Procter & Gamble's Tidal Wave

Most people these days wash their clothes unless you’ve chosen the path of a mountain man or something like that. Now what do you need to wash clothes? Back in the day washing clothes meant manual labor with something called a washboard, Huck Finn can tell you all about. Thanks to modern technology and a company called Procter & Gamble we now have something called laundry detergent. Detergent revolutionized laundry manual labor was no more, all you had to do was put your clothes in a machine hit the start button and walk away.

Tide was released in 1946 and was billed as the first heavy duty detergent, in 1949 it was released on a national scale. Tide quickly gained market share and was advertised as “Americas wash day favorite.” Tide quickly surpassed its competition and since its inception has maintained a tight grip on the detergent market.

Tide has maintained this tight grip over the detergent market by consistently adapting and innovating its products. Since its initial release Tide has continually added new products to its product line. Currently Tide offers its customers 51 different products ranging from its newest creation pods all the way to on the go stain removing pens. By constantly adding to its product line Tide has managed to stay two steps ahead of the competition. This generates a unique advantage for Tide not only are they the most trusted brand in the market. They are also first to add new products to their line, this leaves the competition scrambling to add a new product. All the while Tide is generating revenue of a product that other companies haven’t even developed yet.

This leg up on the competition grants the Tide brand a little bit of breathing room. You’d think management would take a vacation after all they are the number detergent brand. According to Statista.com Tide had sales of $1,195,000,000 in 2014 alone. The market runner up is gain detergent brand with only $545,900 in sales, Tide sales are nearly double the competitions. This kind of industry dominance is especially rare in the household good market where competition is generally very fierce.

Even with this level of dominance Tide and its management team are not letting up anytime soon. Another key to Tide’s continued success is its relentless advertising campaigns. In 2014 tide spent $142 million on advertising, that’s a lotta cash just to spend on advertising a detergent brand. So far the strategy has been working for Tide since it was first introduced to the public it has only grown in size and market share. 

The Roaming Gnome

When I write the word gnome two things come to mind for the average person. Number one is lawn gnomes the outdated and slightly creepy lawn decoration that all baby boomers seem to own. Second and more importantly is this guy. For those of you who don’t watch television that is the Travelocity roaming gnome. This gnome has been a staple in Travelocity’s commercials and have garnered the travel planning website a good deal of attention in past years.

It’s no doubt that the gnome campaign is successful, but I found myself asking why a lawn gnome? Of all the mascots for the campaign why did Travelocity pick something as obscure as a lawn gnome? After some googling and a few cups of coffee I discovered the origin of the roaming. According to various sources on the internet (Wikipedia) the roaming gnome supposedly started as a prank. The first recorded instance of this prank was found in the Sydney Morning Herald in September of 1986. The story goes that someone stole a gnome from a woman’s front lawn and left behind a cheeky note about being lonely and going off to see the world. The thief of the gnome sent it around the world and had friends take photographs of it at various famous landmarks. The gnome was eventually returned and since then the practical joke has been practiced by many others.

So the gnome idea does make sense, originally the gnome campaign was based around photos and videos of the gnome in various places around the world. These photo and video campaigns were featured on television, online, and on outdoor ads. These ads were pretty good and got customers to use Travelocity to plan their vacations and trips. However the campaign really took off when Travelocity incorporated social media into the marketing mix. In the winter of 2010 Travelocity rolled out ads that urged consumers to travel and get away during the winter. They incorporated Facebook and twitter into these ads and asked people to vote on what destination the gnome should travel too. Once the voting ended the gnome would go to said destination take photos and tweet about its time there. The great part about this campaign is that it got consumers to interact with the brand, this interaction helps to build trust between the two parties. Trust is vital to any company’s success and without a company will undoubtedly falter. The Travelocity roaming gnome campaign did an excellent job of building trust between the consumer and the company, and other companies should take note of their success. 

Crash and Burn of Amazon's Fire Phone

The Amazon Fire phone is a prime example of a company having good intentions but a ultimately a bad idea. Amazon released the Fire smart phone on July, 25 2014 it was priced at $199 and was poised to compete with Apple and Samsung smartphones. The specifications of the phone were up to par with the market. The Fire phone sports a 4.7 inch display with a resolution of 720 pixels by 1080 pixels, this screen size puts it on par with both the galaxy and iPhone smartphones. In addition to the rest of its specifications were competitive with the market. The phone packs a 2.2 gigahertz processor with four cores just like its competitors. The camera packed an impressive 13 megapixels which put it ahead of the iPhone and on par with the galaxy. It came with two gigabytes of RAM and came in either 32 gigabytes or 64 gigabytes storage configurations.

On paper the Fire phone was a legitimate competitor unfortunately the drawing board is often far different than reality. While the phones specifications were good its apps were not. This was the first and primary issue that users of the fire phone faced. Even the phone used android software it did not use the google app store known as google play. Instead it used Amazon’s propriety app store called Amazon apps. Google did not allow cross platforming between the play store and amazon apps, this meant that Fire phone users had very limited access to apps when the phone was first released. Although developers later stepped in and made more apps for the Amazon store, the damage was already done. Negative reviews regarding app accessibility hurt the Fire’s sales right out of the gate.

On top of all of this Amazon was entering an already highly saturated market. There were already a large number of smart phones and smart phone producers in the market and competition was fierce. In order for a new smart phone to stand out in the market it needs something that the competition doesn’t have. Unfortunately for the Fire phone it had what the competition had already, in other words it wasn’t it wasn’t anything special. The Fire phone lacked a definitive “it factor” that would distinguish it from the competition, it lacked any competitive advantage. In order to offset this problem Amazon attempted to undercut competitors pricing by setting the phones price at $199. Unfortunately for Amazon this tactic didn’t work and now the Fire phones are stacked up in warehouses around the country waiting to be recycled. 

Blood Lust for True Blood

True Blood is an HBO T.V. show that has garnered enormous success since its inception. Part of the reason why True Blood is so successful is and was because of its marketing campaign. I say was because the initial marketing campaign for the show was brilliant to say the least; it drew viewers in and built an aura of mystery around the show. I say is because the marketing campaign is still on going, and the makers of the show actively work with the viewers who contribute to the show.

The initial marketing campaign focused around advertisements for a drink called True Blood. The advertisements themselves were convoluted and in my opinion looked like advertisements for alcoholic beverages. In addition to this the advertisements had “vampire” under tones. The success of the campaign is largely due in part to the fact the viewers of the ads had no idea what they were looking at. The landing page for the online ads lead to a website that contained a tentative release date and virtually no info on the True Blood drink. The ads were released a few months before the show was supposed to air, this was crucial to the campaigns success. The mysterious ads drummed up consumer attention and created a buzz on the internet. Everywhere on the internet was filled with users asking questions about True Blood, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites were inundated with questions. Some people even made a forum specifically for True Blood before it was even released just to try and figure out what is was.

 

After months of agonizing waiting and speculation HBO finally stepped out into the day light and admitted they were responsible for the advertisements. They launched a more traditional advertising campaign and let the fans know that this was in fact a show about vampires. They sent Alan Ball who was a driving force behind the show to Comic-Con so that he could discuss the show with fans and drum up additional attention.

True Bloods success is also due in part to its ongoing efforts to involve fans in the creative process. They reached out to fans and the fans reached out back to them and created an elaborate back story and universe for the show. Fans created blogs and forums to keep track of what was going on in the show and what each character was doing. By allowing the viewers to help with the creative process HBO was able accomplish two things. First they were able to give viewers what they truly wanted, writers and executives listened to the viewers comments and based the show around their feedback. Secondly they were able to create a community based around the show. Loyal viewers who created content for the show obviously kept coming back to the show and without a doubt shared their content with friends and on social media. The True Blood marketing campaign was a truly innovative idea and the employees at HBO should give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done.  

Hello World

Hello and welcome to my new blog The 411 on Marketing 411. My name is Paul Erlic and I am senior at the University of Tampa; I plan on graduating with a degree in marketing which will hopefully lead to some gainful employment. The purpose of this blog is to share my thoughts on real world marketing situations and more importantly to receive feedback on my thoughts. Marketing has always captured my attention and from a very young age I was trying to sell anyone anything. The only problem I had was that I couldn't figure out the best way to do it. As I got older I learned more about advertising and its relationship to selling, as I dove deeper I learned more about advertisers and eventually marketers. The more I learned the more I was intrigued the topics were endless and full of content and real world examples, consumer behavior, branding strategy, market research, the list goes on. So I decided I wanted to go into marketing and changed my major from undecided to marketing. Given the fact that this blog is about marketing and not me I give you my marketing topic.

The Lexus hoverboard, for those of you that are too lazy to watch it, i'll give a brief synopsis of the video. The video is shot a skatepark and you guessed the main character is the hoverboard. The board is self extremely good looking, the metal and carbon fiber construction of the base is paired perfectly with a bamboo deck. The cinematography is top notch and the video is set to upbeat modern music that helps to convey a futuristic mood and attitude. My favorite part of the video is where they get a Back to the Future style shot of the board and its rider gliding seamlessly over a pool of water. Towards the end of the video the camera pans out and shows the board and the rider going down a ramp with a gap in the center. Out of that gap comes a brand new blue lexus and just as the car is going through the gap the the board and the rider jump right over the car and land on the adjacent ramp. The video ends and cuts to the Lexus logo and its tagline for the campaign "Amazing in Motion." My words don't do the video justice to get the full effect you really need to view it for yourself.

Obviously Lexus isn't going to commercially produce hoverboards although it would be pretty cool of them. Lexus is using the hoverboard as a promotional vehicle for their cars, and they are doing a superb job at it. In addition to the initial video Lexus released other videos that explain the story behind the board. These videos allow potential customers to get an inside view of Lexus and serve to build trust with consumers. These videos also show case Lexus's talent and dedication to design and aesthetics which is something that the company prides itself on. Lastly the videos add a sense of personality to Lexus customers can connect with the people that worked on the board; and the next time they see a Lexus add they can match a face to the company.