for blog sake

More of those stupid branding practices

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:49:45 -0600

How to lose a brand credibility
Have you ever thought how companies–through their hired marketing and ad agencies–are eager to sell you their products and services, making the online transaction experience painless, fast and worry-free, but when you decide later on to cancel a service and wish to stop paying for it, there is no one to be found to address your request?

It happened to me. I posted our house for sale on Zillow, the darling site for home owners and the envy of real estate brokers. I purchased a display ad and paid to be found on its search results, and let it run for 8 months. I was happy to watch the clicks come by and the number of inquiries rise. It took a while and I finally sold the house. With a sigh of relief, and as a responsible citizen, I went online, with the sole aim of letting the world know that my house was no longer for sale. A simple task I thought. I logged on “manage my account” and there it was, clearly displayed: “Sale Pending”. One click should have shown me its other bright side displaying the proud word: “SOLD”.

Nothing happened though there was a “Change Status” option next to it.

I was determined to find some sort of “Cancel Service” feature. No such luck. And by now, I was getting e-mails asking me to update my listing, some five months after we sold the house. I decided to resort to conventional wisdom: Using the phone, but not before I sent several emails through the “Contact” feature explaining why Zillow should stop displaying my house for sale even after it was sold… A message came on suggesting I go online to resolve my problem, or get involved with world through online forums to find common answers to my problem, or wait 18 minutes to the next available agent.

So what’s the big deal you ask? If you don’t mind to wait 18 minutes to cancel a service you no longer wish to have, or joining forums to find out how to cancel a service you’re no longer in need, then it’s a little deal. Forbes announced that it would stop using Zillow statistics for its forecast on the housing market. The reason: A recent article in the magazine downgraded a California county as one of the worst in the nation. Not so, complained the county, saying the housing market has shown signs of modest rebound in the past few months. But with all houses that were sold but remained on Zillow as available, no wonder we’ll have a never ending disastrous housing market. I say: A big deal indeed.

What I’d do? display a pleasant graphic on landing page which says: Not happy with our service? Please Cancel here.
And by its side: Happy and Satisfied Customers Please Proceed here.

Words and words that mean nothing.

A recent article in American Advertising Federation: “Spending Dropped 12% in 2009, but Things Are Looking Up. Last year's ad-sales drop was moderated somewhat by a fourth quarter in which nearly all media improved on their performances from earlier in the year. And things seem to be looking up further still -- depending on what happens with consumer spending.”

I ask: And what if consumer spending remains the same or drops slightly?

How not to sell

A letter I received not too long ago:
“Hi there,
…I have developed software that automatically places your ad on millions of blogs. You will receive thousands of targeted hits to your website as Blog Blaster places your ad on blogs that match your ad's category.”

Me: I am loving it so far, yes, I like it: thousands visitors, not just any visitors, but targeted visitors!

Me again: Read next paragraph.

“This method has never been released to the public before. Very few, if anyone has implemented this.”

Me: R U kidding?

Should we become paranoid?

The Daily Talk of Marketers: “How to convert these visitors into loyal, revenue-generating customers.”

Ever feel you have to be on guard as soon as you enter a web site, and you smell the threat from every click you make as if someone is watching your moves and try to convert you into a spending machine?

Me: The rest is up to you

Bad choice of wording for a service:
I was planning to get a cab to take me to a meeting in Houston, and I found online all the information I needed. Then I read that Houston City ordinance authorizes the cab driver to add an additional $1.25 “departure fee” to the total fare.

Me: I think it would be a better customer relationship management if they’d call it “Arrival Fee”…

True and simple to follow:
Employees ARE the Brand
…"Many employers might consider a non smiling employee the least of their problems, but at Ritz-Carlton, renowned for its on-site customer handling and service, it's serious business. The hotel is considered the gold standard because of its conviction that employees are the face of its company, and that service isn't just part of its brand, it is the brand…

Me: Many companies don’t get it: Good branding start within your organization. It’s not enough to engage your product with customers on social networks.

Written by Ariel Peeri
Visit my web site: http://www.arielpeeri.com
About me, click.

These Little Branding Thoughts

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0600

Last week I read that Mulally, CEO of Ford, has streamlined his company's sprawling brand portfolio and created a new corporate culture that's helped Ford turn a profit even as other automakers have struggled. "It's back to Henry Ford's original vision," Mulally says. "It's all about producing products people want."

What an insult to the average intelligent human. Should I assume that during the last decades Ford has been selling products that people don’t want? But, here is more:
Selling cars that people don’t want (or cars that people don’t need) is similar to selling cigarettes to consumers who shouldn’t be smoking. How about a class action lawsuit against the car industry for selling us cars we didn’t really need? Think: Does a yuppie-city-living person needs a AWD or 4x4 car, since the only off road experience he or she may go through would be when they overshoot the turn coming out of the golf course club house?

Or, how about putting a warning sign on each car: WARNING: You are buying a car that you really don’t need. The manufacturer does not assume responsibility if you get only 12 miles per gallon, pollute the air or lose control on sharp sudden turns.

Colors my friend, colors…
Ever thought how you are accustomed to associate colors with actions, positive or negative? You’d probably associate Green with positive and Red or Yellow with Caution. On a recent trip to a gas station I pressed the “Cancel” button by mistake, simply because it was in Green color tab, when I should have pressed “Enter”, but did not, because it was in a Red color tab.

I was riding behind a Fast Response Security van painted all over with dramatic colors to enhance the subject matter when I saw a sign on its side, written in big letters: “In God We Trust”. I guess you’d rely on God to get you fast if you’re in the business of responding to people in distress while not willing to take responsibility if you failed to be there on time. Blame God.

I was traveling across the southern parts of the country recently and since I couldn’t make myself listen to religious music stations which seem to take over most of the airwaves, I found other silly ways to make travel go fast, as I stared at license plates and thought to myself what precious real estate space were license plates when it comes to promote tourism at the place they were issued. My trip took me across four states, so here are my short silly thoughts:
“Discover Excellence” was Oklahoma’s official tagline. That’s fine though I wouldn’t relate it to spending a vacation in the state. Here’s why: Would I say that I had an “excellent” vacation in Oklahoma or, would I say I had a “great” vacation? You pick.

Texas, well, the lone star on plates may be meaningful to Texans, but not to me, so I kept driving into Louisiana: A Sportsman’s Paradise. Great tagline which wastes no words, high on my list. I was crossing into Mississippi. No tag lines there, just a very distinguished type treatment of the word Mississippi. Continuing on i10 into Stars Fell On Alabama. A bit mystical, a bit romantic. Reaching my final destination on a cloudy and humid day was Florida where the tagline read: The sunshine state. A quick search on my iPhone showed that there were 133 rainy days per year in Florida.

That’s all for this blog. More of these stupid (silly) little things, next month.

Written by Ariel Peeri
Visit my web: http://www.arielpeeri.com
About me, click.

Happy Holiday(s) to friends, colleagues and all the rest. There is no religious preference here except that I already started celebrating Hanukkah while the rest of you will have to wait...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:32:11 -0700

Are we loosing our intuition?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:18:04 -0700

Are we losing our minds? (or call it intuition)
Maybe the current state of the economy contributes to our insecurity. May be we are reluctant to take intuitive based initiatives for fear of failure. Or maybe it is simply an acquired behavior to rely on marketing and advertising organizations to relieve us from making any questionable decision? It is true that intuition involves more risk than traditional marketing, and as the common thinking goes, innovators are bad marketers.
Hippocrates once wrote that a doctor’s judgment mattered more than any external measurement. Take a similar case of an advertising agency, for example, which can easily overrides their client’s (judgment) intuition by making their case using marketing analysis, crunching numbers, etc. Many people – non-marketers and non-advertising professionals – can make relatively fast decisions without having to compare options. Yet they will rather believe in numbers and market analysis than trust their own intuition when making important business decisions.
Their intuition is the pattern-matching process that quickly suggests feasible courses of action, while the analysis is the mental simulation, a conscious and deliberate review of the courses of action, which was taken.
I am not implying that marketing and advertising has no place in our lives and culture. Rather, I think that too much importance has been put in the hands of marketers than in the minds of business people thus forbidding or curbing their ability to exercise intuition.
I recently read in the New York Times that Time Inc., was selecting advertising agencies to produce a campaign to encourage young creative people to consider Detroit as a place to live and work. The winner is to be announced on Dec. 2, during an annual awards ceremony in Detroit known as the D Show.
The “D” Show?
My intuitive thinking says that D stands for poor rating and under achievement. It may have had the right meaning not too long ago when the good times were ruling our culture. But to promote a revival of a dying town using a failure grade is no positive choice to communicate a better future. Yet I am sure, that if I dispute the poor choice of the letter D in the final judging ceremony, I will hear about focus groups, marketing analysis, and numbers that justified the good choice of the letter D.
We are quick to blame the car companies for prompting the beginning of the downturn and running their companies to the ground as the case of GM. One should insist on asking, why don’t we hold the advertising agencies accountable for spending this year alone, according to Wall Street Journal, more than 600 million dollars, for laying out advertising campaigns and promoting products that ended bankrupting an entire industry? These are advertising agencies that were promoting mediocre products and building and shaping imaginary consumers who were supposed to fit the product they were advertising. Why are they untouched?
I personally take great interest in the art of intuition, which in my opinion, leads to simplicity in thinking. It makes good advertising. I go by the guiding rule that nothing can be true, but that which is simple. And “simple” is not presenting a 60-page market analysis. Simplicity is using a healthy intuition too.
I personally believe in brand communications that takes on a less rigid approach than other agencies typically use. When faced with the challenge of naming, for example, I don’t take on the over-analytical approach. I believe that too much analysis just delays decisions and defeats the whole mission of naming a brand. I rather see my clients test a name, listen to people they respect, listen a lot to their gut feelings (intuition) and then come up with a choice. I advise them to start with “their” ideas and those of their staff rather than spending their time commissioning and reading analysis and other scientific arguments, which may or may not, go against their intuition.
This debate between intuition and empiricism (knowledge which derives from experience) is as old as Plato, who thought that knowledge came from intuitive reasoning, and Aristotle, who preferred observation.
People can make relatively fast decisions without having to compare options. Let us re-connect with our sense of intuition ability. Trust ourselves more so we don’t exercise too much analysis and get buried under numbers we really don’t understand. Simplify our life.
(Warning: Do not attempt to build a 30-floor high-rise based on your intuition only.)
Written by Ariel Peeri

Who am I?
What I do?

Awards: Do they sell

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:38:20 -0600

A lot has been written about the culture of receiving awards, as we watch how networks feature countless ceremonies and sub ceremonies of award presentations, and endless number of creative people have been eager to mention they have got them, yet, very little has been mentioned about how meaningless they are, unless of course, you are enjoying getting dressed up and mixing with your peers while holding a cocktail in your hand trying to sound intelligent about your own work or others’.
Awards are OK to get. Awards make you feel like a superstar for a night. Awards boost your self-esteem. Awards make it easy for you to show off what you don’t have: a true talent of communications. But hey, you got an award for a great design that does not help sell the product.

Example: A recent review of a bike saddle shows a painful picture of a ridiculously narrow bike seat under a headline …”awarded best design…” Duh? If you ever bike, mainly on roads, as I do, you know how hard it is to choose the right seat, how painful it is to have bought the wrong seat. I guess one shouldn’t complain about any discomfort while sitting on an award-winning design seat: And yes, I read between the lines, it was an award for slick looking design and not for function.  

Bursts of thought

Lately I am getting annoyed at ads that move and take over my screen while I try to read important news online. What’s more annoying is that I find myself chasing an invisible “close” button which seems to be purposely hidden somewhere in the ad. Why not making it illegal to display an ad if you spend more than 4 seconds trying to find the “close” button?

I read an advise given by a well known executive ad person saying that in a downturn your advertising should emphasize the positive things about your product or service.
I wonder what do I emphasize during “prosperous” times?

Do you find yourself hesitating to voice an opinion, which may put you at odd with mainstream? That’s a touchy one. If you don’t, then, what’s the hype about Twitter?

Have you tried to open a product you just bought, rapped in a clear molded plastic, without paying a visit to your local emergency room for stitches?

Have you noticed lately how some executive titles are getting longer? Long gone are VP, or SVP, for example, as some new titles span over two lines try to illustrate the many new responsibilities of executives due to elimination of many positions because of a downturn. Here are real examples I saw: Director of Science Marketing and Customer Global Reach, or in short, DSMCGR. Another one: Global Head - Focused Service, in short: GHFS...

I get invitations from various marketing outfits to attend web seminars. Some topics present “Steps that increased conversion by at least 178% or strategies that produced 30-300% gains”, etc.

Strange how one’s mind works.
I personally trust a promise of 9% increase, over a promise of 300% increase.

Nothing Is True But That Which Is Simple

Wed, 1 Apr 2009 16:18:38 -0600

Nothing is true but that which is Simple. The concept of simplicity has been related to truth in the theory of knowledge. According to Occam's razor, all other things being equal, the simplest theory is the most likely to be true. In the context of our lifestyle, simplicity denotes freedom from hardship, effort or confusion.

The Testimony of Simplicity is the process of simplifying one's life in order to focus on things that are most important and disregard or avoid things that are least important. It is the basis for true and good advertisement.

The current economic and political situation has opened our eyes - so wide - that we only see its complexity; therefore we strive for simplicity in order to bring freedom from the current hardship and confusion. We insist on getting straight answers. Simple answers. Our lives are frittered away by details; simplify, simplify, as Henry David Thoreau would say.

Maturity is your brain simplified.

Reaching maturity, partially a function of age, has its side effect: I, for example, get impatient whenever I encounter any kind of waste: waste of words, waste of visuals, waste of time trying to understand complexity. As a communicator, simplicity is also how fast I get to the point. And if you are a creative person at an ad agency, it is how fast you get your client’s message across. A recent article in Advertising age says that …advertisers have about a 3- to 4-second window to hook potential customers…” I think most agencies miss this opportunity because in most cases they get to the point too late.

Here is some simplicity threatening situations: (completely not in order)

I get and read resumes from professionals and young graduates who seek employment with my group. Most of them seem to stretch the truth: they are overselling their accomplishments or misrepresenting previous experience. They represent the inability to simplify who they are. Pointing to one hundred achievements in your career is far less concise and less impressive than pointing to 10 achievements, for example (unless you received 100 Noble prizes then write your 100-page resume). It proves a lack of communication skills and your inability to get to the core of issues. If you don't know or trust yourself, (which is when you’ll write 100 pages resume) you cannot expect someone else to do so. Simplify your life and then tell its story…

And notice a trend in business cards: It’s called “the more, the better”. On a Lexus dealer’s business card I counted 6 telephones numbers. Which one do I call to get prompt response for a problem? The first number is labeled “Direct”, the second is labeled “Cell” the next is “Toll Free”, next is “Office”, etc.

I cannot imagine a dealer who goes to the bathroom, and takes his or her “direct landline” with them? But I’m sure they’ll take along their cell phone. So why not make the cell phone the only “Direct” line? Since the trend these days is to be reached 24/7, wouldn’t one number be simple enough?
Remember the “one size fits all” labels? It was big years ago and it’s common these days, so think this way: One telephone number will reach you all.

And staying on the telephone subject: The new cell phone technology is meant to facilitate our life (by making it simpler), yet whenever I want to leave a message I have to listen to several useless instructions spanned over three minutes of my hurried time, topped at the end by an insult to human intelligence, as it continues to say: “When you’re finished recording, you may hung up”… really, I can? Duh?

Years ago when I moved to the U.S. and made my home in New York I became fascinated with what I called then, the “super size culture” in America. Simplicity was not to be found. I remember that Chevrolet, for example, had many different brand cars, called by so many different names. It was confusing, so confusing in matter of fact, that for all these years I never felt the need to find out more about the company, GM, Chevrolet or GMC or... Then, a few weeks ago I read an article by Rosebeth M. Kanter, a Professor at Harvard Business School, that GM had until recently 47 different car brands! Yes, not simple to remember, and impossible to make the connection to a brand. And While GM struggled, Ford started its "One Ford" campaign to integrate its many units and simplify its global structure. It was not coincidence that they did not require government assistance. The inability to simplify your business can cause you to lose the business.

For years big name agencies had a ball: they have been awarded the marketing and advertising of not just one brand, not three or ten brands, but 47 brands! For many of them it was the time to produce commercials and collect awards. And they were preoccupied with collecting awards. But awards are not given to creative people who produce simple solutions or simple messages; they are handed out to those who master the complexity of special effects, so extensively, that they make it unbelievable to the viewer eye. The competition is so fierce that all cars perform the same in all commercials: they all stop at once, while making a perfect one half, non skidding turn, while pushing up a perfect cloud of dust (did you ever think why a car that stops so elegantly, but abruptly, does it in total silence?)

Many commercials are becoming so unbelievable; they simply glorify an imaginary brand through the art of special effects. And the real simple message – the one that may make me go inquire about the car – is buried, somewhere, or is it forgotten? Many creative people are reluctant to practice advertising through simplicity. Maybe they think that it won’t be considered sophisticated. Or maybe they feel insecure that a simple message does not say enough? It’s wrong thinking because Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. And that one comes from Leonardo da Vinci.

Thank you for letting me share some simple things in life, and if you encounter one yourself, post your comment!

Written by Ariel Peeri

Who am I?
What I do?

I wish you a good new year

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:48:55 -0700

Yes we can, and we should.

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 11:34:38 -0700

Since we moved to the South some five years ago from New York, I have been faithful to my dog by taking her on a half hour fast walks everyday around sunrise time. I would meet other dog owners who would stop and ask for my dog’s name to which I would reply that MY name is Ariel, and my dog’s name is Sheebah, and when they would comment on how good looking was my dog, I mistakenly took it as a compliment for myself. Living among southerners meant that I’d be expected to let all know what church I go to, so when I told anyone interested that I was Jewish, and from New York, I heard the comment: ...“then you must be a Democrat.” So I decided to start introducing my dog as the “southerner democrat Jewish dog” to every new walker who bothered to ask for her name. And so I earned the reputation of being the only democrat dog owner in the neighborhood. I also learned to enjoy some bad jokes and to ignore some bad comments. But mostly I had good exchanges. And above all, I thought that a common thread united us all—democrats and republicans alike—we were masters of great dogs.

So this morning I took my dog out, passed by our Obama yard sign, and went on to join my fellow republicans dog walkers, on this celebrated day after the election. And there it happened, the most unbelievable sight: My old daily republican friend, whose dog has always stopped to greet and sniff my dog, was passing me without acknowledging my dog or even me. My poor dog could not believe her nose; her best pal just passed her ignoring her! I thought, poor dog, how can I explain to her that some republicans will hold a grudge and not join the rest of us, humans and dogs, in celebrating the new future in American history? That’s stupid, I thought to myself, a dog would not understand that.

Go Vote

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 14:12:32 -0700

Hi all,
The last few weeks which really begun over a year ago, have seen political debates, bad economic news and not so plain news having some considerable affects on our lives, and as one man who confronted me while canvassing for a candidate told me, he wished he could take a pill and sleep through Tuesday and wake up on Wednesday to the breaking news of whichever defeated candidate congratulating his opponent. As I walked the neighborhoods I have witnessed growing anger, prejudice and ignorance surfacing at an alarming rate as we come close to vote. I think it is our privilege, and chance, to give our input for a better tomorrow. Just go and vote. And as always, the message is in the visual.
Ariel Peeri

Politics, weather, supersized hurricanes

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 14:11:54 -0600

Friends, colleagues, democrats, republicans, but not anarchists;

Politics and weather were on most people’s minds during the past week, and although the hype of politics expired as the republican convention came to a closing, the weather channel continued to pounce with its lively descriptions and warnings of various tropical depressions. If you live in the south, as I do, you learn to enjoy the 8 days it takes for a tropical depression to become a hurricane and reach land, as if you were given a few days extension on life.

The weather “telling” culture has become like a reality show unfolding like a kitsch drama. If you live on the Gulf of Mexico you know what category 1, 2, 3, or 4 can do, but that is no material for a catchy headline. Yet, if you write, as they do, that a Ike, a “deadly category 3 hurricane” has just entered the gulf”… you are certain to get the attention you want, yet what do you write about category 4 hurricane? what is worst than “deadly”? maybe the headline describing a category 4 should be “farewell, we wish you luck”. And then I read about tropical depression Josephine, which, as one reporter wrote, “was struggling to stay organized”. Excuse me? am I expected to get emotional about a storm that is struggling to establish its identity? And to top it all, last week weather.com was advertising a subscription to a Gold Weather Member Card for $24.95! I guess if you became a gold member, you’d be the first to be notified of any tropical depressions being formed in the eastern Atlantic…

This week I was able to find free time between following the disastrous paths of 4 tropical storms, to watch and listen to the opening speeches on the opening night of the republican convention, when I heard Tommy Espinoza giving an emotional speech praising John McCain. He introduced himself as “a Catholic, where Jesus Christ and La Virgen de Guadalupe are at the center of his home”, and said that he was supporting John, first, because of FAITH...

I thought religion was a very private matter and has no place in politics. And I mean any religion, because if you place God in front and first, then everything else becomes God’s will, or even simpler, we do things in the name of God. If you scroll down you will see the visual type statements I made while reacting to some of the buzzwords flying around this week like Change, Ban on books in a library, experience, the RNC and more. No offense, it’s what I like to do best: react visually.

The first sample is how I feel about the republican convention becoming “one party under God”? Enjoy.

By Ariel Peeri

Who I am
What do I do
What else do I do

Baby Boomers: Do you have a plan for us?

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 08:45:52 -0600

Surveys: Can you get to the point, please?

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:10:43 -0600

In today’s uncertain times, small and large corporations alike, are allocating big budgets to send (more correctly, blast) surveys to assess how their customers think, feel and behave, and what they should do about it.

And yet, so many surveys are missing their targets: the people.

From the few I have seen I can conclude that surveys should not be left in the hands of people who don’t feel compassion for other people... Surveys should be taken out of the hands of people who are data collectors, people who lack communication skills. Surveys should be left in the hands of people who know how to reach through people: not by writing questions that are 3 times longer than their answers, and not by promising that it would take 10 to 15 minutes to finish a survey, when it takes that long to figure out the first question (see below) with its 15 choices; fifteen cramped lines with no room to breath in between, from which I am instructed to choose one answer. I wonder how many people would go directly to the last line “Don’t Know” and select it as their answer since it’s the most prominent on the page.