Sunday, February 15, 2009

Cool Factor

What is “cool factor”?

I my own words, cool factor is the tangible look and a feel of a product that just makes you say, “now that is cool”. Apple Computer has been working cool factor into their product design for years. Chrysler is another example of a company that has been recently incorporating cool factor into most of the car designs. Of course, there are practically and endless amount of companies using or trying to use cool factor in their product design.

If you talk to a marketing executive from a company that actively incorporates cool factor into their product design, her or she will probably take credit for their products look and feel. In reality, marketing might request a product with cool factor in their marketing plans, but the actual cool factor you can see and touch comes from product industrial designers.

The product industrial designers at Vuzix have definitely designed a Video Eyewear product with cool factor. The picture below shows their latest iWear Wrap 920AV consumer Video Eyewear product that will ship in the next few months.



If you think the iWear Wrap 920AV has cool factor, wait until you see iWear Flex 1080AV, due to ship in the Spring of 2011. Sorry I can’t provide a picture of this product because it’s still a closely guarded secret, but I can spill a factoid that came from a group of three future marketing geniuses at California Lutheran University.

iWear Flex 1080AV will be the worlds first high definition Video Eyewear product and will utilize the latest proprietary technological advancements in nanotechnology processors and flexible electronics originally developed for military applications.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Reflections on BUS 375 at CLU

I am officially in the blog bonus round (BBR). What is BBR? This when you completed the 10 required blogs and you post more blogs for extra credit.

My professional background to date has largly been as a mechanical designer/project manager/design group manager in the consumer electronics industry. My past experience working with marketing teams is they always want products that are difficult to design and deliver with the features, pricing, and schedule they need. Seems like I was always working my butt off to provide everything marketing wanted while they were just screwing around and planning their next slush fund event. Maybe my initial perceptions of marketing are correct, but now I have a solid understanding what these marketing teams are actually doing besides planning their next slush fund event.

I happily admit that I really enjoyed this class and I now have a greater understanding and appreciation for marketing.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Miller High Life 1 Second Commercials – Comments

I have a couple comments in regards to Dr. Kambara’s blog posting on the 1 second Miller High Life commercials.

First of all, I really hate Miller High Life and it’s not because I tossed my cookies after drinking a six pack when I was in high school. Ok, that’s why I hate Miller High Life.

I really need to question the effectiveness of these types of commercials. I realize the attention span of the general consumer towards advertising is getting shorter and shorter, but 1 second commercials just don’t provide enough time to send an effective message.

As in the Miller High Life commercials, a large product logo in the background does provide the minimum product connection, but still no time for an effective message. If product advertisers really need to take this route in the future, I would say 3-5 seconds would be enough to boldly display the product name or actual product and time to verbalize one key value proposition.

I offer a technology suggestion to future television advertisers who are looking for a way to combat clutter busters who use Tivo or DVR to quickly fast forward through commercials. Include some sort of product logo ghost image that is hidden when commercials are run at normal speed, but appears when the commercials are run in fast forward mode. At least the commercial is not a total waste and the consumer does see a product logo. I see this as the future of 1 second television commercials.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Pepsi Max – No Females Allowed in 2009

Pepsico has given me entirely way to much to blog about over the last month. It appears the target market for Pepsi Max has changed and females are no longer allowed to drink Pepsi Max. Maybe females never did drink Pepsi Max and this is the reason for the target market change.

When Pepsico first introduced Pepsi Max to the United States in 2007, it was called Diet Pepsi Max and of course it was a diet cola and the “max” stands for added caffeine and ginseng. In watching several commercials for Diet Pepsi Max over the last two years, it appears the target market is teen to twenty something, male and female. I don’t see anything wrong with that target market, but I guess Pepsico did.

Pepsico removed females from their target market and expanded their male target to include all males from teen to grave. According to Pepsico, Pepsi Max is now the first “diet” cola for men. I actually heard a radio commercial for the new Pepsi Max and “diet” is not mentioned in the ad, pretty darn sneaky.

New 2009 Pepsi Max Commercial

If you look at the new Pepsi Max product packaging and compare it to the old Diet Pepsi Max product packaging, you can clearly see the move from male and female target market to just male.

The old product packaging is blue in color and includes “diet” in product name.
The new product packaging is two tone black/silver and “diet” is nowhere to be seen in the product name.
Any guesses for next years target market?