FROG BLOG

Until last week I was not a yogurt fanatic.

Then my local Dominick’s optimized their yogurt selection.

During this process I’m sure they looked at sales, product attributes, profitability and synergies. Unfortunately my milkshake-like kifer drink didn’t make the mix. The matrix they developed seems to cover every possible known and unknown yogurt need…regular, low fat, no fat, sugary, sugar free, kid flavors, cartoon characters, real fruit, mashed fruit, desert flavor, medicinal, snack….

My product didn’t make the cut. It was expensive, in a large bottle, and I’m sure low volume.

And now I am a yogurt fanatic. I am making a special trip to find my old favorite, strawberry-banana Lifeway Kifer. I was so used to grabbing the familiar milk bottle shaped package, that I didn’t even know the brand name until I looked it up on the internet.

What does this mean? Well for Dominick’s, I’m sure their sales in the yogurt display will increase significantly. But for a few of us, there is a lost synergy that may not be noticed. I’ll be trading a trip to Dominick’s for a trip to a store that has my yogurt. Just one trip a month (the beauty of long shelf life). Probably just a quick trip. But as you can probably guess, no trip into a store ends with just one item being purchased.

This is the danger of a shelf optimization program that does not truly comprehend variety. To me, the display looks like it has less variety than ever creating one lost trip a month. Yes, there are 8 varieties of Peach. But no, there is no Lifeway Kifer. The value of that to Dominick’s is much more than the price of my Kifer.

On the other hand. It may be worth the trade off. Maybe there are so few yogurt fanatics out there like me that my decreased shopping will never be noticed.

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One of my morning peruses is Seth Godin. I like his attitude. And I like the fact that he understands that it is about the “what.” or the “stuff.”

“Hey. It’s not so hard. If you make great stuff, people will find you.” (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/)

I asked a client not long ago when he wanted to find new channels because the old ones were not delivering the results…”Is your stuff up to snuff?”

Is yours?

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Have you pulled out this year’s marketing plan to see if you are still in the right ballpark and still in the game?

Next week is the last week of the first quarter. Set some time aside to pull your performance reports together (especially if this isn’t done automatically) for your programs and overall performance. Gather your team together and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Did we do what we set out to do? If no, why not?
2. Did we perform the way we expected? If no, why not?
3. What worked and didn’t from a program perspctive? Why?
4. Have there been any changes internally or in the marketplace that means your plans for the next quarter need to change? If so, what & why?
5. Do all involved teams know your plans and expected performance for 2Q07?
6. Do you have good communications flow internally and externally to build toward maximum effectiveness?
7. Does your management know what you know and have the same expectations you have?
8. Do you have the resources to do what you planned? If not, have you adjusted your plan and expected results?
9. Have you published any changes to your plan for 2Q07 so everyone is playing with the same rules?

Taking a half-a-day to gather and review your performance will improve what you accomplish during the next quarter. Ask yourself the hard questions and make the changes. Adjusting now will save a lot of resources and explanations later on!

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I don’t get it. Why would a company want a spokesperson that doesn’t clearly add credibility to their brand. Have consumers become so brand educated that they can get past the lizards and cavemen (yes, I am picking on Geico today) to the knowledge that Geico is an insurance company that they would want to consider purchasing? (Yes that is a purpose of advertising to create awareness and move a prospect to the consideration phase.) And, even if a brand chooses an odd spokesperson (a clown, a cow, a over-baked actor) shouldn’t the ad still be about the brand/product benefits that differentiate it from competitors? Instead we get ads that are about the spokespeople and their trials and tribulations (or games or love interests) and, at best, only vaguely refer to why someone should consider a product/service/brand. Have consumers gotten to the point where the brand qualities don’t matter but the most entertaining ad wins their pocketbook?

Quite frankly, I want a dependable, responsive insurance company…I don’t care about the self-esteem (or lack thereof) of a caveman. And I’m betting there is market share to gain by getting back to the basics in messaging and advertising.

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“It’s what you say, most of the time, not how you say it.” (Seth Godin - Seth’s Blog - 3/14/07)

In a recent post Seth Godin nailed what I think is the “missing link” for many marketers. The “what” should always carry the day. I think that is something a lot of deep pocket marketers have gotten away from because they feel they can. So, as I pointed out in an earlier post (Frog Blog - 3/10/07) “Too many times ads seem to be created for their shock values and for the entertainment of the account executives or the creative directors.”

But smaller, less well-funded marketers don’t always get it right either. They just tend to err on the other end of the spectrum. “Tell them everything in every piece.” Just as the “what” can get lost in the glitz and glammer it can also get lost in too many words.

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Last night we had a discussion while watching the Big 10 Basketball Tourney. An ad for a car (and none of us could remember the brand) had many men — all ages and shapes — shedding their clothes on a busy street so they could touch/wash/rub up against a car full of young women.

Why? no one even ventured a guess

The message? it takes very little for men to make fools of themselves

Did it inform me? no

Did it entice me? no

Did it entice the men in the group? Way no

Did it entice the women in the group? H*&^ no

Did it improve my awareness of this car? no

Too many times ads seem to be created for their shock values and for the entertainment of the account executives or the creative directors.

What a waste of marketing budget.

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I don’t get it.

Why are companies so anxious to associate themselves with “bad” things these days? Watching a couple hours of television and I am inundated with messages that suggest: ilicit sex, lying (lots and lots of lying), stealing, egotism (paired with its cousin narcissism) and just plain rudeness. The list could go on but it only gets more depressing.

Have we as a consumer pool become so jaded in life that the only way we can get excited is to “live on the wild side” through our products?

Granted, there have always been a handful of products that promised walking with the bad boys such as Harley Davidson. Today however, these messages are pervasive through many product catergories.

Somewhere along the line advertising, especially television, became all about the “ad” instead of the product. Is it edgy enough? Does it shout loud enough? Is the “ewww” factor high enough? (OK I made that one up but it sounds like it should be on the list!)

And people wonder why advertising is becoming less and less important in the overall branding strategy of many companies.

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