Metrics for Analyzing ECIG

Direct Marketing Campaign of ECIG Electronic Cigarettes International Group (ECIG) recently completed a direct marketing campaign that involved giving away 10,000 free start-up vape kits to customers. The giveaway was launched on 9 December 2015, on Wednesday evening and the response was overwhelmingly popular. Customers were given an access code via an advertisement that aired on ITV1 (a UK TV channel) prior to a new episode of Prey. Within hours, the ECIG website was overloaded with customers attempting to utilize the code to acquire their free start-up kit (VIPCIG, 2015).

The purpose of the marketing campaign was to introduce new users to vaping in time for the New Year to take advantage of New Year's resolutions that people often take to quit smoking (Gwynn, 2015). Vaping and electronic cigarettes have been cited by UK researchers and scientists as being 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes in a study that has given a tremendous boost to ECIG's level of confidence (Public Health England, 2015).

The direct marketing campaign was a tremendous success, as all 10,000 free units were gone within 24 hours -- but a second campaign immediately followed, in which units could be acquired for 50% off (a special offer that lasted a week) (VIPCIG, 2015). The media strategy was to use broadcast television to advertise VIP vaping -- something that had not been done on television ever before in the UK (cigarette ads on TV had been off air for years). The spot was not only appealing to vapers but to traditional smokers.

By riding on the coattails of the recently published study, VIP was able to appeal to smokers who are now more likely to view vaping as a way to quit smoking traditional cigarettes -- an alternative to nicotine patches or gums and a more likely successful alternative since it mimics the act of smoking and still delivers a level of nicotine without any additives or tar that is bad for lungs (Cancer Research UK, 2013).

An interactive marketing analytical framework was utilized by ECIG to monitor the success of the ad campaign. The giveaway of 10,000 units virtually overnight indicated immediately that the campaign was an overwhelming success -- so overwhelming in fact that the website was bogged down by users attempting to get their free vape kit. ECIG communicated directly with users via phone lines and Twitter, urging users to keep trying as associates were working on the website to keep it live throughout the response to the promotion.

In this manner, the response was measured directly via users who entered the code for a free vape kit, and indirectly by users who later purchased the kit at half-price over the course of the next week. Still further indirect monitoring was performed by assessing the sales growth throughout the end of the final quarter of the year, measuring this performance against the performance of a quarter prior and a year prior.

Contacts were also amassed via registration -- which means that 10,000 customers were entered into VIP's database, potentially expanding its list of prospect and future clients exponentially. Return clients could therefore be monitored by email and shipping address for clients who returned to the website store to purchase more e-liquid for their vape kit. In short, several steps in the monitoring process were available to ECIG.

In terms of media usage and demographics, the target audience is younger, in the 18- to 35-year-old range, but also includes anyone of any age who is looking for a healthier lifestyle without giving up their smoking habit. Vaping is considered a much healthier alternative in the UK. Indeed, ECIG faces competition from Blu Cigs as well as UK brands like V2 and Apollo.

But ECIG's Vapestick consistently ranks in the UK as a top ten starter kit and recently was voted best starter kit by an independent reviewer (Vapestick Ranked the UK's No. 1 E-Cigarette Brand, 2015). This ranking is promoted in shops and online. This campaign also appealed to users who are within a localized audience -- specifically in target areas in the UK where ECIG VIP shops are stationed (there are over 100 VIP locations throughout the UK).

"Places in Trouble" (Kotler et al., 1993) were avoided and places where non-traditional venues, such as kiosks in UK, were essential for this campaign to work. In America, the kiosk has less traction but is being utilized slowly -- and this is one reason why the direct marketing campaign kicked off in England rather than in America -- the kiosks are more popular in the UK.

Another reason for the UK audience, however, is that UK scientists are more accepting of vaping as a healthy alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes than American scientists -- at least when it comes to representation in the mainstream media. Thus, there is a far more accepting and approving target audience in the UK than there is the States, for now. Nonetheless, there are many followers of ECIG and its products in the U.S. as ECIG is a publicly traded company on the OTC bulletin boards.

For now, products in America are stocked in 7-11s, Walmarts and other traditional vendors, but the non-traditional route may be taken as traditional vendors show less traction and trouble. ECIG is an international company, with shops in UK, Africa, Europe, and the U.S.A. It expects to expand to other countries in the coming months and years, such as Egypt and in Asia, too. The results of the direct marketing campaign should facilitate these growth decisions over 2016 and beyond. The response so far has been positive.

The metrics will need to be analyzed over the coming quarters however in order to determine exactly how effective this strategy was. The appeal of ECIG in its media usage is like that of any cigarette company, using sex symbols to help sell products (ECIG's ads use attractive women as spokes models and they are shown holding a vaporizer).

At the same time ECIG's media usage in the UK direct marketing campaign attempts to remind customers of the healthy aspect of vaping as compared to traditional cigarette usage -- as this was the main idea of the timing of the campaign -- appealing to smokers just before New Year's resolutions would kick off. ECIG is a real electronic cigarette and vaping company with retail shops and kiosks in the UK and USA as well as an online store for each of its various brands, ranging from.