A while back I blogged about the deceptive advertising practices by FreeCreditReport.com (sorry no link for bad boys). Today’s NY Times echoes my dismay. FCR, which is actually owned by the big credit reporting service Experian, claim to offer “free” credit reports, but they actually require enrollment in a $15/month paid service.

“Consumer groups have long objected to sites like FreeCreditReport.com. Consumers may obtain a free credit report each year from the three major agencies, as mandated by an act that Congress passed in 2003. The only authorized site for that is AnnualCreditReport.com.” (NY Times)

Consumer reaction is pretty predictable. This Lifehacker post gives you a peek at some of the negative feedback.

It’s like I always say: Be straight with people, especially prospective customers. The truth always gets out, no what your marketing might claim.

It will be the hottest marketing promotion of the summer — until it runs out of gas. Companies of all kinds are giving away tankfuls of free gas as long as you buy something: a new car, hotel room, even Calloway golf clubs. With $4 a gallon fuel prices and $50-75 fill-ups becoming part of our auto-oriented lifestyle, gasoline giveaways are a real attention-getting promotional idea.

Expect to see it a lot of them this summer, before they fade away by Labor Day, says a marketing professor at at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

But why bother with gas cards at all? Why not just take $50 off the product price, or give customers the cash as a rebate instead? After all, money is money, right? Shouldn’t consumers be just as excited about a $50 discount as a $50 gas card?

Aha, that’s where the psychology of marketing comes in! Any copywriter worth his thesaurus knows that buying decisions are primarily driven by emotion, not logic, no matter how we try to convince ourselves otherwise. Suzanne Shu, a marketing professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, says:

“The more (a) purchase feels discretionary, like staying at a luxury hotel, the more the gas cards have impact because people can use them to justify something they might not do otherwise.”

So if you’re thinking of going down the “free gas” road for your next promotion, just remember those roads are going to get pretty congested. Link

photo credit: pixelnaiad

Look – up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane. No, it’s a corporate logo!

An Alabama entrepreneur and former musician has taken product placement to new “heights.” Francisco Guerra has invented a cloud machine that creates clouds in the shape of corporate logos, then floats them off into the sky.

His “Flogos” machine produces tiny bubbles filled with air and a little helium, forms the foam into shapes and then pumps them into the sky. A single Flogo can travel as far as 30 miles and as high as 20,000 feet, Guerra says. It’s environmentally safe because the flogo is mostly water, air and a soapy agent that creates bubbles.

First in line to try out the new promotional medium is Disney, which will use one of the machines next month to send clouds shaped like Mickey Mouse heads into the air above Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Does that mean Mickey will soon fade into the sunset? Not likely. When it comes to advertising and promotion, I guess the sky is no longer the limit.

Photo by WTL

“What the headline giveth, the small print taketh away,” grumbles the old advertising cynic. Sad to say it’s true, even in this era of supposed transparency.

Take the TV ads for FreeCreditReport.com. A young guy dressed like a pirate, singing (OK, lip-syncing) a catchy little tune about he’s stuck in this nowhere job because his credit was whacked. If only he’d taken advantage of the sponsor’s free credit reporting service.

Except the free service isn’t really free. First you have to enroll in their (paid) Triple Advantage program. But that fact is kept hidden until (literally) the very last line of each spot. The net effect is to admit that everything you’ve said up to this point has been a lie. The truth is, you have to pay $15 per month for X before you get the free Y. Which means Y isn’t really free.

Clever, I admit. They build the ads around the “free” offer, the bonus, even though what they’re really pushing is the paid service. FreeCreditReport is from Experian, the big credit reporting agency, not some fly-by-night. So I assume they honor their promise to cancel your membership within four days after you come to your senses cancel.

But it’s understandable why you might be hesitant. Any company that’s deceptive about a supposedly “free” service might also be the kind of company that makes it really difficult (read: nearly impossible) to cancel once you’ve handed over your credit card information. After all, why would a company like that suddenly play it straight when it comes to letting you out of your contract?

My purpose is not to knock Experian, but to caution against this kind of “gotcha” marketing tactic. They can backfire and cause grave harm to your brand. Think about that next time your marketing guru suggests making pie-in-the-sky promises. If you deliver real value to your customers, there’s no need to be deceptive or sneaky.

And in the Internet age, you will be found out.

Am I the only one who gets mesmerized by those ultra-simple UPS commercials? Apparently not, according to Slate’s Seth Stephenson, who gives a great behind-the-scenes look at those ads here. (You can watch the whole series of UPS spots here.)
You can’t take your eyes off them. There’s something about all that white space, and the guy’s mastery of the dry erase marker, and the quick, simple stories he tells. It’s hard to look away. (The long-haired guy, by the way, is not an actor, but Andy Azula, the creative director of the ad campaign. Bravo, Andy.)

Other companies are trying a similar approach. “Companies are increasingly using simple pictures to distill complicated concepts into easily shared, easily remembered nuggets,” says Fast Company in a piece called The Napkin Sketch. FC quotes Tuft’s Neil Cohn, a researcher in cognitive psychology and linguistics at Tufts University:

“Graphic expression and visual thinking are a central part of human cognition… These ideas are spreading from how companies sell what they do — as in UPS’s “Whiteboard” ad campaign — to plotting strategy.”

Just for laughs, my wife, who’s a talented artist, did a quick sketch of me when I first hung out my shingle as a freelance copywriter in March, 2001. I was amazed. It was quick and funny — the T-shirt reads “Will Write for $.” It’s also probably closer to the “real me” than anything a brand artist could come up with.

I’ve never shown it publicly before, but if quick and simple sketches are the latest thing in branding, maybe now it’s time.

What do you think? Is it too silly and frivolous for an (ahem) “professional” like myself? Or should I start using it as part of my identity and brand? Tell me in the comments. I really would appreciate your input.

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned Andy Sernovitz of MarketingProfs and his list of ingredients found in good word-of-mouth marketing. Then I asked you to figure out what was missing from my list. (Note: It’s on Andy’s list, but I purposely omitted it to make a point.)

The missing link is the same thing that causes a lot of products, services, blogs, and companies to crash and burn. With it, you’ve got a shot at success. Without it, you’re doomed. What is the missing ingredient?

It’s what makes something — anything — exciting, buzzworthy, viral. It’s simple, once you think of it. Ready?

It’s having a fantastic product (or service). Then adding some features that make it remarkable. (”Remarkable”= “worthy of remark” = word of mouth!)

Sure, it’s obvious and elementary. But look around at many businesses today, especially some online businesses and Web applications. You’ve got to wonder, what is so special about this? What were these people thinking? Who did they think was going to use (buy) this?

Online or off, I believe the biggest problem most small businesses have is cultivating their uniqueness. Your Unique Selling Proposition, to use the old marketing textbook phrase. It’s really tough to distinguish yourself from competitors when everyone is offering essentially the same product or service.

Finding and promoting what’s different and fantastic about you — that’s the essence of all marketing. Once you find (or add) that, copywriting and promotion becomes easy.

I’m not saying this roller-coaster economy is a recession, mind you — although Bernanke now seems willing to consider it a possibility.

Faced with hard times like these, what does a small business do about its marketing? How do you continue to attract customers and clients now, when it’s most important?

Marketing gurus say, “Keep smiling.” Ad agencies say, “Keep spending.”

Forbes points out that “for some marketers in specific situations, it might actually be good advice to increase their budget during a downturn… Categories for whom bad times spell boom times. Outplacement firms and debt consolidators come immediately to mind. True discounters are also well positioned to prosper.” The article, written by two market strategists, adds:

“If the downturn spurs consumers to become more avid “nesters” who seek more and better entertainment alternatives at home, then categories from consumer electronics to video rentals to popcorn might benefit.”

What’s your plan? What are your strategies for holding on — or prospering — during the current business cycle? Are you cutting your advertising/ marketing spending? Boosting it? Changing strategies? Are you slashing prices? Adding value?

Let the rest of us know in the comments.

Photo by Susan Noble Smith