The Sauce – 14/05/2024

Welcome to ‘The Sauce’ – your weekly dollop of marketing news.

By Ashleigh Morris, our Content and Comms Lead.

Welcome to ‘The Sauce’ – your dollop of marketing news from the past week.

This week we’re talking about IKEA’s pricing strategy, short vs long-term marketing ROI, and Tango’s latest ad campaign.

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Further Price Cuts for IKEA Amid Cost-of-Living Crisis

The largest IKEA retailer, Ingka Group, has announced further price cuts as it navigates the cost-of-living crisis. This is the third time the group has lowered prices since September.

The Ingka Group claims to be ‘Driven by the vision to create a better everyday life’ and ‘always guided by its culture and values which puts people and business at the heart of everything.’

We’ve seen companies take various approaches to business as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, including increasing prices to improve margin, the creation of new loyalty schemes to drive volume, and reducing marketing spend to cut costs.

Amid increasing prices from many retailers, this approach from Ingka Group stands out as it aims not only to increase sales, but to reduce costs to the customer, while focusing on the business’ values. And it seems to be paying off, with sales increasing.

Tolga Öncu, Ingka Retail Manager for the Ingka Group (IKEA), said, “More people turn to IKEA in economically challenging times, and we see that our market share is growing in many markets. Becoming even more affordable with our products without compromising on quality, form, function, and sustainability, we believe, is a way forward for us.”

We look forward to seeing how businesses continue to evolve their strategy in response to the current economic climate.

This approach stands out as it aims not only to increase sales, but to reduce costs to the customer, while focusing on the business’ values.

Invest Long-Term For Maximum Advertising ROI

How do you measure the success of your marketing campaigns and activity?

It might be worth considering a longer-term approach, according to a new study.

Research commissioned by Thinkbox has found that short-term advertising delivers ROI of £1.87 per pound invested, while this increases to £4.11 when looking at sustained effects up to two years.

It also found that 58% of profit generation happens after the first 13 weeks. So you may want to think twice before you write off last month’s campaign as a failure…

Interestingly, given the decline of print advertising (which now accounts for just 3.3% of ad spend), the channel actually has the highest full payback ROI at £6.36, and the best short-term ROI of any channel, at £2.74.

I asked our strategy expert James for his thoughts. He said, “Our clients are seeing fantastic results on social media, and it’s unsurprisingly where the highest level of spend is at the moment. We’re seeing some very mature markets now adapting and putting a digital presence at the top of their marketing strategy.

“There’s nothing we love more than occasionally going against the grain though! Sometimes reverting to traditional marketing areas like TV and print marketing can be hugely successful, and the stats are very much proving that point currently.”

Time to reconsider how this year’s marketing budget is allocated?

58% of profit generation happens after the first 13 weeks…

Have You Been Tango’d?

Have you seen the latest Tango ad?

We’ve talked a lot recently about brands returning to old (and effective) ad campaigns, from Peperami to Morrisons, Jaffa Cakes and Specsavers.

Tango returned to our screens last year for the first time since 2019, and they’ve now revealed the latest iteration of their iconic Tango’d campaign.

The newest ad sees a prisoner smuggle a can of Tango into jail, where it is discovered by a prison officer who tastes it and engages in some bizarre behaviour.

It’s true to the campaign’s roots, but without pushing the boundaries to the extent of earlier iterations (of which several were banned).

It’s fun without being controversial, focuses on Tango’s unique flavour, ties into the brand’s Tango’d line, and is likely to appeal to a new, younger generation, as well as sparking some nostalgia amongst the Millenials – we’re looking at you James!

This campaign goes back over 30 years to 1992, when the first Tango’d ad featured ‘The Orange Man’. It proves that strong campaigns can demonstrate longevity and cross-generational appeal…if it’s not broke, don’t fix it!

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