We recently vacationed in the Keys and as we drove between Key West and Big Pine Key, we passed this plane numerous times. My husband pointed out that he couldn’t understand why they would use such a broken down old plane to advertise their skydiving service. Skydiving is dangerous enough. You’re guaranteed certain death if you go up in this plane.
It made me think about how some organizations and business are so poorly represented through their marketing…and don’t even realize it. I think we talk a lot about what TO DO, so I want to concentrate a little on what NOT to do and a few glaring examples that I’ve seen lately.
- Sky Dive Plane – There is no friggin way you’re getting me in a plane run by these people. Period. Whether your organization is 5 months old or 50 years old, always put on your best face and appear shiny and new.
- Pizza Hut – Their commercial for the new “natural” pizza scares the crap out of me. What was in their pizza before? I assumed items that came from nature. Apparently not so. Were they using genetically cloned pigs for their sausage? Moral: Be careful in your word choice when promoting a program or initiative. What you say will leave a lasting impression.
- Tide - I only saw this commercial once and it stuck with me. Its pretty benign, but it did make me wonder – what’s in Tide anyway? Tide ran a commercial that stated other brands only contained 10% of cleaning product while Tide contained over 50% cleaning product. The rest of the bottle is water. I always assumed that Tide was 100% cleaning product. So in their bid to be better than the rest, they uncovered a fact that I never knew. Only half their product is actual cleaning agent. Like I said, not a big deal and I’ll still use Tide, but it did make me stop and think.
- Stinky Yoga Guy - If you’ve seen this commercial, you know what I’m talking about. I believe it’s actually an insurance commercial, and it features a fat, sweaty and assumably stinky guy doing yoga. He is repulsive. The commercial is repulsive and I would never buy anything from this company. There is a fine line between being edgy and being offensive. Don’t be the latter. If you are unsure about pushing the envelope, ask someone who is more conservative than you. Then find a balance.
I’ve got a few other examples of poor marketing tactics that I will share later on. When developing a marketing campaign, it’s usually easy to avoid being too offensive but sometimes simple words can detract from the message.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
RE: the Pizza Hut commercial…I saw that and thought to myself, “are these people for real?” If I was given that pizza to sample, I probably would have said “Hey, this tastes like Pizza Hut pizza!”
Kind of shows how crazy/stupid/lulled we can be.
A run down looking airplane can be more mechanicaly ‘sound’ than the sparkly and shiny one. But the human at the controls is the real difference.
The ‘natural’ pizza is just stupid. How different can pizza get? Good or bad, when are we going to realize re-naming something is just that.
It doesn’t really matter what percentage is water or cleaning agent. If it works better than your competitor that’s all that’s needed right? And I suppose if you went to 100% cleaning agent right off the bat. They wouldn’t be able to increase their concentration and call it ‘improved’.
Fair enough, Nick. But when I saw the plane (and the Pizza Hut ad and the Tide ad) it was more about perception for me. Sure, flying definitely hinges on the pilot, but you didn’t see that plane. Dirty, dingy and broken down is no way to instill consumer trust. As for the pizza – yeah – that was just stupid. And the Tide, I totally agree with you from a business perspective, if you start off at 100%, where do you go from there? But I did think that it was odd that they even brought up the water. Now, when I use Tide I think…is this really cleaning my clothes? (Which I really wouldn’t have thought about before.) And for the record, I just bought a big jug of Tide, so I guess it didn’t bother me that much. Great feedback, Nick!