Hasta La Creative!

With a proven brand marketing tactic bringing in the bacon, Church’s Chicken has placed a positive outlook for its brand. The latest tactic is their 99-cent value menu offering launched in January during a period typically slow for most restaurants in the quick-serve industry, the new value menu offers eight items for under a dollar. The success of the value menu especially during a down economy only re-enforces the effectiveness of their multi-layered marketing approach to drive value while staying true to the brand’s core essence of authenticity and time-tested great products offered at a value.

Church’s Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Farnaz Wallace said, “The introduction of the value menu gives customers an affordable option in stretching their dollar while satisfying their taste. The new value menu is just one more way to stay true to Church’s no-frills positioning. It underscores Church’s price-value position of providing good, authentic juicy marinated fried chicken – the menu serves comfort foods without premium costs.”

As a key ingredient to the brand’s marketing strategy and success, the value menu was developed to drive traffic while sustaining the brand’s positive same-store sales. Church’s domestic system experienced a growth of 3.4% and a rise of customer transactions of 6.3% during the month of January. The brand also averaged an 8.3% sales mix and continued to maintain over 6% sales mix during a 10-week time span.

By offering a variety of flexible and affordable menu options for customers, Church’s has maintained a sales growth momentum of 2.6% year-to-date. “The move to an even lower price point of these selected items only re-enforce our brand’s commitment of value during these tough economic times,” Wallace added.

(Source) Press

Starbucks

During these trying economic times, I would just like to say, “Thank Heaven for Starbucks.” Arguably one of the most expensive cups of coffee currently available on your local street corner, Starbucks has stepped up to the plate and is now offering all of their delectable products at half price! (No, not really.)

No, what the Seattle-based coffee giant is planning to do is launch an advertising campaign to convince consumers that their products are not as expensive as we think they are…their coffee is not a luxury, but just a plain ‘ol cup of Joe.

I definitely missed that day in class. The day that listed the number of  companies that changed nothing about their business model, but successfully re-branded their products. The day that a company, once touted as a luxury, trendy, “go to” brand actually tried to reverse this identity by stating, “We are nothing special.  There is nothing extraordinary about what we do. And, contrary to what you may think, our products are not expensive.” Trust us.

And, maybe Starbucks is right. Maybe they are getting a bad rap as being an over-priced luxury. The WSJOnline reported that, ”…according to a December survey of coffee shops in Chicago by a stock analyst for William Blair & Co., some sizes and varieties of Starbucks were less expensive than Dunkin’ Donuts coffee when adjusted for size differences.” (Source: WSJ Online) 

Which raises so many questions, such as; “Why is Starbucks comparing themselves to Dunkin’ Donuts?” But, that is another topic. The truth of the matter is that this will be an extremely complicated reverse branding effort, and possibly a brand-killing error. Rather than defending the hard-won Starbucks brand position and capitalizing on the “brand experience” embodied by Starbucks, they have decided to attack positions firmly held by competitors, namely Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonalds. 

If you ever saw the movie Mr. Mom starring Michael Keaton, you may remember the scene where Keaton’s movie wife, Teri Garr, is in an ad agency meeting with their top client, a canned tuna account. The meeting, oddly enough, was to determine the best strategy to use for a premium brand during a recession. Teri Garr’s brilliant strategy was to maintain positioning while throwing consumers an incentive. The end result: A campaign that did not compromise the brand and offered lower prices during ”these trying times.” In essence: “Still the best tuna best available, we understand our consumer’s problems and therfore are lowering our prices.” Sounds like a winner to me.

a href=/media/print/barilla_plus_all_in_one_packimg src=http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/Barillasupermarket.preview.jpg alt=Barilla Plus: All in one pack title=Barilla Plus: All in one pack class=image image-preview width=460 height=297 //apAdvertising Agency: Tank/Yamp;Rbr /
Creative Director: Hans Ahlgrenbr /
Copywriter: Daniel Rinaldobr /
Art Directors: Fredrik Forsling, Magnus Uddenbergbr /
Photographer: Eric Sattenbr /
Retouch: Bertil Israelsson, John Martinsson/p

Advertising School: Humber College, Toronto, Canada
Copywriter / Art Director: Marshall Bellamy

Advertising Agency: Ade, Bogota, Colombia
Executive Creative Director: Nacho Martinez
Creative Directors: Francisco Gonzalez, Giovanny Saavedra M.
Art Directors: Pedro Cardenas, Ivan Lizarazo
Illustrator: Miguel Angel Lopez
Photographer: Claudia Urrutia
Published: June 2008

Advertising Agency :TBWA\YEHOSHUA Israel
CCO: Itai Herman
Creative Director: Edo Kariv
Art Director: Ziv Almong
Copywriter: Eliad Fridman
Accounts Supervisor:Erez Barkatz
Accounts Account Manager:Einat Dzigan
Aired: July 2008

Brief:
The brief was to launch a new performance enhancing bread across Australia. The product: new Wonder Performance is a unique combination of complex carbs and iron for energy, as well as protein and amino acids for strength that gives teenagers the fuel to perform. Our objective was to appeal to the diverse audience of mums and teenage boys within a short period of time.

Solution:
Our solution stemmed from the fact that Wonder had had a ‘proven’ track record of transformational powers. We seeded the internet with three different unbranded mpegs of ducks that had unique powers: duck surfing, formation flying and escalator ducks. A unique website and phone number was set up to report on these ‘duck phenomena’. A TVC then broke the news that the ducks were performing this way because they shouldn’t be fed new Wonder Performance bread: it was good for teenagers but not for ducks. This news was posted on the website and in eDM to those who had registered.

Results:
The launch of the three mpegs went viral in the true sense of the word. To date there have been over 2.7 million views on YouTube, over half a million listings for ‘surfing duck’ on Google. The phenomenon was featured on the New York Times, Sky News and Daily Telegraph websites to name a few. Over 10,000 people have registered for a duck repellent ring tone or filed a duck report. In the first week of launch New Wonder Performance sold over A$1,000,000 worth of bread.

Advertising Agency: BMF, Sydney, Australia
Agency Producer: Whitney Hawthorn
Strategic Planner: Gerry Cyron
GAD: Vicky Norton
Account Director: Patrick Cahill
Account Manager: Esther Knox
Production Company: Flying Fish
Post Production: Perceptual Engineering/The House Of Curves
Director: Joe Leonie
Digital Planning Director: Aaron Michie
Creative Director, Interactive: Chris James
Executive Creative Director: Warren Brown
Creative Director: Simon Langley
Art Director: Paul Bruce
Copywriters: Cleve Cameron, Richard Morgan
Digital Art Director: Craig Bailey

Advertised brand: Dunkin’ Donuts

Advertising Agency: Hill Holliday Boston, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Kevin Moehlenkamp
Creative Directors: Tim Cawley, Kevin Daley
Art Director: Megan O’Connell
Copywriter: Lindsay Bowen
Illustrator / Photographer: Alice Blue
Published: August 2008

Advertising Agency: Hill Holliday, Boston, USA
Executive Creative Director: Kevin Moehlenkamp
Senior Art Director: Darren Bult
Associate Creative Director / Copywriter: Scott Noble
GCD / Copy: Time Cawley
GCD / Art: Kevin Daley
Published: April 2008

Advertising Agency: DDB Sydney, Australia
Executive Creative Director: Matt Eastwood
Copywriter: Alex Stainton
Art Director: Jakub Szymanski
Photographer: Christian Mushenko
Typographers: Jason Young, Erwin Santoso
Account Supervisor: Penny Sarfati
Advertiser’s Supervisor: Helen Farquhar
Retoucher: Dennis Monk