Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Guerillas Needed!

Posted by Anonymous on 10/10/2008 at 3:10 PM ET 250 Points
My company develops, manufactures and sells Digital Picture Frames. The category has been mostly a seasonal item and has not broken through as a mainstream item even with the entry of Kodak, Sony and other big names.

My company is a 2nd tier brand which is as good, if not better then top tier brands at lower ASPs. We focus more on customer experience, quality and ease-of-use.

MY QUESTION:
I need ideas for a guerrilla strategy or tactic to build the brand and become more then just "the affordable choice" on the counter (we have great distribution). We are a smaller company and cannot afford the budgets of the other guys. We currently have solid PR and can be found easily on the web with good-to-great reviews.

I feel this category is on or two marketing campaigns away from really taking off given the price-points we are seeing in the marketplace today.

Any ideas?
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 10/10/2008 at 6:09 PM Member
    What's the price point of the product? Can you basically offer a very inexpensive frame that only holds a few pictures at a time, and then a product line that holds more (and offers audio, or has a built-in clock, etc.)? If so, you're more than the affordable choice - you can basically give your low-end frame away with every digital camera purchased. You want people to get used to the concept, and want to upgrade to something more useful. The "freebie" would be a great gift to give to one's relatives and can become an impulse purchase, especially around holidays.
  • Posted on 10/11/2008 at 7:18 AM Accepted
    Two suggestions:

    *Hook up with the fan club for a celebrity (musical, actor, etc.) popular with young women. The fan club sells (or gives away to contest winners) your frames pre-loaded with photos of the celebrity. I can see this being very popular, depending on the celebrity in question and his/her longevity.

    *Make a deal with a restaurant chain to put some of your frames on tables in their locations. The frames would cycle through "photos" of different categories of the food they sell, serving as an electronic menu. For instance, one frame would list the different burgers available, say, while another would list breakfast items. The last frame would have information about where to buy your frames. Obviously, the frame would be set to cycle slowly to allow for reading.

    Bob Pagani
    [Email address deleted by staff]
  • Posted on 10/13/2008 at 12:33 AM Accepted
    STOP CALLING IT DIGITAL PICTURE FRAME! BIG MISTAKE!

    Sadly this category has become a Paper clip product, the prices are perceived as high with substitutes in the form of picture frames. The market survives on the gifting reasons and seasons and remains away from being a must have product like ipods.

    Can the campaign say:
    1. Watch movies/ videos on the screen
    2. Teach kids interaction
    3. Built-in touch screen
    4. Clock/temperature gauge built-in.
    5. All required accessories available
    6. Can it have post-it!'s
    7. Can it stick on a refrigerator
    8. Does this have Google desktop built in
    9. Can you assign information to photographs like birthday reminders, messages etc.
    10. Does it play music while scrolling!

    Keep building and pressurizing the Chinese to add features that interest a larger segment of the population. Community ads and print ads will have to be initiated as well.
  • Posted on 10/13/2008 at 2:38 AM Member
    "SAD DAYS ARE MADE BETTER BY GOOD MEMORIES". help them remain happy with memories and also help users discover different things they can do with your product (tearing pictures when needed! and Voodoo as well!). ipods were never technical to start with.

    Select emotional parameters over technical parameters, though this method would help other suppliers as well but you gain as well. Choose wisely your delivery module for ads otherwise it may get lost in the milky way.
  • Posted on 10/13/2008 at 3:13 AM Member
    I like the way you think, brandmgl.

    Bob Pagani
  • Posted on 10/13/2008 at 11:57 AM Accepted
    Try approaching Snapfish or some of its competitors to see if you can advertise on their site, or try promotional partnership programs.
  • Posted by steven.alker on 10/15/2008 at 7:03 AM Member
    Ahh, better late than never, even if I miss the points – that is if the idea’s any good!

    I read with interest HP’s less than awesome response to their conventional launch of the HDX Dragon Laptop – a features rich up-market machine.

    To counter this flop, they released 31 HDX Dragons to 31 well known bloggers in their target arena with the offer to allow them to review it and then give a way an HDX Dragon over a 1 week contest. They launched essentially 31 blog inspired contests to win one which centred on people getting involved in what the HDX might do for them.

    Of course, the campaign took a life of its own and they claimed “380,000 links to these blogs and a 49,000,000 reader “reach”. Sales shot up on the product and for all HP products.

    The stats are on:

    https://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2008/09/blogger-campaign-case-study-...

    Would it be possible to specify your USP’s with crystal clarity and ask the relevant blogging communities to do something similar?

    This particular campaign has been rather poorly reported in marketing circles, but that won’t remain the case for much longer. If this is relevant and useful to you now, you could get traction from a recent success story (Broken on MP’s for the first time last week, I believe) before the herds arrive.

    Just an idea, as this area is not my specialism!

    Steve Alker
    Xspirt
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Advertising/PR)