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Gap comeback.

By
Steve Poppe
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Poor Gap. They have been taking so much heat lately in the press for lack of vision and leadership and for being out of touch with today’s consumer. That said, Gap is a strong American brand that over the years has had some great advertising and should be able to make a come back.

 

That comeback started today.

 

Gap ran a wonderful spread ad today in the New York Times showing 4 young ladies in various states of drape.  Draped baggy shirts, draped and tucked hair, rumpled khaki pants pulled up, pulled down. We are made privy to wonderfully sexy silhouettes thanks to exceptional art direction. The cropping of the models on the page, their poses and the color – a khaki patina that is so, well, khaki.

 

Huge breasts are not a distraction, no booty pictures, just semi- androgynous, tough but confident women wearing “the boyfriend” trouser. Even the headline and product name tell a story. Mark my words, these babies (the pants) and accompanying white shirts are going to fly off the shelves. I can wait for the TV.

 

The new ‘um.

By
Steve Poppe
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0
I just wanted to sort of let you know that perhaps we as modern marketers, marketing agents and pundits, kind of equivocate more than previous generations.  Why is that?   I can only speak for the advertising and marketing community, but I think it has to do with the lack of science in our business.  So subjective is what we do, that people are afraid to commit to a position or point of view. 
 
Yesterday, while attended a conference on trends and ideas hosted by PSFK (www.psfk.com) in NYC, I had the pleasure of listening to many speakers and panelists.  It was then that I realized “sort of” is the new “um.”
 
In my first visit to a Freudian therapist a long time ago and I remember remarking “I kind of had feelings of anxiety.” These feelings were accompanied, by the way, by dizziness, near fainting and heart palpitations, but I “kind of” felt anxious. Sigmund said to me “KIND OF?” Let’s start there.”
 
So, for today’s marketers, planners and business people, let’s lose the “sort of” and be more definite.  At least until proven wrong.  It’s okay to commit to a point of view. It’s okay to be wrong and learn from it.  And I don’t mean sort of.

Size Matters

By
Steve Poppe
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0
Can anyone venture a guess as to why television sets are getting bigger? And flatter. And plasmatic (sorry Wendy O).  And surround sounded. Is it because our family rooms are getting bigger and we are sitting farther away from the screens? Is it because boomers are getting older and can’t see and hear as well? Is it because it allows manufacturers to extract larger margins? 
 
Nope. Nope. Nope.
 
It’s because we can now watch Grey’s Anatomy and other TV shows streaming on our computers making “size” and comfort the only real differentiators for TV. Size, I guess, does matter.
 

Wow!

By
Steve Poppe
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0
There is much to admire about Microsoft as a marketer, but it’s also kind of fun to pick on them and they really left the door open for the latter with today’s Vista spread ad. The headline “100 reasons why everyone’s so speechless.” promises to take us through all of these features. My guess is the media buy won’t be done until we’ve all been exposed to each reason at least 4 times. Today’s ad offers up 7. Can’t wait.
 
The campaign, which launched with lethargic fractional teaser ads, revolved around the idea  “The wow starts now,” but the advertising is anything but.  When was the last time you were wowed by a recitation of 100 anythings.  Wait a minute, I think #22 really wowed me. Or was that #32?
 
This effort is classic design by committee and it’s lazy. If this is the work of McCann Erickson, they should be ashamed. Jonathan Cranin are you listening?    

Dashboard my ass.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The pop marketing term of the last couple of years has been “dashboard.” As a brand planner who advocates “windshield” planning rather than the more common “rear view mirror planning” approach, I get the dashboard metaphor.

The marketing dashboard contains dials and gauges that monitor the performance of marketing programs. These metrics are valuable for sure but if one doesn’t look out the windshield, beyond the dials, and see what’s coming, they are driving with their head down.

Great marketers don’t wait around for consumer behaviors to be measured, great marketers decide what consumers will like…before they like it. They see in front of the dashboard. The future is a beautiful thing.

The ADD-ification of America.

By
Steve Poppe
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0
 
One of the biggest cultural phenomena in America today is what I call ADD-ification. We all have attention deficit disorder. We can’t sit still and we’re always in a hurry. When was the last time you drove your car without some form of entertainment — using the time to think? Thought so. 
 
Newspaper stories have gotten shorter, the chapters in our novels can be measured in paragraphs not pages, our meals come in microwavable packages, we even beep at people who sit at traffic lights for more than 5 seconds. Why? Because we’re in a hurry. 
 
How many advertising or branding briefs today are predicated on the insight that we are all pressed for time? I certainly have written a few. 
 
Stress is at an all-time high I would imagine, but with the right meds, we can get by. But hurry, the pharmacy closes at ten!  
 
(I’ll be off for a few days, see you Tuesday.)

Crispin Porter

By
Steve Poppe
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0
Crispin Porter is a good ad agency. That said, I’ve often wondered whether they can represent large consumer brands in a way that actually grows and sustains business. I’m not alone. They have taken some heat in the press and had high profile account losses.
 
This past weekend, though, they ran a Volkswagen Jetta ad in the New York Times and it was “terrific.”  Sitting beneath the traditional silhouetted car photo – the traditional layout from years past – was the headline “Junk in the Trunk.” I couldn’t pass it by. Expecting to read about extra trunk space, I was surprised to find out all about Jetta’s extra features. 
 
I know Crispin is a great media company and that they conceive startling creative, but maybe they should just sit the creative teams down and ask everyone to hone their print advertising skills. Our business is not only about being inventive, it’s about learning how to “sell.” This may be a good place for them to recharge their batteries.  

iTunes

By
Steve Poppe
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0
The reason CD sales are down is because of iTunes and file sharing, but not for the reason you think. It’s logical to assume CD sales are down because of $.99 downloads and free file sharing, right? Wrong.  CD sales are tanking because there is less loyalty to bands, stemming from consumers ability to buy or download single songs. Instead of listening to a whole album and learning to like the less commercial stuff, (listening to all of a band’s art, in other words) downloaders cherry pick the best songs, wear them out and get bored.  Bored with the song, the band, and dare I say, even the live performance.  This is problem the industry faces. 
 
We have ADD in America. We need instant gratification and we want it NOW. It’s up to the artists to make us like their art. All of it. There are many ways to build loyalty, but selling songs one at a time, at a discount, is not one of them.
 

Editing Cancer

By
Steve Poppe
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Microsoft Word’s editing function is a cancer in marketing. If everybody’s a writer, then nobody is the writer.
 
Raise you hand if you are using Microsoft Word’s editing function. Now, lower your hand if you are in a creative business, and here I include marketing. If your hand is still up, you are using a tool that creates more problems than it solves.
 
Writing is not a collaborative sport, not unless you are James Patterson. That is especially so for writing that is supposed to romance, motivate and sell. This type of writing needs to come from one person. The editing function on Word makes sense for lawyers and engineers but piecing kernels of information together, often compromised kernels, is bad for business. Writing that sells has an organic organization, requiring a beginning, middle and end.
 
Copy and paste writing — agreed upon by committee — is not writing. It’s typing. 

Viral or virus?

By
Steve Poppe
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0
To view consumer generated content (CGC) as anything more than consumers itching a creative scratch is silly. That’s not to say consumers can’t do a good job of entertaining and/or even selling a product or two. But if they are not making deposits in the “brand bank” they may actually be diluting brand values.  
 
When this CGC contests are run and “aired” on paid media, good brand managers will select only the efforts that best deliver the brand promise, but they should not overlook all the people generating “off brief” creative and sharing it on their own. If this happens, a brand manager isn’t managing the brand, s/he is monitoring it. And that’s when viral turns to virus.  
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