Raise Your Arms! Fight Underarm Insecurities?

Recently on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert parodied Dove's new deodorant, Ultimate Deodorant "Go Sleeveless". Check it out:

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Colbert's conspiracy theory against Unilever is one of the most entertaining stories that I've ever heard about Deodorant. Deodorant isn't a topic that gets discussed (or parodied) on national television quite often. I think the last time that someone told me to check out a Deodorant clip online, they were referring to the Old Spice man's six pack.

As for the validity of his argument: when is the last time Colbert had to worry about shaving his armpits? As a frequent armpit shaver, I would argue that Unilever isn't 'making up the insecurity to sell deodorant' but honestly, exposing an insecurity of many women. Check out their website: Dove has a review gallery of real testimonials from Dove Deodorant users. I think the real message of Dove is to expose real issues and insecurities (no matter how obscure or strange) as part of their Campaign for Real Beauty. Let's face it, I literally spent 3-4 minutes standing in CVS two days ago to buy a new deodorant. I hate mine but I won't switch because I know that mine eliminates odor. When I practice yoga, I end up with deodorant marks on pants after a bind or crow pose and then I'm feverishly trying to rub out the spots in my pants. I can't count the number of times that I've changed my arm positions in yoga class so that the person next to me isn't looking straight at my pits. Unilever isn't sitting in my yoga class pointing these things out, us ladies are just a little nutty. But I do feel better now that I am not the only one with this pit problem (so much better that I'm blogging about it!).

So my message is: Thanks Unilever!, for showing me that I'm not the only one wondering how my armpits compare to everyone elses. And Thanks Colbert for making Deodorant and armpits something that it's funny to talk about on national television (and in my blog).

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I attended a speaking event by Chris Brogan and as he was talking about how attached people are to their smart phones, he made a little dig at BlackBerrys. Now I am a BlackBerry user and the phone isn't a flashy iPhone and it doesn't talk to me or have a touch screen, but it's exactly what I wanted from my phone. It makes calls, texts, forwards me my emails, and allows me to respond. I don't particularly like responding to emails on my phone but as least now, I am always in the loop.

An interesting point that Chris Brogan poked fun at is the message that comes through on the top of at least 50% of my emails: "Have trouble reading this email?"
Chris made a great point: As a marketer, is this the first thing that you want your customers to see when they open their emails? And since more people open emails via smart phone, do you really want them to see a bunch of blank boxes instead of your content?

Chris Brogan suggested putting a funny message at the top line or the most important thing that you want your reader to see. Why not? It's the first message that your business is using to communicate and it decides whether they delete it...or not!

Here's an example of a company that's always sending me witty messages as the top line on my BlackBerry:

Breakfast: The Most Marketed Meal of the Day

I saw this Kellogg's commercial the other morning and it put me in such a good mood.

Kellogg's is offering to share a breakfast with kids in schools without breakfasts for every "breakfast picture" uploaded to their site (shareyourbreakfast.com). I visited the site and enjoyed looking through the pictures-- see if you can spot the 'Boston breakfast picture'! (Hint: it has a glimpse of sign that I've passed on Boylston Street.)

Kellogg's is really making an effort to connect with a new generation of consumers: Social Media generation. Most of the pictures are taken with Smart phones and Kellogg's has even Facebook page and twitter (#ShareYourBreakfast) to make pictures easy to upload. (NYT lists details of the campaign)

If that wasn't enough to munch on, I found another article on branding breakfast cereals for Kids. The article and study concluded that kids will say that cereal tastes better when popular characters are on the box. This study has raised a debate between Mommy and Marketers; are companies using Dora to tricking kids into eating unhealthy cereals? Characters today are mostly on kid's products that aren't the healthiest cereals like the Fruit Loops Toucan. But with this new information, couldn't healthy cereal companies start sponsoring Nickelodeon characters on the box? The study tested kids on the way cereals tasted (healthy vs. sugary) and the name of the cereal (Healthy Bits vs. Sugar Bits) but these weren't driving factors impacting preferences. If this is true, healthy cereal companies could call the cereal "Healthy Bits", make it out of whole grains and low sugar, and stick Dora or Diego on the box to make both Mom and kids happy. Spongebob bran flakes anyone?

What's faster than RIGHT NOW?

I attended a presentation by David Meerman Scott, Marketing, Leadership Speaker and author of Real-Time Marketing & PR. He spoke with us about the importance and reality of Real-Time Marketing & PR. Marketers are traditionally thought of as planners and in every information session that I have been to for Marketing companies, someone asks "What is your plan for social media?" Plan + social media; it just doesn't add up. Most companies live on Twitter and Facebook because it's free and why not? If you've claimed your domain name, thrown up an image, then you're on the bandwagon with everyone else, right? Not exactly-- social media operates in Real-Time (ie. NOW) and if you stand static on a busy, moving sidewalk, you are going to get jostled around.

The concept of Real-Time took some time to sink in but during the Super Bowl, it was made clear; this is how you use Real-Time. If you happened to pull up Twitter during the game, it was running rampant. People were tweeting and blogging their opinions of the commercials before the commercial break was even over. As a company, that's a lot more powerful than your 8-10 opinions in a focus group.

Here is where the opportunity presents itself: as an organization, do you retweet? Static organizations wait for the Monday morning meeting to debrief draw up a press release, blah blah. It's been 24 hours and it's too late. You missed the ball. Real-Time companies are on their game, reacting and responding to people immediately.

So what is faster than RIGHT NOW?

How about launching ads on YouTube before the game? The New York Times asked the professionals, can you pick out the Real-Time, agile companies vs. the static players? I am putting my money on the teams that can move...

Lean-Green Cookie Machine

It's winter and we're all reaching for the a warm, gooey cookie to fight off the winter blues. But sometimes hibernating adds a little more to our waistlines than we would like-- so can it be true, healthy cookies?


Not so fast!! Sorry but as cookie-loving, health conscious, hungry consumers we will believe almost anything that makes it easy to not feel guilty about "snack" food. Take a look at the text, "Chocolate Chunks in their natural habitat"-- which is a mound of cookie dough. It's not exactly wheat grass, agave sweetened, multi grain dough. But the advertisement has so many clues that these cookies are going to be delicious AND healthy, right? We've been so caught up in the Green Movement that we're starting to directly associate green (the color) with "healthy, natural, safe". Food companies have been slapping on green labels, green packaging, green awards...etc to get our "healthy" hands to try their products. Who can blame them? In reality, you really need to flip over the box and check out the ingredients to know if it's natural. Hint: if you can't pronounce it, it's not natural. Calories and fat are also more important than how many leaves are pictured on the front of the box.

But hey--if you've found a "healthy snack food" that you love-- keep buying it, no matter the color on the package!

Sweet Tweets

A new trend for boutiques, small business, artisan chocolate makers, etc is to tweet to their customers! If you can gather enough loyalists to follow you on twitter, hopefully they will spread the word. It seems like an unbelievable deal for most of these small business owners; a free way to connect with customers and tap into their social networks. I mean, everyone wants to know where to find the sweetest treats around the office at 3pm, so tweet it!

But the problem with this deal is it's too good and everyone wants a bite. My friend sent me an article about some of the most creative social media campaigns by chocolatieres (Why Chocolate Companies Are So Sweet on Social Media). It's a perfect way to reach your devotees at a weak moment, which is every moment for me! But I would consider it the same as walking through the mall and smelling Cinnabon, tweet about chocolate and you've got me thinking about chocolate. Some of small business owners in the article have taken it a step further by creating whole communities to get flavor recommendations or just fans talking to fans. I'd love to talk with you about chocolate any time!!

Last note-- because I've seen it a lot, Tweeting Food Trucks. It's amazing!! They drive around and serve lunch (or cupcakes) to busy offices and tweet their location. I think we're going to start needing a 'cupcake break' so I can run down and catch the Food Truck!