Beirut Walls
Author: Krikor
Live Life Light
a Brand, a .CO Domain & a Parking Page
Another billboard campaign in Lebanon for a brand who did not manage to get its .COM domain but ended having it under .CO extension, which makes me happy to see that this new extension is evolving and having more ground in Lebanon’s domain names scene, read a previous post about .CO here.
But the surprise is when you point your browser to visit the website, you end up on a domain parking page.
Not sure how marketing/brand managers handle their brands during a campaign but this is really disappointing, because I am not sure if I or others will come back to check the website once the billboard campaign is over, because nothing was left in my memory from that brand except a “coming soon”.
A brand without a website should at least have a decent landing page.
Dear Lebanon …
I am writing you this blog post and I am so damn mad at youu because since I was born you are letting me down and every time I stupidly give you back a chance to fix it but unfortunately you don’t.
I don’t care if I can go ski and swim the same day, this is not what I really want.
I want a country where I can have electricity 24 hours a day and spend your hot summer nights quietly and if you cannot fix the electricity 21 years after finishing your civil war, then I have nothing to tell you.
I want a country where I am paying the most expensive mobile rate in the world, to have in return a decent service, a good signal, mobile internet and on top of all, a customer service that I can reach anytime I have a question (trying to call MTC since 9 this morning, now it is 11:30 and still not able to catch them).
I want a country where I can watch an online video without spending a whole day for it or download a file before going to bed then waking up to see that the progress is at 1%.
I want a country where you build a bridge and it makes the life of thousands miserable, to do something about it, in order for me and lots of others get to their work without the need of having Lorazepam 3 times daily.
I want a country where I can access a clean public beach and spend the day with my kids.
I want a country where people drive cars with transparent glasses and respect the law, instead of having black tinted glasses and not respecting the law.
I want a country where you, Lebanon, will go and dig for that oil or gas in the sea without giving me headaches on the news and use it for the good interest of yourself.
I want a country where I can drive without hurting my eyes with that visual pollution of billboards on your streets and highways.
I want a country where I can drive without your roads taking a big chunk of my salary because I have to visit the “mekaniss-yen” every month.
I want a country where “if” I ever watch the news, feel the people who are running this country really love you.
Best regards,
an angry bird, OOPS, an angry citizen.
Retail News – Week 31
When The Brand Does Not Fit The Product
Summer is here and it is hot. All supermarkets are shrinking their frozen category shelves and groceries are putting their small freezers in front of everything else to welcome the ice cream season where sales will pick up because of the hot summers we have in Lebanon.
Lebanese consumers are very familiar with ice cream brands, for me and since i was a kid, still remember mainly Gelati Cortina and Bonjus, then many local brands came along like Gelati Dolsi and last year we had a new player Cornelli. This post is not about international ice cream brands, but most of them are also on the Lebanese market.
Bonjus ice cream is a brand extension to the original juice product that is 46 years old and to a certain extend it fits and serves the global brand positioning among other players. Well managed brand extensions not only provide new sources of revenue, they can also reinforce brand meaning and help to build brand equity.
But sometimes the brand extension and stretching can hurt and damage the parent brand.
Taanayel Les Fermes ice cream is not the right brand extension for a typical dairy products brand.
No matter how juicy and succulent the advertising campaign is and will be, my first thought will always be the dairy products because of the brand name in first place.
Surely milk is used in both lines (dairy and ice cream) but for me, the brand does not fit the product.
Engage Or Die
I would like to share with my blog visitors, a paragraph from a book I started reading today called Engage, The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web written by Brian Solis.
This below quoted paragraph is addressed to the smart-asses out there who pretend analyzing, studying, planning and embracing social media the right way BUT stupidly going and creating a Google+ page for a brand while Google is shouting all over the web that profiles should be human at this stage, therefore businesses and brands should wait for their format.
Another book I suggest to those pretenders to read is UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging written by Scott Stratten.
P.S. If you are not into “real” marketing, don’t say or pretend you are in marketing.
Social media is about speaking with, not “at” people.
This means engaging in a way that works in a conversational medium, that is, serving the best interest of both parties, while not demeaning any actions or insulting the intelligence of anyone involved. So what of those skeptics or apprehensive executives who claim that participating on social networks will only invoke negative responses and ignite potential crises?
As we’re coming to realize, the social landscape is an apparent sea filled with unforgiving predators—most of whom would love nothing more than to have marketers for every meal of the day. Nevertheless, succeeding here is the future of integrated communications, marketing, and service.
The truth is that there will be negative commentary. However, that should not deter you from experimenting or piloting programs. Even without your participation, negative commentary already exists. In most cases, you just aren’t encountering it. This is why I like to ask business leaders the following question: “If a conversation takes place online, and you weren’t there to hear it, did it actually happen?”
Yes. Yes, it did.
Assuredly, every negative discussion is an opportunity to learn and also to participate in a way that may shift the discussion in a positive direction. If there’s nothing else that we accomplish by participating, we at least acquire the ability to contribute toward a positive public perception.
The conversations that don’t kill you only make you stronger.
Retail News – Week 30