Aging Asia

Although I think marketing to the baby-boomer age is an no-brainer at this point (sheer numbers and marketing logic all point towards the group), this Ad Age article introduced an interesting angle on the subject: the phenomena of an aging consumer group in Asia.

According to the article, over one-fourth of the population of Japan is over 65. Additionally, 80%of purchasing power belongs to those over 50.  It only makes sense, therefore, for companies to capitalize on this group by creating and marketing products for this buying group.

One important issue the article discussed was marketing products to an older generation while keeping in mind two things:

1. You don’t want to necessarily alienate any potential young consumers.
2. The older generation doesn’t want to feel old. It wants to remain hip and modern, but products also need to be user-friendly for this crowd.

The reason I find this so interesting is that when I usually think of products geared towards an older generation (especially with technology), I think of things like the Jitterbug cellphone, which features an extremely large (and somewhat juvenile-looking) number pad and simplified “Yes” and “No” command buttons. This product doesn’t really follow the aforementioned rules of marketing towards older consumers.

Instead, Japan is trying to market innovations that just make sense. The article highlights a few, including front-load washer and dryers whose doors are set higher to eliminate bending over and straining the back. A refrigerator/freezer features two lower freezer doors, so users don’t have to bend over so far to get commonly used frozen foods such as ice cream.

These innovations are important to note because they make sense for everyone- although they might be particular consumer concerns of an older generation, they make sense for younger buyers as well. They are easily marketable and don’t necessarily alienate either buyer group.

Another interesting point of this article it’s the projected impact of this trend. Experts think that this trend of catering towards the older generation will spread. In particular they believe Europe will adopt this way of marketing and product development, and eventually the U.S. will follow. I agree. I think many Americans at first discredit Asian trends, but they do affect us. A lot of technological advances obviously come from Asia, and trends such as buying groceries online (as exhibited in my earlier post) were made and perfected in Asia. Since this shift towards marketing for older buyers makes so much sense, it’s only natural that the U.S. will soon embrace it (and get rid of those awful jitterbug phones!)

Credit:

Article: http://adage.com/article/global-news/asia-marketers-pay-heed-a-growing-older-population/230449/

Photo: http://tokyo-guidesntips.blogspot.com/2011/06/sfondo-night-tokyo.html

Whiskey Wild

In the past few months, I’ve been seeing a lot about whiskey.  While I’m not a whiskey drinker myself, I feel like I’ve been stumbling on a lot of whiskey-related news. My dad told me a few months ago about a report he read about alcohol-related trends in China. Apparently, the booming economy in China is causing an unprecedented disposable income in the middle class. And this middle class is buying booze. Lots of it. In fact, China’s taste for fine whiskey (aged 12 years or longer) is so unquenchable that distilleries in Scotland are considering rationing their product.  Worldwide sales of whiskey increased 5% in 2008, with a higher growth in the Asian market.

Maybe it’s just because I haven’t paid too much attention to whiskey sales in the past, but I’ve seen quite a few good ones lately. Take the one above from Canadian Club.

This advertisement is hilarious. It has a tagline that you have to read twice, bright colors, and a badass message. Exactly, in my opinion, what new whiskey drinkers want to be. This ad forces the reader to consider whiskey in a personal way. Even if his father wasn’t a whiskey drinker, the ad makes it so. This advertisement also plays to the current trend of the 1960s nostalgic era that we’re currently in. The success of AMC’s Mad Men has already spurred copycats in the TV realm (Pan Am, The Playboy Club), so it’s only logical that it’s copied in other media as well.

Wiser’s Canadian Whiskey also had an interesting TV advertisement, with a similar feel (though in a modern context):

I also like this ad. Like the Canadian Club print advertisement, it plays to the young males (whiskey’s primary target audience) who are coming into their own as men. The man in the commercial is a problem solver, a critical thinker, and a whiskey drinker. In the end, he’s congratulated by a group of elite and established gentlemen for his prowess. This plays to Wiser’s target demographic in an interesting and new way: I think that a common model for luxury items, such as alcohol, was to show an established man, with an affluent, luxurious, old-school gentleman-esque lifestyle, a man’s man, who prefers brand X. Now, companies show the common man. The man shopping with the girlfriend, doing regular everyday things, but his life IS STILL old-school gentleman-esque, a man’s man, and he chooses to drink brand X. And he’s you.

All in all, I take my [old school gentleman fedora] hat off to whiskey ads. Increased sales and awesome advertisements? Yes and Yes.

Credits:

http://adage.com/china/article/fast-facts/chinese-demand-for-top-scotch-is-causing-whisky-shortage/134505/

Crisis (Non) Communication

 

With the emergence of an even better, faster, cooler phone on its way to over a million customers, the iPhone is living large. Not only did apple have millions waiting on tenterhooks to find out what the latest innovation would be, but also it has achieved record-breaking pre-orders.  It has already dominated the two largest wireless networks in the nation, and is one it’s way to delivering its product to an entirely new network nation: Sprint. IPhone is surpassing all expectations with flying colors and is securing itself as the best smart phone out there.

 

So why can’t blackberry even figure out E-MAILS?!

 

Earlier this week, European blackberry users had trouble accessing e-mails and messages on their mobile devices. In the middle of the workweek. During the week Apple chose to unleash its new super-phone. And the problem spread to the United States and South America. Yikes. So you’d think that RIM (Research in Motion) would have come mad crisis-communication tricks up its sleeve, right?

 

You’d be wrong.

 

Even though the only continent not experiencing blackberry problems is Antarctica, no one at blackberry seems to care. They’ve only gone so far as to say they were sorry about the problem, and that they’re trying to get things going again.

 

My favorite quote in the entire article is this one from Gene Grabowski, a VP-chair of a crisis and litigation practice at a Communications firm: “They’re doing crisis response the way they’re designing their software these days—it’s outdated, slow, and not being well-received by their customers.” Ouch.

 

The worst part is, Grabowski is 100% right. RIM needs to get on the ball and figure things out. If it wasn’t bad enough to have major system errors, they’re having them the very week a major competitor is unveiling a solid and more popular product. RIM needs to hire new crisis communication specialists immediately. Brand Perception is down in the U.K. from a survey conducted this week. Since Blackberry’s most important market is businessmen and women, e-mail incapability need to be handled like the business nightmare it is.

 

RIM needs to address the costumers better. Instead of saying “yea, sorry, getting to it…” like a cable repairman, they need to present themselves as professional, concerned, and aware of the situation. RIM’s chief technology officer for software, David Yach stated, “At this time, I’m just concentrating on getting the system up and running again.” This makes it sound like RIM has no idea what the problem is. It also sounds like they simply don’t care.

 

Caring about your costumers’ concerns should be your business, blackberry. Especially if useful phones are not.

Credits:

Article: http://adage.com/article/digital/blackberry-outage-coup-iphone-damaging-brand/230372/

Photo: http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Blackberries.html

 

 

 

To Tweet or Not To Tweet

A few years ago, my friends and I mostly though Twitter was a passing fad, a lesser version of social media that would always be eclipsed by Facebook. Now, of course, we have been proven wrong. Twitter has become a strong social media site in its own rite, and does something better than Facebook: mobile access.

According to a recent article (link to be found at the bottom), over 60% of Twitter users access the site on their mobile devices. Heavy Twitter users are likely to use Twitter as a main source of news, especially in the political world.

What does this mean?

Political campaigns are starting to take notice. Many speculate that Twitter will be a major way in which 2012 candidates will promote themselves and their campaigns. Creating a dialogue via Twitter can draw attention to a particular issue, debate, or other current events. The mobility of the site means that political campaigns can help promote election events and volunteer opportunities to tweeters already on the move.

Twitter has proven itself as a viable social media outlet. People are paying attention. It’s a natural conclusion, therefore, for political candidates to take advantage of it. As of June 2011, Twitter is experiencing an average of 200 million tweets a day. About 25% of Twitter users follow a specific brand. Of those consumers, 67% will purchase that specific brand. That’s good news. That says a lot about Twitter followers, and it’s a trend that definitely shows promise for political campaigns using Twitter.

If a new medium for campaigns is there, why not use it?  I don’t think it would hurt a Politian to have a Twitter, especially if he or she uses it properly. It connects to a highly educated audience: 28% have college educations and 48% are currently enrolled in college. College educated young people are much more likely to vote: statistics show that 79% of young voters (18-29 years of age) in the 2008 election had some college education. Why not use twitter to reach the young educated population? It could work, and work well.

Sources:

“Twitter Statistics Updated Stats for 2011”: http://www.marketinggum.com/twitter-statistics-2011-updated-stats/

“College-Educated Young People Are Much More Likely to Vote Than Their Peers”:

http://chronicle.com/article/College-Educated-Young-People/40561

“Twitter Adverting: Some Early Advice”: http://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/260872/twitter-advertising-some-early-advice.thtml

http://lovisawilliams.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/twitterlogoandbird.jpg

Paper or Plastic?

 

 

 

 

 

I stumbled on an interesting article on Advertising Age today. The basis of the article has been reviewed before: the benefits of integrating more online and mobile-based programs and apps for the new generation of phone-addicted consumers. As the world becomes more and more connected via mobile phone, its natural for companies to integrate it’s advertising to appeal to this consumer group.

 

The most interesting part of the article, I thought, was the last part. It gave an example of a Korean Grocery store, Tesco,  that offers online shopping. Virtual grocery stores were set up at subway stops.  It allowed commuters to navigate virtual aisles that were set up in the same way at the store. The shopper simply scans the items he or she wants with a mobile phone. He can then pay for the items in his ‘virtual cart’ via phone. The groceries will be delivered to his house that day.

 

Tesco saw great success with this program. Online registration grew 76% and overall online sales grew 130%.  This allowed Tesco to increase it’s presence in the Korean grocery business with out paying the overhead costs of operating new locations. Plus, costumers were really excited about the new service and shared experiences online.

Check out this awesome video explaining the model and logistics of the new grocery shopping system:

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Why did this idea work? Because Tesco knew its market. Korea is a busy society with an increasing number of hard-working professionals. Tesco asserts that Koreans are the second most hard-working society in the world.  Korean consumers didn’t like the idea of going to the supermarket after a hard day’s work. Tesco capitalized this disinterest in grocery shopping by introducing an easy-to-use program in a convenient location.

 

This also introduces the question: which is better, mobile app or virtual grocery stand? Tesco found great success with physical kiosks in convenient locations. This forced those commuting on the subway to see what was going on: a virtual grocery stand is hard to ignore. The Costumer can literally stroll down the aisle and do his grocery shopping while waiting for a train. It’s genius.

 

Other grocery stores, such as Fresh Market and Cap Center Foods in Madison, Wis. choose to have websites. In a busy society like Korea, the convenience of shopping while waiting for a train was obviously successful. However, would Madison’s grocery stores find the same success if they had virtual grocery stores by bus stops? I hardly think so.  The Tesco approach was so successful because they did their research and had a great idea for the market they were competing for.

However, I believe there are benefits for all approaches. Companies that want to capitalize on the mobile-connected world need to try both. This is a completely new realm of the market, and companies will only find success through trial and error.

Source Credits:

http://adage.com/article/adagestat/roads-lead-mobile/230151/

http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/koreas-tesco-reinvents-grocery-shopping-with-qr-code-stores-20110628/