What WERE They Thinking??

There are "creative" advertising people who believe that their title is a license to be weird.  In fact, there are a number of these people who think that unless their advertising ideas push the boundaries of good taste or good communication that they're not being "creative."  Many times in my advertising career, I've had to pull creatives back from work that was just plain bizarre - but which they described as creative.

If you need an example of what I'm talking about, take a look at this (believe it or not) real ad for Velveeta.  This is an ad that was developed by "creatives."  What's incredible is that ostensibly rational people reviewed this approved it ... and spent good money to place it in the media.

 The headline of the ad is truly bizarre.  What does it mean to "smite" Velveeta Cheesy Skillets?  The dictionary definitions I found say it means:
1. To hit hard, esp. with the hand.
2. To kill by smiting.
3. To impress powerfully. 

Nope.  The definition of smite doesn't make sense of the headline.

You probably can't read the line under the picture of the packages, but it reads:  "Just add ground beef or chicken, apprentice."

Apprentice?  Maybe they are trying for a pirate theme?  Maybe the creative team was on drugs. 

I bet that this ad is in some creative's portfolio.  I hope that he or she never gets hired if this is an example of their work.

There was an old saying at Benton & Bowles advertising that still rings true today.  "It's not creative unless it sells."  I suspect this ad isn't doing any selling. 

Fat Finger Foibles

A recent news story reported that advertising revenue related to hand held devices have tripled in the past year.  In a separate story, it was noted that many digital users are inadvertently clicking on online ads on their digital devices because a) the screens are small and b) their fingers are big. 

I play a solitaire game on my smartphone that has banner ads right next to the touch point to deal a new card and I have (more than a few times) inadvertently clicked onto a banner ad.  Of course, each time I do, the advertiser is being billed for a click through.

I wonder how much money is being wasted by advertisers who think they're getting a live prospect ... but instead have found someone with fat fingers?

Signs of the Times

I was recently at a meeting at Kauai Community College and encountered a sign that said "Marketing and

Sales Servery."  Now I know what marketing and sales are.  I think I'm a pretty educated person, but I have no idea what a "servery" is.  When I got home I looked it up and it's something like a pass through window or a service counter.  So, why didn't they say that?

Signs are soooo important and we often forget that others don't have the foggiest idea about our jargon.  This is the "curse of knowledge."  We know what we mean and we assume others do too.

On the campus of Kapiolani Community College there are lots of examples of the curse of knowledge.  Just walking around I've seen signs for "TREO."  TREO is an advising program, but the sign doesn't explain itself.  Even more confusing, we have named a lot of programs with Hawaiian names - which is good because we want to be culturally sensitive.  But, we have to translate and explain them in order to make them intelligible for the uninitiated.  We have a program called Kahikoluamea which is a remedial learning program.  But to find out about remedial learning on our website, you have to search for Kahikoluamea.  We have a transfer program called Kaieie.  There's a sign on the Kaieie  office with deadlines and registration requirements - without ever telling the reader what Kaieie is.

We all need to get outside of our skin to escape the curse of knowledge.

Stop the Bandwagon, I Want to Get Off

Marketing is becoming ever more complicated.  In addition to worrying about demographics, psychographics and the other traditional ways of understanding consumer behavior, we are now faced with understanding the impact of the technology revolution.  In fact, in a seminal book titled Groundswell the authors coined a new term:  technographics.  The point is that different people have different degrees of technology savvy. 

By the way, embracing technology is not perfectly correlated with age.  There are boomers who are tech savvy and boomers who are tech clueless.  There are grandmothers who embrace technology when the use Skype to see the grand-kids or enrich their retirement with Facebook postings.  Even among the "digital natives" (those born since the development of the Internet) there are degrees of tech savvy-ness.  

Marketers have to understand that there is no longer a common denominator when it comes to technology IQ.  Marketing messages probably need to be delivered through different media to reach the variety of technographic groups out there. 

 

 I was recently at a meeting at Hawaii Public Radio where volunteers were being briefed on the upcoming fund drive.  One of the volunteers - a tech savvy digital native - let loose with an indictment of how everything has been done in the fund drive.  She had been invited to the meeting by a snail mail letter.  A letter!  She said "no one reads letters anymore."  She noted that in the on-air drive, the telephones ring with a conventional ring tone.  She said "no phones sound like that anymore."  She went on and on.  Everything that was old technology was anathema and should be dumped. There was general agreement.  "Yes!  We need to change everything." 

But wait a minute.  The speaker's technographic category was very high-tech media savvy.  A lot of the Public Radio audience probably isn't.  So, if Public Radio dumped all of its existing approaches to fundraising, it would be very relevant for a highly engaged technographic group - and puzzling (at best) to technographic neophytes. 

Marketing has become very complicated.  In this instance, Public Radio needs separate strategies for different technographic groups. 

Nobody said this is easy. 

Passion and Dispassion: The Ying and Yang of Marketing Success

Some marketers fail because they are so passionate about their product or service that they can't see marketplace danger looming in front of them.  "Everyone should buy my product because it's wonderful."  Many a brand has sunk beneath the waves because of marketing hubris.

Some marketers fail because they are too dispassionate.  They don't take risks.  They don't value creativity.  They make lookalike products.  And they are outflanked and out-marketed by those who develop new and innovative solutions to customer needs and wants. 

The very best marketers are left-brain, right-brain folks.  Ying and Yang.  Passionate, but real.  It's hard to find that balance, but essential for success in the marketplace. 

The Hobgoblin of Little Minds?

Someone once described consistency as "the hobgoblin of little minds."  The point, I suppose, is that slavish consistency stifles creativity.  And that's true.  However, for marketers, once the creative process has taken place and we've selected a preferred position for our product or service ... consistency is a good thing.  The consumer is not sitting around thinking about us all day, so consistency helps reinforce the creative position that we've selected. 

The very best marketers are, indeed, very consistent.  taglines, type fonts, colors, tone, training, etc., etc. are all consistent with the image that we want to convey to our publics.  Bad marketers, on the other hand, are all over the place. 

I was watching a Subaru television commercial recently which ended with the announcer delivering the line:  Love ... It's what makes a Subaru a Subaru.  Now, I'm not bowled over by that line (I'm not exactly sure what it means), but the commercial was generally about a loving relationship and I took the line to be Subaru's tagline and I expected to see that line come up under the logo at the end of the spot.  Surprise.  It isn't the tagline at all.  At the end of the spot the logo came up with the tabline:  Subaru.  Confidence in Motion.  I'm not bowled over by that line, either, but the spot didn't have anything to do with confidence in motion.  And having two different lines is just confusing.  What is Subaru all about, anyway?  Love?  Or, Confidence. 

So consistency isn't the hobgoblin of little minds when it comes to clear communications. 

Marketing is MUCH more than promotion ...

I'm back after an August blogging break (too much going on before school reopens).

Over the summer, one of the big stories was the bankruptcy filing for the city of Detroit.  That reminded me of an incident when I was teaching a masters level marketing class. 

The assignment was to "reposition" a product or service.  Repositioning is usually done when you have a troubled product and you use all of the marketing tools to "reposition" it to make it vibrant and relevant again.  One of the first assignments in my career was to work on a Procter & Gamble product that had just been "repositioned."  Cheer detergent went from being a product that specialized in "whiteness" to an all temperature product that worked on a whole array of laundry needs.  Cheer's business doubled.  Do I believe in repositioning?  You bet.

I asked for the students in my class to identify the product or service they planned to reposition.  One of the students chose Detroit.  (She was from there).  Great, I thought, what a terrific challenge.  Her paper, however, fell well short of what was needed for repositioning.  She developed a series of taglines and advertising and some media strategies that were her solution to Detroit's marketing needs.  The problem is that Detroit needs much more than a clever tagline to reposition itself.  She ignored the need to fix the product, and no amount of advertising will address that. In fact there's a famous marketing saying that the best way to kill a bad product is great advertising. 

Can Detroit be turned around?  A very difficult challenge, but yes.  Other cities have done it. 

I lived in Cleveland during my high school years - when pollution was so bad that the Cuyahoga River actually caught fire.  The city has cleaned up its act.  In fact, the area by the river (called "the flats") has been transformed from a gritty industrial slum to a trendy bar and restaurant scene.  The city attracted the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Nearby Canton has the NFL Hall of Fame.  And, while Cleveland isn't as vibrant as some other cities, it's come a long, long way from being the city where the river caught fire. 

San Diego transformed itself from a one industry (navy) town to a center for biotech research. 

Sante Fe, New Mexico has become an arts mecca. 

Ogden, Utah (of all places) is a high tech center. 

Detroit can turn itself around, but it will have to look into its own soul and find out what the city can change to make it relevant and attractive.  Then - and only then - can it blow its horn with clever advertising. 

My student, unfortunately, didn't get a very good grade on her paper.  But, it had lots of notes in the margin.