WEB 2.

0'S MARKETING IMPACT ON LOW-INVOLVEMENT CONSUMERS

Asle Fagerstrøm and Gheorghita Ghinea

ABSTRACT: What happens if you create a campaign based on the target segment's dreams of being a designer, in combination
with a recognized brand and medium that have the same target segment? For SCA Libresse, the relationship with its consumers is
a vital competitive factor. From dialogues with the target segment, the company's marketing managers recognized that many
young girls have an interest in fashion and design. Therefore, SCA Libresse developed its campaign: Libresse, Let's Design. The
winning contribution was to be sold in 180 stores in Nordic countries. The result was overwhelming: 90,000 designs were
submitted, and the number of Web site visitors doubled. Most important, SCA Libresse witnessed an increase in sales during the
campaign period. Using the Libresse, Let's Design campaign, this article discusses how brand awareness and positive attitude
toward a brand can be created by use of the Internet in an interactive and social way.

Since it was commercialized in 1997, the Internet has brought for success on that new platform. The rules for success entail
new benefits to marketing. In the early stage of Internet using the Internet in an interactive and social way to engage
marketing, marketers focused on the medium's ability to lower consumers (O'Reilly 2007).
costs and its greater capabilities for the distribution of
Web 2.0 marketing is an emerging concept, and it is not easy
information and media to a global market. In a critical
to pin down exactly how it can engage consumers. However,
examination of the Internet's commercial development,
Moran (2008, p. 24) defines Web 2.0 marketing as "any way to
Hoffman, Novak, and Chatterjee (1995) point out that the
get attention for your message using people connected to the
most important consumer benefit associated with online
Internet." In addition, he categorizes Web 2.0 marketing into
shopping is the access to greater amounts of dynamic
four types of social media: content, personality, interest, and
information to support consumers' decision making. The
fantasy. Content-based social media marketing builds around
interactive nature of the Internet and the hypertext
individual messages-for example, YouTube hosts videos
environment allow for deep, nonlinear information search that
designed to be shared with others. Other content-based social
the consumer initiates and controls (Hoffman, Novak, and
media sites do not host the content but rather link to it.
Chatterjee 1995). The authors conclude that the benefits that
Personality-based social networking sites allow each member
the consumer gets from electronic commerce arise primarily
to create a profile description, which again can be linked to the
from the structural characteristics of the medium and include
profiles of colleagues and friends, forming a network.
availability of information, provision of search mechanisms,
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have become a significant
and online product trial, all of which can lead to reduced
personality-based networks for targeting adult segments.
uncertainty in the consumer's decision process.
Interest-based social media marketing involves communities
Today, most marketers consider Internet marketing to have a formed around specific subjects on message boards, blogs, and
broader scope because it not only refers to digital media such so on. These communities give companies the opportunity to
as the Internet, e-mail, and banner advertising but also interact with consumers and, most important, listen and learn
includes management of digital customer data and electronic from their experience and ideas about product improvements.
customer relationship management systems (Hanson and Specialized search sites like Twingly allow category searches
Kalyanam 2007). In general, Internet marketing comprises for blogs on a specific topic. Finally, virtual worlds such as
creative and technical aspects of the Internet including design, Second Life are also social media. Marketing though a virtual
content development, advertising, and sales. The term "Web world is fantasy-based social media marketing.
2.0" is used to describe changing trends in the use of
Types of social media are emerging fast. What is important,
technology and design in the marketing process. It was
according to Moran (2008), is the need to pay attention, so
introduced for the first time in 2004 by Dale Dougherty, a
that when a new type of social media appears, a company can
Web pioneer, at a conference brainstorming session.
recognize it and consider whether it could work for its next
According to O'Reilly (2007), Web 2.0 is the business
marketing campaign. The following section describes how
revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the
SCA Libresse succeeded in increasing sales using a Web 2.0
Internet as platform and an attempt to understand the rules
marketing campaign.

Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol 10 No 2(Spring 2010), pp. 67‐71. 
© 2010 American Academy of Advertising, All rights reserved 
ISSN 1525‐2019 
68  Journal of Interactive Advertising  Spring 2010
 

LIBRESSE, LET'S DESIGN target segment was girls between 14 and 25 years of age. Girls
who were attracted to the invitation were able to use a design
SCA (2010) was founded in 1929 as a merger of ten Swedish
tool to choose patterns and color (see Figure 1). With help of
forestry companies. The company has since then expanded
the drawing program, a participant could create the
into personal care products, tissue, and packaging. Europe is
underpants by choosing from templates and complete figures,
its main market, but SCA also holds strong positions in North
as well as by freehand drawing. The Libresse brand name was
America, Latin America, Asia, and Australasia. One of SCA's
strategically placed on the top left of the Web site. The Web
(2010) main business areas is feminine care products (personal
site also showed the jury and the attractive prizes.
care), which it markets in more than 90 countries. Its largest
regional market for feminine care products is Europe, where Figure 1. Design Tool on Libresse Web Page
SCA is the third largest player. In Europe, the products are
marketed under the brand name Libresse. The competition in
this market is very tough. The two strongest players are SCA
Libresse and P&G Always, though in recent years, private
brands have also developed a strong position in Nordic
markets.
In addition to the price of the product, the relationship to the
consumer is important for SCA Libresse to stay competitive.
SCA Libresse has reported that in addition to demographics
(i.e., gender and age), two main characteristics mark the target
segment for feminine care products: First, the consumer often
sticks with the brand she chooses the first time around; and
second, the consumer is not very involved in the product
category. This scenario makes for a challenging situation for When the participant was satisfied with the design, she could
the marketing department. To achieve brand awareness and submit it on the Libresse Web site and join the design
positive attitudes toward the brand, the company undertook competition. Moreover, she could invite friends by blog or
additional research to understand the target segment. Results Facebook to vote for her design. If she did not want to design a
from its market research (surveys and focus groups) showed pair of underpants, she could vote for her favorite pattern and,
that the target segment has varying interests; however, fashion in addition, send it as a postcard. Every week the winner in
design was one of the most dominant, with as many as 25% of each country was lined up for the final decision. The winner of
the respondents, aged 14-25 years, reporting that they would the design competition would obtain a cash prize, and her
want to work with fashion and design. The owners of Libresse underpants would be launched in 180 JC stores (a fashion
saw this consistency as an opportunity for their 2007 chain for teenagers) in the Nordic countries. Thus, a girl's
campaign. dream of being a fashion designer could well be realized
through the Libresse Web site.
A two-month online design competition was created as the
main campaign activity for the Nordic market (excluding CAMPAIGN OUTCOMES
Iceland). Other campaign activities included advertising, sales One goal that SCA Libresse had for the Web 2.0 campaign was
promotion, and public relations. The company opted to use to increase the number of visitors to each country's Web site
print, television, and stores as communication channels. by 25%. As Figure 2 shows, the number of visitors increased
Moreover, SCA Libresse created a package crafted exclusively from 277,657 to 483,036-in other words, an increase of
for the online design competition. The target segment was 205,379 visitors (+74%). The average time users spent at the
invited to design a pair of underpants on the Libresse Web Libresse Web site also increased by 60%, from approximately
site. The competition was open to everyone, though the main 12 to 19 minutes.
69  Journal of Interactive Advertising  Spring 2010
 

Figure 2. Visitors to the Libresse Web Site

The response from the target segments was enormous. As with 40,500 designs submitted. Norway was second with
many as 90,000 pairs of underpants were designed and 17,100, and then Denmark and Finland, each with 16,200
submitted to the design competition by girls in the Nordic submitted entries.
countries (see Figure 3). Sweden had the highest participation

Figure 3. Numbers of Submissions in the Nordic Segments

70  Journal of Interactive Advertising  Spring 2010
SCA Libresse also witnessed an increase in sales during the
campaign period, though due to competitive circumstances,
the exact increase in sales was unavailable for publication.
Within the blog world, the design competition was one of the
major topics during summer 2007. On their blogs, some girls
urged readers to vote for their underpants on the Libresse Web
site. One blogger wrote, "Do you have an idea for a nice
panties pattern? Then you should check out the Nordic design
competition Nordic Design Challenge in collaboration
between Libresse and JC." One girl stated on her blog: "Thanks
everybody who has voted for my submission!! And you others
should vote ... in case you think my underpants are nice."
Another blogger wrote, "Myself and S have joined a
competition where we shall design a pair of underpants. The
winner gets their underpants launched in JC shops. That's
cool! Go to www.libresse.se to see ours and others
submissions."
In addition, SCA Libresse achieved double gold awards for its
Libresse, Let's Design campaign when the International Public
Relations Association (2008) announced the winners of the
Golden World Awards 2008. The competition included 404
participants from public relations agencies in 52 countries
worldwide. Of the 117 finalists, 28 category winners were
named. The Libresse, Let's Design entry won the category for
"Best Use of Internet" and shared the "Creativity Award." The
Libresse campaign also won silver in the Eurobest 2007
advertising competition and a silver award in the Swedish
public relations competition, Spinn, in 2007.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
The Libresse, Let's Design case reveals a key to marketing in a
Web 2.0 world: Give consumers a reason to engage.
Consumers must have some incentive to spend time and
energy to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences on a
company Web site. For example, the target segment of
Libresse reported that they were not much involved in the
product category (feminine care products). Their engagement
in information search and attribute evaluation therefore
should be limited (Petty and Cacioppo 1986). Libresse decided
to respond by peaking young girls' design interests. The
competition campaign by SCA Libresse succeeded in
achieving brand awareness and a positive attitude toward the
brand, most likely because the brand Libresse has become
closely associated with fashion design (positive cues).
In addition, by exposing more people to the brand and
providing information about the product and the benefits of
using it, SCA Libresse has likely increased some consumers'
involvement in the product category (Petty, Cacioppo, and
Schumann 1983). Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that
some consumers in the target segment have increased their
motivation to undertake product-relevant thinking. For those
consumers, persuasion has occurred through product
assumption, attitude toward the brand, and ultimately
intention to buy the brand. Thus, this case study demonstrates
that by using the Internet in an interactive and social way,
companies can achieve brand awareness, positive attitude
toward a brand, and increased sales in the target segment.
With regard to Moran's (2008) four categories of Web 2.0
marketing, the Libresse, Let's Design campaign used primarily
content-based social media marketing. Libresse made it
possible for the young girls in the target segment to fulfill their
dream of being a designer by letting them design and submit a
pair of underpants on the Libresse Web site. Indirectly, the
company also made use of interest- and personality-based
social media marketing by making it easy for the girls to invite
friends through blogs or Facebook to vote for their design.
Other Web 2.0 companies have made use of a different mix of
social media marketing. For example, Absolut Vodka (Elliott
2007) launched a new campaign in 2007 that included
commercials, online ads (www.absolut.com), print ads,
billboards, event marketing, and fantasy-based social media
marketing. Absolut Vodka invited drinkers to imbibe "in an
Absolut World," a fanciful, even surreal, place where common
sense prevails. On Planet Absolut, for example, men can get
pregnant, the garish billboards in Times Square are replaced
by masterpiece paintings, and lying leaders are exposed by
their Pinocchio noses. The idea is to reengage the brand's
target segment, primarily urbanites aged 25 to 35 years, with
the idea that Absolut is the quintessential vodka, the standard
by which the consumers can judge other things. The goal is to
encourage a dialogue between customers and the brand, in
contrast with previous advertising, which was more of a top-
down presentation from Absolut to its target segment.
Another example is the personality-based social media
marketing by Nike, that is, the Nike Challenge (Men vs.
Woman). According to Nike, it is the world's largest running
club, in which men and women compete by registering online
(www.nikeplus.com) and logging the kilometers thy run. In
the 2009 campaign, more than 160 million kilometers had
been logged on nikeplus.com; more than 900,000 challenges
and 1.7 million goals had been created; and more than 140,000
training programs had been launched by runners in 180
71  Journal of Interactive Advertising  Spring 2010
 

countries around the world. Nike succeeded in strengthening Petty, Richard E., John T. Cacioppo, and David Schumann
the community feeling by launching a challenge to existing (1983), "Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising
and new members, with a unique and engaging initiative in Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement," Journal
which everyone is invited to join. of Consumer Research, 10 (2), 135-46.
To explain the effect that these Web 2.0 marketing campaigns SCA (2010), "Corporate Web Site," available
have on consumption is not that straightforward. The reason at http://www.sca.com/, (accessed February 2, 2010).
is that the communication campaign often is holistic, and
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
social media marketing generally is supported by other digital
and traditional media. In addition, Web 2.0 campaigns can Asle Fagerstrøm received the M.Sc. degree in Marketing, and
include cobranding with another leading brand, as in the case diploma in Education, in 1993 from the National College for
of the Libresse, Let's Design campaign, which cooperated with Teachers of Commerce, Hønefoss (Norway). He received the
JC stores. Thus, further research is needed to expand degree as Associate Professor in Marketing in 2006.
understanding of the effects that these campaigns have on Fagerstrøm is Associate Dean at The Norwegian School of
their target segments. Information Technology, Oslo (Norway). At present he is a
doctoral student at The Norwegian school of Management BI,
REFERENCES
Oslo (Norway). His research and publications focus on topics
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Times, (April 27, 2007), available at http://www.nytimes.com/ interaction. E-Mail: fagasl@nith.no.
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Gheorghita Ghinea received the B.Sc. and B.Sc. (Hons)
9, 2010).
degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics, in 1993 and
Hanson, Ward and Kirthi Kalyanam (2007), Internet 1994, respectively, and the M.Sc. degree in Computer Science,
Marketing & e-Commerce. Mason, OH: Thomson South- in 1996, from the University of the Witwatersrand,
Western. Johannesburg, South Africa; he then received the Ph.D. degree
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