01/17/11
Building demand for demand.
Recently, I was introduced to a study regarding the stock market. It proved a simple, yet revolutionary concept: stocks are more about picking what others deem as popular rather than choosing your own preference.
The experiment went like this: Three videos were shown to thousands of participants. The videos consisted of cute animals. The participants were split into two groups: those that selected their OWN preference for cutest video, and those that were asked to predict what EVERYONE ELSE would choose.
From Group A, a video of a kitten received 54% of the votes.
76% of Group B predicted that the kitten would be selected.
The difference isn’t contradictory – in fact it’s predictable. But the difference in the groups creates an artificial (yet very real) 22% difference. In other words, if those videos were stocks, the kitten video would increase 22% more than the market dictates because people and institutions buy stocks based on predicting other people’s decisions – not their own.
This 22% spread explains why bubbles occur in the stock market, and how manias happen. When you pick based on other’s opinions, you get a skewed view of demand – and a very real momentum is created. Demand builds demand as popularity skews the decision making process.
All this got me to thinking: how does this relate to brand demand? After all, it is our job to create demand, and build a buzz that helps inflate preference. In other words, we take your video and make it the cutest in order to get preference AND build demand for demand.
Why do people drink Coke vs. Pepsi? I’d be willing to bet that there is a major percentage spread of people that drink it because others do. Why do people choose the bigger, more well-known brand vs. a lesser known one? Because they want to be on the winning team, making the most popular decision. It’s human nature.
Demand creates inflated demand. Brand differentiation and dominance helps create demand for demand.
How does this get applied in real world? Sometimes ROI is not the point - pure dominance is the point. The brand with the largest presence doesn’t beat out #2 by small margin. The small margin creates an artificially larger margin created by perception, which is why you rarely see #1 and #2 as close competitors. Brand dominance creates demand for demand, with translates to market dominance.
In other words, it’s time to be the cuter kitty.
10/26/10
Campaign thinking v. brand thinking.
There is a fundamental issue that keeps coming up in our industry. We’ve heard it from potential clients. We’ve seen it time and time again in the marketplace. And brands continue to paint themselves in a corner by not understanding the sometimes subtle, sometimes stark difference between building a brand and executing a campaign. The basic premise is this: your brand transcends any initiative or moment in time. It is the foundation for which a campaign is launched, but the reverse should never be true. A campaign, built in a vacuum, might be perfectly effective for a time, but creates brand chaos if not built as part of the larger brand story. We find that the “older school” the agency, the more likely they will approach any assignment through campaign thinking first. How will you know? Breaking it down simplistically:
Campaign thinking:
Reacts to your latest initiative without regard to brand foundation.
Brand thinking:
Takes the long view. Includes never-wavering brand values. It creates your position in the marketplace that you are committed to staking.
Campaign thinking:
What’s hot right now. How can I best take advantage? This is appropriate, but can never be at the risk of becoming your brand.
Brand thinking:
What will always be relevant. What are you going to be in 5 years, 10 years? Is it accommodating?
Campaign thinking:
A new tagline every media budget cycle.
Brand thinking:
A tagline that will last 10-plus years.
Campaign thinking:
Starting from scratch every year. Advertising the latest feature.
Brand thinking:
Creating a community, building a fan base. Communicating a customer-centric thought.
Campaign thinking:
Traditional agency thinking: find a way to reinvent (and thus re-invoice) every year.
Brand thinking:
New agency standard: Stewardship. Finding a way to simplify and clarify over time.
Campaign thinking:
Reacting to competitors, treating them as moving targets.
Brand thinking:
Transcending your competitors. Inventing a new language. Creating a new standard and living up to it.
Campaign thinking:
RFP/spec work/creative shoot out.
Brand thinking:
Gathering voice of customer. Testing. Being patient. Crafting a solution based on information.
Campaign thinking:
Media-specific application.
Brand thinking:
Transcends media choices. Applicable to any.
You get the idea. But don’t get me wrong - the two ways of thinking are not mutually exclusive. Brand thinking still requires highly creative campaigns, but it insists that you do so in a manner that is consistent, informed, and will fit into a larger dialogue.
At least that’s our thinking.
02/23/10
Phire Branding wins 19 Awards at this year’s Addy competition
We are proud to announce a very successful night at this year's Addy Awards. Nineteen awards in all, we were lucky enough to win in numerous categories and in a variety of vertical markets. The Addy winners will move on to compete at Districts for further consideration. We'd like to thank everyone who helped put together a wonderful awards celebration this year. But most of all, we'd like to thank our clients for allowing us/helping us/working with us to let us do what we do.
Results for the 2010 Ann Arbor Ad Club Addy Awards competition include:
JUDGES’ CHOICE
Phire Branding Company
Clancy’s Fancy Brand Relaunch
JUDGES’ CHOICE
Phire Branding Company
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Campaign
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, Consumer Flash, Products
Clancy’s Website
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
MIXED/MULTIPLE MEDIA: Consumer, Regional / National
Clancy’s Fancy Brand Relaunch
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
SALES PROMOTION: Packaging, Campaign
Clancy’s Fancy Packaging
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, B-to-B Flash, Services
Pitney Bowes Marketing Solutions
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION:
Creative Services and Industry Suppliers, Interactive
Phire Branding Company Website
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
OUT-OF-HOME: Campaign, Out-of-Home, Campaign
Flint Journal Outdoor
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES:
Collateral, Brochure / Sales Kit
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Brochure
ADDY
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES:
Campaign, Mixed / Multiple Media Campaign
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Campaign
Silver
Phire Branding Company
SALES PROMOTION: Product or Service Sales
Presentation, Catalog
Merillat Masterpiece Catalog
Silver
Phire Branding Company
SALES PROMOTION: Product or Service Sales Presentation,
Sales Kits or Product Information Sheets
Clancy’s Fancy Sales Brochure
Silver
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, B-to-B HTML/Other, Services
Second To None
Silver
Phire Branding Company
INTERACTIVE MEDIA: Websites, Consumer
HTML/Other, Products
Dale Earnhardt Website
Silver
Phire Branding Company
TELEVISION: Cinema Advertising, In-Theatre Commercials or Slides
Clancy’s Fancy Cinema
Silver
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES:
Broadcast/Electronic, Interactive
Ann Arbor Summer Festival Website
Silver
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION:
Creative Services and Industry Suppliers, Collateral
Phire Branding Company Book
Silver
Phire Branding Company
ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION:
Campaign, Single Medium Campaign
Phire Branding Company Advertising
Silver
Phire Branding Company
MIXED/MULTIPLE MEDIA: Consumer, Local
Be Saline Campaign
Advertising, Awards, B-to-B, B-to-C, Community, Design, Interactive, News
01/29/10
New website: Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
Phire announces the launch of a comprehensive website for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Working closely with the Earnhardt family and licensing partners, we were able to bring the Dale Earnhardt experience forward into a brand new experience. Starting with a survey of DEI employees, a web survey of 60,000+ fans, this site represents the Dale experience. Complete with CMS, a fully-functioning integrated store, videos, and more, we are helping give #3 a home on the web that's truly worthy. www.daleearnhardt.com. The site officially launched on 12.31.09.
01/22/10
The Intelligent Booth at IBS
At this year's International Builder Show, we helped three brands of the Masco Builder Cabinet Group make a big splash with a clean, interactive, powerful experience that was true to their exciting new offerings. With touch screens everywhere, evolved and cohesive brand messaging throughout, we led the look, feel, messaging, and many of the technical elements within the show. It also included live Social Media, Polls, and analytics throughout. We led collaboration with 3 other agencies and several vendors. The result was one their most successful shows ever - with a dramatic improvement over last year's leads and overall attention.
08/24/09
Newspapers, advertising.
It's no secret that newspapers are having a tough time. But smaller, more focused local papers are finding that their readership loyalty is stronger than ever.
We helped Booth Mid-Michigan create an outdoor campaign for each of their cities: Flint, Bay City, and Saginaw. These will help assuage fears and rumors in the community that the papers are disappearing. In fact, they are becoming stronger than ever.
08/13/09
The answer is simple.
Nearly every situation and organization we walk into shares a common theme: communications have become more complex, more layered, and the sales process has gotten murky and difficult to manage. The common problem? The company is way too close to the products and services, and the day-to-day operation and politics. More often than not, we are there to simplify.
Easier said than done? Absolutely. Stakeholders talk about the reasons why they cannot change using similar language and patterns. Generally, it is people who are so passionate about their one piece of the pie that they fail to see the other pieces and their own individual passions. Our biggest early challenge is getting people to see the big picture and understand the greater purpose of the organization.
First, we strip away the years of cobwebs: the politics, the outdated reasoning, turn over of people – all the things that lead to an inward-looking organization. Then we talk with customers: the current ones, some prospects, and a few that left. We find out the true pain points vs. the ones that seem to be prevalent from the inside looking out.
A common thing that we find is that the company is no longer capable of seeing past the day-to-day tasks. Even mission and vision sessions have diminishing returns almost immediately because of their lack of implementation and tangible results. Unless the outside world sees your reason for being, it really doesn’t matter at all.
Too many companies also just go through a cosmetic rebrand. That is, they paint over the cracked paint and think they have made a difference. A true rebrand goes deep: scrapes the old paint off, sands thoroughly, cleans up, and then starts to repaint once again
It takes a lot more work, but the result is always cleaner, simpler, more evident to the outside world, and far more sustainable. And it begins to pay dividends right away.
08/4/09
Stop marketing. Start “marking”.
In the traditional world, marketing has been all about push. Just send out as many things to an audience as possible and hit them until they start paying attention. But people have changed. Now, it’s about creating a brand that makes a mark in someone’s mind so that a customer is drawn to you. You must create a gravitational pull toward your brand – and leaving a solid mark in a potential customer’s mind is the only way to do it.
How can this be accomplished? It’s a change of mindset. You must think of your brand as a living entity, capable of conversation and engagement instead of just standing on a soapbox and yelling. It must have the ability to respond, react, answer, and build a relationship.
Where do you begin? Make certain you have something important to say. This happens just like any other conversation you have in life – you’d better understand your audience inside and out. Don’t assume they just care about “value” or “quality”. Maybe they care more about intelligence and consistency. Once you begin the conversation, you need to give people a place to respond and engage. This type of communication will help imprint you in their minds, building trust, and gaining entry into your psyche in powerful ways. Once you have this trust with customers, the sale has already been made, and you only have to be available instead of needing to inundate.
We call it marking. Which is much more complex and nuanced than marketing.
In many ways it’s much more complicated to execute. But once it’s underway, it feels far more natural and empowering to both you and your prospects.
07/23/09
Does your brand need work?
When a brand let’s itself go, there isn’t a defining moment. It’s a series of almost unseen, unremarkable moments. The best brands in the world can head down a slippery slope quickly if they aren’t cared for on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis.
- You have no idea what’s on your own company’s website. You haven’t been there in months. You don’t really want to go there right now.
- You currently present using a 7th generation PowerPoint. You click to see the original author. You don’t recognize the name.
- You always frame what your company does by first saying “we used to”.
- You search for your company on Google News and the most recent item is a press release from 2003 announcing that your company hired someone who hasn’t worked there since 2005.
- You have lost more than 5 consecutive pitches. In at least one of them, you were asked the question, “what makes you different?” You then inadvertently explain why you’re exactly the same, just a little less dynamic or interesting.
- Your business card was once a proud hand out – 2 sided, thick, uncoated, and well designed. Now, it’s a fourth generation card on a flimsy stock that is glossy and has basic information listed in a font that simply doesn’t belong.
- You used to get tons of calls to the HR department with people excited to work at your company. Now, those calls are all outbound.
- Your trade show booth was once a Mecca of activity and excitement. Now, it’s a heavy, overproduced, out-dated monument to the late 90’s.
- You cut your prices recently. And then again. If you can’t beat ‘em, undersell them.
- You dreaded waking up and going into work today. And every day. Not due to lack of interest. Just lack of vision and direction.
07/13/09
Advertising through Social Networking?
“Paid advertising on online social networks in the US is expected to fall 3% in 2009.” (eMarketer, 2009)
With all of the attention and buzz social networking has received, that may come as a shock to many, and as an “I told you so” to those inherently skeptical of the medium.
Many companies are clearly still trying to find their way with social networking. It appears that some have a presence on Facebook or Twitter for no other reason than that they feel they should. However, other companies have seen great success in targeting and reaching both niche audiences and in more broad consumer based initiatives.
We feel that the pull back is temporary as companies refine and integrate their efforts, and that social networking will have a major role in the advertising mix going forward.
2009 may be considered the year that companies worked to develop their presence within social networking sites, establishing content and fleshing out their environments. To us, this is a logical first step, which must be taken before more proactively advertising and working to draw new people.
Because it is such a new and emerging medium, we believe many companies are waiting to see which will take the lead (Facebook? Twitter?), and which will fall off the map (MySpace)? This will allow them to better focus their efforts, and not feel they need to be redundant with ad dollars spent and information/content they generate and share.
Once companies become more comfortable with social networking, it’s natural that they may circle back and work to see how to best integrate with their advertising/marketing efforts. When they do, they will find that they have a wealth of information at their fingertips, including deep data to target users (friend networks, likes, dislikes, and much much more).
Companies will learn to harness this data to deliver custom advertising that works on a more conversational, one-on-one manner. This is not your traditional mass communication, rather, it’s a more nuanced, information based approach that will allow companies to micro target and communicate like never before.
Advertising, B-to-B, B-to-C, Community, Interactive, Opinion
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