BrainTrust Query: Does P&G's Tremor have the formula for building "The Buzz"?
By Bill Bittner, President, BWH Consulting
Marketing folks are still pondering how to deal with the continuing fragmentation of consumer lifestyles. Do you run TV ads, hit the radio waves, start an internet campaign or, better yet - do you start "the buzz" yourself? Procter & Gamble has a new service for doing just that. (I kind of stumbled on it while doing some research into the Global Commerce Initiative's prediction of the retail environment for 2016.)
Tremor is the name of the marketing service that P&G has started. They work closely with their clients to develop marketing campaigns that utilize two national panels P&G has built. One panel consists of 450,000 women with kids (i.e. mothers) and the other consists of 250,000 boys and girls, ages 13 to 19. The panelists have been identified as "connectors," consumers who are likely to carry a message to others. The average mother speaks to five people a day; the "connector mom" speaks to 20. The average teen has 25 people on their IM (instant messenger) list; the "connector teen" has 150.
The P&G service proceeds in five steps, designed to create a measurable impact on consumer awareness and sales through peer group buzz. One of the case studies posted on the Tremor web site describes the process. The campaign was organized for the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP) with a goal of pumping up milk consumption among teens who currently drink at least one glass per day.
Tremor began by researching teen attitudes, in this case the role of milk in their overall health. What came out was a desire among teens to maintain a "toned" appearance.
Tremor deployed a "3x Challenge" campaign to its panel of 250,000 teen "connectors" with the claim: "Drinking three eight-ounce glasses of milk a day can help you achieve the look you want." Panelists received information packets, Lance Armstrong-style bracelets to share with friends and other material designed to inspire participation.
According to the Tremor web site, the campaign resulted in an additional 1.5 million teens "talking about milk" and consumption indexing at 105 nationally.
Discussion Questions: Does Tremor's method seem like a viable way to convey a marketing message? Can the impact of a panel of "connectors" be enough to get stimulate buzz? Does a company risk any consumer backlash if consumers discover they are being targeted?
The Global Commerce Initiative study is an interesting projection of what the retail landscape might look like in 2016. But the key point that surrounded the discussion of Tremor was that "manufacturers are going to begin acting more like retailers and retailers are going to begin acting more like manufacturers." Manufacturers will begin promoting more directly to end consumers as they use new information channels to reach targeted individuals (not just markets). Retailers must distinguish themselves by offering services that differentiate the product offerings at their locations from their competitors'. In the supermarket area, this will include the "assembly" of whole household meals that are prepared from recipes at the store.
My thought is that the P&G technique might work for the "mom market," but I have concerns about the teen market. Not that I think moms are more gullible; I just believe they will not question each other's motivation as much. I believe teens will be more perceptive of "what's cool" and that the same kids that are connectors may not be the ones who are coolest. It could be that the reason they have so many names in their IM lists is because they're in the band (not that being in the band is bad).