Marketing: Accidental Value Creation at it’s Finest

I love Dr. Pepper.

I really do. It is an incredible drink. I go to great lengths to acquire my Dr. Pepper.

But if you were to ask me why I love Dr. Pepper my answer may or may not surprise you (depending on how well you know me).

To answer this question I must first supply some background information.

A few months ago I watched Steins;Gate, an amazing science-fiction anime about a group of self-proclaimed scientists who create a time machine and are on the run from SERN, an organization that wishes to create a dystopia using time travel technology. The amount of enjoyment that I gained from watching this anime is comparable to X, where X=Your favorite hobby/tv show/celebrity/etc. This show was that awesome.

Now that I’ve provided you with some background information, please take a look at the following links:

These clips speak for themselves. I don’t know whether or not the company was paid to mention Dr. Pepper in their anime but you can clearly see that Dr. Pepper is highly acclaimed by the characters in this show, often referred to as a “drink for the Chosen Ones” or an “intellectual” drink. It was not too long after watching this series that I had my very first Dr. Pepper and fell in love with it (but was it due to the taste or the intellectual stimulus it may or may not boast? That is the real question).

Ever since that day I have had Dr. Pepper as often as possible. Dr. Pepper with any takeout meal. Dr. Pepper at parties. Dr. Pepper with my friends. Dr. Pepper by myself. Dr. Pepper. You get the point.

You will probably induce by now the direction of this post. Just by mentioning Dr. Pepper in an anime that I love, Steins;Gate boosted my consumption of Dr. Pepper over its various cola substitutes by a great deal, a lot more than any commercial Dr. Pepper could ever come up with individually.

And I’m not the only one who acts this way.

This article addresses the rising sales of Dr. Pepper in Japan. Dr. Pepper was never a popular drink, but is now starting to sell out in vending machines. Years of marketing tactics proved futile to boost the sales of Dr. Pepper, but suddenly the drink became popular after the release of Steins;Gate.

This gives way to a phenomenon I like to call “accidental value creation.” There is probably more specific, scientific term for this effect but until someone coins it and sticks it in my marketing textbook I will continue to refer to this as “accidental value creation.”

If I have not caught your attention by now or if you refuse to believe the power of accidental value creation, take a look at this article.

K-ON is an anime about four schoolgirls that form a high school rock band. This simple plot grew into a phenomenon, and the anime’s success fostered a giant effect on the music industry in the form of guitar sales: a whopping 800% increase in sales for the guitar models featured in the anime.

An 800% increase in sales, and the makers of the guitar didn’t have to raise a finger. This is the power of accidental value creation.

It is because of these quirky effects that I love Marketing. It’s never as straightforward as it seem. There is no standard way to market something that will guarantee an increase in sales, yet sometimes the most trivial things can cause an uproaringly large effect on consumer decision making. Throughout my blogs this semester I will attempt to identify certain quirky modes of marketing that pique my interest and review their causes and effects.

Look out for my next entries where I tackle the concepts of targetting using examples from [C] and marketing tactics using examples from the big guy himself: Konami.

Not sure what [C] is? Don’t know why I refer to Konami as “the big guy”? Tune in for my future blog posts to find out.

The first comm296 blog post is complete.

Signing off,

-Chris