Don’t Look Now, You’re Soaking In It

Running through some rather hilarious vintage advertisement archives on the Internet inspired us to take a look at what has changed in advertising over the 20th Century.

The answer is, not a lot. People are still looking for the latest widget that will make their life easier, healthier or wealthier.

The only thing to really change is technology; our widgets are more sophisticated and so are we as consumers.

Unfortunately many businesses are using last century’s thinking to reach their target market.

While mass media such as newspapers and television will always have their place, technology has created niche media products that enable you to reach an audience who have already pre-qualified themselves.

If you sell the latest kitchen gadget, why spend $100,000 of dollars on a free to air TV station when spending less than half that amount on a pay-TV channel dedicated to cooking shows puts your product in front of an audience more likely to be specifically interested in it.

If your target audience is up to 25 years of age look at advertising on or contributing to popular video sites such as You Tube or My Space.

Campaigns centring on SMS or even MMS may be more effective than a newspaper campaign.

Business Communications Management can help you select the right medium for your campaign and, just as importantly ensure the message is going to appeal to your target audience.

When Your Ads Don’t Add Up

So you’ve advertised and you haven’t got the response you’re looking for. Believe it or not, it may not be the fault of your advertising agency!

All business owners or marketing managers should be conducting systematic regular reviews on all marketing programs and it all comes back to the ‘three Rs’ – review, research, refresh.

Review
. Are you getting the results you’re looking for?
· Compare several years’ data
· Are you reaching your target market?

Research
· Understand what media is available
· Identify your target market
· Understand your target market’s change of media habits


Refresh
· Refresh your advertising strategy
· Refresh your creative approach

There are 12 typical reasons why advertising doesn’t deliver the results that you are looking for. Business Communications Management can conduct a thorough review of your program and find out which of these are hampering your marketing.

1. Ads weren't run long enough
2. It was the wrong message
3. There was no clear offer or had no value for the prospect
4. It didn't engage the audiences’ interest
5. The design of the ad obscured or competed with the message
6. The ad was placed in the wrong medium
7. It was designed by the media sales rep
8. The ad was put together in a hurry
9. There is no plan to the marketing - no goal to attain
10. There was no system to measure the results
11. There was no consistency to the ads in "look" or message
12. The product was presented from the advertiser's, not the consumer’s viewpoint

Staking A Claim

In this media-saturated age, many of us have become cynical about advertising – especially the claims that one product is the biggest, best or cheapest.

But even seemingly innocuous claims can get you into trouble.

Earlier this month, advertising for the cold sore cream Zovirax came to the attention of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code Council.

The manufacturers had a used a throw away line ‘nothing works faster’ in their TVCs but were now being called upon to prove it by product rival Novtaris.

Specifically the makers of Zovirax were told, the council held : that although the words 'Zovirax: nothing works faster' "did not amount to a claim that Zovirax was faster than all other cold sore medicines, it still breached the advertising code because it couldn't be verified."

It reminds us that travel agency Flight Centre in January this year was instructed to get rid of their long-standing positioning statement ‘Lowest Airfares Guaranteed’.

ACCC believed the slogan indicated that the airfares were guaranteed to be the lowest available, which were not always so and therefore misled the public.
After its own survey of airfares, the commission said Flight Centre's claim of "global buying power" to get better deals was untrue, because the company books airfares on an individual basis.

The ACCC ordered the company not to use the slogan for five years and to put correction notices in stores and newspapers.

The lesson is businesses are better to be truthful about their products and services and always position the business to ‘under promise, but over deliver’.

AWB – Reaping and Sowing

While the focus of every business should be running profitably, for some it means the exclusion of everything else.

That is probably the most obvious outcome to emerge from the Cole Inquiry into the actions of the Australia Wheat Board who were found to have paid bribes to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

For former executive Norman Davidson Kelly, described by the Cole inquiry as having "no commercial morality", it means losing a lucrative deal with BHP Billington.

BHP Billington chief executive Chip Goodyear signalled the mining giant would attempt to dump his Tigris company as a joint venture partner in Iraq.

Not only do the unethical actions of a few executives bring harm to themselves but also to the people they lead in business.

Earlier this year the American Management Association published a survey on Ethical Enterprise.
According to the AMA/HRI survey, working in an environment with cynicism or diminished morale, improper training about, or ignorance that, acts are unethical, and the lack of consequences when caught are the next leading factors likely to cause unethical behaviour. These factors are followed by the need to follow the boss’s orders, peer pressure/desire to be a team player, desire to steal from or harm the organisation and, paradoxically, wanting to help the organisation survive.

The survey also found that the single most important ethical leadership behaviour is keeping promises, followed by encouraging open communication, keeping employees informed and supporting employees who uphold ethical standards. If an organisation has leaders who simply don't “walk the talk” when it comes to ethics, there’s little hope of maintaining a strong ethical culture.

All business owners should articulate the standards of behaviour expected from their team but just as importantly, be clear on what moral and ethical standards that one is planning to live by and not simply pay lip service to.

Small Beer

The majority of people wouldn’t go out of their way to sling insults based on someone’s nationality but when it comes to the friendly rivalry of The Ashes cricket test, the Poms are fair game.

And in the spirit of fun (at least we think it’s fun) the British People Against Racial Discrimination has complained to the Advertising Standard’s Council about beer brewer Toohey’s latest advertisement which describes their ‘super cold’ beer as a ‘Pom’s worst nightmare’.

The complaint is the use of the word Pom to describe denizens of the Old Dart.

We believe the complaint is actually a psychological tactic by the Poms to focus attention away from their less than stellar performance in the first test in Brisbane.

We cite as evidence the following remarks by British People Against Racial Discrimination’s spokesman David Thomason:
"These songs that the Aussie supporters sing talk about we can't get near you because of your smell, your body odour, your bad breath, your buck teeth, your whingeing, have you got some soap," he said.
"The worst you hear from the Barmy Army is that Aussies are sheep shaggers and you all live in a penal colony."

Quote of the month:

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to prosper."
- Benjamin Franklin