During SARS, alcoholic beverage companies suffered losses as consumers stayed away en masse. However, Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) was able to sail through the downturn and turn this crisis into an opportunity.
APB was able to slash its marcoms spend on Heineken by nearly 70% and still gain 2% market share. And, when they returned to their pre-SARS level of spend, they gained a further 3% market share, with efficiency levels three times better than the market leader, Carlsberg!
How did they do this?
They had just completed a Market ContactAudit® (MCA®) study which enabled a rational approach to reducing expenditure and then increasing expenditure back - it took out all the guess work of what was working and what was not, and allowed them to make cuts where it would have the least impact (and actually even increased focus and effectiveness of remaining contacts being used!).
For APB, MCA® was then taken to more markets, each with different marketing challenges...
"In the increasingly competitive Chinese market, where we don't have marketing dollars to waste, MCA enabled us to focus spend more effectively. In New Zealand, a small but complex and competitive market, where we have a large portfolio of beer brands, MCA enabled our operation to streamline and focus marketing efforts that has resulted in significant improvement in commercial efficiency and effectiveness. Overall, we have found MCA to be a stimulating and insightful marketing metric. It challenges commercial teams to reinvent their thinking and to get the best out of their agencies. And in all markets it has broken a persistent thought, MCA gives "more bangs for less bucks"."
Dr Les Buckley, Group Commercial Director, Asia Pacific Breweries Limited
What is MCA®?
With 4 simple questions, MCA® creates three valuable metrics:
 1. Contact Clout Factor Measure of Influence of contacts: Combination of consumer rating of contact's power to make brand attractive, to give information and to influence choice. |
 2. Brand Experience Points Common currency across all touchpoints. Total amount of brand contact associations, weighted by CCF. No more relying on just GRPs! |
 3. Brand Experience Share A single indicator for a brand's marcoms effectiveness vs competitors; perceived weight of all brand experiences, relative to all category experience. |
So what will you get out of it?
- Objective criteria to justify investments in communication touchpoints
- KPIs linked to ROI to measure consumer marcoms (in the same way tactical promotions have been measured in the past)
- Better allocate resources to achieve maximum brand experience, for minimum cost
- Track performance over time to document increased efficiency and provide continued learnings
- Identify future opportunities for investment to stay ahead of competition
| To find out more about MCA® and how it can work for your brands please contact your account manager or: |
|
Anne Woodhams Regional Manager, Brand & Communications - Brand Expressions TNS Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East & Africa (ALM) Email anne.woodhams@tns-global.com Direct +852 2116 4979 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
||
 |
 |
