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 ...