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UPS campaign is a joke. Really.

By
Steve Poppe
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This blogger has just learned that the UPS marketing mantra the last 10 years or so “What can brown do for you?” has been a big joke.  The brainchild of two young agency creatives while on a weekend bender, the line is absolutely meaningless. An anonymous source said that UPS needed something that translated across the globe and after numerous Google searches and 12 language translations the words “What can brown do for you” came through without problem.
 
An ex-UPS senior marketing executive who asked to remain off the record offered “No other company owned the word ‘brown’ so it was a defensible branding asset. And asking customers what they want is an age-old marketing ploy. The reality was, when we asked our customers what we could do for them their first answer was ‘deliver my package.’ Since that’s what we do anyway, it seemed like a can’t lose proposition. Wrap that up with a lot of brown and you have a classic branding campaign.”  
 
The unnamed creatives said the line was always a joke and that they were still a little high from a long night out when they presented it. 
 

The Future of Market Research is Open.

By
Steve Poppe
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0


 

WPP is putting up some big pounds in pursuit of global marketing research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS). Martin Sorrell’s group is in a bidding war with GfK. Though Taylor Nelson seems to be going strong today with a high stock price, I am of the mind that technology and the Internet will start to crimp the style of these global market research companies. I know, I know, it’s not just about data collection and distribution. You have to do something smart with it. Value-add, as T.N.S. likes to say. Though, with all that I hear, read and see today, marketers are becoming more facile with data collection tools and I’m thinking that a good deal of market research will be handled in-house 3-5 years from now. 
 
Some smart marketing nerds are going to provide an open source tool that will let users tap into a variety of sales measurement, analytic and prediction schema. Mr. Sorrell, buy the company, if you must, but mine it for the best data and software people and get out in front of this. Peace!
 

YouTube Will Reign Supreme in Ads

By
Steve Poppe
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David McCullough’s book on John Adams is a slow read but has its moments. One such moment is the description of Washington D.C. and how it became the capital before it was much of a town.  Adams thought the president and capital should be in a big city – a place befitting the center of the new world. Jefferson, however, wanted something a little closer to the South and had the vision to recognize you had to start somewhere. So in 1800 our nation’s capital moved to the little backwater town of Washington D.C. and began its long path to greatness.
 
Early Washington D.C. is an apt metaphor for what YouTube is today as an advertising vehicle. YouTube is only expected to generate $200 million in ad revenue this year and Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt (parent of YouTube) has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying “the company hasn’t yet found the best formula for video advertising.”  Oh, it will. Give them another year. And if you buy online media today, YouTube is a great place to start.  Soon they will be printing money.
 
One prediction: the solution won’t include pre- or post-roll. Peace!
 

Gossip Girl doesn’t do Richie Rich.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

 
A friend and co-worker of mine is an investor in a trendy clothing company called Heatherette. Heatherette’s key designers, Richie Rich and Traver Rains, throw a runway show during New York Fashion Week that one is unlikely to forget. The Fall show had on its runway Lil Mama, Jenna Jameson and Kim Kardashian. Anyway, I’m a big Gossip Girl fan and Richie (especially) and Travers are quite camera friendly and animated, so I told my friend he should contact the show producers and try and get a Heatherette product placement or, better yet, Richie and Travers written into a show storyline.
 
Apparently the PR person didn’t think it a good idea. Too bad.
 
 
It seems that though the TV show isn’t off the charts in terms of weekly viewers, its loyal followers are buying the fashions worn on the show ass-over-tea-kettle; some kids and young women, in fact, are walking into stores with magazine pages showing the kilts, blazers, etc. they can’t live without.
 
This fish definitely got away.
 
 

Open source in B2B?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Open source in the software game is a fascinating phenomenon.  Organizations open up their code to outsiders whom they hope will improve it while at the same time enlisting a community of loyal users.  It all started in response to Microsoft’s closed, monopolistic approach to business. Many programmers became so anti-Microsoft that they grouped together and created open source products, beginning with the Linux operating system.

Today an outgrowth of this is corporations employing user-generated-content networks to keep in close touch with consumers — allowing them to help mold product spec.  And it’s working.  This provides an ongoing, low-cost consumer research loop.

But where are the business-to-business and industrial manufacturers in all of this?  When, if ever, will they open up their engineering code to others in the hope of product improvement?   Isn’t it counter to everything they’ve learned in business school and on the street?  Yup, but that will change.

B2B companies will begin to open up to the engineering departments of their customers using online tools and the results will be surprising.   

ROS

By
Steve Poppe
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0

  

Call the economy what you will, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize most businesses are retrenching. Businesses are cutting people, product, stores, distribution and promotion. One thing businesses will be dialing up, however, is assessment of strategy. The business of marketing has become so tactically focused that one is hard-pressed to look at a company’s consumer-facing efforts and identify a strategy. So, what business will improve during these doldrums? Consulting.  
 
Companies will want to identify their best customers. Their worst customers.  Their most likely new customers. They will want to know which competitor is the weakest and why. They will “follow the money,” and consultants typically can help with this. It’s great that the SEO program is improving click-throughs and that 8% of customers are finding the website more navigable, but in today’s market it’s about validating the business strategy, not the tactic.  I call this ROS — return on strategy. ROI is so last year.
 

Those who can…

By
Steve Poppe
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0
Wired Magazine’s Chris Anderson published a book called “The Long Tail” which has been the pop marketing book of the last two years. It states that the internet allows people more product and service choices and therefore dilutes the market power of master brands. A new article published by Anita Elberse, marketing professor at Harvard b-school suggests otherwise (tinyurl.com/3rg5gp). Says Ms. Elberse, the internet helps magnify those with buzz and the market leaders.
 
A new book called “Buying In” written by Rob Walker, a NY Times Magazine reporter and marketing blogger, addresses the influence brands have over consumers. It seems his view lies somewhere in the middle of these two theories.
 
Likes and dislikes when it comes to products and services, defy rules. I loved strawberry shortcake as a kid until I ate so much I got sick to my stomach. Raw clams were disgusting to me until I saw the rapture on my uncle’s face as he slurped one down. I knew the first time I heard “Lazy Eye” by the Silversun Pickups, that they were a special band, yet did not like Rage Against the Machine until I saw them live. Now they are a favorite. This stuff defies theory.
 
Marketing is all about the art, the time and place, the referring agent and guts. The guts of the marketer and the gut feeling of the consumer. If you have an eye and an ear for it, you win. If you don’t, you write theory.

 

Taken to energy school.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

 
Steve and Barry’s University Sportswear has been on my radar for years. The two founders, Barry Prevor and Steven Shore, broke some rules and used edgy retail smarts to create a huge sales phenomenon. Launched when the economy was good, they created a value brand where everything in the store cost $7.99. Everything.  Prices and the business model have changed over the years but Steve and Barry’s is still a value brand. One would think they would be flourishing now as money gets tight, but they are not. 

Their’s is a volume business with very low margins. They manufacture in Asian, Africa and probably South America. I’m guessing they produce a tee-shirt for under a buck, but getting it to America and onto a store shelf with a couple of quarters worth of profit is the real magic.

 
Unfortunately, Steve and Barry’s is on the verge of bankruptcy today. What’s different? Less people looking for bargains? No. Who knew the price of oil would impact a chain of tee-shirt stores? Certainly not Steve and Barry. I hope they can turn it around. They deserve another chance.  

PS. If you like “white hot” guitar music, The Feelies are playing July 4th in Battery Park, NYC at 3:30.  I don’t have a ticket and will be sitting outside.  Perhaps with my telescope, as in the old days.

 
 

No crying over spilt…

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 

 
David Maxwell for The New York Times

Some big box stores have redesigned the gallon milk carton and consumers are up in arms. The new boxy cartons are not easy to pour and often result in the spilling of some milk. “What the…?” say new users while sloshing these oblong vessels. Trainers are now stationed near the milk area in Wal-Mart and Costco teaching grumpy buyers the new “rock and pour” technique.

 
Why are we to be inconvenienced by this new boxy gallon design?  Why must we retrain ourselves in the pour? It is simple: gallon jugs are expense to make, stock, ship, clean, load and shelve. They are inefficient and are an amazing energy suck. These forward thinking companies deserve our applause.  We should learn from them.  All us us need to be a more thoughtful of energy consumption. And if it requires a little inconvenience or a little retraining I’m all for it. 
 
(Try this one — next time you are at the deli buying a sandwich say “No paper bag please.” Got to start somewhere.)
 

Keep Logistics Out of Clothing Design.

By
Steve Poppe
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0
“Logistics Are in Vogue With Designers” reads a headline in today’s Wall Street Journal. With the economy continuing to soften, some of the larger design house brands such as Valentino and Bulgari are investing in IT and more robust supply chain systems; the thought being, if they know what is selling where and when, they can quickly course correct and optimize profits.
 
As a planner, one of the businesses I’ve always loved to watch is the clothing design business. The best designers look ahead for inspiration. They bet their careers on it. Yet with all of this new reporting from stores and more science in the equation, inspiration will wane. I often squawk about “rearview mirror” planners.  I have no problem with data collection and analysis, but it does not provide the way forward.  

The best clothing designers know this and should swear off these sales reports.
 

 

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