It seems like everything is closing down.

Londre, one of the 2 Guyz on Marketing, saw an article that used the line from a Princess Cruise executive: “We need to get out of the headlines.”

Princess Cruises, part of Carnival Corp., has cancelled all of it voyages for the next two months. Two of their ships, the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess, have been front and center of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. These ships have had to quarantine thousands of passengers.

The U.S. State Department has advised Americans not to take cruises. Bookings have plummeted.

Larry and his wife and I have cancelled three cruises in the past six days.

Larry has taught for 45 years. At select times he’s communicated and presented on the concept of demarketing. What is it?

It’s the use of advertising and PR to decrease demand for a product that is in short supply.

We are be seeing, for sure, “The use of all communication to decrease demand for a product that is in short supply.”

One more definition from dictionaryreference.com: “Advertising that urges the public to limit the consumption of a product, as at a time of shortage.”

It’s not about limiting consumption, it’s about a pandemic and safety.

How do we measure marketing, advertising, and PR strategies and tactics? Well, we often argue about what is great, but we rarely (if ever) argue about what’s bad. Very simply, marketing that makes us cringe.

Bad marketing is more than just wasted time or money. It’s lost opportunity. The 2 Guyz Larry created the 9 P’s of Marketing (Planning, Product, People, Price, Promotion, Place, Partners, Presentation, and Passion). There is so much that goes into good marketing, that’s it’s easy to go astray. Unfortunately, for some, it’s easy to turn not-so-good marketing into bad marketing.

Bottom Line: Some ads should have never run, some press events should never have happened, and some brands have just taken terrible turns for the worse.

A major lesson learned: If anyone in a client meeting or in the approval process should have said, “No way,” listen to them, and take another look at what you are doing.  

So, for your marketing “guilty pleasure”, we present to you, the 2019 Baddie Awards!

cringe  •   /krinj/   verb

bend one’s head and body away from an ad or promotion in fear or in a servile manner.

“they cringed away from the ad and thought negatively about the brand, for almost forever.”

1. (tie) Juul

Juul’s “Product.” Mint was their most popular showing mint’s huge popularity among underage and teenage vapers.  Mint accounted for about 70% of Juul’s sales in the U.S.  Juul Labs has immediately stopped online sales of their mint “Products” in October, it was last month that Juul Labs announced that they would stop the sale of flavors other than tobacco, mint and menthol.

1. (tie) Santa Anita Race Track

Santa Anita Race Track, with its 37 racing and training deaths of horses. Do we need to continue a sport which horses die at a rate of 1.68 for every 1000 starts?  Think about track and field and human. How is this acceptable to entertain bettors and race track goers? During the 2019 season, there were 493 horse racing fatalities. Enough is enough.

3. Political Ads

Any 2019 political ad, since most are not believable. We can’t wait for 2020. That’s sarcasm.

4. Cheez-It Pizza

The stuffed Cheez-it pizza from Pizza Hut. It gets on our list because of how it looks. 

5. M&M’s

M&M’s running the “Spy” spot in their cinema advertising, running over and over and over. This cinema spot appeared on last year’s list and is on again. Still running. Enough is enough. Frequency of obnoxious ads makes them worse.

6. IHOP

IHOP’s Happy Mother’s Day to ALL the moms out there!” They tweeted a bizarre image of a towering pile of pancakes seemingly stacked inside a woman’s body, via an ultrasound. Inappropriate image and promotion. “If you have pancakes in your tum tum does that make you a pancake mum mum?”

7. Movie Pass

Last September 14, 2019, MoviePass was shut down. MoviePass, the subscription service that spent enormous amounts of venture capitalists’ money subsidizing movie tickets in a bid to upend the theater business model, is officially died. Last year Movie Pass said it had 2,000,000 subscribers at $9.95/month, letting movie goers see a movie a day. 30 movies a month. When it seems unbelievable, it usually is. Too much demand. Couldn’t sustain and had to take out loans. Dropped from 30 movies a month to 3, plus limited access to wide-release movies during peak demand. Not the same deal. Couldn’t generate any more investor money. DOA.

8. Tesla

Tesla’s Pickup Cybertruck Press Conference. Tesla is cool. Elon Musk is cool. But who told them to demonstrate breakproof glass by throwing a rock at it…twice?!?!? And doing without being 100% sure it would work. That was a PR gaff that will be remembered (and enjoyed) by many years to come.

9. Facebook

Facebook. Facebook makes over $50 billion a year. They have more than a billion users. Yet they just can’t seem to get this whole “security” thing together. This year we learned more about Cambridge Analytica and their access to all of our private data, data breeches, fines (some $5 billions of fines from the FTC alone!) Facebook…we like you, but we don’t need you to survive. You must protect our data better, or we will leave, and many are threatening to do so in anticipation of the 2020 elections!

10. Boeing

The 737 Max Scandal has really tarnished Boeing’s once rock-solid image.

The Boeing 737 MAX is a narrow-body commercial aircraft series, the fourth generation of the Boeing 737. FAA has said it again, and again: Boeing’s 737 Max is not ready for certification.

It all started with Popeye’s introducing a new chicken sandwich. It consists of some chicken on brioche, with pickles and mayo. That’s it. This was way back, a little more than two weeks or on Aug. 12.

Chick-fil-A tweets out a simple, harmless tweet that lays claim to being the first with the sandwich, not even mentioning Popeye’s.

And the gauntlet was thrown down.

Popeye’s responded, and a chicken sandwich war had become. Shots across bows. Hashtag mania. Tons of PR.

Some tweeted that they now could get a great chicken sandwich without supporting Chick-fil-A’s politics. Others made racial slurs about the target audiences. And even celebrities jumped into the fray.

And now, not even three weeks later, Popeye’s has just announced that, while the purchased enough to supply stores with sandwiches through September, they are official sold out of the new sandwich. Which in turn is causing even more publicity?

Londre asks “Was this all planned?”  Some was. Most wasn’t.  Add the “planned” scarcity and publicity and sometimes you can strike gold.  There’s a concept of “scarcity marketing,” which is a technique or principle that “People (one of the nine P’s) may want what is difficult to obtain. If an event is SRO (standing room only) don’t “people” want to get in?

Apex Marketing Group, a consulting firm in Michigan, has released a report estimating that Popeye’s received $23.25 million in free advertising as a result. Popeye’s ad agency, GSD&M, which also oversees social media for the chain, is clucking with happiness.

Popeye’s Twitter following has grown more in three weeks, than in nearly three years.

Will it have staying power? Time will tell.

Sounds like a victory for Popeye’s. And maybe a taste test for the 2 Guys On Marketing…when the sandwiches are back in stores!

For the 2 Guyz, smart Marketing moves, and it’s a chicken sandwich which has legs, sales and publicity.

For a long time, companies focused on WHAT they sold (Product). Then there was a shift to WHERE they sold (Place). Somewhere during the 1960s and 1970s there was a shift more rigorous attempts to segment and target specific potential customers (People).

It has now become science. We began to study demographics, geographics, psychographics, technographics, and buying behavior as a way of better understanding People. Today it’s even more data drive. For example, we now track and use data on a consumer’s browsing and research behavior, content consumption, transaction history, service inquiries and social network activity which influence segmentation and targeting

Let’s look at “People” more closely.

• “People” or targeting has almost always been left out of the traditional “Marketing Mix.” Almost every diagram includes the four P’s with Product, Promotion, Place and Price.
• As a marketing professional or new to the game of marketing, look at new, existing and repeat customers.
• Assign “consumer, “People” or “potential buyers” in the middle of a circle. Add the other components in the nine P’s. In Marketing, from my education, training, research and analysis plus testimony, there needs to be greater focus on the “Customer” or “People.”
• “People” or market segments may utilize demographics, geographics, psychographics, behavioral characteristics and technographics, which may be a vital component or components of the 9P’s of Marketing.
• Once a target market is chosen, the organization can develop its marketing strategies to target this market segment.

Defining a target market requires market segmentation; the process of segmenting the entire market as a whole and separating it into manageable units based on:

• Demographics (such as age, family size, family life cycle, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, race, culture, generation, nationality, and social class).
• Geographics (where your potential buyers are located by street, city, region, nation or global)
• Psychographics (buyers are on basis of psychological/personality traits, lifecycle, values)
• Behavioral characteristics (needs and benefits, decision roles, user and usage-related variables, occasions, user status, usage rate buyer-readiness stage, loyalty status, attitude and multiple bases) 
• Technographics or technographical characteristics. Understand your potential consumer. Remember, in the back of your mind, that the reason technology is phenomenal is because it displaces years, or centuries, of previous technology. Consumers may or may not have the skills. Think employees here too. The reason technology skills are transitory is because they will almost certainly be displaced, too.

Checking to see whether any of these market segments are large enough to support the organization’s product. 

We like using MSADA: The concept on segments. They need to be: Measurable; Substantial; Accessible; Differential/Different; Actionable

Once a target market is chosen, the organization can develop its marketing strategies to target this market.

A couple of examples:

• A unique example of targeting and reading the data. PayPal looked at segmentation and was finding a segment of their customers who were buying women’s products, men’s products, electronics, haircare product for both sexes plus dresses and tuxedoes. It was a multitude of both men’s and women’s products. From research and planning, they found out that their customers (couples/partners/husbands and wives) were using one ID and password. It was two sexes, one login.
• A segment of car buyers when they think of Jeep, they think of running wild and free off road and driving on sand dunes. Jeep has targeted behavior and psychological needs of their target segment of Jeep buyers.
• Facebook shows content to different users based on their preferences and demographics.
• Snapchat is mostly millennials, really young people and high school and teens.

The 2 Guyz on Marketing say, “Be sure to look at competing FOR the customer more than AGAINST your competition.” 

The more you discover, learn, know, and understand about “your” potential and actual “People” who are buying your product, the more successful in marketing you will be!

For more Marketing insights, ideas, concepts and Marketing solutions: Go to Londremarketing.com and look under “Articles and Resources” and the 9P’s/Nine P’s ©2007. Specifically you will find them detailed at 9P’s/Nine P’s or Nine P’s/9P’s of Marketing.

*Created by Larry Steven Londre. Copyright 2007.

The 2 Guyz On Marketing teach that we live in a celebrity-crazed culture. Londre recently found an ad for the Centers for Disease Control using deceased Leonard Nimoy, best know for his role as Spock on the original Star Trek television series, a smoker who promoted cigarette smoking. Nimoy died in 2015. 

His daughter and son-in-law gave their permission to use the likeness of Nimoy to educate people about the harmful effects of smoking/.

Why use celebrities:

1. They may attract attention
2. May increase a company or product’s image, and in this example the positives brought to you by the Centers for Disease Control.
3. May boost company or product’s awareness
4. Breaks through clutter
5. Exploits celebrity’s popularity
6. May increases company or product’s credibility

But the 2 Guyz have some questions for any brand manager:

1. Is the celebrity appropriate for the product or service?  Nimoy did quit smoking but developed COPD
2. Does celebrity subtract from product or service?  The 2 Guyz feel in this case he adds to the credibility.
3. Does the celebrity add value, or generate a good impression?  Nimoy helps sell the negatives of smoking
4. It used to be about “gut feelings.” Now brand managers are asking to, “Show me the evidence that this is the right star or celebrity.”
5. Does the celebrity add to the product’s image?  He did develop COPD.

Other issues come to light with celebrity endorsements and spokes people. What happens to a brand when there’s a problem with the celebrity (think Tiger Woods or Colin Kaepernick. How long with the celebrity be with the brand? What happens if the relationship sours?

Long-term studies show celebrities can add awareness and potentially marketshare to a brand’s sales, but brands must carefuly measure the cost versus the increase in sales. Long-term studies have shown increases tend to be smaller than may might think, often in the low single digits of sales increases.

What do you think?

Here’s where the rubber hit the road in marketing. “Presentation” is the act of presenting, displaying and strategically putting forward any of the different 9P’s© and/or its components to your potential customers (or “People,” including suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, partners, and/or others).

Look at your products and the marketplace. Review your competition. Develop and refine your assets and your strategic marketing objectives, strategies and tactics in the marketplace.

Can your customers, clients or users tell the difference between your product or service and your competition? Do the potential customers know “how it is different” or are they even aware of your product or service? Will they pay a premium?  Stand in line? Would they go out of their way to acquire your product or service?

Why is your product or service better? How is it different? That’s where “presentation” comes in.

Let’s look more closely at “Presentation,” one of the nine elements or components, along with Planning, People, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, Partners, and Passion:

Presentation is linked to “Planning,” plus reviewing and using the other nine P’s. As a marketing professional look at “real” product and service experiences, enabling consumers to feel the brand. As part of “presentation,” we also think of “events and experiences,” (which are also a part of Promotion).

Traditional marketing is based on target audience impressions/ views/ clicks/ exposure, while experimental marketing involves engagment with consumers.

Presentation is closely aligned with “experiential” marketing, or event marketing.

An example of using “Presentation” to your advantage:

• Some products from Apple are “perceived” to have a better user experience, better designed, a better presentation, which are also talked about by both users and non-users. “people” will stand in line to acquire Apple products. Fast Company reported in July/August 2014 that it’s the engineering culture of the company and the way the whole organization was structured to help support product design. Everyone in the organization is striving and thinking about better designed products for the marketplace…making a better “presentation” of products and services to users and potential users.

Partnering with charities and their efforts may bring in promotional marketing influencers who may be interested in helping communicate your charitable causes and events.

Presentation can be bad, too. In February 2017, bad “presentation” had significant branding and promotional implications with “the official accountant for the Academy Awards,” PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), at the ‘17 Academy Awards live from Hollywood. 

A huge accounting mistake, turned into a brand nightmare, by PwC. Management did not get the correct envelopes to the star presenters, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. The accountancy firm has overseen the counting/votes for the Oscars ballots, 83 years. Called the most “spectacular blunder,” in the history of the Oscar ceremony, when the award for best film was mistakenly presented to “La La Land,” instead of the actual winner, “Moonlight.”

Not using “Donuts” in their name? Dunkin’ Brands tested using just the name Dunkin’ at some units in California. The chain’s promotion has used the one-word name for more than ten years. They are emphasizing the brand’s coffee and beverages.

But some companies get presentation in a deep way. Disney does not have employees at their Disneyland and Disneyworld theme parks, but rather, “cast members”. They are always “on”, and presentation is everything. Disney is concerned with cast members’ hair, makeup, costumes, body language, and ultimately “performance”.

As a brand manager you want to encourage and enable potential consumers and “allow” them to feel and experience your brand, rather than a competitor’s brand and that is where product, promotion, place and presentation are linked.

*Created by Larry Steven Londre. Copyright 2007.

Companies may no longer be judged on what they say, but rather on what they do. Whatever goods and services a company is selling, business will always be better and more sustained when their buyers (“People”) and employees buy into the company’s culture which is aligned with their customers and users.

Mahatma Gandhi said:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”

Why is this quote important to marketing and branding? And from The 2 Guyz On Marketing, how does “passion” fit into the 9P’s of Marketing?

We teach and consult that companies sell and buyers purchase more than the functions of the products or services. Companies and “People” exchange feelings, thoughts, words, actions, habits, and values.

Branding may fit them together. As a brand manager or marketing manager it starts with “believing” in the product and services you market and sell. Passion needs to show in the “presentation” of your product, service or brand.

How is your company’s passion revealed in promoting and selling the product or service? How about in its design, its engineering, its delivery and its setup?

Most people wouldn’t think of “passion” as a variable and a way to differentiate your product or service, but it can be very impactful. Meaningful, too.

One example. Apple’s passion. It shows in all they do. Buyers love cool, elegant technology that makes your life better. Apple products ooze passion not just in their marketing, but in everything they do.

For The 2 Guyz, “Passion” is seen as those intense, driving or overmastering feelings, emotions in the planning, developing, pricing, promoting, partnering, selling and overall marketing of products or services.

Emotional, as distinguished from reason and rational decision-making:

• A strong liking for or devotion to some activity; deep interest in your partnership/presentation of any of the 9P’s to any target or partner.
• According to psychologists, with “passion,” management, brand managers, marketing managers and other employees need another component or two. Needing to extend commitment over a period of time, add inspiration, longevity with perseverance to heighten passion. When you combine inspiration, passion with perseverance, the team may have “grit,” in delivering short- and long-term sales.
• Apple is one of the masters at creating huge excitement around an idea; new product category or product intervention and introduction.

• An inside-out approach to marketing is the hallmark of successful companies. Nothing is more damaging to “People” and customer loyalty for both internal morale and commercial partnerships—than having the brand say one thing and the employees or “Partners” saying and doing another.
• Salespeople have told us that “believing” or believing in the company’s culture leads to a deeper understanding of the product offerings, which allows sellers to better match what they have with what others need and buyers want.

How about passionate sales people? Many sales persons dispute the concept that the majority of sales people can present and sell anything to potential buyers and users, whether the sales people believe in the product or not.

That may have been true in the past, before the web, when manufacturers, producers and sellers held distinct information and specific product advantages, with buyers having limited choices. Not now.

Some examples and insights

• Today, buyers can find tons of information and presentation about products, product lines, product variables, product attributes, distribution options, strategic partnerships, pricing, sales promotions, new product development, and more.
• According to psychologists, with “passion,” management, brand managers, marketing managers and other employees need another component or two. Needing to extend commitment over a period of time, add inspiration, longevity with perseverance to heighten passion. When you combine inspiration, passion with perseverance, the team may have “grit,” in delivering short- and long-term sales.

Millennials and Gen Z care more about passion than previous generations. They want brands to “stand for something.”

Product with “passion” can stand out. Product without will much more likely get lost in the crowded marketplace.

We Google search for a product. An Amazon result is likely in the top 3 positions. We click.

Voila! We land on the product we’re interested in. (Interesting to note, Amazon has become the world’s internet price checker!)

We see the price, and a millisecond later our eyes under the price to see shipping. And when it says “Free Shipping”, we’re just a click away from ordering.

But is “free” really free? Of course not, the cost is bundled into price we pay. Sometimes the seller eats the cost of shipping, but in most cases, it’s a hidden source of revenue.

Now for the real question…is it good for seller?

A recent survey says, “NO”.

Scott Neslin, the Albert Wesley Frey Professor of Marketing at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, has studied sales promotion for decades. A study of his recently unveiled data that suggests sales definitely go up…but profits definitely go down!

Why? How does this happen?

Returns go up…dramatically. Enough that profits are eroded often to the point of losses.

This supports the findings of Richard Thaler, who won a Nobel Prize in behavior economics. He found that consumers “segregate” financial pain, such as when they see a good price, then go to check out and see a high shipping cost.

Brian, one of the 2 Guyz, has found this in his own research, where customers showed they will often pay more for a product with free shipping than one that is lower price but with an added shipping cost.

Amazon has thrived on the shipping of small packages that don’t cost much to send. (And they’ve also added significantly to the revenue of USPS and UPS!).  But what about bigger items…dishwashers, refrigerators, and furniture? Shipping can a huge cost. A recent check showed dishwasher retailers boasting “free shipping” on Amazon, but a quick comparison shows the same product sold locally (at Best Buy) for more than $100 less.

If you’re a business owner and selling online, what you do you? The 2 Guyz On Marketing suggest you “test, test, test”. Test sales with a shipping cost versus sales with free shipping. But here’s the key…don’t just measure increase in sales volume, measure it in profits.

Free shipping has become one of the online shopping “drugs”, and many customers are “addicted” to the concept of free shipping. As a marketer, be careful with your use of “free shipping” as a part of your pricing strategy.

In class we may use age as a differentiator. We’d ask students about age or generation and how technology-oriented they or their parents/grandparents are.  These characteristics of age and technographics make a difference on use and usage of processes, apps, devices and more.

To take a step back, I remember it wasn’t that long ago…OK, my parents had to change from cash to credit cards in the 70’s and 80’s.  That was a big deal then.  

For the average person today, they are using more devices, obviously and way less cash.  Ask the 2 Guyz: we surely are not using our wallet as much unless it’s to take out a credit card. And in the future the phone will be our first choice?

In class we ask “Are the apps and processes really always that easy?  For everyone? For some it’s a no brainer. For others it’s a game ender.

What if you are having— PIN problems, looking for more security, the terminal at the bank is out of cash, waiting too long on the phone, the app crashes, the Wi-Fi goes down or the support person isn’t helpful? All of these tasks and activities influence sales and help define the user experience, or UX as we now refer to it. Think “People,” under the nine P’s of Marketing.

Almost all of us are using apps to pay for things, much of the time.  It’s a big change. As an example, it’s pretty easy for most frequent customers to use Uber or Lyft.  And to pay for your ride, easy street.  But remember your first time, ride sharing. Paying? Not as easy. It is not for all consumers. Age does have an impact. The frequency of mobile payments drops with age. 

As a Marketing professional or business owner, in the analysis of buying of products or services and in the paying of those products and services, you need to understand your “People” or market segments. To understand consumer buying behavior, marketing professionals utilize many characteristics, including demographics (such as age, family size, family life cycle, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, race, culture, generation, nationality, and social class), geographics, psychographics (buyers are on basis of psychological/ personality traits, lifecycle, values), behavioral characteristics (needs and benefits, decision roles, user and usage-related variables, occasions, user status, usage rate buyer-readiness stage, loyalty status, attitude and multiple bases) and technographics (potential buyers may or may not have the software and computer skills. 

Think employees here too, which may be a vital component or important components in helping consumers with their “tech” problems.  

All of these activities and tasks influence repeat visits and sales. Repeating processes make it easier, but there are hiccups along the way. For sure. These negative experiences influence shopper minds.

Plus, they may close the door for any later visits or additional transactions. 

Are companies and retailers making it too hard for “consumers?” There are new apps/options. But are there too many mobile payment options? This reminded us that Martha Stewart a few years ago that there were too many different cords to charge our devices. With each app and platform comes with its own new processes.

Technology can improve lives but it can also let us down.  Some consumers have stopped using mobile payments because retailers and banks and the apps lacked the tech to support cashless payments.