Month: November 2010

This is Maria Sharapova in InStyle magazine’s cover for Russia

This is Michael Jordan in Slam magazine which is a famous basketball magazine

LeBron James in GQ

Megan Fox in FHM and GQ

Marian Rivera and Angel Locsin – two famous actresses in the Philippines in Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire’s cover

President Barack Obama in Time Magazine

People spend a lot of time and resources in producing the “perfect” magazine cover.  Rightfully so, because I believe that these covers are what make people take interest in magazines in the first place.  If you are like me, I would sometimes come across a magazine brand that I do not know of but because I see someone I know or like in their cover,I end up buying the magazine just because I’m interested on the featured person on the cover.  I believe the magazine industry is aware of this and that is why they spend a lot of time on their magazine’s cover.  This is true for different kinds of magazines who pay huge amounts of dollars just to put famous celebrities like actresses, athletes and politicians on their cover.

Examples based on the pictures I posted:

For example, a sports magazine would attract a lot of attention if they have famous superstar athletes like LeBron James or Michael Jordan on their cover.

Women’s magazines would benefit from famous actresses and celebrities who a lot of women admire or desire to be like. (Maria Sharapova)

Men’s magazines would gain attention from famous celebrities like Megan Fox posing in sexy and provocative pictures.

Demographics are also important for these covers.  For example for geographic purposes, Barack Obama‘s Time magazine cover would appeal more to North America while Marian Rivera and Angel Locsin would appeal to people in the Philippines. The cover of Barack Obama got a lot of attention with its cool schemes and colorways.  A lot of people started using the picture’s colorways and effects after seeing the cover as evidenced by how many people used them on their Facebook profile pages.

Evian launched a new campaign called Live Young which lets you make a t-shirt that has a baby’s body on it.  When you wear the t-shirt, it would look like you in a baby’s body! It is kind of cool and cute at the same time.  Evian used facebook to market this campaign with the help of professional tennis player Maria Sharapova. Evian had good product placement in their ads with Maria Sharapova.  Their product blended in well with the picture.

These pictures were taken from her Facebook page and she commented about the campaign by saying “If you love my Babies on the Inside ad, make one of your own – people all over the world are doing it (including moi)!  Visit http://liveyoungcommunity.evian.com/ to create your own Live young photo with a favorite personal pic.”  Another comment by Maria “If you’re envious of the evian ® Baby T I’ve been sporting lately, now you can score one too! It’s all part of evian’s Live young Month in August, visit the Events tab at Evian’s facebook page to learn more, and you could win a shirt just like mine.”  Evian is letting people make and customize their own Live Young t-shirts on their website.  They are also giving away these shirts if you join their special event.

I think this is a smart marketing move by Evian to raise awareness of their brand.  They are conveying that Evian is a brand that is fun and healthy.  People want to be forever young and Evian is encouraging everyone to Live Young! This would really put Evian above its competition because they are the only mineral water company that I know that has launched something like this.

I encountered an external blog by expert Scott Monty titled “Online Ad Targeting is Pretty Much Like Dating”.

The title would attract a lot of people’s attention.  I wonder how can online ads be like dating. The answer is simple, much like how men complain about how they do not know what women want, just ask them.  A survey conducted by targeting company Q Interactive asked 1800 female internet users about the practice of targeted advertising.  88% said they wanted more targeted offers from the brands they trust.  These women also want the brands they trust to know them better and know what they like or want.  Much like dating, these women wants a more personal connection to these brands that they trust.

The point is that instead of using complicated, algorithm based market research, just go with the simple way of asking your target directly what they want.  These can lead to referrals, recommendations and brand loyalty  which in dating would be the equivalent of a second or third date.

I think this blog by Scott Monty is pretty good.  He shows us that sometimes simple ways of marketing is better and more efficient than all those complicated and costly methods.

I am a big fan of traveling and one of my goals in life is to travel and see the world.  I want to focus on the 7 wonders in my blog today.  When I saw what the 7 wonders of the world were, I immediately recognized which countries they belong to and felt an intense desire to go to those countries.  I believe a lot of other people feel this way too, thus impacting their traveling decisions.  I think this is an excellent strategy for the marketing of tourism in each of these countries.

These countries get a lot of publicity about their “wonders” so thousands of tourists flock to these places each day.  I went to Peru to see Macchu Picchu last summer and I was amazed by how many different people from all around the world visit that place.  A local told me that around 1000 visitors came to visit each day and this trend started when Macchu Picchu was officially announced as one of the 7 wonders of the world.

This is in fact an amazing way to increase tourism and I am sure that marketing and  the positioning statement made a big impact on the tourists who decided to visit these places.