Incite Kitchen

Post-Pangea Day Blues

Pangea Day was May 10th.  And for all the pre-game hype about the global community coming together to see things through each other's eyes, I must admit, I'm a bit sad about the Post-Pangea Day festivities.  In the US, the day after Thanksgiving is famously the biggest shopping day of the year and is somewhat of an unofficial holiday.  Post-Christmas, many countries celebrate Boxing Day.   Pangea Day, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, was a day with a great build-up, but I sadly feel that now that it is over, continuing the conversation is difficult.  The content is either very difficult (I haven't figured out how to do it) or impossible to embed into blogs, news coverage seems to be scarce, and a mechanism to keep the conversation going, unless I'm unaware of something, seems non-existent.  I love the concept of a global community, as much as anyone, I just wish the community had the ability to hang out together, even in much smaller groups (such as: Likemind, Planning For Good, Pecha Kucha Night or All Day Buffet) for more than one day per year.  If I'm missing something here, someone please let me know.

Nike's New Purpose?

Over the past several months, thoughts around the word "purpose" have been heard throughout the halls of St. John & Partners.  As I roughly see it, a positioning is what is created when you don't stand for something all that interesting, but you can't let the people who buy your products know that.  A purpose is what you have when you don't need a positioning to falsely augment any sense of a reason for existence beyond a profit motive.  For a long time our industry was pretty much just about the former... this isn't the case so much anymore.
With this conversation has come the inevitable question of whether a purpose has to be part of a brand's DNA from the beginning or if it is something that can be realized several years later.  Is Target really about design, or is that just their positioning because they can't compete with Wal-Mart on price?  Is Dove really for building self-esteem in girls and women everywhere, or is that just advertising to make people feel good about a big brand, owned by a big company, with a big carbon footprint, etc.?  Who knows?  The examples could go on. 
I think the answer is, "yes, purpose can be realized several years into a brand's existence."  The hard part for people like me to sometimes remember is that change doesn't happen over night and baby steps toward progress are at least progress.  For purpose to be fully-realized in a brand, everything must operate under that purpose's umbrella - not the least of which is a shared purpose by the brand's customers and fans.  Now the question is, how long do we wait for true purpose, or perhaps more appropriately, how do we measure progress toward purpose before we all throw our hands up in the air and say... "no matter how much progress brand X has made, everything they say and do is really just a positioning since they clearly aren't committed to their supposed purpose, X years later?"  This question seems trivial in a lot of ways now, but as people further find themselves defining themselves by purpose, it will be an increasingly important one for marketers to ask.  The world is only getting faster.

A few weeks ago at PSFK, Jeff Staple of Staple Design spoke of such an instance with Nike.  I'll be curious to see how else and how fast Nike continues to change their brand/operations/etc. to meet the needs of the apparent purpose they've found in making "green" shoes. 

Do I Smell A Pencil?

This Transport for London spot has been apparently passed around since about March 10 and has been posted on several other blogs already.  This is for a few reasons.
1) The spot is just brilliant.  A practical case study in viral by Seth Godin's definition. 
2) The site, in a way that I don't think I've ever seen done before, practically tells its audience to share its content with others.
I love it.  It's original, simple, inexpensive, and without a doubt, effective.  I'll be disappointed if it doesn't win big at award shows.

Rudy Gay and You Tube

Marketers have been throwing around the terms collaboration, consumer generated, and co-creativity for a few years.  This effort caught my attention for a few reasons.

1) While it's all collaborative, most of the time with such efforts the brand simply acts as the stage for the consumer generated content... it's actually a rather rare circumstance that anything is really CO-created.
2) Co-creation is one thing.  Co-performance adds a whole new dimension to the concept.
3) The power of the moment... that ten-or-so seconds of the actual dunk will be huge for a variety of reasons.  I'm not really sure how you measure it.  But while ads may be talked about for a week or two (maybe a few years by some of us in the industry), a dunk has the opportunity to live on highlight films.  Talk about talk-value and shelf-life.

Beyond all that, the minimized corporate sponsorship included in the youtube video makes for a much more intimate experience for everyone involved.

Green Marketing Manifesto

Like a lot of things green, what it means to be a green marketer has been something that has eluded many agencies for a long time.  The truth is, being green isn't a positioning, it's a purpose.  Most agencies simply don't (and won't) live it and are therefore ill-prepared to provide sound advice to clients regarding the subject.  John Grant, a former St. Luke's planner has recently released his book, "The Green Marketing Manifesto."  And, since the first 50 bloggers to write about it are apparently promised a copy, I'm giving it a go here.  This is, I might add, a very interesting (and green) marketing strategy.  I'm fascinated to see what the book reveals and if anyone else has read it, or was at the book's introduction in London, I'd love to know more.

Positioning... Purpose

A few weeks ago, I met with Mike Byrne of Anomaly for drinks in New Orleans.  The next day I attended his lunch-time presentation to the South Shore New Orleans AMA.  He said a few things over drinks and several things at the lunch that have resonated with me since.  His most memorable points were reflective of a theme that's been repeatedly discussed at Incite Kitchen since about June.  That is, positioning is useless without a soulful purpose.   

Lisa has blogged about this recently concerning Unilever's contradictory positionings for their Dove and Axe brands.  And just last week, after discussing Lisa's thoughts with Rye Clifton from The Martin Agency over breakfast at Iconosphere, Rye posted the below video to You Tube, illustrating Lisa's point very well. 

If the time has come to do away with the word "consumers," as we should really just call the people who keep all of us employed and help us build the world's brands, well, "people"... isn't it about time we did away with positionings?  Once they're discovered to be soulless and contrived (and most of them are), the below or worse is a brand's consequence in today's digitally enabled consumer driven world... excuse me, digitally enabled people driven world.

Will double standard derail Dove campaign?

Recently Dove introduced the third video in support of its campaign in support of boosting the self esteem of girls.  Much like its title suggests, "Onslaught" documents the barrage of false beauty images and negative stereotypes that are thrust upon our little (and not so little) girls every day.  As a mom, I found the images disturbing.  As a marketer, I found them disgusting.  And once again I found myself battling the feelings of duplicity that I wrestle with in trying to be good at both. 

I'd like to think Unilever battles those same issues as it seeks to rationalize how it can be running this campaign and its latest effort for Axe products for men.  There are actually two campaigns running right now.  One is an effort to find the "World's Dirtiest Film," a sweepstakes being touted by David Spade.  And the other, Axe Naughty to Nice Campaign, where naughty girls are put in a prison rehab program ostensibly to return them to their "niceness" after being swept into badness by men wearing Axe products.  Sadly, I doubt they gave it any thought.  And I imagine they thought the average person wouldn't do so either.  I think they are wrong.  And if the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has their way, they will be.

Was Dove doomed before they started?

I admit, I was as enamored with Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty as everyone else. I loved the premise behind it and the execution of it--so much so that I bought one of their new body wash products as a result. And that's where it fell apart for me. The ingredient list was longer than my grocery list and had words on it I could barely pronounce much less know what they were or how they'd affect my skin. How could a brand that stood for "real beauty" have so many "unreal" ingredients in it? Granted, I'm not a scientist so all those ingredients could be naturally derived. But if they were, why wouldn't the brand have said so? I know I would have made a big deal of it.

Product performance aside, I also think Dove was doomed to fail because people's actions and their beliefs still don't line up when it comes to beauty. I know I'm guilty as charged. I tell my daughter all the time that she is beautiful just the way she is...that beauty is more about who you are on the inside and what you do than how you look. And yet, I slather on the anti-aging cream, wear make-up even on the weekends, and am always "watching what I eat." Truth is, so are all my friends. Even my 73-year-old mom won't go out unless she has "her face on." It's hard to break old habits. It's hard to go against the grain of every media and entertainment outlet bombarding us with their definition of beauty. But that doesn't' mean the effort isn't worth it. It does mean there will be wins and losses along the way. Success can't only be measured in numbers of products sold but in number of lives changed.

Should Dove give up? Absolutely not. Should they tweak their product line? I think so. Should they seek to understand who their loyalists are and serve them first and foremost? You bet. After all, their actions do speak louder than their words. If Dove can capitalize on both, they won't only see their market share increase, they'll see their cultural impact grow.