Mass marketing still has its place despite allure of the 'Net

A DDB survey has challenged the notion that the only thing that matters in marketing is the one-to-one relationship between the brand and its consumer. The agency's proprietary research, entitled Brand Capital, has determined that one-to-one marketing has its place - but not to the exclusion of mass marketing. The study was conducted by leading US research house Angus Reid in 14 countries, including China, Japan and Australia in Asia-Pacific. A total of 800 people took part in the survey in each country. It examined three types of relationships between the brand and the consumer: - Acquaintances or those who are familiar with a brand; - Friends or those who would consider purchasing a brand; and Lovers or those who would definitely buy a brand. The survey found that as the number of friends increased, the number of lovers increases exponentially. DDB Hong Kong strategic planner Jennifer Wirth said that this underlined the continued importance of mass marketing. "Advertisers think the Internet will solve all their problems because they can finally do one-to-one marketing," she told MEDIA. "But Brand Capital shows us that you need a certain number of friends before you can get the numbers of lovers that you want." Ms Wirth added that to get the attention of the potential friends, companies have to go the traditional mass marketing route. Mr Aaron Lau, DDB's Greater China president and CEO, said, "Mass marketing is the most effective in arousing interest among a large population within a very short timeframe, while the Internet is most cost-efficient in reaching consumers individually. "The paradigm is going to shift to a more balanced mix of mass and one-to-one marketing." The survey underlined the fact that strong brands exhibit high magnetic appeal in terms of quality, popularity and category leadership and uniqueness. Mr Lau said that there was an interaction among the four elements which make up magnetic appeal. "Brands are successful when they have more lovers," he said. "But they are also successful if they have the unique ability to provide a broadly desirable quality and if they are growing in popularity." The four elements of brand appeal could be used to analyse the current status of any given brand and the steps needed to grow it, Mr Lau added. "If you look at McDonald's, the lover of this brand is more family-oriented and so you must include family values in any advertising to promote the brand." Only global brands - such as Pepsi, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, KFC and Kodak - were examined in the Brand Capital survey because DDB wanted to get a worldwide picture about how consumers and brands interact with each other.

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