Topping Google

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You know the word "topping" has a lot of connotations. If you're 'topping' someone you could be going them one better; you could also be holding them down, like topping a tree. It cuts them down - like the Hickory Hilltopper's in that great Gene Hackman movie Hoosiers. But I am writing this post because I am tired of all the talk about Microsoft's attempt to buy Yahoo in a bid to, dare I say, 'top' Google? - Or is it more 'just to keep pace and stay abreast so that Google does not get too far ahead. To slow them down.

Google, like Starbucks is starting to show frays in it's cuffs. So let time take its toll. Now all the talk is about investor Carl Icahn (sure has the name for it - iCahn, iKahn, ICON-great new brand name for a Google topping search engine) and cronies such as Microsoft's Steve Balmer reigniting their takeover bid. Hey guys, listen up. All of this takeover action is proof that the guys working the problem don't have the ability to out-invent a new Google. Something better that grows not from pure technology, but from the creation of new knowledge from consumer minds, that by perceptual innovation would discover that knowledge required to change consumer habits and practices with ideas rather than ownership of a rival.

It sure is a lot cheaper , and only takes about six weeks to find that breakthrough idea that would snuff Google's mass appeal. I've done it before. Why not just treat the problem like a new product concept development exercise and invent a real google competitor from scratch for $200,000 or so rather than the $37 billion it would take to buy a Yahoo that's always going to be, like Avis, number 2. Of course, this advice comes from someone who knows how to do this type of problem solving strategic innovation. I don't do those garden variety line extensions.

I think the real problem believes this can't be done. "The cost of pioneering" would bee too high." But it would still be far, far less than what would go into Yahoo's acquisition. Imagine just what you could do if you were a successful new product person with several multi-billion home runs under your belt and someone gave you $37 billion to play with. I'd reinvent the entire consumer packaged goods industry including it's distribution channels.

The Banality of Selling Consumer Products

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I like the saying, "Branding is something you do when you don't have anything important to say." However, the banality of advertising today, what products and brands are saying about themselves, to sell themselves, borders on absurdity. Now I know that marketers don't want to stick their necks too far out on the line. And they'd rather be safe than sorry, especially in a rough economy. But it also reminds me of the saying, "Ships in a harbor are safe, but that's not what ships were made for."

I make special note here of the new advertising being done to sell 7-Up. Now with real, natural flavors. Who cares! It's a soft drink. I got through all these years with artificial flavors, so what strategic rocket scientist at Cadbury-Schweppes decided this was the best way to go? Reminds me of Procter & Gamble days where the soaps and surfactants division toyed around with the idea that washing your clothes "sanitized" them. DOH! Who cared? My clothes were clean.

Last year, Cadbury Schweppes beverage division, including Snapple and 7-Up was up for sale. And nobody bought. So there's been little growth in the division, and no one wants to buy the division. Don't you think it would be time for a little creative thinking and strategic innovation? This effort isn't picking the high fruit from the tree. As a matter of fact, it isn't even picking up the dead fruit from the ground.

Reality Vesus Actuality: A Construction of The Truth

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Reality has swept America. Reality TV that is. Is it real? So quickly the lines blur in one night's viewing. I no more need watch The Apprentice to know that I can make better decisions. But I do not get a better job, or a raise. And gas still costs $4 a gallon. An expense to my quality of life that is needless. That's Actuality. Disney was the first painter of reality. He is the grandfather of reality. He did not paint actuality. No one would watch - no one would come. Disneyland is a study in an idealized America that never existed. But now we watch shows and immerse ourselves in a reality that is not actuality. I do not want to escape. I do not want a shot at love with Tia Tequila.

So those of us who are not so numbed by the barage of reality - wonder about actuality. Are you marketing to actuality? Because that's where the people with disposable incomes are in a crappy economy. They're dealing with Actuality. They're not frittering away their dreams on reality.

Washington Mutual is marketing to reality. They've borrowed billions to remain solvent, and to mask the actuality, tell us they are the bank that makes you say, "Whoo Hoo!" The Germans call that "dreck." Please don't deposit your marketing waste in my Actuality bin. WaMu is using "reality" strategy to mask the fact that it is really the bank that lacks actuality management, and could very well make depositors cry Boo Hoo - if they had a run on the bank and had to lock the doors. Yes actuality fans, disaster at WaMu is really that close.

But as long as we can immerse ouselves in reality, know one will take accountability. And as soon as the credit crunch is averted - because that's what reality helps us do - we'll have dodged actuality again and life will go on taking Visa.

What happened to gold standards.

So in what camp are you placing the future growth of your company, your strategic innovation? Reality or Actuality?

Advertising Campaigns with Zero Thought Profiles

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So absurd. Why do companies take their names, shorten them, then use rhymes as advertising campaigns? Washington Mutual. WaMu. Whoo Hooo. Adult minds actually concieve and sign off on this crap. What is it's intent other than to misdirect depositors to think that everything's OK at the bank in spite of having to borrow $10 billion to keep its doors open these past few weeks. Sure they don't want a run on the bank - BUT - There isn't any problem at a company that can't be fixed by a good product, and standards. And I'm not talking about free checking from those friendly, flannel shirt clad bankers in Seattle. It just doesn't sell. Why redirect consumers fears? Why not do something that brings in sound money during a crappy economy? That works. That's marketing. But they told me it hurts their heads to think that hard. That's not smart.

Mitsubishi. Mitsu. Trying not to be Japanese. What's next, Mhoo Shoo?

Why Not Ask Questions?

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Everyone else is doing it. Asking questions that is - in focus groups, quantitative research, qualitative research, strategic planning and innovation. So why not ask questions? Because if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. Which is answers that do not substantively move your business forward. Answers that confirm the things that you already know. Answers that move you closer, like gravity, to the same strategies all of your competitors are using coverging on exactly the same positions, only saying the same things differently. No gain.

So what do you do if you are Staples and the strategy that once made you all powerful now threatens to turn you into a commodity. Kodak, Starbucks can all ask the same thing. But the last thing they'd want to do is ask their customers questions. Sounds ridiculous right? Opps, that's a question.

You don't want to ask your customers questions because without additional positive mental stimulation, they will be unable to answer your questions from beyond their current traditional frame of reference and knowledge, They will only say what you and they already know. Further, you can't ask any questions you don't already know the answer to. It's kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why should Starbucks introduce $1 cups of coffee and who said that would impact their business? Are they doing it because there are now so many competitors Starbucks is becoming that commodity? So why respond with a dollar cup of coffee? It's not like going to Starbucks is out of the way, they're everywhere. They're not going to steal share and they're not going to stem trial of rivals products - so the move is an example of Starbucks running scared. I never heard of a Starbucks customer complaining about the price of a cup of coffee. Starbucks price is what made their product part of one of my aspirations. So now you're ripping the guts out of your brand by trading on price!? When you trade on price you go so low in terms of perception and brand equity (P&G learned with it's EDLP - everyday low price strategy) that you later have to climb up a ladder to get to the bottome or is that bottom? (I knew that)

And lastly, when you ask questions you don't get the voice of your customer, you get the voice of the inquirer through the question being asked - a form of bias that will lead you astray. So questions are dead you say? Yes! OK smarty pants - so why do attorneys ask questions and win cases with them? Because they are trying to prove a point in law, a static point, that already exists. It does not move. And to grow business you must. And why don't more people stop asking questions and start probing minds with proactive materials that stimulate activity to a higher level? Because they don't know how. They were bred from birth to ask questions. It's as easy as breathing - which is why everyone does it. Getting ahead without questions is much harder. It is the road less taken - which is why it wil take you farther than you need to go.

So don't ask questions. Look what happened to the joker.

Marketing to Germphobic Societies - Turning next generation men into residential mice.

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Or should it be the other way around - turning today's residential mice into men. Years ago the Boy Scouts of America started watering down the Boy Scout Handbook, and in my mind easing qualifications for advancement in rank in an effort to remain competive with the abundance of activities competing for a share of young boy's time. This is not a condemnation. What I'm saying is that less information is provided in more detail in today's scout handbook than I had in mine related to sheer survival skills 40 years ago. Now granted I'm an Eagle Scout and can survive with just a knife in the wilderness, even caught and ate a squirrel on my Order of the Arrow Ordeal. But never have I seen this more in evidence than in a scout outing with my son's new troop this weekend. Granted all the boys in his patrol are young, and less than "experienced" scouts - all are still working on tenderfoot or second class requirements. But the first thing I saw plopped on a table as the tents went up was a bottle of Purell. Now that in itself is not bad, but what I found disturbing was the boy's need to pump that bottle every time they touched a dirty stick, played in the fire, picked up a rock or gathered firewood. More, rather than be the example of what the boys should be doing (ie: demonstrating the Boy Scout way to prepare meals over an open fire, one dad showed up with Lunchables in his knapsack to feed himself. Self reliance has gone to hell in a handbasket here and I'm going to turn it around! It isn't that the parents attending were doing anything wrong, admittedly they'd never been scouts. So I started teaching scout skills. When I was a scout the challenge was to be able to build and light a fire with just one match. And if that match went out, you were SOL - and in a real life situation probably dead. When done, I challenged the boys to gather their wood, build their fires and then we'd have a competition to see who could light a fire with one match. An indignant parent stepped forward suggesting that that was too much pressure on his child and that he should have all the matches and chances he wanted. I asked him if he thought if in a survival situation that was realistic? - I was trying to teach the boys that in a survival situation they needed food, shelter and warmth. What was his child to do to provide warmth, if he did not even have a match? This is the Boy Scouts for Christ sakes and I'm trying to teach the boys to BE PREPARED. One dad slept in the back of his mini van instead of his tent anyway - guess comfort is king. The demonstration went on without a hitch. I lit two fires, each with one match - still not too rusty after 37 years away from my scout experience. I admitted that it took me 20 campouts before I could light a fire with just one match. Just one problem. I assumed the boys knew how to use matches. They didn't. So it's back to square one on the next campout and before we move on to the different types of fires: cooking, signaling, etc. More on turning boys into men later. One thing for certain, those boys thought the challenge was cool, and they all had lots of questions. Good men!

OraQuel ® - Lowers the incidence of heart disease

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OraQuel ®
Toothbrush rinse lowers the likelihood of heart disease.

(OraQuel® is not a drug, over-the-counter or prescription pharmaceutical) Every time you brush your teeth you increase the liklihood of heart disease and arterial damage. The effects are cumulative over a lifetime. Medical studies link heart disease, arteriosclerosis and the oral plaque that accumulates in arteries and on heart valves (as a result) to poor oral care habits, gingivitis and periodontal infection. Deposited on arterial and heart valves and walls, the majority of oral plaque comes from gingivitis and periodontal gum infection.

OralQuel® lowers the incidence of daily gingivitis and periodontal infection by assuring you a clean toothbrush. Directions: To lower the incidence of reinfections, shake excess water from toothbrushes immediately after use. Pour approximately a half-ounce of OralQuel directly onto toothbrush bristles, assuring penetration to root of bristles. Wait 1 minute. Product may cause slight foam to form between bristles. Rinse and store your toothbrush as you would normally.

OraQuel®, is a new product from CalLabs, the research and development arm of Calle & Company. To order OraQuel® (16 oz.) send $19.95 (+$3.95 S&H) (cash, check or money order) to Greenwich Marketing, Inc. 18881 Patrician Drive, Villa Park, CA 92861. Make all checks payable to Greenwich Marketing, Inc. Please include your name, address, phone number and email address. Get 10% off orders of four or more. All transactions in USD. Returned and NSF checks subject to all fees and $15 handling charge. International customers please add $9.95 shipping and handling.

Find out more about OraQuel® at www.OraQuel.com

OUT OF GAS. How to Know We Are Really Out of Gas

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I find Energy Marketing an interesting subject. With gas hovering near $4 per gallon and a barrel of crude running $111 consumer confidence hits an all time low every time one looks at the gas guage - your constant daily reminder of how things are. Now, the oil companies say that profiting $20 billion per company per quarter, or $120 billion over all last year is in line with what other companies make - and given the cost of exploration and development, it seems oil companies may not be making enough. So here I am on their side.

But where I am not on their side is when they raise the price of gas because they say they have a "fear" that something "might" happen - that we pay through the nose retail because of their lack of confidence. That's a leadership issue and it lands squarely on Washington's dinner plate. Of course the middle east enjoys the $111 a barrel scenario because it funds the massive infrastructure construction projects going on in Dubai and elsewhere. Is Washington building itself a retirement community, a VIP Leisure World in the middle east at American's expense?

But I'm off point. My point was, "How will you know when we're really out of gas?"

Back in the day I was brought in from outside to save several accounts at Leo Burnett. The term they used in my offer letter was to "bring a breath of fresh air" to accounts such as Kellogg, Philip Morris, Nestle and McDonald's. A rare opportunity given that Burnett is very well known for not hiring outside the company. Anyway, early on, I was asked what I thought about Philip Morris' pending purchase of Kraft by EVP Client Service William Lynch. I told him my read was that tobacco was becoming politically sensitive and that PM was preparing to reduce its dependency on tobacco profits. I was scoffed. But sure enough, within 5 month Philip Morris had acquired Kraft. Vindication sure tastes sweet. PM dependency on tobacco profits plummeted from 96 to 56 percent, with the acquisition of Miller dropping that figure to around 46 percent.

So how will you know when America is really out of gas? When the oil companies start buying other companies. They'll be in a scramble to reduce their dependency on oil profits.

But right now there is no sense of urgency. And that's because the oil companies know they have years of oil profit ahead. That's also why they've only dumped a paltry $3.5 billion into alternative energy. Just enough to keep the pliable liberals and global warmers happy. So what's the conclusion? Right now there is no gas shortage, we are overpaying at the pump, face time with Congress buys Big Oil a little more time while we idiot pawns feel vindicated Big Oil's getting its wrist slapped by Congress - they are the actors and we are the audience. Will you applaud, or ask for a refund?

The Grand Unified Theory of Creativity

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I am approaching 40 years of experience mumbling and working with Madison Avenue ad agencies and their clients, finding strategies that invigorate the sales of products, brands, categories and industries. Beneath the surface I've sought what I call The Grand Unified Theory of Creativity - what is it that would give a client the single most comprehensive yet concise view of all product and positioning potentials available to their business. While this search with my clients has allowed me to amass many career's worth of experience in less than a lifetime, I still wonder why more people don't get it - knowing as I do that they can go farther than where they are, expanding their product or strategy's Viability Envelope, by just tipping the creative tea cup a bit further - in the same way shifting from 'fit' and 'dryness' to 'development' dramatically expanded Pamper's industry footprint?

Letters back from companies such as Starbucks and their Senior Vice President of Category Management state they have plenty of specially designed resources available for the gathering and measurement of the required data - never realizing that you can never measure your way to where your business can go. Again I ask, "So why don't they get it?"

No one is talking to Starbucks (or any company) about The Grand Unified Theory of Creativity (google "the grand unified theory of creativity" in quotation marks and you will find I am one of only two people on the planet thinking about it, and the other guy wants to be a western writer.) And Starbuck's 'gathered' and 'measured' data is doing nothing to reverse the fact that the strategy that once made them most powerful is now being copied handily by every other Tom, Dick and Harry coffee purveyor.

Strategic Innovation, and The Grand Unified Theory of Creativity is about Multi-Dimensional Creativity. Another one of those terms that companies such as Starbucks tells me is provided by their ad agencies (really?...so if you google the term "muli-dimensional creativity" why don't any advertising agencies pop up in results?)? Multi-Dimensional Creativity is about that comprehensive/concise justaposition of which I spoke earlier - looking at fractions of millions of strategic options in the blink of an eye. That's just to get the linear thinkers out of the starting blocks. It doesn't come from the user-generated input websites touted by Chrysler to get them closer to their customers. It's the Abstract Creativity, The Abstract Dimensioning that ensues that makes the obvious special. (and that's not covered by any ad agencies or strategic innovators either).

So say you are Staples, and the strategy that once made you so powerful, and the first to consolidate office supply acquisition, is now so copied that you've become little more than a commodity; what do you need to shift your business strategy from strategy maintenance to strategic creation mode? You need to visit a fine tailor and get your new grand unified view of creativity custom tailored to fit you.

Making A New Run At Strategic Innovation

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Conversation Starter:
Making A Run At Strategic Innovation

What do you do when the very breakthrough strategy that once made your business uniquely powerful (Staples, Home Depot, Starbucks) now threatens to turn you into a commodity rivals find easy to copy? Whenever I get an assignment from a client shifting from strategy ‘maintenance’ to ‘creativity’ mode I employ Multi-Dimensional Creativity to lift an industry or brand past previous benchmarks.

Creativity Is Not Just An Ad You Watch, See & Hear

MULTI-DIMENSIONAL-CREATIVITY® - To redefine an industry’s original breakthrough strategy, define new underpinnings and to get tongues wagging again (or to invigorate a brand, create a new product or envision a new category) we first sit down and list out over 500 product dimensions concerning that product, brand or industry that in every way shape and form impact and influence consumer perception and purchase behavior. Under each dimension; sensory, form, function, usage, image, attitude, price, packaging, delivery system, segmentations, transitions, escape, reward, heritage, trust, tradition, affluence and hundreds of other dimensions only we know of, Partners bullet point another 500 short phrases per dimension that in every way shape and form may potentially positively impact and influence consumer perception and purchase behavior in that industry, category or segment. When done we will have amassed about 250,000 phrases - many times the number of ideas an advertising agency or company brings to the table in their brand's lifetime. From this list we hand-select 500 to 1,000 phrases that we put in front of consumers so that consumers can select the phrases that best motivate them to try a product once [again] and if they try it and like it to buy it again. We employ this Consumer-Creativity® via our comprehensive Creative Stimulus Packages as the foundation for the highly-differentiating and salable new breakthrough business strategy concepts that result.

Has your brand become a heavily price driven commodity? Do you manage business strategies that compete in heavily price driven categories? Dot coms Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Orbitz and Hotwire are great examples of heavily price driven commodity brands. And as Procter & Gamble discovered with EDLP, once your consumer sets their sights on price your equity sinks so low you have to climb up a ladder to get to the bottom – enabling retailers (Costco) to finally get a leg up on P&G and call the shots on core brands like Tide.

In this environment, Callé & Company has demonstrated a consistent track record of reversing the effects of mature business strategy lifecycles – of turning mature earnings companies back into rapid growth businesses. We ask consumers no questions so they can tell us no lies. We prefer our proactive Creative Stimulus Packages to reactive market research to create new knowledge - once again leapfrogging existing frames of reference, and competitors, with strategies rivals will find difficult to copy. P&G’s Paper Division employed our process, shifting Pamper’s strategic focus from ‘fit’ and ‘dryness’ to ‘development’. Repositioned as Pampers Phases Developmental Diapers the brand arrested category migration to rival Kimberly-Clark’s Pull-Ups, providing a much broader base from which to develop the paper business and net an incremental $1 billion in disposables sales each year. K-C never caught up.

Callé & Company does not cut and paste strategies from one industry or company to another. I have no canned answers as do the experienced advertising agencies on Madison Avenue. If you would like to determine optimum future business strategies, let’s meet.

Tarney Spencer Band

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The world's most underplayed one hit wonder - No Time To Loose. Potential Ad uses. Analgesic advertising, 30 day promotion music. Sense of urgency.

OBAMA-pop

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Like him or not, it's still a great poster.

Chrysler Ready To 'Listen' On New Site

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Like they hadn't been listening? As reported in Advertising Age Magazine (http://www.adage.com/) The Automaker is to Recruit an Online Consumer Advisory Panel.

It's not that the online sessions won't be that informative, or that Chrysler won't be doing anything with the information. It's just that all the other auto manufacturers collect exactly the same bits of infomation - promoting a parity situation in which Chrysler will be unable to budge it's distant 3rd position in the market. Typically, this type of consumer input substantively fails to move the sales or market share needle - let alone consumer interest and involvement.

So why does Bob Nardelli keep signing the checks for VP - CMO Deborah Wahl Meyer who is very busy learning all of this for the first time? Does she not know that:

To get ahead, you have to learn things no one else knows. To CREATE THAT KNOWLEDGE you must follow the following recipe to stimulate consumer minds to say things they'd never otherwise think to say.

To invigorate a brand and find out what people want we first sit down and list out over 500 dimensions concerning that product that in every way shape or form impact and influence consumer perception and purchase behavior regarding that brand or product. (Otherwise they just talk about cup holders and places to put their Garmin or Tom Tom.) Once done, the real work begins. Under each dimension; sensory, form, function, usage, image, attitude, price, packaging, delivery system, state changes, reward, escape, heritage, trust, tradition, quality, awards, rewards and many other dimensions only we know of, we bullet point another 500 short phrases per dimension that in every way shape and form impact and influence consumer perception and purchase behavior. When done we will have amassed about 250,000 phrases - many times the number of ideas an advertising agency or company brings to the table in the lifetime of a brand. From this list we hand-select 500 to 1,000 phrases that we put in front of consumers so that consumers can select the phrases they like best and that would compel them to try a product once, and if they tried it and liked it to buy it again. We employ this Consumer-Creativity® as the foundation for the highly-differentiating and salable concepts that result for companies from General Mills to General Motors, Procter & Gamble to Pizza Hut.

Innovation Gone Wild

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Innosight's President Scott Anthony made an interesting post on Harvard Business Online the other day about Innovation gone overboard - questioning to great extent whether replacing a car key with a wireless pushbutton constitutes "innovation." I couldn't agree more that it does not. But then Scott asks the question, "How do companies get to this point? How do slim and marginal improvements in product performance become dubbed innovation?" I have long said that innovation is an over used term. And managers eager for recognition apply the term liberally to any step forward. But what are the underpinnings of their thinking? Well here it is.

Have you ever watched a group of 11 and 12 year old boys try to earn their fishing merit badge in the Boy Scouts? They remain interested in the merit badge counselor's instruction for about two minutes, then the boys drift off into their own worlds. Called back to order, the counselor asks one of the scouts to "watch" him tie the knot again and the boy, unable to tie the knot, or innovate, looks away. "No" says the couselor, "watch." And the boy glances as the counselor specifically shows him how to tie the not. Again the boy looks away before the task is completed, and struggles ten minutes longer than all the other boys before completing the knot successfully.

If it is this difficult to learn how to tie a knot with the instructor present, showing you how to do it for free, imagine how difficult it must be for an adult to innovate without additional supervision. Like the young Boy Scout, it is hard to pay attention and simpler just to take the easy way out. Trial and error. Which is why the pace of innovation is so slow and why the term innovation gets tattooed on every product upgrade. Only a few years ago Procter & Gamble would label it's products "new & improved," an ultra this or concentrated that. New & Improved has simply been replaced by the word innovation - today's marketing buzzword.

MADISON AVENUE Blog Makes it into AD AGE Pages!

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Yippee! MADISON AVENUE Blog gets published in Advertising Age Magazine. What a thrill! Responding to editor Jonah Bloom's request for his Power 150 Crystal Ball 2.o article on what's hot and what's not in Digital Marketing, and what technology marketers should be looking out for in 2008. Our recommendations got mentioned - along with a link to our site. I haven't checked the print edition yet but Google analytics picked up a tremendous spike in readership. Thank you Jonah Bloom and Ad Age! Thank you readers!

Does Your Brand Suffer From INCOMPLETE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE PICTURES?

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I read the following description of the 'Competitive Landscape for Grocery Stores and Supermarkets'

"Demand for food products is limited by the 1 percent annual growth of the US population. Profitability of individual companies depends on having the right product mix and on efficient operations...."

And wondered where in the hell the ability to effectively differentiate one store chain from another comes in to play. Given that groceries, as a whole, are heavily price driven commodities, the stores do not really do a good job of differentiating themselves save for store brand name, geography and weekly circular.

There's none of that 'positioning work' going on where a brand like Pampers advances beyond cost-of-entry 'fit' and 'dryness' (have to fit the baby and keep it dry) to infant 'development' as a means to raise the perceptual positioning and sales bar.

New Products: Non-Slip Toothpaste Tube

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Just to keep this post simple: I brush my teeth in the shower. Do you brush your teeth in the shower? I wonder how many people brush their teeth in the shower? Does Procter & Gamble, Unilever or Colgate wonder if people brush their teeth in the shower? When will we know how many people brush their teeth in the shower? When will they distribute a non-slip finish on toothpaste tubes? If you google "non slip toothpaste tubes" you get zero results. The idea must exist in the new product twilight zone. Answers from the beyond.

Differentiate Or Become A Heavily Price Driven Commodity Brand

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I was going to call this post "Differentiate Or Die" then remembered that that's not true. If you are a major brand in the real world, and you are unable to differentiate yourself, you become a heavily price driven commodity brand, such as Folgers, in a heavily price driven commodity category such as 'ground roast coffee (GRC). Other examples of heavily price driven commodity brands and categories include United, American or any airline, Duncan Hines in baking mixes, Crisco in edible oils. And now I leave room for a few of you readers to add a few of your own. It takes a lot of time to become a heavily price driven brand in a heavily price driven category - so what is it these advertising agencies have been doing with your advertising budgets all these years if it hasn't been differentiating "YOU" in the marketplace?

I tried to post the following on the Marketing M.O. Blog that got me started thinking about this via Seth Godin's the "the" factor, but was unable to. So here's the comment I tried to post there.

How would you express the "the" factor if you were a fried chicken chain attempting your first US expansion? How would you find the "the" factor in a recent Harvard Business case study of a new VP Marketing positioning "HUNSK MOTORCYCLES" as "authentic". Is this brand not converging on the same position owned by Harley Davidson, Indian and resurgent Victory motorcycles (also claiming authenticity) - just saying the same thing their own way. I would say you need to differentiate or die - but that's not what happens in the real world. When you are unable to differentiate yourself - which is what has happened to brands such as United, Oldsmobile, Dodge, Folgers, Crisco, Duncan Hines and so many others - you just become a heavily price driven commodity brand in a heavily price driven commodity category.

Presidential Candidates, George Bush, Avoid Gas Price Issue

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Why do the US Presidential Candidates avoid any discussion of hemorraging gas prices? Why are we paying $4 per gallon so the Sultan of Dubai can build an island and the world's tallest buildings just off his gulf's coast? You think he's paying for it? No! We are!

Why are Americans directed and misdirected to purchase a Toyota Prius when in reality there is no gas shortage, just behind the scenes manipulations to facilitate middle east finances at the expense of American pawn citizens? You know that as soon as George Bush leaves office the price of gas will drop back to $2 a gallon. Or are Hillary and Obama making back room deals with the middle east too?

Is this the reason The White House offers no "Ask The White House" or "White House Interactive" links to gas issues on their email links page? Certainly they know we as citizens are edgy about gas prices. Has The White House told the candidates to stay away from the issue? What middle east construction project deadlines coincide with the departure of George Bush from office?

Should we foment a revolution and start dumping tea into Boston Harbor at our local gas stations? Should we have a National 'Buy No Gas Today' Boycott? Why not? What would happen in the middle east? What would happen to US gas companies if one day a week for the next 12 weeks no one in America bought gas or paid a gas or oil bill? The gas companies are each profiting arount $40 billion per quarter right now. You know their Chairmen, Board Directors and Executive Managements know they have the world by the balls. How many of them are anticipating artificially driving the cost of a barrel of crude to $300 a barrel to further facilitate middle east expansion plans while they profit $100 billion a quarter per company. Hell, Why stop there? Is a trillion dollars a quarter out of reach for an artificially gas-starved world? Hey, it pays to think big. Better wake up America! A Prius is no where near the answer. We need a gas revolution. We don't need to talk about peace in the middle east. The issue is deals in the middle east at the expense of the American consumer. Danger Will Robinson, is just beneath the surface.

Chrysler's Marketing Con Job

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WHAT KIND OF STRATEGY AND ADVERTISING DO YOU GET WHEN THE MINDS OF THE FEW TRY TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE MINDS OF THE MANY?

I was feeling kind of bored by blogging so I hadn't posted much recently. You know, you get tired of watching marketers do the same things at the same companies different ways year after year. But Sunday, I sat next to an interesting gentleman at my daughter's National Junior League Basketball Championship game (yes, we won). Turns out he's the head of finance for Toyota and has to sign off on all this stuff. So he asked me what I did for a living and I told him I could make every $35 marketing dollars work like a $100. We started talking about what was wrong with car ads and decided to pick on Chysler's rebirth led by Deborah Wahl Meyer, VP-CMO.

Her new direction latches on to lifetime powertrain warranties? What's wrong with that? Well, no one really cares. With nearly 70% of all vehicles leased these days i'm going to turn my new car in in 3 to 5 years anyway - not to mention the fact that bread and butter cars like the Accord and Camry are made so well that they don't even break into a sweat by the fifth year. So who would care about a lifetime Chrysler powertrain warranty? Only the very feeble minded. But then again, that's the kind of strategy and advertising you get when the minds of the few try to communicate to the minds of the many. Conclusion: Another case of a marketer failing to do proper consumer marketing homework. That's the kind of stuff that gets me excited again!

Jonah Bloom Outreach

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Dear Blogger,

Are you a recipient of the Jonah Bloom outreach email from Advertising Age Magazine? If you are a member of Advertising Age Magazine's Power 150 Marketing Blogs I'd encourage you to check your email. Here's what I had to say in response to the email:

The most overlooked piece of digital technology today is the simplest and most overlooked. The keyword. With 81 billion blogs and websites, business owners depend upon keywords to drive site visits. But we all use the same keywords. So it becomes impossible for Google’s AdSense for Search and Content Optimization Teams to help you build truly effective campaigns. Regardless of the business you are in. If you are an ad agency ‘ad agency’ would be a keyword, so would branding, strategy, product positioning, differentiation, marketing and a plethora of other terms we all use. Commodities. So using keywords, differentiation becomes impossible; unless you find a way to identify keywords people are searching for that no other web site but yours has to offer.

As a new product concept and product positioning consultant to companies such as Procter & Gamble I was stunned to find a site with a very simple keyword utility called wordtracker.com. You plug in the term and it gives you something called a KEI index. The higher the number the more people are searching for the term and the fewer the number of web sites containing the keyword. What a great way to differentiate yourself. I’ve found gaps covering “Perceptual Monopolies” and “Abstract Dimensions” among others that have captured the fancy of inquisitive clients everywhere, and the best part is, no other consultant or ad agency on the planet employ these terms, so I know they’re not stepping on my Intellectual Property or sharing these concepts and philosophies with clients.

How not to launch a New Coke

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As CMO presiding over the launch of New Coke, Sergio Zyman rode herd over one of the largest and most important marketing blunders in history - proving that everything my father taught me about how companies and ad agencies typically create new products was absolutely true. He wanted me to believe that all ad men were crooks and con men and that they wanted clients to believe that they were the only people with phone lines to God on Fridays. He also wanted me to believe that when developing new products, most companies, including Coca-Cola did little more than set four men in a room to brainstorm - and when they did, it was usually over a supplier related concept rather than anything original. New Coke was based on a supplier's new sweetener, and it failed. Pepsi's Indra Nooyi took Procter & Gamble's Olestra and launched failed WOW! Chips with Olestra thinking the underwear staining grease would be overlooked by diet conscious consumers. Guess they were wrong. Why were they wrong?

They were wrong because they made these decisions themselves. Time and time again I'd watch inexperienced assistant account executives prepare recipe dissemination ads for Leo Burnett clients and no other input whatsoever. Take it to the account supervisor who takes it to the client and voila, another ad, another account, another sale bites the dust. We see it and forget it. Might as well be making newspaper ads for all the insight that goes into such productions - but hey clients, it's your money not mine.

I always preferred a form of consumer homework I used to employ that proactively stimulated consumer minds with hundreds of phrases covering all known and potentially hidden product dimensions that in some way shape or form might impact consumer perceptions. I put the creative stimulus packets in front of consumers, removing myself from the loop, and let consumers choose the most important directions. Because I didn't have to use my mind as the "Idea Broker" I kept hitting home runs for people like Coke and Pepsi, General Motors and General Mills.,

What's different about today? Executives in companies still don't like to do their homework.

New Cold-Formula Crest With Zinc

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The managers at Procter & Gamble are always shopping for new Perceptual Monopolies. They just don't know it because I am the only marketer that uses the term. And why do I do that? Because I am the only person who knows how to do it.

A Google search for the term yields no results. Calle & Company is the only marketing firm on the planet that returns a result among marketing, advertising and sales companies. Perceptual Monopolies.

The managers at Procter & Gamble are also pretty miffed at their inability to take down Colgate's Total. Crest Pro-Health is fraught with perceptual problems that limit consumer acceptance so they're back to square zero looking for a contender.

Google search "Cold-formula Crest" or "Crest with Zinc." You'll obtain zero results if you do an exact word match search with quotation marks around the terms. That means there are no such products in the market and a golden opportunity for the straight-forward problem-solvers at P&G to attack. Perceptual Monopolies.

You can't tell me people don't think differently about their toothbrush when they're sick with the flu. But P&G will all too quickly not do it thinking people will just get a new toothbrush. Boy, when you don't want to do something one excuse is just as good as another.

How did I get so smart? How do you get smarter?

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I was wondering how I got so smart? Then I remembered Greenwich resident and neighbor Oliver Grace telling me, a seven year old boy, "Marty. Marty. Marty. Life is a matter of exposure. The more you expose yourself to, the more successful you'll become, and the more frequent your success."

Well said.

So whenever my dad or I'd get a project from say Procter & Gamble, Kraft or another company to invigorate a brand or create a new product we'd first sit down and list out over 500 dimensions concerning that product that in some way shape or form might impact or influence consumer perception regarding that product. Once that was done, the real work began. Under each dimension; Sensory, form, function, usage, image, price, packaging, delivery system and many others only we'd heard of, we'd bullet point another 500 short phrases per dimension that in some way shape or form might impact or influence consumer perception. When done we'd have amassed about 250,000 phrases - a list that often took over a month to complete. From that list we would select 500 to 1,000 phrases that we would put in front of consumers so that consumers could select the phrases they liked best. At times, we would stay up and argue for more than 72 hours straight over which stimulative phrases should be in the creative stimulus packages presented to consumers and which ones shouldn't. Some of my favorite all time phrases?

"Provides night time tranquility"
- which led us to the invention of NyQuil for Richardson-Vicks.
"A soup you eat with a fork"
-which led us to the invention of Campbell's Chunky Soup.
"Comes in a hard top Marlboro box"
- which led us to the invention of Tic Tac Mints.
"Helps me work and play well with others"
-which led us to reposition Folgers as the best part of waking up.

For the most part, the exercise described above represents and represented far more homework done on the part of a client, for one product or brand, than all of the advertising agencies on Madison Avenue could claim combined - had they worked on that brand. It was a powerful lot of experience.

In this, we became adept, preeminant at finding product-based problem-solving selling solutions for a wide range of marketers asking questions.

1) How do you keep Marlboro smokers in the Philip Morris franchise once they decide to switch to a competitor's brand?

2) What are the future consumption drivers in soft drinks?

3) When does a candy bar stop becoming a candy bar and start becoming a cookie?

To date, I've participated in the development of millions of stimulative phrases - short 5 to 7 word statements that pass the consumer test, " If a product did or said that about itself I would try that product once - and if I tried it and liked it - I'd buy the product again."

This process remains, to this day, the fastest way to innovate in any category.

1) It enabled Wheaties to increase distribution 24% and win an award as The Year's Best Repositioned Brand from Advertising Age Magazine.

2) It enabled Breyers to set record profit and volume featured in Kraft's Annual Report.

3) It enabled Tylenol to resucitate the 92% of capsule segment sales lost to cyanide tampering with the invention of Tylenol Gelcaps - the first inherently tamper-proof capsule.

So I ask you, what company wouldn't benefit from having a dose of this creativity applied to their business?

New Cold Formula LISTERINE with ZINC

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What I'd launch if I was them? New COLD FORMULA LISTERINE WITH ZINC. No. It doesn't exist yet, but a current bout with the flu grunge guarantees I'd buy this line extension new product.

OTC Cold Symptom Remedies

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I am such a believer in the power of positive thinking to stave off the onset of colds and flu or to reduce the severity of both that I find it difficult to believe that not a single otc cold symptom relief brand harnesses the power of positive thinking in its ads. "Here is the brand that gives you a better outlook on things, a better attitude." Now the lawyers would say that couldn't be done. They said the same thing when we devised Folger's, "The best part of waking up is caffienne in your cup." The censors said we couldn't sell a drug so we simply replaced the word 'caffienne' with the word 'Folgers'. Heavy ground roast coffee consumers related and drove the brand to number one. But I know why the otc companies really don't want to more substantively differentiate their product from rival's. They don't want to take the time or spend the money to do the homework. They feel their advertising agency should do this for free - which they do - but they do it without doing any homework opting instead to sit around and brainstorm in their office the old-fashioned Darren Stevens way on Bewitched. Categories and their customers have become too sophisticated for that, yet the commodity symptom relief advertising persists year after year and brand positions remain unchanged as greedy CEOs await the next technological breakthrough to drive their business forward. Why not just do the homework and get the job done now? Instead, next season we just might see an ad agency making Samantha Steven's infamous nose wiggle the trademark of their client's advertising. Different ways of handling itchy drippy noses. Wouldn't Tabatha's nose wiggle be cute?

FRIDAYS on MADISON AVENUE

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A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.

- David Brinkley

Bud Lite Copies Miller Chill Salt and Lime

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You know what's so boring about blogging. The fact that marketers never do anything different. You could have had the same story ten years ago, and the only thing that would be different would be the names of the products and the names of the people copying each other. Is this what they teach in business school, or after, in business. Where I went to school, you always flunked when you copied. Why is this lesson now lost?

I don't know what Budweiser's VP, Innovation Pat McGauley and VP-Trademark Brands Dan McHugh's are talking about regarding this product launch. Nothing about research is "extensive." It just takes you up to where the road ends. People then stop their search for the trump card when the price gets higher - the cost of doing more profitable homework. (The saying goes, "People stop chasing their dreams when the price gets too high.")

Why copy Miller? Go past them. That's what Miller Brewing's New Ventures Director Dave Krishock and I did back in the day. While Budweiser was busy chasing another phantom called 'dry beer' Dave and I discovered the concept of Cold-filtered Miller Genuine Draft instead - now the most popular brand in Miller's portfolio.

A product launch worth spending time on would net 10-20 share, not the .3 to .5% sought here. Maybe that's why McKinsey & Company reports that despite solid balance sheets and healthy bottom lines the CPG industry has lost its glow and the executives in it are wondering where their growth will come from.

Conflict Fuels Technology

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But conflict first requires ideas. Without first ideas, technology and competition is impossible.

Is your brand a parrot in the land of odds?

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Is it?

Pagan Technology Worship - The First Rule of Positioning

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All those who worship pagan technology Gods ultimately fall to those who can change consumer habits and practices with ideas rather than devices. An idea can be more powerful than any technology man can perceive - especially in marketing and business development.

Where Did Everything You Know About Marketing Come From?

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Where did everything you know about marketing come from? How would you react if you found out that everything you knew about marketing was a fraud? A sham? How would you operate differently, if you did not have everything you think you know about marketing to lean on?

Well I'm here to tell you that it's all true. All those meetings you go to - in companies large and small - old and new - where you talk about and rationalize strategies utilizing terms such as Alpha Males and Alpha Females, Early Adapters, Late Adapters, Thrivals and Rivals, Adverturers and Basics, Generation X and Generation Y, those who Cocoon and those who do not. It is all a sham. A scam. Or as George Parker would say, "An AdScam. The horror."

I have been and my father before me a pioneer in advertising and marketing. Before any of the above existed we watched in amazement as we, the rival companies that sprouted up (for example SRI's Values & Attitudes Lifestyle Studies were just knock offs of our Culturally Influential Consumer Groups) (and focus groups an offshoot of our orginal Assays Product Investigation Circles) sold the next big thing to clients that never realized all of this was just made up by four guys sitting around a room, or a couple of people sitting in a closet trying to think of new ways to make money. So that they could have you believe that they were the only ones with the phone lines to God on Fridays.

Where would you be if you had none of this made-up-crutch to lean on. I'd tell you where you'd be. As a marketer and advertiser you'd be much better off. Go out and start thinking for yourself - and stop thinking what someone else already thought.

What It Means To Let Consumers Help With Brand Building

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Adidas Lets Consumers Help With Originals Brand Building

But as I said to the people at Adidas, "consumer-generated input is not the same as 'consumer creativity'." To gain true conumer creativity Adidas need provide customers 'creative stimuli packets' that enable consumers to leapfrog their current experience, perceptions and frame of reference. Otherwise, Adidas will remain #2 even though they are trying harder.

Micro-wits Working Their Way Up To Full Idiot

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Here's a survey for you. I just received an Advertising Age Magazine e-mail poll asking me if I thought the merger of Microsoft and Yahoo would change my life. IDIOTS! No, half-wits, working their way up to full idiot.

I say again...Microsoft + Yahoo = Sears + K-Mart. The name of the new company will be "MicroSearch." Nothing about Microsoft or Yahoo's positioning strategies compel me to fix the problem of changing my consumer habit and practice of using Google, and switching to them. This is not one of those Field of Dream's "If you build it they will come" mergers. There once was a time when marketers did change consumer habits and practices with brain, what they now can't do with brawn; believing instead that 'the lazy man's sell' of direct mail promotions, social and behavior marketing (along with traditional) will effect the desired transformation in consumer usage. But it just ain't so. Congratulations. You were just promoted to full idiot Steve.

Fly Commodity Airlines

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United Airlines says it will charge a service fee for a second piece of checked luggage, a move experts say will spread across the beleaguered industry.

Why is it that the more airlines try to make money the more desperate they become? Charging for second bags, banks charging for talking to tellers - The inexorable march toward commoditization not realizing that once you trade on price you've gotten your brand equity so far down a hole you'd have to climb up a ladder just to get to the bottom.

What companies used to do with brains (the creation of positioning strategies that actually changed consumer habits and practices regardless of price), they now do with brawn. But then again, the airline industry never was very nimble with this type of creativity and differentiation. When the competion drops the bar this low it makes it real easy for some one like Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines to steal the business just with a joke. I love Southwest. Last time I got on the flight attendant said, "Thanks for flying Southwest today. If at anytime during our flight today you need something, you make sure you just let us know... ... ...right after we land." Later, "Thanks for flying Southwest today. This concludes our flight. If there was anything you did not like about our flight today make certain you call ... United." Fabulous!

Trading on the humor selling dimension rather than business class segmentation and price. Then again, this is what happens to a company when it crunches too many numbers. Promotionally driven price-biased companies that must whine for government subsidy to stay afloat. Why do they make my life so boring? As Professor Kingsfield said in The Paper Chase, I wish they'd "Fill the room with [their] intelligence."

Not long ago I flew to Miami on Southwest and the flight was booked solid. Once again, everyone enjoying the personality and humor infused by the CEO. On the way back I was less fortunate in flying American Airlines. The flight was empty. In discussing the differences with flight attendants to pass the time Southwest was disparaged by the flight crew as being "Sooo unprofessional." To which I said, "But it seems unprofessional sells."

Lost and Found

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The Guitars That Destroyed The World. If anyone can find me one of these, I should like to have one.

The SuperBowl Ads - The Sins of Our [Advertising] Fathers

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OK. I'm not going to get into how bad every single SuperBowl ad was yesterday. Not a single ad made a point or gave me reason to separate myself from my money for any one of the advertisers who spent ridiculous amounts of money to get in front of me yesterday. Oh sure, I laughed at some, and groaned in pain at others. I empathized with the Budweiser commercials, appreciated Hyundai's Genesis ad and laughed at Bridgestone Tire's "oh nooooo" Mr. Bill Squirrels and friends - but that's not the point.

The point is this - THE SINS of our advertising fathers. How companies get so wrapped up in what they did before that they'll give us a sequel next time - like GoDaddy. And to believe someone has a job signing off checks on spending hundreds of thousands in production costs and millions to air ads that don't work. What do I mean by "don't work?" How do I define "don't work?" I mean, NOT ONE SINGLE AD I'VE SEEN IN YEARS has created the consumer habit and practice of getting me up off my dead ass to go separate myself from my money for any of the products I've seen advertised. And I'm not a particularly tough sell. It's just that advertising no longer 'perceptually' intriques people. Oh, I can like them. That's one definition of perceptual intrigue. But I don't act on them or their lack of 'call to action.' Just informing me with an entertaining ad won't cut the mustard or gut the fish. They don't ask me to get my hands dirty, make a decision or do something. For example, no ad agency looks at a stew and sells it as Chunky Soup "the soup you eat with a fork." They sell it as a stew, as did all Super Bowl ads yesterday. Lost are the Abstract Selling Dimensions that put your mind to work. Brands, advertisers and agencies have become like ten speed bikes - most having gears they've never used.

I knew the end had come long ago in advertising when Kraft market researchers looking at my positioning recommendations on key brands asked me to "take all the sell" out of the concepts 20 years ago when Philip Morris was revamping the company with me and Chairman Bob Morrison. What was left was a gelatinous blob of verbage that bore no interest. People who'd never sold anything other than their resume to a college recruiter became 'qualified' through the myth of their position to somehow now become the arbiter of what's sold to us. High impact concepts were consumer created, and exceeded all previous AC Nielsen BASES norms for intent to purchase with top two box intent to purchase scores well above 97%. What Kraft ended up with was business positioning concepts limping around the 2% ups and downs in America's birth rate. Madison Avenue and it's manufacturing clients have lost the killer instinct - what Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed would have called the eye of the tiger.

Too many damn 'don't say anything wrong to anyone liberals' have taken the punch out of a world where brands made a bigger impact being only some things to some people rather than trying to be all things to all people. Go Daddy's ad, for example, was just an example of sheer arrogance and how companies of like ilk end up producing ads that talk too themselves about themselves which is why the rest of us just don't get it. Are you paying attention GM? To be a brand you have to stand for something, and brands today are uncomfortable asking us to make that decision - which is also why so many people get divorced. It's easier. Which is why I'd rather fight than switch. [Get it? - or is this too lost in our politically correct and socially conscious memory?]

Microsoft + Yahoo = Sears + K-Mart

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Obviously, Steve Balmer has so much money he's forgotten how to find, or make a good deal. Need I say more? Once again proof that what companies once did with brain (out market Google with positioning that causes more people to choose Yahoo) they now do with brawn (mergers & acquisitions). Where is the finesse in business anymore?

Result of merger? A new business called 'SoftWho'? 'YawnSoft'?

Steve Balmer. Sit down for lack of creative thinking. This move about as inspiring as HP's Carly Fiorona buying Compaq when everyone knew there was no money in the hardware end of the PC business. Even the manufacturers let the retailers spend the ad dollars to drive the brands. But Carly ignored that too - if she even ever knew it.

Microsoft + Yahoo = Sears + K-Mart

Braking Sensors Slow Speeders - End Speed Traps

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Forget about cruise control and photo enforced speed limits. The technology has long existed for auto manufacturers and transit authorities to install sensors in vehicles and on roadways that automatically brake cars exceeding set levels. Therefore, the police and municipalities would no longer be able to make money from your speeding infractions. The same sensors could stop your car at stop signs and slow your car on exit ramps. A radar system to warn of obstructions already exist on some vehicles. This would be the end of speed traps

CLASSIC SUPERBOWL PRE GAME WARM UP MUSIC

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Play it loud. Bob James. "Farandole" Also great music (McCann) for a Buick ad. Also great music for a hip hop remix.

Scatterlings of Africa - Juluka

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Some of my favorite world music. Scatterlings of Africa. Johnny Clegg. Juluka. Hope you like it.

Why I Like Barak Obama

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I like Barak Obama, or Barry Obama as El Rushmo called him this morning, because he speaks well. But not only does he speak well. If you've ever been responsible for leading others in an endeavor or organization you'll recognize that the words used come from an inherent understanding and regular application of concepts such as Integrity, Accountability and Responsibility according to the John Maxwell School of Leadership Development. It is the best embracing a simple philosophy, "When you help other people get what they want, you get what you want." The implication being that Barak Obama will do the right thing when no one is looking. That reflects character. HC has simply yet to realize that there is no 'I' in team. BO is a team and consensus builder.

Calle & Company launches new smoking cessation plan.

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Are you interested in quitting smoking? Forget all the patches. Forget all the plans. Quit smoking the way I quit smoking. Go out and try to run a quarter mile. You'll cough up a lung and "the burn" in your chest will certainly convince you that you are doing something you need to quit.

Obese? Stop suing people like McDonald's. The truth is, Americans simply no longer labor manually. Go out with a shovel and start shoveling sand, or digging holes. I found that several weekends of over turning 12 inches of earth in every garden in my yard not only stimulated a healthy appetite for "good food," it trimmed inches from my waistline, added strength and muscle definition and I slept a lot better at night too. A good physical workout cleared the mind and helped melt away worries and put them in perspective.

You have the power. Stop blaming other peole and stop looking for excuses. Get a checkup with your doctor and get to work.

Go Read Sanjay Dalal's The Innovation Index Blog

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Sanjay Dalal's The Innovation Index Blog is a damn fine read. Sanjay Dalal is a product marketing leader and entrepreneur. I would add Sanjay to your blog roll today. http://creativityandinnovation.blogspot.com/

Initiative Wins Cadbury Schweppes $150M Media Account

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And this time next year no one will still want to buy the company. There's no one there able to resuurect consumer demand for carbonated beverages and the company cancelled appointments with consultants identifying future consumption drivers in soft drinks, waters, teas and coffees.

WhY aDveRtSinG Doesn't Work

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Advertising doesn't work because once you've seen it, it's a rerun.

That's contrary to doctrine which states the greater the number of impressions the more successful you will become.

BS.

If you want to learn how to bridge the gap you know what to do. Drop me an email or leave a comment.

Best Tag Line or Sound Bite of the Day

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Barak Obama on Hillary Clinton in an ad supporting his run in the South Carolina Primary.

"Hillary Clinton. She'll say anything and change nothing."

And isn't that the truth with politicians? They are chameleons. They've shaken enough hands to be able to mirror and relate to anyone - like door-to-door salesmen. They are sales people. They tell you what you want to hear. Or say nothing at all while making you laugh because they know that if they can get you to smile they're halfway to making a close. No one buys anything when they are not in a good mood. But Hillary wants to be President too much. She has lost the indifference that is a component of trustworthy character. There is to much "I" in her pitch which means she will find it difficult down the road to build relationships and consider others in her deliberations. That is not a leader. Read John Maxwell, Chapter on Leadership entitled "The Law of EF Hutton" on how to determine who the real leaders are in any group.

Vote for President - American Idol Style

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I am tired of the way politicians run the way we elect a president. Wait, you thought you had a say in all this?!

I'm tired of the Obama/Clinton and bystanders dog and pony show. Meaningless drivel. Debates. Ha. It's like watching Judge Judy or The People's Court! Election debates, like advertising in America has fallen to the level of the people who watch it, which is why we click through it. You'd have to have a pretty simple mind, or a Family Guy/Simpson's mind to believe that the orchestrated "electiontainment" we view on TV actually constitutes meaningful discourse on which we make decisions. Back up. Remember. Americans don't make decisions. We don't make choices. We are not proactive. We are reactive, and let things like George Bush, Bill Clinton, Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton happen to us. Like Zig Ziglar says. Americans don't make choices. "We get up everyday no closer to hitting goals we never set for ourselves in the first place." Then we protect the candidate we believe should be the next President. Get real. Voting for next President of the United States has become something akin to going door-to-door soliciting small B2B accounts for Staples or Office Depot. As soon as you walk in the receptionists say, "No thank you. The bosses like Office Depot and I know they don't want to change." What? You think all these guys woke up this morning with the first conscious thought on their mind being, "Today I am going to defend my current office supply company to the death.!?" They just don't like you. And our choice in candidates is not a choice. It is the lesser of two evils. They are not leaders and most of us pick a candidate based upon who we think will do the least additional harm. Leader of the free world. Not. Presidents should be picked under the criteria "Entertainer of the Year.

We should do away with the electoral college, primaries and caucus states as they bear little resembalence to the popular vote. Bush lost the popular vote. Instead, think more in terms of voting on American Idol. Lets just have the candidates perform over a sixteen episode season and America can text in the winners of each week's competition. Then again, would Taylor Hicks be better? Doughtry seemed to do OK. Let's call the show American President. Anyone in Hollywood want to help me produce the show with Simon Cowel as one of the judges? Who cares how old the voters are who text in. We have adults voting now and we pick crappy Presidents.

What comes after the iPhone

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Do you want to give Steve Jobs your inner thoughts? It's a little bit more than user-generated input. Hypothetical reports out of Apple/Mac headquarters is that uber inventor Steve Jobs is at work on the iMind. Instead of talking into the phone you hold it to your forehead and it reads your thoughts. True or False?

PUMP YOUR OWN GAS CLASSES

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Jack Loechner, writer from The Center for Media Research posted a research brief saying that rising gas prices are changing consumer habits. I live in a rather affluent community where some drivers continue to pay a premium to have gas station attendants pump the gas for you. One station posted a sign offering “PUMP YOUR OWN GAS CLASSES.”

The 3 Innovations

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I have been asked by a prestigious MBA School's professor to proof an advanced copy of his book. And while the author does an excellent job of describing the problems and symptoms, he like others are yet to tell you "how to do it."

There are three Innovations in Business.

1) Technological Innovation, typically patent driven, which is why companies grow in fits and starts and breakthroughs are fewer and farther between;

2) Product Design Innovation which more often than not is practiced simply by making the old look new - i.e. turning mops into Swiffers - which is easy to copy and does not sell an incrementally greater number of redesigned mops;

3) and the most underutilized and least understood Innovation

Perceptual Innovation® leading to Perceptual Monopolies® that enable companies to:

A) Leapfrog competitors with ideas that change thinking rather than changing things with expensive and risky capital technology investment;

B) Change consumer habits and practices;

C) Reverse the effects of mature product and category (or industry lifecycles - every company's challenge in fast track consumer packaged goods categories and automobiles);

D) And, if you're a company such as Starbucks, Chrysler, GM, Ford or Home Depot desperately in the need - turn mature earnings companies back into rapid growth businesses.

This all speaks to C-level execs who are the leaders in charge of innovation driving the growth of their company. It sure isn't Chuck in product design or Larry in manufacturing/R&D.

We have a process that will readily identify the Perceptual Monopolies® you desire, if you have a competition in you that does not want to see others (rivals and competitive brands) succeed - work that also enables you to point your company's future development of technologies in the proper direction.

Why ads don't work

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You know. I had a new guy visit my site who just started his own blog. His name and site is http://danielhonigman.com/

I visited his site and found that his post dealt with an ad he saw and on which he speaks on why he wonders why the ads he sees don't work. I had to post him back....

No Danman10019. You're correct. Ads today have lost site of the goal of actually getting someone to get up and go do something. They are made more in the mold of, "if you throw enough shit against the glass some of it might stick."

There has been a dramatic abscence in "calls to action" or "reasons-for-being" in ads over the last 25 years, - the things that give ads traction - coincidentally coinciding with a decline of importance of "positioning" in the minds of marketers. Oh sure, Cadillac has a "positioning" - it lives in the luxury high price quadrant versus Chevy's family/value quadrant at GM. The only problem is that these "positionings" do nothing to drive breakthrough creative or innovative Perceptual Innovations or Perceptual Monopolies that cause consumers to get up and go spend their money with Cadillac versus the likes of a Lexus or Audi that instant. Just puting mid life good looking models getting out of Cadillacs with tag lines that say, "Life. Liberty and the Pursuit" just don't cut it motivationally. They have all the pieces - they know who their buyers are - the strivers, the alpha men and women - GM and its agencies just don't know how to put them together. Please delve into this subject further. You are on the right track. For more about the auto industry also visit Crubs & Fents at http://crubsandfents.wordpress.com

The ads you see are the way they are, because the people who make the ads have grown up in an environment where the ads they make are much like the ads they've seen. Same goes with their teachers in MBA schools. Therefore, they believe they are correct. As the saying goes, "average has gotten so bad that you can go to the head of the class just by showing up."

Disposable Car Hits The Streets

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Now why couldn't General Motors do this? It wasn't very long ago that I proposed General Motors create this product using distribution via Costco and similar as part of a forward looking strategy assignment. It's what Al Ries would call a (dealership) category killer. At $2,500 who needs service? If it breaks or needs new tires, I'll just get another one. This one is a dealership killer. You don't need dealers to sell disposable cars - or what affluent Americans perceive as disposable cars.

Tata Motor's new $2,500 four-door subcompact — the world's cheapest car — may yield a transportation revolution with as great an impact as Henry Ford's Model T, which rolled off an assembly line one century ago.

Starbucks Slows Ship, Begins Return To Safer Harbor

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MarketingPost's Marketing Daily reports on a slide that began with the introduction of Starbuck's "Milder Dimensions". Even the name was prophetic of the company's future performance. I hope Howard Schultz gets back to the basics of just being some things to some people instead of trying to be more things to all people to restore his brand's equity and consumer's allegiance. Like I always said, "If I's ever wanted Milder Dimensions I would have gone to the grocery store and gotten some Maxwell House." But I didn't. I went to Starbucks because I liked good, dark, strong coffee. If I smoked cigarettes, it would be the equivalent of a filterless Lucky Strike or Chesterfield.