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Effective ways to measure activities for a global brand portfolio

Christene McCauley

Measurement and evaluation (M&E) can be a hugely demanding activity in terms of time, resources and expense. While most client firms recognise the importance of evaluation, it is not always easy to achieve robust, cost-effective and useful results that inform business decisions.

At Diageo, we have been wrestling with these issues for ten years. We have found that, if an organisation establishes some guiding principles and ways of working, and focuses on building marketing and consumer planning capability, it can navigate the evaluation minefield.

Given the extensive Diageo brand portfolio and geographic spread, there are many brand activities in the marketplace at any one time. Potentially, this could create enough evaluation to occupy armies of planners and researchers.

To help consumer planners focus their efforts, there are three guiding principles that shape how Diageo applies best practice in evaluation.

Simplicity, not complexity

Taking a pragmatic approach, rather than an academic one

Focusing on getting the inputs right, as opposed to obsessing about evaluation of the outputs.

The first two principles are in no way revolutionary; they are just good practice and are probably adopted by most client companies. Diageo develops best practice for the key marketing disciplines – advertising, sponsorship, experiential, relationship marketing, PR, packaging and digital marketing activity – centrally, with input from key markets and then trains it in via consumer planning teams.

This embeds best practice approaches and guidelines across the globe. The process of centre-led creation of best practice ensures consistency and ease of application around the world, but also frees up the country teams to focus on development and execution instead of wasting time creating a technique someone else has already thought about. If ten people are working on an advertising pre-testing approach, nine of them have wasted company resources and limited the ability to share findings across markets.

MODELS VERSUS GUIDELINES

For some forms of evaluation, such as advertising, there are quite directive Diageo models and tools. But for other disciplines, such as sponsorship and PR – which vary greatly in terms of objectives, content and how they are implemented – guidelines are given, rather than firm recommendations.

The third principle, (input-focused, rather than obsessed about measuring output), is part and parcel of why any measurement and evaluation is conducted. At a very basic level, the purpose of measurement and evaluation is not just about knowing whether and how an activity worked, but being able to apply the learnings and change something in the marketplace by doing more of what is working well, modifying activities that can be improved, and calling a hard stop to those that do not deliver. In other words, proving to improve.

However, often the time and budget required to conduct meaningful evaluation means the learnings aren’t applied until the next brand planning cycle. Putting more investment, time and resources into developing the input to improve the current cycle of activity may be a better way forward than employing armies of people to create dashboards, traffic lights, top-line reports, monthly reports, quarterly reports and deep-dives to demonstrate the effectiveness of outputs from the cycle of activity that has been completed.

If you want simplicity and pragmatism, it is worth considering carefully how and when to use proprietary techniques. The Diageo stance is to avoid buying into proprietary research techniques that tie it to any one supplier unless there is good reason to do so. There are only two exceptions. One is the company’s global consumer segmentation study, which provides a consistent model to manage our brands globally, and the other is quantitative TV advertising pre-testing, which provides a global database of norms to use when assessing TV advertising performance. For all other research, the most appropriate approach for the business is selected, and then ‘Diageo-fied’ for internal teams.

For example, there is a common global brand tracking study used to monitor the equity of Diageo brands and to evaluate the consumer response to large-scale activities, particularly advertising. Consistency of approach enables Smirnoff or Guinness to be compared within, and across, geographies, and also means the same supplier does not necessarily have to be used in all markets to achieve this, but for cost efficiencies, regional suppliers are used for this study.

GETTING IT RIGHT FROM THE START

Advertising is still one of the largest marketing investments Diageo makes, and far more time is spent getting the thinking right with the consumer than is spent tracking and proving effectiveness of it once launched. To equip planners to do this well, training is provided that focuses on the areas in which planners can make a difference. It covers the different stages of defining, developing and delivering advertising activity and barely touches on the final stage of evaluation.

This means time is spent both on understanding the critical areas of the brief, which planners need to own and be accountable for, and how the target consumer can be brought to life when briefing agencies. Qualitative creative development research is covered in detail, specifically understanding what type of research is required, and appropriate stimulus material to use depending on the stage of the ad development process. It is also crucial to know how to use quantitative TV advertising pre-testing constructively to optimise ads, and how to ensure learnings stick right through to the production of the finished film, poster or digital communication. Focusing energies on doing all these things well increases the chances of success of the activity.

DEMONSTRATING PAYBACK

Inevitable questions arise in any discussion of accountability. How great is the pressure from management to demonstrate the financial payback of marketing communications? How is payback realistically achieved, and has it made any difference?

After putting these questions to the planning teams at Diageo, there is variation in the stance taken by management to demonstrate accountability for investment.

“There is moderate pressure,” says one, “and there is general acceptance that the currently available methods of measuring financial payback are expensive and of questionable validity.”

But others appreciate the difficulty of determining the financial payback on communications, and are prepared to settle for much softer measures from the brand tracking study.

“Good intentions are there, but not a lot actually happens,” claims another. “General managers seem to be happy with brand tracking results.”

In some markets (and some of the larger brands) econometrics and marketing mix modelling is conducted, but even then some questions remain about accuracy and reliability. “Econometric modelling has given us as good a steer as we will ever need in the real world,” one planner agrees, “but it is not an exact science, no matter what people say.”

In other markets, people are either not going down the road of proving financial payback at all, or they have given up even trying to do so. “I have been asked many times, but I stopped trying about seven or eight years ago,” one person admitted.

COST-EFFICIENT GROWTH

Reassuringly, when evaluation is conducted – and, more importantly, the learnings are applied – it does lead to decisions that create growth for the brand in a cost-efficient way. One person I interviewed said marketing mix analysis led to incremental spend on TV advertising, resulting in a sales increase on the previous year.

The reason for the huge variation across the business in the amount and degree of rigour with which evaluation is conducted is that there are some real, and sometimes insurmountable, barriers. Some are specific to our industry, some to our markets, but they prohibit the detailed measurement and evaluation that is possible for brands in other sectors.

For example, in some markets, it is impossible to measure sales accurately, and sometimes we just don’t know precisely how much we sell. If you go to parts of Africa or Asia, (Nigeria is the second-largest Guinness market after Great Britain), you will find either that there is, at worst, no sales audit information available or, at best, dubious coverage, particularly for the on trade (pubs, bars, restaurants and other licensed premises).

Some parts of the world are either too remote, too costly or too dangerous to audit with the frequency and rigour that we take for granted in markets where Nielsen and IRI data is commonplace.

Hence, markets take a more pragmatic approach and use softer measures of consumer attitude and behaviour change that they can measure and, over time, at least give directional information on which to aid decision-making. After all, like any research, even the most rigorous and detailed study is only a tool to make better management decisions. It doesn’t make the decision for you – you need to use your brain for that.

Lack of data not only makes ongoing monitoring difficult, but also makes measurement of individual pieces of activity challenging. It prompts us to be creative in how we can evaluate in these situations – for example, collecting bottle tops of our brand and competitors’ for an in-bar promotion and counting them up manually at the end of the night to calculate volume sold and share. It is a primitive approach, but a practical one.

While the techniques and approaches used to evaluate activities are pretty standard, there are two very important things that help Diageo with best practice in evaluation. First is the way marketing and consumer planning capability is built, and second is ensuring any tools used provide simple outputs that give direction.

The marketing capability programme, The Diageo Way of Brand Building, is an internally developed and taught marketing process used across the globe. It comprises a set of tools that are easy to understand and have practical applications for marketers.

It is not a book of theory that sits on the shelf gathering dust, but something that is ingrained in our language and way of working. In fact, new recruits sometimes struggle to do their jobs until they have been trained in the ‘Diageo Way’.

In the words of one of the original creators of the programme, ‘best practice is good practice, rigorously applied and deeply ingrained’. There may well be new and better tools and techniques out there, but having a commonly understood, easy to apply approach across the business far outweighs the incremental benefits of introducing a new technique. To quote Diageo chief marketing officer Andy Fennell: “The debate about whether your onion is better than my triangle is one I quite frankly don’t have time for.”

To build consumer planning capability, there is dedicated senior resource, whose sole responsibility is to raise functional skills in market, brand, innovation and shopper planning and planning behaviours.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

The uniting philosophy for the ‘Diageo Way’ is to create simple outputs that give direction. The truth is that marketing peers do not need to be bamboozled by complicated research techniques and scientific explanations. They spend most of their time permanently tuned into the world’s most listened-to radio station, WIIFM – ‘What’s in it For Me to help me do my job better?’

Likewise, they don’t always want the latest and hottest techniques; they want consistency and ease of use. That is not, of course, to say we should be completely averse to change.

It is important to keep on top of developments in the industry and ringfence some funding for piloting as appropriate, but it is not appropriate to introduce new research techniques on a whim, or choose those that are only workable in one market. They have to add value to Diageo holistically.

To sum up the Diageo perspective, rigorously evaluating effectiveness and efficiency of marketing investment in markets where it is feasible to do so, is important, but an equally important goal is for marketing and consumer planning approaches that make the complicated simple and make the academic practical for market teams.

And finally, focus on input in addition to – not instead of – output, to increase the chances of success as opposed to proving the levels and degree of failure.

Brand loyalty: does it really exist?

Roderick White
The ‘focus’ theme for the May 2007’s Admap report is brand loyalty. In this introductory article, Roderick White discusses definitions of behavioural and attitudinal loyalty, some metrics to measure it and ‘possible’ methods to sustain it.
Other articles featured in this Admap May 2007 report on brand loyalty:
• Driving loyalty through fantastic Customer Experience
Huw Watkins
• The Net Promoter debate
Timothy Keiningham
• There is no such thing as loyalty
Stuart Evans
• How to measure customer loyalty
Jeremy Griffiths
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Every brand marketer has a notion of an ideal customer: someone who buys the brand in large quantities, very regularly, and, if asked, both disses the competition and recommends the brand passionately to everyone within earshot. In other words, the high-value, loyal, influential customer.
It is less easy, by the length of several streets, to devise strategies for creating and keeping these mythical creatures than to define them. Or, even, to find them. As Andrew Ehrenberg has pointed out, and no-one has successfully disproved what he has to say, in any competitive market there are very few hardline brand-loyal consumers, and those who do buy only one brand in the market (and are, therefore, on most behaviour-based definitions, genuinely brand-loyal) are, by and large, merely light or occasional users of the category, who have no reason to develop the repertoires that most consumers, in most such markets, actually buy from.
DOUBLE JEOPARDY
Yes, to be sure, thanks to double jeopardy, bigger brands have more apparently loyal users than smaller brands, so that the market leaders appear, at least, to be leaders by virtue of having a higher proportion of ‘loyal’ users. But close inspection of real purchasing data tends to show just how skin-deep such loyalty often is.
But, you will naturally ask, surely every marketer is aiming to drive, develop and preserve brand loyalty? To which the answer is, equally naturally, ‘of course’. Assuming a repertoire market – or any competitive market, in practice – it is a perfectly valid strategy to aim to keep as many customers as possible as loyal as possible. That way, you reduce churn and maintain your business at a viable level. But, as sure as anything, you will, over time, lose customers, or people will reduce your brand’s role in their repertoires: the ‘leaky bucket’ is in effect a law of nature.
So while it may be perfectly realistic to do analyses that say it’s far more profitable to retain a customer than to acquire several new ones; and that it costs five to twenty-five times as much to get a new customer as to retain one, the erosion of your customer base over time is as certain as death or taxes – and so, therefore, is the imperative of acquiring new customers, on an on-going basis, to replenish the diminished supply.
A TOUGH OBJECTIVE
The most convincing recent light to be shed on this issue comes from the UK IPA’s Datamine project. Peter Field and Les Binet have been analysing award-winning cases from the 25 years or so of the IPA Effectiveness Awards (1), and one of their most striking findings is that, although many brands’ objectives include developing loyalty, few succeed in demonstrably achieving this objective – but those that target loyalty are in fact rather good at recruiting new brand users, and this is clearly a core element in their evident marketplace success.
From this phenomenon, we can begin to speculate about what, generically, drives loyalty, however we choose to define it. But, first, we ought to at least look at the issue of definition. There’s a school of marketers who define loyalty simply in terms of behaviour: a loyal customer buys the brand regularly, and (e.g.) buys it on more than half of all category purchase occasions. This is fine, as an operational definition, but it has the weakness that it tells us nothing about the parameters of loyalty: is this simply habit, or inertia? Or does it reflect a genuine commitment to the brand and a deep belief that it is, if not actually the best in the field, the best affordable value available?
In other words, attitudinal loyalty, if not actually the defining feature of the genuinely brand-loyal, looks to be a vital component of true loyalty. And, indeed, there have been numerous attempts to develop suitable attitudinal measures to allow marketers to pin down just how loyal their users are, how this compares with the competition, and hence to put in place strategies that might build or cement loyalty in the face of competitive challenges.
Obvious examples include, for example, the well-established Conversion theory, with its scale of commitment to brands; and the Millward Brown Brand Dynamics pyramid, where the top segment consists of people who can be shown to have, in some sense, ‘bonded’ with the brand (2).
THE NPS
As several of the articles that follow point out, the candidate du jour for election as the key loyalty metric is Frederick Reichheld’s Net Promoter Score, based on the balance of strong positive recommendations over strong negatives. Apart from being an apparently good measure of an individual’s loyalty to a brand, it is, it is claimed, a highly effective guide to the overall prosperity, growth and profitability of the brand and its owners. As will become clear from Tim Keiningham’s article, this claim to predict growth and profits is being challenged – in spite of work by Paul Marsden in the UK, which seems to support the core findings.
What’s more, in spite of its evident appeal to marketers who want to be able to give a single-number indicator of success to their CEOs, the NPS clearly dissatisfies many who are trying to help marketers articulate loyalty-related strategies and campaigns: while it may be a useful diagnostic of a positive attitude to the brand, it is essentially uninformative, and does nothing very helpful to guide policy.
Given these uncertainties, it is hardly surprising that so-called ‘loyalty marketing’ is not a universally accepted panacea for marketing ills. Indeed, although there are some well-accepted methods of trying to lock customers into a brand, it is often questioned whether they are doing much more than acting as a quite low-key form of on going price promotion.
Classic loyalty schemes involve collecting ‘points’ of some kind in return for regular purchasing. Arguably the oldest of these is the British Co-op ‘divi’, which dates back to the 19th century, and is the precursor of both the allegedly highly-successful Tesco Clubcard operation and, in a totally different sector, the almost ubiquitous airline frequent-flier scheme. And, yes, there is some survey evidence to suggest that these schemes have some effect.
IS THERE A VIABLE LOYALTY STRATEGY?
This all invites the key question: what can marketers actually do to foster loyalty to their brands?
The answer, I believe, is distressingly simple. It goes right back to the heart of marketing. Get the product right. Communicate effectively about it. Service the hell out of it, in whatever way is appropriate or feasible. Keep innovating to ensure that the brand continues to deliver competitive value. Live the brand, and make sure all your people do, especially (but not exclusively) those in any direct contact with customers.
If you then want – or need – to bolt on some form of ‘loyalty’ scheme, make sure it offers real value to those customers you particularly want to keep. But the true loyals won’t actually need it, because they will be whole-heartedly with you already – and they may well have the wit to see that you are trying to bribe them, and resent it.
Loyalty, in other words, depends on consistent, valued customer experiences. Everything else is, frankly, candyfloss. And too much candyfloss rots your teeth.

Marketing maintains drinkers

• Diageo leads adspend (see Brand Communication and Promotion) and the big marketing budget of £4.2 million in 2008 helped Smirnoff Red to not only grow its value sales in the off-trade, but also to increase its lead on Glen Catrine’s Glen’s brand. Glen’s has also sustained volume growth since 2006 (albeit at a slower pace than premium segments) on account of its low price and good distribution.
• Diageo is mounting a campaign of defence, including significant marketing investment in Smirnoff Red, highlighting its heritage in response to Russian Standard’s challenge. It is also targeting Absolut territory, rolling out flavour variants and relaunching Smirnoff Black.
• A blueprint for successful market launches, marketing spend of £5 million in 2007 and £8 million in 2008 worked wonders for Russian Standard (First Drinks Brands), which achieved £13 million in retail sales in its first year in the UK. The brand has ambitious plans to lead premium sales within five years.
• Overtaken by new market entrant Russian Standard, Vladivar has been struggling in the off-trade, resulting in brand owner Whyte and Mackay ditching its 2007 campaign targeting an ‘urban cool’ youth market for a new strategy targeting mainstream but more premium positioning.
• Vladivar underwent its second repackaging in two years in 2008, following the likes of Smirnoff and Russian Standard in highlighting its heritage. Advertisements reflect its focus on 18-34-year-old drinkers with a light-hearted approach to responsible drinking.

Six essentials of a successful social media case study

Laura James
Social networks are not attracting the advertising spend expected of them.
As any media planner will tell you, it is often a challenge to convince an advertiser client to change his or her media mix and invest in a new opportunity, especially in a recession.
There are a number of reasons for advertiser caution about social media but high on the list is the lack of robust evidence demonstrating effectiveness.
Whilst there are many high profile stories of brands using social media, few actually link their success back to tangible marketing objectives, such as increasing sales, profits or market share or even softer metrics such as brand consideration or purchase intent.
Below, therefore, we outline six essential components of writing a persuasive social media case study.
1. Demonstrate you understand how customers discuss your brand in social networking spaces, and what you bring to the conversation
Many brands have achieved a high profile presence but with no input from the brand owner. The content has more often been created by users.
The first step for any advertiser contemplating using social media is to listen and understand what is being said about its brand and the competition.
It is necessary to set up the technology and a process to monitor what conversations already exist, where they take place and who is having them.
Coca Cola had the number one branded profile page on Facebook with 3.3m fans- with no help from Coca Cola. The page was created by two fans in Los Angeles. The corporation only became aware of the situation when Facebook let them know that the site would have to be removed as it was there without permission.
After it was introduced to the creators (thanks to Facebook), Coca Cola collaborated to make a great film of the story which is now on YouTube.
According to BMW, there are 140,000 BMW videos on YouTube but only a small number are from the brand itself.
Successful social media marketers show they have understood what content they could create, or already own, which would engage networked consumers.
Rexona (Unilever) understood the importance of the teenage bedroom and launched the first brand-specific sponsored application on Friendster.
Once users became a Rexona fan they could add a “teen room” application to their profile. By participating in the competition they could buy items for their room. In some cases, brands are happy to take a back seat and listen to the conversations, using them as a barometer of consumer satisfaction.
PWC, the professional services group, recognised the importance of effective new business lead generation from alumni so it used social media to manage and connect alumni.
2. Show knowledge of the target group in the social media context
As with any marketing campaign it is vital to understand the target audience, the role of social media in their lives and their online behaviour.
There is no shortage of information. Site owners such as Facebook provide access to site demographic and behavioural information relevant to advertisers’ brands.
Banana Republic repositioned its clothes to appeal to business executives by using LinkedIn. Users were invited to update their profile and update their wardrobe. Some 2m users updated their profiles and 220,000 entered the competition.
Intel’s Intel Powers Music MySpace Programme used MySpace to engage “tech-savvy digital musicians” to educate them about Intel’s Centrino Duo product. Users were provided with tools to make better music and invited to participate in a competition to create an Intel SuperGroup. As a result, six million profile views have been generated and Intel signed up more than 60,000 friends.
Orange targeted opinion formers with the Unlit campaign. The Orange Unlit tour, led by presenters Jont and Dave, gave MySpace members the chance to host a one-off gig with a hot new band playing in their front room.
3. Provide evidence of successful planning and execution of how content- sharing spreads among the target audience
Successful case studies need to include evidence of what activity, on- or offline, was put in place to give the brand’s message the best chance of spreading.
To encourage teenagers to stop smoking the American Legacy Foundation (insert link) used social networks to create advocates to share facts about cigarettes.
For example, chemicals found in cigarettes are also found in hair removal cream, which prompted the creation of a “hair mail” widget. Targets were set for the spread of the viral films and website traffic.
Coca Cola mounted the 007 trivia Challenge, involving a custom Quantum of solace skin that a fully-functional and customizable coke tag, linked to wallpapers, games and exclusive video all linked to a text to win promotion.
To spread the message users had to invite friends to help unlock the answers of the daily 007 trivia questions.
eBay/Sephora/Dell mounted a joint campaign to build the number of connections with consumers on Facebook. Just prior to Thanksgiving in 2008, the three retailers sponsored holiday shopping-themed virtual gifts on Facebook. As the users gave gifts to their friends they gained viral attention as other friends discovered gifts in their News Feeds. A total of 40,000 gifts were given.
4. Was the campaign integrated with other communications activity?
With many current case studies, evidence of the exact contribution of the social media element within a total media campaign is often lacking. It is also rare to be able to discount other factors, concurrent with the social media campaign, which have contributed to the results at the time.
It is common to cite the number of views or parodies a campaign generated on YouTube but these metrics often feels like an after-thought rather than a a pre-planned, integral part of the communications strategy.
The American Legacy Foundation Infect Truth campaign used specifically targeted television and print campaigns to build awareness of the social media campaign and drive traffic to the website thetruth.com. Two television ads formed part of the viral campaign and widgets were created of the characters.
To launch Skins, Channel 4 used social networks to bring the characters of the show to life. Fans were offered exclusive programme content, competitions and the chance to create their own content. Broader awareness was created using television trails and outdoor.
British Airways created http://www.metrotwin.com/, a curator site bringing together the best of New York and London, providing recommendations from local experts, bloggers etc. The specific aim of the site is to reach new audiences (acting to reposition BA) and to provide added value to existing customers.

5. Document evidence of understanding of the resource required to keep the social media activity going
Unlike traditional media campaigns, social network campaigns do not have a cut off date. Once in the social networking ecosystem, the activity/film etc should take on a life its own and should continue to evolve. This requires a level of commitment from the originators of the campaign to ensure that whatever content available online is relevant and current.
It is difficult to simply remove activity- a community has been created, how is it going to be maintained in the longer term? It is important to have an exit strategy, especially if ongoing resource is a possible issue.
On launching Metrotwin, BA recognised the agility and resource needed to constantly keep the site fresh.
6. Outline measurement and results that are commercially relevant
When it comes to results for social media campaigns there is no shortage of numbers. Webpage views, blog posts and views on YouTube are nice to know but they are currencies rather than evidence of success.
In isolation the figures are the equivalent of citing television ratings or coverage and frequency. Advertisers need to know how these numbers contributed to the overall campaign business objectives. Was there any change in consumer behaviour or uplift in sales etc?
Whether the social media activity is the sole comms channel or part of a broader media mix, the results of the activity are relevant if they can be linked to the desired objectives: what was the consumer expected to do as a result of your campaign?
Did the millions of video views result in an increase in awareness which then translated to a sales shift or change in consumer perceptions?
How did the number of fans on Facebook affect brand advocacy and in turn did that increase brand loyalty and repeat purchase rates?
Many advertisers use the sites for polling opinion and customer feedback – all of which are used to help formulate new product development/customer care strategies.
General Motors created GMnext.com “to engage consumers and create a dialogue”. It comprised a virtual media forum with 24 hour virtual chat with over 30 GM global leaders commenting on the future of transportation.
Concept vehicles were also showcased including behind the scenes video and online chats. A mobile club was used to deliver messages and conduct text-voting campaigns. The site was also used to launch Chevrolet Volt. This all resulted in 1m visitors to website and 4.2m video views.
More relevant was the analysis of 40m blog posts over six months which demonstrated that GM was in the top four auto manufacturers to deliver the greatest volume of positive conversations on environmental sustainability.
The Channel 4 Skins series case history credits the social media campaign with helping make the series launch an outstanding success and boosting ongoing levels of viewing. Cost per viewer investment of launch was quoted as being lower than five of six comparable programme launches and the total campaign generated a significant return on investment.
The upshot, then, is that social media case studies require the same level of detail and rigour to be convincing as studies of mainstream campaigns. In fact, in the current environment, they probably require even more.
About the author:

Laura James joined WARC Online as Media Editor in October 2007. She can be contacted at laura.james@warc.com.
Previously she was Media Director at PHD with client responsibilities across a wide range of major brands including HSBC, First Direct, Toshiba, Smith and Nephew, Bayer and Daihatsu.

Shopper marketing – the key to unlocking growth in a recession

Simon Moore and Marina Foxlee
Oxford Strategic Marketing

During these difficult economic times, the key is to ensure that consumers not only continue to want use your brand, but also to ensure that shoppers buy your brand in the first place. Fail at this ‘first moment of truth’ and you will not even reach the second moment of truth – consumption. Win at ’shopper marketing’ and you just might unlock growth in a recession.
So, what is shopper marketing? We define it as ‘the capability to drive growth through insight-led, shopper-based demand creation and fulfilment’. In a nutshell, it’s about institutionalising shopper insights to drive business growth. And it’s hot. In May 2008, OxfordSM conducted a survey on shopper marketing among 28 top fmcg manufacturers and retailers on behalf of ECR Europe, revealing that companies already see shopper marketing as critical to success, and expect its value to rise dramatically in a downturn.
The deepening recession is changing consumer priorities, and disrupting their traditional buying patterns. Shoppers’ category allocations and brand loyalties are shifting too. Recently, Sainsbury’s announced that sales of its Basics range rose 30 per cent in the last quarter through its ’switch and save’ campaign, which aims to lure shoppers to own-label goods from branded labels. And the search for value can drive more extreme retailer loyalty. The hard discounters Aldi, Lidl and Netto are claiming double-digit growth at present as a result of more people coming through their doors. Tesco is responding by positioning itself as ‘Britain’s biggest discounter’, setting up specific discount aisles and promoting over 350 products in-store where customers could save up to £24 a week. So people are still consuming bread, beer and washing powder, but they are shopping for them differently.
Shopper changes are not limited to down-trading and discounting, though. More complex shopping behaviours are visible too. Datamonitor has shown that 15% of shoppers are now trading down and trading up in the same basket. For example, the wine category is already starting to polarise into ‘below £4′ and ‘over £10′ sectors, with the much vaunted £4.99–£6.99 price ranges losing shelf space.
Now, more than ever, it is vital to really understand the attitudes and behaviours of your target shopper. Some behaviours are unpredictable. Will cash-constrained shoppers be less likely to respond to multi-buys and favour price cuts on individual products, making bulk-buying a boom-time behaviour? Or are shoppers taking fewer trips to the supermarket to save on fuel costs, making bulk buying a smart option in the current climate? Or, conversely, are they shopping more frequently but with smaller basket sizes? Will they buy more online? Only by embracing and institutionalising shopper marketing in your organisation can you anticipate and capitalise on these developments.
Whatever the diagnosis for your category and brands, the credit crunch is putting a premium on the need to generate and act on shopper insight. Our 2008 ECR survey indicated a significant variation in how effectively and widely companies leverage shopper insight. Leading companies are those who are applying shopper insight most widely. The three broad applications are as follows.

Google blackout blamed on network ‘traffic jam’

by Dan Leahul,

Google blamed a network error for an “embarrassing” breakdown in service yesterday as Gmail, search, YouTube, AdSense and Blogger all experienced outages, while Facebook suffered another phishing attack.

Data routing issues caused several Google products to stop functioning yesterday, most notably Google’s main search tool, before service was renewed an hour later.

A systems error caused Google to direct web traffic through Asia, which created an internet traffic jam. As a result, about 14% of internet users experienced slow services and interruptions.

Urs Hoelzle, senior vice president for Google operations, said: “Imagine if you were trying to fly from New York to San Francisco, but your plane was routed through an airport in Asia. And a bunch of other planes were sent that way too, so your flight was backed up and your journey took much longer than expected.

“That’s basically what happened to some of our users today for about an hour, starting at 7:48am Pacific time [3:48pm UK time].”

Google apologised for the glitch, calling the incident “embarrassing” and said it would work diligently to avoid future breakdowns.

Web users in the US who woke up to find Google curiously out of order flocked to Twitter, some to figure out why Google was down, others to gloat about the internet giant’s rare moment of frailty.

“Googlefail” was quickly the number one most discussed topic on Twitter as the service went down, and remained so well after Google was back up and running.

Elsewhere on the internet, Facebook yesterday was victim to another phishing scam, its latest in a number of security failures since last month.

In the newest scam, Facebook users are sent strange messages from their friends which only include a link, either 151.im, 121.im, 252.im. Clicking on the link leads to a fake Facebook login page, prompting the users to enter their emails and passwords, which the hackers then harvest.

The phishing scam is similar to recent bugs which targeted the social networking site within the last month, with names like ‘Koobface’, ‘Mygener’, ‘Boface’ and ‘Fbaction’.

In a blog post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the phishing attacks are likely coming from the same hacker.

Zuckerberg said: “This is a phishing attack. We’re well aware of it and are already blocking links to these new phishing sites from being shared on Facebook.

“We’re also cleaning up phony messages and wall posts and resetting the passwords of affected users.

“We think this is related to the fbaction.net/fbstarter.com campaign of a couple weeks ago.”

Sony Plans To Make The Wii and 360 Jealous By Pumping Your PS3 Full Of Free Music Videos

You just can’t win if you’re a gamer these days. Sure, you may like the console you’ve got, but you know your jealous of the exclusive games and features on the systems you don’t have. Even if you own all three current-gen home consoles you feel guilty about neglecting one or two of them.

But one nice thing about the situation is that competition makes all three systems improve as time passes. Code jockeys can redefine the consoles’ capabilities on the fly via downloads and firmware upgrades. The Xbox 360 has added Netflix streaming, the Wii added online polls and avatar-designing competitions and now the PS3 is upping the ante in the digital arms race by launching a service that streams music videos through the console.

Destructoid’s Jim Sterling reports the add-on, dubbed VidZone, is due this summer and will feature “thousands” of music videos.

IKEA Flies Your Sofa Cover From Philly To LA In Their Luggage

IKEA isn’t really known for their customer service, but apparently one location in LA is trying to change that.

Reader Jeremy says:

I think people go to Ikea because they are cheap, and they have a large selection of stuff. Not for the customer service – but I had such an amazing experience a couple of weeks ago that I have to tell someone.

We’ve got an Ikea sofa, and a footstool, and we recently moved to a larger place, and wanted a second two seat sofa to match, and another footstool. The sofa was called a Klippan, and you can get a variety of different washable covers. We went to Ikea, in West Covina, Los Angeles County, to get these. They had the footstools and the matching covers, and the sofa, but they did not have the matching cover for the sofa. We asked someone (called Kristien), she checked on the computer and said that that style had been discontinued. But she would check if any of the nearby stores had one in stock still.

She came back about 20 minutes later, and said that none of the four Ikeas near LA had one, but she would make some more calls (we overheard her saying “I don’t know the SKU number, it’s discontinued”). She came back 30 minutes later, and said that she had found one in stock in … Philadelphia. We thought this was rather a long way to go. She said that was OK, because someone she knew from the store there was coming to LA, and she would ask them to bring it with them in their luggage on the flight. She took our details.

Two weeks later, I got an email, the sofa cover had arrived, and when I wanted to collect it, I should give them a call. We went there, collected it, they opened a register so we could pay (it was discontinued and wasn’t in their computer), and left with our sofa cover. Oh, and then we went back and happily bought a sofa to put it on.

Directed by Daniel Kleinman and shot on location in New Zealand and at Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, it shows the purification process that the makers of Smirnoff go through to create its vodka.

The ad shows the sea purifying itself by disposing of a wide range of debris that has been deposited in it over the years, with all kinds of objects being thrust up from the depths of the ocean.

The online campaign aims to expand the commercial’s purification theme by putting users at the centre of the experience.

AKQA built a hydraulic cannon positioned on a raised platform off the south coast of England and filmed it firing various objects such as caravans, washing machines, bikes and televisions.

The resulting real-time film has been used in the online campaign, allowing users to interact with “The Smirnoff Purifier” by deciding how much force they think is required to propel the object to a target on the shore.

Zoe Osmond, managing partner at JWT London, said: “Every new advertisement for Smirnoff should surprise and thrill our young male target. ‘Sea’ is no exception; if anything it’s a step beyond… a film that takes consumers on a truly epic and exhilarating journey.”

Rob Spicer and Adam Griffin, the JWT creative team behind the commercial, said: “Rarely do you get the chance to work on such a big production and work with some of the most talented people in the industry. But when you do it allows you to focus on what’s really important — making sure the vision you had in your head make its way onto the screen.”