The Direct Marketing Voice

Tag Archives: branding

Is there Interactive Marketing Burnout?

Posté par Luis Paez le December 30, 2009 – 10:48 am

dans Digital & Social Media, Direct Mail Marketing, Marketing Strategy

It’s true that direct mail sometimes has a tougher challenge of trackability when compared to the email realm. This is the way it should be – no one should be in my home looking over my shoulder as I open my mail. It’s a question of place, and privacy. Direct mail gives us the time to consider a message before acting upon it or recycling it.

There was a comment on a blog about the trackability challenge of direct mail vs. email – that was not on topic. It didn’t talk about effectiveness metrics, but instead cried out at the emotional appeal of a message sent through the physical mail. Here is an excerpt:

I don’t know about anyone else – but I LIVE on my computer 8-10 hours/day – nearly all of it either in research or in email correspondence. Although only one lady’s experience and therefore hardly a trend…I must say I now look forward to mail delivery (again) and opening traditional envelopes and reading traditional postcards. Beyond the visual impact – it’s tactile and it’s (now) DIFFERENT! I own a business that needs to make decisions on which medium to use, and based on this personal experience, I continue to use at least color postcard mailings in my mix. This is backed up by a duplicate digital mailing to both the same as well as wider audience. – Jane

Are we headed this way as a society? Are we on the cusp of societal online burnout? Having been at technology companies for the last 10 years as a “knowledge worker” in sales, marketing and tech roles, I can say that personally, I love to unplug when I get home. Frequently, I’ll go a few days time without dilligently going through all my email messages – only will scan any emails from friends/family. It’s all about catching up at the dinner table, seeing the family, and talking about the physical real world things that we are going to do that week. It’s at those moments when we talk about any flyers or mail correspondence we got in that day… and that is the moment that marketing departments who focus on exclusively “interactive marketing” are missing out on. They’ll just have to wait another few days until I sit down for an hour and sort through my personal email.

I love digital. I love online. But there’s no replacement for the physical.

IBM’s First Impression

Posté par Luis Paez le November 25, 2009 – 11:00 am

dans Production & Printing

I recently went to a tradeshow where the expo hall was filled with interesting vendors introducing new products and services. The marketing materials often attract your eye… but it was interesting to see who “skimped” on their marketing and branding. I took a photo of the materials from the trade show below, try to pick out which flyer/handout most jumps out at you (click for larger image):

Flyers collected at Trade show

To me, the one on the most right pops out because of the vibrant use of color and interesting subjects (3 superhero kids). Second in line is the one on the most left, because I am really into modern art and the postmodern graphic design illustration from the AT&T flyer definitely grabs my attention.

Notably, the least attention-grabbing is IBM’s flyer, which could have been created by a product manager intent on dissemminating the most information possible about their services, instead of a thoughtful marketer. Why did they think that a black and white flyer printed on copier paper with 1 stock photo inserted would impress anyone? Just look around – every other vendor uses at least color, if not double sided printing.

IBM's Flyer

I realize that IBM’s in a new world since they sold off their laptop division to Lenovo, but to continue to win business against their rivals they need to re-introduce their brand with a compelling “first impression”. Using black and white one sided marketing flyers just isn’t going to help you do that.

Repurpose Magazine Print Ads for Agency Creative – direct creative, that is…

Posté par Luis Paez le July 22, 2009 – 4:29 pm

dans Marketing Strategy

I came across this german magazine ad for Budersand, a hotel & spa, that used a clever play on imagery to get people to stop and think. While the execution itself is being debated on adsoftheworld.com as to whether it’s good creative or not, this ad serves as a good example of how easily creative elements used on a magazine print ad can be re-purposed for a direct mail piece. The below screenshot shows a selective cropping of the original 8.5×11 ad:

Original print ad by KAT DESIGN

Here’s the same ad cropped down to dimensions that would be easily ported to a postcard asset:

Recropped mock up of a postcard implementation

Recropped mock up (Note the tagline is something to the effect of "Too good to be true?") Credit for original artwork to KAT Design

Never mind the fact that the agency & Budersand themselves should have an active loyalty program for VIPs that includes direct mail, but the ease with which direct creative can be created by using existing artwork is seldom talked about. If the artwork fits with the branding objectives that you have for your direct mail, then maybe there are some diamonds that are already on your shelves (or in your network folders).

Be Different and Enhance Your Brand

Posté par Luis Paez le May 20, 2009 – 2:38 pm

dans Marketing Strategy

I came across the new television commercial for Intel which paints a different version of “Rock Stars” that we should admire. Take a quick look:

The tagline “Our rock stars aren’t like your rock stars” says it all – Intel embraces the “nerdy” aspects of their company and propels Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of the USB, to the stature of a rock star. Because he is one, in the technology world.

I came across a customer’s business card design that sought to also paint themselves in a different light by rejecting things that you take for granted. I re-did the design just a bit to protect privacy, but the spirit is here. Essentially, his card was quite simply: Name, Phone, his line of business & the statements “No Computer”, “No Email”. For someone like myself who’s joined at the hip with my computer I admire those who purposefully avoid computers just for the sake of leading a stress-free and low-tech lifestyle, like Steve Jobs in 1982.

Business Card mockup

The point is that by painting a bold picture of who you are (and who your brand is), it clarifies your image to your customers and prospects. After all, if you don’t stand for something, do you stand for anything at all?

Tropicana’s Rebranding Attempt Gone Wrong

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le April 6, 2009 – 3:14 pm

dans Marketing Strategy

I must confess something I’m not proud of thinking. When I heard that PepsiCo’s sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line had taken a 20% dive after their failed package redesign attempt, a mischievous smirk found its way across my face. Especially within the last few years, I’ve been watching long-established brands take a misguided route to ‘refreshing’ their image. And as we can see in the case of Tropicana, poor planning on a brand redesign project can not only hurt a brand, but it can give their competitors a boost in market share.

For those of you not following the story, Tropicana teamed up with Omnicom’s Arnell Group to update the Tropicana Pure Premium refrigerated orange juice carton. Everything about the carton design changed, including the disappearance of the iconic ‘straw through the orange’ logo. The reconstructed design featured a close-up shot of a glass containing an orange liquid, presumably juice. Big mistake!

In a press conference defending the change, Peter Arnell, CEO of Omnicom’s Arnell Group, hinted at a motivation for doing away with the logo:

…historically, we always show the outside of the orange. What was fascinating, of course, is that we never show the product called the juice.

To me, this is not fascinating at all. Why? Because the focus shouldn’t really be on the product anyway; it should be on how the consumer benefits from using that product. There are many juices on the market. Some are 100% fruit while others are made of water and corn syrup. How does an image of an orange-colored liquid differentiate Tropicana’s juice from all the other juices available in the market?

The point of the ‘straw through the orange’ logo was to express that Tropicana’s orange juice is pure, natural, fresh, healthy, etc. In essence, the logo says — ‘this is the shortest path to pure nature.’ By simply looking at the logo, consumers knew exactly what they were getting. This is not the case with the new logo.

In the end, the consumers reacted by buying less Tropicana and switching to different brands of juice. Sales suffered, and, a bit of the brand image suffered as well.

Rather than hand over control of their marketing message to Omnicom’s Arnell Group , Tropicana should have kept in mind the following:

Refreshing a brand does not always mean a total overhaul is necessary.
Consumer focus groups can help steer the direction of a redesign and predict the success of a rebranding campaign.
Don’t forget to leverage existing brand equity.
Don’t forget the core concept/purpose of your brand.

Where do you think Tropicana’s rebranding/redesign effort went wrong?