Month: October 2012

Maria Soto’s blog on Pepsi changing the name of the Company in several Spanish-speaking countries as a result of locals finding it difficult to pronounce “Pepsi” intrigued me due to the countless number of times such mispronunciations occurs in my hometown of Cairo, Egypt.

Although Pepsi dominates the Egyptian market with an astounding 56% of the soda drink market share, as well as there being a Pepsi related ad on what seems to be every street, the absence of the letter “P” in the Arabic alphabet has resulted in Pepsi being called “Bebsi”. However, unlike in the Spanish speaking countries such as Argentina and Spain, Pepsi has decided not to officially change the name of their product to what most of their

consumers call it. As an Egyptian, I believe this to be a smart marketing decision as Pepsi have successfully taken the Arab culture into account. That is, Arabs do not like change.

This marketing decision has certainly saved Pepsi tens of millions of dollars on a marketing scheme that would have surely been a disaster waiting to happen. The possible effects of such an ill change can be seen in Mexico where Pepsi changed their name to “Pesi”. By not taking the unique Mexican culture into account, one that differs greatly from Spain, Pepsi were forced to revert back to their globally recognized name and suffer the financial effects of a poor marketing decision.

Miller Lite broke onto the scene as it created the market for “light beers”. It established itself in the consumer’s mind as the first on the market by convincing the male demographic that light beers were in no way feminine through a series of commercials and has held that position, with an iron fist, ever since.

Now, Miller Lite is attempting to go one step further and have itself associated as the “shotgun” beer. An intriguing name that grasps a consumer’s curiosity, and, more importantly, their attention.

The concept of the “shotgun” beer is that it has an excessively malleable tin top, which in turn, allows consumers to easily poke a hole in the top of the can and thus lets you drink or pour the beer without any annoying glugging. And according to their commercials, the best time to do so would be during a party or monday night football game.

My research of Miller Lite’s new approach, has synthesized the concepts of ethics in business with brand positioning in respect to a controversial issue that has arisen concerning notions that the new shotgun beer encourages consumers to consume more alcohol at an alarming rate during what are already adrenaline fuelled events.

Links:

1) http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-04-27/news/31416115_1_beer-institute-pilsner-beer-flows

2) http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/miller-lites-new-can-lets-you-drink-so-fast-you-almost-dont-taste-beer-139879

Bill gates recently claimed that Mind Mappers were the “Road Ahead” and are “leading the way into the next stage of our new information democracy.” Testament to such a statement, it has now been confirmed that virtually all Fortune 500 companies use Mind Mapping, including: IBM, British Petroleum, UBS, General Motors, Walt Disney and Microsoft. So what makes mind maps so successful and will mind maps develop in the future?

Mind Maps, described by some as the “Swiss Army Knife of the Brain,” allow individuals, and any group with whom that individual is associated with, to illustrate their natural form of thinking.It is predominantly applied to the improvement of every form of thinking; and the forms of thinking are themselves infinite.

Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map, has attempted to further the development of the mind map into a software that would explore human thinking. A feat, if it were to be achieved, he deems as difficult as the Manhattan Project.

My experience with Mind Maps has led to firm belief that they are a simple as well as insightful way in deducing an individual’s thought process and in terms of group work, it would allow for disagreements to be solved much more efficiently as team members would be able to point out in which points they disagreed.

Article Link: http://www.innovationtools.com/Articles/InterviewDetails.asp?a=252

There has always been a strong notion that it only takes 1 good idea to change the world. Ever since the inception of Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg’s idea has directly impacted the lives of a billion people as of the 14th of September 2012. However, a question has arisen as to how Facebook plans to remain relevant and overcome a fate similar to that of MySpace.

Many experts argue that it’s the ability to showcase your life and talents to friends and family members in a variety of ways that will maintain Facebook’s cool factor for years to come. And with such a diverse range of possibilities, I couldn’t help but think during our brand positioning class as to how Facebook would present itself to consumers. What position does the company hold in consumer’s minds? Should it limit itself to simple social networking or expand onto different markets such as online shopping as well as incorporating a search engine into the website. Even if it were to do so, would the company be content playing second fiddle to Ebay and Google? More importantly, how would consumers react to such changes?

I firmly believe that Facebook’s growing numbers show that they’re on the right path, however, I also suggest that just like with Instagram, Facebook should be ready to pounce on any new opportunity regarding social networking.

Links:

1) http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/why-facebook-is-right-to-force-timeline-on-everybody-opinion/

2) http://www.valuewalk.com/2012/10/facebook-inc-fb-now-has-1b-users-sponsored-instagram-offers-next/