MSc Business Administration 2008/9

1. Make Yourself Heard
Ericsson’s global brand campaign
Koen Van Doorselaer
Mathias De Bruycker
Nathalie Goubau
Werner Rietveld
Serena Boccardo
Lenka Machova
Christina Kosta-kafetzi

2. • The Company
• Advertising
• Changes in the Market
• Market Studies
▫ “Take Five”
▫ “Soul Searching”
• The Campaign
• Questions
▫ Continue the Campaign?
▫ Modify the Campaign?
▫ How do you integrate local and global advertising?

3. The Company

4. Advertising
• Limited before entry in mobile phone market in
1987
• Mostly reliant on local initiatives
• 1995: first European ad-campaign around a new
model
• 1997: after reorganization: first global
communication: product placement in
“Tomorrow Never Dies”

5. Changes in the Market
• Narrowing product differences among
manufacturers
▫ Increasingly difficult differentiation
• Shrinking product life cycles
▫ Product-specific communication becomes more
expensive and possibly less effective
• New generation of end-users
▫ Look for different features and values

6. Market Study: “Take Five”:
Segmentation of the mobile phone market
• Pioneers
▫ Loyal to technology, not to brands
• Achievers
▫ Limited brand loyalty
• Materialists
▫ Want trendy products and well-known brands
• Sociables
▫ Generally loyal to brands
• Traditionalists
▫ Tend to be brand loyal

7. Market Study: “Soul Searching”
Assesment of the current brand perceptions
• Ericsson percieved as: “Cold, distant,
conservative, and technology oriented.”
• Low brand awareness and recognition in most
markets
 Need for brand building

8. The Campaign
• “Make Yourself Heard”
• No products were shown in the ads
▫ To establish a sense of intimacy with the customer
• Pre-test:
▫ Slogan “grew” on people
▫ Slogan has universal appeal
▫ Very encouraging outcomes in terms of brand
perception

9. Q1: Is there a point in continuing the
“Make yourself heard” campaign?
• Generally good results
• Coordinate global brand campaign with regional,
local product and segment ads
• New image campaign by Motorola
▫ more affective-oriented
• Continue because:
▫ Long-term potential
▫ Universal appeal

10. Q2: What modifications do you
suggest?
• Focus on the personal contact is no longer
innovative
• More focus on technical innovativeness
• Coordination with all the local and regional
advertising
▫ More bottom-up approach
• Use product in campaign

11. Q3: How do you integrate local and
global advertising strategies?
• Bottom-up structure
• Create platform of the “Make Yourself Heard”
campaign
▫ Implement product on local or regional level

12. Thank you for your attention