You can still learn from institutional advertisers and still be a direct-response marketer

You've seen them, you love them (or hate them), and you recognize them because MILLIONS of dollars have been spent burning them into your brains.

Now, Advertising Week, the newspaper for institutional advertising, announces its 2009 Advertising Week Walk of Fame Candidates for Icons and Slogans.

Previous winners in the Icons Category include:

Chick-fil-A "Eat Mor Chikin" Cow, Orville Redenbacher, Geico Caveman, Serta Sheep

Geico Gecko, Juan Valdez, Colonel Sanders, Kool-Aid Man

Aflac Duck, M&M's Mr. Peanut, the Pillsbury Doughboy, and Tony the Tiger

Previous winners in the Slogan Category include:

"Ding! You are now free to move about the country." Southwest Airlines

"The few. The proud. The Marines." US Marine Corps

"We deliver for you." US Postal Service

"What can brown do for you?" UPS

"Imagination at work." GE

"When you care enough to send the very best." Hallmark

"Don't mess with Texas" State of Texas Dept of Transportation

"When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight." FedEx

"A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste" – United Negro College Fund

"Can You Hear Me Now" – Verizon

"Melts in your mouth, not in your hands." M&M's

"Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don't." Almond Joy, Mounds

"Where's the beef?" Wendy's

2009 Candidates Announced – Icons

Mr. Clean – Proctor & Gamble

Smokey Bear – US Forest Service

Vlasic Stork – Pinnacle Foods Group

Mr. Mucus – Mucinex

Snap, Crackle, Pop – Kellogg Co., Morning Food Division

Maytag Repairman – Whirlpool Corp, Maytag Home Appliances

MSN Butterfly

Subway Jared – Subway Corp

McGruff the Crime Dog – National Crime Prevention Council

Roaming Gnome – Travelocity

Test Man – Verizon Wireless

Michelin Man – Michelin North America

Ronald McDonald – McDonald's Corp

Toucan Sam – Kellogg Co

Budweiser Clydesdales – Anheuser-Busch Cos

Crash Test Dummies – National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Keebler Elves – Kellogg Co.

Burger King – Burger King Corp.

Doublemint Twins – Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.

Little Debbie – McKee Foods

AOL Running Man – AOL

California Raisins – California Raisin Advisory Board

Fruit of the Loom Guys – Fruit of the Loom

Big Boy – Big Boy Restaurants International

Captain Morgan – Diageo

Jolly Green Giant – General Mills

2009 Candidates Announced – Slogans

"Just do it." Nike

"Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." State Farm

"Only you can prevent forest fires." US Forest Service

"Priceless." MasterCard

"Six Flags! More flags! More fun!" Six Flags

"Take a bite out of crime" National Crime Prevention Council

"These guys are good." PGA Tour

"Think outside the bun." Taco Bell

"This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs." Partnership for a Drug-Free America

"Time to make the donuts." Dunkin' Donuts

"Virginia is for lovers." Virginia State Tourism Office

"What happens here, stays here." Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority

"Have it your way." Burger King

"I love New York." New York State Dept of Economic Development

"I want my MTV." MTV

"Ideas for life." Panasonic

"If you see something, say something." New York Metropolitan Transit Authority

"I'm lovin' it." McDonald's

"Intel inside." Intel

"It's in the game." Electronic Arts

"All the news that's fit to print." The New York Times

"Because you're worth it." L'Oreal

"Friends don't let friends drive drunk." US Dept of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

"Give a hoot. Don't pollute." US Forest Service

"Got Milk?" California Milk Processor Board

What Can You Learn From These?

You don't have millions to spend on institutional advertising, so why do I even bring these up to you?

Because they're memorable (well, most of them are: "These guys are good" could apply to anything and "Ideas for life" really doesn't set the world on fire). Those you recognized immediately have worked. Those you recognized and knew what the PRODUCT or SERVICE was worked WELL. And those you knew the product, service, AND who sponsored it work VERY well.

Keep that in mind when building your own slogans or graphics to work with your materials.

Don't confuse SLOGANS with Unique Selling Propositions: "Time to make the donuts," "Think outside the bun," and "Virginia is for lovers" are NOT USPs. "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight" IS. "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands" is close.

Many people confuse coming up with a tagline or slogan as their whole "reason for being." It's not. You still need a powerful reason for existing… and perhaps a tagline/slogan can help get your message across quickly and easily.

Oh, and one more thing: repetition really DOES work! YOU get tired of your own materials MUCH faster than your prospects, clients, and customers do… so keep with it for a while: changing your look, statements, logos, slogans too quickly leave a prospect confused, and a "Confused Mind Always Says NO!"

By The Way… if you want to vote, go here: Advertising Week Walk of Fame Voting – Click Here!

To learn more, stay in touch with my blog – I'll keep you informed so that YOU won't have to do the heavy lifting. Charlie Seymour Jr's Blog – Click HERE To See More!

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad since 1983, succeeding in this economy

PS: You can find me here:

http://twitter.com/UltimateWAHDads

http://facebook.com/CharlesSeymourJr

http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesseymourjr

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

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Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and direct-response marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at http://bit.ly/24eYTO to learn more about his successes.

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Icons and Slogans – Advertising Week Walk Of Fame Announced For 2009 – Vote For Your Favorite

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Research And Its Limits

Though Harry Beckwith wrote his book in 2000 (and re-released it in 2009), one of the examples he uses is VERY timely as I write.

He explains the difference between HARD evidence ("scientifically proven" data) versus SOFT evidence (coming from anecdotes and observations) and says we should throw out the HARD evidence and rely on the soft.

Here's his example which seems so timely:

KFC (as well as McDonalds and Pizza Hut for their own products) had spent lots of time and money to set up focus groups about its new, more-healthy skinless chicken. When asked, people said they'd buy it over the fried chicken that KFC had become known for. (Similar studies told McDonalds that people wanted the McLean sandwich and told Pizza Hut that they wanted low-fat pizzas.)

KFC is now back on the market with skinless, grilled chicken and time will tell if the public REALLY wants it over the Kentucky FRIED Chicken they have loved for years.

Pizza Hut stopped making its low-fat pizza and the McLean sandwich bombed for McDonalds.

There are some quotes in the book that are priceless: I laughed out loud when reading them:

On a plane flight, one of KFC's researchers sat next to the director of food services for one of the world's leading cruise lines. And here's what this person said:

"In America, it's all about quantity. Forget GOOD. Give them plenty. Is it any wonder the French look like dancers and Americans look like Jabba the Hut?"

Priceless. I laughed out loud.

Another researcher pointed out that even the most educated in our population, those who tell you how much better "good food" is for you, those who feel they are health-conscious STILL order the highest-calorie foods in ALL types of restaurants.

Interesting.

(My wife, Pam, is about the only person I've ever met who will look up a restaurant's menu on the Internet before we go so that she'll know which meal has the amount of "points" she's allowed for the day. OK, so she didn't always do this and STILL doesn't always do it, but she often does. Not me… when I go out it's for FUN and ENJOYMENT… I love good flavor and I guess I, too, like a lot.)

And it's interesting to note that at health clubs, memberships spike right after New Years but drop back to normal levels by February 1st after the gung-ho zealots go back to their normal ways of lax exercise and high-calorie meals.

What Do These Anecdotes Tell You About YOUR Business?

Watch. Listen. See what people really do and then make up your mind about how to market to them. Don't ask them: they will tell you what they THINK they should tell you, not what they really DO.

Let people vote with their dollars and actions, not with just their words.

There's a principle called the Heisenberg principle (named after the man who discovered it) which says that Research Changes Its Own Results. Put people in a room, offer them high calorie meals vs low-fat meals and when they know they are part of a study, they will eat what they THINK they should eat, and not what they normally eat.

Same for your marketing: test it by sending it to real people. Oh, sure… use your best judgment to decide what you should send them and then watch the results. See how many times you can beat your own "control" piece (the one that gives you the best results). As smart as many of us are… we're still wrong much of the time.

Test, test, and test again. But don't rely on the experts – though their guess may be educated, it's still a guess.

Go with the best Soft Evidence you have.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
Blogging, Podcasting, Consulting

PS: You can find me here:

http://twitter.com/UltimateWAHDads

http://facebook.com/CharlesSeymourJr

http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesseymourjr

PPS: Do you have trouble writing? Turn Your Words Into Gold – Go Here To Learn More! NOW is the time to start.

Follow Charlie Seymour Jr On Twitter!

Keep this with this article, please:

Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and direct-response marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at http://bit.ly/24eYTO to learn more about his successes.

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004 The Invisible Touch – The Case For Soft Evidence

If Oprah was angry when an author lied to her about his credentials, imagine how she'll feel when a major company promises to feed people for FREE and then turns down the coupons it distributed

Do you remember "New Coke" and the marketing fiasco it created.

Welcome to KFC's attempt at retraining our taste buds to like GRILLED Chicken instead of deep fried.

There's a marketing lesson here, so please pay attention!

Lesson 1. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Lesson 2. The way to get a man angry is to promise him food, let him smell it, and then tell him it's not for him!

Lesson 3. It's much more difficult to recover AFTER a problem than it is to CAUSE the problem.

KFC Blows It – Simply Put: They Weren't Ready For This

I never saw the Oprah show when KFC offered its coupons for a free GRILLED chicken meal. I did see, however, that you had a short window to download the coupon and then about 10 days to redeem them. (Mothers Day was clearly marked as NOT one of these days.)

But when I went today to a suburban Philadelphia, PA USA KFC (the Friday BEFORE Mothers Day), I waited in line with lots of people. Sure looked like the marketing campaign worked! Lots of people were standing there, printed coupon in hand.

Wow! Very successful, it seemed.

The chatter was hushed (I guess people were hungry by 1:12 PM) though I did hear a bit of grumbling that it always takes so long to be served.

Looking behind the counter I saw why: one person cooking, one person at the service counter, and one person at the drive-through window serving the 11 cars in line.

Oh… and one person sitting out front on the sidewalk (I guess that was for a break, even though the line was long) and another slowly clearing off tables in the restaurant. (Bad enough when people take a break when the crush of the business's traffic arrives, but then don't do it so all of us can SEE that you are present but not waiting on us.)

Why is the sign so small when the news isn't good?

After waiting in line for 27 minutes and finally working my way up close to the counter, I happened to see a note that said something like:

We can't honor your coupons – please turn them in for a rain check.

WHAT?

They HAVE to know that a large number of people in the restaurant came to use the coupons. Oprah had hawked them and the Internet was jumping (I know Twitter was jumping) with the news.

The best they can do is a sign that is taped to the flat horizontal surface of the counter?

Did they think we'd just proceed to the front of the line and order something else and pay them for it?

Did they think that we didn't make a special trip just to try their new product (which was slowing becoming that "evil product" because of the way this was handled)?

I just left and drove to a KFC / Taco Bell near my home. THEY would serve me.

Trouble strikes again at a different KFC

Several of us standing in line at this KFC / Taco Bell were talking about how poorly KFC had handled this situation. I mostly listened because I was studying the marketing effort and wasn't getting angry the way some of these folks were.

Business people; teachers; mothers with small children; blue collar workers on a break: all wanting to try the new product in what was one of the largest and most successful "get out the news" marketing efforts I have ever seen.

"Excuse me," I asked the young man cleaning up in the restaurant – asking him because the line was too long for me to ask the woman at the counter, "are you taking these coupons here?"

"Yes, sir… just step up to the counter."

Except they weren't.

Two minutes later a woman in a loud voice became quite agitated. The woman right in front of me had been turned away from a KFC yesterday. And I had come from one only a few minutes earlier.

The woman behind the counter at THIS store (and it's not HER fault – seems like this is what is happening nationally) started to tell one person what to do… but someone spoke up and said, "We're all here for this, you might as well tell all of us."

It seems that KFC, in a stroke of marketing suicide, decided to tell everyone to fill out ANOTHER piece of paper and either WE could mail it in for a rain-check coupon or the STORE would mail it in for us.

"Can we eat here today, try the Grilled Chicken, and not pay for it?" someone asked.

"No, you must fill this in, send it in, and they'll send you a coupon."

Three of us left, and the other two were really squabbling about KFC, Oprah, anyone connected to this promotion.

How could such a Web 2.0 way of marketing go so wrong for KFC?

How could KFC blow this so badly?

• You KNOW they had marketing meetings about this.
• You KNOW that they took the idea to Oprah and got her to wave her magic wand.
• And you KNOW that SOMEONE must have thought about the consequences of giving out hundreds of thousands of coupons.

Did they think they were only in the coupon-distribution business and would never actually have to fulfill the meals?

Last I checked, they were in the restaurant business… a business that has been lack-luster at best.

They had everything going for them: Twitter, emails, Oprah, news reports telling about Twitter, emails, and Oprah. It was the "perfect storm" of marketing genius and it was magnetically attracting thousands into their restaurants.

Especially during this economic meltdown when people are stretching their budgets as far as they can: this was a perfect message (come eat free at our restaurants) to market (people having a tough economic time) match.

Now will people go back to try the Grilled Chicken? KFC better home so – this has already cost them millions is negative publicity.

And now it all came crashing down on them.

They'll wonder what hit them when all these hungry people bare their fangs and get nasty.

Kind of makes you long for the good ol' New Coke Days!

Marketing Lesson To Learn

Could this ever happen to you?

Perhaps not on this SCALE, but if you have ever placed an ad in a newspaper and NOT told the people working in your store, sent out an email and not have the website ready, or used Twitter to send a notice but your sales page hadn't been updated, then YOU have committed the same marketing suicide as KFC.

Communication. Left Hand knowing and Right Hand knowing.

And then follow what the Boy Scouts have taught for years: Be Prepared.

Clearly KFC wasn't prepared for the crush of people. And it may take them a long time to recover.

How am I feeling after today's experiences?

I sure don't see a reason to rush back to a KFC, and still I think of it as fried chicken, honey-barbecue wings (hey, love them!), and sides.

Wonder if I'll ever get back to try the Grilled Chicken.

Hey, give me credit: I tried twice today!

Good luck to KFC. You'll need it to recover from these blunders.

Oh, and Oprah: thanks for helping with the marketing. KFC sure let you (and us) down.

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad, succeeding in this economy

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