Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Vicks' Tweak Marketing Move

When P&G advertises their brands, they leverage as much brand equity as possible. Take for example the new NyQuil commercials. There are two back to back spots. The first one shows a large man clearly knocked out in a deep sleep. The tagline reads: NyQuil: The nightime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, Best Sleep You Ever Got With A Cold...Medicine. The next spot is a woman sleeping with an occasional light snore. The tagline reads: NyQuil Less Drowsy. Because everyone sleeps differently. This new product extension is clearly a result of a strong consumer insight. And it just might be the way to combat the rise of the private label.

So it's surprising to see this Twitter promotion on the Vicks Web site. There is no connection to the brand here and it's not integrated into any of their other marketing efforts. What aspects of the brand are reinforced by this promotion? A free trip to cheer on Team USA is a great prize, but how does that connect to any of the other marketing for the Vicks brand? Are consumers supposed to associate Vicks as something truly American? The Vicks brand means "you're taken care of." P&G is missing an opportunity with this promotion to forge a deeper relationship between their consumers and the brand.
The Twitter execution could also be a lot stronger. The promotion (that's hidden on the website) has you sign up with your email address and then encourages you to tweet a generic message every day for a chance to win. It was a mistake to use a generic message that again has no connection with the brand. Instead, Vicks could encourage consumers to tweet reasons why they deserve to win, or their favorite Vicks product, or how Vicks makes them feel, or pictures of them using Vicks products. Any of these would be a win for both Vicks and the consumer. It would encourage brand affinity but also provide Vicks with valuable information to use for future marketing efforts. The takeaway here: brands should always seize opportunities to develop stronger relationships with consumers and reinforce the brand they know and love.

--Stacy Cohen

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Brown Delivers Through Social Media But Forgets to Ship Directions

Over the years, UPS transformed itself from a shipping service provider to a business solutions provider that offers shipping — adding value for customers. The transformation began with the “What can brown do for you?” commercials followed by the famous Whiteboard campaign. UPS continues to deliver value in its online engagement strategy—something many companies forget to do.

UPS’s strategy is to provide content that is relevant and useful to its B2B customers. At the center is a branded Popurls site. Here UPS is serving as a content curator for business news and tips. UPS also created a Populr Brown Edition YouTube channel. The channel features a series of short informational videos on business topics such as social networking and communication. Industry notables from Mashable, TechDirt, Small Business Trends, and VentureBeat provide the video lessons. Additionally, consumers can receive news stories by following @popurlsbrown on Twitter.

So, what’s the problem? Well, have you watched one of the videos, heard about the brown Popurl site, or followed @popurlsbrown? UPS is an international brand, yet the YouTube channel has just over 600 views and @popurlsbrown has 69 followers. While UPS is running banner ads on sites like VentureBeat, neither UPS.com nor the Whiteboard microsite have links to the popurl site, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Additionally, the YouTube channel doesn’t link to the Twitter account or UPS.com. UPS is delivering value for its B2B customers by providing useful information in an accessible and easily digestible format. However, the full potential will not be realized unless UPS offers directions to and from these sites and does a better job integrating these elements into its overall marketing efforts.

-- Marina Molenda