ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

This is a very strong creative using "mixing and matching". It's got the stopping power to catch our attention. And if we use our imagination, we would find it very campaignable too. In fact there are more versions like Pop, Rock etc. But is it really a good creative ? It still depends on what message we are trying to convey. The USP of this MP3 is 3-minute fast charge for 3-hour play. That's a very attractive selling point. Is the creative communicating it effectively ?

Have the people at 7-Eleven run out of fresh promotion ideas ? Hello Kitty giveaways are never ending. Don't they find it boring ? It's definitely not exciting any more and I just don't see the point of repeating it again and again. Are there that many Hello Kitty maniacs who collect every piece of Hello Kitty giveaway ? Next time when the shopkeeper hand a Hello Kitty giveaway to you at 7-Eleven, just say their slogan : GOT IT, thank you.

Why do we use celebrities to endorse our products and services ? The logic is simple : we want to increase the credibility of our products or services with the known personalities. But the key is KNOWN. If they are not really known, what's the point ? It's funny that in quite many ads with celebrities, there are signatures or name captions next to the endorsers to make sure we know who they are. Here is the logic again : if they are known personalities, we just don't need to do that, right ? Do we need to tell people "this is 梁朝偉" in the 星際酒店 ad ?

Perrier is now in plastic bottle. Is it a good thing or not ? It's not up to me to judge. But the intention of launching plastic bottle is clear : an easy-to-carry bottle to tap into the younger market. To the older generations like myself, Perrier is a French premium bubbly mineral water in a beautiful glass bottle. The quality of the glass bottle reflects the quality of the content. Here is the dilemma : stay premium with the old or become more approachable with the young. Not an easy decision. But the common myth is : Coke in its small glass bottle always tastes better !

超力, another long-forgotten brand name which means 即食米粉. Have to say instant noodle is not an easy market. It's a low-priced category, like HK$2-3 per bag. Even if you are profiteering and earning like 80% gross margin, you still need to sell a lot of bags to keep the production running and make some meaningful profit. And you will need to sell even more in order to have some money for marketing and advertising. So it's a typical situation of 強者越强. Now that only 出前一丁, the market leader, has the volume and critical mass that afford them to advertise. Other brands, like 公仔麵 too, are losing their shares in the mind of consumers.

永安旅遊, 不一樣的旅程, It's a brand promise. Good to see that Wing On Travel is doing to something to deliver it. Otherwise, it's an empty claim. 與名人同遊 is not very new. 蔡瀾 is the one who pioneered that. It's funny that all in a sudden there are so many celebrity travelers. 又係瘦田冇人耕, 耕開有人爭, But the catch of this one is vacationing with 周汶琦 to Tokyo, for just HK$9,999. It's a bargain to fulfill your fantasy, whatever it is.

Seen this stupid property ad on TV ? Nano Living ! What the hell does it mean ? The ad doesn't explain. So I had to check the net to see what it is about and in fact, people on the net are talking about it already, talking about its stupidity. This property is in Ma On Shan and developed by Mr. Li, Cheung Kong. Who on earth would have come up with such an ingenious theme ? Nano means very very small. So do they really mean their flats are tiny ? They are really brave enough to admit it. Guess someone will be fired ... I mean the one who approved it.

It's not always easy to come with up a consumer promotion that matches with product image/positioning and drives sales at the same time. If we can't come up with a sales-driving promotion, our sales colleagues would definitely complain. But a pure sales-driving promotion may damage our brand image. It's hard to strike the balance. In this promotion, a "design amplifying chair" (phone stand) is given away with N73. This premium really helps to convey the positioning of phone as a multimedia gadget for quality sound and picture enjoyment like a 40" TV. Simple mechanics, simple creative, good choice of premium. Isn't that great ?

From this ad, we can see the positioning of Pro-Cam-Fis windbreaker being conveyed. A light, easy to carry windbreaker for outing. Such windbreaker is good for outing in autumn time when it's not that cold. Good intention but the ad is not great at all. The creative idea is trying to draw an analogy of light weight between falling autumn leaves and the windbreaker. But look at the awkward superimposition of the products onto the falling leaf background. There could have been better execution. Sigh...

In branding, it's a basic principle that we need to own specific brand colour(s) in order to improve recognition and enhance registration. Everyone knows about that but sometimes it is a forgotten principle and not really applied in practice. Standard Chartered is managing this well and truly faithful to this principle. If you look at their communications materials, everything is in blue and green tones, giving really strong visual registration.

When is the time we don't need advertising to publicize ? When we have something new and unique enough to secure press interest. I have seen quite a number of press coverages about this Kripsy Kreme, an international doughnut specialty chain which has opened its first store in HK. What's so special about it ? All it sells are freshly baked doughnuts in a wide variety. It's unique as no one has opened such kind of shop before in HK. The simple logic is newsworthiness always goes with exclusivity.

For those who may not know, Panadol is a branded generic drug, Paracetamol. Paracetamol is usually prescribed by doctors for mild pain and fever. This drug is in fact very cheap and its "unbranded" versions are widely available in those small neighbourhood drugstores. Some people like me may know this fact but still buy Panadol instead of its unbranded version. Why ? This is the magic of branding. They may be the same but I still feel that Panadol is purer and better although or because it is more expensive. Over time, we are aware that Panadol has been undergoing aggressive brand extensions addressing different specific needs like cold & flu, muscle pain, menstrual pain and so on. All these extensions are thought to be effective in securing its No.1 position in pain killing.

Wow legs ! This is a very good demonstration of how the repetition creative concept works : to create stopping power. The beauty of this ad is simplicity. Men and women alike will take a look at what it is about. Men will give a response like mine : "Wow, nice long legs". Women will say "I'd love to have such pair of legs too". Sex always sells.

It's a funny visual that catches our eyes. The message is "don't live in the stone age of old electrical appliances". The idea is there. How do we make good use of it ? First, we need to manage the execution carefully. Look, there is no body copies per se. All the details and headlines, whatever you'd like to call them, are not really placed in a reader-friendly manner. Do we expect our reader to eye-ball search all the words ? What's more, it is not selling any solid benefits that attract consumer to check out the exhibition. It just says "the biggest and hottest exhibition". As a consumer, I just feel indifferent.

Just discovered how I can upload TVC files onto the blog. This is my first try. This UA Finance TVC is on. I quite like it as it hits right on a consumer insight of impulse purchases. The financial burden of impulse purchases is symbolized by a "ball of merchandise" that grows over time and ties you down. You and me, like everyone else, must have similar experience before : bought things impulsively with our credit cards, i.e., "unnecessary" stuff that we could barely afford, and regretted our purchases. The ad is kind of a surreal representation of the reality. Very well done. I'm aware that the ads of UA Finance are comparatively creative among other loan houses. Who is their agency ? Does anyone know ?

Just been seeing the latest TVC of Panadol featuring 詹瑞文 as the endorser. This guy has been receiving very high exposure. I saw a few of his performances when he was not that "famous". His shows were very impressive indeed and he is definitely a talented man. In the past drama wasn't that popular and he is one of the performers who have brought it to the mass audience. However, I have the worry that he is too over-exposed. Like many consumer products that received high popularity all in a sudden, his "product life cycle" may be shortened and he may become faddish in a very short time. Do you remember the case of 黃子華 who got popular very quickly before ? Now he is kind of forgotten.

It's an interesting idea. Have you imagined you can sit face-to-face with another person to enjoy dinner on an airplane ? You can do that on Air New Zealand business class. What kind of perception is the ad giving you ? Spacious, enjoyment and friendship (or romance ?). This is more like an aspiration than the reality. I bet in realty if you do that, the hostess would hate you as you are blocking the aisle, the turbulence will mess up your small dining ledge and it's not that comfortable at all ... well that's what advertising does, to sell you aspirations.

A new product idea. A tooth brush with a silver head to release "Silver Ions" claimed to protect your teeth better and stop the breed of bacteria. Sounds great but the ad doesn't spell out the mode of action important to explain how silver ion works. As a consumer, I wonder whether it is a pure gimmick, an empty claim or whether it really works for me. Are there any scientific theories about it ? Supports are missing in the ad. Ads should be informative enough to sell.

I talked about this shrimp dumpling ad of Maggi Sauce before. The creative platform is very campaignable : "bringing out the soul of the food". Now that there is a new squid version. Which version is stronger ? I think the shrimp dumpling is stronger. Visually, you can't easily recognise it is a slice of squid that is held by the chopsticks and the smoke image of the squid is not quite "obvious" too. What's more, the shrimp dumpling version is a truer representation of the creative platform that generates imagination. It's not easy after all. Even if we have a campaignable idea, it's always difficult to come up with versions that are of equal strengths.

Glad to see that a brand has worked out a clear positioning. Sony Ericsson means music. Very clear. Such positioning is quite logically ownable by Sony Ericsson as it rides on the brand equity of Sony in pioneering "music on the move" (the Walkman). Who else is convincing enough to claim such positioning ? None. There is a TVC on air right now and it is pretty well done with different moments of music enjoyment. The print ad on the left is sending the music positioning message, using "play with the product" as the creative idea. Simple and clear.

Haven't been to Karaoke for a loooong while. Guess I need to be re-educated about the latest Karaoke scene. According to this ad, we can now select our favourite songs with our Nokia phone in California Red and there is no need to "compete" for the remote control. It's a great idea indeed but I'm just curious about what kind of technology is used to enable this. Infra-red, Blue-tooth or via the mobile network. Is it convenient or complicated to operate ? Too bad that these are not mentioned in the ad. Could someone tell the backward old man please ? I won't be able to check that out as I'm not a Karaoke singer at all...

Another promotion of probability. It's the 30th anniversary of Ocean Park and they have this promotion playing with "3" and "0" of your ID card number. If you have "3" or "0" in your ID card number, you get 10% off; "3" and "0", 20% and "3" and "0" in sequence, 30%. For this kind of promotion, I really wonder how they could calculate the discount pay-out in overall revenue. It's a big headache for the finance people. This promotion is not for me as I don't have "3" or "0" in my ID card. But at least, it's successful in communicating the 30th anniversary message as I had to check it out whether it is for me. Can I call it an interactive idea ?

It's hairy crab season. All restaurants and traders are going all out to promote hairy crabs. Compared with all other restaurants, 金龍船 has a very unique twist in their promotion : 無綑綁大閘蟹. Is it really better than other "tied-up" hairy crabs or just a gimmick ? It doesn't matter as it is "market-first" and it is able to make a impression that 金龍船's hairy crabs are all 生猛. It's quite a good idea to build a positive perception in consumer's mind. Perception is good enough to sell although perception is not reality. In reality, if you give it some rational thoughts : if the crabs are free to run around, the fats in them will be consumed, 肥蟹都變瘦蟹.

The marketers in 現代教育 are really doing their job in marketing. Just take at look at this pair of vertical executions. You want gimmicks, you have gimmicks. The heading is 美女班房 Ken sir 監製, featuring two good looking, long-legged tutors in mini skirts. A bit of sex appeal. 問你死未? Even I want to go back to school again ..... You want promotion offers ? They are offering coupons for 3+1 free lesson and free first-lesson. No complaint about their creativity at all... It's phenomenon of Hong Kong where everything is pushed to the limit.