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A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the continuous fight that was going on between the two most popular and widely recognized beverage brands in the world, Pepsi and Coca Cola, who fight over 1 or 2% of market shares in the beverage industry.

This sounds totally crazy, but when you know that “Coca-Cola sells 1.5 billion servings every day, that is like every man, women and children on this planet having a serving of Coke every week”, then you understand how important and effective their marketing strategies are, and how hard they are willing to fight over such a “little” percentage of market share.

As Stacey commented on her blog, it is quite interesting and funny at the same time, that most of the brands’ customers remain very loyal to Pepsi or Coca-Cola, even though only a small portion of them are able to make the difference between these two sodas.

Here is a video for Pepsi that I came across on the Internet a couple years ago, and that apparently has been removed from many websites and TV channels because of the direct attack it has against Coca-Cola (which would explain the very bad quality of the video). Even thought I’m a big Coca-Cola fan, and a very loyal customer to them, this ad is so genius that I believe it has a sufficient impact to change a relatively important number of people’s mind about what brand to choose over the other.

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!”

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”:

(2008 campaign)

Since 1995, Comptoir des Cotonniers’ creations (French Brand) have countered the trend while creating comfortable clothes that can be worn for several seasons. In 1998, it launched it’s first Mother- Daughter collection, without changing the brand’s philosophy, but only opening-it up: dress women who want to be fashionable, but this time, with their family.

The brand’s great awareness is partly due to its campaign involving women selected on casting with their daughter, real people, not models. (A common key point with Dove’s campaigns – see post below). Age or beauty is not a criteria in itself, the brand wants, first, to highlight this precisous relationship.

Indeed, this marketing strategy is a great success, and is very well-thought: when a mom walks in a store with her daughter, she is not looking only at clothes for herself, but also for her daughter. It is a 2-in-1 marketing sale strategy, where the brand can easily doubles the number of customers it is targeting, in an easy way: “Come-in and shop with your family, there are clothes for everyone, and they are fashionable, timeless and trendy”. Below are some of their adds frequently found in Women’s French magazines:

“Pure and Simple”