Christmas Marketing Tools – The Advent Calendar

An advent calendar in itself is no new concept, but for many brands it is increasingly becoming a unique marketing opportunity to connect with consumers during the festive season. Without misplacing the religious value of an advent calendar, for many people it has come to represent a countdown to Christmas, and anticipation for the impending holiday season.

Although we’re perhaps quite familiar with the chocolate versions of the advent calendar (the highlight of my childhood memories), I’ve been genuinely surprised this year to see many brands producing versions that are more relevant to the product or service that they provide. BBC Sport, for example, has put together an advent calendar featuring daily sports highlights in video form. Other brands like Topshop & Topman have put together in-store versions of an advent calendar (offering daily deals to shoppers), while online retailers have created digital calendars for the same purpose. One of my favourite examples of this is the annual digital calendar put together by British retailer Whistles, offering daily prizes and gifts for followers of the brand. Their 2012 digital advent calendar, as shown below, is especially noteworthy as it ticks all the right boxes from a design perspective, and is without a doubt a great example of how a memorable branded experience can be created through an online platform.

Whistles Advent Calendar (Source: Prodo)

Putting aside the general concept of the advent calendar, I wanted to particularly highlight the growing consumer appetite for beauty-based advent calendars. This is a market that is without doubt blowing up, and given the content of these advent calendars, it makes great sense as to why consumers are so willing to purchase them.

Selfridges Beauty Advent Calendar (Source: Cosmopolitan UK)

Given that it is often quite hard to buy beauty items as gifts for friends and family (unless they tell exactly you what scent/skin type/colour is needed), advent calendars provide the perfect opportunity for them to try different products in fuss-free sample sizes. If they later decide that they really like one of the samples, they can later go and purchase the full size in store. You can clearly see how beauty brands benefit from this product model as it doubles up as a promotional opportunity, and serves as a great way to reach new customers (who have perhaps been gifted the advent calendar, or purchased it themselves to try out the brand).

Hopefully after reading this you’ll have your eyes open to other great examples of Christmas marketing tools that are currently floating around, however the key take away from this topic is that there is a unique opportunity for brands to engage with consumers through both old and new mediums. As long as you’re providing something of genuine use (whether it’s a product or service), there is a high likelihood of consumers wanting to engage with your brand, and continue doing so well beyond the festive season.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Keep Learning How to Play: The Evolving Retail environment

Most marketing executives in the alcohol industry believe that they require two fields of expertise: one in marketing and the other in their liquor category; for me that is wine. Too often however, liquor-marketing executives forget the broader segment alcohol falls into; retail and the number of disciplines required to compete in a largely saturated retail environment. The retail landscape is evolving rapidly, more change has occurred in this segment in this decade, than has happened in the last half century. So what? The world is evolving rapidly, every industry is moving faster now than ever before, so what is the benefit of understanding the changing retail environment? Plato says that ‘Human behaviour flows from three main sources, desire, emotion, and knowledge.’ In order to change our behaviour as marketers, we must first have the knowledge to know what to change.

Norelle Goldring from GFK refers to the retail environment as a ‘game,’ in her article on ‘Major Retail and Shopper Trends and their Application for Liquor Retailing,’ and while I am sure she is not referring to it in the literal sense, I think she might be on to something. Liquor retailing is like a game of Monopoly: you as the player are the producer, your product the pawn, the top hat for the purpose of this analogy. The board game and all of its properties are the various retail outlets you may wish to do business with (purchase). The purchasing of properties, houses and hotels are your distribution points in those retail outlets, and as you move your top hat around the board, you are gaining knowledge of your retail environment. You learn which outlets you do not want to ‘land on’, which outlets give your consumers the best value (do not charge you exuberant fees) and overall, learn the game.  Unfortunately, for the retail segment, the ACCC can send you to jail and we do not collect $200 every time we pass GO.

There are over 1000 editions of the traditional Monopoly board game, themes, colours and technology changes with each but they are all made up of the same essential elements. Similarly, the retail industry is continuously evolving, but it’s not the game that is changing, it is the way we play it. In order to stay competitive and succeed in this environment, we must keep learning how to play.

What monopoly cannot symbolise, are your shoppers. Notice, I use shopper and not consumer, this is one of those rapid changes I referred to earlier, ‘shopper’ is the new ‘social’ when it comes to marketing buzzwords. We no longer refer to our customers as consumers but as shoppers because we have realised that it is just as important to appeal to the shopper, as it is to appeal to the end consumer. All trade marketing managers, like myself, thank you for this realisation.

These shoppers make up the remaining two elements of Plato’s quote; desire and emotion. Shoppers are on a mission, and this mission is not only to purchase, but also to have an ‘experience’ with your brand. Creating this experience can be achieved by understanding a number of retail insights, we have all of the usual suspects, digital and mobile strategies, these are no longer optional, gamification, crowd sourcing, big data and low intentional planning to name a few. One trend that plays very well with our experienced junkie shopper is personalisation. This trend, like digital, is no longer optional. Your shoppers expect you to know what they need and what they like, but more importantly, what they do not like. A recent IBM study showed nearly 50% of shoppers are willing to give you detailed information about themselves if it means you will personalise the offer, make it relevant, and stop spamming. One size does not fit all, not in hats and no longer in retail.

Shoppers are savvy, they understand the difference between your online and bricks and mortar stores, and they know how to combine the two, this is known as Omni-channel retailing. Google Shopper Marketing Council found that 8 in 10 smartphone shoppers shop with the assistance of mobile in store, with frequent in-store mobile users spending 25% more than occasional users. Technology that plays on this insight is iBeacon software, allowing brands to interact and engage with iOs users in the nearby area. Combining mobile technology with the in-store experience allows your shopper to interact with your brand at both an online and face-to-face level and speeds up the in-store process. It also gives the shopper confidence that they are getting the best deal, reducing post-purchase dissonance and so reducing return rates.

Unsurprisingly, shoppers are looking to reduce in-store time. Stores such as Sneakerboy, a luxury sneaker store, allows shoppers to interact with their brand in-store as well as offering time saving technology via touch-screen iPad ordering. No lines, no checkouts, no waiting means more engaged shopper. This idea is known as ‘showrooming’. ‘Teradata Applications’ found that one in five consumers are now visiting stores to trial products with the intention of later purchasing online with 96% of people polled admitting to have intention to start doing so. With the increased cost of physical store fronts, along with all other rising costs associated with running a retail outlet, ‘showrooming’ is sure to be the next ‘shopper’ marketing buzzword.

In summary, remembering that you are not just a marketer, or just a liquor-marketer, and that you are operating in a far broader retail environment, we can use retail insights such as personalisation, Omni-channel retailing and showrooming, to ensure that we keep learning how to play the game.

Jessica Ratcliff
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

A Christmas Campaign Roundup

With December already upon us, the preparation for the holiday season is without doubt in full throttle. And as what we hope is a new tradition here on the Marketing Matters blog, we’re going to round up a list of some of the best holiday campaigns that have been released so far, and give credit to brands that are celebrating the festive season in truly innovative and engaging ways.

Burberry – ‘From London with Love’ starring Romeo Beckham

Burberry is always reliable for a great holiday campaign, and this year’s offering is no less of a big deal. Featuring mini model Romeo Beckham, the four-minute clip depicts a musical sequence in which two Burberry trench-clad models are seen to be falling in love at first sight. From a purely aesthetic perspective, the video ticks all the right boxes with rich festive colouring, clear branding and an abundance of whimsical goodness. 

Kate Spade – ‘The Waiting Game’ starring Anna Kendrick

Enlisting all-round superstar, Anna Kendrick for their Christmas campaign, Kate Spade took a more comedic route with this year’s holiday video. The short film style segment sees Kendrick returning from a big shopping trip (with Kate Spade bags in tow), only to realise that she’s forgotten the keys to her apartment. Two minutes of goofing around ensues, and it’s hard not to fall slightly in love with Kendrick’s dorky charm.

Mulberry – ‘#WinChristmas’

Mulberry took a completely tongue in cheek approach to this year’s campaign video. Probably the most non-traditional pick of the bunch, the video depicts a Christmas morning gift opening session in which a young woman opens the presents given to her by various family members. I won’t say much else or I’ll end up giving away the punch line for this one, but it’s worth a watch and will definitely elicit a chuckle or two.

Sainsbury’s – ‘1914 Christmas Truce’ in partnership with The Royal British Legion

In what has probably become the talking point of this year’s Christmas campaigns, Sainsbury’s took a completely different approach to their seasonal video by re-visiting ‘the true meaning of Christmas’ in the context of the First World War. The video is actually based around a real set of events, and pays a touching tribute to the Great War and those who served in it. This was without doubt a refreshing (and slightly emotional) take on the normally quite materialistic campaigns that we see year in and out, and a welcome change from the supermarket giant.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

USA & Black Friday - Possible Implications for Australia’s Boxing Day?

So, I made it home just in time for Thursday’s Thanksgiving dinner through all the snow in the North East of the United States. This means that I also was just in time for Black Friday shopping! Traditionally, dinner on Thursday is early in the afternoon, so you can digest and bundle up for the long wait ahead of you to get the early Friday morning shopping specials. Black Friday really marks the beginning of the American holiday shopping trend. Everything is on sale, and I mean, everything! From what I’m told, this is an event very comparable to Australia’s Boxing Day, except it’s meant to kick start the retail and consumerism economy going into the New Year. Many people are aware that the sales encourage our American instincts of materialism, but choose to ignore it when that massive plasma screen TV you’ve been dying to have for your freshly renovated living room is only $99.00 USD.

All that being said, our biggest stores are at least trying to make the shopping experience more safe and less of a hassle. Take Walmart for example. They have implemented a pre-planning system through their iPhone/iPad application. By having users pre-plan their shopping route, helping them locate only the items they need or want in conjunction with their Black Friday specific shopping flyer that indicates all the specials, as well as giving them the opportunity to customise the experience to their local store, they were able to alleviate a good amount of lines and other safety hazards. It seems like marketing gold: one store, any item you can think of, tons of sales, easy to find, well marked, technologically savvy, and of course, lots of parking.

(Source: WTSP.com)

Although Walmart was very strategic in integrating their technology with a shopping design that makes shoppers think Walmart has their best interests in mind (“way$ 2 $ave” - the campaign slogan), there are still other ways to come out on top during the mass shopping event. You can also get lucky enough that your competitors didn’t treat Black Friday like the major release date it should be. Here is where Apple found success - repositioning their competitors. Because of their recent release of the iPhone 6 and 6+, in addition to their new iPad Air 2’s, they were the technology favourites for the night. According to news reports (Source: The Street), Samsung and Google just weren’t on their game with innovation releases for all the eager spenders.

(Source:NYDailyNews)

So, Australia…what will Boxing Day look like this year? Will we be seeing any maps integrated with sale information as well as specific item location? Will we see lines out the door and media coverage of all the jolly holiday people? Whatever the case is, watch out for those sneaky sales that look too good to be true, and make sure you stock up on all your holiday gifts for next year!

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Marketing to our Global Citizens

As I travel home to New York for this holiday season, I’ve come to a realisation about the community I truly represent: I am a global citizen. This means that even though I may belong to one country technically, my personality, culture, and experience is based off many cultures and many different people. My future thus looks something like a combination of career paths, jobs, travel experiences, maybe foreign languages, and even more cultural adaptations, as opposed to the generations preceding mine that have been shaped around consistency, stability, and one career path. This contrast is quite vast, and will present yet other new tasks for marketers to analyse, interpret, and adjust to.

Global citizens represent a combination of third culture kids, zero generations, and first generations within family lines. Additionally they represent a set of values within our changing world: acceptance, understanding, respect, versatility, and adaptability. In short, this type of individual’s identity transcends borders.

I first heard of the term global citizenship when applying to my undergraduate university, Rollins College. In promoting their liberal arts studies, which I am extremely grateful for, they also produce socially responsible, broadly cultured, and internationally aware students. As a marketer, you’re probably wondering ‘how am I meant to find value for a population that doesn’t fit within normal or measurable demographics?’

Some research and experienced modern-day business owners indicate that social media has become a way of validating our identity as opposed to boarders. Because of this, current and relevant information is becoming the most valuable to us, but can still act as a window of opportunity for governments and businesses alike to capture those identity insights. This movement is fronted by the growing accessibility of information and spread of knowledge.

(Source: Clipartbest.com)

Above is a picture we are all probably very familiar with. Little did I know, when I was five years old and first learned the meaning of this picture at the International School of Curaçao, that it would have such large impacts on the world and the promotion of our diversity and equality over the next 20 years. And now, I sit here as a marketer at Sydney University wondering what truly defined the people I want to create value for.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

A Recipe for Success? Why not try Restaurant Australia…

With people yearning for all things foodie and gastronomic, culinary desire is simmering and exuberance for food and wine has been sprinkled across the globe, resulting in chefs and winemaker’s being positioned as modern day rock stars.

Yes ladies and gentleman, it is official, our world has gone ‘ga-ga’ in love with food.  With buzzwords such as “provenance” “degustation” and “hand crafted” fluttering amongst everyday vocab, people are striving for a deeper connection and understanding with what they’re eating and drinking.

However this healthy obsession with food shows, celebrity chefs, produce and wine hasn’t gone unnoticed with government bodies, such as Tourism Australia are even looking to take a bite via their recent marketing initiatives.

In today’s competitive and marketing savvy world, branding is accepted as a fundamental strategy for competitive advantage and success. With that notion, countries, like companies, are all continuously searching for that key insight and big idea that will propel their country-brand into the hearts and minds of overseas consumers by speaking a language that resonates with their own values, attitudes and beliefs.

And really, what better universal language is there than food?

Tourism Australia’s recent Restaurant Australia campaign aims to create positive and unique associations of the Australian food and wine industry within the overseas market. Through a visually stunning integrated marketing campaign, it aims to appeal to overseas consumers by communicating how Australia’s fine array of produce can be enjoyed in one of the most stunning locations in the world.

A Print Advert for the Restaurant Australia Campaign (Source: News.com.au)

The campaign was derived via the insight that only 26 per cent of people who have never travelled to Australia, associated our country to have good food and wine offerings. However for those travellers who have visited, Australia was ranked second across the 15 major markets for its food and wine experiences (60%) behind France and ahead of Italy (third).

Having worked within the UK restaurant and events industry for almost a decade, I can be the first to vouch that perceptions of Australia’s restaurants abroad is not what it is in reality. It is true, compared to the culturally-luxurious lands of France and Italy, the Australian restaurant industry could be deemed as a free-spirited teenager due to not having a comparable lengthy heritage of food and wine.

However perceptions such as “throw another shrimp on the barbie”, meat pies and rissoles still consume how the Australian food scene is positioned in the mind of the overseas customer. So much so the true depth of the quality and sophistication of Australia’s modern food and wine culture has been somewhat bruised.

The clever aspect of the Tourism Australia campaign is that over and above showcasing “Australian produce”, the creative executions also focus on the rich ethnic diversity and positive approach of Australian people as well as our superb climate. A true unique selling point, that draws the overseas customer “outside” to enjoy our finest flavours with a backdrop of spectacular natural landscape. 

Tourism Australia’s recognised that consumers have entered an era where one’s choice of restaurant or holiday is equally reflective of their ‘personal brand’ as the pair of shoes they don or what they do for a living. A consumer’s self-expression is no longer confined by specific categories such as “fashion”, “travel” and “food”, but rather a holistic “lifestyle” bubble, where the ‘fashion’ brand one wears, the ‘restaurant’ brand of where one eats or the ‘country’ brand of where one travels to – are all equally correlated and intertwined.

So like any energetic, ambitious teenager, the Australian food scene has started to get itchy feet and is on the verge of being thrust into a whole new playing field.  With Australian chefs such as Luke Mangan, Neil Perry and Peter Gilmore setting the standards of our cuisine internationally and the global popularity of shows such as Masterchef Australia; it is clear that the perception of our country brand is shifting and that Restaurant Australia is no longer being positioned as an aspiration but as truly phenomenal destination.

Shrimps won’t stop grilling on the barbie, but the fresh flavour, innovation and world-class beauty of Australia is now being translated into its cuisine. Bravo Tourism Australia for leading the view, I’ll raise a glass to that. Now, I don’t know about you, but after all that chat - let’s go eat.

For more information about the Restaurant Australia campaign, visit tourism.australia.com.

Natasha Menon
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Wandering Eyes

As marketers, our greatest goal will always be to find out why consumers do what they do; be it to purchase a certain item, chose to support a certain brand or not do either at all. Sure, every business keeps track of their sales, products and loyalty members, etc. But, analysing that data only gives us basic trends which simply aren’t enough to tell us what makes you tick. That’s why we now have ‘neuromarketing’ or ‘consumer neuroscience.’ With the perfect combination of neuroscience, marketing, advertising and psychology, marketers and scientists are getting closer to understanding why we are attracted to the things we buy and what it takes for us to make them even more attractive moving forward. You can find a good example in the video below by Seren (London) featuring both Apple and Samsung:

Specifically, neuroscience can help us understand the decision making pathways in the brain in addition to the parts of the brain that register pleasure (an indication of attractiveness). Once scientists can trace the keys to activating certain parts of the brain, typically based on eye movement data made across ads or other materials, marketers can implement the knowledge into new ads to make them the most pleasing and engaging they possibly can be. If you notice in the picture below, your eyes will tend to scan the website page for key information first, such as titles, pictures and copyright information. They will also tend to come back to those critical points in order to make sense of the information over all. This is interesting because it helps website designers, for example, to determine the best layout that makes the scanning process the easiest on your eyes and the most engaging.

(Source: http://www.onextrapixel.com/2010/11/05/eye-movement-patterns-in-web-design/)

One key attribute of combining neuroscience with marketing is that when it comes to advertising, you’re ultimately trying to moderate someone’s behaviour without telling them they have to do something. See, marketers are a little bit more clever than that; they want you to ‘want to do’ the activity they have to share. As we similarly learned throughout our Marketing Communications course with  industry professional, Kate Charlton, you have to understand your target audience so well that you can predict their behaviour. And lucky for us, ‘neuromarketing’ allows for a better understanding of the human brain and behaviour - which then makes me extremely grateful for my psychology and neuroscience background.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Estée Lauder signs ‘Instagirl’ Kendall Jenner as New Face

 (Source: Business Wire)

In what turned out to be a surprise move in the beauty industry, Kendall Jenner announced over the weekend (on her social media accounts no less) that she was to be the new global face of Estée Lauder cosmetics. Now for those of you that have not heard of Jenner, you must at least have heard of her half-sister, pop culture phenomenon, Kim Kardashian. Jenner, although still involved in the family’s long running reality TV show, has slowly been building a reputation of her own, having walked for some of the fashion world’s most prestigious brands during past fashion weeks, and by booking campaigns and editorials for the likes of American Vogue and Givenchy.

So although Jenner signing a beauty contract is no surprise, the real head turner was that Estée Lauder booked her - a brand that has previously shown preference for relatively older spokespersons such as Elizabeth Hurley and Gwyneth Paltrow. In what therefore seems as a clear attempt to appeal to the new wave of millennial consumers, booking Jenner may in fact be a smart move for the global cosmetics brand. With a reported 30 million social media following, Jenner has the type of pulling power that hardly any other models in the industry would have (especially at the age of 19). It’s a following that the cosmetics brand clearly has their eyes on, as they note that the young model has the potential to broaden their current audience, and re-position the brand in a much younger light; “She is the ultimate instagirl, and we are excited to leverage her image, voice, energy and extraordinary social media power to introduce Estée Lauder to millions of young women around the world.”

As reported by Estée Lauder, Jenner will not only appear in the traditional TV, digital and print campaigns for the brand, but also be involved in social media content creation. This element of the strategy really intrigued me, but makes incredible sense, as it would be futile for Jenner to just be the face of the brand, but have no further involvement. Her role as a content creator gives the opportunity for the brand to deepen their connection with a younger market that has grown up with social media, and in turn, for Kendall it provides further credibility in an industry that perhaps did judge the book by its cover (or kover, for those Kardashian fans out there), and doubted her appeal as anything other than a reality TV star.

It’s without doubt an interesting brand collaboration, and hopefully one that proves successful for all parties involved. For more information about this announcement, visit Esteelauder.com.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Melbourne Cup

As the day that stops all of Australia for one hour came and went, it’s marketing efforts still linger. Not only do they linger, they probably hang over your head as a sunk cost unless you put your money on Protectionist. One of the stand out marketing ploys of the event was sponsored by TAB - and it seems to have been the safest way to bet simply by mounting your hours for 24 hours! #ChafeCup.

(http://www.tabchafecup.com.au)

As seen above, 22 passersby from Martin Place (Sydney) got the opportunity to bet TAB’s money instead of their own, and in exchange had to sit on their horse, which was really some hay, without getting off until the big race at 3pm the next day. Basically, TAB put a $2,500.00 bet on every horse that didn’t scratch, and the person who sat on the right horse would walk away with about a minimum of $20,000.00. Of course, you were allowed to eat and sleep on your horse, as long as you didn’t touch the ground. Bathroom breaks were allowed, as well as stretches every hour. But it all came down to one question - How badly do you want the money?

The event was run in conjunction with Elite Sports Promotions, which invited me to have the pleasure of checking-in on how the contestants were holding-out at around 10:00pm Monday night before the big day. Ultimately, you couldn’t have gone wrong here. You didn’t have to bet any of your own money, and how hard was it really to not touch the ground and therefore guard your horse from someone else taking your place.

(http://www.tabchafecup.com.au)

In the end, Corey Boyd won. Instead of going to work that morning, he most likely cleared his schedule and told his boss of his intended absence. And, along with everyone watching the big screen set up that day in Martin Place, was probably screaming his head off as Protectionist made his moves in the final seconds of the race.

What a way to stop the country for one whole hour. And, if you did lose some money, don’t worry, I’m sure the #ChafeCup will be back next year.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

YouTube Wants You to Hit Play on Possibility

I’ve spoken about YouTube on this blog in the past, but from the perspective of the people creating content, those managing it, as well as the brands that are involved in leveraging the reach and likability of talent on this platform. Having already discussed all these elements, I thought it was time to actually look at the YouTube brand itself, and discuss where the world’s second largest search engine seems to be heading.

(Source: Tumblr)

What really got me thinking about the future of YouTube was the almost extravagant advertising campaign that has spanned the streets of Sydney and Melbourne in the past few weeks. The campaign, also known as ‘Hit Play on Possibility’, features Australian Actor, Singer and YouTube star Troye Sivan (as seen above), as well as American Fashion and Beauty Guru, Bethany Mota. As someone who has watched both Troye and Bethany on a tiny screen on my laptop, it was a real shock to see their faces printed all over public transport in Sydney, on big billboards at Central Station, as well as on the banner ads of my Internet Browser.

Considering that this is possibly one of the most ‘mainstream’ advertising efforts by YouTube to date, I couldn’t help but wonder what prompted the campaign, and why it had hit the streets of Australia in such a big way. This campaign also shortly followed a similar one in the UK, where YouTube had commissioned TV adverts for British YouTube talent Zoella (Zoe Sugg), the Slo Mo Guys and Vice News. However, after reading an article about Facebook’s upcoming video strategy, it suddenly dawned on me as to why YouTube may have been giving its best talent a promotional push.  

As most Facebook users would have observed by now, the video function on the social media site has been slowly evolving; videos automatically play as you scroll past, and you can also track views on videos uploaded to the site. These advancements naturally pose a threat to YouTube in that there is growing opportunity for users to create content exclusively on Facebook, as opposed to YouTube. However, where YouTube remains ahead in the game, is in its extensive monetisation program, through which content creators can generate advertising revenue with each unique video view (something Facebook has yet to develop).

So in the context of YouTube’s recent advertising efforts in Australia and abroad, it makes great sense that the social media platform is putting a greater focus on fostering and promoting it’s own talent. In doing so, not only can they ensure that people like Troye and Bethany stay loyal to YouTube, but it also serves the purpose of positioning the video-sharing platform as the founder of this talent, and also the only place you can go and watch them.

As excited as I am about this campaign, I hope really hope that it isn’t a one off, and that YouTube continue to support the people that have made it a genuinely entertaining place to be. For more insight into the campaign, see Troye Sivan’s promotional video for Google Australia below:

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

(Edi)Advertorials

Can we tell what’s real or fake anymore? And even if we were to call something on the internet fake, somebody still paid for it, so it’s still very real. This is because what may look like news can actually be an advertisement! As HBO talk show host John Oliver puts it, “ads are baked into content like chocolate chips into a cookie, except, it’s actually more like raisins into a cookie because no one wants them there!” This is a rising form of advertisement known as “native advertising,” and John Oliver goes into great depth on the subject in his YouTube video below. It may be a bit lengthy, but it is a ‘must see’ in order to combat and understand some of today’s innovative marketing trends.

This video really sums up the growing confusion between credible editorials and typical, often silently ruthless, advertisements. It’s funny how the trend is changing; from making the viewer knowingly do less to making the viewer unknowingly do more - considering they would actually have to seek out the link/article content, read the entire article, and only later realise that they may have just been reading about a product or service. This is a point John Oliver made in the video, whereby viewers cannot actually tell the difference; that’s how integrated the marketing is getting. These advertorials are also found in internationally recognised news sources, such as the New York Times. But the real question is, do marketers for the companies that pay for and publish advertorials, really understand their viewers, or are they just desperately trying for further brand awareness? Alternatively, could it be a good thing that big businesses are now building connections between their brand name and actual news - like the link created between a new TV show about female inmates in America and real statistics about the current situation (as mentioned in the New York Times article John Oliver highlighted in the video above)?

(Source: http://www.copyblogger.com/writing-advertorials/)

Unfortunately, there are even websites that teach you how to copy real ones and turn them into a following over a real paying company and their official website.

The only upside I can see to this practice is that at least companies know exactly where their advertisements are getting placed on the internet; a subject that a group of us recently tackled in our Ethics and Regulatory Environment course during a presentation about advertising on pirated websites within Australia. Although there unfortunately isn’t enough legislation yet in place to protect company’s ads and reputation if found on illegal websites, they will now have to pay even more to advertise with this method. Either way, companies will be forced to come up with ways to reach new and larger groups of people for less.   

So, the next time you catch yourself  clicking on those popular shared links on Facebook, or searching for news updates that you don’t have to pay for or subscribe to, think again - you have probably found yourself on an advertorial website. Good luck trying to forget about it!

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Innovation is key to L’Oréal’s new strategy

L’Oréal UK Marketing Division (Source: L’Oréal UK Website)

In most industries today, getting messages through to the target market is becoming increasingly difficult with the number of distribution and communication channels continuing to grow. The challenge this poses for brands is that they need to become more innovative with their marketing strategies (as well as the actual product itself) in order to remain relevant within the market, and for their brand to continue to resonate with the consumer.

In a recent interview with Marketing Week, Michel Brousset, current L’Oréal UK managing director, spoke about the importance of innovation from a branding perspective, as well as what it takes to engage the modern consumer; ‘The world around us is changing dramatically. When I started in marketing in the US, product features and benefits were a big part of why consumers buy a product. Today, consumers are interested in the values of the brand.’

Although typically brand values encapsulate a range of social, ethical and corporate issues, what Michel Brousset seems to suggest is that innovation should also play a big role, whereby the brand should also be known for developing innovative product offerings that the consumer continues to need and want. A great example of a brand that has successfully implemented such a strategy is Gillette, who has continued to innovate their products by integrating it with technologies that their customers never knew they needed, but are more than willing to buy because this innovation re-enforces that ‘Gillette is [still] the best a man can get’.

Admittedly it is quite easy for brands to get carried with innovation and chase after ‘world first’ technologies, but perhaps where their focus needs to lie, is in ensuring that these technologies actually cater to the needs of the consumer. This is no new concept in itself, but still a great reminder that marketing is a consumer focused activity, and so as marketers, it is our responsibility to engage the consumer, and continue doing so from both a product and branding level.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Ho Ho Ho

The Holiday’s are right around the corner with Haloween truly marking the start of the season. Although Australia doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving in between like the U.S., the build up to Christmas and Hanukkah is still quite similar. Enter Westfield.

This is where you need a truly creative team to reconceptualise the idea of buying and giving gifts. Westfield is not only a property developer, but also an avid nurturer of its retailers and their customers. And this is why their new holiday campaign involves working with two internationally known YouTube stars, Sophie Grace and Rosie. Although they have been guests on the Ellen Degeneres show, they are now advocating for a bigger cause: making gift giving about the person, not about the items. A clip of their campaign can be seen below.

While Westfield has created a new way to look at shopping during this season, they have also backed it with many new ways to search for and locate the perfect gift. This is also in conjunction with their nation-wide implementation of the searchable mall technology. So, not only can you more easily navigate Westfield centres, search for certain items, and purchase them seamlessly, even the holiday shopping rush will be made less of a hassle with the help of Sophia Grace and Rosie who can help you pick the gifts. They will even be making guests appearances at 3 locations around Australia to run interactive parts of the campaign.

(www.westfield.com.au) 

As you can see above, the dynamic duo are already featured on the company’s website, soon to be followed by the Happy Giving Gift Finding Tool you can use to search you centre’s inventory. And, when you are done purchasing your Christmas gifts, and wondering why it was so easy, you’ll know it was because of the Westfield ultimate shopping experience and the help of Sophia Grace and Rosie who helped you though buying gifts for the people you love.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Brandy Melville taps into the Instagram Generation

Ever since completing our Innovative Marketing Strategies unit, I’ve been on the look out for brands that have truly embraced a ‘never done before’ marketing strategy. It was only until I was trailing through my ‘cool strategies’ bookmark folder (truly innovative name, I know), that I stumbled back upon an article I had read a few weeks back. The article profiled Californian womenswear brand, Brandy Melville, and mentioned some of the strategies that the brand had adopted to engage with its predominantly teenage girl target market.

The Brandy Melville Girls (Source: Brandy Melville Spring 2012 Lookbook)

Although the brand’s strategy is quite multi-layered, what stood out most was the fact that they actually employ a group of teenage girls who not only work in the retail end of their Santa Monica store, but make up the product research team, and also act as the faces of the Californian brand. These are girls that are tastemakers in their own rights, with large Instagram followings, and a pulse for knowing what other girls their age want to wear. It therefore makes great sense for the brand to actively leverage these insights so that they are consistently developing products that resonate with the Brandy Melville girl; “let's say there's a cut of a T-shirt that's doing really well, they'll ask our opinion on it. Do we like it? Should we make more? If so, what colours? Should we do long-sleeve? Short-sleeve? Cropped? Not cropped? Would this T-shirt be better in this material? There's all kinds of things that we get asked, and we give our honest opinion.”

The ingenuity of this strategy is that they have effectively humanised the brand and made it both tangible and accessible. Fans of this brand can engage with the ‘Brandy girls’ on the brand’s Instagram (as well as the personal accounts of each girl), and then further engage with them in store. However the obvious danger of this strategy is in achieving consistency in the brand experience when dealing with the ‘Brandy girls’, as well as the risks associated with leaving your brand in the hands of a group of teenagers.

Having said this, the overall idea has merit, and the key takeaway is that you don’t have to go far to search for valuable insights; the people who deal directly with customers often have a good idea of what they want, and so it’s just a matter of being open to collaboration, and fostering the right culture within an organisation in order to leverage what your employees truly have to offer.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

McDonald’s Australia goes Gourmet

Personalisation seems to be the focus of McDonald’s Australia’s strategy this year, as is made clear by their latest offering of the ‘Create Your Taste’ gourmet burger menu. Not long ago we spoke about a similar campaign run by the fast food chain (i.e. the ‘McMate’ burger), in which they encouraged the Australian public to design a new burger option for their national menu, and then vote for the most popular design on the company’s Facebook page. As perhaps a natural extension to this campaign, McDonald’s is now giving the opportunity for customers to actually create their own burgers in-store, and then have them personally delivered to their table.

Table service at McDonald’s Castle Hill (Source: News.com.au)

The new menu is currently being trialled at a McDonalds restaurant in Castle Hill (Western Sydney), and involves customers creating their own burger at digital kiosks installed at the store. With around 19 ingredient options, there is ample opportunity for customisation, and once customers have finalised their order, their burger is then loaded on wooden boards, and delivered by McDonald’s wait staff.

As mentioned by McDonald’s Australia CEO Andrew Gregory, the new menu seems to be a response to the changing landscape of the fast food market in Australia, with seemingly ‘gourmet’ offerings by competitors Lord of the Fries, and Grill’d gaining popularity; ‘McDonald’s is innovating and changing again to meet the needs of our customers. What we’re really doing here is simply what our customers have asked us to do.’

Although the ‘Create Your Taste’ menu is yet to roll out across other stores in Australia, it is clear that the company is looking to re-position itself as more than just a ‘fast food’ provider. It’ll therefore be interesting to see how this strategy plays out in the next few months, and whether the ‘Create Your Taste’ menu offering, in addition to the delivery service it has also been trialling, resonates with the existing McDonalds customers, and assists the brand in elevating the McDonald’s experience in a way that has never been done before.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Business and Social Responsibility

Many people complain about the terrible things we’re doing to our world. But one problem that we just can’t seem to help is the fact that there are more and more people in the world population every year. Realistically, this has the largest impact on any given nation’s economy. More people means the need to create more jobs; more jobs means the need to further spread money and resources, both natural and man-made; and most of all, it means the need to monitor the changes over time. Below is a video time lapse of different parts of our world and the effects humans have had on it.



Now, I bet you’re wondering how people, global climate changes, and jobs, all relate. Well it comes down to the social responsibility every individual and business should be obligated to uphold. Social responsibility is a way to ensure mutualistic symbiotic relationships. These type of relationships are the scientific way to describe situations and circumstances where everyone involved can benefit. Making sure that more good than harm occurs throughout all of our business transactions is a tricky subject however.

For example, Nokia is rated as one of the world’s most socially responsible companies by Maclean’s, a Canadian current events magazine. This rating is because of Nokia’s efforts to eliminate harmful chemicals to the environment from their products, such as Bromine and Chlorine, as well as divert any waste they do incur away from landfills. Therefore, their transactions are beneficial to the environment and provide customers with products that are already built with sustainable technology. Featured below is a graphic from one of Nokia’s business reports on the subject.

(Source: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/flow/item/17539_Nokia_publishes_corporate_soci.php)

Nokia is also a firm which students in our program have become very familiar with through our Innovative Marketing Strategies course by researching their new relationship with Microsoft and potential ways to build innovative strategies. Hopefully there will be ways for the two companies to maintain these sustainable efforts.

It is important when making business decisions to think of the larger impact certain products will have on both the environment and the consumers which we are targeting, another aspect of our course studies covered throughout Research and Decision Making, as well as Ethics and the Regulatory Environment. By utilizing these skills, we can practice more conscientious marketing tactics and execute more sustainable business plans.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Keeping Your Enemies Closer

Apparently, the airlines in Australia are avoiding confrontation; with both small regional and international markets, they sort of have to if they want to survive. What’s even more surprising than the major Qantas cuts from earlier this year, is that Qantas has finally admitted that it can’t exactly continue to keep claiming its prestige over Virgin Australia or blow their sales away, according to news.com.au. This realisation may save them in the end, however, many customers simply look for good service and convenience and don’t want to see furious marketing and advertising hostility and devious price wars - although no one minds snapping up a hot deal here and there!

The image below displays Australia’s major airport hub cities. Note: There aren't many! The second image displays America’s major airport cities. Note: There are significantly more. The pure fact that there are more cities to service in the USA is a key indicator of competitive pricing, whereas in Australia, it costs a lot more to service the fewer cities, let alone, the fact that there are fewer competitors in Australia, fewer flights per day, fewer people to potentially accommodate, flying time constraints over some cities/airspaces, and other regulations which inhibit the market from growing more significantly.

Not only do airlines in the Australian market already run into domestic problems, they also face the hardest feat of getting people to Australia in the first place, as it poses international carriers some of the longest flying legs in the world. Some people even say Australia is on the way to nowhere else.

(Image 1: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9tS_k-d7cac/TMkX08G9L3I/AAAAAAAAA40/-2T4RazF0oQ/s1600/Australia_Map.jpg)

(Image 2: http://www.allairports.net/images/airport-map.jpg)

All of this being said, it just goes to show these big and indestructible businesses exactly how important their internal and external marketing is. Completing an environmental scan in order to find out where their business competes is crucial in understanding the types of obstacles they will face in such a demanding market. Additionally, they must then understand what they can truly offer to combe any obstacles, such as by assessing assets and competencies. In this case, Qantas has chosen to update some of their fleet; their main asset in the industry. This may be costing them quantities of seats to purchase smaller planes or those configured with less seats, as opposed to Virgin, Tiger, and Jetstar, who are all said to be gaining quantities of seats through newer aircraft. And lastly, these airlines need to begin to revise their market strategies and be strategic in their partnerships; or at least who they are going to mess with or not.

These three steps make up the foundations for a long-term and innovative marketing strategy, something we’ve recently experienced in our Innovative Marketing Strategy course in our Master of Marketing program. So, the next time you check momondo.com or skyscanner.com.au and wonder why Virgin and Qantas are no longer fighting over fares and seat classes because their prices seem to be the same, just think of the long term benefit they are trying to create instead. Maybe one day the regional services within Australia will pick up and then they can focus on those new markets and new outreach programs.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

The Apple Watch is En Vogue

The hype surrounding the launch of a new Apple product is usually unprecedented, but for the first time in a long time there has been a much slower build-up towards the launch of one of its products. Although the technology giant unveiled the ‘Apple Watch’ back in September, it won’t actually be made available for purchase until early next year, and since the initial announcement, only small details surrounding the Apple Watch have been released.

So when it was revealed last week that the Apple Watch was about to make its sartorial debut in the November issue of Vogue China, it suddenly made sense as to why Apple had been quite mum about its new product offering until now.

The Apple Watch on the cover of Vogue China (Source: BoF)

Given that the market for wearable technologies has been heating up for some time now, with offerings by Samsung and health focused brands such as Jawbone already available to the public, for Apple to successfully enter the market at this stage of the game it would need a product that not only outshines the competition, but re-defines the product category (like it did with the iPhone back in 2007). The Apple Watch delivers on this challenge with features that many other smart watches already offer, but additional capabilities like Apple Pay, and health tracking technology, that make other products in this category quite redundant. So although Apple has clearly come up with a superior product offering, it’s the way it has decided to position the Apple Watch as a premium fashion accessory that I find most interesting from a strategic perspective.

The first inkling of the fact that Apple was targeting the fashion industry was it’s decision to launch a showcase (much like any other fashion house would) in the middle of New York and Paris fashion weeks; inviting the fashion press and key figureheads of the industry (think Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld) to experience the Apple Watch at their headquarters in California, and then later at the iconic luxury fashion boutique, Colette, in Paris. The second giveaway was the watch’s debut in Vogue China, in which it has its own fashion spread featuring Chinese supermodel Liu Wen, and was shot by noted fashion photographer David Sims.

Chinese Supermodel Liu Wen modelling the Apple Watch  (Source: BoF)

Despite the obvious reasons for debuting the watch in the Chinese market (a clearly booming economy with a pre-existing appetite for luxury fashion and Apple products), the fact of the matter is that Apple has recognised that unlike its previous product offerings, its latest product looks, functions and has been referred to as a ‘watch’, and thus automatically categorised as a fashion accessory. It therefore makes great sense that the company would need to carefully build the associations around its product as a truly fashionable watch, and what other way would it be able to do this than be featured in Vogue; the debatably ultimate source of fashion credibility.

As much as I could continue talking about Apple’s fashion debut, the key take away from their recent strategic moves is that they are no longer satisfied with just being a premium technology brand. It is clear that they’re eying the title of a fashion focused design house, and given this Vogue cover, it seems they are well on their way of achieving this.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Instagram Advertising About to Hit Aussie Shores

Advertising on social media platforms has been a highly contested topic of conversation for some time now, and one that continues to gain momentum as the business model of these companies evolves.

Going through my Instagram feed earlier this week, I came across a post from Instagram’s Instagram account (a mouthful, I know) explaining the upcoming changes to the social media platform’s operations in Australia. Namely, the post discussed the introduction of sponsored brand content for Australian users, a concept that has already been live in the US for a period of about 10 months (as seen in the images below).

Sponsored Branded Content in the US Market (Source: News.com.au)

In reviewing the press surrounding this announcement, it’s very clear that Instagram’s strategy seems to be heavily focused on curating ‘on brand’ sponsorship content. As mentioned by Instagram Australia’s spokesperson, Antonia Christie, ‘Instagram is about imagery over identity and creativity and craft win on Instagram. The best advertisers on Instagram will have a strong sense of the platform and how to interact with the community.’

So although it will be interesting to see with whom Instagram has partnered with in Australia, it’s reassuring to know that they are being selective with both the brands they intend to work with, and the resulting images that are being approved as sponsored content.

But despite these efforts, it is inevitable that the presence of sponsored content will appear as being disruptive for some users, especially since the whole concept of Instagram relies on the choice in the people you follow, and the content that appears in your feed. In response to these concerns, transparency seems to be key to Instragram’s approach to advertising, as each individual ad will be clearly flagged as ‘sponsored’, and also comes with an option to be later hidden by users from their feed if they are not interested in the ad’s content.

From a purely business perspective it makes sense for Instagram to develop new revenue streams, given that there  are concerns with the sustainability of providing a free service, especially one being used by almost 200 million people across the globe. So having been bought out by Facebook in 2012, it comes as no surprise that advertising has been selected as the primary revenue model for Instagram, especially given how successful this model has been for Facebook itself in recent years.

I’ll have to issue a ‘watch this space’ for now as we wait for the ads to eventually roll out, but so far it seems that Instagram has a well thought out strategy, and one they intend to implement in Australia with as little disruption to the user experience as possible.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2014

Friday, October 3rd, 2014 - The time has finally come for our most recent cohort of graduates to move onward and upward to bigger and better opportunities - fully equipped with their specialised skills in marketing and innovative business strategies. We are so proud of them.

(Source: Erika Juliana Muñoz)

The graduates featured above are from left to right are: Samantha Jang, Subha Radharkrishnan, Kathryn Lindenau, Erika Muñoz Araque, JooNam Park, Navneet D’Silva, and Marco Tomaselli. Not featured, having already taken a full-time opportunity in Tokyo, Japan, is Lisa Katharina Grobien.

The lucky graduates above have all just completed their capstone projects which involved them working closely with various clients in real-time on necessary projects that often help change or shape business plans and other operations. This task has taken them months and we are so pleased to honour their hard work on the Marketing Matters blog this week.

This program usually poses as no easy feat for any student no matter which academic or working background we come from. Most of the cohort members even work full or part-time jobs throughout the duration of the course, managing their time very effectively. The collaborative group work, faculty advising, and industry experience however, gives us the challenges and motivation we need to not only survive but succeed in all that we do within the program.

Again, congratulations and well done to the October Class of 2014 Master of Marketing students. You all look fantastic in our snazzy pink and orange academic gowns!

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School