Strategy of TOTO's washlets

Home work (Mitsuo Sugawara) Aug 16, 2015

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, marketing is defined as the following:

"the activity of deciding how to advertise a product, what price to charge for it etc, or the type of job in which you do this."

Advertising has various types of meaning. The essential one of them is how to create awareness for a new product, which have never existed till then and consumers don't know how fantastic it is.

TOTO's washlets, nowadays,  have approximately 70% market share in Japan since then they released washlets for the first time in 1982.

Their successful depends on TOTO's excellent strategy.

It was the TV commercial, "Even your buttocks want to be washed", which was nationally televised at the prime time in which many Japanese were having dinner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tJlfj6C0sA

Unfortunately, above You tube is Japanese only, but the concept is that we can't clean these stain in wrinkles so we should use water to clean up. In addition our buttocks need to be washed. Actress rubbed blue cream in her hand and tried to wipe off the cream but she couldn't do it.

It was sensationally argued among Japanese, but many consumers gained awareness the concept.

Since then, the end users who bought and used it realized the value and can’t do without it. In addition, washlets spread via word-of-mouth. It had been slow to catch on in the new market, but it was steady.

TOTO has been adapting the unique marketing strategy according to the foreign country. Take China, for example, TOTO adapted the penetration marketing to the richest Chinese. They promoted it to the five-star hotel in China. The guest who stayed in such hotel could use and know its comfort. TOTO, now, has established its bland in Chine as a number one sanitaryware company.

TOTO's sales amount now has been increasing steadily and they has been developing new technology, for example, flushing innovation, by which only one gallon (3.785 litter) can flush the waste.

http://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/rtfiles/japan/TOTO%2004172014.For%20posting.pdf

References:

 (1)  Introducing washlets to the USA

 (2) TOTO's FY2014?2017 Mid-term Management Plan

 (3) Akbar Adhiutama, Seiichi Yoshikubo, "Diffusion of Electronic Bidet Toilet in Japan" Management of Technology Program, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan

Game of Thrones

Most of you guys know Game of Thrones but did someone ever talked about their amazing Marketing Campaigns?

First of all, how do you make people aware of a new series and how do you make it unique and rememberable? HBO exactly knew how to do this & here are some examples of how to do this properly.

-Season 1- 

Game of Thrones was published in winter properly to their first season ' Winter Is Coming '.
Suddenly New York City was covered with posters of Ned Stark sitting on an iron throne.
Besides that  the San Diego Comic-Con gave people the chance to take a ride of an iron thrones just like the one of  Ned Stark.

And to prove, that HBO knows the major cities and the one they are headquartered in, they rolled out Game of Thrones themed food trucks.
HBO smartly tapped into people’s willingness to wait in long lines for something cool, unique, and canonically accurate.

-Season 2- 

To promote their second Season they realized  the appeal of free, in-world goodies and HBO got even more dared.  Calling upon a celebrity, they got NY Ink star Ami James to ink the various house symbols on fans who waited in line from as early as 2 a.m.

-Season 3- 

Honestly the Season 3 promotion was a bit disappointing at first, I mean, there is nothing special about a dragon's shadow across the wall. In comparison to the eye-catching posters of the past few years.

 Turns out it's not . Because suddenly, there were dragons flying over the New York Times. 

And if that wasn't  enough, the dragon started to fly all around  over LA. 

When their offline marketing is already that strong, their online marketing has to keep up with this.

 From quotes to animated photos over to teasers. Game of Thrones knows how to entertain their fans and to keep them curious! 

I don't need to see any proves, if that wasn't successful, then I don't know what would be. 

Hands down, HBO and Game of Thrones are doing a pretty good job, they are definitely not lazy and they would do anything to keep their fans entertained and the series attractive!

Lay's

Do Us A Flavor

Do you ever have the experience that you want to buy potato chips but there is not a favor you like?Don’t worry about this!
This year Lay’s challenging consumers to create new Lay's potato-chip flavors for the chance to win $1 million or 1 percent of the winning chip flavor's net sales.You can see the advertisement on national and regional television spots,national print adversting,on-pack message and 40,000 in-store displays.The campaign generated close to 4 million flavor ideas through a Facebook app and SMS. After more than 1 million consumers voted via Facebook, Twitter or text.

There are the flavor finalists.

There are four important factors that make the marketing campaign successful.

First of all,the contest makes it interactive.Customers can also join to make decision which types of product they want.And the four contestants will use their social media circles to spread the world.

Secondly,the contest encourage trial.And trial increae sales.At least one of the flavor creat disscution and word of mouth.

Next one is by encouraging comments,the company can know both good and bad about the flavor.

Final one is the campaign connect online social media and traditional media like print,TV and radio to make a full advertisement.

Are You happy with yourself ?

Dear women,

The following post appeals to all of you :

No matter who you are, where you come from, how old you are or which size you wear.. 

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL !

• That is the main message of Dove’s marketing campaign from April 2013

Seven women were asked to describe their looks. A man behind a cloth listened to them and asked them certain questions about their eyes, their hair, their mouths.. 

This men was Gil Zamora, a Forensic Artist and he drew them without seeing their faces before, just with the information they gave to him.

All women focused on their negative aspects in their face; like a imperfect chin or crinkles.

After Zamora had his first sketch from each women, they left without seeing the picture.

Before the women had to describe themselves, they should get friendly with an other person.

Now, this person entered the room, took a seat and Zamora asked them the same questions, but now they should not describe themselves but the woman they talked to before..

The result is amazing..

In a light gallery, all pictures were pointed at the women who had to describe themselves before.

They had the direct comparison with their own description and the way other people see them.

„I look more happy in the second picture.“ 

„ I look much younger and brighter in the second one.“

„I should be more grateful with my natural beauty.“ 

The women were impressed about by the huge differences between these two pictures and they are all more beautiful than they thought..

Dove created a short movie about this experiment and established it on an own website.

Within three days the videos had over 2.5 million clicks.

Now, two years later it has almost 6 million clicks.

So, you can see, the „real beauty campaign“ was very successful and helped „Dove“ to propagate their name.

Why I think it is successful ?

Short : Because it is authentic. In this video you do not see the thin, perfect looking, young models you normally see in other commercials.

You see real women like you and me.

Dove caught the most sensitive nerve every woman deals with.. No one is hundert per cent happy with their body.

But they should ! 

You are beautiful..  more than you might think !

But see for yourself..

iPhone 6 

Apple Incorporation is a multinational company that evolved the concept about computers, softwares and mobile phones. Their principal products are iPhone, iPad, iPod and Macintosh, this company were created by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak on April 1976. 

In the most recent iPhone campaigns " Shot on iPhone 6", the team responsible for the marketing , they create a special page on website titled World Gallery, where they want shows  some photographs taken by iPhone 6 users.  Instead of contracting artists, that was a fantastic idea, because they create a closer relation with their customers. 

That campaign receive a plenty of pictures, one of the featured artists, was the photographer Julian Bialowas,  in which his work  was recognised on an Apple billboard around the world as well in the North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and East Asia.

In relation the effect this campaign to the company is  every day  people take more photo with iPhone than with other camera. Consequently, more people are buying iPhones  than another brand, these bring more profit to the company. 

In my opinion was a successful advertisement because every day more and more people want change their mobile phones and the first brand they think is in iPhone. 

Evian® Natural is a famous brand of Mineral Water with a unique mineral balance. In 1878, the French Medical Academy officially recognized evian® Natural Mineral Water’s favorable effects on human health. “You can enjoy its naturally pure and refreshing taste anywhere, any time.”

They got an excellent idea for marketing. Rémi Babinet, BETC’s chairman and global creative director said "The babies are an essential part of Evian’s culture and history”. They wanted and special and new campaign, They thought in a commercial on TV in a dozen countries including France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S., “we thought it would be fun to let the babies meet their adult selves, and figured a reflection in a mirror would be the perfect way to do this. The encounter becomes a symbol for the vision of youth that Evian represents: a positive attitude and an open mind, even when it comes to the unexpected."  Also, they developed a free "Baby & Me" app for Facebook, Android, and iPhone that uses advanced facial recognition software to reveal the user’s baby face.

"Baby & Me" is the latest installment in Evian’s "Live Young" creative strategy, which has ranged from "Waterbabies," BETC’s first TV work for the brand, featuring an Esther Williams-inspired baby water ballet, to the 2008 spot "Rollerbabies," which, according to the Guinness Book of Records, became the most viewed online ad ever with almost 250 million views. It was a big hit on social media!! The campaign allowed people to meet their 'inner baby' increasing campaign engagement. Sales volume and market share rose in all markets, with improved brand metrics and 130 million views globally.

"Baby & Me"

More information: www.evian.com

Johnsons'-catch- kids' campaign

     The marketing campaign which is going to be analysed is from Johnsons & Johnsons.   
     Johnsons’ campaign in Brazil has worked at the same background over a couple of years: basically kids having fun on their shower time and using Johnsons’ product, here specifically the shampoo.           
     This campaign has been very successful, since kids evoke in adults kind of sympathy and call their attention to their cuteness. Also, the song is very catchy and fun.   
    The unusual thing is that I've never seen such involving and cute commercial for kids like that, so it also calls kids’ attention and makes them memorize the songs. As a part of merchandising, the kid is going to be the main means of communication by singing the songs and insisting to their parents to get one of those shampoos.