Cereal Dissonance

In search of a new breakfast cereal brand experience I opted for the eloquent yet mysterious sounding  - Product 19 (by Kellogg's).  It seemed a plausible substitute to Kellogg's Special K, which continues to cause  serial dissonance when I purchase  it - in the same way that lip balm, and moisturiser causes agitation and frustration that male targeted options remain few and far between.....Anyway, while I haven't actually opened the box yet,  I am enamoured with the claim of  "Live Better. Live 19".....(  years beyond expectation perhaps...)

Stop Press .... after a closer inspection of the front cover I discover a yoga lady subtly blended into the artwork....and then low and behold I notice the 80's-esque  cycle lady on the back cover....so I guess I was naive ..where is the (adult) male cereal in grocery  stores ????

(the trouble with) Swatting Flies

Isn't it curious that the harder you try to swat a fly the more it seems to anticipate your movements and preempt your action?

Marketing buzzwords are plentiful, but when I heard the 'attention war' during a presentation by James Andrews (aka the key influencer) my ears pricked up, and I found myself exonerated from defending the status quo.

• What if you reverse your brand strategies to focus on being found rather than incessantly trying to find people ?
• What if you work only on tactics that elicit discovery and not tactics designed to interrupt ?
• What if instead of trying to out-do your competition you simply out-do yourself over and over and over again by delighting only a minuscule group of consumers?
• Why try ever harder to combat 'attention attrition' ? What if you just listened more to find out where people are spending their time ? how about an act of generosity - by helping them have more of that precious time.

Wouldn't that be ample reason to reward you with a little more attention?

 

Wikipedia+Mentor+Superpower = #Micromktg

DISCLOSURE: As a Twitter follower of Greg Verdino I was one of 10 tweeps who offered to provide a review on Amazon for receiving a free (and signed) copy of his new book Micromarketing. I honestly think you should check out the book, because it was a page turner and so I post here the extended version of my Amazon review.

Starting off with an introductory experience that every marketer can relate to delivers the implied presumption that you will proceed to read a manifesto, where Greg Verdino dismantles sticking with the traditional mass approach as a winning marketing strategy. He eloquently constructs his propositions that small is the new BIG, and micro is the new MASS, neither of which are new ideas, but are ample incentives to make you read on.

As any good 'guru' his value add comes via a new spin on micro marketing - re defining it as a sum of micro cultures, explosion of microcontent and the rise of insidious micro mavens that build (and kill) brands in real time. Yes! it's dramatic stuff, and in the light of the recent double rainbow and bed intruder Gregory Brothers music phenomena (as reported by Reuters) his very first viral example in the book "sasquatch" dancing man is spookily apt and validates that he's on to something.

The chapter titles, section headers and buzzwords earn and maintain your attention (my favourite coming from chapter 4 "Feed Me, stream me, like me, link me" (inspired by a U2 song title perhaps?) . Verdino initially romances you with charm, passion, sweetish words of wisdom, and subtle tones that leaves a twinkle in the eye.

Yes he's that good - and with skepticism now subdued his arguments lead further away from the comfort zone/status quo (antiquated safe plays of the 4P's traditional marketing blah blah). For example, the replacement for reach and scale is depth - and the commensurate new desire to establish lengthy rich engagements with small audiences.

Each of these propositions transform into sexy stealthy epithets that pummel you into a state of acceptance, anticipation and eventual awakening. In addition, Verdino perpetually ladens the book with multiple experiences and emotive examples where micro strategies and real time mindsets trump macro tactics, and in doing this introduced several that I was completely unaware of most notably of a fellow Brit called Lauren Luke.

This leads to the only gripe I have with this book; namely that it is (over)jam packed with proof points, examples and cases with corresponding web links. Perhaps they were planted to overwhelm 'uber-skeptics', or to futureproof the content, but to a 'micro' convert such as myself it left me feeling that the pace and vitality of the main message was being constrained . Perhaps, an interactive eBook/vook version would be the immaculate solution and premium priced masterstroke ! STOP PRESS on page 220 you will find a link to enhanced content ( and of course for free) ...

I lie, one other trivial gripe is that on page 200 he misspells Procter & Gamble (incorrectly using Proctor) - bound to aggravate all P and G readers!

I had fun writing this review, and it proved as effortless as absorbing the multiple micro messages that Verdino seeds. If you're a brand manager, social media expert, CEO or even small business owner who thinks you've seen and heard it all for free (in multiple blogs) then....you just might be right, and good luck on cataloging and synthesizing it all. But if you truly truly believe you don't need another social media/marketing book - I urge you to think again.

Think of #micromktg as 1/3 'grown up' Wikipedia, 1/3 nurturing mentor (uniquely poised, respected, and with a bountiful repository to deliver persuasive democratizing and honest wisdom) and 1/3 (not so) secret superpower in rendering 'old school' thinking impotent.

Armed with a hugely disarming writing style I found that Verdino was as provocative as business(ish) authors such as Gladwell and Godin, but wasn't as polarizing. I recommend Micromarketing as THE go to book that bridges marketing and social media, a book you urge your VP or CMO to place at the top of the reading list for your team, and the book you reference in agency meetings whenever 'one-upmanship' is necessary. To repeat myself yes this book is that good !

The war of Nappies

A brand war between designer brands is underway.....The cool twist is that its happening in the aisle where you find nappies (aka diapers to my US! readers).  A recent visit to my local Target made me realise that the days of boring functional benefit driven (poo catching claims) are long gone in the category. 

The largest collection for this season belongs to Cynthia Rowley with c. 15 styles for Pampers.

Emotive marketing that focuses on child development and peaceful sleep may be taking a back burner for a while. So, are babies getting vain.... or is it actually their parents (rhetorical i know)? But it did provoke the thought  - how do the parents actually justify spending more for stylish nappies vs their regular brethren?

Could the cache of Fashionistas and celebrity style be enough to get parents to consistently invest more in the category? With two huge brands such as Huggies and Pampers slugging it out you know that this will be a battle worth watching.

Almost Bigger than Michael Jackson ?

Well Old spice just might be ! Just over a year after Michael Jackson took over the music charts, Old Spice is dominating the viral video charts and tearing up records with the top 4 spots this week and 42 million views according to Ad Age (113m for the total campaign).

 .......Wieden & Kennedy take a bow, Isaiah Mustafa take a rest and.....Old Spice brand team please take it easy on the competition !

How #OldSpice Rescued 30' ads

Old Spice has set new standards for  viral video making and delivered amazing stats stats yet the current YouTube campaign is under scrutiny due to  poor product sales...Leading to the inimitable question - does advertising work ? and is this campaign truly effective ? Here are 4 reasons why I salute Wieden and Kennedy + the folks at P and G, (also shared on the beancast  in response to topics for their podcast on 7/18).

1. Creativity and Context are powerful

I'm intrigued as to why a sales decline on the brand or product  satisfaction/relevance comments are thrown at Old Spice. As a marketer, I simply watch in wonderment at the magnificence of this phase of the campaign. It is truly immense on an insight, engagement, creative, intelligence, and context level. All this originating from the allegedly dead 30' ad !

2. Paying into the brand Equity

There should be no criticism from a brand or marketing perspective. If the campaign delivers against the brand equity and measures that were set - then bravo to all. I feel that effectiveness should be measured in a way that explicitly seeks to capture all benefits to the brand, irrespective of sales or market share change.

• For example, lets quickly look at this from the Sales department perspective - they can now call their retail partners in the full confidence that their brand has been elevated, eulogised and is front page news. The call or visit will run smoother, the promo plan will be seen more favourably, the orders will be placed more promptly.

• Now Imagine being the Old Spice brand management folks who are now able to show metrics that are transparent to product development, design, finance, customer services....they can now more easily demonstrate the value they can add, they can show engagement growth, viewers, new prospects, influence change, brand image improvement etc etc.

3. Marketing Innovation does NOT require a new product

For me the best part of all this is that it has happened on a low tech commodity product (compressed fragranced air). Clearly highly creative people re-envisioned the way to look at the category and how to communicate WITHOUT needing a new product ......sometimes we just might too quickly seek comfort in new products, when often there is a world of opportunity to simply stop, think and act differently.

4. Raising the Bar
The challenge has been set to every brand mananger and marketing/ad agency out there. What are you doing to get a consumer to care about your brand, that doesn't involve the easy option of maintaining the status quo or doing the same old thing?

That's the kind of challenge that makes me LOVE what I do.

Disclosure - despite being a former P and G employee, yet a competetitor deodorant brand user, the thoughts here are without any predetermined bias for or against Old spice.  

Sharp copywriting from Proactiv

Its not often that a Billboard catches my eye, but this one off Ohio St. in Chicago did.

Sharp wordplay, sharp photography and new territory for a brand that is now taking on the 'beauty' big hitters  such as Procter and Gamble and tapping into the more conventional aspirational messaging approach.  Read more perspective here from a  New York Times piece. Interesting to see if they divert more funds to this strategy.

Help nourish your brain

It dawned on me that its amazing what a claim can do in the home, and in this case - in my fridge.

The best claims are:

1.simple

2.have stopping power

3.believable, (or at least make you feel that its believable)

4.make you buy

5.make you come back and buy again

" Help nourish your brain" from the Minute Maid brand is a remarkable claim. It wins my attention, makes me use and buy, and beats "Natural spring water" each and every time....

Breathe (the ad)

I love this ad. I saw it for the first time today. I stopped what I was doing. I watched. I pressed re-wind on the DVR, and again (and agin). I then tweeted about it (and spent 10 minutes wrestling with my iphone to copy and paste the link), and now I'm blogging about this ad. I FEEL and THINK differently than before. I'm actually interested in what CSX do. Yes I now I'm actually interested in a freight company's 'green' message, and they helped me believe it. I like the way they said it... Advertising works when it tells you meaningful stories..... Good job by MullenWinstonSalem.......

Its ok to be 'Good Enough'

So I finally relented, and tried Starbucks Via today. Over the last 5 years my pallet has adapted to love only Espresso based coffee, but that was not an available option at an event I attended today.

Out of curiosity I tried Via instead of the brewed Coffee option, and was stunned to find it so drinkable. So much so that I was tempted enough to have a refill - an unexpected positive experience. Yet it wasn't really so unexpected, because they keep telling me it tastes better than brewed coffee...but that just was not believable until now.

For sceptics of Via like myself they could have done much more to get me to try it, to provoke me out of my apathy/rejection.

But how ? As I follow Starbucks on Twitter, they could have sent me a DM or @ message, and I wouldn't have minded that, because I'm enough of a fan to follow them. If they had incentivized me I probably would have driven to a store flashed my Iphone app and tried a free sample, but they didn't.
Ultimately they had my permission to change my mind because I had already reached out to them through my Twitter follow and my Iphone app, but in the end they got me by accident.

I struggle with the fact that by only delivering a 'good enough' (according to me) product they managed to change my perception and make me an advocate. I also struggle with how Starbucks is re-framing its coffee Equity. Do they stand for great tasting coffee or good enough coffee ? Do they stand for a great experience or more frequent good enough experiences ? I think you know which one to choose here ...right ?