Check this out: http://goo.gl/L5fqf
The link above reminds me of Coca-Cola’s Stick Hand Toy. It may only be good for 30 seconds of entertainment online, but overall I like the idea of using small sites like this to enhance your brand. Imagine how useful of a marketing tool this could be if instead of red balls they were Pepsi logos. As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and “Like” us on Facebook.
Social media is all about customer interaction. Some really great social media marketing strategy are built around encouraging customer interaction. I’ve seen two really great explains over the past week. One comes from a blog favorite PowerCoco. They posted on their Facebook page about a contest. The contest, entitled “Thirsty Thursdays”, encourages people to interact with their product as well as share it online. PowerCoco posted this at about 1:15pm EST. The company is based in New York City. This might not have been the best time of day to post something like this, but I love the idea
The second great use of social media interaction was Coca-Cola. They posted on their main Facebook page. As you can see, Coca-Cola is encouraging people to comment on their post. This is a good strategy because it can translate into online word-of mouth because Facebook shows your friends what you say. In a way Coca-Cola is giving their fans ownership of the brand. If you check out some of the responese they are pretty funny. Some of my favorites were: “$1.89 at the gas station probably”, “my annoying brother”, and ”a case of pepsi.”
As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and find us on Facebook.
Today I received two phone calls and one voicemail from Steve Vasquez, President of PowerCoco. I’m not gonna lie.. it made me feel kinda important. We talked about the history of the brand, specific product features, market strategy, and the beverage industry. If you haven’t been following my PowerCoco post below are links so you can catch up.
Our conversation was very normal. Its clear that PowerCoco wants to remain authentic by connecting with people and creating a grassroots movement. Social media is still their method of choice. PowerCoco is active on Facebook and Twitter. Overall, Steve is a great guy and seemed very knowledgeable about the beverage business. He thanked my for being a “fan of the brand” and was quick to correct me and give credit to Tyler Beuerlein for founding the company. Tyler and Steve are business partners who both want to give people a better sports drink. That’s the message they keep sending out. It’s important that PowerCoco makes product information readily available. If possible they should look to differentiate their SEO strategy between potential customers seeking information and customers that are closer to purchasing product.
PowerCoco might have hit the market at just the right time. Many a PowerCoco’s health benefits are inline with current food and beverage industry trends. 60 Minutes recently aired a report called “Is sugar toxic?”. In the report, Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked about new research showing that beyond weight gain, sugar can lead to conditions ranging from heart disease to cancer. PowerCoco is also gluten free. Gluten free food is a growing segment in groceries stores across America. This might be less of an advantage considering Gatorade is also gluten free. Regardless, stressing the health benefits of PowerCoco is a major selling point.
Steve gave me an inside scoop on a promotion deal PowerCoco will soon launch in the New York area. He could tell me all the details, but he did tell me that PowerCoco is teaming up with a New York NBA-star with 3 million twitter followers. There are only two NBA teams in the New York area. The New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets. I did some checking on twitter and here’s what I’ve come up with.
Not sure who it’s going to be, but I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next. If you’re interested in purchasing PowerCoco and you’re located outside the New York area, checkout their Amazon Storefront.
The Wall Street Journal’s Smartmoney.com published an article called “Does Dollar Shave Really Save?” The main idea of the article is trying to determine if the YouTube sensation is it a good deal?If you remember I did a post a few weeks ago (here) in which I did the math, and determined that Dollar Shave Club does save money compared to Gillette. However, Smartmoney.com compares Dollar Shave Club to Dorco and it turns out Dorco is a better deal. No real surprise there. Dorco is a low-cost provider. What I found interesting is that according to Smartmoney.com “Dorco appears to be the supplier for most of Dollar Shave’s blades. Ken Hill, president of Dorco USA, said his firm sells Dollar Shave Club the four- and six-blade razors that are used in its packages, but not the Dollar Shave’s two-blade option.”
In a good public relations move, Dorco posted the story on their Facebook page. I believe Dorco is walking a thin line. They obviously can’t say that Dollar Shave Club razors are not quality because they are a supplier. They need to remain focused on discredited Dollar Shave Club as a money saver and convincing people that the convenience of delivery isn’t worth the extra money. Dorco sells that same amount of razors for up to 75% less. It seems like Dorco is trying to deflate the hype Dollar Shave Club was able to produce with their viral video campaign.
Overall, Dorco and Dollar Shave Club have separate target markets. Dorco is the best deal, and people that like cheap products tend to seek out the best deal. Dollar Shave Club, I feel, is more of a trendy crowd that likes the convenience of home delivery.
I plan on buying razors from Dorco the next time I need some. Mostly just to try them out. This has been fun following this story. I’d love to read your thoughts and comments. In conclusion, I was contacted by the marker of this video blog and asked to share it. I think it is really well done. Enjoy…
As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and find us on Facebook.
I received a response from PowerCoco yesterday. It seems that they are picking up their social media activities. I’m excited to watch this company grow. If you don’t remember…I wrote a post about the marketing activities of a brand new sports drink company. Check it out.
Seems like Dr Pepper Snapple Group has had some success with its TEN experiment. I wrote a blog a few months ago about Dr Pepper Ten. Since then the company’s stock prices has done very well compared to it main competitors- Pepsi and Coke.
In my first post, I was skeptical about the company’s focus on the male market. The male market may have turned out to be too small because this time around the company seems to be taking a more bi-gender approach.
Overall I love the product idea. It provides soft drink customers with another options besides regualr and diet. Dr Pepper Snapple Group is hitting a niche market of calorie counters that don’t want to sacrifice taste. I’m not sure this move will steal customers away from Pepsi and Coke long-term mainly because their target market is limited to the people that like Dr Pepper, 7up, Root Beer, Ginger Ale, and Orange Soda. In the end, the company might just be dividing its customer base in by a greater number of products. A move that could hurt them in the long run.
PowerCoco is a real life company I recently discovered. PowerCoco markets and sells sports drinks made from coconut milk. Apparently PowerCoco’s formula has more electrolytes and no sugar. This company is very new. PowerCoco’s website says they got the idea in 2010, and I found an unofficial source that claims they filed for a patent on 4/25/2011. Needless to say they are very new. In this post… I’m interested in starting a discussion about marketing. Specifically, how PowerCoco is and should be trying to penetrate the sports drink market with a coconut-based beverage.
Ok, so how did I hear about PowerCoco? I clicked on a sponsored add on Facebook (I’m a sucker for those). The ad took me to a welcome tab on PowerCoco’s facebook page. Taking viewers to a welcome tab is great. You never want to take people directly to your wall. There are tons of facebook applications that allow you to send viewers to a customizable page. This allows you to promote you product and branding in a more controlled way. The use of tabs also adds some credibility to a brand. Besides, most Facebook page walls are just random links, comments and photos anyway. Walls usually lack a clear message.
The first thing I noticed on their page was that they had over 1,000 “likes.” For a very new brand that is very impressive. Now, many of them could be people associated with the company, other Facebook pages, and people, like me, that have never tried the product. For social media marketers “likes” are like gold. “Likes” allow to develop a relationship with that individual and it allows them to take ownership of your brand. One thing PowerCoco has not done that many companies do is give facebook fans access to exclusive information. Most likely, PowerCoco hasn’t done this yet because of size or the nature of their product. Nevertheless, offering fans access to exclusive information is a good way to encourage people to “like” your facebook page. Again, there are numerous applications that can do this too. Exclusive information could be online deals or coupons. It could also mean breaking the brand or company news on Facebook first.
PowerCoco also has a twitter account– kinda. They haven’t tweeted anything yet. Twitter is a unique phenomenon in social media. Many companies are using twitter in different ways. Some use twitter for advertising, others customer service, and others public relations. In my experience it is very industry specific. Really, its all about what you want your brand to be. In my opinion, PowerCoco needs to get on the ball. Having an active twitter account is worse that not having on at all. The link (here) has 50 tips for using twitter in business.
I mentioned earlier, this is a very young company. I couldn’t really find any other information about their marketing efforts. It’s interesting that such a young company is using social media as they primary means of advertising. Social media is usually a large company game. I like the fact that they are committed to social media on a small scale. This could be a sign for success later.
Let’s move on to place and price. As far as I can tell PowerCoco is not sold in any major retail locations at this time. It appears all PowerCoco’s sales are done through an Amazon storefront. Amazon storefronts are an easy way for to add ecommerce to a business. The downside to relying on Amazon is that they require a commission to be paid on all sales. Over time this could really cut into PowerCoco’s bottom line. Their goal should be to move into retail locations and host their own ecommerce their site.
PowerCoco has decided to use a premium pricing strategy. The goal of a premium pricing strategy is to keep your price higher than the competition in order to differentiate yourself. The hope is the differentiate leads to favorable perceptions about the product, based solely on price. A premium pricing strategy could be risky for PowerCoco if you consider how widely accepted their competition is, namely Gatorade and Powerade. PowerCoco sells 12 20 oz. bottles for $27.50. For comparison, at most stores Gatorade is sold in 20 oz. individual bottles for approximately $1.50 – $2, cases of 24 for approximately $22 – $24, or in powder form. That’s nearly twice as much. There are a couple possibility.. (1) PowerCoco is really using a percentage costing method and their cost of production is very high (2) PowerCoco has plans to enter the health food market which usually demand a higher price.
Overall I feel PowerCoco’s social media and ecommerce strategy is risky. A brand this young is fragile, and customers can be brutal online. $27.50 for a coconut based sports drink is a fairly risky purchase. I’ll hold off judgment for now, but I’d like to try some samples.
Having a great product or brand name isn’t always good enough. Great marketing often involves thinking outside the box, because advertising like your competitors doesn’t get you very far. Being average is boring, and nobody talks about boring things. Marketers spend a great deal of time and effort trying to create unique experiences that get people to talking about their product. The social media age makes sharing experiences very easy. So if an ad goes viral you can send your message out to a lot of people with relatively little cost.
One of my favorite types of advertising is guerrilla marketing. For those of you that don’t know, guerrilla marketing is an advertising strategy that uses low-cost, unconventional, and unexpected means to send and message. The reason why I love guerrilla marketing campaigns is because they are unique, unexpected, interactive, and (most importantly) worth sharing.
If you’re still not sure what guerrilla marketing is check out the photos. Also I watch the YouTube video for an example of a really interactive ad.
As always… comments are welcome and email subscriptions are strongly encouraged. Also check out @AfterThePeriod and find us on facebook.
