Tomorrow in my Advertising class we are going to have a guest speaker from Burt's Bees named Julie Talbot. I look forward to heaing from Julie because, jsut base on my knowledge, Burt's Bees is a lesser player in their respective industry. However, for having such a small market share I would like to see how they have been able to capture a niche market and how they plan on moving forward with they advertising and brand managing.
After doing a some basic background
checks and through my current insights on the company Burt’s Bees.Julie Talbot, the Global Brand Manager for
the company is going to give an interesting inside look on Burt’s Bees
strategic marketing objectives.Just
from a consumer standpoint I think is that they current are focused on a niche
market.I know they offer personal
health products like lip cream, soap, etc.I think their brand awareness is relatively low compared to their
competitors (Dove, Olay, Blistex) so I think they need a strong marketing plan
to raise brand awareness, while staying true to their niche market.
A question I’d like her to answer,
although I expect her to give thorough explanation during her lecture, is “How
is Burt’s Bees marketing strategy plan currently trying to raise market
strength is their industry, while staying true to their brand name and niche
market?”
Recently in my Advertising class we discussed what it meant to be creative and how to come up with big ideas for companies looking to tackle a new advertising objectives. I couldn't help but think about one the best (in my opinoin) marketing companies in the world in Nike, and their evolution and implementation of their Nike Fuel Band commercials. I know from the beginning Nike kinda of played a guerilla marketing side and let the customer base try it and spread their experiences with friends and let it take off. However recently I have seen some Nike Fuel Band commercials, like the one I have posted below, and I really think they did a great job of coming up with a big idea that tackles all the elements my Advertising professor discussed.
First off here is the commercial:
Okay, so what did you think? Pretty smart right? Kind of cool, really upbeat, kinda sends a message right? At least I thought so. Well lets take a look at some of the things brought up by my professor that she believes a big idea must contain.
First--keep it simple. Yes, this idea was simple as pie. "Life is a sport, make it count." This idea ties directly into their product with the fuel band because you are supposed to wear it as an every day thing to monitor your exercise. Next, my professor talked about when creeating big ideas to remember to be truthful tot he company and stay branded to the company. In my opinion, this idea stay true to Nike's brand. It goes without saying that when people think about Nike they think about sports, and Nike wants to make life a sport with their Fuel Band product. They are trying to make every day activities count as exercise. I think when Nike's executives were working on this campaign they thought about what is the truth about Nike and they uncovered that people want to work out everyday and stay healthy but aren't sure of what counts as excerise then Nike comes in and says, "You know what, taking the steps instead of the elevator counts as excersise. Life is a sport so make it count. Don't wasting it."
I think this ad is branded at the core of Nike and the Nike FuelBand product in that it revolves around exercising daily and making life count with exercise. They also cleary tied the commercial in with pop culture which made it entertaining and attention grabbing. I also think the execution was properly executed to ignite conversations among prospective customers. I think not only the commercial will ignite and create popularity for the product, but the Fuel Band itself will spark conversations as well because of the involvement it has on people's every day life.
Overall, I think Nike did and excellent job at being creative coming up with a big idea that was branded at the core of Nike, was attention grabbing, and convincingly executed the core message of "life is a sport, make it count."
Deceptive advertising. It is a term, I'm sure, many people are plenty familiar with. The FTC places regulation and ethic codes on advertising that restrict companies to what they are able to say in advertsing. An example mentioned in class the other day by my Advertising professor was the Sketchers lawsuit. Sketchers shoes has been sued for saying that their "tone-up" shoes were not clinically proven to be an effective tool to building muscle. The lawsuit settled for over $40 million. Another lawsuit some might not be as familiar with was the Nutella lawsuit claim made by California mom who had been feeding her kids Nutella consistantly, because she believed it was part of a healty breakfast. Kind of shocking, right? I mean who really could believe that Nutella, a chocolate spread, is part of a healthy breakfast for kids? Apparently this woman did, and she took her claim to court against the company Ferrero, the makers of Nutella. In the court documents she said that advertisement made claims that Nutella was "healthy" an "part of a balanced meal." Let me show you this ad first, you have to check it out......
Alright, so at no point did this commercial specifically say that Nutella was healthy, or part of a balanced meal so you might think this crazy woman who has been feeding her kids chocolate, and getting them fat has no basis for a claim. Well, as it turned out she wom the claim. In fact, she settled on a $3 million. Wouldn't that be nice. Honestly, I think this is rediculous. Sure the ad said that her kids "love" eating Nutella for breakfast and that her kids "want to eat it." What kid wouldn't want their mom to be preparing toast with chocolate for breakfast. Yes, the ad did say at the end that "breakfast never tasted this good." Big shocker there, huh? I could Skittles, and Oreo's for breakfast and it would taste good too. But, if you aren't skeptical at the appearance of Nutella being healthy, you can always read the nutritional facts that say that per 2 table-spoon serving there are 21 grams of fat and 200 calories. But if I'm in Vegas right now, I am putting my money on the fact this woman neglected to do anything of the sort. Either way, Athena Hohenberg, the mom of the century, won herself $3 million and Nutella has cancelled running this ad, as well as changing their nutritional labels, so this mistake (I guess you call it) doesn't happen again. In my opinion, no chance this was deceptive advertising, but it just shows how careful companies need to be before running an ad.
So in my advertising class a couple of weeks ago we had a guest lecture given by Steve Grant, who is the Head of Strategy for an up and coming digital advertising agency. I have to say, I was pretty impressed, not only by doing some preliminary research before the lecture, but by Steve himself who seems so enthusiastic about his industry and job. Just by doing a simple Google search on Steve and his company, Modea, it brang up a load of articles dated around the time he was hired by the company. I read some interviews he had given at the time, and they all seemed to be pointing in the same direction as for his future plans of Modea. His plan at the time was to bring in a intensly competitive strategy to this small advertising agency. He wanted to expand the company and take on more challenges. Both plans worked out well. What I gathered from Steve in person, was that he brought in a strategy that dealt intesively around the focus of its' clients. Modea had been a small agency located in a rural southern town of Blacksburg, Virginia. Now they are able to take on clients like Prudential because of the name they have established in customer satisfaction. Prudential seemed like Steve's most exciting, as well as challenging experience he has had with Modea so far. Steve emphasized the importance of doing research to gather consumer insights on the company as the first order of business when dealing with a new client. The reason Prudential was such a challenging client is because everyone seemed to know the name Prudential, but they weren't familiar with all of their business practices. Prudential does such a variety of practices, that some cannabalize other parts of their business. They wanted the public to know that they also offer retirement plans, and financial expertise. Steve went on to tell us about allt he challenges that arose in his deal with Prudential, but at no point did he seem unhappy or dissatisfied. Overall, Steve was very energetic about his experiences and insights. I realy enjoyed his guest appearance in class.
