Social Media Means
Social Media Means
Photo: Evgeniy Alekseyev
There's only two types of marketing; sales promotion and brand marketing...
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Read More »Having spent the last twenty plus years both agency and client-side I've come to the conclusion that when you get down to it, there are only two types of marketing; sales promotion and brand marketing. Direct marketing, digital marketing, advertising, PR, social media, content marketing, CSR, sponsorship, channel marketing and so on, are merely tactics in the marketers’ toolbox that can be blended together to form strategies, campaigns and programmes that have a primary objective to either stimulate sales or engage people with the brand. As the name implies, sales promotion has a very real and direct relationship with sales. The objective of sales promotion is unsurprisingly to sell more, however, the trade-off is usually lower margin. In economic term sales promotion has the same impact as increasing supply, which is in essence what is happening. Sales promotion is appealing to some within the senior management team, especially the CFO, and more short-termist marketing directors because the lag between campaign and results is short and the correlation strong and direct. Under the sales promotion heading I'd bundle all forms of direct marketing, promotional marketing, product advertising and marketing, channel marketing, retail marketing and loyalty marketing - in short any campaign that heroes the product, service or promotion and where the stated objective is to create a near-term intention to buy - 30% off, buy 2 get 1 free, 2 years free servicing, 50% more miles, 15% extra product, buy A & B together and save, free financing, free optional extras, buy and win, call x for 30Dhs per minute etc. Brand marketing is a more subtle beast. In the war for consumers' hearts and minds, think of sales promotion as a frontal assault with a cannon and brand marketing as espionage. The objective of brand marketing is to create a deep emotive, meaningful engagement between the brand and its target audiences. If sales promotion wants people to buy, then brand marketing wants people to love. But don't go thinking roses and chocolates, love in brand terms delivers to the bottom line. Love equates to cold, hard cash. There's a definition of brand value which I like, it states: 'If you switched off all your marketing channels today, then your sales would start to decline. The value of your brand is the total value of sales up to the point where the decline stabilises.' By focusing on brand, by building a consumer's desire to be part of the brand, we are creating a scenario where consumers, of their own free will, will seek out the brand. They'll seek out the brand and they will pay more for the privilege. Why will they pay more? Because in relationship terms, purchase desire transfers power to the brand. Apple or Nike's ability to charge way beyond the functional value of their products is because people love their brand, which in turn means they desire to own the brand and therefore are willing to pay considerably more than functionally equivalent the products. Look at Audi, VW, Seat and Skoda - there are models across the four brands that have exactly the same underpinnings and components, but consumers will pay a premium for the Audi. So you could argue that ultimately brand marketing is about using the brand as a catalyst to sell more...at a higher margin. Unfortunately, because the impact is less directly visible and, as mentioned above, the lag between spend and sales is usually longer, brand marketing is often considered frivolous in Qatar. I've personally experienced a marketing team, within a major Qatari organisation, where the majority were vocal in their view that brand building is a waste of time. Agency people are often not much better.
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Read More »Why is that? I put it down to a combination of factors. The first is the expat conveyor-belt, where both employees and consultants are in country for a relatively short period of time and so want to demonstrate their worth quickly. The second is the prevalence from senior management of a 'jump/how high?' culture which often leads to unhealthy pressure to deliver quick wins. The combined effect is marketing short-termism. You’ve probably already gathered that I believe an over-reliance on sales promotion is a mistake and can ultimately be disruptive to the brand. Unless the brand's primary USP is price e.g. a discount retailer or a budget airline, I would be extremely wary of any marketing plan weighted towards sales promotion. In my view, sales promotion is a tactical tool to be used sparingly in response to a specific situation – more like keyhole surgery. I'd always ask the question 'Does this promotion align with our brand purpose, positioning and values?' and if not, then a) 'Does the upside outweigh the erosion of brand equity?' and b) 'Can we airlock the promotion to limit its exposure to only those segments we wish to target?' Repeated sales promotion in my view leads to erosion of brand equity and ultimately, if all participants engage in it, the commoditisation of the market. By contrast, brand marketing done well creates differentiation, engagement, affinity and it protects margins.
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