Brand Trends - Advertising & Marketing

By Chuck Pettis

Summaries of brand trends as reported by
leading publications covering the branding field.

Buddy, Can You Spare Some Time?
The Wall Street Journal, January 26, 2004

The average U.S. consumer listens to 20 hours of radio/week; 19 hours of cable and satellite TV/week; 15 hours of broadcast TV/week; 3 hours/week of recorded music, newspaper reading and Internet surfing; and 2 hours/week reading magazines and books. People are sleeping less, and (no surprise) given the ubiquity of cell phones, talking on the phone more. Our cable company, Comcast, just added an "On Demand" service that offers free downloaded movies and shows, whenever you want. All this makes it much more difficult and expensive for advertisers to reach their target demographics.

What's an advertiser to do?

Now Playing: Creatives Turn to Storytelling to Create Brand Messages
Media & Entertainment, May 17, 2004

There's a new medium emerging on the web called "advertainment" and "webisodes." These ads go beyond 30 seconds and create a new segment of branded entertainment that is longer than a commercial and shorter than a file. They use popular culture and storytelling to create brand messages and alter consumer brand perceptions.

TV Doesn't Sell Package Goods
Advertising Age Magazine, May 24, 2004

This article reports on a Deutsche Bank report that shows that TV advertising doesn't deliver a good ROI for most mature packaged goods brands, such as Coors, Heinz ketchup, Lay's, and Bounty towels. Only 18% brands generated a positive short-term ROI and only 45% got a long-term pay off. New brands, on the other hand, such as P&G's Crest Whitestrips got strong, positive returns. Should packaged-goods marketers spend less on TV and more on magazines, radio, and trade promotions?

Abandon TV at your own risk
Advertising Age Magazine, June 7, 2004

This article refutes the prior article, arguing that reduced TV advertising combined with trade promotions cause consumers to be more price and promotion sensitive. In other words, TV advertising builds brand esteem and sets up premium pricing, while trade promotions get short-term sales hits.

Given that TV ads aren't what they used to be, advertisers and marketers are looking to a wide range of new and old marketing communications tactics and strategies, including the use of celebrities, cartoon characters, character makeovers, search-engine advertising, pruning of the brand-name portfolio, frequent-user loyalty programs, advertainment, branded entertainment, sponsorships, product placement, licensing, or on-line gaming. Read on for examples.

Adidas Gets Artsy With Its U.S. Ads
The Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2004

This article reports on Adidas's use of celebrities and known brand icons such as Muhammad Ali and his daughter Laila Ali. Celebrities are usually a good brand investment, especially in the sports gear and clothing space. Personally, I love watching boxing on TV. I can remember watching Mohammad Ali box in his younger days- he was an amazing hero and warrior archetype. If Adidas sticks to this approach it might help them regain some market share from Nike.

Related Web sites:

http://usa.adidas.com/

Whose Ad Is This Anyway?
The Wall Street Journal, December 4, 2003

This article reports that ad agencies are using cartoon characters from other brands (e.g., Taco Bell Chihuahua meets Geico's Gecko and Maytag repairman in a Chevy Impala) to promote their products. This is, in my opinion, a good idea because cartoon characters are charming. Plus, licensing a cartoon character is less expensive that a real-life celebrity. Bringing in another well-known cartoon character is similar to having a guest celebrity on a TV sitcom, which increases viewership. The trick is to get the leverage of the brand familiarity, trust, and positive esteem of the guest character without confusing people and letting the guest character overshadow the product for sale.

Related Web sites:
http://www.pillsbury.com/
http://www.geico.com/

Old Brawny Man Branded With New Look
The Seattle Times Newspaper, January 1, 2004

Old Brawny Man is a masculine character used on Georgia-Pacific paper-towel products. The old "Brawny Man" was out of date and was not a guy that woman wanted to fantasize about. Since brand is about status, it makes sense to make sure that brand icons and characters are kept compelling and up to date in the minds and hearts of the target customer group. The new "made over" Brawny Man is "metrosexual," combining masculinity with sensitivity.

Related Web sites:

http://www.brawnyman.com/
http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2002/07/22/metrosexual/

Florida Mystery Writer Enjoys Lifetime as the Gerber Baby
The Seattle Times Newspaper, February 13, 2004

Don't change the brand if it isn't broken! Few logos are as effective, successful, and trusted as the Gerber baby logo. It is interesting that some logos require updates as values and fashion change, but that the Gerber baby logo has remained unchanged since it started appearing in 1928. It is a timeless icon for the archetypal happy and healthy American baby.

Related Web sites:

http://www.gerber.com/

It's an Ad, Ad, Ad, Ad World
Wired Magazine, March 2004

Key-word search engine advertising is hot and effective. I consider search engine advertising the most cost-effective advertising any business can use. You go to Google (or Overture) and "buy" relevant key words. When a user types in the selected key words, your ad appears under "Sponsored Links." You pay a cost-per-click for each click on your ad - about 15 percent of the Google ads get clicked. Impressive increases in traffic and sales have been reported.

Related Web sites:

http://www.google.com/ads

Even Brands Need Spring Cleaning
BRANDWEEK Magazine, March 8, 2004

Most companies and organizations have too many brands. David A. Aaker's new book, Brand Portfolio Strategy, provides a systematic process for pruning the company's brand portfolio. His strategic brand consolidation process, is organized into six steps:

1. Identify the relevant brand set
2. Establish assessment criteria
3. Evaluating the brands
4. Prioritize brands
5. Develop a revised brand portfolio strategy
6. Migrating the strategy

Pfizer Introduces Viagra Loyalty Program
Advertising Age Magazine, April 19, 2004

Pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, is creating a "frequent user" program similar to frequent flyer programs for Viagra. Pfizer has introduced a Value Card that provides a free prescription of Viagra for every six purchased prescriptions. This is a great idea and will, no doubt, be enormously successful.

Making the Deal
Media & Entertainment, May 17, 2004

Branded entertainment consists of sponsorships (e.g., Nextel's sponsorship of NASCAR events) , product placement (e.g. a new shoe appearing on the show Sex and the City), merchandise (Trump-branded merchandise from the show The Apprentice), advertainment (e.g., six-minute ESPN Shorts that use a sports story to push a client's products). It's goal is to get the brand's message across via entertainment events and media.

Related Web sites:

http://www.nascar.com/2004/news/business/06/08/nextel_qtrone/

Author Finds That With Fame Comes Image Management
The New York Times, June 8, 2004

Becoming a celebrity provides the opportunity for partnerships with corporations. For example, author Azar Nafisi never thought about creating an image for herself. Now, she is a part of an Audi marketing campaign where Audi sponsored literary events in five cities for her. Audi specifically wanted people who were doing something "really cool" and not just rich and famous.

Microsoft and I.B.M. Put Their Marketing Dollars into Trying to Keep Their Existing Customers Happy
The New York Times, February 17, 2004

Of course, it never hurts to keep your current customers happy! IBM and Microsoft are investing $500 million toward marketing communications unrelated to television commercials, print advertisements or billboards. Their goal is to improve current customer satisfaction by relevant, consistent and useful marketing communications. This focus on "customer relationship management" to increase brand loyalty is a smart move. It is always more cost efficient to keep current customers happy than to try and gain new customers.

Related Web sites:
http://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/fcsuit/PDF-papers/CRM%20paper.pdf

Five Ways to Get Into the Minds of Marketers
The New York Times, March 21, 2004

A good set of five new branding books have been published that all focus on helping a company grow, capitalize on their intangible assets (a large percentage of many company's market valuation), and improve its reputation. I personally ordered: Building Reputational Capital, The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation, Word Craft, and Brand Portfolio Strategy.

Poorly Translated Ads are a Turnoff
The Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2003

While many companies have become more sophisticated in their translations, poor translations and simple mistakes are still an issue and turn off customers. The article reports that 57% of the people surveyed noticed ads incorrectly translated from English into other languages. For example, the Milk Processor Education Program slogan, "Got Milk" was poorly translated into Spanish with the meaning, "Are you lactating?" When people see a poorly translated ad, they either ignore the ad, or worse, feel that the poor translation shows that the company doesn't care about the consumer and begin to feel negatively about the brand. The new translation meaning "More Milk, More Achievement" was carefully targeted to Hispanic mothers.

New Ads a "Go" For Dell
BRANDWEEK Magazine, November 24, 2003

Dell has always been a smart branding company. Since their inception, their advertising has been easily identifiable and focused on the key purchase factors. BrandSolutions did a branding project for Sun Microsystems in 1995 to identify the key purchase factors for business servers (reliability, scalability, responsive tech support). Subsequently, the marketing manager at Sun went to work at Dell to help them set up their new business server business. Based on conversations I have had with Dell about branding, they are very sophisticated in their brand strategy and market research. On their web site, note the short phrases that cover the top purchase factors for each product. Dell is positioning the retail channel as stressful, expensive, limited in selection, compared to their direct selling model. The Dell tagline remains: "Easy as Dell." According to the Nielsen ratings, Dell is the #1 hardware and electronics advertiser.

Related Web sites:
http://www.dell.com

Linking Agency Fees to Ad Success
The Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2004

Over the years there have been many efforts to link sales increases to agency fees. This pricing strategy sounds good (and is good for ad agency compensation consultants), but has never been broadly adopted because there are so many factors that affect sales other than advertising. Rightfully so, most ad agencies are reluctant to be compensated when there are critical factors that they have no control over.