It’s one of the biggest problems a brand can face. How do you break into new markets, without alienating your core customer base?
To celebrate Love Liquorice Day we recently embarked on a campaign to try and help a prominent, all-natural snack appeal to younger people. And the client made a huge impact thanks to a wild animal marauding through Manchester, and a little help from You Tube.
By filming a bear making his way from motorway to metropolitan city centre plenty of people were given more than a memorable introduction to the product, and not least those on their lunch break when the short was shot. So Panda Liquorice’s Panda Loose in Manchester video was a hit. As was the Facebook game we helped create for the company Page.
The online puzzle is perfect break-time fodder to say the least. It also proves that through intelligent, personalised use of social networks it’s possible to develop a relationship with this new audience. Because young people might not respond well to blatant advertising, but we’ve developed a loyal following for Panda on Facebook with levels of response well above average. So when we asked fans to swap their Facebook profile picture for the brand’s, the response was fantastic.
The modern consumer is wise to traditional marketing, and no group more so than the under-30s. Realising this is essential. Appealing to them goes much further than computer games and viral videos though. Panda has been adding to its range to become more youth friendly for some time, meaning when fresh eyes focus they see something worth buying. New Product Development, in this case the introduction of flavours like blueberry, raspberry and cherry, is nothing new, but it remains a highly effective way of broadening brand horizons.
It’s also an expensive business of course. Setting sights on the right targets, with a product the new customer wants, is the only recipe for success. And the core ingredients therein are focus groups and sample studies. Research reactions, whether positive or negative, and fine tune or re-write the concept to meet consumer demands and desires, before running with any idea.
Nothing’s worse than a great campaign for a poorly targeted product, except a terrible campaign for a terribly targeted product. These steps avoid such situations, so success will be all about the new push. For younger audiences we’ve shown how this can be done without huge expenditure, though the most important word of all is originality. It’s the only way to stand out in a crowded world wide web, and make people remember the name long after the subtle sell.