The Avenue faces North, naturally

What it Represents:  In our life as consumers and in our minds as marketers, the Madison Avenue mentality has represented the promotional vanguard of American capitalism.   While this capability has now proliferated throughout the country, including the political arena, Madison Avenue remains a viable handle for directed commentary. How it’s relevant:  Examining the work of the “best minds” -- especially those working with mega-budgets -- always seems to provide a wealth of perspective in dealing with present challenges.   Does the power combination of smarts and money yield acceptable results?  In a surprising number of cases the answer is no.

Mega-media budgets are one fundamental difference.  Let’s place these budgets in the metaphor of a well known formula, call it “impact wattage”.  Conceptually speaking, just multiply the "quality of message" (scale from 1 to 10) times the media budget (same scale in $ millions) to get an overall impact rating.

Using this methodology, one can clearly see how a large media buy can overcome a weak quality of message.  So local news or beverage commercials, for example, can be content free (but look good) as long as they hit you over the head often enough. 

In the more specialized businesses in which most of us are involved, the messaging is critical given the limitations in media buying capability and the relatively higher qualification level of buyers.

With the challenges of multiple product lines, highly segmented markets, greater technical sophistication, cut-throat competition, and a “street smart” customer base, today's Madison Avenue approach is showing its limitations.  

Visibility itself is no longer the holy grail; you also need a quality association.

Call me a fundamentalist, but the historical credo of Madison Avenue -- impact at all costs/readers can only capture one message -- simply isn’t meeting the challenges.   Most of the promotion that you see today is focused on a feature or benefit rather than position with some notable exceptions.  For example, IBM's service / product strategy may be in question but their position as the "secure choice" is well supported in their promotion.  Taco Bell's "Think Outside the Bun" counter-position promotion is perhaps the best position campaign in today's media.

The point? Promote Position! Let’s examine some examples that show that features and benefits should only support position, but never stand alone.

Small Print: Before we dig deeper, let me put a couple of things on the sideline.  First, for the purpose of expediency, we’re generalizing here.  Not all Madison Avenue types think alike.  Second, there are simply too many variables (strength of product, media budget, competitive environment, etc.) to provide a scorecard of commercial results.  While certain media mechanisms track awareness, they are fundamentally sales gimmicks.  The topic of measurement is worth volumes in itself, but the focus in this piece is on strategic intent and content of the messaging. 

The following scenarios are hypothetical.  I think that these examples (along with some specific suggestions) will be constructive to you by revealing a process as well as “reverse-engineering” the messaging.

“Position is most powerful when opportunity meets reality”

Audi has enjoyed recent market share growth with a product cycle of automobiles that had some advantages in features and styling but has never claimed their natural position.   They have been internally focused on claiming leadership from their countrymen – Mercedes and BMW which will be impossible for them to sustain.

“Position serves as insurance during the down product cycles that every company goes through.”

So what are the natural positions in this automobile sub-market.  Well, let’s call Mercedes engineering, value and prestige; BMW drivability, value, and prestige with both connoting a leadership that has been well endowed in the mind of US consumers for more than a generation.

Audi’s recent attempt at a “leadership” (Never Follow) campaign, while an improvement over no attempt to establish position is well executed but ethereal.

Instead, they have had the opportunity to capture the “safety” position co-owned by the vulnerable Volvo (Ford) and Mercedes.  Their claim to the next generation of safety standards is their highly renowned Quattro all wheel drive traction system.  Currently safety ratings have been determined by crash dummy tests and while Audi does very well on those, it needs to make a case for accident avoidance and “franchise” their renowned Quattro feature (where they do have leadership credibility) to “close the door” before others (Mercedes, BMW, Ford (Jaguar, Volvo) take away that credibility with their own all wheel drive capability.

Audi is on the brink of either emerging as a lasting brand or just being considered an expensive Volkswagen.   Their positioning will determine their future.

Most companies have the attributes to establish position, but do not exploit them.  Obviously there are many companies who are successful at this and there are companies who dominate in spite of not establishing position, but they are in the minority (a wealthy one but a minority nonetheless).  It’s a process to analyze the overall competitive environment and distill the message, but there isn’t a more important task in marketing your company.  

This company seems to be marketing their product as if they signed a non-disclosure agreement with their potential customers.

First let’s discuss their endorsement campaign.  Their logic is that if a highly visible television star lightly portrays himself as someone who doesn’t do endorsements; this credibility will be inferred upon them.

In the meantime, here’s what they’re leaving on the table. 

They’ve got built-in "Blackberry" functionality for $10 a month unlimited, a 2-way radio, no charge for incoming plans, and more.  Unbelievable. They've got the slogan, "How Business Gets Done", they simply don't use it consistently and never pay it off.   

So their choice is to establish themselves with a premium niche or get in the mud with the commodity suppliers by giving away free-minutes to college students and teenagers on the weekend!

While we’re on the subject of endorsements, a few comments:

Endorsements can be along with PR the most credible promotional tool that you have.  Whether you’re selling to business professionals who need to count stability and a successful track record among your attributes or consumer wannabe’s who follow the leaders, I have found a few guidelines for handling endorsements optimally.

q       Don’t use someone that’s over-exposed as your prime endorsee.  One of example of this would be that he or she appears for a different company in the same publication).

q       Have the endorsee mouth your strategic message - most are more than happy to cooperate.

q       Make sure that the ad or event is yours, not theirs

q       Make sure the person has credibility consistent with the company you would like to keep in the future.

q       If you are dominant in your business (the assumption is that “everyone” is using you), a single endorser could dilute your strength.  So, think about a series or having the endorsements be part of the motif or secondary message.

The other fundamental difference between specialized businesses and Madison Avenue is their preoccupation with awarding themselves artistically and the culture that it creates.

As a client, if you’re working with an outside agency, make sure that you have a balance between their outside perspective/creative input and your knowledge of all the issues.   The client must retain ownership of the message – never give that up to anyone else.  A great agency can only be a key part of your team and a vital outside perspective – don’t let it be more than that.  Also, while it is now imperative to own creative resources, it is an even better idea to have outside help in formulating the communications strategy and master templates for your campaigns.

Let’s remember it’s the product, not the spot.  Let’s heed the wisdom of Marshall McLuhan and remember that the media can overpower the message if we let it. 

With ROI pressure in all sectors, I predict, Madison Avenue will eventually get back to selling the steak with sizzle, but not the sizzle itself.

Today, ads simply have to work harder.  To do so, they must be multi-level in their messaging, e.g. reaching channel salespeople in addition to end users and/or reaching want-to-be’s in addition to the real pros. While the key points may be similar there are some very important subtleties.   Additionally, while there may not be much crossover in the end user area, there is certainly crossover in the distribution channels. Each business or niche has its own trade language code words and your messaging needs to be “multi-lingual” in that sense.  Of course, subliminal messages are hard to discuss but a good creative process will yield that dimension as well.

Multi-level communication obviously doesn’t have to be specific words or images but a motif.   For the last 5 years, you know when you’re looking at an IBM spot (big blue letterbox) or for those familiar with Mackie over the last 10 years, you can remove all the images and copy and know that you’re looking at that company's ad.  Motif’s can also carry a good deal of information.  Think of a motif as a suit of clothes for presenting your company’s message.

It’s really hard to kill a brand, witness the expression, “it’s the Cadillac of (fill in your favorite category)”.   30 years after the initial decline of the brand, it is unbelievable the expression is still in the vernacular at any level.

Now GM finally has some products and an effective “Heritage Reborn” campaign to reestablish a “Cadillac” image.  So here’s the rub.  They run 25 seconds of this campaign in a 30 second television spot but blow it in the last 5 seconds by talking about big rebates – the two messages are incompatible. 

The two messages can only be compatible when delivered with some breathing room or better yet; place the “rebate/come and get it” message in the voice of their (heavy promoter) sales channel .  Where’s the co-op advertising?  More importantly, where's the logic?

Done all the time with the right mix of execution and media buying, here’s the most recent example of an almost diabolical but extremely effective approach.

Their proposition is that Sprint phones aren’t cell phones and give you better signal quality.    The truth of the matter, according to most of the telecommunications websites (confirmed by my personal experience) is that outside of major metropolitan areas, Sprint generally delivers the poorest service, yet their sales and presence are exceptional.

You also have to admire their leveraging of their long distance service campaign of the same name and their use of the “pin drop” silent logo at the end of their spots – a logo that is over a decade old!

So the old lesson is that differentiation is a great advantage but fabricating physics requires a "big stick" media budget.

q       Madison Avenue is nothing if not hip.  Style (with significant Euro/Asian influence), broad market appeal, and technology application are leading edge. Their production budgets allow for more $ per minute than Hollywood - therefore the production values are exceptional.  While these factors might not be an appropriate consideration for all brands, knowing the state of the art let’s you measure your distance.    

q       Broad market appeal also may not be appropriate for the media in which we advertise, but analysis can help you define boundaries. Most of “live” in sub-universes and/or business to business markets. Under the surface however, even the most analytical business product/service buyers have a kernel of consumerism.  And to accelerate your sales cycle, you have to reach that emotion.

q       While technology use in advertising can sometimes look like a demo for Photoshop or the latest video effect rather than focused on selling the product or service, it can also serve as good reference for technique. Again, calibrate yourself for the appropriate distance from state of the art.

q       As a great mentor of mine used to tell me about advertising, "tell them and then tell them that you told them".  When you and your sales network / channel of bored of an effective ad - you've still got at least 3 months to run it.

q       Never judge an ad, only a campaign.  Never consider your campaign successful unless it’s well over a year old.  When you get bored of an effective campaign, consult the previous bullet and multiply the time to wait by at least 2.

See the "copy" again...

Some decisions are very easy.  In my study on this topic, it occurred to me that there was in fact, a greatest copywriter of all time.  Without a doubt, for his vision and command of language, the award goes to Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.   As I look at overarching mission statements, his work stands out given the challenges faced by the 13 Colonies during and after the war.  His work still stands over 200 years later as a most relevant call to our consciousness as well as our actions. But history is cruel, the avenue was named after his protégé James Madison.

By Steve Krampf  

Copyright 2002 BrandInc Associates®