originally appeared in USA Today:
At Urban Outfitters, the choice of being naughty or nice in its 2012 Christmas holiday catalog was easy: naughty wins.
The edgy apparel seller has shipped out a holiday catalog that's chock-full of naughtiness, including a $16 "It was f---ing awesome" photo album and a block candle that boldly spells out the f-word in wax. There's even an $18 "Let's f---ing reminisce" book.
Just a few years ago, Urban Outfitters might have received some serious, verbal raps on the knuckles from parents and protesters angered by the ultra-spicy language. But in today's social-media environment, along with those verbal raps, it's also receiving some surprising kudos from brand and marketing gurus.
It's brilliant, explosive, short-term marketing that generates buzz, it's the right voice for the teen markets according to the CEO of Havas PR and national trend-spotter.
Over the years, many of the most successful fashion brands -- from Calvin Klein to Benetton to Abercrombie & Fitch -- have relied upon racy imagery in their ads and catalogs to generate buzz, PR and sales. In a social-media age, however, such efforts appear to be emboldened.
Shocking imagery sells according to a senior fashion editor at Women's Wear Daily. On Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook, this is a way to get buzz.
Not everyone is impressed.
According to a leading brand guru it's all about getting up on Instagram or someone's Facebook page. This kind of marketing really isn't so rebellious. It's just kind of stupid.
Worse than that, says the director of the activist Christian group One Million Moms, it's tasteless and vulgar. Her organization, which is affiliated with the American Family Association, isn't calling for a boycott but is asking its members to think hard before purchasing any Urban Outfitter products, she feels they'll be losing business from conservative families.
Executives from Urban Outfitters declined to return phone calls or respond to e-mails for this story. But one catalog guru says the company clearly knows its audience.
According to the president of Direct Marketing Insights, a catalog consulting firm, good marketing requires that you communicate with your customers on their same wavelength, they're speaking the language of their customers.
Specifically, to today's teens, the f-word doesn't even mean what it means to most adults, it no longer even has sexual connotations. It's almost a synonym for 'give me a break.'
Showing posts with label Social Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Marketing. Show all posts
14 December 2012
02 November 2010
Ford bets big in Digital Marketing Departure
Reuters
Forget the Super Bowl: Ford's marketing chief Jim Farley says he can get more for less on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
If Farley is right, millions of hits for Ford Motor Company on social media websites will dwarf the impact of ads broadcast during the National Football League's February championship game -- high-profile space selling for $3 million for 30 seconds.
"Customers are spending as much time with the mobile smart phone or online as they are watching TV now, so our advertising dollars have to flow to where the people are," Farley told Reuters in an interview.
Under Farley, 48, who joined Ford from Toyota Motor Co in 2007, the No. 2 U.S. automaker has bet bigger on the emerging category of digital advertising including websites and social media than any of its rivals.
Farley has taken the approach credited with the early success of the youth-oriented Scion brand he launched at Toyota and applied it to the makeover of an established auto brand.
He is betting Ford can use Facebook and Twitter to accelerate the word-of-mouth recommendations long familiar to the auto industry and help the blue-oval brand connect with younger and richer people.
Farley said he learned at Scion that the only way to push past consumer skepticism is "to break into their world."
"You have to shove your way in there. The way we do that is to break down myths. The great thing about Americans is they are always hungry for something new," he said.
Ford's U.S. sales are up almost 22 percent so far this year, twice the growth rate of the industry overall.
Farley's term at Ford has coincided with a sharp turnaround in its image. ALG, a firm that tracks consumer perceptions, said in a report issued on Monday that Ford cars and trucks lead all brands in gains in perceived quality since 2008.
FORD SEEKS FACEBOOK FRIENDS
Farley, who is seen as a potential successor to Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally, called the Super Bowl, "a fantastic advertising opportunity" -- for unknown brands.
"If you are a company that wants to launch a new product that no one has ever seen before, it's a great venue."
Under Farley, Ford has spent 25 percent of its advertising budget on digital media in 2010, the same proportion as in 2009. That ratio is twice what J.D. Power and Associates says will be the average digital media spend in 2012.
Farley would not disclose the dollar amount of that spending.
One of the first experiments in Ford's new approach was its 2009 move to recruit Web-based "agents" who would help promote its launch of the Fiesta subcompact. In a follow-up, Ford used Facebook to reveal key aspects of the Explorer SUV rather than wait for an established auto show.
Now, Ford is seeking "bloggers, social media mavens and Facebook friends" to submit video applications to be one of 100 who will drive the 2012 Focus around southern France or Spain early next year, ahead of the car's launch.
The effort, called "Ford Focus Global Test Drive" seeks to create buzz ahead of the launch of a vehicle central to Mulally's vision for a streamlined product lineup.
Farley said that the Fiesta campaign had boosted consumer awareness of the Ford subcompact over direct competitors like the Honda Fit or the Toyota Yaris. At the same time, Ford only spent one tenth of what it would have through traditional media, including television, he said.
Farley's moves mark something of a contrast with the approach by cross-town rival General Motors Co.
Under its new marketing chief Joel Ewanick, GM is pushing back into advertising at the kinds of high-profile, high-cost events like the Super Bowl that it had abandoned in its slide toward bankruptcy.
In one example, last week GM rolled out a campaign for Chevrolet that plays to its base -- patriotic Americans with memories of the days when Chevy dominated.
By contrast, Ford is playing up the new elements in its product line-up, both new vehicles and new technology like the MyFord Touch system for navigation, entertainment and communications in campaigns that include videos for Google's YouTube.
Charlie Vogelheim, executive editor of Intellichoice, a consumer auto consultant, said Ford had pushed beyond its rivals in the way that it is building online buzz.
"Everyone is involved in digital marketing. The extent that Ford is doing it, wrapping it around events and utilizing the media with its launches, that is where Ford is taking leadership," he said.
If Farley is right, millions of hits for Ford Motor Company on social media websites will dwarf the impact of ads broadcast during the National Football League's February championship game -- high-profile space selling for $3 million for 30 seconds.
"Customers are spending as much time with the mobile smart phone or online as they are watching TV now, so our advertising dollars have to flow to where the people are," Farley told Reuters in an interview.
Under Farley, 48, who joined Ford from Toyota Motor Co in 2007, the No. 2 U.S. automaker has bet bigger on the emerging category of digital advertising including websites and social media than any of its rivals.
Farley has taken the approach credited with the early success of the youth-oriented Scion brand he launched at Toyota and applied it to the makeover of an established auto brand.
He is betting Ford can use Facebook and Twitter to accelerate the word-of-mouth recommendations long familiar to the auto industry and help the blue-oval brand connect with younger and richer people.
Farley said he learned at Scion that the only way to push past consumer skepticism is "to break into their world."
"You have to shove your way in there. The way we do that is to break down myths. The great thing about Americans is they are always hungry for something new," he said.
Ford's U.S. sales are up almost 22 percent so far this year, twice the growth rate of the industry overall.
Farley's term at Ford has coincided with a sharp turnaround in its image. ALG, a firm that tracks consumer perceptions, said in a report issued on Monday that Ford cars and trucks lead all brands in gains in perceived quality since 2008.
FORD SEEKS FACEBOOK FRIENDS
Farley, who is seen as a potential successor to Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally, called the Super Bowl, "a fantastic advertising opportunity" -- for unknown brands.
"If you are a company that wants to launch a new product that no one has ever seen before, it's a great venue."
Under Farley, Ford has spent 25 percent of its advertising budget on digital media in 2010, the same proportion as in 2009. That ratio is twice what J.D. Power and Associates says will be the average digital media spend in 2012.
Farley would not disclose the dollar amount of that spending.
One of the first experiments in Ford's new approach was its 2009 move to recruit Web-based "agents" who would help promote its launch of the Fiesta subcompact. In a follow-up, Ford used Facebook to reveal key aspects of the Explorer SUV rather than wait for an established auto show.
Now, Ford is seeking "bloggers, social media mavens and Facebook friends" to submit video applications to be one of 100 who will drive the 2012 Focus around southern France or Spain early next year, ahead of the car's launch.
The effort, called "Ford Focus Global Test Drive" seeks to create buzz ahead of the launch of a vehicle central to Mulally's vision for a streamlined product lineup.
Farley said that the Fiesta campaign had boosted consumer awareness of the Ford subcompact over direct competitors like the Honda Fit or the Toyota Yaris. At the same time, Ford only spent one tenth of what it would have through traditional media, including television, he said.
Farley's moves mark something of a contrast with the approach by cross-town rival General Motors Co.
Under its new marketing chief Joel Ewanick, GM is pushing back into advertising at the kinds of high-profile, high-cost events like the Super Bowl that it had abandoned in its slide toward bankruptcy.
In one example, last week GM rolled out a campaign for Chevrolet that plays to its base -- patriotic Americans with memories of the days when Chevy dominated.
By contrast, Ford is playing up the new elements in its product line-up, both new vehicles and new technology like the MyFord Touch system for navigation, entertainment and communications in campaigns that include videos for Google's YouTube.
Charlie Vogelheim, executive editor of Intellichoice, a consumer auto consultant, said Ford had pushed beyond its rivals in the way that it is building online buzz.
"Everyone is involved in digital marketing. The extent that Ford is doing it, wrapping it around events and utilizing the media with its launches, that is where Ford is taking leadership," he said.
13 October 2010
Gap Revives Blue-Box Logo as Customers Pan Redesign
Bloomberg
Gap Inc. abandoned a new logo after consumer criticism and will revert to the blue-square emblem that has been featured in its marketing for more than 20 years.
The clothing retailer released a redesigned logo on its website Oct. 4 and had planned to roll it out in marketing campaigns starting next month. More than a thousand people left comments on Gap’s Facebook page, a majority of them disparaging.
“We’ve learned a lot in this process,” Marka Hansen, the Gap brand president in North America, said yesterday in an e- mailed statement. “We are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing.”
The new logo set the Gap name against a white backdrop, with a blue square in the upper-right corner. Gap, which owns Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta, has been updating its clothing lines and stores to appeal to so-called Millennials -- consumers in their 20s and early 30s. The logo change was part of that evolution of the brand from “classic, American design, to modern, sexy, cool” Louise Callagy, a spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Gap, said last week.
Two days after the logo release, Gap responded to the outcry on its Facebook page, welcoming design suggestions and calling it a crowd-sourcing project.
‘Different Way’
“We’ve learned just how much energy there is around our brand, and after much thought, we’ve decided to go back to our iconic blue box logo,” Callagy said yesterday in an interview. The change will take place starting today, she said.
Chief Executive Officer Glenn Murphy has focused on the Gap brand since he joined the company three years ago, part of a bid to revive growth. Sales at Gap stores in North America open at least a year have declined six straight months, including a 1 percent drop in September, while Old Navy and Banana Republic have made gains this year. The parent company hasn’t increased annual sales since fiscal 2005.
“There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way,” Hansen said.
Gap rose 44 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $18.71 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 11 percent this year.
The clothing retailer released a redesigned logo on its website Oct. 4 and had planned to roll it out in marketing campaigns starting next month. More than a thousand people left comments on Gap’s Facebook page, a majority of them disparaging.
“We’ve learned a lot in this process,” Marka Hansen, the Gap brand president in North America, said yesterday in an e- mailed statement. “We are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing.”
The new logo set the Gap name against a white backdrop, with a blue square in the upper-right corner. Gap, which owns Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta, has been updating its clothing lines and stores to appeal to so-called Millennials -- consumers in their 20s and early 30s. The logo change was part of that evolution of the brand from “classic, American design, to modern, sexy, cool” Louise Callagy, a spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Gap, said last week.
Two days after the logo release, Gap responded to the outcry on its Facebook page, welcoming design suggestions and calling it a crowd-sourcing project.
‘Different Way’
“We’ve learned just how much energy there is around our brand, and after much thought, we’ve decided to go back to our iconic blue box logo,” Callagy said yesterday in an interview. The change will take place starting today, she said.
Chief Executive Officer Glenn Murphy has focused on the Gap brand since he joined the company three years ago, part of a bid to revive growth. Sales at Gap stores in North America open at least a year have declined six straight months, including a 1 percent drop in September, while Old Navy and Banana Republic have made gains this year. The parent company hasn’t increased annual sales since fiscal 2005.
“There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way,” Hansen said.
Gap rose 44 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $18.71 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have dropped 11 percent this year.
08 October 2010
The Twitterati very much Mind the Gap
cNet
You never really know what will get social-media marketing chatter going. Film directors getting kicked off planes, for one, or that Old Spice Man sensation. This week, it was when retailer The Gap--which has lately been getting loads of positive digital press for its use of Groupon and Foursquare--unveiled a complete revamp of its iconic logo, and everybody freaked out. More specifically, they seemed to think it was the worst idea since New Coke.
"Gap" became a trending topic on Twitter, as design- and branding-savvy Twitterers (as well as those who just like to voice an opinion on everything) proclaimed their distaste for the new logo. A set of individuals referring to themselves as "The Randian Preservation Society" went so far as to launch a site called Crap Logo Yourself, in which you could put any text into the style of the new Gap logo, playfully asking, "Why hire an expensive firm to rebrand?"
Someone else created a fake Twitter account, @GapLogo, with the tagline "I have feelings too, jerks" and tweets like "American Apparel had some spare letters on clearance" and "FINE. I wanted to sit on this for a while but I can't keep it a secret any longer. The blue square is a scratch-n-sniff. Go ahead, try it."
The new insignia is certainly different. In the old, well-established logo, the company name is spelled out in a white serif font against a navy blue square background. The new logo relegates that iconic blue square to the upper-right corner, with the company name in the Helvetica font that's been all over Gap ads lately--and also, many have pointed out, those of trendier (and by some accounts, already-passe) retailer American Apparel. "New @gap logo is just American Apparel's logo with a dumb gradient box like someone was playing around with Photoshop for the first time," Twitter user @jordandroid griped.
Considering Gap's proclivities toward social media use in recent months, the company sort of had to acknowledge the uproar. "Thanks for the logo buzz!" the company posted to Twitter. "After 20+ years, it's time for a change. We like the new one, but want to see your ideas."
Indeed, on its Facebook page it's soliciting suggestions, which of course requires stomaching comments like "the only thing that could make the new logo worse is if you had used Comic Sans...or Papyrus," and leading one AdWeek columnist to wonder whether the entire thing was a stunt in which Gap drummed up publicity by designing an intentionally bad logo in order to kick off the hunt for a "crowdsourced" replacement. A Gap executive has publicly denied this conspiracy theory.
Still, there's a silver lining either way: "Actually, Gap should be thrilled that so many people care about their logo," read a tweet from Webby Awards chief David-Michel Davies.
"Gap" became a trending topic on Twitter, as design- and branding-savvy Twitterers (as well as those who just like to voice an opinion on everything) proclaimed their distaste for the new logo. A set of individuals referring to themselves as "The Randian Preservation Society" went so far as to launch a site called Crap Logo Yourself, in which you could put any text into the style of the new Gap logo, playfully asking, "Why hire an expensive firm to rebrand?"
Someone else created a fake Twitter account, @GapLogo, with the tagline "I have feelings too, jerks" and tweets like "American Apparel had some spare letters on clearance" and "FINE. I wanted to sit on this for a while but I can't keep it a secret any longer. The blue square is a scratch-n-sniff. Go ahead, try it."
The new insignia is certainly different. In the old, well-established logo, the company name is spelled out in a white serif font against a navy blue square background. The new logo relegates that iconic blue square to the upper-right corner, with the company name in the Helvetica font that's been all over Gap ads lately--and also, many have pointed out, those of trendier (and by some accounts, already-passe) retailer American Apparel. "New @gap logo is just American Apparel's logo with a dumb gradient box like someone was playing around with Photoshop for the first time," Twitter user @jordandroid griped.
Considering Gap's proclivities toward social media use in recent months, the company sort of had to acknowledge the uproar. "Thanks for the logo buzz!" the company posted to Twitter. "After 20+ years, it's time for a change. We like the new one, but want to see your ideas."
Indeed, on its Facebook page it's soliciting suggestions, which of course requires stomaching comments like "the only thing that could make the new logo worse is if you had used Comic Sans...or Papyrus," and leading one AdWeek columnist to wonder whether the entire thing was a stunt in which Gap drummed up publicity by designing an intentionally bad logo in order to kick off the hunt for a "crowdsourced" replacement. A Gap executive has publicly denied this conspiracy theory.
Still, there's a silver lining either way: "Actually, Gap should be thrilled that so many people care about their logo," read a tweet from Webby Awards chief David-Michel Davies.
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