Are Promotions Hurting Your Brand?
New Study By Arc and Leo Burnett Identifies How to Move People to Buy...Now
CHICAGO, April 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Leo Burnett and Arc, the brand activation agency inside Leo Burnett, released a new tool to help brands quicken the path to purchase and reinforce brand affinity. The Buying Acceleration and Incentive Tool (B.A.I.T.) reveals how marketers can select the right purchase triggers to encourage people to buy based on human emotion and science. This tool is the first that truly helps brands effectively integrate brand-building and sales-generating efforts.
"Brands are still too often managed as if advertising and promotion are totally different actions. But today, brands no longer have that luxury. A brand action should engage shoppers to inspire both belief and buying," said Bob Raidt, global president of Arc. "B.A.I.T. is a useful input to inform more relevant brand actions."
B.A.I.T. was developed following a six-month-long consumer study that examined 186 promotional tactics, or baits, to pinpoint how those short-term sales offerings might align with long-term brand building. The study found the most impactful ways that promotions can fulfill human needs and build sales without running counter to a brand's purpose or eroding the brand.
Download the report at http://www.slideshare.net/LeoBurnettWorldwide/the-buying-acceleration-and-incentive-tool-bait
The study reveals that people believe there are five overall kinds of offerings—learning, cultural connectivity, savings, convenience and trust. These break down further into 11 sub-types, each fulfilling a different short-term human need. For example, a convenience-based offering splits into two sub-types, time savers and effort erasers. (An effort eraser removes virtually all investment of energy from purchases through tactics like drive-throughs, one-click ordering and end-of-aisle displays.)
"We can best understand how short-term offerings provide the greatest match to a brand's purpose when we use a human framework," said Elizabeth Harris, EVP, strategy director at Leo Burnett. "When applied correctly, offerings can impact a person's decision to buy, speed up the path to purchase and build affinity for a brand."
Which offerings do shoppers perceive as having the greatest impact on their decision to buy? Which can best increase their speed to purchase? While results will vary based on the product category, things that save consumers money or that reduce risk are best at increasing impact and speed. Meanwhile, things that are more about cultural and charitable connections lag behind.
Different promotions have different implications based on demographics, given that human behavior often varies between men and women as well as across generations. Women, for example, tend to be more influenced by offerings that involve product news and emotional connectivity than men. Millennials are more influenced by promotions involving cultural cache, greater good and effort erasers than older generations.
To select the best B.A.I.T. for a brand, consider the following:
- What is your brand's purpose?
- Who are you targeting?
- What is the appropriate offering given your program's objective?
- Can you use different offerings to their best advantage along different parts of your shopper's journey?
"We are excited with how effectively the B.A.I.T. tool helps persuade in the moment and build in the longer term," said Raidt.
Methodology
Buying Acceleration and Incentive Tool (B.A.I.T.) was developed by a series of online surveys of 9,300 U.S. adults aged 18-64 over the course of six months beginning in August 2015. Brief descriptions of 186 offerings were rated by respondents who were randomly assigned to rate an offering on 122 attributes. Responses were geared toward understanding the effectiveness and overall appeal of each offering. Second- and third-phase surveys tested specific brand examples of offerings. In total, the research is based on more than 17,000 interviews.
About Arc
Arc is the Intelligent Activation Agency within Leo Burnett Worldwide. Headquartered in Chicago, Arc provides brands with innovative, insightful and imaginative creative solutions rooted in understanding people and behavior through the lens of a shopper. As part of one of the world's largest agency networks, Arc boasts 26 offices in 22 countries with more than 1,000 employees. Arc works with some of the world's most valued brands including Coca-Cola, Fiat, Adidas, Samsung, Microsoft, McDonald's and P&G. To learn more about Arc, visit www.arcww.com.
About Leo Burnett Worldwide
Leo Burnett Worldwide believes in using creativity to drive dynamic business change for its clients. Through a HumanKind approach to marketing, the agency puts a brand's purpose at the center of communications to transform human behavior. Part of Publicis Communications and the Publicis Groupe, Leo Burnett Worldwide works with some of the world's most valued brands including Coca-Cola, Fiat, Kellogg's, Kraft, McDonald's, Nintendo, P&G and Samsung, among others. For the past seven years, Leo Burnett has been ranked #1 in "New World Thinking" by The Gunn Report and was named an Agency to Watch on Advertising Age's 2015 A-List. To learn more about Leo Burnett Worldwide and its rich, 80-year history of creating iconic brands, visit its site, Facebook page and follow the agency network via @leoburnett.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160420/357748
SOURCE Arc and Leo Burnett
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