Tag Archives: marketing

Cases

Hands-on experience of 3D printing

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DML_3D printer (1)

Probably, I am one of few marketing people in the world who buy and use a 3D printer. I paid about $1000 and bought a printer called Rappy 32 from Stellamove two months ago and have been printing miniature buildings, animals, and mobile phone cases for fun. I want to share what I have learned about 3D printers with designers and marketers, in particular, those who are interested in but have never used them.

First of all, playing with a 3D printer woke up my “creator instinct.” Previously, I was a consumer; I simply purchased and used the products someone else created for anonymous people. After having a countless consumption experiences in my life, I came to unconsciously calculate the cost and benefit of a specific purchase behavior or habitually compared between one option and another. However, when I printed something using the 3D printer, I had a fairly different type of experience; I chose what to create and then waited until it was done. While waiting, my mental calculator did not turn on but I was overwhelmed by (some kinds of) mother-specific emotions such as wish, excitement, warm caring, and disappointment. In my opinion, printing something using 3D printers is easier and more entertaining than other professional creating tasks such as drawing and cook because it simply requires me to plan what to print at first and then fully takes care of the remaining procedures.

Second, playing with a 3D printer taught me that saying is one thing, doing is another. Many people talked about 3D printers without having any hands-on experience. Some are excited about the bright future they unfold; they can decorate cakes or replace the knobs and hooks printed at home. Others are concerned about the gloomy future 3D printers bring; someone else will print out and carry weapons or generate fake coins. However, my experience taught me that the future is not around the corner regardless of whether it is bright or dark. There are literally hundreds of issues that need to be addressed for a 3D-printer to work properly. I myself often dissatisfied with the print quality. I might have developed my taste of finishing too high (e.g., iPhones or Lego bricks).

DML_3D printer (3)

Cases

No skinny jeans, no skinny cans

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DML_HK Fashion (1)Skinny means very thin or unusually slender. Although it is a highly popular word, marketers avoid it but label their “sassier” products differently because the word, skinny, reinforces the stereotypes of women and body images. Interestingly, some items go for skinnier whereas others do not.

 

Fashion items want to be skinnier. According to J. Crew Sells “Toothpick” Jeans, Because Skinny Jeans Just Weren’t Body-Negative Enough, ” J. Crew has sensed that a lot of women are pretty over the use of the word skinny to sell everything from highly unhealthy, chemical-filled cocktails to stretch denims or it’s just an err in advertising. This clothier found that skinny jeans are not skinny enough and chosen “toothpick” to label their slimmest line of jeans.

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This is not the case for the beverage items. Pepsi introduced a skinny can in 2011 at New York’s Fashion Week. According to the Diet Pepsi ‘skinny’ can stirs up big controversy, Jill Beraud, chief marketing officer for PepsiCo said in a statement, “Our slim, attractive new can is the perfect complement to today’s most stylish looks, and we’re excited to throw its coming-out party during the biggest celebration of innovative design in the world.” Unfortunately, it was blamed for offensiveness immediately. Within a few months, Pepsi launches new fatter skinny cans in aftermath of controversy. It fattened up its diet skinny can “with a redesign that aims, perhaps, to distance itself from a controversy that bubbled up earlier this year.”

 

Cases

Apple logo-shaped fried rice

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I ordered a fried rice after having BBQ at a local restaurant in Korea. Interestingly, She first shaped the fried rice like an apple and then placed a small fried cake on top to make it look like the Apple logo. (What if I am a fan of MicroSoft? :)) Strong brands such as Harley-Davidson and Nike seem to induce people to express their brand loyalty aggressively (e.g., tattoo). Soft brands such as Apple, however, seem to nudge their fans to express their brand loyalty more creatively or softly.

DML_Apple-shaped fried rice

Cases

Car shaped ski lift

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There is nothing much skiers can do while they are sitting on the lift. Although some chat with other skiers sitting next to them or make/receive a few phone calls, others keep quiet and desperately search for something to kill their ten-minute boredom.

I have met an interesting OOH (Out-Of-Home) advertising at Yongpyong, a Korean ski resort. The marketers of the Tiguan at the Volkswagen made its back side using paper and then attached it to the lift. Most skiers including me who take this lift cannot help but look at the rear side of this car for over ten minutes until they get off the lift and hit the slope. Cutting/painting papers like a car may not cost much but doing so seems to work; I now become very familiar with this car, at least, its back side!

More importantly, I find this advertisement interesting and infer that the brand, Volkswagen, might be interesting as well. This way of thought is well established in a classic paper in which the attitude toward the advertisement (Aad) plays a key role in shaping the attitude toward the brand.

DML_VW Tiguan
DML_VW Tiguan
DML_VW Tiguan

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Reference

Mitchell, A. A. (1986). The effect of verbal and visual components of advertisements on brand attitudes and attitude toward the advertisement. Journal of consumer research, 13(1), 12-24.

This article presents the results of a study designed to obtain a better understanding of the effects of using valenced visual information in advertising. In the study, subjects saw advertisements for hypothetical products that contained affect-laden photographs with different valences (Picture Type Manipulation). The results indicate that the affect-laden photographs had an effect on both attitude toward the advertisement (Aad) and brand attitudes; however, no differences were found in the product attribute beliefs that were formed. Photographs that were evaluated positively created more favorable attitudes toward the advertisements and brand attitudes, whereas the reverse was true for photographs that were evaluated negatively. The results of an analysis of covariance indicate that the inclusion of both the predicted attitude from structured scales (ΣΣbi,ei) and elicited beliefs did not eliminate all the reliable Picture Type effects on brand attitudes; however, the inclusion of Aad did eliminate these effects. In addition, Aad was found to affect brand attitudes for advertisements that contain only copy, and evidence is presented that Aad and brand attitudes are separate hypothetical constructs. Finally, a Dual Component model is presented to explain the effects of visual and verbal information in advertisements.

Cases

Marketing in Chinese Language

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DML_Window of the world DML_Marketing in Chinese

I have long believed that marketing is a unique business discipline because it cannot be translated into Chinese. Different from Marketing, other business disciplines have their own Chinese names: Accounting is 會計, Finance is 財務, Manufacturing is 生產, OB/HRM is 組織/人事, and Strategy is 戰略.

Interestingly, I have recently met the sign of the marketing department at the Window of the world (世界之窗) in Shenzhen, China, saying market (市場) department. However, marketing clearly differs from market; marketing helps people understand and change a given market and create a new market. I wish Chinese marketers either accept the English name of marketing or invent a new name of it in Chinese. 🙂

Cases

Marketers should go beyond SWOT analysis

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Richard DAvneni

At the Dong-A Business Form, Richard D’Avneni, Bakala Professor of Strategy at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, gave an interesting talk about Hypercompetition, which is the term that he coined about 20 years ago arguing that there is no sustainable competitive advantage. In this talk, he emphasized the dynamics of market by telling us that Sears or the retailer with 90-year successful business history cannot help but leave the industry within only 15 years. Thus, he made a persuasive argument that well-known strategy/marketing tools such as SWOT analysis do not work anymore.

According to him, firms use the SWOT-based strategy for multiple times and, therefore, “learning” takes place. Imagine a firm uses the SWOT analysis and then selects a specific strategy based on some combination of Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat. In this case, the firm is highly likely to win over its competitors. However, those losing competitors learn what strategy the winning firm will select in the next round (e.g., when launching different products or when entering different markets) and they are able to respond to the same strategy smartly. This suggests that a single-shot SWOT-based strategy works but it does not work in the multiple contexts.

Then, what is an alternative tool that marketers could use when they want to conduct 3C analysis (understand consumers, companies, and competitors)?

Cases

Hyundai Motors, UX for car marketing

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Hyundai i30

Hyundai released i30 in Europe. So far, most of its marketing messages focus on how it looks (design) and what special features it has (convenience). However, I came up with a different thought after watching a youtube video that one of my German friends recommended me to watch. In the video, Martin Winterkorn, the Chairman of the Volkswagen AG, studied the Hyundai i30 personally at the Motorshow in Frankfurt IAA 2011.

Between 1:30 and 2:00 minutes, he tilted up and down i30’s steering wheel and then said,

“There is no noise. BMW can’t do it. We can’t do it”

I am surprised to find that the car made by Hundai makes no noise while those cars made by BMWs or VWs may make some noises when the steering wheel is tilted. Interestingly, some BMW drivers already posted this issue on a website to look for a solution (e.g., Creaking noise when tilting steering wheel). Now, Hyundai marketers can go beyond traditional issues such as look & feel, convenience, or gas mileage to raise a new issue (e.g., noise of tilting steering wheel or, more broadly speaking, user experience) and differentiate their cars from their competitors.

Publications

Interface between design and marketing

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20111031_Huffington Post

Designers don’t just put cosmetics on the skin of a product!” During my interview with a graduate student at Ontario College of Art and Design in 2009, he argued that designers play a key role in developing a new product….

… The primary reason that marketing researchers often limit the role of designers is that they pay far too much attention to the “outcome” of designers’ activities. Many designers who research users, develop and evaluate concepts, and work with business strategists find it difficult to communicate with marketers, since marketers shed little light on the “process” of designers’ activities. …

 

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20111108_Huffington Post

In actual practice, designers often set the marketing input aside and start a project by looking at advertisements and websites for their client’s and their competitors’ products. They collect images and stories concerning the uniqueness of each product and make fleeting trips to the products’ point of purchase, taking pictures and playing with the products. If the budget allows, they purchase a sample of products for later disassembly and destruction in the studio. Ideas for new features often stem from the designer’s personal experience — including his cultural and social background — and their project research into nature, art, fashion, architecture, entertainment, and other products. …

… At the end of the day, marketing is often presented with three to five realistic finished rendered concepts from which they have to select one for detailing. Often flash will out compete content, since no objective metrics have been presented, so it is little wonder that design is still seen as art rather than as being business driven.

Cases

Do people like an unexpected design of a product?

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burger king

We often meet a product with a unique form and find it difficult to guess how it works. Examples include a donut-looking tape by 3M, a burger/fries/coke-looking USB key by Burger King, or a chocolate-looking mirror by Meiji, a Japanese chocolate manufacturer. One of my Japanese friends even pointed me a website in which a designer keeps posting his/her design prototypes (Prototype 1000).

I wonder whether consumers like a product more when its form and function are inconsistent than when they are consistent.

Prototype1000

Noseworthy, T. J., & Trudel, R. (2011). Looks Interesting, but What Does It Do? Evaluation of Incongruent Product Form Depends on Positioning. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(6), 1008–1019.

Marketers struggle with how best to position innovative products that are incongruent with consumer expectations. Compounding the issue, many incongruent products are the result of innovative changes in product form intended to increase hedonic appeal. Crossing various product categories with various positioning tactics in a single meta-analytic framework, the authors find that positioning plays an important role in how consumers evaluate incongruent form. The results demonstrate that when a product is positioned on functional dimensions, consumers show more preferential evaluations for moderately incongruent form than for congruent form. However, when a product is positioned on experiential dimensions, consumers show more preferential evaluations for congruent form than for moderately incongruent form. Importantly, an increase in perceived hedonic benefits mediates the former, whereas a decrease in perceived utilitarian benefits mediates the latter. The mediation effects are consistent with the view that consumers must first understand a product’s functionality before engaging in hedonic consumption.