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Can Love Shape the Brands You Buy?

What happens when your partner picks brands and products that you hate?

An interesting story on NPR on a study about brands and love, and how they shape what we buy. Can Diet Coke determine if you're headed for a divorce? Possibly, says researchers if your partner prefers Pepsi. Research suggests that your feelings toward your partner affect brand buying decisions. In the interview, Gavan Fitzsimons at Duke University suggests that such purchasing decisions (as such in the Diet Coke example) are sometimes acts of defiance rather than personal preferences. He suggests that these brand purchasing decisions even occur outside the presence of the partner. For example, your partner and you both prefer Burger King to McDonald's, but the unhappy partner in the relationship, even when alone, may choose McDonald's as an act of silent defiance to their feelings of relationship happiness.

This seems to suggest what we already know. People with shared common interests are generally h…

A DNA Test that tells you who you are.

The greatest pr trick that's ever been used (repetitively) is the who am I approach and remarkably its always quite effective. That's because, when an organization reaches out to its audience, it is in effect trying to connect its products and services to those individuals. In essence, the organization is saying, "we understand you" and therefore this product fits into your lifestyle, your story of who you are or who you want to be. Who doesn't want to be the fit upper middle-class runner who just bought an Iphone 7 and can now go run in the rain? In essence, the goal of such a campaign that uses the who am I method is to  offer you assistance to answering that very question. The answer is always a product or service.

So when the DNA Journey went viral on social media, you would expect that it was released by a company selling DNA test kits. You know, the Ancestry tests that allow you to find out if you're really German, English, Asian or what not. Since the…

Clinton's Roar vs Trump's Dystopia Public Relations - Who will win?

As a registered Democrat I must admit that Trump's public outreach has been far better than Hillary's (generally and excluding when he goes off the rails). The above video is an ideal example of well written communications and how they can go viral. However, we must remember that these are not Trump's words but the work of a speech writer working behind the scene. Considering America is a country of the Hollywood blockbuster it astounds me the poor level of speech writing not only in this election but in public relations in general. This video is obviously one of the better examples despite Trump's generally free-scripted antics that come across as less than presidential.

While there is an argument that there is a vacancy of intelligent word-smithing, there's no guarantee that such methods are effective with the voting base. The times of Winston Churchill rallying a country to win with mere words may not work with a country like America. A country of instantaneous…

Canadians Think America is Great despite America's Lack of Purpose

Sometimes it's easy to take the negative approach to public relations. Trump wants to make America great again and everyone seems to know what's wrong with America. Then a group of Canadians decided to send a love letter to American voters through their campaign Let's Tell America It's Great.

Sounds great.

Considering how close the world is watching American elections right now, this bit of positivism reminds us how important this election is to everyone in the world. After all isn't the pursuit of happiness the most American of all our values? But ask the average American if they're happy and a lot of them would say no. I suppose I should admit, I'm one of them.

In fact we're less happy than right before the Great Depression. Why? People might suggest it's low wages or an inability to live the lifestyle previous generations have enjoyed, but I suspect it has more with our lack of a sense of purpose. There is no space race, no dream of American hom…

Pepsi Max rebrands itself as Pepsi Zero.

Pepsi Max was designed around the height of Energy Drinks and aimed at the male demographic (aged 20-40) because it was mostly a female demo that drank diet drinks. They even used Jeff Gordan (Nascar driver) as a spokesperson to gain the attention of rugged, testosterone filled guys. It seemed like a good idea. However, with cola sales in decline Pepsi has decided to rebrand Pepsi Max as Pepsi Zero Sugar. The branding still includes "maximum taste" on the can, but clearly they've shifted gears. At least, here in America.

Ironically, while the brand Pepsi Max has struggled with consumers in the U.S., in the European market the brand has outsold it's traditional Pepsi products to become the focus of the company's attention. Yet the market seems to constantly misunderstand Pepsi's message when it comes to branding the product. Often they're giving away cans of Pepsi Max in city centres in Europe with "educators" to spread the gospel of zero calor…

Golden Corral Coupons?

One of the most amusing restaurant in the South East of the United States is a chain cold Golden Corral. They offer Vegas style buffets for, about $10 per person. We're talking a 1/4 mile long buffet with a chocolate fountain, cotton candy and comedian Jeff Fox Worthy as their celebrity spokesperson. Their public relations has varied over the years in my opinion and their outreach on social media (apparently the responsibility of each private restaurant) is rather lackluster. They've suffered several negative publicity problems from a YouTube video of the kitchen in a dirty disaster to news stories about multiple people getting sick. There was even a hoax of a man kicked out of the buffet for being too fat and eating too much.



I've had my run ins with them as well. A few years back I received a letter from Golden Corral's legal team asking me to remove a coupon from a website that I owned (now defunct). While the legal team was cordial and rather friendly about the mat…

Ford Mustang: The Unexpected

What do you get when you flip stereotypes on their head? Take a red Mustang, a bit of male misogyny and a blonde female stunt driver who plays it dumb and you get some marketing gold. I'll admit I was secretly hoping for more whimpering from the victims, similar to the Jeff Gordan and Jalopnik Taxi video for  Pepsi Max (see below).

None the less I loved the story and the adventure that this advertisement takes us through. It does feel like it's lacking a punchline and needed a bit more of a focus on the actual product: the Mustang. While the product takes a backseat to the comedy, overall this is one of my most favorite publicity stunts that I've seen in awhile.