Danone's shelf branding

I made these shelf pictures in a Continente hypermarket in Lisbon last week. They illustrate what is possible when retailers and brands collaborate.





In this dairy shelf, Danone blocked the different segments. One of the blocks was dedicated to children. To attract the children, they used attractive Disney looking characters above the shelves and toys at the bottom of the shelves. The branding was subtle and probably prohibited by Continente, yet very typical Danone thanks to the white-blue colouring and the Danoninho character.

Durex guerillia

I saw this campaign myself in Belgium in 2006. The pictures are from MM.
Cheap idea with guaranteed impact!

By McCann-Erickson

What about Coke Zero's long term effect?

Since the launch of Coke Zero, I've personally picked up drinking Coke again. And I've seen others doing the same. And according to the Coca Cola press releases, Coke ZERO in Australia broke "all records for household penetration after just 8 weeks". "The combination of a great ‘Coke’ taste with Zero Sugar and the unique black packaging proved a huge hit – with colas seeing an uplift in sales of 19% after just eight weeks."

But what will be the ROI on the long term? According to the book "The 22 Immutable laws of marketing", line extensions very often cause long term volume and profit loss. These might be some reasons. Don't hesitate to complete them in a comment or via a post on your blog:

1. Very often the budget and resources (brand manager) come from the original brand. In this case, part of the budget might have come from the Coca Cola equity budget and brand manager.

2. Coke Zero further scatters the original (and strong) brand positioning of Coke: The real thing. Coke Zero doesn't taste nor sound like the real thing! Does it lift the whole Coke brand? What does it do back?

3. And what about cannibalization on Coke regular and Light? Did previous Light drinking men switch to ZERO? If the margins on Zero are higher Light, then cannibalization is not that bad.

4. The logistic chain got some extra SKU to take care of

5. A key strentgh of Coke is its great in-store experience. Before Light or Zero, the whole shelf was branded in red. Today, you also see grey and black colors.

The business risk is often higher than one might assume, especially in the long term. But the good thing is all ot these 5 arguments can be coped with.

Trucks²

Our roads are getting more and more silted up with trucks. We don't always use this cheap medium to pass on our brand message. But watch out, this literally cluttered medium needs a creative way to be seen. Like this example of FedEx.

Windows branding evolution

This movie shows how even a fast developing product like Windows can remain consistent to its visual and audio branding. Like for a lot of brands, line extensions often deviate from this consistency. But luckily for Windows, the branding went back to where it came from at each large renovation.

Your skin as soft as a baby's

Commercials for shaving products often looked alike: a man enjoys his morning shave followed by a smiling girl who approves the good job with her hand or own cheek. And it works.

The difficulty with products for men is the targeting: the user group isn’t the buyers group. With this type of commercial, decided to fully concentrate on both target groups, based on 2 different insights:
- Female or buyers group: I would love to kiss my husband without irritating my skin
- Male or end user: I feel guilty because my cheeks are always shaggy

Wilkinson went a step further with this funny viral ad. As the father sees his wife kisses their baby all the time, he understands his cheek should be as soft as his son’s cheek!

Next generation washing machines

This machine looks innocent, but it might cause nightmares to every marketer in the multi billion dollar business of the giants Dash, Persil, Ariel, Coral and Vizir. This new piece of technology is made by the Chinese constructor “Haier” and is named WASH20.

So what? Well, it will wash your laundry as white and clean with clear water, without any help of soap or what so ever! According to the brochure of the manufacturer, the machine washes with a chemical substance called dihydrogen monoxide. It breaks down the water (H2O) into OH- and H+ ions, who both have a role in the washing process. OH- acts as the cleaning agent by attracting and retaining stains. The H+ ions sterilize the clothes.

It will soon be launched on the Belgian market for 699€ and exists already in France. Right on time, as with the global warming issue becomes more important for the consumer.

I know that Procter & Gamble and Unilever knew about this innovation since long. I’m curious what their reaction will be...