How far will tobacco companies go to market to certain targets?

Over the weekend, I went out for my friend’s birthday. It was at Picoras pizza on Broadway. The long lines at this New York style pizza joint definitely attracted everyone here. Since we had to wait outside, I couldn’t help but notice the two ladies beside me smoking a cigarette. No, this wasn’t any ordinary cigarette, it was a pink cigarette and one of them was holding the black box with a pink camel on it. The box was elegant and attractive looking – gave an image of “classy cigarettes” to the ladies. I was drawn to this because I thought to myself; you know… I have never seen a pink cigarette/ This is totally an advertising strategy of turning cigarettes into a trendy “oh this is a girly thing.. I have a cute cigarette”. To me, I think of the florescent pink as an attention grabber – definitely a girly color – a color that begs for attention. Anyways, I came home and went on GOOGLE to search on Camel’s advertising strategy behind their new line of cigarettes that targeted strictly to WOMEN. There on The New York Times, the article titled “A New Camel Brand is Dressed to the Nines” on Feb 15, 2007.

The article was definitely interesting and focused on how Camel for decades had focused on males and that this was encouraged to pull higher markets for females. They also mentioned how Camel was competing with other cigarette companies such as Virginia Slims which targets females as the light cigarette.

Macbook Air

Apple recently released their newest laptop, the thinnest computer ever made. The commericals on TV compared the Macbook Air to an envelope and showed it to be similar thickness. From the looks of it, it seems Apple is targeting teenagers and high tech people. But when we take a look at the specs of Air, we see it has only one usb port, no external battery, no dvd-drive and very low techincal parts for the price. College students will be very hesitant to buy this because it lacks in the entertainment department. Only people who would actually consider this are people who travel a lot. But for them I think it will be a challenge because of the one usb port. Apple was trying to go beyond the call of duty with Air and I think it will sell not as well as they expect. The main two reasons for this are the price that it sells for and the usability of the product. I think Apple was focusing too much on the design and evolution of laptops and not on how useful it is for the people who use it.

Everyone LOVES muffin tops....don't they?

LifeSaver came out with this really funny commercial. I never knew what this was called until I saw this. Then I realized how much I do love muffin tops.

I love how LifeSaver made their product relate to relationship problems, and its good for men to know that they can save themselves with a LifeSaver.

I think this commercial is funny because it shows a situation of a guy in a desperate moment; LifeSaver is just a candy. It doesn't boost your wittiness or even your knowledge! This commercial is created around the name of product, and has nothing to do with the itself. Humorously, LifeSaver has effectively caught the attention of customers by making fun of women. It could be offensive, but it works for the purpose.

"Creativity with a Conscience"

There is a multitude of great websites that entertain the masses. I’d like to call attention to one of my new favorite sites/companies called Free Range Studios. They are a socially conscious company that states, “While other creative agencies work to sell products, we work to sell ideas that build a more just and sustainable world. We're driven by a belief that the right stories told in revolutionary ways can transform society.”

Besides their award winning series called The Meatrix, one of the many creative works that I have appreciated is about Wal-Mart called, Friends with Low Wages.

The following is the first part of The Meatrix series...

Folgers Coffee

I found this great image on HEMMY.net:



This is an extremely creative idea from Folgers. It's something people walking by will remember. I think it's great!

Too many Promotions?

The home computer market has grown tremondously in the last couple of years with the two biggest companies, Dell and HP at the top in sales. With new technology growing at a rapid pace, both companies are trying to edge each other out and become the dominant force. One marketing tactic that both companies use extensively is promotion coupons. Last december, both Dell and HP was offering multiple discounts on in computers. At first I thought those coupons were only for a limited time and only offered few times per year but the next month i saw the same dicounts being offered again. In my opinion, both companies are diluting their promotion strategy. When people see a promotion that is only offered once per year they will likely to value it much more than an promotion that is offered multiple times per year. Also people will 'jump' on the deal faster than vice versa, in fact multiple deals will cause people to hesitate and wait for the next deal in hopes of better prices. Instead of multiple promotions, Dell and HP need to limit their promotions so it becomes more valuable and more attention grabbing.

Successful Marketing on a limited budget

I was reading this article and found it very interesting and just thought that i would share. The article is essentially about "Thinking Small" when it comes to building a marketing campaign for your company. It is not only the sensible approach, it is also a cost saving approach. Marketers with large budgets take chances on mass media spotlights, knowing that some wastage will affect their pocketbook. This article shows how it is possible to keep money in your pocket and still effectively create a sale which is the sole purpose of marketing. Websites, CRM and even social networking sites are mentioned in this article. Give it a read and let me know what you think....

http://wnim.com/currentissue/current/campbell.htm

Google Sites

Delicate issues in Marketing

The Wall street journal carried an article yesterday morning titled "Hanes Panty Ads Touch on Delicate Issue" The humorous entendre in this title served to highlight what I think has been an interesting struggle for many of companies attempting to provide real world solutions to delicate issues.

Because of societal limitations imposed by our culture frank discussion of some subjects (especially in America) becomes difficult or impossible. The importance of awareness of these culture sensitivities is difficult to understate because you risk alienating customers if you accidentally offend them.

It is an interesting gap in our existing marketing paradigm that there is no creative outlet for marketing professionals to touch on these delicate subjects. It would seem that the Internet may provide a better outlet for these types of adds by offering a more selective marketing focus. For example Google Adwords might be a very effective place for Hanes to advertise especially if they used smart keywords such as "Comfortable".

Generic Drugs vs Brand Named ones

It is fascinating to me when I see people buying brand name drugs over it's generic counterparts even through both drugs does the same thing except one is more known than the other. Does branding play that of a role in deciding which drug to buy. One of the most common beliefs about generic drugs is that it takes more time for it to work. Also the old age saying that you get what you pay for and because you pay more for brand name drug it works better than the generic ones. Both of those are obviously false. The reason that generic drugs are cheaper is because the company that is producing it did not spend any research costs in order to produce it and thus does not need to charge extra. People often get caught up in the belief that since product x has a known brand it is a better product. But having a known brand is always better than generic ones since people actually have seen or know that it works. So because of this it gives them a intrinsic idea that the product is superior. Branding often creates an image of quality associated with them, it allows people to have a connection. People who never used a certain type of drug will often buy the branded ones because they feel a certain comfort that the drug will work compared to generic ones.

Marketing To A Captive Audience

Innoblog, blog based on the principals found in the Innovator's Dilemma, recently released on article on "Market Research at 30,000 Feet."

Essentially talking about how Kraft Foods and JetBlue Airways Corporation is partnering up in a sort of marketing experiment. JetBlue will allow Kraft Foods to use their flights to present product promotions. JetBlue will serve some of Kraft's products while a pair of marketing agents will present Kraft's case to their captive audience.

This is a rather interesting way to go about it. Their audience is stuck there. They can't leave and there's nothing for them to do making them favorably inclined to listen to Kraft's presentation and to sample their products.

Also, more incentives may be given to people to take these flights in the form of reduced fares. Focused research groups tend to be costly to companies and they may be willing to use this as a substitute. The reduction in fares for flyers can potentially be dramatic. Perhaps even reducing the price to zero or a gain to flyers.

What do you guys think about this whole captive audience deal? Do you think it'll pick up and become something of more common practice or will it kill itself off?

Nokia the bright future.

Nokia has become one of the World’s leading manufacturers of mobile devices. They achieved this primarily by putting a strong focus on R&D in the beginning of this century. R&D represents 31% of their total workforce(21,453 people), which is scattered across 11 different countries.

Nokia's Morph Concept phone(fist video below) may look like something from Star Wars at first glance, but this technology may very well be here sooner than any of us imagine. In this short animated film Nokia is a presenting their new Morph Concept phone. This video illustrates not only the capabilities of the phone (with emphasis on Nanotechnology) but also the transfer of sophisticated culture that will touch everyone and by doing so will better human life and our planet.




Notice the placid and tranquil musical rhythm, almost silent and yet surrounded by an ergonomic atmosphere, simplicity, design, flawlessness, sustainability, eco awareness, and mind-blowing technology. The viewers are simply mesmerized with appreciation and delight, intuitively aspiring and admiring the progress of human technological achievement.

Nokia 888 (second video below) is a more realistic short term technological innovation. As viewers watch the commercial closely they notice a lot of services that already exist today, such as Google Earth and Facebook. Again, Nokia focuses on benefiting and revolutionizing human interactions, from the time you wake and throughout the day. The phone becomes not just the tool for communication but a portal into a virtual world that shapes peoples everyday life patterns. Indirectly the underlying message is, "you will miss out on too many things, if you don't have Nokia 888".

YouTube contests

YouTube holds different contests constantly for its audience to become active on the website, besides just watching different videos, sometimes working with other companies. A contest that ended about two weeks ago was about Swiffer. It was a 'break up' contest, where you break up with your broom and show your dance moves. One of my friends won the contest, he worked with a studio to produce this video and got 10% of the earnings. It is up in the air if this commercial will be viewed on TV but it was chosen as the winner of $15,000.







The different types of contests not only give people the knowledge of the product but it also gives them an opportunity to be creative and win something from it. It is a great marketing prospect for potential consumers and provides some feed back as to how many people are interested in the product, by receiving the data back on how many people make a video and how many people watch and rate them. There is a deadline for each submission and a time period on how long people can vote, giving them exposure to different commercials that people come up with. Each has its own vibe to it, and different type of response, which the companies marketing department can explore and receive valuable feedback from, since YouTube is a well known internet website that has a high viewing rate.

Store Samples

Mmm ... samples! Article

Many stores setup a small table with a demonstrator on hand to display a sample product. The store that comes to many people's mind is Costco. Costco is known to setup tables all around its stores on the weekend when traffic is the highest to display a variety of their products. Costco's marketing plan is to target impulse buyers with items ranging from food to shampoo. Customers come to the store without plans to buy the sample product but if they are satisfy with the sample product, they will purchase it (conveniently located next to the table). Demonstrators are educated about the product and trainned to correctly cook the product for a good representation of the item and to have higher sales. Trader's Joe's idea is to put out sample of new items for the customers to test before they purchase. Samples are tempting to customers, just the smell of food cooking will make customers buy the product.

Samples = sales surge

Boeing loses "Tanker Contract" with Air Force

I thought this was pretty interesting article about Boeing. On Friday February 29, 2008, the air force announced that it would award the 40 billion Air Force tanker contract to Northrop and partner EADS, instead of Boeing. The Pentagon would only respond by saying that it held a very fair competition process. This caused such uproar, to think that our government is spending our tax dollars to create a European economic stimulus package instead of securing the American economy and military, and yes, at the expense of the U.S. workers. Boeing has asked for a debriefing as to why the Pentagon went to Northrop which is to happen on March 12. After that, Boeing will decide on any further action – as far as they are concerned they offered the Air Force the best value and the lowest risk tanker for its mission. Washington has lost out on its chance to add as many as 2,000 jobs locally and overall maybe around 6,000 - instead the jobs will go to Europe and Alabama. It’s amazing how our Air Force is trusting a foreign company to keep our military’s best interest in mind. This is a blow to the American aerospace industry.

False Advertising is Airborne

Airborne an herbal supplement that had boasted claims that it fended off the common cold, has settled a class-action lawsuit for false advertising. According to a CNN Money article the company has agreed to pay $23.3 million dollars to settle the suit. A senior member of the Center for Science in the Public Interest states that "Airborne is basically an overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that has been cleverly, but deceptively marketed." The makers of Airborne had previously stated the there was scientific evidence to support it's claims, however these tests were not conducted by doctors or scientists, read more here. The products catchy label and prime placement on drug store shelves, right next to NyQuil, led to it's popularity, and since it is not a drug, but an herbal supplement no FDA approval of its claims are necessary. Just another example of buyer beware, and not to believe everything you read on a box.

Credit Card ethics

Every once a while we recieve in the mail an application for an credit card. Usually a bank offers a you a great beginning rate at 0 percent APR for 6 months and a continuing rate of 8-12 percent. But hidden through all those offeres are sentences that are 6 inch in font and tells you in very complicated wording that the bank can change your interest rate for any reason provided they give you 2 weeks in advance. In the past month, banks have been hiking up interest rates on credit cards even through the users have always paid their bills on time. The reasoning given by banks is that the user have an outstanding balance somewhere else or their credit balance is too high. Some analysts have predicted the hike is caused by the credit crunch in the subprime loan sector. As an marketer, isn't it our duty to make sure our customers know what exactly they in for. Many people actually don't read or can't understand the wording in the offer letter about how interest rate works. I think banks need to enlarge the terms of agreement and make it easier to understand. Also is it right for banks to increase interest rates out of the blue? I think banks need to have a more defined statement of when and why is an interest rate rise accepted compared to the vague explanations that is given at the moment.

Great Lexus Commercials

I think one of the leaders in car commercials is Lexus. Their commercials in particuliar seem to be very eye catching and has a good story plot behind it. The commercial does a great job in making their advertised car/suv feel luxury and as a "dream" car. The close up on the unique lines and the color combination that they choose is always classy. The Lexus RX330 commercial was great examples of making the audience feel as if the Lexus RX330 was a dream SUV - an ultimate sport utility vehicle that has the comfort and luxury in mind that people greatly desire.



The second lexus commercial that I enjoyed was the LEXUS LS460 commercial. They promote the SELF PARK functionality which is like a feature that you don't typically see in a car. It demonstrates a luxuary sedan of its own class - the environment that they used was very elegant, and using wine glass(es) to make the car feel as if the car was for special occasions. The car shows that it posses "classy appeal" this is done by choice in color of the car and the lighting used to display the sedan.

Blu-Ray and HD DVD

The battle between Sony(Blu-ray) and Toshiba(HD-Dvd) lasted over three years with finally Sony winning the battle. The main technical advantage of the Blu-ray over Hd-dvd was that it could store more information with approximately around 50gb over HD that has around 8.4 gb. Also blu-ray supports 1080p while the hd-dvd has 1080i. But the tv's now days can transfer 1080i to 1080p meaning that the difference between quality is minimal at best. The image that each produce is again similar and there isn't a significant difference. Was that the storage factor the critical factor that eventually caused Toshiba it's downfall? Both formats sold dvd's that costs around $8-$20. The stand-alone machine for hd-dvd cost 150 dollars and up and average out usually around 280 dollars while blu-ray costs 399 and up. In my opinion Sony's ability to incorporate blu-ray into the it's machines it makes is an important factor that determined the winner. Let's take a look at Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. In our current day and age, gamers are on the rise with the gaming industry earning more than a billion dollars in profit each year. The playstation 3 has a blu-ray drive added in and costs total of 400 dollars while the xbox 360 by itself is around 350 and if you want an hd-dvd you need to pay an extra 200 dollars. To an average consumer/gamer they would choose the playstation 3 because you can get 2 things for the price of 1. While you would only get an xbox 360 machine if you buy xbox. Even through Sony is taking a loss for producing the product at 399 it is helping to expand both it's gaming industry while also in dvd. With every playstation it sells, it is also increasing the sales of blu-ray. Meanwhile Toshiba is lacking in this department. It needed to sell it's machines solely to increase dvd sales. Even though this may be a small part, it helped Sony to achieve dominance in the dvd war.

"How Green is BP?"

How Green is BP? Article

Oil companies and an environmental image isn't an ideal pairing. However, BP's new marketing campaign is trying to do just that. BP originally stood for British Petroleum, but since its corporate rebranding program it has change its name to "Beyond Petroleum". Is this all about marketing and changing the way people view an oil company or is BP making an effort to be a "green" company. BP even went far as changing its logo to a yellow and green sunburst to suggest a cheerful and friendly message. BP was quick to promote itself as a green company with an abundance of billboard ads, transformation of company website, and cheerful television ad campaign (as shown below). BP has openly supported efforts to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska where the 19 million acres are home to polar bears, wolves, are caribous to name a few. BP's belief is that it will only leave a ''small industrial footprint.'' In 2001, BP paid $10 million fine for pollution and $7 million in 1999 for illegally dumping hazardous waste in Alaska. BP is not the only oil company that has been penalized, but they are the only oil company that promotes themselves as an environmentally friendly company. BP's marketing strategy has been widely scrutinize for its inaccuracy and has kept many people away from its oil.

Jennifer Aniston ad

Here's a funny beer ad. The celebrity, Jennifer Aniston is in it and really adds to the advertisement. When celebrities are included in an advertisement for a product, it influences consumers to purchase that product. Consumers may feel that because a celebrity is using a certain product, that it must be good or worth the money. Also, consumers may want to be associated with their favorite celebrity and want to wear/buy/use the same products as them.

Enjoy:

The iBand has arrived

These art students from Vienna Austria have hacked their iPhones and a Nintendo DS and created music. The work around done on the phones is a violation of Apple policy, but it is drawing a lot of attention to the utility of both products.

What's the buzz?

We have established the plethora of advertising opportunities and tactics to 'get a product out there’; though I'd like to note the powerful impact that music can have on an audience. Not only can it help draw in potential consumers, though if targeted right, it could have a direct impact on your specific audience. Additionally, even if it doesn’t directly result in consumers of your product, it can generate community conversations/interest, thus increasing your product awareness.

Below are a couple different advertisements by the Lexus Power of h campaign, which generated a decent buzz on YouTube.com regarding the music. I think they are classy, well created advertisements (and the music is quite pleasant). Lexus has also included different commercial techniques in their Power of h campaign to target larger audiences.

Has Victoria's Secret Become Too Sexy?

Apparently there is to much of a good thing as Victoria's Secret considers new branding for there store. This Associated Press story sites changes afoot for Vicky, could this signal more changes for all of the stores operated by Limited Brands?

Zara's Marketing Mix

Zara is a popular Spanish clothing store that uses a very unique marketing strategy. Because they do not outsource their manufacturing, the company is able to more quickly respond to fluctuating customer demands in fashion trends. Zara's Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is to create or imitate the latest trends within a short two-week period; the new styles are available on sales floors for no longer than 4 weeks. In the case that a product does not sell, its inventory is immediately pulled from the floors and discontinued after one week.
Zara is said to have the "most unusual strategy...its policy of zero advertising; the company preferred to invest a percentage of revenues in opening new stores instead."

Zara's marketing strategy is very effective because of its 1) affordable prices and 2) unique response to market demands. Because items move so quickly through Zara stores, customers feel the pressure to buy an item for fear that it may not longer be there next time.