Lucozade Sport Advertising: Part I

Here we have another guest blog post written by Elliot Pottinger, this time he is examining Lucozade sports branding and advertising. This is just part 1 though, part 2 is a lot spicier. Enjoy!

Sports drinks are widely available, relatively cheap and they have a big target market, with people aged 16-25 the top consumers. Industry reports reveal 650 million litres are consumed each year worldwide and brands such as Lucozade, PowerAde and Gatorade have gained huge traction in international markets.

Brand Case Study: Villains and Vengeance

Behind the Scenes

Villains and Vengeance, are one of Tick Marketing’s first clients, and we have already written one blog post about them. We have worked closely with Alex (MD) to develop and evolve, with a specific interest in his USP and ability to differentiate the brand. We began our relationship with Villains through a 1-1 brand analysis meeting whereby we thoroughly explored what the brand is, and what it is trying to achieve. From this, and subsequent meetings we have highlighted that the brand is still in need of a story, or is in need of its story being told to people. A brand story will hopefully give customers an understanding of what is driving the company, whilst giving the brand its own personality.

Before today, Villains has operated through ASOS marketplace but today is the day their website goes live. To coincide with this launch, Villains have decided to publish a short piece of content about the brand, and most importantly their brand story.

So go take a look, it will help you understand more about Villains and their personality.

Lidl Uk: Brand Perception

Its been a good week for TV adverts, with IKEA’s launch of their bookbook and now Lidl’s farmers market experiment.

Here at Tick we do love an experiment, and testing new ideas and concepts is something that we to try do on a daily basis (Todays experiment was Facebook post boosting).

Lidl’s latest advert is focussed around highlighting their product quality through an experiment, and they achieve this through the de-branding of their produce. Whilst this is great, and very clever, it does question Lidl’s brand image. We know that Lidl’s brand is based on low-cost produce, yet by taking their brand image away from their brand, it suggests to me that people think of Lidl as a place where you can’t buy premium products. It suggests that the consumers associate Lidl’s brand image with poor quality.

They are evidently trying to change this, but does this advert really do that? Can Lidl change the way people think about their brand through this advert, or will it just highlight that certain people won’t shop at Lidl because of its brand associations.

What are your thoughts?

Were unsure about how consumers will take this advert, and whether it will generate new first time customers. But what we do know, is that it was a great experiment around brand image, and one that we will continue to monitor closely.

James

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Facebook Promotion – Paying for Facebook Adverts

On the 26^th August 2014, I decided to set up a Facebook page for Tick Marketing and test how cost-effective Facebook adverts actually are.  I would like to share my experiences with you, and how I used a £15 budget split equally across five days, to achieve over 130 likes for my new page.

Creating Power Brands

So this is my 6th, or 7th if you include Google glass, post about marketing week live 2014. I’ve been a bit quiet the last week but in that time I have seen the Tour de France fly past me on Bird Cage walk in London, won an 18 hole round of foot golf and have also been violently sick! So back to the blog and this post concerns creating brands that make you stand out from the crowd. At the top of my notes about this conference was this paragraph: ” Is this show missing a huge target audience by having such big/senior names holding talks at the show, whose talks are inspirational but aren’t always achievable or relatable?”.

I wrote this after the 6th conference as it was clear that my fellow marketers in the audience, may struggle to interpret or implement many of the big ideas that these marketing seniors were promoting. ( I wont even mention the last conference of day 2, which was focussed on agile marketing. The speaker actually said that creating a financial budget for agile marketing is more about achieving an objective or ROI, rather than sticking to a budget, i.e. if you don’t achieve what you set out to, throw more money at it, MADNESS!)

So when It came to this conference about Power Brands, led by Ed Pilkington of Diageo, I thought it was going to be another of these “Were so amazing” lectures that simply aim to promote the brand and how good its agency is. But In a sense I was wrong. This talk focussed on different aspects of branding and what it takes of brands to become powerful and ultimately well-known.

The core principles of Power Brands as suggested by Ed were:

• Bring in new customers
• Scalable
• Stand for something
• Know how to use data
• Creative and within culture
• Innovate and stay first

All of these are quite generic and you may argue that many powerless brands practice these principles on a daily basis. But there was one small section of the talk that I thought was the most relatable and interesting point that Ed made, which was that “Brands need to work hard to find a way into people’s lives. They should create memory associations through physical experiences and personal connections”.

It is this that I think separates a Power Brand from a Brand. If you think of the physical experience you have when you bite into a piece of Dairy milk, or take the first sip of a Guinness, they instantly remind you of why you have come back to the product. You want that physical sensation again and this how Power Brands find ways into people’s lives, by recreating a previously pleasurable experience. This ideology is championed by Marmite, who know that their product is a ” Love or Hate” consumable, but they have embraced the idea that Marmite gives different people different memory associations, and it is this emotional connection that makes Marmite a truly Powerful Brand.

Whilst I’m wittering on about Marmite, Ed Pilkington did also mention that Power brands have clear Iconography, that have really detailed combinations. Again Marmite achieves this through its jet black packaging and bright yellow lid. I’m sure if you took the labelling off that alone would make you realise what the Product is.

So if you are looking at your brand, and thinking how could Improve what I currently do, I would start by trying to create a physical experience that customers can associate with. This memorable experience, combined with clear iconography will be a great start to brands evolution.

James

 

Introduction to an Open Mission statement

Mission Statement: To effectively introduce a Mission statement into a board of directors who cannot see its relevance or day-to-day benefit.

It seems that throughout my Year in Industry this year, the term mission statements has been bounding around a lot. This has often been because I believe that it is fundamental in communicating your objectives to employees, whereas other do not. Looking at mission statements in real life is completely different from looking at them through academic textbooks and papers. Business texts are more often than not, in favour of a Mission or a Vision statement, but in practice, many organisations see it as another fluffy admin task, that the marketing department can create when they’ve finished doing all their colouring in.

Coke or Pepsi?

Lets start with a quick and simple poll:

 

Now I ask this as I thought I was a Coke drinker, and it turns out I still am. But I think that even you Pepsi drinkers, are in fact Coke drinkers. Your confused right? This makes absolutely no sense, I agree, but let me explain.