Category Archives: Marketing

Weekend Roulade: Franchising Fiasco

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So I’ve start a topic about franchising using Krispy Kreme as its example. Well, in Indonesia currently Krispy Kreme is facing a tough challenge in the form of a local branded donuts chain store, akin to KK. As a franchise, KK chain stores must sell products that is defined by the main headquarter somewhere in America. However, this strong point of franchising becomes KK main disadvantage in Indonesia.

KK looses to J.Co (the local branded donuts chain store) simply because J.Co modifies the recipe which at first tasted similar to KK donuts. J.Co listens to the customers complains about how its donuts are too sweet and changed the recipe to become less sweet… And what do you know, it works. Now KK chain stores in Indonesia couldn’t follow suit isn’t it? How’s that for franchising becoming the easy money people would hope?

I’ve mentioned also about the difficulties of setting up a franchise, especially about location. I ate at Burger King this afternoon, and really wonders about why oh why Burger King closed down so many years ago… Apparently there are lots of people eating there, and I don’t see a reason why they left, considering this must be a franchise, thus taste will not differ that drastically in just a short time. So this short minded brain of mine started to theorize a bit.

Burger King chain stores in Jakarta are available in the best, most glamour shopping place around, the Senayan City and Grand Indonesia. How about back then? Well, back then Burger King was available at Kelapa Gading Mall… Not the most glamorous place then or even now as a matter of fact. So does desirability location affect Burger King so bad it just went out so many years ago? Perhaps, but I need to delve in further with the many resource I have.

Oh about marketers go to hell thing… I really mean it.

Next week! Super Salesman, is there such a thing? Actually it has to do with my recent visit to a Suzuki dealership. With such a keen intention writing about how good Suzuki products nowadays, I was really surprised when I visited one of its dealership… Well, you can guess I’m going to rant.

Preemptive Claim in Marketing

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Preemptive claim… Now where did I heard about that… I heard about preemptive strike, it’s where A strikes B on the basis that A fears that B is going to attack them (with or without proof). Or there is the preemptive measure in medical term where you are injected with a certain vaccine to be stronger or completely avoid a particular diseases. So what is preemptive claim in marketing means? Well, I couldn’t find one on my extensive selection of marketing books (actual figure: 3) back at home. However I heard my father mentioned about this term a lot, and well, it is quite true.

According to my father preemptive claim means that you claim something that is general in its sense but as an attribute to an existing product or brand. For example, in Indonesia there is mineral water company that claims its product is beneficial to health… Well, we all know that human body needs water to sustain its day to day function. So how come the water company claims like other brands/products is not beneficial to health then? Well, actually all mineral water is beneficial to health, regardless of what brand it is. But preemptively claiming something means that in all due respect, competing brand cannot use the same claim anymore. Because if they did use the claim, the company will be branded as a clear “me-too” which will benefit the claim originator.

Yamaha used the claim of “otomatis duluan” or in english: “The first matic scooter” on its Yamaha Mio marketing campaign. But what do you know, Yamaha isn’t the first company to sell an automatic scooter, but Kymco, a Korean marque was. However, Kymco used the slogan “automatic pioneer. So does preemptive claim in marketing is a moot point? Well, it depends. Claiming something that is general in its sense are a tricky thing. In the case of Yamaha and Kymco, both wanted to be recognized as the first at something related to automatic scooters. However both uses a different approach of the claim. Yamaha claims as the first automatic scooter, whereas Kymco claims as the pioneer. Is there something wrong there? Does Yamaha breach the claim as the first provider of automatic scooter? No.

One have to be highly observable in the marketing world. It is true that Kymco was the first pioneer of automatic scooter in Indonesia, but Yamaha also the first automatic scooter provider AMONG the Japanese motorbikes marque… AHA! There you go, a loophole that nobody knows. You see, being a marketer is like being a lawyer, in that you need to take advantage of the underlying small words and exploits it to no end.

Hey… Who said being a marketer won’t lead you to hell? At least wherever lawyers go when they die, they will see a lot of marketing people there too.

Edit: I’ve been asked by my readers for who is this father of mine which I based the logic of this article. Thankfully, my father is a double Doctorate degree holder in economics and communication and he wrote books about marketing communication principles (the other version). So at least I can attest by his input on the matter.

Franchise or not to Franchise… That is the question

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Franchising, do you really need it? It’s a tale as old as time, as taking franchise promises the easiness of plunging straight into the hard boiled business world with little preparation. To open up a franchise, you only need a big start up capital and the rest will fall in order because buying a franchise means you buy everything from the know how (the recipe if it’s a restaurant), and the how to (the management process), is it not? Well, that’s just wrong.

Opening up a franchise involves a lot more work than people might expect. First of all, there is the human resource aspect that is not made available by the franchiser; we have to search for the employee to work for us by ourselves. Remember, weak under performing employee will never get you nowhere even if you buy the best franchise around. Then there is the geography problem, a place where you want to open up the business. We have to think about the ease of access, the surrounding locale, and the desirability of the location. Lastly there is the problem of who is in charge of it all? Certainly we need to know at least what is the nature of the business if we did not want to be bamboozled by the operating manager because our lack of knowledge operating the business.

You guys can look up for the pros and cons of franchising on the net. But I want to press about the cons of franchising using a unique example of franchising in Indonesia.

Krispy Kreme, and McDonald are two of the biggest franchise name in the world. However only one of those franchiser that thrives in Indonesia, and it is not Krispy Kreme. McDonald has the first mover advantage, being the first burger joints available anywhere in Indonesia, since late 1980s… Or something (forgot). However, Krispy Kreme is not so bad after all, being the third donuts chain store in Indonesia after Dunkin Donuts and Indonesia’s very own J.Co, even though KK came on a very late time (just two years ago).

When J.Co was introduced around three-four years ago, it became an instant hit overnight as people flock and queue long lines to buy just half a dozen of donuts. Hot on the tails of J.Co success is America’s leading donuts chain store, KK. Please pardon my lack of knowledge about who owns KK in Indonesia, but suffice to say it is still a franchised chain store therefore franchise traits are still applicable. So today marks the two years J.Co and KK has waged war to garner donuts lover into their shop, and wanna bet who wins? Well, it’s J.Co, the new startup Indonesian company.

The unique advantage of franchising sometimes is also its downfall in the case of KK in Indonesia. J.Co was rumored to use KK recipe to make its donuts before KK open up its store in Indonesia. However, once KK arrived, shortly after J.Co came up with a new recipe that is less sweet than the “competing brand”, and we know who that is. As a franchise company, KK cannot change its recipe, because that was franchising is all about, bringing the unique taste of the franchiser to anywhere in the world. This limited creativity is noted as one of the cons of franchising[1].

My family and friends love the less sweet taste of J.Co compared to KK, and the effects are as clear as a sunshiny day. KK customers dwindles, and in places where there are both KK and J.Co, like in Senayan City, you can see the void of visitors on KK but the same cannot be said to J.Co. KK even go as far as buying one dozen of donuts, you will get two dozens more… That is downright crazy. Well, you can say it is a promotional event, but I think it has going on for more than half a year.

So franchising in the case of J.Co and KK is not really a good thing isn’t it? Well, I am impartial in this issue, but if I have to take side, I’m going to say that franchising is not an option in the case of J.Co Vs KK. J.Co without the ties of franchise has the unlimited creativity to cater with the constant change of market demand. So why McDonald thrives? It is after all a franchise company too… Yes, it is a franchise company, but the franchiser (McDonald of America) has policies to let the franchisee expand its product portfolio. That is why McDonald has/had “local specialties” such as pork burger in Thailand, and Rendang beef burger in Indonesia.

As such, franchising is a prospect that needs to be taken carefully. One must weigh the pros and cons carefully and most important thing is the franchiser’s willingness to adapt to future situation. If you adapt (like McDonald), you will survive, if you just stick to your brand identity… Well, people don’t eat intangible things.

[1] http://www.quintcareers.com/franchising_pros_cons.html

Weekend Rollade, comeback marketing and insomnia attack! (Part dos)

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Comeback marketing… What is that about? Well, you all know Burger King, this hamburger fast food chain store once opened its door for business in Indonesia, sometimes in the 80’s/early 90’s. But for whatever reason it closed down and Indonesia had its burger shot from McDonalds, A&W, Wendy’s, the not so dead but not alive Jolly Bee, the deceased Arbys, the recently opened hotshots and the many small local burger joints. All of them are barely survive on selling just burgers, or they shift their selling strategy and survive by selling something that the Indonesian market wanted. McDonalds nowadays sells more fried chicken then burger, so are A&W, Wendy’s and the likes. This is because as most Indonesians’ are Muslims so chicken are considerably safest animal to eat, it’s also cheap. So how are the burger only joints? They suffer, they choke, they are dieing sloooooooooooooooowly, case in point, Hotshots. If you happen to read this and live in Jakarta, at Kelapa Gading area, just go to La Piazza and see the void of buyers at Hotshots counter. The burger itself is one of the nicest, I love it… But it’s price is something to be left for the rich to enjoy.

So, a burger joint is not the best idea to open in Indonesia is it? Not really, and here it is, comeback marketing in its full glory! Burger King is back and what do you know? They have 4 registers, and each are full of people queuing to buy the burger. How can this be? How can something that came back from the dead sell something in a place where people don’t necessarily consume that particular product?

The answer is very simple my friends… Coming back from the dead or in the case of Burger King, a hiatus, is sometimes a good thing. Sun Tzu mentions that retreating is a way to live and fight back another day, therefore there is no shame on doing that. Burger King while on its hiatus really done their marketing work carefully, and answers what Indonesian’s really wanted, affordable and fresh.

So Burger King now adopts an open kitchen concept where customers can see their product being cooked directly in front of them (with safety glass of course), and what do you know, it’s quite cheap. One average burger of Burger King is half the prices of Hotshots burger, which are freshly grilled also, with the same gimmick Burger King used.

Comeback marketing is not simple, and like the above example I haven’t elaborate more on the subject… Hey! It’s 4 o’clock in the morning and I haven’t slept yet! So pardon my absent minds. I will elaborate more next week, but let me give you all a snippet. Comeback marketing is tricky; first you need to know why the company left a particular region at the beginning. Then, you need to know why they are coming back to that region. Lastly you need to know how the company are going to approach the surely changed social condition of the market… Till next week.

So about my insomnia… according to Wikipedia, I have a transient insomnia, caused by a short term anxiety… D’oh, I’m broke and there are really important stuff I need to buy. Ah, what the heck… I’m used to being depressed and my body is starting to shut off anyway. Damn it! Tomorrow is a busy day too, I’m really hoping for that day when I can sleep, knowing that when I wake up, there’s that special somebody next to me.

Weekend Rollade, comeback marketing and insomnia attack! (Part uno)

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Well, it’s that time again finish the week with a closing comment of my cluttered and crazy approach to make sense of a cluttered and crazy marketing and the world in general. First let’s discuss about why Honda still insists using female model to promote Vario whereas Suzuki and Yamaha promote their competing product with both female and male (you’ll be surprised). On part two we will discuss about the silly termed comeback marketing and (if anybody cares) about my insomnia attack.

If I may talk seriously for a while… Why Suzuki and Yamaha uses two person that represent all group of users is that… Dum dum dum dum… They are just an average joe and jane, they are not celebrity, heck! They are not even famous… But Honda? Whew, Honda uses Agnes Monica, the current Indonesia’s hottest sexiest actress/singer/public figure/what not (I didn’t find her hot or sexy though). In advertising term, Honda is using Celebrity endorsement campaign, where in one; a celebrity becomes the representation of that product image and positioning. But is it effective?

Celebrity endorsed advertisement is like the debate of the century in the marketing world. Who actually benefited from the relationship between the celebrity and the product/brand? From one perspective, the advertiser expect that the celebrity star status will stick to their product, giving it a faster recall on the target market and audience minds. However, there is the catch that the advertiser actually promotes the celebrity and actually making the celebs more famous because of the extra “air time” and the product… Meh, what product? I just saw the celebrity on that ad.

On 2003, Madhukar Sabnavis, country manager for Discovery, Ogilvy and Mather India even wrote on rediff.com that celebrity endorsement is a diseases, stating that it (celebrity endorsement) sprout from advertising agency/marketer inability to promote the product using its own strength. Ouch… Madhukar even goes to state that celebrity endorsement is just an easy way out… More ouch.

I couldn’t agree more with Madhukar… (if you guys noticed, I used the name quite often, because I don’t know if Madhukar is a female or male). Sometimes the use of a celebrity will bring about the cult following effect, where fans of the celebrity will expectedly uses the product she/he is selling. However, this became a trap also for the hiring party… Why? Because that celebrity person needs to be used again and again and again and again… Buuuuuuuuuut, today people are getting smarter you know. If you read at my post entitled “Hypocrisy Marketing, the worst kind…” people nowadays are able to discern paid individuals to endorse product. So does that means something? YES! It means that people know that celebrity is just another paid individuals and their credibility is going down. So instead of using high paid celebrity, why not just use average joe/jane to promote the product?

With agreement on Madhukar excerpt , I see that Honda is just wanting to take the easy route, using celebrity to promote their product, whereas Suzuki and Yamaha believed wholeheartedly on their products they don’t need to pay much for an endorsement. Am I dissing Honda? The same Honda I have a motto over it? (my motto: I may change for the better or for worse, but Honda will always be there) Um, yes. The lack of marketing effort of Honda Indonesia both motorcycle and automobile really worries me. I may uses harsher words, but suffice to say, I have this urge to know how the marketing mind behind Honda Indonesia works.

Marketing 101: Target Market & Target Audience

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Rewriting the entry, will be done shortly

Target market and target audience are essential elements that determines the tone and manner of a marketing strategy. However, the proximity of meaning between the two sometimes trap “green marketers” in formulating a strategy. In my field of work and in my teaching days, I always found people who mistook target market and target audience.

The concept is very simple, yes, but I admit I too used to mistake the meaning of both. Target market is literally means to which we target that general product/service too, while target audience is the people that we expect to purchase or use the product/service. In short, target audience can become the target market.

One of the extreme examples I used on the class to describe the definition of target market and target audience is baby milk. The baby consumes the product, which means they are our target market. However, babies doesn’t go around shopping the milk themselves, it’s their parents job. Again, this is oversimplifying target audience and swerving too close to buying process, with the parents acting as the buyer while the baby as the user. However, the information is given to the audience about the benefit of the product towards the target market.

When talking about target market and target audience, we also uses buying

Let’s take another easier example with less ambiguous but more general. Let’s take Honda entry level scooter, the 2010 Beat. For purists out there, no, this is not the “mini NSX”, this is a small two wheel scooter that spearheads Honda effort to sell scooters in Indonesia. We can see everywhere the tone and manner of Beat’s promotion, from billboards to printed ads, they all depicts famous young stars riding the bike. The visuals alone indicate a strong relation to the young, perhaps those who are still in high school or in their college years (indicated by the figure the stars imposed).

Target market wise, these young people are Honda key target but, do they have the money to buy it? At US$1,2K or roughly Rp. 12 Million, the bike is rather expensive for somebody with no main income outside from monthly allowance. This is where we are seeing the expansiveness of target audience and the focused target market.

Honda Beat with its catchy younger tone visuals is targeted to the young, this is its target market, however, the target audience for the beat is all people who can drive a motorbike. A little bit extreme and lazy observation, but I wanted to exemplify the meaning in the simplest way possible. Even though the Beat is targeted at young people, there’s no fault at older people or other people from other discipline of work to own the Beat. As a matter of fact, there’s the bonus of resonating message from the initial campaign. Beat’s marketing effort is directed towards younger audience, sometimes, “older” people would like to be associated with this “young” image and thus bought the bike even though they are outside the target market, and even audience.

Most often, I saw seniors or older people driving around in the new Honda Jazz, and as fast as I can think, wow… Those guys are really young at heart. They should be driving Mercedes or perhaps Accord, but no, for whatever reason they drove a Jazz instead. I don’t see them as incapable of buying upmarket products because of economic reason, I just saw them as wanting to be associated with the image created by the product (Jazz = young & hip).

The definition of target market and target audience can be found on many books and sources. They are after all the basic element for a marketer to base the overall marketing strategy and approach. However, there is one thing that pique my interest… On his book, Marketing Management by Philip Kotler, he omits target audience altogether and just refer target market as a sole base value to be considered when creating a marketing strategy. Well, a good move, but personally I think that the book is intended towards advanced readers who already understand the boundary of audience and the real target market.

Some uses psychographics and demographics to create distinct barrier between target audience and target market. One of my marketing professors defines that psychographic and demographic creates core target market while outside of those influence comes in the target audience. Let’s put those in graphics shall we?

Applying that to Honda Beat core target market, we can see that

Okay, so last week I blabber about how Yamaha changed the target market of Mio from female to male with the introduction of Mio Soul. I expect other brands will follow suit (Honda & Suzuki) because as far as these eyes can see, all automatic scooters are being driven by the male population. However, yesterday I saw an ad about Honda Vario, they still use this popular actress to promote the brand alone, without any hint whatsoever to indicate that this scooter is a unisex bike. On the other side of the competition, Suzuki launched Skywave, the successor of the not so popular Spin, an automatic scooter. The advertisement clearly shows a very macho man and a very sexy woman, just like Yamaha did with the new Mio soul.

So will this bring about wrong image delivery to Honda Vario? After all, people aspire to the “representation” of people displayed on the ad. Well, the answer is not that simple… First of all, if anybody remember how Honda Jazz (Fit) is advertised here in Indonesia, then people will acknowledge that Honda used a pair of popular female singers to endorse the product. So does only female buys Jazz? No, does only young people buy Jazz? Not so much.

Here we have what I would like to call, “splash damage”, the message that originally intended towards specific target audience spreads to other expected segment. When people buy something first they have to go through what marketing defines as The Buying Process, yes, a process. In it, people will go through several phases, first people will acknowledge/know the product, then interest will grow, decision making is formed and action is taken to buy or not to buy. Yes, it is AIDA we are talking about here, the basic skill we learn at faculty of communication, but do you notice there’s a few word that I leaned? (pardon the pun)…

Decision making, what is all that about, and what it got to do with Honda Vario? Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t know. But one thing for sure, this has got to do with target audience and target market. When you sell a baby’s milk, do you create:

a. Advertisement for the baby

b. Advertisement for the mother

c. Advertisement for the father

Sane people will choose mother or father, but the product (the milk) is consumed by the baby, so why not create an ad for the baby? Anybody who asks of this should be shunned out of society immediately. Of course the baby couldn’t comprehend the ad, they doesn’t even comprehend why the sky is blue or why daddy hump mommy at night in front of them. Thus this explains the very basic of the difference between target market and target audience; with the baby being the target market and the parents as the target audience.

Anyway, back to the matter, so why is Honda still uses a female representative to promote Vario? Simple, because Honda Jazz is promoted by two female singers and we all know that most Jazz drivers are male.

Hot of the press! Updates galore! Last weekend rollade I close the week with a completion of Marketing Garbage entry. So Honda uses a famous actress to attract customer and consolidates its presence using the hottest spokesperson in the town. But waaaiiitt… It seems that I’m too fast from making a judgment, because just a couple days ago (I think on sunday) I saw an ad of Honda Vario with that hot spokeswoman and a hot spokesman, another handsome pretty face which I don’t know the name of because I’m too busy writing a blog thingie.

Weekend rollade

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Okay, for this week, I’ve talked about experimental and hypocrisy marketing. Experimental marketing is actually something to be expected these days, especially because of a rapid change in our social culture condition. Yamaha reposition Mio from a scooter for woman to a scooter for man is not something new in the world of marketing. Marlboro for example, it was first designated as a cigarette for woman, but what do we see now about Marlboro advertisement? Well, I guess you cannot associate cowboys and the plains with the elegance and beauty of the woman kind.

Will Honda follow Yamaha footstep and change Vario’s positioning like Mio? It is very likely, Honda and Yamaha are both the number one and two motorcycle player in Indonesia, and they fiercely fight for the number one spot. Although the current market is held by Honda, in February, they lost the number one title to Yamaha. At least it should be a wake up slap for Honda to not just sit idly and expect their brand to help along.

Hypocrisy marketing is actually not called that way; it is just good old plain maintaining good media relationship. When you maintain a good media relationship, most often than not, when you have a bad product that is reviewed by the media, the media would soften the blow in their respective review. A disreputable media might say only good things about your product, even if you are selling a stale dog poo, when you have good standings with them. But not all media are bastards, some have integrities, but some you can buy it straight out of the box.

Be warned though, when you meet a bastard media, which is trying to sweet talk their way to write good things about your products… Stop. When people knows what kind of a media that was, your product and brand image might falls down with them. It’s a bit of a gamble, but if a media looses its credibility, so does the product reviewed in it. This kind of media sometimes just wanted to get you to put advertisement on their media as sign of thanks for writing a good product review.

So, have a nice weekend, and next week… Arsenal approach and COMEBACK MARKETING… When will I stop using this corny term…

BTW, perhaps I’m gonna change the visual theme of this blog next week, I’ve received emails that my blog was heavy to load with all of those Fit pictures. Perhaps I’m going to make a short article with a link somewhat…

Hypocrisy marketing, the worst kind…

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Well, it’s not enough that I coin up the experimental marketing term, I came up with another silly one. Hypocrisy marketing… What is that? Well in this world of mass media, sometimes it is good to have a good standing with the media. So what does having a good media relationship got to do with marketing at all? Well first of all, the media is a third party, meaning that people often believe third, fourth, fifth, and so on party better than the first party… Confused? Well, so do I.

First party off course is the brand principle itself, by doing marketing effort, it is trying to portray a good image of itself and are trying to sell something to the audience. The second party is a brand ambassador, a person which the principle uses as a medium to sell more products because usually people are suckers for believing other people than the principle itself. However, even though people are suckers for this kind of things, they are not stupid either. Off course, people recognized the brand ambassador has connection with the principle and thus his/her arguments are not valid enough to push sales more. However, a third party, or usually the media, are portrayed as independent, therefore more believable than first or second party.

Case in point, which would you believe, your friend or a stranger talking on the television? Well, I’ll be damn if you believe straightaway some stranger talking on the media; just like that college professor who got swindled by a scam, and he lost US$140K because of it. People lies, and marketers are the worst kind of liars, but off course out of self defense they will say not saying the truth is not lying… But still, for me, not telling the truth = lying. So psychologically, people will resort to whomever the closest person for telling the truth, for a second opinion. But in the professional world, can we rely on just friends? Because the more source of information we use, the valid the data is (according to statistic).

The media is the best third party medium around that displays non sided news, or is it? Well, this is where hypocrisy marketing came in and blows some dirt on to the media itself. Good media relationship, is just that, to garner favorable write up from the journalist/editor which the principle chooses to befriend with. When your product is a bad, without good media relationship, your product is bad, period. But if you have a good relationship with the media, your bad product suddenly became something like… A jewel in the rough, or unpolished gem stone, or it could be better in the future, any phrase that softens the blow to the product itself.

Just like a news, when a principle does not have a good media relationship and there’s a horrible accident, most often the principle will be at blamed. For example, when Suzuki launches SX-4 in Indonesia, there are 2(two) units that tumbles upside down because of a driver error. How the hell it did not get into the news is beyond me, really… There are multiple cameras and I believe the event was filmed by a local news channel.

Does the above example indicates good media relationship? I do not know personally. But good media relationship can be seen most often on an IT/end-user products magazine. The reviewers/editors are often invited to lavish lunch/dinner/any occasion to win the favor for their particular brand. Some marketing staffs are even assigned specifically to the media to maintain good relationship, with unlimited budget to “entertain” the media staff to garner favorable reviews.

This kind of act really disgust me… If you have a good product, why would you need to even go far to have a good media relation? A good media relation is important, but in my lifetime I had saw disgusting practices done by the principles to “entertain” the media so lavishly, the media staffs always says nice words for the brand principle and say otherwise to their competitors.

I am no saint, I am a sinner, but assigning marketing effort to buy a review is just beyond me.

 Whew… Wow, I really did blow some steam away… It seems that I’m a bit upset about everything… Well, I try to make the entry more make sense sometimes this weekend if I’m cool enough.

Experimental marketing (image repositioning)… Get used to it

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Let’s start this week with something to think about untill the weekend… I think I’m going to make this as a feature, start an interesting topic which I will think about and answer at the end of the week… Not bad…

Okay, let’s talk about experimental marketing, what the hell that is all about? Everybody knows about experiential marketing, but what about experimental marketing or EM to make things simpler. Well, EM is everything that revolves around continual changes of marketing concept, a sign of rushed or reckless planning, something we got used to in developing countries, or in this case, Indonesia. Usually, when a marketer set tone and manner and the image positioning, it usually already set and written in stone (unchanged). But sometimes due to poor marketing research, a change of mindset in the society, a change in company’s goal and everything in between, an initial positioning of a product or brand may change down the line.

Want proof? “Yamaha Mio Soul, the soul of man”

When Yamaha launch Mio, an automatic scooter in Indonesia, it positions the product as a vehicle for woman. Yamaha did their homework very fine, applying what they got from market research that Indonesians, especially the male gender prefers manual gearbox for their motorcycle. Boys will be boys some say, and boys love to drives fast, and you can not do it on an automatic scooter, for obvious technical reasons. Yamaha captures that essence and apply it to the first generation of Yamaha Mio, positioning it as a “civilized” motorcycle that woman could appreciate.

But what do you know? Those who buys Mio are males… The same male gender that prefers fast bikes rather than the slow automatic scooters. How could this be? Well, Yamaha did a very heavy marketing campaign for the bike, buying a 30 minute slot on one of Indonesia’s leading news channel, and make a show based on that scooter alone. The show was crazy to say the least, and I give my two thumbs up to whoever proposed it. On the show, the scooter was used in a variety of interesting conditions, acrobats, drag racing against a turbocharged car, fan club interview, design contests and everything.

The result? Well, you can say Honda and Suzuki are hoping that at least half of Yamaha Mio buyers are theirs. Honda and Suzuki sucks at marketing (the bikes)… Compared to Yamaha, they are like sitting still, well you can gives a hat’s up to Honda because they can cling to their brand image, but what about Suzuki? Suzuki needs to follow Yamaha if they want to improve the market share.

Coming back to experimental marketing, we now see that Yamaha is indeed positions the new Mio as a vehicle for man, no longer a woman motorcycle. One TV spot I saw about the new Mio is that it is depicted as an aggressive vehicle, driven in a sandy desert situation, avoiding obstacles with ease. On the background you can notice a woman singing in a sensual voice saying “My Soul, My Man” Or something like that, if not my soul, she may also says mio soul (mio and my sounds similar). The change of positioning here is as clear as day and night, and it shows that Yamaha reacts to a change of people’s perception against automatic scooter.

Although the term that I used, experimental marketing might not be proper to be used in the situation of Yamaha Mio, I define that a change of image positioning in just a short time as a sign that the marketing plan for it is not set in stones, that means it is experimental. For example, Honda Life (www.honda.co.jp/LIFE) positioning has always been as a car for woman from the get go, even the highest trim of the car is called Honda Life Diva…D’oh.

So experimental marketing, or with the example I’ve written above, changing image positioning is quite normal nowadays, especially with the constant change of people. Like a classic sociology definition of humans, “we are finite and creative” therefore, what works for us today, might not work for us tomorrow.

Please help me decipher this code

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For me, the difference of good ad and bad ad is the message contained in that ad. A clear ad conveys its message elegantly with a good flow of information. On the other hand, bad ad confuses you with garbage and illogical information. I may be harsh towards this particular print ad, but please, please, please, please, if somebody can explain to me what the meaning of this print ad then by all means, tell me, and I will change my negative tone towards this ad.

Bad ad

Loosely translated, the headline says “Experience richer internet browsing with Nokia N71”

  • Revolutionary web browsing experience on 3G network
  • Hear music on the go with Nokia XpressMusic
  • 2 Megapixel camera with 20x digital zoom and flash
  • Print and share every photo detail
  • Clear and magnificient 2.4″ screen

What’s 2 Megapixel camera, hearing music, printing photos, and the girl picture on the left got to do with richer internet browsing??!!! This ad is just wrong, the messages are convulated and the visual/copy integration is waaaaaaaaayyyy off. Unless, the girl is actually the internet itself, you know, like Matrix. Or probably, her name is Internet. It is quite strange because other Nokia print ad on my local newspaper is quite good except this one.

I don’t like spewing bull crap out of my mouth these days… So instead just criticizing an ad from my experience, I too will criticize ad with a theory back crap.For this entry I will base my comments on just one book, “the bible” of advertising theory, Advertising: Principles and Practice, written by William Wells, John Burnett, and Sandra Moriarty which is published by Prentice Hall.

It is written on page 408 that a good visual in essence are to capture the attention the intended reader AND to illustrate the benefit of the product or service. So the Nokia ad definitely caught my attention outright the first time I opened the newspaper, and that means it’s a good print ad, technically. But visually, does it convey or illustrate the benefit of the product? Or even in broader scale, the brand? Definitely not. What benefit does the girl head illustrate? Pretty? Umm… Ummm… Ummm… No comment about that.