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Safeway going where no supermarket has gone before: Safeway will become the first supermarket chain to participate in a multi-brand motion picture tie-in promotion when the new “Star Trek: Nemesis” invades movie theaters in December:
“This is the first time that a major supermarket company has brought all of its regional groups together to leverage a high-profile entertainment property to drive traffic,” said Jay Slater, head of Promotion Connections, Los Angeles, which worked with Paramount and Safeway on the tie-in.
Be on the lookout for strange creatures from another world at a Safeway near you — they’ll be invading 1,700 stores nationwide as part of the promotion.
We told you before about Chevrolet’s recent initiative to sell cars to Christians and Buick’s resurrection of a dead guy to hawk their new cars. Now comes word that an unlikely coalition of religious and environmental groups is launching a “What Would Jesus Drive?” ad campaign today, in the hope that a little pressure from the Messiah will get people to switch to more fuel-efficient cars:
It’s a joint effort of the National Council of Churches and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life. The group is planning television advertising in North Carolina, Iowa, Indiana and Missouri to urge consumers to park their sport/utility vehicles — claiming that Jesus would prefer a cleaner vehicle.
We have contacted Motor Trend’s bureau in the Great Beyond for verification of this startling claim, but as yet have had no response.
Meanwhile, Chrysler has gone “up above” (Canada) and reeled-in its own “angel” to spread her wings over the enraptured automaker: Celine Dion.
The deal includes a TV spot early next year featuring the singer, a new, original song created specifically for the ad campaign, and all kinds of other promotional goodies. The folks at Chrysler are seeing heavenly visions for their brand:
“Celine Dion personifies the Chrysler brand slogan, ‘Drive Equals Love,’ ” said Jim Schroer, Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing, DaimlerChrysler in a statement. “This is the kind of branded harmony you dream about.”
Until December 1, Manhattanites who have been deprived of the Target shopping experience can load up on bullseye goods, as a 220-foot Target shopping boat dropped anchor on the West Side of the island last week. Cocktails are served on board the festive ship, where the goods are “displayed behind glass amid faux winter wonderland scenery.”
Target, being a low-cost big-box retailer, cannot justify the enormous rent expense to put one of its stores in Manhattan, forcing New Yorkers to trek to the outer boroughs to buy all things Target. However, the company typically does as much or more advertising in New York City as in the rest of the country, a show put on for the media, the fashion capital, and for Wall Street.
The shopping boat is another shrewd move from a company that has made many strong branding decisions:
The idea for the boat evolved after the retailer sponsored a “Target Townhouse” in New York’s fashionable Tribeca neighborhood last year, which showcased a townhouse decorated entirely with the retailer’s merchandise, says [Target's director of corporate communications, Carolyn] Brookter.
The company does not have any sales goals for the boat’s two-week stint, but analysts say the publicity generated from the unique venue is more valuable than sales.
After leaving New York, the Target Navy will be sailing to the Persian Gulf, where they’ve been hired by the U.S. government to decorate Iraq with giant versions of their distinctive logo.
Even though LEGO’s design proposal for the Mars Rover was rejected by NASA, the company is taking it in stride and co-sponsoring a contest to name the twin rovers that will be taking the big ride next summer.
While the rocket scientists at NASA may have legitimate concerns about the spaceworthiness of LEGO’s design philosophy, the name of LEGO’s toy rover control software, “Red Rover,” is a gem. It is in fact the perfect name for the Mars mission’s SUV.
Unfortunately, NASA is under the impression that “Red Rover” just doesn’t have the gravitas necessary to keep space travel fun, exciting, and inspiring, the way names culled from musty old encyclopedias do.
In search of a weightier name, and to siphon some of the magic and delight of youth, the contest is open only to children, grades K-12. But in case any youngsters out there are considering naming the twins something like Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Beavis and Butt-head, Wallace and Gromit, Ren and Stimpy, Ben and Jerry, Wayne and Garth, Bill and Monica, Sid and Nancy, or Bartles and Jaymes, think again. From the entry form:
When doing research for suggested rover names, please keep in mind that space objects, missions, and spacecraft have traditionally been named after people or places from history, mythology, or fiction, or with words that convey a spirit of exploration or enterprise.
The Planetary Society, LEGO’s contest co-sponsor, elaborates:
In the past, The Planetary Society has sponsored or co-sponsored six naming contests: three spacecraft, Magellan, Beagle, and Sojourner, and three asteroids, Bonestell, Nereus, and Braille.
So kids, tap into that part of the old bean where names and ideas like “Nereus” and “Bonestell” live and have at it. But above all, have fun.
Dell has just announced that it is jumping into the lusty world of PocketPC-powered PDAs. In these days of smaller advertising budgets, Dell has a real opportunity to create mindshare and brand equity by simply choosing a powerful name for its new product.
With the competition sporting milquetoast marketing monikers such as Cassiopeia, Clie, eBookman, Genio, iPAQ, Jornada, Mobile Pro, Nexio, Pocket Gear, Timeport, Treo, Zaurus, Zayo and Zire, the bar is low and the opportunity high. With a single word, Dell could separate itself from the pack, make an emotional connection with their audience, create a self-propelling buzz campaign, give their marketing and advertising people an arsenal of imagery, and strike fear into the other manufacturers.
The new name? Axim.
A peek at the inspiration for this name might be found on the coast of Ghana, West Africa, of all places, where King Ronald I rules benevolently over his subjects in the Kingdom of Axim. We have checked with our sources and confirmed that the King is NOT the missing Ronald we previously reported, who remains at large.
The official language of the Kingdom of Axim is Nzema, which may very well end up being the name of Dell’s next handheld model. And if the Kingdom can be persuaded to make Dell’s Axim its official government PDA — imagine “Axim: The Official PDA of the Kingdom of Axim” — sales will probably skyrocket.
AT&T Canada announced Thursday it will loosen the grip of its U.S. parent and rename itself, “as it continues restructuring in a bid to become a more independent and competitive telecom company.” This will be an interesting one to watch: will they dare to break from the mold, along the lines of Orange, or go the predictable Nortel/WorldCom descriptive route? Or will they just trade one acronym for another?
Given the recent Canadian ambivalence toward naming or branding anything besides beverages and outdoor gear with the dreaded “C”-word, it’s a safe bet that “Canada” will not be part of the name.
If only all naming projects were this easy. 7up created a new soft drink with the notion of turning the old brand upside-down; so they made a green beverage and put it in a clear bottle (the reverse of 7up), then added caffeine to jolt consumers back to consciousness. And for the name? They simply turned 7up upside-down to create dnL.
It’s a neat little trick, and a nice play off 7up on multiple levels. The name demonstrates the product’s positioning and its relation to the 7up brand in its very structure. As a nice co-promotional bonus, dnL will read as “7up” when the bottle is inverted during guzzling. And vice versa.
The branding home run would have been if “dnl” actually meant something or sounded a bit more appetizing, but hey, you’re either turning something upside-down or you’re not. So it’s not as powerful as it could be, although it’s short and skewed just enough to work better than Reppeprd, Ekoc, Elppans, or Etirps could ever hope to.
Our guess is that people will nickname it something like “d” or “7d,” and if the company is really lucky, consumers will come up with a variety of interesting phrases to define the DNL acronym. Watch for the company to prime the pump on the latter.
Gateway Computer is going through a rebranding, and in the process is ditching its trademark folksy cow theme in favor of a sleek, modern treatment.
Gateway’s is a very high-stakes version of the dilemma that many companies currently face: how to go about branding yourself in a new and unusual way that gets you noticed, yet retain the “gravitas” to sell product to potential customer sectors that your market research has pegged as “conservative”:
Because of the home-PC slowdown, Gateway is courting more business and government clients. Company brass believe the longtime cow motif may be too cartoonish for pitching to more sober commercial clients.
Gateway succeeded during the ’90s tech boom, but with their fortunes tied to the PC, their revenue has taken a beating in the last two years of The Great Contraction. So it seems logical that now is a good time to rebrand, to lose the bovine baggage in favor of a new, sleek, hi-tech look.
The problem Gateway faces is that the cow branding is the one thing that most distinguished them from all the other PC clones with identical products and marketing. Like it or not,
“The cow motif was one of those odd, quirky, counterintuitive trademarks that succeeded in spite of itself,” said Bob Garfield, a columnist for Advertising Age. “Because high-tech and folksy had never before been joined into one concept, it imbued the brand with the trustworthiness of good, wholesome folks in flyover country providing value and honest, American hard work.
“It is simply hard for me to imagine that they’re running away from it,” Garfield said. “The company built up so much equity in its trademark and trade dress that abandoning it at any point is dangerous, bordering on reckless, behavior. It’s like UPS painting its trucks orange.”
And indeed, UPS has even made its brown color the focus of its recent branding efforts.
During economic boom times, companies are more concerned with differentiating themselves from the competition, and they have the resources to pursue strategies to that end. During a prolonged economic slump like the current one, however, when revenues for many companies, especially tech companies, have fallen hard, even the slightest possibility that one’s very difference from the rest of the pack could be adversely affecting the bottom line becomes a nagging pain. Ultimately, many companies go the Gateway route, and throw in the towel on what made them different in the hopes of cashing in on what they think they’re missing out on.
With the cow motif, Gateway was essentially trying to be more like Apple than the other PC makers, by emphasizing humanistic values over cold engineering specs. In theory it should have worked: Apple’s branding genius without the minority platform/OS baggage. The problem is that it just never rose to that level, never created a personality that was bigger and more provocative than computers.
It’s a problem with no easy solutions. The new Gateway effort might just work, especially in conjunction with a suite of new electronics products that diversify the company away from being just a PC manufacturer. Or they could blend in so well with the competition that they disappear entirely.
The sibling rivalry within the GM family is heating up. Unable to top the celebrity of prettier sister Buick’s spokesperson Tiger Woods, Chevrolet has settled for second best and signed God to an infinite branding contract:
U.S.-based carmaker Chevrolet is linking up with an evangelical concert tour for a marketing campaign, a move criticized as crossing the line between religion and the boardroom. The Chevrolet Presents: Come Together and Worship shows begin Nov. 1 in Atlanta and ends Nov. 23 in Auburn Hills, Mich. The tour includes a multimedia worship service with preaching by the Rev. Max Lucado, a Texas pastor and author, and a distribution of free evangelical literature. Michael W. Smith and rock act Third Day will headline.
The shows are booked into venues averaging 14,000 seats, such as the American Airlines Center in Dallas and Atlanta’s Philips Arena. “This is surprising — a real blurring of the lines between the commercial and the sacred,” Phyllis Tickle, an expert on religious marketing for Publishers Weekly magazine, told the Detroit Free Press. “We know that church and state are never supposed to meet, and I think it’s also a bad idea for church and Wall Street to be meeting like this.”
Steve Betz, the General Motors Corp. division’s marketing manager for the southeastern U.S., said he was confident the tour will send a positive message and give dealers a boost. “It’s important that we get the message out there with regards to Chevrolet and how we’re so family oriented and have great values,” he said.
Part of the genius here is that God will shill a product for a lot less money than Tiger, saving Chevrolet millions. However, a quick survey at Chevy’s “Jesus Saves Sales Event” (Bad credit? No Credit? We Forgive You!)* revealed that folks were less likely to spend money on extras like airbags as long as God was their co-pilot. When asked if this move was likely to alienate Jews, a salesperson replied, “Nah, those people won’t drive nothin’ but Cadillacs, and besides, they’re all going to Hell anyhow.”
O Lord, won’t you buy me, an SUVeeee: Ye of little (or other) faith need not despair: during the Glorious Event™, a conversion to Christianity can be redeemed for 6.66% off the MSRP of a new Suburban.
Buick’s newest ad campaign evokes the spirit of Harley Earl, an icon of sensual car design who died in 1969. In the ads, Harley tells us that he has come back to build us great cars. While the spots may in fact be meant to foreshadow what’s to come, the problem right now is that the 2003 Buicks don’t appear as if Mr. Earl has gotten down to work yet. The product belies the message, rendering it odd at best.
Further muddying the message, Buick is running a sweepstakes to promote its Park Avenue Ultra, with winners receiving an all-expense luxury vacation to the city that best embodies and reinforces the sophistication and excitement invoked by the name “Park Avenue,” the city that never sleeps…Washington D.C.?!
And just how do you go about making “Park Avenue” more “ultra” than it already is? Here are a few examples of the superlatives that automakers have used to make their brands appear more bitchin’: Park Avenue Ultra, Dodge Intrepid, Nissan Maxima and Altima, Skoda Superb, Kia Optima, Honda Insight, and of course from Oldsmobile the Bravada, Intrigue, and the late great Cutlass Supreme.
In other GM brand action, the good news is that Cadillac is delivering on its new “Break Through” promise with a model line-up that embraces innovative and edgy design, creating a powerful new personality for the company. While over at the Chevrolet division, only time will tell if they can can live up to to the lofty claims set forth in their new tagline: “We’ll be there.”
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