Advertising / Morts 'n' All

No Daves (We're allowed one)

2009-12-03T07:57:00.000-08:00

Brands being able to have conversations with their consumers around the world is brilliant. But far from giving them the power to appear more active towards individual concerns, some companies are using social media to appear more distant than ever.

The fact is, most big brands are only talking to their American fans, and it can feel like those of us in Europe are just rude passers by, listening in with a cup against the door.

I can see why brands would want one world voice, but when they get people to post great deals on social networks for their online store, only for it to be exclusive to American users, that's not good enough.

It creates a kind of second class consumer, who can see great deals and great bonuses, but isn't allowed near them. If you're a fan enough of a company to follow them on Twitter or Facebook, then being treated like this is a massive kick in the teeth.

So lets get some more localised brand voices can we?

It's not the winning, it's the taking part

2009-11-27T04:13:00.000-08:00

I've recently been reading about Goal Theory in education and it's made me ponder some of the recent new media promotions that have been around recently.

It seems people tend to fall into two categories when approaching tasks. There is the Performance group, who want to complete a task to show how talented they are and the Mastery group, who want to gain the skills from completing the task.

What's interesting is how this effects motivation for tasks. The Performance group will be highly motivated for short tasks that they know they'll be good at, but they will quickly lose interest if they struggle, or do not receive praise/recognition.

The Mastery group on the other hand are more motivated by tasks with deeper engagement, that offer them new skills for their hard work.

So here's the advertising bit.

I'm sure I've stated several times before on this blog that I'm not a fan of the 'design a video/ad for our brand' promotions. They look to get people to engage with the brand for a long period of time, but then they only seem to offer any reward for the one winner, who probably already knew they had the skills to win the competition.

Most of them play to the Performance orientated audience, but this leaves the talented winner of the competition happy, while the others gave up long before because they weren't getting a reward.

This doesn't seem like a great way of getting consumers to spend a long period of time engaged with your brand.

I feel the best forms of interactive advertising are those that appeal to both the Mastery and Performance groups, in that they celebrate the best, while offering self improvement to all those who enter. I suppose the best example of this is the Nike + work and I think this kind of work that rewards all who take part is by far the best way of getting genuine long term engagement, not just a few YouTube uploads for the novelty of it.

C-lists' friends lists

2009-11-23T07:23:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, I did quite enjoy seeing the 'Stephen Fry: Tweet Me!' sign from a member of the crowd in the Darts final yesterday, and of course the following shout out from the man himself.

However, I can't help but feel as Twitter gets bigger, all live news and sporting events will collapse in a sea of people trying to get Andi Peters to say their name.

There used to be an art to celebrity stalking...

Accidental Genius

2009-10-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

I've seen two great uses of word of mouth and new media by EA recently, but I can't figure out if they were on purpose or not. I guess that's the future of internet promotions really - if they're done well people are sucked in without knowing about it.

Become the enemy of your friends enemy

The first thing they did was attack the dodgy developer Tim Langdell, who was famous only for having copyrighted the word Edge and using it to get money off of loads of real developers. He had recently got a game called Edge taken off the App store and this had lead to the gaming community uncovering his various unpleasant methods of creating court cases, such as pretending he had a game called 'MIRRORS a game by EDGE' in production.

And so this is where EA came in and decided to take Tim to court over the fact that he was forcing real developers to pay him money for no legitimate reason. Thus somehow the lawyers of a big corporation were being hailed as heroes by fans of small indie studios. Just a few short years ago EA's lawyers were a symbol of everything wrong with the games industry to many hardcore gamers, so whether it was on purpose or not, the lawsuit made a real positive impact on the company's image.

A bug in the system

This one I'm fairly certain wasn't on purpose, but it would have been so clever I really hope it was the work of a marketing man.

Last Saturday there was a bug on the EA store which meant putting three specific games in your basket got you them for free. Seems like a terrible thing for a business, but as soon as one customer got the games for free the internet was flooded with people talking about the EA store and stepping over their own mother to sign up and get the games before the bug was fixed.

At a time when EA are desperately trying to create an online digital distribution service which can compete with the likes of Steam, this 'bug' created word of mouth the size and speed of which no ordinary promotion could have managed.

The Pringle Jingle Pickle

2009-10-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

I was disappointed to see the new Pringles advert contained a song about wanting fun - and it wasn't this poetic assault on the senses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eKu2eDgiac

If anyone working for Pringles is currently searching for a song about partying for their next ad, I may have a suggestion for you...

Adverts are like Primark t-shirts

2009-09-10T03:33:00.000-07:00

Two TV adverts seem to be on at every break recently. The googly eyed drug driving campaign and the Derren Brown lottery shenanigans.

The thing is, only one of those ads seems to realise it's being shown all the time. So, while the big eyes are appropriately eye catching the first time you see them, you soon get bored by the traditional naughty-driving storyline.

However, even after Derren's been burnt like a witch for guessing those numbers, I still pay close attention to his ads for all the little messages and tricks in the background.

Now obviously not everyone is trying to sell magic paraphernalia, or Paul Daniels would still be on TV, but it seems like there must be enough material in a good product or idea to keep an advert interesting through the second and third viewing.

It strikes me as strange that we all aim to get the right consumers to see our ad multiple times, and yet very rarely are they ever given anything to make them want to pay attention more than once.

Whether putting hidden detail in an ad, mixing up the same story to give it a new lease of life (see previous Barclays post) or just having an idea so good it's worth seeing twice, there's no doubt that with a bit of skill and talent, consumers can be made to want to see your communication again.

In the land of Sky+, if the big campaigns want to live the dream of being as good as the content it interrupts, then there needs to be acceptance that a design/story/reveal that only engages once, is only worth showing once.

A brief chat with Duffy

2009-08-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

I love Spotify, but I can't stand the adverts. Not the frequency of the adverts, just the adverts themselves.

Sometimes it feels like the people producing the ads have never discovered audio in an advert before. I can't think of any other reason for them to think it was a good idea to get this weeks most popular artists and get them to talk to me about their records with all the excitement of someone selling me a new mobile phone plan.

Of course, maybe it's just them thinking this Spotify is a bit like one of them social networks, so let's pretend we're all friends. Well it doesn't work. There's a reason why TV ads for albums show the songs and the videos, rather than 30 seconds of Bono sitting by a fireplace saying "Oh, hello there! I'd like to take a few minutes to talk to you about our lovely new album".

Even that sounds a bit too natural compared to some of the scripted stuff being read out by artists who clearly aren't selected to talk to me based on the music I listen to. For example: "The guys at Spotify think that everyone loves music, and I think you will too".

Now, unless upon me downloading this woman's song I step outside and the world is holding hands and singing together in peace, I find it hard to see any sense in that line what so ever. It would feel stupidly corporate in a hard sell TV ad, let alone this friendly online chat between musical pals.

So please Spotify, I honestly don't mind how many adverts for albums you put in there, just make sure I can hear the music and not some marketing guys 'friendly' chatter.

Loser Generated

2009-08-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of my things vaguely related to both computer games and advertising.

Ever since John Internet invented Web 2.0, there have been competitions based around Youtube videos. They're all good fun and there's usually entertainment in watching the winners, but its not really that inclusive.

The trouble with user generated content as competitions is that there's a lot of people using the internet, and only one of those I would like to win. If people had to create a film each week just to enter the lottery then no-one would do it and this is sometimes how these competitions can feel for me. A lot of effort, for no reward.

So, the question is, how do you get people to take part in a challenge which for most people is far too tough for them to win? Who knows... but there are a few interesting examples of ways computer games have tackled this issue.

The first example is quite simply just breaking the challenge down into chunks. The Xbox does this using achievements - little celebrations that appear periodically to reward you for each major step you make in the game. So if someone never makes it to the big boss on level 10, they still have little medals saying they've conquered the game right up to level 9.

Now achievements are a big success story in gaming, but there's not much point having a level 9 badge if there's no-one to compare it to. This is where rivals come in.

In the old days a rival was probably a friend playing at your side, but with the internet there can be millions of people you've never met, doing better than you at a game. This is where a music game called Audiosurf has done some great work. First of all it splits scoreboards by songs, so there'll always be one track in your iTunes list that's obscure enough for you to top the leaderboard with.

Secondly, it sends you an email when someone beats your score and knocks off your crown. I recently received one saying someone had beaten my score at 'The Groove' by Muse, and despite having not played the game for several months, I am now wholly focused on crushing my nemesis. A rival, out of nowhere! It's genius and has exactly the same effect it does in sports - it makes you try harder and play more.

Finally, there's Spore, perhaps the most closely related to my Youtube ramble at the start, as it too is essentially a tool for user generated content. For those who don't know, you essentially use the game to build all manner of creatures and then construct your own designs for their houses etc.

This could have quite easily ended in the usual problem of a few superhumans creating work better than everyone one else, so the average Joe's work is forgotten. However, the twist is that it places other people's work into your game at all times, so you will always see new creatures and buildings created by someone, somewhere in the world.

There are still options to pick from the best of the bunch, but by default, the work of anyone in the world can be used to populate your planet. This leads to not only enjoyment at other peoples creations, but also extra work on your own, because you know that far far away someone has just been clawed to death by your incredible Dr Zoidberg look-a-like.

Now for me those first two examples can be put into practice straight away, but I think the final idea opens up an interesting area about how promotions based around user generated content can have people's work integrated right through the experience, and become part of the interaction, not just as something you passively view at the end.

Congratulations, the audience recalled none of the information!

2009-07-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Quick Quid TV advert is surely a work of cunning genius.

It gets the perfect balance of boredom and repetition, so that after viewing it around four times I know the name and a general idea of what the business is.

Now perhaps this isn't the best a company could hope for after four viewings, but I think it's very successful for the fact that at no point after seeing the ad did I scream "Typical 2356% APR".

Typical 2356% APR

Now in fairness, this is a short term loan over perhaps a week or two, but that's one hell of a bombshell to sweep under the carpet.

Like I said, I only found this info on their website so I can't say for certain whether it's hidden in small writing somewhere at the bottom of the ad, or has just been kept away from TV at all costs like an ugly presenter.

Either way, I can't imagine it's a terribly good method of helping people in desperate need of money to make a sensible choice.

Still, I feel it does give us a good way of judging political campaigns. It's not the number of votes the BNP get, it's the number of adverts people can watch before thinking the word 'racist'.

If Charlie and The Chocolate Factory happened today...

2009-07-16T08:27:00.001-07:00

I honestly can't remember the last on-pack competition I've paid any attention to. And this is from someone who has no brand loyalty when it comes to having slim chances of winning stuff.

For a long time now the joy of opening a wrapper to see 'Bad luck, try again next time' has been completely replaced by unique codes you text or type online and ever since then the sparkly gold competition wrappers have had absolutely no impact on me.

I understand this method gives marketers lots of lovely data on consumers, but it just seems like they've made it harder and less enjoyable for consumers without giving anything back to them in return.

I'd love to see a return to good old fashioned competitions, but sadly I think if it did happened, I'd be too used to ignoring them to notice.

The best thing George Lucas ever did...

2009-07-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

No, your thing is wrong! It wasn't Star Wars or that guy who survives nuclear blasts in fridges. No, the best thing George Lucas did was set up LucasArts, the game development studio that made some of the best games of all time (including one that did involve the miracle fridge dweller).

I grew up with the early LucasArts adventures and can thus blame them for everything from my sense of humour, to my inquisitive nature and mild kleptomania. And no game was more important to me than Monkey Island - a game about ridiculously named pirates, health conscious cannibals and the second biggest monkey head you've ever seen.

If you'd like to know more about the story, just watch Pirates of the Caribbean, which is pretty much copied wholesale from this game (apparently the writers were working on a Monkey Island film, but went to Disney when it was cancelled...).

However there is another way to learn more, as after 9 years LucasArts have finally stopped milking Star Wars and bought Monkey Island back, with both a new game AND a remake of the original. You should buy it. You should all buy it!

Anyway, now for a seamless link back to advertising...

Expect The Unexpected

In actual fact I thought of quite a few things my favourite games could tell us about interacting with consumers so this may well become a new regular feature of the blog. But for now, I'd like to talk about how LucasArts rewarded their consumers for playing the games wrong.

For those who don't know, these games were essentially interactive stories (a bit like the old text adventures or choose your own ending books - only less terrible) where the player advances the narrative by saying the right things to the right people and using the collection of objects they have stored in their pocket to overcome a situation.

The inevitable problem is that there is only ever one story and one path to the end, so either the game requires no real interaction from the player, or the poor schmuck at the keyboard is going to spend a lot of there time doing pointless and irrelevant activities in the hope of finding the one that the programmers needed them to do to move the storyline along.

This isn't exactly sounding much fun, but they were! And the reason why is because LucasArts were brilliant at anticipating where the player would ignore the correct path and filled these situations with jokes and hints to keep them entertained and looking for the action that the programmers wanted them to make.

Recently two ad campaigns (I told you it would be seamless) that I've enjoyed most have used a similar technique of anticipating when the consumer would go off their desired path.

An advert for a comparison website needs people to remember the website name and then to type it in online. It's a set path to more visitors and they achieved the first step for the audience by making an advert that confused Compare the Market with Compare the Meerkat.

But if the campaign had stopped there and assumed everyone would take the correct path to the comparison site then those ads wouldn't be half as loved as they are. Instead they anticipated that people might try something different and created a Meerkat website that rewarded people for ignoring what the marketers ultimately wanted. This website entertained while reinforcing the aim of the advert and pushing people towards the action the company really wanted -pure LucasArts magic in action!

Another example is the recent Stephen Merchant Barclay's adverts. In an ideal world the fact that the ads were on every day should have reinforced the messages the marketing department wanted me to know until I was compelled to open the appropriate account. Of course in the real world after the first time I see the ad, I know what happens and my mind goes for a nice wander.

This was what happened for several weeks, but then the campaign recaptured my attention and admiration with just one little tweak - "No, it's different this ad". Suddenly I felt like Barclay's knew why I wasn't paying attention to it and, well, it's hard to ignore something that's trying to outsmart you.

LucasArts would spend hours analysing teams of people playing their games before they were released, to make sure they had a comical quip for everything players would attempt that didn't fit into the storyline they were ultimately aiming for. I think when you look at it like that, there's still a lot more advertising campaigns can do to keep their audiences engaged and heading in the right direction.

And so, in the end, I think I can forgive George Lucas for all the prequels and that ridiculous fridge scene.

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No, I can't do it... it was a nuke dammit!

Pixcellent

2009-07-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

This blog has received a new lick of paint to honour the unveiling of the new Mortfolio website (http://www.mortfolio.co.uk/).

Of course this is not just a visual improvement to cover up the old hat and the well travelled shoe, this site will now contain actual UPDATES and THINGS about ADVERTISING and MAYBE MORE.

Try not to cringe, it will be over soon...

2009-07-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for an inventive young Planner with a year of experience working on big brands such as Nissan, BP and EA Games?

Well conveniently you can contact one at davidmortimer [at] mortfolio.co.uk

Ok, that was painful for everyone involved, so let's move on and talk about advertising shall we...

The New Adventures

2009-06-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while.

Having been busy with my first job in advertising I've found it hard to keep writing anything on here. But deep down I knew that one day, something....something BIG would make me update again.

But I didn't expect this event to be as big as it was. I never guessed in my wildest dreams that I would find someone else in the advertising industry with the exact same taste in creative as me.

Someone brave enough to take a risk.

Someone brave enough to look at piles of research suggesting it won't work, stroll up to their client and say "We're hiring Dean Cain!"

Coming Soon...

2008-10-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

Ch-Ch-Ch-Churches

2008-08-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

There have been some big changes these couple of months (which strangely in the land of blogs means fewer updates).

So, now things have settled down a bit, here is a selection of updates squeezed together into one handy suppository.

There were some good hat flinging times at the start of July, when I graduated from my Advertising and Brand Management course with a First. It was a great day, with some fine Jazz music and the life story of a ferret loving, 15 hour play ad-libbing, Brookside starring ventriloquist actor. I think this official proved that they do indeed give honorary degrees to anyone these days...

Anyway, the very next working day, I was starting another new adventure, with a month long placement at TBWA Manchester. Now obviously TBWA Dronfield would allow me a few hours more sleep everyday, but to my surprise, they haven't thought of it yet.

Fast forward to present day and you'll have gone too far, because two weeks ago I was told that I could stay on as Junior Planner, which was very nice indeed (and probably down to my snappy dress sense more than anything).

So, I'm not quite sure how it's happened but I've managed to get a proper job doing what I enjoy. Now I've just got to work very hard to make sure I keep it...

But what, I hear you politely ask, will become of this fine series of largely mediocre pun based portfolio websites?

Well, now i don't need to shove my work into the face of anyone who comes near me, I hope to carry on the blog in some kind of new form. I'd quite like to find some niche for this thing, so when I think of one, I'll write it down.

And that, in a nutshell, is where I'm at now. It's been an exciting couple of months, which has somehow given me the job I worked so hard through Uni to try and achieve. Hopefully I can do some good work and prove I deserved this chance.

Things with which I have done for breakfast: Kellogg's

2008-07-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

This project was done for my course and required me to radically update a brand of my choice, according to the effect current and future trends may have on their business...

Strategy: Future Thinking

Kellogg’s Proposal

In 5 years time trends, regulations and lifestyle changes will create, destroy or evolve many different brands. This report aims to highlight and solve those problems which may affect the Kellogg’s brand in the UK in 2013.

About the Company

Kellogg’s is an American company which focuses mainly on breakfast cereal. It was founded by W. K. Kellogg in 1906, under the idea that he could keep people healthy by providing them with a better diet.[1]

Kellogg’s are the leaders in the breakfast cereal category, with a total market share of just under 40%, compared to its rivals Nestle and Weetabix with 20% each. However, like most leader brands, they have been slowest to react to changes in the market, allowing Nestle to present a healthier ‘wholegrain’ image of their company and Weetabix to extend its lead as the single best selling cereal product.

The Consumer

Kellogg’s specialises in cold cereal, and this is eaten most amongst the young, with around 87% of 15-24 year olds and 89% of 25-34 year olds enjoying it.[2]

This graph shows the consumption of hot and cold cereals by age group.[3]
Although general penetration of the products is high across all the age groups, it is how often they eat it which really makes a difference to sales.
For Kellogg’s, their current highest users are children, with 10% of them eating more than one bowl of cereal per day.[4]

Trends which could negatively affect Kellogg’s

There will be a number of issues and trends which will affect the success of the Kellogg’s company in the UK in 2013. One example of these is the growing concerns about childhood obesity, and in turn, the pressure this puts on companies selling junk food to children. Recent rulings from Ofcom, to stop products with excessive fat, sugar or salt in them from being advertised in programmes watched by under 16s, have not been considered enough by health bodies.[5] This means the debate and controversy around the issue is likely to continue for years to come.

Kellogg’s have already tried to avoid negative press on this issue by limiting the use of their child-friendly cartoon characters, such as Coco the Monkey. This means that by 2013, there will be a generation of children who are unlikely to recognise these famous icons, who have been a big draw for children in the past.

This could result in a big drop in usage, as children lose interest in cold cereal, and parents are no longer encouraged to sit and eat it along side them. It may therefore soon be down to the parents to have to convince their children to eat breakfast cereal, as apposed to the other way round. This would require a big change in how and who Kellogg’s tries to communicate to.

Another problem facing Kellogg’s is the recent increase in the popularity of hot cereals, such as porridge, which is now starting to take sales away from cold cereal. Advances in recipes by their competition and the common ownership of microwaves, mean that hot cereal is now almost as quick to make as cold cereal. This is a problem to Kellogg’s because Ready Brek and Quaker are proving popular with children and older adults respectively, but currently Kellogg’s do not even have a product in the category.[6]

The reason that shorter preparation times for hot cereal has led to increased sales is down to the fact that most adults don’t have enough time to prepare decent food in the morning. Having time to themselves is such a rare thing, that many people are now considering time and space to be the new definition of luxury[7]. Finding the time in their customer’s day for them to eat their favourite Kellogg’s cereal will definitely be a factor in the years to come.

Potentially, the distribution of Kellogg’s products may be an issue by 2013 as well. Currently, 95% of cereal that reaches the consumer is purchased from a supermarket. This is largely due to the smaller local shops that used to stock it dying out under the pressure from major chains such as ASDA and Tesco.[8]

This is not a major problem at the moment, but should the controversy over junk food or general relations with one of the supermarket brands become strained, Kellogg’s could lose much of its shelf space. This would leave them unable to sell their products in the same quantity or number of varieties as before.

Trends which offer opportunities

However, as much as 2013 could hold threats for Kellogg’s, there are also developing trends which will offer opportunities for growth, or at least further ways to hold off the competition and retain their leadership.

One such opportunity is the increasing use of ‘added health’ ingredients in everyday food products[9]. Omega3 has been appearing on the labels of everything from fish fingers to margarine and as science continues to pick out the ingredients that do our bodies good, the demand for them will increase and people will look for the easiest way to obtain them.

This trend goes beyond people picking a product because of a single ingredient though. Today we can see the start of a trend for mass customisation, where people want their products exactly to their specification. This can be seen across a range of stores and cafés, such as Starbucks and Smoothie bars. People are beginning to expect to be able to pick their specific drink, to their own specification, adding or leaving out whatever they choose.[10]

Another factor which may affect Kellogg’s success in 2013 will be the growing concern over the environment. Kellogg’s obviously uses a lot of packaging, so an innovative, thorough recycling scheme could have people looking favourably towards the brand, even if they don’t like the product.

Finally, ‘Pro-active knowledge seeking’ will continue to grow, as the masses of data available over the internet causes consumers to investigate their once trusted brands and demand more information about the food they eat.[11]

People will want to be given all the facts about their products, and become displeased if they feel they have been misled. Recent attempts to provide this have lead to positive feedback for brands, including Sainsbury’s, with their ‘Wheel of health’ diagrams on their packaging.[12]

New Strategies

For Kellogg’s to maintain its position as leader of the breakfast cereal market in 2013, they will need to turn the problems facing the cereal business into innovative solutions, based on the brand values which saw them rise to the top in the first place.

Kellogg’s must start to act like a challenger brand and react to trends sooner rather than later[13], presenting a healthier image, spread over a wider range of product categories, while also providing the customisation, availability and ethics 2013’s customers will demand. They must do all this while still fighting to make breakfast cereal fit into people’s hectic lifestyles, so that new, older, heavier users can take over from the harder to reach children.

New Audience

The target market for their new promotions will be ABC1 young adults, who have children. Currently they will be the generation of University Graduates, who are aimed at by Innocent smoothies, a company which identified a trend for young people that want to get vitamins and minerals as easily as possible[14]. In fact, nearly one in four of them use diet or health food for this purpose, and this is continuing to rise.[15]

By 2013, they will be busy working hard in jobs, trying to get a promotion, while perhaps raising a young family. Research has shown they are the least likely to be able to find time to properly take care of themselves and therefore Kellogg’s is in the perfect position to take the advantages smoothies gave them and apply it to their new lifestyle.[16]

At the moment, this target market eats breakfast only when they can fit it into their hectic day, meaning, although they always buy cereal, they cannot become heavy users.[17] It is instead reserved to being eaten on weekend mornings, or as snacks, when they have the time to sit down and relax with it. On weekday mornings they will simply grab whatever they can eat quickly, or get something at work.

The people in this market are also big users of the internet, as it allows them to do things like bank as quickly as possible. This sums up their lifestyle quite well, with them currently having to settle for speed over experience when it comes to products and services.

The new strategies that will keep Kellogg’s in a leading position in 2013 will all be based around how to solve the key issues which will be affecting this target market of young adults in 5 years time.

Health - W.K Kellogg’s

For Kellogg’s to achieve all it needs to without scaring off their younger customers by removing the fun elements, such as the bright packaging and sugar, Kellogg’s will need to form a sub-brand. This will cover their healthier more natural products and must be capable of providing a health message, in a way their current brand could not believably achieve.

The new brand will play on their history as a Doctor prescribed health food, to add more authenticity to their message, and hopefully, by doing so, add to the perceived image of the original Kellogg’s brand. The new products will also have to command a slightly higher price, again to give weight to a believable healthy image.

For these reasons the new Sub-Brand will be known as W.K. Kellogg’s. This is the name of the founder of Kellogg’s, who invented corn flakes[18]. They were made as part of an experiment to find a tasty food which could make people’s diets healthier. This simple story from the brand’s past can be brought to the forefront of the Kellogg’s identity, by using his name for the healthiest cereals they make.
Early Kellogg’s advert

This sub-brand will be able to reach out to the 25-34 year old consumers who have been so successfully targeted with smoothies by the Innocent brand. These are people who want to eat healthily but feel they are too lazy or too busy to manage it.[19] Therefore, like Innocent, W.K. Kellogg’s could offer a little portion of health, quickly and easily, when they need it.

Hot Cereal Popularity – New Products

There are other opportunities to entice this age group too. They are currently the least likely to consume hot cereal, which is the result of the two biggest brands in this category aiming at the age groups either side of them.[20] Ready Brek are currently a favourite with children and Quaker with the elderly, but there is a big gap in the market for people the age of Kellogg’s new target.

Kellogg’s should therefore release a hot cereal, designed to appeal to these young adults. It is vital however that it is made to taste its best after just a short time in the microwave, to help fit into their busier lives.

This will be a perfect new product to help launch the W.K. Kellogg’s sub-brand, as hot cereal such as porridge is well known for its health value.

Reliance on Supermarkets for Distribution – Health Stores

The new products may boost demand amongst young adults, but Kellogg’s must still find a way to get their packaged products consumed, without relying any further on supermarkets.

To do this Kellogg’s should look at the example set by chewing gum companies, who have successfully managed to distribute their products both at sweet counters and at oral health counters, based on which sort of chewing gum it is.[21]Having provided a cereal with real health credentials, Kellogg’s can now start to stock it in places other than the breakfast food shelves of supermarkets. Chemists and herbal health stores would be ideal locations for the W.K. Kellogg’s sub-brand to reach their health conscious, young adult target market.

Packaging

The W.K. Kellogg’s sub-brand must have distinctive packaging to separate it from the existing cereal’s unhealthy image. It should also be made to fit in with other products sold in health food shops, so that it can acquire some of the positive connotations associated with those goods.

To achieve this the cereal will be sold in jars as apposed to boxes. This will add to the premium and thus healthier image of the product as well as making it seem like a genuine health food product.

It will also give it a distinctive look in the market place and separate it from all of the competition, simply because it’s sold in such a different state.

Full labelling

As more and more people gain access to broadband, information about nearly anything is available to almost everyone. This has lead to a serge in ‘Pro-active knowledge seeking’, which is the use of resources, such as the internet, to find out as much information about products as they can before they buy.[22]

While this would seem unlikely to affect a fast moving consumer good, such as Kellogg’s cereal, controversial facts, such as the amount of sugar in products, can be spread across the globe in minutes. If this information was not made readily available by the brand, then people will begin to feel they were mislead and it can be even worse if it comes out as part of a debate about a current newsworthy issue, such as childhood obesity.This sort of bad press can reflect very badly on a company, so it is important that as part of Kellogg’s new healthier image, they display all the nutritional facts, about their products, good or bad, in the most open way possible.

With the W.K Kellogg’s cereal, this could work in their favour, by displaying exactly what attributed the cereal can provide to the health conscious consumer’s diet. This would allow them to pick out exactly the cereal they need with a minimum of fuss.

Full labelling of benefits is exactly what you would expect from a product in a health shop as well, lending weight to Kellogg’s new distribution strategy. Customers have been shown to appreciate the advice available in health stores, so providing this sort of data with minimum effort will make choosing Kellogg’s an easy choice.[23]

Finding the Time to Eat - Experience Store

These product changes and launches alone will not be enough to help convince 25-34 year olds that they have the time and desire to have a bowl of cereal though. The trouble with these users is that they tend to eat cereal as snacks, where ever they can fit them in, which means they cannot become consistently high users of the products.[24] Therefore, Kellogg’s must provide new and better ways of delivering their products to consumers, a way of handing them the time and space they need to eat breakfast everyday.

For these reasons Kellogg’s is in the perfect position to offer an experiential fast food store. It will follow the trend Starbucks has used for coffee, and provide a range of customisable cereal choices.[25] The W.K. Kellogg’s store will stock all of the newer, healthier cereals, as well as the normal Kellogg’s brands. Customers will then be able to pick their own mix of all the different brands, to create their own unique breakfast.

In keeping with Kellogg’s guidelines to always try and show cereal as part of a larger meal, being eaten with things like fruit and juices,[26] the store will also provide little fruit portions, which can be added to customer’s mixes, as well as offering a range of healthy drinks, including smoothies which actually contain cereal, for those who are really in a rush.

On top of this, Kellogg’s could use the trend for ‘added health’ ingredients, by having ‘Rooster Boosters’ on their menu. These will be things like whey protein, or Omega3, which can be sprinkled over any cereal mix. This allows people who really want a health kick from their cereal to have exactly the benefits they desire.

Finding the Time to Eat - Breakfast Club

To make sure the young adults can make it to the store in time to then go to work, Kellogg’s will begin to run ‘Breakfast clubs’ at schools in major towns and cities. These will provide schools with cheaper cereal for them to sell on to children before the lessons start. It will work in the same ways as school dinners, but in the morning, allowing children to pick three different cereals they would like to have in their bowl, much like in the real W.K. Kellogg’s stores.

This will allow parents to drop off their children earlier, safe in the knowledge that they will not only be looked after and with their friends, but they will also be getting a good breakfast, which is proven to make them concentrate better on their work.[27]

‘The Breakfast club’ helps Kellogg’s to provide that extra bit of time for young adults to eat right before work. The hectic lives of their target market will mean offering the gift of time and space will truly be a valuable contribution to their day.

Creating Heavy Users – All Day Store

Although it is likely to be their busiest period, the W.K. Kellogg’s store is not just for mornings. The 25-34 year old age group are one of the biggest users of cereal at other times of the day, and often eat them as snacks. Therefore, continuing this trend and making people accept cereal as a health food for any time of day is another one of the store’s objectives. Their hectic lives mean that they try to get the health and fibre it provides whenever they have a big enough break to make it. Therefore the store can act as a great place to come on breaks, or just after work.

This is where the experiential nature of the store comes in to play. It will offer comfortable sofas, corn plant decorations and a rustic, cottage like feel to the interiors. This will link back to the heritage of Kellogg’s and provide a homely environment that is even more relaxing than their own house, because is it will feel separate from their busy lifestyle.

Protecting the Environment – Recycling Initiatives

The problem with fast food stores is the litter they can create, and with environmental trends and causes getting bigger and bigger, Kellogg’s will have to make sure they are making a visible effort to recycle and keep the streets clean. Today’s protesting students will be their target market of the future, and with an 11% increase in the amount of people who recycle in the last 2 years, there is every reason to believe that they will continue to push for change in 5 years too.[28]

To make their stance clear, the stores will not only have recycle bins throughout the store and outside it, but they will also have a special recycling system for their products which are not even eaten within the store.

A giant letter box will be placed at the front of the building, inviting people to post through their cereal boxes from home. These will then be used as part of the covering around the take away bowls sold in store. Turning recycling material immediately into new products shows instant results to the public and has already been successful for the company Doy Bags, who turn drinks cartons into fashion accessories, so more schemes like this are likely to be popular in the future.[29]

This will work well with the normal Kellogg’s products, but for the healthier Sub-brand an even more practical tactic can be deployed.

Due to the more expensive, but aesthetically pleasing packaging of the W.K. Kellogg’s products, the store will offer refills for the jars. These will be priced at less than the cost of the cereal sold with the jar and provide a real incentive to reduce the amount packaging consumers use.

These recycling initiatives will provide a very visible indication that Kellogg’s is committed to the environment, while keeping their take away items branded.

Advertising

The advertising will play a vital part in making the new Kellogg’s health image believable. The story of the company’s creation and the invention of corn flakes as a Doctor prescribed health food will be a great asset for the communication.

The advertising must also draw upon more general health and scientific visuals and language, again, to help the new product positioning.

As the target market are big internet users, something which is simple visually and therefore able to appear both on the internet, through Flash, and during TV programmes is important.[30] To provide all this, the advertising will focus on a timeline of health inventions from the 20th century, listing all of the things we have come to expect today. However, it will stop when it gets to ‘Corn Flakes, W.K. Kellogg, 1976 and imply that the health and concentration benefits of the cereal helped the other inventors to make their contribution, with the phrase ‘Must have been something they ate…’ as the punch line.

This will be followed by a brief shot of the W.K Kellogg’s products, to introduce the exciting new packaging and the line ‘The Original Health Food’, to reinforce the company’s healthier past.The campaign will reach the target where they are most likely to see and engage with it and provide them with a little knowledge about Kellogg’s past, to help them appreciate the benefits of the new cereals.

Media Plan

The campaign to keep Kellogg’s the leader of the cereal market in 2013 should begin with the opening of the Kellogg’s store. This will give people the biggest push to get cereal into their lives again and promote eating it at any time of day.

The opening will be done in conjunction with the advertising for the new W.K Kellogg’s products which will at that point only be available from the experiential store. These adverts will therefore also act as a teaser for their mainstream release.

Of course, as this is going on, the ‘Kellogg’s Breakfast Clubs’ will be starting up in primary schools around the country, giving children healthier diets and better concentration and allowing parents to have a little more time to themselves in the morning.

As the store is meant to be a place for workers to stop off and get a health kick, the eventual release of the cereal, previously only available in the specialist healthy fast food store, will add yet more impact to its health message. This should work in much the same way as the assumed quality that products used in hair dressers receive when eventually sold in shops.[31]

When all of the new strategies have been introduced, Kellogg’s should be in a position to compete better than their competitors in the 2013 market, because they will have reacted to the important consumer trends in a fast and innovative way. From here though, they must continue to actively engage new trends and technical advancements, if they want to remain the cereal market’s leader in 2018.

References

1) MORGAN, A. Eating The Big Fish, Canada, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1999.
2) Simmons, J. Great Brand Stories: Innocent, GB, TJ International Ltd, 2006.
3) Mininni, T. Interbrand, Letting Consumers Design Their Own Experiences: Case for the Mass Customization Model, Brand Channel.com.
4) Mintel Breakfast Cereals Report, Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2006.
5) Mintel, Impact of the Environment Report (The), Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2007.
6) Mintel Hair Salon Products Report, Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2006.
7) Mintel Health Food Retailing Report, Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2006.
8) Mintel Marketing to Tomorrow's Consumer Report, Mintel International Group Limited, UK, 2006.
9) BBC, Junk food Ad limits ‘Not enough’, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7090206.stm), (Accessed Nov 2007)
10) Doy Bags Website, All about Doy Bags, (http://www.doybags.com/about.html), (Accessed Nov 2007)
11) Euromonitor International, Top 10 food trends for 2007, (http://www.marketresearchworld.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1134&Itemid=2), (Accessed Nov 2007)
12) Kellogg’s Website, How it all began, (http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/company/history/howitallbegan.aspx), (accessed Nov 2007)
13) Kellogg’s Website, Responsible Marketing, (http://www.kelloggs.co.uk/company/corporateresponsibility/responsiblemarketing.aspx) , (Accessed Nov 2007)
14) LiquidRock, Info Journey, (http://liquidrock.info/trend_info.php), (Accessed Nov 2007)
15) LiquidRock, Slow Show, (http://liquidrock.info/trend_slow.php), (Accessed Nov 2007)
16) LiquidRock, Techno Goodness, (http://liquidrock.info/trend_techno.php), (Accessed Nov 2007)
17) PersonalMD, Breakfast: How Eating Breakfast Helps Children Be Their Best, (http://www.personalmd.com/news/breakfast_030800.shtml), (Accessed Dec 2007)
18) Sainsbury’s Website, Healthy Eating – Labelling, (http://www.j-sainsbury.com/files/reports/cr2006/index.asp?pageid=20#wheelofhealth), (Accessed Nov 2007)
19) Scientist Live, Satiety enhancers in food, (http://www.scientistlive.com/food/20070601/ingredients/2.3.296.299/17801/satiety-enhancers-in-food.thtml), (Accessed Nov 2007)

[1] Kellogg’s Website
[2] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 -The Consumer
[3] Taken from the TGI survey, Source: GB TGI, BMRB Quarter 4 2005/Mintel
[4] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 - Detailed Demographics
[5] BBC News
[6] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 -Executive Summary
[7] Liquid rock
[8] Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006Distribution
[9] Liquid Rock, Scientist live
[10] Interbrand
[11] Liquid Rock, Euromonitor International
[12] Sainsbury’s Website
[13] ‘Eating the big fish’ – Adam Morgan
[14] Great Brand Stories – Innocent – John Simmons
[15] Mintel, Marketing to Tomorrow's Consumer, UK, September 2006
[16] Mintel, Marketing to Tomorrow's Consumer, UK, September 2006
[17] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 - Detailed Demographics
[18] Kellogg’s Website
[19] Great Brand Stories – Innocent – John Simmons
[20] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 -Executive Summary
[21] Mintel, Chewing Gum and Mints - UK - June 2007
[22] Liquid Rock, Euromonitor International
[23] Mintel Health Food Retailing - UK - March 2006
[24] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 - Detailed Demographics
[25] ‘Eating the big fish’ – Adam Morgan
[26] Kellogg’s Website
[27] Personal MD Website
[28] Mintel, Impact of the Environment (The) - UK - April 2007 Consumer 1 – Defining the Consumer – TGI
[29] Doy Bags Website
[30] Mintel Breakfast Cereals - UK - February 2006 - Detailed Demographics
[31] Mintel Hair Salon Products - UK - September 2006

New Blood

2008-06-20T04:04:00.000-07:00

From Monday 23rd till Wednesday, some of my work will be on display at the D&AD New Blood exhibition in London.

Anyone going, feel free to look me up and take a business card!

Things with which I have done: EU

2008-05-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

This project was for a Europe wide competition. The brief was to focus on a segment of your home country and make them more accepting of the EU.

Our choice was C2 and D demographics...basically the most anti-EU people we could find, because we like a challenge.

Basically, are key insight was that before now, the EU's work had always been credited to what ever government was in control at the time, leading the EU to appear as a new threat to these people, because they have no knowledge of their part in previously accepted legislation.

So our job was to communicate the previous work the EU had done, specifically the work to help this segment (eg. cleaner UK beaches and paid working holidays).

You can see how we did this in our book on the project here

The results were recently announced for the competition and our entry came top out of all the UK entrants and 5th in all of Europe, earning us an honourable mention. I worked on this project with Dayve Talbot, Ollie Moxham and Christiaan Huynen.

The return of the London Gentleman

2008-05-11T03:56:00.000-07:00

It's time for the longest of my increasingly frequent trips to London.

This time I'll be doing some work experience at BBH, so I'm very much looking forward to the whole thing and hopefully I'll come back better at what I do, as well as more bankrupt.

I also hope that the weather will get just cool enough that the glorious advertising sweater vest can be displayed. I don't know how to be professional without it...

The Gina G of advertising

2008-04-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

I posted before about an EACA Europe wide competition I was entering, with the task of making the EU more accepted in our home country.

Well, the results came in last week and it turns out my team was the highest rated entry from the UK. We also came 5th in all of Europe, earning us an honourable mention in their results publication.

We're all obviously really pleased with this, as the UK is not exactly an easy place to convince about the EU and on top of that we deliberately chose the most difficult demographic within these fine lands....just to make it interesting. Ha ha.

I'll make a big post of all the work we did for this once my final university deadlines are out of the way, but until then, au revoir!

April Tools

2008-04-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

The April fools jokes this year seemed to crank up the budget higher than ever before.

Looks like the day is becoming an even better tool for marketing, as suddenly virals can be displayed in traditional media without losing effect.

Take this rather expensive looking fake trailer from games website IGN:

This would be a pretty great viral if it had just been released on YouTube, but thanks to April Fools day, it could be posted as a major news item on the front page of their website. When people are spending big money on virals anyway, I guess it makes sense to release them on a day where lying in advertising is not just accepted, but promoted.

Penny for your thoughts...

2008-04-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

Some new coin designs have been unveiled then, but I'm still not sure how I feel about them. I think that's probably because the quality seems to vary across the coins, with the corners of the shield in the 10 and 2p looking a bit too awkward for my liking.

Still, I think it's hard to tell without looking at the things in my hand. Hopefully lots of them at that...

London Gentleman

2008-03-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I shall be venturing in to London for the rest of this week, enjoying agency visits and an interview along the way.

If you see a man in a stylish sweater vest, feel free to give him a job....and some better accommodation...

Anything but Guns and Roses

2008-03-27T11:12:00.000-07:00