consumer events marketing 101: five proven principles to produce successful consumer events

SPECIAL REPORT

CONSUMER EVENTS MARKETING 101 Five Proven Principles to Produce Successful Consumer Events

Dan Louie !"!.$%% .&'%'

[email protected]

CONSUMER EVENTS MARKETING 101 | 2

INTRODUCTION Companies are slashing or eliminating marketing programs given the current economic environment. If your organization has a sufficient marketing budget to launch a new product or service, you are very fortunate.

As the Consumer Events Project Manager at Volvo Cars of North America, I launched several new vehicles. I designed and implemented experiential drive programs where consumers test drove the new vehicles on closed-‐course tracks. Automobile companies produce these events to create marketing awareness and excitement that will lead to future vehicle sales.

As I was planning these drive programs, I researched marketing events best practices both inside and outside the automotive industry. Unfortunately, no definitive document existed. I thus created my own consumer events best practices.

The following five principles have been thoroughly tested with much success. These principles will work in any industry. We’ve all heard of the four marketing P’s (product, place, price, and promotion). Now we have the five P’s for successful consumer events.

PRINCIPLES TO PRODUCE SUCCESSFUL CONSUMER EVENTS

▲ Parameters Clarify the marketing objectives

▲ Process Use an objective decision making process

▲ Partnership View each vendor as a valuable partner

▲ Prepare Plan for the unexpected

▲ People Interact with consumers at the event


PARAMETERS CLARIFY THE MARKETING OBJECTIVES Having clear marketing objectives is an important first step to produce successful consumer events. Your marketing objectives are the foundation for the event planning

and implementation.

The marketing objectives should be defined and agreed upon before the project starts. You must understand the project objectives and then determine the deliverables needed to achieve them. Many organizations, however, skip this planning step because they are too busy implementing. Others may not have an internal process or corporate culture that encourages stakeholders to clarify and agree on the marketing objectives.

Your organization cannot afford to produce a consumer event with vague marketing objectives.

Vague marketing objectives lead to:

▲ Incomplete and / or unfocused vendor proposals

▲ Difficulty in evaluating and selecting the best vendor

▲ Frustration from constantly changing tactics

▲ Wasted time and resources on distractions

▲ Going over budget with both time and capital

▲ Opportunity for your competitors to react to your marketing strategy

▲ Difficulty in determining event success

I was the Project Manager for the new Volvo S40 sedan launch. Volvo invited consumers from around the country to hear product presentations and to test drive the new vehicle on closed-‐course tracks.

Early in the planning stage, I facilitated meetings with key stakeholders from Marketing, Training, Public Relations, Product Planning, Advertising, and Finance and established clear S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) objectives. Note that objectives can be subjective as well, as long as they are clearly defined and agreed upon by the stakeholders. The S40 launch objectives were documented and distributed to the team members. As the project progressed, I often referred to these marketing objectives to keep the team focused.

1

? Are vague marketing objectives causing problems for your organization?


PROCESS USE AN OBJECTIVE DECISION MAKING PROCESS We make decisions all the time: what to eat, which clothes to wear, which television program to watch. In these cases, the risk of making a wrong decision is fairly low.

With your marketing events, however, the risk of making wrong decisions is much higher. The quality of the event, budget, customer satisfaction, etc. could all be in jeopardy.

Vendors are your partners in the project, so the vendor selection process is very important. Choosing a vendor can sometimes be a very time-‐consuming and painful process if decisions are made subjectively, or are emotionally charged. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I used the Kepner-‐Tregoe decision making process (see Figure 1) to select my marketing event vendors. This step-‐by-‐step process marries logic, expertise, creativity, and factual information to reveal choices that have the right balance of acceptable risk and reward. By clarifying the thinking behind the decision, highly complex, controversial, or emotionally charged decision can be made faster and with greater confidence.

In this highly collaborative process, I facilitated meetings with the marketing stakeholders. We first defined and prioritized our marketing objectives. Next, we evaluated how the potential vendors best met our objectives. Then we examined the risks of selecting each vendor before making our best balanced choice.

Executive management was impressed when I showed them the decision making process that we used. It was very clear how and why we selected the vendor that we chose.

2

? Would your organization benefit from an objective process for selecting the best partners?

Decision Analysis is used for making a choice. When there are too many choices, or the risk of making the wrong choice is great, this objective decision making process clarifies the purpose and balances the risks and benefits to arrive at a solid and supported choice.


KEPNER-TREGOE DECISION ANALYSIS Process Steps (Figure 1)

Clarify

Purpose

▲ State the decision

▲ Develop objectives

▲ Classify objectives into MUSTs and WANTs

▲ Weigh the WANTs

▲ Generate alternatives

▲ Screen alternatives through the MUSTs

▲ Compare alternatives against the WANTs

Evaluate

Alternatives

▲ Identify adverse consequences

Make

Decision▲ Make the best balanced choice

Assess

Risks


PARTNERSHIP VIEW EACH VENDOR AS A VALUABLE PARTNER Once you have selected your vendors, view each of them as a valuable partner. I’ve found that relationships based on mutual trust and respect will result in more

collaboration and smoother project implementation.

As I developed rapport with my event partners, I found that they would readily share their insights and experiences to develop innovative solutions. The partners also had access to resources who could do things faster, cheaper, and better than my own contacts.

I had partners go beyond the contract details / project scope because of the goodwill that I had earned with them. In particular, several partners shared that they enjoyed collaborating with me because I acknowledged and respected their staff.

Bottom line: treat people with respect and you will be rewarded many times over.

How to develop the partner relationship:

▲ Promote two-‐way communication

▲ Listen to their recommendations

▲ Build mutual trust and respect

▲ Have clear project objectives

▲ Collaborate on creative solutions

Additional benefits of viewing each vendor as a valuable partner:

▲ Builds goodwill for future opportunities

▲ Partners may prioritize your project over another if their resources are scarce

▲ An established partner is able to respond quickly to emergency requests

▲ Your success is their success

3

What type of relationship does your organization have with its vendors? ?


PREPARE PLAN FOR THE UNEXPECTED You are busy implementing your project plan, but have you thought about potential

problems? These potential problems can sabotage the best planned event. For example, what will you do if you have inclement weather or the vehicles are delayed? A comprehensive marketing plan must include potential problem analysis.

I used the Kepner-‐Tregoe potential problem analysis (see Figure 2) when developing the project plan for the S40 drive event. The process identifies potential problems and the likely causes, develops preventive actions, develops contingent actions, and sets triggers. Often times, potential problems are not examined because it is negative thinking.

Inclement weather was a concern for the S40

February event on the East Coast. Since I could not prevent Mother Nature from providing snow, I prepared for contingent actions. I upgraded the presentation venue heating system to handle extreme cold, ordered additional winter crew clothing, and had snow removal equipment on standby. As luck would have it, it did snow. Thus, the contingent actions were set into motion and the event continued without any interruptions.

4

Is your organization prepared to handle potential problems?

Potential problem analysis is used to protect actions or plans. When a project simply must go well, risk is high, or a myriad of things can go wrong, potential problem analysis reveals the driving factors and identifies ways to lower the risk. Potential problem analysis directs experience and creativity to prepare for the future and to manage acceptable risk.

?


KEPNER-TREGOE POTENTIAL PROBLEM ANALYSIS Process Steps (Figure 2)

Identify

Potential

Problems

▲ State the action

▲ List potential problems

▲ Consider causes for the potential problem

Identify

Likely

Causes

▲ Take actions to address likely causes

Plan

Contingent

Action & Set

Triggers

▲ Prepare actions to reduce likely effects

▲ Set triggers for contingent actions

Take

Preventive

Action


PEOPLE INTERACT WITH CONSUMERS AT THE EVENT After all the planning, implementing, and anticipation, your project managers and vendor partners should attend the event. First, they will see first hand if the

consumers “got the marketing message.” Second, consumers are more than happy to share what they liked and what needs improvement. For example, several consumers mentioned how they enjoyed the night time concert in conjunction with the drive event. Others, however, wanted to drive competitive vehicles (not offered due to safety considerations, throughput goals, and venue space).

By attending the event, I evaluated partner performances and noted how effective they were at communicating among themselves and with the consumers. I also acknowledged those partners on the front line for their diligence and professionalism. Many were taken aback because I was the first client to ever thank them in person.

Other company stakeholders also attended the event. The training, public relations, product planning, advertising, and finance managers thus had better appreciation for all the planning, problem solving and detail work that went into the project. More importantly, they experienced the event like a consumer so they were not surprised by the event results.

The partners who interacted with the consumers came away with a clearer picture of the Volvo customer and gained insight on how to effectively market to them.

5

Do your employees and partners attend events and interact with consumers? ?


5 PROVEN PRINCIPLES TO PRODUCE CONSUMER EVENTS SUMMARY

▲ Parameters: Clarify the marketing objectives Clear marketing objectives are the foundation for the planning and implementation of the event. You must understand the project objectives before you can develop the tactics to achieve those goals. Unclear marketing objectives lead to frustration, wasted time on distractions, and difficulty in determining event success.

▲ Process: Use an objective decision making process The risk of making wrong decisions with marketing events is high. The quality of the event, budget, customer satisfaction, etc. could all be in jeopardy. Vendor selection can sometimes be a painful process if decisions are made subjectively, or are emotionally charged. Therefore, use an objective decision making process to clarify the purpose, balance the risks and benefits, and to arrive at a solid and supported choice.

▲ Partnership: View each vendor as a valuable partner Vendor relationships based on mutual trust and respect will result in more collaboration and smoother project implementation. Develop the partner relationships by promoting two-‐way communication, treating them with respect, having clear project objectives, and by collaborating on creative solutions.

▲ Prepare: Plan for the unexpected Potential problems can sabotage the best planned event. Often times, potential problems are not examined because it is negative thinking. When a project must go well, risk is high, or a myriad of things can go wrong, potential problem analysis reveals the driving factors and identifies ways to lower the risk.

▲ People: Interact with consumers at the event Project managers, key stakeholders, and partners should attend the event to interact with the consumers. First, they will see first hand if the consumers “got the marketing message.” Second, consumers are more than happy to share what they liked and what needs improvement. The program manager can also evaluate the event effectiveness and partner performance.

Are you now better prepared for your next consumer event? ?


ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dan Louie graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. Dan also has an Associate of Arts in Interior Design from the Interior Designers Institute (IDI), Newport Beach, CA. Four of his coursework projects were selected as award-‐winning design solutions and were showcased.

Mr. Louie has over twenty years of experience in the automotive industry including brand building, market research, strategic planning, advertising, and consumer events marketing. Dan is a Six Sigma Black Belt and also a Kepner-‐Tregoe Problem Solving and Decision Making Program Instructor. He has extensive experience both managing and participating in cross-‐functional teams.

Dan thrives on designing and executing marketing programs ranging from grass-‐roots events to multi-‐million dollar product tours. He is quick to establish rapport and to develop trust with all team members from staff to executive management. Dan’s strong interpersonal skills and process background make him an effective problem solver.

Contact Information: Dan Louie 64 Knollwood Irvine, CA 92602

949 533 8636 (cell) [email protected]

NOTE: You are welcome to copy and distribute this Special Report as often as you wish. Please include the author information above when doing so. Thank you.

consumer events marketing 101: five proven principles to produce successful consumer events

Automotive