Do you understand how consumers feel about the ads you broadcast on the many media platforms they use every day? Research by Nielsen shows that all the marketing you’re paying so much for is least trusted by the buyers you’re aiming to hook. Why? Because how can you sell to a customer whose ideals you don’t identify with?
“Conversations are such a subtle but powerful tool. They can make or break reputations, brands and policies.” – Serge Vaezi, strategy and creative officer at Ogilvy
As an established franchisor with a loyal customer base, you want to ensure your marketing strategy isn’t talking at clients, but to them. Here’s how you can stop spending money in the wrong place and start measuring the right elements of your campaign:
Customers expect you to be ‘woke’
Whether you realise it or not, your brand is operating within its audience’s cultural context. Consumers are increasingly demanding that brands acknowledge and contribute to this cultural context.
“We are failing to measure the things that matter most for our client,” says Vaezi. “We spend most of the time measuring the things we create, while our colleagues in advertising spend their time measuring the impact of the things they create on consumers.”
Rather shift your focus to adapting your offering and message to your customers’ needs, desires and interests.
Watch and learn from your audience
“Listen to your audience, watch what they’re doing, listen to their behaviours, and understand what’s interesting and motivating for them,” advises Vaezi.
The insights gleaned from this exercise can be used as the basis for developing a brief aimed at becoming a part of their world, he says. Remember that the message you’ll be putting out will change as your customers change.
Sorbet, for example, launched a make-up range in early 2018 to complement its existing salon services arm and its skincare and nail products. The franchise partnered with Clicks to launch The Skin Tone Project aimed providing consumers with the most extensive foundation ranges in South Africa.
Your product doesn’t always come first
In the age of experience trumping actual products, you ought to consider developing a value proposition that shifts the focus from your product’s features and benefits, and “instead develop a narrative and positioning that acknowledges and contributes to the culture, or perhaps even resolves specific cultural tensions,” says Vaezi. “In other words, stand up for something that people consider meaningful and which is also aligned to the brand’s essence.”
This is the secret sauce to producing creative, culturally relevant campaigns that connect with influencers and leaders, while leveraging cultural values and ideologies.
