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Uncovering the Social Media Landscape
In the first installment on social media planning, Innis Maggiore suggested that you always insist on a media plan regardless of the media. Social media is simply a subset of all available (traditional and new) media. Avoid the newness hype and be wise.
Any tactics used should be carefully planned and executed. Part two of this series will help you navigate the social media landscape...
The Key To Failure: Hyper-Commoditization
Rite Aid. General Motors. Krispy Kreme. Sbarro. Dollar Thrifty. Trump Entertainment. What do these brands have common? They're all expected to go under this year.
What is behind this failure?...
Competitive Positioning: Wal-Mart vs. Target
Times are topsy-turvy and one of the great reversals can be seen in the world of retail. And a lesson in competitive positioning is left to be learned.
While Wal-Mart, the largest company in the world, has always dwarfed rival Target in size, but until recently Target had been decisively winning the growth game...
Ford Finds Success Marketing In A Down Economy
Who said marketing in a down economy was tough?
Despite being in a down economy, Ford Motor Co. enjoyed four consecutive months of growing market share through January 2009.
Some of Ford's recent success marketing in a down economy may be attributable to its promotional efforts emphasizing branding and the fact that it eschewed federal financial assistance to stay afloat...
Repositioning - The Twin to Every Position
The best brand positions are said to "reposition" the competition.
For every season of life and renewal, there is a shadow season of dormancy and death. For everything we are, there is what we are not. For every brand position there is a twin- the reposition. The best positioning ideas naturally reposition another idea or brand...
Making Sense Of Social Media Planning
Innis Maggiore is often asked how we go about social media planning. Clients want to know what can be done in the social community space to create competitive advantage.
With failure after failure of big corporations trying to "do social media," one reminder is clear: don't try to be what you aren't.
Wal-Mart is low price, not a social community. Coke is the original beverage, not a social community. Like so many other companies and products, they've both failed and continue to fail miserably in their social media planning...
Tropicana: A Lesson In Brand Creative
There has been a lot of talk, by marketing experts and consumers alike, about the debacle of Tropicana's new packaging and brand creative.
In case you didn't know (because of how swiftly it disappeared from stores), the orange juice giant changed their product packaging from the perennial concentration (pardon the pun) on the image of the straw sticking out of an orange to a graphic they felt was a bit "juicier."...
Barack Obama's New Media Fundraising
The story of Obama's success is very much a story about new media fundraising.
Grading Top Ads on Creative Positioning
Creative positioning is essentially the art of expressing a differentiating idea while, at the same time, standing out in a cluttered media landscape. Before we begin grading others, it's time for a pop quiz.
Name your ten most memorable recent advertisements.
Top five? Can you remember any? And, if you can, can you recall what product or service they were trying to promote?
One more question. did any of the ads prompt you to respond?...
Starbucks: Get Back To Being Unique
An article in the the Columbus Dispatch touted that Starbucks was taking cues from its cheaper rivals. That they were seeking part of the 'value' pie.
What a ghastly mistake. The first rule of positioning, in fact a commandment, is that a product, service, a company, even an individual can only stand for one thing in the mind of the prospect. Positioning is about brand differentiation. In Starbuck's case, its uniqueness is its position...
