M&S Christmas 2017 BREAKING NEWS!

Even Marks and Spencer Christmas advertisement got a teaser this year in the form of 'Breaking News' before launching the full advertisement.

In the teaser. newsreader Angela Rippon reported that Santa has been caught on video wandering the streets (and rooftops) of London, emphasizing  “not with an elf but with a bear”.

The bear as seen in the teaser is the Paddington Bear, who the retailer has teamed up with for its festive campaign this year. Yes, it is a collaboration ahead of the Paddington 2 movie release in London on Friday (10 November).



Source: https://www.marketingweek.com/2017/11/01/christmas-advertising/?cmpid=em~newsletter~breaking_news~n~n&utm_medium=em&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=breaking_news&eid=4246420&sid=MW0001&adg=68A61D3A-4AB4-4838-8377-C18C546910F2 

David Beckham and Kevin Hart as TWINS in H&M film

Well, we all know that David Beckham is a talented English footballer and a smart looking fashion icon. What about Kevin Hart? An American actor and comedian (do you remember Scary Movie 3?).

Can you see any connection between the two? They have teamed up in a short film for H&M new campaign: The H&M Modern Essentials.

Watch the film and ask yourself, can you see the connection? What say you?

Product Placement: Taking Advantage of Consumer's Subliminal Perception

More brands are taking advantage of movies or TV series to advertise their products. They are taking advantage of consumer's subliminal perception to recognise their existence. With their brands and products being exposed in a movie or a show that you like, we will not reject it. The consumer perceptual process will automatically capture the entire image or the scene in the movie as the figure and background. This will then be interpret into meanings, consciously or subconsciously.

In a recent movie, Transformers, Age of Extinction, the integration of brands and products as figure and background were significant, ranging from Yili Milk to Nutrilife . Did you spotted any of the below examples of product/brands placement  (there are many more but I just couldn't share all of it...):

Is this the best way to promote your brands and products? Nothing is without limitations. There are perils of backfire on the brands too if the companies are not careful in the selection of product placement. You don't want your products to be seen inferior or carries some negative attitudes identify while associating with the bad guys!

What say you?




Note: Photos were taken using a smartphone while watching the Original DVD of the movie.

Ethics in Consumer Marketing

Today while driving home from work, I heard a radio advertisement by P1 about their broadband offerings. What caught my attention was the scenario used by P1 to highlight their bandwidth and data allowed.

In the advertisement, there was a lady mentioning that she cannot watch a full episode of a Hong Kong drama because she ran our of data credits with her broadband provider. She sounded so frustrated while claiming that the download was incomplete. The advertisement tries to relate the scenario (problem) to the target audiences and attract their attention towards the offerings. The scenario will generate the tense and later motivate the target audience to seek for more information about P1 broadband packages.

However, there is this ethical issue that I want to 'choesay'. Why the lady need to download the Hong Kong drama? Does this mean she is trying to use the broadband for illegal download? Or is there any legal website that allows (free) download of drama? No doubt P1 tries to associate their offerings to the norm of Internet users in Malaysia (culture), but is it ethical to do so?

I really don't know the answer but at least it caught my attention today :)

McDonald's Happy Meal Versus Minions

Are you a fan of McDonald's Happy Meal or the Minions in the movie, Despicable Me? The recent craze in Malaysia recently saw the increase in demand for the Happy Meal with the free Minion toy series. Is this a coincident or merely another effective marketing strategy?

We can analyse this emerging phenomena by applying the diffusion and adoption process of consumer (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2010). McDonald's has increases the adoption process of their newly launched toy series for the Happy Meal, embarking on the opportunity from the highly publicised movie, Despicable Me 2. How they did it? Let's look at the possible elements of consumer diffusion process being managed by the world's most popular fast food brand:

1. The Innovation
As usual, the toys that comes with Happy Meal will have playable special features or movements. This would different the toys with other retail version of the toys by major producers.

2. Channel of Communications

At the introductory stage of the new Happy Meal toys series, McDonald's has been shouting about their offerings using integrated channels such as mass advertisement and on social network. This helps to create awareness and building up the momentum of buying even before the commencement of sales; especially triggering the needs to possess, not just satisfying physiological needs, but social needs, self-esteem and self-actualisation (Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

3. Social System

With the current social system, many consumers are influence by the need of possession (materialism personality traits). Hence, a toy in Happy Meal has always been promoted to the parents with children where they not just get to eat and drink, but to play! This become a norm to many as an value added consumption process, especially when the Minions are Free! Well, not just children who likes free toys, but all ages, that's our social system here.

4. Time

The prolong time of releasing the Minions with various models in batches build up the demand from extensive Word-of-Mouth, especially when news and on social media started to cover this craze for Minions.

Of course there are many different views on this marketing phenomena, and the above is just one of my very personal view. Let's wait until the next Tsunami of Happy Meal next time, we shall learn more!

Cheers!