There are times when you could sit back and say your brand is so well known, you no longer need to reinforce it. Take Roll Royce as an example. Apart from very remote jungle areas where television has yet to make any real impact, almost everyone on the planet associates Rolls with engineering excellence. Except, of course, nothing can ever be taken for granted. When one or two airplanes recently had troubles with their engines, it turned out Rolls was the manufacturer. So marketers were immediately called into action for damage limitation. If the reputation takes a hit on the aero-engine side of the business, future buyers of the cars may think twice before ponying up a quarter-million for the Ghost (and others). Perhaps we should mention they are actually separate companies with the motor manufacturing side wholly owned by BMW. But both businesses trade on the Rolls Royce trademark and, no matter how good the German reputation for engineering, RR have the current market leadership in luxury cars. So marketers are on constant standby to handle PR crises immediately they arise and thereafter to rebuilt any lost reputation.

It's the same with major brands like the little blue pills. Although every man on the planet (apart from those living in a jungle and prepared to experiment with local roots and berries) can add the letters to complete V*. So it's very interesting to see what pops up in the newspapers and online to keep the name in front of the public. One of the more exciting non-stories involved the walking brand-name Simon Cowell - he of American Idol and now The X Factor fame. For those of you still in the jungle, he's now paid $75 million a year for producing and appearing on The X Factor. Is he worth it? Well, The X Factor may not be doing outstandingly well but it's still leading Fox to the top position among all channels. And, in no small way, this is due to the Cowell factor. In a recent interview on The Wendy Williams Show, the man told the story of turning down the opportunity to earn $1 million for advertising the little blue pills. Obviously, he doesn't need their help personally - he probably sleeps with many singing stars and seems to be engaged - but his refusal to make the ads has made headlines around the world. That's really using your star power to get the product into the news. It's beautifully ironic. This makes more news out of not advertising than you would from actually advertising. It would be interesting to know exactly how much Cowell has pocketed for talking about refusing to make the ads.

All of which brings us to the real point of this article. Because everyone knows how well viagra rx works, the message was no longer "buy this cure for erectile dysfunction". Until 2007, brand awareness came from sponsorship deals like putting a race car on the NASCAR circuit - associating the product with fast results - or those "sweetheart" deals with the MLB and NFL, all of which ended when the pharma TV guidelines limited prime-time exposure. Viagra made a difficult decision between whether to use conventional TV ads or find other ways to keep their name in the public eye.








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