ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

I'm confused when I see this new TVC of Park'n Shop. I just find it hard to appreciate the thinking behind it. Wellcome and Park'n Shop have been competing on the low price image for so many years. Now Park'n Shop has seemed to give up on that. From 日日慳 to 日日賺, I can understand it wants to say that its products are worth the money you pay. Yet it looks like a confession that it's not the cheapest retailer.

Mannings has come up with an ad talking about their nutritionists. Note that nutritionist is different from dietitian. To qualify as dietitian, you will need to complete internship and exams to get registered. Like this ad says, there is no accreditation system for dietitian in HK and it is only available elsewhere overseas. There are limited number of registered dietitians, like 200-300, in HK while they are either practicing privately or working in public health services. In recent years, both Mannings and Watson's are trumpeting about professional care with the presence of pharmacists and so called 營養師 but their 營養師 are not actually registered dietitians. On and off we hear some negative coverage that their nutritionists are in fact product promoters rather than giving neutral professional advice (note registered dietitians are not supposed to sell products). To counter the negative publicity, Mannings has come up with this ad to "clarify". Will it work ? It reminds us...

The founder of 海天堂, 吳耀明先生, keeps enjoying the fun of self-pleasuring. He has been investing quite a lot in TV advertising and he has become the icon of the brand. He is also the pioneer of rejuvenating the aged 龜苓膏 category by coming up with different new products : 龜苓膠, 龜苓茶, 龜苓糖... for more convenient consumption by all walks of life. Most of the TVCs are not great at all except this 海天堂 x 黃飛鴻 campaign. It's still self-pleasuring but at least it's fun to watch and attention-grabbing in the current boring ad scene.

Here we go again ! With the same old Hello Kitty, it's not easy to come up with new promotion idea where a lot of gimmicks have been used before. The mechanics is the same old "spend n collect" but I have to say the promotion TVC is quite enjoyable playing on good old childhood memories. It's obvioulsy targeting those under 25 but savouring childhood romance is one thing, wearing a Hello Kitty wrist chain is another. I would be surprised if there are people who are willing to wear it ... LOL.

Received a mailer from a company called "樓上". If you have never heard of 樓上燕窩莊, you just wouldn't be able to figure out what company it is. 樓上燕窩莊, as the name implies, used to be specialized in bird nest. All its shops are located within commercial buildings and supposedly it can save on rents and offer consumers better prices, hence the name. Originally, it would be good to be small and focused on a specific speciality with a name to establish a perception in the mind of the consumers. The trouble comes from the intention of expansion. It now has 20 stores around town selling more than bird nest, ranging from Japanese imported food to ox sauce, like a mini supermarket. The result is a pretty odd name, 樓上, to tell consumers they are no longer selling bird nest only while keeping some association with 樓上燕窩莊 ...

IKEA is airing a new campaign. The message is "IKEA is offering unbeatable prices to everyone". It reminds me of the latest Mannings TVC . In the Mannings TVC, it says "it provides personal caring services to everyone". The creative ideas are different but the messages are pretty similar. Can we call them idea twins ? Both companies belong to the Dairy Farm group. Are they having the same agency ?

It seems that Mannings has come up with a good direction for its thematic TVC this time round. As the distribution strategy, it has been opening small stores in housing estates in order to compete with the independent neighbourhood drugstores. Services of these neighbourhood stores are more personalized and this is what chained stores are weak in. So it's logical for Mannings to air a thematic TVC project a warm, caring and personal image. Yet as we all know those neighbourhood drugstores also offer better prices on many popular items like milk powders, nappies, toothpastes and so on . Price differential is fundamental in shaping shopping habit. So even with an TVC like this, Mannings will not completely replace the business of those drugstores.

Park'n Shop asks consumers to print discount coupons for items on special promotions. You can choose and print the coupons of your choice. It seems Park'n Shop has just been taking Money Back as an initiative to promote what it wants to promote. In fact, Money Back can be very powerful if it's used for database marketing. When a customer uses Money Back card, each purchase could have been stored in the database, like what the customer has bought and at what prices. These data can be analyzed to provide discounts and offers tailored to that specific customer so as to encourage him/her to spend more and increase loyalty. Too bad Park'n is just taking Money Back as a low-level initiative. It's quite a waste after it's been around for so many years.

This is a great ad, isn't it ? Anyone knows which agency did it ? Playing on the insight that ladies are fond of buying shoes at all times, it serves to call for action of visit to Harbour City with the support of more than 100 shoe shops. It's an enjoyable ad to watch too. You would appreciate the effort spent on the art direction and visual effects if you watch it closely. It must cost quite a bit but it really stands out from the recent boring ad scene.

The promotion mechanics of this ParknShop Money Back promotion is a copycat of credit card promotions where every Money Back card holder is given a target spending amount and if you achieve that, you will get 10x points. The objective is of course to increase consumer share of spending with ParknShop . 羊毛出自羊身上. If you are a rational consumer, you can imagine the point benefits should come from the prices of the products you pay. So the question is : how can they offer the claimed lowest prices at the same time ?

While Mannings focuses on consumer promotions, it's interesting to find that Watsons works on the store image with this ad featuring Kay Tse . Playing on the facts about the body, the ad tries to position Watsons as the drugstore that takes care of every part of your body. Remember the "your personal store" positioning of Watsons in the past ? It's a good positioning to own but it's long forgotten in the minds of the consumers. It seems it's trying to re-own that again.

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 ?

Companies are kind of obsessed with launching loyalty programs or frequency programs of all kinds. A typical consumer may be members of like a dozen of VIP clubs. Sometimes I doubt the effectiveness in increasing frequency and building loyalty. First, there are just too many and it's hard to turn it into a competitive edge. You invest time and money on coming up with a VIP club and your competitor can react with the same. Second, such VIP club may not be suitable for any category. Like JustGold, purchase is rather infrequent anyway I suppose. What's the point ?

There is no need to shop around. Park'n shop offers the lowest price everyday. Even with the endorsement of Ah So, would consumers believe that ? Consumer Council has disclosed that the two supermarket chains are actually selling popular brands at higher prices than other neighbourhood stores. Skepticism and negative publicity are lingering. PR is more credible than advertising. It's kind of silly to use advertising to try to turn around negative publicity.

What is 直銷, direct selling ? In theory, by direct selling, it means manufacturer sells directly to customers without going through any middlemen like wholesalers or retailers in the distribution. So it's kind of misleading for DSC for call itself 直銷中心. It's just a discount retailer of electrical appliances and electronic products. Although it's not a theoretically correct name, it has helped DSC to build a good bargain image against other retailers. Nowadays consumers equate 直銷 with good bargain . Perception is reality. It doesn't matter anymore.

Speaking of health supplements, you may also notice this initiative by Mannings. It joins force with HKBU to conduct extra tests on the health supplements sold at Mannings. The tests are not thought to be very sophisticated but it's the image projected by such intitiative that counts. Health suupplement represents a sizable chunk of business for drugstore chains. By providing extra quality and safety assurance to consumers, Mannings would be able to attract more consumers to buy health supplements there. You may ask if the same products are sold in Watson's as well, would it also benefit Watson's ? Maybe but Mannings will take in exclusive products to minimize that, I'm sure.

Caught a flu from my Beijing trip and it's still lingering. Guess I also need a flu vaccination injection some time. The government has been advertising about the HK$80 subsidy for children to take flu vaccination injection. Out of the many initiatives of the government, this makes some sense. If it is successful in encouraging parents to take their children for the injection, the burden to public medical services can definitely be relieved. My blog is not a public affair blog but I think the government could have just given away the injection free and really invest on heavy communications. It's not a bad deal in terms of return on investment. Latest news : the public opinion about Tsang's administration is all time low.

Over the years, we have seen the ups and downs of various sportswear brands. New Balance, Diadora and Reebok. They were once popular and worn by everyone. Where are they now ? Usually consumers only have room for 2-3 or 4 brands at most for a category in their minds. In the case of sportswear brands, there are Nike and Addidas. Is there room for a third brand ? Maybe but they have set up high barriers with hefty investments in brand building over time. Can Reebok come back ? Yes, if they are prepared to invest. No, with an ad like this. It just reminds me of the 80's way of advertising.

During this time of recession, Park'n Shop's strategy is loud and clear. It promotes its own brands like 金御膳 and brings in parallel imports like Castle in this case. With such strategy, it can avoid head-on price war on other branded products with Wellcome as well as build a low price image. Loss leader strategy seems something of the past. Promoting own brands and parallel imports at low prices is the way to go for getting volumes and profits from the increasingly price conscious consumers. If you happen to be in the marketing of undifferentiated or commoditized categories, I wish you good luck with Park'n Shop.

Kappa was once a popular brand of bags for a short while. People still remember it and there is some residual awareness. Nevertheless, we can't really remember what is so special about it. It lacks salience as there hasn't been any new news from it for a long time. It ends up like a nowhere brand. Building it back up takes a lot of investments over time. Another way of getting short term business is to milk it through giveaway or redemption promotions. You can get a bit of volume sales by tying up with others like supermarket chains, credit cards and so on and give away your products free or have them redeemed at a low prices. It's the quickest way to trade brand value for volume. Once this kind of promotions are done on your brand, it is certified dead. After it's given free or redeemed at low price, do you really expect consumers will still buy it at higher prices in the future ?