• Ad Age, Brandchannel, Monday, April 6, 2009 11 AM

Jack Neff's lead article in Ad Age's multi-story package on marketing in the down economy convincingly fortifies a concept you've been hearing since the days when all it took to be a sales and marketing genius was to ace your end-term exam: Consumers like bargains but don't spoil them for too long. For example, "brands that suffered little share loss to private label were in categories where price promotion decreased less sharply," according to research by University of North Carolina marketing professor Jan Benedict E.M. Steenkamp.

But how do you get your value message heard above the din of all those other value messages out there trying to outshout you? Beth Snyder Bulik tackles that one. "Value has an emotional quality, too, where I feel smart or I feel reassured or I feel in control by buying this product," points out David Murphy, co-president and director of brand innovation at Barrie D'Rozario Murphy, Minneapolis. Among the examples he cites that tap that deeper kind of value is the Hyundai Assurance program.

Barry Silverstein goes into more depth on the Hyundai program in his "Marketing Strategies that Build Value" article in this week's Brandchannel.

My favorite article in the Ad Age package is James B. Arndorfer's look-back at advertising that advertises advertising -- spreads for JWT, BBDO, Ayer, McCann-Erickson, Y&R, General Screen Advertising (movies), CBS and Y&R -- in the April 1938 issue of Fortune magazine. "Flipping through the issue, it's remarkable ... how consistent the pitches are with those of today," Arndorfer writes.

advertisement

advertisement