Blog on the Corner

You can’t judge a book by its cover, a lesson taught to me over and over again since I was a toddler.  While I agree with this messages philosophical meaning, I have to admit I always judge a book by its cover. In fact I judge everything by its cover, package and appearance.  Today in class we talked about packaging and brands and what they mean to us.  I think that in order for brands to portray the right message they have to really put some creativity and effort into their packaging. As a consumer we are constantly faced with choices when we go to the supermarket or the mall. When I face that tall isle of snacks and chocolates my eyes automatically are attracted to the sparkling colorful packages with creative designs. I think many corporations understand this and that is why recently we have seen a renaissance in the packaging of products. For example Coca Cola, who have the generic old school red pop can have come up with a Coke Kids concept. The proposed package keeps all the functionality of the coke bottle but adds the “wow” factor.

Another beverage company who recently launched a new product is Jack Daniel’s.  Known for their quality whiskey, Jack Daniel’s is introducing a line of whiskey infused beverages.  As Jack Daniel’s drinkers are mostly men the packaging for this product was crucial.  Men do not like the idea of drinking coolers or “girly” drinks.  The bottle is not sleek but is instead thick with the classic Jack Daniel’s font.  By packaging this beverage in such a manor Jack Daniel’s can expect to retain it’s male drinkers while still adding innovation and creation to the Jack Daniel’s brand.

Monopoly, in an attempt to connect with todays kids, is releasing a new version of their classic board game. This new version of Monopoly adds many extra features in hopes of adding value to the board game exerpience. New features include an electronic tower, which not only rolls the dice and does the banking but also has an infrared light able to detect board pieces.

Monopoly is constantly creating new addition of its popular board game, including Canadian Monopoly which includes real Canadian properties and Monopoly Deal, a card game derived from the original board game.  My personal favorite edition of Monopoly is the Pokemon edition.  It is clear that Monopoly understands that the market for board games has a wide variety of demographics, thus all of these special editions of its original board game are aimed at the diverse demographic of consumers.

In my opinion this latest edition of Monopoly is their attempt to steal the video game demographic, showing them that board games can also be advanced and high tech.  What Monopoly needs to be worried about is that it may end up alienating it’s original customer base, as this new board game may take away from original game play (i.e. rolling dice and banking).

We may not know how the market will respond to Monopoly’s change, however when we look at other ground breaking moves that Monopoly has made we can see that they generally do well.  An example of this is Monopoly’s partnership with McDonald’s in providing a sweepstakes that allows customers of McDonald’s to collect Monopoly pieces in order to win prizes.  If Monopoly can gain success in their new board game as they did in other ventures then they have a bright future ahead.

Next Level Board Game Maneuver

As many of you know this coming Sunday is Super Bowl XLV.  This year the Green Bay Packers will be facing off against the Pittsburgh Stealers.  The Packers (who I am rooting for) will have their hands full with the championship proven Steelers.  However like many other people, what I am looking forward are the commercials.  When we think of the Super Bowl we don’t think of Joe Montana’s epic drive, we don’t think of Peyton Manning finally getting his championship, no we think of all the dazzling and hilarious commercials that companies spend millions on, just for those 30 seconds of fame.  The Super Bowl is a marketers candy shop, with more then 120 million viewers estimated to tune in, it is the perfect opportunity to reach a massive amount of consumers.  Of course the audience that the Super Bowl attracts is predominately middle class american males.  In the recent lectures we discussed market research, and of course all the big companies have done their market research on the audience.   This year we expect to see a a star studded lineup not only on the field but in between the whistle.  Celebrities ranging from Ozzy Osborne to Sean Diddy Combs to the famed E*Trade baby are all scheduled to support their favorite brands.  Many people wonder why companies dish out ridiculous amounts of cash for just 30 seconds of air time, but as we can see from last years Betty White Snickers commercial, the juice is worth the squeeze.  After being named “best Super Bowl commercial” snickers went on to receive great success and Betty White’s career was rejuvenated.

So who will be claimed champion this year, well we won’t know until the last commercial break is over.