ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

Credit cards have given rise to another loan business, balance transfer, i.e. turning credit card balances with high interest into a longer term personal loan with lower interest. When a consumer overspends on their credit cards, it provides a way out for him before going to the lawyer to arrange bankruptcy, IVA or DRP. UA has launched a campaign telling : 搞到一身card 數 ? No problem ! I fell from the chair when I saw its TVC. It is literally a before & after "demonstration" of the message with a rather silly analogy. I reckon that the quality of the ads of UA fluctuate quite a bit. I remember I quoted a great ad of UA before and it is selling the same balance transfer. Change of agency or marketing manager ? I wonder. P.S. One of my friend is recruiting an Assistant Project Manager/Project Manager. Click HERE to find out more if you are interested.

Bankruptcy, IVA, DRP ... this is how it all begins. AEON AMEX credit card has just launched a promotion with prints and TVC saying that you can live a luxury life with 0% interest. Would it really be so "jetso" ? The fact is that financial institutions make profit by lending money and gaining interest. They just can't give you interest-free loans forever. This is how they hook consumers up and hope that consumers will turn the spendings into loans with interest one day. Dream home, dream holiday, dream car, dream lifestyle ... all banks and financial institutions are encouraging consumers to spend their monies that they haven't earned yet. They are all pushing consumerism one way or another.

Great campaign idea can be run years after years. Simmons Beautyrest is famous for one and only one thing, its individual pocketed springs. This design has been patented and has become what the brand stands for, for decades. I don't know whether younger readers can recall but there was a TVC of demonstrating how it works years ago : a bowling ball dropped onto the matteress while the bowling pins stay still, exactly the same idea as this print ad. Since then, bowling ball + bowling pins has been re-used again and again and built as the mnemonic device to make consumers remember the benefit. Some marketers, and particularly most agencies, would say this call this boring, no new news, no creative breakthrough. Are there better ways to demonstrate the benefit ? There must be. But great idea is hard to find and if you have one, hold onto it and don't be shy using it again and again to achieve the power of consistency.

Speaking of Hello Kitty, Chow Sang Sang has launched a series of gold Hello Kitty pendants and figurines called "Hello Kitty Around The World". Coming with a total of twelve designs, it is supposed to encourage collection. However, unlike the similar Hello Kitty collection promotion by McDonald's and 7-Eleven, who could afford to collect them all ? High chance is that people will choose one or two to buy. Among the twelve, the HK one has the poorest design with just "I love HK" on it. Nothing special. VEne toourists from Mainland China woiuldn't buy it. Come to think of it, I don't blame the designer. There is almost nothing that is interesting and known to the world to represent the identity of HK. How about having Hello Kitty dressed like a stock analyst ? Any other idea ?

Hello Kitty could be the biggest cultural invasion ever from Japan. I never understand why it is so popular among kids and adults alike. There are Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, Doraemon, Winnie The Pooh etc but none of them has comparable popularity. Why, Why, Why ? It could be the topic of a Phd thesis. In addition to loads of Hello Kitty merchandise, there is even a Hello Kitty musical . Look, Hello Kitty doesn't have a mouth. How does it sing ??? Out of curiosity, I have checked how much the tickets are. It actually ranges from HK$180-480 while the highest ticket price of the Jackey Cheung concert costs only HK$400 ! Amazing, isn't it ?

Reward points, bonus points, cash dollars, travel miles and so on, all these are different names invented in the different credit cards' loyalty programs. Coupled with those 2x, 3x or even 4x promotions, we are sometimes confused. Now that HSBC has come up with "Reward $" where you can redeem your bonus points to actual dollars that can be spent in some designated outlets. (In fact Compass Visa is the first one that launched similar redemption with instant dollars spending at the Hutchison owned shops like Park'n Shop, Fortress and Watson's). Usually the conversion rate is 250 points = HK$1 but you can get a more favourable conversion rate depending on the years of holding an HSBC credit card, down to as low as 99 points = HK$1. Is that a competitive offer ? I'll leave those smarter consumers to compare and do the calculations. Credit card has become a saturated market and every bank is fighting hard for market share. We are all lucky to be the consumers as

Want to get tanned and slim at the same time ? Here is an innovative product you may consider. 太陽溶脂 (should it be 熔 instead of 溶?) - a 2-in-1 concept that is easy to understand. Believe it or not, it's up to you. My fair guess is that people will give it a try. Even if it doesn't really slim you up, it's still a tanning lotion and there is not too much to lose. But for goodness sake, hope these products would not get too popular. Imagine, hundreds of fat bodies, in bikinis, lying on the beach, hoping to melt fat under the sun ... like pig roasting in public ... what a horrifying scene ...

A print ad about hair loss remedy. My favourite topic. This is a quite a remarkable ad. It's not just yet another ad that uses celebrity endorsement. If you are thirty something and have a bunch of friends who grow up together, you would echo with what it is saying. Its entry point is derived from a valid consumer insight. It is also an example of how celebrity can be more cleverly used. First you judge whether the ad still works without celebrity. Yes in this case. The consumer insight and idea are there as the backbone . Then you ask yourself whether having a celebrity would add value of credibility. Yes in this case. 陳豪 is not a super star but he is thirty something and someone the target audience can associate with. The link is strong. So let's use celebrity to add value to your idea. Bare use of celebrity is not a creative solution.

Primary vs secondary consumers, influencer vs purchaser, purchaser vs end-user ... for certain products, we need to differentiate and consider both. This Smartone ad is talking to the parents who pay for the phone bills of their kids. "Safe choice for your kids" is the message. However, I think it is a marketing fallacy. How wrong can kids do with their mobile phones ??? While parents are more worried about drug taking, triads and underage pregnancy ! Also I doubt how much parents can influence the choice of mobile network of their kids. Should we talk straight to the kids instead and appeal to them with the exciting services tailored for them ?

Back to Vitasoy. In recent years, it has been very aggressive in line extensions. Mocha, melon and jasmine flavoured Vitasoy, packaged bean curds and so on. Now we are spoiled by the different choices of product from Vitasoy. Here is a series of 3 鈣思寶 variants. Health is a big thing and I guess it tries to capture the health trend. These three variants have different health benefits : for healthy bones, intestines and heart. Will these be successful ? There are many alternative products said to have similar health benefits. The key success factors are therefore price and taste. One clever thing is that it uses breakfast to clearly define the positioning with usage occasion. That could be a good way to cut through.

Just saw the news of the fire accident of China Airlines. What a narrow escape. It reminds me to talk about this ad of Swiss Airlines. The message is nothing special, just the usual - high quality standards, comfort and so on. However, it uses a very interesting entry point. The cross of its logos is said to be the symbol of high quality standards. Yes, the cross is the national symbol of Switzerland, which reminds us of the impressions of Switzerland : a comfortable leisurely country with great landscapes, high quality standards as in its chocolate, fine precise craftsmanship as in its watches and so on. But on the other hand, a cross as a symbol also associates with emergency, hospital and illness. Call me superstitious.

Pak Fook was the market-first in packaged bean curd and now that Vitasoy has launched its version. A very late comer, by more than a decade. I really wonder why it would pick a head-on competition where Pak Fook means nothing but packaged bean curd in the mind of consumers. It will remain in the top of mind of the consumers except that Vitasoy is able to come up with a very innovative bean curd products and invest heavily enough in A&P. In terms of innovation, Vitasoy bean curd is made from organic soy beans and it has a scallop-flavoured variant. It's not quite big a deal to make real impact. In terms of A&P, it flashed some TVC spots for a while and vanished. My fair guess is that it could be yet another failure of extension.

Delifrance was set up as a "grab and go" shop for coffee, pastries and sandwiches but now that it is extended to restaurant business, BistroDelifrance. Never try it and don't know whether it 's good or not. It's not in my consideration set as the brand hasn't got any credentials in "real" cooked food in my mind as a consumer. The food they promote, as in this print ad, is not quite unique. There are quite many restaurants offering similar food at similar price. Coming back to the print ad itself, doesn't it look familiar ? It reminds me of a McDonald's ad I mentioned before.

Let's continue our discussion about how Nissin manages its brands. Instead of launching new variants for 合味道 , it chooses to build the brand among the young consumers with advertising, promotion and event marketing. Here is an example of an event marketing initiative, a Hip Hop dance competition. Although this event could be appealing to the young, my problem is that it is not quite associative with the brand, in terms of positioning, consumption, location, occasion and so on. Except you may argue : you hip hop, feel hungry and eat cup noodle. Can we come up with a better idea ?

Let's talk a bit about brand portfolio management. 出前一丁 and 合味道 are the two brands owned by Nissin. In consumers' mind, 出前一丁 is a brand of instant noodles that we need to cook for a quick meal. On the other hand, 合味道 is a brand of cup noodles for killing hunger quickly like a snack. As far as I'm aware, there are more product extensions under the 出前一丁 brand name, including cup noodles like those in the print ad. I really wonder why they do that. Instead, I would rather put the effort of new product development to grow and renew the 合味道 cup noodle varieties as it would be more effective. Strange.

Some ads are so 無厘頭 that I find it hard to comment. Sometimes I suspect they are meant to be 無厘頭 to catch our attention. This ad can be a representative. You just can't figure out what the key visual is trying to tell. Looking like an instruction manual to show how to fit in different accessories, this ad is in fact a promotion ad about free supermarket coupons and iPod on purchase of a laserjet ! There is a fine line between 無厘頭 and creative.

Amongst other print ads, the production value of this 3M Command 無痕掛鈎 print ad is quite high. All the sets and props are quite costly for a single shot like this. We often shoot this kind of costly shot together with a TVC production but strange that I wasn't aware of any TVC related to this print campaign.

An insecticide that can kill 10 kinds of bugs. In the print ad, a murder scene is used to express its effectiveness. Can't say it's awfully creative but it's definitely a good ad that conveys the desired message. I think you would agree with me that this is an innovative product. However, as a naive consumer, I wonder whether such kind of bug gas bomb is harmful to human. It can be really effective but the mechanism is pretty scary. I think it should sell better if it can address this general consumer concern. P.S. One of my clients is recruiting a Brand Manager. Click HERE to find out more. Simply send me your CV if you are interested or tell your friend about it. It's a great opportunity for a competent marketer to develop his/her career in a fun and exciting market.

A brand can be considered to be an intangible quality contract with consumers. Consumers buy a particular brand of product because it represents the same quality, taste or performance that they have experienced before. Egg used to be an unbranded commodity but this company has now pioneered to give its eggs a brand and a "birthday". It has picked the right time after various incidents of food scares from China while consumers now look for some kind of guarantees for the food they eat. It is a sound strategy. However, it could be an uphill battle to secure distribution, given the fact that the egg business in supermarket chains is monopolized with their own imports. Hope it will be able to build a strong enough consumer pull with more promotions so that the chains will take them in.

This is an interesting initiative that matches the theme of the TVC of Rexona. Positioned as the deodorant for women, the gimmicks is about dating these handsome guys. Of course you will need to wear Rexona to "impress" them. Visited its website and the whole thing combines product education, web marketing, consumer data gathering and event marketing. Not a bad idea. Is it appealing to women consumers ? I have no idea as a male animal. Just that when I saw the sweet talks of these guys on the website, they made me「毛管動」. Could any lady reader give some comments, please ?

「唔怕生壞命, 最怕改壞名」, it is awfully true in brand naming. A name is a name but it could affect the fate of a product. Tongue brush or scrub is not anything new. There are many different versions of this thing in Japan for a long time. Now that Colgate even has a 2-in-1 tooth brush for tongue scrubbing as well. It's not an innovative thing easy to sell already. By giving it a wrong name, it would be even more difficult. One Drop Only ? Is that an umbrella name for something else ?

Hong Kong people love mobile phones. We change our mobile phones like fashion. Somehow there seems to be a lack of major new news or eye-opening model in the market. Motorla Razar, Nokia N73, Sony Ericsson W800i, these are the models we loved (before); 2G storage, 5 megapixel camera, WiFi connection, these are the functions being promoted by manufacturers. But what's next ? The iPhone ? I think it will not be the mainstream and will remain as an IT gadget for a specific group of people. Without any major breakthrough, this is how manufacturers keep their noise and try to sell some phones : advertising and promoting phones with trivialized gimmicks. A phone with screen savers that change with the seasons. Would people buy phone because of such function ? Well, it's just better than nothing to promote.

This ad puzzles me as I don't know what it is trying to sell. Out of curiosity, I visited its website . Hosted by 甘國亮, it is a sharing platform for different 名嘴名人 in different areas of expertise. That's an interesting idea but the whole thing is like a self-promotion website of Mr. Kam projecting himself as the mastermind of the masterminds. Yuck! What also puzzles me is whether there is any commercial intention behind this thing. Samsung is the sponsor (although I don't know why). Other than that, I don't see any ad or product promotion in the website. How could it be financed ? Is it just a platform for good cause by Mr. Kam ? I wonder.