Tài liệu The Art Of Advertising docx

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Brandtailing—Advertising at the Speed of Smart
Jordan Zimmerman
Zimmerman & Partners Advertising
CEO & Chairman
Succeeding in Advertising
Show me a successful client, and I’ll show you a successful agency. Success in advertising is connected ultimately
to the success of the client. At Zimmerman & Partners Advertising, we embrace that principle. To be successful,
you must be involved. You must take the time to learn your client’s business and brand attributes well. Let the client
know that you care as much about the business as he or she does. Analyze the business, its chief competitors, its
unique culture, mission, vision and trends of the category it’s in. Most importantly, stay focused on brand attributes
upon which the client can build. Be single minded. Literally. Don’t throw many attributes out there in the hope they’ll
take away just one. Be certain the one is the one you want them to take away. If you don’t know your client’s
business intimately, you are likely to focus on attributes that really aren’t important to the consumer, often at the
client’s request. It’s your uncomfortable obligation to be honest and say, “That’s an attribute that has no meaning to
the consumer.” Recommend what is right for the business, what is supported by logic, research and solid, strategic
thinking; that which differentiates your brand from the competition. Only then can you communicate in a compelling
manner. Only then can you cut through the clutter and attract the interest and attention the client needs to grow its
business. For more than 25 years, this has been my strategy for success.
Five not-so-easy pieces to success
There are five essential skill sets in advertising. The first is accountability. The bar is set with the client’s business
objectives. Then we raise it a few notches higher. Our philosophy is that image-building and branding must always
be balanced against the need to deliver on the bottom line. Advertising is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Successful clients make the best clients; we want to create brand leaders—clients with skyrocketing sales and
sparkling creative.
The second essential skill is media savvy. With media fragmentation increasing exponentially, each medium must
be understood for what it is really capable of delivering. It must be targeted precisely and assessed with the end
user in mind. As with creative, media planning and placement must build the client’s business.
The third essential skill is unyielding commitment. You are more than the agency; you must be an evangelist,
preaching the virtues of your client to your staff, your client’s staff and the public. We must be committed advocates
as well as dedicated business partners. The entrepreneurial approach that we apply to each of our clients’
businesses must be evident in every phase of the advertising development, from planning to creative to execution.
No task is too big and, equally important, no job too small. It is also crucial to be proactive. It is essential to deliver
more than what the client asks for.
The fourth essential skill is to be disciplined. At Zimmerman & Partners, we assist clients in focusing on the
compelling, differentiating selling points that induce consumer consideration. We must never lose sight of that
focus as we move from creative development through media planning and execution. We seek to reach targeted
consumers with an effective, focused communication to which they will respond. Say one thing. Say it well. Say it
often.
The fifth essential skill is creativity, the art of being inventive and imaginative. We must apply creativity to
everything we do—tirelessly exploring innovative ways to communicate the brand selling point in a meaningful,
relevant way. A message has to break through and resonate with the consumer to be successful. Consumers are
not waiting for your message. You must deliver it to them in an unexpected manner. Creative has an aftershock. It
will be felt long after it stops running. When that happens, you’ve done your job. That’s creativity you can’t put a
price on.


Advertising and Branding
Advertising allows you to communicate a salient message to a large group of consumers faster than any other form
of communication. It allows you to truly connect with the consumer; it gives you an opportunity to develop an
ongoing relationship between the consumer and a brand. At its best, advertising will create a sense of urgency for
the consumer, an awareness—often honest and accurate—that there are products, places, styles or sensibilities
that cry out for action or attention.
Breakthrough ideas might appear to be instant or impulsive, but they are not. They are based on sound strategy,
outstanding visuals and copy, and the correct application of timing and media. The art is in ensuring that all
elements of communication work together so that the end result is more powerful and effective. It’s like conducting
a symphony orchestra—all the instruments working together, the timing just right to make beautiful music. In the
world of advertising, this is a total business solution. We don’t see ourselves as an “advertising” agency. We’re the
conductors helping orchestrate a business success.
There are various styles of advertising—a soft sell or a hard sell, a subtle approach or a blatant approach, an
informative style or a modern and edgy one. Style will always change: with the product or service you are selling;
with the timing of the message; with the medium you are using. Style will also be influenced by the life stage of the
brand. You can use different styles of advertising with a mature brand like Coca-Cola, more than you can with a
new brand or one that is declining or has lost its way. The important thing is finding the right balance between
defining a brand and delivering next-day sales. The true craft is in identifying ways to interest consumers in what is
being offered. A creative strategy can put you on the right course, but in a world filled with clutter and distractions
you must develop communications that capture consumer attention and interest. The key is delivering the selling
point in an interesting, single-minded, non-contrived manner. Some advertising sells brands. Great advertising also
builds them.
Assuming a client’s product or service meets an immediate or unfulfilled future need, it must deliver on three or four
attributes differentiating it from whatever else is out there. Let’s take our client Nissan as an example. Nissan sells
a basic commodity: cars. However, Nissan not only delivers exceptional value, it understands how to differentiate
itself from the competition, employing persuasive messaging that hits at the core audience’s relevant needs.
However, there is another level of understanding here: Nissan is smart about building cars because it understands
through relevant research what potential customers need and what they want. At Zimmerman & Partners, it’s our
job to identify those core attributes—match them with consumer desire and bring them to life in our advertising and
marketing campaigns. As a result, during the consumer’s consideration process, Nissan ranks high on the
shopping list. We know what triggers a consumer’s desire beyond price point alone. We don’t want to get caught up
in a price game; like Nissan, we must be strategically smarter than that by promoting exceptional quality at
affordable prices—advertising to both the heart and the mind.
Once a brand’s core attributes are defined, the message must be communicated to generate customer
awareness—a message that incorporates the basic tenets of the brand promise: quality, price, customer-service
and follow-up. This must all be done on a consistent basis with the long term in mind. Great brands are not fads. A
great brand is just that—a brand that understands how to differentiate itself and become a consumer presence.
Today, discipline in advertising is vitally important because of the intensely competitive environment and the need
for immediate results. Discipline means being true to a brand’s strategy and staying focused. Too often we see
advertising that is so off strategically it does irreparable harm to a brand. Often this happens because a concept
perceived as “exciting” or “breakthrough” is actually confusing, unfocused and lacking in clarity. The brand loses its
way and its potential customers because of a lack of discipline. We believe that if we understand and define what a
brand stands for, who the consumers are, and what key attributes they are seeking, we will always be on strategy.
Of course, for a brand to break through, it must meet a valid, relevant consumer need. The message then must be
focused and single-minded, so that the consumer takeaway is clear and distinct. Second, there must be enough of
the right message delivered to the right target audience in the right medium to be remembered. The products or
service must deliver on the promise.
Great brands have the ability to manifest themselves through different styles and different copy points as long as
the brand’s core message is consistent. In a highly fragmented market with highly targeted media—specialty
publications, cable television, or specific-format radio stations —we can deliver different styles of messaging to the
marketplace and lessen the risk of sending a mixed message. The trouble starts when the product does not deliver
on the attributes communicated or when the attributes are far removed from how the product is perceived in the
marketplace. At Zimmerman & Partners we never sacrifice clarity for the sake of style or execution.
However, it’s our experience that the core component of the brand message must contain some specific, consistent
elements. For example, we have been instrumental in helping one of our clients, Lennar Homes, build on its
concept called EI – Everything’s Included. Consumers are often frustrated walking into new homes that are
absolutely gorgeous, deciding to buy one, then discovering that everything in the model is an expensive upgrade.
Our idea with Lennar Homes was to give them a point of differentiation: When you walk into the model, what you
see is what you get. It’s affordable. Wall Street loved the idea, and analysts said EI was one of the most successful
concepts in the housing category. You walk into a Lennar home and everything’s included, but you also get top-
quality merchandise instead of having to upgrade it yourself, incurring that incremental cost. The house might be a
little more expensive, but ultimately you’re getting more value. This has proven quite successful for Lennar Homes:
They’re a leading homebuilder in the United States today and a Wall Street darling. Their stock has continued to
grow, even in these risky times. It’s all due to differentiating themselves with a concept that reaches consumers in
their hearts, their minds, and most importantly their pockets—a “value” story that was most valuable to Lennar.
In my opinion, it is significantly harder to achieve this kind of breakthrough today. Sectors are busier, and
substitutes and competitors can come to market faster today than in the past—so fast, it’s almost scary. The
proliferation of media options requires a smarter approach today than it did just a few years ago. Think about it: We
used to have three networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. Today the range of options, given cable and satellite television,
is unbelievable. There used to be a few key publications, radio, and no online media. Today everything is coming at
you. In the wrong hands, multi-media can dilute a message. In the right hands, you can hammer it home.


Growing or Killing a Brand
It is important to understand the life cycle of a category, a brand, and a product to take a brand to the next level
and drive long-term success. New brands must establish a niche. A mature brand must find new life, possibly by
reinventing itself through extensions or by creating a new identity that connects with today’s consumers. Finding
more core customers or finding new customers for the brand are challenges that require different approaches.
Building on your strengths with customers who truly like and need your product is easier than developing a new
customer group. It is mandatory to constantly refresh your consumer data and research to keep up with the trends.
Things are moving faster today than ever before; consumers are smarter than ever.
While finding new customer segments, there is always the challenge of not offending current customers while
building the brand with the new target group that may have different core needs and require a different advertising
approach. For example, Oldsmobile had a longtime hold on its market segment. The market inevitably became
older and older. At that time, Oldsmobile decided to run a “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign. What
happened? Not only did it not attract a new audience, it turned off its core audience. The result, Oldsmobile
declined as a brand.
We have a handful of brands around today that will stand the test of time. Coke is one. Ford might be another, but
it will take some luck, some very smart brand and business management, and no crisis situations. Who would have
thought Arthur Andersen would disappear? Who could have foreseen the Goodyear tire fiasco with the Ford
Explorer? Brands must be nimble; their stewards must know how to evolve and have the commitment to make the
changes necessary to continue to be great. It is important to react quickly, but you must move at the “speed of
smart.”
Typically, what kills an established brand is bad management, lack of foresight and vision—stewards who have
become complacent and don’t take risks or have allowed the product to lose its connection to the consumer. Bad
product, marketing or pricing decisions can kill a brand over time. Environmental and ethical issues can kill a brand
overnight. A discontinuity will kill a brand today. No one knows what unfulfilled need is around the corner that will
allow consumers to substitute one product for another. Tic Tacs appeared and eroded Dentyne’s market share
overnight. Dentyne never saw it coming.
If some of a brand’s core attributes have become less relevant to today’s consumer, then a brand will have to
reinvent itself to survive and grow. It is usually a tougher challenge to invent a new brand completely. If a brand has
a strong but eroding foundation, it has a base to build on. Evolving a brand doesn’t necessarily mean a complete
reinvention. Budweiser is a good example of a brand staying fresh in its approach without constantly reinventing
itself.


Advertising Pitfalls
There are four main pitfalls in advertising. The first is strategic: a lack of strategic foundation and focus; a mismatch
of target and product; a bland, vanilla positioning platform; a lack of differentiation and a lack of relevance. It’s just
like life: It’s good to know what you want to say before you open your mouth.
There are creative pitfalls. These include trying to communicate too many attributes that mean little to the
consumer, which, in a sense, is a strategic shortcoming. There’s playing it safe. Safe is not what makes great
brands. Safe is not what inspires consumers to buy great brands. Safe is not where we as advertising agencies
want to be. Safe won’t change anything. There’s lack of style, interest, and the hard to define ability to cut through
clutter. If you don’t have style in your advertising, it isn’t interesting, it can’t cut through clutter, and you are wasting
your client’s dollar. Your client, by the way, should look for a new agency.
Third, there are media pitfalls—especially spending too thinly. We talk a lot about frequency. We are hit with
thousands of different messages every day. How can we respond? Frequency is the future of advertising and
marketing. Spreading yourself too thinly prevents you from having the kind of frequency you need to drive sales.
It’s inefficient spending. Media that whispers isn’t heard. If you don’t have many dollars to spend, don’t spread them
too thinly. Instead, spend in appropriate channels. If we’re not effective in our targeting, we’re won’t be effective in
delivering the results for the client. The most creative, compelling message is useless if nobody is hearing or
seeing it.
Finally, there are measurement pitfalls: Measurement tools are not in place, realistic yet achievable goals are not
set, an audit is not completed. You have to know what’s working and what’s not working. At Zimmerman &
Partners, we have designed proprietary programs such as Ztrac, a real time Internet-based platform that tracks
traditional medias and enables us to monitor our client’s progress. Ultimately, successful advertising is like a
journey: You need a map to arrive at a destination; you need markers, warning of detours and impassable roads.
Without measurement, there are no markers, nothing to direct you to your destination or warn you of the cliff up
ahead. Stay aggressive. There should always be a set goal—but never a finish line.


Budgeting and ROI
We work with large budgets, small ones, and others in the middle. The secret in making a budget work is resource
allocation: Focus on those areas that have the greatest efficiencies and effectiveness given the size of the budget
you have. If you have the resources, a truly integrated approach allows you to be persuasive with the message and
to hit your target customers whomever, whenever and wherever they may be. You can spend money on extensive
research and preparing to deliver your message. You can put the right systems and processes in place to
effectively track and measure the advertising. You can set a true customer relationship management program in
place and have the time to get it right through testing and refinement. Having the ability to use interactive media
allows you to be ahead of the curve before your competitors have a chance to either understand or test these
approaches themselves. I believe that if you have the time and the money, anything can be accomplished because
you can lead yourself strategically from the beginning to the end with very little risk. But always remember, having
all the money in the world and simply throwing it at a problem will not solve it—you still have to aim.
If spending is a factor, radio is an extremely effective tool. The key with smaller budgets is to focus, prioritize, and
not try to do too much. All too often we see clients with very small budgets who want to compete against
companies with much larger market share. Copycatting is not an effective tactic for penetrating a market,
particularly with a small budget. Often, however, you can break through using radio, a medium that has not been
used effectively even by the bigger ad agencies. Radio is highly effective on a cost-per-point basis. Most
importantly, it works and is a good responsive medium. Some reasons: drive times in the United States have not
become shorter; they’ve become longer. People have become more infatuated with radio/traffic reports/news
bulletins than ever before, and offer a captive audience. Our job is to have an effective communication strategy to
break through on the radio.
At Zimmerman & Partners, we measure return on investment through sales, sales, sales. The questions to ask are:
Did the cash register ring? Did we deliver sales revenue in an affordable and profitable way? Did we deliver market
share? Did we become the talk and the preference? If we did, then we were successful on all fronts.
A successful advertising campaign accomplishes the stated objectives and beats them. Objectives are set,
measurement parameters are defined, and a campaign is developed, launched, and measured accordingly.
Intuitively, a successful campaign is one that effectively reaches target audiences in a memorable, compelling way
and motivates them to act with immediacy. We don’t have time to wait for them to act. What we do must inspire
them to act now. We must hit at the heartstrings, i.e. forge an emotional connection, with the products we’re
moving. Advertising is not entertainment; it is a sales tool.
The old adage of whether the cup is half full or half empty no longer holds in today’s business climate. Our clients
are demanding—their advertising must work, and it must work now. They don’t have the time or the marketing
dollars to waste waiting for a marketing message to sink in and then wait even longer for it to eventually drive sales.
It is all about accountability, more so than ever before in our industry. I like it. It’s more fun, more challenging, and
at the same time you see your results enhance your own bottom line.
Ultimately, it all comes back to the client. We always have to keep the best interests of the client in mind. It isn’t
about the agency. It isn’t about winning awards. It’s about our client’s business. They hired us as an advertising
agency to do one thing: to help their business, to grow their brand strategically. So we need to learn to manage
their budgets and spend their money like it is our own. Then we need to measure results, as much as we monitor
our own return on investment. If we are not achieving the results, we need to learn why and not make that same
mistake again. The bottom line is that it all comes down to their bottom line, period. End of story.
The necessity of accountability will continue to strengthen until it becomes top-of-mind for agencies and clients.
More and more agencies will have to quantify the impact they are having on their clients’ businesses. They will
have to illustrate specifically how advertising initiatives are advancing company goals. Simply creating ads will not
be enough for agencies to succeed. Agencies will need to go further and develop nontraditional ways to grow
clients’ businesses. This includes delivering alternative marketing initiatives and providing strategic insight on how
clients can grow and run their businesses, be it through line extensions, acquisitions, or distribution channel
expansion. Agencies need to show they are valuable business partners that share clients’ goals rather than pursue
their own goals as agencies. They need to show they are true strategic partners present every step of the way,
giving their clients guidance and a view from outside their networks. Smart clients and confident agencies will tie
compensation programs directly to results.


Changes in the Industry
Five years ago, many people saw the Internet and technology as the future of selling. What we’ve learned is that
the consumer has used it to be more informed and educated, to make more of a rational decision about the
products or services he or she wants to buy. It allows advertisers to interact with end users in the privacy of their
homes or offices and on their own timetables. It allows us to track quickly the dynamics of fast-changing markets
and to react on our clients’ behalves. It allows us to track and measure the effectiveness of our advertising
campaigns in real time.
The Internet will continue to grow and be important in some industries and with some products and brands.
Technology will continue to evolve, and we’ll use those innovations that make us more productive and effective in
what we do. However, using technology just for the sake of being leading edge is counterproductive as evidenced
by the soaring bankruptcies, poor performance, and increasing client resistance to the overstated promise of the
Internet and interactive agencies. Like strong creative, technology is a tool, not an end in itself.
Technology is an enabler throughout all stages of the advertising process, from creative development to the
delivery of advertising to measurement and tracking. Technology has changed the speed and quality of the
advertising we deliver. For example, we can now record—in our studios—voice or music talent from around the
world to be used in our commercials. At Zimmerman & Partners, we house our own studios so we can do it better,
faster, and more affordably for our clients. We can record a saxophone player in Los Angeles, voice talent in
Detroit, and somebody else in Europe all at the same time with digital quality. It’s become part of the dynamic world
we live in today. Technology allows us to react, to make changes in our work in a matter of minutes rather than
days.
Broadband is a so-called disruptive technology from an advertising perspective, i.e., it will interrupt or dramatically
change the way we do things. It is taking some time to gain wide acceptance and achieve critical mass but will
become, among other things, the fourth pillar of the media world. It plays a role in advertising on demand. Other
upcoming applications of technology include animation and robotics. Animation is not currently at a cost-effective
stage and is not realistic enough to use extensively in commercials in place of human talent. Robotics will one day
allow us to shoot TV commercials in places we could never go, or do things we can only imagine.
In the future, advertising will become even more persuasive and also optional. Consumers will be able to shut out
irrelevant or incomprehensible messages. We’ll be given more opportunities to accept only messages we want to
receive, whether broadcast or online. We will also be able to program the types of ads we want. If we like
humorous ads, we’ll see only humorous ads. At some future point, the agency will need to target carefully and
make sure messages are clear, relevant, and desirable to audiences, knowing that they will be able to pick and
choose.
In the next five years, advertising will be faster, higher quality, and more targeted. True one-on-one marketing
means a different message communicated to every consumer. We’ll move a bit closer to that over the next five
years, which means advertising executives will have to stay on top of their game—and everyone else’s game—that
much more.
Advertising is a fun, but challenging business. Today the consumer wants more and more; that need must be
served, as every market sector becomes more competitive. There were four or so brands in the automotive sector
in 1956. Today there are more than 30 brands and the same is true in other sectors. It is extremely difficult to be
dominant: You have to be smart to be the best in a splintered market. Clients won’t stay for the wrong reasons. The
brand is the lifeblood of any corporation. It is up to the adverting agency to grow, defend, and support its promise.
Jordan Zimmerman is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the board of Zimmerman & Partners Advertising.
At age eight he started the only greeting card sales route in New Jersey and for the next three years went door-to-
door selling “good wishes” and “holiday cheer.” He sold the venture at age 11, turning his first profit.
The next year, he built a newspaper delivery empire that employed other neighborhood kids and expanded
operating efficiency and customer satisfaction. The experience taught him that building a successful business is a
team sport; you just can’t do it alone.
While working with NIDA during his senior year of college, Zimmerman recognized the true power of words when a
girl in a focus group on drug abuse responded with, “I just say no.” Consequently, he led the “Just Say No”
marketing initiative during the Carter administration (one of the most recognizable anti-drug campaigns to date). He
founded Zimmerman & Partners Advertising in 1984.
Today, his advertising agency is one of the largest and most successful in the United States. Coining the phrase
“Brandtailing,” Zimmerman effectively merged the elements of branding and retailing to develop an advertising
discipline that creates positive long-term brand identity, as well as short-term retail results.