Tag Archives: Marketing and Advertising

June 17, 2013 · 9:12 am

Speak In Music

I was had a chat over the weekend with a friend who can speak music. I don’t mean “sing” and that’s not some sort of weird linguistic screw up in my writing. Let me explain what I mean and why it’s important to you and your business.

Rama First Nation - Ojibwe Language Dictionary

(Photo credit: Robert Snache – Spirithands.net)

Think about many of the laughable marketing materials you’ve seen over the years. Generally they fail for a few reasons, one of which is an inability to speak the language of the target audience. I remember when I was younger laughing at companies trying to be “hip.” I still laugh at the messages targeted at really young people when it’s the parents making the buying decision. It’s an inability to speak the language, and it’s just as bad as running English language ads in a country where the native tongue is something else. Of course, there are the classic attempts to speak the native language and failing miserably (the Chevy Nova being marketed in Mexico with a name that translates to “doesn’t go” isn’t great for a car and is my personal favorite). So what do we do?

We try to speak music.  What I mean is that music is a universal language – Bach, Mozart, Miles Davis, and others speak to us all – language isn’t an impediment.  Even music that is language-centric can convey a message and emotion – look at the success here of “Gangnam Style” and let me know if you need Korean to “get” the song.

That was the point of the conversation.  We all need to think in more of a universal language as businesspeople.  Sure, some of us are focused on specific segments, but the more “musically” we convey our message and conduct ourselves, the better our chances of success.  My friend was explaining a feeling to me and didn’t use words – just a link to a song.  I got it right away.  It’s the sort of different thinking all of us need if we’re to break through.

And the best part is you don’t even need to buy a dictionary!  Does that make sense?

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June 11, 2013 · 10:05 am

Ratings Are Back-Assward

I saw something this morning with which I agree totally. It’s a statement, reported in MediaPost, by Starcom MediaVest Group CEO Laura Desmond about how media is measured and how consumers’ multi-screen consumption makes the traditional methods far less useful. As she said: “We need to invest in new measurement techniques for brands.”  That’s right, except that for the most part what we hear about has nothing to do with brands.  In fact, what we do now, and what I expect the industry will do in the future is completely backward.  Let me explain.

When you read about the most-viewed content of the week, have you ever seen a mention of a commercial?  Nope.  It’s all about programs – The Voice or Idol or Duck Dynasty.  The measurements, as Ms. Desmond said, tend to be channel-specific and, therefore, might not reflect all of the consumption that’s occurring.  The point that’s missed from a marketing perspective is that brands use these ratings to estimate how many times their ad was seen and what value they derived from their investment.  My question is this:

Why are we measuring for one thing and reporting for another?

If what we’re after is how many people are seeing a message, why do we care about the vehicle in which that message is delivered?  The industry makes the programming entities measure themselves (fair, since that’s who’s getting paid to deliver the message) but then assumes everyone watching sees the message (OK, I know some folks adjust the numbers slightly but humor my rant here, please).  Why aren’t we working on a system where a brand message carries some sort of tag across all channels that would allow all the impressions to aggregate?  Further, those tags could be used much like cookies to track conversions.  Since it’s the brands that pay for the impressions, should it be their own results that are tracked?

If the industry follows Ms. Desmond’s thinking and does invest in new techniques to measure cross-channel results, they’ll have a hard time if what they’re measuring are programs.  Many programs aren’t in all the places brands want to go.  Some are sold by different sales entities across channels.  It’s backward to measure an inconsistent series of channels instead of the consistent brand who is paying the bills.

What do you think?

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May 24, 2013 · 8:56 am

Brands Out Of Control

A Foodie Friday that begins a long weekend here in the US. Today, however, we’re doing Foodie Friday Fails, and actually they’re kind of fun because of their inherent stupidity. Our fist bit of joy comes to us courtesy of the folks at Nutella.

Deutsch: Ein Glas Nutella-Nussnougatcreme

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A big fan of the hazelnut and chocolate concoction decided to celebrate the product by creating a “World Nutella Day” celebration and used social media and the web to promote it. Want to guess what happened next?

Sarah Rosso, the principal organizer of World Nutella Day, says she received a letter from Ferrero demanding that she stop using the Nutella name and logo. Since it’s a little hard to celebrate Nutella without using the word “Nutella,” that essentially spells death for any sort of World Day. Rosso, who described the letter as “a bit of a surprise and a disappointment,” will have to shut down her Facebook page, Twitter, and website — or, I guess, make them into blind items. “World Day to Celebrate An Unnamed Hazelnut Spread” doesn’t have as much of a ring, but at least it’s not actionable.

That’s right:  in a time when hundreds of brands are spending millions of dollars to create social virality, the geniuses at Ferrero shut down something that does nothing but celebrate their product in a positive way.  They’ve since recanted and are now supporting the effort, blaming their lawyers who reacted reflexively to use of a trademark.  Right.  In an event, the damage has been done but the lesson is worth repeating.  We no longer “own” our brands.  Our customers do and we need to support nearly everything they do unless it’s hurtful or illegal.

Then there are the folks at  TGI Fridays in the great state of New Jersey.  13 of their outlets were caught filling premium liquor bottles with cheap booze and charging top shelf prices for it.   Obviously, the brand takes a hit as a bar, but it also has to make customers wonder what’s going on in the kitchen if the bar is so out of control.  One bad apple and you can write it off to a rogue bar manager.   13 outlets and clearly no one is minding the store (or bar) by watching inventory and sales reports.  Maybe they’re not watching what’s being served or how it’s being cooked.

While the Nutella case shows someone paying too much attention, Friday’s shows the opposite   Managing is often a balancing act and here we have two food brands that have fallen off the wire.   Thoughts?

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