Super bowl ads
I only saw the highlights of the ads on NBC this morning, but of the few I saw, in terms of brand awareness and continuity, the E-Trade baby ad was good—NOT as great as the originals, but still good. Direct-response wise (and a great example of an ad that TELLS A STORY) Google’s tale of France was a DELIGHT.
I’ve worked in and studied brand-based advertising for over 25 years. As a copywriter, art director, creative director, and designer I’ve worked with, on, and for all kinds of branding and advertising, much of it in non profits and a little for a Fortune 500 company. But marketing is marketing: WHERE it happens is not the point, the point is …
THAT it happens, that’s what’s most important.
It ticks me off that the owners of small businesses are inundated with messages that they MUST “do” branding, as if branding will solve all their problems. But when it comes to building a business based on a range of products and services that solve people’s problems, the owners of small businesses need to forget about branding as something they feel (or are told) the must do. “Must do” my ass!
They need to focus on sales and on serving customers. Focus on solving people’s problems, focus on giving great value, and focus on being the “go to” person. Do all of that, frequently and consistently, and the OFFSHOOT is the brand.
A strong brand is essential, but a brand isn’t what the company “is”, the brand is what the company projects into people’s lives. Madison Avenue talks a lot of BS about branding and so the public has had it beaten into them that to be effective advertising must (a) cost a lot of money, and (b) be creative. Both of which are nonsense.
Creativity in advertising is there to make the ad agency stand out when it comes time for other ad people to give other ad people an award for being clever. I’ve produced my fair share of creative ads and I’ve had some of them favorably commented on by two of the world’s top creative directors.
But let’s be clear on one thing: creativity ALONE does not sell and putting a logo on something is NOT branding. PEOPLE, putting a logo on something isn’t enough, nor is it branding. That’s corporate identity and simply being creative in advertising again, ISN’T ENOUGH. What’s the key? Relevance guys. The message must be relevant to the message recipient and his or her needs, wants, desires, and aspirations.
Not enough marketers GET the idea that branding takes place in people’s heads AFTER the sale’s been made and BECAUSE a need has been met, or because a desire has been exceeded. Brands are about feelings and WOE BETIDE the marketer who either never sees this or who ignores it.
Branding takes place in people’s heads when a message is FREQUENTLY and CONSISTENTLY delivered and accepted by a set of pre-determined, emotionally-driven triggers that are hard wired into people’s DNA.
The literal meaning of “a brand” is a red hot iron seared into the skin, something that’s literally BURNED into memory. Brands do NOT wash off. Think of a brand as a tattoo, something that’s there as a reminder, and hopefully, a good one. But to get into this mind set, focus instead on serving customers to the best of your ability.
And then? Then, your brand forms on its own.
