State of the Brand

Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. The US Justice Department fined Pfizer $2.3 billion for illegal marketing practices; taking doctors on golf trips, paying for massages, and the like to encourage off-label prescriptions of popular drugs. 2. With such a hefty penalty, conventional wisdom would say Pfizer’s market perception should suffer. By objective measures, that is not happening. 3. Pfizer has insulated its corporate brand by positioning its blockbuster drugs as the stars, and not marketing itself. That seems to be working. For now.

Remember the dad in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”?

He used Windex® for everything. He went so far as to carry around a bottle at all times, spraying things (and people) at comically inopportune times. Clearly, neither the FDA nor our friends at S.C. Johnson and Company in Racine, Wisconsin endorse Windex for the treatment of cold, flu, arthritis, and acne. The depiction was so ridiculous, most (reasonable consumers) wouldn’t take it seriously.

Now, let’s change the scenario.

Imagine you are recovering from a surgical procedure. Let’s pick appendix removal, but it could be anything. Clearly, you’re in pain, and your attending physician prescribes a medication - in this case, Bextra®. She tells you to take the prescribed dosage as needed and come back in three weeks.

Let me ask you something: In that scenario, do you look up the drug name in the formulary? Did you learn your doctor just prescribed well beyond the recommended dosage? Did you also learn Bextra; was not approved to treat post operative pain? That is was really an arthritis drug? And a Cox-2 inhibitor? The same Cox-2 inhibitor class of drugs you’ve heard about?

But your doctor knows best, right? (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. Hemorrhaging job losses in the financial sector make recruiting easier for the CIA’s financial counter-terrorism division. 2. The agency should experience short-term success with a combination of decent pay, patriotic appeals, and challenging work. 3. Long-term image problems remain, however, and the CIA must act to retool its image to retain its young and talented financial agents.

Out of a job in the financial sector?

The CIA wants you. And they know they’ve got your attention.

Times are (comparatively) tough for freshly minted Ivy League MBAs. Hopes of six-figure investment banking careers are gone; this new crop of grad students has entered a brutal Wall Street job market.

To put it in real terms, the Financial Times reports over 130,000 financial sector jobs have been shed in the past 12 months. And as employment is often a lagging indicator of economic growth, this summer’s (and this fall’s) graduates had better keep their options open.

As (comparatively) sad as this situation may sound, the news is music to the ears of hiring managers at the Central Intelligence Agency. (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. United Airlines policy to charge overweight passengers for two seats caused an uproar that hardly acknowledges the raw facts of the situation. 2. The industry has responded with a mix of increased fees and reduced capacity, setting up a situation where airlines have few friends. 3. It would have been better had United not released the policy at all, but rather handled it on a discreet case-by-case basis. United over-communicated.

This has to be the mother of all touchy subjects.

Last week, United Airlines announced it would begin charging its heftiest customers for two seats if they could not easily fit into one. As a cringe-worthy sidebar, overweight couples could “save” by purchasing one extra seat between them if the seating layout and flight capacity allowed it. Otherwise, you’re bumped.

You can read the official policy on United’s website, but this crass announcement could have hardly been made worse. My only suggestion would have been to include a reference that applied to religious and political beliefs.

Luckily, I was not consulted.

However, the extra insult was hardly necessary. (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. Increased violence along the U.S./Mexico border has led the U.S. State Department to issue a travel advisory. 2. The warning has spooked some parents, but many younger spring break travelers are taking it all in stride. For now. 3. This issue has the potential to damage the image of Mexico as a tourist destination; they should act now to inoculate the issue.

Ordinarily, spring break preparation does not include a warning from the U.S. State Department.

But this year is different. With violence on the rise in Mexico - especially along the U.S./Mexico border - the State Department issued a travel advisory notice to American citizens. And the timing (just before the surging ’spring break’ travel season) undoubtedly was intentional.

The notice opens in the standard perfunctory way: For most people in most circumstances, travel in and about Mexico is safe. However, the text quickly takes an abrupt and ominous turn. One of the more parent-spooking phrases reads, “Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in violent attacks in cities across the country, demonstrating the heightened risk of violence in public places. In recent years, dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped across Mexico. Many of these cases remain unresolved.” (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. PETA hopes renaming fish “Sea Kittens” will change attitudes, leading to less fish consumption as food. 2. Ridiculous on its face, the campaign ignores thousands of years of cultural programming. 3. Worse yet, PETA risks losing the slim credibility it still maintains with the mainstream public.

No. This is not a headline from The Onion.

PETA is serious.

Against meat-consumption of all kinds, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is trying a word association strategy. By renaming fish “Sea Kittens”, PETA hopes people will think differently regarding killing and eating fish. (more…)

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Author: Jason Voiovich Ecra Creative Group

Key Points: 1. Beg bug infestations are on the rise in hotels in the United States. And not just the cheap dives. 2. For chain hotels, the problem is particularly troublesome: Strong brand association spreads bad news fast. 3. The industry should stay quiet - for now - but begin an aggressive strategy to address the problem before it gets worse.

Just a warning: The following story may give you the creeps.

Last month, I traveled to Los Angeles to attend a conference at one of the local Universities. After a long flight, and dinner with a friend, I drove from West Hollywood to Claremont (in surprisingly heavy traffic for 1:30 a.m.). Yes, that meant I checked in at 3:30 a.m. “Jason time”. Needless to say, I was very tired.

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