African marketing: What are you Ghana do?

[Black Sheep Lindsay Bosslet spent some time this summer in Ghana. Here's what she learned.]

Before I left my comfortable Houston apartment to spend some time in a rural village in Ghana, Aimee urged me to think about an important message I could come back with - a truth or bit of advice to share with our readers and clients that we might overlook in the great U.S.of A.

What I've learned about marketing on the other side of the pond is that, overall, Ghana does nearly EVERYTHING wrong. PhotoShop jobs look worse than a romantic comedy movie poster, and copy is downright erroneous 90% of the time. We're talking apostrophes for plural nouns (instead of for possessives, as is actually correct). And taglines?

The worst.

Yum!

Obviously milk does not get creamier. Gross.

It should also be noted that there is a total lack of irony. I once saw a guy wearing a "welcome to the gun show" t-shirt, and I'm pretty sure it was a legitimate invitation.

Yet, for all of this, there are a few lessons here that can be learned.

1. Even in a place where the majority of all marketing efforts are bad, it still pays to be good. As I mentioned earlier, the billboards are atrocious. However, I once saw a Nike ad - one that would have been on-par with one in America - and it was all the more brilliant. I looked and studied as long as I could before the taxi drove off. And the people do too - Nike is by far the leader in sportswear, and in a nation where sports are king, that's a pretty big deal.

For our clients at home, it's important to keep in mind that the same principle still applies. Just because your competitors are doing one thing, and just because you're not used to seeing clever progressive marketing, there's no excuse for following the crowd. In fact, it's a waste of time. If the standards are low, it's your time to shine. If they're not, well you need to keep up!

2. Innovation and top-of-mind awareness go a long way. In Ghana, the two most marketed companies are MTN and Vodafone (cell phone companies that specialize in pay-as-you-go plans, like Cricket back in the States). And, while they both their fair share of billboards, ads and commercials, those methods are not what make them so well known. These companies literally miss no opportunity to brand an empty space.

Nearly every shack - even in the most remote areas of the country - is painted and logoed by one of those companies. I guess people are happy to have a little extra cash even if it means their home is painted a ridiculously bright color? These are desperate times. The total effect is that no matter where you go, you are constantly reminded of these companies... whether you like it or not.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we start taking out ad space on each other's houses or painting our town with our brand (hmmm... Black Sheep city...). But, we should consider every opportunity for creating awareness and look to never-before-seen and unexpected places to execute our plan.

3. Time is on your side. First of all, the World Cup in Ghana was huge- basically the only topic of conversation through July 11, and even weeks later, the most played feature on television. And the advertisers took advantage - nearly every ad in the month of July contained some sort of tie-in with soccer. While for us, not even the Super Bowl is a big enough event to influence and permeate all advertising, we should always remember that a current, relevant ad is going to elicit a stronger emotional response than a more generic alternative. (Strangely enough, people here are generally running late by 1-2 hours. No joke.)

It's always interesting to study advertising and marketing across the world, across the country and even across the state. Every place has something to offer in terms of knowledge and ideas, and these experiences make us more thorough and creative marketers. (But when it comes to food? There's no better place than Houston! Chips and salsa, here I come!)

Have you been to a different country? What did you notice about their marketing? Let us know in the comments!

Buzzword Bonanza!

Every profession has jargon that is used as shorthand, and that’s great. Using jargon is necessary so a carpenter doesn’t have to say “that big metal doo-hickey” and so scientists don’t have to use long, boring explanations to explain what a uberthermodynamic enthropic reaction is (disclaimer: that’s not real). Buzzwords in business, however, seem to be around to confuse everyone.

We’re not very fond of buzzwords. Tiny Fey and Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock aren’t fans either. Buzzwords are overused in our line of work. Being the marketing and PR superstars that we are, we have a pretty decent idea of what they mean. We’ve waded through our share of acronyms and ridiculous “concepts” (Example: The Hedgehog Concept. It means “do what you are best at.” Really.) Naturally, we’re a bit jaded.

We recently saw an article about the most overused buzzwords in press releases. We realized nobody really knew what they actually mean. So we’ve created a layman’s dictionary of buzzwords you’ll encounter in business, PR and marketing. If this blog was a tabloid, we’d call this article “The Meanings THEY Don’t Want You to Know!!!”

•  Innovation: New product or technology. Pretty simple idea, but when you think about how many times something is called “the most innovative thing ever,” it gets a little annoying. Artificial light was an innovation; that new flavor of Mountain Dew is not. 
• Usage: “Announcing a new innovation in the way you drive to work!”

• Real-Time: Just like it sounds. Instant feedback or answers. We’re in a real-time environment. Twitter is real-time feedback from the world. Morse-code on a telegraph was real-time feedback, too. Remember that. 
• Usage: “Delivering real-time answers to all of your innovation needs!”

• Dynamic: Quick-changing. Today’s industry and technology is a lot more dynamic than it used to be. 
• Usage: “New, dynamic innovation that provides real-time answers to life’s problems!”

• Groundbreaking: A really awesome innovation (see above). Changes the industry, sometimes the world. Not always great. (Right, hydrogen bomb?) 
• Usage: “Controlling fire was a groundbreaking technology for cavemen.”

• Best Practice: We’re pretty sure this means agreed-upon strategies that provide value in an industry. (Wikipedia confirms.) 
• Usage: “A best practice in the fishing industry is to use bait.”

• Cutting Edge: New, groundbreaking product or technology (see above). 
• Usage: “Pre-slicing bread was cutting-edge slicing technology
• See also: “Bleeding Edge,” meaning something was SO cutting-edge that it made you bleed.

• Product Integration: AKA “Product Placement.” Paying for your product, logo or service to be in the media. Reese’s Pieces in the movie “ET” is considered the grandfather of product integration. 
• Usage: “But sir, putting Marlboro in “Toy Story 3” sounds like poor product integration!

• Seamless Integration: One thing and another thing go well together without any problems. Used most in mergers and acquisitions. I imagine this comes from the garment-making industry. 
• Usage: “Marlboro is seamlessly integrated into “Toy Story 3” because one of the main characters is a cowboy!”

• Think Outside the Box: Novel and creative thinking. Term coined by someone who probably never actually thought outside the box. 
• Usage: “They must have really thought outside the box when they put cigarettes in a children’s movie, because now I really want a Marlboro!”

• Synergy: Oh, synergy. Poor, poor synergy. Whipping boy of the buzzwords. The scapegoat. It’s a medical term adopted by business that basically means “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” It’s not always a great thing in medicine, but businesses LOVE synergy. 
• Usage: “By combining our businesses (chocolate and peanut butter), we can achieve synergy by making an incredibly delicious snack! This peanut butter and chocolate candy is better than if you just added peanut butter and chocolate together!”- Whoever invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

• Low-Hanging Fruit: Some sort of fruit-picking metaphor adopted for business. In reality, it just means to reach the easiest goal without much effort. If you were a lion, it would mean to eat the slowest and fattest antelope. 
• Usage: “We can capture the low-hanging fruit of the fast-food industry by targeting fat kids who already like our cheeseburgers!”

• Secret Sauce: This was new to us before the list came out. Apparently people use it. Presumably, it’s derived from the fast food industry and means “Thousand Island Dressing,” but in reality it just means “your strategy or product that gives you an advantage over everyone else, but your competitors can’t figure out what it is.” 
• Usage: “We need more secret sauce! Put that mayonnaise out in the sun!” (Disclaimer: That quote is from The Simpsons) 
• Business Usage: The secret sauce of McDonalds’ success is its consistency between each store; a Big Mac in New York is the exact same as a Big Mac in Tucson. And the secret sauce of McDonalds’ Big Mac is actually the secret sauce.

• Paradigm Shift: This should mean “using your secret sauce and thinking outside the box with a groundbreaking, innovative, cutting-edge technology that provides synergy and allows you to capture the low-hanging fruit with more ease to get real-time, dynamic results.” However, it just means something new and different is happening that revolutionizes the way people see your industry, business or environment. 
• Usage: “Social media has caused a paradigm shift in public relations.”

Captain Buzz

There are hundreds and hundreds more, but it’s your turn to find them. Really, there’s a time and place for everything. Even these buzzwords. We’re not condemning their usage, just their frequency. Writing with buzzwords is like going out for a night of drinking (maybe that’s why they’re called “buzz”words?). Think about it: if you have a few buzzwords or have a few drinks, you feel smarter and more confident. After a few more, you start to feel dizzy and unbalanced. After too many, you feel like vomiting, nobody understands what you’re saying and you wake up in the morning feeling terrible about yourself. Remember, the content you create and the strategy you come up with is more important than the words you use to describe it. Use these words in a way that provides actual value and understanding. Buzz responsibly.

What is your favorite (or least favorite) buzzword? If we get enough responses, we can have a sequel!

(all images via Creative Commons)

Twitter, je t’aime

You know how you’re totally addicted to social media? And how we always say it’s essential to a marketing plan because of the connections you can make with your customers on an emotional level? Now, thanks to this really fascinating article in Fast Company it all makes sense.

This article discusses the correlation between levels of oxytocin (affectionately referred to as the “cuddle hormone”) in your bloodstream, its effects on your emotions and why, as a result we can’t get enough.

Allow us to nerd out for a minute. Oxytocin is responsible for love, trust and empathy, and for the longest time, scientists thought it was primarily responsible for the reason mothers bond immediately with their babies. Now, thanks to some hefty research involving voles (basically fancy rodents), we know that oxytocin affects little receptors in our brain that give us that warm, fuzzy feeling and long-term attachment… you know, love. Furthermore, we know that this feeling is totally addictive (yes, Robert Palmer was right). The parts of the brain affected by love and this hormone are not the same as other emotions like anger, jealousy or even friendship. In reality, your response to oxytocin is more like your response to COCAINE.

Kind of cute, aren't they?

So that’s fine and good, but what Dr. Zak from the Fast Company article has discovered (albeit he needs a little more statistical evidence), is that oxytocin can do more than just make us fall head over heels. After giving a group of college students oxytocin or a placebo and then asking them to watch various PSAs, those that received the hormone were nearly 50% more likely to donate to the charity. It stands to reason– with elevated levels we are more inclined to trust and empathize.

But here’s the kicker. In another test, a before and after blood test of someone conversing on Twitter for 10 minutes showed an elevation of oxytocin levels rise as much as 13%! This is comparable to a similar test of a couple on their wedding day. Again, we need more conclusive research, but IF this turns out to be commonplace, its implications could be huge, essentially suggesting that companies interacting with people on social media are not only connecting on a higher level, but connecting at the moment when trust and empathy are at their peak.

Earlier in June a New York Times article documented a family whose addiction to technology was indicative of a much larger trend in our society - the need to be tuned-in, available and communicating as much as possible, sometimes to the detriment of our mental state. To us, it seems like this can further be explained by Dr. Zak’s findings and the addictive nature of oxytocin and consequently social media. Who among us hasn’t been a little distracted at the onset of a new relationship? When love takes over, we do crazy things, and just think – social media might have the same degree of influence.

So to everyone who questions the quality of social media relationships and worries about the decline of communication and real conversation, take note. These platforms could be even more powerful than we think, and the opportunities for capitalizing on this huge forum are endless. And, props to the voles (switch the letters and it spells “loves”!) for taking one for the team… you know we can’t support animal testing, even if it is for the sake of marketing.