Commercials are generally transparent. Ads with guys skateboarding off tall obstacles are for men. Ads with puppies in frilly pink dresses are for women. Commercials with robotic, futuristic dogs racing in the desert are for… Actually, I’m not sure what Absolut is thinking these days, but you get the picture.
But then I saw Reebok’s new commercial for their Zig Tech Cross Fit athletic shoe. Continue reading
We consumers can be fickle beasts. Give us the slightest reason and we’ll abandon your brand like rats from a sinking ship. Snooty, indignant rats.
We know, because last fall when Netflix made a huge mistake and announced its company would split under a new name and pricing structure, we jumped ship along with 800,000 other customers. All in all, prices rose $6 and we turned up our whiskered little noses.
Each year the U.S. uses 17 million barrels of oil just to make the plastic used for bottled water. That’s enough oil to fuel all the cars in San Diego for a year.
So, bottled water is bad. But this isn’t a story about saving the environment, conserving resources or improving sanitation. Well, okay, it is. But that’s not the most exciting aspect of the Evive Station.
There’s no denying it, education is getting all kinds of cool. Previously, we’ve profiled Lego-robot workshops for grade-schoolers and video game programming academies for high-schoolers. But this week’s challenger allows you to “learn anything from anyone, anywhere.”
Burger King recently released an updated menu – complete with salads, wraps and frappes – and seriously, why didn’t they just add the “Mc” prefix to all the items? This is a blatant case of “me too” positioning. And it makes us wonder: why are big brands so hesitant to embrace the challenger mentality and break the mold? As AdAge said, the market leader – McDonald’s – has diluted its brand consistently over the last 10 years. Which means it’s ripe for the picking.
But here’s what happens. Even if they recognize the potential reward, someone within the organization will ask, “What if we fail?”
Guess what, BK. You’re already failing. Worse, you can’t even say, “Well, at least we tried.”
I don’t mean to minimize the fortitude, cost and commitment it would take to turn a brand like Burger King on its crown, but they already spend millions of dollars on advertising.
Wouldn’t those dollars be better spent diverging from the pack rather than desperately trying to catch up to it?
Banging image courtesy of TPollockJR
spankme@fittingroup.com
223 Fourth Avenue
11th Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
