Direct approach to shopper marketing

Buchanan includes advertising platforms like Zoot Review and Brand Power, which target women shoppers with simple marketing messages - often featuring local celebrities - extolling the value and other benefits of grocery products. Though the 30-second TV commercials are commissioned by brands, their chatty, direct style persuades many consumers that their views are independent.

Buchanan clients include Unilever, Nestlé, Kellogg's and Beiersdorf. Besides Brand Power and Zoot Review, its brands include health-care marketer Medifacts and food channel Great Chefs.

Melling-Williams says production costs of his group's commercials are a fraction of traditional glossy TV ads. "We have a production team of only three people," he says. "For everything else we bring in crews on a contract basis. For about 80% of the ads we have made over the past two years, we have used the same people."

However, he says "cheap" advertising does not have to mean nasty. Direct, simple marketing has established a sound base in SA. A home-tester club, to which over 27000 SA women have subscribed, gives Buchanan clients the opportunity to try out new products.

"An average grocery store has well over 1000 products," he says. "Shoppers want to know what's best to buy. How can they find out if new products are any good?"

Each month hundreds of boxes containing new products are circulated free to subscribers, who are encouraged to rate them honestly online. "It's uncensored writing and reviews," says Melling-Williams. "We want people to tell the truth about their experience. It's like when you buy a car - you want the opportunity to look under the hood."

Reviews of these free products are rarely scathing, it must be said. Most score at least eight out of 10 and the lowest ever was a six.

Buchanan is also spreading into word-of-mouth (WoM) advertising, which, as its name suggests, relies on personal recommendation. As explained by Jason Stewart, MD of WoM specialist HaveYouHeard, the marketing medium relies on respected "influencers" - people who will spread the word about products. Many consumers buy one product over another not because it's better but because they have been told it is. E-mail, Facebook, Twitter and other opinionsharing media have increased the number of opinions.

Melling-Williams says many marketers consider WoM and other forms of shopper-direct interaction as stand-by options in case the traditional ones fail. "We're not quite part of the team yet. We're the supersub on the reserve bench, the repair job. If the original campaign doesn't work, they bring in the trade message."

But HaveYouHeard executive Ryan McFadyen says that's changing. "More and more clients are incorporating WoM into their integrated marketing campaigns, alongside traditional advertising. In some cases, WoM is even seen as the foundation of a campaign."

Stewart adds: "With so much happening online, one of its advantages is that you can see responses immediately and how the campaign has performed. That's a big attraction for cost-conscious marketers."

Source: Financial Mail