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What You Can Learn From Ketchup & Microchips

Imb_intellogo In 1991 Intel did something that changed the marketing world forever. Realizing that as a microchip maker, it would be very difficult to advertise their products to end consumers who were buying a machine and not a chip, Intel created a co-op marketing program. The premise of it was simple and brilliant. Instead of spending their marketing budget on their own ads, they would build something akin to a sponsorship model where they would offer cobranded marketing funds to their partners if those partners would feature Intel’s brand and messaging in their ads. Thus the distinctive Intel four note chime and "Intel Inside" program was born [click here to read a full case study].

Imb_heinz1 It’s been nearly three decades and surprisingly few other brands have taken this strategy to heart. Recently, however, I saw an intriguing ad for a fast food chain, where alongside the photograph of the fictionally juicy burger, there was a small branded plug for Heinz ketchup. "Ketchup Inside," so to speak. Unless you happen to fit into a category like my brother, or Kaitlyn, chances are you don’t consider ketchup a food group to be eaten alone. Ketchup goes with food, and it goes perfectly with some foods. Who would eat fries or a burger without ketchup?  Ketchup, like Intel, can be considered an ingredient brand.

Many of us tend to focus our marketing efforts solely on situations or messages where our brand is positioned as the hero. Sometimes it’s a much better marketing strategy to sell your product or service based on the things that it goes with. The legendary "Got Milk?" campaign realized this, and it led to some of their most popular ads like the guy with peanut butter stuck to his mouth or the one with the other kid with a face full of cookies and no milk. Sometimes the best strategy you can have isn’t to just promote what you’re selling, but to focus on what your customers use it with.

6 thoughts on “What You Can Learn From Ketchup & Microchips”

  1. I prefer simple over all the marketing and in your face brands. I like the Discovery Channel commercials where they sing the song “I love the Mountains” and show viewers small snapshots from a lot of the interesting shows on Discovery channel ending with the logo. If they talked during the commercial or kept telling me how much I should their new programs, wouldn’t be nearly as effective to me.

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  2. Seems that Intel-like co-branding is much more common in B2B co-op marketing. While it’s not terribly common in B2C marketing, it is common online and, as outlined above, on the station logo. Online it often takes the form of a utility w/in a mashup like the YouTube video widget, the Google maps widget and, increasingly, the Facebook Connect widget.

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  3. Marketing and brand appeal encompasses more then just screaming at consumers to buy your brand. You make an excellent point that understanding your customers, their needs, and brand “use” when marketing is an effective way to reach consumers. It’s all about customer experience and how to wrap your brand in it. I would love your thoughts on some of our findings at http://www.iccds.com/customerexperience360.

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  4. “Sometimes the best strategy you can have isn’t to just promote what you’re selling, but to focus on what your customers use it with.”

    An excellent point! “Ingredients” also doesn’t have to be taken literally. It could be a feeling or an effect of a product or brand. For example an ad for a dating site showing a happy couple with something like: Happy. Found with eHarmony.

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  5. I am placing this comment because I have read a lot of articles online and yours was one of the best and most informative I have read in a while. Thank you! Hardaway Press 7 Surefire Ways To Increase Your Traffic Starting Yesterday Internet. Business. Profit. To fully integrate all of these words into a successful merging you will need another word. Traffic. Every article you will find about making your site or company successful would always include the importance of generating traffic. So, we all know that in the core of it all, traffic is the most essential thing to a successful internet based business company. Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell, and you have your company’s internal organization well taken core of, it would be time to get to the nitty gritty of things, generating traffic. If you already have a site and you want think that you’re not getting the traffic that you’re supposed to be getting, then its time to reconsider. If you are contending in these very competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your competition, increasing your traffic flow should have been done starting yesterday. Timing is essential, that’s an old adage known to everyone. But with generating traffic, you should always be on your toes and be a day ahead of everyone. Never think of today and tomorrow as a starting point for making your site traffic laden, it should always have been yesterday. To help you out in generating more traffic for your site, here are some seven surefire ways to increase your traffic starting from yesterday. 1) Invest in good advertising with search engines Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture provide great advertising schemes that are very truly popular and assures great traffic. Although with this surefire way to increase your traffic would cost some money. While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords and Overture is the top surefire way to increase your traffic. You could see for yourself the success this search engine advertising methods have reaped rewards for so many companies. Lots of site feature these advertising system and many have signed on to reap the benefits. Do not be left behind. Every penny is worth it with using Google and Yahoo’s advertising. 2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites With exchanging links with other sites, both of you will benefit from the efforts both of you do to enhance your sites traffic. When one site features another sites link, they could provide one another with the traffic one site generates. The efforts are doubly beneficial because it would seem like both of you are working to generate more traffic. The more links traded with more sites the more traffic could be expected. 3) Use Viral Marketing Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your company and product without any costs or if ever low costs only. This is a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your company’s name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass it on to many people. 4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your sites content Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a high requirement in ranking in high in search engine results. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you. 5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your sites description and services at the end of the article as well as the link. 6) Join forums and form online communities Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you found a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass on to many people their trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need. 7) Lastly, Offer newsletters. If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic by recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be pushed to help you with your traffic. –Hardaway Press

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