In this current era, the talk of the town is digitalisation. The crucial question to be asked here is how digitalisation is being incorporated into a company’s integrated marketing campaign (IMC). To answer this question, we will look at the success of the famous Korean make-up brand : Pony Effect.
Image Source: Her World
Pony Effect started when a popular Korean make up artist and Youtuber, known as Pony decided to launch her own make-up brand. The marketing strategy behind Pony Effect began with videos of make-up tutorials posted on Pony’s Instagram and Youtube channel. The key highlights of this is that Pony was able to demonstrate the versatility of her products through various different looks and also the constant interactions that Pony has with her fans on these social media posts.
Image Source: 8Days
The other side of Pony Effect’s integrated marketing campaign involves special promotional event, where Pony herself appeared to carry out make-up demonstrations and to answer questions from fans and interested consumers. These physical events, some of which were only available to invited guests, helped Pony make-up in creating an interactive and exclusive vibe to the brand identity.
Image Source: Kpop Herald
The benefits of setting up physical stores or pop-up booths help in generating attention to a wider market segment. In Pony Effect’s sense, it may have helped in attracting women who were less active on Social Media. Physical stores are also able to complement digital marketing as the hands-on experience gives a form of continuity to consumers who have come across these digital advertisements. Further, Pony’s appearance at these physical events helped provide the image that she is very involved in all stages of the make up line.
Image Source: The Korea Herald
The success of Pony Effect is evidence that a successful marketing campaign in the beauty industry has to involve both online and offline aspects as consumers would like to test products to see which is more suitable. Thus, omni-channel marketing like what Pony has done with her make-up line is often implemented to ensure that customer’s queries are addressed via various touch points.
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Picture yourself in a coffeehouse with a close friend discussing the most popular bags from Hermès. Now picture yourself heading home on that same day on a taxi and while scrolling through your social media feeds, you are bombarded with advertisements related to Luxury handbags and accessories.
These are the aftereffects of digital analytics done to analyse a consumer’s lifestyles and behaviour to present the most relevant products that these algorithms have deemed for the individual. Digital analytics are widely utilised by businesses to match with consumers who have interests in similar products. For avid internet consumers like me, this has certainly been an effective marketing tactic as I come across advertisements on social media and websites all the time.
And it doesn’t just stop there. Many businesses have incorporated search engine optimisation in their marketing strategies. Search engine optimisation allows products to be displayed with priority whenever an individual searches for something relevant. For example, googling the word ‘jacket’ would show E-commerce websites such as ASOS or Pomelo Fashion at the very top of the search results. With the right words attached, companies have the ability to be the instant answer to any consumer’s searches. This is why companies pay as much as SGD2,900 for consultation on search engine optimisation.
The price of such consultations are not even inclusive of what companies pay google, as there are also Pay Per Click (PPC) costs incurred. Average sized companies can actually spend up to a whopping USD9,000- USD10,000 simply on google ads. So why do companies do it? With the right SEO and PPC, companies can see a returns on investments of up to 700%.
To end off, the combination of digital analytics and SEO is definitely a wonder in the marketing universe! There are definitely many businesses that can attest to the effectiveness of paying high prices to focus advertising to the right consumers.
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As the world delves deeper into the Digital age, our lives become more intertwined with technology. Humanity’s dependence on technology is now much greater than ever as we seek to be more efficient in every aspect of our lives.
In this century, there is much talk about the Internet of Things (IoT) and how everything around us is connected and transmitting data. Smart home devices like Google Home and Amazon Alexa are designed for a user to be able to easily issue a command to control appliances and tools in their home. With the use of algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the information on these devices adapts to a user’s needs.
With so much connectivity around us, our every action and footsteps are somewhat monitored one way or another. Did you know that London is one of the cities with the most surveillance cameras? In London, it is said that if you lose your wallet, it is actually theoretically possible for you to find the exact moment you drop it. There are enough cameras for you to trace your footsteps from the moment you leave home. It is pretty crazy how correlated our life is with the internet of things.
While it may be relieving to know that you would be able to find lost items at ease, this is actually a double edged sword. With the ability to monitor one’s movements for a good cause, hackers are also able to do the same for personal gain. There are many reports of hackers breaching the personal devices of others and actually stealing personal information and tracking movement through phone cameras or internet webcams.
One such example can be seen in the incident where an ex-amazon software engineer hacked into Capital One’s cloud company and obtained private information like social security numbers of over hundreds of thousands of people. With these crucial information, Thompson had access to several personal infrastructure and fortunately, was arrested before any major harm was made.
Although the risk of such negative consequences revolve around the internet of things, we can’t deny that the world is much more efficient with the existence of the internet. The amount of knowledge that is easily within one’s grasp and the benefits of being connected far outweighs the risks. All in all, exercising due caution is required when it comes to putting our personal information online.
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We are now in the era of the smartphone, where practically everyone owns one and it is pretty much essential in daily life. In Singapore, up to 90% of the population own a smartphone. The smartphone offers limitless functions and enhances the quality of life for most consumers as it is slowly being integrated with every aspect of life, be it health, shopping, entertainment and work.
As the smartphone becomes an ever essential tool in our lives, most businesses have adopted mobile marketing in their marketing strategy. With mobile marketing, advertising can be done anywhere and anytime unlike physical advertisements which are limited to a fixed location. It seems like mobile marketing is the way to go due to the huge demand and supply.
Today, we will talk about how Mobile Apps are successfully used in the mobile marketing world. Retailers like Uniqlo or Adidas have launched a mobile app to enhance a consumer’s experience when shopping with them. These apps offer various exclusive discounts and rewards while providing a personalized experience for the user.
Many eCommerce apps, like Shopee, have also sprung up in the past decade to bridge sellers with customers. The app offers a very user friendly interface that even consumers from the older generation like my grandfather managed to pick up! A very social shopping experience is also promised as users can interact with sellers before a purchase and even compare prices. Furthermore, the app provides mild entertainment in the form of games that can actually earn a user vouchers or discounts for their purchases. The success of special cash-backs and promotions like the 11.11 day sale is also the story of how an eCommerce app successfully brought the “Great Singapore Sale” to an online platform.
Many brands have actually realised how cost efficient it is to run a store via eCommerce platforms and how much easier it is for them to market to consumers who have similar interests as their products via these apps. Just like how the smartphone has integrated with our lives over time, apps like Shopee have begun offering digital vouchers at a cheaper price apart from the eCommerce segment of their services.
In the current era and the light of Covid-19’s impact on the world, mobile marketing will definitely see huge changes as the world is forced to develop digitally at a greater pace. For brands to keep up, they would have to be vigilant for new trends and be fluid in adapting to new strategies.
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The first thing that strikes my mind when talking about this topic is whether going viral is necessary and if it is positive or negative to have such high media coverage. What exactly are the impacts when such levels of virality is reached and how does it spread? People often use the format of STEPPS – S (social), T (Triggers), E (Emotions), P (Practical), P (Publicising consumption), S (Story) to explain why things go viral, but how are they actually used?
I think the word “Viral” in marketing has two opposite outcomes that are good and bad. Let us take a look at some examples that backs this statement.
Source : CNN.com
This incident happened in 2019 and it caused a huge outrage in the online community in Singapore. The portrayal of different races by a single celebrity named Dennis Chew led to netizens crying foul with some even making malicious remarks to Dennis. The advertisement began with the positive intention of appealing to different races and working classes by showing the multi-racial side of Singapore and the various uniforms used by different people. The virality of this was brought about by anger of the use of “Blackface” to depict another race. This is evidence of emotional factors being brought into play to cause society to react tremendously to a stimulus. Due to the negative reaction, Nets E-PAY then took down the ad even though there was no breach of any code of practices.
Image: Twitter (@skeletonjacket)
Adding on, a chinese couple in the property and real estate industry made a video to attract minority ethnic groups. The video depicts the couple in ethnic indian clothing attempting to imitate indian dance moves while dancing to a Chinese song and speaking in poorly pronounced Tamil and Malay. Even though the owner of the property that the couple listed approved of the video, it was still shunned by the public as most saw it as offensive. The youtube video went viral overnight when content creation websites like Goody Feed made a post about them. Like the “Blackface” advertisement, the video was a poor attempt to portray or imitate another ethnic group resulting in negative comments blasting the couple and the need for them to make a public apology.
But of course, viral marketing can also create positive impacts on negative origins.One example can be seen in 1986, when two boys went missing in Singapore which led to an islandwide search. The incident was associated with Mcdonald’s as the fast food chain participated in the search and even placed a $100,000 reward for any information regarding the whereabouts of the boys. By associating the brand with this incident, Mcdonald’s indirectly attained viral marketing through the employment of emotions and social currency as most people started talking about the reward offered. This helped place Mcdonald’s in a positive light that associates them with being generous giving back to the community.
Another example would be the ALS ice bucket challenge. Though the content of the challenge video may seem irrelevant to the illness, the video made a viral impact with more than 17 million people participating and $115 million was raised for the ALS Association. A huge part of emotions and social currency were involved in virality of the challenge as the intent was clear to let people know of the good cause, thus causing more to want to share this video with the motivation of wanting to spread awareness of a good cause.
SO HOW DO WE BECOME VIRAL? Firstly, you need to have content that can interest people. It must be something that is relevant and people would find worthy of sharing. Next, be persuasive. For example, an online business related to fashion will require you to understand your target market. For example, if your target market were young adults, clothing like formal dresses and neutral outfits would appeal to them as they will be entering the workforce soon. This would give practical value to your product. Furthermore, constant social media marketing marketing using multiple influencers will also tap on consumer’s emotions and will act as strong persuasion as consumers will deem it as a trendy product.
Ultimately, I feel that it is essential to select the right approach to market your product. It would be your responsibility to ensure that the content you publish can cue a person’s thoughts to be about your product.
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To remain in the game, it is no doubt that businesses have to constantly evolve and many have turned to expanding from simply having live stores to eCommerce options ranging from various websites to social media like Facebook, Instagram, and even Youtube.
6 years ago, there was a prediction on Forbes that Instagram would be a formidable selling application. Within three years, Instagram has gained 150 million of users and as of today, we can expect 1 billion users. As of June 2017, there are 25 million business profiles using Instagram. With this wide base of users, Instagram charges $6.90 per thousand views, and estimating at 3000 views per day, this would cost $603,000 a month!
I personally believe in the powerful effects of social media on modern businesses. Evidence can be seen from various success stories just like Singapore’s very own actor and well known emcee Wang Lei, who began selling fresh seafood via Facebook Live Streams. His live streams have garnered over 1.2 million views and he has publicly stated that through live streaming sales, he has earned 2-3 times more in an hour than what he did as a stage performance host.
Even blogshop influencers like Sophia Chong, founder of The Juice Market, promotes new launches utilising live streaming. Due to the nature of the impact that Covid-19 have had on the community, many businesses have adopted a Live Streaming strategy to engage with its customers. In the current economic landscape, live streaming auctions are the most intimate that any business can be with its customers. Consumers have shown positive feedback in Live Streams as they are able to get quick responses for any enquiries as compared to just looking at a static image of potential products, they are able to see raw unedited footage of products that are being offered. However, a perfect world doesn’t exist. As much as we hear these advantages of live streaming, there are a few cons to this new marketing tool. For one, it is challenging for business owners to engage its entire target audience as not everyone can accommodate to the limited time that the live stream is online. To keep the audience entertained and interested, hosts on these live streams have to be charismatic with an appealing personality.
This year has been a rough start for everyone. The impact of Covid -19 has put a great extent of businesses to test, with an estimate of 3,800 businesses shutting down in Singapore alone. With new government regulations , this has caused many ripples in business operations. From a female shopper’s perspective, many simple purchasing decisions have became much more complex. An example of this would be buying make-up, as previously, testers could be provided for shoppers to try out and identify a suitable shade to their liking. With government restrictions, brands are unable to provide testers in physical stores. These brands have thus, turned to social media influencers to showcase new product launches to engage potential customers to understand the benefits of products offered.
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