Inspirations for HK Marketers @cheerbox - Tumblr Blog

Monster flower, hand drawing. check this out:

www.cheerskittydrawings.com

#art #design #pattern #creative #flower #monster #anyonecare?

In May 2012, an Airbnb guest, Cathrine, told us a powerful story of a trip she took to Berlin with her father, Jörg, a Berlin Wall guard at the height of the...

Building a brand in storytelling is engaging and memorable. Quality work and execution project the brand image.

#storytelling #engaging #brand image

Simple digital marketing idea: Instagram + brand promotion = get your young audience

#digital marketing #brand promotion #young audience

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Gisele Bundchen shows off some serious Kung Fu skills in new commercial for Under Armour.

Read more about the campaign.

B2B Marketing is in the midst of a Digital boom. How far can your company run with it now?

With advances in technology and the internet, consumers are no longer willing to be patient and spend a long time waiting for response, delivery of service or products offered by brands. Instead they look for more information about the brands they are interested in according to their own time schedule, available communications channels and across various locations. To answer these changes in consumers’ behaviour, there is a boom in the development of new solutions in the B2B market, for example business automation, enhancing production efficiency, real time logistics management, customization of e-commerce, big data management and so on.

Traditional B2B marketing has been about ‘push’ marketing such as placing print ads in industry magazines, mailing newsletters and/or emails to prospect through either selling new products or invitations to seminars and trade shows. These tactics for reaching out are deemed mainly passive as they entail waiting for prospects to raise their hands and show interest.

The latest B2B marketing emphasis is on ‘pull ‘marketing and this approach ensures potential buyers can easily “know” and “become interested” in your products and company before reaching out directly to you.

This “knowing” is the art of making your solutions accessible, visible and talked about. Communications consequently become targeted so that call-for-click banner ads, key words on SEM and SEO, influencers to share their words on social media, user friendly website/mobile site all provide stand-out and simple to understand messages about the solution’s values and benefits. This “knowing” process has a rolling effect to spread the message and requires marketers to plan both “push and pull” marketing in a smarter way.

The next stage “interested” is all about enticing prospects to be more involved in your solutions. This may require showing demos or prototypes as well as product comparison to allow prospects to evaluate the solution in their own time. In addition, when a solution can be presented with an appealing idea and clear implementation, it improves its chance to gain credibility and trust and encouraging prospects to make contact with your company.

However, in B2B buying situations, the bigger the investment, the longer it takes for business decision-making. Also not all prospects have their budget and readiness in this fiscal year to buy your solutions. The nature of this longer sales journey requires holistic marketing and sales efforts to keep prospects warm and interested.

Throughout this long selling process, digital marketing provides analytical measurement of effectiveness by identifying learning and opportunities for agile responses. With systematic planning in place for this measurement, it is possible to identify key drivers for more information, touch points for contacts, key channels and media for driving responses. All these enhance the experience of prospects with your company before a real sales call is made.

Finally, the lead generation process is not only about “how”, but importantly the “what”. A classic case is IBM’s “Smarter Planet” - a great marketing idea platform that is a clear proposition of brand promise yet big enough to embrace diversified products and services solutions under the brand name and image that permeates all their marketing. Although “Smarter” is a generic word, IBM uses it consistently and strategically across all its marketing to build a clear image and in the process they own this key word in the category.

#B2B Marketing #lead generation #customer journey #digital marketing #mobile #social media #website #branding

Create Socialable Content for Brand Building

#Social media #brand building #reaching out #creative idea

“Branding – it’s just like people talking about you when you’re not in the room”. How do you build your brand?

In the market, many brand and advertising agencies have their own proprietary brand planning tools. (If you can afford to pay premium fees for their services then you probably can receive high quality studies and input) Amongst those, they may have different terminology, jargon and presentation, however they all have similar processes and development steps. Here are a few ideas to guide Hong Kong marketers in the first step of “Exploration” in brand strategy development.

As first step of developing a brand strategy is all about understanding of consumers in their consumption behavior and gaining insights about your brand, the category and market. In the new digital world, people are well connected, therefore, it is important to also know about social influencers, the market and also staff as to what they think and how they relate to the brand.

Another way of extracting the insights is to map out the customer journey to explore direct and indirect interactions between the brand and customers. It helps to uncover the points of interactions in both online and offline communications and other forms of influential media such as social media, search, related influential media and industry platforms (eg openrice, babykingdom, tripadvisors, etc). In addition, the tangible touch points like in-store, promotional booth, service center, customer hotline and sales meetings are the ultimate physical interaction between the brand and customers that count the most to customers.

In order to understand thoroughly the difference between customers, influencers and staff as well as their interactions with the brand, it is necessary to conduct research including interviews, find listening tools to monitor social conversations plus analyse customer and marketing data and information.

The more you know about both positive and negative feedback and insights of key brand attributes, images, personality and relationship, the better it helps define the brand uniqueness and opportunities in the market. Together with your business goals in both short and long term (if you have it already), it is likely you can start to develop a good brand strategy in the market. In the next newsletter, we will further explain what “brand strategy” is about and how it helps business to grow when you have a good brand strategy.

#Brand strategy #digital marketing #branding #customer journey #brand interactions #social media #customers insight #staff #social influencers

How to optimize digital marketing and promotions for closing Q4 in this year and plan for 2015?

Many marketers in Hong Kong have experienced digital marketing such as campaigns on social networks, set-up own-brand websites and focused on communications via facebook, as well as tried mobile marketing and mobile apps. A key question is how to optimize the performance of digital marketing elements to gain solid business results?

When massive amounts of campaign data are collected, what’s the best way to do benchmarking and measurement when everything is evolving? How to derive learning and insights to drive practical next steps and define the focus?

When Q3 is about to close and Q4 is already being developed, there is really no time to create new ideas for this year. Also there is insufficient time to explore new opportunities as the budget has already been planned for the following year.

In the rapidly evolving world of digital marketing, there are common challenges for both B2C and B2B marketers. There is no magic wand to solve every problem, but here are some tips that can help...

1/ Short term wins – there are some quick fixes and effective marketing actions in the digital world, eg a facebook post push or social ad, buy key words to drive more traffic to websites, develop a social game or mobile location promotion, etc. It will cost some marketing investment, but it is worthwhile to build up the momentum through these new tactics before a final push to the finishing line.

2/ Experiment to start the learning process – this is the real magic of digital as you can plant the seed to collect data and information and in the process learn whether the result is a success or a failure. For example, develop and understanding of what consumers respond to and how this is affected by different timing, channels and messages of delivering offers or promotions. Follow this link to see the latest industry research into consumer search behavior.

http://www.dr4ward.com/dr4ward/2014/05/what-are-4-ways-brands-can-use-local-search-to-their-advantage-infographic.html

3/ Setting priorities and goals – apart from the “given” business target growth, you need to set your marketing priorities and goals when planning for next year. Here are some good references from Digital Information World to inform your planning process:

2014 digital marketing trend – a 2013 year-end survey asked 2,500 global marketers about what they aimed to do in 2014. Respondents were keen to improve customer experience, content marketing and the use of marketing technology. Planned spending would see an increase in driving engagement in the customer lifecycle, gathering data and analytics and using greater marketing automation. They also wanted to have more measures of ROI from mobile and social media. Have you wanted to do more of this in 2014? If yes, go to the following links and learn more…

http://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2014/04/digital-marketing-trends-you-show-know-2014-infographic.html

4/ Everything contributes to your branding – whatever you do for short-term wins or new tactics to explore customer insights, these marketing tactics are being viewed as your brand identity. If your promotional offer is actually the same as your competitors in the market, it’s important to create a unique experience or presentation in storytelling, personality and image. Take a look at how American Express handles its customer promotion vs how HSBC does it. They may offer similar discount promotions during the peak shopping season, BUT their communication and creative are quite different to convey their branding.

Contact us at www.cheerbox.com.hk if you’d like to discuss how your digital marketing can be improved today and in the future.

#Digital Marketing #branding #mobile #social media #content marketing #marketing trends

Turning Ugly to Beauty. A clever marketing idea using a social cause. Smart insights on how to add buzz to your brand.

Intermarché, a French supermarket chain, launched a campaign of “Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables”. The campaign generated 24% more traffic and sold 1.2 tons per store during the first two days alone. All while garnering significant free media coverage and publicity.

The idea came from the concern about food wastage. While many tonnes of “not good looking” but consumable fruits and vegetables were being thrown away, the supermarket decided to collect them and sell at lower prices to consumers. But why would consumers want strange-looking carrots or hideous oranges?

The supermarket built a sort of in-store brand around “Inglorious Fruits & Vegetables”. This product line even had a dedicated sales corner, aisle racks and price promotions. Most importantly, it let people try free soup and juices made from it.

It instantly generated curiosity and noise amongst consumers and the media. As more people tried the line, more people appreciated the value of the new line of products. Word of mouth started to spread.

So how can local retail brands in Hong Kong do something similar?

1. Explore opportunities. When we think bigger and higher, out of our own “boxes” of products and services, we can see more opportunities. Thinking from the customer’s point of view and needs will give us insights into customer concerns, opportunity gaps, better options, or even new solutions.

2. A novel way to explore social causes. Some call it Corporate Social Responsibility or charity ideas. It is always good to create a positive and healthy image for a brand. Relevancy with the “cause” brings value to enhance the brand proposition. Intermarché is a good example; it chose to reduce food wastage, which fits with the supermarket industry.

3. Seeing is believing. Sometimes, a new idea or concept includes a bit of risk. It can be tricky to get people to understand or relate the idea to your brand in a relevant way. It is always important to be creative to get the ball rolling. Intermarché’s campaign overcame this hurdle by offering free samples of soup and juices. When people realised that ugly produce tastes as good as “normal” fruits and vegetables (and it is cheaper!) then they were more willing to participate in the cause. The “mind changer” needs to be amplified.

#Corporate Social Responsibility #CSR #digital #mobile #customer insight #brand proposition #idea #technology #social media

A customer insight became an added brand value to consumers. See a world-class award-winning case of Nivea.

Nivea Sun Kids launched their sunblock products for kids in 2014 with an app to help parents track their kids while they are playing at the beach, park or club.

The idea came from a strong consumer insight about parents’ anxiety about letting their children play outdoors.

While sunblock protects kids from the harmful effects of the sun, Nivea went a step further. Tracking bracelets help parents use their smartphones to see where their kids are – giving parents added peace of mind. The video link provides an overview of the campaign and its results.

This campaign has already won a Bronze in Mobile at Cannes Lions 2014. It’s not just good use of customer insight and a clever use of technology, but it has strong proposition on “protection”, a proposition that Nivea holds as a brand value.

With this new techy idea, the brand also changed consumer perceptions about its image; it made the brand modern and trendy. In addition to that, you can imagine Nivea could put this bracelet as an on-pack promotion this summer.

So how can local brands identify customer insights using new technology while building their unique propositions? It takes more effort to get an idea that drives emotional buy-in and ties to a true customer insight as well as being true to a brand’s value for the long term. Going this “extra mile” bridges the gap between good and great.

1. Customer Insights - Firstly, consider what customer needs are not being answered today by anyone else. Can your brand fill this gap? Nivea had the insight that parents face anxiety when it comes to keeping kids safe. Another great case is Nike+, the app that helps runners enjoy an immersive running experience (i.e. beyond selling shoes).

2. Technology - Think about the basics of how you can provide convenience and reach at the right time and locations. For example, using Google Map to find store locations, check-ins to get coupons for next visits, appointment reminders, and more. If it is possible, add some fun – perhaps a new virtual experience. For example, Ikea Europe offered a mobile experience that lets people decorate their rooms with Ikea products before visiting to the store. Fiat let people explore features of new cars using online cameras (akin to using Facetime) to communicate with real-time car dealers prior to booking test drives.

3. Brand proposition – In a highly competitive market, how can brands be outstanding and liked by consumers? It comes down to brand’s proposition – the basis behind its products, services, image and personality. Customers are connected through multiple channels. They are influenced not only by officially pushed marketing message but also by social media. Marketers must build every consumer touch point and interaction in a way that delivers an overall experience in line with the brand’s values. It goes beyond product and service offerings. Most importantly, it is about customer service – whether that be through hotlines, websites, marketing campaigns, staff training and business developments. A proposition is not just about having a nice slogan, it’s about doing business in a way that truly reflects the organisation’s values.

#creative #Nivea #mobile #customer insight #brand proposition #idea #technology #social media #protection

Coca-Cola builds brand value on an emotional level, so can local brands do that too?

Coca-Cola has elevated their branding into another level over the past few years. No longer can you can see the brand use heavy advertising on TV (with the exception of some seasonal promotions), instead you can find on-going smaller campaigns on YouTube and sharing on facebook posts. Their creative concept of “Happiness” which is branching out through different ideas, for instance “Happiness Truck”, “Happiness Magic Machine” and recently “Hello Happiness”. Most importantly they move peoples’ hearts and that can make it a viral success.

Why is the brand doing this?

You can imagine, as a leading beverage brand, marketing is required not only to build awareness, top of mind brand choice and to encourage increased buying. However when it faces today’s target market who are young adults consumers characterized as having less brand loyalty while being more health conscious, it is challenging to continue to make heavy investment in traditional advertising, and more importantly, this is most likely not the optimal way to engage with today’s target customers.

With digital, social and experience marketing, “Happiness” is all about everyday small surprises that lead to smiles or signify that the brand is fun to play with. It is being created for Coca-Cola through activities such as “Hello Happiness” and “Happiness Truck” that deliver the happiness not from staged and scripted advertising storylines, but the natural happiness response of people in their ideas and activities. The influential power of the idea and people’s responses can be seen to have touched people and created strong empathy from the audience.

Can local brands own the same higher level brand values too?

Yes, if we can think deeper about a brand beyond its products or services, and focus on key emotional drivers of value for customers. It is not a matter of small or big brand, local or international markets but rather it is about how much a brand can build an emotional differentiator in a market.

For example, take a brand that markets shampoo and bath cream which would normally simply promote the benefits of using the products and at most feature the ingredients or attractive scents of the product, but ultimately it is about helping to make the user look good and be viewed as attractive. In this context, the brand Dove has taken a different approach, aiming to demonstrate intrusive benefits in a more controversial way. Dove’s creative concept of “Real Beauty” is about every woman having her own individual beauty and self-esteem. They challenge the status quo of beauty and encourage women to see their own natural beauty. Since the launch in 2004, it keeps the evolving into different campaigns along the “Real Beauty” concept, and their provocative and touching stories that moved millions of customers[d1] .

#coca cola #happiness #brand value #brand building #emotional value

Being controversial in consumer brands, does it really work?

Honey Maid is a fascinating case from the US market with its latest campaign of “It’s wholesome”, featuring different kinds of families such as gay couples, single dad in the storyline. This has generated substantial interest and response within a very short period of time, then a follow-up “Love” viral video to counter the negative response. The whole campaign was created carefully and comprehensively while the counter-response to the negative sentiments further strengthened and deepened the campaign’s impact on the market.

It’s a simple to understand creative concept. But most importantly, you can see that the creative was well thought through especially in how to face the push back and prepare to counteract. Nothing can be done spontaneously. In today’s world of rapid sharing and giving feedback, every brand has to think about their risk management plan as well as the response message and channels that can be used to react.

Whether it is a local or international brand, it is vital to think about possible consequences of communication messages. One of the best ways is to prepare through conducting proper research or engage with key influencers and social media experts to identify and plan for possible scenarios, opportunities and effective solutions. In the process of social media planning, there are many different versions but essentially the 4-stages of planning are “Listening about what is being talked about and by whom, “Identifying the key influencers and messages”, “Creating conversations to engage key influencers and channels/platforms”, “Monitoring the market through tracking of new influencers, topics and setting parameters for tracking”.

#wholesome #honey maid #social media #viral video #listening #conversation #tracking #influencers #risk management #creative concept

In less than 2 minutes, these movie goers will get an unexpected surprise.

"Surprise" is one of the most effective ways to get a message across, and this can be achieved today using "Location-based" marketing which is a novel way of using technology to get in touch with an audience at a particular venue location, then combined with shareable "video” content the reach can be further extended to much bigger groups. A winning formula that recently used this application was the Volkswagen campaign in Hong Kong which garnered 20 million views on YouTube in less than 10 days.

So, how can local brands use these elements in developing branding or marketing campaigns?

1/ Surprise is one of the effective ways to arouse interest. Of course there are many others such as the use of emotions like fear, love, empathy, humor and guilt. Design a creative story based on one of those approaches which can move people emotionally, making sure that the feelings induced align with the personality of the brand while developing the campaign.

2/ Location-based marketing is not difficult to create today particularly in a market such as Hong Kong, a small contained environment. The art in applying this method is giving good reasons to connect the brand with people. Sending a coupon or promotional message based on proximity can be worthwhile , or engaging people through participation in an event, sharing the agenda of a conference, signing up for queuing all attract attention. However brands can improve the management of the timing and frequency of these messages and actions to ensure they are accepted and don’t disturb people. A better way of using it is to get your customer’s response to give a “Yes” or at least a “No”. In this way you can begin to build your prospects database from every campaign.

3/ Today video content is one of the major marketing requests from clients. How to create content about an event that can go viral, or for a new product launch or for brand building? There is no absolute answer but certainly, most of the successful videos that have gone viral have a strong creative story-line plus effective planning to make it a sure viral starter in order to get the snowball effect going. Constantly invest in providing talking points or shareable videos for customers. A content plan is a good way to kick-start an effective marketing communications strategy.

Finally, since Hong Kong is a market that has one of the highest levels of mobile penetration, as well as advanced technology infrastructure, media and social channels are all available so it is a healthy battlefield for small brands. This means local enterprises can create impactful campaigns without massive marketing investment. The real challenge is about having a long term view of brand building with constant investment in offering differentiated products and services that value.

#location-based marketing #surprise #volkswagan #video #creative idea #technology #storyline #brand building

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