Tobacco: Are you in favor of plain packaging?

Ad: “What Company Would Stand For This?

The tobacco Plain Packaging Bill could destroy brands that are woth millions, if not billions of dollars.

No company would stand for having its brand taking away and we’re no different. And it may infringe international trademark and intellectual property law.

The government also end up spending millions in legal fees defending an idea unproven anywhere in the world.

Don’t let the taxpayer foot the bill for a bad bill”  British American Tobacco Australia Limited

 In Australia, the Federal Government is going to pass a bill before parliament stipulating that, from next year on, all cigarettes sold in the country will be in plain packaging, removing all distinctive branding from cigarette packages. This is how the new packages are going to look like:

The reason behind this is the belief that cigarettes will become less attractive among young people who more often are exposed to brands. All advertisment related to tobacco was banned in Australia about 20 years ago. People who are in favour of this latest development argue that it will take away any of the remaining glamour associated with cigarettes.

The advertisement I have posted is a one page ad from British American Tobacco Australia Limited at The Weekend West newspaper. The idea of the ad is to highlight that a brand is an asset of the company and illustrates that plain packaging could destroy their brand, after all the brand will be out of circulation.

This ad also makes an association to the Coca-Cola brand to indicate that the brand is used by the tobacco industry like any other brand. Furthermore, it also focuses on the point that tobacco is not the only harmful product available to consumers.

I firmly believe that a brand is a property, and branding a right.  Similar to copyrights or patents, a brand is not only owned by someone, it is an asset in which businesses and entrepreneurs invest in return for their investment.

Surely, forbidding private companies from using a brand they already own is a little different from taking over a factory’s machines and forbidding the owners from using them.  The same applies to seizing a publishers copyright or businesses software. Therefore, what is the moral difference between taking over and shutting down a tobacco brand to taking over and shutting down a tobacco farm? 

The outcome I can see is that if this law goes through, it would give marketers a new challenge to convey brand identity to their target market.

To Coca-Cola (one more): If you want to change consumer´s behavior, change consumer´s thought and beliefs about your brand or category

 

I think everyone has heard about one of Coca-Cola’s brand, the “Coca-Cola Light Plus” (Diet Coke plus). Each 12-ounce serving of the product contains 25% of the daily value for vitamins B3, B6, and B12, as well as 15% of zinc and magnesium. All of these nutrients help maintain a healthy immune system.

It sounds good, but practically, still being Coke. The company is changing Coke´s attributes, however, they did not change the consumer´s believes. And actually, as I said in my previous post, to change public beliefs the message needs to be convincing, and as you can see it is not an easy job! 

In Denmark, two larger supermarket chains (which accounts for more than 60% of the grocery market share) pulled Diet Coke plus from their shelves as it clashed with companies' policy and was felt to be misleading to customers. A spokesman for COOP Denmark (supermarket chain) stated that it was against company's policy to sell an unhealthy food product as if it were healthy. They don’t want to give the impression to the consumer that soft drinks are a healthy thing.

After this response from the grocery stores, the Coca-Cola company should reflect more about their marketing actions, after all, if they cannot convince retailers, how they are going to convince customers?

To Coca-Cola: If you want to change consumer´s behavior, change consumer´s thought and beliefs about your brand or category

As was said in the previous post, creativity and entertainment might convert in positive feelings towards a brand, however these feelings may not last long. In order to really change consumer’s behavior, advertising will need to change their thoughts and beliefs about a brand or category. To reach this goal and be convincing, the message has to be well studied and consistent, and be well placed in context. If the message is far from the reality, it may not have the power to move people and change touch them.

To illustrate, I will take the brand Coke again as a study case. This time, however, as a negative example as I believe they failed to convey their message.

Context:

Nowadays, a lot is being said about the effects of having an unhealthy life. People are way more concern about having a balanced diet, exercising and other considerations such as avoiding soft drinks and junk food.

This trend makes life harder for companies such as McDonalds and Coca Cola, that have unhealthy food as their core products. They are, however, constantly trying to change their image towards clients.

In Brazil, to get people to think their product is good and healthy, Coca-Cola will change the packaging of its line of soft drinks. Over the coming months, aluminum cans and plastic bottles will be replaced by cardboard, which resemble milk. Furthermore, Coca-Cola is also negotiating with retailers to place their products together with milk and juice in the supermarket shelves.

 

Cool! Now parents can let their kids have Coke for breakfast! (Just kidding!)

Coca Cola: If you want to change the behavior, change the feelings (at least for now)

Have you ever noticed that when we feel good, we are generally nice with others, and if a sullen feeling is dominating, the behavior shifts to another extreme? These feelings affect the behavior, and this is a subconscious process when we don’t even realize most of the times how our beliefs, feelings and behavior are constantly being shaped.

Consumer behavior is also result of how consumer feels towards the brand, and these feelings do not happen by chance, but they are result of consumer beliefs towards the brand. If advertising is creative and entertaining, it might convert in positive feelings towards the brand.

So, feelings affect the behavior in ways we don’t even understand clearly, nonetheless need to be accessed by a marketing strategy. But having this in mind, would you rather advertise your brand in a place where people are usually stressed out, or in a place where people are happy and cheerful? Sometimes reaching people in right moment, in a creative way, may really make it easy for people to like your add. This week, I got a perfect campaign to illustrate this case, you may be surprised.

Translation:

For Colombians, traffic jams have been a headache

“In Bogotá we are wasting almost two hours in traffic.”

How Coca-Cola could change all these sad faces? Into happy faces?

Converting a traffic jam in the largest drive-in-theater

We just needed a movie screen

A lot of movies and a radio frequency to tune to the audio

And we could not miss the popcorn, the new 250 ml mini Coca-Cola and many other surprises.

And much happiness    

A little taste that makes your moments big.

Where are you going to find happiness again?

Coca-Cola enjoy the hapiness