John Lewis's Effective Promotional Strategies

Task One: Promotional Strategies

Introduction

Promotional strategies are essential for all types of organizations more so high street supermarkets. Hose (2019) notes that individuals will not buy a product or a service that they have never heard of or if they do not know what a company offers. That is why having great promotional strategies is vital for a company. Usually, a company does not use one promotional method, but they apply the use of different marketing methods each with its own purpose. Overall, the purpose of employing promotional strategies is to improve the brand's awareness and to ensure that their target customers are aware of the products and services that the company offers.

The high street supermarket whose promotional strategies shall be reviewed is John Lewis. A study of 10,000 customers was carried out asking about their experiences at various retail stores, and John Lewis was voted as the third best after Richer Sounds and Toolstation (Express 2017). The fact that it was amongst the top three supermarkets on high street means that they must be doing something that attracts customers and improves their experience in the supermarket. Due to that, the company was selected, and its promotional strategies shall be evaluated.

Promotional Strategies used by John Lewis

Digital and Mobile Marketing

When reviewing the promotional strategies that John Lewis employs the first thing that one notices is that the company employs various promotional strategies. The diversity in the promotional strategies that they utilize is one of the things that has enabled the company to set itself apart from its different competitors. One of the key promotional strategies that the company has utilized is the use of digital marketing in its various forms (Burke 2019). The company recognized that online shopping is one of the essential parts that contributed to the overall revenues and the impressive numbers that the company has been recording in its end of year financial statements. As such, the company has invested heavily in online and mobile marketing as a promotional strategy. The company has invested in improving their online platforms and making sure that when a customer accesses their goods online, they have a seamless experience (Burke 2019). Burke (2019) also notes due to the John Lewis’ integration of digital and mobile marketing as part of their promotional strategy it has contributed heavily to an increase in customers. Last year, 75% of the company’s online traffic was generated through the use of mobile devices, and that is why the company has invested heavily in mobile marketing as a promotional strategy. Additionally, the company has combined online marketing within the store marketing. The combination of online and offline customers ensures that the company caters for all demographics that seek their goods. There are some customers that still prefer to visit the physical store while at the same time there are those that prefer to order their products online. The company has come up with a promotional strategy that they call “Click and Collect.” Click and Collect combines elements of online promotional strategies with offline promotional strategies (Burke 2019). A customer purchases their goods online, and then they collect the products that they have ordered from a physical store. The process helps in eliminating the delivery of middlemen. The combination of online and offline marketing strategies has helped improve the company’s profits in the long run and improve the number of customers that walk through their doors. Moreover, the company has invested heavily in speed and trying to ensure that customers have a seamless and fast experience within their stores. Speed has become a high selling point for the customer more so ones who have little time to spend in stores. The customers know that they can order the goods online and then collect the products in person or they can walk into a store and they will be quickly done with their shopping. Therefore, investing in a combination of online and offline promotional activities has helped improve brand awareness amongst customers, and that is seen in the increase in foot traffic in John Lewis stores.

Emotive Television Ads

The company has employed the use of television adverts as part of their promotional strategy. The use of television advertisements has enabled the company to apply the use of emotional marketing. As the term implies, emotional marketing revolves around making an emotional appeal to the customers. The emotional appeal helps to encourage customers to visit the stores and spend a little more while at the same time they attract new shoppers. The most emotive advertisements employed by John Lewis usually revolve around Christmas. Christmas is an essential time for John Lewis since it accounts for 40% of their sales and 20% of their profits (Mackenzie 2013). As such, most of their emotive marketing has been concentrated for the Christmas period, and they are some of the most memorable advertisements that one can be exposed too. In 2009 they ran an ad titled “Remember the feeling,” and it showed children unwrapping adult gifts and they were filled with a lot of happiness (Mackenzie 2013). In 2010, the ad was titled “For those who care,” and it showed that people buy gifts for the people that they care about. In 2011, the ad was titled “The long wait,” and it featured a young boy who was looking forward to Christmas so that he could give his parents a gift (Mackenzie 2013). All the ads have been accompanied by an emotive soundtrack, and they have been tailored to create an emotional connection between shopping at John Lewis, and one feels they are emotionally fulfilled. The use of media has been carefully crafted and optimized to have the highest emotional impact on its customers. Moreover, John Lewis has utilized emotive marketing on television ads even though they are still heavily outspent by their principal rivals. Mackenzie (2013) observes that Mark & Spencer’s annual TV budget is higher than the entire John Lewis’ entire annual advertisement budget. Customers stated that the emotional ads crafted by John Lewis resonated with them more than some other adverts. The ads resonated so much with customers so much that they looked for the ads online and shared them which significantly improved the impact of the ads. The overall effect is that brand awareness was increased and it led to the retention of current customers while enhancing the acquisition of new customers.

Use of Social Media

The other promotional strategy that John Lewis has employed is the use of social media. In the modern era, any company that does not have a significant social media presence is at a gross disadvantage. At times, a company’s social media presence is the one thing that gives a company a competitive advantage over its rivals in the market. John Lewis has employed the effective use of social media as a promotional tool, and that has helped boost brand awareness and improve sales in the company. Mackenzie (2013) notes that when the company released some of their emotive ads, they trended on Twitter within a few hours of their release. The fact that they trended helped improve brand awareness since people who had little information on John Lewis become curious enough to seek out more information on the company. Furthermore, the millennial generation will be the next target market with enough disposable income to spend in John Lewis stores. The millennial generation spends its time on social media and failing to utilize social media to target the millennial generation would not be wise for the company. Due to that realization, John Lewis has invested in the use of social media as a promotional tool. According to Cameron (2019), John Lewis’ use of social media as a promotional tool is unique since it encourages all its employees to spearhead social media marketing. In a sense, the organization has left social media marketing in the hands of its employees, and it seems that it is working for the company. In 2018, John Lewis employees spearheaded the release of the 2018 Christmas ad dubbed ‘The Boy and the Piano.’ Employees started sharing the advert two hours before it was released on television (Cameron 2019). The company has utilized its employees as brand ambassadors, and that has helped improve their social media presence since the company has many employees with access to social media sites. Additionally, the company is also encouraging its partners to do the same thing. In 2018, around 100 partners of the company created bespoke content and posted them on their various websites under the hashtag #wearepartners (Jahshan 2018). The hashtag got over nine million impressions which means that nine million people saw their hashtag which in a sense improved their brand awareness.

The focus on social media marketing gained traction in 2017. Hobbs (2017) notes that in 2017 the company focused on hiring a head of brand and social marketing who would be in charge of social media marketing in its various facets. The company decided to focus on social media marketing as a means of differentiating the experiences that customers have when they visit John Lewis stores as compared to when they visit their rivals’ stores. Additionally, they have focused on 360-video advertising on Facebook. The 360-video advertising gives the customer a general idea of how the product that they are seeking to purchase will look in their homes (Hobbs 2017). Customers can view the products in a real-life house setting, and it allows them to click through and to buy the featured items for their homes. The 360-video marketing has had a significant effect on customers 51% of customers stating that they are excited about the technology and its use (Hobbs 2017). The technology has helped improve customer engagement especially on Facebook, and that has resulted in more walk-ins in their stores and more orders being made from online platforms.

In the end, John Lewis has utilized diverse promotional strategies which have all had the effect of improving brand awareness, retaining current customers while at the same time enhancing the acquisition of new customers. The company has invested heavily in digital and mobile marketing which has improved customer retention. Customers can order something online and go pick it up at the store, or it can be delivered to them. In relation to television ads, the company has focused on emotive marketing where customers feel that they connect with the store and that they should purchase their goods from there. The company has also utilized social media effectively by giving their employees free rein to spearhead their social media campaigns. All in all, the effect of their diverse promotional strategies is that they appeal to different customers and helps attract new customers — moreover, brand awareness increases which translate in more sales, revenue, and profitability. Therefore, John Lewis has employed the use of different promotional strategies in a superb manner.

Task Two: Theoretical Aspects of the Promotional Mix

This part of the paper shall evaluate the theoretical aspects of the promotional strategies that have been utilized by John Lewis.

The AIDA Model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action)

The AIDA model is an acronym that stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. The AIDA model identifies the different cognitive stages that an individual goes through when they want to buy a product or utilize a service offered by a business (Hanlon 2013). John Lewis has applied the model very effectively since they have ensured that they are part of every part of the process.

Awareness

Awareness relates to creating brand awareness or affiliation with the company’s products or services (Hanlon 2013). In relation to brand awareness, John Lewis has endeavored to improve its brand awareness by utilizing different promotional strategies that appeal to a diverse clientele. The company uses digital and mobile marketing for their techno-savvy clientele and for older generations they run ads on the television and in newspapers. This ensures that brand awareness reaches all levels of their clientele. Moreover, the company has improved and bolstered its social media presence which has helped improve brand awareness. John Lewis has focused efforts on generating traction on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The social media traction that it is generating helps to improve brand awareness in both the short term and the long term. By improving brand awareness, the company secures the loyalty of current customers while piquing the interest of new customers.

Interest

Interest relates to generating attention around the company’s products or services (Hanlon 2013). The attention that is generated in this stage must be sufficient enough to cause an individual to carry out further research on the company’s products and services. The company has utilized social media and their digital and mobile marketing platform to generate interest around its products and services. The company has trended on Twitter a number of times, and that is enough to cause an individual to seek to do more research on the company. If one logs into a social media platform and finds a trend about a company that they know little about, they will seek to find more information about the organization. Due to the various trends that the company has been generating on social media platforms, they have created enough interest to cause individuals to seek to know more about the company and the products that they offer.

Desire

Desire relates to creating an emotional connection (Hanlon 2013). In relation to desire, the company needs to move the consumer from simply “liking” the product to “wanting” to purchase the product. John Lewis has really utilized emotive marketing to cause people to want to buy their products. The company mainly employs emotive marketing during the Christmas season because purchases during that season account for 40% of their sales and 20% of their profits. Therefore, it is a crucial season for the company. Due to that, the company has employed the use of emotive marketing that resonates with the customers. They run ads on television that create an emotional connection with the viewers. The purpose of establishing an emotional connection is to cause the viewers to want to buy their products and feel inclined to spend more in John Lewis stores. Thus, the company has invested heavily in emotive marketing, and that reflects in the significantly more customers that the company has during the Christmas period as compared to other seasons during the year.

Action

Action refers to moving the buyer from simply talking about the company to wanting to interact with the company (Hanlon 2013). Generating awareness, interest, desire culminates in action. Thus, if a company does not handle the first three parts of the model well, then they will not cause the customer to take action and buy the company’s products or services. John Lewis has excelled at the beginning parts of the model. They have generated awareness, which has morphed into interest and desire which has them led their target clientele to seek to purchase their products from the supermarket. Moreover, the company has not only spurred their target customers to action, but the retention rates have improved. The company has maintained the loyalty of their current customers, and at the same time, they have generated interest from new customers. John Lewis has effectively applied the AIDA model and integrated it into their promotional strategies.

Push and Pull Marketing

John Lewis has also utilized push and pull marketing strategies. However, they have applied pull marketing strategies more than they have employed push marketing strategies.

Push Marketing

Push marketing involves the company taking products directly to customers. Robertson (2019) notes that the idea of push marketing stems from the idea that marketers are attempting to push their products at consumers. The standard sales tactics in this promotional strategy involve selling directly to customers by setting up showrooms from which one can sell to them directly. The other method consists of negotiating with retailers and having them display and sell the company’s products. John Lewis is a supermarket; therefore, it has physical premises from which they sell their products to their customers. Additionally, the company has partnered with various company’s that display their products and sell them directly to the customer.

Pull Marketing

Of the two strategies, the company has applied the use of pull marketing more than they have implemented the use of push marketing. According to Robertson (2019), pull marketing involves getting customers to come to the organization. John Lewis has tailored its various promotional strategies in such a manner that customers will visit their physical stores. The trends on social media inform their target clientele that if they want the products being displayed, they will have to come to the stores to purchase them. The company has improved its pull marketing by using online platforms such as the smartphone application that they have developed. Their online platforms give the customer the opportunity to order whatever product they need online, and it will be delivered to them, or they can go and collect the goods they ordered at physical John Lewis stores. The company has applied pull marketing strategies through their advertisements on television and other traditional media, their social media drives and word-of-mouth referrals from their current customers. The purpose of the pull marketing strategies is to secure further customer loyalty while at the same time encouraging new customers to purchase their goods from John Lewis. In the end, John Lewis has applied the AIDA model and push and pull marketing strategies to improve current customer loyalty and to acquire new customers. The AIDA model and push and pull strategies act as a theoretical basis for the practical applications that John Lewis has carried out when choosing their promotional strategies. The models seem to be working for the company since brand awareness has improved and it has translated into more sales and profitability for the company. Therefore, the AIDA model and push and pull marketing strategies explain the promotional strategies selected by John Lewis.