I can across these Axe girls while at the Dave Matthews Band concert this past weekend at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MO. Axe Inc. (sells body sprays, deodorants, etc…) generates terrific brand marketing campaigns. Most people can very easily recall the commercials of one guy getting chased by hundreds of gorgeous girls because he is wearing Axe. Even though I have consciously noticed Axe advertising - I have still yet to purchase one of the products. Not sure why. Are thousands of other consumers also enjoying the advertising by not purchasing the products? I think Axe Inc. may suffer from a product and marketing quagmire that is costing them millions.

Beer companies, toothpaste companies, detergent companies, deodorant, and other companies approximately know how much the average consumer spends on these product staples. The average American may spend $250 a year on beer, netting Budweiser or Anheuser Bush $50 in profit per customer. The average American may spend $200 a year on tooth preservation products (mouth wash, dental floss, tooth brush, etc…) netting the dental hygiene companies an average annual profit of $30 a consumer. Product category leaders know how much the average American spends on average per purchase, and thus how much they spend annually, and how much profit they generate for the mega-corporation. How much does Axe actually expect to make from the average American consumer selling a second tier product? They can’t expect much.

Axe marketing is no longer even controversial or exciting. Axe’s marketing genre is sex, excitement, and desire - it’s no longer controversial or even interesting. I can’t remember the last time I saw a super hot girl ripping off a mans clothing and licking his chest. Too controversial? Hardly, hardcore sexual suggestions are what sell products. Below is a video of Axe girls at the Dave Matthews Band concert:

As you can see, the Axe girls are very attractive and love Axe! I threw out their crappy merchandise in front of their faces too! My ass they love Axe, they get paid to pass this crap out and help re-inforce the brand. But what self-discerning and intelligent consumer actually believes these girls love what they do? They love to look hot, and the money is most likely a secondary factor involved in their professional decisions. The Axe girls were passing out t-shirts that had holes in them, and a free product sample. I believe the t-shirts had holes in them because it was supposed to “mean” that girls will pull at you and make holes in your shirt if you use Axe. This marketing “idea” wasn’t early impossible to comprehend; especially after you are drunk and sitting in the sun for hours.

If I’m going to criticize Axe’s marketing initiatives, I suppose I should also offer some suggestions on how Axe can improve their marketing efforts:

• Stop hiring hot girls to pass out t-shirts and product samples in front of large sporting and entertainment venues.
• Stop advertising on television - it costs too much and you aren’t hyper targeting males
• Stop advertising in magazines - it costs too much, though you can hyper target males in magazines like Maxim, Stuff, etc…
• Shift a majority of your marketing and advertising budget into web development, ppc marketing, video production, viral video marketing, and search engine optimization (even though there isn’t too much SEO you can do).
• Through your online marketing efforts you need to begin developing a large email, mailing, amd mobile list to offer consumers discounts. Offering consumers anything other then discounts or free products are a waste of their time and detrimental to your long term purchasing relationship with consumers.

If your company needs to transition from expensive off-line marketing initiatives towards a more online focued marketing effort - please call: 843-425-3566 or email Support@BannerBlindness.com We look forward to discussing your online marketing and web development needs.

I see it time and time again - the more granular a business owner operates his/her business: the more successful it is.  When touring the islands off the SE coast of Thailand you get to observe hundreds of retail stores and restaurants.  The more granular the proprietors of these businesses are; the more successful they are - at least I assume.  I dont have financial data to back up my assumptions, but I can easily observe that the more granular a business operator is the more customers they have.

Mr. K’s restaurant is on a main road on the island of Koh-Phangan and is very granular in their business operations.  The restaurant is like any other restaurant; it has tables, chairs, coolers, a cash register, a menu, etc…  However, it’s the small (granular) elements that make this the most successful restaurant on the island.  The following are the granular observations I made while eating at this restaurant:

• The employees wear matching shirts and rotate their shirts on a daily basis
• A few of the employees speak english and ask you about where you come from and your journey
• They give patrons yellow paper to discuss their dining and travel experience.  There were hundreds of these testimonials neatly plastered across the walls
• Word of mouth: the yellow paper and exceptional customer service encourages travelers to tell other travelers about their dining experience.  I told at least 5 travelers about the restaurant.
• Presentation: the restaurant takes the necessary time to ensure that their food presentation is perfect each and every time
• Matching their menu to the tastes of their patrons.  They have food for people from nearly every country in the world.  Burgers and pizza for Americans.  Thai food for Thai.  Spaghetti and ravioli for Americans.  Pancakes for the Dutch.  Additionally, their menu is simple and straight forward.  Usually I notice that more successful restaurants have a “less is more” type attitude with their menus.  However, Mr.s K’s make their huge menu straight forward and simple to read, therefore; it’s still successful.
• An exceptional product.  Mr. K’s food was exceptional.  I don’t think you could order anything from the menu and be dissapointed.

The example above is an example of a granular business that was succintly run.  Is your business granular and succinctly operated?  I would bet that if your not satisfied with your bottom line; chances are that you aren’t running your business at a granular level.  What do your business cards look like?  What level of customer service do you offer your customers?  What type of color scheme is your logo/presence?  If you want to succeed and be the best in your niche - you need to get granular.  There is a famous chinese proverb that says, “People don’t trip on mountains, they trip on stones.”  In the business world, businesses don’t succeed because they dont gather up the stones into a mountain.

If I wasn’t so established in the United States I would move to Thailand, Bali, China, India, Indonesia, or ANY third world country to start a business based on basic marketing and branding principles.  I’m currently in Thailand and amazed at the number of companies that have names like “Goi Chin Limited Trading Company” “Hang Seung Group” “Mokrat Hanolup Co.”  On a bus I saw Colonel Sanders from KFC “Kentucky Fried Chicken” - this is branding.  My sister made a simple yet poignant observation when she stated that the best billboards don’t “say” anything but the actual name of the company “a.k.a…the brand”.  So many start-ups, medium sized companies, entrepreneurs, and even corporations don’t FULLY realize what a brand is and what brand marketing is.  The following are some simple principles to consider when developing a marketing campaign based on a brand:

You need a logo.  A logo is a picture or text that is a “graphic”.  A “graphic” is professionally done, stands out from plain text, is attractive to the eye, and most importantly it is SIMPLE.  Less is more when creating a logo.

Your logo should include an image that represents the primary function of your business.  In the KFC example there is a bucket with Fried Chicken and Colonel Sanders.

When creating a billboard advertisement just advertise your Brand (logo).

The name of your company should be one word.  For example: McDonalds, Google, Yahoo, Chipotle, Dicks.  Antithesis: Panda Express, Sports Authority, etc…

In Thailand there are approximately 65 million people.  Pareato’s 80/20 principle tells us that approximately 50 million people work to support the 15 million (or upper/middle class) in Thailand.  The 15 million people are who businesses want to be targeting as they are the ones with disposable income.  15 million people is 1/5 the population of people in the US with disposable income; therefore, foreign countries present a tremendous opportunity to brand marketers.  Additionally, as 3rd world countries begin to roll-out more credit cards and other credit instruments (leases, mortgages, notes, etc…) you will see increased spending and less saving.

Billions of dollars a year are spent on ineffective and out-right useless print advertisements. I recently dissected a Fortune magazine and discovered that 70% of the magazine were advertisements. Rather disappointing, but makes for a great study into advertisements and how corporations are trying to breach the consumers mind. When designing print advertisements: less is more, use attractive sexy photos, less text, a call to action, and contact information. Please comment if you found this helpful and I will shoot more analyses of this type.