Not so better than cash

So I'm making a purchase at a little shop. The bill comes to $10.27. I hand the clerk my Visa card because it gives me miles. He swipes the card into his card reader and stares at the cash register. Then he describes the Visa commercial where a guy uses cash and the world stops behind him. He goes on to tell me what a crock he thinks it is because he constantly has to keep his customers waiting while his machine connects. The conversation goes on for at least two more minutes before the receipt is printed rendering Visa's commercial totally ineffective for him and me.

Now in fairness, I'm sure it was not Visa's fault. It's probably the fault of the transaction processor, time of day or what ever. But, most people would blame Visa. Most won't stop using it though if they get miles.

Brand planning is not market research

It's people watching. Brand planning well done provides insights that drive remarkable communications. Insights are derived from observation and conversation rather than interrogation. Ask someone how they shop and you're likely to get an entirely different answer than if you watch them shop.

The understanding gained from brand planning can be really enlightening and often counter intuitive. That's because marketers have been bound by traditional market research techniques forever. Standard focus groups where one person hates blue and convinces the rest of the group that blue is evil, no longer provide the answers. They're better than nothing...but not much. If you want to learn about how people think about Sam Adams Beer, find some Sam Adams drinkers, buy them a couple and talk about it with them. Have one yourself. How old are they? What kinds of jobs do they have? What do they do for fun? When is Sam Adams involved? Do their friends like Sam Adams or are they the leader? When they drink, do they eat? Drink more than one? Two? More? Do they drink wine? Scotch? Whatever? When have they had a really good time in the company of Sam Adams? Converse. Observe.

Most market research provides a pretty flat description of the target and their preferences. Do a quantitative survey about Sam Adams and you'll likely find that its aficionados drink it for taste. Do good brand planning and you'll likely find something totally different. A 25-34, male target audience is a lot different description than a guy who chooses his beer because he wants to feel in front of the crowd. He's not a follower and hates Bud Light because everybody drinks it and he thinks it tastes like spoiled water. He's a guy who knows who Mariah Carey is because she's hot, but can't name a single song she's recorded because he doesn't listen to top 40. I just made all that up, but you get the drift.

They're calling you a liar!

I'm honest. We don't pollute. I have integrity. You can trust me. Honey, she didn't mean anything to me.

If your advertising messages are claiming any of these things and a hundred or so more, your consumer is quietly calling you a liar. If there weren't some question about honesty, no one would ever have to claim they were honest. If there weren't some question about pollution, no organization would ever say they care about the environment. You either do or you don't. If your factory stinks up miles of air, nobody will ever believe you care about the environment. If you try to trick your customers into buying something they don't want or need with exageration and fear, no one will ever believe you're honest.

Earn your claim. You'll never have to claim it. Advertise things that can't be disagreed with. If you care about the environment, prove it with your actions. If you're honest, prove it with your business dealings.

Infinite Monkeys

The Infinite Monkey theory says that if you give monkeys long enough with a typewriter, they will eventurally type the full works of Shakspeare. It's an interesting theory, but how long do you have to wait for that to happen? Many people are pre-occupied with the size of an organization. Certainly, size has something to do with production capability. But size has very little to do with creativity or innovation. In fact, size may restrict creativity and innovation.

Even the largest organizations break up into smaller groups to innovate and create. The basic reason is that the larger the group, the more difficult it is to be creative. Creativity requires risk. Large groups generally discourage risk and favor systemic solutions. They're safer.

So the next time you're looking for a creative solution to a problem ask yourself if you want a room full of monkeys of five good minds.

Double Sting

To tell you the truth, I have never heard of Barboursville, West Virginia. I don't know where it is, or how big it is. I do know that twelve-year-old Megan Templeton was stung by a scorpion in the local Walmart while shopping for a watermellon. In fact, that scorpion made the Walmart in Barboursville famous across the country. And I'll bet that there's more than a few helicopter moms out there who will worry about taking their children shopping at the local Walmart.

The unimaginable is one of the biggest PR dangers facing any business or institution. What happens if...? No one can predict all the things that could happen...you should try to predict the most likely. The one thing you can predict is that the longer a business is in business, the more likely that something will happen. Then it takes over.

Consider this. There certainly are plenty of Walmart haters out there who will sieze this opportunity to further back their cause. Even people who don't hate Walmart will talk about it and yes Blog about it. Now Walmart's pretty safe. It's not going to suffer unless the same thing happens a few more times which is not likely. But what if the little girl had gotten really sick? Then it would have been a much bigger deal.

How would you react? Do you have a plan? Would you talk to the press? Who would talk to the press? What would they say? If you don't have a crisis plan, get one. It's a little insurance that can save a business.

Ad Parody...a compliment or a curse?

There's a genre of creativity that has been inspired by advertising that has become part of Americana. One such campaign is Mac vs. PC. You know the one where the likeable, T-shirt wearing guy debates the nerdy PC guy. Now Mac thinks it's making it's product cool while making PC's uncool. But rather than encroaching on PC territory, it could be cementing its second place position by insulting most of the world that has to work with PCs every day.

Maybe that's okay for Mac. Maybe that's good strategy. After all, without sacrifice, you have no strategy. But brand planners could learn a great deal about the counter story by watching parodies like these.

Microsoft and Yahoo should have a prenup

If money is the greatest reason for divorce in this country, Yahoo and Microsoft should definitely have a pre-nuptual agreement. With billions in the offing, needs on both sides and a shotgun matchmaker this thing will get really interesting. Here are three articles that do a good job of explaining some of the dynamics.

http://http//emac.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2008/05/20/why-yahoo-cant-go-it-alone-without-microsoft/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/microsoft-admits-it-is-lagging-in-fight-for-online-advertising-market-share-831106.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tue_microsoft-yahoomay20,0,6724183.story

Iowa Advertising Agency Does Good

Ten years ago an Iowa advertising agency named ZLRIGNITION http://www.zlrignition.com forever changed its course. Call it a marketing ethic awakening. We lost our two largest clients in a matter of sixty days. We went from fifty people to twelve. It was a terrible time.

But we looked our business and decided a few things that would guide us forward. First, we decided that we would do good work, for good people, good businesses and good causes. Gone were the accounts that ciphoned the good out of people. Gone were clients that produced nothing good. No longer would we consider casinos, check cashing operations and other operations that lived on the underbelly of marketing and advertising.

I think it's important for businesses to have an ethic. The business world is not all about the money...well it's alot about the money but not all. You have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and ask, "Self, what have you contributed to this world?" Then you need an answer you can live with.

As a business, we decided that we wanted to be able to answer that question with positives rather than negatives. We wanted to be able to say we reduced teen smoking y 42 percent in Iowa. We wanted to say we helped problem gamblers rather than saying we helped them to gamble. We wanted to say that we helped people live healthier lives and we helped good businesses grow and good people succeed.

I'm happy to say that we achieved those things, made money and had fun in the process. We've also vastly improved the quality of our creative product. Our staff feels better about the work they do and that's an all around win.

When technology loses its tech

The funny thing about technology is that it loses its tech. Just think of this. Blogs and websites used to be limited to geeks who knew programming, html and lonely Saturday nights. Now they are exceptionally accessible to geeks who don't know programming and html but are still very familiar with lonely Saturday nights.

That's the way it works. My agency is doing a lot of things in house that it used to outsource. Why? Because it can. We worry about our clients' brands and promoting those brands. Our philosophy had always been to use technology in promotion, but to only provide the content and direction and then let a third party implement. Things have changed.

There are still plenty of people out there who get caught up in code, we believe it's more important to establish relationships than it is new intellectual property. So we use the technology that is readily accessible to communicate and build those relationships.

One example is a new service we evolved into. We have become video producers and editors. Why? Because we can. Editing software allows us to do things that we would have had to hire out five years ago. Digital video cameras no produce an "acceptable" level of quality for many uses. YouTube has diminished our quest for production value and replaced it with a need for fast, funny and to the point.

We won't replace production companies and we really don't want to become one. I find grips intimidating. But we will do what we need to do to find affordable marketing and communications solutions to our client challenges.

Dreamweaver makes doing basic websites easier. Final Cut Pro makes editing video easier. Blogspot and WordPress make blogging easier. They all get us that much closer to technology but provide little help with Saturday nights.

Obama advisor meets with Hamas?????

In another instance of campaign suicide, Obama confidants cause him problems. Surround yourself with scoundrels and count yourself among them.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/943467,CST-NWS-Sweet11.article

When you want to be something you can't be.

Marketers are dreamers. We want to be what we want to be and nothing will get in our way except reality. I want to play in the NBA even though I'm too old, too fat and too untalented. Reality.

George Washington once said something like, "See things as they are, not as you want them to be." So if you're a marketer, take a step back. Talk to your customers and potential customers. Tell them what you want to be to them. They'll tell you whether you can get there from where you are. If they tell you you can't, then you either have to change things so you can, or find another way.

Ron Paul wanted to be president, and while he's still technically in the race, he won't be president.

White Cottage Cab

Okay, so tonight it's not about fine food. Frozen pizza. But, because I had frozen pizza, I decided to pull a nice bottle of wine. 2004 White Cottage Cabernet. Very rich and full. If you like a good cab, you'll like this. Retails about $45. It made the frozen pizza almost edible.

Check it out. http://www.whitecottageranch.com/

Serial Hobbyist

Have you ever heard the word "seminared?" That's when you comeback from a seminar all fired up to put into practice all the things you learned at the seminar. That's why I started this blog. I didn't actually go to a seminar, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. And while I was there I read Hugh Hewitt's book.

Louie ticks is not my first attempt. I started one five years ago, made one post and forgot about it. I figure this kind of thing is about as egocentric as you can get. To think that some one would give a hoot about what some old ad guy thinks really is pretty ludicrous if you think about it. In any event, it is my new hobby.

My thought is to write about what ever I want to write about when I want to write about it. There's plenty of material out there. So if you check in, check back.