Today I read that Priceline.com is killing off the William Shatner "Negotiator" character. My feeling on this from an advertising point of view is that this is going to be a huge and very costly advertising mistake for Priceline.com.
Priceline has spent millions of dollars branding the negotiator character and getting him into the minds of their target market. It is a great character and people generally like him. Now, Priceline is apparently going to go in a new direction. Yes, the "going in a new direction" mistake. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in advertising is killing off a character that is loved by your target market, especially after you have spent millions of dollars branding that character. Depending on what direction Priceline decides to go with their new advertising campaign and positioning, they are essentially going to be starting a new branding campaign from scratch and losing all the momentum and brand power they created with William Shatner and his negotiator character.
Keep a watch on the growth rate of Priceline.com to see if killing off the negotiator character and going in a new direction kills sales or actually increases them. My money is on seeing them take a sales dive by killing off William Shatner as their spokesman.
Please share your opinions on this with me.
Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Advertising Agency
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