Brand Oprah Has Some Marketing Lessons For You

Susan Berfield reports for Bloomberg Businessweek that in 1988 Oprah Winfrey made a decision that would change her life—and eventually the future of television. Her talk show was already getting better ratings than kingpin Phil Donahue and aired in 198 markets. When she renegotiated her contract with King World Productions, which syndicated her show, and with ABC, which produced it, Winfrey demanded control and got it. Winfrey's Harpo Productions assumed the show's production costs, but it also collected licensing fees from local stations, estimated at $100 million in 1988. Plus, Harpo earned money from a few lucrative moments of advertising each day. "I never wanted to be in a position again in life where I was meant to do something but couldn't do it because somebody was telling me I couldn't," Winfrey later told writers of a Harvard Business School case study.

The impulse to take control of her life—and then enjoy it—resonated with her viewers over a 25-year span that will end on May 25, when she airs her finale on broadcast television and turns her attention to her new cable channel. Over that time, Oprah became a singular brand born of her own personal history. Winfrey's story of childhood poverty and sexual abuse, her struggle with her weight, and her striving and charisma made her the near-perfect peddler of a relentless optimism. She was more than a celebrity: She stood for self-improvement, doing good, and controlling your own destiny. Her motto, "Live your best life," was invoked on her show, in her magazine, and on her website.

It all added up to a brand radically different but no less powerful than Coca-Cola or the Marlboro Man. It propelled her show, which drew about 12 million viewers in the U.S. at its peak, through more than 4,500 episodes and some 30,000 guests. She stayed on message as she launched her magazine and produced movies and developed a raft of syndicated television shows including those of Dr. Phil McGraw and Rachael Ray. The brand ultimately made the meticulously manicured entrepreneur very rich, with an estimated fortune of $2.7 billion, according to Forbes

Winfrey's other great talent was to combine her message with a rousing consumerism absent even a hint of irony: Treat yourself! You deserve it! Her viewers and readers bought in and bought big. The brand's marketing fairy dust was sprinkled on an array of products she endorsed without compensation, somehow adding to her already robust credibility. One day she might talk about age-defying makeovers, the next about the faces of autism; she went to Ethiopia; she went green; she went vegan. And then she went shopping. "For her, transformation is about self-esteem and about buying stuff," says Susan Mackey-Kallis, a communications professor at Villanova University. "It's consumerism, but it's not crass."

Winfrey has helped turn her favorite books into bestsellers and her favorite things into instant successes. After she recommended Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth in January 2008, it topped the bestseller list on Amazon.com. Within a month, Penguin Group had shipped 3.5 million copies. Her "Oprah's Book Club" plugged 65 books and was credited by some with saving the publishing industry.

Winfrey regularly announced her "favorite things" in shows that were tantamount to infomercials, though far more effective. When DreamTime's Foot Cozys, aromatherapy slippers, were featured on an episode in 2002, the company was selling 3,000 pairs a month. The following month, it sold 20,000. The slippers became DreamTime's best-selling product that year. When Winfrey presented such goodies to her audience, it was the companies (from Williams-Sonoma to Apple) that donated them. The big shows—in which audiences received cars and trips—inspired the fervor of revival meetings. Product placement is a fair way to describe her 'favorite things, but she is the one who is brokering those deals for her audience. It's product placement in a funny kind of way because the companies are giving the product away. Her brand could sell everything from croissants to refrigerators.

Like any great marketer, Winfrey has sought to extend her brand's reach. She has launched the TV careers of other live-your-best-life gurus, such as Dr. Oz and the designer Nate Berkus—whose shows Harpo developed. She even made her personal trainer, Bob Greene, a celebrity. He now sells his own fitness and diet books. She creates this army of celebrities who are all part of the same campaign. That's an economy of scale and lets her have an exponential impact.

Winfrey's empire also includes a monthly magazine published by Hearst, O, The Oprah Magazine, that combines her do-good and enjoy-good-things ethos and has a circulation of about 2.5 million. (She's been on the cover of every issue.) Even most of Harpo's feature films and television movies—including The Great Debaters and Tuesdays with Morrie—have been emotionally rich dramas about reinvention.

Winfrey has stoked some controversy along the way. She gave credence to Suzanne Somers's questionable anti-aging hormone and vitamin regimen and Jenny McCarthy's book linking vaccines and autism. Her school for girls in South Africa was hit with allegations of sexual abuse. Yet these embarrassments barely affected Winfrey's standing because her moral character hasn't been questioned -there haven't been any personal transgressions. The resilience of her brand didn't surprise the experts. "All strong brands are authentic, relevant, and different," says Josh Feldmeth, chief executive officer of consultancy Interbrand's New York office. "Oprah performs as well as anything in the market today."

Still, as Winfrey prepares to move to cable, there are signs she's preparing her brand for a shift. In October she appeared via satellite on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and announced she was giving everyone in the audience a free trip to Washington to attend the rally that Stewart and Stephen Colbert were organizing. "She was going on Jon Stewart's show to cash in on his cultural power," says Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University. "She wanted to start courting younger viewers for her cable network. It was the first time we saw Oprah trying to suck the cultural mojo from someone else."

Janice Peck, author of The Age of Oprah: Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era, points out that Winfrey is a baby boomer, and that "her historical moment is passing." Even Feldmeth says the big trends are no longer in Winfrey's favor. "If credibility and expertise come more from our social networks, are we still going to be sitting at the feet of a master like Oprah?" he asks.

After 25 years, Oprah's influence remains unparalleled. As she moves to cable, there are signs she's preparing to shift her brand as well.

The Hispanic Mom Car Buying Behavior

Coast to coast more dealers are starting to tap into the sales potential of their local Hispanic auto buyers' market. They are reaching out to the Hispanic community in ways that didn't exist just a couple of years ago. COO at Todobebé Cynthia Nelson says a new research explores Hispanic moms' insights, perceptions and involvement with the automotive category: ownership, usage, attitudes, considerations, and key factors influencing purchase. When it comes to automotive purchases, there is always a misunderstanding that women either aren't interested or don't have a say in which vehicle is chosen. Not so with Hispanic moms, who are not only interested in what type of car but also very involved in features that will not only make her life easier with children in tow, but also be safe and reliable. She is concerned as well with purchase vs. lease, and even performance.

This new research identifies key insights for approaches and messaging with this audience, particularly with regard to choice and selection of a family vehicle.

General Panel Demographics:

• 87% are women ages 18-34.
• 79% are married or living with a partner.
• 50% say their country of origin is Mexico.
• 67% household income is $45,000 or less.
• 60% are stay-at-home moms.
• 74% have children ages 0-5 in the home.

Key Outcomes & Marketing Opportunities:

Factors Influencing Purchase

• More than 56% of respondents said that expecting a child was a major factor influencing the purchase of a new vehicle.
• Room for passengers (78%) is a major factor in choice, followed by safety/security and price/value.
• Nearly all respondents said they test drove the vehicle that they purchased.
• Respondents also said that they test drove other vehicles -- averaging two or more.
• One in four purchased or leased a vehicle during the last year; a lesser percentage are considering purchasing in the next 12 months.
• Most respondents indicate preference for a SUV or Minivan, followed by station wagon or four-door sedan.
• The majority of respondents indicate they have a preference between foreign vs. domestic vehicles.
• Toyota (21.9%), Ford (21.1%) and Honda (18.8%) lead in brand preference.
• The majority of respondents say they receive information regarding family vehicles and auto safety via TV (79%) and the Internet (68%).

Key Take-Aways:

Hispanic moms are a key and influential target for automotive communications, particularly as related to selection and purchase of a new family vehicle. There are many, many ways to positively influence buyer behavior of your vehicle brand by making mom the central point of your marketing communication platform:

• Understand her needs/walk in her shoes in terms of how her family and having children is an important factor in the vehicle that she purchases -- what is important to her, should be reflected in your messaging. 
• Provide her with tips and information that help her visualize the features and functionality that your automotive brand will bring to her -- if it saves her money, time or helps her store more stuff -- let her know. 
• Don't limit yourself to TV spots -- the Internet, Video Downloads, Mobile, Grass Roots Events, In-Retail, non-traditional media, are all great ways to reach this busy mom.
• Remember she is a viral creature. If you build her trust, she will share your data with her friends and family -- priceless for any marketer.

Build Fan/Customer Loyalty With A '2C2R' Approach

In a still-uncertain economic climate, sports marketers are rightfully putting greater emphasis on customer loyalty and fan experience. Jon Last, president of Sports and Leisure Research Group spoke at a golf industry conference about an approach he developed to address this, known as "2C2R." The four elements are:

1. Communication: The best loyalty marketing efforts take great care in crafting the right type and frequency of marketing communication to best customers. They recognize that one mass message is often insufficient in establishing the "one-to-one" bond that demonstrates to a best customer that they are valued and appreciated. Further, the communication acknowledges unique needs and articulates a solution, rather than simply a sales proposition.

2. Community: Effective fan communities bring people of shared needs together in a meaningful and honest exchange. We applied it for a cruise line by offering forums for future passengers to meet in advance of their sailings, for past guests to share memories together and through special events that fostered literal community building within local markets. Finding the right approach can often be as simple as conducting needs assessment and concept testing research.

3. Recognition: Best-of-breed loyalty efforts go out of their way to make the customer feel special. A great example was when I returned to a favorite hotel after about a three-year lapse. To my surprise and delight, the agent at registration welcomed me back and asked me if I would like the same room that I stayed in during my most recent visit.

The gesture cost the hotel nothing, but it demonstrated commitment to cultivating customer relationships. Recognition can be as simple as remembering birthdays or distributing commemorative pins or apparel that fans can wear as badges of honor, distinguishing themselves from others. It's a soft-sell approach that shows appreciation and doesn't tarnish your brand through discounting.

4. Reward: Many marketers skip immediately to this step, associating good customer retention efforts solely with points and reward programs. While research has demonstrated the efficacy of offering aspirational "carrots at the end of sticks" to acknowledge long-term loyalty, too many sports marketers falsely assume that fans will become as locked in on the prize as they are.

In countless loyalty research that we have conducted, clients are often underwhelmed to observe how unwilling the customer is to engage in a new points program or track their behaviors for far-off rewards. The key is to reward frequently in soft and subtle ways, while making the pursuit of long-term rewards as seamless and self managing as possible. We've heard in too many focus groups, "Please don't give me another points card to carry around!"

It Starts with Research

Like any CRM approach, identifying the right consumers for targeted offerings is both art and science. But even absent sophisticated databases and mining systems, a fundamental research audit of the customer base can enable sports brands to segment their customers by demographics, attitudes, past behaviors and defined need states.

We've often deployed a research approach where we measure these perceptions and behaviors between disparate groups of customers and prospects and look for gaps that can suggest the right tactical marketing approaches to reach each group. Concept testing is another means in which specific rewards, recognition offerings and communications approaches can be evaluated.

Regardless of the specifics of your own marketing efforts towards best customers, or the breadth of loyalty research that you conduct, remembering the principles of 2C2R and incorporating them into your program can be a valuable first step in differentiating your brand from competitors and breaking through the clutter of too many look-alike programs.