Lexicographic Heuristic Marketing

Eurolines is a cheap way to travel across Europe, offering over 600 destinations, across 36 European countries, from Norway to Russia to Portugal. Eurolines offers travellers connections to many culturally-diverse cities and towns at a low budget. Eurolines UK is very active with social media.  Upon reviewing its twitter, it appears the main consumer behaviour concept Eurolines UK uses is lexicographic heuristic marketing, which is when a consumer chooses the best brand based on the most important attribute. With Eurolines, this attribute is price. When comparing Eurolines to other travel lines that can transport you throughout Europe, Eurolines has something many of the companies do not, and that is very cheap travel. Eurolines promotes the company’s low travel rates all over social media. Nowadays, travellers do not have much money to spend and do not wish to go with a more expensive brand. From personal experience, the most engaging companies, when I was travelling Europe, were the ones that offered the cheapest option because, when travelling, you usually are on a budget.

The twitter account uses lexicographic heuristic marketing when tweeting about the company and promoting Eurolines because, in every tweet and every picture, price is the first characteristic you notice in the advertisement. Eurolines UK tweets photos of a beautiful destination, and then across the photo it will say, for example, “18 Euros one way.” This is eye-catching and instantly consumers will focus on that one attribute. Also, when marketing deals, the company will just promote how affordable it is. When promoting a Eurolines pass for a 15 day unlimited travel pass, the main advertisement was all writing and in huge font stands out the phrase, “15 days for 185 euros!” Lexicographic heuristic marketing has been successful with Eurolines because, throughout Europe, Eurolines is known as the cheapest way to travel.  Eurolines picks one important attribute that people are looking for when comparing companies and aims to specifically focus on and promote this attribute.

Guerrilla Marketing

Guerrilla marketing is a marketing strategy that is used to draw attention to a product or service, and is a marketing tactic that is an unconventional system of promotion.  Guerrilla does not need a big advertising budget.  It is a way of creating an unexpected campaign to consumers, targeting unexpected places. It is a way of marketing to consumers uniquely, without consumers even realizing you are marketing to them. Most Guerrilla marketing is done in public places, with giving away products, flash mobs, or stunts. Guerrilla can also be done through social media by a viral campaign.

 A recent viral video that uses the consumer behaviour concept Guerrilla marketing is YouTube.  This video campaign, called “Watch it Work for Your Business,” went viral all over social media. This video created a worldwide “buzz” and was shared from consumer to consumer through social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.  In no time, the video reached millions and millions of people. 

Before analyzing this example of consumer behaviour into further detail, check the Video out at the link provided: Watch it Work for Your Business

The reason YouTube’s campaign was so successful was because it really reached out to viewers on a personal level with a story that engaged the audience.  The campaign made the audience want to watch the video for their needs and benefits.  It is a motivating video that everyone will want to watch until the end. The video was about starting a business through YouTube, and depicted someone else’s story of accomplishment. LSTN is the entrepreneurs used in the video.  They tell their story of success and how YouTube made their company what it is today. This video is so clever because it uses this consumer behaviour concept to advertise to the market through an inspirational story about the success of consumers. The video really does not have much to do with YouTube throughout.  You do not find out it is advertising YouTube until the very end. You think it is advertising entrepreneurs teaching others how to achieve their goals, or is advertising the LSTN Headphone Company. I believe that this video was such a seamless way to reach the audience by being stealth and keeping the advertisement undercover.  The video was not constantly throwing YouTube into the advertisement.  I do not think you realize you are being marketed to during this video. It is not until you have completed watching the video that you realize it really does endorse YouTube.

LuLuLemon's Culture and Lifestyle

A very important and successful consumer behaviour concept is creating a consumer lifestyle around a product by marketing how a person spends their time and money and having the product give them a social identity. Consumers choose products based on their lifestyles.  One brand that uses social media to really promote a culture and a way of living is LuLulemon Athletica. LuluLemon’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube market the brand to help an individual really feel a specific way of living, primarily targeting an athletic audience. All of the social media sites promote its products for specific reasons, such as yoga and running. The athletic wear is known to be very durable and light, perfect for any type of weather conditions, but, at the same time, also being very fashionable.

The social media sites are very motivating by promoting the active wear for specific reasons. LuLulemon has a program set up on their website that allows customers to set personal goals for five years to ten years.  It really wants to get consumers involved and focused on achieving their goals and creating their ideal life. LuLulemon will follow you every step of the way when completing your goals, including daily blog posts to help one to stay motivated. Once you have completed these goals and live the “LuLulemon lifestyle,” you become an “ambassador” for LuLulemon, being someone who lives the culture of LuLulemon. 

These ambassadors are posted daily on YouTube videos and remind consumers to stay motivated, promoting different ways of living.  An example would be a walkthrough of a yoga routine. Ambassadors also provide product feedback and opinions of what they would like to see in the future.   LuLulemon listens to these thoughts. This Consumer Behaviour concept really gets consumers involved in a community feeling, helping them to truly experience a sense of belonging to a certain lifestyle.  This is positive for LuLulemon because they get to target a specific segment and focus on people who wish to experience an active lifestyle through yoga, health, and feeling good.  LuLulemon creates a culture which encourages consumers’ dreams and provides them with the support to achieve these goals.

Victoria's Secret and The Halo Effect

Victoria’s secret is the largest retailer in the lingerie industry and the most popular brand in the world, with models who have became famous as their promoters of the brand.  They are known as “Angels,” and are the spokeswomen for the brand. The “Angels” were featured in Peoples Magazine Annual as the “100 most beautiful people in the world.” The Facebook page has over 26 million likes, and mainly posts photos of the models in new lingerie to promote the brand.  Many girls comment how they want to look like the models, and want to purchase the item on the model.  Men are commenting how they want to purchase the items for their partner. This is using the consumer behaviour concept; the halo effect, and showing how physical attractiveness can dominate the view of a person. 

These models are flawless, with “perfect” bodies, and everyone wants to look like them.  Seeing these perfect women in the lingerie items makes the lingerie look sexy and appealing, having a positive effect on women wanting to purchase Victoria’s Secret lingerie.  The halo effect draws women into a sexualized fantasy, and uses the most beautiful women in the world to put them in the state of mind that this is the absolute best lingerie out there. On the Facebook page you somehow feel that Victoria’s Secret is actually promoting the models more then they are promoting the actual lingerie, but when women see the models they believe the lingerie is a must have.  Company sales are still increasing year after year, making Victoria Secret the top brand in the world.  I believe that Victoria Secret’s marketing is the main reason why they are on top.  The Victoria Secret angels are one of the company’s weapons for success.  

Celebrity Endorsment

A consumer behaviour concept that has a huge impact on companies is Celebrity endorsement, which is a form of advertising that involves a well-known person or celebrity to help promote a brand.  Choosing a celebrity that fits the image and the brand will really help the company advertise and reach a larger group audience.  A company that is really successful at attracting people through this consumer behaviour concept is Proactiv.  They do not have just one celebrity endorser, they have many. Proactiv’s main target is teenagers to young adults, and they pick celebrities that this age group is familiar with.  Celebrities are seen as credible sources.  With an acne line, using a celebrity will help consumers believe that this product is a reliable product. A Facebook status on Proactiv was posted by the Victoria Secret model.  According to Lily Aldridge, "sometimes, the sexiest thing you can wear on your skin... is nothing at all," and Proactiv+ makes that possible! This status is making consumers believe that Proactiv is the best product out there for skin because Lily Aldridge has tried it, and testifies that it gives her the confidence to wear no makeup and keeps her skin clear.  This reassures people that the product is okay, and increases a consumer’s belief and trust in the product. On Proactiv’s Twitter they use very credible sources that young adults look up to, including Nicole Scherzinger, Krysten Ritter, Melissa Claire Egan, Jurnee Smollett, and many more. These celebrities are all very successful and admired people.  Not only do they have pictures with the product on Twitter, they actually will tweet the celebrity and the celebrity will retweet about it.  This interactive communication is reaching all of Proactiv’s followers, plus the celebrities’ followers, which is a wide range of people.  Krysten Ritter says, "For me, Proactiv+ helps me keep my skin clear, bright and fresh…," and Melissa Claire Egan says, "Be good to yourself. Love your skin. And take care of it with Proactiv+." This has a huge positive effect on Proactiv’s Twitter account.  It makes the product stand out, and attract a lot of followers, by catching their attention with well-loved, beautiful celebrities.

There is a trend going on right now called #AskLily.  This  is a hashtag for the public to hashtag #AskLily, and Lily, one of Victoria Secret’s angels, will answer any beauty questions they have about Proactiv.  This really gets the audience involved and is a brilliant idea because they are giving people the opportunity to actually talk to Lily Aldridge. Proactiv has used celebrity endorsements for years, and it's a consumer behaviour tactic that is working.

More Fanta, Less Serious

Fanta has caught my attention recently because they are doing a really great job at marketing to their target market, which is primarily a younger crowd. Fanta is accelerating in the soda industry because Fanta is attracting the right target. With so many teens glued to their computers and cell phones, Fanta maintains an active Facebook and Twitter presence. Its Facebook page has nearly 3 million followers, and the official Twitter account @FantaFun has over a million. Youth are not interested in hearing all about the product over and over.  Youth are interactive and like to participate in online activity. Fanta targets teens that are in touch with the latest trends, such as fashion and music. Fanta markets itself as cool and hip and portrays to its consumers that when drinking Fanta you become part of the coolness craze.  Fanta conducted research and discovered that their main target market were youthful consumers who love colour and like to have fun.  This is where Fanta’s social media comes into play.  Fanta’s Facebook and Twitter pages are very friendly and inviting, using bright orange colours, which represents the brand and the image of Fanta.  The Tweets and Facebook posts are very amusing and witty, which kids enjoy.  For example, one Tweet is “Orange orange bo borange banana fana fo forange ‪#SundayFunday" and another “‪#iWishiCouldMeet the guy who started the 'orange you glad I didn't say banana' joke...” This is a very easy way to attract young kids because it is funny and simple, and will continue to attract their attention by marketing without any information about the brand. 

Another way Fanta is very good at keeping their consumers involved is by providing them with many fun games they can play through the Facebook and Twitter. Fanta is doing a perfect job because it is difficult to attract kids to products.  By being exciting and entertaining, kids are getting involved with Fanta. Fanta is known for the “less serious” campaign, letting consumers know that it is okay to be silly and just enjoy their day with a Fanta, which is what the younger generation is all about.  

Down below, you can click the link "More Fanta, Less Serious" and take a look at the video for the “less serious” campaign:

More Fanta, Less Serious