What Will Twitter Do Next?

Today, Twitter has announced further creations to both its marketing adaptability and its extension into the music market. It has only been two days since Twitter unveiled its keyword-targeting capability for advertisers (April 17). This means that marketers can now target users by keywords based on users’ recent tweets in addition to the already available ‘geolocation’, mobile device and interest filters, (Shields, Marketing Week, 2013). He gives the example of a soft drinks company, who instead of using Twitter’s existing targeting tools such as the ‘hashtag’ in finding key words; could simple search for any users that has recently tweeted the words ‘I’m thirsty”.

Chapman (2013) stated in today’s Marketing magazine how Sky used Twitter’s brand new keyword targeting feature to invite people who were tweeting about the derby between Manchester City and Manchester United to watch the game live on Now TV. Alongside keyword targeting, Kevin Weil discussed how Twitter was now able to profile users’ interest based on people following other users from a certain field of interest, such as cycling.

Weil said: "Interest targeting has been incredibly powerful for us. Follows that are unrequited provide us an amazing view into who you are and what you are interested in." He continued in stating how Twitter can now do a form of ‘gender-targeting’,  even though Twitter do not ask this question when a user signs up.

Yet another creation that is being developed by Twitter is their own music app which launched for Apple iPhone users yesterday. The managing director of Twitter UK, Tony Wang has stated that the version for the android app is currently being developed. The app contains a feature whereby it will display the ‘140 most tweeted about songs of the moment.’ This has come from the fact that he claims that, "Music is at the heartbeat of Twitter – there is no bigger passion category on Twitter than music today". Twitter also claims that 50% of all users supposedly follow at least one music act and that an astounding 50% of all tweets are music related.

In an analysis of this information, it would seem that Twitter are progressing further as a social networking site daily; the only problem is, it is at the expense of users and the way in which privacy is also being reduced daily. The approach to keyword targeting is very similar to the Google’s AdWords platform, and it has been argued by many that Facebook and Twitter pose more of a potential threat to ‘Google’s towering dominance in the search market than the ‘search alliance’ pairing of Bing and Yahoo,’ (Shields, 2013). There has been a critique from Microsoft as they claim that these sorts of techniques in marketing are further adding to market plurality.

Furthermore, Twitter’s new music app could be great in giving some bands a chance to show their material to users who may not have listened to their music before but since music acts like One Direction and Justin Beiber are the most ‘tweeted’ about music acts, then the dominance of that ‘top 140 songs list’ will be with them. To conclude, it has recently been said that Twitter is merely a Public Relations platform and it reduces communication to superficialities and lacks depth; but it seems to be adapting very quickly to market conditions and has the positive of interacting between users at an arguably quicker pace than Facebook.

Can John Lewis Sell Mobile Phones?

John Lewis is obviously a well-established company that has deep-rooted morals. The partnership consists of over 84,700 Partners (including both John Lewis and Waitrose). The vision of John Lewis’s business is driven by its people and its principles. This way of business has obviously seemed to be a success so far in catering to the needs of multiple customers. It was reported today in Marketing Magazine that John Lewis is reportedly considering a move into the lucrative mobile phone market as part of its ‘strategy of using trust in the brand to diversify its product range,’(Chapman, 2013).

John Lewis is said to be experiencing booming sales of consumer electronics at present and has stated that a change into the mobile phone sector is "definitely on the radar". Chapman (2013) states how Last year, the marketing director Craig Inglis told Marketing that John Lewis was careful not to "go into some random other diversifying product area and try and over-leverage the brand", and that "there are so many areas we could potentially go into…

..and in electricals, people would want more than just the electrical products."

This news of John Lewis pondering on the thought of entering this market has come just as they have now extended its Broadband offer by offering a deal that would mean that customers would not have to pay for the first 6 months if they were to purchase any ‘web-enabled product.’ An astounding fact is that John Lewis claims that it currently sells five tablets every minute – this meaning that a large number of customers would be exposed to its broadband offer.

In an analysis of this potential move from John Lewis, personally, it would seem that it would be of a high risk due to the fact that the mobile phone market is hugely competitive with a huge amount of competitors, (some being extremely strong). Furthermore, the initial research stage that is undertaken by consumers in deciding whether to purchase a phone is usually done by assessing the prices of the different phone retailers. This is due to the fact that most mobile phone contracts are either 18 or 24 months long, so every pound counts; this brings me to the case that John Lewis’ electrical products (granted because of its high level of customer service and product excellence) are regarded as being fairly high in price, so if these prices were to remain, then it would be very hard to justify why another ‘cheap’ retailer will sell it for half the price.

However, if John Lewis will continue to offer the excellent and helpful customer service with mobile phones then it could well be justified. Furthermore Chapman (2013) quotes Adam Brown, buyer of tablets and telecoms at John Lewis, in saying: "Consumer demand for internet enabled technology has never been as high – 80% of the technology products we sell are internet-ready. We know that many consumers are left disappointed by the level of customer service they get from their broadband provider and frustrated at misleading and complicated offers, so we're determined to bring John Lewis levels of excellence, simplicity and value to the broadband market.” In conclusion, the mobile phone market is as noted, very lucrative, but John Lewis is a company that has a very positive reputation that would most probably generate a lot of interest before even starting to enter the market.

Using Marketing Communications To Change A Social Stigma

Baker (2013) states how Dove has recently hired a criminal sketch artist to draw women in the most recent chapter of its ‘Real Beauty campaign’ to show evidence of how beautiful they are. The criminal sketch artist they used, Gil Zamora, was told to sketch women based on two different descriptions:

• The way they perceive themselves
• The way a stranger describes them

The aim of this is to allow women to recognise that they are their own ‘harshest critic’ which is often incorrect as it is often the case that others view them differently. This importance that has been placed on self-belief and self-appreciation has been consistent throughout Dove’s ‘real beauty campaign’ as they conducted this social experiment to demonstrate that women are more beautiful than they think. The experiment found that only a mere 4% of women believed that they are beautiful. The campaign is also moving onto Twitter by using the hashtag ‘#wearebeautiful’ so that women can discuss the issue.

As noted above, Dove has performed similar tasks in an attempt to boost self-belief within their campaigns but in 2011 it seemed as though they were to ditch the campaign, (Chapman, 2011). Dove launched its global Real Beauty campaign in 2004 with the aim to highlight body images issues, but in 2011, Dove approached Ogilvy London about replacing the campaign with a ’Body Language’ marketing campaign that will instead talk about how Dove products make you feel confident and attractive.

In 2011, Unilever global communications marketing manager Stacie Bright issued a statement saying:

“The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty started a global conversation about the need for a wider definition of beauty more than six years ago. The Campaign for Real Beauty slogan has not been used consistently across the brand as the tagline depends on whether we are launching a new product or having a master brand campaign.”

“Our bold vision for the brand remains exactly the same. We aim to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. We are excited to give all women the opportunity to join us as we work to make our vision a reality. As discussed, we remain committed to real beauty, which will continue to be evident in all of the work we are doing.”

From 2011 Dove has evidently moved on from their initial campaign as many thought that the original campaign was rather ‘preach-like’ and some critics even said that it promoted an unhealthy lifestyle. The more recent advent of the criminal sketch artist highlights an important issue, as many teenagers are prompted by other brands and celebrities that more makeup is better, and ways to cover up imperfections or bad features, whereas Dove is approaching the issue in a positive way as men do not receive half the pressure that women do in order to ‘be normal,’ so this campaign will hopefully once again help in establishing a platform where women are confident in themselves without the inclusion make-up.

Will the 'Change4Life' campaign 'ChangeOurLives'?

After a constant wave of intensity on the front of healthy eating, it has now been said that there are plans to start presenting brands that offer healthy products a ‘Change4Life Kitemark’. This is following news that the Government is reviving the scheme, (Parsons, 2013). He stated that ‘Public Health England, the executive body of the Department of Health’ is now responsible for dealing with the £55m marketing budget that has been set. A document which delineated the strategy of the campaign stated that it aimed to “explore the potential” for the anti-obesity’s campaign logo to appear on “products or services that promote healthy lifestyles”.

 

If this campaign is launched, brands like Kellogg and Nestle could transmit the logo on their healthier alternatives. In 2010 the idea of having the ‘Change4Life’ image shown on branded goods was scrapped, due to the fact that the Department of Health conveyed their concerns that consumers may feel their inclusion as an endorsement of a brand. However, brand partnerships and the private sector’s involvement in campaigns have been said to grow both to share the cost of activity and force companies to take their fair share of responsibility for public health, (Parsons, 2013).

Change4Life is now 30 per cent funded by the taxpayer, according to the strategy document, from almost 100 per cent at launch. Recent Change4Life activity has included ads from the likes of Asda, Quorn, Uncle Ben’s, the Co-Operative Food and Cravendale carrying Change4Life’s “Be Food Smart” sub-brand. Meanwhile, Public Health England says that it will for the first time, attempt the use of Sky’s AdSmart, the internet-style ad product that offers brands the chance to target specific audiences during live TV ad breaks, later this year. It is one of the numerous procedures scheduled to increase the cost efficiency and targeting of activity.

Parsons (2013) states that in an additional bid to save money, spend on traditional media channels to promote youth orientated issues, such as the campaigns that are made to raise awareness of sexual health risks, will be axed. To offset reduced spending, Public Health England is to involve more “youth brands” the chance to fund and develop campaigns.

Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, says that the marketing has a established role to play as one of the various policy levers in assisting people to improve their health. It is dually noted that marketing is not a panacea/remedy, but it is a method of conveying a positive image that will (in hope) drive behaviour change. It also has some distinctive benefits, ‘such as speed, scale and low cost-per-head impact, hence its inclusion in NICE and Centre of Disease Control guidance.’

“In addition, new scientific insights about behaviour change and the transforming media landscape offer scope to deliver programmes of unprecedented depth and quality in ways that were simply not possible even a few years ago.”

In an analysis of these suggestions, it seems rather contradictive that the government are saying that they want to do more to improve the lifestyles of consumers by conveying a 'healthy image' when they have only recently put a 10% tax increase on all health supplements. The reasons why many people may have seen this inclusion of the Change4Life logo on brands as a way of backing certain brands is because the government seem as though they are largely inconsistent in their apporach to healthy living. They restricted the tax increase so that it would not go onto 'unhealthy' drinks such as chocolate milkshakes, but yet ignored a UK-wide petition that was made in order to limit the tax increase.

However, the inclusion of the Change4Life logo would be a positive inclusion if handled carefully and properly as there a numerous products which promote themselves as being 'healthy' and 'nutritious' when they infact have damaging ingredients which are not denoted. Therefore, if the logo is used for products that have been tested on a 'multiple-point' scale then the government could reap the benefits of a successful campaign. On the other hand, if a product that had the Change4Life logo was seen to be harmful for the recommended daily diet then trust may be lost for good for any Change4Life campaigns.

 

Consumer Behaviour: The Younger, More Digitally Adept Generation

Tesseras (2013), an author from Marketing Week, stated that together with email, phone and face-to-face interactions, today’s under-18s are using social networking sites, instant chat and text to communicate - connecting with family and friends more than 50 times each day. Furthermore, it has been previously assumed that because the youth of today are so digitally adept, that they are too trusting of the internet and unaware of its potential dangers; this is also untrue, as it was found that this generation is more wary about the potential dangers, particularly regarding online privacy.

Tesseras (2013) states some of the main findings from the research that was conducted exploring the views of more than 1,000 eight- to 17-year olds. It was then accompanied by diaries looking at how teenagers use digital devices, in conjunction with face-to-face focus groups and one-on-one, or family interviews with eight- to 12-year-olds. Similar research was then carried out among older age groups for comparison:

• Under-18s trust companies online far less than those aged 18 to 24 and are also more skilled at keeping their personal information safe, according to Intersperience Research’s Digital Futures study.

• A quarter of under-18s are confident in their ability to protect their personal information online, compared to 16 per cent of those aged 18 to 24, and 43 per cent are aware of how their privacy can be broken online compared to 32 per cent of the older category.

Maria Twigge, Insight manager at Intersperience Research states that she believes under-18s are very adept at using digital devices and are better informed about online behaviour and so are better at protecting their privacy.

• As a result, it was found that if teenagers are concerned about the integrity of a website or if businesses are not open about how they intend to use personal data, many have no qualms about supplying fake details to protect their privacy: 22 per cent of under-18s and 23 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds would consider giving out false information.

She continues in stating that the “businesses that are transparent about what they are doing will be the ones that are able to establish relationships with young people. There is a real need for brands to be open and upfront about their terms and conditions because this age group is so savvy about privacy,”

• Over 55 per cent say they can concentrate on what they are doing on one device while still being aware of what is happening on other gadgets. - This rises to 64 per cent for 14- to 17-year-olds, buy only 39 per cent for 18 to 24 year olds.

However, Twigge believes that this is a key finding as well as being rather negative due to the fact that it means that this generation are not as loyal to brands , as they are ‘operating in wider networks’ and so they therefore have looser connections, “So while it might be easier to get them to switch brands, at the same time it will be more difficult to establish long-term relationships,” she says.

 This continual connectivity has shaped a further ‘impatient consumer group that expects an instant response,’ particularly important in customer service (Tesseras, 2013). She states how brands need to recognize teenagers’ drive for using different channels in order to understand which channels they need to respond to quickly and how they should do it. “Young people are much more demanding. They are more impatient. They expect a personalised service and they expect it to be responsive and proactive,” Twigge states.

• Almost half (46 per cent) say they access social sites on their mobile phone, with 61 per cent of under-18s using social networking sites every day, and 64 per cent using instant messenger, which steadily decreases the older the category.

Consumer habits are evidently evolving, which is specifically visual among teenagers. Brands need to appreciate the way today’s under-18s communicate and duplicate that to remain pertinent if they are to have any chance of building relationships with this inconsistent demographic. As the age group grows older and becomes the target customer, knowing how to communicate with them effectively across multiple devices will only become more vital. If brands can develop a deep understanding of how to communicate to them early then it would make the process of following the trends and habit’s a much easier task.
 

 

Mobile Advertsing Increases, Marketing Spend Increases: A slight positive for the UK economy

It was stated today that the UK digital advertising spend growth has decelerated in 2012 due to the introduction of the fact that more marketers chose to trial with mobile formats, which cost less than the average desktop method, (O'Reilly, 2013). Marketing Week author Laura O'Reilly (2013) continued in stating that ‘Digital advertising spend increased by 12.5 per cent to £5.42bn in 2012, according to the latest IAB digital ad spend report, conducted by PwC. Growth was down slightly from the 14.4 per cent registered in 2011.’

The IAB/PwC full-year study established that the mobile spend more than doubled (147 per cent) to £525m, up from £203.2m, which accounted for 9.7 per cent of digital advertising spend in 2012. In 2011 advertising on mobile devices grew 157 per cent, although this came from a lower starting point. Tim Elkington, the director of research and strategy at IAB, stated that the mobile marketing industry has now reached this landmark because of the change in perceptions from consumers who now inevitably expect to engage with brands wherever they are. Due to this, marketers and advertisers are progressively purchasing integrated marketing campaigns across the online and mobile platforms rather than the long-standing thought of regarding mobile as an afterthought.

O’Reilly (2013) specified that in the past six months, a further twenty (of the top 100 UK advertisers) launched ‘mobile-optimised sites.’ The launch of 4G, by the company ‘EE’ is said to double the average download speeds in the main cities. This introduction, alongside others have been said to be factors that are likely to “drive mobile advertising’s growth even further in 2013.”

O'Reilly (2013) lists some of the current figures within the industry:

• Display advertising across the entire digital sector was boosted by the increase in video and social media advertising. Video grew 46 per cent to £160m (up 50 per cent in 2011), while social media advertising grew 24 per cent to £328.4m (75 per cent in 2011).
• Elsewhere, paid-for search marketing now accounts for 58 per cent of all digital ad spend, having increased 14.5 per cent to £3.17bn in 2012 (17.5 per cent in 2011).
• Classifieds, another major sector, grew 6.3 per cent to £853.7m (5.2 per cent in 2011), accounting for 16 per cent of digital ad spend.
• The FMCG sector overtook finance as the biggest spender on digital display for the first time last year, accounting for almost 16 per cent of spend.

 Anna Bartz, senior manager at PwC, believes that the market for advertising is flowing towards integrated campaigns that provide a story and that give a ‘greater prominence to video and display formats with a higher degree of interactivity with the target audience.’ Over the previous two years, the digital advertising revenue model has also been said to have changed from an importance on direct response to being now more about branding and awareness, (O'Reilly, 2013).

 

Listed below are a range of facts that have been taken from Russell Parsons Marketing Week report. He found that the marketing budgets for the next financial year has been set at the highest figure for over two years, this is due to the fact that the marketers predict that increased activity will grow sales; even though (as noted near the end of the text) the latest Bellwether report stated that the UK economy is still rather ‘subdued’.

 

• ‘The quarterly survey of 300 senior marketers from the UK’s top companies, a respected barometer of confidence in the industry, found 36 per cent setting budgets higher for 2013/14 compared to 23 per cent reducing spend. The net balance of 13 per cent is the highest since the first quarter of 2011.’

• ‘More than a third (36 per cent) of the marketing chiefs polled are expecting improvements in the performance of their own companies, up from 28 per cent in the previous quarter. Less than a fifth (19 per cent) are more pessimistic that they were at the end of 2012.’

The news comes despite further indications UK economic growth remains flat. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research stated yesterday (10^th April) that the UK economy grew by a mere 0.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, meaning the UK avoided a triple dip recession by a whisker.

Do the objects that we buy represent ourselves? / A social networking approach

Social networking sites have often been used to show off either the amount of followers each person has or the amount of friends on Facebook someone has. However, in recent years, the rise of Pinterest and Instagram have created a new factor which is the growing interest into peoples own lives. Showing others what you own or what you have seen has become more important, and savvy marketers are said to be tapping into this. Chahal (2013), an author of Marketing Week questions whether they fabled ‘word of mouth’ is becoming ‘word of me’.

Intel Director of brand strategy, Jayant Murty spoke to Marketing Week and stated that Intel are ever increasing their search into social crazes and are attempting to celebrate the things people do with their technology. Intel produced a social media campaign to introduce the second generation of Intel Core Processors. The brand launched an interactive Facebook campaign called “Intel Museum of Me” that echoed the individual expression of self-image. Intel’s Museum of Me application pulled in data from the user’s profile, including personal photos, profile pictures of friends, commonly used words and phrases and recently liked images and videos, to create an exhibition of the user’s life, (Chahal, 2013).

Brands are attempting methods of making it easier for consumers to show themselves off through the products they own in an attempt to make their products, the ones that are being shown the most, whether it is completely positive or even slightly mocking. A great example of this is Starbucks; Since March 2012, Starbucks customers have been able to share images of their names written on takeaway cups. Starbucks launched the ‘Names on coffee cups’ campaign in a bid to offer a more personalised service in its shops by calling customers by their first names, with baristas writing it where they would previously have written the name of the drink ordered.(Chahal, 2013).

 

 Customer focused: Starbucks’ baristas (above)

Ian Cranna, the vice-president of marketing for Starbucks, said that the campaign ‘names on coffee cups’ turned a usual run-of-the-mill coffee cup into an object that personalised and owned by that individual; this encourages that person to then share that image to their online social community. This campaign has proved so popular, that there are Flickr and Tumblr pages that display the labelled cups, and apps that generate a name for people on a virtual cup – (each of these also mocks instances where the names are misspelled).

“Names on cups themselves are not the only expression of the relationship between the barista and the customer, with many thousands of messages being passed each day with smiley faces, a flower, or a comment that cheers up a person.” says Cranna. He proposes that the number of drink combinations also enables consumers to express their own identity. “Are you a tall decaf skinny cappuccino, or a grande extra shot Americano with cream?” he says.

Foot Locker is another brand that sees the value of creating a space for consumers to show off what they own. Its Sneakerpedia site allows key influencers, collectors and enthusiasts can share images of their most-loved trainers and consumers can search by brand, material, colour and type. Status is said to play a large part in the brands consumers favour, and the ones they want to show off about owning. (Chahal, 2013). This is shown below:

 

Diageo marketing and innovation director for western Europe Matthew Barwell has a similar opinion to Ian Cranna in saying that “Technology has enabled us as marketers to manage campaigns more effectively and proactively in a way that couldn’t have been done 30 years ago.” He believes that it is no longer about the amount of ‘likes’ a page has, but the way a companys’ target audience and consumers engage with a brand regularly, the frequency of that activity and the relevance. “It’s a really powerful way for people to share the brands they like with their broad group of friends to help define and reflect their personalities, interests and their moods. That is a fantastic opportunity for brands.”

Marketers now need to study how consumers use brands to express their own identity. If a brand has a clear outlook on what it represents, this can be transferred onto the consumer’s identity. Barwell at Diageo says: “What you are buying and drinking is a reflection of the personality that you want to project. As marketers we can reframe what we do from managing a brand to managing an icon, because that ultimately is what consumers are buying into. What’s really important is that a brand has a clear point of view on the world, a clear perspective and purpose