Quick finder (main website):
Home
| Advertising portfolio | Brochure portfolio | Services | Experience | FAQ | Advice
| About me | Contact
Quick finder (advertising blog only):
Ad Blog
main page | Monthly archives | Forward to
June 2010
May 28 2010
Ford Motor Company is pondering the future of its Mercury brand, and the big
question is whether Mercury has a future at all. Here’s
the story, from this morning’s Wall Street Journal:
Advertising copywriter blog link
Thing is, Mercury still outsells Lincoln, which isn’t bad for a brand “that has lost its meaning,” especially in light of recent concerted efforts to build up the Lincoln brand identity. Why is this so? Because sometimes, what you want just happens to be what thousands of other people want, and although you still want it, you also don’t want what everyone else has. So you personalize yours somehow, with paint or stickers or wheels. Or, you buy from a stablemate brand.
The need to assert one’s independence even as one consumes a mass-produced product makes little rational sense, which is why analysts just don’t get it. But emotionalists do, and branding is all about emotion, not analysis.
All Mercury has to be, is not a Ford and not a Lincoln; it fulfills that objective just sitting there. The next step, is to increase the advertising, to increase awareness, and develop more corporate-funded dealer-level promotions, to increase foot traffic. The market share issue can be addressed on a purely tactical basis. Once sales increase, the brand profile will increase.
Most marketing strategists like to start with branding. But that’s not always
the right answer in achieving relevance or market share. Because branding is
fundamentally affirmational, based on history rather than vision, in many
cases sales can drive branding more cost-effectively than branding can drive
sales.
Back to the top of the page
May 25 2010
Okay, this time they really mean it. Mobile advertising is set to explode this year
as the tech stars align. Ayup. Here’s the story, from CRM Daily (Calabasas, CA):
Advertising copywriter blog link
The obstacle to success here wasn’t a technological or content-oriented barrier; it was independent and inscrutable human behavior. Relevant ads will beget responses and more relevant ads. Irrelevant ads will beget ad-blocking mobile apps and low-tech tune-outs. The old way to try to achieve relevance was through data mining, but the results always lagged behind the real world. The new path is through search, which captures and uses active, real-time consumer input that all but assures relevance.
The future of mobile advertising isn’t going to look like advertising. It’s
going to look like a service.
Back to the top of the page
May 24 2010
Just a quickie to point out this wonderful little history of the Rolodex. Remember the Rolodex?
Here’s the story, from Gizmodo, via MSNBC.com:
Advertising copywriter blog link
It’s my dirty little secret, but I love obsolescence. Lost civilizations. Bypassed towns. Abandoned factories. Old, orphaned technology. I like them not because they evoke a different time, but because they demonstrate a different solution. Once you realize that all these obsolete things worked, and in most cases worked very well, you can see beyond mere chronological dust to the concept within. And that concept may well be worth applying in new ways, to meet new needs.
Some creatives read advertising annuals searching for inspiration. Me, I read
histories and books like the one this author wrote.
Back to the top of the page
May 22 2010
I saw this in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, and had to point
it out. It seems that the factor that separated modern man from the Neanderthals may
have been creativity. Here’s the story:
Advertising copywriter blog link
Here’s a key snip underscoring the cultural importance of trade expansion ands economic growth (and, by extrapolation, the importance of advertising in human evolution): Trade is to culture as sex is to biology. Exchange makes cultural change collective and cumulative.
Once the population in a given area reaches a critical mass, creativity explodes, leading to expressive arts, technological innovation, and social invention. That seems to endorse the importance of population centers – cities – at a time when the trend is to decentralize and disperse the workforce. Another side effect seems to be the development of a division of labor – specialization. What that leads to is frankly disturbing: Prosperity consists of getting more and more narrow in what you make and more and more diverse in what you buy. Self-sufficiency – subsistence – is poverty.
I’ve gotta go. I’m engaged in important work helping further the evolution of
humanity. Or, perhaps, not.
Back to the top of the page
May 21 2010
Ronald McDonald: spokesclown, logo, advertising icon, and junk food peddler? Apparently, some people
would like to see Ronald McDonald “retired” over concerns that he’s
promoting unhealthy food choices to kids. Here’s the story, from the Associated Press
via MSNBC.com:
Advertising copywriter blog link
It is not Ronald McDonald’s job to teach my kids what to eat. It’s mine. Parents need to model healthy food choices. Otherwise, all the counter-advertising in the world will accomplish nothing.
What’s notable about this story, is that for the price of a press release, an
obscure organization claiming about 10,000 supporters can play whack-a-brand.
That’s a lesson too many mainstream marketers have not yet learned.
Back to the top of the page
May 11 2010
I have two quickies today. First up is something of a continuation from
yesterday’s entry about low-end Russian automaker Lada. It’s about
wanna-be high-end U.S. auto brand Lincoln, and it comes from
Bloomberg/Businessweek via MSNBC.com:
Advertising copywriter blog link
It’s not such a long shot. After all, Lincoln was a high-end brand once in the memories of anyone who lived through the early 1970s. The 1964 Lincoln Continental (the first one on the longer wheelbase) is a gracefully massive vehicle that exudes elegance, yet it’s also like nothing else on the road, then or now. No fins, no fender skirts, and very little chrome. Just killer design. That’s what needs to be recaptured to reinvigorate the Lincoln brand. Not newfangled marketing. Not new technological gimmicks. But killer design.
Next up is a story about A-list Hollywood actors selling their voices for
advertising, from Forbes:
Advertising copywriter blog link
Time was when you could get an A-list voice on the cheap, as long as the
celebrity wasn’t identified (which would turn it into a much more-expensive
endorsement deal). Those days are obviously over. But it was never just about
the celebrity; it was about what the celebrity’s voice brought to the table.
When you get the audition files it’s still a shoot-out, and having done it
myself I can say that it may be one of the few times when a C-lister or even a
no-lister can take work from an A-lister.
Back to the top of the page
May 10 2010
Russian automaker Lada, in partnership with French automaker Renault, is attempting a comeback in Britain. Here’s the story, from BBC News Magazine:
Advertising copywriter blog link
For those of us on this side of the pond, this is akin to Yugo partnering with, say, Fiat to make a comeback in the U.S. If it happens, it’s very likely to be a short-term success.
First, Britain is reeling from the loss of practically all its home-grown auto brands. MG-Rover? Bankrupt, sold off in bits and pieces to China. Rolls-Royce? Owned by German automaker BMW. Bentley? Owned by German automaker Vokswagen. Jaguar? Owned by Indian mega-manufacturer Tata (best known among auto buffs for the Tata Nano, designed to be the world’s cheapest car). Aston-Martin? Okay, it’s at least part British-owned, although the co-owner is a Kuwaiti investment group.
Second, the Lada is diving into a very crowded pool, as new players and established brands alike have been scrambling to grab share at the low end of the market.
Third, austerity-measure products often do well when austerity is needed, but get dumped in favor of better-perceived brands as soon as good economic times return. One notable exception in the auto industry is Volkswagen, with its original Beetle, but that success was driven almost entirely by marketing. It combined brilliant positioning that tapped into the counter-cultural zeitgeist, with some of the best advertising the world has ever seen.
Fourth, unless the financial mess in Greece spills over beyond Europe to kill
the nascent global recovery, the economists are already calling this recession
over.
Back to the top of the page
May 7 2010
The Los Angeles City Council may soon be considering a proposal to tax advertising billboards
and supergraphics. Here’s the story, from the Los Angeles Times (CA):
Advertising copywriter blog link
The comments are largely split, with some residents arguing against continuing to fund a city budget and union pay scale seen as bloated, and others saying tax away because outdoor advertising is a visual blight on the landscape.
That latter argument should give any thoughtful person pause. It’s the old divide-and-conquer strategy. Just tax the use of something unpopular (alcohol, tobacco ... advertising), and then let mission creep take care of the rest. Look at how invisible the taxes are on, say, gasoline.
A value-added tax? It’s already almost here. And the first victim is lined up in the bureaucrats’ sights: advertising. Unfortunately, the ad industry has done itself no service by admiring the outrageously backward culture of Mad Men and its ilk. Way to make advertising seem like something underhanded, overpaid, and oh-so-tax-worthy.
Advertising is the engine of commerce. It’s an accepted business axiom that
nothing happens until somebody sells something. Well, nobody sells something
until somebody advertises. Start choking the engine, and the whole
economy will stall.
Back to the top of the page
May 6 2010
One effect of the Great Recession may be a lingering freelance economy. Here’s the story,
from MSNBC.com:
Advertising copywriter blog link
I’ve long felt that there’s greater security in freelancing than in permanent employment. You’re not dependent on a single company or handful of accounts for your daily bread. Just as important, you’re not restricted by a single company’s menu of opportunities.
For instance, in most ad agencies a copywriter might work on a half-dozen
accounts, often within a small handful of industries (common examples include
defense, hospitality, or real estate, for instance). As a freelancer, I can
bounce between dozens of clients in a equal number of industries. That keeps me
from getting stale, or bored. And, in a creative business, fresh thinking the
ultimate job security.
Back to the top of the page
May 5 2010
BP, the company behind the world’s latest environmental disaster, has mucked up more than the Gulf
Coast; it has reversed years of
investment in advertising designed to brand the company as “green.” Here’s what purports to be the truth about the company behind the
ad campaign, from progressive author, journalist, and blogger James Ridgeway, via the Baltimore Chronicle (MD):
Advertising copywriter blog link
The “Beyond Petroleum” concept was brilliant positioning, and the fact that it worked so well is a testament to its foresight and power. But it should not have been the brand slogan until the company could live up to it.
Unfortunately, as with many companies, the underlying corporate culture didn’t – indeed, couldn’t – match the brand message. It even seems that internal processes and decisions were in direct opposition to external marketing communications. That, in turn, made the brand strategy a victim of its own success: the better the brand performed in environmental focus groups and awareness surveys, the less the employees, managers, and executives felt they needed to do to live up to that brand. It was an ethical death spiral.
This is the danger of what I call aspirational branding – branding designed to stake a company’s claim to the future rather than reinforce and leverage its known past. In rapidly changing times, being future-focused seems like a good thing, and it is, in many ways outside of branding. But branding must be rooted in a company’s historical relationships with its audiences, both external and internal. It is a foundation for development and growth, not the goal. As such, it is fundamentally a nod to the past, not a look forward.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: branding must
be affirmational, not aspirational.
Back to the top of the page
May 4 2010
Even as Microsoft’s search product, Bing, is picking up steam its browser product, Internet Explorer, is losing market share.
Here’s the story, from BBC News:
Advertising copywriter blog link
What we could see here is a repeat of the 90s, with multiple browser platforms leading to the rise of a new common standard. If HTML5 emerges as that standard, as Microsoft seems to believe and Apple fervently hopes, then Flash and a host of other modular add-ons are yesterday’s fish. On the web as with other media, diversity will be followed by consolidation.
In the meantime, the knock-on effect of a (temporarily) growing diversity in
browsers and online compatibilities, combined with the need to allow full
website access for mobile- and web-enabled devices, is bringing the online world
back to simple, sensible web design. Hey, like my website! Or not.
Back to the top of the page
May 3 2010
Automaker General Motors is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the oldest model name in continuous use: the Chevrolet Suburban. Here’s
the story, from the Associated Press via MSNBC.com:
Advertising copywriter blog link
What’s noteworthy, is that not only has the name remained the same, but so has the brand essence. What made a vehicle a Chevrolet Suburban three-quarters of a century ago is still what makes one so today. It’s not about styling, like many retro-designed vehicles evoking pop-culture artifacts. Instead, the brand is carried within the product DNA (and vice versa), which allows the product to evolve organically so it’s always the best version of itself.
There’s a Zen parable (for lack of a better word) in which the key concept is
that there are limited ways to change, but unlimited ways to stay the same. The
Chevy Suburban is a good example of a Zen brand. It isn’t necessarily this thing
or that thing; it simply is.
Back to the top of the page
Backwards in time to April 2010
Main page | Advertising portfolio | Brochure portfolio | Consumer goods | Food services | Free red pen | Healthcare | Hospitality & tourism | Internet | Manufacturing | Packaged goods | Real estate & construction | Retail & restaurants | Service | Technology
Why should you hire me as your advertising copywriter? | FAQ
Advertising strategy and other lies
An advertising copywriter’s 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 take your copywriting portfolio to the next level
How to write a brochure: advice from an advertising copywriter
How to write better ads
Long John Silver on writing ads
More career advice: what’s it like being
an advertising copywriter?
Napoleon’s advice to entrepreneurs,
Part I: starting the enterprise
Napoleon’s advice to entrepreneurs,
Part II: the entrepreneurial character
Napoleon’s advice to entrepreneurs,
Part III: growing the enterprise
The economy (and what to do about it)
The Tightwad
Marketing project
When you should consider hiring a freelance copywriter
Advertising copywriting
mentorship
Back to the top of the page
Awards & honors | Curriculum vitae | Services
Phone and fax: (619) 465-6100
John Kuraoka, freelance advertising copywriter
6877 Barker Way
San Diego, California
92119-1301