• by August 4, 2002

Real Advertising: Ain't no big secret by now that you can launch a brand in today's environment without a big time multi-million ad effort. Starbucks has gone a long way with partnerships, PR and in-store marketing. So has Amazon. Movies, books and records are launched all the time without a major print and network effort. But I think the romance with alternative media for launching brands has gone a bit too far. Case in point: last week at the International Institute for Research's NYC conference I heard a very bright woman talk about "avoiding advertising as much as possible" in her product's launch, which was aimed at the kid's market. The product, which is a fruit drink called Bellywashers, scored early and often in its lifecycle by netting Target, 7-11 and Krogers to stock the product. But we need to realize that this low-spend tactic is limited. Maybe you can introduce a product today by buzz marketing, retail placement and PR. But at the end of the day advertising - especially effective advertising - will be the engine that drives sales. No surprise to me that Starbucks is pushing its bottled drink with an ad budget and fervor that its retail stores never had. And Bellywashers, now that it needs to gain the next level of sales, will launch an ad camapign to help the prodcut get there. I think the brand will find that its begrudging attitude toward a big camapign will fade as its retail placements, and sales, rise to that new level.

FocusShmocus: You know its funny, I've been hearing nothing but bad things about focus groups for about a year. "They're old school." "Internet research is better and faster." In fact I'd say the research trend for testing a new ad campaign is in keeping a group of 15-30 loyal customers attached to your brand as a constant consumer panel. Then on Sunday, The New York Times reports that Talbot's new men's line has used focus groups as the foundation of its research. And a lot of research went into that line and its catalog. I'm interested to see how that research plays out. And remember, orange is the new black.

Bank It:I do like the new TV spot for Washington Mutual Bank. It stresses "human banking" and tries to connect with the people-to-people contact that current banking ads seem to miss. Maybe its not about numbers, these days. I think other financial services companies might do well to take a look at that.