A Scary Halloween 2006 (But Not For Marketers)

Prepare yourself for a scary Halloween. But not on the basis of projected consumer sales. According to a Brand Keys survey, sales of costumes, candy, and decorations are expected to be near $5 billion – nearly 50% higher than 2005.

The average consumer plans to spend $60.00 on Halloween, with nearly three-quarters of consumers purchasing decorations and virtually everyone buying candy.

Retailers are reporting sales increases of 15-20% over a year ago, with gross margins averaging nearly 30%. More and better promotions, and to the fact that Halloween candy was tied in with back-to-school sales, accounts for the increases.

Projected spending for 2006 places Halloween as the sixth-largest spending holiday following:

1. Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanza,
2. Valentine's Day,
3. Easter,
4. Mother's Day, and
5. Father's Day.

At the current rate of growth, it is possible that in a few years Halloween will overtake Father’s Day in terms of retail sales, but if you want to see something scarier than that, click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPYO8KPaKmo

Happy Halloween!

2006 Loyalty Leaders List

Even in the 21st Century, loyalty is still the most potent engagement mechanism a brand can leverage.

If you are interested in knowing where your brand (out of the 238 brands measured in the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Index) ranked among consumers in this years Loyalty Leaders List, the link below will take you to the complete listing.

http://www.brandkeys.com/awards/leaders.cfm

Rankings such as these are, of course, interesting, but keep in mind that loyalty is a leading indicator of profitability.

And that’s something that ranks high on every marketer’s list!

Here's The Difference: Unethical PR Uses Falsehoods To Deceive The Public; Ethical PR Uses Truth To Deceive The Public

Edelman Worldwide, the company that helped write the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's Code of Ethics (which is being revised to read: "Honesty of Identity: You never obscure your identity. Unless it’s particularly inconvenient!") was forced to apologize for the firm's blog supporting Wal-Mart when the firm was publicly outed for being the force behind the ‘Wal-Marting Across America’ blog that was unmasked as a fake created and paid for by Edelman.

Edelman is being linked with a newly coined word for its actions: a “flog,” i.e., something falling between the fake and real posts out there in the unruly blogosphere.

At a time when engagement and community and conversation is paramount to effective marketing, the Edelman-Wal-Mart blog fiasco could end up a case study on how not to navigate the blogosphere.

Because when it comes to blogs, unlike beauty and contact lenses, truth is not in the eye of the beholder!

I Rather Feel Like Expressing Myself Now. And I Could Certainly Use The Release

Last month the GAP launched its “Keep It Simple” TV spot. To do that they juxtaposed classic film footage from Funny Face of Audrey Hepburn dancing in skinny black pants to the 1980 AC/DC hit song “Back in Black."

I found the commercial kind of creepy. It's not just that I don't think dead celebrities should be in commercials (I don’t. It’s kind of creepy), I just think Audrey Hepburn is too good for GAP. She was one of the most elegant and beautiful women in film, and viscerally I think that there’s a better “fit” between she and, say, Chanel than the GAP.

But don’t take my opinion as gospel. A woman friend of mine commented on the campaign saying, “I like the Gap basics and love Audrey Hepburn, but don't like them together.” And that pretty much says it all. Just because you have the financial and technological wherewithal doesn’t mean you should.

The GAP made a significant donation to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, so that’s good. At least one group is sure to benefit from the effort.

I'll Have 14 Sesame Bagels, Lightly Toasted With A Schmear. And A Coke, Please.

Next month Coke will launch Enviga, a sparkling green-tea drink they claim is "calorie deficient" rather than calorie-packed.

The beverage uses a blend of green-tea extracts, called epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG for short, known to boost metabolism, have no more caffeine than a cup of coffee, and provide 20% of an adult’s daily calcium requirements.

Dieting and weight-watching are trends that have long been with us. But now consumers have a choice between calorie-laden beverages, low-calorie drafts, zero-calorie potions, and now, negative-calorie beverage infusions. A brand manager from Coca-Cola noted, "this is about the little steps you take every day in order to have a more balanced lifestyle.” Funny, we used to call it “calorie banking.”

Three cans a day of the drink ostensibly will burn an average of 60 to 100 calories. Or you could just eat half a bagel each morning!

In TV We Trust

A recently released study found that during major national events, consumers turn first to above-the-line media like TV, radio and print, despite the fact that people “love” the new media.

This is an interesting phenomenon and confirms studies Brand Keys has conducted showing that different media make different percent-of-contributions to engagement, loyalty, and, ultimately, sales. It’s all dependent upon the category, “Major National Events,” qualifying as a category unto itself.

So when it comes to national events it seems that Shakespeare was right when he wrote “love all and trust a few.” Savvy marketers might well note this is equally true for product and services.

Just Because It's Consumer-Generated, Doesn't Mean It's Good

Last week in his speech at the Association of National Advertisers, P&G CEO, A.G. Lafley, urged marketers to "let go" of their brands and bow to consumer wants and needs. Main themes included:

1. The consumer is boss,
2. We now live in a media-fragmented world
3. We’ve moved from a push to pull driven marketplace,
4. All of this is accelerating. Oh, yes, and. . .
5. The rise of consumer-generated content has made life more difficult for marketers.

The thing is that a lot of consumer-generated content is, well, terrible, not particularly on strategy, and not engaging, which are areas that even the most unskilled marketers can still maintain some control over. Consumer-generated content may awaken marketers to certain values or trends, so marketers should pay attention, but “let go”? We think not.

Consumer-generated content analysts have pointed out that there is no standard between paid and non-paid consumption, and that there is no norm when it comes to the extent to which the content is wholly created by consumers or assisted by marketers. But that is not entirely true. Just because content is “consumer-generated” provides no guarantee that strategy or creativity or engagement will be represented, let along attained.

Even back in the old days (1975) when advertisers still controlled the advertising and persuasion, there was a tacit acknowledged difference between “creativity” and “disciplined creativity.” So just because it’s “consumer-generated” doesn’t mean it’s good, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be effective, and it doesn’t mean anyone is going to be engaged by it!

And it doesn’t take a genius to realize that was the point of the exercise in the first place!

The Difference Between "Curiosity" & "Engagement"

I spent a lot of time at engagement discussions during Advertising Week 2007, and one of the key come-aways was that the definition of “engagement” remains a relatively, shall we say, “flexible” term.

To a large degree the difficulty arises from the fact that very few marketers have the courage to demand ROI metrics from their agencies and media providers. “Attention paid” – while eschewed when framed as “awareness” – seems perfectly acceptable if you can point and say, “well, the consumers seemed to have been paying attention.” Take for example, Katie Couric’s move to the top new spot for CBS.

Katie Couric's initial appearance on the evening news resulted in a big jump in viewership. But between opening night and last Friday, the newscast has lost nearly half its audience. Preliminary Nielsen ratings show The CBS Evening News with 7.5 million viewers, behind NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams (8.2 million) and ABC's World News With Charles Gibson (7.6 million).

Historically, incoming network anchors have delivered a ratings boost in their first week, but who among you would be surprised to hear that? But after one month. . . wait for it. . . their average ratings declined, the technical term when things like that transpire being, “Well, duh!”

Perhaps someone should point out to anyone who will listen that there is a big difference between consumer curiosity and profitable engagement and that both can be measured!