Kellogg on Marketing, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 15Developing an Impactful Communication Campaign

Kevin McTigue

“Should we be on TikTok?” Of all the questions asked about media channels to help grow a product, it feels like the most common one might be the generic “Should we be on X?”

Over the past 20 years, you could swap out TikTok for Facebook, Periscope, YouTube, Clubhouse, Instagram, Meerkat, Amazon Alexa, Snapchat, Twitch, Vine … and, recently, metaverse sites like Decentraland. Every couple of months the landscape shifts a bit, with new players emerging and audiences moving. This ever‐changing world of channels can make it difficult on marketers. Some say exciting; some say crazy. It doesn't feel all that long ago that our media plans were simpler artifacts: a solid combination of television, print, radio, and some out‐of‐home perhaps. But every year it grows more complex. And so the question always comes: “Should we be on X?”

We want the answer to be easy. We want to pull down a sheet of benchmarks that say “for your offering in this category, these are the top 10 channels and you should expect Y% return on your investment.” Sometimes we can find benchmarks, but with media habits changing so frequently, they can become outdated quickly. So that leaves marketers frustrated when looking for the answer to “Should we be on X?”

So let's back up. What do we want from our communication campaign? We can start by assuming that we have identified a goal that can be achieved by messaging. We would like to grow awareness ...