KitKat goes 'glocal'

By Lavanya Ashokkumar

Think global, act local. The “glocal” approach to marketing is an effective way for brands to stay focused on the consumer in worldwide markets.

KitKat, one of the world’s best-selling chocolate brands, launched several varieties of its famous crème-filled wafer bars in Japan, providing an excellent example of the glocal approach. Among them are KitKat Soybean, Wasabi and Iced Tea. KitKat launched 19 other flavors to connect with its Japanese audience. The company has also collaborated with the Japanese mail system to create packages of the chocolates that can be sent as postcards for special occasions. This caters to Japan’s gift-giving culture, called “Omiage,” where people are expected to bring back something unique for their friends and family when they travel.

How did KitKat effectively use the IMC approach to become a successful brand in the Japanese market?

First, KitKat conducted extensive consumer research to come up with flavors that satisfied the palate of Japanese consumers. With this valuable data in place, KitKat was able to uncover the needs of Japanese consumers and build relationships with them.

Second, these chocolate flavors are marketed only in the Japanese market. By practicing the IMC concept of sub-segmentation, KitKat was able to create contacts that allowed for specific sub-segments to connect with the brand in a more individualistic and idiosyncratic way.

However, many of the varieties sell only for a limited time in specific seasons. For example, the flavor Cherry Blossom is available only in spring. While this is a good strategy of manufacturing chocolates unique to a particular season, will it be successful in the long term? Only time will tell.

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Lavanya Ashokkumar is a blogger at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill school. She is interested in brand management and strategy. She can be reached at lavanyaashokkumar2010@u.northwestern.edu.

Fashion marketing's new line: Customer engagement

By Megan O'Malley

The front row seats at New York Fashion Week this year weren’t filled with the usual suspects. A new generation of style bloggers and influential social media gurus are gaining access to the coveted front row as the world of fashion marketing is going digital.

Just ask Andrei Najjar, a Medill IMC graduate and founder of Atelier Collective, who spoke at Medill about how new media is transforming the fashion and luxury goods scene. According to Najjar, “fashion marketing is moving into new media marketing more aggressively than ever. Designers are realizing that tools like Facebook, Twitter, mobile apps and YouTube are increasing ways to dimensionalize their brands, dramatically increase their audiences, and communicate more directly with their fans.”

Fashion houses, retailers and designers are joining the social media phenomenon, which is reshaping consumer dialog and how apparel, accessories and beauty products are marketed and sold. The Internet provides a platform for a new generation of style arbiters to blog or tweet about new trends from their living rooms, and designers are joining the conversation.

Even the most elite designers are starting to model an approach all marketers should mimic—direct engagement with their customers. From Diane Von Furstenberg to Gucci, brands are using Twitter to directly converse with customers. Other labels such as Burberry are streaming their shows in live 3-D, bringing the runway straight to potential buyers.

With instant media tools consumers don’t have to wait for next month’s Vogue to know what’s hot. The fashion industry is learning how to engage with consumers on real-time global platforms, integrating their communications strategy in a way that will never go out of style.

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Megan O'Malley is a blogger at Vitamin IMC and a graduate student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill School. She thinks online shopping is more dangerous than living close to Michigan Avenue. She can be reached at meganomalley2010@u.northwestern.edu

Game-savvy consumers bring new challenges for marketers

By Susan Monahan

Whether they’re Farmville addicts or Guitar Heroes, marketers of all kinds can reach game lovers with the right interactive element. Within a hit-based industry that continues to consolidate, what opportunities lie ahead for marketers to work with games?

As part of Medill IMC’s Professional Speaker Series, President and CEO of Midway Games Matt Booty presented a look at the $50 billion worldwide gaming industry through an IMC lens.

Last summer Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment acquired Midway Games’ assets, including the popular Mortal Kombat series. It’s another move in game manufacturing’s rapid consolidation. Booty described just how hit-driven his business is: “Last Christmas, about 90% of console game sales came from the top 10 games.” Similar to films, these blockbuster games infiltrate our culture and build distinct fan-communities.

Who is this consumer? The average U.S. game buyer is 38 years old. There’s increasing demand for Teen- and Mature-rated content. Other media companies hoping to increase sales have allied with game manufacturers; most recently, publisher Random House created a division to write story content for games. This partnership is intended to enhance the game product while providing a direct link to a complementary book series.

Outside the console game market, “casual gamers” include those who play on social media sites like Facebook. They represent a market segment that likes competition with friends, as opposed to MMO players (massively multiplayer online games), who go online to combat strangers in group play like World of Warcraft. Facebook’s Farmville has 60 million active users, and includes a pay-to-advance model. The game’s parent company, Zynga, undoubtedly found its own monetization of the social medium. In the future, strategic sponsorships may form with social media games and consumer products.

The lesson here hearkens back to Michael J. Wolf’s Entertainment Economy. As marketers turn to entertainment content for a competitive edge, learning the codes that appeal to game-savvy consumers could advance them to the next level.

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Susan Monahan is a graduate student in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern. She serves as Vitamin IMC’s liaison to the Medill IMC Professional Speaker Series. Please email her if you have a suggestion for a speaker, or would like to speak at an upcoming event at susanmonahan2010@u.northwestern.edu.

Foursquare: Location-based consumer insights?

By Johnny Schroepfer

Foursquare is one of the best iPhone applications to date. The idea is simple: check-in on your mobile device at various restaurants, clubs or stores to receive points, unlock badges and even become “mayor” of the venue.

Foursquare also encourages competition amongst your friends to see who can rack up the most points in the same city. This “location-based” social networking app has great potential for brands in terms of understanding and rewarding their customers.

While some major brands like Pepsi have taken advantage of sponsoring leader board pages, local businesses are using the app by offering specials for the“mayor” of their venue. For example, I’ve checked-in to bars and received messages similar to “The mayor of Bar X drinks for free from 8pm-10pm” or “The mayor of Restaurant X receives a free appetizer with purchase of $9.99 or more.”

These location-based promotions are a great way to interact with and reward your customers. The application not only tracks where users are checking-in (and how often) but also allows users to write tips and to-dos for each venue.

Local businesses have the opportunity to understand how often users are visiting their store or restaurant, what they’re saying about the service and what they’re suggesting to other users.

Location-based services like Foursquare will help the mobile industry grow in the United States by increasing engagement and providing value to its users.

Would an app like Foursquare make you more engaged with a local business or major brand?

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Johnny Schroepfer is the strategy & content director at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill School. He can be reached at johnnyschroepfer@u.northwestern.edu.

American Apparel: Building brand identity through controversy

By Mike Witham

American Apparel is no stranger to leveraging sex in advertising. Their latest contest titled “Best bottom in the World” gave another example of how the brand is managing to build its identity by pushing the envelope.

In the contest, American Apparel invited women and men to submit photos of their butts, which were rated by viewers on a five-point scale. Two winners will be flown out to LA to participate in an American Apparel photo shoot.

The contest stirred up controversy with women’s activist groups who called it demeaning to women. However, this is not the first time American Apparel has created controversy over its advertising tactics. In 2007, billboards in Manhattan were taken down because of the overt sexual imagery.

American Apparel is not the first company to use highly sexual photos to sell their product. Abercrombie & Fitch was strongly criticized for its catalogs that featured semi-nude models. A&F tried to downplay the scandalous content with black and white artsy photography and only allowed individuals 18 and older to purchase the catalogs.

In contrast to A&F, there’s something refreshing about how unconcealed American Apparel is about their brand identity. American Apparel makes no attempt to run from their sexually explicit reputation that has helped the company thrive as a global brand. This speaks to CEO Dov Charney’s dedication to authenticity—even if the messaging is offensive to some. From a marketing standpoint, the contest is right on strategy for American Apparel—whether we like it or not.

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Mike Witham is a blogger at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill School. She can be reached at michaelwitham2010@u.northwestern.edu.

Augmented Reality: Rise of the mobile or hype?

By Johnny Schroepfer

Last summer I came across an iPhone 3GS application called Layar, the first mobile augmented reality application. While the actual development of the app was still in beta testing, the concept was impressive and the potential possibilities it offered brands was interesting.

Augmented reality (AR) uses a mobile phone’s camera feed to merge your physical real-world environment with virtual computer generated imagery.

With emerging technology like AR, brands have a whole new area of customer contact points to take advantage of. Imagine walking down the street and launching Layar on your Smartphone to locate the nearest Target, Starbucks or even a historical landmark.

With the use of technology like AR, consumers have the ability to easily seek-out physical locations from their mobile device while brands have the opportunity to deliver location-based messages and incentives.

This year we will begin to see a significant increase in app funding and development within the mobile industry. Augmented reality will play a major part in the rise of mobile technology. But, will these technologies be embraced, or rejected, by major brands and consumers?

So, is this the true year of the mobile?

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Johnny Schroepfer is the strategy & content director at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill School. He is a Chicago Bulls fanatic and is looking forward to another exciting Bulls playoff run. He can be reached at johnnyschroepfer@u.northwestern.edu

Ketchup in their veins

By Pooja Ranganathan

IMC ’01 alum Becca Martin was on campus at Medill last week to give a presentation about the marketing communications functions at McDonald’s. As the senior communications manager, Becca handles projects with McDonald’s’ internal communications initiative. This is a massive enterprise as the company has nearly 1.3 million employees worldwide.

McDonald’s work culture is built on the credos of being relationship-focused, entrepreneurial, and having an attitude they call “ketchup in our veins.” This phrase connotes the high level of employee involvement with the McDonald’s brand – they “eat, sleep, and breathe McDonald’s.”

The most significant approach to achieve this company culture is through open channels of communication – McDonald’s “Plan to Win” global strategy is shared with all of its employees so they are aligned on the company’s strategic direction. Other initiatives include the Access MCD website, an online resource for employees that addresses business-related topics in a conversational way. It features a “Have you ever been asked?” section that gives employees tips on how to field frequently asked questions about McDonald’s, like “Are Chicken McNuggets made with real meat?”

McDonald’s closes its feedback loop with surveys administered after running major communication initiatives. With this, they measure the efficacy of the program with respect to achievement of intended effects.

At IMC, we are all about measurement. Eric Ries’ post on “vanity metrics” recommends that all metrics be actionable, accessible, and auditable. In IMC we try to tie our metrics back to sales and profits. McDonald’s uses surveys to measure awareness, attitude, and other similar parameters within their communications functions. How actionable are these?

Taking things a step further – if these are the metrics for internal communication, how does McDonald’s measure the effect of communication targeted at the consumer? As a player in the retail segment, there cannot be a shortage of data available to the company. There is fascinating potential for McDonald’s to analyze customer behavior and use insights derived in communication strategies.

Does McDonald's communication demonstrate a deep understanding of their customers? How could they do better?

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Pooja Ranganathan is a blogger at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill School. She is now wondering what information McDonald's will get about her if she uses the promotional gift card she was given at this talk. She can be reached at PoojaRanganathan2010@u.northwestern.edu.

The science of marketing: What makes IMC different

By Daniel Hindin

What is IMC and how is it different than traditional marketing? We Medill IMCers get this question a lot.

Part of what sets our graduate program apart is the diversity of knowledge we develop. By the time I graduate this December, I expect to have taken courses in five subject areas: Branding & Advertising Strategy, Media Management, Direct & Interactive Marketing, Marketing Analytics and Corporate Communications & Public Relations.

Though marketing is both an art and a science, I find that most people only think of the art, the right-brained side, the creative message. Marketing agencies have long had the reputation as a place where you hole up a bunch of creatives until they come up with the magic message that will get your product flying off the shelf.

It turns out there’s a lot more to it than that. Sure branding and corporate communications are important tools for any well-rounded marketer. That’s where the message is ultimately formed. But making decisions within those areas should be far more than the gut instinct that determines the fate of too many marketing budgets.

The science, the left-brained part of marketing, is what should drive any smart marketer’s decisions. This is where hard data comes into play. Who’s spending? When? On what? Do the profits from each customer exceed their costs? Yes? Well, these are the people to target with your messages. No? Then they’re just costing you money.

Once you know who your ideal customer is, you can take the data a step further and figure out what types of messages spur them to action and in what form those messages can be delivered most effectively. Through analytic tools such as multiple regression, cluster analysis and factor analysis, you can figure out what is likely to work and why.

Now you’re on your way to understanding how to deploy your creative team. Marketing will always be part art. But when you start to use data to form the basis of your art, that’s where science comes in. That’s how you get results. And that’s how you speak the language of the CFO and other budget decision-makers.

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Daniel Hindin is Managing Director of Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communication program at Northwestern University’s Medill School. He enjoys using as many different parts of his brain as possible. You can reach him at DanielHindin2010@u.northwestern.edu.

CVS Kiosks get Intuitive: How behavioral data can tailor coupons to individuals

By Brad Mild

We can all think back to a time when our parents would sit down with a Sunday paper, pull out the coupon insert and begin to snip out one promotion at a time. Then, they would place the clips of paper into a little envelope and set it aside for the next trip to the store. The whole process took at least an hour to complete only to be foiled by forgetting the envelope at home. Thanks to CVS the days of tireless coupon clipping are at an end.

CVS stores began to roll out interactive coupon kiosks in 2007. These intuitive red boxes scan a consumer’s ExtraCare shopping card and pop out a money-saving offer based on prior purchases.

Both CVS and the consumer benefit from this relationship. Kiosks entice consumers to share their shopping behaviors in return for personally tailored coupons, and their use increases revenue for CVS. It’s a win-win.

For customers, the red box meets two needs. It saves them money and time. Tailored deals save customers money on items they want to buy without having to look for coupons elsewhere.

This process can also be fun. The shopper does not know what promotion they will receive. All they know is that it will be relevant to their needs. The uncertainty behind each scan encourages customers to scan their card more often. This phenomenon is called variable ratio reinforcement. Can you say Vegas?

So what does CVS get from the deal? Data! They collect mounds of data on purchasing patterns. This info can tell marketers about trends in seasonality, time of day, recency of purchase, and the dollars spent. All of which can help in strategic and managerial planning.

However, that is only the icing on the cake. The major gain is the ability to automate decisions and test promotions instantaneously. A computer automatically decides on a promotion and offers it when the customer is in the mood to buy. If a consumer doesn’t use the coupon that day, the computer knows that the promotion was not relevant and it adjusts. Or, if they buy a product on a regular basis and then stop, the program will notice that trigger event and alert the operator.

The question now is whether CVS has the means to analyze this data. If they do are on the right path to understanding their consumer and meeting their needs. If instead they are letting the data rot they are missing out on a solid competitive advantage .

So the moral of the story is that win-win situations exist. With a little data marketers can tailor offers to consumers and increase returns.

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Brad Mild is the Visual Communications Manager at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill School. He daydreams of wakeboarding in the early morning when the water is glass. He can be reached at mild@u.northwestern.edu

Data Mining vs. Science: How OkCupid translates data into dates

By Anne Mahoney

If you’ve ever marketed yourself online in the romance department, you likely have painstakingly analyzed every part of your profile. Is the photo attractive? Do I say the right things about myself? How should I word my first email to another enticing product in the dating aisle?

An article in the New York Times looks into how OkCupid, an online dating site, shares user data with its registered love-seekers to provide advice on how to develop and market their personal brands. To find the data, it analyzed 7,000 user profiles, noting photos, number of responses and content of those responses. One useful finding was that being “fascinating” or “cool” is more important than the initial physical attraction factor. For instance, OkCupid says a woman using a photo portraying her playing an instrument or on an exotic beach receives more responses than focusing on physical assets.

If true, this certainly is valuable information for site-users. The study has, however, strictly focused on pure numbers through data mining. To gain additional insights, I sought out the opinion of the foremost expert I know in statistical data analytics: Medill IMC professor Edward Malthouse. Professor Malthouse brought up the scientific question still at large for OkCupid: Why do these tactics work? He thinks marketing can help to explain.

“Some physical beauty is a point of parity,” he said. “Differentiators will make you stand out, at least among a segment that values such activities. So, marketing theory predicts that those who are differentiated will be more successful.”

That is the scientific way to view the findings of OkCupid’s study. It hypothesized that differentiators would increase or decrease response rates, which the study confirmed. Yet there are other variables that have not been taken into account. Malthouse points out an example as the experiences of the customer, or date-seeker browsing through profiles. These experiences are not directly focused on the “product,” or person trying to find a date. If each individual created a first-impression experience for the type of person they are trying to attract – the “targeted consumer” – Malthouse theorizes it would have an even stronger effect.

Boiling down an intimate subject with numerous and oftentimes-mysterious factors, such as dating, into pure numbers surely has its challenges. Do you think there’s truth to the OkCupid study? How can marketers benefit from activating these types of analytical tactics?

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Anne Mahoney is the Social Media Director at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University's Medill School. She can be reached at annemahoney2010@u.northwestern.edu