Fear Appeal in Advertising

LaTour et al (1996, p 2) say a fear appeal is a “psychoactive” ad that highlights an aspect of our “suboptimal lifestyles.” Their study shows a positive correlation between fear appeal and audience attitude towards an ad, and also that there are no ethical issues (p 6). They use (p 8) “deodorant failure” advertisements as an example of how fear appelas can be helpful communication.

Hawkins, et al (p 416) say that fear appeals use the threat of unpleasant consequences if a behavior is not altered. They single out bad breath. I am going to Platonify and say plaque falls into the same category of unpleasantness. Fear reduction is an effective agent to change attitudes, according to Hawkins, et al (2007, p 386, 408).

Several theories are in play, including the Theory of Reasoned Action (see Hawkins, et al, 2007, p 404). According to TRA, normative social beliefs are a major determinant in an individual about the appropriateness of a behavior. Social beliefs about bad breath, germs and plaque are leveraged in the Listerine ads. According to Gire (2003, p 1), the man who created Listerine, Gerald Lambert also developed the word "halitosis" to provide an advertising basis for discouraging bad breath.

With Listerine a consistent fear attribute is germs. Below is a Listerine ad from 1969. (click on image to enlarge)

And the following from 2009.

In both decades it is in the body copy. The headline further informs us of the manifest consequence of following a suboptimal lifestyle: back then we would have bad breath, today plaque. In both decades, the ads are what LaTour, et al (p 3) would characterize as “mild.”

Another theory is the Elaboration Likelihood Model (see Hawkins, p 409-10). It lines-up two consumer approaches to processing advertisements. One, central route processing is very cognitive and involves extensive information exchange between consumer and marketer. The other, peripheral processing uses more emotional cues and little or no cognitive processing.

In their paper "The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion", Cacioppo and Petty (1986, pp 1-2) clarify that they do not propose two mutually exclusive and exhaustive types but that central and peripheral represent positions on a continuous dimension ranging from high to low elaboration. I believe that along the elaboration continuum, the Listerine ads are on the peripheral side of the mean.

In the 1969 ad and also in the interesting TV commercial below, I think Listerine was trying a change belief tactic (see Hawkins, 2007, p 406) regarding the taste. They change the belief about the pungent taste of the product from bad to good, reasoning it would not be an effective germ fighter otherwise.

Here is an interesting look back to Morgan Freeman’s start in showbiz – he did TV commercials before movies. He is in a Listerine ad, explaining why the bad taste is good: Early Freeman Today, dealing with the taste is apparently not a need, or they don’t want to raise a red flag themselves about it.

Is it all ethical? Hawkins, et al (p 416) cite ethical concerns about "fear appeals based on social anxieties about bad breath...." LaTour, et al (1996, p 7) found no one in their studies considered fear appeals unethical. They even go so far to say such advertising can be helpful communications (p 8), and give as an example - deodorant failure, similar to bad breath. The Listerine ads, to me, fall on the LaTour side of the line and I do not think them unethical.

References
Cacioppo, John and Richard Petty (1986.) The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion. Retrieved on March 28, 2009 from the EBSCOHost database.

Gire, JT (2/10/2003). Attitudes & Attitude Change: Influencing Thoughts and Feelings. Retrieved on March 28, 2009 from http://academics.vmi.edu/psy/jg/chpt7-attitudes.htm

Hawkins, Del, David Mothersbaugh and Roger Best (2007). Consumer Behavior. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

LaTour, M, R Snipes and S Bliss (03/01/1996). Don’t be afraid to use fear appeals: an experimental study. Journal of Advertising Research.

Chocolate, sometimes nothing else will do.

My Grandmother used to tell me that there’s no such thing as bad booze. I feel the same way about chocolate. There hardly seems a need to use advertising and conditioning for an obsession and so fetching a delight. Nevertheless, the major chocolate manufacturers and retailers use a combination of both classical conditioning and operant conditioning, but mostly classical.

Classical
Classical conditioning is the association of chocolate with an appealing stimulus. Hawkins, et al (2007, p 331) inform us that music, holidays and popular personalities are often paired in commercials with chocolate as part of classical conditioning. With chocolate, there is usually an undertone of romance.

Here is a Nestle’s :30 second spot on Youtube with many elements of classical conditioning. An ecstatic cellist. A woman, melting and open. How beautiful she is too. Enchanting music. Nestle's Alpine TV Spot

Latent romance in the popular commercial touched our need for objectification (see Hawkins, 2007, p 367) by having us view the behaviors of “others and [draw] inferences as to what one feels and thinks.” Showing affection in interpersonal relationships can also help satisfy our need for affiliation (p 371).

There is a dark side to chocolate too, an unstated sexual desire. Unstated motives are often driving forces in our culture but unlike manifest motives, are not directly presented (p 375). Instead, indirect appeals through artwork are made.

Hawkins, et al (2007, p 386) further report that “repeated exposure to positive-emotion-eliciting ads may increase brand preference through classical conditioning.” What is an example of such an emotion – they tell us: love. The 1989 commercial above was actually the apex of a multi-year campaign that started in 1986. Here is the Adam ad, notice the Maxfield Parrish theme (this one is a little louder): 1986 Nestle's TV Spot

Nestlé’s does not have a lock on chocolate advertising though. For their part Hershey’s follows suit with a more recent and similar Special Dark :15 spot (much louder): Hershey's :15 Spot

Here Hershey’s employs gold and copper colors to convey richness in the affective interpretation by the consumer, to supplement the same unconditioned stimuli we saw in Nestlé’s. Hawkins, et al (2007 , p 299) give a print ad example with a similar gold and copper color combination for a Godiva chocolate ad, but Hershey’s even gives us the words to associate with the product.

Hershey’s Kisses added a popular personality to the music, Thalia as she covered the Shirelle’s hit It’s in His Kiss: Thalia TV Spot

They also changed colors for the Christmas season and bell-rang a popular carol: Hershey's for the Holidays . Hawkins et al (p 332) use Christmas music as an example of eliciting the emotional responses characteristic of classical conditioning.

Hawkins and crew give other interesting examples of classical conditioning for chocolate candy (p 286): Reese’s Pieces product placement in the movie E.T. It was E.T.’s favorite food and its cinematic use in a natural way resulted in positive transfer to the product and sales jumped 6%.

In their Darwinian competition for attention, the chocolate makers are now exploring non-traditional venues. The response rate for advergames is between 16% and 45%. Additionally, customers spend an average of 25 minutes with our message. Blank (2001, ¶ 1) reports that Hershey’s Chocolate also experienced a phenomenal response rate with advergaming.

According to Ron (2002, ¶ 1), advergaming is a marketing device where the brand elements are an integral part of an online or computer game. Two academic studies have found that classical conditioning in advergaming produces most the most positive attitude (see Bailey, 2008, pp20-1 and Huang, 2005, p 1).

Operant Conditioning
Chocolate candy is a low involvement purchase. Duncan (2005, p 158) notes that conditioned learning is especially active in low involvement purchases. Gum and candy are the examples Duncan uses for low involvement products (p 140).

Operant conditioning works from the consequences of a purchase rather than through forming a positive stimulus for purchase. It rewards purchase “with positive outcomes,” according to Hawkins, et all (p 332) who also give an example of operant conditioning for chocolate candy. A free sample of chocolate in a candy shop resulted in a 25% higher purchase of chocolate. Tools of operant conditioning are free samples, discount coupons and sweepstakes (p 332). All are oriented to “secure an initial trial.”

Hershey’s used sweepstakes. Blank (2001, p 1) observes that the effective campaign used prizes ranging from Sony Play Stations, a one years supply of candy, a trip to Hershey’s Park, and daily prizes earned using the advergames – Reese’s Treasure Hunt and Reese’s Table Tennis. The sweepstakes was part of the advergame reported in classical conditioning.

Huang (2005, p 1) notes there is a secondary operant conditioning effect in advergaming, although the prime effect is from classical conditioning. Stokes, et al explain further (2008, p 9) “where reinforcement or punishment is used to promote specific behaviors,” advergames use operant conditioning to achieve desired behaviors.

Coupons and gift cards are standard fare also. See’s uses coupons as do the others, (See
See's Deals). Sweepstakes too (see See's Sweepstakes ).

References
Bailey, R (Summer 2008). TRAINED TO EAT: CHILDREN’S COGNITIVE AND
EMOTIONAL PROCESSING OF SNACK FOOD
ADVERGAMES. Univ. of Missouri. Retrieved on March 17, 2009 from http://edt.missouri.edu/Summer2008/Thesis/BaileyR-072308-T11745/research.pdf

Blank, C (August 6, 2001). Hershey's Online Push for Reese's Gets Sweet Response. Direct Marketing News. Retrieved on March 16, 2009
http://www.dmnews.com/Hershey39s-Online-Push-for-Reese39s-Gets-Sweet-Response/article/74093/

Hawkins, Del, David Mothersbaugh and Roger Best (2007). Consumer Behavior. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Huang, Y (August 7, 2005). The Application of Learning Theory to The Study of Advergaming. Retrieved on March 17, 2009 from http://etdncku.lib.ncku.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0807105-020544

Ron, S (June 27, 2002). Inject Some Fun and Games Into Advertising. Direct Marketing News. Retrieved on March 16, 2009at http://www.dmnews.com/Inject-Some-Fun-and-Games-Into-Advertising/article/77963/

Stokes, B, S Seggerman, and D Rejeski (9/28/2008). Digital Games and the Social Change Sector (For a Better World). Retrieved on March 18, 2009 from

The Kennedy Center Offer

I am a member of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and I received direct mail and direct Internet e-mail offers to renew and upgrade my membership (see Kennedy_Center_Upgrade). The Kennedy Center presents plays, ballet, National Symphony Orchestra performances, and various workshops. Additionally, it has the Gift Shop and restaurant. I have made it a focal point for entertainment with friends and family when in DC. Ticket sales do not cover the Centers 3,100 stage performances a year and its ambitious educational activities; hence the need for members (donors), and its annual tin-cupping.

The offer has the price, my annual renewal at the current donation, a time limit (my current membership expires every August), no express guarantee or breakdown of use, but as Haigh and Gilbert (2005, p 108) note:

“Brands provide a guarantee of origin and quality;”

So the Kennedy Center brand is my guarantee that the money will be used to support the activities, and provide the benefits suggested. My first contact with the membership office was a phone call from them during which they sold me my membership initially. Here they did give a guarantee. The Kennedy Center representative gave me his personal, direct line to answer any questions or smooth out any difficulties I had with any benefits.

In the Internet e-mail, they give me the option of renewing with a phone call, or on-line. For the postal mail they also provided a return envelop. In neither case are mobile form factors considered. They do give me an option of upgrading my membership. The benefits are for higher levels add new perks to the benefits at lower levels. Here is the roster:



The additional benefits are an incentive but so too is identity congruence, the trait that “consumers’ behavior is often affected by what others [do]” (see Shang, et al, 2008, pp 351-2). Social influence is particularly effective in the case where the benefits of a transaction are ambiguous. The Kennedy Center appears to be using such incentive here.

Simonson (2005, p33) relates that including options in the offer can result in up-selling. This depends on the stability of consumer preferences and their insight into those preferences. I believe that donors fall into Simonson’s Category 3, those having stable preferences but lacking insight into those preferences. This is how the Kennedy Center is presenting the offer. No customized recommendation, although they have substantial demographic data. Customized offers can backfire with Category 3, as Simonson notes:

“Consequently, these customers may mistakenly accept customized offers or choice criteria that do not really fit their preferences, which leads to dissatisfaction.”

To explain why I place donors in Simonson’s Category 3, an understanding of the audience needs to be developed.

The Audience
Spiller and Baier (2005, p 97) admonish us to do market research to “determine consumer needs and wants.” Included here then is a study of charitable behaviors published in the Journal of Marketing. Reed, Aquino, and Levy (2007, p 189) found that individuals with high organizational status, low moral identity contribute money to high moral value organizations. Individuals with high moral identity want to contribute time but are chinchy with money. Here is a chart of their findings:




High moral identity is associated with idealism and low moral identity with pragmatism. A money donor’s high organizational status drives their time pressure.

A Syracuse University study furthers our understanding about the nature of donors. McNesby (2007, pp1-2) cites Who Really Cares by Arthur C. Brooks about charitable contributions. His findings are that contributors tend to be religious and conservative. Additionally, this religious and politically conservative cohort is 24 times more likely to contribute to charity than secular idealists.

Although it is an organization of artists, the Kennedy Center has an intuitive understanding of their donor audience that is reflected in the pragmatic appeal for donations (see Kennedy Center, 2008, p1) that lacks both do-goodism and change-the-world slogans. Here is their appeal instead:

"Generous support from Members like you enables the Kennedy Center to bring the finest performances to Washington D.C. and maintain its presence as the nation’s leader in arts education. "

Why Category 3? Kennedy Center donors have well defined preferences but with work and a busy schedule they do not have the idle time to actually think about these preferences.

Improving the Offer
The Kennedy Center does not customize the offer it presents to me. Based on the audience characteristics of donors who donate money as opposed to time, I have argued that their donor profile is what Simonson (p 34) categorizes as Group 3. He informs us that this group is prone to misunderstand customized offerings leading to dissatisfaction. Therefore, I would not try to improve the response with customized appeals to upgrade.

The nature of the offer’s creative appeal also seems to be an effective balance for the audience. As Spiller and Baier (2005, p 92) tell us, an emotional appeal targets the member’s wants, in this case an appeal to the noblise oblige of social status. However, a maudlin tone does not emanate from the offer, a reflection of the conservative nature of the audience. Neither does the creative appeal present opportunities for improvement.

Regarding the offer price, I think there is an opportunity to expand the revenue structure by extending the price segments to include a $60 donor level to either lapsed members or as a reach to potential donors. Spiller and Baier (p 95) instruct us that price elasticity is a critical aspect of offer pricing. Interested parties might be more inclined to become new members if it were easier to give and also a little easier on the wallet. Such a special offer can be made to them without undermining existing donations by using an emerging technology and exploiting our database.

Demographics of mobile phone SMS text users is younger and better educated. New technical venues may extend the reach of the Kennedy Center appeal for donations. Given the pragmatic and conservative nature of donors, my gut feeling is that a simple text message would have good effect. This hunch is supported by a web site mGive.com, and an article on the Everyday Giving Blog. As Carr (2008, p 1) concludes “Making a donation by sending a simple text message is convenient. This convenience is available to the 250 million mobile phone users in the United States alone.”

This is an avenue for the Kennedy Center to economically extend its reach for donations to candidates with mobile technology. The donation is added as a charge to the cell phone monthly bill. The campaign is then to select appropriate audience of conservative, religious pragmatists from organizations like AllMedia.Com, and send them a simple text message much like the Center Generous Support statement above through a service like mGive.com.

In addition, QR Codes can be used to integrate Kennedy Center print materials with its online assets. QR Codes are a special type of barcode that is optimized for use by mobile devices. Smith (2008, p 1) echoes the view of many. He observes that QR Codes and mobile form factors link print media with the Internet. By strategically locating QR Codes, mobile readers of Center print media can link to the Center Web site, getting pod-casts, steaming audio and video, Mobile Web pages, and other entertaining or informative communications.

Center print materials for the gift store will have QR Code to link to always up-to-date reference materials on the music, play, dance, or on the artists. By also forwarding users from the Center Web site to associated blogs, and community sites further information becomes available and communities of interest can be accessed from print materials.

By using a QR Reader, possibly a mobile phone, one can jump from the print world to the online world. This is unprecedented value for the customers of the store.

Say and Southwell (2006, p 262) notes that one key success factor with text messaging direct marketing is to guide actions with testing and evaluation. They take baby steps with an idea in a test, and through a comprehensive evaluation decide how to implement it. Permission is another critical success factor. They have devised a series of techniques for garnering permission (p 263). They caution against the temptation to treat mobile marketing as a “silo” or isolated channel. Integrated channel planning unleashes the full potential of mobile marketing.

Their article explains how First Direct was able to gain permission for extensive mobile marketing activity. Initial usage of text-messaging was to provide a convenience to customers, at the banks expense. This created a foundation of trust and a new point of view by the customer. They can use their mobile phone to increase their control over their money (p 263).

The same could be done at the Center. An initial benefit of notifications of new shows, ticket availability, specific seating availability for those on wait lists and so on. The advantage of subscribing to the text messaging is first notification and right to good seats when they come open, to get tickets to popular shows on popular nights, and other conveniences. Once we have a database of subscribers, we can start the mGive.com campaign for collecting donations.

References
Buchanan, Mark (2002). Nexus. Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Network. W.W. Norton, New York.

Carr, Roger (May 17, 2008). Will You Text Message Your Next Charitable Donation? Retrieved on March 14, 2009 at http://www.everydaygivingblog.com/2008/05/mobile-giving.html

Duncan, Tom (2005). Principles of Advertising and IMC. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Haigh, D. and S. Gilbert (May 2005). Valuing not-for-profit and charity brands — real insight or just smoke and mirrors. Int J. Nonprofit Volunt. Sect. Mar. Retrieved on September 6, 2008) from EBSCOHOST.

McNesby, Mick (January 13, 2007).Charitable Giving In America: Is Advocacy Of Government Programs A True Form Of Charity? Ezines. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 from http://www.yoursdaily.com/culture_media/books/charitable_giving_in_america_is_advocacy_of_government_programs_a_true_form_of_charity

Reed II, Americus and Karl Aquino, & Eric Levy (January 2007). Moral Identity and Judgments of Charitable Behaviors. Journal of Marketing. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 at http://www.si.umich.edu/ICOS/Reed,Aquino,&Levy.pdf

Say, P. and J. Southwell (Jan-Mar 2006). Beep, beep, beep, beep, that’ll be the bank then – Driving sales through mobile marketing. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice. Retrieved March 14, 2009 from EBSCOHOST.

Shang, Jen and Americus Reed, and Rachel Croson (June 2008). Identity Congruency Effects on Donations. Journal of Marketing Research. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 from EBSCOHOST.

Smith, Shawn (April 8, 2008). How QR codes could save newspapers from obsolescence. Mlive.com. Retrieved on March 14, 2009 at http://www.newmediabytes.com/2008/04/06/will-qr-codes-turn-newspapers-into-cash-cows/

Spiller, L and M Baier (2005). Contemporary Direct Marketing. Pearson/Prentice-Hall.

The Voices of Social Media

A blog has one voice with a chorus of commentary. You post your message and others comment on it in separate replies but no one can change your original message. Yours is the voice initiating the tone and tenor of the communications. Your message is the focus and cannot be altered except by you.
On the other hand, a wiki has a community voice. Someone posts a message and, unlike with a blog, everyone can edit that post. Version control is usually present so previous versions can be retrieved and even differences between versions highlighted.

At my job, we are using blogs, and wikis for project management work; in our case web services projects. In fact, web services is being moved under public affairs in most organizations, considered more of a communication function than a technology support function.

Design reviews by client offices are done in blogs since we have superior knowledge of computer and communications systems. The design has one voice but the ability to comment by interested parties. Internally, we prepare a design using wikis. Everyone within my office has superior knowledge in different facets of a system to contribute to an overall proposal. When we have a proposed design we transfer the communication to a blog as a design review by external offices.

These approaches get buy in from both the internal staff and our external clients more so than traditional methods. The internal public experiences a more direct hand in preparing the design. The external public can see other s’ comments in parallel. Stultz (2009, p 11) says that

“But the blog rules for now. Solid relationships can be built by you and by corporations (again, you) based on honest, open dialog with superior content.”

Secondly, we are using txt messaging gateways as one method of broadcast communications for continuity of operations. Cell phone carriers, such as Sprint or Nextel, provide SMS gateways for the transfer of text messages from computer to mobile phone. These gateways are the foundation of the mechanics for an organization, be it an aggregator mobile marketing service or a commercial business entity, or government agency to implement a mobile communications broadcast. Wikipedia has a list of mobile phone SMS gateways by carrier (see SMS Gateways in Wikipedia).

All email messages broadcast as text messages to mobile devices go through such gateways to both verify permissions you set on receiving and allowing the messages through. As an example, assuming my phone number is 800-555-1213 and my carrier is Sprint, the Sprint SMS gateway is messaging.sprintpcs.com according to Wikipedia. So I could create an email on my computer that would be sent to the gateway by using the following as the To: address

8005551212@messaging.sprintpcs.com

The messaging gateway (messaging.sprintpcs.com) converts my email to mobile txt and in turn forwards it to the SMS client on my cell phone. This can also be done programmatically with a function like the one below to loop through a list of recipient mail addresses. In addition, the from-name can be changed to an email alias relevant to the receiver, so they don't trash the email right away as spam.

Duncan (2005, p 392), says an important aspect of mobile marketing is that “messages can be targeted not only by individual cellular phone number but also by time and location of targeted customers.” Critical here is permission of receiver. In their article Driving Sales through Mobile Marketing, authors, Say and Southwell (2006, p262) imply that mobile direct marketing, especially text messaging can be ruinous because “the mobile phone is almost certainly the most personal electronic consumer device.” In support of this warning, another researcher Alan Chappell (2006, p1) cites a study that found 80% of cell phone users would consider ‘mobile spam’ a reason for switching carriers. Direct Marketers who fall short with mobile etiquette risk bad public relations, hardship in the mobile media, and Say and Southwell believe that ultimately it can degrade a brand (p 262).

They must be in control. Stultz notes (2009, p 13) “Marketers are encouraging consumers to become part of the conversation; in fact, to control it. “ This is true for both social media and mobile communications technologies.

References
Duncan, Tom (2005). Principles of Advertising and IMC. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Chappell, A (March 19, 2006). Mobile Marketing & Opt-In (Chapell & Associates). Retrieved on March 7, 2009 at http://mmaglobal.com/modules/article/view.article.php/352

Say, P. and J. Southwell (Jan-Mar 2006). Beep, beep, beep, beep, that’ll be the bank then – Driving sales through mobile marketing. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice.

Stultz, Larry (2009). Non-Traditional Media and Interactive Marketing.

Media Involvement

What makes print inherently more involving than radio or TV?
Drewniany and Jewler (2008, p 210) say that radio is less inherently involving than print media because it is transient, listeners cannot go back and reread something. An advertisier is relying on their memory to record and playback the marketing message. Likewise Duncan. He says (2005, p 360), “Broadcast messages are fleeting.” They have the staying power of dayflies and can be just as annoying. Duncan further notes that customers can be doing something else while listening to radio or watching TV, especially during commercials when they get restive or jerk themselves back to reality to get a soda or something.
He notes these as weaknesses for TV and Radio (p 349).

When should a more involving medium be used?
The level of consumer involvement is an important consideration in media selection. Duncan (2005, p. 142) says that consumer involvement has two facets, relevance and perceived risk. He goes on to say (2005, p. 141), that relevance is key to determining the level of involvement, the extent to which a product or its message is pertinent and connects with a customer’s personal interests. Customers are more willing to invest pre-purchase energy in learning more about a relevant and more risky buy.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model by Cacioppo and Petty can provide a framework for analyzing the most effective balance in the media mix for marketing communications. Cacioppo and Petty define the primary relationships in persuasive communication as communication engagement and cognitive commitment.

According to the model, the greater our communication engagement with the other party the more likely that party is to use what the model calls central route processing, which is to say a great deal of message related thinking. Media appropriate for in-depth thinking and evaluation of the message should be used in such a case. On the other hand, if communication engagement is low, what the model calls peripheral cues are best. In this case, more attention getting media that do not necessarily lend themselves to protracted analysis would be a better choice.

Perceived Risk
Perceived risk may be difficult for advertisiers to identify. Perceived risk is related to unsatisfactory product performance and as noted above is related to consumer involvement. The level of risk may depend on context. Hawkins, et al (2007, p 550) give an example of buying wine. If you are buying for yourself, no big problem if it is unsatisfactory. The same decision, if you are buying for a dinner with a significant other, can be much riskier.

In some ways, a different context can make one product perform like a completely different product in response to IMC. Hawkins, et al (p 551) do give examples of products that generally have high perceived risk. They are classified by types of failure:

• Social costs (e.g. new suit not appreciated by peers)


• Financial cost (e.g. expensive vacation that had rain everyday)


• Time Cost (e.g. auto repairs are not just cash costs)


• Physical cost (e.g. interactions or side effects of prescription drugs)

It also seems intuitive that context may be ascertainable from the audience characteristics of the specific media companies employed. In these cases, advertisers should be able to make a good bet on risk level.

References

Cacioppo, John and Richard Petty (1986.) THE ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL OF PERSUASION. Retrieved on Feb 19, 2009 from the EBSCOHost database.

Drewniany, B and J Jewler (2008). Creative Strategy in Advertising. Wadsworth.

Hawkins, D., Mothersbaugh, D. and Best, R. (2007). Consumer behavior: building marketing strategy. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

A Practical Guide to Market Segmentation

In his article A Practical Guide to Market Segmentation, Paul Hague reviews the value of segmentation, outlines a ten-step process for successfully achieving market segmentation, and analyzes three approaches for performing that segmentation. Segmentation is a key strategy to improve our customer database efficiency. He (p 2) says that “Segmentation enables us to group together customers with similar needs so that we can bring together limited resources to best serve them.” He applies the Pareto rule to the customer base and concludes that 20% of our customers may provide 80% of the sales revenue.

He asserts (pp 1-2) that it makes sense to personally customize offers to these devoted customers, but it would be financially irresponsible to do so for the other 80% of our customer base who are small buyers. For this 80%, Hague has several segmentation strategies. Although he is discussing business-to-business marketing, such segmentation also makes sense for business-to-customer as well.

Steps three through eight are a description of the three overall approaches he considers for classifying a customer base including the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. Once a segmentation approach has been selected, the customer base should be grouped together using cluster analysis (p 5). He recommends that such clustering be done every “six to twelve months with current customers to ensure any changing needs are recognized and addressed.”

Implementation of the segmentation is usually done from a spreadsheet (p 5), which can vary in sophistication depending on the extent of the customer base. A different offer must be prepared for each grouping of customers, and it must use the characteristics of each group to fashion a customer value proposition. Hague warns (p 6) that salespeople have an instinctual belief that all customers are “price fighters.”

Three Theoretical Perspectives on Segmentation
His first segmentation strategy is business firmographics that he compares to customer demographics. A major issue with segmentation based on firmographics or demographics is that it is an obvious approach to all our competitors as well and so may not provide competitive advantage.

Another possible segmentation strategy is needs based, although we must be careful about changes in needs over time. This strategy requires more resources to do the necessary market research but (p 2) “Gets to the heart of marketing; that is the identification and satisfaction of customer needs.” Hague asserts that the actual need drivers will end up being simple or at least simpler (p3) than generally believed because of the “action of cognitive misers.” To analyze a customer base for purposes of needs segmentation, he recommends no more than ten need factors be used to categorize customers.

The last segmentation strategy he discusses is the middle ground in terms of effort. Behavior based segmentation finds an external behavior measure that reflects a hidden need. He gives an example of a behavior that can be used to categorize customers (p 5). Customer behavior regarding procurement vehicles is the example he gives and he has a simple two-behavior classification: 1.) a Request for Proposal (RFP); or the alternative 2.) a Request for Information (RFI). His experience is that the RFP customers are price focused and the RFI customers are more open to suggestions and less price driven.

Hague’s Main Conclusions
Hague drives home the main conclusion throughout the paper, and that is customers are different, they should be grouped according to the relevant characteristics of our relationship with them, and our marketing activities should form around those segments. He concludes (p 2) that this approach optimizes our application of scarce resources, and that the true test (p 6) of a good segmentation is that it brings in “business that is profitable.” Orienting the sales staff (p 6) is critical so that they understand the nature of the segmentation guiding their efforts, and that they cannot return to the “cozy life in which they are given free rein and any offer will do.”

For a complete précis of the article see Redmond Review of A Practical Guide to Market Segmentation.

References
Hague, Paul (n.d.). A Practical Guide to Market Segmentation. B2B International.

Creativity: A Visitation of Sorcerers or a Process?

Should Creativity Follow a Process?
It should follow a process. The complexity in Marketing Communications with the advent of interactive, addressable Internet media now requires technical deftness. It is no longer art, or copy in isolation. It now integrates art and copy and also technology: cross cutting skill sets. The goal is not just art but a meaningful product. As Jaffe (2008, p 1) says:

"Creativity is just way too important to be left to a single person, a dynamic duo or a department anymore."

He warns us to know ourselves (p 2):

• "how much time is wasted by slowing down the process”
• “how little time is actually spent collaborating with insiders and outsiders”
• “how many different platforms or approaches [technologies] were taken into account”

Koslow, Sasser and Riordan (2003, p 6) imply that creativity is already subject to an implicit process “imposed by strategic considerations.” They go on to say that the strategy brief provides a framework that “gives [creatives] latitude to define the opportunity, like a canvas for a painting. “

An expressly defined process from Graham Wallas (see Stultz, 2009, p 1), or James Webb Young (see Drewniany, 2008, pp 129-30) gives us the framework to focus and orchestrate work from various contributors to meet the needs of the client. Creativity becomes less arcane so well heeled account professionals can fit it into their business routine. Koslow, Sasser and Riordan (2003, p 5) observe that creatives are most likely to step back and let account execs control the creative dialog. With a well known creative process, the competitive account team knows when to take a back seat and let the less aggressive right brainers have a say.

Kracauer (1926/1963/2005, p 78) takes the opposite viewpoint. Kracauer was a cultural analyst and member of the applied social sciences group at Columbia University. His work laid the foundation for modern film criticism. He argues that an artist is too big and will appear out of place in a “mechanistic” process. His analogy was for Weimar Germany but an equivalent modern American example is that the exquisite Suzanne Farrell could never be just a line dancer for the Rockettes, not that there is anything wrong with them. She is too creative and their routine too mechanical.

However, Stultz (2009, p 2) points out, the purpose of creative advertising is not patrician art but sales so we need to produce what is appropriate for the target market. Koslow, Sasser and Riordan (2003, p 6) are more harsh and note that even if creatives think of themselves as artists they haven’t left their day jobs. They may want to be artists but are not big enough. So they apply their less certain creativity to further the aims of their patrons, and those banal brands.

Koslow, Sasser and Riordan (2003, p 2) provide a working definition of creativity as a combination of originality and appropriateness. Originality is easy to spot but conversely, appropriateness is difficult to assay (ibid, pp 2-3). Appropriateness is the basis of our paycheck from the client. The creative strategy is the roadmap to appropriateness. A well known creative process helps to ensure that everyone is singing from the same page so we avoid a mismatch between creative team and the account exec: one providing artistry and originality while the other is expecting strategy fulfillment and originality (see Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan, 2003, p 9).

Can Creativity Follow a Process?
Yes, creativity can be made into a process and the proof is that successful agencies like J. Walter Thompson (see Drewniany and Jewler, 2008, p 129) have defined and incorporated a creative model into their work. Yes, it can because certain techniques create an atmosphere of creativity so we can hot up the copy or visuals (for example see Stultz, 2009, p 3). Finally, yes because if a definitive process like the mind-numbing tedium of American public schools took our creativity from us (see Stultz, 2009, p 3), it is safe to assume a reverse process can help us to regain at least some of it.

Karl Weick, the noted psychologist believes that creativity follows a process and says (1979, pp 252-4) that “creativity is putting old things into new combinations or new things into old combinations. “ He describes techniques to cut through the overpowering tangle of words and images to arrive at a salient idea. Crovitz's Relational Algorithm is one of them.

To generate creative ideas, Crovitz uses a basic sentence structure: "Take one thing in relation to another thing." For us, the things are the key brand values, customer characteristics or market conditions. They can also be symbols or colors. The [in relation to] is a set of 42 relational English words. A substitution is iteratively applied: brand values into [one thing], customer attributes or market conditions into [another thing], and for each pair a rotation of the 42 relational English words into [in relation to]. Each sentence is then evaluated. For more information see Crovitz Relational Algorithm.

Weick also advises (1979, p 44) that creativity requires think "ing." By this he means that we should attempt to use verbs rather than nouns. Verbs anticipate objects and events, and apply meaning to them more so than nouns. Also, studies show that future perfect tense rather than simple future tense is more conducive to creativity (p 199).

Simple Future thinking is starting in the present and working to the future. Future perfect tense starts in the future, assuming the event occurred and works backwards to the present. Simple future is difficult because any possible outcome is considered in our thinking, including those not on the path to the desired result. One creative technique he suggests is to write yourself a congratulatory letter from the future that explains in detail how well your creative strategy worked.

The Risk of Bounding Creativity with a Process.
A fundamental risk is that we use yesterday’s vocabulary to understand today’s problem and to generate tomorrow’s solution. Furthermore, we risk reapplying a comfortable but characteristic design and so become predictable. What’s more, keeping in a “comfort zone” may be dangerous because we may lose the exuberant intensity that comes from being in an uncomfortable spot.

Another concern is that it is questionable how well a mechanical process understands meaning and so incorporates it into the solution. Hope is another part of the creative process. Again, it’s uncertain how well a mechanical process understands hope. Hope cushions the shock of setback so it may be that a non-process creativity is more persistent, especially after mechanical tricks don’t give a desirable solution.

Finally, in Kracauer’s view (1926, p 70), bounding creativity with a process is simple minded.

References
Drewniany, B and J Jewler (2008). Creative Strategy in Advertising. Wadsworth

Duncan, T (2005). Principles of Advertising & IMC. McGrawHill/Irwin.

Jaffe, Joseph (April 14, 2008 ). “Is it time to phase out the creative function?” AdWeek. Retrieved on January 27, 2009 from http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/community/columns/other-columns/e3i8302b5a754f42f182d4e5721245d5619

Koslow, S, Sasser, S and E Riordan (March 2003). What Is Creative to Whom and Why? Perceptions in Advertising Agencies. Journal of Advertising Research.

Kracauer, S and T. Levin (2005) The Mass Ornament. Harvard.

Stultz, L (2009). In Search of the Big Idea. Retrieved on January 27, 2009 from WVU.

Weick, Karl (1979). The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill.

Account Planning the Energizer Bunny

The Energizer Bunny is an inveterate flaneur. The pink icon has become a cultural touchstone and a metaphor in its own right, with an association connoting long lasting energy. For example, Bob Dole wanted to be the Energizer Bunny of politics.

According to the Associated Press (2008, p 1), the bunny is still going strong after 20 years. AdAge (2005, p 1) reports there is contested parentage over this appealing product demo on rabbit feet. DDB Needham Worldwide used a pink bunny in a commercial for Eveready in the 1988.

In 1989, the battery account was then given to Chiat/Day the noted account planning agency who had done the Macintosh Superbowl Ad (see Goldman, 1995, p 2). Chiat/Day kept the pink bunny but infused it with the rolling might of account planning. They still have the account.


Account Planning
Duncan (see Duncan, 2005, pp 285-6) defines Account Planning as:

“Using research and brand insights to bring a strong customer focus to the planning of marketing communications.”

I worked with Microsoft sales account teams, which have six supporting roles reporting to the Account Manager: 1.) Program Mgmt; 2.) Product Mgmt; 3.) Developer; 4.) Tester; 5.) User Education; and 6). Logistics. The Product Management role was very similar to Account Planner with a responsibility for customer research and for maintaining customer focus by all other roles. The team could then respond to the customer in terms of solutions and not just product.

This is something I think is critical – IMC no longer sells customers magazine ad space at discount, and Microsoft does not sell software products for that matter. We are judged on results so we must have a clear vision for successful solutions. Account Planning is the liaison between the creative power an agency offers and the customer (see Dreniany and Jewler, p 115). Microsoft used different elicitation methods to get the truth out of the consumer than marketing communications, which uses “surveys, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, observation, and projective techniques….”

Account Planning Process
The client is involved up front and in all stages not just as a later stage sounding board (see Goldman, 1995, p 4). The account planner must understand long term goals, policy and business strategies of the client; understand the target market for brand; understand the brand image and reputation with the client’s customers. They must elicit unique insight about client, market or client customers as a basis for the big idea so they can iteratively create the desired future relationship between brand and customer (ibid, p 5) and prepare selling strategy (Duncan, 2005, pp 286-289). They “pollinate across departments” to formulate the big idea from the insights (Goldman, 1995, p 8 and Duncan, 2005, p 291). They coordinate tactical guidelines for the creative and operational groups.

Energizer Bunny Brand Values and Matching Creative Strategy.
The Eveready vice president of marketing tells us the brand values, for the battery product line, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (2008, p 1).

"We wanted to focus on what the brand is about, the idea of keep going, never quit, never stop, and the bunny is the ultimate symbol of that perseverance ….”

The Post-Dispatch article goes on about the creative idea behind the ad campaign by TBWA\Chiat\Day

"We used iconic images of everyday people you instantly know have to keep going on and on," Bianchi said. "We want to be the sponsor of those people with that attitude and zest for life and associate that with Energizer," says Carisa Bianchi, account planner.

How Does a Pink Bunny Help?
AdChat (n.d., p 2) lists the symbolism of animals that can be useful for advertisers. They say that the bunny connotes longevity, and good fortune. Longevity is one of the brand values and good fortune is a collateral bennie.

Bear (2009, p 2) tells us about the meaning of the color pink. Pink is charming and used to express playfulness. Additionally, pink is a warm color and they energize us, but being on the lighter side of the warm palette, do not over-rev us. Reinforcing buttresses to complement the energy and longevity from the bunny.

Chiat/Day is the true originator of the Energizer Bunny. They took a physically uninteresting but perfectly adequate symbol from DDB and turned it into the sensitive misfit it has become.

References
AdAge (2005). THE ENERGIZER BUNNY. Retrieved on January 24, 2009 from http://adage.com/century/icon05.html

AdChat (n.d.) Symbolism of Animals. Retrieved on January 24, 2009 from http://www.adchat.net/AnimalSymbolism.htm

AP (11/29/2008). Still going and going: Energizer Bunny enters his 20th year. Retrieved on January 24, 2009 from http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2008-11-29-energizer-bunny_n.htm

Bear, JC (2009). Color Meanings. Retrieved on January 24, 2009 from http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/color/a/symbolism.htm

Drewniany, B and J Jewler (2008). Creative Strategy in Advertising. Wadsworth

Duncan, T (2005). Principles of Advertising & IMC. McGrawHill/Irwin.

Goldman, D (1995). Origin of the Species. Adweek Western Edition. IMC 615 Week 3 Readings.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Aug 28, 2004). Energizer Bunny wants a charge from $68 million advertising campaign. Retrieved on January 24, 2009 from EBSCOHOST.

Casting Spells and Illusions is Harder These Days

Marketing is a commercial religion but the commercial ratio behind it has feet of clay and so marketing continually faces problems. It is a religion in that it is a meaning making process, as Drewniany and Jewler (2008, pp 36-45) observe. Marketing creates an identity and negotiates its meaning and therefore its image with the target audience. Marketing breathes life into the image by giving a name and logo as its genesis (p 38). Its adaptive and transferable meaning is from the baptism of the tag line (p 39), color (p 40) and sound (p 42) from its creator.

Redemption for those of us who worship the image is through consumption rather than faith. Consumption builds jobs which leads to more consumption. It’s an easy religion. Sullivan (2008, p 4) notes that there is a paradox in it, though. Advertising that generates sales is a “parade of [idiocy]” and offensive to our humanness. Moreover, marketeers, the hired agents of the brand image, are the least-trusted people in the world today. Well almost, politicians are the absolute worst people in the public’s view. Sullivan (2008, p 6) suggests that following Bernbach’s paradigm can separate an agency from the procession of witless charlatans who come up with “Dude you’ve got a Dell” marketing.

Another general marketing problem may be forming. The Green movement may be a harbinger of a new social order that Jack Lessinger calls the Caring Conservers (see Lessinger, 1991, pp 148-160). This movement is disenchanted by a commercial world whose logic stops at efficient production and consumption. The feet of clay for this commercial world is its efficiency at any cost foundation. It results in an endless race to the bottom, the cheapest, the most exploitative and the most risky practices. Unseemly risk, whether sub-prime derivatives today or some future scandal, will prove its undoing.

Nike’s business aggression is a poster child for our commercial world. Yet even it suffered from its child labor exploitation scandal in Indonesia (see McCall, 1998 and Vogler, 1996). In addition to the inhuman working conditions in its plants, it was noted that Michael Jordan got a bigger annual check from Nike than all its factory workers and factory children combined. Marketing can’t be part of something like that and expect to be held in high regards.

If marketing is a frontman for a problematic process, it is merely a carnival barker for the commercial world and part of the problem too. IMC should use its communication relationships, including those to top management and shareholders to extend the commercial logic to include environmental and human rights thinking.

The final general marketing problem is Accountability. That dread word. Sullivan does not like it and calls it “useless left brain crap” (p 9). However, marketing has acted like a junkie in the boardroom, tin-cupping for more money without demonstrable value. Spiller and Baier (2005, p 13) note that traditional advertising is largely unaccountable. Weber (2007, pp 115-116) notes there is a convergence between what management wants and what marketing can deliver with new technology. If management wants to know ROI on paper towels in the bathrooms, they want to know ROI on marketing. Embracing more measurable media venues will help establish marketing’s value to the firm.


References
Drewniany, B and J Jewler (2008). Creative Strategy in Advertising. Wadsworth.

Lessinger, Jack (1991). Penturbia. SocioEconomics Press.

McCall, William (November 9, 1998). Nike Battles Backlash from Overseas Sweatshops. Image Marketing. Retrieved on January 17, 2009 from EBSCOHOST

New American (11/28/2005). Protecting gun makers from lawsuits. Retrieved on January 17, 2009 from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Protecting+gun+makers+from+lawsuits:+although+the+new+legislation+...-a0139717181

Spiller, Lisa and Martin Baier (2005). Contemporary Direct Marketing. Pearson/Prentice-Hall.

Sullivan, Luke (2008). Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. Adweek Media.

Vogler, I (January 31, 1996). U.S. Multinational Corporations in Indonesia. Retrived on January 18, 2009 from http://www.uwec.edu/Geography/Ivogeler/w111/reebok.htm

Weber, Larry (2007). Marketing to the Social Web. John Wiley.

Kracauer’s The Mass Ornament

Siegfried Kracauer’s book The Mass Ornament has essays with his observations and analysis of Weimar Germany in the 20s but it also seems relevant to America today. Kracauer is like an Amoriam sage in his narrative analysis, which is not the linear, sequential layout of an argument customary in the U.S. Instead, nuggets of information are dispersed throughout his exposition to be discovered, interpreted and formed together into a relational whole through reflection. In further observance of this tradition, he uses symbolism. The term mass ornament is an example. I apply my own definitions to these symbols in this interpretation of his essay The Mass Ornament from the book of essays by the same name.

In architecture, an ornament is a decorative detail that embellishes a space, and over time it becomes an archaeological marker for a culture. Kracauer extends the concept to embellished social spectacles or enactments and uses these to understand a culture as revealed in its current events. He holds that everyday social ornaments represent aspects of a culture without mediation and are better evidence for understanding its essence than its own pronouncements.

The mass ornament is the term he applies to such capitalist spectacles, capitalism derived as it is from mass industrial production, mass consumption, highly synchronized, interchangeable processes and parts. The outcome of its Ratio, the logic behind its processes, is efficient production, consumption, finance and war.

Kracauer sees a regressive/progressive struggle between nature and reason. Myths represent past reason and the understanding of cultures that have failed, but their myths nevertheless offer insights into how real people should relate to nature. Capitalist Ratio is the logic of our current system of mass production and how it deals with nature.

Although it has been far more successful in some regards than earlier organized interaction with nature, Kracauer maintains it does not satisfy our humanity. Its consideration ends with production. Unlike the other liberal thought leaders of the 20s, Kracauer sees the failing of this Ratio as not enough analysis or reason rather than too much. It does not fully include the humanity of mankind into its reckoning, only efficiency of production and consumption.

According to Kracauer, the mass ornament in modern capitalist culture is “muted nature.” It has no foundation to build a true knowledge base (edification complex) about nature. As such, along with the basic inhumanity of its overwhelming focus on efficient operations, mankind is unfulfilled by capitalist Ratio. To compensate they turn to pop practices, rhythmic gymnastics in his day, yoga or martial arts in ours. These pop practices advance into the void, each with its own mythology.

Reason is not pursued as the true link between man and nature because of these retreats into pop mythologies. The result is “irreality.” Additionally, the cultures conjured by these mythologies have, by and large, already succumbed to Ratio thereby leaving the mute nature of mass ornamentation even more prominent and influential. These pop myths already discredited by Ratio only serve to highlight its pre-eminence.

Ratio is an iron beast that breaks all before it into pieces and grinds the residue into dust. Its only weakness is its feet of clay, its foundation based on an endless race to the bottom, the cheapest, the most exploitative and the most risky practices. Unseemly risk, whether credit default swaps today or some future scandal, and its inhuman foundation will prove its undoing.

Travel and Dance as Religion in Commercial Culture

In his essay Travel and Dance, Siegfried Kracauer examines the mechanical nature of commercial culture and social abnormalities that result from it. Two examples are travel and dance. In his view, commercial culture has abridged dance to a simple sequence of timed steps and travel to a plain experience of changing place. Both travel and dance are subject to fashion. A new tempo or a new destination is decreed according to the dictates of this peculiar specter and obligingly followed by trend-setting society.

He believes fashion to be the fundamental force powering the commercial machine that is the basis of capitalist culture. Fashion erodes the value of things by subjecting their image to periodic change. Such change is not relative to the efficiency of the things themselves but instead is an impulsive caprice that defaces the world with unnecessary obsolescence. Yet, fashion does show the intimate connectedness that can be established between people and commodities.

Fashion is the agent of the commercial process that now rules us. Kracauer argues that a depraved profit and loss mechanization has prevailed against our humanness. Our cultural processes have been constricted by the assumption that the world can actually be understood according to mechanistic presuppositions. The cultural thought leaders rationalize all aspects of life to accommodate it to technology and mechanization. Mankind must be made malleable enough to fit into this commercial worldview.

By placing such artificial limitations on what is acceptable in society, mechanical men are actually sacrificing intellect, and unnaturally restricting its consideration of anything beyond their carefully restricted models. The more they embed themselves exclusively in these models, the more they disintegrate into a series of formulaic and meaningless activities. They have become henchmen of "intellectual" excess, becoming not masters of the machine but merely machine like.

Travel and dance have an exaggerated purpose in such a culture. Kracauer observes, “[that] the goal of travel is not its destination but rather a new place as such.” There is no longer a search for the soul of another place but just a look at the foreignness of its face. Travel is a pure sensation of space, being somewhere other than where one is now.

Dance has similarly been evacuated of meaning, reduced to the marking of time. The ceremoniousness of old dance had meaning, pleasant flirtation or a tender and sensuous encounter but this has deteriorated in modern dance to a representation of “rhythm as such. Instead of expressing specific ideas in time, its actual content is time itself.” Modern music, no matter its self-promoted vitality, is nothing more than syncopation. Having only rhythm as a goal is inauthentic, and through dance alone one cannot obtain an authentic experience such as Eros. Travel and dance are no longer phenomena that unfold in space and time but instead are associated simply with the transformation of space and time.

Because mechanical men confine themselves to the spatial-temporal view of their restricted world, they are granted access to a “beyond” only through changes in space or time. Dance and travel are a substitute for the sphere they have denied themselves. They must intermittently live in one place and then another. They must move at one pace, then another. Kracauer says that “Travel and Dance have taken on a theological significance” for them.

Still, even mechanical men are aware of the inauthenticity of their mechanical limitedness. The need for redemption is as passionate for them as for real people. Their addiction to change in time or place is their surrogate redemption. Spatially they cannot be here and there but rather they are first here and then somewhere else that is also here. They are only redeemed to that which they vainly try to escape.

Kracauer on Photography

Siegfried Kracauer was a cultural analyst and member of the applied social sciences group at Columbia University. His work laid the foundation for modern film criticism and he is the author of several works including Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. One of his first essays on photography appeared in the Frankfurter Zeitung in the 1920’s and was latter published in The Mass Ornament.

Underlying Kracauer’s analysis was his tenet that the inconspicuous, quotidian expressions of a culture reveal more about it than its own self-pronouncements. Everyday phenomena such as photos or the nature of popular literature and film are unmediated representations of a culture. Drewniany and Jewler (2008, p 185) remind us that in creative design, a picture is worth a thousand words. Kracauer extended his analysis beyond film into advertising, tourism, city layout, and dance.

Regarding the photograph, he observes that if we enlarge its resolution, we can make out the dots in it, which are matrixed together into recognizable shapes. However, Kracauer observes that the photo attempts to be more than just a reference to the dot matrix shape. It tries to represent the subject matter of an event, which it can not. Without a supporting history or a memory that is associated with the subject matter, the shapes on a photo are not adequate to recreate an understanding of the event.

He believes that photos are a history lacking context or meaning. They are particularly unlike memories, which are retained because of some personal significance. Someone organizes memories according to the personal significance of those memories, while a photograph is an inventory of every spatial detail of a place at a moment. Memories are never only spatial and the significant information in a memory is usually not spatial but in any case cannot be fully condensed to the simplicity of a spatial representation.

There is a variance between photos and memory. Memories are only incomplete fragments to the photographer and often without a spatial representation. They appear as fragments, though, only because a mechanical process like photography does not understand meaning and so cannot incorporate it. However, when memory fragments are associated with a common meaning they become a relational whole.

Memory in turn has reason to doubt a photo. Photo’s usually contain irrelevant litter, and are a jumble of relevant and irrelevant detail. Often the irrelevance is spatial in nature and not just a lack of meaning. [The need for photographic editing software attests to this.] A photo by itself is a suspect truth. It ignores the history of the subjects before the scene. Here there is a partial correspondence between memory and a photo. A person’s memory likewise omits characteristics and determinations of a history, but only those which are not related to the reality the person perceives in their activated consciousness.

A photo is the attempt to reduce the entire circumstance into one graphic image from one viewpoint. An artist using a camera can surmount the abovementioned shortcomings of photography by adding meaning or theme to the elements in a photograph. An artistic composition fashions the elements of a photograph “to a higher purpose. “

The artist uses different rules than the photographer, whose main concern is with the technical details of the process. The Art rules use associations to penetrate the surface cohesion of the photograph to give it a meaning. The photographer, in contrast to the artist, generally does not explore the elements or create a composition to highlight their associations. The result from a photographer is a stockpiling of unconnected elements. Without a substantive understanding of the elements in the composition, photographers are dilettantes who ape an artistic manner.

Can a photograph become timeless? Kracauer quotes E.A. DuPont, “the essence of film is the essence of time.” Because photography is a function of time, then its implications may change depending on the timeframe applied to it. In a new time period, the understanding of the scene in an old photograph is difficult to reconstruct, or as Menander put it “You can never step into the same river twice.” The subjects have moved on or the associations have changed so the image no longer recreates the desired effect. An old photo is then a diminution of its previous essence.

Kracauer argues there is a correspondence with how time affects photography and how it affects fashion. Both a photograph and a fashion are transparent when modern and empty when old. It is only the very old that obtain attention as having the beauty of an antique. Antique is beautiful because it is different in a world where there is a constant selling of newness that is the same. There is a risk with the recent past that the meaning of the composition has changed because the associations or the elements themselves are now outdated. While such is just as outdated as the very old, it still claims to be alive but Kracauer concludes it is merely ludicrous instead. It painfully tries to hold ground that is already lost. In contrast, the antique has surrendered that ground.

References
Drewniany, B and J Jewler (2008). Creative Stratgey in Advertising. Wadsworth.

Kracauer, S and T. Levin (2005) The Mass Ornament. Harvard.

Kracauer on Weimar Literature

Siegfried Kracauer used analysis of widely read literature to investigate the structure and dynamics of social strata. He argued that this form of analysis avoided the inevitable pretense aroused by a more direct approach. In his essay On Best Sellers and Their Audience, he reviews the structural transformation of the Weimar economy after World War I that reordered the German middle class, and how that reordering was reflected in the period literature.

The weakening of Weimar Germany effectively turned many in the middle class into the working poor who still carried the middle class label. That middle class lacked the crucial features of the middle class before the war. They no longer had the limited independence enjoyed by the former middle class, through its modest financial security. Because of its size and interests, this middle class had been the financial mainstay for the publishing industry.

Kracauer noted the economic trends leading up to the social quagmire in Weimar: the concentration of capital, impoverishment of small stockholders, and the inflationary crisis that “led to the destruction of essential resources.” The new middle class was dependent. The deterioration of their fortunes slowly dismantled the foundation of their old middle class consciousness. The old tenets could no longer survive, stripped of their economic and social foundations in the new social reality.

Along with the declining fortunes and independence of the middle class, actual individualism declined. Administrative law increasingly invaded individual affairs and governmental planning began to transcend individual interest. Collectivization increased. Kracauer observed that people became less conscious of old social status. These trends in Weimar appeared incognito. The prevailing consciousness was still adjusting to the new realities, still reaching for the old concepts.

In addition to declining individualism in Weimar society, economic authorities lost their ability to cast the previous illusions and spells. In Weimar, strong disenchantment had taken hold. Ideas that used to drive the economy became mere rhetorical bric-a-brac. Kracauer’s brilliant quip was “You can’t live on bread alone, particularly when you don’t have any.” A manifestation of this heightened cynicism was the cinematic unmasking of the rigged game, in Weimar films such as The Joyless Streets with Greta Garbo.

In popular literary works, tragedy walked hand in hand with individualism. The fictional individuals triumph, however, even in the potential catastrophe constructed for them by their author. Kracauer quotes a best selling author in Weimar, “The worried, fearful person of today and particularly the person from the upper classes, almost always has to keep his feelings under wraps in the often futile struggle to maintain his standard of living. Such a person grasps … eagerly for such stories.”

Kracauer believed the middle class in Germany understood that a tragic intermediate fate awaited them. Yet they still attempted to maintain the old and comfortable arrangement. As a result of this tension, they raised “all calamities into tragic events. “

Idealists who tragically sacrifice themselves for an ideal was another popular theme in Weimar. The upper class doggedly struggled to maintain a faded idealism, which gave them style and distance from the mass. Faded idealism, according to Kracauer “resonated among the more cultivated circles, which [were] haunted by taste, culture, and education. “

In contrast, the middle and working class taste in literature had an emphasis on spirit or perseverance, and feeling became a pervasive motif. Feeling provided an optimistic hope to steady oneself during tragedy. It buttressed the outmoded concepts that were a comfortable part of better days. This “touching quality” signified an intermediate position between acceptance and rebellion. This was the middle class stance in the Weimar crisis.

Many story lines preserved the middle class concepts through escape into other worlds. These excursions avoided the challenging issues people would encounter with a reasoned analysis of their situation. A popular such distant world was the sensual, and erotic enchantment increased during the Weimar years. Another world was distant geographies. Nature yet another. Nature proved to be a popular backdrop in bestsellers because of its cathartic expanse. In the silence of nature, complex troubles sink into a mute void.

Kracauer’s conclusion, drawn from his study of popular literature, is that the middle class in Weimar would not acknowledge their change in fortune. They invested their beliefs in the false hopes of maintaining a life style ideal that had already perished. Their literature allowed them to renounce language and reason, and through its feeling to retain hope in the old concepts.

Thomas Y. Levin has translated a series of Kracuaer's essays into English. They originally appeared in the Frankfurter Zeitung and are now available in the book The Mass Ornament.

MSN Brand Audit

Microsoft Network (MSN), also known as LIVE is a distant 3rd in Web site traffic, behind Yahoo and Google. In most portal categories MSN aka LIVE is competitive; it is the search service where it lags far behind the leaders. My WVU survey reveals that neither MSN nor LIVE have much brand awareness as search services.

There is great opportunity for MSN to increase revenues, though, because Google is not a commanding presence in portal services other than search. Likewise, Yahoo is struggling to maintain operations and is unable to keep current with advancing technology. Neither Google nor Yahoo have Social Capital with the most lucrative audience for Web advertising, “Strategic Buyers.” Microsoft does and this is also an important audience to Microsoft because of its vulnerability to Open Source, Software as a Service and other future industry directions.

For the complete brand audit with all recommendations see Redmond Review MSN Audit

MSN Brand Exploratory

In a brand exploratory, Keller (2008, p 129) advises us to seek out prior research studies. EBSCOHOST has proved a valuable tool in this regards and analysis by Tancer, Rosoff and Chickakowski, among others provided real insight into the external, customer perceptions of the brand. In addition, Keller (p 129) recommends that interviews with internal personnel have a high payoff. While not able to do this, I did survey WVU students.

Products and Services
MSN/LIVE has two audience categories, the site visitors and advertisers. It has services for both. With MSN/LIVE, the most important audience is site visitors because without them, the advertisers will have no interest. The finding I have made in this brand exploratory is that site visitors like Google and Yahoo while advertisers like MSN.

External Perception of the Brand
According to Rosoff (2006, p 2), the MSN reputation suffers with site visitors. MSN has ranked last in a 2001 Consumer Reports customer satisfaction survey. Rosoff holds that MSN deploys technology for its own sake, which can decrease customer satisfaction with the site. He also finds that MSN editorial content needs improvement.

The MSN/LIVE search service is held to be full featured but the general public does perceive some deficiencies. It is interesting to note that both MSN and Yahoo used the same search engine, Inktomi, until 2004 when Yahoo bought Inktomi. Microsoft then developed its own search engine for MSN. Wall (2006, p 2) finds that MSN search does a poor job at link analysis and therefore its results have less relevancy than Yahoo or Google, as well as a bias to rank commercial sites too high.

Likewise, there are some areas of concern with Hotmail, be it called MSN or Windows LIVE Hotmail. Arrington (2007, p 1) finds that while it has an intuitive interface it has slow responsiveness. What is worse, MSN deletes all mail information every 30 days if the consumer does not login. Rafferty (2006, p 1) expressed concern with this policy when he lost important documentation as a result.

On the other hand, the general public holds MSNBC in high regards. IQ69 reports (2008, p 1) that MSNBC took the top spot in the University of Michigan American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey. However, the ACSI survey did note that there does not appear to be a clear differentiator between news services and the leading brands are bunched together.

One specific public of interest is “strategic buyers.” Large corporations have made significant investments in the Microsoft franchise. They have end-users trained on mission critical systems that use Microsoft technology. They have trained their help-desk staff on Microsoft technology. They probably have significant Microsoft investment in the server room and with their application development staff as well.

Most importantly, Microsoft has the social capital of existing, defined relationships that make transactions easy to accomplish. Microsoft sales teams visit “strategic buyers” periodically and promptly answer phone calls. Microsoft is very good at relationship marketing. Every sales team has an architectural engineer assigned to it with the mission of understanding the information technology plan of assigned corporations, their enterprise architecture and how to advantageously apply Microsoft technology to affect solutions.

Competitive Environment from an Exploratory Viewpoint
MSN Competitive Exploratory

Marketing Support from an Exploratory Viewpoint
MSN Marketing Support Exploratory

An MSN, Yahoo and Google Perceptual Map

References
Arrigngton, Michael (February 8, 2007). Tech Crunch. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/08/a-comparison-of-live-hotmail-gmail-and-yahoo-mail/all-comments/

Chickowski, Erica (02/08/2008). Brand Identities After a Microsoft and Yahoo Deal. Baseline. Retrieved on November 22, 2008 from http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Brand-Identities-After-a-Microsoft-Yahoo-Deal/1/

IQ69 (August 14, 2008). Yahoo tops Google in customer satisfaction survey. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://iq69.com/index.php/2007/08/14/yahoo-tops-google-in-customer-satisfaction-survey/

Keller, K (2008). Strategic Brand Management. Pearson/Prentice-Hall.

Rosoff, M (October 23, 2006). The Future of MSN. Directions on Microsoft. Retrieved on November 22, 2008 from http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/update/2006/11nov/1106tfom.htm#top

Tancer, Bill (August 3, 2006). Google, Yahoo! and MSN: Brand Association. Hitwise Intelligence. Retrieved on November 22, 2008 from http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer/2006/08/google_yahoo_and_msn_brand_ass.html

Wall, Aaron (June 13, 2006). How Search Engines Work: Search Engine Relevancy Reviewed. Search Engine Optimization. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://www.seobook.com/relevancy/%23short

MSN Marketing Support Programs Exploratory

Keller (2008, p 131) emphasizes the importance of marketing support programs, especially for establishing the points of parity and points of difference. This is essential to moving to desired brand equity.

Place
Microsoft has a small problem with place for some of its MSN sub-brands. The introduction of the Windows LIVE brand for some of the MSN branded properties means there are two places to go for MSN services. As an example, consider MSN Search and Windows LIVE Search. You can go to http://www.msn.com to begin a search using Microsoft search technology, or to http://www.live.com/default.aspx?form=MSNH11 .

Both sites use the same search engines. Both parent brands are applied to the sub-brands. In most cases analysts such as Rosoff and Tancer refer to Microsoft Online Services using the MSN brand rather than Windows LIVE. 75% of my classmates prefer the Windows LIVE brand to the MSN brand and the remaining 25% are indifferent to Microsoft in general. Only 12.5% were aware of MSN as a brand.

Price
The pricing of site visitor services is free while the price advertisers pay is based on the type of ad and a bid process that incorporates click through rates in the costing algorithm. MSN is perceived to be fair in its pricing of advertising. Advertisers are in fact concerned about potential pricing abuse by Google and Yahoo.

According to Harrison (2008, p 1) 400 advertisers have filed a complaint against Google and Yahoo with the U.S. Justice Department. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) comments that Yahoo and Google erode competition with the potential for higher advertising prices. In the final analysis however, Agarwal (2006, p 1) summarizes that while advertisers like MSN technology and price, they don’t plan to spend more with the search portal because it does not draw as much traffic as Google.

Promotion
Brandweek (2000, p 1) awarded MSN a Silver Award for its marketing tactic to sponsor the NYC Road Runners Club and the NYC marathon. As mentioned in section two, sponsorship is an important aspect of MSN marketing support. In addition, Carter (2005, p 1) commends MSN’s masterful incorporation of TV and online advertising with events to promote the MSN brand. MSN promotion is given high marks by external analysts.

Personalization
Elkins (2001, p 1) quotes ad execs, “MSN’s strategy of customizing ad programs to marketers’ specific needs is what company officials hope will give it an edge.” Thus personalization is another marketing support program tactic used by MSN. Furthermore, MSN personalization is held in high regard by advertisers.

References
Agarwal, Amit (May 03, 2006). Bloomberg spoils the MSN Advertising party in Redmond. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/05/bloomberg-spoils-msn-advertising-party.html

Brandweek (04/03/2000). Silver Awards. Retrieved on November 24, 2008 from EBSCOHOST.

Carter, B (2/5/2005). MSN takes on Google with search engine launch. Marketing. Retrieved on November 24, 2008 from EBSCOHOST.

Harrison, Todd (September 8, 2008). Are Yahoo and Google playing Monopoly? Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2008/09/08/are-yahoo-and-google-playing-monopoly.aspx

Keller, K (2008). Strategic Brand Management. Pearson/Prentice-Hall.

Kirk, Jeremy (10/31/2008). Google introduces service-level guarantee for its Apps suite. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/10/31/google-introduces-service-level-guarantee-its-apps-suite

MSN Competitive Environment Exploratory

Ethical Concerns about MSN Paid Placement Tactics vice Google
McLaughlin criticized Microsoft MSN for its Paid Placement tactics while giving Google accolades (2002, p 116) for their class and morality. For Microsoft, she only says “others, like MSN, do a poor job.” MSN was charged with two counts: 1.) Mixing real content with paid placement to misinform users of its search engine with annoying search results; and 2.) Rigging search results (p 121-2) by low-ranking competitors, for example travel sites, while high ranking their own, like Expedia. Google gets high marks (p 117) in its handling of paid placement.

Paid Inclusion, different from paid placement, is a shakedown racket. Yahoo for example, charges $299 so its spider does not “miss” a company’s Website. Google firmly opposes Paid Inclusion (McLaughlin, 2002, p 123).

Google Offers Software as a Service and it has a Service Level Agreement
Kirk (2008, p 1) reports that Google is offering a service level guarantee for users of its Google Apps suite. This suite is a direct attack on Microsoft’s revenue stream and it is offered free, supported by advertising revenue. This Service Level Agreement is a move to attract corporate customers and Microsoft must address it with its own Software as a Service through MSN. Google does not have extensive social capital with corporate customers and this is an advantage Microsoft can leverage, at least for now.

Yahoo Struggling
Hardy (2006, p 1) notes that Yahoo is struggling to keep up with MSN and Google. The cost of keeping current with the relentless advance of technology is proving too much. The Associated Press (2008, p 1) goes on to say that Yahoo has deep concerns over its viability now that Google has withdrawn its offer to support Yahoo with advanced technology. Google made that offer during the recent Microsoft-Yahoo merger negotiations.

Content editors: MSN versus Google
Rosoff (p 2) notes that MSN is a destination site that supports edited content. MSN has skilled editors collate collections of information. Other MSN brands also use content editors to manage information collections germane to the brand. On the other hand, Google is merely a platform for visitors who want to set up their own links to information. This information can be aggregated from other web sites or from RSS feeds.

The advantage of content editors is that they can represent a community of interest (COI) and create and provide access to information specific to that COI. The COI then has a place to go for the information they need that has been vetted for relevance and credibility. It reduces the noise in their searches for information and increases the trustworthiness of what they do find.

Analysis of Search Service Offerings at Google, Yahoo and MSN
Google and Yahoo are the search portal market leaders today for an Internet characterized as an Aristocratic network. This is to say that a small number of nodes (like Google and Yahoo) are “super-connected” so that most people visit these sites. However, physicist Mark Buchanan’s report (2002, p 124-7) on mathematical studies of networks that show the phase of “super-connected” hubs (such as Google and Yahoo today) eventually gives way to more egalitarian networks from the simple processes of history and growth. Many nodes connect to Yahoo or Google as a start to searching out information. However, Buchanan’s conclusion on networks is that “Whenever limitations or costs eventually come into play to impede the richest getting still richer, then a small-world network becomes more egalitarian, as seems to be the case with airports and a number of other real-world networks.”

Niche search sites have established themselves as a brand. Today’s two largest super-connected nodes on the Internet, Google and Yahoo get the majority of advertising revenue. However, the trends in marketing may also be working against the continuation of the current aristocratic nature of the Internet.

Marketing is moving away from the mass advertising of the same message to a large audience. According to Duncan (2005, pp 211-212) the value of the Internet is the ability to send custom messages to highly targeted customer segments. The reach of a specific message to a small but coherent group is higher than a general and therefore mostly irrelevant message to a large group. As the ability to identify and verify audience characteristics for smaller, specialty sites improves, advertising revenue may shift from Google and Yahoo to this new direction.

The message to Google and Yahoo is that super-connected nodes don’t last. Just as the few air network super hubs gave way to geographically dispersed regional hubs, so will the Internet. In short, Google and Yahoo are vulnerable as Amazon is already exploiting. MSN, like Amazon, has the opportunity to move profitably into the future of software services, if it acts appropriately.

Finally, Yahoo is already fading fast. They foolishly rejected Microsoft’s overly generous offer earlier this year, and now on their own again they seem to have lost control. Their stock price has fallen from $30 per share six months ago to $8 per share today (see Yahoo, 2008b, p 1). Significant employees have left the company.

Mail comparison: Google the best
Agarwal (2007, p 1) compares MSN Mail, Yahoo Mail and Google Mail according to five characteristics: 1.) User Interface; 2.) Spam Controls; 3.) Storage Space; 4.) Speed; and 5.) Advertisements. His findings are that Google Gmail is the winner in four categories: 1.) Spam Controls; 2.) Storage Space; 4.) Speed; and 4.) Advertisements. Yahoo!Mail has the best User Interface. He also notes that the Windows LIVE Mail or MSN Hotmail has bugs in it, has poor performance and makes egregious use of advertising.

Site visitors prefer Google and Yahoo while advertisers prefer MSN
The Experian/Hitwise survey (see Tancer, 2008, p 1) clearly shows that site visitors prefer Yahoo and Google ahead of MSN for the search and portal services being offered. Advertisers, to the contrary, prefer MSN. Blank (2006, p 1) cites numerous media firms and marketing research companies that express a decided preference for Microsoft. However, as Agarwal (2006, p 1) notes, advertisers pay more for Google and Yahoo because of the higher traffic count.

References
Agarwal, Amit (May 03, 2006). Bloomberg spoils the MSN Advertising party in Redmond. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/05/bloomberg-spoils-msn-advertising-party.html

Agarwal, Amit (February 05, 2007). Yahoo! Mail vs GMail vs Windows Live Mail. Retrieved on December 3, 2008 from http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/02/yahoo-mail-vs-gmail-vs-windows-live.html

Associated Press (November 5, 2008). Google drops Yahoo advertising partnership. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27555004/

Blank, Christine (June 8, 2006). MSN Advertisers Report High ROI, Less Traffic. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://www.dmnews.com/MSN-Advertisers-Report-High-ROI-Less-Traffic/article/91483/

Buchanan, Mark (2002). Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks. Norton.

Duncan, T (2005). Principles of Advertising & IMC. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Hardy, David (May 18, 2006). Yahoo! advertising set to take on MSN and Google AdWords. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/live/articles/yahoo-ads-take-on-google.asp/2969/

Kirk, Jeremy (10/31/2008). Google introduces service-level guarantee for its Apps suite. Retrieved on December 2, 2008 from http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/10/31/google-introduces-service-level-guarantee-its-apps-suite

McLaughlin, Laurianne (2002). The Straight Story on Search Engines. PC World. Retrieved on November 19, 2008 from
http://www.pcworld.com/article/97431-5/the_straight_story_on_search_engines.html

Rosoff, M (October 23, 2006). The Future of MSN. Directions on Microsoft. Retrieved on November 22, 2008 from http://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/sample/DOMIS/update/2006/11nov/1106tfom.htm#top

Tancer, Bill (August 3, 2006). Google, Yahoo! and MSN: Brand Association. Hitwise Intelligence. Retrieved on November 22, 2008 from http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer/2006/08/google_yahoo_and_msn_brand_ass.html

Yahoo (2008). What is the combined market share of the Google, Yahoo! and MSN? Retrieved on November 15, 2008 from http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006032905387

Yahoo (2008b). Yahoo Six Month Staock Chart. Retrieved on November 23, 2008 from http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=YHOO&t=6m&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=