Advertising Archives - Branding and Marketing

Portraying Advertising, Marketing as the Bad Guys

A love story 4 minute animation from Chipotle Mexican Grill to launch their new marketing campaign.

I just watched the 4 minute Chipotle animation that launches their new marketing strategy. It was just posted about 2 months ago and has 7 million views. After a week, it had 4 million views.

It’s about business competitors trying to out do each other and ends as a love affair with sensible food.

Is the point of this video that marketing, advertising and promotion helps you to lose site of your values? In this video the marketing and advertising influences are portrayed as the villain in the story.

Portraying Advertising as the Cause

Marketing is demonized by plenty of people, not just this video. Is it really the fault of marketing?!?!

Is marketing the problem with the fast food industry? Marketing made them put food additives into the food?

Maybe I’m missing something, but I never thought the problems at Chipotle were about excessive advertising and marketing.

Their website outlines the outbreaks in 2015 in a very straightforward crisis communications manner. Social media has rumors of an unscrupulous conspiracy designed to give them a bad name.

Maybe I missed something. Was there a secret love affair gone bad that caused the rumors (or fact) of health problems due to food?

Are they trying to redirect and blur their story?

Is this love story actually the story of how Chipolte was founded?

What is the strategy behind this animation?

Obviouly I have more questions than answers about this subject.

I originally wrote this post a few days after the short video was released, but didn’t publish it. I waited because I thought I might figure it out. Instead, I’m throwing this out to my readers to explain it to me.

What’s the deal with this… I just don’t get it? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Will Your Marketing Be Ready for the End of the Recession?

Studies* show that increasing marketing and advertising during economic times of uncertainty grows market share and sustains the growth after the economy improves.

As the recession is ending, have you put market share growth on your list of objectives for the 2nd half of 2009 and into 2010?

Advertising During Times Of Economic Uncertainty

View more presentations from BG Mahesh.

*studies mentioned in this slideshare.net presentation: B2B, Yankelovich/Harris Study, Penn. State U., McGraw-Hill, American Business Press, Buchen Advertising

How do you plan to stay top of mind with your potential customers?

Related article:
Huffington Post writer Paul David Walker: How to Take Market Share Now

Why PR & Branding is Stronger than Marketing and Advertising

It’s been a year since I posted about the difference between Advertising, Branding, Marketing and PR, so it’s time again…

Performancing and Neil Patel’s blog reminded me of a series of four illustrations originally from ZAG by Marty Neumeier that quickly illustrate the difference between marketing and advertising vs PR and branding. Although the message has been circulating for a while, it bears repeating!

ReBranding and Branding FOCUS on the Customer

A recent INC Magazine power point on Rebranding Dave’s Gourmet left me wondering about the strategy behind the rebranding effort. It was actually January’s cover story.

You can read the whole article here.

It ended up a nice portfolio piece for Deskey, an agency out of Cincinnati (read P&G) but not a good rebranding effort for Dave.

You see they didn’t define the target market first. The strategy (as it appears to me) is “let’s get edgy, zany, push the envelope.” “Be a little wild.” “Let’s make a name for ourselves.”

The strategy was not: Who buys Dave’s? Guys 18-35? Women? Men 25-45? Who is at the end of the hand that reaches out to pluck the product off the shelf? How can we make something memorable and compelling that increases appeal to them?

I watched the slide show and felt that each one of the 6 brand executions went after a different target market. Kicking the *@#$ out of something is not the same target market person as Renaissance Dave or wholesome Dave that was touted as the winner.

Customer first, Competitive analysis second.
Branding position third…

and Graphic Design… well..

Starting with graphic design before you have your ducks in a row, (Sorry guys!) it might look cool, but it doesn’t deliver customers.

Marketing Blog review: Spotlight on an European Marketing Blog

Even with more than 20 years of marketing experience, I learn something new everyday… and reading other blogs from marketing and branding experts is one way that helps me to learn and grow. (I think my company’s clients are counting on that! They hire us because they don’t have the time or resources to do all of their marketing… So it’s even MORE important that we are staying current in the field.)

Here is an interesting marketing and branding blog that hopefully will inspire you in the way that it inspired me:

Marketing, Advertising, Branding, Blogging: - An award-winning European blog with lots of video links and a different spin on the Marketing world from Laurence-Helene. I love seeing commercials from all over the world and she does a great job of finding and relating them to life in London.

My name is Laurence-Helene and I am a Frenchie living in the UK. Mum used to send me to the UK every summer from the age is 14, and I immediately fell in love with the UK. My dream came true! After 6th form (High School) I went onto studying Modern Languages (English & Italian with German minor) at the Universitie Lum Lyon II (France) and promptly moved to my adoptive country. I spent 3 years in Canterbury (Kent) where I completed a BA (Hons) in Marketing. London has been my home for the past 3 years and I currently work as a consumer Insight Executive specialising in Qualitative Research. My goal is to move to NYC although I am also open to other locations!

Because of her terrific command of languages and international background, she not only can really can comment about the way a brand’s promise is communicated, Laurence-Helene interprets the nuances for us as well. Here’s an example:

Working for a French advertising agency is serious business! A lot of French ads use cultural references and puns. The advert below for LU (part of the Danone group) is a reference to the Van Gogh who suffered from dementia and cut off his ear after an argument with Gauguin.

It’s interesting to me to watch commercials from US companies, developed for the European market, interpreted by a French marketing guru living in London. Thanks, Laurence-Helene.