Month: November 2010

One of my European attributes is my love for coffee. Not just coffee though, but espressos. And not just a simple espresso, but a Nespresso. Indeed, Nespresso is for me the ultimate coffee experience. As I am writing this, I am feeling a bit homesick actually because I have not had a Nespresso since 3 months (no Nespresso machine to be found in any Canadian coffee shop yet). I even had a Nespresso machine in my cafeteria back in my home University! And while surfing on the web today, I have come across a Nespresso commercial with Georges Clooney, and it just made me remembered how much I would like to drink a Nespresso right now.

What is great about Nespresso isn’t just it’s coffee but also the unique coffee making experience it procures: first you open your wooden box to choose a colorful capsule (red, blue, yellow, brown, black, purple…) that corresponds to a certain type of coffee (strong, decaf, with a roasted or woody, or even floral favor), more than 16 classics to choose from. Then here it is, the simplest way to make a coffee, you just put the capsule in the machine, close it, click on a button, put you coffee cup right underneath, and then comes the subtle aroma that only a Nespresso Coffee can deliver.

As G. BEMBRIDGE states on his marketing blog, it is very interesting and smart how Nespresso has been able to make “a machine that makes coffee into an experience, just as Starbucks made going into a shop an experience”.

Furthermore, Nespresso’s marketing strategy is to be the super premium coffee brand, and I believe this strategy has been very effective, at least for me! Nespresso store are also so high-class, and mordern, that just the fact of walking into one gives me shivers. I can’t drink anything else than a Nespresso anymore…

When I decided to go on exchange to Vancouver this year, the first thing that everyone told me was : “You are going to need some rain boots!” Why is that? I asked stupidly, and all the people that had already been to Vancouver told me, just “google” the weather forecast and you’ll understand why. Since then I’ve been convincing myself that it couldn’t be that bas, until I got here! And that’s when I discovered the solution : Rain Boots !

But which one to buy? There were so many different colors, shape, brands. So I decided to convey a little market research and observe what types of rain boots where Canadians wearing? After all, they were the one that knew how to deal the best with rain, since they grew up here! And the one brand that kept coming up into was Hunter. Tall, colorful rain boots, with this red and white tag on the top front of the boot. I thought there were so fashionable!

When I checked out their website, I just loved their ads, promoting the stylish, fashionable aspect of them. Who would ever thought (before Hunter boots appeared on the market) that rain boots could be fashionable?? I knew I had to get them. Celebrities were even wearing them too!

But when I found out the price ($150) for plastic boots, that I probably won’t even bring back home because they won’t fit into my luggage, I just realized it worth too much money for what the product offers. But every time I see Hunter Boots now, I just know that if I had stayed a bit longer in Canada I would have bought a pair, even a couple I think !! (impulsive behavior of course).

But I do understand how some real Canadians fell for these boots, and I understand their purchase very well, like Maggie, on her Hunter Blog Post.

First and foremost, Got Milk? Is an American advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of cow’s milk in 1993, for the California Milk Processor Board. This campaign was a response to the emergence of new juices, fruit drinks, iced teas, coffee drinks, bottled waters, and soft drinks in the mid-1990s, where Californians were drinking less milk every year. The main objective of the campaign was to change the public’s behavior regarding milk.

The campaign has been credited with greatly increasing milk sales in California as well as nationwide, is said to have over 90% awareness in the US. In 2006, the campaign went after a new demographic with a series of Spanish-language “Toma Leche?” ads in which milk is touted as a “wonder tonic” with muscle and hair building qualities.

Throughout their 17 year campaign, Got Milk ? has used many celebrities or famous TV/Cartoon characters such as Superman, to promote milk, targeting various ages, with the same advertising strategy : a picture of the celebrity with a white mustache of milk on their upper lip, without showing a bottle of milk or any physical packaging of the product. The celebrities are the one selling the product, with a different slogan each time, depending on the celebrities attributes (height, anatomy, superpowers etc). I was first introduced to this campaign 8 years ago, when I went to the US, and have always liked it since. My favorite part of it isn’t the celebrity, but the “Got Milk ?” wording and the famous “white mustache” that is displayed in the ad !

I found this ad for Hardee’s (an American restaurant chain) via a friend on facebook (yes, this social network has definitely taken over our lives), and liked the funny aspect of it! Especially due to the fact that I am French, and that throughout this ad, there are comparisons to French people, food or behavior’s that have been stereotype in many foreign countries.

Indeed, here Hardee’s uses known stereotypes to launch its new burger, the French Dip Thickburger that in my opinion has absolutely nothing to do with French food or burgers!  I mostly think that they used the “French” word to name their burger because they probably already had the idea of this commercial, rather then naming the burger before doing the ad. They new that by using funny and sexy stereotypes, that people will be more attracted to this ad, then by simply promoting the burger as “This is our new burger, and it is called the French Dip!”