Pro global business

Have you seen the new TV commercial for Crest featuring Emeril? You can catch it here…BAM.

From the Crest Site:

Sure, Emeril has BAM!, but we want to know what you have. The flavor is so bold and so exciting we’re sure you’ll come up with something big.

So here’s what you do: Create an original catch phrase that you think captures the sheer bigness in the flavor of Crest Whitening Expressions. Then, create a video of your Catch Phrase that is 30 seconds or less and submit it into our contest. And if a certain flavor inspired you, let us know.

Viewers can rate the video submissions in the video gallery and judges will then determine the finalists. Once the finalists are chosen it’s up to you to vote for your favorite to determine the grand-prize winner!

 So here are my thoughts:

1. Will this generate the buzz Crest is hoping for?

2. Will it be sustainable?

3. Is this just a gimmick to create word of mouth nothingness?

4. What if any brand strategy is involved?

What do you think? Is this campaign worth anything? They hired Emeril yet are only giving away a measly $5,000?

I’m a branding guy. I don’t play favorites with strategies and tactics when it comes to building a brand for a client. If direct mail, radio or TV advertising is an appropriate way to go and the client builds brand awareness and has a positive ROI I’m all for it. Results are important to me and my clients.

What kills me and what I just don’t understand are these word of mouth companies that are so laser beamed in on set tactics that only include word of mouth. Why be so pigeonholed? Here’s a case in point.

Brains on Fire (a self proclaimed word of mouth marketing company) owner Robbin writes:

Direct marketers actually celebrate 3% response rates. Do that math: If you send out 500,000 TARGETED direct mail pieces that means that 485,000 are totally useless. Trash. WHAT is that really about for goodness sake?

Basically she’s saying that direct marketing is not a sustainable way to engage a customer/prospect.  I say that any one tactic isn’t great but an integrated branding strategy is. And to eliminate any one tactic is just shortsighted. Direct marketing is a proven tactic if done correctly. And what if in that example that 3% resulted in a $100,000 profit? Is it a crappy tactic then? Aren’t we ultimately in business to help our clients make money? Sure we all want our customers to be passionate about us and tell all their friends and family but developing a marketing tactic that produces profits is still a desirable outcome. Isn’t it?

Dovetail that with the fact that many people save a direct mail piece to follow up later. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve heard “we’ve been collecting your direct mail”? Too many times to count. That’s brand awareness. Sometimes it takes more than one direct mail piece to get a client/prospect to move.

Some of our best client relationships have come from a prospect receiving a direct mail piece from us. For many years Brand Identity Guru mailed out something to customers and prospects as part of an integrated campaign. We were very targeted. We’ve made millions of dollars on direct mail. Our response rate is about 8% (in Robbin’s mind we wasted 92%). Our retention of these clients is over 95% and we’ve built a passionate relationship with them. Doesn’t that count for something?

A 3% return most likely will obtain a great return on investment. Direct mail, advertising are still great tactics if done correctly. Then a relationship can be kindled.

Some of the best brands in the world do great advertising and direct mail (Hello, Apple and those Mac vs. PC spots). Don’t poo poo traditional stuff because most do it wrong.

Here’s what works, an integrated branding strategy. Part of that could include word of mouth, relationship building, search engine optimization, etc But not selecting tactics like direct mail is shortsighted in an overall strategy. I’m not saying it’s right for everyone but it’s also not wrong for everyone.

She then goes on to say:

I also hate the terms “target market” or “cost per acquisition”. Your customers are real live human beings, people! People with passion, lives and dreams.

I love the term target market because it excludes all those that your brand doesn’t identify with. Of course they’re real people but they’re the right real people and understanding that is half the battle. The biggest mistake companies make is trying to be everything to everyone. Identifying the right people (targets) is the best thing you can do for your brand. Why waste any valuable marketing dollars?

Starting a relationship can happen in many ways. Ultimately there is no right or wrong way to do it and traditional advertising may or may not be the correct way. But to broadly say that direct mail or traditional advertising can’t start a meaningful relationship is wrong.

Inspiring customers and prospects to celebrate your company can be accomplished in many ways. As a branding guy I like to look at the big picture and then choose what’s best for the client. I like to remain open and not pre-judge what tactics to use.

What do you think?

Your computer has malfunctioned and is stuck on just one blog URL.

Which one do you hope it’s stuck on?

Companies are scared. The doom and gloom has come and now the boys will be separated from the men. I’ve seen this before and I’ll see it again.

The right move? Take advantage of your competitors cutting their marketing budgets. This is a huge opportunity to build brand awareness and TAKE market share. Trust me, I know.

Here’s what will happen. Companies will panic and cut their marketing budgets. As things get worse they will lay off employees. Most of what they will do is a knee jerk reaction but they do it anyway.

Don’t do it.

Be smart and invest in your marketing wisely. Take advantage of the many deals you’ll be able to get from advertisers. Trust me, they’ll be begging you. Now is the time to crush your competition by being smart and investing wisely in branding.

Don’t give in. Don’t follow the herd.

We’d like to thank everyone for voting for us. We are the ONLY branding business in this race and still REALLY need your support. Remember, you can vote once a day so come back and vote every day for us.

We’re the little train that could. Here’s our current HOT Meter ranking (so close to being HOT):

All you have to do is click the VOTE FOR ME button below. Thanks for your support!

Don’t you think PC makers like Dell, HP, Toshiba and Acer should be taking on Apple? Why’s it Microsoft’s fight? We all know their software is in every PC but this fight isn’t about operating systems. It’s about THE computer (or is it)?

Shouldn’t the PC makers jump in?

What is it? Microsoft researched 140 people by fooling them into believing they were evaluating a new operating system. One that would replace Vista, called the Mojave operating system.

Here’s what happened…they liked it. Then they were told that it was really Vista.

Brilliant huh?

Here’s some issues that I have with it. First, if you’re starving and stranded in the desert (like how I worked the Mojave thing in here) any food will look good right? These people had pre-conceived issues with Vista (The average pre-demo score for Windows Vista was 4.4 out of 10), therefore they had bias when evaluating any “new” software. In other words, anything would have been better than Vista (because they hated Vista), even if their minds tricked them into thinking it wasn’t Vista.

The demographic is so small that the confidence level on this must be like 1%. I’m not a statistician but I do know that a confidence level of say over 85% is something to shoot for. Please, add your comments on this if you think I’m off.

Isn’t Microsoft basically saying our brand image of Vista really sucked? Is this the appropriate way to change brand image? We use to suck but now we don’t (according to 140 people of the trillions that use Vista).

If Microsoft really wanted to do some real research they should have spent some real money and surveyed a much larger number. Read all the details here.

Here’s the scoop, changing a brand image is hard to do. Especially if you have no real brand identity to begin with.

No matter where you turn these days, you will get the message that the state of the economy is hanging in a critical balance. Many recognize that the problems engulfing the U.S. financial system have reached the level of crisis- not only does the situation need to be fixed, but it must be done quickly.

So will the Bush Administration’s $700 billion, tax-payer financed bailout work? I think the million dollar (uh… billion dollar?!) question here is not so much where the money is coming from, but rather how the money will be used, how it will be replenished, and who will be held accountable.

In other words, is there a clear, detailed plan based on responsible decision-making that takes into consideration proper asset management and accountability? And does this proposal include a plan of action based on several possible outcomes that may result from the outlay of so many billions of dollars?

One of the biggest criticisms of the Bush administration’s bailout is that it appears to be a knee-jerk shot from the hip- and that could spell a disastrous failure.

Proper crisis or disaster management in any area of life means first and foremost having a plan in place. This plan should include a breakdown of responsibilities that details who will do what as well as how pertinent information will flow from one person or department to the other. There should be an explanation of how to mobilize available assets, including where to go for emergency funding, and the goals should should be clearly defined.

Bottom line: if your thinking of implementing a disaster or crisis management policy in your small business, don’t learn from the government.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

A while back I wrote about Netflix and their awful termination policy. Click here to catch up. Anyways one of their policy statements in the email I got when leaving was:

You can sign up for Netflix Service again at any time; however, you will not be eligible for another free Netflix Service offer.

To date I’ve received 4 direct mail offers and 1 email offer. So much for that.

Netflix has a horrible termination policy. They try to scare people into staying and for those that aren’t scared they never want to return. I probably would have returned if their policy wasn’t so rude.

When a customer leaves it’s your opportunity to find out a lot of info. Bust most importantly it’s your opportunity to win them back.

To read about their policies click here.

Here’s a new web site that my friend Darryl Ohrt pointed out called IncSpring. IncSpring is a site where you can buy a logo, name and in some cases a URL. It’s an alternative to hiring a branding company especially if you don’t have a lot of cash to hire someone like, say…us! The Brand Identity Guru.

Some things to keep in mind. Building a brand can not be done fast, but for those who have a limited budget and no time a site like this may be helpful. When developing a brand identity you must determine how you want to be perceived prior to developing a name, logo etc. So for instance if you want your company’s brand identity to be “Innovative” this service only works if you can find an innovative name, logo etc. Otherwise your brand identity will be confusing.

Here’s a good example of how it could be done. Here is the name and logo for “Exclusive Lounge”

If you had an upscale bar/nightclub where a dress code was required and you served $1000 bottles of champagne this could be a good name and identity. You would be excluding those that didn’t want to dress up and couldn’t afford the $30 cover charge, hence “exclusive”.

This is just one step in the branding process but if you just don’t have the budget or know how to do it on your own you could start here.

Developing a brand identity is the most crucial thing you’ll do so take it seriously and invest wisely. Changing it later will be very costly.