Month: October 2010

Television has a changed a lot since the 70s or the 80s. With so much entertainment options for the

viewers, TV shows nowadays cannot solely rely on a good script or a good cast. Today show-bizz marketers

constantly come up with ways to interact with their audience through social media , Talk shows and the internet

and build a buzz within the target market so that they market the TV show in their social circle through word of mouth.

The popular TV show How I met your mother is a perfect example of a show which constantly tries to build an interactive relationship off-air with its viewers.

• Barney Stinson , one of the popular character of the show played by Neil Patrick Harris have a blog online where he

writes about the amazing adventures of Barney as played in the show. Viewers can comment on it and ask him questions about his blog post.

• Recently Neil Patrick Harris gave voice for the roller coaster ride in Disneyland where visitors will be able to listen to

the catch phrases of ‘Barney Stinson’ while riding the roller coaster.

• Whenever any character in the show develops a website the HIMYM develops a mini real website creating a lot of curiosity

among the internet lover fans. itwasthebestnightever.com and slapsbet.com are the two websites from that I can recall at this

moment.

• Each character has a Facebook and twitter page through which the characters promote events (eg. International

suit up day)  pertinent to the show and share behind the scene stories with their fan base.

Along with a good story and great actors such marketing have definitely contributed a lot to make the show

Legend…wait for it….Dairy….Legendary.

The other day I went to the Canada Post office to parcel some documents to Singapore I had a better understanding

of the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies of Canada Post.

Canada Post has 4 line of posting service for its different segments of customers: Standard Mail, Next AM, Priority

& Xpress Mail.

Product: Standard Mail

Target Market: Households and Seniors

Positioning : Cheap

Product : Next AM

Target Market :Canadian Corporates

Positioning: Fast & Reliable to cater the needs of the domestic corporates

Product: Xpress Mail

Target Market : International Mailers

Positioning : Fast Delivery and yet affordable price

Product: Priority Mail

Target Market : International Corporates

Positioning : Fastest International Mail Service in the Market

So I was not surprised when the customer service rep directly introduced the well suited corporate guy in the queue

to the Priority Mail directly while she talked about Canada Post’s Next AM & Express Service with me. I eventually

resorted to their Priority Mail as it was a urgent mail.

Interestingly, I had to put down my email number and my phone number while filling out the formality forms even though

it had no relationship with the mailing service. Canada Post employs value-driven marketing strategies and and as a part of that it keeps  information of its customers for future promotions and long-term relationships with its customer base.

Dove has been Unilever’s strongest ‘ personal care ‘ brand for over a decade now. Over the years Unilever has chocked the small competitors out of the market with its strong financial power and brand value. Today as only the big guns like Procter & Gamble’s, Biersdorf’s and Johnson & Johnson’s survive in the ‘personal care’ industry and as the profits margin has decreased significantly in this competitive market, Dove launched ‘Dove Men-Care’ in 2010 to expand its market to the male sex to stay competitive in this Oligopoly market. For the last 45 years Dove was extraordinarily successful in attracting the females to its store but soon Unilever realized that the market for women has become too saturated . Dove timed its launch for its new product line perfectly during the SuperBowl 2010 with strong message based promotions and advertisement.

The advertisement has the perfect recipe for success. Courtesy of  the catchy tune and the strong message- ‘Be comfortable in your own skin’ more and more Dove products are crawling into the men’s closet  everyday. The other notable factor of this commercial is the psychological factor behind it. The punch line ‘ At last there are Dove for men’ convinces the male consumers that it is a long awaited product and they need to use it to be more comfortable in their skin