Hill+Knowlton Strategies

This is the third blog post in the series of nine, which follows on from the previous blog post, taking inspiration from the Cabinet Office commissioned report entitled MINDSPACE. Changing or shaping behaviour and inspiring or engaging people is often a perquisite of many of the work we do for clients at H+K. The MINDSPACE report sets out nine of the most robust (non-coercive) influences on our behaviour, which is captured in the simple mnemonic MINDSPACE:

MINDSPACE (Dolan et al., 2010)

+  +  +         #3  Norms         +  +  +

Norms – the power of social norms are such that if your brand sits outside of social convention it can deter consumers. Furthermore if your product is one that defies social norms, goes against it, then your potential consumer base becomes much smaller. Products and marketing have to stand out today in a competitive market place, but not go against social norms to the extent that it alienates the brand and turns away consumers.

However, social norms change over time and place. Often subtly or gradually, but it is for this reason why trends and different cultural appreciation becomes key to successful brand building. Local market PR and advertising activation is important to understand key opinion leaders and how to position a brand strongly in relation to social norms.

The Power of Social Norms

Indeed the subtle social norm differentials can be seen not just culturally and geographically, but also digitally. A random follow on Twitter is seen as great, but a random friend request on Facebook is seen at best somewhat eery. Furthermore, dating apps and websites invite a completely different type of social norm and etiquette to  everyday encounters in a bar. And also a different type of social norm with regard to other social platforms. Two seemingly similar online concepts of video messaging – Skype and chat roulette – but yet the social norms of these two digital spaces are stark. Parental caution is advised for the latter!

Brands also have the power to create social norms. In order to maximise the power of brands, these norms and reputations then need to be maintained. Looking at norms and product innovation – as is evident with countless examples – is a gradually, slowly changing process. A pod of vanilla in Coca Cola. A whiff of aniseed in Pimms.  A sprig of rosemary to Pringles. Adding a hint of coffee flavour to a Kit Kat, or a fifth finger, is something innovative, but not so far removed from the norm that consumers can’t still relate to the original product. Change the product from fingers of chocolate  to ‘toes’ of dried fruit and change the name to ‘Dit Dog’ and consumers don’t get it. Therefore, brands create norms in their marketing strategy – have a break, have a kit kat. Change the Kit Kat too much, and the hard work is undone. The power of the brands social influence can be diluted. Why is the Apple brand family evolving at what seems like a slower rate than mankind! Because actually consumers don’t like sudden change, and too much change can be bad thing for marketing.

New Product Development - Kit Kat Fifth Finger

It is to that end where brand management and brand reputation becomes crucial. To not allow hard work to be undone. To reinforce brand values and defend them when threaten. But also to create social norms and influence culture through branding and marketing. In brand messaging and communications, understanding and responding to the subtle social norm differentials that exist geographically, culturally and digitally are key to effective communication strategy and execution.

Follow me on Twitter @AndrewPCBarratt

MINDSPACE (Dolan et al., 2010)

+  +  +         #2  Incentives         +  +  +

Incentives can be a powerful tool in harnessing the power of the public – engaging people and motivating behaviour change. The impact of incentives clearly depends upon factors such as type, magnitude and timing of the incentive. In a competitive economic environment brands are increasingly using incentives to attract consumers and stand out from the competition.

The power of incentive

Brands in the service industry – such as high-street banks, mobile phone network providers – are using incentives and rewards to become more attractive to consumers. However, the behavioural economic insight loss aversion is important in order to understand how best to use incentives in marketing. Loss aversion is used to explain that we dislike losses more than we like gains of the equivalent amount. What this means, for example, is human beings feel the loss of losing  £1 more than we feel the elation of being given £1. Therefore, brands that emphasise the money (or reward) that people will lose out on by not taking an action/purchasing can have a more powerful impact and motivation on people’s behaviour, rather than simply highlighting the amount they could be given if purchasing.

Brands in the fast-moving consumer goods industry consistently have to compete for consumer’s attention. Unilever’s Magnum icecream is an example of a brand currently (April 2013) using incentives as a marketing strategy to drive sales and engage consumers. The incentive Magnum is giving consumers is the chance to win a designer handbag worth £800 every day. However, now understanding loss aversion, if Magnum had framed the incentive in a way that consumers feel that they are losing out if they do not purchase, then this could have a more powerful impact on people’s behaviour to drive sales. Although, the type and magnitude of the incentive of a £800 handbag could be significant enough in itself to demand attention from some consumers. Furthermore, people have a habit of over-weighing small probabilities – for example lotteries – and so consumers may over-weigh the small chance of winning the handbag.

Magnum - win a designer handbag everyday

Another example of using incentives to engage a community is ConAgra Foods. In order to increase engagement on it’s Healthy Choice Facebook Page, users who “liked” the brand received a coupon for 75 cents off their next Healthy Choice purchase. ConAgra then coaxed more consumers to join its Facebook page by dangling a “buy one, get one free” coupon offer. In other words, the coupon’s value grew as more consumers joined the page.

However, a fundamental problem with using incentives, is that once an activity (such as buying a Magnum) is associated with external reward (chance to win a handbag), then individuals are less inclined to participate with the activity in the future without further incentives. Furthermore, and worst still, is if a brand fails to deliver on a reward/incentive – an example would be Red Bull’s VIP trip of a lifetime to the Belgium Grand Prix Competition. Red Bull was censured and criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in February 2013 after sending competition winners on a budget trip across three countries, making them share a bed and then sending them home early after they were barred from entering the race’s VIP enclosure.

Incentives - influencing behaviour and engaging consumers

In summary, incentives can be a useful tool to engage people’s behaviour – and the impact of the incentive depends upon type, magnitude and timing. People have a habit of over-weighing small probabilities, meaning competitions can be effective. Losses loom larger than gains, and so framing incentives to consumers in such a way that they feel the loss if they don’t participate can be a powerful communication and marketing tool. However, if brands become associated with external reward/incentive then consumers can be less inclined to participate in the future without these external rewards/incentives.

Follow @AndrewPCBarratt

This is the first in a series of nine blog posts which takes inspiration from a Cabinet Office commissioned report entitled MINDSPACE. The report sets out nine of the most robust (non-coercive) influences on our behaviour, which is captured in the simple mnemonic MINDSPACE:

MINDSPACE (Dolan et al., 2010)

The vast majority of government public policy aims to change or shape behaviour – changing or shaping behaviour and inspiring or engaging people is often a perquisite of many of the work we do for clients at H+K. “Hard” instruments such as legislation or regulation is the most effective way for policy-makers to compel us to act in certain ways. However, these instruments are not readily available, of course, to PR professionals aiming to change people’s behaviour and attitudes towards detergents, gin, football boots and the like – “hard” approaches are not appropriate. Policy-makers are increasingly turning to less coercive measures, such as incentives and sophisticated communications techniques, to change and shape behaviour. These less coercive approaches, summarised by MINDSPACE, are directly applicable to the work we do in marketing, advertising and communications. My series of posts in the coming months will work through each of the influences outlined in the MINDSPACE framework, giving examples and explaining how the framework is applicable to our industry.

+  +  +         #1  Messenger         +  +  +

The way we respond to information depends greatly on the reactions we have to the source of that information.We are heavily influenced by who communicates information. Whatever our considered judgment about the value of a message, we automatically give it more or less weight according to the messenger. For example, we are often swayed by authority that has associations of expertise: public trust in expert public sector workers like doctors and teachers is much higher than for politicians.

Brands understand the importance of ‘the messenger’ with regard to influencing consumer choices and driving sales. Celebrity brand ambassadors are effective marketing techniques, because who communicates determines the consumer response and engagement to brand messages. Marketing spends are increasing in budget for the celebrity brand ambassador - PepsiCo struck a $50 million deal with Beyonce to be Pepsi’s brand ambassador.

Beyonce - Pepsi Brand Ambassador

Of course there are plenty of notable examples in UK/global brand marketing campaigns, and include Walkers veteran Gary Linekar, Marc Jacobs and Taylor Swift for Diet Coke, and Blackberry and Alicia Keys. However, sometimes brands can get it wrong – Alexander ‘Hooray Henry’ Armstrong was dropped in 2009 after 7 years as Pimms brand ambassador, reportedly for being ‘too posh’.

Brad Pitt - Chanel No. 5

In order to quantify and qualify the use of celebrities in marketing campaigns it is important to evaluate their awareness, appeal, and relevance to a brand’s image and the celebrity’s influence on consumer buying behaviour. Advertisers are using celebrities for voice overs, and public relations + communications agencies understand the importance of influential celebrities to engage and shape behaviour. Harnessing the power of celebrities social media platforms can be a very powerful marketing tool. We saw that this week at H+K in which Ricky Gervais and Stephen Fry’s Twitter accounts generated a huge amount of consumer engagement with a hashtag campaign for our client Aviva.

Post your comments below on which celebrity brand ambassadors you think are the good, the bad and the ugly!

Follow @AndrewPCBarratt

Last week I attended The Economist’s annual The Big Rethink conference for marketers and PR professionals on the future of consumer marketing. The day was chaired by Economist journalist, Robert Lane Green and speakers were from HSBC, OgilvyOne, Virgin Media and many more. The conference focused on how brands are changing and how the consumer’s expectations and perceptions are shifting.

Here are my three key learnings from the event:

• Experience will keep your consumer interested

Nader Tavassoli, Professor, London Business School kicked off his presentation by stripping things right back to basics to remind us all what ‘to consume’ means: to destroy something through use. More often than not, marketers focus on the product and not on the user. Just consuming a product is not where value lies; it is in the experience of consuming it.

Experience is vital in today’s consumer marketing and it will only get more pronounced; McDonald’s recent advertising campaign is testament to this.

By focusing on the consumer instead of the product they subtly evoke the emotional connection the consumer has with their brand – a feeling of comfort and familiarity on an otherwise disorientating first day at a new job.

McDonald’s understands that the consumer does not want the best hamburger ever made. The consumer wants the recreation of a memory – the first time they ate a MacDonald’s. People want to own experiences and the emotional connection you get with a brand will bring consumers back for more.

• Know your truth and achieving ‘meaningful consumption’

Brands need to understand their truth, explore their roots and find the tenets of their story. Storytelling has always been a no-brainer in PR and marketing but the consumer is finding out more about brands and what they advocate through social media. Chris Clark, Head of Marketing at HSBC warned the room that with knowing your truth creates expectation and these expectations must be met by your brand and employees.

Anne Lise Kjaer talked about truth as a means towards ‘meaningful consumption’. Consumers want to engage with brands that have a notable impact on your sense of wellbeing and quality of life.

According to Anne, only 20 per cent of brands fall into this category. Worryingly, consumers would not care if 70 per cent of brands disappeared, if it meant 30 per cent offered them meaningful consumption.

Kjaer’s Global Mindset Map (www.kjaer-global.com) clearly links trends, values and typologies to produce a profound understanding of people and their lifestyle and highlights challenges opportunities for companies to address.

To achieve ‘meaningful consumption’ you need to bring the customer into your business. The key to marketing success is listening, engaging and understanding your customer.

Jeff Dodds, Executive Director, Brand and Marketing at Virgin Media and Chris Clark (HSBC) stressed the necessity to represent the customer in our businesses, otherwise they will be forgotten and our marketing efforts will fail. Ultimately, it is time for marketers to realize that the power lies with the people rather than just in the boardroom.

Although some businesses will find bringing the customer into their business difficult, it is detrimental not to engage them. Big companies must see things from their customer’s point of view, do not assume one size fits all.

• Experiment: Don’t be afraid to do it!

Google does it all the time, some things work, some things don’t and our perception of Google as a successful business has not been tarnished for it.

Companies must embrace creative thinking in order to succeed in tomorrow’s marketing. Encourage creativity within your business and encourage employees to tell their visions of the story. Let them be your evangelists. Adapt your campaigns to the different personalities of your consumers and encourage them to shape and help make your product or service better.

So we near the end of the first month of 2012 – WELL DONE US. Except that Italian captain. And Tom Watson’s intern. And all those naive enough to believe that the SOPA/PIPA thing has gone away (if those words mean nothing to you then read this). And Snickers. And unwitting singers at American churches. And the Russian police. And Bayern Munich. And Uzbekistan. Everyone else, though, pat yourselves on the back – especially me, who found my very own doppelganger last week! We survived the most depressing day of the year, and from hereon in everything will be just peachy.

Read the rest of this entry »

I believe it was contemporary urban philosopher Ferris Bueller who once said ‘Life moves pretty fast; if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’ (NB – on reflection, I don’t know why I wrote that; I hate people who ascribe deep significance to the throwaway utterances of fictional characters. IT WAS WRITTEN BY A SCREENWRITER, YOU CHUMP). This edition of Web Curios is brought to you by the whooosh-ing sound that time makes as it flies past your ears; it seems like only yesterday that I was writing the last one of these, talking about holidays and the end of summer and stuff. All of a sudden it’s December, I’ve not written a Curios for a month (not that any of you CARE, you unappreciative whelps), and you can’t turn on the television without a famous trying to sell you stinkwater. On an unrelated note, I am yet to eat a mince pie in 2011. If anyone would like to courier some over to H&K towers, I will be very grateful and possibly do a small happy dance in gratitude; thanks (in the unlikely event that HRH Prince Charles is reading this, I am a massive fan of Duchy Originals).

Read the rest of this entry »

Phew. Three weeks since I last did one of these, and my word has there been a lot going on. Bankers have shut down a church (well, you know, indirectly)! The Sun gave us possibly the most tasteless frontpage in years! One of the most appalling hatecrimes of the (admittedly newish) decade was committed to little or no mainstream media fanfare! France and Germany mocked Italy’s sexually incontinent Premier! The filthy rich just keep on getting richer! And loads more besides, much of it even more dispiriting than those few links I’ve just shared.

Ignoring the fact that world is going to hell in the proverbial handcart, though, I’ve actually had rather a lot of fun (because that is obviously the MOST IMPORTANT THING). I’ve seen comedy; I’ve been to an awesome gig;I’ve been to the theatre and seen probably the most harrowing play I’ve ever seen, ever (actually, make that the second-most harrowing - this was probably worse); I’ve eaten some truly tremendous food; and I got to see a truly tremendous rapper live in a tiny venue. So, you know, I’m alright. Are you alright? I’m starting to worry.

Anyway, enough of this. Make yourself a cup of tea, settle down in a suitably confortable chair, and imagine my soothing, dulcet tones reading this out to you (and, if you like, imagine my malcoordinated body acting out every single video too. You pervert). You may want to get some biscuits too; this could take a while.

Image courtesy of Neutron, LLC

Read the rest of this entry »

The pretence that this blog is a weekly thing really has to stop. One month since the last one, fact fans. I’ve had THINGS TO DO. Not least going to Brussels and Croatia, where I went on holiday and did NOTHING other than read and swim and be horizontal. It was awesome, and as a result I now look less like this and more like this. No really, I do.

BUT that was then and this is now; I have returned to a world in which the internet spends all its time railing against the evil of corporations and then…er…goes incontinent with grief over the passing of the head of one of the world’s largest corporations; in which Silvio manages to somehow become even more ridiculous and offensive;  and a world in which somehow one of the members of 1980s pop combo Hue & Cry has become a consultant on games, play and ludic theory. We live in interesting times. Here are some totally insignificant bits of online ephemera to help distract you from what appears to be the total meltdown of civilisation which is going on all around us. Christ, I sound like an old man.

Socially responsible graffiti on a Croatian beach hut

Read the rest of this entry »

“Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness; close bosom friend of the maturing sun…” – or that’s what Keats said. Personally speaking, I think Keats can do one, as can September and Autumn in general. Everything smells of wet dog and regret, it’s cold and miserable and it’s now just the long, slow trudge towards another season of crass mass-consumerism and endless, interminable, incomprehensible perfume adverts (NB – anyone who works in advertising who reads this, please feel free to explain to me why perfume advertising is so oblique, as I have literally no idea).

Think, then, of this edition of Web Curios as the lightbox to your SAD, the plaster to your axewound (for future reference, an unpleasant conjunction of words to Google), the United Nations to your genocide. I’m here to help. To that end, here are some recommendations for awesome stuff you can do in London over the next few months (NB – that last link is one of the best things I’ve seen in years, very much recommended. Oh, and for an interesting take on Libya, you could do worse than read this). In the real world! NOT ON THE INTERNET! Crazy but true.

But for now it’s still all about the internet. Well, on this particular blog it is, anyway. If you don’t like it, you know what you can do (though I’d prefer it if you didn’t; I’m needy, and low-to-moderate traffic figures are all that’s standing between me and a P45).

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh dear, I fear I may be committing to a long, ongoing series here. But as a well-known webmong always tells me, it’s good to blog on an issue and keep going at it. That’s why, after July’s top tips for Powerpoint, this week we bring you our top tips on how best to engage with bloggers.

Blogs and bloggers are a key channel. Some are extremely well read, some of them reach exactly the audience that you want/need. Most of them however are not professional, and many may not have encountered us PRs before. With this in mind, here are our tips – with thanks to Candace, Daisy, Becca, Matt and Joey.

Blogs and Bloggers are a great channel for reaching your audience - but only if you approach a blogger campaign in the right way

1. Most bloggers aren’t professionals – yes, some are dedicated, paid-up writers, and many more monetise their sites. The fact is though, the vast majority blog out of love for their subject. Many are unlikely to have been, or want to be, pestered by PR people incessantly pushing a product or service. Assaulting their senses with marketing-speak is therefore likely to lead to an instant bash of the big read ‘D’ button. Establish a dialogue, explain and justify why you’re writing to them (without the marketing-speak) and don’t push them for an instant decision.

Read the rest of this entry »