Marketing Primark on price and store experience

From a single store in Dublin in 1969, the affordable fast-fashion retailer Primark has expanded to 290 stores across Europe and Boston (where one store now operates).

Primark's main competitive strength, says its parent company, is price: 'We want to be known first and foremost for amazing prices'. Teens and 20-something consumers also respond to the retailer's in-store experience, as well as its low prices and on-trend fashions.

The new Madrid store, for example, is equipped with digital LED screens that flash bespoke content and with unique artwork to engage and amaze shoppers. This puts Primark right in the heart of its competitor Zara's territory and sends a message about its positioning and its customer appeal.

With 2.4 million Instagram followers, 4.3 million Facebook likes, 29.5k Pinterest followers and 120k Twitter followers, Primark is taking its message of low-price, fast-fashion to the world via social media marketing.

Halloween marketing is on the Burger King menu

Burger King UK has special menu items for Halloween this year. Above, its Halloween Whopper, already a limited-time regular on the menu in the company's Japanese restaurants (but not under the Halloween name, of course). This marketing is geared to consumer behaviour principles like targeting variety-seekers who like trying different foods and customers who simply want to be the first to try something different.

Keep an eye on BK's UK Facebook page (more than 200,000 likes) for other Halloween treats, including its Chicken Fries. Also watch its Twitter feed for posts about Halloween foods and promotions. The company is using #UnleashYourFreaky to emphasise its unusual foods and Halloween marketing.

Greenwashing: VW's reputation is at risk

Volkswagen, the world's best-selling car company as of 2015, has admitted to using software to manipulate testing for polluting emissions in its diesel-powered cars.

Many hundreds of thousands of vehicles are involved--and, just as critically, the reputation of this venerable automaker is at risk. VW has already dropped the royal warrant from its UK communications.

Being linked to greenwashing will damage any company in the short term. In the case of VW, which has long-term ambitions to remain the top-selling automaker on Earth, dealing with the scandal surrounding its diesel cars' actual pollution performance is complicated by customer claims, shareholder outrage and governmental actions. VW must now rehabilitate its brand and reassure stakeholders of its sincerity and commitment to fixing what's gone wrong.

In this age of social media and online news coverage, when negative headlines can flash around the world within moments, is greenwashing going to disappear? In the words of Nick Timon, chief innovation officer of marketing firm Adjust Your Set:

I don’t mean to sound glib – of course environmental consciousness is important, laudable and pressing – but the way many companies are suddenly developing a social conscience on this front smacks of insincerity and laziness, as if the industry has learnt nothing from the greenwashing debacle and instead is jumping gung-ho into the shiny new sport of ‘purpose-washing’.

Marketing the hottest toys for Holiday 2015

Months in advance, retailers are publicising the toys they say will be the most popular, most purchased for the 2015 holiday season. What's on top?

• Hamleys: Many parents will remember Tracy Island Playset from decades past--and now, with the Thunderbirds back in the public eye, this newly interactive toy is back in the shops. Skate & Sing Elsa (above, from Disney's Frozen) will also be a top seller, says Hamleys.
• Argos: Minions Tumbling Stuart toy (from, of course, the Minions movie franchise) will be a top seller, along with My Friend Freddie (an interactive teddy), LEGO Deep Sea Exploration Vehicle and Barbie My Style House.
• Smyths Toys: Star Wars-the Force Awakens interactive figures, tied to the new movie, will be a big hit, says Smyths. Also: Paw Patroller, Pie Face and Disney Frozen-theme bicycles.

By the way, how does LEGO keep its innovative edge? As the world's largest toy marketer, Denmark-based LEGO must continuously innovate to maintain its marketing momentum. The company's Future Lab is responsible for trying new ideas, testing prototypes with children and using insights from failures to invent even more inventive playthings. 

Mobile pay gains momentum in UK market

According to one recent study, nearly half of all online transactions are completed via mobile payments in the UK. That puts the UK ahead of all other nations when it comes to mobile pay.

Starbucks has expanded its mobile order and payment availability to all UK stores--but only for Apple iOS users. Sorry, Android users, you'll have to wait for Starbucks.

But then there's Google's Android Pay, soon to be launched in the UK as a rival to Apple Pay.

And Samsung Pay, a success in the company's home country and now being introduced around the world to rival Apple Pay.

Apple Pay, meanwhile, has been tried at least once by 4 out of 10 Apple device owners in the UK.

Does this mean fewer pence and pounds being handed over at the till? Just this year, cash transactions lost their traditional lead and now non-cash (including credit, debit and mobile) payments account for more than half of all transactions in the UK. So yes, expect fewer cash transactions as Millennials and Gen Y consumers enjoy the contactless payment functionality of their smart phones, tablets and other digital devices.

Private brands continue strong

Aldi's exclusive range of household cleaning products

Private brands -- such as the brands marketed by grocery chains and clothing retailers -- continue to be strong sellers, year after year. Even as the recession reverses course and growth returns, consumers have learned through experience that private brands often are excellent alternatives to manufacturers' brands. And of course private brands, generally priced lower than manufacturers' brands, represent the majority of products at deep-discount grocery giants such as Aldi and Lidl.

Consumers recognise that private brands can offer quality, not just value. Aldi's coffee recently was named the best in a taste test that included Starbucks, Costa and other well-known global brands. Marks & Spencer's private wine brands took home multiple medals at this year's international wine challenge, where a number of grocery chains were awarded medals.

The image and reputation of the marketing entity makes a difference in how its private brands are perceived. Sainsbury is launching its private brands in an online retail environment to reach consumers in China who are interested in the cachet and quality of foreign brands.

Private brands are increasingly a key point of differentiation in the intensely competitive grocery industry, where supermarkets are using price promotions to attract shoppers week by week. Because private brands generally have higher profit margins, they can help retailers compete on the basis of value and quality.

Marketing Byte Night 2015

Byte Night takes place Friday, 2 October. Thousands of people all over the UK (associated with large firms like Accenture, Dell and BT plus many smaller, local firms) will sleep out to raise money for Action for Children charity. The first Byte Night was in 1998, and this year, the charity aims to raise more than a million.

One key element of Byte Night's marketing is its social media presence. On Twitter, the group has 2,000 followers; on Facebook, it has 1,100+ likes; and on LinkedIn, more than 900 members. Action for Children has Byte Night digital marketing leading up to the event, as well. The campaigns use #ByteNight as a unifying hashtag.

Publicity is another key element, with news articles covering the event itself (where will sleepers be? what venues are participating? what is the money to be used for?) and individuals or firms that participate. Plus each firm has its own marketing to promote its involvement in Byte Night and encourage employees and customers to get involved. Harvey Nash has a page on its site explaining all about Byte Night, for instance. Fourth Day has its own page about Band Night.

All these marketing efforts (multiple messages, multiple media, one focus) work together to build awareness and engagement, encourage positive attitudes and actions, with the ultimate goal of raising money. Good marketing for a good cause, #ByteNight!

Online marketers and ad blockers

Online advertisers and content marketers are unhappy with ad blocking software that so many consumers have installed to filter out, well, ads. Annoyed by non-targeted or simply irrelevant ads, or impatient to see content they are waiting to see, 39% of UK consumers in a recent study were found to be using ad blockers to keep ads out of sight. When Apple recently released an updated iPhone operating system, ad blocker apps skyrocketed to the top of the App store ranking. 

But this means web sites don't have as many visitors who count as 'viewers' or 'exposures' to adverts. As a result, some are fighting back by blocking consumers who use ad blockers. At the very least, a number of sites are explaining why consumers shouldn't use ad blockers--namely, because ad revenue helps support quality content, and blocking those ads means revenue is lost to the sites that need it. With lower revenue, sites may have to reduce the quality content they post or find other revenue sources (such as subscriptions).

Other avenues exist for marketers to reach out to consumers in creative ways, with non-ad messages that build brands and reinforce image. Instagram is increasingly used by Nike and other brands, and Pinterest recently added a 'buy' button to facilitate shipping in the US. 

Watch for more innovations as ad blockers continue to be popular and marketers test ideas for engaging consumers in multiple digital media.

How UK advertising is changing

The UK market is the first in the world where £1 in every £2 of advertising spend goes to digital (online, tablet, and--significantly--mobile). In part, this is due to the unique ad-free nature of so much of the UK broadcast media (think BBC).

The full chart, from eMarketer, shows that below the 50% mark for the UK, digital in Norway is 45% of total ad spend, followed by China, with nearly 44% of total ad spend. For comparison, digital is only 31% of ad spend in the US--and a mere 28% in South Korea.

Worldwide, mobile advertising is expected to reach £100 billion by the end of next year, accounting for 51% of all digital ad spend. UK TV advertising continues strong, but print ads are not as strong.

Overall UK advertising spend is also increasing, exhibiting the fastest increase in four years. According to the Advertising Association/Warc Expenditures report, UK advertising spend reached £18,553 billion in 2014, with more than 5% growth projected in 2015 and 2016.

At the same time, UK marketers are choosing to work on some ad projects in-house, which will lead to higher consolidation among ad agencies and fewer agencies overall.

What will ongoing technological advances and changes in consumer behaviour mean for advertising in two years or five years in the future?

The art and science of marketing forecasts

Every marketing plan requires some kind of marketing forecast--usually, sales forecasts on a product by product OR brand by brand OR market by market basis. But how do you develop a reasonable forecast, especially when you're looking at something new or somewhat unpredictable?

Tetlock and Gardner, authors of Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, researched people who are more often correct than incorrect in their forecasts, and concluded that three things can improve a forecast:

1. Don't make up your mind in advance. Instead, be open to new ideas and critically evaluate information. If you want to examine the market for doughnut shops in London, media coverage of National Doughnut Week's top trends can help you think about the ascendancy of doughnuts after years of the cupcake craze, for instance. Try not to rule out information that contradicts your initial thoughts on the forecast--instead, ask hard questions to test the data before relying on it.
2. Identify the various elements that can influence the forecast. It's difficult to predict exactly how many doughnut shops will open in London next year, but easier to start by calculating the number of residents of London, the number who typically buy doughnuts and the number of doughnut shops already in existence. These statistics will help you consider what drives trends affecting consumption and business formation.
3. Look at what others are forecasting. Find authoritative sources of information, examine their forecasts (element by element if possible) and see how your forecast compares. Here, you might track the number of new London-area shops opened by Krispy Kreme and other doughnut retailers, analyse how the number of new openings has changed by chain over the years and link this information to other developments in the marketing environment that affect doughnut consumption and retail expansion.