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to August
July 31, 2003
Wasnt I just talking about that classic television commercial featuring a gorilla
smashing around a suitcase? Yes, there it is, at the first of this month. Well, then,
its appropriate to close the month with this article, from the Associated Press via
the Atlanta (Georgia) Journal-Constitution:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Okay, two very interesting things about the article. First, it seems that
Samsonites key corporate asset, as far as the AP reporter is concerned, is the image
of a gorilla smashing around a suitcase. That shows the importance of branding. The second
major point, is that the Gorilla ad wasnt for Samsonite. It was for
American Tourister. That shows the importance of maintaining your brand.
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July 29, 2003
Theres a new lonely Maytag Repairman. Heres the article, from Ad Age:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Since 1967, weve had eight U.S. presidents but only three Ol Lonelies:
Jesse White, Gordon Jump, and the new guy, Hardy Rawls. Now thats branding.
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July 25, 2003
Dated Monday, July 28 but posted to the Net today, is this article in Mediapost
about Duponts latest consumer advertising and branding campaign, which combines
their Teflon, Stainmaster, Corian, and Zodiaq brands under the umbrella Carefree
Living:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
The $20 million advertising strategy is aimed at women who work full-time, and have
children. Each ad will highlight one of the brands, but will be signed by Dupont. It seems
like a coherent mix of consumer brands, a discrete target, with well-coordinated tactics.
I like advertising strategies like this, where you hit a single target, with a single
message, using a well-assembled team of corporate units.
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July 24, 2003
An article from AutoWeek about the new product-oriented ad strategy for Chrysler:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Branding is a long-term investment. Chrysler management is walking away from their latest brand-building ad campaign after a matter of months. The group vice president of global sales, marketing, and service admits that brand awareness is up, but cant say if that branding effort affected traffic at the dealership level. What they do say, is that sales are down 4.9%. Unbelievably, it almost sounds as if Chrysler launched a branding campaign with no metrics in place, and is now turning to retail-oriented product ads to move inventory.
In any event, brand advertising and product advertising are not opposites.
They work together. The mistakes Chrysler made, was deploying ineffective
creative as brand advertising, failing to support that branding campaign with tactical
product advertising, and delivering the wrong product mix at the retail level.
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July 21, 2003
The direct connection between psychoanalysis and advertising copywriting (and other
elements of pop culture) is explored in brief in this article from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
On a superficial level, its interesting how many common phrases (I just need to vent, etc.) come from psychoanalysis. On a deeper level, its interesting to think about how our knowledge of the workings of the brain have affected not just the language but the techniques of salesmanship. Key quote:
For example, Americas earliest practicing psychologists were employed as advertising freelancers, translating the sensory physiology and direct suggestion of the day (the early 1900s) into product-touting print ads.
Hmm. Seems to me that not much has changed.
Next up is this editorial from the Rockdale & Newton (Georgia) Citizen,
which encapsulates the key argument against using celebrity testimonials in advertising:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
The editorial focuses on scandalized sports figures, but it applies to celebrities in
all fields. An advertising concept based on testimonials gives up an important element of
control over the message, in the form of the person delivering that message. Often,
its worth it. Testimonial advertising, celebrity and otherwise, has great appeal.
However, it has persuasive power only to the extent that the people quoted have
credibility to the target audience, in the context of the product or service being
advertised. Thats the factor beyond the Q Factor, and one many copywriters forget.
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July 18, 2003
Okay, maybe Krispy Kreme is on my mind because I just got back from Atlanta,
Georgia, home
of one of the first Krispy Kreme stores. Heres an article from the New Jersey Star-Ledger,
via nj.com, about how Krispy Kreme built its brand without resorting to expensive media
advertising:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Strong branding based on a consistent customer experience and tightly focused
marketing. What a concept.
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July 17, 2003
This is a nice summary of Nike v. Kasky and the implications for advertising, p.r.,
and website copywriters, from the Sacramento (California) Business Journal. Be sure
to read all three pages:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
For the time being, press releases, articles, and website copy will have to stand up to the same standards of truth as traditional advertising. That eliminates the opportunity to express an opinion, no matter how well-supported, which, in turn, effectively silences corporations on any open debate of social relevance.
First, I believe that honesty is always the best policy in all advertising.
However, this situation leaves corporations doing business in California absolutely
helpless against false or misleading statements made in the media by individuals or groups
of individuals who have an axe to grind. And, remember, media savvy is not the exclusive
property of large corporations; some genuine nutcases seem to have a real knack for
getting on the 9:00 News. The short-term result is going to be a cautious silence on the
part of corporations, and corporate silence on social issues cant be good for
consumers.
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July 15, 2003
Its about time: the FTC is now regulating infomercials as advertising, requiring the
same standards for television commercials whether 30 seconds long or 30 minutes.
Heres the story, from WOTV News, Michigan:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
This is a good development, and long overdue. The basic infomercial strategy is to
establish credibility through an extended demonstration. If that demonstration is
falsified, the viewer is deceived, the marketing strategy is devalued, and a valuable
advertising tool is destroyed. I wonder if the FTC will apply the same standards to online
advertising films, such as Hondas Cog. Not that it would have made a
difference in the creative execution of that online ad, but it could help prevent
unscrupulous marketers from using the Internet to dodge advertising regulations.
Advertising copywriting is a craft of persuasion, using all the tools of writing and
creativity. Lying is neither creative, nor in the long run, persuasive.
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July 14, 2003
Are we seeing the end of category advertising? The Cattlemens Beef Promotion and
Research Board loses a court battle to continue collecting $1 per head of cattle sales to
fund overall beef marketing efforts. The Beef. Its whats for
dinner advertising campaign is the most-visible part of that effort. Heres a
report, from the Iowa Farm Bureau:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
At a time when advertisers and the advertising industry are re-discovering that
branding is more than a logo and a load of bull by-byproduct, large category marketers
(including Florida orange growers) are putting themselves at-risk because of internal
divisiveness. The danger - or the opportunity - is that one cattle producer could, by
investing intelligently in advertising and branding, become the dominant force in the
industry, resulting in further consolidation, and spelling the end of the boutique
producer. The larger danger is that the market will simply fade away in the face of
heavily advertised competition. At the same time, it is clear that the benefits of
category advertising land mostly in the pockets of those producers with the largest
distribution. Now, Im just an advertising copywriter not a dealmaker, but it seems
to me that distribution should be factored into the funding contribution.
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July 10, 2003
First up, Britains top ten advertising slogans, with Beanz Meanz Heinz
right at the top. Next, Maurice Drake, the Beanz Meanz Heinz copywriter, rants
about the state of advertising copywriting today. Both articles are from the (UK) Guardian:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Only three of the top ten advertising slogans (Avis, Volkswagen, and Nike) will be known to U.S. consumers. More-notably, only two were created within the past 25 years. That shows how long-lived a corporate asset a good advertising slogan can be, and also shows how the years alone add value.
The second article is a response from the copywriter to the Heinz announcement that they may discard Beanz Meanz Heinz (see my response by scrolling down to July 7). Key quote, from copywriter Maurice Drake:
In the 60s as an advertising creative you prided yourself on coming up with what we called properties - something that would enter the public consciousness and stay there. A property is like a house, you maintain it and you do it up every year and it will last.
Replace the word property with todays branding and there you have it.
Theres a bonus buried at the bottom of the second article: a reference to a recent Heinz campaign in which the company threatened to stop making a popular product. It caused widespread media coverage, and increased consumer demand so much that the company was able to double the price of the product while increasing its sales. Wow! These days, such a campaign might be called viral marketing. And, like any good viral marketer, Heinz never fessed up to the whole thing being a publicity stunt.
Contrary to traditional blogging protocol, Im going to let Drake have the last word because what he has to say reflects my views so well, I cant tell whose words they really are:
Creatives used to be quite interested in the business of advertising. Theyd be really keen to find out the sales figures because then theyd know whether their campaign had worked. But why bother using your imagination when you can spend £100,000 on special effects? Now you have all these, Look at me, arent I adventurous campaigns that are full of special effects and are instantly forgettable.
Okay, I would have said $, not £.
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July 9, 2003
Does HP finally get the concept of branding? Heres an interview with Allison
Johnson, HP senior vice president for global brand and communications, in Business Week:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Through Johnson, HP is saying the right things (for instance, about the iconic
possibilities of the HP brand), but theres still a level of corporate myopia here.
They need to simplify the branding message. The answer to the question What do you
want people to think of the HP brand? should have been about three words long, not
two convoluted sentences. The branding message has too much bolted on for tactical
effectiveness and too little accountability for the $400 million brand advertising budget.
Still, $400 million carries its own branding weight, and Johnsons analysis of
competitive brands is spot-on. I am hopeful, but I also believe it could have been better,
both for branding and market share.
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July 8, 2003
Jargon puts a barrier between product features and product benefits, which in turn puts a
barrier between a product and its potential consumers. Every advertising copywriter knows
this in his or her bones, but now this basic fact has the added weight of a worldwide
survey of more than 1,500 electronics consumers, commissioned by chipmaker AMD and
reported in the BBC:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
However, there are two revealing quotes from Patrick Moorhead, chairman of AMDs Global Consumer Advisory Board:
The technology industry must simplify its vocabulary so that consumers around the world can better understand the benefits technology can bring to their lives.
The hi-tech industry is spending more than $10 billion a year in the US alone advertising the speeds and feeds of the products, but the industry is not getting the full value of their advertising dollars.
Hmmm. Looks to me like they still dont get it. Effective advertising means more than quoting feeds and speeds, and effective advertising copywriting means more than mere vocabulary simplification.
To be effective, advertising must transform product features into benefits that are meaningful to the consumer. And, part of the problem is that in their creative zeal, engineers frequently address needs and wants that consumers simply dont have.
By the way, I took the BBC jargon quiz (which struck me as very silly) and scored a
perfect 7/7. But, theres a world of difference between knowing what things are
named, and knowing how those same things are sold. Within that difference is
persuasion and the job of the advertising copywriter. To get the full value from their
advertising dollars, what the high-tech industry needs is less technical writing
and more copywriting.
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July 7, 2003
Since the 1970s, Heinz has marketed its canned beans throughout Europe with the
advertising slogan Beanz Meanz Heinz. It is one of the worlds best-known
advertising slogans. Now, Heinz announces that it might dump the classic ad slogan, a
branding asset into which 30 years and billions of marketing dollars were invested.
Heres the article, which also discusses other advertising controversies, in ic
Wales:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Are they really that dumb? Oh, I dont think so. Their clever little marketing
strategy is to stir up renewed interest in the slogan and, by association, the product.
The contest asking consumers to vote for whether the old advertising slogan
should be retained or discarded, backed by the re-running of classic television
commercials, is the tip-off. No sane company would willingly walk away from a brand asset
as powerful as Beanz Meanz Heinz, and no advertising agency worth its salt
would recommend it.
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July 3, 2003
These days, municipalities across the nation are outlawing billboards. That makes this
story, from the Lincoln (Illinois) Courier, a bit of a change. Professional sign
painters are going to Atlanta, Georgia, to restore advertising murals and signs along the
old Route 66:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
One of the advertising billboards is for Reischs Beer: The Beer That Gives
Health and Strength. Today, any advertising copywriter who concepted a headline like
that for a beer billboard would run afoul of a half dozen regulatory agencies and
countless activist groups. But, as a piece of nostalgic Americana, its appreciated
and even cherished on an entirely different level.
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July 2, 2003
Traditional media has discovered Honda's Cog commercial and others.
Heres Matthew Kauffman, writing in the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Heres the thing, though. These commercials are not attracting legions of viewers because theyre dumbed-down to fit the perception most advertisers seem to have of the TV viewing audience. No, these are compelling, targeted, specific sales films in which the advertising concepts have space to take flight and the product benefits are the stars. That they are also works of great beauty is appealing, but almost beside the point.
In my May 5 blog entry, I said that one possible cause for the projected end of
the 30-second TV commercial was that 30 seconds isnt long enough to sell
anything. These wonderfully long commercials show what is possible when advertising
copywriters and art directors have the space and time to really sell a clients
product.
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July 1, 2003
Two stories today from my home-town newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune. The
first is about the widespread use of front groups to build marketing buzz. These groups look
like grass roots movements, but are in fact controlled from the shadows by people or
corporations or organizations that are difficult to trace:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
Such groups have been around forever, but the Internet allows them to thrive and proliferate rapidly. It also allows them to misfire badly, as in the oft-quoted Raging Cow campaign. To me, the whole thing raises questions about the definition of corporate communications as it relates to First Amendment free speech protections, like the Nike case (see my blog for June 26 and April 23), but thats a blog entry for an attorney not an advertising copywriter. At any rate, its a situation in which increased consumer cynicism is a good thing.
Next up is something of a puff piece about the longest-running television commercial in
history, the old woman tossing a tire through a Discount Tire Company store window:
Advertising
copywriter blog link
This tv commercial has run, off and on, for 28 years. A couple years ago, it was re-done, badly (too slick and not nearly as funny), and its something of a relief to see the original back on the air. Here is one advertising copywriters opinion about what makes this tv commercial great. First, it has a simple point. Second, it makes that point in a simple visual way. Third, the point is not about price or any other product feature, but about credibility. Fourth, the creative execution is engaging, with a payoff that is both relevant and memorable. Fifth, the company has had the confidence to run the commercial for 28 years.
Name a luggage brand. Now imagine what your answer might have been had American
Tourister continued running, off and on since 1972, its tv commercial featuring a gorilla
slamming a suitcase around its cage. Advertisers often demand fresh ads for the sake of
freshness, which is in itself a bad advertising concept. Unfortunately, the same is
all-too-often true of inexperienced advertising copywriters and art directors, so steady
growth is replaced by creative churn.
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Backwards in time to June 2003
Main page | Consumer goods | Food services | Free red pen | Healthcare | Hospitality & tourism | Internet | Manufacturing | Packaged goods | Portfolio | Real estate & construction | Retail & restaurants | Service | Technology
Why should you hire me as your advertising copywriter? | FAQ
Advertising strategy and other lies
An advertising copywriters bookshelf:
recommended books
Brands and branding: a white paper
Do you make these mistakes in
advertising?
Free (yes, free) advertising copywriting
resources
Four ad copy traps that ensnare even
experienced copywriters
How to
become an advertising copywriter
How to write a brochure: advice from an advertising copywriter
How to write better ads
Long John Silver on writing ads
More career advice: whats it like being
an advertising copywriter?
Napoleons advice to entrepreneurs,
Part I: starting the enterprise
Napoleons advice to entrepreneurs,
Part II: the entrepreneurial character
Napoleons advice to entrepreneurs,
Part III: growing the enterprise
The economy (and what to do about it)
The Tightwad
Marketing project
Advertising copywriting
mentorship
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Awards & honors | Curriculum vitae | Services
Phone and fax: (619) 465-6100
John Kuraoka, freelance advertising copywriter
6877 Barker Way
San Diego, California
92119-1301