Brand Love & Marketing Strategies

• Advertising is a paid form of persuasive marketing communication designed to elicit a favorable response from a specific target market.
• Product advertising aims to promote specific goods or services.
• Promotional advertising is a broader category focused on enhancing the overall brand image or awareness.
• Direct response communications target individual consumers with tailored messages.
• Direct mail involves sending promotional materials directly to consumers' addresses.
• Direct response television utilizes television commercials to prompt immediate action from viewers.
• Telemarketing involves contacting potential customers via telephone to promote products or services.
• Mobile communications employ mobile devices to deliver marketing messages to target audiences.
• Sales promotions offer special incentives to drive immediate sales from consumers and distributors.
• Consumer promotions are designed to create demand by enticing consumers.
• Trade promotions motivate distributors to stock and promote a company's products.
• Personal selling involves direct interaction between a seller and a buyer, delivering a personalized message.
• Features, attributes, and benefits of a product or service are presented
• A personal component is added to the buying experience.
• Consumer inquiries are handled effectively,
• Distribution and availability is secured for the product.
• Public relations focuses on building public understanding and acceptance through various communication efforts.
• Messages are placed in media without direct payment.
• Gaining legitimacy is the goal.
• Managing crises is also included.
• Experiential marketing engages consumers with a brand on a personal level.
• Event marketing involves planning, organizing, and promoting events for a company or brand.
• Sponsorship provides financial support to an event in exchange for marketing privileges.
• Digital communications use electronic devices to connect with target markets.
• The internet can be used for marketing.
• Smart phones can also be used for marketing.
• Customer relationship management (CRM) is used in this type of marketing.
• The IMC Mix is the coordination of all marketing communications to maximize impact on the target audience.

Factors Encouraging IMC

• Changing consumer media habits drive the need for integrated marketing communications.
• Social media's widespread adoption and engagement encourage IMC strategies.
• Mobile communications provide new avenues for reaching consumers, furthering IMC.
• Database management techniques and CRM enable personalized messaging, supporting IMC.
• The need for efficiency and accountability in marketing efforts promotes IMC adoption.

Strategic Planning Process

• Integrating a strategic plan is important to achieve short and long-term goals.
• A corporate plan is a strategic plan developed at the executive level to guide functional plans.
• A mission statement defines an organization's purpose and operating philosophy.
• The vision statement outlines what an organization aspires to become.
• Corporate objectives are statements of a company's overall goals, used to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategic plan.
• Goals are financially based and can be either quantitative or qualitative in nature.
• Examples of corporate objectives include sales revenues, market share, return on investment, and social responsibility.
• Factors influencing corporate strategies include marketing strength, competition, financial resources, R&D capabilities, and managerial commitment.

External Influences

• Economic conditions can impact the planning process.
• Competitor activity influences planning decisions.
• Demographic trends affect marketing strategies.
• Social changes impact consumer preferences and behaviors.
• Technology advancements shape communication channels and marketing techniques.
• Laws and regulations impose constraints and requirements on marketing activities.

Marketing Planning: Format

• Marketing plans vary in length, detail, and content.
• Content is modified to suit the needs of each organization
• Marketing plans commonly consist of a marketing background section and the marketing plan.

Consumer Behaviour

• Consumer behavior involves exploring how, what, when, and why people make purchases.
• Applying knowledge is applied directly in the development of marketing strategies
• Information is key.
• Needs are the absence of something useful
• Motives prompt action to satisfy their need

Personality

• Personality includes psychological characteristics that lead to relatively consistent and enduring responses to the environment in which they live.
• The real self is how a person actually is.
• Self image is how you see yourself.
• Looking glass self is how you think others see you.
• Ideal self is how you want to be.
• Attitudes are an individual's feelings toward an object or idea.
• Attitudes are influenced by people they trust, friends, trendsetters, and opinion leaders.
• Products should be positioned to meet target audience attitudes and expectation.
• Perceptions affect how individuals receive and interpret messages.
• Selective exposure means you only notice things that interest you.
• Selection perception means you screen out messages that conflict with your attitudes.
• Selective retention means you only remember what is important to you.
• Reference / Peer Groups influence attitudes and behaviors of members through shared interests.
• Family Influence occurs when each family member influences each other's behavior.
• Marketing organizations use double targeting because roles and responsibilities of family members have changed.

Marketing Plan: Target Market Profile

• Key profiles include demographic, psychographic, geographic, and behavioral response.

Marketing Plan Components

• Positioning strategy motivates purchase, or the image that marketers desire a brand to have in the mind of consumers.
• It can be the selling concept that motivates purchase
• Statement can impact on the nature of the message delivered to consumer
• You also need a clear target market profile,
• Set marketing objectives,
• Create marketing strategies,
• Make sure you have marketing execution (tactics),
• Define budget and financial summary
• Put in place evaluation and control procedures.

IMC Plan

• A situation analysis needs to be performed, including an analysis of the corporate vision, mission and objectives.
• There needs to be an external industry analysis (PEST).
• Consumer needs to be analyzed,
• Conduct Research,
• Outline consumer behaviors,
• Plan for segmentation, perform competitive analysis and company analysis,
• Create an advertising, direct response, sales promotions, public relations, experiential, personal selling strategy.

Defining the Brand

• A brand is the sum of tangible and intangible characteristics that make a unique offer to customer.
• This includes brand name, brand logo, and the trademark.

Brand Image

• Brand Image and Reputation provide customers with assurance of quality and express the brand values.
• A good reputation is consistent with marketing and communication efforts.
• Brand Loyalty is the degree of consumer attachment to a particular brand.
• Stages of Brand Loyalty:
• brand recognition: consumer is aware of the name, benefit and package,
• brand preference: brand is top of mind and considered a good alternative (consumer will buy if available),
• brand insistence: consumer buys one brand only and if not available purchase is postponed.

Brand Equity

• Brand Equity is the value of a brand to its owners.
• It is is influenced by awareness, customer loyalty, perceived quality, association with a certain attribute.

Benefits of Branding

• For consumers, a brand name suggests a certain level of quality, so consumers know what to expect
• They also get psychological rewards (eg. Buying a BMW might suggest the owner has achieved some goal)
• Brands are distinguished against competitive offerings which allows brands to make informed decisions on what a brand stands for.
• For the organization, there are many ways that brands can provide a unique selling point against competitors.
• Image can be develope (eg. Nike suggests spirit)
• Repeat purchase and loyalty happen from satisfied customers.
• Build brand loyalty and brand equity – alter, expand and rejuvenate brands to retain their position in the marketplace

Building the Brand

• First, identify brand values and positioning strategies, which require identifying key attributes and benefits, clearly state what the brand will do for consumers.
• Second, plan and implement the marketing program – develop an integrated plan that draws upon key elements of the marketing mix and design and execute the marketing communications mix
• Third, measure and evaluate brand performance – evaluate the results against planned objectives, including loyalty, market share and sales
• Alter, expand and rejuvenate brands to retain their position in the marketplace

Brand Core Values

• Core Values are the primary attributes and benefits a brand delivers.
• Attributes are descriptive features.
• Benefits are the value consumers attach to a brand attribute.
• Brand Positioning is the selling concept that motivates purchase, or the image that marketers desire a brand to have in the minds of consumers.
• Strategy is influenced by brand’s core values, attributes, and benefits.
• A good positioning strategy clearly differentiates a brand from all competing brands.

Importance of Positioning

• Positioning Strategies may include product differentiation (plan of action for communicating meaningful attributes and benefits of a product to a target market), brand leadership, head-on (comparative), innovation, price (value) - consumers search for the best possible value given their economic circumstances and lifestyle (image).
• Repositioning is a strategy used to changing the place a product occupies in the customers mind, relative to competing products

Planning and Implementing

• Building brand loyalty and firmly positioning a brand requires effective marketing programs.
• These activities produce strong, favorable associations with a brand in a consumers memory
• This is an information transfer process that considers 2 essential factors, including decisions to be made concerning employment of various brand elements and the development of marketing strategies to communicate brand values and positioning

Packaging and Brand Building

• A good package design helps build a brand.
• The "look" should be instilled in the customers mind which helps differentiate a brand
• Packaging is important to maintain brand identity across product lines and its growing influence on purchase decisions are important to consumer touchpoint creating familiarity, trust and consumer loyalty
• Roles of Packaging include protecting the product, marketing the product, providing convenience, and being environmentally friendly

Branding by Design

• The look and style can be a key influencer
• Brand design integrates the brand experience into the product or service
• Taking creative and innovative approaches to design creates a unique brand experience.

Encoding

• First, you need lots of smart, insightful analysis.
• Second, use research to aid in gathering information.
• Third, creative team does their thing

Noise Examples

• Some examples include a message not in line with customer attitudes, the inability to reach intended target with desired frequency, competition message more convincing and having a higher share of mind + with more spending, and new competition
• DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Response) is used when an advertising goal is a specific communication task to be accomplished among a defined audience in a given period. Task should be measurable with benchmarks to assess achievements.

ACCA Model

• Awareness needs to generated,
• Comprehension of the product,
• Consumers need to be convinced to buy and then
• Encouraged to action and buy.
• The FCB Grid can be used

Marketing Communications Planning Process

• Plan using Marketing background, Marketing plan, Advertising problem, Advertising plan, Creative plan and a paid for media delivered message by an identified sponsor designed to stimulate a positive response from a target audience
• Advertising plan is usually developed by an external advertising agency
• Media Plan needs media objectives, Media strategy, and Media execution
• The Creative Brief is a starting point for any new advertising project containing information about the advertising task and can be changed based on the direction determined between client and agency
• Advertising plans are designed to resolve brand problem or pursue brand opportunity and contain: problem statement summarizing what needs to be resolved or opportunity to pursue and Overall goal outlining what the campaign will achieve

Challenges

• Challenges can include creating and increasing brand awareness, altering current consumer perceptions, presenting a new image, launching a new product, attracting a new target market, and encouraging trial purchase
• Determined once problem or overall goal has been identified and Should be quantitative in nature or have ability to be measured
• Statement identifies key brand benefits, states what brand stands for, and states the brands personality
• Creative Objective are statements that indicates information to the target audience and include a statement indicating the key benefit statement / the benefit/the promise, a support claims statement / the substantiation, proof of promise
• Creative Strategy is used to search for BIG IDEA and should outline how the message will be communicated.
• Central theme
• Tone and style
• Appeal techniques: positive, humorous, emotional, lifestyle etc
• Creative Execution decisions are made on how to best present the message.
• Executional tactics: Product demonstrations, Testimonials, Endorsements, Taglines and slogans
• The message must be presented in brief.

Media Planning

• Plan to communicate a message to the right people, at the right time, with the right frequency
• Goal is to be efficient and Gain maximum exposure at minimum cost
• The Media Brief requires you to know the market profile, competitor media strategy, the nature of the message, have a geographic priority (national coverage, regional, key market – how to divide budget),
• Know your target market profile,
• Set media objectives,
• Set the media budget.
• Timing of ads: SKIP, PULSE, BLITZ (decreasing), BUILD UP (increasing), SEASONAL, CONTINUOUS
• Reach: total audience exposed to message in period
• Frequency: avg number of times message has been exposed to audience
• Gross rating points: expression of weight (reach x frequency)
• Continuity: length of time required to generate impact on a target
• Shotgun strategy
• Profile matching strategy
• Rifle strategy

Marketing Research

• It is used to reduce or eliminate the uncertainty and risk associated with making business decisions
• There is a marketing function that links the consumer/customer/public to the marketer through information used to define marketing opportunities and problems, generate marketing strategies, evaluate marketing actions and monitor performance
• Scientific method implies data generated in reliable and valid
• Reliability: degree of similarity of results achieved if another study was undertaken under similar circumstances
• Validity: a research procedures ability to measure what it is intended to measure

Primary Research

• Involves the collection and recording of new data that is custom designed and focuses on resolving a particular question or obtaining specified information
• Primary Data: information collected to resolve a problem and recorded for the first time. - Steps include defining the problem / laying out Objectives and Hypotheses
• You need a research objective: a statement that outlines what the marketing research is to accomplish and a Hypothesis: a statement of outcomes predicted in a marketing research investigation
• In Sample Design, researchers identify characteristics of people they want to participate in the study by defining the Population (Universe), Identifying the Sampling Frame, Determining the Type of Sample, and Determining the Sample Size
• For Data Collection, gather data through surveys, observation, and experiment and use personal mail, telephone or online surveys
• The next stage in research involves the editing, data transfer and tabulation
• Tabulation: the process of counting various responses for each question (Frequency distributions - # of times each answer was chosen; Cross tabulations – comparison and contrast of answers
• Data analysis – evaluating responses question by question, a process that gives meaning to the data and interpreting – relating accumulated data to the problem under review and to the objectives and hypothesis of the research study
• Findings are presented in a written report format, inlude recommendations for certain courses of action / May also include a visual presentation

Measuring and Evaluating Advertising Messages

• The first step is evaluation of agency creative idea by the client
• Client evaluations can be subjective or rely on the opinion of brand managers, marketing directors and presidents as well as a qualitative assessment by client to determine if the message conforms to the strategic direction.
• Clients evaluating creative may apply the following questions:
• Does the content of the ad communicate the creative objectives and reflect positioning strategy?
• Does the ad mislead or misrepresent the intent of the message?
• Is the ad memorable?
• Is the brand recognition effective?
• Should the advertisement be researched?
• External Research Techniques and Procedures include pre testing and post testing the ad.
• Recognition and Recall Testing checks the awareness of a brand, copy, or of the advertisement itself with respondents.
• There is also measurement of the impact of the advertising with a recall test Respondents are tested for comprehension and can be aided or unaided
• The process includes starch readership and Day-after tests.
• Opinion-Measure Testing measures attitudinal components.
• The Physiological-Response Tests include eye movement-camera test and Pupilometer test.
• Measuring and Evaluating Direct Response Communications are achieved through toll free number inquiries or website address, response card returns Internet evaluations using Cookies (tracking online responses), Impression (Ad Views), Clicks (Click throughs), and Click (Click through) Rate (% of impressions that result in a click).
• Internet campaign can also be evaluated by increases in web traffic, length of visit, time spent on a site, page views

Measuring the Impact of Social Media Advertising

• Social media Is more about engagement and conversation than selling a product
• Measure using ongoing analytics which track activity over time and Campaign focused metrics to generate concrete numbers
• Can be measured by number of people actually interacted with a message
• Share of voice – how large a share of the conversation brand has when compared to competitors
• Conversion – how many people actually took the desired action after exposure to a message
• Also measure the Viral nature can also measure success
• Measuring and Evaluating Sales Promotions is intended to increase sales in the short term and brand loyalty in the long term, but are also measured by redemption rates on coupon offers, Numbers of entries to contests, Number of cash rebate forms returned, and Effective use of point-of-purchase material
• Measuring and Evaluating Public Relations occurs through a clipping service, number of impressions based on circulation of medium, website traffic and social media mentions, and advertising equivalency : a mathematical model that equates public relations to an advertising value
• Measuring and Evaluating Event Marketing and Sponsorships is difficult to evaluate on a quantitative basis with common measures like: ability to effectively reach the target market, awareness created and association with the event, image enhancement or perceptions due to participation, and impact on brand sales
• Measuring the Integrated Marketing Communication Effort occurs through: analyzing Market share, Productivity, Sales and Profitability, Customer Satisfaction Levels and Social Responsibility

Challenges Ivan Guillen faces for the RBG business

• Recent flat volume growth
• Household penetration is at a 5 year low
• Scratch baking is a consumer preference in Canada
• Major market differences between Canadian and US markets meaning the US campaigns can't be applied / arent working
• Some consumer insights help brand teams gain a better understanding of preferences, attitudes and behaviors of customers and can get results are analyzed to align marketing strategies with consumer needs
• Studies can be be both Quantitative (relationship between 2 variables using questionnaires or web surveys – more generalizable) or Qualitative ( done with focus groups and ethnographies, goes more in depth and is used to confirm what they think they already know)
• GMCC also likes concept tests – concepts are presented to consumers and then evaluated quantitatively for purchase intent
• Consumer surveys that focus on the frequency of product purchase and use, desirable product attributes and product strengths and weaknesses
• Campaigns need to market it less as a convenience item because clearly people have the time for scratch baking, instead market them as "homemade cookies with less mess"
• Top 4 purchase drivers:
• Kid request is higher in Canada: Pillsbury doughboy is already a cute, recognizable and kid friendly icon just need the ads to lean more into stuff that kids would like featuring the Pillsbury dough boy, could do a Christmas cookie campaign with Santa
• Convenience is important for 79% of users, need to take a different approach
• Quality is not as important in Canada – campaigns could be less product focused and more family focused about how they bring family together and save time on clean up and spend more time enjoying them and could also feature kids asking for them and parents saying yes
• Target pillsbury as a shortcut to homemade to target both people using it for convenience and scratch bakers and moms
• enhance emotional connections in branding – moms, kids, being together as a family
• develop canadian specific advertising of this nature
• Research consumer insights for the Canadian market and develop advertising campaign

Role of Branding

• Added value: improved perceptions of product performance, greater customer loyalty, less vulnerability to competitive marketing actions and marketing crises, larger margins, more elastic customer response to price decreases and inelastic customer response to price increases, greater trade or intermediary cooperation and support, increased marketing communication effectiveness, additional licensing and brand extension opportunities.
• There is increased marketing communication effectiveness because of the added value

Changing marketing communications environment

• Marketing communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade and remind consumers – directly or indirectly – about the products and brands they sell.
• Some communications types include Advertising, sales promotion, events and experiences, PR and publicity, direct marketing, interactive marketing, word of mouth, and personal selling
• TV advertising is declining because of fragmentation of audiences and the internet
• Consumers have increasing control of their media environment.
• Knowledge includes thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences and so on that become linked to the brand in the minds of consumers

Components of brand knowledge

• Need to build brand awareness- strength of the brand node or trace in memory as reflected by consumers’ ability to recall or recognize the brand under different conditions
• Build positive brand image- consumer perceptions of and preferences for a brand, as reflected by the various types of brand associations held in consumers’ memory
• Mixing and Matching marketing communications is important to build brand equity – that is, choose a variety of different communication options that share common meaning and content but also offer different, complementary advantages so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Branding with interactive marketing communications

• Options include websites, microsites, search ads display ads, interstitials, internet ads and videos, sponsorships, alliances, on line communities, email and mobile marketing
• The Internet offers the advantage of contextual placement, or sites for ad placement that are related to the marketer’s offerings.
• improve both breadth and depth of brand awareness / Web is especially effective at reaching consumers during the day
• It is difficult to have off-line impact
• Websites allow marketers to provide much detail and supporting reasons-to-believe for any advertised claims, even providing direct comparisons to competitors on prices, designs and performance

Resonance

• Interactive marketing communications is perhaps most useful in terms of creating resonance in that it permits daily or frequent encounters and feedback opportunities for consumers with a brand
• Things that lead to brand love includPassion for the brand, attachment to the brand, positive evaluations about the brand, positive emotions, declarations of love, identification with the brand trust in and commitment to the brand
• Antecedents of brand love include triggering respect by being transparent and strive to create strong emotional bonds with their (potential) consumers, offering them more than mere rational arguments or product benefits

Features of a Lovemark

• Have active and inspiring beliefs, seeks to make the world a better place
• Confidence rooted in their ability to do things
• Remain vibrant despite changes the world is undergoing because they are adaptable
• The Hudson's Bay campaign highlights how it stays true to its legacy while evolving to meet the aspirations of stylish millennials
• The goal to focus on premium and authentic brands reflects offering only the best.

Explore core brand love elements, Lovemark features (respect, love, mystery), and marketing strategies. Analyzing the impact of sexual imagery and violence in advertising. Examining Hudson Bay's marketing campaigns to Gen X and urban millennials.