Tag: market segmentation
12 Lessons From Ben and Jerry’s Marketing Strategies
What are your favorite brands? Which ones do you follow closely and learn the most from? When choosing to learn from others’ marketing successes, it is always helpful to choose great brands to follow. We follow Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategies because of their creativity and unique approach to customer focus.
Meet Ben and Jerry’s. They have been successfully executing their social marketing strategy and plan since the first days of social media and social commerce. For over 20 years their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
An introduction to Ben and Jerry’s is unnecessary, isn’t it?
With more than 600 retail locations in 34 countries, the ice cream scoop shop is the picture of success.
Ben and Jerry’s rode the baby boomer trend in the late 1980s, the swelling ranks of mid-age professionals that created the need where people could share and enjoy a unique ice cream dessert with friends and colleagues, away from work and home.
In our opinion, the company has changed the way companies market themselves to customers. Here is how we feel they have been so successful:
Market segmentation
The company has stayed with the upper scale of the ice cream market, competing on product quality rather than convenience or price, which is the case with its closest competitors. They target customers with high-end ice cream tastes and unique flavors.
Execution
The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes great ice cream, unique flavors, quality service, and a nice environment to hang around. They keep their focus on paying attention to the details of great execution and service.
Social Media
One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social commerce, Ben and Jerry’s has certainly taken a leadership position in social engagement. Their social media strategy is built around their company website and 6 additional social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Instagram, and YouTube.
Review this article on the secrets to a winning social media marketing strategy.
Adaptation and Innovation
Ben and Jerry’s have clearly embraced the social realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in social commerce.
Ben and Jerry’s ability to wear so many hats on corporate success, “local” favorite, and Internet sensation warrants close examination.
What makes this company so good at being social and executing a great marketing strategy? And what can it teach us? Here are our thoughts on these questions:
Customer collaboration
Collaboration with customers is used to obtain customer ideas on new flavors. Fans inspired the best-selling Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavors.
Customer relationships
Instead of solely focusing efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates its current relationships. This ensures more fans/followers in the long run, as well as the continued existence of brand advocates. This holds true across the board: in-store experiences are highly valued, along with online engagement, emphasizing the importance of customer service.
Interactive customer engagement
Engagement is a high priority for the brand and they continually look for new ways to collect input from customers. A good current example is their ‘Scoop Truck’, which travels around the country giving out free samples of new products and soliciting customer input.
They believe in letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally as possible. They listen carefully, observe, and apply new ideas from what they learn.
Encourage sharing
Happy customers are eager to share good experiences and offers. For example, frequent promotions garner an extraordinary amount of engagement on social media through comments, “likes,” and shares.
Social mission focus
Ben and Jerry’s brand has always chosen a social mission … to stand for and stand behind. One great example of an issue they got behind was supporting the push to get corporate dollars out of politics … www.getthedoughout.org.
Experience customization
Ben and Jerry’s provides its unique experience through programs such as personalized ice cream flavors, and localized store experiences. Their social sites, in particular Pinterest and Instagram, encourage users to share their Ben and Jerry’s moments’ which are shared on all their social sites.
Taking a stand
Giving consumers a charitable reason to buy that ice cream cone or package is beneficial for all. The takeaway from Ben and Jerry’s is to know your customer and tie that in with what matters in the world … so, pay attention to how your brand can fit into trending topics.
Showing customer appreciation
Appreciation for their customers. The lead in a quote to this article from Ben Cohen says it is all about their culture and success at showing customers appreciation.
Whether we are discussing businesses that are social, the best at engaging customers, or being great at a social commerce business, there are few businesses in the class of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Being social is a core component of Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategy. It is the integrating ingredient of their online and online to traditional marketing/media.
Not all businesses can go to the extent that Ben and Jerry’s does. But they can support local issues and do weekly online promotions to increase customer engagement, gain new customers, and convert good customers into advocates.
Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated … which ones do you feel could benefit your business? How could you improve Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategy for your business?
Give it a try and show some patience … you will be surprised at how well it works!
Ben and Jerry’s is one of many businesses we can learn from. Please post your comments below, offering questions or your own great examples of social marketing strategies.
The Guaranteed Method for Social Media Campaign Ideas to Stimulate Learning
Over the past decade or so there have been tons of awesome social media campaign ideas to stimulate learning. Here are two of the best we have found to illustrate what lessons to follow.
Social networking is not about farming followers, it’s a way of cultivating relationships.
Hubspot
Related post: Facebook Business Page … How to Improve Social Marketing?
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
What social media design techniques work best for your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a conversation.
With the advent of the Internet, the number of marketing options available to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs has become staggering.
Social Media and Starbucks Marketing?
When choosing to learn from others social media strategies, it is always helpful to choose one of the top dogs in social media.
Meet Starbucks. They have been successfully executing their social media marketing plan since the first days of social media and social commerce. For over 5 years, and their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
An introduction to Starbucks is unnecessary.
With more than 18,000 retail locations in 60 countries, the coffeehouse is the picture of success.
Starbucks rode the baby boomer trend in the 1990s, the swelling ranks of mid-age professionals that created the need for a third place, ‘ an affordable luxury’ where people could share and enjoy a cup of coffee with friends and colleagues, away from work and home.
In our opinion, the company has inserted itself into the American urban landscape more quickly and craftily than any retail company in history. It has forever changed the way companies market themselves to customers. Here is how we feel they have been so successful:
Market segmentation
The company has stayed with the upper-scale of the coffee market, competing on comfort rather than convenience, which are the case with its closest competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts.
Execution
The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes good coffee, quality service, and a nice environment to hang around. They keep their attention on paying attention to the details of great execution and service.
Social media
One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social commerce, Starbucks has certainly taken a leadership position. Their social media strategy is built around their company website and 6 additional social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, YouTube, and My Starbucks Ideas.
We will review Starbuck’s social media strategy in detail below.
Adaptation and innovation
Starbuck’s business crowdsourcing, via its My Starbucks Idea website, has been a huge success. Why may you ask? Because they have combined the concepts of change, experimentation, social media, customer engagement, and market research and made the results key components of both their brand as well as their marketing strategy.
Have you given My Starbucks Idea a try? What did you think?
Starbucks has clearly embraced the digital realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in social media.
Starbucks’ ability to wear so many hats corporate success, “local” favorite, and Internet sensation warrants strategic examination.
Why is Starbucks such a social media marketing success story? There are seven key reasons their social media strategy is a successful difference maker for their marketing campaign:
Here is our take on why:
Social media campaigns … customer relationships
Instead of solely focusing efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates its current relationships. This ensures more fans/followers in the long run, as well as the continued existence of brand advocates.
This holds true across the board: In-store experiences are highly valued, along with online engagement, emphasizing the importance of customer service.
Going to its customers
When Starbucks takes a photo, it shares it on Instagram, posts it to Facebook, tweets it on Twitter, and pins it on Pinterest. It clearly goes to where all its customers like to hang out. Cross-promotion is more valuable as the world becomes more digitally focused.
Each network provides an opportunity to reach a new audience, and integrating your strategy on each is crucial to increasing visibility and promoting the brand.
Here is what Mark Schaefer had to say about social proof in a recent blog post:
There seems to be no question that social proof will continue to be critically important to the consumer experience and ultimately our commercial success.
Starbucks is certainly taking advantage of social proofing in its strategy, isn’t it?
Customer engagement
They believe in letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally as possible. They listen carefully, observe, and apply new ideas from what they learn.
Related post: An Update to Starbucks Creative Ideas and Innovation
Encourages sharing
Happy customers are eager to share good experiences and offers. For example, the Starbucks frequent promotions like “buy 1 get 1″ garner an extraordinary amount of engagement on social media through comments, “likes,” and shares.
Google use of a story
Facts don’t persuade, feelings do. And creative stories are the best way to get at those feelings.
Have you seen the Google Reunion video where a story of long lost friends is told? The video was made by Google India, and the point, of course, is to promote Google Search. But it also reaches a new level of what can be done with the value of creative stories.
If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here …a short 3+ minutes.
The story is this: a man in Delhi tells his granddaughter about his childhood friend, Yusuf. He hasn’t seen Yusuf since the Partition of India in 1947 when India and Pakistan became separate countries and the two friends were forced to separate. The man’s granddaughter arranges for the two to meet again.
The story is simple and direct. It’s beautiful and honest, and true. The photography is spectacular. The music adds to the very good acting…
Do you use stories in your customer engagement … or perhaps in marketing messages? Good stories are a great way to develop an identity, personalize and build your customer base. Good stories:
Immediately focus on engagement, experiences, and emotion – central tenets that are attractive to customers.
The narrative makes your message relevant and memorable through personalization.
Stories are a great means for sharing and interpreting experiences, and great experiences have this innate ability to change the way in which we view our world.
Creative story lessons
A lot of us are trying to figure out how to improve the use of storytelling as part of our marketing. Very few of us do it well. There are several things to be learned from this excellent video:
Emotional connection
This video is about as emotional as it gets. Stories like this provide a chance to experience a variety of emotions without the risk of those emotions themselves.
Emotions like wonder, fear, courage, or love can be tested out in the minds of those as they listen to a story. You may remember the feelings of emotions which can trigger memories or create resolve as a result of hearing such stories.
The experience of hearing stories can awaken portions of emotional lives that may have lain dormant or have not yet been explored.
Be dynamic with your stories like Google. Nothing is more important to narrative content than imagination, so give vivid descriptions and use emotional hooks and humor to get people fully engaged.
This story definitely engages us, doesn’t it? Be creative, not only with words and images but also with the methods you use to convey them. Like the music as well as the messages.
Social media campaign ideas … understanding others
Well-told stories can help us to learn about other cultures, ideas and ways of thinking. They can provide opportunities to know how past generations responded to challenges.
They can also let us know how new generations are encountering and dealing with similar opportunities or the new challenges they face.
This video has some of each and then some. In the background is the partition of India, a painful episode in the history of India and Pakistan.
These aren’t just two old friends who haven’t seen each other in a long time. This is a creative story that builds on some big forces: politics, religion, geography, nationalism.
If you really listen to your customers, like Google has, you can leverage their stories to drive your creativity. By analyzing their stories of how your products and services fit into their lives, you can gain valuable insight into their needs and desires, which can be hugely beneficial to other aspects of your business.
Like product design and development and ongoing marketing strategy. The reunion has done that well don’t you think?
Creative social media ideas … growing intimacy
People are thirsty to know that they are seen and heard in our over-stimulated society. The rampant growth of “reality” TV shows certainly proves this.
When personal and life stories are shared, there’s a chance to know that “I am not alone.” The two old friends certainly don’t want to be alone any longer.
Remember, stories, when properly written, pull people into a dialogue. It’s about engagement and interaction. The audience is just as active a participant as the storyteller.
In contrast, many companies and brands still relentlessly push messages to their employees and into the marketplace—without meaningful context or relevancy.
The brand can be central in the story
It’s obvious that this video is promoting Google. But the use of Google is woven into the narrative in a way that feels natural. It’s not intrusive or forced.
It works very effectively. Especially when it is not about Google but about Google customers. Simply about how people use Google products.
The messages
There are two messages in the video that are being driven home by Google. The first is that the work Google does is making a difference.
It is making the world a better place through its search engine. But it’s not about technology. It’s about what people do with the technology. How they apply it to solve their problems.
The second message, while a definite subset of the first, is as important. That being the old world was one where people were driven apart. But there is a change in the old world where technology is ushering in a new world. A new world where people are brought together in a way that would not have existed a decade ago.
As a storyteller, I know my audience is experiencing one of the above benefits as they listen to my serious or funny stories. I see their breathing change, their attention focus and their foreheads wrinkle or relax. So much is happening in our shared experience.
There are no shortcuts when it comes to crafting a quality narrative. It takes a ton of creativity as well as time, patience, planning, and polishing to give your brand’s story sparkle and make it shine. We recommend you dive into using creative stories.
Related post: Social Media Campaign … How to Create an Eye-popping One
Next time you are building a marketing campaign, use a great story built from these lessons.
The conclusion from these examples
There are a lot of misconceptions about social media marketing. Just because you read something in a blog post or hear something from a credible source doesn’t mean it is true or true for you and your business.
Always do your research, and continually try to improve. Social media marketing is here to stay, and it can drive a lot of business for you, assuming you are leveraging it correctly.
There is more opportunity to fail in social media than to succeed if we treat it like any other marketing vehicle. Social media requires us to get away from being promotional and sensational and instead treat our customers with special attention. Special attention that means being social, building relationships, and creating trust.
Bottom line, listen more than you talk. You’ll be amazed how much you can learn about your audience when you shut up and listen. Try it!
Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
More reading on social media design from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Creative Tips for Stunning Infographic Design
6 KLM Airlines Marketing Examples for Winning Campaigns
Social Media Graphics …9 Great Ways to Improve Your Marketing Designs
Facebook Design … 8 Secret Factors for Most Successful Marketing
Creative Stories … Are You Employing the Best Smashing Value?
Target Market … How to Target for Best Marketing Campaigns
In the old days of advertising, the name of the game was reach and frequency. Brands preferred mass media vehicles like television and radio because they were the easiest means to reach large audiences and build brand awareness. But the world has drastically changed with the internet. Now the focus is all about how to reach a target market for improved marketing to obtain specific audiences.
Increased media fragmentation and new tools for reaching people, like targeting, have evened the playing field between businesses large and small. Even the smallest mom-and-pop shop has opportunities to get in front of their target audience and drive awareness at a faster clip than some of the largest brands.
Related post: Digital Storytelling … 4 Ways to Employ for Message Persuasion
Segmentation is a key tenet of effective marketing. How can you achieve your goals if you aren’t reaching the right consumers?
Market segmentation
Market segmentation means getting to know your market — learning demographic, geographic, and psychographic variables about the people who have the problem your product solves.
Are there groups who have different needs?
Are there groups who think or feel differently?
Are there groups who have different lifestyles? View different media?
Not all markets show a distinct set of groups, but most do. If you don’t find viable groups, you can use a concentrated strategy, where you develop a single product/ message for the entire market.
Most firms use a differentiated strategy, where they target 1 group within the market or several groups. Sometimes a firm will develop different products/messages for different groups; sometimes they’ll use the same product with different messaging strategies aimed at the individual groups of consumers.
For example, a brokerage firm might have an IRA account and market it to different groups by changing the message. A group composed of younger workers might highlight the growth over time by putting in a small amount of money, which the message to a group composed of older workers might highlight the increased contributions allowed older workers under US tax law.
Online marketing success depends on segmenting to find your target market (or markets) and targeting your marketing strategy (message, products, service options) to appeal to this target audience, just like it does in an offline environment. That’s why vanity metrics, like Facebook Fans, don’t matter — they’re likely not part of your target market.
What is target marketing?
A target market is a group of customers a business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise towards. A well-defined target market is the first element of a marketing strategy.
According to Entrepreneur, target marketing is: Your target customers are those who are most likely to buy from you. Resist the temptation to be too general in the hopes of getting a larger slice of the market. That’s like firing ten bullets in random directions instead of aiming just one dead center of the mark–expensive and dangerous.
Target marketing is the product of research into your consumer base and the needs of the local market. There are several types of target marketing your company may take advantage of depending on how you wish to generate interest with consumers. Combining a couple of strategies can garner more attention from a wider base of potential customers.
Target market example … benefits of targeting
Think about it. Not everyone is the same, right? Not everyone wants the same things. And, not everyone looks for the same things when they buy. So why would you think you can create a single product, with a single message and everyone will want it?
Target marketing both reduces costs, because you’re not wasting resources trying to please everyone, and increases revenue because people buy products they see as “for them.” Thus, instead of creating generic products (and messages) that don’t “speak” to anyone, you’re creating targeted products and messages designed to tickle the fancy of a smaller group of people.
Target marketing parameters
Age
Targeting a product to a particular age group or generational cohort is a way to concentrate your marketing efforts and generate product interest within that particular group. According to Entrepreneur’s web site, research is necessary for age or generational marketing to determine the status and living situations of consumers in your potential target group. For example, a middle-aged woman in the modern era may still be on the dating circuit and not look to settle down anytime soon just as easily as a woman in the same age group could have a family.
Income
Income-sensitive marketing seeks to target your services or products to consumers of particular income and economic status. This strategy also shapes the prices you charge for your goods and services as well as the marketing campaign itself. For example, products marketed to consumers with higher incomes will usually have higher prices while those products marketed to consumers with lower incomes will usually have correspondingly lower prices. This permits more consumers in your target market group to afford your products.
Gender
Gender-specific marketing shapes a campaign toward one gender or a specific group within that gender. For example, target marketing toward pregnant women seeks to generate more interest in your goods and services within that particular group. How you accomplish this task depends on the outcome of your market research and gender needs within your local marketplace. This research may influence the types of images, colors, and language you use in your marketing campaign to attract your target gender or gender group.
Geographic
Geographic areas across the country have different product needs. Targeting a marketing campaign to meet the signature geographic demands of consumers in your marketplace can boost your company’s importance and necessity in the minds of consumers. This strategy also works with seasonal marketing campaigns to take advantage of shifting consumer moods as the weather turns hot or cold. For example, many beverage companies roll out pumpkin-flavored hot drinks during the fall to catch consumers turning attention toward Thanksgiving and colder weather.
How to target for improved marketing … steps in target marketing
Here are six steps to employ in defining your target market:
Understand the problem(s) you solve
Paint a picture of your ideal customer
Who is most likely to seek a solution to the problem you solve
What does the market look like
Think about your internal customers — employees and their capabilities
Investigate competitors in this market
A better way to create target markets
Of course, there’s a better way to create target markets. It is one that integrates across critical elements of market segmentation. One that divides the total market up into groups — targeting — determining which group or groups will be most profitable. And finally positioning to develop a clear message (and product features) that satisfy the needs of your chosen target market better than competitors.
Same product/ different message
Target market selection
Once you’ve identified the various segments within the overall market, you’ll need to look at both competitors and your internal capabilities in deciding which groups you’ll target.
Are group differences wide enough to justify targeting them?
Can you meet the unique needs of 1 or more segments?
Do competitors already do a good job of meeting the needs of a particular segment
You also want to look at the potential of each segment:
Is the segment large enough, although small segments, called niches, are potentially valuable with low-cost digital marketing strategies?
Is the segment stable enough — will their needs likely exist into the future?
Is the segment wealthy enough — although even low-income segments can be valuable if the problem is serious enough?
Can you reach them without wasting money on media that reaches everyone?
The last elements of target market selection are to define your target market. In traditional marketing, we commonly talked about target markets as being: 18-24 college students, from middle-class backgrounds, studying at public institutions, etc. While better than nothing, these somewhat generic target markets didn’t help in the next step — positioning.
Today, we’re more likely to use personas to define target markets. Personas are more detailed, specific descriptions of your target market, focusing heavily on psychographic differences and usage behaviors that differ between market groups.
Positioning – Putting it all together
It’s not enough to segment the market and define your target market — or persona –, you need to clearly position your product in the minds of your target audience as something designed “for them.”
First, differentiate your product from those created by competitors. Give it unique features that especially appeal to your target audience; features as simple as a color choice (i.e., Apple 5c) or as the complex is a totally different system.
Related post: 11 Steps to Media Framing Messages for Optimum Engagement
Then, create messages that clearly articulate this difference, why your target audience cares about it, and how you deliver it better than competitors. FOCUS on a single reason why your target market cares about your product; don’t cloud the message by listing EVERYTHING you do.
The bottom line
To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.
We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.
There can never be enough focus on continuous improvement on brand marketing, independent of how well the business is doing.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
13 Extraordinary Marketing Lessons from Taylor Swift
Learning from 2 of the Best Marketing Strategy Case Studies
Visual Content … 13 Remarkable Marketing Examples to Study
7 Secrets to the Lego Blog Marketing Campaigns … Effective Marketing?
14 Jaw-Dropping Guerilla Marketing Lessons and Examples
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Marketing Strategy Case Studies: How to Create the Perfect Strategy
Walt Disney once said: If you can dream it, you can do it. Can you dream? Have you noticed that the world of marketing is changing? A big cliché, yes? Yes, it is, but it is having a significant impact. And the change is rapid. Traditional media vehicles are losing effectiveness as people communicate in new and different ways. Here we will illustrate learning from the best marketing strategy case studies.
Mass audiences are fragmenting into small segments. Developing a point of difference is harder than ever. It takes a lot of creativeness, but it is certainly doable.
Research by the Content Marketing Institute estimates that 90% of consumer marketers are investing in content. Unfortunately, most of those efforts will fail. In order to succeed, marketers will have to learn to think like publishers. That will mean more than a change in tactics or even strategy, but a starkly different perspective.
Related post: How to Get Small Business Press Coverage
Let’s consider a couple of examples to illustrate.
Guinness marketing strategy shows their creativity
This Guinness marketing campaign demonstrates that Guinness marketing has certainly noticed.
Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.
And Guinness marketing has adapted and come up with some cool new marketing ideas. This new ad from Guinness proves that beer commercials can be so much more than guys and bars.
“Empty Chair,” tells the story of a bartender who leaves a pint of Guinness at an empty table every night amongst birthday celebrations and sports team’s victories. No one sits at the table, and the woman shoots a dirty look to anyone she catches eyeing one of the empty chairs.
Without fail, the frosted glass is there each and every night. It’s a powerful image that serves as a sign of hope for the bartender. But we aren’t exactly sure who the beer is for until the very end. Everything comes together when a soldier finally returns home to claim his Guinness.
The spot finishes with the tagline “The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character.”
Guinness’s marketing story based on emotion has flipped traditional beer advertising on its head by getting rid of the template and telling a story – a real emotional story – that connects with people. The responses were overwhelmingly positive … customers and particularly the target customers are looking for meaningful stories. The emotion in this marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion.
This Guinness “Empty Chair” commercial salutes the character of a community as they honor one of their own who is out of sight, but not out of mind. They remind us that a true test of character is what you do when no one’s looking.
The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character. Guinness proudly raises a glass to those who are #MadeOfMore.
Guinness has made the message as clean and simple as possible. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message. A message that the reader will quickly grasp and fully appreciate. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words. Guinness certainly gets it and tells an interesting story as it weaves the message together.
Many business leaders are uncertain about the future. What will great marketing look like in the years ahead? Guinness’ spot shows the way.
The marketing works in many ways.
First, it breaks through the clutter. It is visually arresting, surprising and beautiful. After watching it once, I wanted to watch it again. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion. And enhanced with a great dose of curiosity.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember.
Second, it has solid branding; it is clear that this is for Guinness and the brand’s personality.
Third, it communicates a benefit. The entire spot revolves around the Guinness commitment to people. It is very clear that Guinness has something special and remarkable that they want to share.
The ad has generated an astonishing amount of buzz and attention. It is engaging, well branded and focused.
The ad was serious and emotional. It is like they left a note that says:
… there will be a seat left open, a light left on, a favorite dinner waiting, a warm bed made…because in your home, in our hearts; you’ve been missed. You’ve been needed, you’ve been cried for, prayed for. You are the reason we push on.
It touches deep emotions about loss and longing. And the spot worked to build the brand; it made people feel proud of Guinness and its values.
Example takeaways
Stories and emotion are the future of great marketing strategy, aren’t they?
12 Lessons from Ben and Jerry’s Marketing Strategies
Ben and Jerry’s marketing is changing the game of social.
What are you favorite brands? Which ones do you follow closely and learn the most from? When choosing to learn from others marketing successes, it is always helpful to choose great brands to follow. We follow Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategies because of their creativeness and unique approach to customer focus.
Meet Ben and Jerry’s. They have been successfully executing their social marketing strategy and plan for the first days of social media and social commerce. For over 20 years their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
An introduction to Ben and Jerry’s is unnecessary, isn’t it?
With more than 600 retail locations in 34 countries, the ice cream scoop shop is the picture of success.
Ben and Jerry’s rode the baby boomer trend in the late 1980s, the swelling ranks of mid-age professionals that created the need where people could share and enjoy a unique ice cream dessert with friends and colleagues, away from work and home.
In our opinion, the company has changed the way companies market themselves to customers. Here is how we feel they have been so successful:
Marketing Strategy Case Studies … market segmentation
The company has stayed with the upper-scale of the ice cream market, competing on product quality rather than convenience or price, which are the case with its closest competitors. They target customers with high-end ice cream tastes and unique flavors.
Execution
The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes great ice cream, unique flavors, quality service, and a nice environment to hang around. They keep their focus on paying attention to the details of great execution and service.
Social Media
One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social commerce, Ben and Jerry’s has certainly taken a leadership position in social engagement. Their social media strategy is built on their company website and six additional social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Instagram, and YouTube.
Adaptation and innovation
Ben and Jerry’s have clearly embraced the social realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in social commerce.
Ben and Jerry’s ability to wear so many hats on corporate success, “local” favorite, and Internet sensation warrants close examination.
What makes this company so good at being social and executing a great marketing strategy? And what can it teach us? Here are our thoughts on these questions:
Customer collaboration
Collaboration with customers is used to obtain customer ideas on new flavors. Fans inspired the best-selling Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavors.
Customer relationships
Instead of solely focusing efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates its current relationships. This ensures more fans/followers in the long run, as well as the continued existence of brand advocates. This holds true across the board: in-store experiences are highly valued, along with online engagement, emphasizing the importance of customer service.
Interactive customer engagement
Engagement is a high priority for the brand, and they continually look for new ways to collect inputs from customers. A good current example is their ‘Scoop Truck’, which travels around the country giving out free samples of new products and soliciting customer inputs.
They believe in letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally as possible. They listen carefully, observe, and apply new ideas from what they learn.
Encourage sharing
Happy customers are eager to share good experiences and offers. For example, frequent promotions garner an extraordinary amount of engagement on social media through comments, “likes,” and shares.
Social mission focus
Ben and Jerry’s brand has always chosen a social mission … to stand for and stand behind. One great example of an issue they got behind was supporting the push to get corporate dollars out of politics … www.getthedoughout.org.
Experience customization
Ben and Jerry’s provides its unique experience through programs such as personalized ice cream flavors and localized store experiences. Their social sites, in particular, Pinterest and Instagram, encourage users to share their Ben and Jerry’s moments’ which are shared on all their social sites.
Taking a stand
Giving consumers a charitable reason to buy that ice cream cone or package is beneficial for all. The takeaway from Ben and Jerry’s is to know your customer and tie that in with what matters in the world … so, pay attention to how your brand can fit into trending topics.
Showing customer appreciation
Appreciation for their customers. The lead in a quote to this article from Ben Cohen says it all about their culture and success at showing customers appreciation.
Whether we are discussing businesses that are social, the best at engaging customers, or being great at a social commerce business, there are few businesses in the class of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Being social is a core component of Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategy. It is the integrating ingredient of their online and online to traditional marketing/media.
Not all businesses can go to the extent that Ben and Jerry’s does. But they can support local issues and do weekly online promotions to increase customer engagement, gain new customers and convert good customers into advocates.
Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated … which ones do you feel could benefit your business? How could you improve the Ben and Jerry’s marketing strategy for your business?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing and advertising from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Pinterest Marketing … Rich Pin Tips for Discovery Shopping
Improve Success with Small Business Tagline Designs
How to Get Small Business Press Coverage
Secrets to BMW Marketing Videos … Effective Campaign?
Like this short blog? Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedIn or add us to your circles for 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.
10 Examples of How Zappos Marketing Strategy Makes a Difference
What makes Zappos marketing strategy stand out above the crowd?
Cultivating relationships and social networks are certainly contributors. Using the many new social media tools and social platforms, yes?
Marketing, at its best, is about the future. Unfortunately, we spend most of our time stuck in the past. We research what already happened and extrapolate forward to produce a plan. It’s not that we’re lazy, we simply know a whole lot more about the past than the present or the future.
It’s been nearly half a century since Philip Kotler first published his Principles of Marketing, which has defined the practice of millions of professionals worldwide ever since. It’s no stretch to say that before Kotler, there was no true marketing profession.
What made Kotler different than what came before is that he took insights from other fields, such as economics, social science, and analytics, and applied them to the marketing arena. Although that may seem basic now, it was groundbreaking then.
Today technology is transforming marketing once again. Although up to this point, most of the impact has been tactical, over the next decade or so there will be a major strategic transformation. This, of course, will be a much harder task because we will not only have to change what we do but how we think.
We already know that marketing is becoming more social, local, and mobile, just as we know that big data and new interfaces such as touch, voice, and gesture are becoming increasingly more important. What comes next?
Note that “The more a person limits himself, the more resourceful he becomes.”
—Soren Kierkegaard
History is filled with examples of people who embraced their limitations rather than fought them. Dr. Seuss wrote his most famous book by only using 50 different words.
Ingvar Kamprad only had enough money to start a business selling match sticks. He turned it into IKEA. George R.R. Martin writes best-selling novels using decades-old technology. Richard Branson has built 400 businesses despite having dyslexia.
Our limitations provide us with the greatest opportunity for creativity and inventiveness.
When choosing to learn from other marketing strategies, it is always helpful to choose one of the top dogs. Ones that stand way above the crowd. Zappos is certainly one of those in this category we believe. One that we regularly follow.
Some excellent marketing campaign examples.
Social networking is not about farming followers, it’s a way of cultivating relationships.
– Hubspot
Meet Zappos. They have been successfully executing their marketing strategy with a social focus since the first days of social media. For over 5 years, and their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.
An introduction to Zappos is probably unnecessary.
Key to know: What Marketers Need to Know about Personalization Strategies
But let’s examine one of the Zappos top advantages … their company culture. The four dimensions of their culture core values (our favorite company culture):
Mission
Deliver ‘WOW’ through service
Do more with less
Adaptability
Embrace and drive change
Pursue growth and learning
Involvement
Create fun and a little weirdness
Be adventurous, creative, and open minded
Be passionate and determined
Consistency
Build open and honest relationships with communication
Build a positive team and family spirit
In our opinion, the company has inserted itself into the American e-commerce landscape more quickly and craftily than any retail company in history (even considering its parent Amazon). It has forever changed the way companies market themselves to customers.
Zappos has obviously built their business entirely in the digital realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in customer service and social media.
Zappos’ ability to wear so many hats … corporate success, “local” favorite, and Internet sensation warrants strategic examination.
Why is Zappos’ marketing strategy such a difference-maker? There are key reasons in our minds:
Zappos marketing strategy … going to its customers
When Zappos uses an example of their customer service, it shares it on Google+, posts it to Facebook, tweets it on Twitter, and pins it on Pinterest. It clearly goes to where all its customers like to hang out. Cross-promotion is more valuable as the world becomes more digitally focused.
Each network provides an opportunity to reach their audience in a new channel. Integrating their strategy on each is crucial to increasing visibility and promoting the brand.
Market segmentation
The company has stayed focused exclusively on e-commerce, competing on those who prefer excellent customer service. One could say they set the mark for everyone to target in customer service. And they make it the core of their marketing strategy.
Execution
The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes shoes and continues to add new products slowly, ensuring it can maintain its quality service. They keep their focus and attention to the details of great execution and service.
Related post: Jaw-Dropping Guerrilla Marketing Lessons and Examples
Zappos marketing strategy … social media
One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social commerce, Zappos has certainly taken a leadership position. Their social media strategy is built around their company web site and 5 additional core social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, and Youtube.
We will review Zappos’ social media strategy in detail below.
Adaptation and Innovation
Zappos’ business innovation via its website, has been a huge success. Why you may ask? Because they have combined the concepts of change, experimentation, social media, customer engagement, and market research.
They made the results key components of both their brand as well as their marketing strategy.
Have you given Zappos a try? What did you think?
Zappos marketing strategy … customer relationships
Instead of solely focusing efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates its current relationships. This ensures more fans/followers (by word of mouth marketing) in the long run, as well as the continued existence of brand advocates.
This holds particularly true in its emphasizing the importance of customer service.
Customer engagement
They believe in letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally as possible. What is most important is that they listen carefully, observe, and apply new ideas from what they learn.
Encourages sharing
Happy customers are eager to share good experiences and offers.
For example, the Zappos promotions like “buy 1 get 1″ garner an extraordinary amount of engagement on social media through comments, “likes,” and shares.
Experience customization
Want to know one of the most effective examples that Zappos uses to build its marketing and create reciprocity with its customers?
By surprising them!
People like getting things for free and like them, even more, when they are viewed as ‘favors’. But even more, they love receiving these favors as surprises.
For instance, did you know that Zappos automatically upgrades all purchases to priority shipping … without so much as even a mention on the sales or checkout page?
Why give away this sort of benefit without mentioning it?
Simple …
a company like Zappos (known for their legendary customer service) recognizes the benefits of surprising people with a next day delivery.
That’s not even mentioning the fact that this shipping creates immense goodwill between Zappos and their first-time buyers. (I still remember my first order.)
Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated … which ones do you feel could benefit your business?
How could you improve the Zappos customer service campaign concept for your business?
The bottom line
At the end of the day, Zappos’ rise to online dominance really just revolves around turning an otherwise complicated shopping experience into one that feels quaint and easy. It accomplished this by setting up a strong behind-the-scenes infrastructure that puts the customer experience at the forefront.
And isn’t that what their new strategy is all about—giving the customer what they want where and when they want it? Unfortunately, it is much easier said than done.
Zappos is one of many businesses we can learn from. Please post your comments below, offering questions or your own great examples of social marketing strategies.
