Chapter 3: Communication strategy and campaign

management
1. Definition of marketing campaign

A marketing campaign connects the product or services to the marketplace.

More importantly, each campaign tells the story of the company and the value of the brand.

A successful marketing campaign management is about more than creating an advertisement or web page, it
means developing and implementing a complete plan that spells out the specific goals of the company and how to
achieve them.

A company can hire an agency or can decide to manage a marketing campaign internally.
2. Goals of Marketing Campaigns

Marketing campaigns are the main way to engage with existing customers and acquire new
ones. It has many goals :

- Increasing sales and profits;

- Introducing a new product;

- Increasing product awareness

- Establishing a brand image;

- Defining the brand experience;

- Reducing the impact of negative publicity;

- Generating new customers

3. Marketing campaign management process

This process is about :

- specific goals;

- budget;

- timetable;

- tools and platforms

The company will use in it’s campaign.

 Step One: Define goals and how to measure them

- more sales,
- more new customers,
- more existing customers to buy more products,
- more former customers to buy something new.
 Step Two: Define the audience

When validating goals and tactics, the company should keep it’s audience top-of-mind :

- Who is the target ?

- what sort of campaign will resonate with that group?

Defining the audience will help to speak directly to them, and you will improve the company’s response
rate if the marketing campaign is relevant and meaningful to them.
Stages in the marketing funnel :
NB:

Audience Demographics: the company can adapt marketing campaigns to target demographic
information such as :

- age,

- sex,

- income level,

- race,
- employment,

- location,

- home ownership,

- level of education.
Other demographics can group people by :

- hobbies,

- lifestyle, etc.
 Customer Profiles: the company can use the following elements to learn about the
customers’ interests and behaviors :

- surveys;

- quizzes,

- purchase history .
 Step Three: Identify the marketing campaign tools

A marketing campaign connects the company to it’s audience, so it can use a combination of tools :

Television TV offers :
- visual stimulation and creativity.
- Words, picture, and sound must work together to create a memorable
campaign.
These ads can be targeted locally or broadcasted on a regional or national
scale.
Radio Radio offers local reach and repetition, but no visual element.
Print - Advertisements in newspapers or magazines,
- newsletters,
- flyers,
- Brochure,
- catalogs.

Trade Shows trade shows offer displays in an exhibit hall, allowing the company :
- to connect with it’s audience and potential customers,
- to demonstrate your product.
Inbound Marketing The content for this medium creates brand awareness and can
include :
- content marketing,
- blog posts,
- events,
- social media.
Outdoor Media These campaigns can include :
- promotion on billboards,
- ads on park seats,
- bus shelters
- newspaper holders
- ads wrapped around cars, buses, etc.
Videos Videos build brand recognition

Blog Post Shorter articles on your website are a powerful way to connect
with your customers and potential customers. You can provide
product information,
Telemarketing Make calls to targeted lists of customers, potential customers, or
purchased lists, to learn more about their experience with your
brand or determine where they are in the buying cycle.

Direct Mail Can introduce your product to targeted prospects or lists of potential
customers based on specific demographic information.
 Step Four: Identify the resources and responses

The company is supposed to got the resources to handle the response it’s marketing
campaign:

- How to monitor traffic to the website,

- How to order fulfillment,

- Website content,

- Comments, etc.
 Step Five: Create a Budget

The budget should include all the costs associated with the marketing campaign:

- advertising expense,

- staff salaries,

- web hosting,

- media buys,

- content creation,etc.
 Step Six: Create the marketing content

The content has to grab the costumers’ attention :

- Find content that resonates;

- Deliver valuable content;

- Keep the content focused;

- Brainstorm a lot of ideas

- Personalize the content

 Step Seven: Create and Monitor the Workflow and Timetable

The company should know how to execute each step of it’s campaign:

- Who will do the writing and design?

- Who will send the emails and social posts?

- Who will approve the work as it’s being done?

workflow should also set specific deadlines.

 Step Eight: Test and evaluate the marketing campaign

Testing helps the company to see trends, and potential trouble spots, before to spend the entire
budget on it’s campaign.
3. Marketing Campaigns exemple :

Since 2012, Lay's brand has promoted its "Do Us A Flavor" campaign, asking people to
“pitch” their potato chip flavor ideas.

In the campaign’s first year, sales increased by 12 percent, and its Facebook page averaged
more than 22.5 million visits a week.
4. Search-centric marketing approach
Remark :

For customers, there are reasonable positive effects :

1. More comfortable access to information about products and company itself –everything is accessible via
search on all devices including smartphones and tablets, customers can study information anytime and return
to it comfortably.

2. Improved communication with the company – easier access to contact information and the possibility of
online interactive communication using e.g. posts on Facebook or online chat.
3. Easier purchase – customer can decide regarding the purchase much quicker and he can evaluate purchasing
conditions in more detail and comfort as well.

Sometimes, he can even purchase online or using electronic communication and this increases his comfort and
finally, his happiness.

4. Better customer service – company is accessible online including services before and after the purchase and
thus, customer can easily contact it regarding any problems, complaints or suggestions. These are handled much
quicker than with standardized ticketing system or help desk.
5. Three pillars of communication campaign
6. Integrated holistic approach to search-centric campaign
7. Activities of marketing communication in the context of search-centric approach

Phase of communication Activities to be performed

campaign

Campaign planning - Clearly define objectives for online and search engine visibility and articulate them not
only within the online team but to the whole campaign team including internal employees,
external co-workers, suppliers and other stakeholders.
- Define the role of online visibility coordinator – it can be part of work of an existing team
member or, for more demanding campaigns, this role needs to be covered by a full-time
job, or it can be outsourced.
- Prepare the concept of online visibility – the plan of web sites including product site(s),
landing pages and their structure, plan for mobile applications (if applicable), and plan for
social media penetration.
Phase of communication Activities to be performed
campaign

Campaign planning - Create the plan for contents – types of content for online presentation, plan of content
generation in time, coordinate the content strategy with the search engine optimization
strategy.
- Introduce the search engine marketing
- Coordinate the online visibility plan with its components with the global marketing
campaign plan in all aspects – the approach needs to be integrated and reflect all
requirements of stakeholders, and combine them into one functional entity.
- Create the time schedule for online visibility activities and align them with other
campaign activities.
Phase of communication Activities to be performed
campaign

Campaign planning - Calculate the cost for online visibility activities including all internal and external costs
(do not forget the content – its creation can be demanding and expensive) and align the
online budget with the overall budget of the campaign.
- If possible, allow more time for campaign preparation to consider the need for running
search engine optimization activities several weeks before launching the over-the-line part
of the campaign.
Phase of communication Activities to be performed
campaign

Campaign - Implement all activities of online and search engine visibility according to schedule.
implementation - Put as much content online as possible already in this phase to create the roots for organic
visibility in latter phases.
- Use focus groups to test online visibility before launch, reflect on findings and
continually improve results.
- Search for new ideas to enhance online visibility and continually modify and supplement
the plan.
Phase of communication Activities to be performed
campaign

Campaign - Monitor all activities and their impact using the tools of positions measurement, social
management media monitoring, social media analysis, web site traffic, conversion analysis, visitor
and control behaviour, and other tools.
- Use the DMAIC (define-measure-analyze-improve-control) approach to reflect findings
of monitoring, compare them with goals and find operative solutions to improve
performance in all defined aspects.
Phase of communication Activities to be performed
campaign

Campaign - Apply the holistic approach to results assessment – global results of the campaign need to
assessment be taken into account.
- Clearly define the contribution of online visibility to campaign results, quantify them and
explain them to all stakeholders.
- Prepare the lessons learned document, comment, approve and present it to improve the
performance of the following campaigns.
- Reassess the campaign periodically (e.g. quarterly) to include long-term effects of the
campaign, clearly filter out noise and effects not affected by the campaign including
seasonality, changed environment etc.
Case Study :Famous Coca-Cola Marketing Campaigns

This classic brand has been reminding us to “Drink Coca-Cola” since 1886 and now encourages millions around the
world to “Open Happiness” every day.

One thing that has remained constant throughout the history of Coke is the innovative marketing campaigns that have
launched and re-launched the brand and its product to the world.

Coca-Cola advertising history is filled with famous marketing campaigns that rank among some of the most effective
in the world.
1. The “Share A Coke” Campaign

In June 2014 Coke launched its “Share A Coke” campaign in the U.S., using 250 of the most common U.S. millennial
names to market its product to individual consumers.

The campaign seems to have been a huge success with U.S. audiences, gaining significant traction in the short amount
of time the ad has been running here.
According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 125,000 social media posts referenced the “Share A Coke” campaign
between June and July of 2014, and 12% of online conversations about Coca-Cola in that time can be attributed to the
campaign.

What’s more, over 353,000 virtual bottles of coke have been shared via Coke’s campaign-specific website.

We can also see the success of this campaign when we look at data for the Coca-Cola brand in Google Trends.
After being launched in the U.S., the campaign earned an increasing amount of attention. The search term
“share a coke” saw a significant increase in U.S.-based Google searches in the short, three-month time lapse
from June to August.
Even more indicative of the campaign’s success, though, is the fact that it has also seemed to spike Google
searches for terms like “Coke” and “Coca-Cola” within the last three months – a strong sign of an effective
advertising campaign.
This data tells us that people who have seen the campaign, but maybe don’t know exactly what it is called, are
actively seeking to learn more about the “Share A Coke” ads.

Their willingness to seek out information about the campaign is a good indicator of their likelihood to interact
with the brand in the future.
Of course, the “Share A Coke” campaign was not launched exclusively in the U.S.

The campaign, one of the most famous ad campaigns in recent history, began in late 2011 in Australia and New
Zealand, the success of which convinced the brand that the ad was worth replicating in other parts of the world.

During the trial period in Australia, there was a 7% increase in consumption of Coca-Cola products by Australian
young adults, and the ad campaign earned well over 18 million impressions via social media. In terms of Facebook
specifically, Coke’s page earned 39% more followers and visitors to the page shot up by 870%.

The “Share A Coke” campaign was expanded across 20 global markets, including those in the U.K., China, and Brazil.
What we can learn from this campaign:

- One of the reasons this campaign was so successful is because it directly appeals to individual consumers. What
better way to grab someone’s attention than by putting his or her name directly on your product?

- Of course, this isn’t a realistic strategy – or even a good strategy – for many companies, but it’s important that you
always consider how your campaign will be perceived at the individual level.
- Another aspect of this ad that makes it so memorable and effective is its ability to adapt to narrative structures.
That is to say, this campaign offers endless possibilities for storytelling in its advertising. And since ads that tell
some kind of story are likely to be more effective, that’s a big plus for Coca-Cola.
2. “The World’s Cup” Campaign

As an official sponsor of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Coca-Cola had a prime opportunity to market
itself to the hundreds of millions of football fans who would follow the lead-up to the event.

“The World’s Cup” campaign was created to celebrate the unifying good that can come of many people’s love
for a single sport. Coke did an excellent job of tapping into a realistic and captivating story with this campaign,
especially when compared to Pepsi’s ad for the 2014 World Cup.
What I especially like about this campaign is that it isn’t just a cool story. Coke actually brought more than 1 million
fans from more than 90 countries to the World Cup.

Anybody can make a heartwarming, fictional video, but I think Coke’s real power with this campaign lies in the
brand’s commitment to following through with it.
What we can learn from this campaign:

Don’t just tell a story, be a story. If you want to create an inspirational ad campaign that truly moves people, you
need to also find a way to make that story happen in real life. Get involved with your community or find ways to
show how your clients give back to theirs.

Certainly, not all of us have the reach or budget that Coke is working with, but by learning from some really
amazing marketing campaigns they’ve created, we can learn how to be even better marketers and advertisers than
we are now. In fact, even Coke realizes the value of learning from others and being open to new ideas.