Successful decisions of marketers – how non-standard solutions increased company profits

Marketing can hardly be called an easy activity, sometimes complex campaigns end in failures, and simple solutions bring millions. The marketer may not even know what the future holds for his project.

Successful decisions of marketers and out-of-the-box thinking

1. Nivea company and baby dolls with cream. Nivea specializes in cosmetics not only for adults, but also for children. When it was decided to launch a line of sunscreens for children, no one understood how best to present the products to kids. Marketers decided to go in an unusual way, they refused to advertise on TV or on the Internet. It was decided to launch the production of a doll, complete with sunscreen. If the doll was in the sun, it instantly blushed, so it was necessary to use sunscreen. Children liked this game, and parents were happy to take dolls for free, because they were distributed everywhere.
2. Jeep SUVs and round headlights. The first cars under this brand came out with round headlights, but designers and marketers did not pay special attention to this. One of the new models came out with brutal square headlights and immediately sales fell. To raise sales, the automaker invited marketers, and they made an interesting conclusion. Any American who prefers an SUV compares his car to a horse and the Wild West. It is quite difficult to imagine a horse with square eyes. New round headlights once again made Jeep a top seller in a matter of months.
3. Domino’s Pizza brand and the whole truth from customers. Domino’s Pizza marketers decided to launch an interesting advertising campaign; they showed on television the whole truth about what customers think about pizza under this brand. There was a lot of negativity in the advertisement, and against this background, the president of the company admitted that he was very upset with the results and he was ready to improve the situation. All negative reviews were taken into account, and then work was carried out on them to correct them. For several years, the company really coped with all the shortcomings and its shares grew tenfold.
4. Nestle coffee and a link to a familiar taste. In the 70s of the last century, Nestle conquered new markets, once in Japan. Everyone knows that the Japanese are more fond of tea and coffee simply did not have a chance to achieve record sales. The first months of presence in the Japanese market showed that sales could not be increased. The Japanese are ready to drink coffee, but they are not attracted to it due to the lack of association of taste with childhood. In order to “accustom” the Japanese to coffee, Nestle launched delicious coffee-flavored candies for sale throughout Japan. Over the years, children grew up and could no longer deny themselves coffee, a modern Japanese consumes about 2 kilograms of coffee beans annually.
5. IKEA and the increase in size. In the 80s of the last century, IKEA only entered the American market and was not as successful as in Europe. Marketers tried to praise the quality of furniture and products on television and radio, in newspapers and magazines, but this did not bring the desired results. A small study showed that Americans, unlike Europeans, love big and spacious houses. Products from IKEA were small for such spaces, it was decided to increase the size and marketers did not fail, this allowed a sharp increase in sales.
6. Football player Pele wearing Puma sneakers. The company that produces sneakers decided to advertise their products to the whole world in an extraordinary way. Marketers asked a famous footballer to tie his shoelaces on the field during the Brazil-Peru match (1970). As a result, all the TV cameras rushed to Pele, who for a few seconds tied the laces on his Puma sneakers. Few people know how much the football player received for such advertising, there were rumors that it was only 25 thousand dollars.
7. Nylon stockings on Swedish television. The first novelty in the form of nylon stockings appeared in Sweden in the early spring of 1962. Women were in no hurry to buy, although marketers of various levels tried to glorify the product. To help the manufacturers of nylon stockings decided to marketers from television. They released an interesting program in which the specialist said that the TV can easily turn from black and white to color, just pull nylon of different shades onto the screen. Naturally, tights were available nylon, which were instantly sold out in all stores. Few people noticed that the program was released on April 1 and the TV management wrote off the program as a joke, and the women had no choice but to wear already bought tights.
8. Milky Way bar and milk. In order for a product to become recognizable, it is important to come up with something special, and this is what experts have done to develop an advertisement for the Milky Way chocolate bar. It was decided to show that the bar does not sink in milk and it became a viral advertisement, many remembered the frames from the TV screens and took a chocolate bar. But whether or not a bar sinks in milk, no one has experienced or even thought about it.
9. Chips Lay’s with new packaging. Marketers at the crisps company have been thinking for a long time about how to change the packaging and make the product more attractive to adults. It was decided to use full-size photographs of faces that were only half-sized on the package. The effect was expected, users began to substitute their faces as the missing part. Funny pictures began to appear on social networks and instantly captured the adult generation.
10. Famous Old Spice gel for men and creative actor. The company launched the production of men’s shower gel in the early 2000s, if at first the products still had some success, after a couple of years they began to forget about it. Marketers studied the problem and came to the conclusion that almost half of shower gel buyers are women who choose a product for their man. In 2010, a new advertisement appeared: a rather handsome man with pumped up muscles advertises a gel, which women clearly liked. As a result, almost two hundred videos with a creative actor were shot and Old Spice gained great popularity all over the world.
11. Burger King chain and strange likes on Twitter. In 2019, Burger King’s official Twitter account unexpectedly started liking old posts. Many users were surprised by this turn of events, because the posts were almost ten years old. The company decided not to intrigue its fans and shared that the action is timed to coincide with the return of a dish that was popular in the past. It is not surprising that the news went viral, it was discussed everywhere and this allowed to increase the rating, as well as attract new customers.
12. Women’s pads and a mysterious name. At the beginning of the last century, it was indecent to talk about critical days for women. But there were already manufacturers offering sanitary pads, and no one knew how to advertise them. Kimberly-Clark decided to change the name “pad” to something unusual in the form of “Kotex”. It was a good decision, men did not know what “Kotex” was, but women understood this very well. As a result, the word became mysterious among American men, it was rumored that none of the women shared the secret.

Advertising campaigns are thought out by experts, but it is not a fact that only projects from eminent and well-known marketers are successful. Sometimes even novice professionals can come up with a very successful campaign thanks to out-of-the-box thinking.

Vladyslava Rykova

Expert in legal marketing. Head of marketing agency MAVR.

Business degree “Master of Business Administration” (MBA).