“In an age where creative marketing is king, even feces can be turned into gold!”

In American society, it is considered rude to engage in bathroom humor with people whom you barely know. In Taiwan, a restaurant is serving up a hot and steaming plate of bathroom humor, delicious bathroom humor.

It all began when one of Modern Toilet’s partners was reading manga – Dr. Slump On The Toilet – and had an explosive idea! Could people overcome their perceptions of the way a food is presented and just enjoy the taste? After a successful bout with serving chocolate ice cream in squat toilet-shaped bowls, the company knew that had to push – push harder for a wide-ranged menu. Everything from urinal drinking cups, toilet soup bowls and even ice cream that comes in three flavors, diarrhea with dried droppings (chocolate), bloody poop (strawberry) and green dysentery (kiwi), were introduced to hungry and confused customers. 

So how did consumers digest this bizarre concept? They loved it! It’s fair to say that a good number of people were completely grossed out, but after the initial shock of the presentation and decoration (toilet seats for chairs and sinks for tables) subsided, they gobbled the bathroom-inspired le plat principal right up!

Would you be able to overcome the visual presentation and let your taste buds and sense of smell lead your way to food bliss?

And just because I couldn’t resist:

What do you call a vegetarian with diarrhea? A salad shooter.

So how do you take a well-known product that has been collecting dust at your local supermarket and turn it into the sensation of a marketing campaign? Let your consumers do all the work!

That is exactly what Saatchi & Saatchi Tel Aviv did for Israel’s most beloved food brand, Elite. In Hebrew, there are two ways to say “Wafer.” Just like you can say “tomato” or “tohmato” in English. So the proper way to say “Wafer” is “Vafel” and then there is the slang version, “Bafel.” Click on the image and see how these two little words created a phenomenon that has yet to be forgotten.

Here are the highlights of the best moments in Elite’s Vafel vs. Bafel campaign:

>”Bafel” was the first consumer inspired product name change in Israel’s history!

>Over 1 Million votes were cast in a nation of only 7 million people!

>320 media mentions worth over $1000000!

>After just 3.5 weeks of campaigning, sales went up by 33.8% selling over one million units!

So, did you answer the question? Which do you prefer, Vafel or Bafel?

According to Arthur D. Little consulting firm, a business can occupy one of the five vying categories in a target market:

• Weak: this business has unsatisfactory performance but an opportunity exists for improvement and it must change or or exit the target market.
• Tenable: this business is performing at sufficiently satisfactory level to warrant continuing in business, but it exists at the sufferance of the dominating company and has a less than average opportunity to improve its position.
• Favorable: this firm has a strength that is exploitable in particular strategies and has more than average opportunity to improve its position.
• Strong: this business can take independent action without endangering its long-term position and can maintain its long-term position regardless of competitor’s actions.
• Dominant: this business controls the behavior of other competitors and has a wide choice of strategic options. This is what Little calls as the Alpha Brand.

Where is your company now? Where do you want it to be?

Source: http://www.marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-a-d-little.html

Advertising Quiz: Are You In or Out?

How familiar are you with advertising? Advertising becomes more difficult day by day. It requires social media as well as word of mouth. Test your advertising knowledge and skills!

Facebook just launched their DEALS application! This means that sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are totally missing the cool new wagon to jump on. Yeah, yeah, deals are cool, but doing them alone is not that appealing. Facebook explains that they began this idea with the wish of bringing friends together and allowing people on the website to get together and have fun. This makes them completely different from other daily deal companies – it’s the social aspect of getting a cool deal and doing it with your besties! You can use your credits that you’ve been racking up from Farmville to use towards the deals, not just moolah from your very own pocket. And just for your information: the more friends you get to join in on the deal with you, the more of a discount you can get!

Facebook is not disclosing how much of a percentage they are receiving from the companies, unlike Groupon which takes 50% and LivingSocial which takes 40%.

Would you use this application on Facebook? Is doing something cheaper with friends better than doing something cheaper alone?