4 Ways Oreo Has Reached Integrated Marketing Success

Oreo is a brand that has a playful attitude and a prominent presence on social media and other digital platforms.

Across these platforms Oreo is effective in its integrated marketing communication (IMC) through different forms of content that convey their personality.

This can be explored by looking at how they communicate unique value propositions and the link between emotion, responses and brand resonance. It is also important to look at how brand orientation comes into effect in order to improve Oreo’s IMC.

1. Being Present on Digital Platforms

Oreo has an active presence on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Consistency is key when it comes to having a strong voice on these platforms and Oreo is successful in this regard as all of their platforms help to communicate Oreo’s brand personality and values. Their humorous tone shines through and topical posts encourage engagement with customers. This can be seen in their post about the upcoming Game of Thrones final season where they recreated the opening introduction using Oreo cookies.

This constant presence helps to ensure that their messages are being conveyed to their audience in a way that helps them remain relevant and effective in their IMC. Without these messages being spread consistently they would not be able to connect with their audience in a meaningful way.

2. A Strong Brand Orientation

Brand orientation can be seen as how an organisation values their brand and how their practices focus on building the brand. Oreo’s brand orientation is effective as they build a relationship with their stakeholders through their digital presence and the communication of their brand vision and identity.

This is done through their interactions with stakeholders on platforms such as Twitter. Their humour engages with stakeholders in a way that helps to build these relationships and keep them top of mind.

Bridson and Evan mention 4 elements that should be focused on when developing IMC and brand orientation. These are important to keep in mind when looking at how Oreo utilises their social media and digital presence:

• Distinctiveness: Oreo is distinct in the way that they present their brand to customers through their playful tone and relevant content that promotes their product in unique ways.
• Functionality: Oreo offers different ways for their customers to use products such as recipes available on their website. They are constantly thinking of new, innovative ways to share their product with customers.
• Value-adding: Oreo engages with customers online and makes them feel included thus adding value to their overall brand experience.
• Symbolic:Oreo is a brand that is symbolic of parties due to being marketed online as a party snack as seen in the hashtag #StayPlayful.

3. A Clear Unique Value Proposition

A unique value proposition describes what benefit Oreo provides, how they meet the needs of customers and what makes them different from competitors. Oreo provides a cookie that has variations that appeal to a wide audience, for example Oreo Thins. They market themselves as selling not just a cookie but a playful party snack. This playful attitude can be seen in a range of different posts available on their digital platforms.

They cater for the needs of their customers by supplying a quality product that meets a variety of dietary requirements such as being vegan. Oreo is different from their competitors as they are able to relate more personally to their audience through a range of fun campaigns and vibrant visuals.

This unique value proposition acts as a guideline for their IMC and how they are able to orientate themselves in the eyes of their customers. Their digital success plays a large role in this due to how this proposition allows them to communicate consistently across these platforms.

4. A Link Between Emotion, Responses and Brand Resonance

Brand resonance refers to how customers feel about a brand and how well they are able to relate to them. Oreo has a youthful tone visible on their digital platforms. They are a fun brand that offers relatable digital content to their customers in order to evoke an emotional response from them. These emotions allow for their customers to resonate with them on a more personal level.

These elements assist with creating an effective IMC in the sense that they allow for direction and encourage consistent communication across all platforms.

The link between these three factors can be illustrated in one of their recent posts that encourages an emotional response from customers to choose their favourite Oreo in order to resonate further with the brand:

Final Thoughts

After looking at Oreo’s presence on the various digital platforms, their brand orientation, unique value proposition and the link between emotion, responses and brand resonance, it is clear that Oreo is effective in its IMC.

This is because they are able to portray their brand personality, tone and values in all that they post on social media and their digital platforms. They keep their audience entertained while still managing to focus on their unique value proposition. This all means that they communicate effectively and are able to get their message across in a clear, consistent manner to their audience.  

Feature image: Pixabay

*Blog post created for the UCT GetSmarter Brand Management Short Course first published 8 April 2019