Why is it important to evaluate effectiveness?
- Provides benchmarks and allows us to assess progress against marketing and business objectives
- Enables us to learn from experience and, as a result, can influence and improve future activity
- Makes the expenditure on communications activity accountable to the business as well as helping to justify future expenditure
In the John Lewis case study, what was the challenge with the department’s store image?
- Consumers respected it rather than loved it
- It was considered more for functional items than emotional ones
- It seemed expensive and out of sync
Why did the TV and press communications of John Lewis between 2008 and 2008 fail to change perceptions?
- They were product-focused
- They lacked consistency
- They had poor branding
- They didn’t cut-through
What was John Lewis’ financial and competitive situation in 2009, before the communications overhaul?
- Gross sales were -0.1%, like-for-like sales -3.4%, operating profit had dropped by 26%
- It was the middle of a recession where consumer confidence had dropped
- They have significantly less stores and advertising budget than competitors M&S and Debenhams
What was the objective in a new communications approach for John Lewis?
The primary objective was to encourage existing shoppers to visit a little more and spend a little more.
The secondary objective was to get those who hadn’t shopped at John Lewis recently to see the brand in a fresh light and decide to visit again or for the first time.
What was the strategy behind the new communications approach for John Lewis?
- Emphasis on emotional advertising to make existing
customers more conscious of what makes John Lewis special. John Lewis serves people at some of the most emotional times in their lives.
How did John Lewis position themselves against the competition in their 2009 Christmas campaign?
They chose to position themselves as the home of thoughtful gifting, celebrating those who put more
care into what they choose and how they present it.
What strategy did John Lewis take to bring back the ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ promise?
They used an emotional demonstration of their constancy through the key moments of a customer’s life, implying that in a world that now felt very changeable John Lewis remains a beacon of stability, offering permanent and multi-dimensional good value.
How does John Lewis used TV effectively?
- TV is used emotionally at key stages where consumer spending is expected to increase
- Production to Media ratio is large but bursts are short (though duration of ads is long, 60”)
- High-end production reflects the quality of the store
- Ads appear in highly-emotional programmes to get high reach fast so to gain earned media and word of mouth
- Ads appear in ‘highly sociable’ programmes (to get more tweets, shares ,etc)
How does John Lewis do print ‘emotionally’?
- Using richer colours
- Stylish photography
- More emotive copy
How have John Lewis improved their branding and maintained communications efficiency?
By using a consistent look and feel they have created a strong tonal ‘handwriting’ for the brand across all product categories and types of message.
How was the John Lewis campaign successful?
- The communications were noticed and enjoyed
- The communications were sought out, talked about and shared by consumers
- The communications were talked about by the media and entered popular culture
- Brand perceptions improved
- Penetration, frequency and average spend increased
- The business grew and outperformed the competition
- The communications directly contributed to significant sales and profit uplifts (ROI of over 500%)
- The communications had other indirect business effects
- The communications made Partners very happy
How has advertising increased John Lewis’ success in other business areas?
Brands that were previously reluctant to be stocked in John Lewis have sought to be distributed there and allocation of stock and exclusives has improved. These developments greatly increase John Lewis’s competitiveness and are extremely valuable.
