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Summit Entertainment, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based studio behind the immensely popular Twilight film series (the latest installment, as I’m sure you know, is out today), stands for more than vampires, werewolves and teen angst. The studio scored another substantial victory this year when The Hurt Locker, an independently-produced Iraq War drama it acquired and distributed, won six Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture, despite competition from Avatar, the highest-grossing movie of all time.

True, The Hurt Locker was one of the most critically acclaimed films of last year. But it did face Oscar competition from much bigger films, and it originally opened in June, several months before most Oscar contenders did, meaning it may not have been as top of mind come voting season. To its benefit however, the film was rolled out across the country all the way through Oscar season, and by never being shown in more than 500 theaters at a time, marketing could be more targeted, says Nancy Kirkpatrick, president of worldwide marketing for Summit. The campaign was primarily public relations driven, with a heavy emphasis on the film’s glowing reviews, to allow word of mouth to steadily grow as the film played in more and more theaters. But from an Oscar marketing standpoint, Summit didn’t get aggressive until late last year, says Cynthia Swartz, co-head of the entertainment marketing division at New York and Los Angeles-based public relations firm 42West, which helped Summit with the Hurt Locker campaign.

“They did not send [DVD screeners] to Academy members until December, and people kept saying, ‘Where are they? Summit is not spending any money.’ But Summit felt that was the best time to send the DVDs. … They are willing to not worry too much about what the competition might be saying. They know what needs to be done and stick to their guns.”

Backed by months of buzz and an Academy-targeted campaign unleashed at just the right time (complete with those seemingly last minute screener shipments), The Hurt Locker went on to receive nine Academy Award nominations—just after the film had become available for home viewing in mid-January. (Thanks to all the accolades and Oscar buzz, the film has been a bigger hit at home, selling 1.1 million DVDs and 400,000 Blu-ray disc. It has been rented 8 million times and purchased via pay-per-view and video-on-demand services about 3 million times, according to the company.) Following the nominations, Kirkpatrick says the public relations strategy was to pit The Hurt Locker against the big-budget blockbuster Avatar to create a David vs. Goliath story in the press. (Also creating drama and helping fuel buzz was the fact that Locker was directed by Avatar director James Cameron’s ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow.) In the end, David won at the Oscars.

To read how marketing helped transform Twilight into a hot movie franchise, read the next edition of Marketing News Exclusives. You can access the article, and subscribe to the e-newsletter, by clicking here beginning July 1st. And American Marketing Association members, be on the lookout for an article submitted by Kirkpatrick, who offers a peek at her marketing dashboard, in the July 30th edition of Marketing News. The article will be made available at MarketingPower.com/MarketingNews next month.

Posted by Piet at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Bette Marston, Editorial Intern
bmarston@ama.org

I was a little nervous walking into the Chicago AMA’s 2010 BrandSmart conference held at the UIC Forum in downtown Chicago yesterday because it was my first out-of-office event as an editorial intern at Marketing News. However, when I snuck in the door during Walgreen CMO Kim Feil’s opening keynote talk (yes, I was a few minutes late), I noticed just how many of the approximately 200 AMA members in attendance had smartphones in hand, on their lap or on a nearby table. As I reached into my bag for my own BlackBerry, I knew I was going to fit in.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Staying Relevant in an Ever-changing World,” with breakout speakers giving presentations according to three tracks: innovation, engagement and social media. I attended one presentation on each track to get a little bit of everything. Here are a few things that stood out to me (other than the number of smartphones) as a first-time BrandSmart conference attendee:

• PETA doing some marketing of its own – During the innovation talk given by Sofia Therios, director of U.S. marketing at McDonald’s, and Danielle Paris, director of U.S. menu management, product innovation and development at McDonalds, on the new line of McCafe formats, a PETA advocate (who was not a registered member of the conference) jumped up to the front of the room and urged the crowd to boycott McDonalds because of what she considered to be its brutal manner of slaughtering chickens. The crowd was unsure of what to do, and the impromptu speech elicited some boos until the Chicago AMA Chapter representative walked her to out after she finished her tirade. The McDonald’s representatives took it in stride, briefly noting the hilarity of the situation, before continuing on with their presentation.

• Wally Hayward, CMO of the Chicago Cubs, discussing the new Toyota sign at Wrigley Field – From a poll of the room, about two-thirds of the people who had seen the sign at the park didn’t mind it, but the other one-third were not happy with what it did to the appearance of Wrigley Field. Fans worry that intrusion of the large in-park sign might lead to more, sullying the look of the ballpark. Hayward mentioned that they are in talks with Toyota to make some sort of monetary donation if any ballplayer hits the Toyota sign or even better, hits a ball through the second ‘o’ in Toyota—a likely occurrence given the small field size.

• Facebook and Twitter now used professionally? – As a student, I still consider Facebook and Twitter to be fun social media networks used for play, and in no way connected to my professional life. However, the e-commerce manager at the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago, Melissa Meulenberg, uses Facebook and Twitter daily to spread the word about Hard Rock Hotel Chicago deals, room availability and even to help customers staying in the hotel. She once assisted a woman who had tweeted that she thought all of Chicago was watching her through the uncovered bathroom window at the Hotel. Meulenberg responded to her tweet, explaining how to use the blinds.

• AMA CEO Dennis Dunlap wins a BrandSmart Vision Award – Dunlap’s work during his tenure at the AMA earns him a Vision Award, given to honor a person who successfully formulates and executes a vision for a brand.

• FedEx going green – We all knew that FedEx would soon be moving toward more economically friendly modes of transportation when Len Hostetter, vice president, brand engagement marketing at FedEx, talked about its new EarthSmart movement. But I was mind-blown when I realized that FedEx has an arrow in its logo!! I feel a little silly not ever noticing this for the past 20 years and 11 months of my life.

• Gaga with Polaroid?? – Lady Gaga is the official creative director of Polaroid, and being a Lady Gaga fan, I will buy any product she designs or promotes. To read more about Polaroid Senior Vice President and CMO Jon Pollock’s closing keynote talk, be sure to check out the next edition of the Marketing News Exclusives e-newsletter, out July 1.

Posted by Allison at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Considering that Forbes called Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO for Kodak, a "Celebrity CMO," it's not surprising that Hayzlett appeared on this spring's "The Celebrity Apprentice" for a challenge where Bret Michaels, Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne and other celebrity contestants had to put together a storefront experience to promote the Kodak brand and products. The season boiled down to Michaels, who survived a brain hemmohrage during the show's run that placed him in critical condition, and actress Peete, with Donald Trump picking Michaels as the winner of the show.

But if Hayzlett was in Trump's place, he said he would have picked Peete to win it all.

"I thought Holly did an unbelievable job," he told me in a recent interview. "From a business perspective, I would have given the edge to Holly."

Not that Michaels was totally undeserving, Hayzlett says.

"Bret did a nice job. He had a lot of good things going for him," Hayzlett says. "Obviously he used his illness as an advantage, and there's nothing wrong with that. ... Look at what he's done to raise awareness for the American Diabetes Association," the charity that Michaels, a diabetic, represented on the show.

Either way, Hayzlett turned out to be a big winner thanks to his association with the show (this spring's appearance was his fourth in two years). Hayzlett was able to get Trump and the show's super producer Mark Burnett to offer quotes of praise used to promote his new book, "The Mirror Test."

To learn Hayzlett's reasons for leaving Kodak and his plans for the future, read the next edition of Marketing News Exclusives, Marketing News' e-newsletter product, which you'll be able to access beginning June 17.

Posted by Piet at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

2010 Ticket Prices Slashed . That was the headline, pertaining to a story about the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), that caught my eye while waiting in line at the grocery store. And so, while the old lady up ahead decided to strike up a conversation with an evidently uncomfortable cashier, I read that front page story to find out what was going on. In it, I discovered a major opportunity FIFA missed.

Rather than get into the specifics of an insanely complicated system of seating categories and online allocations that work differently depending on how many World Cup tickets you want to buy, which games you want to watch, and whether you’re South African or not, I’ll use an analogy. Imagine the World Cup as an airplane that everyone wants to be on. The choices for seating are first class, business class and economy class. (There are actually four categories in the FIFA system, but the concept is still the same.)

After a few rounds of ticket sales, FIFA realized the plane wouldn’t be full. The dreaded recession had reared its ugly head yet again by preventing scores of wannabe visitors from making a trip that (especially for those living in Europe) would be considerably more expensive than the one to Germany in 2006. But what about all the extra business class seats reserved for those people? “It’s simple,” said one enthusiastic employee. “Let’s sell them at economy class prices!” Big mistake.

Much has been written about the pitfalls of discounting when times are tough and it seems the rules apply to events like this too. Passengers who already booked their tickets are fuming (one called the practice “grossly unfair”) because FIFA has effectively punished them and sent the message that it’s better to wait until the last minute next time around. They are understandably upset because those in economy class could have gotten more for the same while those in business class could have gotten the same for less.

Here’s what FIFA could have done. Instead of cutting the price of business class tickets, why not “upgrade” those in economy as a reward for their foresight and loyal support of the beautiful game? And why not give those already in business class the option to upgrade to first class for a nominal fee or give branded hampers to those in first class who can’t go higher? If behavioural economics is anything to go by, the desire to reciprocate initial generosity could even make this work with those just bumped up from economy class.

Now the vacant seats in economy could be sold at prices slightly below what they went for. An entire campaign could be created about all the stupid things you could spend this amount on when it would make more sense to do so on this instead. They could integrate aspects of social media into their existing campaign by having users submit online video clips expressing how excited they were to know that “they’d be there”.

That way everyone would come out feeling as though they’d won. Right now, that’s definitely not the case. One supporter said, “We no longer know what to believe from FIFA anymore.” Fans feel cheated and that’s not good.

(For more, see 'Research on Advertising in a Recession’, Journal of Advertising Research, Volume 49, No. 3, September 2009, pp.304-327)

By Eugene Yiga
Synovate Laboratories

Eugene Yiga currently works as knowledge manager at Synovate Laboratories, a global branding and communications team. In addition to providing support in current projects for senior executives around the world, he assists in the research and development of improved analytical tools and is also responsible for writing thought pieces and best practice material. Yiga was one of the first external contributors granted access to write for the World Advertising Research Centre blog where he has discussed topics including behavioural economics, mobile technology, and customer loyalty.

Posted by John at 7:21 AM | Permalink

It seems like only yesterday. There I was, on Saturday 15 May 2004, stuck in my university dorm and frantically cramming for an afternoon exam. A roar erupted from the common room across the quad and champagne bottles began to pop. South Africa had just been chosen as host country for the FIFA World Cup in 2010. That dream is finally coming to life.

When everyone began talking of tickets over a year ago, I was pretty nonchalant. The tournament felt too far away. Besides, I’ve never been particularly huge on sport so it didn’t matter much. So, how did I end up here, with double tickets to four games and desperate to get my hands on more? The answer, my friends, comes down to three traps I’ve fallen into, which Robert Cialdini discusses brilliantly in Influence:

1. Expert Advice
We are more likely to act on the advice of experts, which explains why we opt for the skincare range recommended by dermatologists or the car Jeremy Clarkson raved about on Top Gear. And let’s not forget about the infamous Milgram experiment in which subjects inadvertently “tortured” other participants just because some guy in a white lab coat instructed them to do so. In my case, the expert came in the form of a colleague who’d painstakingly worked out all the probable permutations to determine the “not to be missed” games. How could I argue with that?

2. Peer Pressure
We often find ourselves compelled to do what others do if these are people we want to be associated with or already respect. Besides, it’s contagious and safe to do what everyone else is doing (think career choice) rather than venture out on your own. So, I did what all my friends and family couldn’t stop talking about and bought tickets. If anyone still questions the efficacy of peer pressure, try explaining why a chunk of the Cape Town population deliberately has their upper incisors removed. Looking cool matters; being able to chew does not.

3. Scarcity
“In order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.” – Mark Twain
Being denied something or feeling it will only be available in a limited quantity for a limited time makes us want it even more. FIFA managed to do that quite well by stressing the fact that the limited seats for this once in a lifetime experience could be sold out if we didn’t act fast. I’m sure you can think of many other examples including department store sales that never stop being for “a few days only” or the irrational exuberance (tulips, anyone?) that’s landed us in financial troubles time and again.

Conclusion
What about the ethics? We get noticeably upset when it comes to those in the context of neuroscience but nobody seems concerned about the far subtler tactics of behavioural economics. Should FIFA and other companies be allowed to continue using these clever (and mostly legal) psychological means to get to their ends? Next we’ll have charities using targeted requests because they know we’re more likely to donate to people who share our names or added creativity in advertising crafted purely to prevent us from thinking too much. Should we do something then?

It’s a dangerous world out there and even us industry insiders who might consider ourselves immune should take care.

(For more on behavioural economics, see Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes.)

By Eugene Yiga
Synovate Laboratories

Eugene Yiga currently works as knowledge manager at Synovate Laboratories, a global branding and communications team. In addition to providing support in current projects for senior executives around the world, he assists in the research and development of improved analytical tools and is also responsible for writing thought pieces and best practice material. Yiga was one of the first external contributors granted access to write for the World Advertising Research Centre blog where he has discussed topics including behavioural economics, mobile technology, and customer loyalty.

Posted by John at 7:13 AM | Permalink

On behalf of Marketing News, I spent two days taking in 10 presentations at the National Business Marketing Association Conference in Chicago last week. The general theme at this year's sold out event, catering to approximately 650 marketers from across the world: engage. That meant engaging with employees, the C-suite, the sales team, online influencers, and in one case, soccer (excuse me, football) fans.
Below are highlights taken from each of the presentations I attended.

1. For all the talk of how wonderful social media is, Fred Wiersema, Institute for the Study of Business Markets Fellow and co-author of The Discipline of Market Leaders and author of Customer Intimacy, argued that B-to-B buyers don't want to be tweeted with and inundated with blog coverage. "In the consumer field it's wonderful, but for B-to-B it's not quite on track," he said. That said, he argued during the conference-opening presentaiton that the B-to-B field generally uses engagement more powerfully than consumer marketers - although B-to-B could stand to use more emotional messaging in marketing.

2. Anytime you bring in a heavy-hitting CMO you expect him or her to offer some insightful takeaway lessons from their perch at the top. But because they are such high-level CMOs, sometimes they come across as infallible geniuses during their presentations. So it was refreshing to see General Electric CMO Beth Comstock was so down to earth during her BMA presentation. Yes, she provided some takeaways that were referenced again and again during the conference like gospel. Of course she paid some nice lip service to GE marketing endeavors, including a bit of show-and-tell involving a YouTube campaign. But Comstock also admitted, in a rather humble manner, that attempts to marry IT and marketing have been painful and not as successful as she'd like. It's just nice to know that even a huge company with 5,000 plus marketers doesn't have all the answers and will acknowledge where there are shortcomings.

3. The "Engaging the Business Buyer of the Not-Too-Distant Future" panel was pretty epic as far as roundtables are concerned, involving seven participants (including a moderator) and covering sustainability, social media and other far-reaching topics. There were some solid nuggets throughout despite a neccessary surface-level approach, most notably at the end, when moderator Diane Brady, senior editor and content chief for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, asked each panelist for three tips to think about for engaging prospective buyers. Among the tips: understand customers as intimately as possible and revolve technology around that (Enquiro CEO Gord Hotchkiss); make sure your marketing materials are easily discoverable online (GlobalSpec CEO Jeff Killeen); be humble and transparent when it comes to sustainability (Charlene Lake, chief sustainability officer and senior vice president of public affairs, AT&T); and measure online success through outcomes, not eyeballs (Jim Lecinski, managing director of U.S. sales and service for Google).

4. Keith Pigues, senior vice president and CMO for Ply Gem, in addition to presenting one of the most buzzed-about presentations, offered one of the most eye-opening moments, having people stand up to signify a yes answer to a yes or no query, only to sit down when they reached no for an answer. So when Pigues read the first statement - "We know specifically how we help customers make more money." - practically everyone was on their feet. Four statements later -
"We understand how we will make our customers more money in the future" - all but five people were in their seats. Pigues' advice: effectively communicate the value created for customers, understand what the customer really needs and find new opportunities for growth. In order to engage those customers, Pigues said marketers need to have a new conversation that the customer will better engage with, to get the organization to embrace the structure of that conversation, and then to change the company for the better, using this new customer-engagement model as a guide.

5. Motorola CMO Eduardo Conrado (star of a Marketing News feature this spring) and David Srere, co-president, CEO and chief strategy officer for Siegel+Gale, tag teamed a presentation that closely examined a seemingly simple but utterly important topic -- defining the company's purpose. "It's the single most important determinant of long-term marketing success," Srere said, and Conrado went so far as to say that this was the best project he has ever worked on for Motorola, greater than any campaign. Srere went on to say that companies should toss out convoluted mission statements and create a vision that says a lot in a simple, easy to remember way, so that all employees and business partners get it.

6. Marketing leaders at Molex, Schneider Electric, Volvo Construction Equipment and USG gathered for the "Engaging Channel Partner" breakout session Thursday morning, discussing their companies and marketing maneuvers (including the social media stratety at Volvo and a new website for Schneider Electric). One of the more insightful exchanges during the Q&A came when panel members discussed how they expressed different ways to solicit feedback from distribution partners, from having quarterly meetings to conducting customer webinars where input is solicited (a tactic taken at USG).

7. Fresh off a plane from London, Philip Clement, Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Aon Corporation, gave the very first public presentation about a sexy, but potentially suspect, $132 million, three-year sponsorship opportunity for the Manchester United soccer/football team. Clement made some good arguments about how aligning ia company that has offices in 120 countries with one of the most recognized teams in the world's most popular sports (the team has 333 million fans worldwide, according to Clement) will simplify messaging compared with multiple sponsorships, in addition to doing wonders for brand awareness. But while Clement stressed that he is devoted to metrics-proven marketing, I'm still unclear how this sponsorship, taking effect this summer, will really impact Aon sales and help educate the company's offering, not to mention how Aon can effectively measure whether this initiative is a revenue-generating success or not. Time will tell whether Aon scores or fumbles on this one.

8. Northwestern University marketing professor Andris Zoltners hosted three marketers with sales backgrounds for an "Engaging Sales" discussion, lending context with some eye-opening statistics indicating the massive amount of people working in sales in the U.S. (20 million) compared with marketers (675,000). But while marketing may be outnumbered, they have to work hard to partner with this powerful group, in order to make the sales and marketing at a company even more powerful. To do that, the marketing leaders from Honeywell, Owens Corning and Grainger suggested understanding the customer and making relevant offers to entice sales' to participate in marketing, among other steps.

9. Better get used to that "new consumer" mindset, Ed O'Boyle, global practice leader, brand and customer engagement, for Gallup Consulting, said in his late Thursday afternoon presentation. According to a Gallup poll of 1,000 U.S. consumers, 40% say they will not change their spending patterns as the economy improves, O'Boyle said. That will have a ripple effect in B-to-B, so O'Doyle suggested that marketers ensure they have a clear definition of their organization's brand promise, how that promise is different from the competition's, and how they can deliver on that brand promise, in order to drive sales.

10. Pat LaPointe , managing partner at MarketingNPV presented a topic on one of the more important, and sometimes underscrutinized, aspects of marketing - measurement. Pity that the BMA placed his presentation at the end of the day Thursday, when attendees tended to zone out (as evident by some tweets about the presentation). Measurement is too vital to be pushed aside to the end of a long day, and yes, it can be a bit of a dry topic sometimes. Here's hoping for the betterment of its members, measurement will receive a better, earlier timeslot at next year's BMA conference.

Posted by Piet at 10:21 AM | Permalink

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain.
Facebook is everywhere. You'd have to be a cryogenically frozen amoeba living under a rock on Mars not to have heard of it.

So, what's the big deal? Does Facebook really deserve to be hailed as the greatest product of Web 2.0 or is it only a matter of time before all the hoopla becomes a thing of the past?

Many joined Facebook hoping it would bring them closer to the people in their lives, especially those they hadn't seen since the good old days of school. But then the reality set in.

For some, getting in touch with said blasts from the past made them realise why they weren't that chummy to begin with.
For others, it's now gotten to the point where they're dealing with an actual addiction; staying up into the wee hours of the morning, showing up late for work, and messaging colleagues in adjacent cubicles (assuming access hasn't been entirely blocked).

I received many requests to join Facebook, some from people I'd only ever said "hi" to once or twice. That didn't make much sense. Why was I being hassled by people I either saw in class everyday or who weren't even that fond of me in the first place? Why could they not take the hint (i.e. my express "no thanks") and move on? And why couldn't anyone come up with a valid reason that didn't involve some degree of peer pressure? This definitely went beyond the desire to get a little closer.

The social networking craze seems to be more about reaffirming ourselves than about connecting with other people. Our entire sense of self is now based on how many "friends" we have on our profiles. Whether or not we know (or like) these people doesn't matter. As long as we can claim to be popular, that's all that counts. As long as we're connected, we exist. The world will have no choice but to acknowledge that.

To those of who are happy with Facebook, what I have to say shouldn't bother you. If it does, maybe that's something you need to think about. In any case, all I can do is offer some advice.

Be reasonable about how much you share online because the last thing you want is to have your identity stolen (or wind up being stalked). And now that companies are using Facebook to investigate prospective employees, a little common sense (and censorship) will come in handy.

To those of you have managed to stay strong up to now, congratulations are in order. Your willpower is admirable! Technology may profess to be bringing us closer together, but one of the things its doing (other than creating an entire generation who can't spell) is tearing us further apart. We're forgetting what it's like to interact with each other on an organic level.

Nowadays, it's near impossible to have a conversation without whoever you're trying to talk to keeping at least one earphone still plugged in and/or constantly reaching for their phone. What ever happened to undivided attention and good old-fashioned eye contact?

Fact is, you really don't need a website to stay in touch with your family and friends. Why not write them an actual letter, give them an actual phone call, or (insert gasp here) meet them in person?

We're not meant to spend our lives sitting in front of computer screens, thinking we're connecting with others when we're actually not. We're meant to be out living our lives. And even though the online experience may seem real, it can never come close to the interactions in the flesh.

So, what are you waiting for?

By Eugene Yiga
Synovate Laboratories

Eugene Yiga currently works as knowledge manager at Synovate Laboratories, a global branding and communications team. In addition to providing support in current projects for senior executives around the world, he assists in the research and development of improved analytical tools and is also responsible for writing thought pieces and best practice material. Yiga was one of the first external contributors granted access to write for the World Advertising Research Centre blog where he has discussed topics including behavioural economics, mobile technology, and customer loyalty.

Posted by John at 9:31 AM | Permalink

I have been praising Apple’s brand for a long time and usually supported that praise by comparing the company to that other technology behemoth Microsoft. (For a good overview of what I’ve written, go ">here where a year ago I again summed up that we were witnessing the ascendance of a great company).

Now, at long last, we’ve gotten substantial proof that Apple, the company that embraces marketing fundamentals, and Microsoft, the company that more often rejects these fundamentals, has pulled ahead in the race as we knew they would.

As of Friday, Apple passed Microsoft as the most valued technological company on the globe.

This is a major achievement, and it will be only the beginning as long as Apple remembers what got them there. Namely, products that customer’s really want and need and a responsiveness to its Target Market.

While the question of not using Flash video, the factory suicides in China and souring relations with some Apple re-sellers suggest that Apple’s superior brand consistency might be faltering a bit, but given the extraordinary success of its latest release the iPad, I think the company would have to start stumbling severely before I began to doubt it. Right now, Apple is still doing the best kind of marketing there is!

Loser:

The Republican party is making a big mistake by following the Darrell Issa model for politicking. Darrell Issa might get a lot of attention for verbal bomb throwing, but fact is he is the wrong political model if Republicans want to win.

It was Issa, after all, who demanded a recall in the California governor’s election only to be granted it and then bow out of the race under confused circumstances to Schwarzenegger. Bottom line, you can generate a lot of publicity and anger and the people still won’t elect you. Issa might have cleared the way for another Republican, but his own brand was marked by negativity.

Why on earth does the party of Ronald Reagan want to follow this political brand model?

If your business is winning elections, you need to meet the needs of the electorate. And this starts with listening. The Republican party must re-style itself as the party that listens.

Unfortunately, the most recent flap over Sestak –that Issa and others are urging the entire party to embrace— is evidence of a party that risks turning not listening into a platform.

Even though, polls show that Americans are tired of back room deals, I think it will be obvious if and when they poll on the Sestak issue that most Americans couldn’t care less about pursuing this. Why should they? It’s obvious to anyone outside the political pundit echo chamber that whatever happened a) it is probably not outside the scope of usual politics and b) even if it is, it’s far too complicated, circumstantial and open-ended to waste too much party energy on. Even former Attorney General under Bush, Michael Mukasey, said that it was “highly questionable if there’s any crime.”

But ahead of the polls and confirming a political marketing truth, just look at the Connecticut reaction to Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal, the state’s current attorney general. Blumenthal mis-spoke regarding his military service and created a firestorm as result. But this was punditocracy firestorm that didn’t translate to the electorate. In other words, he’s doing just fine with the voters in Connecticut.

Republicans must resist the urge to engage in the politics of personal attacks and become nitpickers of negativism. The most successful political brands have always been seen to take the high road. Not only does worrying about the Sestak issue seem like an non-event to the electorate but harping on it comes across as desperation –and no party ever wins by sounding desperate.

Here’s an idea. Instead of spending any more time trying to nail the next scandal and show the American people just how awful the Obama administration is, why not do what the opposition parties do in other democracies: deliver substantive alternatives to current administrative policies.

For example, tell the American people –especially the independents— exactly what the Republican position is on BP, off-shore drilling and environmental consequences. After all, the media has given Brand Obama a free ride so far on the BP disaster –he’s on vacation again!— but there’s clearly a vacuum that innovative, aggressive and, above all, positive Republican problem-solving can fill.

It’s time to get the Grand Ole Party to start doing Grand new things.

And, remember, things are always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.

TODAY’S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY –
No one votes for the negative.

Posted by John at 9:26 AM | Permalink

St.Louis-based Panera Bread Co. is trying out a new philanthropic cafe concept where customers can offer donations as opposed to fixed prices to receive sandwiches, soups, salads, pastries, breads and drinks. The idea behind the test location in Clayton, Mo. is that consumers who can't afford to pay for a meal can still afford to volunteer at the shop, and proceeds exceeding what Panera needs to sustain operations at the nonprofit cafe would go towards funding community programs, such as on-the-job training for at-risk teenagers, suggests Kate Antonacci, manager for the project.

Panera hopes to help others, but it is still a publically traded business with a bottom line to mind. So will this philanthropic enterprise help the brand, and will other national restaurant chains follow its path?

The company is hesitant to officially commit to future pay what you want locations, although the hope is that hundreds of such stores may someday be open in Panera-crowded markets. A consultant for the project - Denise Cerreta, founder of pay what you want community cafe consultancy One World Everybody Eats - belives there are steps Panera should take at its test location to better guarantee success, such as allowing consumers to choose portion sizes and having them hand over donations directly to a person, as opposed to placing them in a cash box, to increase accountability.

But the leniency in letting customers pay as they please, combined with the notion that proceeds will go toward helping others, could potentially benefit consumer perception of the brand - not to mention investor and franchisee opinion. "Not only can you fill your stomach, you can make a difference in the world or for members of your community," Cerreta says. "Who wouldn't want to do that?"

The concept "is a good extension of the brand in a way that will build some good will for them within the industry," says Orlando, Fla.-based restaurant marketing consultant Aaron Allen. He suggests that the positive buzz created by coverage in The New York Times, USA Today and from other media outlets has impacted Panera's stock price. But to prove the concept's marketing value, Panera's PR and marketing departments will need to show the overall ad equivalent costs tying back to press mentions and to pinpoint whether sales at the converted locations, and sales at locations in the same market, have increased.

So will other restaurant chains try out the pay what you want community cafe model to better improve their image and sales? Allen believes this concept hasn't reached its crest yet. Risa Sherman, senior consultant at Cause Consulting in Boston, agrees, saying the concept is raising the bar within the quick service restaurant industry and forcing competitors to sit up and take notice. But she says not every restaurant chain will be able to try this out. Panera can afford to given the size and profitability of the company and its brand personality. Cerreta adds that, with day-old pastries coming from other locations, Panera is in a position to further afford such locations. From a margins management position, a Dunkin' Donuts or a Starbucks could also try this. But the margins would be higher for burger and pizza chains, for instance, so this concept may not be worth their while, she says.

The June 3rd edition of Marketing News Exclusives features more about this Panera concept and its likelihood for success from a marketing perspective. Members of the American Marketing Association will be able to access that story by clicking here beginning June 3rd.

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