Is NEXT still relevant?

Since moving to Swindon in late-October, I can bet my friends and family would describe me as going a bit 'furniture mad'. I've been scouring every furniture site, warehouse, store for not only the best deals, but my perfect piece of furniture.

I used to sell sofas in NEXT during my first couple of years at university and lust over the beautiful sofas and perfectly matching furniture sets that were bang on-trend. Every colour, pattern, handle or design was so carefully thought out and I used to spend every 4-8pm shift on a Friday planning out my dream lounge or bedroom.

Finally, I have that dream flat! Furniture shopping has become my addiction and therefore I have spent a lot of time in NEXT stores searching for the perfect piece. However, after finding some great pieces, I never ended up actually going through with any of the purchases. I found almost all of NEXT's furniture products cheaper online. There were almost identical items for over half the price- I was not prepared to pay double for a brand name that I wouldn't have even been proud of owning.

One may argue, that although NEXT do not compete on price, they have a range of added-value benefits including fantastic distribution networks (you can click & collect before midnight the day before), great customer service (I remember giving someone a refund on a rug they bought 2 years before) and convenient locations (drive up, pick up). I agree these are fantastic benefits which the customer can see the real value in and perhaps why they can still act as a semi-premium retailer. However, I don't know if customers are really willing to pay double the price.

Not premium or value

There's no argument- NEXT's quality in terms of manufacturing and materials is unmatchable to other retailers on their scale. For such a huge retailer, their products do have that 'personal', do I dare say 'home-made' feel to them. It is evident that they beat the likes of The Range or IKEA when it comes to intricate and careful designs, however NEXT are not on a par with ultra-quality stores such as John Lewis or House of Fraser who have less stores, yet serve more carefully selected items from well-known, luxury brands.

I feel as though constantly acting as the 'middle' guy can be a win in some cases, NEXT for me is for the families who want to tap in to the luxury lifestyles, but aren't quite at the bespoke or tailored levels. However, not really defining your market could also be a real hindrance for NEXT as they are a reachable brand for most, yet I'm not sure how many of us would consider them as a treat if there is no real perceived product satisfaction, i.e. I was just as happy buying my mirrored dressing table from a never-heard-of online retalier than I would have been from NEXT, however had it been John Lewis I might have thought differently.

Discontinuing ranges

Another factor that deterred me from investing in furniture from NEXT, especially having had worked there, was there continual range refreshes. I know how fast paced their ranges are, not just furniture but clothing and accessories too. As I wanted to buy a couple of pieces at a time, I was relunctant to buy from NEXT for fear that the same range may have been discontinued the next month. Online, there is less of a fear due to the level of stock they can actually carry, due to the fact most of the businesses are literally- a warehouse and an office.

Price Promotions

NEXT don't ever do short-term reductions on their products. Other than 'buy two products, get £20 off each' which, as I said earlier, I was not in a position to do. I am a sucker for a reduction, no matter how small and if I see an item with 20% off it is usually the final push for me to click 'buy'. I know I am totally falling for marketing all of the time!

The infamous sale

Finally, one of the reasons I believe NEXT are irrelevant to me, as a consumer, is the fact I know that all of their products will be half price in 4 or 5 months time. It's the classic story of £100 on Christmas Eve, £10 on Boxing Day. I know this can happen with every retailer, but the face that NEXT places so much emphasis on their sales makes me think "Do I really want this enough to warrant not waiting for the sale? The answer is usually no.


I've placed the context of this blog post entirely on NEXT's furniture offering, however I believe it also applies to their clothing too. I am lacking a clear viewpoint of what they can offer me in exchange for hiked-up prices, a lack of confidence in the brand and a determination to get a better deal.

The Sony Experience in Tokyo

I recently got back from a trip to Asia, including a week in Tokyo. Whilst I was there I saw a crazy amount of fascinating things, but one thing that really caught my eye was the way that Japanese people absolutely love brands. I believe over there they have even more emotional connection to brands than we do- however for completely different reasons. For example, they love designer clothes such as Gucci, Prada etc. but not to show status or wealth such as the Western world, but to indicate quality investment and good money management. I also noticed that despite an influence from the Western world- particularly the U.S., Japanese people love Japanese heritage and culture.

One particular brand which is celebrated and appreciated in Japan, one of, if not the most famous brand to come out of Japan- SONY. I was lucky enough to have the chance to visit the SONY experience centre in Ginza, Tokyo- the technology area of the city where the latest innovations are showcased. The SONY building is technically a 'showroom', but it was so different from any showroom I've ever visited before.

SONY have actually been able to create a free, fun and interesting tourist attraction which hundreds of people flock to see and experience. As everything was in Japanese (of course), I had no idea what I was about to experience before I stepped through the doors!

The whole centre was a showcase of the latest SONY products and effectively was a shop, but with a high focus on experience, understanding and a 'try before you buy' attitude. On the bottom floor was a huge aquarium, which I believe acts as a 'hook' to get customers through the door, but each fish tank was filled with beautiful fish and lined with dozens of SONY cameras which could be demoed whilst you tried to take photos of the sea of colours you could see before you.

Me and my cousin Mya in the SONY building aquarium, in a whale shark's jaw!

Camera demos within the SONY aquarium

Then as you went up the various floors within the centre, each floor was dedicated to a 'sense' or in other words a SONY product range, phones, tablets, laptops, speakers, TVs etc.

One of my masterpieces taken with a SONY camera

Each floor was totally interactive and didn't focus on salesy messages or price promotions, just purely letting the products speak for themselves and letting customers experience the SONY brand wholeheartedly- even the lifts were the height of technology (although being absolutely rammed full of Japanese tourists)

A floral display with ultra HD lenses to use

The centre also featured a customer service/ advice centre and lots of staff on hand to help. My favourite floor was the top floor which brought most of the products together to create an absolutely beautiful film, shot on a small island off the coast of Japan, featuring their beautiful marine life and mainly- the whale shark. This not only was shown on their enormous SONY TV, but had music blasting from their speakers, was shot on their underwater camera and used various filming equipment that was all available to buy. This really demonstrated how powerful the products were and what they were capable of. Throughout the film, the camera equipment used in each section popped up at the bottom.

For gadget lovers, the SONY centre is an absolute must, but even for little old-me, it was still worth a visit (not only because my marketing geek sensor was at an all time high) but also just to learn more about the brand, their commitment to innovation in technology and it was fun! There is even a SONY museum, restaurants and souvenir shops- they have really gone out to make this more than just a 'department' store.

Why is this such a great example of a fantastic retail experience?

Of course, this is an extreme example and it would be impossible to turn every retail store in to the phenomenon of the SONY building, but there are lots retailers can learn from SONY.

1. People like to see, hear, touch, smell, taste things

Interaction with products and brands creates an emotional attachment between a person and a brand, by effectively 'playing' with products, we imagine owning them and can remember them much more at points of purchase than seeing a TV advert or a review in a magazine. 

2. A prestigious brand means people will actually want to learn more about you

We all know the SONY brand, the SONY centre is not there to create brand awareness or as a status symbol in the Ginza district. It doesn't need to be, people will actually go to the area just to visit the centre. We've been brought up with SONY products, they are universally considered as valued possessions, back to the walkman and the more recent Xperia products. They create awe-inspiring products which make customers inquisitive about the technology behind them a.k.a. an opportunity for a sales experience. Create a prestigious brand and you can experiment with what you do to explain it.

3. Create loyal customers and you can start to create 'fandom's'

To SONY building was an absolutely technology geek haven- for SONY fans there is nothing better! The fact they have a brand following is any marketers dream! Brand ambassadors are worth much more to any brand than lots of marketing activities!

4. Bring your brand to life

Ultimately, a brand should have a personality and by experiencing this first hand through the SONY building, customers can understand this concept much more clearly.

118 118 what ARE they up to?

Who doesn't remember these two? 

The 118 118 'Got Your Number' ad was one of the most memorable ads of the early 2000's and started a catchphrase, characters and humour which the nation quickly latched on to and created a stable brand for 118 118 based on their directory enquiries hotline.

The marketing campaign was an absolute hit and the brand became engraved in the minds of the public. The 'Got Your Number' catchphrase was entirely relevant to the brand's offering, the brand had a unique personality and their offering was ultimately clear.
The directory hotline was a great offering back in 2005, when mobile phone ownership was reaching over 80% of the population and a desire for instant information. However, of course with the rapid increase in the use and ownership of smartphones in recent years, 118 118 had a new competitor aside from the numerous other telephone directory services- mobile internet. Consumers can now instantly search for any phone number of piece of information they'd like and best of all- it's free (if included in your data plan). 
Like any business, 118 118 have been working to adapt to this newly emerging competition and I'm not entirely sure their strategy is effective. These are a couple of examples of their new ads in which they try to directly compete with the mobile internet:

I'm not entirely sure what the value that 118 118 are trying to bring to the table is, of course they are trying to compete on the speed of their service, however with mobile networks also constantly working to improve their mobile speeds- I can't see this working as a long-term strategy?
They are of course using the same great branding, however- they aren't offering anything new through these ads and their isn't a real sense of change and adaption here- the company needs to be more forward-thinking and dynamic.
However, as I was driving today, I heard a radio advert for 118 118 Money- offering short-term loans. This new direction for the brand is interesting, however now they are competing with the big dogs at Wonga- who are known for pay day loans! Wonga's branding surrounds this market and in the consumers' minds they are the first brand that comes to mind. 
118 118 are of course trying to differentiate as they sense the lack of demand for a telephone directory service, however it seems that entering an entirely new, unrelated market is extremely risky and will require strong marketing to ensure that customers see the brand in this new light- frankly I can't see it working when they are up against Wonga who's marketing is on point throughout the loans sector.
Let me know your thoughts!

What IS experiential marketing?

Every time I mention my work in experiential marketing, I always get a funny look as some one asks "What on earth is that?!" even from people within the marketing industry, experiential or guerrilla marketing is a niche area which not all brands execute successfully/ to the best of their ability. However, some absolutely excel at it- and for them, it is a highly valuable and invaluable marketing tool which helps the consumer EXPERIENCE the brand.

Traditional advertising provides the consumer with visual and verbal communication- however experiential helps consumers taste, touch, smell and feel the brand- so this involves any physical interaction.... it can be described as 'events' to a certain extent, however not as one might think of conferences, festivals or fashion shows- however these can actually be great examples too! Can you tell why I love this industry yet?

It's actually a huge industry and brands are increasingly seeing it's value and spending more on exepriences and there are so many examples of how to execute great brand experience.

Heidi Cohen defines it beautifully "Experiential marketing enables prospects and customers to interact and connect with your offering in a way that creates memorable branded experiences. Based on these brand-related encounters, customers become more connected to and invested in your offering. This results in increased awareness and sales for B2C, B2B and NFP (not-for-profit) brands."

There's a great statistic which says something like "You are 10 times more likely to tell a friend about something you've experienced". It's a great way to set a positive image of your brand in the consumer's mind and they are so much more likely to remember your brand rather than a TV ad which they've seen amongst 100 others that day. You are also much more likely to share your experience on social media and these posts become ads in their own right- however this is when you are translating into earned media.

The aim is to acquire customers and achieve long-term brand loyalty and therefore achieve a lifetime customer.

In order to be successful, brand experience activity must;
1. Fit with your brand values and communicate them in a way in which the customer understands them.
2. Exist in a space where your target audience are present (of course- that step exists for any marketing activity, but there's no point sampling men's aftershave at a Beyonce concert....)
3. Allow it to be social! Encourage people who take part to share their experiences online through #hashtags, photo sharing or taggable 'check ins'- for every person who takes part, there could be another 100+ who see the experience and see it as desirable!
4. Encourage some sort of emotion- whether than be fun, humour, delight or just thoughtfulness or consideration!
5. Use trained and well-briefed staff to represent the brand correctly

Great examples of brand experience in action

Coca-Cola

How could I not mention Coca-Cola, these guys are the absolute kings of experiential marketing and they absolutely excel at using experiences to engage consumers, deliver their brand message and create shareable content. I've worked for the brand a number of times and they are constantly executing well thought out, consistent, clever events. They have hundreds of examples from the coca-cola truck to share a coke bottles printed in shopping centres, this being a particular favourite: 

Haagen-Dazs

This is a pretty standard campaign- but of course effective as the brand is fantastically represented in a number of methods which allow the consumer to interact. The campaign involves sampling, photo (so the consumer can take away something physical) and a competition. Great touch points which last outside of the event. They also managed to get their brand heavily covered across the fashion event.

Pepsi

This is a brilliant use of technology and Pepsi's video went viral which can be an important objective when executing campaigns. I can guarantee those participants definitely told someone about their experience!

Audi

Another example of how technology is driving outstanding brand experience from Audi. There really is so much more brands can do to engage their audience. This is directly related to the product and therefore conveys innovation, forward-thinking and creativity.

 In summary- experiential marketing is physical, tangible, conveys emotion and happens in real-time.

Dylon Print Ads

Check out these beautifully creative ads from Dylon fabric dyes by Grey Paris

The campaign was titled "Give clothes a second chance" and I love the adverts! They are totally unexpected for such a low involvement product. I feel as though the emotions in the adverts are conveyed extraordinarily and are humourous! 

The ads give the viewer an emotion towards the brand and are very memorable! 

Great job! 

Inside Rolls-Royce

I've been watching the 'Inside...' series on 4OD, a must-watch if you are interested in the luxury goods market!
I especially loved the Rolls-Royce episode which gave an insight into the companies head office and the sales tactics used with high profile customers. Rolls-Royce were creating the Celestial Phantom- their most expensive model ever, containing hundreds of diamonds and documentary shows the rigorous process which is undertaken at the factory and during the design process. Clearly for such a prestigious brand, their cars sell themselves due to the status and authority that comes from owning one of the cars.

However, I was interested to see the types of marketing strategies that Rolls-Royce use in order to target such a highly regarded audience. The typical Rolls-Royce customer may be spending well over £50,000 and almost as much on optional extras to add to the car, therefore the customer service they recieve is fundamental to their loyalty to the brand.

The documentary displayed that most Rolls-Royce customers own 4 or 5 vehicles and therefore retaining such customers is a key priority in their marketing strategy. The salesmen in the car showrooms are highly trained, just as with any car show room, however it is their personal connection with the Rolls-Royce brand that means their passion is revealed and hopefully passed on the customer.

One of the key PR strategies used by the company, is the opportunity for key members of the press, celebrities and other senior influencers to test out the vehicles on a race track, in the hopes that they may write a review/speak about the experience and even that they may be potential buyers... this is classic 'try before you buy' but also an example of getting opinion leaders to form their own recommendations of products. They are also attracting a new selection of young, cool, hip customers which is important to help the brand progress in the future.

The fact that Rolls-Royce are perfectionists when it comes to product design and quality means that they are renowned for providing a consistently impeccable product- there are no reports of one-off disaster products or bad customer experiences as the product checking and factory processes are so strict that it simply doesn't happen at Rolls-Royce! This in itself is a fantastic example of PR!!

 It would be an absolute dream to work in the marketing department at Rolls-Royce, the staff seem to have an extreme passion and love for the brand and their marketing strategy is unique, admirable and seems to work to target customers who enjoy the extremely finer things in life!!

You can watch the show on 4OD- let me know your thoughts!

Steph

Brands who got it RIGHT: Oreo

A brand who have always done their social media marketing exceptionally well is Oreo! They have been referred to a "social media innovators" and have received exceptional recognition for the social media marketing they have demonstrated.

This post is on why I think they are social media masters:

I mentioned them in the newsjacking post previously, but there are hundreds of more examples of excellent use of social media by Oreo.

Check out these vines that they produced:





The thing that makes these so entertaining is the creativity and the success that Oreo create is SHAREABLE.

There is no point creating a loyal fan base or even posting social media content which has no shareability value- make content which people want to tweet or revine or tell their friends about!

Oreo connect with their audience, they have a strong following amongst their social media platforms and they engage with their target audience CONSTANTLY.

What some brands tend to do is run social media campaigns which publish heavy content and responses around a particular product release or around a particular time of year and then remain fairly quiet until the next one. However, Oreo continually updates with relevant, current and consistent content.

They respond to news stories, important dates, trends and peaks- this means users react in real time and are willing to interact with the Oreo brand. Look above at the phone case tweet- Oreo uses wit and humour to engage their audience and inspire others to share more!

Reasons why Oreo wins best use of social media marketing:
HUMOUR, CREATIVITY, CONSISTENCY, SHAREABILITY

an inspiration and a case study for all brands to learn from- Congrats Oreo!!

Thoughts and opinions all my own.
Stephanie Clark

A Christmassy Marketing Day in Southbank!

Hi guys, sorry it's been so long! I can't believe I haven't blogged in an entire month. Will try and keep content consistent from now on!

I've been super busy recently and I can't wait to tell you all the stuff I've been up to!

Starting with last week, I went up to London to attend the 2nd IBM Marketing Placement day in London, I blogged about the first one earlier this year!

The event was held in the Client Centre at IBM's Southbank, London office. This is usually where we host clients and host events and meetings with them. It's a really nice office and much nicer than the Portsmouth one- so it's nice to get out of there, even if it is just for a day ;-)

 

I like it when all the Marketing Placement students get together as we do  fairly often, I've made some good friends from the IBM locations all over the country! The day was mostly focused on IBM's brand and how marketing and communications strategies can positively affect this.

Firstly, we met Alison Orsi who is Head of Marketing, Communication and Citizenship for IBM UK & Ireland- this means she is my bosses, bosses, boss! It was really exciting to hear how she had got to the position in which she is in now and how she never even planned to work in Marketing to begin with! She told us about an IBM advertising campaign in the 90's featuring the pink panter and Johnathan Ross.....?? Not really fitting with the IBM brand we know now!

Softening the corporate image may have been an objective then- but now IBM's Marketing is a lot more targeted and they are much more considerate and thoughtful when making marketing decisions. She focused her presentation on social, valued content creation, SEO and mobile marketing. An interesting thought from the day was the fact that the strategy seems to be shifting from paid-owned-earned towards owned-earned-paid.

Secondly, we had Tony Chapman-Dawe from Strand Communication deliver a presentation on how to write better Marketing text. I found this particularly interesting because of my interest in Journalism- it kind of reminded me of being back in an English lesson!!

He spoke about advertisers being able to grip people in 9 words and how difficult this can be in getting a message across, but also that this is a scope for immense creativity. He presented us with examples from The Economist:

This spark some thought as he noted that brands need to think carefully about the language they use and also what content is actually relevant and of some value to the target audience. He also taught us about the structure of powerpoints and how to create useful and eye catching language. His main theory was that any marketing message should contain Structure, Facts, Examples and Brevity. A great lesson which I will be enforcing in the future! It makes you think about the way that brands craft tweets, in tweets you only have 140 characters to get your message across- therefore they have to be snappy, relevant and concise.

Then, we had Bill Jinks, who project managed IBM's presence at Wimbledon for the last few years. He came to speak to us about the work he had done and how we might like to get involved in working there next year with IBM. The stuff we do at Wimbledon is awesome and far too much to narrow down into one blog post- so check out the website if you would like to know more here.

Then we had a brand quality workshop from 2 members of Marketing who work on the graduate scheme. They spoke to us about the IBM Brand and how it is represented in terms of looking, sounding, thinking and performing like IBM. We also got chance to have a look and dissect IBM's current brand strategy.

We then had an IBM speaker; Mark Devlin spoke to us about IBM's history and the way the IBM brand has been affected and shaped over time. An interesting concept he mentioned was that IBM has never had a figure head like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs to represent it's brand image, instead of having this one person to look to, IBM is represented by it's employees who have their own name aka IBMers!

Overall it was a great day with some great people- afterwards we got to check out the Southbank Christmas Markets and then we were treated to a Chinese in Leicester Square!!

Newsjacking

Sorry I haven't blogged properly in a while- been so busy doing uni work!
I wanted to talk about a new type of Marketing I think is so clever and the brands that can use this have to be quick & receptive!
Newsjacking is a spontaneous way that brands can follow a trend and feed off the back of a trend/news story to promote themselves/evoke positive brand associations. Brands have to monitor the news closely and then react to certain stories carefully to serve their own best interests!

I think it has been used a lot more in the states than here in the UK, especially with huge events like the US election and the superbowl.
For example, the BRITS2013 are on tonight and even just typing #brits2013 into twitter trends, I notice among many of my followers fantasising about 1Direction or Emilie Sande, that there are a number of brands 'riding on the back' of the event.

I think it's a great idea, because when you have an audience already talking about a subject, researching it and watching it, you can directly target that audience whilst they are already captivated.

Not only events and occasions can be targeted, but news stories and even scandals can help brands deliver a message.

This all depends on the brand personality though, I love this LYNX one as I usually love all LYNX marketing.

This was released when the naked pictures of Prince Harry were released and it really represents LYNX's cheeky, laddish brand personality.

However, this indicates that newsjacking isn't for every brand clearly! Newsjacking is usually humourous and if your brand conveys responsibility and serious-ness then newsjacking isn't going to work.

It can also go wrong.... especially when the news story is sensitive.

http://mashable.com/2012/10/30/american-apparel-sandy/

You can read this fab blog about when American Apparel took it too far and gained a negative reaction.

 

Steph