Category Archives: Consumerism

Marketing Success? Work Hard and Be Nice

Consumerism, Economy, , , , ,

Ken Wayland Succeeds

President of Henrico County-based Free Agents Marketing Ken Wayland, has had a thing or two to smile about over the last 16 months. For a start, revenue increased 37.9 percent in 2010 from 2009. Second, there are now 43 people working there (double from last year). Third, an office was opened in Hampton Roads. This simply spells success for the company in no uncertain terms.
But even when a company is successful financially, it’s always an extra joy to be recognized for this publicly. And that’s exactly what has happened to Ken Wayland also. Today he was honored as the 2011 Henrico County Business Leader of the year by the Greater Richmond Chamber. You get this award for being both “solid in business practices as well as community involvement.”

Wayland Way Modest

On being interviewed it seemed that Wayland just wanted to keep the matter simple. He stated, “I believe in hard work. Everything else takes care of itself.” So clearly the marketing guru knows there’s no such thing as a free lunch in the world of business and sales. The man has definitely spent his time working his way up. He first arrived in NYC to work in WRVA-AM sales and then some years later he branched out with various of his partners to launch Free Agents of which he is now the proprietor.

Free Agents Marketing works for clients ranging from non-profit to retail, specializing in a whole slew of marketing areas. One of its largest (and first) clients, was Bon Secours Virginia that it secured in 2001 and the two companies “grew together,” according to Wayland.

But it was more than just the company’s marketing expertise that made it the success it is today. According to Retail Merchants Association’s president and CEO Nancy Thomas, it was all about Wayland. He was extremely positive and had a strong drive and work ethic and it has been those features that have led to the agency’s success. As she says, “Ken is a can-do and will-do business man. He understands the dynamics of hiring really good people who are loyal to each other, to Free Agents Marketing’s clients and to the business community as a whole.”

Wayland Still Modest

It seems that the guy is still extremely modest. He attributes much of his success to lessons learned from his parents who passed away within 48 days of each a couple of years back. “”They will always be my mentors and role models and I attribute all of my successes and blessings to their influence.”

Perhaps Wayland’s success can teach others wanting to do well in business an important lesson: work hard, be positive and always be nice to everyone with whom you come into contact. Well, it sure worked for Wayland.

Coca-Cola Celebrates 125 Years

Consumerism, Economy, , , , , ,

‘Cos Coke Is It

Coca-Cola just made a TV commercial to mark its 125th anniversary. It was so good that it earned itself the UTalkMarketing’s People’s Choice award for this week. Next Sunday will actually be the date that the successful beverage company will be celebrating 125 years in the business.
The new commercial was first aired on April 18. It is very cute, taking its fans on a journey back through time with vintage images from Coca-Cola’s past, along with a song with the infamous phrase, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.”

Year-Round Global Celebrations for Coca-Cola

Of course, it won’t just be the commercial that will be marking this big anniversary for Coca-Cola. All those involved in the company will get to jump on the party bus too. There will be tons of events through which Coca-Cola will use to thank individuals who have helped it get where it is today. But it will be on May 8 (which was the Founders Day) that the company will be celebrating most since it was on that date in 1886 that the beverage was first on sale in Atlanta, GA.

As well as in America, Coca-Cola operates in 200 countries and there will be lots of celebrations as well as marketing campaigns. For example in the UK, there will be a new TV commercial, as well as “digital Retro Poster Maker and iconic graphics on-pack.” According to the company’s UK market activation director, Zoe Howorth, “Coca-Cola is a timeless icon that has been synonymous with happiness and is still as relevant today as it was when it first began in 1886. May 8th is a very special day as Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most favorite brands, is 125 years old and we want to take this chance to say thank you to our consumers, employees and partners for their continued loyalty.”

Cool Coca-Cola Commercial

The new commercial that has been so successful was made by Wieden and Kennedy. When poll participants were asked, “which of the adverts [featured below] made you want to buy the product or service advertised?” 24 percent said Coca-Cola.
The question remains however, with all of Coca-Cola’s success, does it really need to be spending all this money on more commercials? Maybe not. But there is always the good chance that success breeds success and you need to spend money to make more money so why not?

Walkers Walking Away With aWards

It’s not just Coca-Cola that’s doing well on the UTalkMarketing front. Walkers Extra Crunch got the People’s Choice award in its commercial featuring Lionel Richie and Gary Linekar. Rather than singing his award-winning hit “Say You, Say Me,” he alters the lyrics slightly to read, “Share You, Share Me,” in an attempt to get Mr. Linekar to share his crisps.

The commercial was produced by AMV BBDO with the assistance of OMD for media planning and buying. It came first in the weekly poll held together with OMD Snapshots, receiving 21 percent of the vote on which product/service advertised one would purchase.

So all in all, Coca-Cola and Walkers – two already successful giants – are doing well with their latest marketing initiatives. Not that they needed the help. But it’s nice when one is successful to keep getting more successful and that’s exactly what the snack companies seem to have done.

Dirty Marketing Tricks?

Consumerism, , ,

How McDonald’s is Selling to Kids

It’s one thing to play dirty marketing tricks on the average man in the street, but quite another to do so on kids. Well, apparently, that’s exactly what’s been happening with corporations such as McDonald’s which is using online games “to take away parental control.” The thing is, we keep seeing studies that show that if this kind of marketing was lessened, so would the bad health of our next generation.

Parents Fight Back

But finally there has been an outcry from angry parents. Adults from the New York and San Francisco areas are trying to “curb this marketing by setting nutritional requirements for kids’ meals with toy giveaways.” Of course, McDonald’s isn’t going to take this lying down. It is in a battle against these parents through legal channels as well as enacting “pre-emptive bans of similar legislation in other states.”

The bottom line is, it’s just too easy for large corporations such as McDonald’s to access kids. Indeed it has been said that there has never been a better time for this, since they are able to “bypass parents so successfully.” Further, “online games are just the tip of McDonald’s $3 billion global marketing iceberg.” The only way that we can ensure the way food is marketed for the future is geared by parental and nutritional experts is by “demanding that McDonald’s stop marketing to kids.” It needs to be serious nutritionists – not “fast-food executives” directing how these foods are sold.

Marketing Gone OTT

It could be said that marketing has just gone over the top in recent years. It’s no longer just TV commercials (that of course can be ignored quite easily) but the interactivity of marketing techniques that will grab the attention. One example is of a Kraft Web site that asks consumers to “send a custom video to your friends to show how much you love KD [Kraft Dinner].” If you have not received a video, you are anyway able to view the whole “gallery” of videos that others have submitted. Individuals are able to log on to a whole host of commercial web pages and create their own avatars, “play with virtual pets and interact with their favorite movie, comic book and TV characters.”

This all makes it increasingly tough to fight this new, successful marketing guru. But it seems evident from the research above that parents are not going to take this lying down anymore. The question is, who is going to win? McDonald’s is an extremely large, successful corporation that is definitely going the legal route with all of this, and it thus might not be so easy for parents to fight it.

Only time will tell. But in the meantime, McDonald’s is working fearlessly to ensure it still has the upper hand when it comes to its McNuggets and cheeseburgers.

SEO Takes a Ride

Consumerism, Economy, Japan, , , ,

Suzuki Seeks Google Guidance

You wouldn’t necessarily put the two together – Suzuki and Google – just in the same way you might have gone “hmmm” the first time you were told to put peanut butter and jelly together (especially if you’re British). But somehow, just as the latter works supremely well in combination, the former might have a thing or two going for it as well.

It seems that Maruti Suzuki is going to be doing more than Googling for guidance on marketing techniques. In fact it is looking to “tie up” with the company in order to acquiesce a “more focused foray into the digital marketing space.” It won’t be restricting itself just to Google though since Suzuki is also looking into working with other “specialists” in the digital marketing field.
Suzuki is not stupid, fast recognizing that it has to respond to an eternally changing digital media world. Thus it understands the need to bring in specialist help, said the company’s marketing chief general manager, Shashank Srivastava.

Team Effort

Suzuki has thus already been working closely with Google on “search engine optimization and online reputation management initiatives,” which basically means Google is assisting the auto company in traffic keyword tracking. This enables Suzuki to thereafter respond as needed. For example if there has been a media posting (on say Facebook or Twitter) regarding the company’s services, it will be alerted and given an immediate opportunity to respond.

Marketing Surge for Suzuki

In general Maruti Suzuki has been surging forth in its marketing effort. Indeed the budget allocated to its promotion, doubled this year. It has “created social networking profiles of all its products,” with its prime hits being A-Star and Ritz since they attract the younger customers as well as netting in the most Facebook fans.

Suzuki Sells on its Own

The argument could also be made however, that the company’s cars speak for themselves. The new Suzuki Swift is even better than the one it replaced if that was possible since you probably would be hard pressed to find any complaints on that one. It is a great price and is truly able to “offer something that stands out from the comparatively bland and boring cookie-cutter crowd.” It boasts additional windscreen rake, a cool new front bumper, better angular headlights and some brand new tail light clusters.

Still, as the saying goes, you can never be too rich or too thin. Perhaps in today’s Facebook and Twitter world, you can never have too much SEO work on your product or service either.

Diamond De Beers Deplete?

Consumerism, Economy, , , , , ,

De Beers – the world’s largest miner and diamond supplier – may be heading for a depletion in sales this year. According to its marketing arm Diamond Trading Company (DTC) a “slowdown” is expected in the second quarter,” but there is hope that the industry in India will increase by 20 percent, according to Varda Shine, the company’s CEO. That would be good news if not being compared to the growth there last year which reached 31 percent. India is the world’s largest diamond exporter so this fact of course will impact a company like De Beers.

Of course, this data is only just estimates and forecasts and thus not even close to 100 percent accurate. Shine is still hoping for “a double digit growth in this industry in India and China as well every year.” In addition, DTC prices have increased significantly – more than 300 percent following the 2008 economic crisis. One diamond trader who chose to remain anonymous pointed out that “it has increased by an average by 15 per cent to 20 per cent during the first quarter, following a rise of 27 per cent through the whole of 2010, while sales increased by 10 per cent to approximately $1.75 billion during the three months.”

So perhaps after all despite some figures pointing somewhat to the contrary, diamonds will remain a girl’s best friend in the future. In addition, since there are so many different figures and opinions, it is almost impossible to predict the future of the industry.