“Your rebate check may look like junk mail”

Interesting experience, indication of a trend.

Bought a set of new tires … tire guy pointed out that there was an applicable rebate of $20 per tire … even auto-filled out the mail-in form for me.

His parting words:“Your rebate check may look like junk mail … make sure that you don’t accidentally throw it away.”

Nice of the guy.

Have you noticed how more and more rebate and claims checks are, in fact,  looking like junk mail?

Historically, few people go through the hassle of submitting all of the docs for rebates. Historically, less than 15% of earned  rebates are claimed.

It’s just not worth the time and aggravation.

I guess that some companies think the 15% redemption rate is too high.

So, they try to aggravate “breakage” … doing things to keep folks from cashing the checks they receive.

One way to do it —  make the checks look like junk mail.

No way to run a business …

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Whew! Ronald dodges the bullet …

Punch line:  McDonald’s is standing by its clown … still another job ‘saved’ or created. But now, image consultants are dissing him.

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Excerpted from WSJ: No Pink Slip for Ronald McDonald, May 20, 2011

The 48-year-old, red-haired mascot has come under fire from health-care professionals and consumer groups who, in recent days, have asked the fast-food chain to retire Ronald McDonald.

But McDonald’s CEO says, “Ronald McDonald is going nowhere.”

“Ronald McDonald is an ambassador for McDonald’s, and he is an ambassador for good.”

There’s no doubt that Ronald McDonald is well known. He ranks fourth in consumer awareness out of 2,800 celebrities.

“Ronald is recognized by more than 99% of U.S. consumers. Of course, just because consumers know someone doesn’t mean they like them or trust them.”

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Some image consultants are beginning to question how relevant Ronald McDonald even is to kids anymore — and whether he has kept pace with McDonald’s own reinvention.

McDonald’s has modernized its image in recent years by remodeling restaurants … by selling frappes and fruit smoothies and by offering free wi-fi to customers.

“Mascots were heavily used in the mid part of the last century, but not so much anymore unless you’re an insurance company and you have a duck or a gecko or a caveman,”

“I’m not so sure Ronald is keeping up with where the brand is going. I question whether he’s still meaningful or a throwback to the last century.”

#1 Mom? Moms not feeling the love on Mother’s Day…

TakeAway: As brands aim to offer new ways to please moms on Mother’s Day, many moms feel neglected, and even hate their presents. 

While Americans expect to spend more this year on Mother’s day, nearly $140,  some Moms would just prefer time off from housework and a homemade card … 

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Excerpted from MediaPost.com, “Brands reach out to moms, yet they feel dissed,” April 28, 2011

With Mother’s Day a few weeks off, marketers are doing their best to offer novel ways to remember her.

Lowe’s is targeting outdoor DIY projects as the ideal way to please her, offering plenty of mom-friendly ambience and lots of bright flowers. The retailer is even connecting it to a mom-friendly cause, selling Susan G. Komen Plant for the Cure plants.

Hallmark is getting some buzz for an extensive line of postage-paid greeting cards.

But … moms aren’t exactly feeling the love. A new survey from the Mom Complex reports that 30% of moms say they typically get honored for no more than 5 to 10 minutes on Mother’s Day. In fact, 40% feel their husband and children come first on Mother’s Day, and 12% feel they don’t even make the list.

Oh, and they hate their presents. What moms really want is time off from housework (57%) and a homemade gift or card. While 42% want that, only 28% got it last year …

… Americans will be spending more on mom this year — even if it’s not on the things she wants. The National Retail Federation reports that Americans are planning to spend $140.73 on gifts, up from $126.90 last year … Total spending is expected to reach $16.3 billion …

… The biggest change is in electronics with 13.3% planning to get mom an electronic gift, a 48% jump from last year. Jewelry is expected to be popular, with 31.2% percent of celebrants planning to buy mom silver, gold or diamonds — a 19% increase. …. it will likely be one of the biggest holidays of the year for restaurants, with 54.7% treating mom to dinner or brunch. About 65% will buy flowers.

Edit by KJM

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Not sure what to get? How about an experiential gift card?

TakeAway: People are starting to turn away from stuff and turn to experiences and memories.

The rise of “experiential gift cards” has shown that you can do more with just an old gift card. Gone are the days of unwanted toasters or even gift cards to stores you don’t frequent. 

Gift cards loaded with a value that covers a variety of different activities are becoming the new rage.

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Excerpted from AdAge, “New Gift-Card Trend Swaps Stuff for ‘Social Capital'” , March 28, 2011

“Experiential gift cards” …are becoming more popular, because they allow creativity for the giver and flexibility for the recipient.

“People aren’t looking for ‘stuff’ anymore, they’re looking for experiences,” … You can post pictures of your African-safari experience, but you can’t put up a picture of your Mercedes. That’s tacky.”

Smartbox offers gift-card boxes that retail from $49 to $369 … Inside the box is the card, of course, but also a book of the possible choices for such experiences as dinner for two in New York City (50 choices for $99); adventures like white-water rafting and surfing in California (100 choices for $69); and upscale getaways in the Great Lakes (35 choices for $369).

Experiential gifts, … are relatively nascent in the U.S. compared to the other places in the world such as the U.K. and Australia.

“In the U.S., this is really new, especially at retail, …The growth is really happening now”

Smartbox …has pushed out an aggressive public-relations campaign and more recently begun spreading its message via social media. …partnership with Zagat Smartbox Table for Two, and was marketed at Valentine’s Day with PR and a social-media promotion. …

“All happiness research points to the fact that it’s not the things you have that make you happy, it’s the experiences you have,” …”The lag in experience gifts and the lag in consumers recognizing it was an option surprised me, but marketers are catching on now.”

Gift experiences have the added bonus of making the giver more memorable. You won’t remember who gave you socks or a sweater, but you’ll probably recall who gave you an experience where a memory was created,…”A gift is a connection between me and you, and things have far less meaning than experiences.”

Edit by HH

 

"It starts with the product …"

TakeAway: Consumers are still cash-strapped, but that hasn’t stopped Ford from selling more cars. The company’s sales were up 19% last month, and its year-to-date sales increased 21% versus the last year.  Ford’s secret?  “It all starts with product.”  Because without product, there’s nothing to market!

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Excerpted from Forbes, “Ford: How To Maintain A Sales Streak In Tough Times” By Elaine Wong, November 5, 2010

Ford’s VP of U.S. marketing, sales and service describes how Ford is tapping into social media and consumer trends toward vehicle customization, fuel efficiency and higher product quality to drive sales in an economic downturn.

Ford’s product development team has been focused on their four pillars – quality, green, safety and smart. The sales and marketing team  has done a lot of work to transform the image of Ford to being not just a company that makes the bestselling truck [F-Series] in America for 33 years or the Mustang, but a company that delivers products that are fun to drive.

Ford has a program called Drive One 4 UR School, where thousands of dealers help support local high schools, many of which are under a lot of financial stress. Fundraisers give people a chance to test drive new products. People aren’t naturally inclined to go to the dealer to get a new car when they go to a school event, but if they’re test driving it to help raise funds for their school and as part of a no-pressure environment, they may reconsider.

Ford is continuing its “rant” style of advertising when launching its new campaign for the F-150.  The ads cut through the clutter, have great recall among consumers and, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, more kinds of advertising with the “rant” style are being used in Iots of other commercials.

Edit by AMW

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Full Article:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/05/ford-sales-strategy-economy-social-media-elaine-wong-cmo-network_print.html

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Food Trucks Serve Up Branding, Not Just Lunch

TakeAway:  Pairing a brand’s message with a food truck has been increasingly employed in recent months, with major advertisers using trucks as rolling sandwich boards while advertising agencies issue the call to independent food truck operators to participate in brand-sponsored events.

Food trucks have grown in popularity in major cities, and advertisers now see them as a vehicle for delivering their message directly to consumers.

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Excerpted from NYTimes, “Marketers Discover Trucks Can Deliver More Than Food” By Tanzina Vega, November 28, 2010

When the Heavenly Mountain Resort in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, wanted to promote its ski passes this season, it bypassed the usual advertising media like billboards, radio and print ads and instead chose a truck filled with snow cones driven by two improv actors to publicize its message.  For Heavenly, the idea to distribute snow cones from a truck was simple: “We’re going to give you a little bit of the mountain..”  

The challenge with buying traditional media is “paying for eyeballs of people who have no interest in what you’re trying to sell.”

But some brands prefer to create their own food truck instead of hiring an independent operator. To promote its new product, Heinz Dip & Squeeze Ketchup, the H.J. Heinz Company bought a used truck and added a custom kitchen. The truck was then branded with a custom wrapping that displayed the “Heinz Ketchup Road Trip” message along with the related Twitter handle and Facebook page address.  At each stop, visitors get a free serving of Ore-Ida crinkle cut fries or Ore-Ida sweet potato fries and a packet of the Dip & Squeeze Ketchup.  The company will also give away promotional T-shirts to people who have participated in one of the social media parts of the campaign.

Most food trucks, corporate or not, use social media tools like Twitter to post their location to their followers, and now Zagat, the restaurant guide, has gotten into the game. In early November, Zagat announced a food truck Web site that features a map with the location of the food trucks that it partners with. They are also conducting a survey of the best food trucks in New York.

Edit by AMW

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Full Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/business/media/29truck.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a210

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Pucker up with Nivea in Times Square for NYE

TakeAway: Surely there is no moment when more Americans lock lips than at midnight on Dec. 31, when a kiss marks the New Year, and that is why Nivea Lip Care ties its biggest marketing effort of the year to New Year’s Eve. 

Nivea is a natural fit as a sponsor, just as Waterford Crystal is for the crystal ball that descends on Times Square for the countdown.

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Excerpted from NYTimes, “For New Year’s Eve, the Tie-Ins Erupt” By Andrew Adam Newman, December 13, 2010

For the third consecutive year, Nivea is an official sponsor of the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square, and along with sponsoring a stage called the Nivea Kiss Platform, it will hand out about 30,000 samples of lip balm to revelers in the hours before the countdown.

“The brand is based on the insight that something wonderful happens when skin touches skin and humans connect, and the New Year’s Eve kiss sets the tone for the new year to come,” said Magnus Jonsson, vice president for marketing at Beiersdorf, parent company for Nivea.

This year, Nivea also is holding a contest on its Facebook page where couples in long-distance relationships vie for a chance to win a free trip to New York to be reunited in Times Square on New Year’s, with two couples who garner the most votes on Facebook winning.

Nearly as prominent as the ball are the numerals that light up to mark the dawning year, and Duracell is hoping to become similarly synonymous. For the third consecutive November, the brand set up what it calls the Duracell Power Lab in Times Square, which consists of four stationary bikes that when pedaled charge batteries that will subsequently be used to light the sign.  This year the bikes are housed in a trailer that for the rest of the year will be deployed to disaster areas, where it will provide charging stations for items including cellphones, laptops, and rechargeable batteries.  “We talk a lot about people trusting Duracell when it just has to work,” said its marketing director. When the numerals light up, “it’s that one iconic moment of the holiday season when millions of people are watching and it’s a great association for Duracell batteries being trusted in an important moment.”

The Times Square Alliance estimates that one million people attend the New Year’s Eve festivities. A Trylon Strategic Media Relations study commissioned by the group pegged the international audience at more than one billion.

Edit by AMW

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Full Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/business/media/14adco.html?ref=media

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Pass the sea salt … now, there's a gamechanger is the French Fries War.

TakeAway:  Wendy’s announced a national marketing plan for its new recipe for French fries, the biggest overhaul of its fries in 41 years. 

Wendy’s CMO admitted fries “are something we hadn’t been a leader in, in the past.” 

The $25 million campaign aims to educate consumers about Wendy’s new fries that it hopes will compete mightily against McDonald’s.

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Excerpted from NYTimes, “Wendy’s Rethinks Fries in Nod to More Natural Foods” By Tanzina Vega, November 21, 2010

For the last year, the company has been examining its product line for opportunities to promote food made with more natural ingredients. Wendy’s “new natural-cut fries with sea salt” use Russet Burbank potatoes and are thinner and crisper than the current fries and will be unpeeled.

The idea is to provide an alternative to McDonald’s, which has long been the leader in French fry sales. The Wendy’s campaign includes two television spots that will run on cable and network stations such as TBS, VH1 and Bravo and during shows such as “Conan” and “Lopez Tonight.” The campaign includes two radio commercials that will air nationally, as well as billboards around the country to entice people to select Wendy’s when they get hungry.

The digital campaign includes the use of the Wendy’s Web site, a Twitter account, a Facebook fan page and digital banner ads. The company’s YouTube channel will feature an ad for the fries and the background of the Wendy’s Twitter account page will also feature art for the fries and a “Fry for All” app that lets users select a box of fries that they can post on their Facebook page so they can “share” fries with their friends. The idea of sharing is central to the campaign. “When something is really good, you don’t necessarily want to share it so easily,” said the chief executive and CEO of Wendy’s agency of record.

Edit by AMW

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Full Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/business/media/22wendys.html?ref=media

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Is that a giant Quiznos toaster floating across the outfield grass?

TakeAway: Marketers are always looking for ways to increase consumers’ engagement with their brands.

Augmented reality technology offers a new way to do this.

But as Quiznos has learned, there are still some issues to be worked out.

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Excerpted from Fortune, “Augmented reality lacks bite for marketers,” by Kristina Grifantini, November 12, 2010

While enjoying a game at Yankee Stadium, you take out your smart phone and point its camera at the field. If the resulting image on your screen shows a giant Quiznos toaster floating above the grass, does that make you more inclined to go get a Quiznos sandwich? …

To users, augmented reality (AR) can seem like magic. When they hold up their phones to their surroundings, the program uses the phone’s camera, GPS, compass, and Web connection to superimpose digital images and information on an on-screen view. …

Though this technology has been around for a while, it has largely been confined to computers with webcams, or to special goggles and headsets. But with the exploding popularity of sensor-equipped smart phones, marketers are trying to use it to sell everything from lunch to concert tickets.

For the Denver-based Quiznos, the idea came about when the number of mobile users visiting its website skyrocketed from 20,000 to a million in a year. Tim Kraus, Quiznos’s interactive-marketing manager, wondered how he could turn those visits into additional real-life trips to one of the chain’s 5,000-plus stores. …

But since Quiznos launched the AR campaign in June, fewer than 2,000 people have user the layer, says Kraus, and he is unable to link the campaign to any increase in sales. Undaunted, he calls it an early-stage experiment to discover what works and what doesn’t. Aside from the fun and novelty factor, “there’s actually some utility in there,” he says. “I definitely think it’s a platform that’s going to grow.” …

This fall, Qualcomm released a software development kit that programmers can use to build vision-based AR applications for Android phones; the company expects commercial campaigns based on the technology to kick off next year. …

Edit by DMG

 

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Full Article
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/11/12/augmented-reality-lacks-bite-for-marketers/

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Children’s Tylenol is back, but will Mom buy?

TakeAway:  The first children’s Tylenol products are returning to drugstore shelves after a long safety recall, and maker Johnson & Johnson now faces the tricky task of persuading parents to buy the pain reliever again. 

The company has taken a low-key approach and must walk a messaging tightrope, providing reassurance that it has fixed its problems without calling so much attention to them that safety concerns resurface.

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Excerpted from WSJ, “Tylenol for Kids Returns to Shelves” By Jonathan Rockoff, November 18, 2010

Bottles of the grape-flavored version of children’s Tylenol have begun reappearing in pharmacies across the country half a year after several J&J over-the-counter children’s medicines were pulled because of manufacturing problems.

The recalls have cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales and prompted a shake-up of manufacturing and management.  The quality problems included floating metal particles in the medicines and the potential for excessive concentrations of an active ingredient.

To get parents to return to Tylenol, J&J must combat not just the hit to its reputation but also the encroachment of rival brands, which have been taking over shelf space in drugstores. Cheaper private-label brands are also gaining amid the tough economy as sales of branded medicines drop.  Loyalty to Tylenol’s pain pills, a strong indication that customers will buy the product, dropped 7% in the past year, according to an annual survey in August of 35,000 Americans.  Among over-the-counter pain medicines, Tylenol ranked behind rivals Advil, Aleve and Excedrin in terms of customer loyalty after trailing only Advil in 2009.

“You don’t want to always be apologizing, because that cues the wrong response. You want to be cuing the core emotional benefits that Tylenol delivers,” said the chief executive of a company that consulted for J&J.  There are no signs in stores calling attention to the return, and packaging appears similar to the box before the recall.

Tylenol is a signature brand for J&J, which also sells prescription drugs and medical devices. The company’s swift withdrawal of the medicine during a fatal tampering episode in 1982 endeared J&J and Tylenol to generations of consumers.  Some of that goodwill persists, even after the most recent recalls.

Edit by AMW

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Full Article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703688704575620851371476806.html

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