During a recent reading about the American election I came across the numbers for the advertising budgets of Mitt Romney and President Obama. The numbers took me by surprise for two reasons, the first being that they are ENORMOUS, and the second being the allocation of Obama’s budget.
How will I spend my next $85 million??
As most of us know the election is set for November 2012, and the official campaigning hasn’t started yet. But unofficially the candidates have been campaigning for months, even years. Up to this date Obama has spent $75 million on ads and Mitt Romney has spent a paltry $67 mil.
I mean the numbers only differ by about $8 million, but they differ even further in their budget allocation. The allocation of this budget suggests a lot about the target audience of the two political candidates, and how they are going about reaching them.
See the numbers as of February 2012 below (in millions)
Obama: TV Radio $3.0, Online $12.0, Left Over $85.0
Romney: TV Radio $14.0, Online $1.0, Left Over $7.0
Looks like Romney is taking the traditional route, whereas Obama is trying out new avenues with online. It is interesting because the online ads may not have to go through the same vetting process as a TV or Radio ad, it would be interesting to note if the broadcasting standards are the same, I doubt they are. In the last election Obama was praised for his innovative fundraising efforts and ability to mobilize previously inactive voters, could the online strategy be the next step?
Also note that Obama is sitting on a cool $85 million whereas Romney has some chump change of $7.0 million, mainly due to the fact that he spent a great deal of money attacking Santorum in the final primaries.
The ad spend of the candidates reveals a lot about who they’re targeting. Obama is clearly going for the “wired-in” or “younger” crowd, whereas Romney is sticking to the traditional route. We’ll see if the ad spend goes in another direction once the candidates get “topped-up” for the official campaigning.
Yes, the Volkswagen Touareg is a mid-sized sport utility vehicle for your run of the mill soccer mom. Its name was inspired by a nomadic people from Saharan Africa, which makes sense because SUV drivers often venture off the beaten path to explore worlds unknown, similar to the namesake of the Volkswagen Touareg.
My other car is a Volkswagen
The naming of cars has always been a funny business, inevitably there is a name that does not translate well. In the past you had the Chevy Nova, which means “no go” or “no va” in Spanish. There is the the Mitsubishi Pajero, which apparently means “chronic masturbator” in Spanish, at least according to my sources.
Which brings me to my next point, which many of you may have already surmised. A couple of weeks ago an armed contingent of Tuareg rebels annexed a section of Mali and declared independence. It was an unexpected maneuver that largely rose out of the availability of arms after the Libyan conflict and a recent coup in Mali proper. It has also been suggested that this group of rebels has links to Al-Qaeda. Its annexation of northern Mali was condemned by the international community and the African Union.
Now I won’t go far as to say that this is going to hurt Volkswagens brand image, I doubt that it will even affect sales, but it is definitely a first. I am not aware of similar situation where a car’s namesake has annexed a physical territory. Volkswagen won’t have a problem downplaying the association, I mean they managed to get over the whole founded by a Nazi trade union thing.
In a really crazy world this could play to the brands favour, it could become the “rebellious” car. I mean it practically brands itself.
Marketing and advertising is a great field to work in, you get to work on new projects and craft messages that target specific audiences, these messages often project a fun appealing image, so the work should be fun and appealing as well right? Technically yes, but we all know there comes a time when you check into the office and you don’t come out until the sun rises the next day. The Cannes Young Lions Marketing competition is the 24 hour boot camp that preps you for the midnight runs at the office.
So what exactly are the Young Lions? Its a global competition hosted by a local authority, in Canada it was hosted by the Globe and Mail. You are required to enter as a team of two, and you must be working full time in a marketing function. I partnered with a colleague from Toronto based Loqi Studio. On March 17th (St.Pattys day, boo hoo) we were sent a “case brief”. Within the brief we were presented with a company that was facing a marketing dilemma of a particular sort. We had h24 hours to come up with a solution and convey it in a 1,000 word brief and a powerpoint slide which summed up the idea. There was a big emphasis put on creativity, we were really supposed to think outside the box, like big! Big! Big- outside the box.
In our case the company was the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association). The teams were given a template to follow which included elements that shouldbe included, which helped to serve as a guideline. Although the case was only about five pages long it was still quite complex. The aim of the case was to build a media campaign that would set the tone for the YMCA’s 10 year strategic vision.
The YMCA is a very diverse organization, which has an international, national, and local mandate. It has a strategic vision and mission statement, but its individual units are allowed to function autonomously, so it is quite common that you will have three YMCAs in the same city, but all three will be completely different from each other. On an international level, YMCAs can be very different, in Canada the YMCA is very inclusive and tries to push diversity, whereas in the US the YMCA has a very strong Christian mandate which it promotes openly, this would be a death sentence for the brand in Canada.
Yes, I couldn't resist putting the Village People in the post, it was bound to happen.
The case presented many challenges for the YMCA: increasing competition from non-profits; un-clear brand positioning, statement and product offering; and a diverse service offering but a lack of awareness within the community. Our objectives in overcoming these problems was to: change peoples perspective of the YMCA to be seen as a relevant organization worthy of support, develop the YMCA’s profile as a leading authority on health and well-being of young adults, and bring coherence to the YMCA brand understanding.
First off we realized that the YMCA is a kind of “jack of all trades, but master of none” it does many great things but has trouble conveying all its strengths in one message. Oftentimes the YMCA was seen as a gym or charity despite having many value added programs. Its product offering ranges from: sports and social programs from children to seniors arts programs, and even sliding scale membership for those of lesser means. In short the YMCA was having an identity crisis, and we needed to solve it.
We were curious to see more, so we decided to do some field research. Thankfully there was a YMCA close to where we were working. We hopped in the car and decided to look around. We had some very illuminating conversations with staff and a helpful cruise around the premises. Through our walk around we encountered families, seniors, children, and teenagers. All of them were doing a wide variety of activities from basketball, swimming, working out, we even saw a sword fighting class…that’s right-sword fighting. Everyone we talked to was very happy and kind. The atmosphere was warm, inclusive and nurturing. What immediately struck us was that this was not a gym or a charity, it was a community that was working towards the betterment of its members and the people around them.
After our tour it was back to the drawing board. We decided that we would do an integrated marketing campaign titled the “Walks of Life”, its intention was to showcase the YMCA as an organization that was inclusive and accepted people from all walks of life, this was an important element of building brand cohesion. A unified message built on inclusion and diversity that all YMCAs could stand behind. We wanted to emphasize the power of bringing different people together to build a strong community.
To help reach the objective of a socially relevant organization worthy of support, and a leader of young adults in health and well-being, we thought the YMCA should participate in a high-profile fundraising event. We suggested a fundraising event, aptly titled, Walks for Life, in partnership with the children’s hospital Sick Kids . A portion of the walk would be organized by kids/young adults to help other kids/young adults. Its a cause everyone can support, and helps to establish the YMCA as an organization that can be donated to, but also a leader for the health of children and young adults. This was the basic outline of our campaign, after that we went about justifying our decision and wrote our brief.
Did we win? No we didn’t, but it was a very interesting and challenging experience. Would I enter again next year? Absolutely! I want a trip to Cannes! Who won? These guys.
So what did I learn? Firstly, working in a team was great, bouncing ideas off another person is important for the creative process, I also learnt that you really need to push the creative envelope, a competition like this means you can really invent something crazy- our idea was good but maybe too conventional, also the importance of field research. I don’t think I was fully able to understand the crux of the case until I stepped into the YMCA, seeing it really translated what I felt into words. Lastly, I also learnt…that its fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A!!!
Here is a video of the YMCA re-branding in the US (including a name change from YMCA to the “Y”), most likely the direction that the Canadian YMCA will go in:
The paper cup, the cardboard sleeve, and the mermaid symbol on the front. Depending where you are, these are probably some of the most ubiquitous symbols you see during the morning commute to work. Bring up Starbucks around a group of highly opinionated people and you are bound to come up with some interesting perspectives on how Starbucks is viewed. Is it authentic? Not authentic enough? Intimidating? Corporate?
Love it or hate it, one thing is clear, Starbucks has been a successful business for decades, and is poised to continue its run, but did you know that its success was built without a serious marketing department?
Starbucks has enjoyed very consistent year on year growth, and has been able to aggressively expand its stores and other distribution outlets. Even the recession didn’t stop the coffee house from posting profits, CEO Howard Schultz boasted that they had found a recession proof product. At one point Starbucks was opening 3 stores a day! All of this was achieved without heavy investing in advertising or marketing, the focus was on the customer and the coffee “experience”. Sadly for us the best organizations often claim they don’t need marketing…or do they?
After Starbucks become so ubiquitous it was in danger of falling victim to its own success. With an expanded customer base came varying demand and different expectations. Starbucks now had a range of new customers outside of their traditional core consumer, which forced them to accomodate and meet new consumer needs.
Whereas “traditional regulars” wanted to stay and linger, new customers rushed in-and-out without buying into the “experience”. This was the symptom of a larger problem that Starbucks discovered, people had very different opinions about the brand, this resulted in skewed expectations for new customers.
Now…cue the marketing department. Despite Starbucks having built a very strong brand awareness they hadn’t built strong brand cohesion. It is from here that Starbucks decided to roll out their first mass marketing campaigns informing consumers about the specific value proposition of Starbucks. This campaign largely centred around a core message of the “coffee experience”, price justification, de-bunking common myths, and informing the consumer. Check out the video for more:
Does this video make you look at Starbucks differently, did they tell you something that you didn’t know, and do you feel as though it was authentic? After doing some digging I found that there are a lot of positive initiatives that Starbucks undertakes and I wouldn’t have known about if it wasn’t for this type of campaign.
So even though there was no marketing department during the boom years, now that Starbucks has reached a new phase of its business development, which is maintaining growth and profitability of existing stores, it needs to consolidate its brand image and push a coherent message to its customers. Marketing is now a serious component of Starbucks’ corporate makeup- looks like that marketing degree might come in handy after all.
Perhaps this should have been one of the first posts I made, but somehow it slipped through the cracks. Sometimes marketing can be difficult to define. Many people think it is just promotion or advertising, (often times it is) but to really market effectively you need to understand the core of a business, this helps you to understand the value proposition that you are offering to the consumer. It is the difference between “selling clothes”, or selling “exclusive, tailored shirts, custom fitted and one-of-a-kind”. The core of your business will be the core of your message.
To put it plainly, marketing to me is: the proceses and tools that add value to your product or service. It seems simple, but within that tiny little sentence lies a quandary of ideas. Firstly what is this idea of “value”? I look at it this way, “value” is separate from the product, inherently a product is valuable but if no one knows about it, the inherent value is lost. Once a product is shown to the consumer as possessing certain strengths, be it through advertising or other channels, it now has its inherent worth plus the added value of a message and communication. But marketing doesn’t have to be just communications, it can also consist of added features and general business improvement, this is what makes it so hard to define.
A marketer must have an extensive toolbox to help add value to a product or service. This is where elements of branding, positioning, pricing, product offering and communications come into play. To create value for a product a marketer can use any of these tools (or more) to achieve their business goals. It shows how diverse a field it really is, and the more creative your are in adding value, the more successful your product will be. What is marketing to you?
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