The word “campaign” has been around us for a long time. The list goes on and on, including new store opening campaigns and campaigns where you can win prizes when you buy sweets.
In business, any activity that involves disseminating information to customers for a specific purpose is generally referred to as a marketing campaign.
This time, we will introduce the basic concept of marketing campaigns and some examples.
What is a marketing campaign?
As mentioned at the beginning, the word campaign is used in many different places. Although it is not often used in Japan, in the United States and other countries, election speeches are also referred to as campaigns.
A campaign is a military term that refers to a strategic action aimed at achieving a specific goal. Campaign is used with various words, but what kind of
marketing campaign
is deeply relevant to us?
Since it is often referred to as a campaign without the word marketing attached to it, the word campaign tends to be confused with its various meanings. Here, we will limit the scope of the campaign to business fields.
In most cases, marketing in business refers to “any activity that delivers value to customers.” People who don’t specialize in marketing often misunderstand that marketing is not just about market research and advertising. All corporate activities from delivering value to customers to receiving payment are marketing, and of course sales also falls under marketing activities. Before we get into marketing campaigns, let’s understand the difference between a marketing campaign and a sales campaign.
Sales and marketing campaigns
The reason why I’m going to talk about sales campaigns and marketing campaigns separately is because their purposes are different. These two are often confused, but if the purpose is different, the means will also be different. Let’s make sure we understand the meaning here.
- sales campaign
Sales campaigns are part of marketing campaigns. The AIDMA model expresses the psychological state of customers regarding purchasing, and marketing campaigns are responsible for the first half of Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, and Action (purchasing behavior). The second half can be understood as a sales campaign. A sales campaign is a campaign that more directly stimulates purchasing psychology, and its purpose is to increase sales and profits.
Typical sales campaigns include exhibition and sale events, previews where existing customers are invited, discount campaigns for a set period, and campaigns where you can win (or receive) a prize with a purchase.
- marketing campaign
On the other hand, the purpose of a marketing campaign is to acquire leads (prospective customers), reach out to new and existing customer groups, and aim to change customer behavior to become leads. In other words, compared to the targets of marketing campaigns, the targets of sales campaigns can be said to be narrower targets to some extent. Of course, the ultimate goal of a marketing campaign is to increase sales and profits, but let’s understand that a marketing campaign includes a sales campaign.
Marketing campaign examples
Let’s take a look at an example of a marketing campaign.
- “Post your NO MUSIC, NO LIFE. photo” Tower Records
This is a marketing campaign conducted by Tower Records, a major CD shop chain, in 2017. Through SNS, we asked users to post photos that made them feel “NO MUSIC, NOLIFE.” Although the campaign did not directly promote CDs, it was a marketing campaign aimed at making customers aware of the connection between music and memories, and encouraging them to visit CD shops.
- “Mushroom/Bamboo shoot general election” Meiji
The popularity of the popular snacks “Kinoko no Yama” and “Takenoko no Sato” sold by Meiji has long been divided among consumers, with those who favor Kinoko no Yama and those who favor Takenoko no Sato. In 2001, Meiji conducted a marketing campaign called “Mushroom/Takenoko General Election” to address this controversy. Voting and results were announced via SNS. Perhaps as a result of this campaign, sales of both snack foods, which had been sluggish for a while, recovered, and to this day they are still sold as standard Meiji snack foods.
.png)
Although both campaigns do not directly appeal to customers to purchase, they aim to impress customers with the image of the product and create a state of mind that makes them want to buy the product.
In recent years, there has been an overabundance of information, and exaggerated advertisements and advertisements that suggest solicitation can actually have a negative impact on a company’s brand. As an example, I mainly introduced BtoC, but the same applies to BtoB. Let’s move forward with our marketing campaign, focusing on
content marketing
using the web and exhibiting our products at trade shows.
summary
◆Marketing in business refers to “all activities that deliver value to customers” and includes sales.
◆Marketing campaigns are aimed at reaching out to new customers and acquiring prospective customers.
◆Sales campaigns aim to directly stimulate purchasing psychology and increase sales and profits.