Hanyel Helf, the Hanukkah Visitor, Comes to Every Jewish Boy and Girl.

Listen, Hanukkah begins tonight. And for you that means a…story!

For centuries, children have gathered around their elders hoping to hear about the holy holiday forebear that today is a great big secret while we publicly celebrate our Festival of Lights with the menorah and such like. (“Forebear” is like “ancestor.”)

This Signalwriter post isn’t about the eight-day celebration commemorating the rededication of Jerusalem’s Holy Temple 2,200 years back. It’s not about the strength of the Maccabees whose fight led to that triumph – read all about that in the Talmud – nor the story of the oil that miraculously lasted for those eight days.

No, not even about the menorah and the dredl, though both of these are part of the real story of our celebration.

This is about the Hanukkah Visitor, Hanyel Helf – the angel of Hanukkah who has come to good Jewish boys and girls in the alleys of ancient Judean cities and the 19^th Century shtetls of Eastern Europe, in New York’s Riverdale today and, yes, even in Texas. (Although you may not believe this.)

Hundreds of years before some jolly fat man was jammed into a red suit to become a mostly secular Christmas figure, Jews have known Hanyel Helf and kept him secretly in their hearts.

Maybe that’s because he could be an Angel of the Lord. Literally. Hanyel (Hebrew: הניאל‎, “Joy of God” or חַנִּיאֵל‎, “Grace of God”) is frequently identified as one of God’s seven archangels.

Now whether Hanyel Helf is really an archangel or even a man, well, the ancient sources are silent. But still, she or he is with us every day that Hanukkah is celebrated, visiting Jewish homes throughout the world.

He searches out each one of us – particularly the boys and girls – by the light of his menorah. (I told you I’d get back to this.) Then…then he spins the dredl.

Alright. Why does he spin the dredl? To determine just how you will be rewarded, or what you’ll be asked to contribute, in the Hanukkah days ahead. There are four Hebrew letters, right? Nun stands for the Yiddish word nisht or nichts (“nothing”). Hei stands for halb (“half”). Gimel for gantz (“all”) and Shin for shtel (“put”). Think of this as balancing out your life with rewards and contributions. No-Limit Texas Dredl doesn’t count although it’s good practice.

According to the scholars, Hanyel is supposed to be numbered among the Order of Principalities. Batting third in the angelic standings, the principalities are supposed to be caretakers over every nation on earth. So a little sharing doesn’t hurt that mission at all. That’s where the other name comes in – Helf or Helfe, for helping. Yes, that part’s Yiddish, sue me.

Not Santa Claus, see, but Hanyel Helf.

In what form will Hanyel Helf visit this Hanukkah? A literal angel of light and beating wings? An Iraq War veteran? A shaineh maidel? A deeply religious Hasid? It is possible you won’t immediately know Hanyel Helf when he comes. That’s alright, he will know you.

And so…happy Hanukkah!

*NOTE 1: The one-day world-spanning travels of Santa Claus are properly revealed as early High Church one-upmanship – it takes an archangel of God eight days to visit all the Jews and we are far fewer in number.)

NOTE 2: Oh, oh – can’t have Hanyel Helf visiting without a joke. A woman goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Hanukkah cards. She says to the clerk, “Please let me have 50 Hanukkah stamps.”

The clerk says, “What denomination?”

The woman says, “Oh my God, has it come to this? Give me 6 Orthodox, 12 Conservative, and 32 Reform.”

Thanks to Harry’s Black Hole for this, not such a fancy website but really funny jokes. Top photo: Group of Jewish Children with a Teacher, 1911, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. Bottom: Shabbat, © Rob Swanson, Dreamstime.com

Softness Worth Sharing: It's the Most Genuine Kleenex® Brand Campaign.

As of this morning, my Kleenex Brand Share Package – a small pack of “America’s Softest Tissue” – joined the 718,280 packs already sent free during this outstanding and warm-hearted campaign.

If for some reason (career death, wiping your nose on your sleeve, whatever) you haven’t reviewed this pitch-perfect marketing pitch, start with the TV commercial. Then go on to the Kleenex Brand website.

Note, among other things, the interactive graphics. The charm. The honest smiles. The nod to Norman Rockwell’s “Gossip” – look down there at the bottom of the web page. Check under the hood, too: the detailed operation of the Kleenex brand send-a-pack program is great. You can even track the “Chain of Sharing” online.

The program is also fully supported by print, like the most recent ad I’ve seen – and shown here. When you undertake a justifiably thorough review of the Share Package campaign, you will see that the print executions are not just knock-offs of the TV commercials or adaptations of web graphics, but have a gentle little edge. I’m wishing I had created “Get well, Mr Snufflepottomus.” Honestly.

This is outstanding thinking and outstanding creative. It proves again that you don’t need heavy metal or exploding cars to make a great campaign. This is what being a “Big Brand” is all about and I thank Kimberly-Clark Worldwide for bringing it to us. Gesundheit!

Let the Turkey Drive: Thankful with the Barons in 2010.

Happy Thanksgiving. May today be the start of your own personal trip to a bountiful 2011…Signalwriter.

Tricon Precast Gets a “Fighting Grade” Website from Barrett-Wehlmann.

When you pay any attention to it at all, it seems like “bricks and mortar” – the old infrastructure stuff. Precast concrete is nowhere compared to, say, tablet computers and social networks, or sex-appealing wind turbines.

In the NAICS 327390 world of “Other Concrete Product Manufacturing,” it’s an industry that makes its living manufacturing concrete products like barriers and bridges, sound walls and traffic dividers.

Except when highway construction interrupts your commute, though it is effectively invisible.

It’s no invisible business for Tricon Precast or for its web agency, Barrett-Wehlmann. Tricon Precast actively participates in precast concrete products. Its end-users are mainly infrastructure people, from state highway commissioners and roadway engineers to contractors of all sizes.

Whether the economy is hot or cold; whether civil engineering projects are shovel-ready or on hold, Tricon Precast works with professionals all over the region. Tricon Precast is rather like the man behind the man behind the gun and, as a result, its business is far more about technically rich information than brand presence.

That’s how Barrett-Wehlmann created the new fighting grade website for Tricon Precast. “Fighting grade” is a term not much used these days; but a few years back, it aptly described the roll-up-your-sleeves world of products and services whose benefits far outweighed the need for hype…quality-conscious and price-conscientious.

It ain’t fancy, this new website; it is tremendously functional. Barrett-Wehlmann principal Darrell Wehlmann, who’s also responsible for the SEO on this site, names the website attributes:

…in-depth information about its products and services...clear communication about the benefits of its precast concrete solutions….rich with content, technical data and downloads…easy to navigate and use.

On this project, James Grantham is the Creative Director; Carl Glatzel is the designer. Artist Mike Guillory created the 1950s-style illustrations on the HOME page, an excellent touch. And I wrote the copy – I’m always grateful to Barrett-Wehlmann for involving me in clients and projects that are just different enough from the everyday to be completely involving.

In Henry V, Shakespeare described what I take the Tricon Precast site to represent: “We are but warriors for the working-day.”

Thanks to clients B-W and Tricon Precast, I got to be this kind of warrior myself.

QR Codes for Mobile Marketing on Deck – Extinction of Dinosaurs Continues.

I was struck by the inevitability of mobile-phone access a decade or two ago, in Zurich. I sat with colleagues at dinner (Veltliner Keller in Old Town if you have to know) and a question came up about the cost of a new BMW of some arcane description. The owner of the German ad agency, Karl Woerlen, whipped out his “handi” and called a car-dealer friend in Freiburg, asked a question and then turned to us with the answer – at the time, in Deutschmarks.

This sounds dinosaurial today: an iPhone 4 delivers the world to your hand in about three seconds; price quotes for Beemers from not one but a dozen sources in half a dozen states is dead easy. There’s nothing I can write here that hasn’t been written a thousand times over – about smartphones and netbooks, tablet computers and apps out the wazoo.

Access to info (and gratification) is instantaneous, or at least as fast as your network. And now there are QR codes. See them in magazine and newspaper ads. Business cards. Drums of chemicals (for fast access to MSDS information via workers’ mobile phones).

What are these? Let’s ask QRstuff.com:

A QR Code (it stands for "Quick Response") is a mobile phone readable barcode that's been big in Japan forever, broke into Europe a while back, and is now getting traction in USA. In its simplest sense think "print based hypertext link" - simply encode a URL into the QR Code and then point a mobile phone (or other camera-enabled mobile) at it. If the device has had QR Code decoding software installed on it, it will fire up its browser and go straight to that URL.

Where are you going to put your QRs? (My website’s url, courtesy of QRstuff.com, appears at the top of the post.) As a test, I emailed my QR to my “expert” in this stuff, Barrett-Wehlmann principal Jim Proctor:

I’m not sure the QR is a good thing to use in an email. Might as well use a link to the content you want someone to go to. If I receive the email with an embedded QR on my laptop I have to scan it with my phone and then it’s just little content.

I see the QR making most sense in an offline mobile environment, like tradeshow graphics’ link to more content. Magazine ad links to motion graphics. Brochure links to video. Press release to VNR. It should be a way to bring something to life. The first good use of this I saw was in Golf Digest. It was an article on a certain swing technique and when you scanned the QR, it took you to a lesson with motion.

You and I are going to see a lot more QR codes as the technique makes its way from geek-stream to mainstream.

Most important, for the moment, you better believe that appropriate expansion of this on-demand technology falls right back on the shoulders of “wanna-know-that.” Think [1] fans: QR on a wine label gratifies with winery notes delivered to the mobile platform; QR on a car ad delivers in-the-driver-seat motion graphics. Think [2] information-critical: QR on freight containers sending content descriptions direct to security screeners’ phones.

Think [3] about the only constant: it’s going to be change and every time you laugh at photo of some guy with a QR code on his shaven head, it could be one more nail in techno-dinosaurs’ coffins.

PS: There’s a concise post, with how-to video, from Marion Group Advertising and Marketing – access it here, it’s worth a look. (Thanks to Brian Bearden for this link.)

SunGard Advertising – Wherever You Don’t Care Who Knows What Business You’re In…

I wish SunGard’s new ads told me faster what the business does. I saw a version of this ad in The Wall Street Journal. I had never heard of SunGard.

It’s an arresting photo-illustration, visually faster than the other new SunGard executions. But none of them quickly tell what the company sells. Neither does the slogan, “Wherever the mission is critical.”

In fact, it’s only in the second sentence that I discover SunGard sells software and technology services. That seems to be enough for SunGard and its ad agency, Young & Rubicam.

If you’ve just spent big bucks on creating a new advertising campaign and spiffy new website, with all kinds of customer photography; and you’re running a four-month buy in eight of the world’s broadest business publications, wouldn't you want a more obvious link between brand and business arena?

On top of that, those creative Y&R guys have a little visual letter-play going on the ads – and online, too. Various shapes and alphabetic initials are buried in each of the photographs which, when you know they are there, will enable you to spell out (ta-da!) S-U-N-G-A-R-D. In case you didn’t notice.

This technique is named steganography – writing a hidden message so that nobody, except for the sender and intended recipient, knows there’s a message. It’s what Wikipedia calls a form of security through obscurity. Perfect for expensive advertising, no? Uh…no. (The aggressive website uses Flash to reveal the letters buried in each major photo-illustration to make the gag more understandable.)

There’s a secondary theme: LOOK FOR US. Appearing modestly in ads and far larger on the website, It’s a more directive thought which – I suggest – might have made a stronger campaign, given the visuals with the cutesy code.

To wrap up here, according to that same site, SunGard is:

…one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies.  SunGard has more than 20,000 employees and serves 25,000 customers in 70 countries. SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector.

I didn’t know that. Probably would have enjoyed learning it. But not from these ads – even if the fire scene got me looking. 

Harold Borenstein in North Africa: A Veterans Day Post.

I was…invited to join the Army on December 2, 1941. The draft was already going and my number came up. From Madison, I went down to Fort Knox, Kentucky, with a bunch of other guys. I took a draft into the 1^st Armored Division and I’d never heard of them before. I was born in 1916 so I was already 26 when I shipped out.

Harold Borenstein, 94 this year, served with the US 1st Armored Division in North Africa and Italy.

We left Fort Knox, April 5, 1942 for Fort Dix, and left there on May 10 for Northern Ireland. I’d been to New York and of course, Sioux City, Iowa – for a whole day – but not any further. Sailing across on the Queen Mary, I was numb: seasick as could be, couldn’t eat a thing. I was one of a million guys…to the Army, I was just another piece of equipment.

After Ireland, I was loaded on another boat, Durban Castle. I didn’t know where I was headed so I thought I was going to France – that wasn’t it, thankfully. I never thought about North Africa ‘til I was on that ship and I landed in Oran as part of Torch.

The 1^st Armored was part of the Allied invasion of North Africa - Operation Torch – on November 8, 1942. Division units met unexpected resistance from Vichy-French units, but invasion forces suppressed all resistance in the beachhead area within three days.

We landed at Oran and drove 700 miles east to Tunisia. I was with Combat Command B headquarters, a driver of a White half-track (see photo). I greased that half-track, changed the oil, everything.  When we first landed, we went ashore and drove inland, past an airport. I thought the French would turn their guns on us because they knew where we were…either we’re going to get it or we not going to get it – it was out of our hands.

I was at Kasserine Pass and I was lucky, I got through it without a scratch. We spent a year in North Africa, two years in Italy. The best part was demobilization – I came back from overseas, through New York, trained to Chicago and then I was home.

You know, I traveled up and down Tunisia, many a night ride I had, trying to stop the Germans. And I went through dive-bombing in Tunisia. I said, “Harold, if you live through this you’ll be the nicest person in the world for the rest of your life.” That was the biggest lie I every told.

Today’s the day we remember: Paul Hirsch Baron, Emmanuel Katz and Sam Slavik. Tom Ritter. Phil Slavik. Norman Sabel and Sherman Sabel. Joel Hirsch Goldberg. Thomas Biddulph, Richard Dailey, Richard Fox, Bill Gay and Richard Sutter. David Starr. Frank B Foulk. Chris Hrabe. AJ Smith and Paul Hoven. John Naumann. James Hairgrove.

Herman L Eisenberg. Phillip Becker. George A Schuler, Jr., Alan Vera. Nathanael Charles Yonka, Jr. Hoi Nguyen and Ellis Alexander. The names from the Gunroom (you know who you are): Paul Johnson, KCMO, and “Charlezzzzz” Muñoz. Charles Rose and Bill Krull. Gary Bearden. Bernard Mazursky. Clarence Everett Latham and Irene Helen Phillippe. Meyer Horwitz. Irving Kaplan. Columbus D Reeves and Jimmy Reeves. And me – USN, ’68-’72.

Every year this list grows longer – you’re welcome to add names of your own, so we’ll always remember.

The Non-Profit Marketing Dance: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back.

Every non-profit has a story. But is anyone listening? There’s a great pair of opening lines from the Chairs of the AMAHouston Non-Profit Marketing SIG…part of the announcement about its special seminar coming up on November 16. That would be, “Say It Strong: How to Tell Your Non-Profit Story.”

Some non-profits have more socially compelling stories to tell: quite important ones about hungry children or entire hurricane-whipped populations.

But what about the non-profits whose operations and goals are not “difficult social problems?”

I asked Leigh McBurnett, Executive Director of Dominic Walsh Dance Theater (DWDT). This is a Houston-based contemporary ballet company that aims to “inspire and entertain audiences and artists with visually stunning performances.” It offers innovative, even thought-provoking modern work by founder Walsh and other leading US and international choreographers – but not exactly world peace.

We’re in a different situation – we not only have to tell an engaging story, but we have to build the vocabulary. “Contemporary ballet” is a new term. We want to explain dance and the choreography that supports it. Using this kind of story, we’re trying hard to reach out to non-dance audiences, well beyond our own supportive core group.

Is anyone listening to the Dominic Walsh story?

We worked inside our little bubble – how do we go about bursting out of that? We know we have to get beyond ourselves, to focus more on engaging the fun.

Part of what’s driving DWDT today is market research. Surprise! People go to the performing arts for entertainment…not because it’s socially correct, or they’re supporting the arts, or even a particular organization.

These days we story-tell diversion. We know we need to engage the public with fun pieces and witty headlines, like “Not a tutu in sight!” We’re making small but significant steps.

We made a real leap – no pun intended – by forming a marketing committee, which automatically increased our number of community advocates. Our marketing Chair has kept after us to keep telling a cohesive story. And we’ve boosted our use of social media because we couldn’t afford to get louder. We got smarter instead.

So even though we know we’re still only reaching a quite small percentage of the population, we’re focusing on trying to tell those more engaging stories, with new audience-reaching methods.

Whether the story involves an art form or a social challenge, generating audiences and raising funds have never been exactly easy. Even when an organization makes real progress, it can slip backward when the next recession comes along.

Well, the AMAHouston Non-Profit Marketing SIG aims to help sharpen the tool set with “Five secrets to creating an engaging narrative.” Our five-member panel includes the founder and CEO of Recipe for Success, Gracie Cavner; and one of her leading Board members,  Monica Pope, executive chef and owner of t'afia Restaurant.

You will also learn from Ashley Latham Dennis, development associate at the Houston Zoo; Living Forward Alliance’s CEO/founder Maria Francis; and Eric Roland, senior director of marketing for Legacy Community Health.

Join us by clicking here to reserve a spot for Tuesday, November 16. I say “our” and “us” because I will be the event moderator, thanks – I promise there’ll be no dancing around the tough parts of this subject.

Thank you: Photo by Amitava Sarkar, InSight Photography. All rights reserved.

Post-Election, Signalwriter Celebrates the Amazing United States of Everyone.

Ever since I woke up this morning, I have been trying to parse just why I’m loving this post-US-election day feeling of exhilaration. (Parse = “to examine in a minute way, to analyze critically…”) Fortunately, I was Skyping with Swiss Dialogue International colleague Peter Thoma and he came up with the answer.

Regardless of my own political leanings, I have always considered that American politics is a raucous blend of punch-‘em-up claims, reasoned analyses and strong emotions. Anybody who doesn’t get this is sort of ignoring 200+ years of American history, as far as I can tell – it’s been going on that long.

Just a couple of days ago, I heard that blogger John Podhoretz called US politics something like the greatest public theatre in our nation’s history, bar none. (Podhoretz himself’s no wallflower, with published comments like, “…the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Carl Paladino, went out with a concession speech for which the word “psychotic” would seem to be an understatement.”)

Newspaper commentaries with screaming and yelling in them have been hard to ignore. I have listened to radioheads being alternately exuberant and abrasive; and TV talk-show hosts have used language (about political candidates) that my momma wouldn’t have put up with for a minute. What a ride…and there’s almost nothing to do with advertising and marketing in it. Well, some.

The amount of cheering and weeping, gnashing and wailing on Facebook is equally daunting, especially since so many of the comments come from colleagues and friends in other parts of the world. I thought, “Come on now, I don’t post nasties about the election in Spain, say; or the recent changes in EU laws.” What gives all these people the right to criticize us?

Then Thoma repeated a different conversation he’d had, in which he replied, “America’s not our country.”

I realized (again): America is!

American is – absolutely – Peter’s country and Alison’s in Cambridge; Tom’s country, even though he’s in Prague, and Graham’s (same locale) and Abdol’s in Jeddah. Heck, it’s even the country of people like RL Stine, who’s just been quoted saying, “I’m so glad I live in New York City and not in the United States.”

Everyone feels free to say what they like about America right out loud because it is everyone’s country. No other nation I can think of gives the entire population of a whole planet the freedom to say whatever it likes about how America looks, how America acts, how America worships – and so on. Amazing.

Happy just-after-the-election day, everyone. It’s your election, too.

PHOTO: Conceptual American Flag Maze © Suljo | Dreamstime.com

More Packaged Goods: Is Personalizing Your Oatmeal Experience…Better?

This is probably the kind of post that will make the brand marketing people at Malt-o-Meal and Hunter Public Relations cry – or laugh out loud. When they introduced a complete new product line – Better Oats – they did everything “marketing” that could be expected of them. And still, I only noticed the products when Signalwriter’s personal shopper saw a “good deal” on a box at the supermarket.

The Better Oats parent is Malt-O-Meal which has been around since 1919 and it’s pretty well-recognized these days as the value brand in most stores’ breakfast cereal aisles. Now they’ve put their thinking caps on to revolutionize the instant oatmeal category. (Yes, one of the new sub-brands is “Oat Revolution.” Sigh.)

It’s possible they’ve succeeded – and I almost missed it. But I’ve got to say that I’m really happy they didn’t try too hard to position it on the “personalized oatmeal experience” idea. That line’s in the introductory press release:

With 34 different offerings, Better Oats provides consumers with the ability to personalize their oatmeal experience with varieties like traditional Oat Revolution™, Oat Fit™ for the weight-conscious, mmm…Muffins™ for a sweet start to the day, Lavish™ to satisfy chocolate cravings and Oat Revolution™ Thick and Hearty for an old-fashioned oatmeal experience instantly. Varieties of Mom’s Best Naturals® – which include Plain Grain Organic and Dark Chocolate – are found exclusively in the natural food/organic aisle in supermarkets nationwide.

It’s not like America needs more kinds of instant oatmeal (or maybe, right before a contentious election, it really does). But my ad guy’s porkpie hat is raised to the entire Better Oats team because every launch detail is right, in my opinion. There’s fine packaging and an interesting collection of sub-brands, plus some useful waste-reducing ideas. There’s the quite-alright website…clean and simple and attractive.

The Better Oats brand line has gone on the road with a “Grains of Change” tour* and that’s connected to a Facebook fan page and trial stimulator, complete with a coupon (which I have downloaded and used). And I have kitchen-tested the “oatmeal experience” by consuming servings of the mmm…Muffins and Oat Revolution varieties. They are good and there isn’t much in the way of unnatural ingredients in ‘em.

Missing the introduction is a question of noise level. This is a crowded category. And do Americans need another complete line of breakfast cereals? On the other hand…breakfast is good for you. If you eat breakfast, you’re likely to promote healthy eating habits. And oats – oats are good for you, too. So if a company can actually make a successful additional entry into this category, it’s worth a lot for us as consumers to try something healthy and…novel (which the Better Oats lines are). And Malt-O-Meal can take over more of a grocer’s shelf with packaged goods that deliver excellent margins, thank you very much.

Maybe making instant oatmeal more personally tailorable is exactly right for the second decade of the 21^st Century. After all, breakfast cereals are the third most popular grocery story category, I have read. Better products and more comprehensive marketing will always gain new products (like Better Oats) a place at the table. Go for it, oatmeal guys!

*I know it’s tongue-in-cheek but shoot “Otis Wholegrainer – Oatmeal Czar” anyway – that idea is…unrevolutionary.

When to Market American Success? “Mission Accomplished” in Chile.

In the wake of the rescue of the now world-recognized Chilean miners, there’s no doubt about the immense dedication and bravery shown by the people and the government of the Republic of Chile. Well done, that nation!

From the point of view of global marketing, I am repeating a post which has been traveling round the Internet. I have tried to add links to the companies involved. Let’s start with...

Schramm Inc of West Chester, PA built the drills and equipment used to reach the trapped miners: “…a Schramm T685 rig drilled the hole that located the miners, and that our T130XD rig is being used for Plan B to expedite their rescue.” Center Rock Inc, of Berlin, in the same state, built the drill bits used to reach the miners.

UPS, the US shipping company, delivered the 13-ton drilling equipment from Pennsylvania to Chile in less than 48 hours. Then crews from Layne Christensen Company of Wichita, KS, and Chilean subsidiary Geotec Boyles Bros SA worked the drilling equipment to locate and reach the miners and then enlarge the holes to ultimately rescue them.

Jeff Hart of Denver, CO came from his job drilling water wells for the US Army’s forward operating bases in Afghanistan to lead the drilling crew that reached the miners. And Greg Hall of Houston-based Drillers Supply International provided additional planning and expertise.

Atlas Copco US’s Construction and Mining Technique, Milwaukee, WI consulted about the integration of drilling equipment from different sources, so the pieces would work effectively together under differing pressure specifications.

Central California Video Engineering and Manufacturing Co of Fresno, CA designed the special cameras that were lowered nearly a mile into the ground to send back video of the miners. Zephyr Technologies of Annapolis, MD made the remote physiological status monitoring (PSM) devices that the miners wore during their ascent.

Engineers from NASA designed the “Phoenix” capsule that carried each miner to the surface: and provided medical consulting, special diets and spandex suits to maintain miners’ blood pressure as they’re brought back to the surface.

One more thing: sunglasses maker Oakley “…provided the $400-a-pair eyewear that protected the miners’ eyes from the sun they hadn’t seen in months.”

Adam Hanft, CEO of brand strategy firm Hanft Projects, has talked about the Chilean miners and marketing. The best way they can mine their 15 minutes of fame, he said, is “by being humble and letting the world fall in love with them.”

Thanks to this event in Chile, the world has seen genuine American know-how in (successful) action. We have a lot more of it than most people credit these days; now’s a pretty good time to market it all more aggressively...but humbly. Thanks to the President for pitching in.

Note: I didn’t create the bones of this post; I don’t know who did. It’s been thought-provoking, though – many thanks. Photo of the T130XD heavy-duty, heavy-hoist, carrier-mounted drill rig from Schramm. All rights reserved.

Speaking of Beer, Product Sampling Is a Time-Tested Way to Market.

Today’s post is driven by several elements, not least of which is an article in this morning’s Houston Chronicle business section. You’ll see it offers important facts on which I have based this…argument.

Then there’s the well-recognized technique of product sampling, a long-honored method of capturing the attention of would-be consumers.

Finally, there’s the note from an anonymous Facebook correspondent (alright, it was Donna Collum) which said, “Dang, u drink a lotta beer, dude!”

Starting from back to front: Frequency, yes. Recency, yes. Quantity, no. I have undertaken the consumption of beers out of a pure desire for marketing efficiency. I’m completely focused on sampling beers I haven’t tried before, on the theory that I am [a] determining which brands and styles of beer are…worthy…of future drinking; and [b] supporting the growth of an industry which is important locally, regionally and nationally.

Lofty goals! I don’t drink a lot of beer – I try a beer a day or every couple of days, usually one I haven’t tried before. I go back and “repeat sample” a beer whose various complexities are not firmly fixed in my mind. Sometimes, this takes two or three tries but you get the point. It’s all about discrimination and moderation.

Then, because mine is a scientific evaluation using this particular marketing tool, I carefully record each sampling on RateBeer.com, one of several on-line beer-rating groups which allow true “crowd-sourcing” of beery experience. I am a minor sipper compared to other RateBeer colleagues. Virginian BeerandBlues2 has 3,700+ beer ratings, for example; the doughty product-tester has been hard at work since 2003.

When possible, product-sampling can play a big role in branding and marketing. Here’s sampling researcher Cindy Johnson:

Product sampling can often work on its own to convert a targeted group of consumers. If the trial experience is strong and consumers are convinced to purchase the brand, no further spending is necessary to win with that target…There’s no advantage to layering marketing tactics and spending more against the same target, if trial alone convinces them to buy your brand.

Micro-breweries and regional craft brewers put product sampling to use because they don’t have the tools (read: buckets o’money) that the national and international brewers do. It’s an underlying factor in “Swimming in Beer” by Chronicle writer/blogger Ronnie Crocker. He reiterates the point that craft-brewed beer business is booming, while the “major producers are hurting and sales of imports are down…”

Generating attention and “drinkership” via product sampling is the best way undercapitalized local brewers can gain sales and market share. Brock Wagner is taking St Arnold Brewing Company to a production capacity to 50,000 barrels a year through missionary marketing and pour promotions, not classic media advertising (which Wagner has historically disdained).

I started out to have some fun with this topic and have ended up more aware of a couple of key marketing points. One, I hope, is reinforcement of the idea that there are very many marketing tools and we – as marketers – ought to be familiar with most of them.

Thanks to friends and colleagues for highlighting and supporting my beer-testing. I doubt I’ll ever get to 3,700 beers. But I expect to enjoy those that I do try and do some brand-marketing good along the way.

PS: Will blog for beer!

In the Sun Chips Bag: a Lesson in Marketing Innovation and Demand Generation.

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t know Sun Chips is getting out of the eco-bag business? In another high-volume “end of the world as we know it” outcry, the eco-pundits have already massively condemned Frito-Lay, from the local (Lauren Marmaduke, Houston Press) to the national (Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones)

Marmaduke is a blaster: “…the morons at Frito-Lay.” Sheppard’s more balanced: “I don't necessarily blame Frito-Lay. It’s a corporation and its job is to keep customers happy (and make money), so I can forgive them a little timidity on the issue, given that Sun Chips sales were apparently plummeting.”

Let’s take this single paragraph as a guide to seeing where perceived social good and marketing intersect, and what happens then. The Wall Street Journal’s Eric Felten exposes pundits’ contempt for American consumers while defending the market process: “You can add the Sun Chip bags to the pile of eco-virtuous products that consumers found less desirable than the traditional products they replaced.” (This sentence, I believe, is key.)

Felten’s must-read article fairly describes the market process and how it works, when it comes to consumerism. Eco-products have to work better than the items they aim to replace. Or the marketplace will drive them out.

Frito-Lay, like many consumer companies, is superb at introducing new lines: I wrote about its Flat Earth Baked Veggie Chips here. And when these Sun Chips biodegradable bags were introduced, Frito-Lay was a hero yet again. This week, it’s a goat.

To build a Matt Ridley argument, the introduction and marketing of biodegradable Sun Chips packaging with its subsequent glowing praise; the bags’ elimination with its screaming (and one-sided) condemnation; and the company’s pledge to find a more consumer-friendly replacement are all part of “the perpetual innovation machine that drives the modern economy.”

Now will you please stop whining about the damn bags.