Marketing Entry

Marketing is everywhere.  Want to have an atmosphere free of advertisements? Go to sleep. Companies have to get their name out and promote their products whilst also having to generate a positive and inviting ad that isn't too pushy with the patron.  Most businesses in this day and age are going into developed markets where brand and company perception is everything. Take the soft drink industry.  Coke and Pepsi are both strong leaders and any company wishing to enter their market must do so by creating an extremely positive perception of their company and product.  There isn't much physical innovation to be made in the soft drink industry, so any company wishing to compete with Coke and Pepsi must do so with innovations in brand advertising and customer perception. Both tasks would be extremely daunting considering both Coke and Pepsi have high brand loyalty.  Thus, a company entering this market or similar markets would need to create brand loyalty without over advertising to the customer.  This brings me to the point of this blog.  Remember the IOS/Droid game "Candy Crush"? Very popular game with lots of people playing.  I can remember seeing random ads for this game on my phone and the whole internet in general.  This subtle advertising,(and clever coding of an addicting game) propelled this game past the thousands of other games on the app stores and made the developers tons of money through in app purchases and advertising in the game itself.  However with the success of the game, came more marketing. The developers wanted this game on every mobile device eligible to download it.  The game became aggressively marketed at every available outlet.  Soon every app that displayed third party advertisements had a candy crush ad.  It got to the point where the ads were so well known that they didn't even say "candy crush", they just had the same background with the word "click here" on the ad.  This pushy and in your face advertising turned a lot of people away from the game and, for the people who had already downloaded it, gave them an offer for a product they already had at every corner of the Internet.  For me personally, it turned an indifferent product for me into a product I despised seeing because I seen it every time I got on Facebook, ifunny, or used any internet connected app.  I became sick of the game without even playing it.  Fast forward to now, it's still a relevant game, but it's not what it used to be and for the most part it's because of the aggressive advertising.  How does this relate to someone in the soda industry as mentioned before? The lesson learned with this game actually applies to anyone entering an industry with a lot of competitors.  It's essential  to differentiate your product from other competitors, especially at start up.  But taking it too far kills brand loyalty and stops the creation of new customers.  If you see an ad for "Wonder Cola" around every corner you will eventually try it.  However after you do and everyone else does, they're gonna have an impression of your product and whether it's a good impression or not, perception will decline if advertising is taken to the level seen with "Candy Crush".