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Marketing to Consumers
Everywhere we go, it seems like we are always having a product or service adver-
tised to us. It can be outdoors(billboards, blimps, on buildings and even from the comfort of our
homes ( television, the internet, magazines). Marketing for companies plays a huge part in the
success for their business. It helps get the word out about products and services, helps increase
sales, helps with a companies reputation, and even helps foster an environment in the market-
place for healthy competition.
Since there are so many different topics related to marketing, there are many differ-
ent aspects to explore. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the different and unique
ways companies market to consumers, as well as some of the ethical issues related to marketing
to consumers. These topics are important because the marketing approach a company takes can
determine the success of their product or service. Being ethical in advertising is important as well
because being unethical in marketing practices can damage a company’s reputation and credibil-
ity, as well as the loss of customers and sales.
Coca Cola’s “Share a Coke” Campaign
The “Share a Coke” campaign consists of various names and nicknames being printed on Coke
bottles. When you find your name, you are urged to share a picture on twitter, as well as other
forms of social media and then Coca Cola proceeds to put the pics in their website gallery. Ac-
cording to CocaCola.com, more then 335,000 bottles have been shared on their website so far.
This campaign has been great because it gives a personal touch and increases the connection a
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consumer feels to the brand. This is important because 78% of consumers feel that brands that
create unique and personalized content are more interested in building a relationship with them
(Hanley-Wood Business Media, 2013) .The campaign earned a total of 18,300,000+ media im-
pressions and traffic on the Coke Facebook site increased by 870%, with page “likes” growing
by 39%.From a social perspective, Coca-Cola has seen its Facebook community grow by 3.5%
and globally by 6.8%.The hashtag “Share a Coke” has also been used 29,000 times on Twitter
(Brandwatch, 2013)."Share A Coke" was first launched in 2011 in Australia and Coca Cola in-
creased in sales by 7% among Australians and the campaign has since been launched in 80 other
countries.
Figure 1.
Lays “Do Us a Flavor” Campaign
“Do Us A Flavor” was the Lays brand’s biggest campaign ever in history. The brand asked con-
sumers to come up with flavor ideas for a chance to win $1 million or more, with the help of star
restaurateur Eva Longoria and celebrity chef Michael Symon. There were more then 3.8 million
submissions. There many different wacky flavors, such as Chicken and Waffles, Sriracha, and
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Cappuccino. But, who won the $1 million prize? One extremely creative consumer with her
cheesy garlic bread flavored chips. According to baalink.com, Lay’s brand had suffered a decline
in sales(74.9% to 62.2% in six years). Their goal with the campaign was to grow sales and pene-
tration, including a sales boost of 5% during the campaign, to surpass 1.2 million flavor submis-
sions and 1 million votes, and to drive social media engagement between the brand and 18–34
year-olds to help appeal to younger age groups, increasing their Facebook fan base by 500,000
with over half of app users within that younger adult age group. There were also many different
marketing strategies used in the campaign. These include celebrity endorsement (Eva Longoria
and celebrity chef Michael Symon, a campaign launch event(a Lay’s pop-up store in Times
Square where people could taste flavors from around the world for inspiration, enter the contest,
meet our celebrity endorsers, and see the $1 million prize inside a bulletproof-glass case), the use
of social media, which is where consumers could do their submissions, a television spot, and of
course, the $1 million prize being the ultimate incentive to enter. The campaign was the most
successful in Lays history and as a result, there was an 8% sales increase and $40 million in ad-
ditional revenue during the 12-week finalist flavor launch period, it Created a social media phe-
nomenon,helping the brand to connect with young adults(over 2.7 million people installed the
campaign app and the Lays Facebook
page got 2.2 new fans), and it increased its
primary tar- get audience of 18–34 year
olds, which was previously declining.
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Figure 2.
Starbucks “Tweet-A-Coffee” Campaign & Marketing Ideas
Starbucks is one of the most successful coffee businesses in the world, constantly staying con-
nected to their customers and encouraging customer engagement, such as with their My Star-
bucks website,which encourages customers to submit ideas for better products, improving the
customer experience, and defining new community involvement, among other categories.It en-
courages customers to submit ideas for better products, improving the customer experience, and
defining new community involvement, among other categories. Starbucks also has a big inside
community, with fans creating their own drink blends and posting them to share online with oth-
ers, which contribute to Starbucks “Secret Menu”. Starbucks is present on multiple social media
