Identity Crisis

Awhile back I saw a commercial during the Today show that said Brinks Security had changed their name to "Broadview Security". If you were to ask me to name companies in this industry, Brinks and ADT would be the top two that would come to mind immediately. I am always fascinated when companies that spend millions of dollars branding a name decide to do something like this.

Upon further investigation, it appears that the name change was not necessarily a marketing decision as much as it was a requirement. This new company was a spin off from Brinks and part of the deal was that they change their name. Fair enough. But what about companies that do this without legally being forced to? For example, Kinkos.

When Kinko's first merged with FedEx it was an interesting move. On one hand, you thought to yourself, "okay, printing and shipping... I get it. Kind of." On the other hand, you had to wonder why a brand as strong as Kinko's would dilute their brand by going into an industry other than printing. I think I speak with millions of American's when I say that when I needed to copy something I didn't go to "a copy store"... I went to a Kinko's. Even if I ended up going to the first copy store I saw, I still referred to it as going to "Kinko's".

There are very few companies that hold this valuable space in the minds of the masses: Kleenex, Xerox, Band-Aid, Jello, to name a few. To achieve that holy grail of branding and then trash it (albeit for another impressive brand name, FedEx) just seems a little reckless, doesn't it?

Regardless, I'm sure FedEx is still doing quite well. It will be interesting to see how long the word "Kinko's" takes to fade from our vocabulary. In the meantime, I hope to see Broadview Security transition successfully into their new identity. According to this article they are throwing $120 mil at it... always a good start!

Brilliant!

No philosophical thoughts for today, but I did run across an image that I found interesting:

Props to BMW of Santa Monica's ad agency for their direct and witty response to Audi's head-on attack. This is the stuff Ries & Trout dreamed of when they wrote Marketing Warfare.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Set Your Hair on Fire!

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between extraordinary success, mediocre performance and abject failure? Are there people who aren't (your opinion) as smart as you, but they just always seem to come out on top?

Observantly, (including looking "back" for perspective, "sideways" for evaluation, and "forward" in anticipation), it occurs to me that the people who always come out on top have one thing in common with each other…regardless of their area of endeavor.

I am not just talking about executives, or salespeople, or any one class of business person, individual, boss or employee. I am talking about everyone and every organization. Why does one pastor start a church 15 years ago and have a congregation of a few hundred and another pastor start a church at exactly the same time in the same city and build it to a congregation of thousands? Why two salesmen, same age, same sex, same experience level with the same opportunity join the same company in the same week and one experiences extraordinary success while the other either languishes in mediocrity or fails?

Did your high school valedictorian achieve all of his or her dreams? Is the smartest person you know the most successful? Who is the happiest? What defines personal and job satisfaction? Which of the four personality types tend to be the most successful? At what? Okay, you get the idea. I could go on down this path forever, but my blogging consultant encourages me to be brief.

The enemy of success in any area is firmly rooted in “self”. Success (or failure for that matter) has very little to do with your coworkers, your boss, your job or any other external aspect of your life. It frankly has very little to do with your IQ or what your GPA was in college, although all of those things might be indicators of how you manage self. The enemy of achievement is complacency. There is nothing wrong with being satisfied with your place and achievement, but that satisfaction must not be allowed to extend beyond a personal emotion or feeling for the moment. When you win…celebrate! Then move on.

Think about those high achievers that are not as smart as you. Think about the companies that were started the same year as yours and have out performed your company five or tenfold. What about those that rise to the top of the corporate food chain. Are they really just better at blowing smoke up the proverbial corporate derriere? What do they all share? What is it that gives these people or organizations a leg up on the rest of us?

I propose that the common trait is very simply . . . URGENCY.

Do not mistake URGENCY as the “false urgency” of the fretter. You know the fretter. . . the one always scurrying about with the impossible to do list that never really completes anything and just adds to the chaos of failure. Quite the opposite. I am talking about the person who has a sense of urgency that is focused. The one that says, “Okay, that project is done. What’s next?” My God, do these people ever sleep? Probably better than most because they have the comfort and confidence of actually producing outcome. They are always moving and never satisfied with the status quo and understand that success and excellence are not destinations, but a journey. Perhaps most importantly, these people know that they can’t help what happened yesterday and that they can’t do anything about tomorrow. They know that the ONLY thing they can affect is NOW…this moment…what to do with the next 60 seconds. They can only control how they respond or react to the moment (see previous blog Reaction vs. Response), and they do so with a sense of urgency, a sense of mission that is founded on an expectation of outcome. These people do not even consider losing. To the contrary they expect to win – NOW and every time. And when they don’t, (which doesn’t happen often), you won’t find them languishing in the self pity of a loss. They don’t have time for that. It isn’t a part of their “plan” or their psyche! They move forward without consideration to yesterday’s failures. Remember, yesterday just doesn’t matter and you can’t do a thing about what happens tomorrow.

So what does this have to do with you and me? As the NIKE slogan says – “Just Do It”! Excellence, urgency, success all start right now…with you. Be urgent! It’s in your mind - in your hands. Decide right now to intellectually and emotionally commit yourself to a mission of accomplishment. Do something. There will be those around you that scoff at your new focus. Do something. Do concern yourself with them because they will be like lead on your feet – guaranteed to take you to the bottom. Do something. Concern yourself to the point that you get away from these people. Do something. They won’t like it. Do something. They’ll talk negatively about you for the wrong reasons. Do something. Don’t worry about barking dogs. Forget about them and DO SOMETHING DELIBERATE AND WITH CONVICTION...NOW!

Any questions?

Reaction vs. Response

Reaction or Response

Consider the following before you produce your next commercial. Will it create a reaction or a response?

Here is the difference.

Your precious little puppy is sick and you take him to the vet. After a bit, the vet comes out and tells you that he gave your beloved family member a shot and he had a reaction to it….

Good or bad?

Scenario two:

Your precious little puppy is sick and you take him to the vet. After a bit, the vet comes out and tells you that he gave your beloved family member a shot and he responded to it…

Good or bad?

The answer, although subtle, is important. To react is in most cases associated with negative. To respond indicates a positive. In advertising, I’m afraid that most advertisers, people who sell advertising and copy writers have never considered the distinction. The result is that you end up with essentially the same bad commercial you ran last month or the same irrelevant drivel as your competitor. Yes I know that the voice is different, the name and phone number are different, but will anyone remember it?

As I conduct "walk around focus groups" with the people who are buying (or not buying) your products, many have a negative reaction to advertising. Some, on the other hand, have a positive response to advertising. Consider if you will the last commercial that you saw or heard and actually enjoyed. With incredible creative writing, humor, or in some other way compelling, well written and executed commercials will create the desired effect…response.

On the other hand, consider, for example, most local auto dealer advertising. With the bombs bursting in air, cowboys roping nothing while shouting at you, your mind is assaulted by unemployed actors, or worse yet, narcissistic dealers who want to be stars, shouting at you. And does anyone really believe that “If I can’t beat any new Kia deal in Texas, I’m just gonna give it to ya!” React or respond?

So consider if you will, how the market perceives you and your company. Do you want your potential customers to react or respond to your commercials?

I’m just thinking…

Fish Where the Fish Are

Advertising, as with most industries, is heavily researched and studied. Being one who would be considered on the younger skew of marketing professionals, I try to read as many industry publications as possible to soak in information. Often these will at least offer helpful insights or at most turn the way I had previously looked at something on its side. However, every once in awhile I have what I like to call a "duh" reaction.

I had one of those this morning. Media Post sent out this story about how targeting programs heavy with people who have bought the brand in the last two years leads to a 70% higher ROI. Well, duh. Now, I don't mean to be disrespectful to the writer, because it was very well written with some very nice statistics, however, the premise screamed 'common sense' to me.

Let me translate this same startling concept to you in "Texan":

Fish where the fish are.

Doesn't seem so complicated, does it? If you are Walmart and "The Today Show" has an off the charts index for Walmart shoppers and "Gossip Girl" has a less than average index for Walmart shoppers, where do you think the money is going?

This is why we don't buy media schedules off rating points. This is why the foundation of every buy we do for our clients is based on qualitative information that tells us exactly how likely the listeners or viewers of a certain station are to need our client's services. Fish where the fish are.

Sometimes the hardest part of our job is convincing a client that the station he or she loves personally is not the right choice for their business. Always remember, it's not about you. As a business owner, would you rather feed your ego and hear your spot in your favorite programming, or would you rather have people beating down your door for your services? Seems to me the latter would feed your ego and feed your wallet...

Truth in Advertising

I am inspired this week by an article written by Roy Williams, The Wizard of Ads. Before I begin, if you haven’t read any or all of his books, I recommend that you do so. To begin with they are well written, fun to read, (entertaining), and most importantly they contain truth.

Truth in advertising is something that not many people discuss. Truth in advertising sales is an oxymoron. The tragedy is that many business owners (advertisers) don’t even know enough to ask the right questions. This can be dangerous since most people selling advertising today don’t know a thing about it. They are just pretty good sales people, (there are exceptions). Now the disclaimer…the following statements do not apply to all account executives, sales managers, general managers, division managers or company presidents – just most of them!

Okay, back to truth. If you are working with a local radio rep that hasn’t been properly trained, you are probably being shown lots of “packages” or various other irrelevant things. That rep probably knows absolutely nothing about sound advertising strategy and execution and might as well be selling magazines door to door. Most of these reps look good, have good communication skills and may even have degrees in marketing…the problem is that there are few left in the business willing to teach these well intentioned young sales people why and how radio works. In many cases the managers don’t even know.

This is truly a buyer beware environment as evidenced by what happens when you first buy advertising. Immediately upon beginning a schedule, you get a plethora of calls from other advertising sales reps telling you that you need to buy what they are selling because it is better and meets your needs. Please ask yourself, how they know what your needs are? You take the appointment and they show up with a briefcase of “packages”. The problem with these packages is that they are everything that manager needs to sell and have nothing to do with what you need. BUYER BEWARE!!!

Now more truth: If you are using a traditional ad agency or media buying service you are being shown buys that are based upon cost per rating point. How many rating points should you be buying? What is the right cost to pay per rating point? Is one hundred points per week enough? How about 200 points per week? What the heck is a rating point anyway? Again, most media buyers don’t know a thing about advertising. What they are really good at is multiplication. These good people have no sense of history of advertising principles, media strategies or programs that will actually work. If this is what you are hearing from your agency – if you are being shown buys based upon how many points per week are being delivered at a specific cost…RUN. GRAB YOUR MONEY AND RUN.

Electronic media should be bought on a reach and frequency basis. Not a CPP. It is much easier, faster, “accepted” to buy on the basis of CPP. CPP should be used only as a negotiation tool for pricing. The problem is, unless you are spending Home Depot money in the market, your reach and frequency ratios will be too low. I guarantee it! If you want to have some fun and watch your reps or your media buyers face go blank, ask them to bring you an OES Schedule. Most will have no idea what you are asking for, and if their managers do, they will hate it, because of their lack of understanding of reach and frequency and how to construct a program that efficiently delivers their audiences. Next time, ask for an OES schedule, don’t tell them what it is and just sit back and watch the ensuing circus…enjoy.

OES stands for “Optimum Effective Schedule” and is a reach and frequency based program. Created by two of the brightest people ever in this business: Steve Marx and Pierre Bouvard, developed and articulated this concept which is based upon sound media principles. Here is the deal – your commercials should reach EACH specific audience (station) 3.89 times per week – be safe round it up to 4. It seems that most media sales reps believe that a weekly frequency of 3 is sufficient. Ask, yourself why they chose to round down instead of up. The answer is obvious – it is easier to sell to you because it requires fewer commercials!

My advice – make your reps bring you schedules that demonstrate reach and frequency. Only look at CPP to make certain that you are not paying too much. It’s the right thing to do. Schedules with insufficient frequency are doomed to fail. And remember, in media 1+1 does not always equal 2!

Be a Phoenix

There is no doubt that the past two years have been tough on many people, business and industries. As I think about all that has happened and changed...life...attitudes...circumstances... many metaphors that I've learned over my life come to mind. Probably the most appropriate is actually not a metaphor at all, but the title of a book written by Reverend Robert Schuller: "Tough Times Never Last. Tough People Do."

How do tough people last? By being positive. By thinking positive. By speaking positive. By having a positive word for a friend or family member. By focusing on the opportunity rather than the circumstance. Easy to say. Tough to do. I understand. Especially if you listen to the news or our politicians. It seems as if the only thing they thrive on is negativity!

I actually hate all of the condemnation and mudslinging that goes on throughout our country - on all sides. I believe that all of these things are totally focused on only the negative aspects of our "opponent - enemy- competitor" regardless of one's position. Why do we have to have an enemy? Why can't we focus on our own objectives rather than on those of who we disagree?

The answer is simple. We can. It does not matter what another does. The only thing that matters is what you do. I know that whatever you put in the front of your mind, your predominant thought, if you will, will magically come to pass. If you think you are going to go broke, you will. If you think that you will prosper, you will. So for me and my family, I choose to be positive. Is it hard? Sometimes. Regardless of how hard it is, you can choose to take control of your mind, your emotions and your circumstances and participate, or you can choose to remain a victim. I choose the word victim purposely. I could have just as easily said bystander, observer, but victim is harsh. And that's the point. And no, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell do not live in my world!

Okay, so let's take this back to your situation and what you are going to do about it. Regardless of your business, most of your competitors are scared to death (top of mind). Most of your competitors are hunkering down (pulling back and hiding). Most of your competitors are playing it safe (focused on not losing as opposed to winning). Most of your competitors are more baffled about what to do than you and worst of all most are currently motivated by fear. With every moment, they are calculating their worst case scenario. So, what are you going to do about it?

The magic of this time, is that, at the end of the day, it will be cleansing. Just think, no more Madoff, GM will be straightened out, sanity has come back to the mortgage industry, irresponsible financial titans have been flushed out and banished to the hinterlands (albeit with hefty severance packages). Now we can, and will, be like the phoenix...from the ashes...be born again!

Only those with good attitudes, who are looking ahead toward tomorrow will see the opportunity. And those with courage will seize it!

Did you know that media revenues have been off double digit percentages. Opportunities abound to take advantage of this current situation and bury your competitor. Do not think for one moment that you can stand idly by and eventually everything will be okay. Act now, position yourself and your company to win. As the economy turns around throughout the rest of the year, and it will (remember the age we live in - things are exponentially faster today than they were in 1939), be in position to win. Be the one. Emerge victorious while no one else is looking.

So today... act with courage. Think, plan and execute. Let your competitor be paralyzed. Today is your day.

New name, new digs, new attitude

Hello everyone and welcome to Branding + Marketing Group's new BLOG! The new year brought some exciting changes for us including the beginning of a new chapter and a new business!

As many of you know, "Branding +" is a concept that we had trademarked several years ago that essentially defines our approach to marketing- that you can brand and activate at the same time. That you can ring the phone while cultivating an image and perception in the consumer's mind. It's something we feel very strongly about due to the many successful campaigns we have built around this concept.

As a result, we felt as though the name "Branding + Marketing Group" better defined our strategic approach to the world of Marketing. It better fit who we are and what we believe. And let's face it- in this day and economic age, we all need to refocus, hunker down, and make sure that we have a laser-sharp focus on who we are and what we do.

So thank you for following us on this journey as we kick 2010 off with a fresh perspective. Be sure to check back for our industry insights, witty banter, and the occasional opinionated quip.

Cheers!