Marketing Habanos

Despite sluggish economic conditions, the Cuban cigar maker Habanos is creatively facing several key challenges as it increases its share of the premium cigar market:

• Bans on smoking. Although some countries have banned smoking inside restaurants and other businesses, Habanos works with businesses to publicise convenient outdoor smoking areas and private cigar clubs. This has helped Habanos increase sales in Germany and elsewhere.
  
• Limited retail space. Habanos educates its retailers about the company's unique manufacturing process and encourages them to devote special space to its cigars.
• Lower demand. Although overall demand is down, Habanos now aims to get affluent consumers to buy fewer but more expensive cigars.
  

Habanos holds its own festival each year to reinforce brand loyalty, win new customers and enhance the brand's associations with quality tobacco and careful production.

Looking ahead, what will global smoking bans and health concerns about smoking mean for Habanos in the long term?

Marketing to mums

Asda knows that mums are perhaps the major influence on household spending, which is why it's marketing to mums online through sites such as Netmums. The retailer recently told Marketing Week:

“We want to involve Asda mums in everything we do, from choosing and designing products to making it easier to shop in our stores with babies and young children. Later this year we’ll be announcing an exciting new project for Asda mums and we’ll be looking for bloggers as well as mums to get involved.”

Cybermummy is a site where UK mums who blog can gather, online or at the annual conference, talk about mummy blogs and meet each other. Asda is using Twitter outreach to encourage Cybermummy participants to get involved with the retailer's initiatives. You can read Twitter messages about the Cybermummy conference by clicking here or using the hashtag #cybermummy in a Twitter search engine.

This is smart marketing to mums who are smart about technology!

Will passengers stand for standing on flights?

For several years, Ryanair has talked of selling cheap tickets to passengers willing to stand for the duration of a flight. The BBC News says this marketing idea simply won't fly--and it's just chief executive Michael O'Leary's way of getting media attention for the airline's main marketing message, which is low price.

As recently as yesterday, O'Leary has been talking of super-low standing tickets and pay toilets on Ryanair. Everything costs extra. In fact, Ryanair recently increased the price of checked luggage to 20 pounds per bag.

How low can Ryanair go--and how many extra fees can it add? Low price is undoubtedly an important competitive advantage in today's pressured economic environment. I'm a big fan of clear marketing messages, and Ryanair has one of the clearest in the airline industry. But is the price still low once passengers add up the extras (including the fee for toilets, if this is implemented)?

Tesco + P&G = stronger Pringles branding

Good marketing partnerships are worth their weight in gold (or pounds sterling). Consider the close collaboration between Tesco and the giant US FMCG supplier, Procter & Gamble.

P&G has created a special range of "Great British Flavours" Pringle-branded snacks only for Tesco. The flavours include sea salt & black pepper, curry, kebab and smokey bacon.

This is a positive marketing development for Tesco--which holds the exclusive on this range--and for P&G, which gains shelf space and increases its brand reach as well as its Tesco-based turnover through improved Pringles sales. Because both companies are expert at marketing and work hard to understand their customers' preferences and tastes, the combination is unusually strong.

By the way, a high court judge recently ruled that Pringles are not potato crisps, because they don't contain enough potatoes to qualify under the legal definition of crisps. As a result, P&G will save millions of pounds every year on VAT, and the retail price of Pringles will go down.

Beautiful bank notes build country's brand

The Telegraph posted a nice photo gallery of "the world's most beautiful currencies." One of my favourites is the bill from French Polynesia.

Although security is an important consideration in the design of currency, I also like the idea of using bank notes as marketing--to promote a country by showing off its beautiful scenery, historic figures and distinctive architecture. Click through and see how bank notes can help build a country's brand.

Update: India just chose a new symbol for its currency, the rupee (symbol is at left). The goal was to "Formalise a symbol for the Indian Rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture" on the world stage, according to the Finance Minister. Even the symbol for currency serves a marketing purpose.

Tata's Nano gains from petrol dereg

Tata's tiny Nano, the world's cheapest car, was planned as basic transportation with high fuel efficiency (as discussed on p. 122 of the new edition of Essential Guide to Marketing Planning).

Now the Nano looks likely to become even more popular as India deregulates the fuel market and drivers feel the effects in the form of higher petrol prices.

Some observers see Tata gaining more broadly in India because it also markets several diesel cars, and diesel fuel is cheaper than petrol at this point (but possibly not in the future).

Tata's sales are already strong, and with the dereg, the marketing environment is more favourable than ever. In fact, Tata has just decided to go into the financial markets to raise more cash for expansion (having cut debt over the last year).

Meanwhile, Tata has been promoting its Nano with a cross-India drive that attracted media attention and showed the car's capabilities. The Nano appeals to buyers trading up from motorcycles as well as first-time vehicle buyers who might otherwise not be able to afford any type of motorised vehicle.

What's in a name (brand)?

Five years after changing its corporate name to DSG, Dixons is taking back the familiar name that high-street shoppers remember. Meanwhile, Comet is refreshing its retail brand at a time when Best Buy, a leading US electronics retailer, is launching itself into the UK market.

What's in a name (brand)? In short, everything your marketing stands for, everything your customers can expect from you. Buyers use brands as short-cuts when they're choosing among alternatives in the marketplace. Therefore, marketers must be careful when they rebrand, to avoid disrupting the short-cut and confusing or annoying customers.

Sonic branding is gaining momentum as marketers link brands to snippets of music or other identifiable sounds. When customers hear that distinctive sound, they should be able to name the brand and, hopefully, respond with positive thoughts and feelings. Isn't that what a brand is all about?

The maturing of digital media

Marketing Week discusses the maturing of digital media this week, calling for more experimentation to better exploit the creativity and targeting possibilities. A fully-mature medium should have extensive and detailed audience analyses available to advertisers, which is not yet the case in the digital world (in my opinion).

To deal with this challenge, specialist firms are looking at ways to measure specific aspects of the digital media audience, such as the media consumption of smartphone users (downloading or viewing videos via mobile, for example). With so many consumers dependent on mobiles for entertainment and information access, companies must understand this audience's habits and preferences if they are to be effective in mobile marketing. To give advertisers confidence in digital media, vendors are launching programmes to ensure the high quality and validity of the audience data they provide.

Clearly, digital media will be a major advertising force in the near future. According to one recent study, the audience for online media is increasing even as the audience for traditional printed magazines is stagnating or moving downward. In the long run, digital media will provide advertisers with better and more targeted opportunities for engaging target audiences in two-way conversations about brands, features and benefits, pricing and so on.

While the maturing process is underway, the biggest advertisers will continue to experiment with digital media until they have reliable facts, figures, and trends to understand digital audiences. Some observers may question the need for measuring audience involvement and reaction to digital media, but it's a must for smart marketers--otherwise, how can they know whether they're achieving their objectives?

Coca-Cola's international flavour

Two weeks ago, Sex and the City 2 opened in Copenhagen. Coincidentally (or not), Coca-Cola had these eye-catching billboards put up to promote its limited-edition Manolo Blahnik cans and bottles.

Visiting the Coke.dk site today, the very timely pop-up welcome screen is all about football. On the way to the Manolo Blahnik pages, Coca-Cola shows a "Mission Impossible" video starring an action hero, a beautiful woman, a daring escape and--of course--Coke.

The Manolo Blahnik pages showcase the shoe designer, the shoes and a quiz, offering a few minutes of engaging fun for fashionistas and Coca-Cola fans alike. Isn't this a good way to connect the iconic soft drink with style and pop culture?

Marketing Cunard via Social Media

Cruising the Baltic on the Queen Victoria, I had a conversation about blogging and marketing with Alastair Greener (photo above), Entertainment Director for the iconic Cunard cruise line. Greener is the enthusiastic blogger responsible for the We Are Cunard blog, which attracts 20,000 readers every month.

The blog is an important marketing tool, reflecting Cunard's heritage, positioning and points of differentiation that set it apart from other cruise lines, including all the other brands owned by parent company Carnival. As Cunard makes changes such as adding Hawaii as a port of call, it recognizes that its blog must be relevant to a broader audience beyond the traditional UK audience that knows this decades-old brand so well.

Greener serves as the blog's host, creating a mix of content for Cunard fans who love to live the cruise life and keep up with the line's latest news. The blog gives Cunard fans an inside view of the company's ships, people, places and plans and also invites comments from the public.

Greener frequently hosts guest bloggers from Carnival as well as reports from special on-board lecturers, Cunard execs, and others who have something to say to Cunard's customers. Currently, many blog entries are about the milestones leading up to the launch of the new Queen Elizabeth, which will set sail on its maiden voyage later this year.

Looking ahead, Greener wants to post more videos for added appeal and, to the delight of Cunard fans interested in behind-the-scenes activities, plans an online archive of information about the ships, the officers, and so on.

Another small but smart marketing touch: We Are Cunard is listed on Best Blogs at Sea, an umbrella page of links to all Carnival blogs. Did I mention that Cunard also posts regularly on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook? Welcome aboard!