Live Blog Post: Red Espresso – The Rooibos Revolution

2nd Cover Post at the 1008 CTICC Good Food and Wine Show, this one covering a new product which has been on the market for about a year or less now… Red Espresso.

I have to say that at first I wasn’t really interested, but from talking to the guys at the Red Espresso stall at the show and tasting a myriad of variations of the Concentrated Rooibos “Espresso”. I was really really impressed. Both from a branding perspective as well as product delivery, Red Espresso ROCKS!

What comes with this particular product is the obvious heritage of rooibos, all it’s health benefits, no caffeine and loads of antioxidants. Added to this, they’re now taking tea (a generally geriatric product category), and above all things rooibos tea and re-branding the entire experience in-line with the modern ubiquity of Coffee Culture.

To make the point go even further, Red Espresso just earned the Beverage Market’s highest honour by winning the first prize in the “Best New Product” i nthe Specialty Beverage Category at the Coffee Association of America’s 20th Annual Conference and Exhibition. James, who I met at the stall, also told me that in 2 weeks they’ll be in Las Vegas for World Tea Exhibition to win even more awards.

Anyway… you can see the <a href=”http://www.redespresso.com”> website for yourself for a full review of all the honours.

I think this is a really good step in terms of spreading a culture of health and wellness amongst a population driven coffee and caffeine crazy, by making a product which is cool in design and branding and doesn’t alienate itself from the interests of its target market.

If you are interested in purchasing the product, they are available at Woolworths Foods and also @Home Stores Nationwide, or you can contact james@redespresso.com.

UPDATE: See James Comment below for Availability…

Live Blog Post: SA’s First Foodie Social Networking Site by Stork

First cover on the Live blog from the CTICC Good Food & Wine Show is the local margarine brand, Stork. Stork, if you remember, a couple of months back had a 6 month running ad which involved a mother describing how her son got her into “Blogging” and how it inspired and facilitated her creativity. Well, the brand is now back in the Web 2.0 spotlight with a new initiative to connect with their consumers.

Stork, Unilever’s local margarine jewel, has launched a social networking site specifically focused around food and recipes. The site is called “Food Creations” and obviously, the main recipes revolve around using Stork brands to make delicious food.

So from “talking about blogging” to actually setting up a Social Networking Site, makes it seem like the Stork Brand Office is really trying to get into the mix of “Web 2.0″. The site has just been launched, so let’s see how successful it is as both a social networking site catering for South Africa’s Food Lovers as well as a brand building activity for Stork.

So… if you love food (or think your mom might be interested :P) check out www.foodcreations.co.za
log in, and as the website says… crEATe.

Shifting Brands: Soup vs. Soap

Recently, I’ve just shifted brands. The Marketing/Branding at it’s essence is the same, but what I find most interesting is how different brands are… like the personalities of people, they behave differently, they act differently, they talk differently. To give you some context, I’ve moved from a Personal Care Category Brand where I was marketing soap (Lux) to a Food Category Brand (Knorr) where I’m now marketing seasonings and soup.

The brands are very different as you can imagine. I find Knorr a lot more complex than Lux simply because when it comes to food , the brands get far more personal with the consumer. This is, of course, with good reason because they are ingesting the product whereas with soap they’re not. But in terms of the brand itself, I find the consumer far more intimate when they speak of the brands they use in their cooking, etc. The level of involvement from an emotional point of view is very high.

When I was on Lux, the entire soap category can be seen to be very low involvement and so if a certain brand isn’t available in-store it’s not hard to imagine that a consumer will just pick up whatever other brand with the similar colour/smell on the shelf. Also with the recent price increases on everything in sight, low-involvement categories get the hardest hit, especially in South Africa, because the market is extremely price sensitive. AC Nielsen reports show this correlation in a lot of detail the volume drops the minute the price goes up even by 20c.

With food it’s a different matter, price sensitivity is still an issue but not as much as in the Personal Care categories. Consumers love the brands and will pay more to keep them simply because they believe and love the brand.

The variation of this dynamic is also based on the priorities of the consumer. Some people take far more interest in their personal care products and don’t really care what they eat, ad vice-versa.

Overall, it’s an interesting change and I’m enjoying using marketing skills in a different category environment and in a totally different brand. I’m sure the dynamics mentioned above would play across every single product which are available in a person’s life. But, by looking at them individually we get to see the detail behind how they work and how they affect people every single day.

Technorati Tags: Knorr, Lux, Marketing, Brands, Marketing

The Kama Sutra of Marketing

This was a cool write-up I found on Bizcommunity. the tie in between the Kama Sutra and Marketing is very clever and makes a lot of sense, especially in today’s era of Social Media where Marketers really need to get intimate with their consumers.
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For most of you, the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the Kama Sutra are two bodies entwined in a variety of passionate and exotic embraces. For those who dare to see the word a little differently, the classic “Treatise of Love” reveals just as much about marketing as it does about love.

Kama Sutra of marketing 1: Find your soul mates
According to the Kama Sutra, men are divided into three classes according to their physical features, namely, hares, bulls or horses. Women are classified as deer, mares or elephants. A hare is compatible with a deer, but not with a mare or elephant.

Similarly, as a marketer, you need to discover your brand’s soul mates. You need to court the right people for your brand’s positioning. The first step to successful marketing is defining a target market that fits with your brand.

Kama Sutra of marketing 2: Get to know them
While the sutra suggests that you learn as much as you can about your real life soul mate, don’t forget that it’s no different for your brand. Make it your business to study and understand the ins and outs of your target market. What are their interests? What are their desires? What keeps them up at night? Then – and only then – are you ready to get up close and personal with them.

Kama Sutra of marketing 3: Don’t forget foreplay
Be warned, foreplay takes time and cannot be rushed. Nor should you expect instant results. Also remember that communication is the most important element of seduction. The best marketers are patient and realise that luring potential customers is not about forcing your brand on your target market, but teasing them with just the right information at just the right time.

Kama Sutra of marketing 4: Be a great lover
In marketing, this is the important step of delivering on your promises and allowing your target market to experience the fulfilment of desire that comes with your brand.

Kama Sutra of marketing 5: Afterplay will make or break the relationship
The Kama Sutra implores lovers not to roll over and fall asleep after a passionate experience, and so should all marketeers. This is the perfect time to enhance your connection. It’s no different for marketers. Your after sales follow-up and brand reinforcements are vital to keeping your customers coming back for more. And importantly, for encouraging a little coffee shop conversation.

By Desiree Gullan (Creative director of the Guerrilla Group)

Technorati Tags: Kama Sutra, Marketing

“Speed Racer” gets Brands Revving Their Engines…

Advertising Age has an interesting article on how brands are leveraging this years blockbuster hit to increase their sales, especially since the movie is seen to appeal to a very wide range of audiences. The upcoming Wachowski Brother flick, Speed Racer, will have tie-in deals with General Mills, Yokohama Tire Corp., McDonald’s Corp., Nintendo, AutoTrader.com, esurance.com and Mattel. A Warner Spokesperson has said that the deals vary.

Similar to Burger King’s marketing tie-in with “Iron Man”, BK gets a mention in the movie. There is no branding for McDonalds on Speed Racer, though, Mcdonalds has the rights to sell Speed Racer toys with it’s Happy Meals.

Mattel is making a similar move by branding it’s Hot Wheels range with the Speed racer logo. General Mills will get a “Cheerio’s” Racing car. Yokohama Tires gave away Speed Racer key Cahisn and Posters at it’s paddock at the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix. Nintendo give consumers a reason to buy the Nintendo Wii’s wheel Accessory and launches the Speed Racer Game.

Link
Technorati Tags: Speed Racer, Advertising, Marketing, Brands

Advertising Cutbacks should make Marketers more Effective

With the World’s dipping economy and the US recession corporations could look to cutting back Marketing and Advertising budgets in order to save money. It might not make sense, from a marketers point of view, to cut back marketing spend during tough times but this could usher in a new challenge to the marketing fraternity in terms of making their marketing strategy and plans more effective.

Marketing has cemented its place in the global economy as a key department which ensures the creation of wealth. Reading a recent Bizcommunity article, a figure quoted was that of 20% of all advertising in South Africa, not only being ineffective, but actually damaging the brand it’s supposed to promote. Another R50 bn was quoted as being “wasted” marketing spend every year in South Africa. That’s an extremely huge number to ignore, and although I can’t find the global figures, one can only assume that these numbers remain roughly the same across different countries if not getting even worse.

Research agencies such as Millward Brown, Mindshare, AC Nielsen and Initiative are excellent tools for corporations to use in terms of understanding fully how to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of their marketing spend. Tons of money gets spent on market research every year which test everything from distribution to ad effectiveness.

What’s missing is the appropriate use of the information on every level of the marketing plan. Millward Brown has years of experience testing various ads and what separates the great ads from the good ones, those that exceed objectives and those which just barely meet them. This information is even broken down by country and LSM profile which means you get extremely targeted information. Using this information as criteria for judging creative work from agencies will put the effectiveness of ads on a whole new playing field.

Another aspect is the choosing of appropriate media, especially from a South African perspective, not many corporations are taking advantage of the new media landscape in terms of leveraging their brands on social media platforms such as Facebook, Myspace and even Twitter. Mindshare and Initiative are companies which specialize in media and have information which cover all types of consumer interaction with brands. Are we really using our media agencies to their full capacity? A few brands are, the rest are getting left behind.

Essentially what is being proposed is going right back to the basics of marketing, getting the core of the brand on the right path and following on from thereto make effective and efficient marketing plans and strategies. It is no longer the case of making a great ad and watching sales fly, consumers are more media and marketing savvy and they now have less to spend. Marketers need to ask… “What will make them spend the little money they have left on my brand?”

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Agency, Research

Starbucks’ New Retro Logo

The colour brown, in its different shades, positively communicates coffee. Starbucks new offering, Pike Place Coffee, sports a new logo somewhat different from the current green twin-tailed mermaid, but still true to the brand’s heritage. But everyone knows that the Starbucks logo is green, so why would Starbucks change its well-known and successful corporate symbol?

A full marketing mix comes into play; it all begins from Starbucks new coffee offering, Pike Place Coffee. This new range was spawned from criticisms on Starbucks’ Coffee and Consumer Reports which referred to the coffee a tasting “burned”. Hence the newly formulated mix which is smoother and has a cleaner finish compared to Starbuck’s other rotating blends. The logo is planned to be put on all the Starbucks cups for about eight weeks and will remain on the Pikes Place coffee bags as well as in advertising.

The aim of this new initiative, from a consumer perception point of view, is to instil goodwill about the brand and warm, fuzzy feelings which have fallen away due to bad press and increasing coffee prices. Nostalgia seems to be the key emotion Starbucks would like to evoke in its consumers, re-creating an emotional bond their consumers have with the coffee.

“Now that Howard Schultz is back at the helm, this is definitely a nostalgia effort and a strong push to get back to the core values of the company,” says Rob Giampietro of New York design firm Giampietro + Smith, referring to the reintroduction of an old icon. The tagline below the cup’s sleeve reads: “Roasting coffee since 1971.” Starbucks spokesperson Bridget Baker says, “It’s a good time to celebrate our heritage.”

As for swapping the original green colour with the brown, I personally don’t think that would be a good idea, especially for long-term change on the Master brand. It could be that the green logo of Starbucks is far too ingrained in modern culture for us to perceive or accept it as being anything else, let alone a different colour. For the line extension though, Pike Place Coffee, it does make sense to differentiate the new range and still add in that nostalgic effort to meld in cohesion with the Starbucks Masterbrand. It’s a case of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. Unmistakably Starbucks, but different.

Is there a danger that, by rolling out the old logo once again, Starbucks might overplay the authenticity card? “There is never a danger in reminding your employees or your customers of your authenticity as long as you also keep moving forward in new, surprising ways that are relevant to people,” says Brian Collins, principal of the New York-based strategic branding firm Collins:. “When it’s done right—and consistently—it can be the smartest way to market an established brand.”

Link

Technorati Tags: Starbucks, Marketing, Design, Branding, Brand

The Physics of Marketing

For anyone involved in Marketing in today’s times, it’s no understatement to say that it is sometimes downright confusing. Especially when you look at the three main weapons in the marketing arsenal today, Mass Marketing, Direct Marketing and Social Media Marketing. all three work according to very different rules and modes of operation.

I recently read this blog post which compared the Laws of Physics and how these three methods of marketing appropriately fit the explanations for the laws of physics.

Mass advertising is like Classical Physics; large-scale, mostly intuitive and somewhat predictable.

Direct Marketing is like Atomic Physics; small/medium-scale, mostly logical, but the segmentation aspects start to show some bumps and troughs on what appeared to be smooth and simple.

Social Media is more like Quantum Physics; small-scale, counter-intuitive and usually unpredictable.

• Traditional marketers deal with everyones opinions in big bins like sales figures, national focus groups, opinion polls, etc. These roll-ups average out the inconsistencies of individuals and blur together to form tendencies, trends and preferences. The actions taken in mass marketing can expect a relatively consistent result (i.e. send out a coupon and you can expect a certain level of redemption and sales revenue to come from it and the larger the audience, the more likely it is to average out at a predictable result). This is the world that marketers are familiar with and all-in-all it makes sense if you know the system.

• Social Media on the other hand acts on the niche and individual level where things are a lot less certain. The complex nature of blog posts is hard to parse out into definitive numbers and trends.The lack of large numbers makes the reaction and result of social media efforts difficult to determine and measure. It is much more difficult to roll up all of these disparate opinions into a meaningful decision than to look at an opinion pie-chart.So in essence, social media tools have given marketers a microscope powerful enough to see what is going on at smaller scales.

…many marketers in the classical camp are not very happy with what they see, because it doesn’t confirm what they thought they knew. Decisions which appear obvious when looking at large sample sizes becomes more nuanced and contradictory when you see everyone as an individual.

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