Archive for December 8th, 2008

Last comic standing … oops, sorry … I meant "banker"

December 8, 2008

Excerpted from NY Times, “Saluting a Banker in a Year Worth Forgetting”

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From the NY Times

It’s like being named the outstanding British soldier of 1776.

The trade publication American Banker unveiled its Banker of the Year award last week: It went to Kenneth D. Lewis, chief of Bank of America.

While Mr. Lewis is a respected executive, 2008 hardly seems like the year for any banker, given how unpopular the industry is these days.

‘One banker observed: ‘He’s a great executive and B. of A.’s a great bank … but it just doesn’t seem like the right time to be dancing in the streets and celebrating banking.”

American Banker said editors  felt they had to laud someone this year.

Its party for the bankers of the year was held Dec. 4 at the Plaza Hotel.

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Added observation

The financial crisis hasn’t been kind to some past honorees.

Kerry Killinger, the 2001 winner, was ousted as CEO of Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc. in September over disastrous bets on risky mortgages.

The 2005 winner, Ken Thompson, was forced out as CEO of Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp. in June.

In 2006, American Banker gave a Lifetime Achievement award to Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, who gambled on subprime loans and saw his company disintegrating before selling out to Bank of America.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. acquired WaMu in September, and Wells Fargo & Co. is buying Wachovia.

Even Bank of America hasn’t come through the crisis unscathed.  Its stock has declined 65% year-to-date.

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More from the NY Times:

Corporate executives’ fortunes can fall quickly.

For example, in 2001, Fortune put Enron on its most admired companies list, and Business Week put Tyco International at the top of its best performers list.

Worth magazine placed Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron, at No. 2 and L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former chief executive of Tyco, at No. 10 on its list of America’s best chief executives.

Later in 2001, Mr. Skilling resigned as Enron began falling apart. In 2002,Mr. Kozlowski resigned. Both Mr. Skilling and Mr. Kozlowski are now convicted felons.

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Full article:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E2DA1F38F930A35752C1A96E9C8B63&scp=1&sq=banker+of+the+year&st=nyt

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Brands Battle as Man Grooming Grows

December 8, 2008

Excerpted from Advertising Age, “The Battle of the Brands: Old Spice Vs. Axe” by Jack Neff, November 17, 2008

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One of the crowning achievements of…P&G…has been the rebound of Old Spice in the battle for hearts and minds of men…

“Old Spice was in decline. They’ve now turned that around. It’s growing. Axe has not only stopped growing. Axe is in decline.”

Unilever, of course, begs to differ.

Needless to say, there’s some controversy about that in a battle that’s been a flashpoint in the global struggle between package-goods behemoths. Unilever says Axe continues to grow in body spray and beyond, most recently with the launch of Dark Temptation body spray…

Rather than trying to run away from its grandfatherliness, Old Spice instead embraced a big-brother persona and a purpose…described as “helping guys navigate the seas of manhood” by offering experience…

In practical terms, that’s involved a lot of funny ads from offering campy voices of experience…As a result, Old Spice is no longer declining. Sort of. The publicly available numbers don’t quite make a forceful case for an actual rebound. They do show Axe slowing across most of its business, which had been until the past year or so one of the biggest marketing success stories of package goods, or anything, of the decade…

Edit by SAC

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While these two brands battle it out in deodorants and body spray, the market for men’s grooming products continues to grow.  P&G’s Gillette extended its brand this year with a line of body washes, shampoos and conditioners earlier this year.  Unilever’s Vaseline also recently entered men’s grooming with Body & Face and Hand Lotions specifically for men.  As the market grows Old Spice and Axe are sure to face increasing competition from one another and new entrants.

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Full Article:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=132559

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Breaking through all that clutter …

December 8, 2008

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal “Notice Me: Cutting Through the Clutter” by S. Balasubramnian and P. Bhardwaj, October 20, 2008

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It’s hard to cut through the clutter.

Even as customers are constantly bombarded with advertising messages, they are getting progressively better at tuning out the endless stream of come-ons. Companies then typically up the ante and try to out-shout their competitors to draw attention. All of which just leads to more shouting, and everybody is drowned out…

Here are five questions marketers should ask themselves as they craft new strategies to capture customers’ attention in an increasingly noisy marketplace.

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Can the marketing stimulus be delivered at a time when the customer has few other distractions?

Marketing messages should target customers at times when they are unoccupied, perhaps even actively seeking some sort of information to process. Consider, for example, an airplane on the landing path into an airport. Sitting upright, with in-flight entertainment and electronic devices switched off, passengers have little to do but to look out of the window and wait for the aircraft to land.

Seeking to capitalize on this opportunity, London-based Ad-Air Group PLC places advertisements flat on the ground over an area as large as five acres alongside flight paths in and out of the world’s busiest airports. Depending on their landing approach, passengers are provided with an unrestricted view of an ad for more than 10 seconds.

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Can the marketing message be designed to pique the customer’s curiosity?

Piquing customers’ curiosity can be more effective than inundating them with information. Stimuli that are carefully placed, so that they are encountered in sequence, can be particularly successful at this task…

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Can the marketing message piggyback on another brand?

With television and newsprint media being increasingly saturated, marketers need to seek out new and interesting formats and media for their messages.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., for example, has teamed with Addidas AG on a range of motorsport-inspired driving and sports shoes. The soles of these shoes are made of rubber with tread patterns designed by Goodyear. If customers viewed the shoe purely as an Adidas product, Goodyear’s contribution would remain unnoticed. However, the Goodyear brand is prominently displayed on the outsoles of the shoes. The result is that every person wearing the shoes is now a messenger for the Goodyear brand.

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Can the product or service occupy a piece of the physical environment that the customer frequently interfaces with?

Consumers today tend to spend inordinate amounts of time interfacing with just a few objects — for many, it is their computer screen at work. Marketers must consider how they can capture the customer’s attention when they interface with these objects. Customers, however, guard access to these objects zealously…

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Can your company build into its messaging a consistent stimulus that affects one or more of the five physical senses?

Successful marketing messages excite customers not only when they first encounter them — they ingrain themselves into the customers’ permanent memory. Once a message is embedded, customer resistance to processing it drops when it is encountered in the future…

Not each of these five questions will necessarily generate a great idea for every company. But they do provide a common language for comparing, debating and improving managers’ proposals. 

Edit by SAC

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Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122427109679945225.html

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