Archive for January, 2009

When I’m not working at my “day job” running a marketing/advertising/design agency, I’m a professional musician. Right now, I’m trying to put a band together here in Amarillo to play in restaurants, nightclubs, and private parties. Now nobody’s gonna confuse Amarillo with, say, Dallas or Austin, as far as a music scene goes. Most of what you hear up here in the Panhandle, frankly leans toward the country music side of things. I want to create a jazz group – I’ll play vibes and sing, with a piano, bass and drums. A group like that could cover a lot of material – traditional jazz, Latin, standards, pop tunes – you name it. We could play everything from Nat ‘King’ Cole and Diana Krall to Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock to Harry Connick Jr. and Micheal Bublé. Read the rest of this entry »

Noticed a couple of new Glade spots in rotation, featuring the enigmatic Dori Kelly. I mention this for a couple of reasons – first, the product they are pushing – an air freshener with a motion detector that prevents wasting a lot of scent when nobody is there to appreciate it – is pretty cool. Second, I’ve been keeping an eye on my blog stats, and they are waaaaaay up, in no small part due to people hitting my site looking for information on the afore-mentioned Ms. Kelly. I’m not too proud to pander, in order to boost readership. Third (and more germane to this blog) I’m curious as to why SC Johnson (owners of the Glade brand) are not attempting to parlay interest in Dori Kelly into more publicity for their product. Read the rest of this entry »

Running an ad agency, I’m painfully aware at how crazy this business can be. I take some comfort in the words of W.S. “Babs” Gilbert (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame) who opined, “There is humor in all things.” The agency biz is one part comedy, one part drama, a smattering of action, and an occasional dash of tragedy. To outsiders, peeking behind the curtain of an agency is akin to standing backstage and watching a magician work.

Hollywood has recently discovered that agency life has a great deal of potential for storylines, characters, and settings. Of course, since Hollywood believes that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (or plagiarism), we now have not one, but two shows that are built around ad agency life. Read the rest of this entry »

Ricardo Montalbán, corporate shill.

If you are part of the under-20 set, the guy who played the Spy Kids grandpa just died. If you’re under 40, Khan’s wrath is a thing of the past. But if you’re 50 or older, Mr. Roarke has welcomed his last guest to Fantasy Island. Or if you’re like me, the phrase “fine Corinthian leather” is one for the history books.

Emmy Award-winning Actor/Corporate Spokesman/SciFi Icon/Groundbreaking Latino actor Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino (a.k.a. “Ricardo Montalbán) died on January 14 (ironically, the same day that another SciFi icon, Patrick McGoohan passed away). If you’re into marketing and advertising, take a moment to ponder the significance of how Montalbán contributed to the history of marketing. Read the rest of this entry »

Bait and Switch. If you’re not familiar, it’s a term that refers to the rather slimy practice of selling a prospect on one product/service/idea, and then changing what you deliver, after the agreement is in place. It might be claiming that a product on eBay is “new” or “like new” when in fact, it turns out to be used. It might be a car salesman that promises side-curtain airbags and a GPS/Radio, but when you take delivery, both features are missing. Or it might be a multi-billion dollar financial bailout that suddenly becomes a multi-TRILLION dollar pork barrel trough, with no accountability in sight.

Any way you slice it, it ain’t pretty.

So how does this happen? I blame a combination of opportunity, misplaced trust, a lack of negotiations in good faith, and the ever-popular “human nature.”

Take, for example, the TARP bailout. The cause? The illogic and over-extension of the financial markets had finally caught up with them. It seems that when you game the system (like the Dems did, to create a system where people that couldn’t afford to buy a home suddenly could, and those that could afford a modest home, suddenly could purchase more home than they could afford), the eventual result is those financially insolvent chickens eventually come home to roost. The effect? Our Congressional leadership railroaded a bailout bill through the House and Senate with no real oversight, and no real restrictions on what could be done with the money. While I believe the first plan (buy up all the bad debt for homes, sell the loans to lenders, use the money to cover the spread) was flawed, the fact that they abandoned that (in record time, I might add) and used the money to assume government control of the banking system, is a nightmare for any free-market capitalist.

The Bush and Obama administrations did a number on us all, by ramrodding the bill through Congress. But the effect of the mendacity and the bait and switch may have longer and more disastrous effects, both in th long and short terms. You see, Obama will have a grace period. But I doubt it will last as long as he expects – or hopes. And when positive results are not forthcoming, the people will be very unhappy. The media has sold the country on Obama’s “Change” mantra, and the idea that he can fix what’s wrong. Unfortunately for all of us, I seriously doubt he can. It’s a Herculean task, and history tells us that you simply can’t spend your way out of a recession/depression. Everything Obama has planned will attempt to do just that. His staff marketing team will do their best to sell us all on the infallibility of his plan. That’s to be expected. But when the plan doesn’t bear fruit, I expect we’ll see a bunch of dissatisfied voters waking up to the idea that they’ve been sold a bill of goods – not once, but twice.

Bait and Switch is no way to run a country. Misrepresent your plans, change directions in mid-execution, or simply lie…call it what you will, but the bottom line will always be a bunch of customers – or in this case citizens – that will be calling for the heads of those in charge. It’s true in marketing. It’s true in finance. And it’s especially true in government, because it his everybody in the wallet – and that’s a volatile target.

For the last few administrations, it’s been tres au courant for Presidents to declare themselves, “The __________ President.” For instance, President Bush had intended to be the “Education President.” Unfortunately for all of us, 9/11 happened and by necessity, he became the “War on Terror President.” That happens a lot. You don’t get to pick what you’ll be remembered for. I forget now what Bill Clinton wanted to be known as, but for evermore, he will be known as the “Intern Chaser President” or the “Sexual Predator President.” Ouch. I’m not a psychic (nor do I play one on TV), but I think I know how Obama will go down in history. I think he will become the “Marketing President., ”

If Ronald Reagan was the “Great Communicator” (and he was), I feel certain that Obama will go down in history as the “Great Persuader,” for it looks as if he will be the first President (and his, the first administration) to use marketing as a weapon, to get what they want.

If this doesn’t scare the Hell out of you, it should.

As a marketer, I realize the awesome power of persuasion, and the responsibility we have as marketers to do the right things for the right reasons. In retail marketing, the market itself has a tendency to correct any excesses. Go overboard with product claims, and you’ll see the public vote with their wallets — and you’ll be out of a job. Get caught lying, and your product will be shuffled off to the marketing equivalent of Siberia. But in political marketing, it’s pretty much an “all spin, all the time” kind of pursuit. I mean, what’s the difference in a “lie” and a “campaign promise?” Lies aren’t forgotten. Campaign promises are. So what happens if Obama and his posse continue to treat this as one big campaign? I’m afraid we’re in big trouble. I figured that, once Obama is sworn in, he’d have to produce actual results, as opposed to more smoke and mirrors. If they keep marketing to us, that may not be the case.

It will be interesting to see just how long this keeps up — and for how long it continues to work. But I’m afraid that, no matter how long it does, marketing will never be the same…and even worse, marketing will take the fall, when people realize that much of what they’ve been told is no more substantial than the smoke and mirrors of a Presidential campaign.

Sorry I’ve been a bit distant of late…I’ve been working (feverishly) on wrapping up the crafting of a business plan for the Amarillo EnterPrize Challenge. It’s a yearly contest to find – and fund – a number of worthy entrepreneurs’ ideas. I have one (www.guitarfurniture.com) that’s in the running. The winners will be announced in late March.

This is a big honkin’ deal, people…the winners will receive a check for $75,000. (!) If my idea is selected, it means that I could, in one fell swoop (or one swell foop) get enough funding to launch our products, and not have to go out and get a loan or shill for angel funding. That’s HUGE. So I hope you’ll forgive me if I’ve been a little lax in posting to the ol’ blogs.

The contest deadline is Monday at 5PM, so bear with me, please.

So my daughter had her first Girl Scout meeting today. And I’m (sort of) surprised to learn that we’re (mostly) ahead of the curve on this cookie thing. That my daughter is an overachiever comes as no surprise to me. As I’ve mentioned before, she is single-mindedly obsessive about anything she chooses to focus upon. What surprised me was that as novice scouts go, she’s gotten out of the gate with record speed. What also surprised me is that she’ll have plenty of opportunities between now and the end of February to sell cookies on her own. I would have thought that they’d have group activities scheduled for every weekend between now and the Girl Scouts equivalent of D-Day. (C-Day?) But they don’t. That’s good, in that she’ll have some time to be able learn something about sales and marketing on her own (with my supervision). That’s bad, in that it’s going to make it harder, I would think, for her to sell the number of cookies she wants to move. She has her sights set on a Nintendo Wii, which will take moving some 2,000 boxes to earn.

That’s a LOT of cookies. Read the rest of this entry »

My daughter is a newly-minted Girl Scout. In fact, her first official troop meeting is tomorrow, after school. She’s excited about Girl Scouts for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that she’ll get to sell cookies.

That’s right. She’s excited about selling Girl Scout cookies.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

My daughter is a force of nature. She Who Will Not Be Swayed. She focuses like a laser beam on whatever strikes her fancy du jour, and can withstand all efforts to divert her attentions – gale-force winds, a pack of sled dogs, 20 Mule Team Borax, you name it. Having been down this obssesion road once or twice before, I’ve learned that it’s like the tide – no use swimming against it. I’ve also learned that every now and then, I can use this obsession to try and give her a little real-world experience in things within my area of expertise, in this instance, sales and marketing. So let’s talk about marketing cookies. Read the rest of this entry »

[Note: this is an expanded that originally appeared on Captain Digital Speaks! from 2005.]

There’s an old saw in show business about the five stages of an actor’s career. It goes something like this:

Who is Jack Nicholson?

Get me Jack Nicholson!

Get me a Jack Nicholson type.

Get me a ‘young’ Jack Nicholson.

Who is Jack Nicholson?
Marketing is a lot like that. I once worked for Micrografx as their creative director. Out of the blue a company out of Canada started running ads that offered a competitive product to our flagship release (Designer). Our software engineer’s response: “Who is Corel?”

Corel’s product launched and the trade press responded favorably. All of a sudden, it was no longer “Micrografx Designer and it’s competitors,” but Micrografx Designer and newcomer Corel Draw!.

After our design team failed to take Corel seriously, the press started saying “Micrografx Designer and Corel Draw!” and shortly “Corel Draw! and Micrografx Designer.”

As Micrografx Designer showed it’s age – and a new version was slow in coming, we heard “Corel Draw, and other applications like Micrografx Designer.” Read the rest of this entry »