Power Is Nothing Without Control and nudity
December 24th 2011 01:18
Link: www.theprofitfrog.com
Pirelli - Porn Protagonist or Marketing Maestro?
It depends on your personal views and your moral compass, I guess.
Recently, "The Pirelli Calendar Saga" aired on SBS television and watching it was surprising, provoking and educational.
http://tinyurl.com/7eedoo8 - link to some recent Pirelli images, featuring Miranda Kerr and Daisy Lowe.
Surprising, because I don't possess the need to oggle (near)naked women in calendar poses, so I had no idea the number of well-known celebrity women who had "graced" the pages of Pirelli calendars since the 60s.
Naomi Campbell, Miranda Kerr, Kate Moss, Heidi Klum to name but a few top models whose bare derrieres and unfettered breasts have been captured in highest quality photography.
Provoking, because some of the images and poses I found hardly tasteful or dignified. Some were no better - in my moral opinion - than slutty sex imitation where phalic symbols were so obvious there was no need to interpret the message. Or where man's fantasies of two-somes or more were tantalisingly played out.
One of the photographers who was interviewed, Terry Richardson, tried the stale claim that "we are all born naked, there is nothing wrong with nude photography" (bla bla bla). What posed a challenge for me was his lack of understanding for the concept of sexualisation, debasing women to little more than objects of man's need to gain sexual power over women.
Educational, because from a marketing point of view, Pirelli - the company - has managed to turn a tired (sorry, forgive the pun) and sad concept of "girlie calendar" into a multi-million dollar institution, an iconic brand with high-end association. The bodies that appear in these calendars are not unknown pretty girls; they are some of the highest paid models and celebrities in the world.
Beyond that, Pirelli commissions some of the very best photographers across the globe to capture the essence of Pirelli, and in the 40 years that the calendars have been produced, the budget for their production has risen from a mere $10,000.00 equivalent to recent estimates of $1.5-2M.
The marketing manager stated that this million dollar expense brings a ROI (return on investment) around 60-80 fold. That is up to $160M generated from a 12 month calendar!
Whatever your moral viewpoint, and whether the individual photographers produce more porn than glamorous art, the one sure thing is that Pirelli calendars are an iconic branding exercise that demonstrate how any business - even one that sells tyres - can create an exclusive product that teases and stirs the eager customer and in this instance, makes him desperately wait for the new year so he can fantasize over some of the sexiest women in the world for the next 12 months.
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @TheProfitFrog
What can you learn from Pirelli to apply to your next marketing initiative?
1) Identify your client base. Know exactly who they are.
If you don't have stats or information to hand to identify them, then start undertaking surveys and build a picture of your most profitable clients and those who could become the most profitable.
2) Find out their basic needs. Know exactly what they desire.
Whatever you sell, whatever your business, you need to understand what urges and wants motivate your customer. Examine their purchase habits. Study what they buy most often from your business. ASK them - directly through conversation or indirectly through surveys and other marketing techniques - why they buy what they do, and what need the purchase fulfils.
3) Examine and Analyse the information. Learn exactly who desires what.
Depending on what you sell, you'll generally have a mix of customers who have a variety of purchasing habits and needs. BUT on closer examination you may just find that certain customers react to some things, and buy a select range of products or services, while others have different needs and corresponding buying habits.
Once you start to identify which customers have which tastes, desires, needs, you can start to tailor your marketing initiatives to tap into their buying patterns.
4) Target the most profitable. Know exactly who spends the most on what product, and when.
With your research complete for now, you can find the customers who will most likely make the most purchases, who have shown the most loyalty, and who will likely respond to select marketing. Once you have this list of customers, you can start developing and defining the approach you'll take - your own "Pirelli Calendar" branding exercise. Then work on the timing of the branding - hit the hot purchasing spot at the right time.
5) Create the product to capture your customers' attention. Know exactly the best branding and marketing approach to fit your business image and customer profile.
You know your customers, the ones who spend the most and why. So, now you need to show them some love... demonstrate to them that you understand their needs, their wants, their desires, and you want to do the one thing that Pirelli has done for the last 40 years - offer exclusivity to your customers and bring them into your fold as VIP customers who deserve special acknowledgement.
Pirelli creates only about 20,000 calendar prints each year and sells them to the distributors for $40 a piece who then give them away to their customers.
These calendars are NOT mass-produced, and few people ever get to own an original in the year it is printed.
You can create the same exclusivity, and fulfil the same deep needs of customers simply by following and implementing the same or similar strategies as Pirelli has done.
Be exclusive, appear expensive (or within the high budget range for your customer), tap into deeper desires and urges, and offer a branded product as a marketing initiative and reward to your best customers. Make it known to all customers that you have an exclusive club with members receiving distinct rewards that only certain customers can access. Make it desirable, something that would motivate your customers to want to be in that exclusive club, receiving that elite reward.
Make it affordable but hard to get. Build the reputation of your club and focus on the iconic status you're developing for your business.
Need help?
Ask the Profit Frog today - www.theprofitfrog.com
| 8 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
