Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

For years marketing execs have been trying to get the audience to react to ads – ideally immediately. If only they could find the right tools to get the last part of AIDA going through an advertising campaign – Action. A triumph for direct response advertising? Take TV. You could put a telephone number in [...]

Flip, where was that picture again? In the summer I saw this excellent example of conative marketing (the Action part of AIDA) that instantly reminded me of a previous promotion by a toy manufacturer in doctors’ waiting rooms. The panel has flip-over cards with pictures of the Ravensburger amusement park near Lake Constance. It was [...]

While the world’s eyes were on South Africa for the World Cup, Bavaria beer from Holland (who’ve already featured on this blog for “spoofing” the classic Heineken ad) pulled off one of the highest profile examples of ambush marketing I’ve ever seen. Source: Guardian News/Andrew Boyers/Action Images The official sponsor, Budweiser, were clearly not amused. [...]

As in previous years, and as recommended by marketing experts when you use current events to reach out to customers, companies are jumping on the World Cup bandwagon as an advertising vehicle. Inevitably, some are even playing to classic cultural clichés. So having seen what the Croatians make of the English recently, I’d thought I’d [...]

Pick up better habits This example of conative marketing – ie, A for Action, caught my eye a couple of years ago. You see a cigarette on the pavement, pick it up, but then find it contains a message on how to quit smoking. It’s simple and effective. What really hits home though is the [...]

One way to push people through the AIDA process is to tune into the Zeitgeist. In recent months TV advertising for beer has been set on fire by a Heineken campaign from the Netherlands that has captured the imagination of online communities the world over. I have to admit it’s a classic. Anyway, I have [...]

The “visual double-entendre” in this logo for a German company supplying tow bars is so blatantly obvious, I’m trying to work out if they know what they’re doing. Deliberate or not? Source: www.rameder.de Do they know something about Freudian advertising I don’t know? Is this a new way to “arouse” interest in keeping with the [...]

Companies often use things happening in the news to inject their products with interest and move forward the AIDA process. But this recent idea caused a bit of a cafuffle. Obama Fingers. Yes, you read that right: OBAMA fingers, like fish fingers only with chicken. What the ….? [Image source: spiegel.de] What in heaven’s name [...]

The AIDA process for planning marketing is a useful aid, but it has one major failing: it stops after stimulating action – what about aspects of post-purchase behaviour? Customer relationship management (CRM)? Customer lifetime value (CLV)? Managing complaints? Post-sale service and support? And in automotive markets: aftersales management? Well, that’s why modern techniques of caring [...]

My eye was caught recently by an item in a specialist marketing and advertising magazine about guerilla marketing. An ad agency in the relatively small German town of Eschweiler had obviously been briefed to create as much hype as possible for the opening of a new Tamaris shoe shop. The publicity stunt they came up [...]