Tag Archives: Advertising and Marketing

October 31, 2012 · 8:26 am

The War Of The Worlds

Even I’m not old enough to remember the 1938 radio broadcast that took place on yesterday’s date. I am, however, very aware of what it meant. October 30, 1938 was when The War Of The Worlds aired, directed and narrated by Orson Welles. While his aim may have been entertainment, he succeeded in panicking an entire nation, and therein lies the business point.

Welles set the story up as a series of news bulletins which interrupted a seemingly normal music program (Ramon Raquello for you detail freaks).  Based on a novel by H.G. Wells, the news bulletins told of a war against an alien army – Martians invading the Earth.  If you’ve never listened to this masterpiece, you can hear it via this link.  Unlike the Tom Cruise movie, this has nothing in the way of visual effects but is far more terrifying.  It caused panic all over the country as people fled from their homes.

The business point? Almost every business is a content creator these days.  While the interwebs may be a cesspool of made-up “facts”, it’s also become a primary source of news and information for a lot of folks.  Your business probably isn’t in politics where the standard of truth is just a bit skewed.  The self-congratulatory post you add to your blog boasting of your sterling service record might just end up as evidence in a suit brought by someone who was dissatisfied with the reality of your support.  Employees might see your website as filled with lies and one of them might decide to be a whistleblower.  What they allege might not be true, but it might cost you time and money to prove it.

Welles was providing entertainment (although a lot of very upset people didn’t quite see it that way).  His Halloween prank would be easy to check out today (although nothing would stop a smart content creator from flooding the web with a bunch of web pages and tweets set to publish just as the prank was being pulled).  A certain amount of hyperbole is accepted by consumers; outright lies aren’t.  You need to find that line and stay onside.

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October 10, 2012 · 9:21 am

Inappropriate Brand Behavior

The folks at Lab42 put out a piece of research concerning how consumers interact with brands on Facebook.

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

I find it illuminating although not particularly surprising. Let’s see what you think.

As reported by the Media Post folks:

Nearly one-half of social media users have liked a brand without ever having intentions to buy from them. Among those 46%, more than one-half say they were motivated to like the brand by a freebie, and 46% simply wanted to associate with the brand, even though they couldn’t afford the brand’s products.

As they say on Facebook, OMG!  People have ulterior motives, although I’m not really sure that wanting to save a buck or seeing certain products as aspirational are exactly out of the norm.  In fact only 14% of social media users who like brand pages say they do so out of loyalty to the brand.  What’s even more interesting are the reasons people gave for un-liking a brand:

73% of social media users have un-liked a brand, citing a high frequency of brand posts, no longer liking the brand, or a bad customer experience as reasons for doing so.

In other words, the brand is using Facebook (and probably other social media as well) as yet another marketing megaphone rather than as a way to conduct conversations with consumers.  In fact, there is a segment of the Facebook base – 15% or so – who just don’t like brands at all, mostly out of privacy concerns and not wanting the clutter in their news feeds.  Of course, communication from a brand is only perceived as clutter if it has no value to the recipient (and for the record there are certain people who are guilty of doing the same thing to their friends’ feeds).

All of this makes sense.  Facebook and other social media are not where people go to interact with brands and brand messaging – that would be a brand’s website.  Obviously social media is a place brands need to be but they need to respect why users are there and interact appropriately.  Giving something of value is clearly appealing – cluttering up news feeds is not.

What are your thoughts?  Do you like brands on Facebook and other social media?  How is their behavior?  Have you un-liked any?  How come?

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August 31, 2012 · 8:07 am

Forced Endorsements

 

Our Foodie Friday Fun this week isn’t directly about food

English: American cook, author, and television...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

at all but about one of the most entertaining people ever to prepare it. That would be Julia Child, about whom I’ve expressed my admiration before. I’m not sure if you’re following what is going on with her estate and the Thermador people but it instructive on a number of levels.
Let me say at the outset that I own a Thermador oven. Two of them, in fact, and I’m quite happy with them, so there’s no axe to grind against the company. That said, they’re behaving badly.  You see, they’ve been using the fact that Julia Child had a Thermador ovens in her home and TV kitchens as the basis for an implied endorsement.  So much so that magazine ads that showed photos of Julia and two of the brand’s ovens with the caption, “An American Icon and Her American Icons.”

Well, you say, sounds like a typical celebrity endorsement.  As we all know the notion is that people who like the celebrity will like the product the celebrity likes too.  There’s only problem.  Julia Child NEVER endorsed products.  Nothing.  She always felt she was a teacher, and anything that wasn’t of the highest quality could undermine her reputation.  The foundation that owns her intellectual property has sued since they were never approached in advance of the use and turned down a license when they were since they won’t license her name or image for endorsements.  Pretty straightforward so far.

Here is what’s interesting.  Thermador is claiming it’s not an endorsement.  As the L.A. Times reported, they:

filed a suit in Boston on Friday asking a federal judge to make a legal declaration that they had the right to use Child’s connection to the brand in its marketing materials. In its complaint, BSH’s lawyers wrote that the company’s use of Child’s photo and name “do not state or imply any endorsement” but “reflect on the long history, significance and influence of Thermador products on American society and culture.”

Right.  It’s a statement of fact.  So if an athlete is photographed drinking a Coke, it’s fine if Coke uses that statement of fact in an ad.  I don’t think so.  More importantly, to those of us who admire Julia, this is having exactly the opposite effect as an endorsement.  You can’t force people to endorse your products, you can’t use their likeness without permission, and you can’t rationalize your way into it being OK.  This is a good lesson on why bad behavior seldom works out in business. I can’t imagine anyone who has ever done anything in marketing wouldn’t have known that this is wrong.

Thermador, I use your products and like them – feel free to use that endorsement.  But stop behaving badly, please.  You’re better than this, or at least your ovens are.

 

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