Celebrity Brands

Over the past week its been impossible to escape all the hoopla over Tiger Woods and his apology for "indiscretions". While we haven't discussed this in class, what do people think about celebrities as their own brand ? Earlier this month Forbes listed tiger as the world's biggest athlete brand raking in 105 million in endorsements last year. Also, an interesting article pointed out that Tiger's sponsor companies lost 2.3 % of stock value since the crash which comes out to just around $12 Billion.

Tiger Woods is clearly a brand, just like Michael Jordan and David Beckham. Do you think his apology was motivated by true personal remorse or just part of reconstructing his brand and Do you think that people link brands with the negative actions of athletes? Does anyone not buy Nike stuff as a result of Tiger's affairs or Michael Vick's dogfighting?

Course Update

I hope you all enjoyed the snow days.

Since we lost out on discussing B&D last week, we're going to do a double-dose this upcoming week and discuss both B&D as well as Biopure. It will be a bit tight, so please be on time.

Going through two cases in one class unfortunately gives less time for participation. To make up for this, please bring one of the following to class on Thursday:

A) A one-page writeup answering the thought questions for B&D. This shouldn't take long if you already prepared for the B&D case.

or

B) A one-page writeup describing your most favorite Super Bowl ad and your least favorite Super Bowl ad. To receive maximum credit, use Marketing concepts from lecture in your analysis (e.g. what it means from a branding perspective, whether or not it's effective in reaching the target customer, etc.).

MTV Gets New Logo

Over winter break, I was watching MTV and noticed that the logo in the corner of the screen seemed different. My friends assured me that it must be the wide screen format or something of that sort because, after all, MTV hasn't changed their logo since its creation. However, an article I came across yesterday confirmed my suspicions that the logo has changed.

The new logo is a bit shorter and more rigid that the original, and the words "Music Television" have been removed. The reason for the change is consistent with the ideas of brand association we discussed in lecture yesterday. The original MTV logo was iconic: Everyone knew that MTV was music television. In the last few years, however, their programming has shifted away from a focus on music and towards a focus on their target audience (teens and young adults), and the channel now features more reality shows than music videos.

Whether or not you agree with MTV's shift in programming, it cannot be denied that they have had tremendous success with shows like "The Hills" and "Jersey Shore". The MTV brand has received a makeover. I suppose it only makes sense for the MTV logo to have received one as well. What do you think?

Read the article here: http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2010/02/09/mtv-removes-music-television-from-iconic-logo/

Superbowl Ads

So what are your thoughts? Which ones did you like, and which ones did you think fell flat?

-Corey

Facebook Email

Facebook is reportedly preparing to release Facebook Email with full POP and IMAP support (meaning you can access the email account from outlook, your iPhone, and any other mail clients).

You can read about it: here.

What do you think of the move? How does this change the product Facebook is offering? What consumer insight do they see, and what value are they trying to add. Is their company well equipped to deliver on it?

-Corey

Dove Men + Care

Because of our discussion during the first week of class about the Dove marketing campaign, I wanted to share this with you guys. I was flipping through TV channels the other day and noticed that the AFC Championship football game had a surprising sponsor-- Dove. It looks like Dove is trying to expand into a new market and create products for men. You can view the Dove Men + Care website here: http://dove.us/mencare/. What is really cool about Dove's marketing strategy is that they are marketing their men's products the same way they market their womens' products. The tag line in the commercial on the Dove Men + Care website is " You've reached a stage in life where you're comfortable. Shouldn't your skin be just as comfortable?"

I think it is really interesting that Dove is attempting to expand into an entirely new market but, at the same time, is targeting men whose wives, sisters etc. probably already use Dove products. Dove is also sticking with the same "be comfortable in your own skin" message that it uses to market its women's products. I wonder if this marketing strategy will be effective or if Dove is targeting too narrow a market (it appears they are aiming for stable, married family men).

Brand Tags

A guy named Noah Brier created http://www.brandtags.net - it's a cool website that collects the 'word association' type of info that we did today with Starbucks.

Check it out if you have a sec - it will ask you to complete five word associations before you start browsing popular brands. There's some pretty funny stuff if you start browsing some popular brands, though :)

-Corey

Axe Effect's Detailer

Axe Effect, the company that makes body products for men, recently released a commercial to promote its shower scrub called the Detailer. Already infamous for sexual undertones, Axe has not failed to deliver another raunchy ad yet again. It is all over Youtube. Now in MTKG, we discussed why it's important for a company to understand the 5 C's and 4 P's- check it out and you tell me how well of a job Axe did. I believe the ad is an excellent addition to its marketing program - playing on sex appeal and using humor to draw in its youth base. The laughs and jaw-droppings from the innuendos could lead to profits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bevJr3Ra84Q

Welcome to the Marketing 101 Blog

As mentioned in class, participation here is entirely optional. I’ll consider activity here as part of the participation grade – but the theme is quality over quantity. Comments and posts that provide interesting insight, state strong opinions, and challenge each other will be great – but no need to regurgitate material from class.

Please keep all posts 250 words or less.

-Corey