How about simply focusing on what consumers want?
In this guest post, Peter Mountford argues that brands should think more about what is really going on for consumers
Who here is hoping their favourite brand of toilet paper is going to be organizing a flash mob on their way home from work today?
The othernight I was watching an episode of the UK version of Undercover Boss with my wife. The episode followed Nikki King, the Managing Director of Isuzu trucks UK as she spent time working ‘undercover’ in various parts of her business.
The most interesting part of the show occurred when Ms King realised that one of the employees from their emergency service team was not handing over an apology letter she had written to truck drivers after their trucks had been fixed. The gist of the apology letter was that Isuzu was sorry for any inconvenience caused by their breakdown.
Now, I am not a truck driver but I can imagine the last thing on earth I would be interested in while I am broken down in the middle of a four lane motorway is getting a pre-printed letter from a woman I have never met. I would like to think that the bloke from Isuzu service would instead be concentrating on getting me going again as soon as possible.
For me this was a good example of how easy it is to overlook what consumers actually want and instead come to the conclusion that giving them another form of communication is the answer. The Qantas Twitter debacle is a great example of this. Consumers were in no way interested in engaging in a conversation with Qantas about their business class experience instead they just wanted them to get their bloody planes in the air and flying again.
Surely as marketers our focus should be engaging our customers when they are researching, purchasing and using our products or services before we look at engaging them with social media stunts.
Worse than this is when brands spend too much time telling us what they stand for and very little time actually demonstrating it. For some reason I don’t believe ANZ when they tell me they ‘live in my world’. Not only because they made $5.36 billion last year (I made slightly less) but mainly because they don’t demonstrate it. Right on the heels of this campaign ANZ were the first bank to start announcing their own interest rate verdict separate of the RBA.
Don’t get me wrong – I agree that announcing their own rates is probably more relevant for them these days than following the RBA’s official rate but the problem is as consumers it is hard to feel too sorry for the banks when they tell us how much margin pressure they are under only to roll out another record profit.
All of this is obvious but the question is what do we do about it?
I think to be truly seen as partners with our clients we need to discuss all areas of their brand with them. This may mean some challenging discussions but it should lead to what I believe are truly integrated campaigns. Not just integrated in the types of media chosen to convey a message but integrated into our clients business and way they operate.
On this front I like Dominos commitment to improving the quality of ingredients used in their pizzas. The great thing about this campaign is not necessarily the execution but the fact they are actually following through on their promise and are making changes to their pizzas. To me this is a true integrated campaign that shows that they are listening to their customers.
- Peter Mountford is client services director at em communications and fuse digital
Linkedin
i agree that marketers need a PR sensibility
perhaps if they had one they’d stop these silly short term award-targetted stunts like the NAB Break up campaign and Save Louis the Fly, both of which sought to ‘engage’ a tiny number of consumers outside the marketing blogs and actually did long-term damage to the brand because they were inauthentic and incongruent with the long-term comms strategy of both organisations
User ID not verified.
Your observations are accurate and obvious, but overlooked by so many marketers.
Nice piece.
User ID not verified.
Couldn’t agree more!!!
K.I.S.S. theory please.
Great opinion piece
User ID not verified.
Peter if we really listened to consumers they may say ‘just leave me alone’. In your toilet paper example consumers might say ‘don’t do anything, just sit there on shelf until I’m ready to use you’. That possibly is what they really want. What should we do with that information?
User ID not verified.
You’re soooo spot on. Now can we forward this article to every agency and client in the southern hemisphere.
User ID not verified.
Thanks everyone for your comments and having a read.
Adam, that is an interesting question. I have enjoyed a lot of your articles in the past so appreciate your thoughts.
Firstly, I think it is important that we listen to not only what consumers say but also what they do. And if consumers say they don’t want advertising if that was backed up by behaviour that proved this to be true (i.e. by not advertising you get more sales) then this would be great and a client could save a lot of money.
I reality though I don’t think many consumers object to marketing as it is a fact of life but what some consumers would object to is innappropriate communication that interrupts them and shows no sign of understanding what they need.
What we could get from the ‘don’t do anything’ comments however is an understand that toilet paper is not that important or emotional a decision for people so tailor our communication accordingly i.e hold off on the flash mob.
User ID not verified.
Drop ‘social media’ and just name them for what they are – stunts.
The channel selected is irrelevant. Stunts are stunts.
Of course the shiny new toy is the one most likely to be used for stunts, however it is not the medium that is the stunt.
Otherwise a very true piece. Advertising agencices, and advertisers, need to understand the mental model of their customers and potential customers and accept that sometimes ‘they are just not that into you’ – you don’t need love for a purchase choice.
User ID not verified.
Great article, thank you. I think that what you’re getting at is that there needs to be more of a _marketing_ mindset than a sales and advertising one (i.e. finding out what people want and then delivering that in the best fashion at a price they’re willing to pay, rather than simply finding creative ways to push products you already have).
Adam, you raise a great question and Peter, you delivered a fantastic response.
Sven, I agree re Louie the Fly (terrible) but if you look deeper into NAB, you’ll find there was a little more substance to it – they’d already lost $300m in fees (NPV I assume) to try and win people over, but thought that people hadn’t noticed. As a result, they decided to relaunched the message with a bang. Perhaps from your comment though, they could have invested a little more of the budget in outlying exactly _why_ they’re different rather than just creatively telling us that they are.
User ID not verified.
I hate flash mobs.
User ID not verified.
Very nice piece. Common sense we could all use but most often don’t.
User ID not verified.
Do consumers want TVCs?
Do they want digital advertising?
User ID not verified.
I like Quilton toilet paper – that nasty Kleenex tears…
I don’t want a flash mob or a Tweet. I just want loo paper that I can use without getting poo on my hand.
User ID not verified.
Customers want value for money, good quality and good service. If a business isn’t providing these things, no amount of ‘clever’ marketing will remedy fundamental problems. Most ads, particularly for household essentials or routine services, are patronising, lacking in credibility or annoying, and often all three. The herd stumble into social media is embarrassing. Many Facebook pages are flooded with legitimate complaints, greeted with variations of ‘sorry you feel that way, but we are actually really, really good’. Twitter efforts seem a bit better, possibly because it’s hard to jam huge volumes of idiocy into 140 characters unless you are Charlie Sheen.
User ID not verified.
Spoke too soon. Twitter has refuted me:
ColesOnline If you like to sing songs of the sea, eat pasta & munch on garlic bread, you will love this week’s online exclusives http://ow.ly/9d8Ag
Wai?
User ID not verified.
Does every marketing person just mention the QANTAS twitter thing in blogs now?
User ID not verified.