ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

I haven't seen too many property ads elsewhere but I guess HK property ads are the most outrageous in the world. There are overclaims and exaggerations and some of them are simply jokes. Exaggerated claims and exaggerated prices are name of the game in property business. Can't they just go back to basics that consumers are really looking for, things like reasonable price, comfort, location convenience and so on ? Like this ad, it says you will need a lot of swimsuits in your wardrobe because there is a 35m swimming pool. People won't buy a flat because of the length of the swimming pool, right ? And look at the swimming pool in the background of the ad. 35m swimming pool ??? I guess they must have chosen the wrong location to take the shot.

Are these ads coming from the same ad agency ? The ideas are pretty much the same. Although the headlines are not the same, they both use the same approach of "mixing and matching" to say the products give you wings, i.e. freedom and superiority. Idea twins are not uncommon after all. How do we avoid them ? Only by hard work. See more, read more, look more. Not just the ads of our competitors in the same industry but ads of other categories as well.

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.