FTC to Reebok - "The BUTT Stops Here."

Over the last year or so, a new phenomenon hit the fitness market - "toning" sneakers.  The products are designed to provide an "unstable" foundation while walking, which (supposedly) allows wearers to tone their hamstrings, calves, and butts, simply by walking around.  Forget the hours at the gym, just wear these shoes during your normal daily activity and viola! Instant results.  Claims so fabulous and enticing that the "toning" segment of the sneaker category reached $1.1 billion in 2010.

We all know, however, that things that sound too good to be true, are too good to be true.

Today the news is a buzz with a $25 million settlement Reebok has agreed to, after the FTC charged that it deceptively advertised its' toning shoes & apparel.  At issue are specific claims Reebok made that the users of the product would see "a 28% increase in strength and tone of the butt, and an 11% increase in the strength & tone of the hamstrings and calves."

Reebok is standing by its claims - stating that is has received "overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback" from users - and has simply agreed to the settlement to avoid a protracted legal battle.

Here's an EasyTone ad - what do you think?

Obviously, the FTC thinks the ad is deceptive and misleading.  This leads us to a bigger issue, as indicated by David Vladeck, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection:

[We're here] to remind advertisers big and small that they must have adequate proof for the claims they make in their ads...

End game for ALL advertisers - claims must be substantiated.  If you say it, you must be able to prove it.
 
What puzzles me most in this particular case, is why Reebok went here in the first place?  I can understand "sketchy" Sketchers introducing ShapeUps as a way to get into the "serious" fitness market, but come on, Reebok is a REAL FITNESS BRAND.  It has a lot of respect to lose by following the dollars of fad products.  Real athletes who spend real money on fitness equipment know that you have to work to get results.  EasyTones are just too easy.  While Reebok may have added revenues from the segment, they more than likely alienated core customers who are embarrassed and offended by this type of bogus product, and the bogus claims.

Halloween for Marketers – No Tricks, Just Treats…

The economy might seem scary these days, but apparently US consumers aren’t too scared – vowing to celebrate and spend more this Halloween than in the past.  Spending is projected to reach almost $7 billion.

While candy is still the biggest line item on revelers shopping lists, decorations and costumes aren’t far behind.

Good news!! But wait, Halloween is just one day of the year.  What happens to the economy the other 364 – does it turn back into a pumpkin at midnight like the carriage in Cinderella?

For some Halloween marketers – maybe.  They pack up the ghosts and goblins, and store them away for next year.  For others, who are true “occasions” marketers, absolutely not.  

Sure, candy is a natural fit for Halloween.  Most brands deck themselves out in “spooky” packaging to distinguish their everyday products from the “special occasion” products (which are essentially the same things!) to get us to buy more.

How about candy brands that have embraced the “occasions” marketing strategy and extended their product line to include holidays across the calendar?  Just Born, the maker of Peeps, comes to mind.

That's right - they moved from sweet Easter chicks & bunnies, to snow & gingerbread men for Christmas, to hearts for Valentine's day.  Not to be outdone, they scared up some halloween themes too:

Now all they need are stars & stripes for Fourth of July, and turkeys for Thanksgiving and they'd be all set!  

The end game is that "occasions" marketing can mean big business to brands, especially during hard times.  Addressing holidays through festive packaging and other promotions is a way to get in the game faster & on the cheap - without product development.  The seasonal boost in sales may be just what the brand needs to move out from the red and into the black.

Other brands, however, may find great ROI in product development and decide to get more involved with "occasional" products.  By creating products for different holidays, or seasons, brands can smooth production and distribution patterns that typically cause headaches for seasonal marketers.  

Just Born has figured a way to keep its production lines running all year long and as a result, has not only become a more efficient producer & distributor, but has also won the hearts and "sweet tooths" of millions of customers.  Now that is a sweet strategy.

Burberry - "Tweetwalking" the Talk of Social Media & Brand Experience

Going Viral.  Organic Conversations.  Facebook this, Twitter that...  I'm plum tuckered out just from listening to all the talk about social media and marketing.  While brands struggle to figure out how social media fits with their strategies and consumers, some are learning to walk the talk and deliver value added campaigns.  

Earlier this month – during Fashion week – Burberry broke new communication ground by creating a #tweetwalk conversation on Twitter where it shared each “look” in a tweet before it hit the runway.  Taking a lesson from Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs, who livestreamed their Spring runway shows via Facebook, Burberry also livestreamed its Fall show on its own website, in addition to Facebook creating an additional point of engagement with brand fans and customers. 

Other recent examples – like Coca Cola’s use of Facebook to extend and entrench it’s Happiness positioning – is indicative of a huge push to social media as a communication tool. 

Hold your horses…. This doesn’t mean that traditional media is dead.  In fact, a large portion of the global success of #tweetwalk can be attributed to regional “Twitter Takeovers,” in which editors of traditional media tweeted on behalf of the brand via accounts such as @burberry_turkey (the editor of Elle, Turkey), @burberry_russia (the editor of Vogue, Russia), and @burberry_korea (the editor of Elle, Korea).  Vogue & Elle (among other traditional media) recognize that they must move forward and work with new, digital formats - and brands like Burberry are taking advantage as they extend their influence across these platforms.   

Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s CCO (Chief Creative Officer) spoke with Mashable about the importance of a media mix to the brand's communication strategy:  

… the online experience Burberry has developed on its own behalf doesn’t detract from or diminish the role of traditional media, but provides another channel for consumers to experience the brand. “A brand is not just about product, it’s about experience as well, and experiences need to come from the center of a community,” he said. “I get excited about using all of those platforms to communicate to all of our different communities around the world about what we’re doing.”

In another Mashable interview, Dennis McEniry, President, Online, Estee Lauder Companies (often thought to be the owner of some of the most “digital forward” beauty brands) illuminated the old vs. new media debate:

Traditional is still important, but it’s becoming a different blend.

When you look at it across all our portfolio, TV and digital are the highest priorities. Television is becoming even more important for most of our brands than it has been in the past. And of course all of our brands are doing digital and doing a lot more with digital than in the past. 

Print is still a big priority with our largest brands like Estee Lauder and Clinique, but they’re changing the mix.

In the end – the brands that leverage social media the best (like Coca Cola, Burberry, and Estee Lauder mentioned here) are the ones that have moved past buzzwords like optimization, viral, and engagement towards INTEGRATION of communication media.  While today, the media may be new, the goal of the brand stays the same - to create a consistent voice that gains volume as it resonates across many (old & new) media platforms.

One doesn’t have to look past Coca Cola (a very old school brand that consistently steps up and leads the way in the digital new school) and what it has done with integrated “audiomarks” that form the backdrop in virtually every communication piece the brand produces.  Give this Vimeo clip a viewing and listen for the audiomark - this is an amazing example of how deeply embedded aspects of branding can be, both inside us as consumers, and in everything that is wrapped up in, and associated with a product.