Say Cheese!

Now this is an example of innovative, yet perhaps irresponsible advertising.

This is an ad in South Africa for Audi's new 4.2L V8 twin turbo 450 bhp RS6.... in front of a speed camera! Hilarious!

X: The customer IS always right.... right?

For the final “official” blog entry for this class I wanted to offer a few thoughts on the customer insight process overall (and in no particular order):

- Gathering insight: easy to brainstorm about but harder to do in practice. While there are many different ways you can gather data actually acquiring the data can be challenging. People all pretty much hate surveys, be they short or long, multiple choice or free form. I pretty much think ETS is to blame for this! All those SAT’s and ACT’s have made people instinctively hate filling in little blanks with a number 2 pencil. Interviews are also tough to conduct and even more tough to code into meaningful data. Perception and biases comes into play when the data is not empirical.

- As our innovations prof told us, the market will reference themselves when making purchasing decisions. When you are providing a product or a service you have to ensure that it works as advertised or the negative word-of-mouth will kill your business. The market is not fickle, per se, but they do respond to positive and negative feedback from one another.

- Segmentation and differentiation are keys to having a successful product or service. If you try to be everything to everyone you end up with the Pontiac Aztek (which is bad by the way!). By picking particular segment of the market to serve and sufficiently differentiating our product offering we can be more successful!

What not to do!!

- The customer may not always be "right": Often a customer does not know what they need/want. You can gather data and identify potential market opportunities but that in and of itself does not identify a particular solution. And even once the solution is identified it does not mean the customer will be willing to buy it. The marketer must convince the consumer that their fridge smells so they are coerced into buying baking soda for the fridge!!

Control your iPod with an umbrella

Control your iPod with an umbrella - Engadget

File this one under: You know you have run out of ideas for peripherals when...... (man this is dumb!)

Awesome Ad for the 2005 Honda wagon

Came across this again today but figured some of you may not have seen it. It's a British ad for the 2005 Honda Accord Wagon. The ad was made using only parts from the car itself and took them over 600 takes to get right.



In case you're wondering the reason the wheels roll uphill is because they were loaded with counter weights.

Read more about the ad here

Be cool with the coolhunter!

I found this really neat site that you should definitely check out. Be warned that some of the stuff is very edgy and not for everyone and NSFW (not safe for work)! The site is dedicated to finding all things cool and it definitely succeeds. They have some cool marketing stuff on there too like this ad from Folgers that covers manhole covers in NYC:



Or this ad for addidas soccer featuring the German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn (that's huge!):

Issue 9: Is everything offensive these days?

I was thinking I would do a more light hearted response article to someone else's blog but Abby's blog entry regarding Sony's "racially charged" PSP ads (shown below) really caught my interest.


I had heard about the ads earlier from several other blog and news sites that I visit. The furor over the ads is, obviously, that it depicts a white model aggressively holding a black model. This ad is intended to announce the coming white iteration of the Sony PSP whereas previously it was only available in black.

Now I understand where some people may be offended by the ad. There are a few reasons actually. First, of course is the racial angle: a white model is the aggressor against the black model. Second, the sexist angle: they are "sexy" female models advertising a piece of consumer electronics, in a fairly unobvious way (why do they need to be scantily clad?). The ad was placed in Europe, as Abby points out, but in these days of the internet news and information spreads, quite literally, at the speed of light.

I am a fairly tolerant person and my personal view is that maybe we have forgotten what offensive actually is. If putting a black and white person together in an ad is instantly "racial" then we haven't really come very far in the last few decades. The ad to me does not allude to slavery or the civil rights movement but I can see how some people would see that as their first impression.

I do understand the need for sensitivity in ads but at what point to do we stop being edgy and just end up being boring? Edginess and humor is almost always targeted at someone and thus can always be construed as offensive. Should we stop making funny ads just because they offend people? I am kind of playing devil's advocate here because I believe we should work to destroy racial and cultural sterotypes. There are actually several websites that track offensive ads in the media, somthing that I found kind of interesting. Do you think the following ads are offensive?

Is this ad offensive to the guy or the girl? Is the guy so superficial that he would rather make love to his car or are ladies offended because they can be replaces with automobiles?





















Is this ad too gruesome or does it relay it's message effectively? Is it offensive to heart disease victims? I think this is a great ad that fits in perfectly with the brand message that Benetton tries to portray.











This is the logo for French Connection United Kingdom (FCUK) a clothing line based out of the UK. Obviously the abbreviation is very close to another 4 letter word with an entirely different meaning. Is it wrong for the company to build it's whole brand around this name?

The answers are not easy and I don't claim to have them. As Abby points out, we must be sensitive towards our target audience and also to others who may see the ad. With ncreasingly targeted advetising is it worth it to entertain one target segment while offending others outside your target market? These are the questions that marketers face in this age of increasing vigilance over ad's subject matter and the internet, where news both good and bad can spread like wildfire.

You MUST watch this ad!!

NikeGolf

This is Nike's new Golf ad featuring Tiger Woods. Knowing that golf swings are one of the biggest obsessions for golfers Nike took a 4000fps (yes that's 4000 frames per second... ordinary film is 28fps) and recorded Tiger's golf swing.

The result is a mesmerizing, minimalist ad that is appealing even if you have no interest in golf. The online version is even cooler than the TV version since you can watch individual portions of Tiger's body (feet, head etc) during his swing motion. The musical accompaniment is great as well seeing as the swing is a "symphony" of movement.

Moto-Razr 2

Pics of Motorola's KRZR for Verizon - Engadget Mobile

In case any of you were wondering what the new version of the RAZR will look like here it is:

Looks a lot more narrow than the original which was my gripe with the first one.

Figure 8: How small changes can make a big difference

The Alamo Drafthouse theaters are my favorite movie venues in Austin. Not only are they a local business (always a plus) but they have quirky and individualizing differences that make the movie going experience there that much more pleasant. They accept student ID’s for cheaper tickets and offer a food and drink experience that is very different from your general mega-plex experience.The changes start from the location of the theaters. Alamo theaters are generally unassuming little buildings integrated into strip malls. The parking is no different than the parking for the hair salons and restaurants next door. For special events and “big” movie releases the Alamo will sometimes decorate their lobby and the exterior of the buildings. For example, prior to reaching the theater to watch “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” moviegoers had to step through an actual wardrobe which led to a snow covered area with real evergreen trees!

Upon entering the theater you notice that they play off-beat little videos prior to the movie. These are generally related to the movie that is about to be played. Some of the clips may be before-they-were-famous flashbacks of the movie’s stars, or original versions of remade movies, or very strange international versions of the movie (Turkish Wizard of Oz?!). Even the cell phone and noise discretion notices are different. Presented in the form of mini movies, they incorporate clips of old movies (Gremlins, Goonies etc) or local Austin celebrities (Anne Richards etc) telling you to “Be Quiet or We’ll take your ass out!” Once the movie starts you can order food and drinks (including beer and wine) by writing your order on a small sheet of paper and placing it in a slot on your table. The servers come by throughout the movie to bring out your food, give refills, and collect your payment.

None of these differences are huge by any means but put together they offer a unique selling proposition that no other theaters can offer. Combined with the fact that Austinites value local and “weird” businesses Alamo is a veritable hit! There is nothing stopping other business from offering similar, slightly augmented services or products to make them distinct from the competition. For example, other theaters could offer built in baby-sitting services where you leave your child at the door with a responsible adult and then collect the child when the movie is over. This would reduce the trepidation parents have of being too far away from their kids while still being able to enjoy a night out. Central Market and Whole Foods offer cooking classes in the store which makes for a novel attraction that HEB and Randall’s generally can’t compete with.

Offering a slightly augmented product or service can mean the difference between a blockbuster (Pirates of the Caribbean) and a flop (Lady in the Water)!