When Crest introduced a new toothpaste line two years ago, it used focus groups to help pick three flavors: cinnamon, herbal and citrus. This time around, the new flavor of Crest whitening expressions will be chosen by customers.
Crest, a division of Procter & Gamble, is asking people to go to the Web to vote for their favorite new flavor from a short list of contenders: lemon ice, sweet berry punch or tropica exotica. Samples of the flavors are attached to Crest products.
Marketing executives say Crest's campaign reflects an increasing interest by companies in involving consumers in their advertising. Doing so is another way to break away from traditional advertising that viewers increasingly can tune out with TiVo and other digital video recorders, and marketers say the Internet has made interactive campaigns easier to conduct.
"This comes with the inherent declining power of traditional media advertising," said Clive Chajet, chairman of Chajet Consultancy, a brand consulting firm in New York. "All marketers today are seeking different ways to market their products." Crest is running television and magazine advertisements about the promotion, and sending e-mail messages to 4 million consumers on the company's e-mail list. Voters must go to Crest.com and register (possibly winning something like a year's supply of toothpaste). Then, they receive an e-mail message from Crest urging them to vote every day.
Similarly, Staples Inc. is starting its Staples Invention Quest vote Aug. 10. Staples accepted product ideas from customers this spring and said it would award a US$25,000 grand prize in September and nine semifinalist prizes of US$5,000 -- along with possible production agreements -- for the best inventions, chosen by Staples judges and online voters.
Since the Crest voting began May 2, about 500,000 votes have been cast, said Tonia Elrod, a Crest spokeswoman. Staples, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, received about 12,000 invention proposals this year, up from about 8,300 last year, said Jevin S. Eagle, the senior vice president of Staples Brands. Results for the contests at both Crest and Staples will be released in early September, and both companies will begin marketing pushes.
Crest and Staples have another recent advertising tactic in common: Both introduced products last year on the NBC show, The Apprentice. Crest introduced its vanilla mint whitening expressions flavor last fall during the show, and Staples executives appeared on an episode in April to judge the inventions of contestants. Staples had the winning invention -- the desk apprentice, a desktop storage container for office supplies -- on store shelves the day after the show appeared. Staples also featured a video game about the desk apprentice on its Web site.
Procter & Gamble has run Web promotions for several other brands as well. For instance, Secret's secret sparkle deodorant line features downloadable instant message icons to decorate consumers' screens and a secret sparkle buddy option, which sends users beauty tips, games and quizzes when they log on their instant messenger screens. Secret sparkle's newly released body spray features a Web log that includes postings by four fictitious characters that represent each body spray scent. Visitors to the site can also post messages there.
CoverGirl, a line of cosmetics also owned by Procter & Gamble, runs a Web site where people can ask beauty questions and receive immediate answers.
But does interactive marketing increase sales?
Executives at Crayola Crayons, a product of the Binney & Smith subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, said sales increased when they held contests to name crayon colors, though they would not say by how much. "If you took the time to submit a name because you really wanted to win this honor, you had to have some kind of connection or like for that color in the first place," said a Crayola spokeswoman, Stacy Gabrielle. The newly named crayons "become a collector's item. People really want them."
Crayola's first naming contest, in 1993, drew 2 million entries. But subsequent contests attracted fewer entries. Last year, a Crayola naming contest had 25,000 submissions.
Eagle of Staples said that the desk apprentice sold out after appearing on the show.
When consumers vote overwhelmingly for a product or participate in its development, it is more likely the new item will sell well, said Michael D'Esopo, a senior partner at Lippincott Mercer, a design and brand identity firm that is a division of Mercer Inc.
A study at the Yale Center for Customer Insights found that people who were told that a product was popular would buy it over a competing product, said Ravi Dhar, a professor of marketing at the Yale School of Management and a director of the center. "Customers say, `Hey, if everyone liked it, it must be good,'" Dhar said. "It shifts people's preferences."
In late June, about halfway through Crest's voting period, word is that lemon ice is in the lead. What if the other two catch up?
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS