The Innovator vs. The Disrupter!

My blog assignment this week is for Consumer Behavior and it's an analysis on the Top Dog vs. The Underdog brands. The top dogs are usually the market leaders. They are your Coca Cola, Ford and GM, Apple (modern day Apple) Mars Candies, Annheuser - Busch, brands like that. You see their products prominently on shelf spaces in grocery stores, quick shops, and super centers.

The disrupters are the underdogs, they saw a product and tried to make it different or better in some way. Apple became a top dog but started as a disrupter with a new style of computer and a new operating system. Microsoft was, or perhaps still is, the market leader and therefore the top dog still in the personal computing/operating system game. However at one time they were also the disrupter! They started with DOS, made a graphics based interface and called it Windows and then that turned the world upside down!

Apple could not even come close to competing with Windows and Microsoft grew into one of the best top dogs of all time. Apple stayed a niche product at best until they turned the world upside down with a handheld device that disrupted everything in the iPhone. They became the dominant company they are today because of that and are clearly top dogs in their industry now.

There is a clear difference in marketing strategy used by the top dog and the underdog. The top dog strategy is very clearly put by saying, "This works, we are dependable, we are always here, we are always reliable, no reason to change." They know they have the shelf space, market share, and have developed their product or service to the point where they are at their optimal.

The underdog strategy is, "We are new! We are exciting! We innovate! We are the future and you should join us!" They are disrupting the status quo, they give the Pepsi Challenge, they shake up the market, and they put themselves in front of your eyes constantly for your attention.

The next question for my assignment is to provide three recommendations on how an underdog can surpass the top dog. I've given one, Apple focused on a market that Microsoft ignored, the cell phone, and became a very big top dog! Microsoft struggled to produce any cell phones worth a mention, the same thing happened to the Microsoft Zune, basically an iPod style device that just never took off.

However Microsoft does own one segment that Apple has never attempted, the home game console. The X Box is a monster product! They came to the market when Nintendo was slipping away quietly with a next generation product that was so innovative that it rescued the home gaming market from another bust like after Atari went bankrupt. Microsoft is no slouch by any means and still have top dog product lines but they fail as well from time to time.

Another recommendation for an underdog to become a top dog is to stay embrace technology. You know what the status quo is of your product, it's time to think of it in a new way. It's time to take the old Ford approach to Model T colors (you can have any color you want as long as it's black) and make something hot rod red metaphorically speaking. Innovators, underdogs, disrupters need to embrace new technology. Technology is constantly changing, to the point that change is the only constant. Find technology to innovate your product, make it faster, make it higher quality, make it cheaper and you'll find your inner top dog! Maybe it's a new flavor combination for a potato chip no one has tried before. Maybe it's the Ranch Dressing innovator upstart that's about to take on long time established and top dog Thousand Island for the title of best dressing in the world. Think about your product a bit differently, maybe you can revolutionize your underdog into a top dog!

 Innovate! The top dogs were innovators once! Be the innovative leader and you can become the top dog! Take the NBA for example, teams used to run set piece offenses in the 1970's, if you watch the game replays now you might die of boredom. Pat Reilly build a team that was stat heavy and innovated offense with "The Showtime Lakers" in the 80's and started to dominate the game with a free flowing offense that accounted for much more offense than other teams were able to replicate or produce! They were exciting to watch even for the casual fan.

That team was a disrupter and quickly became a top dog to the point where today's modern NBA offenses are free flowing, reads, pick and rolls, and isolation offenses produce over a hundred points on average!

Why do I believe consumers choose the top dog over the underdog? That's pretty easy, people are creatures of habit. The more they grow the more they want to plan ahead and avoid surprises. They don't want the car to break down on the side of the road so they buy brands that are reliable. Brands that always start when you turn the key on. That's why I probably drink Bud Light (when I can't afford Lagavulin that is, which as a working class college student, not often) I see Bud Light along side Natty Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite, Michelob Ultra, and I generally pick Bud Light. It's tasty, drinkable, common, affordable and there's no surprises. You know what you are getting and sometimes that's good enough for me.

SMART Goals Ahead

As you long time readers know I've been combining my personal blog with my homework assignments for the past couple of years. Well anytime there is a blog post assignment. It lets me keep a record of where I am now at this point and time in my work and in my personal life, which lets me know how far I have left to travel on this journey.

This assignment if for Integrated Marketing, which so far has been a pretty interesting class even though it's only week three. I'm to describe SMART goals which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Then write about what role they have in marketing campaigns.

Then in another prompt I'm to write about the difference between goals, strategies, and tactics.

Well let me begin by explaining the difference between goals, strategies, and tactics. The goal is what you get up in the morning for. It's the prize at the end of the rainbow, the surprise in the bottom of the cereal box. How do you get to this goal?

Through a strategy! A strategy is a road map to the goal. You'll have to eat all the cereal to get to the plastic diving submarine that's powered by baking soda. If it's a huge box you'll need a tactic to get through the road map faster! This is where tactics come into play, it's how you get over the obstacles in order to implement your strategy to get to your goal!

So in this example you'll open your box of Lucky Charms to get to the submarine (goal) then you've got the problem of going through all the cereal because Mom won't let you have the toy until all the cereal is gone (strategy). So you've got an obstacle to overcome (tactic) and recruit your little brother to eat as much cereal as he can while you eat the rest! BOOM! Goal, Strategy, and Tactics accomplished and now you've got the baking soda powered submarine in your hands and ready for bath time!

You can map out your strategy a bit more by using the SMART acronym to help you out!
If your strategy specific? Yes! You need the toy!
Is your strategy measurable? Yes! You seen a known quantity of cereal to be consumed before getting to your toy!
Is your strategy attainable? Absolutely! You can practically see the little green submarine wrapped in clear plastic!
Is your strategy realistic? Sure is! You could cheat and reach into the box and get it but Mom is watching soooo, you got to play it straight!
Is your strategy timely? Yes! The box isn't the Grand Canyon! It's a cereal box and in a few short mornings your goal will be accomplished!

My next prompt is to explain how marketing tactics align with strategies! This is actually pretty easy if you think about it! So say you've got a client and that wants a thousand new clients knocking on their door in a year. They are a new business and have no client base at all.

They call you up and explain what they are after. You device a strategy of gaining your new client a thousand new clients! You do a SWOT, you find out what they are selling and who would benefit from what they are selling, in short you find the target audience that your client is after. Once you determine that audience you devise your tactics!

So perhaps your target demographic is aged eighteen to thirty nine, male and female. So you know people of this age group are pretty tech savvy and feel like an organic social media campaign is the way to go but you don't want to put all your eggs in that basket completely. This is where you also think about radio ads to reach your audience for example. Just to make give your client added value you also start a Facebook ad buy! You are confident in the next year these tactics will fulfill the strategy and accomplish the goal of gaining your client a thousand new clients!

What is also very important about all three of these advertising channels is that they are measurable using key performance indicators or KPI for short. KPI is likes on Facebook, or as you sift through the click through numbers on your ad buy, you can tell exactly how many people are seeing the new ads and who is clicking and how much time they are spending on your client's site.

This is just one form of a myriad of indicators such as subscribers on YouTube, Follows on Twitter, impressions, click through rates, ratings from radio advertisements, and a hundred more measurable indicators to tell exactly how you are reaching your audience. This is important as you might not be gaining any traction from one channel and can save money there by taking those resources to another channel that's got more promising indicators!

This is how tactics align with a strategy in marketing!

A few years ago I was hired by a local marketing firm to film some short videos with a couple of hosts and start a channel on YouTube for consumption. We did quite a few videos together around town to promote various things. After a few months I started watching the viewing numbers and they just weren't there. This was the YouTube of maybe ten years ago so it was a bit more primitive than it is today but I also knew the videos would soon be coming to an end because the KPI just wasn't favorable anymore. In today's more modern YouTube we could have done a lot of different things and gotten a lot of subs and views but it was a lot of fun for a while!

Well my friends this should complete the assignment and look for another blog post coming this week as my other course, Consumer Behavior requires one as well! So stay tuned! Same BluChannel, Same BluTime, by the Same Blugill!

Under Armour's Marketing Armor

My long time friends and readers that have joined me on my quest that began in 2015 to earn my bachelor's degree have noticed that from time to time I post updates in my blog. These updates are usually assignments or random musings when the need strikes to me extrapolate some random thought into typed words such as my last post, "The Beauty in Mediocrity."

This post will be assignment related and deals with the sports apparel company Under Armour and their woman focused "I Will What I Want" campaign from 2014. Following on the heels of an Adidas campaign that marketed to females "Unite All Originals" that failed to register much of a blip in sales, Under Armour decided to try to market their products to women which accounted for less than 25% of their total sales.

Both campaigns were social media focused with YouTube being the main method of delivery. Under Armour focused on an unusual athlete, Misty Copeland, a ballerina. She reads a rejection letter from a top school while the camera focuses on a powerful performance on stage that would put my middle aged and formerly athletic body in traction for a month. The ad was an instant success with four million views in the first week.

By contrast the Adidas ad was loud, unfocused, and frenetic. There were more men in the commercial than women which was counter to their intent to market to females. Compared to the peacefully scored piano piece that contrasted with the rejection letter and powerful physical performance it was easy to see what Adidas failed to garner sales. They might as well have set their marketing budget on fire and at least they could have roasted hot dogs with it.

Under Armour stayed on target with their intentions to market towards females. Every piece of their ad set meshed with every part. Their message was clear while Adidas' message was muddled at best. Their segmentation focused on athletic females that might not be perceived as athletic. More along the lines of the everyday female athlete that might go to the gym a few days per week.

When you market to a segment, you've got to actually keep them in mind and not throw frenetic images on a wall and see what sticks. How did Adidas believe such a campaign to move the sales needle after a very muddy message? I wanted to shut it off after the first thirty seconds but did my due diligence and stuck it out until the end and came away thinking "WHAT WAS THAT?!"

Segmentation marketing is around us on a daily basis. Web searches create patterns in what you look for, ad sets are matched to your searches, you see products that are then marketed towards your segment. If I search for concealed carry holsters for example, I'll start to see different brands pop up on the sides where the ads are on websites I visit. That means someone created an ad set that was looking for your segment of the population with your interests and has a product they want you to see and purchase.

The rubric asks me to identify a marketing segment I've noticed and how I would market towards that segment. This is very easy! Free to play games has got to be one of the most easily identifiable segment in today's world! You can't get away from ads for Candy Crush, Boom Beach, Viking Kingdom of the Lost World of Titans or whatever such bland titles they come up with next. The reality is these games are everywhere.

It's brilliant actually, they know everyone and their dog has a mobile device. They know you will be looking at it constantly. They also know for Millennials being bored for more than two seconds is like death to them. However give someone constant affirmation in the form of a game, pleasant sounds, and constant rewards and they have you hooked. Micro transactions will eat into your budget quickly but these aren't mentioned much in the marketing design.

The marketing for such a game writes itself. Segment the Millennials born between 1994 and 2004, both male and female. Appeal to your segment with your product as THE boredom killer. Post game play videos on Instagram and YouTube where the focus isn't on the screen but the happiness of the player's face that is playing the game to create curiosity. The game play would never be shown in an ad as they are typically the same game in different skins with the same mechanics but focus on what the player is feeling and not what they are doing. That's how I'd create an a segmentation strategy.

The Beauty in Mediocrity

One of my favorite quotes is, "No one in the world gets what they want, and that is beautiful." I first read it in Ready Player One but I believe it's attributed to another author.
I'm more of a destination guy than a journey guy. I've always wanted to get to the next thing as I discussed in my last post. The next level, the next payday, the next milestone.

 I'm also an advocate of Americana. The American Dream, the great American novel, small town living where people aren't anonymous but recognize each other and form circles of friends. They form extended families apart from the family they were born to but also keep sacred the family they were born to.

When I was a kid I wanted my own place. A place where I could do what I pleased. A man and his castle with a truck where I could go where I pleased when he pleased. I never realized being an adult was such a pain though. Life kicks you around, grinds you down, takes your dreams and laughs at them and eventually you strive for the simple things and are happy about it.

You work. You look forward to the next three day weekend, Friday is a little easier, Monday or Tuesday a little tougher and Thursday is trash day. Some days you have nothing to look forward to. You have nothing to excite you and some days you forget the last time you were passionate about something, anything. That's the daily grind most of us live through while possibly looking forward towards a well planned vacation someday, a brief respite before going back to the grind.

John Cougar Mellencamp sang in arguably one of his top three songs in his career, Jack and Diane, "Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone." Mellencamp seemed to tap into the feelings of middle America. Fly over country, exclusive of the coasts and where most Americans live their lives. 

Finding a passion for something is essential, necessary, vital to living. Myself I've been passionate about many things but they fade over time and I move onto something else to occupy my time and build upon my experiences. Sometimes I love watching street cooking videos, stir fry being my favorite, and learn to replicate those recipes. Sometimes I hear about a brand of scotch that's got a new offering and try to find a bottle. Maybe someday I'll be interested in wood working and build a wood shop, I don't know but the possibility is there and that's exciting.

Yes, sometimes you find beauty in being average, living an average life and filling it with experiences that can be extraordinary....at least for a little while.

Consumer Me

In my new course, Consumer Behavior a blog post assignment is required. As you will remember this has been part of my college experience and I chose long ago to integrate my long time personal blog into these assignments.

In this assignment we are exploring me as a consumer and I must answer these following prompts:

• What type of consumer are you? 
  I'm an impulse consumer. For example, I pretty much cook for myself now and go to the grocery store two to three times a week to buy something to cook, depending on my mood. Maybe one day it's a casserole, the next red beans and rice, grilling on the weekend. It all depends on what my current impulses are. 
  
  
• What influences your buying decisions, and how? 
  Easy, hunger and comfort are my biggest influences when purchasing something. I've been blue collar my entire working career and I feel I've worked pretty hard to get where I'm at in life and if I want to eat something such as rib-eye steak, I'll go get a really good one. If I'm wanting to see a certain movie to pass the time after the evening's homework is completed after work, then I'll buy it or maybe subscribe to a streaming channel that has it. Again impulse decisions that are influenced by two driving forces. 
  
  
• Which stage actually leads to your purchasing decisions? 
  Hunger or relaxation. When I'm out of something I'll go buy to refill it. I subscribe to a pet food service that sends regular shipments of foods that my pets enjoy so that is planned but saves me the time in the grocery store. Not to mention that I might go to buy more pet food and they might be out of that specific brand or flavor which would mean I'd have to go to another store to find what they like. It's very convenient to just have it delivered on a regular basis.
  
  
• When making a buying decision, how are you influenced by marketing research and marketing design? 
  Most of the times I'm not easily influenced by marketing. I tend to read about a major purchase product before purchasing which I realize flies in the face of my earlier stated impulse consumer behavior. I tend to read reviews, watch unboxing videos, or consumer views on an expensive product before purchasing. None of that is generally part of the company's marketing plan as most reviewers are uncompensated.
  
  
• Do you experience any post-purchase behavior? 
  Not so much although I'm not a big believer in recycling I have started saving my empty beer cans. I consume, move on and usually discard the packaging.