Beware of the campaign you choose!!

Summary: A man finds himself in the doghouse after he gives his girlfriend a thoughtless gift.



For video Click HERE

This advertisement is a short 5 minute clip that was published in 2008. If you are a social marketer then you must have heard about this advertisement already. It was in almost every blog or in every tongue of every chronic net user. The short “4 minute” commercial is about a man that gives his girlfriend a vacuum cleaner for an anniversary present. The man's girlfriend leads him to a dog house and makes him get inside. When he crawls inside he falls into an underground prison filled with other men. The other men are all folding laundry while a loudspeaker gives instructions on how to be a good husband or boyfriends. The other guys then explain how they got there. When the man asks if anyone can get out he is told that one person has but they haven't figured out how. He is then shown a picture that was sent by the man who got out. It is a picture of the released man's girlfriend wearing a diamond necklace.

This JC Penny “Beware of the Doghouse” commercial is in every word the emotional side of Marketing that educators were and will always be talking about. Personally I have not been to a J.C. Penny ever and frankly I always found it hard to buy a jewelry gift for my lady. If J.C Penny was not in your consideration set, it will now be at the top of mind so as it is to me right now.

As for the success of “Beware of the Doghouse” for J.C. Penny, the campaign had one of the world’s most effective and positive impacts on awareness and perception. The campaign was fighting against a strong downward trend for both the jewelry category and department stores. The site was linked directly into the online sales channel so J.C. Penny sales ranking rose like a rocket in late November and early January, ranking near 2,000 before dropping south of 40,000 after the holiday. A Google search returns around 275 references and 200 inbound links. The video has been viewed almost one million times on YouTube and generated nearly 500 comments. These results were published in January 2009, I can’t imagine how far it has reached today.

The campaign was released to the public in late 2008, just before Christmas. The timing was so important and a life savor for lots of people that find it hard to pick up gifts. The clip is only a 4 minute show and its humorous which makes it fun to watch and very hard to forget. For entrepreneurs and managers that are looking at promoting their brand, a short commercial video that only needs to be published in the net with a little touch of social media is your best ticket to sensation.

Business in a time of crisis

This article is written out of my observation of companies that are facing a tough time with the economical downturn. Before I get to the core of this article I would like you to spend a few seconds of your time to understand my definition of Business. I believe it’s “a set of different departments that are engaged in different functions differentiating the method/style in which the organization chooses to operate by.”

Below is a little summary explaining the different functions in any given business:

All these functions are somehow interlinked forming an activity we call an “Organization”. However some organizations would like to focus on the inner side of these functions, therefore create sub-functions such as; Communication department, Customer-service department, PR department, accounting department, R&D department, etc.

There are a lot of other explanations to the above functions but the one that’s most relevant to our topic today is Chris Crum’s definition of Marketing in which he says “Marketing is what drives customers to your business, and customers are what drive growth, and ultimately survival.”

In a time when the face of economy is down, organizations usually try to save money by reducing operational costs and budgets. Business owners and decision makers are forced to follow this practice that is a common strategic solution until the economy is back. We at Big Bear believe that a decision like this could affect your business a lot more then protect its existence. Some of the disadvantages for a strategic decision like this are as follow:-

1. Creates space for new entry as new competitors might take this as a chance to enter the market.
2. Customers turn to your competitors products and forget yours. People will always continue to shop and once you don’t remind people of your existence, people will automatically turn to the most obvious alternative.

Marketers globally have come up with low cost and effective strategies to market products & services without needing to minimize operational activities. Targeted marketing via internet marketing or social trends are only a few of the new strategies that can “Do more with less”. A combination of various strategic marketing methods is you’re way forward as most small and medium size business today are coming to realize that marketing is not about what you have. It’s mostly about what you choose to do with what you have.