Planters is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its having introduced the dry-roasting peanut process -- and its first dry-roasted products -- by adding two new flavors to the line. Its approach to the launches points up the brand’s shift to a greater focus on employing social media for marketing, as well as its increased emphasis on product innovation. The two new varieties of Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts -- Roasted Onion & Garlic and Honey Barbeque -- are indicative of the brand’s push to provide “a flavor for every palate,” says Ken Padgett, senior associate brand manager for Planters. The brand last launched a new dry-roasted flavor, 5-Alarm Chili, in January 2011, joining the regular, honey roasted, lightly salted and unsalted varieties. The newest products, which will be on store shelves across the country by mid-December, are initially being supported primarily through posts/promotions on the Mr. Peanut Facebook page, reports Padgett. Those will include a coupon for the new products, positioned as an anniversary “thank-you” from the brand to its fans, he notes. The Mr. Peanut Facebook page, which currently has nearly 500,000 “likes,” enables the brand to interact with fans through the engaging, comedic “voice” of the iconic character, Padgett says. (Mr. Peanut got an image makeover, and his first literal “voice” -- originated by Robert Downey Jr. -- starting with a late 2010 TV spot.) Planters is still solidifying its 2013 marketing plan for the new dry-roasted products, but expects to incorporate elements such as in-store promotions and traditional media, while continuing the dialogue on Facebook. Planters will also be communicating another milestone for its dry-roasted line: The unsalted and lightly salted varieties recently earned the American Heart Association’s “heart healthy” Heart Check Food Certification. The Planters brand as a whole is more than 100 years old. Its dry-roasting process for preserving peanuts’ flavor and seasonings without oil -- which was exclusive to the brand when first introduced in 1962 -- has changed little since then, although the dry-roasting facility has become more efficient, according to Padgett. Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts quickly became a "phenomenon" in the '60s, and the products today are found in one of every five American households, he adds.
It's the time of year for shiny ornaments and trend reports, and one thing that the people who do the reports can agree on is that like economists, they don't usually agree. Sheryl Connelly, the global consumer trends and futuring analyst at Ford Motor, conceded that point at the very start of Thursday's Ford-sponsored New York conference on 2013 consumer trends. Actually, in this case the panelists -- Connelly; social theorist John Gerzema, executive chairman of BrandAsset; Cheryl Guerin, trends analyst for MasterCard; and Grant McCracken, Harvard Business School cultural anthropologist -- generally agreed on the predictions that are elaborated in Ford's own first-ever trend report, "Looking Further with Ford." The report says people are getting some optimism back, although their buying habits -- particularly those of 20- to 30-year-olds -- are going to be radically different. The report lists 13 "microtrends." First on the list is trust, or "trust is the new black." Gerzema said there has been a 50% decline in trust since 2001, but a 35% rise in trust as a driver of brand equity. That suggests there's an opportunity for brands that open their arms wide and say, "Here I am with all my blemishes." "Customers want a reason to believe and brands who give them that will be better off," said Connelly. Gerin said MasterCard is doing just fine in that category -- as she said the brand is 87% more trusted than any other brand of any kind. McCracken said trust matters in a "black swan" world full of disruptive competitors. "The last 20 years have been a chronicle of brands behaving badly," he said. "The name of the game is absolute transparency." The good news for established brands is that assuming they have not been behaving badly, they have equity, while new competitors have nothing but VC money. To achieve trust equity functionally, the "front" of a company -- its brand, communications, what it claims to be -- must match the back, the invisible side, where it does what it actually does. The issue, noted Connelly, isn't that a company can't make mistakes, but that if it does, it needs to be straight about what went wrong, and if it doesn't know what went wrong, it should say that too. "People want sincerity. The assumption is it's never perfect, but you are supposed to make good." Connelly said -- and she has firsthand experience of this -- that the pace of technological change makes it hard to be perfect the first time out. Ford's MyFord Touch platform built off of Sync has had problems, but Ford has time to fix it, and can do that via a simple flash drive with a new version of the interface. "Consumers' tolerance for imperfection is correlated to what's in it for them." The report dubs another trend "Pioneering Pathways," in which people are diversifying their pursuits. "The underlying shift is that we have moved from a culture where people expect to draw from institutions a sense of life plan to a state where everyone is in "startup mode." It's a period of self invention -- Millennial as hustler. Everyone has five or six selves." A minimal maximist trend means doing more with less. Gerzema said 65% of consumers state they are happier with a simpler lifestyle -- citing a $12 billion barter economy, sites like "airbnb" whose average member makes $21,000 per year; and Seattle's micro apartment trend, where people are living in 220-square-foot spaces.
Get ready for a little more and balance and harmony in your life: Pantone has named emerald the color of 2013, describing the jewel tone as “lively, radiant, and lush.” While last year’s color, tangerine tango, was selected for the energy boost we all needed, emerald is both richer and mellower, and “enhances our sense of well-being further by inspiring insight, as well as promoting balance and harmony,” the color guru says in its announcement. While it suggests affluence and sophistication, Pantone adds in its release, “it’s also the color of growth, renewal and prosperity -- no other color conveys regeneration more than green. For centuries, many countries have chosen green to represent healing and unity.” And while it’s easy to dismiss Pantone’s annual color choice as inside baseball for the fashion crowd, it’s actually a big deal to marketers, says Scott Drummond, a partner at strategic brand and marketing consultancy Prophet. “There's a strong correlation between the choice of an 'it' color and the momentum that is building already in the marketplace, and marketers need to be attuned to that,” he tells Marketing Daily. “To some degree the formalizing of the observation in turn creates a self-fulfilling prophesy, and behavior follows. Designers of products, environments and packaging follow suit and consumers make choices in line with the trend. The difference today is that all the cycles are compressed. This kind of forecasting used to be done pretty far out, but in the digital age changes can be made practically in real time." What’s more, he says, this year’s choice even speaks to consumers’ desire to kick off a sense of persistent economic malaise. “Even just the name, "Emerald" conjures up gemstones and wealth,” he says. “Pantone's selection of this color reflects what I feel is a growing desire to return to a time of prosperity.” Pantone also says it will partner with Sephora, the beauty retailer, to sell an emerald-based package, including eye shadow, nail color and accessories, beginning in March. And it also plans to sell Pantone emerald-hued linens and towels at JC Penney.
Nissan's European operations has done some offbeat things with its offbeat performance car, Nismo Juke-R, like racing on the streets of Dubai against a sheik and his Ferraris. The company has also based an entire marketing program around gaming, with the Nissan GT Academy, via a partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment. As part of that program, which is in its fourth season, really good players of Gran Turismo go to a Hell Week-style racing camp in the U.K. to vie to be a Nissan professional racer. The company is back with another gaming campaign that gives people who have a knack for the digital racetrack a chance to drive the Juke on a real one. To promote the launch of the latest version of the car, which goes on sale early next year, the alliance with game maker Gameloft's Asphalt 7: Heat aims to find the 10 best mobile Nismo drivers and give them a VIP trip to drive the car in Barcelona. The game features the Nissan Juke Nismo, and Juke-R. Part of the deal is a free release download for 48 hours on Dec. 8 and 9 in the App Store, per Nissan. One of the virtual courses in the game is on a Nissan racetrack, in Tokyo, which features a section where drivers pass the Nismo Omori factory, per the automaker. The company says the game has been downloaded by 50 million people for iOS and Android, and to enter, players must first register their details via an app on the Gameloft Facebook page or through the game and then drive a Nissan Juke Nismo in the Asphalt Academy game mode. A leaderboard records the times of the fastest drivers. The competition runs from Dec. 17 to 31, at which point two winners will be selected at random (one iOS and one Android) from the top 10. The effort will be done in the UK, Spain, Germany, France, and Russia.
The so-called “purchase funnel” for consumers is no longer linear, and it no longer stops, thanks to social media. According to a new study from the Advertising Research Foundation, nearly one-third of shoppers said social media influenced their brand preference, either by introducing those consumers to brands they were unfamiliar with or changing their opinion of a brand during the shopping process. The study also determined that, thanks in part to social media, the purchase process never ends. With constant updates from social networks (including from friends and colleagues who are talking about their own recent purchases in social networks), consumers are constantly shopping, even if they are doing it in a passive manner. “People have a [predetermined] mental image of the marketplace even if they’re not in it. Even if you’re not a snowboarder, you probably have an image of what the market is like,” Todd Powers, executive vice president, primary research, the Advertising Research Foundation, tells Marketing Daily. “By the time you start that active search, you already have the view of the marketplace. The old image we had was using the funnel. Those stages still exist; they’re not linear anymore.” While the study, “Digital & Social Media in the Purchase Decision Process,” determined there was no single path to purchase for modern consumers, social media plays a role on every point of the journey. More than a fifth of consumers (22%) agreed with the notion that social media played an important role in their purchase decision. The study also found that emotion is a very important part of the purchase process, both before and after making a purchase. The study found that posting on social sites, particularly positive comments expressing “joy” doubled after a purchase as people sought assurances that they made a smart buy, Powers says. “The digital resource of social media provides both information and emotional input,” he says. And social media is one of those things that does both of these things.” At the same time, the wealth of information available to consumers can sometimes lead to analysis paralysis, where they can’t pull the trigger on a purchase because they want to get as much information as possible. Social media, according to the study, is expanding the range of trust for consumers, with the influencers of a decision growing beyond the family, friends and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets, to blogs, online forums, and other digital sources. “In today’s world with the ready access to advice and information, consumers have more than they need,” Powers says. “There’s so much information that the big challenge is making sense of it.” The study, conducted with partners such as GM, Google, Kraft, The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Motorola, Firefly/Millward Brow, comScore, Converseon, Communispace and Y&R, combined surveys with Web-listening and social media content analysis, as well as in-depth interviews, ethnography and information gathering from online communities. "Mobile Shopping from Shutterstock"
Holland America Line is offering savings for consumers and sales support for travel sellers during its “Sail & Save” sale on select cruises. The sale begins Dec. 10 and features savings on multiple cruises and destinations. To get ready for the 2013 sailing season, travel sellers booking a Holland America Line cruise can offer their clients savings of up to 50% off select cruise fares and free or reduced third and fourth fares on select voyages, as well as a free hotel stay on select Canada/New England and Alaska cruises and CruiseTour departures. Marketing support includes direct mail and email to consumers, as well as an array of online travel seller promotional and sales tools that are available in the Travel Agent Headquarters portal accessed via hollandamerica.com. These include customizable "Build Your Own" emails, personalized PDF flyers and Web banner ads. The promotion also is being supported on Twitter, Facebook and the Holland America Blog. Consumers can access all social media outlets via the Online Communities quick link on the company's home page. "Our goal is to always make sure that our travel partners have the best tools available to promote Holland America Line to their clients," said Richard Meadows, executive vice president, marketing, sales and guest programs, in a release. "We encourage all of our travel partners to take advantage of this popular annual promotional to jump start their 2013 bookings." Cruise destinations featured in the Sail & Save sale include Alaska cruises and CruiseTours, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Canada/New England, the Caribbean, Europe, Grand Voyages, Hawaii/Tahiti, Mexico, Panama Canal and South America itineraries.
I’ll admit to feeling a bit sacrilegious as I write this, given that I am still a devoted member of the cult of Cupertino. But fair is fair: I nominate Samsung to be Best Tech Advertiser of 2012 (image division) for “The next best thing is already here,” its Galaxy S III campaign. With this witty work from 72andSunny in Los Angeles, Samsung sweeps the category of “Best Brand Usurper.” Indeed, the spots provide a devilishly clever reality check and knowingly bring up subtle distinctions in handsets. But mostly, the South Korean company had the nerve to hit Apple where it hurts by parodying its fervent followers (aka fanboys) who, on the High Holidays of new releases, blindly assemble outside the temples (um, stores) for proper product worship (and purchase.) Actually, Samsung’s first spot that dared to question the hype surrounding Ultraorthodox Apple-ism broke just about a year ago, in late 2011. It showed throngs of faux-hipsters gathered in line outside retail outlets all over the country. While they were waiting (“only 9 hours to go!”) other civilians were moving around freely in the world, happily engaged with their Samsung Galaxies. One guy ogles the Galaxy model sheepishly from behind his barricade, and speaks for many when he says, “I could never get a Samsung. I’m creative.” That’s a brave line to put into a Samsung spot. The response nails him and the economy he rode in on: “Dude, you’re a barista,” his friend deadpans. The truth hurts. It left me muttering angrily. But consider how much the zeitgeist had changed by this September, when the second spot hit, promoting the GS III and directed at the “coming soon” iPhone 5 (which was a bit of a “meh,” it turns out.) While showcasing GS III features that iPhones don’t have (like file-sharing), the spot again showed lines of expectant white-ear-podded drones standing and waiting. This time the joke is that the Samsung guy is there with the group only to hold a spot for his embarrassingly khaki-clad, coffee-carrying, annoyingly self-satisfied Boomer parents. Yikes. What a blow for me in the “if the sensible shoe fits” department. The spot was so right for so many reasons, though, that it immediately grabbed the No. 1 place on Unruly’s viral video (of any kind) list, followed only by the trailer for the new Hobbit movie. Of course, merely parodying the big guy (even if it’s never been done before) is not what sustains a campaign. And granted, part of the ads’ power comes from the growth and acceptance of the Android operating system in general, as the smartphone category explodes and challengers (and copiers) proliferate. That was the point of Apple’s billion-dollar patent suit with Samsung, which is apparently going back to court. At the same time, however, Apple has left itself surprisingly open for parody. The irony in showing iPhone owners as sheep is pretty rich, given that the “think different” company has always prided itself on being the cooler-than-thou outsider, the “square peg in the round hole.” In fact, Apple followed up on its iconic 1984 Super Bowl commercial, introducing the Mac, with a spot in 1985 showing blindfolded lemmings (aka everybody else) falling into the sea. Apple hasn’t shied away from giving its own pounding to the competition, either: you remember the hilarious campaign embodying the Mac and PC by, respectively, a hipster and a dweeb. But speaking of dweebs, the company made a rare (but hugely embarrassing) advertising misstep this past summer during the broadcast of the London Olympics. Three different TV spots showed an actor playing one of the company’s patented, blue-T-shirted “geniuses” being released into the wild. Each spot landed with a thud. Indeed, the Apple store itself, Steve Jobs’ inspiration, was probably the best ad ever for the brand. Anyone who enters and climbs those clear steps can ascend into heaven, attaining holiness by consulting with the geniuses up there, where the air is thinner. Taken out of that elevated place, however, the genius is just another annoying 20something, a cross between the Dell Dude and a Best Buy elf. In the case of the guy on the plane, he’s like a rat running around, solving basic problems for the other idiot flyers. (“21 F is working on a keynote!” the flight attendant tells him.) The tone is totally off: I’m not sure what universe these ads would work in. The situation in the second one, in which “Mr. Green” comes to the genius’ door at 4 a.m. (the genius is still wearing his blue T-shirt and company ID around his neck in his sleep) is full of cliches, the worst being the revival of the dunderhead dad from the 1950s who doesn’t know anything about birthin’ babies. If these were supposed to democratize the brand, they not only fell flat, but they demonstrated the sensitivity of Mitt Romney talking about the 3%. Plus, wasn’t the whole point of the Mac that it plugs and plays, and that you don’t need to be a genius to use it? Any brand with the revenue of a superpower will have growing pains, of course. But the fact that Apple’s image could be considered cheesy and open to ridicule so soon after Steve Jobs’ death actually shocks me. I had no doubt that the company would maintain its edge and fan base in the wake of Jobs’ untimely passing. No one need cry for Apple, obviously. Meanwhile, Samsung faces a lot of competition. But at a time when few think that any single ad (or even campaign) can have a huge impact anymore, Samsung’s “The Next Big Thing” just did. It sure made a believer out of me.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us. Although the mobile results may not surprise you (somewhere between 16 and 22 percent of the period’s gifting took place on mobile and tablet devices, according to reports from IBM and Adobe), this one might: based on the same recent market data, roughly 2 percent of purchasing was spurred by social media. The attribution pundits are astir, no doubt, but regardless of eventual consensus, a clear transition has been made for many of us: our smartphones and tablets have become an essential digital display case in the holiday shopping shuffle. These devices, in and outside of established “social channels,” are inherently social machines. Whether an immediate purchase took place on a device, or more likely, a combination of showrooming and eventual purchase, an increasing number of sales are occurring apart from brick-and-mortar and away from the desk. The data from BlackCyberDay -- as it often feels like a one crunched blur of rushed consumption -- is enough to make the most cynical mobile conservatives take pause. Above and beyond the sheer volume of additional gift purchasing and ultimate giving that will take place in the weeks ahead, there is an all too easily forgotten pall cast upon those of us on the greater Atlantic coast: that of Sandy's and the closely following nor'easter's path of demolition. For many, giving has taken on a more vital significance. While the iFrenzy and related conspicuous device idolatry will continue deep into the holiday season, this year's Tickle Me Elmos are diapers, work gloves, brooms and other staple dry goods. Events like these bring together odd pairings with common goals -- and can redefine geographic connotation. The Jersey Shore has reclaimed an identity separate from the much-maligned MTV association, but not the one of its heyday. Branding one's efforts during times like these is tricky -- falling somewhere between too maudlin and too passive may leave good work labeled as dispassionate, or worse, inauthentic. The best advertising entices us to nominate, categorize and prioritize wanted items, aspirational products -- those things that bring entertainment, ease and elegance to our day. But where are the ads that ask us to forgo a given material non-necessity (that 7th merino v-neck in light cucumber pearl heather) for a pure donation? There is an untapped and mercifully self-serving opportunity here, something previously relegated to PTSD (Post Traumatic Sales Drives) commercial pleas from well-wishing retailers -- 10% of any purchase goes to a local community, the American Red Cross, or another worthy charity. In truth, I encourage this and applaud those purveyors that weave this into their collateral. But where is the ad campaign asking people not to buy as much or the store clerk sighing, "are you sure you need socks with that" as he points to a donation jar? While a meaningful portion of our holiday spending will undoubtedly occur via untethered devices (whether to research, redeem or acquire), mobile is also a powerful tool for helping those known and unknown victims of recent East Coast storms. Whether you are purchasing a new Nexus 7 via the Amazon app on your Galaxy SIII, researching a family trip to Disney on your tablet, or bidding on that perfect holiday sweater via the eBay mobile optimized site, you can just as easily make another statement. Million-dollar donations from celebrities are amazing, noteworthy even, and so too are ten-dollar SMS contributions from concerned citizens -- which allow you to participate in both kinds of holiday giving: the gift of charity to others and the gift of knowledge that you finally texted something your Mom would be proud of you for sending. And if you are interested in seeing why else mobile will be a cornerstone of the holiday giving season, take a look at some of our recent research. It's compelling.