January 2010 CARF Update The January 2010 CARF Update features a wealth of informative reading on topics of special interest to marketers, researchers and advertisers. This month, a total of 12 new articles look at a variety of marketing challenges in the current economic climate. Included: the entrepreneurial marketing mix; dealing with consumers' fear of marketing; how context, brand and brand switching affect purchases; drawing elder consumers to information technology; a study of loyalty in financial services; sorting out the effects of the recession on consumer evolution; dangers of a 'brand bubble; jump-starting a car brand in the downturn; consumers responses to brand websites; and how TV builds brands at low attention; and how new technology enables fleet-footed market research. Click here for details of this month's update, and to read individual articles online (full articles require a member password).		Advertising Week Mark your calendar for January 25-29, 2010 Advertising Week, inaugurated in 2009, is Canada’s largest and most diverse annual gathering of advertising and media leaders. Under the leadership of the Institute of Communication Agencies, the event will be held in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary during the last week of January. The weeklong celebration of the wonderful business of ideas and communication includes keynote and panel presentations, thought leadership conferences, awards, events, demonstrations of creativity, various initiatives for younger advertising practitioners, university outreach and agency open houses. For more information, visit www.advertisingweek.ca, click on the Registration button, and select the event or program you’d like to attend or contact Stacey Farber, Advertising Week Event Manager, at 416-482-1396 ext. 223 or sfarber@icacanada.ca

A Forum for the Industry

CARF conferences, seminars and workshops provide leading edge updates on advertising measurement, research and applications. With subjects ranging from consumer demographics, attitudes and behaviour to media survey techniques and findings and advertising strategies, CARF conferences and seminars feature blue ribbon speakers from Canada and around the world, dealing with emerging media and advertising research issues that are timely, relevant and of immediate interest to the industry. Find out more >>.

CARF Seminar Presentations

The Power of Advertising
Advertising Week – January 28, 2009

History and research have proven that brands that cut their advertising and marketing budgets during economic downturns will likely lose market share to competitors that opt for business-as-usual strategies. It will also be much more costly for them to regain share when the economy improves. This seminar examined the power of continuing to support marketing initiatives during a recession.

Marketing in a Recession: To spend or not to spend
Keynote speaker: Nigel Hollis – Executive Vice-President and
Chief Global Analyst, Millward Brown

There’s plenty of evidence, going back to the Great Depression, that increased spending on marketing during a recession can result in long-term gains for a brand. But is it still true in today’s environment of new media and media fragmentation? The effect is even more striking now, according to Nigel Hollis, EVP and Chief Global Analyst at Millward Brown, citing new evidence from the Profit Impact of Marketing Strategies (PIMS) 2008 database.

The PIMS analysis compared the profits and share of market achieved by companies that increased, maintained, and reduced marketing spend during a recession. Companies that cut marketing spend enjoyed a better Return on Capital (ROCA) in the short-term, but inferior results after the recession ended. On the other hand, those companies that increased their spending achieved significantly higher ROCA and gained an additional market share during the recovery.

Speaking at CARF’s January 2009 seminar, The Power of Advertising (a featured event during the ICA’s inaugural Advertising Week), Nigel Hollis noted that price sensitivity, brand equity, attitudinal underpinnings and market share all have an impact on the results achieved by individual brands.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. A number of factors should be taken into account by advertisers: the nature and size of the category; the relative strength of the brand; the motivation of customers; and the competitive response. He suggested advertisers support their strong brands, hold prices relative to the competition, take advantage of lower media costs, and use advertising aimed at supporting the price by demonstrating value. He also said that to emerge from the recession as victors, healthy brands need spirit and the will to win.

How Advertising Built Diageo Brands
Dhan Kashyap – Director of Business Strategy, Diageo Canada

“ Regrettable decisions are made through ignorance.”

So goes the proverb quoted by Dhan Kashyap, Director of Business Strategy, Diageo Canada, at the beginning of his presentation at the CARF seminar. Diageo Canada, marketers of premium alcohol beverages such as Smirnoff, Bailey’s and Guinness, demonstrates the will to win and the knowledge to do it.

At Diageo, research is a form of insurance and an essential tool for building and supporting brands. Dahn Kashyap shared several examples, including how Diageo used research to identify the brand’s key benefit and develop advertising that stretched consumer perceptions about where and when to consume Bailey’s. Diageo successfully increased Bailey's share of market by repositioning it from a special occasions drink to a beverage that can be enjoyed among friends in more casual, but still special, situations.

The key, according to Kashyap, is to create brand communications from a deep understanding of the brand’s benefits and the consumer’s relationship with the brand. In a recession, it is all the more important to make the right decisions. He suggested advertisers apply brand communications carefully, go back to the basics and do it right, but also to experiment and course correct as needed.

In response to the current economic conditions, Diageo is setting the bar high, looking for breakthrough advertising that creates above-the-norm awareness. They will continue to focus their efforts in experiential marketing, the digital realm and TV.

More presentation highlights online:

• Advertising in a Recession >>
• Effectiveness of High-Tech In-Store Media >>
• Market Research Surveys: Online Versus Traditional >>