How do brands add value beyond price?
The question on everyone’s lips today is how can I save money and still buy the brands I want? It sounds like an easy ‘in’ for marketing professionals, i.e. simply cut prices and consumers will respond and buy?
Wrong. After months of extensive research; probing and interviews of over 650 consumers, MCCP have discovered that price is no longer the key driver in delivering value for brands in the eyes of consumers. So if it isn’t price, what is it and how do you apply it to your brand?
MCCP developed the Value Equation™ which enables marketing & brand owners to identify how their brands can create value beyond price, a timely topic for any brand in today’s climate. The backdrop to the need and subsequent development of this Value Equation™ is outlined below.
1.THERE IS A NEW NORM: Consumers are becoming ‘recess ionised’, BUT Irish consumers still love brands. Consumers are now being bombarded by brands with price offers; price cuts; price deals etc. and as a result consumers are no longer seeing brands, they are beginning to only see price:
However despite this, marketers are still not concentrating their efforts on creating long-term value for their brands 90% of marketers we interviewed said they would spend their last €100K on short-term gains activity, but 95% know they should be planning longer term.
2. AS A RESULT CONSUMERS ARE CREATING VALUE FOR THEMSELVES BECAUSE BRANDS AREN’T DOING IT FOR THEM. They are doing this through Experimental activities such as
•Online grocery shopping –obviously not
What brands gave roses this Valentines Day?
Can you guess what brands gave their consumers roses (as part of their logo anyway) this Valentines Day? Answers below
1. Four Roses Bourbon
2. England Rugby
3. Rose of Tralee
4. Google (one-day-only graphic on their homepage derived from Robert Indiana’s pop art painting)
5. The Stone Roses
6 Cadbury’s Roses
Brand Strategist Wanted
MCCP is recruiting a Brand Strategist to work on a project basis. Must have big brand strategic expertise and experience in creating and crafting brand propositions, experience of working with creative and planning teams and want to work in a creative, idea centric and growing environment.
For further details, contact, kay@mccp.ie
The 5 ‘so whats’ which impacted consumers and brands this week
1. An opportunity exists for brands to tap into their back catalogue
Almost a quarter (24%) of all households were in arrears on at least one bill or loan last year, according to the annual survey on income and living standards conducted by the Central Statistics Office.
So what?
At MCCP’s recent Brand Forum event held at the Rubicon Gallery on St. Stephan’s Green the benefit of harnessing a brands learning’s from yesteryear to provide insight into today’s consumer landscape was raised. Using many people’s current difficulty to meet their household bills as an example, one can see how the return of old fashioned payment methods such as coin metering might be welcomed as a means of payment in the 21st century!
One old fashioned product already making a comeback and helping consumers address the growing problem of household utility bills is the hanging shower timer. It dispenses water for five minutes – the maximum amount of time one should spend in the shower before a bath becomes more water, energy, and cost efficient.
2. Almost 75% of Irish workers bring their work home
Nearly 3 out of every 4 Irish workers with access to e-mail continue to work after returning home, a new survey carried out by employment law firm Peninsula Ireland has found.
So what?
At MCCP we believe the always on nature of Irish workers offers brands that can help people make the most of their busy schedules the chance to win loyal custom. In the UK, Tesco have already responded to
Better to highlight a virtue than defend a vice?
I recently read Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander. The name of the book struck me in the shop. “Why?” I thought. “It is not exactly a crazy book title.”
But I soon realised, there was something else about the title, which was unique. When was the last time I sat down and read something, which was about what people enjoyed and liked? I actually couldn’t remember. I read a lot of research reports and newspapers, I hear rants from consumers and TV personalities which usually focuses on problems and negative perceptions, which generally show the unhappiness of consumers with everything such as…
“People are angry with the banks”, “Consumers are cutting back across all categories”, “Value for money bla bla bla Aldi.” (Source: Much of Irish Market research)
There is nothing wrong with this as such, it demonstrates that it must be true. These are truths, they are trends, but what seems to be the biggest stumbling block at the moment, is that consumers, marketers and advertising folk are obsessed with focusing on stuff Irish people don’t like and not enough on what Irish people like. Is this not where real insight lies? This is presenting huge problems for communications campaigns.
For example, very often brands try to tackle issues such as the fact that consumers think they are expensive, with the communication’s objective focusing on changing that perception. The brand then tells customers they are great value for money rather than focusing on what makes them great value.
Would we not be better
Will the recession and Eyjafjallajökull provide us with unexpected opportunities?
In a more opulent era, dinner party conversations rejoiced in savouring the memory of a weekend in New York or bi-annual visit to the “holiday home” in Spain. However with leaner times now upon us all, ‘Staycation” holidays look here to stay. But how will consumption of the Irish holiday experience reframe our relationship with Irish culture. Perhaps we will see a return to traditional values…a reconnection with community, a renewed appreciation of our country’s beauty and reinvented sense of patriotism. Could this be a unique chance for some brands to reconnect with the Irish consumer, to tap into a more relaxed holiday consumer mindset which previously was time starved and averse to the seeming banality of the everyday Irish experience. Marketeers (aside from the obvious hospitability brands) need to rethink this prospect…from the petrol forecourt to the local convenience store, this could pose an opportunity to re-engage their brand relationship.