Joseph’s hilarious video pokes fun at the overthinking of the advertising and marketing creative process.  I have to share it here.

I’m all for thinking out of the box, but you need to know when you’re getting in your own way.

Building Brand Value the Playboy Way

Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon

You can read the full interview on Dan’s blog and learn how Hugh Hefner, Playboy and Harry Potter are connected in terms of branding strategy.

Bet you never thought you’d hear that Playboy and Harry Potter can be compared to each other!

Here’s a brief excerpt from the interview:

Dan Schawbel: What branding lessons can we learn from Playboy and Harry Potter?

Susan Gunelius: I think the biggest similarity between the Playboy and Harry Potter brands is the importance of having a brand champion and brand guardian at the helm. Both Playboy and Harry Potter have two of the strongest brand champions and advocates leading the way — Hugh Hefner and J.K. Rowling. Both resolutely defend their brands just as much as they promote them.

Read the rest here.

Ad #1 Copy Reads: “Superfect. The E-Class Coupe. It deserves a whole new language.”

Ad #2 Copy Reads: “Fabuttractive. The E-Class Coupe. It deserves a whole new language.”

The problems with this copy are two-fold:

First, how many Mercedes customers would be motivated by the pre-teen, Valley Girl (okay, I’m dating myself there) language used in this copy?  Who is the target audience for these ads?  How many of them would be positively influenced by the word “superfect” or “fabuttastic”?  And would they want to be associated with a product and brand that is linked to those words?  It’s doubtful.

Second, the glaring inclusion of ‘butt’ within the word ‘fabuttastic’ is hard not to notice.  It’s almost laughable and is a great example of another point I make in my book – always show your copy to many people before you approve it.  While the creative team behind this ad may not have noticed the word-within-a-word subliminal message, many advertising critics have.  I don’t think many brands like Mercedes want to see the word ‘butt’ in such close proximity to their products and brands.

I’m just saying.

This was an incredibly interesting story to research and to tell.  You can read an excerpt here.

If you have a chance to read it, stop back by and let me know what you think or leave a review on Amazon and share your thoughts.

While it’s surprising that no one within or working with the Wisconsin Tourism Federation mentioned this problem to them, the more interesting point of the story comes from how they learned about it.  The power of the blogosphere is demonstrated once again with the WTF Wisconsin? post on Your Logo Makes Me Barf.  The Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel wrote about it on the same day in their Hubbub blog.

Perhaps the more unfortunate part of this story though is something mentioned on another of my favorite blogs — Brand New.  The organization took the time and invested the money to change their name after realizing the error (the new name is Tourism Federation of Wisconsin), but they just flipped the letters in the logo instead of creating a new one.  Now that’s a missed opportunity as this logo leaves a lot to be desired (see below).

Of course, the lesson to learn is — always make sure multiple people review your work.  You never know what you might miss.

There’s a reason why GM, Ford and Chrysler found themselves circling the drain.  I think this chart says it all.  The only surprising thing is that GM, Ford and Chrysler survived as long as they did before they tanked.

The lesson for marketers to learn is this — don’t be the blue lines in this chart.  It shouldn’t take a decade to make the necessary changes to reverse those market share trends.

Building Brand Value the Playboy Way

You can read an excerpt of Building Brand Value the Playboy Way from the book’s Introduction on Entrepreneur.com.

When I started writing this book, I already viewed Hugh Hefner as the ultimate brand champion and brand guardian, and when I finished, that opinion had only grown stronger. Building Brand Value the Playboy Way was written for an academic and professional audience, and describes how one man’s idea to create a lifestyle magazine for men in the 1950s turned into one of the most recognized brands in the world. It’s a fascinating story that all branding and marketing students and professionals can learn from.

Building Brand Value the Playboy Way is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other book stores (both online and offline).

Then I heard that Tony Stewart is taking a live polygraph test online where he will be asked if he really likes Burger King Whoppers, and the appeal of this campaign from Crispin Porter & Bogusky became clear to me.  It’s a clever attempt at creating an integrated marketing program driving television audiences to Burger King’s special website — where visitors can submit their own questions for Stewart’s polygraph test.  And that site is in addition to the existing BKracking.com site that already has interactive features and a sweepstakes game.

Will the effort sell more Whoppers?  It’s hard to say.  I’m not well versed in the NASCAR audience demographics, but it certainly can’t hurt.  If nothing else, it’s got people talking, which has to be good for the Burger King brand.

However, I’m not so sure about the Carrot Top and Erik Estrada appeal (check out the commercial below)?  Since Carrot Top got all pseudo-buff on steroids, he’s disturbingly freaky to look at.  On the other hand, what person older than 35 doesn’t get a bit nostalgic when they see Frank Poncherello?

What do you think?

You can follow the link to read Marziah’s full review of Google Blogger for Dummies.

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