Fear as a marketing tool

I had a discussion with a few coworkers the other day.
Somehow, the Y2K bug was brought into the conversation as the biggest marketing ploy ever. (Enjoy this bit of fear propagation by Spock himself.)
All its success was based on the primal instinct of fear.
One of them later proclaimed emphatically that fear is the biggest marketing tool.

After some thought, I tend to agree on the whole.
Next to, of course, lust and love (http://marketing-bee.blogspot.com/2011/06/turning-up-heat.html).

Do you drink beer?
Heard of Miller Light?
Seen their ads recently? (Example: Skirt, Carry-all)

Clearly this plays on the self-esteem issues that men have (yes, men have that).
Appearing unmanly in front of the "boys" is a huge fear factor.
The general consensus is that light beers are enjoyed more by the ladies.
And it is often depicted as the burly men drinking the hard liquor or darker beers.

What Miller Light as done here is taken a different spin on the problem by shifting the focus to the taste instead of light beer vs regular/dark.
Clever.
Not directly addressing the main issue of what is deemed "unmanly" behaviour.

Actually, these lite guards are very beautiful.

Snagged from here.

turning up the heat

Let's face it, most of you probably came to this post because of this picture:

Snagged this screen cap from Sports Illustrated's website. Check it here.

The old adage of marketing/advertising: sex sells.
But I'm not here to discuss this.
I'm here to discuss how cinematographers clearly captured and created a new market for superhero films that are adaptations from comic books.

Case in point is Thor.

I'm a big fan of comic books. Although I didn't read them much when I was a kid, I know most of the (popular) superhero's stories. So when I knew the movie Thor was on the silver screens as a lead up to assembling the Avengers, I had to go see it.
My older sister, and my female cousin were very eager to see the movie as well. All for a different reason.
You see, they aren't fans of the genre at all. They are, however, fans of good-looking men.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present to you: exhibit A

Snagged this one here.

This is truly expanding the market and exposing the brand to people that they would otherwise have been missed. The two fanatical females would never have went to watch this movie under normal circumstances. However, their change of heart is wholly due to a conveniently placed scene in the trailer (that is rather revealing).

They are doing something similar with the Green Lantern movie.
Ryan Reynold, voted as 2010 Sexiest Man Alive, is the male lead in this movie.
Him as an actor, in a word, sucked.
But hey, he pulls in the box office numbers.
I think his physical attractiveness is probably the only reason why he was cast for this movie.
Regardless, it seemed to do the trick for Thor so it should translate to Green Lantern.

On the same note though, Subaru did an amazingly clever marketing campaign on the theme of sexiness.
Check it:
www.sexysubaru.com

Check it here.

This ironic ad was creative and eye-catching. Honestly cannot unsee some of the things Subaru showed me. But the brand is forever impressed and burned into my head.
The comedic, fun factor was extremely high. Political correctness was okay.
Did you know, sumo wrestlers were considered sex icons in Japan?

Oh btw, I do follow sumo wrestling, so I'm not making fun of them.

Another creative use of sex appeal is godaddy.com ads.
I personally don't like some of their innuendos so I will not give examples of their ads.
But they do pique interest and get their job done. I'm sure a ton of traffic is siphoned into their site each time their ads are aired.

I also like the recent Bud Light commercials. At the same time, I don't like how they exploit human emotions (more on this later).

Anyways, point is, using sex appeal has been done over and over again. Take a pointer from Subaru, the comic book movies and even godaddy.com and come up with some cleverer and refreshing.

You can probably tell there's a diminishing effort to write this as the article progressed... That's because it's late and I'm tired. Bear with me.
Once I'm rested and fully recovered from this cold, I'll be churning out better quality articles.

Stay busy.

and then there were four

Pretty Telus birds.

I've been using wireless mobile internet for the past 3 months in Canada. Although I shouldn't complain because I can still access my data connection inside buildings (unlike some of our unlucky AT&T cousins down south), but sometimes information just doesn't load at the speed you wish it did.
Within the telecommunications industry in Canada there's a battle for supremacy going on. The three major players, Bell, Rogers, and Telus, are vying for the top dog position. The temporary alliance of Bell and Telus drew first blood in the advertising department when they won a lawsuit against Rogers over their claim of being the fastest and most reliable network (too lazy with the research this is the best you're gonna get in terms of outside info). With Bell and Telus' HSPA+ network, it's easy to see why the courts sided with Telus on this one (didn't find something on this one, so you'll have to take my word for it).
But that's all old news.
Recently I came across a rather interesting billboard ad:

Along the DVP in Toronto.

Zoomed in.

Btw, those pictures took forever to upload.

I guess Telus drew first blood with the advertising as well!
Though through the grapevine, I hear Rogers will be rolling out LTE in 2012.
(In Mr. Bean's voice) It's a race!
I'm really looking forward to using the 4G network in Canada. Small businesses and power users will definitely reap the benefit of a faster mobile connection, especially with the utility, functionality and power of modern smartphones.
Imagine being able to respond to email purchase orders. Download and work on invoices and order sheets on the go. Connect with vendors and suppliers simultaneously through video. Ah, the possibilities.
Of course, this is an absolute nightmare for the average employee (being tethered to office work even on the go), but this will be a dream-come-true for the entrepreneur looking to increase his or her control of the flow business and increase efficiency.
Imagine doing all that at a blazingly (I made up that word) fast speed.

So in the battle of telecoms, it's a war of attrition between the big 3 (speaking of which it was a disappointing loss yesterday, Miami). Let's see who actually gets to roll out LTE first. Because it's always good to be first.

That is, of course, unless you're a rat; the second rat gets the cheese.

a rose by any other name

A rose by any other name wouldn't be called a rose.
What's in a name anyways?
Apparently, a lot.
Especially when you are marketing a consumer product. There are some really stupid names out there. So whether you're downing the Pocari Sweat, or getting Ayds (pronounced "AIDS"; because everyone loves "getting Ayds") sometimes it just misses the mark.

But honestly this has got to be the worst EVER name.
Introducing: TrekStor's iBeat Blaxx!
(fyi: pronounced I beat blacks)

Picture from cnet.com, visit them here.

Of course, it was later renamed to TrekStor Blaxx.
And of course, being a German company, a worse names till would be iBeat Juz (fyi: pronounced I beat Jews). OF COURSE, I'm not making light of the Holocaust nor am I anti-semantic (in fact, I used to work for a wonderful Jewish man).

Here's a tip for future product/brand managers:
English, being the current number 1 international language for business, is important. So make sure your product names and brands, when translated, are culturally acceptable. It pays to hire a native speaker with in-depth cultural knowledge to tweak the brand and product names. Even hiring a random college/university undergraduate from the States or Canada would suffice (and you don't even have to pay them that much because they're basically starving; literally and figuratively in the professional-experience sense).

Google translator is not your best friend, nor is that intern who claims to be proficient in English.
Chances are that intern or the translator would screw up and give you Engrish instead of English.

If your company doesn't usually give product names (I'm looking at you Panasonic televisions department - Panasonic Viera TC-P50VT25, what a mouthful), use product nicknames! I think giving product nicknames as common names for specific models is great. In the Panasonic example I gave, the Viera VT25 would be so much nicer. Although it's not an official name, it does help people refer to that particular model much easier.
Besides, it's easier for consumers to remember and recall the brand when considering the purchase. This aids in the consumer's information search phase in the purchase cycle.


Lastly I want to draw your attention to the EOS Rebel series from Canon. Their Canadian celebrity endorsement choice was brilliant. Choosing Avril Lavigne, Canadian punk/rock artist, was a good choice. Especially with her rock-star and fun-loving rebellious attitude. It really complements the casual and against-the-norm notion of the entry-level dSLR camera (this was back when dSLR are mythical semi-professional to professional grade equipment).

Snagged this here. Not sure where she got the picture from though.

Take in the subtle beauty and look of defiance in those eyes.
















I'm in a writing frenzy. We'll see if I can churn out another post before I sleep tonight.

Best. marketing. ever.

In terms of effectiveness, cost-benefit, and execute the exchange.
Here's the king of marketing in my books:

By far the best marketing I've seen is....

Driving lesson ads posted on bus shelters.
Albeit illegal (in the UK according to my research, unknown about Toronto, ON), but dang it's so effective.

What better way to target non-drivers en masse?







Wasn't expecting that eh?
I know this is a real underdog, but I'll explain why it's the best ever.

The effectiveness is even increased when waiting for late or cancelled buses in frustration.
The idea of freedom from the inefficient and often infuriating experience of taking public transit can a strong motivator to get driving lessons. Especially on those cold winter nights when the next bus is 20-40 minutes away.
It amazing how these ads show up cyclically because this business is highly seasonal.
Most ads show up prior to the summer months, the best weather to learn how to drive.
Lastly, these ads cost no more 50 cents to print. Add another hour or so of labour in cutting out the detachable slips and another hour or so to post them and you'll have maximum $25-30 cost racked up.
C'mon, 30 bucks for a highly effective, targeted local campaign? It's a total steal.
Next best thing is scoring free PR.

This is to really prove a point in that simplicity is often the best route to take.
Especially for small, local businesses. You can run a successful marketing campaign without much work or investment. These types of ads completely blow the million dollar ads and multi-million campaigns out of the water.

Last note: I'm not 100% certain about the legality issue here, I'm not a lawyer. But it is safer to say that it shouldn't be done because it's similar to vandalism. I do not encourage the posting of these sorts of ads. It is highly frowned upon by most transit users.

Cheers and stay busy.
Just don't be busy flyering the bus shelters.

Zee Bee