Our Newest Television Spot

What happens when your production guy wants to add a live shoot to a story board at the last minute when you hadn't planned on talent?

You look to your resources. Here is the newest GURU Partners television spot featuring GURU's Business Manager, Wylie Eagle, and Account Executive, Natalie Walker.



And be sure to come out to the 2009 Southwest RV Supershow today through Sunday at Dallas Market Hall!

DFW's ONLY RV Show this FALL 2009

DFW's ONLY RV Show this FALL 2009

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Identity Crisis

On a commercial during The Today Show this morning, it was announced that Brinks Security had changed their name to "Broadview Security". If you were to ask me to name companies in this industry, Brinks and ADT would be the top two that would come to mind immediately. I am always fascinated when companies that spend millions of dollars branding a name decide to do something like this.

Upon further investigation, it appears that the name change was not necessarily a marketing decision as much as it was a requirement. This new company was a spin off from Brinks and part of the deal was that they change their name. Fair enough. But what about companies that do this without legally being forced to? For example, Kinkos.

When Kinko's first merged with FedEx it was an interesting move. On one hand, you thought to yourself, "okay, printing and shipping... I get it. Kind of." On the other hand, you had to wonder why a brand as strong as Kinko's would dilute their brand by going into an industry other than printing. I think I speak with millions of American's when I say that when I needed to copy something I didn't go to "a copy store"... I went to a Kinko's. Even if I ended up going to the first copy store I saw, I still referred to it as going to "Kinko's".

There are very few companies that hold this valuable space in the minds of the masses: Kleenex, Xerox, Band-Aid, Jello, to name a few. To achieve that holy grail of branding and then trash it (albeit for another impressive brand name, FedEx) just seems a little reckless, doesn't it?

Regardless, I'm sure FedEx is still doing quite well. It will be interesting to see how long the word "Kinko's" takes to fade from our vocabulary. In the meantime, I hope to see Broadview Security transition successfully into their new identity. According to this article they are throwing $120 mil at it... always a good start!

Brilliant...

We apologize for the lack of posts as of late, but that means on the "glass-half-full" side of things that we've been busy. Always a good thing to be busy in this day and age.

No philosophical thoughts for today, but I did run across an image that I found interesting:

Props to BMW of Santa Monica's ad agency for their direct and witty response to Audi's ballsy attack. This is the stuff Ries & Trout dreamed of when they wrote Marketing Warfare.

Hope everyone had a lovely fourth!

Vendor Relationship in "The Real World"

One of the struggles of a service based business is the lack of structured pricing that exists. We aren't selling snuggies at 19.95 a pop* and that can sometimes lead to some interesting conversations. I got this video from one of my highly regarded friends, Kate, that also works in the marketing world that shows what these conversations might look like "in the real world".

Enjoy!



*Beware, while that $19.95 does include a free booklight, it does not include shipping and handling which they charge an arm and a leg for. Consider yourself warned if you find yourself in the snuggie purchasing funnel at any point in the future.

Fish Where the Fish Are

Advertising, as with most industries, is heavily researched and studied. Being one who would be considered on the younger skew of marketing professionals, I try to read as many industry publications as possible to soak in information. Often these will at least offer helpful insights or at most turn the way I had previously looked at something on its side. However, every once in awhile I have what I like to call a "duh" reaction.

I had one of those this morning. Media Post sent out this story about how targeting programs heavy with people who have bought the brand in the last two years leads to a 70% higher ROI. Well, duh. Now, I don't mean to be disrespectful to the writer, because it was very well written with some very nice statistics, however, the premise screamed 'common sense' to me.

Let me translate this same startling concept to you in "Texan":

Fish where the fish are.

Doesn't seem so complicated, does it? If you are Walmart and "The Today Show" has an off the charts index for Walmart shoppers and "Gossip Girl" has a less than average index for Walmart shoppers, where do you think the money is going?

This is why we don't buy media schedules off rating points. This is why the foundation of every buy we do for our clients is based on qualitative information that tells us exactly how likely the listeners or viewers of a certain station are to need our client's services. Fish where the fish are.

Sometimes the hardest part of our job is convincing a client that the station he or she loves personally is not the right choice for their business. Always remember, it's not about you. As a business owner, would you rather feed your ego and hear your spot in your favorite programming, or would you rather have people beating down your door for your services? Seems to me the latter would feed your ego and feed your wallet...

I have been instructed to write shorter blogs…so here we go. I’ll take a shot at it!

As you consider your advertising program, ponder these questions:

How important is your brand? Is building your brand awareness more important than selling something? Can you build both your brand and sell simultaneously? Does newspaper have better impact or does audio? Radio or TV, how do you know? The yellow pages rep is using a very hard sales pitch and close on you – You're afraid now not to invest in the yellow pages! You see billboards everywhere – you see them in your dreams…maybe a billboard will work. How much do you have to invest in order to have confidence that you will get an acceptable ROI? What about the internet? Is there anyone alive that knows how to make it work? You keep reading about making millions on Twitter. Is anyone really making money on Twitter? Do consumers really care? Can they still be influenced? Can metrics be provided on the back side of any these mediums that allow me to gauge their performance? Do metrics really matter?

Ask a brand “person” and they’ll defend branding. Ask a direct response “person” and they’ll defend heavy metrics and response-based advertising. Ask an internet “person” and they’ll tell you about things you totally don’t understand. Ask a newspaper “person”, and they’ll ask you for a job! Ask an outdoor “person” and they’ll show you a map with dots. Ask an yellow-pages “person” and you’ll see their lips moving while they steal your wallet and put you in a contract you can never get out of.

Who’s right and who’s wrong? How do I know? This is all so confusing and frustrating! Take heart, in the upcoming series we will reveal clues for your consideration. Get it right and you win - wrong, and, well…have a nice life.

Stay tuned...