Category Archives: Advertising

posted by Kevin

Apr 23, 2012 @ 7:00am

3 Steps: Using Effective Candor in Marketing

The 1960’s changed everything. As Mad Men chronicles so entertainingly, the legendary advertising environment of the 1960’s stopped selling products and started selling a products’ benefits. This shift was so profound that 40 years later, marketers remain focused on selling a consumer benefit. There’s a problem though.

Benefits are great, but selling is not OK.

People don’t like salesmen. That’s because people believe that good salesmen pitch and charm people into buying. While actually untrue of the best salespeople, “an Eskimo buying ice” is perception.

One technique taught by the consultants at Sandler Training is disarming honesty. Disarming honesty throws prospects off balance, and makes them feel in control. The same technique can work in marketing. Esurance uses the technique beautifully in their recent commercial about savings.

Our business is all about closing the gap between perception and reality. Here are three steps to accomplish this effectively:

  1. Most importantly, don’t lead with the “sell.”
  2. Empathize with your audience’s insight by using disarming honesty to create a problem.
  3. Demonstrate how your product or service solves the problem.

The worst mistake many marketers make is trying to sell by confronting a perceived negative consumer perception up front. Oldsmobile’s famous failure: “We’re not your father Oldsmobile” comes to mind. With a more informed and demanding consumer than ever, it’s time to let candor take the lead.

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posted by Cathy

Apr 04, 2012 @ 7:00am

New Work: Goodwill Outdoor

I love this outdoor campaign we produced for our friends at Goodwill.


I am happy they love it, too.

 

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posted by Kevin

Feb 22, 2012 @ 11:20am

Humor has it: Old Spice

“If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.”
- a bottle of Old Spice

Old Spice has long been considered a staple in the musky shaving kits of dads and grandfathers everywhere. However, it has recently taken on an entirely different role as the harbinger of red-blooded masculinity to younger men across America who long for hairier chests, lumberjack beards, or biceps the size of Mount Rushmore. Luckily for these men, Old Spice has just what they need — and it’s not a 2-year gym membership or a year’s supply of Rogaine, either — it’s a healthy dose of humor.

Two years ago, Old Spice began a series of commercials in which masculinity was personified through the likes of one muscular, smooth-talking man who, with the help of some common stereotypes, attempts to persuade viewers to buy Old Spice body wash. These ads use just the right amount of humor and irony to appeal not only to the woman buying smelly soap for her significant other, but also to the man who wants to smell decent without sacrificing his masculinity. The original commercial, which won the Film Grand Prix at the International Advertising Festival at Cannes in 2010, has certainly contributed to much of the company’s growth since then. The popularity of the commercial has grown so much that it’s YouTube video has now reached nearly 40 million views and there have been several parodies of it as well.

Old Spice has continued to sail the ship of satirical humor on into 2012. In one if their most recent commercials, former football player Terry Crews literally bursts onto the set of a Bounce Dryer Bars commercial via explosion and a giant jet ski, loudly proclaiming (or yelling, really) how Old Spice Body Spray is “so powerful, it sells itself in other people’s commercials.” These commercials, while very different from the other series in terms of content, are so unique that even the most curmudgeonly viewer couldn’t help but remember them.

 

 

Broadcast is not the only form in which Old Spice is appealing to its target audience. Their sense of humor trickles down to the packaging as well. Each item is adorned with a classy desaturated illustration, bold modern type in all-caps, and sleek matte packaging. All appealing looks aside, when a stick of deodorant is named after a 14,690-foot mountain in the Swiss Alps and purportedly smells of “ice, wind, and freedom,” the target audience is obviously a little more specific than just any old man.

This sense of humor appeals to a younger audience of men whose hands have not been calloused from hard labor like those of their fathers and grandfathers. They don’t take life too seriously because they don’t have to yet. Therefore, they laugh about their scrawny arms, baby faces, and complete inability to understand their girlfriends, as if it were something that couldn’t be helped. And Old Spice, bottling up the romantic ideals of a generation into one concise container of manliness, tells them that’s alright.

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posted by Apprentices

Dec 13, 2011 @ 10:33am

Publicité & Graphisme

“A poster, unlike a painting, is not and is not meant to be, a work easily distinguished by its manner—a unique specimen conceived to satisfy the demanding tastes of a single more or less enlightened art lover. It is meant to be a mass-produced object existing in thousands of copies like a fountain pen or automobile. Like them, it is designed to answer certain strictly material needs. It must have a commercial function.”

-AM. Cassandre, translated by Michael Taylor

AM Cassandre, "Dubonnet" - 1932

In a few days I will be traveling to Paris for a vacation and I wanted to familiarize myself with the history of French design, but I found no books or blogs on its history. This is, perhaps, due to France’s overwhelming amount of cultural history in painting, cinema, food, and fashion. Though French design seems to play a smaller role in France’s cultural history when compared to so many other facets of artistic expression, it’s advertising (publicité) and typographic (graphisme) legacies are by no means insignificant to a broad popular culture. (1) Below you will find an assortment of beautiful French posters that represent a rich cultural history of French graphic design.

 

Toulouse-Lautrec, "La Chaine Simpson" 1890's

Roland Ansieau, "Berger" 1935

Raymond Savignac, "Autorail Paris" 1937

Ramond Savignac, "Cigarettes Collie" 1952

Bernard Villemot, "Orangina" 1953

 

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posted by Kevin

Nov 02, 2011 @ 4:42pm

Persist or Advance

Occupy Wall Street is proving to be the definition of persistence. Meanwhile, the European debt crisis continues one week after the next. In a better world, crises would at least be short, especially such severe ones. The congressional stalemate continues despite national frustration. I can’t imagine anything worse than being on a “Super Committee.” A regular committee is painful enough.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola does something beautiful. They turn their cans white for the World Wildlife Fund . This profound gesture reminds me why I love the business of branding. Amidst all the chaos, Coke’s Arctic Home campaign feels like a refuge. A company doing something good, just because it is a good hearted company.

Coke’s white can inspired our marketing strategy for our client Moe’s Southwest Grill. Moe’s is incredibly supportive of schools and children’s charities, and we’re working on ways to further deepen their support at a neighborhood level.

Moe’s reminds me that we have to continually raise the bar. They are constantly tweaking their menu. They were the first retailer in town with Coke’s incredible new Freestyle machine. Better training, improvements to the prep line, and monitoring measuring customer feedback all followed a discussion about marketing strategy.

As the economy continues to strain business, brands easily fall into a mentality of persistence spawned by risk avoidance. I would argue that today’s challenging business climate demands constant improvement and innovation. I invite you to share a Coke with a colleague and start exploring how you might change things for the better.

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posted by Julie

Oct 26, 2011 @ 12:47pm

A marketing lesson from my dentist.

Now that I am an adult, I have been to a few dental offices. Some I have dreaded. Others I didn’t mind. I have patiently waited hours past my appointment time in an uncomfortable chair reading a two-month-old golf magazine. Then there was the time my dentist quit without sending any sort of letter or announcement to warn me about the stranger who was to be my new dentist.

But that’s all history now. I have the best dentist ever.

I came to the practice by a referral from my husband. Actually, not really a referral. It was more out of frustrated disgust. Unbeknownst to me, my dentist of many years had “retired” and sold his practice to a new dentist. When I learned this, I was in the chair. I didn’t leave in a huff. I let the nice new dentist clean my teeth then decided to find another new dentist who was a little closer to home.

My husband suggested I go to his dentist, Dr. Thomas Pitts. Initially, I hesitated since the office was all the way in St. Andrews. Yes, all the way. I live in the city. A drive on the Interstate defeated my whole closer to home qualification. So naturally I made my next appointment with them.

Ten years later, I am positively head over heels for this practice for so many reasons.

They are nice. Everyone who works there treats every patient with full courtesy. Do not confuse this with catering to customers’ whims and complaints. They treat you respectfully and they ask the same of you.

Snowflakes. Each year starting around December 1, they leave white paper, scissors and tape in the waiting area. They want you to make a cut-up folded paper snowflake (a la Kindergarten) and tape it to the window. They don’t mind if you leave the paper bits on the floor either. There’s only one downside to this, which is the next reason I love them.

I never wait more than five minutes. During December no wait is a bit of a bummer. There’s only time to make one snowflake. They have nice, comfortable furniture and all kinds of up-to-date magazines. If you ever had to wait, this would be a great place to do it. You never will though. Not here.

Halloween. Last year I was actually there on Halloween and everyone had on a costume. Even Dr. Pitts. My teeth were checked by a pretty creepy looking vampire.  How often can you say that?

They care about their patients. They know and remember me, my children, my life. They have called me to let me know they could see me earlier because of a cancellation. Their goal is not to simply meet patients’ expectations; they truly want to exceed them. While that good to great stuff is lip service for some organizations, this one lives and breathes it effortlessly.

The staff. Dr. Pitts is a very nice guy. He’s got a wry sense of humor and he’s a great dentist. He shakes your hand at every visit. The office staff and hygenists are all very nice and good at what they do. From what I can see, Dr. Pitts is equally kind to his employees. They appear to be valued, respected, included and empowered. Obviously, there’s not much turnover.

When I was in the other day, I asked them how they get most of their new patients. I really wasn’t surprised when they said they don’t advertise. All of their new patients — 100% — come via patient referrals. When you treat patients that well, you don’t need to advertise.They get a key part of marketing so many businesses never grasp.

How you treat people is the biggest message of all.

 

 

 

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posted by Apprentices

Oct 25, 2011 @ 5:28pm

Chess

I’m on the job hunt.

The Riggs apprenticeship program has given me the chance to learn a new craft while actively putting it into practice—a rare opportunity in the world of coffee-fetching internship programs—but the apprenticeship format’s finest attribute is this: it ends. The urgency of a finite deadline lends an invaluable immediacy to any undertaking. The late Steve Jobs paid tribute to this principle in the Stanford commencement speech that has littered the airwaves in the wake of his passing. A deadline forces decisions and, although it seems counterintuitive, often yields the best work. I hear time’s winged chariots hurrying near, so how have I spent my free time lately? Trolling job boards? Fine-tuning my resume? No… I’ve been playing chess!

Last night I found myself scrambling against an opponent stronger than I am accustomed to, but I forced myself to remain committed to one of the fundamental principles of the game—make the best possible move every time—rather than pursuing the abstract end goal of checkmate. Grand Masters are capable of envisioning a final scenario for victory once they’ve sensed the texture of a game in its first few moves. My tender wits can’t think that far in advance, so I did everything I could to stick to the few simple principles I’ve learned.

I made a few blunders and lost some valuable material (non-pawn pieces) due to oversight, but, making every move with as much thought and preparation as possible, I finally got myself into some advantageous scenarios. I skewered a rook, the endgame’s most powerful piece, absent the queen. Then I wheeled my knight into position. All of a sudden, I looked at the board on my turn and found myself a single space away from leveling checkmate on the opposing king. I had by no means followed a pre-determined strategy to arrange for the conditions of checkmate, I simply looked up and the winning scenario was before me, a move away. Dumb luck, one might say, but I’d care to argue. By making each move carefully and thinking through the ramifications of every possibility, I put myself into circumstances conducive to victory, even without concentrating solely on the goal of checkmate.

Giddy with victory and uncharacteristically optimistic, I began to draw parallels between what had just transpired on the chessboard and the institution of the Great American Job Hunt. If my sole focus is simply to get a job, I will overlook the tiny preparations and possibilities that present themselves only when I commit to the simple goal of putting myself in the best possible position to get hired: arranging informational interviews via every possible avenue, fine-tuning my personal brand message, narrowing down the attributes of the position I’d like to end up in. Maybe if I can focus on those small things, thinking through every move, I just might look up soon to the surprise of an interviewer shaking my hand and offering me a job… only I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at all.

– Pete Anderson

Editor’s note from Cathy: Pete Anderson may well be the only 20-something writer in America today with a professed love of long format copy writing. That in itself makes him a rare commodity; brands cannot live by pithy headlines alone. But do let us mention he also has some serious talent. Read more about Pete at about.me/pfa.

 

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posted by Apprentices

Sep 20, 2011 @ 12:23pm

Love Talk: be useful or be interesting.

I follow Anthropologie on Tumblr. (And yes, someday I’ll stop talking about Anthropologie. When they stop being so cool.) Here’s why: their Tumblr blog, etymologie, reads like great editorial content, because it is. Each week, the folks maintaining this blog choose a word: “pet” or “garden” are recent examples. Then, they feature a variety of content – sourced from employees, customers, ordinary people – that expresses the essence of the word. The tone is casual, conversational. The photographs aren’t always styled. It feels like a community effort.

A photo that appeared on the etymologie tumblr during "pet" week.

The only marketing that ever appears in the blog is a small “shop anthropologie” link in the top navigation. So what makes the Tumblr blog such a smart marketing strategy? It obeys the two essential rules for communicating in our world today:

Be useful or be interesting. Bonus for being both.

Consumers are overloaded with information. Messages – of all kinds – fly at us from every channel. Still, organizations somehow believe that simply moving their marketing communications to Facebook or Twitter means consumers will listen to them. Nope. The reality is that none of us can process all the information that’s thrown at us everyday, forcing us to become more and more selective about the content we consume.

If brands hope to be heard, they must create communication that actually offers something of worth to their customers. It should instruct, inspire, ease, entertain. A few forward-thinking fashion brands have been quick to grasp this concept and have created their own editorial outlets – like the etymologie tumblr or like The Journal, an online magazine produced by men’s clothing brand, Mr. Porter. Consumers are attracted to the content for its own merit. It’s like going to a smashing party given by a cool host – your brand.

Granted, if you sell jet engines or potting soil, creating a lifestyle publication is probably not your best communication strategy. The question to ask yourself, then, is how can I give to my customers? How does my brand fit into their lives?

Perhaps the only “marketing strategy” that matters is simply love your customers.

When you love someone, you make a concerted effort to please him. You consider her needs, and how you can meet them. You listen. You pay attention to what he likes.

And when you open your mouth, that’s what you talk about.

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posted by Kevin

Aug 31, 2011 @ 10:05am

Details

Today I visited an Apple store and bought a Mac Air. I certainly value the design and product innovation Apple continues to deliver, and the in-store experience was similarly inspiring.

The products were arranged for me to test. A large staff offered customers one-on-one attention. My computer was ordered electronically from a demo on the floor. The sales person ran my credit card through a custom iPhone app. I signed electronically using my finger, and a receipt was sent to me by e-mail. The bag was a backpack.

Clearly, Apple is iconic, yet every brand has the ability to examine such details. Moe’s Southwest Grill rethought the greeting with: “Welcome to Moe’s.” Luxury stores pay reverence to their wares when they wrap them in tissue and put them in beautiful bags. Patagonia’s shoeboxes are printed to encourage reuse as storage vessels.

Patagonia shoebox

Rethinking something basic is a wonderful way to make your brand more distinct. Given the continued volatility of today’s economy, experience-centric brand thinking makes perfect sense. Think about it, a greeting doesn’t cost a thing.

 

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posted by Cathy

Aug 25, 2011 @ 2:00pm

New Work: The Sunshine House

We’re pleased to have just launched our first work for The Sunshine House, a national brand of early education centers. The Sunshine House came to us looking for a way to be more competitive in a crowded market. In a landscape that’s cluttered with generic stock photography and interchangeable brand messaging, it’s easy for one childcare development brand to get lost among the rest.

That’s why we walked Sunshine House through our disciplined strategic process to determine a new brand positioning: support for families. The shift in brand messaging from kid-centric to family-focused was designed to differentiate from other childcare development brands and resonate with working parents. The Sunshine Helps program provides real life benefits engineered to help busy working parents—everything from more convenient hours to gift cards for a month of free housecleaning.

Next, we replaced Sunshine House’s enrollment discount program with a Kohl’s retail partnership. Teaming up with Kohl’s helps Sunshine House demonstrate its commitment to supporting families by offering practical incentives that add real value, rather than discounting one of the most important decisions a parent makes (childcare).

We’ve had a blast working on this brand to build a strong community of Sunshine families.

Strategy and creative team: Kevin Smith, Cathy Monetti, Ryon Edwards, Julie Turner, Kathryn White.

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