Dos Equis - What Are They Thinking?

Since Obama is having his Beer Summit today, I think a blog on beer is appropriate.

Have you seen the Dos Equis campaign featuring "The Most Interesting Man in the World"?

I saw it one too many times last night and I have to call them out on the silliness of their advertising.

First, beer is consumed mostly by young men (under 30). The Dos Equis guy is like 65 if he's a day. He's a geezer. Way outside the age range of beer's core demographic. What's up with that? I don't believe that this guy is a beer drinker for one second. He's more the scotch type. Definitely!

Second, the guy is a pretentious sleaze bag. He's hanging out with women at least half his age. The only way this happens in real life is if the guy has oodles of money. Old guys with fat wallets can attract young women. Old guys who are simply "interesting" are not chick magnets.

Third, (this is subjective I admit) the guy is doing weird stuff in these ads, not interesting stuff. He's rescuing a fox during a fox hunt! Has anyone outside of British gentry ever even been on a fox hunt? And why would this guy be out there hugging a fox and keeping it away from the dogs, horses and the folks "riding to the hounds"? Beyond silly. This is stupid. Do you think Mr. American Bubba Beer Drinker can relate? No way, Jose.

I'll give Dos Equis some points for trying to stand out and be different. But his campaign can't be working, can it? It's wrong on way too many levels.

Some TV Ads That I Like

The vast majority of the ads that run on TV are forgettable, boring and unpersuasive.

That's one reason why the good ones stand out and work so well, because they're surrounded by so many poor ones.

There have been a couple of really good new TV ads that have caught my attention over the past week that I'd like to single out for well-deserved praise.

Omega Watches

They're doing a wonderful job of capitalizing on the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing. In a riveting spot that opens with President Kennedy's speech about going to the moon and includes footage of the Apollo launch, moon landing and first walk on the moon, Omega reminds us that they are the only watch that's ever been on the moon. The spot is wonderfully edited and Omega has done a smart job of capitalizing on all the attention that has been generated by the 40th Anniversary of the first Moon Landing. Well done!


Mercedes Benz

They're launching a beautiful new coupe with a series of dramatic TV ads that put Mercedes Benz back where it used to be at the apex of automotive brand imagery. The spots feature a dramatic sequence where the new car appears to literally crash through a large glass wall in Mercedes' ultra modern office building in Germany. The car and its entrance both make quite a statement. I hope Mercedes is finally getting its ad mojo back, because for a long time, they seemed to have lost it.


Two "I Told You So" Ad Changes That I've Also Noticed

Geico

They have finally started to use the Gecko to tell their "value" story rather than that ill-advised stupid wad of cash with hooky glasses. I criticized them a few months ago and wondered why they weren't leveraging their two strong ad assets (the gecko and the cavemen) instead of creating a new (and BAD) third icon.


Budweiser

"Drinkability" seems to have finally bitten the dust. They wasted millions on this bad idea. I criticized them for this awful strategy months ago and I think they have finally dropped it. At least I hope that's what they've done. I haven't seen any of those dreadful "drinkability" spots lately but it may just be wishful thinking to hope that they have done away with it for good.

Grocery Stores - Customer Service? Low Prices? Or What?

There are "Grocery Wars" going on in my neighborhood. Some are slowly sliding out of business, new ones are opening and some established ones are clearly headed for trouble.

We've got Market Street, Whole Foods and Central Market occupying the high end in my area of the world. Each is different and each has their advocates and loyal shoppers. But what they all share in common is that they are focussed on customer service, selection, and creating a wonderful in-store experience for their shoppers.

At another extreme is Costco and Sam's. They also occupy a solid niche. Value. You've got to buy in bulk but you get great pricing.

The competitors I can't figure out are all the "traditional" grocery store brands. I visited a Kroger this morning (we'd run out of milk and you can't have breakfast without some milk) and here's what happened.

I was greeted by a giant display on the way in the store for Vitamin Water (normally $1.59/bottle, selling for $.99). I put eight different flavors in my cart and headed for the milk section. So far, so good. They got me to make an incremental purchase, one I was not intending to make.

The problem came at check out. Kroger has implemented these self-service check out lines which I normally avoid like the plague. This morning, I had no choice. It was early and these self-service check outs were the only ones open. I think these self-service check outs are a really bad marketing idea. Kroger makes you do the scanning and bagging yourself, so they make the shopping experience harder (not easier). They also remove the one opportunity they have for you to interact with a Kroger employee, which could be a nice branding opportunity for them. That would all be bad enough, but those self-scanning systems never seem to be working right. So instead of speeding up the check out process (which might actually appeal to some people), Kroger usually creates an additional hassle when you have to track someone down to come over and solve a problem you're having with their system.

That's what happened to me this morning. Six of my eight Vitamin Waters scanned correctly but two failed to ring up the correct price (I was paying attention because I KNOW this self-scanning system is full of bugs.) We're talking a $1.20 here. Not a lot of money, but it was the principle of the thing. It took two different Kroger employees and about 10 minutes to straighten this out. So, instead of a nice and quick "in and out" shopping stop this morning (along with maybe a pleasant "hello" or "how are you" from an employee), I got an impersonal, needlessly delayed, flawed and aggravating shopping experience.

Why should I ever go to this Kroger again? I have other better options that are just literally a few minutes further away. Whole Foods is right across the street. Market Street is two blocks down.

Kroger and many other of their traditional grocery store competitors are in the unenviable position of being stuck in the middle. They are outflanked at the high end by service oriented options and they are outflanked at the low end by Costco. When you're positioned in the middle of the road like this, you only get run over. Nothing good happens when you occupy this grey middle of the market.

We've recently lost an Albertson's in the neighborhood. I'm betting that this Kroger is next. There's a Tom Thumb just a block away but I think they'll hold out longer. They still scan and bag your groceries for you.

Michael Jackson was a Purple Cow

I was one of those people who was stunned by the recent death of Michael Jackson. Whatever else you may have thought about him, he was a pop icon right up there with Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. As Yoda might have said, I felt a "disturbance in the force" when I learned he had so unexpectedly died.

First of all, from a marketing perspective, Michael Jackson was a one-of-a-kind brand, a purple cow. His uniqueness started with his incredible ability to sing and dance as a precocious young child. Rather than fade away as so many child stars do, Michael Jackson exploded into a mega-star fueled by incredible music, incredible videos and incredible dancing. The first time he moonwalked was one of TV's most electrifying moments. It was other worldly. It seemed impossible for anyone to move like that. His videos broke new ground and rewrote the music video business.

His uniqueness unfortunately spun off into tragedy. His plastic surgeries turned a handsome young man into a freak. His fixation on re-capturing his own lost childhood led to an unhealthy attraction to young boys that may or may not have been sexual. His success led to wealth that led to ridiculous and offensive extravagance. His desire to have children and appear more normal led to "marriages" that were obviously farces. His fame led to reclusiveness and he all but disappeared from the public eye. He seemed to have flamed out.

But a few months ago, he announced a "This is it" comeback. A "final" series of live performances in London that he was preparing for up until his death. Would he have electrified us again? We'll never know.

The lesson for marketing people in Michael's life is that distinctiveness wins. We may not like it, but it's undeniably memorable and it makes us pay attention. And when it disappears, we feel a sense of loss because we cared. Because something that was special is now gone and we're sad that we may never have anything like that again.

Yes, Michael Jackson was very weird. But so was Elvis. I suspect that Michael Jackson's estate will reap the same kind of long term rewards that Elvis' estate has. There will always be a market for something that is brilliantly original.

Automated Phone Answering Systems - Worst Possible Way to Communicate with Your Customers

Why have virtually all of America's larger companies adopted these absolutely horrible and hugely frustrating automated phone answering systems to deal with their customers when they call?

I don't know a single person who likes to deal with those stupid automated systems.

When you call a company with a question or a concern or an issue of any sort, YOU WANT TO TALK TO A REAL PERSON. Yet, you're forced to go through a long and usually frustrating list of "menu options" before you finally navigate your way to a real live human being. The message being sent is "We really don't want to talk to you. Please go away." Is this smart marketing?

I don't believe in these systems for any company, but companies that are in any kind of customer service business are really shooting themselves in the foot when they adopt these systems. The phone is still an important customer contact tool. It always will be. Why lose the opportunity to personalize this point of contact and use it to differentiate your service and make your company stand out? Automated phone systems are dehumanizing and impersonal. Are those attributes desirable ones for your brand?

I once worked with a mobile phone company that wanted to differentiate itself. At the time, all the competitors were dong "me too" advertising featuring the latest hot rate package (this many minutes for this much money). We did some research and consumers told us that the single biggest thing that this company could do to differentiate their service was to have "live" operators instead of an automated system. You'd think this would be a no-brainer for a phone company. NOT! They ignored the research results and adopted another differentiation strategy instead.

This opportunity remains low hanging fruit for any service oriented company. When people call you, have a real person answer the phone. Train your people to deliver consistently pleasant "on strategy" brand and service experiences to these callers. Your own people can be your most powerful marketing tools and they can make a strongly positive first impression if you let them. Don't let "operational efficiency" mislead you into making a foolish marketing mistake.

General (Government) Motors - A No Win Situation

As GM reorganizes and survives on bailout money, they are faced with the marketing challenge of how best to support the brands that will be the future of the company.

One brand that is receiving relatively heavy marketing support right now is Cadillac. They're launching a new model, called the CTS Sport Wagon. It's basically a station wagon.

There are three things fundamentally wrong with this. All of these are symptomatic of why GM is in trouble in the first place.

1. Their timing is awful: Launching a new model NOW? Right in the teeth of all the negative publicity they are receiving related to going bankrupt? Tell me how this makes any sense.

2. The new model is a STATION WAGON! Station wagons haven't been popular since SUV's took over that market niche. After working pretty successfully for years to modernize the Cadillac image and make the brand younger, they decide to go retro with a station wagon? You've got to be kidding.

3. The splashy spending is no longer perceived as GM's marketing investment but as a wasteful use of taxpayer bailout money. Our tax dollars are being spent by GM to advertise an ill-advised new model being launched at the worst possible time. A really bad way to spend our money (it's not their money anymore.)

Cadillac should probably never have conceived and launched this model in the first place. I'll be amazed if it succeeds. Cadillac and all the other GM divisions should not be doing splashy big money marketing right now. They should be using PR tactics, not advertising, to set the stage for the relaunch of the entire company once the reorganization is complete. That's when they'll need to stun us with great new advertising that makes us truly believe that there is indeed a new smarter and better General Motors.

What they're doing now just looks like "same old same old." In fact, it strikes me as even stupider than some of the moves that got them to bankruptcy court in the first place.

How'd You Like to Have Any of These Marketing Challenges?

Think your job is tough? What would you do if you were the top marketing person responsible for any of the following - all of which would be contenders for "toughest marketing jobs of 2009- 2010."

1. Chinese Hummers

Not only are Hummers suffering from the double whammy of being gas guzzlers (swimming upstream against both the Green Movement AND higher gas prices) and being built by now bankrupt General Motors, but Hummer is now owned by a Chinese company that has never built cars and that nobody in our country has ever heard of.

2. Un-fried Chicken at Kentucky Fried Chicken

Here's a brand that's been selling "Fried" to America for about the last 50 years. Now they're trying to get people to overlook that and drop in for grilled chicken. You know things are bad when you have to ask consumers to ignore your name as part of your ad message.

3. General Motors Cars

Bankrupt company being run by the government asking consumers to trust them and still buy their cars. My hunch is that most of us are taking a wait and see attitude about GM and its cars right now. They've got a big opportunity to re-invent the company, but will they? And even if they do, will we believe that they have? How can they convince us?

4. Playboy Magazine

Hugh Hefner is now like 100 years old and is no longer an icon for the brand. He's a joke. The Internet has completely filled the "need" for the cheesecake that once drove the brand. Magazines, in general, are in trouble. What was once "cutting edge" and "cool" (at least to guys) is now hopelessly "old fashioned" and very "uncool."

5. Arnold Schwarzenegger

California's economy and state budget are a disaster. The former Mr. Universe is looking more like Mr. Whimpy. He's a Republican in an Obama Democratic dominated political landscape. The Terminator is almost certainly going to get terminated when he's up for re-election. He's too old to go back to being a movie hunk. Senator Schwarzenegger? Not likely. Talk show host? Who can understand that accent?

6. Blockbuster

Going to a brick and mortar store to rent a movie or video game is now completely unnecessary. Technology and the Internet and NetFlix have made the movie rental retail store concept obsolete. Blockbusters customers are gradually deserting them for these more convenient and more immediate options. What can they do to reverse this trend? How can they re-invent themselves?


Every job has its challenges, but these are a few of the marketing challenges that may all border on the impossible. But it's going to be fun to see what happens. It will take some very shrewd marketing (and probably some good old fashioned luck) to turn these lemons into lemonade.