The zoo had obviously learnt a thing or two about marketing from the Berlin zoo that hit the headlines a couple of years ago with the fluffy cuddly polar bear, Knut.

Now it’s nice to see the users of news, the zoo, being used by other marketing executives to make their news. Sounds complex, but actually it’s simple. The English are bidding for the 2018 World Cup to be staged on the traditional football fields of England. So to boost their bid, they’ve turned to Paul the octopus. The link might sound tenuous, but it’s not, because actually this octopod oracle is originally from England anyway.

Well, I guess it’s a case of you tickle my tentacle, I’ll tickle yours. A win-win arrangement for both parties.

I only hope, wherever the World Cup is staged in 2018, they either introduce goal line technology, or the English learn to play better football in the finals than they did this year.

I sometimes wonder if designing packaging in the old days was easier than it is today. No long complex legal declarations, simple layouts, less competition.

I recently came across an old product from an even older German company in the “health and well-being” market, Beuerer. When I was lent this old electric blanket by an elderly neighbour, it was still going strong and working very effectively after what could be 40 years, or more.

But once my stiff neck was cured, I was interested more in the packaging design. How does it compare to the sort of mental checklist I used to use in product marketing. Let’s go through a typical list:

1) Company logo (ie, who’s this from): check. With a nice touch “Original Beurer”
2) Unique design mnemonic: check.
3) Clear product identifier (heating blanket): check.
4) Memorable tagline/usp: check (sort of: with the cat’s head)
5) Endorsement: check (”X-ray certified by the DVE”).
6) Unique identifiable brand/company colours: maybe. Can’t judge this one, though I can see the company logo is well matched to the round frame around the cat’s head, so the green and yellow were obviously important at the time.

For me, however, the prize goes to the analogy with the cat. A cat sits on beds, keeping it warm. What better, albeit subliminal, way to signal the product benefit. Lovely.

We may laugh at the simplicity of this packaging, the monotonous use of colour (no gradients, two colours plus black and white), but it obviously worked. And Beurer is still going strong, so they’re obviously doing something right.

Returning to my original thought, I found no details on the pack of who Beurer is, where they’re from, product specs (eg, voltage, safety instructions). There was not even a bar code. Apart from the design you see here on the lid, it seems product management had little else to worry about.

Another design success?

With this confusing logo, I didn’t bother walking into the shop in a wet and unusually cold town in Bavaria, the logo was enough warning to steer well clear.

But I would like to know what it means/says/symbolises…

Success? Succession? Success on 1? Who knows.

I’ll update you if it wins a design award. And maybe the shop will stay in business, expand, and we’ll all be wondering about the secret to success.

[image source: Stuttgarter Zeitung. Originator: Stadt Stuttgart]

Here’s another reaction from the local newspaper:
A failed concoction of Halley’s comet and Walls ice cream (”eine missglückte “Melange aus Hallescher Komet und Langnese-Eis”? Viele Werbefachleute lassen kein gutes Haar am neuen Konzept. “)

Oh dear. Could this have been avoided? I believe so. So I’ll say it again: one focus group with business leaders and people off the street would surely have given them all the feedback they needed - rather than an embarrassing public mud-slinging match.

Source: Guardian News/Andrew Boyers/Action Images

The official sponsor, Budweiser, were clearly not amused. FIFA neither. But Bavaria raised its profile dramatically, not just among Dutch beer drinkers.

Ambush marketing is an excellent mechanic for gaining A for Awareness in the AIDA process, at the cost of your competitor! At the same time, if done in a humorous way, it gains nodding and smiling approval from customers. If it goes wrong however, and upsets your potential target audience, beware. And if you break laws, be double aware. Two organisers could face up to 2 years in jail under the South African Contravention of Merchandise Marks Act…

Overall I’d like to give this stunt the thumbs up. Not least because it gave the media worldwide yet another excuse to compile galleries of World Cup babes. They get a thumbs down, however, not just for doing something illegal, the branding is terrible. The Bavaria brand, logo, website and advertising have no orange in them. Based on the pictures of the Dutchy Dress, you’d have expected to see a big orange brand.

Not that budding Budweiser drinkers would be any the wiser. And after Grolsch’s viral attack on the Dutchy Dress, I wonder how many beer drinkers might use the dress for alternative purposes…

Have the design agency and marketing execs talked to GENUINE tourists in Stuttgart?! In the 14 years I’ve been here I’ve shown many a visitor round. What do they enjoy and remember most? A glass cube that could be in ANY MODERN CITY of the world and looks like the Borg Cube from Star Trek (and is thus totally out of place opposite the beautiful Old Castle)?? Or do tourists go back with pictures of a classic regional city, nestling in rolling countryside, amid vineyards, 18th century jewels of architecture and leafy green parks? Correct.

Classic Stuttgart.

As for that logo. While any logo needs the occasional facelift, at least the old one reminds you of some of Stuttgart’s USPs. It shows the pillars of the old exchange (Börse) integrated into the letters of Stuttgart, next to the horse, part of the city’s rich history as a “stud-garden” (by the way, this horse is in the Porsche logo, the only car logo worldwide to feature its origins in its logo).

Oh dear. I’d call this throwing out the baby with the bath water. Not a step forward. But a mismatch.

I hate to be critical of a city I have enjoyed many years in as an expat. But: match your message to your target market. If you say your target group is 40+, then I can tell you now: they won’t be attracted by an ice cream logo and Borg cubes. Do you really think that wonky stars will help modernise this classic regional city?

The WO50 venture teams were asked to come up with a competitor for Red Bull. As I didn’t say “DRINK”, the teams took this as an indication that anything that takes away the “energy consumption” sale from Red Bull, would be allowed.

A lot of the proposals were green (packaging, ingredients, etc). And the winning product had a sting in its tail: Green Scorpion.

I would not however recommend using this product on a man’s tail, unless he is looking for a viagra substitute - as the MBAs designed this product to be “administered” through a patch, or skin strip.

Ignore the bit on the packaging that says it’s “invisible”: to catch the eye of others and enjoy “conspicuous consumption”, it would of course be worn in prominent places, as you get your green shot in the arm.

Also, I’ll retranslate the “Biological” as I assumed during the presentation last week that this actually means “organic” - a good way to appeal to today’s careful young consumers.

A nice touch I missed during the presentation last week: the on-pack endorsement “Brand quality, since 1922″. Always a good way to inject added interest.

In the classic marketing mix, this means sales and marketing in B2B are channelling already tight budgets into P for place. Go out there, meet the customer, be seen, talk, listen, sell…

I know my boss paid loads for this stand … but I’m bored.

So if you’ve invested valuable resources in a trade fair stand, which will typically cost tens (if not hundreds) of thousands to design, create, transport, set up, staff and operate, for heaven’s sake USE IT PROPERLY. The biggest impression made by your stand, once visitors have marvelled at the demos, pictures and exhibits: the people on your stand.

Thus:
- train them (soft skills and product knowledge!)
- give them frequent breaks
- if they drink at evening events, don’t have them on the stand the next day
- ensure they really want to go on the stand!

Too often, juniors are sent to trade fairs as seniors are “too busy to attend right now”.

So beware, they might just sit there, look bored, do their emails, watch people drift pass… and just imagine how damaging that can be for your image.

This is all part of one-to-one marketing: tailoring the message to the identified audience, in a way that differentiates and allows you to interact.

Pop up inviting me to pop over

Now, it appears my provider taps into the internet from a small place south west of Nuremberg. It’s called Spalt. The company that programs an irritating flash on Dictionary.com (which is American, yes?) uses this fact to suggest to an innocent advertising specialist working in Stuttgart (me) that I should hook up with single women from Spalt. I wonder if they’ve ever visited that quaint but sleepy part of Bavaria. I can tell them now, those sort of women will NOT be in Spalt. And even if they were, I’m highly unlikely to travel to Spalt to date with them.

GET REAL!! Customise the message, call out to the audience. But match properly! And don’t offer people things they don’t want.

Seth Godin would probably not like this either. His philosophy of permission marketing is about NOT forcing things on people. He says treat people differently so they choose what to hear, when and how. And I agree with him. Contrary to what people say about “men thinking about sex every 15 minutes”, when using a thesaurus to brainstorm on a slogan, I am not looking for sex from young women south west of Nuremberg.

I dream of a day when the internet is not plastered with useless flashes and smutty offers…

Choose your cup size. For size DD try upstairs or next door.

Anyway, it shut down.

So what’s the latest trend in the trendy Swabian metropolis? Well according to “Kessel.tv”, who’re taking German superlatives like “Übermensch” to the mega level: “Über-Ober-Mega-Trend Cupcakes are conquering Stuttgart city centre”. Yes, just round the corner, cup cakes are coming. Now this exquisite (and expensive: €3) cake with yummy dressing is apparently “big in the States”. Although I’m told it peaked a few years ago.

So if it’s beyond the peak of the product life cycle, is the franchise now being rolled out in Europe to set a (new) international life cycle rolling, or is this an attempt by the franchise owners to extend the overall life cycle?

At some stage they’ll have to work out how much real MASS demand there is for cup cakes in Germany, but I guess if you don’t try, you’ll never know. Though I must warn them: Stuttgart is not Berlin. The Swabians may make fantastic cars, but other “major trends” fall flat on their face in this nick of the woods.

Anyway, the franchisee in Stuttgart is going full guns. The outlet (or is it a restaurant?) is open daily til 10pm.

People I know have their doubts about this new mega-global-hyper-whatever. Why: not just because of the product and the price, but the most crucial aspect for any property: place. Unfortunately the new outlet is located on a side street, away from the main shopping mall, under a red-light “cabaret”, next to Stuttgart’s famous Dreifarbenhaus (the “3 colour house”, euphemistically called the Haus Tricouleur - a major brothel).

We shall see - even though it feels out of place. Shame they couldn’t put it on Königstrasse. But I guess the proof of the pudding is in the eating.