This is a no brainier... Who doesn't prefer Target over Walmart?
I was watching TV the other day, and Walmart's and Target's commercials were nearly back to back. I found it interesting that both commercials are executing a similar message, "you can still have an awesome life while saving money."
However, Walmart's commercials blatantly come out and say that, where as Target showcases examples and allows consumers to make their own decisions.
I think Target's ads are much better. Allowing people to make up their own minds and be invloved in the process is always a nice idea.
GO TARGET!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Why Strarbucks?
Remember when Starbucks was cool? I do. I remember when that was the "Weekend spot". When it was referred to as the "New" singles bar...
I feel Starbucks major branding problem is due to it's loss of exclusivity. There was a time when carrying a Starbucks cup was a status symbol... No surprise that this feeling was lost considering, among many other things, that Starbucks went into grocery stores. Going into grocery stores!? What a BAD idea!
People are loosing faith in the company, claiming its becoming too much like McDonald's.
To make things worse, Starbucks recently begun a value meal system... Not the best way to destroy the McDonald's association...
I feel that if the company would have created a sub brand for the grocery store expansion or grew a little smarter, they may be in better shape...
This isn't over... I will think more and bring up more discussion points soon.
Poor Tropicana!
The Tropicana issues have been "the talk" lately, so I thought I should open the issues for discussion...
Consumers hate it and I'm not surprised.
If you think about it, the new packaging makes visual scene. It looks clean, fresh and pure... three concepts that an OJ company wants to be associated with.
However, I don't think it was considered how much of a staple in culture Tropicana already was. Consumers already liked the packaging. This is the perfect example of changing something without considering culture first.
If I were assigned to change Tropicana's Corporate ID, the first thing I would do is go to a random coffee shop, sit down with a glass of OJ, and find out what random people think.
This all leads me to ask... Why change what's good? Stop fucking with what works!
Fossil this
I was at the Fossil store the other day looking at all the watches... I began asking the store Clerk how the company was doing with the recent economy and she said they were still "goin strong".
This, or course, was a bit surprising considering the decline of watches in general. It then occurred to me that the secret to being a successful watch company is to adapt and position watches as 'awesome' accessories and not as time pieces.
Maybe Rolex, with it's expected decline in 2010, could take a lesson from fossil.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
ReaLLY?
I was talking to a group of people the other day. Some in the Ad world, some not. At one point an individual not in the ad world made a comment about an ad, and an individual in the ad world responded by stating "What would you know, you're just a consumer."
REALLY!!!!!!
Consumers responses dictate our industry jackass!
-RB
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
What's in a Brand?
Have you ever thought long and hard about branding? I have... Having a Graphic Arts background, I used to be one of the many who thought that a brand was just the name a logo.
How UNTRUE is that?
A brand is everything around and about the company.
It's way you praise or tell the company to "fuck off"!
It's the logo, letter heads, font
It's how you feel and how the company wants you to feel when you think or interact with the company
It's how the company interacts with other company's
It's the PR, Press releases around the company
So, when people say branding is boring, I think they just don't bother to understand it
I know this sounds a bit "lofty" but, it's true isn't it?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Lets do the Time Warp Again!
It's Just a Jump to the Left!
So I saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show live last weekend. Besides being SO MUCH FUN, I had the opportunity to witness something culturally relevant.
As you may know, RHPS is the longest running audience participation show, which means that people dance, throw stuff, and shout out random responses to the movie.
There was one part in the show when doctor Frankin Furter's rubber gloves were stained from blood. At this point, the audience yelled "where did you get Chris Brown's Gloves?" or something of that nature (referring to the tragic abuse to Rhianna done by Chris Brown.) While it's not tasteful, it also was not what was supposed to be shouted at that point in the movie.
My point here is that the shouts to the screen changed in response to current events and culture.
This made me realise what a strong brand the RHPS is! A brand that is consistently adapting and updating itself with time and culture... No wonder its still popular and has the largest audience participation in the world!
So I saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show live last weekend. Besides being SO MUCH FUN, I had the opportunity to witness something culturally relevant.
As you may know, RHPS is the longest running audience participation show, which means that people dance, throw stuff, and shout out random responses to the movie.
There was one part in the show when doctor Frankin Furter's rubber gloves were stained from blood. At this point, the audience yelled "where did you get Chris Brown's Gloves?" or something of that nature (referring to the tragic abuse to Rhianna done by Chris Brown.) While it's not tasteful, it also was not what was supposed to be shouted at that point in the movie.
My point here is that the shouts to the screen changed in response to current events and culture.
This made me realise what a strong brand the RHPS is! A brand that is consistently adapting and updating itself with time and culture... No wonder its still popular and has the largest audience participation in the world!
Compost Modern = Awesome Post 4
A few last lecture tidbits
1. "We have too much stuff around that we don't want, but are stuck with..."
I don't agree with this. As a planner/strategist I feel that we can use take almost anything, and somehow use it to our advantage. It's our job to take useless "stuck with" stuff, and create something desirable with it. Anything is undesirable, until we have a use for it.
I think liquor is a good example. Unless I have a use for it, for a party, it's useless and I'm stuck with it. Maybe this is why smart phones are becoming SO popular... It sucks having to carry something around ALL day for one purpose... Creating many uses makes it a bit more desirable.
On the other hand, I have a lot of friends who HATE the iPhone because it is so multi faceted. They want a phone to call, and that's it. It would be interesting to market the anti smart phone...
These is potential to isolate 2 completely different markets for a similar device.
2. Replacement is happening... Get on the wave!
How true is this? If we ignore this fact, we have no way of being successful. A good example is watches becoming obsolete... Now that everyone has a cell phone, it is so rare to see someone wearing a watch. Another example is paper. More and more offices are going paperless because it gives props to the environment and it is WAY cheaper.
As advertisers, if we don't realise these replacements and how they can effect ads, what chance do we have of surviving?
3. Localization is the wave of the future!
It's true! People are getting serviced more locally. Not only is it cheaper, but it helps build yourself through building your community...
1. "We have too much stuff around that we don't want, but are stuck with..."
I don't agree with this. As a planner/strategist I feel that we can use take almost anything, and somehow use it to our advantage. It's our job to take useless "stuck with" stuff, and create something desirable with it. Anything is undesirable, until we have a use for it.
I think liquor is a good example. Unless I have a use for it, for a party, it's useless and I'm stuck with it. Maybe this is why smart phones are becoming SO popular... It sucks having to carry something around ALL day for one purpose... Creating many uses makes it a bit more desirable.
On the other hand, I have a lot of friends who HATE the iPhone because it is so multi faceted. They want a phone to call, and that's it. It would be interesting to market the anti smart phone...
These is potential to isolate 2 completely different markets for a similar device.
2. Replacement is happening... Get on the wave!
How true is this? If we ignore this fact, we have no way of being successful. A good example is watches becoming obsolete... Now that everyone has a cell phone, it is so rare to see someone wearing a watch. Another example is paper. More and more offices are going paperless because it gives props to the environment and it is WAY cheaper.
As advertisers, if we don't realise these replacements and how they can effect ads, what chance do we have of surviving?
3. Localization is the wave of the future!
It's true! People are getting serviced more locally. Not only is it cheaper, but it helps build yourself through building your community...
Compost Modern = Awesome Post 3
Why change what works?
Hello All! Anther good point brought up at a compost modern lecture that needs its own space.
How often have you seen this happen? Something works just fine, but its changed. This happens consistently in everyday situations. I've noticed this happening especially while working in past part time jobs. More often than not something that works really well is changed, to help change something else that doesn't work well... WHY? It seems very illogical to me.
We should value what we currently have. Fix whats broken, not what works.
Hello All! Anther good point brought up at a compost modern lecture that needs its own space.
How often have you seen this happen? Something works just fine, but its changed. This happens consistently in everyday situations. I've noticed this happening especially while working in past part time jobs. More often than not something that works really well is changed, to help change something else that doesn't work well... WHY? It seems very illogical to me.
We should value what we currently have. Fix whats broken, not what works.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Is this Ad gone wrong possibly right?
Brook Shields + VW = Bad? Why?
I've talked to SO many people about this Campaign, and all except one hate it. But why?
I thought this was an interesting way of reversing the stigma on the "mini van". The Mini-van is always the car that's made fun of. Being called the Soccer Mom/house wife car... who whats to drive something like that? This campaign took back that negative connotation by creating a story where people were going to extreme lengths to have an excuse to buy this car.
I thought it was a fun way to take back the stigma, and it could have worked but I don't think that the culture of the US was ready for something like this.
I think that Brook Shields took too much attention away from the story/concept of the ad. Kind of like what Katie Holmes drama with Tom Cruise did to the Batman movie. With someone else fore fronting the ads, this may have been a successful campaign.
Referring to the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes thing, maybe reading and learning from the tabloids every once in a while may not be a bad idea. :)
I've talked to SO many people about this Campaign, and all except one hate it. But why?
I thought this was an interesting way of reversing the stigma on the "mini van". The Mini-van is always the car that's made fun of. Being called the Soccer Mom/house wife car... who whats to drive something like that? This campaign took back that negative connotation by creating a story where people were going to extreme lengths to have an excuse to buy this car.
I thought it was a fun way to take back the stigma, and it could have worked but I don't think that the culture of the US was ready for something like this.
I think that Brook Shields took too much attention away from the story/concept of the ad. Kind of like what Katie Holmes drama with Tom Cruise did to the Batman movie. With someone else fore fronting the ads, this may have been a successful campaign.
Referring to the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes thing, maybe reading and learning from the tabloids every once in a while may not be a bad idea. :)
Compost Modern = Awesome Post 2
"Why branding? There is so much of it out there, why do we need more?"
This was a very interesting point one of the speakers brought up at compost modern. He was referencing the worlds need to communicate who they are, through ones self image and through branding.
Excuse me if I get a bit "philosophical" here, but I think there is an innate desire for people (and companies) to brand themselves. To create an overall image, impression, feeling that will be intercepted and interpreted by others... Pretty deap, huh :).
Above all, the most important thing this speaker said involving branding is that "if you don't make something meaningful or compelling, someone else will."
This helps remind me that no branding or adverting strategy assighment is boring. As long as I focus on making this thing (dull or cool) compelling and meaningful, how could I be bored?
This was a very interesting point one of the speakers brought up at compost modern. He was referencing the worlds need to communicate who they are, through ones self image and through branding.
Excuse me if I get a bit "philosophical" here, but I think there is an innate desire for people (and companies) to brand themselves. To create an overall image, impression, feeling that will be intercepted and interpreted by others... Pretty deap, huh :).
Above all, the most important thing this speaker said involving branding is that "if you don't make something meaningful or compelling, someone else will."
This helps remind me that no branding or adverting strategy assighment is boring. As long as I focus on making this thing (dull or cool) compelling and meaningful, how could I be bored?
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