Audience: Puma is a long standing German sports apparel and footwear company founded in 1948. Their products have an established identify, notably in Track and Field and especially in the Soccer industry. In recent years, the brand has struggled to remain relevant with consumers. Lack of identity and style are notable factors. Since 2014, Puma has stated that one of their primary key strategies is to improve their female division if they want to compete with the likes of adidas and Nike.
Puma introduced a new women’s streetwear product line in 2016. For this concentrated target audience, the brand is focusing on the 18-24 age group. They want to appeal to the stylish, chic, trend setting and fashion conscious customer. Spearheading the campaign is brand ambassador and creative director Rihanna. The international songstress is a notable style icon with over 201+ million combined followers on social media. In addition to the signing of socialite Kylie Jenner last year, Puma has a duo of formidable influencers for their advertising campaigns to help grow their targeted streetwear audience.
On the men’s side of things, last fall Puma signed R&B superstar TheWeeknd and in March 2017 inked rapper Big Sean to help appeal to their young male audience. And most recently, Puma scored a major sponsorship, teaming up with rap icon JAY-Z for his upcoming “4:44” tour. While it looks like Puma has a concentrated strategy on working with some very big names in popular culture today, there will always be consumers at different stages of the life purchase cycle where they might face resistance. Let’s take a look at them.
The Weeknd
Life Cycle:
Communities disruptors affect the Consideration stage in the Purchase Life Cycle.
Economic disruptors affect the Purchase stage in the Purchase Life Cycle.
Emotional Situational Factors affect the Desire stage in the Purchase Life Cycle.
Influence Disruptors
Communities is the conversation of the same idea with two different groups that have two different meanings. In this example, an 18-year old female will converse with her classmates on the it factor of purchasing Rihanna’s Puma x Fenty collection and how stylish the attire looks. A secondary conversation with her parents can turn into a discussion of price, cost and affordability. This simultaneously becomes an Economic discussion where the parents and daughter get into a debate of need vs. want. Both Communities and Economic elements have a disruptive influence. They can change the sentiment course on the decision-making process from considering to buy, to ignoring the purchase completely. Puma’s target audience is affected from these mentioned disruptors thanks to overall negative sentiment.
Traditional Word of Mouth marketing refers to the process of passing information usually of a product or service to a non-commercial partisan without any financial gain. It is possibly the most recognizable form of promotion and most influential among consumers.
Word of mouth techniques usually are best applied through friends and family. Roughly 92% of consumers actually prefer to be recommended a product or service by someone they know. Word of Mouth marketing also known as WOMM, is responsible for 20-to-50% of all consumer purchasing decisions.
Word of Mouth
Pros
Cons
– A free referral, no cost at all to the product company
– Company saves on advertising $
– Friends and family become a trusted source in purchasing influence
– Negative reviews on a product can harm a company’s reputation
– Not easy to monitor WOM purchases from a marketing metrics perspective
– Process may take a while to spread interest immediately
A recent example where Word of Mouth marketing worked huge wonders was at the 2017 Golden Globes awards show. Donald Glover proclaimed in his Best Actor in a TV Comedy series speech that the Migos song “Bad and Bougee” was his favourite track. With Glover essentially co-signing the Atlanta rap group on a national live broadcast, it helped sparked curiosity of the trio, who were not known to the mainstream masses.
Migos’ Spotify streams soared to an astronomical 243% increase within 24 hours. The song also jumped to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to Glover’s mention. In the past, CD sales would have been the medium to measure, but that process would take roughly a week to get the results. In this new age, numbers are produced within hours thanks to social currency.
Another Word of Mouth example is the clothing brand Roots of Fight. They are a Canadian based apparel company that has licenses/royalty deals with select retired sports athletes. Since 2012, their retro inspired designs continue to be a major success with sports fans – including the athletes and entertainers as well.
According to a 2015 AdWeek article, stars from The Rock to JAY Z and Beyoncé have been photographed wearing the brand while being compensated $0. Roots of Fight scored large in Word of Mouth marketing without heavily investing into their own marketing and advertising. Instead, consumers of the brand famous and non-famous helped generate the buzz for the company.
2) Celebrity Influence
Celebrity Influence is the act of hiring an established identity usually in the world of entertainment or sports, to sell or endorse a product or service. Their image and likeliness is positioned in advertisements, commercials, images and videos as an advocate of the paying brand.
Having a recognizable face that is admired by their fan base can play a huge role in the promotion of a product. By associating their own brand image tied to a commercial idea, this creates the message that consumers can somehow look or emulate their admired personality. Some of the key factors companies look for in a celebrity is their overall popularity, how relevant they currently are, their reputation in the public eye and their differentiation from other personalities.
Celebrity Influence
Pros
Cons
– Influence consumers to buy a product or service
– Help build awareness for the brand
– Can help revive an old brand with a previous declining identity
– Celebrity may come across as unauthentic in selling
– Celebrity might get into trouble in the public eye, which affects a brand’s image
– Having a celebrity sell a product can create false hope for a consumer
An example of a celebrity influencer is NBA star LeBron James, a Nike signature athlete since 2003. He broke barriers by being one of the first athletes to make more money in endorsements than his actual playing salary. LeBron’s raw athleticism, team leadership and championship qualities make him a desirable pitchman for the swoosh brand. His apparel and signature shoes continue to be top sellers in the footwear industry, with 2015 sales reaching $400 million. “The King’s” latest contract with Nike calls for a lifetime deal worth $1 Billion.
Another example was the successful ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, that took place in the summer of 2014. Through social media, the video challenge called for donations to a worthy cause. By simply pouring a bucket of ice cold water and calling out your friends to participate in the challenge, this helped raise $115 million that went towards Lou Gehrig’s disease research. A big success in this viral sensation were A-list celebrities, who participated using their influence to encourage others to donate. Achieving this level of support would have been challenging to accomplish in the pre-Internet area.
3) Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing involves the assistance of a large group or audience, who offer their input and insight with their participation in a given project. They usually appear as an online third party used to outsource certain tasks. With their input comes valuable insight on a social, business and political level. Author Jeff Howe was credited with coining the crowd sourcing term in a 2006 Wired magazine article.
It is a collaborative effort that harnesses unique creative minds that can educate and problem solve. Thanks to the world being digitally connected, it is easier to crowd source with giant numbers in a short period of time. Crowdsourcing has even evolved into other forms of crowd usage such as crowdfunding, which involves the search of investors for monetary support that would traditionally be ran by a financial institution.
Crowdsourcing
Pros
Cons
– The outsourcing of labour is usually free
– Access to skilled and qualified personnel, with a variety of shared knowledge
– Can offer short term solutions and collect transparent real time data
– Quality control of digital users online, who are trusted and reliable is a concern
– Project management in handling large crowds can be tricky
Potato chip maker Lays is an example of a brand that used crowd sourcing effectively. For the past few years, they have reached out to their customer base to come up with new chip flavours they can market and sell. Their campaign titled “Do Us A Flavor” received thousands of entries, with many of them inspired by existing popular regional dishes. The 2015 winner “Southern Biscuits and Gravy”, ended up being sold in retail shops across the country. The creator behind the winning flavour was awarded $1 million or 1% of that flavours net sales (whichever was higher after one year). Thanks to crowdsourcing, Lays were able to harness audience participation and at the same time create a new product to sell on the marketplace.
Veronica Mars was a popular mystery drama TV show among teens that ran from 2004-2007. In 2013, the show’s head writer Rob Thomas reached out to long time fans of the show if they wanted to see an adaptation on the big screen, but would require crowdfunding. The Veronica Mars fan base responded in record time, raising more than three times their original asking amount via a Kickstarter campaign. Whether or not the film met the expectations of those who contributed, this is an example of crowd-sourcing and crowdfunding coming together to help out a cause for a dedicated fan base.
4) Social Influencer
Social Influencer marketing relies primarily on the presence of an individual that has social influence to impact a consumer’s purchasing habits. While a celebrity can fit in this category, it can really be anyone with an audience. Those people could be a blogger, a relative or a colleague. Also known as “Social Proof”, their voice, knowledge and persuasion play a pivotal role whether they realize it or not.
Social Influencer marketing is somewhat like Word of Mouth marketing, but the big difference is that a social influencer has a more refined and established identity. A Word of Mouth idea can start as hearsay information and eventually spread like wildfire to the masses. Where as a Social Influencer marketer generally has a social channel set up, with different platforms to promote or review a products and services.
Social Influencer
Pros
Cons
– Usually a knowledgeable and credible source
– Able to provide product / service reviews and recommendations
– Influencers can reduce sales cycle time, can up the process by acting as a brand advocate
– Social Influencer might use their platform simply for monetary gain
– This can lead to consumer mistrust
– Compensating a Social Influencer can come with a hefty price tag
In the past, celebrities would make their money through print and billboard advertisements. The mediums have since evolved and mobile advertising has exploded. An entertainer like Selena Gomez, who has a combined Social Media following (Facebook/Instagram/Twitter) of 216.5 million followers, has some serious advertising clout. A posting on her three social platforms currently have a value of $550,000. As of this writing, that metric is currently the highest earning value of any celebrity in the world. This high value is also attributed to her engagement level with her audience. She is in a favourable position to select who she wants to advertise with. She can work with companies that fits her personal brand, rather than commit to the easier sponsored post payout.
A smaller scaled example of a Social Influencer is YouTuber Chris Chase aka nightwing2303, who runs a popular shoe review website called WearTesters.com. On his video blog, he is known to give the most honest critique of the latest shoe releases on the retail market. His voice provides expertise on everything from the quality on the shoe materials, to how they perform on the court. With over a quarter million subscribers on YouTube and close to 100,000 followers on Instagram, his opinion and reviews are among the most respected and trusted in the sneaker community. His influence was put to good measure after Jordan Brand provided misleading product description in a recent Air Jordan retro release. He represents a new generation voice of Social Influencers who can make a comfortable living in the comfort of their own home.
