The market-based assets theory of brand competition
Kotler popularised the Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning (STP) theory of brand competition. This theory still dominates marketing textbooks. In this article we show how the discovery of scientific laws concerning how brands compete, grow, and decline clash with the STP theory. The contradiction between these empirical regularities and STP theory has led to the recent emergence of a new market-based asset view of brand competition. We show how this theory fits the now well-established empirical laws, and we discuss some promising areas for future research.
CitationSharp, B., Dawes, J., Victory, K. (2023). “The market-based assets theory of brand competition”. Forthcoming in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.
Reaching Voters on Social Media: Planning Political Advertising on Snapchat
Over the past decade, political advertising via social media has grown rapidly, spurred by microtargeting, which looks to deliver specific messages to tightly defined audiences. Microtargeting strategies have been claimed to be effective, but questions remain around their cost, when looking to optimise impressions for a given budget. We analyse 11,837 ads aired on Snapchat over a two-year period leading up to the 2020 presidential election in the United States, which differ in the number of targeting criteria applied. We compare the number of impressions and the spend per ad placement (measured in CPM), also considering the length of advertising schedule. We find that using fewer targeting criteria and longer schedules increases impressions with comparable or lower spend than microtargeting. These findings are in line with those from traditional broadcast media, such as TV, highlighting the relevance of existing media scheduling knowledge from traditional platforms for political advertising on newer, digital media.
CitationTanusondjaja, A., Michelon, A., Hartnett, N., Stocchi, L. (2023) "Reaching Voters on Social Media: Planning Political Advertising on Snapchat". Forthcoming in the International Journal of Market Research.
Death by 1,000 ‘true fans’: Do marketing laws apply to music listening?
The advice to musicians and marketers is to focus on what they love: a truism for practitioners is to find 1,000 “true fans” and make $100 from each of them (Kelly, 2008). If this advice is correct, we should see musicians with loyal user bases engaging more with their favourite artists and less with other music, suggesting a narrow targeting strategy would suffice. On the other hand, the established marketing laws indicate that the listeners of very different genres should overlap more than conventional wisdom would suggest, supporting the need for a much broader approach to targeting potential audiences. Given these conflicting views, musicians need to know if they should market to their existing listeners, the listeners of music similar to theirs (i.e., the same genre), or if they should try to reach a much wider audience. This study explores this.
CitationAnesbury, Z., Davies, C., Driesener, C., Page, B., Greenacre, L., Yang , S. and Bruwer, J. (2022) "Death by 1,000 ‘true fans’: Do marketing laws apply to music listening?". Forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
The Power of Nostalgia: Age and Preference for Popular Music
Marketers need evidence to help them select music to promote their products. Ethnicity, social class and/or personality type can distinguish individual music tastes, but age & nostalgia may be the largest determinant of all.
Research into listener preference for music from different eras has found conflicting results. Papers generally agree that it takes an inverse-U shape, but disagree on the era for which people are most nostalgic. The seminal paper found a peak for music released when listeners were 23 years of age (Holbrook & Schindler 1989), a follow up 9 years of age (Hemming 2013), and 19 years of age (Holbrook & Schindler 2013).
This paper attempts to correct the issues raised by Holbrook & Schindler (2013) by improving the representativeness of the sample and introducing a new analysis technique, the two-lines test.
CitationDavies, C., Page, B., Driesener, D., Anesbury, Z., Yang, S., Bruwer, J. (2022) "The Power of Nostalgia: Age and Preference for Popular Music". Forthcoming in the Marketing Letters.
Quantifying the target market for advertisers
Marketers who want to protect their brand’s share or grow it need to know who to reach and nudge with advertising. This paper uses continuous household panel data for 55 leading, advertised brands in 12 cpg categories to quantify their target market over different time frames and conditions (market type, brand size and dynamism). Results demonstrate that the customer base (brand penetration) must swell dramatically over time to maintain, let alone grow, market share. For stable brands, penetration typically doubles from its level in one quarter to a year, then again from one year to five years as brands continue to attract lighter buyers who underpin long run sales. Over five years, over a third of brand buyers are so light that they buy the brand just once, but such buyers are vital to sales and critical to growth. As well as quantifying the five-year target audience for brands across these conditions, we test the predictive accuracy of the NBD-Dirichlet as a benchmark. The implications for advertising and media strategy are detailed. The long-term lessons for targeting become clear – unless brands “target the market”, they have adopted a counter growth strategy.
CitationGraham, C., Kennedy, R. (2021). "Quantifying the target market for advertisers". Forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
Market share growth requires building mental and physical availability among all category buyers. However, if younger category buyers are more likely to purchase new-to-market products, then perhaps younger buyers are, relatively speaking, more important for growth. This research investigates the relationship between category buyer age, brand buyer age, and brand failure. When sub-brand buyer age is younger than category-buyer age, the sub-brand is likely to be (a) new-to-market, or (b) growing in market share. Older-than-category sub-brand-buyer age is likely for sub-brands that are (a) declining, or (b) dead. Results from 17 years (1998-2014) of UK household panel data, including 5,913 sub-brands from 101 categories, show that age skews were uncommon (only 18% of sub-brands), and secondly, that growing, stable and declining sub-brands appealed equally to all ages. Finally, we identified that new launches and dead brands tend to skew to younger consumers, suggesting that new launches need to appeal to all ages to avoid failure.
CitationAnesbury, Z., Bellman, S., Driesener, D., Page, B., & Sharp, B. (2021) "Ageism Kills Brands. Forthcoming in the Australasian Marketing Journal.
Net audiences: a comparison of the Sainsbury Normal Method and the Sainsbury Weighted Method
For almost nine decades, advertisers have relied on the Sainsbury Normal Method (SNM) to estimate net-reach where single-source data are either too expensive or unavailable. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no SNM validation studies have included catalogues, smartphone applications, websites, social media, or cinema. While few studies have applied the SNM across media, no study has addressed the limitation of the SNM, that is, the implied assumption of audience homogeneity. Given that audiences do differ by age within any medium, and across media, there is a need to incorporate audience heterogeneity into the method. The authors introduce the Sainsbury Weighted Method (SWM) which provides more accurate within medium net-reach estimations in 82% of the 9,680 cases analysed, with an average accuracy improvement for within medium net-reach estimations of 0.6 percentage points (or 13%). For across media net-reach, the SWM estimations are more accurate in 77% of the 968 cases analysed, improving the average accuracy by 0.5 percentage points (or 49%).
CitationAnesbury, Z., Driesener, C., Page, B., Bellman, S. and Sharp, B. (2020). "Net audiences: a comparison of the Sainsbury Normal Method and the Sainsbury Weighted Method". Forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Management.
The influence of packaging on quality and taste perceptions across varying consumer demographics
This study investigates the important managerial issue of whether the packaging language of the Western consumer packaged-food (CPF) products should be adapted for emerging markets. An experiment using a 2 (Western vs adapted packaging) x 2 (product categories) design was conducted instore with real products to enhance the study’s external validity. With Pakistan as the contextual emerging market, Pakistani shoppers (n = 188) were exposed to the English and adapted (Urdu) packaging of the two products, and rated their quality perception, packaging likability, and attributes associated with the packaging. They also tasted and rated their overall satisfaction with the taste, and chose their preferred packaging. Underpinned by standardisation and adaptation literature and symbolic perception theory, the findings show that consumers rated and preferred the English packaging more than the adapted packaging. Also, while the English packaging was associated with attributes including elegance and trustworthiness, the adapted packaging was viewed as more personalised. Furthermore, the findings hold across demographic variables of income and English language literacy. These findings run contrary to the prevailing strategy of Western global brands in emerging markets, where the usual practice is to localise the packaging of the brands as they enter the markets. The findings provide both theoretical and practical insights into the implications of localisation strategy of Western brands in emerging markets.
CitationKhan, H., Lee, R. (2020). "The influence of packaging on quality and taste perceptions across varying consumer demographics". Forthcoming in the Food Quality and Preference
Some Practical and Theoretical Difficulties of Target Marketing
Most major marketing textbooks, including Kotler’s, have long argued for target marketing as the superior strategy, encouraging marketers to find and pursue exclusive segments within their competitive category. We argue for more critical questioning of this theory and the development of a more thorough epistemological basis to the theory. We highlight empirical evidence that competing brands seldom sell to different sorts of customers, even when the brands’ marketing strategy is obviously predicated on the belief that the brand appeals to a distinct segment. We show that it is difficult, or at least wasteful, to use media that targets a specific segment. We encourage marketing theorists to develop a more realistic, empirically grounded, theory of target marketing.
CitationDanenberg, Nick, Byron Sharp, and Rachel Kennedy (2006), “Some Practical & Theoretical Difficulties of Target Marketing,” in 35th European Marketing Academy Conference. Athens.
The Logical Limitations of Target Marketing
Smith's idea of segmentation has been steadily refined into Kotler's target marketing, and widely adopted by academics and practitioners. However, this approach has not been empirically justified, and is logically invalid in its simple forms. In this paper, a logically valid approach to target marketing is developed, and the conditions required for such an approach established. These conditions are found to be true far less often than suggested by proponents of target marketing. An alternative approach is then offered to guide marketing decisions when the requirements for target marketing cannot be met.
CitationWright, Malcolm and Don Esslemont (1994), “The Logical Limitations of Target Marketing,” Marketing Bulletin, 5 (5), 13-20.