Revisiting concepts: The FCB Grid

The FCB grid was developed by Richard Vaughn. a Senior Vice President of Foote, Cone and Belding Advertising. It helps direct both our creative strategy and our media strategy as it clarifies how consumers approach the buying process for different products. Because of its simplicity the FCB grid became celebrated as a good model, but also a good tool for identifying the right approach a selling message should take. By estimating how a product relates to a consumer in terms of emotion-rationality, low/high involvement, advertisers could focus on the steps a consumer will take when purchasing this product and develop appropriate (hopefully successful) messages.

Leo Burnett Portugal: "Smint"

"Fresh breath and healthy teeth makes any mouth irresistible."

Barclays with BBH

Barclays, PLC, London, consolidated its account at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London, its principal agency, by shifting the assignment for the Barclaycard credit card from BMP DDB, London, part of the DDB Worldwide division of the Omnicom Group, which had handled the assignment for 13 years. Total Barclays billings at Bartle Bogle were estimated at more than $45 million. Source: NY Times

P&G innovates: Fancy a free sample through sms?

Procter & Gamble named Aerodon, London, which specializes on mobile and wireless marketing, to create a campaign for Ariel laundry detergent. Television commercials will ask consumers to use the short-message service, or S.M.S., feature on their cellphones to receive free samples. Source: NY Times

Branding a Nation

"Images of democracy, freedom and opportunity conflict with images of cheap, vulgar, meretricious but compulsively attractive junk; like McDonald's and Coke. These jostle with images around the idea of scientific and technological achievement: Microsoft, Intel and Boeing. No wonder America's image is confusing."
- Wally Olins, Chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants and founder of Wolff Olins.

What about your country? What image do other people have? What image do you have about your own country?

McDonald's Taps TBWA\C\D for 'Be Active' Ads

"McDonald's has tapped the New York office of TBWA\Chiat\Day to handle a new assignment promoting the fast-food giant's "Be Smart, Be Active" program, sources said. The Omnicom Group agency is expected to share the task with other shops, which could not immediately be ascertained, one source said." Source > AdWeek

Consumer choice and judgment

SYNOPSIS:
"What shapes your purchasing decisions? Whether you’re buying a new car or a new shade of lipstick, chances are that you consider tangible factors (product features, price, etc.) or intangible qualities (such as how the product makes you feel), or perhaps both."

"A BMW is the ultimate driving machine and Pontiac builds excitement; Louis Vuitton bags signal who we are or want to be; and Armani suits make us feel like a “million bucks.” When making buying decisions, your feelings are often more engaged than you realize, and sometimes we go with our “gut feel”, even in the face of credible information about better features provided by the alternatives." > INSEAD, Going With Your Gut : Affective Cues and Consumer Judgment and Choice

BBDO Canada: "Atomic ice tea"

Made in Portugal doesn't sell?

Why is it that commodities made in Portugal or even portuguese national brands are perceived as poor quality in the global consumer mind? For example: While a pair of shoes or a suit produced in Italy is perceived as being better just for the sake of being Italian, the very same pair of shoes with the same quality, but made in Portugal is perceived as a poorer relative.

But a completely different thing, occurs when these commodities are sold as global brands, whose positioning of quality and prestige is undisputed. When a label "Hugo Boss" is added in top of a label "made in Portugal", the same pair of shoes or suit gains a intangible dimension in the consumer's mind. It's a "Hugo Boss" suit - it doesn't really matter if it was made in Portugal or not.

We cannot claim the prestigious asset, because that's a consequence of the product branding management, but we can claim the quality of the product that helped to build the brand. So my insight is: why can't we benefit of the free-riding effect that this global brands manufactured in Portugal, can provide us? (I honestly believe that our competitive advantage is in this kind of "leverage"). It's extremelly difficult for portuguese brands to be perceived or recognized as of superior quality or buyable. Therefore a pragmatic approach would be to use these global brands recognized worldwide, but that are made in Portugal. Thus saving us the trouble of working out the "sweet spot" positioning in the consumer minds. A free-riding effect might work well!

Here's the Hidden Persuader © suggestion:



"What's the difference between these labels? None. They're all made in Portugal."

How should an Ad Agency organize its business

How should an Ad Agency organize its business

1) CLIENTS - "THEY ARE THE REASON OF OUR EXISTENCE"
A) You need to understand your Client's mission & vision - the Company's past, present and where the Company wants to be in the future;
B) You need to know their "core business" inside-out and how it works on the field: their products > their services > their distribution channels > and of course, their target market.

2) AD CAMPAIGNS
A) They should be informative and entertaining;
B) They should always include art + strategic business considerations;
C) They should meet the Client's expectations;
D) They should answer to the consumer question: "Why should I buy from you?";
E) Simplicity, common sense and creativity - should be the key factors for every campaign you put out in streets.

3) CONSUMERS
A) They have different perceptions of the products in the market;
B) They have different tastes;
C) They're faithful to some brands;
D) They have a different purchase power;
E) In conclusion: All consumers should not be treated equally.

TBWA\G1: "Do You Speak Micra?" > Spotlight Review

[ David Lynch + TBWA\G1 ]

It’s time to speak Micra:
Spafe: spontaneous + safe ] [ Simpology: simple + technology
Smig: small + big ] [ Aggrendly: aggressive + friendly
Thractical: thrilling + practical ] [ Luxurable: luxurious + affordable
Compacious: compact + spacious ]

The 80:20 Rule

Why is it that the majority of the brands insists on chasing customers they don't have instead of focusing on selling more and creating stronger loyalty bonds with the ones they already have? Aren't these brands familiar with Pareto's Law (also known as the 80:20 rule)? Shouldn't they know that as a general pattern 80% of the profit is achieved with 20% of the customers. Then why wasting their resources, time and effort on new customers that most of the times are potencial brand switchers?

"A 5% improvement in customer retention rates will yield between a 25 to 100% increase in profits across a wide range of industries." - Bain & Company

Leith London: "Irn-Bru Light"

"The Other Half"

For those that are only familiar with the big network agencies, here's some sugestions to see "the other half":

Mckinney + Silver > website
Barkley Evergreen & Partners > website
Fogarty Klein Monroe > website
Austin Kelley > website
Merkley Newman Harty> website
Leopold Ketel & Partners > website
St. Lukes > website
K-agency > website
Mother > website
Leith > website

Cap Gemini Ernst Young Study: "TV Ads Don't Sell Cars"

Only two thirds as many car buyers (17 percent) said that they were influenced by TV ads relative to those (26 percent) who said they were affected by online search engine listings. The Cap Gemini study showed that word of mouth, at 71 percent, was the largest self-reported influence. Said the head of Cap Gemini's automotive practice: "We think manufacturers and their dealers are wasting money on broad-based TV advertising instead of a direct-marketing approach." Source: Ad Age

The Hidden's insight: Why don't the car manufacturers use their CRM - customer relationship management platforms to know which people buy a new car every year or have the intention to get one? Wouldn't be more effective to get a located target and invest on a more direct one2one approach?

Uzina ... "no bullshit" really!!

Check out this interesting Portuguese small creative shop » UZINA "Everything that a great agency has, except the creative fee for the american friend."

Step by Step ...

Step by Step ... we've already achieved more than 10.000 visits since we've created and given life to "the hidden persuader" on July this year. And now we're proud to say that "the hidden persuader" is Portugal's most read branding, advertising & strategy weblog; also with a greater global audience (Europe, States and Brazil)!!!

Cool local and global news, marketing & branding, and creative work! Acclaimed as "an alternative source of information". Over 250 people (marketers, advertising agencies, curious people, students, jornalists) see this weblog per week: Do you want share of mind? A bigger and eclectic audience?

It's still a work-in-progress but it will get bigger with time and perseverence.

Cheers for the support,
The Hidden Persuader team

A Portuguese creative in Amsterdam

According to word of mouth, José Ricardo Cabaço, current Creative Director and partner of Grey Home Lisbon , has accepted an invitation to work at Wieden + Kennedy in Amsterdam. If this is true, we would like to wish him good luck and good work.

Goodby Silverstein: "Nike"

Bill Berbach: Advertising's most influential man

"Is the economy trying to tell you something?"

The impact and the genius of Bill Bernbach on modern advertising (founder of DDB - Doyle, Dane & Bernbach). Here's some of his wisdom:

"The best way to get clients is to create good advertising, and I mean advertising that sells."
> Bill Bernbach

"... too many clients are more interested in the manners of advertising than advertising itself. The client isn't God, but at the same time one should respect him. He may be right".
> Bill Bernbach

A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it's bad.
> Bill Bernbach, DDB Needham Worldwide (1989). Bill Bernbach said . . .

Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it.
> Bill Bernbach, DDB Needham Worldwide (1989). Bill Bernbach said . . .

Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.
> Bill Bernbach, Quoted in Randall Rothenberg Where the Suckers Moon: An Advertising Story (1994)

In advertising not to be different is virtually suicidal.
> Bill Bernbach, Quoted in Robert I. Fitzhenry (1993). The Fitzhenry & Whiteside Book of Quotations

Just be sure your advertising is saying something with substance, something that will inform and serve the consumer, and be sure you're saying it like it's never been said before.
> Bill Bernbach, DDB Needham Worldwide (1989). Bill Bernbach said . . .

Today's smartest advertising style is tomorrow's corn.
> Bill Bernbach, DDB Needham Worldwide (1989). Bill Bernbach said . .

"Obey the Suit"?

A new viral spot for hip London haberdasher Tony Lutwyche gives new meaning to the phrase "sexual harassment suit." According to the clip from London agency St. Luke's, a Lutwyche suit is so powerful, its wearer can lord it over his co-workers in any way he sees fit. See what we mean at > Lutwyche Bespoke

Polaroid names Euro RSCG Worldwide as global agency

Brand Republic > LONDON - Havas-owned Euro RSCG Worldwide has beaten its French rival Publicis Groupe to the global integrated advertising and media account for Polaroid cameras and film.

MERRILL MAVEN AGAIN REVISES ADSPEND FORECASTS

On Wednesday Merril Lynch's analyst Lauren Fine lowered her earlier estimates for 2003 US advertising growth, down from 3.1% to 2.8% percent. Worldwide ad spending she now divines will grow at the rate of 1.9% rather than her previous guess of 2%. Lauren's expectations are more bullish for 2004 – likely taking her cue from the prognostications of those at the ad business coalface. Nonetheless, she revised down her earlier 5.7% US ad growth prediction to 5.4%, while the worldwide estimate is reduced from 4.9% to 4.7%. Source: WARC

BURNETT PRESIDENT BOB BRENNAN LEAVES

CHICAGO (AdAge) -- After nearly three stormy years, Bob Brennan is out as president of Leo Burnett Worldwide, the Publicis Groupe ad network announced this afternoon (October 01, 2003). Burnett Chairman-CEO Linda Wolf will temporarily take on Mr. Brennan's duties for North America, including the U.S. agency's flagship office, Leo Burnett USA, Chicago. Additionally, Roger Haupt, president and chief operating officer of Publicis Groupe, will cover the Europe/Middle East/Africa region until a new regional managing director is named.

Accenture turns to overexposed Woods as spokesman

NEW YORK - He may have been branded the most over-exposed athlete in the US, but this has not stopped Accenture signing Tiger Woods as a spokesperson in a new advertising campaign that will tell clients 'go on, be a Tiger'. Source: Brand Republic

Merkley Newman Harty NY

"Mercedes-Benz: Perhaps the most desirable car in the world."

How Do They Know Their Customers So Well?

Synopsis:
Many firms know about their customers, but few know the customers themselves or how to get new ones. Davenport, director of the Institute for Strategic Change, Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) and coauthors Harris, also from Accenture, and Kohli, professor of marketing at Emory University, report results from interviews with 24 leading firms and describe seven practices that the leaders share. The companies interviewed — including Harley-Davidson, Procter & Gamble, and Wachovia Bank — have undertaken specific and successful initiatives centered around the management of customer knowledge. Source: MIT Sloan Management Review

Think global - Act local

In todays edition of The Wall Street Journal, Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, argues that "one size fits all" strategies are not working anymore. Therefore the strategic orientation of WPP networks such as: Ogilvy, JWT e Y&R - should be more locally based.

Philip Chudy: Smirnoff Vodka

Philip Chudy is an award-winning advertising photographer. His work is a hybrid of seemingly irreconcilable modes: realism and visual fiction, fine art and technology. Hailing from Africa, he has operated professionally from studios in London, Edinburgh, and Frankfurt. Chudy's work has been featured in many large solo shows throughout Europe and in campaigns for clients around the globe, including Benson & Hedges, Mercedes Benz, Wedgewood, and Motorola.

Fallon: "BMW Feelings Campaign"

"Closer"


"Wet Tongue. Cold Pole"

Abbot, Mead & Vickers BBDO: "Guiness"

Source: Luerzers Archive

Marketing Through SMS: "Beep beep! Big Macs are on sale"

"Beep beep beep! Big Macs are on sale, and McDonald's just sent you a text message on your cell phone with the good news. Should you call the spam police?" > This interesting article on Wire Magazine how Marketers are capitalising on the new tech to increase awareness and information on the consumers minds!!

"Out of sight, out of mind" - Does perception sells?

It is very common to hear the expression "out of sight, out of mind". However, the reality is much more ungrateful than theory, and today more than never the empirical evidence shows us that the simple perception or brand awareness doesn't sell. Advertising more than sending top of mind messages to the consumers, must tell them how better brand "X" is for their lives today as it was yesterday. It must create desires and needs. Advertising is much more than winning golden an silver trophies on pretty and creative announcements. Advertising is about communicating brand relevance to its consumers and prospects. Therefore let's start giving them real reasons to choose brand "X".

The Quiz Show: Jorge Teixeira

JORGE TEIXEIRA, CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF EURO RSCG PORTUGAL TALKS TO US

1) Jorge worked in some of the most creative agencies in Portugal and participated in the creation of greta ad campaigns of the recent history of the Portuguese advertising (Telecel, Optimus). Therefore, when is it that Euro RCSG is going to be perceived as a good creative agency? What measures are being taken?
A: Euro RSCG is today, the biggest agency in the country, the first in the national ranking, the agency with more clients, with more visible work out on the streets and the agency that won more customers recently. All this makes Euro RSCG a good agency. Not a great agency! But the agency's growth did not make our work less focused: we hire people during recessive times, we invest on difficult times, we are envied by the our success during quiet times. For all this reasons, we are a better agency, much better than we were 2 years ago. We have more creative people and we have will power to make things happen.

2) What does an ad agency needs to become nr. 1?
A: I've got to say something that nobody will believe: Work. Blacht, That ugly word? That old-fashioned idea?

3) What's worse: to copy an ad concept or make a "ghost" ad (an ad that is not paid by the client or follows a brief orientation)?
A: Copying a concept is the greatest crime, as far as I'm concerned. It's the capital sin. It kills the creative person. To copy a concept you only need to sign Shots, to watch the cable channels, to take a photocopy of an Archive page. To copy is to kill the advertising business, is to kill the market and to kill the brands. On the other hand, when your create something new you're communicating for differentiation, you're helping building a brand character. In comparison with copied concepts, making ad ghosts is something innocent. Useless, but innocent.

Food for thought

"Advertising is brand maintenance. PR is brand building."
- Al Ries and Laura Ries
“We want consumers to say, ‘That’s a hell of a product’ instead of ‘That’s a hell of an ad’.”
- Leo Burnett

"We're Not Lovin' McDonald's New Strategy"

Find out why Rance Crain, editor in chief of Advertising Age thinks that McDonald's new strategy is bound to fail > We're Not Lovin' McDonald's New Strategy, Either.

Barkley, Evergreen & Partners: "Missouri Lotery"

When Supply Creates its Own Demand



What's the real role of advertising?

To create "ideas that inspire enduring belief" as Mr. Leo Burnett once remarked? To create a disruption in people’s consumption habits (it's a fact that a large part of our purchasing behaviour is habitual rather than considered). Forgive me such rhetorical question, but I've just been reading an interesting paper from the Mercer Management Consulting entitled "Understanding Demand Before its too Late" where it is stated that a large part of the new products marketers put in the market are bound to be unsuccessful due its "lack of demand". Thus a "demand estimate" is needed before putting new products in the market and also in order to strive against the competition attacks. Mercer seems to offers a solution based on “discrete choice modeling”.

Here's the point I want to make, of course if you want to be successful in the market, if you want to make a buck or two and get some profit you'll have to meet people's need thus supplying an existing demand. Nevertheless there's much more to rely on advertising rather than just the common role of building brands & product awareness. More than informing consumers, advertising re-ensures current consumers and potential new-consumers that the need for product or brand "X" is there to be fulfilled. In the end "supply creates its own demand" with the "little" great help of advertising. This is in what the economists call the “Say's Law” in action. Advertising really understands the role of demand (in my opinion) much better than any other business model.

Saatchi & Saatchi DK: "Audi A2"

Week 1
it starts out rather innocently, a full sheet metal poster. In rainy wet spring Denmark, this won't last long...

Week 2
soon we can see patches of rust on the sheet metal.. and a part of the poster that isn't being attacked by rust.

+ 1 Month
at the end of one month, one poster has both played teaser and punchline, as we can now see the audi A2 and headline, which was applied with lacquer on the steel sheet. Aluminum doesn't rust.

Source: Ad-Rag

Marketing: Are You Really a Realist?

"Sustained growth, brand differentiation, and persuasive advertising are romantic fantasies. It is time for marketers to set achievable goals." - says Andrew Ehrenberg, in a very interesting and always updated article from Strategy + Business