Blog Post 4: Marketing Research with MasterCard #OneMoreDay

What could be the most effective way to improve your marketing strategy? Well, a strong start would be through researching and talking to the target market themselves. Marketing research not only provides feedback for an organization or business but also gives them insight on how to best accommodate their target market. By definition Marketing Research is

“…the process of defying a marketing problem and opportunity, systematically collecting and analyzing information and recommending actions.” (Kerin, 192)

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This past week in class I gave my two ad presentations during class which by chance were both centered on families. The first ad I presented on was on the recent MasterCard campaign #OneMoreDay. The campaign was created by the household credit card name MasterCard to push parents to take that unused paid vacation day and spend it with their family. A statistic in the campaign says that more than 400 million paid vacation days go unused each year. MasterCard is telling its target market to take that one more day of vacation because one more day is “priceless”. So how do you think MasterCard was able to go about seeing what they could do to reach their consumers? They did this by following the steps of the Marketing Research Approach:

1. Define the Problem – The problem is that MasterCard wants to expand its reach by creating a campaign that markets to their target market to use more of their paid vacation days with their MasterCard credit card.
2. Develop the Research Plan – How MasterCard went about this we do not exactly know, but they went about looking at the psycho-graphics and behavior of those who neglected to use all of their unpaid vacation days.
3.  Collect Relevant Information – By taking the research plan to action and collecting all the information from research and statistics, MasterCard could take the next step in figuring out how to create the campaign.
4.  Develop Findings – They saw the large statistic of unpaid vacation days and from this the campaign set its basis. By researching their target market and being creative in their marketing strategy, the campaign developed its findings to help market that parents and families can take that one more day of their paid vacation time.
5. Take Marketing Actions –MasterCard took its marketing actions through many different forums such as a website, hashtag #OneMoreDay, a sweepstakes #OneMoreDaySweeps and commercials.

The campaign came out with some effective ads featuring humorous kids informing parents about why they should go on longer vacations. By incorporating social media, MasterCard made what all their marketing research was working toward basically interactive. Parents and families can post pictures on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #OneMoreDay. Along with this the campaign added a sweepstakes that anyone can be entered in to win. By using the hashtag #OneMoreDaySweeps on Twitter or Instagram they are automatically entered to win a trip for 4 worth a $25,000 value to a location of their choice! Not a bad deal right? You can even win from posting a picture from the comfort of your own couch. MasterCard’s various products cater to many different lifestyles that their target markets have. Their main target market for the #OneMoreDay campaign, families and parents, is able to be actively involved in from home or while they are on vacation. MasterCard using multiple platforms to market their service/product shows it to be very effective and their marketing research to be successful. The campaign is still fairly new so there are many more deals to come! For more information about MasterCard’s #OneMoreDay campaign check out their website:

http://www.priceless.com/travel/