PC World. Benefits led - cliched but true

Nice example of a brand focussing on the benefit not the features, really simple idea.

"These are not headphones. These are 30 minutes of escape into your own private space."

How to over think your advertising

It is said that advertising is the greatest waste of human intellect, second only to chess.

Which brings neatly on to messaging architectures. What on earth are they? The output is invariably a powerpoint slide with all the messages a brand wants it customers to understand about itself or its products. The polite expression is assumptive.

It assumes consumers are interested. It sometimes assumes that consumers are so fascinated by a brand that they are happy to consume and process the messages in the order a brand wants them to do. They are like all a lot of plans, extremely seductive on paper but invariably useless when you get to implement anything. Their main purpose is to show everyone else we have thought of everything unfortunately they have a major negative effect. They encourage you to focus on the Ts & Cs, the additional points not necessarily the interesting bit.

A wise person said the job of marketing and advertising is to find something interesting about your product and then say it in an interesting way. When you invite someone round to a party. You say it is going to be brilliant we will get obscenely drunk/play whist - depending on your age. You don't send out an agenda with details of what to do with your coats and drinks when you arrive. Maybe you do. Sorry.

The only marketing rule you will ever need

I have worked it out, forget your top ten lists. I know we all like lists but there is only one rule you need in the new marketing environment and that is.

Be interesting.

Ok we have known this for a while and you could say it is just another way of saying content, content, content.

But to be interesting you have to all of the following.

(1) segment your market - create personas if we want to get digital about it.
(2) understand your customers requirements
(3) give them the personal treatment
(4) be relevant
(5) get to the point quickly
(6) ignore your (product) agenda until you know what the consumer wants

I quite like the way HSBC give lots of business advice on their business banking pages but there again the choice for them is easy, business banking is inherently dull. I also had a look at Evans's website (the cycle people). They have some interesting areas like 'ride2work', 'news and events' but they should be part of the landing environment not something to do after you have scanned the product pages. And why don't they have lots of pages about great places to cycle or videos. If it is there, it is very well hidden.

Sales people always want the products up front which is ironic given that sales people always say good ones engage the customer before they talk about the product. You know the car salesman who asks you how you are going to use the car, what sort of trips you will make before talking petrol and cars.

Are we all just too good at ignoring our own advice?

Big budgets can lead to lazy marketing

Some marketers have too much money. If they had limited budget they would :-

(1) Make sure the website was a focal point of the business
(2) Invest time in creating interesting content covering the category, events to video.
(3) Get a few staff to blog their little socks off
(4) Optimise the site for organic search
(5) Share as much as possible with key influencers
(6) Capture customer data, give customers a personal service, do CRM, maximise retention
(7) Give their brand personality
(8) Develop affiliate relationships - old style and new style affiliates
(9) Link, link, link

... and so on and so on

If they have too much money they :-

(a) Do big ads and talk about big ideas, (not lots of great little ideas)
(b) Run regular DM programs, saying the same thing to the same prospects again and again.
(c) Do lots of paid search
(d) Try to sell off the page
(e) Talk about being customer centric
(f) Copy their nearest competitors

Technorati Profile

Inactive sponsorship

I am sure i am setting myself up for a fall and will be accused of being too left brain about this but I don't really get a sponsorship. What do Samsung get out of sponsoring Chelsea? What return on investment does Vodafone get from England Cricket. I think they call this passive sponsorship.

I definitely understand sponsorship when there is a shared relevance so Flora sponsoring the London Marathon and, is it, Pedigree sponosoring Crufts Dog Show. And it is even better when a sponsorship is active or strategic, where the sponsorship showcases the product or service. So I am thinking IBM and Wimbledon, Ariel and Championship Whites, SAP and HP in F1.

Can anyone explain what they get out of logo sponsorship?

Vauxhall's advertising turkey

My life was empty, I had no girlfriend and my car was getting a bit long in the tooth. So I popped down the Vauxhall showroom to get my self a babe magnet (subject to finance), you probably know it better as a Corsa. Driving home I spotted a young woman struggling to cycle up the hill. She was probably in her late 20s, sexy but certainly not too much for your gran.

I pulled the car over and out popped the integral cycle rack, it is hidden behind the number plate. By not getting out of the car (to fully show off the cycle rack remote mechanism) I risked her thinking I was incapacitated in some way but the risk proved worth it as she slid in beside me. We went to my appartment overlooking the Med (Medway) and made love all afternoon. Thank you Vauxhall, and thank you integral cycle rack.

P.S. The woman could have been my wife I cant remember.

http://www.visit4info.com/advert/No-Deposit-0-FInance-on-Vauxhall-Corsa-with-Bike-Rack-Vauxhall-Corsa-Range/68816

I know the ad has been around a while but it is bad, in fact so bad i couldn't even find it on youtube. Can you explain why the car is driven by a sock puppet? What is more If the best thing about your car is an integral cycle rack it might be an idea to feature it on your website rather than hide it. I could go on and on and on ...