When Ads Go Bad

Don't make your customers hate you.

Just like many professionals, we like reading about our profession. We read the advertising trade publications to get the buzz of what’s going on inside our industry. And we read the popular press to see how we’re viewed from the outside.

Unfortunately, that’s not always exactly uplifting. In fact, very often such stories are about some hair-raising errors in judgment, and usually end with a variant of this sentence: “The ad was pulled from circulation, and the company apologized to all who were offended.”

When an ad goes bad there’s usually plenty of blame to go around. The client gave the creative team some rough parameters (or maybe even specific parameters), the creatives spit-balled some ideas, one was chosen and fleshed out, and the client signed off on it. Sometime thereafter an ad was unleashed upon the world.

That creative team should very much fall on its sword, though, if the ad was badly targeted, poorly communicated, or was somehow actually offensive. Even if it completely followed the client’s directives, it’s the agency’s job to make sure it does what it’s supposed to: drive awareness, position against competitive offerings, pre-qualify potential new customers and precondition targets for the selling process. It’s the agency’s job to foresee any backlash, any counterproductive scenario, and when necessary to put the brakes on. 

So when a bad ad is released, it’s the agency’s fault. Period.

This is always the case, even when the ad’s relative “badness” is a matter of conjecture. Take this example from earlier this summer. McDonald’s in Singapore ran a print ad for McNuggets, declaring that “Today’s PSI (Peak Sauce Index) is deliciously high.” The problem? In Singapore, as well as throughout English-speaking East Asia, PSI is universally recognized as the Pollutant Standards Index. And the week the ad ran, Singapore’s PSI was at a record high, leading to widespread illness and misery.

The ad was pulled, and McDonald’s apologized to all who were offended.

There were no moral shocks here, no stereotyping or offensive language. Just a bit of cultural thoughtlessness. That was enough, though, to make the ad completely counterproductive.

An advertisement sent out unto the world must follow the basic tenet of marketing: Know thy customers. Know what appeals to them, and just as importantly, know what turns them off. If there’s the slimmest chance an ad might bruise their sensibilities, or cause them to think unpleasant thoughts, then that ad should never see the light of day.

Of course you know your customers. But you should be able to rely on your agency to make sure your advertising is right for those customers. The agency should value your results far more than their own creative prowess. They might create stunning ads, but if those ads create backlash, they’re hurting you — not helping you.

The C4

1. When we see our industry in the popular press, it’s a little like seeing a train wreck. We know it’s gonna be bad, but we can’t seem to look away. When the popular press writes about advertising, nine out of ten times they’re writing about advertising gone awry.
2. Advertising goes awry because someone, somewhere in the process, didn’t give due respect to the audience’s sensibilities.
3. When that happens, it’s the agency’s fault. Always.
4. Know your customers. And make sure your agency knows them, too. A good agency never stops learning about their clients’ customers, and they craft marketing material that appeals directly to those folks. They know the cultural, political, and sociological hot-buttons to avoid. They’re creatively gifted, to be sure, but they know that creativity counts for less than zero if their clients end up publicly apologizing for their work.

Should We Differentiate?

If you can, yes, but it may be short-lived.

We may be your favorite marketing gurus, but we’re probably not your only ones. And we’re probably not the only ones hitting you up with this familiar bit of advice: “You’ve got to differentiate yourself from the competition.”

Which is, generally speaking, true. But within generalizations hide a minefield of caveats and exceptions. To whit: what if you’re engaged in one of the countless industries where differentiation is well-nigh impossible?

Within several blocks from the office in which we toil, there are several full-service mechanics to be found. While they’re in no way identical, the differences between their prices, services offered, guarantees, etc. are narrow enough to be almost unquantifiable. Clearly, their customers are choosing them for some other reason than, “This mechanic is utterly unlike all the rest.”

Similarly, even those companies that do have the ability differentiate themselves, certainly don’t have the ability to sustain that advantage forever. Success inspires copying. And copying erodes differentiation.

Some businesses choose to tilt at windmills, by way of fighting that. Their lawsuits and cease-and-desist attempts might, if they’re lucky, scare off the most skittish of copiers. But there are always less-skittish competitors lined up to take their place.

So differentiation, while often important, can’t be seen as a viable tactic for everyone, nor a long-term strategy for anyone. The solution, as always, is to be the best at knowing your business. Know where and how differentiation is possible — and know, likewise, if and when it’s not.

If you can differentiate yourself, do so. But do so with the knowledge that it’s a short-term proposition at best. If it’s not possible, or if it’s run its course, find other sustainable competitive advantages that keep you in the forefront of your customer’s consciousness.

Competition is challenging. It’s among the few true zero-sum games that real life throws at us. With stakes that high, it’s just good business sense to rely on a toolbox’s worth of advantages, rather than cliched, one-size-fits-all ideas.

The C4:

1. Differentiation is a marketing buzzword. There, we said it. It does make sense for some of our clients — maybe even a lot of our clients. But like most buzz-concepts, it’s over-used and over-relied upon. It’s time to correct that.
   
2. Because, let’s face it, differentiation isn’t possible for everyone. There are products and services — commodities, mostly — that will bear little differentiation in the marketplace. To try to force it upon them looks absurd. Do not look absurd in the eyes of your customers.
   
3. But maybe you don’t sell commodities, and maybe you’re well positioned to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Great! By all means, do so. But every dollar you make from that strategy is a dollar’s worth of incentive for your competitors to copy you. Differences don’t last, is what we’re saying.
   
4. What’s the solution? There isn’t a single solution, and that’s precisely the point. Differentiation might be a useful marketing tool for you. Then again, it might not be. All we can tell you at this point is there are a slew of strategies and tactics that are right for you. Walk through our door, sit down and talk with us, and we’ll discover your unique story, together.

Making The Mark

It could have happened to any of us.

Any among us could react to a short-term emergency with a long-term mistake. Monday-morning quarterbacking aside, it's easy to make the wrong call when you're in that position. It's easy to grasp for the simplest solution while taking your eye off the long ball.

In the case of Maker's Mark, it was a problem of supply and demand — too little of the former and too much of the latter. The way MM handled that problem shows they forgot, somehow, that the "demand" part of that equation was a complement of the highest order, and an admonition to "don't ever, please" mess with the recipe.

The reduction of Maker's Mark from 90 to 84 proof was an attempt to stretch supply and meet demand. It was not intended to deliver a body blow to an elegant, successful brand. But that's what it did.

Any among us could make that kind of mistake, but not all could recover like Maker's Mark has. They did so by falling back on the most basic tenet of business: listen to your customer. After a week of uproar the company announced their reversal with this tweet:

You spoke. We listened. ow.ly/hN3kC
— Maker's Mark (@MakersMark) February 17, 2013

Did they really save their brand that easily? Listen — they're still Maker's Mark. They're still 90 proof of bourbon perfection. Dipped in wax to seal the magnificence inside.

And that brief run of 84 proof bottles? Collector's items now. Maker's Mark lovers who were just last week cursing the brand now can't buy that stuff fast enough.

The C4:

1. Maker's Mark Manhattan: shake together a shot and a half of MM, a half shot sweet vermouth, and a dash of bitters. Chilled glass, cherry garnish, and good, good times.
    
2. Maker's Mark Old Fashioned: mix a part and a half MM with a half part club soda and a teaspoon of sugar. Serve over ice, sip it slow.
    
3. Maker's Mark on the rocks: just like it sounds, but somehow so much better.
    
4. The Maker's Mark takeaway: When the customer speaks, listen.

Jump On The Blog Wagon

There's a logical explanation for your organized thinking.

What if we told you there’s a single tool that can support all your marketing efforts, enhance your management and internal relations, improve your communication skills, and sharpen your critical thinking?

Already it sounds too good to be true. So just wait until we add: This tool is absolutely free.

The tool we’re speaking of is the blog, and if you don’t have one already you should start one right away.

What can you do with a blog? To begin with, you can explain yourself. You can provide the detail behind your decisions — to your customers, to your employees, to strangers…maybe, if need be, even to yourself.

That’s because the act of writing, of blogging, forces a focus in your thinking and an examination of your procedural logic. In sitting down to write the 500 or 1,000 words on whatever’s relevant to your business this week, you’ll find yourself delving into why it’s relevant, and what that means, and what it foretells.

You’ll support and amplify your marketing campaigns by providing a longer-format appeal that just isn’t possible through any other outreach. You’ll humanize yourself and the voice of your company, by supplying the ongoing narrative that explains why you’re in business and what makes you tick.

You can spend money on blogging, to be sure. Spend as much as you want. But you can get started, and you should get started, right now, for nothing. And similarly, you’ll probably get started with few or no readers. That shouldn’t stop you either. Every blog you write, whether it’s read widely or not at all, sharpens your mind and hones your ability. Every entry makes you a better writer and a better thinker. And rest assured, the better you get the more attractive your blog gets. The readers will come.

This is a tool that’s loaded with potential. Your potential to start a conversation, to introduce yourself to an unlimited audience, and to begin explaining why you’re doing what you do starts with the gentlest of efforts.

We urge you to make that effort at once.

The C4:

1. The blog is the definitive format of twenty-first-century electronic publishing. It is open and available to all and is equally serviceable for business, for art, for pleasure, and for no particular reason at all.
2. From a business perspective, there’s probably no comparable tool that can reach so many people, that can explain or justify so ably and thoroughly, and can elicit such critical thinking, for so little outlay and effort.
3. Your earliest efforts at blogging might attract little notice. Your first few blogs might be choppy or rambling. Soldier on. You’ll get better with practice, and your practice will attract attention.
4. Blogger and Wordpress are free hosting services that can have you up and running with a beautiful, dynamic blog in just a few minutes. With Tumblr, you can create a more visual-oriented and stripped-down yet still great looking blog even faster. With Wordpress you can download the open-source Wordpress software and host it yourself. You can buy a domain name for a few bucks and redirect it to any blog, anywhere. The point is you can spend a little, a lot, or nothing — and still create a blog that lets you speak with your customers like never before. Why not get started today?

The Name of the Game

Pretend it's your baby.

Building your brand starts the moment you start building your company. The decisions you make as you plan, create and launch a new business will inevitably have long-lasting impact on your long-term success.

And perhaps the most consequential of those decisions is a deceptively simple one: just what are you going to call this new company?

Resist the urge to rush that decision. And resist the urge for self-indulgence. Naming the company after yourself, or your kids, or some meaningless word that sounds nice to your ears — there have been plenty of entrepreneurs who’ve managed to make this work. But there have been plenty more who’ve tried it and failed.

Your first consideration in naming your company is the one that should inform all your decision making: what does this mean for my customers? To answer that, you must know your customers, or at least know the type of customer you’ll be targeting. If you sell to a staid, conservative crowd, then one of those edgy, modern monikers — think Tumblr, Skype and Etsy — probably won’t win them over.

Speaking of pronunciation, how does it sound spoken aloud? How does it look on a letterhead? Will lazy tongues or unfamiliar typefaces change its meaning? There’s an unfortunately high possibility of brand damage here. You must anticipate and mitigate it.

Finally, can you trademark your name and buy a suitable Web domain? You might eventually retain a trademark attorney, but why not just start with a Google search? See what companies are out there with similar names, and try to anticipate consumer confusion that might result. And do a search for available domain names, but be warned: there are “domain squatters” out there who specialize in buying up dot-com names based on others’ searches, only to sell them back later at exorbitant costs.

Try to settle on a name that makes sense to your customers, that tells them in an instant who you are, what you offer and why you’re the best at it. Choose a name upon which you can hang the entirety of your marketing program — because that’s exactly what you’re about to do.

The C4:

1. Choosing a company name is the entrepreneur’s single most important marketing decision. Success depends upon treating that decision with that level of seriousness.
2. Don’t rush it and don’t take it as an opportunity to pat yourself on the back. Do look for names that speak directly to the kind of customer you want to attract.
3. Anticipate trademark and Web domain issues, as well as every nuance in how the name will sound aloud and appear on the page and screen.
4. Create a marketing program that starts with that carefully considered, ultimately perfect name…then build your dream from there.

Never Send A Hamster To Do A Gecko's Job

Insider lingo is off-putting to everyone who isn't inside.

Healthcare, life insurance and reverse mortgages: if you’re over 65, it seems like advertisers think these are the only classes of purchases in which you’re interested.

Generational Marketing is a grand idea. But too many marketers and brand managers seem uninterested in all but a few of those younger generations. They’re seeking brand sustainability, early wrought loyalty and some of the purchasing power of the 20-somethings’ new money.

Understandable goals, all around.

But do they forget the established tendency toward loyalty — and the rock-solid purchasing power — of the generations they habitually ignore?

Gaps in communication only compound the gen-gap. Trying too hard to emulate the lingo of the youngest, they send incomprehensible lingo right over the heads of elders. That’s not just ignoring part of your audience — that's flirting with their annoyance.

Two possible solutions: Spend big like Geico does, on parallel marketing platforms aimed toward every possible age of buyer. Or spend cheap by sticking to the basics, by talking about value and benefits in plain English.

Yes, you should know your audience, and talk right to them. If your only possible buyers are too young to remember the sounds of dial-up, then by all means dazzle them with your hippity-blingy hamsters.

But stop and consider the couple billion older consumers to whom you’re not selling. Ask yourself if your hamsters aren’t gnawing into your bottom line. Ask yourself if you can afford to ignore any generation.

The C4:

1. Generational Marketing means fine-tuning your message for the benefit of your buying demographic. It doesn’t mean ignoring or annoying potential buyers.
2. Hip lingo and youthful swagger are cute. “Cute” is complementary for only so many brands.
3. Every age of consumer is interested in value, in features and in benefits. Talk about those and you’re talking to everyone.
4. Don’t send a hamster to do a caveman’s job.

Steady at The Helm

A tsunami in Asia can bring us to the brink of recession, and a rumor of agreement among European financiers can send our markets soaring. An odd side effect of our global interconnectedness is that so much of our economic fate seems beyond our control.

Maybe so. But that's no excuse for us, as businesspeople, to take our hands from the tiller. Fair winds or foul may blow from beyond our horizons, yet we remain captains of our own ships.

Or how about a landlubber's metaphor: go ahead and see the forest for the trees, but remember the trees still matter. Tend to your basics: take care of your customers; buy low and sell high.

Global markets will bring the unexpected. Temper that by controlling what you can, and by always applying your best business practices.

Distant gales might still rock your boat, but you'll be better prepared than most to ride them out.