Digital CPG Blog

Anarchy is the first Axe fragrance to be available in a women’s version, after many years of popularizing the “Axe effect” with young men. The Unilever brand has created many hilarious, often award-winning, commercials around the world to convince young men that the product makes them irresistible. The company, apparently testing Axe’s potential among women, says this is a limited-edition product.

BBH has also developed two Facebook applications as part of the campaign. The “Anarchy Matchmaker” invites people to select Facebook friends they fancy and then notifies them — although it makes the exchange public only if the attraction proves mutual. “Kissing Chaos” invites people to post photos of themselves in smooching poses, and then randomly matches them up with other participants.

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Dominos has a successful social media strategy that gets results. Here’s what they do:

1. Promotions work. More people follow brands via social media to receive promotions and deals than for any other reason. Domino’s understands this and successfully runs promotions to increase trial and sales of its products.
2. Be unfiltered. Domino’s has benefited from a number of campaigns where it amplified both good and bad feedback from users about its brands. In the end, the effect was that it increased transparency and made the brand seem more trustworthy.
3. Spread the load. Domino’s social media efforts are a cross-functional effort between its digital marketing and PR teams, but it also pulls in help from agency partners, and some content is even user-generated.

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Visitors to CPG brand Web sites buy 37% more in retail stores than non-visitors to the brand sites. That’s according to a new study from Accenture, comScore and dunnhumbyUSA, which attempts to shed light on the link between marketers’ on- and offline efforts.

“CPG marketers currently invest millions of dollars in their brand Web sites …,” said comScore Vice President Mike Zeman. “Brand Web sites can attract and influence the behavior of the most valuable segments of any brand’s franchise.”

For maximum impact, brands should update their online content regularly, making sure it contains value messaging that engages consumers while providing compelling reasons to purchase products at retail.

The study found that visitors to CPG brand Web sites are valuable and frequent buyers of the brand in retail stores — completing 41% more transactions than non-visitors. As a result, brand Web sites are able to attract heavier-than-average brand buyers.

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Forget Facebook. What are you doing on your brand site to engage visitors?

For a few years now, brands have been touting frothy Facebook “like” numbers as evidence of their social-media acumen. But how many of those fans are actually bothering to take part in conversation with brands?

Not too many, as it turns out.

Slightly more than 1% of fans of the biggest brands on Facebook are actually engaging with the brands, according to a study from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, an Australia-based marketing think tank that counts Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and other major advertisers as its supporters.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” said Karen Nelson-Field, senior research associate for Ehrenberg-Bass Institute who describes herself as a “Facebook advocate.” “People need to understand what it can do for a brand and what it can’t do. Facebook doesn’t really differ from mass media. It’s great to get decent reach, but to change the way people interact with a brand overnight is just unrealistic.”

In the background here is the thinking of Andrew Ehrenberg, the late mathematician who was highly skeptical of conventional marketing wisdom. In dense statistically-oriented papers, he cast doubt on concepts such as brand loyalty and was never sold on the persuasive power of advertising. Now his disciples advocate achieving broad reach through mass media. Brand growth, they maintain, is attained not by reaching a few loyal fans but a larger number of light and medium buyers. In this understanding of the marketing and media worlds, social is just another media channel useful for its reach rather than any notion of engagement.

This research jibes with that thinking, as does a separate study from Ms. Nelson-Field looking at the distribution of buying behavior among Facebook fan bases. In that study, she used web-based consumer panels to examine the behavior of Facebook fans of two unnamed repeat-purchased brands, in the chocolate and soft-drink categories. The key finding was a much greater occurrence of heavy buyers in the Facebook population than in a more general population of customers. The study also found that purchase frequency didn’t increase after someone became a fan.

In other words, Facebook fan bases skew toward heavy buyers rather than the more casual shoppers that a brands needs to reach in order to grow. Again, unless you’re someone who believes marketing on Facebook alone constitutes a full strategy or you’re lining up for the inevitable Facebook IPO, this isn’t all bad news. Facebook does provide good reach and its audience of loyal fans is good for market research and word-of-mouth advocacy.

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Social media agency Ignite has taken a closer look at Pinterest’s demographic data and compiled a profile of ‘those who pin’.

comScore says that the blossoming social curation site has over 4m registered users and is growing rapidly, while Google Ad Planner shows that nearly 1.5m people visit Pinterest every day – spending 14 minutes on the site on average.

Google Ad planner shows that users are:

• Largely women (a 80% to 20% ratio). So there’s some truth to Matt Buchanan’s post on Gizmodo yesterday that proclaims Pinterest as “a Tumblr for ladies”.
• Aged mainly between 25 and 44 (accounting for 55% of the group, 30% are 25-34, 25% are 35 – 44)
• Just 25% of users have a bachelors degree or higher
• The majority live off a household income of $25-75k

Experian Hitwise stats from December 2011 show that in the US at least, alongside the demographics, Pinterest users fall into three of its Mosaic lifestyle segments.

• Boomers and Boomerangs – the baby boomer adults and the teenagers/young adults who live with them. This accounts for more than 10% of Pinterest visits, in which they might pin travel plans and imagery related to their online habits. They also live in older houses so might be tempted by DIY and home improvement content.
• Babies and Bliss – the parents of large families (with five or more in their houses), and in their 30s and 40s. Mothers in this group tend to work full time and pride themselves on being computer literate. This group are ‘power shoppers with upscale tastes’ and value deals on high-quality products. They tend to pin things related to convenience, and so relate to brands that provide good online experiences, discounts and make lives easier.
• Families Matter Most – this group includes young middle-class families with active lifestyles who are interested in things that allow them to juggle work and parenting effectively. This group is not interested in window-shopping however, like the Babies & Bliss group, it’s more likely to pin useful, practical things like easy recipes, child friendly activities and healthy living.

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CPG marketers distributed 305 billion coupons in 2011, an 8.1% decrease from 2010, according to a new report from NCH Marketing Services, a Valassis company.

The Annual Topline U.S. Consumer Packaged Goods Coupon Facts Report noted that the decline in 2011 reflects the fact that 2010 was a record-setting year for coupon distribution, which increased markedly during the recession.

NCH Marketing Services said in the annual report on coupon distribution and use that shoppers saved $4.6 billion last year by using coupons, 12.2% more than in 2010. Regular coupon use was 17 share points higher than before the recession, at 80.6%, even as distribution fell 8.1% compared with 2010, to 305 billion coupons.

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Influencing millennial-generation consumers through an ad remains far more difficult compared with other generations because of the low immediate and delayed recall rate. Millennials have 43% immediate recall and 24% delayed recall of an ad, compared with 50% and 23% for Generation X, 54% and 21% for baby boomers, and 54% and 18% for seniors, respectively. The study suggests that it is important to show the product longer, make the brand name more visible, and have more mentions throughout the campaign.

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Marketers that are trying to connect with millennials ages 18 to 34 to promote products and services related to love and Valentine’s Day might want to consider tapping social influencers who produce user-generated content (UGC). This generation trusts people rather than brands, and values the opinions of like-minded strangers as much as people they know, according to a new study scheduled for release Monday titled “Talking to Strangers.”

Strangers appear to have the most influence when it comes to making a purchase. About 51% of millennials are more likely influenced by UGC produced and posted by strangers, compared with recommendations from friends, family and colleagues, but only 34% of boomers agree.

In fact, 84% of millennials report that UGC from strangers has some influence on what they buy. That’s because 65% of millennials believe UGC offers a more honest and genuine view online, and 86% believe the content represents a good indicator of the quality of a brand, service or products.

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From a great – but depressing - infographic on social media ROI, the following data points are taken from a November 2011 global survey of marketers:

• Number of marketers using ROI to measure social media ((gain – cost)/cost) = 0
• Proportion using alternative measure of # social interactions generated (likes, comments etc) = 38%
• Proportion using alternative measure of revenue generated = 24%
• Proportion using alternative measure of awareness generated = 15%
• The top benefits of social media according to marketers are increased brand awareness (88%), brand ‘engagement’ (dialogue)(85%), increased sales (and partnerships) (58%), and reduce costs (41%)
• Nearly 70% of marketers believe fans are more valuable than non-fans (they bring in new customers, they convert better, they buy more often)

As Paul Marsden notes, it’s “odd that not one marketer in 700 makes the business case (ROI) for social media…”

Indeed! Have you measured ROI for social media? What do you describe as your top benefits of social media?

Marketers have long assumed content shared by friends or other influencers carries more weight than paid placements. Now GE has some proof:

People exposed via sharing had a significantly bigger lift in positive attitudes toward GE — associating the brand with such things as creativity and innovation — than people exposed via paid placements.

Overall, the “brand lift,” which measured the extent to which consumers said they saw GE as “creative,” was 138% higher for consumers exposed to via sharing through Buzzfeed than those who didn’t see it at all. Specifically, 17% of people found GE creative after viewing the content via sharing vs. only 7% of people who made that connection without having seen the advertising at all.

Consumers exposed via sharing were also 83% more likely to rate GE “creative” than those exposed to the content via paid advertising on Buzzfeed.

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Have you experienced shared content is better than paid advertisements? Has your brand experimented with this type of inventory?

Consumers are bombarded with programs, benefits, points and prizes. According to recent surveys, 1.8 billion loyalty-program memberships exist in the United States, with the average household participating in 14.1 programs. Yet more than half of those memberships are inactive, meaning the customer has stopped paying attention to the program and possibly even the brand itself.

Ouch!

A successful loyalty strategy is underpinned by the consumer’s emotional affinity with the brand, so the goal of should be to create sustained demand. Here are leading factors to consider in determining how best to achieve this:

• The consumer definition of value has changed. The consumer sees the reward program as part of an entire package when purchasing a product. This includes not just functional benefits, but also how he or she feels about the company itself. For example, is your company a leader on environmental sustainability both with your products and within your company? If that’s the case, sharing that information can improve your value to the customer.
• Brand equity-building and preference-building ideas will win against discount- or points-only approaches, and have lasting effect on brand loyalty. Offering customers the opportunity to purchase advance tickets for special events for example, or asking them to participate in a product feedback panel, is valuable in building their loyalty. A points program alone is not a big or unique idea. While it may be a cost of entry, or a tipping point for some segments, there needs to be a “wow” branded idea that sits on top of it. It also must be something that brand stewards and customer relations-management gurus can agree on.
• Complementary companies with shared audiences will increasingly work together. This “consortium” approach to loyalty is a trend. Enfamil and Pampers, as well as General Mills and Nestle, are good examples of companies taking this approach. The Jigsaw Consortium, for example, leverages a shared database between several companies to effectively target like minded-brand loyalists and also reduce their individual costs for data analytics.

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