Wednesday June 2, 2010

keep opinions in focus

The Organising Committee of the 2012 Olympic Games recently introduced a couple of mascots – Messrs Wenlock and Mandeville.

These two one-eyed lovelies were finally unveiled after making their way through a total of 40 different focus groups.

Is such a lengthy process really necessary? Would the outcome have been a whole lot different if they only had enough money for 30 focus groups? I doubt it.

Maybe that’s the point with the Olympics and marketing events on such a large scale. The whole objective is not to do anything out of the ordinary and use focus groups to provide a safety net in case of failure.

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design, has said that Apple had found a good reason not to do focus groups: "They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products."

NB. Did you know the Ford Focus name was created by a focus group that had grown bored and impatient with the company’s indecision over naming its new product? The irony was unfortunately lost on the marketing team.

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a strong brand is simple

A strong brand is a by-product of a strong business and comes from doing a lot of other things right.

Three of the basics include...

1. Make sure you’re selling excellent products.

2. Make sure you’re taking good care of your customers.

3. Make sure your marketing demonstrates how you are different from, and better than, your competitors.

The likes of Apple have become great brands through customer service (have you been in one of their stores recently?), making really good products and creating marketing about why those products are better than their competition.

That’s what always has built brands and what always will build brands.

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top 10 marketing blunders no. 10

Every month we look at the most brilliant marketing screw-ups. This month (in keeping with the Olympic theme) Reebok.

Reebok spent millions of dollars on advertising that promoted the prospects of Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson, two American decathletes who were expected to perform well at the Olympic Games in Barcelona 1992.

O’Brien, who held the world record in the sport, failed spectacularly when he was unable to clear the pole vault. He scored zero points for the event and failed to qualify for Barcelona.

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