Wednesday, July 28, 2010
War-less World
"The pioneers of a war-less world are the youth that refuse military service" - Albert Einstein
Monday, July 26, 2010
Best New Global Product? CMO Council's Donovan Neale-May Answers
Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council asks, “What has been the most successful, annoying, intrusive and beloved new product to hit the market in recent times?”
The South African native has an immediate answer,"My vote for New Product of the Year in 2010 already goes to one seriously disruptive and intrusive innovation…the viral, vocal and visceral vuvuzela". Not a trumpet or even a horn, the Zulu term describes an elongated plastic instrument that African (and now the world's) football fans blow to make a loud, persistent and invasive noise in stadiums, streets and sports bars.
The global interactive marketing group connects with Coca-Cola's 3500 marketing people worldwide. Donnelly underscores that the company is built on a heavy local emphasis. "All experience with our brands is local." However, providing a centralized solution is essential as it avoids working with very disparate results. He outlines, "Our marketers can use a palette of options to leverage the message, and then partner with technology to deliver a local effort."
There's been nothing flat about vuvuzela sales since the product's global debut at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, literally blowing away other merchandise offerings and creating a phenomenal and distinctive buzz worldwide!”
According to Neale-May, "Few really understand the latent appeal of this raucous instrument, which has been widely embraced by football fans of all persuasions, ethnicity, and levels of income and intellect. One wealthy Russian businessman willingly splurged more than $30,000 for a white gold and jewel-encrusted vuvuzela that was his blinged-out memento of this year's World Cup."
“Think about this,” he says. “We have an outrageous product success story:
• Almost zero R&D investment.
• Little or no trademark or property rights protection.
• Minimal upfront capital requirements.
• A highly adaptive product design for quick and easy versioning, customization and localization.
• Brand and accessory extensions created overnight. (Even an iPhone app and 5,000 downloads!)
• Overnight distribution network created using entrepreneurial, eager street sales agents, as well as more formal online and offline retail channels.
• No slotting fees or exorbitant marketing development funds. (Your grassroots field rep network likes to pay cash and never takes product on consignment.)
With little or no formal marketing, you rely on the viral, vocal and visceral aspects of your product to gain rapid product adoption, uptake and use in a matter of weeks. With manufacturing churning out as many as 20,000 vuvuzelas a day!
Donovan Neale-May continues, “Your vuvuzela product demand has been immune to bans by sports bodies, health risk warnings and invasive noise pollution issues. Millions are sold in just a few months. You generate over 50 billion exposures on global TV with multiple close-ups and continuous product visibility on the most highly rated live sports broadcasts and cable transmissions.
No problem with organic search optimization online. There are nearly 20 million vuvuzela listings on Google, over one million references to the product in blogs. Adding to this are the15,000 news stories exploring every facet of vuvuzela irritation, aggravation and imagination reaching many more millions of readers, viewers and listeners in over 200 countries.
Fortunately, the world's largest working vuvuzela - some 114 feet long - languishes in Cape Town. Built by Hyundai for promotional purposes, this enormous instrument is unlikely to give consumers a blast given the city council's sensitivities to noise pollution.
Forget the hyped-up, technologically advanced football cleats and apparel. The state-of-the-art Jabulani football design. The immersive 3D television displays. Or the nifty mobile phone apps debuting at the FIFA World Cup. The simple 'snoek' fisherman's horn came to the fore and trumped all other product innovations by playing a new note of novelty, simplicity and local ingenuity."
The South African native has an immediate answer,"My vote for New Product of the Year in 2010 already goes to one seriously disruptive and intrusive innovation…the viral, vocal and visceral vuvuzela". Not a trumpet or even a horn, the Zulu term describes an elongated plastic instrument that African (and now the world's) football fans blow to make a loud, persistent and invasive noise in stadiums, streets and sports bars.
The global interactive marketing group connects with Coca-Cola's 3500 marketing people worldwide. Donnelly underscores that the company is built on a heavy local emphasis. "All experience with our brands is local." However, providing a centralized solution is essential as it avoids working with very disparate results. He outlines, "Our marketers can use a palette of options to leverage the message, and then partner with technology to deliver a local effort."
There's been nothing flat about vuvuzela sales since the product's global debut at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, literally blowing away other merchandise offerings and creating a phenomenal and distinctive buzz worldwide!”
According to Neale-May, "Few really understand the latent appeal of this raucous instrument, which has been widely embraced by football fans of all persuasions, ethnicity, and levels of income and intellect. One wealthy Russian businessman willingly splurged more than $30,000 for a white gold and jewel-encrusted vuvuzela that was his blinged-out memento of this year's World Cup."
“Think about this,” he says. “We have an outrageous product success story:
• Almost zero R&D investment.
• Little or no trademark or property rights protection.
• Minimal upfront capital requirements.
• A highly adaptive product design for quick and easy versioning, customization and localization.
• Brand and accessory extensions created overnight. (Even an iPhone app and 5,000 downloads!)
• Overnight distribution network created using entrepreneurial, eager street sales agents, as well as more formal online and offline retail channels.
• No slotting fees or exorbitant marketing development funds. (Your grassroots field rep network likes to pay cash and never takes product on consignment.)
With little or no formal marketing, you rely on the viral, vocal and visceral aspects of your product to gain rapid product adoption, uptake and use in a matter of weeks. With manufacturing churning out as many as 20,000 vuvuzelas a day!
Donovan Neale-May continues, “Your vuvuzela product demand has been immune to bans by sports bodies, health risk warnings and invasive noise pollution issues. Millions are sold in just a few months. You generate over 50 billion exposures on global TV with multiple close-ups and continuous product visibility on the most highly rated live sports broadcasts and cable transmissions.
No problem with organic search optimization online. There are nearly 20 million vuvuzela listings on Google, over one million references to the product in blogs. Adding to this are the15,000 news stories exploring every facet of vuvuzela irritation, aggravation and imagination reaching many more millions of readers, viewers and listeners in over 200 countries.
Fortunately, the world's largest working vuvuzela - some 114 feet long - languishes in Cape Town. Built by Hyundai for promotional purposes, this enormous instrument is unlikely to give consumers a blast given the city council's sensitivities to noise pollution.
Forget the hyped-up, technologically advanced football cleats and apparel. The state-of-the-art Jabulani football design. The immersive 3D television displays. Or the nifty mobile phone apps debuting at the FIFA World Cup. The simple 'snoek' fisherman's horn came to the fore and trumped all other product innovations by playing a new note of novelty, simplicity and local ingenuity."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)