clemans on marketing: confessions and misdemeanors

Discipline your marketing.

Too many messages, too much said, no focus, and you'll lose them at "hello".

Self-published and proud of it!

It is easy to publish a book once you have the material. I chose Blurb because they offer excellent printing quality and quick turnaround. We designed and edited two books. The first, Picturing the '50s, a Blurb.com "Staff Pick", covers my dad's stint as a tabloid news photographer for the long-defunct Los Angeles Mirror. The second book, Marooned in Darfur, captures his years as an Army Air Force Sergeant and weather observer in Darfur during World War II. Once the books were completed, we posted them on Blurb and created neilclemans.com to promote them.

Consider jumping into the fray by publishing your own book, whether personal, professional, non-profit, individual or corporation, to capture a story, build credibility, present work, teach something, promote a cause. Next, build a website, then blog, link, and spread the word.

10% of the proceeds from the sale of Marooned in Darfur will be donated to the Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.

Name that Company.

Our client asked his staff to name their new company. The prize: a trip to Las Vegas. The names poured in. We culled through several hundred. Most stunk. One did not. In fact, it was actually fun, on target, memorable and brand-worthy. One lucky employee gets 3 nights in Vegas.

The outcome isn't always successful when Uncle Al, Cousin Louie and the receptionist are tasked with naming the new venture; they aren't thinking about  the mission, unique selling proposition, emotional triggers or the target audiences. Nor are they concerned with translating the name into a marketing program or brand strategy.

Just in case you are looking for a name like Nike, Oracle, Travelocity or Photobucket, hire an experienced firm with a strong naming track record.

The naming process starts with the foundation:

• looking closely at the competition and category
• reviewing company values, goals and self-image
• studying corporate culture and company origins
• understanding perceptions in the marketplace now and in the future
  
• knowing product attributes and positioning

The best names cross categories and communicate multiple meanings.  To determine which type of name suits the company's goals best, we create a broad range of choices, including mythological, descriptive, inspiring, reassuring,  industry-focused, etc.

On the other hand, why not break all the rules and start a luxury denim jeans company called "Adriano Goldschmied"? Then the trademark and domain name will be available for sure; no worries.

Marketing a Good Cause: 5 Bow Wows for PAWS.

PETCHITECTURE '07

PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support) held the Petchitecture 12 fundraiser this year at San Francisco's Westin St. Francis Hotel, doing a tremendous job raising awareness and raising money. PAWS provides comprehensive support services to over 530 low-income clients living with HIV/AIDS and other disabling illnesses (as well as low-income seniors) to help them maintain the love and companionship of their 650 + pets. Dogs were welcome at the May gala and several hundred showed up, including mine.

What PAWS did to make the fundraiser a smashing success:

1. Promoted it in a multitude of ways, across media, for months in advance.

2. Developed and burnished the "brand" rather than an "event".

3. Hosted gourmet food for both pooches (at the Bow Wow Bar) and owners, drawing an enthusiastic and well-heeled crowd.
4. Got creative about raising money. All proceeds helping PAWS' clients. Including: Asking top designers to create fanciful animal companion habitats (dog houses) and then auctioning them off, which really upped the buzz in the media pre and post event (lots of traditional marketing, viral and PR); Also, arranging a silent auction containing valuable packages; And, setting up photo op environments each hosted by a top professional animal photographer (see picture above, right to left, my standard poodle Zeus in pearls, me, my friend Kim and her puppy Bobbi).

5. Figured out and secured an incredible incentive to attend: Inviting pet lovers to bring their pooches into the chic Grand Ballroom at the St. Francis Hotel!

6. Partnered with local pet related businesses (including a doggie therapist), asking them to participate and spread the word to their clientele, increasing awareness within primary target audiences.

7. Rounded up great sponsors, including WAG, Petco, Knoll, AutoDesk, BARK, the dog culture magazine, etc.

8. Sold T-shirts. What fundraiser is complete without T-shirts?

9. Staffed the evening with enough people to keep the crowd moving and the floor picked up (OK, so there were a few accidents).

10. Made the experience so unique, inclusive and compelling that we were all happy to contribute.

5 Steps to Reduce Marketing Chaos.

Precious business, marketing and branding dollars should be spent wisely. We find that they're not. Start-ups and young companies are suffering from marketing chaos. They are so eager to go to market, advertise their wares or start selling that they leap frog right over the basics, ignoring strategic benchmarks and brand building necessities. They aren't doing the research required to understand who their customers are or what they want so messaging is off target or too broad.

A solid business and marketing foundation, and clearly defined methodologies get enough wood behind the right arrows.

Daddy shot Elvis.

I am wading into the world of self-publishing. My father wrote a book about his experiences as a news photographer in Los Angeles during the late '50s and early '60s. 15 chapters. Thousands of words. And now the hard part. My head is spinning with ISBN numbers, dedications, introductions, hardcovers or softcovers, POD (print on demand), trademarking, getting listed on Amazon, editing, proofreading, chapter titles, book design, double quotation marks, photo selection and scanning, viral marketing and em dashes.

FIRST DRAFT, BACK COVER. FIRST LOOK. TAKE A PEEK.

From acclaimed Los Angeles newspaper photographer Neil Perry Clemans comes this (working title) Memoir of a ‘50s Tabloid News Photographer™, a racy, evocative, nitty gritty account.

Clemans takes us back to the years immediately following World War II when tabloid journalism and paparazzi antics were on the rise in Los Angeles.

Expressing post-War optimism through the eyes of a young army veteran and USC college man ready to take on the world, this upstart Valley Times junior photographer travels the road that led him to become head of the Los Angeles Mirror photo department.

Exposing corruption, sexual escapades in the burbs, knock outs, strippers with hearts of gold, back room politics, the antics and shenanigans behind the news, Hollywood legends in the making and breaking. Marilyn Monroe and Sinatra. Dino, Sammy, Jayne Mansfield and Elvis back from the War and Judy Garland.

Covering Ike, Dick and JFK.

Sharing his personal life, as he woos and wins his college sweetheart, Gilda, and starts a family among the fragrant orange groves in the burgeoning San Fernando Valley.

*******

The memoir will include both published and unpublished photographs. Contact office@clemans.com with inquiries or to be noticed when the book is published.

All contents © copyright 2007 NC Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

Logo Rules.

I've been meaning to weigh in on logos...

Once upon a time, logos were revered, spoken about in hushed and glowing terms. In recent years, it seems, logos have lost cache. Small and medium companies are cooking up their own and most are ugly little buggers – representing nothing close to what the companies are really about. And the clones, now don't get me started!

Logo Etiquette:

1. Frame It: I love the logo created for Copia, a spectacularly innovative Napa-based center for wine, food and the arts. There is an aesthetic wisdom and sensuality imbued in this logo that an amateur can't pull off. Elevate the everyday. Hire an expert.

2. Essence It:. Nike's logo sits at the pinnacle of pristine simplicity. The swoosh says everything about the company. Stroke of genius. Nothing extraneous.

3. Only Child It: There's only one of you, only one business exactly like yours, so make it splendidly unique. Remember, it's got your eyes. Approach the design process with your heart more than your head. The Burning Man logo isn't high art, but it exemplifies the experience and is just generic enough to be embraced by the many.

4. Function First It: Your logo's got to look great, online or on a fuel tank and work in color or black and white. Harley-Davidson can do no wrong. Enough said for now!

5. Evoke It: Does your logo trigger the right reaction? Saying something meaningful and revealing with nary a word? The Clemans & Partners' logo fits the profile.

Understanding why people buy.

French-born psychiatrist, cultural anthropologist and marketing guru Clotaire Rapaille has impacted the marketing and business decisions made by over 50 of the 100 largest American companies, including Chrysler, Procter & Gamble, Ford and AT&T.

According to Sourcewatch.org, "Dr. Rapaille uses a version of Jungian "archetype analysis," inspired by his work with autistic children, to tell companies what consumers want from their cars, coffee, toilet paper, artificial sweetener, luggage, cheese and political candidates."

Read the following quotes to get a taste of Dr. Rapaille's logic. I find his approach fascinating and regularly incorporate it.

"By understanding the unconscious foundation, we can better motivate consumers, design new products and improve communications strategies," explains Dr. Rapaille.

"A car is a message. It has eyes, a mouth, a chin. It has a face, and that face speaks to you. The Hummer, he explains, is "a war machine," which says "if you want to fight, I can fight. But you will die." South Florida Sun-Sentinel, March 25, 2004

"It's absolutely crucial for anybody in communication -- and that could be journalists, TV, media, all of it, or marketing people -- if you want to appeal to people, it's absolutely crucial to understand what I call the reptilian hot button. If you don't have a reptilian hot button, then you have to deal with the cortex; you have to work on price issues and stuff like that." PBS.org

When asked about his work with Nestle, he explains,

"It was really to tell them, for example, that the Japanese don't have a first imprint of coffee. What first imprint they have is tea. And so when you go into this category, in what we call taxonomy, mental taxonomy, it's like a mental category they have, and you cannot compete with this category. So you have to create the category. And so we started, for example, with a dessert for children with a taste of coffee. We created an imprint of the taste of coffee. And then we acknowledge the Japanese want to do one thing at a time, and the Swiss understood that very well. They start with this kind of a product. They start selling coffee, but through dessert, things that were sweet, get the people accustomed to the taste of coffee, and after that they followed the generations. And when they were teenagers they start selling coffee, and first there was coffee with milk at the beginning, and then they went to coffee, and now they have a big market for coffee in Japan."PBS.org

Questioned by MSNBC.com on what Americans need to understand about themselves, Dr. Rapaille answers, "This is an adolescent culture. They never follow up on anything. They seek short-term, quick gratification. They go to Iraq: "Done! Now let's go back home."

Reach your customers where they live. We created a 400% increase in traffic for a technology client when we did just that.

Words Move People, Products and Mountains.

Great content connects with the head and the heart. Every prepositional phrase, conjunction, gerund and comma strains to make a point, communicate the issues and drive home a predetermined hierarchy of reasons to buy, sign up, engage, click here. In our haste to get noticed, we often forget that people aren't hunks of meat. Great content also encourages interest, emotion, loyalty and personal value. Read through the examples below, culled from a few of our most successful marketing campaigns, and notice how the words stack up in very thoughtful, determined and compelling ways. Notice too, how we speak to each audience in their own language.

Is Your Tagline Polo Shirt-Worthy?

To tell their story better, Kashi, a top-selling cereal company, has two taglines instead of one. I like them both:

1. One bowl has a day's whole grains.
2. 7 whole grains on a mission.

Taglines are hard to write. The best are developed with care and precision – an inspired amalgam of the mission, vision, brand positioning and messaging. A good tagline should have a backstory. It should be memorable and if you're lucky, unforgettable. The words should resonate in meaningful ways – not much longer than a line of haiku and just as poetic.

Some break all the rules and still work like crazy.

Tie the right tagline to your arrow and improve your chances that customers will buy and prospects will be influenced to try.

Classics Now and Then:

1. Looking good is only half the battle. Burton Snowboards
2. Our knowledge. Your beauty. Smashbox Cosmetics
3. What happens here, stays here. Las Vegas
4. Just do it. Nike
5. The ultimate driving machine. BMW
6. Friends don't let friends drive drunk. U.S. Dept. of Transportation
7. The happiest place on earth. Disneyland
8. Get to know the new elite. Sean for Sean Combs
9. Got Milk? California Milk Board
10. A diamond is forever. DeBeers
11. Imagination at work. GE

Put yours to the test. If the magic's not there, rethink it.