Which Carver?

For quite some time, I’d noted this full-page ad in Marketing News. It’s for a research firm, Data Development Worldwide, “one of the largest market research companies in the country dedicated solely to worldwide custom market research.”

Every time I’ve seen it, I have to tip my hat to the company because it’s advertising, you know. That is, on its own, a great thing for a research firm. On top of that, I have noticed the ad. There’s that headline, “It’s not the wood. It’s the carver.”

A fine idea. At first glance, you have to logically agree with the ad saying that raw data isn’t enough, that something else is necessary: “shaping it into insightful analysis and actionable results.”

Seeing it more than once, however, finally led me to think too much about it (a big danger for the unoccupied mind, let me say).

DDW is also saying that raw data can be carved into almost any pattern. Woodcarvers do it all the time, sometimes even with the same piece of wood. I can shape a good piece of walnut into a pair of pistol stocks; but another (better) woodworker can carve that same slab into an intricate ball-within-ball puzzle; and a clever Boy Scout could whittle it into a whistle or a neckerchief slide.

Figuratively, DDW has “shaped” that uncured chunk of tree into the lovely wooden roundel or tabletop shown in the ad above. That’s not to say, though, that another market research firm couldn’t turn Mr Deadwood into a chest of drawers.

As I said, I admire DDW for advertising at all.

It’s possible that effective advertising probably ought not to be considered too closely – that’s what some clients do, you know…analyze a creative thought to death. A long-ago colleague of mine, John McHugh, used to say that his Irish mother “cooked vegetables ‘til all the evil came out.”

Pick this firm or another to interpret your raw research information. But I gotta wonder if the DDW ad was created just to match the company Managing Director’s name: “Chip” Lister.

Best for Sunday…

More RES

Adding to the various Wood Group Renewable Energy Services attractions, two new ads are currently appearing in magazines worldwide, like Renewable Energy Focus and North American Windpower.

Prism Design and I did concepts, copy and production; specific credit goes to Stacy Allen for excellent work. Each of the two ads addresses a different set of Wood Group features, advantages and benefits for the windpower industry – that “All together now” headline is particularly fun.

The strong Wood Group Gas Turbine Services brand we created two years ago is still clearly transmitted by KEEP ON TURNING.

Having way better photos to work with, as I noted below, made a lot of difference: The wind biz uses too many stock shots because fresh photography is so hard to come by. Again, thanks to client Chris Whitley and the RES team for the excellent photography, the opportunity and the support.

RES Energizing

Last year, when Texas wind farms generated 6,700 megawatts, the American Wind Energy Association’s WINDPOWER 2008 was in Houston. Hurricane Ike’s effects didn’t count.

This year Texas is topping out at 7,907 megawatts from more than 40 different projects. And WINDPOWER 2009 was held in Chicago, in McCormick Place – a big venue for a now even bigger event. Naturally, Wood Group Renewable Energy Services went to Chicago too. (BTW, no other state comes anywhere close to Texas. Y’all. And WINDPOWER 2010 comes back to Dallas.) Client Chris Whitley and his team lined up a significant package of wind power-related services and programs, major advances over 2008. These formed the foundation of new materials that we – Signalwrite Marketing and Prism Design – created for the business unit: Print advertising, cut sheets, new booth graphics. Thanks very much indeed.

I’ll show you the ads in a day to two but I wanted to get these fresh photos in front of you pretty quick. Last year (here), RES used a different exhibition property. This year, the RES team pulled out all the stops, adapting the more imposing Wood Group Gas Turbine Services booth with new copy and new photographs.

More than anything else (graphically), having fresh corporate photography to work with makes a huge difference in the presentation: Look at the wind-related images from Wood Group’s wind power projects around the world. The client supplied the new images.

Whitley says: In all honesty this was my first time leading such a project for such a large show (over 22,000 in attendance – the largest wind power show in North America) and I couldn’t have been happier with the results. We chose to use a graphic that depicted the installation of an offshore wind turbine as a backdrop to where the booth personnel would greet passers-by. You could literally see people stop in their tracks, turn to us and ask to be told more. I loved watching the effect that a single picture had on so many people – it was amazing.

The RES team also put in the extra time and effort needed to work the floor of McCormick Place last week – no wonder they needed more energy.

This year, the US can now claim the world’s largest wind energy capacity (25,170 MW), taking the lead from Germany, with 23,903 MW at the end of 2008. The nation’s fast growth has smashed all the previous records: Installed wind capacity in America grew by 50%. So have the opportunities for RES. I appreciate Chris Whitley letting us continue our involvement in wind energy…thanks to Wood Group here and abroad for the work.

Happy Anniversary

Wedded 1977 and still going:
Barbara Nytes-Baron +
Richard Laurence Baron.
Thanks for all the laughs so far.
Much love...

Swine Flew

Despite the government’s attempts to rename the Swine Flu strain (a pretty decent approach to calming unneeded panic), there’s a good brand story out there on America’s store shelves that has absolutely nothing to do with this strain of influenza. Except an awful pun.

Last year Frito-Lay introduced a new line, Flat Earth™ snack foods, purposely targeted at women. The up-to-the-minute brand transmits its message this way: These “Impossibly Good™” crisps make it possible to have great taste and nutrition.

The packaging and the advertising, coming out of the brand position, features a winged porker. In case it has to be spelled out for you, the play-phrase is “When pigs fly.”

It’s one of those phrases I’ve always enjoyed, even if its applicability to veggie crisp snacks isn’t immediately obvious…flying pigs, flat earth, etc. On this Frito-Lay line, there’s a reversed-out silhouette of the flying pig on every package. The print advertising I’ve seen, in Better Homes and Gardens, features a cute little Yorkshire with white wings.

The product’s gotten generally positive reviews. Though commentators suspect that giant food producer Frito-Lay may not be putting all its cards on the table health-wise, you can read several reviews for yourself, here and here.

Flat Earth is also one of the sponsors of “Only in a Woman’s World” – another involving example of how to niche-market via the worldwide web. In fact, Frito-Lay has constructed a good 360° brand effort in these veggie crisps. It’s marketing to a group of consumers that’s sensitive about health and better eating habits.

Typically, this tranche doesn’t include Paris Hilton. Asked about the virus by its common name, she’s already commented, “I don’t eat that.” She’ll probably achieve understanding when pigs fly; I trust you’ll get the title pun sooner.

China Boys

When Sandy Levin, the founder and CEO of Import Traders, made his first trip to China in the very early ‘70s, he didn’t know the name of the hotel he’d be staying it – the Chinese wouldn’t tell him ‘til he got there.

“It was a totally different society…everyone carried Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book in their pocket and it was full of sayings, mostly anti-entrepreneurial, anti-American and anti-the-rest-of-the-world.”

One satisfaction of crafting fresh, contemporary copy for the revamped Import Traders website has been talking to Levin, who was also one of just 40 Americans invited to the ’74 Canton Fair. Another has been working with Barrett-Wehlmann, Import Traders’ Houston-based marcomms agency, as it developed the new company site.

Even today, it’s no simple matter for many American manufacturers who don’t have offices in China to have products sourced and manufactured there – then shipped over to the US for distribution and sale. So Import Traders has been building and maintaining relationships with factories in China for decades.

Having done business in developing areas of Eastern Europe, I knew going in that reliability is a key issue. Import Traders has solved that two ways. One, the company really does know the Chinese very well. And two, Import Traders guarantees the manufactures to its US customers’ satisfaction…pretty bold for a “simple middleman.”

Import Traders is more than a middleman. That made the difference clear enough for anyone (even me). Here’s a company that has solved a big problem in overseas manufacturing: The question of trust.

Since part of this assignment was to talk with satisfied Import Traders customers here in the US, I also had the chance to discuss specific challenges with manufacturing engineers, marketers and inventors...I had a chance to learn even more. Chinese manufacturing is not just for tchotchkes any more…hasn’t been for years. (That’s “trinkets,” in case your Yiddish isn’t working today.)

There’s still a save-you-money angle. But the real issue is trustworthiness. I think that’s what the website and the content convey, whether prospects are trying to source and produce picture frames or printed circuit boards.

So thanks to the “China Boys” at Barrett-Wehlmann for letting me work on this site, now a very effective combination of business-like and attractive. That’d be Carl Glatzel on art direction and Darrell Wehlmann on web build and search engine optimization. The Creative Director is James Grantham; the Management Super is Bill Barrett.

And thanks to Levin for the great conversation, too.

Rebranding PSI…

I don’t often get to use a 450-year-old map as part of a rebranding campaign. Now, in one headline, Petrophysical Solutions, Inc has launched a fresh brand platform. One headline and that antique map, which displays the Gulf of Mexico, now appear together in the Houston company’s first new ad.

Petrophysical Solutions, Inc (PSI) delivers single-well analysis, integrated field studies, seismic petrophysics, interpretations of large petrophysical databases and old log sets and other geophysical consulting capabilities.

The map comes from the cartographic collection of PSI’s President, Bill Price. It was created by Sebastian Münster in 1540. Titled “Tabula Novarum Insularum,” it holds the real key to the company’s rebranding. You see, Münster’s map was the first to name the Pacific Ocean (Mare Pacifum). First to show one of the earliest depictions of Japan (Zipangri). That ship? It’s Magellan’s Victoria, the only vessel of five to survive his round-the-world voyage. But Münster relied on accounts of the New World by Giovanni da Verrazzano to create that part of the map. That’s where the “Great Mistake” began. According to Price:

Verrazano sailed by the Outer Banks of Carolina. When he observed the sounds on the other side of the barrier islands, he mistook them for the sought-after Northwest Passage. Such was the desire of Europe to find an alternative route to Asia, they would grasp at anything that seemed to lead in that direction. Had Verrazano taken the time to investigate, he would have discovered his mistake.

It’s what can happen in the oil industry today: Too many companies buy into a “sail-by” or quickie interpretation. They’re misled by the fast (or pretty) look, then waste their valuable money on completing zones that shouldn’t be tested or worse.

The new PSI brand campaign takes “Petrophysics that Pays Off” vividly to market. The company devotes more time – and expertise – coming up with a consistent, comprehensive interpretation that represents all the information gathered.

We’ve just begun to roll out the message that better, more informed discoveries drive value. Thanks to the clients, as well as to Kay Krenek for design and art direction. There’ll be more to come…

“Petrophysics that Pays Off” and “Discoveries Drive Value” are trademarks of Petrophysical Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

Extra Fielder

In a 2007 Artist’s Statement, Garland Fielder said:

In my current work I continue to explore the relationship between anticipation and fulfillment. I have created installations that examine two-dimensional expectations and three-dimensional presentations. The viewer is challenged in surmising the orientation of the artwork, and thereby draws into question his/her own assumptions about reality at large. It is the act of interpretation that interests me and gives me hope.

Adding additional photos to the blog helps demonstrate the challenge Fielder highlights. (Maybe that’s one reason why he enjoyed doing the piece for our modest collection.) In these pix, you can see something of the stairwell’s curved walls…the cube is approximately 10 feet above the stair.

A bit of a challenge for us here as well: We can’t turn our old digital camera’s flash off, so the bright light washes out the fascinating/entertaining shadow lines formed by the cube frames.

New Fielder

We’ve just finished watching artist Garland Fielder install this commissioned piece here at the house – outstanding!

“Untitled 2009” is a 17-inch poplar cube, six colors of automotive lacquer clear-coated. Barbara Nytes-Baron selected the colors and the location: In the space above the stairwell between our first and second floors. See other examples of Fielder work here. Many thanks to the artist and to Anya Tish of the Anya Tish Gallery. More photos soon.

Flying Tourbillon..?

I’ve been watching what other people read – a function of LinkedIn. I had become a little self-conscious about my colleagues’ choices, imposing business and branding books by all the current big names. Whilst I have been sucking down military history and science fiction.

I had the chance to upgrade my reading material with the arrival of the latest special issue of Golf Digest/Index. Don’t know why I received this magazine; though I love the concept, I don’t actually play golf. I also recognize the game’s role in conspicuous consumption.

So it was with no particular surprise when I reviewed the magazine’s back cover ad. This, my friends, is a Cartier Ballon de Bleu Flying Tourbillon Men’s Watch…I don’t even know what half this stuff means, but it’s a damned impressive ad. That copy on the lower right? Here’re a few lines:

Rose gold case on alligator strap. Mechanical movement with manual winding. Cartier caliber 4952 M/C (10 and ¾ lines, 19 jewels, 21,000 vibrations per hours. Seconds indicated by the C-shaped tourbillon cage (aha!). Movement developed and assembled by the Cartier Manufacture…

Pretty fancy copy and not much of it – all feature, feature, feature. The benefit is it’s a Cartier watch.

This Flying Whatever lists for…$96,500. But pick the right online retailer and you can get it for $75k, or $74k…or even $73,340.

I love the magazine. I probably won’t receive any more issues, but my hat’s right off to publisher Thomas J Bair and the other people who produce it. They’ve pegged an upscale audience, deliver some well-written features and do not shrink from the tough job of promoting stylish excess.

BTW, shop www.marketreplica.com and you can get a fine simulacrum of the same watch for $100 – that’s all I can afford after Tax Day, anyway.

Birthday Jeep

The year I was born, Willy began advertising its military Jeep* to Americans on the home front. Like a lot of other US companies, the car-maker (and major supplier to the armed forces) wanted to begin creating a brand that went beyond war fronts all over the world…to the one society left on the planet whose future, at that instant, looked brightest.

That’s the future I was born into. And the “classic” Jeep is the first motor vehicle I can remember my daddy, Paul Baron, owning. Sometime after he returned to Atlanta from overseas service with the US Army Air Corps, he acquired a war-surplus CJ-2A Jeep. (Not a new one – that’s to laugh.)

I barely recall it – I spent that period of my life tucked in a wooden box nestled between the Jeep’s two front seats when my daddy and momma drove it to the Piedmont Drive-In Theater on Friday nights.

It wasn’t our last Jeep either. The family owned a couple of Willys Jeep Station Wagons until daddy settled on Chevy as the family brand. When I turned 16, the first car daddy bought me was a well-used 1949 Willys Jeepster, bright yellow…the canvas top hardly leaked at all. He spent more than he intended, but it was (I hope) worth it. I wonder if my sister Evalyn remembers that one?

One line of copy in that Jeep ad up top says, “Soon, Willys dealers will be showing the Universal Jeep. When you see it, you can envision the many, many ways it will serve mankind.”

As a birthday memory, it continues to serve. Thanks, daddy.

*A lot of companies produced “Jeeps” originally. Willys-Overland acquired the trademark for itself in 1950 – read all about it here.

Early Crappy

Is there anything better than children who actually listen to you when you say what you want for your birthday? I think not.

Molto thankos to Rachel Baron and Alison Bond for one early-arriving birthday present: My own Tuf-Fluck Crappy Cat.

As Jeremy Bratman says, “Crappy Cat is 9 inches of intoxicated feline vinyl.” I am proud to have it standing tall next to my computer monitor! And thanks to all you early-birthday well-wishers. Tomorrow’s the magic day…See ya!

Blend Mail

I’ve just been talking about INEXS (see the jerseys). Now let me crow a bit louder over the company’s precisely targeted direct mail.

Simple but strong, these 3D mailers have been arriving in oil and gas companies all over Texas as part of a four-part campaign. Each one portrays the benefits of a particular set of this Houston geophysical consulting firm’s practices. The first wave explains proven INEXS capabilities in Regional Geologic Studies, along with a specially packaged coffee we call “Haynesville Blend.”

[The Haynesville Shale is a hot oil-and-gas-producing region – INEXS does a lot of work with prospects in this area. Read more about that here...it's good for your education.]

Each mailer encompasses the coffee, selling benefits and a request to meet over a cuppa joe, under the campaign title “Fuel for Solutions.” There are other mailers (with different coffee blends) that point up Exploration Evaluation, Integrated Field Studies and A and D Assistance.

Read all about these subjects on the INEXS website. At the same time, you’ll discover how this Fuel for Solutions campaign marries up to the strong INEXS brand story.

On decision-making, campaign kudos go to the client. On creative, there’s Stacy Allen, Terry Teutsch and Susan Reeves of Prism Design. And Richard Laurence Baron (which would be me).

There’s more than brand power behind this mail series. Each coffee label features artwork by Sydney Strahan, the Houston-based painter whose subject is “art from the heart of the earth.” She uses geological core sample slabs for inspiration and her work is widely recognized in this part of the oilpatch.

Lucky recipients get packages that are impossible NOT to open; business-focused messages; and a bit of a reward in the form of most everyone’s favorite fuel.

Thanks to all the usual suspects for the chance to create and send this great series.

I ought to mention the java’s roasted and packaged by Independence Coffee Company just up the road in Washington County.

Bikers Branded

I revel in the knowledge that a brand I helped spring to life has received its most critical seal of approval: The client adopted it for cycling jerseys.

INEXS President Craig Davis, VP Hector Sepulveda and Marketing Executive Laura Kamrath are training for the 2009 BP MS 150 (180 miles, really, Houston to Austin). Adapting the corporate look for bikers’ wear is Terry Teutsch of Prism Design. IMO, it adds even more muscle to the brand.

Ride, INEXSians…Ride like the wind!

Watch the roads for the INEXS peloton: See Human-Powered Geoscience© in action.

Bad Eggs

Rachel Baron visited Houston this week and brought goodies. Specifically, Barbara and I are now the proud owners of about a dozen of the latest Kidrobot® urban art figures. (The girl really knows how to treat the ‘rents.)

Kidrobot is the self-proclaimed “Earth’s premier creator and retailer of limited-edition toys, clothing, artwork and books.” I was a little miffed since I misplaced my Aztec dunny figure. I stashed it away when I put up the ED-209 and now I can’t find the dunny. On top of that, I can’t find my Smorkin’ Labbit. Damn.

I feel much better now. It’s true that Rachel has spoiled us with so many of the various lines…Mongers, Heroes of Burgertown, BFFs and Debilz. It’s hard to pick favorites but – of the current batch – I gotta love the “Bad Eggs” Ace and Joey, from the MongersTM Menthols series.

Listen, I gotta run. It’s Saturday, I’d still like to get a bike ride in. I have to say, though, that now I’ve been poking around on the Kidrobot site again and I’m seriously jonesing for Jamungo’s Tuf-Fluck Crappy Cat.

Oooh! I have a birthday coming up…did I mention that?

PS: It’s possible you haven’t got a clue about Kidrobot stuff. You are seriously behind the pop-culture curve if that’s the case. Happy April…

Technical Copywriter

Richard Laurence Baron, Technical Copywriter, Houston. A bit of a ring there. But let’s leave aside that, for so many, many years, my slogan has been, “If it smells bad, weighs a ton or is hard to pronounce, I work on it.”

Technical copywriting is one thing I do, though I tend to view this discipline in marketing terms. Instead of writing Feature-Advantage-Benefit (FAB), I generally write Benefit-Advantage-Feature. “BAF” is not nearly as nice-sounding but clients’ customers really do want to read about what’s in it for them, first.

This…identification barrier…is cultural. No matter how often I say I’m a business-to-business copywriter or an advertising copywriter, far more people get “Technical Copywriter” when B2B leaves ‘em dead in the water.

For the longest time, back in my BBDO days, I was “Writer-in-a-Drum.” I created advertising for the stuff that nobody else wanted to touch…like data storage media (3M) instead of the far sexier Scotch-brand video tape. Heavy-duty truck lubricants instead of consumer-oriented gasoline. And massive flour milling equipment instead of baked goods.

There are a dozen or more books under the Amazon.com heading, “So you’d like to be a…Technical Copywriter.” I’ve never written one of these. After three-plus decades, I know that writing marketing copy for complex tools, chemicals and systems is as much an art form as a science.

There’s no cookbook per se. Just a lot of experience with valves (refinery and heart), software (geophysics and RPGs), chemicals (syngas production and beer production) and healthcare (surgery centers and hearing aids). It's all about looking at drill bits, bytes or beam-welders from different angles.

I am Industrial-Strength Writer. I am Technical Copywriting Houston. Right now…I am taking the weekend off.

Propellers, Fernand Leger, 1918.

“Live Life to the Youngest” with the RealAge® Test? Nah...

I’m on Facebook – some of you know that. I use very, very few of the hundreds of Facebook apps but I confess, for example, to recently nominating my “Top Five Movies.” The rock-bottom fact is, there’s a damn huge amount of personal information about me on the Worldwide Web.

I admit to being an active participant in life online. What I have NOT done is join RealAge and Mehmet Oz so I can “live life to the youngest.” I have not taken the RealAge® Test.

That, in my view, turns out to be a good thing. Mike Damon of Damon Medical Communications sent over a New York Times article, “Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers” by reporter Stephanie Clifford. RealAge is fuzzing up the fact that it’s selling participants’ personal, medical information to drug companies…your basic invasion of privacy, not to mention maybe (just maybe) being against the HIPAA rules. Those are the rules that the government has set to protect intimate health-related information.

The article says: RealAge’s privacy policy does not specifically address the firm’s relationship with drug companies, but does state, in part, “we will share your personal data with third parties to fulfill the services that you have asked us to provide to you,” and it adds test results to its database only when respondents become RealAge members. Some critics, however, charge that consumers do not have enough information when they join.
Unlike certain media outlets, I don’t have an automatic bias against pharmaceutical companies. I even wonder if the New York Times would have even looked at this story if it did not involve “drug companies.”

Okay – 27 million people have taken the RealAge quiz. They are (as a group) not very concerned about what happens to their intimate health information. As a marketer, though, I think there’s an ethical problem here. Despite RealAge protestations, my sense is that the website has not been completely transparent in its business relationships with the drug companies.

Will people get upset about this particular issue? I bet not – not when it involves a doctor who regularly appears on Oprah. After all, it’s not AIG bonuses.

‘Energy Park’

What this is, is a powerplant…a 30-megawatt gas-fired combined-cycle operation that opened last year in Faribault, MN. It’s now known far and wide as one of the most environmentally friendly power plants in the state.

It’s also received a “Best Practices” award from Combined Cycle Journal for environmental stewardship. It’s a fine-looking green-oriented facility that overcame huge local opposition by being sensitive, being community-involved, and being a smarter marketer.

As a marketer, you can truthfully say this is all about the community. The facility is planned to be a “working classroom” to help students and residents from the region understand energy generation, especially environmentally-friendly ways to generate electricity.

What’s even smarter is in the magazine’s award write-up: “Even the nomenclature was important, calling it an ‘Energy Park’ instead of a powerplant.” The write-up points up the fact that it’s not enough to just be the right things in a community. You also have to be known in the right ways.

Like calling yourself ‘Energy Park.’ Remember what Shakespeare said about names? “A rose by any other name still smells as sweet…” So, in the exemplary case of Faribault, is a powerplant renamed for marketing purposes.

Sheban’s Artwork

The GoodNites® ad illustrator is Chris Sheban, who works out of Chicago. Check out his booklist on the HarperCollins website.

There’s even more fun: Charley Parker wrote a great post on the Lines and Colors blog, about Sheban’s homage to Vermeer (above): Just one reason he’s received both Gold and Silver medals from the Society of Illustrators.

If you love illustration, seeing fine work like “Jungle” in a print ad is a real pleasure – and an excellent change from stock photos.

Thanks to Alyson Valpone and JWT for sending along Sheban’s name. Illustration: All rights reserved.

GoodNites® “Jungle”

Kimberly-Clark’s ad agency, JWT, has fielded a new ad for the company’s GoodNites brand sleep pants. What makes this ad different from a decade or more of GoodNites advertising? Maybe it signals a change of conceptual direction for this particular product line. (This is the same JWT that created the funny “Geyser” spot for Huggies brand diapers.)

Tim Witheroe was one of several reviewers who commented on GoodNites campaigns over the years. In 2002, he wrote:

This ad catches our emotions instantly when we observe the young boy huddled against the wall. Ending with their catchy slogan (“Goodnites mean good mornings”) in bold type insures that readers will recall the product name if this problem affects their family. In addition, the picture of the product’s packaging is another memory aid that will be recalled if a parent is out shopping for products of this type.

The print ad he showed, like many others in a similar vein, featured a forlorn child. Print and broadcast executions had a powerful appeal to women (and they’ve been lampooned as well).

This new 2009 print ad lightens things up a lot. Maybe it’s designed to appeal to men since it features a young father reading a bedtime storybook (The Jungle) to his son. Speaking of lighter, there’s a new, equally positive tag line: “GoodNites lighten the night.TM”

The most fun of all, though, is an imaginative illustration that evokes the mood of the story. The Mesoamerican jungle night with its moonlit Mayan temple, the animals…it’s eye-catching. (I forgive the non-native elephant since it’s a kid’s book, right?) I don’t know who the illustrator is but will send a note up to JWT to see if a name can be credited. I wish Kimberley-Clark would migrate this to the Goodnites website.

Good advertising tells stories – to me, “Jungle” is a good ad.

Dancing Lesson

Jim Tidwell is not only the President and CEO of WEDGE Group. He’s also the largest individual fundraiser for the BP MS 150 Houston-Austin bike event (which is itself the largest Bike MS event in the US.

So – start with that. Contribute money to MS. At the same time, you’ll join the huge community of friends and colleagues which applauds Tidwell’s over-the-top antics for this good cause.

Once a year, every year, Tidwell makes a spectacle of himself…for fundraising. One year, he shaved his head for MS – and he’s kept it that way every since. He’s constantly trying to top the previous year’s clowning around.

Graphic designer Kay Krenek aids and abets this behavior by creating Tidwell’s annual flyer and – as you may note – this year they’re “Dancing with the Stars.” That’s Tidwell on the left. KTRK Channel 13 personality Dave Ward contributes to the star turn.

What I learned (again) from this year’s flyer is how critical attention to detail is to the concept. This could have been a hokey shot, played broadly…lotta laughs there. Instead, Krenek rounded up rather an impressive group, including photographer Mark Green and make-up artist Rebecca Stacy, to make Tidwell’s drag performance come off looking good.

The team shopped for Tidwell. Clothes. Shoes. (You’ve heard of Jimmy Choos? These are Jimmy’s Locomotives.) There were tryouts and fittings. Hours spent in the makeup chair. Until the new, remarkably classy Tidwell stood revealed as a terpsichorean eyeful. Tastefully done and just enough beyond a joke to make a bigger impact.

Coming to Houston – or starting from here – 18 April: the BP MS150. Get involved and do your part to keep Jim Tidwell off the dance floor. (No, Tidwell will NOT wear this outfit for biking.)

Krenek would want me to credit not only the photographer and the make-up artist, but also the retoucher (Ann Derby), the viedographer (Andrew Olson), the video editor (Shari Blakemore) and “the only place for ladies size 13 platform shoes” (Erotic Cabaret Boutique, Houston). Fun stuff.

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.

Fruitocracy’s Footsoldiers

Here’s a bottle of Fizzy Lizzy Yakima Valley Grape soda – eight flavors all in neat glass bottles that the FL website calls “soldiers of Fruitocracy.” Well known in among modern foodies, the NYC company’s been around for eight years. Naturally (when it comes to “natural”), I’ve been behind the curve: Barbara and I finally selected a test bottle at Phoenicia on Westheimer.

The beverage is carbonated water and fruit juices, which have been empirically balanced to get the flavors that the brand owners like. I hadn’t seen any advertising in Houston.

I’m in it not just for the taste but for the quite neat website.

I recommend it to your attention and you can read the entire story of Fizzy Lizzy right there. It is a fine blend of art and message that conveys the hand-crafted nature of the products. There’s more scattered in various corners of the Internet like DesignWorkLife.com; if this is the kind of product you like and aren’t already sucking down, check out Ms Lizzy and her products.

Slate Failure

Richard, don’t buy Slate cologne again.

You paid way too much for 3.4 ounces of “Eau de Toilette for Men.” (If you really want more, you can buy it online for, like, 40% less. Doh!)

You know Banana Republic, the retailer, made the sales experience very nice. The guy in the Rice Village store was engaged and professional. You’re the one who decided to buy it. One, ‘cause you needed more foofy water and were trying to find some. Two, ‘cause you were in a rush and Banana Republic was right there.

To be sure: It’s 100 milliliters of charming “fragrance notes,” citrus, silver sage and ginger root. But any claim of scent life that touts anything length of time over an hour is a foul canard – no pun intended. (That one website, saying scent life is 6-10 hours, well that stinks.) Slate smelled really good on you right out of the spritzer but it faded, it faded fast. After 50 or 60 minutes the stuff is unsniffable.

Packaging? Well, you fell for that. The 3.4-ounce bottle is heavy glass with a heavy silver-coated stopped that you’ve already dropped in the sink twice because of its unaccustomed weight. The box? “Natural wood box packaging,” according to Banana Republic, deeply black and also really heavy, with magnetic closures. Magnets. Case, bottle, cologne – the total weight of the thing is one pound.

A reviewer on one fragrance website mentioned the packaging specifically, thought it was great for collectors. In fact, like so many product classes today, you could have read the online reviews first: Fragrances, for men and women, is so fraught with science and art, it’s a special realm all its own. You’d benefit from guidebooking, dog.

To be fair, Richard, Banana Republic is guilty of nothing more than good merchandizing. You’d have been smarter to have purchased a Slate “mini” and tried it out first. Caveat emptor is the Latin you’re looking for. Sucka.

PS: The Banana Republic brand owner, Gap Inc., turns 40 this year. It’s just been ranked #1 Retailer among the 100 Best Corporate Citizens for the fourth year in a row. PPS: Do NOT buy this for yourself for your upcoming b’day!

T-Mobile Demonstrates…

Interested in guerrilla marketing? The recent ish of Marketing News features staff writer Elizabeth A Sullivan’s take, “Guerrillas in the mist” – about how this kind of thing is “made for tough times.” It’s a nice article. It doesn’t describe guerrilla marketing.

If you haven’t seen the T-Mobile Dance activity yet, look here on YouTube. It’s how T-Mobile in the UK puts its “Life’s For Sharing” brand to work

Brittany on Blog.DOmedia.com already brought the word: Kudos to T-Mobile, and agency Saatchi & Saatchi, for giving us something to laugh at and talk about . . . which was probably the point. I also love that they thought outside the silos…and instead focused on building a connection between the experience and the brand, using all the relevant tools at their disposal.

That’s guerrilla marketing.

Bacon Chockies!

We’ve been talking about healthcare and – possibly – living a long time. Let’s kick that idea in the head and move on, thanks to Susan Kirkland, Master Designer. She called my attention to a chocolate-covered bacon confection created by Roni-Sue Chocolates in that pleasure dome of culinary creation: New York City. Called Pig Candy, it’s crispy fried bacon strips, dipped in either milk or dark chocolate. (There is also a devilish item yclept Bacon Buttercrunch.)

This is in addition to the collections of truffles and other goodies which you can browse right on Roni-Sue’s website. ‘Course, this being NYC, there’s already an argument in print about just who makes the city’s “best” chockies. Along with the seven highlighted by the New York magazine article, a dozen or more people have pitched in with their choices…all scrumptious.

You can do this kind of word-of-mouth stuff in the City where there are ever so many glitterati and literati and cuisineers and just-plain opinionaters.

Kirkland points specifically to meat candy, though – and in this particular category, Roni-Sue doesn’t have an exclusive. For example, let’s look to the forums on Egullet.org and discover that Snowangel “Recently made Bacon Candy with bacon from Lenny’s meat market in New Ulm, MN. Also made some with ‘thin’ bacon ends from Hackenmueller's meat market in Robbinsdale.” Goodness, that’s tasty!

And then, from Vosges Haut Chocolat, there’s Mo’s Bacon Bar: “Applewood smoked bacon + Alderwood-smoked salt + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao.”

Enough. Enough. My cardiologist(s) will see far more of me if I keep this up. I can’t read Kirkland’s mind; maybe she’s reminding me that all work (healthcare, e.g.) and no play (say, chocolate bacon bark – what a lark!) makes Ree-shard a dull boy. Thanks, Susan! The next box of bacon chockies is on me.

Photo: Hannah Whitaker, New York, with appreciation. It appears in the copyrighted article, “Cocoa Locals,” February 8, 2009.

Knowable, Noble

Three days after an outstanding AMA-Houston Healthcare SIG seminar at Rice University, Houston pediatrician Dr Ana Malinow wrote in the Houston Chronicle about treating a six-year-old girl in a public clinic:

When I saw her, her hand was swollen to twice the normal size, purple, tender and warm to the touch, with a red streak (signifying an extension of…infection…to the bloodstream)…she was uninsured and had been sent home with a prescription that her mother tried to fill but was unable to afford. How much did the antibiotic…cost? $500.

The four speakers who addressed “Marketing Healthcare under a New Administration” were effective and humorous. Passionate. Completely engaged with almost 100 attendees. Each one lit up a different facet of the American healthcare system in crisis…a phrase that’s still stabbingly relevant as Malinow’s op-ed letter makes clear.

The nature of this blog makes it difficult to condense two hours of presentations and QAs into a few paragraphs. Still, I’m revisiting the event because of the high quality of the presentations.

Dr Lewis Foxhall, President of the Harris County Medical Society, delivered the overview and laid the foundations of the case, quickly but effectively covering present circumstances.

Memorial City Medical Center’s Tim Schauer addressed policy issues and made the case that pay-for-performance will never work because medicine is still a “practice.” He also spotlighted the nature of special interests.

Houston Wellness Association president Jonathan Lack portrayed wellness as key player in prospective solutions, emphasizing that workplace wellness is a productivity tool. He vividly revealed portrayed the challenges of community and public health. Lack contends that today’s medical center is a sick-care model and it’s considerably overburdened.

Yaffe Deutser’s President/COO, Brad Deutser, concluded with what might be called the “capitalist model” of marketing healthcare: The state of the economy isn’t going to change the number of affluent people but will change what the affluent people buy from doctors and dentists. He suggests that marketing effectiveness will still be an organizational survival mechanism, targeting more profitable prospects.

In presenting, Deutser unconsciously set the tone for my morning. One of his premises was, all target prospect information can be found – “Today, everything is knowable.” What I heard the first few times Deutser said this is, “Today, everything is noble.”

Compared to healthcare in some parts of the world, America has arguably progressed only slowly to noble. The most valuable transformation under the new administration in Washington, then, is redefining how our people deserve and receive healthcare.

My big takeaway from Thursday’s marketing seminar is that marketers can take more of a role, a noble role, in fostering improved healthcare access.

In an issue with so very many stakeholders (doctors, community activists, “ordinary” people, to name only a few), I want us to make it more. Don’t ask me how, yet. It can’t be just about the ads – or the brands. It’s can’t be just about knowing.

A survey’s being conducted now – if you’re invited to participate, fill it out please. I’ll report the results. Extra thanks to the quite large number of people who made this SIG event a success. Event photos by Suzanne Jarvis at Shutterfly. Graphic courtesy of Aceofhearts1968, Wikimedia.

Beaucoup Healthcare Advertising Includes Surgical Centers, Medical Tech.

I was at a Houston Wellness Association luncheon, sitting with Geri Konigsberg – she kindly asked me about my medical experience. At first I thought she was inquiring about my cardiological adventures, plumbing and electrical. She was actually checking out my credentials with healthcare and medical marketing. I froze up. It’s been so long since someone asked, my script didn’t default to “Auto.”

So in advance of the seminar tomorrow at Rice, perhaps I ought to refresh myself – and you.

My track record with marketing and advertising healthcare-related products and services falls into four broad categories. Together, they stretch back a considerable length of time.

The patient side of the profession: Medical and dental. That would be clients like St Michael’s Center for Surgery and SurgiCare, freestanding surgical facilities. The Brown Hand Centers. The Barrett Foot & Ankle Centers. Cancer prevention outreach programs for University of Texas/MD Anderson Cancer Center. A retail dental practice for Active Life. MedPlus (a medical clinic system before the name got picked up for an HIS vendor). Some programs are still vigorous and growing. Some are gone. That’s the nature of things.

For employees, I have worked on HR benefits programs for BP and Baker Hughes – I’m grateful for the chance to work on this kind of business ‘cause it opens up a completely different (but quite crucial) part of the healthcare equation.

I have crafted brand communications for medical hardware and software, from digitized mammography to cardiac pacemakers to bioinformatics software. My client list includes Unisys, Intermedics, Medtronics, Global HCA, LifeFormulae.

And there are the building blocks – components of medical systems from Exxon Chemical and DuPont, Abbot Laboratories and 3M (really proud of the flex-circuit ads like the one on the left).

With this kind of rehearsal, maybe I won’t blank again. It’s too rich a record to leave to chance. And thank you, Geri, for your patience.

PS: Feel free (really) to ask for the Richard Laurence Baron Healthcare Experience Sheet – I’ll send it posthaste.

Value Proposition

What’s your word for not-a-lot-of-money? “Value-priced?” “Inexpensive?” “Cheap?”

Despite today’s economic wobblies, there’s still a snooty reluctance to mention actual price in commercials and other advertising media. For years, Walmart’s TV executions, with their animated yellow smiley faces flying around the store like Pong icons with scissors, have been raked up one side and down the other by industry taste fairies. It seems like there’s still something wrong with calling inexpensive goods…adequate. It’ll do. Good enough.

This wasn’t always so, especially in ad examples from America’s Great Depression. In one story, I recall reading a 1930s department store owner put a sign up on a rack of men’s ties:

NOW TEN CENTS
They’re not very good ties
but at 10¢ they’re good enough.

(Anyone know where I can find the original of this retail tale?) Take another example, from one of inventor John Frier’s companies: Alox Shoe Laces. Like his POP sign says above, there are good sets and better sets.

In any hard economic cycle, “Best is the enemy of good enough.” But for reasons of entitlement or sensitivity, it’s not acceptable to say that some goods are better or less good than others. I wonder if that applies to the scale or complexity of the product.

For example, most people know that a 2009 Beemer M6 costs one hell of a lot more than, say, a 2009 Buick LaCrosse. And for about half the Buick’s cost, you can get an adequate car that’ll get you there and back…we understand the differences in these platforms. On the other hand, tell your friends that you’ve found a superb wine for $3.50 or $4.00 and you’re gonna get laughed at. (I suppose you ought to see what I wrote about Estación, below.)

Most retail conversations never say anything outright about the price-value relationship. Even Walmart has changed its apparent presentation to the world. I say “apparent” because it’s mostly thanks to Walmart that Americans can have such relatively high-quality goods at such low prices.

The company’s slogan these days is, “Save money. Live better.” Nothing wrong with that.

Deutser Preview

Talking in advance of this Friday’s AMA Healthcare SIG seminar, Brad Deutser thinks the new administration approach to American medical care is going to require a fundamental shift in how healthcare institutions communicate with – and market to – their customers.

“But we don’t know yet what the new policies will be,” he says. “The immediate challenges are underinsured and uninsured customers…more proactive recognition of this fact will lead the greatest value while serving a given institution’s mission.”

You can hear his take on what’s ahead when you join us Friday at Rice University. Click here for registration.

Photo: David A Farias/Houston Business Journal.

Healthcare Change?

In 1957, Parke, Davis felt that public perception of the high cost of a prescription was so negative, the drug company created and ran ads like this one. The dad on the left is shocked – shocked – that his buddy “…paid $9.00 to get that one prescription filled? Wow!”

Today, if you can get a prescription filled for $9, you feel like you’ve hit the jackpot. Today, we get a new administration in Washington that’s pledged to “do something” about healthcare in America.

So next week, AMA-Houston’s Healthcare Marketing SIG is putting on a big seminar: “Marketing Healthcare under a New Administration.” If you have anything to do with marketing, selling or advertising healthcare services and products, you better be signing up here.

The day and date: Friday, 27 February at 7.30 AM – the SIG’ll have a coffee-and-pastry bar set out for you. The location, Rice University’s Anderson Family Commons (Rice Blvd and Main, Entrance 20), is exactly the right venue for what we hope’s going to be a provocative mixture of marketing and public policy.

The seminar panelists include marketing executive Brad Deutser of Yaffe Deutser; Houston Wellness Association president Jonathan Lack; Lewis Foxhall, MD, President of the Harris County Medical Society; and Tim Schauer, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. They are going to help us envision the policy changes and marketing challenges that healthcare marketers will have to face in the next four years.

One point we made in the event’s write-up is that American medicine is a business (the Parke, Davis drug ad underscores that). But it’s a business that’s significantly affected by national healthcare policy. Marketing is “downstream” of policy; it’s critical on an operational or tactical level. You don’t think so? Check out Parke, Davis’s ad copy: “…you appreciate what good value you’re getting.”

That’s a hard, hard case to make 50+ years later. Today, nobody feels they’re getting bargains. Sign up now. Maybe you’ll find out how to change your prospects’ thinking.

Parke, Davis & Company is now a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Ad #MM0340, Medicine and Madison Avenue On-Line Project, John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History,Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections. Thanks.

Montgomery Brewpub

On the trip back from Atlanta, it was simple enough to program an address into the Tom-Tom: 12 West Jefferson Street, Montgomery, AL. That GPS thingy took us directly to the door of the Montgomery Brewpub just in time for lunch – with beer.

I don’t want you to think that every time Barbara and I go on the road, we navigate by microbreweries and pubs. Nothing could be further from the truth*. (We actually load the Tom-Tom with the addresses of Starbucks stores – Atlanta and Newnan, GA; Montgomery and Mobile; Slidell, Covington and Baton Rouge, LA…and so on. It’s easy: There’s a mapping function on the Starbucks site.)

Actually, we end up depending on AAA TourBooks more often than not. How come? Well, most microbreweries and brewpubs would rather leverage their “fan base” to build repeat business, rather than use relatively expensive classic advertising. True, this’s a generalization. But word-of-mouth can pay off big over time. Outlasting passing fads is a huge deal; being in the AAA TourBook for Alabama for years does pay off.

The Montgomery Brewing Company opened in October, 1995, in a building right in the heart of the city’s old Central Business District. The structure itself was built in 1913 by the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad to store heavy equipment. We’re coming up on this pub’s 14th birthday…and it’s hung in there.

We’re glad we showed up because we got to try a rarity: “Velvet Elvis” is a dark lager created by brewer Jamie Ray to bridge the gap ‘til it’s time to produce the next batch of stout. Classically, schwarzbier is a medium-bodied, malt-accented dark brew, colored a deep brown, with a chewy texture and a firm, creamy, long-lasting head. That’s what the German Beer Institute says and I’m sticking with it. The Montgomery Brewpub version was real good and so was the food. The staff seemed a bit distracted but served us well.

Sometimes you’ve got to search out the product – it won’t come searching for you. I know, that’s not supposed to be advertising’s role. But so many marcom roles have already shifted over the past decade. With WOM, you can put your advertisements where your (fans’) mouths are. Earlier this week, ours were in central Alabama. Filled with “Velvet Elvis.”

*Why yes, we did stop in Abita Springs for dinner. Why do you ask? Thanks to AAA (again) for roadtripping aids.

Cloud-Watching

Driving to Atlanta from Houston, Barbara and I passed the time by trying to remember the names of various types of clouds. Our combined mental powers were equal to the task. We nailed Cumulus and Stratocumulus, Cirrus, Nimbus, Platypus and Carbuncle.

I don’t know the name of this formation. I use it here to wish everyone Happy Valentine’s Day. Ta from Atlanta…

Photo: “Angels” by Hilleke, www.photoshoptalent.com

Darwin’s 200th

“Happy birthday, dear Darwin,”
Birds and bees and beasts all cheer.
If not the fittest yet, you will be.
Happy birthday.

Illustration: “Darwin 2” by Mythopoeikon, courtesy of Wired.com Photoshop Tennis, 2008.

Guns, Roses

Bless their pointy heads, lobbyists up there in the People's Democratic Republic of Austin [PDRA] are at it again. This time there’s a terrific ad opportunity for some brave company. The Houston Chronicle obtained the data under state open-record laws and has reported on our little problem several times, including today:

For the men, it’s pistols and venison. For the women, flowers and spa treatments. Around the Texas Capitol, gifts are a custom — and lobbyists are buying.

According to the paper, lobbyists delivered 124 flower bouquets; 120 sets of circus tickets (go figure); 70 cookie packets – and 66 pistols. Now let’s ignore two conflicting opinions for the moment. One, our elected officials ought not be taking gifts, lunches or junkets in any way shape or form. The other, an occasional bunch of flowers seems pretty harmless. (But there’s a slippy-slidy slope involved here.) I see…headlines!

“Ruger: The Representatives’ Choice.”

“Give the gift of firearms – Lobbyists do.”

“A dozen roses? A dozen State Senators can’t be wrong.”

I see ads, like the one above. The Texas Ethics Commission says gifting is not a good idea. But since everyone in the Lege thinks it’s okay, let’s make advertising out of it. Ta...

Ad by Prism Design, Inc., with my thanks. Suck UK ceramic gun vase from A+R.

Recessionista Cabernet

Right here in this post, I’m going to wrap the flagging economy around my cheap-assed habits. Friends and acquaintances like John Reeves and Amy Puchot have been chiding my taste for inexpensive wines for years.

Possibly they have used the term, cheap plonk. The tonier sort would refer to Rumpole’s Chateau Thames Embankment, from the eponymous BBC television series. I prefer you consider it a quest.

That’s it – a quest. Not for the Holy Grail but what might be sipped out of it. I seek nothing less than a great wine for as little lolly as possible. That’s not too much to ask, is it? Especially in these parlous times.

Now it just so happens that Burton Tansky is the president and CEO of Neiman Marcus. This knowledgeable expert was quoted in a recent AP article, saying: “The fashionista is now a recessionista.” (If you’re going to cite a retail source, you can hardly do better than that.) That same article mentions a number of well- or very-well-off people who are…downsizing…their displays of wealth.

Of course that’s not Richard – not wealthy, me. Hardly. I simply feel that drinkable wines don’t have to cost an arm and a leg (like, say, a gallon of gas). Believe me, I’ve done that and been there. Spent the bucks. Traveled to wine tastings in Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, Austin, Dallas. Had the cellar though that was back in Minnesota days when our house actually had a cellar. No more, no more.

Today I can truthfully announce I have not only achieved Tansky’s “recessionista” label. I have found the wine. For $6.50 you can buy a bottle of 2007 Estación Cabernet Sauvignon, from the Colchagua Valley of Chile, at Phoenicia on Westheimer. It is good, good wine – deeply luscious, deeply red and – at 14.3% alcohol – potent enough to make you feel quite excellent after a couple of glasses. $6.50 not including tax.

Along with this high-octane grape juice comes a fine website. You might enjoy visiting it because few of us really keep our eyes on what’s happening Web-wise in the Mercosur, of which Chile is an associate member. (Though in fact, the website is so polished – especially the English version – I wonder where it was created and programmed.) Nevertheless, Vina y Bodega Estampa SA spins a fine yarn.

The Estación brand identity is based Colchagua Station on the Ferrocarril de Palmilla train route, which was built in several segments over more than 50 years. It seems that the 1890 estación (¿Spanish for “station,” si?) borders the vineyards, although it looks abandoned in the website photo.

Every great brand benefits from a great story and Chilean wines have had a strong, inexpensive US market presence for years. Maybe it’s no big surprise that this Recessionista Cab has come along just in time for our slump.