Taking on stiff competition

I’ve noticed the traditional German cuddly toy maker trying to do something about the dwindling birth rates in Germany before, most obviously by targetting older buyers in the media (who’ll buy gifts for kids), and more subtly by opening Steiff outlets in up-market shopping malls.

But this recent example is providing the same customers with new products. It’s costly (product development is always more expensive than just offering an unchanged product to new markets). It gets you involved with a completely different competitive set. You’ll also need new skills. But it’s a new potential source of income and thus another leg to stand on if it’s a rocky ride – ie another way to spread risk.

Hopefully for Steiff the children it’s targeting with this brand extension are also willing to wear the bear – and don’t think Steiff’s a baby brand. That’s not the sort of thing that earns street cred in the playground.

One thing Ulrike pointed out: why “bei Steiff” when the rest of the ad is in English?!

The winners came up with a brand extension for Philadelphia, also a major international brand but not yet known in Germany as this format of spread.

There was some confusion for me about the name, as the mocked up packs (see screenshot) didn’t quite tally with the name the group used in the presentation – Philly Fit – but the overall marketing mix was enough to shove the other three ideas into joint second. A neat trick with the design was the way the FITNESS wording exactly copied the colours of Lätta. Subliminal perhaps, but enough to signal dieting to those “in the know”.

I wonder what Kraft’s Philadelphia team think of the idea – if they haven’t already researched it themselves.

A huge problem with seasonal markets is, well, seasonality. People complain about Christmas goods appearing in the shops in September but it’s the only way to push stock into the trade (and out of the factory) to answer the huge surge in demand.

So what happens for the rest of the year? Answer: companies cultivate new product areas, a bit like McDonald’s offers breakfast and coffee between meals, to smoothen demand and make sure staff are not twiddling their thumbs half the day.

I can understand why the German company that made the product on the left decided to extend its peak season EASTER BUNNY chocolate to spread the peak in demand. But somehow Christmas bunnies just don’t ring right. At least they added the wink to the packaging, just in case we didn’t get it. I did. I grew up on sarcasm and irony. But I still didn’t buy it.

I wonder what’ll happen if I go back at Easter. Perhaps they’ll have a Father Christmas dressed as a bunny. Or how about a naughty fluffy female Santa Claus dressed as a play bunny for Valentine’s day?

Whatever, keep trying. It’s a variety market (see notes on Assael and buying behaviour), so you’ll always pick up the occasional customer with wacky ideas.

Over the years I’ve seen a number of companies forced by consumers to “stop being racist”. They don’t think they’re being racist, they’re just doing what they always did, but because of demographic changes their use of certain icons become out of touch with modern thinking – and just as importantly, the mixed ethnic origins of their clientèle!

The famous example from the UK involved Robertson’s Golden Shred marmalade, complete with brand mnemonic. Over the years they’d stopped calling the symbol a “gollywog” (the last syllable of this word is extremely offensive to black people). But you could still save up vouchers for the badge and toys.

After much pressure, the mascot was finally dropped in 2001, 18 years after the Greater London council boycotted the brand for being offensive.

Darling, you’ve changed.

This later example, right, comes from China. The brand was introduced in 1933 in Hong Kong, then a UK colony. Once Colgate-Palmolive bought 50% of the company in 1985, they left it for a while, until people back in the States got wind of the brand name “Darkie” in the range and got the firm to change it to Darlie. The logo was also adapted. The Chinese never saw it as offensive. It was a black man with bright teeth. In China they call people from the West long noses. I’ve never taken offence at that – we do have longer noses. But pressure groups push and push, and if a groundswell of opinion picks up momentum and the pressure becomes unbearable, companies just have to comply with the new social trend. The new generation of brand users won’t miss the old name. If it’s a good brand, it’ll survive.

So. Allow me to introduce you to my all-time favourite shocker, which I discovered in a shop while on business back in 1998: Negerbrot.

Before you get too upset, it needs to be remembered that neger in German is cognate with negro, not the even more offensive word (which I can’t even bring myself to write). Despite this, I was shocked when I first stumbled across the brand in a village shop. I decided to keep a pack for the archives. It was made by Heller, which in the meantime has withdrawn both the product and the brand. I wonder why…

Could you eat the contents?

Two stories that have recently caught my attention are typical of what feel like random decisions by the “powers that be”. The first involves leading UK energy drink Lucozade, owned by GlaxoSmithKline. To avoid paying VAT (sales tax), they wanted it to be classified NOT as a drink (sorry, beverage), but as a “functional food”. Unfortunately for them, the judge saw round this cunning plan and stated quite clearly, Lucozade, you’re a drink. I don’t find it hard to understand his decision, as I can’t remember the last time I drank a food. Lucozade’s in good company – Jaffa Cakes once asked to be categorised as biscuits, to avoid VAT. They succeeded. Pringles were less successful with their attempt NOT to be called crisps (British English, what others keep calling chips). Sorry Pringles, you’re crisps.

Well, if energy drink makers are surprised to hear they’re not selling food, how do you think water companies feel about a Brussels ruling that “water does not hydrate”? I had to look up the definition of hydrate: “To supply water to (a person, for example) in order to restore or maintain fluid balance.” According to a ruling by bureaucrats, however, water companies must not make this claim about their water. Water does not hydrate you.

I’m sure their marketing people are shaking their heads with disbelief. Though I’m also certain they’ll find a clever way round it, like the makers of beauty creams that “make your skin feel visibly younger”. That strikes the right chords with customers, without feeling watered down.

The owner of a small restaurant in Bonn, whose name translates as “apple child”, is facing legal action for using a logo that is apparently so similar to the Apple logo, there is a significant danger it could be “mistaken” for the global icon.

Does a hugely influential brand like Apple really need to bully this poor woman? Well I suppose their lawyers are only doing their job – if you go to a hairdresser, they’ll never tell you NOT to get your hair done. But her PR is in my humble opinion currently doing a better job, judging by coverage in the German press.

Given the sheer clout and recognition levels of Apple, do they honestly believe this logo could be confused with the IT icon? With a brand that huge? The bitten apple (a play on “bytes” thought up by Steve Jobs) looks NOTHING LIKE the logo on the right, surely? Do they think consumers are that thick?

This kindergarten spat reminds me of a Lacoste incident. They bit off more than they could chew and lost a court case against a dentist with a crocodile logo (see here).

I imagine Apple will also be told to GET REAL by German judges. Perhaps it should focus instead on its core business, not cave in to over-cautious lawyers, even if they have a very important job to do – to protect brand equity.

I have Christian to thank for this latest example from Switzerland that shows Dacia is willing to be adventurous and portray itself as a quirky brand.

The press ad he saw looked like some kid or puerile pundit was trying to deface Dacia’s delicate design. The scribbles looked like graffiti. But no, on closer examination this was part of the print.

So Christian checked out the website and his first reaction was that it must have been hacked. No hang on. He soon realised it hadn’t. It’s all part of their latest campaign.

I’ve worked for a few years in marketing and advertising now, and I know how proud you feel when a campaign goes live. You send things to friends and family. I wonder if I’d sent this one round. People might think it’d gone wrong.

The problem is, we’re spending so much time laughing with the campaign, or perhaps at it, do we really take in the message? Or is the idea that by examining each bit of sabotage we’re more likely to take in the detail than if we’d just quickly passed it over?

I’m undecided on this one. It kind of works. But it also deflects attention. The jury’s out.

Hacked by … the ad agency

Moving target

Well, the answer is: pretty badly.

First: It was on a moving poster that rotated different ads up and down. Every time I got the code in my viewfinder (not pictured here, this is just an example), it moved away again. And I couldn’t scan a code that was moving.

Second: As I desperately tried to capture the code, I attracted more and more attention from passers-by. When a teenage girl started sniggering at me, an “older man”, looking like he was trying to take pictures of scantily dressed models, I decided it was time to give up.

Ok, I’m not target market, but I was damned if I wanted people to think I was some sort of perv.

Of course this now raises an issue: if you’re going to use QR codes for direct response advertising, make it work. And don’t cause people embarrassment having to stand in front of your poster with people walking past. If people are proud to be seen scanning in your code in public, that’s street cred. If your brand is not suitable, don’t expect much response.

For example, would you put a QR code on this display unit for erectile dysfunction?

A triumph for direct response advertising?

Take TV. You could put a telephone number in a TV ad for people to ring… but sitting in front of TV, few people actually bothered scribbling down a freephone number. They had to be quick anyway. And not many people had a pen and paper ready.

So try a website address on TV, or on a poster, or in a press ad. Also not brilliant.

How about something on packaging? Efforts to get beer drinkers to collect codes and unlock prizes later on a website also proved problematical.

The problem? The extra effort people have to go to.

Until … the advent of smart phones with apps to scan in a QR code and go straight to your website.

What a dream! Now, as people walk down the street, they can respond directly without having to write something down or remember to do something later.

And with the right execution to tease their curiosity, certain target markets are bound to respond. I decided to give it a go. Even if I’m not target market.

And then? Part 2 of this post to follow…

How do you update a brand without making it look like what you had before wasn’t perhaps as good as you were making it out to be?

For years people mocked the iconic Persil for claiming it washes whiter. What, like it didn’t wash white before? And what is ‘whiter’ anyway? The Unilever/Henkel people are familiar with the headache of making an update look believable.

Grilled by Foodwatch

But it gets worse if someone then turns round and says that your ‘new, improved’ isn’t even better in the first place. As happened to Unilever in Germany when consumer watchdog Foodwatch slated Bertoli for not improving the product (as was claimed on the packs), but actually making it worse. Apparently they added flavour enhancers and anchovy paste, a no-no for vegetarians.

Trying not to lose face

It’s the same problem wherever you are in the world. And what could be more global than the internet, where Facebook has now been updating its privacy settings. Yes, we all know nobody understood the settings before, so they had to be improved. Which they’ve now done, apparently.

Enter their “vice president of product”, complete with strange grammatically-challenged job title. When asked about the rationale underlying the new, improved Facebook, he nearly, oh so nearly, came away without egg on his face.

According to the BBC, “the arrival of another privacy refresh didn’t necessarily mean the old system was confusing.” No, as Cox tells us, echoing generations of marketeers’ tears over the years: “I don’t think the old controls were bad. I just think the new ones are much better”.

Doesn’t wash with me.