It's a day for pranksters, but April Fools' Day is also perfect for clever, viral marketing.
By WIKI SU
People everywhere cried April Fool yesterday when they heard Burger King Japan had released a limited edition, flame-grilled burger-scented perfume.
But it wasn't a prank. It was a clever marketing tool specially designed to fit with the theme of the practical jokers' day.
It was a hit on social media, with people across the country tweeting their purchase experiences. And, of course, each bottle of the fragrance came with a whopper burger.
Releasing weird products or making "unbelievable" announcements is a tactic increasingly used by business operators to market their brands.
“Achieving attention from customers is not only important to keep them loyal to your brand, but creating [an] exciting social media buzz will help the brand go viral and stand out from the crowd,” Madison Liston from Margin Media, a Brisbane-based inbound marketing agency, said in a blog post.
Burger King Japan announced its intentions on March 18 to release the limited edition, barbecue beef-scented product called Flame Grilled Fragrance.
The fragrance was developed to promote Burger King products and, the company said, would enable fans to enjoy the feeling they got from its restaurant even when they were not at an outlet.
Along with the fragrance, Burger King Japan also introduced the "Whopper Pass", which allows customers to buy whoppers at a discount price throughout April.
Any publicity is good publicity
The announcement provoked extensive speculation on social media about whether this was real or just another April Fools’ Day prank.
In fact, it doesn't matter if anyone wants to buy the strange-flavoured perfume or not. In this social media-dominated era, Burger King’s strategy is already a success.
Monash University social researcher Andrea Waling said the company achieved its aim.
“The whole point is to get people talking about Burger King – they might come with the idea that ‘Oh I want some Burger King’ and they will go to the restaurant and buy [food],” she said.
Festivals, holidays and marketing
Using holidays or festivals to promote commercial products is a growing tactic.
“April Fool’s day is an interesting one because it’s all about pranks, so they can sell a joke of a product, and you don’t know whether it is true or not. People will question this and during this process, they begin to think about the product and [it gets] into their head,” Ms Waling said.
She said she believed using festivals to market products would continue to become more popular.
Social media is a particularly useful tool for festival-associated marketing, whether it is a local event or not.
Occasions such as April Fools' Day was about people feeling connected, Ms Waling said, and marketers might also use this feeling to sell their products.
On April 1, 2010, Starbucks said it would introduce two new beverage sizes, Plenta™ (128 fl oz) and Micra™ (2 fl oz) cups, in the US and Canada in the autumn.
Even though the region was limited to North America, the April Fools' Day prank news went viral globally via social media.
Spot the April Fools' Day promotion
This April Fools’ Day was a busy one for marketers. Besides Burger King’s Flame-Grilled Perfume there were several jokes that cleverly marketed products.
Cities and streets across the world were turned into PAC-MAN game boards as Google Maps rolled out a new feature for users. People could pic their map and set PAC-MAN loose.
Amazon.com joined in by releasing a “Dash Button” – a stick-on button for home appliances that would allow people to buy a product such as washing powder with one press of a button, without even supplying banking details.
The product, they said, came with adhesive and a hook so people could hang, stick, or place it right where they needed it. Amazon suggested people keep the Dash Button handy in the kitchen, bath, laundry, or anywhere they store household products.
When users think they are going to run out of certain home necessities, all they need to do is to press Dash Button, and Amazon would deliver the product.
This is not a prank, but Amazon managed to gain more attention by connecting the release with April Fools' Day.
Amazon did join in the tomfoolery though, revealing their "retro" early internet website.
Watch CNN’s video for more marketing pranks: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2015/04/01/april-fools-day-company-pranks.cnnmoney/index.html