Thursday, December 06, 2007

Calle Charitable Trust

Greenwich, CT - The Calle Charitable Trust has acquired the work of Beate Gutschow. Beate Gütschow's landscape series: LS/S, (Aperture, October 2007) is copublished with the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago - bolstering the trust's holdings of leading contemporary plein aire artists including DeMateo and William Glenn Crooks.

The Schmucking of America - "Hey Dumb Ass, This Loan's For You!"

"When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist."
-- Archbishop Helder Camara

"Hey dumbass, this loan's for you!"

Go ahead, have a Bud. In fact, have a six-pack and numb your mind. You've earned it after complaining about your job all day. But you know what J.O.B. stands for don't you? "Just Over Broke" So God Damn It! You deserve something! So you've screwed yourself, and America, while politicians want you to continue to believe that they can somehow fix it when the power is, and always was ONLY in your hands. So stop building a house of straw or grass. That's what the three little pigs did.

Our forefathers, the pioneers who settled America, had the good sense to build their cabins, and camp each night, on high ground. That way, when it rained, they would not be washed out in a flash flood or have their home swept away when the river overflowed its banks due to storms. But now, the subprime leading mess - caused by lack standards all around yet again demonstrates that we've blacktoped our survival skills. Go ahead. Rebuild New Orleans. Daniel Boone would have had the common sense to move the entire city upstream.

A nation that escapes reality via the Simpsons each night no longer has the sense or discipline to stop buying things it can't afford - and when it does, it does so with stupidity. The largest purchases of you lives, and you plunk it down with fake money derived by lying on your no doc easy doc loans, and when you loose it, the government will give you a new tit to suck on. Like a rat in a cage, you will push the peddle to get the dribbles of sugar water produced by the tube whenever we want it - and to keep your bitchy keep up with the jones lifestyle wife off your back - oh wait, I forgot, that is of course if you have the tenacity, accountability and responsibility to stay married and not fuck your kids with a broken household.

We don't have to look past the peddle, we just need to know that pressing it gives us sugar water. Dumb ass. Hey dumb schmuck, your life takes Visa. And MasterCard's squeezing your balls so hard you can hardly stand it. But their CEO's laughing all the way to the bank. You are an idiot, American and we've got it wrong. Others don't hate us, the loathe us because we are ignorant and incapable of making a decision beyond what type of processed tummy filler goes in our mouth tonight. Stop pressing the sugar peddle.

I was listening to KFI's Bill Handel's morning rant on the subprime crisis, that the government is now going to bail out the idiots in foreclosure who didn't know to build their camp on high ground. Why did the pioneers do this? Because when they bought their supplies for the journey west, no one would give them credit. Chances are, they were not coming back. So the pioneers valued every single extra ounce of flour, sugar, salt or water they could carry. Not a morsel was wasted - unlike today's Americans who willingly pay 30 cents more per gallon of gas when a cheaper station is across the street, simply because they are too lazy to wait at the light or make a U-turn.

Yes American. We bail you out with our tax dollars not because we are a compasionate people but because lenders sold your shakey ass loan to international investors from whom we now buy oil. They now own our ass - able to rape us when you are the one who dropped our drawers. Boy, are we between a rock and a hard place.

This isn't about voting Republicans, or Democrats. It's about smartening up. Wake up. Get on the gold standard and stop buying more than you can afford. THAT IS HOW YOU PROTECT THE AMERICAN LIFESTYLE! Go to work without antiperspirant and watch! Within weeks the most expensive brands will fall below a dollar and brands such as Axe will get the ax because our kids will have far more important things on their minds - like how not to repreat the mistakes of their dumbed and numbed parents - no matter which house they live in. But for now, we are an idiot nation. Stop listening to marketers and start making choices.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Marketing Democracy or The Theft of Democracy

What's wrong with all of the presidential candidates? What's wrong with the presidential campaign? What's wrong with the fact that our choices are nothing more than the lesser of two evils? What's wrong is that among all the presidential candidates, there are no presidents. What's wrong is that they all want to be president of the united states just a little too much. What's wrong is that in stead of being supporters we as a population have become little more than candidate groupies. It's a much less demanding task. With Hilary Clinton's campaign managers repeatedly spiking debates with seeded questions I wouldn't wonder if her New Hampshire headquarters bomb threat the other day was also staged to enable Hilary to appear more presidential. That's the theft of democracy. What's smart is that she's positioning herself and running a "competence" campaign. That's an interesting selling dimension in that it enables her to sidestep issue gaffs and mud slinging while she differentiates herself in a way that effectively derails her competitors. Now I don't have a problem with Obama saying he's wanted to be president since the third grade but where are those reluctant "citizen candidates" a k a George Washington, who made it to the top seat all the while expressing the fact that they didn't want to be president. The world is not so complex that this person could not succeed. The challenge would be an ability to work with our own political machine. But remember the roots of american politics. Being a politician was not intended to be a career activity. It's just that those in office now perverted our government that way. The result is the theft of democracy from a people who will remain content as long as there's room on their credit card so that they can continue to live beyond their means (as does our government) and as long as sufficient entertainment exists on television, the internet and via gaming to keep the senses numb.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Blurred Vision or Multicultural Marketing

Visually stunning take on ham-handed multicultural marketing, emotional, social or behavioral targeting - though not the intent of the artist. If you did a composite sketch of those you hit with current techniques it would be something like this.

Sharp Thought

Don't you wish it was this easy? Don't you wish you had a bottle of these you could give to others? Is rubbing a lamp equally effective? Order some for those in need today! Follow the link and scroll way down for more information.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Multi-Cultural Marketing II - The Thumb Tribe

Remember the other day I was saying that it's not sufficient to target cultures such as African Americans or Asians and consider the matter of multi-cultural marketing concluded? But of course it is concluded because marketers generally draw the line where media properties end, and for example, for African Americans, they end with television such as BET - the Black Entertainment Network, etc. But there are cultures, pervasive cultures within the cultures - that marketers never explore. They've never heard of them. Yet it is these cultures within the cultures that influence us all - hence we call them "Culturally Influential Consumer Groups."

The first I mentioned was "Walking Actors," the 1/2 of the US population employed by service and information based industry - hence their need for products and services that make them a better them - a huge chunk of the population that's little understood.

Now I'd like to introduce you to another "Culturally Influential 'Developmental' Consumer Group" we can recruit for use in developing new products, services, positioning strategies, media properties, content, etc.

Let's call them the 'THUMB TRIBE' referring to the masses of young people around the world that use mobile phones for texting, email, entertainment and mobile phone conversations. They've grown up in a world that is dynamically different from the one we lived in. What kind of cars do they want? And what gadgets? They don't even use computers - computers now percieved as going the way of B&W television. At what point do their childhood toys and t'ween technology devices merge? And what future outcomes do they, and marketer-manufacturers expect?

Jonesing For Insight

I got caught up in a thread the other day with an insight company (WPP Group's 'Added Value' - "with 21 locations worldwide") hired by the Ford Motor Company whose findings indicated that images of crumpled Ford F-150 pickups in ads caused consumers emotional "anxiety." NO SHIT! So do images of jerks with green teeth and Appalachian accents kicking little dogs, hillbilly's having anal sex, children being abused and corporate chefs cooking up processed concoctions sold in the shelf stable portions of grocery stores. You actually have to pay someone to know this shit?! THIS is not "INSIGHT." It is 'trivial pursuit' by an industry whose leading executives confirm that despite solid balance sheets and healthy bottom lines they don't know where their growth will come from. No wonder FORD, CHRYSLER and GM hemmorage money and squander opportunities to bolster consumer perception while the ad industry comes under such heavy fire.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Potential Client Bites Potential Agency - Again

I have a weak spot for people who run agencies like Peter Madden, who posted a request for professionalism in Advertising Age Magazine's Small Agency Diary. Yet again, here's a young agency leader, and probably brilliant, who reached for the brass ring, poured out his heart and best ideas - only to watch the client whore walk away. I hope he follows my advice. I wrote:

Don't do a damn thing until the CEO or the appointed operative shows you the money. You're far more desired, and appealing when you remain aloof - of course the bluff is that you have to be willing to loose the ranch. We solicit proposals rather than waiting for RFP's. We develop relationships with decision makers. Once a proposal is submitted, it can take months, or days, for the client to pull the trigger. Ramp up time is two weeks to develop creative, do some homework with consumers and deliver a needle mover within 8-12 weeks. We bill half our management fee plus all expenses up front before any deliverable is in sight. Have been in business since 1927 and recognized as the creator of brands such as Cold-filtered Miller Genuine Draft, Tylenol Gelcaps and more. Turn around Wheaties and increased distribution 24%. Restaged Pampers as a "developmental" product for the first time in 1982 and gained $1 billion in traction versus Kimberly-Clark for P&G - not to mention making caffeinne the best part of waking up.

Martin CalleChief Marketing OfficerCalle & Companyhttp://www.callecompany.com/MADISON AVENUE Bloghttp://advertising-age.blogspot.com/

Multicultural Marketing - How To Beat Your Media Dependence and Sell More Product

If you're Procter & Gamble or Google and into multicultural marketing are you getting the biggest bang for the buck targeting African Americans, Hispanic, Caucasian or Asian communities as multicultural audiences? Are you really getting your point across to these macro-targets when the cultures themselves are composed of over 250 other distinct and seperate "Culturally Influential Consumer Groups." You can segment these cultures by emotional insights, demographics, ethnic diversity, social, attitudinal, psychographic profiles and online behavior via traditional and SEM media products; You can throw the latest buzz groups - Millenials, Devouts, Thrivals, Boomers, T'weens, Gen X & Yers, Early Adapters, Late Adapters, heavy users, trier/rejectors and those who 'cocoon' into the mix but unless you speak with the 250 "Culturally Influential Developmental Consumer Audiences" within, you'll never truly put your finger on the pulse of your target audience.

For example, every one of the target audiences above is composed in part of "Walking Actors" - men and women who because of their occupation or lifestyle have to come in contact with an above average number of people everyday. For this reason they are more concerned with the cars they drive and the statements that they make; the clothes they wear and how they feel other people subsequently perceive them - confidence - is it internal or external; the foods and beverages they consume and how consumption affects their performance each day. With over half the people employed today working in service and information driven industries, over half of us all are to some extent a walking actor whether we admit it or not. That's the culture you target to hit the multicultural marketing genie on the head.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

CMO CHALLENGE

I read with disbelief questions swirling amongst C-level execs and trade magazines such as Advertising Age asking if the CMO or marketing department should be held responsible for company performance. DOH! Are we now trying to dumb down marketing and advertising even more - lowering the bar to the point that no one has to accept responsibility for one's actions?

I believe that the life expectancy of today's CMO is less than 24 months because they've lost the art of finding product-based strategic solutions in favor of implementing a new media SEM, social or behavioral targeting fix. So here's the test. I don't want to know what the answer is, or what you think the answer is: I want to know how you'd go about finding an answer to the following problem.

YOU WAKE UP TODAY AS THE CMO OF KOHLER and/or PROCTER & GAMBLE'S CHARMIN BRAND. You find that due to exhausted water supplies, American's can no longer use toilet bowls and tanks in their homes. This is not a temporary conservation condition. It is now permanent. To keep your company afloat (Kohler) and your brand alive (Charmin) what steps would you take to learn what to offer consumers as alternatives in personal hygiene? Remember, they use their left hands in certain parts of Asia and Mrs. Bidet has already been introduced. Neither are suitable solutions so licensing is out.

What steps would you take, what processes would you employ to learn what consumers want before they are able to articulate the need?

Monday, November 26, 2007

WPP Shop Tries to Rewrite Research

So this image caused viewer anxiety. You had to do research to figure out crumpled cars bother people? If you're a parent I bet you don't like movies or shows depicting abused or hurt children either. That's what's wrong with research. It only reconfirms the things you already know! Rather than evaluate what consumers think about a brand, the WPP Group company's new market-research tool, Emotional Brand Connection (Kantar Group's Added Value unit) looks at how consumers think the brand will make them feel.

First problem with this approach: "when you ask consumers questions you do not get the voice of the consumer, you get the voice of the inquirer through the question being asked - a form of bias that will lead you astray."

Next, if you don't stimulate consumer minds to think beyond the realm of their current existance they will only reconfirm what you, and they, already know, which will leave your startegy and execution a day late and pound short.

Where was I with my Ford SUV? Where was I with my Ford Taurus? My Expedition? The answer to both is "with my family" "on the way to grandma's house" "over the rivers and through the woods" to the mall or to the grocery store we go. Does it really matter?

The picture's the same - and insight this is... not. It's like showing people pictures of bankers in flannel shirts and blue jeans versus starched white shirts and suits. Obviously the suits work at Wells Fargo while the flannel shirts work for Seattle's Washington Mutual. ConAgra's Swift-Eckrich smoked sausages had the same perception problems versus the flannel shod farmers at Kahn's/Hillshire Farm.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Farewell Mr. Whipple

Dick Wilson, THE character actor who turned "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" into a national catchphrase as exasperated shopkeeper Mr. Whipple in the TV commercial campaign that ran for more than two decades, has died. He was 91.

He was also one of the last great pitchmen to get it right - reinforcing the message that Charmin was "soft" a product feature with multiple benefits that later took the category's back burner as consumers looked beyont cost-of-entry softness to hygiene in their sanitary products. Similarly, disposable diapers moved from keeping babies drier to enabling the Pampers brand to expand the franchise by first focusing on a newborn and infant's 'development' into toddlerhood with Pampers Phases Developmental Diapers created by Calle & Company in 1982.

For me, as an advertiser, the sadness in Mr. Whipple's passage is that we have gone from pitchmen with a product-based punchline drilling a product, brand or category's features home - to adpeople raised on television and internet (viral) entertainment who now strive to create ads that do little more than that - and ignoring a product's reason for being as a persuader.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Eric J. Henderson, Director-Account Management, Common Ground Marketing

If as many people reached out as does CommonGround's Account Director Eric Henderson, the human experience would be a much nicer trip. He sent me a letter dated 7 November, 2007.

"Mr. Calle: I just wanted to thank you for your commenting on our post in the [Ad Age Magazine] Small Agency Diary, "Don't Let ROI Mean Removal of Innovation." We write what we believe first. Secondly, we do hope to start real discussions and appreciate what we learn when certain people contribute. Your comment got us to talking/thinking. Much peace, Eric J. Henderson"

I think I'd work for Eric either for free or for food. Thank you Eric. That was nice and heartfelt. APPRECIATED. - Martin

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Gary Bembridge of Unleashed on Marketing Blog

I have a new friend in the UK - Gary Bembridge who writes Unleashed on Marketing Blog. With 25 years CPG experience Gary writes with wisdom. Go visit!

Winning the New-Products Game

Know What Kills an Innovation Ahead of Time and Dodge Failures

It's been a long time coming but finally someone else has finally figured out the new products game. What's even better, he uses examples and brands that hired me to get them over the humps mentioned - so I know he's got it right. Cal Hodock is managing partner of Hodock Group, a product-marketing agency, and professor of marketing at Berkeley College and adjunct professor of advertising at New York University. But like a lot of academicians, he can describe the problem. Does he have a process delivering reproducable results a company can use? And what is it? I am reprinting his article from Ad Age here, because I don't want to lose it.

New products are a high-risk game; failures widely outnumber successes. Of course, failure can be a rich instructional tool, provided that we learn from our mistakes. American business, however, continues to make the same mistakes over and over as it brings new products to market. Ninety percent of new products in America fail.

Out this month: Calvin Hodock's 'Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things' (Prometheus Books)

Each year, an estimated $20 billion to $30 billion is lost on failed food products alone. Look no further than would-be breakfast beverage Gatorade A.M., launched earlier this year. If Pepsi opened up the filing cabinets of history, it would have seen that it had already tried and failed with Pepsi A.M. in the late 1980s. Coffee is our morning drink, reinforced by Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's and the corner diner. This is a culture war neither brand could win. Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat their mistakes. The eight basic mistakes listed here are real. Our rules for CMOs, meanwhile, are varied. Some are easy to implement. Others are tougher. As the old Iowa farmer said, "Talk is cheap, but it takes money to buy whiskey." Innovation is the engine of growth. The engine needs a tuneup.

WHAT GOES WRONG
EIGHT RECURRING ERRORS IN NEW-PRODUCT FAILURES1. Marketing misjudgementProcter & Gamble stumbled going up the Citrus Hill in 1983. Smart marketing managers mistakenly thought they had identified a key dynamic: Citrus Hill was a better-tasting orange juice. Taste buds didn't count. They got beaten on the battlefield of trade promotions. Two cartons for $5 was what orange-juice lovers really wanted. P&G pulled the plug on Citrus Hill in 1992. 2. Positioning poisonThis can be defined as much ado about nothing with insignificant product positioning -- think dry beer from Anheuser-Busch or Bayer Women's, a combination aspirin and calcium tablet. Both are solutions to problems America does not have. This also can be positioning that confuses the consumer, or when the positioning benefit and the product are not in sync. 3. Dead-on-arrival productThink of the Pontiac Aztek, possibly the ugliest car ever; Vioxx, a pain reliever with the potential to cause heart attacks and strokes; blue and chocolate french fries, introduced by the Oreida unit of Heinz; and the X-Type, a cheap Jaguar that looks like a Taurus. Enough said. 4. Competitive delusionBe careful not to underestimate the competitive response. Beware of testosterone brands that are cash cows or sentimental businesses. Quaker Oats, for example, annihilated upstart Total Instant Oatmeal. It was a predictable response from a company that is oatmeal personified and an authentic brand icon in American culture. General Mills blithely ignored that. 5. Defective marketing researchMost failures are heavily researched, but the marketplace votes thumbs down. Much of the activity is justification research. Innovation teams go to research departments and say, "We need to do such and such research to reinforce what we are doing." The researchers morph into obedient wimps. 6. Fatality in frugalityThis is when new products must be marketed with play-and-pay budgets. The cheapskate strategy does not work. Two common examples: skipping research steps to economize and introducing a product with an anemic media budget. 7. Calendar innovationIn the rush to be first, companies can misjudge the market. That's how Motorola blew $6 billion on the failed Iridium phone. There were problems with the product, service and support, but the launch date was sacrosanct. It never sold more than 10% of what it needed to break even. 8. Marketing dishonestyPontiac Aztek research was heavily edited and modified to please General Motors management. The bad taste of Crystal Pepsi was ignored. Two forecasts for Campbell's Souper Combo surfaced -- one predicted failure, and the marketing department disregarded it. Nobody told Apple's CEO that the Newton had more than 1,000 documented bugs at its launch.

WHAT MUST BE DONE
EIGHT GUIDELINES TO HELP CMOS IMPROVE THEIR INNOVATION BATTING AVERAGES1. Stamp out marketing amnesiaEstablish a knowledge base of past innovation on a category basis, including both successes and failures. The data and information should be developed and updated by outside sources with no ax to grind. 2. Leverage value-added marketingHire a research director who knows how to develop and steward a value-added research department that has management's respect. Such a person will not be easy to find. In marketing research's embryonic days, pioneers such as Alfred Polite and Ernest Ditcher presented their research findings to boards of directors. Today's market research is often never seen by the board. 3. Challenge assumptionsEvery new-product failure had a rosy sales forecast. Marketing people can, and do, either consciously or unconsciously cook the books with deceptive numbers to make bad new products look good. CMOs must focus on the assumptions behind the numbers and challenge them. Nothing should be taken at face value. Form an alliance with the chief financial officer in this effort. 4. Reinforce the unvarnished truthBefore a CMO reviews a new-product plan, key players -- manufacturing, marketing, finance and marketing research -- must review the plan and verify that the assumptions are correct, balanced and not distorted. Differences must be resolved before the plan moves forward. This mitigates the "creative number crunching" that comes with optimistic assumptions. 5. Press the kill buttonFrederick the Great said, "The mark of a great general is to know when to retreat and how." CMOs must have the courage to kill carefully nourished new products when evidence warrants it. Innovation teams may try to beat the system, because their love is blind. But should we move forward with America's next great new product, Kool-Aid pickles? 6. Assign accountabilityRobert Lutz, GM's styling and design czar, observed that the company had trouble figuring out who was responsible for the ugly Aztek. Accountability is elusive in the innovation game because marketing people are moved around the chessboard too frequently. The new product's champion should follow it out the door at launch, assuming ongoing responsibility for a specified period. 7. Realize that one size does not fit allCorporations assume that any M.B.A. from a top-tier school qualifies for a brief tenure in new products. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the rotation process, too many square-peg brand managers are forced into round holes. CMOs should put only their most creative people in complex new-product positions. 8. Attend ethics boot campThe innovation team should attend ethics boot camp early in the development process. This should include everybody, even the ad agencies. Manipulating the forecast for a new product is unethical. It cheats the shareholders even more than it cheats the public.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Cuervo Launches Black

Saw this seasonal ad [good time to launch spirits] for super premium Cuervo Black on TV. But why must we have yet another beer, wine, ale or otherwise spirits brand launch with the same uninspiring "bar call" strategy attempting to widget their way into consumer habits and practices? This from a category's "undisputed" leader!? I like rum and coke, not cuervo and coke you copy cat dim wits. Go stake out your own turf. And by the way, what research study showed that rum and coke drinkers have a propensity for tequila? Probably none. So I beg to ask, "are you trying to start new consumer behavior (since you probably won't be stealing to many of rum and coke's customers ). If so, you'll need a much more persuasive campaign than this.

No wonder revenues in the industry are flat and executives continue to wonder where new growth will come from. As Casey Stengel said, "Is this as good as it gets? Or is this all you got?"

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Wild Bunch + Company

Singapore's Wild Bunch & Company is the Starbucks of organic juices. Watch out Jamba Juice! I'm looking into a franchise.

MotoLights by Jake Dyson

I wanted these lights in my office, then thought, "Wait! They'd make great flashlights!" Absolutely incredible if you're into "neat junk."

If Only Buick Could Make A Face Like This

The dust has settled on the Tokyo Motor Show, traditionally the outlet for the industry’s most avant-garde predictions.

2007’s debuts didn’t disappoint, although the host country’s penchant for bizarre city cars is starting to look rather less eccentric as public perception shifts in their favour.

Friday, November 09, 2007

AGENCIES: Are You Filling Prescriptions or Curing What Ails?

I like Mark Brownstein's question at Advertising Age Magazine's Small Agency Diary. Though many left comments as to the importance of diagnosing client problems and responding with appropriate strategies and ideas, no one said anything about how to do it. Try this!

Calle & Company's ASSAYS® are innovative consumer-creation learning circles not based on asking questions. ASSAYS provide your consumer groups with 10,000 incredibly comprehensive, highly creative, and consumer-appealing product-based thought-leadership selling solutions instead. Taking yourself and the yoke of your company's belief systems out of the loop - clean sheets of paper are the order of the day here. You become the blank slate on which consumers create, invent and indelibly etch their new impressions and perceptions - massive foresight enables you to articulate what consumers really want before normal humans, a focus group moderator, or anyone else can articulate the need.

Why do we NOT base "KNOWLEDGE CREATION" for greater strategies and ideas on questions?

1) Question-based marketing knowledge is full of pitfalls and poor traditions.

2) As Atticus Finch says in To Kill A Mockingbird, "You can't ask a question you don't already know the answer to" which is why research so often only confirms what we already know.

3) When you ask consumers questions, you don't get the "voice of the consumer," you get the "voice of the inquirer" through the question being asked - a form of bias that will lead you astray.
4) When asking questions you get answers about things that have already happened. By default, your strategy and execution will be a day late and a pound short. You will be caught reacting, not proacting.
5) When asking questions ask, "Where did the consumers you are talking to come from?" In focus groups, the majority of respondents are "database" consumers - paid professionals who, though screened, supplement their income with market research. If you are gathering any/all other data from consumers remember that without additional provided mental stimuli, they are unable to respond beyond the scope of their personal experience. This results in the saying, "The problem with advertising today is that advertising has fallen to the level of the people who watch it, which is why we click or surf through it."

6) All other "ideation" processes are offshoots of large quantitative research companies such as AcuPoll or BASES. Hiring them is like hiring the fox to watch the chicken coup. But, the interesting fact is, that in spite of all the business they get in the consumer packaged goods industry - the largest consumer of this sort of thing - client's revenues remain flat, with executives wondering where their growth will come from. So I guess we still have not found the consumer-source for bigger, better ideas.

Interesting? More interesting still is that most agencies do no homework at all and just shoot from the hip and their own personal experience - just like consumers described above. So who named you KNOWLEDGE ALMIGHTY? I learned long ago not to inject any of myself into a client's strategy or process. I let consumers shoulder the whole load and more results ended up in Annual Reports and Cannes reels be the client Gold Bond Powder or Procter & Gamble.
Do some homework! For more information about ASSAYS contact Calle & Company at future@CalleCompany.com