iPhone Changes the way Sales are Advertised

Remember the days of getting Sunday paper and flipping through the ad section? What about the days of walking into a store and right away stopping by the stand by the door with the current week’s ad? Now I’m sure some of you are saying, “What do you mean ‘days?’ I just did that yesterday.” Well we are entering a new age that will change how we look for the best deals while we shop.

This past weekend I was at my friend’s house and he was talking about buying a GPS and was wondering if Best Buy had any on sale. Before he could go online and check the prices, I whipped out my iPhone and accessed my Best Buy Weekly Deals application. This application shows all the sales that Best Buy is having that current week, the same as their newspaper ads do.

Not everyone has an iPhone, but as smart phones become more popular I see applications like this becoming more popular. Why would retail stores prefer this method of sales ads in newspapers? One reason is cost. It is much cheaper to update a webpage or a phone application than it is to print out millions of ads. The second reason is convenience. People carry their phones wherever they go. When I was at my friend’s house I was able to tell him quickly what GPS systems Best Buy had on sale. If he was serious about buying a GPS we could have immediately gone to Best Buy and got the best deal available.

This application also helps create brand awareness. GPS was mentioned and my first thought was Best Buy because I have that application. I did not think of Wal-Mart, Fry’s or any other retailer. If I, or my friend, wanted a GPS we were going to Best Buy.

The Colonel Responds

Yesterday, after I posted my article about KFC, I tweeted “New article on http://jloszach.wordpress.com on KFC’s brand awareness push” (by the way, @JLoszach if your on twitter).

Soon after my tweet I received a response from The Colonel himself. The response from kfc_colonel read “@JLoszach You missed one. The Colonel is also trying to get Twitter users to think KFC.”

So there you have it. In addition to Myspace contests, music contests, and a new healthier menu, KFC is also in the Twittershpere driving brand awareness. Thank you Colonel for keeping me updated!

KFC Continues its Brand Awareness Blitz

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on KFC holding a contest on Myspace to find their number one fan (KFC is Looking for their own Jared, June 11, 2009). Well KFC is back in the news this month when they launched their third annual KFC’s Hitmaker contest. This contest invites aspiring artists to submit songs that offer a positive message for a shot at prizes and national exposure. Rappers David Banner and MC Lyte are selecting the winning songs this year. Once selected, the 12 finalists will have their songs featured on a compilation CD, and the winner will receive a “Hitmaker recording studio,” complete with a MacBook Pro, Logic Studio software and a speaker system.

As I look what KFC has been doing lately, I realize that their new campaign “Unthink KFC” is exactly the opposite of what they are trying to do. As KFC has released their new grilled chicken they are putting on a brand awareness blitz. They want people to think of KFC at the same instant as other fast food restaurants. By getting their name out in the public as much as possible they are hoping that instead of someone thinking, “Wow, I’m hungry. Should I stop at McDonalds or Subway?” they will now think “Wow, I’m hungry. Should I stop at McDonalds or Subway? Oh wait, KFC! Yeah I think KFC tonight!”

It doesn’t matter how KFC gets the public to think of them, as long as they do in fact think of them. Let’s break this down for a moment. KFC is holding a contest on Myspace, now the social media butterflies think KFC. KFC is also holding a music contest, now all the underground MCs and producers are thinking KFC. On top of those, they are heavily promoting their grilled chicken, so the health conscious consumers have a reason to think KFC. Even though KFC is promoting their brand through an “Unthink KFC” campaign, what they really want you to do is Think KFC!

Social Media Asks “Would You Like Fries With That?”

Well Dunkin’ Donuts is latest company to jump on the social media bandwagon, but they are doing it in a very interesting manner… and even have their own iPhone app. Dunkin’ Run, which is an interactive website and an iPhone application, began this week.

Like all social media sites, users have lists of friends. The difference between Dunkin’ Run and sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter is that with Dunkin’ Run your friends are notified when you are making a “Dunkin’ Run.” Your friends the put in their order which you can print out from your computer or view on your iPhone.

One of the biggest problems I have when making a “run” someplace is remembering everybody’s order. This new idea from Dunkin’ Donuts solves this problem. This project, which was a collaboration between Dunkin’ Donuts, Hill Holiday and Studio.com, is a very ingenious idea. This is just another way for Dunkin’ Donuts to get its name out, and makes it easier for their customers to order. Let imagine that Joe is on his way to Dunkin’ Donuts for a cup of coffee and a bagel. On his was he makes a post on Dunkin’ Run, Mary from the cube next to Joe in the office puts in an order for a cup of coffee. Now instead of selling a cup of coffee and a bagel, Dunkin’ Donuts sells two cups of coffee and a bagel. On top of that, the next day Mary picks up Joe a cup of coffee to repay him for yesterday. So again, Dunkin’ Donuts sold two cups of coffee instead of one.

If Dunkin’ Run takes off as a valuable tool for Dunkin’ Donuts, I imagine we will start seeing a lot of sites pop up for fast food restaurants such as McDonalds and Burger King, as well as coffee houses such as Starbucks and Caribou Coffee.

Mountain Dew’s New Brand Image

Brands are always re-inventing themselves; Mountain Dew is the latest brand to do so. Not only have they changed their name from Mountain Dew to Mtn. Dew, but their commercials and packaging are obviously aimed at a different demographic. Let’s take a look at two Mountain Dew commercials that I found on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/m65qo7 and http://tinyurl.com/nw5hsh. These are typical Mountain Dew commercials that I remember from my childhood. These commercials deliver the message that Mountain Dew is extreme and if you drink it then you will be extreme and able to perform extreme actions. These ads were aimed at the extreme sports crowd. Now let’s take a look at a Mountain Dew commercial from 2007: http://tinyurl.com/37dwl2. That was quite different wasn’t it? Now Mountain Dew is back with a new game fuel and a new name. Check out the new Mtn. Dew commercial for the WoW game fuel (sidebar for you non gamers: WoW = World of Warcraft): http://tinyurl.com/kw6n4t. After viewing all of these commercials it is obvious to see the direction Mountain Dew is going in.

Why would Mountain Dew change demographics completely? Their advertisements have always been directed towards the more “extreme” crowd. I do not have time to post links to all of Mountain Dew’s past commercials but if you want to do a YouTube search you will see that their commercials back in the 1980s featured active people having fun. With the rise of the X-Games and extreme sports, the active people grew into extreme athletes. Mtn. Dew’s new ad campaigns are not geared toward extreme athletes or even active people, but toward gamers. While I do not have any numbers or facts to back up the claims I am about to make, I believe I understand what happened to Mountain Dew.

Energy drinks such as Amp, Full Throttle and Monster have taken the Lion’s Share of the extreme sports demographic, so in order to stay in business Mountain Dew needs to get new customers. Gamers is an untapped demographic, no one advertises directly to this demographic. While I myself do not play World of Warcraft, I know many people who do. These friends admit that they sometimes stay up all night playing the game. For those people who do enjoy staying up all night playing games, a high energy caffeine drink such as Mtn. Dew is sometimes needed.

How many highly anticipated marquee video games come out in a year though? This is one obstacle that Mtn. Dew may have to over come. Halo 3 came out in 2007, the latest edition of WoW came out in late 2008 and early 2009. This is over a year in between new Mtn. Dew flavors. This is not to say that Mtn Dew can only release new flavors to new games, but that is how they are currently operating. I feel that they are just piggy backing off highly anticipated video games right now while they build their new brand image. Eventually, they will not need a new game release in order to release a new flavor. Overall, I like Mtn. Dew’s new strategy and I am interested to see how it plays out in the long run.

“Get Your Fruit On!” – Tropicana’s New Campaign

Tropicana has started a new campaign called “Get your fruit on!” I really like this kind of “advertising” because Tropicana is not promoting its brand (which is why I put advertising in quotation marks), but rather it is promoting a healthy lifestyle – which then in turn promotes Tropicana orange juice as natural orange juice is a health drink.

The juice company is giving a free 64 oz. carton of Tropicana Pure Premium juice to the first 5,000 people to visit Tropicana.com and vow to eat more fruit. Also, for each of those 5,000 pledges, Tropicana will contribute 16 servings of orange juice to the USDA’s Summer Food Service and School Breakfast Programs.

The reason that this campaign is a smart PR move is that it shows consumers that Tropicana is concerned about their welfare, not just their bottom line. Rather then coming up with a creative marketing program to promote their juice, they came up with a creative program that promotes a healthy lifestyle. Of course, consumers realize that Tropicana hopes that the public will strive to be healthier and thus consume more Tropicana juice. However, the healthy lifestyle is the focus of the campaign and not the bottom line – people do appreciate this.

In the end, a campaign like this is an effective PR campaign because it shows that the company cares about its customers more then its bottom line (and this in the end helps the bottom line). This is a perfect example of a company understanding that importance of public relations and their public image.

Relevant TV Commercials? You Must be Joking!

Some of my favorite commercials on TV are for Sonic Drive-In. I’m sure you are familiar with the ones I’m referring to. There are two guys or sometimes two girls in a car eating at Sonic and talking. The conversations are always quite random, and often comical. Besides the comedy, the reason I enjoy these commercials is because they remind me of how my friends and I talk about random topics. While I enjoy these commercials, it is really a love-hate relationship. I love the commercials but I hate that there are no Sonics near me. The only time I have eaten at Sonic was while I was visiting my friend at Southern Illinois University (over 300 miles south of where I live).

DirecTV has the solution to this problem. The satellite TV company announced that it will begin installing software developed by Invidi Technologies. Once this software goes online, the operator will be able to insert local advertising. What this means is that instead of seeing national commercial spot, viewers will see ads relevant to their specific location.

When this software finally gets off the ground in 2010, I will no longer see Sonic commercials in my Suburban Chicago home. While I will miss the humor of these commercials, I will no longer “have a taste for Sonic” with no way to satisfy it.

This is undoubtedly a good thing for advertisers. While I’m sure Sonic appreciated my $5 that I spent there, because I could not pass up an opportunity to finally try one of their Famous Slushes and breakfast burritos, the are losing money by advertising to a market with no near by Sonic locations. “Advertisers hate waste, and what we offer marks a significant change in the ability to get the right spots in front of the right people,” says Michael Kubin, executive vp, Invidi Technologies. “Our spot optimization allows advertisers to carve up the audience into segments so they can hit different demos in the same break. A targeted audience is exponentially more valuable than the sort of deliveries you can achieve with a shotgun approach.”

Giant with a Giant Idea

Landover, Md. based food retailer, Giant Food has come up with a giant public relations plan. They are building weekly ads for every customer who has a Giant Bonus Card. To accomplish this Giant uses GSN’s personalization engine to have their website display shopper favorites that are on sale and will align coupon offers with sale items. Manufacturer coupons will also automatically print out when the customer’s shopping list is printed.

Erik Keptner, svp, marketing and communication at Minneapolis-based GSN sums up why this is such a good source of action for Giant to take, “We know that family budgets are stretched thin, so our objective is to offer as much value as possible to our customers. Relevant online coupons will make it easier that ever for Giant customers to shop and save.” Giant is not just offering generic coupons for items that they have high margin on, they are offering coupons for items that history shows that a particular customer purchases regularly.

Offering coupons to shoppers is always an effective idea, but it is especially effective during times of economic recession. Offering relevant coupons is on a whole other level completely. Let’s imagine a customer has a choice between a grocery store that is catering coupons to their specific needs or offering generic coupons that may or may not be what the customer is looking for. The choice is pretty obvious which retailer the customer will shop at.

This is the first instance I have heard of a food retailer offering individualized coupons, but I expect to hear more and more chains start this practice once they catch wind of Giant’s giant idea.

I Have a PhD in Tweeting

“Oh I have so much homework tonight. I have to update my Facebook status, create a few tweets, change my MySpace picture and upload a YouTube video.” Something about that statement just doesn’t sound right. When I was in school, we used social media sites, such as Facebook, to put off our homework. There were many a nights where I chose to check out my friend’s new photo album rather then get an early start on a paper. However, students at the University of Salford (1.5 miles from Manchester) in Britain will soon get the chance to study social media.

Visit the link to see the official announcement on the university’s web page: http://www.salford.ac.uk/news/details/888. Starting in September, the University of Salford will offer a graduate course in social media. In this course students will work on real projects for community groups and businesses to increase their online presence.

I, for one, feel that this was a long time coming. Now that someone was first, I hope many colleges and universities follow. I think by now we all agree that sites like Facebook and Twitter are here to stay and they play a huge role in Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising. Right now as PR is expanding into social media, professionals are doing everything they can to learn the skills needed to successfully use these sites. It only makes sense to begin offering the opportunity to learn these skills in a classroom setting; that is what college is for after all – to prepare students for their future careers.

KFC is Looking for their own Jared

KFC has started a contest on MySpace to find their number one fan. To enter, the contestants are asked to submit a video demonstrating why they are the world’s number one fan. The three finalists will be announced on July 25, and the public can begin voting on their favorite video on August 1. The winner of this contest will team up with the Colonel as the face of Kentucky Grilled Chicken. The winner will also receive over $13,000 in KFC gift cards.

The question I find myself asking is KFC trying to manufacture their own Jared? Jared was just a regular guy who lost a lot of weight eating subway. When Subway found out about this they immediately jumped at the chance to use Jared to promote how healthy Subway is. I can’t help but notice the similarities between Subway and what KFT is trying to do.

With the release of their grilled chicken, which is healthier than fried chicken, and the release of their “Unthink KFC,” ad developed by Draftfcb, it seems that that they are trying to re-create the Jared phenomenon of Subway.

There are two reasons why I don’t think this campaign will work for KFC. The first reason is that it’s been done before. Jared has been around for a long time; so long in fact, that Subway no longer uses him in all their ads. People are over Jared, they are bored of him. The second reason is that Jared happened naturally. KFC is holding a contest. That is the same reason why most Making the Band and American Idol musicians don’t work out (For example do you even remember O-Town, Day 26, Ruben Studdard or Fantasia). As much as it seems like it should be easy to accomplish, it is very hard to create public appeal.

I wish KFC the best of luck with their “Unthink KFC” campaign. I agree with the fact that they need to get the word out about their grilled chicken and the health benefits of grilled chicken. However, I don’t think that the new face of KFC will be as popular as they are hopping.