Advertising Age says its 2009 Marketer of the Year, Hyundai, acknowledged the recession instead of ignoring its reality as it advertised heavily during this year’s Super Bowl and the Academy Awards. It’s one of several lessons available in the magazine’s profiles of the firms topping its readers’ poll, which named Walmart, McDonald’s, Lego and Amazon runnersup.
“Engaging with both the broken dreams and the intact ones through high-profile ad buys that garnered plenty of positive press was in sharp contrast to the tail-between-the-legs mode of Hyundai’s rivals, many of whom had slashed budgets and retreated into retail-focused advertising,” AdAge says.
The resuts? “Hyundai’s market share jumped to 4.3 percent in the first 10 months of 2009 from 3.1 percent in the same year-ago period. In September, while the industry overall suffered a 22 percent sales drop in a post-Cash for Clunkers hangover, Hyundai managed to increase its new-vehicle tally by 27 percent to 31,511 units.”
About Walmart, the magazine says, “the retailer has gotten smarter about its marketing. Those cheesy smiley-face ads are a thing of the distant past, as are those ham-handed upmarket moves of the middle part of this decade. Now Walmart is cranking hard on its value proposition …”
At the Golden Arches, marketing focused on the core product. “[C]onsider that one of the newest menu items is an Angus burger tipping the scale at one third of a pound and a $4 price tag. It’s its first burger launch in eight years and, though the timing isn’t great, early indications were that the sandwich is catching on — a timely reminder that what McDonald’s knows is beef.”
Lego gained by listening — tapping into who its customers are and what they want, particularly through social media. “For example, part of its decision to engage adult fans came from monitoring their blogs. More broadly, Lego has gotten adept at sampling culture, understanding the desires of both its existing and potential consumers and adjusting accordingly.” The toymaker has also profited by not outsourcing its manufacturing and thereby not being hurt in the lead-paint scare from Chinese toys.
Amazon has also succeeded by focusing on customers. “When’s the last time you saw an Amazon ad? Exactly. Despite its universal awareness among consumers, Amazon has a minuscule ad budget. Rather than try to buy love, it earns through the aforementioned customer-centric approach and the word-of-mouth it engenders.”
Following up on last week’s announcement that the Toronto Star was