Recently in Marketing Category

Or that's what the segment should have been called.

Check out this news story that aired on WXYZ.com tonight. Seriously - watch the video on the right side of that page (apparently there hasn't been buy-in for embeddable video at this affiliate yet).

My comments:

• This guy drove 10,000 miles because it was his lifetime dream to visit the Ford plant in Flint? Maybe Disneyworld, I could see. Flint?
• Look at his website. Seriously, dig into it a little bit. Flash video. Sound effects. Sophisticated animations. Very high production values for an individual's web site.
• He drove his 1981 Ford Falcon 10,000 miles. What better way could there be to manage perceptions upward about the reliability and timelessness of a Ford?
• Where they say "Ford is like family." *GAG*
• They have a "feeling" for the people. I don't know if you understand. It's a very important company to the Argentine people. Message: Hey, that guy is just like us!!!
• In Peru, gas is even worse - it's near eight dollars. Message: "Stop bitching about gas you lazy Detroiters!"
• We have to return to work. That's the ugly thing, but we have to work. Reinforces "Hey, that guy is just like us," but also delivers the message, "Get back to work you lazy Detroit auto worker!"
• He and his family are Argentinian, which is like the whitest South America gets. Reinforces "Hey, that guy is just like us" for racist bigots. Don't believe me? Do you think they'd air this story if a Mexican dude drove up??

I'm sure that there were good tactical reasons Ford put this story into effect. And I appreciate the need for news outlets to occasionally (often?) broadcast bullshit feelgood manufactured PR stories like this, especially for a struggling city like Detroit. But come on guys - is a little bit of subtlety too much to ask?

It's fun to be cynical.

A suggestion to the marketing executives of Pizza Hut, Dominos Pizza, and the like.

I love pizza, but you know what? There's something about your products that makes me far less inclined these days to pick up the phone (or, these days, log on to your website) and order my usual thin crust with sausage, pineapple, and olives.

It has little to do with the pizza itself. It's the packaging that bums me out.

The problem is that it's difficult to throw away pizza boxes. It's hard to try and fold it so that it fits in the trash bag (and inevitably the trash breaks); on the other hand, if I just keep it separate from the trash bag and put it to the side, I get annoyed because I have to carry more boxes out - and the process of carrying a pile of flat boxes is a pain, not because they're heavy, but because they're bulky, and slide easily out of my arms (which are usually already carrying three or more other bags of trash).

I'm also a little bummed out - only slightly, but maybe indicative of an overall trend - when I think about the volume of waste I perceive present in your packaging. Now, my reasonable side says that maybe the packaging is in fact more efficient in that its corrugated structure keeps the pizza hotter longer. But experience tells me that that it's a wiser course of action for these company to first target my emotional side [first].

Many Japanese pizza joints - including Japanese Pizza Hut - have better, non-corrugated (but still well-insulating) packaging. In addition, there is an easy and intuitive way to fold empty Japanese pizza boxes into something that can easily fit in any trash can. The volume of waste from this folded pizza box is significantly less, too.

I think there's a big opportunity here for a fast-moving pizza company in the U.S. to capitalize on green, a la Brita. I think it's just a matter of time.

With a logo, decide if both a company and product logo are needed. Having two logos can be confusing. The idea of a logo is to give someone a graphical experience with which to associate a specific thing - either a company or a product. Repeated visual contact is key to maintaining desired associations. If there is both a company and product logo, the audience's minds are split, making the audience work twice as hard to achieve the mental connections.

Colors can make a big difference too. If the logo is the same color as another competitor or partner, it may fail to stand out when the logo appears side by side with others. Take the opportunity to select colors and styles that really do stand out in the specific market. Beware that some color combinations can be offensive in different cultures so be sure to review the selections with as many people as possible, particularly those in or from other countries.

I caught this interesting show on The Style Channel called Peter Perfect yesterday with Heather. (video clip here)

OK, so it started out... inauspiciously. I walked in when Rocky Rhodes, the proprietor of the Rocky Roaster coffee shop, was getting his unibrow waxed.

"You should do that," Heather remarked to me.

The stylist, Peter Ishkhans, made over the employees and owners of the coffee shop so as to make the store more successful. He recast their appearance to make them more, well, approachable. It was a big improvement - and the stakeholders were happy. "I cannot wait to go to work tomorrow," remarked one employee. How often do you hear that, especially in the food service industry?

Peter also remade the store interior. Before the makeover, there was no underlying, unifying store theme. A chess table here, an old unattractive coffee hutch there, homemade shelves down there.... The colors and mismatched knickknacks made the store look... dowdy.

After Peter did his work, it was a whole different feel. The warm colors connoted friendliness and community. There was a large table in front so that people could sample the coffees. Everything was inviting.

Even the store sign change was dramatic. Here's the old logo (taken from http://www.rockyroaster.com/index.php:

Kind of looks like an old Waffle House or something, doesn't it? It doesn't suggest coffee shop at all.

The new sign:

Wow. What a difference. Nobody could mistake this for anything but a coffee shop now.

It's interesting - one of the changes that Peter (as well as the owner's wife) suggested was placing bags of coffee beans on display, so as to indicate to the customer that, hey, bags of coffee beans could also be purchased. Rocky was highly resistant to this, because he was staking his reputation on selling beans that were never more than three days old. The solution was to go ahead and display the bags of coffee beans, but then when a customer made an inquiry, the employee would say something like "you know what? Let me go get you some fresh coffee beans." More coffee was moved, and at the same time the customer felt like he or she was getting special treatment. Brilliant - I love it when incredible opportunities surface just by thinking about and addressing problems with even moderate creativity and sophistication.

Another thing that struck me was the profound resistance on the part of the owner to change. Case in point: he had this God-awful, colorful, damaged rooster statuette on display. Peter was trying to convince him to part with it, but Rocky was just so attached to it. I guess in the end Rocky gave it up, but it looks like it was a big, emotional struggle.

It makes me wonder about the ways in which I myself am resistant to change - change that probably is really good for me. So, friends, if you see me irrationally grasping for my rooster statuette, do me a favor and call me out on it, OK?

This episode of Peter Perfect is airing again on The Style Channel tonight at 9pm and midnight.

Now I'm all about making a profit - believe me - but Mr. James Dyson and company, I think that you are in serious danger of alienating the public's trust with your "new" Airblade technology, and its misleading (at best) marketing campaign.

Take a look at this commercial:

This commercial flows like a template, virtually, for all effective commercials. Really a work of craftsmanship. But a flawed one:

• 0:00 - 0:06 : The setup. James Dyson explains the problem. Traditional handblowers suck, our hands are often still wet, and we finish the job by wiping our hands on our clothes (and this is true for me at least). Nice touch: "We all do this." E.g., "You don't have to be ashamed of your barbaric behavior. But there's a better way."
• 0:06 : The viewer recognizes by now Mr. Dyson's "exotic" accent, lending him an air of sophistication and awe. To Americans, at least.
• 0:08 : the phrase Airblade Technology is introduced. "Cool! Blades are awesome. And, gee, this thing is a technology! Not like the old-fashioned, non-technology paper towel that I usually use. Used to use, I should say!"
• 0:10 : "...and it dawned on me that..." - introduces the notion that James Dyson is anything but corporate, but is instead a regular Joe who happened to have experienced romantic serendipity - a vision - of a new product that would benefit all mankind. "No, no: no market research of any kind was done before we started developing this product. We're grass roots, man!"
• 0:15 : "Instead of the old evaporation system" - reinforcing that the Dyson Airblade is new, and that you must be too old-fashioned, ignorant, or poor to want to use anything else.
• 0:17 : (Did you see this coming? Did you? I bet you did.) "Which blows all sorts of bacteria at you." Capitalizing on the antibacteria meme that has spidered its way across our culture. Hooray for fearmongering!
• 0:18 : "We came up with..." So up to now, nothing has been too bad. Pretty garden-variety, really. But at 0:18, James Dyson and company commit an egregious sin. Airblade-like technology has been around in Japan for ages; Mitsubishi has been selling their "Jet Towel" model for nearly ten years, according to Gizmodo (see also Engadget). Now, Dyson, you may have significantly improved upon the design of the Jet Towel, and I have no doubt that your Dyson Airblade is the superior product. And, it may be that you feel that you have expanded Mitsubishi's offering enough to claim you have [re]invented it. And, moreover, these feelings may actually be legitimate. Nevertheless, the perception - and that's the most important part at the end of the day, isn't it? - is that you guys are intellectual thieves. And this mismanagement of your image is inexcusable.
• 0:20 : "purified air" - man, I just have to laugh at this one. I guess blowing air through a thin filter now makes it "purified." Unlike the poisonous fumes that we breath all day.
• 0:23 : "really satisfying solution to something that's annoyed me" (emphasis mine). Reinforcing the idea that Dyson was the sole originator of the idea. Also resonates with our western sensibility that we can engineer our way out of all discomfort in life. Well done.
• 0:28 : Onscreen: "James Dyson: Inventor of Airblade(TM) technology[.]" Here they just come out and say it.

I also found this fascinating crap commercial documentary on the Airblade - also starring James Dyson - on YouTube. It's pretty much the same as the commercial they deployed for television, but in greater detail.

Great section on positioning and conspicuous consumption around 3:24. Skillful appeal to rationality at 3:40. But pay special attention to the camerawork - especially starting around 3:56. From that time until about 4:05, the cameraman films all of Dyson except his head. He cuts Dyson's head off!

Come on. I get, Dyson, that you want to create a kind of avant-garde atmosphere - one that positively oozes authenticity - with this thing. But you expect me to believe that James Dyson allowed himself to be "interviewed" for this documentary/film (frankly, I don't even know what the hell to call it) by somebody [legitimate] who was either too lazy or too incompetent to film properly? To cut off his head for nine whole seconds? Give me a break.

By the way, Dyson is a billionaire. That's with a "B." And that's in pounds sterling. Would he cut corners on something like this, an otherwise sophisticated marketing campaign? (Answer: no. Look how much attention to detail Dyson has put into the design of its product.)

There's an alternative/complementary scenario to all this, you realize. A sinister one: that Dyson did hire or solicit a young, aspiring filmmaker in his mid-to-late twenties (edit: or, apparently, an employee of the now-defunct Business 2.0 magazine) to create this piece. And then they - the marketing department - looked at it and said, "yeah, looks authentic. Let's go with it."

In which case, the only logical conclusion is that James Dyson and company, manufacturers of Airblade technology, believe their target market to be a bunch of lazy, shoddy slobs. Slobs... who are in sore need of hand-drying technology. Wait a minute... this marketing campaign is brilliant! I'm going to go out and buy my Dyson Airblade as early as next week! Maybe it'll be on Woot!

Seriously, Dyson, I think you've blundered badly with your campaign. Perhaps I'm wrong; perhaps you are making a point to ignore markets of my demographic profile, and perhaps that is in fact the strategy that will yield the most profits for you, long-term. Can't blame you for that. But I can tell you that, because of how I perceived your campaign, you have made me - and in turn, everyone who interacts with me, to some extent or another - hostile to buying any of your products.

I felt like a bit of an ass showing up at the The Domain Hotel (or is it Joie de Vivre? Seems to be co-branded) last night, Jack-in-the-Box in hand, and wearing a slightly stained dark blue sweatshirt. They are obviously selling - or trying to sell - business sophistication here. With a little bit of green thrown in for good measure.

Here's a picture of the wall:

It says "For poetry there exists neither large countries nor small. It's domain is in the heart of all men."

I understand what they were going for here. They're trying to soothe us into peace of mind and relaxation so we can get a good night's rest. Unless we end up choking on Jack-in-the-Box.

Here's one of two pretty cool nightstands in the room:

It's essentially a grid of thin, tall logs with a plate of glass on top. They also have them in the lobby - and, I assume, every room in the hotel. What gets me is that there is a little placard on the nightstands that goes something along the lines of, "Save the Earth, don't have us wash the sheets if you're staying multiple nights." Which I'm all for, but when they have nightstands where it looks like they took out a small forest to construct, the message is inconsistent. I know it's unfair for me to make any sort of cost characterization, since I don't know the actual costs for making the tables. But perception counts, guys, and this time it doesn't click. More on that later.

In the bathroom, they've laid out the soaps and shampoos - and other liquids whose function escapes me - in a pleasing, hippyish way:

Unfortunately, it's not designed for actual use. I mean, if I want to grab the shampoo, I actually have to leave the shower, walk across the bathroom (because it is a pretty big bathroom), and pick it up. I don't have the skills first thing in the morning to operate in this environment! To actually plan and take the shampoo and soap in with me!

The inexperience is also inconsistent because it comes across as a fraud. I flushed the toilet this morning and it kept running and running. I had to jiggle the handle to fix it. May as well be back at Village Green!

I've been reading Scoble and Israel's book Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. What a fascinating book. And, of course, there's an accompanying blog.

The excerpt below I found to be particularly compelling.

Apple Computer certainly utilizes traditional advertising, and many observers say it is one of the few computer companies to ever produce remarkable ads. But its iPod, a portable music-listening device, was sufficiently exciting and different to get the blogosphere to sing its praises in choir level harmony. Apple also had the vision to create design details that provoked conversations--for example, white headphones. The color added no real user benefit except that it provoked conversation. On a recent jet flight, two strangers sat side-by-side listening to music on their respective devices. One asked the other about the white headphones. This simple question started a conversation. Other people in the row joined in. People asked to listen on the headphones to see whether they sounded any better. Portable audio devices are rapidly becoming a commodity, but touches like the white headphones keep people talking and build the perception of remarkability.

I don't think I understood the full potential of remarkability until I read this passage. The white headphones - it's all about creating conversations. How clever that is.

Apple also spends advertising dollars in non-traditional ways that generate word of mouth. If all you knew about computers was what you saw in movies and television, you'd be convinced that Apple Macintosh held about 97 percent computer market share instead of less than 3 percent. Apple has achieved this visibility because of its aggressive product placement program with the entertainment industry.

I own two MP3 devices - a 1G iPod shuffle, that I bought about three years ago or so for about $120 - and a refurbished 4G Sansa, that I bought from woot.com a few weeks ago for $50 (I noticed today they were offering another 1G Sansa - not the same product). And I have to say that, compared to synching via Window's Media Player, Apple's iTunes application sucks. In fact, the only reason I still use it these days is because it is slightly easier to obtain podcasts compared to Media Player.

I'm in this class at Michigan where we're taking existing research and trying to find good commercialization path(s) for it. The project to which I've been assigned is the commercialization of a new kind of synthetic dental enamel that is both molecularly indistinguishable from real enamel and very inexpensive. We have determined three viable commercialization paths so far for our product:

• As a new filling material for cavities (competing against silver-mercury-tin amalgams and resin composites, for example)
• As a cosmetic veneer (competing against expensive porcelain, for example)
• As a kind of over-the-counter medicine that relieves dental pain and actually increases the strength of dental enamel over time

Part of our market research entails the canvassing of potential end-users of this product. To that end, I'd like to invite readers to please share with me their experiences at dental practices, and how it could be improved - particularly in the filling or veneer space, but also in general, as we can identify what kind of complementary assets might strengthen our position. Of course, as always, all responses will be kept confidential.

What is it about your dental experiences that you disliked (or liked)? What was the most unpleasant part of getting a filling (e.g. time to fill, loss of self esteem due to the fact that it's not your natural enamel, discoloration, etc.)? Have you gotten porcelain or rosin composite veneers? What about that experience left you wishing for more? What in general about dental visits is pleasant/unpleasant?

I'm allowing comments for this entry, if you wish to catalog your responses here. Or, you could just email me. Thanks very much in advance!

-John