The Best Super Bowl Commercial Never Made

Over the last several years, the Super Bowl has become an event that parties are planned around.  It is annually the most watched program of the year with no other competitors even coming close.  There are several reasons for this.  The game itself is obviously the most important facet for the majority of viewers, but the big name half-time entertainment usually brings in people who might not care as much about football as seeing Justin Timberlake, U2, or Madonna or even the occasional wardrobe malfunction. 

Another important part of the Super Bowl for many are the commercials.  On the Monday morning after the game people all over corporate America will gather around their cubicles to discuss, not the game, but rather their favorite ads.  Here's the link to an unmade commercial by Newcastle Brown Ale that won't appear on Sunday night's game, but just may make the list of best commercials anyway:  ifwemadeit.com.

When a 30 second ad costs $4 million, you have to question the true effectiveness of the advertising campaign.  Newcastle has been able to generate buzz simply by showing us what their commerical would look like, while at the same time making fun of Super Bowl commercials.  The best part?  It doesn't cost $8 million per minute.

Forbes:  The Best Commercial On The Super Bowl, And It's Not Even On The Super Bowl

David Ogilvy's Lessons on Advertising

The blog Farnam Street is one of the gems of the internet.  When so much of what is on the web is superficial, this blog aims to help you think better by using the knowledge which already exists.  The goal of the site is to "master the best of what other people have already figured out."  With that in mind here's a link of 38 tips to create advertising that sells by ad man David Ogilvy. 

Tip number one: "The results of your campaign depend less on how we write your advertising than how your product is positioned. It follows that positioning should be decided before the advertising is created. Research can help. Look before you leap."

Then, there is this nugget about branding from tip number three:  "The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand gets the largest share of the market."

Jeff Bezos may have gotten some of his ideas from tip seven:  "Innovate. Start trends – instead of following them. Advertising which follows a fashionable fad or is imitative, is seldom successful." 

Finally, number nine discusses segmentation:  "Any good agency knows how to position products for demographic segments of the market – for men, for young children, for farmers in the south, etc. But Ogilvy and Mather has learned that it often pays to position for psychological segments of the market."

Bonus Material:  David Ogilvy's 10 Tips on Writing

Don't Ask Me What I Think

As I read the key takeaways on Apple’s comeback story in Business Insider, there was one that particularly stood out to me:  “Be confident - don't hold focus groups and ask people what they think.”  I immediately thought back to the Ted Talk by Malcolm Gladwell where he tells the story of Howard Moskowitz and his research to create the perfect diet Pepsi.  After doing multiple taste tests with different groups, he couldn’t find one particular level of sweetness that appealed to everyone.  As Moskowitz discovered, there is no such thing as the perfect Pepsi, only perfect Pepsis.

I still remember when I first heard about the iPad.  First, Apple revolutionized the way we listen to music with the iPod.  It didn’t take me long to get on board.  Then, they completely changed the way we communicate and use internet with the iPhone.  It was simply amazing.  But when the iPad came out, I thought, “How dumb an idea is that?”  Is it an extraordinarily large iPod or is it a big phone that can’t make calls?  I mean, really, who would want a computer with no keyboard, disk-drive, or USB port? 

As it turns out, I would want one of those computers with no keyboard.   Today, I can’t imagine life without my iPad, but if I had been a member of a focus group asked about my thoughts on this new tablet device… well, you know.  I’m reminded of what Gladwell said about coffee during his talk.  If you ask people what kind of coffee they like, we all say we want a bold dark roast, but in reality most people really prefer a weak milky coffee.    Thank goodness Steve Jobs was confident and didn’t ask me what I thought about the iPad.

The Best Stats You've Ever Seen

Hans Rosling’s 2006 presentation on statistics is one of the most watched Ted Talks.  The main point he makes is that data and statistics can give us a perspective about the world by showing whether what we think to be true is actually true.  He demonstrates this by doing an unofficial experiment with some of Sweden’s top students at a medical university.  The students are given a pre-test about which countries have the highest child mortality rate.  It turns out that a chimpanzee would score higher on the test than the average of Sweden’s top students.  Nope, they don’t have really smart monkeys or really dumb students in Sweden, they have misconceptions. 

The other point that Rosling makes is that data needs to be presented in a meaningful way.  It turns out he’s a master at presenting data and making statistics come alive.  His use of animated statistics takes what would be dry, dull, and difficult to digest data and turns it into information that is inherently understandable and amazingly interesting; so much so that over 8.5 million people have tuned in to watch a 20 minute video on statistics.

Market Research

As I read chapter three of the text book, Understanding Markets and Customers, I couldn't help but think of an incredibly interesting and well written article I recently ran across in the New York Times by Charles Duhigg called "How Companies Learn Your Secrets".  It's mostly about how companies use big data, analytics, and customer behavior for market research and segmenting, even going so far as to recognize when women are pregnant before they've told family members.

It also contains the story of how Febreze, one of Procter and Gamble's most successful products with sales of over a billion dollars, almost flopped but was saved by research and a new marketing strategy.  This article shows the real world application of everything discussed in the text book (and even more).  It's a fascinating read, even if you're not studying marketing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all&_r=0

The Value of a Mission Statement

The title of this blog is probably a bit misleading to most who read it, especially if they’re in an MBA marketing class.  You see, I’m not really sold on the idea of a mission statement.  Sure, the idea sounds great in theory and there are certainly many very successful companies with mission statements.  The mission statement strikes me as an idea doled out in a management curriculum and now used in businesses everywhere because everyone else is doing it.  Let’s take another seemingly overused word and ask if there is true “value” in mission statements.  I’m willing to concede I may be wrong on this, but I think the value is little to none, possibly even, dare I say it, “value” destroying in the fact that it seems like a bit of a waste of time.

I first came into contact with mission statements when I was in the Air Force.  Over my 20 years in service, I seem to recall reading about some new mission statement every 3-5 years.  I viewed them as platitudes at best and managerial drivel at worst.  Of course we also had our fair share of vision statements thrown in there so we could see where we were going with our mission statements. 

Just to make sure all the bases were covered we even had an official motto, which was essentially a slimmed down version of the mission statement.  You may recognize some of the words that the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, a four-star general and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spent time thinking about and declared would be our motto, “Aim high… fly, fight, and win.”  The “aim high” was part of a recruiting ad campaign while the “fly, fight, win” part was an early slogan.  I liked the fly, fight, and win slogan.  It was catchy, simple, and to the point.

Enough about the beguiling motto, let’s get back to mission and vision statements.  Here is an example of a USAF mission statement circa 2005:          

“To deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests - to fly and fight in air, space, and cyberspace”

I guess our mission then was to fly and fight, but not necessarily win.  And it was important to make the distinction we were flying and fighting for the US and not, say for example, Canada.  I do have to admit being a little fuzzy on how one flies in cyberspace.  Anyway, at the same time the vision statement was “Global Reach, Global Power.”  Three years later in 2008, we got a new Chief of Staff and a new mission statement:

“To fly, fight, and win ... in air, space, and cyberspace”

Finally, we were back to our winning ways!  And somewhere along the way the new vision statement became “Global Vigilance, Global Reach, Global Power.” 

Just this year, the latest Chief of Staff refocused the Air Force vision statement to “The World’s Greatest Air Force — Powered by Airmen, Fueled by Innovation.”  This guy obviously went to business school.  Maybe in a couple of years when I’ve completed my MBA I’ll understand how this is a vision and not just another slogan.

I point all this out because the United States Air Force, and its predecessor the Army Air Corps, has been the premier force in the air since the early 1940’s.  It mattered little what the mission statement was or if, as in the early days, we even had one.  It’s not the mission statement that counts, it’s the mission – supporting ground troops with air strikes, transporting much needed supplies, delivering aid and disaster relief, providing air superiority, performing aeromedical evacuations, gathering intelligence, and much more.   These are the things we did and others still do today.  We do them better than any other nation in the world and it has nothing to do with mission statements.

Marketing Myopia

The article “Marketing Myopia” written by Theodore Levitt in 1960 is still as relevant today as when it was first written.  Levitt argues that the railroads didn’t take advantage of passenger rail service because they viewed themselves as railroad companies rather than transportation companies.  Likewise, he points out the many movie studios that ceased to exist because they erroneously thought they were in the business of making pictures rather than in the entertainment business. 

Since the article was first published there have been other companies with marketing myopia, branding themselves too narrowly and ultimately going out of business.  Kodak and Polaroid are two that come to mind.  Both of these companies failed to innovate when digital photography came along, choosing to stick with their tried and true forms of film. 

Reader’s Digest and Border’s Books are two more companies that failed because of how they defined themselves.  Reader’s Digest did in print (taking interesting stories, informative articles, and humorous pieces from other sources and aggregating them in one place) what companies like Yahoo do today on the web.  They defined themselves as a publishing company, yet they failed to publish on the internet until it was too late.  Sure, Reader’s Digest has a website now, but they’re irrelevant and not likely to last.  Border’s was done in by Amazon because their definition of a book was one made of paper.  Barnes and Noble may be struggling, but their Nook shows they know there’s more than one way to read a book.

The companies named so far failed because, much like the railroads and movie companies mentioned in Levitt’s article, they limited their scope by not realizing what business they were in.  The opposite can also be true.  The Radio Corporation of America, or RCA, is a great example.  A spinoff of GE, they were one of the original tech companies in the 1930’s.  However, by the mid 1970’s they were a conglomerate with no focus.  Some of their businesses included rental cars, frozen food, carpeting, and greeting cards.  This is the prime example of not knowing what business you’re in.

On the flip side there are many great companies that, knowingly or not, succeeded by following Mr. Levitt’s advice.  Disney started as a cartoon about a mouse.   The mouse is still prominent, but they are a major entertainment company with interests in movies, television, sports (ESPN), theme parks, and branded merchandise.  Nike started as a shoe company for runners, but is now the most dominant sports apparel company on the globe.

Coke and Pepsi aren’t in the soft drink business.  Coca Cola is the world’s largest beverage company with brands such as Minute Maid and Dasani.  Pepsi, along with owning Tropicana and Gatorade, is one of the world’s largest snack food companies with Frito-Lay and Quaker Oats.  Had these two giants of industry labeled themselves as merely soft drink companies they would certainly still be in business in one form or another, but it’s doubtful they would be the globally successful companies they are today.