Every holiday is a business opportunity. Have you heard that line before? “Everyone knows that Halloween was invented by the candy companies to make a buck…” We know the reality of that not to be entirely true. However, there is enormous opportunity in holiday marketing if you are able seamlessly weave your brand storyline into a holiday message.

Halloween Storytelling

If you’re in retail, this is your time of year. Besides all of the Christmas shopping that’s going on, Halloween is all about decorations, candy, costumes, parties, drinks, foods, and fun. There are a multitude of possibilities for your brand during Halloween, but you need to be smart about this form of marketing. Consider the following questions:

 
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With Halloween just around the corner, I wanted to share with you an interesting genre of marketing that has boomed in the past few years; Zombie Marketing. Sounds a bit out there, right? Let’s just say, for the sake of Halloween, that you wanted to pursue the zombie genre and needed some tips on zombie marketing. Well, Happy Halloween, here they are:
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There is a fine line between innovative, entertainment focused digital marketing and deceptive practices, and even the Federal Trade Commission is confused on where that line should be drawn. Entertainment, specifically music, combined with pioneering online brand marketing strategies has become a new frontier of enormous possibilities for agencies, providing a personal connection with a teen focused audience.

Digital Marketing

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There have been some interesting stories featured this week in The New York Times and Marketing Week, both featuring popular soft drink brands, both presenting two different branding scenarios. Scenario one; Coca-Cola’s new ‘retro’ campaign increases profits and brand equity. Scenario two; PepsiCo and Frito-Lay might be in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission for ‘deceptive digital marketing practices targeted at adolescents.’

Scenario One; Coca-Cola Goes Retro

So far, it’s been a great anniversary year for Coca-Cola. For the brand’s 125 anniversary, they have not only gone retro, but focused more on incorporating music into their over marketing platform.

 
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As I was writing last week’s article on cause marketing, the NFL and the American Cancer Society, it occurred to me that we haven’t discussed how to expand your target audience and your brand’s reach. Each and every brand has a specific target audience, a demographic that has been determined with a high degree of confidence to relate to the overall brand message. But, as the NFL has clearly shown us, there are ways to expand your reach and attract an entirely new demographic.

The NFL’s New Target Audience

Since the beginning of time, football has been a man’s sport. The target demographic was easy to establish; men, fathers, sons, brothers, grandfathers, singles, all incomes, all ages. Of course, as we all know, things get a bit more complicated when you segment each demographic and determine the best brand message to send to each segmentation, but simply put; men love football.

 
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Cause marketing can be incredibly successful for both the non-profit organization and the for-profit organization involved, if it’s marketed correctly. With integrated advertising and a well thought out marketing plan, cause marketing can be mutually beneficial for everyone involved. A perfect example of cause marketing at it’s absolute best is the partnership between the NFL and the American Cancer Society.

What is Cause Marketing?

In advertising and marketing, there are hundreds of strategies that a brand can use to drive awareness towards a product, service, or a cause. In this case, the entire story revolves around the cause; whether it’s breast cancer, heart disease, or hunger in Africa, the cause is the heroine, not the brand itself. It’s an entirely different form of marketing, where the story revolves not around the brand as the protagonist, but the cause itself.
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Around our Scottsdale marketing offices, we often talk about the genius behind many advertising campaigns. And, as it often does here on the blog as well, Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” ad campaign becomes a topic of discussion. While we might not know everything there is to know about where cars are made, we do know advertising, and this campaign has done amazing things for Chrysler. Today I came across an article pointing out a very disturbing fact, and one that might have some serious consequences for Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” brand message; the Chrysler 300 is actually imported from Ontario and Mexico.

When Brands Are Not Authentic

When a brand message is not authentic, people will take notice, and the Made in the USA Foundation has definitely taken notice. They recently filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission accusing the Chrysler Group of “misleading advertising.”

 
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Why haven’t we talked about the death of Steve Jobs yet? We were waiting for the most opportune topic, and today we found it. As a marketing and advertising firm, building brands is our business. While technology plays a huge role in effectively communicating a brand’s message, the core of what we do is based on a brand’s story, and not so much on creating the technology to tell those stories. Steve Jobs, while an amazing inventor, or sorts, and techie, was also a mastermind marketer.

Selling the Story

One aspect that we focus on here at Quaintise above all else is the art of storytelling. Building a brand is about creating a unique story, conveying that story, believing in that story, and ultimately getting the target audience to believe in that story as well. Steve Jobs was supremely talented at this process. His vision, his commitement to the story, and his messaging was second to none. It’s one of the greatest reasons why Apple has been so successful over the years.
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Effectively communicating your company story; it’s the foundation of what we do at Quaintise. When marketing and advertising is moving a million miles a minute and consumers are connecting with brands on a whole new level, how do you keep them engaged long enough to tell a compelling story and ultimately generate leads and sales? The key is in the storytelling, the tone, the purpose, and the plot.

The History of Storytelling

Since the beginning of time, storytelling has been the ultimate form of raising awareness, educating, and communicating ideas. The idea (the advertisement), has always been hidden between the lines of a story. Remember high school English? Where you were required to ‘read between the lines’ of a well written plot to determine exactly what the author was trying to say without reading the Cliff Notes. In open discussions about the story, as with ancient forms of storytelling, the audience became a part of the story, each individual bringing their own interpretation to the plot.
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