The Naked Blog

"If I Start To Smell, Please Tell Me To Take A Shower"

This is the business philosophy driving a number of companies these days. I filled up my car with gas yesterday and beside the pump, was a sign like the one over there on the right.  Huh? We're consumers. When did we become the V.P. of YOUR business operations? When did your job duty become our responsibility? In another case, my friend just got upgraded to a new 'black' Visa card 

(is Black the new Gold?) and was then informed that it was HIS responsibility to contact & inform all of those companies with whom he has a direct payment arrangement, and tell them that he has a new card number. One would think, with all that technology can do and has the promise to do, that this could, would and should be an automated process with NO inconvenience to the consumer in any way. In fact, in a world where competitive advantages are harder and harder to come by, why don't they market it as an benefit: Most card companies require you to do this yourself; we've done it for you. You're welcome.

Self Awareness

My latest volley is about self awareness. Where you are in the world. Your place and how it impacts others around you. We're not alone and no one ever gave us permission to keep the place to ourselves.

We've all seen it or been affected by it. People who stand together in a clump in the middle of a busy sidewalk, making everyone walk around them. The guy on the cell phone on a crowded bus carrying on a conversation, usually about nothing, just loud enough to disturb everyone within earshot.

The latest happened recently. I was at my local shopping centre, crazy busy with cars doing Christmas shopping, when I came upon a humongous black Hummer stopped & parked directly in front of the Starbucks, blocking a lane and a half of traffic. There was a parking lot not 15 feet away with plenty of available parking. Couldn't believe it. As I came out I stood and watched the Hummer to see who was in it. No one. Then out she came from the Starbucks and looked at me staring at her car/truck. She asked me if I was ok. "No. No I'm not," I replied. "Is something wrong with my car?" she asked. "Yes." I said. "It's parked here where everyone has to go around you and there's perfectly good spot just over there where you could have parked. I was just waiting here to see what a completely selfish, inconsiderate person looks like. Now I know." She just glared. I may have been wrong to speak out of course, very un-Canadian. C'est la vie.

What's this have to do with marketing you say? To understand consumers you need to walk in their shoes. All of them. Sometimes they fit a 'profile'. More often they don't; they are not like you and me. Or him over there. Everyone is unique. 4 billion in the world. 4 billion profiles. There is no such thing as a 'target group' anymore.

And another thing. To be good in this business you have to be self aware. You have to be inquisitive. You must be curious. You need to understand what makes people tick. The Hummer lady? Well, she was probably just 'struttin' her stuff' so to speak. Exercising her 'privilege' of driving a big, honkin' truck. If it was me, the big, honkin' truck is all the more reason to park it 'over there' rather than in the access lane. But that's her. And that's me. Understanding what makes each of us tick is what makes marketing so challenging sometimes.

Letters

In the Nov. 12 issue of Marketing Magazine, David Menzies wrote a story about Bauer/Nike and their role in hockey. We wrote a letter to Marketing about his column.

Bauer Hits The Showers Have to take issue with a few of David Menzies comments on what he said went wrong with Bauer/Nike. (Gotta be accurate here David; this is our national religion after all).

Firstly, the Cooper brand was long inactive when Nike bought Bauer. I worked on it at V&B in the 80's.

But if the pinnacle of the Cooper brand, in your words, was the '72 Canada Cup, then Nike may have been smart to focus their efforts on a brand that kids had at least heard of - Nike.

(David, I too remember that series and Cooper but I'm not sure we're the target anymore. Sucks doesn't it.)

Secondly, without Nike, Reebok would be nowhere in hockey. Reebok simply responded after Nike applied their marketing muscle and know how to hockey. (The Lindros TV spot 'Fresh Sheet' is a classic to anyone who loves the game - So good in fact that there's an ad agency named after it!!) And while Menzies says that signing Lindros and Federov as endorsers were mistakes (the former no, the latter yes) , did he forget about Iginla, Naslund, Fischer and the NHL's current leading goal scorer Ilya Kolvochuk?

And lastly, I wasn't sure about the blatancy of his unattributed statement '...hockey players seem more accepting of the stylized RBK logo on hockey equipment that the Nike Swoosh" so last night I did a poll in the dressing room of the 14 year old kids I coach. 13 out of 16 preferred Nike. My son thought I'd lost my mind even asking the question. Not scientific numbers I know but at least based in some fact.

Nike was innovative in hockey. Did they get it right every time? No. But they added energy and youthfulness to a category that needed it. And at least they tried.

Personalization

So I'm at work and i get this email that tells me that as a loyal customer I'm really appreciated and that to show my appreciation I can take part in a Customer Appreciation Event where I might win one of four grand prizes or one of 103,050 instant win prizes. Yes, 103,050. I took the challenge, clicked the boxes on the web site and alas, won nothing but 5 free music downloads which isn't even part of the 103,050 prizes. So basically, I'm a loser. Also, a retailer saying that on this one day you're really special means that on the other 364 days you're not special? If you're a smart retailer, every day is Customer Appreciation Day.

When I get home there's a nice envelope waiting for me from my favourite men's clothing store. Blazer in Oakville.
Inside is a hand written $100 dollar Gift Certificate simply saying thanks, we appreciate your business. No contest. No 103,050 other winners. Just a $100 gift. Hand scribed by the owner. Very personal and very smart. Which one do think will keep my business longer?

Oh, and incidentally, in the past year I spent more in two months with Rogers than the whole year with Blazer. (Sorry about that Randy...I'll be dropping by soon though!)

And to be clear, these Customer Appreciation Days are very different from major events that companies put on for their clients and customers like RIM did recently with Van Halen and The Hip at the ACC- those are very memorable ways to show your appreciation.)

How To Kill A Brand

May as well wade in on everybody's favourite poster child for mediocrity, The Toronto Maple Leafs. Just this week Forbes magazine ranked them the most valuable brand franchise in hockey, worth some $413 million. The parent company Maple leaf Sports and Entertainment is pegged at $1.5 billion in value.

That despite being currently mired near the bottom of the league in the standings, their players involved in media scandals and pending jail terms, winless at home, missing the playoffs for the past umpteen years, no Stanley Cup since 1967 and maybe worst of all, having an ownership group that is more interested in market valuation than in satisfying those who make up that valuation - the fans. Jim Leech, the guy who runs the Teachers Pension Fund who own 58% of the Leafs is quoted as saying that "It's a great brand that people love". Richard Peddie, the much maligned CEO of Maple leaf Sports and Entertainment said this about the value of the Leafs: "My fear," he says, "is that people will say, 'Sure you increased enterprise value, but you never won anything." Richard and Jim, here's a bulletin: people don't love the Leafs and your fear has become a reality. You are both allowing the value of this brand to be pissed away. And you're not doing anything substantive about it. Waiter, I'll have what they're smoking.

Tune into the sports radio shows, listen to the post game call ins, read the papers, talk to people coming out of the ACC. YOUR LOYAL CONSUMERS, THE ONES WHO HAVE BUILT YOUR MARKET VALUE, CAN'T STAND YOUR PRODUCT.

When a company is continually posting the kind of failures that the Leafs continue to post, there is a distinct need for change. Not change for change sake but real change. If car companies were run like this, heads would role (and they have, for much less). If packaged goods companies turned out product failures year after year wouldn't someone be held accountable? Would the CEO still have a job? Doubtful. The brand manger (the coach) would be gone as well. And the product (the players) would be tweaked and reformulated to provide something new to talk about and send an important message to your core consumers, your loyal brand advocates, that you take this seriously and are doing something about it.

By doing nothing, the Leafs are killing their brand.

UPDATE: Nov. 27th. Stick a fork in him. He's done. Still doesn't fix the problem however.

Jan. 22, 2008: He's 'officially' done but he's been a lame duck since December. Feel sorry for him. And Cliff Fletcher is back. Oh, that oughta fix things.

Is It The End of The World As We Know It ?

IBM has undertaken a huge study and proclaims that It's The End of Advertising As We Know It. People have been talking about this for years; now with a company like IBM making the Grand Statement, will more people pay attention? They say there will be more change in the next 5 years than in the previous 50. Is this such a bad thing? Is it time to try a new way of working? Is technology the great driver in all of this? Or is this like the futuristic flying cars that were predicted in the 60's?
I worry about all of these either/or proclamations- "Either there will be advertising or there will not". I think it should be an 'and' statement as in "There will be advertising, it will be less important and there will be other forms of communications." What do you think?

Value vs. Price

A lot of talk about the commoditization of our business and how it's getting tougher and tougher to be paid 'fairly' for what we do. As more procurement people move into positions of influence and power in client organizations, the inevitable occurs; lowest price wins.
It's obviously the wrong way to purchase 'ideas' (if you agree that we are, at least partly, in the idea business)
This probably has as much to do with differentiation and agencies being able to demonstrate a discernible difference in their offering vs. another agency as it does with the bottom line orientation of the procurement people on the client side of the business.

I've always loved this story about value from Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith:

"A man was suffering a persistent problem with his house. The floor squeaked. No matter what he tried, nothing worked. Finally he called a carpenter who friends said was a true craftsman.
The craftsman walked into the room and heard the squeak. He set down his tool box, pulled out a hammer and nail, and pounded the nail into the floor with three quick blows.
The squeak was gone forever. The carpenter pulled out an invoice slip, on which he wrote the total of $45. Above that were two line items:
Hammering, $2
Knowing where to hammer $43."

We've been doing this for a lot of years. We've been there. We know where the nail goes.

All Things To All People

One of the hardest questions to answer for a traditional ad agency is "What makes you different?". "It's our process", "It's our people", "Our ideas", "Our location".
They're all saying the same thing. And it's mostly forgettable.

Recently, we were asked to submit creds for a piece of business from a major Canadian retailer. "We have a big agency to handle the brand stuff, we need a smaller agency to handle some of the smaller brands for us." They want something different we were told. Something guerilla like. They need a company to bring them new media ideas. Not same old, same old we were advised. Perfect, we thought. That's us to a "T". Right in our sweet spot. So we forwarded them our creds.
We didn't make it.
"Not sure you have enough account people", "What about your French capability?" "Are you big enough to manage us"
WHAT THE HUH? Sound to us like they were looking for what they already had.
Better to find out now I guess. Sometimes what clients say they want isn't really what they want.

We are different. We're never going to be all things to all people. Nor do we want to be. And we're quite OK with that.