Research is useless. Some of it, anyway -- if it does not reflect real behavior rather than theoretical models. Panelists at The Advertising Research Foundation's 55th anniversary conference in New York agree on this view. The theme for the discussion, "Can Research Catch the Customer," was that current research methods are built largely on a faulty understanding of human psychology. Nathan Berg, associate professor of economics at the University of Texas, said current market research frequently assumes an impossible degree of analysis by consumers. In addition, people who know less frequently make a better-informed choice. "There is a faulty idea that more information is better. Most people don't consider all options. In fact, being smart means making fast decisions before you consider everything." The way people actually choose between complex options in an array of consumer products -- cell phones, for instance -- is to quickly eliminate whole swaths of them that don't meet a basic non-negotiable parameter or two. He illustrated the point with a page from www.MyPhoneFinder.com that displayed some 100 cell phones, each with sixteen features. Rather than weighing the incomprehensible variety of features against each other to make the most informed choice, consumers instead eliminate, say, all phones over 10 oz. in weight, and over $200. "Most statistical models are putting weight on the standard model: what is the 'feasible' set. What we have found in a whole variety of settings is that good consumers know what to ignore, said Berg." They deal with large-dimensional choice lists by collapsing them to make a choice that "satisfices." He says marketers make a fundamental mistake in assuming that consumers are willing to consider an entire choice set -- the 100 cell phones, say -- and weigh all product attributes among them against each other, rather than using attributes to eliminate choice. "If you are an advertiser, if your product is thrown out of the choice set right way, you are not even in the game." Dr. Robert Deutsch, an anthropologist and founder of marketing firm Brain Sells, concurred -- adding that people act rather than think. "Metrics are not life," he said. "How real people act flies in the face of most consumer models we have." Deutsch said that marketers don't quite understand the essence -- and perhaps essential atavism -- of brands. "The primal mind makes patterns; branding predates marketing by 3.5 million years. What contemporary marketers call 'brand' is actually a primal and primary mechanism of the mind: it is attachment, a metaphoric merging between a person's 'self story' and a person's story of you, the product, the company." He says the distinction is not academic because marketers that spend millions on branding exercises are probably wasting their time if they superimpose an idealized notion of a consumer's self-image. "There are ways to get at that self story and it's realistic, not 'I want to be like Mike [Jordan].' People have a sense -- perhaps not fully formed -- of who they are and what's latent in them. Deutsch says branding is a spasm of sentiment that needs no basis in logical fact, and realized when it is familiar ("it's like me"), participatory ("does it like me") and powerful, ("Is it more than me.") That latter idea -- power -- is a dimension that gives a person a sense that with a particular brand as venue, "I can become more of myself." Deutsch says, in fact, that brand loyalty is self-loyalty. "There is no such thing as product loyalty; that's commodity-based. Attachment leads to self-loyalty. It looks like product loyalty, but it's not; it's 'through you I become more of me." Marketers should throw out purchase funnel models "and consider brand attachment as the yellow brick road -- "a journey I make with you that fills out what's already latent in me," Deutsch says. Great marketers are therefore shamans."
With Americans tightening their belts and home buying less of a priority than it has been anytime in the recent past, Coldwell Banker is still seeking to remind people that it has the experience to help consumers buy and sell their houses -- whenever they're ready to do it. "The conversation has to be a little different this year, because of the environment this is," Mike Fischer, vice president of marketing for Coldwell Banker, tells Marketing Daily. "[But] people are always looking for a new home because they've had changes in their lifestyle for relocation for jobs." In one new television spot, the company showcases a variety of properties, from the real and notable (the White House, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater), the fictional (the Jetsons' space-age residence and the 'Gilligan's Island' huts) to more down-to-earth properties of various architectural styles. As the showcase concludes, an announcer says: "For 103 years, our agents have helped people find the houses they'll call home." The campaign concludes with the tagline: "Never stop moving." "We've been a brand for 103 years," Fischer says. "We've seen good times and bad times, and we know that the constant is that people move for a lifestyle and they always want to have a home." During the course of its run, the ad will conclude with messaging for both buyers and sellers. For instance, early iterations will highlight the recently enacted federal tax credit for first-time buyers. The time will also be used to tout any home-buying incentives in the stimulus package or to note interest rate changes. But the company has not completely moved away from humor-driven spots that debut last year. A second television touts the company's innovation bringing back the fictional spokes-characters "Coldwell" and "Banker." In the new ad, they discuss -- via static vintage photos -- a new mobile application that displays listings and photos directly on a smartphone and provides contacts to Coldwell Banker agents. (As the characters narrate, the action is all depicted on a smartphone.) "We're not only selling homes, we're also selling the technology that allows people to find the right home and the right agent," Fischer says. "It's what differentiates us within the industry." The new television commercials, developed by Coldwell Banker agency McKinney in Durham, N.C., will air on shows such as ESPN's "Baseball Tonight," A&E's "Sell This House," CNBC's "The Suze Orman Show," CNN's "Opening Bell" and TNT's "Raising the Bar."
With the first pitch less than a week away, Major League Baseball is running a new marketing campaign, underscoring the historical connection the sport has with Americans. But with its image still bloody from the steroid scandal, the baseball brand is wobbly. In the latest Sports Fan Loyalty Index from Brand Keys, MLB finds itself in third place -- after the National Football League and the National Basketball Association. (Yes, baseball is still ahead of the National Hockey League.) MLB kicked off its "This is beyond baseball" effort last week with a 30-minute documentary-style program, which includes vignettes that "communicate the magnitude of what baseball represents and that the scope of its impact goes well beyond the game on the field," MLB says in its release. Narrated by Vin Scully, it includes commentary from such baseball greats as Ken Griffey Jr., Derek Jeter, Cal Ripken Jr., Curtis Granderson, Derek Lee and Terry Francona, as well a profile of the Upton family -- father Manny and sons B.J. and Justin. But will it be enough to woo back fans, who are still struggling to come to terms with the idea that some of the game's greatest players are chemically enhanced cheaters? It's hard to say, says Robert K. Passikoff, president of Brand Keys -- who points out that part of baseball's problem is that inherently, it just isn't as exciting as football and basketball. "In baseball, the perfect game is where nothing happens," he says, so it loses to other sports in terms of pure entertainment value. And while it ties with football in terms of history--another key driver to fan loyalty and the aspect of the game stressed by the new MLB effort -- it's most vulnerable in the area of fan bonding. "That's where baseball is getting killed," he says. "You're not supposed to be playing on steroids, and people don't like knowing that have put their faith in people who have feet of clay." The recession won't help much, either. MLB is said to be bracing itself for the first decline in ticket sales since 2002, reports Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, with the league likely to draw about 75 million fans in the coming season, "6% below the sport's high-water mark of 79.5 million in 2007." Some teams, to be sure, are seeing strong sales, including Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee. But the report says markets like Oakland, St. Louis, and San Diego are seeing declines. And in Detroit, it says -- thanks to the cratering of the auto industry -- the Tigers "have lost about half of their 2008 full-season-equivalent base." Still, there are plenty of signs of spark, especially in attendance at Spring Training games: The Boston Red Sox reported that its game against the Detroit Tigers last week drew its largest crowd ever.
The campaigns just keep coming as QSR's duke it out for share of consumers shifting from costlier dining venues to fast food options. The latest, from Quiznos and Popeyes Louisiana Chicken, feature a talking oven and a fictional down-home chef, respectively. The Quiznos campaign, the first since the brand ran into implementation troubles with its 12 million sub give away, uses humor to introduce a new line of $4 Toasty Torpedo sandwiches. The baguette-inspired sandwiches, which come on ciabatta bread, represent another extension of the lower prices program begun in January, says Quiznos CMO Rebecca Steinfort. In two 15-second TV spots spoofing the HAL computer in "2001 A Space Odyssey," a commercial toasting oven speaks to a Quiznos chef. In the somewhat edgier version, being shown mainly after 9 pm on cable stations, the oven urges the chef to make one of the foot-long plus sandwiches ("Put it in me, Scott") and to adopt a sexy tone while repeating "only $4." The broad-based TV schedule (80% cable, 20% network) ends Easter week and is on hiatus during the week prior to the holiday. The campaign also includes radio spanning most of the country, out-of-home, email and online components such as trivia games relating to the commercials, reports Steinfort. Meanwhile, Popeyes has adopted a new overall brand mascot: a fictional chef named "Annie the Chicken Queen" meant to put a human face on the brand's "bold, distinctive, unmistakably authentic taste." In the spots, created by Popeyes' creative agency-of-record GSD&M Idea City, Annie addresses off-camera consumers from behind the counter in friendly but blunt style ("Hey, I knew what you wanted before you knew") as she prepares the chain's signature Bonafide chicken and Louisiana tenders. "We wanted to really capture the brand's personality," said Popeyes CMO Dick Lynch, adding that a human persona should differentiate the chain, since other chicken QSRs' campaigns use animated or cartoon characters. The 15- and 30-second TV spots, running on national cable TV, focus on several new promotions, such as two pieces of chicken and a biscuit for $1.99.
A new study by London-based market research firm Hall and Partners that examines how the economy is affecting consumer trends in the U.S., the U.K. and mainland China finds few surprises -- the UK and U.S. are pessimistic, while Chinese citizens see a bright future once the economy goes through short-term turmoil. The study, per Duncan Houldsworth, global head of marketing analytics, examines consumer behavior and dynamics of brand choice, and how these have changed in recent months. The study -- performed in the U.S. in November through January of last year, in the UK and China in December -- is called "My Recession." "We found consistent levels of disappointment about ambitions and dreams, and a desire to escape -- which was reflected in behavior, such as splurging on small indulgences," says Houldsworth. "In the UK, there was a slightly different spin: pessimistic, with people expecting a long, hard period of decline coming and imminent lifestyle changes." He said Chinese people are "realistic, on balance: negative about the potential for increased prices -- but ultimately, the perspective is optimistic." On the local level, per the firm, people are spending less money, considering and researching longer for large purchases, putting annual holidays on hold, delaying an upgrade to luxury items or canceling such purchases entirely. "We see a big decline in frivolous spending with people looking for things that will last, that are not disposable," says Houldsworth. "Consumers have shifted purchase behavior to cheaper and larger. And they are trying new things, but only in sample or smaller sizes." Also, in both the U.S. and U.K., the firm noted a growing sense that wealth is becoming an embarrassment. "Ostentatious wealth is not welcomed," he says, adding that luxury brands face a dilemma because people purchase such items in part to publicly display their wealth. "Luxury brands face the challenge of recreating their value proposition and making it appropriate." Still, Houldsworth says, consumers are spending more on less expensive indulgences. "We have seen dramatic increases in indulgence spending: candy, alcohol for the home, take away [meals]," he said. "It's the notion of treating oneself on a smaller scale. People are willing to indulge. Candy manufacturers all presented record results in the last quarter. This is great opportunity, and other brands can exploit this to appeal to peoples' sense of indulgence." Houldsworth says Hyundai and Subway are examples of brands that have moved the value idea beyond merely discounting. "Hyundai has defined value by their warranty, their willingness to give customers strong product, lots of features, and options, more style. We have seen consumer-consideration increase over time, even this year. The potential is there for companies to brand based on value, community, simplicity, and quality of life." Brands, he says, must incorporate authenticity, simplicity, return to basics -- live up to promises and be consistent. "In advertising, consumers are looking for brands to level with them." He quotes a respondent in Portland, OR, one of the cities in which the U.S. portion of the study took place: "In the end," she said, "quality of life is what really matters, not what crap you have around when you go. Buying isn't only buying; it's a reflection on what you're buying and why."
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There's a growing conversation about the "rules of social media" and the consequences marketers face should they violate them. In my humble opinion, the only social media rule is this: Don't be boring. So long as you do not bore your audience, you are free to try anything. That goes for individuals and brands alike. The idea that a certain set of rules governs social media is both limiting and silly, especially as social media are evolving on a daily basis. Just a few short years ago, social media started with Internet sites like Friendster, MySpace and Facebook, then expanded into mobile with Twitter. The next evolution will be ubiquitous networking, what I call "social everywhere." It seems to me that social media are moving so fast, technologically and socially, that the very idea of the "rules" is old-school thinking. All Aboard Facebook, Even Executives For example, the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is now the over-30 set. This means for the first time business decision makers and senior executives are creating profiles and engaging on Facebook. One hard and fast "rule" of social media has been to not put things on Facebook that you wouldn't want an employer or client to see. But that's exactly the wrong way to think about social media! The smarter approach is to think of Facebook as an expanded "life resume," and purposely put things on it that you would want an employer or client to see to gain real insight into your personal life -- hobbies, interests, talents ... all the stuff that presents you as an authentic person and not another black-and-white resume. This is what I've done with my Facebook profile, and my firm's Archrival Facebook page. About six months ago I realized that many of our clients were on Facebook and most were already my "friends." This recognition completely changed my thinking about Facebook, elevating it from a personal networking tool (stay in touch with old friends) to a way to build transparent and genuinely personal relationships with clients and prospects. There's something about browsing through someone's wedding pics, meeting their dog, etc., that makes you trust that person that much more. So I broke the "rules" and went out and found all of my clients on Facebook and friended them. They all reciprocated. Now I make a point to stay in touch with each of them on an occasional basis -- sharing links, projects, or just making a comment on a photo they posted or a status update. Again, the only rule is "don't be boring." The success of this approach can be measured by how fast our fan base grew for Archrival's Facebook page when we launched www.facebook.com/archrival. Following the launch, I emailed a notification to my friends, including client friends, and within a few days we had over 200 fans. The base is growing daily and receives significant traffic. As our clients "fanned" us, a notice appeared in their newsfeeds to their friends and associates, whose curiosity led them to our public page, which resulted in growing awareness in new circles of decision makers. One of the conventional rules that we will see fall as social networking continues to grow is the dichotomy between the business and personal spheres. Social networking creates the opportunity to make the two work together, and individuals who do it smartly will find success from being open and transparent with clients and employers.