I was thinking back to Michelle Holme’s blog about billboards, which made me think of other eye catching billboards that seemed to resonate with the consumer. One that I remember was made the Economist. As people walk under the lightbulb, it would light up, because one of the slogans the Economist has is, “The Economist is full of good ideas”. Billboards not only need to grab the attention of the consumers right away, like they did in Michelle’s billboard experience, but they also need to show the entire purpose of the brand itself, since even if it’s eye catching, but there is no significant meaning that demonstrates the brand image, the consumer wouldn’t relate the memory of it back to the product itself.

Many companies try to expand their products to different target markets, as Diou Cao has said in her blog, with one of the simple examples being, a broadening of age targeting for a product. With many companies succeeding in their expansions, there are always the few that fail to do so. BestBuy had high hopes for their company, so instead of just broadening in the age categories, they had believed they could spread internationally, specifically to China. They had overlooked one important thing though; the international difference between the market in America and in China. Unlike the simple broadening of the age categories, where the company has to just promote the product through slightly different commercials and means with different packaging, entering into the international market means introducing a new range of strongly rooted competition, and a cross-cultural difference in buyers. BestBuy did not take that into account, and did not realize that China had an entire different type of market then America, thus they did not change their Amercian Business Model (China Briefing 2011) to suit China’s needs. Within a short 8 years of trying to expand the company in China, they had to shut down all their stores and exit their international expansion. China’s strongly rooted competition had made the percentage of buyers already low, but with their unflexible behavior of trying to understand the customer’s needs, they had failed to make a competitive advantage and sway the Chinese’s hearts.

Links:
http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2011/03/02/best-buys-withdrawal-american-morals-fail-to-transcend-chinese-consumer-market.html

Ryan Abushinov mentions in his blog that many companies have successful celebrity endorsements but I find it requires a lot of money, time, and marketing to enhance the product’s image for consumers to relate the brand to the celebrity.

Instead of celebrities, companies should use real life people who have been changed by their product positively to be their product’s representative so consumers can think “maybe I can be more like that person” or “maybe if I bought that product I would have the same results”.

Subway is the best example of a company who had a real life person fall into their lap and increase sales without the company having to do anything but promote him.

Blurb about him:
Jared Fogle was once “425 pounds [until he voluntarily] lost 245 pounds” (Leung 2007) eating only Subway sandwiches. Subway soon caught wind of what he had done, though didn’t think very much of it until the local branch (who had watched him lose all his weight) promoted his image and had a large increase in sales. Subway took him on immediately after and put him into national commercials which instantly increased sales by 20%. Jared Fogle became well known as the “Subway Guy,” though every time he disappeared from commercials, rumors would spread that he gained his weight back (even though he’d come back each and every time, showing that he didn’t.)

Jared Fogle doesn’t look good as Tiger Woods, or most celebrities out there, nor is he as skinny or famous, but he reaches out to the consumers where the celebrities cannot.  He is real, and if he was able to lose weight eating fast food, he puts into our mind “we can do it too.” Consumers don’t feel for Tiger Woods, or necessarily care that he wears the Nike brand, other than for the “cool aspect”, but they feel for Jared.  They wonder why he’s not in commercials when he’s not, or wonder if he was able to maintain his weight.  He helps differentiate the Subway product brand more than Tiger Woods does for Nike, mainly because Subway changed his life, and consumers can remember something like that more then what Tiger Woods was wearing to his golf tournament.

This is why I believe a real life person who has a story behind a product can differentiate a brand much more than a celebrity endorsement, and why I believe Jared Fogle was Subway’s marketing dream come true.

Links:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/02/48hours/main603484.shtml
http://www.toptodaynews.com/jared-the-subway-guy-death-hoax/
http://www.nndb.com/people/955/000044823/

Ever since Volkswagen’s successful ad campaign during the Super Bowl last year, their sales have increased 26% (The Washington Post). Their commercial involving the cute kid dressed as Darth Vader (Link: The Force: Volkswagen Commercial) surged through the internet soon after, with over 48 million views on Youtube (which is 10 million higher than the well-known Old Spice commercial).  Personally, I love Volkswagen’s commercials, my favourite being The Kids Need Space: Volkswagen, which I’ve actually never seen on television (oddly enough) since it’s originally in German. I find it intriguing how we can watch commercials over and over, knowing full well we’re doing just what the company wants us to do, and even go to the extent of looking for other commercials by the same company if we enjoy the first one we see. I think I’ve watched all of Volkswagen’s commercials since they’re easily accessible, and many others have too, considering most of their other videos are just shy from 1 million views. What I find even more intriguing is how many other commercials annoy us to death, causing us to change the channel due to the anticipation of it appearing on television. This is just what Dan Neufeld mentions in his post about how many commercials can become extremely unfavorable if they are bland and appear every time the commercials start between the same television shows. I actually tried looking for the Cheetah Power Surge commercial he was talking about on Youtube and couldn’t even find one of their real commercials, just a contest campaign they tried, where each video had only around 1000 views. Volkswagen’s marketing is much more successful than Cheetah Power Surge because the videos target the proper market in an innovative and creative way that, due to its emotional appeal, actually sticks in our minds. Unlike Cheetah Surge which has bland and repetitive videos. So far, my family has bought a Volkswagen in the last year, and another a few years before.  I cannot say that it’s due to their amazing marketing campaigns, but there’s a high chance that it is. “The Wall Street Journal” mentions fears of the sales decreasing over the course of 2012 due to the “[significant slowing] of the global economy”, but Volkswagen is still confident with their standing, prepared for “Conservative planning, high flexibility in production and sales as well as…cost discipline.”

Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/volkswagens-tim-mahoney-answers-3-questions-about-marketing-products-and-the-super-bowl-ad/2012/01/11/gIQAj5xkqP_story.html

The Wall Street Journal:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vw-vehicle-sales-robust-but-12-outlook-muted-2011-12-06

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