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The one and only is back.

By
Steve Poppe
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The U.S. retail business is set for a downturn, just ask anyone at the Davos Conference in Switzerland. Yet Sony seems quite rosy about its future and rightfully so. Have you seen (or bought) one of Sony’s beautiful flat screen TV’s lately? And, OMG, have you viewed any programs in Hi-Def on them? They are amazing. Sony always kicked butt in TV but now they’re back with a vengeance. 

 
If the average American spends 3 hours a day watching television and that television offers superb color, digital sound and an excellent viewing experience – and all the while those 4 little letters (S-O-N-Y) are staring you in the face — you know that quality story is going to transfer over to other Sony products.
 
Sony TV’s never really left, but competitors had been making inroads. Not any more. Quality-wise, Sony TV’s are back on top. And that is going to pull along the rest of the product portfolio rather nicely, thank you very much. Great strategy!
 

Two big ideas.

By
Steve Poppe
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 The Root is a new online magazine targeting African Americans, underwritten by The Washington Post. Its editor-in-chief is Henry Louis Gates, Jr. a writer and Harvard professor . The managing editor is Lynette Clemetson and contributing writers will include Malcolm Gladwell and William Julius Wilson. Donald E. Graham, CEO of the Washington Post and son of Katharine Graham, is its CEO and looks to be putting some serious financial support behind it. With Senator Barack Obama running for president, now may be the perfect time for The Root’s launch.

 
Another interesting fact about the magazine is its focus on genealogy. Building family trees is encouraged as is DNA testing to assist in the tree building. Mr. Gates owns a company www.AfricanDNA.com that will assist in this DNA research as African Americas trace their lineage backward, extending to various regions of Africa.  Very cool stuff.
 
Both of these are powerful, timely ideas, but probably should remain separate business ventures. The mission gets a little blurry when trying to explain how the two things work together, e.g., politcal and cultural news/commentary and genealogy. Were I running the show, I’d keep The Root for the genealogy business and come up with a more today, topical name for the editorial property. And separate them.
 
That said, good luck to both enterprises.
 

One Ford Campaign.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

 “One Ford,” the new rallying cry of CEO Alan R. Mulally, is an internal and Wall Street message intended to build moral among employees and The Street on the heals of crazy losses. Ford reduced losses by close to $10 billion in one year but was still $2.7 billion in the hole in 2007. “One Ford” connotes consolidation of the four Ford companies into one and the reduction of the many, many production platforms around the world into a more economical number. 

 
Today TV stations are crowded with Ford cars commercials — and the cars are very nice. Sales of the Edge and Focus will lead the way thanks to some nice designs and smart partnerships. That’s what we need to be hearing about in the business press, not about employee rallies with people are holding up “One Ford” cards. 
 
Build better cars. Build greener, more fuel efficient cars. Focus on the cars and drivers. Then wrap them in an exciting new brand envelope. There is no need for public displays of company solidarity. Even all the Ford dealers you closed this year would agree with that. 
 
 

Pharma outstanding in its field? Not!

By
Steve Poppe
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0

This whole pharmaceutical advertising thing is driving me crazy. Pharma ads today read like investor relations documents: they contain thousands of words, are dense, unintelligible, full of obfuscation and blather. Has anyone other than a lawyer and proofreader really ever read one of these print ads stem to stern(um?)

 
Today Merck issued it a counterpoint ad telling readers not to believe a recent study questioning the combined efficacy of cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin. Give it a read, if you have an extra hour. 
 
I’m old school. I want my doctor to proscribe medicine and to know about and believe in that medicine. I don’t want to make the decision after having read 10,000 words of gibberish, that includes a side effect, such as “in rare cases, your Homer Simpson might turn green.”
 
When we have socialized medicine, I certainly don’t want competition to diminish – a serious possibility — but reducing all of the spending on direct to consumer pharma ads should cut about 25% of the cost.  Sometimes, it seems, too much competition isn’t good.
 

Barack and Hilary. Hillary and Barack.

By
Steve Poppe
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If you have been watching any of the democratic debates lately you have been treated to some serious sparing between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Nobody really likes the mudslinging which often results in a draw, but I have to wonder why so much time is reserved for this sort of McNasty campaigning? And why does the media focus on it so?
 
Here’s my take. As nasty as it is, and as petty as some of the points and counterpoints are, I think it gives us a view into the candidates under pressure. Do they remain cool? Do they stumble? Do they loose sight of their strategic vision or do they get embroiled in the tactical piss-fest? Who looks ready to crack, America ask. All other policy things being relatively equal, I look to these moments to help me understand who acts “presidential” under pressure and who is wired best to handle the pressure-packed job.
 

The Super Bowl is killing Budweiser.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Each year Anheuser Busch invests more and more money in Super Bowl ads. They are convinced it works. And why should they think otherwise? Over the past 10 years AB has earned the top spot more than any other brand in USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter. 


How else does AB measure the success of these commercials? Here’s what they say: “Likeability” of the ads, increased sales and market share, “making our selling system excited,” and, lastly, “making consumers feel we are the leader in the category.” With the exception of sales and market share these metrics are drivel. Anheuser Busch beer sales are down. Bud Light is successful, but the rest of the portfolio is lagging. 

Do you know what really excites employees and distributors? Sales. Crazy sale. Perceptions of leadership, likeability and company excitement are second tier metrics for companies whose sales are dropping.  AB needs to do better job of blocking and tackling, focusing, and refining its core message.  It needs to stop spending 6 months each year on the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is killing Budweiser. 

Here’s what I remember about Anheuser Busch Super Bowl advertising over the last 5 years: dalmations, clydedales, big fire trucks and snow. I’m not feeling it Mr. Busch.

Where have all the business ads gone?

By
Steve Poppe
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0
 
I’m not saying the economy is bad and I daren’t use the “r” word, but in all my years of reading the New York Times Business section I don’t ever recall thumbing through an issue without ads. Perhaps September 12, 2001.  Today’s business section had not one page of display advertising. Not a half page. Not a quarter. Oon-gots (I apologize to my Italian readers for the spelling.)
 
Actually, there are three postage size ads touting churches and a cigar-size ad selling a book about the bull market, but that’s it. If businesses aren’t investing in advertising in arguably America’s greatest newspaper, we are in a serious downturn.   

Fifth Generation Systems Takes $5.3 Million Series B

By
Steve Poppe
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0

source: TechCrunch

United College Fund.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

When my daughter was very young she came home from school one day and referred to a girl in her class by the color of her dress, her height, where she sat and assorted other descriptors. The girls was black. We are white. My daughter never used skin color to describe the girl. She hadn’t yet been polluted.

 
The United Negro College Fund has recently undergone an extensive re-branding effort through which it will dial down, but not eliminate, the word negro. Only the initials will be used in the logo U.N.C.F.  
 
I admit to not knowing first hand how black people feel about the word, though with the heightened use of African American and People of Color the last couple of decades I’m going to go out on a limb and say negro doesn’t own favored status.
 
Hayes Roth and Interbrand gave the UNCF bad counsel by allowing use the word negro in its official legal name. If we need to define people by skin pigment, and frankly I don’t believe we do, I would suggest contemporizing the name using more accepted terms such as: black, African American or people of color. I can never see myself looking a black man or woman in the face and referring to them as negro. That’s the litmus for me. Am I wrong? 
 

Plumbers Hiney at Apple?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Steve Jobs made two big announcements yesterday at Macworld Expo, Apple’s annual technology tradeshow. The first was about a new notebook called the MacBook Air. The new MacBook was delivered to the stage in an interoffice-size envelope demonstrating its amazingly thin profile. Great theater. 

http://news.zdnet.com/2422-13568_22-183698.html

The other big announcement was an iTunes movie distribution service, which will turn out to be a mistake if you ask me.

 

Apple is a technology company. An electronics and design company. Getting into media and media distribution dilutes the company’s core competency. I know, I know — Apple is making some nice coin with iTunes, but it is truly reducing the focus of the management team. Each year Apple spends more and more money managing lawyers and biz-dev people – money that would be better served going into product development.  

 

Will the cult that is Apple start to see some cracks? A quote from the New York Times today on the new movie service reads “But the risk for Apple is that consumers may not like the limits placed on their movie viewing,” a point referring to the amount of time in which renters must view the movie before it times out.  Apple has always been about expanding capability, not creating limits. Steve Jobs knows this. That’s why the iPhone was such a success. Creating limits for consumers is where the cracks begin. Nice computer. Movie business? Not so much.

 

 
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