REBRANDING sounds like a great idea, maybe even a quick fix to your marketing malaise, but do you really know what’s involved in an effective rebranding effort? Check out this article from forbes.com to learn more. The article features recommendations from 14 industry experts, including Michele Markham, President and CEO, EAG Advertising & Marketing.
I was a guest on Digital Madvertising, Episode 16. We talked about the places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen in my marketing career. It’s 49 minutes of Mad Man fun and nostalgia.
Here is every ad, every scoring play, and more from Super Bowl LVII (57) on February 12, 2023.
I loved the ads featuring dogs (Amazon and Farmer’s Dog), the very edgy Blue Moon ad that gave the spotlight to two bland competitor brands, and the Google Pixel 7 ad showing amazing new technology.
In April 2014 I wrote a post about Ozarka water being bottled in Texas, and proudly branded as such right here in Arkansas, where my intuition always (and incorrectly) told me Ozarka came from Arkansas, land of the Ozarks.
Click here to see the original post.
The post is likely to reach 600 views in 2022, breaking the annual record of 592 set in 2016. Like Lionel Messi and Tom Brady, this old boy keeps on scoring, year after year.
Blog content doesn’t die. Sometimes it keeps getting more popular. Who knows, maybe “Ozarka is made in Texas” will hit 700 in 2023.
I just looked up MARKETING on Wikipedia. I have a headache. Here’s what Wiki says;
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emphasize in advertising; operation of advertising campaigns; attendance at trade shows and public events; design of products and packaging attractive to buyers; defining the terms of sale, such as price, discounts, warranty, and return policy; product placement in media or with people believed to influence the buying habits of others; agreements with retailers, wholesale distributors, or resellers; and attempts to create awareness of, loyalty to, and positive feelings about a brand.
That’s one sentence. It has one period, which comes after the late and singular appearance of the word “brand.”
Maybe we need something simpler and more memorable. How about this: Marketing is an ARC: The business of Acquiring, Retaining, and Cultivating CUSTOMERS.
Acquire: Attract customers you don’t already have.
Retain: Keep the customers you have, work to keep them satisfied.
Cultivate: Grow spending and engagement from the customers you have.
What do you think?
I came across this “baby” at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in DC last week. https://geogallery.si.edu/10002811/rosser-reeves-star-ruby
The Rosser Reeves Star Ruby was donated to the Smithsonian by Mr. and Mrs. Rosser Reeves in 1965. Rosser Reeves was an American advertising executive and pioneer of television advertising. His ads were focused around what he coined the unique selling proposition (USP), the one reason the product needed to be bought or was better than its competitors. These often took the form of slogans such as M&M’s “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
Don Draper, the main character in Mad Men, is based on Rosser Reeves. It was Reeves who created the “It’s Toasted” slogan for Lucky Strike cigarettes. In “Mad Men,” Don Draper saves the Lucky Strike account with his last-minute “It’s Toasted” pitch.
Now, here is where it gets local. Rosser Reeves son, Rosser Scott Reeves, Jr., was our neighbor right here in Little Rock. Not only was Reeves Jr’s dad the real-life Don Draper, but his uncle was the even-more-famous David Ogilvy. Talk about a marketing pedigree!
And that’s how I’m three degrees of separation from Don Draper.
That’s right, while you were kicking back and enjoying the game, the food, and the ads, I was hammering out an Excel sheet. Here it is. You’re welcome.
Super Bowl LVI, Los Angeles, Inglewood, California, SoFi Stadium, LA Rams vs Cincinnati Bengals 13 February 2022
If you listen to The Ticket as long as I have, you don’t just acquire its vocabulary, you embed it in your brain, and you pass it on to those around you. Here’s a short list of stuff I say every day that will be in my head forever.
What about eggs?
Champ, Champ!
I hope you do. I hope you do very much.
Spare
Doing a bit
Just like that, m___ [Coach Bob Knight’s expletive from the sand trap]
Let’s go on to something more important, if in fact there is something more important to talk about
Bullsh
I got enough on my mind right now, I don’t need your b___ [old man to his wife]
Get your ass hung up on now, you idiot
Ya wall
I wish we knew
Tired-head
Stop down
Lay out
A beating
Cry face
Hazmat uniform (in robotic tone)
Stand back, Burrito
Mark that under who gives a s**t
What elssssse?
Wheels off
We’re having fun, no?
Turnt up
I thought I’d try my computer’s ability to take dictation, using Microsoft Word’s Dictate function and the speech recognition tools of my new computer and Windows 10.
I carefully and slowly recited, with painfully obvious pronunciation, the lyrics to an old classic. (No, I didn’t sing.) Here’s how it came out:
like the rolling stone by bob Dylan once upon a time you expressed so fine through the bombs and dined in New York flying that didn’t you? People call, Sadie where doll, you thought they were all kidding you. You used to laugh about everybody that was hanging out. Now you don’t work so well do know you don’t seem so proud about having to be scrounging for your next meal. How does it feel? How does it feel? To be on your home and what rolling stone a complete unknown with no direction home.
Mediocre, at best. Good thing I didn’t try “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” If anyone has suggestions on how to make this work better, I’m all ears.
An update on my post from five years ago: https://paulsagemarketing.com/2013/12/11/no-more-waiting-at-the-deli-counter/
The kiosk is dead. Long live the kiosk. Self-service IS customer service.
Update, March 6, 2019: I think the new technology that Kroger has introduced, including online ordering (click and pick up) and scan-as-you-go, may have eclipsed the need for the old kiosk. But I still miss it.
Paul Sage - Marketing 