State of the Brand

Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. It may be a response to the globalization of the food supply, but locally-produced foods are a growing trend. 2. Following the same broad strategy as organics, local food producers use emotional appeals as well as raw facts to convince us to pay more. 3. In the end, however, globalization (and resulting efficiencies) may be too powerful a force for anything but a niche market presence for “local” foods.

I had every intention to buy Gold’n Plump chicken.

My wife and I were at the grocery store (which shall remain nameless) last weekend. And I was ready. I had seen the ‘local chicken’ ads on television and on billboards during my (some days too many) trips around town. They made sense to me. I was ready to ‘take a stand’.

When we arrived at the meat counter, I noticed a competing national brand on sale for 20 percent less money. But I was prepared. Locally produced food was important to me. I put it in the cart anyway.

That’s when I noticed the I-can’t-take-you-anywhere look. (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. The US Army spends 10 times what the average college or university spends for each new recruit. That just is not sustainable. 2. A combination of regulatory changes and careful data-mining - combined with smart sponsorship and coaching for the popular video game Halo 3 - are likely to turn the tide. 3. The inevitable targeting of younge r and younger children by recruiting messages could be seen as both a threat to the innocence of youth as well as an opportunity to communicate civic virtue to young citizens.

It costs the US Army, on average, $24,500 for each new recruit.

$24,500.

That may not sound like a lot of money until you consider the average university spends just over $2000 to achieve the same result. Street math: The Army spends 10 times what the U of M spends. Yikes.

Let’s do more math, shall we. (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. Apple’s latest operating system release, OSX 10.6 (code named “Snow Leopard”), spawned an unplanned grassroots effort to help real cats in the wild. 2. The attention is a boon to Snow Leopard conservancy organizations, due perhaps in part to unexpected Google search results, the speed of social media, and Apple’s status. 3. However, the real hook is the image Apple uses to promote its new product - so different from other Apple creative and so powerfully engaging.

This was never supposed to happen.

The new Apple Operating System - technically named Mac OSX 10.6 - simply was following the naming convention the company adopted when it released version 10.2. That was Jaguar. Then came Panther (10.3). Then Tiger (10.4). Then Leopard (10.5).

You get the idea.

The newest release - 10.6, or “Snow Leopard” - has been positioned by Apple as an important, but evolutionary release. Most of the upgrading this time around happened “under the hood”. In other words users won’t see too many new whiz-bang features. From that perspective, using “Snow Leopard”, versus the more distinctly named “Lion”, made product management sense.

From a business objectives perspective, it also helped Apple stay one step ahead of the upcoming Microsoft 7 operating system release.

But something odd happened on the way to market. (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. There is little doubt the “Cash for Clunkers” generated intense activity and excitement, running out of money in the space of one week. 2. However, the real-dollar impact on the auto industry (or on any other tangible measure you like) of the program is modest at best. 3. The true impact is psychological, working quite efficiently to change the public outlook.

Incentives matter.

I was on the phone last week catching up with the professor who taught me that essential marketing truth more than 15 years ago. He was just back from a trip to Europe. What struck him was how Europeans drove. They owned small, efficient cars that they did not drive very often. In most of the EU, gas ranges from US$5 to $8 per gallon, so it’s not hard to understand why.

On the other hard, Europe has no “car culture” to speak of, and plenty of efficient transit options.

All of that got the good doctor thinking about the old Jeep in his driveway and the “Cash for Clunkers” program (Car Allowance Rebate System - or CARS - is the neato government acronym) and how he could drive a more efficient vehicle. (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. FantasySoapNet.com was a short-lived experiment bringing the fantasy sports idea to soap opera viewers. 2. The temptation is strong; fantasy sports leagues are huge moneymakers, in addition to providing a wealth of psychographic data. 3. But soap enthusiasts didn’t buy in like the guys did; what sounded like a great idea simply died on the vine.

Last week would have been a good fantasy soap week.

ABC’s General Hospital featured no less than complications from a miscarriage, a tearful admission from a son who ran his mother off a deserted road, and a character seemingly back from the dead.

From my count, that would have been in the 100 to 150 point range.

Points? Yes, at FantasySoapNet.com, you watched your soaps for points. Just like a fantasy football league, the soap league allowed you to select your “team” from among several soap actors and actresses. You could even add specific “moments” to your team (such as “wearing red to a funeral) just like you might add a guess on the point spread for Sunday’s game. (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. FDA-approved eyelash enhancer Latisse may not seem like a big healthcare deal, but its ads are a great way to show how persuasive strategy works in big pharma advertising. 2. The ad uses classic techniques (primacy/recency, visual supremacy, and disassociation) to sell its message. 3. It uses those same techniques to downplay potential side effects. It may not be a big deal with Latisse, but other drugs are not so benign.

In the pantheon of big issues in healthcare, this has to rank near the bottom.

It’s called “hypotrichosis”, a medical condition in which the sufferer does not grow adequate eyelashes.

Now before you laugh, the eyelash serves a meaningful purpose. They protect the eye against foreign contamination; they are a first line of defense for one of the body’s most sensitive organs. Like most primates, humans are highly visual creatures, and the eyes are the center of that attraction. More specifically, human beings find large eyelashes attractive (evolutionary psychologists say) because they are a competitive advantage in a world of airborne dust and dirt.

For those poor souls who fail to grow eyelashes, or fail to grow them thick enough, medical science has come to the rescue with bimatoprost, the FDA’s first approved drug to lengthen lashes, marketed under the trade name “Latisse”.

But unlike its chemical twin used to treat glaucoma, Latisse isn’t meaningfully positioned as a medical product. Latisse ads are more reminiscent of a Revlon cosmetics pitch. (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. Conventional wisdom tells us the down economy should negatively impact Weight Watchers International and businesses in its category. 2. However, Weight Watchers has positioned itself ideally in the public mind and within the medical community. 3. When the times comes (sooner than we think) for sliding-scale, health-impact pricing, Weight Watchers will benefit from insurance plans who adjust premiums based on health metrics.

We all know what it supposed to happen in a “down” economy.

We all know discretionary purchases will take a hit. We all know recurring monthly fees in the household budget will get another look. We all know people will forgo expensive healthy food in favor of cheaper options and greasy comfort food.

Apparently, investors and analysts also know those things, and have pummeled Weight Watchers International stock (NYSE:WTW) over the past six months, down some 40 percent.

All of which begs the question: Are the analysts correct? (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. Retail strategies based on limited hours (i.e. opening one week out of every month) may fly in the face of the 24/7 e-consumer model, but they work. 2. The success of the Fun Sisters Boutique in the moribund St. Paul skyway is case in point. 3. Creative entrepreneurs (mainly female entrepreneurs) are rediscovering and reinventing this classic of scarcity marketing.

By most measures, the St. Paul skyway is not a fun place to be.

I should know. I’ve been walking the soul-sucking downtown walk for the past four years, watching business after business struggle to make a go in a tough retail environment. Unique businesses and boutique shops struggle alongside larger chain restaurants (which get most of the traffic during the brief “lunch hour”).

There are a few exceptions, of course, but it’s hard to deny one conclusion: When you compete with national franchises on their terms, you lose.

That’s why a little shop and its unique approach struck me. (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. The pork industry feels the use of the word “swine” flu to describe this latest outbreak will hurt consumption. 2. In addition to short-term market data, they cite other examples of virus-induced hysteria. 3. All that said, long-term data for public health shocks in the poultry, tomato, and spinach markets (and even the last swine flu in 1976) show little impact.

Hog farmers were hog-raving mad.

Scientists just did what scientists do: In the midst of a cacophony of technical language most journalists wouldn’t understand, they mentioned the words “swine flu” to describe this latest swine virus that was able to mutate - just enough - to infect humans. Admittedly, the term “swine flu” is a bit inaccurate, but it’s catchier than H1N1, for sure.

Guess what name stuck? (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. Fibromyalgia is an example of drug company marketing at its best: Convincing the medical establishment to pay attention to real suffering. 2. Fibromyalgia is also an example of drug company marketing at its worst: Using emotional tactics to boost prescriptions. 3. Regardless of the final judgment, we cannot ignore the power of giving a vague set of symptoms a legitimate name.

Eli Lilly and Pfizer are sure trying hard to make sure you have.

Fibromyalgia is a medical condition characterized by widespread and persistent pain with a particular painful sensitivity to touch. Other symptoms include debilitating fatigue, trouble sleeping, stiff joints, difficulty swallowing, bowel and bladder trouble, numbness, abnormal motor activity, and even cognitive dysfunction.

As you could guess, making a definitive diagnosis is a bit tricky. Without that certainty, not everyone in the medical community agrees fibromyalgia actually exists. Its symptoms are often confused and muddled with other common ailments.

Why is it, then, that Eli Lilly and Pfizer have dolled out more in grants for fibromyalgia research ($6 million in the last 9 months of 2008) than to either diabetes or Alzheimer’s? And why is it that fibromyalgia ranks third on that recipient list behind only AIDS and cancer? (more…)

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