David Young | Branding Blog - Marketing Advice and Advertising Strategy for Local Business Owners

Avery's run at 3M: Differentiate. Demonstrate. Directed Humor.

Avery (the label folks) are taking a run at one of 3M's core products...the ubiquitous Post-It note.

I like this campaign because the ads do a good job of differentiating the Avery products from the competitors, they demonstrate their use and advantages and the humor in the ads is directed in the right direction. That is, it reinforces the message rather than just being funny for the sake of funny. It's funny when the wife wipes out the guy's fantasy football board with the leaf blower and the Avery note is still firmly attached.

Sidenote: I'm growing weary of the male=doofus theme of our present society, but I'd better get used to it. Not sure what I'm talking about, start with this post from Michele Miller's Marketing to Women blog, Wonderbranding.

I think these ads, obviously targeted at women, will be enough to get people to grab an Avery product when they are displayed alongside the 3M product in a store.

Here's one of the Avery ads...the other two will be after the jump...

 

 

 

Kia: Telling The Truth in a More Powerful Way

"Our story began with a bicycle, back in 1951."

It's the opening line of a Kia ad that has been airing the past few months.  I like the ad. It makes you feel good. I like the Kia models that I've driven. My wife likes the ad. She suggested that I write about it. It works at making you feel good about Kia.

The ad opens with a kid from the past. This helps us suspend disbelief when the announcer gets to the part about Kia. We're quickly ready for more because we've been instantly transported back to Mayberry. We're ready to feel good! When they tell us about the new Kia plant in Georgia, it all makes sense to us and we feel good about that too.

The interesting/curious part: there are elements of the ad that just don't add up.

True: Kia has opened their first U.S. manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia.

True: This is a good thing for Georgia, and for the U.S.

Strange: That a kid who looks like he stepped off the set of Leave it to Beaver could be riding a bike that was manufactured in South Korea in 1951. He is later seen riding it in the Georgia factory.

Stranger still: By all accounts (Kia's web site and Wikipedia), Kia was started in 1944 in Seoul. Wikipedia says they manufactured bikes, but Kia's own site says bicycle parts.

Question: Why does the ad say 1951 instead of 1944? Why an American kid and not a Korean kid?

I get it. All Marketers are Liars Tell Stories.

The story is, "Kia is a successful company that has been around a long time. We used to only manufacture our products in Asia, but now we're manufacturing cars in the United States. We hope you will like this fact and buy more of our cars."

The inconvenient facts are that it simply wouldn't be effective to show a Korean kid playing with bicycle parts. 1944 was also right in the thick of World War II. 1951, not so much.

If viewers get the idea that those bikes were made in America, so be it.

And, if Kia can avoid tying itself to WWII, instead, to a time when we were allies, what's the harm?

Also...certainly, nobody is going to check the facts are they?

What do you think?

And...was that really a Kia bicycle in the ad?

Cool Flashbacks from an Airline Mag

With 4 flights on United last week, it was easy to read the in-flight Hemispheres Magazine from cover to cover.

Two stories that caught my attention were flashback pieces.

First, "Remembrance of Cocoa Puffs Past," a story about retro marketing. It's a cool read and it makes the case that especially during a recession, we like to touch the comforts of the past.

The other flashback piece, "Bunker Mentality," was about Norman Lear and his 1970s and 1980s TV dynasty. The story talked about how Lear altered the national conversation with his provocative shows. Coming out last month was the Norman Lear TV Collection (19 discs) with the first seasons of 7 of his classic shows including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Good Times, Maude, Mary Hartman, and One Day at a Time.

Tags: retromarketing, hemispheres, norman lear

Wordtracker: Great Story on the Blendtec Saga

I wrote a short piece about Blendtec's success on YouTube a few weeks ago.

Today, Rachelle Money at Wordtracker's blog posted an interview with Blendtec owner/video star Tom Dickson.

When asked about his feelings towards viral marketing now, Dickson said, “The interesting thing about viral marketing is that when you put it out there there’s no way of taking it back - it’s gone. You might get people who say bad things but that’s just going to happen.

“Most of what’s said about the campaigns is very positive. In fact, if someone says something negative about me or the blender, we don’t have to do anything because others will come back and defend me and the product.”

It's a great success story. I find it very interesting that the strategic pieces all fell into place AFTER the company found a remarkable way to tell the message.

What are you doing to be remarkable?