Budweiser Product Placement

It's interesting how much more you notice product placement on TV the more and more marketing classes you are enrolled in. One that I have noticed in particular is Budweiser and its ubiquitous presence on many sitcom shows, for example That 70s Show and the newly acclaimed Mike & Molly. It's also interesting how much more I questions WHY these products are placed in these types of shows.

Here is my assessment: These shows are great fits fits with the brand and helps to showcase the target profile of the brand user. These shows feature the traditional American families and values, living the traditional “American dream”, growing up in suburbia, having average jobs and enjoying the relaxed American lifestyle. The Budweiser brand itself is centred on these strong American, patriotic, historical and nostalgic values. Particularly by featuring the brand in that 70s show, it brings back feelings of nostalgia to when the days were much easier and care free. It’s known as the “Great American Beer” as marketed in the United states. Another interesting observation to note that it is positioned as the “King of Beers” in the Canadian market, which is a British monarch and looks more fondly on the concept of kings and queens. Also, these shows are based off of humour and expresses the idea that when you drink a Budweiser, it’s fun and carefree and showcases that if you live this traditional American family lifestyle, then Budweiser is the beer for you.

Just an interesting video on product placement, focusing mainly on Budweiser:

P&G features future friendly products for earth month

To read the article, click here.

P&G's efforts to go green seem much more realistic than many of the other companies trying to slap the “green” association on themselves. P&G does a great job at linking this family of products back to the corporate brand by being completely transparent. In addition, credibility is added through the company taking numerous strides to be a sustainable company with announcements a few months ago that it wishes to be completely sustainable in the foreseeable future.

In this case, all of these products are designed save water, save energy and reduce waste. Since consumers are now often buying the company more than the product, this is a great way to leverage the valuable P&G brand similar to how other parent companies are capitalizing on this transparency. For example, SC Johnson, Reckitt Benckisser and Unilever all displaying their corporate logo on any connected communications. This is a g reat way to leverage the strong parent company brand equity. This is also on trend with advocacy marketing which is highly valued by consumers these days as long as it’s credible and the company is not seen in a hypocritical. Given P&G’s drastic and voluntary commitments to environmental sustainability, this is likely to be believable in the eyes of consumers. Although, this is no longer a point of differentiation because it is now just expected that companies embrace the "going green" movement. Corporate brand equity is also being built in this case where all of these brands are all feeding off each other. They are all power brands - when you think of P&G you just think of power brands when they are batched together like this, which makes P&G seen in a more positive light. 

Rogers Speed Challenge

While attending the annual home show in Toronto at the Direct Energy centre, I was bombarded by a number of brand initiatives. Most of them were just lost in the clutter but one that really stood out to me was an experiential Rogers booth called the "speed challenge" where people could go and sit down and eat their food that they purchased from food vendors nearby. This area also played loud, upbeat music, with songs that catered to the generation Y age cohort. In this booth there were rogers reps that were there to answer questions and talk about the brand but this was not their biggest emphasis. There was also a huge  ice rink with people skating on it where you could try the “Speed Challenge” where you had to shoot the puck into a small hole to win a prize. 

This created a fun family experience and a fun experience for potential new home buyers and recent home buyers. This was strategic on the part of Rogers as this market is likely to be searching for phone, TV and internet services. Since rogers is mainly a home service, this is consistent. Brand elements, cues, and associations that were added included the Rogers trademark colours and references, home comfort, eating at home, listening to music, upbeat music, outgoing sales reps, young and youthful spirit, speed, hockey and Canada. The name "speed challenge" itself links back to the brand strongly because this is Rogers' main positioning platform and reinforces the idea that Rogers in fact associates itself with speed. Although the Rogers brand is basically the worst brand in Canada, these efforts do help a bit. Even though people do not like the brand, they will at least see the brand as having a fast network.

Brand Loyalty at its Finest

My dad has to be the most loyal customer in the world to the local Esso gas station. Every opportunity he gets, he will try to promote the store positively and refers people there for almost anything they ask for. My dad has developed a great relationship with the two owners over time and has become loyal to everything that the stand for, particularly coffee (after switching from several years of brand loyalty to Tim Hortans). He will always recommend Esso as a first point of shopping for anyone asking where they can get convenience goods.

This just goes to show how strong of an influence a brand community can have on purchase intentions of consumers and how powerful and productive brand evangelists can be in building brand equity and brand trust. This also shows just how valuable some customers can be to certain brands and suggests that brands should put a heavy emphasis on retaining these passionate followers as opposed to acquiring new, less valuable customers.

Thoughts After Reading Primal Branding: "BIG DAVE" Sub

Upon reading the book Primal Branding by Patrick Hanlon, I was intrigued by the concept of phenomenology and it reminded me of my experiences working at Mr Sub. The other day on my shift, a fellow coworker brought up the “Big Dave” and had stories about it – I had no idea what he was talking about when he said "Big Dave" and he was surprised that I hadn't heard about it before.

Big Dave’s creation story was that a past employee, Dave at Mr. Sub always made the same custom sub every time he had a sub. It was a decadent combination of santa fe spicy chicken as well as a ultimate cheddar club – two huge meaty subs combined into one very expensive sub.

Word got around the workplace until the staff of Mr. Sub started to actually buy this sub on break at a discount. Dave had a very outgoing nature – he tried to actually sell and market this product to customers during a conversation. Now other employees are also doing the same to make work more interesting and challenging to make the sale.

Other elements of the primal code observed:

Creed – A very meaty and satisfying sub, you wont get anything more excessive to fill your extreme hunger, loaded with calories and is actually disgusting looking

Icons – the Mr. Sub Panini grill, the “OHHHH” sounds of all people in the line, foot long, tall sub, messy counter, football team, men

Rituals – It's an unwritten rule that you must get it grilled on the Panini press because you almost have to in order to shrink it’s height to fit it in your mouth, people being disgusted in line, laughing in line, asking questions and sparking curiousity of other customers, waiting to see people’s reactions

Pagans or Non-Believers – Regular subs, disgusted and appaled people in line preferring a healthier alternative

Sacred Words – “Big Dave”, grill

The leader – Now Adam, a new shift leader has been strongly advocating the sub and wanting to make it a special option only available at Laurier and has been nagging management to add it to the menu as a joke

The Big Dave has truly been a Success story – Now we all think it’s legendary, the football team are now loyal buyers and have been hearing it through Word of mouth – it has not even been advertised and it isn’t even on our menu at all! This goes to show that you don’t need to advertise to actually sell a product, a great product sells itself if it contains all of the elements of the primal code. It will be interesting to see if this actually catches on and becomes a special Laurier phenomenon. This also goes to show that the employees need to really believe in the product and be passionate about it to actually sell it. It is a contagious phenomenon. When peoples friends buy the product, people usually crack and buy the product as well, sometimes they have to wait and see what it looks like before deciding. Often people request the Big Dave in a sneaky manner or say the “Big sub” as if it’s a secret and an exclusive product. They feel special and good about themselves by being part of this exclusive Big Dave club.

Beauty Brands Jumping on the "For Men" Trend

While in the shower, I decided to analyze the products that I use and the names of the products in particular. The concept of brand architecture came to mind right away because these names of the products appear as simply and obvious, but there is actually a lot of thought going behind it.

For example, I use Dove Men+Care body wash. Here's it's architecture:

Company Name: Unilever

Family Name: Dove

Brand Name: Men + Care

Modifier: Clean Comfort (Mild Version)

This name leverages the dove brand while also tying it back to the parent company, Unilever through a symbol on the back of the bottle. This allows this product to leverage all of the positive brand equity of Unilever through some of its other products that the consumer may have used and associated back to the parent company.This also clearly positions the product as a men’s product which is highly effective in the health and beauty category because through my experiences, men often get frustrated and deterred from searching for these types of products in stores that they are unsure of whether or not they are shopping for a men or women's product. Another product in my bathroom is Nivea for Men aftershave which also clearly identifies itself as a men’s product. On all commercials for dove, the Unilever icon is also shown which helps to leverage the strong brand reputation of the company. The brand modifier was effectively chosen and helps to emphasize 2 benefits without any explanation (just simply in the name): Getting clean and also being comfortable. One suggestion though is that they should have refrained from using "Mild Version" as a modifier because this could be detrimental when men perceive the other products in the collection to be non-mild and perhaps have the connotation that it is harmful to you skin. In this regard, this should be either removed or replaced with another modifier like the flavour or the scent.

Referring back to presentations in brand communications class, the team performing a brand Audit on Aveda recommended to keep the brand name the same while expanding to appeal to the male market. I disagree with this and think that they should add a modifier like Aveda MEN. This will help to fine tune the image rather than building equity but it would succeed at ensuring these male buyers are willing to look at your products comfortably, with no doubt that they are browsing women's products. I think many marketers underestimate how strong of an influence these modifiers can actually have on a brand and should think much deeper about these modifiers.

Nissan Leveraging the Power of Sound

I recently noticed that Nissan has added a new brand element to its collection. Being a marketing student, I am very vigilant of these types of brand changes but for the typical consumer, it is likely that they did not even notice! Nissan has now added a sound effect to go along with the flash of its logo at the end of commercials. The sound is very futuristic and robotic and is well aligned with the newly found brand values of innovation. This is a great use of stimulus marketing helping to associate the brand with technology, the future, and innovation. It sounds similar to the noises that PlayStation uses when you start a game. Nissan has created one more way for consumers to remember the brand by. Think of how powerful Mac Book's signature turning on sound is and how much value it has added to the brand? It's a wonder why all brands don't jump on the bandwagon of stimulus marketing in efforts to appeal to ALL the senses to build a more memorable brand.