A Key to Success that Some Brands Forget

This blog serves as a follow up to my ranting blog on Desert Sun. In that post, I talked about how several companies tend to focus on short term gains such as bringing in first time customers, but often fail to keep their customers happy and wanting to come back. Without happy and loyal customers, you're sure to have a weak brand that won't last. 

While I was prepping for my week in the sun in Hawaii, I became a customer of Seattle Sun Tan, a brand in the tanning world that is continuing to grow in popularity. What's their secret to success?

First, they are using all the newest trends in marketing effectively, including strong social media promotions and QR codes within and outside their stores. Most importantly, however, they treat their members right! They have random free tanning days where they celebrate their members, have a lotion of the day, reward customers on their birthday, and so on. It's little things like that that count and create a strong relationship, making a customer think twice about switching brands. 

What brand keeps you coming back for more? 

Happy Graduation!

Hey everybody! 

I just wanted to wish all the fellow graduates of this quarter the best of luck as they move on to a new stage in life. I'll miss everybody and hope to see some of you around Seattle sometime. As for those still at Western, good luck as well and you'll be out soon too! Good luck with finals ;). 

-Amber

Is Smart Water Being Smart? You Decide

Hello Everybody,

Since all of us students are currently in the midst of dead week, I thought I'd keep today's posting light and humorous. I saw this "viral" ad by Jennifer Aniston as a spokesperson for Smart Water yesterday and I have to admit it made me laugh. In the video, Jennifer Aniston is going to talk about Smart Water, but then realizes that she can't do that without doing crazy things to make the video go "viral". This video is a mockery of all the crazy things others have done (Children lip-sinking, Evion babies, sex appeal, the double rainbow guy, etc),  that have gone viral. Check it out!

Do you think this was the desired effect that Smart Water hoped to achieve even if it is a little off brand? What do you guys think of the video?

A Dying Personal Brand

Alright, I'm sure most of you are as sick of hearing about Charlie Sheen as I am at the moment, but I believe this is worth talking about from a personal branding standpoint. Is Charlie Sheen really making the right move in his "war" against the executives of CBS for cancelling his show? I don't think so!!!

He needs to remember that CBS is who gave him the show that truly made him successful. As much as he made the show come alive, it was his own actions that caused the show to stop. His current explosion and ranting to the media and through social media is gaining some huge publicity now, but it's not going to be sustaining. What major network is going to hire an actor on who might potential cause this much backlash? Did he ever stop to consider how he is going to get a major job again in the future? Good luck Charlie, I'll miss Two and a Half Men.

What do you guys think? Will this be the end of Charlie Sheen after the media explosion or will he bounce back in the future?

Lame Brand of the Week

Alright, time to bring in my personal life frustrations again and mix them with my marketing thoughts. Desert Sun is a tanning salon that may be a well known brand name, but it is severely flawed and here's why.

What they're doing wrong:

• Focusing ALL their attention into attracting new customers with promotions, and then offering next to no actual decent promotions for their returning customers
• Terrible customer service. Never actually expect to get into your tanning bed until about 10 minutes or so after you've made the appointment. I've rarely ever had a positive experience that has made me want to go back.

What they're doing right, kind of:

• Suggestive selling: They track your purchases and try to get you to buy things that you haven't purchased yet or haven't purchased in awhile (i.e. tanning lotions, facial lotions, leg lotions). While this is great, I would caution them to not be too naggy in the suggestive selling. It gets annoying when EVERY time you go in you are trying to be sold to. It needs to be a little more moderated.

My suggestions for improvement:

Try to find ways to increase brand loyalty and repeat customers. I hardly know anybody who actually likes Desert Sun. I only chose to go there because it's conveniently located and I like their mattress bed. I can tell you, after my second time having a membership with them I do not ever intend on going back. If they don't find away to keep customers coming back aside from dragging them into 3 month long memberships, they they will eventually lose that cherished brand name.

What's your least favorite brand of the week?

When Product Placement Goes Too Far

I've always thought that product placement is an excellent way of showcasing and advertising a brand. Sometimes it hardly feels like you're being advertised to, which definitely allows you to more comfortably receive the message. However, when product placement becomes blatantly obvious and overbearing, it's just flat out annoying and companies should be very wary of annoying their customers.

Take The Biggest Loser for instance. They started off using product placement very efficiently. The trainers would often show the contestants and therefore the viewers how to best live a healthy lifestyle through the products being placed by advertisers such as Subway, Yoplait, Ziplock, Extra Gum, 24 Hour Fitness, etc. As the seasons progressed, it got worse and worse, to the point where I don't watch the show anymore. Almost EVERY episode without fail, the contestants would be treated to Subway for dinner, or set aside to be talk about using Extra Gum to cure their snack cravings. EVERY episode. In order for The Biggest Loser to maintain its powerhouse ability to place products in its show, they need to find ways to more smoothly integrate the products.

Any over the top product placement irritate you guys?

Coca-Cola's "Happiness Truck"

You may or may not have already read my old blog , but I once wrote about the Coke "Happiness Machine" being one of my favorite viral campaigns. Now, the "Happiness Truck" has followed up as the sequel and I thought I'd share my thoughts on this video.

I love it! Not only does it continually enforce Coke's core brand idea of bringing happiness to everybody, it also shows how Coke has grown over the last several years internationally. Coke is showing that brings happiness to ALL of its customers, not just in America.

On another note, this is such an amazing idea for guerrilla marketing, and I believe that Coke does this better than  energy drinks (Red Bull, Rockstar, Monster) that normally excel in this category. When an energy drink company shows up at a college campus, it's expected to get free energy drinks and that's about all. No extra feeling other than "sweet, free Red Bull" is derived out of it. Coke's Happiness Truck spreads the word and happiness throughout wherever it goes. It would be great to do videos of them doing this in each country they operate in, to really generate some buzz.

What do you guys think?