Dominos New Pizza

Is it worth it?

What I saw: MSNBC reported on Dominos new bold marketing campaign airing their dirty laundry and telling everyone "out with the old, in with the new".
What I thought: Oh my *&^ goodness! What an idea and what a management team to approve this. Bold! I thought, this is a company that was not afraid to listen to how bad their product is in customers perception and this is a company that allowed the creatives to actually get creative. Now, it could really blow up in the face if the "new" isn't as good or is worse. That's the trick, isn't it? But being so bold in the campaign, it tells customers that they must have really spent time to create something new because it is way too risky if it sucks. Now, some will still hate the pizza, but who cares? This campaign just brought the name Dominos back to customer's minds and to the attention of marketing professionals.

What I saw: The campaign website http://www.pizzaturnaround.com/
What I thought: Just the name of the website says it all - Pizza Turnaround. It's "PIZZA" - the industry and the food- not just "Dominos" that is being "turned around".

What I saw: Stephen Colbert's skit on Dominos
What I thought: THIS is the home run for the campaign. Paid or not paid, I don't know, but the skit shows that this marketing campaign has become a PR golden egg.

YES! It's worth it!

Tyson

How important is placement?
Yesterday I took a survey conducted by a college friend regarding advertising on Facebook and viewer's attitudes towards the product when it appears in a very cheezy looking person's profile page. Then today I had this experience.

What I saw: Online advertising on New York Times.com had an ad of Tyson Slow Cooked Beef Pot Roast.

What I thought: Tyson is extending in to dog food. Interesting business idea!

What I saw: Oh, wait, the dog is in the NYT ad. The Tyson ad is unfortunately underneath that particular ad and therefore underneath a dog.

What I though: Oh, crap, Tyson got screwed. How many people thought this was dog food like I did??

It is very frustrating that as advertisers, we don't know where our ad will appear on a page. It's so much worse still when it is online and there isn't even a person going through each pages' lay out. It rotates between advertisers. How would you know where you ad ends up and how the ad you designed in the vacuum of your own office be represented when it goes on-line?

Placement of an ad and the interaction of graphics can greatly change the message the marketer is trying to convey. Placement is oh, so important!

shu uemura

How many bad shopping experiences would cost a brand to lose a loyal customer?

What I saw: Shu Uemura's spring 2009 beautiful blush duo at Japan's Narita airport.
What I thought: If I had the chance to create a blush, this was exactly what I would make. Love it!

What I saw: (Strike 1) I decided to buy the blush at Narita airport but the sales lady forgot to ring it up. I only realized it later when I came home. (Strike 2) I went to shu uemura at Thailand's Suvannabhumi airport. The sales dude (or lady, depending on how liberal you are) did not say a greeting nor acknowledged my presence. He continued to clean up the cupboards and threw stuff in to the garbage can, sometimes barely missing me. I walked away. (Strike 3) I revisited Narita airport's shu uemura counter. I asked specifically for the blush I was looking for and found out that it was sold out.
What I thought: First, I kicked myself for not going to the flagship store in Tokyo. But I wanted to save a few bucks and buy duty free. Then, the accumulation of the small bad experiences made me not want to stop by a shu uemura counter or store anymore, even though I am a truly loyal customer. But now, I am emerging out of my comfort zone and make up cocoon of shu uemura and looking at all the other brands I had dismissed for the past three years.

I guess it takes 3 strikes and shu're out.