Rebranding gone wrong...

A brand name is the first and most powerful part of a brand. A good name helps the brand stand out in a crowded market and positions itself as a leader.

Yves Saint Laurent, abbreviated YSL, has always been a powerful brand positioned amongst the top designers on the market. The success has lead the french iconic brand to 80 stores globally.

Come autumn, all store signage, clothing labels and logo's will be rebranded SLP, short for Saint Laurent Paris.

It just doesn't sound right does it?

YSL to SLP...

After 50 years existence on the market, you can understand why this thought has emerged, however a Parisian recognised classic with high culture integrity can not be expected to change and be approved by consumers across the world. It is disrespectful to it's heritage and most of all the greatest fashion name in history; Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent.

The new creative director, Hedi Slimane, has chosen to radically change the brand name to typically reposition and upgrade the brand. Perhaps this is to remove negative connotations associated with YSL, but I'm not so sure there was any?

Messing with a classic is a bad idea.

The new name and the great impact that has been placed on the company’s product representation sends out a complete new message about who they are and what they represent. It is very important that the company’s identity be handled with some degree of sensitivity and care so as not to run old customers away.

If it isn't broke don't fix it.

Is it sex or emotion that sells?

We have seen diverse brands using provocative and sexual imagery in advertisements for many years now that the concept of selling ‘sex’ has been scientifically proven to increase sales and spread virally. This is exactly what the health and well being company; Philips tried to achieve when advertising their ‘body groom barbershop’ event in Covent Garden this weekend.

 Philips- who base themselves on ‘fundamental customer insights’ endorsed model celebrity Kelly Brooks to shave men’s body hair, in the attempt to excite and generate dialogue between the male audiences. Of course, Kelly’s physical attractiveness did just this, especially when men were in for the chance to have a body shave by Kelly herself!

The brand’s competition and celebrity appearance built a huge fan base helping to create further brand awareness and instant credibility, but what is particularly impressive with Philips ‘Expressyourself’ campaign is the ability to enhance social networks. Men could only win a personal shave by the top leading model if they applied via Facebook, which long-term enables Philips to attract them to future products or services.

Although this campaign in a way ‘infects’ men who will then ‘infect others’ helps attract a wide audience to the event- but what about the market positioning?

It was Fathers day this weekend and I’m not so sure dads could really get the time to go and have a shave, or in turn attract mum’s or children, to purchase a Philips product from this?! 

Does sex sell on Father's day?

 Here is another 'sex' example from Boots advertising Durex play lubricant as a way to 'Make Dad's day'!

I think brands that targeted fathers day this weekend, and added value and personality to their brand, did much better in terms of sales and longevity. 

For example, the official sponsor of Olympic games- Procter & Gamble launched a “thank you mom” campaign for mother’s day which gained a high response rate and added value to mom’s everywhere, the success gave P&G the power to elicit strong feelings and emotions again this fathers day.

Subsidiary company, Gillette, launched a TV campaign during the England vs France Euro 2012 match.  <Click here>

  

The strong dialogue immerses dads, mums and children and creates a story that audiences can relate too.  Such interaction makes Gillette approachable and friendly, and gives consumers the illusion that they aren’t just purchasing a product they are purchasing an experience.

The campaign also went online with the Twitter hash tag '#HeresToDad and #ThanksToDad, as well as Facebook where users could win competition to get tickets to the Olympics.

I wonder who did better in sales?

Nintendo's ineffective campaign

I was surprised to see Nintendo’s latest campaign; endorsing celebrity Samantha from TV series Sex and The City. Surely her character and reputation should represent a more feminine product or brand?

Nintendo is interpreted as a male dominated brand with gaming products aimed at the geeky and technically savvy audience- not middle aged women who love city life, alcohol and shopping?!

Samantha, who goes by the real name Kim Cattrall, is the star of Nintendo’s new game ‘Super Mario 3D land advert’. She is featured in her bedroom and refers to Mario in a sexual manner creating a sexual illusion towards the well known character. Personally, I find that disturbing. How can an animated character’s raccoon suit turn on Sex and the city’s sultry Samantha? 

The new campaign seems like Nintendo want to market to a more diverse audience and not just kids, which is good, however if the purpose of this advert is to target women I think the communication is wrong. As a woman I associate Samantha with ‘sex’. Her character in Sex and The City is a ‘try-sex’- someone who will try anything once, and I don’t think I could ever be influenced into thinking she would use a Nintendo, or fancy Mario for that matter!

This ineffective advert does nothing for the brand especially as Nintendo has portrayed the family-friendly image for so long. Samantha is definitely the wrong demographic for this product, and I think Nintendo should start monitoring and analysing their competitors before they launch a new campaign with a different celebrity. Take a look at this classic (and much better) Nintendo ad:

The Jubilee's impact on retailers

The nation has now recovered from the great British showcase across the country as many of us hung union Jack buntings, prepared for street parties, and spent a fortune on celebrations in preparation for the Queen’s Jubilee. I think we all owe a huge thank you to the Queen for giving us a wonderfully patriotic four days off work (and being our Queen for sixty years of course!)

But what about the unfortunate Brits who didn’t get given the time off to enjoy the different events that took place? Whilst I was relaxing watching the Jubilee boat race, retailers were still attracting shoppers, which made me think about the turnover in the run up to the Jubilee since high street brands everywhere converted shop windows and consumers were inundated with red, white, and blue marketing.

London’s Oxford Street is the greatest retail environment within the UK and is said to have kick-started the West end celebrations with 147 flags and over 2 million shoppers.

Amongst fashion retailers, food retailers were all very keen on being Jubilee focused too- especially Sainsbury’s whereby Piccadilly circus was transformed into a ballroom.

The quirky marketing campaigns on TV (like the M&S ‘Summer to remember’ advert), social media photo uploads, in store decorations and product branding, excited us and as consumers it reminded us about the important upcoming Jubilee.

 

The Jubilee gave us fortunate employees time off, and the opportunity to be proud of being English, but it also enabled retailers to have a record trading boost. We could not help but spend! 

Did you see any excellent examples of Jubilee marketing? What did you buy throughout the celebrations? 

 I would love to hear your comments...

Why is a strategy more important than a tactic?

The fizzy soft drink with mixed fruits; Vimto, changed from cordial to carbonated in recent years- probably the reason for them undergoing this new crazy and fun brand personality. Well it definitely suits them. Everything about the brand has improved including their social interaction.

Customers can now play games on their website, tweet Vimto consumption in real time, and have Vimto’s humorous jokes updated on their Facebook news feed. All of which help engage their audience into liking the brand, and once a person likes Vimto, they become more assertive and more likely to say ‘yes’ to the products. 

For example, Vimto’s latest Facebook update is likely to make consumers laugh. By doing just that they are thinking good thoughts about Vimto, and when they think drink, they are likely to associate it with Vimto. It really does depend on how persuasive a brand is with their social content.

However, after returning home from work this evening I was surprised to find a new approach from Vimto. Direct mail with the print ‘Get your FREE squash’ and all you have to do is leave the bag outside your door with your house number on it’. Is this persuasive communication?

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for promotional giveaways, in fact I recently blogged about Starbucks and how giving away freebies is a great way to manage customer relationships. We all feel exclusive with a freebie, but as a marketer I don’t think Vimto have considered if this tactic is going to produce positive response, and above all a relatively enduring attitude.

Straight away I checked Vimto’s online channels- to find out more, but it has not been advertised which to me is strange. If this was a marketing strategy surely the brand would have considered diverting traffic to their website, Facebook & Twitter to become everlasting customers? Or even take the name and number for the purpose of their database and send each person future e-mails?

I sound like an absolute bore who is not at all impressed with a free bottle of squash, which is not the case, I know what Vimto are trying to achieve and it could potentially work, but I am thinking along the lines of a marketer not a consumer. This is a great example of a tactic and not a strategy.

 It is quite difficult for any brand to target potential consumers at their home and expect a positive enduring attitude straight away. A brand needs to motivate the consumer and give them a message to think about. Without this push people will resist the kindness- in the same way I did. Or perhaps I was unmotivated towards Vimto because I did not have a chance to 'like' the brand and gain credibility towards the brand?

What do you think about this 'Free squash'. Tactic or strategy?

Join the picture day for future generations

The Swedish non-profit foundation ADAY.org have created a campaign on May 15th to encourage us to photograph our daily lives.

ADAY.org supports scientific research and education centred around the photographic image and written word. Their new campaign sure does inspire creative reflections on humanity.

On this one single day they ask you to pick up your camera to help them photograph 'daily life'. Anyone can join for a wider perspective. All images will be displayed online and some will even be selected for a book 'A day in the world' to be published October 2012.

If you love photography and you have something to say about your life get involved and inspire generations to come.

Click here to join now.

Pepsi launches digital dashboard as a pop culture news source

Pepsi Pulse, a social media interactive board on www.pepsi.com, went live yesterday morning for Pepsi's new global campaign "Live for now".

The ambitious new social platform 'Pulse' is a real time board that aims to pull pictures, tweets and news items from filtered sources. The stream will come from the '#NOW' and '#LIVEFORNOW' hashtags, to update the board with 'now' moments based on social popularity. If it's now its on pulse!

As a result of this Pepsi; a brand who has often associated themselves with live music and events, will attract and advertise their website through messaging, which in effect will direct traffic to their site. Pepsi Pulse aims to be a major player in conversations relating to music and entertainment.

“Pepsi Pulse is a cheat sheet for pop culture,” Shiv Singh, global head of digital for PepsiCo Beverages, told Mashable.

Consumers can find pop culture news on Pepsi pulse- but will the digital platform continuously engage and encourage repeat visits to www.pepsi.com?

Pepsi is among a multitude of companies buying into social media's ability to strengthen their brands. They have even got endorsement deals with Nicki Minaj who can potentially influence her 10 million followers when she tweets something about music #NOW. 

Will you be tweeting pop culture news #NOW on Twitter? 

Nicki Minaj's song 'Moment for life' will be included in the campaign's first commercial on 7th May.