Shine - Yahoo’ s latest marketing blunder?

Yahoo just launched a new site: http://shine.yahoo.com/
In contrast to Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Sports, Entertainment, Yahoo Tech and Yahoo Green, this site is targeting a specific audience and not just a topic.
The target audience is women, or in Yahoo lingo “Chief Household Officers” between 24 and 54.
Yahoo claims that Shine doesn’t aim to tap into the stereotypes used by marketers and advertisers to decide what content women should be interested in.
The site should be a one-size-fits-all, since “it doesn’t want to be a site just for moms or just for single women or working women, or any specific demo- or psychographic”

Yahoo is ambitious – it wants to become the top destination site in the lifestyles category.
According to Amy Iorio, general manager of Lifestyles at Yahoo, women are a great demographic target. This is not based on women being roughly 50% of humanity, but on the number of female Yahoo users - 40 million between the ages of 25 and 54 each month.
However, most women more than one (free) Yahoo account, and many spammers use female aliases – facts that seem to elude Yahoo.
Shine’s all female staff is geared to avoid the normal “chick” headlines – completely failing in their current attempts.

To illustrate, I give you a short rundown of the main headlines of March, 31st:

• The 100 Unsexiest Men 2008 (with a picture of toothy TC)
• Fashion + Beauty: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy we think you are awesome
• Food: Is all dark chocolate good for you?
• At home: Article about spring cleaning
• Love + Sex: Wedding season approaching
• Healthy living: Eat bread and still save on calories?

Yahoo claims that advertisers in consumer-packaged goods, retail and pharmaceuticals have requested more ways to reach those consumers -hence Shine.
To put insult to injury, the fixed items on the right top corner are Mail, Weather and (gasp!) Horoscope.
I would have expected to have News, Finance, Tech, Small Business and Travel there – aren’t they suppose to address business women as well?
In short, this marketing product is just one more in the long list of women’s mags.
The layout confirms this – the site is more magazine-like than an information portal.

Reasons why this site will not work (in my opinion):

1. The target audience is too diverse.
   Young mothers have other requirements than senior executives.


2. The site is in English only, solely targeting at the US.
   It leaves powerful demographic groups such as Spanish-speakers out in the cold. To illustrate my point, blogger Hieu T writes in her blog entry titled Khai truong the following: “Chả hiểu cái này dùng thế nào nhỉ???”


3. The main drive behind this site is Yahoo’s expectation that it will attract advertisers in the consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals and retail categories, where combined online advertising spending is expected to exceed $1.8 billion in 2008.
   It is a low-cost way for Yahoo to create more cross-promotional opportunities.


4. The site doesn’t have a specific appeal or taps into a specific need.
   To stand out, Yahoo should have created an “empowerment” theme.
   The line between Shine and sites such as CafeMom, Glam, ivillage, the knot and Martha Stewart living is too blurred.


5. Positioning.
   You cannot access Shine by simply typing in www.shine.com.
   You will get a completely different (although nicely designed) site aimed at job seekers. Yahoo’s Shine is a sub domain and has to be accessed with http://shine.yahoo.com/.
   If you try to access the site via the main Yahoo page, you have to scroll down the list of quick links on the left – for some reason, it’s not placed in the alphabetical list, but as a separate category at the bottom. It was not visible on my computer screen until I scrolled down…


6. The format.
   Shine is a large blog with magazine style layout. Content is broken up into various subcategories with the front page highlighting the newest content from across the site.
   Content is supplied by a pool of selected contributors (hailing from the world of women's publishing) and the site's visitors.
   Due to freeform blog format, visiting bloggers use it for personal advertisement, while the contributors use it for covert advertising and product placement
   (Example: Jennifer Romolini promoting Fig leaves).
   Articles and original blogs will come from a range of sources, including Glamour, Epicurious.com, Style.com, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Women's Health, and Good Housekeeping.


7. Yahoo tried content before – and failed.
   Yahoo has only been successful in content for sports. However, that was not due to the content itself, but by offering free fantasy sports as a piece of functionality as Jon Gibs, an analyst with Nielsen Online, pointed out.
   Main competitor Google stays away from producing orginal content.

The rebranding of President Bling-Bling aka N. Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy was elected based on the conception that he was different from his predecessors. During his campaign, he built his brand as the simple guy (an immigrant’s son without a patrician elite education) who would change things around (an overhaul of the welfare state which he sees as financially unsustainable, unfair and discourages work).

But on Sunday, March 16, the French voters sent a clear message that they were not impressed with M. le President. Sarkozy’s UMP party lost local-government elections in several major cities, trailing behind the Socialist party.
The main reason is the increasingly pessimistic attitude towards Sarkozy’s government policies aimed at boosting purchasing power as the global economy grinds slower.
At the same time, his lifestyle came under attack as well - indiscrete and bordering on ostentatious. Apart from his recent (and very public) divorce from wife Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz, followed by marrying former Italian model-turned-singer Carla Bruni within 4 months, Sarkozy vacationed on a billionaire friend's yacht, jogs wearing Ralph Lauren and a $14,000 Rolex.
His obvious enjoyment of the Good Life got him the nickname "President Bling-Bling".

His current image is in sharp contrast to his election brand as the man-of-the-people.
According to Denis Muzet, founder of the Paris-based politics-and-media institute Médiascopie, the French find it hard to accept Mr. Sarkozy's flashy lifestyle as they are feeling economically pinched. In January, inflation in France reached a 16-year high of 2.8%. A CSA poll last month showed that 56% of French people thought that Mr. Sarkozy "badly represents the role of the president," an 11-percentage-point increase from January 2008.

Sarkozy decided to "re-presidentialise" himself by toning down public displays of his lifestyle. During state visits, he tries to present an image of “elegance and decorum” – sans Rolex watch and Ray-Ban sunglasses.
He learned from past mistakes when he was giving interviews while jogging and using his Blackberry during an audience with the Pope.
For his rebranding he reshuffled his communications team. He started by firing his official spokesman David Martinon (a protégé of his former wife Cecilia).
Martinon will be replaced by a trio made up of Sarkozy's chief of staff Claude Gueant (secretary general of the Elysee); Jean-David Levitte (advisor for international issues) and longtime aide Franck Louvrier (who is in favor of daily communications with the press, instead of weekly press briefings).
Sarkozy also recruited Nicolas Princen, a 24-year old "cyber spin doctor" to detect and counter Internet attacks and rumors against the French President. Princen will keep a keen eye on websites, chat groups, blogs and film clips -with good reason. A handful of clips released on video sites like YouTube or Dailymotion badly tarnished Sarkozy’s image in recent months.
The first one of Sarkozy being seemingly drunk at a press conference at a G8 summit in 2007 was watched over 10 million times on YouTube. His famous remark to a man who refused to shake his hand at the Agricultural Fair in Paris in February 2008 was caught on amateur tape and watched over 3 million times in less than one month.

Will Sarkozy be able to rebrand himself? Will he be the patrician, discrete president the French want, implementing amazing new ideas?
If so, he could be one of the best presidents France ever had.
He made a great start with the appointment of this communication team and the toning down of his image.
But may be Riss, a cartoonist for Charlie Hebdo and co-author of "La Face Karchee de Sarkozy" by Philippe Cohen, Richard Malka and Riss, is on the mark with his observation “he will never change. Whether it rains or it storms he can’t change. It’s beyond him.”

Eliot Spitzer’s tarnished brand – can he remarket himself?

The Eliot Spitzer scandal will keep on mesmerizing us for some time to come.
For marketing and PR professionals, the big question is if and how Spitzer will reposition himself.
Over the years, he has been building his own brand as Mr. Clean and the Sheriff of Wall Street.
During his tenure as state attorney general he took on the insurance, mutual fund and securities industries, including a high profile and still unresolved case against former NYSE boss Dick Grasso.
He was even pegged to run for president in 2012.

Spitzer is not the first (and will not be the last) public figure that disgraced himself.
We all remember the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal – Clinton came out of that one almost unscratched, even finishing his term with a high approval rate.
Coby Bryant was able to save both his career and his marriage.
Barney Frank’s boyfriend ran a full-service prostitution ring out of Frank's Capitol Hill apartment – Frank not only stayed in congress, but heads the powerful house committee on financial services.
Inside trader and convicted white collar criminal Michael Milken is nowadays first and foremost know for his relentless fight against prostate cancer.
Hugh Grant’s career not only survived, but even prospered from his tryst with Ms. Brown.

The problem with Spitzer is first and foremost that he is not a likeable man.
This scandal hits him hard since he defined his own standards of right and wrong during his crime fighting years. The “holier-than-thou” have it tough, in contrast to libertines such as Clinton, Kennedy and Frank. So what should Spitzer do?

Phase 1 – the bomb dropped and he has to deal with the fallout.
Hiring a good publicist aka a crisis management expert is highly recommended.
He has to realize that his situation is bad, with powerful enemies out for his blood.

Phase 2 – he has to make a public statement on a respected TV show (60 minutes, Larry King Live) telling the world what a fool he has been and how very, very sorry he is.
Hugh Grant’s mea culpa on the Jay Leno show did him (and his career) a world of good.

Phase 3 – He needs to drop out of the public eye for a while.
Both Martha Stewart and Kate Moss did just that, which excellent results.
Let the next scandal take up front page space.

Phase 4 – It would be clever to get therapy for his addictive, compulsive behavior.
The public loves a rehab story, just look at President Bush.

Phase 5 – He could embrace religion, it’s a proven way to reposition oneself as an ethical person. The world just loves a repenting sinner.

Phase 6 – He needs to embrace a charity; it’s a proven way for redemption and atonement. Milken and Armstrong have a stellar reputation as crusaders, putting their scandals in the shadow. But it’s crucial to select one that makes sense, such as the fight against sexual slavery.

Phase 7 – Once he has repositioned himself, he can start his career in the private sector.

Spitzer has to realize that his life will never be the same again.
He needs an excellent sense of humor to weather this storm.
He will be referred to as “Client 9” and "Luv Guv" for years to come.
The best way to overcome this, is to write a tell-tale, tongue-in-cheek” book.
He has to make sure that the public has empathy for him.

Can he make it? It all depends if he follows the proven survival guide:
Public statement – teary confession – staunch support of wife & family – redemption.

Spitzer is a smart guy, and with the right advisors by his side, he will be able to remarket himself.

KFC's Super Bowl XLII marketing campaign - flying without a feather?

The upcoming Super Bowl XLII is a marketeer's dream arena.

Sponsors fork out big bucks to get themselves noticed - Fox is charging a record $2.7 million for each 30-second slot.

But one company launched a clever marketing campaign linking its name to the event without spending much money.

KFC Corp., is known for its creative (some would say: wacky) promotions over the years.
For the Super Bowl, it cooked up a clever one to promote its hot wings.
If a player or celebrity performer does an impromptu chicken dance in the end zone or on stage during the Super Bowl on Feb. 3, KFC will donate $260,000 to a charity in the name of that person. The person must perform at least three seconds of the "wing flapping" portion of the chicken dance, and only one donation will be made, according to a news release.
The donation will be made to the KFC Colonel's Scholars Program, a charity that provides scholarships to high school seniors planning to attend a public in-state college or university.
Also, people across the country can visit www.showusyourhotwings.com to upload their own chicken dance videos in the hope of winning a Super Bowl party.

"Talk about an offer worth showing off your Hot Wings for: this could be a great dance performance benefiting charity," said James O'Reilly, chief marketing officer for KFC.

"This will continue KFC's tradition of 'marketing first' promotions. We really hope someone shows the world his 'hot wings.'"

KFC is not an official sponsor of, or affiliated or associated with, the National Football League, the big game, or any other football-related entity.

KFC is not the only saves big time on sponsoring, but also on its PR.
Inviting the public to submit their videos is part of the recent consumer-generated media trend.

It's the ultimate low-cost/high-result strategy.

Just look at the following examples.
Lay's Doritos asked consumers to upload 30-second videos praising its chips, they received more than 1,000 entries. They picked two winners that aired as Doritos ads.
This year, Doritos invites musicians to submit original songs at myspace.com/DoritosCrashTheSuperBowl.
The song that wins online voting will air as a 60-second music video in the Super Bowl.

Considering the popularity of these campaings, they are here to stay - at least for now.

It is a win-win situation - the company saves big time on their PR budget and participants get a shot as their 15-minutes of fame.

How a viral marketing campaign went vitriolic – the Mozilla marketing mess

Mozilla normally markets its open-source browser using its Spread Firefox site and a host of fans to drum up new users.
In an effort to get a chuck of Microsoft’s market, it came up with an innovative online campaign that sadly backfired.
The “Fight Against Boredom” featured a YouTube movie which echoes “We are the World”.
Only in this case, the singers poured out statistics, comparing Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer users with Firefox users.
It included “fun facts” such as:
“15% more likely to have watched cartoons on TV within the last seven days” and “21% less likely to fish”.

However, it also included:
“23% less likely to have cancer” ; “25% less likely to have breast cancer” and “20% less likely to live with others suffering from cancer.”
These “statistics” also included that Firefox users were less likely to have high cholesterol or heart disease.

The TechCrunch blog was the first one to report on and object to the marketing program.
The readers’ comments make fascinating reading.
To give an example, Zachary wrote: "As a Firefox user who has cancer, I'm less than amused."

Paul Kim, Mozilla's vice president of marketing, tried to do some damage control.
He wrote on his blog:
“This is Paul Kim, VP of marketing for Mozilla.
I want to apologize to anyone who was upset or offended by some of the stats on the not yet final website for this campaign.
The list Techcrunch referenced was posted without a final review by Mozilla and wasn’t intended to be published as is.
We’re working right now to correct this on the site, which goes live in a final form later today.”

The apology doesn’t make sense. This kind of campaign should never have been conceived, not even as a rough concept.
I agree with blogger Tom Page, who points out that:
"Saying that it was not meant to be 'publicly available' makes it seem as if these comments are only acceptable as a private joke at Mozilla. Caesar's wife must be above suspicion, and if something like this came from Microsoft you'd go absolutely crazy."

Mozilla yanked the campaign.
What puzzles me most is the part that their PR Company played in this.
AKQA profiles itself as “ideas-lead agency” that holds the “Agency of the Year” title on “both sides of the Atlantic at the same time”.
You would expect more (cultural) sensitivity from an agency like this.
("Al AKQA", that also features a stuffed monkey on its website, claims $ 350M. in online media billing and 450 staffers).

Considering the gap between Firefox and its rival (according to the company Net Application, Inc. Firefox accounted for 16.8% of all browsers that visited the 40,000 sites the company monitors for its customers), this latest expedition in creative marketing will not help.

The lesson to be learned: marketing professionals need to be diligent in all their materials, even if it's only a rough concept.

Shopdropping – a cool marketing strategy or the nicer twin of shoplifting?

Shopdropping is a marketing and self promotion tactic by clandestinely placing altered or recreated objects into retail stores.
It is not new – in 1989, the Barbie Liberation Organization swapped the voice boxes of 300 Barbie dolls to those of G.I. Joes before putting the dolls back on store shelves. The organization tried to make a point about sexism in children's toys.

There are two main groups that are currently using shopdropping.
The first group is promoting a cause. Anti-consumerism advocates slip by replica products packaged with political messages onto store shelves and religious zealots insert their pamphlets between the pages of gay-and-lesbian magazines in bookstores.
The second group uses it for personal marketing and promotion.
Self-published authors sneak their works into the “new releases” sections of bookstores, personal trainers put their business cards into weight-loss books, music producers place their free CDs between commercial music CDs, and aspiring professional photographers place their homemade cards, URL included, in the greeting cards section of book and stationery stores.
No store is safe: Wal-Mart, Target (T-shirts with political message), Starbucks (free CDs of budding artists were shopdropped), Bloomingdale’s (music CDs) are just a few examples.

In itself, shopdropping is not illegal (yet), in contrast to its evil twin shoplifting.
However, trade name and brand name infringements and product liability (especially when it comes to consumer products such as cosmetics and toys) do have legal repercussions.
A telling example of how shopdropping is evolving and becomes illegal is the case of a lead singer for an independent pop-rock band in the East Village, NYC.
The band started shopdropping by slipping their promotional CDs between the pages of The Village Voice newspaper and into the racks at large music stores.
They now changed their strategy and put stickers with logos of fashion designers such as Diesel, John Varvatos and 7 for All Mankind on their promo CDs. They then placed them in the pockets of those designer clothes.

Shopdropping seems to be limited to the US; outside of the US, there was only one major shopdropping recorded. In 2005, the French Fondation Babyrul shopdropped hundreds of home-made CDs into record stores and mash-up DVDs into Blockbuster branches to “challenge the commercial space-time of a store”.
This brings the catching New York Times headline “anarchists in the aisles?” to mind.
What will be the future of shopdropping? Will it be a passing fad or develop in a serious guerilla marketing strategy?
Time will tell – we will all be a lot wiser after the holiday season.

A whole bunch of Crocs

Crocs are clog-like footwear, made of a proprietary plastic resin called Croslite.
Currently, Crocs are sold in 27,000 stores in 80 countries and counting.
Croslite is a lightweight, water-proof resin material which softened with body heat.
This forms a shoe to the shape of the foot, making it very comfortable.
A Canadian company saw the possibilities for spas, and developed a clog which also had
holes for air and drainage.
Scott Seamans and Duke Hanson came across the footwear during a sailing trip from Islas Mujeres, Mexico, to Florida in 2002.
They started a company selling the clogs with a friend, sandwich chain executive George Boedecker. For financing, they borrowed £2.6million ($5.2million) to buy the Canadian firm behind the original design. Seamans added a strap across the heel to make it perfect for boating.

They called their version “Crocs”, since the clogs would look as good out of the water as in it. There initially market was spa and boating people. Once they went mainstream, they encountered fierce criticisms from the fashion industry. To put it bluntly – both the American and British fashion industry hated the Crocs with a passion. Customer disagreed – they made Crocs their favorite summer footwear. Kids, seniors and everyone in between snapped up the colorful clog-like sandals like candy - including Hollywood celebrities and Prince William’s on/off girlfriend Kate Middleton and her friends.

The company fares well as a result – they floated on the US NASDAQ exchange in February 2005. Crocs' CROX stock has climbed since to over 300%.
Recently, there was a backlash. Parents complained that their kids wearing Crocs on escalators could be hurt. The potential danger was highlighted on the CBS Early Show with CBS Correspondent Susan Koeppen. According to media reports, a child in Arkansas had to have a partial amputation after his shoe got caught last year. In Virginia, a mother managed to yank her little one free with only a deep cut. However, it is important to keep in mind that escalator accidents can happen with any shoe. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission there were more than 10,000 injuries last year – 20 percent of which happened on the side or near the top or bottom of the escalator.
The negative media coverage didn’t affect Crocs’ popularity.
Crocs decided to branch out and launch an Autumn/Winter collection, consisting of closed-toe and leather-trimmed styles and a strapless clog lined with microfiber.
It also keeps of closing licensing deals, including deals with Major League Baseball, DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

So what is the secret of Crocs’ marketing success?
Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, gives a great inside.
He labels their appeal as the “bulldog effect” – they are so ugly that they are cute, not unlike Uggs.
Other success factors are:

• They are comfortable.
• They are marketed through word-of-mouth marketing.
• They are affordable.
• They are widening the assortment to boots, flip-flops and fashion shoes.
• They are turning into a lifestyle brand.

Will Crocs have a long life? Only if they stay hot and captivate the market – not an easy thing to do!
Just in case you wonder – do I own Crocs? No, never in my life! I wholeheartedly agree with Amanda Platell in her hilarious article in the Daily Mail.

Is Aquafina heading for a watery grave?

Bottled water consumption is increasing both in the US and in Europe.
Whenever there is a growing market, there is aggressive marketing.
Clever marketing campaigns have created consumer perceptions that bottled waters are purer or healthier than tap water.
What is inside the water bottle often remains a mystery to the consumer - not in the least due to lack of a defined standard for bottle labeling.
It gives water producers creative freedom in their product positioning.

Take Aquafina, the top selling water in the US. Due to clever branding, it is perceived as generating from a distant spring in a glen or mountain. However, this PepsiCo Inc. product is pws: from a public water source. In plain language - tap water.
A US watchdog group called “corporate accountability international” took action and forced Pepsi to reveal the source on the bottles.

Pepsi tried some crisis management.

North American spokeswoman Michelle Naughton declared:

“If this helps clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources, then it's a reasonable thing to do.”

In contrast, Pepsi’s competitor Coca-Cola (producer of Dasani) was a lot smarter marketing wise. It clearly states on the Dasani website that it comes from local water supplies, is then filtered using a process called reverse osmosis, followed by enhancing it with minerals.
Coca-Cola spokeswoman Diana Garza Ciarlante went on record and stated:

“we don’t believe that consumers are confused about the source of Dasani water. The label clearly states that it is purified water.”
Coca-Cola further leveraged the Aquafina story by informing Reuters that it will post online information about its quality control testing later this year.
Coca-Cola is ahead on its competition in the social conscience arena as well – it supports nearly 70 public water projects in 40 countries, in partnership with such groups as CARE and the World Wildlife Fund.

Is Aquafina heading for a watery grave? Not likely.
For starters, the demand for bottled water rose by nearly 10 percent in 2006.
The average annual consumption per person is around 26 gallons.
Industry observer Beverage Digest estimates annual sales in 2006 at $15 billion.

Dave Kolpak, a portfolio manager at Victory Capital Management, said the environmental objections will have little impact on the bottom line for either Pepsi or Coke, though he admitted it could slow the market's growth rate.
According to Dave Kolpak, portfolio manager of Victory Capital Management, people may talk about the issue, but will likely continue buying bottled water.
If Pepsi launches a clever marketing campaign, addressing the source issue and combining it with support for selected social causes; they will not even feel it in their financial results.

A twist on text marketing

Text marketing is not new.
According to Frost& Sullivan, text marketing will be the most important medium for advertising in the 21st century, outperforming print media and billboards.
Wireless Intelligence, a joint venture between the GSM Association industry group and the research firm Ovum, estimates the global number of cell phones at 2.5 billion; an increase of a half billion in just 12 months.
Of the cell phone users, over 95 million in the US alone are active text message users.
(Source: the Yankee Group).

For marketers, it’s a marketing dream: a low cost/high effective marketing & promotion tool. The potential customer can be reached anytime, anywhere.
The first area where text messaging has become successful is entertainment.
Using text messaging to vote off candidates on reality shows worldwide has become popular.
To give an example: the 2004 season of "American Idol" generated 13.5 million text messages.

As a marketing tool, text marketing is currently mainly used for participating in contests and sweepstakes.
McDonald's, Burger King, Procter & Gamble Co., General Motors Corp. and CBS Corp have all launched campaigns that require consumers to enter via text message.

Text marketing first took off in Europe and the Far East for two main reasons:
1) In most countries, cell users typically pay for messages sent, but not for those received.
2) There are less technical obstacles , since there are not that many carriers/mobile phoneplatforms.

One way of approaching potential customers is with an opt-in program.
The US grocery retailer Meijer (based in Grand Rapids, Michigan) launched an opt-in program in the Indianapolis market with mobile-marketing firm SmartReply Inc.
Using the fluctuating gasoline prices as a hook, consenting customers of its gas and convenience stations were sent text messages whenever Meijer was about to raise pump prices by 5 cents a gallon or more, giving them two to four hours to fill up at the lower price.
A great way to build customer loyalty!

A new twist on text marketing comes from New Zealand.
The company Hoo Haa believes that the key to successful text marketing is paying the customer to receive the ads.
This way, nor customers, nor the phone companies get annoyed.
It works is as follows.
Cellphone users registered with HooHaa by listing their name, age, location and buying interests.
These data go into a database that can be accessed by advertisers, who can send text messages.
Each contacted customer gets a 10 cent credit for each advertiser text message received.
The credits are accumulated into lots of $2.50 that are then reduced from their mobile accounts.
Since its launch in January 2007 close to 45,000 people have signed up for the service.The HooHaa database has a broad cross-section of consumers, with people aged 18-30 being the largest demographic group.
HooHaa is now moving into the Australian market.
CEO Brian Hawker is cautious and points out that it’s still early days.
"We've been surprised by the swift uptake and to be honest there is an element of our touching wood. But we think that we might have happened on a business model for marketers to reach mobile customers with tailored messages."
He could be spot on with his observation.
Cellphones are a great marketing tool, since it gives marketers direct one-to-one access to consumers.
In contrast, traditional direct marketing sends out 100,000 pamphlets or messages trying to reach 1,000 customers.
Rapp Collins Limb Walker direct marketing executive Robert Limb sees the appeal of text marketing in the permission to communicate that the customer has to give.
This could develop into close ties with between the customer and the advertiser.
The HooHaa business model is also based on the cooperation of the cellphone companies. Vodafone, Telecom and Pago are currently participating.

Will this concept become successful in other countries?
In my opinion, Europe and the Far East are more likely to adapt it than the US.Paying a customer to receive a message will not work in the US, where consumers must pay for incoming calls and text messages.
But one thing is for sure, it’s a great and creative way to use text marketing.

Make Way for the Widget Marketing Wave

One of the latest trends in marketing is widget marketing.
Widgets are small applications that provide online functionality and content, and are distributed through a potentially vast number of websites.

A website or webpage owner integrates the widget from a third party website or webpage by placing a small snippet of code.

The code brings active content from the third party website (links, advertisements, images) without the need for the website or webpage owner to update the content.
Due to their nature, they are now becoming a new marketing & advertising venue.

Widgets are uploaded onto all kinds of sites, including profile pages, forums and blogs.
Widgets are sometimes called blidgets (TypePad) or snippets (PageFlakes).
Yahoo offers more than 4,300 widgets. It entered the widget arena with the purchase of Pixoria, a producer of widgets.

Other companies, such as Netvibes, Snipperoo and YourMinis also offer widget galleries.

Apple and Microsoft have desktop tools in the form of constantly updating stock tickers, news feeds and airline schedules.

According to Google, “gadgets” are one its fastest-growing products.

But they don’t stop there. Apple’s latest version of its Mac OS X operating system let its users build widgets from scratch and share them with others, even if they’ve never written a line of code.

Microsoft’s Vista comes with 11 standard “gadgets, as well as the option to create more and upload them to Windows Live.

Current users of widget marketing include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and ESPN.

Flickr (a photo-sharing site) lets its members create a “badge” that they can post on their blogs and personal home pages to let friends know when they’ve uploaded new snapshots.

Fox Interactive Media (comprising all of Fox’s sites as well as MySpace, RottenTomatoes.com and AskMen.com) launched its own platform, called SpringWidgets.

What are the benefits of widgets?
1) They are low cost to develop.
2) They don’t require advance coding skills to create.
3) They are extremely easy to use.
4) They are pulled by the consumer, not pushed by the marketer.
5) They are a completely new marketing tool and a great addition to the current marketing mix.
6) They are low cost to distribute.
7) They have a much longer lifespan than traditional online ads.

A great example of widget marketing is Purina’s weather widget.
It lets pet owners know what the weather is outside when you wan to take the dog for a walk.

In the first two months, it was downloaded more than 15,000 times.
It means, that the Purina brand is now constantly in front of 15,000 pet owners, which gives maximum exposure for minimum costs.
The key success element of Purina’s widget is the fact that it is an extension of its brand while giving useful, up-to-date information.

Widget marketing is still in its infant stage. It is hard to tell if widget technology providers such as well-funded Clearspring and Freewebs will be able to become profitable.

Widgets do have some disadvantages. The state-of-the art interactive ones use a lot of computer resources, resulting in slow downloading.
People might download so many widgets, that their webpage becomes cluttered and therefore the marketing message of an individual widget is lost.
As a business model, it isn’t clear yet how profitable it will be as a promotion and branding tool. Advertisers are not yet comfortable with widgets, since tracking and analyzing its traffic is hard and their influence on consumer behavior not yet known.

Personally, I like this new addition to the marketing mix.
It’s exciting to see how it will develop.

For those of you who want to learn more about widget marketing, it’s worth while to attend WidgetCon 2007 taking place on 7/11 in NYC.

Let's widget away!

Marketing to Male Pigs – the Trojan Way

Trojan, the US condom producer, launched a marketing campaign “it’s time we evolve….interested?
In the campaign, men are portrayed as pigs– literally! (or may be hogs, it’s hard to tell).
The commercial shows bar filled with women and a bunch of bar-sitting pigs with cellphones. When one pig goes to the restroom and returns with a condom purchased at a vending machine, he is transformed into an attractive man.
The beautiful blond who had been indifferent now smiles at him.The end of the commercial carries the message: "Evolve: Use a condom every time."
Printed ads will appear in 11 magazines, including Cosmopolitan and Glamour, and on seven Web sites.

The campaign certainly created a nice little media storm.
For starters, Fox and CBS refused to air the commercials, while ABC, NBC, and nine cable networks (including (MTV, Comedy Central and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim) didn’t have a problem with it.
In its rejection letter to Trojan, Fox stated that the ad was rejected since “contractive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy."
CBS didn’t take such a moral high ground – it wrote to Trojan that the ad “wasn’t appropriate for the network, even with late-night only restrictions."

The brains behind the campaign is the Kaplan Thaler Group.
According to CEO Linda Kaplan Thaler, the humor in the ad is a way of “ getting consumers’ attention and opening up a serious conversation about sexually healthy lifestyles.
Some people may be initially surprised by the imagery, but we’re really using the pigs as a metaphor for selfish behavior to call to attention a very important subject.”

Trojan defended its campaign by stating:
“Evolve is a wake-up call to change attitudes about using condoms and, on a larger scale, the way we think and talk about sexual health in this country.
Other than abstinence, the best way people can prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection is to use a condom every time they have sex.
Unfortunately, that’s just not happening today—single sexually-active Americans between the ages of 18 and 54 use them only about 25 percent of the time. We urgently need to foster healthier attitudes about sexual health and condom use.”

Mens News Daily labeled the campaign “male-degrading”, adding that it’s not surprising in a country that “gives round-the-clock media coverage of any rich blonde who drives her car while drunk ... or emerges from it without panties”. (Paris, Britney, and Lindsey – are you listening?).
The website goes on with the cry for “killing the Trojan pig” by boycotting Trojan condoms and protesting against ABC, NBC, and the nine cable networks that air the commercial.

From a marketing point of view, the commercial is excellent.
It created a lot of buzz, far more than a less controversial ad would have done.
The commercials are also done in good taste, and are entertaining as well.
They were directed by Phil Joanou (State of Grace).
Special effects were done by the Stan Winston Studio (Jurassic Park), since our porcine males are animated – no real livestock was used.
Lots of people viewed the strong reaction of Fox and CBS with bewilderment.
As Andrea Kalfoglou pointed out on Agora Vox:
“the message is all about thinking about your own health and that of your partners everytime — a great public health message.”

Personally, I don’t understand the rejection of Fox and CBS.
Both networks are using sex in their marketing.
They place Viagra ads and broadcast shows such as Temptation Island.
Even if you don’t like the humor or are offended by men portrayed as pigs, there is no doubt that preventing airing it or calling for a boycott is not the way to go about it.
Ironically enough, Fox and CBS made the discussion of condom use far more accessible, since their ban gives people a nice opener.
In the mean time, Trojan got a lot of free publicity, which is good for their sales, their brandname and (hopefully) the health of sexually active adults.

In conclusion, we have stumbled on an interesting paradox here.
In the US, sex sells every product (from cars to cosmetics) – but not condoms…..

Having fun with EMV - emotional marketing value

During a market research for EMV migration of payment terminals (EMV stands for Europay, Mastercard, Visa; the smart debit cards), I hit on a completely different EMV.The Advanced Marketing Institute developed an Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) score.
It analyses the impact that a headline has on its readers.
It’s a tool for copywriters to check what the impact of a specific headline has on its readers.
Needless to say, I was intrigued.

The tool analyzes the words in the slogan or headline as follows:

• Intellectual impact
  Words which are especially effective when offering products and services that require reasoning or careful evaluation.
  According to AMI, intellectual impact words are best used to attune copy and sales messages aimed at people and businesses involved in the fields of education, law, medicine, research, politics, and similar fields.
  While not restricted to these groups, by giving presentations which are weighted with intellectual impact words, your clients and customers will be more positively influenced and you are more likely to attain a more favorable response.
  
• Empathetic impact
  Words which resonate in with empathetic impact often bring out profound and strong positive emotional reactions in people.
  According to AMI, empathetic impact words are best used to attune with people and businesses involved with care-giving.
  For example, nurses, doctors, and counselors all tend to respond easily and favorably to empathetic words.
  Women, and especially mothers, are very strong in their use of empathetic impact words in the language.
  While use of empathetic impact words does not have to be limited to these groups, we've found that by selecting m ore words with empathetic impact delivers desirable conversion responses from those types of market segments.
  
• Spiritual impact
  Words which have the strongest potential for influencing people by appealing at a very deep emotional level.
  According to AMI, spiritual impact words are best used with people and businesses desiring to make an appeal to some aspect of spirituality.
  This does not mean religion specifically, but any product or service that resonates with “spirituality” oriented markets is appropriate.
  The clergy, new age, health food and related markets all respond favorably to sales copy heavy with spiritual impact content.
  Women and children also respond strongly to words in the spiritual sphere.
  Marketing documents with strong spiritual impact content can make for the most powerful presentations in the marketplace but must be used with considerable skill.

Again according to AMI, the English language contains approximately 20% EMV words.Most professional copywriters' headlines will have 30%-40% EMV words in their headlines, while the most gifted copywriters will have 50%-75% EMV words.
A perfect score would be 100%.
According to AMI, this is rare unless your headline is less than five words.

I played around a bit with the tool and try to find a top score in each category.
My first challenge was to create a headline with a strong intellectual impact.
I decided to zoom in on Apple’s new iPhone, and came up with the headline:“iPhone best technology”.
It scored 66.67% in both intellectual and empathetic impact, which does make sense.
Orpak’s “fueling your business for success” has a 20% spiritual score.
A slogan I once coined for a high-tech company “your power to communicate” scores 50% on the spiritual scale.
Not bad, considering the company was active in broadband-over-powerline (BPL or PLC).
By repeating words, the score goes up.
“Profit, profit, profit!” scores a cool 100% on the empathy scale; "free, free, free!" also scores 100%, but strangely enough on the intellectual scale.
"Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity!" even scores 300% in all three categories.

I also had a look at strong and successful slogans to see how they scored.
The US Army’s famous “we want you” scores 100% in all three categories.
Philips's new slogan “sense and simplicity” only has a 33.3% intellectual score.
May be it is too close to Jane Austen’s novel title for its own good?
Unilever’s “feel good, look good and get more out of life” scores a measly 10% in the intellectual category, which I didn’t expect. I was sure it would do well in the empathetic and spiritual categories.
Bobcat’s “we are closer than you think” scores a nice 50% in all categories, despite it being slightly stalkerish.
Holmes Place (the global fitness center network) “One life. Live it well” doesn’t score at all. It is 0% neutral, although I expected it to score nicely in the spiritual category.
Nokia’s “connecting people” has as strong 50% score; but in the intellectual, not the emotional categories.

How reliable is this tool? I have my reservations, but it is definitely fun to use!

Has Jack in the Box gone too far?

CKE Restaurants Inc. (parent company of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast food chains) sued Jack in the Box Inc. in federal court in Santa Ana, CA, accusing the San Diego-based chain of deceptive advertising relating to the business end of a cow.

The suit cites TV ads that tout Jack in the Box's sirloin burgers and lampoon those made with Angus beef, which happens to be what's in the Carl's Jr. Six Dollar Burger and the Hardee's Thickburger (and in premium burgers sold at McDonald's and Burger King).

In one ad, Jack, the mascot whose head looks like a ping pong ball, is asked to point to a cow's "angus area" on a diagram.

He says sheepishly: "I'd rather not."

In the other, employees laugh hysterically when a colleague talks about rivals' "Angus burgers."

The suit, which claims that Jack's sirloin burgers are made from "frozen sirloin butt meat," seeks unspecified damages and asks that Jack in the Box run "corrective advertising."

There are two elements at play here.

One is the legal side, and a jury will decided if CKE has a legitimate case.

It all depends how much damage CKE endured – and the burden of proof is theirs.

Several legal experts on Fox News discussed the legal merit.An ad that is clearly intended to be funny, gives the advertiser normally more protection.

The main issue in this case is, if the ad crossed the line.

The panel members on Fox News were divided.

Time and jury members will tell us what will prevail: free speech or offensive and harmful content.

The other element is the marketing one.

Using humor as a PR tool has been used for decades, if not centuries.

The tricky part is to define how far to go– and how effective it will work for a product or company.

Not many people will have a problem with the ad campaign of Ameriquest.

But humor can also be used to make the competition look foolish.

This is dangerous: not only can it backfire, but it can also lead to lawsuits, as the Angus Case proves.

In this case, it also gives misinformation about the product, implying that the source is not from prime beef.

"While Defendant may find humorous the aural and phonetic similarities between the words `Angus' and `anus,' " the suit says, the link is made to create "the erroneous notion that all cuts of Angus beef are derived from the anus of beef cattle.

If they want to have a war, we will take the gloves off," Andy Puzder CKE's CEO.

The irony is that both CKE (and the advertising agency that made the ads) got heaps of free publicity.

The agency, Secret Weapon Marketing of Santa Monica, CA will from now on be associated with the ads.

This could backlash - potential customers might be turned off by the crude humor.

The statement of their Chief Creative Officer Dick Sittig in Adweek magazine doesn’t help as well – he pointed out that the humor was "no more crude than a middle-school joke about the planets - one planet in particular."

Once the dust settles, it will be interesting to watch the legal and marketing fallout……

PR - we always have Paris (Hilton)

On May 11th, Paris Hilton was convicted to serve a 45-day prison sentence for violating the terms of her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.
In court, she argued that she doesn’t read her mail, and just signs what people tell her to sign.
Her publicist Elliot Mintz testified in court that he gave her wrong advise about the status of her suspended driver’s license.
Paris promptly fired him but rehired him on Monday.

What is needed is sound crisis management.
Paris hasn’t quite grasped that yet, judging by her reaction after the court session.
She stated:
"I feel that I was treated unfairly and that the sentence is both cruel and unwarranted and I don't deserve this," and promptly went off with her mother to shop.
She used her blog on MySpace to promote a petition to prevent her from going to jail.She wrote on her blog:
"My friend Joshua started this petition, please help and sihn (the PH version of "sign") it. i LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!"
The petition reads:
"Paris Whitney Hilton is an American celebrity and socialite.
She is an heiress to a share of the Hilton Hotel fortune, as well as to the real estate fortune of her father Richard Hilton.
She provides hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world.
She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives."
It contunues with:
"We, the American public who support Paris, are shocked, dismayed and appalled by how Paris has been the person to be used as an example that Drunk Driving is wrong...
This petition is to ask Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon Paris Hilton for her mistake. Please allow her to her return to her career and life."
How will this impact Hilton in the future?According to veteran publicist David Brokaw, she can only benefit.
Longtime publicist Michael Levine agrees.
He is convinced that it will actually increase her star appeal, since it’s seen as another very compelling plot line in the Paris Hilton soap opera.
Serving jail time harmed some stars but didn’t impact the careers of others.
Martha Stewart started a TV show after she served time; Robert Downey Jr. landed a recurring TV role that enabled him to be back on the big screen.
Bobby Brown and Heidi Fleiss on the other hand didn’t fare so well after prison time.Hilton is playing a dangerous game by banking on her star appeal and her attitude that rules don't apply to her.It will be interesting to see how her sponsors and charities (Operation Smile, City of Hope, Los Angeles Junior League) will react in the coming months.Especially her sponsor Spyker has a problem – Paris was supposed to drive a Spyker C8 during the Bullrun race from 11-18 May.
And what about her promotion deal for Rich Prosecco, a canned sparkling wine?
I am not sure how the rehired Mintz is going to handle it, but I would suggest that Hilton starts apologizing, followed by volunteering in a project dealing with (the families of) DUI victims.
If she is considering penning a novel on her experience behind Swedish curtains, I strongly advise to stay away from that one.
She might see the inside of the courtroom again – this time by violating the "Son of Sam" law.
Paris filed an appeal against her sentence – it will be interesting to see how she and her team will handle her PR leading up to event.

Writing an annual report - no pain, no gain

It's annual report writing time again - a daunting task for many of us.

If planned and handled properly, it's a fun task to do.
Before starting to write an annual report, there are several questions that must be answered.

On which stock exchange is the company listed?
Each stock exchange has its own rules.
The NASDAQ has more stringent requirements than the AIM (London Stock Exchange).Stock exchanges are on the merger & takeover warpath, which will influence the requirements of the absorbed stock exchange.

Who is responsible for what?
In general, it’s the CFO that coordinates the writing of the annual report, not in the least since the majority of its contents consist of financials.
In some companies, this task is outsourced or is given to corporate communications to handle.

An annual report is a team effort:

• The CFO is responsible for the financials (based on the accountant reports);
• The chairman and CEO are responsible for the business overview;
• The CEO is responsible for description of products, markets and operations;
• The lawyer and nomad (nominated advisor)/broker are responsible for the overall content and final check that the report complies with the stock exchange rules and regulations;
• Corporate Communications is responsible for production.

What is the goal of the annual report?
Does the company produce it because it’s mandatory or does the company also want to use it as a marketing tool?
Is the main audience investors and the financial community or also prospects, potential partners and the public in general?
Does the annual report serve as a "crisis management" tool, dealing with bad news/bad results?

What is the timeline?
Producing an annual report requires a strict time plan.
All stock exchanges have a strict due date.
The required filing dates vary by country.
Most U.S. and European companies have a year-end filing date of December 31, and their Annual Reports tend to be filed between April 1 and June 30.
Japanese companies tend to file their report during the month of July, and Australian companies file starting September 15th.
Working backwards, closing files and printing takes about 2 weeks.
A healthy internal deadline is therefore at least one month before the due date.
It’s finalizing the text part that is time consuming, since the different executives have to sign off on their part.
From experience, it will take about 3 months to get all the text written and approved.

How should the annual report look?
The annual report should reflect the company.
For industrial companies, it should look serious and reflect their business.
A good example is the annual report of MAN, a leading European motor vehicle, engine and mechanical engineering group with annual sales of around €13 billion.
A company active in the telecom field can be funkier.
An example is Adamind, a provider of software that enables mobile multimedia content and converged communications services.
Depending on the budget and industry, companies can opt for having the financial pages in black and white and only the text pages (with graphs and illustrations) in color.

What should be inside the annual report?
The average annual report has several sections, some of them mandatory (depending on the stock exchange), others customary.

General part

• Highlights – it gives a snapshot of the financial situation of the past year(s)
• Directors, Secretary, and Advisors
• Chairman’s statement – it covers changing developments, goals achieved/missed, actions taken and industry conditions
• CEO’s statement – it covers the financials, deals, milestones
• Marketing part- covers products, markets. (not mandatory)
• Corporate Governance Statement – it covers the broad, committees, internal control, going concern, relations with shareholders
• Directors’ report – included biographies
• US analysts like to see a stock price overview, consisting of stock symbol, high/low history and price/dividend trends (not mandatory)

Financial part

• Independent Auditor’s Report/ CPA Opinion Letter – consists of a one-page letter from the external accountant/CPA to the shareholders
• Consolidated income statements
• Consolidated balance sheets
• Statement of changes in equity
• Consolidated statements of cash flows
• Notes to the consolidated financial statements
• Appendices – consisting of list of group companies, brands, patents etc. (not mandatory)
  Shareholder information – consists of the contact details

Final Steps
Once the annual report is ready it must be sent out to the stock exchange (to meet the deadline) and shareholders.
It must also be published in pdf form on the corporate website.
Printed copies should be available for any interested party to receive upon request.

It's finished and you can relax -until the next annual report!

The Don Imus Marketing Mix-Up

Apart from Knut, the Berlin polar bear cub, the whole world has been mesmerized by Don Imus’ spectacular fall from grace.
For those of you who missed it: Don Imus was the CBS Radio talk-show host of “Imus in the Morning”.

He was once named one of the 25 Most Influential People in America by Time magazine and a member of the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
His trademark was a combination of discussions about politics and culture, mixed with crude and vulgar humor.

In short, he was one of the first “shock jocks”. Insulting people was part of his show.

Even his corporate sponsors were not exempt.

During an interview with former General Electric CEO Jack Welch and his wife-unit Suzy Wetlaufer about their book “Winning”, Imus referred to Suzy as "been around more times than a fan belt."

Why did his guests put up with it?

Simple – to quote Jack Welch: "we have a book to sell and Imus is great for selling books."

Tim Russert, James Carville, Chris Dodd, John Kerry and John McCain – they all used "Imus in the Morning” to promote their books or ideas.

The Imus show was a marketing dream; supported by the crème de la crème of Corporate America. The top 10 advertisers combined spent nearly $3-million (GM spent $691,700; Sprint Nextel $363,000).

In short, shock jocks like Imus are irresistible since they attract so many loyal viewers and listeners. Corporate sponsors generate optimal ROI on their ad dollars.
Therefore, ex-heroine addict and former alcoholic 66-year-old Imus was what his employers and sponsors loved best – a money making machine.

But once a shock jockey moves from what the public sees as shockingly funny to indecent/unacceptable, the story ends.
Imus’ remarks on the looks of the Rutgers women's basketball team brought about his downfall. Ironically enough, this middle-aged Caucasian macho borrowed words from the less-than-half-his-age hip-hop moguls.
His racial insult created a public stir. Outraged listeners and celebrities started an international debate on all major news channels.
But that was not what brought down Imus. His fate was determined by the show’s sponsors (American Express Co., General Motors Corp., Procter & Gamble Co., Staples Inc.) pulling their advertising from the show.

Don Imus created a lot of inconvenience for his ex-sponsors.

The undesired publicity blocked a highly-profitable advertising channel, which leaves them with the challenge where to advertise to reach such a wide audience.
From a marketing standpoint, we have to admire the Imus Marketing Model.
His marketing mix consisted of:

• Generating millions of ad revenue for his employer CBS radio.
• Providing employer MSNBC with three hours of cheap programming.
• Providing celebrities with a platform to tout their books and ideas.
• Providing politicians with free airtime to push their agenda.
• fundraising for his charities.
• Promoting his wife’s green causes.
• Promoting his own merchandise (cookbooks, foods, cleaning products)

It looks now that all of the above suffered, including his wife Deirdre Imus, who saw her book tour cancelled by Simon & Schuster (the publisher of her book "Green This!") .
But will this spell the end of Imus?
Not likely – satellite radio (Sirius or XM) might offer him a sweet deal, especially since his apology was accepted by the Rutgers’ team.
On the pecuniary side of things, Imus could be entitled to compensation CBS Radio.
He only recently closed a new five-year, $ 50 million contract.
And although he didn’t have a contract with cable network MSNBC, there was a licensing deal between MSNBC with CBS.

Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if he already started penning his autobiography “from fame to shame” or something similar – and if anybody knows how to market it, it’s Imus himself!

Checkers Rapcat promotion - the cat's meow?

The fast food chain Checkers uses a blinged-out feline who wears a jersey and raps in its commercials.
According to Richard Turer, senior vice president of marketing for Checkers, the Rapcat commercials were an overnight success.
"We received dozens of letters from our guests requesting Rapcat merchandise.Our new Rapcat Web site, cups and carry out bags are all in response to Rapcat's popularity and are intended only as a creative extension of our television campaign."
So far, so good.

But with its latest promotion gag, Checkers might have taken it too far.
Checkers designed special burger bags that look like Rapcat’s jersey, complete with a 3-step process how to turn the bag into a “garment” for your own cat.
On the side of the paper bag, the instructions read as follows:

1. Cut out the holes


2. Put YOUR cat in the bag


3. Submit the best pics/vids of your cat keepin' it real…

Checkers cat owning consumers were only too happy to oblige.
The video of a Persian cat being extremely uncomfortable in his bag jersey became a YouTube hit.
But not everybody was amused; especially not animal services such as Hillsborough Animal Control, stating that participants could be charged with felony animal cruelty.As a result, the topic was discussed by Fox and other networks, making Rapcat an international phenomenon.

What is the logic behind the promotion?
According to Checkers management the rap cat bag promo is not intended to hurt animals.
As Checkers spokeswoman Kim Francis puts it:
"Of course we care about the animals. It's an extension of the rap cat promotion. The intent of the bag … is to be an extension of the TV commercial.”
Needless to say, Checkers was smart enough to have a disclaimer on their hamburger bags, stating: "Not all cats will be down with wearing this bag. Do not harm or endanger any cat."

The main question is: how effective is a promotion like this?
According to Checkers, they received dozens of letters from customers requesting Rapcat merchandise.
It’s hard to tell if this specific promotion really increased sales – especially since it’s part of the whole Rapcat PR campaign.

One thing is for sure – Checkers became a household name in countries where they have no presence…….