After brands’ more ‘real’, product-focused approach to Christmas last year they have switched back to emotional advertising; but there are as many winners as losers in the brand-building game.
Lidl is delivering ‘a Christmas you can believe in’ as it continues its strategy to be known for more than just price.
Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson explains how generating excess share of voice enabled Lidl to accelerate sales and market share, and tackle brand perceptions.
Lidl is focusing on the ‘big on quality’ aspect of its brand strapline, rather than ‘Lidl on price’, as it looks to make its points of difference clearer and convince more shoppers to “keep coming back”.
Many retailers moved away from the big brand campaigns in favour of product-focused ads this Christmas but as retailers reveal their festive performance there are signs this may not always have been the right strategy to take.
Lidl is hoping its comical ads will convince customers it has everything they need to “upgrade” their festive celebrations.
Having increased digital investment as it raised its marketing budgets, the discounter has since scaled spend back to “more appropriate levels” after finding it wasn’t as effective as other channels.
Plus Lego pairs with Chinese internet giant Tencent to launch a virtual world, and Starbucks wins a trade mark case against Belgian coffee brand.
The supermarket rivals are looking to demonstrate their relevance for consumers by celebrating the British public’s quirky “festive personalities”.
The discounter’s head of media Sam Gaunt says the marketing industry is “guilty of overselling programmatic” and that the brand gets much better ROI from press, radio and TV advertising.
Aldi and Lidl continue to make massive gains in the UK grocery market as the big four supermarkets lose out on market share.
Rising food inflation is playing into the hands of the discounters, according to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
Despite reporting its first annual sales growth in seven years, Tesco’s CEO Dave Lewis is aware food inflation could force the resurgent brand to make some bold changes.
Food inflation shows “no signs of abating”, and Kantar Worldpanel expects that to benefit own-label products over branded FMCG goods.
As Asos and Tesco once again reiterate their commitment to investing in customer experience, marketers should stand up and take notice.