Marketing Archives - InsideHeads

The Perplexing Pimple Persiflage

The small stickers on her face were unexpected, but she was also wearing two different socks, crocs decorated with chunks of tiny things, while engulfed in a secret audio world thanks to her enormous headphones.

I’m finally at the age where youth perplexes me, so observing different looks and actions that are different from my generation are a new hobby. I saw the crocs accessories coming. The mismatched mid-calf high socks have been a growing trend for years. The headphone ear muffs also trendy, thank you Beats. But what’s with the face stickers?

Well, I found out and my head is still cocked in confusion. You make the call. Here’s the flip: camouflage has been outed. The newest acceptable way to deal with a pimple is to point to it. Make it known. Show it off. A rare strategy that mocks embarrassment and celebrates imperfection. Uncommon, to say the least. But hey, when you can’t fight ’em, join ’em.

What’s super interesting about this trend is it’s a repeat! Over 400 years ago, women fashionably wore small pieces of fabric on their faces to cover blemishes. Perhaps concealer had not yet been mastered. Or maybe pointing to imperfection is a viable human survival response to embarrassment.

We’ve seen this in practice before… the fat kid who makes fun of his large size… the amputee who uses his fake leg to freak people out… the politician who doubles down on denial of proven facts. When it comes to dealing with negative attention, the human response is fascinating. Some hide. Some seek the stage.

So when you see folks sporting colorful little stickers of stars, hearts, or moons on their faces, no need to stare. Now you know. Pimples are in.

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What Would You Do?

Below is a RFP we submitted to a B2B farming company a few years ago. I just recently came across our proposal again and wondered what you might propose. Different methods? Different tools? Different process? And did we get the job?

The Background for this study was provided by the client in the RFP and the Objective was identified after a detailed conference call with the client, including their internal marketing department.

Background

RM Co. sells industrial farm tools to wholesalers around the world and wants to expand their collection of products to sell. Currently they make commercial irrigation and fertilization systems and want to get into the fertilizer products farmers spread using their machines.

Objective

Identify unmet needs with RM Co.’s current clients, the unmet needs of both customers and prospects with fertilizer products, the most useful and appealing characteristics and features of a better fertilizer, biggest pains, and any others areas prospects and customers would like to see improved regarding their fertilizing process.

Plan of Action

Obtain list of RM Co’s best clients in different industries. Research and identify their farming specialties, volume of fertilizer and brands used, prices for sale, and delivery methods offered. Additionally, identify list of RM Co.’s current and future competition (direct & indirect), and list their farming specialties, what makes them a competitor, their fertilizer machinery, their volume of fertilizer and brands used, and delivery methods offered.

Secondary Research: Amount used/year, brands used, price ranges paid, and delivery method choices.

Competitive Questionnaire: Design program, administrator, and analyze survey questions among farmers across the globe to quantify unmet needs, work priorities, and potential new fertilizer features. Survey will be designed in English and translated in 6 other languages to accommodate the varied geography of RM Co.’s clients.

Tour multiple RM Co.’s global plants in-person, take notes/videos/pictures. Interview farmers on-site, take notes/videos/pictures.

Ethnography: Go to the client to observe workers and go on-site to observe farmers using fertilizer and fertilizer machines.

Interview RM Co. employees, RM Co. stakeholders, and RM Co. product users.

IDIs and Online Focus Groups with employees off-site, stakeholders online, & farmers on-site about challenges identified in the survey. Analyze the transcripts and provide insights into attitudes, behavior, and values of all segments.

Work with RM Co. & their advertising agency to design effective ad strategies and tangible concepts for consideration/testing among the different target segments identified.

IDIs and online focus groups with segmented farmers and show new concepts developed by RM Co.’s advertising firm.

Analyze the transcripts and provide insights into farmer feedback received.

Present results as live actionable findings that directly address RM Co.’s research objectives, including an overview of the fertilizer Industry, aerial view of methods used, brands preferred, unmet needs, etc., with suggestions for next steps, improvement, and landmines to avoid.
Data Handover: RM Co. will receive all the research materials, including the written survey, the discussion guide, raw survey data collected (spreadsheets, media files), cross tabulations, infographics, and the final slide deck (w/speaker notes).\

We did get the job and the client was thrilled to be able to get InsideHeads. That said, we know there are many (good) ways to address a challenge, so we’re curious, how would you have done it?

The Marketing of Omission

Some people like golf, I like finding marketing mistakes. I read cereal boxes, Ikea instructions, the fine print on the 12-pack of Bounty paper towels. If I see words, I’m moving in.

Like the committed and determined members of medical detector clubs, I enjoy finding spelling errors & other mistakes in massive print runs. It’s a sick hobby, I know, but the pure joy of “it wasn’t me” is a high like no other.

What keeps this odd obsession going? Because Big Foot exists. Mistakes are made. My favorite category are the marketing errors of omission.

Here are some truly odd advertising from popular brands. I’m not sure which of these two brings me more joy. Have you seen others?

Bag Lifting That’s 50% Easier

This beauty came from a Rubbermade trashcan purchased from Ace Hardware in Bonita Springs, FL in 2017. The cardboard wrap over the lid very clearly wanted to explain that lifting out bags from their newly vented version was “50% Easier”. I read the small print only to find what I assume is the same message in other languages.

At first glance, “50% Easier” sounds impressive, but how is the new & improved version 50% easier? And 50% easier than what? They mention the reason is the venting channels. I had no idea such statistical problems were being managed and measured at Rubbermaid, which IMHO is the real story, but I digress. I can’t shake the thought that someone approved this. Once adorned on the trash cans in retail establishments across the country, few customers will question the claim. I shall continue my quest like Marketing Robin Hood, merrily revealing the confusing to the masses.

A Jar of Sweet + Small

One of my all time favorites is this jar of Peter Piper’s Sweet Midgets. These were purchased in 2015 at a local grocery store in the US Virgin Islands, where neither the FDA nor the FTC must not have any offices. This jar does not have the word pickle or cucumber anywhere. No ingredients list. Kudos for including nutritional information, weight & size, and a star-worthy “new sweeter taste”, but yet the buyer still can not be confident what the food actually is in the container except that the label says “Sweet Midgets”.

A quick search on Google reveals only one place (Harter House) sold a jar that looked similar, but today the “page is not found”. Is it possible a pickle producer was dumping their remaining supply of poorly marked Peter Piper’s pickles in paradise?

Wouldn’t be the first time. Year’s ago, bottles of Joy dish detergent for sale in Coral Bay read “Not Your First Choice” proudly on the front. Disgruntled employee? Office dare? Dang, I love this stuff. Years early I witnessed an entire end cap at Walgreens displaying large boxes clearly named “Potable Speakers.” I had to ask another customer to confirm I was reading it correctly, in other words, wrongly. Another notch! “Is there a job for people to do this full time,” I dream.

So back to the sweet midgets. I did finally get up the nerve to fish one of the tiny green turds out of the mystery container. I took a brave bite and I’m pretty sure it was a pickle. Pretty sure.

Does anyone else out there look for marketing mistakes?

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The Perplexing Pimple Persiflage

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