Riding the Royal Wedding marketing wave

On Sunday, 19 May, Prince Harry and US actress Meghan Markle will be wed at St George's Chapel. Both traditional and social media reflect the global excitement about this Royal Wedding. Above, the Instagram post announcing that Queen Elizabeth officially signed the Instrument of Consent for this wedding to take place.

Even before the Royal Wedding, consumers fascinated by Harry and Meghan began buying products they favour. Meghan's dresses and coats? Sold out within hours of her appearances. When she arrives for the actual wedding, expect media frenzy over her choice of designer and her accessories, not just her wedding gown--as marketers frantically scramble to produce similar products for non-royal consumers.

Wedding-related marketing continues strong on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, one estimate suggests that tourism, product sales and all other marketing connected with Harry and Meghan could add an economic boost of up to £ 1 billion this year. From wedding souvenirs sold by John Lewis to white chocolate hearts with the bride and groom's faces, there are a variety of products to satisfy every budget and interest. One UK charity is already marketing wedding products to raise money for helping homeless people.

Across the pond, brands are finding different ways to ride the wedding marketing wave. A salad dressing looking to promote a royal connection? Yes. A New Orleans hotel showing off royal flair for the royal occasion? Yes. So many US media outlets are airing programmes about Harry and Meghan and the royal family, it's easy to lose count.

Congratulations to Prince Harry and his bride, Meghan!

Pop-up shops boost brands, test products, target customers

Pop-up shops are increasingly popular. Some pop-ups test interest in certain merchandise or new products. Others are opened for short-term promotion of brands amongst targeted customers.

Pop-ups don't always sell merchandise...sometimes they're focused on bringing the brand experience to life for a limited period in a targeted location.
Not only are pop-ups temporary, they can also be located or relocated to specific areas where target customers live, work, shop or enjoy leisure activities like sports and concerts.

Here are a few recent examples of UK pop-ups:

• Kanye West opened pop-ups in London and elsewhere to promote his current album.
• Morrissey opened a pop-up in the Salford Lads Club when he appeared at Manchester Arena.
• A dance teacher opened the Ballet Box in Westmorland to dance apparel.
• Insert Coin opened a London popup to promote its new line of Pokémon apparel.

Small Business Saturday plans 100 days of marketing

From 26 August, #SmallBizSatUk is beginning 100 days of marketing on social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, plus LinkedIn and widespread mainstream publicity. The goals: to increase awareness among UK shoppers of the benefits of supporting small businesses, to introduce small businesses to a wider audience and to encourage purchasing from small businesses on 3 December 2016.

Small Business Saturday was originally founded by the global financial services firm American Express. The UK group is now independent, operated by Small Is Big CIC to promote small businesses all year.

Since its inception, Small Business Saturday has been growing in awareness and participation. In 2015, customers spent £623 million buying from small UK businesses on Small Business Saturday.

This year, 100 small businesses will be featured in the weeks leading up to 3 December, giving each the opportunity for higher awareness and positive brand associations. In turn, each small business can leverage this opportunity for more local recognition and specific promotions targeting its customers, using tips and tools provided by Small Business Saturday UK. 

Second annual Amazon Prime Day

Today is the second annual Amazon Prime Day, a day when the pioneering online retailer offers special price promotions for current Prime members and to attract new members. The first Prime day in 2015 created a lot of publicity for Amazon and resulted in a huge number of purchase transactions. In fact, Prime Day exceeded Black Friday's usual results.

The idea is to encourage shopping during the summertime, and make members feel like insiders when they get special deals that aren't available to everyone. Of course, since Amazon allows shoppers to sign up for a free 30-day Prime membership trial, everyone can, in effect, try and buy. So another objective is to attract new Prime members and convince them that the expedited shipping and access to streaming entertainment are worth the price of membership.

Amazon is promoting its Dash buttons at a discount, because once consumers install them, they simply press and presto! Replacement products for frequently-purchased items like laundry detergent will arrive quickly and automatically. Shoppers who grow accustomed to such convenience will be unlikely to switch to other retailers.

This year, as in 2015, the most coveted products being discounted are electronics, which lead the way in promotions. Amazon also encourages its sellers to get in on the promotion by offering deals to their customers via the retailer's website.

Will the number of transactions on 2016 Prime Day surpass the 2015 record?

Marketing Movies and Merchandise: Force Friday

Star Wars fans are looking forward to the new movie Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Since Disney purchased Lucas Film a few years ago, there has been even more precise coordination of marketing between the movies and the merchandise.

4 September was Force Friday, a day when new Star Wars-related merchandise appeared on store shelves and websites. It was a day for secrets revealed (names of new characters, for instance) and for fans to come together in person and online in a community celebration of a brand franchise they love.

Disney Stores and retail partners around the world had special promotions at midnight leading into Force Friday. For instance, two British stars of the new movie visited the Disney Store in London to sign autographs, appear in selfies and help build excitement. Outside, costumed fans waited for the special event and discussed the latest news (or rumours) about the new movie.

Disney and its marketing partners used #forcefriday to unify the campaign and trend on social media sites. Disney also promoted Youtube 'unboxing' videos of people unwrapping their new Star Wars merchandise, everywhere on the planet.

Not all buyers unboxed their merchandise--collectors kept things intact, hoping to cash in on the global craze for Star Wars originals in original condition.

Zoolander 2 on Valentino's runway

Even if Paris fashion isn't your cup of Earl Grey, you have to smile when Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson stalk the runway for Valentino. It was a clever publicity stunt that had fashionistas gasping and reaching for their iPhones earlier today.

The stars made a surprise appearance during Valentino's Paris Fashion Week show to promote . . . well, the hashtag #Zoolander2 says it all: The Zoolander 2 movie debuts in 2016, starring Derek and Hansel, two models with attitude. The Zoolander Facebook page (1.1 million likes) also carried photos and posts as the stars completed their walkoff.

Both Zoolander2 and Valentino trended high on Twitter for hours after the stars left the runway. No promoted tweets needed, the photos and hashtag went viral worldwide through buzz. Think of the promotional value for the designer and for the movie when two well-known actors get into character and "perform" in front of a star-studded audience expecting a couture collection.

Bottom line: The promotion was effective because it was live, it was a surprise, and it took place in a setting where those characters would ordinarily be seen--a win-win for the designer and the movie.

Among UK New Product Winners: Ella's Kitchen

The Grocer presents new product awards every year, for the best food and for non-food products introduced during the previous year. Entries for 2015 are now open. Categories include coffee and chocolate drinks, dairy drinks, fish products, frozen desserts, laundry products, infants' products, soups, and teas and infusions, among others.

Who were the winners in 2014? Both large and small marketers entered and won. Cadbury was a winner in the chocolate confectionery category; Persil won in the laundry category.

Among the smaller companies to win in 2014 was Ella's Kitchen (winner in the infants' category). Named after a real baby named Ella, the company markets a range of organic baby food.

Paul Lindley is the founder of Ella's Kitchen and also Ella's father. He had an idea for marketing nutritious, all-organic baby food products to delight 'tiny taste buds' and tempt even finicky babies to eat. He also knew he needed colourful packaging to 'sell from the shelf'. Once Sainsbury's began to stock his products, the company gained national distribution.

Lindley had worked for Nickelodeon before becoming an entrepreneur, and this connection enabled him to arrange for free TV promotion in exchange for some of the firm's profits. As a result, Ella's Kitchen gained brand recognition and established itself nationally.

When Ella's Kitchen undertook global expansion, however, Lindley experienced considerably more competitive pressure in the US market. He sold Ella's Kitchen to Hain Celestial, known for its all-natural food products, and remained as the division head, using the parent's marketing muscle to boost Ella's Kitchen.

Today, nearly a decade after its founding, Ella's Kitchen is active on social media to educate and inform parents about nutrition and, of course, explain how its products are good for baby. On YouTube, for instance, the company posts videos about feeding babies, weaning babies and other topics of interest to families with infants. It offers Q&A with experts on its Facebook page and its Twitter page.

Food trucks use social media as marketing engine

Entrepreneurs are bringing their unique food experiences to streets in London and beyond--with social media as the marketing engine for attracting customers. 

At left, a food truck with eye-catching flair: Engine's 1950s fire engine, serving American-style hot dogs and grilled sandwiches. Using social media like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest helps Engine stay in touch with customers, alert them to new products and publicise new locations.

Another example: Rainbo (offering gyoza and more), which markets its weekend and festival outings with blogs like 'van life' and combines street food with social responsibility (its cause: ending child labour).

Now some food trucks have a membership organisation (KERB) to promote their services and encourage entrepreneurial newbies. KERB is savvy about social media, using Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and more to feature its members and build excitement about gourmet street food.

Singles Day = #1 Online Shopping Day

Not Christmas, not Black Friday, not even Valentine's Day can compare to the online shopping frenzy of China's Singles Day.

On November 11 (all ones, 11/11, get it?), singles browse for bargains and shop (usually online, increasingly via mobile). And shop. And shop.

Alibaba--by far the world's largest e-commerce business, with wholesale and retail sites for shoppers in China and beyond--has helped fuel this shopping extravaganza. In 2009, it introduced an array of Singles Day shoppers' specials on its various sites. The promotions were so successful that Alibaba eventually trademarked 'double eleven' and continued to expand the scope of its marketing.

In 2014, Alibaba's marketing for Singles Day began during October, with preorders at special prices. Once again, the company's extensive reach and promotional clout paid off: It recorded one-day sales of £5.9 billion on Singles Day, a hefty increase over the 2013 results. Alibaba is already looking ahead to even better results in 2015 as Chinese consumers exercise their buying power via mobile devices.

Alibaba's complex network of marketplaces is designed, the company explains, as a business ecosystem with a specific purpose:

We operate an ecosystem where all participants – consumers, merchants, third-party service providers and others – have an opportunity to prosper.

Marketing Record Store Day

Record Store Day began in 2007 as a way to encourage shoppers to visit independent retailers of recorded music, LPs and CDs. Today is Record Store Day, with participating retailers on every continent except Antarctica.

LP sales have been increasing year by year, thanks in part to special events like Record Store Day, interest in the unique sound qualities of vinyl and the trendiness of vinyl as a format. Vinyl sales in 2013 were twice as high as in 2012, and the momentum continues to build.

The marketing spin supporting Record Store Day in 2014 includes:

• Special and limited-edition releases, such as One Direction's new Midnight Memories single
• Pop-up outlets open only on Record Store Day, such as the Berwick Street London pop-up Museum of SoHo, featuring videotaped 1967 music performances
• In-store appearances and live performances 
• Social media messaging in Facebook and Twitter 

Scented ads are in the air

More marketers are using scented ads or brochures to attract consumer attention and increase memorability. We're accustomed to scented perfume ads but how many tourist brochures and newspaper pages carry the fragrance of the product being advertised? This type of sensory marketing is unusual and intriguing, a technique that engages the senses to heighten and reinforce the message. Although some people are sensitive to fragrances, many will find scented ads fun and, perhaps, motivational.

These are just three of a growing number of fragrance-infused promotional materials being used by marketers today:

• "Smell York" is a new campaign designed to bring tourists to York destinations. The tourist board's website explains: 'Smell is the stronger of the senses and the one associated with forming the strongest memories!' The brochure includes 12 photos, each accompanied by an appropriate olfactory hint, such as a chocolatey scent on the page promoting York's chocolate-making heritage.
• Johnson & Johnson, well known for its baby powder, recently arranged for an English-language newspaper in India to infuse the full-page ad with the scent of the powder. This approach also links the ad with the nostalgia of childhood (or parenthood).
• The Australian supermarket Coles is adding the aroma of hot cross buns to ads in Australian newspapers, just in time for the pre-Easter shopping season. Imagine opening the newspaper and inhaling the scent of freshly-baked buns? Maybe that's just the encouragement hungry shoppers need to stop off at the supermarket very soon.
  

Specsavers segments the market for eyewear

How does Specsavers, the retail eyewear company, segment the consumer market for spectacles?

It starts with the broad definition of the available market: Customers who are interested in and have sufficient income and access to the product--meaning people who already wear prescription spectacles or want the fashion or function benefits of reasonably-priced spectacles, both indoor and for the sun.

Specsavers then applies a number of segmentation variables, including demographics (men/women), geographic (location in the UK, Australia, and 8 other countries), lifestyle/personality (fashion consciousness), price sensitivity (affordable eyewear), brand loyalty and perceived benefits.

The company partners with local optometrists and retailers to open branded stores that combine the buying power of a large retail chain with the personal approach of eyecare professionals who are based in and understand the local market. The combination makes for powerful competition. When Specsavers entered the Australian market in 2008, it opened 100 retail locations in 100 days. Today, the company has captured 35% of the market, and high brand recognition is helping its 290+ locations attract and retain customers. The business has an Australian glazing laboratory to serve the local market efficiently and effectively.

Specsavers also gives special marketing attention to specific segments within the overall market. For example, its Corporate Eyecare division offers a free booklet to help fleet operators encourage drivers to protect their eyes and eVouchers that employers can offer employees for eyewear discounts. The idea is to reach consumers by targeting their employers.

Targeting children, Specsavers has issued a special kids' magazine to promote good eyecare habits and promote specific branded frames, including Moshi Monster frames (segmentation variables: age and family situation). Just for seniors, Specsavers has a discount that supports its targeting of this large segment (age, price sensitivity).

In its home country of the UK, Specsavers sponsors a Book of the Year contest, inviting consumers to vote for their favourite book/author. At the end of 2013, best-selling author Neil Gaiman won for his book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. This high-profile contest keeps the brand in the public eye for literary reasons, not just because of the benefits of affordable fashion spectacles.

To see what Specsavers is doing these days, visit its Facebook page (122,000+ likes), its Twitter page (20,000 followers) and its YouTube channel (more than 1 million views).

This post updates and extends the opening example in Chapter 3 of Essential Guide to Marketing Planning, 3d edition.

De-escalating price promotions

Reckitt Benckiser--the corporate name behind so many familiar household brands--wants to get off the price promotion treadmill. 'When consumers’ only criteria is to do BOGOF [buy one, get one free] or half price, then you can do the most engaging campaign but they don’t care. They will buy the competitor if they are half price', says RB's Jérome Lemaire in a Marketing Week interview. So RB is in talks with its retail partners about other kinds of promotions.

Of course, after years of store promotions by retail chains trying to retain market share and increase shopper visits during the recession, de-escalating price promotions will not be easy for any brand. Supermarkets have been locked in a battle for price, position and image, as well, which affects how brands on their shelves are perceived by shoppers.

RB invests heavily in adverts to remind shoppers of its brands and benefits. It's on Facebook (88,000 likes), Twitter (9,500 followers), YouTube, Weibo (China) and other social networks. Even when RB markets digitally, it must rely on retail partners to actually sell the products, at least until its e-commerce strategy is tested and implemented. Meanwhile, the company has considerable sales momentum worldwide this year, thanks in part to its brand-by-brand and overall corporate marketing plans.

This post updates the opening example in Chapter 1 of Essential Guide to Marketing Planning.

Leap Day--A day for marketing

Leap Day is as good a reason as any to plan a special promotion. On this extra day in February, what are marketers putting on offer? Here are just a few of the special deals:

• 'Ladies Be Bold...The Ultimate Leap Year Proposal' is a Leap Day special, offering a honeymoon to Antigua as the grand prize for the most creative marriage proposal by a woman to her special one (top image).

• Crabtree & Evelyn UK is offering a 29% discount on 29 selected products for 29 February only (see left).

• Lensway UK has a one-day special on Joseph Marc spectacles for £29.