The Silent Majority: Don’t just listen to the customers who complain

December 29, 2010 at 6:06 am · Filed under Digital, Insights

One of the cinemas we visit regularly used to sell crisp warm samosas during the interval. But the last time we went, they had taken them off the menu. When we asked why, they said they had too many complaints about the samosas being too oily or too spicy and so they had decided to stop selling them even though they used to be a top selling item.

I suppose the people who liked the samosas didn’t bother giving any positive feedback (apart from buying large quantities). Making business decisions based only on complaints from a minority of customers doesn’t make sense. Food for thought in the era of Facebook comments!

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One heck of an innovation – simultaneous launch of 19 flavours of Kit Kat in Japan

March 31, 2010 at 6:54 pm · Filed under Innovation

Via Springwise:
Taking a local approach to candy bars, Nestlé recently launched 19 new Kit Kat flavours in Japan that reflect food specialities of specific districts. Each flavour is sold exclusively in the region for which it was created, making the limited edition Kit Kats popular souvenirs for travellers.

The uniquely Japanese Kit Kat varieties include yubari melon and baked corn from Hokkaido island; strawberry cheesecake from Yokohama; cherries from Yamagata Prefecture; and sweet potato, blueberry and soybean from the Kanto region. Other varieties include wasabi, green tea, apple, green beans, chilli and miso. Tapping in to the Japanese tradition of sending students good luck wishes before their exams, Nestlé also launched a marketing campaign with Japan’s postal service to create “Kit Kat Mail,” a postcard-like product sold only at the post office.

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Google uses Vaporware or Futureware as a Tactic to Block Trials of the iPad

March 30, 2010 at 6:55 pm · Filed under Marketing

Android Tablet Prototypes Support Flash [VIDEO].

Straightforward tactic! Find the biggest missing feature (eg “Plays Flash Video”) in the early innovation and announce the launch of a new product which has that feature, hoping that enough people will hold on to their money in expectation of the new product with the missing feature included.

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Tesco Forecasts Weather To Predict Customer Needs

September 3, 2009 at 6:15 pm · Filed under Insights, Planning

Tesco, the U.K.’s largest grocery chain, is using weather-forecasting software to predicted temperature changes that influence customer needs and demand.

Tesco said the system has already predicted temperature drops during July that led to a big increase in demand for soup and hot puddings.

The computer program includes detailed regional weather reports for the whole of the UK going back five years and, crucially, what each Tesco store sold as a result of that weather.

A rise of 10C, for example, led to a 300% uplift in sales of barbecue meat and a 50% increase in sales of lettuce.

(Via The Times and Cool News)

The UK’s biggest retailer has pulled together a dedicated team of data experts who collate weather forecasts from a wide range of sources that are then analysed using unique software.

The computer program includes detailed regional weather reports for the whole of the UK going back five years and, crucially, what each Tesco store sold as a result of that weather. A rise of 10C, for example, led to a 300% uplift in sales of barbecue meat and a 50% increase in sales of lettuce.

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200,000 Facebook Friends sacrificed for Burger King

September 3, 2009 at 6:12 pm · Filed under Branding, Digital

233,906 to be precise.  Burger King offered Facebook users a free Whopper in exchange for “de-friending” 10 friends. 82,771 people took up the offer within a week before Facebook shut down the application citing privacy concerns.

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Nokia Phone v/s Golf Club: Entertaining Proof of Performance Advertising

July 26, 2009 at 10:48 am · Filed under Advertising

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“Is Creativity a Commodity?” (Asks Bogusky)

July 26, 2009 at 9:21 am · Filed under Advertising

Just one of the thought-provoking nuggets from Jeremy Abelson’s interview with Alex Bogusky.

They are the agency that developed the recent Microsoft campaign and Bogusky’s explanation of their approach is  interesting:

When we started working on this we swung everyone in the agency over to PC’s, and really all of the senior people on the account are working on PCs, and we thought it was really important because we do a thing called method advertising, which is if you don’t use it, you don’t know how to talk about it. And I think in the past Microsoft’s creative had a lot of swirly magical kind of stuff going on, and it might have been because their agencies weren’t working on PCs. So once you start working on it and you understand you can do a better job on it, and I think we’ve done a really good job on it and, you know, one of the key factors is that we use them. I had never worked on a computer other than an Apple, and I thought, “Oh my god! Will I be able to do this?”

Watch the interview or read the entire transcript here.

Meanwhile, on the subject of creativity being a commodity, here’s a topical article on “Dumb Dads in Advertising”.

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Microsoft repositions Apple: Does the new campaign work?

April 7, 2009 at 5:01 pm · Filed under Marketing

An interesting new campaign from Microsoft attempts to reposition Macs. The approach is quite interesting – someone is given a fixed sum of money to buy a laptop that they need. They look at Macs but find that PCs are better value for money. All this while damning Macs with praise. “I guess I’m not cool enough to be a Mac person”, “This is so sexy! But Macs to me are about aesthetics more than computing power”.

Time will tell if this approach pays off for Microsoft and HP, whose laptops seem to be the ones that are getting bought in these ads. But it’s certainly an interesting approach and timely given the recession.

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Love Distance: Cool Japanese Digital Campaign

April 6, 2009 at 9:19 pm · Filed under Marketing

This is quite simply amazing. It created buzz, activated the brand and ultimately sold the product.

Click here to see the story of the campaign.

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Recession Marketing by Hyundai: “Return car if job lost”

April 6, 2009 at 9:12 pm · Filed under Marketing

Sheer marketing genius.  Read the entire “recession washing” report here.

According to The Economist,

(Hyundai) is now gaining market share more quickly than any other carmaker in America.  It has managed to increase its car sales in America—they rose by 14% in January compared with a year earlier.

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