"Buy the Way…" Insights on Integrated Marketing Communication

How many times have you gone to a movie based on the trailer only to find that the movie’s trailer was misleading and didn’t tell the real story? I know I’ve sat in the theater excited to watch a film only to end up half way through it wondering what the heck the writers were thinking! If you’re like me, you might find yourself analyzing the movie’s messages and begin to wonder if the movie has a hidden agenda.  Honest Trailer does this type of thinking for you. This example of Honest Trailer: The Little Mermaid already has over four million views and is currently trending on Google Trends this week in the YouTube category. It takes a seemingly innocent, animated movie and turns it into a different story spun from a darker, more cynical perspective. And although there may be some truth in there somewhere, it’s still a cartoon!

But what’s the real picture here (pun intended!)? Is Honest Trailer’s use of Disney’s copyrighted content in this manner legal? Or did Honest Trailer find a loophole? Movie critics, after all, have been around for a long time showing us snippets of movies here and there to spin their own reviews that ultimately give films a thumbs up or a thumbs down. All of this, however, is sanctioned by the studios who provide and allow critics to show the movie clips. But movie studios do not allow critics to alter or tamper with these clips, which appears to be the issue here. This brings into question copyright infringement laws in the case of Honest Trailer. Do they have the right to use this copyrighted content?  Copyright infringement laws, after all, are put in place to protect owner’s content from being used without permission.

Some argue that the use of parody is protected under copyright law and therefore gives the green light to this type of entertainment. Is this the type of protection that Honest Trailer hides behind? Or is the fact that Honest Trailer is featured on an online media platform the reason they get away with this type of potential misuse of Disney’s content?

“Marketing is a contest to get people’s attention” – Seth Godin

As a consumer and a passionate marketer this quote resonated with me. I wanted to learn more about what causes consumers to stop in their tracks and pay attention to a brand. Why some marketing messages were “louder” than others and what caused consumers to engage with a brand. Researching the navigation of the digital and fast-paced world, revealed that companies are using a human-to-human approach.

The approach I found to marketing human-to-human is using three of the six human needs. According to Tony Robins, renowned life coach and author, the six human needs are:

1. Certainty/Comfort. We all want comfort. And much of this comfort comes from certainty. Of course there is no ABSOLUTE certainty, but we want certainty the car will start, the water will flow from the tap when we turn it on and the currency we use will hold its value.
2. Variety. At the same time we want certainty, we also crave variety. Paradoxically, there needs to be enough Uncertainty to provide spice and adventure in our lives.
3. Significance. Deep down, we all want to be important. We want our life to have meaning and significance. I can imagine no worse a death than to think my life didn’t matter.
4. Connection/Love. It would be hard to argue against the need for love. We want to feel part of a community. We want to be cared for and cared about.
5. Growth. There could be some people who say they don’t want to grow, but I think they’re simply fearful of doing so—or perhaps NOT doing so. To become better, to improve our skills, to stretch and excel may be more evident in some than others, but it’s there.
6. Contribution. The desire to contribute something of value—to help others, to make the world a better place than we found it is in all of us.

A few campaigns that have used at least three of the six human needs to market have been the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvHGKSqBVjs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvWgLJSQtoM

The three examples connected with the consumer and included variety and in some cases significance and contribution.

Previously mentioned, our digital and fast-paced world can strain human relationships. Since marketing and sales has everything to do with building the right relationship with consumers, appealing to three of their six needs will make communicating and closing deals disingenuous. Point of the story, learn to speak with or to your consumer before spending money on a campaign.

I couldn’t recall when and where I saw the first series of the “Helpful Honda Guy” commercial, but it immediately left a positive impression in my mind. “Integration” is the first word that comes up to me when thinking of those commercials. Although the commercials run with different story lines, they share the same core idea. The main character of the commercials is always a male Honda staff dressing in their iconic blue shirt, chitchatting with client about daily stuff, helping a random customers with an urgent task that just turns up from nowhere. Instead of a bland story of how helpful the Honda guy is, the commercial always has a torch of humor by giving the commercial an unexpected ending, like what is shown in the following video clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kPvF2DjxC4

Several months ago, I had to purchase a new car for myself. I wasn’t exposed to the Honda commercials anymore, but when I passed by its downtown LA dealership store, the commercial was the thing that pushed me into the store. Through lectures, I’ve been told that an integrated marketing communication should be consistent in message crafting across the media, but from my experience in the Honda dealership, the brand does lands this “integration” to the real life. The extremely warm greetings from every one working in the store, not only the sales manager that handles your deal, the sometimes seemingly theatrical smile from receptionist, sales, financial managers, even mechanics, all reminded me of the “Helpful Honda Guy” concept in the commercial. Maybe a lot of brands can do a good job in external marketing communications, but this brand definitely has got an excellent internal communications. Though astonished by those dramatic hospitality at first, I was impressed by this experience.

So as you may imagine, I tied a deal with the downtown Honda dealership eventually. Then I scratched a little bit deeper into the campaign. It turned out this “Helpful Honda Guy” campaign is really an “enduring” event that has been on for 7 years. Can you imagine? Seven years! For the exact same massage! The second thing strikes me is that this campaign is actually a regional campaign that is only available in Southern California area. Due to the geographic limit, this campaign was forced to intermit during the past seven years for lack of financial support from the corporate headquarter. Fortunately, it finally got back on radar again. Additionally, it just released a new set of holiday seasonal commercials that are also moderately interesting, well-integrated with the brand’s ultimate goal for marketing communications: selling cars. Well, I know I sound like a promoter for Honda, but in fact, I’m just a fan of these commercials, and of course, Honda cars, lol. So enjoy the holiday commercial here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbn_Frg7P6c&index=2&list=PLbHLm33KeT0vdva3LwWJsxHRxbZ4xa3l8

Reference

http://www.rohitbhargava.com/2014/07/the-underappreciated-brilliance-of-the-helpful-honda-campaign.html

The winner is…..

Yes, you may have guessed it already; it is Google. Google Apps have already become the preferred choice over Microsoft for small businesses and is in a heated race to win over companies with over 1,000 employees (Eyal, 2014). Such significant erosion of market share led Microsoft to give away the Office Suite on mobile for free (Wingfield, 2014).

Microsoft is also taking it a step further by focusing on strategies to make Office “a habit” according to Qi Lu, the man in charge of Office Suite products (Eyal, 2014). This strategy is explained in a book titled Hooked: How to build habit-forming products by Nir Eyal. The “hook model” has distinct four phases – trigger, action, reward and investment (Eyal, 2014).

The trigger phase has a cue involved that drives an individual to the use of the product, and the action phase is where the user repeats the behavior in anticipation of a reward (Eyal, 2014). For example, a colleague or classmate emails a file attachment that requires Office to open and the action is to simply open the file (Eyal, 2014). The reward phase is when the individual has an itch of curiosity to see what is in the file, and the investment phase is where one puts something into the product such as an Office update in anticipation of future benefit (Eyal, 2014). Office still has one billion users worldwide, and therefore, it should not be so hard to make it a habit for the existing users.

The challenge in my opinion lies in staving off Google Docs and Apps from taking away even more market share on account of being a free and real-time collaborative tool. Is giving away Office on mobile for free really the answer to stem the tide of Google? The YouTube Parodies here, though they may be somewhat accurate, won’t do the trick.

Thank you for reading.

Eyal, N. (2014). How customers get hooked on products. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 12/02 from https://hbr.org/2014/11/how-customers-get-hooked-on-products

Wingfield, N. (2014). Microsoft, changing tack, makes office suite free on mobile. Retrieved 12/02 from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/technology/microsoft-to-give-away-mobile-version-of-office-software.html

This year’s election cycle was touted to be one of the most critical in history due to the high possibility that the Republicans could gain control of the Senate and retain control of the House. Some races were too close to call beforehand, which only increased the animosity displayed both candidates from both parties. It seems to be a common desire to run a “clean” campaign with opponents promising to stick to the facts and leave the skeletons in the closet. However, noble these desires are it’s almost inevitable that the skeletons come to life and break free from their hiding place to declare to the world their wrongdoings.

This scenario is currently being played out in a series of episodes of the CBS show The Good Wife. The main character Alisha Florickk is running for Illinois State Attorney. Her opponent proposed a pack to fight fair, although the tides quickly changed as egos were bruised, juicy information was discovered, and the fierce competitors were released from within. As I mentioned before, this isn’t an original storyline, we are actual witnesses and possibly players every two years in this real life drama.

A couple days before the midterm election, ABC News released “The 7 Most Controversial Ads of Election 2014.” Some of them are par for the course, but one in particular struck me as so far over the line that it leaves me wondering who thought this was a good ad. It was the Alaskan Senate race between Democrat Senator Mark Begich and his Republican opponent Dan Sullivan. Begich tried to capitalize on a heinous Anchorage crime where a toddler was sexually assaulted and her grandparents were murdered. Obviously, a terrible story to include as a ploy for politics, but translated this campaign from bad to worse was the fact that Begich’s campaign leadership didn’t pull the ad when the family of the deceased requested it.

This type of risky marketing is exactly that….risky. Some of these advertisements could be the thing that pushes the vote favorably for the one who decided to play dirty or it could cause such damage that the necessary votes could be lost forever. I’m not very involved in politics and don’t find gossip or airing dirty laundry entertaining so I tend to side with the candidate that keeps it mostly clean. Because let’s be honest, all politics is is marketing.

Ogilvy, an international advertising firm based in Manhattan and founded nearly 60 years ago, has created a new type of advertisement: a short, 15-second clip that encompasses the entirety of a novel, specifically by Ernest Hemingway. The company created a mini-movie each for his most famous novels: “The Old Man and the Sea,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and “A Farewell to Arms.”

These ads, which are clay-animated, are very short in length and attempt to shorten Hemingway’s epic tales into tiny clips in a humorous way. By bringing to life Hemingway’s characters in a modern way, these ads introduce the ground-breaking stories of past to contemporary people who may have overlooked and/or never heard of them.

Here is an example of one of them:

http://instagram.com/p/vZO8KWrI4s/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=video&modal=true

This new type of advertisement may find success if people attempt to recreate them with other awesome fictional tales that can be compacted. For example, movies and books such as Star Wars and Harry Potter could see the same treatment, or other old school stories such as the works of Edgar Allen Poe.

So my questions are: do you think these quirky kinds of ads devalue the true meaning of the stories, or are they a good way of modernizing stories that people may or may not have the time to read? And do you think they have any sort of beneficial use for major advertisers in the future?

SOURCE:

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-ogilvy-fits-entire-hemingway-novels-15-second-instagrams-161581

Every year, companies such as Target, Macy’s, Best Buy and others launched their marketing commercials for the Holiday season.  Target was one of the first shopping retailers to broadcast their 2014 Holiday season commercial a few days ago.

Target, known for its bulls eye logo and dog as its mascot, released something unique this year.  Target’s new holiday commercial features a little girl in a “Marshmallow World.” This world is full of toys, candies and of course marshmallows (Rayburn, 2014). The concept behind this “world” was taken from the scenes of Alice in Wonderland ( Target, 2014). Rather than focusing on the products in previous marketing campaigns, Target created a “feel” of this world not only for children but adults as well. The whole concept of this campaign is to convince the potential and loyal customers and children to visit Target. Target hopes that this commercial would convince children to bug their parents to the point they want to go there and experience “Marshmallow World.” From a recent press release, Target stated that some of its stores would transform into a Winter in Wonderland world (Target, 2014). Again, we are beginning to see some companies implementing more on the “experience” than showcasing popular brands e.g. like the John Lewis’ Christmas advert commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifvRgJMfop4

Another way Target is making this marketing campaign more interactive than previous years is through the development of a new Wish List application that targets mostly teens and young children. This Wish List application, similar to a registry, can be downloaded in mobile and tablet devices (Target, 2014). Target hopes that it can be a fun way to involve family members. This is a very cool app that gives children the freedom to pick out the items they want for Christmas and gives family members the opportunity to see what they like. If I was a kid or a teenager, this is a good approach to tell my parents or Santa Claus what I really want. Parents will find this app helpful since it gives them  some savings, 10% off any items on the wish list as well (Rayburn, 2014). Great marketing campaign to start of the 2014 Holiday shopping experience like the John Lewis Christmas Advert commercial we read and saw a few weeks ago.

References:

Rayburn, B. (2014). How Target is utilizing digital marketing efforts in new holiday campaign.New England Publishing Group, Inc.  Retrieved November 30, 2014, from http://nepubinc.com/target-utilizing-digital-marketing-efforts-new-holiday-campaign/

Target Blog. (2014). 360 degrees of holiday: a look at Target’s holiday marketing campaign. Target. Retrieved November 30, 2014, from https://corporate.target.com/discover/article/360-degrees-of-holiday-a-look-at-Target-s-holiday

Target Holiday 2014 commercial. (2014). Youtube. Retrieved November 30, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifvRgJMfop4

This last Thanksgiving I was in Las Vegas… with my kids. Normally, I would not have brought the kids to Vegas and to all its decadence, but we were there for a family reunion and our kids were exposed to the lights, sounds, and experiences of what Las Vegas had to offer. My 9-year old asked, “Mommy, what is Glitter Glutch?” as a billboard truck rolled along side us while we were driving The Strip. Uh… oh… We are not going back to Vegas with them any time soon, but I did see A LOT of kids. A LOT. They were walking with their parents wearing Mardi Gras beads, holding shiny, blinking drink cups, and sucking on gambling-dice shaped lollipops. According to author, Joel Bakan in this article — “there is, after all, nothing ‘stickier’ than addiction.”

As a result of my experience in Vegas, I started thinking about advertising, marketing, or communications geared to kids. It’s big business. The consumer food industry is closely watched as to how companies market to kids. One company, Coca-Cola has had a policy for a few years to not market to kids under 12. Since twelve is commonly used as a cut-off point as it is believed that children have already developed their consumer behavior by that age (Valkenburg & Cantor, 2001), many other companies have followed. Nickelodeon is an example of another such company.

While there are groups and councils calling for regulations on advertising and marketing to kids in the United States, there are no firm guidelines or rule books. The US industry remains largely self-regulated. Internationally, the International Chamber of Commerce  drafted a global code for marketing communications. I wonder if ratings like NC-17 or PG-13 and that kind of regulation would work in this area of marketing. How do you feel about marketing to kids? Get them while they are young — how do you feel about this statement?

References

Bachman, Katie. (May 2013) Coca-cola makes global pledge to not target kids under 12. Adweek. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/coca-cola-makes-global-pledge-not-target-kids-under-12-149298

Bakan, Joel. (August 2011). How game designers strategically keep kids addicted to playing. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-bakan/game-designers-addicted_b_899377.html

Thielman, Sam. (March 2013). Marketing to kids is an obstacle course. Adweek. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/news/television/marketing-kids-obstacle-course-147994

Valkenburg, Patti M. & Cantor, Joanne. (January 2001). The development of a child into a consumer. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

With technology advancing so quickly, is it not surprising that we really can believe almost anything these days? Case in point: I was perusing YouTube videos and came upon a video about a new concept car that was hovering around the streets in China to the amazement of everyone, including this writer. I soon began to figure out how the normal driver would maneuver through sidewalks and streets, then I thought about something that would make everything okay…separate lanes for the Hover mobile, yes it can work! A couple of days passed, and as I thought about the neat little car that I would willingly sign up for, I decided to see how long it would be before the average consumer could possess the new-age product; sadly, I discovered that the Hover mobile was a lie! Thank you Snopes.com for bursting my bubble! At that moment, I realized that so many amazing inventions had occurred so quickly, many of us believe that anything is possible. To be honest, I still can’t truly comprehend the Worldwide Web, or for that matter, how a small chip could create artificial intelligence – not to shortchange myself completely, I can explain the fundamentals of computing, but it doesn’t mean I understand it. Looking back in history, it is safe to say that generations before my generation, the Boomers, were more skeptical; probably because most of their information was derived via word of mouth or the radio; and after Orson Welles, “War of the Worlds” broadcast in 1938, I guess it is understandable. For instance, my eighth-grade science teacher, only a few years from retiring, devoted an entire class on explaining to us why the landing on the moon was a hoax. Poor Mr. Brokowski could not image nor understand the possibilities of man landing on the moon, and as a science teacher, he did not want to perpetuate the ruse. Seeing is believing may have been commonplace a century ago, but with technology streaming information nonstop, amazing possibilities are broadcasted via unlimited avenues. Today we have to make choices to receive, believe, and store the information or receive, question, data dump and forget the information. I chose to store my information about the hovering mobile as a truth – even though I could not explain the rationale for its existence or really understand the concept. Naivety in adulthood is unpleasant to say the least … as a child, sure, but a certified, card-carrying adult? As an example of believing in possibilities; my bright eight-year-old granddaughter was sitting in the front seat of my high-tech car, and I was playing her favorite CD, the sound track to Frozen. As she was singing along, she asked to hear a particular song on the CD. With one hand on the steering wheel; I placed my other hand on the small wheel that controlled the tracks, and as I was turning the wheel, I was looking at the CD player glide through the tracks until it came to her song. Once it started to play, she asked, “How did you change the music?” Obviously, she didn’t notice my right hand moving, so I quickly said, “I can change it with my eyes.” She then said, “Can I do it?” I was surprised that this inquisitive little girl fell for the trick, but I eagerly noted that only the person driving could use her eyes. What an astonishment to fathom that 21^st century children see nothing as an impossibility. So, with that, this naïve adult will continue to believe that anything is possible…but, unlike the 21^st century children, I will believe then validate with Snopes.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BJ9U4iZcxk