Filed under: General Electric (GE), Coca-Cola (KO), Marketing and advertising, China, McDonald’s (MCD), Business of sports

Is it the thrill of victory to hear the sound of one hand clapping?

Advertisers who paid massive bucks for Olympics sponsorships are wondering the same thing. According to the Wall Street Journal, companies are angry that access to the Olympic Green, which is the main focal point of most games, has been “strictly limited” to people with hard-to-get tickets to the venues.

“A small line of people stood outside the The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) exhibit, where dry ice and the sound of gurgling soda pop drifted out,” the paper stated. “Meanwhile, a giant restaurant erected by McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) at the end of the Green has been far from packed.”

This, of course, could be a large disaster for the International Olympic Committee, which counts on corporate funding to fund the games. This could also injured television advertising by General Electric Company (NYSE: GE)’s NBC Universal division, because televised shots of half-empty stadiums might make whatever sporting event they’re showing seem lame.

Overall, though, the games are attracting large audiences worldwide because of compelling stories such as swimmer Michael Phelps’ quest for Olympic immortality. It will be interesting to see if the viewership trails off once the swimming competition ends.

Advertisers are going to take note of this for when the IOC comes calling for the London games in 2012.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Share This

Share This

Filed under: General Electric (GE), Coca-Cola (KO), Marketing and advertising, China, McDonald’s (MCD), Business of sports

Is it the thrill of victory to hear the sound of one hand clapping?

Advertisers who paid big bucks for Olympics sponsorships are wondering the same thing. According to the Wall Street Journal, companies are angry that access to the Olympic Green, which is the main focal point of most games, has been “strictly limited” to people with hard-to-get tickets to the venues.

“A small line of people stood outside the The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) exhibit, where dry ice and the sound of gurgling soda pop drifted out,” the paper stated. “Meanwhile, a giant restaurant erected by McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) at the end of the Green has been far from packed.”

This, of course, could be a huge disaster for the International Olympic Committee, which counts on corporate funding to fund the games. This could also hurt television advertising by General Electric Company (NYSE: GE)’s NBC Universal division, because televised shots of half-empty stadiums may make whatever sporting event they are showing seem lame.

Overall, though, the games are attracting big audiences worldwide because of compelling stories such as swimmer Michael Phelps’ quest for Olympic immortality. It will be interesting to see if the viewership trails off once the swimming competition ends.

Advertisers are going to take note of this for when the IOC comes calling for the London games in 2012.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising

This post is one in a series on prominent company nicknames. See all 25, and share your thoughts and memories about Four Bucks below in the comments.

As huge multinational corporations go, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) had such possibility. Rooted in the heart of the Pacific Northwest, born of grunge rock and a commitment to really good coffee and a distinct sense of place, embracing the centuries-old European coffeehouse tradition with its literary name, Starbucks, Captain Ahab’s first mate in Moby Dick. The company’s founders were all about the beans, buying them directly from growers in Africa and Central America and roasting the beans themselves.

It was entrepreneurial upstart Howard Schultz who conceived of the strategy of making espressos, coffees, and lattes in the coffee shops and selling them for massive profit margins. And in the 1980s, milk was cheap and coffee was cheaper. I like to envision that, as the company’s founders sat around a cafe table in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, drinking their mellow brew and listening to Schultz’s wild ideas, the others scoffed at the concept of someone paying upwards of three dollars for a latte.

Schultz’s wild ideas became wilder still as Starbucks swiftly expanded and popularized the addition of sticky-sweet flavored syrups in coffee drinks. With the additions came upcharges and soon just about every beverage could be configured so it would cost over $4.00. My drink of choice in the late 1990s, a grande caramel latte with whipped cream, would just skim under the $4.00 mark and the rest was tip. By the late ’90s, Starbucks was everywhere and “Four Bucks” became one of the favorite nicknames (along with the more insulting “Starsucks” and, well, you know). As a trend marketing specialist said in a USA Today article, “We live in a society where people think $5 is $1 because of Starbucks” and the company’s confusing sizes (tall = small?).

So does that mean the moniker should be One Buck? Five Bucks? Either way, with declining same-store sales and the constant search for just the right complementary product mix, it’s obvious the company would rather the average customer ticket be more like 12 bucks. In the future of coffee, Four Bucks may be a screaming good deal.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Consumer experience, TV, General Electric (GE), Marketing and advertising

This post is one in a series on prominent company nicknames. See all 25, and share your thoughts and memories about the Peacock Network below in the comments.

Perhaps more visually recognizable than any other television symbol this day, NBC’s colorful peacock logo and nickname encompass far more depth and history than simply having been a tool of recognition for NBC Television, subsidiary of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE). Beyond simply identifying network programs in the age when NBC and CBS began applying the color palette to broadcast TV, NBC’s peacock was charged with the awesome task of informing and convincing the parents of the baby boomer generation that color television had arrived, it was good, and they wanted it. The peacock was assigned the monumental task of engaging the public. Indeed, it has performed that job to perfection.

I grew up fully addicted to television, and NBC’s peacock long heralded the appearance of many of my favorite shows. Bonanza, NBC’s first serious success in color broadcast TV, was a weekly treat for me, as it was for millions of other enchanted TV viewers. Accordingly, by the time color television promotion had begun to move consumers to purchase the new color television sets, which sold for approximately $1,000 initially, the NBC peacock, which had begun its glorious life as a simple static image, learned how to fan its tail feathers in a motion indicative of the sweeping changes the television age would come to initiate.

Until man orbited the earth, television was perhaps the single greatest technological achievement since Henry Ford had put automobiles into mass production. Since the coming of color television in 1956, the NBC peacock has been a television communications fixture, and NBC television is respectfully referred to as “The Peacock Network” by people and publications throughout the industry. It can be stated that very few other company logos have stood as representative for changes that have affected so many people, so very deeply, for such a long time.

Share This

Share This