The world of marketing is constantly changing, but two things will always stay true: Making an emotional connection to your consumer is always a good thing and families make up a massive part of the consumer market.

This is why family-focussed marketing campaigns are so important and often so powerful. Marketers know that the whole family needs to feel the connection in order for the campaign to be successful.

One of the brands that always hit that sweet spot is Wimpy. It knows its market, and it has mastered the art of the family-focussed marketing campaign.

media update's Alrika Möller spoke to Jodi Law, the brand manager at Wimpy, about her tips and tricks for family-focussed marketing campaigns.

What are the methods you use to define your target audience when you are creating a family-focussed marketing campaign?

Wimpy makes use of the following to get more information and define the target audience of our campaigns:

  • consumer surveys
  • questionnaires
  • competitor analysis
  • market research, and
  • economic factors.

What is your advice for marketers trying to reach families with their campaigns?

Be cognisant of the children as well.
As much as we speak to adults, we need to ensure that all members of the family feel acknowledged and welcomed.

What are the tools you would recommend to create a cohesive campaign across various mediums?

It is important that a golden thread exists across all consumer touchpoints.

There are many tools that we would recommend. One would definitely be design and CI, and using the same design and CI consistently over the various platforms makes your brand easily recognisable as it is consistent. This will assist in growing brand recognition.

Tonality is important: You speak to your consumers as you would like to perceive you. We always ensure that our tonality is warm and welcoming.

The narrative or story that you create is important as it portrays the message that you want consumers to receive and understand.

What can businesses do to create emotional responses with their marketing?

Create a narrative that resonates with your target audience. It is important to ensure that you speak to your audience with a message that they can relate to and that they have experienced.

What are the most effective platforms to successfully reach families with a marketing campaign?

Definitely TV. We receive our greatest reach on TV, and this is followed by a strong digital presence with OOH billboards.

What is the key to reaching both parents and children with a marketing campaign?

You need to ensure that what you have to offer can be enjoyed by the parents and children alike. The experience also needs to accommodate the entire family unit.

It is important to note that when advertising to children, you cannot talk to children directly about anything that may be perceived to be unhealthy.
It is best to proceed with caution when advertising to children.

What is your advice for marketing professionals looking to focus on families with their marketing campaign?

Speak to the parents, as well as the children.

Ensure that your offering accommodates the entire family unit.

What are the main elements that make a marketing campaign family-focussed?

Make sure that your product, price, promotion and place is accessible for every member of the family. You need to ensure that you have something for each family member.

You will need to have a product that adults will enjoy as well as a product that children will enjoy too.

Price is an important element as this is where consumers will perceive you to offer value for money or not. It is also more expensive for a family to come in to enjoy a meal and, therefore, consumers are price sensitive.

When running a promotion, it is important to ensure that you can cater for the children too.

Place is important when targeting families as you will need to ensure that you provide a place that is child–friendly. This could be something as small as colouring sheets to a big jungle gym.

Where is the best place to start researching when creating a family-focussed marketing campaign?

Research into your target market is always a good place to start. Look into their demographics and psychographics.

Ask yourself: What is it that these consumers want or need? How are you going to solve that need?

What do you think are the key elements to family-focussed marketing? Let us know in the comments section below.

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If you are looking for more marketing insights from the experts, have a look at Marketing and Gen Z — A Q&A with Silke Bucker.
*Image courtesy of Canva