mead johnson's brand and corporate image hurt by product recall

the nightmare every product manager wants to avoid just happened to two of mead johnson's milk products - a recall ordered by the FDA due to not meeting fat content standard, saying it is of "inferior" quality. 

in the first place, why did mead johnson release a product that does not meet government regulation standards? that is mind boggling and most specially for a company that sells milk products for babies and children. a milk product needs to be perfect specially on the points of view of safety and quality.  these are qualities every mother expects a milk product to be. the other benefits, like making your child smart or in the case of a product of mead johnson a promise of giving 100% nutrition are the added benefits that separate the brand from others.

fernandez, a corporate affairs manager at mead johnson gave a  weak defense of his company. he said the products they were selling met the FDA standards until the FDA changed them. that does not sound like it's a good excuse. the FDA changed the standards without telling milk companies of the change? is that what fernandez is saying?  



we are thinking if standards are changed, the FDA will let the milk companies know about the change ahead of time to give the milk companies time to develop new formulas and to deplete stocks that have already been produced and already in the stores. this change in standards does not appear to be a health risk, so it makes sense for the FDA to allow the milk companies to draw down their stocks. 


perhaps someone in mead johnson forgot the deadline for the switch over to the new stamdard? maybe there are still stocks of the mead johnson products still in the market that were sold before that got caught in the deadline and were found by the FDA in the shelves. we do not know the protocol the FDA follows in the their checks but it is very possible that the FDA would pick up products from the stores to analyze them. 



we think this forgetful mead johnson employee is the real reason for this problem. fernandez in his statement says they are about to release a re-formulated product that meets the regulation. that to us means someone in mead johnson is very forgetful with the reformulation coming in too late. 


this can mean the products in question will be out of the market for sometime as they will still need to reformulate, get approval on the new formula and produce the product.


this will hurt mead johnson's market share for these products. they are hoping this will not hurt the other mead johnson brands in the market. it's a tough situation to be in, mead johnson will need to do some damage repair on its brands and the company. this is not a good thing to happen for brands and a company that sells milk products to children. let's see what they do after this event.

FDA recalls 2 Mead Johnson milk products

By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:05:00 09/21/2010

MANILA, Philippines—The Food and Drug Administration has ordered the recall from store shelves of two milk products for supposedly deficient fat level content, failing to comply with the standards.
In an order, FDA Director Nazarita Tacandong said Sustagen Junior Milk Drink Powder Vanilla Flavor and Alactagrow Bibo Trio Milk Supplement were being recalled because both failed to comply with the standard fat level content per 100 calories set by the agency.

The two milk products are manufactured by Mead Johnson Nutrition Philippines.
Under FDA standards, the required fat content for milk supplements must be between three and six grams per 100 calories.

An evaluation showed that the fat contents of Sustagen and Alactagrow were only 1.5 grams and 1.34 grams per 100 calories, respectively, "thus indisputably making the same non-compliant to the standard of inferior quality," Tacandong said.

She also advised consumers who have purchased the products to return them to the manufacturer or any of its licensed distributors.

Continuous distribution of the milk products would present "gross deception" to consumers and may "present risk and injury to young children," said the FDA order.

Reached for comment, Janryll Fernandez, Mead Johnson Nutrition Philippines corporate affairs manager, maintained that all its products sold in the country, including Alactagrow and Sustagen Junior, have passed stringent FDA health and safety requirements.

"They remain perfectly safe to consume, contrary to the language used in the order," Fernandez told the Inquirer in a phone interview Tuesday.

Fernandez noted that the FDA issued a "Class III order," the lowest level or recall order used for products that have "technical compliance issues" but do not likely to cause adverse health consequences.

In a statement, Paul Richards, the company's president and general manager, said, "safety is Mead Johnson's highest priority and the company spares no effort to comply with the laws of all of the countries in which it operates."

Fernandez added that the fat content of the two milk products were in compliance with FDA standards before it recently adopted additional Codex regulations for follow-up milk formulas.
He added that the company was already taking steps to meet the new FDA

requirements.
"Mead Johnson is releasing a reformulated version of the milk products that meet the new regulatory requirements," said Fernandez.

case study : how not to do a televised political debate

news reports describe this as "painful to watch", yes we agree it is. it looked like this arizona governor had a major mental block during the debate. there was a short mental blackout at the start of her statement,  she recovered a bit but a much longer blackout occured a few seconds later.

we do not have an idea why these things happen and more importantly we do not know how to fix it during the time it is happening. we have encountered situations where during a presentation we can't find a particular data or paper and what we do is we pretend to have found it and say out loud an invented data or number hoping it is close to the actual one. of the times we did that, it passed.

this is a much different case as on this one she was totally blank. we think that after she stumbled the first time, she could not let the blunder go in her mind. she could not block it our of her mind, possible that she got extremely nervous knowing she screwed up and started to blame herself for the blunder. she became so agitated by the error and the intense self blame she dished out on herself that another blackout, a much longer one occured a few seconds after.

the next question - will arizona voters ignore the twin blackouts and elect her just the same?

evian babies have fun

watching sci-fi and adventure movies, one of the things that impresses you is that there is now nothing that movies cannot do. putting into movies the super heroes we love to read in comics are now on screen in their smallest detail, erasing the divide between real and man-made.

this evian commercial is one commercial that fits the description above. and it is enjoyable

it is not trivia we want from rizal, it is meaning and significance - rizal's house painted green

picture above is a scan from a photo published at the PDI. it is the house of jose rizal, the national hero of the philippines. it is a good example of how bad taste, in this one the choice of the color green can insult the memory of the country's national hero and how it can be insulting to a whole country of filipinos.

if this was marketing, it is a good example on how poor taste in color can screw up the brand image if a national hero and insult and embarrass a whole nation.

National Historical Institute chair Ambeth Ocampo rationalizes the choice of color this way:

In his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 3, NHI Chair Ambeth Ocampo explained that the reason for painting Rizal’s house green was to “highlight, and inform visitors of, the meaning of his surname.”

The surname Rizal is rooted in the Spanish word “ricial,” which means a green field ready for harvest, Ocampo said.

well, it is an intent or in marketing it is a brand intent but just because it is there does not mean it is usable and should be used. there are products for example that cause diarrhea if eaten too much, but these brands do not choose to highlight that in their marketing strategy.

we are all familiar with Tide Detergent brand. we all know what "tide" means but we do not see depicted in it's packaging design nor do we see sea water included inside a pack of Tide Detergent Powder.

there are many other more important considerations as to why one should act or not act in meanings of names.

for example, i would like to remember rizal for his writings, his genius, his hard work and his actions and sacrifices that helped the country become independent from spain. in fact, i will be interested to know what he ate for breakfast or what were his study habits that made him such a genius. it can also be interesting to know that the meaning of his surname rizal. but it does not necessarily mean i like to see his house painted green. i'll be happy to see it written down somewhere in a brochure. i do not need to see the color on his house.

the idea behind preserving rizal's house is to give homage and pay tribute to our national hero. we like to preserve the house where he was born and where he grew up so that we can get a first hand view, to somewhat experience his life in that house. we do that out of awe, respect and even love for rizal who has done so much, his life included for our country and the generations and generations of filipinos who have benefited from his sacrifice and heroism.

painting rizal's house green, just because it is some trivia about his name is not a good reason enough to actually take action on. i actually do not care about the meaning of his surname. that did not even play any role in his heroism or his life and i doubt in his own writing.

what mr. ocampo has done is give us trivia. everyone knows we enjoy trivial pursuits for fun or to make fun of. but that does not at all apply to a national hero and most specially to apply that to his house to make it look horrific and trivial.

it is not trivia we want from rizal, it is meaning and significance that we want. when we find meaning and significance in rizal, then we become a better nation. something i am sure rizal would have wanted.

for a historian, i am shocked that mr. ocampo did not know that.

read more about this here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/rizals-house-painted-green-an-insult-to-jose-rizal-and-all-filipinos/

cocaine in Red Bull - will it push up its market share or kill the brand?

we ask this in all seriousness - this news on article that there are traces of cocaine in the energy drink Red Bull - will that increase it's market share or kill the brand?

people take energy drinks like red bull want to be awake, fully alert or slightly hyper even. isn't that the same effect as cocaine gives? well, ok it will depend on how much cocaine you take and since only traces of cocaine were found, drinking a bottle of red bull might not have the same effect as taking a full dose of cocaine on a folder dollar bill. but then, i don't know that for sure.

the next question is - will traces of cocaine be enough to make you addictive?

is this bit of news bad for the brand's market share. of course the most immediate impact is that red bull might not be allowed to be sold in kong kong retail outlets. but assuming red bull is able to sort that out and it's allowed to sell again in hong kong - will red bull suffer in market share or will it increase.

i wonder if the image of this energy drink having cocaine in the past will boost up it's market share. the traces of cocaine might not be there for real but people can simply imagine it that it is. it can become some kind of a status symbol or a badge to show around. it might sound perverted to some but being able to drink something that has traces of cocaine in them just might be attractive to consumers. the danger is day. the bad boy image is percolating. and hey, it's just traces of cocaine, it's not going to be addictive, so what is the harm?

just asking questions here....

HONG KONG (AFP) – Hong Kong officials say they have found traces of cocaine in cans of Red Bull, a few days after Taiwanese authorities confiscated close to 18,000 cases of the popular energy drink.


Officials at the Centre for Food Safety said a laboratory analysis found tiny amounts of the illegal drug in samples of "Red Bull Cola," "Red Bull Sugar-free" and "Red Bull Energy Drink", a spokesman said.

The drink has now been taken off the shelves of major supermarkets, the spokesman said in a statement issued late Monday. He added that the amount of cocaine found in the drinks posed little health danger.

Red Bull moved quickly to deny the findings and said independent tests on the same batch of drinks had found no traces of cocaine.

The Centre for Food Safety found traces of cocaine between 0.1 and 0.3 micrograms of the illegal drug per litre, the statement said.

Hong Kong's commissioner for narcotics, Sally Wong, said the government was now taking legal advice on any possible liability for importers and retailers.

"Cocaine is a dangerous drug... The possession and dealing in the drug is a criminal offence," she said in the statement.

Red Bull's Asia Pacific marketing director, Daniel Beatty, said the firm strongly disputed the findings.

read in full here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090602/bs_afp/hongkongaustriacrimedrugsdrinkredbull

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.

mcdonald's "first love - huling el bimbo" tv spot works, gives mcdonald's a human heart and it is real

this ad works very well on many levels all at the same time. the ad completes mcdonald's ad campaign - they had the value meal campaign with the "wallet" tv spot, "burger, burger" for their thematic burger ads and this one is for their deserts.

it has a very interesting story and what makes it even better is that it has a very good twist to it. it is supposed to be a sad story, but you don't feel bad after the ad ends. in some strange way and it can be hard to explain, you feel good after seeing the ad.

the ad gives mcdonald's a very human heart and a real one. it's not just a restaurant where people go to eat, it is a place where stories about the lives of people are made. romance in a fast food restaurant? it probably happens in real life but in our dreams and expectations, romance happens in a french restaurant. hard to imagine that you will hear violins played in a fastfood joint like mcdo but in this one it did and we all smile after.

and that is where one of the appeals if this ad springs from.

puppy love or your first love is always a good subject to talk about. "the one that got away" is one other story everyone has. but combining both the way that this mcdonald ad did makes magic.

the stroke of genius in this ad for the brand is making the mcdonald's desert of fries and ice cream sundae as the fulcrum, the star of the story. dipping the fries on the ice cream sundae was the spark of the beginning of the first love story and the same thing was the reminder that this girl of years ago is now the woman that got away. it is a good romance story when we see one that does not use the often used, touch of the hand, or smile or first kiss, this one is the action of dipping fries on the ice cream sundae.

there is a twin to that stroke of genius and it lies on the same element of dipping fries into the sundae. eating fries laced with ice cream sundae may seem gross to many, but those who practice it swear it is gourmet food at its best. it is a practice specially among the young and kids, it's just they have kept it a secret to the rest of us.

now, that strategy visual, that consumer habit, the best kept secret of gourmet food enjoyment in a fastfood chain is formally owned by mcdonald's. we are sure that after they aired this ad. many of the uncoverted tried it and most probably got converted. for sure a large portion of kids tried it.

that is what advertising is marketing is about - ads that make more people use more of the brand's products. now, more people will not just order only fries or just ice cream sundae, they need to order both.

putting it in this ad makes this ad resonate. people will empathize with it. they will find relevance and meaning. it is an excellent consumer insight. how the creative director strung that together is a stroke of genius. now, that's the third time i said that.





more on this ad on the next post.

mcdonald's "burger! burger!" tv spots

hearing "burger! burger! burger!" has become common. we were imagining that reading this copy line off a storyboard would have sounded weird and boring, but the line has evolved to be a hit for users when viewed in the mcdo ads.

it's the power of the context by which it was said and the tongue-in-cheek treatment of the ads. the teen ad has a feel of being a home made video and looked very much unrehearsed. and that is where the appeal of the ad lie.

the lolo and lola (grandfather and grandmother) ad is a surprising twist to the series of ads. and taking the whole gives it a good mix of fun and reinforces memorability of the ads.

the ads puts mcdo cheeseburger as the meal of choice for celebrating the mundane, cheap thrills and the unexpected. this gives mcdo an everyday, anytime meal positioning but with a twist of fun and wholesome craziness.

senator putang ina - mar roxas' new brand image?

mar roxas, a presidentiable recently uttered words we don't hear on national tv and certainly not from a senator. but he did say it - "putang ina". it has become mar roxas' defining moment. will it stick till election time? and what should the senator do?

this is actually about branding and can fit into WAWAM! but we posted it at the 2010 presidentiables blog, the spin-off blog where we have placed everything about politics and the philippine election.

these words of mar roxas puts miriam defensor to shame. she sounds like a saint now compared to roxas. president bush had his own defining moment. but he came out well of it. mar roxas did not. what should mar roxas do?

read about it here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/

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

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!

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.

president barack obama : the winning marketing strategies. Strategy No. 2 : High-Ground

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 and we have added point number 2 here. read part 1 here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/Obama%20Winning%20Marketing%20Strategy

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.

This brand character also fits Obama very well as a person. It reflects his demeanor and views on politics. You get the impression it comes from within and not just a political message. The eloquent speeches also fits within that brand character.

Not only does having such a brand character help drive up desirability, it also removes potential negatives. It would have been tougher for him as an african-american to adapt a brand character other than that. A tough and aggressive brand character would have fed right into the stereotypes. Being the exact opposite of the stereotypes made sure race cannot be used in any form.

The good guy image and the relentless pursuit of the high-ground brand character was so powerful that it could have changed american politics forever. The accepted principle is that negative campaigning, though seen by many as ugly and not right, do work in american politics. Poll results during this election point otherwise. Mccain's ratings were hurt because of the negative campaigning they launched when things got too tough for them.

But that does not mean the Obama campaign only does positive campaign materials. They do not do negative campaigning but they are competitive and aggressive. Another key difference is that the Obama campaign has not done that kind of campaigning on a national level but limited to pockets of states where it was needed. This is unlike the Mccain campaign where we hear Mccain and Palin launch negative speeches on the national stage.

For brands that run for elective post, brand character is very important. Having a bad one spells disaster, having a good one at minimum removes a potential negative. But for Obama, it has dome much more than removing potential negatives, it has built his desirability.

read Strategy No. 1 here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/Obama%20Winning%20Marketing%20Strategy

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

apple ads that bite on vista

it's really very hard not to love these apple ads. it's not just that they do a great job at biting vista, they are very amusing but direct to the point, you know exactly what they want you to understand and remember.

it's very amusing at the way they it exposes the weaknesses of vista. being very competitive and combining that with humor is not very easy to do in advertising. but in these ads, it comes very naturally.

the bonus is that it sustains the image of mac as a very cool and hip brand and product. if there is one element in the mac brand equity where it is clearly superior over vista/microsoft, it is in being hip and cool.

it's no surprise that even microsoft admitted that aside from product problems on vista, the apple ads hurt their business.



Give Up On Vista


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PC News Wire

jollibee - start of the return of the happy face on jollibee?

jollibee released a full page, full color print ad today at the PDI (Philippine Daily Inquirer) for the launch of their Jollibee Hug & Share Doll promo and i was pleasantly surprised and happy!

i saw a happy face on jollibee!

(read about "who put a sad face on jollibee" here in WAWAM! : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/jollibee)

new Jollibee Hug & Share Doll with a happy face

we wrote in WAWAM! that jollibee's face in their mascots looked sad. the face of the mascot is not an exact copy of the face of jollibee in their flat logo and the jollibee statue (is that what you call that?). what made the face of the jollibee mascot sad were two things - first, the eyes did not have sparkles on them and were just a flat black, looking "blind" with no white spaces around the eyes. and the second, the smile on the jollibee mascot was not full, it wasn't wide enough and did not show the red tongue.

although this is just a doll premium item and not a mascot, it is still a great step forward towards doing the right thing. the Jollibee Hug & Share Doll is very close to the flat logo, almost an exact copy.

it is our opinion that it is a mortal sin to have two versions of the face of jollibee since it is also the company logo. and these inconsistencies we feel go much more beyond shape and graphics but affects the brand personality of jollibee as well.

here is some interesting trivia. this was my answer to one of the questions on the comments section of the jollibee discussion in this blog:

apparently a top jollibee executive has noticed that there was something wrong with the face of the mascot but he could not indentify what was wrong with it. this was discussed in one of the executive committee meetings some months ago. since no answer was found to the gut feel of the top executive, the topic was dropped.

for some reason, the contents of the posts in WAWAM! was brought to the attention of the top executive. and it was only then did he know the specific reasons behind his gut feel that something was wrong with the face of the jollibee mascot. we were also told that at the time the topic was posted in this blog, the jollibee marketing team were reading this blog.

i am almost certain that when the jollibee brand management team presented the compre artwork of this Jollibee Hug & Share Doll, they made a point of it being an exect copy of the flat logo and now, this jollibee has a happy face.

close up of Jollibee Mascot with a sad face

the flat logo of jollibee, a happy face

bayantel tv spot that showed it did not move - a brand character that is not moving at all

in the previous topic on the Six Flags tv spot, we talked about how a strong brand character can be powerful that it will move you to prefer a brand. this bayantel (landline telephone service provider) tv spot has a strong brand character but i think it is one that moves you in the wrong direction - one in leaving a bad smell that you would rather not have.

just like the Six Flags tv spot, this bayantel tv spot also uses humor, i think, but it is one which very few, extremely few people will appreciate. it can put a smile among this very few but i don't it will be enduring, one that will most likely go up in smoke. you know how it is with hot air - it disappears very quickly.

ok, enough of the analogies on farts and defecation.

everyone appreciates humor in advertising and also creativity, specially the unexpected. these are the ingredients for a great ad. but that needs to be tempered with the question -- are these kinds of humor and creativity building a desirable brand image? one of the things we want advertising to do is to build desirability and likability - an affinity to the brand. is there a member of the target audience who will appreciate being associated with a brand that reminds them of farts and defecation?

the most simple way to describe what brand character means is this -- "if your brand is a person, what kind of person will it be? describe your brand as if it is a person with personality, attitude, looks, etc."

that is usually how the section on "brand character" (or "brand personality") is stated in many advertising brief and advertising strategy forms used by many ad agencies.

looking at this ad and deconstructing the brand character statement in bayantel's ad strategy, it will probably read something like this : "bayantel is a male who wants to defecate but can only fart and now wants his money back. he is a very practical person."

brand character statements are in fact those that usually end as "this brand is someone you want to be your friend" -- anyone want a friend who likes to fart and defecate?

clearly a WAWAM!

Six Flags tv spot - how the power of brand character can make you dance! move over ellen!

we have come to expect to see certain things from ads of certain brands. we expect to see these communicated either as visuals, part of story plots or copy. it's like when we see these elements, we know what kind of product is being sold. these are mostly the obvious ones - refreshment from drinks, clean from detergents, power and ride from cars or beauty from cosmetics.

in advertising terms, we call that generic benefits. these are benefits that all brands that compete in the same category can offer.

caution: positioning your brand on these "generic benefits" is a double edged sword - it can harm your brand or it can benefit your brand.

it can benefit your brand as your target audience will see things that are familiar to them and will readily sympathize with them. but because your competition have the same benefits, it can harm your brand as you are not offering anything different or unique. one of the things an ad is supposed to do is to set your brand apart from competition. that is one of the core reasons you advertise in the first place and also one of the characteristics of a great ad.

aside from product benefit, the other component that makes an ad a great one is brand character. actually i think having a great brand character is a lost art in many ads specially in the philippine market. it's one component that is largely forgotten and ignored and i would say something many creatives in the philippines do not understand at all.

this Six Flags tv spot is one ad that has practically nothing but brand character in it. and it works brilliantly! you have to love Six Flags after seeing this ad. you very quickly and strongly understand what Six Flags stand for and yes the compelling reason why you should visit it the next time you go to an amusement park.

they could have shown the fantastic rides Six Flags has. it is very popular for their rides, they have one of the most exciting rides in the market. but that's not what they talked about in the ad. instead they dramatized the feeling one gets in going to a Six Flags park. you get it. you smile and you may have even danced to it a little bit.

brilliant advertising!




thanks to charlotte from san francisco, california for sending us the link for this Six Flags tv spot.

oooops........ it's not what you think it is

this is a classic situation where the only thing you can say is - it's not what you think it is.

one of the most revered word in advertising is the word "unexpected". it's a good thing when that word is used to describe an ad. that word is applicable to this ad. i don't think any of us ever imagined a situation like this will be used to sell a sweet-chocolatey product like the mikado.

first of all, targeting adults for this kind of product is a surprise in itself. then, this situation to depict the brand's desirability. if it is adults that they are targeting, then this ad works very well. it's fun. it does not take itself seriously. and after seeing this ad, i don't think we will ever look at mikado the same way again. or even photocopying rooms.

san miguel beer's jet li tv spot --- leaving too much to the imagination

we use celebrities in commercials for a specific reason. the most obvious one and that is generic to all of them is that they are very popular. but beyond generic popularity (popularity is synonymous to celebrity, right?), they have this specific calling. they are known for something specific.

time for the name association game. when you mention the name jet li - what's the first word that comes to mind? that word will most likely be something that describes the picture on the right. there are no other words you can think of, other than those that match that picture.

but those words, i failed to see in this san miguel beer tv spot. well, ok parts of it are in the commercial, but it does not impress you as perhaps that picture does. or the movies that we have all seen jet li to have appeared in.

jet li scenes are typically breathtaking and awesome. in many of these movie scenes, often five words come to mind : "how did he do that?".

in this san miguel tv spot, we know he is jet li but after seeing the moves, we entertain doubts if that was really jet li. these are the words that come to mind - it is so lame, it can't be jet li.

this commercial fails to impress us. and i think a lot of it comes from two parts - the story of the ad and a much bigger part from the directorial treatment of the ad. not enough effects, lack of imagination and no pizazz.

if you have jet li as your talent, you need, in fact it's a must that you hire a director who does martial arts movies. plus you need to hire production staff and perhaps even shoot in hongkong where many of them are based. i don't know if san miguel did that for this commercial. if they did, it does not show. if they did not, it's a critical error.

and maybe you will not want to have too much of a simple story to tell. simple stories are good for commercials, but not in this case as it does not allow jet li to show what he can do.

and did i mention manny pacquaio already? the reason i have not mentioned the pacman is because in this ad, he is hardly mentioned, meaning shown.

that's the other part i don't get. why didn't they make an ad where the story revolves around jet li and manny pacquiao? why did they choose to make manny a prop, like an extra in this tv spot? all that many did was smile and nothing more.

think about it -- a world famous boxer and a world famous martial artist. that's a great story right there. pregnant with possibilities. and yes --- wham, bang and atomic!

because this san miguel beer ad underperforms, it is a WAWAM!

zazoo condoms - what in the world is this?

i totally do not get this tv commercial.

it is actually an ad for a condom brand, zazoo. to encourage purchase of their brand, this ad demonstrates the ill effects of not using a condom - having children! granted that the behavior of the child in this ad is something every parent do not want to happen, i don't understand how it's intended target market will feel encouraged to buy zazoo.

there simply is too much negativity in this ad that i think zazoo lost every amount of goodwill it has among its target audience. it does not build any affinity or sympathy for the brand. this ad is not for anything positive, it is for everything negative. simply put, it's an anti-child tv ad, not even a pro-condom ad.

this ad gives reproductive health a bad name. condoms are for responsible parenthood, responsible sexuality, respect and control of your own body and protection from STD. it is never anti-children.

a clear WAWAM!