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    Kid Rock Blowin’ Smart Bubbles

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Kid Rock is an American treasure. The real deal. Whether raunchy or mellifluous (listen to “Picture" with Sheryl Crow,) Kid sings his ass off. He also cares about and understands the music business. Read some of his exchanges with noted music blogger Bob Lefsetz as proof. Yesterday Kid ended his long hold-out allowing Rhapsody to sell his music digitally. Until this deal, you had to buy Kid Rock music … bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy diggy… on CDs.  

     

    One provision of the the deal is that you must buy full albums. Very smart. The single cut is killing artist loyalty.  If you don’t listen to a whole album you can’t truly get an artist. Plus burn-out on a song and artist is more likely when listening only to select cuts.  The single digital download why more and more one-hit-wonders are emerging. Kid Rock knows this. Peace!

     

      

    For Dell it’s all about the Demonstration.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Demonstrations in marketing are key. Dell just launched a portable projector, the model M109S, which sells for $500. The picture of the unit is not much to look at but when you hear that it fits in the “palm of your hand” it engenders the big aha. The M109S does not offer breakthrough clarity of picture but, I repeat, it fits in the palm of your hand. The hand demonstrates the “portable.”

     

    Marketing is filled with claims: tastes great, fast and easy, light weight, low cost. And ads are filled with these claims which, like water, run off the backs of consumers. Demonstrations, on the other hand, create muscle memory for communications. They are simple, memorable and sell.

    Demonstration names are also a good idea. How about calling this unit the “Peanut” rather than the M109S?

     

       

    http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?s=gen&c=us&l=en&cs=&k=M109S&cat=all

    HSBC and JWT Doing Good Work.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    HSBC is a bank about which I have written a number of times. Bank advertising is horrible and often idea-less.  HSBC ads from JWT, though sometimes uneven, are really quite good. JWT’s account planners have given their creative teams an idea to work with.   

     

    The tagline “The world’s local bank,” which suggests big but caring, circles what I believe to be the branding idea but it doesn’t quite nail it. That’s because most big banks have used the caring thing or a facsimile thereof for years.  It’s not differentiated.

     

    HSBC’s branding idea is to prove better service by conveying in the advertising that they attempt to really understand consumers. Their heady campaign about perceptions (Is sushi mouthwatering or nasty?) is brilliant. And the new small business work in which they coin the acronym RAQs (rarely asked questions) is a great creative hook to earn them muscle memory for the bank’s desire to get better answers. Better answers result in better, more tailored solutions. RAQs is an idea worth pursuing.

     

    Watch out for HSBC. If they stay the course and, more importantly, operationalize the strategy into their business they will emerge as a market leader in the eyes of consumers.

     

    Walgreen Falls Into Trap.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Promotions and discounts are a trap easily fallen into, and the Walgreen Company just confirmed its stumble.  Sales were up for the quarter but revenue down which according to corporate spokespeople was attributed to excessive promotions. Promotions are best used to create trial — to get people to do something they wouldn’t do otherwise. When people need an incentive, promotions work. 

     

    Walgreens looked at the slowing economy and decided to cut prices and give product away as a tactical means to spark business. I am not privy to the exact product offers and have not seen the supporting communications, but will bet they did not support the core Walgreen brand idea, which if the website is accurate is “The Pharmacy America Trusts.”  And even if it did support the branding idea trust is such a lazy and hard to differentiate strategy for pharmacies, it’s no wonder sales are tailing.  Walgreens needs a real idea. And it’s in their storesevery day. They just have to find it. Peace!

     

    Big Box vs. Mom and Pop

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    What has driven the amazing growth of the big box concept in retailing? Selection? Price? Volume? Yes three times. Yet as we watch the demise and troubles of many smaller local venues (read about the Jefferson Market, in the NY Times online), it is obvious what we are missing when we frequent the big boxes: personal service. I’m not talking about Customer Care served up by a corporate training video, I’m talking about service by someone who knows you by face, perhaps name, and past purchase context. 

     

    Mom and Pop shops are owned and operated by neighbors. To succeed they have to pay attention. Mom and Pops are people not interchangeable sales automatons, they are good listeners and recommenders and in an emergency they are there for you. Mom and Pops are the fabric of America’s commercial strength. 

     

    As we begin to bail out the Lehmans and the AIGs, let’s remember the local mom and pop stores in our communities. Peace!      

      

     

     
     

    Marketing Consolidation Should Favor Ad Agencies.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    While the economy is tough, marketers retrench and watch expenses. Larger marketers tend to have lots of specialist companies on payroll: Ad agencies, PR firms, direct marketing shops, media buying services, digital shops, promotion agencies.  As they look at these rosters and think about winnowing the list down they ask “Which of my shops will deliver the best value?” The answer must be the ad agency. They are more strategic and have the best general understanding of all the communications channels. Smart marketers will give more work to the ad agency, while not-so-smart marketers will give more work to the digital agency — trying to ride the ROI wave – where it is believed that digital is more measurable, predictable, and manageable.

     

    Big mistake.

     

    Digital shops, who admittedly are becoming more strategic, are still to tactically focused. In tough economic times the general ad agency is the most powerful partner. Peace! 

     

     

    Campbell’s Select Harvest Campaign is Superb

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I’ve written before about Douglas Conant, the head of Campell’s Soup Company, who in my view is one of the smartest CEO’s in the business world. Click here. Here is another example of his marketing prowess.
     
    Campbell’s just broke a new campaign for Select Harvest soups. I’ve seen only one print ad and one TV commercial, yet can tell you it is focused and has a powerful idea. Two actually. It takes on Progresso soups and MSG (monosodium glutamate.)   
     
    The print shows two large soup cans with MSG above the Progresso can and TLC above Select Harvest. The copy uses words like “farm-grown,” “sea salt,” and “100% natural.” Very factual, hard hitting stuff. The TV is even better.  Simply produced, a young-ish blindfolded women sits at a table using her palette to determine the provenance of Select Harvest ingredients down to which side of the hill the mushroom field is facing. The spot must have cost $85,000.
     
    When advertising makes you want to buy something or change your purchase behavior it usually starts with a clean, focused strategy.  Mr. Conant and his marketing team bring that type of focus to their marketing party. (Oh, BTW, Campbell’s soup sales are up 13% on the quarter.)
     
     

    Circuit City Needs a Branding Idea.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Circuit City’s chairman, president, CEO Philip Schoonover stepped down yesterday, perhaps from the weight of all his titles. Actually, Circuit City has been performing poorly and needed a change.
     
    I’ve been in a Circuit City recently and the stores are nice. A little darker than Best Buy, but that’s soothing and makes the electronics glow a bit more. The place is not cavernous and the employees seem well-trained. Circuit City, though, does not really own a positioning the mind of the consumer.  And it could. I’m not sure Circuit City even advertises — if it does, it probably just uses circulars or price ads.
     
    The new CEO needs a smart CMO, a good agency and a clean, ownable branding idea. Best Buy is about selection and price. Radio Shack is about personal service, but the place look like a toy store. Circuit City, with its name and heritage, has the opportunity to be “expert” in electronics.  The place that explains, clarifies and recommends. Think Geek Squad for all things electronic.  Peace!
     
     

    Marketers With A Conscience.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    In tough times conspicuous consumption and wastefulness are uncool. In tough times we eat more leftovers, think about all the plastic water bottles we put into landfills, and ride our bikes to the store.   It’s the way we should live all the time, but what we really need is to have our kids remind us to be more thoughtful about waste. Just like when they told us not to smoke or drive after drinking a beer. Kids are our conscience.
     
    In tough times, marketers that help educate our kids about the perils of wastefulness and poor environmental habits will be viewed by adults as more worthy of our business. And marketers who don’t just “preach” but “do” will be viewed most favorably — like the milk company that changed the shape of its gallon jugs to save energy consumption 3 ways.
     
     
     

    Crispin and Microsoft Should Play Offense

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Crispin Porter is a very, very good ad agency. I don’t always agree with their creative, but more often than not it has a positive effect. As they get bigger, though, they run into client issues, category issues, and problems they haven’t seen before, making it hard to succeed all the time.
     
    One issue they are currently addressing with the new Microsoft advertising is the corner they have been painted into by TBWA/Chiat Day’s “I’m a PC” campaign for Apple. The campaign uses a Bill Gates-like nebbishey figure to represent the PC and he is never as cool or consumer-friendly as the Apple figure. Moreover, he takes shots like a hockey goalie.
     
    Crispin Porter has done a campaign that plays defense against the Apple campaign, in a sense whining about being mistreated and made into a “stereotype.” This defensive position is a mistake and very un-Crispin-like. They are best when on offense. Secondly, the genius of the Apple work is not in dis-ing Microsoft so much as it dis-ing the PC. Microsoft has taken the bait…focusing on the PC not the software. Microsoft needs its own idea. About software. And “Life without walls.” (the new line) isn’t it.
     

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