April
Yesterday, we launched our latest report, The loyalty divide. We asked 3,000 consumers what makes them loyal to a brand and the results were certainly eye-opening. Spoiler, it isn’t quite aligned with what marketers think.
Now, I’m writing this with my golden retriever curled up next to me so I know all about how to get loyalty. You carry cubes of cheese wherever you go, ready to bribe them into sticking around if they show signs of running off.
Obviously, that’s a strategy for dogs, not customers. You wouldn’t offer cubes of cheese to your customers because although it works for golden retrievers, it doesn’t make sense for humans (well, some of us could be tempted). But, you probably see no issue in offering exclusive events to boomers, or rewarding millennials with charity donations. This report shows that actually, these one-size-fits-all loyalty tactics are probably as ineffective as periodically shipping Babybels out to your customers.
Your audience is motivated by totally different things when it comes to loyalty. Yep, loyalty too is built on segmentation, personalization, and personas. Thank goodness it’s easier than it used to be to deliver marketing that meets this.
The one thing your customers all have in common is liking your product, but that could be all they share an interest in. So, how do you keep them all happy? The first step is to simply ask them what they want. We asked them for you and compiled their answers, layered in insights from loyalty professionals, and added some of our own expert advice too. Have a read of The loyalty divide now - and if you’re in London next week, you’re officially invited to the hottest breakfast meeting in town where we’ll dive into the report’s data.
Finance department: friend or foe?
April is, of course, the start of the new financial year. For most of us, that means new budget time, and for those in the finance sector, it means it’s been a busy month - the end of the tax year is the finance equivalent of Black Friday - so a big well done if that’s you.
I was reading a piece in Marketing Week about how marketers, in particular CMOs, need to build better relationships with CFOs. They hold the purse strings after all. It’s a well-known phenomenon that marketing departments are often the first to feel the squeeze when an economic downturn occurs, so now is the time to nurture that relationship.
It’s important we don’t just go to Finance when we need more budget, we need to share our wins and strategic thinking too. For example, let them know that - since you've read our loyalty report - you’re focusing on customer retention over acquisition in the coming quarter to get more bang for your budget.
At Dotdigital we just got a brand new CFO, Tom Mullan, and while he’s getting to grips with things we’ve managed to rope him into some content for you guys. Tom has agreed to answer any questions you marketers may have about how best to build the relationship between Marketing and Finance. So drop your questions in the comments and we’ll get a blog up soon.
Okay, onto the campaigns that made a buzz this month.
Dild-oh-no-they-didn’t (oh, yes they did)
Okay, I wasn’t sure whether to write about this one because I am British and I am at work. You’re likely at work too, so it feels wrong to be discussing ‘Dild-o’s’, but here we are. This month, Surreal cereal, known for its high-protein breakfast cereal and punchy take on marketing, partnered up with sex toy brand Lovehoney to provide free sex toys in cereal boxes.
The campaign is bold, it’s brash, it’s… a vibe? At first, I genuinely wasn’t sure if the campaign was a joke, an April Fool’s, or real. Turns out it was real. Surreal. The idea was to play on the nostalgia adults have from the good old days when toys in cereal boxes were commonplace. The website says:
“Each box of Dild-o's contains our Honey Crunch cereal, AND a Lovehoney bullet - plus we're throwing in free shipping. Dild-o's is the perfect way to start your day with a bang...”
Retailing for just £5.99, about the same price as a box of Surreal cereal without a sex toy in it, the low price point confirms (in case there was any doubt) that this was a PR move rather than a product one.
The limited edition box has now sold out and the collab has seen its fair share of posts on social media. I do think the campaign’s unpolished vibe and the early April launch didn’t help with the confusion on its legitimacy. However, creativity should always be applauded and a low budget shouldn’t stop this. In fact, the campaign style matches both brands’ general style of real, bold, and unpolished design. Surreal’s audience in particular buys into its unique product and confident and witty brand voice, so this is very on-brand.
I talked about the importance of getting brand partnerships right back in February and while at first this collab may seem unusual, it actually makes a lot of sense. Lovehoney has used the partnership to promote its latest research around morning sexual activity, and Surreal has used it to create some scroll-stopping social media content and get people talking.
It turns out that the link between sex and cereal is actually almost as old as cereal itself. Cornflakes were created by anti-masturbation physician, John Harvey Kellogg in order to work like a reverse aphrodisiac… The more you know. So the combo isn’t as rogue as you might initially think.
Ultimately, the playful campaign was a success. The content was a hit with both brands’ target audiences and caused quite a buzz on social media.
Putting the hair in hairless
Marketing is a funny beast, isn’t it? Product-led advertising is all about making the product look good and creating FOMO for a winning experience. Even when it comes to something as un-glamorous as hair removal. While I understand the need to make everything look appealing, sometimes there's a line.
Wilkinson Sword Intuition's latest advert does what many ‘grooming’ brands don’t, and that's show actual body hair. For years, women’s shaving ads have exclusively featured models shaving already hairless legs. It’s a trope that’s been mocked time and again.
Teaming up with the artist Ruti to create a unique track that’s reminiscent of Charli XCX’s style, the ad feels very current and in tune with pop culture.
Finally, a big brand is not shying away from the reality of the product. The track even acknowledges that some people might choose to ‘leave it’ and not use a razor at all. This feels like a significant step forward in mainstream advertising for a women’s grooming brand.
No doubt, this bold move is inspired by the popularity of challenger brands like Hey Estrid, who have always embraced the reality of shaving body hair. This is a culture shift towards body positivity and let’s be honest, reality. This is a space where Dove has been banging the drum for decades now and it’s great to see another market leader embrace the change.
When a brand begins to take on a stance like this, it can sometimes feel to quote JoJo, ‘too little too late’ for some. Like when Victoria’s Secret tried to jump on the body positivity movement after being a key reason it was needed in the first place for decades, and was met with a pretty big backlash.
In this case, I think it’s simply a brand moving with the times rather than trying to jump on a trend for sales alone. For the challenger brands it’s tricky, they don’t want their ethos to be a passing trend sucked up by the giants to present as their own idea. Equally, they want to see the change so need to celebrate others joining the charge. I think for brands who’ve made embracing body hair a part of their values already, there’s nothing to fear here as it’s just amplifying the cause rather than absorbing customers - loyal customers will already know what’s up.