Category: Portland marketing

Ford Hands Over the Keys to Fiesta Marketing

When I started working for the New York Mets in 1986, there was a nice clean line between the fans and the game:

1. The players played the game

2. The fans watched.

There were exceptions — I remember a particularly violent Upper-Deck encounter between a group of intoxicated corrections officers and everyone around them — but in general, the customers were expected to buy their tickets, watch, and go home.

By the mid-90’s, things had begun to change. Fans were demanding more opportunities to interact with the team, and we had responded with baby steps such as letting them run the bases after some games. Our VP of Operations, who had worked for the team since 1962, was not happy about it.

“All of a sudden, the fans think they’re part of the show,” he said. “They’re not the show. Why can’t they just watch and enjoy it?”

I was reminded of this, and how it has played out in marketing since then, when I read this article about Ford’s new campaign to market the Fiesta:

The company has picked 100 young, Web-savvy drivers to get behind the wheel of its new Ford Fiesta subcompact for six months and post their impressions on sites such as YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.

The marketing campaign starts later this month, almost a year before U.S. consumers will be able to buy the Fiesta. Since the Fiesta name has been absent from the U.S. market for years and Ford hasn’t been in the subcompact market for a long time, the company has to find a way of turning heads away from top-selling small cars like Toyota Motor Corp.’s Yaris and Honda Motor Co.’s Fit.

The most interesting part of this to me is that Ford has accepted, and perhaps embraced, the fact that although they’re paying for the whole thing,

[Ford] will have no control over the online material posted by the 100 participants. That means some could be bluntly critical of the car and Ford won’t be able to stop it.

The marketing world has changed from the days when it was the advertiser’s job to broadcast the commercial, and the consumer’s job to watch it. Like it or not, your customers are now part of the show.

Ford deserves congratulations for recognizing this — here’s hoping the Fiesta is good enough to justify their faith.

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Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

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Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Hot Promotion Idea for Media Salespeople

The next time some ad agency demands “added value” and won’t give you any direction as to what they want,  give ’em this.

I found it on Tara Bloom’s “Ditch the Dusty Widget” blog, and it’s perfect for Mother’s Day.

You can thank me later.

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Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Green Is the New Clutter

My colleague Jennifer Schurter has an interesting post on “greenwashing” — the practice of making dubious environmental claims in a marketing campaign.

I found it especially timely, having recently encountered:

1. Three different dry cleaners claiming to be “environmentally friendly”.  One has made that claim for years; the other two recently added signage to that effect.

2. A Portland pest-control company advertising its “concern for the environment” — an interesting position to stake out when its primary business is to kill living things.

3. A Portland radio station (not one of mine) honoring  Comcast Cable as part of its “Green Team”. Apparently this is because if you stay home and watch movies on demand, you’re not driving to the theater or rental store.

4. Thursday’s Wall Street Journal article on the difficulty of verifying environmental claims.

All of these claims may very well have some truth to them — although the cable one made me hoot in my hybrid.  And the reason for the approach is that environmental impact and energy use are definitely on consumers’ minds.

But the proliferation of “green” messaging will ultimately cause consumers to tune much of it out.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Can a Frequent-Shopper Program Save Lives?

There was a message on our answering machine when we returned from a trip this weekend.

Hello, this is your local Fred Meyer store with an important announcement. We wanted to alert you that you may have purchased Private Selection 10-ounce Shelled Pistachios that have been recalled. You should not consume the product. You may return the product or receipt to a store for a full refund or replacement [the speaker then gave a phone number for more information, and continued]

This message is possible because you are one of our loyal shoppers, and used your shopper’s card to make this purchase. Thank you for being a Fred Meyer customer.

Turns out there’s been a recall of pistachios because of a salmonella outbreak. And we had some in the cupboard.

It may be a little creepy that they’re keeping such close tabs (note to self: do not use Rewards Card when purchasing murder weapon), but this is a real benefit to customers who might otherwise suffer some serious health consequences. Fred Meyer handled it beautifully:

  • Gave an exact name of the product so it was easy to figure out what to look for
  • Gave sufficient reason to stop eating it (it’s been recalled) without creating undue alarm
  • Gave a toll-free number to call for more information
  • Offered a full refund without onerous restrictions — you can bring back the product or just the receipt
  • Reminded customers that this is a benefit of using the Rewards Card
  • Thanked us for shopping at Fred Meyer

It does raise an interesting question, though:

This procedure works perfectly for a relatively innocuous product  — a husband isn’t likely to be upset if his wife hears a voice mail about the pistachios he picked up on his lunch hour. But the store sells other items that might require a little more delicacy.

Would they leave a similar message in the event of a condom recall?

______________________________________________________________________________________

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Cheap Marketing Tip: Give Your Common Product an Uncommon Name

You can buy brussel sprouts just about anywhere.

But only at Seattle’s Pike Place Market can you buy…

sprouts

By the way, if you’d like to buy some 30-second Messages of Prosperity Generation, give me a call. And if you have a name for radio commercials that’s better than that one, I’m open to suggestion. Leave me a comment below.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.