Denny’s Restaurants has been around for…well…for a long time. Long as I can remember, anyway. And they’ve been largely interchangeable, between their competition. I mean, can you really tell me how Denny’s differs from iHOP, Shoneys, or any of the other places that cater to big appetites with small wallets? I can’t. But Denny’s may have found a way to cut through the clutter and make a name for themselves. And it involves, of all things, television. Read the rest of this entry »

What in the HELL is going on with Toyota? Over the past 20 years, Toyota has acquired a rep for making quality vehicles. In fact, most surveys indicate that Toyota practically owns the “mindshare” outright for “quality” with the buying public, when it comes to automobile quality. But reputations are difficult to acquire – and easy to destroy. All it takes is one little P.R. disaster, and your carefully-crafted image as the King of Quality can be a thing of the past.

When it comes to corporate disasters, the problems with Toyota’s gas pedals is a doozy. From a PR perspective, this one ranks right up there with Union Carbide (Bhopal), Johnson and Johnson (Tylenol), and of course Ford/Firestone (Explorer). Which makes it all the more curious as to how Toyota seems to be dragging their feet in their response to the problem. Read the rest of this entry »

Pepsi Throwback: An idea who's time has come...and gone.

I admit it. I love colas. Far more than I should. In fact, when I wanna lose weight (which is most of the time), I swear off them (or swear at them), as it’s a great way to eliminate empty calories from my diet. But oh, what I lose when I do so…that rush I get with the morning’s first intake of caffeine! The bite of the cola as it trickles across my palette. The joy of cola, indeed.

But since I was a kid, colas – virtually ANY colas – have become a mere shadow of themselves, thanks to bottlers’ ever-changing formulas designed to save a buck. I speak of the vile change from the traditional pure cane sugar to the concoction known as “high-fructose corn syrup,” A.K.A.: “HFCS.” If you have a can or bottle of your carbonated sugar water beverage of choice at hand, feel free to take a gander at the ingredients. I’ll wait… Read the rest of this entry »

Like many brick and mortar businesses, Starbucks seems to be struggling with new media – specifically, how to treat WiFi. Is it a cost center? A profit center? A way to retain customers? A way to fill seats without monetizing them? The results are decidedly mixed. If the WiFi experience for coffee shops was a Magic 8 Ball, it would report “ANSWER HAZY…TRY AGAIN LATER.” But with any endeavor that involves customers, it’s a rule of thumb to keep things consistent. Nothing ticks off customers more than finding a situation where you pay for something at store A, and find it for free at store B – especially when the two stores are selling under the same corporate entity. Which is what makes a generally marketing-savvy company like Starbucks’ latest moves all the more puzzling. Read the rest of this entry »

Let me apologize in advance – this is gonna be a pretty quick post, but I haven’t written in a while, and I’ve been dying to talk about Pizza Hut and their misguided marketing. Have you seen their spots, where they get a bunch of people in some ostensibly well-known restaurant, give them food, and then have the owners blithely announce that THEY didn’t cook the food – that it came from Pizza Hut?

Let me tell you why this is wrong…on so many levels.

First of all, if I take my date to Chez Overpriced Dinners or Casa de Dinero, I’m expecting a great meal – especially if I’m paying a lot of dough for it. If I’m enjoying the meal and discover that the food I’m eating is actually some cheap stuff from Pizza Hut (that I can have delivered to my home) I’ve just lost all respect for the restaurant in question. I mean, why would I go spend money at a place that’s gonna sell me stuff I can get a lot cheaper at home? Take away the “let’s get out of the house” angle, and you’ve got…nuthin’.

Second, you’re essentially telling the world, “Pizza Hut products are just as good as restaurant-quality food.” Nobody’s REALLY gonna believe that – especially if they’ve tasted the Pizza Hut product. But it is going to make people stop and compare the two – and Pizza Hut will lose that comparision.

Third, it’s a mean-spirited idea. I can’t believe anybody’s gonna be delighted to learn that they’ve been fooled by a restaurant and by Pizza Hut. Kinda leaves a bad taste in my mouth, no pun intended.

Fourth, I’m really fed up (again, no pun intended…I’m just hungry), with businesses that are dissatisfied with their core biz, and decide to branch out. That’s not expanding a franchise, people. It’s called losing focus. If you’re Pizza Hut, sell pizza. Not pasta. Not hot wings. Pizza. Do that better than anybody else, and the world will beat a path to your door. Do it the way you’ve been doing it, and you’ll be wondering where your market dominance has gone. (Hint: to your competition.)

Marketing can’t make a bad idea good. It can’t make illogical things logical. Pizza Hut is guilty of trying to do both, in the first degree.

Remember the first time the Dems tried to get a government health care plan through Congress? Lemme refresh your memory. It was back during the Clinton years. Hillary was in charge, and she and her merry band of secret advisory panelists put together a plan with no outside input, then punted up to Capitol Hill. The plan was effectively D.O.A. One of the things that was credited with torpedoing the plan were commercials featuring “Harry and Louise” – a stereotypical, middle-age, made-for-TV couple, who turned out to be shilling for the Health Insurance Association of America, an industry lobbying group. The commercials showed them, sitting around the breakfast table, expressing genuine concern over how HillaryCare was about to force socialized medicine on the country. They were effective spots, and probably did more to  wake up the middle class as to what was going on in D.C. than anything else. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was a kid, I was in the Boy Scouts. I came home one day, with a bag full of supplies for my first Boy Scout camping trip. Giddy with a new find, I proudly regaled my Dad with the wonders of SPAM, not realizing that there was a reason that he was busy turning green as I talked. Seems he’d been well-acquainted with the joys of SPAM in WWII. Poor guy couldn’t think about SPAM without getting seriously queasy. He literally turned a pale shade of green.

I feel that way about Spam. There’s few things I can think of that bother me more than unsolicited intrusions into my online activities. What’s worse, is I’m now dealing with some Spammer that thinks it’s acceptable to hack into this blog and insert code so he can pump Spam to my readers.

I hate Spam. But I hate Spammers – and hackers – even more.

I can tell you it’s not been a problem for any of you – because this clueless hack is such a moron, he apparently doesn’t know how to properly hack a blog – his code simply makes my blog disappear. No code. Just a blank page. Mind you, I still don’t know how the little bastard is getting in…I’ve taken all the precautions I know, and I’m still getting several pages changed without permission.

I can promise you, though, that my patience is wearing thin. And I have a buddy who has a buddy that does high-level contract work for the code spooks at the NSA. I may call in a favor. Or three. And then we’ll see how much this little twerp likes it when HIS computer gets hacked.

I should have known better. Really. When a company has bad marketing, 99 times out of 100, it’s because of bad management at the top. You see, smart management won’t greenlight bad ads (at least not very often), so bad ads – particularly a bad series of ads is a bellwether of bad management. Case in point: UPS. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been visiting my Dad for the past week or so, and I’ve been watching his DirecTV. (When you’re visiting your parent, you’re activities are pretty much limited to what they do. He watches a LOT of TV.)

What’s interesting to me is the dichotomy between the ads from both DirecTV and Dish Network, versus the experience of actually using their services. Since I have Dish Network at home, I have a fair amount of perspective now on both systems.

Lately, Dish has been marketing themselves as a “cheaper” but every bit as full-featured alternative to DirectTV.  That’s definitely an “Avis” strategy (you know…”we’re number two, so we try harder”). I would therefore assume that Dish is running second to DirecTV in sales. (If they aren’t they need to take their marketing team out back and shoot them – this is NOT the right strategy for a market leader.) Dish, on the other hand, markets themselves against cable systems. I’m a big believer in satellite – I’ve had universally crappy service from cable, and there’s no way they can match satellite’s prices, largely due to their inherent disadvantage due to their fixed infrastructure costs.

What’s interesting, is that from their ads, aside from price, there’s little differentiate Dish and DirecTV from each other. That is, of course, until you use them.

As a user interface specialist, I’ve been underwhelmed forever and a day with Dish Network’s clunky U/I. I see so many things I could do better. I’ve been told that DirecTV’s is better. Not sure I agree with that. On the whole, I think the Dish Network’s remote is easier and more intuitive to use. Certainly, the modal nature of the DirecTV remote is a barrier to use – until you get used to it. On the plus side, DirecTV’s menus seem to allow more customization. On the negative side, that customization (which is largely to limit the lists to specific channels)  is harder to figure out, and once you have it customized, it’s difficult to switch modes (back to seeing everything, rather than just the ones you picked for your custom list). What’s interesting is that both systems could stand a U/I reworking, and neither seems to be overly-interested in what is an essential aspect of their product.

So which one is “better”? I don’t know. From a usability point of view, I’d say Dish wins. From a marketing point of view, DirecTV has better ads, and a market-leading strategy.  (I also worry about the DVR offered by Dish, and the fact that they will eventually lose their battle with TiVO, and I’ll probably be out one DVR.) This is largely a case where the edge in marketing (by DirecTV) probably translates to a sales lead – but not because of a superior product – but slightly better marketing.

As a creative guy, I love coming up with creative ways to market things. Nothing jazzes me more than to come up with an ad concept, a slogan, or a logo that will resonate with the public. But I’ve learned something about successful marketing over the years – repetition is the key to turning a great idea into effective marketing.

Repetition. Sounds simple. Just create your message, and repeat it, ad nauseum, until it works. Think of it as the marketers version of the Rinse, Lather, and Repeat instructions you find on shampoo bottles. Of course there’s more to it than that. If your message doesn’t resonate, it will get lost in the noise. But it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that if you don’t repeat your message enough, even the best marketing simply won’t work.

I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve had that either don’t commit to a big enough media buy, or they get bored with their spots and want to change them before it’s appropriate to do so. When you see a commercial enough to get bored with it, you’ve just witnessed marketing penetration. Everybody wants to run commercials or ads that get people talking, but successful marketing is not built on a momentary “buzz” (i.e.: “did you see that new ad for ________”), but on effective ads that are repeated over and over.

Another point that may have escaped your notice is that in life, everybody is a marketer. I’m dealing with a situation in my personal life right now that has brought that lesson home. Just like what the world learned in WWII, if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes indistinguishable from the truth. Having the truth on your side is nice, but it’s no guarantee that you’ll prevail. No, I’ve learned that repetition of a marketing message can overcome the truth, even when I have the truth on my side.

I’d love to tell you that truth will win in the long run. I’d love to tell you that if you have a superior product, or a message that resonates, you’ll win. But while being right or building a better mousetrap is good and important, remember that it’s no guarantee of success. Without repetition as a key component of your marketing, you’re fighting a battle where you are, effectively, an unarmed combatant.