Thursday, September 15, 2016

Tentpoling for Marketing Communication Strategy

Communication with your target market (or promotion) is a key aspect of the marketing mix. However, timing that communication appropriately around a significant event is often the essence of strategic communication marketing. Apply the following steps to meet your marketing objectives.
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1. Select events that are relevant to your target market. Also consider the mission statement for your business' current period. For instance, a new business may be concerned with brand awareness, new customer acquisition, customer loyalty and so on.  Keeing the mission in mind may help to select only  the most worthwhile tentpoles and insert meaninful touchpoints into the execution plan. Common examples of events include the following.
  • new product launches - aimed at long term sales of a non-seasonal product 
  • seasonal cultural events, like Christmas - aimed at promoting seasonal increase in sales  
  • consumer events, like birthdates, subscription expiration - aimed at brand recall, loyalty, etc
  • major third party events, like World Cup sporting competitions.
  • the occurence of positive or negative risks, like natural disasters affecting your industry, your or a competitor's product recalls - aimed at brand recall, acquiring competition's customers, etc
  • major current affairs (like new civil rights legislation, natural environmental debates, release of popular movies)
  • trending social media topics (hastagged topics),
  • You can even use events that are not directly related to your product as an excuse, simply to keep your brand in the minds of your customers. Essentially, you aim to piggy back off of events that create their own buzz among your customers. In this last case, you may need to consult a calendar of events like national holidays, celebrations (often based on historical events and milestones). Consider your industry and a calendar that might apply to your business' core values and focus. For instance, a culinary arts business may consult a calendar with different food days. See below how to maintain and list and highlight events and their dates.


2. Know the dates of the event and align marketing communication with your market's response timing. This is important because you are unlikely to sell Christmas decorations if you begin to advertise on Christmas day or even Christmas eve. After all, people will have usually completed decorations by then because they buy in anticipation of the event. In the image below, the green line shows the start of early prebuzz marketing communication campaign. See how to use Google Trends to estimate your target market's pre-buzz readiness. Prebuzz may take many forms that include Youtube infommercials.
See below how content, manufacturing and advertising can be scheduled around each event.


Tentpoling: marketing communication is about timing

The following table illustrates how I fill my marketing calender with events. The order in which I list tentpoles is based on the earliest date on which I must take action (usually for manufacturing the product or for inviting pre-orders as a means for planning manufacturing volumes). In other words, I do NOT use the event. In the example below, Christmas is the event. However, it appears in the August list.

August (Date calc)

1- Event

& search keyword(s), date

2-Ad

Type, media, timing

 

3-Product availability

4a-Product

Type, production method, lead time

4b-Product Differentiation

Special edition symbols, etc

5-Manufacture date(s)

Christmas 25 Dec

Ø B2C:

pre-manufacture pre-order invitation via FB product page, Instagram, YT, 7-20 Aug, 1-4 Oct

 

pre-buzz (v sharp peak) via Facebook, FB product page, 13Dec to 24-Dec

 

post-buzz (excess stock), 26-Dec to 5-Jan  

 

 

Ø WS:

pre-manufacture pre-order invitation via messaged link to order form, 7-20 Aug

 

Ø B2C:

Facebook, Instagram, 5-Oct to 26-Dec

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Ø WS:

Shippers, 28-Sep to 20-Dec

 

Rum cake, fruit soaked, 7 weeks

Red, white, green

10-Aug to 2-Nov
Here are the meanings of the columns.
Column 1. The event refers to the date or range of dates during which consumers recognize the event. The keyword used by the target market.
Column 2. Advertising date is based on when consumers are likely to begin thinking about and buying in anticipation for the event. This may also involve inviting customers to pre-order for the sake of establishing appropriate manufacture volumes for special editions and perhaps creating a sense of scarcity. 
   a. B2C / Direct consumers: This date is based on when interest peaked. Interest levels are based on historical Google Trends data for the keyword(s) associated with the event. Examples include: Google Trends for your target market's region over the past 5 years.
   b. Wholesale (WS). This date is earlier than the date for consumers. It gives WS customers enough advance time to order and receive shipments in time for when interest in the product peaks.
Column 3. The date from which the product is available for shipment 
   a. B2C: usually the day after advertisement
   b. WS: S/A 
Column 4. Production
   a. Product type and production lead time
   b. Themes & symbols
Column 5. The ‘manufacture date’ field is calculated as Availability date to WS customers MINUS production lead time.
 

3. Respond to your market's environment and trends. Although events that are relevant to your market are unplanned, they may be useful for marketing if they have some strong correlation with your market's response to them. This is where post-buzz tentpoling can apply. Examples include news events and social trends (like the public response from anything like oil prices to movies featuring some aspect of your product or social media events). Like other newbie marketers, you probably agonized over how you could possibly emotionally engage your market into buying your product. The solution is to ride the wave of your market's emotional response to events in the news, movies and so on, ie as the emotional response can relate to your product in the middle of the sales funnel. Learn more about the sales funnel. Emotional marketing this way is the driver behind the phenomenon in which a previously obscure style of dress suddenly flies off shelves after a major event like a celebrity wedding, an awards ceremony and even viral wardrobe malfunctions. 

4. Create buzz content, actvities and products that meet your market's touchpoints requirements. Use personal branding, lifestyle branding, relevant keywords for search engine optimization (SEO) in titles and so on, etc. See how to use Google Trends to generate timely content. When creating content around a major third event (like world cup sporting events), check with your legal team before using creating content that associates their brand with yours. If are reliant on major news events, your risk management team needs have a plan for horizon scanning for quickly generating post-buzz content for such circumstances. When possible, have a risk communication plan with script templates.

Consider the case of Kylie Cosmetics' Lip Kit product launch. It sold out within 1 minute despite no paid traffic and under 10 full time and only slightly more temporary staff members. The event used several years of Kylie's selfies for pre launch buzz. While her fame gave her an unprecendented following of hundreds of millions of fans, the brand's following paled in comparison. It was therefore sensible to closely link her personal brand to her cosmetics brand. Her Instagram started in 2011 as being very typical of any teenager. However, at some point, there was a noteworthy shift including many high quality images. Why would a teenager who is not a model need to take so many glamorous, obviously curated photos? The daily photoshoots showcased her personal brand personality exactly how it would appeal to her target. Specifically, the brand personality was one that her target would want to 'befriend'. However, it rivalled the cosmetics brand in terms of engagement for her posts. Her personal brand was therefore indispensible to any product launch. It is noteworthy that her frequent posts built feelings of trust and familiarity - a brand manager's dream. Her daily posts of the minutae of life provided the numerous touchpoints that basic products alone struggle to achieve. Another key learning point is the fact that the process of repeated touchpoints to build familiarity and trust take time and should be planned well in advance. For instance, The Kylie Lip Kit name had been trademarked in 2015, ie 2 years in advance of the launch. The pre-launch touchpoints never discussed lips. Rather, they focused on makeup tutorials for everything other than for the lips. This therefore manufactured the need for a solution for lips. She was not asking anything of her audience. Rather, for 2 years of stellar patience, these posts only provided perceived value. What she was getting in return however was that her target market was not only the trust and familiarity but also a reciprocity debt (a subtle principle of influence / persuasion). To launch product extensions, she made her personal brand appropriately relatable with strategic collaborations with family, friends and even her baby. Scarcity marketing is often beneficial to tentpole marketing. It was intentionally used for Kylie products despite the fact that, if they wanted, Coty, the part owners of the Kylie Cosmetics brand would have had sufficient marketing knowledge to schedule production volumes to better meet demand. Besides, even Kylie's likely less experienced team would have known that her milllions of loyal fans could easily have sold out her 15,000 lip kits. Even if they had not, experience over the years of having sold hundreds of thousands of lipkits would have given them sufficient experience to prevent the brand's continued trend of product stock outs. The initial product launch stock out was ideal for creating a brand story for the media that would positively shape brand perceptions as being highly desirable and something to be bought as soon as possible. Beware however, this is generally more suitable for trendy products (NOT necessarily your mainstay products).    



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JAN
NEW YEAR'S DAY 01-JAN
    SPECIAL OFFICE HOURS
US NAT'L WHIPPED CHEESE DAY 05-Jan
SCOTTISH BURNS' NIGHT 25-Jan
GERMAN APPLE DAY 11-Jan


FEB
WORLD SAMOSA DAY 29-Feb
CHINESE NEW YEAR 08-Jan
US NAT'L PIZZA DAY 09-Feb
CHRISTIAN PANCAKE DAY 09-Feb
VALENTINE'S DAY 14-Feb
US BANANA BREAD DAY 23-Feb
US NAT'L MARGARITA DAY 22-Feb

 MAR
NCAA MEN'S BASKET BALL TOURNAMENT
US SPRING BREAK
US NATIONAL  EAT ICE CREAM FOR DINNER 22-Mar

APRIL
NCAA MEN'S BASKET BALL TOURNAMENT
GOLD MASTER'S TOURNAMENT
WEDDING SEASON
MOVING SEASON
BUILDING SEASON
US NATIONAL PET DAY
INTERNATIONAL MOTHER EARTH DAY 22-Apr
 GERMAN BEER DAY 23-Apr
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MAY
MOTHER'S DAY - 13-MAY
WORLD LAUGHTER DAY - 1ST SUNDAY
 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
HUMMUS DAY 13-May
AUSTRALIA NAT'L BURGER DAY 28-May

 JUNE
NATIONAL ACNE AWARENESS MONTH
 FATHER'S DAY
ARBOR DAY (COSTA RICA) 15-Jun
 FATHER'S DAY
CANADA NAT'L (POTATO) CHIP DAY 27-Jun
CANADA FOOD DAY SAT OF CIVIC HOL WK'END
WIMBLEDON
TROPICAL SPRING / WET SEASON BEGINS
WORLD MILK DAY 01-Jun
INT'L SUSHI DAY 18-Jun
AUSTRALIA VANILLA COKE DAY 02-Jun

 JUL
INDEPENDENCE DAY (US) -4-JUL
    SPECIAL OFFICE HOURS
MLB ALL-STAR GAME
US NATIONAL ICE CREAM MONTH
US NATIONAL ICE CREAM DAY 3RD SUN
JACKFRUIT DAY 04-Jul
WORLD CHOCOLATE DAY 07-Jul

 AUGUST
FRIENDSHIP DAY 1ST SUNDAY
 SUMMER OLYMPICS 05-Aug
MOTHER'S DAY (COSTA RICA) 15-Aug
 US TENNIS OPEN 29-Aug
WOMEN'S EQUALITY DAY (US) 26-Aug
 NATIONAL DOG DAY   26-Aug
 NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL 28-Aug
INT'L BEER DAY 1ST FRI

 SEPT
NATIONAL ALOPECIA AWARENESS all of Sep
 LONDON FASHION WEEK
US LABOR DAY 05-Sep
INT'L BACON DAY 05-Sep
EMMY AWARDS 08-Sep
NFL SEASON KICKOFF 08-Sep
INT'L COFFEE DAY 29-Sep

 OCT
WORLD HABITAT DAY 1ST MONDAY
 WORLD VEGETARIAN DAY 01-Oct
WORLD FARM ANIMALS DAY 02-Oct
WORLD CHICKEN DAY 2ND THURS
WORLD EGG DAY 2ND FRI
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY 10-Oct
 WORLD HANDWASHING DAY  15-Oct
 WORLD FOOD DAY 16-Oct
WORLD TRIPE DAY 24-Oct
S AFRICA NAT'L BRAAI DAY 24-Oct
MLB WORLD SERIES
HALLOWEEN
COLUMBUS DAY
WORLD CHEESEBURGER DAY 27-Oct
AFRICA FOOD & NUTRITION SECURITY 31-Oct

 NOV
NATIONAL SKIN CARE MONTH 01-Nov, all of Nov
WORLD VEGAN DAY 01-Nov, all of Nov
GUY FAWKES' 05-Nov
US ELECTIONS 08-Nov
THAI NATIONAL CURRY DAY 1ST FRI
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR TOLERANCE 16-Nov
 WORLD PHILOSOPHY DAY   3rd THURSDAY
 GERMANY NAT'L SOUP DAY 19-Nov
WORLD HELLO DAY 21-Nov
 THANKSGIVING 25-Nov
DEUTSCHEN BUTTERBROTS (DUTCH BABIES) DAY 25-Nov
BLACK FRIDAY 26-Nov
CYBER MONDAY 28-Nov
DIWALI 30-Nov

 DEC
INTERNATIONAL TEA DAY 15-Dec
 BRAZIL NAT'L MUFFIN DAY 18-Dec
CHRISTMAS 25-Dec
    SPECIAL OFFICE HOURS
 NEW YEAR'S EVE   31-Dec



PERSONAL TENTPOLES (FOR EMAIL MARKETING)

 NATIONAL TENTPOLES (FOR EMAIL MARKETING)
  • FIND THE COMMEMORATIVE DAYS FOR YOUR MARKET

UNPLANNED EVENT TENTPOLES (FOR POST BUZZ TENT POLE MARKETING)
  • MOVIES APPEALING TO YOUR MARKET
  • RISING OR FALLING OIL PRICES
  • SOCIAL EVENTS (CELEBRITY FASHION TRENDS, CELEBRITY NEWS & SO ON)
  • NEWS OF SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS
  • VERDICTS OF CERTAIN HIGH PROFILE COURT CASES
  • OUTCOMES AND POPULAR REACTION TO MAJOR EVENTS 

CONTENT RELATED TO TENTPOLE MARKETING
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