“Culture casting” with Samsung

So what is “culture casting”?
Ralph Santana, CMO of Samsung, spells it out. The choice between the two binary options of digital and traditional is flawed. Instead, marketers should embrace a “seamless media landscape.”
There has been mention of the brand’s “DNA” before on this blog and it rears its head again here. Samsung’s strategy is to mesh the brand’s DNA with cultural trends and values, and, by using a mix of media platforms, can begin targeting specific audiences.

Santana identifies three criteria that mass brands need to find market success:
1. broad reach
2. meaningful engagement
3. financial impact

Santana suggests, "it's becoming increasingly difficult to justify levels of spend we make for traditional media based on [the] systems of measurement we have."
Turning to digital media, Santana argues broad reach is hard to achieve because of the diversity and sheer number of platforms available to consumers. According to Santana, “Digital needs to work harder.” Gauging financial impact is also proving hard to obtain online.

Santana says digital needs to work harder but it is not a case of digital or traditional but more of a spread betting approach across many platforms. 

CP+B and Kotler: 2 sides of the same coin

 “Today’s companies are shifting their emphasis from finding customers to learning how to keep and grow them.” Kotler believes customer care is more important than customer acquisition in today’s market place.
Instead of focusing on the 4 P’s (product, price, promotion and place) we should turn our attention to the 4 C’s (Customer value, cost to customer, convenience and communication.) There should be a collaboration with consumers.

Kotler believes customer retention trumps customer acquisition. Adrian Payne from Cranfield bears out Kotler’s assertion. Payne’s research indicates 80% of all companies spend too much on customer acquisition and not enough on customer retention. As little as 5% increase in retention gives a 35-130% increase in profitability, according to Payne.

CP+B, regarded as one of the most progressive agencies of recent years, seems to have imbibed Kotler’s ideas. Bogusky speaks of a “baked in” strategy to marketing a product, finding the hidden truth of a product and giving it an overdue hug. Bogusky, “What is the DNA of the product and how do we capture it.” Taking examples from Best Buy and Domino’s Pizza we see CP+B using Kotler’s ideas. Best Buy now offers a twitter customer service, which aims to answer customer queries as soon as they arise. Customers ordering Domino’s pizza can track their order from beginning to delivery. The comments Domino’s allowed consumers to vent about their pizza, including describing it as “cardboard,” shows Domino’s new image of reaching out to consumers and helping improve their product with direct collaboration with the consumer.

Marketing and advertising strategy will increasingly rely on Kotler’s ideas of connecting with the consumer in the 21st Century. With all the media platforms available and increased interaction, it would be to the detriment of many businesses if they continue to ignore this fact.

Kotler: marketing in the current financial climate

One of marketing's great names weighs in on strategies for the present crisis. Kotler puts his points across with interesting examples from Easyjet and Ryanair's differing marketing strategies. Marketing should supply the opportunities for business.

Well worth a watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hbRZ3ZCyI8

VW Snow plow and Nike Jordan

Some of my all time favourite tv ads. I'm a sucker for paradox and antithesis.

Thank you Wieden + Kennedy for this gem. Makes me want to find more out about JFK's speech writer seeing these beauties.

"Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country."
Future blog post.

David Droga on advertising's landscape

David Droga's recent outline for his upcoming talk at Ad Asia 2011 focused on uncertainty and the future of advertising.

Droga mentioned that changes over last 30-40 years mean old assumptions are no longer relevant. Statements like these are nothing new. In fact, advertising has changed so drastically in the last 10 years, just imagine the next 5! Droga stated the onus is on agencies to give more focus to creative thinking and forward-looking strategies.The main take away point is that the consumer's attention is now up for grabs, regardless of budgets. It's all about creativity. Reminds me of Howard Gossage, "people read what interests them. Sometimes it's an ad." 

Gotta love Droga.


"uncertainty is the new certainty."

Watch the segment here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTaYU8URTQI

Seth Godin

Marketing guru Seth Godin's latest book, "The Dip" about not quitting. Very apt for these economic times and possibly this blog....

Anyway, here's the link

 http://www.squidoo.com/theDipBook

Suzanne Pope copywriting advice

Recently came across an eye-opening article by Suzanne Pope. She has done work for Ogilvy & Mather and TAXI. She also taught copywriting at Humber College in Toronto. She’s won at the One Show. Yup, she is someone to pay attention to.
The article gives GREAT examples of how to use rhetoric effectively in copy and might open some eyes as to the flexibility afforded copywriters over their execution.

Read it here: 


http://ihaveanidea.org/articles/2007/09/23/an-inconvenient-truth-for-copywriters-how-to-write-headlines-and-why-your-career-depends-on-it/

Advertising Masterclass: Bill Bernbach

Although "Think Small" for VW is regarded as Bernbach's crowning achievement, I would like to draw some attention to this often overlooked Avis contribution. With Avis, Bernbach provided a simple truth with a beautiful twist. Changing perspective and turning a seemingly negative attribute into a positive was so refreshing, so new, so self-effacing that Avis saw its market cap rise from 11%-35% in just a few short years. This strategy of taking a negative attribute of a product and turning it into a positive is certainly a Bernbach innovation and we can see the same methods being employed today by everyone from CP+B to Mother. Remember those Orange ads portraying Orange execs as crass idiots or Pimms as a drink for upper-class twits?
Bernbach's legacy lives on!