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M&M’s Blog goes behind the headlines to offer a running commentary on the business dynamics within the international media and marketing industry. The M&M editorial team joins forces with industry experts and local market heroes to balance a bird’s eye view of global trends with the importance of local insight.

brand awareness

• WFA Global Marketer Week: Putting the ‘P’ in marketing

  13 March 2013

  If there’s one word that stole the show at this year’s WFA Global Marketer Week in Brussels, it was ‘Purpose’. Indeed, even a survey carried out by the WFA and Edelman found that some 83% of marketers believe that brands should have a ‘purpose’.

  Brands need to put purpose into their marketing – they need a purpose to thrive. And that’s exactly something that Diageo’s global chief marketing officer Andy Fennell highlighted during his presentation to a room full of chief marketing officers. “We simplify things. We ask ‘What’s the brand’s purpose’? We don’t talk about the benefit anymore,” he said.

  But do marketers fully understand this idea of ‘purpose’? The WFA survey found that 88% of marketers feel that purpose will be important to building brands and 81% feel that purpose is a business opportunity. But what is purpose? Well, it’s giving consumers a broader understanding of your business, creating programmes and doing something meaningful for society.

  And which brands are doing this best? Global marketers themselves vote Unilever, P&G and Coke as leaders in the pack in terms of ‘Purpose’.

  The idea of ‘Putting the P in marketing’ all started in the morning of the conference, when Johnson & Johnson global marketing group vice-president Kimberly Kadlec said that the brand has introduced 4 ‘P’s’ into its marketing mix – Purpose, Presence, Proximity and Partnership – which of course, has only been relevant since social media took the world by storm and completely reflects the consumer expectation that brands should be offering consumers more than just product. “You need to go back to basics,” she said. “How do we add value? If you add value you really will grow your business.”

  Other highlights from the conference included a presentation from Ogilvy Group chairman Rory Sutherland, who posed the question: “Is the next big technology not a technology at all?” He argued that the next big thing isn’t tech at all, but psychology and encouraged people to read economics.

  Keep an eye out for M&M Global's interview with Diageo’s global chief marketing officer Andy Fennell, who talks about the importance of seeking growth in emerging markets and how the golden era of marketing is ahead.

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  Posted by: Jenni Baker

  Tags: Purpose, Advertising, brand awareness, Branding

• Is it really worth sponsoring the Olympics?

  07 June 2012

  The Olympics – a major international sporting event that comes around every four years. It’s no wonder that brands are keen to pay big bucks to get involved...

  But is it really worth forking out all that cash? What value do brands really get out of it?

  I came across some research earlier from Opinium Research, who has been keeping a close eye on not only this year’s official Olympic sponsors, but also the brands that have no connection with the Games, but that are benefiting from it.

  A survey of 2,000 people in the UK showed that only 10% of Brits are aware that BMW is an official Olympics partner. McDonald’s and Coca-Cola came out on top as the most recognised Olympic sponsors, with almost half of the UK aware that they are partners, with the awareness growing even more as we get closer to the London 2012 Olympic Games. Coca-Cola, in fact, has seen the biggest increase of 10 points between January and April.

  

  But what is more interesting is that while brands pay a lot of money to be associated with the Olympics, those that aren’t involved are mistakenly getting credit from the public.

  A fifth (22%) of Brits mistakenly believe that EDF’s rival British Gas is a partner to the Olympics. Meanwhile, Visa, British Airways, Lloyds TSB and Coca-Cola may not be so happy to find that their biggest rivals Mastercard (20%), Virgin Atlantic (18%), HSBC (14%) and Pepsi (11%) are thought of as being partners to the Olympics. 

  

  It’s clear that the big global brands among us – such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola – have a lot to gain from sponsoring a major sporting event such as the Olympics, but, as this latest research shows, maybe you don’t have to fork out the big bucks to increase brand awareness.

  See also: Brands hit the right note - a recent piece we did with the official sponsors of the MTV EMAs to see what they got out of sponsoring an international event.

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  Posted by: Jenni Baker

  Tags: brand awareness, Sponsorship, Olympics