Sony Ericsson
Marketing Objective and Strategy
Hammersmith-based Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications (SEMC) was established in 2001 as a 50:50 partnership between Sony Corporation of Japan and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson of Sweden. The marketing objective: do sequential launches in Spring 2008 of the Esperia X3 and three models of the Walkman series in a bid to grow share versus global leader Nokia whilst protecting gross margins that are unmatched in the industry.
Even with the global clout of SONY in consumer electronics (particularly music and video) and the proven R & D strengths of Ericsson, SEMC must contend for a fair share of dynamic mobile telephony markets worldwide against giants like Nokia of Finland and Motorola of America, as well as recent entrants such as Huawei of China, LG, and Samsung of South Korea. One solution SEMC has latched on to is moving forward to become a supremely “attractive and innovative global brand in the mobile handset industry”.
Product Offering
The next-generation Esperia X3 augments the current capabilities and work function of the X1 with a sportier, sleeker look, more colors, better music capabilities than the W910i, and all the capabilities of the Sony Videocam built-in. The three other models are the W350i, W380i, and W8901. The W350i is the ultra-slim entry for this go-round, being only 10-mm. thick. The W380i is the first on market with “gesture control”: mute calls, snooze the alarm, or move on to the next music track with a wave of the phone. Lastly, the W8901 can download music at HSDPA speeds, store up to 1,800 songs, features a 3.2-megapixel camera and the SensMe mood-music matching feature.
Audience and Advertising Concept
Heavily aspirational, the ultimate 3G phone in the world. Embodied in the theme, “I [SEMC icon] having it all”. Sub-headline: “For all the lives you live, ready whenever you are.” We shall target young professionals in their 20s, those who adopt new models fastest and are every bit as musically inclined as adolescents.
Benefits
“Be the best mobile warrior at work, tune in to sports broadcasts and YouTube when you need a breather, listen to radio, download and share music to your heart’s content. And best of all, the Esperia X3 is your “Videocam” in a pocket. Capture a presentation, catch a cloud, record every goofy moment, zoom in close to the action on the pitch or the rugby field, the lass in the train, rabbit all you like but never miss another moment, lovely or daft.”
Execution
A 90-second extravaganza. Cristina Aguilera reprises what she did for the W-series, Australian Open charmer Maria Sharapova to join the returning pair of Ana Ivanović and Daniela Hantuchova. All co-emceeing, with David Beckham, a Wembley concert featuring the Arctic Monkeys, Take That, Foo Fighters, Kate Nash, Kylie Minogue, Mark Ronson, Mika, and Adele. Clips of this “X3 Festival” shall be edited into the 90-second Tv commercial and a 120-second radio advert.
Supplementary Campaign
Create full-page magazine ads and posters depicting each one of the above pool of talents in a situation that plays up the features or capabilities of the Esperia X3 and W series. For maximum novelty, rotate the posters and magazine adverts at monthly intervals for the rest of the year.
Promotion
Run three music video contests centered on sports, friends, and business time for spring, summer, and fall. Have all participants send them to LinkLeak, to compete in the “Sony Ericsson X3 Video Awards”. Just before Christmas 2008, re-assemble the all-star cast for the Annual Awards, paying out cash prizes starting at ₤100,000, trips to the 2009 Grammy Awards, etc.
Effectiveness Measurement
Given the multiple dimensions of this recommended A & P program – with strong cognitive, affective, and cognitive effects – nothing less than a comprehensive Awareness, Interest, and Image survey will do justice to the campaign. To be done no less than three months into the campaign, to allow for cumulative effects to build, the survey should cover such elements as a brand, model, and feature recall, which handset capabilities contribute the most to value for money, status effects, whether music or video features give the user greater “bragging rights”, and willingness to switch.
iPhone Global Launch
Marketing Objective and Strategy
Apple Inc. has always been the epitome of “cool”. From the time it was launched almost 30 years ago in Cupertino, the company founded by the twin Steve, Jobs, and Wozniak, has perennially been at the cutting edge of consumer-friendly computing and personal entertainment electronics. To its legion of loyal followers, Apple products speak for themselves.
In January 2007, Steve Jobs announced a plan to extend the personal electronics product line:
Product Differentiation
The iPhone breakthrough was a case of bringing together many disparate technologies into an optimally functional and fun-filled package. The key “innovations” really have to do with ease of use and ready access to the Internet.
Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, and other brands had made function icons a familiar sight in mid-and high-end mobile phone models at least since 2005. The difference is that all these stops at the primary interface. Select the messaging icon, for instance, and all the other menus that follow are the usual plain lists. On the iPhone, Apple maintains its familiar emphasis on an intuitive GUI all the way. This is what Apple means when they tout the iPhone as “…a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply tapping a name or number in your address book, a favourites list, or a call log.”
The second key innovation is that Apple placed shortcuts to many popular uses of the Web right on the primary desktop screen. These include one-tap access to Google search and YouTube. Other “web apps” (really bookmarks) for the iPhone enable users to effortlessly browse lists of news articles on social networking sites like Digg, play games like Sudoku and Bejeweled, view movie times, train schedules, and blogs.
The iPhone extends visual delight and entertainment with a 2-megapixel camera and a photo management application, going beyond anything on a phone as of the date it would be launched. Youthful users enamored with photo-sharing services like Flickr and other online albums can post their pictures directly to the Mac Web Gallery.
A & P Strategy
Build on the iPod franchise since the 2005 launch of the Nano with video capability effectively validated the competence of Apple in higher-end portable and lifestyle-keyed entertainment. Gain a fair share of the mass market estimated at no less than 2.6 billion mobile communication users worldwide by generating massive publicity and word-of-mouth, out of proportion to the modest advertising budget for rollouts in California and London, two of the trendiest markets in the world. Principal tactic: bring the press early into the game by announcing the product innovations six months before the launch, build excitement for the day when the iPhone would go on sale, and drive anxiety by announcing, beginning 45 days before “D Day” that retailers would have to accept reservations because supply was unexpectedly short. Feed media, tech websites, and blogger communities all the material they could use about product features and keep expectations alive. A month before launch day, build excitement yet again by announcing a firm availability date.
Measuring Campaign Effectiveness
Amount of press coverage, stories about people waiting 100 hours in line to be among the first to get their hands on this new icon of “cool” and “hip”. In the new, tech-savvy world, find out if the iPhone might become the most-covered technological launch of the year on account of marketing, advertising, and publicity plan that rivaled the Harry Potter series for sheer hype. This means success can be counted in column inches of coverage in the press and millions of mentions in blogger communities and discussion groups.
Zazoo Condoms
Advertising Objective and Strategy
Expand the market of condom users whilst gaining a larger share of current users. Cope with the limitation that the product cannot be shown in use without inviting a backlash. Convey the benefits of using a condom by exaggerating the downside, the strain, and stress that children bring to the life of a young adult parent. Call to action: by dint of the sardonic humor, the execution portrays, make it so striking and memorable that target users will remember “Zazoo” on the next purchase occasion.
Everything hinged on the execution delivering high impact and working on several levels with its humor and empathy. The humor works to provoke attention and interest, making it likely that the target audience will listen to the branding and imagery messages, thrown in almost as an afterthought in the last seconds of the commercial. In standing out from the awful sameness of commercial TV spots, secondly, the comic dramatization of the hapless father is apt to get talked about. To an adman, word-of-mouth is worth its weight in gold. Thirdly, the advert disguises with wit the morally unacceptable message that children can be such a bother, one had better use contraception.
The most persuasive element of the advert lies in the empathy it creates. Every parent watching this will agree that children can be insufferably bratty. For all the tantrums of the child, what plays out is, in effect, a dramatic vignette that shows, rather than tells us, the unanticipated consequences of unprotected sex. This is the power of effective drama to provoke horror and pity. There is, as well, the dramatic build-up. For 90% of the advert, we are left wondering what it is all about. There is awful suspense to the execution as the audience wonders how long before the parent can bring himself to put a stop to the tantrum. The emotional effect is all the more telling for the surprise sprung and the irony of cause and effect the advert communicates: see what happens when you do not “USE CONDOMS”.
Campaign Effectiveness Measurement
This can primarily rest on a Day-After Recall (DAR) survey that will measure the attention-getting, affective impact, and persuasiveness of the commercial. After all, if humor cannot raise brand profile and differentiate Zazoo from a sea of latex condoms, the next fallback would have to be celebrity endorsement. And famous faces (or bodies) are not exactly falling all over themselves to endorse condoms.
Advertising effects research recognizes that drama encourages consumers to perceive products as solutions to problems. On a rational level, the audience attributes positive causality to the condom brand. In terms of effect, attribution theory suggests that such executions provoke a great deal of empathy and sympathy. The Zazoo approach will likely come across very well in many cultures because the problem situation, the comedic contrast, and the irony of condom-as-solution will be recognized by target parents everywhere.
One may also postulate that the effectiveness of this physical comedy lies in audiences achieving “a sudden glory”, the abrupt realization that one recognizes the problem and has hit upon the solution whereas the glum father does not. That it is too late for him but we in the audience can still take steps to avoid such mishaps in the future contributes to self-satisfaction, patting ourselves in the back for being so clever, and thence taking the recommended action.