Tricks of The Marketing Trade: Britain's Got Talent and Brand Loyalty
It's almost time for the annual Britain's Got Talent final, one of the TV highlights of the year from a media brand that continues to maintain a highly loyal audience. Niki Macartney, planning director at Southpaw, looks at some tricks that all brands can use to make sure that they maintain their brand loyalty.
At around this time every year the British armchair nation wait with baited breath for the Britain’s Got Talent finals and it made me think, how does a brand continue year-on-year being successful? How do they maintain their competitive edge? How do brands find ways to continue to surprise and delight their fans? Is it luck, is it just that ‘Je ne sais quoi’?
Well, no it’s not. here we take a look at some of the world’s most revered brands and compiled a list of insights on how brands ‘really made it their own’, ‘are the person to beat’ and ‘are the people’s champ’. Here is my list of principles you can apply to a brand in many a pickle. Whether you’re a premium brand fending off private label, or you’re a challenger brand needing to punch above your weight, or you’re simply losing your edge, you can take these principles and apply one or all of them to your brand.
1. Aim High! Don’t settle for the obvious, take a close look at your audience and find a higher-order consumer need that you can tap into and own. Cadbury and Coca Cola do this brilliantly. They don’t sell chocolate or refreshment. They are purveyors of joyful content and happiness. Where better to spend your money and what better way to add value to your brand?
2. Tell A Great Story (Allowing Engagement). The thing a lot of confident brands do well is create an engaging story that’s bigger than the brand itself. Mustafa and Fabio have brought this to Old Spice in schamazing quantities and Red Bull are known for this more than they’re known for that sickly, fizzy drink.
3. An effective yet simple one up next: Be A Moving Target. Keep innovating, don’t stand still. Give shoppers a reason to spend a little more on your brand. Make your brand difficult to copy. Use your brand equity to push the category forward. Evian’s Paul Smith bottles are a beautiful example of this.
4. Behave Like A Media Company. Broadcast carefully curated content beyond product activity, within the remit of what the brand stands for, to surprise, delight and entertain consumers.
5. Collaborate With Other Like-Minded Brands. Also known as a ‘borrow and build’ strategy – brands that cleverly collaborate with brands who are of one mind, and potentially nearing the top of their game, can quickly add kudos and shortcut brand success.
6. Promote A Cause. But it’s not simply about offering a percentage of your profits, it’s about educating the consumer about a cause you can really embrace. Taking two Unilever brands as an example – you can either take the controversial Marmite approach or the game-changing Real Beauty Campaign.
7. This is an important one inspired by the British Olympic Cycle Team: Marginal Gains Lead To Big Rewards. The special attention to detail, that premium brands exhibit, elevates the brand to an almost ‘white glove’ experience. This theory isn’t exclusive to those brands with lots of money, any brand can make sure it’s user experience, design, customer service and social media is thoughtfully looked at to make it ‘the balls’.
8. Cultivate Current Relationships As Well As New. Reward and engage existing customers, as well as potential ones, thereby creating genuine loyalty. Starbucks have this nailed.
9. Finally: Don’t Underestimate The Power Of Advocates. Not only do advocates make sacrifices for you (often price), they will be your brand ambassadors, spreading the love. As 90% of people trust recommendations from friends, creating brand advocates is an enormously powerful marketing tool. The ambition is turning brand sluts into brand ambassadors. Lego and Coca Cola (again) do this brilliantly.
And there it is, follow a few of these principles and you may find yourself King or Queen of Schmazingness.