Remember “The Four Ps of Marketing”: product, price, promotion, and placement.
Product:
What are you selling & why?
Price:
How much does the product cost? When does the price change?
Promotion:
How will you promote the product? Viral marketing? Internet Advertising?
Placement:
Who sells it? Where is it sold?
In recent times, we now have what we call the “fifth P”, Participation. This has changed the typical way marketing has been done. Since new technologies are coming out, it is much harder to get information out to the chain of customers.
Instead of pushing our messages out into people's faces, the people now have the option to block us or walk away or fast forward. Engagement is now the key because unless someone wants to be interacting with you, they won't.
What are some clever uses of Participation you have witnessed or conducted?
Spiral Medical Development
www.spiralmeddev.com
The most popular way of marketing these days is using social media. There is an increasing use of social media everyday. Popular social media channels include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Snapchat are all different unique in their own ways of engagement. One of the common way I have come across Facebook is creating a comical video of their product/service. Since people are on Facebook for entertainment, businesses target that audience. They would capture a trending voice or a concept and try to combine it with their product which would at least make the users watch it. There is no guarantee the user will buy it but at least may share or like it which would then circulate. The way of using funny videos of grabbing attention seems to be very effective and common across social media.
I agree that social media has become a popular way of advertising in today's society. There is also the idea where sellers involve the customers in the product production/improvement. Sellers of products now allow customers to send them comments on their product, which allows them to know what the people like and dislike. Based on the comments, sellers will adjust and improve products/services according to what the people want. I have ordered products online where the seller will eventually ask questions like, how has the product worked for you? And if the customer isn't pleased they allow money back within a month. They would then ask for comments on why you didn't like the product. The goal of the seller is to keep customers, and to give them what they want, and to do that, they take into consideration their opinions.
Recently, some of the more clever and effective ways I have seen a device/ product marketed is to have paired with a celebrity/ athlete that can make a personal connection. As Dr. Simon mentioned above, ads can now be blocked so companies are targeting the things people want to see on social media (their favorite athletes/ celebrities/ pages). For example, Lebron James has roughly 23.2 million twitter followers and companies are paying him on average $140,000 dollars ($1,000 per character) per product endorsement tweet. Now this figure may seem egregious, however, considering traditional T.V. advertisements would cost an estimated 5 times more to reach that target number of individuals, it suddenly seems like a very quick and efficient way to market. And that’s not even considering most of the T.V. viewers walk away/ fast forward through commercials anyways. With technology evolving so fast, advertising is struggling to keep up. But when done ‘correctly’ it can be just as efficient and even arguable more so than the more dated methods ever were.
Clever ways companies are venturing out to their customers or potential customers is via social media. Social media over the course of recent years has become a large platform where companies can communicate and interact with their customers both for advertising and also to address concerns. For example, Twitter, Facebook and even Youtube has become platforms that companies can use to either showcase their product or provide information that relates to their product. The reason why large amount of money is used for advertisement is because it is proven to be the most effective on the internet, since we all are on our smartphones and on applications, we have viewed how these companies work together with Google for example on detecting related searches that the user makes to provide similar information to them based on products. Companies pay money to have their products advertised , some have used Youtube to train their customers on how to use their products as well free of charge out of good customer service and product support.
I have witnessed the fifth "P" of marketing in my company. Rather than the sales reps doing most of the interaction with the surgeons, our marketing department is also very much focused on engaging the customer. They run several different programs to do this. For example, every week they bring surgeons into the office and present on the product portfolio that we offer. They also hold medical education events where they invite surgeons to cadaver labs to show how our products are used and the clinical benefits of our products. They also attend many trade shows and interact with surgeons. Our marketing folks do not spend much time in the office but are often out in the field engaging the customers, so I would say they are highly focused on the fifth "P" of marketing.
Another way companies utilize participation is with crowdfunding. Companies like Kickstarter have allowed companies, usually startups, to run a 'campaign' to fund a product. the 'backers' are treated as ground floor contributors and are encouraged to feel some kinship with the company in launching the project. the backers are given early access, special discounts, and exclusive information about the product's development. this is also to put pressure on the backers to fully fund the project in order to receive the product advertised.
while many small companies have used crowdfunding to launch products, it has been utilized by companies that do not necessarily need the capital to launch their products. This type of customer participation has enabled companies to make millions of dollars in sales in that the first month of the product launch, seemingly skipping the introduction phase of sales. Pebble, smartwatch company started in 2012, raised $1 million in the first hour of its second Kickstarter campaign in 2015.
I agree that social media is the most commonly used marketing platform today. Participation marketing can happen online and offline through social media, in grocery store lines, on blogs, and at events. At the heart of participation marketing, lies engagement, which aims to get the audiences engage and participate in conversations about brands.
A clever way of participation marketing is seen in the case of Coca-Cola Company’s “Share a Coke” campaign. In an effort to reach out to its customers personally, the company replaced its logo with popular names and terms such as “Buddy” and “BFF”. This strategy of personalization created an emotional connection between the consumers and the company. Coca-Cola Company had no intention whatsoever to create brand awareness through its “Share a Coke” campaign. Most people in the world already know about the coke. The campaign aimed to give customers a personal part of the company’s story and encourage them to drink coke.
In highly populated places like New York City, it is becoming popular to have interactive and immersive advertising tools. These can be in the form of exhibits or distributing samples of the product, or making it an "instagrammable" ad. For example, Perrier had a pop-up exhibit in NYC that enticed consumers to interact with the product. There was an on-site photobooth, free beverages and mocktails made from various flavors of Perrier, and many "instagrammable" spots. The aim was that consumers would come for the interactive display and stay for the product, hopefully even purchasing it later on.
Another example of an interactive marketing tool is any time Google has an interactive Google Doodle. While most internet users already go to Google for their search engine needs, it is a noteable way to keep the user's intention, wondering what could be the next fun thing they put up.
I think "participation marketing" can happen without the company even really trying. A lot of times companies go to college campuses for career fairs and "participation" market without them knowing it. They speak to students about their company and medical devices and then pass out the stress balls or pens or w.e. Those stress balls and pens get passed around and people ask, "What's this company?" and then the student just naturally tells them what they do. There are several medical devices and medical companies that I learned about this way. I didn't even know some of these medical devices were possible so I would def. tell a family or friend about them if they were having a problem that related.
Currently some of the strategies being used include multi-channel analytics. This process uses multiple sets of data from different sources which are linked and housed together. Businesses then use this information to interact with clients through the use of Apps, internet, mobile phone and retail stores by providing discounts.
Social media marketing is the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media. These platforms and websites promote products and services which can easily be shared between users. Social media platforms have built in data analytics tools. This aids businesses/companies track the patterns and trends which help predict customer behavior.
In the time period we are currently living in, as many others have mentioned, I believe the most effective ways of getting customers to get engagement with marketing information that they are interested in is definitely via all the types that the internet and social media has to offer. One of the most interesting forms of internet “participation” that always seems to work on me and I feel is extremely clever is how search engines like google collaborate with online shopping companies like amazon to provide adds for products that you have recently “googled” or did research about. For instance if start doing research about a pair of Nike shoes. You will then start to see adds on other internet pages for the same Nike shoes. I feel this works very well since the customer is obviously interested in the products because they were the ones who initiated the search, and by constantly reminding them they want these products and giving them links and adds to click on to purchase these items dramatically increases the chances of them making a purchase.
A great example for the 5th P (Participation) in marketing, A pharmaceutical marketer intelligently stepped into the participation waters by offering patients ways to participate in treatment “communities.” The company supports disease-state awareness events, surrounding them with information and interaction opportunities. This is typically done via unbranded Web sites that allow visitors to consume and contribute content. For example, the sites may encourage conversation about the physical and psychosocial aspects of a disease, via online treatment diaries or an FAQ.
The company also launched a program that allows specialist nurses to share best practices and success stories online.
So the 5th P in marketing isn’t just about getting audiences to subscribe to a newsletter or like an Instagram or Facebook post. It's about becoming a part of consumers’ lives and bringing them into an ongoing, evolving brand narrative.
The best marketing plan has to use the modern technology to make customers participate with the company. Social media is a huge way to make customers participate in a marketing process, because the product would be well advertised across the world especially if the product is used by teenagers.
I think right now Coca-Cola is doing the most obvious customer participation that is really helping their marketing process. The smartest move they move was the "Share a Coke" campaign. Replacing the logos on the Coke cans with popular names among young people, even unpopular ones, was a really smart idea to make customers participate. Coke was basically inviting buyers to participate in a massive social/referral marketing experience. It resulted a huge customer participation, especially on social media. There was 341,000 posts on instagram with the hashtag #shareacoke. 96% of Coca-Cola customers had positive or neutral sentiment toward this campaign.
Another example is Yoplait with the "Save Lids to Save Lives" program. It donated $0.1 to a cancer foundation for every pink foil yogurt lid that is mailed back to the company. That raised $1,500,000 per year.
In today's fast paced, media centric, society most technology giants spend most of their money only on the initial marketing of a product. This means that once it is given the initial push, they rely on the consumers to spread the word further. This naturally occurring participation takes marketing to a whole new level. Technology giants such as Apple and Samsung do not spend too much effort on announcing a new product release because their customers are already aware of its annual release dates. Marketing participation from consumers increases as a company or its products become more and more established and recognized over time. Along with this duration, the products reliability and accuracy are also measured by the consumers. The second half of customer participation comes from social media. Once a product generates popularity and is largely accepted by the general public, it can spread like wild fire across all social media platforms. Companies can also promote social media participation by motivating the consumers to post, write or blog about their products. Companies like GoPro and DJI, promote their users to post footage and pictures taken from their drones or cameras on platforms such as instagram and facebook to showcase their talent and also the versatility of the product.
