Month: December 2010

When I first read this article about Julia Roberts earning close to $2 million for a 45 second commercial, it reminded me of the film Lost In Translation. Similar to Bill Murray’s role in the Sofia Coppola directed Best Screenplay winning film, Julia Roberts is a Hollywood celebrity who is brought in to foreign country to promote a home-grown brand.

Lavazza is a manufacturer of coffee products and was founded and still headquartered in Turin, Italy. It has also expanded to coffee shops (80 in Italy and about 20 Expression concept stores worldwide in addition to a chain of Barista shops in India) and coffee-makers. This company keeps itself exciting and fresh with its sponsorship of film festivals and commissioning top-notch photographers to create an annually anticipated calendar.

Although spoken in Italian, even I find the new commercial starring Julia Roberts entertaining and interesting. Its dialogue probably says something along the lines of “Oh, only our coffee will make the gods smile!” and Julia is stunning as Venus. Still, how does one justify spending $1.6 million on the actress alone?

Thinking about it more deeply, however, it isn’t that hard to rationalize this expenditure. Julia Roberts has a internationally renowned million-dollar-smile. Her movies are consistent blockbusters and she is also a rare scandal-free A-lister. Featuring Julia in a commercial is a key strategy to appeal to a wide audience and gain positive associations with the star.

See the lovely Ms. Roberts in the commercial yourself – do you think the $1.6 million was well spent?

Louise Carnby, a British entrepreneur, has invented boot stirrups to resolve the calamity that every girl suffers from when tucking jeans into boots.

Demonstrating exemplary innovative entrepreneurship, Louise recalls,

‘After much research I discovered that there wasn’t any other option [to keep jeans neat], so I proceeded to create one myself.
‘They are modelled on the ski pants worn in the 80s but the difference is that they can be removed much more easily and worn with various pairs of jeans and trousers.’

Confident in her product’s practicality, she has even sent her Sturpz to Kate Middleton, the future Queen of England, who has been spotted sporting baggy jeans knees.

Louise spotted a problem that had no solution to it, and instead of waiting around for someone else to come up with an answer, she decided to tackle it herself. I find this very inspiring; it proves that anybody can be an entrepreneur as long as they set their mind to making life easier. I know these Sturpz will make my life easier, and for £9.99, it’s worth the risk of online shopping!

While slaving away at Case 3 research, I’ve found that the Olympics is not the only international sporting event that has heavily debated pros and cons.

The FIFA World Cup, an international football (widely regarded as the most popular sport in the world) competition held every four years, is another prestigious event that generally faces scrutiny by critics. Unlike the Olympics, the World Cup is not a competition that is themed around peace and equality amongst competitors. It is an intensely cutthroat athletic event but generates hype and buzz that equals if not surmounts that of the Olympic Games.

Recently, the host cities for World Cup 2018 and 2022 have been announced. Russia and Qatar have respectively secured their bid to host this fierce competition. I’ve learned that sponsors are not the only ones who want to come out of these events with profits; countries compete to host the World Cup to increase tourism, generate economic growth, and emerge with an image of capability that proves to foreign investors that the country is more than doing well.

So how can Russia maximize its ROI from this new venture? Russia will have to invest in building infrastructure and stadiums suitable for both winter and summer sports now as its Sochi is hosting the XXII Winter Olympic Games and this will likely be a heavy burden on their budget. Luckily for them, apparently it won’t be difficult at all. John Davis, the author of The Olympics Games Effect, states in an interview,

“First, you need to have a clear sense of your Destiny….Second, management must develop a unique Brand Strategy….The third dimension is Culture.”

Similarly to a business, Russia can follow Davis’ guidelines to secure valuable gains from this investment and emerge as an international role model of overall success.



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