Posts Tagged ‘advertising’

One of the most interesting facets of the financial meltdown has been watching the banks struggle to brand themselves as safe bets even as consumers rush in the doors to withdraw cash and stuff it in the mattress.

From mailers to full-blown marketing campaigns, banks are struggling to get a message of stability and calm in front of anyone they can (even high school wrestlers).

But can a bit of advertising save an unstable product?  It remains to be seen.  As you take in the new “we’re safe; we promise” message, though, remember that American manufacturers and banks were able to feed consumer impulses over almost two decades during the Great Depression (when nobody had any money) and World War II (when nobody could spend it).  As we keep saying over and over again, the savvy players in the economy are going to keep marketing even when the chips are down.  And guess who you’ll remember once your stock is riding high?

thanks to icathing for the photo

I’ve raved about Wrike, the Web-based to-do-list extraordinaire, before.  Now Wrike has featured us as a success story on their website!  I loved their timely response and attention to detail…a great reminder to everyone that testimonials are a huge part of marketing.

Read our testimonial here!

One of the sad realities of my life is a nasty dairy allergy that has forced me to give up the milky stuff for good.  Though I’ve (mostly) accepted the reality of my allergy, it hasn’t kept me from trying my hand at culinary substitutes for the creamy goodness of cheese and butter.

News flash:  there is no acceptable substitute for cheese.  Soy cheese is RANK (and often packed with casein, the very milk protein that triggers my allergy).  Texture, flavor, look…wrong, wrong, wrong.

Instead of trying to replicate the cheesy goodness of cheese, I’ve taken to acceptable substitutes such as nutritional yeast (not as bad as it sounds!) and crafty recipes I’ve adapted from the sly vegans who have made dairy-free cooking into an art form.  Highly recommended:  Esme’s Sauce, which nobody can believe doesn’t have dairy in it.

Still, it gets me thinking:  is there ever an excuse to directly imitate a competitor?

There are two schools of thought on this:

• Imitation is a form of flattery!  Why not rip off Crocs, or Twitter, or Coca-Cola if you can do it for cheap and while turning an awesome profit?  Besides, there are no new ideas.  Right?
• Imitation is copyright violation and a gross ethical misappropriation of intellectual property.  If you can’t come up with a unique idea, stay home and let the rest of us go about our business.

As a writer (who can vouch for the there-are-no-new-ideas thing), I have to say that I come out somewhere in the middle.  It’s always better to come up with the next great idea than to hitch your star on someone else’s unique concept.  However, imitation can be accomplished with subtlety and class.  Do you covet the slick advertising of a Method or the down-home appeal of Jones Soda?  You, too, can take on that unique style…but with your own flair.  The ideal imitation dips broadly into many wells, paying homage where homage is due and dressing up that flattery with some real substance.

With news of Starbucks closing 600 locations, I can’t help but reflect on the phenomenon of paring down.

So many people have an all-or-nothing marketing mentality: they either go all out (Starbucks’ own insane oversaturation of the market, anybody?) or completely withdraw and cut back until they lose any semblance of marketing.

We all know that marketing is a good investment (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), but when do we know that it’s time to pare down?

There’s no cookie-cutter answer, of course, but a few good indicators include:

• failure to meet revenue projections: this can mean many things, but it definitely warrants revisiting your marketing plan and how it serves (or undermines) your company’s financial goals;
• inability to continue marketing at the current pace due to audience drain, oversaturation, or just plain lack of energy
• a marketing monoculture consisting of one tired slogan or campaign that has never changed and shows no indications of starting anytime soon

Do one or all of these indicators mean that it’s time to throw in the marketing towel? Of course not. But each and every one is a good sign that a re-evaluation is in order. This can mean anything from a quick look at the books to a call to a strategic partner to a full-on rebranding/paring down effort a la Starbucks.

Think of it like pruning: in order to let a plant grow to its utmost glory, sometimes you’ve got to clear away the dead growth. The same is true for marketing. But prune with care…you don’t want to cut away at the heart of your business!

One of the coolest parts of my job is the inside look into the workings of companies large and small.  It can be shocking or even discouraging to notice that a client’s business looks healthy on the inside, but is struggling internally.  This can present itself in financial difficulties, lack of organization, or missing vision…but all too often it shows up in lack of marketing and brand direction.

How does brand direction relate to a company’s health?  Easy:  when a company has its values and goals ironed out, a stable brand direction tends to follow.  However, many entrepreneurs and business owners get into a reactive pattern in which they sacrifice a plan in favor of chaos mode.

We specialize in reducing chaos through clear expectations, goals, and direction.  At every juncture and turning point, we ask questions like Does this serve our client’s goals?  How can we measure results?  Why are we recommending this service or decision?

When clients ask for help, amazing things can happen.  Letting the right people in can help reduce the sense of chaos and re-establish a company’s confidence and strength in areas that reach far beyond marketing.  Part of what makes my job so awesome

Kohler.

They make you forget they are selling faucets, but rather investing in a work of art. All of the sudden it is a must have, high-end seeming product.

Never do they mention affordable art, because at that point it cheapens the product. Instead, they pull it off as high-end, but the sheer number of ads they have in magazines and on TV betray the idea that they are in fact marketing for the general populace.

The picture on the right is a brilliant piece of advertising. Of course, I am trying to figure out where to put a Kohler faucet in my already finished house. I feel as if I need one to be the chic, downtown urbanite I claim to be.