In yesterday's blog 'Is now a good time for BA to do web marketing?' I said that brands going through a period of negative PR usually withdraw from advertising and start again when the 'climate' is more favourable. Unusually BA appeared to be ignoring this 'rule' by sending me an email which I wrote about yesterday.
Shortly after publishing my blog, I discovered a Marketing blog announcing that "BA had postponed its multimillion-pound ad campaign to promote Heathrow's Terminal 5." This news eliminates the first 2 of my 7 possible reasons why they might be email marketing during a period of negative PR.
I received a question saying 'Why do companies stop advertising in a period of negative PR?' It comes down to Marketing ROI. Whether your budget is £100 or £10M your return will be lower in a period when your brand is out of favour and receiving negative PR. Some or all of the people who see the marketing communication will find it less credible and will be less likely to buy.
The Marketing ROI will be much better when marketing after the negative PR period has died down and when the underlying problems have been solved. Depending on the scale of the problems, the message may need to change to acknowledge the previous problems and communicate that a successful solution has been implemented.
Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.
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