Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC

FUN FACTS

Questions Answered

1. Would you like to smell like a star?

   The list of celebrities fronting fragrances grows longer, including Britney Spears, with two scents, “Curious” and “Fantasy;” Sarah Jessica Parker, with “Lovely;” Derek Jeter, with “Driven;” Hilary Duff. with “With Love;”  Paris Hilton, with three scents, including “Heiress;” Sean Combs, with “Unforgivable;” and Jennifer Lopez, with scents that include “Glow”, “Live” and “Still.” And those fragrances join shelves crowded with previous star-inspired scents like Elizabeth Taylor's “White Diamonds” and “Passion;” fragrances that invoke multiple stars like Desperate Housewives “Forbidden Fruit”, which features in its ads the five principal actresses of "Desperate Housewives;" and fragrances that use celebrities as endorsers in their campaigns, which include “Chanel No. 5” (Nicole Kidman), “Very Irresistible” (Liv Tyler) and “Dior J'adore” (Charlize Theron). In the retail marketplace and during gift buying holidays, it’s not easy standing out amid all of the clutter, is it?

2. How much of our lives watching, going, listening or reading media?

   Americans love their media — so much that next year they'll spend nearly half their lives watching TV, going online, listening to the radio (or music) and reading. That's from the U.S. Census Bureau’s "Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007. Americans will spend 3,518 hours in ’07. In 2000, Americans spent 3,334 hours consuming media — and most of that time (1,467 hours) was spent in front of the TV. During 2007, Americans will spend 3,518 hours with their beloved media, including 1,555 hours in front of the TV. That means the average American will spend roughly 146 days, or five months, consuming media. However, the numbers don't mean we're just sitting in front of our machines; we're multitasking.

3. Tired of waiting in line at the store?

   Grocery store lines irk customers. About 25% of people polled in an AP-IPSOS survey said the grocery checkout line tested their patience more than any other location, including the DMV or the post office. But retailers can help calm shopper frustration by changing how they wait, even if they can’t change how long they wait, according to one expert. Wal-Mart has added TV sets and special programming. So have other stores. Some segments do not obey the ten items or under lines. CNN 6/2006

4. What’s the Official Beer of the Super Bowl XLI through XLVI?

   Anheuser-Busch makes deal for Super Bowl through 2012 Anheuser-Busch will be the exclusive alcohol advertiser for the Super Bowl through at least 2012 in deals made with NBC, CBS and Fox – each will air the famous football championship in alternating years.

   
   
5. Waiting in a store line, who is more impatient? Men or Women? Young or Old? Richer or Poorer?

   A new survey on Impatient Americans reveals that on average, women are willing to wait 18 minutes on line at a store before losing their patience, while men lose their cool after only 15 minutes. Younger people are more patient than older people, richer people are more patient than poorer people, and suburbanites are more patient than city dwellers. Associated Press 6/12/06

6. Are you what you drive?

   Yes, and here’s more to think about in marketing and advertising.   A company cannot serve all customers in a broad market. Don’t buy market share with more and more advertising or discounting against the competition. Figure out how to earn market share. Better research, planning---win market share. The company needs to identify the market segments that it can serve more effectively.  Many companies are embracing target marketing. Distinguish major segments, target one or more and develop products and marketing mixes tailored to them. Rifle shots versus “shotgun” approach. The stronger your brand image is the better off you are. Ever since the infamous Dodge La Femme of the 1950s, auto engineers have been trying to create car models that specifically appeal to women drivers. According to an informal survey by the Detroit Free Press, women want what men want in a car: quality, safety, convenience and comfort. Oh, and they also want it to be “nail-friendly.”   (11/17/05) Men and Women: 99% of Ferrari owners are male; 69% of all VW Cabriolets are purchased by women; and 94% of all Dodge Vipers and Porsches. Ferrari drivers are: 99% male; aged 45-50 years of age—down from late 50’s; 65% are repeat buyers; 20% own more than one; 60% own a private jet and 20% own a power boat;  Buyers spend $25K to customized car. (AdAge 2/06) You may be able to accurately predict someone’s ride from their face and body posture, according to a new survey by psychologists at Julius-Maximilians University in Wurzburg, Germany. The study found that participants could correctly link photographs of male and female drivers to their cars nearly 70% of the time. NY Times 06/13/2006

7. How many millions can you squander on a luxury brand, such as POLO jeans from Ralph Lauren?

   About $355 million. Ralph Lauren the preppy-clothing purveyor paid that nine-figure sum in February ’06 to buy back his Polo Jeans brand from licensee Jones Apparel Group, and four months later said it is discontinuing it in the United States. Marketing lessons learned: Control distribution and price to maintain a luxury brand.

8. How easy is it to come up with a character? How about Mr. Peanut?

   In 1916, a 14-year-old boy from Virginia creates Mr. Peanut as an entry into a Planters-sponsored trademark contest. The agency and client keep Mr. Peanut alive.

9. How much was the commercial artist who designed the Smiley Face paid?

   Harvey Ball invented the Smiley Face in 1963 and was paid $45 for his design and he never trademarked it. By the way, the famous Nike swoosh was sold for $35.

10. In a study of high-performance executives, the Forum Corp. found that the key factor in their success was:

    It's not intelligence, or sense of adventure. Not degrees, IQ, or even skills. It's Attitude. Look for innovative solutions to problems.

11. A 30-second spot in the 2007 Super Bowl XLI (2/4/2007) is priced at $_______.

    $2.5 to $2.6 Million. The price tag for a 30-second spot in Super Bowl XL was about the same, at $2.5 Million, in 2006. In 2005, it was $2.4 million. Asking price was $3.1 Million. $86,667 a second. Our country's highest-profile advertising showcase, with 90.7 million households staying glued to their screens and not using TiVo during the ads. Marketers get a huge audience, but they also face high expectations especially when the audience can judge and be a critic with the click of a mouse. With the high price tag, it’s a lot to spend if the creative is poor or dumb, lacks strategic direction, or just plain awful. The cost of a Super Bowl spot every year has been an annual contest of brinkmanship for the networks, in setting its price. Positions in first half sell first. Anheuser-Busch is the exclusive malt-beverage advertiser for 2007, the 18th year in a row. Advertisers don't seem concerned about any repeat of Janet Jackson's now infamous breast-baring incident, which took place during halftime show in 2004. In 2000, the price started, according to Advertising Age, at $3.2 million. CBS got $2.1 to $2.2 million for each :30 second spot. For Super Bowl XXXVI or #36 in 2001, News Corp.'s Fox floated a price of $2.4 to $2.5 million for a :30 spot. They sold for an average of $1.9 million. With Nextel and Sprint now under the same roof, sports marketing is key to raising brand awareness. Sprint Sponsored 2006 Half Time Show. Halftime sponsorship rights, were valued about $10 million, and were likely part of the $300 million in the “rights fees” portion of Sprint’s NFL deal.

12. What is a marketing mix? What are the 4 P's?
    

    The Marketing Mix is the combination of four elements, called the 4P's: Product Price Promotion Place Every company has the option of adding, subtracting, or modifying in order to create a desired marketing strategy. 9P's: I have added five more P's: Planning, Partners, People (Target Markets), Passion, and Presentation. Creativity in Marketing The Planning Process Product ideas Price Ideas Promotion ideas (all parts) Advertising; Personal Selling/Direct Sales; Direct Marketing, including Internet, and Direct Mail; Sales Promotion and Collateral; PR; Events and Experiences Place Ideas People ideas (defining, redefining or increasing your target) Partner / Alliance Ideas Passion Presentation

    
    
13. How many flavors does Baskin Robbins have?

    More than 1,000 flavors. Trademark list of 31 flavors, but there have been almost 1000 since the company was founded in 1940’s. Eight food technologist each come up with about 20 per year and of those 160 three to four make it in a typical year. They say it’s a fun job and they get to play with food every day.

14. What digital device has been described as:
          "Don't understand it."
          "Most amazing thing ever invented?"
          "It has changed my life."
          "God's machine."

    TiVo. More buzz, than sales. "I've converted. It's my new religion," jokes Lee Goldberg, an L.A.-based television producer who grew up in Walnut Creek. "I was a Jew, but not anymore. I'm now a TiVo." From Sports Illustrated… best invention since Beer, Viagra, Big Bertha, Halle Berry, Barcalounger… 12/22/2003 "With TiVo you can watch an entire nine inning baseball game in the time it deserves…17 minutes.” Sports Illustrated 12/21/2003 Called the most amazing thing ever invented by Rosie O’Donnell From Google “…it has changed my life."

15. Nothin' is on?
    How many channels did Bruce Springsteen sing about in 1992?

    57 Average home has 150, as of 9/2005 Can get 225 on DirecTV, as of 9/2005

16. How many seats are sold to the public for the Super Bowl?

    Only 1,000 tickets for Super Bowl XXXIX were available to the public, according to NFL and Sports Illustrated. The remaining 76K are distributed by teams and local organizing committee. Players and coaches can purchase 15 each. All players from non participating teams are offered two each. Players from participating teams can make $20K.

17. What grade did student, Fred Smith, receive on his 15-page Yale paper proposing a reliable overnight delivery service? Fred Smith went on to found FedEx.

    Student grade of "C". A Yale University management professor Challis A. Hall said, "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C', the idea must be feasible."

18. Dream about the Egg McMuffin you'll have for breakfast tomorrow. In 1970 what time did McDonald's open for breakfast?
    

    McDonald's opened at 10:00 AM, and breakfast wasn't served until the early '70s. Egg McMuffin was invented in Santa Barbara in 1977 and it took Wendy's and Burger King ten years to start a breakfast fare.

19. Leaving for work? Seems crowded? What percentage of workers leave before 7AM? 8AM?

    Before 7AM: 30.5% Before 8AM: 61.3% Midnight to 5:59AM: 11.0% 6AM to 6:58AM 19.5% 7AM to 7:59AM 30.8% 8AM to 8:59AM 16.1% 9AM to 11:59AM 13.7% Sleep. Before the light bulb people got ten hours of sleep a night. Now adults average 6.9 hours a night.

20. What was significant in the hanging of the Matisse’s Le Bateau painting, at the New York Museum of Modern art?

    It was hung upside down for 47 days before anyone noticed.

21. Women bearing fewer children. How does this research affect marketing and advertising?

    Birth Rate dropped to lowest level since records were first kept in 1909. Fewer teen births; Teen births have dropped 30% in past decade. Average age at which American women are having their first child has climbed to record 25.1. In 1970 it was 21.4. The later is good overall for infant health because birth outcomes for teen moms are problematic. Major implications in how families are structured. How communities spend money. How nations finance retirement. America more a society of seniors and less of young people. 13.9 births per 1,000 women ages 15-44. Fewer children: Down 17% from 1990. LA Times In America today, women earn the majority of bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees. And are projected to earn the majority of doctoral degrees in a generation.

22. Think anybody else could possibly get any more spam than you, think of Bill Gates.

    The Microsoft Corp. chairman receives about 4 million pieces of e-mail per day, most of it junk, says Steve Ballmer, the company's chief executive. "There are two people who probably are the No. 1 spam recipients in the world," Ballmer said yesterday. "Bill Gates (is first) because he is Bill Gates." Ballmer did not name the second-most-spammed e-mail account but said he also ranks up there because he hands out his e-mail address - steveb@microsoft.com - whenever he travels or speaks. One of Gates' addresses - billgates@chairman.microsoft.com - appears on the periodic mass mailings he sends to customers, although there's no word on whether he checks that one personally. Thanks to technology developed by Microsoft, Ballmer said, only about 10 junk e-mails make it through to his inbox each day.

23. Are gift cards a good thing?

    What will they think of next?  Every time you go to the market and see those stands that have gift cards for every convenience store or restaurant, do you always think that's it’s an easy gift and easy to buy with your groceries ...... WRONG! Fraud which typically costs its victims between $25 and $500. Just a little warning before gift giving. The crooks have found a way to rob you of your gift card balance. If you buy Gift Cards from a display rack that has various store cards you may become a victim of theft.  Crooks are now jotting down the card numbers in the store and then wait a few days and call to see how much of a balance THEY have on the card. Once they find the card is "activated", they go online and start shopping. You may want to purchase your card from a customer service person, where they do not have the Gift Cards viewable to the public. Please share this with all your family and friends... snopes.com 12/2006