Brand Tracks

It was supposed to be the perfect new business pitch. Years ago, I was part of a team that made a presentation to a major manufacturer of soccer equipment. We put together a thoroughly comprehensive plan — thoughtful research, attention-grabbing ad creative, and a public relations plan that included a barnstorming tour by the national soccer team from Cameroon.

We would arrange for top high school teams from around the country to scrimmage the Cameroonians. The national team would also put on skills demonstrations, including shooting, dribbling and various tricks such as a bicycle kick, where a player kicks the ball in mid-air backwards and over his own head.

We called sports editors at targeted cities, who confirmed that a visit from the Cameroonians would be big news for them, practically guaranteeing coverage. We even created a mock television sports story, featuring a favorite local sports anchor, to show the prospective client what they might expect, as well as demonstrate our strong media connections.

After we proudly concluded our presentation, we asked for feedback. The company’s CEO, a Frenchman and soccer aficionado, had just one comment. He sniffed and said, rather smugly, “You can’t stage a bicycle kick. It is an improvised move on the soccer field.”

And we lost the pitch right there.

Now I could argue here that you can stage a bicycle kick — I have found more than one source on the Web to prove my point. But that’s irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was that, because of a small detail, the CEO didn’t believe we knew enough about his brand. To him, the company represented all things soccer, expert in every nuance of the game.

It actually turned out to be a good lesson. I don’t believe anyone on our team will ever underestimate the importance of thoroughly understanding a client’s brand. That said, clients always know far more about their brands and their businesses than their agencies do. So the trick is to engage clients early and often in the creative process. That will help ensure the work remains consistent with the brand and agreed-upon marketing objectives.

And it’s the best way to avoid a bicycle kick.

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About the author: Rich Scaglione, who is a copywriter and account manager at Locomotion Creative, has never even thought of attempting a bicycle kick.

Category: Brand

Tags: Brand, Positioning

What’s in a color? Well, a lot really. It’s not about choosing a color for your brand that you LIKE but choosing a color that is RIGHT. As I often say to marketing directors, your personal favorite color is irrelevant but the right color is completely relevant to your company, your audience and your brand.

The use of color can be so powerful that your brand presence can be recognized at a glance, such as identifying your rental car shuttle from a distance or the fast-food restaurant of your choice from the highway. It can evoke powerful emotions for customers and help them choose your brand over others.

Any of these colors look familiar? Send me an e-mail with the right answers and I’ll send you a t-shirt. (first 10 only)

Getting a gift in a Robin’s Egg Blue box, shopping for tools at the Orange store or receiving a package delivered in a Brown truck all evoke personal, emotional responses for customers. Choosing the right color is also critical in differentiating your brand from others in sometimes crowded fields.

Generally, warm colors are more passionate and emotional. Cool colors are solid and trusted. The subtleties of these colors are what make the difference in successful marketing.

Choose a color carefully. Colors mean different things in different cultures. Once you’ve decided on the right color, use it everywhere, not just in your logo. Make that color your identifying mark. Use it in your products, on your vehicles, in your office design, your packaging, your memo pads, your e-mail announcements, your giveaways. The more consistently you use your color, the more powerful your brand will become.

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About the author: S. A. Habib, founder of Locomotion Creative in Nashville, Tennessee, a.k.a. The Big Brown Man. He’s big and brown, thus the title. He’s been doing smart advertising/marketing thinking for smarter clients for 30+ years. Find your center!

Category: Brand, Color, Logo

Tags: Brand, Color, Logos, S.A. Habib

“Playful,” “quirky,” YouTube, and Facebook are not typically associated with the Nashville Symphony, but Locomotion’s series of unique, 15-second commercials produced for the symphony and marketed online got the attention of The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper. On the front page, no less.

The commercials show new conductor Giancarlo Guerrero directing an orchestra of bubbling fountains, at Tootsies honky-tonk, speaking Spanish at a local Mexican restaurant, and directing traffic.

“We needed to use (Guerrero) to reach all those customers who may not be usual symphony-goers,” Locomotion partner S.A. Habib told The Tennessean.

The quirkiness worked. So did marketing on YouTube and Facebook, as well as traditional newspaper and television ads. The symphony sold $130,000 worth of single-concert tickets on the first day of single-ticket sales for the new season — up from $80,000 from last year.

Take a look at The Tennessean story and Locomotion’s symphony commercials.
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About the author: Carol Davis, a.k.a. Wordiculturalist, is a writer and editor for Locomotion Creative with a 20-year background in newspapers and magazines.

Category: Marketing, Web 2.0

Tags: Giancarlo Guerrero, Marketing, Nashville Symphony, Web 2.0

How do you find a great name for your brand? It’s getting harder every day. With the proliferation of web-based companies, start-ups and the “hold that name for $24.99” mentality of GoDaddy.com and others, finding a name for a real business is daunting.

However, the basic principles of developing a great name and taking it to market haven’t changed. You’ve still got to ask yourself the same questions:

Should the name clearly tell you what you do or suggest an idea?
Should it romance the brand or evoke a value message?
Should it describe a benefit or leave you guessing?
Does it have a broad scope or a narrow niche?
Is it a new idea or does it have equity in its heritage?
Are you going to spend money making it mean something or will it have to communicate on its own?

Once you’ve answered these questions you can start developing names organized into six naming styles. These categories will serve you well when you begin eliminating names based on your answers to the above questions.

Categorizing names in groups like this will help you weed out names that don’t work for you. You’ll be that much closer to finding that perfect name!

Category: Brand

Tags: Brand, Market, Naming, S.A. Habib

My clients often ask me if they can extend their brand into various products beyond their core line. And my answer is usually the same. “You don’t get to decide, your clients do.” That’s a pretty smug answer but it makes the point.

A lawn mower manufacturer may want to add a line of sewing machines because he can source it easily. And, yes, you can slap your logo on the sewing machine and send it to market. But when it hits retail, the ultimate decision maker is the customer. He or she gets to decide if the goodness you created in the lawn mower brand will translate into sewing machines. Often, it doesn’t.

I recently read an article that did a great job of explaining this complex issue. It also addresses other topics relating to brand extensions. I’d like to know what you think.

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About the author: S. A. Habib, founder of Locomotion Creative in Nashville, Tennessee, a.k.a. The Big Brown Man. He’s big and brown, thus the title. He’s been doing smart advertising / marketing thinking for smarter clients for 30+ years. Find your center!

Category: Brand

Tags: Brand, Brand Extension, Customer

Last week I was invited to speak to a class at Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management on “New Marketing Media.” The program, called Summer Accelerator, is a four-week high-intensity immersion into the business world through small group projects and presentations. The program is open to students nationwide. The 2008 program has students from probably 20 different universities across the U.S. and a few foreign students.

This is a terrific program for highly motivated, business-oriented rising college seniors and recent graduates.

The class has about 90 students. I started by asking them to quickly answer a set of questions that were part of a national survey conducted by Scarborough Research designed to identify the most “digitally current” cities in the US.

Eighteen digital behaviors or devices were listed and each student was asked to circle the ones that applied to them. Anyone circling eight or more of the 18 qualified as “digitally current.”

Almost 100 percent of the class had circled more than eight of the behaviors or devices listed. This is an indication of where Gen-Y is in the use of digital technology.

I then compared this to the national survey Scarborough conducted in which they identified Austin, Texas as the “most digitally current” city. There, 16 percent of the respondents were identified as “digitally current.”

My point in starting my presentation this way was to show that “not everyone out there is as digitally current as you are.” New Media has not replaced traditional media. It is not appropriate for all audiences, all products or all situations.

The tipping point in age seems to be about 35 years of age. Below that, MySpace, Facebook, SMS, VoIp, DVR, TiVo and other media use of cell phones better matches the Owen class. Above 35, usage, comfort and adoption of New Media technology and tools decreases the older you get.

This is not scientific, but generally it seems to be the case as far as I can detect.

This brings me to say that the New Media is just another set of tools to convey a message. What a discovery! As such, it is not a panacea.

The “right” media mix is still best arrived at by understanding the demographics and lifestyle characteristics of the audience, where the product/service being communicated about is on the Product Life Cycle, how involved the purchase decision is, how “serious” the product or service is and the campaign objectives.

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The Marketing Professor
About the author: Art Johnsen, a managing partner of Locomotion Creative, has taught college courses at four Tennessee universities over the past eight years as an adjunct professor. Along with his responsibilities at Locomotion, he teaches marketing courses at Vanderbilt University. Art has an MBA degree from the University of Virginia and is co-author of the book, Cases in Advertising & Marketing Management.

Category: Generation Y, New Media, Social Media

Tags: Art Johnsen, Gen Y, Generation Y, New Media

I love getting free samples in the mail. Tiny tubes of toothpaste, little boxes of cereal, packets of shampoo and conditioner . . . I welcome them all. How else can I sample something I’ve never tried before, at no cost to me? In addition, samples are great to use when traveling (tiny toothpastes don’t take up much room), for snacking (smaller portions), and for gifting (care package for a college student).

Some samples come with coupons just in case you like what you tried and want to purchase the larger version. As a price-conscious consumer, coupons are a must. If I liked a product and saw that I could purchase that product for $1 or $2 less than the actual price, I would certainly be out the door redeeming that coupon before it expired. It’s a win-win situation for both me and the company that sent me the sample and coupon.

Every few days, I visit a handful of online forums where large groups of consumers congregate and post links to websites with free samples. There are also other websites hosted by large companies like Walmart, Walgreens, and Kroger that offer free samples of products they sell. It’s just a matter of filling out your information on these sites and waiting a few weeks (usually 6-8 weeks) for your sample to arrive.

Here are a few websites I visit to sign up for free samples:
• Walmart
• Kroger
• Free Sample Forager
• Your Daily Freebies
• Start Sampling

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About the author: Loraine Flegal, a.k.a. LoMein the Dish, joined Locomotion Creative as a graphic designer/production artist extraordinaire in August 2004. Previously, Loraine spent two years as a graphic designer with Leading Edge Communications in Franklin, TN. A transplant from southern Mississippi, Loraine moved to Nashville in May 2002 after graduating from Mississippi State University.

Category: Marketing

Something’s been bugging me since last Saturday. I caught a little of the final leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, The Belmont Stakes. From ten minutes before and ten minutes after the actual race, all the network announcers could talk about was the favorite Big Brown. All the network would show were images of Big Brown. The only jockey that was riding that day was Big Brown’s and there was only one trainer at the track. You guessed it, Big Brown’s. ABC was so invested in Big Brown that they had nothing to say about any other horse in the race.

Then they ran the race.

And Big Brown decided he didn’t want to run that day. Good for him. But here’s the sad part. Even after the race was over and there was another winner, all ABC talked about and showed was Big Brown. The loser! There were no victory shots of the winner. No horseback interview with the winning jockey. No shots of the winning owners jumping up and down. No Teary-eyed views of the jockey’s wife. Nothing but Big Brown being unsaddled, Big Brown walking to the paddock, Big Brown looking happy the race was over, Big Brown’s trainer sweating like a pig…it was all Big Brown.

Ten minutes after the end of the race, they showed a quick shot of the winner being presented a blanket of carnations, as is the custom at Belmont. Then back to Big Brown and more Big Brown.

Bad job ABC. How about giving a little love to all the little brands out here.

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About the author: S. A. Habib, founder of Locomotion Creative in Nashville, Tennessee, a.k.a. The Big Brown Man. He’s big and brown, thus the title. He’s been doing smart advertising/marketing thinking for smarter clients for 30+ years. Find your center!

Category: Brand, Media

Tags: Brandi, Media, S.A. Habib

Communication between clients and marketing agencies can sometimes work like a game of telephone.

The client CEO gives direction to a marketing VP, who passes it along to an agency account manager, who meets with a creative director, who finally assigns the project to a writer, designer or art director, the people who will actually do the work.

By the time the original message gets to the end of this long line, it can be completely lost in translation. Throw a few more intermediaries into the mix, and it’s a wonder any good work gets done at all.

This dysfunctional system, which has been in place forever in our business, is a symptom of the traditional division of labor between creative and account people.

Account people (the well-attired logical left-brainers) are supposed to interact with clients and manage their accounts. Creatives (the funky, rebellious right-brainers) should be kept out of view as they incubate ideas. I worked at one agency where the creatives were banished to the basement, commonly referred to as the “Pit of Snarling Dogs.”

Funny thing, though. Most of those “snarling dogs” were actually nice, smart, organized, strategic and well-groomed people who I wouldn’t hesitate to bring up from the “pit” to participate in client meetings.

The point is, good left-brain thinking is not limited to the suits. Just because you are creative doesn’t mean you can’t think and work like a good account person. There are truly talented people who can do both — exceptionally well.

And their dexterity can greatly improve the agency/client relationship.

Let’s go back to our game of telephone. What if all the unnecessary layers of communication were peeled away? What if the people responsible for the creative could work directly with the client’s marketing VP? Or better yet, the CEO? What if they could ask questions, observe body language and get a first-hand sense of what is truly important to the ultimate client decision-maker?

The client gets better, quicker creative solutions, that’s what. All without being charged extra for an account manager’s time.

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About the author: Rich has worked as both a copywriter and an account manager in his career, which has included stints at Ericson Marketing Communications, The Buntin Group and David Paine + Partners, all in Nashville. He is a recent addition to Locomotion Creative, where art directors and designers have been successfully managing accounts for the past 10 years.

Category: Communications, Marketing

Tags: Account Executives, Clients, Communications, Creatives, Marketing

Now that my Vanderbilt teaching is done for the summer, I have some reflections on the year, the students, and what might await them as they move beyond their undergraduate education. My two classes combined for almost 90 students, the vast majority of whom were seniors. Here are my observations from this past academic year.

• Many of today’s graduates are highly motivated, high achievers and optimistic about their future.

• Many will go to marquee companies in fields such as investment banking, marketing, general finance and entertainment.

• Many plan to start their own businesses, or join the family business.

• Of those not going right into the business world, many will continue their education at top-tier law, business, medical or professional schools.

• Of those without a job or graduate school slot, the majority still expect to be successful in the future although they might not know what it is, yet.

So, is this very different from graduates from other top tier universities? Probably not. But this is what makes this story great.

Despite the economic gloom that we keep hearing about, despite the issues that seem to be focal points of presidential politics, some important, some not so, and despite the changes taking place in banking, marketing, the media, and healthcare, optimism prevails.

Yet, despite this overall optimism, some of these graduates are in for an awakening.

• I use cases in the marketing class, and cases don’t always allow for black and white answers. Some students have difficulty managing the “gray” of a real-world situation.

• Some students have asked me, “What do I need to do to get an “A” on a case?” When I say, “Analyze it thoroughly”, the absence of a one-dimensional answer has frustrated some.

• In the business world, at least if you start out working for someone else, you have to play by their rules, not yours.

• Not everything is customizable to suit an individual’s preferences.

I wish all 2008 graduates the best, and I am looking forward to resuming teaching in mid-August.

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The Marketing Professor
About the author: Art Johnsen, a managing partner of Locomotion Creative, has taught college courses at four Tennessee universities over the past eight years as an adjunct professor. Along with his responsibilities at Locomotion, he teaches marketing courses at Vanderbilt University. Art has an MBA degree from the University of Virginia and is co-author of the book, Cases in Advertising & Marketing Management. Continue Reading »

Category: Generation Y, Office Culture, Trends

Tags: Gen Y, Generation Y, Office Culture, Workplace