Never say "No" to Panda!

I'll admit that I'm ignorant of different languages, so I have NO IDEA what language they're speaking in these videos; the subtitles help, but aren't necessary, really. The moral of these commercials: buy Panda brand foods because you never want to make a panda mad; they'll make you pay for it!

Click "Read More" to watch the video.

Worst acupuncture experience EVER!

I have no idea what this ad is for, but it made me laugh pretty hard! Please post a comment below with guesses as to what it might be!

Who wants some Ronald tonight?

GEICO is famous for its funny ads, many of which have very little to do with insurance.  This one is my new favorite, and I was super-excited to find this uncut version of it!  After you watch the uncut version, check out the second video. It's the actual ad that appeared on TV, and I enjoyed seeing how they added text and re-cut it to act as a GEICO commercial.

Please leave a comment letting me know about YOUR favorite GEICO commercial!

Dollar Shave Club's AWESOME video is marketing GOLD!

I saw this video the other day, and it made me laugh...maybe even OUT LOUD! I actually went to their site, just to see if it was real. It IS a real company, and they do what they say they'll do: ship you one razor each month to your door. Despite being pretty funny, the video also does a good job of laying out the company's purpose and promise. The promise is one of the funniest parts: "Our blades are F*CKING great!"

Click "Read more" below to see the video, then let me know what you think by posting a comment!

Banana Marketing

I never would have thought...

It's a pretty funny way to do it, and it's one of the last places I would think to look for an ad...which makes it the best place for it.  Plus, putting the ad on bananas fits the "Chipwrecked" movie's theme of tropical islands.  I didn't think of it, but I'm wondering now if they had these same stickers on OTHER types of fruit, too!

(P.S. Beware of SCAMS!)

As disaster clean-up continues around my neighborhood, I've been seeing more news vans than usual.  Unfortunately, no one has stopped to talk with me...until yesterday.  Below, I've posted the brief video.  I know it's a bit vain, but I'm fine with a little of that!

More charitable giving as marketing material

My 30-foot-tall tree fell in my front yard on
December 1st, 2011.

Last week, a barrage of unusually strong wind came whipping through the western United States.  When it whipped over the eastern mountains of the Wasatch Front, my town was the hardest hit; the gusts were over 100 miles per hour!  For those of you keeping track, that's level-two-hurricane-strength winds!

How Could Customer-focused Marketing Hurt Your Brand?

Click here to go to a BrandAid from Killian Branding.  It brought up interesting downsides to being a customer-focused company.  In an age where customer-centric activities are expected of all businesses, claims of being focused on customers' needs change from competitive advantage to liability.

Unfortunately for many companies, they still tout their love of customers as their main strength.  If you think about it, though, who DOESN'T love their customers?  Buyers of your products are who keep the doors open; without them, you would have no business.  So, of course, you love them to pieces.  It's a give!

On what, then, should companies focus their attentions?  The article states some interesting statistics that help put it in perspective.  For instance, if a company experiences 6% growth each year with it's current customer base, it will double its business in 12 years.  That's not bad, but, especially for companies with high growth potential, that could be increased dramatically by focusing efforts on gaining new loyal customers.  That's right: NEW customers!

Remember the old adage: it's more expensive to gain a new customer that to cultivate an existing one.  Does this new focus mean the adage isn't true anymore?  No, of course not!  It's still cheaper to keep existing clients. That means that less time and energy has to be spent to keep them happy.  Now, what can you do with the extra time?  Get NEW customers!

-MJP

Minor Leauge Player Falls into Marketing Gold!

Recently, a minor league outfielder facilitated a triple play with his head. His quick reaction and cool execution, despite what must have been a decent headache, could be used to promote the team and help his career. The key will be to market the incident properly.

A Helpful Reminder

I like email lists, sometimes, and have been known to sign up for A LOT of them.  Most get forwarded directly into folders so that they don't clutter my inbox, but there are a few that stay in front of my eyes.  One of my favorites is the BrandAid from Killian Branding, a marketing firm in Chicago.

Why is it so popular?

Question: why is this video SO POPULAR? It's had more than 2 million hits since it premiered in July 2010. Yes, it makes fun of the Old Spice ads, but it only mimics them in style. There's something funny about it that's all it's own. Watch, ponder and then post a reply telling everyone why YOU like or dislike it!

Pester Power and Children's TV Programming

Some marketing entities, who will remain nameless, don't just present products and services to potential consumers; they ram it down customers' throats with annoying frequency. Often, the adds appear to have been placed in the wrong time slots.

It's called "pester power," and it's becoming fairly common, especially during children's TV programming. Here are some reasons it bugs me, specifically when it comes to my kids!

First of all, I have very young children (three kids under the age of 5), and everything they see on commercials, they want. They have no way to discriminate between products; it all looks fun, so they want it.

I think there should be NO commercials during programming for children. PBS does this, for the most part, but they still have sponsored shows by McDonald's and other brands, so kids still see it. At least they're on the right track, though.

Secondly, I find it annoying that advertisers use children's programming time to advertise products to parents. The other day, I saw a soap commercial during Nick Jr. I understand that parents should be watching TV with their kids; we try to at our house as much as possible, but I know that a lot of people don't have the time to do it, and it's impossible to do it 100% of the time, so then kids are left watching ads for things they don't even understand. It becomes a drain on their delicate brains as well as advertisers' dollars.

I am, by writing this, making myself into a hypocrite, though. It’s my business to market products; I AM THE ENEMY. Fortunately, my current employer sells computer networking equipment, so I don’t think we’ll be appearing during Dora the Explorer any time soon!

Burger King goes all the way

Check out this article I just read about Burger King's latest campaign in Singapore (Click on this post's title to go to a FOX News article about the ad). I'd expect something like this in the US, where ads like this show up fairly regularly, but in Singapore? Now THAT'S pushing boundaries!

Burger King has a history of thinking outside the box when it comes to advertising. Their viral chicken campaign was a huge success, but I think that made them think they could do anything they wanted to do.

The FOX News article complained about the excessively white liquid - they said it was white cheese, but I think that was the mayo - but other than that, it is pretty obvious what BK is insinuating.

Is the ad inappropriate? Absolutely! Should there be a demand for it to be removed? I don't think so. Singapore's government is super-strict about everything that is done or seen in public; if THEY don't have a problem with it, why should everyone else? They aren't running it in the US or Europe or any other countries. Let the people in Singapore have their suggestive BK ad, please.

I'm going to write a friend in Singapore and see what she thinks; I'll let you all know what SHE says as a citizen of that country.

Blogging for Dollars, Part 1

Fifteen years ago, no one could have guessed that people would have FREE space on the Internet to write WHATEVER they wanted to write. And now, to top it off, people can make money off of these personal records on the web, called "weblogs" (now just called "blogs")! There are more ways than ever to make money off of the Internet. The plethora of companies that sell their products via electronic stores has grow exponentially, even in the past five years. Web 2.0 and it's usability have turned the web into a money making machine.

In addition to web carts, Google has enabled advertisers of all sizes through its service, AdSense. If you're unfamiliar with the products, it works like this:
- Bloggers sign up for free accounts.
- These authors choose where and how ads are displayed on their sites.
- Google uses its analytical tools to match up random ads with content found on sites.
- If visitors to these blogs click on ads, the authors get paid by the advertisers.
- Genius, no?

Granted, the money that most bloggers receive is pretty paltry, and to actually get a check, a blog has to have $100 worth of ad revenue. Considering that you need 100 or more hits on your blog to receive anywhere from 1 penny or more means that it could take a while. But still, it's an interesting idea that has paid off for people.