How to Stay in the Black While Going Green†

Marketers' Product Focus Can Overlook Important Customer Needs

Advertising Age, April 2, 2008 — Philips launched EarthLight, an energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulb, in 1994. The bulb had a clumsy shape that was incompatible with most conventional lamps, a confusing package and a price tag of $15 compared to 75 cents for incandescent bulbs. Sales languished. Although it was well intended, the environmental positioning of the EarthLight appealed to only the greenest of consumers.

To be successful, green marketing must satisfy two objectives: improved environmental quality and customer satisfaction. Misjudging either or overemphasizing the former at the expense of the latter — as Philips did with the EarthLight — can be called "green marketing myopia."

Selling Television Sets by Turning Up the Glamour

Brands are trying to break away from their reliance on 30-second television spots, which some marketers fear have lost their effectiveness.

New York Times, August 14, 2007 — WHILE audiences might have to wait until autumn to see “My Blueberry Nights,” the first English-language feature from the Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai, they can catch a shorter film from Mr. Wong while shopping for fashionable clothing or jewelry in Paris.

The five-minute film is actually an advertisement for a new television from Philips Electronics, a high-end flat-screen model called Aurea.

Philips: We're Not Just Light Bulbs†

Marketer Uses Umbrella Tack to Show Consumers Breadth of Its Product Line

Advertising Age, June 25, 2007 — Millions of Americans became more aware of Philips thanks to its media campaign that brought the table of contents closer to the front of magazines, stripped annoying subscription cards from Hearst titles and pared 12 minutes of ad time from "60 Minutes." Yet the $100 million spent in the U.S. by the Dutch marketer on its "Sense and Simplicity" campaign didn't familiarize consumers as much with its products

Lessons from Apple†

What other companies can learn from California's master of innovation

Economist, June 7, 2007 — For a company that looked doomed a decade ago, it has been quite a comeback. Today Apple is literally an iconic company.

Feature Creep Bedevils Consumers

New Yorker, May 28, 2007 — Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder, leaving us with fifty-button remote controls, digital cameras with hundreds of mysterious features and book-length manuals, and cars with dashboard systems worthy of the space shuttle. This spiral of complexity, often called “feature creep,” costs consumers time, but it also costs businesses money.

Product Tips You Can Use, by Way of Cellphone

New York Times, April 25, 2007 — FROM time to time, Philips Electronics has used its “sense and simplicity” campaign to clear away marketing that bothers consumers. Last year it paid Hearst $2 million to remove the subscription cards from four of its magazines for a month, and several times it has bought up blocks of commercials on television shows and used them to give air time back to the programmers (like CBS’s “60 Minutes” and NBC’s evening news).

Thinking Simple At Philips

BusinessWeek, December 11, 2006 — A panel of outside experts is helping the electronics giant reinvent itself

Top Marketing Officers Find Getting Together Helps Them Do the Job†

Wall Street Journal, January 11, 2005 — AS CHIEF marketing officers, Judy Verses of Verizon, Michael Linton of Best Buy and Andrea Ragnetti of Philips Electronics are responsible for promoting very different products. Yet they share many of the same challenges in a job that has become increasingly complex and risky.