Step out of the spotlight

 

When Alexis reassures David by telling him "People aren't thinking about you the way you're thinking about you" on an episode of Schitt's Creek, she accurately describes the spotlight effect.

What's true for individuals is even more true for businesses, especially B2B brands. The people working within them see their own spotlight and believe that their company news carries the same weight for the world at large as it does for them.

If you are one of those people, then it's time to snap out of that delusion and stop embarrassing yourself by assuming all applicants and new hires should have heard of your company before they tried to get a job there.

Why should they when they're not even your target customer? Remember: when your services are sold only to other businesses, your offerings are completely irrelevant to individual consumers.

There's absolutely no reason why an individual would be following your little startup and thinking about you the way you think about yourself. Even if you make it to unicorn status, that won't make you stand out among the thousands of other unicorns out there.

And as for those businesses that may have heard of you because they saw your represented at a trade show or they saw your ad, that doesn't mean they're just dying to hear all about your struggles and triumphs.

All they're really interested in is what you can do for them. So if you just go on and on about your accomplishments, you will not only fail to impress your audience, you will likely lose their attention altogether.


Brands fall into that mistake of playing the hero of the story they present because they have that skewed perspective of seeing themselves at the center of everything. But effective marketing is about allowing your customers to be the heroes.

Who’s the hero in your marketing story? 

A few years ago, I interviewed Ken Rutsky, author of Launching to Leading: How B2B Market Leaders Create Flashmobs, Marshal Parades, and Ignite Movements, about what what goes into successful B2B marketing. One of the biggest misconceptions people have, he said, is that all they need is the right tech. 

While tech does indeed play a role in data-driven marketing, Rutsky considers it only one third of the story. And getting the story right is actually the key thing in effectively connecting with B2B customers, just as it is for B2C customers. 

From the tales of Homer to comic books and films like Star Wars,  and even Disney’s Moana, stories of a hero’s journey remain persistently popular. Rutsky credits Joseph Campbell’s 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, for breaking down the steps involved in such stories. 

Rutsky quotes Campbell’s summary of the journey story on p. 95 of his own book: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” 

In his own words, Rutsky described it as the hero’s perilous journey far from home to bring “a magical gift” to improve his own world. Such stories are a great way for marketers to present a product or service that will solve a persistent problem for the business customer. And they often do so, but what they tend to get wrong is the casting of the hero. 

“Don’t make the product the hero,” warns Rutsky. “Make the customer the hero.”

A young Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone in Disney's animated movie.

While it is very tempting to give the starring role to what we’re selling, you must resist that temptation. Consider what's of greater interest to your target market and how story lines typically play out to audiences. In narratives of  legends, we're not nearly as interested in the engineering of Excalibur or  as we are in the hero who manages the wield its power as the rightful king.

What is of interest to the audience is how they can use your products and services to solve the problem. They take on the role of the hero, thanks to the magical sword that will enable them to slay the dragon. Or they will be the CMO that is able to deliver targeted campaigns via the real time data updates that come through your tech solution. 

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Related:

A Matter of Degree

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Yet another brand that uses this slogan is featured on Amazon

I put the same query to Bing, ChatGPT, and Google Bard. This was the prompt: "Let's Build the Future Together": How many businesses use this slogan?


Want to guess which one gave the best answer?

❌ For Bing, I made sure to be in the chat mode and got even more disappointing results than I got from its search mode. This is the New Bing's response to my query:
"I’m sorry but I couldn’t find any information on how many businesses use the slogan “Let’s Build the Future Together”. However, I can tell you that a company slogan is a word or phrase used to represent a business as a whole or its products and services. Slogans typically follow a company or brand’s name in marketing materials such as business cards and advertisements."


❌#OpenAI's ChatGPT response came faster, but it wasn't any better than Bing's. This is what it said:
"I'm sorry, but as an AI language model, I do not have access to information on the exact number of businesses that use the slogan "Let's Build the Future Together." However, this slogan is a common one that has been used by many different businesses and organizations over the years. It is a popular marketing phrase that is often used to convey a sense of partnership and collaboration with customers or other stakeholders, as well as a focus on innovation and growth."


✔ Google's Bard was the clear winner out of the three. It admitted it didn't have full information and it went off on the tangent of why businesses use that slogan, but it did at least name some that use it:

The United Nations
The World Bank
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Coca-Cola Company
The Ford Motor Company

It added that it was used by Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

While I don't claim to be an "AI Prompt Engineer," I do know that you sometimes need to try the prompt again to get more thorough responses, so I regenerated the response on Google Bard. It offered a slightly different contextual background and repeated the UN and Coca-Cola but it also had 3 additional names of brands to add to the list: Amvets, LEGO, and Siemens.

It also plugs Google, noting that "a quick Google search reveals that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses that use this slogan."

A third run on Bard yields 2 names already mentioned plus 3 new ones:
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
The National Association of Home Builders
The World Economic Forum





So you get the picture. It can take multiple rounds to build up a list that is not going to be comprehensive but at least gives you some idea off the range of organizations that apply the same slogan.

I'd recommend that all brands do searches on the slogans they're considering. While it may make sense for toys and those in the building trade to adopt it despite its wide adoption by other organizations, a new startup will likely not get much traction from something this abstract.


Related:

AI's early attempts at screenwriting

Bard vs Bard: why you can't just accept the first AI prompt response

The Perils of Prompt Engineering

New York goes New Coke

Tourism is down in New York, and the state has been attempting to leverage marketing to lure tourists back to the Empire State in general and the Big Apple in particular. 

Timing is everything

In July of 2021, I wrote about the city's $30 million campaign, “It’s Time for New York City.”  As it turned out, the summer of 2021 was not really the best time to return to the city, as many COVID restrictions were still in place, and some attractions were not even open at the time or even in the fall that followed.

But tourism plays a huge role in NY's economy, and so the it has to continue to look for marketing ideas to make it appealing. So it goes back to the drawing board and looks for inspiration.

The iconic model 

It makes sense that what worked well in the past would be considered. That's the iconic "I love NY" slogan that made my list of most memorable brand slogans.

Graphic artist Milton Glaser created this slogan with the heart in place of the word love (way before emojis became standard) campaign to boost tourism to New York State (not just NYC) in 1977.  In 2009 it became the the official state slogan and Steve Karmen's song with that title was adopted as the official state song. 

Like New Coke

Anyone here old enough to remember 1985 when Coke introduced a new formula for its soda? Here's a refresher for you from Coke itself. The company did its market research and was convinced the new formula would win over more customers, though it threatened to lose them their solid base of loyal fans.

Now NYC is doing the same kind of thing with by  transforming the iconic New York State slogan into one for the city alone with these tweaks: a change in font, replacing the "I" with "We" and swapping the heart out for different images in the video. The result that was unveiled in March 2023 is this: 

The video description proudly declares:

"We❤️NYC” is a 21st Century version of the 70’s “I❤️NY” campaign. Once again, New Yorkers are coming together to mobilize civic action and community engagement as the catalyst for a renaissance of the city and its neighborhoods. In many ways, the challenges facing the city today are more complex than in the past. Together, “WE” can tackle these challenges and demonstrate, once again, that this is the greatest city in the world."

What I love is that one of the first comments notes how tampering the Glaser's work is a mistake:

Greg Richards

14 hours ago

‪I love NYC as much as I despise this logo. The unbalanced design is a third-rate theft from Milton Glaser’s original and is an affront to this great city. A 3-D clip art heart? Please, please @Partnership4NYC do not use this logo. ‬

While some object to the change in look due to the font switch, I'm responding more to the change in wording. I'd say that they're missing the point in transforming the "I" to "We."  

The brilliance of "I" is that it is absolutely inclusive because there is no dependence  on another to feel the same way you do. In other words, "I" encompasses "we," while "we" doesn't include every "I."

Instead of recognizing that, the campaign is referencing a platitude from the pandemic about being "in this together" that ignores the  very different experiences people of different classes had at the time.

One class was stuck with no school open for their kids while they had to work, while another just took their laptop to the Hamptons or wherever they felt safer and were able to pay for private school if their public schools stayed closed like the onesin NYC.

Also the examples offered are kind of lame when you have to say something like you love $1 a slice pizza, though now it's $1.50. Inflation is really not a cause for loving NYC.

While this campaign shares the same flaws behind the New Coke fiasco, the people behind it will not have to admit their mistake the way Coke did when it had to bring the old formula back. NYC is still there and accessible to those who want to visit even if they hate the campaign.

P.S. After I posted this, I see that there are many others who really don't love the new NYC slogan.

Related: 

Don't just aim for different
Major marketing missteps

What the Little Prince teaches us about marketing

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Sustainable Loyalty: Reaping the Rewards of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 “It’s not easy being green,” a fact that Kermit has bemoaned. But for brands that do it well, it can foster greater customer loyalty.

Brands jump on the circularity bandwagon

Circularity is the name of the game of keeping products in use rather than throwing them out. For the clothing market that means avoiding the wastefulness of  fast fashion in favor of clothing that endures for many uses and that applies sustainable practices in production and recycling. 

The online consignment shop, thredUP,  shifted the paradigm of thrift shopping from trawling through racks in-store to scrolling through options on your phone or PC. In addition to making buying pre-owned clothing that much more convenient, it branded it as not just economical but socially responsible, as it explained on a blog post:

Here’s the facts:

-Fashion will drain a quarter of the world’s carbon budget by 2050.

-26 billion pounds of textiles are dumped into global landfills each year.

-A single T-shirt takes 700 gallons of water to produce.

Here’s what we can do:

-Consume less.

-Reuse more.

-Choose used.

Over the years, thredUp has partnered with popular brands that gain a halo effect from participating in the resale market due to its green cred. Brands like Adidas are even using their partnership with it to launch their own Give Back initiative xclusively on their own branded app. 

Clothing for a better future

One of the brands to embrace sustainable standards for clothing is Primark. In the Primark Cares section of its website, it details its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint in production and increase the longevity of its clothing. 

As Primark explained in  Love Your Clothes, Love Your World:

“When it comes to fashion, durability — how long a product lasts — really matters. It’s not just about getting better value for money by keeping your clothes longer, it’s about improving our impact on the planet so there’s less waste.”

For proof of progress, Primark said it would be working with WRAP and will follow a "’Target, Measure, Act’ approach, where businesses set targets, measure their impact and track progress, both on an individual basis and towards national targets” for the UK.

,Primark already uses recycled or sustainably sourced materials in 25% of its clothing lines. It has pledged to increase that to all its product lines by 2030. 

The brand’s CEO, Paul Marchant was quoted i the ncorporate pledge,, saying. “ Our ambition is to offer customers the affordable prices they know and love us for, but with products that are made in a way that is better for the planet and the people who make them. We know that’s what our customers, and our colleagues, want and expect from us.”

Gaining by losing a million pounds

It’s not just the clothing industry that is concerned with going green. The beauty industry has also woken up to the imperative to reduce waste..

 One way to make it happen is by cutting out unnecessary packaging. That’s what e.l.f. recently announced in sending out an email with the subject line, “e.l.f is committed to sustainability.”

It promised that it was shedding unnecessary waste in its packaging. “Say Goodbye to 1,000,000 Pounds of Packaging” was the way it phrased it, and it illustrated that point with an image and a gif.

.

 

There’s a double advantage to reducing excess waste from packaging. Of course, it generates less waste of paper and plastic. But also the lighter weight means greater efficiency in transportation and fuel consumption. 

Finding new approaches to make clothing and beauty products more sustainable is a win-win. One win for the planet and another win for brand loyalty. That's why it’s a good bet that  we will see many more brands communicating their pledges to improve their environmental impact.  

Related:
Don't just aim for different
Visualizing the customer journey
What makes content marketing effective
What the Little Prince teaches us about marketing





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"Wheel of Fortune" Loss is a Big Brand Win for Audi

Not everyone gets to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But Audi did in giving a car to the "Wheel of Fortune" contestant who lost that prize due to a technicality. 

Here’s the clip of the fateful decision that launched thousands of tweets and the hashtag #GiveHerTheQ3:

The public booed that decision as unfair and used the hashtag #GiveHerTheQ3 on social media.. Of course this came to the attention of the manufacturer of the car in question, and then the company won over many hearts and minds by using the same hashtag and saying it would make it happen. 

That Audi tweet  generated 3,543 Retweets, 735 Quote Tweets, and  33.1K Likes. It also generated a string of positive reactions from both existing Audi customers and those who said they would now consider it for their next car purchase. Read more in Audi Turns a Loss into a Win.

Marketing opportunities in Clubhouse

What’s in this article:
Audio platforms have exploded over the past year – Clubhouse is one of the best-known names
Clubhouse allows brands to connect with their customer through the engaging power of live events on a virtual platform that keeps the focus on the content of the words and ideas rather than looking good on the screen

With so many social media platforms out there, how do you select which one is a good fit for your B2C brand? The answer is the one that delivers an engaged audience, which may just be an audio platform.



Read more in Why Marketers Are Jumping on Audio Platforms

What you need for imaginative play

"Timeless Toys. Endless Possibilities" is the title of the first-ever marketing campaign for Melissa & Doug. Of course, the brand believes that its toys are the key: “When playing with a Melissa & Doug toy, imagination runs wild — a toy broom isn't just a broom, it's a rocket ship heading to the moon.”

It’s a nice idea, and there is something, indeed, timeless about low-tech toys. However, in truth, even a real broom or even a stick that fell off a tree or an empty box left from another purchase could also serve as a rocket ship for the kid with imagination.

In fact, if imaginative play is your goal, less is more. It’s when you can’t buy everything you want to play with that you are forced to improvise and get more creative.

Read more in Toys Powered by Imagination

Related post: http://writewaypro.blogspot.com/2020/10/now-you-can-revisit-your-childhood-on.html

The Why and How of B2B Rebranding

What’s in a name? Quite a lot for brands. Many invest a great deal in building up their name recognition. So when a company makes the move to rebrand: the question is, what justifies changing that name, which can cost the company the goodwill it has cultivated over years of conducting business? Also what particular challenges do B2B companies have over B2C ones when taking on rebranding? 

This was the topic of discussion I had with Paul Pellman, a former Google executive and new CEO of Kazoo, an HR tech company that brought together two different companies  — YouEarnedIt and HighGround  — under a single entity this April. With rebranding at the top of a newly named company, we talked about which situations necessitate making such a change.

Read more in 

How to Rebrand a B2B

Holograms Enable 3D Marketing

With every brand vying for people's attention, messages on a screen no longer stand out. That's why some brands are turning to augmented reality, and the possibilities opened up by holograms of famous personalities. Augmented Reality hologram company, VNTANA, has been used by brands like Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz and Pepsi to engage and collect data on potential customers.

We spoke with Ashley Crowder, VNTANA's CEO and Co-Founder about how brands make themselves stand out – literally – with holograms. It's effective for “any public face where brands trying to engage with consumers in the moment,” she said VNTANA partnered with multiple brands this year at Comic-Con 2017 to bring fans one-of-a-kind hologram experiences.

The holograms are so effective at drawing people in because they are “wowed” by the 3D images of familiar figures, Crowder explained. The interactivity it invites make it “seems like a game” or a “futuristic photo booth.” Those who use it don't perceive it as an advertisement or a way of collecting their data via facial recognition that picks up on age, gender, and emotions.

Read more in 

3D Marketing with Holograms

Enhancing engagement with RCS

Rich Communications Services (RCS) effectively “drives engagement,” Brian Heikes, Vice President Product, Solutions and Analytics at 3Cinteractive says, because it makes it possible for people to experience “the same richness” provided by OTT “with the ubiquity that SMS has.” That opens up possibility of custom branding and other rich media used with native messenger.

In effect, it can offer “the depths of capabilities that have been locked behind an application” within “the messaging experience.” That's a significant benefit in light of the fact that “more than 95%” of people who download apps quit using them after just 30 days. As a result, brands can't capitalize on the promise of app engagement with the “ubiquitous capability” enjoyed by SMS.

At the 2017 Mobile World Congress, 3C showcased some of the possible applications RCS, with an illustration from its client, Walgreens, and Early Access Program partner, Google. This video, shows how Walgreens gives consumers personalized beauty recommendations seamlessly by uploading a selfie.

Read more in

RCS To Set a New Standard for Mobile Marketing

Hitching a brand to an eclipse

An eclipse is not the word people usually think of in connection with marketing on August 21 this year, it makes sense to seek out some brand association with a nearly universally trending topic.

goals, as it seems to be the antithesis of gaining the spotlight. But when an eclipse is a highly anticipated event, as the one taking place

Eclipse of the Century is the somewhat pretentious name given to the event, and to the site dedicated to its coverage that is brought to you by CNN and Volvo. At the end of July the car maker announced the partnership for “a unique editorial and branded content campaign.”

The content will be delivered through CNN channels, including its app for IOS and the designated site. The content currently posted on the site includes a countdown clock to the eclipse, and a map of its anticipated journey east and south across the country, from Oregon to South Carolina. One can also find eclipse information, links to an article with directions of where and how to view the eclipse, and an introduction to “eclipse chasers.”

Those of us who are not in that category still don't have to miss out on this particular event "of the century." We can also marvel at the eclipse in real time, thanks to advanced capture technology, including 4K VR and 360° cameras strategically placed around the country to capture the eclipse's journey that CNNVR will broadcast live.  Showcasing what the technology allows us to do is the idea behind the partnership.

Read more in Eclipse of the Century is a Co-Branding Opportunity

Marketing to patients out of patience

“Sure, I love waiting to be seen by a doctor who doesn't even bother to learn my name” said no one ever. Long waits in boring waiting rooms is one reason for patient discontent, but so is feeling like their time isn't valued and that no one cares about the lack of customer service for patients.

Any one of us who has had the experience of being in a hospital, or even of caring for a family member who was, can identify with the experiences depicted in these videos.

It doesn't have to be that way. That's the message that North Memorial Health, a healthcare system that operates two hospitals and 25 clinics in the Minneapolis area, is adopting for its new branding campaign created by BrandFire. The approach is to acknowledge that, while healthcare may be broken, it is working to fix it, and to humanize the healthcare experience.

Read more in Treating Patients Like Valued Customers

What to Ask Yourself About Your Content Marketing

My guest post for Level343.com explains what to expect from content marketing and the questions to go through to be sure it is as effective as possible. "Engagement is what we’re all after, particularly when we publish online and hope to get likes, pluses, comments, and shares. When planning what to include in a piece intended to serve as content marketing consider: who, how, what, which, where, when, and why."  Read more at 
 http://level343.com/article_archive/2012/08/30/key-questions-for-content-marketing/