When I analyze advertisements, I give far less consideration to the product itself than I do to the lifestyle or ideal that it is selling. Take one of the recent Windex television spots, for example. Sure, the clean windows are nice, but I would venture a guess that many would rather purchase the lifestyle – children who rise out of bed when the sun shines and rocket towards the bus stop without prodding. The benefits that the creative implies one can receive from purchasing Windex are what sell in this spot.
That said, imagine my surprise when I read the recent Fast Company article, Why Brands Should Strive for Imperfection. Author Martin Lindstrom suggests that, since nothing is truly perfect, brands should stop selling perfection and sell imperfection – not manufactured imperfection, but true, everyday imperfection. Continue reading →
Following up on my post from last week about SMPR, I promised to go into a bit more detail about my second main point during that panel: It’s time we all step away from the social media rainbow just a tad and realize that many CEOs/C-levels don’t fully grasp the impact of social media. Therefore, we need to do a better job of helping them see a corrallary between getting a great placement in The New York Times and how many times that piece was retweeted, commented on or whatever the case may be.
The fact is, folks, many people will never get this, and we need to learn to be OK with that. In fact, we need to be better than OK with that; we need to help them understand why having blogger X tweet about our company is just as important in many cases as a write-up in Shoes Today. We need to put these great social media accomplishments that I know many of you are working hard to achieve each day into the context of what our executives know and understand. Continue reading →
…..a chance to start the day off right.