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Archive for the 'strategy' Category

Aug

Does mocking its target customers sell cars for Toyota?

By Kirk 3 Comments

Categories: advertising and strategy

When my kids were very young, I read a book by Hugh O’Neill called Daddy Cool: How to Ride a Seesaw with Dignity, Wear a Donald Duck Hat with Style, and Sing “Bingo Was His Name-O” with Panache. The stories helped me through puréed carrots and sleep deprivation.

O’Neill also wrote A Man Called Daddy and Here’s Looking at You, Kids: The Crowded Romance of Mom and Dad. “Welcome to a world where apple juice is the nectar of the gods,” he wrote. “Welcome to a slow dance of night-lights and snow pants. Welcome to what would be a look at family life through rose-colored glasses, if the kids hadn’t sold my glasses to their friend Phil.”

In his stories, O’Neill recounts with humor and affection such fatherly moments as:

reaching into the pocket of your suit for a business card and retrieving instead a body part belonging to Mr. Potato Head
discovering something sticky in the VCR
making a Halloween costume from a spaghetti strainer and a small rug from the hall
desperately trying to find a moment alone with mom for some quick romance
playing the part of a chicken in a fantasy game understood only by the child

The following Toyota TV spot reminds me of O’Neill’s perspective on parenting. Enter the Siennas:

Of course, the Sienna family and their Swagger Wagon have a Facebook page and their own YouTube channel.

Some find this hip-hop, gansta-rapping parody funny. A few find it racist!

More importantly, does it work? Does poking fun at parenthood sell minivans? Do parents, the target audience, embrace the joke — at their expense?

Jul

Does Geico’s multi-concept strategy work?

By Kirk 1 Comment

Categories: advertising, loyalty, promotion, simplicity and strategy

images How many creative strategies can one brand successfully execute at one time?

Conventional wisdom suggests one and one only. Be focused. Be consistent. Hammer it. You’ll grow weary of the campaign long before the audience is even aware of it.

Geico has broken this rule of thumb again and again. With seeming success.

Martin, the talking gecko, is most closely identified with the Geico brand, but he no longer has to do all of the heavy lifting.

The cavemen characters handle some of that, unintentionally and tragically reminding us how simple it is to switch insurance companies (”so easy a caveman could do it”).

There is also the stack of money with googly eyes, called Kash, representing “the money you could be saving with Geico.”

Now, actor Mike McGlone, playing a tough-guy reporter, asks rhetorical questions, such as “”Is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush?” (Learn the answer to, “Did the little piggy cry, ‘wee, wee, wee,’ all the way home?,” below.

And there’s more. Deadliest Catch boat captains, Jonathan and Andy Hillstrand, have appeared in numerous TV commercials, some of which costar the cavemen and Kash.

Even, Bear Grylls of Man Vs. Wild recently happened upon Martin the gecko in the bush. I was expecting Bear to eat him, but no such luck.

Other creative approaches focus on individual insurance products for motorcycles, boats, RVs, etc. (Many of Geico’s current spots are available to view here.)

Fielding multiple concepts simultaneously seems like a recipe for disaster, but the strategy appears to work. How? Three reasons:

Lots of budget. Geico spent $751 million on advertising in 2007, $561 million in 2008, and $473 million through October of 2009, per Nielsen. The commercials run endlessly.
Integrated concepts. To help connect the executions, characters frequently appear in each other’s commercials. (See Mike McGlone and a caveman in this spot, for example.)
Simple messages. While Geico’s creative execution is not focused, its messages regarding cost savings and ease of switching are simple and consistent. Most spots open or close with “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.”

So far, the gecko seems to have more staying power than the Budweiser frogs.

Jul

Tour de Tweets II

By Kirk 0 Comments

Categories: cause marketing, event marketing, health care, interactive marketing, promotion, social media and strategy

Note: It’s Tour Time! Here’s a post I wrote last year about the nearly seamless integration of social media into the event. In many ways, the 2009 Tour broke new ground for both participants and fans at major sporting events. And, yes, the ChalkBot is back in 2010!

The 2009 Tour de France, highlighted by Lance Armstrong’s return, may be remembered as much for being the first sporting event in history to fully integrate social media into the competition and the coverage.

Nearly every one of the 20 teams blogged and tweeted (e.g., Garmin-Slipstream and Astana).

Numerous riders and team managers tweeted as well (e.g., Levi Leipheimer, Andy Schleck, and Johan Bruyneel. (For examples of Twitter use by riders, see Dara Kerr’s post at CNET News.)

Active.com combined tweets from all of the participating riders and managers into one stream.

Armstrong, a skilled promoter, was most prolific. In Becky Ebenkamp’s post at Brandweek, Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media, which owns the Livestrong.com community, said, “(Armstrong) called up and said, ‘I … want to broadcast through Livestrong.com exclusively and use Twitter to make sure people can not only see the tour, but actually feel it and hear it directly from my mouth — unedited.’”

His Twitter and Facebook posts regularly included behind-the-scenes videos and photos. A skilled promoter, he leveraged his celebrity and his celebrity friends to raise awareness for Livestrong, such as a video of Ben Stiller clowning on Lance’s warm-up bike.

Traditional sports media relied on Twitter for leads. The Daily Mail published Lance’s Twitter diary. And while many of the riders’ posts were banal, some provided real insight into the action, such as this comment by multiple-stage winner Mark Cavendish, “Yesterday with 3km to go, Piet Rooijakkers (skil shimano) kidney punched me.”

The official Tour de France site included a fantasy team competition as well as blogs and Twitter.

Versus.com, the site of the TV network which broadcast the race, incorporated a dazzling array of fan-friendly features, including live coverage, mobile alerts, daily blogs including Armstrong’s, a message board, a widget providing updates, podcasts, an ask-the-expert feature, a serialized graphic novel, a sweepstakes, a virtual library of video and photos, trivia quizzes, and games.

One of Armstong’s sponsors, Nike, donates proceeds from the sale of Livestrong products to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Its tour site provided visitors the opportunity to post their own stories in words or video of hope in the face of cancer.

It also featured an ingenious innovation — the Chalkbot. Messages of encouragement and remembrance, texted by site visitors, were spray-chalked thousands of miles away on the roads of the tour during the event by the Chalkbot. Who could resist memorializing a loved one in this way?

The 2009 Tour was perhaps the most connected athletes, teams, sponsors, charities, media and fans have ever been. Where do you think it will lead?

Jul

Mayflower’s giant marionette: cute or creepy?

By Kirk 13 Comments

Categories: advertising, promotion and strategy

So, if Mayflower can move a 20-foot-tall marionette and her really big chair, it can move … help me here … you and your family?

Here’s my best guess at the strategy:

The challenge: Make consumers aware that Mayflower now offers a new portable moving and storage container service.

The solution: Build a giant puppet!

“We wanted a campaign idea that was as big as the new services that Mayflower offers, and I think we’ve found it,” Mayflower’s Chief Marketing Officer Steve Burkhardt said.

Or as Mayflower’s CEO reportedly said to Noah Garfinkel at BestWeekEver.TV, “No longer can we in good conscience keep helping people move by using four guys, boxes, tape, and a truck. From here on out, we will move like the pilgrims did when they came over on the actual Mayflower for which our company is named. Like them, we will construct a 20-foot-tall marionette doll in a pink dress that will lift boxes and blink slowly.”

The 700-lb. doll has received mixed reviews on the internet. Some find her beautiful. Some sultry. Some terrifying. What do you think?

May

For brand authenticity, look inside.

By Kirk 3 Comments

Categories: brand essence, cause marketing, loyalty and strategy

Even before the recession, numerous gurus, books and websites explored the concept of brand authenticity. The theory behind this recent buzz-phrase is that cash-strapped consumers gravitate toward those brands which feel more “real.”

So, what is authenticity? Can it be created? And if so, is “faking it” a sustainable marketing strategy?

Don’t buy a book. The answers are simple.

Authenticity simply means being true to one’s own character or values in the face of external pressures. It means the brand stands for some greater purpose or ideal than making money.

In reality, most consumers believe most brands exist to earn profits, which makes any claims suspicious from the start. However, a few brands are perceived to be true to some inner value or tenet, some principle, which endures over time. This genuineness is attractive to those consumers who share the same value.

Whole Foods, for example, stands for:

selling organic foods
promoting nutrition
buying local
sustaining agriculture and seafood
recycling
saving energy
giving back to the community

Customers who are in sympathy with these causes reward Whole Foods with loyalty.

For Patagonia (see recent post), selling outdoor clothing seems to be practically an afterthought to environmentalism. “For us, a love of wild and beautiful places demands participation in the fight to save them.”

From day one, Ben & Jerry’s included social responsibility as part of its mission. Tom and Kate Chappell started Tom’s of Maine with the philosophy that its products would not harm the environment. Both brands have since been purchased by conglomerates, but neither has abandoned its values. If they did, they would lose customers.

Strong brands don’t have to stand for social issues. Harley-Davidson, for example, stands for independence. Its vision statement includes, “We fuel the passion for freedom in our customers to express their own individuality.”

Despite what some branding consultants say, standing for something is not something that can be faked. At least, not for long. (See “Authenticity can’t be faked … can it?“)

What does your brand stand for? To find out:

Look to the founder. Perhaps you will get lucky and find a Tom and Kate Chappell who started the brand based on a belief.
Examine your brand’s vision and mission statements. What need does the brand address? What problem does it solve? What is its lofty goal? Are these ideals the brand can stand for? (Unfortunately, most vision and mission statements are lengthy, poorly worded, and probably of little help.)
Ask yourself. What principles of doing business have never changed?
Ask your employees. What do they get excited about? What values do they share? What customer problem would they like to fix?
Ask your customers. What issues matter to them?

Hopefully, deep inside, you’ll unearth what is authentic about your brand. When you do, embrace it. Expand it. Own it. Be famous for it.