The Marketing Peg

In my promotional management class, I was taught that there are 3 types of ads which will attract attention. Three things that attract people's attention 1) Babies 2) Animals 3) Sex Simple but true right? Remember the last time you saw an advertisement with a baby featured in it? Let me give you an example. A classic ad which uses babies. This ad was from Parmalat milk. Their campaign's slogan was - "Because we're mammals". http://www.ciadvertising.org/sa/spring_03/382J/grace/milk_page_nizan.htm Aren't they cuteeeeee? I especially like the panda baby. Maximum cuteness!! Yea, so, babies. Babies attract attention ;) Next, we'll move on to animals! Animals are always cute aren't they? Imagine an ad with this cute lil' hamster. awwwww..... got this pic from google. link: http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb255/fhat1/hamster.jpg Actually, I did see an ad recently with a hamster. Can't find it now though, but no worries! I found another ad with a h...

Ever seen a commercial which makes you cringe? No? Well, then feast your eyes upon these two videos by Allswell. It's a local made advertisement, which is grossly Singaporean. Not that being Singaporean is bad... No, I definitely don't mean that. But the execution could have been much much better. Having the Singaporean accent is fine (I think), but the actors also looked like this was their first advertisement ever. Maybe that's Allswell's strategy when they made this commercial. They want people to cringe so that they will talk about it. Well, if that's the case, I think they have succeeded. Haha. But if their strategy was to go all out so that the locals can relate to it... then I'm sorry... it just made my goose pimples pop. I first chanced upon the first advertisement on TV mobile. My first thoughts were: "no taste". "cheap ad". Definitely not speaking to my generation. The "auntie" generation perhaps. Then when I saw the secon...

Recently, or maybe not that recent, I've noticed that there has been an influx of blogshops. For the unsure, blogshops are just like any other shop, selling just about anything, just that it is set up online. Being an avid shopper, as well as one who spends time on the internet often, I have seen myself succumb to buying from blogshops. Many a time, my purchases are sweeeeet! I've not met any dead sellers or had any trouble with getting my items. But don't get me wrong... I still shop at retail shops. In fact, I love both :) Blog shops are fun to scroll through when I just don't have the time to step out (when exams are round the corner). Apart from being a buyer from online shops, I have also tried selling stuff by setting up my own blog shop. It didn't go so well though. Naturally, I prefer buying to selling stuff. Those who buy from blogshops, you may think that it is easy work, but it is a hell lot of work for the sellers. They have to choose the supplies from ...

Spotted this ad in Her World magazine recently. Grammatical errors get to me. So when I saw the copy for this, I couldn't help but put this up. "You can't missed it"?? Shouldn't it be: "You can't miss it" instead OR "You couldn't have missed it"? Find it strange that they even published something like this. I mean, people are not perfect, and everyone has made his/her grammatical mistakes before. But the fact that you're going to publish this as an ad, shouldn't someone have checked it? Also, the copy is only a one liner, not like you could have missed the error. Odd. Unless some of you think otherwise--that it isn't a grammatical error. Then you'll have to explain why. Cos I see it... I see it very clearly. It's a mistake there. We can see that Perrier is/was the sponsor for the Her World golf challenge. Didn't the magazine people vet it? Really baffles me. *shrugs* This post is not meant to put any company or a...

These are real life examples in Singapore. Of cos, some people may beg to differ, but nonetheless, just some opinions of mine so that others can probably create better and more sensible ads =) P.S. This is of no offense to any of the sponsors/companies/advertising agencies or anyone who created the ads below. L'Oreal UV perfect This is how the overall ad looks like in a female magazine Notice this part of the ad. The copy says "30 years old without UV care" for the left one and the one on the right says "30 years old with UV care" You probably can't see if from the pic, but they did use DI to create a difference. Yea, I know that most (or can I say all?) ads use digital imaging, but do you have to make it so obvious? By using the same person and depending on DI to convince consumers, I don't think it really works. In fact... the ad probably will look better without this section. Kellogg's - Special K Saw this ad at the bus stop. So what does this m...

We all know that localization is important. Because it will be more relevant to the people looking at the ad. You can even see that from online marketing. For example, I signed up for Yahoo! email using yahoo.com instead of yahoo.com.sg, just because I thought the "sg" didn't look as cool. However, the ads that I got were all related to the US, which I learnt how to ignore in time. The good news it: recently, I was given the choice to change the ads to Singapore based ones, which were definitely better and more interesting. We've also seen the localization of musicals, which I have written about in another blog. The example was a personal experience of mine while watching the musical "We Will Rock You", where parts of the actors' scripts were changed to suit the Singapore culture. Evidence of localization in "We will Rock You" - adapted from pegpeg.wordpress.com 1. When the lead “accidentally” knocked into one of the audience down stage, he sa...

Interning at a prestigious FMCG really is an eye-opener and made me understand more about the marketing obligations and activities of marketing in Singapore. (I'm actually referring more to those who are working for huge MNCs with the headquarters situated in a country with 4 seasons). "Obligations" is the word used because marketers in Singapore... well... don't really have a lot of say in the marketing mix. For non-marketers, marketing mix means the 4Ps which equate to Product, Price, Promotion and Place. We are mostly told what to do... in a way.. I'll explain. Product I've learned, that when working with a large MNC, there are regulations and guidelines which have to be (strictly?) adhered to. Let's talk about the first P - Product. The headquarters (let's just assume that this is the US for convenience sake) sends you the product that they have come up with - the product is not fully developed yet, of course. Excellent, you get to try it out and g...

I'm sure few have heard the brand Li Ning, especially those in Singapore. But it seems to be a whole different scenario all across the ocean in China. In China, Li Ning is a well known sports brand which is similar to the likes of Nike and Adidas. Ask any Chinese teenager if they know Li Ning, and few would shake their heads. It was initially set up by the famous Chinese gymnast Li Ning, and this sports brand is endorsed by Damon Jones and Shaq O'Neille from NBA. Li Ning, however, is not exactly very globalized yet (judging from the fact that few have heard of it's name here). I was tasked with this project to research on Li Ning a few months ago, and these are some interesting things I discovered. Firstly, the Li Ning logo looks like this the not so famous (yet) Li Ning squirrel tail Now, just compare the above... to this the already very famous Nike swoosh Notice the similarity? Now, on to the slogan... Li Ning's slogan is Anything is Possible and another famous spor...

*spoiler alert* Watched Sex in the City with my boyfriend recently, and I came out totally feeling happy and thinking hard after the show. If you haven't watched it, YOU MUST WATCH IT!! It's one of the best movies EVER. =) 5 stars by me. Happy, because after watching 6 seasons of the drama on DVD I finally get to see Carrie marry Mr Big (this is not exactly a spoiler because it's been over advertised in its various trailers anyway ;p). And there were many happy endings in the movie as well related to the other 3 girls which I also love. Samantha became her cool single self, Miranda made up with Steve and Charlotte had a beautiful baby girl :) However, this movie also got my thinking real hard. I mean like these 4 girls are really tight... and I mean.. R E A L L Y... TIGHT. They can talk about anything in the world, and their friends will accept the fact. I mean, yea, they do fight and get angry with one another, but after some apology, the matter will just blow over and the...

There has always been talks about how fishermen leverage on the huge market for the consumption of sharks' fins and throw the dying shark back to the water after snipping off their fins, aka "live-finning". In JC, I've even watched a documentary endorsed by our very own Stephanie Sun (Sun Yan Zi) about the harm that this is causing on those sharks and other marine life. All these news left me a bit apprehensive and I even swore to lay off shark's fin. However, a few years ago, I remember hearing from my mum, after she had read an article on the Straits Times that we can eat shark's fin without guilt . An excerpt below: However, these sensational pictures obscure the fact that many within the industry are against such practices. The vast majority of fins in the market are taken from sharks after their death. This is the preliminary finding of a review made with the assistance of shark experts, fishermen, captains of big fishi...

I think some of you have already seen the video of the Raffles Place Ghost being uploaded to youtube (with more than 260,000 views to date). If you haven't seen it yet, you can view it below. Many who've viewed the video were very curious on the authenticity of it. Below are some comments of those who kinda believed the footage: who ever post this video, do tell me which area is this..i mean which area of the building is this.. gosh. i had a rude shock. not sure if this is real but it is very scary. raffles place can get quite eerie at night especially when it is very quiet. seems real leh... to me at least. coz maybe i heard alot of scary office ghost stories before. i don't know whether this is real or not lah, but i heard alot of stories from my mum about how during world war 2, a bomb was dropped at raffles place and alot of people died during the war... i don't want to work there!!! :[ And then there are skeptics who doubted the authenticity of the video: there...

Apple appears to have ditched its one-carrier policy for the iPhone following a statement announcing that SingTel, Bharti Airtel, Globe Telecom and Optus had signed an agreement with the company to bring the product to Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia, later this year. SingTel would not provide any further details but, rival, StarHub said that in Singapore, the agreement was also not exclusive. "We expect all three operators in Singapore would be offering the iPhone by the end of the year," Michael Sim, corporate communications and investor relations for StarHub said. An M1 spokesperson weighed in saying "it will continue to maintain dialogue with Apple" and that its "interest is more in the upcoming 3G model". Apple would only say that it was "excited to be working with SingTel to bring the iPhone to Singapore later this year". "We can't wait to get this revolutionary phone in the hands of even more people around the worl...

We all know how tough it is to attract consumers' attention amongst all other competing advertisements on the streets today. But this one thing never fails - sex appeal. And HBO Asia has used just that... well, sorta. HBO Asia has launched an advertising campaign, featuring a red brassiere hanging over its bus shelter creatives, for the latest season of Entourage . Around 400 bus shelters will carry the advertisements which feature the cast of Entourage with the slogan, "The Naked Truth of Superstar Life" but only eight will feature the racy brassiere versions. Timmerman & Tan helped with the creative while Mindshare did the media planning. - Marketing Interactive If you wanna catch a glimpse of those racy red bras in action head downtown soon! (my guess is that a couple will be placed in Orchard Road - it only makes sense since it's bustling during the weekends) Campaign ends mid-may. I can't wait to see the reaction of people who pass by those bus shelter...

Caught this movie recently. It's quite an interesting show, depicting the internet generation, and how viral marketing is so efficient these days. It was really gruesome seeing those people die faster when more and more people log on to the killer website. This really kept me thinking, well, in a marketing perspective. I mean, word-of-mouth has always been known to be the most effective form of marketing. And by tapping on to the strength of networks, this means viral marketing . Many companies have tried tapping onto the internet medium to engage its audience and to "spread the word around". An example would be the Dove Evolution youtube video (by just writing this in my blog, and people clicking on the link, it just proves my point on viral marketing/WOM). However, when it came to this video, ethics were should also be taken into account. Even though there were announcements to warn people to stay away from the website, it just kept people curious and wanting to find ou...

With Singapore Movie Fiesta (4th to 8th June, 10am to 10pm, Vivocity) round the corner, everyone is getting into the Superhero mood! I myself have been looking through my old comics on Spiderman. Haha. Also, I've been imagining that if Singapore were to have its own Superhero, what would the character be like? Anyway I came up with my version of Singapore's Superhero. Let the story begin.... :) the HERO... Many perceive Singapore's clean and green image to be the result of its government's wise decisions. But little did they know that it was all a cover-up. It wasn't the "Tree Planting Day" nor the "Keep Singapore Clean" campaign launched some thirty years ago which transformed Singapore. It was all the work of one little girl, a student in fact, who changed the tiny red dot to what it is today. She is none other than.... The Green Lion (aka Kate ). Ever since she ate that caterpillar while gardening one day, her life has totally changed. She...

Something I found in my email a while back which I like to share. Life-size stickers of people were pasted on automatic sliding doors at a mall in Mumbai , India. When someone approaches, the doors move apart and it feels like the people on the door are moving away. The person entering finds the message, 'People move away when you have body odour' . Advertisements for a job-recruiting company in Berlin , Germany depict people working in vending machines and ATMs. It delivers the message, 'Life is too short for the wrong job' . A creative ad by Mini Cooper placed at the Zurich , Switzerland train station, shows people climbing into or out of the car, when they are actually entering or exiting stairs. Singapore should really have some of these awesome ads, don't you think?

Some time back, a friend of mine exclaimed that marketers, public relations and lawyers are basically, well... liars . I guess his stand was that since these people only present the "good" side of things, and not disclose or present the "bad" side, it misleads people and therefore they are lying. Since I am a marketer-to-be myself, I defended his claim and said that we're not liars... we're just making things (positive things, of course) visible for consumers so that they can make better decisions with the options laid out to in front of them. Well, I wouldn't say that marketing, PR and law lie. If I were to put it in another way, then I would say it is manipulation . Haha . Only the positive things are brought to light while the negative things are hidden (or not placed too much emphasis on). Afterall , these people have objectives and clients to serve, and this is probably the way things work. But I do agree that they are all rather manipulative haha...

Please refer to The Manila Times for the whole article. The draft Spam Control Act aims to control the electronic commercial messages sent in bulk by email or to mobile phones, according to the bill seen on Tuesday. It was introduced to parliament on Monday and must undergo further consideration by legislators. Unsolicited messages will have to include an address or number to allow the recipient to unsubscribe and messages must clearly identify themselves as advertisements, the bill says. This bill has been working OK so far with majority of the advertisers whose ads I've received from my mobile phone. ALL... except one. Anyone ever received Spam ads from The Arena??? I figure from its ads that it's a local club of some sort. Where the hell is that place anyway? I've received so many of its ads (the frequency probably that of about 2-3 times a month) and its pissing me off. Yes, it has that advertisement sign at the beginning of its message, but it doesn't allow me to...

There was an interesting question posed in my product and brand management course some time back, and it was on cars - Mercedes Benz to be exact. The question was similar to,"Why is it that even though Mercedes E-class is now used as taxi, but it doesn't seem to affect its positioning as a premium car brand? Also, it seemed to have little effects on its sales... why is this so?" So, naturally, I approached my dear friend chris for some of his opinion. (It's about cars... who's a better person to approach? heh) But first, I would like to say that (this is input from chris) having the E class as a cab in Singapore did affect the sales of it in a way. There are people who bought E classes but changed to other brands, such as BMW, when they realized that it was used as a cab. Also, you do realize that people in Singapore will rarely buy a white E class... because they don't want to be mistaken for a cab :p Anyway, here are some of the points consolidated from Chr...

Changing to this blogskin was a hell lot of work. Seriously! But anyway, I'm glad I managed to get it to work :) The date was the worst of all because even though the creator said to follow his steps and host all images and javascript files (.js), I have no idea how to! Yea, images I'm familiar, but javascript files? How should I do that? The creator himself used googlepages to host his .js files. I created an account but (I don't know if I'm the only one experiencing this), but when I tried editing my page, nothing works. Everything I tried to click just didn't respond. So I googled a little about hosting of .js files and didn't find much help there, but there was a yahoo answer which said that geocities of Y! could be used to host .js files. So, to give it my last shot, I created a geocities account, and IT WORKED! The date finally showed up in my posts! YAY! Anyway, this is what I did: (well, first you have to download the .js file by opening it up with IE - ...

I had my hell week last week with 3 exams which were all marketing modules. Then I thought about how nice it would be if I were back in Copenhagen listening to the Services Marketing teacher speak and only attend an verbal/oral test (aptly called oral defense which lasts for only 20 min). Thinking about him made me remember of his most favourite topic - benchmarking. I remember he always told us that a marketer has to not only know the theories behind marketing, but also how to be creative. Is creativity born or made? Well, to him, it can be trained. How? One way is benchmarking . The norm for benchmarking is to compare yourself to the best there is in the industry. But to him, this is being myopic. His favourite line... " Do what McDonald's does. Mac benchmarks itself against, not KFC, not another fastfood restaurant, but F1 " Yes, Formula 1 . It's a good benchmark if you consider that when it comes to the pit stop, the personnels handling the racing car have to be ...

Was talking to my friend a while back, and he was telling me about this idea of his which could be incorporated into email. You know how we always have the problem of saving stuffs onto thumbdrives (for our presentations, perhaps), and then forgetting to bring that puny thing on the actual day? Or like how we want to save something that can be accessible on any computer? So what most of us (probably students like me) always do, is we send that document to our email, and download it when we need it. Sidetrack a little: You know, I sometimes get curious why people are using gmail and I go around asking them for the reason. You know what they say? Turns out that they use Gmail because of its huge storage space. Hahahahaha. Well, for people who think that way, you guys are totally un-geeky. Yahoo! mail is the one that has unlimited storage space... NOT GMAIL . -.-" And Yahoo! has messenger converged into their email. If you get a new message, it pops up as a new tab! Way cool. And it...

Today during consumer behaviour class, there was a major discussion on the issue of RECYCLING. So why doesn't the government implement recycling in Singapore? Well, here are some of my views, including some of which were raised in class... 1) The awareness of recycling is low. Few understand the importance of it or even realize the benefits that will result from recycling . 2) Knowledge of recycling is low in certain market segments. Those who underwent proper education would probably understand how to separate metals from plastics from paper. But how about the older generation who doesn't know which is which? Even if they have the knowledge, they do not understand the method of recycling. For example, the "paper" segment doesn't mean that one can just throw their used tissue paper in. Also, for "plastics" those containers with food in them should be emptied out before recycling. But consumers do not know these factors involved. 3) Inconvenience. It i...

CSR has definitely become a norm for companies nowadays, as many have touched on, because it helps to build brand equity and enable consumers to have a more positive evaluation on the company. Many companies have "gone green" as a strategy to promote CSR and increase their brand equity. However, it is important to note that companies have to be strategic about "going green". Some companies have taken advantage of the benefits of "going green" in efforts to reverse the adverse effects of bad publicity generated for some prior reason. However, these companies would have to be careful because being labelled as a "greenwasher" is a huge possibility. For those who are in doubt, "greenwashing" is the unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government, a politician or even a non-government organization to create a pro-environmental image, sell a product or a policy, or to try and rehabilitate their standi...

So, all the hype about Microsoft buying Yahoo! has kind of died down somtime ago. However, it seems that both of them are somewhat collaborating and coming up with something veerrryyyy interesting. No kidding: Collaborating I haven't checked my Yahoo email for sometime, and just today, I decided to log in. Then I briefly saw that an ex-colleague (no prizes for guessing which company =D) sent me an email. Excited to see what it was about, I clicked on it. All the excitement died down when I saw that the email was a default email inviting me to visit a certain website (a networking group). I was rolling my eyes and did not click on it. It was until some time later, when I rememebered that a while ago, my other ex-colleague sent me an email inviting me to Yahoo! Mash . Then it made me realize that this website could be another one of Yahoo!'s new products! Then the excitement soared again. Eager to see what new stuff they have come up with, I clicked on the link and it led me to t...

The first and foremost question would be: What are the benefits of marketing to the University community? The answer is simple. Firstly, holding your marketing activities in the University would allow a more specific target market . At least you know the age group and segment of the consumers who are affected by the marketing stimuli within the University. That way, if your product is for the age group which includes undergraduates, it is a more direct approach as compared to mass marketing. Or, if you'd like a even more niched target segment, for example, ladies who are interested in networking, then clubs like NUS 85 Broads Club would be relevant to approach. Having a more targeted segment also means less cost incurred. Instead of mass marketing to the public and competing with other advertisers out there, why not just directly bring the product/company to the school where your target segment can easily comprehend and digest? Apart from marketing, HR has some benefits to gain t...