Brand Salience – Why It Matters for Your Brand

Woody Allen once said that “80 percent of success is just showing up .” Unfortunately, at purchase decision time, the vast majority of brands never show up at all. Getting consumers to “think” about your brand more often, and in more buying situations, is one of the most under-rated marketing challenges that brands face today.

Brand Salience — What is It?

Brand Salience is the degree to which your brand is thought about or noticed when a customer is in a buying situation. Strong brands have high Brand Salience and weak brands have little or none.  This helps explain to some degree why big brands are big and small brands are small: if no one thinks about you at the moment of buying truth, your brand is going to be relegated to the dustbin of small and unnoticed brands.

Moment of Truth - Does Your Brand Have Salience ?

Brand Salience IS NOT the same thing as top of mind awareness. Top of mind awareness is simply what brands come to mind when consumers are asked to recall brands within a category. Brand Salience is different. Why? Because it is what brands come to mind when consumers are in a purchase situation. More specifically, Brand Salience is the memory of your brand and its linkage to other important memory structures. The buying situation ”mindfulness” and linkage to memory structures is what differentiates Brand Salience from top of mind awareness.

What Drives Brand Salience

This all sounds very simple. But there really is some science behind it. Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science have done research into Brand Salience, and the findings are surprisingly simple, yet counter-intuitive, for Marketers. Brand Salience is a function of the quantity and quality of the consumers memory structures. Brand Salience is the step before consideration–is your brand even “thought of” before the consumer considers a brand or brands and makes a final purchase decision? Or is it mentally screened-out, like the majority of brands?

1.  Quantity Of Memory Structures

In buying situations, consumers are often driven by mental “cues” that trigger their thoughts around brand consideration sets. For example, if I’m thinking about getting a quick meal for under $5, I’m likely to consider Subway based on their ubiquitous ”$5 Foot Long” campaign.

Subway $5 Footlong - Building Brand Salience

Or, if I want to eat something “fresh and healthy,” then I’m also likely to think of Subway given their focus on fresh and healthy eating. The more memory structures your brand is linked to, the more salient your brand–e.g. the more likely it is to be thought of during a buying situation. The examples above point out something important: what buyers remember about brands isn’t always the same across buying decisions. So, the quantity of memory structures can make a difference.

2.  Quality of Memory Structures

Romaniuk and Sharp argue that the quality of Brand Salience is a function of the strength of the association and the attribute relevance.  Taking the Subway example above: because I’ve seen so many $5 dollar foot long creative executions, the linkage is very strong. Additionally, if value is important and relevant to me because I’m on a budget, this further increases Brand Salience.

So, to summarize:  Brand Salience is a function of: a) the quantity of memory structures your brand is linked to; and b) the quality of these structures, as defined by the strength of association and relevance of the structure. By building the quantity and quality of memory structures, you maximize the number of consumers who will think of your brand and the number of times they think of your brand in various buying situations. So, in Woody Allen parlance, your brand “shows up.”

Brand Salience vs. Brand Equity — A Conflict?

If you grew up in traditional CPG brand management like me, you were trained to believe that a brand should define its equity and rigorously and relentlessly focus on communicating it without deviation. I still recall senior P&G managers speaking scornfully of advertising which was “off-brand.” On the other hand, Brand Salience sounds a bit like a license for freelance communication–equity be damned.

There needn’t be a conflict. Marketers need to consider two approaches to building Brand Salience:

1.  Focus on Defining and Communicating Different Cues Against A Common Equity – Assuming you’ve defined a focused and important equity for your brand, you need to do the consumer research to understand the most important and relevant cues which link to your benefit. Then, having defined these, brands need to execute creatively against these cues to maximize the number of memory structure associations.

Subway Fresh & Healthy - Building Brand Salience

For example, Subway’s “fresh and healthy” positioning can be executed via a range of cues like “good for my kids,” “for people on diets,” “good for outdoor activities,” etc. These are all different cues that may lead to a consumer considering Subway for a “fresh and healthy” offering.

2.  Create and Own Distinctive Executional Memory Structures – A second approach is to increase the quantity and quality of executional memory structures. For example, the Subway logo, usage of the Jared Fogle character, the $5 dollar foot long music, etc. are all examples of creating executional memory structures. These executional memory structures help create a platform that enables consumers to more easily remember your brand in buying situations.

Subway's Jared Fogle - An Executional Equity

So, Brand Salience is an important but often ignored challenge for Marketers. Do your brand a favor. Listen to Woody Allen. Make sure that your brand “shows up” and is salient – a very important step in ensuring your brand gets considered for purchase.

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Social Media Marketing: Do The Same Marketing Rules Apply ?

This is the 5th in a series of periodic guest posts. Catherine Davis is a marketing executive with extensive experience at Diaego, Harris Direct Online, Morgan Stanley, Discover Card, and Leo Burnett. 

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Do traditional marketing rules apply to Social Media ? Just before the holidays, I attended the CMO Club Summit in San Francisco, where the topic of discussion quickly turned to social media. Industry experts from Guy Kawasaki to Hewlett Packard’s Michael Mendenhall weighed in on whether marketers should incorporate social media as part of their overall strategy.  

Our conclusion? While social media marketing is driven by unique characteristics, the marketing evaluation process follows that of traditional media planning.  

 

When embarking on a social media marketing plan, marketers must consider the following points:   

1.  Social Media Marketing is Particularly Well-Suited to Building Brand Affinity

Estee Lauder created a powerful and actionable social media marketing campaign, where they encouraged women to try new products and have a makeover done at department store locations. Sounds ordinary? Well, post-makeover these women were photographed – and the photo was uploaded to the social networking site of their choice.  

Estee Lauder: Social Media Marketing to Women

There are fewer examples of social media driving sales.  Dell is probably the best known example.  Reuters reported that Dell attributes more than $3 million in sales to Twitter, where the company has  600,000 followers.  Considering these figures as a sole output of viral marketing, it is clear that  Dell will continue to make headway with its  integrated social media program.  

2.  Understanding  Your Target and Whether They Actively Participate in Online Social Networks are Equally Important

One of the best examples of understanding the target consumer comes from  Sears.com. The online retailer created a website for teenage girls called “Prom Premiere.” On the site, girls are encouraged to use Facebook applications and email to share photos of prom dresses with family and friends. This initiative demonstrates a concrete understanding of the target audience, as well as the purchase decision process for prom dresses.  

Sears: Prom Dress Sharing via Facebook

  

3.  Social Media Campaigns Require Scalability and Measurement

How do brands develop scalable initiatives? Take Nike’s  “Nike Human Race,” which leveraged Nike’s legacy of sponsoring local races and supporting running training programs.  By rallying an international community of devoted athletes, Nike converted 40% of previous non-consumers after only one year, and had 800,000 runners participate in the 2008 race.  

The “Nike Human Race” is clearly scalable and impactful in long-term brand building. The next level of scalability is understanding how the program translates into sales. Digital campaigns are more easily measurable, more timely, and therefore more usable in a yield management model. Put in place precise metrics to measure the marketing ROI on your social media initiative.  

4.  Make Sure There is a Strong Strategic Link to Your Product or Brand

Estee Lauder’s program works because their makeover inspires confidence in the picture a woman posts on LinkedIn or Match.com. Sears Prom Premiere made it interactive and fun to choose just the right dress for prom.  Each brand offered a product that was part of the solution and that made it ownable. 

5.  Nothing is Free – Budget Carefully

Marketers often think of social media as an inexpensive way to build a brand or promote a new product.  While there are a few high profile exceptions, that is generally false. Social media marketing requires the right resources, a budget to seed and then support the program, and time to build.  Like any other marketing campaign, maintaining realistic expectations and timeline will help lead to success.  

What’s the Bottom Line in Social Media Marketing ?

Social media can be an incredibly creative way to engage your customers and help define your brand.  If you haven’t done a social media campaign yet, begin monitoring any large or influential communities where your products or your competitors are frequent topics of conversation.  Identify the role your brand plays in their lives and how you can add value. 

Evaluate your in-house assets –many companies have a wealth of information that can be used to create and syndicate content on highly trafficked sites.  Start small and create a test and learn environment. You will quickly learn what works and should be scaled up.  If you are already actively involved in social media, take a step back and evaluate your program.   It needs to be assessed on it’s own merit and against the channels it is replacing.  It should be just one part of a fully integrated marketing program. 

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Catherine Davis was most recently SVP Marketing at Diageo, the world’s largest alcoholic beverage company including Johnnie Walker, Guinness, and Smirnoff.  She is a marketing executive who builds brands and creates new media and marketing models to drive business growth. Catherine is experienced in CPG, financial services, and online businesses and has demonstrated leadership across all marketing functions, including digital.  

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The 5 Truths of TV Advertising Effectiveness

Question:  Is TV advertising less effective today than 15 years ago?

If you think you know the answer, read on. Digital and social media are having a transformational effect on Marketing content, organizations and processes. This being said, what’s often ignored is what we know about TV advertising effectiveness in the here and now. 

The 5 TV Advertising Truths

I recently wrote about “The 5 Myths of TV Viewership,” and this post forms a book-end with that earlier one. Like TV viewership, there are many myths about how and whether TV advertising actually works in the current environment. Here are the 5 most prevalent ones–some of which you might find surprising:

MYTH:   TV Advertising Takes a Long Time to Work

TRUTH #1:   Advertising Works Fast, When it Works

Part of the mythology of TV advertising is the “3+” frequency myth. That is, it takes a minimum of 3 repetitions of an ad for it to move a consumer down the purchase funnel. For CPG, this is simply not true. 

The advertising response curve is "convex"—the greatest marginal response is from the first exposures.

Numerous single source tests have demonstrated that when TV ads work, they work quickly to build sales (Rubinson, Journal of Advertising Research).  In fact, the TV ad effectiveness curve is generally convex—e.g. early airings have the most impact, and additional airings decrease in effectiveness (Taylor, Kennedy & Sharp: Journal of Advertising Research). When ads work, they tend to work quickly. 

MYTH:  When TV Ads Work, They Have Large Impact

TRUTH #2:  Ads Generate Small Impact Over Time

The question “What sales impact is my ad having?” has been studied rigorously since the advent of single source data (e.g. BehaviorScan or other panels which track the single variable impact of advertising on purchase behavior). On average, for the CPG categories studied, every $1 invested returns about $.10 (Taylor, Kennedy & Sharp Journal of Advertising Research). The sales return on an invested TV ad dollar has varied between .06 and .14 over the past 20 years (Hu, Lodish, Krieger & Hayati Journal of Advertising Research). And the sales lift is larger in year 2 than year 1. 

MYTH:  DVR’s are Killing Ads

TRUTH #3:  Ad Impact is Similar With or Without DVR’s

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but the evidence suggests that DVR homes have about the same recall of TV ads as non-DVR homes (du Plessis, Journal of Advertising Research). 

 

There’s likely a range of reasons for this phenomenon, including people with DVR’s watching higher engagement shows, DVR’s increasing total TV viewing time, etc. Interestingly, research shows that consumers have the same recall and understanding of your ad when fast forwarded as when viewed in a normal manner, if they have already seen it normally once (du Plessis, Journal of Advertising Research).   

MYTH:  Digital Ads are More Likable Than TV Ads

TRUTH #4:  TV Advertising is More Likable

People assume that because the web is a “lean-forward” medium, ads in this environment are naturally more engaging  and well liked. Research shows that this is not the case. On average, TV ads are liked better than digital ads (Moult & Smith, Journal of Advertising Research). Here I should also say that likability doesn’t necessarily translate to effectiveness. 

MYTH:  TV Ads are Declining in Effectiveness

TRUTH #5:  TV Ads are as Effective Today as 15 Years Ago

This is perhaps the biggest myth of all—that TV ads are losing effectiveness over time. Falling TV ratings and the rise of social media and mobile are hurting TV ad effectiveness, right? Wrong. The research on this topic, across time and geographies, strongly suggests this is not true. As noted earlier, advertising demand elasticities have fluctuated over the past 15 years, but are not declining (Rubinson, Journal of Advertising Research). So, TV advertising is as effective (or ineffective) as ever. 

Future of TV Advertising

So, if TV advertising is still effective, what’s the future of TV advertising? I’d suggest it will be in three areas: 

1. Cross Media – The rise of digital and social media has created numerous new means and forms to advertise and engage consumers. Research clearly shows that the impact of a TV ad is even higher when a consumer has been exposed to your brands ad on the web, and vice versa. Thus, CMO’s should focus on building cross media campaigns that continue to leverage TV as appropriate, but in new combinations with new social media and digital initiatives (for more on social media marketing, see “How the Future Social Web will Transform Marketing”). 

Social media has entered the traditional marketing ecosystem.

2. New TV Ad Forms – As TV evolves from network to networked TV, new advertising form factors are cropping up. iTV is already in place and many brands are experimenting with this new approach. Additionally, Shelly Palmer and others have proposed new ad forms such as speed bumps, telescoping ads, etc. which are being enabled by “networked” TV. Marketers need to keep an eye on these new ad forms and be ready to experiment, learn and adjust. 

3. Earned Media – There is vast opportunity for brands to understand how to use paid media to drive earned media. However, this is a nascent and poorly understood area that deserves much greater experimentation. Nonetheless, understanding how paid media drives earned, earned drives paid, and how they influence one another is fertile ground for future advertising model innovation. 

So, back to our original question: “Is TV advertising less effective than 15 years ago?” The answer is a clear “no,” just as you should answer the question “Shouldn’t we completely forget about TV advertising and just concentrate solely on new media?” 

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The Ultimate Marketing Ecosystem: What Marketers Need To Know About the Super Bowl

Ever hear the saying that the Super Bowl is just an excuse to watch the ads? Well, this year the game will become even less of the focus as Marketers move beyond simply driving ad recall via their Super Bowl marketing activities, and more toward driving consumer conversations and brand interactions that “feed” off of their ads and brand integrations.

In a recent Nielsen Wire post, Pete Blackshaw, EVP Nielsen Digital Strategic Services, and I discussed how the Super Bowl is the ultimate marketing “ecosystem’ of paid media and earned media (Disclosure:  I work for The Nielsen Company).

The Super Bowl is getting real about real-time.

For Marketers, 2010 will mean not only a Super Bowl mega-media buy, but also a new focus on how to leverage that investment into earned media that provides a long tail of consumer driven buzz and brand equity building activities.

Super Bowl Paid Media: How Does It Really Work ?

What should marketers keep in mind when planning their spectacular media-buy?

1. The entertainment halo matters - Over the last three years, Nielsen IAG research has found that Super Bowl spots achieved +31% higher break-through and +93% higher likability than the typical TV ad. Why? Partly because the Super Bowl has higher than average TV program engagement, but mostly because the ads really are part of the show.
2. Timing is everything - Ad recall across the game shows that 1st and 2nd quarter spots yield more yardage than second half spots. Fourth quarter spots have the lowest recall and are about comparable to a “normal” TV buy. It’s clear: advertisers should play early and sit on the sidelines in the 2nd half. 
3. Consumers get finicky – The viewer’s ability to associate the correct brand with the ad as well as reported likability levels wane over the course of the game: 1st quarters are best, 4th quarters are worst. Super Bowl refreshment fatigue, perhaps?
4. …But as the game continues, good spirits abound – Surprisingly, in-program product placement scores are just the opposite–they grow over time. Branded entertainment recall and brand opinion are lowest pre-game, moderate during the game, and highest post-game.

The bottom line for Marketers? Focus on ads early, and branded integration efforts late. Perhaps most importantly, the Super Bowl is a “touchdown” for brands: the average ad’s purchase consideration increases +13% in the week after the game versus pre-game.

Earned Media: Great Advertising Finds Life in Other Places

How does the Super Bowl shine light on free media and consumer conversation? A Super Bowl  ad may trigger a web site visit, a Google search, a Tweet, fan-page sign ups, or DVR rewind. Or it could bleed over into the Twitter stream of a New York Times or Ad Age reporter. My Nielsen colleague Pete Blackshaw provides another take on maximizing paid and earned media in an Ad Age article “Earned Media May Be Efficient, But It’s Far From Free.”  This whole paid vs. earned issue raises two important questions:

1. The Impact of Earned Media - Positive playback about Super Bowl ads can provide brands with an almost endless stream of conversation — a “digital trail” of echo-like activities. This free media needs to be considered when brands try to calculate their return on Super Bowl investment. The question is: how can brands best design their “paid” marketing efforts to drive this free digital trail ?
2. Trail Measurement - Marketers can quantify earned media by volume, reach, tone, source, or even depth of brand advocacy. Much of this can be understood in real-time. Marketers need to understand not just how much, but also how effective it is. And, what effect does “earned” media have on future paid efforts? Is it possible that the digital trail after effects actually produce better ad performance in the future?

Paid Media & Earned Media: Put To The Test

So in the end, it’s not as simple as “buying” high-impact ads and branded integrations at the right time in the years largest media circus–the Super Bowl.

The broader ecosystems matter — and Marketers have to figure out how paid media drives earned, how earned media impacts future paid, and how both of them contribute to building consumer engagement and brand equity.

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The Future of Marketing & Me

This month, I started a new role with Nielsen IAG as Global EVP/GM for the Consumer Packaged Goods sector. IAG measures program and marketing engagement across the 3 screens (TV, Web, Mobile) in real time to help Marketers optimize their Marketing effectiveness and business impact. This role affords me the unique opportunity to sit at the forefront of the revolution that’s washing over the Marketing landscape, by working with CMO’s of major CPG companies to understand what Marketing really works and what doesn’t in TV, web, in-program product placement and cross-media in this new, complex and highly challenging world.

The Nielsen Company

A sampling of the topics I’ll be focused on include:

• Media Selection – How does selecting the right TV programs improve ad recall?
• Ad Optimization – What is the optimal creative unit mix, copy length, wear-out, and rotation?
• Program Environment– To what extent does the program environment drive ad effectiveness?
• In Program Product Placement – How should Marketers evaluate product placement?
• Cross Media Performance – What are the cross-media effects of ads?
• Digital  & Social Media – How does advertising work in new media and in interaction with TV?
• Real Time Impact – How do Marketers monitor ad performance in real time and adjust on the fly?

Blog Themes — Transformation & Impact

If you’re read any of my blog posts over the past few months, you’ve probably recognized at least two major themes:

• The Transformed Marketing Landscape — We’re living through a transformational period in Marketing, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the rise of TV and mass marketing. This change is driven by the fragmentation of media, increasing digitization of marketing, rise of social media, increasing importance of word of mouth from our social networks, and measurement tool innovation, among others. In short, Marketing has become a real-time, highly complex, more measurable, and conversational endeavor.
• The Need to Demonstrate Real Marketing Impact — Marketing should build brand image, increase customer satisfaction, and deliver improved top and bottom line business results. Marketers were already challenged to show real value for their spending before the changes outlined above; their ability to deliver results in this environment is even more challenging. This means that, more than ever before, they need partners who can bring sophisticated measurement and analytical tools to bear on their most pressing challenges and leadership thinking as to what this means for the Marketing function.

The crushing economic crisis of the past 18 months has, in my mind, only accelerated the need for the Marketing function to become more transparent and accountable for real business results. CEO’s, CFO’s and shareholders are demanding it, either directly or indirectly.

How My New Role Impacts This Blog

1. The CMO Perspective – I’ve written this blog from the point of view of a CMO. This perspective will continue, and in fact, will be enhanced as I meet and work with CMO’s from major CPG companies around the world. These conversations will enable me to bring an insiders view of the major issues and challenges facing Marketing organizations in this changing Marketing landscape, and share these perspectives as appropriate.
2. The Marketing Effectiveness Perspective – The new role provides a unique vantage point: the ability to look across CPG companies, brands and geographies to understand what works and what doesn’t. I want to have more and deeper insight into what Marketing really drives business results than anyone else in this space.  This will allow me to provide new perspective and insight, while still respecting client confidentiality.

Going Forward

I’ll continue to write about important Marketing topics — both ones which benefit from my Nielsen perspective and those which don’t. This blog won’t be an ad for Nielsen or a thinly disguised vendor white paper. But it will frequently draw on Nielsen data to make what I think are important points about Marketing. And while it should go without saying, it most certainly won’t ever compromise the confidentiality of any client which does business with Nielsen.

Thanks for your support and readership. Keep the comments coming. I look forward to continuing to write about Marketing topics that are at the forefront of the Marketing transformation that is enveloping us and most importantly, how Marketing can build brand equity, customer satisfaction and revenue and profit.

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