October 29, 2006

Not Our Finest Hour

Every couple of years, the business of advertising takes a nose dive. Because it's the political season. So, in the name of who-knows-what, advertising is created that is irresponsible, inaccurate, misleading, not credible, and the subject of wide-spread and totally justified criticism.

While much attention has been given to the "Call me, Harold" spot against Harold Ford in Tennessee, I'd say the prize goes to the one that spends 30 seconds accusing an incumbent of making a phone sex call and charging it to his state's taxpayers. What, in fact, occurred was that a staffer of the office holder mis-dialed a number by one digit, got connected to the sex line, and hung up. The call lasted only a matter of seconds. Some sex!

My home telephone number is only one digit off from a local hospital. It is not uncommon for me to receive hospital calls. What happened to that staffer is totally understandable.

There is no there there.

But that didn't stop his opponent from making a spot that isn't just misleading, it's inaccurate and potentially incredibly damaging to the candidate.

Frankly, I don't understand why the media cannot require comprehensive substantiation for any claims made in political advertising...and, why the media cannot then choose not to accept advertising that it deems not adequately substantiated in fact.

Sure that would put more work on the media. But they could require advertising meet earlier deadlines in order to allow time for the research to be done. And, let us not forget, the media make a pile of money on political advertising.

Proper due diligence would diminish significantly the black eye our industry gets every two years. And, as we slowly recover from the bruises, along comes the next election cycle.

More importantly, proper due diligence would help voters get more accurate, responsible information so that they could make informed, intelligent decisions. After all, we're talking about the future of the country...the future of the world.

October 25, 2006

Being the Brand

Few brands have a more potent presence than Hermes. The look is distinctive; the design and packaging, impeccable. What began as a saddle maker in the 1830's has evolved to an almost-billion-dollar empire of fashion.

Like many high fashion companies, Hermes sells a perfume line. But, unlike virtually all others, they do so with their own in-house expert ("the nose," as the job title says) and they market the perfumes without any celebrity endorsements.

In Hermes's case, the nose is Jean-Claude Ellena. He recently described the company's non-celebrity marketing strategy by saying, "What we sell is a product line that is the result of a lived experience. You won't smell like Jennifer Lopez; you will be yourself. You might try other products, but you will always come back."

That "lived experience" notion resonates much more powerfully than the idea of smelling like the celebrity-du-jour. And, since Ellena joined Hermes in 2004, perfume sales have skyrocketed. It shows that helping people be themselves is a road to marketing success.

Design Matters...

For several years, the National Design Awards have been presented annually by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York. This year, they added a new competition - the People's Design Awards - in which anyone could nominate anything for consideration.

The website (which is slightly irritating because it requires yet another version of Flash just to get in) was visited by more than 80,000 people which shows there's real interest in how things look in our world. And people nominated a wonderful array of products - from those legibly designed prescription bottles at Target to iPods to public sculpture (notably the work of Anish Kapoor who created the deliciously reflective "bean" in Chicago's Millennium Park and recently installed a piece on Fifth Avenue at New York's Rockefeller Center.

The strong response to the competition shows how important design is to people's every day lives.

...And So Does Being Green

The New York Times had a great piece today about magazines and advertisers wanting to be more green. Some major publishers are seeking ways to be carbon neutral. And some advertisers are requesting that publishers release information on their paper and printing sources so that they can estimate the total carbon emissions of their advertising and then offset those emissions by planting trees.

Aveda apparently sends sustainability surveys to publications to help decide where to place its ads. The surveys include questions about greenhouse emissions.

So we're seeing a three-way effort here. The public is pushing for more environmental responsibility among publishers. The publishers themselves are pushing for it. And so are the advertisers. Very encouraging.

October 24, 2006

Normandy

A delay in posts has been caused by a trip to Normandy. It's a destination so rich in historical significance that it's almost overwhelming. Many aspects of the experience have great relevance to marketing and communications. I say that neither to diminish the significance of Normandy, nor to elevate the importance of our industry. It's only that parts of my experience there reminded me of the challenges of our work.

First, the physicality. We've all read about the invasion. We've all seen movies, (although some weren't really shot there...for example, with the exception of one scene that takes place in the American Cemetary, the entire movie of "Saving Private Ryan" was shot either on a sound stage or in Ireland).

Yet, regardless of what we've read and seen in movies, there is simply no substitute for being there...seeing the real thing. How true that always is. As marketers, we've always got to get the customer to try our product...to experience it, first hand.

Then, there's the boldness of the challenge. I think of this in terms of searching for solutions in the marketing challenges we face. Oh, certainly they pale against the extraordinary challenges the Allies faced. But don't the same rules apply?

For example, knowing that the Allies would need to get supplies and reinforcements after landing at Normandy, and recognizing that the turbulent seas would make this virtually impossible, Churchill conceived the idea of an artificial harbor...bringing a breakwater and docks piece by piece across the English Channel. Imagine the engineering challenge!

Churchill's communique to the appropriate officer was brilliantly succinct:

"Piers for Use on Beaches. They must float up and down with the tide. The anchor problem must be mastered. Let me have the best solution worked out. Don't argue the matter. The difficulties will argue for themselves."

Indeed. "Don't argue the matter. The difficulties will argue for themselves." Isn't that terrific advice when facing a knotty marketing challenge...how to differentiate a brand, how to break through the clutter, how to create a bond with your customers.

The British soldiers who landed at Arromanches (where that artificial harbor was created) had a simple motto: "Who dares, wins."

More good advice!

Plans for the invasion of Normandy were meticulous. But the weather (along with the extraordinary fortifications) disrupted them. Paratroopers landed way away from their targets. And some landing craft missed their marks by miles (notably the unit led by young Teddy Roosevelt). The opposition was absolutely awesome. The courage of the Allies is beyond imagining.

But it was more than courage. It was also ingenuity. Of course, these men were well trained. We tend to think of military training as learning to follow strict orders. I'm sure they learned all of that. But they also learned how to use their wits...how to improvise...how to reassemble often in ad hoc groups and creatively overcome the enemy. These are analogous challenges to those that we face in business. We want our associaties to be highly skilled and trained and disciplined. And, when plans get disrupted, we want them to be able to think for themselves and use their ingenuity. Blending creativity and discipline is a vital challenge in our line of work.

Finally, there was singleness of purpose. There was no equivocation. It wasn't a half-way initiative. It was carefully planned in service of a very specific goal, and everyone was very clear about that goal and passionately committed to it. How different that is from so many watered down efforts that try to accommodate a myriad of objectives, lacking focus...lacking adequate commitment of resources...lacking passion.

Beyond the awfulness of war, the deep craters, the permanent scars of destruction, the tens of thousands of silent graves...there is a powerful message of hope, a message of the possibilities of life when one is focused, daring, courageous, creative, and committed. "Today's sun," ends one poem chiseled along a wall, "dries yesterday's tears."

October 8, 2006

The Twinkie Defense

Crisis communications is an integral part of our business. Something bad happens, and your client calls and asks how to handle it.

Whenever speaking about this kind of situation, professionals inevitably cite the Tylenol case and say how brilliantly the company handled it be addressing it head on, taking the product off the shelves, committing to securing the product before it was back on the shelves, and then living up to that commitment. Pretty straight forward.

While everyone agrees with the wisdom of that scenario, surprisingly few follow it.

The most preposterous defense used to be "the Twinkie defense," the classic case in which a criminal claimed that eating too many Twinkies hopped him up so much that he was driven to commit criminal acts.

The 21st century equivalent is the alcohol dependency defense. Regardless of the misdeed, everyone's rushing to rehab...and saying with a straight face that the liquor made them do it.

Who's advising them? Who do they think they're kidding?

Psychologists were asked where the despicable words Mel Gibson spoke came from. One noted expert replied, "His mouth."

But would Gibson cop to the fact that he had some real issues around his attitudes toward Jews? Oh no...he just said he had a drinking problem and needed rehab.

Ditto with that rotten egg Thomas Foley. His lawyer states emphatically, "He is not a pedophile. He's an alcoholic." OK...let me get this straight....I thought an alcoholic was someone who drank too much, and a pedophile was someone who hit on kids. Not much question as to which Foley was/is. So why doesn't he admit it and get treatment for the true illness, instead of hiding behind the pathetically weak rehab defense?

Whenever we're faced with these situations, we always have the same three-word answer to our clients: tell the truth.

No matter how painful or even despicable the truth is, it sure beats the alternative. And, oh how refreshing it is for people to hear.

Also, speaking the truth permits the problem to be solved directly, rather than trying to solve everything but the problem. Congress is now re-examining the page system. They're spending our tax dollars to do that. This has nothing to do with the page system. It has to do with one sick puppy and the fools who swept his sickness under the rug. Those fools aren't pages. They're elected officials, many of whom are up for re-election next month.

October 1, 2006

The Vital Role of Design

Fast Company's annual design issue is always packed with great stories of individuals and companies that recognize the power of good design. This year's issue features an article describing the need to balance what the author calls "a value system premised on what's valid and one based on what's reliable."

A "reliable process" is one that is predictable and measurable. You identify what works, and you extrapolate it and/or replicate it.

Whereas a "valid process" - according to this author - "flows from designers' deep understanding of both user and context, and leads them to ideas they believe in but can't prove.

Any good company needs both...AND the leadership to recognize that need and have the ability to navigate through both value systems.

A good example is A.G. Lafley, the CEO of Proctor & Gamble. He loves numbers, but he is also persuaded by anecdotal customer research. And that has led to P&G introducing new products that could never have been produced by a purely "reliable process."

Theodore Levitt

One of our legendary professors at business school, Theodore Levitt, died this year. He leaves not only a legacy of legions of students whom he taught but also extensive writings on his chosen field, marketing.

The current issue of The Harvard Business Review includes exerpts from some of Levitt's articles.

Some of my favorite quotes (many of which were written as long as 45 years ago!):

"The relationship between a seller and a buyer seldom ends when a sale is made. Increasingly, the relationship intensifies after the sale and determines the buyer's choice the next time around.....It is not a matter of just getting and then holding on to customers. It is more a matter of giving the buyers what they want. Buyers want vendors who keep promises, who'll keep supplying and standing behind what they promised....During the era we are entering, the emphasis will be on systems contracts, and buyer-seller relationships will be characterized by continuous contacgt and evolving relationships to effect the systems. The 'sale' will not be just a system but a system over time. The value at stake will be be the advantages of that system over time."
...

"Services, delivery, reliability, responsiveness, and the quality of the human and organizational interactions between seller and buyer will be more important than the technology itself."
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"One of the surest signs of a bad or declining relationship is the absence of complaints from the customer. Nobody is ever that satisfied, especially not over an extendid period of time. The customer is either not being candid or not being contacted - probably both."
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"There is no such thing as a commodity. All goods and services are differentiable....On the commodities exchanges...what they 'sell' is the claimed distinction of their execution...In short, the offered product is differentiated, though the generic product is identical."
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