Beijing 2008 Olympics

Yesterday, protesters in London tried to extinguish the Olympic torch in response to China's crackdown over Tibet. How does this affect China as a brand?

DEBATE: Pizza Hut or Pasta Hut, Success or Failiure?

Pizza Hut is changing its name, after 50 years, to Pasta Hut. Is Domino's so strong that they have not been able to keep up the competition with only Pizza? Or have their other products grown so much that their core is no longer pizza? Will they lose their consumers or will they gain more?

How much for a Google share?

Google Inc (GOOG) has gone down 37% from $691 (Dec 31, 2007) to $438 (March 28, 2008) during the first Q of this year. Now everybody, including Lehamn Bros. is slashing and cutting down the price target.

The largest bank in the US, Citibank, has fallen even more than Google, so does this makes matter worse or better? Is it time to buy these stocks?

Advertisers need to tie on-line advertising efforts to real off-line revenues. Are the sponsored links not working anymore? It seems so, according to comScore. inc.

What is your target price on GOOG?

Beyond Product Placement

Placing your brand effectively in a movie doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to place subliminal messages. You can feature your brand very effectively in a movie but it is not an easy task. The brand becomes absolutely dependant on the movie, relying that it will attract the general target the brand is aiming at. Movies cannot target product placements according to demographic (much less behavioral) characteristics of the audience.

Brands placed in movies have to become another character. They have to be featured incidentally. They can play any role, big or small. It doesn’t matter if they are blown up, crashed, shot at or thrown in a garbage can, as long as it is done the right way, at the right time and by the right people. The brand has to act like it is; respecting its brand equity. Remember the brand personality? Well, your brand must act like that “person” it is. Take look at the role FedEx and Wilson played in Cast Away. Sort of like the way brands are being featured in video games.

There is also a small dependence of the movie on the brand. Just like when you define someone by the brands they use, brands can also define how you judge and feel a character in a movie. Mitsubishi starred on 2 Fast 2 Furious. Why would any other car brand be interested in being featured there?

What would be of Steve McQueen, Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible and Will Smith in I am Legend without their Belstaff jackets? The bad guys in Superman Returns and Cyclops in X-Men: The Last Stand also wore Belstaff jackets. Ghost Rider’s bike wasn’t a Vespa, not because Vespa does not make good bikes, but because it lacks the rebel spirit other brands have. Turtle Wax fits perfectly in the Shark Tale’s Whale-Wash. The equity behind those brands helped defined each character.

Sometimes brands do not choose to be featured in films and, besides the legal issues there might be, the damage done to a brand may be strong. For example, From Hell (Albert and Allen Hughes, 2001) is said to be intentionally an anti-masonry film.

On other cases, some movies, like Star Wars, become brands all by themselves. In most of these movies, there are no other brands featured. Here are a few:

Films with no brands featured in them:

Horton Hears a Who	Open Season
10,000 B.C.	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Golden Compass	Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Beowulf	Kingdom of Heaven
SAW IV	Hero (Ying Xiong)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Shrek the Third	Troy
300	Van Helsing
Apocalypto	The Passion of the Christ
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

There are many brands being placed in movies. Here is an extract of the most featured brands in movies according to brandchannel.com:

Brands Featured in Films:

Ford: 105	Volvo: 19	MTV: 14	Rolls Royce: 10
Coca-Cola: 77	USPS: 19	TAG Heuer: 14	Doritos: 10
Apple: 70	Ford Mustang: 19	Sony Playstation: 14	American Express: 10
Mercdes: 62	USA Today: 19	Reebok: 13	Visa: 10
Chevrolet: 56	Red Bull: 18	Reebok: 13	Pontiac: 10
Pepsi: 55	FedEx: 18	Land Rover: 13	ESPN: 10
Budweiser: 53	Lincoln: 18	Corona: 13	New York Post: 10
Sony: 50	Hummer: 18	Lexus: 13	S. Pellegrino: 9
Nike: 46	HP: 18	Verizon: 12	Tabasco: 9
Cadillac: 38	Samsung: 18	Polo Ralph Lauren: 13	Michelob: 9
Motorola: 37	Heineken: 17	NBC: 12	Dos Equis: 9
Panasonic: 37	Jaguar: 17	Aquafina: 12	Corvette: 94
Dodge: 29	Montblanc: 17	Burger King: 12	Spalding: 9
GMC: 29	Kodak: 16	Range Rover: 12	Jack Daniel’s: 9
Nokia: 29	Ferrari: 16	Starbucks: 12	Yahoo!: 9
Volkswagen: 28	Lay’s: 16	Sprite: 11	Lacoste: 9
Adidas: 28	Miller: 16	Moët & Chandon: 11	Rolex: 13*
BMW: 28	Honda: 16	Dr. Pepper: 11	Bacardi: 9
Converse: 24	Volkswagen Beetle: 16	Oakley: 11	Ecko Unltd: 9
Jeep: 24	Nikon: 16	Ray-Ban: 11	JVC: 9
Dell: 24	Bose: 16	Sony VAIO: 11	CNN: 9
Toyota: 23	Belstaff: 16	Krispy Kreme: 11	eBay: 9
Philips: 22	New York Yankees: 15	Canon: 10	Grey Goose: 9
Puma: 22	Fox: 15	Oprah Winfrey: 10	Heinz: 9
McDonald’s: 21	Mountain Dew: 14	Nissan: 10	Bentley: 9
Porsche: 20	Chrysler: 14	SoBe: 10	Chanel: 9

So go beyond product placement. Find different alternatives. When placing your brand in a movie, merge them. Remember, you will not always reach the target audience you desire... your fate will be determined by the success of the film.

Marketing's neverending quest: how to deliver more effective messages

Duke University recently conducted an experiment using subliminal messages to prove that "incidental brand exposures" have a greater impact on people than traditional advertising.

Their subjects were called for a "visual acuity test" where they had to watch a screen and call from which side a colored square came from. During the test, either an Apple logo or an IBM logo was flashed during 30 milliseconds. The group who was exposed to the Apple logo came up with more creative ideas to use a brick than the group exposed to the IBM logo.

Watch the video here.

Don Reisingher from techradar.com, also commented about this experiment in his recent article Subliminal ads coming to a PC near you?

A little bit of history and definitions:

The use of Subliminal Messages is not new. These type of messages have been used since the 1930's on radio and heavily during the 70's by some music bands. Although in Britain and in Australia, the use of Subliminal Messages is illegal, banned and severely punished, in the USA the grip does not seem to be as fierce. The FCC's Manual for Broadcasters says:

"We sometimes receive complaints regarding the alleged use of subliminal techniques in radio and TV programming. Subliminal programming is designed to be perceived on a subconscious level only. Regardless of whether it is effective, the use of subliminal perception is inconsistent with a station's obligation to serve the public interest because the broadcast is intended to be deceptive. (Federal Communications Commission Record, 2001)"

"The FCC has no rules on what is, or is not, a "subliminal" message. Consequently, there is no basis for it to determine whether any advertisement contains a "subliminal" message." (FCC, September 19, 2000)

According to Wikipedia, a Subliminal message is:

"A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium, designed to pass below the normal limits of perception."

My conclusions:

1. Each brand, like each person, has a distinct personality. Brand Managers try to build that personality according to the revenue stream needs. For example an apparel brand for young people will try to look young, trend-setter and whatnot. This brand will be appealing to young people and their wallets (the final target). On the other hand, a brand cannot build equity on personality traits that do not correspond to it. For example, it will be difficult to believe if a coal power plant starts proclaiming itself as eco-friendly. I will expand on this subject on a future blog.

2. Apple's commercials where they have personalized their brand against the PC with different guys combined with their new cool computers, the iphone, ipod and other gadgets, are clearly delivering their message of creativity as found by Duke's experiment.

3. Although IBM was not perceived as creative in that experiment, IBM probably has geared its efforts to obtain revenues from a different stream, thus building different traits for their personality. This brand equity will appeal to a different audience than Apple's, hopefully being the core target for IBM's revenue stream.

4. Can a brand use other brands to enhance how it is perceived? In this experiment, the students exposed to Apple logo came up with more creative ways to use a brick. Can a consumer be more wiling to purchase certain brand when that brand has used another brand to enhance its personality?

5. Definitively marketers need to find better ways to deliver messages. This is a never ending quest. I will expand on this on future blogs, so for now I can tell you that each day there are new media, new technologies and new ideas that push us further in this quest. The perfectly delivered message does not exist. It is an illusion, but as most illusions, we must seek it in order to continuously improve and evolve. Marketers should never lose sight of the core revenue stream.

Will we be exposed to subliminal messages? Are we being exposed to subliminal messages now? Which challenges are brand managers facing now?

Adventure

During the past year, I have been in the developing of an innovative advertising and telecommunications service, soon to be announced.
This has been an exciting adventure, hopeful to a successful outcome.
I will soon post more details regarding this.

Hollywood Targets Gen X

The recent (and upcoming) releases appeal mainly to Generation Xers:

• Rambo
• Jaws
• Iron Man
• Speed Racer
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Star Trek XI
• James Bond 22
• Where the wild things are
• Get Smart
• The Incredible Hulk

Plus the recent releases of DVDs such as Gremlins and Goonies, tells that Hollywood knows that Gen Xers, in their 30s and 40s, are in their peak purchasing power. The previous generations, the Baby Boomers, are now the avalanche of applications to social security.