Barbie, breaking family stereotypes

It was a sunny and warm evening and I was sitting next to my girlfriend enjoying a cold beer at a bench facing the Thames river. We were commenting about a marketing stunt of a household cleaning brand showing parents taking care of the house. We found as a big step forward the brand portraying men as an active character of the commercial. 

After taking a sip of my beer and inspired by the discussion, I realised a funny fact, why are many of the largest consumer good firms across the world still promoting their products only to mothers and why dads aren't playing a primary role as part of firms' advertisements? 

Honestly speaking, many large firms are completely neglecting the current state of society. Families are moving from patriarcal structures where men are the breadwinners towards more egalitarians ones where men and women share parental responsibilities. Stereotypical commercials show a clear disengagement between marketers and the inherent values, attitudes and beliefs of the people they serve. Depressed by the gloomy horizon I decided to drain my beer in one go.

A few days after and still not fully recovered of my heartache, I was checking a marketing website where I found the new commercial “Dads who play with Barbie” ads (find commercial below) which shows dads playing Barbie with their daughters at home. My first reaction was to laugh, however, I quickly realised that I was falling into stereotypes.

Barbie’s commercial is a superb response to the advertisers’ challenge I highlighted above. From my perspective, this ad stands for the values of the so called modern families.  These are families where mothers are encouraged to work and fathers to spend more time at home with their children. Furthermore,  the key priority for them is to spend quality time with their kids. 

This new family reality also translates to the way parents purchase toys and play with their children. Parents are keen to purchase more gender neutral toys, moreover, they are eager to engage on “real play” time where they get fully immersed into the imaginary world of their kids and play a role in their kids’ magical world where everything is possible. 

Barbie has done a tremendous job adapting to the needs, values and role models of modern families through its products. In the early 90s girls played with Barbies that were housewives and had to undertake the stereotypical housekeeping activities to Barbies becoming veterinarians, doctors, professors and even astronauts (see image below).

The brilliant “Dads who play with Barbie” ads mentioned above is part of  'You can be anything' marketing campaign. This marketing stunt has a higher purpose behind it, from the one hand it inspires girls to be anything they want to and from the other hand it incentivises parents to spend time in their kids' imaginary world which is an investment in their real world. This campaign is not only full of purpose but it has achieved great financial results growing the brand by 7% value growth making of Barbie an almost 1 billion dollars brand.

Barbie is a fantastic example of a brand with purpose, that looks beyond stereotypes and puts the people it serves first.

The unconventional Christmas gift

It’s the weekend before Christmas and I’m walking down Regent Street with my girlfriend. The Christmas lights are superb and the holiday spirit is up in the air. 

I find myself in the middle of an unusual enterprise, I’m searching for a smart watch for my mum. She insisted that for Christmas she wanted one. Initially, I found this as an unusual request. However, it made me question myself why was she interested in using this gadget? how are firms targeting mainstream consumers such as my mum to buy wearable tech? on what stage of the product innovation cycle smart watches are? and what are the challenges and opportunities for smartwatches?

I crossed a busy street corner and I stumbled upon Michael Kors store. The brand was displaying at the shop window its new “Access” smart watch collection (please see commercial below). The gadget seamlessly fuses fashion and technology and is equipped with basic functions such as multiple animated display faces, fitness tracking, text, vocal messages and email alerts. 

Michael Kors did an outstanding job bridging the gap between tech and fashion with its advertisement. The brand exhibits its target consumer which is a cosmopolitan and active woman who has an eye for design and is "always on", she wants to state to the world her personality through the mix of tech and fashion. 

Wearable devices such as smart watches are bringing fashion into new heights. It allows brands to meet consumers’ growing demand for personalisation and a fluid lifestyle. More and more, people are seeking for versatile products that can easily adapt to whatever the day presents.

Fascinated by the Michael Kors shop window I entered the store, however, I was disappointed on how products were exposed. Smart watches were shown on an unembellished display that made the product range look cheap (circa £230 - £260). I asked the saleswoman to show me the watch but they were out of battery. Completely disenchanted with the poor shopping experience I left the shop.

Now let's set my incident aside and jump into the juicy stuff. To understand the evolution and probabilities of success of smartwatches we need to explore the product innovation cycle theory.

Based on my thoughts and conversations with friends and family, I can say that only innovators and early adopters own smartwatches. These segments are primarily concerned with the underlying technology behind and its performance (Norman D. 1998). Nowadays, the biggest challenge producers have is to make technology good enough so the chasm between early adopters and the rest is crossed (refer to the smartwatch innovation cycle below). Michael Kors example shows how firms are using fashion as an enabler that might allow this transition.

Research shows that the product adoption process has been slower than expected because consumers recognise on this gadget a lack of distinct capabilities such as high-speed wireless and standalone apps (Smartwatch report, Business Insider, September 2016). 

If producers are able to add new functionalities, increase capabilities and permit smart watches to run independently from phones the probabilities to hook mainstream consumers will be much higher.

Let’s wait and see how brands will overcome this challenging task. Meanwhile, a beautiful and unconventional Santa Claus figure is sitting under the Christmas tree waiting to be unwrapped by my mother.

The Magical World of Airports

It was a late Thursday evening, I was at Amsterdam Schiphol airport waiting for my flight to depart to London. The flight got delayed, very unusual news for low-cost airlines. To gain some time, I decided to explore the shops inside the terminal.

I was amazed with the massive flow of people from all over the world and how airports represented a fantastic opportunity for brands to consolidate as global players. Furthermore, having a captive market that is eager to buy gifts for their love ones allows brands to engage with consumers in a deeper and more meaningful way.

Channel’s new N°5 L’EAUN pop-up shop (picture below) was the first store that grabbed my attention. The stall was located in a high footfall area. The fine and exquisite smell of the perfume pushed me inside the store. The face of the new campaign is Lily Rose Deep, she is an up-and-coming actress that embodies her generation and its values of freedom and boldness to perfection. 

Lily’s youthful image helps the brand to modernised and transform it’s heritage into a contemporary and fresh brand (to watch Neu Channel N5 commercial click here). The salesperson showed me samples of the different essences that goes inside the perfume and offered me to purchase the fragrance in two different sizes, these are 35ml (60 eur) and and 50ml (around 80 eur).

After leaving Channel pop-up shop, I jumped to Johnny Walker boutique. The store makes a wonderful job to immerse you into its brand history. I was astonished by the limited edition whiskeys which designs got inspired by iconic elements from the period each bottle has been created. The store is a true “brand equity booster”, its premium design anchors Johnny Walker in consumers mind as a high-ended brand.

I visited other stores but I couldn’t find any juicy story. It was late and I was tired of waiting for my flight, so I decided to go for a coffee to Starbucks. To my great surprise, the coffee brand was offering a service called “Starbucks Evenings”. The Evenings menu begins at 4pm and it includes an assortment of wines, crafted beers such as the new Espresso Cloud TMA  and various small plates, salads, flat breads and other many options.

While sipping my coffee, I started analysis why Starbucks introduced this new service. This menu extension will help the firm to increase the amount of visitors during the less busy periods of the day, furthermore, it will permit the brand to attract a larger audience (people that want to enjoy a salty and more elaborated evening snack & drinks). Moreover, wine and coffee have certain similarities that the brand will leverage on such as the growing access to both good coffee and wines and knowledge about both drinks has proliferated. 

Will Starbucks try to become the next wine “sommelier” brand? is the company piloting this service to subsequently introduce a new breed of stores? is it a way for Starbuck to get further penetration in the European market where evening snacking is so important? or can it be that the brand is as well premiumising its offering to charge a higher price to clients?

Oy! I lost track of time and it’s already time to board my flight! I grabbed my luggage and ran to the gate. What a flabbergasting experience has been exploring the magical world of airports!

Magnum – consistently cracking ice cream moments!

Magnum is one of the most well-known ice cream brands in the world. For more than 25 years it has tantalised the taste buds of fans around the world. 

This blog post will immerse you into the brand origins, the deep consumer insight behind Magnum and how it consistently taps into this insight with its marketing campaigns. This is the story of a brand that moved from being a simple stick to become a symbol of everyday pleasure. 

Magnum was created by Unilever in 1989 in cooperation with the Callebeut a famous Belgian couverture chocolate producer. Both companies came out with a premium ice cream that had the perfect balance of the highest quality chocolate and ice cream pleasure. It was the first hand-held ice cream specially developed for adults. Originally, Magnum was launched under the German Nogger brand. After a few years it transitioned into a stand-alone-brand. 

Magnum aims to attract “pleasure seekers” these are people that are looking for pleasure in their day-to-day. Nowadays, people have busy days full of activities and responsibilities, they don’t have time for themselves. Hereafter, people have the need to unleash their true pleasure and reward themselves. Magnum entice consumers to look for more moments of personal pleasure. This consumer insight travels all over the world and makes of Magnum a popular brand worldwide.

Magnum’s global expansion started in the mid-nineties with its introduction to the US market. The brand positioned itself as an ice cream for adults targeting people with witty & sexual oriented commercials (give a look below to Magnum’s most emblematic ad in the US during the 1980s).

After a successful introduction into the US market, the brand initiated its global expansion with the introduction of Magnum “Seven Deadly sins” ice cream collection (2003). The great success of this marketing stunt paved the way for the brand to launch other famous campaign which consistently built on Magnum’s brand image such as the beautiful “Five Kisses” campaign (2013), “Magnum Silver” celebrating the brand’s 25th anniversary (2014), “Magnum Pink & Black” (2015) and this year “Magnum double” that dares pleasure seekers to release their inner beast by opting for an even more indulgent ice cream experience. 

In 2013 the brand introduced the Magnum Pleasure stores, this is a pop up concept to bring the ultimate indulgent experience to people and give them the opportunity to decorate their Magnum. 

Magnum campaigns mentioned above allowed the brand to position as a trendy and premium ice cream manufacturer. Brand consistency through time has been a key pillar of Magnum success, nowadays, people associate Magnum with much more than an simple ice cream stick,  it enables people to find occasions during their day to let their true pleasure go.

Guteng morgen Austria!

Ahhh, Vienna and Salzburg…world-wide renowned cities by their stunning architecture, imperial traditions, unique coffee houses and delicious Sacher-torte! These fantastic cities at the heart of Austria completely gobsmacks me not only by their cultural wealth, thus by the creative marketing displays and brand extensions seen while exploring both metropolises. Nonetheless, it shocked me the brilliant coexistence between centuries-old brands and the new ones. This is the core essence of such a beguiling and enchanted country that everyone should visit. In this blog post I’ll take you for a walk around Austria, but seen through a marketer’s eyes. Hope you all enjoy the ride as much as I did!

After having dinner with family close to the Austrian parliament, I discovered a very clever bus-stop advertisement made by Nespresso. The “All U need is Milk” campaign sought to promote the Umilk machine and the Aeroccino functionality. The latter prepares a divine milk froth, which is a perfect complement for your morning caffé lattes. Nespresso’s thorough understanding of consumer needs played a fundamental role in the process of developing and launching such an innovative and valuable coffee machine into the market.

"All U Need is Milk" creative bus-stop display. Vienna, Austria

RedBull Collection shopping window. Salzburg, Austria

After visiting Vienna we took a train to Salzburg. As soon I stepped foot in the “Salt Fortress”, (i.e. name given to the city centuries ago due to its massive salt mines) I visited the RedBull store in Getreidegasse St. The shop is divided into two ambiences. The typical Red Bull extreme sports lifestyle apparel area and the Red Bull Collection domain. The second one really caught my eye. This section has been devoted to smart casual clothing, targeted mainly to young and urban adults with an irreverent and rebellious lifestyle. These people are looking for an unorthodox brand that makes them feel like there’s no tomorrow (i.e. carpe diem) and that every day should be lived as it was your last one. Hats off to Redbull, this is such a brilliant way to stretch the brand and connect meaningfully with its target audience. If you fancy watching the amazing Red Bull clothing collection ads just click here.

The famous Sachertorte. Salzburg, Austria

Vienna and Salzburg are cities brimming with history and part of this history has been written out by the Sacher Hotel. It was founded in 1876 by Franz Sacher, confectioner that invented, whilst doing his apprenticeship at the royal palace, the world-famous chocolate cake, Sachertorte. The Sacher Group produces more than 360,000 pieces every year by hand. You can buy a torte in its online store or physical shops. The cake is wrapped up with a minimalistic wooden-box, that makes the cake stand out.

Range of chocolate spoons. Winter Market, Vienna

Franz Sacher’s chocolate cake legacy has a true impact in the way the hotel chain is driven. Hotel toiletries are made from cocoa and you can even receive a chocolate-base massage in the spa! All marketing cues are related to having a moment of self-indulgence and enjoyment. In contrast to this long lasting enterprise, I discovered in a Viennese Christmas Market a brand that sells a range of innovative hot chocolate spoons. The company offers heaps of alcoholic and non-alcoholic spoon combinations. This creative business idea in new markets could open a window of opportunity!

Which is the Best Social Network Platform? “Benditos Bares"

In the last month, I’ve followed the latest Coca Cola Iberia communication campaign called "Benditos Bares". The firm contrives the campaign to connect meaningfully with the Spanish market and boost bars economic activity, why’s that? Because for Spaniards bars are a cultural symbol, it’s part of their lifestyle and of their identity. This cultural linkage is so strong that in towns and villages the only place to gather and socialize with people it’s at the bar. So, imagine the relevance of this place for Spaniards!

An investigation developed by Quota Research concluded that Spanish people frequently visit bars, 45% do it during the weekend and 37% between 2-3 times per week. Further research from Coca Cola aroused than 84% of the population associate bars with moments of happiness and joy and 44% of the sample said that they met in a bar their best friend or couple!

These findings are fully aligned with Coca Cola’s strategy based on inspiring moments of optimism and happiness. A study organized by the brand highlights the fact that the economic downswing has caused the closure of more than 50.000 venues. Because of this and many other factors such as the continued weak consumer confidence and aggressive competitive pricing Coca Cola Iberia decreased it sales in 1%(2012). In lieu of the accelerated growth lived during the period of 2009 till 2011. Therefore, the negative economic outlook is an important reason behind launching such a vast marketing initiative. 

The brand availed all this to make use of it for the “Benditos Bares” campaign. The budget for the marketing stunt is greater than €10 million ($13M; £9M) and it aims to exhort consumers to visit bars with friends, bolster their sense of belonging and foster consumption. The summer campaign (May-Sept) has been divided in two phases, the awareness stage and the call to action one. The former communicates with consumers in an emotional level exalting bars’ relevancy as a social centre. Also, it will be rolled out during the entire summer. The latter conceived San Bar-Tolo’s Day (29^th June), were every Spaniard had to stop with friends at a bar to have at least a Coke.

1st Ads - "Bars as social centre"

  2nd Ads - "Let's support our bars!"

 

The soft drinks company is carrying out an Integral Marketing Campaign mingling above the line and below the line communication channels such as TV, radio, billboards in metro stations, San Bar-Tolo’s Day sales promotions (e.g. every Coke in a bar was sold for €1 instead of the average price of €2 and as a reward participants received a red bow tie and free tapas). Moreover, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are playing a major role in this campaign. 

During SanBar-Tolo’s Day, Coca Cola encouraged people to share through the hashtag #BenditosBares their cheerful moments spent with friends in a bar. To keep up going the online conversation Coca Cola used key influencers to chatter about the event such as Nena Daconte, David Bustamante, Sevilla Football Club, Hugo Pierna and many other public figures. 

Hitherto we don’t have enough information yet to evaluate the overall performance of the campaign. But, consumers’ engagement through Social Media during the day of the event can give us a good hint of how successful the campaign was it. Coca Cola’s hashtag #BenditosBares cast off an engagement 6.3*¹ ratio. To put it in context, I compare it with the latest Redbull’s event hashtag #Xfighters which throw off a 5.7 ratio. It should be highlighted that social media interaction with both events was massive! But it surprised me that RedBull got twice as much hashtags than Coca Cola. But on the other hand, Coca Cola received more visual content and retweets than RedBull. This shows that the depth and loyalty of Coca Cola’s consumers is much higher. 

From my point of view Coca Cola once again develop a brilliant campaign. Why? Because the brand remains aligned with its business strategy, it was locally relevant and finally but not less important it conveyed a very emotional message that will help them to build stronger bounds with its customers and connect deeper with its consumers.

*¹ Engagement ratio formula: 

E.R= (# of hashtags + # tweets + # retweets + # favourites + # Multimedia content) / #Followers

 

Loewe goes back to its Roots

Some weeks ago, I was walking through Serrano Street, Madrid’s most luxurious shopping area. During my walk Loewe’s spring collection piqued my interest.  The Madrilenian purveyor of luxury leather goods did an outstanding job through its global campaign, displaying its Spanish heritage and more than 168 years in business. Within this article I’ll delve into a study of Loewe’s strategy, its campaign’s implementation and I’ll write about the importance of heritage branding and how it affects consumers’ purchase decision processes. 

Loewe is different from the rest because of its long lasting tradition and expertise producing the best leatherwear articles. The prestige brand stands for a type of elegance without ostentation. Its core values are being proud of our traditions and to be free and do what we please. Moreover, its consumers also stand up for these values. This psychographic segmentation allows the brand to deeply connect with its target market. The brand objective in the upcoming years is to keep up increasing sales, raise awareness among consumers and to open new stores in different countries around the globe. Mostly, in the Asian market. 

The brand did a superb job translating its business strategy into market implementation at the point of sale and within its communication campaign. The former is an immersing experience into the Spanish and Madrilenians’ lifestyle. The store’s shop windows expose images reinforcing the artisanal work behind each product. Some pieces are inspired on traditional Spanish footwear, accessories and clothing such as “alpargatas”, fans and “shawls”. On the other hand, Loewe aims to target generation Y (i.e. 70’s and 80’s), it focused most of its communication efforts in a digital campaign using tools such as social media platforms, its webpage, and live stream events. The advertising face and brand ambassador of the campaign is Penélope Cruz. Loewe’s marketers said that she fits perfectly with the brand because, nowadays, she is the most famous woman and personality in Spain.

 Loewe Spanish heritage campaign makes sense because of the socio-cultural context and the unwavering commitment of the brand to achieve its purpose.  Currently, we live in a world of uncertainty, where consumers more than ever distrust firms and give more importance to aspects such as consistency, quality, craftsmanship, authenticity and familiarity. Embracing these elements allows brands to build a competitive advantage, ameliorate the depth of consumers’ awareness and their perceived value of the brand. This allows firms to set a higher price point for its products/services.

In light of the above, Loewe’s long-lasting history exhibits stability, as well as consistency of its mission, vision and values. The correct bounding of the elements mentioned before permits brand custodians to elaborate a convincing story. This helps the brand to emotionally connect with consumers, enhance trust, build customer loyalty and reputation - in a nutshell it helps building stronger brand equity.  

I’ll like to state the fact that I’m a great believer in brand heritage, which is the connection of a brand to its past (i.e. people, places, and purpose at the beginning). I consider heritage branding as a long-term business objective compass point. Brands’ legacy not only helps identifying firms’ strengths, also it pinpoints previous successes and mistakes and educates us for future decisions. Moreover, through cues and tales marketers can enhance customers and employees admiration and pride for the brand. As discussed, Loewe is a perfect example of this. The Spring Collection shows employees’ understanding of the soul & spirit of the brand and how to interconnect the present with its past.  

To wrap up, I’d like to say that every brand should work in its own storytelling, based in a consistent and unique mission, values and purpose. If a brand does this correctly, it will experience the benefits of heritage branding!