Emotive storytelling dominates this Christmas

Christmas is a time for giving, spending time with the ones you hold dear and giving thanks. It’s also the one time of year where brands spend big to get their share of our wallets, well what we have left of them! This year it’s especially apparent that festive fun, with its associated sparkle, has been replaced by emotive story telling.

Now I know that this is always the case for John Lewis; from the bear and the hare in 2013, to the man on the moon in 2015 to this year’s Moz the Monster. But its seems like many consumer brands are now fully on board with emotive engagement. Take the ‘This Christmas, let’s spend it well’ campaign from M&S as an example. Not only does this campaign feature everyone’s favourite marmalade loving bear, but it shows how good can overcome evil at Christmas through love and the gift of giving. It’s a feel-good campaign and is quite a step change from the days when Take That and Twiggy were the shining stars of the retailers Christmas ads.

Various studies over the years have shown that “emotional appeals in advertising strategies have been known to help in strengthening the brands as they add another distinction to the brand.” (1) Going back to the M&S campaign with the strapline ‘This Christmas, let’s spend it well’, it’s about making the right choice. You might say that the not so subtle takeout is that by shopping at M&S you will be spending your money well. I must admit this campaign has worked on me…. earlier I got carried away writing a list of food I can buy in M&S that will help me not spend so much time in the kitchen on Christmas Day, thus spending my time well.

Morrisons have indulged in family story telling this year with a series of ads celebrating families spending time together at Christmas. The most aired one is a brother encouraging his little sister to ‘go on’, including to ‘go on’ and grab a delicious cake as they are gluten free. This is quite a clever move from Morrisons promoting their gluten free Christmas range and I’m really interested to see how this fares for them. Their family story telling focuses upon emotional differentiation which many studies have shown provides a competitive edge. They aren’t saying that they’ve got the best food, but they are saying we understand you and look, we help families like you every Christmas. As Heath’s study (2009) evidenced, emotionally appealing advertisements aid brand relationships and emotional content tends to be “more successful than rationally appealing messages in generating brand favouritism.” I won’t be buying gluten free goodies from Morrisons but it’s where I will do the majority of my grocery shop – not so much as a result of the advertising but I like my Morrsions More card (a future blog on engagement and loyalty strategies in the New Year?).

Another great example of this storytelling is the BBC’s ‘Christmas Together’ campaign. This cleverly plays out a story of a single father who appears to put work before his daughter, however at her Christmas concert he shows that he does care and is paying attention. I am embarrassed to admit that the first time I watched the full ad, I actually cried. I’m not sure if it makes me want to watch the BBC channels more (to be fair I’m not good at working our fancy tech remote!), but it does make me think that the BBC are trying hard to understand and cater for a variety of families and provide programmes that will bring them together this year.

In my opinion, the ads this year are more effective in evoking positive emotions. I can remember the Asda ‘Mum is behind it’ campaign back in 2012. That stirred anger across the nation; no mum would like to think that they are permanently stressed in the build-up to Christmas. It may be true, but don’t tell us! Brands need to fill our hearts with joy and let us share in their magic at Christmas. Personally, I can’t wait to hear about the ROI on this year’s Christmas campaign spend…. I really hope Paddington does the trick for M&S this year as they have put the effort (and cash) in. I can even buy Paddington jelly sweets in Christmas packaging so I’m sold!

 

(1) Panda et al., 2013, ‘Does emotional appeal work in advertising?’, IUP Journal of Brand Management, Vol.10, No.2, pp. 7-23.

(2) Heath, R., 2009, ‘Emotional engagement: how television builds big brands at low attention’, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 49, No.1, pp. 62-63.

Yorkshire Tea – Sponsorship done properly

At the age of 38 I actually succumbed to watching test match cricket….. not entirely against my will as I bought the tickets for my partner’s birthday. Not only was I surprised to actually enjoy it (probably helped by a few alcoholic beverages and being sat next to the fancy dress stand), but it inspired this blog on sponsorship.

When we approached Headingley all I could see was branded content by the investment bank Investec. I sighed as I thought this would set the tone of the day – lots of business men of a certain age and it being a very serious game indeed. But how wrong could I be. I never would have guessed that during the break for tea (who knew there are tea breaks in sport?!?) the crowd would be entertained by the Yorkshire Tea Band. Nor that I could get a carafe of wine on ice by Hardys – it came in a lovely branded bag and everything (plus I found that I actually quite like Hardys wine!). Unlike Investec, it seemed that Yorkshire Tea and Hardys were engaging a lot more with the audience, which was a diverse crowd. I couldn’t quite find the Black Sheep bar (much to my other half’s disappointment) but I’m sure that they engaged fans too?

Looking for precise articulation on sponsorship as a form of promotion, I stumbled across this from Hardy, Mullin and Sutton (2007):

“The acquisition of rights to affiliate or directly associate with a product or event for the purpose of delivering benefits related to that affiliation or association. The sponsor then uses this relationship to achieve its promotional objectives or to facilitate and support its broader marketing objectives.”[1]

Taking this into consideration, on the day I visited Headingley, Yorkshire Tea certainly seem to be the winners of the sponsorship battle. As I’m not a cricket fan (although I did watch the highlights on day 4 so I’m slowly being converted!) I was surprised to learn that the brand has been the ‘official tea’ of English cricket since 2013; a deal that they have extended until 2019. The Yorkshire Tea website has a dedicated section to cricket where they explain the connection:

“Cricket is the only sport that stops for tea. And coming from a county with such a strong cricketing history, we’ve always felt a close connection to the game, right down to the illustration of a village game on our box. We’ve been supporting cricket at local league level for over 20 years, and that’s why Yorkshire Tea is the Official Brew of England Cricket.”[2]

So, the fit seems logical and the brand bring the sponsorship package to life through an engaging presence at matches and the clever use of social media campaigns, including the ‘Best teabag bowler in the world’ and the ‘Teapot Test game’. Taking their commitment to the game a step further, the brand pursues a Corporate Social Responsibility strategy through the Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week, designed to get school children actively engaged with cricket across England and Wales.

David Jobber (2007)[3] identified the following five driving principles of sponsorship and, after a day at Test Match cricket, I admit that Yorkshire Tea ticked all of the boxes:

• Creation of promotional opportunities;
• Improving community relations;
• Fostering favourable brand and company associations;
• Creating entertainment opportunities;
• Growing publicity.

What they did especially well on the day was creating entertainment through the Yorkshire Tea Band. Delia and Armstrong (2015)[4] proposed that social media and online word-of-mouth should be directly observed to gauge consumers’ reactions to sponsorship – just google ‘Yorkshire Tea Band’ as an example. However, the burning question is does the sponsorship make cricket fans drink more tea to drive market share? With a market share of over 21%, Yorkshire Tea is reported to be the only UK brand that has delivered consistent year-on-year growth in the black tea market. In addition, it has been listed in the YouGov’s Brand Index ranking at number 7 in 2015 and 2016.

Unlike many other FMCG brands, Yorkshire Tea doesn’t rely upon cost-based promotion. To deliver sustainable long-term growth they seek to bring the brand values to life through sponsorship and advertising campaigns. As Taylor’s of Harrogate Head of Brand Marketing, Kevin Sinfield, articulates:

“The market is promotionally driven by our competitors, but it’s about getting the balance right. Rather than joining the promotion race, we’re looking to deliver sustainable long-term growth…. Few categories can restore or uplift like a cup of tea. We are still a nation of tea drinkers. While it’s hard to deliver cut through, as a brand we seek to continue to challenge and stand out from our competitors this year.”[5]

I should admit that as I finish typing this blog I am on my second cup of Yorkshire Tea, but cricket hasn’t made me do it…. I’ve been a fan since I can remember as it’s the only tea that my Dad likes – and he’s from Kent! So, it’s certainly not just a Yorkshire thing! What is for certain is that Investec haven’t achieved their marketing objectives through this sponsorship. The company are reported to be ending their sponsorship of England’s home test matches six years into a 10-year deal (worth £40 million) with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

[1] Hardy, Mullin and Sutton (2007), ‘Sport Marketing’. 3^rd edition. Champaign: Human Kinetics (p.311)

[2] https://www.yorkshiretea.co.uk/cricket

[3] Jobber, David (2007) ‘Principles and Practice of Marketing.’ 5^th edition. McGraw-Hill.

[4] Delia, E.B. and Armstrong, C.G. (2015) ‘Sponsoring the French Open: An examination of social media buzz and sentiment.’ Journal of Sport Management, 29 pp. 184-199.

[5] https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/03/02/yorkshire-tea-culturally-famous/

 

Champion the Customer you say?

One of my favourite quotes (for all the wrong reasons) is from the famously outspoken CEO of Ryanair, Mr Michael O’Leary:

“People say the customer is always right, but you know what – they’re not. Sometimes they’re wrong and they need to be told so.”[1]

Fast forward a couple of years, and a few profit warnings later, and Mr O’Leary seemed to have changed his tune, candidly admitting in 2014:

“If only I’d known being nice to customers was so good for business I’d have done it much earlier.”[2]

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that treating customers fairly and providing a service that exceeds their expectations, will lead to long-term profitability. As a marketer, it still astounds me that companies (some of which I’ve sadly worked for) put so much effort into customer acquisition and brand visual identity that they forget the most fundamental building blocks of customer experience.

 

Customer Experience – enlighten me

The term ‘Customer Experience’ is a tricky one to define. In some organisations’ it is confused with ‘Customer Satisfaction’ and sits firmly under Operations; however, it is so much broader than that (in my humble opinion – and shared by many marketers and marketing scholars). Customer experience encompasses touch points across three stages – pre-purchase, purchase and post purchase – and takes in account physical and emotional responses and perceptions. A more refined definition is provided by Lemon and Verhoef (2016):

“Customer Experience is a multidimensional construct focusing on a customers’ cognitive, emotional, behavioural, sensorial and social responses to a firm’s offerings during the customer’s entire purchase journey.” [3]

So, what are the magic building blocks of customer experience I hear you ask. Well there’s no better place to start than looking at your brand promise. If businesses do not deliver on the promise they make to their customers then a poor experience is guaranteed. However, this delivery needs to be consistent across all customer touchpoints; remembering that a brand is only as good as its reputation and an individual’s own experience of it.

 

Let’s start with Brand

“A strong brand is now more dependent on customers’ direct experience with an offering and their relationship with the firm that produces it.”[4]

In an omnichannel world of confused customer touch points and very public reviews, the provision of a poor customer experience will make a dent in your company’s brand armour. As a marketing manager, I’m officially appointed as ‘Brand Champion’. Gone are the days when this was just fixated on visual identity…… whilst still crucial, I must admit (don’t hate me!) I’m a little more relaxed about it (as it’s constantly evolving!). What I’m not relaxed about is how the brand is represented at every stage of the customer journey.

Historically, a marketer would work with Sales (well if the Sales team welcomes them and vice-versa) to make sure that the enquiry to conversion touch-points were pitch-perfect, and then leave the rest to Operations. In some organisations (hopefully not many!) this is still the case.  Personally, I’m not comfortable with this and as a marketer work with order processing, fulfilment and customer care to make sure we deliver…. and when we don’t, then there are processes in place where incidents can be discussed and lessons learnt. Every unfavourable experience of a customer touchpoint is a potential social media disaster waiting to happen.

 

Get out and experience the real world…. and Champion!

I’ve worked in a Marketing team of one (it can be lonely!) as well as being part of a 60+ Marketing department where Product, Customer Comms, Channel Comms & Customer Insight sat under the Head of Marketing. Whilst in the larger team we got close to the customer though consistent feedback from a very large Insight team, the real nuggets are gleaned by going out with Sales to visit clients, by sitting in the Contact Centre listening to calls, speaking with Customer Complaints (often so overlooked in marketing campaign evaluations and pre-planning). As a marketer surely it’s my job to be nosey? If the brand is damaged, then I can’t do my job properly and, at the end of the day, it’s customer perception that makes or breaks a brand because customers’ own the brand, not us!

To conclude (although I could speak about customer experience for a very long time!), the term is in danger of becoming yet another Marketing buzzword… a bit like (dare I say it) ‘customer value proposition’ (having been seconded into a Proposition Consultant role and a brief stint as a Proposition Manager I’m allowed to say that!). We pay lip service to it, but how do we implement across organisations to ensure each customer touch point delivers on the customer promise, and so reinforces brand values, which provides optimum value to both the customer and the business? Answers on a postcard please……..

 

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/lists/Michael-OLearys-most-memorable-quotes/

[2] https://www.ft.com/content/227f63fa-44cb-11e4-9a5a-00144feabdc0

[3] Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey, Lemon, K. and Verhoef, P., Journal of Marketing, November 2016 (p.70)

[4] Harvard Business Review – https://hbr.org/