Module 2: How Digital Tools Are Changing Promotion

Marketing in a Digital World
Professor Aric Rindfleisch
Module 2: How Digital Tools Are Changing Promotion
Table of Contents
Module 2: How Digital Tools Are Changing Promotion ........................................................... 1
Lesson 2-1: Basic Concept: Promotion .............................................................................................2
Promotion .............................................................................................................................................................2
Lesson 2-2: View From the Quad .....................................................................................................9

Product Reviews ...................................................................................................................................................9
Lesson 2-3: Digital Concept 1: User General Content ..................................................................... 12

User Generated Content .....................................................................................................................................12
Lesson 2-4: Case Study: Go Pro ..................................................................................................... 26

Case Study Introduction: GoPro..........................................................................................................................26
Lesson 2-5: Digital Concept 2: Doppelganger Brands ...................................................................... 33

Doppleganger Brands..........................................................................................................................................33
Lesson 2-6: Exercise: Wikipedia.org .............................................................................................. 45

Exercise: Wikipedia.org .......................................................................................................................................45
1
Lesson 2-1: Basic Concept: Promotion
Promotion
The second of the four Ps is promotion. This aspect of the marketing mix covers the methods of
communication that a marketer uses to provide information about his products. Typically we
think of this information as being persuasive in nature, with the goal of getting customers to buy
your product instead of its competitors.
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This information can be both verbal and visual, and thus informational strategy can influence
consumers by appealing to either their intellect or their emotions. For example, Coke has built
an incredible degree of awareness and interest in its brand via century of effective promotional
campaigns. Coke spends about $4 billion on advertising each and every year, most of this on
television ads. Through 100 years of successful promotions, Coke is one of the world's most
recognizable brands and the world's most popular soft drink. As indication of his promotional
success, the word Coke, there it is. The second most recognized word on the planet, just after
OK. Please take a look at the in-video link to get a sense of the history of Coke's advertising. If
you take a close look at these ads, you'll see that Coke has historically focused more on the
visual than the verbal, in its attempts to build an emotional bond with its customers.
The promotion part of the marketing mix has a number of key concepts, including personal
selling, sales promotion and word of mouth. In this module, we'll focus on two fundamental
concepts, advertising and persuasion.
Over the past 100 years, the most popular promotional technique has been advertising, with
television advertising accounting for the largest portion of most firms' promotional budgets.
Today, digital advertising exceeds traditional advertising but not by much. However, television
advertising is still a major element in many firms' advertising budgets.
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For example, many large firms pay over $5 million for a 30-second advertising spot during the
Super Bowl. Now most advertising is targeted towards existing and potential customers.
However, advertising can also be directed to a firm's distribution channel partners, such as
retailers, and also to build morale among its employees. The goal of advertising is to elicit some
type of response. Now, there are different types of responses that a firm may seek. For
example, a new brand may focus on developing awareness, while an established brand may
focus on changing perceptions. Most ads are carefully planned and developed. Usually a firm
will hire a professional advertising agency to create an advertising campaign, and then will
carefully pretest these ads before they're shown. Once a advertising campaign is launched, a
firm will usually have a professional marketing research company track the ad to assess its
effectiveness and help decide when it needs to develop a new campaign
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As noted earlier, the main goal of most promotional campaigns is to persuade customers to buy
a firm's products instead of its competitors. Thus marketers often think of promotion as a form of
persuasion and employ a number of persuasion tactics, such as celebrity endorsements, humor
or scientific claims.
The most popular theory about how persuasion works is the elaboration likelihood model, ELM
for short.
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This model suggests that there are two main routes to persuasion. First, the central route, which
is more cognitive in nature, and second, the peripheral route, which is more emotional in nature.
According to this theory, the central route is effective when customers have the ability and
motivation, the process a persuasion message. And persuasion will occur when they find that
information to be newsworthy and believable. In contrast, the peripheral route is more effective
with customers lack ability and motivation to process the message.
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And persuasion will occur when they perceive the provider of the message to be credible or
attractive. These two ads are good examples of these two different persuasion routes.
Regardless of which route is employed, persuasion tactics focus strongly on trying to convince
customers that a product is appealing and is based on the premise that a firm needs to find the
right message or message provider
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Historically, most large firms have devoted most of the promotion budget to advertising. With a
bulk of this expenditure focus on television ads developed by professional advertising agency.
Although a small number of customers are typically asked to provide their opinion about these
ads through techniques such as copy testing or concept testing. This process is largely top
down in focus. And most ads are designed to persuade customers to buy a firm's products by
first hitting attention for its brand, and then persuading them to make a purchase. This top-down
approach is starting to break down due to the democratization of digital tools. For example,
most large automobile companies have historically spent billions of dollars a year to advertise
their products. In contrast, Tesla, which is a truly digital company, has built a successful
automobile company without spending a single dollar on traditional advertising. Instead its
brands via social media. For example, Tesla has over four million Twitter followers, and Elon
Musk, the CEO, has nearly 30 million. In contrast, General Motors, which was once the largest
company in the world, has less than 700,000 Twitter followers. In addition to making effective
use of social media, the Tesla brand, as well as its products is widely promoted by thousands of
fans via Twitter postings, YouTube videos and other forms of user-generated content. Thus by
leveraging the power of the digital and not engaging in traditional advertising, Tesla is able to
effectively tell potential customers that story without appearing like its trying to sell them
something. So this new digital environment, marketing is moving from selling products to telling
stories. In this module, we'll discuss how new digital tools are changing this element of the
marketing mix and redefining how we think about promotion.
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Lesson 2-2: View From the Quad
Product Reviews
What is user-generated content? >> I think the user generated content is something that was
made by the user and they do it for their content. >> As in this like TikTok, YouTube, stuff like
that.
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>> So it's content generally by users. So users create content. >> All of the social videos go on
user-generated content
So that we have the whole, whether they're responsible for the content which they kind of half
are sometimes. >> Do you use Wikipedia? >> Yes. >> Sometimes. >> Yes.
>> Yes, we use it. [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> And now, have you ever made an entry on
Wikipedia? >> Never. >> No. >> No, okay. >> That would be wild. [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >>
Wild, okay. >> No I haven't. >> Okay. >> Do you guys know what doppelganger brands are? >>
No. >> Can I see the word? >> Yeah, doppelganger. >> No. >> Never heard of it? Okay, that's
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okay. >> I haven't, but I think that it means that it's the exact same thing but a generic version or
something like that. >> Obviously it would be a brand that's just designed itself to be the same
as another brand but cheaper or something. >> So you see the Starbucks Coffee logo right
here? And then you see the doppelganger here at the bottom. And it says Big Bucks Coffee
compared to Starbucks Coffee. What do you think of this doppelganger brand? >> I pretty much
say they really took what Starbucks did and made it their own. They just changed Star into Big.
>> I mean smart for the people who are doing it. If they can get away with it legally, why not? >>
I feel like you see this a lot in other foreign countries because they don't have as much
regulation. But you wouldn't really see this in the United States, unless it was found online. >> I
mean, it's led to be deceiving. >> Big Bucks one to look similar to Starbucks so it can gain some
reputation. >> As I said, it's basically trademark infringement, right? [LAUGH]
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Lesson 2-3: Digital Concept 1: User General Content
User Generated Content
Most firms are very careful in how they manage the promotion of their products. One reason is
because this activity is quite expensive. For example, in the US, a 30-second commercial on
national television typically cost over $100,000 just to have a broadcast once. Since most
commercials are shown more than once, this cost quickly multiplies into millions of dollars. This
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doesn't even include the cost of creating the commercial. The rise of new digital tools has
dramatically changed this equation. Low-cost digital video cameras, free digital editing software,
and online broadcasting platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, have made the creation
and dissemination of promotional messages much cheaper and easier than ever before. As a
result, a growing number of firms are taking advantage of these developments to reduce their
promotional cost. For example, the US beer Old Milwaukee, has dramatically reduced its
promotional cost by airing their ads on YouTube instead of television. In addition to reducing the
cost of promotion for firms, these tools have also enabled customers to take a more active role
in developing and disseminating their own promotional material. For example, there are over
330 million Twitter accounts which produce over 500 million tweets each and every day. It's
estimated that about 20 percent of these tweets are somehow related to brands and products.
Thus, every day, there are about 100 million free messages on Twitter alone.
Today, just about anyone with an Internet connection, a computer, or a smartphone, and an
idea and some energy can create and disseminate a promotional message for just about any
product. In essence, these digital tools have democratize the promotional landscape, and this is
the basic idea behind user generated content, or UGC for short. Here are a few examples of
user-generated content. All of these examples are cases in which firms are encouraging UGC.
However, UGC often occurs without a firm's active encouragement or even approval, such as
when travelers post reviews about restaurants and hotels on websites like Travelocity.com.
First, GoPro. This California company develops and sells high definition video cameras.
Perhaps you own one. These cameras are compact, durable, and relatively inexpensive, and
often used by extreme sports enthusiast like mountain bikers, wind surfers, and skydivers to
capture their adventures. GoPro strategically uses UGC by holding contests. The ask their
customers to submit photos or videos that they've taken with their cameras. The submissions
provide a steady stream of content to GoPro's various social media sites, and also provides a
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very persuasive form of promotion by showing potential customers the value of having a GoPro
camera.
Now, we'll talk a bit more about GoPro in our case for this module. Second, Warby Parker. This
is an American manufacturer and retailer of eyeglasses. They have a few physical retail
locations, but they do most of their business online. This company offers a service called Home
Try-On, in which they mail their customers five different pairs of glasses. They could then try
them on for five days and send the ones that they don't want back to the company. Now, Warby
Parker actively encourages these customers to take photos of themselves wearing these
different glasses and sharing them on social media using the hashtag Warby Home Try-On.
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Now, many of their customers take ensure these photos online as a way of getting helpful
feedback from others. In addition to helping their customers, these shared photos also help
Warby Parker by providing them with an increased exposure and also free promotion. Third,
LittleBigPlanet, perhaps you've heard of this game, is a very popular video game offered by
Sony, the Japanese electronic giant. It is now in its third edition, and it has a built-in toolkit that
allows players to create their own levels. Once these levels are created, their players can then
share them with other customers. Currently, this game has over eight million levels, nearly all of
them created by customers, not by the company.
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More recently, Sony, through its subsidiary called media molecule, has recently launched a new
game called dreams that takes us idea to an even higher level by using an enhanced customer
toolkit. According to one report, dreams is a game about creating games. What this means is
that users can create just about anything within the dreams platform, including their own art,
animation, and music. In essence, they can use these digital tools within the platform to create
virtually any type of game they want or can imagine, and they can share these games with
others through the dreams Platform. User generated content occurs when a product's
customers create and disseminate online ideas about a product or the firm that markets the
product.
These ideas are often the form of text, but also come in other forms such as music, photos, or
videos. UGC has three key characteristics. First, the contribution is by users of a product rather
than the firm that sells the product. Second, it is creative in nature and the user adds something
new, and third, it is posted online and generally accessible to others.
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Thus, an e-mail that transmits a link to a YouTube video created by somebody else is not really
UGC. Now, typically, you just see is non-commercial nature and doesn't make any types of
direct promotional appeals. Thus, it is very indirect, subtle, and also an authentic form of product
promotion. There are lots of interesting issues about UGC. For the purpose of this discussion, I
like to focus on three key issues. First, what are the different types of UGC? Although, most
UGC appears on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and also appear
in other online platforms like blogs, discussion forums, or even a firm's website. So the most
common types of UGC include blog postings, product reviews, and very submissions to firm
based invitations like the Warby Parker, Home Try-On that we discussed earlier. Of all the
different types of UGC, product reviews appear to be the most common and also has the
strongest impact on customer purchasing decisions.
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Second, what motivates users to contribute? Now, the factors that motivate customers to
engage in UGC are very similar to the motives that encourage them to engage in co-creation, as
we discussed earlier. The biggest motive appears to be social recognition. Being an active
contributor on a social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter can now provide a certain
amount of fame and prestige, at least for some people. In addition, customers can also gain
social recognition when firm profiles are contributions on his web page or in his advertisements.
For example, the yogurt company, Chobani, has placed his customer tweets on billboard signs
throughout the US. In addition to social recognition, some users are motivated by financial
incentives. Typically, there are few financial rewards for most types of UGC.
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However, some firms try to encourage UGC by holding contests that provide winners with cash,
gift cards, or some other type of tangible reward. For example, Dunkin' Donuts, which now is
called Dunkin', I believe, encourages UGC by holding contests which customers submit photos
of themselves consuming it's products, and rewarding winners with a variety of prizes such as
smartphones and televisions. What are the benefits of UGC? User contributions provide firms
with lots of benefits. First of all, this type of promotion is typically low cost since the content is
provided by a firm's customers for free. Addition to this cost savings, UGC has also been related
positively to product sales. Research suggests that most customers trust UGC more than they
trust traditional promotions like paid advertising. UGC also helps make a firms need to keep it's
content fresh and makes their websites much more interesting. Thus, websites that feature
UGC benefit both from higher traffic as well as longer page views.
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There is a healthy and growing body of research on UGC, so there are lots of studies we could
talk about. I'd like to focus on two recent and very interesting studies about this topic. This first
study was published by Ni Huang and colleagues in 2019 in Management Science. The authors
of this study investigate the types of feedback that motivate individuals to provide UGC to
companies.
They examined the effects of three different types of feedback. First, cooperation, which is the
impact of UGC on others. Second, individualistic, which is feedback about the quality of your
ideas. Third, competition, which is feedback about how much better your UGC was than that
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provided by others. They then test these three different types of feedback in two experiments,
one in China and one in the US. The results of both studies reveal that the impact of these three
different types of feedback depends upon an individual's gender. Among women, cooperation
was the strongest motivator, while among men, competition was the strongest motivator for
providing UGC.
Thus, this study suggests that firms can motivate individuals to generate UGC by giving them
feedback about their contributions, and that the type of feedback should be different among men
versus women. The second study was published by Shiri Melumad, Jeff Inman, and Michel
Pham in 2019 in the Journal Marketing. Now, there are lots of studies about UGC. However,
very few actually examine the ways in which users actually generate content. This study is one
of the exceptions, examines how UGC differs when it's created on a smartphone versus a
personal computer. These researchers examine the difference between these two forms of
technology by connecting five different studies, that included both actual UGC in the form of
reviews from TripAdvisor and postings on Twitter, as well as a set of experiments in which they
had participants generate content on either a smartphone or a PC.
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The results of these studies reveal that UGC created on a smartphone is shorter and less
detailed than user-generated content created on a personal computer. They also found that
UGC created on a smartphone is more likely to be emotional and positive in nature, thus this
research suggest that the content of UGC is affected by the type of digital tool that's used to
create it.
It also suggest that firms should try to encourage their customers to generate UGC on their
smartphones rather than on their computers. First, ask to share. About one out of every three
Internet users has made at least one type of UGC. Now, there are about 4 billion Internet users
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around the world, thus if we do the math, there is about 1 billion people on our planet that have
shown the willingness to contribute their time, energy, and ideas on behalf of a brand. The trick
is to direct their efforts towards your brand rather than your competitors. Prior research indicates
that customers are more likely to provide favorable contributions if the firms are active in social
media and that encourage their participation. Surprisingly, although most large firms have
Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, few of them actively encourage their customers to
contribute their ideas. For many firms, social media is more of a one-way communication flow
than a two-way conversation. Ideally, promotional activities should encourage these
conversations between both firms and customers. A good way to get this conversation started is
to simply ask customers to share their ideas.
Second, be responsive. After a firm ask its customers to submit their contributions, and if they're
lucky enough to receive some, they need to close the loop by being responsive. For example,
Dell computer has teams of individuals solely devoted to monitoring its discussion boards and
responding to consumer postings. Some firms choose to be responsive through financial
incentives. For example, Taco Bell sends gift cards to active social media users who make
positive contributions to their brand. By being responsive to user contributions, firms are more
likely to obtain higher levels of UGC in the future.
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Third, remember the Pareto principle? If you had an economics class, you may remember this
principle. It comes from the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who found way back in 1896 that
80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by only 20 percent of the population. Since this time,
this principle has become known as the 80/20 rule, and has been found to apply to a large
number of different types of phenomena. For example, 80 percent of the world's income is
controlled by about 20 percent of its population. This principle is also seen in UGC, where about
90 percent of the content is created by only 10 percent of its contributors. For example, we all
use Wikipedia, but few of us contribute to it. So not all contributors are equal, some are more
influential than others. Firm should keep this principle in mind, and seek to identify these
influential contributors and reward them for their efforts.
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Fourth and finally, integrate UGC with traditional promotion. So far, we have discussed UGC as
an alternative to traditional promotion activities like advertising on television. Indeed, these two
forms of promotion are quite different and often conducted as separate activities sometimes by
separate individuals. However, firm should consider trying to link these two forms of promotion
together. For example, Target highlighted its educational initiatives by creating a television ad
campaign that featured videos of some of its customers, that capture the moment which their
sons and daughters open up their college admission letters. This advertising campaign was
voted as one of the best ads of the year, and resulted in substantial attention and goodwill for
Target's brand.
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Lesson 2-4: Case Study: Go Pro
Case Study Introduction: GoPro
In our new digital world, our ability to communicate by video has exploded. Today, most of us
use video to talk to friends, family, and colleagues on a regular basis. In addition, we often post,
share, and view videos on social media. And many of us also engage with the video to learn
new ideas, like we're doing now. In fact, many of the most innovative companies are video-
based, including Netflix, YouTube, and Coursera. One of the most interesting video companies
to emerge from the digital revolution is GoPro, a manufacturer and marketer of small, but sturdy,
high definition video cameras. These cameras have been popularized by extreme sports
enthusiasts, such as surfers, skydivers, and skateboarders. Now, GoPro cameras are often
attached to an individual's head, their bike, or their car and provide a first person perspective of
what that person is seeing, which allows the viewers to engage in a vicarious experience.
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In essence, when you watch a GoPro video, you feel like you were there. Over the past two
decades, many GoPro users have shared their videos across a variety of social media
platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Many of these videos had millions of
views. Thus, GoPro is a great example of user-generated content. The purpose of this case
study is to illustrate and apply the concept of UGC to an actual business. GoPro is American
manufacturer of portable, high definition video cameras that began in 2002 at the start of the
digital revolution. It's based in San Mateo California and it was founded by Nick Woodman, who
currently serves as its CEO. Nick earned a bachelor's degree in Visual Arts, which is not typical
for CEO, but probably a good fit for a company that specializes in devices that create visual
images.
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Now, in 2004, GoPro introduced his most popular camera, the GoPro Hero. The original Hero
was a 35 millimeter camera that could be strapped on your wrist and was capable of taking
photos underwater. In 2006, GoPro introduced a video version of the Hero camera, along with a
variety of different ways to mount this camera, including car mounts, bike mounts, and helmet
mounts.
By 2018, GoPro cameras were available in over 100 countries across the world and GoPro had
established field offices in both Europe and Asia. [MUSIC] Although GoPro is a well known
brand and this products are highly regarded, its financial performance has been less than
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Stellar. And it now faces a wide variety of competitors in this action cameras segment, including
Polaroid, Sony, and Jami. Given these challenges, GoPro doesn't have the financial resources
to heavily invest in traditional marketing campaigns. Fortunately, thousands of GoPro users are
happy to share their videos across a variety of social media platforms. For example, check out
this cool GoPro video of sea turtles by a group called YBS Youngbloods.
In essence, GoPro has been able to leverage the power of UGC to help build awareness and
interest in its products. Here's a brief overview of the key parts of its UGC strategy. First,
distribute UGC via social media. Since many GoPro users are quite willing to create and share
these type of videos, GoPro was able to benefit from UGC without doing much work. However,
in 2010, it decided to make UGC a strategic priority and began to incorporate users' videos as a
key part of its promotional strategy. One essential element of the strategy is promoting user
contributions through its social media platforms, especially through its YouTube channel, which
currently has over 8 million subscribers and contains hundreds of exciting videos.
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Some of these videos are traditional UGC created solely by everyday users like you and me.
While others are videos produced in cooperation with a variety of social media influencers, and
extreme sports stars, for example, Shaun White, the famous American snowboarder and
skateboarder, is a frequent GoPro contributor. Second, host UGC contest. In addition to actively
sharing user videos via social media, GoPro also tries to encourage UGC by hosting a variety of
video contests, like its famous Million Dollar Challenge in which users contribute short videos for
the opportunity to win a share of a million dollar prize. Once a year, GoPro also gives out GoPro
awards to its top contributors. It also showcases its winners on its social media sites and it
frequently provides awards, including free GoPro devices. Now, this contest helps GoPro attract
thousands of video submissions each year.
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Users can easily enter this contest through a portal on GoPro's website. Third, help users create
content. In order to help its users create content, GoPro provides a number of useful tips to
potential contributors on its website and also offers a free music library that potential
contributors can use to add a soundtrack to their videos.
Now, as you can see, GoPro actively cultivates and strategically leverages UGC as a key
element of its promotional efforts. I'd like you to carefully consider this strategy and focus on
three key questions in particular. First, what are the secrets behind the success of GoPro's UGC
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strategy? Second, what lessons can other firms learn from GoPro's strategy? And third, how
could GoPro improve its UGC strategy.
Well, I hope you enjoy working on this case, I look forward to seeing your ideas. [MUSIC]
Thanks for sticking around. Here's your bonus fact. GoPro's CEO, Nick Woodman, raised
money for his company by selling beads and shells out of the back of the old Volkswagen bus.
[MUSIC] Peace, man. Good luck with the case.
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Lesson 2-5: Digital Concept 2: Doppelganger Brands
Doppleganger Brands
Developing an appealing and distinctive brand image is an important aspect of any firm's
product strategy and also helps differentiate its offerings from those of its competitors. Now,
since few products have really large differences in terms of tangible features, most branding
efforts today focus on more intangible features and try to give their brands an emotional appeal.
While these appeals are attractive to some customers, many just ignore them, and a few may
actually dislike them.
Now in the past if you disliked a brand image, you would probably try to avoid the brand and
might share your disdain with your friends and family. However, today, with the democratization
of new digital tools, you can do a lot more. Using digital design software, digital cameras, and
digital editing programs, combined with the internet, you can actually remix or create your own
version of a brand that you find offensive. This is the basic idea behind a doppelganger brand
image.
Now, the word doppelganger is really quite interesting, it's a word that is German in origin and
actually a combination of two words, Doppel, which means double, and ganger, which means
Walker. Thus, in essence, a doppelganger is a double walker.
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This term developed in the late 1700s, and was based on the belief that people have an alter-
ego that looks like them but is ghost-like in nature. And if they encounter this doppelganger face
to face, bad things will happen. Likewise, a doppelganger brand image is an alter-ego of a
brand that is negative in nature.
Now let's take a look at a few examples. First of all, the FUH2 campaign, this creative viral
internet campaign began back in 2008 in response to General Motors marketing of the Hummer
SUV, perhaps you remember this vehicle. In the mid 2000s, General Motors tried to position this
brand as the ultimate four wheel drive vehicle, capable of taking on any challenge and used the
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slogan like nothing else. The FUH2 campaign crafted a very effective doppelganger brand
image that focused not just on the brand itself, but also the owners of Hummers, which were
portrayed as jerks who care little about the environment by driving this huge gas guzzler during
the height of the Gulf War.
Second, the new Pepsi logo. Pepsi introduced a new logo back in 2009, they paid a famous
design firm a million dollars to create this new logo, which as you can see, is really just a
modification of its prior logo, not much different. Nonetheless, this new logo was heavily
criticized by several Internet blogs as being a waste of money. In addition, several graphic
artists created their own doppelganger versions of this logo to represent an obese man, as a
means of protesting against Pepsi's effect on our health. This doppelganger campaign quickly
became an internet meme and increased attention on the negative consequences of drinking
Pepsi.
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Third, and finally, United Airlines, in 2017, a passenger on a United Airlines jet was forcefully
removed from the plane, which was at that time sitting at the Chicago airport, because a flight
attendant asked him to give up his seat and he refused. Another passenger captured this
incident on video and posted on social media and it became a huge sensation. As you can see,
this video was quite disturbing and shows the man who was a medical doctor screaming wildly
as he's being dragged off the plane by airport police. The next day, the United Airlines CEO
released a statement on social media in which he said that this passenger was re-
accommodated. This incident and the statement that followed attracted substantial criticism and
a large number of doppelganger brand images that reflected this incident in a negative sense,
both in terms of pictures and also words.
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Now let's take a look at our definition, a doppelganger brand image is a collection of disparaging
images and stories about a brand that are being circulated in popular culture by a loosely
organized network of anti-brand activists, bloggers and opinion leaders.
These doppelganger brand images are usually focused on well-known brands that are viewed
as lacking in authenticity and trying to create a false or misleading emotional appeal through
their promotional activities. Now let's take a deeper dive, there are lots of interesting issues
surrounding the doppelganger brand image. For the purpose of this discussion, I'll focus on
three issues in particular.
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First of all, what motivates someone to create a DBI? Creating a doppelganger image such as
the FUH2 campaign certainly takes lots of time and energy. So why would someone do this?
Typically, these efforts are motivated by the perception that a brand is being inauthentic by
claiming to be something that it's not or disguising its true nature or effect. This was the motive
behind the FUH2 campaign, which was a result of anger and frustration that people felt against
General Motors, and how they try to portray the Hummer as a vehicle that could conquer the
world but not acknowledging the negative impact it had on our global environment due to its
poor gas mileage.
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Second, what types of brands are most susceptible to a DBI? Typically, most doppelganger
images are focused against large well-known brands. These brands have a high degree of
awareness and familiarity, which means that their business practices are more likely to come to
the attention of anti-brand activists. In addition, doppelganger campaigns targeted against these
bigger brands are likely to get more attention for their creators, compared to those focused
against small brands. Thus, Walmart has several anti-branding doppelganger initiatives aimed
against it, while target has far fewer. For example, there are dozens of people of Walmart viral
videos floating around that get millions of views, but there are a few, very few people of Target
videos.
Third, where are DBI likely to be found? Now, most DBIs are created as a form of individual
protest and often located on a individual's blog, Twitter account, or Facebook page. Now,
sometimes these individual accounts are picked up by a larger digital media outlet, such as
Reddit, Digg, BuzzFeed, or even more traditional news channels. For example, Pepsi's DBI was
initially posted on its creator's blog, which at the time had very few followers, but was
popularized on BuzzFeed, in a feature called logos that look like other things. This posting
quickly received over 300,000 views. DBIs can also be found on websites such as adbusters
that are dedicated towards creating DBI for a wider variety of brands. So for example on
adbusters you'll see DBIs against McDonald's Starbucks and Calvin Klein, just to name a few.
Finally, there are a number of brand specific DBI initiatives targeted against specific brands. For
example, Walmart has over a dozen websites dedicated against it, including walmartsucks.org.
Now, I just want to point out that I shop at Walmart all the time, I love Walmart, I'm just reporting
this, I'm not endorsing it.
39
Now let's take a look at some academic insights, the research on doppelganger brand images is
still emerging so it's still a lot that we don't know about this new form of anti-brand promotion.
However, a number of key insights are starting to emerge. I'd like to discuss two studies in
particular.
This first study was published in 2006 in the Journal of Marketing, it was conducted by myself
and two of my former colleagues, back when I was at the University of Wisconsin. And this
article established the concept of the doppelganger brand image and took a look at Starbucks
and the DBI surrounding this well known and popular brand. In this article, we observed and
interviewed 30 patrons of local coffee shops, both in Wisconsin and also Illinois, and asked
them what they liked about their local coffee shop.
Now, although we never mentioned the Starbucks, all of them, all 30 people said that one of the
key reasons they liked their local coffee shop was because it wasn't Starbucks. Now, a deep
investigation revealed that all of these consumers had negative impressions of the Starbucks
brand due to its DBI. Because it lacked authenticity. Because Starbuck was trying to take the
image of being a intimate local coffee shop, while in actuality being one of the largest global
brands, and also due to the fact that most of the shops really lacked any type of local distinction,
they're pretty much the same. Thus, this article provides evidence that DBIs may have a
negative impact on a consumer's willingness to buy a brand, and as a result, go to alternative
competitors.
40
This second study was conducted by my friend, Markus Giesler, he was on the faculty of York
University in Toronto. This was published in the Journal of marketing in 2012. In this study,
Markus conducted a longitudinal analysis of how DBIs affected the marketing of the Botox
cosmetic. You may be aware of Botox, this is actually, I believe, a rather dangerous substance
that people inject or have injected into their eyes and other body parts to remove wrinkles. Now
Markus's study analyzed Botox marketing campaign over an eight year period, from 2002 to
2010, and also the DBIs that were used against this brand over this eight year time frame. This
article reveals that these doppelganger images actually shift over time in response to changing
marketing claims, and also shows that managers can use a variety of tactics to combat these
negative images, such as fostering brand communities and using customers to help market their
brands. Now, here are four practical recommendations, for how firms and managers can combat
and actually leverage a doppelganger brand image.
41
First of all, monitor digital cues. Firms should view DBIs not only as a threat, but also an
opportunity to ensure that their brands stay relevant. Firms can take advantage of this
opportunity by carefully monitoring digital cues for the potential signs of the emerging DBI.
Brand managers should carefully and regularly monitor industry and brand related websites,
social media channels, and review sites to keep an eye on any potential brand backlash. In
addition to this web browsing, the number of tools for tracking brand related conversations such
as Google Alerts, Topsy and Brandwatch. The next course in our specialization will dive into
these tools in more detail.
42
Second, identify and track brand avoiders. In addition to monitoring these digital cues, firms
should also identify and track consumers who are avoiding their brand due to the presence of a
DBI. Blogs and anti brand websites are good starting points for locating these individuals. Now,
once these avoiders are identified, a firm can and should conduct research to determine which
specific doppelganger meanings are resonating most strongly with them. For example, through
a series of a small number of simple and short interviews, we were quickly able to determine
that coffee shop customers were avoiding Starbucks mainly due to the fact that they perceived
they lacked an authentic personal touch.
And which had nothing to do with concerns about the quality of its coffee. Third, develop and
test a new story. Firms need to be proactive, especially in a digital age. Once a DBI is identified,
even in the early stage, brand managers should seek to craft a new story that either addresses
the DBI or bypasses it entirely. For example, when Botox was first launched back in 2002, anti-
brand activists created a DBI that focused on potential health risk and propagated claims that
using Botox could be fatal. In response, Botox developed a new campaign that positioned this
product as not only safe, but also a miracle of modern medicine. Now, this type of strategy must
be handled quite carefully in order to make sure that the claims that are made remain true to the
brand, because an inauthentic story will quickly be detected, exploited by anti-brand activist.
43
Fourth and finally, vaccinate your brand from the threat of a DBI. In essence, these
doppelganger images are really viral marketing campaigns that offer a social critique about
brand inauthenticity. Thus, firms may be able to vaccinate their brands from this critique by
crafting their own viral marketing campaigns that display their brands in an authentic manner. A
great example of this is the Will it Blend campaign by the US blender manufacturer, Blendtec.
In a series of viral videos, Tom Dickenson, the founder of Blendtec and quite a character
conducts a series of fun experiments in which he attempts to blend a variety of objects, such as
a baseball, a garden hose and even an iPhone in a Blendtec blender. In addition to being fun
and authentic, these videos also provide a clear demonstration of the blenders performance and
capabilities. Well, I hope you enjoyed learning about the doppelganger brand image I look
forward to hearing your thoughts about this fascinating concept in our discussion forums.
44
Lesson 2-6: Exercise: Wikipedia.org
Exercise: Wikipedia.org
If you're like most people, you are probably quite familiar with Wikipedia. It's one of the world's
most visited websites, as we are a 500 million readers each and every month.
In my experience about college students and even professors use Wikipedia as a key
information source. In fact, I even used it to help prepare for this video. However, if you're like
45
most of our students, you've read lots of Wikipedia articles but haven't written any. Thus, you
have used user-generated content but haven't actually created. This exercise we give you a
chance to do just this. Wikipedia was launched in 2001. The goal providing a free online
encyclopedia which entries can be made by anyone and are unsolicited. This was a dramatic
departure from traditional encyclopedias like the Encyclopedia Brittanica, which solicited entries
from recognized experts like scientists and professors. Since its launch, Wikipedia has
experienced tremendous growth and currently has over 35 million entries across over 300
different languages. Provide a sense of perspective. This is about the amount of knowledge
contained in roughly 15,000 volumes of printed encyclopedia.
Now, although Wikipedia is not a traditional firm, it is a very large organization, and has many
firm-like characteristics, such as a multi-level management system. It develops new product
offerings, and engages in marketing activity. In addition, Wikipedia is a strong global brand,
depends heavily on user-generated content to survive. Thus is a great example for this
exercise. Now, here's what we need to do to complete this Wikipedia exercise. First of all, go to
Wikipedia. Once you're there, you'll notice there's lots of different language options. Pick your
favorite. I'll pick English. If you look carefully, you'll see there's a Help tab on the left. This will
give you some information about how to edit an article. You might find that helpful
46
Also, if you have a Wikipedia account already, you should login. Or you may want to create an
account. You don't have to, it's optional. But usually edits that have an account behind them are
more likely to be successful. I'm going to risk it and not log in. Now, the most important step is to
simply find a topic that you would like to edit. In my case, I'm going to make some edits to our
college, the Gies College of Business, and just type that in the Search tab. Oh, there it is. It
pops up. If you look carefully on the upper top of the page, there's an Edit tab.
Hit that and you'll see the Wikipedia switches to an HTML format, which a bit cumbersome, but
fairly easy to navigate, and you would find the entry you would like to modify. In this case, I'm
47
going to modify this entry about this naming gift that we received of $150 million back in October
2017 from Larry and Beth Gies. I noticed the entry doesn't have their name on it. So I'm just
going to add their name. So by Larry and Beth Gies, two wonderful people, and we'll take a
quick preview, and there it is.
So if you look carefully, you'll see that that change was made to that, but it wasn't published. So
I will go back there, go back there and simply hit Publish changes, and I have now engaged in a
small amount of user generated content. Pretty easy. Now, after you make this change, please
wait 24 hours and come back and see if it stuck. I hope it does. Here's your assignment. First of
all, please record your Wikipedia entry, both the name and the URL. Second, tell us why you
decided to make an entry about this topic in particular. Third, what happened to the content that
you contributed? Is it still there? Did it disappear? Finally, what did you learn from this exercise?
Well, that's it. I look forward to reading your Wikipedia entry.
48

Module 2: How Digital Tools Are Changing Promotion

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Marketing in a Digital World

Professor Aric Rindfleisch

Module 2: How Digital Tools Are Changing Promotion

Lesson 2-2: View From the Quad .....................................................................................................9

Lesson 2-3: Digital Concept 1: User General Content ..................................................................... 12

Lesson 2-4: Case Study: Go Pro ..................................................................................................... 26

Lesson 2-5: Digital Concept 2: Doppelganger Brands ...................................................................... 33

Lesson 2-6: Exercise: Wikipedia.org .............................................................................................. 45

Lesson 2-1: Basic Concept: Promotion

Lesson 2-2: View From the Quad

Lesson 2-3: Digital Concept 1: User General Content

User Generated Content

Lesson 2-4: Case Study: Go Pro

Case Study Introduction: GoPro

Lesson 2-5: Digital Concept 2: Doppelganger Brands

Lesson 2-6: Exercise: Wikipedia.org

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