Bud a dud?

Anheuser-Busch has looked to one of its ad agencies, DDB, to create a Super Bowl spot aimed at the younger target. Let’s call them 21+.   In this age of ceding control of the creative product to anyone who will listen, DDB has decided to enlist interns to come up with this spot, but that’s a topic for another day. AB’s goal of making Bud more relevant to the younger target, is a very good one.

Bud is getting killed–at least in the NY Metro area–in the 21-34 year old demo. 

Have I dialed into Beverage Industry newsletters and trade pub data for this insight?  Nope. I went to a Pearl Jam concert at the Meadowlands last year and while the beer lines were 40 feet long at the Guinness cart and the other domestic beer carts, Bud devotees could grab a quaff in seconds. It was unbelievable. It was like the Bid cart repelled people. Perhaps my email of this market research study-of-one got through the firewall to AB’s Bob Lachky.

Joe Nacchio

A number of years ago, I had the pleasure of working indirectly for Joe Nacchio, Qwest Communication’s ex-CEO who was indicted yesterday for insider trading. I certainly don’t know about his recent escapades, and I can’t begin to understand how someone with seemingly had so much could do something so self-destructive, but I will say that he was one hell of a marketer.

While the head of AT&T Business Communications Services in the 90’s, Mr Nacchio used to ask his ad agency McCann-Erickson to develop pretend ad campaigns by chief rival MCI which he used at sales meetings to incite his sales and marketing teams.  When AT&T was in jeopardy of losing a huge portion of its 800 service business, after the government decided 800 numbers could be moved by customers from one long distance carrier to another, he emptied the buildings and sent every able bodied employee out onto the street to meet with customers face-to-face. It not only worked, it really worked.

The man was daring and decisive. He didn’t teach, but you couldn’t help but learn. He certainly had a brilliant marketing compass and it took him to the very top of AT&T’s corporate suite; at a time when AT&T was one of the world’s top multinational corporations. Somehow that compass lost its bearing when he left NJ.

Joe Nacchio, AT&T, Qwest Communications, McCann-Erickson

Passion or commitment?

Here’s a quote from today’s New York Times by Sony Electronics new SVP of advertising “Sony’s consumer research showed that consumers had great passion for Sony but that the brand was not making an emotional connection.”

Could we please, please stop confusing passion for a brand with commitment? People love Sony because of amazing design and quality. Sony ads need to convey that design and quality and do so without getting in the way.  But to listen to BBDO’s David Lubars it’s all about the ads.  Said Lubars, “They make products that delight people, that are fun and entertaining, and their communications should reflect that humanness.” (I’m sure Mr. Lubars said a lot more this, but that’s all that was reported.) The Times reporter embellished, “The humorous quality of the ads was meant to make the brand feel accessible.”

Passion and “feel good” are byproducts of advertising — related to tone. Commitment to purchase is what agencies need to work on. Commitment to purchase and repurchase are the rational things people conger up when being passionate. Demonstrations of product superiority and difference are the way to that grail.                

Sony Electronics, David Lubars, BBDO, Sony advertising, New York Times

The diluted talent pool.

One of my favorite sayings in marketing is “Just when you think you know something about this business, someone comes a long to prove you wrong.” I like it because I coined it.  There are no hard and fast rules about advertising, marketing and branding.  There are many good rules, but no absolutes.  You have to know, in your gut, when to break the rules…and that’s the fun part!

Those in the business who have actually spent some real money and seen what an investment in marketing can do tend to have a pretty good handle on what works and what doesn’t. Those are the people you want to work with.

But today’s ROI tools have made it so easy to measure success that marketers don’t rely on “people” to predict success, they rely on the “tools.”  By testing click-through rates of online messages or direct mail cell performance they let the tools decide what works and what doesn’t.  This is why the advertising and marketing talent pool has become diluted.

ROI, marketing, direct marketing, click through rate

Rear-view Mirror Planning

One of my brand planning peeves is what I call rear-view mirror planning. Basically rear-view mirror planners discovery process is all about what’s happened in the past – what’s behind the brand.  To take the metaphor further, there are also side-view mirror planners.  Side-view planners care about what’s going on now.  Which competitors are gaining?  What brands, trends, and attitudes have traction today?  But real genius in planning is predicting the future.  Creating the future.  Sound cocky?  Yep.

Fashion designers live with this every day, as do artists, and in advertising so do the really great creative people. It requires sticking your neck out.  But it’s the fastest way to success.  Watch where you are going.

Brand planning, rear-view mirror planning.

Is Starbuck’s growing too fast?

Uncle Steve thinks so. I happened to be on the periphery of the whole Krispy Kreme collapse a couple of years ago and one thing I said at the beginning was that Krispy Kreme’s expansion plans were going to be its downfall. Adding more stores was okay up to a point, but then putting the donuts in every gas station and big box store, was a tad greedy.

The allure of Kripsy Kreme is that it’s a sweet treat, and too many treats are like to many creeps (Bush Tetras reference.)  Starbucks building 7 stores a day is evidence of that same insatiable build-out thing that many marketers fall prey to. It’s like a drug addiction. The company plans to build 10,000 stores over the next 4 years. I know it’s a big world, but come on. As Lou Carnesecca once told me when referring to Bobby Knight’s erratic, driven behavior “How many cars can you drive? How many steaks can you eat?  

Slow down, Mr. Schultz and smell the chai!

Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, Bush Tetras, Lou Carnesecca, Bobby Knight

Just Do All.

I sit in my cube today in a red St. John’s tee-shirt, Levi’s jeans, and a pair of black high-top Chuck Taylor’s. St. John’s, my favorite college basketball team, is a university for whom I’ve done some strategy work.  Nike has also done a good deal of work for St. John’s.  In fact, their design team came up with the new sports logo. If you are in marketing you know about Nike’s brilliance.

That said, today Nike is in trouble.  Remember the aforementioned Chuck Tailor’s? They squeak. When Converse was wholly owned, they didn’t squeak.  Now Nike owns “Cons.” Squeak, squeak. Nike is losing focus. They design logos for college basketball teams, re-design uniforms, and even sell golf balls. Nike is now trying to reinvent the tee-shirt, looking at 74 neck variations and changing the wicking properties so they can charge $25 per swoosh.

The WSJ tells us Nike is re-focusing on core, higher margin products. Here are the categories on which they are focusing: basketball, running, soccer, sports lifestyle, men’s training and women’s products.  If that’s focus, I’m Greg Oden.  Under Armour is a company with focus. They will be the next Nike.

Tag: Nike, Converse, Chuck Taylor’s, Maria Sharapova, St. John’s University, Under Armour

What does a page go for in the Wall Street Journal.  Michael Dell do you know? 

Dell has started what appears to me to be a new campaign about its business services. The first ad up is one highlighting the DaimlerChrysler Corporation.  Here’s what I learned:  Dell is working with Daimler (that’s news I guess). Dell helped them work in a more efficient way (benefit). They are in direct dialogue with Daimler (I would hope so). And they offer managed service (outsourcing), server solutions (duh), and 24/7 support (they probably have pagers).

Though one could say the ad contains some information, I would place this ad in the “we’re here” category, which does little more than tell consumers what you sell.

My guess is the copywriter had no clue as to the crux of the Dell/Daimler relationship and, frankly, it smells like he or she never left the copy department to find out. Worse, this may even be an ad developed by Dell in-house. Either way it is lazy work.  How many laptops do you think Mr. Dell has to sell to pay for a 4-color page in the journal?

Tags: Dell, Michael Dell, DaimlerChrysler, we’re here advertising

Good call.

Oh, I hope not to end up being one of those self-aggrandizing bloggers who pat themselves on the back for being right all the time.  I find that so cumbersome. But I had to smile this morning upon learning that Crispin Porter Bogusky resigned the Miller account. A few days ago I indelicately suggested that Alex Bogusky fire Miller, which he and Chuck Porter did. Congratulations.  Good call.    

What caused the rift? Miller Lite’s decision to create and produce an ad in-house. I saw that ad last night and it had all the markings of a client-produced spot: it was an “awards” ad. Clients’ love awards ads. They love ads about themselves. Agencies love ads about consumers.

I don’t for a minute believe Miller Lite will remain in-house, it won’t. They are too smart for that. And, the “unfurl the award banner” spot may actually sell a few extra kegs of beer near term. But next agency beware. Miller needs a big strategic idea, but more importantly they need to believe in it.  

Tags: Miller Brewing, Miller Lite, Crispin Porter Bogusky, Alex Bogusky

Why is beer advertising so bad?

Have we as a society gotten so besotted with ad messages that we can’t even make a good beer commercial?  I don’t include Corona in this assessment, whose simple work I still find to be splendid.  Now I admit to getting a chuckle every so often hearing the “real men of genius” radio, but it certainly doesn’t make me want to quaff down a Bud Light.  But could the Coor’s Light frozen silver bullet train be any more inane? 

Coors Light advertising, according to a senior marketing executive, gets back to the brands roots of “refreshing and cold.” Refreshing and fun are Coke’s core attributes; so is it any wonder when I see a Coors Light commercial I get thirsty for a Coke?

I’m a beer guy.  There are a lot of things that might induce me to drink a frosty one, but a frozen train darting between a bunch of smiling blonde women isn’t one of them.  Hmmmm, or is it? Sigmund?      

Tag: Coors Light, Bud Light, beer advertising, Coke