12 years ago, Kodak was warned on what to do to avoid Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing

12 years ago, sometime in september, 2000 a powerpoint presentation was sent to the chief marketing officer of eastman kodak. the above was one of the first few slides in that presentation.

the slide talks about the fast changing competitive environment that kodak was in. at that time, the internet and digital photography was just starting to grow rapidly and in effect changing the way people share pictures. the engulfing change was altering consumer habits in dramatic ways that was making kodak irrelevant and not even one of the choices consumers had on their list. consumers were still taking pictures, with stand alone digital cameras and digital cameras in cellphones. they were taking more pictures than ever but they were no longer having them printed  to be stored or shared with others. the digital pictures either stayed in their cell phones or shared digitally through the internet or from one gadget to the other. that means kodak was quickly being taken out of the picture taking habit.

it was a quickie presentation - not based on any business data or consumer research but just observations in the market and the author's own personal experience. the idea was to have a start point discussion of the marketing challenges that kodak faced then and how with more work, consumer research and analysis of business data need to be done from which the strategies and thinking contained in the presentation were to be changed, adapted or implemented by kodak.

read more about it here and take a view of the complete powerpoint presentation. - http://wawam.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/12-years-ago-kodak-was-warned-of-chapter-11-bankruptcy-risk/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

kudos to the author!

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

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

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

They listen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brand Boyet Fajardo - defined by youtube, again!

we wrote about how youtube is today's powerful definer of brand equity. we talked about that in relation to Hollywood's christian bale. (read here: http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2009/03/youtube-todays-most-eloquent-definer-of.html)

here is one that happened here in the philippines recently. this whole thing started at youtube with bloggers and numerous pinoy bulletin boards talking about it in the internet. and in no time, it jumped into mass media.



before this youtube posting, i did not know who on earth is Boyet Fajardo. it was the first time i heard of the name and also the first time that i knew this boyet fajardo is a fashion designer who has clothing lines being sold in many of the department stores.

but now i know his name and his youtube fame, i will not buy any of his clothes even if you put a gun into my head.

this boyet fajardo actually appeared on tv the next day the above news item was shown on national tv. in it, he tried to apologize. but something was wrong in his apology. well two things. one, on camera he did not appear sincere at all on his apology. he was not even looking at the camera. and if he was really sincere with his apology, shouldn't he have tried to get in touch with the salesperson that he humiliated? no mention of his effort to personally apologize to that poor guy.

second, his ending statement bothered me very much. he said he came from a long trip and was very tired. after a few more sentences, he concluded that he was sorry as "both of them (him and the sales person he humiliated) were victims"!!!

huh? how in the world was he a victim? he was a victim of jet lag? that is just the icing on the cake on his insincerity.

because of this boyet fajardo's youtube fame, Brand Boyet Fajardo has been clearly defined for me, even before i actually saw the brand. i even won't use his clothing line as rags even if he gave them to me for free or even if he paid me to do so.

read about boyet fajardo asking forgiveness from the wrong person here: http://wawam.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/boyet-fajardo-asks-forgiveness-from-the-wrong-person/

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.

youtube : today's most eloquent definer of Brand Equity. hello, is that you christian bale?

nobody is exempt from this, but it is most specially true for celebrities - youtube has become the now definer of Brand Equity. celebrities become celebrities for the brand that they have built over their careers but that can be changed in 3 minutes when something about the celebrity gets posted in youtube.

ordinary mortals like us surf youtube for the most current, most entertaining and the interesting, it's what you do when you still have internet time and you are done with the usual internet chores of reading emails and blogs. many have also made it what they do on the internet. and googling the name of the celebrity you want to ogle on can take you to a youtube posting of your favorite celebrity.

often times, we see on traditional media, from the press and tv, telling us of the latest youtube helping of celebrities.

youtube is a visual medium but this one is just audio but equally effective in rebuilding or the destruction of a brand of a celebrity.

it's interesting - youtube are unforgiving for celebrities, bringing destruction of the brand but for ordinary mortals it has become as the brand building. we have heard of ordinary mortals shooting up to fame, becoming celebrities because of their youtube fame.

brand building this century has become more complicated and it's builders numerous. it is the world of the internet and youtube is one of those at the forefront.

new balckberry storm - storming its own brand equity into bits

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

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.

Brand Filipina : maid and sex slave

posted in the comments section by "hysterical" in the comments section : https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=517458268477828190&postID=6415185393416344825

Philippines slams BBC comedy showing Filipino maid
By OLIVER TEVES
Associated Press 2008-10-08 01:19 AM

The Philippine government protested a popular BBC comedy sketch in which a Filipino maid was told to have sex with a neighbor, officials said Tuesday.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said the Philippine Embassy in London sent letters to the BBC, as well as to the Secretary of State for Women and the Press Complaints Commission, to protest "this slur on our domestic workers" in Britain.

Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo also summoned the British Ambassador Peter Beckingham to discuss the matter, he said.

Rep. Risa Hontiveros, a women's rights activists, demanded an apology from the broadcaster. She described the Sept. 26 episode of the TV show "Harry and Paul," starring British comedians Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, as "revolting and disgusting" and called it an "insensitive and racist attempt to satirize a scene of exploitation."

Tiger Aspect Productions, which produces "Harry and Paul," noted that the show airs at night, when more mature content is allowed.

"Harry & Paul is a post-watershed comedy sketch series and as such tackles many situations in a comedic way. Set in this context, the sketch in question is so far beyond the realms of reality as to be absurd _ and in no way is intended to demean or upset any viewer," the company said in a statement.

The BBC did not comment immediately but the British Embassy in Manila issued a statement saying the BBC has editorial independence and the views expressed and portrayed by the network "are completely independent" from the government.

It said Filipinos in Britain "are an important part of British society, making invaluable contributions to our scientific and service sectors, and enriching U.K. culture."

The plight of millions of Filipinos working overseas is a sensitive issue for the Philippines, whose economy is kept afloat by billions of dollars in remittances they send home.

Last year, a scene in the ABC television series "Desperate Housewives" that used Philippine medical education as a punch line prompted angry calls from viewers, an online petition demanding an apology and criticism from Philippine officials.

In the latest outrage, Filipinos in Britain posted an online petition to "re-educate the BBC and the television broadcasting industry about responsible and culturally sensitive broadcasting."

we have known that for many years now - that Brand Filipina is equivalent to being the "maid" to the rest of the world. this started many years ago in hong kong, where i would say 70% to 80% of hong kong residents have filipina maids. they are so many there that on sundays, a whole park at central will be filled with filipina maids on their day-off. they close that road on that day to accomodate the large number of filipina maids.

with hong kong almost saturated, the filipina maid spilled over to other rich countries and in recent years they went to europe. many filipina maids are working in italy and britain.

is it any wonder that this "Harry And Paul" tv show has declared on british national tv what we know - Brand Filipina is a maid. this one goes further, also as a sex slave.

what are you willing to do for building Brand Equity?

it's paragraph 1 on page 1 on chapter 1 in marketing and advertising books we read - the Brand Equity is most sacred and should be built and defended to death at all cost, at all times.

and that seems to be what exactly they did for Brand China. and done to the extremes - to perfection. but, it is china though, so it is expected. the question is, being in marketing and advertising, are you tough enough to do the same thing for your brand?

remember that opening night at the beijing olympics? there was a girl there who gloriously sang this song. after watching her, everyone felt an international singing star was born. she wowed the 91,000 live audience in the audience and she achieved the same thing to millions of tv viewers worldwide.

well, the olympic organizers did a milli vanilli on this one. (read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milli_Vanilli )

it turned out this girl with a most pretty face (picture here) lip-synched the song. another girl, presumably off stage, unseen by the camera was actually singing. and this where it becomes extremely bothersome and bizarre - the girl with the beautiful voice was judged by the organizers as not pretty enough to be seen on worldwide tv, thus the decision to get a pretty face to appear singing that beautiful voice.

that was done in defense and in building Brand China into perfection. are you willing to do something like that for your brand?

this was not the only major effort executed for Brand China.

the other element of the olympic opening that wowed all of us was the fireworks. before the game began, i wondered what kind of opening china will have. when i saw the fireworks show, that made a lot of sense to me. china centuries ago invented fireworks. what an excellent match that the country where fireworks originated used it extensively during their day of glory.

to what extent were they willing to go through to make sure Brand China was perfect? apparently there is no limit.

some of the fireworks you saw on tv were computer graphics! well, the fireworks were real and were launched in real life at the stadium but what the viewers saw on tv was computer work that was done over a one year period.

the official reason given was that it would have been too dangerous for the helicopters filming the sequence to show it live on tv, thus they opted for computer graphics. (reminds me of the ginebra san miguel photoshop work!)

it's a noble reason, it's also great, well perfect for Brand China.

how many more efforts at building Brand China was executed in china? i have a nagging suspicion we will find out more in the coming days. this is just the 1st week of the games.

now, think about it --- do you have what it takes to build your brand's equity the way Brand China has been doing it?


---

read about the pretty face for the beautiful voice here :
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gvdGdbFHvF8M_eJh8CSMEIbZ8tFAD92H0VV81


read about the computer graphics fireworks you saw on your tv here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2534499/Beijing-Olympic-2008-opening-ceremony-giant-firework-footprints-faked.html

hooters philippines - misplaced brand equity?

the picture on the left, of hooter girls in the US tells you exactly what the hooters brand equity is or are. their hands are exactly on their brand equities.

and just to tell you that's exactly what the hooters brand equity is - i go to this forum where the men in it where all talking about the hooters manila opening. a few of them were actually planning on going to hooters to look at the brand equities and maybe get some food or drinks on the side.

pictures of the hooter girls manila were shown to them, and almost immediately, the men decided not to go anymore. that's how devastating the off-strategy brand equity of hooters manila have become - a turn off. they quickly lost triers when the brand equities were shown in pictures.

aside from the flatter than expected brand equities hooters manila showed, what caught the attention of the men where what appears to be another brand equity. look closely at the picture of hooter girls manila on the left. look at the shirt of the girls, way down below the hooters logo, where the text that says "manila bay". notice the distortion being caused on the text? if you lay that shirt flat on a surface, the printing will not show any distortion. the text only got that way after the girls wore the shirt. (with great apologies to the ladies on the picture. we're just discussing the merits of brand equities here.)

this is a great lesson in marketing and we know that very well - BE TRUE TO YOUR BRAND EQUITY or lose customers!

hooters philippines - brand equity that can't make mountains out of mole hills

we don't know if it was a soft launch, but hooters launched its first restaurant in the philippines at the mall of asia in pasay city. didn't see any ad or anything in media, just by word of mouth, specifically the mouths of men.

the interesting part is that just a few days, probably within hours of it's opening, pictures of the waitresses of hooters philippines circulated in the internet. and that got me thinking about a pair of errrr brand images and brand equity.

restaurants have them too. any owner of a restaurant will tell you, to succeed in the restaurant business, you need to be known for something. the more specific you are known for, the better.

in marketing research, there is a tool called word association where the respondents are shown or told certain words and the respondents playback the word that comes to mind upon seeing the word stimulus. this tool allows researchers to determine what are the images consumers associate with certain thoughts or concepts. for restaurants, it is almost always the food they are known for.

here's a short exercise. there are some restaurants that are a no brainer. please say the names aloud and say them quickly.

pancake house = pancakes; chicken bacolod house = chicken bacolod; lapid's = chicharon.

there are some that's not in their names, but its a quick answer. again, say them aloud and say them quickly.

ferino's = bibingka; starbucks = coffee; max's = chicken; jollibee = spaghetti; digman = halo-halo; aristocrat = chicken barbecue.

hooters = boobs!

what? boobs? is that food? well, boobs aren't food (at least not edible) but let's be honest here, when you say hooters, the first thing or first pair that comes to mind are female boobs. i don't think anyone has ever said steak, ribs, soup or salad when you say the word hooters.

simply put, perhaps to annoy the feminists, big female boobs is what hooters is known for. and it is these pairs of reasons that hooter girls are famous for and most probably the most photographed waitresses in the whole world. just like the hooter girl on the picture, what she has in front of her, a pair that are proud and smart is what hooters is known for.

that's really very hard to explain to my 10 year old son - "son, let's have dinner at hooters, i want to look at some things." but that's a separate story all together.

don't blame me, the hooters logo says the same thing, too. ok, so an owl hoots and that explains the image of the animal being there. sure, the eyes of owls are huge but the shape of the eyes and the two dots are conveniently placed in the middle of each eye and that tells us exactly what we are supposed to look at, well ok and to hoot at.

perhaps, this hooters logo should have PG13 rating?

that takes care of clearly establishing what the hooters brand equity is.

like the hooter girl counterparts in the US, the pinay hooter girls were also photographed extensively. and by looking at the poses of the pinay hooter girls, aside from how to carry a tray of food and having an intimate knowledge of the hooters menu, it seems how to pose for pictures has been part and parcel of the hooter girl training program. the poses of the pinay hooter girls are exactly the same with those of the hooter girls in the US.

BUT, there is a big difference. based on the pictures of the pinay hooter girls, it appears hooters philippines have failed to deliver on the hooters brand equity. it's a deflated brand equity that even the best of the underwires failed to compensate for.

if i was the asia regional marketing director of hooters, i would definitely tell hooters philippines is off strategy and off brand equity. recommendation - hooters philippines need to uplift and upgrade it's brand equity, if you know what i mean.

hooters philippines brand equity - it's a WAWAM!

here are some pics of the pinay hooter girls. with profound apologies to the ladies in the pictures.

what safeguard should do - get an AdBoard CDO!

this is the first of 2 ads that appeared in the Philippine Star today. it was placed on page 4 and on the opposite page 5, they had this print ad which was about the same size as the first one. they are teaser ads for the launch of new toilet soap.

notes: (a) click the images to view bigger size to read the copy; (b) these are actual ads that were scanned and the scanner picks up the imperfections of the printing of the ad, including "ghost images" of what's printed at the back of the ads and folds and creases on the print ad.

this is the 2nd ad:

can't wait for the intro and brandsell ad campaign for this new brand. these ads seem to indicate a very aggressive push to take market leadership from safeguard.

it looks like the new toilet soap will take head on safeguard's brand positioning and brand equity, superior anti-germs/bacteria. this new product will most likely cast doubt on safeguard's "health" positioning by saying or at least strongly implying constant use of safeguard causes damage to the skin which is "dry skin", which based on the ad and according to a TNS Research conducted in march 2008 said "dry skin is the most common skin problem experienced by mothers and their families".

that is the core brand equity of safeguard soap. and it will now be under attack!

if i was on the safeguard ad agency account team, tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning, i will be at the AdBoard's offices and will file a complaint asking for a CDO (cease and desist order) action against the first print ad. and i would ask for an immediate cease and desist action on that ad. i will make it my singular mission to disallow the printing of this ad again in philippine newspapers.

there are several provisions in the AdBoard code of ethics that can be used as basis for the CDO. one of this is "disparagement". this ad very aggressively have said "triclosan" and "triclocarban", safeguard's two germicidal ingredients are "harmful chemicals"! whoa! these two ingredients in safeguard are what make safeguard what it is. without these two ingredients, there will be no safeguard.

i would not discuss this further as the safeguard soap account team will need to do their job on this one. but let me say there are a lot more in that print ad that safeguard should question and ask the adboard to have them removed from the ad and future ads of this yet to be launched brand. i think the ad has over-reached itself and have said many things that they cannot defend and will definitely lose on. many of these things are, among other things, definitely disparaging to safeguard. and disparaging in a very major way.

it's a very aggressive and competitive print ad. among many copy lines in the ad, i particularly like the last paragraph, no. 4 on the ad, "Avoid the use of germicidal soaps. Check the active ingredients in your soaps and ensure that they don't contain chemicals like Triclosan or Triclocarban". they are saying stop using safeguard!

i like competitive ads. but this particular ad i find very irresponsible and very unprofessional. but they are very strong points that can harm safeguard's brand image, reputation and market share.

if i was safeguard, i would take this new brand beyond the AdBoard, i would take them to the philippine courts! i will immediately file a case with the AdBoard, literally at 8:00 am when it opens. and i will go to the philippine courts and get a TRO (temporary restraining order) to prevent the ad agency of this new brand from publishing this ad.

that's how serious i think is the threat of this print ad to safeguard's business and how wrong the print ad is.

veterans bank's radio ad

i'm impressed with the media weights of this radio ad - they have such high weights or this ad is stalking me as i hear the ad quite often.

it's good that even a small bank like veteran's bank has ad adveritising campaign. that's the way to fight the big banks. although the media weights of this ad while looks pretty good on its own, it is of course nothing compared to the big banks spending. but it's a good beginning.

what's not good about this ad is the commercial itself. all it talks about is that the bank serves the country's military veterans and then goes on to talk about how it wants to serve every filipino as it believes "every filipino is a hero". that's the tag line.

i completely do not get this ad. what is the objective of the ad? given the copy, most of it is geared towards building brand awareness on the bank. ok, i'm on that. building brand awareness is a legitimate advertising and marketing objective.

then it goes into a pitch to get new clients and this is the part where i think it fails miserably. it wanted to do that to use an emotional appeal on nationalism or pride as a filipino by saying every filipino is a hero. really? that pitch sounds good on paper, but i don't think it's at all meaningful to the general banking public. honestly, would you open a bank account with a bank on the basis of it making you feel good about being a hero?

it sounds poetic and all but i don't think that's in the top 100 attributes people look for in a bank. not even top 500 attributes. thoughts and ideas that sound good don't necessarily mean it will sell and certainly does not give it any license to be included in ads.

i did say building brand awareness is a legitimate advertising objective, but if that's it all does, then that ad is a WAWAM!. brand awareness is good but the true reason for being for ads is to get consumers to take action, the action of buying your product or service. we don't want consumers to just know your brand, we want consumers to buy your brand or service.

i think what this advertising forgot is this --- it's supposed to sell a product and the product they are selling is so weak, it does not have anything worth asking consumers to buy into. niche marketing is another valid marketing positioning, but i don't think "bank for heroes" counts for niche marketing.

and that is what veterans bank should be doing - retool their bank, reposition it and take on a niche marketing strategy. and this niche marketing strategy should not just be based on an advertising or emotional niche (bank for heroes) but offering bank products that offer niche benefits.

all is not lost. the ad would have generated pride and loyalty among its current user base. but that's all it has done. while the ad may have prevented current clients to close their accounts, i doubt if this ad was able to get new clients.

the only party happy about this ad is the ad agency of veterans bank because they are earning revenues. but that doesn't change things, it's a WAWAM!


(ps: i get the feeling this is another sideline ad. but i could be wrong. anyone know who the ad agency is?)

starbucks relaunch - back to basics, the power of brand equity

starbucks is plain and simple a marketing success. it is so successful that the you know the brand's marketing objective is not a marketing objective but something like "achieve world dominance". nobody will argue that is their goal, starbucks has had a ubiquitous strategy, to be in every corner of the city. actually the best description for their location choice strategy is "main street corner main street" and you know it's not said in jest, it's for real. you just can't say "lets meet at starbucks at the corner", as it's very possible that there will be more than 1 starbucks in that cross street.

and that is why i was dumb founded when i read in the business papers that starbucks stock market price has significantly lost value and that its ex-CEO, howard schultz was being called out of retirement to once again head the company.

more than that, what i found interesting in that news article, was what shultz said - starbucks will discontinue serving hot and steamy breakfast fare. he gave a very simple reason why they were stopping it - the aroma coming from the steamy breakfast food was interfering with the aroma of brewed coffee! it's not about product or pricing, its about aroma!

with that statement, i understood what he meant - starbucks will return to its core brand equity of great coffee and great coffee experience. that i think the most eloquent verbalization of the idea of what is referred to in marketing as back to basics, a going back to the true brand equity of starbucks. aroma is the most basic, one of the most physical manifistation of product delivery in cofee products. we know great cofee two ways - aroma and taste. in fact good aroma greets us first before good coffee taste. the CEO saying he will bring the company back to delivering on aroma means a most fundamental shift to a core brand equity for starbucks.

that was music to my ears as a marketing man. in fact that sentence in that article sounded like a full orchestra playing a great symphony to me. this man reeks with excellent brand equity skills and knowledge. it's not a surprise that he was THE MAN responsible for the " world dominance" success of starbucks. it is not only the fact that starbucks occupy the best locations on main street corner main street, it is the fact each starbucks look and most specially feel exactly the same. you don't even have to know the name, all you need to do is to step into one, sit down, look at the decor, the arrangement and feel the ambiance and you will know you are inside a starbucks outlet. starbuck's success is anchored only on one thing - its brand equity. there's no other way to explain why people are willing to pay P110.00 for a friggin cup of coffee that's served in a paper cup and spoons made out of a plastic strip that you can't use to scoop coffee with.

starbucks success is founded in superior delivery of the BRAND EXPERIENCE. (more on this in succeeding posts.)

when you hear a man say he will stop selling food products because the aroma interferes with the aroma of coffee being brewed, that's convincing proof that starbucks' success is nothing more but brand equity and that starbucks is on the road to recovery.

this news article details more changes in starbucks:

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Starbucks Plans Return to Its Roots


By BRAD STONE

Published: March 20, 2008

SEATTLE — Howard D. Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, announced sweeping changes on Wednesday for the company as it seeks to reconnect with customers who have left for competitors or pared back their coffee budget in hard economic times.

The initiatives are intended to restore an authentic coffeehouse experience to the stores and, in turn, re-energize an ailing stock that has lost half its value in the last 15 months. In front of 6,000 investors, employees and analysts at the annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, Mr. Schultz introduced an improved automated espresso machine that grinds coffee for each drink and has a lower height that will allow customers to see baristas making their beverage. He said the company would roll out the Swiss-made Mastrena machines to three-fourths of Starbucks stores by 2010.

Mr. Schultz also announced the acquisition of the Coffee Equipment Company, the four-year-old Seattle-based maker of the Clover coffee machine, which brews a more expensive, higher-quality coffee one cup at a time. The price was not disclosed. Starbucks will roll out Clover systems in select markets.

Mr. Schultz described a host of other plans: a pungent new coffee blend, a partnership with Conservation International to certify environmentally responsible whole-bean espresso products, and a rewards program for users of the Starbucks customer card.

Beginning in mid-April, users of the customer card will be able to customize their drinks — with soy milk or vanilla, for example — at no cost.

The announcements are intended to help Starbucks hang on to customers in the face of intensifying competition for brewed coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s, which is widely introducing espresso beverages this year.

“This was more of a position statement. They are going back to their core,” said Sharon Zackfia, a securities analyst with William Blair & Company. “They are saying, ‘We are not going to change who we are, we are going to defend turf aggressively.’ ”

Mr. Schultz obliquely referred to the powerful new rivals in an afternoon question-and-answer session with reporters. “A lot of people are making unique claims about coffee and what they do,” he said. “What’s interesting to me is that they are not coffee roasters.”

But Mr. Schultz tried largely to keep the focus on the company’s internal challenges and future moves. “This is the first time the U.S. business is under pressure; it’s a character test,” he said. “But it’s not about the economy. We don’t want to use that as an excuse. And it’s not about the competition. Don’t believe the media hype. There’s no coffee war going on. This is about us. “We somehow evolved from a culture of entrepreneurship, creativity and
innovation to a culture of, in a way, mediocrity and bureaucracy,” Mr. Schultz said.

His remarks combined self-criticism with musings on the turbulent economy, which he noted was reducing traffic to Starbucks stores. The company faces a hurdle that may be impossible to overcome in the short term: Will penny-pinching Americans, in the grip of an economic downturn, still pay $4.10 for their daily dose of white chocolate mocha-flavored coffee? Mr. Schultz said several times that the economy looked grim for the rest of the year, particularly in regions of the country hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis.

Starbucks has also suffered from rising wholesale prices for coffee and dairy products. In the face of those pressures, Mr. Schultz returned as chief executive 11 weeks ago after serving eight years as chairman. He quickly announced 600 layoffs and the closing of 100 of the least profitable Starbucks stores in the United States. He also said Starbucks would stop selling a line of breakfast sandwiches that were served warm, creating an aroma that overwhelmed that of the coffee in stores.

At the heart of the new announcements is a desire to revisit the company’s early devotion to high-quality coffee. The new coffee blend, called Pike Place Roast, is a reference to the location of the first Starbucks store. Starbucks will introduce the blend in stores next month. Baristas will be directed to brew smaller batches of coffee and refresh the coffee in urns every 30 minutes. Today, coffee can sit in Starbucks’s urns for as long as two hours.

Mr. Schultz called the new blend “a coffee so fresh that those people who drink it with milk and sugar will want to drink it black because of the sweetness.”

Also on Wednesday, Starbucks introduced a new online community, mystarbucksidea.com, where Mr. Schultz and other managers will contribute to a corporate blog. Customers will also be encouraged to visit the site to make suggestions and interact with employees. The site opens on Thursday.

Looking further ahead, Mr. Schultz said that the company planned to introduce health- and wellness-related food and drinks and energy beverages later in the year.

Wednesday’s meeting represents what Mr. Schultz hopes will be a striking turnaround in the speed and spirit of innovation at Starbucks. In the first half of the decade, the company thrived on product introductions like the Frappuccino, a frozen coffee drink. The last innovation widely thought to be successful was the Cinnamon Dolce Latte — in early 2006.

Mr. Schultz partly has his own relentless ambition to blame for the woes at Starbucks. In the last two years, citing ever-larger expansion goals, the company doubled its number of stores to more than 15,000 in 44 countries — many in comically close proximity to one another and to competing coffee shops.

Analysts say new stores cannibalized traffic from existing stores and thinned the ranks of well-trained Starbucks managers and employees. The company then tried to create efficiencies among stores, adding technology like massive automated espresso machines, which have little of the romance or aroma of the old hand-operated machines.

In the second half of last year, Starbucks’s same-store sales — a significant number watched by Wall Street — declined for the first time.

Shareholders and employees began lining up for Wednesday’s event as early as 6 a.m. As a barbershop quartet sang and employees dressed in Starbucks’s green aprons handed out free coffee, many shareholders expressed excitement over Mr. Schultz’s return.

“I’m glad Howard is back at the helm. Starbucks is his heart,” said Jan Melin, a retiree and
shareholder from Seattle who was there with her husband, Bill. “I have every confidence he will turn the company around so this stock can take our family on our 50th wedding anniversary trip next year.”

from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/business/20sbux.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=business

janina san miguel as brand philippines???

janina san miguel will represent the philippines. she will become the brand of the country. do we agree with that?



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Paolo Bediones: Janina, how are you?
Janina San Miguel: I’m pine.
Paolo Bediones: Alright, so you won two of the major awards - Best in Long Gown, Best in Swimsuit, do you feel any pressure right now?
Janina San Miguel: No, I don’t feel any pressure right now.
Paolo Bediones: Confident! Alright! Please choose a name of the judge.
Paolo Bediones: We have Miss Vivienne Tan.
Vivienne Tan: Good Evening.
Janina San Miguel: Good Evening.
Vivienne Tan: The question is, what role did your family play to you as candidate to Binibining Pilinas?

Janina San Miguel:
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 taff 10. Hmmm, so… but I said that my family es the most important persons in my life. Thank you.