thawt of the day.
"Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand."
-David Ogilvy
And, this, stolen from the "big agency" advertising playbook...
The New "M-E" Generation
In my last article, I touched on how we, as advertisers, should be
working harder to embrace consumer self targeting. They do it already.
Hell, you do it already. The simple act of searching for something on
Google or Amazon is a form of self targeting, even if in minimalist
terms. But, what about when they go to Amazon and read the hundreds of
thousands of product reviews already uploaded to the site. No amount of
advertising can combat a slew of poor reviews.
So how does this all work, anyway?
I'm an enormous music fan. I spend way too much of my time searching for new music to listen to and write about. Even so, the days of sifting through the album racks at my local CD store are long gone for me, now existing in some state of nostalgia in the back of my brain.
And while I'm constantly looking for new music, I'm hardly ever swayed by any amount of advertising for it. In fact, my general music snobbiness precludes me from buying anything in that fashion. Now, I spend some of my time on trusted sites like...
Continue reading Paul's super-awesome fantastic Mad Ave. Journal article....
User Controlled Advertising...
...or what Jaffe would call Consumer Controlled Advertising.
Apparently, Matt Dickman of Techno/Marketer and I are on the same page. While consumers now get to customize almost every aspect of their internet journey (including blocking out the ads), why the hell are we running so far behind?
And, so speaks Matt...
"While the focus has been placed on the ads themselves, we're missing an opportunity to really engage users and create more loyal customers through User Controlled Advertising (UCA). I pitched this back in 2005 and the world wasn't ready for it, but now seems like the right time to put it out there again. UCA would allow publishers or advertising networks to serve up ads (created by ad professionals) to users and allow those users to decide what they want to see."
And, he couldn't be more right. Unfortunately, large publishers are generally slow to change, because to them, waste = bucks. Simple as that.
Fortunately, there's been some recent movement in this regard, as Bebo and Conde Nast's Flip offer their users some level of control over the ads they see.
It all just sounds like a no-brainer to me. But, then again, these things seem to take awhile before the deep pockets brigade catches up.
Consumers Raise Their Mobile Hands, Part 1
I've seen various companies recently making inroads into cell phone advertising. Then I saw something with my own eyes on my Verizon cell phone. All I could do was shake my head and chuckle at the ridiculous mini banner ad staring back at me above my weather forecast.
Does Verizon Care About Us?
I love the way we approach each new marketing medium, through the filter of all the other marketing programs we've done. We approached television as we did radio, and the internet as we did television.
It makes sense. It's what we know, and we're busy people. Better to do what we know, even if we're in a totally different environment, right? It makes us feel just a little cozier, more comfortable, and less naked in raw surroundings. It's difficult enough to do what we know in the environment to which we're accustomed, nowadays.
But it doesn't make it right.
People hate advertising. They loathe it, and glow with disdain for our profession. The call us shysters and swindlers, and portray us as liars and cold-hearted thieves. Then they pull out the classifieds, sift through Sunday inserts looking for the best priced pizza, and tend to be more glued to the Super Bowl during the commercial breaks.
continue reading Paul's totally super Madison Avenue Journal article.
Sales Genie Owes Me A Fat Check, or a Phat Check at Least.
Well, it only took a few days for us to push the Sales Genie into action. At least that's the way I like to see it. I will have to give it to the folks over at InfoUSA (the parent of the genie) for quickly fixing their firefox problem as well as for paying attention to the blogosphere. I've been seeing some regular visits from their offices in Omaha, so you know, kudos and all that. Listening is step 1.
I'll be waiting for my fat consultancy check...
It should also be noted (as Phil points out) that the piece of shit ad actually worked. They needed 700 new subscribers to break even, and so far they've gotten 10,000. It's a sad day for our profession. I guess they come from the train wreck school of advertising. I hear Cartoon Network is also an alumni.
In a related note, Matt pointed out in the comments that Walmart had a similar firefox problem.
Luckily they fixed it, too.
Well, sort of.
The Bigger Sales Genie Blunder
2.6 million dollars buys you this terrible waste of time...
But to make matters worse, you assume I use Internet Explorer and go here,
But instead I use firefox, and go here.
Sales Genie, you guys need help. Bad. It's time to give up the in-house pipe dream, and let the professionals get to work. At no point should you have been embarrased so badly by that ill-fated Super Bowl ad, and doubly shamed by ignoring the 70-80 million of us using firefox. For a company started with 100 bucks, you should be spending your money more wisely. Call my cell phone at 214-893-4622, and let's get you guys back on the right track.
Say Fuck You and Mean It
At we point do we stop trying new things?
I got really big into exclamation points. Then, when I swore them off last week, the ellipses became my go to punctuation mark. But, that's okay, that sort of grammatical exuberance will be gone some day, too. Just like baggy jeans, trucker hats, wristbands and MTV. But when does it stop? How do I know when I've just clicked in, and that's it?
I guess I can be happy that my moment of "clicking in" didn't come in the 80's.
Or, maybe it's another small example of how damaging it can be to be comfortable. Obviously, in regards to punctuation, who really gives a shit, right? But, for those of us still sporting plaid polos, waiting for the styles to recycle, we can lose our ability to be truly inspired, stupidly excited or inclined to freely take a step off a cliff without question.
I guess for me, my fear isn't that of age, but moreso boredom. It doesn't take more than a stroll down any grocery store aisle to see the masses of our bregudgingly content, comfortable and bored as hell brethren, out of touch and overwhelmed with the prospect of change.
Maybe it's just boredom that killed marketing. All the innovators didn't get too old, instead they just "clicked in," oblivious to the tedium slowly taking over like a pot of water brought to a boil.
Fucking shoot me if I get so content with vanilla.
The Autograph Only Your Mother Could Want
I had lunch with my lovely mother the other day, and she made an analogy that would pretty much some up my day today. We were discussing the tendency for people to focus on what's just a couple feet in front of them instead of having the foresight to look down the road. She compared the mentality to that of her childhood when she spent hours signing her name over and over again on a sheet of paper, pretending to be some famous actress or singer.
I guess the point is that sometimes we get so caught up in the parts of our dreams that seem manageable and easy, rather than focusing on getting better at the things that actually bring those dreams closer to reality.
Today sort of sucked, but at least I've got one smart momma that can put drudgery into an interesting context.
(and that's my nephew Brent, my mom, and me in much fatter days)
The Kohl's Employee Response: A Blog for a Blog
My jaw just literally hit the floor when I read the last comment on the Hurricane Kohl's post:
"Sure, Kohl's made a statement response to the blog, but we as employees felt it was necessary to step in as well."
Of course, it was followed by a link to the new Dallas Kohl's Employee blog, created solely to respond to the photos posted on this blog a few days after last Christmas. This story has been the gift that keeps on giving, and this post gives us a pretty good peek behind the Kohl's curtain. This employee cites the following problems:
"1. Store Management
2. Lack of staff
3. Customer demographic"
Sounds pretty much as we suspected, but he/she goes on...
"Yep, those photos look pretty accurate to me! On the morning of January 18, 2007, the regional manager came into the store and boy was she pissed! I wasn't there to see her, but the instructions she left for management was to have every department, recovery and freight employee in the store in the Men's department cleaning."
It's interesting to me that it took that long for action to happen. The message on my voice mail from the VP of PR was left on Monday, January 8th, and only 10 days later did someone actually go and clean the place up.
Obviously, the employee echoed many of the comments left on the original two Kohl's posts about how this was not only a reflection on Kohl's, but also the customers trashing the store.
"Your average Kohl's customer shops the store with Wal-Mart money and expects Barney's service. They take several pieces of clothing into the dressing rooms, try them all on and then leave them there. Okay, this happens. But then you all expect us, the employees, to clean it all up because "that's your job," you say. Right? Well, as long as we're having to go behind each and every PIG that shops, we aren't able to assist you on the sales floor, aren't able to get more product onto the floor (replenishment), and we aren't able to keep the sales floor in pristine condition."
Although, having waited tables and bartended throughout college, I understand that some customers are just a pain in the ass, that doesn't excuse the store for not staffing to a high enough level to mask these problem customers.
"Now with that said, there's the management team. Oh boy. In a nutshell, they're pretty much good for nothing. They leave everything up to the department supervisors and part-time associates while they sit in the office eating donuts and taking lunch breaks. They are so concerned with their vacation time and what they're doing over the weekend, that we're left to figure things out on our own."
Again, many commenters caught on to the issue that it's probably as much of a local management issue as anything else. I don't think anybody will be too surprised there.
Sounds just about like we suspected all along. My only hope is that if Kohl's does find out who this employee is, they don't reprimand, but promote. It sounds like they have a better idea of what the problems are than the management or corporate leadership. Either way, it's a clear indication of the changing world we live in.
Check out the rest of the post here. It's full of great stuff...