Kristina Pronyaeva
First-year student master’s degree
Faculty of Marketing
Plekhanov Russian University of Economics
Scientific Suprvisor
Fominykh Nataliia Iurievna
Professor
Foreign Languages Department #1
Plekhanov Russian University of Economics
Everyone knows the quote “The customer is always right,” but how does it refer to content marketing?
All Customers have their own opinions, desires and needs. A smart marketing specialist will devote some of his time and energy to listening to his customers. The reason is that content marketing is a user-centric platform. Companies that have nothing to offer will soon find themselves out of the market. That’s why in order to be competitive companies should search new “insider” information from their customers.
In the world of content marketing, there is nothing more important than client. The client determines website content, methods of distribution, an amount of posts in social media and of course the success of the company.
Companies that want to create a successful marketing strategy have to devote time to finding offers from customers. Today you can find a lot of useful information in the Internet. If users do not like the information you provide, they will simply leave your website and continue searching for a more suitable web resource. This is good for your competitors, but absolutely not profitable for you.
According to the Business Insider, companies have only seven seconds to make the first impression to the client. It is very important to make sure that the content of the page meets the needs and interests of visitors. If you have done all the necessary work, it is most likely that it will help you make a favorable impression on users.
Behavioral limits
Despite of the fact that some companies believe that it is enough to make a simple analysis of behavioral factors data, this is not true. Instruments, such as automatic web analyzer are useful, they provide information about the way of user, location, actions, where visitors came from, how long they stayed on the website, how many pages they viewed and whether they shared content.
However, such analyzers do not show the following data:
• demographic data, interests, goals, etc.;
• how many people liked or did not like the content you are offering;
• search interest;
• what decisions regarding purchases were made by people who viewed the information on the site;
• offline actions of people who visited website.
Without a complete picture obtained by combining behavioral factors and forms of customer information, such as surveys, a company will not be able to get the necessary information about the quality of its own activities.
Even if 10% of your blog posts drive 90% of the total traffic, it’s impossible to say exactly how this is happening and what actions the company should conduct to repeat similar results. Therefore, behavioral factors are limited in their and for full effectiveness should be compared with the data of customer’s surveys.
How to create an effective survey
Now that it’s reliably known that clients run a business – it’s time to listen them. How to do this? The answer is simple: you ask questions, and then acts according to the answers that were received. Asking website visitor, company should create relevant content on the website, change the marketing channels or find new ways to interact with visitors.
The best way to get user feedback is to conduct a survey. This allows you to get information about the preferences, behavior and needs of customers. It will also help you to understand the needs of your customers, which will help you to run more effective digital campaigns.
Surveys are conducted on the basis of certain data: characteristics, preferences and customers behavior.
The survey should provide the following information:
• the impact of content on users;
• relevance of content;
• roles and demographic data of users.
When to use surveys
Keep in mind that surveys are not suitable for all types of content and work better combined with blog or email newsletters. Surveys are an interactive format that is most effective on interactive platforms.
In addition, it should be noted that there are several types of surveys. For example, a company can make a blog post and run a survey through the SurveyMonkey platform, or post a message on Twitter with a special question. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages.
7 key points of a good survey
To be effective and gather the necessary information, the survey must satisfy the following requirements:
Brevity: follow the principle of brevity. Ask a question, choosing, if possible, the most concise formulations to avoid loss of customer interest. Reduce excess words and create surveys that won’t take a lot of time. No one will spend 20 minutes on answering questions. Or, if they still find the time, they will randomly respond, randomly choosing answers in an attempt to complete survey faster.
Details: do not ask questions for which you do not need answers. Also, do not combine multiple goals in one survey. If you are trying to figure out why customers are on your web site, ask only those questions that will lead to the your marketing goals. Each question has a specific focus. If you do not need a username, do not ask about it. Everything is very simple.
No restrictions: every question should be well-formulated and open. By asking such questions, you give the opportunity to answer in a broad manner, which will allow you to get more accurate information. Moreover, asking questions, such as “Why do you think so?”, after the usual “Yes” or “No”, you can describe a more complete picture.
Gradual: each question should be asked individually. If you post one poll on Twitter, that’s great. If you are creating extensive polls, be sure to consider each item separately. Do not force users to view all the information in advance or to overload with data.
Consistency: even if you manage to compose the best survey in the world, most likely it will not help if you do not compile a constant scale for comparing all your surveys. For example, on a scale of one to five, five should always mean one. This will help to avoid inaccuracies in both customer responses and your own interpretation.
Neutrality: One of the mistakes is the creation of tricky questions. It is not in your deal to write questions that lead visitors to a specific answer. This will only confuse and give incorrect results. For example, you should not say, “Recently you abandoned service provider X due to poor service and moved to our company, which will provide the best service. How do you feel about our company?” Instead, it’s better to just ask, “What do you think of our company?”
Timeliness: studies show that polls sent via e-mail are best opened and worked out on Monday, Friday and Sunday. Perhaps the results will vary depending on the clients, so analyze the existing behavioral factors and send out letters in accordance with this.
By creating surveys that incorporate these traits, marketing department receive reliable and accurate data from customers. This makes it possible to evaluate the quality of the content and determine if customers are willing to receive any other information. This allows you to grow your business and give visitors exactly what they need.
Conclusion
Content marketing has a long road to success. In 99% of cases, most likely, you will not be able to get immediate results.
Joe Pulizzi gave the following advice: “Build your content first, and then create the product.”
Analyze your audience, then create products that meet the needs of customers, as well as content. In the long run, this will give good results. Customer-oriented content marketing is the most successful form of content marketing.
Смирнова Ксения Андреевна
Студентка 1 курса магистратуры
Факультет маркетинга
Российского экономического университета им. Г. В. Плеханова
Ильина Александра Владимировна
Студентка 1 курса магистратуры
Факультет маркетинга
Российского экономического университета им. Г. В. Плеханова
Научный руководитель
Фоминых Наталия Юрьевна
Профессор кафедры ИЯ№1
Российского экономического университета им. Г. В. Плеханова
Abstract
This article discusses the use of Product Placement advertising technology in modern cinema, as well as specific examples of using Product Placement.
Key words: Product Placement, advertising, movies
Product Placement is an advertising technique where props are used in movies, TV shows, computer games, music videos, or books that have a real brand. This is a type of BTL advertising. In this type of advertising, the viewer is shown the product or logo while watching. On top of that, the product may even be mentioned in the production as a high quality product. This type of advertising has become a very relevant topic. According to an online survey by WPP Groups Lightspeed Research, 75% of Americans say that the large number of brands on television and in movies make it difficult to follow and enjoy the storyline. Also, experts believe that due to Product Placement, the line between reality and advertising has become blurred.
The features and formats of Product Placement are clear today, but the question of the effectiveness of this type of advertising is still open. Even abroad, where the new advertising technology developed years ago, its effectiveness is not well studied. Such research is quite expensive. Therefore, instead of conducting expensive surveys, companies prefer to place hidden ads in other projects. Many Western film companies offer focus group testing, but even they themselves are skeptical. Therefore, the main problem of Product Placement is unpredictability. Results have shown that using Product Placement can increase sales. For example, developers of online games say that the memorability of information obtained from advertising in the game is ten times higher than that of a 30-second TV video. At the same time, one should understand that Product Placement cannot replace direct advertising. As an integral part of marketing, it must complement other means of promotion. However, Product Placement technology makes it possible to show the product to the consumer in real life.
In the past few years, PP has become increasingly popular in Russia. PP technologies have amazed even old-school directors and screenwriters and are now actively used by Russian producers of TV series and feature films.
Product Placement is a relevant topic for consideration for a number of reasons: first, in Russia, PP is just beginning to gain momentum. Second, there are conflicting points of views regarding this type of activity. And third, PP is one of the most dynamically developing trends for the promotion of goods and services.
Some experts consider this technology as advertising, some consider it as a marketing tool, while others consider it a branding technology.
Product placement is often used very intelligently. In films, for example, products are displayed where they normally would be in real life. Therefore, the audience is not bothered by such placement, and the placement of the product does not distract the consumer. The product is promoted and the consumer is happy.
Product Placement in films, for example, provides a limitless number of creative opportunities for advertisers to sell their products. As long as the directors and producers agree, there are thousands of opportunites for companies to sell their products. If a film is successful, these products not only will be seen millions of times on the screen, but will also be indented into the minds of all of those that see the film.
The goal of Product Placement is to shift the focus of the consumer for just a split second. If the star of a film uses the product, for example, then the product will get even more attention. This is one advantage of product placement in film.
It is known that celebrities can shape the tastes and preferences of the population. Psychologists have long noticed one thing: that consumers always wants to be like the movie characters that they see in films. Therefore, if the consumer can’t look the same or have the same personality as the star, then it is still possible to share something with them by having the same stylish glasses, the same brand of car, etc.
A series of American studies have shown that viewers get irritated when they cannot clearly see the name of the airline in a movie or the brand of watch a character wears, for example.
According to Gallup Media, movies and series will be one of the highest-rated programs on television. People prepare for their viewing and may even postpone all plans in adavnce. As Gallup’s per-second analysis shows, the rating of the ad block in the TV program is 40—60% lower than the rating of the program itself. When placing a product in a TV series or feature film, the viewer cannot avoid contact with the advertised product, since it is so strategically placed. Advertisers, who place their products in movies, are able to accurately determine the percentage of people who see the ad without the additional cost of expensive research and analysis. In short, the number of people who saw the product or service is equal to the number of people who watched the movie. This cannot be said about traditional advertising. Also, there are no expenses for coming up with the concept of the video, casting actors for it, and for the shooting itself.
If we consider the Russian market of Product Placement, at this stage it is much more profitable to place the product directly in the movie than to conduct open advertising. This is due to the fact that recently there has been an increase in prices for placing TV ads by an average of 30—40% annually. Considering that such price increases will be present for another 5—6 years, only very large manufacturers will remain on the TV advertising market.
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