Developing a promotion strategy for a company will help it to gain and maintain its position in the European market. The development of new markets requires knowledge of the main trends in order for the promotion of products to be successful. Regardless of what services and products a company produces, it is necessary to take into account the main global market trends.
New brand promotion strategies for Europe
Customer orientation is very important for the European market. The development of marketing strategy is based on the psychology, desires and requirements of consumers. Thanks to this, promotion technologies are built on new principles. According to forecasts in 2017-2018, the most in demand will be the following.
Promotional strategy: engage emotions
Companies in today’s world need to connect emotionally with customers. Promoting a product is more successful if consumers buy certain emotions along with it. Researchers have found that advertising campaigns that appeal to emotions are 2 times more successful than those that use only rational arguments.
Everyone likes to feel special. Companies can emphasize the uniqueness of their consumers by creating limited edition products. Brands also focus on their target audience and develop promotions designed to stimulate a positive emotional response. This helps the consumer to remember and associate the brand with something pleasant for him personally. For example, Quiksilver sells equipment and clothing for extreme sports. In its advertising campaigns, it appeals to a sense of freedom and sporting motivation. The brand targets an audience that appreciates sports and wants to feel part of the company of like-minded people.
Brand promotion strategy: honesty
The development of digital technologies encourages brands that want to enter the European market to be honest with their consumers. Outright lies or exaggeration of product quality can ruin a brand’s reputation. Kryptonite has positioned their bike locks as incredibly reliable. One of their locks was able to be picked by consumers using a ballpoint pen. A video of the break-in went viral on the internet. To restore their reputation, the company announced a free exchange of this type of lock.
From this story we can conclude that companies need to pay attention to reputation management. Promotion of goods on the market depends largely on personal recommendations from users. Many European consumers trust the advice of friends and acquaintances more than old format advertising. In today’s world, information about a product that does not meet the stated qualities can instantly go viral on the web.
Brand promotion strategy: getting closer to customers
Market promotion strategy should take into account the consumers’ desire to be closer to the company. The company’s involvement in the customer’s life is no longer limited to the fact of selling a product. For example, Intel has created chat rooms where you can talk to their employees in real time. Topics can be varied: product quality, working conditions in the company and news from the world of science. The Whole Food supermarket also communicates with customers. Its employees maintain a blog where they talk about how to better plan menus and prepare food.
Brand promotion strategy: being useful
Today, it is not enough for consumers to simply purchase products. They want companies to be useful to them in every way. Even the advertising of a product or service should be useful. A strategy for promoting a product on the European market must take this factor into account. According to research, customers like how-to videos. Choosing between products of the same price category, the customer will choose the one that is easier to use. If advertising shows how to use the product, sales will be higher.
The OPSM Optometrist brand promotion strategy was useful and creative. This manufacturer of optics researched the market and the needs of customers. It turned out that many children do not notice that they have vision problems. Because of this, they don’t get treatment and the diseases progress.OPSM Optometrist has released a book (print and electronic) called “Pirate Penny”. It can be used to diagnose vision problems in children in the early stages. The book has been downloaded 500,000 times from the internet alone. As a result, 125000 optical appointments were received from doctors. The company showed concern for its consumers and got a return in the form of an influx of customers.
Product promotion: reliance on personal experience
It is very important for customers to get hands-on experience with the products they plan to purchase. This could be a product test kit, a tasting or a test drive of the appliances. Bosch allows their customers to take their dishwasher home for one day before making a purchase decision. Consumers are more trusting of companies that allow them to test drive their products. In their opinion, this means that manufacturers have no doubts about the quality of their products.
Company promotion strategy: moving away from stereotypes
The world has changed significantly over the past decades. Studies of the past are no longer able to show the full picture of the market. For example, there was a belief among video game companies that a gamer is a young person aged 13-25. However, after collecting statistics, it turned out that in the United States, most gamers are over the age of 36. There are more gamers in their 40s than there are eighteen year olds. The numbers have changed regarding gender as well. In the UK, the majority of gamers are women.
Outdated ideas about the target audience and competitors can greatly hinder the promotion of the product in the European market. Therefore, it is advisable to conduct market research before developing a promotion strategy.
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Promotional technologies: humanism
A strategy to promote the European market may include charity events or donations. Many brands transfer money for products sold on certain days to the accounts of charitable organizations. On such days, sales are constantly increasing. For example, the company Yves Rocher constantly holds a campaign “The Power of Our Beauty”. For every lipstick bought, it promises to plant a tree.
Famous brands use their popularity to draw customers’ attention to global issues. Whisky producer Johnnie Walker launched a special campaign after the conflict in Lebanon began. A video was made about the struggle of storm and fire, which symbolized the resilience of the Lebanese. Using the hashtag #KeepWalkingLebanon, online users could post words of encouragement for the Lebanese. The campaign attracted attention and the brand’s sales in the country increased by 19.99%.
Donations can also influence product promotion. Johnnie Walker donates $1,000 each to startups without asking for any reward in return. Recipients tell their friends and subscribers about it. The brand gets additional publicity
Brand promotion strategy: diversity
Companies are trying to attract the attention of those who have been out of their sight for a long time. For example, a model with Down syndrome became the face of the cosmetics brand Beauty & Pin-Ups. And transgender Caitlyn Jenner became the face of MAC. The Diesel brand invited Winnie Harlow, a model with vitiligo, to be the face of its advertising campaign. This helps customers with different looks feel more confident and increases brand loyalty.
Developing a marketing strategy: body-positivity and naturalness
The message that everyone is attractive in their own way is very popular among European consumers. Dove was one of the first companies to use it in advertising campaigns together with the slogan “Real Beauty”. Sales immediately increased because people liked the message – you are beautiful, even if you are far from magazine standards. Brands are moving away from the monotonous canon in beauty and trying to emphasize the individuality of each person. They started inviting people with non-model parameters to advertise their products.
Naturalness also promotes the product. Consumers want to know how the product will look in real life, not on a photoshopped model. Therefore, some companies refuse to use retouching in their advertising. The brand Aerie, creating an advertisement for its lingerie, did just that. In 2015, the brand’s sales grew by a quarter and continue to grow.
Product promotion: the eco-trend
The eco-trend remains popular in Europe. By purchasing organic products, people take care of their health and the environment. Promotion of goods on the European market will be more successful if the packaging is made of environmentally friendly materials that can be recycled after use. A focus on environmental friendliness will help to attract attention to the brand and its products. For example, Marcel Worldwide conducted the “inglorious fruits and vegetables” campaign for a French supermarket chain to raise the issue of food waste.
Promotion strategy: use of cell phones
In previous years, manufacturers viewed mobile only as an additional advertising platform. In 2012, everything changed. Today, the majority of search traffic comes precisely from mobile devices. Therefore, the development of a brand promotion strategy should also focus on the mobile version of the site. So Simon Bolger from Google said that 74% of users refuse to enter the site from a cell phone if it takes longer than 5 seconds to load. As a result, the company loses customers.
The use of mobile advertising is very important. For example, Singapore’s 313 Somerset mall sends sale alerts and discount coupons to people near it. The mall’s mailing apps resulted in a 46% increase in sales.
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Effective use of social media for product promotion
In the West, social media is actively used to promote brands and products. According to Mainstreethost, social networks are the second most popular place to find brands, second only to search engines. In total, 76% of the world’s population is on social media. Developing a product promotion strategy should take into account that social media can be used in a variety of ways.
Running contests on social media is one of the easiest ways to promote a product. Companies launch a contest in which users post their photos or videos. According to its terms, each participant must post a record of the contest on his or her page. As a result, news about the brand spreads among a huge number of people.
Podcasts (audio blogs with downloadable files) help to increase the company’s visibility. They allow the company and the consumer to communicate almost directly. AskPat is a podcast by entrepreneur Pat Flynn. Every day he answers questions from real users about marketing and business. The program is only 10 minutes a day, but has greatly increased the entrepreneur’s popularity.
Branded content creation will help promote the company. Red Bull have launched their own online TV platform and produce videos dedicated to extreme sports. They already have over 1 billion views. Video content resonates with a huge audience. Video on a page increases conversion rates by 80%.
Using user-generated content as advertising
Baublebar is a jewelry store that collects Instagram photos of people wearing their products. All you need to do is put their hashtag next to the photo when posting selfies.
Temporary trends can also be used to promote a brand to the European market. Since mid-summer 2016, Pokémon Go has been popular. Many entrepreneurs decided to take advantage of this situation. For example, the owner of L’inizio’s Pizza Bar lures Pokémon into his establishment with the help of special modules. Following them come the catchers. The pizzeria’s revenue increased by 30% after he applied this method. It is advisable to use such temporary trends soon after they occur, then it will attract more attention. In today’s world, consumers’ attention is constantly shifting to something new, so it is important to catch the moment.
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