Hasta La Creative!

Today’s New York Times takes a look at the real-life marketing of Brawndo, which was made up for the movie “Idiocracy.”

This happened not because of a movie-studio marketing brainstorm. (Twentieth Century Fox released the film briefly and without much enthusiasm in 2006 before tossing it to the DVD market, where it has gained a cult following.) It happened because of an “Idiocracy” fan in Oakland named Pete Hottelet. A graphic designer with very particular pop-culture tastes, Hottelet has started a business devoted to bringing to life certain products from movies. His business is called Omni Consumer Products, a name borrowed from the fictional megacorporation in “Robocop.” In addition to Brawndo, Omni has acquired from Paramount the license to market Sex Panther, a made-up cologne from the Will Ferrell vehicle “Anchorman” (“150% More Awesome Than Any Other Cologne. Ever.”).

Hottelet’s manufacturing partner is Redux Beverages. Redux was founded in 2006 by Jamey Kirby, a former software engineer, and is best known for a real energy drink called Cocaine. Cocaine received a lot of attention before “we had some issues with the F.D.A.,” Kirby says. He pulled it out of stores, and while he was retooling the marketing to address F.D.A. objections (he says it went back on the market in February), he heard from Hottelet — “an absolutely brilliant guy.” Hottelet explained the pitch: the drink had to contain electrolytes and had to be an alarmingly bright green, as in the movie.

“I watched ‘Idiocracy,’ and I was like, ‘O.K., we’re in,’ ” Kirby says. “Based on how things are going on in the world, and especially our country right now, this is a shoo-in.” He laughs as he says this, so I wasn’t sure what he meant. Are we already living “Idiocracy”? “Absolutely,” he says. “It’s all about overcommercialization.” The video ads on the Brawndo site, commissioned by Hottelet, feature members of Picnicface, a Canadian comedy troop, shouting hilariously over-the-top pitches: “It’s like a monster truck you pour into your face!” (The pitches actually owe quite a bit to videos Picnicface has made for a drink called Powerthirst — which doesn’t exist. I don’t think.)

There’s nothin’ stupid about capitalizing on a fake brand, I suppose.

Last week, Microsoft reported a 24% decline in Windows sales in the third quarter.

According to USA Today, Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system, is getting hammered in the press and corporate buyers are refusing to upgrade from XP. Hence, the poor numbers.

Microsoft rebuilt Windows from scratch to create Vista, which has a dazzling interface and improved security tools. But so much computing power is required to run it that many people find their new PCs run slower than older, less powerful XP machines. To spur sales, Microsoft earlier this month said consumers will no longer be able to purchase XP as of June 30. The announcement and pending date have unleashed a firestorm of Vista angst.

Online magazine InfoWorld is waging a Save XP campaign. More than 175,000 signatures have been gathered. “Why pull the plug on XP when there’s clearly a lot of people who still like it?” says Galen Gruman, InfoWorld executive editor.

Influential analyst Michael Silver at research firm Gartner calls the Vista launch a “disaster.” Other critics have been no kinder. CNet called Vista one of the “biggest blunders in technology.” PC magazine chronicles Vista’s “11 Pillars of Failure.” The Christian Science Monitor likened it to Coca-Cola’s disastrous New Coke experiment in the 1980s.

There’s an old saying in Adlandia. “You can’t polish a turd.” But, as Apple proves below, you sure as hell can ridicule the competition’s turd.

One thing that products need today is identity. It can be an aggressive product or a purely intuitive one. But knowing the consumers today, there will always be one attribute that will associate products. It can be positive or negative but either way everyone must remember, products are not made purely for display. There has to be something that it can easily be associated with.

Most household named brands today have achieved this. One good thing about successful branding is that it will be carried out for years to come. It will not die down. A good brand marketing technique will build brand identity which in turn will become the carving niche whenever the ordinary consumer sees it anywhere he may be.

Technorati Tags: brands, brand identity, brand marketing

Los Angeles Times is on top of breaking news in QSR land.

The owner of Arby’s said today it is buying Wendy’s International Inc. in an all-stock deal worth $2.34 billion that comes after the burger chain’s board rejected at least two earlier offers by the company.

Triarc Companies Inc., which is owned by billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, will pay about $26.78 per share for the company, which has about 87 million shares outstanding. The price is a premium of 6% from the company’s closing price of $25.32 Wednesday.

Pam Thomas Farber, 53, daughter of Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas, said the family was devastated by the news.

Farber said the family had a supported an alternate bid led by Wendy’s franchisee David Karam, president of Cedar Enterprises Inc.

Olay for You, an online product- recommendation program that’s attracted more than a million visitors since January, is getting some play in Ad Age. I’ll give it some more here because I like to see online initiatives with offline legs.

Wal-Mart Stores has begun testing an in-store version of Olay for You via kiosks in stores, marking the latest of several efforts in which offline retailers are looking to tap the convenience and functionality of online tools, such as search and recommendation engines, to improve the often-annoying offline shopping experience.

Because of expectations created by web shopping, consumers increasingly expect offline stores to have the goods they want and make them easy to find, Carter Cast, a former CEO of Walmart.com said. “So the ante is raised in the physical world.”

While P&G has tried in-store kiosks before with Clairol and Millstone coffee, Olay For You’s combination of a highly graphic, iterative interview process and a soothing female voice may come closest to actually simulating a customer-service rep.

While I like to see online initiatives with offline legs, I don’t know about these kiosks at retail. They don’t seem to offer the kind of brand experience that truly comes to life in this space (inhabited by real humans). If I haul my ass all the way to the store, I don’t want to get on a computer, I want a real, knowledgeable person to work with me and guide me to a purchase.

If the ante is raised in the physical world, as Cast suggests, then raise the customer service bar at retail and find other ways to allow customers to experience the brand. For Oil of Olay that might mean in-store celebrity appearances, in-store seminars or a promotion that ties to the online presence in some way.

According to The New York Times, gasoline prices surpassed $3.50 a gallon nationwide for the first time and oil jumped to a record high on Monday.

Given the intense price pressure on consumers, it’s interesting to note this article in Ad Age about consumers buying gas on brand preference, not price.

Karen Wildman, brand and communications manager of the Shell brand at Shell Oil Co., said the industry hasn’t done a good job in the past five to 10 years of educating Americans about their fuel products.

She said the $35 million she spent last year for the gas brand’s “Passionate Experts” campaign was a good investment and is spending the same amount this year to continue the effort.

Ms. Wildman said Shell’s quarterly research shows that consumers’ perception of the brand’s gasoline has improved dramatically since the campaign began running, though she declined to provide specifics. She credits improvement partly to the simple message that Shell gasoline can “stop gunky buildup” in engines.

Personally, I don’t purchase gas from Exxon/Mobil, nor Shell.

Even more commentary on Ford’s new Drive One tagline.

According to Adweek, Ford management has asked its 750,000-person network of employees, retirees and dealers to talk to friends and family about the quality and features of Ford vehicles.

The new marketing initiatve created by JWT/Wunderman, known as Drive One is also supported online, in print and on TV.

“The whole idea behind this campaign is not fancy ads. It’s talking to the customer, who talks to a friend,” said Jim Farley group vp, marketing and communications. “It’s the only chance we have to break the apathy.”

When Farley was recruited from Toyota and hired by Ford last October, he was determined to “get people to care about [Ford].” He said, “They just aren’t engaged.”

Well, that’s certainly some straight talk form the executive suite. A good start, perhaps.

I like that the people asked to spread WOM are qualified to do so. We tend to think WOM as a customer-to-customer conversation, but it’s bigger than that.

I can also see where this campaign has the potential to become annoying. Imagine an already over zealous Ford dealer talking car facts over an otherwise pleasant golf outing. That would be bothersome. But handled correctly this idea could go far. That is, it can go far if the 750,000 employees, retirees and dealers honestly feel good about the recommendations they make. They have to be true believers. And true believers aren’t conjured up in a brainstorm, they’re born from the product itself. Are Ford cars and trucks worth believing in? If the answer is yes, then maximizing WOM is a good plan.

I snapped this pic this morning at my local Starbucks. I need to go back and study it, because now I realize that the smudged chalkboard look and feel is a neat way to say “LOCAL,” even though a chain with thousands of stores can hardly claim to be a local institution. At any rate, I’m wondering if this POS really is chalked. Take a look next time you’re at Starbucks and I’ll do the same.

Hey, remember that Zune Masks spot? Feed Company, which seeded it on YouTube and elsewhere, sent us metrics on how well it fared.