Okay, class, open your notebooks, this material will be included in the final exam.
Contrary to popular wisdom, the marketing continuum does not begin with awareness and end with trial. That old model has been supplanted, because product proliferation, parity, and alternatives have rendered us no longer able to rely on our product alone to earn consumer loyalty. The new model extends beyond trial to encompass repurchase and validation, and it culminates in advocacy – that pinnacle place of marketing where consumers sell our product to each other.
This back end of the process has been dubbed “aftermarketing” by Terry Vavra, in his textbook of the same title. Vavra points out the importance of addressable media, and the need to open up a dialog with customers.
Jeff McElnea of Einson Freeman offers further refinement with his notion of “multilog marketing,” in which marketer, trade channel, and consumer are continuously dialoging with each other to the benefit of the business. Sound like nirvana? All you have to do is log on to amazon.com to watch it work.
Where were we? Oh right, advocacy. Can you think of any examples of advocacy marketing at work? Yes, Shannon?
Absolutely. Car marketing is all about advocacy. Who among us would buy one without asking a current owner how they feel about theirs? Which is why the auto industry has committed wholeheartedly to aftermarketing, and lives and breathes by their “customer satisfaction” surveys.
The diamond business is another example. Consider what DeBeers has done with its Diamond Information Center to get us talking with each other about the wisdom of investing in baubles. Larry, you had your hand up?
To rephrase your question, you’re wondering whether there’s any application in all of this for package goods marketers. The examples cited so far are high-ticket items, and the tactics are those of direct marketing.
Excellent point. Packaged goods marketers have been resisting the principles of direct marketing for years. Too costly they say. Too limiting. Perhaps they’ve taken too narrow a view, and not seen the possibilities. Imagine a scuba diver sucking on her regulator without success. Does she reject the sport out of hand or check first to see if the air supply valve is turned on?
Which brings us to an example of packaged goods advocacy marketing in action. Unilever’s Dove marketing team clearly understands its consumer. Perhaps they read Dr. Grey’s classic Mars-Venus text, or studied the soliloquies of Defending the Caveman. The postulation that women are instinctively gatherers isn’t the point. The point is that the purpose of gathering is to share, and sharing for this target is a powerful driver. Direct marketers have known this forever, calling it the “friend get a friend” technique.
Look how Dove turned that proposition into a promotion. Under the banner “share the secret to soft, beautiful skin,” Dove offered loyal customers a reward for multiple purchase, along with an offer to mail a gift sample to their friend. The reward, incidentally, came as a check made out to the retailer which created trade support for this event – but that’s the subject of another lecture. The friend received a beautiful package with a personalized note from the sender, along with a free product sample. The offer was communicated thorough integrated media, including free-standing insert, shelf point-of-sale, radio, television, and a Web site.
Simple. Soft. Beautiful. We only wonder now what Dove folks will do with their valuable new database? Will they pursue their new friends to advocacy, or let the names dry into powder in that great shoebox in the sky where most response certificates end up?
There’s the bell. We’re dismissed. Bring two sharp No. 2 pencils next week, and remember: A is for advocacy; B is for big idea. C, by the way, is for class, and Dove goes to the head of it.
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