Coalition of Franchisee Associations

May 25, 2023

Contemporary Advertising is a Drag

Ten days ago I wrote: "It's important to follow the Budweiser story. Every major U.S. brand is run by silly people who will make similar mistakes. Their training and education taught them to "change the world," and that comes first, before their stakeholder's welfare."

Every week a new corporate blunder becomes apparent. Last week it was Target. This week, Northface apparel company, next you'll hear a lot about the Los Angeles Dodgers. I'm not too sure who it was, but I heard a smart commentator on the radio say,

"These people aren't there to serve the customers. They are there to convert them".

The latest commercial from Northface

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe that their insulation from real America via their higher learning institutions and elite social circles combined with their arrogant ignorance that they believe this should appeal to everyone. This absolute horrid, steamy pile of twisted derangement. But it doesn’t.

The last 20-30 years have paid off- the concerted effort by people and institutions, foreign and domestic, who are bent on the destruction of the United States of America- and they’ll do it by any means necessary, have lead to this. Why? Their reasons are varied but some have become so enveloped in this mass psychosis that they actually believe that this stuff should be normalized, accepted, even celebrated. Nobody “hates” anyone and nobody cares who anyone sleeps with (using this example). Most, maybe all just aren’t especially interested in associating with or inviting anything this extreme into their daily intake because it simply isn’t part of their lives. MHQ might believe that “normies,” the little people, the people who happen to be our customers, aren’t smart or sophisticated enough or are intrinsically bigoted; they are not, and they don’t need reprogramming because that is not our job.

Larry Light encouraged us, instructed us to stop chasing customers who hate us and who will never spend money in our restaurants, he was the first who said to LOVE THE CUSTOMERS WE HAVE and he did so at the 2018 2nd NOA Annual meeting. Now, FIVE years later I’ve heard Chris K say that exact phrase TWICE in the last few months, “Love the customers we have”- it’s finally sort of sinking in that Larry (and the NOA by extension) was right. (And I thought that they didn’t recognize the NOA, clearly someone watched his speech.)

It is clear that if left to their own devices, the company will ruin who we are, what we stand for, what is best for us, what is best for our customers and ultimately will ruin the brand itself. They do or say something stupid or destructive nearly every day.

I’ve seen firsthand where this starts, and it starts with young marketing kids who have been brainwashed into believing in extreme “inclusion” really means making sure that in every communication, particularly in every advertisement, that every possible “diversity group” is represented regardless of whether they bear any representation of who the brand’s customer really is.

The brands who accurately profile, target and appeal to their actual customers will end up winning and to coin a phrase that was first used politically, “Go woke, go broke.” I pull what’s left of my hair out wondering why so many who are paid so well and have such influence are missing the key purpose of marketing- to illicit a positive emotional response to the brand, and one critical element is to make sure that customers and potential customers see and identify with whatever is in front of them. Why spend so much to appeal to 2% or 5% or whatever of our population unless it represents a disproportionate percentage of our customers? It’s basic common sense business knowledge, or am I nuts?

If this represents North Face’s average customer they’ll do fine. If not, they’ll probably experience sales backlash that they can measure.

We are not immune to this, we as owners are the only ones left who produce what everyone involved benefits from, and those of us who actually know who we are serving must be vigilant and diligent in insisting that those people in Chicago and elsewhere, whose sole job is to support us, are managed well.

We have no eyes inside their secret meetings with consultants ultimately paid for by us, but we absolutely have control over our marketing messages. We cannot allow anyone to warp who we are or who our customers are to their distorted and misguided vision. We must not waste our hard earned money on social reconstruction projects because there are plenty of ways to hit a positive and lasting emotional tone that have a clear ROI.

Their instincts on this front have been wrong for a decade or so we must continue to keep this thing pointed in a productive direction.

Anonymous said...

I just learned to play chess so forgive me for my lack of knowledge

I DO KNOW THIS I / WE are ♟️- if there is something lower - we are that

KNIGHTS - field service

BISHOP - regional leadership & the operators that follow them / 2 bishops

ROOK - OPNAD

QUEEN - easy one JOE

KING - & he knows it CRIS - πŸ”΄πŸ”΄ no it’s not LABRON JAMES it’s CRIS

Anonymous said...

Nike can get away with Woke.They know that their customers are that and live there, so they market there.

McDonalds is NOT. The marketing people will not be able to make our customers Woke. They can't force them. They couldn'tt get a woke job at Nike. Boo Hoo. Don't bankrupt us on your broken failed Nike job dreams.

Generations of owner/opertors built this brand. Now they have to re-apply for their own businesses to get renewed? Maybe re-applying to go broke is a mistake. Sell. Let the next buyer pay to go broke for the woke junior marketing people who really want to work somewhere else

Richard Adams said...

With unlimited resources, MCD Corp. could do many productive things on platforms such as LinkedIn. But instead, they do some poorly produced thing about the CEO. Of course, it's got to be about him.
.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

REAL HEROES dont wear capes...they wear Dog Tags ! Happy Memorial Day!