SPRING 1999
Is "advertising as entertainment" on the way out? Three notable practioners of off-the- wall advertising have switched to product-oriented approaches....
Miller Lite's new campaign is a throwback to its highly successful "Tastes Great...Less Filling" spots of the '70s and '80s. The new Lite commercials again employ celebrities to debate the beer's merits.
This represents a radical change from the bizarre ''Ads by Dick." (My favorite: a beer drinker reads ''Twist to Open'' on the Lite bottle cap and starts dancing the twist.) This campaign said nothing about Lite beer, while the slogan of the new campaign is ''The great taste of a true pilsner beer.'' ''We need to give people a reason for choosing our brand. We weren't doing that,'' said Miller's vice president of marketing.
Duh.
Nissan is another advertiser moving from wacky ads to a product-oriented sell. Its new "Driven" campaign features Jerry Hirshberg, president of Nissan Design, explaining the features of its new car and truck models.
''Driven'' replaces Nissan's $200 million ''Enjoy the Ride" campaign (remember Barbie and Ken crusing the bedroom in a toy 300ZX?). That campaign won popularity contests, but failed to "move the metal," despite a red-hot auto market.
Even Pepsi, which has forever embraced youthful attitudes and lifestyles in its ads (as opposed to cola), has a new campaign focusing on the product's taste!
''Nobody has been talking about colas and how they taste,'' said Pepsi's president in announcing "The Joy of Cola" campaign. ''Most great consumer marketing is rooted in product benefits.''
Uh-huh! Uh-huh!
The new Pepsi ads still strive to be funny, and that's OK! Humor is a great way to attract consumers to a message or drive that message home to consumers. But humor cannot be the only message of an effective ad (unless the point is that your morning team is really funny)!
I hate to say "I told you so"...OK, I really love to say it! For years, I've been advocating advertising that sells the product (or the benefits of the product), and that applies to radio as well as colas.
Obviously, Miller, Nissan and Pepsi changed course because they were on the wrong track. But abandoning your strategy isn't always the right thing to do, even when things aren't going well...
Nothing will change your mind faster than a loaded gun...or a bad rating book. But panic moves can take you from bad to worse...
General Motors is a prime example. In recent years, G.M. has adopted "brand management" as a strategy for differentiating its lines (which lost their identity with the company's "look alike" models of the '80s).
Sounds good. But I opened the paper a few weeks ago to see an ad touting rebates and low interest deals on all of their brands, all shown together on one page. Hardly the way to set them apart!
What caused the change in philosophy? G.M.'s share fell below its "Mendoza line" of 30%. And panic moves win again over long-term strategy.
Closer to our industry, consider ABC's Good Morning America. Losing the morning ratings battle to NBC's Today prompted "G.M.A." to jettison long-time anchors Charles Gibson and Joan Lunden in favor of little-known Lisa McRee and Kevin Newman. The move took G.M.A. from the ratings frying pan into the fire...the lowest numbers in its history, far behind Today and close to CBS' perennial #3 This Morning.
Keep this in mind if you're considering a change in talent or format. If you want or need to make a change, just be sure that what you're changing to is better than what your changing from!
The temptation to expand your target or market is tough to resist. Taco Bell is a recent example. For years, it has targeted teens and young adults with quick, cheap food. But now, emboldened by the success of its talking Chihauhua campaign, Taco Bell is going after the entire family with the $9.99 Grande Meal -- essentially, its version of KFC's family bucket.
Remember the last time a fast food chain went after a more "mature" market? The result was McDonalds' Arch Deluxe fiasco.
Taco Bell is hardly alone in trying to expand its target market. So is lowball car rental agency Rent-A-Wreck... In a new radio campaign, Rent-A-Wreck says "DON'T LET THE NAME FOOL YOU!" Rent-A-Wreck cars aren't really wrecks at all, they claim, but cars that "look good and run great."
OK, so why do they call them wrecks? And why is their name trying to fool me anyway???
Rent-A-Wreck proves once again that...
Picking the right name or positioning liner is crucially important. For example, would you buy "Alpo Beef Jerky"? "Black & Decker Toilet Paper"? "Clorox Mouthwash"?
OK, I made those up! But radio has had its share of actual "oxy-moronic" brands...like "AM Stereo," "Country Variety," and (my all-time personal favorite) "All-New Oldies."
I actually had a client that was using "All-New Oldies"! Not surprisingly, when we conducted focus groups for this station, respondents said that "new oldies" just didn't make sense. As one put it: "I'll believe in new oldies when Elvis starts recording them."
Sometimes, even big companies make mistakes naming their products. Like the "Mercury Mistake"...I mean, Mystique. Or Oldsmobile's (under-)Achieva. Names like these are way too easy to make fun of.
Some mistakes are more subtle. For example, I think Intel is missing an opportunity by labeling all of its new chips "Pentium."
In the earlier days of PCs, new chips had all-new numbers. Remember when the 386 came out? Your 286 became instantly obsolete. And the 486 made the 386 yesterday's news. When it was time for the 586, Intel named the chip "Pentium" because (unlike a number) the name could be trademarked, making life harder for the makers of clone chips.
But succeeding generations of Intel chips have kept the Pentium name. We've since had the Pentium II and (now) the Pentium III. I'm sorry, but the Pentium III doesn't make me want to dump my Pentium II machine. Hey, it's still a Pentium, right?
Bring on the Sex-tium already!