Embrace the Hippo!

Memorandum

To: Board of Directors

From: Marketing Department

Subject: Hippo as a Symbol of our Company

In our search for a symbolic, metaphorical, and aesthetic object converging the current state of our market perception and product placement, it has been proposed that the hippo be aggressively incorporated into a campaign to represent our company. In light of overwhelming research, we should immediately implement and fully execute a market saturation effort which utilizes the hippo as our primary branding symbol. The focus of this campaign will be the distribution of five hundred thousand bright yellow squeezy hippos, emblazoned with our corporate logo. These should be presented with greatest speed to all current and potential customers within the industry.

The “squeezy” phenomenon can not be denied or ignored. Our company started with the clever squeezy fish, which was an excellent foray into the squeezy field, but only applied to the small niche of Fluorescent in-situ Hybridization customers. The conventional squeezy stress ball, when given in conjunction with an appeal to purchase and with reference to the seamless operation of technical equipment, seemed to alert our focus groups to an irony that they felt was humorous. Other rejected ideas include the squeezy globe, which we felt is quite inappropriate for implementation by one of our German-based competitors in light of previous attempted world-domination aspirations. The squeezy pink brain was also rejected because post market introduction reports indicate that, when wet (25% of our customers give them to their children as bath toys), these items appeared to ooze pink fluid, which was quite unappealing. Our instinctive choice was to stick with the hippo and trust him to guide us through these treacherous marketing waters.

It is anticipated that there will be a slight amount of current customer backlash to our campaign, as common perception is that the hippo is a relatively sessile, lumbering behemoth—insinuating stagnation, slowness, inefficiency. Aha! In reality, not so—according to National Geographic and the Hippo Institute for Performance, these high achievers are able to run up to 30 miles per hour on land. It is felt that this dichotomy of perception and reality accurately portrays our market status of not trying to be the flashy market front-runner, but rather to exploit and market our company's subtlety, introspection, evolutionary development, teamwork, and perseverance to achieve greater results.

Market Comparison

Continuing the analogy, the underestimation of the hippo is a perfect mirror of our competitive position and is representative of our current possession of over 50% market share despite the general population's perception that our competitor, Brand Z, is the frontrunner. In this analogy, Brand Z is perfectly characterized by the Shark, an evolutionarily ancient Apex predator who kills with a lot of flash and splash. When they do sell a product, however, it often turns into a bloody mess, although it may be done with a certain style.

Brand O, the low-cost (bottom-feeder) provider, is portrayed by a Vulture in this illustration, circling and gaining sustenance on scraps left by the primary producers in the market. Energy and technological investment are reduced, aiding in efficiency. However, the indiscriminate feedings lead to economic instability for this competitor, and their strategy tends to leave abandoned carcasses of unsatisfied customers strewn across the market.

Brand L is an unpredictable force that could be characterized accurately by the snake. Unpredictable, and sometimes startling when initially encountered, it fills a certain market need or two within its influential sphere but really isn’t much to fear. It only eats once every two weeks or so and is, overall, low-energy.

By contrast, the hippo, our chosen symbol, provides a trend of firm results. It is documented to actually be more dangerous and responsible for more attacks than any other animal in Africa. A comparative analysis is graphically represented below.

Demographic Data

Not surprisingly, hippos had great appeal to the male demographic in general. Among the more educated decision-makers in the market, the hippo’s often subtle characteristics tend to be known, which reinforces our assertion that the subtlety of the hippo as the symbol of our company will be fully appreciated and embraced by our target market. The avoidance of obvious pandering and the appeal to intellectualization in our strategy yielded favorable perception. The hippo’s unconventional appearance produced a 50-75% increase in average visual impressions, and market response in a test market yielded a 10% increase in response from new contacts (no direct sales data available at this time).

An unanticipated market niche that was greatly increased was the 22-36 year old female demographic (the “hot chick” demo). We’ve always tried to target this market, but abandoned it after multiple attempts. Inadvertently, it seems that we’ve located a winner in this category as well. I personally ordered exhaustive focus testing on this group to ensure its effectiveness, and can report a 33% increase in appeal over previous campaigns.

Lastly, we ran a squeezeability test vs. our primary competitors, which resulted in the hippo being the perfect convergence of strength, stability, ferocity, and again surprisingly, the highest “Squeezy Factor”. Please note that the calculation of this factor was a complex formula adopted from the TY® group’s beanie babies research in the early ‘90’s. We feel that, by attacking this marketing device early, we exploit the highest potential for “Squeezy Factor” still available.



Corporate Image

There is no doubt that our corporate image is safely invested in, indeed enhanced by, the hippo.

The hippo promotes teamwork, as hippos work in groups, (called “bloats”), to attack. This emphasizes our recent campaign of corporate interconnection, specialization, commitment to excellence and the “One Team” concept rolled out internally in recent memos.

As a hippo’s bellow has been measured at an ear-splitting 115 decibels, our interpretation focuses on the excellent communication capability, providing customer security in our internal means of transmitting information and efficiently handling their data requirements.

It is an interesting note that the hippo is actually a vegetarian, and therefore attacks for sport and fun. This emphasizes our corporate image of fun, excitement, and highlights the ease of our supra-sustenance culture. This protective instinct mirrors our company’s market share and technology niche protection.

When compared to the Apex predator in our market, the shark, the hippo wins as the more highly evolved being. The shark is an evolutionarily ancient animal which is committed to it’s prehistorically derived survival strategy of reflexive, solitary existence. Conversely, the hippo, a mammal, is evolutionarily more advanced and complex, just as our technological advancement is more refined and better targeted.

In summary, our company could do worse than to embrace the hippo! Besides, they're just cool!