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How can confectionary companies use a combination of PPC and social media to accomodate the rise in food related health concerns?

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An arising issue most confectionary manufacturer’s face is the growing concerns that unhealthy food can have on society. This has been a growing issue over the past few years, causing action to be taken in certain parts of the country with government backed ad campaigns and in some cases, banning the advertisement of unhealthy foods (Buss, 2016), therefore presenting confectionary companies with a challenge.

These companies must now realise a method in which to advertise their products which accounts for health implications as well as receiving successful returns from their marketing campaigns.

Most confectionary companies target market is young people or children, and in order to reach them a lot of advertising techniques target the parents to purchase the confectionary for their children. This therefore renders health implications in advertising a priority, as parents are unlikely to buy unhealthy foods for their children (Ip, Mehta & Coveney, 2007).

Television has encountered a lot of negative press about the advertisement of confectionary and is regarded as having a bad influence on children (Woodward, 1997). A social media approach is perhaps the best way to reach the target market of young people, and in doing so offers a platform in which customers can interact with the company. Allowing the customer to have a two-way conversation with the company leads to a happy and returning customer, as well as a business that knows what its customers want, and how to deliver that. The benefit of this is it allows the company to fight any negative stigma by contacting the customer directly.

The visual aids of advertising unhealthy food have in particular come under scrutiny in the war against unhealthy food. The use of imagery to manipulate unhealthy food as being positive and attractive has been condemned (Boydell, Scally & Scott, 1991) in modern society, and as such requires attention by marketers. The use of imagery in marketing, especially marketing food, is incredibly effective, as images act as the catalyst in increasing customer’s attention to the brand (Underwood et al, 2001). Therefore can’t be rejected.

But in order to turn it into a positive, confectionary companies must use imagery in a positive way. The use of Snapchat could enable this, as food channels on snapchat such as “Healthy AF” and “Tastemade” have seen success.

By producing images and videos of not just aesthetically pleasing food but also content which explains and encourages health in their food, customers will benefit as well as the company.

Using Snapchat is a proven method of getting customers to interact with a company, with things such as sponsored filters and events. These interactions are a great way to drive customers to the company’s main selling platform and leads to positive thoughts of the brand (Coyle & Thorson, 2001). Using interactive methods on snapchat to provide content encouraging healthy heating habits for the target market can see results for the company all the while addressing these health issues.

Another approach that can be used to reach the parent target market is the use of Pay per click advertising, where a company will have their advert placed at the top of a search engine and pay every time it gets clicked on. Using the PPC approach can become useful as it can target certain audiences, meaning adverts will only appear to parents in certain areas and at certain times, so during school holidays for example.

Along with this it also targets keywords. This is crucial for advertising to parents via PPC, as confectionary companies can bid on keywords such as “nutritious” and “healthy” gaining more interest from the parents (Goldberg, Gorn & Gibson, 1978).

All of this being said, it’s important to not false advertise and stretch the truth as far as the products healthiness actually is. These strategies are ways in which companies can account for what customers want and how they can integrate it into their marketing methods. PPC allows for easy target and keyword marketing, allowing parents to find what they are looking for, and Snapchat enables the visuals of the product to incorporate health aspects such as healthy baking videos and tutorials on a balanced diet. Giving both target markets, of parents and children, what they both want, which is nutrition as well as something tasty will ensure customer retention, as both parties are pleased.

 

References

Boydell, L., Scally, G. and Scott, M. (1991). Advertising for health?. Health Education Journal, 50(1), pp.31-33.

Buss, C. (2016). Advertising ban for unhealthy food and drinks is ‘welcome step’. Available: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/advertising-ban-for-unhealthy-food-and-drinks-is-welcome-step/story-29965664-detail/story.html. Last accessed 01/05/17.

Coyle, J.R. and Thorson, E., 2001. The effects of progressive levels of interactivity and vividness in web marketing sites. Journal of advertising, 30(3), pp.65-77.

Goldberg, M.E., Gorn, G.J. and Gibson, W. (1978). The effects of TV messages for high and low nutritional foods on children’s snack and breakfast food choices. NA-Advances in Consumer Research Volume 05.

Ip, J., Mehta, K.P. and Coveney, J. (2007). Exploring parents’ perceptions of television food advertising directed at children: a South Australian study. Nutrition & Dietetics, 64(1), pp.50-58.

Underwood, R.L., Klein, N.M. and Burke, R.R., 2001. Packaging communication: attentional effects of product imagery. Journal of product & brand management, 10(7), pp.403-422.

Woodward, D.R., Cumming, F.J., Ball, P.J., Williams, H.M., Hornsby, H. and Boon, J.A. (1997). Does television affect teenagers’ food choices?. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 10(4), pp.229-235.

Exploring the effects of Pay per click advertising for large corporation’s vs start-ups.

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Pay per click (PPC) advertising allows a business to pay for their advert to appear at the top of a search engine results page (SERP), thereby essentially paying for clicks and receiving more traction to their website.

This PPC method has largely been regarded as a great digital marketing tool especially for small businesses to use when looking at breaking into a new market. Having PPC adverts allows smaller companies to appear higher on SERP’s and therefore receive more interactions, this is a much better alternative to use these smaller companies build SEO reputation with quality content, something that takes time.

Not only does PPC produce more favourable results than SEO for smaller businesses (Cain, 2016) but a huge benefit on top of that is the ability to appeal to a large audience in a small amount of time. As Lombardi (2011) stated “When immediate results are desired, paid advertising is a powerful strategy for generating nearly instantaneous traffic after the campaign has been launched”.

It is uncommon for large multinational businesses to use PPC as a method of digital marketing, and this is assumed because they usually have brand recognition and great SEO rankings that they don’t have to pay for clicks, their reputation does it for them. However, due to the lack of multinational businesses doing so, it could work as a competitive advantage for businesses in a large oligopoly for example, giving them another angle to steal customers from competitors, especially in markets where brand loyalty is a struggle. Sullivan (2003) states “PPC advertising can become increasingly expensive for companies as they are locked in bidding wars over the same keywords, driving up each other’s costs”. Having a lack of competitors using PPC means this won’t be a problem and remains an obstacle for smaller companies whose competitors all use PPC.

Another good use for larger companies is the ability to target audiences with specific adverts. Large companies have large product portfolios all targeting different markets and segments, so adopting an initiative that can cater to different market segments is surely beneficial no? The Google AdWords account can allow ads to target selective audiences and be shown at specific times of the day.

For example, an ice cream business is influenced heavily by seasonality, so it can create adverts to only show when the weather is above certain temperatures, and will only target parents, who will go and buy ice cream for their children. This was shown to be the case when Manning Gottleib were appointed to take charge of the marketing strategy of Starbucks, and used weather factors ot influence when adverts were shown (Dar, 2000).

Larger companies also have a large budget to accommodate their size. Research has shown that the most effective PPC campaigns are the ones which cost the most, and to be successful a large budget for PPC is required, usually at least £500 a month is required to be effective (Sullivan, 2003). Essentially the more you spend on PPC the more you will get back. This increased budget can also help pay for trained staff to manage the account, which research shows leads to a higher success rate for PPC campaigns (Sen, 2005).

On the other hand, PPC can offer a more difficult platform for larger companies to compete on. Larger companies prefer to use an SEO approach due to the main reason that it’s free. A lot of people refrain from clicking the first results they see on a SERP regarding it as spam and not good quality, whereas SEO ranking is based on having good quality relevant content, and large companies have usually established this already.

Overall, only certain large companies can really reap the rewards of PPC marketing. Being in the right market is essential, as large companies are constantly competing for market share stealing competitors can play a big part. So operating in a market where brand loyalty is tough to maintain could mean PPC will be a successful strategy, for example, the confectionary industry. Another must for a large company to utilise PPC is having some brand recognition, this will counter act the stigma of adverts in a SERP being spam if the viewer can identify the company behind it.

If you’re a small business wanting to use PPC here’s why you should. That being said, in order to be successful you need to know what you’re doing large or small business, so here’s a useful link on the do’s and don’ts when staring up a PPC account.

References

Cain, E. (2016). How to use SEO and PPC the right way (5 short case studies). Available: http://www.pagewiz.com/blog/ppc/seo-and-ppc. Last accessed 07/04/17.

Dar, I. (2000). Manning Gottleib wins Starbucks media strategy and buying tasks. Available: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/manning-gottlieb-wins-starbucks-media-strategy-buying-tasks/45902. Last accessed 17/04/17.

Lombardi, G. (2011). SEO vs. PPC: Which strategy will deliver you biggest ROI? Dental economics. 101 (10), p1-4.

Sen, R. (2005). Optimal search engine marketing strategy. International journal of electronic commerce. 10 (1), p9-25.

Sullivan, T. (2003). Competitively using Pay per click advertising. International journal of electronic commerce. 7 (3), p14-15.