#CrackinStyle

During the 2013 Super Bowl, Wonderful Pistachios aired its first-ever Big Game Commercial.  The ad stars South Korean pop celebrity, PSY in a parody of his K-Pop hit “Gangnam Style.”  The original video went viral and became an international hit; with almost 1.5 billion views, it is the most watched video on Youtube.

 Considering the amazing influence the Gangnam Style craze has had over the past year on global pop culture, having PSY as an Opinion Leader is great marketing strategy.  It says a lot about the market of potential customers Wonderful Pistachios is targeting.   Wonderful Pistachios is clearly marketing to the Millenials, an audience that is tuned into technology trends and social media (observing customer behavior—not necessarily demographics).  The marketing team is seizing the opportunities of social networking to reach out to an audience that (according to the textbook) actively avoids advertising.  Not only does the ad have a viral internet sensation endorse its product, but it also includes a quirky hashtag to engage the audience for feedback about the ad and the healthy snack.  #CrackinStyle

You can love the Gangnam Style craze or hate it—that is beside the point. The point is that you and a large segment of the world populous recognize it; and when potential customers see Psy in a parody of his own song, dancing with life-sized pistachios, they will come to recognize (and prefer) the Wonderful Pistachio brand too.  Just like the narrator said, “ Psy does it and we all go nuts… Get Crackin!”

Cant Stop Wont Stop

This is a commercial from 1996 about the new Duracell Batterys, in the commercial it shows a family walking up to visit there grandma. they are expecting her to be tired, but end up getting quite a surprise. I chose this commercial because for some reason it has stuck with me through all these years. they came out with a bunch of commercials like this one to promote Duracell. I chose this one because i think they did a good job on premoting the product and they made the target market laugh. even though they didnt appeal to one group of people i still think they did a good job. I think it was a good idea on having the people run on batterys to show how they work better then expected. overall it was a funny commercial that made me remember the duracell brand.

I Am Not a Cow: Why Game Developers Are Getting It Wrong

With next gen consoles getting set for release this year. Shiny new features like: “second screen integration” (allowing other devices like your smart phone or tablet to connect), and a major focus on cloud-related features (for digital streaming ordownloads), may sound really cool… but they also illustrate a big problem that’been creeping into the gaming industry for some time now.  Game developershave no clear direction and they don’t understand their target market.

The market for games is incredibly diverse and can be complex. What one segment wants will be the polar opposite of another segment. Some individual people fall into multiple segments.

GAMERS ARE:

 

All gamers are not equal. And yet game developing companies are failing to recognize this on a fundamental level. The problem has been going on for quite a while now. In 2011, David Wong highlights this fact (among others).  http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-6-most-ominous-trends-in-video-games_p2/ When games sales dropped years ago, developers scrambled find the reason and to bring revenues back up. Some people might argue that piracy and the used game market are cutting into sales. Others would say mobile platforms with their dollar apps are what are killing the industry and that casual gaming is the wave of the future.

I say it’s all symptoms of the same problem. Developers chased one fad after another, not considering two very important things: segmentation and price. To start with, most major games released are overpriced. One huge reason the used game market is booming is that people can’t afford new releases, so they sell their old games at ridiculous markdowns to fund their new purchase. It’s more complicated than simply overpricing the market though.

There are multiple pricing systems and multiple types of games. Some pricing systems work with some types of games, but not others. Because developers have failed to properly segment the market, and clearly define those segments, they’re throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks (and angering their customers in the process). Microtransactions are working with free-to-play mmos and digital games like the stuff produced by Zynga.  Yet it was a PR disaster when they tried to apply that to Bethesda’s single player RPG Oblivion. Expansion packs and downloadable content can work well, when applied to the right game and at the right time. Get either game or timing wrong, and you’ll have major backlash.

People are not happy with having these Frankenstein mashups of both game style and pricing systems shoved down their throats. Yet developers aren’t listening. They’re herding their customers like cattle, convinced the direction they’re forcing them in is best. When in reality developers attempt to move in all directions at once has resulted in no clear direction at all. Next gen consoles with shiny new features won’t save the gaming industry. What they truly need is to take a long hard look at what who their customers are, and what they want… And also what they don’t want.

GAMERS ARE NOT:

I am not a cow. Please don’t treat me like one.

Viral Power: Word Got Out!

            It was hard to make a decision on which T-Mobile commercial I wanted to use because I actually enjoyed all of their my touch commercials.  I chose an older commercial because I wanted to look at the progression of a company from a few years ago and see if they are any increases in sales or if the company was heading in the right direction.  According to an article on twice.com, since the year 2009, which is when this commercial was shot, the company ended the year with its first full-year subscriber- base gain, but had a deeper net lost.

I personally enjoy commercials that endorse athletes, and in my opinion T-Mobile wasn’t competing too well with its counterparts (Sprint, Verizon and AT&T) which was narrowed my decision down to one of their commercials.  Of all the DWade and Chuck commercials, I chose this one with DWade locked in the closet because looking back at this commercial shows the advancement of technology from then to now.  It also shows that if you do or don’t want something known or misconstrued, once it goes viral, it is all over. The commercial depicts him being locked in a closet, and sends a video via phone shouting, “get me out of here!” The video sent to Chuck’s phone hit face book hard, and had fans thinking he wanted a trade.  He then became marketable to fans that wanted him to sign with the Bulls and or the Celtics.  After room service lets him out, she informs him he is on the news, and his confused look was priceless.

I definitely believe the my touch commercials of 2009 endorsing NBA athletes helped-Mobile become more relevant in the cell phone carrier industry.

http://www.twice.com/articletype/financial/t-mobile-usa-posts-more-subs-lower-sales-gain-net-loss/105221