One, Singular Sensation

Along with my Opinionated Marketer buddy John Whiteside - and every other marketer on the face of the earth - I'll be curious to see how the AT&T-Cingular rebranding effort plays out.

Cingular did an excellent job of making their name a household word. My guess is that - at least in the U.S. - more people know Cingular's "raising the bar" than know "You world. Delivered", which is AT&T's tag-line.

AT&T is certainly a venerable old brand and I'm guessing that with CocaCola, IBM, and a few others it's in the upper reaches of worldwide recognition. But it's got a lot some problems.

It's got four syllables. So it's hard to say. We all want things that are fast, and brand names are one of those things we don't want to spend a lot of time saying. Most brands are one, two or three syllables. Coca Cola obviously has four syllables, and it hasn't hurt them any. But Coke also has a nickname. AT&T doesn't (unless we revert to Ma Bell, which doesn't make any sense absent the Baby Bells of yore).

It's 19th century. AT&T. Does it still stand for American Telephone & Telegraph. Telegraph? Telegram for AT&T: CHANGE MEANING TO TELECOM & TECH. STOP. Half the people who know IBM probably don't know what it stands for (International Business Machines), but all are those words are still in use. Telegraph? Way too quaint for this day and age. And American? At least IBM was prescient enough to use International even way back when.

It's stodgy. It's stogie. Think AT&T and you picture a bunch of tycoons sitting around the club complaining that nothing has been the same since Franklin Delano Roosevelt ruined the country. And smoking cigars. (Okay - they probably wouldn't have been 5 cent stogies - they'd have been Havanas. Illegally imported Havanas no doubt.)

Cingular, on the other hand, has three syllables. It's a neo-logism - so it doesn't have to stand for anything, yet the name conveys "unique". It's 21st century. It's hip - think snowboarders, not plutocrats.

What it isn't is particularly business-y. On the other hand, AT&T isn't particularly consumer-y.

When AT&T was a holding company, it held a lot of other companies with their own names and brands. (Baby Bells like New England Telephone and New York Telephone). Of course everyone just called these sub-brands "the phone company." (In olden days, when there was less time-pressure, we didn't mind using 5 syllables.)

From a consumer market standpoint, the demographic that AT&T appeals to skews way old - say, aging parents of baby-boomers. Not exactly a growth market. Cingular's consumer market is younger and broader.

AT&T might have saved themselves some big bucks if they'd decided to preserve two brands, one consumer and one business. Business would have been able to buy from one supplier (which was the argument for brand combination), and consumers could have kept on consuming Cingular.

When we look back on this rebranding effort, I'm sure it will be something of a singular sensation - but I'm guessing that the singular sensation will involve the amount of money spent, not the effectiveness of the rebranding.

Meet Middle East Barbie

Since 2003, Barbie has been outsold in the Middle East by Fulla, a Barbie-like doll designed to appeal to Muslim girls:

... Fulla, created by a toy company based in the United Arab Emirates, wears an abaya — a long, black robe — that covers her body from head to toe. Her eyes are mocha, her skin caramel, her hair jet black.

The doll, which has been outselling Barbie in the Middle East since its launch in 2003, is the latest example of a new crop of dolls reflecting different races, values, religions and cultures. Fulla will appear at the 2007 Toy Fair in New York City in February. Other doll companies, such as American Girl and Dolls Like Me, also have introduced ethnic dolls, including African-American, Hispanic, American Indian and Asian options.

Named after a fragrant flower, the Fulla line includes a variety of dolls dressed in clothes that reflect different countries in the Middle East and Asia. But Fulla goes beyond the external fashion and beauty focus. She is a doctor and teacher who respects her parents and likes to read and play sports.

"The message that Fulla brings ... is promoting good virtues for little girls," said Basel Kanawati, chief technology officer for NewBoy, the company that created Fulla.

It's easy to see why American-style Barbie might be troublesome for parents in that part of the world, and NewBoy is taking advantage of cultural differences to offer a product that's more appropriate for other cultures. (Though I think some American parents might prefer a doll who's a doctor and teacher, and likes to read, over Malibu Barbie and her impossible bust.)

Though, as the report notes, the implications of dolls seem to be more important to parents than kids:

Christine Williams, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, says that while adults fret over the potential hazards of their children playing with dolls that don't resemble them, kids generally just see dolls as toys.

"I think parents project an awful lot of power onto these objects, that may or may not have any true impact on what the child will do. The question of what children do with Barbies or their toys has always been up in the air."

For a somewhat lighter take on Barbie, meanwhile, consider this lineup of Houston-area Barbies that's been making the rounds via email and blogs. If you're not from Houston, I'm sure you can plug in local place names to make it make sense...

Everything Old is New Again

I used to be an AT&T Wireless customer. Then they became Cingular. And now... 

AT&T will launch its largest-ever ad campaign today (Monday), geared toward absorbing Cingular Wireless into the AT&T brand. Television spots will include both the AT&T and Cingular logos- as well as imagery and phrases (such as "raising the bar" and the "Jack" character) from Cingular's ads in an attempt to integrate them into the AT&T brand.

About 2,000 Cingular-owned wireless retail outlets will begin to adopt AT&T branded signage, and 15,000 store employees will begin wearing uniforms adorned with the AT&T brand, writes AdWeek (via MediaBuyerPlanner). POP kiosks will also adopt AT&T-branded signage.

All that "AT&T is now Cingular" branding work... all for naught.

What's most interesting is that I like being a Cingular customer, but I loathe being at AT&T customer. Not that this actually changes my mobile service a bit, other than to make me feel resentful when I pay the bill.

I guess we can just hope that the former Cingular doesn't adopt AT&T's customer service (sorry, we don't have that) or privacy (we'll ask you what you want, then spam you anyway!) policies.

C'est so paris!

 ... I love Paris in the winter, when it drizzles...

Yes, that bit of music is running through my head on a morning when Houston is feeling just a bit Parisian (41F and rainy out), if not in the most desirable of ways. Probably because I came across C'est so paris!, a Paris marketing campaign created by the tourism committee of the Île-de-France region.

Now, as marketing assignments go, does it get sweeter than this one? Imagine that your job is to take one a city that's known around the world as a beautiful, exciting, cosmopolitan place, a city whose name evokes romance, a city filled with fascinating history, incredible art, and amazing food, and sell it to tourists.

This is a license to have fun, because Paris is perpetually one of the top tourist destinations in the world. All you have to do is remind people about it and help them figure out how to get there and what to do when they arrive.

The tourism folks here in Houston must be so jealous. I love Houston; it's a wonderful place to live, one of America's undiscovered secrets, and the city is endlessly surprising and dynamic. But I realize, as all Houstonians do, that nobody was ever torn between taking their vacation in Paris or Houston.

That's precisely what C'est so paris! does, taking on one of the few negative perceptions of Paris - Parisian attitude, with little guides to rude gestures and tips on how to cop some attitude while you're visiting the city of light. There are, of course, some hotel deals and tips on upcoming events and things to do... and the important "Essential info" page, with a link to the more straightforward ParisInfo site.

It's just fun. I spent about eight or ten weeks in Paris last year, and can tell you that the famed attitude has a reputation far beyond its actual prevalence; I found Paris to be an incredibly visitor-friendly city, and the people quite pleasant (if sometimes brusque) as long as you learned a few basics of what constitutes proper behavior before you go.

I just wish more of my assignments offered the chance to play a bit the way this one does. And I'll leave you with one little Paris recommendation, should a trip there be in your future; a little restaurant we discovered and ate at many times. It's not the finest restaurant in Paris; it is an authentic local eating stop in the Marigny, a great little neighborhood that's not too touristy despite being right next the the Hôtel-de-Ville in the center of the city. If you want an excellent meal while feeling like you're just a Parisian out for dinner, check out Restaurant au Rendez-vous des Amis on rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie. It's only 8:30 in the morning but suddenly I have a hankering for their foie gras and some red wine.

Creativity Abuse

Mary Schmidt has a recent post on Bad Creativity, in which she takes off - as only Mary can - on agencies and designers who put "creativity" (and the desire to win awards) ahead of the matter at hand: building a business web site that actually supports the business. In Mary's experience:

Across the years I’ve worked with many creative agencies and web designers. And, the best ones always put the business before the technology and design. Or, to put it another way, “Just because it’s cool, doesn’t mean you should do it.”

Mary goes on to cite a number of different things she's seen on web sites that form a "barrier to entry" to someone trying to gain an understanding of what a business does and how they can do business with them.

Needless to say, Mary is right on. We've all seen too many, too cute for words, too flashy web sites where you don't know where to look or what to look for. The majority of the web sites I look at professionally have something to do with technology (hardware, software, consulting services), and I find that they can be among the worst offenders. I've been on web sites where I've had to drill down three or four layers to figure out whether a business is selling software or consulting services or both.

Sometimes I don't want to just see stock photos of business types sitting around gazing into a computer screen. Sometimes I want to know what they're looking at.

Sometimes a picture - or worse - some flash-a-tonic graphic - is not worth a thousand words. It's worth one: Damn!

Creativity abuse is, of course, not limited to web sites. We've all seen the brochures and ads that not only don't say much of anything, but actually get in the way.

Years ago (pre-Internet), I picked up a competitor's brochure that was a very artfully done piece in an irregular shape - somewhere between a trapezoid and a rhombus, if I've got my geometric terms right. If you set it on your desk and looked at it, it looked just fine. Once you picked it up to actually read it, the shape made it completely unwieldy. It was difficult to hold, difficult to turn the pages. It may have won an award, but I'm guessing it never helped win a customer.

Years later (post-Internet), a company I worked for spent oodles of money on a new corporate brochure that featured a brushed aluminum cover. Again, the piece looked nice, but the edges were so sharp you had to handle it with kid gloves, or risk slicing the tip of your pinkie off. Fortunately, we never injured any customers because the brochure was too expensive to mail out. I'm sure that by now they're in landfill somewhere. What a waste - literally and figuratively.

Everyone wants their web site, ads, and collateral to "look good." What "looks good" is largely subjective. But we all know that "bad creativity" Mary talks about when we see it. It's creativity for the sake of creativity. It gets in the way of whatever you're trying to get across. It leaves the reader/viewer (i.e., your prospective customer) asking one of those questions you never want them to ask: "What the....?"

Creativity for the sake of creativity belongs in the gallery and the museum. Art for arts sake. Use that irregular shape. Go for that brushed aluminum.

Business web sites, ads, and collateral can be artful, but here's one place where form absolutely must follow function.

Service Is Just Not Easy to Quantify

Articles like this one from CRM Lowdown that attempt to figure out who provides the best and worst service are always interesting; I don't think I've ever read one without seeing something that makes me say "Huh?" and this is no exception. 

The article says it's measuring call center service, but I'm not sure that's what they're really doing. And I'm not sure that's a great measure; for example, American Express makes the top ten list, and when you call them, the service is excellent. Of course, their online presence is so embarrassingly terrible that I've actually stopped using their card much over it. I've never seen a major financial institution with such a user-unfriendly web site. Is this relevant to call center service? Given how much the article talks about the web, I would think so... but the authors never make it clear.

In the ten worst list, the item on "AT&T Wireless" is perplexing, and not just because there is no company operating as "AT&T Wireless." They're talking about Cingular, of course - and the article they link to talks about "Cingular," not "AT&T Wireless." (I assume this is because AT&T, having swallowed up BellSouth and assuming full ownership of Cingular, has announced that they're rebrand the mobile carrier at AT&T Wireless. They haven't done it yet, though.)

Once you sort that out, you find that the complaints about Cingular are generally not call center related. (No surprise; I've been a customer of Sprint, Verizon (when they were Bell Atlantic), and T-Mobile over the years, and found that none of them have particularly great call center service. I just can't figure out how the material provided to explain Cingular's ding is even relevant to the topic.

Strangest inclusion of all, though, is eBay in the "ten worst." eBay provides support online. That's pretty clear when you start using it, and it's one of the reasons that they provide their services so cheaply. Why not ding Yahoo or Google for this one?

What is most clear in this article is that if you're going to rank companies and make lists, you need to be very clear about what you're evaluating. Otherwise, rankings don't tell us much of anything.

Email from Beyond the Grave

A Houston company is offering a service that sends email to people after you die. The idea is simple; if you die, messages that you've written in advance are sent out on your behalf. 

Yes, it's a little creepy. But after I read about it, I saw the benefits.

First, of course, is just the chance for your last communication to someone important to you to be what you choose. I have a small fatalistic, morbid streak. I make a point of calling my partner or sending a text message before I get on a plane. As we board I think, "I hope everything goes right." And I can't stand to leave for a trip unless the last conversation was something pleasant. I always remember my mother saying, "Don't go to bed mad." You might not have a chance to make things right.

And so I found myself thinking that if something awful happened, it would be nice to think that people would get a message reminding them of how important they were to me.

I hadn't even thought about the practical aspects: here's where the money is. The important papers are in the lockbox next to the file cabinet.

Yes, much of that stuff can be put in a will, but it might be easier to put it in an email.

The cost is $20 a year - not much.

What do you think? Morbidly playing on people's fears?  A nice way to send a final message? I see the point of it, but it still makes me strangely uncomfortable.