Marketing
Take Your Child to Work Day.
This is a story I have posted about before but it’s worth repeating. I worked as marketing director at an Ed Tech (educational technology) company a while back had to put together a talk for “Take Your Children to Work” day. The warehouse, call center, installers, professional development departments all had to do a few minutes on what mommy and daddy did. Close your eyes and imaging 60 kids sitting on a conference room floor listing to a discussion of HR. The kids were also going to tour the departments and walk through each part of the building. A long, long day to fill.
So how does one ‘splain marketing to a disinterested kid sitting on a floor waiting for recess or snack?
“Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a lemonade stand?”
“Marketing is all the decisions you have to make in order to sell the lemonade. Are you going to use a package mix or real lemons? How are you going to keep the ice cold?” That’s Product of the “Four “Ps” of marketing. “How much are you going to charge for the lemonade? Twenty five cents or a dollar?” Price. “What should the sign say? And where should you put the sign(s)? How big should the letters be on the sign?” Promotion. And lastly, “Where should you put your stand? In front of your house or on the corner, near two streets?” Place.
Always know your audience and speak to them in terms they understand. Not in terms you understand. Okay, it’s cookie time.
Peace.
Does P&G Have a Brand Strategy?
Can a holding company have a brand strategy? I come from the ad agency world where holding companies such as IPG and Omnicom don’t really stand for anything specific. P&G is another large parent or holding company that has little brand meaning other than the physical nature of its size and scope. GE is a holding company, but also a manufacturer of branded products.
The answer to the questions about holding or parent companies and brand strategies is yes. They can and should have brand strategies. That doesn’t mean they have to advertise it, they just have to live it. Hain Celestial Group is holding company brand with consumer brands like Celestial Seasonings, Earth’s Best and BluePrint cold pressed juices, among others. All reside in the healthier-for-you category. I don’t quite know what the Hain Celestial brand strategy or organizing principle is but I can assure you the CEO does and he uses it to in decision-making, purchases and portfolio maneuvers.
The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System is another parent brand that has benefited from a brand strategy, though it started out as a loose federation of hospitals. The whole, over time, with smart guidance, has become more powerful than the parts.
But the world’s most powerful packaged goods company, Proctor and Gamble, seems to break the mold. For the life of me I can’t figure out its brand strategy. Its objective was to own the number 1 or 2 grossing brand in its categories, but that’s not a strategy. Everybody has heard of P&G, yet no one can buy a P&G branded product. I’m befuddled, yet intrigued. I need to do more learning. Anyone have some ideas?
Peace.
Twitter Brand Strategy.
Following is Jack Dorsey’s off-the-cuff articulation of Twitter’s brand strategy. “To be the fastest and best service to show what’s happening in the world.” It was stated in a NYT article discussing the executive departure of Adam Messinger, Twitter’s chief technology officer. I very much like it. It’s focused. It’s organically tied to Twitter’s best feature. It works from a macro point of view and micro point of view.
Twitter is like New Coke. If it were to go away or change, there would be a revolt.
I’m sorry to hear huge investors want more stock growth. I’m sorry senior officers want to leave. I’m sorry the leadership isn’t what it might be. But Twitter is bigger than all those things. Twitter is the world’s instant mouthpiece. In 750 years when the planet’s denizens are all speaking one language and share the same color skin Twitter will still be around. And Mr. Dorsey’s brand strategy will still hold.
Peace.
Sell hard, sell soft.
I’m always looking for consumer and marketing patterns, especially those that manifest in larger cultural happenings. I’ve written about the new health care phenomenon whereby we flip the model from treatment to prevention – the goal of the Affordable Care Act.
Today I was reading about a new or retro law enforcement program being tested in Queens and Manhattan, moving away from “enforcement” to “prevention.” Officers are asked to walk the beat more, spending more time talking to people in the community, learning about hot spots, pressure points, personalities and flow – hopefully before bad stuff happens. It’s similar to the healthcare model and I’m sure it will work. There will always be a need for enforcement as there will always be a need for treatment, but a few ounces of prevention — listening and learning — can go a long way.
This got me wondering about selling. Can “hard sell” be allied with treatment and enforcement? The hard sell approach is about getting someone to do something they don’t want to do. With immediacy. Ding dong. Ring, ring. Button holing consumers on the street. Softer sell, is about preparing a consumer the time when they will be ready to buy. It works by making a positive impression. A memorable impression.
Hard sell is expected in advertising. From people, in belly-to-belly selling situations, not so much. A key to marketing is “sell hard, in soft mode.” Effectively, preventing rejection.
Peace.
Claim and Proof in Advertising
As a brand planner, whose primary concern is developing master brand strategy, my discovery phase is all about finding the right claim and the three most motivating proof planks supporting that claim. This claim and proof framework is perhaps the simplest most easy to understand means by which to build a brand.
Claim and proof is also a good driver for making effective advertising. Advertising, the biggest chunk of a marketing budget, is one of the weaker arrows in the marketing quiver. Why? Because it is mostly claim and very little proof. Following is an example
UBS is a huge global financial company. It invests billions of consumer’s retirement savings, mine included. It ran an ad in The New York Times today attempting to convince readers it is expert in the complicated Chinese market (claim). There is lots of flah flah flah about risk and reward in the copy then they break out the big and “proof” of claim: “As the first foreign bank in China…” That’s all you got? That’s the proof of local knowledge superiority?
Opportunity lost.
Peace.
Inspiration
Yahoo! Treading Water.
Yahoo! is sitting on a bundle of cash and according to news reports stockholders are clamoring for a payout. The cash is from holdings in Alibaba which just IPO’d. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO, is being pressured to not spend money on purchases of other tech companies a la the huge Tumblr purchase — stock owners want dividend checks. Can’t really blame them.
Yahoo is a media company and a technology company. And frankly, they are not excelling at either. David Pogue is not happening. Katie Couric, not so much. The new digital food magazine is not burning down the house. And mobile first – I don’t really know what that means other than make stuff work on smaller screens and invent fun phone apps – is not delivering differentiated value at this point.
Ms. Mayer needs to tell investors “snookie, shut up and get in your bed.” She needs to put the check book away and stop looking to buy side view mirror tech companies (companies fast approaching from behind). Yahoo’s new strategy is “be part of people’s daily habits.” A nice start. But weather, food, tech news and the Middle East have been done. Yahoo needs to invent in areas that are not saturated. And big data is a good place to mine for behaviors and habits. Focus on daily habits, innovate around them and deliver under the Yahoo brand. First understand the habits, then understand the pent up demand, then turn the engineers loose. I get the feeling the engineers are defining the need, which is backwards.
Too much company time is spent reinventing not inventing. Peace.