niche markets, niche marketing vs mass market, mass marketing - what is there to confuse?

these words can be confusing to non-marketers, but it will be a fatal error if brand managers get confused by them - mass market, mass marketing versus niche market and niche marketing.

mass market and mass marketing

first, when you say "mass market", it does not mean a brand is targeting or being sold among low income groups. what that means is the general market or that segment of the market where most consumers belong to. products that are mass marketed are those that are sold to almost anyone in the population. it also means these are products that most consumers have a need for.

within that mass market, there may be further segmentation. segmentation can be in many forms, they could be by consumer group, uses or even product attributes, to name a few.

a popular segmentation is pricing. within the general mass market, there will be a pricing segmentation. there will at least be 3 pricing segments - low, medium or high priced. all of these brands can be used by any of the consumers regardless of income of the consumers.

marketers by choice or strategy select a pricing segment. this is driven by profit or margin goals, product attributes or benefits and marketing strategy. the pricing of a product more often than not naturally selects the consumer group it appeals to. but in many cases even the premium priced brands are used by low income groups perhaps not as often by high income groups but occasionally.

the above dynamics presents to the brand manager many options on what kinds of strategies he/she will adapt to gain the market share the brand intends to get.

one can apply mass marketing strategies to any brand, including premium priced brands. apple's macs for example are premium priced but it is being marketed in the mass market from all income groups.

niche markets and niche marketing

niche marketing is a fancy word in marketing. it is fancy because it is hardly used and often misunderstood.

products that do niche marketing and compete in niche markets are highly specialized products, practically customized to a specific consumer group. this consumer is usually very small and sit in the fringe of the mass market.

very often, brands that compete in niche markets are very high priced given the amount and kind of specialization or customization needed for the brand. being high priced also allows for a very high margin.

the best example here are the cellphone brands we are all familiar with - nokias, sony Ericsson's, motoralla and the iphone. all these brands are mass marketed. but within those brands are several price augmentations where one can buy a nokia for P5T to P30T or even P40T. that is also true for the other brands except for the iPhone which in the philippine market is intentionally placed at a premium price only.

there is a brand called Iridium which competes in the niche market. iridium is a satellite phone that will allow subscribers to use the handset anywhere in the world, even on mountain tops, jungles and the open seas. iridium launched 66 satellites into space that float around the globe to enable subscribers to use their satellite phones in any location in the world.

the iridium is a specialized mobile phone meant for a very specific target consumer with very special needs. these customers are those who need to communicate via phone even when they are in the open sea anywhere in the world where there are no cell sites around.

it will not make sense for iridium to advertise in mass media (the term does not refer to media used by low income groups. similar to the term mass market, mass media means media that is seen by most of the audience.) as it will just be a total waste of advertising funds. if iridium advertises in mass media, its message will be meaningless to at least 99.99% of the target audience who sees the ads in mass media. 99.99% of those who watch mass media will have not need for a satellite phone.

it will also not make sense for iridium to set up outlets in malls or distribute pre-paid cards in sari-sari stores. (malls and sari-sari stores are distribution outlets for mass market products.) it will be more efficient and productive for iridium to reach its small target market almost on a one-on-one basis.

iridium is not a mass consumer product, it is a niche product competing in a niche market. only mass consumer products that compete in mass markets use mass media and are distributed in mass distribution outlets.

sometimes brand managers use the term niche marketing carelessly without really understanding what it means.

google wave- the next brilliant product from google

google announces what appears to be the next most brilliant thing in the internet - google wave. this reminds us the good reasons why google became the darling of the US stock market at its IPO.

google wave to me combines all the good things we love in the internet - twitter, chat, sharing pictures, sharing documents, email, blogging and friendships from across the globe in REAL TIME! it combines everything of what is best on the internet.

being in real time and getting all the goodies into one page are the real genius in google wave. in many ways, in google wave, the promise made by the internet many years ago when it started is fulfilled now.

read more about google wave here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/165779/google_wave_what_it_is_and_how_it_works.html

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347872,00.asp

what's in the name BING, microsodft's new search engine - a must read on branding & naming

Microsoft’s Search for a Name Ends With a Bing
By MIGUEL HELFT

Published: May 28, 2009

“Why don’t you Bing it?”

A year from now, if you hear someone say that — and actually understand what it means — Bill Gates will be a happy billionaire.


That is because it will be a sign that Microsoft is finally making progress in its quest to challenge Google in the Internet search business.

Bing, the name Microsoft gave to the new search service it unveiled Thursday, is its answer to Google — a noun that once meant little but has become part of the language as a verb that is a synonym for executing a Web search. After months of, uh, searching, Microsoft settled on Bing to replace the all-too-forgettable Live Search, which itself replaced MSN Search.

Microsoft invested billions of dollars in those services and failed to slow Google’s rise, so a new name certainly can’t hurt.

Microsoft’s marketing gurus hope that Bing will evoke neither a type of cherry nor a strip club on “The Sopranos” but rather a sound — the ringing of a bell that signals the “aha” moment when a search leads to an answer.

The name is meant to conjure “the sound of found” as Bing helps people with complex tasks like shopping for a camera, said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft’s online audience business group.

And if Bing turns into a verb like, say, Xerox, TiVo or, well, Google, that would be nice too. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, said Thursday that he liked Bing’s potential to “verb up.” Plus, he said, “it works globally, and doesn’t have negative, unusual connotations.”

Some branding experts said choosing the name Bing was a good start, but also the easiest part of the challenge facing the company, since most people turn to Google without even thinking about it.

Michael Cronan, whose consulting firm helped come up with brands like TiVo and Amazon’s Kindle, said Bing’s sound, brevity and “ing” ending were all positives.

“It has a promise that you are going to find what you are looking for, and that’s great,” Mr. Cronan said. “But its success is entirely wrapped up in the quality of the experience that Microsoft can deliver.”

Peter Sealey, a former chief marketing officer at the Coca-Cola Company, said Microsoft should have picked a name that more directly connotes search.

“Bing has no equity; it signals nothing,” Mr. Sealey said. “It is going to be an enormous expense to create an image for this thing called Bing.”

Google’s name is a play on the word googol, which is a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. The company has said the name speaks to its ambitious mission to organize all the world’s information.

Asked about Microsoft’s choice of name at a press conference on Wednesday, Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder, said he did not know enough about the new service to comment on it. Then he deadpanned: “We’ve been pretty happy with the name Google.”

Meanwhile, some tech people were already noting that Bing is also an unfortunate acronym: “But It’s Not Google.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/technology/internet/29bing.html?em

New Yorker Cover Art, Painted With an iPhone

Some people send text with their iPhones, and some play games. The artist Jorge Colombo created this week’s cover for The New Yorker with his.


Mr. Colombo drew the June 1 cover scene, of a late-night gathering around a 42nd Street hot dog stand, entirely with the iPhone application Brushes. Because of the smears and washes of color required by the inexact medium, it comes off as dreamy, not sharp and technological.

“The best feature of it is that it doesn’t feel like something that was done digitally; quite the opposite,” said Françoise Mouly, the art editor for The New Yorker. “All too often the technology is directed in only one direction, which is to make things more tight, and this, what he did very well, is use this technology for something that is free flowing, and I think that’s what makes it so poetic and magical.”

Mr. Colombo bought his iPhone in February, and the $4.99 Brushes application soon after, and said the portability and accessibility of the medium appealed to him. He began the scene by beginning with the buildings’ structure, then layering on the taxis, neon lights, hot-dog stand and people. (A video of the process is available at newyorker.com beginning on Monday.)

It “made it easy for me to sketch without having to carry all my pens and brushes and notepads with me, and I like the fact that I am drawing with a set of tools that anybody can have easily in their pocket,” he said. There is one other advantage of the phone, too: no one notices he is drawing. Mr. Colombo said he stood on 42nd Street for about an hour with no interruptions.

“It gives him an anonymity in the big city that an artist with the easel wouldn’t have,” Ms. Mouly said.
“Absolutely nobody can tell I am drawing,” Mr. Colombo said. “In fact, once I was doing the drawing at some place, and my wife was around, and they asked her why did I have to work so hard? I seemed to be always on my iPhone sending messages.”

STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/business/media/25yorker.html

sex video scandals - what every brand fear the most

just out in the wilds of the internet and mass media, the dr. hayden kho sex video scandals is creating widespread and well, titillating news and discussion. senator bong revilla even made an impassioned privilege speech at the halls of the senate. that speech was on the sex video scandal of hayden kho and katrina halili, a movie starlet.

but that did not stop on katrina halili and hayden kho. it looks like dr. kho likes to video tape his sexual episodes with his women. there is also one with a local tv actress and a commercial model.

this actress may have appeared in a sanitary pad tv ad. a sex video of the talent you have on your tv ad is one of the worst things that can happen to any brand. it is the marketing manager's nightmare. the sex video was apparently done some years ago. but the timeline will not matter, it is still a sex video. the sex video is exactly what it is - very explicit. hayden kho and the model were clearly identifiable as the people in the sex video, including the doctor fixing the video camera that was placed inside a bathroom pointing to the bed with the door open. apparently, this video camera has auto focusing as in two occasions, the camera adjusted the focus on its own.

what are marketers and admen supposed to do? we draw up one of the more complex and intensive talent contracts. i suppose from now on, a provision on sex videos should be included, either past, present or future. this particular sex video appeared to be have been taken a few years ago. a lesson learned there is that the celebrity or talent need to be asked and i would suggest in writing if the talent has appeared in or if a sex video has been taken of her. getting the answers to these types of questions, and in writing gives the brand a clear legal reason to take back the talent fee and a good way to make sure the brand will not get surprised by a sex video scandal appearing in the wild. talents who admit they might have a sex video in someones computer hard disk should not be hired.

the other learning here is that times have changed so dramatically from just some years ago. the internet and websites are very convenient, very wide and very efficient distribution channels for sex video content, not to mention they are unstoppable. the internet and websites can distribute these content to literally millions of viewers in literally a few minutes in literally across the globe. the initial distribution power will be huge but that will grow exponentially again literally in a few hours.

in some perverted way, philippine marketers are lucky that computer ownership and internet service subscription are relatively still at its infancy in the country, so that means it gets into fewer hands than say in the US or Korea where almost every home has a computer and an internet connection. these lesser numbers, however may be a comfort only in theory as many filipino consumers may not own a computer and internet service at home, but they can access the same at work or shared through MMS using the cellphone.

apparently hayden kho's sex videos that we know of are not the only ones. it looks like kho video tapes all of them. that can mean ruffa mae quintos is next. there have been some still photos already available in the internet of ruffa mae in her underwear preparatory to something. ruffa mae appears in a few tv ads for some brands. the release of a ruffa mae sex video will affect brands.

with ruffa mae next, that seems to explain why senator revilla is livid about the hayden kho sex videos. ruffa mae has been rumored as...... well, we digress.

KRIS ALLEN WINS AMERICAN IDOL 8! an upset win

the results are in, the dark horse has upset the favorite, KRIS ALLEN wins american ido 8.

our forecast did not get it right!

American Idol 8 final performance - ADAM WINS!

after seeing the finals, it is clear adam lambert will win american idol 8!

kris underperformed and actually did badly in song #2 and song #3. adam on the other hand had flawless and outstanding performances in all 3 songs.

adam's artistry and mastery of showmanship was in full display. he showed class and he is a star. we are glad adam as we had annalyzed it (see posts below) where he showed his soft side. he gave up part of himself and that part he gave he pushed it close to things that kris were good at.

kris for some reason was on the dry side. he was not as hungry to win. he did not leave his comfort zone. he stayed inside it most of the time, venturing out only on the fringe. doing essentially what he has been doing the whole season will not be enough to get switchers from adam's supporters, the undecided and new viewers.

kris got into the finals when he showed courage. in the 3 songs he sang during the finals, he did not show any of it.

Adam Lambert Wins American Idol 8 - a marketing forecast

We are writing about American Idol Season 8 not only because we watch it but also because we wanted to point out the applicability of marketing and marketing principles to almost anything, including a reality tv contest like American Idol.

From a marketing perspective, these are the basic components of American Idol:

Target Audience/Market: American TV viewers
Products/Brands: Adam Lambert and Kris Allen
Product/Brand Attributes (or drivers for preference):

• voice
• performance (showmanship, confidence, choreography, stance, delivery)
• song choice
• looks (attire, hairstyle and make-up)
• likeability

For any of the finalists to win, his goal is at minimum to retain his fan base and to capture new viewers and pull switchers from the other finalist.

We think Allen's strength is among women, tending to be older and more mainstream. Adam on the other hand, is among men, tending to be younger and more adventurous. In a simplistic description, Allen is more pop while Adam is more rock. Those are very different music genre with unique audience profiles. That is one way to explain the point we made in a previous post saying these two finalists cannot be more different from each other.

For Kris Allen to win, he needs to get out of his comfort zone, to be more adventurous and more creative, similar to what he did during the top 3 performance where he took Kanye's song and interpreted it in his own way. It was a very unexpected song choice and certainly a game changing interpretation.

The question on Kris Allen is this - was his top 3 performance a one-off performance? That was his boldest move  throughout the season and it was the only time he did that. In fact, he had more performances where his judgement and strategy failed him.

We think a real danger for Kris is he might over-think it, set the bar too high for himself and he might fall short in delivering it. He is the underdog and the dark horse - he needs to work harder and the greater pressure to overwhelm the audience is his.

For Adam Lambert to win, he needs to give away part of who he is and move that part towards getting closer to who Kris is. He needs to show his soft side, showcasing his vocal skills at a similar level that Kris has. He should NOT do an exact Kris, but he needs to dial down a bit his rock star persona and vocal performance.

Adam's greatest strength is his virtuosity at showmanship, the performance, the over-all package of a singing star. He needs to sing a song that is precisely on that and another song in the same delivery but its content closer to what Kris does well.

There is no problem on this one for Adam. He has done that in all of his performances at the Idol stage. He is the consummate artist and has the best in artistry among all the contestants this season. Not only has he delivered on this consistently across all his performances, he has exceeded it on many performances.

This has not been done on the Idol stage, but I won't be surprised if Adam will change his hair and clothes on each of his performance just to get the effect he wants.

Who will win Season 8? We think Adam will win it.

From a target audience/market perspective, Adam's voters cannot be swayed, we think they are extremely loyal to him. Whatever Kris does will not matter to Adam's supporters. Kris' fans, however we believe, can be swayed by Adam to vote for him. Kris' resurgence came only at the very end which means his support base may not be so strong and could be fleeting.

Kris' only chance to gain voters is not to get switchers from Adam's fan base to vote for him, but to get as many new viewers or those uncommitted to anyone of them to vote for him. That is very tough to do and they might not be enough in numbers to give him the win.

At this late stage of the contest, we have gone beyond voice quality now. Everybody knows both have excellent vocals. The question now is how much brighter is one finalist's star quality over the other. People will vote for artistry now and to that Adam has a lot of while Kris is yet to get his at full power.

We think American voters are voting for artistry and star quality and on that Adam wins over Kris by a mile.

From a marketing perspective, we think Adam Lambert will win American Idol 8.

how kris allen or adam lambert can win american idol 8

we have talked about how the two finalists in this week's american idol season 8 finale can be so different from each other. their uniqueness is so clear that we can call them Brand Kris and Brand Adam. in marketing terms, both have very clearly defined brand equities.

in marketing terms, these are the things kris and adam can do to win on thursday, in no particular order:

• song choice of course is most key. we all know both sing very well and both has his own brand of singing. song choice affects differentiation in a significant way. bad or wrong song choice has also been the biggest failure of most of the contestants.
• song choice we will define as one that will showcase their singing prowess, one that allows them to get their voice and singing style in full display for everyone to appreciate. i hope they will not choose a song that they just " like", or a "favorite" or "i enjoy singing". american idol is a singing competition for crying out loud. the song is the medium or stage by which your singing voice is shown, use it in that way.
• is moving for "even clearer differentiation" the thing to do? that we think is something both kris and adam need to decide on. they ought to know one is very different from the other. you can argue that it is this clear differentiation that has led them to the finals.
• will "more of the same" or "do something different" the thing to do. this is related to the point, above. is staying the course on the "defined" differentiation the thing to do or is some change needed? staying the course means applying the same thing that has worked. is that the way to go?
• is "beating the other on his own game" the thing to do?
• should adam sing one song that dials up the cute factor? kris is more like the matinee idol type, the romantic singer and has good looks. we know that adam can be extremely effective even in songs that kris sing. should adam sing a song that captures the strengths and things that kris has.
• should kris do the same? adam is the rocker and one very good at it. should kris sing a song that can appeal to adam's rocker fans or those who voted for adam because they like his rocker style? can kris effectively deliver here? or will he lose his identity?
• in marketing a clearly defined brand equity works very well. but there is also the fact that because of the clear differentiation between these two singers, we can assume each one has his own loyal or core fans who vote for them week to week. for one to win, one needs to get get switchers from the opponent's core fans.
• we think kris needs the above strategy more strongly than adam does. kris has failed in some weeks during the whole season. that can only mean kris has supporters who at times tend to not vote for him. he needs to gain more voters and the way to do that is to sing a song that will appeal to adam's traditional supporters.
• adam on the other hand can exploit the weakness of kris' core users who tend to switch away from kris from time to time. for adam, singing a song that appeals to kris' fans may get him a lot of switchers from kris' supporters.
• this thing called "star quality" is sometimes ignored. that is very important specially in this kind of contest. contestants with "star quality" can get voes despite having a voice that is not so perfect. we have seen this time and again in american idol where some contestants stay on mostly on the basis of appeal or star quality and those with great voices get booted out because they lack appeal or star quality.

these are tough questions. while to the contestants they may see them simply as doing their thing, looking at them more deeply will reveal these are actually marketing and brand issues that they need to tackle.

Brand Adam Vs. Brand Kris : the American Idol Marketing 101

this is probably one of the best articles written about the two finalists for next week's American Idol finale. not only does it give a good analysis on the two contestants and how they differ, it's a good read on what Brand Equity or Brand Image means in very practical ways.

during talks to students in universities, we would talk about marketing principles in terms of practical and real life experiences of the students. we use stories, analogies and examples from their daily lives to explain what the marketing terms mean. we do it that way as it engages the audience and more importantly, it's very easy to grasp.

this is the kind of brand differentiation that marketers need to achieve for their brands to succeed in the market. it needs to be well-defined, clear, holistic and executionally different as well. while this demonstrates the clarity and power of the Brand Equity, not here is the target audience.

food for thought - are both brand equities running after the same target audience? the differences are very clear between the two that it's easy to conclude they can be going against very different target audience.

can the american idol audience be divided into two group distinct groups. is there a common denominator?

we could not agree more on this analysis. read the article both in terms of the contestants themselves and at the same what Brand Equity or Brand Image means.

kudos to the author!

Does ‘American Idol’ want an artist, or a star?
Adam Lambert pulled out
all the stops, while Kris Allen stayed low-key

By Craig Berman
msnbc.com contributor
updated 10:43 p.m. ET May 14,
2009

Adam Lambert and Kris Allen could not be more different. Their musical styles and strengths don’t mesh and their personalities are opposites. But they share a skill that explains why they’re the two singers competing in the “American Idol” finale.

They listen.

The judges made it very clear what they were looking for in season eight; performers who could take a song and make it their own. While other singers took that advice from time to time, no singers took the message to heart more than Adam and Kris.

As the other finalists fell victim to unfortunate song selections and karaoke performances, it was the originality of Adam and Kris that kept them on the good side of the four judges. No finalist in history has been more memorable week after week than Adam Lambert.

Sometimes the impact of an Adam performance may be felt more for its strangeness than its skill — his version of “Ring of Fire” caused guest mentor Randy Travis to spend the whole night wearing a “what is this guy doing?” expression — but most of the time, he hits the mark. His “Mad World” was missed by DVRs everywhere the week the show ran long, and it was good enough that the omission inspired outrage and not relief.

Adam's big weakness would seem to be that he's the most theatrical contestant in the history of the show, but he's turned that into a strength by embracing it. By going all-in and showcasing the lighting, effects, and costumes, he's turned his comfort with stagecraft and his Broadway-sized voice into his biggest assets. Nobody loves the spotlight more, and no other contestant has looked as comfortable standing in it.

Instead, his weakness is that he's the most polarizing "Idol" figure in recent memory. He has fans who will defend him with passion, and detractors who would do anything to bring him down.

It's possible that the anti-Adam contingent will watch the finale for the sole purpose of voting against him. But Adam isn’t going to give anyone else much ammunition to hate him. Although when he’s singing he plays the part of the diva, he’s been nothing but respectful as soon as the music ends and always has kind words to say about his fellow contestants.

To win, Adam needs to keep on doing what he’s been doing; take chances, make songs his own, and perform like he’s going for broke. He enters the week with a slight edge, but Kris has been steadily improving and will seize any chance he's given.

Kris is Adam's oppositeWhile Adam is a natural under the bright lights, Kris looks to be the male version of Carrie Underwood, a small-town singer who uses "Idol" to jump into musical stardom. Even after months in Hollywood, Kris still has a country-mouse-in-the-big-city look that has helped endear him to millions of “Idol” voters.

That wouldn’t be enough, however, if he wasn’t also talented. Kris has made every song his own, but in the exact opposite manner of Adam.

Instead of blowing things up to show-business size via lights, smoke, mirrors and costumes, he uses a stool and a guitar or piano to strip down the arrangement and engage with the audience. That makes him less of a spectacle than Adam but easier to listen to, and it has allowed him a number of memorable moments performing less familiar songs. It's always a risk to pick something like "Falling Slowly," which didn't receive a ton of airtime apart from the Oscars, but he was able to make turn that into a compelling performance.

Kris' biggest strength is that it's very easy to see the kind of album he would create and the audience who would buy it. Is there anyone out there who can’t picture him with a hit record that sounds an awful lot like, say, Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours?” It’s easier to give him a sellable label than it is Adam.

Like Adam, Kris has a weakness that can double as a strength. He doesn't come across with that star quality aura, and seems pleased and surprised to have made it this far. That humility is what makes him so likable, but most seasons that factor is less important in the season’s final days. In last year's finals the more likable David Archuleta fell victim to an edgier David Cook.

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30754468/

Tough Times Strategy: Introduce New Products

we are starting a new series where we will publish interesting articles we have picked up from the internet on marketing and avertising strategies during tough economic times. here is the first of the collection:

---

A Strategy When Times Are Tough: ‘It’s New!’

THEY say money is the mother’s milk of politics. In marketing, it is new products, meant to pique the interest of consumers and thereby stimulate demand at stores, restaurants and dealer showrooms.

In tough times, it would seem the flow of new products would be slowed by companies fearing that shoppers have too much on their minds to consider still another cereal, soap or soup.

But as the recession grinds on, Madison Avenue is serving up a steady stream of new packaged foods, cars, drugs (prescription and otherwise), menu items (for both sit-down and fast-food restaurants) and beverages ( alcoholic and otherwise).

The new product pitches are coming from all manner of marketers, from global behemoths — among them Campbell Soup, General Mills, Mars and Unilever — to family-owned companies like Sargento Foods.

One reason to stay the course on new products is that they can offer marketers new reasons to reach out to consumers when the impulse may be to pull back.

“There’s a saying: ‘When times are good, advertise. When times are tough, advertise more,’ ” said Dan Beem, president at Cold Stone Creamery in Scottsdale, Ariz., the ice-cream chain owned by the Kahala Corporation. “We want to stay with that philosophy.”

read in full: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/business/media/25adco.html?_r=1

PLDT & Smart Telecoms "Ako Mismo" - ako may duda, dapat kayo din

(english backtranslation of title: "PLDT & Smart Telecoms "I Myself" - i am suspiciousm you should, too)

we saw this ad very often during the pacquiao-hatton fight. impressive list of celebrities. this is next in WAWAM.

read more about it here: http://tinyurl.com/qguvpx

vitwater revised pacquiao tv ad

vitwater did revise the pacquiao ad. they edited out the visual showing manny pacquiao laughing at himself that is has no audio-video lock as the voice over of manny was seriously talking about vitwater, saying vitwater is better than water, a key selling point for the brand.

they also took out two other shots of pacquaio talking to camera, in effect also reducing the number of times he said that dreaded phrase, "you know...." which makes pacquiao look like a joke and a caricature of what is wrong in pinoys talking in english. they replaced these visuals with pacquiao doing some boxing moves. they're lucky they have these shots in the can.

the "you know..." line seem to be a copy point for vitwater as the same line is in their billboard (scroll down, view pic of billboard). it does not make sense why they use it as a copy line when it makes pacquiao look bad.

those are really slight improvements, the same comments we gave are still there (scroll down, read post) and does not change this ad being a WAWAM! and has ADS Sindrome and all the other acronyms we are yet to invent in this blog.

we still can't get over the fact that this celebrity endorser ad made out its celebrity endorser intentionally look bad and a joke. it's directly the exact opposite of what companies want their celebrity to look - their best and most admirable persona. in this ad, they presented pacquiao, a world class champion fighter, admired by the world, a fighter with a place in all of boxing history and the hero of every pinoy as a trying hard fool of a pinoy who has the english speaking skills of a 5 year old just learning to speak in english.

----

published: may 16, 2009

the manny pacquiao vitwater tv ad is a 15-second edit down version of the original 30 second tv ad, it's not a revision. comments on the 15-second ad posted here stands.

we think this  pacquiao vitwater ad continue to make pacquaio look bad, although in degrees, it is not as bad as the 30 second version. the ad, however, continue to be  too plain to the point of being boring. the key weakness of the ad is it is too simplistic and starkly one-dimensional and failed to leverage  any of the very rich characteristics and points of admiration of the celebrity they use in this ad. this weakness is much even more obvious in this edit down version.

the offensive nike ad of pacquiao in prayer/Christ crucifixion and the real pacquiao in prayer visual

in early december of last year, for the pacquiao-de la hoya fight, we talked about the nike ad that we found offensive to the catholic faith (read here: http://tinyurl.com/c6mnpn).

the key point we raised was that the nike ad simulated pacquiao on the cross with his arms raised while kneeling in front of the corner of the boxing ring. the post was much larger than the real thing that made it look like a cross.

one of the things we said that made the reference to the crucifixion of Christ was that the arms were raised to the ropes and that is not the natural position for prayer. the fact that this ad showed manny raising his arms makes it an obvious depiction of the the crucifixion of Christ.

this is the ad:

in yesterday's pacquioa-hatton fight, we were able to finally get a picture of pacquiao in prayer at his corner which very clearly proves our point.

did vitwater revise their manny pacquiao tv ad?

someone sent me a text saying the manny pacquiao vitwater tv ad has been revised - they edited out the manny laughing at himself shot and reduced the "you know...." copy line mentions to just two from the previous 4 mentions. the revised ads were shown during the pacquaio-hatton fight.

i watched the fight but i tuned off and did not watch it everytime the vitwater tv ad was shown and that's the reason why i didn't know if they did or did not revise the ad. i just could not stand to watch that ad on tv.

anyone else notice anything new in that ad?

and we are now wondering - did RFM, makers of vitwater and/or Aspac/Law, vitwater's ad agency read this blog?

you know, manny pacquiao is a loser!

i don't get this tv ad of manny pacquiao. i just didn't shake my head when i first saw this ad, i shook it many times and every time i see the ad on tv. i also end up talking to myself, why the hell did they make this ad this way. and at the end of the 30s ad, i get my cellphone out and my ipod touch and key in a to-do note for myself : "DO NOT BUY VITWATER!". i don't use caps even in my cellphone, i use caps on this one. ooops, i had entered that already the last time i saw the ad. geez, i must have tried to key that in to my gadgets a hundred times already, the same number of times i had seen this ad.

yes! this ad is being aired at very heavy weight! the pacquiao - hutton fight is a few days from now, they are making the most of torturing me! this vitwater ad is one more strong reason why i don't watch local shows on tv!

i usually say this at the end of the discussion. but for this one i like to say it on the 3rd paragraph - this manny pacquiao ad of vitwater is a WAWAM! and has ADS Sindrome! and all other acronyms i am yet to invent in this blog!





whew! we will take this slow now...

water with vitamins which is what vitwater is a product for the AB upper C target market. the mass market, broad C and the DE will not bother with this product. the price will keep the mass market away from this product. to expect the mass market even as an intentional occasional user is water under the bridge of marketing possibilities.

the AB and upper C target market know pacquaio, most likely 100% of them. some of them even pay P600.00 for pay per view venues, have cable in their homes and most watches his fights. there is no question that pacquiao has an appeal to the target market.

it is also VERY safe to assume the AB upper C target market is an english speaking target market. here's the part i don't get and the major reason i want to get my cellphone and touch to key in "DO NOT BUY VITWATER" all over again - why in the world did they make pacquiao speak in english?!!!

what the f_ck is that?

pacquiao is obviously not a an english language speaker. let me say it first, i don't take that against him, i take it against vitwater for making pacquaio speak in english! the accent drives me crazy. this ad does not make pacquiao endearing to its target market. it makes pacquiao a joke, a caricature to make fun of. in this ad, vitwater rapes pacquiao of his hero status among filipinos.

what gets me here is that vitwater and the ad agency knew what they were making pacquiao do and what they were turning him in to. everybody knows pacquiao sounds funny when he talks in english. he sounds a little funny when he talks in filipino as he has a mindanao accent but that is not a turn off. in fact his mindanao accent makes it endearing. he is a man from mindanao from humble beginnings doing well for himself and his country, having this mindanao accent to his pilipino is a good thing. but having an accent when he speaks in english in a tv ad makes him a joke. all of that vitwater and the ad agency must have known.

the AB upper C target market do understand pilipino well. there is no reason for vitwater not to make him speak in pilipino. it could have been as understandable as english but with the added benefit of making manny look real and yes endearing.

the copy or script of this ad to me is a mystery. who wrote the script? the copy is so sparse, lacks a sale and sounds very amateurish. how could an ad agency write copy like this and how can they have presented copy like that to the client?

the other half of the mystery - was this a scriptless tv ad? like they just asked manny to say whatever he wanted and they just rolled the camera? manny is a champion fighter, not a copywriter, surely they cannot expect manny to come up with gems in copy?

the copy is just too one-dimensional and too shallow. this vitamins in water product is pioneering. it's a new product concept that has a lot of potential for a compelling story that can be matched with a hero who also has a multi-dimensional persona around him. a new product and pioneering product concept plus pacquiao could have been a match made in heaven, but vitwater did not cease the day. the ad does not at all feel like its introducing a pioneering product.

and we have not yet mentioned the fact that it is really bad english. the english used in this ad, and we assume this was written by the ad agency is english of a 5 year old who is just learning to speak it - stocatto, few words, few thoughts, few vocabulary and bad construction.

there are many other things that went wrong in this ad. but the biggest among the small things is a directorial and editorial snafu. at frame 0:06 as pacquaio on voice over was saying "...but for me, there is something better, you know", the commercial cuts to pacquiao looking at someone off camera then goes into a laugh. the scene before and after the pacquiao on a laugh scene showed pacquiao in a serious mood, not to mention the background music had the same serious atmosphere and tone.

in audio, manny was delivering a key selling point for the product - vitwater is better than just water, a serious thing and yet the visual showed manny laughing like he was laughing at the line, losing all credibility and believability.

that is just the tip of the failure of this ad. the biggest error of this ad is the use of english for manny's speaking lines and the one-dimensional, shallow and zero sale in the copy. the bigger error is that this ad has completely mis-read its target market, the AB upper C. we love manny, but we learned to hate vitwater. (note to self: key in entry into cellphone and touch "DO NOT BUY VITWATER").

i feel bad for pacquiao. i don't think any of this is pacquiao's fault. the ad agency and vitwater made pacquiao, our hero, look really bad.

okay, okay, before we end - i know that you know and that you want to know what i know. i know you have been waiting for me to mention it --- manny said "you know..." a total of 4 times in the 30 second ad. that means there were 4 irritants in that ad, you know?

this is a WAWAM!, has ADS Sindrome and all the other acronyms i am yet to think of in the future.

view the vitwater tv spot here: http://tinyurl.com/c7tzcp or scroll down.