Drew McLellan, Author at McLellan Marketing Group

Want to kick off your week with a burst of creativity?

August 13, 2007

Let's start the week with the idea that we can be incredibly creative and attention-getting with a little effort. Here are some very clever visual marketing messages that probably didn't cost too much more than the usual hum drum executions.

Want to see a few more and learn about the 5 rules for being clever/funny in ads?

Related posts:

Creativity tip — ask and ask again!

More packaging game candy

Put on a different hat

Tell me again that branding doesn’t matter

August 12, 2007

For those of you still on the fence about the power of branding, check out the results of the study just released by Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The full study will be released in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The study finds that kids aged 3 to 5, when presented with identical foods — one in a McDonald's wrapper and the other without — overwhelmingly rated the branded one as tasting better.

Hmm. And if branding affects consumers that dramatically by the age of 3, how do you suppose it works after another 20-30 years of conditioning?

Still wondering about the value of investing in and building a consistent brand?

Related posts:

A must read book on branding

In lead generation, branding matters

This is your brain. This is your brain on brands.

Nothing smarter than women who write!

August 12, 2007

The W list. The new Z list.

Myself, I'd have called it the S list. S for smart, sexy and more than a dash of sass.

Women who blog. Every one of them well worth the read.

A few I didn't see on the list (I'm guessing there are multiple versions bouncing around so they may be on *the* list.) But either way, they are must reads for me:

Engaging Brand Anna Farmery
Every Dot Connects Connie Reece
Marketing Idea Blog Janet Green

And the W list as I found it…

45 Things Anita Bruzzese
A Girl Must Shop Megan Garnhum
advergirl Leigh Householder
Back in Skinny Jeans Stephanie Quilao
Biz Growth News Krishna De
BlogWrite for CEOs Debbie Weil
Brand Sizzle Anne Simons
Branding & Marketing Chris Brown
Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk
Cheap Thrills Ryan Barrett
CK’s Blog CK (Christina Kerley)
Communication Overtones Kami Huyse
Conscious Business by Anne Libby
Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni
Corporate PR Elizabeth Albrycht
Customers Rock! Becky Carroll
Deborah Schultz by Deborah Schultz
Diva Marketing Blog Toby Bloomberg
Dooce Heather Armstrong
Email Marketing Best Practices Tamara Gielen
Escape from Cubicle Nation Pamela Slim
eSoup Sharon Sarmiento
Flooring The Consumer CB Whittemore
Forrester’s Marketing Blog Shar, Charlene, Chloe, Christine Elana, Laura and Lisa
Get Fresh Minds Katie Konrath
Get Shouty Katie Chatfield
Giant Jeans Parlour Anjali
Hey Marci Marci Alboher
Inspired Business Growth Wendy Piersall
J.T. O’Donnell Career Insights J.T. O’Donnell
Kinetic Ideas Wendy Maynard
Learned on Women Andrea Learned
Little Red Suit Tiffany Monhollon
Liz Strauss at Successful Blog Liz Strauss
Lorelle on WordPress Lorelle VanFossen
Manage to Change Ann Michael
Management Craft Lisa Haneberg
Marketing Roadmaps Susan Getgood
Moda di Magno Lori Magno
Modite Rebecca Thorman
Narrative Assets Karen Hegman
Presto Vivace Blog Alice Marshall
Productivity Goal Carolyn Manning
Spare Change Nedra Kline Weinreich
Tech Kitten Trisha Miller
That’s What She Said by Julie Elgar
The Blog Angel aka Claire Raikes
The Brand Dame Lyn Chamberlin
The Copywriting Maven Roberta Rosenberg
The Engaging Brand Anna Farmery
The Origin of Brands Laura Ries
The Podcast Sisters Krishna De, Anna Farmery & Heather Gorringe
Water Cooler Wisdom Alexandra Levit
Wealth Strategy Secrets Money Gym author & Founder Nicola Cairncross
What’s Next Blog B L Ochman
Wiggly Wigglers by Podcast Sister Heather Gorringe
Ypulse Anastasia Goodstein

Marketing Truth: People love themselves most of all

August 11, 2007

Here's the marketing truth. People love themselves. And in the end, trite as it has become "what's in it for me" is a very accurate reflection of the consumer's mind set.

Mike Sigers over at Simplenomics wrote about a fascinating study. One of the findings he sited was:

A study of college-aged women included this test: The women were given a pen and paper and asked to write anything they wanted.

460 of the 500 wrote their own name.

Wow.

And yet, time after time, marketers trip over themselves on this truth. Their efforts are almost insulting in an attempt to manipulate this attitude without actually understanding it at all.

Spike Jones writes at Brains on Fire about an Oakley campaign where the sun glasses manufacturer sent a 22-page booklet about their glasses and then asked the recipients to share the names of their friends who would also get the 22-page sales piece. The reward? An Oakley decal of course. Woo hoo.

What the Oakley example shows us is that marketers pretend to be thinking about the customer but they're really just looking in the mirror and hoping to see the customer's reflection in the background.

Not going to work, my friends. We're going to actually have to look away from the mirror.

Give a little

Newsletter No No's

Brilliant series on being successfully self-employed

August 10, 2007

Tony Clark has always been one of my favorite bloggers. He's a gifted artist. That would be enough for most people. But he's also an insightful and inspiring writer. (And a Disney fan, so that really puts him over the top!)

His blog, Success from the Nest, is much more than a hot bed of information and solid tips for the self-employed. Tony's posts and life/work balance, chasing your dreams, digging down deep to find the best of yourself, helping clients grow, and practical work tips are food for the brain and the heart of anyone out there trying to make a buck without selling their soul.

I always find something of interest on Tony's blog. But he's recently completed a five-part series called the Hierarchy of the Successfully Self-Employed. Whether you are self-employed or not — I promise you will find food for thought in this series.

It's about so much more than working.

Hierarchy of the Successfully Self-Employed (part 1)
Freelancing is for Suckers (part 2)
All the Aggravation of Employment, Without All the Perks (part 3)
You May Already be an Expert…You Just Don't Know It (part 4)
Gurus Share More by Doing Less (part 5)

Enjoy this series and if you're smart…enjoy Tony's blog on a regular basis.

Listen up (why your customers’ native tongue matters)

August 10, 2007

Have you ever been out in a public place, maybe enjoying coffee with a friend when all of a sudden, your ears perk up? You hear a familiar voice and you can't help but listen for it? Or you hear a phrase or word that trips off your own tongue on a regular basis?

It's human nature to be drawn to voices that feel familiar. Steve Lovelace from Build a Better Box has a great post about a study from the National Academy of Sciences about how infants respond to people speaking in different languages. The study suggests that even as young as five months, the infants recognize the tones and patterns of their native language and respond accordingly.

Customers are really just big babies. No, I don't mean fussy. I mean, just like the 5 month olds, they respond to their native tongue. But all too often — we don't write that way.

Look through your own communications pieces and see if you can spot one or more of the following:

Sales speak: "You can drive it home today!" Okay, yours probably aren't that blatant. But if it sounds like a slick salesman, it isn't going to fly.

Insider jargon: Do your materials look like an eye chart with all their acronyms? Are you sure your audience uses those same shortcuts?

Vague buzzwords: You know the words I'm talking about. Empower. Paradigm. Value add. It's not that those concepts are bad or irrelevant to your customers. But the words are so over-used that we assign very little meaning to them any more. Don't talk in generalities — be concrete.

Listen to your customers for awhile. Then, read your materials out loud. If they don't sound like your customers talk — re-write them. It really is that simple. Be sure you're speaking in their native tongue.

Are most businesses a little self-absorbed?

August 9, 2007

Do most businesses spent too much time looking in the mirror and not enough time thinking about and listening to their customers?

Check out my article on Marketing Prof's Daily Fix on how some niche airlines are breaking out from the crowd and join in the discussion.

Barry Bonds: Villain or Victim?

August 8, 2007

First some salient facts.

I have been a Dodgers fan since I was a kid. I bleed Dodger blue.
I have a real reverence for the game of baseball.
I believe that Barry Bonds used/uses steroids.
I'm disappointed that he's tainting the game.
I'd never been to Dodgers Stadium before.

So last Thursday night was a big deal for me. My first Dodgers home game. Accidentally, it was a big deal for baseball too. Barry Bonds going for the home run that would tie Hank Aaron's record. The game was sold out.

Before the game, I was adamant. My biggest hope was that Bonds did not hit his home run during MY Dodgers game. I didn't want it to taint the experience.

We had amazing seats. One row off the field, half-way between left field and third base. You couldn't ask for better. It started the top of the 1st inning. When Bonds came up to bat — the crowd booed and hissed. Not very sportsmanlike, but I understood their sentiment.

Bottom of the first, Bonds trots out to left field and the taunting got even worse. It was relentless and stupid. And with every inning (and no doubt, with every beer) it got louder and more obnoxious. Every time he made a catch, they screamed. When he waited for the batter to swing, they jeered. When he warmed up, they chanted obscenities.

And a very strange thing happened. I started to feel sorry for Barry Bonds. Did he bring it on himself? Yes. Do I think he cheated? Yes. Did I wish he wasn't breaking the record? Yes.

But, did he deserve to be screamed at while he tried to do his job? No. Did he deserve the racial slurs? No. Were the guys shouting at him insulting the game too? Yes.

There's an important lesson in this for all of us. It's easy to portray the competition as the villain. But that's a very fine line to walk. Comparisons are fine. But taking a shot that really hits below the belt can quickly transform your competition from villain to victim. Which turns you from hero to bully. Bashing the competition is never going to serve you, long-term.

All of a sudden you can shift the balance and once you don the black hat, it's pretty tough to take it off.

A side note: Barry Bonds broke the record tonight. While I have more empathy for the situation he behaved himself into, I can't say I cheered as he waved to the crowd. But I didn't boo either.

BrandingWire: Auto Dealers

August 6, 2007

This month's BrandingWire challenge was local auto dealers. I'm anxious to read what my colleagues have to say on this one. As you'll read, I think the situation is beyond what marketing alone can heal.

I'm usually the first guy who will champion a concentrated, consistent effort to re-brand or re-market a company that has gone astray. But I have to tell you, I don't think auto dealerships stand a chance.

Why not?

Way too many years of high-pressure sales, the goofy "I have to go talk to my manager" game, selling vaporware in the form of extended warranties and in general sleazy tactics and employees.

Bottom line – we don't trust you. Any time someone walks into a car dealership, they expect to be tricked and taken.

Here's a marketing/branding truth. Without trust, you've got nothing.

No marketing program or branding campaign can save you or change the fact that on just about any survey given, cars sales people rank as the least trustworthy profession.

There are just some things marketing can't solve. This is an operations issue. Saturn had the right idea. They changed the way cars were sold.

The internet has stripped you of much of your mystique and ability to con buyers. But instead of recognizing that it's a new day, you've just clung even tighter to the tactics that still work. It's time to actually change.

People need cars. They have to buy them somewhere. So be the first one in your community to truly change the way you do business. I'm not talking about a superficial change. Or a bait and switch sort of change. Because that's what we expect. So surprise us. This isn't spin; this is revolutionizing your industry.

Be transparent with your costs. Show us the invoice because anything less and we won't believe you.

Set a standard mark-up for every vehicle on your lot. We don't deny you need to make money. We just want it to be fully disclosed and fair.

Stop compensating your sales force with commission. Pay them a flat fee for every car sale. As long as they are paid more to trick us into paying more – we can't win.

No dickering, dealing or game playing. Set a price and live with it.

Use an independent source for trade-in values. Nothing you can do here is going to make us feel like we got a fair deal. So pay some of the area's auto repair shops that have a strong local reputation a flat fee for assessing trade in values.

Let us take any used car off the lot and have it evaluated by an independent expert. If we choose to buy the car, reimburse us for the evaluation.

Right now, every facet of your business is set up to make the buying experience an adversarial one. Until that changes, nothing else really can.

Be the first to re-invent how your industry gets compensated and then celebrate that. Go out of your way to make sure the consumer gets the best deal possible and then celebrate that. Turn your sales force into customer advocates and then celebrate that.

Own the brand position of being different from every other car dealership out there and you will have more customers than you can handle. Otherwise…just run another Summer Sizzlin' Sales campaign and it's business as usual.

Until your competition decides that they're the ones who are going to actually change.

Check out what the rest of the BrandingWire posse had to say and get more high-voltage ideas at BrandingWire.com.

Olivier Blanchard
Becky Carroll
Derrick Daye
Kevin Dugan
Lewis Green
Ann Handley
Gavin Heaton
Martin Jelsema
Valeria Maltoni
Drew McLellan
Patrick Schaber
Steve Woodruff

Have a hero’s heart — don’t overthink, just act

August 5, 2007

Cam Beck (ChaosScenario) has a very thoughtful post about the tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis and the heroism that emerged. For him, it served as a reminder that as marketers, we sometimes go for the cheap pay off, rather than honoring the best of what humans can be.

In my comment, I made this observation. I think in moments of crisis (Mpls, 9-11, house fires) human beings don't think– they just react. And they react from a place very deep inside of them. Their true self. Their heart of hearts. And that's how ordinary people suddenly become heroes. Because they don't have time to talk themselves out of doing what is right and good.

I'm not just waxing poetic here. I think there is a rock solid marketing message in there. You know when companies mess up? When they over-think a decision. When they override their own instincts. When they suddenly worry if they're going to get into trouble. Let me give you an example.

We recently won a new client who told me an all too familiar story. They had a problem arise in their place of business and got some bad press coverage from it. Their first instinct was to have the CEO serve as the spokesperson and deal with the issue frankly and openly.

But, then they thought about it. And got some very bad advice from a PR professional who said the CEO should not be in any way tainted by being associated with this bad event.

What a crock. If they had trusted their gut and done what they knew was authentic to them — the storm would have passed quickly and been seen for what it was.

But instead, they over-thought the decision and made a complete mess of it. Because they ignored what their heart was telling them.

If you and your employees truly understand your organization's soul — you know what to do. In every situation. Stay true to that and be your company's hero. Don't think it to death. Don't wait for it to be perfect. Just listen to the company's heart and act.

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