We attended the the JOM (Journal of Marketing) Breakfast Debate this morning (07:30 am – 09:00 am GMT +2) at the MichelAngelo in Sandton, hosted by Jeremy Maggs (@maggsonmedia), presented by Future Group and sponsored by Sappi and  ABSA bank, marketing debates supported by Remata. The focal subject of the event was Design and Packaging.

We had a great line-up of panelists to address us on Design and Packaging from various industries that are very influencial in the entire process. The panelists were as following: Gareth Pearson – CEO and Shareholder at BMI Reasearch, Andrew Human – CEO of The Loeries Awards, Adam Botha – Creative Director of Switch Branding and Design, Mariette Du Plessis – Partner at Adams & Adams, and Karen Saville – Client Service Director at Y&R (Johannesbburg).

Jeremy Maggs opened the discussion by sharing a few consumer behavior studies done which reveal that 70% of purchase decisions by the consumer are made in-store hence the importance of outstanding packaging which gives the consumer a different experience in their “mood of purchase moment”.

Gareth Pearson then took over taking us further into detail of “Consumer Insight” by adding how consumers are looking for value and convenience as the main factors influencing their purchase decision. And with the “Green” movement, now consumers are also environment conscious which affects the packaging of products.

The recycling process has quite a huge impact on logistics therefore added costs to the manufacturing of packages. Even though the Green movement has slowed down over the years, government regulations are being discussed to be put in place and the packaging industry will self-regulate through the Waste Management Bill.

Also social media has an impact on packaging, one example being the QR  codes on Doritos pack which pack design and product testing were done resulting from the impact of Waste Management Bill. But regardless of some of the limitations that affect design of packaging, we still come up on top for creativity and innovation in the world with the 2009 World Star Awards being testimony to that as South Africa won 9 awards, Japan 7, Norway 2 and Singapore 1. We must not downplay how creative we are.

Andrew Human then filled us in on how new and innovative packages create a different experience for the consumer. The Loeries Awards focus on the following quality of packaging trends: innovation and relevance to brand and audience. He then shared a few winning examples like, packaging by Bushmills and Cabriere.

It appeared that the most package conscious manufacturers are the Alcohol and Perfume industries. Well it has been researched and discovered that Alcohol and perfume purchases are highly driven by their packaging. Consumers almost exclusively purchase based on the packaging, which affects the pricing of the product.

Another example of great packaging is the Café Royale Tequila packaging – great innovation where South America meets Italy was the theme of the design.

Adam Botha talks sustainability of packaging design, the impact of CPA and the challenge to be creative taking all those parameters into consideration. As packaging is the final point of contact before the consumer makes a decision to purchase, it’s important for your product to stand out driven by creativity as the consumer notices what’s different.

A few techniques you can use is illustration to create a hand crafted, sustainable look. This can also help to curb the new rules of the CPA as The new CPA legislation is challenging creative minds to stay within the boundaries therefore limiting designers from being more innovative.

Karen Saville from Y&R shares with us their Pick ‘n Pay on Nicol project with us and all the design elements that went into the project including their target of their entire concept and how they brought that innovation to life with the help of the contractors they worked with. PnP brought global best practice, briefed architects and went away from the box format.

Y&R focused on making the store a sensory and comfortable experience for the visitors by being involved in every detail of the store. They used iconography rather than wording to achieve a more pleasant and interactive in-store experience for consumers which will make them spend more time in the store and make more purchases there.

Thyme on Nicol restaurant is seamlessly intergrated into PnP on Nicol whereas Good Food Studio is sexier and focused on ingredients. “the more pleasant and interactive you make your in-store experience, the more time people will spend in your store.” ~ Karen Saville.

With all the creativity and innovation needed in the design of your packaging, the companies who succeed at this face a lot of copy cats of competing products using the same theme of their creative to try to steal the loyal consumer purchases made based on the winning packaging.

Therefore it’s very important to register your creative to avoid such, as most companies do not register their creative which would cost them way less than a legal lawsuit against copy cats would cost them. Product creative counterfeiting is the biggest growing industry in the world!!!, and that’s where legal firms such as Adams & Adams come in.

Mariette du Plessis educated us on the legal and regulations side of the whole matter at hand. Any packaging can be protected if it can be graphically presented. She used the Jack Daniels packaging as an example of a very distinctive and subjective design. The Coke bottle is also a great example of trade marking.

Words like “pure” and “natural” cannot be used on packaging. “Original” can only be used if you are the first to launch such a product in that category.  Due to the CPA we need to design packaging to be more transparent and give the right and full information for the consumer. The package must not just only say “green” but the brand must be able to support by giving more information.

Conclusion:

Packaging design is a highly influencing factor in consumer purchase, therefore for product manufacturers, design innovation must be an informed business decision. Not just the design, but also the green and organic factors are now being considered by consumers in packaging.

Innovation in packaging is determined by budget as packaging can cost up to 45% of the overall product cost. Design registration is very important to protect your creative design from copy cats.

Insights for the day: Be interactive, responsible, sustainable, innovative and creative.

Social Media marketing and management of this event was done by saidWot and Virtuosa.

Welcome to another interesting Journal Debate and this month’s marketing breakfast takes an in-depth look at Social Networking with a range of experts. As always, the hour long debate will be hosted by Jeremy Maggs.

Global numbers released about 6 weeks ago about Social Networking sites:

• 47% of online adults using social networking sites
• 1.5 million businesses have active pages on Facebook
• Average user is spending 55 minutes per day on Facebook
• 73% teens are members of at least 1 social network
• 50 million tweets sent a day on Twitter

The interesting points from the morning debate include:

Mike Stopforth – CEO – Cerebra

• Begin by examining our motivation for engaging in social media
• Brands need to have a compelling business reason for being on Social Networks
• Problem with social media is that it’s not just applications and platforms. It’s actually more an evolving role of the consumer towards brands.
• I believe that we have to realize that consumers are no longer recipients of messages but are now participants
• People are going to complain because you are doing a bad job, bad service, not because of Facebook. So risks have always been there.
• Community self-regulate, brand advocates will come up for the brand
• Everybody is the media, every digital citizen has a platform and an opinion

Ingrid Rubin – MD – Virtuosa

• Social media is not about campaigns
• Social Media is an evolving technology
• Brands aren’t using the medium correctly because they are trying to advertise
• Use social media to the extent of integrating it into your business
• Take from social networks what is meaningful for your brand and filter out the rest.
• Mistakes that brands are making – start engaging without doing the necessary research, but need to first do research to see what is out there.
• Not just about marketing, it’s about business processes and how you facilitate this online.

Arthur Goldstuck – CEO – World Wide Worx

• Facebook is the mainstream 6.6 % of South Africans are Facebook members – need to use a combination of services to get to your market.
• Must listen and must engage
• Brands must have a social media policy – says what type of communication will happen from the brand and who is responsible for this interaction.
• Social media is no longer a youth platform, the age curve is becoming older every day

Brent Shahim – MD – Aquaonline

• Brands don’t need to regain control of their brand, key opportunities to gain insight. Consumers can talk to each other and the brand can listen in on this.
• Real opportunity to gain invaluable insight into the brand.
• Social media is just visible word of mouth.
• Social networking is a cheaper form of communication
• Organizations needs senior people to be responsible for social media
• You need to look at digital as a whole not just social networking

Toby Shapshack – Editor – Stuff Magazine

• Live in a brand new age, where brand belongs to consumers
• Brands have no choice but to be there listening to conversations
• A good social media strategy is not going to change the fact that it’s a screwed up company
• People want to be heard, ultimately they want acknowledgement

Pierre Odendaal – Creative Director Jupiter Drawing Room

• In the digital space you can cost effectively get your message out there and have a more profound effect on the brand
• Social Networking has a lot more punch then people think
• Digital is face to face contact, it’s just in a digital world
• Digital is the most dominant communication of our time and will shape our future

The next Journal of Marketing Debate: “Design and Packaging” -Thursday 28 October.

Whether you like it or not they’re talking about your brand. Not only in supermaket aisles and in restaurants but on Facebook and on Twitter; on blogs; on YouTube and in chat rooms.

Brand managers no longer control the message, customers do – finished and klaar.

All of this requires a massive shift in mindset and an implicit understanding that brands need to take on and embrace the inherent risk.
Apart from the brand chatter, social networking also opens new channels of communication and distribution and that’s good for the bottom line.

Join Jeremy Maggs for another power breakfast marketing debate as he’s joined by a panel of leading thinkers on the subject as they explore where social networking intersects with brand development – the new brand frontier.

When you leave you’ll know more than your competitor, increase your brand awareness, make more money, get famous and eventually retire to Barbados – where you can social network for fun.

The panel:
• Mike Stopforth – CEO – Cerebra
• Ingrid Rubin – MD – Virtuosa
• Arthur Goldstuck – CEO – World Wide Worx
• Brent Shahim – MD – Aquaonline
• Toby Shapshack – Editor – Stuff Magazine

Bookings: Contact Megan Larter on megan@thefuture.co.za

If you are unable to attend the morning in person be sure to follow the live updates on Twitter and eMarketing Trends.

This morning a panel of experts, with Chair – Jeremy Maggs interrogate winning brands in the Top Brands Mega Forum in order to  dig a little deeper into the DNA of these specific brands. On the panel this morning:  Enver Groenewald (General Manager – Avusa), Louise Boxall-Davies ( Head of planning, morrisjones&co), Doug de Villiers (CEO Interbrand Sampson), Sean McCoy (CEO HKLM) and Neil Higgs (Director, TNS Research).

Chris Faulker – General Manager, Retail Marketing ABSA

• Challenge to transform our brand but to remain relevant in the evolving South African economy
• We have a single brand that needs to span across a variety of markets
• A considerable amount of time is spend, dissecting our market segments due to the diversity
• Insuring consistency, making sure an Absa customer have consistant experience regardless of the channels they engage with

Claire Veitch – Marketing Manager, Carling Black Label

• Most importantly that our expression of masculinity needed to be relevant, needed to be modern, needed to be inspirational, Black Label is a brand for everybody and they need to feel that this is a brand for me.
• Key indicator for us – that our consumers were saying that the brand is no longer relevant for me
• With a possible ban on alcoholic advertising in South Africa we see that the focus on experiental marketing is going to become so much more important, it will be a new chapter for us

Jessecca Perumal – General Manager, Avis

• We don’t structure our communication around our competitors but rather around our business structure
• “We try harder” – cornerstone of our brand, business and operational structure
• Average life span of Avis staff is no less than 10 years – strength of the brand is that we invest in our people
• We deliberately recruit “choose to” people

Rinie Erasmus – Marketing Manager, Yardley

• Established in 1770 – the first brand Yardley started with is Old English Lavendar Soap -incredible brand heritage
• Proudly middle market brand
• Much easier to convert current Yardley shoppers to extend their spending on Yardley products

Heidi Brauer – Executive Group Manager, Group Marketing Strategic Partnerships, Comair responsible for British Airways and Kulula

• People who fly British Airways, want to fly on our airline and love it
• Personal attention is key for us along with a passion for giving great service which is followed through
• The only growth that the domestic market has seen in the last year has been out of Lanseria, which is growth for Kulula

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The next Journal of Marketing Debate: “Social Networking” -Thursday 07 October 2010.

We are here today at the second Ad Forum evaulating the work of 8 top agencies in relations to the World Cup. The invited agencies will be showing a piece of work and the expert panel (Oresti Patricios, Gordon Muller, Andy Rice, Sizakele Marutlulle along with Jeremy Maggs) will have an opportunity to question them. Our agencies taking part today:

MetropolitanRepublic – Wimpy
Trying to infiltrate the World Cup into the brand, didn’t use soccer but tried to use the patriotism of the country.
We wanted to ignite the brand of Wimpy and the world cup was the perfect opportunity. More than just the add also built a microsite  www.nationalbreakfast.co.za to hold all our viral elements. We also used billboards at the airports, we did a tie up with Engen where Wimpy was situated around the country. Found out that there are various legalities with putting ads on YouTube and therefore the microsite was the perfect solution.

Black River FC – Mini “6 Colours to stand By”
The initiative  for this ad was really to create some buzz and the idea was to get as many flags out there as possible. Mini manufucters give out flags for your mirror for free.

The intention really was to ge South Africans amped. The brand was the catalyst for making the public want to own the flag. We wanted South Africans to love the brand.

Nandos “Ama-Visitors”
Foreign visitors misconception about South African we wanted to have some fun with it. Created various ads showing these stereotypes and how ridiculous it is.  The brand is about commenting about things in society quickly in  a way that Nando’s have become known for.

King James – Kulula.com “the campaig for the ‘you know what’”
Initially pricing campaign – wanting to advertise flights for R499. Sort of expected Fifa to come at us but that just made our jobs easier at the end of the day.
Ran a second add where we removed the icons that Fifa complained about. This campaign success was really on Twitter and Facebook with all the conversations going and free publicity. Once we realised how powerful the anti-Fifa sentiment was here in South Africa we  followed up to trademark the sky on April fool’s day and continued the campaign right through the World Cup.

DDB SA- McDonalds “Four Shadows”
Objective to recruit children to be players escourt during the World Cup. Really wanted to leverage the dream that children have.

We actually added on activities where we went to rural communities and schools to give kids across the country to enter. The purpose of this was really to promote the healthy lifestyle more than just the menu items.

Ireland Davenport – MTN “Africa United Campaign”
Challenges was to do something that will work for a lawyer in Cape Town but also a fanpark in Ruwanda. Created a huge expectation for football in Africa and have high hopes to use this campaign going forward for future. After all the xenofobia attacks in South Africa this campaign was meant to really struck a cord with all.

Volcano – Sony “Imagine football in 3D”
Campaign based on Kaka but one of our challenges was how to show 3D to people watching on 2D.
The activition was key and you have to see this to experience it really therefore we built a huge 3D Dome at the Nelson Mandela Square to showcase our products.
This was not just focused on South Africa but important that it works for South Africans.

The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) – Hyundai “Gees”
Struggled with Hyundai as it seen as a non-competitive brand in this market. Objective was to improve brand tracking and sales during this campaign. We come in intentionally late to try and understand what the people on the ground is feeling. We have more traffic on our site than Volkswagen and since April we have been outselling Toyota. Hyundai is associated with the World Cup because we wanted to try and push product. The thing that changes perception in the mass market is that people want to buy cars that they have seen on the road

Ogilvy  – SAB “Superfan”
Great idea of reconciliation and making these people ambassadors for the brand. The fans is the liveblood of the sport and SAB reflected that in this add showing the true dedicated fan.

Mention the words green marketing at a management meeting and you’re either labelled pony-tail wearing bunny hugging whale saver or you’re told to put it on next month’s agenda where serious consideration will be given to environmentally friendly packaging! It’s another Journal Debate and as Jeremy Maggs facilitates the debate some of the interesting points from the morning include:

Simon Gear – Green Business Consultant, SDB Consulting

• Green Marketing is getting to a stage where it is becoming more mainstream but it’s not enough
• Eskom doesn’t do any Green Marketing it’s more Crisis Management. But they are extremely transparent about their carbon footprint.
• In terms of  Sappi the reality is that a tree farm is not a forest
• You do things properly inside your company and then you tell that story

Jacques Brent – VP Marketing, Sales & Service, Ford and Mazda

• Transparency is driven by competitive disclosure. Use the good to build your brand up but you rarely make active disclosure of the negative if nobody else is doing it in your industry. This is one of the problems.
• Education is key, the more it gets spoken about the greater awareness and the quicker the change should come.

Maseda Ratshikuni – Head: Cause Marketing, Nedbank Affinities Marketing

• The truth is South Africa is behind in terms of sustainability.
• Surprisingly 53% of people are Green supporters in this country. But Green is like religious. You have to live it.
• More responsibility to ensure people is educated and informed. Green is not something that happens out there, we need to start internally. And we need to make sure that our business accept the strategy of being green.

Bernhard Riegler – Marketing Director, Sappi Fine Paper

Latetia Venter – Marketing Manager: Demand Side Management, Eskom

• Eskom has an energy efficient program that has managed to save over 2000 Megawatts.
• Eskom launched an internal program where we started for energy efficiency to get our employees to be brand ambassadors.

Deon Robbertze – Creative Director: Ogilvy earth South Africa

• Green marketing is about sustainability, and there are three pillars, social, financial and environment.
• Consumer knows everything about your business, fixed what’s wrong don’t shout about what’s right.
• You have to implement sustainability from the top down. You have got to get people in your company to believe that change is going to happen.
• Sustainability is intuitive, it’s not rocket science.  We need to reach the age of transparency. It has to become part of the brands DNA.

From this mornings debate one thing is clear, it’s really important that we get to grips with issues like this. The conversation has provided food for thought and attendees walk away from another successful morning.

Join us for the next Journal debate. Book now…

How should existing and potential costumers be spoken to, what are the optimum methods of communication, what role is technology playing in the dynamic? Jeremy Maggs as always keeps everybody on their toes, with some of the highlights from the session this morning including:

Andrew Ambrogioni, CEO (Action Ambro’s)

• The system or technology we use doesn’t build the relationship it’s how you apply those date insights into your creative communication.
• Social Media is great as a service level tool. It’s opening up a new channel for constant content upload. Instead of a push strategy it’s becoming a pull strategy.
• You can create promotions online and ask customers to engage with you. Utilize it to create more focused campaign.
• The way we communicate, the way we design, way we approach the customer needs to be looked at far more closely. Touch the heart and then reach into the pocket.

Etien van Loggerenberg, Territory Sales Manager- Africa (Maximizer Software)

• It’s all about understanding the customers, what makes them tick. Profile them and communicate in a way that they understand. Track the effectiveness of how you are communicating.
• In terms of Reputation – you have to priorities on how to respond to messages and have the tools and people to do that.
• Measurability is key in order to drive your business forward.

Bridgette Ward, Sales Manager (AdvanceNet Group)

• Getting adoption of the system is key, people don’t always understand the systems. But you have to integrate this throughout your business in order for this to be successful.
• Key need to be looking at  a client in a 360 degree view.
• Social Media can now start pushing information into your relevant information into your space. More on the networking side
• We need to be building the system to take us to the next sale
• CRM is a culture, you are creating transparency in the business

Michelle Perrow, Strategic Director (Lesoba Difference)

• Have to get the basics right, which is:  good service, answer the phone on time, speak to customers correctly, speak to customers on the channel that they require, adding value at the same time.

• There are very few organization that have the web or call centre interaction linked into the CRM. Various reasons for this, lack of support, internal politics etc.

• Direct Marketing Association is the champion in challenging the legislative regulations. The opt- in, opt- out discussion have been reversed so that we are now only talking about opt out.

• We need to self regulate. 17 pieces of legislations that cover CRM at the moment and you need to be aware of this and implement this.

   

   

   

Once again another interesting morning with diverse opinions on this topic.

For more on this event make sure you get a copy of the next edition of The Journal. Also don’t miss out on the next Journal of Marketing Debate talking about Green Marketing.

On the 6 May 2010, The Journal of Marketing will host another one of their illustrious Breakfast Debates titled “Customer Relationship Management [CRM] – An overused acronym or a Marketer’s Secret Weapon?”

Mention the three letters CRM and marketers generally fall asleep or have a spam attack. But unless you’re engaging one-on-one with your loyal customer base and looking to add to it, you might as well quit and go farming. CRM is a marketer’s most important weapon, but can also be the greatest curse.

The debate will discuss how should existing and potential customers be spoken to; what are the optimum methods of communication; what role is technology playing in the dynamic, and how do you execute and quantify the results of a cost-effective CRM campaign. And, once you’ve done all that stuff, the debate will discuss how it all fit in with bigger issues like sales, distribution and overall brand development.

Hosted by Jeremy Maggs, the debating panel will include:

Fraser Lamb – Group CEO, Y & R Brands SA
Michelle Perrow – Strategic Director, Lesoba Difference
Andrew Ambrogioni – CEO, Action Ambro’s
Prakash Patel – Head of Digital, Draftfcb Johannesburg
Etien van Loggerenberg – Territory Sales Manager – Africa, Maximizer Software Ltd
Bridgette Ward – Sales Manager, AdvanceNet Group

To book: email Marcia Minnaar at marcia@netactive.co.za 

Date: Thursday, 6 May, 2010
Time: 07h00 for 07h30 – 09h00
Venue: L’Incontro Ballroom, The Michelangelo Hotel,
Nelson Mandela Square, West Street, Sandown
Cost: R395 (subscribers to The Journal); R495 for non-subscribers (prices ex. VAT) includes breakfast and parking

The big question today at the Journal’s breakfast debate is whether Sponsorships are consider to be money down a deep hole or the best brand builder ever? On the panel we have:

• Clive Grinaker - Group Executive: New Business, SAIL Group Ltd
• Gavin Cowley – Marketing Director, Addidas SA
• Billy Lascaris – Director, Matchworld (Pty) Ltd a division of Primedia Sport
• Serame Taukobong – Chief Marketing Officer, MTN SA
• Stanley Anderson – Marketing Director, Huyndai Automotive South Africa

In marketing terms sponsorship is probably the biggest word flying around right now as we gear up for … well you know what. Some insights on this topic from the panelists:

Stanley Anderson: For us we believe that you are seen as a best quality brand if you are associated with the World Cup and you must be doing something right. Perceived quality is doing a great job for us in this regard.
We have been lucky as the World Cup has given us huge visibility also with an audience that we don’t always get into contact with. Our website hits have grown extensively in the last couple of months. The website gives the customer an opportunity to interact with our brand at its own leisure.

Billy Lascaris:

• Sponsorship is an emotional platform.  It helps you build that trust.  Essential to integrate consumers into a campaign.
• All brands can use sponsorships regardless of the industry you just have to be clever on how you approach it and leverage it.
• In terms of CSI sponsorships be sure that if you do it you do it properly  otherwise it will come across as insincere and be more harmful.
• Naming rights are important as this forms your platform to develop on but it depends on who your target audience is.  For me naming right are more about visibility and association.

Gavin Cowley: Addidas have been around for a long time but for us it’s about reinventing for us. We are different than the rest of the brands as we are on the field of play. Have a lot of commercial variables to help us measure our return on investment. The benefit is not just for during the event but it’s about positioning your brand during the event for you to successfully take it forward.
Need to approach things in a holistic way, signing is easy but servicing is not. Use all the elements of the marketing mix and part of that is social responsibility to ensure you leverage it.
Staff involvement is key and we make them part of this event with regular information on the event.

Serame Taukobong: We do have a post World Cup strategy. This event has allowed doors globally to open up for MTN. The value is that now we have instant recognition globally for our brand.

Social networking is part of our consumer lives. Beauty of mobile and social networking gives you a one to one ratio.

Clive Grinaker: Sponsorship is about strategy and the objectives you have for the brand. It’s got to align with your target audience. Sponsorship does give you a much better return on spend than electronic media.  It’s a fine ratio between what you want to get out of it over what you put in. Your staff is your brand ambassadors and it’s key to get their buy in.

For more on this event make sure you get a copy of the next edition of The Journal.

It’s the first Journal of Marketing breakfast and Virtuosa once again are here giving live updates through Tweeting and Blogging to bring you all the news firsthand. Moderated by Jeremy Maggs this morning we are talking about Radio and why this medium is still relevant. The panel consists of Lance Rothschild (Media Consultant & Radio Commentator, Opportun(at)e), Norman Gibson – (GM, Radio Advertising Bureau) Omar Essack (Executive Director: Broadcasting, Kagiso Media) Andrew Smythe (GM Radio Sales & Alternative Revenue, SABC, Terry Volkwyn (CEO, Primedia Broadcasting).

Interesting for me is the panels diverse opinion around what role digital should be playing in radio stations. Some seem to be of the opinion that internet access in South Africa is not high enough to warrant really investing into it. I find these opinions surprising. Others on the panel recognise that digital is exploding and see this as an unique opportunity to offer an integrated approach to their listeners. What’s clear is that there is an uncertainty on how best to integrate digital with their offering and how to  manage the communities that are developing around the station and especially the websites.

If you want to read more about what was discussed during this morning session be sure to get your hands on an issue of the next Journal of Marketing.