Brand Is No Laughing Matter

As we finished 2007, there were all kinds of lists in the media: Top stories of the year, books, viral videos, movies, etc. The cable network TBS even ran Funniest Commercials of the Year.

And that last one hints at a very big problem in the world of advertising, especially when it comes to brand. Too many commercials have become nothing more than entertainment.

We like to be amused as much as anyone else, so we don't turn away from a funny ad. But the focus on them and the sheer number of them is an increasing trend. There's no strategy in them ads.

See if this is what your company has been facing recently. Your advertising agency is winning awards for producing your commercials. The spots themselves are very popular and are often played on YouTube.

Yet, there's no increase in sales. Few remember for whom the spots are for and you are worried you're headed down the path of those herding cats. Remember that commercial? I can remember that cowboy picking off the cat hair with a lint roller like it saw it yesterday - even though it hasn't aired in years. It was a fine piece of comedic cinema.

However, try to remember whom the commercial was for. Who was the company? What was the point of the ad? The answer is that was to promote EDS, a billion-dollar business and technology solutions company. But few recognized that. In fact, while you can still view the commercial online - it was recently rated as one of the Top 10 Super Bowl commercials of all time - EDS posted this response on its website:

"Unfortunately, it was so powerful that at the end of the commercial, people only remembered the commercial and not who sponsored it." http://www.eds.com/sites/cs/blogs/eds_next_big_thing_blog/archive/2007/01/29/10370.aspx

So EDS pulled the ad. And, unfortunately for most companies trying to fix their brands in the minds of target audiences, that's the case with most marketing. It helps everybody - the advertising firm especially - except the ones who pay for it.

If your company is in that kind of predicament, it's time to think of your brand in a new way. It's not only about entertainment. It's about having a brand that's strategic in nature. It should say something about the ones who use the brand, who they are when they use it and be embedded with that meaning.

We often talk about looking at your brand and marketing from the outside in, from the point of the view of the customer, because many companies often look at it from the inside out. Instead of marketing what is most meaningful to the customer, companies often focus on what is most important to them.

The dirty little secret of marketing is this: That's what many advertising agencies do as well. Many think from the inside out, although in a slightly different way. They make commercials with an eye on what their peers will think of it. We have heard time and again from creative directors declining to develop ads from a strategic perspective because the executions wouldn't be creative enough - even if that strategic angle worked.

In the EDS example, it's not as simple as including your logo and company name at the end of the ad. Even EDS tried that, pulling the spot for a few months, then re-inserting it into the media with a theme line at the end that strained to tie it all together.

Instead, the ad would have worked much more effectively if the "herding cats" idea had more closely resembled what we call a "brand face." Your target audience needs to see a reflection of their own face - faces they identify with, wish to be, emulate and, in fact, feel incomplete without becoming.

There are numerous brands that do this effectively. Apple is probably the king of brand, but Harley-Davidson, Citi Bank and Huggies are among the others that present a brand face coveted by their target audiences. Their customers see themselves in it.

But it's not just as simple as putting someone who looks like your target audience in a spot, but embedding it with meaning most important to that audience.

For example, let's take a look at one of the strongest brands out there today: ESPN. The sports network has grown from a little station tucked way in Bristol, Connecticut, to become the number one source for sports information and a brand that reflects the hard-core sports fan. Few sports fans can start or end their day without it.

Currently, ESPN is running a series of spots marketing its mobile service where you can get scores and analysis on your cell phone. This series shows everyday Joes effectively using the service while going through - what for many guys - are miserable experiences, such as a wedding reception or a boring conference. They are then interviewed by TV reporters just like athletes are after winning a big game.

That's a brand face, and a spot that is embedded with a meaning important to their target audiences: That they remain guys. We live in a world in which events are not singularly the responsibility of men or women (maybe not such a bad thing). But ESPN understood that their target audience was feeling less "manly" about the world at large and often burdened by actions that feel less "guy-like." ESPN is presented as one of the last refuges of feeling like a guy. (In this case, it's a superstar guy.)

It works terrifically well, and it certainly reflects a brand face stronger than a business technology's face of cowboys herding cats.

Powerful brand marketing that will sway audiences is more than simple entertainment. Hopefully, even your ad agency will understand that someday.

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