Bowling the Brand: CORROSION 2011 a Just-Right Re-Launching Pad for MATCOR.

Say you held a rebranding and everybody came? Week before last, MATCOR President and CEO Jeff Stello brought his whole gang to the NACE exposition in Houston.

To name just a few, Eileen Jacob and John Rothermel, Ted Huck and Carlos Fuentes came down from Doylestown-Pee-Ay, maybe the first time they’d been warm all winter. Helen Morgan came over from Mobile. Brian Biek and Rebecca Harding were at the convention center from the Houston office – and Trevor Eade, the company’s new Director of Marketing and Communications.

They brought the new MATCOR brand with them.

One of the marketing gamebook’s best plays is using a big tradeshow to create extra thrills about a client’s brand – past posts have highlighted Baker Hughes and Wood Group promos, for example.

Even though MATCOR has been creating cathodic protection products for more than 35 years, it has been readying itself for a bigger role, a leap into the comprehensive design and engineering of cathodic protection and corrosion prevention systems and the supporting services that are important today for a global company, with clients worldwide.

“Everybody at NACE” saw the new MATCOR…the total rebranded look. Being close to the company’s rebranding program reminds me that MATCOR is in the business of systemic cathodic protection and that frequently involves galvanic anodes.

In MATCOR’s case, “galvanic” means more than a direct current of electricity.

So, certainly, there was brand-new from top to bottom, from dramatic logo to purple color scheme to QR codes to bowling night. There was new literature, new (and memorable) handouts, a new corporate theme, a new client support program, a new Web 2.0 site.

The entire MATCOR team seemed to be powering some electric effect, as in intensely exciting. The week-long company presence was vivid and memorable and filled with personally powered interactions.

Stello clearly enjoyed the new excitement…but I don’t think he was distracted by it. He told me, “At the end of the day, we still have to execute, we still have to get the job done for every client on time and on budget.”

No matter how fast the company grows, keeping everybody’s eyes on the integrity part is still the secret to a 300 game.

MATCOR is a great Signalwrite client. Thanks to Jeff Stello and Trevor Eade for inviting me to participate in the adventure. All photos courtesy of Studio Holloman.

Recovery Ahead? The “Reset Economy” in Marketing, Advertising and Promotion.

BrandWeek’s Elaine Wong interviewed Steve Pacheco, marketing communications director at FedEx, because the company’s not going to be advertising on the Super Bowl again this year. One thing he said goes like this:

There is a new [way of thinking] in America and beyond where folks are sort of reexamining events. It’s been called the “reset economy” to some degree, and so, we’re giving every marketing investment greater scrutiny than before. In this case, we want to leverage the FedEx Orange Bowl investment in a more powerful and impactful way, [to the point where] we’ll be well served not to have advertised in the Super Bowl, and to have our own Super Bowl with the FedEx Orange Bowl.

Pacheco forgot to credit Jeff Immelt with coining the phrase, at least according to Business Week. The biz-mag quoted the GE CEO himself when he named our current econ challenge the “Reset economy.” He feels that people’s expectations are in the process of being ‘reset’ from the past decade.

Immelt says the reset will impact everything from what’s sold and produced to the prices we pay. That’s an obvious view, but Mary Jo Martin, principal of research firm Cynapsus, agrees with him about resetting expectations: “Things are likely not going to be like the good old days for quite some time – if ever. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.”

To Trevor Eade, Director of Marketing/Communications at EMS, it’s like going back to using a stick-shift instead of an automatic transmission. “Our programs were on automatic, with a smooth momentum. (Everyone had a wonderful ride.) Now we’re learning how to drive all over again, with bumps and crunches when shifting.

“We’re forced to use fewer resources and adopt new techniques. We’ll get to the same destination but a little more frazzled.”

And for CITGO E-Communications Manager Beth Palmer the focus is broader, keeping both programs and executions in mind. “The reset economy means that in 2010 we continue to scrutinize and re-think every aspect of HOW we deliver,” she maintains, “while still dazzling our customers.”

Whether you’re frazzled or dazzled, NPR host/novelist Kurt Andersen can help. A few weeks back, the AMA interviewed him about the start-fresh state-of-mind. It’s a pretty damn encouraging view titled, “Hitting the reset button.” He finishes up the transcript this way:

As companies die – and as terrifying as that can be for people in manufacturing, retailing, media, and all the obviously challenged industries – people don't stop wanting the things they provided.

You might be encouraged by reading the entire transcript. (His similarly titled book Reset is enjoyable too.)

Then visualize a new game in which marketing, advertising and promotion are still in demand because your clients and prospects won’t stop wanting the things that your company delivers. That’s the right reset.

PS. Thanks to AMA-ers Trevor Eade, Mary Jo Martin and Beth Palmer for participating in this post; and to Prism Design for help with the photo-illustration.

“Vertically Famous”

In marketing (as in life), there’s hardly any problem that can’t be overcome with great big budgets. In the absence of money, though, focus is everything.

At this year’s Online Marketing Summit in Houston, Robin Tooms (Principal and Web Strategist at Savage Design) spoke to a capacity crowd about thought leadership marketing using online mechanisms. It was a good reminder, since I’d helped Trevor Eade accomplish this for EMS Group, as you can read about here.

Thought Leadership is a smart tactic, with a considerable force-multiplier effect – especially valuable for companies which are just starting to expand their branding and marketing efforts.

Tooms presented a number of ways to make Thought Leadership work; her most tightly framed pass-along was, “Be vertically famous.” Pick a particular subject, a single arena of expertise…and work to become the (world’s) (nation’s) leading specialist in the subject.

Online marketer Larry Chase made vertical fame No 3 on his list of “13 Essentials for Thought Leadership Marketing.” He wrote about it forcefully and colloquially:

Let’s face it, you’re not going to be Britney Spears (not that you’d want to be). What you want to do is figure out to which audience you wish to be famous. At a Search Engine Strategies conference recently, I heard someone introduced as “a rock star of SEO.” You want to be king of a mole hill and be known by all in that very particular industry. This is what I call “concentrated fame.”

That SEO rock star is going to be just another Joe to someone in the tool-and-die casting business. But that’s OK. It’s much better for you and your firm to a mile deep rather than a mile wide.

Too many marketing programs are wasted because of that mile-wide effect: A little bit here, a little bit there and before you know it, the vital substance of your brand is spread way too thin and it evaporates. By concentrating your efforts on a single tactic, you can focus all media toward making that tactic work, and deepen (or heighten) the impact of your brand.

Making your brand the thought leader in a specific industry category is still a viable goal. Even if you don’t achieve it, you can climb a considerable distance toward it. Thanks to Tooms for reprising its value at OMS Houston.

Photo: “Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming, USA” by Carol Polich. All rights reserved.

Jelly Babies…

For those of us of a certain age, Jelly Babies are the unlikely signature of the fourth and greatest Doctor Who of all time, Tom Baker. To this day, no other ‘jelly’ candy (say, your Gummi Bears and Swedish Fish® candy – A Friend You Can Eat – yuck!) come anywhere close to them.

Bassett made the first Jelly Babies and introduced them in 1919, to celebrate the end of the First World War. They were known as “Peace Babies.” The candies were out of production during World War Two; Bassett brought them back to the British market in ’53. Do read all about here; and in this blog post by Carlos Nash.

While there are other manufacturers of JBs, Bassett (now part of Nestlés) makes the best of ‘em, I think. There are six different flavors/colors.

I bring all this up because Jelly Babies are not easy to come by here in Houston. The Brit community here seems to like Maltesers better so the few stores that might carry them are frequently out-of-stock. Just last week, thanks to EMS USA’s Trevor Eade, I managed to score a bagful. He asked, “What can I bring you from the UK? I’m flying back for a weekend visit.” I asked for JBs…Eade delivered. Thanks very, very much.

I’d love to ask you, “Would you like a Jelly baby?” the way the Doctor did. Sadly, this lot’s gone. Ta.

PS: “Swedish Fish” does have a neat website, though – and more than one slightly weird TV commercial.