THE ACCEPTED DEFINITION of astraight line is ‘the shortest dis-tance between two points’.
Companies marketing a product orservice in the US have lost touch withthat simple truth. Typically, marketersfollow a costly, circuitous route from theact of establishing brand identity tobuilding a profitable customer relation-ship.
The majority of marketers choose tostay with the one-way advertising modelof a bygone era. What a pity, when mak-ing a beeline straight to starting aconsumer relationship is as simple asusing the direct-response tools that arethe foundation of today’s database-drivenmarketing excellence.
At the heart of the problem is a discon-
nection between the focus on brand andthe focus on response that drives 21st-cen-tury interactive customer relationships.This article looks at the benefits gainedfrom closing that brand/response gap byusing brand-building advertising to elicita response that leads to fully accountableresults.
‘Connectivity’ (shrinking thebrand/response gap) is the primary chal-lenge faced by marketers in the firstdecade of this century.
‘Fixation on brand’ paralysisWe know that over time everythingchanges and evolves to higher life forms.Right?
Wrong. At least as it applies to theadvertising life form. The fixation ontraditional awareness advertising andbrand identity has changed little in 40years, while almost every other aspect of marketing has evolved into more com-plex and effective business practices.
The result is a massive gap betweenbrand and response, with dire implica-tions.
Below is a brief look at life in the fastlane of today’s marketing in the US. The customer is a moving target. Com-munications are delivered on prime-timenetwork TV, on cable, on web banners and
pop-ups, at construction sites, over cellphones, on street pavements and in rest-rooms. Single-channel distribution is no more.It is a multi-channel world and thensome. At shopping malls, by mail, incyberspace, by cell and hardwire tele-marketing, at kiosks, on a handheld PalmPilot, at concerts, ballparks, wherever andwhenever. Empowerment is in the hands of theconsumer. Shoppers control the rela-tionship. In the US, eight out of ten
shoppers turn to the net to make a deci-sion before going to the automotiveshowroom. They tell FedEx at what timeand at what cost to deliver the package.They compare prices and user ratingsbefore buying anything and everything,over the net. Sixty million people sell toone another on eBay. Competition is carried to the extreme.Today’s supplier is tomorrow’s competi-tor. Gillette spent 750 million dollarsdeveloping the Mach 3 blade. One yearlater, a major UK supermarket developed
the same product under its own brandname. Colleges offer their own creditcards that compete with those of localbanks. Banks compete with financialadvisers to sell stocks and bonds. Finan-cial advisers prepare your taxes to
compete with local certified public
accountants.The fragmentation of media has no
limit, with 500 TV channels delivering toever smaller and more selective mini-markets. Attention is splintered as websurfers chat with their friends via email,play on the Xbox, talk on the cell phoneand have the TV set blaring – all at thesame time. There is a non-stop bombardment of the mind and the senses. This over-stimu-lation results in a stressed-out consumer.As the magazine Science reports: stress
floods the brain with hormones calledglucocortoids that interferes with thetransfer of short-term memory to long-term memory storage. That is bad newsfor marketers. The more messages putout, the more we suppress the consumer’sability to remember those messages.
The answer: close the gapA brand is no longer defined only byadvertising-driven perception. Rather it isdefined by the customer’s experience inbuying the product; satisfaction in using
the product; and the services wrappedaround the product with positive conse-quences.
As important as brand perception isthe nature of the brand experience, theease of reading ‘how to’ guides, the quality
Andrew Cohen, Exposed Brick, argues that cost-effective, successful marketing todaydemands a balanced combination of brand building and response generation
straight line connecting brand andresponse by adopting the mantra ‘Expe-rience is the brand.’
The benefits of closing the gapA recent demonstration of the benefitsof connecting brand and response wasthe introduction of OxiClean withdirect response advertising in the US.Traditionally, the fast-moving consumergoods (fmcg) industry resists the integra-tion of brand and response. It loves tobuild brand recognition with ‘creative’advertising that establishes an emotionalconnection without engaging theprospect or customer in any direct way.The success of OxiClean showed, onceagain, that it doesn’t have to be that way.
Fmcg advertisers adhere to marketing
strategies built on brand mass marketingfounded in the 1950s. OxiClean provedthat a brand/response strategy is a perfectfit for the 21st century.
OxiClean, an unknown company atthe time, was introduced with an adver-tising budget one-tenth the size of otherFmcg companies and a complete lack of
presence on retail shelves. OxiClean wenthead to head against all the top brands inits category – Tide, Cheer, Clorox – andcame out in a leadership position. Howdid it do it?
At first OxiClean was sold only directvia street markets, direct-response TV andon an e-commerce website. Withoutdoing anything ‘right’, OxiClean built anational brand name, a loyal followingand a significant profit.
The early success was followed by amulti-channel strategy and the start of distribution via non-grocery retail stores.Sales were driven by a brand/responseadvertising strategy that cut through theadvertising clutter of its competitors.
OxiClean used a memorablespokesperson, a daring product claim and
a convincing demonstration to register itsbrand identity and build a customer data-base. The brand/response strategy allowedOxiClean to motivate response and buildbrand loyalty simultaneously. It closed thegap between brand and response – andlaughed all the way to the bank.
At the opposite end of the marketing
of the customer communications, thevoice of the representative at the otherend of the phone line, the ease of findinginformation at the company website, andso on. In the new marketing world domi-nated by ease of access, ‘the experience’takes precedence over ‘the perception’.Building a tight emotional connection tothe brand is no longer the sole province of a 30-second commercial.
Jet Blue, with little advertising, built aclose bond with customers by demon-strating that flying can be an economicaland enjoyable experience. What they dofor you creates the brand image – not a 30-second commercial. It is the same withAmazon – the promise is an easy, hassle-free way to shop on the net at a discount.And they deliver. No brand advertising
required. The same is true for Wal-Mart,eBay, Red Bull.
These super-brands of the marketingworld have shown that advertising isjust one aspect of the multitude of con-nections that build an emotionalattachment to a product or service intoday’s world. These companies draw a
Andrew Cohen is founder of
Exposed Brick, a marketing
consulting firm working with
many blue-chip companies.
He is currently co-authoring
with Stan Rapp, Business
Magic; Making the Impossible
Possible in Business and Life.
Get a response: OxiClean succeeded with the brand/response strategy, a far cry from the 1950s style of mass marketing shown here
8/3/2019 Closing the Brand Response
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/closing-the-brand-response 3/318 Admap • September 2003
brandresearch
scale from fmcg companies we find thetitans of the automotive world. At thehead of the pack in sales and advertisingexpenditure stands General Motors (GM).So it is interesting to note how GM closedthe gap between brand and response toproduce a 55% jump in market share forthe Corsa brand in Argentina.
In this case, a 30-second brand-response commercial was run in tandemwith a 30-second direct-response versionof the same message. All of it happened inprime time. The result? The phones didn’tstop ringing and the cars flew out of theshowroom at one of the worst times everfor the Argentine economy.
The magic of OPCOne method for connecting brand andresponse effectively in an ad campaign iscalled the OPC model. Developed by thisauthor, used by Global Fortune 1000 com-
panies and tested in seven differentlanguages, this technique has generatedover a billion and a half dollars in directsales while simultaneously building majorbrands. The basic premise is that a pur-chase can be achieved only if an offer (O),product (P) and call to action (C) are unitedin a compelling advertising presentation.
The key component of the OPC modelis the brand/response (B/R) ratio; repre-senting the relative emphasis put onbrand and response.
This is how it works. Traditionally, TVadvertising for an fmcg brand has no offeror call to action in the awareness advertis-ing. The B/R ratio in this instance wouldbe expressed as 100/0. The effectiveness of the advertising is dependent on theconsumer remembering the product’spositioning benefit and reacting accord-ingly at the point of sale.
When OxiClean came on the scene, itwiped out the competition with a 30/70B/R ratio. As OxiClean expanded intotraditional retail and built sales throughmultiple channels it chose to shift itsmarketing B/R ratio to 60/40, and growthcontinued.
In Argentina, General Motors dramati-cally gained market share with a 50/50
B/R ratio. When its advertising revertedto the usual automotive 100/0 B/R ratio,the gain faded away.
The B/R ratio is a metaphor for the linethat connects brand with response. Intraditional fmcg and automotive adver-tising, the 100/0 B/R ratio reflects the lackof initiating an immediate contact orsale. Traditional direct marketers, totallyfocused on maximising response, arefamous for high-powered 0/100 B/R thatpushes for a sale for up to 120 seconds oncable TV in the US. Now, a new genera-
tion of ‘direct mass marketers’, wise tothe power of building a brand connec-tion while going for intermediateinteraction, win big with a 40/60 B/Rratio in 60-second and even 30-second TVcommercials.
The next steps you can takeWe have discussed the evolution of theforces closing the gap between brand andresponse. But closing the gap often involvesthe challenge of unifying different disci-plines and competing egos. Professor Philip
Kotler, whose name is synonymous withmarketing wisdom in America, suggeststhat companies begin by making a singleindividual responsible for managing andintegrating all the company’s communica-tions. This puts a singular vision at all the
contact points where a consumer mayencounter the brand.
Designating such a person is just the
first step. Successful unification of brandand response is also about the incentivesused to encourage co-operation betweencompeting marketing disciplines. It isabout creating diversified teams that ‘own’the account; including specialists in brandadvertising, response advertising, webdevelopment and experiential promotion.
It is helpful, too, to drop the misleadingterm ‘integration’ (as it relates to distinctlydifferent forms of expertise), and explorenew terms such as unification and collab-orative marketing. The idea is to do away
with folding any one marketing disciplineinto another. Experience has shown thatintegration usually involves the ‘estab-lishment’ discipline absorbing thechallenger, with the outcome a disaster forthe marketer paying the bill.
In today’s tech-driven, data-based, rela-tionship marketing world, any companythat resists going straight to the con-sumer by closing the gap between brandand response will pay a huge price in losteffectiveness and efficiency. The only wayto go is the shortest B/R distance to
reaching a profitable connection withprospects and customers.Why would anyone want to do things
relationshipmarketing world,any company thatresists going straightto the consumer byclosing the gapbetween brand andresponse will pay ahuge price in losteffectiveness andefficiency’
Closing the gap will …
strengthen brand message
maximise media efficiencies –particularly mass-media TV
increase relevance of the advertisingmessage
obtain cost-free, vital marketing datamaximise returns on marketing
investment and accountability convert ‘passive viewers’ into ‘active
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