What is it about this marketing stuff that is so hard? Sergio Zyman once said marketing is about “Selling more product, to more people, more times, at higher prices.” Why can’t we just focus on that?
The Journal today discusses how Phillips-Van Heusen is using social networking and Ellis Island in its latest marketing campaign as a way to sell more Arrow shirts. Either I’m missing something or this is a barrowed interested stunt to get visibility. And I’m not even saying it won’t work. They may indeed get good visibility, with this tactic de jour, and sell a few cotton oxfords. I don’t see any pink polo shirts moving, but that’s just me. Long term, this is just a mistake.
It’s clearly one of those programs where someone in the company, or at the agency, said “Hey, social networking is big today, let’s build a program.” Clearly the mobile marketing idea (cell phone) didn’t rise to the top of the planning session.
These men and women should have taken the $50M they are spending and hired a great shirt designer to invent the next belly shirt or something. Or how about men’s underwear that is “A” cup, or “B” cup. Now there’s an idea.
Marketing tactics without strategy dilute brands.