Tag: J&J

Marketing as Service is not a Band-aid

Posted on by Drew Neisser

To be effective, Marketing of Service needs to a genuine commitment versus a one-off stunt. While few marketers will have the perseverance to make it 108 years like Michelin with its peripatetic guides, I suspect they can make it longer than a weekend like the recent painfully misguided “free taxi” effort by Tylenol.

Thanks to Jason Wurtzel for spotting these when they first arrived in the city on November 3rd. Not knowing anything about the program at that moment, I neglected to post Jason’s shots (see below) or to feel any sense of flattery since these were another attempt to copy the HSBC BankCab, which I might add is in its sixth year of driving loyalty to The World’s Local Bank.

Tylenol TaxiTylenol Taxi close up

Still on the case, Jason then forwarded this snippet about the cabs on The Gothamist:

The Tylenol (global?) “Warming Taxis” will take you anywhere in Manhattan, today through Sunday, from noon to 8 p.m. Your best shot of catching one is heading to a CVS at 630 Lexington, 540 Amsterdam, 272 8th or 307 6th Avenues and waiting for a stranger in a white car to offer you a lift and some Tylenol.

One weekend? Is that really supposed to heat up our feelings about Tylenol? As the Renegade behind the BankCab, that just plain hurts. It wasn’t even a cold weekend by November standards so the warming part fell flat. J&J, a usually savvy marketer, should know better than to treat Marketing as Service as a Band-Aid or perhaps they got ripped off by an unlicensed guerrilla practitioner.

J&J Foils Fungus and Makes Fans in China

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Marketing as Service can run rings around traditional approaches especially if you’re trying to expand your business in Asia. J&J provided a great service recently to the Chinese government by ridding their world famous terracotta warriors of a decay-causing fungus. Their reward included the right to display several of the “cured” statues in their Olympic pavilion and dare I say, a foot-hold in the Chinese market.

Terracotta Warriors in J&J Exhibit

More importantly, according the great Wall St. Journal article on the topic:

J&J’s help has won the appreciation of Chinese officials, and in an authoritarian state that is no meaningless accomplishment. By nursing one of China’s national symbols back to health, J&J hopes to get “a lot of leverage” in China, says Alex Valcke, a European J&J executive who led much of the conservation effort.

I found this story fascinating from start to finish. J&J happened to put its factory near the home of the terracotta warriors (Emperor Qin Terracotta Army Museum) in the 80’s and ten years later started helping the museum identify the fungus plaguing their statues. Once identified, the J&J team then experimented on treatments and eventually cracked the code.

Wu Yongqi, a curator at the terracotta museum, describes the museum’s relationship with J&J as “Jin Shang Tian Hua,” a Chinese idiom that suggests something perfect benefiting from further perfection. J&J “sped up our work,” he says.

J&J’s Dr. Valcke is ecstatic. “We really believe that if you preserve that which is very close to these Chinese hearts, it helps to build a better relationship,” he says.

Dr. Valcke’s quote above, neatly sums up the essence of Marketing as Service. Solve a meaningful problem by providing a genuine service and you will pave the way for a healthy and long-lasting business relationship.