buying philippine stocks online, citiseconline's print ads - lost twin found, but unknown still!

citiseconline, one of the country's online stock market brokers has come up with a second ad to the one that was previously discussed here in WAWAM!

it's a pool-out from the first one, with the same layout, design and under the same strategy, and that includes the same weakness as the first one.

first, the good news: this new ad was released side by side with the first one. the ad placement of the ads were brilliant! both ads appeared in the philippine daily inquirer, august 19 issue.

the first ad was printed on page B4, that's the left side of the double spread and the 2nd ad was placed on exactly the same level on page B5, the right side of the double spread. that was simply excellent media page placement! the media agency deserves a bottle of champagne for such a superb placement.

that placement made the ads look much bigger than what they actually are and were more effective. the ad placements enhanced the creative design of the ads.

the 2nd citiseconline print ad (double click ad to view larger image)

now, the bad news: the 2nd ad, above, was an exact pool-out of the first print ad (below), and that includes the error of the first ad - weak reason why.

in this ad, they featured a female employee, april lee-tan a CFA and citiseconline's head of research. that's a good contrast and pairing to the first one which had a male, juanis barredo, head of investor education.

the first ad failed because it featured a face in the ad who is not known to the intended target audience. barredo conducts seminars for citiseconline clients on technical analysis of stocks, so if you are not a citiseclonline client and even if you are but if you have not attended the seminar, you would have no idea who barredo is and most specially you would not know how good he and what he does.

the role of barredo in the first ad (print ad, below) is to lend credibility or to provide a strong reason why people or a strong permission to believe on why citiseconline's product is a great one. safeguard soap uses PAMET to bolsters their superior skin germ protection claim. other products use doctors, nurses, professionals or authority figures to help convince the target audience the product can deliver it's promise. you believe the claim because as in the case of safeguard soap, you know that PAMET is the authority on germs. the thinking is that it is easier and more convincing if PAMET says a certain product is good in killing germs.

in the citiseconline print ad, nobody knows what kind of authority or credentials barredo has, rendering barredo's inclusion in the print ad as a no-bearing component. it is not contributing anything to the sale.

that same weakness was put into the second ad. just like barredo, the target audience do not really know who lee-tan is. both barredo and lee-tan are being used as "experts" or "authority figures" that nobody recognize now even know about.

the 1st citiseconline print ad (double click to view larger image)

but i can appreciate what they are trying to do with these twin ads. barredo, the Head Of Investor Education is being used as the "teacher" for investors, with the headline "learn how to build wealth -- the easy way!". lee-tan, the Head Of Research, on the other hand is being used as the "expert", with the headline "with expert advice, we make investing simple." ( but that assumes new investors, who are the target audience, know what a research person does in a stock broker company.)

the thinking or intent seem to be somewhat there, but they are not being delivered in it's full power because of a very weak "reason why". this kind of ad and strategy needs one. citiseconline's first print ad may have found its twin, but they are unfortunately still unknown and ineffective.

read all WAWAM! posts on citiseconline here : http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/search/label/citiseconline

buying philippine stocks online - making up your mind on what stocks to buy is the hardest thing to do, even in print ads

anyone who is into stock trading will tell you that one of the hardest if not the hardest thing to do when you invest in stocks is - making a decision on what stocks to buy. you can have all the facts, all the data and the analysis at hand but making up your mind what to buy is a tough one.

and that i think is one of the things they grappled with on that citiseconline print ad. they had a difficult time making up their mind on what they want to do in the ad.

the most fundamental confusion and this has affected the whole ad in a very major way is - is it a "program" or a "investment product" like a mutual fund?


this is not an executional issue, it is a strategic one. and it's possible it goes deeper than an advertising strategic issue but all the way to the root, that of a product strategy issue.

the question citiseconline need to answer is -- what is the product they want to advertise? is it a learning program or is it an investment product? there are very major differences in the way you will advertise something that is a product versus one that is a program.

unless that is clarified clearly, the confusion will always be there.

this confusion shows in the ad - both are talked about in the ad. the headline, footer and the name of the product talks of a program. the body copy and subhead talks about an investment product. that confusion effectively weakened the ad. lack of focus wastes space and does not make for any strong sale on anything.

this confusion has affected another element in the ad - the lack of a strong reason why. this is the second weakness of the ad.

the use of barredo is the "reason why" but it is meaningless to most of the target audience because most of the audience are non-citiseconline clients and therefore do not know who barredo is. barredo is known only to citiseconline clients and in fact even among citiseconline clients, only a few know who he is.

depending on the chosen strategy, they can use as reason why one of the two: (a) why they have a proven way to minimize risks and maximize earnings or (b) how their system teaches clients to become smart and therefor profitable investors.

i do not know exactly what the product they want to advertise, but to me, its obvious the whole ad needs a major rethink. they need to start from square 1 - the product.

as an investor myself, new investment products is a very good thing for the market. there are many people who want to invest into the stock market but do not do so because they find it too daunting and complicated. whatever it is that citiseconline is selling will be good for investors and the market. hopefully it will expand the philippine stock market's user base. and thats good for all investors and the philippine stock market.

now, if only they can fix that ad......

citiseconline print ad - build reputation, build wealth

double click ad to view larger image

citiseconline is one of the country's online trading stock trading company. it's relatively new and it has been successful with it's clientele having grown very well over the months. they recently released an ad for a new product - "COL EasyInvestment Program".

it's actually a confusing ad.

first, they call it a "program", it's not a product or a service but a program. so this is not like a mutual fund where you give your money to the investment firm and they invest your money for you, you can just forget about it and wait for it to earn.

this is how most people understand what a "program" means - its like enrolling in an exercise program in a gym and when we follow that program, we lose or maintain our weight and become healthier. the better we stick to the program, the better the results.

the headline ("Learn how to build wealth - the easy way!") and the footer ("Learn how easy it is today!") talks of the same thing - that it is some kind of a learning program, very similar to what happens when you enroll in an exercise program in your gym.

but that is not what it says in the body copy. in the body copy, it sounds like a mutual fund type of product - you choose Premium Growth stocks selected by "seasoned financial analysts", give them P5,000 for it.

they have in the ad a picture of juanis barredo. i think when most readers look at the picture, they will have three questions - who is he? why is he in the ad? what's the point?

that leads to a discussion of target audience. who is the target audience of this ad? citiseconline is a relatively new service and from a marketing standpoint, the logical target audience for them are primarily individuals who are not yet stock investors and secondarily individuals who use live stock brokers and other clients of other online stock brokers. the former is a very large audience - while investors in the philippine stock market have grown significantly in the past months, the number of investors are still on the over-all very small compared to other markets. it is a largely untapped market.

with most of the readers of this ad not citiseconline clients and an even much greater number who are not even stock market investors, it means the chances that the target audience will know who juanis barredo is, is anywhere from nil to 0.1% of them at best.

the purpose of including pictures of people in ads is to enhance the selling power of the ad. i agree that putting someone who is an "expert" or an "authority figure" can make the product being sold more attractive, but if that "expert" and "authority figure" is not known to the target audience, what then is the value of including that person in the ad?

that is i think the greatest weakness of this ad. juanis barredo is known only to citiseconline clients. barredo conducts seminars and talks for citiseconline clients who want to learn technical analysis of stocks that can help in being better stock investors. but if you are not a citiseconline client, you will have no clue who barredo is nor would you know his credentials. in fact i think even among citiseconline clients, barredo is probably known only to a few - those who have attended their free seminars.

the other related weakness and something that also adds to the confusion is the stated title of barredo - "Head Of Investor Education". that title matches with the headline, footer and the "program" label of the product.

but that title does not match with the body copy. the body copy talks of "Premium Growth stocks selected by seasoned financial analysts". being "head of investor education" does not necessarily mean "seasoned financial analyst".

for barredo to give power to this ad, they need to build up his reputation in the ad. we need more information and a sale on how good barredo is as a financial analyst, if he is one.

as the headline suggests, for this ad to build wealth for COL, this ad needs to first build a reputation for barredo among its target market - the general investing public.

it's a WAWAM!