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This post is a reply to ‘Whopper Lust’ on Adweek.

Burger King recently partnered with Direct TV promoting “Whopper Lust” campaign; the channel viewers can watch burgers spin and get rewarded with Whoppers. It is basically a trade off of time with Whopper.

Promotion

Co-marketing
Just like Mcdonald’s with Monopoly, Burger King also did co-marketing with Direct TV. The food franchise or the media company didn’t create a new product. They just partnered up to increase their sales.

AIDA model

• Awareness: most people already know what Whopper is and where they can get the burger
• Interest: starving people with a lot of free time might be interested in watching the ads
• Desire: the longer do viewers watch the ads, the more desire to eat the burger
• Action: five minutes after watching the ads, viewers will get one free Whopper! and they will go to the nearest Burger King and get the burger out of the restaurant

However, one thing I’m concerned about is that if Burger King offered this kind of sales promotion, I think its profit would suffer. The sales promotion for Whopper is good enough with Whopper day, I believe. Also, I know that Whopper is the best selling product in Burger King, but if the company only focuses its promotion too much on one or two products, its brand image would be fixed in consumers’ brain. Well, it’s good that if people thought of Burger King, Whopper would be the first thing they could come up with. However, as I just mentioned earlier, because people only can think Whopper, Burger King without that burger would be like nothing. Personally, Whopper is the only thing I can come up with when thinking of Burger King. Anyway, what if its product life cycle is at decline stage? This Whopper Lust campaign is really a creative sales promotion, but I think it would be better that the company promotes its other products as well so that people become more aware of the other burgers.

 I always thought that humorous ads work more effectively than serious ones, especially when targeted market segment is young people, because it could remain longer in people’s brain and develop maybe strong attitudes and purchase intentions.

We sometimes buy things just for fun if the prices are not that much expensive, or affordable. For example, I found Axe’s body shampoo very interesting in terms of its promotion, when I saw the product on the shelf for the first time. Even though I knew Axe’s products were not going to work as the company advertised – women would be attracted to a guy if they smelled him – I just chose to buy Axe over its competitors’ products because I didn’t have a preference and its ads caught my attention.

In addition, I believe that the humour used in, for example, beer ads does not necessarily need to be associated with the product as long as the ads catches people’s attention and remain in people’s brain. For sure, it would be better if it’s somehow related to the product. For example, however, the baby carrot advertisement, I couldn’t find any points related to the product, but I only found the ads were funny. After watching the ads, if I went to a store and see Baby carrots, I am sure I would think of its ads and maybe try it.

We often forget about some things how important they are, and just take those for granted. The topic that I want to talk about today is a PILLOW. Let’s say you sleep 6 hours a day on average. It means that you spend one fourth of your day on sleeping, which is a big part of your life! Depending on how deep you sleep, the quality of your life can be improved or worsened. One of factors, which can help you sleep well, is the pillow! If you cannot sleep well and keep tossing and turning in your bed, why don’t you change your pillow?

I recently noticed that there are so many types of pillows in the market.

For example, if you were a side sleeper, you might need the pillow looking like this!

or maybe like this!

Just like this, there is a pillow for a back sleeper and also stomach sleeper!

Moreover, you might have seen the travel pillow or neck pillow.

Isn’t it interesting that we can find so many types of pillows nowadays? From a consumer’s perspective, I would say that the marketers in this industry did a facinating job in terms of communicating with customers and fulfilling their needs and wants.

Here are more pictures of interesting pillows.

Louis Vuitton, as one of the most valuable brand in the world, is well-known for no discount price like Chanel (if we exclude a duty-free shop). As far as I know, the company has never offered a discount for more than one hundred years, even though other luxury brands like Prada and Gucci annually give customers a chance to buy their products at discount prices. Despite the fact, Louis Vuitton generated approximately €2.7 billion in the previous year, which is higher than any other luxury brands. Then, why are customers so crazy about the company’s extremely expensive products? It is because, as we learned in today’s class, the customers perceive its brand value that much! It’s not just about the cost, but value.

I believe that Apple is the company just like Louis Vuitton. The only difference is the company sells different types of products. When I read the article about the cheaper version of iPhone, therefore, I couldn’t see any reasons that Apple wanted to go for low pricing. Instead of lowering the price, the company might want to offer better services to keep its existing customers more loyal to the company. Like classmates said in the class, people buy Apple because it’s APPLE, no matter what the price is. In addition, if Apple lowered the price of new iPhone as a strategical pricing (long-term), it could hurt its brand image, which was my first thought of the article. For example, once customers got used to the cheaper price, they wouldn’t want to buy Apple’s expensive products any longer (like Whopper example in the class). it is aslo likely that they might think Apple were no longer the prestige brand. Moreover, since price is an indicator of quality, lower price could be considered that the new version of iPhone might be less valuable than the previous models or might have some problems.

I’ve recently heard about the “couple underwear,” which has been popular for years in my country, Korea. I’m not sure if people from other countries are into this “couple-look” idea, and they might find the idea a bit cheesy or ‘gay’ (no offence). A lot of young Korean couples, however, like to share something in common with their lovers, especially fashion like t-shirts, watches, rings, and now even underwear.

In fact, I couldn’t really follow the idea when told the couple underwear. I was like “What the hack is the couple underwear?” and “Who would really like to buy those?”

For those like me, here is an example. (similar pattern with similar colour)

Here are some reasons or assumptions that I think why it’s been successful.  

1. I personally go shopping for underwear, maybe once in a year. In addition, I don’t really put much value on underwear like its design or brand, but as long as it’s comfy, I’m just fine with it. If you were like me, you would be glad to receive a gift like underwear because it saves your time for shopping and it’s somehow unique and special gift from someone. And it’s not really a big deal like a LV or Gucci bag. It costs around $50 to $150 (as a gift, I think the price is reasonable).

2. It’s like a little “secret” between a couple, I think. By “secrete,” I mean a couple likes to share something, which other people don’t know about. People wouldn’t know what kinds of underwear other people wear (it’d be weird if they knew…)

 
In addition to the previous blog, I’d like to talk about the STP process of Beats by Dr.Dre.

Segmentation

Genre can vary from person to person, but basically everyone likes music no matter whether they are male, female, old or young. To someone, however, sound quality can be a big deal more than anything to feel music. Thus, they’re willing to spend their time and money to find better equipment. Beats by Dr.Dre saw the business opportunity from this group of people and segmented them from other.

Targeting

As you can tell from its product designs, Beats by Dr.Dre has targeted from teenagers to maybe mid-thirties. In addition, if you ever used any of Beats by Dr.Dre’s products, you would know its products are very focused on the deep bass sound. That is, the company’s been targeted hiphop or club music lovers

Positioning

Just like many companies, Beats by Dr.Dre also collaborated with celebrities as their marketing strategy and launched artist series headphones. The key celebrities in partnership with Beats are P. Diddy, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and even with the NBA player, Lebron James! Product’ names are diddybeats (P. Diddy), heartbeats (Lady Gaga), powerbeats (Lebron James), and justbeats (Justin Bieber). Since each product of artist series has its own distinctive features from others, Beats by Dr.Dre could capture a range of customers. For example, diddybeats is particularly designed for those who want extremely clear sound with deep bass.

Not only collaborated with the celebrities, but also the company collaborated with HP. Furthermore, Beats recently announced to work with the motor company, Chrysler.

As you can see the picture of Beats’ timeline above, Beats has expanded its market quite fast. However, I found this rapid expasion a bit risky because it doesn’t seem that the company’s had enough time to position well in its market. There are still a lot of people who havn’t even heard of Beats by Dr.Dre. For them, HP with Beats’ sound system wouldn’t be really an attractive option to choose over other brands. Therefore, I feel that Beats might need to slow down a little bit and to monitor its market patiently.

I still remember that I carried Sony walkman all the time, back in the day in elementary school, and played the same cassette tape over and over again until the tape became no longer usable. Few years later, in high school, I bought Sony CDplayer and was amused by clear sound. Now with my iPod and Beats by Dr.Dre headphone, better than ever before!

To those who might not know the company, Beats by Dr.Dre, I’d like to briefly introduce the company. Beats by Dr.Dre was founded in 2006 by a hiphop artist, Dr.Dre, and American music producer, Jimmy Lovine. Its products are all about sound QUALITY and fashion as well. The prices are quite a bit expensive compared to other companies. However, if you love music and fashion, I’m sure that you want to try any of its products because its sound quality is amazingly awesome!

Here is a video clip from youtube.com, and I want you to take a look

Did you find people in the video kept talking about QUALITY and QUALITY? Applying the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy needs, I believe most people are satisfied with the first three fundamental needs – physiological, safety, and love & belonging – so they would want to improve the quality of their lives in many ways.

For those people, especially music lovers, the company developed high-end headphone.

Here is what Dr.Dre said.

“People aren’t hearing all the music. Artists and producers work hard in the studio perfecting their sound. But people can’t really hear it with normal headphones. Most headphones can’t handle the bass, the detail, the dynamics. Bottom line, the music doesn’t move you. With Beats, people are going to hear what the artists hear, and listen to the music the way they should: the way I do.”

In value-based marketing era, Dr.Dre correctly understood what customers wanted and needed, and he satisfied them with unprecedented products. That’s why I think Beats by Dr.Dre has been so successful in its industry.

A Starbucks is on every corner!
At the intersection of Robson and Thurlow, there are two Starbucks across from each other.

Here is the picture from Google map

The interesting thing (at least to me) about these two starbucks is that although both are located in the same intersection, it seems that one is targeting fairly different segment from another in terms of marketing.  

First of all, as you might know, one has a patio, but the other doesn’t.

The one on the left side

(I guess people from Red Robin would come down here and enjoy coffee while they’re waiting)

Another on the right side

From this point, I’ll just call the store with a patio as starbucks A, and the other without patio as Starbucks B, for the convinient reason.

In addtion to the patio, I’d like to point out a couple more different strategies between Starbucks A and B.

1. Table arrangement

At starbucks A, tables are mostly round-shaped and randomly distributed, so people could sit around and talk. On the other hand, tables at Starbuck B are square and nicely arranged,  so people could use their laptop and study more comfortably.

2. Power Outlets

Actually, I am now at Starbucks B, so let me count how many outlets are around me… I found 6 power sockets and I’m pretty sure there’d be more. What about Starbucks A? Well, considering its limited space, I believe there’d be less.

Since I couldn’t find any coffee shops within a block from these two Starbucks coffee shops, it seems that they are dominating cetain part of the downtown area. And I believe this kind of success wouldn’t be seen easily downtown. I’m wondering how much further starbucks could expand their market.

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