For the brands of today, operating in an increasingly crowded marketplace, it is essential to drive and maintain loyalty with their target customer. However, it is all too easy for brands to become disconnected from their evolving audience, and offer products that fail to continually resonate with the target consumer. For an example, you only have to look at the failure of Crystal Pepsi, a transparent cola that sank without trace in the 90s, to see that even the biggest brands are not immune from the danger of losing sight of their target consumer.
However, the clear soda is poised to make a comeback. This is good news for those interested in the more esoteric end of the drinks spectrum but, since it crashed and burned before, how is Pepsi going to guarantee success the second time around?
For brands, the answer lies in ensuring that they are appealing to consumers’ varying taste levels and offering a product that they wish to consume. With this in mind, it’s essential that brands develop a strategy that enables them to remain consistently in tune with their target consumer, maintaining a close handle on their changing needs.
Where PepsiCo. arguably failed before was introducing a product to market without doing the appropriate research first. Essentially, the brand launched a product for which there was no discernible desire for, which is obviously a major failing. In order to be successful, brands should always ensure that they have the appropriate feedback from their target demographic in order to shape their offering. This feedback may take a product in a different direction from what was originally intended, but ultimately results in something that stands a higher chance of selling.
Brands can go about gleaning feedback in a number of ways, but particular emphasis should be placed on digital methods such as online questionnaires and e-mail marketing campaigns. However, the volume and quality of consumer feedback can be much improved by actually getting the physical product into the hands of the target consumer so they can experience the taste, texture and aesthetic for themselves. Targeted sampling paired with the acquisition of digital feedback creates a direct link to the consumer and is a key method of maximising familiarity with a brand long before it even hits the shelves. This approach also has the benefit of being cost-effective, enabling brands to drive mass awareness of a product without massive distribution costs.
But how do brands go about consolidating this feedback? Simple: by making use of the myriad of digital platforms at our fingertips. Think of combining the direct customer interface of Twitter and the longer form answers gleaned in an online survey in a centralised database. This type of approach is a veritable goldmine for brands. With this powerful tool, brands can view customer feedback, as well as segment it by gender, age, location and income bracket to build a comprehensive picture of consumer reaction to a product.
There are many ways to achieve this kind of feedback. For instance, brands could include a link to a mandatory survey with the sampled products, or embed a competition element with the product that can be activated online. When this competition is entered, it then takes consumers through to a feedback form. Essentially, consumers should be incentivised to give feedback, rather than simply consume the product and never interact with the brand again.
In an increasingly crowded marketplace, brands need to maintain the engagement of their target consumer. Moving beyond just sampling campaigns, brands should consider how digital activations can help achieve standout for a product by disseminating eye-catching content and offering an enhanced customer experience. For instance, a consumer could receive a bottle of perfume and spray it on their body, but they should also be encouraged to interact with the brand digitally, by offering enriching content and digital experiences that encourage them to provide their feedback at every touch point. By implementing an effective digital strategy, the amount of feedback that is obtained can be maximised, while brand interaction is also boosted – hopefully engendering further brand loyalty.
The benefits of the digital revolution lie in the ability to collate customer feedback into a centralised database that can be built upon and used to inform marketing activity. For instance, it is possible to create and maintain a comprehensive digital database of feedback that provides information that will be critical to a product’s success. The database can, therefore, be used as the basis of a customer insight function, actively using information to feed into product marketing, as well as development. In essence, digital channels streamline the acquisition of feedback, as well as make using this feedback to benefit a brand and its products an achievable reality, bringing together data from various customer touch points to build a detailed and accurate picture. Targeted sampling activity is a key tool in driving awareness of any new product, but combining it with digital methods of both acquiring and acting on feedback will help to ensure true marketing success.
By Hannah Campbell, Operations Director at The Work Perk.