The Trials And Tribulations of Marketing Alcohol

The global alcoholic drinks industry is expected to exceed $1 trillion in 2014, according to MarketLine. Market volume is predicted to reach almost 210 billion liters in 2014, a 10% increase in five years and the industry is characterized by increasing fragmentation (with the three leading companies holding almost 40% of overall market volume.) Alcohol marketing ranges from mass media advertising to sponsorship of events, product placement, internet, merchandise, usage of other products connected with alcohol brands, social networks etc.

So you think it would be fun to work on an alcohol brand?  We have certainly had our share of experiences over the years with brands like Mikes Hard Lemonade, Molson Canadian, Molson Dry, Rickard’s, Creemore, Heineken, and Coors Light to name a few.  This experience has taught us a number of lessons chiefly that the alcohol industry is a crowded one. 

You're fighting for shelf space where people judge you by your label, it's highly regulated (especially in Ontario and Canada,) and while alcohol marketing might sound a lot more sexy than whatever you're selling, it's really, really hard work.  But that doesn't mean you have a Super Bowl commercial or buy a billboard to get attention or disrupt.  There are a number of great examples of clever creativity from alcohol brands - both big and small.  For example:

Disruption 101: Make a spectacle of yourself

To celebrate their "Anytime Ale," Austin Beerworks created a limited edition 99-pack of beer for $99. At seven-feet long, this thing takes two people to carry out of the store (if you can find it). Since they only released a limited amount of these 99-packs, Austin Beerworks gave clues as to which grocery stores and gas stations around town would have them in stock on their social media accounts. People were lining up outside of convenience stores for hours to be the first to get them.

The lesson: Austin Beerworks didn't change their product or spend a ton on advertising to spread the word. Instead, they relied on the exclusivity to build up excitement and the spectacle of a seven-foot-long box of beer to keep it going. Even better, a 99-pack of beer is a perfect excuse to have a party and tell even more people about Austin Beerworks.

Exclusivity 101: Send them a golden ticket

We've talked about Maker's Mark's amazing Ambassador program before. It's all about helping their biggest fans take ownership of the brand and take pride in talking about it. When you sign up, you get your name on a barrel plaque. Once the bourbon in that barrel matures, they send you a golden ticket for the opportunity to come pick up your personal bottle from the batch and hand dip it in their iconic red wax.

The lesson: It doesn't get much more personal than that for a distillery churning out mass quantities of bourbon every day. Your customers love feeling a personal connection to your stuff, and Maker's Mark proves you don't have to run a small shop to pull it off.

Gamification 101: Product as Conversation Starter

Did you know that Pabst Blue Ribbon's beer bottles have playing cards printed underneath their caps? Or that Lone Star bottle caps have riddles written on them? These aren't just fun little gimmicks. They're conversation-starters. You can make a game out of the PBR "cards" you collect or ask your friends to help you solve Lone Star's bottle cap riddle (because they're not always easy).

The lesson: The more excuses (aka opportunities) you give your customers to talk to other people, the more they'll talk about your product.

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A Brief History Of Social Media

For those of you living in a cave, SOCIAL MEDIA are Internet sites where people interact freely, sharing and discussing information about each other and their lives, using a multimedia mix of personal words, pictures, videos and audio. At these Web sites, individuals and groups create and exchange content and engage in person-to-person conversations. They appear in many forms including blogs and microblogs, forums and message boards, social networks, wikis, virtual worlds, social bookmarking, tagging and news, writing communities, digital storytelling and scrapbooking, and data, content, image and video sharing, podcast portals, and collective intelligence.  

From a marketing standpoint however, the history of Social Media probably looks more like this:

Understanding 'Pain Point' Positioning

In our modern era of information overload, consumers are only able to accept and absorb messages consistent with prior knowledge or experience. 'Positioning' therefore helps break through the message clutter by offering a simplified message consistent with what the consumer already believes.  This is achieved by focusing on the perceptions of the consumer, rather than on the reality of the product.  Identifying consumer’s pain points is critical to effective positioning.

The consumer’s perceptions are largely determined by existing pain points.  Have you identified customer ‘pain-points’ for your products and services?  People spend money on two things; to fight pain and to pursue pleasure. It’s likely that the worse the pain or the problem, the more chance you have of selling a solution. The better the solution you offer, the quicker the customer will pay. Generally there is more staying power in ‘pain-solving businesses’ than there is in ‘pleasure businesses’.

So, look for pain. Look for things or situations that people find uncomfortable, annoying or frustrating. Focus on a ‘cure’ and let this help you as a guide to develop a business that will ‘make the pain go away’. You should also focus on trying to assess when it is that people feel the pain most. It’s easier to sell a solution to a current, severe pain than to solve something less intense.

Questions to ask when testing whether or not your business is addressing a real customer pain:

• What pain does your company solve?
• Why should people care?
• Can you do this in a few words?
• Can you persuade people to purchase your product using an elevator pitch?

The Importance of Identifying Customer Pain Points

To put it very simply, pain points are ‘cries for help.’  Collecting a list of pain points helps you understand what your prospects truly desire.  Referring to these same pain points in your promotion and advertising and in your one-to-one meetings with customers and prospective customers help them better relate to your offerings. It almost instantly builds rapport that leads to a higher trust factor.

Winners don’t always have the best product, the biggest name, or the deepest pocket, or even the most loyal customers. Many times the winner does the best job in understanding and meaningfully addressing customers’ pain points.

In sales and marketing circles you will hear a lot of advice about finding a prospective customer’s ‘pain point.’   A pain point is the when and the why, the reason customers choose you – the point at which they realize you offer the solution to their need – their “pain”.

The choice of the words “pain point” is clearly intentional: only something that is severe enough to be painful to your customer will cause them to act to relieve the pain.  This pain doesn’t necessarily have to be in a negative sense; the pain can easily be that of the frustration of wanting a product or service to do even more than it does right now.

If you’ve established good communications with your customers, they’ll tell you their pain points.

Define the ‘Pain-Point’

It’s important to define the pain point that drives your business. Sometimes this can be obvious.  A car supplies transportation, solving the pain of getting from A to B.  However some pain points can be less obvious. Does anybody really need an extremely expensive car that carries only two people and goes three times faster than the law allows? No, but some people want that, and businesses that supply it do very well.

Take restaurants for example, some solve the problem of getting food cheaply and fast. Others provide a service for people to go out and celebrate an occasion with all the trappings. Out of the two which would you most likely find at an airport or train station? Not all restaurants have the same mission. Does the high-end restaurant solve a problem as much as it fills a need and supplies a want?  Check out how Papa John identified and leveraged positioning based on pain point.

There are four questions you should seek to answer when identifying ‘pain-points’:

• What is the true source of pain?
• Who sees the most value in having that pain removed?
• Who will ultimately pay for a solution?
• Is there a substantive market that will benefit from your solution?

Define the pain point that drives your business. What customer problem, need, or want does your business address?  This is a core concept you’ll need to establish within your mission statement. Who is better off because your business exists, and why are they better off?

Need some help defining your Pain Point's (or your competitors?) Give us a shout. 

 

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KRISPY KREME'S "DOUGHNUTS ARE BAD FOR YOU" AD

Copywriting is writing copy (text) for the purpose of advertising or marketing and is intended to influence beliefs.   Some of it is great, much of it meh.  When done properly it stimulates and stirs the emotions. In 1983 Ogilvy wrote, “I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.” It’s still true today. 

Every once in a while we stumble upon truly great copywriting.  Here is one such example from our friends at Krispy Kreme; a clear and calculated response to the widespread push-back on the dangers of eating unhealthy snacks like Donuts.

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Nike's Emotional Branding Wins Hearts

We are surrounded with so much information today it's a miracle that any messages break through, but Nike's strategy (via Wieden+Kennedy) of creating emotional, empowering ads and large viral pyramids that leverage the Nike brand and message content is one of the most effective emotional branding examples in the marketing world today. Their customer loyalty is astronomical, all thanks to the masterful application of emotional branding and the centuries-old storytelling archetype of Heroism. 

Nike Advertising and Emotional Branding

Nike's brand inspires fervent customer loyalty around the world.  This is primarily because Nike's advertising uses the emotional branding technique of archetypes in its advertising – more specifically, the story of the Hero. It’s an age old tale, a tale of a hero pitted against a great foe, and after a great struggle, emerging triumphant. 

Building Loyalty + The Hero Archetype

Nike's advertising isn’t the only group that uses the Hero archetype to inspire customer loyalty. Many other companies use this emotional branding technique to great effect. In most cases, the foe is external. The most common story of the hero is that of an underdog, a man of humble origins setting out to defeat a greater evil – one far more powerful than he – and, against all odds, emerging triumphant.  As long as there is a clearly identified enemy and a clearly identified hero, the emotional branding can begin. 

Brand Strategy

Nike's advertising takes the common hero story and turns it on its head. Instead of inspiring customer loyalty by singling out an external enemy, it pulls out the stops and focuses on an internal foe – our laziness. Nike knows just how often we battle with our lazy side. Every morning when that alarm goes off and it’s still totally dark outside, the battle begins. When we choose how long to run, the battle continues. This is how Nike's marketing uses emotional marketing to inspire customer loyalty. They know that while some people may identify with an external foe, all people identify with an internal one.

Nike's strategy resonates because laziness is a universal foe and someone we can all hate, the "consumer is the brand hero". In one way or another, we are all the hero of our own story.  Nike's marketing has long since identified that feeling – and used it to inspire timeless customer loyalty.  They succeed by showing people how to dream bigger and live better. Help them to care more, enable them to do great things and inspire them to be the hero of their story.  Just watch the video below...

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The Society of Digital Agencies Report | Volume 2_ 2013

The SoDA Report (Volume 2, 2013) from SoDA