Posted on Fri, Feb 26, 2010 @ 09:38 AM
[By Jeff Androsko]
Dear Girl Brand Who Sold Out
and Broke My Heart,
I know you're young and want to experience new things, but there's a few things you should know about me. I am loyal to my brand. I pay for it, keep it close to me, advertise it, protect it from cutthroats and tell others about it; I'm a natural maven when I find something I love.
I never cease to lose faith in my brand relationship, unless my trust is violated. You, my eager ex, have pushed me overboard. I believed in you; thought you were someone who was truly good for me to be around. But... I guess I was wrong.
You sold out. Your 8.3 fluent ounce can just wasn't enough, was it? You had me believe that the classic, original would be sufficient; ya know... energize me... make me feel young. But noOoOoOoOoOo!!! Now you're into COLA! COLA?! Seriously?! Disgusting! They use that stuff to de-grease submarine engines for God's sake! Do yourself a favor and take a good long look at yourself in the mirror. What have you become? I hope you're happy Abigail Red Bull! Have fun with your 12 and 16.9 ounces of nonsense!
With Hellishly Intense Disdain,
Jefferson
Posted on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 08:58 AM
[By Tony Popowski]
The spelling of bologna will always confuse me...it should be "baloney" right? Anyway, I was flipping through the channels the other day and Judge Judy was on. I decided to watch for a few minutes (and forgot how hilarious she was). The woman seriously has an uncanny knack for calling out liars... and always with a hilarious quip. Whenever people try to fudge the truth, she stops them dead in their tracks - "You mess around with me young lady, and I'll wipe the floor with you. We follow each other?" This actually got me thinking about marketing. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to a friend, family member or new acquaintance and they told me how good their company is at marketing... when they really aren't. For some reason, people believe they can just do one marketing action and that magically solves their marketing problems. When someone says to me "Oh yeah, I do marketing, I took an advertisement out of the yellow pages this year," I would like to borrow the gracious words of Judge Judy and respond with, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining."One advertisement a year isn't going to save your business. One newsletter a year isn't going to set you apart from your competitors. Creating one Facebook page isn't going to bring in a billion dollars of new revenue. In today's economy, marketing is all about a consistent combination of efforts. Your audience needs to know who you are and what you stand for. They must know that you're the go-to expert for your product or service and a few sporadic marketing attempts aren't going to accomplish that. If you combine consistent advertising with a scheduled email / newsletter program and compliment those efforts with direct mail campaigns and public relations, then you'll start to see a return on your investment.
With the economy turning around, it's important now more than ever to position yourself in the minds of your targets. Be smart about this and go strong with marketing!
Posted on Thu, Feb 11, 2010 @ 09:03 AM
[By Tony Popowski]
Last week, I posted about how excited I was for the Superbowl. While the game was awesome (Go Saints!), I have to say I was pretty disappointed with the commercials. With the exceptions of Betty White (you have to give her credit - she's over 80 and still hilarious) and the Doritos Samurai, the pants-less men and sub-par beer commercials just didn't tickle my funny bone.
If you're going to invest an obscene amount of dollars, you better make your commercial memorable.On the other hand, Denny's held their second annual FREE Grand Slam Breakfast. This is the most brilliant PR and Marketing move out there. People always ask how Denny's can afford this. If Denny's went with one 30 second Superbowl Ad, they would have had to pay an approximate 3 million dollars. Instead, they took that money to eat their food costs. While Denny's obviously lost money on food and staff, they really didn't lose money at all. People don't realize that restaurants make a huge profit on drinks. If most of the people who lined up for a free grand slam breakfast bought a coffee, soda or orange juice (which they did), Denny's practically covered their cost of food and staff they spent on the event.
However, the real money is in the publicity. Think of all the free advertising they've received off of this. Last year, it was reported that Denny's received about a 12% sales boost in the months following the Grand Slam breakfast. That's a lot of dough for a national restaurant chain. Reporters on both a national and local level covered the story: an organization was giving away free food during a recession. Denny's was able to stick out from the competition, connect with target consumers and create a memorable experience. The story was covered...a lot...and more importantly, it got people talking.
Hats off to the marketing and public relations department over at Denny's.