Tag Archives: marketing

Jul7

fine print.

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can anyone actually read the fine print on this coupon?

if not,

perhaps you need glasses!

frustrating, but this is no accident 

what great marketing this actually is.

—

‘the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.’

-tom fishbourne.

*Tom Fishburne started drawing cartoons on the backs of business cases as a student at Harvard Business School. Fishburne’s cartoons have grown by word of mouth to reach hundreds of thousands of marketers every week and have been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and The New York Times. His cartoons have appeared on a billboard ad in Times Square, helped win a Guinness World Record, and turned up in a top-secret NSA presentation released by Edward Snowden.

Since 2010, Marketoonist has developed visual content marketing campaigns for businesses such as Google, IBM, Kronos, and LinkedIn. Fishburne is a frequent keynote speaker on marketing, innovation, and creativity, using cartoons, case studies, and his marketing career to tell the story visually. He is the author of “Your Ad Ignored Here: Cartoon from 15 Years of Marketing, Business, and Doodling in Meetings”

Aug27

summerween.

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a bit confusing, like these leaves seem to be,

showing the colors of two seasons

—

listening to npr

they talked about starbuck’s

starting the pumpkin spice train

a month earlier this year

pumpkin spice everything = fall/autumn

 i don’t remember the calendar saying

that fall begins in august

the seasons/holidays/calendar

shift with the world of marketing

 not with the weather (90F) recently

or dates

but by creating their own

‘extended seasons and festivities’

 people get excited early

 start the buying frenzy

happy summerween

i’m holding out for my favorite real season – fall.

—

‘the seasons change their manners, as the year had found some months asleep and leapt them over.’

-william shakespeare

 

here is a partial transcript of the npr conversation:

KIM: Summerween is that time of the year when major retailers start to promote all things sweater weather, even though shorts and flip-flops are still in season. George John is a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He says it’s been a trend for a while now.

JOHN: This is the trend of moving up Christmas and Thanksgiving and Halloween, the three big sort of seasons that run into each other, earlier and earlier and earlier.

KIM: But this year, fall- and Halloween-related goods seem to be popping up sooner than ever. Take Home Depot, for instance. The retailer launched an online Halloween campaign in April. In June, Lowe’s, Party City and Michaels all released spooky seasonal items online, earlier than in previous years. Most recently, on Thursday, Starbucks began serving its iconic pumpkin spice latte on August 22, the coffee chain’s earliest rollout yet. Most of the big businesses say that these early rollouts are in response to excitement from consumers.

JOHN: if they just stretch every darn holiday out to being a season, it just loses its meaning, and it loses its intensity. A risk they are willing to take.

 

 

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Source credits: Juliana Kim, NPR News, George John, University of Minnesota

 

Mar24

tang.

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Tang! The space-age drink that’s still a worldwide staple

When you think of Tang – if you think of Tang at all – you probably think of its association with the United States space program in the 1960s. After all, “Tang was chosen for the Gemini astronauts,” as a 1966 ad for the classic orange drink stated. Gemini was NASA’s second human spaceflight mission in the lead-up to the moon landing. The beverage always will be connected to the golden era of midcentury space exploration, but NASA actually did not invent Tang.

Tang orange drink mix is inextricably tied to ’60s space exploration, but the beverage remains popular today. Tang debuted in 1957 as a vitamin C-packed breakfast drink. Its selling point was that the powdered mix was shelf-stable, and it was promoted as a healthier and more convenient alternative to fresh orange juice. (And while it certainly may be more convenient than juicing oranges to order every morning, the first two items on Tang’s ingredient list are sugar and fructose.)

But General Foods, Tang’s original parent company, had contracts with the military for producing rations and other food items, such as instant coffee. Thanks to these connections and the aforementioned shelf-stable, “just add water” capability of Tang, NASA sent the drink mix into space with John Glenn on his famous orbit of Earth in 1962. General Foods’ advertising strategy shifted to capitalize on the popularity of all things outer space, and Tang henceforth became marketed as the astronaut’s drink of choice.

But Tang isn’t just a space age relic. It’s still popular across the globe, from South America to Asia, and produced in a number of flavors – including pineapple, mango, lemon, calamansi and its newest Filipino flavor,  Coco Plus Buko Pandan. Tang is also a popular drink during Ramadan in the Middle East, according to Mondelez International, the food corporation that now owns the brand.

Not only that, but home cooks around the world have been showing their ingenuity by using Tang in dishes that go far beyond a simple stir-it-up breakfast drink. Some of the popular recipes have been: Tang Creamsicle Pie, Frothy Tang-infused milkshake, Orange chicken, Tang Ice Pops, Tang Ice Cream, Friendship Tea, and Tang Beer.

Tang is an enduringly popular ingredient in kitchens around the world. Even after all these years, Tang remains, to quote the vintage ad, “for spacemen and earth families.”

—

“whoo, what a day! i’m gonna drink tang all day until i forget it all!”

-jhonen vasquez 

 

 

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Source credits: Casey Barber, CNN, Kraft Foods, General Foods, Monedelez Int., NASA

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aug16

Neanche per idea! Neanche per sogno! (Not a chance! In your dreams!)

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Italy rejects Domino’s pizza, chain will close all its restaurants there.

 American pizza chain Domino’s will soon exit the motherland of pizza.

No, not New Jersey or New York.

Italy.

Domino’s is leaving pizza’s birthplace because of the poor reception from locals. The Ann Arbor-based company recently announced plans to close the last of its 29 locations in Italy according to Bloomberg.

The popular U.S. pizza chain debuted in Italy in 2015 through a franchising agreement with ePizza SpA.

Domino’s originally planned to open 880 locations in the country, but competition from local pizza shops curbed those plans. According to Bloomberg, one way traditional Italian pizzerias combated Domino’s presence was by ramping up deliveries and signing deals with third-party delivery services during the pandemic.

“We attribute the issue to the significantly increased level of competition in the food delivery market with both organized chains and ‘mom & pop’ restaurants delivering food, to service and restaurants reopening post pandemic and consumers out and about with revenge spending,” ePizza SpA said in a report to investors.

—

Quotes from locals in Italy:

“Who is Domino? Do you know him?

 Here? In Rome?

So they wanted to take pizza to where it was invented?!”

—

“No point in opening it,

American pizza for Italians? Doesn’t make sense. Maybe for tourists.

Like me going to England and making fish and chips.” 

—

“I submit to you…novantanove formaggio! The ninety-nine cheese pizza.”

–Michelangelo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 

fyi – the term ‘pizza’ was first recorded in the 10th century in a latin manuscript from the southern italian town of gata in lazio, on the border of campania.

 

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credits: christopher burch, n.j. com, domino’s pizza, bloomberg

Sep21

to market, to market.

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as i was scanning my groceries

in the self-checkout line

this unusual impulse-buy display was sitting next to me

a combo of giant candy bars and mini bottles of tequila

someone thought this marketing idea

would be a good fit for the market

the perfect mix to send you on your way and start your day off right!

it’s 2020 – what could possibly go wrong?

 

—

“market like the year you are in!”

-gary vaynerchuck

Apr23

paper product.

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not sure how this amazon product is educational or robust, 
but i’ll agree it’s unique and not surprised it’s ‘in stock.’
maybe the fact that the frog scored a roll of toilet paper appeals?
Puzzles for Adults Jigsaw Puzzles 1000 Pieces for Adults Kids
– Frog Toilet Golf Educational Jigsaw Modern Home Decor Unique Gift
  • 1. Good quality and robust puzzle pieces – 500 pieces.
  • 2.Puzzle is one of the magical games that never go out of style. Enjoy your free time with family and friends, working together with family or friends to complete a puzzle can not only exercise logic and sensory coordination. But it also gives you the opportunity to develop a closer relationship with others and create a joyful atmosphere. Muscles are also used to increase cognitive skills
  • 3. IDEAL FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN – Perfect for having fun alone or with family and friends. Puzzles are an activity that all ages can enjoy together.
  • 4. FEATURES: Material: paper: Finishing dimensions: approx. 29.53 x 19.69 inches ： Packaging size: 38 x 26 x 5 cm: Package: 1000 puzzle pieces (1 set)
  • 5.PLEASE ATTENTION : DO NOT LEAVE IF YOU INFECT INFANTS. Made with high quality materials and subjected to safety tests.  (what?)
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“there had to be a market in order for you to be successful in a business. 

the market had to need your business, or the product of it.”

-chuck berry