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BRANDWEEK/March 11, 2002

TOPofMIND
Brand is From Mars, Direct is From Venus
By Andrew Cohen
John Gray, author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, gives us hope that even when we perceive the same problem differently, we can still make things work. The marketing industry should consider adopting Gray's thinking in bridging brand advertising with direct response. In theory, every advertiser wants brand advertis ing with a built-in ROI. Yet often the brand manager in a company perceives the direct marketing director of the same company to be from a different planet. And vice versa. After all, each has a separate budget and agenda with bonuses doled out according to their individual gains. Different mindsets blur a unified vision. Recently, I was asked by a well-respected brand agency with a direct response division to help with a particular directto-consumer client that wanted to elevate its established brand. To help the team build that bridge, I challenged the members to verbalize the balance between the role of brand and response in the advertising campaign. I call this the B/R (brand and response) ratio. In a perfect world, the balance is 50/50 where brand-driven messages are followed by a call to action of equal length to spur sales. A recent Geico ad that offered a 15% reduction on auto insurance to consum ers who made a 15-minute phone call is one such example. In reality, however, most marketers do not adhere to this formula. For instance, prescription phar maceutical ads use a B/R ratio of 70/30; 70% of the advertising focuses on the brand, 30% on the response. The hard core direct response ads for prod ucts like the AB Flex 2 employ a 1/99 B/R ratio. The agency's eight team members, representing account, creative, media, pr and direct marketing, had six very divergent B/R ratios. In other words, there was no unified vision as to the role of the brand or for that matter, response. This forced a discussion leading to the creation of a shared vision from which the creative, media and direct response team built the successful bridge their client was looking for. Many advertising campaigns, however, lack a shared vision which in turn, hinders brand advertising with built-in ROI. How often are consumers asked to respond yet are given no time to record the toll-free number flashed on the screen? Driving consumers to the Web for more information is becoming more prevalent, yet you wouldn't know it as many advertis ers hide the URL as they still believe that if consum ers hear it, they will come. Downplaying the response mechanism is just the tip of the iceberg reflecting the true problem: the discon nect among marketing silos at both agencies and advertisers. Instead of motivating each other, the brand, direct, promotion, Web and pr divisions con tinue to speak their own language and act in their usual ways. What's more, companies which have grown through retail distri bution often find themselves now competing with those retailers for the same customers, be they for private label brands, satellite TV offerings or financial services. Fortunately, there are a grow ing number of smart people who perceive the big picture. Andrew Tuck, co-founder of Applied Research & Consulting, a strategic positioning and research firm, found that more industry leaders are "marrying" brand advertising and direct response than just "honeymooning" them. According to Tuck, key advertisers, from auto to appa rel manufacturing, are demanding that their campaigns go beyond brand position and provide an ROI. Geico's advertising that builds brand while generat ing response is a testament to this. So is the recent print campaign by Lexus that drives you to the Web and sells you a car before you know it. Dell is also becoming a master of the game and H&R Block's recent ad blitz is a marriage made in heaven. Brand may be from Mars and direct may be from Venus. But given the transition in the economy, con sumer behavior and technology, companies who don't attempt to marry brand and response are going to end up alone, in another solar system.
Andrew Cohen is CEO at Exposed Brick, a New York consultancy that works to bridge the gap between general brand and direct response marketing. Clients include global 500 advertisers and agencies. He can be reached at (212) 226--0060 or via e-mail at: andrewc@exposedbrick.com.

Instead of motivating each other, the brand, direct, promotion, Web and pr divisions continue to speak their own language and act in their usual ways.