Marketing Trends: Our product is boring, but aren’t these piglets cute?

Written by: Michael Keferl on April 14, 2007 at 5:02 pm | In MARKETING IDEAS |

If you’re going to set up a marketing campaign on the sidewalk in Tokyo, you’d better come to the table with something that catches people’s attention or they’ll walk right on by without even a glance. This means going beyond just handing out packets of tissues, and connecting with the psyche of your market. In Japan, it means being cute, especially if you’re selling to women. On our way home from our interview with CNN, we witnessed this promotion in bustling Harajuku for “Turbo Cell” , a cheap and boring-looking product that instantly becomes cute with the presence of piglets.

Scores of people stopped to play with the pigs and, in the process, were exposed to the ads on their cute little t-shirts and then felt obliged to accept a flier from the promoters. Since everyone was taking photos on their mobiles, the ads will eventually make their way to friends and family as well.

While the connection between some kind of weight-control product and pigs eludes us at the moment, it doesn’t matter because those piglets are so adorable we didn’t even bother to find out what “Turbo Cell” actually does. More than a few onlookers uttered gasps of disbelief when we remarked on how tender and delicious they looked.

Tags: Campaigns, Marketing
Category: MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS