ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

Burgers are now freshly made rather than "made-to-stock" now at McDonald's. Is it trying to match up with those higher end burger places like Triple-O and Monster Burger ? The upside is each burger is fresh and hot but the downside is you have to wait. Efficiency is crucial for a high volume/low price fastfood restaurant like McDonald's while you don't want to keep your customers waiting too long. The experience wasn't too bad at all, even during busy lunch time as I only had to wait 2-3 minutes. That's what we call operations excellence.

AXA rides on the current financial situation to do promotion while Fortis plays on swine flu. Swine flu is not so widespread in HK (yet). So the extra coverage on swine flu may not be able to motivate people to buy the insurance from Fortis. Insurance is a business of probability. On the other hand, if swine flu breaks out in a big scale, it may not launch such a promotion anyway because of the high payout potential.

This is a fun ad for your enjoyment. I must say it's a good attempt ! If you fire people and don't want to get revenge, you should use genuine softwares. If you find your boss replacing pirated softwares with genuine ones, you would know he has planned to fire someone. It also reminds you to dig out some misconducts of your company and disclose them in case you are fired. Isn't it a great ad ? I think Microsoft should adapt it.

Advertorial is a disguised advertising. This is a such a "good" work that I read half of it before I found out it's an advertorial. It talks about black tuna is in season in Taiwan and it says you need to have clear vision to check it out clearly. LOL, I just fell from the chair... The association is so weak and I feel fooled reading it. Very creative indeed. What else can I say ?

This is the third TVC of Bupa I write about. You can revisit the previous one here : "no need to pay" and "no added premium" . In each ad, it talks about an unique feature of its medical insurance plan. In this one, it's about the extra coverages on chronic diseases. Introducing the unique features one at a time is clever as each ad is single minded enough. I'm sure such strategy will get Bupa as the medical insurance expert into the mind over time. Use of humour will also make its ads stand out. Yet I have a small concern about using humour to talk about cancer which is a terminal disease potentially. It's not something people want to joke about and it could be a turn-off. Humour is a two-edged sword and we should handle with care.

If I'm not wrong, Virjoy is a brand that appeared in the market during or after SARS in 2003. When the economy was not so good at that time, it was sold a an economy alternative to Kleenex and Scott's. Added with the fact that it's an exclusive brand in Park'n Shop, it has been receiving store level supports for it to take off, from an unknown brand to a known brand that can afford to advertise. It also manages to convey a positioning that hit the right button : hygienic with 450-degree steamed treatment. It's definitely good marketing. Now who says we should start a brand in the premium segment ? Here is an example to show us we don't have to. We can start low and build high over time.

I suspect sales of branded pocket tissues have been shrinking over the years due to the rise of the generic. Newsstands and convenience stores give pocket tissues away free, which adversely affects the sales of the branded tissues. While other brands have given up the market, the leader, Tempo, remains and keeps investing A&P and new product development. Can these new flavours sustain the business or even turn the situation around ? I doubt that but I also wonder whether there are other ways. Probably I'll milk it instead for several years of profits.

A reader asked me about this series of information segments in my previous post about Panadol . I thought there must be some brand behind it although it's unbranded. The information is said to be provided by The society of Hospital Pharmacists of Hong Kong Drug Education Resources Centre, while answering some concerns about pain killers. Every single one of them is homing on an active ingredient called Acetaminophen. What is Acetaminophen anyway ? According to Wikipedia , Acetaminophen has a more common name - Paracetamol, 撲熱息痛 in Chinese. Sounds familiar ? It's the same drug that your doctor gives you when you have fever. And it's the same active ingredient of Panadol, a branded Paracetamol. Now you can tell who's behind this. The series seems to try to build some "professional myth". It would be interesting to see what Panadol will do next. I'm not playing 踢爆 here but it could be an example of how a brand makes use of different vehicles of co

Speaking of energy drinks, Libogen is out and Red Bull is in. Libogen has Taurine and Lucozade has glucose as the claimed active ingredients. To many consumers, the active ingredient of Red Bull is a myth. Among the three, which one is the best product ? Most consumers also can't tell. Image always comes into play in a low involvement category like packaged drink. Image is built by many things, the packaging, the distribution, the advertising and promotion. Especially, it takes consistency in advertising to build a solid brand. How long has Red Bull been using this "Red Bull gives wings" platform ? 5 years ? 10 years ? Long enough that I can't remember. Nothing changed in terms of message although there are a variety of executions over time. That's a good practice indeed.

During the time of SARS, various health foods, Vitamin C products, sanitizing products and so on invested hefty amount of money on A&P to ride on the situation to do some additional business. Yet it seems advertisers have been taking a wait-and-see approach to the swine flu this time round. I just saw a couple of print ads from Walch and maybe one or two from Dettol. While others remain quiet, it's so funny for Libogen sticks its neck out to talk about improving immunity. Looks like it has forgotten it's an energy drink. LOL.

Let's carry on the discussion about the ad scene during the economic downturn from yesterday. The travel agency business is undergoing a difficult time as consumers are less willing to spend on holiday. Price cut may help a bit but is hardly effective in turning around the downfall. What would you do ? The obvious choice is cutting back A&P spending to protect the bottomline. It's another story if you have the financial muscle. Advertsing at this time will get you good cut-through while your competitors are quiet. This is exactly what Hong Tha tries to do. It just takes the chance to make use of the current econmic situation to reinforce the No.1 and partnership image. The execution is not too exicting as a low cost production but it works to resonate with consumers.

Life still goes on during the financial tsunami. Companies are trying to sustain business while consumers are tightening their belts. In order to chase after the numbers, higher portion of A&P is shifted to from brand building to sales promotion. One would ask if we can come up with some sales promotions that can drive sales and build brand at the same time. Yes, you can and it's something all marketers think about all the time. Here is an example where Mannings tries to drive sales and build a caring image leveraging the econmic downturn. Not a bad attempt but can such poromotion get the best of both worlds ?

Nikon might not be a late comer in DSLR vs Canon but it should be a late comer in advertising about it. When I saw this TVC , I thought it was an ad from Canon. The execution is so similar to many ads of Canon. Look, advertising has role to play in differentiating from competitors. So we need to work hard on that from creative idea to execution. Better branding can also be weaved into the ad so that people can tell it's Nikon not Canon. Call me old school but you need to ensure that you are not advertising for your competitor ! A brief sign-off logo at the very end can be easily missed.

I want to open an discussion on whether it's something you would do. Usually other brand don't air an TVC to ask consumers to switch from its older model to the new one. They just phase out the older model quietly. You would appreciate the thinking behind this ad. My guess is that Gillette is no longer producing Mach 3 and fears that consumers may switch to other brands. That's why it comes up with such a call-to-action ad. The trouble is, in order to convince consumer to switch to the newer model, you will need to admit the older one is an inferior product. Do you want to say that ?

Is this an endorsement or a testimonial ? Let's not try to define it with textbook definitions. I only know that it takes someone credible, someone who can connect with consumers. In either case, we can use an expert, a professional, a celebrity or "person on the street". An organic farmer is not any one of them to speak for a pain killer. Medicinal residue may be a concern for people taking medicine and I can see the attempt to connect natural nature of organic farming with the natural discharge of medicinal residue. Yet the link is way too weak to be credible.

In a class of media planning, one student brought up this ad for discussion. I would call it an image ad as it doesn't send any specific benefit message while making use of the mood and tone to connect consumers emotionally. The message is kind of generic : "Vita Distilled Water is in the lives of HK people." Well, distilled water is distilled water and there is nothing much about it to sell. Image ad is something worth considering. Yet the student has pointed out that it's confusing to see the green bottle in the ad and people may mistaken it's Watson's Distilled Water. That must be a variant of Vita and I would agree it's confusing to feature it in the ad. It's a learning about proper branding. Consumers recall a brand by the colour. If you want to differentiate from your competitors, use a different colour.

Pet has become an important member of the family nowadays. Young couples don't want to give birth. They keep pets. Single people also keep pets as company. Pet is not pet but treated like a human. That's the consumer insight of this ad. "Love them back". Your doggie is loyal and will love you in his lifetime. So you have to love him back by feeding Cesar. Look at that delicious plate of French chicken with mushroom. I'm sure your doggie can never tell it's French or Chinese chicken. Stuff inside the can is of course nothing like that. Well, you doggie won't care anyway. It just makes the pet owners feel good. That's the power of emotional appeal.

The idea is like a taste challenge. It's asking you to try the Cuppacino of McCafe and you will find it as good tasting as Starbucks or Pacific Coffee. Priced at HK$12, it is sold as a value-for-money choice too (that's almost the same price as the normal coffee sold at tea meal house). Will McCafe be able to take some business from Starbucks and Pacific Coffee ? Starbucks and Pacific Coffee are not only selling coffees but also consumer experience. It's the relaxing environment for people to chit chat, read, surf the net and kill time. You just can't do that at McCafe as most of the outlets are connected to McDonald's that are always busy, crowded and noisy. So I suspect McCafe will just steal some grab-and-go consumers from Starbucks and Pacific Coffee.

I suppose this 古漢養生精 has found the right celebrity to endorse it. It's a health supplement for kidney health. Said to have various health benefits, potency and youthfulness are actually implied as what it can do for you. 謝賢 is 72 years old and well-known for mingling with young girls at such old age. I'm sure this 古漢養生精 has nothing to do with his popularity among young girls. Yet, isn't appealing to those who are old and still wanting to get young girls ? lol