Continuing Mirus

Why would I show you a new ad for Mirus, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company specializing in exception-based restaurant management? I posted about Mirus more than a year ago – where’s the news?

The news is, Mirus is upholding a tenet of advertising that is “mainly honored in the breach.” (Shakespeare first said this, so let’s pay homage.) That tenet is Continue the Campaign.

Far too many companies change their advertising concept like people use Kleenex: use it once and throw it away. That’s not just a waste of money, it undercuts the effort to build brand equity, a form of investment that is understood by a lot of companies (large and small) but completely ignored by others (large and small).

For an active, imaginative firm like Mirus, it’s eminently bankable. It has kept its marketing communications concept stable, even as its messages change to address different elements of its customers’ and prospects’ needs. In this new ad, the message is about a major benefit of its web-delivered exception-based restaurant management solution: instant visibility of critical operating information. Restaurant operators are, generally, experienced professionals. They can solve a problem once they know what the problem is. The trick is to find out – quickly – what’s going wrong that should be going right.

By addressing one issue at a time, Mirus is practicing what Alan Vera of The Quest Business Agency has called “platform-plank communications.” That is, build the communications structure one idea (or plank) at a time; let it settle into the minds of the prospects; then add another plank to the marcom structure.

Marilyn Muller and her team at 20/20 Exhibits get the design credit; I craft the messages.

But the real nod goes to Mirus president Dave Bennett and marketer Billie Light . They keep to the bold red-and-yellow graphic style and photographic approach that has characterized the company since it began actively communicating with its market 15 months ago. As this and other Mirus ads keep appearing in magazines targeted at the restaurant business, they are building an identifiable message platform one plank at a time. Adding power to the brand. Continuing the campaign.

“Kleenex” is a trademark of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, lest we forget. The ad above is © Mirus, 2007. All rights reserved.