MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS OBJECTIVES 159Th e question of which awareness goal should be aspired to by a marketer depends on the
situational circumstances in which the product or brand is bought. If the purchase decision
is made at another time and location than the point of sales (at the offi ce, at home), or when
a buyer has to ask explicitly for a certain product or service (e.g. at a drugstore or a phar-
macist), brand name recall is needed. Th is is also true when a shopping list with preferred
brand names for every category is made prior to going to a shop, or when somebody is
making purchases by phone (airline tickets, courier services, etc.). When the purchase decision
is made in the store (and according to a POPAI study this is the case for 60% to 80% of all
fast-moving consumer goods bought in the supermarket, and the buyer can use visual cues
such as packages, displays, colours, and logos, brand recognition is more important than
brand recall.The Smart Fortwo city car was revolutionary at the time it was introduced and still remains one of a kind, but was
reaching the end of its product life cycle, necessitating a reinvention in 2007. The integrated launch campaign’s
main objective was to introduce the new Smart Fortwo in Europe with a pre-launch phase to create awareness and
interest and a launch phase to convert this interest into sales. In order to achieve a significant sales growth, Smart
wanted to convert people who like Smart as a brand into those who have the Smart Fortwo in their relevance set
when thinking about purchasing a new small car. The campaign needed to work deeply in the decision process,
starting with brand awareness and ending with the purchase of the product. A mix of classic media and customer
relationship marketing (CRM) activities combined TV and cinema, radio, print (mainly consumer magazines) with
PR, online and further CRM activities such as direct mailings.
The Smart Fortwo was designed as an urban mobility solution, tailor-made for life in the city, so the core campaign
thought was ‘Discover a new city’ – the new Smart car enables the driver to see his or her city with new eyes. Where
others may see limitations, Smart drivers see opportunities. The campaign increased sales figures in Germany,
France and Italy by more than 20% (in Germany it was 70% higher) with a lower ‘media spend per unit sold’ than
main competitors Mini and Toyota Aygo. Smart even managed to outgrow Toyota Aygo in all three markets, as well
as Mini in Italy and Germany. The CRM activities were also outstandingly successful, generating almost three times
more leads than expected and selling almost 20 times more cars than one could normally expect.^6BUSINESS INSIGHT
The Smart FortwoTo stimulate brand recognition, showing the product package or logo in advertising and
other communications in exactly the same colours and formats is crucial. Th e latter implies
that media such as radio advertising are less appropriate for brand recognition goals. To build
brand recall, repetition of the association between the category and the brand is necessary.
Sign-off slogans should therefore always integrate category and brand name. In some cases a
marketer should try to attain both brand recall and recognition. A consumer then recalls a
brand at home and will search for it at the supermarket or store. For this search process to be
successful, brand recognition is needed. Sometimes this dual brand awareness objective is
required, since for many product categories consumers limit their search activity based on
loyalty to a limited set of brands.
Every communications activity should take brand awareness into account. Even if brand
attitude or other objectives are more dominant, it will still be important to support brand
awareness. A brand can never have too much brand awareness. Brand awareness should also
be established prior to brand attitude and the other communications objectives. If a brand isM05_PELS3221_05_SE_C05.indd 159M05_PELS3221_05_SE_C05.indd 159 6/5/13 3:01 PM6/5/13 3:01 PM