Tag Archives: Marketing

Even Hollywooders Need Savvy Business

Hollywood Not Living Happily Ever After?

It’s not always a case of happy ever after, even for those in Hollywood. Although the industry is making tons of money still, it has been deeply criticized for its inability to market itself, according to Hollywood’s newly appointed chief lobbyist, Christopher Dodd. While it knows how to sell movies, it needs to work on self-marketing, he said.

It’s all about image; according to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s no good that Washington views Hollywood as “red carpets and tuxedos,” as opposed to the thriving industry it is.

Hollywood Getting A Bad Rep

And in other news in Hollywood, it seems Beyonce may be in need of a bit of therapy to discuss her familial woes. The artist has split with Music World Entertainment, owned by her father Mathew Knowles, but there is said to be no bitterness or resentment on the part of either daughter or dad. According to senior Knowles, “I love my daughter and am very proud of who she is and all that she has achieved. I look forward to her continued great success.”

What is more important to Mr. Knowles these days is the gospel/inspirational genre of music his company is now making investments in as well as new artists including Britan Courtney Wilson and Vanessa Bell Armstrong.

In Hollywood it’s often here today and gone tomorrow. That can be good for business in the fast-paced changing world but vis-à-vis it’s credibility nationwide, the industry might be well-advised to employ a good marketing company.

NZ: Marketing and Markets

It’s not always the case that the more money spent on marketing, the better your product will well.  That’s what energy-Drink Manufacturer Red Bull New Zealand just found out.  Although the company netted 7.5 percent gain in 2010 sales (its second best since it first launched more than ten years ago), other factors have been at play.  Still, the company can celebrate a tad since a staggering $30.3 million of the caffeine-infused energy drinks were purchased by New Zealanders last year, that is made with taurine (an amino acid that was originally located in bull bile; hence Red Bull).

But it didn’t come cheap.  The company paid for this with larger marketing and administration costs which “wiped out most of its net profit” that plummeted to $888,171 from $10.7 million.  It’s not always in the sales pitch.

New Zealand Market Recovers Following Japan’s Disaster

V – an energy drink produced by Frucor – is in direct competition with Red Bull.  The latter drink has a hold on around 60 percent of the market share, selling approximately $90m of the drink annually.Good news on the horizon for New Zealanders as its dollar just now jumped ahead “recovering the more than US2c lost in the last week in the wake of Japan’s catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, followed by a nuclear crisis in the world’s third-largest economy.”

According to HiFX Daniel Bell, “Investors have shrugged off concerns in Japan and the Middle East for now to give risk assets a boost with equities, commodities and high yielding growth currencies all benefiting.”

So things are looking up for New Zealanders and manufacturing companies like Red Bull and V are likely to continue making good profits; so long as they’re careful with their expenses and make the right marketing decisions.

Best Marketing Advice: Believe in Your Product

Verizon iPhone 4 Versus iPad 2

We all heard about the craziness for the iPad 2 and how sales went completely out of control.  Apparently not so for the Verizon iPhone 4.  They did okay but it wasn’t “revolutionary.”  It was seen primarily as “just another iPhone 4” with Apple not participating so much in promotional sales, leaving it mostly to Verizon.  At the end of the day the marketing message was clear: “Verizon can’t market its way out of a paper bag.”

Verizon Not Hot on Marketing

It’s not really a surprise when you look at the company’s marketing history.  Even when it came to the Droid, it didn’t do that well and it had quite substantial opportunity since there were plenty of customers who would have settled for it over the iPhone 4.  Verizon should have jumped on the bandwagon and used iPhone for its marketing technique by selling it as an iPhone but ultimately it did quite the opposite and promoted the Droid as “the anti-iPhone.”  Well, that wasn’t going to satisfy anyone.

Learn Lessons Like a Politician

At the end of the day, to really be a success in marketing what you need to do is believe in your product.  Just like the British Labour Party in the 1980s kept trying to be a watered-down version of Thatcherism and that didn’t work, Verizon should have honed in on its own market and those who wanted its product.  Around 99 percent of Verizon’s customers are non-geek and so only required something that was like an iPhone (for a better price).  Indeed before the era of Verizon iPhone, AT&T’s iPhone was beating Verizon Droid sales by a staggering 2.5 to 1 which led to a total flop of Verizon’s Droid marketing.

At the end of the day, any marketing buff will tell you just how important it is to hone in on your own specific market if you really want to succeed in pushing your product.  Marketing Lesson 101 learnt: believe in yourself.