June 19, 2006 Comments
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I blogged last week about the viral video of a Mentos and Diet Coke fountain that's buzzing its way around the net. Since then, I've found it interesting to read the responses from some of the representatives of each company. The Mentos folks are thrilled and are doing everything they can to harness the buzz and make it work for them, the Diet Coke folks on the other hand...well, they're just not sure the video fits with the type of image that they'd like to portray. (insert eye rolling here...)
From The Cincinnati Enquirer...
"In the simplest words, we're delighted by it," says Pete Healy, the company's vice president of marketing. "The Mentos brand is something that we want consumers to have fun with."
Perfettie Van Melle hasn't investigated whether the experiments have caused a spike in Mentos sales, but Healy hopes to make some new Mentos fans as a result.
Does he mind if people buy Mentos only to dump them in bottles of Diet Coke?
"If they're going to buy a roll to drop into some soda, we'd like them to buy a second roll to just enjoy eating," Healy says.
From ABC News...
Mentos' advertising budget is usually $20 million a year, and company officials estimate they've gotten at least $10 million in free name recognition.
Diet Coke on the other hand had this to say in a Wall Street Journal article...
Coca-Cola Co. is much more blase. "It's an entertaining phenomenon," said Coke spokeswoman Susan McDermott. "We would hope people want to drink (Diet Coke) more than try experiments with it." Coke could use some extra buzz right now. Sales volume of Diet Coke in the U.S. was essentially flat last year, as consumers switch from diet sodas to bottled water and other noncarbonated drinks. But McDermott says that the "craziness with Mentos ... doesn't fit with the brand personality" of Diet Coke.
I can picture the internal meetings and the brand manager saying something like this... "Heavens no...we wouldn't want to take advantage of free publicity that makes our product look cool to one of the largest soda-drinking demographics in the world. Let's stick with what we've got and try to distances ourselves from this one boys..."
Some people will NEVER get it.
Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.
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