Why Is Most B2B Advertising So Awful?

If you don't work for a B2B company, this blog may not mean much to you. Unless you've ever picked up one of those B2B targeted magazines and had a chance to check out the ads in them.

Most are strategically confused, poorly targeted, graphically sloppy and loaded with jargon and techno-babble. Or, they adopt another tried and true B2B ad tactic. They feature a really pretty woman who has absolutely nothing to do with the product, service or company running the ad (Think "GoDaddy.com" and you'll have the idea).

There are an assortment of reasons for this huge waste of money.

1. Most B2B companies do not have a CEO who understands marketing. They are usually either operations types or they've come up through finance or sales.

2. Consequently, most B2B companies do not have a trained marketing person in the CMO job. It's usually someone who has somehow demonstrated a bit of creativity in some other corporate job and that has qualified them to run marketing as far as the CEO is concerned. The CEO has no idea that the person running marketing is really clueless about marketing because the CEO is equally clueless.

3. These clueless people then think they're being frugal by developing their marketing plans and programs in-house. They don't hire marketing consultants or agencies that can help them. They use an in-house graphics team to do their ads or find a cheap freelance source that is often someone's relative.

4. They think that their product or service is much more interesting, relevant and important than it really is. They've drunk so much of their own Kool-Aid that they've lost touch with their customers. Instead of building advertising that is customer-focused, they build advertising that is self-focused. Blah blah blah blah about them and their products and their services. Marketing 101: You must focus on your customers and what they think, what they need, and what they want.

5. Some only want their ads to get attention. Those are the ones who tend to adopt the "let's just put a hot babe in the ads" approach. Silly and embarrassing and a stupid waste of money. How do Boards of Directors look the other way when this is going on. Hello???

6. They never develop long term campaigns or treat marketing like an investment. They create ad-hoc one-shot ads and manage marketing like it's only a cost-center.

7. They think that unless you're an expert in their product or service, that you can't possibly market it effectively. This leads to industrial inbreeding (only hiring or promoting from within that industry) and the inevitable retardation that follows. It stifles creativity and prevents progress.

The good news is that whenever a B2B company comes to its senses and brings in a real marketing pro from "outside", the improvements are dramatic, fast and easy to make. The bad news is that so many B2B companies don't have the sense to do this. If you're in one of those B2B companies and the top marketing person is not a true marketing pro, but a marketing amateur who's faking it for a CEO who's "marketing-challenged" then you need to think about heading elsewhere.

Hyundai - Give Them a Round of Applause!

Have you noticed how many smart things Hyundai has been doing over the past year or so? They are on fire!

First, their product line-up (job #1 for any automobile company) is outstanding. Every vehicle they offer is a high quality option in the segment in which it competes. And they are all priced intelligently. Each model is selling at a great "value" price versus its more entrenched competition. Hyundai's market share has got to be skyrocketing.

Second, a few months ago, Hyundai breaks new ground with a promise to "forgive" missed payments from newly unemployed Hyundai owners. Instead of being the bad guy creditor breathing down a distressed unemployed person's neck, Hyundai positions themselves as an understanding and sympathetic friend. What a brilliant way to earn customers for life. This was an incredibly innovative offer that was timed to perfection.

Lately, Hyundai's new promotion is to guarantee a low gas price of $1.49/gallon for a year to new Hyundai buyers. I don't know exactly how they are fulfilling this offer or making it work, but it is another smartly innovative and distinctive promotion that is punching through the clutter of other automotive marketing.

In a few short years, Hyundai has grown from a fringe brand without much perceived quality to a major competitor in the US market. Great products. Value priced. Backed by savvy, distinctive, gutsy marketing.

Hyundai is a textbook example of how to market smartly. I'm looking forward to see what they do next because they are on a roll.

Radio Shack Becoming "The Shack"

A few weeks ago I blogged on Kentucky FRIED Chicken spending millions to reposition the brand as the place for UNFRIED chicken.

It's always sad to see a brand come to the realization that their name is WRONG. Clearly. "Fried" has not been exactly a desirable food attribute for about the last ten years or so. So what else was KFC to do? They first tried to get us used to calling it "KFC" instead of" Kentucky Fried Chicken." They spent years on that. Now, they've actually changed the product offering, too. I haven't been to a KFC in years, and I doubt that the allure of their now unfried chicken is going to get me in the door. If I do get the urge to visit a KFC, it's going to be because I have a craving for their good old fried chicken. I guess they must have data that convinces them that new customers will come in now that they are offering unfried chicken. Seems to me that it will just be the same customers who simply end up cannibalizing fried chicken sales in order to try/buy the unfried chicken. Time will tell.

Now, in today's news there is another retailer who has finally realized that their name is part of their problem. It's Radio Shack. They are about to launch a massive marketing effort to get us to think of them as "The Shack." But according to what I've read, they are not officially changing their name. They are still "Radio Shack."

OK. I agree that the "Radio" in "Radio Shack" is a big problem. Not contemporary and no longer relevant. It's all about cool wireless gizmos now. I just don't understand this half-pregnant move they are making. Why not go all the way? If the name is wrong, bite the bullet and change it. I suspect they are being overly cautious and that an actual name change is probably being planned as Part II of this effort. Name changes are expensive propositions. It's probably hundreds of millions of dollars just in signage alone. But the fact remains. If the name is wrong (and clearly the Radio Shack name is now definitely wrong), you have to face up to that fact and change it. Why fool around with this "half-change?" My message to Radio Shack is to have the courage to do what's needed. And if it's needed, it's needed right now. Timidity is not a winning strategy.

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.