It’s hard to believe that a company would abandon it’s name so blatantly as MCD did. Yet, for one of the most powerful brands known the world over – it is easy to understand why.
McDonald’s Japan is testing the no-brand marketing with newly opened Quarter Pounder stores in Tokyo relying only on the QP name to drive the stores.
With a limited menu yet a strong brand this may be a wave to catch in Japan. A culture that values efficiency of time and energy a limited choice menu may be the perfect way to gain market share.
A reminder of In & Out in California, simple choices for burgers – 3 menu items and the place is packed.
A reminder for marketers that brand consistency on a global scale is not about logos and colors, but more about the perception and attitudes that your customers must have of your brand to be competitive in that market.
Japan is very different from the US in it’s customs, attitudes and personal paradigm of importance. For example, they don’t eat in their cars. American car washes would lose business if this trend started. Fast Food was build on drive through’s and in car dining in the US.
After all, marketing and branding is about the customer. Not about the company. Without customers feeling like they accept brand and believe in its approach the company either be forced into mediocrity with an ultimate demise on the horizon or product is a commodity.
Starbucks launched their Free Cup of Coffee campaign for all those who voted on Nov 4th. At first the promotion was launched stating that “if you vote” Starbucks would provide a free cup of coffee. However, such an offer is illegal, more here from Bloomberg.
In their 60 second spot below, the ad states to come in and tell us you voted and we’ll give a free cup of coffee. In the stores, it seemed to happen that Starbucks would server the coffee for free not really inquiring if you voted. Either way, it is good to see companies taking a social and responsible stance with good intentions encouraging their patrons to vote.
Tactics such as this are advisable for most organizations. They build goodwill and an image of a conscious organization that wants to be a part of the democratic process in the United States.
Advertising Agency: Grey Worldwide MENA, Egypt
Creative Director: Ahmed Bahey
Form vs Function
Often as marketers we face the challenge of form vs function. There are times and markets where form trumps function (we’ll call function – response, readability, call to action, etc).
Example – Apple – Pure brand play. The message is more a feeling and position of energy, music, clean style, etc.
The ad above has an interesting balance. But it fails the 3 second rule, and we’ll assume it’s a print campaign.
1) Imagery is powerful. Figures without heads and arms are striking and will cause customers to pause. They elicit a strange feeling in people, this is a bold move. The contemporary feel and clothing positions the ad for the 24 40 crowd.
2) Message – Missing the message. At first I thought it might be a furniture or TV ad. After 30 – 45 seconds I get it, an iron advertisement.
3) 3 Second Impression – Nothing comes back in 3 seconds except for the whitespace in the top right, a feeling of uneasiness with two beheaded people rubbing up on each other and a clean style.
4) Design – the clean look is nice, but the eyelines are lost. Watch where you look for the first few eye movements on the ad.
Final Wrap Up
The take away is this ad and campaign needs a high frequency to stick and get the message across. I like the look and feel, it’s just really nice. However, I miss the message.
Think about it this way, if it takes 7 impressions to generate awareness – this campaign could take 14 – 21 impressions to get the initial message to the audience.
The campaign sets the brand, supports Philips but needs more to tie it all back. Obviously ironing is about clothing, but if the ad is about the iron or the breadth of the product line and the brand the ad needs more work.
Sometimes great ideas are not that expensive. I can only assume here. Take a Look at these wall advertisements, a great viral, attention getting approach. I don’t know if it was coupled with local advertising, etc, but it should have been.
If getting you customers to experience and feel the life they have with your product, then look at this example for Cut Chemist – a new product from Samsung.
Innovative in the way it makes you feel. As you interact with it you may think it’s like the old Zork games or limited animation games of the 80s and 90s. pick this action – get a result, limited choices, etc..
But click on it and watch how you feel. Do you feel for a second like the DJ? Like you’ve been there or could be there. The “Taste” of the brand is more than you need if you are the target audience.
It’s not the Holodeck from Star Trek, but for a company that is trying to get their customers feeling the vibe of the product, and showing they understand their possible lifestyle – it’s a great tool.
So the feeling is great – what’s wrong.
The product isn’t defined well enough prior to going in – which the creatives will tell you “who cares it’s about the experience”, you’ll figure out what it is as you go through it and that may be ok since the target audience will either be waiting for this or it’s to be known by that group of customers/segment.
But the practical application shown is for a DJ, granted which is probably a great use for it, showing the portability, power and emotional force to move people.
However the greater application, “Where the money is…” as John Paper says on Z-Rock, is in the mass remote application which is barely touched on.
But hey – the price is under $710 and it looks like it could be very cool. (whisper “but it runs vista”)
Fatso.co.nz – Mailbox DVD Player – DM, New Zealand
Rapp Collins New Zealand used this DM piece to transform any ordinary mailbox into a DVD-player.
Fatso.co.nz is the Netflick of New Zealand.
A great way to take advantage of the mailbox design. Unlike in the US this would not have worked as well, nor would the USPS allow it move as such without a tab closure. But again, the differences are great the point is the same.
Cliff Li : Designer
Wayne Pick : Executive Creative Director
Kim Pick : Head of Copy
Rob McDowell : Art Director
Bibi Bliekendaal : Copywriter
Account Team: Clare Waldron, Jackie Shaw, Emma Allen
We often think in the US we are the center of the world. Culture stems from our entertainment, celebrities and lifestyle. However, advertising is always a reflection of our culture (both good and bad), and a representation of ourselves in our microcosm.
More to come from around the globe, Marketers need to stretch their minds and ideas of what is advertising and marketing. And how in one culture it’s effect differs and how in other continents a different language and culture is borders
you on all sides.
Advertising Agency: BPG (THE BIG IDEA), Dubai, UAE
Executive Creative Director: Hoshi Siganporia
Creative Director & Copywriter: Thomas Fernandes
Art Director: Gopa Kumar
Photographer: Arvind Shinde
Illustrator: Samir Padwal
Yes prior to the great and powerful weekend, I received this in my inbox from the Center for Media Research – Blog Link....
A recent Compete survey (Source: Compete, Inc. May 9, 2008) on segment-driven marketing found that marketers are focusing their segmentation efforts in online and search engine marketing activities,
This is good. Segmentation can drive better customer value and revenue over time. Excellent, we as marketers are evolving, getting smarter…
...and while only 39% of US marketers surveyed believe segment-driven marketing is very important in their organization today, 84% indicate that it will be more important three years from now.
Yes, exactly. It will be and is..
Additional highlights from the survey include:
92% of respondents say they are using segments to manage their online advertising and/or search marketing
76% of respondents say that their segment-driven strategy will be ahead of their competitors in three years
77% of respondents are having trouble demonstrating real business results from segment-driven marketing
WHOA Demonstrating results. If you can segment, why aren’t we measuring? Real business results, can mean anything. To me it means.. “we’re spending money and doing what someone told us to do, but we can’t tell if it’s working because we’re moving too fast or don’t care (possibly both)”
To me – there’s a flaw in the measurement.. ok.. what else…
27% of respondents aren’t seeing improved marketing results from their segment-driven marketing efforts
Ok, something is really wrong here. If 77% can’t demonstrate it’s working and 27% can’t see improved results…. the other 50% can’t demonstrate it’s working but “say it is???” Wow I’m confused.
Among the respondents, the most consistent obstacle to successful segment-driven marketing has been identifying the right segments
Now the “right” segments. What does that mean? Shouldn’t you know what those segments are? Typically they start as your customers?
But, says eMarketer in an overview of the study, “...this is precisely where behavioral targeting promises to help, since the “right segments” are created by the users and their actions, not imposed on them.”
Ok, enough. Behavioral marketing is not “the” way to define your segments. Yes you can see trends and start to understand them, but it should be the experiment – not the hypothesis. If you are trying to figure out your segments this way – you are losing and throwing away your money.
And finally, profiling your customer data is not imposing anything. The customer has acted and by definition created the profiled set of actions based on their demos and psychographics.
The Blueprint for Defining Your Marketing Segments – It’s Really Not Hard
1. Start with what makes your company money. Not the best response.
Note this is where most companies get it wrong. Most go for volume, orders, sales. Step back and look at revenue and contribution margin. Sales are short term figures that should be linked to selling, acquiring the right customers.
If a certain purchase makes you the most revenue and it is part of your core competency, good. If acquiring customers on a cycle and keeping them for 11 months makes you the most revenue, good. These are your target customers – start there.
Probably, they are 20 – 30% of your business. You are acquiring them along with other customers.
2. Profile High Value, Revenue and Low Value customers (with specific attributes)
Identify who makes you money and who does not. When you can identify the people who make you the most revenue on one sale and those that cost you money you start targeting. This means mining your customer data for the information and if you don’t have age, sex, interests, etc.. Get a research organization to profile them and ask your customers.
Obviously then market around the losers and hit the winners.
3. As you profile the high and low value – you will find the customers in-between. Group them.
Identify the middle ground of customers you will take and those you will pass on. You may only target 2 segments out of 5 and 5 is the most you should group to in the start.
4. You may give up market share? Yes, if you can afford it. This is where the middle ground is important – they will shape your share of the market. Do you want share or to maximize EBITDA? or both… greedy!
It’s a tough choice, but knowing the segments gets you:
1) Through the good times with hyper revenue flow and..
2) Through the tough times, by knowing which segments to cut and who to guard as low cost and high revenue.
When I see these listings for the Top Digital Agencies (Online Agencies) of 2007 I have to sit and wonder, for Ad Age, is it really all about revenue? Being the top agency, is it really about awards?
How about the top award goes to the agency that completes the following:
Achieves Their Client’s Goals
Listens to their Clients
Delivers quality work on time, under budget, exceeding response/return/etc..
Has EXPERIENCED not educated people working with them and their clients
Shall I go on? This tends to hit the heart of the matter and you can’t blame agencies for focusing on revenue – they absolutely need to make their money or good people will lose their jobs. However, it tends to be marketer’s faults for rewarding agencies that are all pomp and no substance.
I remember walking into an ad agency meeting room for lunch with a crew we were about to hire. They had 90 people in the room and they said you may pay for x number of people but you are getting 90. Nice trick, yes. However, I bluntly asked if my x people would be in on other client welcoming engagements and if so would I be billed for that time, jokingly. But of course they would, that is the game.
This is not a dig at agencies, it’s a warning for marketers. Just know, lists like this are informal (if not formal) way of becoming the top agency. CEO’s pull out these lists and start calling from the top. CMO’s do the same. Just know for some organizations it is about – Revenue. And the only way to make money is to create work and refer work.
AD Age has posted their Agency Tree. It’s important to know who your agency is owned by and works with. I can’t tell you how many times when you enter an agency family that you hear the words … “I know someone…” that is linked to the agency.
Today’s Marketing Executive needs to be scrupulous and second guessing. Many agencies reward inter organization referrals, therefore you need to think – am I getting a good reference for my organization or a reference for my agency’s partner?
See the Website – www.quarter-pounder.net, a clear example of the efficiency strived for. 
colors, but more about the perception and attitudes that your customers must have of your brand to be competitive in that market. 
So the feeling is great – what’s wrong.
is in the mass remote application which is barely touched on. 
really all about revenue? Being the top agency, is it really about awards?
