Category — Marketing News

When a letter like this slips through corporate there’s a problem but when it comes from the head of marketing I am quite scared. According to OK Magazine, Kentucky Fried Chicken Chief Marketing Officer James O’Reilly wrote this letter to R&B recording artist Rihanna in response to her spotting in a Miami-area KFC with fellow R&B singer Chris Brown (which she is rumored to be dating). I could barely get through this letter without laughing at its ridiculousness.

It reads:

“Dear Rihanna:
We were very excited by your and Chris Brown’s recent visit to a Miami-area KFC restaurant.
Clearly, like Kentucky Fried Chicken and our founder Colonel Sanders, you two know how to kick it up a few degrees. And, Rihanna, that’s a secret recipe worth sharing with the world.

We could feel the heat – literally – in our restaurant that night … so much so that we’d like to invite you and Chris back to any KFC for a free meal including the Colonel’s Hot Wings. Whether lunch or dinner, home or on the road, our doors are always open to you. Think of it as a personal way to send an SOS whenever you crave a little Original Recipe.

Like you, KFC is dedicated to supporting charity causes. If you and Chris are again photographed making KFC a “hot” date-night spot, we’ll make a donation to your charity, BELIEVE, which helps underprivileged children.
Hearing about your fondness for KFC was music to our ears. Please don’t stop making KFC your favorite mealtime choice.
Good luck to you and we hope to see you again soon with or without an Umbrella.”

Future marketing professionals, there is a better way garnering partnerships or should I say a more appropriate way. According to OK Magazine, R&B singer/ performer Beyonce was given a lifetime of free meals at Popeye’s Chicken restaurants when she mentioned how much she loved the food during an interview on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. In this case, it makes logical sense to offer such a deal. She’s a well-know, self-claimed advocate of the brand. But to write a letter thanking a celebrity for “kicking it up few degrees” with his/ her public display of affection fest, which by chance happened in KFC…well, let’s just say you might want to check yourself. With antics like this, it appears as though there may be openings in marketing at KFC. Lol!

Check out the following link.

You always hear that marketing is the art of making something seem better than it actually is. This theory could not be any truer than the case of Cloverfield, one of the worst movies I think I have ever seen.

The trailer makes the film look like an utter masterpiece. Suspense, shock, mysterious monster! It’s all there. And then I fork over my $10 and get punched in the face by 84 minutes of stupidity.  It’s almost as if the film’s producers came up with an awesome idea for a marketing campaign; sure enough, they realized at some point that they would have to actually make a movie, as well. And that’s where it just went bad.

But hey, I think it says a lot for the power of marketing…

So, save your money and read the entire movie summary on my web site to rescue yourself from sheer stupidity. Donate that $10 to AMA.

So we finished the fight. The Prophet of Truth got pwned (sic). Master Chief is dead (supposedly). The message at the end of the game made most of us cry. Millions of games are still played over Xbox Live every single day. And in the middle of everything lies one of the most valuable intellectual properties that the entertainment industry has ever seen. So in the wake of the third and final installment of the Halo trilogy, what’s next?

Obviously, the marketing aspects surrounding the Halo IP have always been of great interest, dating back to the famous “I Love Bees” campaign for Halo 2. But directly after the third installment’s release, things really got interesting. Microsoft, who purchased Bungie Studios after the first Halo title achieved success, decided to part ties with the Kirkland developer. Obviously, this was a sort of favor, allowing Bungie to pursue their own projects with total control and greater revenue-earning potential. But alas, Microsoft retained full ownership of the Halo IP. What does this mean? Bungie can not make another title based on the Halo universe without it being licensed by Microsoft. Microsoft owns Master Chief’s future. And the decisions that it makes with the IP revolves greatly around marketing theory.

Let’s take a look at Microsoft’s options:

1. Partner with another developer to create the next effort featuring the Halo universe. Bad idea. This runs the serious risk of alienating all those Bungie fan boys who treat the developer as if it were a non-profit organization. After three titles that managed to revolutionize games in their own way, it’s difficult to entrust the IP to somebody else. This is a billion-dollar customer loyalty issue; but does more of the loyalty lie with the IP or the developer?
2. Sit on Halo 3 for a while, enjoy its assured continued success throughout the next three years (which they most likely will) and eventually partner with Bungie to bring the IP back in a big way. But Bungie’s future plans as of now are not clear; will they be tied up in another project? But after all, nobody can do Halo like Bungie (obviously). Fans know it. Microsoft knows it.
3. Change the format. Halo is one of the most revered first-person shooter franchises in the history of the interactive entertainment industry. But what if it was transformed into a third-person action/adventure game? Sure, MS could capture more third-person fans, but would most likely alienate far more FPS fanatics that made Halo into the behemoth it is today. Capture or alienate? A note: Microsoft has already commissioned a Real Time Strategy title, Halo Wars, developed by Ensemble Studios (i.e. not Bungie), soon due for release.

Now, it is unknown if any provisions or pre-determined agreements were outlined in Microsoft and Bungie’s divorce; Microsoft does retain a minority interest in the company. But Microsoft’s decisions in the near future are paramount to the future of one of the entertainment industry’s most profitable properties. Microsoft has time; Halo 2 remained the most-played Xbox game over Live for over 2 years (into the transition into the 360 platform!).

So let’s not be hasty; Microsoft is far from stupid (ask Apple). It’s an impossibility that they will let Bungie go make other games and be forced to entrust the Halo universe to another developer like Ubisoft. But make no mistake about it - the Gates Empire will find itself in a top spot within the next few years, notably from a marketing standpoint. Halo is ultimately a brand that will need some guidance. One thing is for sure, though - you won’t see any Bungie properties make their way to the Playstation platform…

It says on YouTube that this was added on March 8, 2006 and it has just started surfacing on television. Did McDonald’s just buy it off of these two brilliant youngsters? I hope so. The best commercial for anything ever made.

I came across an interesting web site the other day - Marktd. Marktd is a reference system that highlights articles and blog postings considered valuable by the marketing community. In effect, the site serves as a type of hub for interesting marketing articles available on the web. If anything, just give it a look (I also added it to the Links section of our site):

http://www.marktd.com

McDonald’s Japan is getting ready to launch its third series of “Mega” burgers. This time, it’s going to be the MegaTomato and the MegaTamago. Both offerings include three beef patties with a fourth (apparently what the MegaMac had) substituted by another ingredient. For the MegaTomato, it’s a slice of tomato with 2 slices of bacon. For the MegaTamago, it’s an egg (from the Egg McMuffin; ‘Tamago” means “egg” in Japanese) and two slices of bacon.

And for the marketing stuff (because this is a marketing blog, eh?)…

“As for the marketing “hook,” since McD’s communications team undoubtedly saw the risk in introducing “new” sandwiches that are essentially reshuffles of existing ingredients, somebody probably saw the need for at least a smidgen of creativity in product formulation—which could then be applied to the communications approach. Given the propensity of Japanese youth to immediately shorten words for ease of use and to create trendy speech, the names of these sandwiches are certainly to be instantly collapsed to “MegaToma” and “MegaTama,” designations that are cute and can create a bit of tongue-twister entertainment as well (say “tama-toma” fast 10 times). (from Japan Marketing News)”

Well, that’s all well and good. But I would like to know then…where is my MegaTamago? This is probably the greatest creation ever. Here’s some really good marketing for you, McDonald’s Japan - offer this to a really fat country - like the United States of America. Charge me $8.00 for all I care; I won’t even have to shorten the names. Check these bad boys out: