Case Study: B2b Media Channel Planning

Business Aims

Castrol had recently aligned their b2c and b2b engine lubricant brands to share a common architecture. An international research study was required to support the re-launch of the new brands through better understanding of how media channels are used by purchase decision makers amongst trade buyers and the influence of marketing activity through these channels to inform the media planning process.

Marketing Sciences Solution

A semi-structured telephone survey was conducted amongst buyers of engine lubricants (both client brand and competitors) in Brazil, Germany and China to quantify which channels are used and qualitatively understand how they are used.

Client Impact

A clear hierarchy of media channels in both consumer and professional lives was developed based on usage, frequency, intensity and influence of marketing activity. This was developed in conjunction with Castrol and the media planning agency to ensure that (a) b2b marketing spend in each market is optimised at the time of re-launch to ensure maximum exposure amongst the target audience & (b) maximum leverage is made with the b2b audience through b2c marketing spend.