I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking the guys that have the marketing accounts for the big banks and mortgage brokers are going to need to look towards those crisis management experts, and in a big way. Throughout this financial crisis which we’re told Could Be The End Of Our World As We Know It™, I’m still seeing commercials for the big mortgage guys saying “Now’s a great time to refinance” and from the National Association of Realtors, “Now’s the best time to buy a home.” Or how about the banks – just saw a commercial for WaMu, I think, within the last couple of days. The marketing guys seem to be asleep at the switch – if you can’t pull a commercial or cancel a media buy, it might be a good idea to keep an emergency spot in the can, just in case. Say, something like:
“Here at Comatose Bank, we take your financial security very seriously. While there are a lot of rumors, innuendos, speculation, and even facts in the media, please understand that we are doing everything we can to put our customers first, and keep your finances on solid footing. As a valued customer, we’ll keep you informed. Rest assured, your money is safe, and here at Comatose, it’s business as usual.”
On the other hand, perhaps humor might be a good way to deal with the truth. After all, as long as you’ve still got your sense of humor, all is not lost. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s veer into the political arena for a nanosec, and talk about a couple of recent events – and how they pertain to marketing.
Yesterday, John McCain announced he would temporarily suspend his campaign, in order to go back to Washington and help pass the bailout legislation that would save our financial bacon. Those that support McCain insist that his move was statesman-like. Those that don’t, insist that he was practicing gamesmanship. Read the rest of this entry »
Seen the latest Microsoft TV commercial? I won’t bore you with a YouTube link…visually, it’s not that different from the first one – you know…the one that was Microsoft’s lame answer to the brilliant “I’m a Mac…and I’m a PC” spots by Apple. The new spot is just different enough to be blog-worthy. In this spot, the John Hodgman clone (savor the irony there), say’s “I’m a PC…and I’m not alone.” He’s then joined by his minions of similarly-brainwashed Vista victims (we presume they’re victims of that craptacular BugFest that is Vista – they [wisely] never bother to mention their O/S affiliation). Their name is Legion say things like “I’m a PC.” “No…I’M a PC.” Nobody’s gonna confuse this tribe with Spartacus. No, but if you listen long enough (but if you don’t, I can’t says i blame you…Tivo away, campers!), the effect sounds more like an AA meeting than it does a product endorsement.
One of the first tasks that journalism students tackle in class is to write their own obituary. That sounds a little macabre, but there’s a method to the madness – writing about yourself is considerably more difficult than writing about someone else. (In fact, the trick to writing your own obit is to pretend you’re writing it about someone else.)
Marketing yourself is a lot like that. For some reason (false modesty, a societal proscription against bragging, whatever), it’s a lot harder to market yourself than it is to market someone else.
Recently, I’ve had the challenge to market myself, in order to build bookings for live, musical performance. It’s interesting, because while I am typically fearless when recommending marketing ideas to clients, when you’re doing it yourself, it’s a lot harder. But why? I have a theory (what a surprise!)… Read the rest of this entry »
It’s nothing new, but a surefire way to get the public’s attention is to use SEX. Sex sells. However, with everybody and their funny uncle using sex to sell now-a-days, many marketers have found that they need a little something “extra” to rise above the noise of cleavage, hot, sweaty bodies, and innuendo. (When marketing ethics and morals exit through the door, sex comes innuendo. Ba-dum-DUM.) The latest vendor to try something even more outrageous in the SexOlympics is…drum roll please…Old Spice. Read the rest of this entry »
Evidently, Microsoft got the message that the Jerry Seinfeld ads weren’t working. (Hard to tell if you’ve arrived if you have no idea where you’re going.) That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Mickeysoft has decided that a one-to-one face-off with Apple would be a good idea.
What is spin? From a marketing frame of reference, spin can be defined as using marketing and public relations to influence public opinion in your favor, by way of slanting the argument. Spin is a fact of life. Some spin is opaque. Some is transparent. Some is so well-constructed that it’s virtually invisible. But spin is usually REactive, not PROactive. To be more accurate, spin is usually employed as damage control as a tool of defense, rather than as a offensive tool.
In recent years, we’ve seen spin that would make a top envious from organizations like the tobacco growers, automobile makers, and scads of politicians (who virtually invented spin). Last night, I saw a TV spot for a group that has decided to take spin to a new level, proactively seeking to change the hearts and minds of the great unwashed before they even get their hackles up regarding the group’s product. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m increasingly interested in cause and effect, and patterns. Part of that has to do with my ‘day job’ as a marketer. Part has to do with my hobby of practicing sleight-of-hand magic. (The two relate more closely, sometimes, than I’d care to admit.)
When I see a great magician, like everybody else in the audience, I try to figure out how the illusion works. It’s quite a bit easier to figure out the mechanics of it, once you know the secret. The same is true about big marketing projects – the best marketing is invisible…you don’t notice it, and it seems as though everything just happened spontaneously. Read the rest of this entry »
Appologies to Marshall McLuhan, but have you noticed what’s going on in the Presidential sweepstakes lately? The slogans, they are a-changin’, and when slogans change, you can bet your bottom contribution that there’s a major shakeup in the campaign strategies.
Early on, McCain latched onto the “Maverick” brand as his own. He doggedly trotted out his willingness to go against his own party, and be his own man. This consistency helped, but it was never the home run he was hoping for. Lately, he’s gone with “Country First” – a not-so-subtle jab at Barack “Citizen of the World” Obama.
I’ve been reading a pretty interesting book – John Stossel’s latest. He makes some fascinating points, especially regarding the inequities of how rules and laws are used to enforce social policy. Stossel points out that rules like Title IX (the Federal statute dictating that boys and girls sports programs must be “equal.” The result of the law is that schools are finding they have to cut down on boys sports, because of a lack of enrollment/participation by girls.
Other chapters cover how attorneys have profited by suing over junk science witch hunts (DDT, irradiated foods, et cetera). It’s riveting stuff, especially when you realize that there is a radical disconnect between what we are told is the “truth” and what’s really going on. What emerges is a pattern – a pattern that shows that one little erroneous factoid or malicious story generated by some special-interest group can get picked up and amplified by a media hungry for any kind of story that can be sensationalized. Their over-hyping then triggers an over-reaction government, motivated by self-interest and a desire to “fix” everything by way of taxation and/or regulation. In effect, within this system, the truth is either immaterial, or collateral damage to the goals and aims of the special interests/media/government. Read the rest of this entry »
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I’ve been reading a pretty interesting book – John Stossel’s latest. He makes some fascinating points, especially regarding the inequities of how rules and laws are used to enforce social policy. Stossel points out that rules like Title IX (the Federal statute dictating that boys and girls sports programs must be “equal.” The result of the law is that schools are finding they have to cut down on boys sports, because of a lack of enrollment/participation by girls.
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