Archive for March, 2009

31
Mar
09

snapple’s “stuff” just got better.

By Joshua Woolery 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

snapple-dSnapple unveiled its new marketing campaign yesterday. The advertisements are focusing on the new “stuff” found in their beverages- they dropped high-fructose sugar and replaced it with natural sugar.

According to Brandweek’s Ken Hein, “Snapple is one brand that desperately needs to get its ‘stuff’ in order.” He continues by citing Dr. Pepper Snapple Group’s report of a net loss of $312 million for 2008.

I am not surprised to see a radical reformulation, since Snapple belongs to the same corporate family as 7 UP.  7 UP, as you may know, reformulated their product  in 2006 to be “all natural.”

Snapple may expect a 4 percent net sales loss in 2009, but I think they are doing well to reposition their product and will be positioned to post positive gains in the future.

27
Mar
09

confidential: for ceo’s only

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

JetBlue recently launched a new advertising campaign using humor to poke fun at recent executive scandals.  I think these three videos from the campaign fit nicely into our theme for fun Friday.  Enjoy.

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26
Mar
09

Imagination is a beautiful thing

By Beth Hardy 1 Comment
Categories: Ads, Advertising, Creative and LEGO

We’re keeping it simple today. We thought these LEGO® ads were cute, creative, clean and beautifully minimal.

l3go0606a.

l3go0606b.

l3go0606c.

l3go0606d

What are your thoughts?

25
Mar
09

lost your job? keep the suit!

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: Blogs, In-store, Marketing, promotions and trends
Tags:

jos-a-bank1

The New York Time’s Freakonomics column recently posted a story about a new Jos. A. Bank promotion that seems to be turning into a common marketing strategy.

The “Risk Free Suit” promotion allows a consumer to purchase a suit at Jos. A. Bank, and have the full price of the suit (up to $199) reimbursed if they lose their job by July 1, 2009.

Strategies like this and one that Hyundai launched at the beginning of the year uniquely encourage hesitant consumers to buy.  I think both companies will be very successful in taking advantage of the opportunity to add some security in a very frail moment in our nation’s history.

24
Mar
09

Practice Full Disclosure Or Risk Full Exposure

By Beth Hardy 1 Comment
Categories: Disclosure, Marketing, PR, Public Relations, Royal Caribbean and Wal-Mart

937717_cruiserRoyal Caribbean was recently called out by The Consumerist and other sites for rewarding the “Royal Caribbean Champions,” a group of fifty bloggers/posters, “special access and free cruises in exchange for their frequent and positive commentary.”

But giving perks to these folks isn’t the worst part. What’s worse is that Royal Caribbean didn’t bother to reveal the group’s affiliation. That’s a big no-no for many public relations professionals, particularly those who practice with integrity.

In reading this story, I was reminded of a little scandal Wal-Mart had a few years back that involved a pro-Wal-Mart blog seemingly written by a couple chronicling their cross-country trip in an RV and staying overnight in Wal-Mart parking lots.

As it turned out, the blog was actually a promotional tactic launched by Working Families for Wal-Mart (WFWM), an organization established by Wal-Mart’s PR firm. Wal-Mart covered all costs involved in this project but never revealed that it paid for the RV as well as for gas, food and other expenses. People obviously felt deceived when they found out, and the project was shut down.

These two instances just confirm more than ever that full disclosure in PR and marketing is so important. And let’s face it, companies that practice deception eventually get found out and their dishonesty gets exposed to the world. It doesn’t seem worth it to me.

23
Mar
09

The Rap on Customer Loyalty

By Beth Hardy 1 Comment
Categories: Brand Loyalty, Flight Attendant, Rap and Southwest Airlines

I thought we’d start the week off with a fun and humorous example of how building customer loyalty can help build your brand.

Southwest Airlines does things a little differently when it’s time to give passengers the pre-flight instructions. Instead of the often boring and scripted speech most flight attendants give, Southwest’s David entertains and instructs passengers with a rap.

He actually got passengers laughing and clapping along. I can’t remember the last time I witnessed people in a good mood when boarding a plane. This just goes to show that if you veer from the “usual” and shake things up a bit, you’ll get people’s attention and hopefully get them as returning customers.

20
Mar
09

Guess what’s wrong

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising and Photoshop

You enjoyed December’s Photoshop faux pas so much, we decided to give you another round.

"My other arm is in the shop."

"My other arm is in the shop."

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Twenty-five dollar service charge for every extra appendage.

Twenty-five dollar service charge for every extra appendage.

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Rare mistake by Annie Leibovitz.

Rare mistake by Annie Leibovitz.

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Photoshop Disasters' caption was too good to pass up - "Side effects include spontaneous limb shedding and dramatic darkening of the chest."

Photoshop Disasters' caption was too good to pass up - "Side effects include spontaneous limb shedding and dramatic darkening of the chest."

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One free piggyback ride with purchase of hair gel.

One free piggyback ride with purchase of hair gel.

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19
Mar
09

if I offend you, will you buy from me?

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, commercials, Economy, Marketing, PR, promotions, Public Relations, Radio, Restaurant and Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Two ads recently came to my attention and both aim to make you feel bad about your lifestyle choices in order to effect a change in your behavior. Maybe if you feel bad enough you will buy their product or use their service.  The companies in questions are Qdoba and Fitness First.

Qdoba launched their “Sad Packer” campaign recently, which seeks to demoralize consumers who pack their own lunches everyday.  Qdoba’s unconventional approach is trying to drum up interest in their $6.99 lunches. Personally, this ad would’ve been more effective if they had released it before our current economic downturn.  I think consumers who are desperately trying to find ways to curb expenditures may find this offensive.  However, the advertisements will get them thinking. The Denver Post reports that Qdoba will be utilizing “radio ads, which ask listeners if they stink up briefcases or eat alone.” Overall, I think this campaign is funny.  Qdoba definitely sounds more appealing than making my lunch at 6:30 in the morning.

sadpackers

Fitness First, a health club in the Netherlands, recently launched a campaign centered on bus stops.  They equipped the benches at these stops with a scale that displays the riders weight for all to see.

I think this might encourage someone who is a little overweight to consider signing up at Fitness First, but I think this approach will offend far more potential customers than they had hoped.  However, Fitness First must be happy with all of the free press coverage resulting from this campaign. It will not only help the Netherlands branches it will also benefit their other branches located in 16 additional countries.

bustop

18
Mar
09

think globally, act locally

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, location data, Marketing, Obama, Packaging, Political and trends

Obama-Fingers is a product being offered by German food manufacturer Sprehe.   Adpulp recently commented on this story stating, “The idea, [a Sprehe representative] claimed, was to get in on the Obama-mania which is continuing to grip Germany.”

Sprehe isn’t the only company that decided to ride Obama’s recent success.  In January, mlive.com published an article about a local gelato manufacturer that created a new product dubbed, “Barack-y Road.”

Getting back to Sprehe for a moment, there are two fundamentally unsound pieces to this campaign.

First, the company did not do their due diligence in conducting market research to search for potential pitfalls of attaching an African American’s name to a fried-chicken product.  Now, I understand this product is being released in Germany.  But, it was unacceptable for Sprehe to state that they had no idea of the racial overtones.  I would much rather prefer the company say that they were aware of the racial overtones but decided the stereotype wasn’t prevalent in their geographic market locations.

Secondly, attaching your brand to a prominent global figure like President Obama isn’t a great marketing move.  If he ends up doing something incredibly bad to lose German approval, customers may cease purchasing Sprehe products because of the association with President Obama.  This is especially true for the gelato manufacturer in Michigan.  U.S. consumers are much more likely to abstain from buying products associated with political parties.

large_barackyroad2

17
Mar
09

Bad PR can be good

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Bad PR, New Belgium, PR, Public Relations and Sustainability

logoA great little story about embracing bad PR was recently brought to my attention.

New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colo., was accused by a former employee of not being as eco-friendly as its marketing materials claimed. The company has long said that its products are “100 percent wind-powered“. However, the ex-employee argued that New Belgium had purchased carbon credits to offset emissions.

After initially dismissing the claims and obtaining a restraining order against the former employee, New Belgium rethought its approach and eventually embraced the criticism using it “as a catalyst for increased transparency in its first-ever sustainability report, which it published last month,” according to the New York Times’ Green Inc. blog. New Belgium also developed a series of sustainability initiatives and has begun working with the city of Fort Collins, Colorado State University and other like-minded companies to help reduce peak-load electricity demand.

New Belgium saw an opportunity in all the criticism, seized it and came out better in the end. I think this is a perfect example of how a company can sometimes use bad PR to improve its business practices and boost its public image.

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