7 Steps to Branding Your Way Out of Recession and Into Profitable Growth

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There are few companies in existence that have not felt the affects of the current recession impacting on their business and profit margins. As many of us know, uneasiness in the market fostered by fears of job losses and reduction in wages has consumer spending at an all time low.

 

Many business leaders feeling the pressure on their profit margins often react by applying cuts to their budgets, with marketing spend often first on the chopping block.

 

Brands Busting Recession

 

However, as history has shown us, savvy business leaders can recognize that cuts to budget spend alone are not the answer and that changes in the market demand adaptation to current marketing practices.

 

Recessions create huge challenges to businesses but why try and weather the storm when the opportunity exists to capitalize on your brand equity to strengthen your market position, and even develop profitable growth.

    

Opportunity Everywhere Crop

  

 

7 Steps to Brand your Way out of Recession

 

1. Adapt Your Brand to Customer Needs and Wants

How have consumers lives been changed by the recession? How have their needs changed? Your brand needs to be managed in a way that adjusts its marketing strategy to meet these changing consumer patterns. Revamp your brand packaging to be more relevant or user friendly, develop and up-sell new service products; analyze the new needs of the market and adjust your brand accordingly.

 

 

2. Brand Your Way to Market Growth

“You can’t save your way out of a recession – you have to invest your way out. You can’t just invest in the good times and then forget about them in the bad times and hope to get any results” Craig Barrett. Chairperson Intel  

 

A reduction in branding investment will have a knock on effect on the entire business. Reduced visibility or weakened brand equity leads to a reduction in demand leading to negative effects on profitability.

 

History has shown us that brands that increased or even maintained their investment in the brand during a recession actually saw an increase in marketing share. If your competitors are making cuts to their marketing budget than by maintaining your spend you are gaining an instant competitive edge.  

  

 

3. Review and Remove

Review and analyze your current brand activity. Cuts to marketing budgets without focused brand strategy have detrimental effects on the overall profitably of a company.

 

However, removing any lower value marketing costs can actually improve efficiency and effectiveness of your brand strategy. Being more selective in where and how you market your brand can actually bolster profitability. Track the ROI of brand investment and re-allocated funds to marketing activities to monitor what results in increased revenue for your business.

 

Brand Power 

  

4. Maintain Consumer Brand Relationships

During a recession remember your current customers. Experts agree there is no better time to focus on clients who are brand advocates. It is far cheaper to keep current customers than to attract new ones. Your current customers understand your brand. They have an affinity with it.

 

 

5. Increase Consumer Confidence

Reduction in sales corresponds to increases in consumer wariness. With cuts to wages and uncertainty in their future, consumers have become increasingly cautious in their spending habits.

  

Now is the time to use the strength of your brand to reassure customers. Convince your customers that they are making the right decision by purchasing your brand. Investing in building strong brand equity can lead to increased sales with customers developing a clear understanding as to the value of your brand. This information gives them the confidence they need to make the decision to purchase.

 

  

6. Remember Your Brand Values

Focusing on brand values can refocus the business itself and reignite the passion that drove the business in its early years. In a time where the negatives of the recession weigh heavy on consumer’s minds, being faced with a brand that is driven by passion, determination, inspiration, with clear values and purpose will stand out in the market and can inspire sales.

  

 

7. Customer Added Value

Consumer needs change in a recession. Purchasing decisions are often based less on convenience and more on price and value. Adding perceived value to a customer is far easier and has less of a direct affect on profitability than changing pricing structures.

Wow your clients at the various brand touch points and they feel they are getting more for their money than competing brands. Contribute good will, service during hard times and develop customer loyalty that will be stronger than ever when recession ends.

  

Brand Growth 

   

Abraham Lincoln once said “Give me six hours to cut down a three and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”. Business leaders need to start sharpening their marketing practices, not cut them.

 

 

• Have you analyzed the changes to your market?

 

• How have you adapted your brand strategy to changing consumer needs?

 

• Can you streamline your branding to get a better return on investment?

 

What have you been doing to brand your way out of the recession? Leave a comment or drop us a line. We’d love to hear your success stories.

  

Risky Business: How to Safe Guard Your Brand

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Over 80% of the Fortune 500 Company CEO’s identified ‘their brand’ as their company’s number one asset. Their brand was valued as being what defined their business and what made them unique in their market.

 

Your brand is what sets you apart from your competition. It is the differentiating factor used by your consumer’s in their decision making process.

 

In our home lives we tend to take great care of our valuable assets. We try to preempt things that can go wrong and insure against them. Not only is your car insured against any potential accidents, you also wear your seat belt, maintain the speed limits, drive with care. You try to identify and reduce potential risks before they occur. If your brand is the greatest asset to your business then what measures have you put in place to protect it from potential risks?

 

 

Brand Risks

Brands face exposure to a huge amount of risk (product or service), many of which will be specific to each individual brand, not to mention industry categories or specific sectors, be they B2B or B2C. In addition to the obvious risks faced from product liability lawsuits or adverse regulatory decisions, other risks your brand could face include:

 

Costa Concordia Runs Aground 600px

 

Structural Risk

These are risks where exposure might affect an entire industry or market segment. The sinking of the luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia may have destroyed the reputation of its parent brand Carnival Corporation but it also damaged the entire industry with numerous cruise liner brands suffering the effects

 

Brand Equity Risk

Brand Equity risks undermine your brand’s ability to maintain desired differentiation and competitive advantage. If your brand identity is the only thing that differs your offering from that of your competitors then the loss of brand affinity by consumers will affect your entire business.

 

Reputational Risk

These risks arise from failure to meet basic expectations that apply to the market in which your company operates.

 

The famous case of Tylenol is a textbook example of how brand risk management can save the reputation of a company and lead to stronger brand loyalty. When faced with a case of product tampering that would de-rail most brands, Tylenol’s excellent foresight about risk enabled them to rapidly implement pre-planned re-packaging that preserved the company’s reputation.

  

 Tylenol 600px

  

Why Brand Risk Management is Important

 

A brand is so much more than a name. The value of a brand lies in the unique emotional and functional benefits it offers its target audience. Often the biggest brand risk is not about new competitors coming to the market, it is about loosing the trust and connection it has with its consumers.

 

Strong well-known brands that are poorly managed can lose their distinction in the market place. Their products or services simply become commodities distinguished only by price. The brand name might prevail but the value of the brand erodes; market share, profit margins, and loyalty all decline. In essence, the power of the brand is lost.

 

The risk of a damaged brand is far more dangerous and costly to a business than risks to tangible assets. A factory destroyed by fire can be replaced with financial investment. A brand with a damaged reputation takes far more investment to repair and in some cases is too damaged and needs complete rebranding. It also becomes a lasting case study in how “not-to-do-it” with is an irreparable legacy association.

 

Rebuilding a brand’s reputation takes much more than just money. Changes in stakeholder perceptions can threaten the sustainability of current and future demand for a company’s product or services.  A risk to brand equity is a risk to a brand’s ability to create value or influence in its market, in short its ability to generate a profitable return.

 

 

Are You Brand Risk Aware?

Managing brand risk is really about running the business effectively and understanding, at the core, the fundamental risks facing the business.

 

Safe guarding your brand from potential risks must begin by developing a clear understanding of the value of the brand to the business. By clearly illustrating the brand’s contribution to earnings, you can gain perspective and properly assess the scale and nature of the risks attached to the brand. 

 

When unanticipated change occurs brands can be hit hard because typical crisis management does not include appropriate brand risk management strategies too. If you have spent time and resources to shape and build strong brand equity then you need to protect your investment and manage your brand’s future. Your brand strategy should also include mitigating potential risks to your brand too. Be proactive, preempt, plan, and safe guard your company’s revenue stream.

 

• Identifying and evaluating the existing practices and procedures that are used to develop, support and track brand performance will help identify potential risks that may contribute to brand erosion. Have you undertaken a brand audit?

 

• Have you identified the risks faced by your brand?

 

• Do you know what your stakeholders expect from you?

 

• Have you a contingency plan in place to protect your brand?

 

 

Brand Awareness or Audience Annoyance? Context is King!

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One of the biggest brand marketing challenges for companies is to try and increase consumer recognition and recall of their brand.

 

The ability of a brand to capture the audiences’ attention, and quickly communicate its message is key to shaping the brand’s identity within its  target market.

 

We talked about reducing consumer confusion to ease the purchasing decision making process. A brand that has a strong identity makes it easy for a consumer to understand where the brand fits within its market, and why they should choose it over its competitors.

 

 

Don’t Confuse Your Audience, Help Them Choose: Why Context is Important

The ‘how’ and ‘where’ of communicating with your target audience should not just be dictated by maximum reach but by selecting what would best help the consumer develop a greater understanding of your brand identity.

 

In other words, the channels you choose should be congruent with your brands positioning strategy. A consumer who understands the brand’s identity is far more likely to recall the brand and recognize it during the decision making process.

 

Context is important for the brand and consumer alike. The choice of where to place your brand should help to convince your audience to choose your brand above competitors, not confuse them. Brand familiarity is key to strong sales, increased market share and growing brand profitability.

 

Jumping on the Live Brand Wagon

The explosion of product placement in film and television is a testament to the difficulty of grabbing audiences’ attention through traditional advertising. With multiple channels available to an audience, as well as the ability to record and skip over advertisements, big brands have started looking elsewhere to gain brand exposure to a captive audience.  Live broadcasts are the latest space being targeted in an effort to get the attention of a focused audience.

 

Inappropriate Exposure: Where Brands Go Wrong

Live broadcasts of sporting occasions or awards shows have typically been top of the highest TV viewing figure polls. The 2012 Superbowl attracted a staggering 111 million viewers. This year’s Oscars was viewed by 39.3 million people, and In Ireland over 2 million Irish fans tuned in to cheer on the boys in green in their clash against Spain during Euro 2012, that’s nearly half the population of the country!

 

While advertising around these types of events has always attracted huge brand buy-ins, a new trend is emerging which see’s brands targeting the live shows themselves. While live events offer the potential of huge exposure for brands, exposure without context begs the question are these brand attention seekers creating awareness or just annoyance?

 

The Tony Awards 2012

The biggest award night for the world of theatre took place last week in New York with the live broadcast of the show attracting a TV audience of over 6 million.

 

Not content with just a 30 second slot during the ad break, Royal Caribbean Cruise Liner also paid for a 4 minute infomercial during the ceremony, featuring singers and dancers from their cruise line entertainment, performing songs from the musical Hairspray, with explicit mentions of the brand by the award presenter.

 

Audiences of the show were certainly made aware of the brand, but this attempt of such an obvious sell in the middle of what is deemed a prestigious award ceremony might lead to more annoyance than awareness.

 

For a brand that is trying to attract an audience and strengthen brand identity, annoying audiences can lead to negative brand associations and ultimately do more harm than good.

 

 

AMA 2011

Even more bizarre than Royal Caribbean cruise’s Tony appearance, was the use of a FIAT 500 on stage at last year’s American Music Awards during Jennifer Lopez’s performance.

 

Although the singer was paid to endorse the brand, it’s lack of relevance in the setting of the AMA stage made the brand stand out but not necessarily for the right reasons.

 

 

Irish Brand’s Stunt Gets it Right with Relevancy at Euro 2012

It may have been cheeky but at least Irish brand Paddy Power picked a relevant event for their latest branding stunt that saw them send branded boxers to various players in Euro 2012.

 

The stunt paid off with millions around the world getting a glimpse of the brand when a Danish player lifted his shirt as part of his goal celebrations. While the player may be penalized for the stunt that infringed on the strict brand restrictions in place for Euro 2012, Paddy Power received valuable brand exposure with their target audience.

 

 

Use Relevant Channels to Help Your Audience Understand Your Brand

Integrating a brand into a live broadcast is not just about gaining brand exposure but should be treated as another congruent touch point in which you can reinforce the brand identity with your target audience. 

 

The ability for a consumer to recall a brand is influenced by all their interactions with that brand. The context in which the audience sees the brand helps them to understand the brand’s message, arming them with the information they need during a purchasing decision process.

 

For a company, this means that you should be looking to create a synergy within your brand marketing strategy where by each brand communication strengthens and reinforces the message of the others.

 

Remember, your brand is looking to convince, not confuse, and build strong relationships.  Strengthen your brand identity by picking the channel that best suits your brand and your audience. 

 

• Are you picking the communication channels most relevant to your audience?

 

• Where are you marketing your brand?

 

• Is this strengthening your brand identity or just causing confusion?

 

What do you think of the contexts of the brand placements mentioned?

 

Can You Streamline and Simplify to Increase Your Brand Profitability?

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Tea or Coffee? When restricted to two options, choosing your preference is simple. However, standing at a supermarket shelf faced with several brands and multiple varieties the choice can be overwhelming.

 

Supermarket Shelf Overwhelm

 Supermarket shelf choice overwhelm!

 

When it comes to building a strong profitable brand sometimes less is more. If your brand aims to deliver then it must make the decision making process as easy as possible for the consumer.

 

Is it Time for Your Brand to Streamline and Simplify?

Sometimes you might feel you are offering the market everything you can: offering multiple products to multiple market segments, and communicating through all the marketing touch points at your disposal.  However, if you are not seeing the returns to match this level of offering perhaps it is time to simplify your marketing strategy.

 

Ford Any Colour As Long As Its Black

Ford: Any colour as long as it’s black!

 

4 Ways to Streamline Your Brand Strategy and Strengthen Your Brand Equity

 

1. Focus

Offering everything to everyone rarely works. Different markets have different needs.  Reassessing and refocusing your brand marketing strategy can help your company identify who your consumers really are, what that market wants, and how best to target them. A highly targeted brand experience offers greater value to the consumer which in turn can lead to greater brand affinity and a more lasting profitable relationship between the brand and consumer.

 

2. Be Selective

Just because you can use multiple channels to communicate with your market doesn’t mean you should. Using multiple channels can lead to noise and increased consumer confusion rather than creating a strong brand message. Being selective with your touch points makes it easier to monitor the consumer’s reaction and responses to your brand, thereby making it easier to structure your brand message to best influence your target market.

 

Being selective should also extend to the marketing message itself. Keep the message clear and concise. You should be able to communicate your brand message in a few short sentences.

 

3. Streamline Product Offering

Streamlining your brand offering can actually lead to increased sales. Eliminating certain brand offerings can also eliminate consumer confusion. A simpler more focused brand strategy can be more appealing to consumers and makes their decision to purchase an easier one. If 30% of your products generate 70% of your sales then reducing your product offering can actually boost sales.

 

Ronseal Wood Stain

 

4. Simplify Who You Are & What You Do

A focused brand strategy starts from the inside. If you cannot articulate who you are and what you sell as a company in a few short minutes then you need to look at streamlining your internal strategy. Analyze why you ‘do what you do’, outline core values, set goals, and perhaps redefine your product offering. Reassessing your original corporate strategy can help focus your brand strategy moving forward. When you started in business what were you selling? Who was your target market? What was your original brand identity?

 

Why it Can Work – The Jam Effect

Columbia University conducted a consumer study offering an array of brands of jam and chocolate for consumers to choose from. Consumers who were given a choice of 6 brands were 30% more likely to make a purchase than those given a choice of 24-30 brands.

 

Toothpast Choice Paralysis

Toothpaste choice paralysis!

 

Decision Simplicity in the purchase process is the number 1 reason why consumers 
are likely to buy your brand, do so repeatedly, and recommend it to others.

 

One of the fundamental roles of a brand is to positively influence purchase behavior. Having a focused streamlined brand offering with a clear brand message that simplifies the decision making process at the point of purchase can be a winning strategy.

 

Consumers faced with multiple brand variations can be overwhelmed. Offering consumers a refined selection can give your brand a point of differentiation within your market.

 

A brand that tries to offer everything to everyone will satisfy some but wow few. Being selective and focused with your product offering, your marketing channels, and your brand message can lead to expanding profits. It’s that simple.

 

 

• Is your level of commercial returns relative to the size of your brand offering?

 

• Do you need to refocus your brand positioning?

 

• Is your brand strategy in need of simplification?

 

• Do you need to eliminate consumer brand confusion?

 

What’s your view on implementing a simpler decision making process for your customer through a streamlined brand offering? 

 

TLTR: Why streamlining your brand strategy can strengthen your brand profitability. Decision simplicity in the purchase process is the number 1 reason why consumer s
are likely to buy your brand, do so repeatedly, and recommend it to others. Sometimes the brand with the smallest market offering presents the greatest brand value to the consumer. 

 

 

 

Does Your Brand Name Transfer Successfully to the Global Export Markets?

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Local versus Global. If you are considering launching your product or service on the international market you’ve probably invested significant amounts of time, effort and resources to date in developing your offering or solution.

 

Have you invested comparable effort in the foundations, planning and development strategy for your brand or even the name for your brand?

 

When it comes to brands or sub-brands, the name is one of the most important elements in its proposition. A name is often the first act of public branding and helps establish the tone for your product or service which is even more important if you plan trading on an international market. Being a distinctive, different, memorable yet familiar name takes you miles closer to the sale.

 

You might think naming your brand is very easy and in some instances there are “happy accidents” that work brilliantly, but they are largely in the minority. In the commercial world your brand’s name can have a very strategic impact on your business, particularly if its use is for a global market and this often stretches far beyond casual observation or the aurally pleasing.

   

Typically brand names fall into the following categories:

• Evocative: Names that evoke a relevant vivid image

• Personification: Many brands take their names from real or myth

• Descriptive: Names that describe a product benefit or function

• Neologisms or Madeup Names: Completely made-up words

• Founders’ Names: Using the names of real people

• Geography: Many brands are named after regions and landmarks

• Alliteration & Rhyme: Names that are fun to say and are memorable

• Foreign Word: Adoption of a word from another language

• Acronym & Initialism: A name made of initials

 

The Irish market is becoming increasingly multicultural and leveraging your growth through the internet can effectively make your market borderless, depending on what you sell. These factors cumulatively demand considerably more strategic thinking if you want successful target market penetration on a larger scale, rather then just your local catchment area.

 

Global giant Kraft Foods, who arguably have the marketing budget to make any brand name well known, recently invested considerable effort behind the naming of their new global snacking division.

  

Kraft

  

The name selected, ‘Mondeléz’ (pronounced mohn-dah-LEEZ), is the result of suggestions garnered from thousands of Kraft employees around the world. It was created from two separate submissions, one from North America and the other from a European employee. Kraft executives explain that the Mondelēz name is a portmanteau that communicates the idea of a “delicious world” through the Latin word for “world” (Monde) and “delēz,” which is a “fanciful expression of “delicious.”

  

According to CEO Irene Rosenfeld “for the new global snacks company, they wanted to find a new name that could serve as an umbrella for our iconic brands, reinforce the truly global nature of this business and build on our higher purpose – to ‘make today delicious.’ Mondelēz perfectly captures the idea of a ‘delicious world’ and will serve as a solid foundation for the strong relationships we want to create with our consumers, customers, employees and shareholders”.

 

On the other hand large Chinese brands are finding it increasingly difficult to break into western markets because of the lack of understanding, by western consumers, to the meanings and pronunciation of ethnic brand names.

 

Li Ning Logo

 

Referred to as ‘silent dragons’, companies, such as Li-Ning, a sporting clothing company, have huge brand value in their home markets but are failing to impact globally. Li-Ning even re-named its brand after the towering Chinese basketball player who made headlines at the Beijing Olympics but to no avail. Western audiences have simply not responded to a name that carries little meaning in their own market.

 

Equally Irish names might have resonance to Irish consumers but how would some of them fare in international markets? Could global consumers pronounce them easily or understand what they mean? Can they transcend cultural barriers? These factors can have a very significant bearing on your brand even being noticed, not to mention recall amongst your target audience.

 

Connemara Logo

  

Connemara Seafoods,  Ireland’s premier seafood cultivator, processor and exporter have been exporting very successfully to the global markets for decades now. The brand name, Connemara, now has a high recognition value amongst its target market but they have consistently invested in their brand over the years to achieve these results. Their brand is very firmly rooted in their Irish geographic location with is Class A Waters off the West Coast of Ireland, the consistent premium quality of their product ranges, their multi-award winning reputation, highly regarded leadging edge expertise and the value of the family provenance with decades of specialist knowledge.

 

Certain types of Irish products and services have very successfully developed powerful and highly recognized brand names on the global markets particularly in the areas of food, beverages, alcohol, glass wear, foot wear and fashion. Indeed some of our best known brands are leaders in their categories e.g. Guinness, Jameson, Dubarry, Kerry Group, Baileys and Waterford Crystal to name a few.

 

If you are re-branding or considering a new name for your product or service for a global, or even local market, then please don’t treat it as an after thought. Give it the strategic input it deserves at the beginning to avoid the biggest pitfalls and you’ll reap the rewards into the future.

 

Key name selection criteria for a global market include:

• Fit with the brand proposition

• Be relevant for all target audiences

• Be distinctive, different and memorable

• Future-proofed for the life of the brand

• Linguistically and culturally acceptable and appropriate

• Appropriate if translated into other languages or cultures

• Easy to spell, pronounce and refer

• Registerable and protectable as a trademark and URL

• Approvable by the requisite regulatory authorities

 

Set clear and consistent objectives and criteria for your name selection and be unwavering in benchmarking potential name against those criteria. Don’t be tempted to choose your brand name subjectively!

 

• Consider, who is the target audience for your product or service and exactly who are you trying to appeal to?

 

• What meaning will your brand name convey to your ideal customer and will it help shape the desired identity of your brand?

 

• How does the brand name fit with positioning strategy of your product or service?

 

• What is the role of your brand name within your company’s overall brand strategy?

 

• Is your current brand conveying the desired meaning to your customers or do you need a re-branding strategy?      

Strategies to Successfully Penetrate Your Brand Into Irish Households

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Early examples of branded goods “placement” in television shows, films and print date back nearly one hundred years so it’s clearly not a recent phenomenon. However Irish law has only permitted product placement since September 2011.

 

As a strategy for gaining your target audience’s attention is now arguably far more effective then traditional TV advertising breaks during and between programmes.

 

Consumers now have total control over what and when they view their content due to the mass market proliferation of digital video recorders. Viewers can fast forward and totally avoid watching your big budget TV advert at the click of a button. Unavoidably this consumer viewing change has had a significant impact on advertising success, not to mention loss of revenue for broadcasters.

 

Product placement has been used very successfully leveraged in American cinema and television, with brands achieving high profile visibility and targeted audience attention in a “captured environment” for many years now. Big brands have very successfully integrated product placement as a key part of their brand strategy with increasingly sophisticated visibility, which has both aligned their brand with the relevant celebrity, VIP or film/TV show genre.

 

Think closer to home with the huge success of the James Bond franchise where automobile companies such as Aston Martin and BMW may have invested substantial sums for their brands placement in the James Bond movies.

  

2006 Aston Martin Dbs James Bond Casino Royale Daniel Craig

 

Not only have they benefited from mass exposure to a targeted audience but their brands have become synonymous with one of the best known characters in film history. Their brand’s identity, and what it stands for, are now inextricably intertwined with those of the character of James Bond – suave, sophisticated, intelligent, worldly wise, a challenger and a thrill-seeker.

  

James Bond Bmw

 

It’s worth noting that BMW is now the world’s best selling luxury vehicle brand, outselling Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Lexus.

 

While this is a much more overt example of product placement, equally it can be very subtle and understated too with the glimpse of a branded drinks can or bottle on a table, a billboard advertisement in the background of a scene, all of which are proven to have a subliminal impact on the viewer.

  

Film Billboard Ads

 

Brands in Ireland have been quick to take advantage of the new laws allowing product placement on national TV. Kraft Food’s Kenco coffee is now the “preferred” coffee of choice for presenters of TV3’s Morning Show and Midday, with branded mugs firmly in the hands of all on screen, albeit at an investment of €250,000 per year to Kraft Foods.

 

Kenco Tv3 

   

RTE have embraced product placement to the extent of writing it into the plot of Ireland’s most watched soap. Faircity’s Christie is now the proud owner of Carrickstown’s first Spar corner shop. This brand placement came complete with an official store-launch for the characters of Dublin’s famous fictional community! 

 

Spar Faircity

 

The product placement of the Spar brand in a show like Faircity is regarded as a winning strategy for all concerned. Spar get huge exposure beamed into the homes of their target audience multiple times a week, the audience see the brand in life like associations they can relate to in their own lives and referenced or indirectly endorsed by their favourite characters numerous times throughout each episode.

 

The producers and writers of the show benefit from a real-world authenticity that Spar’s involvement brings to their fictional town, and of course RTE are delighted with the revenue stream that the three-year €900,000 sponsorship and marketing investment by BWG bring to the broadcaster.

 

While the fees invested by Kraft and BWG may be far outside the range of smaller brands, the choice to place your brand on Irish television should be a real consideration as part of your brand strategy.

 

The subtle placement of products for much smaller fees can still create a large impression on your target audience with 42% of Irish television viewers claiming to “often notice products or brands that appear in TV programmes”. 

  

Campbells Soup Placement 

 

While still in its infancy on this side of the pond, the placement of brands on Irish television shows is still something of a talking point or novelty among Irish viewers. This suggests that there could be double impact for first-mover brands who integrate this form of advertising into their brand strategy. 

  

Apple House

 

It’s also worth noting too that it’s not always about the money. Apple topped the US charts for movie product placement in 2011. Unlike other brands however, Apple do not pay for product placement but rather provide the products themselves as a means of payment for displaying them in television shows, films, and print.

 

Ipad Modern Family

 

This form of product placement, a bartering of products or services for brand exposure, could offer huge opportunities to smaller or medium size companies looking to gain a larger national profile for their brand.

 

• Can your brand leverage the new possibilities offered by product placement in the Irish market?

 

• Does your brand’s identity and strategy align with that of existing Irish television shows and their target audiences?

 

• Does your brand have a positioning strategy in place?

     

What do you think of Coca-Cola’s cinematic product placement history shown in this infographic courtesy of “anyclip”?

  

 Coke Placement Infographic