Month: November 2011

Referring back to Paco Lee’s first marketing blog post, I am reminded of a particular product that had first left me with question marks and the word “Really…?” in my head.
There is simply no limit to creativity. That is why some obnoxious ideas have so successfully excelled in the market, earning increasingly more profits than ever expected. This is especially due to the current generation’s desire for discovery, a value that current marketers must take account of when introducing new products to emerge into the market.

Also known as “The Boyfriend-Arm Pillow”, it was first introduced in Japan back in 2004, and throughout the past years it had many around the world intrigued with the desire to get their hands on the comfort of this soft arm “that does not snore or make demands”. For those truly interested, they turned to online distribution sites, such as Amazon, to get the product shipped to their home address from the Japanese manufacturing site.

I must say that I do not own one of these myself. But I do remember one of my friends ordering one and posting a picture of it on her Facebook a couple years ago. Though at a first glance the idea of this particular pillow is quite amusing (for instance, if you do not have a boyfriend/spouse, depend on one of these to get through the dark night), it fails to really persuade me personally to order something like this off the net. Since it has been quite a number of years since it had first emerged into the market, it is about time that this company does some reminder advertising or invest some time to relay it to a better, improved version of this pillow based on customer feedback from over the years.

On the one hand, what makes a pillow truly your “favourite” depends on its  level of comfort, which is assessed by you, the sleeper. On the other hand, I strongly think that the following product will not be as popular as the arm-pillow above. Not only does it raise criticism, it also does not even look that comfortable to begin with (those with neck problems, beware!)

Chips. Who doesn’t love reaching into the bag and pulling out a nice big salty potato chip to crunch-crunch in your mouth? (But personally for myself, I have this habit of crushing the bag before actually tearing open the top so the chips inside will become smaller and more evenly seasoned, but that’s another story.)

Back then, when I was younger, I would always succeed in persuading my mom to buy me the oh-heavenly Miss. Vickies (still my favourite!) or Crunchies (the skinny type of Cheetos). They would always be stocked up in the pantry 24/7.

Nowadays, though I don’t eat it quite as often, what I find in the pantry is completely different from what it was before. My brother still has the passion and love to go out and buy the chips for me, so he has the final say on what brand/flavour to get. Unfortunately, although I do appreciate the effort, he usually just goes to Superstore – to get their no name brand chips, aka. the chips inside the yellow bag.

Well, the yellow bag just gives out the impression that the chips inside might not be as good. And my meaning of good refers to the flavour, the thickness of the chip… etc. Perhaps this is due to how I have positioned the branding of the yellow bag in my mind- as a cheap, affordable brand that reaches my minimum satisfaction level.

In a blog found from an external source on brandchannel.com, Miller suggests that the current trend for North American consumers is the tendency to reach for the lower-priced items on the shelves, whether they may be the ones on sale or just the more affordable brands. As most of us are continuously struggling to recover from the economic recession, our act of ‘buying down’ is certainly not something out of the blue; it’s part of the typical consumer’s mindset to purchase an item that can just maximize our satisfaction at the bare minimum with respect to our budget (aka. our wallet).

While the trend will continue for at least several more years, the no name brand has successfully targeted the right segment in the market (and considering the economic factor in the macroenvironment, they have done it at the right time too!)

I must admit, however, that the no name brand chips were better than I had expected. But nothing can beat Miss. Vickes. Nothing.