GLOBAL MARKETING

Two failed marketing

campaigns and the
relationship of culture
and marketing
Submitted to: prof. Imran Bashir

Dania Saeed 141615

TWO CAMPAIGN FAILURE

MISDIRECTED AD CAMPAIGNS FOR THE PROMOTION OF INTERNET 3G
PACKAGES
The highly anticipated third generation of a mobile telecommunications technology, 3G for short, was
perceived to be the next big thing and it was largely expected that this new technology will modernize and
upgrade the trend and usage patterns of high speed internet in Pakistan.
While it is too early to issue a definitive verdict at this point in time, but early impressions and consumer
response to 3G isnt very convincing.
Inside reports from sources within Pakistani telecommunication companies suggest that the number of
consumers who have subscribed for the 3G facility is not very impressive. While we dont have any
figure with us to share with you, but industry itself believes that consumers response to 3G can never be
termed overwhelming. Considering the tariffs, demand and the hype, such low adoption rate of 3G in
Pakistan is very surprising.
While there are other elements involved, speculators believe that the biggest reason for an unimpressive
3G uptake is the Telcos mishandled advertising. Telecommunication companies have spent humongous
amounts yet the outcome was not as amazing as they might have urged. Every 3 out of 5 mobile users are
aware of 3G/4G, and this awareness was largely created by TV advertisements, followed by word of
mouth and ATL marketing- Newspapers & Billboards etc.
Nearly all telecommunication operators spent hundreds of thousands of rupees on advertising yet 3G
didnt gain the anticipated acknowledgment amongst the multitudes. The main reason behind this
advertisement failure is the misdirected focus. Telecommunication companies operating in Pakistan
focused upon building the brand not the product, with many consumers left uneducated with regards to
the actual benefits of 3G as opposed to the perceived ones.
Every 3G campaign talked about how outstanding the brand that offered this facility was while totally
missing the benefits of the service and how it makes life easier. The audience needed to be educated about
the offering. The majority of people define 3G and 4G to be mobile internet only, whereas just 1 out of 10
people delineate it to be Faster & Easier Downloading, Browsing & Video calls. Large no of mobile
internet users are unaware of how to connect and subscribe to 3G packages.
On the other hand countries like Australia, India and Malaysia introduced 3G into their previously
saturated telecom markets with a very different marketing approach, to create a unique selling
proposition.
Case in point, Indian telecom brand Idea cellular approached their eventual goal with a simple, to-thepoint product-first marketing regime. It is safe to assume now that the brands advertising spend paid off.
The ads were made keeping the product in mind, conveying the actual use, need and benefits associated
with the product. Their campaign No Ullo Banaowing not only created awareness about the existence

of the product but also communicated the benefit of using 3G What an Idea Sir jeeThey advertised
the technology wisely and efficiently keeping its basic benefits in mind, or like marketing intellects say,
building the product before building the brand, and something Pakistani telecom companies missed.
Pakistani telecom giants spent millions on building their own brand with clever advertising tactics like
Zongs Super 3G China mobiles sad attempt to brand their 10 MBps 3G technology. On the other
hand there is Mobilink, with its never-ending celebrity endorsements from Ali Zafar to Shaan to the
Prodigal Pakistani daughter Nargis Fakhri. Why spend on developing the brand when it is already strong
enough in the market why not work towards a stronger product.
From amongst the telecom operators, Zong has performed the best when it comes to connectivity issues
and where customer satisfaction is concerned. This is an indicator of their better communication and
service proposition. While we know that telecom companies must have huge plans in their pockets for
future campaigns, we just hope that 3G uptake will only get better during coming months

NESTLE MARKETING CAMPAIGN FOR OLFRUTE

Nestle has been having a hard time in Pakistan for the past few years. First, Aquafina by Pepsi
snatched its market share of mineral water then Olpers by Engro foods sidelined Nestle has been
having a hard time in Pakistan for the past few years. First, Aquafina by Pepsi snatched its market
share of mineral water then Olpers by Engro foods sidelined Nestles Milkpak to become the market
leader of that category. Now Engro Foods is set to give Nestle a tough time again. Olfrute is a juice
brand recently launched by Engro foods. The question is can Olfrute take the market share of Nestle
Fruitavitals or will it share the fate of Shezan and Freshers?
Freshers failed largely because of poor distribution even though the taste and packaging were
different and nice. Shezan has an image of being a low quality juice and this is the reason for its
failure. Olfrute is no doubt cut throat competition for Nestle Fruitavitals But so far Olfrute hasnt
been a big hit. Engro foods relied on the brand equity of Olpers by naming the juice Olpers Olfrute
but this confused positioning. Olpers is a diary product and fruit juice is totally different category
thus Olfrute should not have been leveraged on Olpers brand equity.
Moreover the taste is similar to Nestle Fruitavitals. It offers nothing unique to offer to consumers. I
dont think anyone would be able to distinguish between the two on the basis of taste alone.
However, Olfrute does have a characteristically unpleasant smell. The price level of the new juice has
been kept high. I feel that the introductory price should have been lowered to create a niche in the
market.
Besides this, the television commercial is absurd and fails to make any impact on consumers. The
brand is endorsed by Nadia Jamil, a lady in 30s romping in fruit orchards like a teenage lass. Are they
trying to show that Olfrute revitalizes you so much that you feel younger? If so then there are better
ways to execute this idea. For brand activation, they should have come up with something out of the
box. I doubt that this ad has any recall at all.The packaging also fails to attract attention. It has white
background just like Olpers but honestly Olpers packing had that vibrant red in it to attract the
attention of the buyers. Its seen that decisions are now made in stores by the consumers thus Engro
foods should have come up with packaging that would have pushed the consumers for its impulse

purchasing. In a nutshell, Olfrute doesnt offer much to consumers, in terms of taste, packaging or
promotion.
But it has managed to get Nestle Fruitavitals active. They are not taking this attack lightly. Maybe
they have learnt from past mistakes and are not taking their position of being the leader in the juice
category for granted. Recently they have commenced extensive merchandising in shops and frequent
airing of television commercials. Billboards have also been put up everywhere.
Lets see who wins the battle this time. Will Nestle be left to be a follower or will it carry on being
the Nestle Milkpak to become the market leader of that category. Now Engro Foods is set to give
Nestle a tough time again. Olfrute is a juice brand recently launched by Engro foods. The question
is can Olfrute take the market share of Nestle Fruitavitals or will it share the fate of Shezan and
Freshers?
Freshers failed largely because of poor distribution even though the taste and packaging were
different and nice. Shezan has an image of being a low quality juice and this is the reason for its
failure. Olfrute is no doubt cut throat competition for Nestle Fruitavitals But so far Olfrute hasnt
been a big hit. Engro foods relied on the brand equity of Olpers by naming the juice Olpers Olfrute
but this confused positioning. Olpers is a diary product and fruit juice is totally different category
thus Olfrute should not have been leveraged on Olpers brand equity.
Moreover the taste is similar to Nestle Fruitavitals. It offers nothing unique to offer to consumers. I
dont think anyone would be able to distinguish between the two on the basis of taste alone.
However, Olfrute does have a characteristically unpleasant smell. The price level of the new juice has
been kept high. I feel that the introductory price should have been lowered to create a niche in the
market.
Besides this, the television commercial is absurd and fails to make any impact on consumers. The
brand is endorsed by Nadia Jamil, a lady in 30s romping in fruit orchards like a teenage lass. Are they
trying to show that Olfrute revitalizes you so much that you feel younger? If so then there are better
ways to execute this idea. For brand activation, they should have come up with something out of the
box. I doubt that this ad has any recall at all.
The packaging also fails to attract attention. It has white background just like Olpers but honestly
Olpers packing had that vibrant red in it to attract the attention of the buyers. Its seen that decisions
are now made in stores by the consumers thus Engro foods should have come up with packaging that
would have pushed the consumers for its impulse purchasing. In a nutshell, Olfrute doesnt offer
much to consumers, in terms of taste, packaging or promotion.
But it has managed to get Nestle Fruitavitals active. They are not taking this attack lightly. Maybe
they have learnt from past mistakes and are not taking their position of being the leader in the juice
category for granted. Recently they have commenced extensive merchandising in shops and frequent
airing of television commercials. Billboards have also been put up everywhere.

WHY TWO CAMPAIGNS OF MARKETING FAILED

The most important aspect of any marketing campaign is to make sure you
listen to the feedback of your customers. Most of these brands ended up changing
their campaigns once they realized it wasnt being well received. Even though these
campaigns are for huge brands and have big budgets at their disposal, these
lessons are still applicable to smaller marketing campaigns. For right now, find
solace in the fact that even big name brands make mistakes and its never the end
of the world. Its entirely possible to recover from a poor marketing campaign and
improve your brand.

BURGER KING DECAPITATES ITS "KING" MASCOT

Burger King is making a 180 degree shift in its marketing, with a decision to drop its King
mascot and focus on sit down before you read this! Product.
For years, Burger King had placed its bets on edgy commercials by creative powerhouse Crispin
Porter + Bogusky, targeting men in their teens and 20s. Crispins campaigns got a lot of attention,
and plaudits from the advertising community. Unfortunately, however, advertising awards dont
necessarily translate into sales, and Burger King has been badly lagging main rival McDonalds.
According to consulting firm Technomic, Burger Kings same-store sales declined 6% in the first
quarter; compare that to a 3% rise for McDonalds.
This discrepancy in performance is not the result of McDonalds having more creative
advertising or a hipper mascot (Ronald McDonald is many things hip hes not). But while
Burger King was trying to sell consumers an edgy brand image, McDonalds focused on
something much more mundane: selling burgers, fries and coffee. The rest is marketing history.
Now, under new ownership, and with a new management and marketing team, Burger King is
focusing on what matters: updating the stores, fixing its food and changing its image. As Alex
Maccedo, SVP, marketing, put it to USA Today: People want a reason to go back to Burger
King There are no plans to bring the King back anytime soon.
Along with new management, Burger King has also hired a new ad agency, McGarry Bowen. Mc
Garrys ads are often derided in ad industry circles as conventional, formulaic and unhip. The
criticism isnt entirely unjustified but who cares? Last I heard, advertising is not about creating
art house shorts; its about selling stuff. Against that standard, McGarrys work tends to perform
well. A new campaign by McGarry, launching this weekend, will introduce the California
Whopper, made with guacamole. Whether the new burger will catch on remains to be seen, but
one thing is for sure: the marketing campaign will give it a shot at success. The entire TV
commercial will focus single-mindedly on sights and sounds of the burgers ingredients being
washed and diced.

And amidst all this slicing and dicing, the King finds himself like Charles I and Louis XVI a
head shorter.

MARKETING FAILURE: NEW COKE

Many people have selective memories about the Coca-Cola Companys decision to launch the
product and the initial consumer reaction. Cokes market share had been falling for years, and
consumers overall expressed a strong preference for Pepsi over Coca-Cola in blind taste tests. The
new, improved, sweeter formulation of Coke tested extremely well, with more people preferring the
New Coke formula over both old Coke and Pepsi.
In a nave way, it made perfect sense for the Coca-Cola Company to improve their product, making
up for a known deficiency versus a focal competitor. In fact, sales analysis trends immediately
following the product launch showed significant gains for the Coca-Cola Company. In informal blind
taste tests, Seattle retiree Gary Mullins, founder of Old Cola Drinkers of America, failed to
distinguish between old and new Coke or expressed a preference for the latter.
Of course, we know the rest of the story. The public revolt ensued shortly thereafter, and it had little
to do with the taste of the soda. In launching the new version of Coke, the Coca-Cola Company had a
made a fundamental error in forgetting the source of the value it was truly offering consumers.
A soda that tasted good was nice, but Coca-Cola really offered value on the basis of its strong,
favorable, and unique brand associations: America, friendship, nostalgia, and the like. In changing
the formula, the company walked away from all of these sources of value, and customers reacted
strongly, emotionally, and in a predictable fashion.
The silver lining for the Coca-Cola Company rested in the fact that the re-introduced product, CocaCola Classic, created a firestorm of marketing communications activity, reminding consumers why
Coke was so great in the first place and dramatically communicating the value of the brand.

MARKETING AND CULTURE IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

Companies that sell their products and services internationally often underestimate the
importance of being familiar with the target culture. More often than not, what you don't know
about a local market can hurt your brand. A lack of cultural awareness frequently becomes
evident through mistranslations. Many companies innocently request a translation of a product
name, tagline, or brand name, but fail to test the concept in the local market prior to launch.

In reality, cross-cultural misunderstandings are not limited to the realm of the linguistic an
unfortunate gesture, the wrong color, or even something as simple as a number can mean the
failure of a campaign. Consider this example: you're booking a trip overseas with a foreign
airline. Would you like to sit in row number 13 on flight 666? Probably not, if you live in the
United States or many other Western societies. However, if you live in other parts of the world,

you might not think twice about it. On the contrary, you might actually hang 666 above your
doorway for good luck -- and you might consider 13 a lucky number too.

International product managers and global marketers are typically unaware of how big of a role
numerical superstitions can play in the success -- or failure -- of a given campaign or product
launch. However, some veterans proceed with caution where numbers are concerned. Consider
these examples:

1. Japanese camera maker Fuji typically skips the series 4 and jumps directly from series 3
to series 5, because the number 4 is considered bad luck in Japan.
2. For similar reasons, Olympus moved from its E-PL3 system directly to E-PL5 and
skipping E-PL4.
3. Canon introduced its Powershot G15, skipping both G13, due to 13 being an unlucky
number in the West, and G14, due to the number 4 being a bad luck number in the East.
4. In Italy, Renault sold its R17 model as R177, because the number 17 is considered
unlucky by many Italians.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE AND MARKETING

According to new research, it may have to do with your cultural biases. Or, to be more specific,
the instances in which culture mattersand the times it doesn't.
When does culture influence consumer purchasing decisions? This is a complex and underexamined issue recently explored by Donnel Briley of the University of Sydney and Jennifer
Aaker, the General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford GSB. Four experiments found
that culture-based differences show up when information is processed in a cursory and
spontaneous manner. So when you passed that roadside billboard, you were likely to be
influenced by advertising that appealed to your particular culture. But when you had the time to
deliberate more by examining information on the web, for instance attempts by advertisers
to rely on cultural factors tended not to be as successful.
For example, in a pilot study, Anglo and Asian American students at a California university with
an ethnically diverse population were asked to view advertisements for Welch's grape juice.
Some participants were instructed to give their immediate reactions to the advertisements, while
others were told to think more carefully before evaluating the effectiveness of the ads.
Half of the ads were "promotional" in their appeal. That is, they focused on the benefits that
could be gained by drinking the juice e.g., "Welch's grape juice can lead to higher energy
levels, is great-tasting as well as energizing, and is fun to drink." The other ads had "preventive"
appeals: They highlighted problems that could be avoided by drinking Welch's e.g., "Welch's
grape juice can reduce the risk of some cancers and heart disease, helps keep arteries clear so that
blood can flow freely, and is healthy to drink".
The results were instructive. When participants gave their immediate reactions to the
advertisements, Asian American participants heavily favored the preventive messages; Anglo
Americans had the opposite reaction, rating the promotional messages as more effective. This
tallied with the researchers' theories that Americans, who value achievement, accomplishment,
and independent thinking, would focus on the positive consequences of their purchasing
decisions. On the other hand, Chinese subjects, who tend to value protection and security, and
have more interdependent ways of viewing the world, were expected to concentrate on the
negative consequences of their actions or decisions. All this bore out when subjects gave only a
cursory glance at the ads.
Yet this disparity disappeared when participants engaged in more thoughtful deliberations. There
were simply no significant differences in how the two groups rated the effectiveness of the
advertising when asked to be more careful in their evaluations.
Cultural vs. Personal Knowledge When Making Consumer Judgments

So what determines whether culture matters? A key factor is the extent to which you draw upon
cultural versus personal knowledge when making purchasing decisions.

General cultural knowledge includes implicit theories about the world we live in that are largely
shared by the members of our society. But in addition to this shared set of ideas, we also have
personal knowledge that can conflict with accepted, culturally derived practices. For example, a
boy growing up in China may generally accept the importance of his relationships with others,
and therefore seek to keep harmony with family members. But more personal knowledge such
as being exposed to pictures of American cultural icons like Green Day or Madonna may lead
him to sometimes wear clothes that his parents don't like. In other words, when pressured to form
a quick judgment, we generally rely on cultural norms as a "default." But when making a
thoughtful deliberation, we're more likely to engage in an internal debate, and waver.
In the research, this pattern held across product categories, and in two-country (Hong Kong vs.
United States) comparisons. Taken altogether, these results underscore the idea that culture
simply does not exert the constant, unwavering effect on consumer judgments as previously
thought.
Implications and Significance of the Research

This research has important implications for brand and global marketing efforts by consumeroriented companies.
After all, notions about cultural differences are often the basis for international marketing
communications as well as global brand management strategies. Indeed, the perceived
importance of cultural issues has been increasing, fueled by new technologies that allow
marketers to reach consumers across country boundaries. Marketers are spending increasing
amounts of time and effort trying to understand subtle cultural differences. Witness the efforts of
Nike, IBM, and Google.
But for a message to be effective, marketers must understand not only how to tailor a message to
a particular culture but when such cultural-values-based messages are most effective. For
example, this research suggests that marketing communications that hinge on culture-specific
values might work best when advertisements draw brief, focused attention (e.g., online banner
ads, roadside billboards).
Additionally, this notion that culture sometimes guides consumer judgments and behaviors and at
other times does not could be helpful in understanding conflicting findings in previous research.
For example, although numerous studies have found cultural differences matter enormously to
consumers, in other studies such differences sometimes fail to appear. Such failures tend to offer
uninteresting findings and often remain unpublished. The present research suggests that this may
be due to differences in the conditions under which participants provide their responses.

Researchers also may want to consider the distinction between personal and cultural knowledge.
When will personal knowledge override socio-cultural norms? Answers to such questions will
further illuminate the psychology of consumers across cultural contexts and shed insight on what
types of global marketing efforts may be most effective
5.