Make social media part of the mix

In New Media Age, Charlotte McEleny writes that Ford's Facebook-only launch of its new Explorer model (left) is gutsy, although the approach doesn't make sense for every product:

But let’s face it, launching a life insurance product on Facebook is hardly likely to gather the wider attention that the likes of a car will get. In this case, social needs to step back from the limelight and become part of the mix instead.

I agree: social media should be part of the mix for almost every brand in almost every product category. FB may be appropriate for some brands, while blogging or Twitter might make sense for other brands. Will Procter & Gamble be able to generate a lot of sales of its Max Factor beauty products via FB? Domino's has certainly profited from including social media in the mix, as I wrote earlier this month.

MediaPost has it right: companies must determine their specific objectives before embarking on social media activities. Social media can help companies listen to their customers and make brands better known, for example. As far as actual sales are concerned, Domino's and Dell are major success stories, but not the only ones. Watch for more as companies gain more proficiency in social media marketing.

Group buying gains favour

Group buying has been gaining favour around the world. It got its start in China as tuángòu and now hundreds of Chinese Web sites compete to provide deal-of-the-day discounts to Chinese consumers.

The Groupon site, based in the US, is a popular online destination for consumers seeking special limited-time, deep-discount deals offered by restaurants, stores, hotels, spas and other marketers.

Groupon's London branch maintains a Facebook page where thousands of fans can click to see the deal of the day, suggest new deals and send friends to sign up.

UK consumers can also find deals at Groupola.

Groupon's US competitors include LivingSocial and Tippr.

Can group buying sites be a long-term value proposition? Or is this concept maturing so rapidly that the major competitors will have to evolve other offerings to stay relevant and gain attention in an increasingly crowded marketplace?

What's new in retailing

As Marketing Week reported not long ago, retailing is putting renewed focus on the customer experience to add value and compete more effectively. The customer experience includes channel choices--allowing buyers to decide how and when and where they want to buy--and service choices. Here are a few examples:

• Ocado offers an iPhone app (Ocado on the go) to make food shopping convenient and easy for customers
  
• Metro Bank, debuting its first London store (branch) next week, will open accounts in just 15 minutes and operate on customer-friendly retail hours instead of limited banking hours.
  
• Union Market, just open in London, is a fresh approach to food retailing, a high street-type farmers' market store packed with local fresh foods and beverages.

Retailers have to differentiate themselves to attract customer attention these days, and these three companies are doing just that.

Old Spice goes social

Old Spice, a Procter & Gamble brand for men's personal care products, has gone new media, using Twitter and YouTube to regain visibility with the next generation of buyers.

If you haven't seen the Old Spice Guy videos, take a look at the brand's home page or click here to go straight to the Old Spice YouTube channel. More than 8 million people have looked at these witty videos, giving the brand's fame a big boost.

It all started with a 2010 Super Bowl ad featuring Isaiah Mustafa, a handsome former player from the US National Football League. Building on the buzz his ad created, Old Spice decided to take the campaign viral in July.

And it succeeded, as you can see from this analysis. Old Spice needs some new life, as this analysis suggests. The bottom line: craft a short/simple message, select your audience carefully, leverage opinion leaders, and invite participation to spread the fun. Smart marketing for any brand in any media!

Ryanair to EasyJet founder: "Sorry"

Truth in advertising: Budget airline Ryanair has been forced to apologise to rival EasyJet's founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, for depicting him with a Pinocchio-long nose and tagging his photo with the caption "EasyJet's Mr Late Again."

The dispute was over EasyJet's decision to stop releasing its records of flight delays. Ryanair contended that EasyJet's founder was responsible for this decision.

An outraged Stelios brought Ryanair to court. Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's high-profile CEO, then apologised because Stelios had nothing to do with the decision to stop publishing on-time statistics.

Ryanair is now publishing full-page adverts of its apology to EasyJet's founder and will pay legal fees and other expenses, which Stelios is donating to charity. And Stelios will be publishing his own adverts in response to Ryanair's apology adverts.

What does all this mean for marketers? First, get your facts straight in every marketing message. Second, don't make things personal.

Domino's online success

New Media Age reports that Domino's UK is successfully leveraging online and social media to build loyalty and boost online sales to pizza lovers. From January-June 2010, Domino's online pizza sales exceeded 32% of its total sales, a very good performance.

How does Domino's do it?

1. Make customers feel at home. "Hello pizza lover" is Domino's greeting to visitors who click on its home page. That's a positive start to the marketing conversation.
2. Make ordering easy. The Web site is geared towards online ordering, and specials appear on the home page. No need to dig deeper to learn that Tuesdays are 2-for-1 day, for example.
3. Keep things simple. Click "contact us" and you see three choices: one link to report order problems, one link to reach the corporate office, and one link to stop receiving email and text messages. Simple and easy.
   
4. Involve customers. The Facebook page invites comments, stays updated and mirrors the offers on the main Domino's home page. More than 36,000 people have "liked" this Facebook presence.
5. Reward customers. Every week, Domino's gives away a free pizza to the "king" and "queen" of pizza, the two fans who have brought the most new fans to the Domino's FB page.

But please, Domino's, add a link from your Web site to your Facebook page, so prospective fans can find you there. And what about Twitter?

Marketing Habanos

Despite sluggish economic conditions, the Cuban cigar maker Habanos is creatively facing several key challenges as it increases its share of the premium cigar market:

• Bans on smoking. Although some countries have banned smoking inside restaurants and other businesses, Habanos works with businesses to publicise convenient outdoor smoking areas and private cigar clubs. This has helped Habanos increase sales in Germany and elsewhere.
  
• Limited retail space. Habanos educates its retailers about the company's unique manufacturing process and encourages them to devote special space to its cigars.
• Lower demand. Although overall demand is down, Habanos now aims to get affluent consumers to buy fewer but more expensive cigars.
  

Habanos holds its own festival each year to reinforce brand loyalty, win new customers and enhance the brand's associations with quality tobacco and careful production.

Looking ahead, what will global smoking bans and health concerns about smoking mean for Habanos in the long term?

Marketing to mums

Asda knows that mums are perhaps the major influence on household spending, which is why it's marketing to mums online through sites such as Netmums. The retailer recently told Marketing Week:

“We want to involve Asda mums in everything we do, from choosing and designing products to making it easier to shop in our stores with babies and young children. Later this year we’ll be announcing an exciting new project for Asda mums and we’ll be looking for bloggers as well as mums to get involved.”

Cybermummy is a site where UK mums who blog can gather, online or at the annual conference, talk about mummy blogs and meet each other. Asda is using Twitter outreach to encourage Cybermummy participants to get involved with the retailer's initiatives. You can read Twitter messages about the Cybermummy conference by clicking here or using the hashtag #cybermummy in a Twitter search engine.

This is smart marketing to mums who are smart about technology!

Will passengers stand for standing on flights?

For several years, Ryanair has talked of selling cheap tickets to passengers willing to stand for the duration of a flight. The BBC News says this marketing idea simply won't fly--and it's just chief executive Michael O'Leary's way of getting media attention for the airline's main marketing message, which is low price.

As recently as yesterday, O'Leary has been talking of super-low standing tickets and pay toilets on Ryanair. Everything costs extra. In fact, Ryanair recently increased the price of checked luggage to 20 pounds per bag.

How low can Ryanair go--and how many extra fees can it add? Low price is undoubtedly an important competitive advantage in today's pressured economic environment. I'm a big fan of clear marketing messages, and Ryanair has one of the clearest in the airline industry. But is the price still low once passengers add up the extras (including the fee for toilets, if this is implemented)?

Tesco + P&G = stronger Pringles branding

Good marketing partnerships are worth their weight in gold (or pounds sterling). Consider the close collaboration between Tesco and the giant US FMCG supplier, Procter & Gamble.

P&G has created a special range of "Great British Flavours" Pringle-branded snacks only for Tesco. The flavours include sea salt & black pepper, curry, kebab and smokey bacon.

This is a positive marketing development for Tesco--which holds the exclusive on this range--and for P&G, which gains shelf space and increases its brand reach as well as its Tesco-based turnover through improved Pringles sales. Because both companies are expert at marketing and work hard to understand their customers' preferences and tastes, the combination is unusually strong.

By the way, a high court judge recently ruled that Pringles are not potato crisps, because they don't contain enough potatoes to qualify under the legal definition of crisps. As a result, P&G will save millions of pounds every year on VAT, and the retail price of Pringles will go down.