What Has Happened to Good Judgment?

Tags

Advertising, Brand Relationship, Common Sense, Good Judgment

There seem to be a couple of things that are in increasingly short supply as time goes on:

1. Good judgment
2. Common sense

Unfortunately, with the far-reaching, mass communication so easily achievable with Social Media, lapses in both judgment and common sense seem to be glaringly obvious and terribly well publicized when they occur (not than anyone seems to be learning anything from them).

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-03/news/30583232_1_transgender-woman-transgender-women-offensive-ads

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kiriblakeley/2011/08/17/niveas-new-ad-racist/

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/161295/read-my-lips-this-chapstick-social-media-controve.html

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_groupons_super_bowl_ad_was_so_offensive.php

http://adage.com/article/adages/kenneth-cole-tweets-egypt/148643/

For more examples check out: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/adfreaks-top-50-stories-2011-no-10-1-137276

I’d like to think I’m one to push the envelope.  I love humour and enjoy it above all other techniques in advertising.   My own personal sense of humour tends to be pretty irreverent.  On another day, I will even argue that we have become too sensitive and that pushing the border of political correctness as regards humour is a good thing.

However in my role as keeper of the product/brand/company image, I know that the worst thing I can do is insult or offend my consumer, consumer’s family, social group, ethnicity, gender or other affiliation.

Worse than the possible alienation and potential of losing a customer is the rupture of the relationship between the brand/product and the user due to the perceived breach of trust.  Because that is a real challenge to regain.

The brands and products we use help define who we are.  Our identity is a complicated matrix of upbringing, education, environment, beliefs, goals, desires (and much more) and is manifested in what we do for a living, where we live, the car we drive – if we drive a car – and the products we use.  Everything we do and buy/use represents a choice.  And a selection is based on trust.  Trust that the product/brand will perform, produce, do what it says, deliver against its promise.

As all of our choices are made for a reason that links to who we are, there is a level of identification with the product.  It’s a reflection of who we are.  A relationship exists.

Because, in the times we live in, news of the betrayal goes viral instantly and all of the people who have a similar relationship with the product realize that they, too have been betrayed.

Good judgment should immediately nix any idea that might result in this happening right at the point where the concept is presented, no matter how clever it is/was.

Common sense should highlight the idea that anything with the potential of making customers uncomfortable or contradicting their view of the product or brand is going to present a conflict that may negatively affect their relationship with the brand.

Being the Pollyanna I am, I assume that the senior executives involved in these “situations” all rose to their exalted positions because of characteristics like good judgment and common sense…

Or maybe not!

 

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Communications: Clutter and Cutting Through It.

Tags

Advertising, Advertising Mediums, Advertsing Practices, Brand Planning. Product Launch, Breakthrough, Business Practices, Communications, Competitive Advantage, Innovation, PR, Public Relations, Social Media, Strategic Planning, Strategy

The challenge is clutter.  It’s like dust, clear it away and it just comes back.

The first advertising must have been word-of-mouth. “It’s getting cold and I need a sweater, where can I get some wool?”  “The farmer on the hill raises sheep, you can buy wool from him, but if you want it already spun, you should see the widow who lives near the brook.”

Then, as small towns developed it became names:  Smith shod horses, Mason built your house and Miller turned your grain into the flour that went to Baker, who made your bread.

Then came the first endorsements and self-promotion: Shoemaker to the king.   Milliner to the Princess.  Saddle-maker to the Emperor.  “By the order of His Majesty, King Albert” on condiments, tobacco, biscuits and more.

As towns grew into cities, a need for signs arose.  At first, they just contained words, then painted pictures were added, to make them stand out and help those who were illiterate –“The Spotted Pig” depicting a fat, freckled porcine drinking out of a tankard.  Then the signs grew and were placed in different areas of the city, directing people from elsewhere to the actual location of the establishment.

Broad-scale celebrity product endorsements probably originated in 1863 when the popular European beverage Vin Mariani, a drink made with wine and extract of coca leaves, found favour with Britain’s Queen Victoria and Popes Leo XIII and Pius X. (And no wonder!)

Then came radio and product “jingles” with the rationale that you’d get to the store with voices in your head singing about your dishwashing liquid or toothpaste. In 1923, around the same time commercial radio began in the United States, General Milles is credited with airing the world’s first singing commercial.  On Christmas Eve of 1926 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market, the seminal radio bite, entitled “Have You Tried Wheaties?” was first sung over the air.

The next development was TV,  with commercials and jingles acted out, or presenting “slice of life” situations and soon, sponsorships, like P&G’s soap operas were created.  Then came product placement in movies where millions of people could see the product used in context.

Advertising began springing up wherever there was space — billboards, shelters, and advertising on and in buses and cars, on trains and planes.  In washrooms and seat-backs, on electronic screens and light displays, at the football game or the bowling alley.  Wherever people were, whatever the activity, a way was found to reach out with messages about products and services.

(Promotion is a big element, and another, parallel story, but I’ll give it a pass for now.)

Now here we are, dare I say, drowning in Social Media.  Desperately trying to learn to swim while simultaneously trying to win an advantage over the competition and make ourselves stand out from all the rest.

The pattern is clear.  There is innovation, and with that, the kudos and clear advantage of standing out from the crowd.  Until, that is, that everyone else jumps on the bandwagon, the competition becomes fierce, the environment gets cluttered and the differentiation wanes .  Then someone gets a brain wave or seizes an opportunity and the cycle begins all over again.

What’s the Point?

The point is that it’s not just about jumping on the latest trend.  It’s about how you leverage the “latest thing” to support your strategy and plan to do what is best for your product or service.  How it helps you reach your consumer and what works for them.  It’s about being smart, strategic and discerning.

Yes, it’s a huge win to be first.  But if you’re not first, you’d better be wiser, and understand just what this means for your brand and if/how it best fits.

Companies like Coca Cola, P&G, General Mills and L’Oreal, to name just a few, have had their share of innovation, but it has been their consistency, their attention to strategy, their discipline and attentiveness to the plan which has led to their enduring success. When they were not first, they found the best way to use advertising and other vehicles to build awareness for their Brands and attract users.  However, the most important thing is always the quality and consistency of their products over the long-term and this translates into the care with which they communicate.

When faced with clutter, it is the familiar, the known, the recognizable that stands out when you are searching for something.

Fundamentally, it is not the medium, nor the message. that keeps your customers coming back for more.  It’s delivering the goods.