Love 'Em or Love To Hate 'Em

World Series opening night.  That means, The New York Yankees.  You can't hear it without thinking about the great teams of the past.  The Babe, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra, Reggggie... some of the greatest players in baseball history.  Pin stripes.  The statues in the outfield of the "House that Ruth Built." 

It's an iconic American brand.  It makes old men feel young again.  It represents pride, a hard-scrabble work ethic, and a simpler time. 

Call me a bandwagoner, but I love America's teams... The Yankees, The Cowboys, The Packers.  They represent us and our culture(s).

What do you think?
- Butch

Bad Homework or Good PR Move?

Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it is pulling its sponsorship of the upcoming Family Guy Variety Show.  Microsoft execs report they chose to sponsor the show because of its target audience and creative humor, deeming it a great fit for the Microsoft brand.  But, after watching a sponsors' preview of the show, they found its content to be offensive and not at all a suitable match for their brand.  They noted that the show includes humor involving "nazis, deaf people, feminine hygiene and incest."

Okay.  So, it's exactly like a typical Family Guy episode.  Pause.

This move by Microsoft has created quite a buzz in tradional media and online social networks.  The executives at Microsoft either did a really bad job of evaluating Family Guy as a brand-appropriate sponsorship, OR it was a really well-planned marketing strategy to get more talk value than the original sponsorship would have ever garnered.

Bad or brilliant?  What do you think?
- Butch

Sunday, Bloody Hypeday

It always amazes me when marketers use popular music in completely inappropriate context.  

I remember just after 9-11 when Levi's used portions of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son as a patrotic backdrop for a "let's all-feel-good-about-America" TV spot selling jeans... problem is, Fortunate Son is not a patriotic, feel-good-about-America song. It's an in-your-face-America protest song written during and about the nation's angst with the Vietnam War.

Now, with NFL on NBC, we get another totally inappropriate misuse of a popular song. Showing cinematic slow-motion action of hard-hitting NFL action to hype football, NBC accompanies it with a soundtrack of U2's Sunday, Bloody Sunday. Great song, but it's about REAL PEOPLE DYING in a REAL WAR -- specifically, the clash of British Soldiers and protesters in Northern Ireland on what has been called "Bloody Sunday." To make it about football, and comparing the NFL to war is just too much.

I'm disappointed in NBC... and in U2 for allowing its song to used in this way.

Is it wrong? Is it dumb? What do you think?

- Butch

Brand Awareness Overrated

Pontiac.  Everyone knew the name.  Probably 100% aided Brand Awareness.  Didn't equate to Brand Preference.  Everyone knew the name.  No one wanted it.  Pontiac no longer exists.  Probably still has nearly 100% Brand Awareness.

Don't get fooled by the metric of Brand Awareness. The goal should be higher Brand Engagement.  The more people engage with your brand, the more likely they are to develop Brand Loyalty and a greater Lifetime Value.

Pontiac lost sight of what consumers really wanted.  Brand Engagement declined.  The brand tarnished, and just faded away.

What do you think?
- Butch

Ellen + Cover Girl = Brilliant

Butch is at home sick today. That means I get to see some TV that I normally don't watch. This allows me to explore some new space and make a few conclusions.

1. I really like Ellen DeGeneres and her talk show. She's fun, funny and someone I'd like to have as a friend. We all love people who make us laugh. Ellen is always welcome at Sonny's Cozy Tavern.

2. The move by L'Oreal (and their agency, Grey NY) to make Ellen the new Cover Girl model is brilliant. Not only is she a very real, honest, confident celebrity -- she's a brilliant demonstration of the powerful branding combination of content & context. She spent the first five minutes of her show today talking about Cover Girl, mentioning the brand at least 10 times in a very funny & engaging monologue. I bet she talks about being a Cover Girl often on her show.

With Ellen, L'Oreal plusses up their branding investment with a spokesperson who has a platform to promote to real women across America EVERY DAY. That's brilliant branding.

Content and Context. Put them together and beautiful things happen. Congratulations to Butch's friend and former colleague at Barkley, Jim Elms, and his team at Grey NY for an incredibly smart marketing strategy.

What do you think?
- Butch

Doritos & Diet Coke

Butch has a habit. Some people call it bad. Most people just think it's odd. But, for me, it's just part of my daily routine. It's part of who I am. Part of my brand. We all have vices, bad habits, little secrets.

Mine? I have a 20 oz. Diet Coke and a Grab Bag of Doritos (Nacho flavor) EVERY MORNING. I've been doing it since I was in high school and was old enough to drive my '72 Chevelle to the EZ Mart. Now, I drive my adult car to the local Fleming C-Mart, right after I drop off my son at his school. Same routine. Different store. Different car. 30 years later. The guy at the Fleming store sometimes even has my order wiating for me at the front counter.

I find that it's not just the nourishment (?) that drives the habit. I actually enjoy the little stop each morning. It's like a mini vacation on my way to the grind.

I stopped going to the Circle K because the lady there always felt compelled to comment on my purchase... "breakfast of champions" -- "does your momma know what you're eating for breakfast?" -- etc. All I could think was, "it beats the cigarettes and coffee you're choking down. And, I've done three marathons in the last four years -- can you do that on the cig & java diet?"

We all have little indiosyncrocies. They're part of our brand. What's yours?

- Butch

Stay Relevant or Die

Relevance. It's tough to gain and even tougher to maintain. As a consumer brand, if you're not relevant to your consumers, you die. It's a harsh reality of business.

I look out of my office window at two reminders of Brand Relevance Lost every day. Two reminders that are very close to me -- physically and emotionally.

When I moved to KC from Phoenix in 1995, two of my largest clients were Western Auto and Stuart Hall.

For those of you under 40:

Western Auto was one of the largest and oldest auto parts & accessories retailers in the country. They had over 1000 stores. They were a truly iconic American brand. They sold the Western Flyer red wagon that most kids had growing up. They were bought by Sears in the late '90's and the brand eventually disappeared. Their corporate offices in midtown KC are on the Historic Registry and have now been converted to swanky lofts.

Stuart Hall was the leading manufacturer of licensed school and office paper products. I worked on licensed designs of school notebooks, portfolios and binders featuring properties like The Coca-Cola Polar Bears, Disney characters, Warner Brothers cartoons and Lisa Frank illustrations. They were #2 in a huge category. In the late '90's, they were swallowed by #1, Mead, and away the brand faded. Their historic midtown headquarters (in the long shadow of the Western Auto building) has also been converted to lofts.

Two brands at the top of their games just a decade ago. Two brands that have disappeared into the history book of used-to-be's.

I look at those buildings everyday. They remind me to stay connected to my clients' consumers. If we just focus on the bottomline and forget what people really want -- if we stop listening to our customers and believe our own egos -- we will fail. It happens to big, venerable brands every year.

Let's stay relevant. It applies to people as well as brands.

What brands do you miss?

- Butch