Latest Marketing Articles

Guaraná Jesus: Premiação e Marketing

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:58:59 -0300

Quando ouvimos a palavra Jesus qual é a primeira coisa que nos vem? No maranhão é diferente. Jesus é um guaraná, cor de rosa, tão consumido quanto a Coca-Cola. O refrigerante, que faz parte da cultura Maranhense, é motivo de orgulho para a região norte do país, já que hoje é consumido também nos estados do Pará e Piauí, por exemplo. Um amigo de São Luís disse que o ideal é tomar o refrigerante comendo o Arroz de Cuxá. Segundo ele a comida de origem africana é uma mistura de arroz com camarão seco, gergelim e outras ervas, que dão um sabor inigualável e faz do prato, carro-chefe da culinária do estado.

Voltando ao Guaraná, Jesus ganhou o Prêmio Internacional de Excelência em Design, o Idea, maior premiação mundial em design, e por isso está mais em evidência do que nunca. A premiação se deu pela campanha da nova identidade visual do “exótico refri”. Além de agradar especialistas em marcas o resultado final agradou ao público, o visual ficou mais moderno e a identidade não foi perdida, pois não houve, segundo consumidores, alteração no sabor. O gosto diferente, algo que lembra canela ou cravo, tutti-frutti, somado às cores da latinha e ao próprio nome fizeram com que a bebida se tornasse popular em todo o Brasil através de brincadeiras principalmente em Redes Sociais como o Facebook e o Orkut. Uma busca na internet mostra imediatamente a popularidade do simpático refrigerante, inclusive com vídeos no youtube bem engraçados e interessantes.

Mas uma pergunta é inevitável. Com mídia espontânea, divertida, gratuita e vários diferenciais, exigência do mercado, por que o produto não é comercializado em todo o país? Fácil de responder, a marca foi adquirida pela Coca-Cola, que não quer concorrente. E se você pensa que o nome Jesus é um tipo de homenagem ao Cristo, enganou-se redondamente, como eu. O criador do refrigerante, Jesus Norberto Gomes, era ateu, foi excomungado e morreu em 1963. A ideia inicial do farmacêutico era criar um medicamento, deu errado. Ele transformou o experimento em uma bebida para seus netinhos e posteriormente surgiu o refrigerante que leva o nome dele. Qualquer semelhança com a história da, hoje detentora da marca, é mera coincidência. Na mão de uma empresa com potencial de investimento, que não fosse a Coca-Cola, e com todo esse marketing involuntário, certamente Jesus já estaria rendendo altos dividendos em todo o território nacional.

Market Research- Idea Evaluation

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:14:20 -0200

Market Research Idea Evaluation

by admin on November 5, 2009[edit]

Ok so you have an idea that you think may well change the world and understandably you are getting all fired up about it , so what do we need to do next ?

Basically you need to establish if the market shares your feeling about this idea and I stress idea, for at the moment that is all it is but so many inventors both individuals and large corporations sow the seeds of their failure at this starting juncture.

Before you spend tons of time and some or lots of money you need to first establish if the idea stands on its own merit, simply as an idea. One can reveal the objective of your idea to potential end users without giving away detailed plans of the design but paint a picture of how you see it working and how it removes a problem or frustration , makes something more efficient or convenient or will revolutionise your industry in some way.

It is useful when doing this to set out a questionnaire but try and keep the answers open ended , allow the customer to respond naturally without being led. By the way never rely on family or friends as feedback people at this point as more often than not they will simply tell you what they think you want to hear or at the very least a diluted version of what they really think.

Go to the end user rather than intermediaries (i.e distributors etc..) so that you have it from the horses mouth and not second hand. Where possible poll at least 50 -100 people depending on whether you are dealing with a consumer product or something more specialised.

Remember when carrying out the research at this stage the objective is simply to compile the information from which you can form the basis of your decision to either proceed further to the next stage or to kill the project off all together.

Often the mistaken mindset is to hope that the result of the research is positive so that you can proceed with your dream and this can often be the begining of your demise . This hoping that the outcome is positive can cause one to skew the questions one is asking and further skew the results in favour of progress when the reality may be that there is not a real demand for your solution or that the demand will be very small and quite possibly unfeasible.

The secret here is to be completely objective , the market is effectively trying to help you pursue your product further with good feedback or save you months of time and money with negative feedback. Regardless of whether you are an individual or a small enterprise the mindset can be, that this is the best idea you have ever come up with and you fear you may not be able to come up with another and as such cling desperately to it and are reluctant to let go despite the fact that the market is not reponding favourably.

****

Firstly this notion is completely untrue , if you sat down with one or two people you would be amazed at how many ideas a good brain storming session would throw up. Statistically almost 8 out of 10 of all new product developments fail . This in itself is not a problem provided you realise its implications, e.g you may have to come up with 10 ideas before you find one that will actually fly, which is absolutely fine. However the real exercise at this stage of the game is to learn to evaluate and test your ideas very quickly so that you can proceed to the next idea quickly if that is what is required, until you find an idea that gets the green light from your potential market to proceed further to the next stage.

Believe me I have made this mistake several times in the past , whereby I was convinced that in order for the market to appreciate what I was trying to do I would need to get decent working prototypes and in some cases full colour packaging and marketing material in order to convince them of its merits ( do not underestimate your customer.) There is certainly a time for this exercise but it is not now.

The fundamental mistake here is that your job at this stage is not to convince ,but simply to listen, listen listen!!!

If the product idea/concept cannot stand on its own merit at this stage (i.e without prototypes or fancy packaging etc… to back it up ) well then I would seriously reconsider the whole project and find something that has a resounding yes from the market. Getting this product to market is going to be a challenging enough exercise even when your feedback is positive , therefore do not make life more difficult than it needs to be by convincing yourself that the market wants something that it is saying to you it doesn't.

Let me further qualify the above by distinguishing negative feedback form people who know very little about what it is you are trying to do (these people are everywhere ,friends, family, colleagues , neighbours etc…) Do not allow yourself to be derailed by people who know absolutely nothing about you product or industry or who have never been involved in such a project. Quite often this negativity is based on envy and fear and should be recognised a such.

What I'm talking about here are real independent potential end users of your product who are completely objective and offer good honest feedback on whether they would use your product or not if it were available.

I hope that this information has been of some use and if you would like further information on The Product Development Process please stay tuned or opt in for further posts.

Best of luck,

Terry

For further information and future articles on New Product Development go to http://www.safeholdpicturehangers.com/inventors-diary

Branding In The Digital Age

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:54:38 -0200

Branding has been a rather complex topic since the advent of brand named goods, originating with maker's marks on certain blacksmithing products, proceeding through guild-approved stampings on quality goods, and progressing into the names we know and associate with major brands, such as Chevy, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, and Wendy's. Some brands are virtually immortal - manufacturer Beretta has retained its name since the 1500s, and continues to be a leader in the field of military armaments.

In many ways, branding is as much an art as it is a science, a technique of knowing how to read the mercurial moods of the purchasing public. In the age of the digital marketplace and an ever-connecting world population, new challenges and ideas present themselves to the savvy business. Anyone with a brand to promote must heed these signs or find themselves left behind.

Vox Populi

An increasing trend in digital branding is the user-driven brand. Traditional branding relies on the parent company presenting a particular image they wish associated with their item - Chevrolet and Ford wish to project a brand associated with ruggedness, leading to the "Ford Tough" and "Like a Rock" slogans of the late 1990s. User-driven branding, on the other hand, appropriates an image cultivated from the product's user base and embraces it, allowing the people to choose how they associate with the brand.

Spelling Challenged Kittens

Perhaps one of the most intriguing overnight branding success stories is that of the popular image blog, "I Can Haz Cheezburger?" LoLCats are user-generated images of felines in various adorable or questionable poses, with humorously misspelled captions attached. That is it; no product to sell, just funny images uploaded to social message boards and forum - the phenomenon began in earnest with the weekly 'Caturday' on the highly controversial site 4Chan.

Cheezburger was an effort to archive these pictures more permanently in a blog format, without the socially rambunctious atmosphere of some other boards, nothing more. Within two years the company was purchased for two million dollars, has created a number of products such as books and garments, and has gathered users' humorous misspellings into an actual Constructed Language project that is translating major texts. The brand is clearly associated with its humble beginnings, and continues to draw input from users - in particular, the LoLspeak project itself is entirely user-driven in a wikipedia style collective effort.

Trendy Kids and their Toys

Apple's "Get a Mac" and "Mac vs PC" commercials are already entering into modern legend as far as branding efforts go. Apple was shunted aside as the standard home computer by the proliferation of Windows-based machines, and Mac users developed a reputation for the odd computing enthusiast.

However, just as the cultural image of the nerd and geek were slowly turned into countercultures and social trends of their own, Apple picked up on these movements and re-branded itself as the tool of the 'indie' kids eager for something different. While not as direct an example as with LoLCats, it still demonstrates the influence a user base can have on a brand that they personally identify with. An audience decided to embrace a certain image, and this image allowed Mac to launch itself into the modern resurgence it has enjoyed.

Dudes and Dells

Recently, Dell Computers closed their popular Customer Care message board. These were user forums Dell set up in 1997 to cater to customers who weren't interested in fighting with telephone tech support, or wanted a solution other than hauling their PC across town to a big-box shop for repair and refit. The boards allowed users to contact actual Dell employees with their grievances, and were a major cornerstone of Dell's long-standing claim to superior customer service and support. Dell users spread their experiences by word of mouth and internet communication, and the Dell brand became synonymous with its dedicated user base.

When Dell announced the decision to close these boards in 2005, the decision caused a bit of an uproar. Longtime fans and users of the board protested en masse. Dell claimed good reasons for their decision - technical services were for registered purchasers, and the forums couldn't be made completely secure against identity theft when personal information was exchanged. However, the users still protested and raised equally good cases, citing story after story about how the Customer Care boards were part of the reason they had stuck with Dell so long. In a final compromise, Dell chose to keep open their non-technical support boards so customers could still participate in discussions of Dell technology and practices, and share ideas with other Dell users. The people spoke, and Dell took the time to let their users continue to affect the brand.

The Big Picture

Each of these three stories presents a case in which the customers shaped the destiny of a major brand. Is this the path for every company? Of course not. However, the Internet and the web provide companies with more tools than ever to reach their audiences. Word of mouth is more efficient than ever before, and customers can cause the rise or fall of major businesses through their online contacts. Companies interested in maximizing the effect of their brand should do more than 'look into' putting their goods on a website - they need to seriously consider letting their audience, the people that buy the brand, help define the brand.

Is Pay for Performance PR for Real?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:27:16 -0200

The banner ads scream like an old school infomercial.

"Guaranteed placements!"

"If we don't book, you don't pay!"

"Big time public relations without the big-time retainers."

In between the come-ons, however, is the reality that pay-for-performance (PFP) public relations is coming of age, according to one expert.

"Businesses are struggling in this economy and success in today's world requires business leaders to market in a way they may never have done before," said Marsha Friedman, author of Celebritize Yourself from Warren Publishing, (www.celebritizeyourself.com). "Just as people thought they'd never see people like Bernie Madoff being carted off in handcuffs, there are actually some positive shifts in the business world that are just as unbelievable. Not a myth, pay-for-performance PR - when executed correctly - can surpass the efforts of traditional retainer agencies at a much lower cost."

The advent of PFP PR began in the late 80's and was considered revolutionary at the time, Friedman said.

"It hit with some fanfare with an article in the New York Times, and soon after, other companies opened up with the same approach, but varying degrees of effectiveness," said Friedman, who is also the CEO of EMSI Public Relations, a pay-for-performance agency for nearly the last 20 years. "At the end of the day, whether it is a retainer-based agency or a PFP agency, the results will vary depending on the quality of their work. Just like there are good attorneys and bad attorneys, PR firms are in the client service business, so their effectiveness will always have less to do with their business model than with their capabilities."

One recurring criticism that retainer firms have leveled against pay-for-performance firms is that they lack the strategy component. Friedman says that the PFP model does not eliminate good strategic services. In fact, she believes it actually enhances the focus on strategy.

"When an agency is getting paid on a performance basis, it requires the agency to have a solid strategy, because their work and overhead are on the line with every client engagement," she added. "The bottom line is that the agency needs to inherently understand what the news media wants in order to secure placement. If the agency doesn't approach the news media with ideas and stories that are compelling for their readers, they won't get the placement and won't be able to serve their clients."

Other criticisms revolve around how it is difficult to execute print media campaigns in the PFP model, because the size and scope of the print media is so varied. Friedman says one easy fix is to approach print campaigns with project fees, as opposed to fees for each placement.

"A print campaign can be treated as a unit, with a guarantee on impressions and circulation," she said. "In that way, the full depth and breadth of the print media can be approached, without it winding up being too expensive if it's really effective. If it's not effective enough, the agency can always continue to work until the requisite impressions level has been reached.

The question remains as to whether it is less expensive than retainer firms.

"In can be, however, it's not so much about the expense, but rather, the value," she said. "By mitigating the risk of a client who wants results for the money they spend, PFP is far superior to the ‘best efforts' agreements from retainer firms. Moreover, there is no time clock on a PFP campaign. So a six month engagement across all media can wind up costing thousands less per month than a retainer contract that doesn't guarantee anything except that the agency will have the client's money at the end of the month, regardless of the amount of media they generate."

Advertising continues to fall but recovery is coming

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:40:32 -0200

General Trust's stable of news papers from the Hull Daily Mail located in the North East, to the West Briton located in the far West, are enduring constant double digit declines in advertising revenues. September showed a slight but encouraging rise in advertising, suggesting that full scale advertising may be on its way back. There was even a week within September where the comparison to years passed compared favorably. The advertising world is a bit topsy tervy since the internet has become so popular. It seems buyers spend their time online searching for properties while Real Estate Agents spend their advertising dollar looking for sellers through the paper. The internet threw the advertising world on its ear but it seems that things may be normalizing a bit and the internet is integrating itself into the whole advertising strategy. The advertising world (just like the rest of the world) isn't done convulsing yet, it will be a while yet before things begin a real upturn. Television, radio and outdoor advertising is expected to perform below last year but the spread between years is getting closer. Newspapers and magazines are doing worse than on the air media. The immediate availability afforded by the internet is something that is very hard for the newspapers and magazines to compete with.

With October moving towards the midway point, newspapers, magazines and on the air media are hoping that retailers and other brands will switch their advertising in high gear and a goodly portion of their advertising dollars towards these types of medias, as Christmas approaches. All of the media types are optimistic and hopeful about their future earning potential as the end of the year draws near. Even though all of the media types have been down, the way they are currently looking at things is with the idea of a five percent decline is better than a 9 percent decline. They need this type of thinking in order to keep them on the path of optimism so they can continue to push forward in a positive manner, soliciting business from any and all fronts available to them. Most of them are looking forward to the possibility of being able to show some level of growth rather than decline by the end of the year.

Radio tends to be the least affected media as far as internet infraction into business profits go. Most attention to the radio happens in the car while driving from place to place. So even though there are stations that broadcast through the internet, and even programs that let individuals DJ their own programs themselves, none of this has drastically impacted the medium of radio. Until such point as the internet figures out how to enter into your car and supply you with what you need there, radio will have not too much to worry about. They can still look forward to their advertising dollars coming in pretty steadily as the retailers work to reach the buying public while they are in transit.

In game advertising is booming

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:05:57 -0200

In 2006, Microsoft purchased the in-game advertising network known as Massive for between 200 and 400 million dollars. JJ Richards, who is current general manager of the firm, believes that the in-game advertising forum is doing well and growing, despite the steep layoffs in his unit and amid rumors that Microsoft is shopping around for potential purchasers of the firm. During Massive's 2009 fiscal year, they achieved a double digit year on year growth of revenue, even in the face of one of the worst economic downturns of the last century. The first quarter sales for the company are also targeted at exceeding more than one hundred percent just one month into it. Gaming has become exceedingly popular and looks forward to even more growth in years to come. Gaming has superseded television as entertainment for a large number of the population. This means that TV no longer has the ability to influence purchasing habits of these people. This is where in-game advertising comes in. With all these people playing on games, it's only the natural course of things that advertising becomes more and more prevalent in that forum. In-game advertising also means that advertisers have a way of targeting their buyers more closely than they would on TV as certain demographics are found with each game type. In game advertising tends to be a lot more clever and a lot more entertaining than advertising shown on TV.

Advertising is shunned by many because it is in your face and doesn't show much ingenuity. It's irritating, not entertaining. With gaming advertising, the advertisers have to be clever in the way they present their advertising to the gaming public. Advertising within the gaming industry is measurable, it's inexpensive and it's easy to do. Advertisers have found that producing creative in-game campaigns is easy, they have effective metrics for tracking their results available to them and pricing is basically inline with what cable TV charges for the young demographics. The icing on this little cake is that gamers seem to not only not mind the advertising, they kind of like it because it adds realism to the game.

While Massive's fiscal numbers aren't necessarily evidence of a booming market, being able to beat your quarterly sales target is certainly a positive outcome in an economy such as this one. Because of the success shown in this type of marketing it is quite possible that this form of advertising will reach the one billion mark by 2014 and that's nothing to sniff at. Microsoft had projected that in-game ads would be worth that much by 2010 so they may be a bit put out by the slower rise of the market, however any growth in an economy in a strong downturn is quite a feat in just about anyone's book. It's a sure thing that in-game advertising isn't going to disappear any time soon, in fact if you're a gamer, you can expect to see more and more of this type of advertising reaching you as you play.