Consumer Insights

It's alive! The website for Steven Stoute and Jay-Z's advertising agency, Translation, is up and running. When the rapper was talking about the mission behind Translation, he said it would provide a better understanding into Black culuture. Great mission, but um, Jay? Got a question for you.

Your website is heavy flash with lots of street imagery. You ask all your staffers to name the city that they love best. Why? Why isn't it the place you love best? Not all Blacks and minorities are living in a metropolis. Just because you are a minority, doesn't mean you are urban. In fact, urban and Black are two words that desperately need to be separated. Argh.

How is it that even the Black folk manage to overlook that the Black population is diverse and will only continue to be even more so? Boggles my mind. Dear Mr. Stoute And Hova: May I suggest you do a little rebranding and live up to your own principles stated on the website - nuance? I also suggest reading Karyn Lacy's Blue Chip Black as a starting point into understanding just one segment of the Black population you are overlooking. As a follow-up, check out the discussions of Black Nerd culture. And no, I'm not talking about Kayne, ok? Or just watch the video above about the Blacks that grew up in the suburbs in the 80s and their struggles. By the way, this rambling woman has over 9,000 views and comments of support.

If you need more, come back to me. I got a long list of reading materials. You're high profile in the ad biz now. Make it work. Don't let me down.

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John Gerzema is the Chief Insights Officer for Young & Rubicam and he is also the co-author of top selling business book, The Brand Bubble. He was kind enough to explain his theory behind the misevaluation of brands, why McDonald's makes a good study and why agencies need to get in on the game.

1. In your book, you assert that despite rising valuations, that WSJ has overvalued brands. How can those playing the stock market determine who is actually worth their stock price? Is there an at home way to sort out the bloated brands from the properly evaluated?

"The brand bubble represents the growing disparity in the value that business and consumers apportion to brands. We found the multiples that markets place on brand valuations overstate actual consumer sentiment. In essence, Wall Street thinks brands are worth more than the consumers who buy them.

We reached this conclusion through extensive analysis, but in our book we detail an easy method that anyone can use to assess their brand's value. First we want to understand if the brand has what we call energized differentiation - the consumer perception of motion, difference and direction. We measure this through BrandAsset Valuator, which strongly correlates to a brand's pricing power, loyalty and contribution to financial return (e.g. The brand value is delivering, if not exceeding its expectations set by market valuations). To get people started, we've opened up our database for free on our website, thebrandbubble.com."

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I sat down with former Ogilvy & Mather (it's pronounced may-ther) CEO Ken Roman last week to talk about his new book, "The King of Madison Avenue," (the first autobiography of David Ogilvy) and to pick his brain about the industry as he sees it. Mr. Roman sat in a desk at O&M for 26 years, so when he said the biggest problem facing the auto industry is their lackluster products, we listened.

Mr. Roman asked me to name an American automobile campaign that stuck out in my mind. Chevy's "Like a Rock" and Ford's "Built Ford Tough" were all that came to mind. "I take your point on Chevy," he said, "but name something from the last decade." I couldn't.

Arguably, Ford Tough evokes strength, but it's "Like a Rock" remade. Mr. Roman went on to say that compared to the rest of the world, American cars are unimaginative. We agree — put a few American sedans next to one another, pull the badges, and try to name their maker.

Juxtapose that by placing a BMW, Audi/VW, Honda et cetera in a similar array and the task is much easier. And we haven't sat down in the cabin yet.

Other issues with American autos include pricing, gas mileage and presumed reliability and the big three have nothing short of a mountain to drive over. We're not convinced Chevy's Volt is up to the task.

And sure, the companies are trying to address these problems. But Toyota's Corolla has been saving gas since the dawn of the company. Include Nissan, Mitsubishi, Fiat, Kia, Hyundai, MG, Peugot, Mini, SmartCar and any number of foreign autos in that list, too.

The big three's challenge is to grow their market beyond the loyalists without losing the "dependability" factor they all ride on. Tiny tinker-toy autos are a hard sell to big truck Americans, but to get back on track their cars must reflect America's changing needs. Wait, they need to be ahead of our needs. Do you want to drive a rock?

A good product sells itself — at least that's what the Sham Wow! guy keeps saying. Today, Sham Wow! is the Big Idea, and your paper towel companies are the big three. The old-guard v. new thinking game is going to the smart thinkers, the doers and our homemade cars just aren't cutting it. Damn that's depressing.

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The problem right now? A crisis of confidence. The markets is still in a slump and really, what is there to look forward to in 2009? AdAge has assembled a list of 19 things for you to find a little solace in as we head into the new year of business. "Ad Age decided to go digging for some areas that might provide opportunities for the marketing and media industries to not only survive, but even thrive in 2009." It's a nice list. I would include Muslim Marketing and Gaming, but that's me. Do you think they left anything off?

1. Washington
2. Package Goods
3. DRTV
4. Beer
5. Online Video
6. Hispanics
7. E-Books
8. Public Relations
9. Cable TV, Marketing Consultancy
10. Digital Out Of Home
11. Mobile
12. Pet Care
13. Marketing Analytics
14. CBS
15. Luxury Recycling
16. China
17. Package and Fast Food
18. Online Coupons
19. Gun Sales

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Objectified is a new documentary from Gary Hustwit who was also responsible for the cult-film fave of 2008, Helvetica.

Objectified focuses on industrial design and delves deep into "personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It's about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them." Watch the trailer above and get excited for its early 2009 release.

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Did you know that 70 percent of the toxins found in trash dumps come from discarded consumer electronics? Neither did we. But here's your chance to totally redeem yourself. Rather than dumping your old electronics in the trash, bring them to Union Square this weekend (or other such events in your neck of the woods!) for proper disposal at Comedy Central's 'Address the Mess' scrap-your-crap event.

It's free, and best of all, you can nab some good fresh produce from the farmer's market too! Win win, we say; unless you're against a clean environment. End stumping. OH yeah, get there after 10 a.m. or before 4 p.m. and you're good to go.

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The Numerati, written by Stephen Baker, is a must read. The title is an in-depth account of the market segmented world we now live in - a place where its all about the numbers and "behavioral clues" for brands, as well as governments. From NYT's review:

"Baker offers an anecdote about a firm called Umbria helping a cellphone company that's decided to charge more for Bluetooth data connections, a move that "sent bloggers into a fury." Umbria, which studies bloggers and divides them into tribes, concluded that all the spleen-venting was coming from the "power users," whereas "the fashionistas, the music lovers, the cheapskates" did not care. "With this intelligence," Baker writes, the company could placate the power users by offering them "free" service (while raising the prices on headsets) and "continue charging everyone else."

As PSFK noted about this type of number crunching: "This kind of personal information has been available to anyone who wanted it for a long time, but with the increasing amount of time that we now spend online, the details of who we are based on this activity is getting easier to extract."

On internet Big Brother? Are you out there?

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The world is a crazy place right now so, we decided try and make sense of at leat one puzzle: Islamic/Arab/Desi advertising in the U.S. Naturally, we contacted Michael Hastings-Black who runs Desedo Films with director Raafi Rivero. The firm specializes in new media and minority markets.

After the jump, Hastings-Black goes through who is doing right, wrong and what your agency should be on the look out for.

1. What are the assumptions that advertising agencies need to wipe away when considering advertising directly to the Arab/Middle Eastern/Muslim demographic in America?

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Tonight it's Sarah Palin versus Joe Biden. Hot. In 1984, it would have been George H. W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro. Lets take a deeper flashback to '84. It was the year that the Marines pulled out of Beirut, Lebanon. Punky Brewster premiered. Michael Jackson's hair caught fire during the shooting of Pepsi commercial and the first Apple Macintosh went on sale.

In 1984, Richard "Dick" Wirthlin was the baller to beat. Wirthlin had been named 1981's "Adman of the Year" and was the president of Decision/Making/Information (bought in 2004 by Harris Interactive). He was charged with determining the advertising strategy for Reagan in the last two crucial weeks of the 1984 campaign.

Wirthlin knew early polls by Gallup and Harris had Reagan leading Mr. Where's The Beef aka Walter Mondale by about ten percent, but that the distance was closing in early July 1984. By July 24th, Reagan's lead had dropped to just two percentage points.

Wirthlin put together a research team: John Fiedler; Lesley Bahner, VP of The Qualitative Consultancy and John Moss and advertising consultant, as well as Tom Reynolds, President of the Institute for Consumer Research. The newly formed political Voltron went about collecting data, in the framework of the public's owns words, to help Wirthlin fashion a campaign that would directly speak to citizens. Focus groups, small interviews and one hundred, one-on-ones were kicked off.

The MECCAS model ("Means-End Conceptualization of the Components of Advertising Stragety) was dusted off for use. MECCAS is umbrella term that refers to a "set of methods for interviewing
consumers about the reasons for their decision choice and then interpreting those responses in terms of linkages between outcomes." Sounds boring, yeah? But, wait...

So, the team starts focusing in on two things: the campaign theme and the attack theme. Think of two brands going to war - Apple and Microsoft. Apple has been a host of slogans over the years, most center around the idea of individuality and creativity like the iconic 90s/2000s "Think different." Now, we have the new attack theme from Microsoft - "I'm a PC and I've been stereotyped."

Same thing for Mondale and Reagan. Where was Reagan going to attack? Did he need a new theme? The research findings showed Walter Mondale had a lock on domestic social issues. Ah, those Democrats... Yet, his economic proposals were fuzzy in the mind of voters. They only new that Mondale was for a "balanced budget." Not much to go on. Meanwhile, Reagan's economic issues came across load and clear such as belief in reducing waste and government spending. Ah, those Republicans... In domestic social issues? He was the rich guy for big business interests. Yet, neither candidate ruled a gray space - a better America; a secure future for the children, etc.

The Reagan Voltron team understood that the candidate needed to establish a direct link between his position and voters. It wasn't the exact position of the candidate that mattered. It was that they were aligned with voter values overall. This was big in 1984, though now, such a concept is law. The group told Wirthlin that to win the campaign, the advertising would have to be structured around a strategy. The communications could not rest on a copywriter's turn of phrase. Forget the specifics. It's the big picture that counts.

Think you're under deadline? Wirthlin had two weeks to shape a new, powerful advertising campaign for Reagan complete with broadcast. Now, we all know how that turned out.

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Brandweek has written an article this morning about how Baby Boomers are enjoying social networks. Ha!

"Social networking sites [SNS] used by teenagers and young adults are also being adopted by baby boomers (aged 44-61). The findings show that 41% of baby boomers have visited social networks, such as MySpace or Facebook, and 61% have been to sites with streaming or downloadable video."

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Boomers are texting, using social media and sending emails from their Blackberrys. However, I was recently working with a big death star media agency on a brand launch for Boomers. They told the client that Boomers weren't using the web; that targeting social networks was not worth it. They cited some old media studies and a new one that said that Boomers didn't even know what social media was.

I argued. True. Most Boomers couldn't define social media, but that doesn't mean they aren't using it. I showed thensome real world consumer studies that weren't created by abstract entities. I cited observational studies of of Boomer SNS such as BOOMj and Twitter and blogs. To top it off, I had to explain to the media company that social media is NOT just made up of social networking sites.

What kind of people or should I say, ostriches, are working at some of these media and traditional agencies? The more you know, the better you can serve your clients and increase your own bottom line. Simple.

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