Growing Pains

Discipline. An unknown commodity in the ad business.

2010-10-27T21:55:00.003-05:00

The Fueling New Business Through Social Media workshop was one of the most productive we have had in terms of new information. Not only great ideas, but a great way to generate new business with the analytics to measure and adjust agency activities that should bring success.

Only if you have the discipline. It's been my observation that few agencies have that discipline.

But then I should talk...considering my discipline as a blogger.

Michael Gass is a Gas!

2010-10-27T13:43:00.004-05:00

With as much exposure as I have had over the years with advertising agencies, the 4A's (and remember, I was one!), Michael Gass' take on how to build new business through social media is one of the most practical programs I have ever encountered. Ever.

As I sit through his "Fueling New Business through Social Media" workshop, I am once again struck by the "cobbler's son has no shoes" syndrome of the advertising agency business.

It's refreshing to see that there is a way for agencies to build their new business "touches" beyond the usual cold calls.

(More to come, but now I want to pay attention.)

Too Many Agencies?

2010-05-05T13:53:00.005-05:00

I hate to admit this, but I think Brian Sheehan, associate professor at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, is spot-on. There just may be too much competition for the available dollars. The net effect being that it is exponentially driving down margins, limiting volume (the number of projects or accounts), so that the business has become commoditized.

Years ago I attempted, within my realm of contacts and influence, to make the case for commoditization, without really much impact. I stand vindicated? Unfortunately.

Read Sheehan's article for yourself. Comments?

http://adage.coverleaf.com/advertisingage/20100426?pg=50#pg50

Recession/Depression? Get Real.

2009-04-13T10:26:00.013-05:00

USA TODAY had a e-article about how marketers are using ads to remind customers of their longevity.

A quote in the article from a brand consultant, set me off. The article said, and I quote the expert: ... touting still being in business smacks of desperation. "(The) consumer has been brought up now in a fast-moving age. People are looking for things that are up to date. There's no good way to say, 'We've been doing this for 150 years.' Heritage is fine, but people are not buying Coach because it is old."

On top of that, viewer's comments about the article ranged from flippancy ... "Of course there are always comic books and movies to demo(n)strate your longevity"... to rants..."What ALLSTATE should be saying is that you are in "good hands" AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT HAVE A LEGITIMATE CLAIM."

A Time For Confidence Building

In a time when a rampant lack of confidence permeates our daily living, it can be reassuring to know that there were some companies that did survive the tough times of the Great Depression.

I think Allstate's ads really hit home. Perhaps it is because, having been born in 1941, I experienced first-hand how the Great Depression and World War II forced frugality into the psyche of my parents and grandparents. And then I experienced, as well, the fast climb out inpost-war America.

The survivors of the Great Depression were indelibly affected by those times, opting to sacrifice many things so their children and grandchildren could have more than they did.

As I view today's economic crisis, it is patently clear that we are no where near the suffering experienced during Depression times. Without denigrating the pain many are going through at this time, it is still most telling to see on TV news the picture of a young man in a "soup kitchen" taking a picture of Michelle Obama with his cell phone. How does he afford a cell phone?

Let's get real.

What Will Happen Now?

2008-11-06T21:39:00.001-06:00

What will happen now?
I’m mentally exhausted by the election.
The drone of endless commercials, Internet accusations, polling phone calls, media surveys, yard signs, billboards, mailings, the incessant bias of television news and so-called entertainment programs, comedians cum-political analysts, talk radio.
I have, at this time, only two world-view views.
1. It’s time to suck it up and be Americans again. Not partisans. Not Democrat. Not Republican. Americans. Americans who don’t spout venomous hatred like that spewed for eight years because of some perceived hanging chads, but good ol’ Americans who rally ‘round the new president to make sure we remain the finest nation in the world. Loyal until proven incompetent.
2. In this economic crisis, marketers need to get their act together by changing their act. What worked yesterday doesn’t work today. Confidence is now the product and service. Confidence in the day. Confidence in our capitalistic system. Confidence in our ability to rise above the patent greed of the financial system. Confidence that well-intentioned Americans will, once again, rise to the occasion to build a better day.
What will happen now? Only the inimitable American spirit, innovation and ingenuity will tell. Do we still have it?

GLUT BLOCK

2008-04-22T15:30:00.004-05:00

I was pointedly forewarned that writing a blog requires a tremendous time commitment and discipline. Admittedly I have the first one and less of the latter. Discipline has never been my strong suit. Perseverance yes. Discipline no.

This bit of introspection notwithstanding, lack of discipline is not totally what has kept me from posting to the blog since June. The real bane of my reticence is that there is so much to write about. I have caught a case of “glut block.”

“Growing Pains” (GP) mostly is about the marketing/advertising world. Something I know a lot about. Trouble is a glut of change is gripping the marketing world. It’s getting difficult to decipher the hype and the mixed messages of a world moving at warp speed so as to deliver a cogent commentary. There’s just too much to talk about.

In my file I have started 18 different blog postings. I counted them. Almost all are observations in one way or another that mark a rudderless marketing ship tossed by the seas of change, the winds of new media fads and technology navigation mistakes. The marketing world has…well…jumped ship.

In not so future postings, I will get back into the swim of things (OK…I’ll stop trying to be puny) with observations that hopefully will spur you to dialogue on (here we go again) the state of the marketing ships of state.’’

Now I've got to get a gut check on my glut block.

I’m outa here …until next time.

On Account Of ...

2007-06-06T13:44:00.000-05:00

Ad agency account people are in crisis. And they may not know it. And neither does their management.

On account of...many advertising agencies don’t have any particular philosophy for handling their accounts; a way of doing things. More importantly, helping young, inexperienced account people in the ways of building relationships.

On account of...voice mail and email, the personality and person-ability of the account/client relationships has been lost. Or certainly lessened.

On account of...many advertising agencies allow the client’s needs and demands to set the standards for behavior, performance and respect.

On account of...an account executive’s role on one account lacks similarities and cohesiveness to another account person’s role on another agency account. When did we take the "cross" out of cross training?

On account of...account executives in “creative” shops are mere delivery people and in account planning centric shops, the same…or less.

On account of...client service directors at agencies are “fire extinguishers” putting out potential client firings instead of leading and guiding their account people.

On account of...the business has changed so dramatically over a few short years that one can find a full range of shadings and meanings on what account service is all about.

And so, as agencies are commoditized, the once indispensable account person has become expendable.

Or is he/she needed more now than ever?

Where Have All The "Rock Stars" Gone?

2007-05-29T13:54:00.000-05:00

Oh, where have you gone, Bill Bernbach,
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you…

Had an interesting conversation recently with the president of a large advertising agency. We were talking about the Dallas Advertising League’s AdRoast®, a wonderful event that has contributed more than $200,000 to the DREAM Fund through the Dallas Advertising League Foundation. She offered that there are few advertising “rock stars” left for us to roast.

I suspect so. Like Simon and Garfunkel’s song (modified by me to fit this occasion)…they’ve all left and gone away, hey hey hey!

And why?

Perhaps it has something to do with the commoditization of the advertising agency business. Have the mega agencies and their siblings homogenized the living advertising legends, too? Milking the profits from their units, but also the personalities?

That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of strong, passionate voices out there. Good leaders. Creative marketers. Intrepid spirits. No sir, this business demands those kinds. Maybe it’s because they no longer have their own agency platform from which to speak out? Perhaps when you become an Omnicom, or a IPG or a WPP, you not only lose your independence, but lose your voice, too?

Can’t say. Never been there. But I do wonder.

Green With Envy

2007-04-19T14:25:00.000-05:00

I vowed I wouldn’t get political when I started this Blog. For those of you who know me, that is a very difficult task. Growing Pains is meant to be commentary on how to grow a business, about sound business strategies, keen marketing practices, and creative advertising.

King’s “X.” I take back my vow. At least this one time. Because I am turning green at the gills over the ridiculous furor associated with the eco-green “movement.” From both sides. It’s time to get real. To the point. Pointed toward common sense.

Common sense tells you it is good to:
Recycle. Reuse that which can be reused.
Breath clean air.
Drink clean water.

But at what price?

I’m green with envy over those “experts” on both sides of the issue who can be so cock-sure of their positions that they don’t and won’t listen to the way they talk about the issue, much less listen to opposing opinions. Claiming the high ground when it comes to Planet Earth (and that goes for the hypocritical Gores with their electricity-eating house and the scoffing-Limbaughs who think they have all the answers) makes them high "claim drifters" because they miss the golden point.

We can’t throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water. Any one with common sense knows it is good to guard our natural resources. That same common sense also says we can’t stop economic progress dead in its tracks.

We can’t dead stop driving cars. Quit heating our homes. Or even completely eliminate dumping into the water supply. Yet it doesn’t give us carte blanche permission to keep doing it without thinking of ways to improve our actions so that we improve our environment.

Listening is a skill that both sides could use.

There is a common sense common ground. Let’s meet there. It will be good for business.

Beware of false prophets (profits?)

2007-03-20T11:51:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to responding to Larry's comments and I DO believe they need a response. (See Larry's comments in the previous posting about Wal-Mart.) So much so that I felt that it needed to be in a new posting format instead of a comment.

In particular, Larry, I wanted to reply to your comments about GSDM's opportunties to reshape marketing at Wal-Mart. That assumes it needed reshaping in the first place. Personally, I doubt it. Wal-Mart is what it is and it has been the best at what it is: A get-whatever-you-need at a low, low price store for lower to middle incomed people.

And I believe that much of the proof in that pudding is, for example, their ill-fated venture with Metro 7 clothing, aimed at upscale shoppers. Followed by that teen social networking thing called "The Hub," which absolutely bombed. Come on, just how cool is it for teens to gather at a My Space knock-off that's trying to sell Wal Mart stuff to them?

Which all goes to say that GSDM, in my opinion, held faithful to the brand's position, while Wal Mart management went off the deep end trying to be something they are not.

It may be unfair and seem like "piling on," but I can't but help wonder if those obtuse changes in the Wal Mart vision were products of the now-fired Julie Roehm and her assistant and alleged lover. I don't know that for sure... but the changes did seem to come about that time.

In marketing, resist false prophets (profits?).

Movin' on...with class

2007-02-15T16:12:00.000-06:00

I have been meaning to give a public attaboy (as public as my blog gets) to an agency head with guts and class.

Roy Spence and his GSDM agency in Austin, Texas have done some wonderful things for a lot of clients, but they showed their real class by opting out of the Wal Mart review, an account that they’ve had since 1987, I believe.

Spurred by a spurious decision on the part of a new marketing chief, the account was put into review. The WalMart chief obviously doesn't understand the customer culture that Wal Mart serves so she announced that they were going to appeal to a (in my words) “classier” audience.

Whether or not Roy Spence flinched or agonized before replying is beyond me. But he made a classic and classy decision for which most agencies just don’t have the backbone.

The New York Times reported it this way: “GSD&M was invited to take part in the review, but declined. ‘We helped build Wal-Mart from $11 billion in sales to $312 billion,’ said one of the agency's founders, Roy Spence, ‘We declare victory, and we are moving on.”

What a great line: We declare victory!

Regardless of whether Roy wrote that himself, or had his copywriters working overtime to come up with it…I think it’s one of the all-time, great lines in advertising.

Maybe this will spur other agencies to take Roy's lesson and begin declaring their own victories.

Cruisin' For A Bruisin' ?

2006-10-16T21:26:00.000-05:00

Recently I answered a poll by Advertising Age Magazine. Thought I'd share it with you. The first sentence is the poll question.

Does Tom Cruise's firing signal a shift in celebrity culture as consumers become "stars" of their own films, blogs and MySpace pages?

The short answer is yes. But how is anyone's guess. Celebrity is relative, often fleeting. I can have my "15 minutes of fame" for any number of reasons, but will it have lasting effect? That is the test of celebrity even in its most lofty manifestations, such as Hollywood stars or star athletes. The new media are changing how we experience the world. Since we're in the middle of the experiment, there's no way to give it a "historical" perspective. Suffice to say, like all change, things are changing, but what that ultimately means will, I suppose, have to be left to the futurists like Faith Popcorn. And even her predictions haven't been all correct.

Saturn Setting

2006-09-28T12:08:00.000-05:00

Positioning guru Al Ries wrote a wonderful article back in 2005 about "The Sad and Unnecessary Decline of Saturn." How the automaker fell prey to parent General Motors' strategy of expanding the brand instead of expanding the brand's market share.

The article was one of those where you say, "I thought of that all along. Wish I had written it myself." So paste this link into your address bar and read it. ( http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=46746 )

Even though Al Ries stole my thunder, the strategy point needs repeating for marketing managers in all kinds of categories, and I've tried doing that in my speech called "Walking Through The Brand." And I wonder if anybody really gets it. Since I don't expect to be getting a call from GM, Ford or Chrysler at any time, I suppose I can take aim at them here.

Automakers, especially of the American variety, have been the world's worst marketers when it comes to understanding what their brands are all about. In their rush to capture market share they have rushed to judgment about what people want in a car, trying to fulfill the desires of everyone...from the small, "green" car to the guzzler SUV. As Ries says, they have expanded the brand instead of expanding market share.

Sure, it's quality and style and all that stuff that sell a car. But, like a house, a car is still a symbol of one's worth, self-worth and salve for the psyche. But now, in the present state of auto affairs, you can own a Cadillac and be from a somewhat lower economic strata, or you can be a SUV sportsman without touching a hunting rifle, or a GPS-guided luxury car owner. Or all of the above. Ad infinitum.

There are a few notable exceptions. A Hummer comes to mind immediately. Yet with Saturn, who has "broadened its portfolio" to include a larger sedan and an SUV, the brand's promise has been blown out of the proverbial tailpipe.

And so has Cadillac's, among others. The venerable Cadillac brand provides little psychic reward for owning one. So now, the old saw of "its the Cadillac of....(put a category name here)" no longer applies.

What do you think?

Link

Have The Courage To Get A Life

2006-08-09T16:11:00.000-05:00

Today at a meeting at Square One we got into a conversation about how difficult it is for young account people to say No to their client(s). The discussion context was about how people in our industry sign up for workshops that would benefit them personally and their client's business as well, and then don't show up at the workshop or event because "the client called with a crisis."

To me, a person who for years not only jumped when the client called but also asked how high, I can empathize. But not sympathize.

As I learned the hard way (isn't that the way one learns?), a strong, lasting client/agency relationship is truly built on mutual respect. I learned (the hard way) that if you tell your client that you are not going to be available for a particular day or time, and ask them to put that on their calendar as a reminder, your client will respect your needs. Then, if there really is a crisis, either have someone who covers for you while you're off, or have a plan for emergency communication. (As you and I have learned - the hard way - those crises are often not really crises.)

Mutual respect goes a long way to keeping a relationship on track. As a 42 year veteran of our industry, and a marriage that has lasted that long, I can attest to mutual respect being the basis for great relationships. So, to those account service people who haven't quite learned the art of asking for it, here's my advice.

1. Have the courage to tell your client when you need "time away," for whatever reason - personal, vacation, or business. Your asking demonstrates the respect you have earned for the good service you have given.
2. Always have someone who will "cover" for you in times of client need or crisis.
3. Realize that you are, from time to time, expendable. And that's a good thing. It means your client not only respects you, but also your associates.

Now...go out there an - Get A Life!

Walking Through The Brand # 1 - Brand Experience Transference

2006-08-07T12:43:00.000-05:00

Many brands have problems extending the brand promise to other categories. Target seems to have accomplished this almost seamlessly in their SuperTarget Stores.

For those of you who are Ries and Trout positioning advocates, you know that brand extensions can be a trap. But in TargetÂs case one store flows effortlessly and seamlessly between one and the other. They have accomplished what many havenÂt, including Wal Mart and SamÂsÂand Kmart isnÂt even in the ball game.

Super Target is one storeÂwith a lot of stuff. I DO expect more from them and I do think I pay less. I think part of the payoff results from the ÂTarget Look.Â Your experience of the store, as you walk through it, is a total experience.

That is because I think the experience in-store exemplifies your experience from their advertising. Both are open, colorful. fun and its totally communicative. I virtuallyvirtualy every department in the store wherever I'm standing due to open layout and great, big signage. The store is not only colorful, clean, too.

Just like their advertising which opens up and lets you into it. You always know its a Target TV spot the nanosecond it comes on the screen...even when you're not looking at the set.

When you walk into the store, it is almost like walking into the television spots. It is just as open, inviting, a bit crazy and certainly as colorful as you would expect it to be. That is what I mean about "Walking Through The Brand." A brand only fulfills its promise, totally, when you can, in essence, "walk through the brand." It envelops you. You feel it. Like it. Want it. Just how many brands today evoke though kinds of feelings? Few, I dare say.

Are there areas of improvement needed at Target? Yep. The people experience has been uneven at times. My impression has been that the food side people get it. They seem more into their jobs and "live the brand", while the cashiers are uneven in their "delivery."Sometimes they are very courteous, but often times as not, they are indifferent. For Target to hold onto its promise they willl have to get that worked out.

Here's one case where the extension trap hasn't trapped the brand experience, but has actually enhanced it.

2006-07-27T16:03:00.000-05:00

Mergers are
killing competition.
Or, are they?
With all the corporate mergers that are garnering the headlines, and ÂdownsizingÂ actually being thought of as a word to put into thdictionaryry,Â we may forget that oourour free enterprise systems still generates more choices for consumers than any other system.

Earlier this century, consumers had far fewer choices in products than they do today. The basic rule was one size fits all. But with the advent of the Information Age, there has been a remarkable explosion in the types and varieties of products and services from which to choose.

Consider that between 1970 and the latest statistics available:

•The number of new car models jumped from 140 to 260, while the variety of vehicle styles increased from 654 to 1,212.

• The number of breakfast cereals on supermarket shelves climbed from 160 to 340.

• The number of national soft drink brands to chose from leaped from 20 to 87.

•The number of over-the-counter pain relievers leaped from 17 to 141.

• Even the number of dental flosses being produced went from 12 to 64, and the choices of contact lens types went from one to 36. Meanwhile, the choice of running shoe styles blossomed from five to 285.

But if that increase seems large, consider that there are now
about 250,000 software titles -- compared to zero in 1970.

So what is really happening?

• Competition in all categories is as intense as it ever has been, even more so.

• While industry consolidations may initially appear to limit consumer choices, more often than not they spawn new entrepreneurial competition. There's almost always someone who thinks they can do it better. Witness the growth of Unix being developed on an open share basis even with the giant of all giants, Microsoft, peering over their shoulders!

Fast isn't fast enough. Today you have to be superfast. Apparently in the information era it is easier to develop new products with values that differentiate enough to be valuable to consumers and businesses. The problem at this point is that it takes a while for this new products and services to find their value level in the scheme of things. So, one day a particular product may be hot just because it is. As it is used, or other products seeking consumer attention appear, what was once hot may not...be hot.

And the cycle repeats itself.