JCOM 2300: Up for some Bathroom Talk?

Proctor& Gamble has announced that the Charmin Restroom, a fully staffed public restroom, will return to Times Square in New York this holiday shopping season but there will be a small twist. Charmin is currently looking for five "brand ambassadors" who will interact with the restroom guests.
A open casting call is being held on Nov. 5th and the five winners will be announced on the restroom's opening day. Charmin's brand manager said that adding "brand ambassadors"is a way to refresh the program and help five people earn a nice seasonal salary of $10,000.
Maybe it will be a hit, or maybe it won't. Either way it just seems a little to weird to me. Usually using the restroom is something I don't put a lot of emphasis on. It's one of those necessary evils that needs to be taken care of. I personally wouldn't want to be greeted and have a conversation with a Charmin "brand ambassador" upon entering or leaving the Charmin restroom. What potential questions might they ask, "How did everything go in there? " or "Did our toilet paper do the job?" I have a feeling that this is going to lead to a wealth of awkward interactions regardless of how sociable each of the "brand ambassadors" are.
Then again stranger things have found success in the world of business. Maybe this will become the next big thing, and businesses everywhere will have bathroom specialists there to greet you and assist you with your bathroom needs. If so, a lot of us will need to become more comfortable with a little bathroom talk.

JCOM 2300: H&R Block

H&R Block has organized and created a program to help High school students across the U.S. learn finance. The cause marketing campaign will focus on teaching skills of personal finance which is not in most high school curriculum. One beneficial element of the curriculum is a game that the students participate in which requires them to get a job and pay bills.
If the U.S. general education system needed some new curriculum this is it. The recession the U.S. and world at large are currently in is in many ways tied to poor personal financial decisions. Schools or most parents for that matter don't take the time to teach kids the vital financial principles of saving and spending in moderation. Most people don't have a budget system to follow and incur too much debt on luxury items.
H&R's effort to get this curriculum is brilliant in many ways. First, people love to support cause movements. Efforts to be conscientious and to give back to society are constantly gaining more momentum. This is a good cause, its needed and the public and other companies will get it and be more than willing to jump on board and support it.
The second reason this campaign is so intelligent is the new customer base that H&R will create for itself by running it. Once, high school kids are taught personal finance principles they will be much more likely to use financial services. H&R Block will be the first place that comes to mind for these students because their brand was all over the material that they were studying for their personal finance classes.
In the end this campaign will greatly build both H&R Block's reputation and revenue.
Source: PRweekus.com

JCOM 2300: Really a Soda Tax?

With as much publicity as health care reform is getting right now it's easy for other issues of similar concerns to be lost. One which has been a fringe issue and is slowly making its way into mainstream media is the idea of a soda tax. Supporters for the tax propose a small tax being added to the purchase price of soft drinks. The revenue that is created from the tax could be used to offset the cost of universal health care if legislation moves in that direction.
Personally I don't like it a bit. In the end the tax would punish people for drinking soda, something that many Americans do and it could really be debated how on damaging it really is to a person's health. Anything you eat or drink could be argued to be unhealthy if used in excessive amounts. Taxing soda labels it as something with severe implications to a persons health, and sorry in my view soda is not as damaging as cigarettes. So in the end I really hope this tax doesn't go through.
Luckily for me and any like minded people the soda companies are doing a lot of work early to make sure this tax doesn't go through. This week Coca-Cola has announced a campaign that is in the works which will, 1) Inform the public of the companies efforts to counter obesity and 2) Show how a soda tax will not effect obesity or help health care reform. Coca-Cola's early work and preparation will pay off according to Gene Grabowski, SVP of Levick Strategic Communications,
“One of the advantages that industry has is if they do get out in front of the issue and paint the picture first, it will be difficult for Congress or someone in the government to be able to create an effective picture that can counter it.”
I agree with Grabowski, timing is everything. First impressions are everything. If you are the first or the last to say something your chances of being remembered by your targeted public are greatly increased. With the revenue that companies like Coke and Pepsi have, combined with the fact that they will beat supporters of a soda tax to the public this battle is one that is over before it ever began.
Source: prweekus.com

JCOM 2300: GM- Finally Learning a Lesson From 30 Years ago

GM, I don't know about those guys. I guess deep down inside I want them to succeed, but they make it really hard to like them. Their new PR campaign is to promote themselves as "the new GM" which is supposed to be a totally different company. I'm sure if we looked into it they have the same managers, the same factories, and the same workers. The only new thing is a new PR firm representing them. 

   For years GM has been so stubborn and unwilling to adapt to the automobile environment and most importantly to what customers want. When the Japanese car companies really hit their stride in the 80s GM, and the other big American car companies for that matter, didn't look at why people liked the Japanese cars. Their strategy centered around this us vs. them mentality they pushed the idea of being "UnAmerican" if you purchased a foreign car. It even went to the extent of creating different car lots at the factories in Michigan. Workers with American cars could park in the close convenient lot while those with a foreign car were banished to the non-American lot far away.

First, that is so lame, pretty childish really. People can buy foreign cars if they want and  there is probably a motive behind the whole thing. Take a few million of your billions do a little research and analysis and then compete with what they are doing. A little environmental analysis never hurt anyone. 

Back to the new campaign. The focus will be on the four remaining GM brands, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, GM. Instead of the overall GM label each line will highlighted for its features. They want customer input as much as possible too. Before releasing a new model GM plans on testing it will customers to get some feedback on how it will be received, there also will be a website set up for people to post comments and suggestions. 

This strategy is obviously much better than whatever they were doing before but I can't get over how bugged I am that they are just deciding to listen to customers NOW. I know they can't go back and change what has happened but they have 30 or 40 years worth of mistakes. Asking your customers opinion isn't a bad idea but shouldn't you already have an idea what they want anyway? There should have been research, and questionnaires, some market analysis would have been nice too. As a consumer it is always nice when you don't have to tell companies what you want because they have been paying attention and already know. 

GM's strategy is better than what they were doing before no doubt, I just feel the lesson was learned a little too late.