Inputting Technology in the Marketing Communication Mix

Umair Naeem takes a look at the Mix!

Marketing has always stemmed from thinking up of products that make a difference in the consumers’ life, and ensuring that the consumers realize that very fact. The key in ensuring the latter fact is effective communication to the target market, and in an era where the consumer is increasingly bombarded by a cluttered media where ads are increasingly beginning to look similar (whoever invented slice-of-life commercials is probably screaming bloody murder), it becomes vital to have an efficient mix of different communication media and an effective clearly thought out message that delivers the marketing proposition to the target consumer.

Needless to say, for marketers the reach of their communication media is vital as well, and the effective mix of the advertising avenues used helps to successfully ‘reach’ the minimum required percentage of their target audience.

Let’s pinpoint Pakistan: as a marketer, you first finalize your single minded message, effectively integrate it into the campaign concept, and then if your budget allows, you launch a 360 degree communication campaign that utilizes a certain media mix to get you a certain reach, in order to meet preset Brand recall KPIs after the campaign. What of the media mix? As a marketer, you will look at TV Channels, time slots and TV programs that garner a good rating with your target audience. You will look at key visibility location for Billboards, and ensure that your Point of Sale material is in the consumer’s eye wherever they shop. You may even go for radio channels and magazines to advertise on, again keeping in mind the target audience and how they rate these other avenues. The common denominator in all of the mentioned media (and others used) is tracking, i.e. how effective they are in terms of being liked by the target audience.

The one thing that has been missing from the Media Mix in Pakistan up until the last few years has been advertising on the Internet, and using Viral Marketing tools to create Word of Mouth that uses the web to gain ground. The reasons why this has been such an unexplored medium are two-fold: the first has been a lack of faith in Internet as a media for targeting mass consumers. As of 2007, 12 million estimated out of a population of 161 million (19%) used the internet. 19% should be a big number for marketers, but despite that there has been a general hesitation in moving to the internet and getting a desired reach. The second reason is connected to the first one: 19% is a good number, marketers might say, but WHO exactly are these 19%? What are their demographics and SEC class? Which sites are the most popular? These are all questions that ought to be answered by effective tracking of Internet, but so far are not often answered very easily. The problem is often that as a marketer, rather than being intuitive about a communication medium, you want to look at previous data to know how effective the particular medium is, and if it will be an efficient utilization of your budget. That can only be achieved through effective tracking.
On the international front, Internet Websites, blogs and social networks are being used more and more extensively to market corporate Brands. Key examples include Dove and Nike; and a TV show called ‘Heroes’ that has made it big. Apart from the TV show website, ‘Heroes’ has web graphic comics available, as well as blogs that key characters update daily and which tie in with happenings in the TV show; it also has official websites of the fictional companies that are in the show! Imagine the degree of convergence that the viewer feels.
In more recent times in Pakistan though, there has been an increased attention on using Internet Advertising and Viral Marketing through online social communities. Yahoo Mail and Messenger and Hotmail have been popular for Pakistan based advertisers, and the most active have been Telecom companies. This is a testament to a couple of facts: the increased difficulty in being unique in a cluttered media-scape (largely due to the undifferentiated Telecom brands) has led advertisers to look to different media for getting their messages across. The second reason has more to do with the increased advertising that the Telecom companies are generally doing. The Telecom sector has evolved into an industry where differentiation exists solely based on (perceived) pricing rather than pure Branding (barring a couple). Hence, their campaigns generally aim to do nothing more than be louder than their industry competitors. With that objective in mind, it is easy to understand why they see the Internet as an additional tool to lend extra decibels to their screaming voices.

Following on the footsteps of the Telecoms, other companies too have tried to utilize Yahoo and Hotmail to their benefit. Tapal was recently visible on Yahoo!, while currently Gillette Pakistan is advertising its localized Gillette Champions on Yahoo! Mail.

The other tool that has also been gaining ground has been Viral Marketing through social networking websites. Viral Marketing can be taken as a virtual ‘e-Word of Mouth’ that replicates and spreads using various Internet social networks, blogs or popular websites. One user reads about something, likes it or dislikes it, then either blogs about it or spreads his/her like/dislike through other avenues. Facebook happens to be the most popular social networking website in Pakistan, and sees a number of Brands utilizing it either through direct advertising (Kahva, Telenor, Djuice, Jazz and others), Facebook Groups or through the ‘make-your-own-ad’ feature on Facebook.

This use of Internet advertising appears to point towards a shift in the mindsets of marketers in terms of which media mix to utilize when thinking about the effective reach of their communication message. The inherent problem, though, remains. If as an advertiser you have used Internet based advertising previously, then you would have found some means of having it tracked. On the other hand if you are looking to move into the medium, you will most likely have to rely on your instincts and common sense as to how and where to use the internet to access the specific target market that your Brand asks for. As an illustration, if you’re looking to target youth of SEC A, B and C for a medium priced product, then Facebook would be as good a bet as any. Another good idea may be to have a look at the other advertisers on the specific website to gauge the user demographic accessing it.

One major avenue of the 360 degree approach for Marketers has been having an interlinked website for their Brands. The earlier mentioned example of Gillette Champions campaign is an excellent example in this regards. The campaign is an international venture from Gillette portraying three international superstars who portray the confidence that Gillette claims to exude. If you link to www.gillettechampions.com, the website will ask you to specify your country, and will then take you to a localized version of the Gillette Champion website. For some countries, this also means the integration of an additional athlete with which the local users can better associate. For Pakistan, this happens to be Shoaib Malik. Gillette Champions Pakistan is an excellent website, as it links the Brand’s persona brilliantly with the message the new campaign tries to portray. Furthermore, it is localized very effectively.

Brands such as Safeguard (www.commandersafeguard.com), Coka Cola (www.cokestudio.com.pk) and Veet (www.veet.com.pk) have also been relatively successful in having effective online content on their websites. Telecom Brands too, are highly prevalent in this particular avenue. For a number of other Brand websites in Pakistan, unfortunately, the trend more often revolves around the creation of a website and much hullabaloo, but no regular updating of the content. Samaa News, one of the many TV channels that are invading Pakistan, did not have a website in place even six months after its launch. No thoughts of 360 degree consumer interaction there. Telecom websites in particular, often end up being guilty of over reliance on flashy websites which resemble more of an advertisement, then an online service. Why would any user wait for five minutes for a website’s Flash content to load only to view a SWF ad instead of something interesting? The key in this respect that the ‘idea men’ need to remember is that there needs to be originality, flexibility and fluidity in these websites and blogs on a day to day basis, so that the users actually feel compelled to visit these domains regularly.

The point, however, that needs to be noted that there is indeed a concerted effort towards integrating Internet based media in the communications mix for marketing Brands. The people thinking up concepts behind these models and the agencies involved in executing these concepts will not get it spot-on all the time, but the evolution of thought can only be positive for the advertising, marketing and media fraternity in Pakistan. Hypothetically, this can lead to more personalized messages that can be created for consumers thus helping marketers be more efficient in reaching their target markets and reducing the evident clutter on the various media. What more could a marketer want?! Technology indeed can prove to be a great ally for marketers.