A nice illustration of selective perception. The color changing card trick  by quirkology professor Richard Wiseman. What can we learn when consumers are in front of the shelf and have to make a decision.

How to sell cheese with a viral ?
Nolan's Cheddar by John Nolan

Superb video animation / cheese commercial. No lifestyle, old fashioned USP of the cheddar cheese "seriously strong" convincingly portrayed.

During a dinner in restaurant Panama with online marketeers I was tipped on the book "How Brands Grow" by Byron Sharp. The science of marketing instead of gutt feeling. Medieval practices in marketing . Thought provoking.

Watch the Australian Ted youtube movie The science of marketing

The Blackberry boys: A failed repositioning strategy in the mobile phone market

Blackberry used to be synonymous with corporate -workhorse devices known for security and reliability . But the iPhone and Android smart phones with large app stores look like the best business models in the fast moving telcom industry. My estimate is that Blackberry has  lost the battle to iPhone and Android market. (The chief marketing officer Keith Pardy has left the company in mrch 2011. Not a good sign.)

People do not want an affordable corporate mobile phone, they rather want a sexy new one. No matter if you are corporate or not. The competitive advantage of Blackberry in the corporate world has gone and Blackberry is not sexy enough to compete in a consumer market. That is why they are forecd to start a world wide repositioning strategy, downgrading the brand image by offering it to consumers.


Repositioning Blackberry
In South Africa Blackberry is repositioning the brand as a consumer and business brand instead of only a corporate brand. They have a 4% mobile phone market share, but consumer intention to buy a blackberry is high.  Suggesting a strong growth the next period. At least according to Rudolf Muller in http://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/19363-why-blackberry-rules-in-sa.html If this approach will work remains too be seen.

 

 
In India the Blackberrie mobile phone brand also follows a repositioning strategy . The youtube viral movie (sort of bollywood style) is nice to watch.

How effective is the repositioning strategy?
A critical review of this move by kaustav sengupta
http://ingene.blogspot.com/2010/10/we-are-blackberry-boys-blackberry-is.html
If moving to a mass market and losing the elite image is a smart move of blackberry remains too be seen. It can be seen as a downgrading. It could dilute the value of this brand and the elite will no longer use Blackberry. They will switch to the next big thing. Blackberry will have difficulty competing against mass market mobile phone brands and app platforms like Iphone and android based phones.

As the brand grows there is always that temptation to make some more bucks by repositioning your brand and targeting the unconventional prospects. Many brands fall prey to it and most of them fail, because one thing in a human brain can occupy one association at a time, in most of the cases. Going against this basic law about how humans percieve and then act and react leads to so many failures in re-positioning attempts by brand managers across the globe. Blackberry is trying to do something very "cheap" in terms of re-positioning a brand; just a communication facade and wrap up to enforce the Boy thing. It might give them some more boys and girls singing to their tune but more importantly and more likely, it can take away that loyal class of Executives which build the brand Blackberry.This is not at all an impressive move by the strategists and brand people at RIM."...



Blackcherry, an indian Blackberry clone.
This BlackBerry rip-off is available to you at just INR 2799. (around $60,-)
Features: Dual SIM, Dual Battery, Dual Memory Card Slot

If your brand is copied you must have been good. But I doubt how long this clone will be around considering the downgrading of the Blackberry brand.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/28/rim-sexy-blackberry/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580004576180721135993118.html

Tips on teaching marketing using frameworks

As a teacher you are often confronted wth the question of giving students what they want or giving  them what they need. Here a nice story of a professor in marketing giving people what they want.

At the end of a busy teaching semester, Dan Ariely thought he’d take a moment to share one of his favorite classroom moments from a marketing course he taught some years ago at MIT.

What would you do ?

What really motivates us ?

This lively RSAnimate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace. Watch it!
Highly recommended !
http://www.thersa.org/

Early detection of changes in consumer behaviour by monitoring nutrition buzz ?

I have the impression that most people do not often talk about average fruit or vegetables like oranges, banana's or potatoes. Unless they are somehow asked by a food manufacturer to give their opinion.

Large food multinationals are always interested in the latest food trends among consumers. What are consumers talking about on the social media ? Sanoma and Unilever have their social platform Yunomi (http://www.yunomi.nl/) where they try to get women to talk about all kinds of products. With 280.000 women quite succesfull for a Dutch social platform.

Nielsen has chosen a different path to better understand emerging trends in nutrition, The market research company has been quantifying buzz among health enthusiasts, a passionate and informed consumer segment that Nielsen monitors across 400+ social networks, key blogs and forums. Below you can find a table of their findings.

Can you really detect in an early stage a change in consumer behaviour by monitoring the nutrition buzz on social media ?

Nielsen believes that listening to what health enthusiasts care about helps to see what’s next.
For average Europeans who know that unprocessed fresh fruit is the best option watching these statistics it is like a watching an artificial TV contest about who is the winning exotic fruit or vegetable of Q1. In Q2 the ranking can be completely different. Some entertaiment value but wether it does provide relevant consumer insight or spotting relevant food trends in an early stage remains the questions.

Source:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/state-of-the-consumer-wellness-watch-nutrition-buzz/

More and more screens are competing for the attention of the consumer

Àlways wanted to know where other people have gaming consoles in their house. Nielsen did some interesting market research and made a nice infographic.

Because all the screens in the house compete for attention of the consumer it would be interesting to see where other devices like televisons, pc´s, laptops and tablets are located. It is a nice illustration of the connected consumer but the media channels through which a marketeer can reach the consumer become ever more fragmented.
Finding the right media channel mix for your offer is a more and more difficult marketing challenge.

Source:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/u-s-console-gaming-the-living-room-beyond/

Women are the biggest online shoppers

My students sometimes have the impression that men do most of the online shopping. This might have been the case in the early days of the internet. But nowadays Internet mirrors society and proof of stereotypes about men and woman and old and young can effortlessly be found on the internet.

The Nielsen market research company shows that women are the most frequent shoppers online in the USA. Only the category computer hardware remains a dominant male bastion.



All the old stereotypes still hold true: women shop the most, senior citizens watch the most TV, men play video games and women and the young like to text. I assume this is also true for European countries, but I have not found any data to confirm this.

The Nielsen USA report summary with data from Q3 2010 is interesting stuff to read and can be found here
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/in-u-s-men-are-shopping-more-than-ever-while-women-are-watching-more-tv/#

Lecturing during the International Week at the University of Katowice in Poland

Recently I had the opportunity to lecture at the University of applied sciemces in Katowice in south west Poland. Together with 11 collegueas from different countries we gave lectures centered around the theme Internet Communication Management My topic was "building brands on line". 4 student groups consisting of 4 students each had to choose an interesting consumer product and develop an online marketing communication plan. Considering they were mainly first year students and had no experience with marketing they produced some really good results. The students were surprisingly good at english and worked really hard to achieve the best results. Working in groups and immediately applying the theory in a practical assignment was something completely new to the Polish students. They were really enthousiastic about this form of teaching because it allowed them to work in groups and discuss pro's and con's among each other. The evaluations were really very good; 90% would recommend this course to other students. You can find the results of their work on their blogs and judge for yourself.

Iphone	http://intweekkatowicegroup1iphone.blogspot.com/
Nissan quashqai	http://intweekkatowicegroup2nissanqashqai.blogspot.com/
3D tv Panasonic	http://www.group3panasonic.blogspot.com/
m&m's	http://intweekkkatowicegroup4mms.blogspot.com/

Besides lecturing we had time for a very nice social programm including a visit to the town hall and a meeting with the major. Who gave an impressive presentation of the growth and entrepreneurial spirit of the region around Katowice. Several Western multinationals have a subsidiary in the Silezian region. The unemployment rate is below 3,5%. Which made me realize I had to adjust my perception of this region.

All lecturers and the international team during the visit of the town hall of Katowice.  

I was surprised by the exceptionally good promotional coverage of the international week.
The trailer at the top gives a nice example of how universities can promote important events in a modern way with social media.  Facebook, Youtube picassa all modern media were used to communicate the story of the international week. 
If you are interested check out the following websites.

http://www.intweek.ue.katowice.pl/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/University-of-Economics-in-Katowice/145274722181780

Farewell facebook

The growth of facebook is fenomenal. The use of facebook in our daily life has something articicial. In my daily work as a lecturer i see that some students are afraid to pick up the phone or to talk real life to somebody else. This briljant short movie illustrates the alienating effect of facebook.

Marketeers should be aware of these effects and the added value of being connected artificially.

Battle of the imported beer brands: Heineken strikes back with brilliant campaign

Every beer drinker is convinced he can taste the difference between his favorite and other beers. The beer industry knows this is not true. Constant product / taste quality, good distribution, distinctive positioning supported by solid online and off line communication campaign does the trick.

In the USA there is a battle going in the imported beer category. Corona, the imported mexican beer, has "beer on the beach" positioning.


The Corona Beach from Big Spaceship on Vimeo.


It is under attack from Dos Equis with a brilliant "the most interesting man " campaign. Last year this campaign scored high on the viral video charts.






Advertising agency Wieden and Kennedy has developped a very appealing viral for Heineken.
They owe much to the campaoign of Dos Equis but gave it a modern and more refined twist in tune with Heineken´s positioning as a premium European import beer.  For people with a more cosmopolitan urban style.  Heineken shows correct way of entering a party.




Interesting to see what this new marketing campaign will do for sales and market share of the Heineken brand in the USA.


Source:
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=148178

Puppy tweets bad for the corporate reputation of Mattel ?

Have you ever wondered what your dog is really thinking? Now, dog tweets are the new bark thanks to Puppy Tweets, a new product perfect for social media enthusiasts and dog lovers.

http://puppytweet.com/

In its first-ever toy created for the canine community, Mattel introduced a product called "Puppy Tweets" that meshes the hugely popular Twitter with consumers' love of pets.

Puppy Tweets is a plastic tag with a sound and motion sensor that you attach to your pet's dog collar and connect its USB receiver to your computer. Then you create a Twitter account for your dog and enjoy updates all day from Sparky or whatever its name is on your computer or smartphone.

The tag is set with several pre-recorded tweets that are triggered by the dog's activities. So if he's running around, you might get a tweet that says "I finally caught that tail I've been chasing and...OOUUUCHH!"

Puppy Tweets is part of the No. 1 toymaker's line-up of new products for 2010 that it showcased to members of the media Thursday ahead of the industry's annual Toy Fair in New York 2010.

Puppy Tweets will be available at retailers in the fall, and will carry a suggested retail price of $29.99.

I wondered wether this product was a nice gadget with entertainment value. The price for a pink puppy tweet at Amazon has dropped to $14,95. Apparently according to Amazon user reviews this product is bad and sents out tweets all the time.  A another devastating indepth review confirmed my suspicion. Thanks to the transparancy of social media a bad product can be detected soon.

A hit and run marketing strategy is never good for your corporate reputation.



Bad customer reviews at Amazon.com

Devastating before christmas 2010 review

The 11 Unwritten Laws of Reputation Management

A nice article about 11 unwritten laws of reputation management. “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”


A nice quick read about reputation management and social media which puts you with both feet on the ground.



Source image: Seo-is-geen-oplossing-voor-online-reputatie-problemen

Source article: the-11-unwritten-laws-of-reputation-management

The real top 10 Twitter Trends !

Drumroll please! Here are the Top 10 Trends on Twitter for 2010 that indicate what shapes our lives and are most meaningful! (Cymbal crash!)


1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. FIFA World Cup
3. Inception
4. Haiti Earthquake
5. Vuvuzela
6. Apple iPad
7. Google Android
8. Justin Bieber
9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
10. Pulpo Paul

Confirms everyone´s suspicions about the meaningfullness of Twitter :)


Source 1: www.marketingpilgrim.com

Source 2: http://www.tednguyenusa.com/top-twitter-trends/