John Lewis Christmas Marketing Campaign Essay

This year’s advert, entitled â€Å"The Journey†, hopes to do as well if not better than its predecessor. The ? 6 million campaign created by Adam+EveDDB tells the story of a snowman who travels across rivers, mountains, roads and cities to get the perfect gift for the snowwoman who stands with him in the garden. * The advert could’ve been seen on channel 4 just before Christmas and then it was easily accessible on internet(facebook, youtube, etc). John Lewis also was running a snowman hunt, with six snowmen figures hidden around stores. If customers find them all they could win a price, including a  £10,000 holiday, Sony laptop, spa days and gift hampers. John Lewis has also run social media activity including competitions to win a holiday to New Zealand, where the ad was filmed, and for a family to get their garden ‘snowed up’ for Christmas day. John Lewis hopes to make a â€Å"confident statement† in its Christmas marketing this year through its TV, press, outdoor and in-store activity as well as the Annual, a glossy print title that brings together its Editions magazine and Christmas catalogue into one publication for the first time. The Twitter campaign uses the hashtag #snowmanjourney to track its experiential campaign that is photographing the snowman in different towns around the country. John Lewis has also press released many articles regarding their Christmas advert, in store sales, and competitions. John Lewis P&R department has also write a book that tells the story of the snowman and his journey which is also part of the high profile Christmas campaign, short afterwards the book became one of the most selling books for children. John Lewis has attributed a lift in its crafts offering to its Christmas ad campaign. Items on sale include a ‘Knit Your Own Snowman’. * The campaign was created to persuade more and more customers to come in the store and buy gifts for their loved ones during Christmas time. John Lewis’s advert also delivered strong Christmas, and warm feeling to the viewers so they are also creating the brand. They want to tell and insert John Lewis’s brand in many people’s life. Craig Inglis the Marketing Director at John Lewis said â€Å"the campaigns are not just an investment in making people feel Christmassy, they have commercial effectiveness at eart. † Adverts starring the character proved a big hit – with more than three million views on YouTube. * The target market were people who had families, people who lad loved ones, relatives, and people who had someone one special in their lives, because Christmas it is all about spending time with the loved ones, giving them gifts and have a great time. Also they targeted at other organ ization’s customers for example Marks&Spencer, Boots, etc. Also people who wanted to their bedrooms as they had big sales in their home department. Sales figures Sales for the retailer are up 7. 6% year on year for the week ending 17 November with a strong performance in electrical and home technology driving the growth with a 22. 2% jump in sales. In the five weeks over Christmas John Lewis recorded a 44. 3 per cent rise in its ‘Click and Collect’ service, which allows shoppers to buy products online and then collect them from one of the group’s Waitrose supermarkets, compared with figures from 2011. Total web sales reached ? 684. 8 million in the five weeks to 29 December. Electrical and home technology sales were up by 30. 9 per cent on 2011 with tablets being the retailer’s star festive performer. Fashion and beauty sales rose 10. 4 per cent with home products increasing by 6. 2 per cent. In the last full week before Christmas John Lewis posted sales of ? 157. 8 million, a rise of 26. 5 per cent from last year. A record ? 31. 7 million was then taken on 27 December, the start of the retailer’s clearance sale. Conclusion Overall I think the Christmas campaign has been extremely successful. The reason why I am saying this is because comparing the sales figure from last year and this year they achieved a record this year by stepping over the ? 150 million revenue. Also looking at the promotional mix they have done pretty well again, as we have new products which are the snowman book and the snowman toys, sales offers in their stores at certain products. Their PR department did very well as they came with articles just before launching the advert letting people know when and where will they be able to see the advert. The personal selling was great as well as when going to the check out they would ask the customers if they found everything they need and also if they would be interested in buying the snowman book, etc. Direct marketing was great as well as there was a twitter account where you could fallow the snowman’s adventure, and competitions on Facebook and in store. An improvement I would say it would be that maybe the customers where interested in more sales promotions and more direct marketing would convince customers to buy more products and come to John Lewis more often. Although the Advert did cost a huge amount of money that is nothing compared to the ? 157. 8 million revenue they made last year. Another reason why I think that the campaign was successful was that the advert they made has been voted as the year’s most favourite TV advert. And finally the last reason why I am sure that the campaign was extremely successful was that none of the directors of John Lewis expected a record breaker sales figure.