Dave Chase suggests improvements to the scope and execution of the Sugarshots marketing campaign.
| Campaign Details:
Client: Sugarshots, Inc.
Agency: Basement, Inc.
Ad Network: 24/7 Real Media
Ad Serving + Tracking: Atlas DMT
Site Analytics: Think Metrics |
At the start of this open source marketing series, I laid out the case for why there should be an open source marketing movement at all. I willingly let the iMedia team know that I’d be happy to contribute once the first brand agreed to be the trail blazer brand of this concept. Little did I know that it would be an industry sector (Consumer Packaged Goods) I’d never marketed in and a product category I’d never consumed (sugar and sugar-substitute drink enhancers). Apparently, I’m some kind of freak of nature: I’ve lived in Seattle over 20 years and have never consumed coffee, tea, or iced tea. (OK, I’ll admit I once had a half cup of coffee mixed with the strongest ever hot chocolate to choke the coffee down the day before mid-term exams in college, which not so coincidentally was the day after a particularly fun college party. After pealing myself off the ceiling and having the “shakes” for half the day, I vowed to never drink coffee again.) Thus, trying to offer valuable input to Sugarshots reminds me of a Ben Franklin quote,
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.
Nonetheless, Sugarshots has voluntarily offered themselves up as a punching bag of sorts, so I’ll take my shots. Without knowing it, they adhered to a tenet my Uncle Bill (a longtime/successful CPG executive) shared upon his retirement…
A New Products person who can’t take a lot of punches had better win in the first round.
I applaud Sugarshots for taking advantage of this unique opportunity to gather feedback from a range of sources. This resourcefulness reminds me of a compliment I often pay when referring to my entrepreneur clients, “Successful entrepreneurs are smart enough to pull off what they are stupid enough to try.”
The starting point of my critique is going back to when I argued that the time is right for the interactive community to embrace open source marketing. I purposely didn’t say open source media. Thus far, the series has focused on the media component of Sugarshots marketing. While media is certainly an important element of the marketing mix, I steer the vast majority of the startup brands I work with towards other elements of the marketing mix. I’ll use the traditional “4 P’s” to categorize my feedback. Before thinking about Promotion (e.g., advertising), I’d want to focus appropriate energy on the naturally intertwined Product, Place and Price.
As I stated in the 2010 Predictions article published earlier this year, having been on both sides of the challenger/incumbent equation, I can say unequivocally that not “getting it” is usually an advantage for the challenger. With that “not getting it” spirit, I’ll offer some thoughts on the non-media “P’s” of marketing. It strikes me that to create a new category, there’ll be advantages to having a premium positioning and pricing versus the incumbents (i.e., traditional granulated sugar) as well as defending their position once copycats arrive. This has a profound impact on Product and Place. From a Product standpoint, it looks like Sugarshots has a well-rounded offering with their four products. If you buy the premium positioning argument, the element of their Product that needs work is their packaging, particularly given the Places that the product will live -- at premium grocers (e.g., Whole Foods), on kitchen counters, and on restaurant dinner tables.
Sugarshots’ current packaging is, well, boring. In a world of dozens of gourmet mustards and hundreds of olive oils and thousands of premium wines catering to a similar audience that Sugarshots would appeal to, they need packaging that is at least on par with those products. Take away the Sugarshots wording and I could be convinced that the product in the bottle was cod liver oil or cheap maple syrup. For a new product category, you want to have packaging that you’d be proud to leave on your counter at home, or that the restaurant proprietor would want to leave on his tables. You want this so that a greater audience is exposed to the product. As it is, it’s more apt to go back to the pantry. I’d look at how restaurateurs present olive oil for inspiration. Given a premium price, it might be affordable to have etched/painted glass rather than a paper label that will get ragged after a while. Furthermore, since restaurants are a likely place where a consumer would be first exposed, I’d give the restaurateurs a couple of options on how they could get Sugarshots. While having the nice olive oil-like bottle may appeal to some, there is usually the ubiquitous rectangular holder of Splenda, Sugar, etc. that Sugarshots would want to be a part of. Fortunately, the current options have some of the most unimaginative packaging known to man so it wouldn’t be hard to stand out. Instead of the common rectangular shaped sugar packet in a bland color, how about a more cylindrical shape that would literally stand above the “old” options particularly if it had an inviting color. Sugar cane itself is cylindrical in shape so it could reinforce that this is a “natural” product consistent with the premium positioning.
Another benefit of nice packaging is that you are more apt to encourage other forms of product trial and exposure. For example, gift baskets seem to be more common than ever. You don’t see sugar packets in a typical gift basket, yet a nicely packaged liquid sugar would go well in the gift baskets of coffees and teas that are commonly given. It’s also not hard to imagine someone reusing the nice glass packaging rather than tossing it in the garbage, thus giving Sugarshots “counter-life” beyond its initial use. Salad dressings and other liquid condiments could reuse the packaging. In some cases, these would make their way to other people’s homes, work, etc. as a substitute for bringing those items in cheap plastic containers more commonly used today.
As I’m treading on a lot of unfamiliar ground, I’d certainly want to do plenty of research on some of these ideas. My Uncle Bill had a couple of research-related tenets he also shared with me. “No one should knock research that has ever been helped by a road map.” And “Chicken Little acted before her research was complete. The competition ate her up.” Yet, the reality of a startup like Sugarshots is they have limited resources, so they need to kill at least two birds with one stone. This made me think of one of the unique strengths of interactive advertising being demonstrated in this case study -- the ability to rapidly test and optimize the campaign using tools from companies like those that are helping Sugarshots on this campaign -- 24/7 Real Media, Atlas DMT and Think Metrics. Why not isolate some of the packaging attributes/options and see which ones are most appealing? This approach could spawn a new term I came up with -- “Researchvertising.” Having done exactly zero CPG research, I would ask more experienced CPG marketers to confirm that this would be cost effective. But my hunch is that they spend a large sum on packaging research in somewhat contrived environments. A properly structured ad campaign could not only get the word out on a product, but could also help evolve the product itself in a much more rapid fashion. Another Ben Franklin quote is apt here, “When you are finished changing, you’re finished.” The nimbleness of a startup like Sugarshots is one of its advantages; it should leverage this in its battles against its behemoth competitors.
It’s interesting to see that at this early stage of the campaign “conventional wisdom” has already been proven to be out-of-date (i.e., that a “Call to Action” in the ad creative actually reduces the actual desired actions being taken). With open minds and an active testing methodology, those behind the campaign will surely expose much more unconventional "research."
Implicit in my comments is the importance of encouraging as much Product trial as possible, particularly since it’s a new category. If Sugarshots had restaurant-friendly “packet” Packaging, it would be much more affordable to send a trial size from the website, along with some recipes for use beyond the obvious of putting it in coffee or tea. I like the fact that Sugarshots’ website encourages people to post recipes, an example of what Joseph Jaffe refers to as "communal marketing" in his book, “Life After the 30 Second Spot" (reviewed here by Dave Morgan). When working with startup brands, I’ve often echoed what Al Ries has to say in “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR”: PR builds brands, while Advertising maintains brands. However, I agree with Jaffe’s premise that PR is built on the back of communal marketing. Communal marketing was the basis for the success of brands such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google. They did little advertising to build their brand, yet relied heavily on the idea of communal marketing. I’m certain that Sugarshots has a great opportunity to tap into communal marketing concepts to create stories that become “PR-able.” For example, since I suggested a different packaging approach, why not have Sugarshots’ community contribute their ideas for new product packaging. I’m certain there are a lot of product packaging designers (professional and amateur) who are in Sugarshots' target. Give the winner(s) a year’s supply of premium coffee and Sugarshots. The premium coffee partner could help promote the contest, thus broadening the reach of the promotion.
As I pondered how I might offer up further insights, I asked myself a variation on a familiar question -- “What would Jaffe do?” Jaffe’s book is chock-a-block full of ideas and reminders that will jog your thoughts. I’ll end this piece encouraging Joseph and other leading thinkers (yes, that’s you) in the iMedia community to add your thoughts to what has been started. (Note: This is a variation on a brainstorming technique encouraging people to build on the ideas of others.):
- Joseph joined the open source marketing chorus in his book. It would be interesting to hear what he has to say about this campaign. Other members of the “chorus” are Steve Rubel (a regular iMedia contributor), who has mentioned open source marketing in his blog, and James Cherkoff, who I believe was the first person to use the term open source marketing in his “manifesto,” which I found after starting down this path. When James learned of this project, he reached out and offered to help. I look forward to Joseph, Steve, James and anyone else taking this feedback and campaign to the next level.
- Jaffe argues that the old paradigm of advertising's purpose being to Inform, Persuade and Remind is being replaced by Empower, Demonstrate and Involve. Sugarshots has ample opportunity to do all three.
- Jaffe proposes 10 approaches that are transforming the marketing and advertising game:
- The internet
- Gaming
- On-demand viewing
- Experiential marketing
- Long-form content
- Communal marketing
- Consumer-generated content
- Search
- Music & mobile
- Branded entertainment.
I’d argue that at least six of these could be well used in the Sugarshots “reality marketing campaign.” What do you think? If you’d like to share your ideas, click here.
Dave Chase is a partner with Altus Alliance, which specializes in driving revenue traction for emerging businesses.He publishes a blog entitled Chase Market Velocity that focuses on how emerging businesses can gain market traction via the Enterprise Sales Learning Curve principles espoused by Mark Leslie. Before joining Altus Alliance, Chase spent nearly 20 years in the industry with over a dozen years at Microsoft in various senior marketing and general management roles, including his role as MSN’s managing director for industry marketing and relations. In that capacity, he was responsible for MSN taking a leadership role within the Interactive Marketing industry to grow Online’s share of the overall ad market in concert with AOL, CNET, Yahoo!, Google and other market leaders.
Chase played leadership roles in launching several new businesses within Microsoft including Microsoft’s entry into the enterprise software and server business which is now an $8B business. This included co-leading Microsoft’s first vertical marketing efforts where he grew the Healthcare vertical market from virtually no presence to a market leading position. The healthcare business now represents nearly $500M in revenue for Microsoft.
From there, he was integral in Microsoft’s entry into consumer internet businesses that achieved both critical and financial success. These included Sidewalk, Encarta and HomeAdvisor, which were among the first profitable consumer internet businesses for Microsoft. He has contributed to iMedia via articles and Summit presentations.