Nissan Turns Over a Social Media Leaf

To view the article, click here.

Nissan has chosen to employ social media as part of its marketing strategy to launch its new Nissan Leaf 100% electric car.

To view the Nissa Leaf Facebook page, click here.

Nissan has done a super job at creating a meaningful and relevant brand experience through this social media vehicle.The brand is capitalizing on cause/advocacy marketing where they are providing an outlet for fans to donate to the Japan crisis. This is going to be something that the target audience strongly values considering the product that they are selling is tied to strong social issues. The Leaf's slogan is "Innovation for the planet" and not only does this relate back to the Nissan brand’s mantra of innovation, but it also shows consumers that they are buying the car to support the world rather than just buying the product for themselves. Social media is a great vehicle for this product introduction because these fans and followers are typically going to be very passionate people who are strong advocates of social issues and who want to debate and discuss things. This will not only be meaningful to the consumers but will also result in positive brand messaging on these outlets and will increase the chances of positive word of mouth.

   

This social media platform is also a way to build a relationship between the brand and the consumers. In a sense, the social media coordinator embodies the Nissan brand personality, so theoretically, the consumer will have the opportunity to interact directly with the brand itself.

A sample Facebook post from the brand:

"Trees are awesome – run out and hug one right now and have a look at some of the most beautiful / strangest trees in the world."

This post was very strategic in it’s friendly, environmentally focussed personality as well as building brand associations of trees that link seamlessly back to the Nissan Leaf brand. On all of these communications, there are strong links back to the Nissan corporate head office as well as the “Built in America” messaging. I think this is appropriate because Nissan has done a great job at managing their brand in the recent past and should leverage this corporate name brand (by showing what their innovative head office looks like) to be consistent with the innovative and quality imagery.

Overall great job NISSAN! It's a great marketing program: Clear, relevant, distinctive, and consistent and is likely to result in  positive consumer mindset, ultimately translating to shareholder value.

The Wonderful World of Brand Cues

It's interesting to note how heavily some brands use cues in their marketing communications. Prior to some of my marketing classes, I underestimated how strategically planned out each of the items that appear in a commercials actually were. I thought they were haphazardly chosen, but there is actually so much more thought put into the colours, shapes, sounds and objects placed in commercials than I previously understood. Some great examples:

Bud Light:

The aliens, blue colours, signature wardrobe style, same cheesy facial expressions and sense of humour, and consistent appearance of models all suggest Bud Light. You know this is going to be a Bud Light commercial almost immediately, far before the products or logos are shown. This is because these elements are used very consistently across all marketing communications so you know what to expect from a Bud Light commercial.

Febreeze: 

Blue is a common theme in this ad: The cushions, eye colour, blue curtains, bags, pictures on the mirrors. Basically in every frame of the clip, there are blue cues that link back to the colour of the Febreeze packaging as well as the Febreeze brand logo, name, and wind whisp. Another important cue used throughout Febreeze ads is the signature whistling noises and musical theme. In this regard, even if an individual watching the commercial loses attention midway through or completely misses the commercial all together, they may still get the Febreeze brand exposure through hearing the whistling or music, or by seeing many of the brand cues littered throughout the ad.

Cool BMW Commercial

I really liked this ad:

I think this is a really strong ad that demonstrates the luxurious, exotic and top quality sensation that BMW wishes to communicate as its brand promise. It's an interesting concept that inspires you to be the best that you can be and that if you set your mind to it you can accomplish anything. This is in line with the BMW brand since it markets extremely self-expressive products and this ad inspires the idea that by driving a BMW, you will be successful and achieve the things that you want to achieve in life. It also suggests that we are all humans on a level playing field, but it is what you do with your life that determines who you will be and that your success is a function of your own actions and mindset.

Coors Light Bullet Train Express

There was a great experiential marketing event when I went for a night out at Laurier's Turret Nightclub recently. Coors light had sponsored the night and lowered the prices of Coors Light products for the night. There was also an area set up on the stage that had a booth set up like a train ticket booth where you could get your Coors Light cans chilled on ice. There was also an area on stage where you could take poker chips and bet on where a spin wheel was going to land (similar to roulette). If you bet correctly, you win a prize! I ended up winning and chose a snowboard bag (retail value was probably $100+). There was also a countdown for the grand prize draw at midnight for a unique prize.

This was a great way at building a brand experience that was relevant and meaningful to me particularly because I was also interacting with this product all that night since they were cheaper, adding value to the whole experience. It also introduced me to a fairly unfamiliar element of the brand, the Coors Light Silver Bullet express train. It was a fun way to get me involved and make me remember and associate that positive experience back to the brand .

Gucci Guilty

As I watched TV the other day, I noticed an ad for a new perfume called

Gucci Guilty. The communication shows one girl questionably cheating on her

partner and then takes a breath of guilt as she stands on top of a skyscraper at
the end. Here's the ad:

I was confused by this message and the fact that it was promoting adulterous

behaviour so decided to see what the Gucci brand was all about. It turns out

that Gucci in fact has quite the history of controversial marketing messages

and has caused a fair amount of consumer uproar in the past. I stumbled upon

a website that contained a collection of controversial ads and Gucci seemed

to dominate it. 

After a little more analysis, I understood that this is what Gucci is all about.

The brand has always been one to push the envelope. Gucci has always

maintained a forbidden sense and hasn't been afraid to get in trouble. It's a

fearless brand. In this regard, Gucci's target audience is likely to be very

receptive to these bold types of communications. The target market

sees fashion as pushing the envelope and would not expect Gucci to do

anything conservative in it’s actions. Gucci displays a "Break the rules"

leadership approach with all ads being relatively innovative and unusual. This

leads back to the core brand values of breaking the rules, being forbidden and

fearless. This is very much an identity brand that users purchase to help

express their ideal self concept. They see the gap between their current self

identity and the brand’s target profile as displayed in the ads.

Although this ad positively helps to build the fearless and forward Gucci

brand, there are some moral and ethical considerations here. Brands like

Gucci need to be conscious of the boundaries between what is acceptable

brand building marketing and what marketing messages should not be

promoted to the general public as they are a source of many social issues. In

this case, I think Gucci's actions are still acceptable because the ad is subject

to interpretation and lacks explicitness. Whereas if the brand explicitly shows

the woman cheating on her partner in an obvious manner, this ad would be

unacceptable and could face a large backlash from the general public.

Another famous controversial Gucci ad from the past:

Blackberry vs. HTC

So I decided that it was time to upgrade from a pay-as-you go plan to a contract plan and decided that I might as well upgrade my phone as well. My friend owns 2 bell stores and is proud of the Bell brand and talks about it positively any chance he gets. In this regard, I was comfortable dealing with Bell. My brother had also experienced Bell service before and was satisfied. I heard bad stories with Rogers and Telus so decided that Bell it was.

Now, which smart phone should I choose?

HTC: I like the commercials and feel that I fall within and can relate to brand’s target market. I can relate to the free-spirited, individual and creative brand personality that the brand promotes and have always viewed the brand in a positive light. To me the brand is optimistic, an underdog, modest, high quality and fun so this has really resonated with me. I also strongly liked the phones available, particularly their design and aesthetic appeal.

Blackberry: The brand community that Blackberry has built is so strong and had the biggest impact on me. Although I felt a stronger connection to the HTC marketing communications, it was the social influences and word of mouth recommendations from friends that ultimately compelled me to join the Blackberry movement. The biggest selling features for me was BBM and all of the great stories associated with using BBM. Another feature that attracted me to Blackberry was the connection that it has to the parent company RIM: It gives me a sense of pride to support a local, home-grown, multi-national company that is down the street from my university. Blackberry’s large “Do what you love, love what you do” brand equity building campaign that aired last year also established this idea in my head that when I was going to upgrade to a smartphone, this was the phone that I was going to get.  I could relate to this campaign and it felt uplifting and encouraging, which helped to fulfill hedonic needs. Just the fact that I have grown up knowing about the blackberry and seeing how much it has improved in quality and features over time was very appealing to me.

I ended up getting the Blackberry Torch and am very happy with my purchase J

Evaluating Adidas All In Campaign

For an article on the new ad campaign, click here.

The Rationale behind this campaign was that kids these days mash everything together

so in a sense mashing all of the target markets together (skate kids, athletes and fans of

fashion and music) into one big campaign where everyone can relate in some way or

another with the concept should work. It's based on the notion that if you are

passionate about something, you will fully commit and go "All In". 

The complete ad:

I really like this ad and I think this does a great job at capitalizing on some of the segments that potentially weren't sure if they fit with the Adidas brand or not. For example, I am no athlete or skater, but I am a fan of music, fashion and being trendy so this was a great way to capture my attention and make me think about Adidas the next time I think about clothes. Another key feature that was done effectively was to focus on each of these core groups fairly equally. Had the ad focussed less on their core target group of athletes, the message may have been lost some where along the way. There are also strong ties with victories and persistence which is key to the brand’s core value. This does a great job at influencing the mindset of the consumer: It takes a very different approach than other athletic apparel companies have used in the past so does a better job at breaking through the noise. This is likely to result in much higher awareness and recall and also builds a huge number of new and highly relevant brand associations like Katy Perry and David Beckham. One thing this ad really excels at is increasing the breadth of awareness. It does a great job at increasing the number of situations that an individual may have top of mind awareness for this brand. For example, prior to this ad, I thought of Adidas only in the mindset of athletic products but now view it more as a fashionable clothing brand.