Transcript Promotion Issues

Promotion Issues
Legal challenges
 Taxes
 Language Barriers
 Cultural issues
 Media Limitations
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Legal Challenges
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Comparison advertising may be
prohibited
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“Better than the leading brand”
An ad showing chimps choosing Pepsi over
Coke was banned from satellite tv
Products may be prohibited from tv ads
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Australia: cigarettes, slimming products
Canada: drugs, use of cartoons in ads for
children, margarine
Chile: toothpaste, aspirin
Sweden: use of fictitious characters to
endorse products
Switzerland: Use of actors to represent
consumers
Kuwait: indecent items, airlines,
chocolates, cigarettes, lighters, alcohol ads
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In the Netherlands, children may not
appear in ads for candy and companies
must put a little toothbrush symbol at
the end of the commercials as a
reminder for people to brush their
teeth.
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Promotions may be limited
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Mail-in offers and purchase with a
purchase promotions are prohibited in
Germany
Cash rebates are prohibited in Italy
Sweepstakes may not be permitted in
Spain, France and Italy
Taxes
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Austria has a 10% tax on ad insertions,
radio and tv ads
Language
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Language and dialects may cause a problem
“tomato paste” was translated to tomato glue
in Arabic
Coors put its slogan “Turn it loose” into
Spanish, where it was read as “Suffer from
diarrhea”
Among Arab countries there are at least 30
dialects which affect translation
Literacy may be a problem
 Multiple languages:
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Switzerland recognizes four, Israel
recognizes 50 and Canada recognizes two
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An outdoor ad used by a company had
dirty clothes on the left, laundry
detergent in the middle, and clean
clothes on the right. In countries where
people read from right to left, this
meant that soap takes clean clothes
and makes them dirty.
Cultural Diversity
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Affects customer perceptions of items
Colors – white is purity (Europe) or death
(Asia)
Diversity – When General Mills first
introduced a cake mix, it was not popular in
the U.S. because women felt guilty about not
baking. It also flopped in Japan, because
cakes are not a popular desert
Tradition – In China, cheese is for
foreigners
 Pampers tried an ad in Japan with a
stork delivering diapers to new parents.
The ad failed because in Japanese
folklore, giant peaches that float on the
river bring babies to deserving parents,
not storks
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Subcultures – in Hong Kong there are
10 different patterns of breakfast eating
 Japan has traditionally not bought
coffee, however it has become a
fashionable drink for younger people
who think of themselves as European
and sophisticated
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Media Limitations
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Time/Amount
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In Italy, an advertiser can have 10
showings of a commercial a year, with
none closer than 10 days
In Brazil, TV commercials are shown
together in a string of 10 to 50 within one
station break
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In Germany, TV scheduling for an entire
year must be arranged by August 30 of the
preceding year, with no guarantee that
commercials intended for summer viewing
will not be run in the middle of winter
Kuwait - Only 32 minutes of advertising per
day is available and it’s all in the evening
Availability – In some parts of Africa,
television and radio are not available for
advertising. Companies have used boats
that go up and down rivers with
loudspeakers to broadcast commercials.
 National coverage for some countries
means using as many as 40 to 50
different media
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Newspapers: Level of competition varies
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Uruguay has 21 newspapers with circulation of
553,000 (population = 3 million)
Turkey has 380 newspapers which each have a
political affiliation that must be considered
Japan has 5 papers but each are only 16-20 pages
long
Delays – In India and Indonesia, paper
shortages delay ads for up to 6 months
Magazines – many do not have reliable
circulation figures
 Ads may not always run due to space
limitations – In Britain it is common
practice for a raffle to decide which ads
run in a magazine issue
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Television Issues
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Many countries have government influence
over television stations
South Korea has two television companies,
both government-owned, which broadcast
only a few hours a day. They do not
broadcast from midnight - 6 am, and 10 am –
5:30 pm on weekdays. Commercials are
shown in clusters at the beginning and end of
programs, with total advertising limited to 8
percent of air time
Direct Mail – may be helpful if there are
no other media
 Nestle and Dell have used this
effectively in Japan
 May have local issues, such as in Chile,
where both senders and receivers of
mail pay part of the fee
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Billboards – helpful for populations with
low literacy rates
 Cinema is an important media for many
countries
 Sound trucks with loudspeakers have
been used successfully in Haiti to
promote products
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In the Ukraine, faxing ads has been
successful because the postal service is
unreliable
 In Romania, transit advertising on
buses has become more effective that
television advertising.
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Famous Flops
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The singing raisins
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture
gave the California Raisin Advisory
Board a $3 million grant to promote
raisins in Japan. The commercials were
not translated into Japanese because of
their success. The result?
The misshapen figures frightened
children.
 People were not able to discern what
product was being advertised and
guessed it to be chocolate or potatoes
 The promotion cost $3,000 per ton of
raisins sold and U.S. producers earned
$1,583 per ton
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Maytag Company in Europe
 Company offered free airline tickets to
New York or Orlando from U.K. for
customers who purchased more that
$375 worth of Hoover appliances
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As many as 200,000 customers responded,
because the airlines tickets were more than
the appliances.
Company wasn’t prepared to handle 200,000
ticket applications, which lead to customer
frustration and anger
The more the company sold, the more it lost
on the promotion. Total losses were
estimated at 48.8 million dollars for the
promotion.
Famous Successes
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Nestle Baby Stops
When Nestle introduced a new infant formula,
they built rest stops which had hostesses,
free diapers, and samples of their foods and
new formula
As people went on holiday, they got to know
Nestle
Market share increased to 45% from 17%