June 30, 2005

Time for half-year resolutions. It's half over. What do we want to accomplish during the SECOND half?

Well...a festive holiday weekend, for starters.

Advertising Slow-Down

The Wall Street Journal today reports a slowing down in ad sales for 2005. This is the latest of several predictions that things this year are not going to be so rosy. Of course, we knew that without the elections and the Olympics, spending would not increase at the last year's robust rate. Now Interpublic's guru is predicting a 5.7% growth rate this year, vs. his previous estimate of 6.4%.

Other estimates range from 3.4% to 4.7%. And the slowdown will be worse in the second half of the year (which starts tomorrow!).

There's a lot of skittishness about the economy out there, thanks to oil prices skyrocketing, interest rates rising, our national debt going through the roof, and apparently no progress in Iraq despite the Administration's dig-your-heels-in approach...hoping that if they say something enough times it becomes true. (Message to Administration: it doesn't.)

As we know, one important reason for the slowdown in traditional media spending is the investment advertisers are making in newer technologies, such as paid search optimization and advertising on the Internet.

Radio and television advertising are actually expected to decline this year, in part because TiVo enables viewers to ignore ads.

My friend TV director Arvin Brown tells me that the average one-hour TV show has about 42 minutes of program content. Wow! That means one-third of the hour is dedicated to commercial messages.

With that much clutter and the prospect of being TiVo'ed, it's more important (and challenging) than ever to create commercials that viewers WANT to watch.

eMarketer predicts that online advertising spending will increase by 20.2% this year, reaching $11.3 billion by year's end. That's a big number...but it's only about 4% of the total U.S. ad spending for the year.

"Cinderella Man" Promo Seems Lame

We were talking about "Cinderella Man" last week and remarking on the film's lack of success: production cost, $88 million...revenues to date, under $40 million.

Now the folks at Universal are trying a new gimmick to promote "Cinderella Man" business. In some markets, they're offering a money-back guarantee. If you don't like the movie, you can get your money back.

OK...so, what that means is that you can go watch the movie and get your money back, thereby seeing it for free....no questions asked. Mmmm. Are dumb and dumber alive and well and living at Universal Pictures?

My friend Marvin Krauss, the greatest of all Broadway general managers, used to say, "It never rained on 'My Fair Lady.'" What he meant was that a show will do well or not...and you can't revive it with cut prices or special giveaways. It just doesn't work that way.

So what WOULD you do if you were Universal Pictures with "Cinderella Man" just limping along?

On the Importance of Customers

Great essay in Fast Company about the importance of customers. Don Peppers and Martha Rogers write that "The only value your company will ever create is the value that comes from customers - the ones you have now and the ones you will have in the future. Businesses succeed by getting, keeping, and growing customers."

So obvious, but so often overlooked, as businesses think they're about providing products, services or profits. No...we're all about serving and growing customers.

Peppers and Rogers go on to talk about a concept called Return on Customers AND the importance of treating different customers differently. As a case in point, they note that Tesco, the British supermarket chain, sends out a mailing each quarter to 11 million households - but it produces some 4 million different versions of the pitch, tailored to the interests of their diverse customer base.

Increasingly, companies are categorizing their customers into at least a small handful of "buckets" that enable them to create and implement more targeted marketing strategies to each bucket.

June 29, 2005

I love the personalized stamp idea. Thanks for sending it along. What other great have-it-your-way ideas can people identify?

Of course, 85 cents is a little dear for a 37-cent stamp, but what the heck. It's just so cool that they exist. My favorite stamp was the Nixon stamp that Hal Currey sent me on an envelope that had prison cell bars around his head so he was smiling at you from the slammer. Made me wonder why more people don't design envelopes to enhance the image of their stamps.

I'm a big fan of special stamps and am surprised at how lame the USPS website is when it comes to offering them. Check it out. It's almost July and they're still flogging Kwanza and Christmas images.

Calling a Spade a Spade

And, speaking of the government, I wish ours could make up its mind about how it feels about gaming. There's such a denial of consumer interest and demand...and such a wink-wink don't-ask-don't-tell attitude toward the gaming that does exist.....all of which leaves marketers in a confused state. And an atmosphere of confusion produces mushy marketing.

I sat next to the state gaming commissioner in Louisiana, and he told me how good gaming is for depressed economies. Well, if it's good for depressed economies, why isn't it just as good for robust ones? Or, conversely, if it is NOT good for robust economies, then it must not be good for depressed economies.

Two days ago, PartyGamingPLC went pubic on the London Stock Exchange. Basically, this is an online gaming company with $600 million in revenue and $350 million in profit last year. Yum!

The company's prospectus was not available in the U.S., because our Justice Department and many attorneys general say that online gaming is against the law in the United States.

Maybe so....although that's not really clear. But right now, Americans make up just under 90% of PartyGaming's business. (That's the wink-wink, don't-ask-don't-tell part.)

Mostly, this is online poker playing. Total revenue for all online poker companies was $92 million in 2002. You know what it was two years later? More than $1 billion!

You read that right. It increased more than ten fold in two years.

During the same two years, the average number of daily active players went from 1,297 to 77,094. It's now over 121,000!!

This is explosive.

It reminds me of prohibition. Try to outlaw something that people really want to do, and they'll do it anyway. But by pretending that either (1) it doesn't exist or (2) if we ignore it, maybe it'll seem not to exist has - in my opinion - left way too much money on the table.

And that money could be going to state lotteries, where participants could be contributing much more significantly to doing good works in their states. Instead it's going to the founders of PartyGaming and others in this booming business throughout the world.

Online lotteries exist. They just don't exist in this country, run by our states. So others are reaping the rewards. Many states only modestly and rather ashamedly promote their lotteries, rather than proudly saying what they are and how they benefit their states. Marketers' hands are tied by skittish politicians. So we end up with scraps going to education, and BUCKETS of money going to the PartyGamings of the world.

My point is that gaming is a monster business. About 40 states are already in it through their lotteries. Those lotteries contribute very significantly to those states' economies. But many of the states treat - and market - their lotteries so modestly, while the PartyGaming companies of the world are rocking and rolling BIG time...so, as a result, THEY get the money, instead of our states. Seems backwards to me...and a great, missed marketing opportunity.

June 27, 2005

A Fresh Perspective on Newspapers

Great quote in the Times about the Lawrence Kansas newspaper editor/publisher who says, "I don't think of us as being in the newspaper business. Information is our business and we're trying to provide information, in one form or another, however the consumer wants it and wherever the consumer wants it, in the most complete and useful way possible."

That includes everything from a website aimed at college readers, another website that provides transcripts of court cases, and even a site with the photos of every local little leaguer.

The 75-year-old boss of this paper is incredibly imaginative when it comes to ways to developing creative ways to package and present information to his community. He is rethinking the role of the local newspaper, and I think he's really on to something.

Newspapers do certainly face challenging times. But the appetite for information is greater than ever. Smart newspapers will think of how they can be their community's primary source for information...and use the Internet much more as their delivery system.

The same article lists the fastest-growing cities in terms of Internet users. Number One is our neighboring city of Atlanta, where the number of active home Internet users increased 43% over the three years ending this past May.

Hartford leads all other cities in terms of the amount of timespent on line at home per person during this past May: 20 hours and 39 minutes.

One of the hardest things for all of us is to look at our businesses with fresh eyes. We tend to turn to people who know our business or are in it. Perhaps we should more often turn to those who have none of those predispositions.

The fact that a 75-year-old took these bold steps sure does dispel the "old dog" adage.

What business are we really in? Are we defining our business too narrowly? If we re-think and re-present it, will it open our eyes to great new possibilities?

Create Your Own Tie

I thought the promotion piece was kidding. But it wasn't.

You can now create your own Ralph Lauren tie.

You can choose the tie color and the stripe color...and they'll add your initials, and - get this - "the vintage year 2005." [No tie shall be tied before its time.]

"Have it your way" has gone bonkers.

Heard of similar ridiculousness? Pass it on.

Wait....here's another one!

Nike iD lets you build your own sneaker. And Timberland is doing it too, with their most popular boot.

But ties???

New Venue for Product Placement

Song lyrics. I read that Cadillac was using focus groups of celebrities....give them a special preview of the Escalade and get their suggestions on how to make the cars more appealing. A by-product of this celebrity exposure has been an increase in Cadillac car mentions in song lyrics...logged at 70 times last year, vs. 46 the year before.

Product placement is one more Lifestyle Touchpoint that helps you break away from the over-cluttered media environment. There's something just a little scary about it. Some of those consumer advocacy groups want ads targeting kids to be more clearly identified as ads. The argument is that kids can't differentiate between programming and ads. Can adults differentiate between a stage prop and product placement?

June 23, 2005

Re: getting stuff free....Wasn't it Estee Lauder who started the trend of giving gift samples of cosmetic products free with every purchase? She just knew that we all thrill to that little extra something so temptingly packaged that we didn't have to pay for. Now you buy a bar of soap and your bag is filled with so many samples that you forget about the soap. Once again, marketers choose the me-too approach rather than making any attempt to be as original and clever as Ms. Lauder.

What Matters Most to Clients

The 4-A's (American Association of Advertising Agencies) recently asked major agency leaders that question and the answers are interesting:

First and foremost...One big idea. There's no escaping it...you gotta have a Big Idea....not lots of little ones. One BIG one. What's yours?

Second...and very important: A collaborative collegial environment where ideas are valued and action/standards are embraced.

Which leads me to a little riff on our corporate identity (available to be seen on our website...also available to be seen here, if I weren't so lazy).

Our abstract watercolor mark symbolizes the "handmade" quality of our marketing/communications solutions. Nothing cookie-cutter here. We carefully craft Big Ideas that are uniquely suited to maximize each client's results.

The colors blend seemlessly, reflecting our "no barriers" approach to work. We see no barriers among the various disciplines within our organization, and no barriers between us and our clients. We seek that "collaborative collegial environment" that agencies say clients value so highly. And, again, our watercolor mark hopefully communicates that environment.

So, that's what it all means to us. And besides, we like to look at it 'cause it kind of makes you think, imagine, and explore the possibilities. And that's fun...fun that we get away with calling "work."

Smart Cookie

I like this woman Robyn Waters, former VP of Trend, Design, and Product Development at Target. She has written a miniscule book called "The Trendmaster's Guide: Get a Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next."

Well, the title is a bit of an over promise. But there's some good stuff in here.

For example, I like her story about how Target took a totally different approach to what she calls "trend tracking." Typical fashion retailers were doing "runway research" at the major fashion shows and trend spots like St. Tropez. Target took the opposite approach. Says Ms. Waters, "We started with the customers. We tried to get close to their lives, understand their lifestyles, and then take the fashion trends that we saw happening and translate them into fashionable affordable products for Target." Makes sense, and is consistent with all wise marketing: look and listen carefully...the answer, the opportunity, is typically right in front of you.

Best is her incredibly succinct description of the Target success formula:

"We were going to be 'trend right,' customer focused, and design driven. We were going to help make chic cheap, design democratic, and put some real pizzazz into the world of discounting."

And did they ever!

AND, unlike the cosmetic crowd that has never improved upon Estee Lauder's idea, Target did not follow or imitate the leader (Wal-Mart). They staked out a unique position of their own. That's why, on the day that K-Mart (the ultimate me-too brand) filed for bankruptcy, Target's stock was 19% above it's previous year's price.

June 21, 2005

Disney Decals? Well, they're made by Mission Foods, self-described as "the world leader in authentic Mexican tortillas and snacks." Don't you just know that any "authentic Mexican tortilla and snack" includes a tasty Tinkerbell or delicious Daffy decal!

Question is...how could/would a company purporting to be "authentic" sell out to the company that is anything BUT authentic?

The Biggest Marketing/Communications Challenge Around

What is the percent of Americans who think Congress shares their priorities for the country?

According to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, it's 19%.

That's an astonishing number.

Much more astonishing than President Bush's numbers: Only 39% approve of his foreign policy; 39% approve of his handling of the economy; and 25% approve of his handling of social security. And 42% approve of the way he's handling his job. (I think Nixon was still around 39% when he resigned.)

Presidents are supposed to be leaders, and their positions may not always be popular.

But members of Congress are supposed to be representatives of the people. And 4 out of 5 Americans are saying that Congress doesn't represent their priorities! To me, that is stunning.

This incredible disconnect may be the most consequential marketing/communications challenge around today.

What's the problem? Are members of Congress spending too much time talking, and not enough time listening? Are they so ingrained with the go-along-to-get-along mentality that they've lost any sense of what their constituents really want them to fight for? Are their egos out of control? Are they spending too much time on junkets and party circuits? Have their brains been numbed by endless committee meetings, rubber chicken dinners, and gratuitous speeches?

What's to become of our country if the people elected to represent us don't?

They don't need spin doctors. They need truth doctors.

Suppose your sister or brother magically became a member of Congress tomorrow. What advice would you give them on how to stay in touch - REALLY in touch - with the people they represent? How would you tell them to stay in sync with their constituents' priorities?

No Newsprint on Your Fingers

Check out this trend: Nielsen/Net Ratings data says 21% of regular newspaper readers do most of their news reading online. The New York Times leads the online newspaper category with 11.3 unique users in May, followed by USA Today at 9.2 million.

A challenge AND an opportunity for newspaper publishers.

Liza's Back in Town...

...and she loves Curves. So do millions of women, and Curves no-frills workout spots are popping up everywhere. They're not hoity toity...they're not for the super buff (necessarily)...but they sure are popular.

Iconoculture accurately observes that, "There's a whole swath of consumers who'd rather invest in comfort and ease rather than status and station. And, in that world, familiarity and low-stress simplicity are a far more inviting welcome mat than power labels and ultra luxe price tags."

June 20, 2005

"Crash" Beats the Odds

We finally saw "Crash" on Saturday. David Denby called it "brazenly alive and heartbreaking," and it certainly is. And it's very much a "lean forward" movie....you are involved and your mind is working as the multiple plot lines intertwine and separate. This is all in sync with the stuff Steven Johnson tells us is popular today in "Everything Bad...."

Surprisingly for summertime when screens are flooded with Batman, Star Wars, etc., the theater was pretty full.

That's, in part, because of the gutsy and focused marketing strategy that was followed for "Crash."

Typically, small budget, specialty movies like "Crash" are released in the fall. They start out in LA and New York, garner good press and word of mouth and spread out to the rest of the country until springtime when hopefully they get Academy Award attention.

Lions Gate took a gutsier path for "Crash." They didn't want the movie to get lost in what they called the crowded field of "highbrow quasi-commercial pictures" in the fall. So, they released the movie nationwide in May, spent a relatively modest $20 million to market it, and focused on four distinct demographics that they have successfully won over: college students, upscale adult audiences, urban market, and women.

As a result, "Crash" has probably grossed about $50 million already, which is a big success.

Interestingly, "Cinderella Man" opened in 2,820 theaters (vs. 1,864 for "Crash"), and has grossed just over $40 million...AND it cost $88 million to produce. Maybe they should have tried to be as gutsy as "Crash" with THEIR marketing.

Raising Money on the Net

Non-profits are increasingly turning to the web to raise money. How's it going? VERY well.

U.S. online donations in 2004 hit more than $3 billion, up 58% from $1.9 billion in 2003.

On average, online givers donate in total (both online and offline) more than 50% more than those donors who do not give online.

Development is marketing. And isn't it interesting how often non-profits keep development and marketing in their separate silos. Similarly, multi-unit retail operations often keep their real estate and marketing operations in separate silos, and that doesn't make any sense either!

Mac Envy - Part II

Bob LaBarge reminds me how successful Mac OS X is. Apple expected to deliver more than 2 million copies of Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" by the end of last week, making Tiger Apple's fastest selling OS release ever. Great design, packaging, and marketing have a lot to do with it.

June 17, 2005

Dammit, Nikki, I'm gonna retract the offer to have Jay help you set up your blog if you start writing good stuff there and abandon your extra fine comments here! Talk about links...I want a link to your mind.

Mac Envy

More on design. I'm looking at an ad for Mac OS X Tiger this morning in The New Yorker. The left-hand page is just this fabulously delicious "X" and the right-hand page is just six testimonials, starting with "It leaves Windows XP in the dust."

Have you been to an Apple Store? It's one of the coolest retail environments ever. Products there for you to play with, friendly people to help you, a demo session going on upstairs, along with the Genius Bar, where you can get help without feeling like a dope. All designed...well, perfectly.

These guys NAIL design. And, boy, does it make you want to buy.

We need to stay on PC in the business side of our office. But every time I see a Mac ad, I want to convert. They know what it means to live a brand.

The recent issue of Fast Company focuses on design. A. G. Lafley, Proctor & Gamble's CEO says that design, not simply price or technology, should be P&G's key differentiator.

Says Lafley, "We have to create a great experience every time you touch the brand, and the design is a really big part of creating the experience and the emotion....I want P&G to become the number-one consumer-design company in the world."

Right on!

Education Affects Media Habits

We already know that women - on average - are better educated than men (and they do better in school and have higher test scores). And the gap is widening.

It's interesting to note how education has a significant impact on women's lifestyles, media habits, income and buying power.

According to a new report by The Media Audit...

- 56.3% of all those who listen to country radio are women, but only 26.6% of those that do have a college degree;

- on the other hand, just 18% of all women listen to sports radio, but 51.9% of those that do have a college education;

- more than 58.2% of college educated women have household incomes of $50,000 or more compared to 39.8% of all women. (Well, that's no big surprise.)

Bottom line, of course, is that it's crazy to consider any demographic (especially gender) in any kind of monolithic way. And, marketers to women better smarten up, not dummy down.

June 15, 2005

The New Numbers on Hispanics

I mentioned last week that new numbers show that one of every seven people in the U.S. is Hispanic. This really does have significant consequences for marketers.

Hispanic buying power is growing an an annual compound rate of 8.2%, and that's almost double the non-Hispanic buying power growth rate of 4.9%.

Hispanics are younger than average Americans, they have larger families, they have more full-time employment, and they spend more...especially in certain categories, such as telephone services and groceries.

Keys to marketing to Hispanics include communicating with them in their own language, using images (and colors and designs) that are reflective of their cultures, and understanding their media habits.

For example, Hispanics listen to much more radio than average Americans. (From 1998-2003, the number of Spanish language radio stations in this country increased from 302 to 598.)

It may come as a surprise to some who think of Hispanics as relying only upon traditional media to know that 14 million Hispanics in the U.S. are online, and half of those not yet online expect to connect within the next two years!

We're already seeing big success stories of companies that have marketed effectively to Hispanics. For instance, Nextel - a company that had not previously targeted Hispanic consumers - did so...and one year later, one in three of all of its new customers were Hispanic.

Making it Easier for Boomers to Get Along

I just got a new CD. (Martha Argerich, a great - and quirky - pianist who sometimes appears on stage and plays something entirely different than what's listed on the program...very cool) Anyway, it took me longer than usual to open it, especially to get that horrible strip of rotten plastic that is always stuck across the edge.

I was reminded of a recent piece in Iconoculture about how important it is for companies now to design for aging boomers.

That is, products need to accommodate the fact that aging boomers open things and apply things with generally more difficulty. Just part of the glorious process of aging.

I've always considered it sadistic that certain medicines taken by people with arthritis are almost impossible to open even for those of us who are healthy.

Good, functional design is obviously as vital to successful marketing as anything else.

June 14, 2005

On Buying American

You're right, Nikki, Buying American is pretty much of a bogus idea these days...and has been for some time.

After all, the world IS flat.

For example, if you buy a BMW, are you NOT buying American? Three BMW models are made exclusively here in South Carolina. That's lots of American jobs. And so is the import and export of BMW's. Ten years ago 25,000 BMW's were annually imported and exported through the Port of Charleston. This year, that number will probably top 160,000.

An Important Anniversary in the History of Computers

Now they are part of our lives. We take them for granted. They have changed our world. And, BOY have they changed marketing and communications!!

But it wasn't so long ago - just 54 years ago today - that the first computer was dedicated: the UNIVAC 1. It used 5,200 vacuum tubes and weighed 29,000 pounds. I think it cost about $250,000. CBS bought the fifth one (the Census Bureau bought the first one), and they used it to accurately predict the 1952 presidential election, using a sample of just 1% of the votes. This was revolutionary.

Twenty years later, microchips changed everything. And look what's happened since then!

Another Case for Integrated Marketing Services

We're proud of the seamlessness of our services. Sitting in a client meeting yesterday, I was struck by how inter-related each of our disciplines is. There were media people talking about promotions, public relations people talking about interactive ideas, account people talking about media targeting, etc.

Today's 4-A's briefing notes that MediaPost says PR firms tend to be on the cutting edge of understanding the impact of blogs and other 'personalized media.' The inference is that ad agencies lag behind.

Well, that's all the more reason to be neither one nor the other. That is, you will inevitably find that different people from different disciplines will have different levels of expertise on different issues. All the more reason to blend them together so that clients get the best thinking.

The Fun Never Stops

You gotta hand it to Mike Veeck. He has put the fun and excitement into minor league baseball. We went to one of his games tonight, and it's nonstop fun. There's always something going on...no dead air, ever...and everyone - everyone! - in the park has a smile on their face. I've never seen so many happy faces.

Pick a lane, focus on it, make it come alive, make everything reinforce it, take chances, and have great fun along the way. Veeck and his book "Fun is Good" are full of marketing wisdom.

June 13, 2005

Wal-Mart Comments

Thanks for comments on Wal-Mart. I loved the question of the Waltons, and it reminded me of a poem Kurt Vonnegut wrote in The New Yorker. He and Joseph Heller were at a billionaire's very fancy party in the Hamptons, and Vonnegut said, "Joe, how does it feel to know that our host probably made more money yesterday than 'Catch-22' made since it was published?" And Heller said, "It's fine, because I've got something he doesn't have." "What's that?" "The knowledge that I have enough."

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

So, Nikki is referencing Jon Stewart in The Times, but what about the baby boomer women who are sick of driving SUV's and shuttling children forever so they go out and buy high-end Mercedes cars just for themselves. "Let's go shopping," says one to her friend. "Let's really go shopping."

Nikki, you're the expert on women. What do you make of that?

I'll tell you what I think:

First of all, what a shame that they've led their lives with so much pent-up resentment. Second of all, isn't it just a little sad that the way they please themselves is to please themselves? Third, here's just another reason why marketing to women is such an important skill set. And, fourth, they don't even want to Buy American!

Indeed, The Times also noted that whereas GM had 46% of the American auto market in the '50's, now GM sells just 27%.

Good Idea about the Good Book

My friend the filmmaker George Ratliff has a smart idea for the Democrats. He says that as long as the political dialogue in this country is centered around the Bible, the Democrats should co-opt two of the central issues the Bible addresses: the sick and the poor. These are Democratic issues, says George. The Republicans wrap their views on abortion and homosexuality on non-existent Biblical references. What the Bible DOES repeatedly talk about is the need to help the sick and the poor; and that is exactly what the Democratic Platform addresses.

Well, that's a marketing idea. And a good one, too.

What has been pathetic about the Democrats is that they too often play defense. John Kerry spent the last half of the campaign playing defense. At least Howard Dean isn't afraid to play offense. It drives the Republicans bonkers. And it could change the dynamic.

Games on the Internet

I'm really obsessed about gaming now, having devoured "Everything Bad is Good for You." so I was just delighted today when Kathe Downs came up with an incredibly clever game idea for one of our clients that is targeting families. There are so many exciting ways to make the Internet a compelling marketing tool. "Everything Bad..." talks about how games and the Internet and today's high-energy TV shows (like '24' and 'The Sopranos') are lean-in media that engage the participant. Marketing messages need to fit that context to resonate powerfully today.

June 8, 2005

Way to go, Claire! I posted around 3am the other day, and you e-mailed me around 5am. You are the Queen Spider!

Dial-up sucks. I was confined to dial-up last night and just as I completed my posting, the whole thing crashed. Earlier - also confined to dial-up - I was opening e-mail attachments at a speed that made watching paint dry seem like watching "24." How do dial-uppers stand it? Are they medicated??

Thanks, But No Thanks

GM has been running ads offering the rest of us the great deals it gives its employees. The idea was lame enough from Day One. But then when GM has just laid off (read "fired") 25,000 workers, one has to wonder, "Why do I want to get the deal those folks got!" Either way, it's a sad campaign and a sad state of affairs from the company that used to be the bellweather of America's business climate.

No, Jay, it's Not a Conspiracy

Today's bellweather may be Wal-Mart. And I would argue that the $2 million a day they spend on advertising is largely as poorly conceived as what GM is doing.

Wal-Mart bashing is not a viral conspiracy as Super Spy Jay may imagine. It's just that the company's practices - particularly with respect to how it treats its employees - are so ripe for attack. That's why documentary film maker Robert Greenwald is working on "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," and it's why Frontline ran a major program on the company last year and the Los Angeles Times won a Pulitzer for its expose of Wal-Mart practices.

Wal-Mart is trying to change its image by advertising. That's a shallow solution.

If the company wants to change its image, it should change the practices that are creating its image.

Selling Time, Not Space

When you're watching a baseball game, ever notice how the ad behind the batter changes from inning to inning? Of course, it's all done electronically. And now that digital technology is being applied to outdoor advertising. So, a billboard advertiser can change their message throughout the day. All part of the continuing fragmentation and customization of media. Very cool.

Demo of the Day

Now one in seven people in the US is Hispanic.

June 7, 2005

Turning the Tables

Ever notice how we have a tendency to put down what's new? "The shock of the new," Robert Hughes used to call it, I think.

It might be art, or music, or TV shows, or how kids spend their time.

Smart marketers need to embrace what's new, try to understand it, see the patterns between it and what has come before AND what may lie ahead.

And, in today's conservative world, that can be a challenging mind set.

Take games, for example. Kids - and adults - spend an inordinate amount of time with video games. And that has lots of legislators all worked up, worrying that the youth of America is being corrupted by violent video games...wasting time that could be better spent.

Well, maybe not.

I'm really enjoying Steven Johnson's "Everything Bad is Good for You," a book with the subtitle "How today's popular culture is actually making us smarter."

Johnson makes a compelling argument for how video games strengthen decision-making skills.

As he says, "Novels may activate our imagination, and music may conjure up powerful emotions, but games force you to decide, to choose, to prioritize. All the intellectual benefits of gaming derive from this fundamental virtue, because learning how to think is ultimately about learning to make the right decisions...No other pop cultural form directly engages the brain's decision-making apparatus in the same way."

Johnson gets right into the way the brain works...something that I've read lots about recently, and it's so fascinating to see the science behind how consumers make decisions.

It turns out that video games can be great mind trainers, as can today's much more multi-faceted TV shows like "24" that maintain multiple plot lines and a fast pace that not only engages but challenges the mind.

That's the environment out there. And our marketing messages need to understand and resonate within that environment.

And, going back to conservatism, will someone explain to me this logic: It's OK to have medical morphine, but not medical marijuana. How come?

Is Anyone Else Sick of Wal-Mart's Self-Congratulatory Ads?

Who do they think they're kidding with those happy-face employees telling us how great Wal-Mart is, while they're earning much less than Costco workers and being deprived of standard benefits? And what the heck has Wal-Mart ever done to give back to this community in any way that is commensurate with what this community pays in to Wal-Mart?

Bruce mentioned the other day that Wal-Mart is the place everyone says they hate but they go there anyway (presumably because of the prices). Perhaps that's true today. But I think that the disconnect between what Wal-Mart says and what Wal-Mart does is too great not to have very serious consequences.

Something's gotta change.

June 2, 2005

This is so exciting...Conley gets married the day after tomorrow!!

Art Watch

The entire Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago is dedicated to a new exhibition entitled "Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist's Eye."

According to the Museum, the exhibit "aims to engage viewers on many levels and heightens their awareness of what it means to be a tourist. While traveling, our mind-set changes, our senses are heightened, and passions for new experiences are aroused. We seek the extraordinary, an escape from our daily routine. As the tourist experience can alter our perception of the world and ourselves, looking at art can have this same profound effect."

Seeing the exhibition, I discovered much that was relevant to our business.

First of all, many of the most engaging images of a place are images of the unexpected. They are images or perspectives that many of us would overlook...and that's what catches our eye...seeing anew. (I remember that Cezanne said that he didn't paint what he saw, he painted what what he saw seemed to be to him.)

How often in our marketing communications are we choosing images that only show what we're communicating, rather than images that show how our customer might experience what we're communicating.

A second take-away for me related to a work by an Eastern European artist named Roman Ondak. He comes from a poor country that was part of the old Soviet Union. Although he has traveled extensively because of exhibitions of his work, his fellow countrymen are pretty much "home bound." Ondak decided to describe to various countrymen what he has seen in his travels. Then he asked them to make a work of art that represented his description.

These were not artists. They were regular folks, like you and me. So Ondak would describe - for example - the Roman Colisseum to someone and ask them to make a drawing or model of the Colisseum based upon his description.

His exhibition consisted of a large room in which he displayed many individual interpretations of many sights from around the world.

It was fascinating...because it showed how important the communications process is. If it fell down, then the monuments we all know (from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to the World Trade Center) would be egregiously misrepresented.

How clear are we, I wondered, as we communicate a strategy throughout our organization. Do we describe the strategy well enough in some kind of context? Are the individuals with whom we're communicating really picking up the true description and can they effectively communicate it to the others who must make the strategy a reality? And how do we best hone those skills??

Third, some of the exhibition was about the dislocation of travel. For example. an artist named Doug Aitken created a multi-screen video installation of people sleeping and waking in transitional spaces such as hotels and terminals. It was a vivid portrayal of the disorientation of travel and made me appreciate how important it is for our hospitality clients to identify even more ways of smoothing that transition from the familiar to the unfamiliar.

Finally, I was struck by a film piece by Matthew Buckingham in which a two-way mirror made the viewer feel you were actually in the Buckingham movie. I realized how powerful the piece was on the strength of its engaging the viewer's participation. And I thought how much more powerful our presentations, relationships, and day-to-day work can be when there is active participation among all concerned. Leave someone out and they become only passively involved. It's that simple.

June 1, 2005

OK, so it's really already June 2...but I didn't get to bloggin' last night because June was bustin' out all over.

Women in Charge

We all know that we live in a knowledge economy. Knowledge rules.

And we know that the number of women in college and graduate school now exceeds the number of men.

But women's thirst for knowledge doesn't end in their early 20's.

In fact, there has been a phenomenal increase in full- or part-time college enrollment by women 35 years or older. Thirty years ago - when Deep Throat had just finished doing his thing - that number was only around 500,000. Today it's upwards of 1.8 million.

These trends strengthen the importance of smart marketing to women.

How DO women do it all?

Andy Anderso, president of The Evening Post Publishing Company, perceptively talks about how "time starved" people are...and he wants his newspaper to be more responsive to that condition.

In its series on class in America, The New York Times profiled an upper-middle-class family in Alpharetta Georgia. Each morning the woman of the household prints out a color-coded schedule for the day, so she can be certain to get kids to and from soccer practice, ballet lessons, etc. A little photo of the schedule was - for me - daunting.

We marketers need to understand and appreciate how time-starved women are...how can we make the products or services we represent more responsive to their time pressures? If we're a car dealer, we should deliver loaner cars to them when their car needs servicing. If we're a local radio station, we should give them quick and helpful traffic tips throughout the day. Etc.

AND we should ask women what WE can do to help them...what single improvement in our product or service, in its delivery, or in its marketing would make them more predisposed to use it? If we ask them, they'll tell us.

CNN at 25

It's a big deal. Maybe that's my excuse for not blogging yesterday. I was watching CNN's greatest stories of its first 25 years. I remember when the network started and people watched as long as they could over a 24-hour cycle just to see how much "new" news there really was.

Now, a quarter of a century later, 24/7 news is everywhere. What's interesting to me is that the variety of stories isn't nearly as great as the variety of storytellers (channels).

Putting on the Ritz

We're at a Ritz hotel, something I haven't done in a while. I'd forgotten how extraordinarily cheerful Ritz employees are. It certainly brightens up your day. But it gets a little creepy when everyone concludes their transaction with you by saying "Is there anything else I can do for you?" First, it's a little robotic (as in Stepford Wives time)...and, second, I'm beginning to feel inadequate not having something else for them to do!

Customer service gurus must have a challenge getting people to convey a consistent attitude without resorting to communicating with precisely the same vocabulary.