Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox and Peter J. Mladineo were published in
U.S. 1 Newspaper on August 26, 1998. All rights reserved.
For Retailers, a Marketing Spin
A small box arrives, pocked with holes in the top, with
straw hanging out the sides. It is labeled “Caution: live
chameleon:
open with care!” and of course it causes a great stir in the
office.
Could it be? Could there really be a chameleon inside?
Inside that box only a card rests on the bed of straw. “Oh-No!
YOU let it get away! And on the reverse, “Don’t let great ideas
get away too! Call this number. . . “
The firm is called Chameleon Marketing Inc. (how did you guess?) and
the box is its own fun marketing tool. Daniel P. T. Thomas,
the president, has been in marketing communications for 23 years and
has had this business for two years at 947 State Road (609-921-6588;
E-mail: chameleo@bellatlantic.net.) To advertising, sales
promotion,
direct marketing, communications agency, he says he is bringing a
new spin, an emphasis on personality.
“Retailers have to ask themselves,” says Thomas, if they are
“going
to be distributors of nationally branded products or if they are going
to be differentiated by themselves, to have a certain feel or look
about the store.”
Thomas says he ties brand-building together with the need for
short-term
sales. “To build a brand means to create ownership in the
customer’s
mind,” says Thomas, who refers to the new singing slogan “Come
see the lighter side of Sears” intended to make the shopping
experience
more fun. Sears accompanied that with a major store reorganization.
From his experience with marketing retailers in both the United
Kingdom
and the United States, he presents five challenges for the retail
industry. Deal with these and you will succeed, he promises.
A customer and retail base that is more fragmented thanbeforeMore fragmented media, with so many more ways to reachpeople.An evolving price to value relationship. “People arelooking for high quality but at a lower price. Look at theWal-Marts.”Speed of change. Companies need to react more quicklyto technology change than they used to.A wider array of products than before.”Consider ways to add personality to maintain yourloyalty,”he says. His firm has been working with food retailers and banks,including two commercial banks that have their headquarters inPrinceton.”Banking is an area where personality can be more a part of theequation — banks trying to be perceived as up-to-date and moreneighborhood-like — but where technology is a big part of thechallenge,” he says.Thomas was an Army brat, the British version, and he began to asserthis own personality when he declined to follow in the footsteps ofhis father, who served as the Queen’s Chaplain. (Among his teenagememories were sitting behind the Queen and Princess Diana in the pewbehind the Royal Pew.) Instead going to the British military academyat Sandhurst, he went off on his own to London, and found a job atKetcham Advertising. He put himself through college via night school.At a London pub he met a Princeton native who was working for Lloydsof London, and they married and moved to Princeton five years ago.As a vice president at QLM Marketing, he created campaigns for theDiscovery Channel, Hefty Bags, and Scott Paper.Older and wiser and a father now himself, Thomas still takes anoff-beatapproach to marketing — brainstorming in weird locations, usinga creative ideas database that has taken two years to put together,and drawing upon creative thinking techniques. “We push backboundaries,”says Thomas.Top Of PageAd PersonalitiesIt is important, indeed, to realize that all ads havea personality, and that the buyer purchases this personality overthe actual message, says Robert Steckel of the United StatesInstitute of Marketing. Most everybody knows that professional andcarefully designed ads spend 20 percent of the total ad cost toproduce80 percent of the responses. But how to be among the 20 percent? Formore than 50 years he has been compiling “Best of” books oneverything from outstanding airline advertising to successfultelemarketingsales programs.The Pittsburgh-based firm sells these inch-thick spiral-bound volumesfor from $235 (“Outstanding Retail Advertising”) to $485(“CasinoMarketing for the 21st Century”). (Call 412-828-2720 or800-627-5384; fax, 412-828-2734. The firm is located at 531 FifthStreet, Oakmont PA 15139.) By paging through one of them,such as “High Response Newspaper Advertising,” you can getall kinds of good ideas. See a great ad for your industry? Clone it,change a little, and away you go.But Steckel insists that though his books are full of good ideas,unlike clip art books, they are based on valuable research. “Anawful lot of research goes in to which ads we include,” saysSteckel.Advertising professionals may take a jaundiced view of a researchclaim that publishes none of the difficult-to-find hard numbers, nostatistics of how a particular ad has increased sales.Steckel declines to delineate his research process in complete detail,but he does say that the 25-person firm subscribes to 600 Sundaynewspapersand investigates volume and sales records. “There are differentways to find out which ads are producing the highest revenue. We arenot interested in what they look like, but in how they draw,”he says. Sometimes the research can consist of querying the companyinvolved, “but we will have companies that want to get their adin the book, and so we have to cross check.”Steckel claims 40,000 customers in 134 countries. Ad agenciesthemselvesare among the book’s chief markets. They want to see what’s goingin the business, and they want to use other agencies’ creativeexampleswhen they make client presentations.Advertisers in other countries — for instance Malaysia, NewGuinea,and Mauritania — also crave to know what the hotshot Americansare up to. Steckel says he gets hundreds of letters from companiesthat succeed by imitating the American ads.Most of the book consists of examples, not long-winded explanations,but the preface has some useful tips. “Like it or not, allsuccessfulads follow a proven format with four elements — the headline,illustration, copy, and finally all three put together, thelayout.”Readers notice the illustration first; it stops the reader long enoughfor the headline to do its job. Actually, any caption under anillustrationwill get read even before the headline. “Four out of five peopleglance at the illustration and the headline only, not motivatedsufficientlyto read the body copy.”The illustration, then, should tell as much of the selling idea aspossible. Use scenes of people arriving, not departing. If you areaiming at an older woman, use pictures of a woman 10 to 15 yearsyounger.A single large horizontal picture at the top of an ad has the greatestresponse rating. A tight close-up of a face or any object will makethe ad look larger, increasing readership.The most effective headlines contain these words: how, where, free,who else, what, which, why, and when. The claim and boast varietyis old-fashioned. Use a natural conversational vocabulary and shortsimple words. Thus the illustration, caption, and headline shouldcreate a unified basic impression.Examples carry the weight of this book. In the banking section, oneexample shows that children get more attention than any otherillustration.It shows twins with the headline “At First Republic, You Get Whatyou Expect, and More!” For selling the convenience of onlinebanking,it uses the Dollar Bank’s headline, “And start banking online.Not in line.” For the grocery area, a Publix ad touts store brandswith the headline “Read It and Reap” and a color picture ofthe label from a green bean can. “One item at a time, reportingall the information that counts, generates trust and confidence,”instructs Steckel.Steckel grew up in Pittsburgh, was national sales manager for Lookmagazine, started his company in Washington, D.C., and moved it backto Pittsburgh, where his son Jim is also in the business.He knows how to copy well. When he opened his business, he leafedthrough some books, saw a picture of the Lincoln Memorial, and eversince then has used a sketch of that facade on his letterhead. Steckelsays he has no competitors, except for a magazine in Philadelphiathat fizzled five years ago. He gives a money-back guarantee witheach shipment and refunds one out of 33 orders. But don’t try to copyhis book and send it back. “We put a dot of silver nitrite insome places, and it turns back on the page.”Top Of PagePersonality TipsConsider your buyer’s personality, says RobertSteckel,to target your ad. “You cannot judge an ad by what you areinterestedin,” he says. “No one cares if it appeals to you, only ifit appeals to the reader.With that in mind, which of the six buyer patterns do you fall into?Are you really are drawn to ads “written” for you?Habit-oriented people have a desire to keep most of thefeatures of their current lifestyle, while expecting to add severalnew ones.Sensible people, those that try to approach everythingin a sensible manner. “The major objective of this group is toestablish believability.”Bargain hunters. “The budget-conscious will give upmost of their desires if the price is right.”Impulse buyers, the easiest to sell. “They decideprimarily on physical appearance.”The Emotional type is a tougher sale. “They are moreconcerned with what they think friends and family will say. Theopinionof others is as important as their opinion.”New consumers, first buyers, usually younger. “Notset in their ways with negative memories from past purchases, theyrespond to the most appealing message.”For more tutelage on advertising tips, Mercer’s NJAWBO offersa session Tuesday, September 15, at 6 p.m. at the Palmer Inn. Thesubject: “Getting the Most Bang for Your Advertising Buck,”with advertising salesperson Diana Joseph-Riley from U.S. 1newspaper and other experts from Nassau Broadcasting and CTN Cable.For $29 reservations call 609-799-1779.Or on Wednesday, September 16, at 7:45 a.m. at the Holiday Inn onRoute 1 South, learn “Marketing and Promotional Techniques toEnhance Visibility of Small Business” at a Princeton Chamberbreakfast.Speakers are Gail D. Eagle, Gail Eagle Associates CustomPublishing;Ed Marder, vice president of Inkwell; and Steven Portrude,vice president of Harwill-Express Press. For $21 reservations call609-520-1776.Top Of PageCar Inspections:New, Two-Year DealThe automobile inspection laws are changing tofacilitatethe construction of a biennial enhanced inspection system, andbeginningOctober 1, a lot of cars will be off the hook.At least initially. From October 1 through December 31, only vehiclesmade in even-number years will be required to be inspected in themonth they are due. Odd-number cars won’t need to wait in line untilthat time next year. However, because the stickers themselves willbe outdated, they are advised to obtain special extension stickersfrom Division of Motor Vehicles offices or from private inspectioncenters to avoid being pulled over by police.Starting January 1, 1999, all odd-number cars are required to inspectin the month they are due. In this period, owners of even number carsdue for inspection between January and September are now off the hookand will have extension stickers mailed to them. Cars passing thetests will be given two-year stickers.September is a phase-in month. All vehicles due for inspection inSeptember, 1998, will be required to pass through the inspectionlanes.However, odd-number cars will be given one-year stickers, whileeven-numbercars will be given two-year stickers.The colors of the stickers will change as well. Two-year stickersgiven out in 1998 are orange. The ones given in 1999 will be purple– a first for New Jersey.The DMV is doing this in anticipation of lane closures necessary tobuild enhanced emission lanes and the fact that the new tests willtake significantly longer per car to perform. The current test takesapproximately two minutes per vehicle.That’s roughly 26 to 28 cars an hour, says Jeff Lamm, spokesmanfor the Division of Motor Vehicles. The enhanced test uses adynamometer,a device that monitors emissions during simulated road acceleration,takes five minutes per vehicle on average. However, Lamm reminds us,the number of vehicles going any given year is being cut in half bythe two-year sticker. Also, the number of lanes in the centralstationswill be increased under the contract proposal. The firm contractedto build the system, the Pasadena, California-based firm ParsonsInfrastructureand Technology Group, plans to have 100 lanes finished at centraltesting locations (like Bakers Basin) by December, 1999. Currentlythere are 86 inspection lanes.The option will still be given to have the test done at privateinspectionstations, but the number of those is expected to go down. The reason,suggests Lamm, is that the equipment to perform the enhanced testis significantly more expensive ($35,000 to $40,000). While therewere 3,700 licenses awarded to perform the existing test, he reports,only 2,700 of those test centers had applied for a license to performenhanced inspections. The deadline was June 30. “It came downto an economic decision for many of these private inspectionstations,”says Lamm.And finally, as the number of days until the new millennium has justpassed under the 500 mark, Lamm reports that the computers involvedin the new system are Y2K-compliant.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
