Tip Top – Interactive Campaigns at their best

Perhaps one of the - dare I say - cutest campaigns to have been released in awhile, Tip Top Australia, (who, according to Bandt, bake over a million products for Australian families everyday) has developed a new spin on its age-old jingle – 'Good on ya Mum.'. The campaign stems from a website called 'Mum Song Dedications', which allows you to customise your own Good on ya Mum' song.

(Source: Bandt.com.au)

Although a visit to the above mentioned website would be recommended to really get a feel for the campaign, it’s not hard to imagine how effective such an approach would be when the jingle has had such a long standing presence in the mind of the Australian consumer.

As mentioned by the Group Marketing Manager of Tip Top Australia, "Aussies have grown up singing along to Tip Top's 'Good on ya Mum' jingle, making it one of the most recognisable tunes in the country. The jingle celebrates the effort mum goes to for her family and we are excited to provide an interactive platform that allows Aussies to create their own unique, personalised, and meaningful song to dedicate to their mums."

Once you've created your mum song dedication on the website, you're then able to share this directly with your mum through social media (if she's on Facebook, like unfortunately mine is), email or using a Twilio phone call.

In terms of engagement, I can really see the potential for this campaign to raise the digital awareness of a brand that perhaps we would find little reason to follow online. Baked goods like bread are generally low involvement, so as a brand in this product category it would take exceptional effort (and creativity) to really tap into a key insight, and raise the existing level of consumer involvement. Tip Top seems to have got it right in this campaign, as in thanking our mums for their efforts in raising us. Tip Top also brings to light its own involvement in this process; not only are we thanking mum, but we’re also thanking Tip Top for its presence in our households over the 50 years of its operation.

All in all it's a clever approach to re-vamping something that has worked well for the brand in the past, and it'll be interesting to see how well the Australian public receives it as the campaign starts to gain momentum.

Create your own song dedication here. 

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Is there a minimum for EFTPOS here?

I don’t know about you, but I am getting really tired of the ‘minimum charge’ to use my credit or debit card as a form of payment at all my favourite places. And one day I really got down to thinking… “There’s no way the fees to use EFTPOS require vendors to charge upwards of $10.00AUD per transaction.” EFTPOS stands for Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale, and I suspect it is being used as a more important tool for businesses then merely a new payment method channel.

There has to be some marketing or business objective being fulfilled by creating a minimum charge for transactions. I think it is as simple as businesses trying to make more money per transaction by requiring you to make add-ons in order to get what you came for. Without even digging deep or asking around, it is pretty common knowledge that most people would prefer to carry their plastic now instead of trying to find an ATM to withdraw cash – but are we overspending because of this new habit?

Lucky for us customers, certain banks like Commonwealth Bank explicitly state in contracts with their EFTPOS terminal renters that they are not allowed to charge a minimum payment. However, even if other banks don’t have the same clause in their contracts, the terminals cost around $60.00AUD per month to operate, which isn’t that much, even for small businesses, and could further increase their sales by offering the option of paying electronically.

Below is another example of electronic payments that may be taking place more frequently in the future, provided by a company called Square. This little iPhone or iPad device is a one time purchase with a small transaction fee that may make secure electronic payments more accessible to all vendors. This company uses offline transactions to process payments and later downloads to a server for record.

 
Even with a few new options on the market, the next time I am faced with a minimum transaction rate, I will probably take my business elsewhere at risk of certain vendors just trying to make money off add-ons.

Christine Drpich
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Welcome to our New Students

Last Thursday afternoon we gathered at the University of Sydney Business School to welcome our newest students to the course. The evening began with a short introduction by Pennie Frow, Course Coordinator, and Ellen Garbarino, Chair of the Discipline of Marketing, followed by brief speeches by current students Duncan Bell and Marco Tomaselli.

As the evening wore on, and we all got better acquainted, it was great to see a very diverse group joining our existing cohort. We have students coming from China, Germany, France and the Philippines (among many other nations), and with varied academic and industry backgrounds. So in a bid to make the transition for our new students much smoother, this evening was also the inauguration of the very first ‘Buddy Program’ – an initiative involving current students providing ongoing assistance to the new cohort during the first few weeks of this semester.

Christine Drpich and myself, in particular, look forward to seeing how this program pans out as classes begin, and we hope that our new students find it beneficial. As mentioned on the night, a great advantage of the Master of Marketing course is that every student has unique experiences and skills to bring to the classroom, so it is very important that we all understand from the beginning what we can learn from each other, as much as from the material and lecturers in the course.

So although we’re soon to say goodbye to some of our existing cohort who are reaching the end of their Master of Marketing degree, we look forward to getting to know our new students, and seeing them in the classes that begin this week.

Salil Kumar
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School