Thursday, August 27, 2009

Café marketing – did Lcafe start a new marketing trend?

Sample Lab opened its Lcafe in Tokyo to reach Japanese women with information about new products.

It works as follows: Lcafe, customers register via mobile phone by providing their personal information (age, birthday, marital status). To become a member, they do not need to give their real name or exact address.

Once registered, the customers get tokens based on the amount of food or drink they ordered. They take their tokens to a brightly lit "sample bar" were they use them to get samples.
Registered members also get a barcode that shows up on their mobile phone. This serves as a membership ID, but also helps Sample Lab track who got what sample.

Sample Lab later sends out questions to see how a member liked a particular item. Those who answer the electronic survey get extra tokens for more samples.

Within the first two months, the café has more than 2,000 registered members. Offered samples were Refresh Time, a vitamin-infused drink by House Wellness Foods Corp.; pretzel sticks with flavors such as cheese, apple or tomato; and assorted skincare products.

This new trend was triggered by the economic turndown. Japanese advertisers are looking at new options to make their advertising more effective. They are turning away from mass promotion such as television ads and glossy magazine spreads that are very expensive. Targeted promotions like samples as more far more affordable and reach the correct customer group.

Yuhi Hori, of the event promotion division of Japan's largest advertising agency Dentsu Inc., agrees. "There is a fresh interest in distributing samples, as technologies using the Internet and mobile phones, which were not available in the past, allow companies to see the impact of sample promotion."

Lcafe reaches its target group perfectly – affluent Japanese women in their 20s and 30s. The café, which serves liquor, is open from 10 a.m. until 4:30 a.m. and clearly caters to women. Men are not allowed after midnight during the "Cinderella Time." The ratio of female to male customers is 9 to 1, according to Lcafe.

According to Kouhei Nishida, a manager of business development at Sample Lab, this group was chosen since "women take an initiative in shopping, they spark a trend. These young women can serve as influencers." More importantly, customers like Lcafe. Misako Minami, a 22-year-old college senior said: "It's simple [to register]. I feel value for money because I can get samples of new products while having a meal."

However, Lcafe also has its critics. Hideyuki Suehiro, of Hakuhodo, a major Japanese ad agency, claims that Lcafe lacks a system to encourage customers to spread their café experience through word of mouth (WOM) on the Internet. According to Lcafe, this is easily solved once it expands into other major Japanese cities (Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka) and eventually overseas.

Time will tell if Lcafe remains a local phenomenon, or is starting a global marketing trend….

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Games maker EA is at it again – another PR stunt gone wrong

This, time Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) unleashed a media storm over its Dante’s Inferno.

At San Diego Comic-Con event, EA came up with a promotion that went sadly wrong. It consisted of a contest, where show visitors were invited to "commit acts of lust" with models working at the convention –no matter in which booth. They had to submit proof by posting photos on various social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.

The idea was to create a viral media storm. The winner (or ultimate sinner?) would enjoy "dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls, a limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty." The consolation prize for the five runners- up consisted of a copy of the game, a $240 gift card and assorted game merchandise.

In the disclaimer, EA stated on the official rules page that "...judges reserve the right, in their sole and absolute discretion, to disqualify any Submissions that are inappropriate for any reason, including without limitation, for depicting or mentioning sex, violence, drugs, alcohol and/or inappropriate language." In other words, keep your "acts of lust" clean!

The gaming community was not a bit charmed, to say the least. Th campaign was labeled as tasteless, immature and sexist. The company tried to explain (or to justify) by pointing out that lust is one of the nine sins/Circles of Hell and that participants were invited to take pictures with costumed reps.

"'Commit acts of lust' is simply a tongue-in-cheek way to say take pictures with costumed reps," EA’s danteteam tweets. "Also, a ‘Night of Lust’ means only that the winner will receive a chaperoned VIP night on the town with the Dante's Inferno reps, all expenses paid, as well as other prizes."

The game community was not impressed and tweeting back with viral force.
addtwist tweeted on July 27, 2009: "You should've just gone with Gluttony. Take a picture of the fattest ass at Comicon and get a prize. Or is that too easy?"

It's not the first time a marketing stunt of EA goes awry.

In April 2009, the company was criticized for sending a number of media outlets a Godfather II press kit that included a very real set of brass knuckles, to promote their game based on The Godfather II. The snag: it’s illegal to own brass knuckles in a number of states.

At the E3 trade show in June 2009, EA angered Christian groups and confused journalists covering the event with the use of fake Christian protesters for promotion of its Dante's Inferno.

What are the main marketing mistakes EA made this time?

  1. They only targeted male gamers
  2. They made the incorrect assumption that everyone would understand the “tongue in cheek” and “good fun” spirit of the promotion
  3. They did not properly addressing criticism from their fan base
  4. They did not learn from past mistakes

It seems that EA is writing its own La Divina Commedia - Dante Alighieri would have been amused…..