Something Smells Fishy
One thing you need to know about me: I have eyes like a hawk.
Nothing gets by my vigilant scrutiny.
Well, except maybe for the current financial crisis, the war in Iraq, global warming, the rise of Hitler, and the Bolshevik Revolution.
But the point is, when it comes to TV commercials, I’m focused like a laser beam.
So you can imagine my disbelief when I saw the exact same mediocre fish stick commercial airing twice, each time for a different brand.
The identical commercial, mind you: one with a Van de Kamps product shot, another with a Mrs. Paul’s.
Look, it’s like if Coke and Pepsi started airing the same TV spots. Actually it’s worse. Because the venomous rancor in the frozen fish stick industry is arguably the world’s most venomous (and rancorous).
(Little-known fact: Mrs. Paul travels to Amsterdam every summer to personally spit on the grave of Ulysses R. Van de Kamp.)
Anyway, I did some digging, and it turns out both companies are owned by the same parent conglomerate, Pinnacle Food Group, LLC.
So they must have thought: hey, we’ve already got one incredible commercial (which is actually pretty insipid), why bother to produce another one?
Why, you ask? Who cares? Capitalism cares.
See, if companies start doing this, the whole illusion of brand differentiation is going to evaporate.
Sure, it’s the same product sold by both companies.
It’s probably made in the same factory from the same ingredients by the same underpaid workers.
But do we really have to emphasize that fact by running the same freaking commercial?
It’s either the boldest move in corporate history, or the most cynical.
10 bucks says it’s haddock.
Cherche La Trust: Even in 2010, Referrals Beat Digital Marketing Strategies
A new study published by RainToday observes that while web-based lead generation and e-business capture mechanisms continue to make gains as BD tools for professional service providers, the average accounting, law, or financial planning firm still finds “golf course networking” to be its most effective expenditure.
Here we are in an era that’s spawned every conceivable communication technology breakthrough, and yet no one has managed to replace the “human referral.”
Is it possible that we’re not droids after all? Is it possible that we make irrational calculations? That we trust a data-driven, sophisticated Web site less than the unsubstantiated opinions of our 7-year-old’s beer-bellied, chain smoking soccer coach?
Sure, you might take your babysitter’s recommendation for a new non-dairy creamer. But complex professional services too?
You betcha.
And so it’s always been our goal to merge technology with the human factor—an effort that’s led to the recent social media revolution.
Balance is the key element. And that’s precisely why the most effective social media vehicles are technologically unobtrusive—mere conduits for distinctly human expressions.
So pay more attention to the man behind the curtain. Particularly if he’s a chain smoker.