are marketers helping perpetuate segregation?

At a Client meeting recently, the media buying agency was presenting the media plans for the next year. Given that African Americans over-index in the consumption of this particular brand, the young executive explained how we needed to keep buying space in "Black zipcodes" and "Black media" channels such as BET and blackplanet.com.

The entire room complacently nodded. After all, it makes sense and we've done the same last year and the year before.

But wait, there aren't really "Black zip codes" in London or Sao Paulo. They don't even have "Black media" or "Black brands".

And if you paid attention you might have noticed how in those places the locals' clothes and accents have nothing to do with the color of their skin either.

The US racial history alone cannot explain the gap between White and Black Cultures in this country. After all, Brazil has the world's largest Black population outside Africa, and they didn't exactly board those ships willingly either.

So while there may be other forces at play, it's important to note how lazy marketing, unconsciously or not, benefits from feeding stereotypes and perpetuating the racial divide in this country.

After all, nothing easier for an executive in charge of a "African American brand" to keep plastering "AA zipcodes" and "AA media" with "AA marketing".

Taking risks

When Porsche launched the Cayenne in 2002, the mere idea of a Porsche SUV seemed like an oxymoron.

By then the SUV fever had begun to wane as environmental concerns and the price of gas were quickly growing. (1)

But a Porsche SUV? really?

In time it proved to be a brilliant move, and became Porsche's best selling car worldwide (2)

But how do you extend such a brand further? how do you launch a sedan, a "family" car, without upsetting the finely calibrated image that 60 years of masterful brand management built in our imaginations?

Here is how Cramer-Krasselt suggests it can be successfully done:

- First, it's a Porsche: the latest expression of a fine breed that traces its roots to the dreams of one passionate driver and designer. Beautifully brought to life here by the family tree, among other clues.

- Second, it's a Porsche: no satisfied dad with wife and happy kids rolling on a suburban parkway. It's meant to be driven with the same unapologetic passion and satisfaction as a Carrera.

Keep your audience dreaming, and their realities will eventually justify the premium.

enjoy,

sources: US Energy Information Administration (1), Harvard Business School (2)

The Landfill of Opportunity

The fact that every FMCG company from Coke to Colgate continues to sell their goods in landfilling, ocean polluting trash has to be a huge opportunity.

After all, a business model that relies on discarding 18 million plastic bottles every hour in the US alone seems too easy to attack:

• only 25% of plastic bottles are recycled in the US, the rest of them end up in landfills or the ocean. (the image above represents 1.5 million bottles, the number discarded every 5 minutes in the US)
• 26 million tons of plastic are dumped into the seas every year.
• there are islands of trash twice the size of Texas floating in the Pacific. Yes, Texas.

And while a few companies have taken a more sustainable approach with initiatives like 1% for the planet, most still feel good about themselves just for running "green" ads or adding a "please recycle" logo on their labels and passing on their responsibility to consumers.

The question for anyone sitting on the board of an FMCG giant then becomes: how much longer will the savings of doing business as usual will outweigh the financial and environmental danger of acting irresponsibly?

How much longer before a competitor changes the rules of the game, slashing short term revenue in favor of a more responsible approach that eventually catapults them into consumer Nirvana, making us look like a 21st century Exxon Valdez?

As consumer awareness grows through sobering reminders like the one below from Chris Jordan's work in Midway (2,000 miles from the nearest continent) and most companies continue their Detroit-like approach, a giant opportunity is created for visionaries willing to end irresponsible practices before they are enforced by law or a competitor.

sources: National Geographic, UN Environment Program, Earth 911

Who really decides?

If Freud was right, and our subconscious plays a huge role in the decisions we make everyday, understanding it is of fundamental importance to anyone wishing to influence others.

If you ever sat through hours of bad research downloads, instinctually knowing the "findings" made no sense, perhaps a look into Bernays' theories and work will inspire you to think about consumer stimuli and response differently.

Here's a great BBC documentary on 100 years of market psychology.

enjoy,

Fueling spiritual ADD

Money can't buy you Happiness, but it can buy Joy.

As ad people, we wonder about the value our work brings to society. Are we really helping the world move forward? or just convincing people to buy things they don't need?

Advertising certainly helps improve the world by informing people and fueling competition, which eventually translates into better, more affordable goods for all and creates jobs along the way.

Another way to look at it would suggest that advertising helps fuel spiritual ADD, distracting society from the pursuit of happiness and instead tempting us with the rewards of joy.

A new dress, a new car, a new stereo or a vacation are Joy Fuel: acquisitions that give us a rush of a temporary wellbeing, which disappears as soon as new events unfold or the novelty wears out.

Happiness in the other hand may be a permanent state of higher bliss, but attaining it requires years of spiritual work. Certainly a daunting prospect, and a far less attractive one in a society driven by instant gratification.

In such a world, it is far too easy to be distracted from our pursuit of Happiness and instead fall prey of the quick fix offered by the Joys of Capitalism.

So while advertising isn't any more evil than a hammer or a cup, it can enrich popular culture and our lives just as quickly as it can become the lubricant of our procrastinations, perpetually distracting us from our true purpose in this Life.

Interestingly, research indicates that the elder, precisely the section of society less impressed by brands, novelty and trends, are consistently happier than younger generations.

For more details on this particular evidence, see this Washington Post article.

on tribes+influence

Many times we've used the word "tribe" in our brand and media strategies. Identifying, understanding and working with tribes is not only great fun: it can sometimes also be the smartest way to allocate resources, ignite consumer movements and eventually help brands gain traction in popular culture.

Here's a great presentation from David Logan on his Tribal Leadership research, basically breaking them down to 5 types, and how we can work with them to promote change for the benefit of all.

visualizing information

Whether you are a planner, a creative or anyone who needs to tell stories for living, the ability to convey information clearly and quickly is a critical skill to master. And if on top of it you manage to convey an emotion, you're golden.

My boss Don had this old but amazing poster in his office:

It was Minard's "Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813". A Brilliant flowchart representing the progress of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign.

The amazing thing about that poster was how clearly it conveyed certain variables (the route, dates, temperatures and number of troops), and how quickly that information translated into a (terribly disturbing) feeling to anyone reading it: 97% of the 422,000 soldiers that started the campaign never made it back alive...

Below is a much jollier and modern example, but still a super cool way to display information, and hear Beethoven like never before. Enjoy:

To understand what each color represents, click here

Go Mao!

Have you been following the 60th anniversary festivities in Beijing this year?

From Moscow to Pyongyang, Communists around the world have always had a knack for impressively well choreographed, gigantic public celebrations.

And now China is on a roll. After their hugely successful Olympic party last year, the Middle Kingdom has mastered this art to the point of putting the rest of the Comrades to shame.

We are no longer impressed by devastating military might, perfectly aligned soldiers or state of the art technology, but rather by the charming addition of female soldiers that actually look like women.

Because after all, nothing says Progress like an army of chicks in red mini skirts, white leather boots and submachine guns.

For more details on how China rolls, check out this article by the New York Times, or enjoy the white booted Barbarellas in this video of the official coverage on Chinese TV

For a more sobering view, you can watch this much scarier video of the rest of the marching troops.