Marketing Myopia

How can a company ensure its continued growth? In 1960, a seminal Harvard Business Review journal article, ‘Marketing Myopia’ answered that question in a new and challenging way by urging organizations to define their industries broadly to take advantage of growth opportunities. Mr. Theodore Levitt, the article’s author, showed how they declined inevitably as technology advanced because they defined themselves too narrowly.

He posited that to continue growing, companies must ascertain and act on their customers’ needs and desires, not bank on the presumptive longevity of their products. The success of the article testifies to the validity of its message. Written in 1960, it has been widely quoted and anthologized, and HBR has sold more than 265,000 reprints of it. The author of 14 subsequent articles in HBR, Mr. Levitt passed away a few months back.

As a student of marketing I have always been amazed at the almost visionary zeal with which he proposed theories and concepts and the longevity of many of them. As a mark of respect to the departed soul, here is an extract from Marketing Myopia. If you are impressed, and I can’t see why you shouldn’t, I urge you to go find and run through the entire article and, if possible, Mr. Levitt’s entire collection as well. To get you started, here is the extract.

Every major industry was once a growth industry. But some that are now riding a wave of growth enthusiasm are very much in the shadow of decline. Others, which are thought of as seasoned growth industries, have actually stopped growing. In every case the reason growth is threatened, slowed, or stopped is not because the market is saturated. It is because there has been a failure of management.

The failure is at the top. The executives responsible for it, in the last analysis, are those who deal with broad aims and policies. Thus:

The railroads did not stop growing because the need for passenger and freight transportation declined. That grew. The railroads are in trouble today not because the need was filled by others (cars, trucks, airplanes, even telephones) but because it was not filled by the railroads themselves. They let others take customers away from them because they assumed themselves to be in the railroad business rather than in the transportation business. The reason they defined their industry incorrectly was that they were railway-oriented instead of transportation-oriented; they were product-oriented instead of customer-oriented.

Hollywood barely escaped being totally ravished by television. Actually, all the established film companies went through drastic reorganizations. Some simply disappeared. All of them got into trouble not because of TV’s inroads but because of their own myopia. As with the railroads, Hollywood defined its business incorrectly. It thought it was in the movie business when it was actually in the entertainment business. Movies implied a specific, limited product. This produced a fatuous contentment, which from the beginning led producers to view TV as a threat. Hollywood scorned and rejected TV when it should have welcomed it as an opportunity - an opportunity to expand the entertainment business.

The view that an industry is a customer-satisfying process, not a goods-producing process, is vital for all businesspeople to understand. An industry begins with the customer and his or her needs, not with a patent, a raw material, or a selling skill. Given the customer’s needs, the industry develops backwards, first concerning itself with the physical delivery of customer satisfactions. Then it moves back further to creating the things by which these satisfactions are in part achieved.

How these materials are created is a matter of indifference to the customer, hence the particular form of manufacturing, processing, or what-have-you cannot be considered as a vital aspect of the industry. Finally, the industry moves back still further to finding the raw materials necessary for making its products.

In short, the organization must learn to think of itself not as producing goods or services but as buying customers, as doing the things that will make people want to do business with it.

Creative Briefing Format

Exceptionally good creative is a result of extremely well-thought out strategy. And the sun rises in the east. Nothing new, I admit, but good creative development process begins with a well-written creative brief. How to write a good creative brief is the subject of this edition.

Advertising professionals, excuse me please. You guys probably know how to write good briefs. But for those who wish to access a good template here is the format from one of world's most respected ad agencies - BBDO. Here goes it.

Assignment: The job on hand

- Campaign / Single ad
- TV commercial – Length
- Print ad – Size, Colour
- Newspaper or magazine
- Outdoor, Promotion, Radio, Integrated Campaign
- What do we have to do, what’s the budget, and when do we have to do it by

Include relevant data

Target: For whom our brand will be a viable alternative

- Not just demographics – psychographics
- What are they like as human beings?
- What are their hopes, fears, and ambitions?
- What do they expect from the category?
- How do they use it?
- What needs do they have that aren’t being met?

Be as informative and as insightful as possible

Competitive Frame: Who is our competition?

-What are they saying?
- What is the source of business?
- What will the consumer do or buy if they don’t buy us?

Not just a list of brands – could include habits and attitudes

Consumer Belief: The deeply held perceptions and feelings

- What is the single most important thing our prospects believe or feel about our brand or the category?

What is it that the advertising must change or reinforce?

Marketing Objective: The things that we are aiming for

Be as specific and clear-cut as possible.

Advertising Objective: What we want to make happen due to advertising

- Raise awareness
- Put on list
- Encourage trial
- Repeat purchase
- Change perceptions
- Reconsider our brand
- Use it more often
- Use in a new way
- Remain satisfied

Be specific, again.

Key Selling Message: The one thing we want to tell them

- In the light of the Consumer Belief in the defined Competitive Frame, what is the single-minded promise we will make to the defined Target that will persuade them to act in the way that will achieve the Advertising Objective?
- What do we want them to think, feel or believe as a result of the Advertising?

What do we have to have an idea about?

Support: Relevant reasons why we can make the promise

- Competitive physical or perceptual advantages
- Not just a list of features, or of all the brand’s good points

The reason to believe our claims.

Brand Personality: Aspect of personality that the ad must reflect

- A brief, vivid description
- Not just a list of adjectives

Preferably, describable by one word or phrase.

Budget / Timing: The budget for the whole exercise

What are the time frames?

Mandatory Inclusions: The musts or must nots be included in the ad

- Legal restrictions, logo usage, campaign themes
- The fewer the better

None, if possible!

Criteria for Evaluation: Measurable action points

The parameters by which the creative would be evaluated.

Literature Review - 2

Communications Imperatives for New Products
Journal of Advertising Research, Kirby Andrews

This article throws some light on the standing issue of what is the best advertising for new products. The author describes a research study done in conjunction with clients of his research / consulting firm.

19 firms had cooperated in the study, and offered a total of 50 new products that had been marketed in some 10 major product categories. For each product there was a commercial that had been deemed sales-successful or not (27 were, 23 were not). Most products were parity products, and only 14 were genuinely different.

Each commercial was analyzed for content: the analysts sought 2,121 criteria, using computer programming, for each segment of each commercial that had separate meaning. This long list was worked down to 84 criteria that seemed to be important. They differentiated the ads. All 50 commercials were then analyzed against these 84 factors, and scored. Lastly, the advertisers then supplied the success label for each commercial, and further analysis yielded the final data.

It was found that there's a direct relationship between the structure and content of an introductory commercial for a new product and its ability to stimulate trial (the prime measure of success for new product advertising). 9 communication imperatives were found, and 85% of the successful commercials incorporated all 9 of them. Only 13% of unsuccessful commercials did so.

Of the 9 imperatives, 5 are basic advertising communications objectives and involve:

1. Capturing attention
2. Building interest
3. Communicating clearly
4. Creating awareness
5. Meeting advertiser strategy

The other 4, called introductory factors hold more interest. A new product advertisement should:

1. Communicate that something is different about the product
2. Position the brand difference in relation to the product category. What type of product is this?
3. Communicate that the product difference is beneficial to consumers.
4. Support the above two claims: difference and beneficial. The support may be product demonstration, testimonial, guarantee etc.,

The study also points out the surprising number of commercials from the large firms involved that did not meet the 5 basic objectives and did not offer the 4 introductory factors.

The study, though, did not go on to speculate whether these findings would apply to non-television goods and services.

Why don't you replicate this study in the Indian context using Indian products and advertising? Would be useful to the marketing and advertising fraternity, to say the least.

Literature Review - 1

The Characteristics of high-trial new product advertising.

Journal of Advertising Research, David Olson

This journal article deals with determining what constitutes good new product advertising. It describes a study done at Leo Burnett Co., a large advertising agency.

First, researchers went back through agency files and found 65 commercials that they could say achieved high trial, average trial, or low trial. Second, they had consumers view each commercial and rate whether 52 statements applied to it. Further analysis sorted these 52 statements to 7 basic dimensions of advertising:

1. News: how informative was the ad?
2. Relevance: how personally meaningful?
3. Purchase Interest
4. Stimulation: how entertaining or interesting was the ad?
5. Empathy: how involving was the ad?
6. Confusion
7. Familiarity: how much just like other ads?

The high trial commercials scored better than the medium and low-trial commercials across all seven factors. Still further analysis of the data determined that using just two of those seven factors permitted 66% success in predicting trial for the new product. Adding the other five only pushed this up to 75%.

The first of the two very strong factors was Relevance. Relevance is measured by five of the original 52 statements.

1. The commercial showed me the product has certain advantages
2. The product is important to me
3. The commercial reminded me that I am dissatisfied
4. During the commercial I thought about how the product can be useful to me
5. The commercial made me feel the product is right for me

Naturally, if the product is poor those five statements will be hard to get yes answers on. Good advertising is not usually thought capable of selling poor products. But, given good product concepts, the advertising should say so. If it does, the five statements are agreed to, and the relevance score goes up.

The second major factor was Stimulation. Its presence is measured by answers to the following six of the original 52 statements:

1. The persons in the commercial captured my attention
2. The enthusiasm of the commercial was catching
3. The commercial was amusing
4. The commercial was playful
5. The commercial was fun to watch and listen to
6. I thought it was clever and quite entertaining

The chances of obtaining high trial are only about 10% if the commercial is below average on both relevance and stimulation. It is 25 – 30% if the commercial is above average on one or the other factor. It is 50% if above average o both factors.

In a second qualitative phase of the agency’s study, analysis was undertaken to study how creative people view these two factors, and how they may interrelate in a given ad. A search of the agency’s archives yielded ten products where there were two different commercials with different relevance scores. The commercials were shown to creative staffers in the agency and each person was asked to identify the commercial that had the higher relevance. In most cases they were able to do so (without using consumers or the five of the fifty two original statements to guide them).

The author cautions that the above analysis should not be taken to mean that advertising could be written by formula. How one creates relevance is still an art, but it appears an ad should have lots of relevance (and stimulation too), and their presence can be measured.

Indian Readership Survey: An Introduction

All of your have heard about it; most of you have read about it; a few know about it. And for the remaining who wishes to know more about it, here is a brief introduction to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS).

IRS is essentially a readership measurement study. The prime objective of the study is to collect readership information from a cross-section of individuals, in great detail, so as to present a true and unbiased picture of their readership habits. On the media front, it also captures information on television and cinema viewership, radio listnership and internet usage. In addition to this, IRS also captures information on various FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) products’ usage and consumption and durable ownership amongst households and individuals. Since media and product ownership / consumption information is captured from the same household, it enables linkages between the media and product data.

Fieldwork

IRS fieldwork, which lasts for a year, is continuous in nature. It is broken up into two rounds with a balanced sample. In a typical year, the first round’s field work starts from July to December followed by the second round in January to June. Data is reported on a moving annual total i.e., the average of two consecutive rounds.

Scope – All India

IRS 2005 (Round 1 + 2) has a sample size of 235,428 covering 1,318 towns and 3,084 villages.

The entire sample is spread equally between the two rounds. Individual reporting is done for 70+ cities that includes all one million population towns (35) and a few other cities of strategic importance to our users.

Key Findings

North has the highest concentration of SEC A households (13.3%). South is the lowest(7.7%).

Not surprisingly, North has the highest number of illiterate housewives (59.6%), and South has the least (40%).

West has the highest concentration of working housewives (48.5%) and North the least (21.6%). Maybe this explains why most North Indian housewives are obese!

For those who are still ignorant about the way India lives here are some penetration figures. No, not the number of times Indians have sex damn it! These are penetration figures among households, rather!
TV: 40 +%
Pressure cooker: 31 - 40%
Refrigerator: 11 – 20%
Motorbike and CD player: 6 – 10%
Automobile and Personal computers: 1 – 2%
A/C, Vacuum cleaner, Microwave, Digital Camera: < 1%

The top 10 channels both in terms of reach as well as viewers base are South-based. In fact only 25% of the top 20 vernacular channels are non-South.

The MNC’s are trying hard to lure the Indian consumer, but it is still the age-old Indian brand of refrigerator – Godrej that has acquired its space in maximum number of households in the country, be it urban or rural across the zones.

Source: Hansa Research and MRUC booklet. www.hansaresearch.com / www.mruc.net

Bridged Positioning: A game of bridge...again!

Regulars can recall my post on bridged positioning some time ago. If you can't recall it or haven't read it, check Archives 2006-05-07. I had listed a few bridged concepts then – integrated concepts that are both functional and psychological. I found a few more last week, courtesy the class of 2006 Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore.

Here is it...

Macho
Taste
Style
Enjoyment
Trust
Energy
Durability
Sexy
Sophistication
Adventure

The Advertising Essentials - Part 3

Here is the final part. The final word on the subject as well!

7. Be Executionally Excellent

Particular care must be taken with product, preparation and consumption sequences, and pack shots. We must never forget that we are selling products, which people are going to eat or drink. The product must always be presented in the most appropriate and appetite-appealing way.

Consumption shots should realistically communicate this in a totally credible way. Of course, there are exceptions, if you were to advertise for a brand of condoms to name one such!

The development of proprietary product sequences that are properly integrated into the communication (with appropriate voice-overs to underline a product-based consumer benefit) can help to enhance perceptions of our products’ superior quality. Unique and proprietary product shots and mouth-watering consumption sequences that appeal to our senses help to create appetite appeal, to differentiate our products and to motivate purchase.

Pack shots should usually also include the product as it is meant to be consumed, and should be given sufficient emphasis to be impactful, and remind consumers of what to look for on the shelf.

There is a skill in achieving high production standards in print and on film, and there are experts who can help. In order to achieve the peak of perfection, we must be prepared to invest in production budgets, and not be tempted to cut corners. This does not mean that we can substitute strong simple ideas with spectacular shows that hide the lack of a creative idea.

In summary, the questions to ask and answer are:

1. Have we done everything possible to ensure the best product shots?
2. Are the consumption shots realistic?
3. Does the product come across as truly enjoyable?
4. Are the product shots / consumption sequences proprietary to the brand, and consistent with building brand equity?
5. Have we clearly communicated a consumer benefit via the portrayal of the product and its consumption?
6. Is our brand highly visible in order to secure 100% correct brand identification?


8. Bring About a Sale

The unequivocal raison d’etre of all communication is to bring a profitable sale. There is no other reason for investing in brand communication. Although different forms of communication have shorter or longer-term effects on sales, all should be evaluated over time on their ability to build brand equity with our consumers, and in so doing bring about a sale.

In general, we should seek to create communications which have the consumers’ interests at heart, that are involving in content and execution, that are original and provocative, that get talked about, and have the “must see again” factor. In everything we do, we should always strive to build a place for our brands in people’s lives…in the long term.

In summary, the key question to ask and answer is:
Have the right tracking study mechanisms been put in place to measure the contribution of communications (advertising and other forms of communication) to bringing about a sale?

The Advertising Essentials - Part 2

Hope you savoured the first part of this series. As promised here is the second. The best is yet to come aka the third part. That will appear next week.

4. Be Highly Visible

It costs the same to run a TV commercial whether it is dull and boring or whether it is relevant and involving. A good ad is the best media discount possible. An original creative idea is worth more than a big budget. In fact it’s arguable that the better the creative content, the less you need to spend on media. Repetition of a poor ad won’t do any good, whereas few exposures of a truly creative and effective ad will bring a high return on investment.

The first rule of all our communications is that it must have impact. However, that impact must be relevant to our brand. People aren’t waiting to read our ad or see our commercial. We are intruders into the living room. Sufficient impact to get the attention of our target consumer has to be the ‘price of entry’ for every piece of communication.

Being highly visible has a lot to do with keeping our message and its execution simple. Too often we make our message hard to understand. This happens particularly when we over-compensate for the lack of a single-minded ‘Strong Ideas’ by bombarding the viewer with a mass of quick cuts of complicated images. While we understand what we’re doing, often the consumer doesn’t.

Other ways to break through are to develop additional communications channels and to be more innovative in the use of media.

In summary, the questions to ask and answer are:

1. I know this is interesting for me (I work on the brand) but would it grab the attention of someone reading the paper, driving their car, walking in the street or watching TV?
2. What can be done to make it even more impactful? (In a way that’s good for the brand)


5. Be Locally Relevant to the Core Target

The communication must be built on, and relate to the framework laid down in the Brand Positioning Statements. However these should be interpreted so that they are absolutely relevant to the local needs. Only by fully understanding the consumer, their habits and daily behaviour, as well as their psychological and emotional feelings, can we hope to find compelling messages that tap into their minds in a convincing and believable way.

While it’s vital to make our communication strategies 100% relevant, it’s equally important to make the communication content and executions 100% relevant. Impact alone achieves little in developing brand salience, propensity to buy, and overall brand equity. What’s needed is impact with relevance. We need to bring the strategy to life in an impactful way. We need to catch the eye by planting a relevant idea in the consumer’s mind that produces the sort of reaction: “this is just right for me and the way I live my life.”

In summary, the questions to ask and answer are:

1. Do we know enough about the consumer?
2. Who specifically are we addressing for? For example, existing users? New users? Lapsed users? Light users? Heavy users?
3. What message will motivate them most of all to buy our brand?
4. What is holding them back?
5. Have we included a clear, relevant consumer benefit?
6. Are the necessary research tracking mechanisms in place to evaluate progress?


6. Be Likeable

Every piece of communication for any of our brands is also a communication for the company as whole as well. Our communication must acknowledge this. All brand communication should, by tone of voice and by involving the consumer, help to enhance the appeal of the company too. If people like the way you talk to them, they are predisposed to like you.

Just as we want to be liked as a company, it is equally important that people like our brands, as well as our advertising and the full range of our brand communications. We should aim to achieve the best scores in tracking research for ‘likeability’ of our brands / our communications vs. our competitors.

While we need to be responsible, it doesn't mean that our communication should be boring. On the contrary, we should aim for communications that are innovative, surprising, exciting, human and emotional.

In summary, the questions to ask and answer are:

1. Does the communication reflect well on our company?
2. Does it position our brands as relevant to today?
3. Does it build Brand Equity?
4. Will it be admired, talked about and liked?
5. Are the tracking research mechanisms in place to evaluate?

The Advertising Essentials – Part 1

What I have here are ‘The Eight Essentials’ - management tools and criteria to evaluate creative work prior to production. They are also criteria to measure the effectiveness of our brand communications. I know everyone, and his uncle, in the advertising industry knows all these. But I wonder why we still produce advertising that ends up selling only the creative people who worked on it and not the brand it is supposed to sell in the first place! Which means…. we need to revisit these basics once again. The authorship is not mine; they only have my endorsement!

This might be too long for one blog and hence I wish to spread it over three parts. Read the first now and savour it for now. The sequels will be releasing in a PC monitor near you…shortly!

1. Address the Key Business Issue

Before starting to develop a communications strategy, we need to understand the business issues that the brand faces. Our communications can then be developed in the context of our business goals and brand strategy.

In the context of the brand’s long-term performance, we need to isolate the single most important issue. For example, is to build share against competitive brands? Or, in cases where our brand dominates a category, is it to build the total market? Is it to attract new young users? In many markets too much of our communication is directed at reassuring existing users, and too little is directed at recruiting new users.

The definition of the role of the communication will also have a significant influence on the choice of communication vehicle and medium, as well as the level of investment.

In summary, the questions to ask and answer are:

1. What is the purpose of the communication? Why are we doing it?
2. Does the content of the communication relate to the key business issue?
3. Is the communication medium the right one to address the business issue?
4. Is the investment at the correct level to tackle the business issue?
5. Is this the right brand to tackle the issue?


2. Build Consistent Long-term Brand Equity

For brands to succeed in today’s more competitive environment, it is more necessary than ever before to build consistently powerful brand equity. To do this requires careful management of the way the brand behaves and the way the brand communicates. This is a disciplined, continuous and consistent process of building greater brand salience and greater brand relevance.

The publication of Brand Positioning Statements and Communication Guidelines for each of the major strategic brands provides a focus for all brand communication in all markets. This will ensure consistency and will also ensure that all our brand communication delivers a clear, relevant and competitive consumer benefit.

Our communication should be bringing the consumer closer to our brands and enhancing the quality status of our brands. We want people to feel that our brands are playing a real role in their lives, and are relevant to them. We want them to acknowledge that our brands are of superior quality. By achieving this, our brand equity will be nurtured and strengthened.

In summary, the questions to ask and answer are:

1. Is every piece of communication derived from and reflective of the Brand Positioning Statement?
2. Is the brand communication strategy locally relevant?
3. Does the communication clearly offer a relevant consumer benefit and enhance perceptions of product quality?
4. Have we the right tracking research in place to monitor our progress in building brand equity?


3. Be Focused on a Single-minded ‘Strong Idea’

A ‘Strong Idea’ helps to make the most of our competitive advantage of having the best marketing communications that are measurably superior to our competitors. A ‘Strong Idea’ binds our communications together so that they are cohesive and consistent. Above all, a ‘Strong Idea’ is proprietary. Strong ideas make brands look strong. Strong Ideas build Strong Brands.

What constitutes a ‘Strong Idea’? First, it must be related to the brand. It must involve the brand, in order to get branded memorability. Second, it must be related to, or evolved from Brand Positioning Statement to get relevant communication that is in line with the brand strategy. Third, it must be involving for the consumer and hold their attention, so that it anchors the brand and brand message in consumers’ minds. Fourth, it should be unique. We need proprietary ideas that we can own. Fifth, our ‘Strong Idea’ should work across all forms of communication; not just all forms of advertising media, but all communication vehicles including sponsorship, events, promotions, sampling and relationship marketing. Sixth, it should be enduring over time.

Having developed a ‘Strong Idea’, the task is to keep it refreshed and relevant. The challenge is to strengthen it with every new piece of communication.

In summary, the questions to ask and answer are:

1. Is the idea well branded, relevant to the brand and the consumer, involving and proprietary?
2. Does every piece of new communication build on the Idea?
3. Is all the brand communication properly orchestrated around the Idea?
4. Are the research mechanisms in place to evaluate the growing strength of the Idea?

Advertising Poetry

Who ever said Advertising is poetry probably meant only this! I scavenged this piece from the net. Author unknown.

When the client moans and sighs,
Make his logo twice the size.

When the client's hopping mad,
Put his picture in the ad.

If he still should prove refractory,
Add a picture of his factory!

Ad Quotes

Advertising is fun. Might not be for the client who probably thinks the entire advertising fraternity should be shot dead. (Rightly so too!) But for those in advertising it’s a whole lot fun.

I was in advertising for more than a brief while and haven’t repented for it yet! I guess I will, eventually! Till then, here are some nice quotes on advertising. Enjoy!

‘Early to bed, early to rise
Work like hell and advertise’.
- Ted Turner.

‘Beer commercials are so patriotic: Made the American Way. What does that have to do with America? Is that what America stands for? Feeling sluggish and urinating frequently’?
- Evelyn Waugh

‘Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside of an advertising agency’.
- Raymond Chandler

‘In the last couple of weeks I have seen the ads for the Wonder Bra. Is that really a problem in this country? Men not paying enough attention to women's breasts’.

- Jay Leno

‘Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless’.
- Sinclair Lewis

‘Advertising sure brings quick results. Last week I advertised for a night watchman and the same night my safe was robbed’.
- Anonymous

‘If advertising had a little more respect for the public, the public would have a lot more respect for advertising’.

- James Randolph Adams

‘As to the idea that advertising motivates people, remember the Edsel’.

- Peter Drucker

‘A’d Joke!

A mother had three virgin daughters. They were all getting married within a short time period. Since mom was a bit worried about how their sex life would get started, she made them all promise to send a postcard from the honeymoon with a few words on how marital sex felt.

The first girl sent a card from Hawaii two days after the wedding. The card said nothing but: ‘Nescafe’!

Mom was puzzled at first, but then went to her kitchen and got out the Nescafe jar. It said: ‘Good till the last drop’.

Mom blushed, but was pleased for her daughter.

The second girl sent the card from Vermont a week after the wedding, and the card read: "Rothmans".

Mom now knew to go straight to her husband's cigarettes, and she read from the pack: ‘Extra Long. King Size’.

She was again slightly embarrassed but still happy for her daughter.

The third girl left for her honeymoon in Cape Town. Mom waited for a week, nothing. Another week went by and still nothing. Then after a whole month, a card finally arrived. Written on it with shaky handwriting were the words "South African Airways”.

Mom took out a latest magazine, flipped through the pages fearing the worst, and finally found the ad for South African Airways.

The ad said: ‘Ten times a day, seven days a week, both ways’.

Mom fainted!

Discovering Differentiation

In a 1997 Harvard Business Review article titled ‘Discovering new points of differentiation’, Ian C. MacMillan and Rita Gunther McGrath argue that if companies examine customers’ entire experience with a product or service – the consumption chain – they can uncover opportunities to position their offerings in ways that neither they nor their competitors thought possible. They list a set of 11 questions to help identify new, consumer-based points of differentiation.

I took their list of questions and figured out brands that have used their framework effectively. The result is here for you to see. Figure out how can you differentiate your brand asking these simple questions.

1. How do people become aware of their need for your product and service?
Very often the consumer doesn’t know if she needs the product. We never needed a vacuum cleaner, for instance. The hell, even after buying it we never use it. When was the last time someone in your house used it? But we still bought it, didn’t we? Coz the Eureka Forbes guy came home demonstrated the product and brainwashed our wife or mother or sister into buying the damn thing. Now you know why most Indian homes still don’t have a microwave oven. The damn microwave guys never explained why we should ever buy one.

2. How do consumers make their final selection?
Case in point is Preethi mixie. The housewife typically enquires her friends and relatives when buying a mixie, a fact Preethi mixie used smartly in their advertising. Recall the ad. A collage of shots of different women, each one talking about the virtues of Preethi mixie and ending their quote with the words, ‘Buy a Preethi. I guarantee’! No wonder Preethi mixie is a bestseller today.

3. How do consumers order and purchase your product or service?
Look at what telephone & net booking of tickets, along with home delivery, have done to Sathyam cinemas. One thing movie goers hate is to go all the way to the theatre to find the tickets full. This, apart from other reasons, curtailed movie-going habit and many cinema theatres have been closing down. Not Sathyam that is growing stronger than ever. They tackled the root of the problem, and bingo, it is one of Madras’s most sought after theatre complexes today.

4. What happens when your product or service is delivered?
Have you heard of a video rental brand in the U.S called Netflix? They screwed Blockbuster and Co and revolutionized the way movies were rented in the U.S. Visit their site and amaze yourself with their unique delivery model.

5. How is your product or service paid for?
Most new home buyers depend on a home loan to buy their dream property. Hygrevar Home & Hearth, a leading Madras-based real estate brand realizes this and they not only sell their property but also help their customers get a home loan and help them complete all loan related formalities as well. No wonder, this helps differentiate Hygrevar from thousands of other real estate brands around!

6. How is your product stored?
Realizing the small space in bathrooms and the consequent small cabinets to hold toothpastes, Close up tooth gel redesigned its pack to make it stand up on its lid, thus making it easy for the consumer to store it. Smart, wouldn’t you agree.

7. How is your product moved around?
Imagine if a cooking gas brand gave free trolleys to the housewife to help her place gas cylinders on it and also move it around easily. The consumer might choose such a brand over others since she could lift it and move it around easily, without having to depend on others to help her.

8. What is the consumer really using your product for?
Arm & Hammer found that their baking soda made a great refrigerator deodorant and hence repositioned it and marketed it that way…successfully too.

9. What do consumers need help with, when they use your product?
You are working on a word document or a PowerPoint presentation and you have a doubt. It’s late in the night and you can’t call your friend. Wouldn’t you be grateful if Windows had a phone-in-help-centre - someone sitting 24x7 to answer your questions, clarify your doubts and suggest ideas? What can you offer for your product or service?

10. What about returns or exchanges?
Readers’ Digest uses this extensively and effectively. ‘Get a one-year subscription along with the free gift, read the magazine and if you don’t like it your money is refunded. While you get to keep the gift still’!

(It’s a pity this facility is not extended to matrimony!)

11. What happens when your product is disposed of or no longer used?
Apparel manufacturers use this to help consumers dispose their old dresses and by doing so inducing them into walking into their store to buy new ones. Recall their offer ads: ‘Gift your old pair of jeans and get Rs.250 off on our new one. Your old jean would be donated to XXX charity.’

A few good rules to keep your client happy

Rummaging old stuff does have its benefits. You could unearth hidden gems that have escaped your memory. I just did and found this - a document one of my ex-bosses passed on to me when I had first moved into the Advertising world. It was titled ’50 rules to keep client happy’.

Fifty wouldn’t fit in this blog and hence I condensed them into a manageable lot. The rules are applicable to anybody who serves a client. Not necessarily to account management of an ad agency.

One cursory look at this and you are going to describe them as old-fashioned, not so new, yeah-I-know-them stuff. But put your hand to your heart, or whatever is left of it, and tell yourself how many of this you practice.

That’s the point!

Product Knowledge
Crawl all over the customer’s products and/or services. Know them at least as well as your client contact does and you’ll be much more adept at counseling him or her when problems and opportunities arise.

Keep Clients Informed About Competitors
Keep alert for news of client competitors’ new hirings, new price structures, new products, new R&D projects, new acquisitions, new plants or modernization activities. When you’re privy to this kind of information, immediately send it, in writing, to the client and his or her boss as well.

Constant Contact
Even though you might be the world’s greatest, it often comes down to ‘what have you done for me lately?’ For some reason or other the out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrome predominates the client psyche. It is therefore important that you make sure the client feels you are thinking only of him or her and their company 24 hours a day. Be sure your client gets something pertinent in the mail from you, besides your call report, at least once a week. You must let your client people feel they are constantly on your mind.

Punctuality
Never, ever be late for a meeting or date with a client. If you are sloppy in this regard, the client will sooner or later be convinced that you are sloppy in the way you are spending their money and handling his or her account. Remember, clients just don’t like to be kept waiting – your time is their money.

Call Reports
Very often people coming out of the same meeting or hanging up after a telephone conversation have totally different interpretation on what has transpired and therefore have no clear idea of who is to do what next. Putting important meeting details and discussions down on paper and distributing this information right after the session enables everyone involved to have a chance to get back to one another to rectify any misunderstandings that might have occurred.

Notebook
I don’t care how great a memory you have, you cannot hope to remember every single item in the myriad of details you have to retain in day-to-day handling. This is especially so after a substantial lapse of time. Keep a spiral-bound notebook. Date it daily and use it for keeping notes of meetings, phone calls, things that need taking care of and whatever.

New Ideas
Be a self-starter. Come up with new products ideas, new merchandising ideas, new promotion ideas, new manufacturing ideas, new tax benefit ideas, new acquisition and merger ideas, new tax shelter ideas, new cost-cutting ideas, new legal loopholes, anything you feel will benefit the client even though it might be way out of your professional purview.

Use Your Head and Your Client’s Products
Always help the hand that feeds you. If your client is a clothing store, buy and wear its clothes. If it sells toothpaste, be sure you and your family brush your teeth with that brand. It’s even smart to go a step further down the distribution chain and support your customer’s customers.

Customers and some telephone courtesy

I am not sure who reads this blog. If at all it is read by anyone. My profile views keep going up and it indicates someone, somewhere is reading all this somehow!

I wonder who reads them. Is it a he? A she? A student? A vice-president? Either way, if it is someone who is big enough to have a secretary or works in a company that is big enough to accommodate a receptionist or secretary, then what I am going to write about now might make sense. And for others, it will at least make them smile! No guarantee, though!

It’s about our secretary or receptionist or both. What’s this got to do in a marketing blog, you ask? Good question and I refuse to answer that for the simple reason I don’t know!

Oh, I can give one reason, however remote. It’s about how to treat our customers. Gotcha!

Now for the subject matter. It’s about telephone manners and a few key ones are in order. Never ever have your secretary or receptionist place a phone call and have the client hold until you pick up the phone. As marketers or advertisers, we are suppliers and, as such, we are in business to sell things to our customers or clients. As buyers, they deserve a few grams of respect. Having our secretary phone instead of personally doing it yourself gives an impression that you are more important or busier than the customer or client.

Also, let your secretary or receptionist not interrogate phone callers and put them through police-like inquisitions. “Who may I say is calling?” is a much better rejoinder than ‘Who is this?” Similarly, “You are calling in reference to?” sounds much better and saner rather than the rude “What’s it about?” Don’t expect them to know all this themselves. You have to take the trouble of telling them, teaching them and training them.

Speaking about telephone etiquette, I think you’ll like this piece from Bill Marsteller’s book, ‘Creative Management’:

This morning I called the newly appointed vice president of sales of one of the country’s largest publishing firms to invite him to lunch. I dialed the call myself, as I always do.

His secretary answered, “Mr. Shirt’s office.”

“This is Bill Marsteller. Is Mr. Shirt in?”

“What did you say your name was?”

“Bill Marsteller. It not only was; it still is.”

“How do you spell it?”

“M-A-R-S-T-E-L-L-E-R. Is Mr. Shirt in?”

“What company are you with, Mr. Marsteller?”

“Marsteller Inc. Is Mr. Shirt in?”

“Is that the advertising agency?”

“Yes. Now Miss –“

“Mr. Shirt has someone with him. May I tell him what this is about?”

“Look, Miss, just have him call me please. 752-6500.”

Time passes. The phone rings. I answer “Bill Marsteller.”

“Mr. Stuffed Shirt is calling Mr. Marsteller.”

“This is Bill Marsteller.”

“Will you hold please for Mr. Shirt?”

Time passes. I read the Wall Street Journal and finish Gone with the Wind.

Finally, “Bill? Stuffed here. What can I do for you?”

“Sorry,” I say. “I’ve forgotten why I called you. If it ever occurs to me, I’ll write a letter.”

Possibly to his president!

Bill Bernbach said...

I found an old file in my computer that had a collection of quotes credited to Bill Bernbach, one of the three who formed ‘Doyle Dane Bernbach Needham’. He is probably very old now or even very dead. Or maybe both!

Honestly I don’t know much about him. I don’t know if he, in his time or ours, was God’s gift to advertising. Nor do I know if he was an over-rated, over-blown ad guy. But I do know that some of his quotes make sense. Maybe not all, some!

I thought I could present here the ones that made some sense. If not for anything, at least to help you put them on your computer as a screensaver! A favourite way for some to show that they are advertising professionals!

Over to Bill….

“If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic.”

“It’s not just what you say that stops people. It’s the way that you say it.”

“Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.”

“You can have everybody coming in on time, everybody leaving on time, all work finished on the due date, and still have a lousy ad, and fail.”

“I can put down on a page a picture of a man crying, and it’s just a picture of a man crying. Or I can put him down in such a way as to make you want to cry. The difference is artistry – the intangible thing that business distrusts.”

“It is one thing to have a selling proposition and quite another to sell it.”

“Just because your ad looks good is no insurance that it will get looked at. How many people do you know who are impeccably groomed…but dull?”

“We are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it. We are so busy listening to statistics we forget that we can create them.”

“Be provocative. But be sure your provocativeness stems from your product. You are NOT right if in your ad you stand a man on his head JUST to get attention. You ARE right if you have him on his head to show how your product keeps things from falling out of his pockets.”

“I warn you against believing that advertising is a science.”

“A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it’s bad.”

“Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques.”

“Advertising doesn’t create a product advantage. It can only convey it.”

“The difference between the forgettable and the enduring is artistry.”

“Can you really judge an idea from a storyboard? How do you storyboard a smile?”

“There is practically nothing that is not capable of boring us.”

“Dullness won’t sell your product, but neither will irrelevant brilliance.”

“Getting a product known isn’t the answer. Getting it wanted is the answer. Some of the best known product names have failed.”

“It’s not how short you make it; it’s how you make it short.”

“Logic and over analysis can immobilize and sterilize an idea. It’s like love - the more you analyze it the faster is disappears.”

“A unique selling proposition is no longer enough. Without a unique selling talent it may die.”

“Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.”

“We don’t ask research to do what it was never meant to do, and that is to get an idea.”

“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of the society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”

“More and more I have come to the conclusion that a principle isn’t a principle until it costs you money."

Brand Nugget

A lady struck up a conversation with a marketer.

“Why”, she asked “did you put two Xs in Exxon?”

“Why ask?” he asked.

“Because”, she said, “I couldn't help noticing?”

“Well”, he responded, “that's the answer!”

The Smile File

Who said marketing isn’t fun. Here are some gems I found rummaging through books, scanning the net, chatting up with colleagues and friends, and interacting with professionals, clients and others over the years. Some might make you smile, some might make you think and some might end up doing both. If any of the three happened to you, the quotes have done their job!

'Marketing is what you do when your product is no good'.

'There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman down, simply by spending his money somewhere else'.

'To err is human; to blame it on someone else shows management potential'.

'Price is what you pay. Value is what you get'.

'Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark.
You know what you are doing, but no one else does'.

'People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to'.

'Don't tell my mother I work in an advertising agency; she thinks I play piano in a whorehouse'.

'What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising?
Unethical advertising uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public'.

'Well-managed brands live on - only bad brand managers die'.

'In this fast-paced world, today's popular brand could be tomorrow's trivia question'.

'A global brand-building strategy is, in reality, a local plan for every market'.

Marketing Explained

Marketing professors, academicians and theoreticians struggle to explain marketing concepts to layman in an easy-to-use manner. Here is a gem I found somewhere. It explains the key terms in marketing and leaves every reader with a clear idea about what this damn business discipline is all about. Those who struggle to understand the key marketing terms even after reading this deserve to remain a marketing illiterate.

Here is it, Enjoy!

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You go up to her and say, "Hi, I'm great in bed, how about it?” That's Direct Marketing.

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You give your friend a tenner. She goes up and says, "Hi, my friend over there is great in bed, how about it?” Now, that's Advertising.

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You somehow mop up her mobile number. You call and chat her up a while and then say, "Hi, I am great in bed, how about it?" That's Tele-Marketing.

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You recognize her. You walk up to her, refresh her memory and get her to laugh and giggle and then suggest, "Hi, I am great in bed, how about it?" That's Customer Relationship Management.

You go to a party and you see an attractive girl across the room. You put on your spring boots and walk around playing Mr. Busy. You put on your best smile and walk around being Mr. Congenial. You fresh all the Thesaurus links in your memory and play Mr. Polished. You stand straight, you talk soft and smooth, you open the door for the ladies, you smile like a dream, you set an aura around you playing the Mr. Gentleman and then you move up to the girl and say, "Hi, I am great in bed, how about it?" That's Hard Selling.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say, "I am very rich. Marry me!" She turns her face towards you. Shit, she is your wife!
That's Competition grabbing your market share.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, "I'm rich. Marry me" She gives you a nice hard slap on your face. That's Customer Feedback.

You go to a party, you see an attractive girl across the room. She comes over and says, "Hi, I hear you're great in bed, how about it?" Now that is the power of Branding!

The Perfect 10!

Have you heard of UPGA?

No, it’s not a society against cruelty to animals nor is it a green movement aiming to save the environment though it sounds close. UPGA, when expanded, reads ‘Unilever Principles for Great Advertising’.

I know most marketers and advertisers think the term Unilever Advertising is more an oxymoron. I am not getting into that debate – whether Unilever advertising is boring or not - not because I don’t believe it, but more because I think it’s a subject matter worthy of debate at a different time. Though I should hasten to add here that companies like P&G and Unilever make effective advertising (most of the time if not every time) thought it might not be seen spectacular in the eyes of the advertising fraternity.

Al Ries and Jack Trout punch the noses of critics hard when they say this: ‘It has become fashionable in Madison Avenue to pooh-pooh P&G advertising but it would be nice to note that P&G makes more money than all 6,000 ad agencies combined’!

The point is these companies do advertising that seems to work most of the time. Proof: both P&G and Unilever are Fortune 500 companies and quite high up in the order as well. I believe it’s got to do with good marketing and even better advertising.

This article is about one of the two companies referred earlier – Unilever – and the set of principles that drive their advertising worldwide. A set of ten principles collectively referred to as the UPGA.

Interestingly, Hindustan Lever is accused of stealing P&G ideas from abroad so much so that a HLL Brand Manager even confessed to me sometime ago that UPGA should ideally stand for ‘Use P&G Advertising’!

What follows is the result of years of Unilever experience in advertising. It is distilled into ten Principles. In all good advertising these principles are present. Read it and if you believe it makes sense don’t forget to thank Unilever.

1. It concentrates on one big idea
The brand’s benefit to the consumer is conveyed, not just by a selling message, let alone a series of messages. But single-mindedly by one big idea – a visual and or aural expression of that one big concept exclusively linked to the brand. In other words, an idea that is arresting, exciting and unexpected.

2. Its promise discriminates a brand from its competitors
The ad must communicate a benefit. But it must distinguish that benefit from others promised by competitive brands. The brand must therefore communicate uniqueness. Uniqueness may reside in the physical brand itself (e.g., formulation) or in some other value inextricably associated with the brand. One of those values is the advertising. Thus whether the benefit is unique or not, its expression must be.

3. It involves the target consumer
It has immediate dramatic impact, arouses interest, holds and deepens that interest. It elicits a favourable emotional response by appealing to the consumer’s self interest, relating to a known need or problem and promising satisfaction of that need or a solution to the problem.

4. It establishes / develops a relationship with the consumer
A relationship is built on mutual understanding. The situation shown, the style of presentation, the people depicted the language and tone of voice used…all reveals the advertiser’s understanding of, and sympathy with, the consumer’s experience and aspirations. The ad should induce a strong feeling in favour of the brand and establish a preference for the brand, so that the consumer feels confident in choosing it.

5. It is credible – it feels genuine
Statements made, demonstrations shown must not be misleading. They must be fully accepted by the consumer. Though the manner of presentations may involve humour or hyperbole, the fundamental brand benefit must always by felt to be obtainable.

6. It is simple and clear
Anything that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood. Too many thoughts, too many impressions will confuse and lose the consumer’s attention. The execution should be simple and the expression unambiguous. It should be clear from the ad what the target consumer is expected to do. This does not mean that everything needs to be spelled out. Communication is two-way. The consumer should participate.

7. It integrates the brand name with the central idea
The big idea must be inextricably linked to the brand name. It must be remembered only in association with the brand.

8. It takes advantage of each medium
Ideally, the big idea should find expression in all media (TV, Print, Radio, Internet, Outdoor, and Direct mail). Each medium has its own characteristics, which offer opportunities for exploitation. The big idea itself is fundamental, but the writing and design of the ad should take maximum advantage of the media possibilities available.

9. The idea must be campaignable
The big idea will endure. It is not a single ad but a campaign. It is not one campaign but a series of campaigns. It is capable of development. This is more than simple repetition or even variations on a theme. The big idea will not only endure, it will grow.

10.It must help build the brand personality
Each ad affects the consumer’s perception of the brand. If any one ad conflicts with that perception it will cause, at best a neutral, at worst a negative feeling. Several such ads will begin to weaken the brand personality. It is vital therefore to ensure consistency. Each ad should help to build or reinforce the desired brand personality.