Latest wedding trend portends move to low-key lifestyle
By Robert Wheatley
I’m a former Los Angelino. Doesn’t mean anything really except to those who have lived there and witnessed first-hand the unique SoCal culture focused on fame, fortune and entertainment. Trend watchers keep their eyes on LA and in Orange County to signal cultural or social changes. The theory is new ideas tend to start there and in New York and then migrate. Not convinced that’s always true, but for sure LA is a bellwether mirror for shifts in tastes and lifestyles.
I lived in Beverly Hills — in one of the tonier areas north of Sunset Boulevard on Beverly Drive. And before you start assuming anything, I did not have any brush with fame or fortune. I lived in a small house in Franklin Canyon. Nearby however were movie stars and music moguls. Showy to be sure, LA is characterized by a lot of personal wealth that gets showcased in gigantic ornate mansions, exotic autos and over-the-top events like – weddings. Actually more like movie premiers with vows and a ceremony. Been to a few. Got married myself at the Bel Air Hotel, one of the prime locations for some of these outsized celebrations. No, mine was (very) low-key. But man-oh-man what a fabulous place to celebrate the nuptials.
So here in the land of glitz we find a seismic shift in the social milieu that has bearing on where we’re all headed, and probably for a long time to come. LA weddings, a can-you-top-this form of social currency, has gone into a remarkable downshift.
“With This Burger, I Thee Wed” — New York Times, June 17, 2009
Laura Holson charts the changes in wedding gestalt that now favors Rice Krispie treats over caviar and lobster. What was once covered in the social pages as the next “costume epic” celebrated with crystal chandeliers and buckets of Dom Perignon, has retreated to mini-burgers with home baked peach cobbler served at a backyard barbecue, she reports.
Low key. Simple. Casual. Down-home. Top wedding planner to the stars-types forecast picnic style seating; platters passed from person to person, cupcakes and comfort food. Doesn’t mean cheap mind you, but the point is: now even in the rarified world of Hollywood glam Betty Crocker and jalapeno poppers have overtaken skyscraper sized wedding cakes and elaborate celebrity chef inspired all-stars like poached Halibut cheeks drizzled with cilantro, basil, chutney emulsion.
What’s it all mean?
Comfort food is king. Simple preparations. Recipes without fuss in any way. This condition offers a unique opportunity for food and beverage brands to celebrate the return to simpler food and occasions with a nod to fresh, natural ingredients. When rock stars and movie queens look to French fries and grilled cheese sandwiches for their soirees, you know that suddenly home-cooking the way we know it here in the hinterlands is now the aspiration menu.
So the next family gathering where you rustle up a platter of fried onion rings and a beer, take satisfaction that you and your favorite People magazine cover models have much more in common that ever before. You are actually, really partying like a rock star.
For food brands, this confirms what we suspected, simple food, simply prepared is where we should be living in our outreach strategies to home cooks and kitchen commanders.
Wheatley & Timmons is among the top 20 best agencies to work for in the US, following a national competition conducted by The Holmes Group.
This year has been pretty good in the awards recognition department. We also found out recently that our on-line video work for Nature’s Variety pet food took a Silver Telly award in the direct marketing category. Similarly our video blog productions for Sargento Foods won a Bronze Telly in the business-to-consumer category. But frankly, all of this pales in comparison to the Best Agency to Work For competition conducted by Paul Holmes of The Holmes Group .
The people who work here drive our business results. The triumphs and successes we see on behalf of clients, the great insights and strong ideas all originate with one important source: our client service teams and media experts. So we think that our organization wins and loses in the long-term based on how we recruit, grow and develop our people. Top priority for us is our team-focused business model and the investments we make in cultivating talent, guiding careers and adding to everyone’s knowledge and skill sets.
The Best Agency competition is pretty thorough. The management team must respond to a lengthy questionnaire about our mission, policies, procedures, development programs, benefits and culture. Employees take a confidential survey (executive team is not permitted to see the results) to assess their views. Out of this download comes the data and information reviewed by Paul Holmes and his staff to make their picks.
It is our mission to be a Best Agency to Work For. Bravo to the committed and extraordinarily talented people who make up the fabric of what the Wheatley & Timmons agency is all about. This kind of validation in our view supersedes all other forms of peer recognition.
Pet food is an amazing business. Significant growth rates are forecasted over the next five years. Pet parents are emotionally involved and inquisitive consumers. Even in this troubled economy, pet owners how no signs of cutting back on their purchases for Fido. If anything the trend to trade up to more expensive natural diets — employing higher quality nutrition and ingredients — continues to pick up steam.
The upside business opportunities are significant. So competition is getting hotter. To capture consumers who are trading up, new entrants into the natural and organic segment are emerging. Mass brands are looking to enter the business with line extensions and new brands. Most authentic natural brands historically have been sold at specialty retail outlets that cater to the top quality pet diet products. However, big box outlets like PetSmart and Petco have also recognized the move to premium diets and established “natural” aisles in their stores. The game is on!!
In 2008 our agency represented the Nature’s Variety pet food brand, a market leader in raw frozen diets and also a major player in grain free nutrition, too. Our campaign for them helped deliver 20% sales growth last year. Additionally the Publicity Club of Chicago recognized the agency’s strategic effort with a Golden Trumpet award in Consumer Marketing; a Silver Telly from the Telly Awards in Direct Marketing; and our Rotation Diet program was a one of five finalists for the Golden Sabre, the top national award in the Public Relations field.
An investment firm acquired Nature’s Variety and brought in their own team, so we moved on. Our goal: take our pet food expertise and know-how forward to another growing brand looking to win big in this increasingly competitive category. To that end we’ve developed a short movie that profiles some of our insights in the evolving pet food business. Here it is:
We have a weekend place in southwest Michigan, about 90 miles from downtown Chicago. It sits in an apple orchard with a small lake in the middle. Above is the view from the end of my dock. It’s serene. Quiet. Every form of wildlife abounds. Eagle, deer, wild turkeys and fox roam the area. The family loves it. We’re spending more down time there these days… It is in some ways a metaphor for how the marketing world is evolving.
In the era of conspicuous consumption people get caught up in things – buying them. They become badges and definers of personal outlook, status and self-image. Consumers morph over time into a form of professional acquirer – homo-shopperoticus — who reaps emotional rewards from adding to the ever-growing stable of goods and services.
You worked hard to play hard, or so the theory goes. The system fed itself and many continued merrily down the path of leveraged prosperity. Then came the crash and things changed – out of necessity the economic collapse forced a reevaluation of what matters. People recognized once again the importance of relationships, families and time together. Our homes have reemerged as havens in the storm. The retrenching on expensive vacations has ushered in an era more about shared family activities than bold-faced travel exotica.
Here is the Michigan house. On weekends inside you’ll find our family playing games together. Talking. Cooking. Reading. Entertaining friends. When the weather cooperates we’re outside rowing on the lake, walking on trails that surround the property. Heading to our neighbors. We’re in a rural area surrounded by farms and vineyards. So small town community celebrations become low-key additions to the entertainment line-up.
Interesting that divorces are on the down stroke now, fueled perhaps by budget realities that make financing separate households less feasible. In the adult beverage business, off-premise distribution (supermarkets, liquor stores) is gaining momentum while on-premise (bars and clubs) slows a bit. People currently consume at social occasions with friends in the home more so than out on the town. Cookbook sales are skyrocketing. Hmmmm?
In the midst of fiscal chaos people look for calm, security, certainty, substance and as a result place more value on tradition and meaning. Brands that recognize this sea-change have an extraordinary opportunity to connect in a new and powerful way with consumers.
Can you facilitate and enable family events and interactions? What language are you using in your messaging strategies? Does it tap into the reservoir of desire for substance, human interaction, authenticity and shared experience? Can you play a role in family traditions? Facilitate communication? People are more grounded now in the understanding that human relationships are an impressive emotional anchor.
Brand relevance is a curious thing because it is so directly tied to acute understanding and insight into the consumer’s needs, wants and passions. As for me I place great priority on my daughters. Brynne (who is about to turn three) and I enjoy some quality time together while having breakfast on the deck. She helped me “cook.” This is where the action is.
Brands that matter do so by acquiring a higher purpose, one built on recognizing people have an intense desire to be a part of something larger than themselves. This is the path to a brand related bond. Now is the time to mine communications pathways that acknowledge and build on this emotional tether.
In a recent editorial in AdAge, author and consultant Al Ries described the devastating impact of variable pricing on the airline industry and how it worked to effectively commoditize airline brands. His point: “There’s nothing wrong with being a high-end brand. There’s nothing wrong with being a low-end brand. There’s something wrong when you try to be both.”
Consumers quickly assign quality values to a product or service based on its price. An expensive watch is seen as a higher quality watch. The price sets a perceptual bar. We don’t always want the expensive item. And we don’t always want the cheap item either. If toilet paper is a commodity to some consumers, then cheap is better. The same consumer who buys the luxury watch may also buy the low-end toilet paper. Value means different things to different people.
What remains constant however are people assigning attributes qualitatively to a brand based on its pricing strategy. More expensive usually means better.
Gaps can undermine…
There’s an unyielding temptation in the current economy to drop price to move volume. But if the gaps between normal pricing and promotional pricing get too large, two things happen. First, consumers decide the price was too high to begin with and your equity immediately erodes. Second, they will shop the category looking for price reductions and purchase on that basis, thus the business is commoditized.
What message are you sending about the relative value and quality of your brand based on its pricing strategy?
Street musicians and perceptual value…
Damon Gudaitis of copyblogger had an interesting post today about “anchors.” A form of mental shorthand we use to make decisions quickly about the value of something in front of us. He tells the story of street musicians in Japan that underscores our typical behavior and how pricing anchors work:
“I learned another lesson about anchor pricing when I spent six weeks with my guitar as a street performer in Japan.
I watched two competing guitarists busking weekends in Fukuoka. Both were of similar ability. Both took donations, and also sold CDs. (If you ever plan on becoming a street performer yourself, cut a CD first. It really gets attention and enhances your credibility.)
One musician sold his CD for $20. The other sold his for $6.
Here’s the thing—neither one of them sold very many CDs.
But the musician selling CDs for about the going rate was signaling that his music was worth listening to. The performer selling CDs at way below market value was signaling that his music was junk.
The $20 CD performer got lots of attention. He’d consistently draw crowds of 20-40 people at a time, getting a modest donation from nearly every listener.
The $6 CD guy, about as good as the first, usually only got 2 or 3 people at a time and was clearly busking for love and not money.
And there’s another factor. Street performers fall into two categories: those who get change and those who get bills.
You guessed it. The $20 CD guy not only drew a larger crowd, but that crowd felt he was worth some folding money as a tip. The $6 CD guy heard nothing but the clink of spare change.
The successful busker didn’t accept the existing anchor for street performers, which is a couple of coins.
Instead, he created a new anchor with his $20 CD. That CD created a new context and a new marketing message, and that let him drop a new anchor that was more favorable to him.”
Long story short: pricing is powerful. Pricing says a lot about the worth, quality and value of what you do. If what you’re selling is worth more, then price it accordingly — it’s an important signal. Just watch the temptation to try and be all things to all people. If you’re in the low end, then live there. And ditto at the other. Straddling will undermine the entire proposition.
Never underestimate the need for equity-building efforts
By Robert Wheatley
I love my car. It’s a 2003 Mercedes G 500. If you’ve seen one it’s a retro looking angular box on wheels. Mercedes version of a Hummer-esque off roader gussied up with amenities (best auto sound system I’ve ever had). It’s a truck and drives like one but I really enjoy it. In my advanced age I prefer using Kiehl’s skin care products because they work and I like the story behind the brand. At the end of a rough day (I have plenty of those) I re-orient with a cold Corona beer (yes they’re a client but I liked the product before hand). The vacation-in-a-bottle beach thing is a mental aspiration.
As a passionate home cook I have standards about what I will use. It’s Barilla pasta or I’m not making the recipe. If you put a bag of Cheetos in front of me, it’s gone. Same with Blue Diamond Smokehouse almonds – can’t live without ‘em. My dentist was forever lecturing me about my teeth. He persuaded me to get a Sonic Care toothbrush. Wow, what a difference in the check-ups. I’m sold. I’m a pet fanatic, and have been my entire life. And I’m brand loyal — I have a Newfoundland dog, here he is.
His name is Goliath – appropriate don’t you think, given he weighs 170 pounds? I have been a Newf fan for 15 years. Best dog breed on the planet. I could talk for hours about them. My soup is Campbell’s, and my tissue is Kleenex . My computer is an Apple and I’ve been a diehard for over 20 years. Honestly the Apple reflects my non-conforming outlook on life and career devotion to a creative business. I appreciate design esthetics so Apple gets major props for that.
Sure the economy has created trade-offs for my family and me. We do less of some things like travel. We’ve cut way back on home improvements. We’re not replacing things that are getting a little shop worn. But brands that matter still do and they’re not falling off the menu. Why? Because so much of how we define ourselves is expressed in our likes and interests, and brands play a real big role there.
A recent Harris Interactive Equi-Trend study suggests that in the current economic hurricane, as Warren Buffet describes it, we tighten our grip around brands we enjoy. Marketing Daily ran a piece about the study. Says Harris: “Brand equity does not lose potency when money is tight.” Interestingly comfort foods and staples got the highest brand equity scores – Hershey’s, Crayola, even Arm & Hammer baking soda. In categories like airlines, Southwest got high marks. It was Sony in electronics and Grey Goose in spirits.
The prevailing view is that brand loyalty goes out the window with the budget bath water in a recession. NOT SO. It is entirely conditional. Loyalty’s core essence is grounded in value to the user. Wes brown, an analyst with Iceology in LA says people tend to stick with what they know and while a cheaper alternative may exist, they are hesitant to risk failure from something they don’t know as well.
So for any organization considering cutbacks and diminished investments in brand building, think twice. And for those who in a state of panic reach for steep price reductions, be careful lest you dilute your equity. Remember that people love their brands and investments in building those relationships are not playing fast and loose with available assets. If anything its vital to your future. Brands that plow ahead in the storm, by far and away, come out healthier than their conservative brethren.
Does your brand matter or is it a passing, fleeting thought?
By Robert Wheatley
Every dollar spent in marketing communications comes with an attached request for measurable results. This is why clients hire us. Usually the expected outcome is in the form of elevated brand reputation or purposeful buying behavior. Thus the point of communicating is to engage, inform and ultimately motivate. Marketers spend money to make money. In communications this means a tangible link between outreach and impact on attitudes and behavior.
The battle for meaning and preference really exists in the six inches (or so) of grey matter between both ears. So no one, then, would dispute that ultimately all brands are competing for a share of brain time.
Not surprisingly what occupies most conscious brain energy is centered on things that matter. So is it possible that inconsequential information gets less brain time? Think so. To what extent does the recipient ignore peripherally interesting brand-to-consumer communication?
Take the home improvement fan whose creative juices and sense of style is activated in the presence of a home environment they helped construct. Could it be the furniture and decorating operates as a reflection of their personality? Perhaps their home is tied very closely to how they define themselves. Maybe investing in changes, upgrades and improvements is integral to their lifestyle passions. Their personal artistry is not on canvas but in the attitude revealed in their decorating.
Brands that understand this important concept work (very) hard to help enable the decorating-centric person’s interests. Brands that act as helper and facilitator, a singularly unselfish act, are able to acquire greater relevance and meaning. The outcome: an opportunity for real engagement and attention. Brain time.
Yet so often we find brand communications mired in self-centered messaging about technical advantages, specifications, features, ingredients and other items that may help deliver a desirable outcome — but really are of little consequence to the consumer’s life and therefore of less interest.
So what’s important?
For most people it’s our lives and lifestyle that matter. Our relationships, families, siblings, children, events, activities, jobs, hobbies, religious beliefs, interests, passions, wants, desires, ambitions, dreams and aspirations that get the most conscious time and attention.
How does a brand get brain time?
When brands enable, become part of, are attached to, or “ride” alongside events and activities of meaning and value to people, an opportunity arises for authentic communication to take place. Meaning and value precedes effective communication. Want to be seen and heard? Then stop playing in the outer circle of less consequential information. Stop focusing on your features and specifications. Consider more holistically how your brand can play a dynamic role in your consumer’s life. Greater meaning = greater value = more brain time.
Coming FTC rules pose challenge to social media marketing
By Robert Wheatley
New rules are in the works that could alter the legal landscape for agencies and clients in how they handle blogger outreach and use of third party experts and celebrities as spokespeople.
I wrote an article on this that was published today at Marketing Daily. You can read it here.
Behind all this are several note-able and well-publicized events including the fake blogging scandal involving Walmart and their PR firm, Edelman along with the accusations involving lack of transparency on the part of Whole Foods’ CEO. These events and others have prompted the FTC to consider adjusting their Guides in order to better assure transparency.
This includes disclosure when blogger are paid to promote a brand, are given free products or some other consideration. The same thinking is also extended to media interviews involving outside third-party spokespeople. The FTC’s concern there is if a viewer or listener will understand the spokesperson is being paid.
So agencies are adopting new procedures and policies that will reflect the need for clarity in the relationships between brands and various forms of media.
What’s so bad about transparency?
In today’s wired world where everything can be known or discovered and both brands and businesses live in glass houses, we’re all used to routinely finding out who’s operating behind the curtain. For the most part, the curtain stays open.
I don’t think consumers are surprised to know that celebrities are often paid to promote products they’re interested in. And in those instances when bloggers have been paid and acknowledge that in their posts, I think we find the revelation honest and refreshing.
So let’s embrace the new age of transparency and not worry about the disclosure. It’s a good thing. That said agencies must be sure their policies are in line with FTC requirements to avoid legal run-ins with the Federal policy.
Bang, bang, bang!!! – so appreciate it when someone you respect just knocks you in the head with a useful wake up call. A few in the agency business, PR included, are occasionally corralled by “a half mile wide and three inches deep” form of blinder that flattens the perception of what we’re here to accomplish for clients. This helpful alarm was served in a superb article that – like a coldwater bath – works to shake-up the creative soul in a fog clearing moment about what brand minders should be thinking about.
So much of what we do, or are challenged to do on a daily basis, resides in a sort of tactical soup that is preoccupied with sorting out and managing the bits and bites of communications strategy. Well, its what we do here for a living isn’t it? Yes and NO. Surely it is a main feature of the services we provide, but clients really employ us to deliver measurable outcomes related to sales and market share growth. So one (invest in communications) is supposed to be a means to another (growth). Although we may in our daily nose-down behavior on the tactics of outreach unwittingly miss the forest for the trees.
“Marketers are obsessed with words. They believe that they are in the communication and persuasion business. They incorrectly compare the marketing of products and services in a supersaturated marketplace to marketing a political candidate or making a legal case, where ambivalent people are forced to choose between only two alternatives. This worldview has them fixated on doing things right ―right message, right medium, right slogan, right tagline, et al. ― blinding them to the most important marketing question: Are we doing the right things? Message to most marketers (I know, quite ironic):
You are not.
Don’t take my word for it: Simply take a clear-eyed look at some of today’s most successful and talked about brands. What are Nintendo and Harley-Davidson’s slogans? Why doesn’t Apple cover their packaging with persuasive copy? Are Stonyfield Farm’s yogurt customers engaged with its advertising, or with its all natural and organic ingredients? Did Toyota owners buy their vehicles because they wanted to “move forward?” Is that what caused the company to surpass GM in worldwide sales? Puh-lease. I own two Toyotas and I had to reach out to Google to discover that banal slogan. And speaking of Google, where the heck is their tagline anyway?”
The Means to An End…
Words, taglines, media, etc. are all vehicles – or vessels if you will. Communications is not an end in itself. And persuasion does not occur because of our words alone. So what is it that we should be focused on to achieve growth and market share? We think it’s about working relentlessly to add value to our target consumer’s lives. The more value we can create, the more relevant the brand/consumer relationship gets. And the more willing the consumer is to engage – because in the end they decide to opt in – or out. And therefore listen to what we have to say.
Asacker describes value this way:
Purpose value
Growth value
Social value
Involvement value
Entertainment value
Aesthetic value
Physical value
Time value
Financial value
Performance value
Are we focused on the right things? What do you think?
Today everyone knows that two of the big three headed south in a hurry when credit markets abruptly disappeared and the home equity cash machine came up empty. So goes General Motors in short order from icon of industrial America to bankruptcy court.
Sometimes perspective can be illuminating, invigorating. It may be that many in Detroit believe the best advice always comes from those with prior experience in the rarefied world of auto management, marketing, design or moving the metal at retail. Or is it possible that’s sometimes more of a hindrance than help? Can you be too close to your own business and submerged by category conventions to see new ways of doing things?
I ran across a section in Adam Morgan’s updated “Eating the Big Fish” book that appears remarkably poignant amidst the headlines of automotive bankruptcies. In explaining why Google is one of the most important worldwide brands, while investing virtually nothing in traditional marketing activity, he discusses the value of valueable-ness. And urges brands to explore this key insightful question: how do you become startlingly useful?
The startlingly useful car company…
Lifted directly from the text of his book, here is Morgan’s recipe for a more engaging car brand or dealership: “What would it mean for a car brand to be startlingly useful to people? Well, perhaps we would have to offer a whole range of information or services we don’t currently offer. Perhaps, for instance, we would offer information about brands and models other than our own. This information would not be in the form of leaflets out on a table or even accessed via the Internet. There’s nothing startlingly useful about that. Perhaps we would offer our own version of Apple’s Genius Bar, with a resident techie who would be prepared to help them (car buyers) answer any question they liked, not just questions about car specs. This would not be our lead salesperson, perhaps all smiles and suavity in a sharp suit; this would be someone who wasn’t trying to sell us anything at all. Just help.
To be startlingly useful, he or she could offer to tell us ways to reduce our commute to work by 10 minutes each way. They (dealer) could be the center for neighborhood carpooling services or school ride shares. Perhaps our equivalent of Google Earth might be to offer additional services like ‘great car journeys of the world,’ wonderful drives in which to enjoy our cars, beautifully rendered, with places to stay along the way and the kinds of small boutiques, hotels, and cultural museums that reflect our particular brand sensibility. Or family picnics – places to take the kids to get them away from the game console — so the family could all just mess around together. Bike trails within 40 minutes drive. Guides to teach your son or daughter fishing, and places to do it together…
Second, this new service would be very simple and easy to use and enjoy. No forms to fill in, no clutter. No one trying to doorstep you on the way and sell you stuff. Very approachable and accessible. Third, we could do this for free. We would recognize that there is a consumer response to generosity that we will recoup in other ways. That, in our case, word of mouth is the best advertising, and certainly as people shop for their next car, this would be a unique reason for them to come and see us while they are going around their three or four options.”
This entire effort is grounded in a startlingly compelling idea: identify and mine the points of emotional value consumers hold dear in their relationships with and use of their cars — and then construct a framework for consumer engagement around them.
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