If you’d had the good fortune to be a zebra finch some years ago, you might have eagerly participated in an admittedly odd experiment. A researcher glued tiny red hats on a few randomly selected males. Almost immediately, the females turned up their beaks at the theretofore-studly males and turned their attentions to the hat-wearers. Click here to continue reading...
Just published — Steve Cuno’s newest article in Deliver magazine
If you’d had the good fortune to be a zebra finch some years ago, you might have eagerly participated in an admittedly odd experiment. A researcher glued tiny red hats on a few randomly selected males. Almost immediately, the females turned up their beaks at the theretofore-studly males and turned their attentions to the hat-wearers. Click here to continue reading...
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Sometimes a marketer gives up on a brand. But if other marketers believe the brand still has worth, they might just pay for the privilege of taking it over for their own use.
Yesterday in New York, 170 brands were auctioned to new owners. According to The New York Times, someone ponied up $45,000 for Shearson, $32,500 for Meister Brau, and $30,000 for Handi-Wrap. A college student bought Collier’s for $2,000. General Cinema, Homestake Mining, and Victrola (ah, the nostalgia that one stirs) each went for $1,000. Allied Signal and American Petrifina went as a package for $1,000 total. Just to put all of that in perspective … remember TV Guide? About two years ago, that brand sold for $1. —Steve Cuno I recently emailed a vendor to see if they could duplicate CDs for us. Their written reply said, “Defiantly!” I assume they meant definitely. On the other hand, perhaps they meant that nothing anyone can say or do will keep them from completing our order. No matter. Either way, I get my CDs.
—Steve Cuno Sometimes marketers want to expand into new customer bases. At such times, it’s not unusual to ask the advertising agency, “What message can we send to convince this new group to love us?”
Wrong question. A better one is, “What does our product offer the new group?” If the honest, non self-deluding answer is, “Plenty,” that’s good news. You can set about finding ways to meaningfully communicate those benefits to the new group. Arm & Hammer found ways to sell baking soda to non-bakers when they realized the product happens to be an effective deodorizer. They began urging people to use an open box of the stuff to deodorize the fridge, and people bought it. And now there’s Arm & Hammer deodorant, toothpaste and cat litter. (Note to consumers: keep them separate. Do not put cat litter in the fridge, and for heaven’s sake don’t brush your teeth with it.) But if the answer is, “Not much,” the solution does not begin with advertising. It begins with the product. Find out what your intended market wants, and come up with a way to provide it. McDonald’s didn’t try some silly slogan in hopes of convincing health-conscious moms that they were mistaken about not wanting burgers and fries. They found out that these moms wanted salads, added them to the menu, and promoted that. Advertising isn’t magic. Rarely does it convince people who don’t want a product that they want it after all. You’ll generally have better luck if you start by offering what people want. Then, instead of hoping to dupe people with glib hot air (which almost never works) you can communicate with substance (which often does). —Steve Cuno |
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