The Plight of the Immigrant – Fiat Gets Lost Coming to America…

BrandChannel recently published an article on Fiat’s new positioning strategy and advertising campaign.  It seems like the complexities of the automobile industry have given the marketer a bit of an identity crisis – it can’t seem to decide whether it is “imported from Detroit” or from Italy.

Back in the day when Chrysler was on the verge of bankruptcy – in 2009 to be exact – Italian car maker Fiat, along with the U.S. government stepped in to take ownership and save the day.  It was under Fiat’s watch that Chrysler launched its “Imported from Detroit” campaign, in grand fashion at the 2011 Super Bowl.

Today, Fiat is once again appealing to the “roots” of its cars.  This time the Italian roots of its flagship Fiat brand.

What Fiat is banking on – whether through its Chrysler division or flagship brand – is that the old school theory of the “country of origin effect” (COE) still resonates in the new school automobile market of 2012.  Back in the day – especially the 1970’s and 1980’s – brands could play on our national pride and encourage us to “Buy American” when Japanese carmakers started to make serious inroads in our domestic market.  The economy was good.  The patriotic appeal worked.

2012 is a whole new animal.  The economy is slumping – longer and harder than any economist expected.  The number of unemployed remains shockingly high, and new jobs are being created, but at a snail’s pace.  Given this reality – does country of origin even matter anymore?  Given that American manufacturers GM & Ford topped the list for market share of cars and light trucks in America in 2011, it is hard to tell.  Japanese car maker Toyota ranked 3^rd. 

Still, is buying dependent on the nationality of the brand, or some other factor that provides value on a more personal level? 

While nationality is something that is intangible and subjective, Fiat has a very compelling point of difference – that of size – which can be leveraged in the market place.  I don’t understand why the brand isn’t capitalizing on this.   Plunkett’s Industry Research confirms that car buyers are looking for smaller, more fuel efficient cars that save them money at the gas pump.  Add to that benefits of eco-friendly (less gas, less emission) and greater “park-ability,” and Fiat would have something far more concrete and valuable upon which to hitch its star.

Granted, the new spot is playful, and fun to watch.  But are American's really looking for a car that has "come to party?"  

The old joke, which questioned the quality of Fiat, was that the brand name was actually an acronym – FIAT – standing for “Fix It Again, Tony.” It seems like Tony should go back to the drawing board with his MARCOM strategy, and fix it, again…

Going Yard, or Striking Out? MLB All-Star Sponsorships Fail to get On Base

July 9^th and 10^th are big days for Major League Baseball.  Monday’s Home Run Derby is followed by Tuesday’s All Star Game.  Both amount to big opportunities for brands to connect with fans, on common ground – the shared love of Baseball and the players who make the game great. 

According to a BrandChannel report, State Farm Insurance and Chevrolet are two key brands sponsoring different aspects of the festivities.  State Farm is sponsoring the Derby, while Chevrolet is bringing a fleet of its cars and trucks to the game itself.  Firestone got in on the action too, sponsoring the final “fan Twitter vote” that elected the final players to the All-Star teams. 

Swinging for the Bleachers

Whether marketers or players, any time you swing for the bleachers you can connect for the big hit, or come up empty – the dreaded “whiff”  of the swing and miss.  The 2011 Home Run Derby, for instance, captured just shy of 6.7 million viewers, while the All Star Game itself pulled in the lowest ratings, EVER, averaging about 11 million viewers.  Ratings, however, show the complexity of sports marketing – even with these low ratings last year, the game still drew a larger audience than other anticipated sporting events, such as the Kentucky Derby, NCAA tournament, and the US Open. 

Regardless of audience – which in this case can be consider at best “uncertain” for the sponsors, given the viewership of the derby and game last year – relevancy to the brand and targeted consumer is perhaps more important for a sponsorship.  There’s got to be a fit between all three pieces – the brand, the event, and the target market.

Striking Out

Looking at State Farm’s sponsorship of the Derby specifically, I’m sensing a strike out.  What is the relevancy to the brand?  Chevrolet, perhaps, could get more mileage out of that specific sponsorship – the derby, not just the game generally – capitalizing on the power needed to hit a home run and the power under the hoods of Chevy cars and trucks.

Making an Adjustment

Just as batters who are slumping need to spend time in the batting cage and make adjustments, so too do marketers.  State Farm would do better if it were more creative, looking for ways to incorporate its brand into the game in a way that is relevant to its key benefit to consumers.  Insurance is all about protection.  How about sponsoring a “replay” of plays on the bases, specifically at home plate?  The catcher’s job is to protect the plate, just as State Farm’s job is to protect its clients.  How awesome would that sponsorship be in terms of highlighting the key benefit to consumers and resonating the brand’s value?

America the Beautiful...

Despite the rancor and ugliness of primary season, there are many things of Beauty here in the good ol' USA.  Whether it be spacious skies, amber waves of grain, or purple mountains majesty - we got it.

No other industry has as much influence on our collective definition of beauty than the advertising industry.  While ads are designed to sell us stuff - cars, smartphones, breakfast cereal, etc... - they also sell us an idealized, normalized, aspirationalized picture of the world, and our place in it.

While Covergirl (illustrated above) does a fairly good job of projecting a racially, ethnically, and even body-type diverse image of "beauty," advertisers more generally create a monolithic image - white, thin/muscular, and affluent.

(MIS)REPRESENTATION
Even though great strides have been made in the overall frequency of racial & ethnic minorities in mainstream media advertising - especially in terms of the inclusion of Blacks - white, heterosexual frames still dominate, and important differences between how whites and blacks are represented can be noted.

Hollerbach (2009), for instance, studied the advertising on television shows that were most highly viewed by Black, and general audiences.  The study found that 43% of ads on both shows - those highly popular with Black audiences, and those highly popular with general audiences - contained "African American depiction" (ie: inclusion of black models & "characters).  This inclusion rate is substantially higher than those found in the past - 10% in 1969; 13% in 1974; 26% in 1989; 35% in 1993; and 33% in 2000.

THE SILENT TREATMENT
Despite inclusion, Blacks still tended to play a subservient role in the they appeared in, remaining silent in most cases, while their white counterparts ran dialogue.  In ads designed to reach black audiences (ie: aired on shows highly popular among blacks), whites spoke 2.5 times longer than blacks; in ads designed to reach general audiences, the silence grew deafening, with white speaking time ballooning to 5 times the length of black speaking time.

While things may seem bad for Blacks in mainstream advertising, they are much worse for other "minority" groups like Asians, Hispanics, or LGBT folk.  Included, but silent, would be considered a victory for many of these groups, as they are far more likely than blacks to be left out of ads completely.

Informal research on the inclusion of LGBT depictions in advertising aired on ABC's "Modern Family" (a show popular with LGBT audiences for its' inclusion of a "same-sex" family as one focal point of the story-line) yielded few, if any, images that would be considered LGBT centric to LGBT or general audiences.  In many cases, it is even hard to find LGBT imagery in ads on LOGO - the cable network specifically designed to deliver "gay" content to "gay" audiences.

SOMETIMES, SILENCE IS GOLDEN
The inspiration for this post did not come from an interest in the representation of Blacks in mainstream advertising, or the representation of LGBT folk - a line of research the BrandDR is currently working on - but rather from a segment on The Today Show, on January 10, 2012.

Today's "Professionals" - including Advertising Guru, Donny Deutsch - discussed Target's inclusion of a boy with Down's Syndrome in a recent ad.

Target Ad

To be fair, the same model also played a role in a Nordstrom's campaign.

The segment, and the ads, got me thinking about how many "minority" groups are left out of mainstream advertising, and how this exclusion maintains gaps in power, social status, and recognition in our society.  Lack of representation leads to lack of familiarity, which leads to that feeling of awkward surprise when we do see these images in the media, or even these people in real life.  Matt Lauer begins a strong social critique when he commented 

"the fact that it is even a subject is a bit of a sad commentary... in 2012 it should be the accepted norm."

Both retailers chose to include the model, without fanfare, or self congratulations.  They placed the individual in a context familiar to kids - hanging out and having fun with other kids.  They drew no contrast between the Down Syndrome child and the other children.  While children with Down Syndrome have different needs, or distinct challenges, they are still kids and share a whole lot more in common with non-DS kids than they do differences.  

These ads say little, but in their silence still manage to say a whole lot.

Donny Deutsch heard the discourse of inclusion in the silence, proclaiming:  "all you're saying is 'we're inclusive of everyone.'"

Rick Smith, who writes the blog "noah's Dad" in honor of his son with Down Syndrome, outlined "5 Things Target Said By Not Saying Anything."

What these retailers are doing is showing us a real, and diverse America.  The America in which we live, and the America which, if portrayed more accurately and fairly by advertisers and the media, is indeed America, the Beautiful.  As Target and Nordstrom's receive positive feedback from their approaches, we can only hope that other brands will begin to value inclusion of all America's beauty and include more diverse imagery in their ads.   

Bandwidth Gluttons Make Usage Stats Deceiving

Think your digital campaigns are reaching your target market?  Think again.  The New York Times reported on January 5, 2012 that the

Top 1% of Mobile Users Consume Half of World's Bandwidth

WHAT THIS MEANS
Despite the bullish news coverage of digital as a platform, and the seemingly bottomless pit of apps, QR codes, and social ads - marketing communicators may have put the proverbial cart before the horse, beating customers to technology and over assuming their adoption/usage.


While the usage of bandwidth hints at the "traffic" of digital media, past estimates of overall usage and number of users has failed to explain the nuances of usage on a user by user basis.  That is, there was no ability to categorize users based on their bandwidth behaviors.


The current study, conducted by the English firm Arieso, is itself far from nuanced in how it describes such users but is still a step in the right direction.  The study distinguishes a group of "extreme" users - who make up 1% of the mobile market - as the source of half of all bandwidth activity.  This means that a remarkably small group of people are responsibility for much of the digital usage around the world.


While the study seems designed to help mobile operators better manage their networks, there is also a huge learning moment for IMC: marketers using digital platforms as a main channel of communication may find their messages are not reaching the large number of consumers they assume.


A MORE CAUTIOUS APPROACH
Industry reports suggest that marketers have gotten carried away with the "shiny new toy" of digital.


Ad Age continues to critique the use of QR Codes by many marketers as off target and ineffective.  Questioning campaigns by Red Bull and American Airlines, which put QR codes where lack of cell phone service would render them useless - in the subway, and inflight magazines respectively - evidence of blindly adopting this execution abounds.


Recently, Marc Browenstein of Ad Age lambasted marketers for making the "mistake" of shifting all, or most, of their media dollars online.  Citing evidence of how his wife and kids watch TV -  "often with a mobile or tablet device on their laps" - while not scientific, is right on.  This "multiscreening" behavior has been cited by several researchers in much more scientific studies.


As digital media matures, traditional media evolves (or doesn't), but still brings in audiences and eyeballs.  Nothing really has changed from a planning/strategy perspective.  Knowing your customer, and their media consumption behavior is key; and integrating your message across a media mix tuned to this behavior will pay dividends in the battle for the hearts and minds of consumers.

Christmas Smackdown - The Champ vs. MANta vs. Macy's

Even though the holiday season is officially upon us, yesterday - as in true MARCOM fashion - Christmas carols were drowned out with brand chatter about the most miraculous advertising day on the calendar:  Superbowl Sunday.  

So, I figured I'd best attend to this season's communications efforts before they are fully eclipsed by New Year's resolutions, the big game, and, what's next - Valentine's Day? 

PEAK PERFORMANCE

Back for another year of intense shopping and yule tidings is Target's Christmas Champ (comic, Maria Bamford).  

Turning shopping and other Christmas related revelry into something akin to competitive sport, the Champ provides a light-hearted dig at the shopping obsessed, while encouraging us to follow suit.

This year's TV campaign looks suspiciously identical to last year's - a little bit of a let down, like leaving stale cookies for Santa.  Still the call to action is clear, the message is relatively timeless, and still resonates.

1 MAN, 7 BILLION GIFTS

Fans everywhere will be happy to find the bare-chested, white towel-clad Old Spice guy in their stockings this year.  

The brand has brought Isaiah Mustafa back as MANta Claus - charged with the task of delivering a Christmas gift to each and every person on earth.  That's about 7 billion gifts, in just 5 days.  

Who needs Rudolf and a sleigh when you have the internet, and the magic of Marketing?

The campaign kicked off yesterday, December 5th, with a personalized gift to @beautyjunkies, followed by a gift of a Bear Deodorant Protector to 25 of Old Spice Guy's "closest internet friends, and, finally, even larger "group" gifts to the City of Baltimore, and the entire country of Australia.  

If you weren't among OSG's 25 closest friends - no worries.  Old Spice has made "limited quantities" of the deodorant protector available for sale via its Facebook page.  For only $19.99 you can be living like a "close friend" of the Old Spice Guy!

As day two of the campaign is getting under way, the impact of yesterday's Facebook posts seem to be strong.  The first posting - in reference to @beautyjunkies - garnered 2,261 Likes and 171 comments as of press time here.  Subsequent postings received healthy likes and comments, but far lower than this level.  

Lesson Learned - personal or customized posts have more resonance and inspire engagement more than group or generic postings.  Even if the post is not directed to you specifically, it creates a "it could have been me" perception, thus encouraging us to engage with the brand more.  This reminds me of the Wheat Thins tweet inspired TV campaign earlier this year.  

SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN

Perhaps my favorite campaign this season is for another retailer, one which has encouraged us to "believe" since 1858 - Macy's. 

Whether it be Miracle on 34th Street, or Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus, Marketing Communications has been successful at declaring Macy's ground zero for holiday shopping.  This year's television creative keeps that tradition going.

What I love about this commercial is that it is a pretty integrated approach.  Advertising a PR campaign - the "cause marketing" of the Make a Wish Foundation - illustrates how the two MARCOM tools, when used together, are more powerful than on their own.

Also, it encourages kids to write letters to Santa and then DEMAND that they be taken to Macy's to deposit them.  What a great call to action.  Once in Macy's - well, the season takes over.  You might as well shop!

FROM SPENDING TIME, TO SPENDING MONEY

The holiday season is spectacular for so many reasons.  Friends, family, and fun.  It's not surprising that brands want to tap into that, and to shift the enthusiasm from spending time, to spending money.  

Target & Macy's are successful in their appeals to do that.  Old Spice is a somewhat different campaign - less sales directed, and more about building relationships.  If Old Spice knows its customers as well as it thinks it does, it will see continual payoff in high engagement through social media.  Plus, it will sell out its bear deodorant protector - which I imagine will become the gag gift of the season, akin to the Snuggie of holidays past.

Happy Holidays from the BrandDR...  Enjoy the ads!!

 

The Fry's the Limit, But there's a Ring Around the Moon...

Earlier this week I tweeted, somewhat skeptically, about Burger King's big announcement that it was introducing "new fries."

Yesterday, the industry news was abuzz about the creative efforts behind this new announcement.  Keeping with its' "product as Hero" focus that won them the BK account this past summer, agency of record McGarryBowen's spot announcing that "NEW FRIES have arrived at BK" emphasizes product shots and satisfied consumption.  (See the spot here, via Ad Age.)

Wendy's Natural Cut Fries

NO SMALL FRIES
On the whole, the fast-food industry has become increasingly obsessed with "small fry" menu items like french fries.  This is not surprising given that "sides" can be consumed in a variety of contexts - as part of a larger lunch or dinner meal, but also as a standalone snack.  The "small fry" is indeed big business.

Just last year, Wendy's introduced its Natural-Cut Fries with Sea Salt, and this year, even without a new recipe (why mess with perfection?), McDonald's is advertising its fries as "the best on the planet."

FRY ME TO THE MOON
Burger King however, seems to be a bit more over the moon with its fry obsession than than the competition.

In 2002, BK tried to shake things up - putting a "new" twist on the staple fast food side.

In 2006 BK went a "fowl" with this new fry:

And 2007 marked the most offensive FRYasco - Fresh Apple Fries.

(FRIED) EGG ON THE FACE
Fry obsession aside, these three "new" menu items are lackluster at best - coming a day late and a dollar short to a market that already knows the fry, the chicken finger, and the apple slice.

Even with new management, BK has continued its bandwagon/reactive approach, with fanfare for the ordinary.  It's most recent menu additions have been:

BK Toppers - you can add toppings (like cheese, mushrooms, and bbq sauce) to your burger!!  For $1.99!!!

"Revamped" Chicken Tenders - now "nugget" shaped!!

Stuffed Steakhouse Burger - jalapeno peppers & cheddar cheese stuffed into the meat!!

Quaker Oatmeal and Soft Serve Ice Cream (I can't even make light of this - these are so generic and so uninspired.)

What the key competitors - McDonald's & Wendy's - lack, is what BK excels in, yet we hear very little about it.  The onion ring.

RING OUT THE OLD, RING IN THE NEW
With rumors that Wendy's will oust BK as the No. 2 fast food chain (behind McDonald's) growing louder, it may be time for Burger King to quiet down on the small fry issues and reach for the rings.

The whole point of branding, after all, is to differentiate your products from competing products.

Keep it simple BK - no "chicken rings" or "french toast rings."  Onion rings.  Tried and true.  McDonald's may have the best fries on the planet, but there's a ring around the moon, and that's what BK should reach for.

MAXImizing the MINI with Social Gaming

MINI Countryman

How do you double your sales in a geographic  market?  Make consumers hunt for your product. That's how Mini did it in Stockholm, Sweden at least.


Literally.


RUN, OSCAR, RUN
In 2010 MINI looked to mobile apps - specifically a scavenger type "mobile hunt game" called Mini Getaway Stockholm - to engage potential buyers and turn them into brand evangelists.  


The bait?  A MINI Countryman - open for the winning, free and clear.


The task?  Download a mobile app that allows you to track (like a hunter to his prey) a virtual MINI and your competitors.  Capture the MINI and flee from your "enemies."  If you can hold onto the MINI for the duration of the game, it is yours to keep.

BIG GAME HUNTING
The game delivered strong results for MINI:

• 11, 413 physically participated in the game during its one-week duration
• The average participant spent just over 5 hours engaged with the game
• People from over 90 countries followed the game online, via the companion website, minigetawaystockholm.com
• Sales increased by 108% in the first quarter following the campaign

BIGGER GAME HUNTING

The campaign was so successful that MINI is translating its efforts into Japanese.  MINI Getaway Tokyo  is set to launch on December 3, 2011.  

The rules, and stakes, of the game are the same, but Tokyo allows MINI to MAXImize the potential impact in a few key ways:

• The Tokyo gaming area is almost 32 times larger - covering 240 square miles
• At 35.6 million, Tokyo's population is approximately 44 times larger than the population of Stockholm, which clocks in around 809,072

MINI also points to it's creation of an Android App for Tokyo, as a game changer - yet the Dr. debates that point - Japan seems to be an iPhone dominated market, with only about 15% of smartphone users doing so on the Android platform.  

Still, MINI is doing fun, engaging things to nurture MINI brand evangelists.  This is a campaign to watch out for.