Recent Dell ads feature the new campaign, "You can tell it's Dell."

I’m loving how Dell’s latest advertising campaign is moving away from the dross of commoditized, price-featured ads toward something more premium. This week’s Adweek article reveals the latest campaign theme by Wunderman, “You can tell it’s Dell.” The campaign features innovation and design, adding a twist of Apple-esque “That’s so cool” mojo. I’ve got to believe that playing the low-price game in this space has taken its toll on Dell, and inspiring customers to love the brand because of its innovation in the PC space is a great strategic move.

Time will tell—and so will the product releases—whether or not the Dell brand will live up to the expectations set by this latest campaign. I say this after earlier today having passed the Apple headquarters, whose address is One Infinite Loop. That’s so cool.

I am not alone in my observation. According to Andrew Hampp, writing in a recent edition of Advertising Age, “brands and ad agencies are rediscovering the power of original tunes in advertising campaigns. Over the last decade the trend was to license famous pop songs from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, instead of creating an original branded melody. Now marketers want original music for their messages.”

This makes perfect sense to me, as I’m a custom jingle lover from way back. With a custom jingle crafted solely to sing the praises of a brand, you have the opportunity to ingrain your brand attributes and identity into the minds’ of the masses–in a way that can be both pleasing and entertaining.

Think about it. Who can forget the undeniable charm and sing-along-fun of such jingle gems as Oscar Meyer’s “My Bologna Has a First Name,” or Alka Seltzer’s “Plop Plop Fizz Fizz,” or Folgers “The Best Part of Waking Up?”  These pleasant little ditties are now a part of our collective conscience, instantly remembered and still fun to sing out loud.

Talk about brand recall!

That type of brand-centric popularity is far more of a premium for a brand than simply an association with a well-known song or recording artist.  When you allow the right melody and lyrics to showcase your brand, something very special can happen.

Just ask Oscar Meyer.

But few brands impress or excite me more than my favorite place for gasoline and sundries—QuikTrip. Do you have QuikTrips in your area, and if so, have you visited one lately? If not, you owe it to yourself to do so.

QuikTrip has single-handedly redefined the whole notion of “convenience store,” and turned it into a polished, modern pantheon of premium convenient service.

Gone are the days of cramped, dingy little stores offering a haphazard collection of questionable goods poorly displayed, and operated by a sullen, cynical clerk. At QuikTrip, you’ll now find a sparkling, perfectly organized gem of a retail operation, staffed by uniformed clerks so polite and efficient you’d think you were shopping at Nordstroms. From the carefully arranged candy wall to the new fresh food deli section and enormous fountain drink area, QuikTrip has made the transition from a simple little convenience store to a premium destination for just about everything. Even the gasoline they sell is rated “Best” by consumer groups.

QuickTrip serves as a textbook case of a brand raising its own bar to a premium level. And, they stand as an excellent example to other brands that, no matter your offering, you can achieve a premium status through consistent presentation, impeccable service and quality merchandise.

Even if that merchandise is a bag of Gummi Worms and a cherry Slurpee.

Take cars, for example. We all know that dozens of options exists that can deliver all the rational benefits: engine size, price range, fuel efficiency, horsepower, and amenities like navigation or premium sound. While I may have many rational reasons for buying a car, the emotional benefits play a huge role in helping me choose one model over another: the look, the way it handles, how safe I feel, etc. Which benefits, though, should be touted in marketing to convince the target audience to buy? Rational benefits might actually have a stronger play in helping sell a premium or luxury car, after realizing that the emotional benefits are obvious. Here’s where consumer context too often gets left out of the mix.

The question marketers ought to ask is this: How does the consumer want to feel about purchasing this product? Our research suggests that certain verticals make big mistakes by telling consumers how they should feel about their brand. A low-interest category like residential electricity, for example, might misfire by trying to differentiate its brand based on emotional benefits, because consumers don’t want to feel loyal to a utility company. Understanding the way your target wants to feel about your brand will help in deciphering which RTBs make their way into your marketing message. Another low-interest category like insurance, however, must lead with emotional benefits if it’s not differentiating on price; the consumers who will pay more for insurance are doing so because of the way they want to feel about their choice: like they’re “in good hands.” While the rational benefits are relevant for insurance, they’re secondary for premium brands of insurance, but primary for low-cost competitors, simply because the consumer context drives different RTBs within this particular category. Marketers of premium brands need to understand that, in order to convince consumers that you’re worth more, having a real understanding of want your target wants to be told is critical to influence purchase.

I know this: My wife doesn’t like it if I tell her, “Don’t be upset,” or “You should be happy about this.” My experience is that consumers don’t like it, either. And I think I’m premium, by the way.

So, while knee-deep in indexing products within the grocery, home, software, and health & beauty categories, I began to wonder what would happen if I indexed the popular sites YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook against each other. Taking information from Mediamark Research & Intelligence® (MRI), Google analytics and other special goodness (we’ll never tell!), our system plotted these guys on a scale of 0 to 100 in what we call “premiumness.”

Not all too shockingly, MySpace came in as the least premium with a score of 5 out of 100, while Facebook ranked at 49, and YouTube at a whopping 96! Among other factors, the interesting details that surface include the knowledge that 49% less information is consumed on MySpace than it’s counterparts. Also, 45% of MySpace users also use Facebook, which, if talking about cream cheese, we’d consider to be a brand loyalty problem.

The data also reveals interesting trends in the buy styles of these media consumers—20% of YouTube users fall into the category of “Buyers of the Best.” This generally denotes that they are brand loyal and tend to be willing to spend that extra dollar to get it. YouTube users also tend to have a higher overall income and have the most loyal following in incomes of $200K+.

While all this data is wonderful, how do we apply it to marketing in the real world? It may not seem too far-fetched from our current assumptions that YouTube is pandemic, Facebook is getting there (if China will let them), and MySpace is just plain sad. However, when structuring a marketing plan for a brand that utilizes these three modes of social media transportation, it is emperical evidence that it does matter which brands advertise where.

For instance, even though my last post indicated that 18–22 year olds are now purchasing more specialty food items, a such brand should not inherently push all their efforts into a MySpace campaign. We learn in this study that not only are MySpace subscribers less loyal to brands, they also aren’t the 18–22 year olds with the cash to spend. Also, they tend to lean toward coupon purchases, which most specialty foods cannot afford to do.

So, while this exercise is not 100% fool-proof—and is done mainly as an illustration (we charge for the real thing!)—it does convey the general idea that not all entities within a category can be premium. There are definite factors determined by the consumer’s perceptions, behaviors and experiences that shape what your brand is. And doesn’t it just make you the least bit curious to find out how premium your brand is?

The other day, Mr. Bossy Boss told me a tale about this Facebook friend calling him and reiterating an interesting conversation he had with “Mr. Boss Man” on Facebook chat. Evidently, “Mr. Boss” had told this friend that he needed money for his cousin but he had been mugged while in the UK. FBfriend replies, “Are you a Nigerian Prince?” The profile hijacker immediately shuts down the chat and unfriends the witty little guy.

Needless to say, Bossy changes his password, and his status to tell everyone about the potential scammer on the loose. Later that night, his wife goes to check his Fbook, and lo and behold … he is not there.

No friends. No profile. No Farmville Animals. Mr. Bossy Boss was Facebook murdered.

Shocking tales like these are occurring more and more within the Facebook realm. Due to its international popularity, Fbook has become the #1 target for spreading viruses, hijacking information and all-around chaotic malarkey! It is an alarming powerhouse in our world today—it has the ability to connect you to anything, but also disconnect you from the world, your fans, and even worse, your consumers—all in the blink of an eye.

Premium brands that don’t engage with newer types of interactive media are like Mr. Bossy Boss and his imposter—someone out there is representing their brand, whether they like or not, and they are taking control. However, if you play the game right, those imposters won’t matter, because, like real-life friends, once you build your relationships, brand advocates will know that you’re not a “Nigerian Prince.” They’ll recognize your brand’s true voice and learn to trust it.

The bottom line to consider is this: Life is scary. And social media is just life happening online. So, learn how to interact effectively with the real world, and you’ll see that being a “victim” online isn’t as easy as it first sounded. Your brand will be able to handle it. Your brand will be better for it.

The video below illustrates just one key component of why it is so hard to do business these days. Basically, the lighter the color of the U.S. of A., the better off we are, the darker, the worse.

Although the “end” date of this downward spiral is a moving target, and one of great debate, if history is any teacher this is a cycle that will turn around. When it does, a generation of Americans who have been forced out of the market for all sorts of creature comforts, or forced to trade down from their preferred brand due to budget constraints, will be ready to spend again.

What should you be doing to build/preserve your premium brand?

• Fish where the fish are today. – Sell where people can buy. Don’t sell where people can’t buy.
• Don’t ignore your legacy customers. – When things turn around, they will be the first to spend again. Do NOT make them feel like you only care about them for their money. Doesn’t work for most relationships, and this is no different.
• Don’t stop promoting. – You have competitors that have cut marketing budgets to preserve margins. This is especially true in public companies that are under intense pressure to hit earnings targets. Take advantage of that to build the perception of your brand as premium in the absence of competition for share of voice.
• Don’t sacrifice your brand quality. – Just because the competition is going down to the 10 oz. box, doesn’t mean you have to. Unless, of course, you REALLY have to. Continue to provide as high a quality product as you can for as long as possible. And when things pick up, you’ll have a reputation of premium quality even through the tough times to fall back on.

Take these principles, apply them, and see what a difference it makes to customer loyalty, brand perception and overall brand equity. Though right now, those valuable assets may seem useless to turn a profit, your brand will be the outlier in the category. These moments of heat are the ones that define your brand’s legacy. Be the bold brand. Be the rebel. Be the premium brand that thrives in tough times, instead of struggling to merely survive.

Last Saturday, Pepsi sponsored a concert in Uganda featuring controversial murder performer Beenie Man. An account of just some of the contention was detailed by Daily Monitor reporter Rafsanjan Abbey Tatya:

“The King of Dancehall stuck a sword of words into gay people through singing and talking.

‘In my family, we don’t have any gay person but if you’re gay, my brother that’s not my fault,’ he said as he performed his song Mi Nah Wallah, in which he says he would like to cut the throats of all gay men.

George Bush and Bin Laden were also at the receiving end of the Jamaican’s wrath calling on the audience to say ‘murderer’ as he sang about the pair’s warfare.”

Pepsi has responded with this statement:

“We are appalled by the performer’s lyrics and find them repugnant. Our bottling partner in Uganda was not aware of the performer’s views and never would have sponsored the concert with this knowledge.  Moving forward, we will work closely with our bottling partners to be more vigilant about the events associated with our brands.”

Pepsi’s statements seem to be rather void, considering Uganda is currently debating a bill in parliament, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would institute the death penalty for many members of Uganda’s LGBT population, and that Beenie Man has had runs-ins for years regarding his public beliefs. So, consumers are left with only two conclusions: either Pepsi is run by women-hating, murder-supporting lunatics, or by people too busy and uninformed to make sound choices about their brand. Neither option is really appealing to any consumer … or spectator.

Truth is, Pepsi is a world-wide brand, so these blunders may cause them a slight dip in sales, but probably not kill them. Lucky for them. But what about your brand?

Let this be a lesson to us all about what it means to be engaged and aware not only of what’s going on within our organization, but also within the best interests of our consumer base as a whole. While it seems that the Ugandan Pepsi representatives were well aware of what the Ugandan people wanted to hear, they were willing to risk the loyalty of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other consumers to reach this group. So, while a tactic like an iPhone App or sponsored event sounds like an effective tool, don’t forget they all impact the overall goal—which in Pepsi’s case, it seems, may be to destroy themselves.

As I culled through my morning emails, I noticed that of the many emails in my Inbox, 45 were from retailers! And what surprises me the most is there were repeat offenders—3 from Gap, 2 from Overstock.com, 2 from Godiva, etc. How in the world does Gap have enough relevant material to contact me three times in one 24-hour period? And why would I care three different times? Needless to say, I didn’t even open them. And others feel the same way apparently. According to a new poll from the Chief Marketing Officer Council, 64% of consumers say promotional offers dominate both the email and traditional mail they receive, and only 41% view these as must-read communications.

Knowing your customers, especially those who have enough positive disposition towards your brand to give you permission to contact them directly, is essential in building a premium brand. If you can’t be relevant, then why bother? The numbers don’t lie.

Liz Miller, Vice President, Programs and Operations, CMO Council, said “Irrelevant, impersonal communications… (do) not engage a receptive recipient… customers will disconnect and stop doing business with brands who continue to send messages that demonstrate a lack of intimacy, customer insight and individual understanding.”

In the end, there has to be some sort of strategic plan and knowledge of the individual consumer in place. If the powerhouse of social marketing hasn’t proven this already, each consumer wants to have a unique voice, and needs to be marketed to independently.

So, the question a premium brand manager should ask themselves is this: do you manage your information to keep things personal for your consumers? Or, are you just creating opportunities for them to opt-out of engaging with your brand?

I’m definitely not getting a holiday season job at a Microsoft store …

To read more about why brands should be themselves and not fail at pretending to be others, read this blog blast from the past.