ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

Let's not do promotion for promotion sake. Ice-cream and memory cards are completely unrelated. Although everyone loves Haagen Daz ice-cream, it doesn't mean that it's a good promotion idea. And it doesn't mean that it will able to drive more sales of memory cards. Memory card is something you either need it or you don't. Will we buy more memory cards because of the ice-cream giveaway ? Probably not. Let's think harder. Joint promotions with DC and hand phone can be more effective and relevant.

With franchising, the number of Starbucks in HK is on the rise rapidly. Guess how many ? According to their website, there are 65 Starbucks in HK. Are there many ? In comparison, there are just over 100 Cafe de Coral. Are there many coffee drinkers in HK ? The population of coffee drinkers is growing I suppose but the number of Starbucks are growing at a much faster pace. So what does Starbucks do ? Product extension of "easy to drink coffee" for wider appeals to inexperienced coffee drinkers. Look at these new pumpkin flavoured coffees. Are they real coffee at all ?

The objective of this ad is to announce a new direct flight service from HK to London by Air New Zealand. The headline and the body copies are well connected. In the body copies, it spells out the details of the service, including good foods prepared from the produce of New Zealand, roomy seats, great entertainments and so on. But I'm confused by the key visual. On the right of the plate, there are two pieces of Salmon in New Zealand's shape. Then what is the on the left ? Shape of London ? I wonder ... Now ask ourselves, is the creative idea communicating the key message ? i.e. Air New Zealand is having a direct flight service from HK to London

It's not an easy product to communicate. You just don't want to be too explicit. But when you are too subtle, you are not communicating the product benefits lould and clear enough. This ad tries to draw an association that different parts of your body need different cleansers and your special part needs a special cleanser for dedicated care and protection. The idea, however, is not very well-executed. It's just too subtle ...

For a change, let's not comment about the creativity and execution of this ad. Let's think about positioning that is being conveyed. This DC is very clearly positioned as the "entry-level anti-shock DC" for youngsters fond of taking snap-shots. I'm not sure if there is a market for DC with such positioning but I really appreciate the clarity of the positioning. It's not a super DC which has a lot of state-of-the-art technologies but the price is very affordable at HK$998. As a consumer, if I don't have a DC, I may consider it. This is how I would work out whether it is a bargain : a basic no brand no particular function DC = HK$500, add on the anti-shock function and add on Benq as a known brand; I think it could be a bargain.

Seen the recent 健康工房 TV ad featuring 張學友 ? Long time no see 張學友 in TV commercial. He's pretty up there nowadays. They can afford him; as some of you may know, 健康工房 has been acquired by Coca-cola. I think it's a wise move by Coke. In their product portfolio in the past, they didn't have any brand to tap the growing healthy herbal drink market. Rather than inventing a new one, they simply bought one. Have to say 健康工房 is quite a good brand name. Now that the brand comes "alive" with the marketing muscle of Coke. Well, it's always good to be a mega brand which has the money. And congratulations to the (past) 健康工房 brand owner.

If you are my regular blog reader, you knew I would talk about this 翔龍灣 Miss Universe campaign from 恒基. We all scratch our heads what Miss Universe has to do with apartment sale. OK, we all see the intention of conveying the feeling of elegance, International and 矚目. The problem is that although she is the Miss Universe, she's not familiar to us; someone we can't feel close to. She's just a not-that-bad-looking, 高頭大碼, blond 鬼妹. And the execution is not very exciting. It simply reminds me of those old cognac ads from the 80's ...

Massive campaign has been launched by DBS lately. It's a thematic/corporate campaign and the intent is obvious : they want to build the image of THE Asians' bank that understands the needs of Asians. It's a sound intent as no bank has ever tried to build that image as far as I remember. The ads are not too creative though. The imageries, tone and manner and the saying are very typical of other banks' corporate ads. Another problem is that the campaign doesn't spell out how they actually help Asians. That is, claim without support. And one more thing. Although they aspire to become THE Asians' bank, their Chinese brand name is not too appropriate : 星展銀行 carries too much the Singaporean origin. Look, HSBC, the world's local bank, is no longer called HongKong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Ericsson again. This is the promotion idea. Upon purchase of Ericsson W810i, you will receive a coupon book for discounts up to 25% off at 50+ restaurants. Is that attractive ? Not really. What kind of promotion does it sound like ? It sounds like a copycat of credit card promotions. If I'm not wrong, it must be organized by one of those promotion houses which arrange merchant offers for banks. That's why the promotion is not that attractive as we can always enjoy similar offers with our credit cards.

This is a very interesting idea. I spotted it in a wedding supplement. Don't know whether it will work but it's very creative indeed. Xin Desire, a spa parlor, have this so called bride spa party package where the brides and the sisters can enjoy spa together before the big day. The spa package includes champagne, snacks, desserts, make up class and so on plus selections from a range of spa treatments. Price isn't too bad. HK$4,800 for 6 persons for 4 hours. I'm not advertising for them but is it a good service package idea ?

Everything is red ! Red phone, red background and a red chair (if you ever notice). The creative idea is there. An analogy of a designer chair with the phone to convey good taste. How would the readers appreciate the beauty of the phone when everything is buried in red ? Again good creative idea is lost when we don't mind about execution.

Have you been to Park'n Shop lately ? Tell you what. It has become a rather confusing shopping experience. Recently they have launched a "all yellow tag" promotion. The promotion promises that all of their items are on promotion with yellow tags. As a consumer, I have been "trained" to distinguish what are on promotion and what are not from the white and yellow tags. Now that everything comes with yellow tag and I feel cheated. Why ? Some of these yellow tags only feature every minimal savings, like from HK$6.90 to HK$6.80, from HK$20.9 to HK$19.90 and so on. In the past, yellow tag meant 10 - 15% saving. Who on earth has come up with such a promotion that tries to kid us, the smart consumers ?

This phone has been advertised quite heavily on radio as well as prints. Sounds like an interesting idea : it swaps between phone and music mode by your slapping. Is that a good selling feature or is it just a useless gimmick, I wonder. So I checked it out on the Nokia site. It seems to be positioned as an active/sport phone for youngsters. Is it cool to slap your phone ? Well, I'm just too old to understand...but it is definitely "alternative".

Sorry Hello Kitty again. Well, I think she deserves at least one more post of discussion. Look, all these promotion, including the McDonald's one, were running apparently at the same time during the summer. Why all these companies were doing all the me-too promotions ? Because they think it worked before and it must work again. It's the winning formula. No promotion idea ? Let's do Hello Kitty ! Like everything else, my prediction is that Hello Kitty will not last forever. Its life cycle will be shortened when everyone is exploiting it. Popularity and Novelty are in rivalry with each other.

As a guy, I never understand why Hello Kitty is so popular. It seems (sorry, she) going strong. Even McDonald's has regular promotions to give away Hello Kitty collectibles, like every other quarter (?). It seems like a sure-win promotion idea. But I really wonder whether this kind of Hello Kitty promotions run into the cycle of diminishing promotion effect. Maybe it's time to explore and exploit another "idol". What's next ?

This is the promotion mechanics : upon purchase of any HK$2,500+ Nokia mobile phone, you will get a wireless mouse for free. Objective of the print ad : to communicate the attractiveness of the promotion offer. Key message : Nokia is offering a tempting giveaway of wireless mouse for free. But when we look at the ad, do we consider it is off-brief ? Or is it too difficult to understand ? What do we see ? A "mouse" attracted by the cheese of the mouse-trap with a "$2,500" on it. I think it's simply missing the point and the idea isn't serving the objective. Off-brief as a conclusion.

PDA phones are getting more and more popular. I have found it very convenient as I can check emails when I'm out. But I kind of love and hate it. It's too convenient and it's so tempting to take care of incoming emails during non-office hours. So it can be a devil to keep your mind occupied with works at anytime anywhere. Now let's think about the consumer insights of this Ericsson ad. Is it an aspiration or a pain that you have to work by the poolside ? If I can choose, I would rather switch off the phone, lock it up and enjoy the leisure.

What do you think about this ad ? Fireworks to celebrate the grand opening of the Nokia flagship store. It looks very cliche. Obviously the visual is a stock photo. Other than being uncreative, what more is wrong ? The problem is that there is no visual clue about what it's selling. The generic visual of fireworks can be used for any grand opening. Also at a glance, it looks like a HK tourism ad. Why don't we put a mobile phone in the ad at least ....?

Let's talk theory. I read about a theory saying that when we want to feature people in our ads, we should feature real people rather than illustration. Why ? Because real people, real faces do a better job to catch readers' attention. Whether this is right, it depends, I think. Let's look at the 3M ad on the left. What is the creative idea ? "Before and after", which is used to demonstrate the benefits of the product. Now, in terms of execution, is it better to have illustration or real person ? If we use our imagination, the latter could be better.

Don't know why Dove would organize this T-shirt design competition. There is hardly any association of a body cleanser with T-shirt design although the slogan of the competition attempts to tie both together. What's more, the condition of participation is quite complicated : you need to go to United Colours of Benetton to buy a T-shirt to create your own design. Then you would ask whether the prize is attractive. Not at all. You will only win HK$1,000 cash and HK$1,800 worth of Dove products. Would you be keen on taking part ?

嗎丁啉, what a strange name. Is it a medical name or is it some straight translation of an English brand name, I wonder. Shall we we use a more descriptive brand name to tell us more about what it is ? Anyway, when I looked at this ad, I thought it must be some kind of laxative as roller coaster is used as the analogy. But in fact it's a stomach remedy. Then I wonder whether the link 過山車-暢順-消化力 is valid or not. Is 通便 the ultimate benefit of this product ? It's a bit confusing.

I bet you have seen this ad before. There are posters at the MTR too. It's a daring ad. Daring enough to grab your attention. I'm not a conservative and I consider nudity and sex appeal are good way of selling but it all depends on what you are selling. In this ad, a nude guy in a soccer field is featured to spell out "extended" excitement of the World Cup - a 62% off promotion. My problem is 又關世界杯事???

Here is a promotion from Chivas. The theme is gold rush with western cowboy imageries. The promotion may be considered interesting and exciting but I scratch my head about why a theme with American origin ? Look, Chivas is a scotch and its origin is Scotland. What has it got to do with the gold rush ? I may be too picky about this but this theme is definitely more suitable for Jack Daniel's, a bourbon whiskey from the USA.

An example of brand extension. There is no right or wrong in marketing but I just wonder ... What does Florsheim stand for ? As a consumer, I would say Florsheim stands for high quality, premium priced, American shoes. Who are the target consumers ? I guess people like me, white collars, professional and executives, slightly more mature aged between 30 - 45. Now that the brand extends to the school boy segment at an very affordable price. As a consumer of Florsheim, I feel cheated... 'cos my Florsheim costed me about HK$2,000 and I feel this brand is not for me anymore. As a marketer, I would go for the endorsement branding route. Do you think so ?

Long time no see ads using spoof/parody as creative approach. Zuji has just done one. The idea is to twist around commonly known matters or visuals to catch attention and send a message. This ad mimics The Economist and parodies with breakoutof financial news to communicate their price promotion. It's always great to see advertisers making more different creative attempts.

Everything is about health and beauty. Nissin promotes its new sesame dessert and the selling proposition is 養顏, just as the Pak Fook black soy bean milk that I quoted before. Health and beauty is such a big market that everyone is trying to grab a share. The problem is when everyone is trying to occupy a space in the same arena, it's more difficult to cut through the clutter. Look at these two ads, the creative idea is basically the same. How can one win a good share of consumers' stomach ?