ISSUE 247 : Wednesday, May 27, 2009

"You're in good hands with...."   No matter what the product category, nobody can make that promise stick. The only product that can promise you being in good hands is insurance. The only company that can deliver on that promise is Allstate. Allstate stands for customer care. What does Farmers stand for? Or Progressive? Or Geico? Lizards? Neanderthals? Who has a guaranteed spot on my shopping list? Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present "brand preference."

We subscribe to a lot of data sources around here. One of the factoids I remember NOT being surprised about was that brand preference has been on the steady decline for the past 10 years. GM outspends Toyota 5:1 in brand advertising. Which brand do you prefer? GM stands for "big." What does Toyota stand for? "Continuous improvement." Remember when "Quality Was Job 1" at Ford Motor Company? What is "Job 1" now that it's no longer quality? Survival? As our taxpayer dollars are keeping the lights on in Detroit, can someone please tell me which of the Big Three stand for shareholder value? Or ROI? More like RIP if you ask me.

Jim Stengel, former global marketing officer for Procter & Gamble calls it "purposed-based marketing" or "ideals-based branding." "Ideals-based branding is the way to better performance, and better measurement of the 'right things' will benefit ideals-based brands," said Stengel in BrandWeek. Stengel has often cited "purpose-based marketing" as a key contributor to building brands. "Brands with a clear-cut purpose, such as Olay and Tide, have proven themselves to be leaders in the marketplace," he told marketers during an industry conference in Orlando, Fla., last fall. Jim is clearly on the way to getting clients in the Global 500 to "man up" and begin to stand for something as clients of the newly opened, Jim Stengle, LLC. But that's just one voice in the wilderness.

Sun and Oracle are doing the dance of love. Although it's true that Larry Ellison has a key to Scott McNeeley's boat, the two companies couldn't be farther apart on what they supposedly stand for. Ever since the success of Linux, Sun has been all rah-rah about open-source and poo-pooing syslem lock-in. Now they want to hook up with Oracle, Crown prince of locked-in operating systems and software. How is that supposed to work? Will the regulators see that one coming? The market certainly does.

All around us there are tons of jobs that need to be done to improve our quality of life. Jobs that business could certainly help with. But business would rather toss billions out the window on network spots the audience has long since tuned out, than do something that would provide them with a direct benefit. In fact, some advertisers even work against the audience, the way AT&T did by providing a new voting technology for one American Idol finalist and not both. What Madison Avenue genius thought up that strategy?

Luckily, for society, those vampire technologists at IAPIA are burning the midnight oil on the first eight NeoAdvertising Network applications. They are slated to be ready for sponsorship presentations by mid-June. That's when Smart Communications, Inc. (our sponsor) switches over to being the very first NeoAdvertising firm. More to come on that wild mouse ride next week.

But here is a fitting way to end this issue. Advanta, a company that did make a stand for something, small business owners, left all one million of their customers in the lurch last week when they pulled the plug on their credit card business without notice. The move was aimed at preserving Advanta's capital in order to absorb those losses from small-business owners hit hard by the slumping economy. Phil Browne, Advanta's chief financial officer, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the company's goal was to "maximize capital and liquidity so we have the opportunity to pursue businesses, credit cards and others, in the future."   So when the segment Advanta stood for hit a speed bump, they got dumped. A perfect example of the opposite of "man up:" "wimp out."