Lufthansa’s Marketing Blunder

Lufthansa sent the following letter (seemingly handwritten and sealed with a lipstick kiss) to its male miles & more customers:

Darling,

The feeling to be the most important person in your life is wonderful. We share so many unforgettable moments. And you had always a knack to know how you can please me.

I have a small request: there is a Woman’s Special Partner Card based on your Miles & More credit card, which offers substantial benefits. With this card, I will be invited to exclusive events and can participate in amazing promotions.

And last but not least: I will get a two-year subscription to Vogue magazine or Architectural Digest. You know how much I love these magazines.

Of course I also want to collect Miles with my credit card, exactly like you that we can turn into a nice trip – may be to Paris!

I would so much like you to get this partner card for me via www.womans-card.de

Thanks so much!

Your Special Woman

Needless to say, this promotion did not set well with scores of customers. Many male customers found that it reeked of the 1950s, while female Miles-and-More account holders (including myself) cannot treat their "special man" to a partner card. Lufthansa did not have the foresight to issue a male version of the Woman's Special Credit Card.

The promotion launched a thousand tweets. “Will I be getting a letter from my sweetheart asking if he can have a partner credit card to go shopping with?” tweeted German businesswoman Anke Domscheit-Berg.

Lufthansa halted its campaign and tried to do some much-needed crisis management on Twitter. However, their initial response “we regret the impression that [the campaign] has made,” did little to calm the stormy waters.

Lufthansa also issued a press release reassuring customers that the company was “never intended to convey outdated gender roles or excluding customers from the [partner card] scheme.”

Most of us agree that the campaign is a major faux pas (outdated stereotypes, sexist) . Personally, I wonder it the one that came up with this gem was watching Pan Am at the time......

How an Amazing Woman Became the Face of the Aunt Jemima Brand

The story starts in 1888, when St. Joseph Gazette editor Chris L. Rutt of St. Joseph, Missouri and his friend Charles G. Underwood bought a flour mill. Rutt and Underwood's Pearl Milling Company faced a glutted flour market, so they sold their excess flour as a ready-made pancake mix in white paper sacks with a trade name.  Rutt reportedly saw a minstrel show featuring the "Old Jemima" song and/or a vaudeville performer, who played a character described as "Aunt Jemima",  wearing an apron and kerchief. Rutt created the Aunt Jemima character to market the Pearl Milling Company pancake mix. Since Rutt and Underwood were unable to make the project work, they sold their company to the R.T. Davis Milling Company in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1890.

R.T. Davis marketed the ready-made pancake mix using an older, matronly black woman in an apron and kerchief for branding, which was a stroke of genius. Aunt Jemima’s appearance on the package implied long hours in a southern kitchen and an authentic, homey product. Ironically, the actual pancake mix reportedly did not live up to that image....

For the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Davis needed to bring its new brand to live and looked for a woman to personify Aunt Jemima. Enter Nancy Green. Ms. Green, a storyteller, was born a slave in Montgomery County, Kentucky in 1834. She quickly charmed the crowds while doling out pancakes in the booth at the exposition. Her charisma made the Jemima brand so popular that she got a lifetime contract with Davis. This made her the first African-American supermodel and spokeswoman. Leveraging her popularity, the Davis company was renamed the Aunt Jemima Mills Company.

The Aunt Jemima character became so popular, that copycats tried to move in. The Aunt Jemima Mills Company started taking its imitators to court to protect its brand. In 1915, the Aunt Jemima Mills Company filed a suit against Rigney and Company, which had large implications for trademark law in the U.S.

Rigney and Company used the Green’s Aunt Jemima name and an image similar to Green’s portrayal of the character to sell its pancake syrup. Davis’ lawyers argued that Rigney’s use of the character “created in the minds of purchasers the belief that the said goods are a product of the plaintiff.” The judge ruled in favor of the Aunt Jemima Mills Company stating: “while the pancake flour and pancake syrup were not the same product and did not compete with each other, they were related in their uses and consumers could be misled to think they were made by the same company”. The case set a precedent, known as the "Aunt Jemima Doctrine".

Nancy Green became known as the "Pancake Queen" and traveled on promotional tours all over the country. Due to her appeal, flour sales were up all year and pancakes were no longer considered exclusively for breakfast. She was tragically killed in a car crash in Chicago on September 23, 1923. One year later, the Aunt Jemima Mills ran into financial trouble and was bought by the Quaker Oats Company. 

Over the years, Aunt Jemima has been personified by several spokeswomen and had a few makeovers. The current Aunt Jemima looks more like a working mother – she is slimmer than the original Aunt, her hair is styled and has a touch on grey, and she is wearing a white blouse and pearl earrings.

The original Aunt Jemima, Nancy Green, was an amazing woman who was smart and charismatic. At an age when most current job seekers would despair of ever finding employment ever again, she became the face of a global brand and was able to land a lifelong contract. Her financial freedom allowed her to engage in antipoverty programs. Chapeau!

Marketing Cute Coins - Royal Canadian Mint's Clever Marketing Strategy

Historically, a Mint was established as part of a respected monetary system. To state it more simply, it is a place where money is coined. Most Mints are governmental owned, such as the Royal Canadian Mint. Minting coins and printing money bills is not cheap. The Mints came up with a clever marketing strategy to make money (no pun intended): minting a limited amount of commemorative or collector coins.

This is big business, as the 2011 annual results show. The Royal Canadian Mint recorded revenues of a whopping $3.2 billion. The pre-tax profits reached $43.8 million, which makes 2011 the fourth best year for net income for the Royal Canadian Mint which operates as a corporation whose sole shareholder is the Government of Canada.

As part of its clever marketing strategy, the Royal Canadian Mint's latest collectible coin features a dinosaur whose skeleton shines at night from beneath its scaly hide. The coin actually features two images on one face. The other side depicts Queen Elizabeth II. (No, she does not glow in the dark). Coin designer Julius T. Csotonyi infused the design with a photo-luminescent element so that, when the lights are on, a depiction of the dinosaur appears, but when the lights are off, the dinosaur’s skeleton glows in the dark. According to the Mint, the luminescence will not fade with time.

Made of cupronickel, the coin has a face value of 25 cents and its sales price is $ 29.95. It is much larger than a regular Canadian quarter, which avoids confusion. The coin shows an artist's rendering of Pachyrhinosaurus Lakustai, a 4-ton, 26-foot dinosaur discovered in Alberta in 1972 and named after Al Lakusta, the man who stumbled on its bones in the Pipestone Creek bone bed.

Because the coin is so gimmicky, it received a great deal of media attention. Articles about the coin appeared in a slew of newspapers and technology sites, including CNET and Wired. The coin was also mentioned on television news programs and in a segment “Canada’s Currency Coup” on the Colbert Report. As a result, the coin already sold out of its 25,000 mintage and is selling for a substantial premium to the original issue price on eBay.

But the Royal Canadian Mint is not stopping here. The quarter is the first of a series of four coins. All these coins will feature photo-luminescent prehistoric creatures. These coins are part of its marketing and sales plan. Overall, the Royal Canadian Mint is planning as many as 150 numismatic products and collectibles for 2012.

IKEA’s Marketing Blunder

IKEA promised way back in 1999 in Brussels that it would not use any wood from primeval forests and has been boasting the slogan 'We Love Wood' on its wooden products ever since.

However, as it turns out, IKEA's wood is not always so ecological, responsible or sustainable. A report published by Swedish and Russian environmental organizations show that IKEA’s wood also comes from harvesting primeval forests in Karelia in North Russia.

Swedish state television also covered IKEA’s walk of shame. According to the conducted research, Swedwood, a subsidiary of IKEA, has been harvesting more than 560 hectares of primeval forest annually. Sadly enough, Swedwood was the first foresting company that received a FSC-certificate (Forest Stewardship Council). The certificate guarantees that the wood originated from forests that are managed in a sustainable and ecological way.

According to Linda Ellegaard of the Swedish environmental organization Protect the Forests, which conducted the research, the FSC-certificate does not really work. "Logging companies can decide themselves who will certify them. The FSC controllers are not reliable, since they do not want to deliver bad news – they want to also have a job in the next year. We have eye-witnessed the devastation of the deforestation in Karelia ourselves. However, the certification agents did not say even one bad word about the cutting down of 600-year old trees". 

IKEA stated (of course) that it is not aware of any wrongdoings. "We do not just cut down trees, but pay attention to biodiversity. We are aware of the responsibility to log wood in the forests of Karelia. However, Swedwood has the highest international standard for responsible logging – the FSC certificate. We put our trust in that". 

The FSC claims to have a clear understanding with local Russian environmental groups and logging companies. Arjan Alkema of FSC calls the research of Protect the Forest lacking. "Swedwood makes agreements in accordance with the Russian law and regulations. The value that the Russians attach to the primeval forest is different than that of the Swedes. Furthermore, Swedwood leaves 6,000 hectares in that area alone". 

It is not the first time that IKEA is faced with unsavory practices. The past of the founder of IKEA, Mr. Ingvar Kamprad, is unsavory to say the least......  

Image courtesy of Reuters "shoppers at IKEA"