Why Facebook mobile is stuck in neutral

Facebook may rule on the desktop, but they still haven't figured out mobile.

The apps for Android phones and tablets are terrible. I know this from personal experience. According to reviewers, the new Facebook Home app works great unless you want to use your phone for its primary intended purpose, a phone. And now comes the news that AT&T will be dropping the HTC/Facebook phone from its lineup because they've sold only 15,000 of them in the past month. For context AT&T sells 300,000 Android phones every month.

How do they keep getting something so important, so wrong?

Let's start with this premise by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"You're going to be able to turn your Android phone into a great social device. Our phones today are designed around apps, not people. We want to flip that around."

It's all about context and control.

All the features and functions that work on the desktop where I can focus almost exclusively on Facebook become overwhelming in a mobile environment where I may have only a few seconds to check my wall on phone. In order to make order out of the chaos and randomness that is my timeline, Facebook should give me more control and make it easier to for me select the features I prefer in a mobile environment.

They're so busy worrying about "people" they're not thinking about the individual users and how we might want to customize the experience to get the information and content we're looking quickly and easily.

The minute they cede control to the users is the moment they'll begin to succeed in mobile.

It's not the medium. It's the message.

There's a lot of fighting going on these days between social media activists, traditional media apologists and data geeks who can dig so deep into numbers they guarantee you'll strike it rich if you listen to them.

Here's the secret dirty little secret that none of them will tell you. The best media plan in the world is worthless if the creative is invisible.

Conversely, any medium that's seen or heard by the right person can be effective if it's carrying a great idea.

TV still works when you run spots like this.

Social media works when you create posts like this.

PR works when you create campaigns like this.

If you want to make sure your media dollars aren't being wasted, don't worry so much about where you're running and spend more time thinking about what you're running.

Really beautiful advertising

Dove doesn't just sell soap.

What Dove sells is a range of products that give women confidence to know they will look their best and that their best is plenty good enough.

For years Dove has been selling soap by demonstrating the features that make it better for your skin. With introduction of the "Campaign for Real Beauty" years ago, they laddered those features to a higher order benefit that has incredible power and meaning. The genius in the campaign is not that they are telling you that Dove will make you more beautiful as most products in this category do. 

They are saying you are beautiful and Dove will help you find the beauty others see in you.

That's why this video has over eight million YouTube views in five days. That's why it's being posted over and over again on Facebook.

That's why advertising works best when it pairs an honest emotional insight with functional reason to believe.

JCP is not Apple

When JC Penney went looking for someone to take over the reins of the venerable but struggling retailer, Ron Johnson seemed like the perfect savior. After all, oversaw the creation of the wildly successful Apple Stores. How could he not succeed at JCP?

Let's start with the fact that JCP doesn't sell iMacs, iBooks, iPhones, iPads and iPods. They sell Levis, Nike, Liz Claiborne, Disney, Cuisinart and Keurig.

Apple Stores were built to be the best place to buy the hottest products in the world.

JCP sells the same products as Kohl's, Target, Boston Stores, Macy's and WalMart.

Apple Stores have "Geniuses" who can help customers select the right products and provide expertise on how to use them.

JCP employees know how to use the cash register. 

I have no idea why I'd choose JCP over any of the other options I have to buy my 501s.

Consequently after just 17 months, Johnson is out as CEO of JCP and the strategies that made Apple stores successful are being replaced with sales, specials and other traditional retail tactics. 

In hindsight it is obvious that what worked for Apple wasn't going to work for JC Penney, because your marketing strategy is only as good as the products you're selling.

Geico gets it

I spend a fair amount of time – maybe too much – pointing out the inane, misguided attraction some marketers have to shiny new things and the ridiculous language they use to justify their infatuation.

Not today.

Because today I want to share an interview with you from a marketer who has thrived in the brave new worlds of interactive and social media without adding to the froth and blather.

Ted Ward is the CMO of Geico Insurance and a very smart marketer.

How do I know he's smart? Well, first of all, he agrees with me.

Actually, this interview in Advertising Age is one of the best examples I've read from someone who understands that the tools of new media are just that, new tools, and do not change the fundamental principles of marketing. This quotation really stood out to me.

There is a reason it is called social media and not business media. There is much less control over the inputs and outputs, and the metrics of success are not as closely tied to direct business results.

It's not that Geico doesn't use social media. It's not that they aren't heavily invested in online marketing. It's just that Mr. Ward and his team know that online and social media all part of a mix and without data proving the efficacy of their activities, all the buzz in the world doesn't matter; an attitude sorely missing in many marketing departments these days.

The real purpose of marketing

In today's Ad Age, Rance Crain's pens an excellent editorial on the folly of companies that have tried to use "purpose marketing" to create advocates for their brands.

Amen. It's been a long time coming.

The "purpose" of marketing is to sell stuff. If that's beneath you, if you'd rather create art, if the thought of getting your hands dirty to help your clients make money doesn't appeal to you, there are other jobs or non-profits that could use your help.

That doesn't mean you have to produce ugly ads filled with starbursts. Nor does it mean the main tools in your marketing arsenal should be bogos and rebates.

Just find out what's important to potential customers and communicate it in an interesting way, like these guys did:









Pepsi, P&G, Burger King and others have watched their sales slide while they tried to have "conversations" with "engaged advocates" about their "their brand's purpose." In the meantime, Coke, Unilever and McDonald's and others were promoting the relevant features and benefits of their products and kicking ass.

Sell your product proudly. Let us know why it's better. Do it memorably. Do it on the web, on TV, in print, on Facebook, wherever we happen to be. If it works and we buy your product, then you have a chance for us to become something more.

There's only one way to get customers to become advocates: Sell them a great product and then treat them like they matter.

It never works the other way around.

Taking an Axe to Gillette

I was wondering how long this would take.

In just a few decades, much to the chagrin of Junior High School teachers everywhere, the Axe brand has gone from zero to owning all things young male when it comes to smelling and grooming. Body sprays, washes, shampoos, gels, deodorants and more.

Now they're taking all that equity and leveraging it against one of the great rites of passage in a young man's life, shaving.

A few years ago, I did a project for another shaving manufacturer (not Gillette) looking to create products that appealed to guys 15 - 18 who were just starting to shave. I interviewed more than a dozen teenagers and had them show me all the things in their bedrooms and bathrooms that were most important to their lives (fyi, I now live in great fear for the future of our country).

My recommendation: do a deal with Axe or some other brand that was relevant to their hormonally driven lives.

The client's brand was dad's brand. And though dad taught them how to shave, like all teenagers, none of them really wanted to be their dad.

Knowing this, I'm a little surprised at Gillette's response in Ad Age; talking about all their skin care experience:

"We have a healthy respect for our competition, but millions of men put their face in Gillette's hands for a reason. We understand men's skin better than any other grooming brand."

I hate to break it to the marketers at Gillette, but teenage boys don't want to know how much you know about skin. They want to know how you're going to help them get laid. Marketing expertise and authority will only move teenagers more quickly to an Axe brand razor.

It's the same attitude GM adopted when Honda and Toyota hit the shores – we'll let those companies sell young people cheap econoboxes but when they're ready for a real car, they'll come to us – and we all know how well that worked out.

It won't happen overnight, but it won't be long before a generation of new shavers grows up with an Axe razor in their hands and Gillette's 84% market share begins to significantly erode.

It's always something...

This is what happens when well intentioned people dip their toes into the marketing pond.

Gilda's Club in Madison, Wisconsin along with several other regional chapters are changing their name to Cancer Support Community because, according to their executive director,

One of the realizations we had this year is that our college students were born after Gilda Radner passed. As we are seeing younger and younger adults who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis, we want to make sure that what we are is clear to them and that there’s not a lot of confusion that would cause people not to come in our doors.

This is a stupid reason to change your organization's name, especially to something generic and purely functional like Cancer Support Community.

There's nothing unique about the new name, nothing memorable, nothing ownable.

Not to mention they're tossing aside the reason they exist in the first place.

A few years after Gilda Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989, her husband Gene Wilder and Joanna Bull, Ms. Radner's therapist, helped to found the first Gilda's Club in New York City, as a place where women, men and children living with cancer could build a social support network to supplement their medical care. It's a great and moving story.

Throwing out this story because it's been 25 years since Ms. Radner passed away is ridiculous.

Ford didn't change its name after its founder passed away and the brand is still relevant.

I'm fine if you want to add Cancer Support Community as a modifier to the name the name Gilda's Club. A lot of brands do that.

The directors of the club would do better to make sure people know Gilda's story and use it to attract people to their red door. It's a huge asset to the brand and one they're tossing aside because they don't care enough to make it meaningful.

And that is shameful.

Thanks to my friend Yi Shun Lai for the tip on this one. You can read her thoughts on life, writing and other subjects on her blog, The Good Dirt.

Clean up after yourself

There is no way to wipe the slate clean, start over, press the reset button.

If your brand fails to live up to its promise, you can't sweep it under the rug and hope it will go away, especially in today's connected world.

The only way to move beyond a bad product, less than stellar service experience or other corporate miscue is to acknowledge the failure, apologize and improve.

Your customers don't expect perfection. But if you don't make it right after you make a mistake, you can expect them to look elsewhere.

Your competitors will be happy to clean up your mess.

5 tips for better SEO copywriting

Everyone wants to be #1 on Google when potential customers search for their products or services. After working with digital agencies, SEO specialists and other wizards of the web, here's what I've learned about making that happen (aside from putting numbers in the headlines of your blog posts).

1. Write for people
Yes, Google's algorithm is crawling your site, analyzing your text and determining your ranking. But it's not buying your product. If people get to your site and find a bunch of hackneyed terminology, stilted grammar, and words strung together only for the purpose of attracting Google's digital eye, it won't create a very compelling story. People love stories. Tell one.

2. Write real
Write using the words your customers do. Every industry has its jargon. If you spend too much time trying to sound smart using esoteric insider terminology in an effort to sell your remote access wireless temperature control technology, you'll miss a bunch of people who want to buy a thermostat.

3. Write short
Say what you need to say and get out. One topic per page. That's it.

4. Write a lot
Search engines are constantly crawling the web for new content. Frequent updates will help keep you on top.

5. Write with style
Using keywords doesn't preclude you from using interesting words. It also doesn't mean you can string them together in a way that gives your site personality, wit, and charm. Great writing is what gets people to share your content and come back for more.

Ultimately, it's as simple as this: Keywords get customers to your site. The quality of your writing will keep them coming back and ultimately convince them to buy.

And just in case anyone needs reminding, making a sale is the real reason we're all doing this.

The difference between needs and desires

If you want to become a rich and famous in the world of new products don't develop products that meet a need. Develop products that create desire.

Meeting needs are the table stakes, the ante you must throw into the pot just to get in the game. But meeting your customers' functional needs won't win you the hand. You have to go further.

Tap water meets the need to quench one's thirst. Evian satisfies the desire for the purity that comes from drinking water from the French alps.

A Toyota Yaris meets the need for reliable transportation. A Porsche 911 satisfies the desire to drive like Jacky Ickx at Le Mans.

 

A Sanyo 8400 meets the need to make phone calls from anywhere. The iPhone 4s satisfies the desire to be seen as technically advanced and creative.

If you spend all your time focusing on needs, you'll never discover what people really desire.

Buyers versus customers

Yesterday Disney held its "Upfront" presentation, a preview of the upcoming season designed to get advertising agency media buyers and corporate marketing directors to open their wallets.

Nothing interesting about that, every media company does it.

What was interesting was the media executives on the guest list were encouraged to bring their children.

As someone who was purposefully late to the satellite/cable party (a rant against Charter may be a future blog post), I occasionally stop on the Disney Channel as I'm flipping between ESPN, The History Channel and Comedy Central and wonder, "who watches this crap?"

That would, of course, be kids.

Rather than just boring the marketing executives with statistics, charts, graphs and stock photos of kids in a Powerpoint presentation, Disney demonstrated the power of their product by bringing kids into the room. And not just any kids, but those who the executives knew weren't plants coached to react to the content Disney was presenting.

So instead old guys in suits looking at the clips and wondering "Is this stuff any good?" they heard the squeals and laughter of their own children and thought, "I have to buy this."

Brilliant.

Never forget that sometimes your buyers are not your customers.

It's not always the big things

While this spot and campaign have been around since last August, I just found out about it through an article in today's New York Times.



I like it for a few reasons.

First the strategy.

The marketing guy at Chipotle is smart enough to know that even though 75% of their customers said that taste, value and convenience were the most important reasons they came to Chipotle, none of those attributes are either differentiating or meaningful on their own.

Everybody's food tastes good to someone. Other restaurants are more convenient. And value? Well, we all know how squishy that term is.

So they defined each of those with one message – sustainability.

By saying they work with producers who don't use antibiotics, aren't factory-farm suppliers, and only serve produce that is fresh and sustainably grown, they've made each of those terms meaningful.

The promise of meats from livestock that is raised in a humane manner raises expectations of taste. We all know that if you expect something to taste better, it will in your mind whether it actually does on your tongue.

The promise of supporting family farms and sustainable methods adds value to the experience. You understand that this isn't the cheapest way to make food, but if it's something you believe is important, then it's worth paying a few extra bucks for. Value isn't always about cutting price.

And this approach changes the parameters for convenience. Sure the McDonald's and Taco Bell are closer and probably a little faster, but I can't eat well and do good at either place.

The lesson here? By building your brand around a secondary benefit, you can redefine and add value to the primary benefits in your category, differentiating yourself from the market leaders and transforming customers into advocates for your business.

When you see great markeing like this, it seems simple and obvious. But, as Willie Nelson plaintively sings, nobody said it was easy.

The power of a great theme line

Have you ever thought about how some brands manage to crack the code, while others do not?

Think about the frozen pizza category. There's only one brand that stands out and that's DiGiorno. It's not because they have 'rising crust' pizza – every brand has that now. It's not because they were first – if they had just said "now frozen pizza is even better!" they'd be an afterthought. It's not because they had the marketing muscle of Kraft behind them – Jack's, Tombstone and California Pizza Kitchen were all Kraft brands. 

It's that they were able to crack a code with consumers in five simple words, "It's not delivery. It's DiGiorno."

With that one phrase, they went from being just another frozen pizza to an acceptable alternative to Domino's, Pizza Hut and other delivery/take out pizza brands.

Those five words informed everything they did: their toppings, their packaging, and their marketing. It's a rare theme line that provides not just a clever hook for consumers, but a mission statement for employees. It stands for something not just functional (a better frozen pizza) but aspirational as well.

Other examples of this include Chevrolet's classic theme, "See the USA in your Chevrolet." It's a great hook that on the surface is very functional, but underneath it promised freedom at a time when America was becoming the most mobile society in the world.

GE's, "We bring good things to life" is another good example of how a theme can become something bigger than just an line at the end of an ad.

Anyone who tells you that theme lines don't matter, has never written a great one.

That's all you got?

Lexus released its Super Bowl ad yesterday and all I can say is, "meh."



There's so much wrong with this spot, I almost don't know where to begin. So let's just start with the fact that it's on the Super Bowl.

I know other luxury manufacturers are there, but other than ego, is there really a reason for niche products to advertise on the only mass media event left on television? There's enough waste in this $4,000,000 buy that it makes a Real Housewives' shopping spree look thrifty.

Then there's the concept. Seen it. Over and over and over and over again. There's absolutely nothing surprising here. What's behind that steel door? Oh, a car. And not just any car, it's a souped up Camry. Oooooh.

The art direction is okay if you liked the lab scene in Jurassic Park.

They should have saved a couple of million bucks, cut their time in half and run their teaser.



At least there is a little intrigue at the end of this version. Maybe, just maybe people would have gone to the web or even visited a dealership to see what was behind the door.

3 Ways to Tap into the Voice of the Culture

For decades we’ve been taught the surest way to developing successful new products is to listen to the voice of the customer. Companies have spent billions on VOC research encompassing everything from massive quantitative surveys to rapid ethnographies, in-home use tests and social media customer feedback mechanisms. Some have created whole divisions dedicated to it with executives who have titles like Chief Customer Officer and Director of Customer Experience.

The New VOC
 Putting your customers at the center of your enterprise isn’t a bad idea. But if you want to separate yourself from others in your field, you should innovate around a different VOC – Voice of the Culture.

Think about the most innovative companies in every category: brands like Google, BMW, Apple, Target, DC Shoes, Virgin and others. They don’t stop at doing what the customer says they want, they go beyond. They understand the very culture of their users, introducing products that do more than attract mere customers; they create passionate fans.

Filtering out the noise 
As innovation professionals, there’s one thing we rarely lack, data. We’re not just swimming in it; we’re drowning in it. Everyday new information comes across our desktops that seemingly contradicts what we knew to be true the day before. One customer wants it bigger. One wants it smaller. One wants it red, while another would prefer black. Listen to the voice of every customer and soon you’ll be spun in so many directions, you won’t know which way is up. The result in many cases is a tangled mess of line extensions and SKU proliferation that is practically unmanageable.

Tap into the culture, however, and you’ll be able to create real value for your users.

The irrational consumer 
We’ve all seen it in focus groups and on surveys. Consumers tell you they want one thing and then turn around and do another. Ask who wants a cheaper smart phone and everyone raises their hand. Yet Apple continues to dominate the market. The new iPhone 4s is only in pre-order, and they’ve already sold a million of them at $399. 

Apple knows it’s about more than functional benefits and price.

Innovative Culture 
Innovate around charts, graphs, numbers and dots and you’ll get incremental improvements that people will appreciate but rarely pay extra for. Remember when only luxury cars had power windows and automatic climate control? Now you can find those features on entry-level subcompacts. BMW continues to demand a significant premium for its cars, however, because it ties those features into the culture of driving. BMW positions itself as The Ultimate Driving Machine and thus those who own one see themselves as ultimate drivers. Every feature and interface is designed to reinforce the culture of driving from the power assist steering that gives you excellent feedback to the adjustable suspension with sport mode that lets you dial in a setting for more spirited driving.

So how do you gain an understanding of the culture of your customers? 

1.) Immerse yourself 
Harley-Davidson does it by making sure product developers, engineers, designers and other key employees attend the various gatherings and rallies that happen around the country every weekend. From poker rides organized by local dealerships to the massive annual gatherings in Daytona and Sturgis, Harley employees are everywhere interacting with customers, looking at their bikes, listening to their music, seeing what they’re wearing, paying attention to their stories – not just about bikes, but their lives. With this as a backdrop Harley was able to create their new H-D1 Custom Bike builder concept

2.) Don’t ask what or why 
If you want to change the world or at least your business, stop asking people what they want and why they want it, and ask them for a window into their world. A few years ago on a project for major global beverage company, we gave video cameras to 15, 16 and 17 year old boys, asking them to create a movie of their lives for us. After 5 days, they brought us the footage and we sat with them editing the biopic, complete with the songs that served as the soundtrack. The resulting Culturescape™ videos held incredible insights into not just their eating habits; they also communicated volumes about their relationships with friends, siblings, and parents; as well as expressed their aspirations, dreams and fears in a way no interview could have. This cultural deep-dive provided incredible insight for product development as well as provided the inspiration for innovative marketing programs.

3.) Become an expert or hire one 
Companies like Target have formal structures and processes for staying in touch with the cultural values of their customers, for spotting the trends that will interest them, and using that information to inform both product development and customer experience. They have teams dedicated to and individuals responsible for identifying and integrating the latest cultural trends.

The extreme sport apparel company, DC Shoes employs a network of athletes and artists who their customers have identified as influencers to help them make sure their products don’t just follow trends, but set them. There’s not one right way to keep your cultural edge. The most important act is to adopt a mindset that what your customers believe is more important than what they say. Then develop a program that helps you understand those beliefs and integrate them into your organization so you can create products and services that embrace that culture.

Do that and you may just create the next Mini Cooper instead of the Yugo.

This research has a bad aftertaste

A few months ago Burger King dumped its ad agency. About a month ago it debuted this well-shot, if extremely ordinary spot.



And now a research company, YouGov says that consumer's perceptions of the number 2 burger chain have nearly doubled on their "BrandIndex."

Two things.

First, As much as I hated the previous campaign, I find it hard to believe that dumping the creepy king character and running 30 seconds of food shots would really push Burger King's image past McDonald's. The folks at YouGov had better check to see what the people on their survey panel have been smoking over the past month. That may explain their increased appetite for Whoppers.

Second, even if the results are accurate and people think Burger King's food is more appetizing than McDonald's, they'll be sorely disappointed once they get into the store. I haven't been into a Burger King that looks either like a) it has been updated in the last 30 years or b) anyone in the place knows how to use a mop.

As McDonald's continues has proven with same store sales increases throughout the recession despite burgers that have as much appetite appeal as a bag of nettles – fast food is about much more than the food.

Until the franchisees that operate their restaurants get this, Burger King will continue to be a distant number two in the category.

The Recipe Rut

A recent study in the UK has found that the average household has a rotation of just nine dinners that are prepared on a regular basis in each household, and that the nine most popular dishes are...

1. Spaghetti Bolognese
2. Roast Dinner
3. Shepherd's Pie
4. Pasta Dish (hmmm isn't Spaghetti pasta?)
5. Meat and two vegetables
6. Pizza (home made or frozen I wonder)
7. Casserole/Stew
8. Sausages and chips/mash
9. Curry/Indian

It's not surprising that people lean on just a few recipes given the time and attention crunch in today's households. I wonder how long this list would be here in the States, what the key regional differences are, and how easy it would be to add or replace a dish on the list?