topic. Some key takeouts from Topic 10:
- A marketing/advertising campaign is a series of interconnected promotional efforts designed to achieve set marketing goals. It is usually aimed at potential prospects and/or existing customers using an integrated marketing communication approach to reach the target audiences.
- The campaign management process includes the following stages:
- Planning and development: Purposes and objectives; and tactical processes
- Execution: Running the campaign
- Analysis: Campaign performance.
- Many marketing campaigns use an integrated marketing communications mix including traditional and online media to achieve ‘cut through’ in a cluttered and noisy media environment.
- Influencer marketing is one of the most promising and still underutilised disciplines in the digital marketing mix of many brands. Influencers can help brands reach new target audiences, which cannot be reached as effectively through other ways of marketing and communication.
- Omnichannel marketing management delivers a more impactful customer experience by seamlessly integrating branding, messaging, and online and offline touchpoints.
Welcome to your seminar for this topic. Your lecturer will start a video stream during your scheduled class time. You can access your scheduled class by clicking on ‘Live Sessions’ found within your navigation bar and locating the relevant day/class or by clicking on the following link and then clicking 'Join' to enter the class.
Click here to access your seminar.
The following learning tasks will be completed during the seminar with your lecturer. Should you be unable to attend, you will be able to watch the recording, which can be found via the following link or by navigating to the class through ‘Live Sessions’ via your navigation bar.
Click here to access the recording. (Please note: this will be available shortly after the live session has ended.)
In-seminar learning tasks
The in-seminar learning tasks identified below will be completed during the scheduled seminar. Your lecturer will guide you through these tasks. Click on each of the following headings to read more about the requirements for each of your in-seminar learning tasks.
For this learning task, your lecturer will assign you to your assessments breakout room, where you can creatively brainstorm the advertisement/promotion plan for Assessment 3. Ensure you discuss and capture how consumer insights informed the decision-making process for your advertising campaign. Your lecturer will assist you with further instructions on this process during your scheduled seminar. If you are unable to attend the seminar, you must get in touch with your group to find out the research you can undertake individually to make a contribution to the group assessment.
Conduct research on how leading brands use consumer insights to create successful Super Bowl Commercials. How do those leading brands evaluate the success of their advertisement? Write your answers in Worksheet 1.
Your lecturer will assign you to a breakout room for this learning task. Complete the following tasks:
- Select at least two (2) Super Bowl advertisements
- Research the insights that informed the decision-making process for the development of these advertisements.
- Discuss what impact the ads had on their brand and sales.
Welcome to your post-seminar learning tasks for this week. Please ensure you complete these after attending your scheduled seminar with your lecturer. Your lecturer will advise you if any of these are to be completed during your consultation session. Click on each of the following headings to read more about the requirements for each of your post-seminar learning tasks.
This task will be completed during the consultation session.
On Worksheet 2, prepare a list of questions about effective advertising campaigns and promotions. These can be questions about concepts, examples or any of the pre-seminar tasks. Then, in your groups, answer the questions to the best of your abilities and provide examples where possible.
Your questions and answers will be discussed during the seminar.
Organise a meeting with your group and plan for your Assessment 3. The following questions will assist you with preparing your assessment.
- Describe how your consumer insights will inform Patagonia's advertisement and promotional plan.
- Describe your target audiences and how your content marketing strategy will support your campaign.
- Describe your omnichannel marketing approach for the campaign you have planned to effectively market Patagonia products.
Reflect on the content for this topic and answer the following questions (Schiffman & Wisenblit 2019, p. 240):
- What is branded content, and how can it be used effectively? Provide an example to assist with your explanation.
- How do marketers enhance consumer engagement with their offerings using social media? Use an example to explain your answer.
Each week you will have a consultation session, which will be facilitated by your lecturer. You can join in and work with your peers on activities relating to this subject. These session times and activities will be communicated to you by your lecturer each week. Your lecturer will start a video stream during your scheduled class time. You can access your scheduled class by clicking on ‘Live Sessions’ found within your navigation bar and locating the relevant day/class or by clicking on the following link and then clicking 'Join' to enter the class.
Click here to access your consultation session.
Should you be unable to attend, you will be able to watch the recording, which can be found via the following link or by navigating to the class through ‘Live Sessions’ via your navigation bar.
Click here to access the recording. (Please note: this will be available shortly after the live session has ended.)
- Clusini, A 2021, What can 20 winning campaigns based on consumer insights teach us?
- Hesterberg, KC 2020, 15 Ads that prove nostalgia is a powerful marketing tactic, Hubspot.
- Keane, L 2019, 10 ad campaigns inspired by powerful consumer insights, GWI.
- McKinsey 2015, Big data, analytics, and the future of marketing & sales, McKinsey & Company.
- Patel, N 2020, 7 Google ads hacks that’ll make your campaigns scale profitably, streaming video, YouTube.
- Schram, M 2018, 5 Superb examples of how to use consumer insights, CMNTY.
- The Economist 2021, The future of shopping, what’s in store?, streaming video, YouTube.
- Van den Driest, F, Sthanunathan, S & Weed, K 2016, Building an insights engine, Harvard Business Review.
References
- Decker, A n.d., The ultimatete guide to marketing campaigns, Hubspot, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-campaigns
- Digital Uncovered 2021 a, Burger King moldy Whopper case study, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO7xb3qS-S8&list=PLQzyBQLE0J1WiFVZ5GrCyhd4pqE1tejUN
- Digital Uncovered 2021 b, Lacoste crocodile free case study, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zHz_WaHigs
- Goldenberg, BJ 2015, The definite guide to social CRM: Maximizing customer relationships with social media to gain market Insights, customers, and profits, Pearson.
- Hilton 2016, Stop clicking around: Best marketing operation 2016, Hospitality-on, https://hospitality-on.com/sites/default/files/2018-11/2.12.hilton-bbmo-presentation_pdf_en.pdf
- Hilton 2020, Hilton inspires travelers to make new memories with the U.S. launch of insights-driven global marketing campaign, Hilton, https://newsroom.hilton.com/corporate/news/hilton-launches-new-memories-marketing-campaign
- Kumar, V & Reinartz, WJ 2006, Customer relationship management: A databased approach, John Wiley & Sons.
- Levens, MP 2012, Marketing: Defined, explained, applied, 2nd edn., Pearson.
- LLLLITL 2019, Nike - dream crazy (case study), streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1hDscZfE2w
- Market Research Society 2020, How Unilever and Capgemini put consumer insight at the heart of decision making, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6vfYNDL5yA
- Markedu 2020, Controversial campaign: Nike dream crazy case study – award winning marketing campaign, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9HMQVmDJKA
- Newsberry, C 2021, Influencer marketing guide: How to work with influencers, Hootsuite, https://blog.hootsuite.com/influencer-marketing/
- Peppers, D & Rogers, M 2016, Managing customer relationships: A strategic framework, 3rd edn., John Wiley & Sons.
- Peelen, E & Beltman, R 2013, Customer relationship management, 2nd edn., Pearson UK.
- Robertson, G n.d., Five ads that bring consumer insights to life, Beloved Brands, https://beloved-brands.com/consumer-insight/
- Schiffman, LG & Wisenblit, JL 2019, Consumer behavior, 12th edn., Pearson Education Limited.
- Solomon, MR 2020, Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being, 13th edn., Pearson Education Limited.
- The Chartered Institute of Marketing 2021, Developing customer insight to drive marketing strategy, streaming video, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4YxjJnQyGw
- Thought Catalyst 2019, The genius of Tesla’s $0 social marketing strategy, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF9r9LrOb70
- 7 Trendz 2017, Worlds most creative TV advertisements commercials, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiDyubnYOw
- Truhlar, D 2021, 10 Best super bowl commercials 2021, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RY9VIqQCKQ
- University of Minnesota 2015, Principles of Marketing, University of Minnesota Libraries, https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmarketing/chapter/11-4-advertising-and-direct-marketing/
- Visme 2020, 23 Advertising techniques used to create powerful and persuasive ads, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWz8CzLELLQ
- WatchMojo 2016, Top 10 companies with the best advertising campaigns, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYS_AamN7Ko
- Wendover Productions 2015, How marketers manipulate us: Psychological manipulation in advertising, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LqqVfPduTs
- Wall Street Journal 2020, How brands are advertising during the pandemic, streaming video, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4DpxASLnXo
