Marketing

It was a girl night out in town and it was coming to an end in a club full of people, loud music and shouting. Two of us were heading home in the same direction and we wanted to call a cab, but it was almost impossible to make a call with that noise around us. Other group of friends tried to text the cab service through Viber, which seemed like a good idea, but I didn’t want to go with that cab service. I have “my” cab service and I like to use it because I want to pay 5% more to drive a nice car with air conditioning and cab driver not smoking (yeah, that’s still an issue in my country believe it or not).

If by any chance you are a fan of Mad Men TV series that features the lives of bad ass marketing and advertising Madison Avenue Gods Don Draper and his agency crew, you probably remember that not always did Draper win a pitch. One of those ones that they lost was with Heinz when Draper proposed them a campaign which shows no product at all. Yes, you heard it all good: NO PRODUCT AT ALL.

My eyes are all bloody and I fight the sleep though the fact that I am sooooo tired (and also six months pregnant) but I am binging on Stranger Things on Netflix like my life depends on it. I am watching 4th episode in a row and I can’t stop. No, it’s not only that the directors are amazing at cliff hanging me until next episode, it’s my brain that is sparking neurons like mad! Nope, it’s not only great story telling, it’s the 80s! Even though I was just a kid during 80s, seeing all the reference to this era was amazing:

So, Super bowl is here. For us who live in Europe and frankly hate sports, this is not less big of a deal. This is the time of the year when all marketers gaze the screens carefully watching what the rich advertisers are preparing for this advertising feast.

“The customer is always right”, you will hear it from all dedicated entrepreneurs who take good care of the three which gives them income: their valuable customers. It doesn’t matter if you work in a coffee shop, a restaurant or you sell mobile phone accessories- you should always agree on customer’s opinion and do your best to serve them good. That’s true. But where should you draw the line? Imagine that one day a customer enters your coffee shop and tells you it’s too sunny and hot inside and you should buy some curtains. And you buy them. Tomorrow, another one comes and tells you your coffee shop should be pet friendly. And tomorrow you buy dog water bowls and prepare free dog snacks with coffee. The third day someone tells you your vanilla latte has too much vanilla, and you change the recipe. On the fourth day you open your guest book and you read the following “I used yo like your place, but it became too dark and full of dogs who bother me with their barking. Also, your vanilla latte sucks, what the hell happened with the great taste you had?”. That’s what can easily happen when you change your ways by accepting everybody’s opinions. And trust me, an opinion is something that everybody has. But is it worth changing your ways just because someone has their opinion?

Yesterday I watched a cooking TV show in which the host was trying really hard to make a pie dough with a food processor. It was crumbing. It was squeaking, it was trembling, I thought it would explode at the end. But noooo, he was so eager to use that stupid machine that it was quite clear: someone paid the show producers big money to make a fool out of the chef. At that moment I was completely sure that I will never ever buy any home appliance produced by that company. However, I am quite sure that marketing department of this brand was so happy because they got 5 minutes of close shot of their branded appliance on national TV. GRPs were jumping, people were watching, but the truth behind the success of this product placement is completely different from ratings.

If you enjoy following Twitter wars between companies (brands) accounts and crazy trolls who complain mostly about everything they can think of during their morning toilet ritual, you must have followed up a recent “epic fail” as some would say, of the America’s largest consumer electronics retailer. I quite admire people who sit behind the brand Twitter accounts and resist their urge to say a few bleep words.

Few weeks ago, I was attending a conference about digital media and there was a discussion about “selfie phenomenon”. One of the speakers said that concerts are not that important anymore, what is important is that “I AM AT THE CONCERT”. That is why we record and share. We want to blow a whistle: Hey, I was at the concert man, gimme LIKE, gimme FAVORITE, Retweet man!

Yesterday evening, I stopped at a local shop to buy some stuff and I was standing in the queue for the cash register. Two teen girls were in front of me, buying some energy drinks, listening some strange music on their smartphones, singing out loud and sighing “Gee, what a pain in the ass, this queue is so slow, lady can you hurry up?!”, they shouted at the lady working at the register. I rolled my eyes and turned around. A guy behind me, about 30 years old shouted at them “Hey chicks, behave yourselves or you can leave the shop”. They turned around blinking and playing with their hair, almost killed him with their eyes .

If you are by any coincidence born around 1983, we are the same age and we can try a little experiment:
Remember the time when we were in the 3rd grade of elementary school. That puts us in year 1993. Try to remember the things that you asked your mother or father to buy you because you really wanted it. Does maybe a thing like this come up in your memory?

Few weeks ago, another great supermarket opened nearby. I wanted to buy some melon and coffee, so I got in just to check it out and do shopping. After almost an hour, I got out with a 50 euro bill and an hour of my life that I can never get back. Like a time jump. Snap. It just went away, 60 minutes flew away. Poof! I almost had a Twilight zone moment because I was sure that I had been there for 15 minutes tops. My parking reminder buzzed me that something in there was very wrong.

So you think you know what you like? Hm. Think twice.
The real nightmare of a marketing department starts the moment when the campaign is ready to set off. Before the launch, experienced and not so brave marketing gurus turn to conventional methods of gathering people’s opinions about the prepared campaign. Will they love it? Will they buy more beer if we sweat that glass off and make that girls cleevage sexier? Will they hate it? The questions are endless.
Some companies do a brief survey, some of them just sit around for hours and discuss the possible opinions and others turn to focus groups. Aha! Focus group, that is a great idea! (?) Let’s hear it from our future customers, let’s see what they say about it!