Doing Well By Doing Good

In an effort to differentiate themselves, many brands have turned to social-cause marketing. You know, associate your brand with some social issue and, therefore, appear more “concerned” or “in-tune” or “customer caring” than your now-undifferentiated competition. There are causes for children, literacy, and many diseases, but one of the more popular of the causes these days is, of course, the environment.

In an effort to promote London's open green space movement, Cake, a branded entertainment consultancy covered the entire surface of London's Trafalgar Square with turf.

You can watch a time-lapsed video of the project at this YouTube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d6TjFEwpEA

Scientists are aware that we are, to a large part, the result of our environment. Our studies into engagement and loyalty also prove the same to be true for a brand.

Preparing For The Fall

After the announcements of the schedules for fall 2007, it appears that the network TV channels will have about the same mix of genres as they did a year ago:

45 dramas (down from 49)

24 comedies (down from 25)

19 reality shows (up from 16)

5 sports shows (up from 4)

4 game shows (up from 2)

4 news magazine shows (unchanged)

Of the 90 shows that account for the current 2007-08 Prime-Time Schedule, 63% are returning shows, 32% are new shows, and 15% are old shows with new time slots.

From an engagement perspective, the new shows to watch seem to be “Pushing Daisies,” “Reaper,” “Back to You,” and “Aliens in America.” NBC is remaking “The Bionic Woman,” which has such a resonating history that the curiosity factor is bound to create a large, initial audience.

Media, media planning, and media engagement has changed dramatically over the past 2 decades. What hasn’t changed is the fact that if a show can’t generate an acceptably large enough audience it disappears, albeit a bit quicker than in decades past. But that’s the wonderful thing about TV. It is, as the critic Clive Barnes once observed, ”the first truly democratic culture – the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want.”

On the other hand, Barnes also noted “the most terrifying thing is what the people want most!”

Tune in this upcoming September and find out.

McJobs

In 1986 sociologist Amitai Etzioni wrote a story titled "McJobs Are Bad for Kids." The story went on to prove that low-paying, robotic and mindless fast-food positions were, well, low-paying, robotic and mindless. Ever since, McDonald’s has been fighting the stigma of the “McJob.”

A while back, McDonald’s launched a campaign to make employees feel better about their jobs by suggesting a change in employee uniforms. The logic behind the haut couteur for the bas cuisine was that employees would love the new uniforms so much that they would feel better about their low-paying, robotic and mindless jobs.

McDonald’s also thought that as these uniforms would be so super, employees would wear them outside of work too, thus become walking, living, breathing human billboards. Unpaid brand ambassadors, if you will. At the time we suggested on this blog that an increase in their hourly wages would probably be a more engaging solution.

Before you could ask “how’s that new uniform working for you,” McDonald's Corp. recently launched a TV spot that showcases the corporate management careers available at the fast-food giant. It’s their way of redefining the "McJob" as the first step to a career instead of a dead end.

A tempest in a teapot, you say? In 2003, the term “McJob” was added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. McDonald’s complained at the time, and we cannot report the response from Merriam-Webster. We can, however, quote Mr. Webster himself, who noted, “Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground.”

We would also point out that in both life and branding, it is no coincidence that in no known language does the phrase “the greatest job in the world at McDonald’s,” appear!

Turnover

It’s that time of year again when marketing thoughts turn to the marketing departed.

Within the past month, no fewer than 9 CMO departures from top marketing jobs have occurred. The person who most caught our attention was the one who controlled the most marketing dollars, a stunning $2.3 billion. That was General Motor’s VP, Marketing and Advertising for North America, Michael Jackson.

The announcement of his departure got us thinking about engagement and loyalty and corporate profitability, which led us to the Automotive Category rankings of the 2007 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. Independent assessments have shown that our numbers correlate very highly with customer behavior and, therefore, corporate profitability.

Anyway, this year’s rankings for automotive brands were as follows, with, not so coincidently, GM in 10th place.

1. Toyota
2. Mercedes/BMW (tie)
3. Honda
4. Nissan/Volkswagen (tie)
5. Chevrolet
6. Jeep/Saab (tie)
7. Chrysler
8. Hyundai
9. Ford
10. General Motors
11. Kia

Mr. Jackson’s departure is effective June 15 and he “is leaving to pursue other opportunities.”

Gas Pains

It’s been said that if the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls Royce would today cost $100 and get a million miles per gallon. Sadly, this has not been the case, and is especially worrying given the current price of gasoline.

As you begin your vacation planning, here’s an estimate of what you can figure on paying to fill – and re-fill – your gas tank this summer, if you’re driving to one of the places below from New York City:

San Francisco $916.02
Las Vegas $758.58
Yellowstone Park $633.82
Grand Canyon $385.74
Disney World $313.86
Chicago $237.82
Washington, DC $68.48

So which gasoline providers will become the beneficiaries your loyalty (and lower levels of road rage)? According to the 2007 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index here’s how gasoline brands rank in terms of driver loyalty:

1. BP
2. Sunoco/Texaco (tie)
3. Mobil
4. Chevron
5. Exxon
6. Shell

For those of you contemplating somewhat shorter trips, we point out that the bicycle is still the most efficient machine ever created. Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon, which is a pretty good return when you remember that these days a penny saved is $3.40 a gallon earned!

Upfront Headaches

Expanding the revolt started last year when J&J and Coke pulled out of the TV upfront, half-billion-dollar big spender Unilever is re-evaluating its position too. Laura Klauberg, VP Media for Unilever has noted that the company is "weighing all our options in the upfront…Clearly, the market has changed a lot." Unilever cited difficulties of making upfront buys in advance of its calendar fiscal year and the fact that a good deal of marketing has become less TV-centric and more complex.

Well, we feel their pain and have, in fact, written about this for years. Yes, more complexity, and yes, more cross-media usage, and yes, more newer opportunities appear weekly, but to paraphrase an old Wendy’s commercial, “Where’s the brand?”

Companies invest countless dollars in developing their "brands," but don’t insert brand's values into the media planning/buying process, planning by reach and frequency, or by what’s new, different, and wonderful, or more socially-networked, or branded via entertainment vehicles. But that approach is flawed, because the media option's values may not reinforce the advertised brand's values. And that’s what you need if you want to see levels of ad engagement and loyalty.

That being the case, Brand Keys developed Brand-to-Media Engagement (B2ME) assessments that measure the degree to which your media plan (above-the-line, below-the-line, and new media) reinforces your brand's values. In fact, current research reveals that worst case it can predict increased levels of brand awareness, engagement, and positive brand imagery, before your spend your money. Best case, it can actually predict sales resulting from your plan!

Comedian Fred Allen once offered up some funny ad statistics, quipping, “Advertising is 85% confusion and 15% commission,” but the percentages have changed since that observation. If you want different numbers, here’s some: with B2ME assessments you can generalize predictive media results at the 95% confidence level. Before you spend your money – upfront or otherwise!

And that’s nothing to laugh at!

We Only Read It For The Engagement Articles

Amanda Beard, winner of seven Olympic swimming medals, is planning to pose nude in Playboy, and Swimmer’s World Magazine reported that the possibility is “dominating discussion among the swimming community."

Is a swimmer posing in Playboy so engaging that it should dominate discussion among the swimming community? Or is it just that seeing a naked celebrity is generally engaging? Or is it just one of those universal truths, that naked women are, well, engaging?

Prurient interests aside, is this engagement or just plain profligate curiosity? Dr. Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota has suggested, "It used to be that female athletes were portrayed as wholesome, All-American girls. Now you get female athletes in GQ, Playboy and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. The result of it is coverage that is very damaging; that trivializes and marginalizes women athletes because it does not give them the respect they deserve as competent athletes."

And therein lies the conundrum. “Engagement” – real engagement – is the bolstering of a brand’s equity resulting from a particular marketing activity. So public relation issues notwithstanding, there's really no reason you can't be wholesome and be attractive to men. Even naked in a magazine.

After all Playboy built an empire based on just that kind of an engaging premise.

Memories

A short memory may be a real benefit in politics, but when it comes to engagement and advertising, the reverse is true about commercial theme songs.

Commercial testing has long been with us and there have, of course, been lots of recall tests conducted, but nowhere is memory so important as it is when it comets to commercial theme songs.

Anyway, want to test your commercial memory? Go to http://mentalfloss.com/quiz/quiz.php?q=59 and take the quiz and see how well your long-term memory is functioning.

At a time when most engagement is mostly driven by emotion, you should listen to your heart, but sometimes you just can’t stop listening to the tune in your head!

You Can't Have Too much Loyalty: The Rule of Six

The results of this year’s Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index study were released Monday. This is our 10th year and now we have assessments by 24,000 consumers for 55 categories and 362 brands.

The results of this study reveal the extent to which brands are believably positioned to meet or exceed customers’ expectations - the key to earning a customer's next purchase and the only true measure of loyalty and engagement.

But Emily Burg, of Marketing Daily, also reported the effects of what we call the “Rule of Six,” and how it can help – or hurt – your brand, because loyal and engaged customers are six times more likely to:

• Engage with the brand
• Pay attention to ads and marketing
• Think better of the brand
• Buy the product again and again
• Resist competitive appeals and price offers
• Recommend the product or service to someone else
• Invest in the company (if it's publicly traded)
• Give the brand the benefit of the doubt

Access to the loyalty and engagement intelligence is available in our Customer Loyalty Engagement Insights Package. A subscription includes a customized report for your brand, (with results for your competitors – including updates over the year), and a Quarterly E-Newsletter, The Customer Loyalty Engagement Monitor, which reports leading-edge thought-strategies, insights, and perspectives regarding loyalty and engagement. Think of it as a new tool to help you plan for brand success.

Specific information regarding this program can be accessed above, via our website (www.brandkeys.com), or by calling 212-532-6028 X15.

Of course, there’s no set formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance in the need for customer loyalty and consumer engagement.

Exactly How Loyal Are Your Customers?

The results of this year’s Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index study are in.

Participants in the survey included a nationally-representative sample of 24,000 men and women, 18 – 60, drawn from the 9 US census regions. This is our 10th year and we ended up with assessments for 55 categories/362 brands. All the research is done by means telephone interviews, augmented by 10% of central location intercept interviews of “cell phone-only” respondents.

Brandweek covered it in their annual “Loyalty” issue, and you can find Kenneth Hein’s take on the results here.

Tom Van Riper of Forbes.com took another look at various categories, in his article Brands Americans Embrace.

And Forbes.com web TV anchor, Jennifer Lee, interviewed Brand Keys Founder & President, Robert Passikoff about everything from coffee to computers.

The results of this study reveal the extent to which brands are positioned to meet or exceed customers’ expectations - the key to earning a customer's next purchase and the only true measure of loyalty and engagement.

This year access to the loyalty and engagement knowledge is easier than ever before via the Customer Loyalty Engagement Insights Package. A subscription includes a customized report for your brand, (with results for your brand and competitors – including updates over the year), and a Quarterly E-Newsletter, The Customer Loyalty Engagement Monitor, which reports leading-edge thought-strategies, insights, and perspectives regarding loyalty and engagement.

Specific information regarding this program can be accessed above, via our website, or by calling 212-532-6028 X15.