The Branding PowerPoint (as requested)

After a very well received Branding and Positioning seminar in South Pasadena, we are posting the Powerpoint presentation. It is little more than a slide show for those who like a little side of tongue in cheek with their information. However, when I posted this on Youtube, I received a little criticism about the lack of sound. For those of you who attended the presentation (and their friends), this first video is for you... quiet though it might be.




However, I felt absolutely horrible that anyone could have felt so cheated by the lack of sound in the presentation. So I recreated it with the help of my very good friend* Boots Randolf. Please enjoy the "sound."  :-)




Who ever said Branding and Positioning can't be fun?

*Never actually met my good friend Boots Randalf, but I love him (and Yakety Sax) all the same.

BRANDING A SMALL BUSINESS

Suzanne Marks, Pasadena Advertising’s comely CEO, just gave a seminar on "Branding" to the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce.  The audience members, by and large, were small business owners. They were concerned that since the big stores spend so much money on branding, they had better learn about it too.  However, branding and positioning efforts (for those who like semantic hair splitting) are usually reserved for large, impersonal corporations.  Branding is what gives the company a face: a personal connection that clients and customers can hold onto.

The business owners’ concern is understandable, as John Costello of Procter & Gamble fame once famously explained, “A brand image signifies a relationship with the customer.  It is the company’s most valuable asset.  It’s also the main differentiator, the best defense against price competition and the key to customer loyalty.  Competitors can copy your features and benefits, but they can’t steal your image.”

That said, giving a face to a small business is infinitely easier than creating a “face” for a corporation, because the business is, well, small enough to have a face built in, usually the owner's face.  The salespeople's faces.  And, the personal relationship is, more often than not, is actually personal – directly between people.  So branding techniques are ... well, simpler.  Take a shower.  Dress for work. Open your shop for business. Smile and make your customers happy.  Annnnnnnnnnd: Congratulations.  Your branding is done.

Okay, not quite. You also have to know who your prospective customers are. You have to design your store (and your signage) to appeal to them, and they have to see your appeal from across the street.

You have to pick a location where your customers would likely be and would like to be. You have to make your shop their home.  That’s all a part of your brand.  And you have to give your current customers the best product or service possible to build up the most powerful, long lasting brand advertising possible – Word of Mouth.

Then there’s that other advertising – the kind outside your store.  That's something you need to think about.  You have to be consistent and reinforce the image of your store, yourself and thereby your "brand" in everything you do. However, with the advent of social marketing, your advertising just got a whole lot cheaper.  With a web page, email, Twitter, Facebook and a blog, you can give directions, post hours, gain fans, thank old customers, entice new customers, post online coupons, showcase new products and services and reinforce your brand. And update it whenever you want.

All in all, a pretty hard working advertising medium that's worth all the work you put into it.

The Flies Have It

I've been too busy this week to breath without an appointment, but I just had to share this.

In Frankfurt am Main, Germany, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the crowds were stunned, and more than a bit amused when Jung von Matt unleashed an advertising air force comprised of 200 banner-carrying, marauding house flies. To promote the Eichborn publishing house, von Matt attached banners to the house flies with a bit of wax and set them free inside the Convention Center (Messe Frankfurt) to fly about at will.  



Since the beginning of the year, von Matt has worked on relaunching the corporate identity of Eichborn - a literary publisher. They came up with a new branding vocabulary, a revised logo, color palette and redesigned book covers. The needed a breakthrough launch for the new ID, and the best place for that was at the Frankfurt Book Fair.  But if that was the classic location, the promotion was most decidedly not: A house fly air force. Von Matt and his team meticulously applied microscopic amounts of wax onto 200 house flies, attached an ultralight banner and set their buzzing waxworks free at the fair.

The banners were only a few centimetres across, but they played havoc with the beleaguered flies piloting skills. The extra weight kept the flies at a lower altitude and forced them to land more often. Bad for the flies, great for the promotion.  The encumbered flies were forced to spend most of their flying time at eye level.  Of course whenever and wherever they were forced to land, the banner was clearly visible. Naturally, in the air their zig-zagging flight paths attracted attention because of the flies' rapid movements.

I have nothing but high praise for this innovative and eye-catching launch.  However, as I have often explained to my clients: What is brilliant for one client, could well be disastrous for another.  For Eichborn publishers, this was brilliant.  For the Four Seasons restaurant, ... Wayall... maybe not so much.

A tip of the hat and flick of the swatter to Jung von Matt.

Just because you yell, don’t mean I have to listen.

Dear broadcaster advertisers,
First of all, let me say I love broadcast advertising. I am especially fond of radio, because I can tap directly into the imagination of the listener. If I want to hold a world premiere with a cast of thousands on someone’s lawn, I can. With no need for "extras" or special effects.

Of course, even on TV, if I need to resurrect the dead to be my spokes-king, it’s not a problem. Broadcast advertising can be fun.

But really? Yelling, screaming, cranking up the volume? It’s not just annoying. It doesn’t really work that well, and it could work against you.
Anyone who has ever had children is already aware of this. Yelling doesn’t mean they hear you. In fact, with children of all ages, yelling seems to reduce their ability to hear exponentially. The louder you yell, the less they hear. Apparently, however, there are an overwhelming number of broadcast advertisers who either never had children, or are inexplicably unaware of this fact.
When programs pause to go into commercial, the volume seems to leap into the stratosphere. How many times have you been caught unaware when a commercial blared out, and you lunged for the remote to seek relief? We have all, at one time or another, said, “Thank God for the MUTE button,” but still the practice goes on. Is it possible, that someone has kept the existence of this sanity-saving button a secret from these advertisers? And if not why do they keep doing it?
I think there are two answers. Technology and desperation. While there are standards and practices in place prohibiting precipitous bumps in volume, recording engineers long ago figured out how to get around them. They just “equalize” the volume across all every available frequency, so that without violating any guidelines they can create a “wall of sound” without raising the volume. And as we all know, if you can do something, you do it.
The second component is desperation. “I want to sell this now. Right now. Right this twisty-legged second, and nobody’s gonna stop me.” The reason desperation works, is that motivated buyers sense the desperation like sharks sense blood in the water, and they pounce. It works so well, that some advertisers feign desperation, Crazy Gideon comes to mind.
But desperation only goes so far. Screaming ads rarely scream “quality.” And if your customers are not in the market to buy, or short of cash, or a bit desperate themselves, they don’t need to hear that. And they don’t have to.They turn it off and take a deep breath. Just like you do. The ads you like, listen to, or even look forward to, bear the product names that get under your skin and lie in wait until you are ready to buy. Those are the names that rise to the top of your mind or the tip of your tongue whenever you need them. No screaming necessary.
Now consumers have even more weapons in their arsenal to fight screaming (the infamous “mute” button, the DVR “skip” and “fast forward” buttons, and on-line viewing), so screamers not only don’t have to be heard, they don’t have to be seen.
Of course, if all you want to be is unseen and unheard, you can save a bundle on advertising!

Love, Tony

Stupid, Ugly, Stinky, Nasty, Dirty, Poopy, Words!

In Kindergarten we were all carefully taught not to use bad words. Negative was bad, bad, bad. Positive was good. But as every advertiser knows, nobody in Kindergarten has to move products.
I will be the first to admit that negative advertising works. Anyone who ever saw Clarke Gable in “The Huxters,’ has to remember Sidney Greenstreet hawking up a juicy wad of mucus onto a conference table. As he wipes the table with his handkerchief, he explains that although what he did was disgusting, nobody at the table will ever forget it. It’s been 40 years since I saw the movie, so I tend to agree.
But just in case there was any doubt about the effectiveness of negative advertising, the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience did a study which “demonstrates conclusively” that “information of negative value is better detected than information of positive value.” However the Institute didn’t investigate what the effect of wildly overbearing, disturbing advertising might have on a brand.
The Republican party is currently experimenting with pushing the limits of negativity and adding the dubious element of easily-debunked, outright lies and occasional looney toon allegations of the coming of the antichrist. While a hardcore minority of Americans is desperately trying to believe, the brand is suffering mightily.
Not that the Democrats oddly disjointed muddle of “positive” messages is faring much better. There is no central theme or lattice of reinforcement to support a single unified brand. But this is not new. As Will Rogers said, "I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat!" At least the party is not making itself look ridiculous.
Negative advertising can of course be very, very good. And can be good for the brand. Apple ads come to mind, Justin Long & John Hodgeman are hilarious in the “I’m a Mac” ads. And in case no one noticed, they are blatantly ANTI PC. Brilliantly negative. And the PC campaign in response is as unfocused and mushy as the Democrats’ lame efforts to win credibility.
So, it’s not really a matter of negative or positive words and pictures, it’s the eternal quest for meaningful, memorable and effective. As ever, it is a simple choice of Badvertising versus good. Stupid versus smart.
If you’re going to go negative, be smart. And, apparently, if you’re going to go positive, be smarter.