From A Marketing Point of View

After a few months in the world advertising as someone working in marketing, I began to see some of the subtleties which need to be utilized in today's market place. Even though I have far more experience than I had had previously, I still have yet to scratch the surface of what it truly means to be deeply involved in marketing for years. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to speak to someone who spent years in the marketing game. Frank Simrell Sr, a former marketing associate for the Kingston Armory's sales team, was kind enough to share some of his tips, tricks, and experiences with me in hopes that I could see career success as well.

After welcoming Mr. Simrell to our meeting and exchanging pleasantries, he was not shy about starting up our little interview. The first question I had pertained to the changes he faced over the years as a marketer.

Mr. Simrell: The marketing industry has seen uncountable changes over the course of the last thirty years. The biggest changes we have seen are in technology. We can track people, demographics, and buying patterns like never before, which allows us to assure that we are marketing to the correct target. When I first entered the industry, we could take educated guesses and do the best we could, but now we can nearly certain that a particular campaign is successfully hitting the target audience.

JD: What advice do you have for somebody who wants begin a career in marketing?

Mr. Simrell: Learn to write. Everybody knows that intuition, along with a knowledge of numbers, and now a familiarity with things like Google Analytics there are a lot of components to being successful in the world of marketing. One thing that people overlook constantly is an ability to write. A marketing plan is perhaps the biggest factor on the road to success. If you can write, you can construct a pitch with the potential to change the sales game for your company.

JD: Was there a certain skill or skill-set that you feel set you apart from others competing for the same job or even the same clients?

Mr. Simrell: Absolutely. Everybody loves to believe that experience makes all the difference in the world, and there is no doubt that many companies hire on this basis. I don't mean to say that experience is not important, because it is certainly something which cannot be replaced. I had minimal experience when I got into marketing, but I feel what set me apart was my ability to interact with people. I don't just mean being sociable, but rather to interact and connect with people on a personal level. People love to work with and for people who they can interact with and not have to think twice about what they were going to say. I can't tell you how far my ability to talk to people as a friend and not a business partner took me in my career.

JD: At any point in your career, did you ever question that what you were doing was, say, less than ethical?

Mr. Simrell: Sure I did. When I first decided to study marketing I saw it as a form of manipulation, but then I realized that ti is  just American business. Our job as marketers is to provide the proper people with the products they seek. Essentially, my job was to make sure everyone had what they needed and not only can I live with that, I love what I spent my working life doing! Keep at it. It's only a moral question if you allow it to be.

After speaking with Mr. Simrell for an hour, I obtained countless other useful pieces of information, but I felt these were some of the most important for anybody with any questions about marketing. Even though I've learned quite a bit, the interview only left me with more questions. Fortunately for me, Mr. Simrell told me he would love to help anybody with interest and to stay in touch! As I learn more from him, I'll be sure to share anyone else who wants to know. 

Cyber Monday

With Black Friday loved by some and hated by others, it should come as no surprise that the advertising industry created a holiday to be enjoyed by all. Cyber Monday brings the best of Black Friday to the table while omitting all of it's faults. No lines, no waking up early, no abandoning family members in the middle of a holiday, and of course, all of the discounts.

Now that there exists a holiday where nobody will get trampled and still see their savings, why hasn't Cyber Monday overshadowed Black Friday? Is the rush? The thrill? The exclusivity? Or perhaps everybody is so deeply rooted in the traditions of Black Friday that they may never change.

Whatever the reason, the deals between the two consumer holidays clearly offer nearly the same incentive in their savings. If time is any indication, this trend doesn't seem subject to change, and it is not for lack of trying. Although Cyber Monday ads are greatly outnumbered, the quality and price promotion is as competitive as ever.

Over the course of time I'm sure more and more shoppers will partake in the newly available Cyber Monday, but I can't say with certainty that Black Friday will see a decrease in the number of shoppers lined up around buildings and ready to trample fellow shoppers for the best deal

Black Friday isn't for everybody. Some of us are quite content ordering their gifts in the comfort, and the safety, of their homes. 

Advertising: A Social Experiment

Black Friday. These two words have a very polarizing effect on all of American society. The first group of people everybody recognizes are those who believe it is kill or be killed. These people salivate at the first sign of Black Friday advertising and plan their holiday around the best deals out there. If it comes down to the deal of the year or the person next to them, the deal will win nine times out of ten. Then there are the people who resent Black Friday, the fact that it distracts from the meaning of Thanksgiving, and all of the traffic and clashing shoppers driven to the store by some measly sales. Although these people resent what Black Friday is all about, some of them will still venture out to the stores late Friday morning and try to "see what is there." Black Friday advertising evokes plenty of emotions in plenty of people, and I wanted to explore the essence of this brilliant exercise in marketing and advertising.

This year distinguished itself from every previous year's advertising in many ways, but Wal-Mart dominated this new idea. Not only did they begin their deals in the evening on Thanksgiving, but they separated these deals into three separate sections. The first string of deals began at 6 pm and ran until 7. Now, what was unique about these deals is that they had a 1 hour guarantee. They were guaranteeing that if you were in line for any of their big-ticket items between the hours of 6 and 7 pm, you would be able to buy the product and if they were out of stock, they would have it shipped to you by Christmas. A pretty radical idea for Black Friday, and I was excited to see how that went. Slightly less exciting were the next two waves of deals. The second began at 8 pm and ended around midnight with some pretty decent deals. Third was their traditional 6 am sale and these sales had taken a drastic increase in price from the previous two deals, which made me wonder why anybody would wake up at that hour?

Admittedly,  Wal-Mart changed the game and the only adjustments other stores made included bumping up the time they open to 6 pm, which only angered the non-Black Friday goers that much more. In order to get a closer look at the type of impact these new advertising strategies used by Wal-Mart might have on their competitors, I ventured out into the wild that is Black Friday approximately one half hour before all hell broke loose. Target had a line wrapped all the way around the side of the building awaiting a plethora or door-busters and Wal-Mart's only visible sign of chaos from the outside was the parking lot.

My exploration of the Black Friday society began on the inside of Wal-Mart, after parking approximately a quarter mile from the doors of the store. What I saw was one line. Then another. Then another. After a few minutes I began to realize that every single deal in the store required the customers to stand in line! A brilliant move by Wal-Mart. Sure, you could save hundreds of dollars on their door-buster television, but that would hardly leave you with enough time to shop for another deal, let alone two! By drastically limiting the amount of deals per consumer, Wal-Mart was able to pack the store and save face financially by limiting items per person. Though this plan was devious, the deals appeared to still be good enough to pack every line front to back. The store was packed. Even with the new "wait in line" strategy, Wal-Mart's deals were good enough to fill the store to capacity and continue to cause avid Black Friday shoppers to butt heads.

Following my 1-hour guarantee adventure to Wal-Mart, I visited Target's earliest Black Friday door-buster sale to date. What I expected was far different that what I experienced. I expected the crowd to be depleted as a result of the excellent deals offered by Wal-Mart coupled with their guarantee. After stepping through Target's doors, all I could see was chaos. People running through each other to get to the televisions were the least of their problems. There were piles of people fighting for headphones and pushing and shoving for the best place in line. Target embodied everything those who avoid Black Friday dread. Overall, neither of these two places were any safer than the other, and it seems the population split was simple. The people who needed the biggest deals on a few products should attend Wal-Mart and those who needed deals on many products should have visited target. I can't verify whether or not that was exactly how the split worked out, but it sure would have been strategic from a consumer standpoint.

In the holiday season, advertising is king, and no one day is more powerful than Black Friday. These advertisers control the entire population. Whether you consider yourself to be a Black Friday participant or not, the truth is that most people will venture out to the store on Black Friday, or even Thursday night now that savings have interrupted the sanctity of a family holiday. If it weren't for the power which advertising holds over society, people would spend their whole day being thankful for what they already have. Even though the idea of Thanksgiving is a great one, it cannot stop the fire that is the inherent greed of man, especially not with advertising fuel the flames. 

The Advertising Spiral

Last time I posted, I mentioned all of the angles advertisers look at to prevent a misinterpretation of one of their ads which might lead to some type of conflict. But what if they want to make waves?

Most of you have probably heard the phrase "any publicity is good publicity." If we look at this from an advertising standpoint, we can see some of the advantages of producing a controversial ad.

If there is even a remote chance that an ad will be misconstrued, you can almost certainly believe that it will be. Now with social media playing such a large role in today's society, a company can draw as much, if not more publicity from social media than virtually any other medium.

When somebody looks at an ad and sees an issue, there is a significant chance that it was placed there intentionally. An average consumer can reference the advertising spiral to try to help them determine if the controversy was intentional, or just an oversight.

The concept of the advertising spiral has been around since the inception of the industry. When it seems that a company has been using a particular advertising campaign or platform for a while, there is a good chance that any ad which might make waves is an attempt at a new pioneering stage. Even though they may be marketing the same product, taking a chance with a new wave of ads might be just what they need to get themselves back into the public eye.

Take for example, this Intel advertisement with some glaring controversy staring right back at us.

I will let you draw your own conclusions about what makes the ad so controversial, but there is no question that it stirred the proverbial pot. And why wouldn't a company such as Intel, which so many people take for granted, want to make waves?

You may not like what the advertisement says, but it catapulted Intel back into the public eye. As a company which finds its products inside of so many others, such as brand name computers, they need to do whatever they can to stand out.

Down the road, you may go to buy a laptop and see that it has an Intel processor. The name will ring a bell. They count on the fact that you don't know why you remember the name, but simply the fact that you do, and will buy the product as a result.

This practice is admittedly a risky one, but great risk is the father of great reward. If a company is willing to risk their reputation for a potential increase in sales, then they could be greatly rewarded for it.

Maybe companies shouldn't do this. Maybe it is offensive. Maybe the risk is too great. There are a lot of maybes in controversial ad creation, but there is also a lot of publicity. It simply boils down to believing if any publicity truly is good publicity. 

Societal Issues in Advertising

Every time an ad is created, teams of people examine how it could possibly be misconstrued. These same teams are the people generating the ads, and they must recognize that their ideas could be seen in a different light by others. The following is a short account of my experience in one of these situations.

On a Monday morning, much like any other, our team met in our conference room to discuss the generation of an advertisement for a current campaign we were working on. Because we had done this many times before, we recognized the pitfalls we would encounter along the way. There would be revisions, there would be technological limitations, and perhaps most obviously, there would be social issues.

The advertising campaign for which we were generating the ad was about the relationship people have with their vehicles. After much deliberation, we came to a conclusion. We would take a best friend approach and personify the vehicle as the driver's best friend or even significant other. It was at this moment that we realized all of ways in which these ads might be misinterpreted.

One of the most controversial ads we created was a male treating his car as though it was his significant other. The advertisement itself was both playful and informative, but the color of the car and it's setting raised an issue.

One of our senior copywriters, who has seen issues coming and going, pointed out the problem with the way we were portraying the car. The car was initially a royal blue (predominantly a male color) and it was parked in a garage full of tools. For these reasons, she noted that the car could be seen as a male significant other, and that people would begin to say that this company was a supporter of same-sex institutions, which was something they had no intention of incorporating into their ads.

I silently wondered to myself how such a portrayal could cause a problem before finally asking the designer who had created the ad. This designer told me that he had created the ad turning a blind eye to the gender of the car, but that the masculine setting and gender descriptive color of the car were a major red flag.

After we noted this issue, we met again on Thursday to discuss the problem as well as potential solutions. First, we discussed changing the ad altogether, but decided that the concept and the copy were too strong to waste. Second, we considered changing the setting to something a bit more feminine, perhaps near a garden, and a more feminine color, something of a lighter or pastel shade. However, we decided that that would push standard marriage practices and that should also be avoided. Finally, we decided that we should change the car to a gender-neutral white, and place it in a very generic driveway in order to avoid ascribing any gender to the vehicle.

This was my first real experience in the world of sensitivity in advertising, and it has drastically changed the way I look at the ads people compose. From the setting to the color scheme and even the music used, virtually any aspect can cause a conflict in one form or another. This experience taught me that the best course of action is to avoid specification at all costs, and to try to distance that advertisement from any controversial issue which may arise. 

"Make it Pop!"

Make it pop! This is the only thing company's demand from their advertising agencies.

For the first time this year, I actually worked in an advertising agency. What I saw in my short time there was nothing less than shocking.

We brainstormed an advertising campaign for a particular company, I shall not name the company. After offering several ideas for campaigns and definitive images, they finally chose a concept that they really loved! Or so they said.

They came back with a laundry list of specifications -make it bigger, change the font, that color scheme isn't ideal, animate the background but not the image - but one iconic comment found its way to the top of the list with every revision - "Make it Pop!"

Now that I was watching the changes being made and our original idea completely change shape, size, and even the concept, I was nothing short of amazed. Seeing all these changes prompted me to ask our most senior graphic designer, "What do they mean by 'Make it Pop!'?" To which he genuinely replied, "Nobody knows."

"Make it Pop!," is the most generic phrase containing a definite goal to ever be uttered by man. The agency can only do so much to make an ad stand out before it becomes overkill, and no consumer is a fan of an ad which obviously just tries too hard.

The point I would like to make here is that I heard the term, saw the evolution of the concept, and even the end product which "popped" according to the company for whom it was produced. I still have exactly no concept of just what made it pop.

Stories such as this pervade the history of advertising agencies all over the world, and they are the butt of many jokes at agency functions. The term is thrown around by those in the industry as a sarcastic way to refer to editing some or all parts of an ad.

If you don't know what you mean, chances are good that we don't either. Please be kind to the agency you contract and come back with specific revisions. If it pops to some, it may not pop to all, but really, we just want to know that it pops for you. 

Something Other Than Sports?

Keep our head in the clouds and our feet on the ground, right? That's what we were always told growing up and we still have that notion pounded into our heads today. So should an advertisement keep that in mind when they show us something to get our attention? Probably not.

As a high school student, my dream was to play a college sport at the highest level. Today, I can honestly say that I've made it. As I enter my senior year as a Division 1 athlete, my mindset has changed drastically from that of the eager, competitive, eighteen-year-old with lofty goals. I now think about what classes I can take to help in my career and not which classes will be the easiest A, allowing me to practice, lift, run, and go pro someday.

Should the NCAA be advertising to people like me, who have lived the experience and now see it for what it is? Or should they be advertising to kids like me at 18 and every other kid who thinks they'll be the next J.J. Redick or Bo Wallace and the parents who want to their kids to be these athletes?

The answer is simple. Advertise to the dreamer, not the doer. Most college athletes will have the same realization as I have, and lets face it, that takes the focus away from the sport.

The NCAA is all about the money, the fans, the prowess. For God's sake, it is the National Collegiate Athletics Association. Not the National Collegiate Academics Association. Let's run some ads that focus on the sport. March Madness, the BCS Bowls, and the College World Series shouldn't have to stand on their own. Let's run ads that call a spade a spade and let everyone know about the sports and the athletes.

We want to watch sports and you want our money. Please stop trying to save face about how we will all go pro in something other than sports. Those of us who care already know. As for these academic ads, it was a nice sentiment. But frankly, NCAA, we don't give a damn.