Craeting the buzz


PR is playing a more important role in our marketing communications mix. Why ? Our A&P budgets are too small to afford us to advertise and we have to think about the cheaper alternative of PR. Yes PR could be cheaper and more credible than advertising but good PR is never easy. The press simply would not write about you if you don't have new news. By new news, you have to be either the biggest, the newest, the most expensive, the sexiest, the most daring, the most wanted or the most unusual. Going for the PR route could be more difficult or even more expensive than advertising. No such great PR angle and you have a small budget ? Let's spend the money on the basics : sampling, merchandising, sales promotions and so on. PR is more than looking for a movie to sponsor, putting a small logo in an event poster and selecting a movie star for photo opportunities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PUMA Agitation watch

Image
This is a new line of sport watches from PUMA called Agitiation. You may fall from the chair like I did when you read the copies. I can understand the thinking behind the ad : when you sell a plastic watch at HK$550, you would just need to think about some catchy selling points for it. The biggest selling point of this watch is the strap. There are holes in the strap (so called cheese cut-out) to make the watch as light as 45 grams so that you can run faster ! What's more, there are so many colours to choose from. It doesn't matter whether you have a fair or tanned skin complexion ... there's one for you ... I bet this watch is produced and marketed under licence granted by the brand owner of PUMA. Too bad that the licence is given to the wrong hands. It's Ok if this watch doesn't sell as it is the business of the licensee after all. However, a BS ad like this may have negative image impact on the PUMA brand in a way.
Read more

Giordano's frog

Image
One student asked me why Giordano re-uses its frog logo from ages ago. I said I know don't know. Really ! Giordano is a value-for-money brand. If it prints its logo onto the T-shirts and jeans, be it the frog or anything that says "Giordano", will sales increase ? Probably not. Giordano is a brand you wear but you don't want to admit. It's not a brand like Nike or LV that can uplift your image after all. So if it puts the frog back onto its product, there may be adverse effect on its sales. I haven't visited its store at the time of writing but according to its website, it hasn't added back the frog to its products. I wouldn't do that either. So what is the point of having the frog back in its print and advertising materials ? To remind us of its good old days ?
Read more

Benefiber ad

Image
Benefiber is quite a new product concept. Fiber powder that you can add to your favourite food, making fiber intake easy. I'm not sure whether such a new concept would be accepted by consumers. But one thing for sure. It's rather inappropriate to use 韜韜 as the endorser. He's a cute old man and I personally quite like him. He loves eating and the more I see him eating in front of the camera, the more I'm worried about his health condition. It looks like he's going to burst ! The question is whether he's a credible one to endorse a diet-realted health food at all. It may be more credible for him to endorse a slimming house when he manages to lose 100 lb.
Read more