those perfectly imperfect people in ads

 

We all know the first rule of anything… learn when it’s time to break the rules.

So here is one of advertising’s very first: Always represent the aspiration, the win, the way things could be if you only chose the advertiser’s product or service.

It was advertising’s first copywriting superstar, Claude Hopkins, who led the charge, chiding the industry to always show the clean teeth, the whiter than white whites, and the car that always starts, as opposed to their less than desirable counterparts. And good ole’ Claude, being the direct response black belt that he was, had the data and results to back up his beliefs.

But consumers don’t have perfect teeth, and accordingly many pundits make the case for “reality in advertising.” They believe that the more consumers can see themselves in ads, in all their imperfect glory, the more they can relate and respond. Dove’s celebrated “real women” campaign and many more like it make a vivid case for this approach.

The evolution to “real world” ads was a long time coming. Speaking about the ads of the times in 1981, novelist Mary McCarthy said “The thing that repels us in these advertisements is their naïve falsity to life. Who are these advertising (experts) kidding? Between the tired, sad, gentle faces of the subway riders and the grinning Holy Families of the Ad-Masses, there exists no possibility of even a wishful identification.”

We’ve come a long way Mary.

But in The New York Times last Sunday the break between advertising’s happy, perfect world and the rest of us proved to be jarringly disconnected. Perhaps not in an ad-to-ad comparison, but clearly in an illustration of how advertising’s over-the-top representation of our world can be so out of touch: A full-page article titled “A Year Later, Haunted but Hopeful, Haiti Struggles Back”, complete with photos of children and prosthetic limbs was placed directly next to a full page ad for the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas – an “Escape Winter…” from $399, wine, sushi, martinis, with care free, debt-loving Americans splashing their way down a water slide.

Ouch.

Those in advertising have a job to do: Put their client’s products and services on a pedestal. And in fact even the Dove campaign didn’t show imperfect women bogged down by loads of laundry, frazzled by the dog barking out of control while the kids argued about cleaning their rooms: It showed an honest array of strong women, stripped down, proud, champions of their bodies and images. And Atlantis isn’t guilty of being anything other than a truly world-class destination, a place where families can lose themselves in 100% unadulterated fun.

So what’s the problem? The problem is that there’s a rule at The New York Times about the oversight between advertising and editorial content: According to the Times Brian Fidelman, “The content of advertising does not dictate how or where we present the news.”

Perhaps comforting that there’s a firewall between advertisers and the news, the lack of communication between them will keep causing inappropriate ad placements like last week’s guffaw.

No, there is no perfect solution. And for every ad that represents the realty of our lives, there will continue to be five more that show the ideal. But in the case of the New York Times and their silos, I would remind those titans of journalism to embrace the first rule of rules: Learn when and how to break them.

 

 

 

 

 

walmart sheds 100 lbs. of gorilla

 

 

It’s time to throw our weight behind a lighter Gorilla.

Okay, the beast of Bentonville is still just that, but today the target on its back and the Target over its shoulder are perhaps not quite as ominous.

Walmart used invention and innovation to become hero to the middle class and darling of Wall Street’s retail corner, but from 2000-2009 it exemplified a marketshare-at-all-costs, people come second organization, a vilified medusa that turned a million mom and pops to stone.

But the clarion voice of evolution has been heard in Arkansas: Thanks to former CEO Lee Scott’s almost final initiative for sustainable green, current Chief Exec Mike Duke has picked it up and is off to the races by hitting America with a promise right where it counts the most… in the gut.

Specifically, with a little help from the first lady, Walmart has announced a five-year plan to make thousands of its packaged goods lower in unhealthy salts, fats and sugars, and to drop prices on fruits and vegetables.

Wilt Chamberlain once said that “nobody roots for Goliath,” but in this case I’m cheering and cheering hard as Walmart’s in-house food brand, Great Value, stands to become the nation’s number one label over the next decade. 16% of Kraft’s global sales may come from Walmart today, but count on Great Value taking a big bite of that and then some.

Bad food means bad health and America certainly has its issues: 19% of all American meals are eaten in a car. Americans spend 31 minutes a day cooking, eating and cleaning up a meal, but more than three hours a day in front of a TV or computer (not including work). We eat McNuggets made up of 38 separate ingredients, 13 of which are corn based. We spend more than $400k treating our Type 2 diabetes fueled by servings of fructose-fueld sodas large enough to have tidal basins. And whereas Henry Ford raised his workers wages so they could actually buy the cars they were assembling, Walmart slices labor to the bone so all “associates” can afford is either corn syrup-based packaged food stuffed on to more than 100,000 Walmart grocery aisles, or the dreaded fast food solution.

But today’s news is not about that. It’s about Walmart’s fresh commitment and commitment to fresh as they plan to systematically reduce sodium by 25%, eliminate industrially added trans fats, reduce added sugars by 10%, and develop a true certification program – a sticker on packages that meets specific health requirements.

Bottom line: What Walmart is finally ensuring is that consumers don’t have to choose between a product that’s healthier and a product they can afford.” (Or as some customers ask… “why is whole wheat macaroni and cheese more expensive than regular macaroni and cheese?)”

We may be a country that spends more than $150B to treat obesity and $2.3 trillion on total healthcare, but now – not just America’s – but the world’s largest company, the retailer to rule them all and food powerhouse is putting its money where our mouths are.

As Michael Pollan says, we’ve become a country of the overfed and under nourished. But he and a million food pundits must admit: A lighter gorilla is like a lighter America… welcomed, appreciated, and for today at least, a reason to feel good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

when every store is a convenience store

 

Two generations ago, picking up a quart of milk meant a stop at the grocery store. That’s it. One option. Although three generations ago companies like Dellwood could leave the milk in a glass bottle gently placed inside an insulated metal box by your doorstop. Quaint.

Today, convenience wins. 100% of the time. In 100% of all cases. (Unless the setting is a shoreline in Itapúa and your subbing Corona for milk. Then, you might just go out of your way for that certain fish taco.)

Sure, it’s low prices that drive 130MM people to shop at Walmart each week. So with foot traffic alone it’s no surprise they’re talking 33% of all American grocery shops off the table (can you say $140B?). But that’s really a convenience play all over again… (I’m already here and in a rush).

Same with Target… while you’re picking up the designer bowl, you may not find a designer orange but you will find a full spread of perishables in 450 of Target’s 1,750 stores and 400 more on the way.

This is not just about big retailers asking you to put fresh fish and eggs in the same cart that holds a new blouse and a pillow. This is about the homogenization of retail filling the middle between literal convenience stores and grocery stores. Ergo, milk and a subset of 50,000 grocery store SKUs will be coming to a store – every store – near you.

You’ll see Walgreens expand their food aisle, to one degree or another. Which means that CVS and Duane Reade will follow suit, to one degree or another. Which means that Starbucks will expand its already expanding late lunch presence, and Dunkin Donuts will install a frozen foods section.

Convenience wins, 100% of the time.

And this: According to Nashville’s Bohan Group, 30% of families who dined out in 2011 will do so less in 2012, with moms – the family’s CGO (Chief Grocery Officer) – already opting out 58% of the time and now expecting to spend more on groceries than ever before.

Retail homogenization marches on. Not just in big department stores as the NY Times reports. No, it’ll be Office Depot (soups, snacks and quick meals) and Pep Boys (any processed food that I can bring home and zap), the car wash (ditto) and your gym (whole grain pasta and organic sauce anyone?)

Fast food growth. Drive thru expansion. Curbside service. Larger c-stores. Big boxes with more perishables. Groceries at retail. It’s just the convenience revolution, marching on.

And lest we forget, the number one product sold at Walmart is not jeans or a towel, a screwdriver, toy or football… it’s the banana… the most convenient food on the planet. Peel on.

we are… wait… perhaps we’re not… family

Once upon a time, the concept of marketing to families was simple, as 85% of all households in American were “married with children.” Today, that number has plummeted to below 25%.

Holy Brady Bunch! What happened? There are now more than 100MM single adults, close to 90% live alone. About 30% of all babies are born to unwed moms. There are more multi-generational Hispanic households and same sex couple households. There are homes with cohabitants like mom’s boyfriend or dad’s girlfriend, second wives, third husbands, and many more permutations than ever of what was once the nuclear 4.3 person abode.

And you can forget about retirement. The silent generation (boomer parents and grandparents), and now boomer grandparents – turning 60 at a rate of 8MM per year – will never stop working as nest eggs are blown and part-time work is no longer defined by hours punched in at a local brick and mortar.

Hey, guess who else is hanging around the house? That’s right, the young’ns: While moving back home with one’s parents after graduating from college, or staying put after high school, once came with a big ‘ole “L” tattoo in the middle of one’s forehead, such is no longer the case. Saving money is smart. Building an entrepreneurial career from the get-go is smart.

So next time someone talks to you about marketing to families, re-set their definition. Think tribes. Not to be entirely confused with Seth Godin’s behavioral groups, but instead tribes as de facto 21st century family, now available in all shapes and colors. And while the FTL (Female Tribe Leader) remains the epicenter, nothing else will ever quite be the same.

Welcome to the family.

 

the social wisdom of snap crackle and pop

Does the Pillsbury Dough Boy really have a lot to say? Are you itching for your copy of the Michelin Man’s memoirs? And does anyone doubt for a second, that when Mr. Clean posts on Twitter, it’s being penned by a Jr. marketing associate at Procter & Gamble whose task it is to monitor social media and develop content, sans true branding blueprint.

Dimensionalizing a brand is good thing. And with Facebook and Twitter, et.al., the platform to connect brands on a social, personal level with consumers has never been more opportunistic.

But just because you hand a brand a megaphone, doesn’t mean they know what to do with it.

Advertising’s iconic characters, which have been drawn up and developed perhaps enough to fill a 30 second TV spot and look good on a grocery POP, don’t necessarily have a voice. And when they do, nobody has snapped, crackled or popped the code on how that voice can truly serve the brand.

Witness this Twitter post from Jack in the Box’s (literal) figurehead, a.k.a. Jack Box: “How come nobody leaves a flyer for Ultimate Fighting or Monster Truck rallies on my windshield? It’s always car washes or dry cleaning.”

Missed that one? Not to worry… Jack’s posted another 870 insightful and observational tweets just like it. The folks behind the brand would tell you that Jack’s ‘tude is essential to the brand, but it’s a loopy dotted line that gets you from car washes to ROMI.

Here’s one from the Aflac Duck: “Chicago is a lovely city. But I’m still not too clear on that whole sauce on top of the pizza thing. Can anyone explain this?”

Just another one of life’s big questions for the duck’s 7,725 followers.

Or this Facebook post by none other than the M&Ms: “Decided to crowdsource my New Year’s resolutions this year. Any suggestions?”

Pretty inane, but then again, I suppose M&M’s 1.8MM fans know something about hard shell candy humor that I don’t.

Branding is a discipline, not a triviality. And the value of a brand is too critical to hand over anyone who doesn’t deeply understand its purpose. Just ask Kenneth Cole.

My advice to icons like Green Giant would be to zip it until “he” figures out what he really wants to say. Or as the Giant posted himself… “time to veg out.”

 

what the hell is the heisenberg effect and why is it trying to kill my brand?

A mom stands at the coffee section of her local supermarket. She ponders the choices and considers which brand to purchase. Faced with a growing number of choices, flavors, brews and beans, there’s a lot to consider.For those who either want to master the art of consumer behavior, or are simply starved for consumer insight, three facts about that mom are irrefutable.

1. No matter what’s on her shopping list, 73% of all purchase decisions are made within three feet of “the shelf”. So understanding what’s going through her head at that moment – the moment of truth – is the holy grail of learning.
2. There is no research method, no science to date that can get into her head at that moment that can truly measure and evaluate her real time decision-making process.
3. If you try interviewing her at the moment of truth, you’ll never get the real truth, i.e. the clipboard itself will skew the data. If you bring her into a focus group setting to ask her why she purchased what she did, she will post rationalize her decision in this very artificial setting. More bad data. Finally, if we send her a survey online, or call her on the phone and ask her some questions, she will once again post rationalize her decisions (while multi-tasking no doubt) and the data will be skewed again. In fact, in all these cases, the very act of studying behavior actually alters the behavior and the results. That is the Heisenberg Effect.

Companies large and small are inadvertently betting their brand farm on Senór Heisenberg. Car companies routinely make $20M decisions based on 20 consumers in a focus group. Furniture retailers – some of the largest in the world – actually call consumers on their home phones in search of insight. How quaint.

But four gray walls and a two-way mirror doesn’t reveal the truth and the home phone is about as reliable as a black & white TV.

Heisenberg shows up uninvited to the restaurant party as well. At the bottom of my Outback Steakhouse receipt, for instance, is an invitation to provide customer experience feedback for a free Bloomin’ Onion. Given up to 30 days to respond, can I, or anyone truly share an accurate description, and more importantly a real emotion about a dining experience 30 days after it happened? At that point, I just want my free onion while Outback analysts are about to make decisions based on faulty and dated input.

Coca Cola spent $4MM and “spoke to” 200,000 consumers before deciding to introduce New Coke, when the case study’s post mortem now tells us that spending a few hours on a hot Summer day observing the way people actually consumed Coke and Pepsi would have told a completely different (and ultimately more accurate) story.

Oh yes… the Heisenberg Effect is alive and well as some of the largest brands in the world continue to engage in consumer research akin to a frontal assault. Like the blunt tools of yore, they still think that asking the consumer a direct question will send them on their merry and profitable way.

If you’re looking for truth, if you’re looking for accurate data, and if you’re looking to understand, get creative, get ethnographic, or get a new research partner.

But whatever you do, don’t let Heisenberg become your Hindenburg. The world doesn’t need another New Coke and you don’t need a mob of angry shareholders at your door.

 

 

 

 

the gospel of the spoon

 

The spoon has a good handle on life.

A life spent driven headlong into oatmeals and cereals, pasty yogurts and tepid soups.

The spoon hopes its washed at night in a fresh Cascade bath, and then gently laid in a neat wood drawer to snuggle with the other spoons. The spoon hopes for a world of clean sponges and room temperature water. It hopes the forks and knives won’t make fun of it just because they’re a little sharper.

But certainly, the spoon has a higher calling. And so it hopes it will see action at the big meal – Thanksgiving dinner or the feast on Easter Sunday.

But most of all, as much as the spoon appreciates the delicate texture of the perfect Matzoth Ball, or the sweet taste of the new Gerber’s bananas and strawberry, the spoon knows that there is but one place it truly belongs… buried deep into a bowl of creamy ice cream. That is its home, its center, its Nirvana.

And when the spoon gets the honor of having first dip into a fresh pint of a renowned ice cream maker’s extraordinary Vienna Mocha, or gets a hold of its chewy brownie chunk, it knows that it has served a higher purpose.

Finally, if a spoon is one of the lucky few that is procured out of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and is dispatched to one of 500 special locations, it will have become a legend. An icon. A spoon that has dipped into the happiest of endings. The dream deserts. The ice cream at Friendly’s.

This is the gospel of the spoon. And so for all the spoons in the world… wooden, ceramic, plastic or chrome, tea, table, serving or baby, know that there is a heaven, and that your brothers in hands are serving the noblest purpose on the planet.

Treating America. Connecting Families. And giving pause to everything that is pure and wonderful.

 

 

 

the sausage that sets up the marketing

Any way you slice it, it’s tightly controlled and brilliantly executed merchandising that sets up ROMI. And if you don’t like portuguese sausage (i.e. Liguica) as an example, then we can talk about RFID chips, or perhaps cavemen.

But before we talk real meat, the lesson is that if you can build, engineer or otherwise invent a flawless merchandising system, then a lock and load a commitment to world-class marketing, that formula will take you to the ROMI Promised Land. 

Geico, our Cavemen friend, has been around since 1935. But in 1996, when Warren Buffett stepped in, they eliminated field agents, built an online system that quickly became the envy of the industry, and pinpointed their value promise (15 minutes = a 15% savings). Having built an innovative, world-class merchandising system that de-commoditized auto insurance, they kicked in strong and creative messaging fueled by a shock and media budget that is well over $500MM, including about 100MM in sports programming, bumped by 100% in a single year. Like major airlines pre-Southwest and other similar industries where smug and “fat” majors forget that innovation is the mother of all category killers, the entire industry now fawns over Geico’s good to great merchandising and marketing model. 

Down at Walmart’s Arkansas HQ, you’ll find the planet’s masters of the supply chain universe, whose RFID tech and just-in-time inventory, bolstered with a continuing commitment to invention has resulted in the merchandising model to rule them all. Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat points out that that invention is not a strategy but a necessity when you’re (stranded) in Bentonville. But whatever the geneses, it’s the $1.4B of measured media, including close to $800MM in TV alone that is nothing short of a scorched Earth media policy. Yes, Walmart has always represented the gold standard in merchandising. But now, with their more balanced value proposition (upper-middle-class Gen-X friendly logo, modernized in store signage, and “live better” end line), their good-to-great marketing model has made them more powerful than ever.

Finally, not to Ann Arbor, where despite some new advertising slight of hand from Domino’s – they still can’t call their pizza with Pepperoni and Sausage a “meat” pizza because it ain’t – we instead head to Louisville where the better merchandising of Papa John’s “better ingredients” and (measured and) measurably better pies has created a true curve busting value proposition. (If you’re still head scratching over the term “Linguica” (Lynn-quee-sa), all you really need to know is that it is indeed a mouthwatering sausage from Portugal that Papa John’s serves and Domino’s and Pizza Hut haven’t even heard of.

But what’s better than better pizza? Better marketing, of course. Not just in terms of big ideas (Papa’s in the howwwwse), but throughout the confluence of a hundred details that have allowed Papa John’s to out-market the Goliath’s without out-spending them: Domino’s and Pizza Hut have 14,000 locations between them and have been collectively down about 70% in the past five years. But big Papa, with only 2,800 stores has been up a significantly “better” 315% during that same stretch with the stock already splitting twice. Yes, that’s a lot of dough (sorry) and Papa John’s continues to deliver (sorry again) stellar results.

Cavemen, Liguica and RFID. Certainly an odd trio, but what they have in common isn’t just potent, it’s replicable… Jim Collins on steroids… not just good to great, but great to world beating merchandising and marketing. 

Or as they say in Lisbon… wow!

 

 

multitasking ourselves to death, or worse

We are not binary beings. Meaning our ability to process a signal, our very ability to do almost anything, cannot be split in two with equal focus. It’s a science thing…. something’s gotta give.

Go ahead, rub your tummy and pat your head… it’s a nice parlor trick, but the point remains: If we could split our signal with equal strength, it would be a no-brainer (two brainer?).

Now imagine driving your car down the highway at 70MPH, every second you’re roaring up the road at 100 feet/per second. No wonder that those who multitask – dial, email, text – while driving are four times more likely to have an accident. According to Carnegie Mellon, driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent. Damn.

30 states have now enacted some type of text banning law, 11 in 2010, which at least shows someone’s paying attention. But my state, for instance, and a handful more still give drivers permission to text away… in school zones, on freeways, at night, in the rain, wherever, whenever.

I would tell you to look at the car next to you on the way home and see just how may people have one hand on the wheel and one on their phone… thumb tapping away, but better keep your eyes on the road instead.

What’s worse than death by multi-tasking, at least more painful? When someone wants our attention while pre-occupied with another task. Perhaps you’re reading while someone’s in front of your desk? Perhaps you’re texting while your kids are asking you a question, or just looking for a little time since you got home after dinner and are still tethered to your smart phone? Maybe you’re emailing while your significant other is pouring their heart out, looking up once and a while to make some quick eye contact.

Multitasking cannot and should not be a personal aspiration, let alone a professional one. (Spend a little time with four-hour workweek guru Tim Ferris). We are not binary and we are not being more productive. Instead, we are moving forward in half measures, giving nothing the full focus it needs.

When you embrace singletasking as the new multitasking, you won’t just ultimately accomplish more and give more to those around you, you’ll enjoy a higher degree of quality and meaning along the way. As Barbara de Angelis said, “Only when your consciousness is totally focused on the moment you are in can you receive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to offer.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

marketing’s tower of babel

It’s not just something that occurs in the rarified boardrooms of elite corporations. It’s not just SOP at marketing pow wows and the summits of top brands. It’s everywhere, a marketing nomenclature meltdown, a return to gobbledygook.

The babbling transcends rank or title, and in fact Harvard Business reports that most (senior) executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement.

If they can’t, neither can anyone else.

It’s the mixed up world of marketing terminology, off the rails and coming to a meeting near you.

You first see it in long-winded paragraphs posted around the office that are sometimes called a company mission, or purpose statement, or vision.

Never mind that nobody seems to know that a mission (Why we exist), can be broad but should be straightforward, not a laundry list of business objectives. Or that a vision (What we want to become), like the mission need not be differentiated. Instead, it’s the job of the strategic objective, above and beyond maximizing shareholder value, that should very specifically serve the business, and no two businesses are alike. (Remember, there is no such thing as apples to apples).

Marketing departments also struggle with the difference between a marketing objective and communication objective, usually not discerning the difference between the two. Which then leads to so-called creative briefs that look an awful lot like communications briefs or marketing briefs or War and Peace. (Little known fact: The three-brief stranglehold was invented in China in 1423 as torture device for those who dared cross into Mongolia).

Of course the same issues run rampant through debates around brand pyramids and brand architectures, and a million and one constructs for which somebody apparently misplaced the definitions.

Terminology aside, if every single person not just in the marketing department, but in the entire organization can’t state what business they’re in – singing from the same song sheet – then the oars are never working in the same direction and the crew is working twice as hard to move half as fast.

This then will not be a handy guide to translating the babble. Go to Harvard and check the textbooks.

But better yet, start your next marketing meeting with a go-around-the-table, asking every marketing stakeholder to define his or her brand. Unless it sounds like a broken record – the identical understanding of what business you’re in – something else is indeed broken and the easiest fix starts with language.

Keep it simply. Keep it clear. No more babble.