November 12, 2007
It's time for the second installment of Ask Rance. Keep those questions coming, readers.
October 29, 2007
Do you ever wonder about the story behind the commercial -- who did the music, whether it was a tough shoot with a lot of outtakes? Well, so do I. And I'm trying this Q-and-A format to answer questions about marketing strategies that have piqued my interest and, I hope, yours. Of course, these questions are my own, but I'd be very pleased to try to answer yours in subsequent columns.
October 15, 2007
One of the biggest challenges ad agencies grapple with is how to differentiate from their competitors. It's basically a losing battle because most agencies end up looking and acting just like the other guys. So the main difference is who can offer the lowest price.
October 01, 2007
Because advertising in Russia is a relatively new phenomenon, and most consumers regard it with the same disbelief they did communism, there is much more discussion about its social and ethical implications. I find that very refreshing, and I submit we should emulate the Russians in this regard.
September 17, 2007
I asked two of the organizers of the Worldwide Advertising Forum in Moscow last week what they were trying to accomplish. "We want to start to think in other ways," said Boris Eremin, president of the Russian chapter of the International Advertising Association. His colleague, Vladimir Aksionov, VP of IAA's Russian chapter, laughed and added, "To start means that we haven't done anything up to now."
September 03, 2007
The series of Chinese product recalls, especially the Fisher-Price debacle, has the capacity to spawn a new Ralph Nader, according to the former Washington editor of Advertising Age, Stan Cohen, who was my first (and best) boss. And, I would add, the interest-rate manipulation schemes that triggered our current housing meltdown only add to that impetus.
August 20, 2007
The subprime mess is, in large part, a failure of communications, and communicating effectively and clearly is the job of advertising -- at least it should be. The sad truth is that many financial marketers don't want prospective home buyers and mortgage holders to understand the downsides of their transactions -- that interest rates can go up without notice, that buyers are taking on too much debt, that housing values don't always go up.
August 06, 2007
Dow Chemical Co. has a modest goal for its corporate ad campaign: to be acknowledged as the largest, most profitable and most respected chemical company in the world. The "Human Element" push, now a year old, has boosted Dow's brand-equity rating, as measured by Core Brand, 25%, but here's how Dow's CEO Andrew Liveris reckons the campaign will be successful: when a Dow employee in a bar anywhere in the world can tell the guy next to him where he works and get the response, "Oh, Dow. That's good."
July 23, 2007
Is there any correlation between the rapidly eroding fortunes of the Big Three auto companies and their consistently terrible advertising? Most car advertising is pretty pedestrian, but the U.S. makers generate some of the worst examples.
July 09, 2007
Two disparate events -- the subprime-mortgage debacle and the children's food showdown -- could provide welcome relief for beleaguered Wal-Mart. The company everyone (except its loyal customers) loves to jump on has a big opportunity to do good for a big swath of its shoppers while also doing good PR for itself.
June 11, 2007
As Mr. Murdoch pursues Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, superstar business tycoons should start to wonder whether their after-hour exploits will be fair game. Could "Stray Rod" turn into "Immelt-down," for instance, especially as Murdoch's Fox Business goes up against GE's CNBC?
May 28, 2007
If you want a scary look at how magazine ad volume in the U.S. will hold up to new digital media, go to Korea. New-media advertising grew 21% in Korea last year vs. 1.2% for magazine ads -- and new media outpaces magazine ad volume $840 million to $495 million.
May 14, 2007
Rupert Murdoch is used to getting his own way. He once tried to bet me $1 million that I couldn't name the source for our story that his TV Guide was up for sale. That's why I'm betting on Rupert to prevail in his takeover bid for Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Moreover, I will submit that Mr. Murdoch will be good for the Journal. Dow Jones is in a cost-cutting mode; News Corp., his $25 billion media goliath, never is.
April 30, 2007
We heard lots of discussion at the recent American Association of Advertising Agencies' conference about ROI. But how can you even discuss ROI -- return on investment, ideas or involvement -- if you've already conceded advertising is out of your control? Why bother to exert your authority when consumer-produced TV commercials score better on the Super Bowl than lavishly produced ones from your ad agency?
April 16, 2007
Maybe there wouldn't be so much bad advertising if ad-agency compensation were still based on the commission system.
April 02, 2007
The first wave of baby boomers turned 60 last year, and they are preparing for their retirement years much differently than any generation before them. You'd think this onslaught of newly freed-up money would be cause to celebrate on Madison Ave., but Barron's noted in March, "It's something the advertising and marketing industries will have to come to grips with, something they're not too enthusiastic about." The ad business is woefully out of touch with baby-boomer buying power.
March 05, 2007
The image I have about too many of today's ads is a pie thrown in our faces, not to provide a little sustenance, but to create a good old-fashioned food fight. The sole object, it seems, is to get your ad talked about, positively or negatively (it doesn't matter much).
February 19, 2007
What's with all the inanimate objects suddenly starring in their own TV commercials? The Staples Easy Button burst upon the ad scene two years ago, and now Office Depot is giving us a spooky "helping" hand to solve office workers' supply and organizational needs. And General Motors introduced a cute and pathetic little robot who dreamed of committing suicide because he (she?) messed up -- if ever so slightly -- on the factory floor.
February 05, 2007
Jon Fine, in his BusinessWeek "Media Centric" column, said marketers need to "relax about getting weird" in web ads. But it's my contention most marketers don't -- and shouldn't -- incorporate weirdness into basic brand-building strategy. All the work to come up with the next Subservient Chicken is diverting attention from marketers' main job of building strong brands.
January 08, 2007
One of Gerald R. Ford's most enduring legacies was definitely not his Whip Inflation Now campaign launched by the Advertising Council. The WIN ads and buttons were derided by talk-show hosts and newspaper columnists, and caused two members of an anti-inflation group called together by Mr. Ford to resign.
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