Month: October 2010

At the time where the new MacBook Air is being introduced, I would like to go back one step, and talk about the “old” MacBook Air, which I found to be still revolutionary. Indeed, the advances in technology that have been made over the last 30 years are truly amazing. We have gone from big Home PC, to laptops, to flat screen computers and then to the thinnest laptop ever made.

What I actually find to be truly amazing is the way apple introduced this laptop. It “delivered” this fantastic product and introduced it to the world by using a one the simplest commodity product we all know: an envelope.

Yes, Who would have ever thought that a laptop would come out of an envelope? The first time I was this video about 2 years ago, I have no idea that it was for Apple. I didn’t even know that they had invented such a thin, nice and smooth looking laptop. The commercial is very basic, no word needed, just an image, showing the world that Apple has just made a huge step forward in technology, (once more) with The MacBook Air! It’s genius!

Last week’s post was about Mini cars, and how they had changed the perception of cars that we have today. Indeed, Mini introduced the new modern concept of “customized cars” which you are able to “decorate” according to your personality.

This week, I found an article about Mini and the sustainable competitive advantage that it has over other trendy cars on the car market (International Herald Tribune, 2006). Even though the article is from 2006, we can notice that Mini has been able to keep up with its sales that have actually continued to grow over the years, proving that it wasn’t just a “trend”.

Another aspect of Mini’s sustainable competitive advantage is that is limited it’s sales in the USA for example, to 20 000 a year, in order not to satisfy all the demands at once, making it somewhat unreachable to part of the target market, giving Mini cars a luxury connotation. And if the product is very trendy and hard to get, customers will want the product even more then they initially did, because once you are able to get this particular product, your are more than “cool” and you are able to tell all your friends, who are still waiting to get one, all about it. BMW strategy for Mini was proven to be very efficient, and combined with the launch of other types of Mini’s (convertible, clubman, Countryman) explains why sales have been growing over the years, and Mini’s popularity increasing.

Recently, Mini Canada is running “Be Mini”, a cheeky advertising campaign associating the brand with a mindset of openess, extroverted personality, extreme performance and fuel efficiency. Check it out :

If I was to ask one question: Have you ever heard of or seen a Mini Car before? I am pretty sure that 99% of you would answer “yes”. Indeed, Mini is now days a very famous car known throughout the world. It was first made and commercialized in 1959 by the British Motor Corporation. Here is an example of an ad for the Mini Austin in the 1960’s :

When BMW produced the “new generation” of Mini in 2001, it made a lot of innovations to it, proposing many different models to its customers (Clubman, One, Cooper, Cooper S …), as they now can be convertible, in various colors, with different designs, accessories and more !

Indeed, the  Mini Cooper/Cooper S won the North American Car of the Year award for 2003, and has been featured in some movies as the Italian Job.

In my opinion, Mini represents one of the most brilliant marketing success models (with Apple of course!). It is simply a state of mind !

They have been so well advertised that everyone MUST have heard of them at least once. Mini’s colors are so bright, its modern design and lines are so innovating, the choices of conception so large that you are able to customize your car, exactly the way you want it, making it almost unique. A concept never been done by a car company before!

Still not convinced, just check out the Mini website (http://www.mini.ca/ca/en/general/homepage/index.jsp), it is like a candy store to me : all the cars look beautiful, wonderful, colorful…that you just want to buy them all (why not one for every season ?).

To prove my point, just watch these videos of Mini commercials, and tell me how you feel after …aren’t these cars just the cutest and most amazing ones you’ve ever seen?!

“118 218 skiing ”

118 218 is a French professional directory where you can find all the information of professionals you need: address, telephone, man and itinerary.

It launched an innovating 30-million euro (42 million dollar) campaign in 2005, which rapidly made it the number one of the directories information. Indeed, the campaign was very efficient since 118 218 reached in a short period 40% of the market shares with 70 millions calls per year.

This is mainly due to one man, Laurent Foisset, the marketing director who arrived that same year in the company. He’s main objective was to find a way so that people could remember very easily the number, so he bet on a very different campaign full of humor. He wanted to make the campaign entertaining more than an informative. So he created 2 characters and music: the brand’s code.

But the most important part was to assure the quality of the service after this campaign. The satisfaction rate was of 90%. This demonstrate that the company was able to first launch an innovating campaign, with big success, and that is was also able to reply to the new demands that arrived: a key point to maintain sustainability on the market.

When I first saw this campaign, it was on TV, and it was on so many times a day, that I first thought, this is such an annoying campaign, the two guys look so dumb, the music is awful, what an horrible commercial! Is that all they can come up with?!

Though, once I need to call the directory information on my phone because I was lost and needed to know where a specific store was located, and the only number that I could think of was theirs: 118 218! And that is when I realized that their marketing strategy was very ingenious and that it was the best way I could think of, to make customers remember your number! Since their first campaign, they have come up with many different commercials, all very funny, using the same music that sticks in your head after viewing it. Here is an example of one of my favorites, it is called “The Summer’s Rescuers”: