Hidden Marketing: what is it and what is it used for
What is hidden marketing?
Hidden Marketing is a way of advertising goods and services in which consumers do not realize that they are looking at an advertisement. All tools are aimed at promoting the company’s product unobtrusively and carefully, gaining the trust of the consumer. Hidden marketing also requires minimal costs despite its high performance.
Hidden marketing primarily chooses social networks as its platform of presence - a place where potential consumers gather not for shopping, but to escape from everyday work, learn daily news, chat with friends, but not to make purchases. At this moment, the network user is relaxed and open to receiving information.
Hidden marketing does not directly sell a product, it:
- informs the market about the release of a new product/service;
- builds communication with the brand’s target audience, winning its loyalty;
- creates an active and interested community around the brand and its product;
- generates consumer curiosity and a desire to get to know the brand through personal experience and confirm or justify the established opinion about it;
- works with possible negativity around the brand, maintaining its positive reputation.
Types of hidden marketing
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Buzz marketing
Word of mouth, which works primarily with a high level of quality of products and service. The consumer has a desire to leave a review/recommendation, or the brand motivates him to evaluate it by holding promotions, competitions, and gifts.
- Viral Marketing
It creates bright, catchy content that instantly spreads online, arousing interest in the brand and its product.
- SMM marketing
Brand promotion through popular social networks.
- Hidden advertisement
The same can of Pepsi that is always in the hands of the main character of the film, the poster of the director’s previous film on the frame of his new film and other product placement in the form of company logos in the TV show studio and so on.
- Guerrilla Marketing
Creative but low-cost ways to promote your brand.
Examples of hidden marketing
Hidden marketing = non-standard solutions, creativity and originality. Therefore, users often don’t even realize that there is an advertisement in front of them, or they understand at the last moment.
An example of Colgate's hidden marketing- Jack Daniel's
- Aston Martin
- Harley-Davidson
- Rapid Realty
- Nike
- Dove
After the characters in the movie “Basic Instinct” drank the manufacturer’s whiskey, the brand’s sales increased 5 times.
An example known to everyone. The brand's cars are closely associated with films about James Bond, who drives cars of this brand exclusively.
The company provided a discount on the purchase of their motorcycles to anyone who had a tattoo with the brand's logo.
The same tool was used by a real estate agency to increase the rating of its HR brand: employees with tattoos of the agency’s logo received a salary increase.
In the legendary film “Back to the Future,” Marty McFly wore the brand’s self-lacing sneakers in 2015. Fans of the film and fans of the brand were waiting for Nike's reaction and the release of the model. And so it happened: the model was published and caused a stir, increasing the brand’s profits.
Still from the film “Back to the Future”In 2013, the company released the project We are beautiful - the result was an 8-minute video, which showed the difference in how women and the people around them perceive their appearance. The project found a great response among consumers.
Hidden Marketing Tools
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Reviews
On special websites, on thematic forums, on social networks. You can motivate customers to leave reviews about your company immediately after receiving services.
- Reviews
Detailed analysis of the pros and cons of the product can be in text and video format, accompanied by links to official sources, containing photographs and quotes from instructions for use/application.
- Comments
Communication between users and influencers to maintain the brand and increase the number of mentions about it. Comments can be used on almost any platform - from social networks to geo-services. And initiated both by the organics of the site and by specially attracted agents of influence.
- Social media
One of the most obvious ways to promote a brand. Maintaining community pages on large online platforms helps create a loyal brand community around it, promote it on your own resource, share the necessary information and track audience feedback.
- Gossip
Targeted and controlled word of mouth. Rumors can perform different tasks: anti-crisis measures to shift the attention of the audience, black PR, anti-PR for competitors, etc.
- Opinion leaders
Bloggers who have become influencers and gained the attention of the audience will help promote the brand’s product or services, selling them not so much as a separate product, but as a component of their lifestyle, which the opinion leader’s audience often strives for.
Steve Jobs, known for his constant choice of Levi's jeans and New Balance sneakers
- Native advertising
It can be disguised in mandatory information blocks of websites, forums, brand cards on geo-services, etc. May also be released as an article in the media. The difference from direct advertising is that the latter requires the marking of advertising materials and the indication of sponsors.
- Viral advertising
Anything that attracts the attention of the audience here and now, making them forget about the original purpose of visiting the page: video, viral article title, photographic materials, etc.
Advantages and disadvantages of hidden marketing
Before starting work on advertising campaigns within the framework of hidden marketing, it is necessary to correlate the objectives of advertising campaigns and how hidden marketing can solve them. Don't forget to assess all the risks.
Advantages of hidden marketing:
- Speed
- Direct communication with the target audience
- Audience trust
- Budgeting
On the Internet, information spreads instantly and is limited only by the number of users present on a particular site.
The presence of a brand is determined by the concentration of its target audience on the site. An automaker, in order to promote a new tire model, comes to an auto forum and receives a higher percentage of the involvement of its target audience than with classic TV or radio advertising.
Users, when in contact with hidden marketing tools, perceive them as information from consumers like themselves who can be trusted. After all, these people leave an experience based on their personal experience of using the product. The main thing here is originality and organic content.
In most cases, hidden marketing is much more profitable for companies than direct advertising.
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Difficulty in building forecasts of the Republic of Kazakhstan
It is rarely possible to track the effectiveness of certain tools due to their indirect effects.
- Negative reaction from the audience if an advertising message is detected in the content
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Difficulties in communication with opinion leaders
It is possible that advertising may be presented incorrectly, its quality may be poor, and it may be impossible to predict whether the blogger’s audience is truly the brand’s target audience.
What can be achieved using hidden marketing?
Increasing brand awareness, forming an associative series of “problem - solution using a brand product.”
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Brand loyalty and positive perception – 72% of users do not buy anything until they read reviews. The more reviews about you and your services there are online, the more useful they are for potential buyers, the easier it is to sell them and persuade buyers to choose your brand.
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Increased sales. Intrusive overt advertising is more likely to anger and alienate consumers. Therefore, native advertising is becoming a more acceptable promotion option.
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Speed in getting results - the general background of brand mentions and ratings online is an excellent catalyst for how hidden marketing works. Using these tools, you can almost immediately assess the effectiveness of the tools, adjust or completely change the strategy of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
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Drawing attention to new products - when a product or service is just entering the market, it is important not to miss the moment and promptly tell the audience about all the benefits that the product brings. The more relevant information a consumer finds, the easier it is for him to make a choice in your favor.
Problems that can be solved using hidden marketing:
Who is the concept of hidden marketing suitable for?
- Companies that are just entering the market and creating their image for the target audience.
- Brands with their own USP, which needs to be promoted natively and tell the audience about it in as much detail as possible.
- Companies with an unstable online reputation, when there is a lot of information about it, but it is contradictory and does not contribute to brand promotion.
Conclusion
Hidden marketing is one of the most accessible and effective ways to promote a brand. In order to complete tasks to the maximum, you must first of all assess all risks in advance, work out a strategy for the Republic of Kazakhstan, set clear goals and objectives and identify tools for achieving them. From a variety of tools, you should choose those that suit your goals, familiarize yourself with the experience of your competitors and take into account their mistakes. It is very important to listen to the audience, their requests and promote the USP of the brand in terms of benefits and benefits for a specific consumer.