Considering how great the follow up video is, it’s easy to imagine why it took three years.
The new release, This Too Shall Pass, has been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube in just four days.
The band describes their new video:
From the new album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky” available at http://www.okgo.net/store
Directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs. Produced by Shirley Moyers. The official video for the recorded version of “This Too Shall Pass” off of the album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky”. The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The “machine” was designed and built by the band, along with members of Syyn Labs ( http://syynlabs.com/ ) over the course of several months.
Once you have watched it, you can easily understand why it has gone viral so quickly.
Great content makes people want to talk about it. Makes them want to share it with their friends. Most importantly, great content makes people want to buy some for themselves.
Branding encompasses all of the touchpoints of a business. Every way that a consumer interacts with the company and its products will influence how they feel about that company.
Yet, all too often companies seem to do ‘just enough’. They figure out the least amount that is required and still get by.
The business model seems to be focused on how to do it as cheap as possible, as fast as possible, with as little effort as possible. What’s the least it will take? Then let’s do only that - just enough. It’s as though they start cutting out the ‘extras’ until they get to the lowest possible point.
Sure, profit margins might rise. Sure, it might improve cash flow. Will it grow ‘just enough’?
Those are just short term fixes.
Why not do the exact opposite? Why not do more than enough? As a matter of fact, think about how great the response would be if you did the most instead of the least. Change the conversation by exceeding their expectations.
Over deliver.
And see how effective it can be to have those delighted brand advocates market for you.
There have been some great taglines in advertising history. Positioning statements that achieved advertising greatness. A few of the more notables include:
7-Up - The uncola
AllState - Are you in good hands?
American Express - Don’t leave home without it.
Apple - Think Different
Bounty - The quicker-picker-upper
Burger King - Have it your way
Dairy Board - Got milk?
DeBeers - A diamond is forever
Disneyland - The happiest place on earth
Fedex - When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
Greyhound - Leave the driving to us.
Las Vegas - What happens here, stays here
M&Ms - Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.
MasterCard - There are so many things that money can’t buy. For everything else there’s MasterCard.
Maxwell House - Good to the last drop.
Memorex - Is it live or is it Memorex?
Nike - Just do it
Secret - Strong enough for a man but made for a woman
Walmart - Save money. Live better.
These have all worked very effectively to best position the companies.
Toyota however seems to have missed the memo on picking a good tagline. As a company that is testifying before Congress about stuck accelerators, is “Moving Forward” really the best choice?
Unless their goal is to provide the opening monologue for Jay Leno’s new Tonight Show, they should have picked a tag that wouldn’t expose them to so much potential mockery.
Tune in every Monday at 5:20pm to KPEL FM 105.1 on your radio or online at www.kpel1051.com for another installment of Brand Buzz. On this week’s episode of Brand Buzz we will be talking about how important branding is and how companies have used social media to successfully grow their brands.
People and companies are all using social media in one way or another. A few have done so with great success. Today we look at the companies that have been able to post revenue growth for their products.
Examples include; BlendTec, Ford, Zappos, Gary Vee and more.
If you would like additional information, please click here to download the free ebook and learn more about how important branding is to the growth of a company and how social media can be used to your advantage.
Feel free to contact us if you have questions for the show. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to receive the Razor Branding Blog either via email or reader to receive daily updates and information regarding branding.
I woke up this morning, on my 40th birthday, and thought about what I would write in the blog today. I had other thoughts as well about age and the passage of time and accomplishments, but ‘what to post’ was a prevalent thought.
Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and for forty years my birthday has been overshadowed by much bigger events. It’s always been a standing rule that my husband would separate the two. One card or one gift wouldn’t cut it. They need to be recognized as separate events.
Every few years, and this year is one of them, Mardi Gras falls on or near my birthday as well. The year I turned thirteen it was on Mardi Gras day. And this year, Mardi Gras is tomorrow.
On the one hand it is really cool to have such big holidays on my birthday. Everyone is celebrating and there are parades and school is on vacation. But on the other hand, it’s a little tough because then the birthday becomes overshadowed by the other events. The association with the holiday has as many positives as it does negatives.
I started thinking about Brand Association. So often companies look to celebrities or testimonials to get some borrowed glory for their products. But that brand association can really work against them. Just ask all of Tiger’s former endorsements. Very quickly the brand can become overshadowed by whatever is associated with it.
As I spend this day, focused on all that I am associated with, I look forward to the next forty years. The goals and accomplishments still to come. This is an exciting time in our industry and our business and I’m looking forward to what comes next.
This afternoon, as I load a few tons of Mardi Gras beads on a float and then this evening when I ride in a parade through Downtown Lafayette, I will be very glad that I get to celebrate my 40th birthday in such a special way. The whole town and about 350,000 of our closest friends will all be out celebrating with me.
This may be the shortest month of the year, but February 2010 has more events than any other - Saints win the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, Valentine’s Day, my 40th birthday and Mardi Gras. It’s a great month to celebrate.
For years leading up to the Super Bowl, I anticipated the commercials more than the actual game (until this Saintly year, of course). For me, the game was merely the vehicle chosen to showcase those advertisers brave enough to not only spend the millions to air their spots but those that were confident enough in their creative abilities to try and command the attention of the 100 million viewers that anxiously awaited those “soon-to-be the most talked about TV moments of the year” spots. That patiently waited to be humored, shocked, surprised, dazzled, heart-tugged, challenged and perhaps even charmed.
For me, the “charming” commercial came wrapped up in a cute little game of Punch Dub - a modern-day version of “slug bug” that encourages passengers to seek out Volkswagen Beetles on the road, in parking lots, in movies (you get my point) just so they can punch whoever happens to be close by. Now just hear me out. Before you get all purist on me saying that this game was created for the Bug, with only the Bug in mind and should apply only if you see a Bug, let’s talk about why I connected to the spot.
As consumers, we constantly evolve and hats off to Volkswagen for choosing to take that leap and expand with us. They have braved their way into our homes not by pushing features and benefits of their growing fleet, but by connecting to us through an already established kinship, brought to life by people, places and situations that we can all relate to - a pained woman in labor, a bus driver and passenger, 2 cops sitting in their car, friends on a morning walk, a boy and his grandpa, Amish men in a horse-drawn carriage and even sight-impaired Stevie Wonder - pointing out to us all that our connection to Volkswagen is far stronger than we were probably even aware of.
I grew up wanting nothing more than a convertible Beetle - grew into buying a more grown up Passat and as my life evolves and expands, my eyes set sight upon a more practical and roomier Tuareg. Thanks, VW, for noticing.
Oh, but there was one tiny flaw in their new tagline. Don’t you think Das Auto should really be Dat Auto?
A study by Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz, released in the February edition of The Psychologist, analyzes how people react to the same information when it is presented in different fonts. Beyond just the language of the message, the typeface used to deliver the message can have great weight subconsciously for the reader deciding whether or not the task is achievable.
As they explain, when people ponder a new exercise routine and whether it is going to be easy or difficult to do, the font used to describe the routine can determine the reader’s perception about the task:
For example, consider the identical exercise instructions. When they were presented in an easy-to-read print font (Arial), readers assumed that the exercise would take 8.2 minutes to complete; but when they were presented in a difficult-to-read print font, readers assumed it would take nearly twice as long, a full 15.1 minutes (Song & Schwarz, 2008b).
They also thought that the exercise would flow quite naturally when the font was easy to read, but feared that it would drag on when it was difficult to read. Given these impressions, they were more willing to incorporate the exercise into their daily routine when it was presented in an easy-to-read font.
Martin Bishop used the following example to highlight what Song and Schwarz were referring to:
image: Exercise Example by Martin J Bishop, Landor
Not only will the font determine how difficult they think the task is but also if and when they will attempt it.
They observed that 17 per cent of their participants postponed choice when the font was easy to read, whereas 41 per cent did so when the font was difficult to read. Apparently, participants misread the difficulty arising from the print font as reflecting the difficulty of making a choice.
Branding is a broad umbrella that covers all of the touchpoints that a consumer comes in contact with and summarizes how they feel about you after contact. The crucial component of branding is the consumer’s feelings. Their gut reactions to your company and product. As we tell your story and highlight how you benefit them so that they become truly connected to you emotionally, it is important that the story is told and shown in a certain way.
This study proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that the science of design, the choice of a font, will have dramatic effect on what feeling your consumer has about you and more importantly what action they take after connecting with that touchpoint.
Do you make it easy for them to integrate you into their lives? When they read more about you will they leave with a feeling of ease or difficulty? These seemingly small choices, like font, have very big ramifications. Think before you ink.
Our purpose is to change the conversation to build an emotional connection that will drive consumer action. As this study illustrates, sometimes changing the conversation will start with changing the font. A seemingly small detail that you didn’t even consider to be important. You, or your design agency, picked that font because it looked good. But in the end, how it looks to you isn’t nearly as important as how your consumer will react to it. Will your font slow down their decision to love you?
So often in marketing the focus is on the big idea. The big campaign. The big splash.
Step back and think small. Think of your consumer from a new perspective. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute and see what need you can satisfy.
We recently stayed at a Hilton Hotel in Dallas and this is a picture of the room key. Now, some of you might think it is nothing more than crass commercialism to “sell an ad” on the back of the room key.
I think it is genius. Pizza Hut and Hilton both scored big on this one. Sure, I could have ordered room service. And there was a very nice vending machine full of yummy snacks just down the hall. Not to mention a well stocked mini-bar. But sometimes only a hot cheesy pizza will do the trick.
This local promotion put the product right in front of me at time when I might need it the most. As I opened my door to my room after a long day and realized that I had worked right through lunch. Now I don’t have to go to google to figure out who the local pizza guys are. I don’t have to use the map on my iPhone to track down the closest pizza place. It’s all right there on my key.
They made an emotional connection with me because they used good consumer insight. In so doing it improved the brand of both companies. This strategy is right on target and a great component in their marketing campaign.What could be the ‘key’ to your local marketing that you might be missing. Which neighbors could you partner with to provide more for your consumers? How can you better serve them?
Companies are still providing plenty of reasons to avoid social media. Below are the ten most commonly heard excuses:
We’ve already allocated our budget for the year.
We are busy with a new product launch.
We want to see if social media turns out to be a fluke.
Legal won’t let us.
We want customer service to handle all customer interaction.
Social media won’t help us achieve our objectives.
The CEO isn’t comfortable with social media.
We don’t think our consumers are using social media.
We don’t have the resources to invest in social media now.
We are B2B and it’s more of a retail thing. OR. We are retail and it seems like a B2B thing.
At this point, there are hundreds of case studies of companies with growth through the use of social media. Not to mention the thousands of companies that have used social media to connect with consumers. Yet, all of the excuses to avoid social media are about themselves. “We don’t think…” “We don’t want…” Where is the consumer in that equation?
So what’s your excuse? Why is your company still avoiding social media?
If you want to get some pointers on where to start and what to do first, check out the social media ebooks in the knowledge section of our website which are updated weekly. Also, subscribe to this blog and get daily updates that will provide valuable info.
Marketing 101 teaches that there are 4 P’s of Marketing. These basic tenets of our industry are the foundation for every company and the product/service that they sell. Each of these P’s have undergone modifications in the past few years.
Price - Since the first time that a second product entered a category, price has been a point of competition. Where consumers can be happily relational about most of the choices they make, choosing to buy based on the relationship with the product or company that produces it, they will become transactional in a second and drive 50 miles out of their way to find it cheaper somewhere else.
Pricing strategies can make or break a company - ask Kmart. With the evolution of the internet and power in the hands of the consumer those pricing strategies are more important than ever before.
Now, while standing in a store, a consumer can use an iphone app, scan the bar code and find out that product’s price every place where it is sold (including the internet and the store across the street). Companies just can’t compete on price anymore. It is more important than ever that there is more to the offering than just a great price.
Place - Where and how do you sell your product/service? The chosen distribution channel is the place portion of the equation. Is your store in a high traffic location? Does your product have good shelf placement in the store? The traditional questions around place are still very important but now you also have to factor in the internet. Are you selling on the internet? How about SEO? Do you also have distribution agreements with Amazon? What’s your ebay strategy? Now the internet has taken the question of place and expanded it to a whole new level.
Promotion - Traditionally promotion was all about advertising. How do you broadcast your message? Sales, direct mail, public relations, and telemarketing are all parts of how you promote your product. The traditional marketing options, TV, radio, print, and outdoor, have now been joined by Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and blogging. With the evolution of promotion to include the use of the internet now the consumer provides promotion with the power of brand advocates. Using their word of mouth marketing provides for exponential opportunities for promotion.
Product - Copycat and mediocre products used to be able to enter the market and with a big enough budget they could carve out some market share. But now, people expect more. Products have to be extraordinary. They must be best in class with some unique point of differentiation. No matter how great the price, place and promotion might be it is the product that has to be great, otherwise it won’t be successful.
The traditional 4 P’s are still alive and well, even if they have become a little bit modified. But now, price, place, promotion and product have been joined by two new P’s.
Purpose - What does a company stand for? How do they give back to the community? What does a company do to improve the environment? Twenty years ago these questions weren’t even an after thought. But now, the purpose of company is just as important as the original 4 P’s.
Perspective - The original 4 P’s and even the new 5th P have one serious drawback. They are all about the company. These 5 P’s don’t take the consumer into account. In this new day and age, the perspective of the consumer is crucial. This consumer insight will let you know if you are right about how you have interpreted the data. Without the perspective of the consumer, none of the rest of it really matters.
The 5th and 6th P will be major factors in every business’s plan to market their products. Do you have a plan?
Razor Branding Blog
