A new product launch is an exciting, but also nerve-inducing, event for any CPG brand. You’ve done market research and held focus groups—and you believe that you have a product that will resonate with consumers. However, even big data can’t guarantee a successful launch. For that, you need a powerful marketing campaign that will excite and engage your target audience.

Knowing how to generate brand awareness for new products requires, above all, knowing your market. There are virtually millions of CPG products on the shelves for consumers to choose from; a successful launch is increasingly dependent on taking a digital approach in order to break through the noise of a crowded marketplace. And that means leveraging mobile platforms and social media to create buzz.

Many brands have been able to proactively gain attention for new products on a national or even global level, and thereby achieve a successful debut. Let’s explore how you can adapt one such brand’s tested strategies to ensure your own product launch sees similar results.

How to Create Brand Awareness and Buzz for New Products and Marketplaces

Whether you’re introducing a new product into an existing market or pushing an established product into an untapped market, the one thing that product needs is buzz. While the word is short, the path to earning it is not. In fact, it’s estimated that only 15% of new products succeed in the CPG industry. Brands that have faced this challenge head-on and launched a breakthrough product typically have this one thing in common: they got consumers engaged.

Let’s consider the case of Milk-Bone’s Brushing Chews. The company identified a common problem, canine dental health, and reached out to partners who could help them solve it. Prior to the product’s launch, the brand worked with several retailers to customize their message based on the demographics of the retailers’ audiences. They also spearheaded a social media campaign focused on pet dental health with the help of veterinary professionals to gain credibility and help to drive interest. In one year, sales for the product topped $50 million.

The brand successfully created brand awareness for a new product launch by:

• Solving a universal problem: Pet parents rarely brush their pet’s teeth as it’s a challenge both for the owner and the pet. Milk-Bone saw this dilemma and capitalized on it to launch a new product that turned a task into a reward.
• Building a social media campaign: The company used a series of online videos featuring their mascots Ted and Rudy, a man and his beloved dog. The videos featured an engaging duo demonstrating the product; viewers were excited to share and comment on it.
• Creating mutually beneficial partnerships: Veterinarians were the first to raise concerns about the lack of dental care for pets, so Milk-Bone decided to work with them to get the word out about their toothbrush-esque product. Milk-Bone was able to get the support of these industry leaders while veterinarians received a solution to a problem they saw every day.

Through these marketing efforts, Milk-Bone was able to roll out a new CPG product launch that was one of the most successful in the sector in 2014. They gained popularity and sales for their product by focusing on the common needs of their target audience.

Adapting Milk-Bone’s Strategy to Create a Successful Product Launch

It should be noted that Milk-Bone was up against some tough competition. Their competitors’ products, however, tended to be marketed as medicinal, rather than as treats. Milk-Bone created a niche presence for themselves and leveraged partnerships with trusted industry professionals to spread a powerful message.

Regardless of the product your company is selling, you can adapt some of their strategies to improve your own launch and build brand awareness:

• Bend categories: Milk-Bone is a company that primarily provides dog treats. However, with the rollout of their brushing chews, they moved into the health category. As they were the most dog-friendly option in the health category, they became a go-to option for many pet owners. Launching a product is often easier when you’re the stand out among a fixed group of competitors. Find your product’s unique selling point and use it to compete in a less aggressive category.
• Leverage social media: Milk-Bone rolled out their new product on several platforms, including social media. Their online videos, in particular, resonated with pet owners. Video advertising can generate a high ROI and can be a great tool for building buzz and engagement among consumers before your product even hits the retail shelves.
• Create partnerships: You don’t necessarily have to work with industry experts to carve out a place for yourself in a crowded market, you just need to find a partner that consumers already trust. Shopping apps are a great tool for CPG companies as they help spread your brand’s message to a wider and active audience and help you build the buzz you need for a successful product launch. They allow you to travel with the consumer through the ever-increasing shopping aisle, providing more powerful opportunities for in-the-moment messaging.

By taking a unique slant with your product and marketing it through digital avenues, you can gain more attention and brand awareness for your next product launch. Partnerships, like the ones you build with shopping rewards apps, can also help get the word out about your product to gain consumer’s interest. These apps can give you access to a new audience of consumers who are already engaged—and ready to help create buzz for your next product.

Shopkick is a popular shopping reward apps with partners and consumers alike. Our partners have found success in reaching new audiences and launching new products. To learn more, contact our team today.

Image courtesy Olivier Le Moal

Brand awareness is the first step in growing market share for a CPG brand. When consumers are aware of a brand, they’re more likely to give it a try and possibly become a regular user. However, gaining this brand awareness is a challenge as a crowded marketplace has been a CPG industry trend in recent years—and will continue into 2018.

An effective brand awareness marketing strategy is not simply one that reaches your target audience but also one that has the potential to convert that new audience into active customers. There is still an abundance of opportunities to reach out to consumers despite growing competition in the sector, whether it be at brick and mortar locations, through social media, on television, or via radio advertisements.

While the strategies available to CPG brands looking to grow awareness are numerous, the effectiveness of each option varies greatly. To gain a greater ROI from your brand awareness marketing strategy, you need to be able to connect with consumers in a way that makes your brand memorable. Many established companies have already successfully managed this—and you can use their examples to guide and educate your own growth efforts.

Online Brand Awareness Strategies That Offer Strong ROIs

When building brand awareness for a CPG brand, you need to consider the goal of your target audience when they begin a search that will eventually lead them to your product. Consumers don’t always begin an online search with the intention of buying a specific product. Commonly, they are searching for information, a story, or simply to be entertained. Here are a few ways that successful brands have used online strategies to grow brand awareness:

• Coca-Cola and connecting through icons: Many people have heard the rumor that Santa’s red outfit actually came from a Coke campaign. While not exactly the whole truth, there is a grain of reality to it, as the Santa we see today is heavily influenced by Coke’s marketing campaigns from the 1920s that depicted a very realistic Santa. By connecting their brand to an iconic figure, Coke was able to significantly increase their brand awareness. That awareness reached a point where some would say that Coke also managed to increase Santa’s brand awareness—at least the US version of him. Essentially, Coke managed to connect their product with a beloved figure, which transferred some of the adoration for that figure to their product.  
• Dollar Shave Club and shock value: In 2012, the Dollar Shave Club rolled out of the gate with a viral marketing video that gained a lot of attention on a crowded platform. The video showed surreal images and came with the tagline, “Our Blades Are F**king Great.” The shock value of the video helped it gain 4.75 million views, with many of those coming from social media shares. The clear irreverence of the campaign gave the company an ‘everyman’ feel that consumers were quick to connect with and remember. Keep in mind: shock value doesn’t always prove successful as it can alienate some would-be customers. Ultimately, this is a decision you need to consider with your target audience in mind. Will the users it brings in develop a strong enough connection to make up for the ones that may be permanently turned off? For Dollar Shave Club, the answer was yes, as their target demographic of younger, blue-collar men, were more likely to be amused, rather than offended by the strategy.
• Pedigree and building an emotional connection: In 2015, Pedigree rolled out its “First Days Out” campaign. The campaign featured the stories of two recently released convicts and shared how their dogs helped them reconnect with a society that had changed significantly in the time they were in prison. While it was a bold choice, as many would not consider convicts the ideal brand ambassadors, it targeted individuals with a strong belief in second chances. Specifically, it targeted an audience of dog owners who would choose to adopt a dog from an animal shelter, rather than buying one at the pet store, connecting that whole ‘second chances’ theme. The tagline “You save a dog. A dog saves you” was one that resonated with those dog lovers. The four-minute video gained a lot of attention for the brand and helped them connect with consumers in a memorable way.

All three of these brands used unique ways to connect with consumers as market share growth strategies. Either by partnering with icons they loved, creating a shocking moment, or tugging at consumers’ heartstrings, they were able to solidify their brand in front of a new audience. This is something that any brand is capable of achieving—and can be adapted to work with today’s digital platforms.

Adapting Your Brand Awareness Marketing Strategy to Maximize Your ROI

While the brands from the above examples focused on large campaigns, brands can also do all of the above on a smaller scale and achieve similar positive ROI results. Every measure that gets your brand in front of a new audience can offer a valuable opportunity. Simply by breaking down the larger campaigns into smaller components, we can see how this is done:

• Partnerships: Your brand doesn’t need to integrate well-known icons into every commercial. Instead, you can leverage smaller partnerships to cross-market your products. This can be via partnerships with an online personality, or even with another, complementary CPG company. Shopping apps work to increase brand awareness as they expose your brand to an entirely new and actively engaged audience.
• Anti-advertising: One of the reasons that the Dollar Shave Club video was so unique was that it allowed the brand to gain consumer attention through something other than outright product advertising. The video was played for laughs and, because of that, it drove viewers to want to watch—and share—it. Your brand can adapt this strategy by offering information or stories to consumers in a way that’s intriguing and memorable.
• Personalization: The Pedigree commercial was memorable because it connected specifically with pet owners. Your brand can do this by finding a way to personalize communications based on who you’re reaching out to—or even when you’re reaching out. Consider the case of shopping apps again, only this time in regards to leveraging geolocation technology. If a consumer is in a store aisle looking for a whitening toothpaste, they may receive an advertisement for a specific brand of this or a complementary product. This is contextually relevant because the person is in a shopping environment, and are then offered incentives to either visit a store or interact with a specific product, driving awareness of your brand.

You don’t need a massive marketing campaign when using the strategies of other successful brands for building brand awareness. You simply need to be able to leverage the partnerships available to you to create a compelling message in the right moment. Shopping apps offer just such an opportunity. In partnering with an engaging third-party app to deliver your message to new and current target audiences, you can create a brand awareness marketing strategy that also ushers them through the sales funnel—ensuring your campaign delivers a positive ROI.

Shopkick is a shopping app that allows our partners to take advantage of the latest technology to share messages with consumers in real time. For more information, contact the Shopkick team today.

Image courtesy Gajus

Brand awareness is extremely important for CPG companies as they face a unique challenge: they often sit side by side with their competitors on shelves or online stores. Continue reading “Can brand awareness generate measurable ROI for CPG companies?”

Although it’s a hot topic, in-store advertising is not a new or rare practice. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands do it all the time since retail spaces are often the best locations for them to grow. Typically this is done by negotiating the best spot on the shelf or by putting up in-store displays and ads. However, it is becoming more common for brands to advertise in-store using mobile apps.

These apps can interact with beacons within a retail location, delivering offers to the consumer once they are within a certain proximity to the store, working in accordance with GPS tracking. This is particularly effective since 59% of consumers are using their mobile devices while they’re out doing their weekly grocery shopping.

While advertising through a mobile app offers a direct line to the customer, it still needs to effectively grab their attention. Brands must find ways to leverage in-store experiences to get consumers interested in trying their products. Finding a unique slant on this is paramount to creating a successful campaign. Luckily, more than a few brands have built effective conversion strategies and have created unique experiences that you can use with your in-store mobile marketing plans.  

How Top Brands Leverage In-Store Mobile Advertising

In-store mobile-based marketing is a relatively new marketing avenue, so many brands are approaching this medium with pilots. In-store events, advertisements, and offers have been developed by many different brands with varying levels of success. Additionally, in-store beacon technology is enabling these campaigns to be more successful.  These are some of the tactics that the most successful brands use to take advantage of these innovations:

• Exclusive location-based offers: One way that Best Buy drove adoption of its rewards program was by using it to push in-store mobile marketing offers. Consumers who downloaded the app would receive exclusive offers when they went to the store. Once they entered a store, they were also able to unlock rewards points that they could use on purchases and exclusive deals.
• Cross-marketing opportunities: Often, there are in-store marketing opportunities from advertising alongside related products. For example, if you set up a beacon that advertises creamer or sweetener near the coffee aisle, the consumer will have more incentive to purchase it. The consumer may have come into the store to purchase a specific item, but now their app has enticed them to purchase additional products.
• In-store engagement: One thing that can really get consumers involved in-store is to get them to play games or interact with the brand via their mobile device. Ace Hardware does this through in-store sites where consumers are encouraged to text a phrase to them, at which point they receive an offer in return. Their app engages consumers by acting as a virtual scavenger hunt, which can improve conversions.

Using in-store beacons to reach a customer on his or her mobile device increases the likelihood that consumers will try out a new brand. At the very least it drives brand recognition, as in-store mobile experiences are particularly memorable. This is because consumers are engaged in using the app, so they’re more likely to remember the brand than if they were just passively watching television or browsing a website.  CPG brands can model their in-store campaigns after those that other successful brands use. This helps ensure that their in-store messages have a lasting impact.

Tips For Building An In-store Campaign

Several brands have already found unique ways to leverage in-store marketing through mobile apps—and more are catching on. Consumers are responding to it too. For example, 70% of consumers in the CPG-focused Mobile Audience Insights Report reported that they decided to purchase a product for the first time after viewing mobile-based advertising. That number has nearly doubled since 2013. Nearly 70% also reported using their mobile device to research a CPG brand prior to purchasing it at a retail location.

Mobile advertising is changing the way that consumers shop, which is why you should change the way you leverage mobile in-store apps. That means creating a campaign that encompasses the following:

• A value-driven approach: Value-driven doesn’t necessarily mean discounts. Instead, it means that the message gives the consumer something, whether it’s a reward, information or simply an enjoyable experience. Basic advertisements have large impacts in-store, but they are not long lasting. However, advertisements that engage the consumer by interacting with your brand tend to have a greater overall impact.
• Proper consumer targeting: In-store advertising still needs to be focused on specific consumers. Consider two different consumers that are shopping in the same store. One is purchasing diapers, baby formula, and wipes. The other is purchasing a frozen pizza and a two-liter bottle of soda. Those purchasing behaviors allow you to draw conclusions in order to properly target the right consumer. So, if your brand is selling disposable baby bottles, then the first consumer is your ideal target. If your brand is selling chips, on the other hand, you’d likely want to target that second consumer. An app with high conversion potential will give you the data you need to make decisions like that.
• Is not heavily focused on discounts: Simply offering one-time coupons via an app may get you a one-time sale, but it’s not a powerful brand converter. Relying too heavily on discounts is a mistake. This is because it generally only attracts price-conscious consumers. It can also lower the way your brand is perceived. In-store apps should leverage rewards rather than discounts as a way of gaining consumer attention.

Mobile in-store advertising is changing the way brands target and convert consumers. This type of advertising allows your brand to follow consumers through their purchase journey, reach them at the right moments, and increase the likelihood that they will try your brand. Several brands have already used this successfully by creating unique personalized and interactive campaigns that pull in users.

As beacon-based advertising technology and mobile geolocation are both relatively new, it’s best to choose to work with a company that already has some understanding of the industry.

One thing that these brands do is leverage partnerships with third-party experts who understand the unique opportunities presented by mobile apps. As beacon-based advertising technology and mobile geolocation are both relatively new, it’s best to choose to work with a company that already has some understanding of the industry. This is where third-party shopping apps come in.

Third-party shopping apps allow you to access these in-store marketing opportunities quickly, without having to create an expensive, long-tailed marketing campaign. These apps also give you access to a database of active users who want to connect with your brand. For any company that wants to make a stronger in-store impact through mobile marketing, third-party platforms are the ideal choice.  

Shopkick is a unique shopping app that allows its partners to leverage all of the best parts of in-store mobile advertising. To work with us and increase your in-store conversion, contact our team today.

Image courtesy Pixabay user kc0uvb