MM Questions answered

Why is the current one-size fits all marketing model broken and how should brands approach marketing?

Globalisation has resulted in communities of people from diverse nationalities, ethnicity, language and culture working together sharing common skill sets, job content and type of work who yet retain their unique individual identity, thinking and preferences. It therefore becomes near impossible to have a common marketing model that will reach all these individuals. This is one reason that major companies have multiple marketing strategies focusing on different demographics to reach the total market.

Even in a hypothetical homogenous demography, individuals differ in the sense that some may be first time buyers of a brand, while others may be brand loyalists and a third set could be the “butterfly”, sampling all the brands in turn. All three may buy the same brand but the strategy to reach each cannot be common, warranting customised approaches to reach each.

In this situation, marketers are compelled by the market to have multiple campaigns or strategies to market a single brand. The difficulties grow exponentially as one goes into multiple markets. Large businesses, multinationals with large resources may do this. This however is beyond the capabilities of small/ medium businesses or non-profits. When a product is regressing a commodity, it becomes near impossible to differentiate it under a brand umbrella.

Increasingly, marketers are realising that marketing is not just acquiring and retaining customers, which are downstream actions. The upstream strategic activities such as creating markets, understanding people’s fundamental needs, identifying customers and developing entire go to market systems and usage are critical to successful business growth. HBR1Traditionally used marketing models do not address these critical functions fully. Therefore the one size fits all marketing model is no longer the only way to formulate marketing strategies for growth and brings up the need for alternate strategies to more homogenously address the entire market.

According to Andrew Swinand of Leo – Burnett, ‘Brands need to be managing on three critical fronts: culture, context and commerce. They need to be known and loved, they need to sense and respond to demand and they need to be simple for people to access.’’ He goes on to say that brands can no longer focus on one of them but work on all three. The challenge therefore is to evolve strategies that address all these three parameters effectively in terms of function and cost.

What are movement thinking and movement marketing? Why brands should embrace this even for reasons other than growth?

“Consumers increasingly expect brands to have not just functional benefits but a social purpose” Omar Rodríguez Vilá and Sundar Bharadwaj

Movement thinking is a process that leverages ideas and concerns from art and culture for organisational transformation and business growth. Such thinking leads to organisations becoming “purpose driven” internally and in the market place. Movement thinking helps organisations identify an idea or purpose that is popular within a cultureSF1.

Movement marketing involves the organisation aligning itself with the purpose and the resulting movement it births. The culture within the organisation is also in sync with the movement’s purpose, objectives, value sets and passions. Such a situation empowers the organisation to evolve a long term marketing strategy that can fuel its market growth and increased market share.AC1

Movement marketing has been practiced by several organisations resulting in their building large, vibrant communities with deeply involved members with a passion that is close to impossible to replicate ( Apple and Volkswagen are two examples ) A rather unusual organisation that , perhaps unintentionally, used the principle of movement marketing is the “Äam Aadmi Party” an Indian political party that began as a mass movement against rampant corruption that metamorphosed into a political party subsequently and holds power even now in the National Capital Region of New Delhi in India !

Dame Anita Roddick started “The Body Shop” in Brighton in 1976 as a movement to break the set practices of the beauty industry by offering products using ethically sourced natural ingredients and no frills packing. In her own words, ‘Social and environmental dimensions are woven into the fabric of the company itself. They are neither first nor last among our objectives, but an ongoing part of everything we do. ‘ It has grown in strength these four decades. Over the years, the company actively supported and participated in various movements including banning testing on animals, “Trade not Aid “. The company was sold to L’Oreal in 2006 for £ 652.3 million. It was sold by them in 2017 to a Brazilian firm for Euro 1 billion. In the process of financial growth, it has also built a large community that advocates their products with passion. The company nurtures the community and retains the founding principles.

Obviously, Movement Thinking and Movement Marketing has resulted in more than increased revenues. It has built communities externally and also built a strong and committed internal team of employees who are as passionate as their clients about the movement. The benefits of organisations espousing movement’s whole heartedly has had great rub-off in terms of product innovation, employee morale and employee retention apart from transforming the employer into a well-recognised and appreciated brand. However, this is not to say that regular advertising both traditional and digital are no longer relevant. They will , be necessary to add value to the movement, express the brand’s alignment with the movement and continue to vie for brand mind share in the consumer mind.

How can brands adopt this as a growth strategy today?

“Movement Marketing is the difference between the status quo and revolution.”-Scott Goodson

Strategies for market growth must evolve with the markets and demography’s and need to be relevant to the customer. Many organisations are guided by the classic 4 Ps of marketing which later evolved to 7 Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical evidence) of the marketing mix and by suitable intervention in these elements of the mix, hope to grow sales. These organisations and brands they represent engage a common hypothetical customer type. But today the market comprises of a number of unique customer types that no such marketing effort can fully address let alone engage.

Movement marketing has been successful in not just growing markets but also in growing a strong passionately loyal brand community and history is dotted with examples. Apple is a prime example of a company questioning the status quo and daring to be different by making computers fun and easy to use. Volkswagen is another which espoused “Small is beautiful” as its raison d’ etre as against the auto industries large gas guzzlers and did this with a unique funky yet functional look that had the aesthetic pundits in knots and the customers fascinated, delighted and hooked to the movement and Volkswagen and the Beetle continues to have a loyal fan following .

Customers today, being more socially aware, are engaged by socio cultural movements. Recent high visibility examples are the movement against Police brutality and the “Me too” movement. If a brand or an organisation espouses a socio cultural moment compatible to its own culture, that would mark the beginning of their journey into movement marketing. By doing so, the organisation or brand identifies itself with the cause of the movement and obtains the tacit support and recognition of all the people who support the movement. This can be built into an engagement that can be leveraged to communicate the organisation/ brand to all these prospective customers. This engagement can be nurtured with suitable and sincere efforts to add value to achieving the purpose of the movement. As constituents of a movement cut across gender, ethnicity, geographies and age groups, the brand would be addressing multiple customer types united by their common support of a cause, thus increasing communication reach and effectiveness, translating to sales and revenue growth. In addition, customers will no longer be loyal customers, bought through a loyalty program but active and passionate brand advocates who will ensure continuity and growth of the engagement’s reach.

A well thought out movement marketing plan has another outcome that will indirectly benefit the brand. The organisation as an employer will also enjoy increased awareness and recognition as the place to be in and will reduce attrition, and attract talent.

What is the framework to develop a movement marketing model for a small-midsize brand and nonprofit?

How is movement marketing different from a brand’s CSR and other social-cause activities they already engage with?

Corporate Social Responsibility is mostly internal and addresses issues that impact either the organisation or its existing customers or the community where its manufacturing locations are based. The activities are mostly unidirectional and the beneficiaries’ direct involvement in the design and planning of the CSR activity is minimal. CSR or other social cause activities are often corporate image building exercises. CSR and social activities can only rarely become part of the marketing strategy. An organisation may undertake to build a youth centre for the community where it is located, but this benefits only the youth of the community and keep them from moving into gangs. Such activity does not always involve the organisation and its employees in the follow up necessary for the upkeep of the centre or the nurture of the young people through counselling or skill training. Some countries have made CSR mandatory and in such cases, the organisations prefer to invest the amount in activity addressing local communities through hand outs of cash than any direct organisation wide support of money, time or skills.

Movement marketing however, involves audiences both internal and external to the organisation. The activities and flow of communication is multi directional. Movement marketing impacts markets and its boundaries, depending on the movement chosen, may extend across national boundaries. Marketing movement activities do not directly build corporate image but strengthens association of the organisation and its brand(s) with the movement. They add value to the movement and actively pursue the objectives of the movement over time. Movement Marketing becomes a part of the entire brand marketing strategy and can be nurtured as a sustained strategy

Critique brands who are not doing MM correctly and why they are not as successful

Movement Marketing as a strategy requires proper alignment to the Movement from the organisation both internally and externally. Amazon for instance came up with a commercial that thanked their employees as heroes during the Covid 19 pandemic and outlined all the steps it was taking to ensure employee health and safety. However, employee strikes at Amazon over safety concerns at their workplace totally erased the good will that may have been built by the commercial.HBR2

Movement Marketing requires honesty openness and transparency from the organisation. Black lives matter was a cause that many organisations supported. Starbucks Coffee however refused to permit any attire with this statement on employee attire. This was in direct opposition to the company stand on being antiracist and inclusive. The severe backlash from its customers led to it accepting the hypocrisy and ordering for new employee shirts with the Black Lives Matter printed on them.

While selecting a movement, organisations need to be careful to skirt political issues or even issues that could be viewed as an unacceptable political stand as Coca Cola realised in 2011. The brand tied up with the World Wildlife fund on a movement to save polar bears. The animal had been used in earlier advertising by Coca Cola and there was no intention by the company to make a political statement but was only aligning itself with conservation. However, this was perceived as an effort to influence the politically volatile climate change issue and became a major issue with some retailers refusing to accept the campaign in their stores.

Movement Marketing requires not just the external alignment of the brand with the movement but also requires internal alignment. The leadership, employees and channel partners also need to be aligned with the movement for effectiveness. Even before aligning the brand with the movement, the leadership needs to individually and collectively buy in into the movement and actively demonstrate the fact so that the employees and other stakeholders would be motivated to become genuinely supportive of the movement. When this does not happen, the brand’s alignment with the movement becomes questionable to the consumer, who does not see it on the ground among the various customer interfaces of the organisation.

How can movement marketing be measured? What are some metrics to track or pursue to know if the movement strategy is working?

Measurement of Movement Marketing is possible according to a report from Deloitte titled “The Science of a Movement”. Some of the metrics to be measured are of course fundamental such as profits, market shares, cost of sales and sales turnover. The next metric that would indicate whether the strategy is captivating its audience is measuring social media engagement. Tracking of internal metrics such as employee satisfaction, attrition rates also indicates the success or otherwise of the MM strategy. In the long term it would be necessary to measure customer retention, life time value of the customer (could be measured using a combination of measurement such as average spend per transaction, number of purchases a year, customer life span), Additionally tracking brand loyalty and brand rapport are also recommended to measure the quality of the movement.

Measuring success in Movement Marketing obviously will not be limited to traditional methods used by marketers to measure effectiveness of marketing strategy. Of course, volumes or better still market share may be metrics for consideration. However, it will be good to remember that movement marketing needs to be consistent over time for meaningful results to show up. A good example of this is the 1990s effort by Nike to encourage girls participation in sports. At that time, Nike’s women’s apparel had a share of just 10 % of its revenues. It is now 23 % of its revenues ( Competing on social purpose – Omar Rodríguez Vilá and Sundar Bharadwaj) So success needs to be measured with metrics over an extended time scale and not the usual quarterly measures that industry is used to.

Why Movement marketing should be a part of every NEW brand’s strategy?

A new brand is at a disadvantage from start. It probably has strong brands as its competition. It is also hampered by limited promotional budgets. It is possible that because of comparatively smaller production runs, it cannot attain the economies of scale that are possible to stronger brands with larger market shares. Traditional advertising is quite expensive. Digital media, while being relatively cost effective, requires considerable time and effort to gain traction in the digital world.

Careful identification of a movement and aligning the brand to the movement would be less demanding and promoting movements are less cost intensive. Past experience, whether one considers how Sabra Hummus took on food industry giants successfully or the success story of Body Shop, it is obvious that New Brands must definitely have Movement Marketing as a strategy of choice for fast ramping up of volumes, market share growth and creating and building brand value by nurturing a community that is passionate in advocating the movement and also the brand.

As a new brand, has no past baggage, there would be no constraints in choosing a movement to align with. It would be advantageous as a new brand to be associated with a movement as the brand makes a statement right from the beginning and can be nurtured as a purpose driven brand, attract and engage a large community of brand advocates and grow across geographies to customer groups united by the common purpose, despite differences in ethnicity, language or socio- economic status.

The brand communication may be through a optimised mix of traditional and digital media which may be dictated by the type of movement the brand is aligned with. Obviously, a save our trees movement like the Chipko movement in India would need to limit engagement through the print media which depends on newsprint made by felling trees.