Forsenorse's Blog

These are old ones, but great ones. Simple, yet strong. As I have stated earlier, ads that rely on the intelligence of the consumer make us all feel like we’re smarter for discovering something – even if it’s really easy. When Dora asks us for the third time where the massive green rock right next to her is, we kind of want to point at it and are somewhat happy for our glorious achievement.

Am I right?

Windows 7 was your idea?

I’m not a Apple snob or a hardcore Microsoft user. Each day I use both. I do, however, have an opinion about the new Microsoft campaign where the actor mentions that “Windows 7 was my idea”.

Here’s the rub….
Even though I understand that this is only a commercial, I don’t want the regular Joe and regular Jane thinking up what features to place in Windows. Sure, I appreciate that Microsoft wants user feedback, but as a user I want features I could never have thought of. For example, if all we did was ask regular people what they thought should be enhanced on the Sony Walkman cassette player (the iPod of its time) we would just have a better cassette player. Could the every day regular John/Jane really conceived of a small white box that holds all of your songs that you access by running your fingertip around a small wheel on the front of the player? It’s only one example, but I think you get the point.

Instead of seeing a commercial were some guy or girl tells me that Windows 7 was their idea, it would be much more convincing to me to see some (excuse me for the stereotype) skinny guy in a dark room surrounded by energy drinks, wearing glasses held together by tape and sporting a star trek shirt and using a pocket protector to hold his pens, who looked like they haven’t seen the sun or stopped developing and designing for four days straight in order to create some futuristic feature that I could never have thought of even on my best day.

I want someone much smarter than myself or the average guy on my block designing the software I use. That’s where I see this campaign fall short.

This is an old one, but a great one. Simple, yet strong. Ads that rely on the intelligence of the consumer make us all feel like we’re smarter for discovering something – even if it’s really easy.  When Blue from Blue Clue’s asks us where the big red chair is, we all want to say the answer out loud. Am I right?

It's hard to run fast wearing turtles.

Do consumers really care when your apparel brand started?

Technology adoption rates are rapidly increasing.  I recently dusted off The Tipping Point; time to dust off Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm (one business book-of-the-minute I can’t dust off because I threw it away as fast as I finished it Who Moved My Cheese…nonsense).

As Wikipedia states:

Crossing the Chasm is closely related to the Technology Adoption Lifecycle where five main segments are recognized; innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. According to Moore, the marketer should focus on one group of customers at a time, using each group as a base for marketing to the next group. The most difficult step is making the transition between visionaries (early adopters) and pragmatists (early majority). This is the chasm that he refers to.  It can be argued, but the basic idea of the book is still relevant.

Technology Adoption Lifecycle

Technology adoption rates:

• 38 years for radio to attract 50 million listeners.
• 13 years for television to attract 50 million viewers.
• The iPod hit the market in 2001.
• Harvard students were using Facebook in 2004.
• Twitter was created in 2006.

Ok, so these examples refer to technology adoption.  What about brand adoption as it relates to apparel?  I mention technology because we all know that recent advances in social marketing and technology provide the platforms for your brand’s name to spread as rapidly as Jessica Simpson’s waistline before Tony Romo clipped her.

Are consumers more likely to buy your brand because you have been around the longest?  Maybe at one time people were nostalgic for how long ago your brand started.  I don’t think they care anymore – especially teens.  It might even make you look old?  Just ask Levi’s and Ford.  Are its sales to teens helped by the fact that they were first or the one of the oldest?  I don’t think so.

Teens are into what is now, what is current, what has strong design at a good price.  Save your breath and copy space to tell the current brand story and don’t waste your time telling consumers when your brand started…when it started only matters to you.

But wait…I stand corrected.

Is my sunblock rubbed in?

Hollister makes a point to mention that it started in 1922 (not in 2000 as it actually did, but it sure is convincing) and was ranked as the second most preferred teen clothing brand in 2008 by US Bancorp Piper Jaffray. So unless you can beat 1922, you’re out of luck.  Time to move on and stop mentioning that your brand was born when people listened to records while holding phones with cords and drinking Tang as an energy drink.

Here are a couple ads – one for Play Land – that work for surf brands.

Typical surf ad: action shot…team rider in his element…product shot…flavor of the month graphic treatment…

*Sure, there’s no USP, FAB’s, or LOL moments, but it’s creative.

To stand out, change the substance, not the presentation.

copy: "bad day"

*Features, Advantages, Benefits
Unique Selling Proposition
…you know what LOL means.

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