I’ve been really struggling with the latest ads from Microsoft.  Microsoft has officially become the pitchman for the PC platform in a new way.  This strategy has inherent risks.

The ads follow a consumer shopping for a new laptop.  The consumer is looking for certain hardware features, battery life, disk space,  etc.  I’ve been asking myself what does this have to do with my Internet Explorer locking up or Microsoft Office giving me unintelligible error messages?  Shouldn’t Dell, HP, and Sony be hammering price and hardware feature message, while Microsoft stays focused on a performance, productivity, and useability message?  Last time I checked Microsoft only sold the software.

(Commotion Friday is a new series.  Every Friday we’ll discuss new creative, ideas, executions, or something a little more light.)

Schick has recently introduced a new women’s razor (I’m sure there will be a male version out soon) just in time for bikini season.  There are two different creative executions for it below.  One for the U.S. market and one for the UK market (in the UK Schick is known as Wilkinson Sword).

The U.S. version definitely shows off the product, but the UK creative I have to say cuts through the clutter much more effectively.  In addition, Wilkinson Sword developed a compelling micro-site for consumers to get more information.  The U.S. Schick site was hard to find and not as well put together in my opinion.  The UK creative was done by JWT New York.

Who do you think will grab more market share?  Is the UK version just too racy for us prude Americans?

If I had the ear of Fritz, the new CEO this is (mostly) what I’d tell him:

1)      Go into chapter 11 with the financial support the government is willing to give you. Reorganize very quickly.  Critics of this option say no one will buy cars from a company in chapter 11.  I disagree.  Consumers put their lives in the hands of bankrupt airlines all the time.  Consumers bought flat screen TVs from Circuit City knowing they were going out of business forever, and still eat at Vicorp’s Village Inn Restaurants.  Thanks to the airlines, chapter 11 isn’t such a bad word anymore.

2)      Spin-off the GM Service Parts Operation (GM SPO) and the Goodwrench brand.  Buying a car is different than getting pancakes and eggs at Village Inn I admit, so GM needs to give consumers an extra bit of assurance.  No matter what happens to GM customers want to feel confident they can get parts and service in the future.  Spinning off this division will immediately help increase consumer confidence in Goodwrench by removing some of its direct connection to GM.  A great suitor or partner for Goodwrench/SPO would be Wal-Mart.  They are experts in distribution and warehousing, have a nationwide truck fleet, and also have a vehicle service division to boot (another option would be to sell it directly to the dealers).  To industry insiders this may seem like an unnecessary step since service and parts remain available for all kinds of vehicle brands that went away.  However, it gives the consumer that little extra assurance that if GM or their local dealer goes belly-up someone else they trust can fill the void with their warranty.  It would also give GM an infusion of cash if they could sell it.

Now is a good time to start advertising the Goodwrench brand again (I say bring back Mr. Goodwrench.  Put him back to work).   Research shows consumer feel reassured when they see communications from a company in distress or during a crisis.  Brand communications from Goodwrench would help increase consumer confidence similar to how it is helping consumers feel reassurance about bank brands that are advertising right now .

3)      Become really transparent. This has been a huge struggle for automakers.  GM’s new CEO said that he will be very transparent over the next 60 days by holding a lot of news conferences.  That isn’t the standard for transparency anymore.  How about multiple public and private online forums with top executive participation to start?  Some private forums for dealers and suppliers, some public forums for car buyers and owners.  Participation, honesty, and answers from top brass are a must.  Creating a more intimate dialogue with the public is how GM is going to rebuild trust with consumers.

4)      Eliminate product duplication.  Not brands. Keep all the brands except Saturn.  It was a great experiment.  Saturn is easily forgettable, and has very little brand equity compared to the rest of the GM brands that have stood the test of time.

I’m not going to fault GM for focusing and building great trucks.  It’s what consumers were buying up until 2 years ago.  They were the first with an electric car; no one would buy it, and they have taken some risks with their small cars that didn’t pay-off.  The problem with their current vehicle line-up is that their small car designs stink (although some better stuff is in the pipeline), and they still are not creating enough differentiation among their vehicle brands.  This is especially true when it comes to Pontiac.  Pontiac is about performance and sportiness.  It has no business selling minivans, cute SUVs, or re-badged Chevy Aveos.  Buick doesn’t need more than three product lines.  Cadillac doesn’t need a version of the Chevy Avalanche.  This product replication is expensive, and ultimately denigrates the emotional symbolism and image consumers give to their vehicles.  Why would a Pontiac G8 or Solstice driver want to be associated with a brand that makes the cheesy G3 (Chevy Aveo)?

Chevrolet Beat Concept

5)      Develop a contract with America (ala Newt or when Saturn entered the market…they had a cause we could all get behind).  This will help the public see GM as real people that we’d like to buy a car from, rather than 5 glass buildings on the crumbling Detroit water front.  GM should acknowledge they are using taxpayer money to get out of the mess.  In return for our generosity commit to doing the following three things for the country:

A) Commit to help reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil by building the world’s most efficient vehicles and reinvesting in R&D.

B)  Fix customer service issues by becoming transparent, accessible, and developing a consumer dialogue (look to Dell for a case on this).  Ask for more customer input into your service and processes like Starbucks did with MyStarbucksIdea.com

C) Help lead the economy back to prosperity by becoming a new model for American manufacturing.  A new model that puts American ingenuity to work and is about being more proactive, hyper-efficient, green, nimble, and collaborative in nature.

Author

GM should see this as an opportunity not to catch Toyota, but rather to leap-frog them.  This is an opportunity to turn the page on the last 25 years of diminishing market share, plant closings, and decreasing profits.  The economy is going through a re-birth so why not GM too?

It seems everywhere you look on the web today Google has an application or free service offering.  They are truly ubiquitous (I’m refraining from saying the 800lb gorilla) when it comes to the web and search.

If you were a start-up entering the search engine market today how would you do it?

You may want to ask the guys at Deep Dyve search engine.  DeepDyve has launched a free search engine that is used to access databases, scholarly journals, unstructured information and other data sources in the so-called “Dark” or “Invisible Web” (otherwise really hard to find content) where traditional search technologies are not as effective.

The DeepDyve content focuses on life sciences, patent, humanities, and Wikipedia data. The company’s technology is aimed at allowing users to type in a few words or copy an entire article into a query box to find all the related articles.  It goes beyond basic keyword-based search, DeepDyve indexes every word in a document, but also computes the factorial combination of words and phrases in the document and uses some industrial strength statistical techniques to assess the “informational impact” of these combinations.  (http://searchengineland.com/deepdyve-explores-the-invisible-web-15417 ) (http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?rss&newsid=106973 )

DeepDyve has a long ways to go, but they have taken a few initial steps that other challenger brands can learn from when entering a hyper-competitive space.

1)      Grab a toe-hold in one area first. This is easier said than done for fast-growing companies because many times they feel they are excluding some potential market opportunities, but it is critical to stay focused at this point. DeepDyve is focusing on a specific niche in scientific data.  Their brand vision maybe to become the search engine for “serious searchers only.”  Some day they could serve all kinds of scholarly researchers and students, but for now they are aiming to become successful in one niche before moving on.    Furthermore this specialization allows them to “fly under the radar” as not to awaken the giant beast in the market before they are ready.

2)      Make sure your processes (and intellectual property) are truly differentiated. Is your IP easily replicated by a larger competitor?  DeepDyve is focusing on the invisible web, rather than the World-Wide-Web.  They also have a proprietary process for aggregating data, which further differentiates them from other search engines and search services.  Google has a service called “Google Scholar,” but DeepDyve has even differentiated itself from that service.

3)      Put your product benefit in the brand name. When you hear the name DeepDyve Search Engine you have some semblance what they do.  It saves a lot of explaining in your communications.  DeepDyve used to be called Infovell.  Which is more impactful?

DeepDyve has also built credibility by adding Steve Wozniak to their Board of Directors.  Having someone of his stature will help create a buzz in the blogosphere and in the news for some time.  Not to mention his background and experience would be a goldmine to a growing company.

Dell has a great model for using social media.  It wasn’t always that way.  There are plenty of stories on the web of consumers and bloggers bashing their brand without them engaging anyone online.  They turned it around about two years ago.  They not only use social media as a research tool and customer satisfaction tool, but also as a tool to develop sales.  They are a great case study on how businesses should use Twitter and Facebook.  Erin Nelson, the CMO wrote an article in Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/26/nelson-dell-marketing-cmo-network-nelson.html

I’m going to stay mum about the recent creative execution by Quiznos to promote their $4 sub.  I applaud them for continuing to push the creative envelope and take risks with their advertising.  Every new campaign from Quiznos seems to generate conversations about the company.  However, I can’t stay quiet about the $4 sub promotion to better compete with Subway’s $5 Foot Long promotion.

“The reality is that we are a challenger brand,” Chief Marketing Officer Rebecca Steinfort said in an interview. “Our main competition is Subway, which is an 800-pound gorilla. We may be 200 pounds, but they’re 800 (Adage: http://adage.com/article?article_id=135435.”

That is correct.  Quiznos is a challenger brand, but you do not challenge the low-cost provider in the market by under-cutting their price.  Especially when you are not positioned as a low-cost provider yourself, and there is another low-cost provider in that space (Blimpie).  What will they do when Subway comes out with the $3 sub?  Quiznos already lost 300 stores to lack of profitability last year and I don’t see how $4 subs is going to help this matter any.  This latest effort just reinforces that Quiznos is a price alternative to Subway and not a quality alternative.  They’ve officially entered a hyper-competitive price sensitive space they are not suited to compete in.

Their marketing has been ineffective over the last couple of years because the CMO, President, and Ad Agency have all been in a revolving door.  There has been no consistency and they have lost their differentiating message of “toasty,” better quality, and taste.  Furthermore, they have gone downmarket.  They’ve turned into just another QSR instead of appealing to the fast- growing, Fast-Casual, up-market crowd that go to lunch at Panera Bread, Paradise Bakery, and Chipotle.  They could have done price-oriented promotions during this recession as a way to retain business; they just didn’t need to stoop as low as they did.

The better alternative would have been to be more proactive in improving the consumer experience, making site improvements, and food quality improvements to differentiate Quiznos on the basis of quality.  The consumer experience has greatly deteriorated at Quiznos over the last couple years.  Other chains have seized the “quality positioning” from Quiznos through better food, experience, and service.  Consumers don’t see the value in a Quiznos experience anymore and therefore Quiznos only alternative is to play the discount game, which is not a winning strategy.

Have you ever had the experience of getting to know another professional at a conference or social lunch who did not observe social etiquette?  You attentively listened to their story and background, asked intelligent questions, and even complemented their business savvy.  Then when it came time for them to reciprocate they became easily distracted, were unenthusiastic, or completely uninterested in you.  It’s the social networking equivalent of spam.  That interaction became a waste for both parties since you will not become an evangelist for this person, and they failed to discover anything unique about you.

Many marketers are making the same mistake when approaching social media. “How can social media help us sell more widgets? How can we increase market share or awareness using social media? What’s in it for us?”  Many marketers think of social media as just another media channel.

People join online communities to make connections not to listen to your brand spam them.  If you want connections and influence you have to build social media karma.  Marketers need to turn their traditional marketing tactics around when it comes to social media: “what can we give through social media? How can we help consumers?” are the questions that need to be asked.  By approaching social media in a give vs. get manner the brand is creating Social Media Karma.

Isn’t this the purpose for brands in the first place: to build social capital, to be more human, and to be more emotionally connected?  In doing-so the brand becomes more profitable and achieves all those sales goals it set out to achieve in the first place.

If your brand is clear, and you are demonstrating social media karma, then consumers will be drawn to you; strangers will become prospects, and prospects will become customers.  Here are three ways to start increasing your social karma in social media:

• Make sure you are contributing valuable content to the conversation
• Initiate relationships with other community members, don’t wait for them.
• Contribute to the community via comments, re-posts, and linking

There has been a fair bit of conversation lately on the trend of living with less.  It seems consumers are over-fatigued with consumption.  I don’t think it’s just the economic downturn and a need to economize either.  It is certainly part of it, but more consumers feel a greater need for ‘responsible’ consumption.  Consumers are making purchases with a new awareness of their global impact, and trying to moderate their own desires to avoid the presumption of treading on the welfare of others.

The latest trends in housing point to downsizing not just because of economic factors, but also to make the “right statement.”   Sales for certified pre-owned luxury cars are brisk.  The “smart” thing to do is buy a two or three year old used luxury car instead of flaunting the latest model right now.  This certainly is a 180 degree turn from a few years ago when products like Bling H20 bottled water that came embellished with Swarovski crystals hit the market.

Consumers are also downshifting, which involves people voluntarily accepting a drop in their income in order to rebalance their lives – often in order to regain control over time and to improve their personal relationships.   Research suggests that in the UK, 20-35% of adults aged 30-59 have downshifted and resulted in an average income fall by 40%.  In a US study, 19% of people from across social classes had voluntarily changed their lives and made less money (http://www.citizenrenaissance.com/).

Brands can leverage this new frugality to their competitive advantage by actually enabling the concept of simple living in their marketing and social-networking efforts.  This may sound counter-intuitive to marketers who want to promote more consumption.  Patagonia in an effort to simplify and cut environmental impact dropped 30 percent of its clothing line in its most recent catalog without a negative effect.  Last fall subscribers had a choice of five ski pants, now they may choose between two.  The two designs contain all that Patagonia has learned about design and the best available coatings for weather protection.  They felt the other three pants offered were unnecessary and did not offer any extra value.  Kia, the Korean car maker, promoting its Sedona model in the United Kingdom, attempted to differentiate itself from competitors by encouraging walking instead of driving for short trips; not your typical car company marketing tactic (http://www.greenbiz.com/feature/2008/12/22/taboo-talk-buy-less-stuff).

Brands that continue to innovate new processes to minimize environmental impact, tout their products durability/sustainability, and focus on the utilitarian connections of their products will reflect the current consumer mindset and stand to benefit the most in the near future.

Studies report that people suffer a drop in their IQ when they are bombarded with too many messages simultaneously.  Advertising messages are no exception.  One study by Kansas State University reported that the CNN-inspired scrolling tickers and headlines on television screens reduced the ability of people to remember information by 10 percentage points: the equivalent of smoking marijuana.  Furthermore, consumers are taking more and more steps to avoid advertising, but often the “solution” by advertisers is to increase the number of messages in their advertisements or on their packaging.

I see this all the time among challenger brands and growth companies.  They feel compelled to get every last bit of information into an ad or packaging to demonstrate that their product or service is truly superior.

The smarter solution: strip away the clutter and aim for simplicity.  This may sound like a no-brainer, but for whatever reason many challenger brands do not practice the restraint they should when putting together their marketing communications. I think it may be due to the fact that they feel a need to get the most value out of their paid media space, and therefore try to cram as many messages as possible.

How is it that powerful brands like Target, Apple, Volkswagen, and In-N-Out Burger connect so deeply with their core consumers?  For starters these brands communicate through imagery rather than words, and connect emotionally with consumers as a result.  They strongly stand for one thing, and by simplifying their message they allow it to cut through the clutter.

New consumer behavior research supports this trend toward simplification.   Research suggests that humans quick filter through a bombardment of messages at any given moment.  We filter out everything except the most visual stimuli that hits us at an emotional level.  This is nothing new to successful brands and advertisers (see Malcolm Gladwell’s book from a few years back: Blink).

Here are three steps to get going on simplifying your communications:

1) Distill your positioning down to its most critical emotional element. Once you’ve defined it stick to it.  Move all secondary messages to your website or to the back of your packaging.

2) Use visual cues to help define your positioning.  Identify colors, shapes, images, and graphics that evoke your positioning. Use these to develop your brand imagery.

3) Step away from that white space!  Practice restraint when wanting to fill your communications with secondary messages.  If the communication is uncluttered and engaging consumers will look at it.

Finally, consumers want to discover your brand.  Brands that just throw all their marketing messages at the consumer at once lose the mystery that makes them engaging and interesting.  They also are not encouraging consumers to start a conversation and most likely will turn consumers off.  It’s like going out on a first date and one of the parties spending the entire time talking only about them.  Interest quickly fades, not to mention it is rude.  The key is to encourage consumers to discover your brand story on their terms, not yours.

The Armory is currently conducting an independent industry research study and we are looking to interview consumers who purchased green homes (homes that go beyond Energy Star requirements).

If you know of a builder we could talk with that would be interested in helping the study by putting us in touch with consumers please have them contact me directly at brendan@armoryideas.com