marketing – Page 4 – FreeAssociates

Consumers buy products, not packaging…maybe.

In the slug-fest that is retailing during a recession (coupled with an interest in green packaging) some of our clients are thinking a lot about their brand identity in the store.

Me, too.

But in a few commoditized categories, there’s an underlying doubt at work. For these manufacturers, research indicates that consumers don’t pick a product on the basis of who makes it. Instead, they are swayed almost entirely by the design of the product itself. Who made the sheets on your bed, for example? The towels in your bathroom? Your socks? Many people have no idea. They just liked the pattern or the color or the feel of the fabric.

If that’s true, why spend money and energy on branding in those categories? Here’s why: Because there are other decisions you can affect and other audiences you’re communicating with that matter. A lot.Read More

Remaking the Evian brand

The power of viral marketing is just amazing. And it looks like Evian managed to harness it big-time.

It started with a funny little video called “Baby Break Dance” that went up in June and now has about 500,000 hits. Not bad. But the new “Roller Babies” video posted July 2 has already received 3 million hits on YouTube as of this writing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PHnRIn74Ag]

The question is, where the hell is this supposed to be going?

My very smart friend/client Laura who showed it to me was kind of stunned at how off-strategy it seems. As was I. The Evian brand has long been about health + fashion. Now it’s about — what? Cute, slightly nutty CGI babies?

The phrase “Live young” seems good, smart. A nice extension of the brand’s health equity. And you can’t argue with the attention-getting quality of the Roller spot itself. So I guess we should just be patient and see what develops.

Meanwhile, I’m going to go get a drink of good old L.A. tap — one of the top-rated waters in the world!

Secret ingredient: Joy

A nice quote from Paul Annet’s enlightening talk at SXSW: “Oooh, That’s Clever!”

At SXSW (South by Southwest for those normal folks in the audience) Paul Annet gave a wonderful presentation on delight. His focus was on web design. But his point applies to virtually every area of product –and even service — design.

Our job as marketers is generally to convey information and motivate action. But a truly important part of what we do — and the part that makes so much of the rest work — is to create delight, excitement and joy for our audience. Read More

Big, hot fast food concept

April Fool’s joke? Apparently not.

Warning sought for burger the size of your head
Josh Kowalczyk, an intern with the West Michigan Whitecaps, in Comstock Park, Mich. poses for a photo March 24, 2009.
The $20 burger will feature a sesame-seed bun made from a pound of dough, five 1/3-pound beef patties, five slices of cheese, nearly a cup of chili and liberal doses of salsa and corn chips. The West Michigan Whitecaps say they have no plans to put a warning label on an enormous new hamburger they’re selling this season – despite a vegan advocacy group’s request to do just that.

Read the full story at MiamiHerald.com

Two iPhone apps in a pissing contest

Talk about addressing a basic human need! Restroom finders Have2P and SitOrSquat are two relatively recent additions to the hundreds of thousands of apps on the iTunes App Store for iPhone. They both do the same thing (and there are others!), but each of these two has a very different attitude.

As a designer and as a marketer, I was interested to see how differently they treat their users.

Have2P is what I expected. Its interface is simple (a little ugly, a little funny), the listings are clean and straightforward. It seems to work fine and do what it says it’ll do. Just dandy for a free application.

SitOrSquat turns out to be a promotional app….for Charmin toilet tissue! Funny idea, perhaps even brilliant. Except the user experience is in-your-face annoying.

Karito Kids rock the mouse

Breakout campaign of the year? Wow!
We just found out our client, KidsGive, was awarded top honors at Kid Power 2008 in Orlando, FL! We beat out Kelloggs and a whole bunch of other kid-centered companies with our launch of the new line of dolls and books, Karito Kids.

Sure, these ethnically accurate, international dolls are gorgeously sculpted, the books are a joy to read, and the fashions are truly cool. But there’s an even more important part of the concept: it gets kids exposed to giving. 3% of the purchase price of every Karito Kids purchase goes towards the international children’s charity, Plan. When little girls take them home, they get involved on-line — playing great games, earning extra points and directing the donation to one of four areas: school, home, health or food.

So, here’s what the Kid Power site says about the awards:

The Kid Power Awards have been established to honor, recognize and promote the most innovative Kid’s and Families Marketing Campaign. To identify these organizations and individuals, the Kid Power Xchange has enlisted a prestigious list of recognized industry leaders to accurately and objectively evaluate your campaign.

This one’s in addition to the 16 or so awards they’ve already captured in their first year of operation, including the prestigious Oppenheim award and being named No. 1 Toy of the Year by Family Fun.

We are so proud of our talented team of creatives — Kevin, Wendy, Anat and Janina — and of our amazing, visionary client, that we had to let you know about it. Here’s a link to the KidsGive site. (Yep, we designed that, too.)

BAI Retail Delivery

Just got approval to move ahead with our new campaign for this year’s Retail Delivery Conference & Expo. The theme is “Where innovation meets action” and it’s all about how the banking industry can use fresh thinking to survive and even profit during the current (and coming) economic doldrums. Wendy Tigerman and I developed the overall direction. She’s writing. Anat Rodan is designing the materials.

We kick it off with a new print ad, then we’ll be doing web ads, direct mail, and video concepts for the event itself. It’s the largest industry conference & expo in — I think — the world and we are thrilled to be working on it for our third year.

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