MAR036-6 Brand Communication and Reputation Management Assignment Sample
Introduction
Communication is one of the key sources to branding the product and services. At the same time, brand reputation management is the process to monitor customer perspective about the business and taking required actions to improve brand’s image. In the present situation where competition is dramatically increasing in the market across all industries, reputation management is centred to monitor and protect brand image (Osland and Luo, 2019). The present report discusses the communication and reputation management of four brands given in the case study. Other than that, discusses the other brand’s approach to place their product, communication strategy, measuring customer behaviour, and outline success measures to take such approaches.
Discusses four campaigns and their marketing strategy
Marketing campaigns always evolve around some issues and give social messages in order to engage customers with the brand and increase their reputation in the market. In the present report, four case studies are given to discuss their communication strategy, potential opportunity and challenges while using other media and the impact on their brand reputation.
First case study: Soda Stream Earth Day campaign
This campaign is about save Earth from plastic and thus Soda stream focus to produce clean sparkling water without single use of plastic bottles. The lead face of this campaign is Randi Zuckerberg, who is the American businesswoman (Kiprop and Samii, 2020). She is the former director of market development and spokesperson of Facebook, and is the sister of the Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He is very famous CEO and of course he owns Facebook. However, his sister makes her own individual identity and this market campaign focus on this point. Randi Zuckerberg emphasis to show real care rather than sharing post on social media. In the present era, people just share post related to save the environment and sustainability. Soda stream realise this fact and highlight the point that do not just share and take real actions towards environment.
Hence, she decided to join Soda stream who not only make fresh sparkling water but also saves the environment by not using plastic bottles and using reusable bottles. Using such vulnerable points in marketing campaigns increases the effectiveness of such promotional videos (Pollack et. al. 2020). Moreover, they cast Randi Zuckerberg which significantly increased the campaign effectiveness. However, it is one of the market tactics to cast celebrities in order to attract customers. This campaign provides immense opportunity to the company as people get attracted to Randi Zuckerberg and show their interest in the company’s offerings. However, there are some challenges also. Casting celebrities in such campaigns is very costly and they become answerable if these celebrities do not use such products. Additionally, expanding this campaign in other media provides a lot of opportunity and popularity which ultimately beneficiary for Soda Stream. In regards to impact on brand, it can be said that using the sister of Facebook founder to reinforce the message is sufficient for the company’s reputation. However, the same may turn into challenging if they deny using the company product or if they are facing a reputation issue (Rodgers, 2020). As their reputation is associated with the company’s reputation or vice versa. Therefore, using celebrities to promote their brand is effective and useful to increase a company’s reputation. Additionally, the campaign is so attractive which successfully attracts the customer and increases their brand reputation.
Second case study: Dove’s reverse selfie
As earlier mentioned, every campaign includes a social message to make it attractive and engaging. The given campaign focuses on real beauty and highlights the pressure faced by the young girls through social media. Nowadays, people are fascinated to post their photos and videos to get maximum likes and comments. On the other hand, social media sites constantly add new features to enhance beauty by applying different filters. Hence, it becomes the culture to post on social media. In such an environment people and especially youngsters feel pressured to look beautiful and get appreciation (Allen, 2022). There are several research and case studies which show that many youngsters are getting into depression and feel anxious about not performing well on social media. In most of the case they suffer from mental disease and attempt to suicide. By the age of 13, 80% of girls distort the way they look on social media.
Dove highlights this point to attract youngsters by stating in their campaign that social media is the important part of young people but retouching apps and the pressure to post selfies is increasing. It hurts their self-esteem and confidence. Thus, Dove runs self-esteem projects where they emphasize showing real beauty and get the Confidence kit at Dove.com/The Selfie Talk. Such engaging campaigns increase the company’s reputation in the market. Dove using the most vulnerable topic to discuss and get sympathy from most of the youngsters (White, 2019). If they extend a more integrated approach across other media, they can get several opportunities and challenges. It is a fact that people like this campaign and give their support to remove such culture of selfie culture and pressurise people to look beautiful. Hence, the company can get customer support, sympathy, and engage with them by providing rewards.
However, it may bring challenges because posting selfies and showing their beauty in campaigns is the earning source for most people like actresses, and models. Hence, it can say that using an appropriate way to communicate this message is more effective to spread such a valuable message and promote their products and services.
Third case study: Guinness
Guinness is the beer brand who launched the new campaign featuring the classic song ‘Always on my mind’ Covered by Jack Savoretti. The campaign was made while anticipating that pubs and bars would reopen indoors in GB (Nguyen, 2019). In this campaign people wait to reopen the bar, and once the pubs and bars are open, they enjoy drinking with friends while having Guinness. It also shows that bars welcome back drinkers after months of waiting and people celebrating the moments. This campaign successfully engages their audience due to effective visualisation, soothing music, and pointing people’s demand. The campaign focuses to increase their sales and profit through promoting Guinness and bars or pubs are the places where its sales are significant. It hit the people’s demand as they miss such an environment and thus this campaign got lots of appreciation.
Moreover, bars and pubs owners are also promoting this ad due to their own benefits. The company gets many opportunities if they take an integrated approach across other media as well as it may bring several challenges (Soete, 2019). People facing common problems across GB and this campaign reinforce their feelings and thus they get positive responses. On the other hand, most people oppose such ads because they spread a bad message to society, especially among children and teenagers.
In addition to this, the Guinness campaign positively impacts their brand image because it touches people’s feelings and gives them a hope to reopen bars and visualise the environment when bars and pubs are open. However, it may create difficulties if the bar owners oppose this ad as they would not like to reopen their place. Moreover, some social workers who want to stop the consumption of alcohol, may create problems for that. Hence, it may ruin their brand reputation as well (Williams and Squires, 2021). Other than these pros and cons, through this campaign the company raised funds of 30 million Euros to help out pubs. Thus, the social welfare features strongly increase the brand reputation in the market.
Fourth case study: Avatar of Prince, ‘the man he was destined to become’
This campaign shows the visual presence of Kiyan Prince who was tragically killed as he tried to break up a fight outside his school in Edgware. This campaign honours the player he was destined to become through helping young people and urge their viewers to send KPF 5 Euros or more on a shared link. Such fund-raising campaigns are often liked and appreciated by society. The Kiyan Prince Foundation paid tribute to Kiyan Prince through this campaign and the father of Kiyan Prince narrated this ad which successfully got viewers sympathy. It is the most effective way to generate funds (Green, 2018). If they take an integrated approach and extend their campaign to other media, then they can easily raise significant funds.
However, some audiences do not like to use former players’ death incidents to raise funds and thus they can face criticism. But, on the other hand, most of the people appreciate this campaign which shows through the numbers of viewers and likes the video gets. It increases Kiyan Prince Foundation brand reputation and they become able to generate more funds in future and get people’s support and especially footballer’s support. Moreover, this campaign aims to support football players to achieve their goals. Such social cause campaigns increase brand reputation and provide many more growth opportunities. Further, the virtual presentation of Kiyan Prince is very attractive and effective (Wæraasand Dahle, 2020). The football prodigy turned into a player in the FIFA 21 games, signed to his previous club, Queens Park Rangers. Along with the sponsorships from giant brands like Adidas and JD Sports. Association with such big brands, enable to increase the brand reputation in the market.
The discussion of these four cases proves that a successful marketing campaign should include multiple factors like social message, social welfare cause, effective communication strategy, using celebrity face, and mentioning vulnerable points, and many more. These factors enable us to get immense success in marketing campaigns.
Discusses marketing practices
Embed a purpose-based approach
As per the above discussion it proves that companies have to take a purpose-based approach while promoting their products and services. Soda Stream focuses on environmental sustainability and thus they are not using plastic bottles. Further, they cast Randi Zuckerberg which strongly influenced their target customers (Samir and Sobeih, 2020). On the other hand, Dove highlights the topic of social media posting and show-off beauty by using different filters which create pressure on youngsters. Hence, they run campaigns where they urge their customers to show real beauty. Such strong social messages influence the customer and engage with the products.
In regards to Lakme, which is the multinational cosmetic company that operates worldwide. The company should take a purpose-based approach. The marketing campaigns of Lakme focus on looking beautiful and use their products which make the user beautiful. However, it does not mean that ugly people are talented and they have no rights to access basic facilities. Such campaigns somehow promote body shaming through their ads. Further, they cast celebrities which reinforce such purposes (Potgieter and Doubell, 2018). Thus, it can suggest that Lakme should focus to look brighter, confident, and not feel ashamed about their skin colour. They should place their products like these items that have features which make the skin healthy and bright irrespective of any skin colour.
Moreover, the company should show their vision about beauty that they focus on ensuring that their customers’ skin stays healthy and nourished by using their products and services. Their vision should be based on equality, anti-racism, and satisfied customers. In regards to services, Lakme is a multinational company and their operations are extended across the world. Hence, they should spread their products and services at affordable prices as the quality of services determine the success of the company and give actual satisfaction to their customers (Mirbabaie et. al. 2019). Therefore, product placing techniques, ethics, vision, and services enable the marketing campaign to be successful.
Communication strategy
Communication is the key to connecting with customers. There are several methods to spread the message to their customers. For example, in a Guinness ad, the marketer features a classic song which is able to grab viewers’ attention. In another campaign, the father of Kiyan Prince narrates the story of his son, which successfully grabs the viewer’s sympathy. Therefore, an effective, unique, and innovative way of communication is necessary in marketing campaigns. In the Soda Stream ad, the narration through Randy Zuckerberg and the song both attract their customers but in the Dove ad there is not too much narration (Uğurlu, 2018). Even, there is the silent message through effective visualisation. It proves that communication means not only narrating the message through verbally, but also thoughtful visualisation is also effective.
Lakme should use some of the techniques to communicate with their customers. They can cast celebrities with black skin to set an example, that they are not racist. Further, focuses to show its long-term benefits and how their products nourish the skin rather than focusing on having fair skin. Moreover, they can extend their integrated approach to other media such as TV ads, Facebook and Instagram posts, and other social media sites. It increases their market reach and people get to know about the company’s vision that they are not promoting fair skin. Hence, it increased their customer base and people from black skin also started showing their interest in the company’s product (Azham and Ahmad, 2020). Therefore, it can be said that an effective communication medium is the key to achieve goals and engage with customers and stakeholders.
Measure desired customer behaviour change
Customer behaviour with the product can be measured through qualitative and quantitative techniques. In quantitative it mainly about what of customer behaviour and in qualitative is about why customer behaviour is changed. It is very important to measure the changing behaviour of customers in order to know about the success of the campaign and the areas of improvement. Lakme can conduct market research like focus groups, interviews, and further qualitative research which provide insight about the underlying reasons and motivation of their target audience (Szent-Gyorgyi, 2022). Moreover, longitudinal studies are considered as the most appropriate to measure the changing opinion of customers.
Lakme can measure customer buying behaviour through the involvement level that a customer shows to purchase decisions. The amount of risk involved in purchase also helps to measure buying habits. The company can analyse the sales and profit graph after such a campaign. Demographic analysis also provides input about the type of customer whether black skin people buy their products or not (Tieman, 2019). Other than that, Google Analytics, Website Analytics, and other online analytic techniques provide data about customer behaviour. The company is also present in e-commerce sites. Hence, they have an abundance of customer data like their desired products, price ranges, type of products, and many more. It provides both qualitative and quantitative data about the customer. It helps them to make improvements in their existing practices as well as determine new launches, products and services.
Outline measure of success
Above given analysis based on taking an innovative approach in the marketing campaign for Lakme. It suggested that companies should focus on all kinds of customers irrespective of their skin colour and beauty. Thus, they emphasise healthy and nourished skin rather than fair skin. Through this approach they can widen their customer base and give social messages against race (Vodák et. al. 2019). Moreover, measuring customer behaviour through qualitative and quantitative insight is also useful for the company to determine next campaign themes and implement corrective measures on the basis of customer feedback. If the sales and profit increase after this campaign, then it proves that they got success through this approach. Additionally, customer support and low resistance are also signs of success.
Conclusion
The present report concluded that marketing campaigns have a strong influence on customers and thus they should be effective and socially aligned. In the first part, four case studies related to market campaigns are discussed. In the next part, Lakme example is taking and providing suggestions to enhance the market campaign and add effective features in such campaigns to achieve their goals.
References
Allen, E., (2022). Jess Weiner and the Dove Real Beauty Campaign: Selling Feminism for Profit or Social Change?. Women Leading Change: Case Studies on Women, Gender, and Feminism, 6(1), pp.18-37.
Azham, N.A.A. and Ahmad, T.A.H.D.T., (2020). Brand reputation management and brand experience towards reputation of Malaysian polytechnics. Jurnal Intelek, 15(1), pp.98-106.
Green, R., (2018). Assessing and Leveraging the Essential Leadership Competency Strengths of the Leadership and Management Council of the Metropolitan Christian Worship Center of St. Louis, Missouri.
Kiprop, B. and Samii, L., (2020). Cause-related marketing in a polarised global marketplace. Journal of Brand Strategy, 9(3), pp.271-283.
Mirbabaie, M., Marx, J. and Stieglitz, S., (2019). ‘Show Me Your People Skills’-Employing CEO Branding for Corporate Reputation Management in Social Media.
Osland, A. and Luo, L., (2019). Environmental Sustainability, Sugar Consumption, and SodaStream. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals.
Pollack, C.C., Kim, J., Emond, J.A., Brand, J., Gilbert-Diamond, D. and Masterson, T.D., (2020). Prevalence and strategies of energy drink, soda, processed snack, candy and restaurant product marketing on the online streaming platform Twitch. Public Health Nutrition, 23(15), pp.2793-2803.
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Soete, L., (2019). Is innovation always good for you? New policy challenges for research and innovation. In International Handbook on Responsible Innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
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Vodák, J., Novysedlák, M., Čakanová, L. and Pekár, M., (2019). Influencer marketing as a modern phenomenon in reputation management. Managing Global Transitions, 17(3), pp.211-259.
Wæraas, A. and Dahle, D.Y., (2020). When reputation management is people management: Implications for employee voice. European management journal, 38(2), pp.277-287.
White, R., (2019). Marketing Information: Using Grounded Theory Methods to Understand Advertising and Content Marketing through the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.
Williams, E. and Squires, P., (2021). A Public Definition: The Making of the ‘Knife Crime’Label. In Rethinking Knife Crime (pp. 145-196). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
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