(Write Marketing
Strategy Seminar: Part III. Section 2.)
Step four of our guide on how
to write
marketing strategy asked you to determine what you can afford to spend
to sell each unit of product or service. That cost is not always
financial. This article addresses the corporate
emotional cost of giving up turf in order to achieve a sales objective.
Sometimes a marketing
strategy can
overcome internal turf wars, resolve a client-agency impasse. (The McDonald
& Little ad agency and Coca Cola Marketing & Advertising fought
tooth and nail over the proper introductory positioning of Mello Yello. In
a moment you'll learn how that dispute was settled.) A bold marketing
initiative can even
can get people to work together as never before. Do your spadework
thoroughly, though. Corporate turf has deep roots.
Dice.com
Aetna/Partners National Health Plans
Mello Yello
Eastern Airlines
You?
I.
Dice.com, the leading IT job board
in the late 1990's, ran ads in technical magazines to attract users and
out-bound telemarketing to attract recruiter listings. In late 1998, I was
asked what Florida publications might increase site visitation.
I
proposed a then unheard-of marketing strategy: Dice should use radio to reach IT pros in RADIO - on their way to and from work -
tempt them with the juicier jobs available locally or elsewhere.
After a brief test, we rolled out "Click the Dice" in spot and network radio, followed by cable TV and some print.
In 18
months site traffic rose from 125,000 HPH a week to well over a million and
a half. Dice's Sales Department in Des Moines had to recoup all the
ad dollars up front. Sales and Marketing lived in different parts of
the building and rarely had much contact with each other. (Click the pic to see a :30.)
We taught the
sales force to pre-sell the anticipated surges
in hits to local recruiters. The extra subscriptions funded all the media before it ran. The campaign quickly became its own profit center. Job listings rose from 50,000 to
243,000. Revenues rose from $14 to $40 million. In the IT category,
Dice was second only to Monster, which outspent us 20:1. In mid 2006, the site sold for $200 million.
Details.
II.
Aetna, the 500 Voluntary Hospitals
of America, and 40,000 affiliated doctors proposed a joint venture PPO in the mid-1980s.
The product strategy was simple.
The target audience would
include benefits administrators and employees of larger firms, all of whom
were interested in reducing health insurance premiums. Aetna would
offer novel ways to reduce CLAIMS - weight loss and stop-smoking programs,
plant safety measures, etc. We could expect resistance from people with
long-term competitive contracts. The ads were supposed to help the
sales force get in the administrators' doors and give the brand instant
credibility among employees, who'd eventually have to choose between us
and, say, Blue Cross.
Unfortunately, all
three players were inherently suspicious of each other and couldn't agree on anything.
As a
consultant to Lord, Geller, Federico, Einstein, I suggested we Pull Up
Turf: the brand
name must induce all three adversaries to bury their mutual hatchets.
"Choose Your Partners Well" talked about cooperation rather than
price. The customer became, of course, the fourth
"partner." Click the pic for the Intro :30 TV.
Partner's National Health Plans debuted in 1985.
Aetna divested its share in the late 1990's
to gain government approval for another HMO venture. I understand the
brand does about a billion and a half in annual premiums these days.
How much is your corporate
turf worth?
III.
Coca Cola was concerned with the
rapid growth of Mountain Dew and sought to cover the brand with a similar
citrus-flavored soda. Conventional Coca Cola Marketing &
Advertising wisdom dictated a
similar "Country/Hillbilly" image.
As a writer at McDonald &
Little, Atlanta, I did something unheard of. I read Mountain Dew's
Nielsens and SAMI reports. Why, I wondered, did MD get 10% of its
sales from gas station vending machines - 10 times the industry average?
Three focus groups later I concluded that Mountain Dew's success was due to
its low carbonation and high caffeine content, not to its image. Kids
who pumped gas at hot Exxon stations, for example, could guzzle a cold
bottle in one gulp.
After 700
names, 65 campaigns, and months of internal bickering, McDonald &
Little finally recommended my brand - Chuggle - and won the account.
The name died (mercifully!). Someone in the vast Coca Cola Marketing
& Advertising machine came up with Mello Yello.
The marketing strategy, though, was bullet-proof.
Mello Yello debuted as
"The World's Fastest Soft Drink" and quickly gained a 5% share of
market. It was Coca Cola's most successful new brand since Tab.
Lesson:
Don't assume conventional wisdom is correct. Dig for the facts.
IV.
Eastern Airlines was, perhaps, the
most disliked major airline in America. Service was surly. Flights were
usually late. Baggage often disappeared. The friction between
Stamford, CT management, Miami operations, and the unions was
palpable.
Astronaut Frank Borman was
brought on to solve the problem. He asked his agency, Young &
Rubicam, NY, creators of "The Wings of Man" campaign, what to
do. Twelve writer/art director teams were commandeered into a massive
"push." I was a junior copywriter in a small windowless office on
the 7th floor of 285 Madison Avenue. I sent in a brief memo.
"What if
all the employees - from baggage handlers, to flight attendants to ticket
agents - behaved as professionally as the pilots? What if, instead of just
earning a union wage, "We Have to Earn Our Wings Every Day?"
I won the
push. I wrote the first six Borman TV spots and a dozen or so ads.
For the next three years, the 40,000 employees in 104 markets actually responded to the invertising
marketing strategy.
Eastern won back a lot of disgruntled customers. My line
was Y&R's highest recalled theme of the entire decade.
But then
some bright soul took "..have to.." out of the line... and turned
"We Earn our Wings Every Day" into a jingle. The challenge
evaporated. The old
management - union battles were rejoined. EAL's cost per passenger mile rose to the highest in the airline industry.
Price wars eventually finished off what
the internal turf wars had begun.
Eastern died in 1982. I
suppose I wrote the
epitaph. Lesson: Turf has deep roots.
V.
You?
Do
turf wars hobble your brand? Does internal squabbling prevent your
sales, marketing, online and operations staff from reaching your company's
goals? How could advertising, or invertising, marketing strategy help them all
concentrate on a common target?
How could you pull up some turf by the
roots, too?
For further
information, browse this site or call Peter Burkhard at (407) 895-3092.
Write Marketing Strategy Seminar
