One of Tess’ recent blogs discusses how Kraft’s decision of dropping artificial dyes on their macaroni and saying hello to natural coloring will affect their customers in a negative way. What Tess is saying is valid, but there are still some things that can be considered and others that can be analyzed further as to whether customers would view this change negatively.

The first thing to be further analyzed is the health benefits this change will bring to the product. As Tess has mentioned, their product will “appeal to health-conscious consumers due to the reduced sodium and saturated fats”. Thus, if Kraft’s loyal customers are health-conscious, then they’ll view this as a positive change and may buy even more Kraft products. The reason they would buy more is because Kraft’s ‘Kraft Dinner’ can be viewed as a type of comfort food which is fattening, thus customers may eat it less often than they would like to. However, if their Kraft Dinners are now less in sodium and fat content, customers would buy more than they used to, knowing it can be consumed more often.

The second item to be considered is the extent to which coloration of the product affects the customer’s level of loyalty. There is much more to the product than the ‘orange-yellow color’ Tess speaks of that the customer associates Kraft’s products with. If the taste of the product is the same, generally speaking, customer loyalty shouldn’t change by much. This is due to the fact that loyal customers have generated an emotional attachment to Kraft’s brand and product; the customers may have grown up eating Kraft’s products. Through all emotions and events, Kraft’s products were always there with the customer. Thus, the emotional attachment created between the customer and Kraft’s products will be greater than the changes Kraft is making on their products.

After all, what Kraft is doing is just improving their loyal customer’s experience with their products, hoping their customers would introduce their products to generations to come. Change isn’t always negative.

Image Source: Kraft Dinner

After reading a blog post about twitter screening their users through identification, a couple of thoughts came to my mind. First of all, this implementation will really benefit alcohol brands, such as Bicardi as they would not be wasting valuable advertising resources on individuals under the age of 21. Alcohol brands’ target market are individuals aged 21+, thus, it would not make sense if the ad was being advertised to a 12-year old who, by law, is not even allowed to drink alcohol. This screening process can enable alcohol brands and create an incentive for them to further position their advertisements towards their target market as they know that individuals out of their target market will be unable to view their ads.

Secondly, it is important to point out that what younger audiences view on the internet can easily influence the decisions they make in real life. For instance, if a 12-year old sees an ad on the internet of their favorite celebrity endorsing the advertisement of beer, they may have the misconception that “beer is good” and would want to drink it though the law prohibits he/she to do so. Thus, it would not be a good idea for children to be exposed to this sort of advertisement. Overall, I believe what twitter is doing is a start towards the right direction and they have my full support.

Source: Twitter Identification Image

“The Tweeting Bra”—this is a new “advertising campaign in Greece” developed by Nestle Fitness. In order to raise awareness of breast cancer, Nestle decided to ask “Greek TV presenter” Maria Bakodimou to endorse this campaign for them. Of course, she agreed to do so; whenever Maria unhooks her bluetooth bra, there will be a tweet that “reminds women to do their breast self-exams”.

What Nestle did was very smart; not only are they taking advantage of the efficiency of social media, but they are also realizing the fact that Maria Bakodimou is a notable television personality in Greece which many Greek women probably look up to. If they follow Maria’s tweeting bra account, then they too will gain exposure to the tweets reminding them to have a breast check-up. If Maria is taking action to do self-exams, so would the women who look up to her.

As a female, I feel that this campaign is very useful and informative. This is a cause that many are exposed to on a daily basis but take very little action to raise awareness of it. Marketing this campaign through a bra just makes it that much more personal and many more women can relate to it rather than just promoting awareness through cancer walks and such. I believe that this campaign will lead to a positive consequence in the Greek society as more females will be doing self-exams more often to monitor their health and prevent the risk of discovering breast cancer too late. In addition to that, more donations will be going towards research for breast cancer. Because of the increase of donations, society as a whole may be positively impacted by new breakthrough discoveries which can eliminate the risk of getting breast cancer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1hSNg37K38

Source: Tweeting Bra Image