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.