Get To The Grapes

Wendy’s has its $0.99 menu! McDonald’s, Taco Bell and almost every other major fast food restaurant has some sort of ‘cheap eats!’ So, what’s so special about Subway’s new $2 Six inch Sub promotion? First, the company talks about “showing a little love” to its customers as a basis for this December promotion, which is brilliant marketing in itself.  During these tough economic times, instead of talking about how they need to boost sales in December since it is typically a very slow month for fast food chains, they instead talk about the benefit to the customer: smart! And, given it’s drastic price reduction, it’s garnering tremendous press coverage.  It’s one thing to offer fries at $0.99, but a sub sandwich has a greater perceived value than your average $2 burger or fries, so the news media is covering it as ‘news!’ In fact, USA Today ran this headline in its “Money” section: “Meal-deal trend: Catch a (6-inch) Subway for only $2″ You can’t ask for better advertising than that!

So the next time you’re preparing to run a promotion, make it not only compelling to your audience (your customers), but to the media as well. Getting a “little love” from the media can go a long way for your promotion and your brand. Read full article here.

Jenny Craig hired Valerie Bertinelli to show off her figure at almost 50 – in a bikini!  Then NutriSystem signed on “Dancing with the Stars” alum, Marie Osmond. Weight Watchers upped the anti with Jennifer Hudson who is now “Feeling Good.”  So, what’s next for Jenny Craig? How do they even compete with Jennifer Hudson and stay relevant as a brand? The answer? Change your name to “Jenny” and sign on…

Yes, it’s Mariah Carey. Check out the new “Jenny” video here.  Click here for full story. 

Featured Friday, October 7, 2011, 3:00am PDT in the Sacramento Business Journal

Customer input, message strength determine campaign effectiveness

Does advertising work? All business owners have asked themselves this question at one point or another. The answer? Yes. And no.

Yes when advertising is done right. No when companies either dabble in it or are not committed to their advertising. For advertising to work, there are a number of important elements that must come into play.

The first is knowing your customer. Have you ever done research to validate the assumptions you have about who your customers are or what they really want? Professional research isn’t cheap, but it’s invaluable to creating a successful marketing program. If budgets are a constraint, you can conduct your own research with easy and cheap online tools such as SurveyMonkey. Your results might not be statistically valid, but at least you can get an idea of where you stand with your clients.

Second, what is it you’re selling? For example, what does Mercedes sell? You might answer “cars.” But, with so many different cars on the market, how could it possibly compete? Beyond its product, it sells a lifestyle choice, service and prestige. Similarly, you must determine the intangibles that set you apart from your competitors. If you don’t know what makes you different from them, then it’s time to carve out a niche of your own.

Third, craft a compelling message. Is it memorable? Does it mean anything? Two great consistent and compelling messages include, “Just Do It” and “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” What makes these so great? I don’t even need to tell you which companies those taglines belong to ­— you already know. Now granted, those companies have spent millions to tell their story, but those messages speak to the brand and resonate with its target audience. Find out what message resonates with your target audience, and then own it!

(more…)

Did you know that “Back-to-School” is the second largest selling season of the year ($69 billion in sales)? And of course, with the potential for sales comes TV advertising. Check out the Top 10 Back-to-School ads according to Adage.com.  I’ve seen most of these commercials, and while many of them are entertaining, I have to say that the Best Buy Geek backpack creeps me out a little bit. Besides, it doesn’t make sense! Is Dell saying that their products are so unreliable that you need to carry this Geek with you were ever you go? No thank you.

What’s your favorite? Is it missing from this list?

The California Milk Processor Board altered a PMS-themed ad campaign after two weeks because of criticism to its subject matter.  The original campaign portrayed men as the victims of temperamental women who were well, “pms-ing.” The goal of the campaign was to highlight that milk can actually soften the effects of PMS symptoms, according to ad campaign spokeswoman Tatum Wan.

As a marketer, I found the campaign clever and humorous.  Ah humor… The Super Bowl is watched by millions of people, many of whom are not football fans. Why? Because of humorous, heart-warming and sometimes quite inappropriate (but funny) commercials.  It will be a sad day when ALL advertisers give in to the pressures of the very few overly sensitive consumers that take themselves far too seriously.  In fact, I thought AdRants did a pretty good job of summing it up in a July 22 post by Steve Hall who wrote: “Unlike many, we have no problem with this campaign. Why? Because if we can’t poke fun at ourselves, what’s left? If we can’t inject a bit of humor into our lives, we might as well all become monks. Oh wait, even they know how to have fun. If we can’t take a moment and just chuckle, we’re going to turn into a world filled with cause groups that will dumb us down to the point where we all turn into emotionless robotic automatons.”

The question we’ll soon be asking ourselves is “Got funny ads?”And the answer will be “No.” Because after all, great humor must have an element of truth and it seems as though the small but humorous element of “truth” hurts too much.  The original URL was www.everythingidoiswrong.org, but now consumers are being redirected to  www.gotdiscussion.org, which is meant to “encourage discussion of the issue,” which I can promise you is not nearly as funny as “everything I do is wrong…”

What are your thoughts? Humorous or humiliating? I’d like to know… See one of many articles here.

Rance Crain, writer for Advertising Age wrote a rather lengthy article entitled “Why Many Super Bowl Ads Failed to Score.” His premise?  Marketers keep forgetting that the best ads are simple and direct. And he’s right.

Years ago, Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works coined the acronym KISS; which stands for ‘keep it simple stupid.’  Simple and direct simply works. Remember “Bud-weis-er?” It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

To borrow from Mr. Crain’s article, he noted that The Financial Times ran a story this week on the “infomercial king” of the U.S., British-born Anthony Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan says his job is to pitch products, not to market them, and he likens those who practice the dark art of marketing as “black-suits-wearing namby pambies.”

He continued by stating that ‘the basics of selling, or how to put a crowd “under the ether,” as he says, haven’t changed: The pitch has to be succinct, compelling and direct.’ He notes that far too many ads are quite the opposite in that they are simply too complex, confusing and oblique.

And finally, he summarizes the article this way: Good ads are simple and direct. Bad ads aren’t. It’s all a matter of discipline, a characteristic that advertisers have a woeful lack of these days. No wonder the informercial king calls them namby pambies.

So, who did get it right? Volkswagon. I mean, really? Does it get any simpler than that?

And some who didn’t:

Brisk Tea: I thought he advertising an energy drink or something.  The brand association was simply odd. I don’t see Eminem as a ‘tea-totaller,’ if you will.

Go Daddy
It’s so tired, played and inane and I can’t even get myself to show you…

Snickers?

Make sure customers’ experience is in line with marketing promise

Sacramento Business Journal – by Debi Hammond, Contributing writer, Marketing

Loyalty. It’s what retailers and marketers want but few are able to garner. Even as a marketing professional, I find my loyalty swayed by, what else? Advertising.

My husband and I purchased a sporting goods product a year or so ago and the service was fine. Not exceptional, but very good. So, as we were contemplating another purchase, we were compelled to try a new store that has been doing a great amount of advertising with a compelling message. The problem? They simply didn’t deliver on their message.

They claim to be the “friendliest” sporting goods store, but quite frankly, they weren’t all that friendly. They were running a radio promotion that said if you came in you’d get a free T-shirt, so when I inquired about it, I was simply told “we’re out.” The sales guy wasn’t really rude about it, but he wasn’t really friendly either — or accommodating. He didn’t offer a rain check or even an apology.

Given that it was two days before Christmas, I decided to go ahead and make the purchase I’d gone in for anyway — a T-shirt my husband wanted. I bought the shirt and before I left the store, I pulled it out of the bag to look at it, and it was stained. Of course, they didn’t have any more in the size I needed, so I asked if I could get a small discount. The answer? “No, but you can return it.” Really? That’s so “helpful!”

What the sales guy probably didn’t realize is that although that day I was there only to buy a T-shirt, I was also there to determine where my husband and I would be making another, much more expensive purchase. I had been frequenting another retailer but chose to check this one out because of their advertising and endorsements. Advertising can definitely drive traffic, but it’s a company’s ability to deliver on its brand promise that matters most. (more…)

I don’t know if you saw, but Starbucks unveiled a new logo yesterday.  I heard it first from my own local Starbucks baristas just this morning when I stopped in for my normal Grande cup of Pike blend.  The baristas had been huddled in the back and as they returned to the floor they informed me that they had been admiring the newly unveiled logo.  That’s right, in keeping with the spirit of strategic marketing, the Starbucks siren will no longer be sharing her space with the “Starbucks Coffee” text.  What a feat that a brand continues to evolve to a point of almost total ubiquity and to a point that the logo no longer requires words as a means of identification with the consumer.  In fact, the strategy behind the transformation, according to CEO Howard Schultz, is in essence to avoid limiting Starbucks to just coffee as the logo has always portrayed and to open up even more opportunity for diversification in the marketplace.  How is it that a move like this works for some companies and not others?  Is it simply a matter of creative design?  Perhaps you heard about the recent change that G.A.P. made to their logo.  Within a week they were back to their traditional logo due to the outrage among consumers over the seemingly unnecessary and thoughtless design change.  That situation definitely seemed to lend itself to the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Will Starbucks be any different?  Will their strategy prove to be sound or will they be following suit with G.A.P. in another week?  The opinions of the consumer can sometimes be unpredictable, but whether you are for, against, or indifferent to the evolution of the Starbucks brand and the new and improved logo, hopefully you are able to appreciate the depth of the strategic thinking behind this recent move.

For more follow the link:

http://www.starbucks.com/preview

Posted by: Stephanie

Friday, December 3, 2010

Great video content can drive sales, awareness for your small business

Sacramento Business Journal – by Debi Hammond, Contributing writer, Marketing

I am not the typical mom type. Not that it is a bad thing, it’s just that I’ve never really been that into kids, moms groups and the like. In fact, when at parties or events, you would always find me anywhere the kids were not. So, of course, that goes for mom- and parenting-type commercials, videos, magazines and more.

My, how one’s world changes once you actually have kids. As a mom to a 2½-year-old daughter and 9-month-old son, I’ve grown quite fond of children (even other people’s) and have a true appreciation for the jokes, jabs and simply humorous life we parents live.

Now, let’s talk about minivans. There is simply nothing humorous about minivans. In fact, after having our second child, my husband started talking to me about the practicality and convenience of a minivan. I responded without any hesitation that it would be “over my dead body” that we EVER buy a minivan.

Then came the “Swagger Wagon” , a hilarious video on YouTube brought to you by Toyota. Granted, Toyota spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on advertising, but this video went viral due to its organic roots, not advertising. Why?

Because it is hilarious and touched an emotional chord with its audience. It touched an emotional chord with me, and remember, I’m not the mom type and minivans would be “over my dead body.” But somehow Toyota made a minivan kind of cool. The video seemed to say, you can be a parent, own a minivan and still be cool! Sounds childish and rudimentary, I know, but they’re on to something. But the question is, what?

The answer: content.

Want your video to go viral?  You don’t need a  sexy product (or person for that matter – although it has been known to help. “Hello, Old Spice’s Mustafa”) for great success.  Don’t believe me? Just ask the people at Blendtec.   Blendtec is a small blender manufactuer who’s “Will it Blend” video series is the most viewed viral ad campaign of all time (according to AdvertisingAge and Visible Measures).

Who else has had great success? Here are the top 10 viral ads ranked by unique views:

1. Blendtec – Will It Blend – In-house: 134.2 million views

2. Evian – Live Young – BETC Euro RSCG: 103.9 million views

3. Old Spice – Responses – Wieden & Kennedy: 57.1 million views

4. Pepsi – Gladiator – AMV BBDO: 46.7 million views

5. Microsoft – Xbox Project Natal – World Famous: 42.7 million views

6. Dove – Evolution – Ogilvy & Mather: 41.1 million views

7. T-Mobile – T-Mobile Dance – Saatchi & Saatchi: 35.5 million views

8. Doritos – Crash the Super Bowl 2010 – Goodby Silverstein & Partners: 34.2 million views

9. Old Spice – Odor Blocker – Wieden & Kennedy: 34 million views

10. DC Shoes – Gymkhana Two – In-house: 32.9 million views