Project Reconnect helping marketers get it right with consumers

The Research

The relationship between marketers and consumers is complicated. People are often sceptical about companies’ motives and believe they are only interested in selling their products and services to them. Marketers are not always in sync with what consumers want and expect from brands and the problem is global.

As consumers increasingly talk about brands and tell brand stories online, the need to bridge this gap and rekindle trust between marketers and consumers has never been greater. By talking to consumers about how they expect brands to act in the digital age, we wanted to develop some guidance that could be used by marketers around the world to help bring the two sides together.

Phase 1 - Listening: We wanted to talk face-to-face to people in their capacity as both consumers and parents so we held focus groups in Shanghai and London with social-media aware parents who had children aged 12-18.

Phase 2 - Dialogue: Ideablog is an online platform that emulates social media sites, which not only encourages children to express themselves freely, but also provides them with time to explore and reflect, thereby providing richer insights. We set up Ideablog communities of social-media savvy 15-17-year-olds in Brazil, China, the UK and the US.

The overall aim of phases 1 and 2 was to understand how consumers relate to marketing by exploring how they connect with brands, how they form their opinions of brands and what media they use to engage with brands. We also wanted to discover which forms of marketing both parents and teens felt were acceptable and unacceptable.

What is important in people’s lives?Firstly, we wanted to understand the role of brands in people’s lives. We asked them what was important to them more generally before asking them to name some of the brands they could recall easily. This enabled our respondents to get in the right frame of mind before answering more specific questions about brand communications and brand behaviours.

Unsurprisingly, the adults’ priorities were their family’s safety, children’s education, job/income, work/life balance and creating a stable financial future for their children. When we asked the teens the same question they ranked friends, study, hobbies and family as the most important. For both groups, brands and marketing were far from top of mind in terms

of importance. There was a consensus among both the parents and teens that kids use brands to help demonstrate who they are, express their identities and generally fit in and be fashionable.

When asked to name three brands, neither group claimed to choose a brand on the basis of its marketing alone. More important factors included what they deemed the brands to stand for, the product experience and what they knew of the company behind the brand. Interestingly, the brands the parents and teens mentioned rarely correlated with their favourite brands. The only brand mentioned across all countries involved in the study was Apple.

Wordle from UK teenager responses to brand discussion

Where markets differChinese whispersIn the UK, Brazil and the US, parents use the internet for a variety of reasons including emailing, shopping, booking holidays, reading the news and product reviews, and catching up on missed TV shows. Although Chinese parents do use email and social networking to a limited extent, the majority of their time online is spent on forum discussions. Online forums (such as Tianya, KDS, Taobao) are phenomenally popular in China, much more so than in the UK, Brazil and the US and are regarded as a trusted source of brand-related information.

Brand spanking The main reasons people gave for disliking brands in the UK were poor customer service (particularly among utility companies and telecoms), a perceived role in exacerbating health problems (some food and restaurant companies) and a perceived involvement in political issues (media companies and broadcasters). The reasons given by Chinese consumers for disliking a brand were linked to public relations disasters triggered by alleged corruption or low quality, faulty and sometimes even harmful, products.

Skipping school Email is generally deemed an acceptable way for brands to contact consumers (provided the consumer consents to receiving information) but SMS contact is an altogether more sensitive issue, particularly in the UK. Generally, however, adolescents were more accepting of SMS as they understood the trade-off between advertising and free content. Younger respondents did identify certain rules for marketers; they preferred to be texted during holiday time or only in the evening during school term. Receiving an SMS during class time was considered a potential embarrassment by a number of younger respondents! Of the respondent nationalities, the Chinese were significantly more tolerant of SMS marketing, provided marketers didn’t bombard them with messages.

The UK and China held the most disparate views on the idea of marketing in schools. In the UK, marketing in schools is regarded as a controversial issue; parents feel with few exceptions that schools should be a commercial-free area, and that brands could be exploiting children as a captive audience. In stark contrast, school-based marketing is not seen to be problematic in China. Even some food brands, which were perceived as contributing to unhealthy eating habits in the UK, were welcomed in Chinese schools and were seen to be legitimate sponsors of school premises, in-school sports events and competitions.

‘Social-light’However, one thing that our participants in the US, UK, Brazil and China have in common is their limited reported engagement with brands on social networking sites. They all confirmed, however, their regular engagement with brand websites.

I never really understood becoming a fan on Facebook or Twitter of a brand. They get to use you as a stat (hey, we got 50,000 followers) and you don’t get anything from them other than maybe a cheap coupon or an overpriced advanced sale of an item. Male, 15 (USA)

I like a brand’s website more than the Facebook pages because they have more information. The Facebook stuff usually has a lot of people posting comments but they are not really useful…. The brand’s website has a ton of information on new products, finding products and latest deals. Female, 15 (USA)

However, there are some notable exceptions where people do engage with brands on social networking sites: tech and trendy brands, brands that offer people tangible rewards for becoming a follower, and brands with ‘superfans’ who truly ‘live’ the brand.

For more information on brand fans, read our Value of a Fan report, which is based on research from more than 3,500 fans and suggests 10 key factors to help drive engagement with fan pages. [www.wfanet.org/valueofafan]

From the insights generated in phases 1 and 2 we were able to develop some basic guidance to help digital marketers navigate consumer and parental sensitivities within the digital environment.

Many of these principles may appear intuitive to seasoned marketers. But, importantly, consumers around the world clearly don’t see the evidence that marketers are applying these principles in practice. There is also a significant degree of convergence between consumer views across different markets.

Insights for Digital Marketers

A brand’s image is determined by more than just advertising. In this digital world, everyone knows what your brand is doing, not just what it’s saying. And increasingly, consumers don’t distinguish between the brand and the company behind it.

Even 15-year-old children told us that their image of a certain brand was tainted by their knowledge of the company’s apparent use of child labour, unethical sourcing and perceived ‘green-washing’.

1It’s not what you say but what you do

Advertisers must be invited to be part of each consumer’s digital world. In order to be acceptable, all contact from brands needs to have been specifically agreed. The consumer needs to feel in control of the conversation.

What I REALLY don’t like is advertising that pops up on the screen out of the blue. They are inconvenient and slow down browsing by users. Male, 16 (Brazil)

2Don’t call me, I’ll call you

Any contact from a brand needs to offer some benefit to the customer - the communications need to be unique, fun, engaging or offer something in return.

Always offer more than the consumer expects from you. Whether for prizes, promotions, discounts or anything else. The consumer likes to be surprised. Male, 17 (Brazil)

Competitions and games were generally considered by younger audiences as acceptable means of offering something engaging. Product placement in games was viewed as something that makes the game even more realistic, as long as the brand fitted with the game itself.

I sign up for promotions all the time, as long as they look legit, don’t cost me anything and are of interest to me. I recently signed up for a monthly cash prize and was willing to give out personal information for that. Female, 16 (USA)

They cannot put an advertisement for sanitary pads on a game like ‘Resident Evil’. Female, 16, (Brazil)

3What’s in it for me

Be open, transparent and treat people with respect. Many consumers will be turned off if they believe it’s not genuine. Celebrity endorsement that isn’t credible can backfire. Cosmetics ads were mentioned for creating unrealistic expectations.

Ads with celebs in are totally misleading. I’m sure they don’t use those products personally. It’s all about the money. Male, 15 (UK)

UK, US and Brazilian consumers were more cynical of celebrity endorsement than their Chinese counterparts.

6Don’t fake it

Teens instinctively feel that they have control over their exposure to advertising online, whereas parents find it harder to engage as many do not regard the online space as a communication channel. Although both groups struggle to specify what is acceptable and what is not, they all condemn pop-ups, spam and anything that interferes with their online experience.

8Age colours consumer perceptions of online advertising

Brands need to be open with consumers about storing personal data. Although most people are open to the idea of tracking if it makes the ads they see more relevant, they have concerns about how long brands keep the data for.

I know that companies track my usage so they can provide me with ads that fit my interests. It’s ok because then I’m not shown ads that I’m not interested in. Male, 17 (USA)

I like some ads that pop up on Facebook as they are linked to what I look at online, but this can be very annoying. I have recently been looking for places to stay in Liverpool and every time I log onto Facebook I have ads for hotels in Liverpool. It’s a bit too much. Female, 16 (UK)

I don’t want companies to collect info on my internet usage. How do I know what they’re going to do with it? Just like I don’t want anyone to follow me around all day either. Male, 16 (UK)

4What are you doing with their data?

Email contact is OK (if agreed), but SMS marketing is often rejected (in Brazil, UK and US but less so in China). Younger respondents universally preferred being contacted during school holidays rather than during school time. Don’t pester; brands need to be willing to be ignored if it’s not convenient as it shows more respect.

I get really fed up when people text me with ads and things. I use my phone to keep in contact with friends and my parents and I don’t want other stuff coming through on it. What if it went off when I was in school? Female, 17 (UK)

Communicating via SMS is ok as long as the company don’t send too many. It would be nice to be told of the latest deals or fashions, perhaps via picture, but only in the school holidays. Female, 16 (China)

Given the reality of today’s commercial world, respondents in all markets found sponsorship of shows and sports to be one of the most acceptable practices as long as the association between brand and event/show didn’t feel contrived.

5Consumers think there is a time and place for commercial messages

There is a low awareness of online advertising. When pushed, people instinctively think of online advertising as pop-ups, banners and spam, and are therefore negatively predisposed to the concept of online marketing. And when asked to recall examples of online ads, only a handful were remembered - Fruitella, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Nike and Kellogg’s. Our teenage respondents claim to be “banner blind” and prefer advertising they can simply ignore (such as in the margins of Facebook).

I hate pop-ups. They are annoying, interrupt what I am doing, put me in a bad mood and need me to close them. Male, 15 (China)

I have not seen any decent ads online and would not send any friends any ads. They would think I was crazy; we are not into things like that. Female 15 (UK)

7What digital advertising?

Parents apply the same principals online as they do offline when it comes to issues such as safety and permissibility. They use the same filters to decide what is acceptable and what is not. Marketers need to use a good dose of common sense and apply the same advertising standards everywhere.

Companies should apply the same ethics online as they do on TV. Female , 17 (UK)

9What’s unacceptable online is also unacceptable offline

Parents generally feel that kids spend too much time online and understand that they can’t control what their kids look at. However, on the whole, parents trust teens, and teens know they shouldn’t abuse that trust. This trust is buffered by the regulation, which parents find reassuring. However, parents feel younger children - some specified under the age of 12 - need more protecting and take greater control over what they see and experience.

My parents accept that I am mature enough to decide what I do and don’t watch and believe that I should decide whether something, whether it be an advert, is appropriate to watch. Female, 17 (UK)

10There is a triangle of trust between parent, teen and regulator

Consumers, and children in particular, understand that online advertising allows them to get free content and so they tolerate the ads as a means to an end. Conversely, they don’t expect to see ads when watching paid-for content. While many children claim to be “banner blind” and able to filter out advertising, parents are less capable of doing so.

I do play online games and if there were no ads on these sites some games would not be free as most of these sites are sponsored. I rarely notice the ads while actually playing games. I would not mind if the ads were actually in the game or product placement as I think they would blend into the game but I think they should only be relevant to the games being played. Male, 15 (USA)

11Consumers understand the advertising trade off

Brands help people identify themselves and feel comfortable. They are a means to an end, rarely an end in themselves. Marketers need to ask themselves: does my brand serve, enhance and empower - does it help people live their lives better?

The most important thing is studying. My parents plan to send me to study abroad, now this is my important moment. Male, 17 (China)

Music, my interests, family and school are all things important to my friends and I, it defines who we are ... what we are like and why - plus it gives us something to talk about. Female, 15 (UK)

12Keep perspective: Brands aren’t that important

People enjoy talking about brands and advertising and want the opportunity to be heard. Too often, they feel marketers talk at them and not with them, so anything thing that counters this is well received.

I think it is my duty as a teenager to get my opinion out there and SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD! I want to be able to do this. Male, 16 (USA)

13It’s good to talk

These findings are just the first stage of the WFA’s long-term goal of facilitating an ongoing, open discussion between consumers and brands. We hope over time to be able to agree on a set of clear ground rules for marketers based on what consumers around the world think is acceptable. We have started with digital marketing communications but the conversation is likely to broaden to a number of areas.

Project Reconnect was conducted by Alice Moss and Caroline Bright at Firefly Millward Brown for the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). For more information, please contact Will Gilroy at WFA at will@wfanet.org

These are some of the teenagers who helped us with our research

It is really nice to be asked to give an opinion, especially when you are asking for the opinion of teenagers. It will be interesting to see if the advertising companies take note. Female, 17 (USA)