maggi magic sarap and judy ann santos in a dream ad - only seen in dreams

have you seen your dream on tv?


this maggi magic sarap tv commercial featuring popular judy ann santos or juday as endorser is a dream seen on tv. to have juday in ad is a dream not only considering the amount of talent fee that needs to be paid but also because of the fact that juday is still at her peak. she is one of the most popular actresses around with a huge and in many cases rabid following.

pair to the dream of having juday in the ad is the the looks of the ad which is really very good. the production and art designs are excellent with every little meticulously set and every item you see in the ad art directed to perfection.


juday is also in dream looks - every piece of her hair in place, make-up just right making her look clean, nice and beautiful. this is one of the few ads of juday where her real personality comes out - wholesome, happy and beautiful. she does this understated beauty queen walk through stalls in a palengke (a wet public market), with an over-sized bag.


wait a minute..... palengke? what palengke? juday is in a palengke? to do what?


that is where this dream ad bursts.


why in the world will a showbiz superstar, specially someone like judy ann santos go to a palengke? it will not be surprising to know that the time they shot this ad in that palengke is the first time judy ann santos has ever set foot in a palengke in all her life.


on that alone, this ad already suffers from a catastrophic believability problem. judy ann santos must have at least 4 househelp under her employ. and even these househelp most likely do their shopping for food in a supermarket, not in a palengke.


as a superstar, juday may be used to wear clothes like what she is wearing on a daily basis, but very, very few ordinary folks wear the same type of clothes in a palengke. you wouldn't want nice clothes like that smeared with fish or meat blood, not to mention get all the smells of produce, slaughtered chicken and fish to attach themselves on your clothes. these types of clothes is also a magnet for holduppers and crime.


and did you notice the palengke? there is NO palengke in the philippines, not a single one that look like that. the stalls are neatly arranged, everything is clean and it smells real good (ok, that one we imagined). you also see produce hanging from stalls to give the place a nice look. this whole palengke look is just too art directed. the production design staff was just too much, every inch of that ad was drawn and executed to perfection. this palengke is so perfect that a palengke looking like that can only exist in our nightmares.

nestle is obsessive compulsive about branding, seeing the brand names of their products in every frame in their ads, but in this one they relented and now we just see the maggi magic sarap color of yellow. that's the reason why the whole commercial has been given an over-all look of the color yellow.

but this nestle ad is a huge improvement compared to their previous ads of years ago. nestle used to have tv ads where not only did the colors of the brand being advertised is in every shot, the brand name is also displayed prominently. i remember milo commercials where kids who play basketball where uniforms with the milo logo, the board of the basketball ring has the milo logo and the banners around the basketball court has milo logos on them. at least in this ad, they no longer have the brand's logo everywhere, just the brand colors.

this tv ad may look good visually, but it's one that exist only on a production designer's sketch pad and not even in our dreams. it is the farthest from reality. add to the incredible visual look what juday does in this ad makes one really go crazy, judy ann santos will NOT set foot in a palengke to buy food stuff and she will NOT cook a meal for guests. it's just too difficult to believe.

one of the most important principles of celebrity endorsement advertising is credibility and believability. this tv ad ignores that completely. this is one of the worst kind of celebrity endorsement ad where the over-riding principle appear to be - have the face of the endorser in the ad and it will sell.

we often hear actresses who appear naked in movies explain away their behavior as "for art's sake". of course we don't believe them. we know that art has nothing to do with their going naked in movies, it's all about the talent fee they were paid and the hope appearing naked in movies will make them famous.

well, this tv ad is very similar to that situation. they have the looks, the feel and juday doing what she is doing in this ad as "for art's sake", throwing away all attempts to be believable and credible.

and did i mention juday's palengke basket? look at it, it's this huge palengke basket with a red scarf tied around it for effect. duh! nobody carries that basket anymore. they use plastic bayong these days or just any ordinary plastic bag. and please, a red scarf tied around it???!!!

a WAWAM!




view the ad here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D082Lxm7k5Q

new balckberry storm - storming its own brand equity into bits

i don't own a blackberry, but i thought this review at the new york times has an excellent insight on brand equity.

No Keyboard? And You Call This a BlackBerry?
by: David Pogue
The New York Times

Research in Motion (R.I.M.), the company that brought us the BlackBerry, has been on a roll lately. For a couple of years now, it’s delivered a series of gorgeous, functional, supremely reliable smartphones that, to this day, outsell even the much-adored iPhone.

Here’s a great example of the intelligence that drives R.I.M.: The phones all have simple, memorable, logical names instead of incomprehensible model numbers. There’s the BlackBerry Pearl (with a translucent trackball). The BlackBerry Flip (with a folding design). The BlackBerry Bold (with a stunning design and faux-leather back).

Well, there’s a new one, just out ($200 after rebate, with two-year Verizon contract), officially called the BlackBerry Storm.

But I’ve got a better name for it: the BlackBerry Dud.

The first sign of trouble was the concept: a touch-screen BlackBerry. That’s right — in its zeal to cash in on some of that iPhone touch-screen mania, R.I.M. has created a BlackBerry without a physical keyboard.

Hello? Isn’t the thumb keyboard the defining feature of a BlackBerry? A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel. A Prius with terrible mileage. Cracker Jack without a prize inside.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/technology/personaltech/27pogue.html?_r=1&bl&ex=1227848400&en=5a50becfbe5bac73&ei=5087%0A

the question the author asked - "what? a blackberry without a keyboard?" is excellent in terms of the most fundamental and strategic question on brand equity. the last paragraph says it all - "isn't the thumb keyboard the defining feature of the blackberry". yes, the thumb keyboard is the very core of what the blackberry is all about.



the blackberry storm, with it's touch screen is obviously an attempt to match and answer apple's iphone. since the launch of the iphone, the market has been looking for the iphone killer.


the intent is fine. but what is not right and in fact most likely will cause an implosion to blackberry is that they are attempting to kill the successful iphone by removing the brand's strategic core of the thumb keyboard by being a copy cat to iphone's touch screen. the thumb keyboard and the touch screen are two extremely different consumer experience of the products. they are worlds apart.


the history of marketing has been brutal to copycat brands. being unique is one of marketing's most revered commandments. it is one of the top holy grail of marketing while being a copycat is poison, a sure path to failure.


that reminds me of burger king when it first launched in the philippines. burger king in the philippines essentially had the same sort of offerings as in the US, one of which was the bottomless refill of sodas (coca cola products). it was a first in the philippines for any fast food restaurant and was a hit among consumers.


a top official from burger king headquarters in the US visited manila to look at the operations here. one of the big discussions with the marketing team of burger manila was the bottomless refill of sodas. the BK official had asked that the offering be stopped, obviously to improve margins. the local marketing people objected arguing that it being a first in the country, it was a top draw among consumers. BK was head to head with the leaders jollibee and mcdonald's and any advantage it can have was one of the things the local marketing team was defending.


the BK official stood pat on the direction and i agree with it. he said BK is all about its charbroiled hamburgers, not sodas. it is their key brand equity.


cellphones are very much the physical design as its features and software. cellphone brands have their own unique physical designs that not only do we remember them, we buy them for that reason. that is true with Motorola's slim flip phones which became an immediate huge hit as during the time of it's launch most cellphones were thick. and the most recent success of course is the iphone with its touch screen.


the blackberry was weathered all these new physical design innovations from their competitors. the blackberry continued to have very good market share and a large and even growing number of loyal users. and all that because blackberry's thumb keyboard was able to fight off these competitive design onslaught.


until now, when they removed the thumb keyboard in the blackberry storm.


it would be interesting to see if consumers agree and confirm this marketing law of "though shall not remove thy brand equity".

san miguel beer christmas ad warms the heart and its not the beer

the APO is one of the country's most enduring singing talent group and one of the most well-loved. they have the good boys image and a true model for the young. it's great to see them in this san miguel beer christmas ad.

REACTIONS, new feature of blogger : you agree/disagree? your ratings!

there is a new feature in this blog - (a)you can cast your "vote" or reaction to the posts : "i agree!", "in the middle" and "i disagree"; and (b) ratings, from 1 star to 5 stars. they are located at the end of every post. just click on them and it will save automatically.

this is a great feature as it will tell us in two very simple ways what you think of the posts in this blog. reader feedback is very important to us your views will help us understand what works andn does not work in this blog.

use it now!

Brain Food # 5 : The Complete Calvin & Hobbes (box set, hard cover)

this is the ultimate calvin & hobbes ---- the complete set, as in all the work in hardcover, full color and in actual size as drawn by the author. this is also available at top bookstores in manila.

New York Times best-seller!

"Watterson's imaginative approach to his material and his inventive graphics have made Calvin and Hobbes one of the few universally admired by other cartoonists." —Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Calvin and Hobbes is unquestionably one of the most popular comic strips of all time. The imaginative world of a boy and his real-only-to-him tiger was first syndicated in 1985 and appeared in more than 2,400 newspapers when Bill Watterson retired on January 1, 1996.

The entire body of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons published in a truly noteworthy tribute to this singular cartoon in The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Composed of three hardcover, four-color volumes in a sturdy slipcase, this edition includes all Calvin and Hobbes cartoons that ever appeared in syndication. This is the treasure that all Calvin and Hobbes fans seek.

source: http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/products/?isbn=0740748475

2010 Presidentiables blog now open!

WAWAM! has opened a new blog - 2010 Presidentiable  where topics will be exclusive to the philippine presidential election scheduled in 2010 from a marketing and advertising standpoint.

presidentiables is slang for election candidates runnung for the position of president. the above four are the declared and almost-declared presidentiables.

view it here : http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/

seeing things not there - ameriquest's funny tv spot

mortgage at this time in the US is not a happy topic but here's an ad that will put a smile on anyone.

it's a pool-out ad from the same stragtegy that we featured in WAWAM! awhile ago (view it here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/ameriquest). this is one is more acceptable than the first one we had here.

it's a racy brand character but this is much better than the first. unlike the first one, nothing is polarizing in this ad.

cheers beer - celebrating the little pleasures in life

we have seen many beer ads that celebrate happy occasions but the kind of celebration this cheers beer from thailand is the best kind - the little pleasures in life. we have been told so many times to enjoy the little victories we encounter in our daily lives and these ads showcase that very well. the way they do it in these ads i think is the best way to do it.

the brand character that these ads show is unmistakable and something we can all appreciate. we know the whole thing is tongue in cheek but we appreciate it very much and endears the brand to us.

cheers!

janina san miguel quits - Brand Phlippines saved from potentially being tarnished!

we are both saddened and glad that janina san miguel decided to quit the Miss World 2008 beauty pageant.

we are sad because of the troubles that janina apparently has gone through that has caused her to quit the beauty pageant. based on this news article, a few personal matters have occured that has prevented her from fulfilling her duties as the winning beauty to represent the philippines in the Miss World competition.

we are glad as her competing in that beauty pageant, just the thought of it, has been giving us episodes of a near heart attack based on how she performed in the contest in manila. we were afraid she might perform the same way she did here and that could once again tarnish Brand Philippines.

during the local competition, she was unable to properly answer the question asked of her during the Q&A portion of the contest. not only was her answer way off, she spoke bad english both in pronounciation and grammar. our view is that instead of english, she should have spoken in Filipino if she was more comfortable in that language. that would have been absolutely fine.

the article quoted below is actually much kinder than what they said on tv about her quitting the pageant. the news telecast said she was unable to handle the training she was going through for the Miss World competition. the pageant organizers were greatly alarmed when she won and announced right after that winning beauty contestants will go through extensive preparation and training before they leave for abroad to compete.

view discussion and youtube here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/03/janina-san-miguel-as-brand-philippines.html

RP's bet to Ms. World 2008 Janina San Miguel quits

The Philippines' controversial representative to the 2008 Miss World beauty pageant, Janina San Miguel, has resigned, Binibining Pilipinas Charities, Inc. (BCPI) said late Monday.


San Miguel won the Binibining Pilipinas Ms. World despite having difficulty answering a judge's question in English.

"Binibining Pilipinas Charities, Inc. (BPCI) regrets to announce that Ms. Janina San Miguel has resigned as official representative to the 2008 Miss World beauty pageant," the firm said in a brief statement released by Belle Baldoza, public relations officer of the Araneta Group.

"The untimely demise of her grandfather, among other personal reasons, has caused her undue stress, thus hindering her from fulfilling her duties for the said title," the BPCI said.

During the contest, San Miguel said on national television: "Well, my family’s role for me is so important b’coz there was the wa- they’re, they was the one who’s… very… Hahahaha… Oh I’m so sorry, Ahhmm… My pamily… My family… Oh my god… I’m… Ok, I’m so sorry… I… I told you that I’m so confident… Eto, Ahhmm, Wait… Hahahaha, Ahmmm, Sorry guys because this was really my first pageant ever b’coz I’m only 17 years old and ahahaha I, I did not expect that I came from, I came from one of the tough 10. Hmmm, so… but I said dot my family is the most important persons in my life. Thank you."

San Miguel's answer was immediately uploaded on YouTube and she became an instant celebrity.

It led to a national debate on whether only Filipinos who can speak English well deserve to win beauty contests.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/entertainment/09/29/08/rps-bet-ms-world-2008-janina-san-miguel-quits

srah palin voted for barack obama

that surpised me, too. in fact i was shocked when i read what sarah palin said. she apparently voted for barack obama!



this is what sarah palin said when she arrived at her alaska office:

"I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration? How have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration? If we're talking change, we want to get far away from what it was that the present administration represented and that is to a great degree what the Republican Party at the time had been representing,"

source : http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h21ZbzgPbTVRftcJPT5vkHkonY5QD94CMR0G0



read WAWAM! discussion here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/10/president-barack-obama-winning.html

Palin said in a story published Sunday.what palin said is EXACTLY what barack obama has been saying during the campaign, in fact way back starting from the primaries until the end of the election campaign. "change" is obama's number 1 winning marketing strategy and palin gave a very good summary of the core marketing positioning of obama. part of the short list of obama's winning marketing strategies.

i wonder if palin was aware of what she said and it's significance. from that statement, it looked like palin voted for obama. you hear essentially the same words when ordinary voters are interviewed on tv. they give essentially the same answer when asked why they voted for obama.
with palin as a running mate and with that kind of thinking, it's no surprise obama won the electoral college votes by a landslide. palin is lucky that she said those words after the election. what she said would have been great material for obama ads.

help me out here -- is palin smart for realizing those things, for realizing that's what american voters want or is palin really dumb for not realizing that's exactly the marketing positioning of obama? from a mccain presidential bid campaing standpoint, sarah palin is a definite WAWAM!

apple exploits a product failure and bad consumer experience on microsoft vista

good ads are those that use the most simple of words and delivers the most simple of thoughts. combine those to a powerful message and it can be magic.

this apple ad will most likely not win awards, but the ad uses simple words, simple thoughts and a very competitive message and that combination means it can be very effective. add to that list - relevance and meaningfullness as the consumer experience on vista's product failures that are being told in the ad are actual consumer experiences.

classic marketing dilemma : funds for advertising or product improvements, apple's bite on vista

the apple brand management and advertising people are simply having the best time of their lives with these "i am a mac, i am a pc" tv ad campaign. they're simply out there to exploit any, small or big, weakness that microsoft gives them.

this is one is really tiny, with really little to do with brand building, but its damn irritating to watch if you are from microsoft. well, okay, it has some redeeming advertising value - it casts doubt on vista's performance. it makes would be consumers think twice on whether vista's product failures have been fixed or not.

we concede that that alone may be a big factor. well, it is possible, we just don't know how probable it is. macs have been receiving great reviews and strong interests lately with increased market share and vista has been humbled to product failure jail - add to that a consumer doubt and those who are about to plunk down $1,000+ for a new computer just might decide in favor of macs on the basis of doubt.

it's really just casting doubt - microsioft has the largest R&D budget in the world, so it is not true that microsoft is not spending enough in product improvements. and it's hard to believe microsoft has stopped fixing the problems on vista. perhaps microsoft may not be moving fast enough to fix all problems but just the same apple is exploiting every centimeter of opening it can see.

this apple ad is a marketing classic - will the brand spend its money on product improvement or on advertising to convince it's users the product is a good one?

microsoft's ads is trying the latter. that's really great -- $350M worth of ads. the first one was a failure, the latest one might do it. but with so much talk about windows 7, that i think leaves further doubt on vista and this time courtesy of microsoft itself.

this loud talk about windows 7 seem to confirm vista is a dead brand. they even announced when windows 7 will be made available. what the hell will pc owners with vista do till then? and from now till last quarter 2009 when they launch vista, why will i buy a pc with vista?

apple must be just so happy to have microsoft as a competitor! tsk tsk

Tide Detergent's christmas tree ad bubbles with joy - two steps away from brilliance

with English back translation

how does a detergent product say "merry christmas"? you can have dancing housewives. or dancing detergent boxes. to many that can bereal easy. but the real easy can be real boring.

tide detergent decided it will not take the easy path. and here is what we have, an unexpected and very creative way to say "merry christmas".

not only is it unexpected and very creative, it's also on strategy to the brand and contributes to it's story of efficacy. tide has moved away from it's long standing heritage of powerful suds as a core signal for efficacy in its advertising, but every woman who does hand washing continue to understand what it means and in fact for many of them expect it from their detergent product. strong and abundant suds mean effective detergency in this market.
this chirstmas ad delivers that very well.

it's an almost perfect ad except for two things --- (a) the woman is too pretty, too young and too nice to be the typical labandera (woman who washes clothes). they could have used an on-camera talent who has the looks of a more typical labandera. she looks too classy and too rich and someone who can afford to buy a washing machine. her type is the one who has not done any hand washing at all. and the (b) they could have chosen a more appropriate dialogue for the radio drama that the woman is listening to on her radio. it's a christmas ad, the radio dialogue should have been about christmas, not ordinary time situations. having it as a topic on christmas could have been more emtional and make the ad work harder.

getting an on-cam talent more like real labanderas would have improved the ad's empathy. it hits home harder when the people we see in the ads look like us.

the point of the ad is to deliver a christmas message. this ad could have done that in a much more effective way had they chosen a radio drama dialogue where the setting is christmas. doing that would have allowed them to more actively and directly deliver a christmas message. the way it is now, we sort of assume that is the point of the ad and that happens only at the very end of the ad when we see the suds have formed a christmas tree shape.

what a pity they missed out on those things. it's a great ad, but two things shy of being a brilliant ad.

PDI headline : black in white house

what a headline!

brilliant move on election day : starbucks, ben & jerry's and krispy kreme

free product sampling on election day - brilliant marketing.

this election will bring in record numbers of voters. it is also one of the most talked about and most watched election in the history of the US. the interest in this election is unprecedented.

giving product samples during election day is just a brilliant idea. the brands will get optimum brand awareness and build very strong affinity with the voters.

Starbucks, Ben & Jerry's, Krispy Kreme offer voters goodies


Coffee, doughnuts and ice cream are being offered up in election day giveaways by Starbucks Coffee Inc., Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. and Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc.

But Starbucks' giveaway may violate state and federal laws because it specifically targets voters, according to the attorney general of Washington state.

Seattle-based Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) said it is giving away a free "tall" 12-ounce cup of coffee to anyone who votes.

North Carolina-based Krispy Kreme (NYSE:KKD) is giving away star-shaped doughnuts and Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's is offering free scoops of its ice cream Tuesday. But those companies aren't requiring people to say they voted to get their treats.

Despite the alleged election law problem, a spokesman for the Washington state AG said the office didn't plan to press charges, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Ben & Jerry's said in a statement that it had considered a promotion similar to Starbucks' but changed plans when it learned of the possible legal complications. Instead, all customers at its shops between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Tuesday will be given free scoops.

Krispy Kreme is only requiring that customers at its 85 company-owned stores mention its promotion to get their free doughnut. Some of its 145 franchisees will also participate.


http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/11/03/daily23.html

the maccain losing marketing strategies, strategy # 2 : sarah palin

WAWAM! will be looking at exactly the same things that a political analyst or strategist will be looking at in analyzing the campaigns. but WAWAM! will look it at from the eyes of a marketing and advertising man. these strategies and analysis can be written into marketing plans of brands and it will make sense and most likely work.

This is part 2 of a series on the Mccain campaign, we added strategy #2,.

read about the Obama Winning Marketing Strategies here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/Obama%20Winning%20Marketing%20Strategy

read about the US presidential elections here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/US%20presidential%20elections

read about sarah palin as vp choice, brilliant marketing or biggest marketing blunder here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/palin



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1. Core strategy of 'Personality', pursued from the start appearing in different forms across the campaign period. The Mccain campaign was loudest on making personality as a key campaign issue be that of their opponent, Mccain himself and even in his VP choice. At some point towards the latter part of the campaign, they were so stuck on it that they missed an important opportunity that they allowed the Obama campaign to preempt them on it.

2. Sarah Palin as VP choice is a marketing blunder. We wondered if Palin as VP is brilliant marketing or a marketing blunder. We think the choice of Palin as VP running mate was intended to be a strategic choice but turned out to be a poor tactical move. It was strategic in the sense that it was consistent with the campaign's core strategy of "personality", but it did not produce strategic benefits, only very tactical ones. Palin was to compliment Mccain, as a counter weight but turned out to be just a pretty decor on the wall. They wanted to exploit the void that they thought was created when Obama did not choose Clinton as his running mate. They were hoping that choosing a young female as VP will be able to capture the Clinton's supporters who were clearly disappointed by the Obama move. The key problem with that choice is that they didn't seem to consider that Palin may not be equal to Hillary. They are similar only in one aspect - being a female and on all other things, Palin suffers in comparison to Clinton. None of the above was delivered by Palin.

Not being able to deliver the strategic benefits of choosing Palin as VP, it instead I think distracted the Mccain campaign from the strategic imperatives it needed to deliver for a win. The choice of Palin gave the Mccain campaign a boost specially at the first few days of the announcement. It was so left field that nobody really understood the choice nor did anyone know who Palin was. This rush to know Palin more gave the Mccain campaign the boost but it eventually waned and the weakness of the choice showed it's ugly head after the honeymoon period. That rush could have given the Mccain the wrong impression the campaign was doing well.

America so it seems is not in the mood for tactical things during this campaign. The issues of the Iraq war and the economy are just too real for tactical efforts.

Now, polls are saying that some voters are questioning the choice of Palin and has made that as a reason for voting for Obama. We know that even Colin Powell himself has mentioned that is one of the reason he is supporting Obama.

The learning here is almost a carbon copy to the lesson in marketing consumer brands --- it is a marketing blunder to think that tactical moves will result to strategic benefits.

obama's wining marketing strategies, strategy # 3 : down-home presence

WAWAM! will be looking at exactly the same things that a political analyst or strategist will be looking at in analyzing the campaigns. but WAWAM! will look it at from the eyes of a marketing and advertising man. these strategies and analysis can be written into marketing plans of brands and it will make sense and most likely work.


this is part 3 of a series and we have added point number 3 here. read parts 1 & 2 here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/Obama%20Winning%20Marketing%20Strategy

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1. Consistent, consumer-meaningful message from start to finish : Change. the obama campaign is on the "time to change" theme from the very beginning, on day 1, as early as the democratic primaries. the core message was, enough of the 8 years of the bush-led republican years of managing the country be that the iraq war across other issues, specially on the US economy. consistency in message across time allows the audience to focus and the candidate to build consensus. marketing tells us a brand needs to stand for something and the obama campaign has done a most admirable job at standing for "change". it is not only consistency that is important ans where the obama campaign has succeeded, it is also in relevance or in WAWAM! marketing term - "consumer-meaningful". being consumer-meaningful and consistency are both required to be there to succeed, they are like twins where having only one in the end will not amount to anything. while both are critical, finding the right message that is consumer-meaningful is a much more difficult task. it is here where most campaigns and brands fail at. you can be consistent but if you do not have the right message, the effort will not amount to anything. consistently delivering the weak message is very much like garbage in-garbage out, repeated many times over.
2. High-ground brand character that was strongly defended, upheld and consistently applied across all aspects of the campaign, again from the very start, during the primaries to the end till the presidential contest. The most telling application of this high-ground brand character is the stubborn refusal to do negative campaigning. Not only did the campaign refuse to do negative campaigning, it called out the Mccain campaign each time their opponent did negative campaigns.

3. Down-home presence - the Obama campaign probably has the most extensive organization and system at getting to very specific voters right in their homes. This also requires very sharp and specific targeting of the voters. If this was a consumer brand, we will call this superior down-scale distribution where the brand is made available and sold in the smallest types of retail outlets, retail stores right beside the homes of consumers. It's a grass-roots organization where many face-to-face interaction occurred and this was done not only once, but in many states, specially the battleground states, it occurred a few times during the election campaign period. Face-to-face selling, specially by a neighbor or a friend is much more compelling and and excellent follow up to the dominant media campaign the Obama campaign ran. For consumer brands, poor or weak distribution usually spells failure.

The Obama's down-home organization is to die for. Their organization was a magnet for large scale number of volunteers, many of them involved in such a campaign for the first time. And these army of volunteers reached not only the Democratic faithful but first time voters, young voters and previously uninvolved voters. The Obama campaign knew it was a strength that they have asked voters to vote early and it worked. Data from many states show that a much higher percentage of democrats voter early versus republicans, in many places 2 is to 1 in ratio.

Of course this kind of strategy is something you can do when you have a lot of funds to execute it. And the Obama campaign has no problems at all with funds. This campaign will most likely come down as one of the richest in US presidential election history.

the mccain losing strategies - strategy # 1 : personality

WAWAM! will be looking at exactly the same things that a political analyst or strategist will be looking at in analyzing the campaigns. but WAWAM! will look it at from the eyes of a marketing and advertising man. these strategies and analysis can be written into marketing plans of brands and it will make sense and most likely work.

This is part 1 of a series on the Mccain campaign.


read about the Obama Winning Marketing Strategies here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/Obama%20Winning%20Marketing%20Strategy

read about the US presidential elections here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/US%20presidential%20elections

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If there is a winning strategy, there is certainly a losing strategy. In marketing though, ts not as tough and iron clad as in other things like sports. In sports, once a losing strategy, it is always a losing strategy. Applying the same will not to reault to anything else but a loss.

That is not the case in marketing. In marketing, a strategy may not bring the desired result for one brand in one category but the same strategy can succeed for another brand in a different category.

One example is pricing. People might find it strange that very low pricing may work well for shampoos but that might not necessarily work for certain brands of cars for example. Yes, that is strange but that is how it goes in marketing.

The Mccain campaign employed certain strategies that in my view were losing or within the spirit of the above, weak strategies that did not work well for them.

1. Core strategy of 'Personality', pursued from the start appearing in different forms across the campaign period. The Mccain campaign was loudest on making personality as a key campaign issue be that of their opponent, Mccain himself and even in his VP choice. At some point towards the latter part of the campaign, they were so stuck on it that they missed an important opportunity that they allowed the Obama campaign to preempt them on it.

The Mccain campaign has spent perhaps too much time on making a point on personality issues on Obama, like for example his being inexperienced. This started early on but they keep bringing it up throughout the campaign when it seemed convenient to them.

They also contrasted that with a personality pitch for Mccain - his being war veteran, spending 5 years in vietnam as a prisoner of war, Mccain as a maverick.

His choice of Palin, we believe was also based on a choice based on personality - either as a balancing or counter choice to Mccain's personality and the fact that Palin was female and even a desire to present Mccain as a maverick, a personality trait.

Most recently, the Mccain campaign hit on Joe The Plumber, again consistent with the personality core strategy. While we agree that Jot The Plumber was a success, it does build on the point we are making here. Joe The Plumber was not much of a speaker nor was a real draw but it certainly got a lot of press and attention. His contribution to driving desirability, however is uncertain.

While personality may get a lot of recal in the press, it did not seem to matter much to the consumers or the voters. The voters were faced with real life national issues like the Iraq war at the start of the primaries to the economic collapse towards the middle and last part of the campaign. Apparetnly, the American voters are very much issue oriented rather than personality oriented.

On the other hand, the Obama campaign was very much an issue oriented campaign. While the Mccain campaign was enjoying the ride they got with Palin, Obama unveiled his economic plan, something that the Mccain campaign forgot to do. The Mccain campaugn eventually unveiled their own economic plan but it was about 2 weeks late and that was the time when the US stock market was about to take it's most devastating loss.

Contrasting this to the Obama seem to be pointing to that classic marketing question - should we go on form or on content. In this election, content seem to be the key driver.