Archive for the ‘Strategy’ Category
Geographical Positioning (in car brand communication)
Some interesting strategic choices in the Superbowl last week:
- a BMW “designed in America, built in America”:
A bit ironic, taking into account how hard the Americans are trying to be German:
An older dedicated post about Buick’s positioning here.
- totally different approach by Chrysler:
With “Imported from Detroit” as a selling line and Eminem as spokesperson. They seem to be taking the national airline approach (as in promoting the country of origin), transforming the dealership into embassies for Detroit.
This begs a few comments. From a purely rational point of view it doesn’t seem to make any sense. Detroit is hardly a reason-to-believe for luxury. The fact that the deep voice over states that itself in the ad doesn’t make it either. Nor are hard working people suggesting luxury. Nor do Eminem or the footage taken from the city – although it’s a very romanticized Detroit.
On the other hand, it does establish a clear positioning (first to claim in communication and with a proud tone of voice), seems to be making good usage of Eminem (which is definitely a stronger brand than Chrysler at this moment), does a good job of using tradition as a way to convey quality, makes maximum use of production. And maybe it’s not really luxury that they want to communicate, but more luxury for ‘hard working people’ (read lower income, affordable luxury etc.). It also caters to the national sentiment, in a nicer and more sentimental way I’d say than the above BMW’s “Built in America”.
We need some time to tell if this is a good initiative. Are they going to stick with it in the longer term? A brand to follow.
Acura is joining the team with a more earthly approach. Not very interesting, but fits the subject:
Nice Idea Gone Wrong? Nikon App Endorsment
The below photos are the first 10 that appear in an app on my iPad (last week’s iteration, as the app updates weekly):
Associating Nikon with consumer generated photography in a free app (owned by a photography magazine) is sensible. The fact that the camera and lenses used to take each photograph are mentioned should have made Nikon or the media company think.
Nikon doesn’t appear at all in the first 5 pictures, appears once in the first 10 and about 3-4 times in the first 20. Canon appears 7 times in the first 10. Checked a bit the web and it seems Nikon is trailing closely Canon in worldwide DSLR market share (both are around 30%). As far as I remember though, Canon used to have a firmer lead, so the gap in terms of cameras on the market is even wider than the 1-2% points present statistics would show. That makes this media placement quite a poor decision….
Promotional Materials Should Respect the Equity too – Glenfiddich Calendar
Discovered the other day in a restaurant in Toronto. We all did promotional materials at some point. And a lot of times we only go to the extent of painting our logo on them. Nice to see a simple example that seem to perfectly fit the brand:
Epson Projector Race – Hidden Benefit?
The brief is clear – “super lightweight and super easy to set up” – according to a Contagious interview.
In the end however, the hero is making a presentation in bright daylight, on a rooftop. My guess: this was not a random location. My questions: is the benefit real? If so, was it just a trick or was it a real intention communicate this? Is it effective as such? Is it a competitive advantage? etc. Of course, all these questions are meaningless if the benefit is not real.
Burger King Positioning as an Adult Brand
Filed under: Campaigns, Strategy | Tags: Burger King, positioning, strategy, target
Leave a Comment Seen this in Miami Beach this summer:
Reminded me of Al Ries’ 22 “Immuable Marketing Laws”. Went back to the book, where they describe how Burger King chose to target adults (vs. McDonald’s kids) – which basically includes kids who want to grow up. This ad would be spot on to sustain this argument. But then again… is Burger King’s strategy really clear these days?
As a reminder (notice the final line – “Eat like a man, man”):
To be fair to BK, their advertising has an edge that targets it rather to adults, besides being simply entertaining (latest breakfast spot makes the point), but it does seem that entertainment (and tone of voice) is more of a strategy than the articulation Ries&Trout identified…
Briefly Noticed – Religious Services in Toronto
Filed under: Just fun, Strategy, World | Tags: advertising 1, fun, marketing, religion
Leave a Comment I made up the category in the title. Just to put the below two in the same post:
Definitely based on an insight, since I did ask myself whether they bury the bodies in an upright position in certain areas of the cemetery.
Crisp and clear. Which one is the main benefit though?
Reasons to Believe – Being German
Filed under: Campaigns, Strategy | Tags: Buick, german, GM, Nissan, reason to believe, strategy
Comments (1) Everybody wants to be a cat in Aristocats and a German in the car world:
Both wishes perfectly reasonable.
This draw my attention because at first I didn’t detect any “German accent”. A reason to believe must make the benefit more believable (in this case - being German as a reason to believe that the car is very good) . So what do you do if the reason to believe is not believable?
Oddly enough, I did some research and after checking the website (which at that moment had no mention of any Germanity) I did see the car from a different angle and I realised it’s the Opel Insignia, launched 2 years ago in Europe. So it is actually German.
But this wouldn’t matter if the consumer wouldn’t believe it is German.
All my confusion collapsed (that means I’m confused at a slightly different level) when I saw two commercials – one for Nissan Qashqai and one for Suzuki claiming “European tuned” in the copy. Tried to find them, but guess they’re too average for somebody to upload them on youtube.
The conclusion? Since a couple of American marketers are going overboard to claim European (or German where possible) roots, it probably means consumers are really thrilled about European cars. Maybe this is happening because the European cars are regarded as more sensible. And there are a couple of brands that show character & sportivity. A “halo” effect. And maybe the claim is not acting as a reason to believe, but as a trigger of interest, getting attention for further reading or helping shortlist that car.
Update: since drafting this post, Buick launched a series of TV commercials that drive more and more the German attribute:
And it helps getting more specific – like in the below “Autobahn” ad:
Sponsorship at It’s Best – DG Shoes by Ken Block
Filed under: Digital, Product placement, Strategy, Viral | Tags: DG Shoes, Ken Block, planning, Sponsorship, strategy, target
Leave a Comment At first look you’d say it’s just another (very succesful) viral. But DG actually sponsors Ken Block’s rally team. And if you think about it – what is sponsorship about? Isn’t it borrowing the sponsored’ equity for your brand’s good? Of course, in manuals it’s considered mainly an awareness tool and best in class examples would probably include companies that took the sponsorship and built some initiatives on it (very good example would be P&G’s Thank You Mom from the Vancouver Olympics).
But the event or team you’re sponsoring has a base of dedicated fans. Our examples shows exactly how to tackle this. The thinking is reversed from the above. Instead of trying to do something for your brand and tune it up with the sponsored theme, you do something based on the sponsored theme/subject and integrate the brand. The main advantage is that you cater to the hardcore fans. And they’ll love it.
Am I too abstract? Contagious was spot on in pointing out that the following music video got only 500,000 hits (1 mil so far), while the 3x longer, almost-pure driving films got over 10 millions each:
The above is the classical way to do it. Who’s my consumer? – The typical hip-hop-er (might be narrower, but I really don’t know the target). What do I do? Well, he loves hip-hop, so why don’t I do a music video and infuse it with a bit of Ken Block? After all, I get my awareness from the DGs on the car – this is a brilliant bonus.
Results prove it’s not so brilliant after all. Launched after the music video, the driving video below overtook it within hours (according to the same article):
There are a couple of disclaimers:
- the driving videos would definitely have an audience that is not limited to the DG Shoes; this being said, things are not so bad, as the whole setup (with the over-the-top car, music, stunts, etc.) are quite DG – so even if you’re not a hardcore fan of DG Shoes, you’d get influenced. And this is what branding is about
- the initiative of doing this might be Ken Block’s (vs. the client’s or the agency’s); there is no rule that this should happen – on the contrary. That’s actually the point of this post!
Let the Battle Begin
Sony just launched the video. Via Contagious (here for more details about the actual campaign).
The gaming playground gets a bit more interesting. XBox is also expected to bring in some more inovation (full body movement recognition – or the way they call it – free hands gaming - here) Which I won’t believe till I see it in stores…
Consumer Generated Content 2.0 (moderated version)
Worth a look:
- Youtube’s initiative led by Ridley Scott and Kevin MacDonald (Last King of Scotland), with a Sundance Film Festival premiere. We’ll have to wait for more, but in the meantime the official youtube page promo film by youtube familiar Van Vuuren:
- Peroni’s new Italian movie endorsement taking the form of a contest to work on the next short Peroni film with director Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happiness):
More details here, via Contagious.
Not really new, but we’re probably assisting at a formula being defined more clearly, mixing brands, consumers and famous directors to create stories. Consumer generated content is obviously not new, but as most brands that tried it have seen firsthand, there’s a lot of flop out there. And it needed a bit of spicing up – I’m not sure I’m part of a majority, but the Doritos Superbowl ads don’t excite me so much anymore.
So why not bring in the directors to make sense of the material, touch it a bit (ideally with some magic) and finally ensure at least a decent level of quality and a minimum audience.
