p&g's Crest Pro Health Rinse stains teeth - marketing disaster 101

saw this on the today show at nbc - p&g's crest pro health rinse hit a product nightmare snag. some consumers are set to sue p&g for causing stains on their teeth after using the product for two to three weeks.

p&g is one of the world's leading consumer marketing companies, many have credited p&g as the inventor of brand management and crest is the leading toothpaste brand in the US and in the world.

this interesting as we can learn how a giant and leader like p&g handles product disasters like these. it's rare that p&g, one of the best in their field had encountered something like this. p&g puts a lot of premium on research and r&d and usually launches new products only if it is perfect. the last time p&g had this was a few years ago on olestra, a new fat substitute, but that wasn't a consumer product like this rinse product.

in that today show coverage, p&g had their spokesman interviewed. he is the guy whose picture appear in this website : http://www.crest.com/prohealth/home.jsp apparently these consumer complaints have been aired some months ago but a today show coverage can make this a big national issue.


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read more about it here:

Crest rinse fights off customer complaints

by Al Behrman, AP

Crest Pro-Health Rinse is the second best seller in the market behind Listerine, according to Crest.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Persistent consumer complaints are causing some stains on a Procter & Gamble's (PG) Crest.

Crest Pro-Health Rinse hit the market three years ago as an alcohol-free mouthwash that not only freshens breath but fights oral maladies such as gingivitis and plaque. The strong-selling product has caused some users to report discoloration of their teeth and numbing taste.
P&G says "99.99%" of users have had no complaints and that any discoloration or aftertaste is temporary.

But NBC's Today show reported Wednesday that the complaints have led to a consumer lawsuit alleging fraud and to further study by the Food and Drug Administration, which approved the product.

Laura Brinker, a Crest spokeswoman, declined to comment on the pending litigation. She said an FDA panel is gathering information, but that the product is in full compliance with current standards.

Posted Wednesday on the Crest website was a statement from Robert Gerlach, a dentist and P&G researcher, saying that the product has been tested extensively and proved to be safe and effective.

"The millions of consumers who use it every day, and the growing number of dentists who recommend it, can attest to that," Gerlach said.

Brinker said temporary discoloration can be a sign that the product is killing harmful germs, which can be brushed away, or reflect the user's eating, drinking and brushing habits.
P&G said nearly 100 million bottles — a one-liter bottle retails from $4.69 — have been sold as Pro-Health Rinse. It is the second-leading mouthwash behind Johnson & Johnson's venerable, alcohol-containing Listerine.

But Pro-Health rinse has been dogged by complaints repeatedly showing up on Internet sites.
"Crest Pro-Health mouthwash turned my teeth brown! And on top of that, I can't taste anything!" a reader identified only as Monique wrote to consumerist.com, a consumer affairs website. There are scores more complaints there and on other sites.

"I thought it was unusual in terms of how many people it's affecting," said Ben Popken, Consumerist's editor. "Sometimes you might hear from a handful, but there seems to be a pretty decent body of people saying this."

Steve Markus, a dentist in Haddon Heights, N.J., said people with porcelain implants or other dental and orthodontic appliances could be susceptible to staining from the rinse. He said the mouthwash apparently aids oral health.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-05-07-crest-rinse_N.htm

(philippine ads) - (high concept) - (entertainment) = WAWAM!

i agree the lack of high concepts is killing philippine advertising. many of the ads we see have very weak and too simplistic creative concepts. many of these are not campaigns, but just tv spots. they don't have legs.

the other part that i think is missing is ENTERTAINMENT VALUE. because tv advertising are aired on tv and tv's primary role in our lives is to provide us with entertainment, it begs that ads should also entertain. entertainment does not have to be humor, or the equivalent of comedy shows on TV, but they just have to entertain us - make us want and enjoy watching the tv commercial. tv has a lot of program formats and all of these, they be news, comedy, drama or reality shows need to entertain us in one way or the other. it does not have to be amusing or funny all the time, it just needs to capture our attention and inject some joy in viewing them.

there's very little of entertainment in philippine ads. they are just messages. they could have sent those messages through cell phone text and it would have the same impact at a much lower cost. that's how bad these ads are.

in fact, i think one of the strenghts of the coke angel tv spot is it's very entertaining.

high concept = amazing ads

konting observation lang -- the amazing ads featured here have several common denominators: high concept and very simple stories.

kobe bryant's nike ad - kobe can fly!

did kobe really do it or not? was he nuts or not? is there a camera trick? is it just CG? blue screen maybe? or can kobe fly? well, we know michael jordan can fly, but we don't know that of kobe?

this ad was released just a few weeks ago and it appears it was released just in the internet, through kobe's website. and it has been extremely successful - it's all over the internet. it has been getting crazy internet buzz and now traditional media is on it too.

releasing a tv ad just in the internet and getting a lot of buzz - nike yet again has done innovative marketing!


check out some links about this ad:


http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/080415-120429/





the idea of kobe jumping over a speeding car is probably one of the sexiest tv spots nike has ever done. i am a great fan of nike ads, but this one i find still left field and out of the box even for nike. there is danger, excitement and fear. aside from the creative concept, what i like about the ad is director's treatment. it didn't look and sound staged - it looked very real, like home video. i guess that was really intentional and the ad has delivered. i like the rough camera framing of the ad, not always centered, you don't even see the face of the other player, and the camera is not always centered. it may be just the you tube copy, but i thought some of the audio was too low and not understandable. i wonder if that's juts a function of you tube or if that was intentional. the directorial treatment contributed very well to the "realism" of the ad.

it is of course a camera trick, a bit of hollywood. or is it?

if only brand character can kill

there are so many things wrong with the slimmers world print ad (black & white print ad, first of the pair) that it can boggle your mind. but, this will focus on - brand character.

the marie france print ad (2nd ad, color ad) is usually placed on page 3 of the PDI and the slimmers world print ad, on the next flip page, page 5. so that means even from a target audience stand point, they can immediately compare these two print ads and the companies/services they are advertising. in other words my observation will be obvious even to ordinary readers of the newspaper, those who are not working in the advertising and marketing industries.

one quick look at the ads, don't even read them and one thing is very apparent - there is a difference in brand character or brand image between the two companies/services.

slimmers world is the "palenkera" brand character, the noisy, screaming, scandalous neighbor who talks and behaves as if she is in a palengke even if she has a whistle bait body. you might want to look at her, but you will do it only once as you won't be able to stand looking at her again because of her palengkera personality. her personality makes you puke. and, please, you don't want to have anything to do with her.

not that the above description is not valid for some brands, but for a service that promises a sexier figure for women, that's like a mortal sin.

in the first place, who can afford to enroll in a service like slimmers world? slimmers world is not cheap. only the AB upper C and a few of the broad C can afford slimmers world. not to mention slimmer world branches are actually located in places like greenhills and the makati cbd. their location confirms my assumption on the kind of target market they have. would women who belong to the AB and upper C appreciate and get attracted to palengkeras? if you have a body that needs slimming services, you in fact want discretion and privacy. this slimmers world print ad says exactly the opposite.

the core benefit that they are selling goes beyond losing fat and cutting inches, they are actually selling beauty. will anyone see beauty in a palengkera? everybody hates a palengkera. you avoid them like a plague.

what makes matters worse for the palengkera slimmers world is that because of the media placement, their target market can compare them to their direct competitor. to add insult to injury, again because of the placement, marie france is the first print ad to be seen. the target audience will probably sigh and admire the luscious bodies they see in the marie france ad and aspire to have the same kind of sexy body, then flip the page and everything just goes downhill when they see the slimmers world ad.

i have mentioned that brand character is one of the ad elements that are often glossed over or even forgotten and yet it is one of the most important components where many brands fail and is the cause of failures for some ad campaigns. this is prime example of that thinking.

these two ads advertise brands that are direct competitors, they offer a similar service that offer essentially the same consumer benefit and are targeting the same target audience and yet the brand characters are so different and very apparent. for marie france and slimmers world, consumers will chose the brand that they will feel they can connect with, a brand that they think represent who they are.

flipping from the marie france print ad, this slimmers world print ad is an eye sore. it's beyond an eye sore, you can get so dizzy that you might want to puke. there are many more wrong things about the slimmers world print ad, but let me take a break, i feel like throwing up. will post what's wrong with the print ad another time.

it's a WAWAM!

what works and what doesn't work in the coke angel tv spot

what works in the coke angel "ang sarap dito" tv spot:

• excellent over-all production values


• brilliant jingle, arrangement and concept


• excellent talent for the angel role. perfect for the role, unknown to pinoy audience is a stroke of genius


• finally, back to basics for coke, making taste and refreshment as it's core proposition


• excellent tag line - "buhay coke, tikman mo"

what does not work in the coke angel tv spot:

• what was the inclusion of the devil in the plot all about? unnecessary, strenuous


• the wings suck!

coca cola "jinx" tv spot super bowl

this ad was one of the most talked about tv spot in the US during the super bowl. the US ad industry has made the super bowl as the yearly showcase for their most creative work. many of the ads aired in the super bowl are produced specifically for the super bowl only and some are aired only in the super bowl. it's an event for the ad industry. watching out for the best ads aired during the super bowl is a much awaited event not only for the ad industry but also for media in general and the audience.

i don't know much about frist, i only know he is one of the key republican figures in the US. carville i know more about - his call to fame was being bill clinton's top strategist during the elections that won him the presidency twice. carville's strategic skills have been hailed as top-notch and a force to reckon with. he was the guy who coined and crafted the "it's the economy, stupid" line and strategy that turned the tide for bill clinton and won him the election.

this ad's appeal will be easier to appreciate if you are an american and if you know who carville and frist are. carville and frist are competitors, they are at the opposite ends of the battle lines in US politics, one being a top republican and the other a top strategist for the democrats. they are known to be two of the smartest in US politics plus two of the most fiercely competitive. take that as the background and you will understand why this ad resonates among americans.

i am including it here to show how coke in the US has taken it's strategy through a different execution route. also, this is a very smart and excellent way to use celebrity endorsers in ads, unlike the inane ways that it is done in the philippines.



this was posted at you tube:

Using Washington, D.C. landmarks as a backdrop, "Jinx" features Democratic strategist and commentator James Carville and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. When the two utter the same word simultaneously during a television showdown, Frist invokes the "jinx" game, compelling Carville to buy him a Coke. With icy bottles of Coca-Cola in hand, the two spend the rest of the day enjoying 'The Coke Side of Life' throughout the Capital as political disagreements are temporarily forgotten.

coca cola's taste strategy

small banners in sari-sari stores carry the image of the angel with the line "tikman ang sarap". as mentioned previously, coke is obviously on a back to basics, taste strategy. and that's a very good thing. i think it's the right thing to do for coke. coke has strayed away too much from it's core positioning that it's good they now have the political will and the smarts to go back to their roots.

however, coke now runs the risk of falling off a cliff in getting confused on what exactly is their campaign. they now have a few lines that they seem to use in different media and at times a pair of them at the same time: "ang sarap dito", "tikman ang sarap" and "buhay coke tikman mo".

i hope coke has developed a brand architecture for this ad campaign to make sure they don't shoot themselves in the foot. in advertising, too many of a good thing can kill.

the question that must be raging in the minds of the ad agency and client is this - what else can we do to exploit the success of the ad campaign?

i am sure events and other below the line are in their minds now. the problem of course is the talent is not a pinoy. she probably speaks english but it will be very costly to get her to go to the philippines to do events for them. it's very lame, but i'm sure the coke creative team has asked the brazilian talent if she can sing or dance. hahaha. damn, i hope coke does not go through that route if they bring her to the philippines.

but that one is a whole new discussion all together.

back to basics - coke is on single minded taste strategy now. i bet they are now conducting a tracking study to see if taste is getting picked up and if this campaign is changing attitudes and bringing in the cases.

is this taste strategy enough to overcome the price problem? they need to stop migration away from coke and to attract new users. is taste enough?

pure essentials : what went wrong

here is what went wrong in the pure essentials relaunch ad campaign - i wonder if they realize it, but based on the print ads, intentionally or unintentionally, they are operating on two very different strategies.

it's possible they only have one strategy but they are probably unaware that they are coming out with ads that are written very differently from each other. another possibility is that the strategy was so poorly written, too complicated and didn't have focus that there are two ways to interpret it. there is even no attempt to achieve some kind of focus on sameness or put enough common denominators in the two print ads.

the mother strategy is about attacking skin dryness for the family. their support or reason why has two components - the celebrity mother who is concerned about her children's skin and the medical professional who is concerned about harsh ingredients in soaps.

the first print ad, a teaser ad that featured the doctor was single-minded on being anti-safeguard and product-centric. while the second, which features maricel laxa as the celebrity endorser-mother who is concerned about her children's skin.

both is supposed to tackle dry skin (it's in the headline) which makes it appear it's a focused strategy, but it really isn't. that can be seen at the end result, the two print ad's contents and brand personality come out very differently.

there is an obvious confusion in these ads. i wonder if it's being caused by a poorly written copy strategy or a very poor interpretation of the copy strategy by the ad agency. one more thing, the advertorial format of the ads is not helping them. an advertorial format allows you to write many paragraphs, theoretically, you can put everything and anything into the ad. and that is exactly what the creatives did. if this was a typical intro or brandsell print ad, you certainly cannot put everything into the ad. the space limitation forces the creatives to be selective and give focus to their writing. don't get me wrong, focus and being on strategy can be achieved even in an advertorial, it's just in this case, weak understanding of the strategy and sloppy writing did them in. i get the feeling the creative director did not clear this ad.

pure essential's anti-safeguard soap war is a dud. and a WAWAM!

the devil may care!

pinays seem to like the girl very much. they swoon when they see the devil in that coke ad. the country is a celebrity-crazed country, so that's not very surprising. i think people like the devil in that ad only because he looks real hot. but is the devil contributing to the story? that we do not know. but he is hot, according to women!

who the hell cares about the devil!

look at the "ang sarap dito" billboards - all you see is the angel. also, look at how people refer to the ad, it's the "coke angel" tv commercial. it's obvious, this whole ad campaign is about the angel. so, who the hell cares about the devil?!

well actually, the better question is - why the hell is the devil in that tv spot?

the story is very clear - coke tastes so good, so refreshing that even angels can hear the satisfaction of humans on earth. so loud and clear =that the angel checks out coke and after tasting it herself, it felt so good to her that she decided to be a human to make sure coke is always within her reach. that's how good tasting coke is - that even angels who live in heaven and who need nothing more on earth or in heaven find that she needs the good taste of coke.

that's the whole campaign. and where is the devil in that story?

the devil in the story adds the bad to what's all good. and that's also on a literal sense. the devil in the ad at the end of commercial changes the story to even the bad or the devil also want coke. so it's not just good people who want coke now, it's also the bad.

the directorial treatment of the ad also gives an impression of the devil is about to seduce the angel. what? a sexual tension between the angel and the devil? what the hell is that all about?

this coke ad could have just remained on the good side. there is no problem in providing some touch of humor, or a tongue in cheek story and even a humorous or interesting ending. but is the devil's role the only way to achieve those? surely there are a lot more ways, specially wholesome, nice and sweet ones, to end the commercial and provide a point of interest at the end of the ad.

so again, who the hell cares about the devil?

coke angel tv ad - back to basics

coke's previous ad campaign was difficult to understand. they had these strange drawings showing "buhay" stuff spewing up from an open coke bottle. figuring out what the graphics meant or what part of my "buhay" they represent is very difficult for ordinary mortals to understand. it was just a feel good ad campaign - the creatives feeling good for themselves for having a canvass to show how creative they are but i don't think it made consumers felt good about coca cola.

i am not sure what caused it, it was either the right strategy with a wrong execution or a bad strategy that was executed well. if the asi taulava and their christmas tv spots are an indication, i would say the problem was a bad strategy that was executed well. it's a strategy problem - either it was incorrectly written or it's meaning incorrectly interpreted.

on a strategy standpoint, coke's angel tv spot, "ang sarap dito" is a vast improvement from their previous campaign. with the current tagline "buhay coke tikman mo", the angel tv spot repositions coke to be what it really is - a softdrink meant to refresh and quench thirst. the previous tagline made coke pretend to be just a feel good product that may or may not have something to do with refreshment or thirst quenching. this one returns coke to being a liquid drink to fix thirst, back to basics as admen like to say.

this is like a back to basics ad for coke. the whole commercial is actually on a taste and thirst quenching strategy. in this ad, it's clear that people drink coke for it's taste and thirst quenching benefits. what a relief, finally, some focus for coke ads.

the ad works because of it's excellent production values. it's a very polished tv ad and we have not seen one aired in the philippines with this kind of high caliber production values for many years. i had obsessed with the crude and inconsistent post prod work and design of the wings of the angel, but i don't think ordinary consumers notice those things, nor will they care. anyone sitting in front of their tv will stop and notice this coke ad because of the excellent over-all production of the commercial.

aside from the over-all production values, what makes this coke ad stand out from the noise is the jingle. the melody is very memorable and more importantly, the interpretation and treatment of the song to make it sound like a singing angel was brilliant work. also, the choice of the talent for the angel role was very well done. she is an unknown to the philippine audience and that added to the mystery and interest for the ad.

(read more here:

http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/04/wings-coca-cola-tv-spot.html

http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2008/04/production-values-coca-cola-ang-sarap.html )

i am sure a lot of discussions have been made on this between the client and the ad agency at storyboard stage, but i didn't think adding the devil in the story at the end was needed. i fail to see it's value but i see the bad ingredients it added to the mix. i don't think it helped in the delivery of the message but what it did was make the story in the commercial unnecessarily complicated.

the point of the ad is to communicate that coke is so delicious and refreshing that even angels will want to taste it to the point of transforming to become a human. the angel deciding to become a human because of coke is the point of interest in this ad. adding the devil at the end just puts a strain to the ad.

what does adding the idea of even the devil likes its taste got to do with the story? it does not contribute to communicating the coke strategy in a better way. adding the devil brings in an unnecessary component of good vs evil. it does not also help that the treatment seem to leave an impression of some kind of attraction or a possibility of the devil seducing the angel. these are just too strenuous to the story.

pure essential - another wimp print ad!

what a disappointment, again! this is now a 2nd execution of their "anti-safeguard" strategy and all the aggressiveness from the teaser ad is still gone. it looks like they did get a CDO on their previous teaser ad that featured the doctor, but in this one, even a semblance of the competitiveness in the teaser ad is not here. you can get a CDO, but there are ways to deliver the same kind of punch and competitiveness but staying within the AdBoard (its different now?) guidelines. reading this ad, they did not even make an attempt to do so!

also, could not understand what's the point of doing an advertorial approach. sure, an advertorial approach allows you to say a lot of things, but the many things they said here does not carry a punch. so, what's the point? too much on laxa, not much on the product, not even enough sale.

i thought the skin dryness as caused by too much use of anti-bacterial soap story is best delivered in the traditional brandsell advertising format. it has excellent news value and will strongly call attention.

i liked the teaser ad approach because it was very product-centric which was the core strategy of pure essentials. but this was too much celebrity/personality, very little product. the teaser ad featured a doctor and that can explain why there was a lot of product and efficacy talk (actually, scare tactics), and laxa is not from the medical field. that can also explain the "softness" of this ad compared to the teaser doctor ad. but this ad is not just softer, it's empty.

nowhere in the ad do they talk about the dangers of using bacterial soaps and its dry skin effect. there is no mention of safeguard's two anti-bacterial active ingredients. they do say "harsh ingredients" in soap but that was not linked to safeguard or anti-bacterial AIs. (they could have just said something like "i now realize the soap i have been using for many years may bne causing dry skin". that's a freebie for the pure essential creatives.) even in laxa's "hygiene guidelines" (last paragraph) they just mention "use the right soap", no mention or allusion to safeguard. they simply gave up on the strong points they raised in their teaser ad.

i would even say this laxa ad is off strategy. they can still deliver the same product-centric and efficacy strategy of the doctor teaser ad, but in the words and experiences of laxa. it can still be competitive and still sounding like laxa said them. no attempt, even feeble ones, were done along the line.

i wonder if this laxa print ad is the sustaining brandsell ad campaign of pure essentials. i think it's worthless. as predicted, this ad confirms what i said previously - J&J and it's pure essentials ad agency do not have the brains or balls to wage battle with safeguard.

this pure essential laxa ad is another WIMP ad. again, did the creatives become lazy? its WAWAM!

impact of price and "value for money"

here is an interesting article on how price movements and the resulting "value for money" enhancement affects volume and market share. this is telling us that for products that start out very well and become icons, they can demand a steep price for consumers to pay and even grow market share. and when it starts to reduce it's price point, it's sales will double and even triple as it continue to leverage it's icon status and widens it's consumer base. in the end, the price cut pays handsomely in terms of a significantly wider consumer base.

that's a lesson that not only smart and lobe but also for coca cola. actually, globe and specially smart already know that, it's the cell phone makers that don't and even the other tech products being sold in the philippine market.

philippine tech companies that sell things like computers and mp3 players, in my view are too greedy to the point of already being immoral. will talk more about that in the next postings.




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AT&T price cut could juice iPhone salesBy Scott Moritz

AT&T’s (T) planned $200 subsidy on Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone could increase the sales of the new 3G model by 50%, according to one analyst.

Using a comparison to price cuts of Motorola’s (MOT) Razr — the 110-million-units-sold wonderphone from yesteryear — Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi says its reasonable to expect that AT&T could more than double its iPhone sales, which currently account for half of all Apple’s iPhone numbers. He made the analysis after Fortune first reported the plan by the Apple’s exclusive iPhone partner to cut the price of the upcoming 3G version of the phone.

Sacconaghi sees a strong parallel in the scorching history of Motorola’s Razr phone. In 2005, Razr’s expensive ultrathin metal-clad design went from being the coveted phone of the moment to a pop culture sensation as the price fell.

“The Razr’s unit sales run-rate doubled when its price dropped from an initial $500 to $150, then doubled again when the price fell further to $100,” Sacconaghi wrote in an Apple research note Thursday.

“While offering the subsidy would cost AT&T $200 per iPhone user, we estimate the cost would be more than offset if the subsidy results in an increase in the iPhone subscriber base of around 100% - which appears to be a realistic assumption in light of the Razr’s experience,” he wrote.

Sacconaghi is an Apple analyst but he says he has not confirmed the price cut plan with Apple or AT&T.

Cell phone and smart phone subsidies are common throughout the U.S. and Europe. The iPhone was unusual in that it was sold at full price. Despite the hefty $400 price tag, Apple has sold 5.7 million iPhones, over half the way to its goal of 10 million for the year.

For AT&T, the phone is fantastic bait to reel in customers from rivals like Verizon Wireless (VZ), Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (DT), at a time when wireless growth is slowing. To date, AT&T says about 40% of iPhone customers are coming from other services. Not only does the iPhone lure customers, it brings in the type of customers that the industry cherishes: big spenders.

AT&T says it rakes in an average of $95 a month from each iPhone customer, nearly twice the average monthly bill of its conventional cell phone user. With faster 3G phones, it’s likely that iPhone fans will spend even more money time on the mobile Internet. AT&T has a revenue sharing agreement with Apple where it forks over as much as 25% of its iPhone customers’ monthly payments to the company.

The remaining take for AT&T is between $70 and $75 a month per iPhone user totaling more than $1,700 over the life of the two-year contract, wrote Sacconaghi.

AT&T plans to lock the subsidized iPhones so they can’t be used on other companies’ networks. That leaves it open to debate whether Apple will sell unlocked, unsubsidized phones at its stores. Sacconaghi says people might pay a premium for an unlocked iPhone, untethered as it would be from the AT&T service. “We believe the availability of factory-unlocked iPhones would further stimulate overall iPhone sales, though price may remain a barrier to truly mass market adoption.”

The mass market however, is a double-edged blade as Razr observers will note. Razr’s ride to popular glory was followed by a plunge into ignominy as the price of the phone went to zero, a precursor to the downfall of the Motorola’s mobile phone business. But that is one Razr parallel Apple fans aren’t likely to make.

http://techland.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/05/01/atts-price-cut-could-juice-iphone-sales/

is that the coke angel radio ad?

i am not sure, but i think it's the radio version of coke's angel tv spot - it's a full jingle where we hear the band, probably project 1 (?), singing the jingle. i have heard it three times already and i swear, i did not hear anywhere in the radio commercial the brand name "coke" mentioned.not even once!

that's a real strange radio ad!