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Old Spice + Walmart = Epic Marketing Failure

November 22, 2011 by Joe 2 Comments

Sometimes I see something while I’m walking through the store and it makes me stop in my tracks, do a double take, and wonder to myself, “Wait… what was that?!” A few days ago when I was walking through the local Walmart I had one of these moments, though I admit the reaction was delayed by a few seconds. Take a look at this picture and try to figure out what the problem is here:

Take a look at that picture - something ain't right about this "value..."

Did you pick up on the problem with this “value” that they’re promoting? No? Go ahead, take another look.

You may notice that buying one stick of Old Spice Fiji antiperspirant deodorant will cost you $3.97. If you wear Old Spice deodorants (and I do), then you know that this is the general going rate for the antiperspirant version of the product. But wait! Look! Right next to the $3.97 stick of Old Spice Fiji is a TWO PACK of Old Spice Fiji for just $7.97! Awesome! What a deal! What great value!

Wait a minute…

Let’s go back to basic, elementary school math for a moment. If one stick costs $3.97 and two sticks cost $7.97, which deal costs less per stick? Hmmm… well one stick costs $3.97 – we know that already. Now if two sticks costs $7.97 then we’d have to divide that amount by two, which would give us $3.98 (and a half cent) per stick. Well, that doesn’t make any sense does it? Aren’t we supposed to be getting a better “value” for the two sticks? This math seems like the consumer has to pay more by getting the special “value” offered at the friendly, neighborhood Walmart.

Can’t be right. Let’s try this another way.

So we know that one stick of the deodorant costs $3.97, but let’s say that I wanted to leave Walmart with two sticks of the product. Well, this one seems simple enough right? Just grab the special “value” and go about my business. Or… wait a moment here… if I can get one stick for $3.97, then what if I bought two of those one sticks? That would be $3.97 + $3.97 = $7.94 for the two sticks.

Do you hear that, Walmart and Old Spice? Your special “value” costs 3 cents more than simply picking up two of the same product! Come on, guys! Get with the program already! How could someone let this slip through the cracks?

And I know what some folks out there on the interwebs would be thinking after reading this; they’d think, “Calm down, Joe. It’s just a simple oversight that will probably get fixed in a matter of days.” Well, that’s true, but what bothers me in this situation is the marketing team at Old Spice. Simply put – these guys are pushing the Fiji flavor of their body wash, deodorant, and body spray more than I’ve ever seen them promote anything else. I mean, take a look at the front page of their website:

Trying to push a failing flavor much? Give it up already.

How many times can they slap that wretched Fiji stench on their website before it becomes ridiculous? It’s even worse in the stores. Every Christmas box set that I see from Old Spice in Wegmans or Walmart is jam packed with the Fiji flavor. Not the Komodo flavor or the Denali flavor or the Cyprus flavor; not even my personal favorite flavor – Matterhorn. Nope, all you get from Old Spice this holiday season is Fiji.

And I think I know why they’re promoting this flavor so much – it’s just not that good.

It’s not. When you smell the Fiji flavor something just smells wrong about it. There’s the wrong mixture of… I don’t even know. Sweetness and a biting stench are the only two adjectives that I can think of to describe the smell. It’s just not that good.

So here’s hoping that the folks at Walmart and/or Old Spice catch this mistake in their pricing model and fix it before they look even dumber than they look already. And here’s also hoping that Old Spice will stop trying to push a stench that the people have clearly rejected. If they were putting Matterhorn or Komodo (or any other flavor) out there in these box sets, they’d all be sold already. But no. Instead, we get Fiji.

Gross.

Filed Under: Funny People, Jokes & Humor Tagged With: marketing, Old Spice, Walmart

ShopRite Partners in Caring Fights Hunger

August 10, 2009 by Joe 2 Comments

More than 36 million Americans go to bed hungry every night – 12 million of them are children. They could be your neighbors, people you know in the community or maybe somebody you said “hello” to this morning. ShopRite is committed to making a difference in the lives of its neighbors. That’s why ShopRite Partners In Caring dollars ultimately service a variety of organizations with feeding capabilities including emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, child care centers, battered women’s shelters, senior programs, drug rehab centers, programs for the mentally and physically disabled, after school programs and other organizations that support those in need in ShopRite communities.

Every time a customer purchases products with the ShopRite Partners In Caring shelf tag, they support the brands that support the fight against hunger. At ShopRite, customers are not just filling a grocery bag; they are helping to fill empty bowls for thousands of hungry families in your community.

ShopRite Partners In Caring is the Recipient of the Following Awards – among others:

  • Good Neighbor Award – Food Marketing Institute (FMI)
  • Retailer of the Year Award – America’s Second Harvest/Feeding America
  • Outstanding Achievement Award – Hudson Valley Food Bank
  • Crystal Toque Award – Philadelphia and South Jersey
  • Outstanding Spirit Award – Monmouth and Ocean County Food Bank
  • Connecticut Food Bank – Bill Liddell Award
  • Corporate Excellence Award – Food Bank for New York City

Companies that have joined ShopRite in the fight against hunger are marked in stores with the ShopRite Partners In Caring shelf label. By choosing these products, ShopRite customers support manufacturers who contribute to the program.

Each of the 217 ShopRite stores in the six states that ShopRite serves (New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland) selects qualified local organizations to benefit from the program. These local food charities use their designated funds to acquire supplies at a food bank.

Today, the ShopRite Partners In Caring program supports 23 regional food banks and more than 1,400 charitable agencies with food or meal components. With a $2 million annual donation, more than $20 million has been donated since 1999 in the fight against hunger.

For more on the program, visit www.ShopRitePartnersInCaring.org.

Filed Under: The State of New Jersey Tagged With: Bill Liddell, Connecticut, Delaware, Food, Grocery Store, marketing, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, New York City, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Retailers' cooperatives, ShopRite, ShopRite Partners, Social Issues, USA, www.ShopRitePartnersInCaring.org

In-Movie/Show Commercials

July 7, 2008 by Joe 1 Comment

Is there anything more annoying than a commercial that pops up on the bottom of your television screen while you’re watching a movie or a show? You can see this marketing debacle all over network TV, but the biggest offender these days has got to be TBS and their shameless promotion of the Bill Engvall Show.

Forget about just sitting back and watching an episode of Family Guy any more. The marketing geniuses at TBS actually PAUSE the show to allow Bill Engvall to talk for 15 seconds about his new show. Then the bastards have the unmitigated gall to say, “Back to the show,” before the show unpauses and we get literally 2 seconds of crap before going to commercial. If TBS was ever looking for a way to get their fans to hate them – they found it!

This is a horrible trend and I hope some television executives get a chance to read this post because this BS has to end…now!

Filed Under: Entertainment, Funny People Tagged With: Bastards, Bs, Commercials, Crap, Debacle, Family Guy, marketing, TBS, Television Executives

Slightly Augmented Design for Joe’s Journal

June 2, 2008 by Joe Leave a Comment

By now I’m sure that you’ve all noticed the slightly augmented design for Joe’s Journal. The header is a little bit bigger (and my mug is a bit bigger in the picture above). I have a few more pictures that I want to wedge into the graphic above, but what you see is pretty much what it’s going to look like in the end.

I also darkened the background of the site because I didn’t really care for the bright off-white color any more. It’s boring, you know?

Plus, you’ll notice the stagnant “JerseySmarts.com” 468×80 banner has been moved from right above the first blog entry to the bottom of the main page. That site (which is essentially this blog in a different format) is ranked higher than this blog by some rankings! What total BS! I think that Joe’s Journal is hurt by not having a specific “.com” name, but since joesjournal.com appears to be owned by a marketing company, I think purchasing that domain is out of the question. Anyway, the Google ad above is an adequate replacement and what’s better – it pays!

For those of you who are tech-heads out there, Joe’s Journal is still operated on the WordPress 2.3.3 database system. JerseySmarts.com is operating on the new 2.5.1 system and the internal Control Panel is a complete disaster. The engineers at WordPress ruined the posting page so that you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find certain options. Garbage. I have no intention of changing the Joe’s Journal internal structure until WordPress fixes the debacle that is 2.5.1.

The only other change that I made was to make one of the stock text advertisements at the very bottom of this page a little bit smaller. Truthfully, it looks better with smaller text. I might set it off in it’s own box, too.

I hope you enjoy. 🙂

Filed Under: Random Entries Tagged With: Blog, Debacle, Disaster, Garbage, Google, Intention, JerseySmarts.com, Joe's Journal, marketing, Usable Web Solutions, LLC

The Most Annoying Website Feature Ever

May 27, 2008 by Joe 5 Comments

Is there anything worse than going to a website and having it automatically start blaring some video, jingle, or promotional material at you? A little earlier I was flitting around the internet and I came across some gaming website that automatically started some video promoting a new game and it was the most annoying thing in the world. Why was it annoying? Because the video was loud, obnoxious and paired on the same page as an article that was completely unrelated to the advertisement! So I go to this website to read about emerging technologies from software companies and I get to hear some Japanese-inspired music on a video that isn’t even viewable unless you go all the way down to the bottom of the page? No thanks.

TNAWrestling.com also has this problem. If you head over to their site you immediately get a blaring loud version of their “TNA Today” video or one of Don West’s Insane Deals yelling at you. This is one of the primary reasons why I stay away from that site. Why can’t they just leave the YouTube video there in an “off” position? Are they afraid that I won’t be able to figure out how to push the “play” button? Are they afraid that I won’t push that play button at all? Don’t I have a right to not push that button if, let’s say, I’m on my lunch break at work? Annoying.

And the most aggravating advertisements of all are those ones that say, “Congratulations. You’ve been selected to receive a free Apple iPod.” Bullshit! Those advertisements are total crap. For those of you that don’t know, they are for “freebie” sites where you essentially turn yourself (and whatever digital platform you can offer such as e-mail, blogging, personal site, etc) into a marketing tool for a variety of companies. Once you reach a certain number of people, you get a free iPod sent to you. The catch? You’re marketing services that sometimes cost $1 or $2 for the “trial” period and you need to include your credit card information in the required information. Plus, you need something like 5 or 6 people to sign up underneath you before you can get anything for free. The advertisement should say:

“Congratulations. You’ve been selected to have your identity stolen. We think that you just might be dumb enough to click on this link and give us your credit card information. Oh, free Apple iPod.”

Morons. To all website designers and developers out there – STOP this crap! Do NOT have automatic videos playing, do NOT put up advertisements that talk to the web surfer, and do NOT put up your own promotional propaganda and set it to auto-play. It’s incredibly annoying!

Filed Under: Computers, Internet, & Technology, Funny People Tagged With: Annoying Thing, Apple Ipod, Credit, Don West, E-Mail, Lunch Break, marketing, New Game

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