WHAT’S THE BUZZ?

Consumers have long had a love-hate relationship with advertising. We enjoy watching music and celebrity laden commercials that are often more entertaining, humorous, or interesting than the programs they are sponsoring. We purchase magazines such as Glamour, Vogue and GQ, which contain more ad pages than articles. But many consumers are tired of being bombarded with sales messages and are turned off by advertising. This is especially true of Generation Y, the age cohort born between 1979 and 1994, which is 60 million strong. The Generation  Y cohort is three times the size of its Gen X predecessor, and its members constitute the biggest group to hit the U.S. market since the 72 million baby boomers, who are their parents. Having grown up in an even more media-saturated, brand-conscious world than their parents did, they respond to advertising differently and prefer to encounter marketing messages in different places or from different sources.

Marketers recognize that to penetrate the skepticism and capture the attention of the Gen Ys they have to bring their messages to these people in a different way. To do so, many companies are turning to a stealth type strategy known as buzz marketing, whereby brand come-ons become part of popular culture and consumers themselves are lured into spreading the message. Marketers are turning their brands into carefully guarded secrets that are revealed to only a few people in each community. Each carefully cultivated recipient of the brand message becomes a powerful carrier, spreading the word to yet more carriers, who tell a few more, and so on. The goal of the marketer is to identify the trendsetters in each community and push them into talking up the brand to their friends and admirers. As the senior vice president at Bates U.S.A., who developed a buzz campaign for Lucky Strike cigarettes, notes, “Ultimately, the brand benefits because an accepted member of the social circle will always be far more credible than any communication that could come directly from the brand.”

A number of marketers have used buzz marketing successfully. Rather than blitzing the airways with 30second commercials for its new Focus subcompact, Ford Motor Company recruited 120 trendsetters in five key markets and gave them each a Focus to drive for six months. According to Ford’s marketing communications manager, who planned and implemented the program, “We weren’t looking for celebrities. We were looking for the assistants to celebrities, party planners, disc jockeys—the people who really seemed to influence what was cool.” The recruits’ duties were simply to be seen with the car, to hand out Focus themed trinkets to anyone who expressed an interest in the car, and to keep a record of where they took the car. The program helped Ford get the Focus off to a brisk start, selling 286,166 units in its first full year.

Vespa motor scooter importer Piagio U.S.A. hired a group of attractive models to find the right cafes in and around Los Angeles and to interact with people over a cup of coffee or iced latte and generate buzz for the European bikes.

Even ad agencies that are heavily invested in traditional brand-building techniques acknowledge that buzz marketing has become a phenomenon. Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference—which describes how a small number of consumers can ignite a trend, if they’re the right ones—has become must reading among ad agency personnel. The chairperson and CEO of Grey Global Group notes, “Everybody has read The Tipping Point and is trying to figure out the underground streams to reach consumers. Everybody is experimenting with it.” For example, Reebok conducted more than 1,000 interviews to identify young Canadian women who were trendsetters among their peers. The company then gave 90 of these women a pair of $150 UShuffle DMX cross-trainers to get the funky shoes on the feet of these urban trend setters. The product seeding campaign helped make the product-line launch one of the most successful in the company’s history.

Some experts note that the growing popularity of buzz marketing could well spell its downfall. If everyone does it, it will no longer be buzz; it will simply be obscure and annoying advertising. And when consumers recognize that every company is trying to create a buzz for its brand, they are likely to be turned off to the technique. By then, of course, marketers will have found another stealth way to deliver their sales messages.

Sources: Garry Khermouch and Jeff Green,“Buzz Marketing,” Business Week, July 30,2001,pp.50–56; “Firms Reap Fruits of Product Seeding,” The Montreal Gazette,Sept.11,2001,p.D6.

WANT TO NAME A CAR OR DEVELOP AN AD CAMPAIGN? TRY ARCHETYPE RESEARCH,HYPNOSIS, OR SOMETHING ELSE UNCONVENTIONAL

Marketers are constantly trying to determine what goes on in the mind of consumers when they consider purchase decisions,view advertisements, and so on. Packages, brand names, ads and commercials are commonly researched in an attempt to improve their likelihood of success. Surveys, focus groups, in-depth discussions and a variety of other methods have been employed to find the “holy grail” of research that will provide insight into consumer’s minds. Recently some companies have turned to mind probing through less traditional methods including hypnosis and “archetype research.”

Take Daimler Chrysler for example. In searching for a “breakthrough” car, the company shunned traditional marketing research techniques and instead employed an unconventional approach known as archetype research.With billions of dollars of investments on the line, Chrysler recently shifted the bulk of its research to this methodology which was developed by a Frenchborn medical anthropologist, G.Clotaire Rapaille, whose previous work involved working with autistic children. To gain insights from deep inside consumers’ minds, Rapaille conducted three-hour focus group sessions, in which—with lights dimmed and mood music in the background—consumers were asked to look at a prototype of the newly designed PT Cruiser and to go far back into their childhood to discuss what emotions were evoked, as well as to write stories about their feelings. After the sessions, Rapaille and a team of Chrysler employees read the stories, looking for what they refer to as “reptilian hot buttons,” or nuggets of revealing emotions. According to Rapaille, remembering a new concept is dependent upon associating it with an emotion, and the more emotions evoked, the greater the likelihood of recall. The process led to significant design changes that resulted in a less-than-traditional-looking car that won an award as North America’s Car of the Year.

Actually, Chrysler was not the first to employ archetype research. Archetype research has also been applied to the naming of SUVs. What comes to your mind when you hear Bronco, Cherokee, Wrangler, Blazer, Yukon, Navigator, or Denali? What about Tahoe, Explorer, Range Rover, or Bravada? As SUVs are increasingly adopted by women (men are going for trucks), it is important to convey some image of the vehicles that meets the target market’s needs—conscious or subconscious. According to archetype research, these SUV names conjure up the wilderness, ruggedness, and the new frontier. To women,the size and safety of these vehicles are what they need to compete in this “less than civilized” environment. Does it work? No other product class has seen greater growth over the last 10 years.

But don’t think that it’s only the auto companies that want to know what’s in your head. The list of subscribers to archetype research includes AT&T, Boeing, GE, Lego, Kellogg, and Samsonite, just to name a few. At least 10 years prior to Chrysler’s use of the technique, Procter & Gamble employed Rapaille to determine that aroma sells more coffee than taste because of the emotional ties to home. The Folger’s coffee ad in which a young soldier returns home and brews a pot of coffee that causes his sleeping mother to wake up and sense that he has returned is a direct result of that research. General Motors has also used this research methodology.

In an equally unconventional approach, California wine maker Domain Chandon and its ad agency D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles of Los Angeles conducted focus groups of hypnotized consumers. In the groups, participants were asked to discuss their experiences and feelings about the first time they drank champagne and/or sparkling wine. According to Chandon and D’Arcy, traditional focus groups lead to “surface” discussions whereas drinking champagne involves more of an “inside”-driven and emotional response. By hypnotizing the participants, they felt they could get behind the barriers set up in conscious minds. The approach apparently worked; as noted by Diane Dreyer, senior VP at D’Arcy, some participants revealed romantic and sexual experiences that “I’m sure they wouldn’t share in the waking state.” The input from the groups was used in the development of a new advertising campaign that featured a sexual and passionate appeal, as well as a new logo. Essentially, the research led to a whole new positioning for the brand, with ads placed on billboards and in travel and epicurean magazines, as well as a move into e-commerce.

Retail consultant Paco Underhill attempts to explain why consumers buy. With a degree in Chinese history, Underhill shifted his emphasis to environmental psychology and like Rapaille, found the consulting world much more lucrative. Equating the modern-day shopper with the “hunter-gatherer” mentality of the past, he sees men as shopping because of an obsession with a single item. Women, on the other hand, look upon shopping as a social occasion that provides a sense of liberation. At the mall they can escape their husbands and families, exercise their judgments and see and be seen. Is this what women did in the caveman days?

Traditional or not, millions of dollars are now being invested in previously unheard-of techniques. Billions more are riding on the results. Are you willing to take the risk?

Sources: Phil Patton,“Car Shrinks” Fortune,March 18,2002,pp. 187–190; Alice Z.Cuneo,“Domain Chandon Looks beyond the Celebrations,” Advertising Age,July 19,1999,p.9; Abigail Goldman, “Expert Offers Retailers Glimpse into Shoppers’ Minds,” Los Angeles Times,June 3,1999,p.C5; Jeffrey Ball,“But How Does It Make You Feel?” The Wall Street Journal,May 3,1999,p.B1.

ENERGY DRINKS: THE REAL THING OR JUST BULL?

Forget about the cola wars between Pepsi and Coke. The new threat to the stagnant cola market is an international cult drink—and that’s no bull—it’s Red Bull, actually. And the large soft drink manufacturers have taken notice.

Red Bull is just one of the many “energy” drinks now on the market. Others include Extreme Energy Shot, Venom, Dark Dog, Energy, AMP, and KMX, just to mention a few. In fact, it seems that every company wants to introduce its own energy drink in an attempt to take advantage of a new market that is growing at an amazing rate. Consider that when Red Bull first introduced its product in 1997, there was no such thing as an energy-drink category. By 2001, estimates are that the market was somewhere between $140 million to $200 million, with forecasts that it will be $500 million in just a few years. Also consider that Red Bull has about 70 percent of the market share. While these figures may pale in comparison to the overall carbonated-beverage market (approximately $45 billion), there is enough concern for competitors to take notice.

Red Bull has been variously described as “an international cult drink,” “a kinky concoction,” and “the new sex drink,” all of which suit the company just fine. It is exactly the mystique attributed to the drink that helps create the “buzz” that makes it sell. Many marketers feel that it is Red Bull’s alternative image that accounts for much of its success. Even the company’s marketing department likes to maintain the illusions while claiming the product is a “non marketed brand.”

But while the mystique part of Red Bull may be true, the “non marketed” claims may not necessarily be so. As noted by the Economist, it takes a lot of marketing money to sustain this image. The magazine notes that Red Bull’s founder, Dietrich Mateschitz (an Austrian) “spent three years developing the drink’s image, its packaging and its low-key, grassroots marketing strategy.” Further, Red Bull puts about 35 percent of its revenues back into advertising—about $19 million according to Advertising Age. And advertising is not the only IMC component the company successfully employs. At launch in Europe, students were persuaded to drive around in Volkswagen Beetles or Minis with a Red Bull can strapped on the top and to conduct Red Bull parties using wild and unusual themes. A marketing director from Procter & Gamble was hired to oversee strategic planning for the brand in North America (he later was named one of Brand week’s Marketers of the Year).

At present, Red Bull’s marketing efforts still employ grassroots efforts but have expanded to include more traditional media as well. What seems to make Red Bull successful, however, is that the efforts assume a very nontraditional approach to its messages—essentially attempting to do the opposite of what everyone else does. The first order of business in any market is to determine four or five accounts in a particular market area that sustain the image—underage discos, surf shops, and so on—rather than attempting to gain widespread distribution. Spokespeople (deejays, alternative sports stars, etc.) are recruited to spread the word and to be seen using the product. Sponsorship of alternative sports like the Red Bull Streets of San Francisco (a street luge event) and Red Bull Rampage (a free-ride mountain bike competition) has also been shown to be effective, as has the use of “education teams”—hip locals who drive around in a Red Bull auto handing out samples and promoting the brand.

The more mainstream media are also used though on a market-by-market basis rather than through mass media. And even these traditional efforts may take on a less traditional form. For example, the advertising campaign (“Red Bull gives you wings”) uses animated television and radio spots featuring the devil trying the product and sprouting wings. The company also sponsors a number of more traditional events ranging from soapbox derbies to Formula 1 racing cars, as well as extensive public relations programs to reach youth.

Now that Mateschitz and Red Bull have created a new beverage category, can they hold on to it? Success attracts competitors—many who have the potential to provide more marketing clout than Red Bull. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Anheuser Busch have all recently introduced their own energy drinks. Hansen Beverage’s “Energy” and Sobe have both been gaining sales, and Snapple’s “Venom” is getting more marketing support from Cadbury. Mateschitz is not oblivious to the competition. He and his marketing team are continually developing more wacky ideas to maintain Red Bull’s alternative and mystical image. Others feel that expanding the category can only benefit Red Bull. It may depend on how large the cult grows!

Sources: “Selling Energy,” Economist,May 11, 2002, p. 62; Kenneth Hein, “Red Bull Charging Ahead,” Brandweek,Oct. 15, 2001, pp. 38–42; Hillary Chula, “Grabbing Bull by Tail,” Advertising Age, June 11, 2001, pp. 4-6; David Noonan, “Red Bull’s Good Buzz,” Newsweek,May 14, 2001, p. 39.

SPEAK THE CUSTOMER’S LANGUAGE

Communication is not the straightforward process people often imagine. Although we tend to believe that communication is a linear process (someone says something, the other person hears it, the message got through) it is rarely that simple. Apart from the obvious problems of misunderstanding, mishearing, only getting part of the message, and so forth, there is the problem that people interpret messages in the light of previous experience.

Speaking the customer’s language means more than just using the right words—people interpret everything by considering the source as well. Framing the communication in a way people can relate to is an essential part of designing a communication—but it isn’t always easy to do.

The British Department of Transport found that around 55 teenage pedestrians a week were involved in accidents on the roads, usually caused by inattention—crossing the road while texting, filming each other on cellphones, and so forth. Research showed that teenagers consistently overestimate their capabilities as road users, and also they receive so many messages about safety and health issues they screen most of them out (especially messages from the government). The only messages that get through are those that they feel touch them personally.

With this in mind, the Department produced an advertisement that appeared to have been filmed through a cellphone camera, showing teenagers laughing in the street: the camera follows one youth as he dances out into the road and is hit by a car. The strapline says “55 teenagers a week wish they’d given the road their full attention.” The ad was not created by professional movie-makers: to gain footage, the Department simply gave 14 groups of teenagers a cellphone camera and asked them to film their usual activities. The group used in the advertisement is an actual group of friends (from Stoke Newington in London) and only the final crash scene is performed by a stunt driver and stunt artist.

By using the kind of imagery teenagers use themselves, the advertisements were hard-hitting without being patronizing: the campaign got the message through. In post-tests following the ad being screened in movie theaters and on TV, 79 percent of respondents remembered the ad in a prompted recall, 95 percent said it made them rethink their attitudes to road safety, and 93 percent said it made them realize it could happen again. In the year following the ad, accidents involving teenagers fell by 10 percent.

By avoiding the patronizing “Hey, kids, road safety is cool!” type of approach, the Department produced a highly successful campaign.

Practice

• Don’t try to guess what the target audience’s language is—let them tell you.

• People don’t like to be patronized—don’t talk down to your audience.

• Remember that people think about communications, and take the source into account.

• Communication is not a linear process—you cannot assume that because you sent a message, and the other person received it, that the information has been correctly transferred.

MAKE BUYING EASY

The easier it is to buy from you, the more likely people are to do it, and yet many firms put barriers in the way of their customers. For example, telephoning to order a takeaway meal to be delivered takes time and effort, not to mention telephone charges. People who order takeaway meals are either very tired or very lazy—the less effort they have to put in, the better.

Pizza Magic is a pizza delivery company based in Glasgow. The company delivers throughout the area, and of course most of the orders come in by telephone. Recently, however, the company hit on the idea of allowing customers to order pizzas online.

The company’s website now has the menu, including of course the requisite wide range of additional toppings, and is interactive so that people can order the pizza of their choice and pay for it without speaking to a human being at all.

This has several advantages. First, people who are tired often do not want to talk to anybody, so ordering online is less hassle. Second, the company can easily change its menus, prices, topping options, and so forth without having to reprint all the menus. Third, automating the ordering process means less staff time spent on the telephone. Finally, the possibility of error in transcribing customer orders is virtually eliminated—any errors are likely to be on the customer’s part, or possibly the chef’s.

Of course, people can still order by telephone, or even call in—but the internet offers a very convenient option.

Practice

• Make the website as interactive and user-friendly as possible.

• Ensure that people can still order in the conventional way.

• Store all orders in case of disputes—if possible, send them to delivery personnel cellphones.

PLAY A GAME

Getting people to be involved with the brand means getting them to build it into their lives. One way is to encourage them to see the brand as fun, and to play around with the product—which is why car dealers allow customers to take test drives. Salespeople call this the puppy dog close: once you’ve cuddled the puppy, it’s hard to give it back!

Obviously this is not always possible with expensive or delicate products, so if that’s what you’re selling you need to think of some other way of allowing people to be playful with the brand. Sometimes the internet can help.

When Panasonic launched their Lumix camera range, they needed to promote the key features of the camera—its 10∑ optical zoom, and its 28mm wide-angle lens. The TV advertising campaign featured the Golden Gate Bridge crumpling up to accommodate someone using an ordinary camera, and the Sphinx coming toward a photographer to show how the optical zoom makes things look better. These campaigns were wonderful and eye-catching—but any marketer knows that advertising alone is never enough.

Panasonic commissioned Inbox Digital to create an online game called Lumix World Golf. The game is based around an 18-hole game of crazy golf played around nine world heritage sites. Players can zoom in and out to judge their shots (as they would with the camera) and can win prizes, offset against signing up for the Lumix e-CRM (customer relationship management) program.

There is, of course, a “tell a friend” button so that people who enjoy playing the game can involve a friend. The game itself is quite addictive and engaging—plugs for the camera are shown between each hole, and players are congratulated or commiserated with according to how well they play each hole.

The site attracted over a million visitors, most of whom found out about the site through friends.

 Practice

• The game needs to be professionally executed and slick.

• It needs to connect to the product in a straightforward but fun way.

• It should connect with other promotions to reinforce the message.

• It should ALWAYS have a tell-a-friend button.

USE PROMOTIONAL GIFTS THAT REALLY PROMOTE

Many companies use gift promotions, and they work just as well in a business-to-business context as they do in a consumer context. However, the vast majority of sales promotions only move sales forward—they rarely have the power to make people buy more, or switch brands. The reason for this is that buyers will simply stock up in order to gain the promotion, then buy less in future weeks and months until the stocks have been used up. In the consumer context, people might switch brands temporarily in response to a sales promotion, but the vast majority switch back to their usual brand or to a new brand with an even better promotion as soon as the offer ends.

The problem for most firms lies in finding a promotion that will encourage customer loyalty and will not result in a simple switch back. Offering someone extra product for the same price simply reduces profits without creating any long-term benefits—whatever the short-term advantages might be.

Goldwell is a German manufacturer of hair care products, sold to professional hairdressers. When the company entered the British market, they were up against established professional suppliers such as L’Oréal, Wella, and Schwarzkopf: all these firms were very much larger than Goldwell, with deeper pockets, so a conventional approach was entirely ruled out.

Goldwell broke all the rules. Rather than sending salespeople to salons to get orders and following up with a delivery later, the Goldwell reps sold direct from a Transit van. This meant that salons could obtain products instantly, a major consideration if stocks were low, and the reps were able to show people the full range of products.

Where Goldwell scored, though, was in their sales promotions. Purchases of stock resulted in being given extra boxes of shampoo or conditioner, but of products the salon currently WASN’T using. Inevitably, the salon would eventually use the conditioners, shampoos, etc., even if only because they would run out of stocks of their usual brands. Frequently, the stylists would prefer the Goldwell product, and would then order it next time—resulting in more free samples of other new products. Goldwell is now well up among the major suppliers to hairdressing salons throughout Britain.

Pratice:

• This approach works best in a business-to-business context, except where a loyalty card scheme or similar allows the vendor to gain a clear picture of what the individual currently does not buy.

• The free product needs to be given in a generous enough quantity for the buyer to use it regularly for a while: a couple of bottles is not enough.

• The buyer should, preferably, either be the person who will use the product, or be close to the people who will use it. The approach therefore works best with small businesses.

WHIRLPOOL CONNECTS WITH 21ST-CENTURY WOMEN

Household appliances are a product category where the advertising has traditionally been pretty bland, with most ads appealing to consumers’ rational, functional motives. Television commercials generally would show the capacity of a refrigerator, explain how a washer or dryer works, or tout their reliability; while print ads would feature a shot of the appliance and give a detailed description of how it functions. For example, among the most memorable appliance ads are those from the campaign featuring the Maytag repairman who would wait in vain for a repair call. The campaign was created more than 30 years ago, and the lonely Maytag repairman is still waiting for the phone to ring.

In recent years appliance companies have been focusing on form as well as function and have been touting the design of their products as much as their functionality in their ads. However, one company that has taken a very unique approach to its advertising is Whirlpool, whose “Just Imagine” campaign features Household Goddesses—five ethereal female figures who use water, fire, or air to take control of their environments while promoting various Whirlpool appliances. The campaign is designed to connect with the modern-day “supermoms, ” working women between the ages of 25 and 54 with children. These women’s homes are very important to them; the women are challenged, yet capable of handling a very demanding and busy lifestyle, and they want control of their lives and acknowledgment for all they do and for being very capable. They set new standards and appreciate beauty in their environments. They do not give appliances a great deal of thought until there is a moment of need, such as a broken appliance or a home renovation. Innovation, style, and time saving are all important factors to these women.

The idea for the “Just Imagine” campaign originated in the late 90s in Europe,where Whirlpool was eager to build its brand name and capture a larger share of the appliance market, having acquired the appliance division of the Dutch firm Philips Electronics. The campaign connected well with women in Europe, so in 1999 Whirlpool and its French agency Publicis decided to adapt it to women in the U.S. market. However, before bringing the campaign to the States, Whirlpool conducted more than 20 focus groups with women throughout the country to test their reaction to the goddesses.

According to Whirlpool’s manager of brand communication, the ads with the goddesses celebrate the growing power of women in the 21st century. They are aimed at striking an emotional cord with modern-day women, showing them as strong females in control of their environments who can be made even stronger through the latest Whirlpool technology. The mythical figures in the ads include a blue-skinned ice diva who represents the Whirlpool Conquest refrigerator, a silkenrobed water nymph who appears in commercials for the Catalyst washer, a heat maiden in cascading red robes who promotes the Senson and Duet dryers, a firebreathing goddess who helps sell the Speed Cook range, and a flying blonde clean-air angel who extols the virtues of Whirlpool’s dehumidifiers and airconditioners. The goddesses promote many of the innovative features found on Whirlpool appliances, such as a dryer that gently dries clothes in the time it takes to wash them, a washing machine that does not require pretreating because concentrated water and detergent spray through clothes before they are washed, and a refrigerator with more space inside.

The goal of the “Just Imagine” campaign is to use the stylish and dramatic commercials to get consumers to take notice of Whirlpool appliances and make them feel the brand is in tune with their changing needs and values and thus has something more to offer than competing brands. In addition to being in the television commercials, the goddesses appear in print ads, on the Whirlpool website, on company brochures, on billboards on the side of the company’s trucks, and in point-of-purchase displays for local retailers. The campaign is the biggest in the appliance maker’s history. To many women, using a washing machine or dryer means nothing more than cleaning clothes. However, Whirlpool hopes this campaign will help them feel they are taking control of their lives when they use its appliances.

Sources: “Whirlpool’s Worship-Worthy Goddess,” Brand Marketing, June 2000,p.33; Katheryn Dranhold,“Whirlpool Conjures Up Appliance Divas,” The Wall Street Journal,Apr.27,2000

THE DELL DUDE CONNECTS WITH PC BUYERS

Every so often an advertising character jumps out of the television screen and into the hearts of consumers. A few years ago it was “Stuart”—the geeky, red-headed know-it-all who appeared in commercials for online stock trading company Ameritrade—who struck a chord with viewers. The latest ad spokesperson generating the buzz is “Steven,” the lovable blond surfer dude who gives expert advice to people shopping for a home computer. The “Dell Dude” is played by Ben Curtis, a 21-year old student who studies acting at New York University and hails from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Curtis got the role after an audition, and his first appearances in a Dell commercial came in late 2000 in a spot in which he makes a video for his parents explaining why they should buy him a Dell personal computer. Although Dell switched ad agencies a few months after Curtis was hired, the company and its new agency, DDB Chicago, knew they had a star in the making and retained the Steven character as its “spokes dude.

Over the past two years “Steven” has appeared in more than 10 commercials for Dell including a popular spot where he hawks Dells while driving his dad’s convertible with a hot brunette seated next to him. The commercials use a clever blend of humor and salesmanship by portraying Steven as a hip teenager who convinces his parents, his friends’ parents, and even random people he meets to buy computers from Dell. Shortly after taking over the account, DDB’s creative group added the quip: “Dude, you’re gettin’ a Dell” to Steven’s pitch and the phrase has slowly been seeping into pop-culture vernacular. The ad campaign has helped Dell put a friendly face on its personal computers—a product category that is often intimidating to consumers. Dell’s senior manager of consumer advertising says that Steven “has changed our image into that of an approachable company, a company that makes technology easy and fun.” The ads have also helped sales, as Dell’s share of the home segment of the personal computer market has increased significantly since the campaign was launched.

Curtis’s success as the Dell Dude demonstrates the importance of casting in creating effective advertising. The creative director at DDB notes that the right casting is as important as the right message since you need somebody to bring it to life. Curtis clearly brings the Dell Dude to life as “Steven” is described as a modern-day Tom Sawyer who appeals to a broad range of consumers. He receives fan mail from teenybopper girls who want to date him as well as from seniors who like his Eddie Haskell–like charm. The “Dell Guy,” as he is often referred to, boasts one of the largest advertising fan-club message boards on Yahoo, with over 500 members as well as numerous fan websites. Curtis has been interviewed on the Today Show, CNN, and ABC’s 20/20 Downtownand been featured in articles in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and many other publications. Curtis also makes appearances at Dell events to rally employees as well as at industry trade shows such as Comdex. In recognition of his celebrity status, Dell created a new web “sitelet” that fans can visit to find out more about Curtis and his latest ads.

In late 2002 Dell announced that “Steven” would be playing a smaller role in its advertising, although the company still plans to use him in the future. However, some analysts note that the company may not want to use “the Dell Dude” as it focuses more on selling its computers to businesses. Curtis knows that the fame he is currently enjoying may be short-lived but hopes he can use it as a launchpad for his ultimate goal of becoming an actor. He worries somewhat about being typecast as a surfer dude but says that the pay helps with school and the expense of living in New York. So goes the life of Madison Avenue’s newest mini-celebrity.

Sources: Michael McCarthy,“Goofy Dell Guy Exudes Star Power; ‘Steven’ Wins Over Bunches of Computer Buyers,” USA Today,Jan. 14,2002,p.B5; Suzanne Vranica,“Dell,Starting New Campaign, Plans for Life Without Steven,” The Wall Street Journal,October 16, 2002,p.B3.

BRAND DISTRIBUTION

In addition to branding and brand communication, a firm has also to determine how the branded product is distributed to the customer into the new foreign market. Brand distribution thereby includes both the choice of the distribution channel as well as the physical distribution of the branded product. Distribution channels are generally selected due to potential of sales volume and market share, distribution costs and sales margin, market coverage, possibility of cooperation (e.g. brand alliances), speed and flexibility of market cultivation, influence and control of distributional activities, as well as image transfers from the distribution channel to the brand.

The decision on the adequate distribution channels involves two selections: vertical selection and horizontal selection. Vertical selection is the choice between distribution channels (direct sale, retail, wholesale, exporter/ importer) and determines the length in terms of number and types of distribution layers. Horizontal selection is the choice of sales partners within a channel. It determines scope and depth of distribution, and thus the intensity of distribution into the market distinguished three degrees of intensity:

a) intensive distribution or high market coverage, distribution of the brand through all possible channels, examples are daily goods such as cigarettes.

b) selective distribution, selection of distribution channels along qualitative criteria such as contractible sales volume, environment (size of shop, service quality, geographical location, etc.) and brand building support (image of the channel, possibility of promotional cooperation, price level and promotions).

c) exclusive distribution, additional limitation of channels by quantitative criteria, in order to closely control all brand building activities and motivate sales partner for higher sales.

In reality however, a branded company can seldom decide on distribution channels on its own. As shelf space is limited and brands manifold, a listening and promising placement in the shop means likely tough negotiations. It is to convince the retailer that the brand increases the attractiveness of the store and achieves higher profit margins than competitive products do. Generally, a firm can stimulate brand attractiveness by three categories: pull, push, and cooperative stimuli. Pull effects base on end-consumers and their preferences of a brand. It is the more positive and established the brand is among end-consumers, the more end-consumers demand the brand in the store. Pull effects are typically built up by brand communication activities and ensure retailers higher frequencies of consumers in the stores, enhanced store-brand-images and therefore increased sales. Push stimuli, in contrast, address the retailers directly. They likely involve arguments in terms of price reductions, bonus payments, improved cost structures, and add-on services such as merchandising, shelf care, and paid sales promotions. Cooperative stimuli go beyond such push-strategies and include partnerships between the manufacturer and the retailer in order to generate synergies along the supply chain.

An increasing cooperation is the “dual strategy”. Dual strategy means that the brand owner manufactures retail or private labels in addition to its own brands. From the brand owner’s perspective, dual strategies likely intensify the relationship to the retailer and improve to operate at full capacities. On the other hand, they comprise the risk of cannibalising own products in the store and damaging own brand images. Known retail brands are JA!, Salto and Ehrlenhof in the German food sector and TCM (Tchibo) for consumer goods. According to a grocery retail study conducted by Feige, consumer-pull effects have been the key success factor of convincing retailers. They contributed to the success 66%. Cooperative stimuli explained 19% and push-effects had only minor relevance. Tomczak et al  confirmed these findings. Pure pushstrategies and strategies without any over-proportional incentives are likely not successful, whereas a “cooperative pull-strategy” which combines cooperative and pull stimuli is found the most promising strategy.

Meffert and Bolz added that in foreign markets the selection of adequate distribution channels is also determined by availability. When a country market becomes more advanced, the distribution layers and the number and different formats of channels in the market also increase. Additionally, the more advanced the country market becomes, the smaller the number of small stores and the larger the size per store. In Western European markets 70-90% of the revenues are made by the top five largest retailers (M+M Planet Retail 2006). These are particularly large-scale multiple food retailers such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour which are present in many countries and increasingly undermine the position of local specialist shops. Since international retailers likely favour global standardised brands because of volume-orientated price advantages and standardized product ranges across markets, they are considered a valuable distribution channel for a fast and comprehensive going-international of brands.

ONE OF BRAND STRATEGY PART “FIRST POSITIONING: THE FIRST BRAND THAT”

There is an easier way to create a first. (Creativity is required but not genius.) Find an existing product or category and carve out an extension or subset of the category that is new or “first” in some way. What you are doing is creating a new category that diverges from the main category in an important way. And, most important as a brander, you give your new category a name that your product is first in.

This type of first can be a game changer, too. On a business trip to Thailand in 1982, Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz discovered a local drink called Krating Daeng that miraculously cured his jet lag With his Thai partner, Mateschitz decided to introduce the drink in the West with one important modification—he added carbonation. He named the drink Red Bull, which is a close translation of its Thai name (Daeng means “red” and Krating means “water buffalo” in Thai).

Mateschitz’s real branding genius was in positioning the brand. He didn’t position Red Bull as refreshing or energizing (attribute positioning) or for young men (target market positioning) or as a Thai beverage (heritage positioning). Mateschitz took the “first” route. He didn’t simply introduce a new beverage brand—he invented a new category he called “energy drinks.”

Mateschitz hired an Austrian ad agency, which came up with fifty different designs for Red Bull before he found breakthrough branding he liked: the distinctive tall, slim, eight-ounce blue-and-silver can with the logo of two muscular bulls smashing heads in front of a yellow sun. The can is smaller than a typical soda can so people immediately got the idea that this energy drink was strong stuff!

When Mateschitz first tested the Red Bull name and the concept, people didn’t like the taste, the logo, or the name. Based on the research, it didn’t look like a breakthrough brand but a broken brand. But he ignored the research and went ahead with his energy drink and branding anyway, launching first in Austria and then expanding globally. Today Mateschitz has a net worth in the billions.

The interesting thing about the firsts that are subsets is that new ones are being created every day. You just have to see the need for something new in an existing category that you carve out and own as the first, like Procter & Gamble did when it introduced the Swiffer, creating the quick-surface-clean category.

Another entrepreneur who saw a fresh way of looking at a well-established category is London-based Natalie Massenet. When she approached investors, Massenet was told that women wouldn’t buy high-end fashion online. Massenet proved them wrong, launching Net-a-Porter, the first ultra-high-end online fashion business, which has changed the way women shop for high fashion.

And there’s Sara Blakely, who reinvented women’s foundations. Her invention came about in 1998, when she chopped the feet off a pair of control-top pantyhose and created a new category of foundation garments—shapewear.

Blakely just wanted to look svelte with no telltale seams or stockings protruding from her pants legs. A part-time fax machine saleswoman and a part-time stand-up comic, Blakely called her first invention “Footless pantyhose” and launched her business, Spanx, in 2000 with $5,000 in savings. Since then she’s sold more than nine million pairs and spawned the industry of bodyshaper foundations.

Sources: from the book “Break Through Brands”, Magazine “my branding”.

THE FISH VERSUS THE WHALE

Cyber branding is the low-cost way to brand your product or service—to brand yourself—and to connect with your customers and prospects in a genuine way. People want honesty and authenticity, not hype and gloss, and the online world is the place to present your business and yourself as you are, without resorting to “commercials.” The fresher your ideas and the better your product or service, the more receptive the digital world will be.

• Cyber branding doesn’t favor the rich and powerful.
• It favors the new and the nimble.
• It favors the human and the real.
• It favors those who share.

Unlike traditional media, cyber branding doesn’t reward the important, the famous, and the rich as much as the engaging, the interesting, and the helpful. Sharing is the essential ingredient of digi world. Cybe branding rewards those who understand how people use the Internet today to find out about companies and brands and to be a part of those communities.

People and companies that are opaque will have difficulty in the digital age of branding. People and companies that are comfortable in their own skin will succeed. Those who share their personal stories and their business narratives and provide valuable, real, and truthful messages will thrive. Digi world rewards those who innovate and who make good stuff or offer better services.

Cyberbranding enables you to customize and personalize messages like never before. People want to know your story, so share it with them—the grittier or more truthful, the better. The more you open the curtains to reveal what is going on behind the scenes, the closer and more connected your customers will feel to you. As an example of what I mean, lets look at the story of blogger Heather Armstrong and Dooce.

Armstrong began a blog called Dooce in 2001, while she was employed as a web designer and graphic artist in Salt Lake City, Utah. In it, she spoke honestly and graphically about her frustrations at home and at work—and she soon found herself out of a job. Whether or not her firing was a direct result of what she wrote in her blog, the term “dooced” has come to mean being fired for one’s online activities (something to keep in mind when developing your own web presence!).

No matter—Armstrong chose to see her dismissal as an opportunity. Her loyal readers continued to follow her story through the birth of her two kids, her struggle with depression, her appliance breakdowns, and every detail of her life as a liberal ex-Mormon living in Utah. Her audience grew until, on a typical day, more than 100,000 people visited her site.

Here’s the good part. The business part. In 2004, Armstrong began accepting text advertisements on her site, and in 2005, she began accepting graphic ads. She had turned her online “hobby” into a moneymaking proposition, in the process becoming the first personal blogger to derive substantial income from advertising. In 2009, Armstrong was named by Forbes magazine as one of the thirty most influential women in media—right alongside Oprah, Diane Sawyer, and Barbara Walters. Estimates of the revenue from ads on her website range from over $300,000 to $1,000,000 a year, and that doesn’t include her speaking and endorsement fees and book royalties.

Sources: Break Through Branding, Magazine: Brand Board

STAY IN TOUCH OR START ALL OVER

Where do your customers touch your brand? What is the experience like? How do prospects find out about you? What do they learn?

Do you know?

As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get so caught up in running the business that you overlook what your brand experience is like for customers. To find out, you need to step into their shoes. When you do that, you’ll see there are a lot of contact points, what marketers call touch points. The obvious ones include the product or service itself; its colors, design, and packaging; the advertisements and tagline; its placement in the store; and the ways that salespeople talk about your brand. If you’re a retailer, touch points include the store, its location, the retail environment, the music, even the smell of the store.

It’s important to make these “real” touch points as personal, meaningful, and experiential as possible so there’s a real contrast with virtual touch points and virtual competitors. Your customers don’t have to do business with you, the local merchant; they can get everything online, probably even at a lower price. So there has to be a different connection, a feeling of community and a sense that the company is a source of respected advice, as there was with the old market culture of the bazaar or the shops of trusted local merchants.

Today’s social media, mobile media, and new technology have created many new touchpoints that are not local but reach a global audience. In addition to Internet vehicles such as your website, e-newsletter, e-mail campaigns, blog, and social media campaigns, there are potentially thousands of new digiworld touchpoints created by others on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, third-party review forums such as Yelp, and the like. These touchpoints are very fluid and mutable because others can take your message and do a mashup or criticize your offering.

Still other touchpoints are more subtle: the way your business telephone is answered, what your customer-service experience is like, even the look and feel of your billing invoice.

Each of these contacts or touch points affects the impression your brand makes in the minds of your customers and clients. You want every one of them to convey the right brand impression, be consistent, and be consistently positive as much as possible.

DEVELOP AN ICON

People don’t relate to products—they relate to brands. This is a good thing, provided you have a stronger brand than your competitors: but how do you get that stronger brand in the first place?

For strong brand read likable brand. If people feel warm toward the brand, they will in turn feel warm toward the product, which can only be a good thing for immediate sales and future loyalty. One effective way of building likability is to create a memorable icon, a symbol of your brand that will stick in people’s minds and be entertaining.

Dry batteries have been around for over 100 years now: the first ones weighed in at over three pounds, and were used to power telephones, but technology moved on rapidly and zinc-carbon batteries became ubiquitous. At the same time, prices dropped: zinc-carbon batteries were disposable, and were in fact disposed of regularly.

When alkaline batteries appeared, they were a great deal more expensive than zinc-carbon batteries (and still are), so the manufacturers, Duracell, needed a way of demonstrating that the batteries would be cost-effective. Their initial advertising campaign showed a set of electric toy animals that gradually stopped working as their batteries ran down, except of course for the one powered by Duracell copper-top alkaline batteries. This was the Duracell Bunny, a pink toy rabbit banging a drum.

The Duracell Bunny became iconic. People responded well to the “cuddly toy” aspect because of its playfulness, and the memorable advertisements: more importantly, the key benefit of the product came across extremely clearly. More recently, Duracell have been able to do away with the other toys and use only the bunny—it has been seen climbing mountains, canoeing, playing leapfrog, playing soccer, and free running. The advertising was so successful that Ever Ready brought out their own bunny to advertise Energizer, but for legal reasons these ads have not been shown in Europe or Australia.

Practice:

• Consider your unique selling proposition—what does your product have that others don’t?

• Try to create a playful icon.

• Use your icon in different contexts so that it remains fresh.

DO NOT BIND THE MOUTHS OF THE KINE

For most direct-marketing companies, the internet has proved to be a godsend. Apart from the fact that it has increased the effects of competition dramatically as people are able to shop around extremely easily, the internet has meant that companies can reduce their work forces dramatically as people can order online and have goods delivered by carrier. Some companies even did away with their largely self-employed sales forces—the people operating from their own homes, often for small amounts of money.

Many of those firms came to regret their rashness—sometimes the on-the-ground sales force was the only factor differentiating them from millions of other online retailers, many of whom were more experienced at internet trading and could therefore compete more effectively. On the other hand, many of the salespeople became disaffected when they found the customers they had recruited were being lured into buying online, thus cutting the salespeople out of the picture and (more importantly) cutting them out of their commission. It doesn’t take a marketing genius to figure out that a disaffected sales force not only doesn’t produce: it can also cause a great deal of damage.

Betterware distribute household products through a network of home based distributors, mostly working in their spare time. The basic Betterware selling system is based on a catalog: the distributors put the catalogs through letterboxes in their designated area, then call back later to take orders and (eventually) to deliver the goods. This system means that there is little or no high-pressure selling, distributors are usually selling to neighbors, and eventually a good social rapport is obtained between the distributor and the consumers.

Obviously Betterware cannot ignore the internet revolution, any more than any other firm: in fact, there are distinct advantages in taking orders online. However, the company has recognized that the main drawback of the internet is the lack of human contact, and in fact Betterware are already far better placed than most other companies to inject a human element. Therefore, Betterware not only pay commission to the salespeople for any sales made in their area, even if the orders are placed by telephone or online: they also arrange for the salespeople to deliver those orders to the customers. This establishes the salesperson in a position where he or she is able to sell more to the customer.

From the salesperson’s viewpoint, this system is eminently fair. After all, the customer may well have taken the email address from the brochure the salesperson had dropped off—so the bulk of the work had already been done. From the company’s viewpoint, paying the commission means the sales force are quite happy to recommend customers to buy online, rather than fighting against the company in order to take the orders themselves. From the customer’s point of view, Betterware company and salespeople show a united front, which can only enhance the brand.

Practice

• Independent sales forces need to be given very precise territories in which to operate, otherwise it is impossible to allocate the commission.

• Make sure that salespeople are aware that they can actually encourage customers to shop online.

• This idea works best when salespeople are making the deliveries, because that way they make direct contact with the customers.