The Next Wave will host our second Blogosopher seminar Friday November 18, 2005.
Information about the course is on www.blogosopher.com
Register now for maximum savings- and to reserve your seat.
This course will teach you how to use a blog to maximize the number of hits to your website- and to build relationships with your clients.
The first class was well received- the next one will be vastly improved thanks to class feedback- and a reorganization of the material.
November 14, 2005 issue- Business Week, with IKEA on the cover- in the letters to the editor:
“Soon, TV advertisers will be thanking Steve Jobs”
It’s not movies Apple Computer Inc.’s (AAPL ) iTunes Store will revolutionize — it’s TV and the ad industry that fuels it (“Hollywood holds its breath,” News: Analysis & Commentary, Oct. 24). Now you can buy last night’s Lost for $1.99. Next you’ll be able to get it for less in exchange for watching and interacting with targeted ads. The return-on-investment model Google Inc. (GOOG ) has championed, combined with the customer profiles of an Amazon.com Inc., (AMZN ) will let advertisers buy the exact eyeballs they want, with a feedback mechanism. Bandwidth and digital- rights issues will be solved as the $46 billion TV ad industry realizes that this is the future. Hollywood may be the last on this bandwagon, but there’s no question that once again, Steve Jobs is leading it.
David Esrati,
Chief Creative Officer
The Next Wave
Dayton
This is the second time I’ve had a letter published in Business Week. The first one was on “mass markets“
The Next Wave will host our first Blogosopher seminar Friday November 4, 2005.
Information about the course is on www.blogosopher.com
Register now for maximum savings- and to reserve your seat.
This course will teach you how to use a blog to maximize the number of hits to your website- and to build relationships with your clients.
The ads are running in prime time shows, they have people in suits standing around a car, talking about “Buick’s total value promise” – here is the transcription:
“Introducing the total value promise, from the award winning quality of Buick. I promise to stand behind your Buick, with our 4 year, 50,000 mile new vehicle warranty, and the serenity of a quiet tuned interior, I promise you the security of On-Star, Our 2006 LaCrosse has standard side curtain air bags, and V-6 power with an estimated 30 miles per gallon highway, the LaCrosse CX is under 22,600 after all applicable offers, see your Buick dealer – today.
Now of course, it has the car ad production feel- with a different talented actor for each line, and you see beauty shots of the car, but- is it talking about your new car- or theirs?
One of my favorite quotes in advertising comes to mind here:
“When people talk to themselves, it’s called insanity. When companies talk to themselves it’s called marketing.”
~Steve Bautista
Buick spent over $300,000 to produce this ad, and probably just as much to run it in ER- and it’s Buick - talking about what they think Buick is. How many people do you know will respond with “award winning quality” when you ask them what they think about Buick? Zero- and that’s probably even including Buick owners.
If there is a brand that absolutely has no persona, no cha-ching, no reason for being in the automotive category, it’s Buick- and its ads like this that get it there.
If there wasn’t a dealer pipeline to fill, and plants to run, Buick could go away tomorrow, and no one would miss them. A brand that hasn’t been relevant in a lifetime- except to old folks who still are reminiscing about a car company that hasn’t built a memorable car since, well, way back when.
Now GM is promising a “Total Value Promise” which means absolutely nothing- and bragging about a 50,000 mile/ 4 year warranty- has anyone looked at Hyundai lately (America’s Best warranty)? If you have such quality- go for the gusto and promise something more than a “quiet tuned interior.” To see the difference between an ad that means something and this drivel- see the post below about another GM division- one that gets it. This brand is dead.
For comparison- try to catch the ads for the New Passat from VW- talking about all the new features- demonstrating them to the customer- showcasing the little things that people fall in love with with a car- like hooks for hanging grocery bags in the trunk- all to a delightful diddy- “Thank you very much”- an ad that you want to watch again- and sing over and over in your head. When you visit the site- there is a mini-site that has some humorous little films like showing an elephant drop a log on command- which of course demonstrates a remote “trunk release.” Which do you think will sell more cars?
What do you think?
You can read about Buick’s follow up folly on Mark Silveira’s Ordinary Advertising blog
My father bought one of the first Saturns. Four doors, A/C, 5 speed manual, FM radio- no haggle cheap transportation. He still has his plastic car and it runs like a champ. When Hal Riney and Partners started with that “A different kind of car, a different kind of car company” people just thought it was another tagline.
Well all these years later, I read a story my dad sent me from Business Week and get this- they really are a different kind of car company:
Recently, a man called Saturn’s customer-service number with a big problem: His daughter’s car had broken down in Arizona, and she was stranded. He reported her location, her license plate number — and the fact that her car was a Honda (HMC).
DIRECT ACTION. When the Saturn representative pointed this out to the upset father, he said “You’re the company that cares about people, and that’s why I called you.” What would your company do? Saturn sent out a truck to pick her up, towed her Honda, and let her father know that she was safe.
Think about it: competitive brand, no warranty card, absolutely no reason to help. Except that there’s no substitute for this kind of concrete action when it comes to creating a brand with real meaning.
How many times do you not go back to a restaurant because of one bad experience? Or not shop at a store again because someone was rude to you? It’s always been said that do something wrong and someone tells 10 people, do it right, and they may tell 1, or possibly none.
Sure, Saturn may take this story and turn it into one of those warm and fuzzy commercials (or they may not- since they can’t afford to tow every car that breaks down) but it comes back to no matter what your ads say- your company has to over deliver.
Bad ads may kill a company slowly, but great ones will kill a bad company faster. All business is one-to-one, even in the days of the Internet- your user experience governs how likely you are to do business with that company again.
The BW story continues:
It’s the sum total of all your actions. Yes, positioning messages and advertising imagery play a supporting role in developing your brand identity, but what really matters is what you do and how that makes people feel.
And everything matters. If you want to make a great brand, you need to pay attention to all the ways it gets expressed in the world. How is the user manual written? How does the off/on switch sound? How do you hire people? How does the receptionist answer the phone? All of these things are as important as expressions of your brand as an ad campaign.
So when building your brand story, don’t forget to teach your employees how to live it as well.
What do you think?
I wrote about this back on 4/3/2005, Cable system DVR’s are not the future, and yesterday Apple released new iPods that can play video. Immediate reaction of people- who wants to watch TV on a little iPod screen- that’s right up there with the IBM chairman Thomas Watson Sr. estimating the global market for computers at ‘about five or six’ in 1946.
The big deal isn’t seeing video on the iPod- it’s that you can now buy last night’s episode of Lost for $1.99. I’m not sure if that’s with or without commercials, but, soon, imagine it’s $1.99 without commercials- or free (or cheaper) if you download and ACTUALLY watch commercials that are targeted to you.
That is the future- and it just came to you via Apple computer.
Currently the video is not high resolution to play on your TV- but, that will change as codec’s improve. TiVo may just be seeing the end of their business model, or it may be the beginning, if they figure out a way to sell programs direct too.
A message to the “Broadcast” industry- your days are numbered. To the producers of quality content, you may be seeing a bigger piece of the pie coming your way. How many people will skip paying HBO and buy the Soprano’s direct? A season subscription for $50- I’d buy it.
What do you think?