PDSA and Social Media

PDSA, the UK's leading veterinary charity, knows how to engage pet lovers (and potential contributors) in conversations all over the social media world. I like the look and easy navigation of the home page, with wonderful photos of pets and links to pet-care info, 'petcasts' (videos), e-newsletter subscription and much, much more. Home page also has quick links to donate or sign up for services.

If you're on Facebook, you can join PDSA's 26,000+ fans, browse the many pet photos (and upload your own), check the calendar for local events near you and donate online if you choose.

Take a look at PDSA's Bebo page--lots of fun for youngsters. Or its YouTube channel. Or its Flickr posts. Or its tweets.

PDSA + social media + pet lovers = savvy marketing.

Marketing Frights and Thrills

How do you market an experience? Many theme parks are using online videos to help customers imagine the fun and excitement (or frights and thrills) of being on rides and visiting attractions. For example:

• Flamingo Land TV - Videos about riding the new Mumbo Jumbo roller coaster, seeing baby animals up close, and enjoying special park celebrations.
• Thorpe Park on YouTube - Lots of videos featuring roller coaster thrills, TV adverts, Fright Night previews, and more.
• Drayton Manor - Home page (logo above) features a video montage of different attractions and rides; clicking on specific tabs brings up videos of thrill rides and other features.
• Adventure Island - Videos and photos of many rides, including Cow Jump juniors and higher energy rides like Dragon's Claw.
  
  

Goodbye Abbey, Hello Santander

In the middle of the current economic turmoil, Abbey Bank are taking on a new name. Along with two other UK financial institutions, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, Abbey will be rebranded as Santander Bank, the name of their Spanish parent. Abbey's brand currently includes Santander's flame logo, and Abbey credit cards are being rebranded with the Santander name from this month. All of Santander's UK banks will finalise the rebranding by end of next year.

Although rebranding can be risky, Santander have a good reason for moving ahead. Thanks to systems mergers, soon customers of all these three UK banks will be able to make deposits and payments or withdraw cash at any of the 1,300 branches. In other words, rebranding reinforces the message that customers will now find banking at Santander more convenient because the merger created an expanded branch network.

What will happen to Abbey's brand equity? For now, Santander are keeping the Abbey brand for the bank's foreign operations. UK consumers, however, will see the Abbey brand replaced by the Santander brand before the end of 2010.

Asda Takes Pulse of the Nation

Ever want to tell a retailer exactly what you want to see in a local store? Asda (owned by Wal-Mart) are sponsoring a Pulse of the Nation e-panel of customers to find out which new products they're interested in seeing in their local Asda stores.

'Pulse of the Nation is sponsored by Asda but owned and operated by the market research firm TNS which operates in over 70 countries worldwide and does research in almost every country of the world', according to the site.

You don't have to be a loyal Asda shopper to be a member. In fact, as the Pulse of the Nation site explains: 'We want all Asda shoppers to be represented, those who love Asda and those who are less positive, those who go there all the time and those who go there only very occasionally'.

Panel members are asked about a number of issues, including new products. They receive photos of potential new products (as selected in the Far East by Asda's buyers) and answer questions about which items they'd like to see on neighborhood Asda store shelves.

Based on the panel's input, Asda have created a 'Saving You Money' YouTube channel, as well, with videos with (what else?) tips for saving money. To create a dialogue, consumers are invited to post their own videos about saving money.

I like the panel idea, although as a former retail manager (and a shopper), I know that people don't always know what they'll like until they can pick it up, read the label and check the size, weight or color. Even if people don't buy a product today, they might buy in the future. Needs are always changing, and panel members' votes could very well vary from day to day and season to season. Still, Pulse of the Nation is a very promising concept for bringing the voice of the customer into retail merchandising decisions.

I wonder: Will Asda tell the panel how members voted on a particular item? And will the retailer abide by the panel's votes as the final decision on what will be stocked?

Marketing Links

Looking for data about the marketing environment? Interested in marketing trends and experiences? Here are a few good sources to check.

• The Marketer. Magazine of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, with many excellent articles about marketing in action and the marketing environment. Don't miss the job listings here.
• BRASS. The Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society presents research and data about business sustainability and corporate responsibility. (Their logo shown above.)
  
• The Guardian Data Store. The Guardian provides links to facts and analysis about U.K. population, culture, economics, health trends and much more.
• Office for National Statistics. From the U.K. government, data about demographics, economic indicators, corporate profitability, employment and more.
• GeoHive. International data, organised country by country, about population, infrastructure, environmental issues and more. According to GeoHive, the global population in 2050 will be 9.5 billion!
  

IKEA Adjusts

The global economic crisis is even hurting firms that are known for low price, such as IKEA [updating my Chapter 2 coverage of the marketing environment].

With fewer people buying furniture and housewares, IKEA's sales are 632 million euros lower than projected for this year. To close the gap between forecast and actual sales, IKEA are cutting costs and jobs. IKEA believe the slowdown will affect sales for another year or two.

Meanwhile, executives are staying with their plan to open new stores around the world. Another key aspect of IKEA's strategy is the loyalty scheme, called IKEA Family, which is free and offers personalised promotions via e-mail to members. Will IKEA be able to boost sales in the second half of 2009?

Nestle Wants Trust

Paul Bulcke, Nestle's chief executive, is aiming for more trust. He recently told The Sunday Times:

'One of the targets I put when I defined our vision was to be trusted by all stakeholders. I don’t say "loved", that’s stupid, but trusted. That’s a start.'

Nestle has set objectives for marketing its food, beverage and pet products in every nation on Earth. [Updating my Chapter 5 on direction and objectives.] It's investing especially heavily in regions such as Southeast Asia, where economic growth is pushing consumer income higher year by year.

To position itself for achieving marketing-plan objectives such as capturing higher market share and profits despite intense competition, Nestle needs more than a well-known brand and well-regarded products such as KitKat bars--it needs, as Bulcke observes, 'to be trusted by all stakeholders.'

Aston Martin Thinks Small with Cygnet

The Cygnet, shown at left in photo from today's Times Online, is Aston Martin's new small car for city commuting. What's especially interesting is that this car will be based on a Toyota platform and feature Aston Martin styling.

Can a car company known for expensive high-performance vehicles attract buyers who want super-compact cars at a super-compact price (reportedly less than 20,000 pounds)? “Small is beautiful these days,” says Aston Martin's chief executive. “We have to move on from the preconceived ideas regarding what Aston Martin is about.”

Look for a new product launch of the Cygnet by late 2010.