Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Communication Strategy, Creativity, Devious Strategy, Experience, Food, Marketing, Packaging
I’ve always been fascinated by the art of the upsell.
The ways different companies attempt to psychologically increase the average order size of their customers.
One of the most famous is McDonald’s … who basically have kept the classic ‘small, medium and large’ sizes but over the years, have changed the volume of what each represents. So what is now McDonald’s ‘small’ was once McDonald’s large, meaning they get more liquid into their customers mouths, even if the customer is continually buying the ‘same size’.
But where I get the most intrigued is how companies label their small, medium and large sizes.
That doesn’t have to always be in terms of portion size, but also proposal.
One of the most common approaches is ‘Gold, Silver and Bronze’.
Even though the intention is so transparent, it is amazing how often it works because ultimately, the goal is to upsell people from bronze than downgrade people from Gold.
But the best one’s tend to be in Asia – where they tap into all manner of cues to influence the decision making process.
One of my favourites – if that’s the right word – was this Valentine’s Day ad in Hong Kong from years back.
Positioning the ‘wife’ as worthy of only the smallest sized jewellery and the mistress the largest – with mothers in-between – was definitely a unique approach. Though arguably, it may also have been the most honest given the proliferation of mistresses in certain parts of Asia.
But recently I was in Chengdu airport and I saw a worthy new competitor. This.
Vintage, Rare, Precious is all kinds of genius.
Because unlike other approaches, you don’t feel you’re being a complete cheap bastard regardless what version you buy.
Of course, that could also be seen as a flaw, however given in China, everyone knows everything you do says something about you – and the underlying message of these options is old, limited edition and show-off – I think it works in ways other approaches can only dream of.
Which means, as often is the case, China leads the way and maybe … just maybe … Western companies and brands could start giving them credit for stuff they’ve been doing longer than we have been a civilisation.
[Which I covered off years ago in Sydney when I spoke at the Mumbrella conference. You can be bored by watching parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 here]
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Complicity, Consultants, Context, Craft, Crap Products In History, Creative Development, Creativity, Devious Strategy, Experience, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Mediocrity, Reputation, Strategy, Technology
A few years ago, my wife – a designer – was working for a company on a freelance project.
She met them for the briefing and they told her, “We want people to see us as innovative”.
To which she replied, “I think the only way you do that is by doing innovative things”.
Now she wasn’t saying this to be an asshole, she was trying to be helpful … but, of course, they didn’t see that, even though she was absolutely right.
OK, some companies get away with it.
There’s one I know very well who position themselves as progressive … but look a little deeper and you see the innovation is more in their language and wrapping than anything truly ground breaking. And what’s more, they do the same thing – albeit with a different skin – for different companies time and time again.
To be fair, some of what they do/did is truly progressive, but that is most definitely the exception rather than the rule because their current business model appears to be far more about duplication and replication than innovation.
And that would be fine … except they position themselves as innovation pioneers.
It works because nothing attracts conservative companies than the ability to pretend/think they’re innovative or disruptive when – as Lee Hill once brilliantly observed – all they’re really doing is simply ‘modernising to the times’.
Or said another way, they’re simply catching up to where everyone else is, rather than leaving them behind.
It’s a commercial co-dependency.
They talk to you so you can think you’re innovative and you pay them to allow them keep thinking they are.
The reason I say all this is because I recently saw this in Pudong Airport …
It’s for Austrian/American chef Wolfgang Puck and his restaurant chain.
Now Wolfgang has achieved a great deal in his life …
He is the only chef awarded the ‘Outstanding Chef of the Year’ award on multiple occasions.
His 1982 restaurant Spago – which was a revelation – created the concept of the open kitchen.
He is responsible for serving celebrities a special banquet after the Academy Awards.
All good and grand.
However for all the ‘innovation and success’ Wolfgang has achieved, his Wolfgang Puck chain is anything but … exemplified by the fact that this hoarding claims, “To be truly original is to invent the future of food … to question, to experiment” and yet all the pictures accompanying this statement are about as basic as my dress sense.
Cheeseburger.
Prawn salad.
Steak.
Now I am not saying this food won’t be tasty. But I am saying it is not original and it most definitely is not inventing the future of food.
Of course, there is a lot of [bad] marketing that is underpinned by exaggeration and hype. And I totally appreciate China loves the superlative … however, as exciting as the people behind this restaurant may be about this concept and regardless how ‘new’ this may be to China [clue: it’s not] they’re selling the illusion of innovation rather than the reality of it.
And why do I care?
Because people are falling for this shit.
And while that is their issue, the result of this is the systematic downgrading of standards and ambition.
And truth.
Where more and more people are falling for average because it’s been sold to them as exceptionalism.
And it is convenient for them to believe that because it doesn’t challenge or question, it just comforts with convenience.
The result being those who are being innovative … the ones who are trying to do things differently … are met with immediate distain and dismissal. Judged, insulted and dismissed.
Please note I am not in any way claiming to be one of these people. But I know those who truly are. And so many have failed to achieve the impact and success they deserve because the business of illusion innovation is easier to buy than actual innovation.
And while I could say that is their problem, a lot of it is because of what they refuse to do.
Like guarantee results.
Or sell one-size-fits all process.
Or blindly accept the opinion and views of people because of their title.
Or follow research methodologies that are designed for totally different scenarios.
But that happens a lot. I’ve seen it. We all have.
Which is why I think the best thing that can save marketing is maybe to stop marketing.
Stop playing the games of how so many operate.
Stop valuing convenience, complicity and popularity in favour of truth, action and change.
Stop judging people on how much cash they bring in and more on what they’ve done/do.
Stop playing down to a price rather than up to a quality.
This industry is littered with brilliant creative, innovative, progressive doers and thinkers.
They’re everywhere and yet they rarely seem to be championed or celebrated.
At best they’re viewed as a novelty. At worse, a destructive force.
The Emperor’s New Clothes may get short-term economic results.
It may keep people employed and give the C-Suite big, fat bonus cheques.
But what it is also doing, is ensuring we fall backwards.
Not just killing our credibility, but denying a future to those who could bring us back.
And as acts of corporate hostility go, I find that one of the worst of all.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Cannes, Comment, Consultants, Craft, Creative Brief, Creative Development, Creativity, Differentiation, Martin Weigel, Paula, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Pretentious Rubbish, Relevance, Research, Resonance, Respect
There are a lot of quotes out on social media that explains how to make great creative work. Hell, a bunch of them are probably mine.
But putting aside the fact many of the quotes originate from people who, arguably, haven’t done much work that is deserving of that description – all of them, in their own way, are right.
And that’s great, because the survival of this industry is down to making work that is great and achieves great things for those it’s for.
But the problem with those quotes is they often reflect an unrealistic World.
One where time … or budget … or client mandatories don’t matter.
Which is why this quote from Leonard Bernstein is so good.
Because it captures how to get to great in the real World.
We need more of this.
I think people want more of this.
Because not only is there a distinct lack of training in our industry at the moment – and what is there is often from the same outsourced ‘gurus’ everyone else is outsourcing to – but Fergus, from OnStrategy, told Paula, Martin and I how so many young planners outside of the ‘big cities’ end up thinking they have no chance to make something even good, as they lack the tools, processes and infrastructure to do what the people on his show said they did.
It’s why we ensured in our Cannes talk we put 3 practical pieces of advice that anyone could use … because if we want to change the standards, we need everyone to have the ability to do that, not just the privileged big city types.
Which is why I leave you with this.
Because as much as time can help craft, a lack of it can force audacious leaps.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Birkenstocks, Brand, Brilliant Marketing Ideas In History, Cannes, Communication Strategy, Context, Creativity, Culture, Dysgraphia, Empathy, EvilGenius, Fear, Holiday, Imagination, Marketing, Martin Weigel, Otis, Paula
So I’m back.
And after an October where I went to Fiji, Australia, China and America … November is wonderfully static.
Don’t get me wrong, I love travelling … but that was ridiculous.
For all the talk of how COVID would change the way companies would work and interact, I’m meeting more and more people who are travelling more than they did pre-pandemic.
And that’s scary for a whole lot of reasons.
Personal, environmental, commercial.
Scarier than the that day where ghosts and ghouls are supposed to come out and haunt us. Also known as the day kids keep coming to your door demanding sweets.
Yes … that’s a terrible link to the point of this post, but I wrote it to originally appear on Halloween, but then I went to the US and missed my chance, so here we go.
Halloween in NZ is definitely less full-on than the US.
Oh my god … they love holidays and Halloween is one they embrace full-on.
When we lived in Manhattan Beach … it was like a community event.
The whole street would basically come out, all dressed in god-knows what, embracing the mood and the moment.
Obviously I hate that level of sociability … but even I got caught up in it, buying a ridiculously sized baby head from a shop, which I tried on in the car before casually looking to my right and seeing [1] I was next to a bank and [2] I had a security guard looking at me as if I was going to rob the joint.
Good times. Ahem.
Anyway, to keep with the ‘scary’ mood, Otis recently became the proud owner of these …
Yep … Crocs.
Fucking Crocs.
I know we talked about them recently in our ‘Strategy is constipated, imagination is the laxative’ talk … I know I have some sort of grudging respect that they are cool with charging $8 for each ‘personalised attachment’ you can add to the shoes … I know, with Otis’ dysgraphia, they are much easier for him to put on than many others … I know I can’t talk with my love of Birkies … but, but, but THEY’RE FUCKING CROCS.
Seriously, compared to them, Birkenstocks are liked pieces of art.
And yet they continue to live.
To thrive.
Like cockroaches of the footwear category.
Which means I have to salute their brand management and imagination.
Which is better than 99% of brands out there.
Which is why we put them in our Cannes talk.
And why I felt scared enough to put them in a post that was supposed to appear on halloween.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Collegues, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Cynic, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Nike, Planners, Planning, Point Of View, Professionalism, Relationships, Reputation
So this is the last post till next Thursday.
I know … I know … I’ve only just come back from China but now I’m off to the US, so you get 3 more days free from me. Given this month has had an alarming lack of posts given I’ve found myself in Fiji, Australia, China and America, you should consider October my early Christmas present to you all.
So to make up for that, here’s a relatively long post.
Which by my standards, means extra long.
So recently I caught up with an ex-colleague from cynic.
Given they were a bloody nightmare when we worked together, I’m still in shock how they are now a very senior figure in a very high profile company.
Damn them, hahaha.
Anyway, we were chatting and they said how bad they thought agencies were in pitches.
Specifically, their desperation to be liked.
They said they thought the business plan for many agencies is to out-pander the competition.
It got so bad that apparently in a recent meeting, they asked the agency:
“If we’re so good and doing so well, why would we need you?”
Aggressive?
Provocative?
Yep … but they have a point.
I remember once being told to not challenge the clients previous work as someone in the room might have made it … even though we were literally in a pitch to reinvent the clients work.
And while it was an exception in my career [which I ignored and – guess what – we won!!!] the reality is I am hearing this happening more and more, which is why my friends commentedjust seemed to underline its validity.
Which leads me to some questions …
What do agencies think our job is?
What do agencies want to do and change?
And for the companies that buy into this, what do they want their agencies to do for them?
I appreciate I have been incredibly fortunate throughout my career by working with/for/under people, agencies and clients [not to mention my parents] who deeply value debate and provocation to get to better places. I also acknowledge there is an art to HOW you challenge … rather than go in with fists and elbows.
But the idea of pandering rather than provoking seems insane to me.
Sure, you have to have a point of view rather than just have a desire to be controversial … but while you can’t be blind to the good stuff people are doing, neither should you be to the bad.
I swear part of the problem is this attitude we are part of the ‘service’ industry.
That our job is to serve.
To stay silent.
To satisfy needs.
And while we are there to serve our clients … it’s in the quest of helping them be better, not be subservient to. But increasingly it feels that is what a lot of people are expecting – and why a lot of agencies are pandering – which is why I will always treasure something my brilliant ex-NIKE/FFI client and friend – Simon Pestridge – once said to me:
“Middle management want to be told they’re right. Senior management want to know how to be better”.
He’s right.
He’s never been more right.
It’s why the people who worked for him are also great clients … because he set great standards, of which one of them was understanding that transparency, truth and challenge are ultimate signs of respect not confrontation.
Debate isn’t bad.
In my mind, it means you both want to get to somewhere better.
Where you’re holding each other to standards and ambitions you hold dear.
Of course, to do this properly you need to share ambition, standards and trust … not just philosophically, but in terms of the actual work and change you want to create together.
I mean … if you can’t be provocative during a pitch – when a client is literally looking for new ideas – when the hell can you be?
Which all reinforces something my parents used to say to me …
Everyone wants to be liked, but you go further when you’re respected.