November 9, 2011
Was it any surprise that Wendy’s brought back one the most successful brand statements in commercial history? Perhaps for some it’s a cheap ploy at resurrecting a once giant burger brand that’s been left on the grill for too long or for others a lip-smacking promise of a burger that has more between the bun than the competition. Another take, as Ad Week observed, is the appropriateness of the message at a time of rising obesity and a call for lower calorie food options. We can take from this example that as in any brand positioning strategy, there are any number of approaches with as many interpretations, after all we each hold our own unique set of values and cannot assume one brand image fits all. What we do know is that organizations who invest in understanding the customer through consumer or B2B research are far more likely to succeed than those that fly by on gut feel. Insights are the foundation of any objective business decision and the cornerstone of a sound brand strategy. Many brands fail because they neglect to plan both strategically and tactically. This was well expressed in FastCompany’s article on knowing the difference between strategy and tactics where they observed that strategic brand planning is about establishing a long-term plan with bigger and broader objectives and the brand tactics are the actions intended to forward the brand’s strategic objectives. I’ve told clients there’s no point in being the fastest draw in the west if you always forget to load your gun.
Here are the top 10 considerations an organization can use when launching a new brand or engaging in a rebranding initiative:
1. Put the right person in charge of the process
2. Do not be nostalgic, let go of the past
3. Avoid the Gut Feel – hire a professional brand firm
4. Be objective not subjective – measure against the Brand Strategy
5. Use research to guide strategy – listen to each audience group
6. Let committees have a say not a vote
7. You are never too small to rebrand, every category needs a brand leader
8. The logo is the Visual Identity, not the entire Brand Identity
9. Know the brand’s unique point of difference – avoid being all things to all people
10. Don’t mimic the competition – it’s easy to cheat, it’s more rewarding to win
July 11, 2011
I was reminded this weekend of how powerful visual context is in influencing our emotions and behaviour. If you’re looking for visual overload try any amusement park, wow, they have it figured out. We decided to take the family to Canada’s Wonderland for a fun – visually stimulating day.
Having two young boys, it was interesting to observe their immediate response to the visual stimulation that was of the greatest emotional appeal. While I gravitated towards the big Starbucks logo, they had found the Race Zone and Haunted House within seconds. Both of their amusements were high on the emotive scale, while mine was high on the ‘sit back and relax’ scale.
Perhaps most interesting was how an immediate response to visual context follows the proven patterns of primitive thinking (the reptilian brain), where deeper insights such as height restrictions, price verse value and mapping move us up to the new brain for a more logical thought process. It is completely irrational to be afraid of rollercoasters that turn you upside down at the speed of sound or drop you from 1000 feet in the air. Irrational because everyone survives, no one gets hurt and the big machines don’t fall apart. However our primitive brain senses danger, moves to emotional fear and creates a barrier to logical thinking.
This is true in advertising. Sex and fear both work equally well when applied within the correct context. Fashion items sell on sex appeal as does beer, whereas sports and movies like Jaws sells on fear. Look at the negative economic impact Jaws had on the Californian coast when the movie was first released. People were terrified that they would be attacked by sharks. Yes, sharks do inhabit Californian waters but you are far more likely to be killed in a car accident driving to California than being attacked by a shark. A purely irrational fear.
So, I propose the next time you’re at Disney and feel fear or are afraid to go on the Body Drop Bungee Ride check what is causing the fear and decide if it is irrational or logical and then go for it! Let me know how it went, I’ll be in the Starbucks.
February 15, 2011
Being our eBusiness Manager means that it’s my job to stay on top of technology trends and find ways to tackle our client’s marketing needs with unique solutions. When I was first introduced to QR (Quick Response) codes years ago, I felt a sense of déjà vu. It brought me back to the late 90s when I was developing eBanking solutions for cell phone users. I was an analyst then and thought “neat idea, but not the right time”. At that time of course, a BlackBerry was a text-based pager and Nokia users sported a 1-inch by 1-inch screen that made mobile eBanking painful at best.
Like eBanking, QR Codes when first introduced in the marketing world were ahead of their time. Although the QR code has been around since 1994, its use was primarily to scan large amounts of data for inventory management systems. QR codes, like their barcode predecessors, are images with encoded data but these little marvels of black and white squares have the ability to store 350-times the amount of data as UPCs. With this kind of capacity, marketers realized they could encode entire messages and URLs and then embed these in their marketing collateral. There were two problems with this approach: 1) the average person didn’t have a scanner to decode these images, and 2) when asked what these QR codes were, most people didn’t know what to do with them.
Today, smartphone sales outpace PCs and with these new smartphones come the required technology – a camera and scanning software – to turn any phone into a QR Code reader. Savvy marketers are leveraging these QR codes to drive their off-line marketing to the web to create an integrated marketing solution. Passersby are now invited to connect directly to product info, testimonials, and richer content – all via the click of their smartphone camera. People are starting to become more familiar with the QR Code
An additional benefit is that QR Codes are static and once they’re created, they can’t be altered. What can be altered however is their destination – which means that users who return to your site can be presented with different content (consider a restaurant QR code that links to the Lunch vs. Dinner menu depending on time of day) which helps cut down on printing or reprint costs. As marketers, we’re also interested in the tracking and measurement. These codes provide us with a better understanding of which campaigns are working and where best to invest future marketing resources.
And while the analyst in me still thinks we’re still a few years away from widespread mobile banking, the eBusiness guy thinks we’re about to see a surge of QR Codes in our day-to-day lives.
October 9, 2009
You may have heard some of the fallout recently over a new advertising campaign from Mr. Sub. Dubbed “not everyone likes surprises,” these spots place an adult male in a ‘surprising’ situation followed by the suggestion that you can “count on Mr.Sub.” For what, we’re not sure. Mercifully pulled due to public response, one execution features a middle-aged man announcing, over dinner to his very large family, that he is gay. Super, super gay to be more precise. The revelation is answered with dumbfounded silence from the aforementioned family; a response that I suspect was mirrored by every Canadian who had the misfortune to see it. The negative response from the lesbian and gay community is not surprising. That the other spots in this campaign are still running is.
I’ll spare you the usual marketing-babble; and just say this: these spots are wretched. Rather than prompt a laugh, which I can only assume was the intent, each version elicits a feeling of acute embarrassment and awkwardness that surely no company would want to be associated with. Even the hockey/commodity beer/Megan Fox loving set, who are used to being bombarded with insipid ads, must be furrowing their collective, and purported low, brow at this lazy attempt. Kudos to the bods at Mr.Sub for pulling one spot, whatever their reasons. Let’s hope we really can count on them to drop the whole lot and spare us any further embarrassment.