(I know exactly the process of buying and eating an Oreo, just as I know it with many other CPGs on the store shelves. I will probably buy it from my grocery store, Giant Eagle. It’s in the biscuits and cookies aisle, next to the frozen goods aisles. I know it’ll be next to a variety of Chips Ahoy and Newton Figs. I know that there are some varieties of Oreo’s, but I’ll pick the original because it’s my favorite. I know that they come in pretty big sizes. I’ll probably leave it on my kitchen counter, and I know that I’ll give it a go as soon as I come home from the grocery. I know that I’ll probably have about a quarter of the packaging, but it’ll take some time to have seconds. Meanwhile, I’ll be worried that it might go stale. Also, I know I must have milk with it, because without it, it just isn’t as much fun. Actually, it just doesn’t go along well with water, juice, or soda. Now, with of this in mind, should I go ahead, and make the purchase, right now?)

As someone who enjoys Oreo’s, I know exactly when I will buy it – when I’m craving for something sweet, but something that’ll fill my stomach to a certain level as opposed to candies and chocolate bars. At this point, I no longer care about how fattening or bulky the size is, or the price, or anything else that might conflict with my feelings about guilt. All of that, I can justify – “I’ll work out later. It’s worth all the penny as long as I finish it. I haven’t had one of these in quite some time, so it’s all worth it.”

We all now know how great Oreo’s taste with milk, and it has become an association that, thanks to great Account Planners at DraftFCB New York, become more of a conscious trend – if I buy an Oreo, I’ll make sure that I have milk in my fridge. But to try something new, perhaps understanding the exact moment when I crave for the next packaged set of Oreo’s could be an insight that could awaken the subconscious minds. For me, it’s when I want something fulfilling and sweet at the same time.

It’s all about that moment you crave for something, that moment you think about the process of buying and using it based on your past experiences. That’s where the sweet spot lies.

When do YOU crave for Oreos?

Bally Fitness' Promotional Page for Free MP3s

Bally Fitness decided to offer a new way to attract new customers: offer them 20 free MP3 songs. Well, since most people listen to music on their earphones while using fitness machines, what a great way to attract new fitness club members.

Well, the insight was there: people listen to music when working out. But on a strategic level, my question is, will this work? Or, are free MP3′s relevant to subscribing to a gym?

The Problems I Found

1. The Relevancy

The importance of downloading MP3s (or paying for it) vs. the importance of committing to go to a fitness club is a totally different story.

Since Bally is using this campaign to attract new customers, perhaps the first insightful question should be: Are these non-members ready to commit to challenge themselves to invest in a valuable workout? Well, if not, then they will not pay a monthly fee to use that service that they know they won’t end up using at all. When deciding to join a gym, it’s a matter of commitment: do I have the time? Do I have the physical ability? How many times will I go in a week? Is that worth the monthly payments? I can exercise for free outdoors can’t I?

To make such a decision, one goes through a lot – about his/her life. If he’s working every day from 8AM – 8PM, I doubt he’ll have the time to join the gym. I mean, he’s got kids to take care of, have dinner, etc. If she’s traveling for work every week, she can use the hotel’s gym on her stay at a remote location. Why pay for this?

So after an evaluation of one’s lives, seeing “20 FREE MP3′s” won’t matter at all. It’s trivial compared to the commitment and effort they must put into deciding whether they should join or not.

2. The Burden

Well, to get the free 20 MP3 songs, the campaign tells one to join the gym online. Then, the user must go onto the Universal Music’s website (since Bally’s is partnering with Universal Music (and paying a hefty fee) for this promotion) and look for their choice of songs. Now, the user should just wait…. for, I don’t know, 10 days? Bally will send a redemption code, together with a link, and then there are further instructions. It doesn’t seem like much a process since the music’s basically free. But when the importance of MP3 downloads are trivial to the decision-making point, having a complex process doesn’t help at all. It’s just too much.

Well Then, What’s the Solution?

First, I would not have done this campaign. Or at least, this campaign should have been targeted at return-customers, or their most loyal customers to extend their subscriptions.

Second, if downloads were to be offered, it should be offered within the website – make the downloading part of the Bally’s Fitness Website experience, not of a totally different entity.

Third, I would suggest, dig deeper into the touchpoints – After What Process Will That Person Click The “Join the Club” Button? Many strategies will follow from here.

See, back in the day, Reebok was just as good as Nike. Now, Reebok is dead. I know they still have them in stores, but to me, they’re invisible – Nike, Adidas, and Under Armor are the first that come to my mind. (albeit, Adidas owns Reebok now…) Today, Reebok’s combined market share together with its parent company, Adidas, only amounts to 11%, while Nike is thriving on 44% (2008). Reebok’s biggest segment – the shoe department – dropped even more recently, especially with women’s athletic footwear dropping from 3.6% to 1.9% market share this year. Meanwhile again, Nike’s share rose to 45.7%.

While I’ve seen Reebok trying to regain some shares in the women’s apparels and footwear segments through more creative advertising, there has been and still is a fundamental problem: REEBOK HAS NO BRAND VISIBILITY.

Before trying to target certain audiences, Reebok must try and understand where consumers stand. “What are the attributes of the Reebok brand?” Ans: “dull, old, antique, grayish…” Funny thing is, there’s not even any emotion that partakes in this attribute building exercise for me. I don’t hate it. And I don’t like it. It’s just… Somewhere out there…

So what is my recommended solution?

Start by rebuilding the audience. Check where the problem lies. Only then, begin by reconsidering its product line to see whether it’s on the right track to winning customers. And only then even consider starting a creative campaign like the one above. And if they do, it should start introducing the TOTALLY NEW Reebok – tell us, tell me that there’s a NEW Reebok out there to get my attention!

Wish I had more time and space to actually write up a strategic plan. But all the luck to Reebok. Hope I can regain my faith in a brand I once loved as a child.

It has many, many cool features. And it’s fast.

It’s definitely what we need in today’s world of computing.

But let’s take it down the line of time: say, in 10 years?

According to Pew Internet & American Life Project, global technology will be low cost – and virtually everywhere. Virtual reality will become reality in the workforce and at home. The speed of the Internet will be at a minimum of 1 gigabit per second, anywhere on earth. (Right now, the fastest offered by Verizon FiOS is 50 megabits per second - my Comcast is at 6mbps, so imagine around 100 times faster, or you can download around 15,000 MP3 songs in a minute).

Now, do you think you will use text-based, minimal graphics offered by Google? I know I won’t.

So let’s tackle the problems first. First off, Google, unless you set it up to your personal page, only gives you the minimalist option – a keyword search bar, a cool Google logo, and some links that you have to click on to navigate through. In 10 years, this will become a nuisance. Even today, Google’s coolest new products aren’t really visible – unless you actually go into their cool features page.

Google must start preparing for the development of newest technologies. It’s business model – text-based, non-cluttered advertising based on its super clean and fast text-based searches, should somehow be changed. It needs to rework its landing page, and start bringing in more interactivity and graphics and multimedia. It’s time to start shifting to a new era and reposition itself if it wants to hold its #1 spot in searches.

If Google doesn’t prepare (I’m sure they are preparing internally), Yahoo, Bing, AOL, and even Lycos could become the next leaders in search engines.

The Ad Industry Needs to Be Marketed More

While English may not be my first language, I never knew what the term “marketing” was until I took an intro marketing course in college.

Isn’t that ironic? How the billions of dollars spent on marketing can’t push the general term out to young kids.

I was lucky. I fell in love with it. And maybe most marketing professionals were lucky like me.

But here’s an ugly truth: I’ve never seen or heard of any child who’s dreamed of becoming a marketer. Period.

I’ve heard cute dreams of being a doctor, a princess, a president, a lawyer, a pilot, or a inventor… but a marketer? Wow and ow.

What’s even sadder is that Advertising, which is really a part of all the marketing efforts is even more clandestine.

Ask a layperson if they know what an Account Executive does: “what? some kind of accounting CEO?”

Ask a layperson what a copywriter does: “someone who makes copyrights?”

See, I learned marketing, but never knew about such roles in advertising until I actually started studying advertising on my own.

But why? Why should I not know?

I knew that there were analysts, associates, and partners and directors in law and consulting firms.

I knew there were software developers and project managers, network administrators and database managers in IT firms.

I knew there were CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CMOs, CSOs, Presidents and Chairmen.

Why not Account and Strategic Planners, Media Coordinators and Planners, Traffic Coordinators, Account Executives and Supervisors and Directors, and Copywriters and Art Directors and Creative Directors?

How come none of these were advertised, or even a small discussion passed by at least once in my eclectic lifetime - aren’t advertisers the best at this?

Enough about job positions. I knew what advertising was… I’ve seen Marlboro men on and off highways and deserts in the middle of Africa. I’ve seen Coca-Cola bottles being used as a divine symbol by a Zulu tribeman in the 1980 movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy. But who made these ads? I’ve always thought it was the actual marketers making them. How would I have ever known there were ad agencies behind all this? And if so, how would I have known which were the famous?

Tiger Woods started golf before he could even speak. Doctors have doctors in their family, as do lawyers. Business moguls inherit their businesses from their parents and grandparents. That’s what we call exposure. These people were exposed at an early age, and they chose it as if it were their destiny. Advertising is all about exposing to the biggest, or at least, the most targetable audiences. And so are careers. If the Advertising Industry wants to become a bigger, proliferous industry, it must invest in talent. In order to invest in talent, it must invest in exposing what Advertising is to young audiences. Make it their dream, make it their fantasy. Start advertising advertising.

Magazine 'Gourmet' to Shut Down

It’s really sad to see traditional media dying, with newspapers, magazines, and radio becoming one of the biggest victims. The truth is, there is perhaps no possible solution to such channels as it is a natural phenomenon – since viewership migrates to online, advertisers will rather spend the money where the audience is. There’s really no one to blame.

But to close down a 68-year-old history? Maybe there are ways to survive through strategic target marketing, and not by luring in incentives by simply lowering subscription rates or offering trial offers. Here’s my suggestion.

• LOOK FOR WHERE THE MONEY IS

As someone who’s always interested in self-development and the willingness to keep track of the latest industry news, there are hundreds of magazines I’d like to subscribe to. The reality is, I can’t afford it. But if there was someone else who could pay for such services, such as my parents, I know for a fact that they would do it for me. And most likely, those willing to self-develop like myself are among groups of people in college an early stage professionals. They might not have the capabilities to subscribe to a bunch of magazines – but maybe, maybe… their parents who support their sons’ and daughters’ success in careers can help out.

To do this, an easy way would be to partner with where such groups of people are. Why not partner with colleges? Get rid of those trial offers FOR EVERYONE, and rather offer lower-rated offers for students. Or make a deal with a college to have your magazine offers sent in college or alumni newsletters to the parents. I’m sure those in marketing in such publications also have children – and you’ll know this universal insight – parents will do anything for their children’s success.

Now, marketers may think, ‘my magazine is a food magazine, and our readers our 40~50-year-old housewives.’ Well, come at it from this angle: maybe they’re reading your magazine because housewives do a lot of cooking, and they’re good at it, and they want to be better at it, and they can afford it because their husbands will pay for it. I would suggest, ‘get out of the box!’ In my opinion, there would be two ways to tackle this.

1. Don’t assume your reader audience is your only audience.In other words, maybe 20-year-old males are just as into cooking as the housewives are. Establish a touch-point: tell them that learning to cook gourmet food will win romance (and yes, they do), and that it will lead to a unique thing to write in their hobbies or differentiating themselves during job interviews.
   
2. Don’t assume marketing to 40-50-year-old housewives just because they’re your audience. Yes, I see a lot of cooking magazines in a dentist’s office, because housewives go there a lot during the day. But imagine their children in middle school, when they sleep over at their friend’s house, and come back home telling, “Mommy! Jeff’s mom’s pasta is so much better than yours!” Or how a husband comes back from a dinner invite and tells his wife that his boss’ wife’s food is better. There are always such touch-points where having a cooking magazine can boost the real audience’s (40-50 year old housewives) ego, motivation, pride, and lessen the stress of hearing that she is not the best cook in the world (or at least, in comparison to a competing housewife). Target their children, their husbands, and their pride.

It’s sad to hear publications go down. And just because you’re in traditional media doesn’t mean you should market the traditional way. Use variances. Use radical methods untested before. What have you got to lose?