ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

Happy holiday and wish you a joyous long weekend. My daily post will resume on July 3. Stay tuned.

There is a recent promotion of California peach and plum, not only on the print level but there is also a TVC as well. As far as I know, this kind of promotion is financed by the US (California government). Around the world, different countries have been subsidizing their exports of produces, including tax relieves, price subsidies and marketing dollars. Like in the US, different promotion boards are formed to do marketing in export countries. Compared with direct monetary subsidies, marketing and promotion to end consumers could better avoid the political conflicts about trade imbalances. The US has always been complaning the trade imbalances with China. Americans are just taking the smarter way of promoting their exports. They invade by marketing, not just price.

PCCW has just launched this new multimedia service. Now you can access different information and services by your landline phone. In recent years, I think PCCW has been quite sucessful in setting up its multimedia services with some appealing contents. Since the service platform is there, it needs to increase the methods of access available to consumers in order to maximize usage : mobile phone, Now.com (web), Now TV (cable) and now the landline phone. Who would use landline phone for multimedia services ? My guess is those who don't know how to use the Interenet, probably the older generation aged above 50+. It does have a point but this EYE service isn't cheap at all. You will need pay HK$128 per month and on top you will need to pay some extras for stock quotes, the spots channels and so on. It can be quite a high price to pay for the older generation and I wonder whether it will get popular.

Pepsi Max has just launched an "imported" TVC featuring Eva Longoria. It has a hint of mockery against Coke Zero. Putting the ad aside, I think Coke has done a better job in naming. "Coke Zero" as a name is already communicating what the product is all about, i.e. same coke taste, zero calories. On the other hand, "Pepsi Max" can be seen as a competitive name against "Coke Zero" but it takes some effort to explain what "Pepsi Max" means, as by its slogan "Max Taste. No Sugar". So I think Coke has won at the start by naming. Too bad that direct competitive advertising is not allowed in Hong Kong. Otherwise, we will be able to see more interesting and entertaining ads. I have just put an old one by Diet Pepsi by Jackie Chan below. And the last one is also from Pepsi Max. You might have seen it before. It's worth watching again as it's very entertaining.

A brand of sole that makes you look taller (... but only by one inch). The brand name is quite creative : Jungle = 增高 phonetically in Chinese. I'm pretty sure it's a brand created locally in Hong Kong. And it does have some good thinking behind how it should be marketed. While women can wear high heels, this so called Magic Sole is positioned as the solution for guys who also want to look taller. The problem is whether one inch is good enough. Maybe. A suggested slogan : "我冇六呎高, 可以着Jungle (增高 )". Isn't it catchy ?

One of the readers asked what I think about the latest TVC featuring 詹端文. Too bad I couldn't find this TVC but it's alright. We can still talk about it. First of all, I have to say the execution is good and the key message is clear : we have different needs at the different stage of life and HSBC is here to support you. A testimonial approach is used with 詹端文 telling us his different needs. The overall feeling is warm and touching. It focuses on image building rather than selling what its wealth management is about. The problem is that this "every stage of life" proposition has been used by many banks although spokespersons, creative and execution are different. Remember there was an ad from Hang Seng featuring 李麗珊 ? It was also about wealth management and I can still recall something like "養大個仔要成四, 五百萬" ...

Let's continue on DC advertising. In my last post, I mentioned about going the rational route. It's not easy to come up with a good creative idea to convey a rational message. These are two better examples. In the Cybershot one, it uses a surreal situation to demonstrate its anti-shock function. And in the Nikon one, it uses a scorpion as an analogy to represent speed and compactness. I think both ads could get some attention of the consumers in terms of the strength of the visuals too. Compared with the Panasonic ad below, these two ads have one thing in common : a single-minded key message which allows better room for creativity. If you try to sell everything, it's almost impossible for the agency to come up with a good creative.

These two ads represent two extremes in digital camera advertising. The Panasonic one takes a completely rational approach talking about the features of the its camera. A clear demonstration of its functions but rather boring. As for the Sony one, the claim is emotional, simply saying that its DC is a gadget for chic people. It doesn't say too much about the features of the DC. Which is a better way to go ? Given DC is a high-involvement purchase to many people, I am slightly more for the rational route. The key is coming up with a good creative to catch people's attention so that they have interest to read the rational product information.

Positioning, the 5th P that ties the other Ps together. Enjoy these quotes. How can we use one message to communicate to multiple buyers? Obviously we cannot. We'll need different articulations of our message that resonate with each buyer type. -- Steve Johnson, Pragmatic Marketing The best positioning is put in the context of solving a problem for a specific buyer. That means that there are multiple positioning documents, each conveying product value in terms that resonate with the specific buyer.-- Steve Johnson, Pragmatic Marketing "I think the most significant format feature in a commercial is that it's about one thing. It's about selling one idea. -- Sam Gibbons, Sesame Street producer quoted in The Tipping Point "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind." - Winston Churchill The purpose of the positioning statement is to be borne in mind and conformed to in everything you say and do. And it should not be forgotten that as in everythin

When I first saw this TVC, I thought it was another McDonald's TVC. That's the problem of using celebrities. In the previous campaign of McDonald's, 軟硬 was so strongly associated with the brand and it seems McDonald's has "owned" them. When they appear in the ad of another brand, consumers may mistaken. Coming back to this particular TVC of EPS, it may be me who is dumb as I didn't know what they are arguing about at the beginning as they are playing with some Japanese-like language. In fact, I needed to replay the ad to find out they are arguing about 「買嘢先」or 「扌禁機先」. If you don't catch what they are talking about by paying attention, it can be another 無喱頭 TVC to you !

One of our readers has asked about the latest 鴻福堂「幾乎有阿媽咁好」TVC. Lucky that I was able to locate it on YouTube. I think it's an ad trying to be creative for creative sake. Yes all of us would agree that 阿媽好煩, 但都係為我哋好, 周不時煲嘢比我哋飲 but what does that have to do with 鴻福堂 herbal drinks ? It seems something about the products are missing to make the「幾乎有阿媽咁好」claim convincing. Moreover, I wonder who this TVC is targeting at. In terms of execution, it looks like targeting at the youngsters but most young people live with their families. So is it asking them not to drink 阿媽煲Ｄ嘢 and drink 鴻福堂 ? I'm confused.

Just received an email from Virgin Atlantic about a special offer to Sydney. In recent years, the rise of value airlines like Oasis and Tiger has been shaking up those bigger traditional airlines. "Less for less" is the proposition of value airlines. And in reaction, big airlines are slashing prices and trying fight back with "less for more". Either way, both sides are trying to offer value for money to consumers and how lucky we are. In price competition, cost efficiency has become the name of the game. No one will be able to sit on a big fat profit without knowing how the business can be run more cost-efficiently. It's not going to be easy for the big guys.

Looks like the competition is getting hot amongst the fastfood chains in getting more business during dinner time. Maxim's MX is also entering the dinner special arena. Let's put the executions of their ads aside and look at their strategies. KFC says you can enjoy a complete yet speedy dinner with appetizer, main course and dessert. This doesn't sound appealing as speed and enjoyment are conflicting when it comes to dinner. On the other hand, Cafe De Carol is selling made-to-order 小炒. To me it's not unique as most 茶餐廳 are doing that anyway. 茶餐廳 is the more convincing choice when it comes to 小炒. And now Maxim's MX is having 優生冬瓜盅晚餐. It is said that the miniature 冬瓜 is from Japan and it is super tasty, blah, blah, blah. In terms of consumers' interest, Maxim's MX wins by far. It catches HK consumers who always love to try new things. Too bad that it hasn't got the same distribution as KFC and Cafe De Coral. Otherwise, I think it would win a mile away. Gu

爽呀 ! 真係無得頂 ! Do you know why the Japanese have a life span of 82.9 years on average ? Because they don't suffer from constipation ! And this is the ancient secret : they use plums to solve the problem. 大將軍豐臣秀吉都話 :「爽呀!」 According to my limited health knowledge, plums could possibly relieve constipation. It just so chooses to sell this plum essence in an exaggerated and over-claimed way in order to charge consumers a higher price. Selling at HK$18.5 per bottle, this thing is not cheap and product cost could only be HK$3-4. 作大Ｄ, 賣貴Ｄ Somehow this is the mentality of many health supplement manufacturers. Sigh ...

Speaking of toiletry products, TRESemme is an interesting brand worth talking about. As its tagline says "Only for professionals", it is positioned as a range of professional but affordable hair-care products. In a sense it's trying to challenge Vidal Sassoon. Its TVC looks cheap and it's quite funny. Funny because it is self-defeating : if the brand is only for professionals, it shouldn't be sold in supermarkets and drugstores in the first place ! The professional claim of Vidal Sassoon is backed by its reputable hair saloons and hair stylists. For TRESemme to succeed against Vidal Sassoon, its distribution should be limited to hair saloons as consumers have to see hair stylists really using it to be convinced. And the saying can be something like "Not sold in supermarkets, strictly for professionals". Just some thoughts.

I bet you must have seen the Gatsby 木村拓哉 TVCs and talked about it somehow. In fact there are more versions from Japan (see below). When I first saw it, I said wow, 木村拓哉 on TV ! What's it about ? 木村拓哉's acting is very camp and the jingle is very strong to catch your attention. However, it doesn't tell you anything about the products at the end. So are these TVCs good ? I think the TVCs are successful in creating saliency and awareness for the brand and the products. Whether you can actually sell some products would depend on what you do in other communications channels. For example, we could complement the TVCs with print ads and POPs that spell out more information about the products, sales promotions to induce trials and so on. Then we will have an overall campaign that sells. BTW, if you want to download the jingle to use as the ringtone of your phone, here is the link .

This 氣血通 is kind of positioned as a Chinese medicine alternative to western medicine pain killers like Panadol for killing long-lasting pains. It has a TVC which take a problem and solution approach where it uses the punch of a black boxer to represent the pains you suffer from. And a big box of 氣血通 falls from the sky crushing the black boxer to depict "kill the pains". We must have seen similar creative somewhere somehow. My concern is about the potential of being racist. One may say it' alright so long as no one complains to TELA. But what do you think ?

If you suffered from a minor astigmatism, your eyesight would be the same as when you are 70 years old. Sounds scary and this is new to most of us. It's quite a typical problem-solution way of selling. However, since the problem in this case is not commonly known by consumers, consumer education would be needed. Potentially it would take PR and professional spokesmen to do the education part and complement advertising. Coming back to the ad , I think it can be improved a bit in terms of execution. The focus of attention could be better brought to the main talent. Maybe one could consider darkening the background and the talents at the back with montone in order to highlight the main talent. Just some thoughts.

By the principle of branding, a brand should have its own colour(s) in order to create a strong brand identity. McDonald's is always yellow and red. Coca-Cola is red and white. The key is consistency and owning the colours different from your competitors'. In one of my classes about branding, I have put up Standard Chartered as one of the good examples as their advertising materials all carry its blues and green colours consistently vs HSBC in red and white. Now that they have an ad in monotone brown and grey for its priority banking. Even its logo colours have been changed. Well, it's right to find some ways to differentiate an upper-end service from the normal but changing the brand colours is kind of overdone. In fact one could consider creating a new set of image-oriented creatives rather than changing the brand colours. However, the funny thing is that these two ads are almost the same but in different colours, managed exactly the other way round.

得閒貪得意寫吓中文, 呢個 ad 真係有咁大作咁大, 泰國野葛, 金絲燕窩精華, 納米科技, 乜搽燕窩可以令個胸大D咩? 又關納米事? 睇吓D copies 真係噏得出就噏, 佢仲加多幾隻日文扮日本貨, 用"大地震"嚟做 claim, 真係犀飛利 ! 揾人信你先奇。作大, 堆切, 搵笨, 有時見到呢D ad 真係擰哂頭, 我諗呢個係D人心態問題, 以為呢D 叫 marketing ... 不過呢個 ad 都有D持別, 唔知為乜但至少佢用咗一個公仔嚟做代言人, 唔用明星, 都算有Ｄ突破啦。

Yahoo! is running this search competition. The more you search on Yahoo!, the higher the chance you can win some prizes. It's a promotion that you don't need to buy anything or spend a penny to win a prize. So what's the catch ? I think it's a good promotion idea that could kill two birds with one stone. On one hand, it could potentially build itself as the search engine of choice against Google amongst the users. On the other, it could promote its search traffic to support the sales of search advertising to advertisers. So literally it is the advertisers of Yahoo! paying for the fabulous prizes.

Excuse for my ignorance. I didn't know the 4As has been around for 50 years. Over the recent years, we saw a lot of changes : mergers and acquisitions, the rise of media agencies, the set-up of different specialized marketing services arms and sub-brands to cater for lower budget clients. Glamorous as you would perceive, advertising agency is not a terribly profitable business. Rents and salaries are sky high and clients' budgets are ever reducing. Hong Kong is just a small mature market and clients' focus of investment has shifted to China. And brain drain in the advertising industry has occurred for a long time too. My feeling is that the golden years of Hong Kong advertising might have already passed and we rarely see great productions and ambitious creatives nowadays. The 4As is having an exhibition at the Pacific Place from Jun 1 -10. It is definitely a chance to see some great ads from the golden years. For more information, check it out HERE .

One of my friends sent this to me. It's a funny test. Give it a try. I have scored 85, same as my friend ... well, we are from the same generation ... have fun. 你是電視廣告迷﹗ 你有85分，你對七、八、九十年代的廣告瞭如指掌！能得到這樣的分數，你簡直是一個標準的電視廣告迷！你對七、八、九十年代之間所播放的廣告都十分留心。嚴重一點說，每當電視開啟了以後，你可能每一分一秒都是目不轉睛地看著，就算連電視廣告也不放過。在年幼時，你說不定暗地裡曾經和朋友重演過某些廣告的情節吧? Click : 老餅廣告測試

Let's not be critical for a change and think about how you would do a print ad for an ice-cream. Like what the tagline says, tasting is believing. The problem is with the difficulty in depicting good taste in a 2-D ad with visual and verbal compositions. Come to think of it, it's almost impossible. Ice-cream, like many other FMCG products, is a low-involvement purchase. The key is to induce trial like what this ad is trying to achieve. Is this ad effective in inducing trial ? I'm leaving it to your judgement.

I start to love this brand and the way it advertises. How many times have I spotted its ads in my blog ? Let me count : once , twice and this is the third time. Sex always sells and this time it really pushes to the limit. Wanna turn women on ? You're gonna need more hair ! And here is the solution ! Does it sound and look like a Viagra ad ? What if your wife or your girlfriend find a pack of Trichoderm in the bathroom ? How would you explain to her ?

This is a painful ad for the marketers who did it. There is one thing in common between telco and bank advertising : loads of terms and conditions (T&C) and disclaimers. Most of the time, the wordings and the phrases have to be approved by the colleagues in the legal department. Look, although this ad looks uncreative, it must have taken quite a bit of hard work by the marketers involved. Imagine it's already a big headache to coordinate between with the legal departments of both companies. Proof-reading the small prints is not easy at all too. Worst of all, you would keep on asking yourself why you are doing all these T&C as no reader would actually read them ! Banking and finance is still recruiting new blood because of the blooming market. If you are a marketer thinking about changing to a new industry, banking and finance may be worth considering. But think whether you can handle such pain.

Sometimes I really wonder how some advertisers justify the spending on celebrities. Aaron Kwok, big celebrity, big money. Celebrity works because if we choose the right one, he or she could provide the brand with credibility. Now the question is whether Aaron Kwok is the right one for Saint Honore, a cake shop which sells cakes and dumplings. The link is weak because as far as I know, Aaron is a singer and actor, not a gourmet. In both ads, you find Aaron is pretty "detached" and he's like appearing on his album cover. He's not even trying to sell anything. Is it worth the money ?