Brand-Jacked!

Do you remember Larry, a.k.a. “The Target”? His photograph was taken with his mobster sidekicks, Johnny, “The Face”, and Freddy, “The Fish." The photos were part of a branding campaign I worked on (yes, it was a while ago, so don’t rub it in) for the DayGlo Color Corporation. The issue was that their brand was being hijacked. Brand jacking is what happens when other folks start using your brand’s name for their stuff. For example, Kleenex is both a tissue and a brand. In Europe, when you vacuum your carpet, you’re “Hoover-ing." In DayGlo’s case, of course, florescent paint was being called “dayglo." Linguistic experts thrill at this because it is proof that our language is dynamic as new words and language patterns are forever evolving. But for corporations and causes, with the growing number of social channels, this word metamorphosis is a mixed blessing. Brand jacking can be problematic but also contribute significantly to awareness. We've all read about the negative side, like when a politician or celebrity has had a fake social media account created for them by a malicious fan or their personal accounts hacked. There are web addresses, too, changed ever so slightly from the company’s own address, containing content your mom wouldn’t approve of. I also read recently how protesters are using Amazon’s open review and tagging model to highlight unpopular products or issues. Probably most common is negative comments on Facebook. Also, see Turnier’s article "When Twitter Hashtags Attack." These items and more give brand managers insomnia as they seek positive ways to deal with negative images. The good side of brand jacking is that you’ve definitely cut through the clutter when the consumer sees fit to adopt your product as the name for the thing. You are the brand. You’re what the consumer expects and you influence how they evaluate similar products. That’s brand nirvana in my book. In DayGlo’s case, the brand has become the word and something pretty unique happened that the company didn’t sanction. Back in 2006 on college campuses in Florida, the world’s largest paint party began. It was called DAYGLOW. Close spelling, same sounding, but not exactly the same moniker as DayGlo Color Corporation. Of course, consumers aren’t paying any attention to the slight spelling change. What’s a “W” anyway, except a way around some legalese (I’m betting)? It's still going on today. DAYGLOW, the event, promises high-energy music, art, dance, and PAINT in one mind-blowing performance where dayglo, no I mean, fluorescent paint, is sprayed onto a waiting audience. What a way to engage young consumers in a positive brand experience. The text between two girlfriends would read, “Covered in dayglo and dancing my a-- off." I sympathize with DayGlo as this scenario is like giving my daughter the car keys. It is difficult to let go of your brand and allow your fans to take control; but in this case, DayGlo the company was never in control. They were completely removed from the equation. The fans were followers of the performance experience, not the paint. I know these fans aren’t differentiating between any fluorescent paint and the real DayGlo paint, yet I can’t help but believe that their participation and enthusiasm is instrumental in popularizing the paint and the company. And when, during the concert, they’re sprayed with paint, that’s a fun-filled introduction to a product they wouldn’t have thought twice about before. It also makes me consider the power of crowdsourcing in creating awareness. Maybe the lesson here is: Get noticed, and invite your brand to a party. What do you think? If you’re wondering what happened to Larry, The Target — he met his demise in a shoot-out in his hometown, Cleveland, Ohio. He probably would have been okay if his fashion sense had been better. At the time of the shooting he was wearing a long overcoat. It was DayGlo pink.

Measuring Honest Responses, Honestly

I was wallowing in the word use; “measureable marketing campaigns”, “customized engagement”, “tracking leads”.  These descriptors that you lavished in your job description all resonate with my beliefs and my competencies in defining your customer as key to business growth.  Then you mentioned an understanding of NPS scores.

I know about them.  I worked with GE and I own the stock.  So you are aware of the controversy over the “likely to recommend question” as an accurate predictor of business growth.  Also I’ve personally tested, granted a while ago in graduate school, the 11-pt variability scale used in this testing and didn’t find it as accurate as the 7-pt Likert scale.  But the list of other variables that impacts results goes well beyond 11-pts into self-report over oral report; individual environments over group and so forth.

At the end, I will give you that NPS scores are a generally acceptable method of translating human response into business action.  Key here is acceptable and business action.  (When I’m asked to recommend a strategy my preference is to develop a road map from research first.)  So yes, I could make that work.

An obstacle to your initiating dialog with me won’t be my research acumen, ability to engage the customer, or deep marketing experience.  But it may be that most of what I know about luxury goods comes from experience with this consumer segment in the financial services community and from hanging out with rich people, primarily a very few selected family members and friends.  If only my work experience included fabrics, fashion and design, I could drop a brand name here like Verace, Gucci, Chanel, Perry Ellis (Tom Ford).

Oh well, take a look at my resume, I’d love to speak with you about this very large and exciting opportunity.  Best to call me on my cell.  Chow!

It's About Content, not Advertising.

I have been thinking about your cost per lead.  One thing about "new marketing" that's apparent is that it isn't about TV advertising, it's about content and video. A lucrative focus for you might be to determine what your customers are interested in and create video around that topic. 

What's going to grab attention?  That's a question that deserves first a focus on who you want to pursue and some research.  But let's say you pick skateboarding to capture a young demographic and let's pick YouTube as the chosen marketing channel.  I'm not suggesting viral video because you're better off playing Powerball than waiting for your clip to take off (48 hours of video are loaded every minute).  So you'll want to buy some search ads which go for $0.50 per click. You don't have to sink a fortune.  Just be sure your content is relevant to the search term since Google bases the ad's position on that relevance.  

Being thrifty?  Instead of using your Madison Avenue ad agency to determine what's working (they're likely to use focus group testing), take advantage of the comments your viewers will write below the video.  Granted, many will be colorful (+/-), but some will have insights.  Also there's technology that lets you see when people are tuning in and out of your video.  A/B test by running two versions of your clip as an Unlisted Video backed by search ads and then see which clip gets the better response.  And, there's Google Analytics, one of my favorites. 

If you're spending money on YouTube ads, you'll want to track the ROI, which despite the fact the YouTube is 21st century digital and cutting edge, the tracking is a bit challenged. But there is a method and let's face it, there's no point in trying this if you can't gauge eyeballs.  

At the end of the day, you'll want to position yourself as an expert in your field.  This is where the skateboarding example comes in.  The Original Skateboards brand has been built largely on its YouTube presence (even over Facebook).  I've attached a video (below) which you may not find that entertaining, but the skateboarder-want-to-be's out there not only watch but study the moves.  Besides YouTube, other online more traditional "broadcast" alternatives include ABC, NBC, CBS, Comedy Central, and the Daily Show.  All places which deserve testing of your 30 second ad variety since if you're not there you're missing eyeballs.

The key rule to remember is that it's not about advertising.  It is about creating content that helps or intrigues people, that people connect with and then they connect with the source, and that's you.  

Video:  Original Skateboards
To Erika, competency is the thrill.

A Few of My Favorite Things

So besides that song from the Sound of Music running through my head, are you humming it too?  Here are a few of my favorite things.  First, there’s chocolate. Really chocolate in any form makes me happy.  I love eating it whether its chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, or chocolate candy.  As a result I find true strength isn’t being able to break a chocolate bar into 4 parts, but being able to break it apart, eat one piece and walk away from the rest.

Tidy data is next on my list.  I know it sounds crazy but I have, during my marketing career, been responsible for building and cleaning up databases.  The ones I like the best, that always make me smile indulgently, are those dirty databases, no NCOA, no de-duping, names and addresses filled with errors that I have successfully fixed.  When data is tidy, the sales results can’t help but make everyone smile.

Last on today's list is good friends.  These are the friends that you can say anything to and they don’t judge you, they just take it in.  They may be friends that you don't see for a long time, I mean years, and yet when you get together it is like no time has past at all.  I only have a few of these special friends and I treasure each one.

So when I'm challenged by my job search, or my family or the balance in my check book, and feel down in the dumps, I simply remember, ... well, you know the drill, "when you get down to the bottom of the barrel, you just float back on top!"

Dedicated to Leslie, Rick, Sarah, Bill, Heather, Joan and my girls!

Oh My, Marketing Has Changed!

Yesterday's Marketing	Today's Truth
Remarkable advertising sells	Remarkable products are bought
You can target consumers	Consumers target you
Seduce the market	Honesty invites and wins customers
Marketing is about control	You never have control
Your time, your place, your message	Consumer's time, place and content
Push your message	Engage to get their pull through

A Letter of Intent

It was a box too long, shallow, and heavy to carry easily and I was reverently attempting to deliver it safely across campus. Reverently because it contained the several hundred punch cards I had keyed. It was 1972 in Illinois where they have fields of sunflowers, all you can see for as far as you can see. Pure magic. I believe in magic but I also believe in finding it in results. So I was negotiating my way towards the computer building. I had an appointment to discover what these cards would reveal about the communication proclivities of the college students who had completed my master’s thesis questionnaire.

It was a walk that became my journey; a lifetime of trying to get people to react, do, and buy what I wanted when I wanted. Sounds presumptuous, doesn’t it? I did/do mean well. I have this fantasy of being able to make the “world” better. That communication brings understanding.

So no surprise, my calling is marketing and I’ve been making that trip between the communications building and the computer lab for about 35 years (ouch). What I’ve learned is that marketing projects almost always require IT support, an experience that is like bringing together, without an interpreter, tourists who speak different languages. There is lots of hand gesturing and head-shaking.

My own attempts translate into: I know enough about technology to get myself into trouble. On the job, working with what seems to be always outdated database management systems, struggling with not enough IT resources, getting a vision of what might be and then trying to enlist people in different areas and other companies, to make the idea a reality. Being told “No, it can’t be done”, never really understanding why, secretly believing there’s a lie involved.

Working in direct response marketing, I’ve learned how to build databases, test creative concepts, offers, and customer segments. I’ve even led a team to develop programming and launch a product that was scanned and activated at the cash register. With the development of social media channels, I’ve recognize the opportunity to engage customers in new ways. I also discovered that in this online arena, much of my direct response experience is helpful. For example landing page A/B testing, pay per clicks, Google analytics, these are all focused on measuring and interpreting response. It seems that “measurable” marketing is now all the rage.

The sum of my intentions is this: that as well as I know direct response marketing, the lands of information science are on the outskirts of my maps and there’s this warning: Beyond Here, Be Dragons. But I’m not easily deterred.

I see a growing need for marketing managers, like myself, to bring high competency in technology to their strategic marketing work. I want to be that marketing expert that can meld these two disciplines, marketing and technology, into a seamless communication solution; a solution that delights and then motivates the consumer. Can you help me?

Postscript:  I've been accepted at Penn State and I'm now getting my Masters in Information Science.  I'm excited to be on this journey.