Potato Lover Display Contest

This article, IPC Set Potato Lover Display Contest, was found in the Progressive Grocer, a publication of strategic management, I'm assuming for grocery stores and their business. This article talks about the Idaho Potato Commission's annual retail display contest which is occuring now, in the month of February because February is Potato Lover's Month! This will be the 17th year they have done it and it seems like a successful promotion for the brand. This contest gives potato lovers the opportunity to make an attention getting retail display for Idaho Potatoes, KRAFT cheez whiz and Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits. This is the 4th year of teaming with KRAFT and Oscar Mayer, which is a smart integration of 3 reliable and well known brands. What goes better with a baked potato, than cheese and bacon bits? I can't think of anything, so this 3 brand promotion is a smart way to gain customers and share them between the three brands. Also these brands are not in the same food market where they could be competitors, so the decision to team up together seems like it can only benefit each company.

There is also a benefit for the consumers to enter the contest, a cash prize and a swiss army watch valued at $115. You can sign up and learn more information at their website, idahopotato.com. This is a cool contest because everyone that enters is rewarded, and that is rare in the contest world. This promotion does require some more effort than most, but the reward is worth it, if you are willing to participate. Another aspect of this promotion is that the contestants have to display their promotional materials in an approved store throughout the month. Then they mail in a 360 degree view of their display and then see if they won. If you won 1st-5th prize then the store you displayed your idea in also wins a top prize. This is a really positive aspect of this promotion because giving the grocery store some recognition is a good way to encourage a positive relationship with the store and you're product may be featured more frequently.

While this promotion requires a little more from it's contestants, I think that it is a good way for maybe a marketing student to try out their ideas and practice in a real world situation, as well as a fun hobby for potato lovers to indulge in. Also the promotion is on it's 17th year, showing that it is really successful and raises knowledge of the products involved. The article also mentions that the promotion increases sales for the locations that house one of these displays. I like that brands are teaming up for an occasion like Potato Lovers Month, and people are participating for the 17th year because this promotion is not malicious or really competitive it seems like just a fun contest, where people win cash for participating and trying their best.

Progressive Grocer, January 8, 2008. February 28, 2008. <progressivegrocer.com>

Dunkin' Donuts tries to snag Starbucks customers

This piece, Dunkin' Donuts tries to snag Starbucks customers, was written by Keiko Morris on February 25, 2008.  The promotion set to happen today the 26th between 1pm and 10pm at Dunkin' Donuts headlines their espresso drinks, giving them out for only 99 cents each.  This promotion is supposedly in response to the coffee chain winning first place in Brand Keys' Annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, however another event also occurring today leads to some speculation if this is the real reason for such a promotion.  The other occurrence is the coffee chain Starbucks closing their doors early for employee training. 

The chain plans to close nearly all of the 7,100 locations nationwide for employee training, as well as to enhance the true Starbucks experience, which can not happen unless all employees are educated in exactly what that is.  While Starbucks is aware of Dunkin' Donuts' promotion, they are not worried about losing loyal customers, "We are confident that our customers will understand this and that this is an investment in their experience through better quality beverages and services," a Starbucks' spokeswoman commented.  

While Starbucks takes the stand that they are closing for the good of the consumer, Dunkin' Donuts is taking the stand that no one should be denied specialty beverages during these hours.  While a sneaky approach, Dunkin' Donuts will definitely attract some "promotion seekers," people out there who love anything free or on a good sale, however I do not think they will gain any loyal business from it.  If I was loyal to Starbucks for my coffee in the morning, a 99 cent latte from Dunkin' Donuts would not change my loyalty.  However, the promotion does seem like a good way to gain some word of mouth discussion and new business for today.

The article continues on talking about how Starbucks has been wanting to reinvigorate themselves for a little while and these hours off is meant for employees to master techniques as well as closing some unproductive stores.  More than just employee training session, this seems like a quick break for Starbucks to get it's bearings to attack the market head on.  They want to be number one in the market again, and this seems like the start of their serious effort to get there.  This is a very current topic, and I am interested in seeing how the 99 cent espresso drinks aids Dunkin' Donuts, as well as what changes Starbucks made in attempt to reinvigorate itself.  

Coupons are Everywhere

This might be somewhat of an unorthodox post because I am not using an article, but I think it is significant to post about.  I was searching for an article to blog about and I was having a hard time so I decided to go to the Twitter website where people blog about practically everything.  I searched for coupons and got 2 pages worth of people talking about coupon deals they know of and ones that they use.  I am new to the blogging world so I probably underestimated the amount of participants involved and the amount of conversations that take place so this was surprising for me.  

I twittered coupons and got a lot of results.  There are people discussing Domino's coupons and how one guy gets a really good deal with all the coupons they send out in the mail, while there is another man who is complaining about how Domino's puts too much text on their coupons and he doesn't want to "read the bible."  Also the same guy that said he got a lot of money off his orders by using the coupons, also said that Domino's sent him more coupons in the mail with a letter about his ordering preferences because he hadn't ordered in a while.  This is interesting to me because blogs start a lot of word of mouth and I didn't even realize it.  Due to what the one blogger said about how he uses Domino's coupons all the time and it is worthwhile, I feel like I will pay more attention to Domino's coupons next time I see their insert in the paper, and them giving him more coupons shows they are appreciative of his business.  What the other blogger posted about their coupons having a lot of text doesn't turn me away because I don't mind text on coupons, but this could discourage a lot of people from bothering to use the coupons.

Another interesting thing I found was that companies are tweeting for themselves.  They include links directly to their website where coupons are available.  This is cool because instead of just hearing about coupons, the company is actually making them available to the bloggers, in hopes of gaining some positive word of mouth in places like Twitter.  On the same topic, I saw a post from Old Dominion University's Dining services where students could get some coupons.  This isn't very helpful to everyone else, but it shows that the University is reaching out to what their students are involved in.  I would be pretty surprised if I found Ithaca College's dining service on Twitter, so that shows a good step for Old Dominion University.  

The third and final aspect of my experience with Twitter that I found interesting was that people were offering up coupons they had and weren't going to use.  In my house we just let them expire and throw them away, here people were getting the word out there and hopefully finding someone who could use the coupon.  This shows that there are nice people out there that are willing to spend time and post a blog, just to get a coupon redeemed and save someone else some money.  

I had a very positive experience with Twitter and I think that it is a good source to get information.  Not news and politics, but coupon deals and personal opinion and input.  On Twitter you can also start a conversation and find out more information if you're interested in the what the fellow blogger has to say.  I think that I will check Twitter more often now and see the type of dialog that is going on about some of my hobbies.

Community Jackpot at HorseShoe Casino

This article, Community progressive jackpot new at Horseshoe, was written just yesterday describing the casinos new way to bring in business.  Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana came up with an idea to give back to their customers who play the slot machines.  Their idea was to make it an "All for One, Win for All" atmosphere where just by playing you can be a winner.  The limitations to this promotion is that you have to play on the High Limit Slot Room and it has to be a designated Friday between 4 and 11 p.m.  

The amount continues to grow in $200 increments as the participants play.  Then at 11 p.m a winner is selected to receive a sum and the other participants must have their Total Rewards card inserted in the slot in order to keep the sum increasing.  This promotion also goes on for 6 weeks in a row, giving many people the opportunity to win a lot of money.  

Horseshoe Casino is the headlined casino participating in a promotion such as this, but there are other casinos listed that are giving back to their customers in similar ways.  Such as increasing table limits in order to promote a better gaming experience.  Promotions such as these are positive ways to increase a sense of community in casinos as well as profiting the casinos from consumer's interest and participation.  

This article is interesting because I never thought a casino would have promotions and contests.  I have never been to a casino so I don't really know the atmosphere, but I was under the impression that people went to casinos expected to spend a large amount of money and hopefully win some.  A promotion or contest didn't seem necessary before but after reading what some casinos are doing, a promotion seems like a good way to get more business and sent them apart.  I wonder if more casinos are going to catch on and offer bigger prices to gain more business.

Free The Fun with Tostitos Tortilla Chips

This article, Ingrid Hoffmann Invites Fans to "Free The Fun" with Tostitos, was written just 3 days ago about an upcoming promotion linking the Food Network and Tostitos tortilla chips.  This promotion that will run nationally February to December of this year marks the first time the Food Network has utilized one of their "talk show chefs" to promote a fun, exuberant brand and campaign such as the Tostitos "Free The Fun" campaign.  Ingrid Hoffmann is the Food Network star in question and she has a new show on this channel, Simply Delicioso, and while having another show on the Spanish speaking network Galavision/Univision for the past 4 seasons.  She is known for creating simple, fun recipes and adding a Latin twist.  Teaming up with Tostitos will give consumers the opportunity to find new recipes and clever ways to integrate tortilla chips into dishes and when entertaining.  

This promotion for both the Food Network and Tostitos is also a contest in which one person will win a cameo on Ingrid's show, a tour of the studio, and a trip to Miami.  On top of that Tostitos is having another contest during the summer months where "budding chefs" can submit recipes that include Tostitos brand chips and then website visitors will vote on which recipe is the most creative and fun.  The winner of this contest will get their recipe made on-air by Ingrid Hoffmann and get a Food Network studio tour as well as a trip to New York.  This promotion is in contingency with the Frito-Lay Fiesta Bowl and the contest is not in effect yet so there is not a lot of information about it on the website, but there are recipes and an interactive page featuring the San Francisco Dons football team because they will be featured during the Fiesta Bowl half time program.  Another aspect of this article I really enjoyed was that there is a lot of contact information and links sending you to all the affiliated sites, and Jared Dougherty, a Frito-Lay representative, even gave his own contact information.  This article made it very easy to receive information elsewhere about the big names involved.

This creative campaign was developed by Element 79, which an advertising agency from Chicago.  This is an interesting coincidence because an Ithaca College alum actually works for Element 79 as a creative director I think and he came into my advertising class last semester and was talking about the business and his experience.  Element 79 is a relatively young agency and strives itself on being hip, cool, and clever.  I also remember him saying that he helped to create a Frito-Lay commercial for the Fiesta Bowl, but couldn't show it to us because of legalities.  So I think that for Tostitos and Frito Lay having Element 79 creating their campaign is a strong position because the brand wants to be seen as hip, cool, and a lot of fun and my impression is that so does the agency.  This is a good match and I get the feeling the promotion will be a good one and attract a lot of attention and consumers.

Another reason why I think this will be a successful promotion is because the Food Network seems to be raising in popularity lately.  They have come out with a lot of new shows with personable and knowledgeable hosts, and Rachel Ray's popularity is huge right now and that is where she has her "30 Minute Meals" show.  Also many of their chefs have cookbooks out there with the Food Network logo attached.  I also think that many younger people in their mid twenties are tuning in, which is part of Tositios audience, because they are getting married or having their own places and want to know how to cook.  I know in my own family my 3 older sisters all tune in and copy down recipes to try to make at home, and then can come up with their own variations.  They also have their favorite hosts like Giada, Rachel Ray, and Ingrid Hoffmann.  So I definitely foresee this promotion doing very well for both the Food Network and Tostitos.

Marketers go for Super Contests

Following the Super Bowl theme of the last article, I chose this next piece to give more insight into what advertisers do to gear up for Super Bowl Sunday.  The article, Marketers go for Super Contests, was found in USA Today on January 22, 2008 about a week and a half before the big game.  There are 5 brands outlined in this article and the promotions they are doing to "put the u in Super Bowl."  Apparently including the audience in their game day strategies was the big theme for marketers this year.  According to Bryce McTavish, sponsorship vice president for Coors Light, the reason for this is the growing popularity of YouTube.  The brands now encourage people to go the YouTube route and put their own personality and spin on the existing advertisements in order to win a prize, promotions seem to no longer be about just signing up.  For example, Alka Seltzer asked people to remake their well known "plop, plop, fizz, fizz" jingle to win a chance to be featured on a pregame ad on Super Bowl Sunday.  

These promotions seek football fans and fans of these popular products including Doritos, Coors Light, Canon, KFC, and Upper Deck trading cards.  Most brands are asking their fans to upload a video of them doing something related to the product in order to win prizes.  Some of the prizes are pretty extravagant such as the KFC "chicken dance" contest, whoever comes up with the most original interpretation of the chicken dance will a "Super Sunday party package that includes a new flat panel TV, limo service for their guests, and a cleaning team to tidy up the next day."  The perfect Super Bowl party awarded to you, all for uploading a video of you chicken dancing, that is a good deal.  

The attraction to these promotions is that the prize totally outweighs what they are being asked to do, a quick chicken dance and you have a new flat screen TV.  While benefitting the consumers, the brands are also receiving a huge amount of word of mouth coverage on their unique promotions and Coors Light also saw a 21% increase of visitors to their website.  Another reason why these promotions are so successful is because people are goofballs at heart and are always looking for silly things to do that can win them free stuff.  Even if they don't win, they still had fun coming up with their own wacky chicken dance or touch down dance, which is what Upper Deck asked fans to do.  I think that these promotions definitely put the 'u' in Super Bowl and allow people to have fun with the products.  These promotions are good ways to bring people together around the time of the big game while promoting a fun and friendly atmosphere.

"Marketers go for Super Contests." Petrecca, Laura and Howard, Theresa.  USA Today.  McLean, Va.  Jan. 22, 2008.  Pg B.5

Tide Giving Away Ugly Ipods

Proctor and Gamble, a well known corporation who owns the Tide detergent brand, spent millions of dollars on a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl this past Sunday.  The commercial featured Tide's latest product, the Tide To Go stick.  The commercial went for the humor approach having a man, with a large stain, in an interview type situation and every time the man said anything the stain proceeded to yell gibberish over him, the commercial ended with the tag-line reading something like "don't let you stains speak for you, use Tide to Go."  From what I've heard people found the commercial relatively funny, and a lot of people already use the tide stick and enjoy its benefits.  

The article accompanying this recent commercial's success was found on an internet blog type website that discusses Apple products with the title "Tide Giving Away Ugly Ipods Through March 3."  This relates to Tide because Proctor and Gamble came up with the promotional idea to give away Tide t-shirts, coupons worth 50 cents off Tide products, Tide To Go sticks, or one of 34 (1/day) orange Ipods featuring the Tide logo.  This promotion is open to U.S citizens, and the author is under the impression that there is no limit to how many prizes one person can receive.  However, you can only enter to win the prizes once per day and  you have to upload a picture of yourself which is then turned into a talking stain like the one on the commercial during the Super Bowl.  You then can input dialog for the stain to yell and spend as much time as you want playing with it.  The article is short and only briefly describes the details of the promotion, but the main focus of the article really is "who would want an orange Ipod with the Tide logo stamped on it." While this promotion is a good opportunity for Tide to team up with Apple, a reliable and popular brand, there are not many people who honestly want what they are giving out.  

What I found interesting about this article was that directly below the write up, there were posts from people all around the world commenting on the promotion and what they think about the giveaways and the products themselves.  The posts vary from people wanting the Ipod to people complaining that the Tide To Go stick smells like a baby's butt, which in my experience is not true.  Even though the article was short, it got many responses, helpful feedback, as well as conversation about the products.  Proctor and Gamble would not have received this information had Jeff Smykil not written this article. 

The way I see it is that Tide supporters and people who like the Tide To Go stick will enter into the contest and it will be a success in raising the popularity of the stick.  However, the Apple connection seems lost because very few people actually want that Ipod, which is a negative aspect of the two brands teaming up.  However, like we saw in the chicken sandwich giveaway, people will sign up, camp out, and have a desire to win anything, so this promotion is sure to be a successful one.  I am curious to see if any other brands carried the use of a commercial on one of tv's biggest nights into a promotion like Tide did.  

Sweet Godiva Suite Choco-Full of Treats

This article, Sweet Godiva Suite Choco-Full of Treats, was featured in the New York Daily News on January 30, 2008.  The write up features a promotion that Godiva Chocolatiers does every year for Valentine's Day.  This year in particular, Godiva is taking their yearly promotion to the next level, giving away a night's stay for two in a suite at the Bryant Park Hotel in New York City.  This suite is not just any suite though, this suite is being specially designed at the Bryant Park Hotel in honor of this promotion and practically everything in the room will be adorned with chocolates.  For a chocolate company, Valentine's Day is a big one and this is an opportunity for the biggest chocolate lovers to experience their dream hotel suite. 

Godiva plans to deck out the entire room in chocolates.  They plan to "bring the chocolate experience to life" by "adorning armchairs, sofas, and lamps" while also displaying bonbons on the chandelier hanging above.  This room is literally a chocolate lovers dream however it is only temporary and will be dismantled after the guests stay the weekend.  This is actually a huge undertaking for Godiva to create a hotel suite that will last only a weekend and one where only two people will utilize it.  Godiva really wants to make their brand the go-to chocolate retailer for Valentine's Day and similar occasions such as anniversaries and birthdays.  

Godiva could very well cement themselves as the Valentine's Day chocolate brand because they have been doing a promotion similar to this one for years.  In fact in other boxes of chocolates Godiva  supplies coupons for 1-carat diamond rings and specialty bracelets the same way this hotel suite is given away.  This promotion really encourages people to purchase Godiva chocolates for Valentine's Day because anyone in North America has the chance to open up the box and find a coupon for one of these expensive gifts, making that day even more special.  Also with the boxes of chocolate going for around 23 dollars a box and up, you know that even if you don't find a coupon there are still quality chocolates to enjoy.

I really feel that this promotion occurring year to year puts Godiva at the top of the chocolate market.  What other brands are taking the next step and offering something other than their product as an incentive, or going as far and giving free diamond rings out to their loyal customers.  This promotion puts a lot of pressure on the other brands to offer an incentive to buying their chocolate, especially during a holiday such as Valentine's Day where getting chocolates has become an expectation.  Through this promotion Godiva is also displaying the high level of sophistication and class that they have established for themselves in the past 80 years of service.  In addition, Godiva making this promotion a yearly benefit, has probably gained them new customers and media coverage.  The promotion initially started with diamond rings, then bracelets, and now a chocolate hotel suite, so it will be interesting to see what extravagant prize Godiva will come up with for next year's Valentine's Day.

"Sweet Godiva Suite Choco-Full of Treats." Yaniv, Oren.  January 30, 2008.  Daily News (New York). 

BWI Extends Express Parking Promotion Through the Holidays

This article, BWI Extends Express Parking Promotion Through the Holidays, was found in Aviation Week.  This article was run on November 13, 2007 and covers the promotion going on at the Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport.  Their promotion deals with giving coupons to customers to get cheaper rates on their "Express Parking" option.  Apparently Express Parking is a service that is normally more expensive and includes assistance with customer's luggage and a shuttle service.  In order to get the word out on what Express Parking is, BWI came up with this campaign "Express for Less" and another similar campaign to advertise their other luxury parking options called "Park Happy at BWI." The Express for Less campaign which was started February 17th has been doing so well that this extension into the holiday season will become the 3rd extension of this particular promotion.

The success of this campaign can also be tracked through the numbers.  The Express Parking lot had to be closed a number of times because it was full and BWI has seen the number of customers taking advantage of this service practically double.  Due to the amount of success, extending the length of this promotion can really only help BWI financially as well as with customer satisfaction.  Customer satisfaction in the past couple years with airports has been steadily declining with the increased occurence of lost luggage, flight delays, and poor customer service during those stressful times.  In addition BWI is really helping itself through this promotion because parking at airports gets so expensive and is actually ridiculous.  BWI wants to leave a good impression with their customers and they realize that parking plays a huge role in customer satifaction.

BWI's efforts in this campaign won third place in the marketing and communications contest ACI-NA in 2007.  Also prompting them to look into more promotion and coupon ventures for different aspects of their airport.  Express for Less also incouraged the use of the airport's website to check on the availability of the lot, in the future BWI wants to draw more attention to their website and its advantages.  Utilizing the website and displaying its features will boost BWI into the 21st century.

A promotion like Express for Less is revolutionizing the airport industry at least because now there is competition.  I've always gotten the feeling that the people who run airports know that they are intrical to a traveler's ability and people will pay what they have to and put up with what they have to in order to get where they want to get.  With that said, there are very few good airline/airport promotions going on out there, and if people are interested in using a parking service at an airport such as BWI, this way they have more of an incentive too and also a couple dollars off.  Parking just seems like another way for the airport to take more your money so if one airport is actually helping the customers and giving them a discounted rate, then extending it to one of the busiest flying times of the year it raises the bar for the other airports to get the on customer's good side.

Flying is such a hassel nowadays and there are so many complaints, BWI is stepping up by giving people a helpful service that makes their experience a little better for a little cheaper.  This promotion emits a feeling that BWI cares about their customers and BWI can really only prosper from this promotion, and in turn other promotions they are anticipating doing.