Key Insights From Prolific North Live

Our team recently attended Prolific North Live 2024, a conference loaded with top industry experts from creatives to strategists. We’ve put together our favourite insights that are sure to help you improve performance and achieve growth.

Broaden your audience for maximum growth

Contrary to what you hear marketing strategists preach about on LinkedIn, knowing your audience and being very targeted with your marketing isn’t always the most effective way to achieve growth. The thinking behind this is inspired by research into consumer buying habits, which shows how the majority of consumers dip in and out of brands.

• Over 70% of Coca-Cola drinkers also drink Pepsi.
• Over 22% of McDonalds customers also eat at Burger King

Apply this to your own life. Do you only shop at one brand of supermarket? Wear one brand of clothing? What big brands realised is loyalty doesn’t drive growth, because humans are creatures of convenience, not loyalty.

That’s why your focus needs to be on market penetration. By targeting a broader audience, you can significantly increase your customer base and boost overall sales. This can be done by allowing your brand to form a mental shortcut in a wider population of people.

Creating a mental shortcut for your brand

Most people aren’t actively seeking your product or service. To capture their attention when they do become receptive, you need to create a mental shortcut for your brand. This could be a memorable slogan, a unique value proposition, or a strong visual identity.

This also means being consistent with your messaging and your brand. Don’t give up too quickly if something doesn’t work, lay the foundations and appear consistently over time.

Take McDonalds for example. They’ve created their Empire over many years. Now their brand can be identified from something as simple as the shape of their fries, their iconic Big Mac, and even the packaging they serve the food in.

Say no to the price promo drug

Price promotions might seem like a quick fix for poor performance, but they can become a harmful addiction for your brand. Overreliance on discounts can erode your brand’s value and make it difficult to raise prices in the future.

One brand that fell into this trap was KitKat. One year they noticed sales were really low and the share price dropping. To combat the poor performance of their product they dropped the price. Sure enough, sales went up and the board were happy. But once the product returned to its original price a worrying trend had been set.

The value of the product in the consumer’s mind had been reduced. It was now more difficult to convince shoppers to purchase KitKats when they weren’t involved in an offer. And so, a cycle of price promotions begins which is now eating into profit margins.

Don’t overlook the over-65 demographic

The over-65 age group is often overlooked in marketing strategies, but they represent a significant and growing consumer segment. There’s a belief that at 65 our hair turns white, we move into a retirement home, and enjoy nothing but playing checkers and having afternoon tea. This isn’t the case at all, and many people in the over-65 bracket are still active in wanting to travel, go to restaurants, and invest in the latest technology.

Here are some examples of brands missing the mark…

• Over 40% of over 65s own an iPad or tablet device. However, the over-65 demographic isn’t represented in any of the marketing material by Apple.
• Products that are common purchases by the over 65s such as Yorkshire Tea and Jacobs Crackers are actually nearly impossible to open for over 65s suffering from arthritis in their fingers.
• The average body text size in marketing emails is often between 10 and 14. This is too small for over-65s to read easily. Consider increasing your brand’s body text size to 16-20 if you have an older demographic in your customer base.

Don’t miss out on this valuable opportunity to reach an audience that can help your sales grow.

Focus on people, not channels

Effective marketing is about connecting emotionally with your audience, not just reaching them through different channels. People think emotion just means making people sad. But emotion can make people laugh, happy or even angry. Some of the best ads make people laugh and although these ads still come around from time to time, some brands have lost their way.

A lot of brands stay in their lane and churn out the same stuff, focusing on what each channel’s demographic is. But the market is so overcrowded if you’re not connecting with people on a deeper level, you’re not creating a brand shortcut in their minds.

Be honest about your brand’s strengths and weaknesses, and use that authenticity to build genuine relationships with your customers. You don’t have to appease everyone; some people might not find your ads funny and some people might even be offended. But their potential in the people who do resonate with your ad is huge.

Brands shouldn’t have a fear of making mistakes. They should have a fear of being boring.

If you’d like some expert help taking your brand or campaigns to the next level then contact our team of creative strategists.