Each year I expect that the delivery of my Yellow Pages print directory will surely be the last. I appreciate that at least you can now go online (yes note online!) to request that one is not delivered, but it is an interesting phenomena witnessing the decline of an outmoded product format.
I was reading with interest recently that Samsung Electronics has taken the wraps off a new, larger version of its popular iPad rival, the Galaxy Tab. The Australian Financial Review was suggesting that many see it as the biggest challenge yet to Apple’s dominance in tablet computers. It was this comment that really got my attention, because it was suggesting to me that for the Galaxy Tab to be competitive it must have some real ‘functional smarts’ about it.
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The new ad campaign from Australian bank NAB has potential, but are they capable of leveraging it? The campaign idea of ‘breaking up’ from the other 3 major banks (CommBank, Westpac and ANZ) , has captured lots of media focus and commentary. It has laced its various ‘breaking up’ episodes with a little tongue in cheek humor, albeit it a bit repetitive. It is also using a great mix of media in an integrated manner.
A recent report by CHOICE in Australia has once again highlighted the difficult road that brand owners have when they have a product with legitimate health claims. The difficulty does not reside with articulating the health claim, rather with whether target consumers will believe the claims. This is because consumers a bombarded with so many bullshit claims, and there is no better example than the vitamin/nutrient water category.
South-east Queensland remains in crisis with thousands of homes and businesses inundated by rising floodwaters. As of 13/1 the death toll from three weeks of heavy rain and flooding has reached 22, with more than 40 people still missing.
When the floods eventually ease and the people of Queensland who have been impacted attempt to resurrect their lives, their insurance companies are going to loom large. Already some of these insurance company brands are declaring their hand as to how they are likely to respond, and unfortunately for many Queenslanders they won’t be turning up at the door step with any form of ex-gratia payments. It has been reported that more than half of all insured homes in Queensland are not covered for flood damage. In fact most home and contents insurance policies in Australia exclude cover for flood damage.
In the same way WikiLeaks borrows brilliant from any source, the Australian yoghourt brand Jalna has been running a print campaign whereby they seemingly borrow a famous or high profile person’s status as an endorser for their brand. And at the moment when you are talking profile you don’t get much better than Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The ad below appeared this week in the Melbourne daily newspaper The Age.
As a brand agency we are regularly exploring with clients the brand values they need to live to give their brand the marketing positioning they wish to achieve. Regularly in those conversations we use an airline example to explain how some brand values are mandatory, but often not necessarily at the extreme end of differentiating the brand. In terms of airlines in Australia an example of that has been safety. Critical to the brand but for a lot of consumers not the determining factor in which airline they choose because they feel that most of the airlines have strong enough safety records.
We are always reminding clients in the food and beverage industries of the power of sampling when they have a new product on the market. Get people to experience your product, never die wondering. It does not matter how good your food or beverage advertisement may be, there is no comparison with allowing consumers to have the complete sensory experience. If you are sampling the right customers and you have a great product with the right level of distribution, you have a high probability it will translate into sales.
Coles Supermarkets in Australia has for years sat back and watched its formidable competitor Woolworths claim the market positioning of being ‘The Fresh Food’ people. It is a positioning line that is strongly recognised and recalled amongst consumers. In recent years they have successful reinforced it with their revamped logo and weekly fresh produce updates on National TV. At the same time Coles has really not owned any consistent positioning. It has simply been seen as playing second fiddle to Woolworths.
In an Australian racing first, leading online bookmaker Sportsbet.com.au has declared the 2010 Cox Plate (to be run 23/10/2010) a one horse race and has paid out all bets totaling more than $250,000 on the Bart Cummings trained – So You Think. The unprecedented move sees punters collect their winnings an incredible five days before the world’s greatest Weight-for-Age race is run. Sportsbet.com.au CEO Matt Tripp said he regarded So You Think as a certainty. However, given that most people on this planet think there are really very few certainties in life, there is always a chance it won’t win, even if that is only the slimmest of possibilities, it is still a possibility – so why pay?
Sportsbet are paying simply because Matt and his team are better brand builders than their competitors. They have an appetite for big bold gestures that stand out, because they are brilliantly counter intuitive. It is not the first time they have paid out before an event has been completed. They did it earlier in the year with Tiger Woods after the second round in the Australian Open (he won!), and with the Tigers in Aussie Rules, where they paid out $150,000 to punters, after about round 4 of a 22 round competition, who backed them to be wooden spooners (to come last).
