welcome back to hit mojo 29 segment two
joining me today is Harold Simkins
professor of marketing at John Wilson
School of Business and Concordia so I
want to talk to you now about the role
of the CMO and the role of vice
president of marketing and basically the
marketing function within the boardroom
within you know dude does the marketing
chief really have the ear of the CEO and
not in the context of let’s do this
campaign let’s hire this agency I’m
guessing that’s their job and the seal
will listen but if a CMO says this is a
crappy idea or a crappy product or this
is crazy how often does a CEO listen
this is the chief yeah all right we
think a good chief executive officer
would have confidence and as CMO because
he or she has hired that person and is
believed in their their qualifications
so and it’s rare that an idea would get
that far where a chief marketing officer
would have to say to his or her superior
that this is a bad idea the idea should
be killed before it even gets to that
stage okay so what is your thought on
CEOs who appear in ads that’s usually
the kiss of death like when the CEO of
daimlerchrysler appeared that’s when
people said this company’s going to go
downhill it went downhill so it is is
when the CEO is cast in an ad spot is
that usually the idea of the marketing
people or is it the CEO who thinks this
is a great idea or is it the ad agency
that’s trying to butter up the CEO
oftentimes state the ad agency has to
drink the CEO has to drag the CEO in
kicking and screaming that oftentimes
they don’t want to appear in front of
the camera but there have been some
tremendous success stories such as Lee
Iacocca with Chrysler when they turned
him around when they turn the company
around the Wendy CEO Dave of course
dates days mr. Dave Thomas Dave Thomas
when the crisis with maple leaf foods
Listeria breakup occurred I forget his
first name was lives names McCain and he
being front and center in the
advertising and PR for that cut for the
campaign to assuage the negative
opinions that performing and reasonably
solved negative opinion
that were developing out there so
there’s oftentimes a good argument to
put a CEO in the ads and commercials i
think the use of Galen Weston in in a
Loblaws commercials was effective okay
so this is an interesting thing whereby
I immediately assume the CEOs being
casted ads as a negative because I think
people tend to remember the disasters
more so than you know all the cruises
that don’t crash nobody remembers them
but we remember Titanic and whatnot not
very tasteful analogy but is that
something where whenever there’s a
mistake is is do we only really like and
do you guys like in marketing classrooms
do you only focus on the negatives or
more so on the negatives as case studies
or is it more of the success cases what
are we more prone to remember we always
talk about New Coke for example but how
often do we talk about let’s say cokes
acquisition of vitamin water which while
expensive get got them a foothold into
something yeah I mean successes name III
amazing like for every 10 ideas that you
have that’s a marketing mishap how many
do you think of that our let’s say Smash
Hitz and Grand Slams um Facebook how so
which one well Facebook as an idea okay
there’s a business idea Oh amazon.com as
a business idea Oh BMW resurrecting the
mini bread how important is the brand
like Amazon start off as abracadabra in
your opinion in terms of wearing the
branding hat would that brand would have
ever been as successful as Amazon or you
think it doesn’t matter especially in
the agent probably could be but they
might have had to spend a lot more money
on a brand like abracadabra then on
amazon but amazon doesn’t mean anything
anyway um well I think it’s more
associate like people probably recognize
it a bit more than abracadabra just the
spelling alone or could be but with the
what does the Amazon River have to do
with books jungle chaos finding no yeah
that might be a stretch okay so let’s
now get to the list what are some of
your top marketing disasters one that
came to mind this morning I said well
why don’t I thought about this one
before remember Krispy Kreme yes if
member the lineups of people to get the
donuts
remember the buzz that was incredible i
mean lining up for a product that wasn’t
that much different from what the
competition dunkin donuts or two
importance offered to be honest with you
i really never understood what the fuss
was all about maybe what the fuss was a
bit was the fuss it was just that word
about just that does that you know get
no Tom he was in line for hours they
were giving away doughnuts and people
would line up to get the free doughnuts
and that thing went to the top hit the
stratosphere and sunk really really
quickly why did it sink that’s a good
question there were accounting
irregularities in the government I think
it expanded too quickly and they weren’t
able to make back the investment fast
enough that they’d put in to expand but
there’s an example of something that was
really hot and died really really
quickly um other examples of failures
that I would note Webvan we heard our
version here called peachtree um when
we’re going to be buying everything on
the web including groceries and of
course they were online grocery outlets
I never understood have that idea even
got off the ground because the deliver
groceries to people’s homes you need a
window they were talking about
installing lockable refrigerators
outside people’s homes so they could put
the perishables in there and just the
cost of doing that you mentioned the
ford edsel I didn’t mention the ford
edsel but the ford edsel was not not
today previously what I usually do I can
give you an even more contemporary
example cuz the ansel examples been
beaten to death Saturn the only late
1980s early 1900s GM set up this company
a different kind of car from a different
kind of car company the idea was to have
a fighter brand so Brandon would fight
the imports particularly the Japanese it
was built in separate plants they did
things like when you went to pick your
new car up was like the delivery of a
baby with balloons yeah they treated
people respectfully so and I had some my
student resources on so well like when
women would shocking
7 the car dealership he has to be
treated you know not assaulted being
honest with women and treating women the
same way they would treat men
spontaneously Saturn owners formed
groups that have annual picnics and
safaris and that kind of thing the brand
really had a strong loyal following even
though the car was pretty lousy so he
read car reviews for similar vehicles
the Saturn usually came glanced it was
plastic a noisy not very powerful it was
was two years ago Jim shut the whole
thing down and one of the reasons that
the Saturn was a failure was they could
never get their constant of control or
at least their cost base was too high to
begin with and so they couldn’t make
money so a brand that resonated well
with consumers died because of accosting
situation that James costs including
some buds legacy costs for pensions and
all that kind of stuff that unions that
negotiated we’re just too hot and they
could never get the cost down so they
could price the Saturn to effectively
compete with the Japanese and ultimately
than the Korean competition I want to
talk about one more example and then
we’re gonna take a break come back and
just talk a bit more about New Coke
since that is the anniversary so last
year Netflix did what any CEO CTO any
logical person would say was a smart
move they basically said the futures and
streaming yep so we’re going to spin off
the old business of DVDs through the
mail now they rebranded it as quick stir
yep and basically net fixed Netflix
would represent the future and you know
if you look at this at arm’s length
you’re like that makes sense i mean but
much room but the company got decimated
by consumers investors said there’s too
much uncertainty and what was a 13
billion dollar stock i think ended up
being you know like a four billion
dollar stock at us they change the
pricing strategy so yeah take a lose
that i mean take us through the netflix
episode is this a case of overtime they
will be vindicated or is this just that
everything went wrong was their foolish
sort of marketing I don’t think
everything went wrong they made a bad
pricing decision people felt they’re
being overcharged and that was that can
a company that does something like that
cover and the answer is absolutely yes
Yuri jig your pricing strategy you stay
out there with advertising that makes
people feel good about the brand maybe
you get people incentives and purchase
bonuses to buy your product offset some
of that opinion about your negative some
that negative opinion about your pricing
and over time you can overcome okay
we’re going to take a short break we’re
going to come back and focus a bit on
New Coke all right back
joining me today is Harold Simkins
professor of marketing at John Wilson
School of Business and Concordia so I
want to talk to you now about the role
of the CMO and the role of vice
president of marketing and basically the
marketing function within the boardroom
within you know dude does the marketing
chief really have the ear of the CEO and
not in the context of let’s do this
campaign let’s hire this agency I’m
guessing that’s their job and the seal
will listen but if a CMO says this is a
crappy idea or a crappy product or this
is crazy how often does a CEO listen
this is the chief yeah all right we
think a good chief executive officer
would have confidence and as CMO because
he or she has hired that person and is
believed in their their qualifications
so and it’s rare that an idea would get
that far where a chief marketing officer
would have to say to his or her superior
that this is a bad idea the idea should
be killed before it even gets to that
stage okay so what is your thought on
CEOs who appear in ads that’s usually
the kiss of death like when the CEO of
daimlerchrysler appeared that’s when
people said this company’s going to go
downhill it went downhill so it is is
when the CEO is cast in an ad spot is
that usually the idea of the marketing
people or is it the CEO who thinks this
is a great idea or is it the ad agency
that’s trying to butter up the CEO
oftentimes state the ad agency has to
drink the CEO has to drag the CEO in
kicking and screaming that oftentimes
they don’t want to appear in front of
the camera but there have been some
tremendous success stories such as Lee
Iacocca with Chrysler when they turned
him around when they turn the company
around the Wendy CEO Dave of course
dates days mr. Dave Thomas Dave Thomas
when the crisis with maple leaf foods
Listeria breakup occurred I forget his
first name was lives names McCain and he
being front and center in the
advertising and PR for that cut for the
campaign to assuage the negative
opinions that performing and reasonably
solved negative opinion
that were developing out there so
there’s oftentimes a good argument to
put a CEO in the ads and commercials i
think the use of Galen Weston in in a
Loblaws commercials was effective okay
so this is an interesting thing whereby
I immediately assume the CEOs being
casted ads as a negative because I think
people tend to remember the disasters
more so than you know all the cruises
that don’t crash nobody remembers them
but we remember Titanic and whatnot not
very tasteful analogy but is that
something where whenever there’s a
mistake is is do we only really like and
do you guys like in marketing classrooms
do you only focus on the negatives or
more so on the negatives as case studies
or is it more of the success cases what
are we more prone to remember we always
talk about New Coke for example but how
often do we talk about let’s say cokes
acquisition of vitamin water which while
expensive get got them a foothold into
something yeah I mean successes name III
amazing like for every 10 ideas that you
have that’s a marketing mishap how many
do you think of that our let’s say Smash
Hitz and Grand Slams um Facebook how so
which one well Facebook as an idea okay
there’s a business idea Oh amazon.com as
a business idea Oh BMW resurrecting the
mini bread how important is the brand
like Amazon start off as abracadabra in
your opinion in terms of wearing the
branding hat would that brand would have
ever been as successful as Amazon or you
think it doesn’t matter especially in
the agent probably could be but they
might have had to spend a lot more money
on a brand like abracadabra then on
amazon but amazon doesn’t mean anything
anyway um well I think it’s more
associate like people probably recognize
it a bit more than abracadabra just the
spelling alone or could be but with the
what does the Amazon River have to do
with books jungle chaos finding no yeah
that might be a stretch okay so let’s
now get to the list what are some of
your top marketing disasters one that
came to mind this morning I said well
why don’t I thought about this one
before remember Krispy Kreme yes if
member the lineups of people to get the
donuts
remember the buzz that was incredible i
mean lining up for a product that wasn’t
that much different from what the
competition dunkin donuts or two
importance offered to be honest with you
i really never understood what the fuss
was all about maybe what the fuss was a
bit was the fuss it was just that word
about just that does that you know get
no Tom he was in line for hours they
were giving away doughnuts and people
would line up to get the free doughnuts
and that thing went to the top hit the
stratosphere and sunk really really
quickly why did it sink that’s a good
question there were accounting
irregularities in the government I think
it expanded too quickly and they weren’t
able to make back the investment fast
enough that they’d put in to expand but
there’s an example of something that was
really hot and died really really
quickly um other examples of failures
that I would note Webvan we heard our
version here called peachtree um when
we’re going to be buying everything on
the web including groceries and of
course they were online grocery outlets
I never understood have that idea even
got off the ground because the deliver
groceries to people’s homes you need a
window they were talking about
installing lockable refrigerators
outside people’s homes so they could put
the perishables in there and just the
cost of doing that you mentioned the
ford edsel I didn’t mention the ford
edsel but the ford edsel was not not
today previously what I usually do I can
give you an even more contemporary
example cuz the ansel examples been
beaten to death Saturn the only late
1980s early 1900s GM set up this company
a different kind of car from a different
kind of car company the idea was to have
a fighter brand so Brandon would fight
the imports particularly the Japanese it
was built in separate plants they did
things like when you went to pick your
new car up was like the delivery of a
baby with balloons yeah they treated
people respectfully so and I had some my
student resources on so well like when
women would shocking
7 the car dealership he has to be
treated you know not assaulted being
honest with women and treating women the
same way they would treat men
spontaneously Saturn owners formed
groups that have annual picnics and
safaris and that kind of thing the brand
really had a strong loyal following even
though the car was pretty lousy so he
read car reviews for similar vehicles
the Saturn usually came glanced it was
plastic a noisy not very powerful it was
was two years ago Jim shut the whole
thing down and one of the reasons that
the Saturn was a failure was they could
never get their constant of control or
at least their cost base was too high to
begin with and so they couldn’t make
money so a brand that resonated well
with consumers died because of accosting
situation that James costs including
some buds legacy costs for pensions and
all that kind of stuff that unions that
negotiated we’re just too hot and they
could never get the cost down so they
could price the Saturn to effectively
compete with the Japanese and ultimately
than the Korean competition I want to
talk about one more example and then
we’re gonna take a break come back and
just talk a bit more about New Coke
since that is the anniversary so last
year Netflix did what any CEO CTO any
logical person would say was a smart
move they basically said the futures and
streaming yep so we’re going to spin off
the old business of DVDs through the
mail now they rebranded it as quick stir
yep and basically net fixed Netflix
would represent the future and you know
if you look at this at arm’s length
you’re like that makes sense i mean but
much room but the company got decimated
by consumers investors said there’s too
much uncertainty and what was a 13
billion dollar stock i think ended up
being you know like a four billion
dollar stock at us they change the
pricing strategy so yeah take a lose
that i mean take us through the netflix
episode is this a case of overtime they
will be vindicated or is this just that
everything went wrong was their foolish
sort of marketing I don’t think
everything went wrong they made a bad
pricing decision people felt they’re
being overcharged and that was that can
a company that does something like that
cover and the answer is absolutely yes
Yuri jig your pricing strategy you stay
out there with advertising that makes
people feel good about the brand maybe
you get people incentives and purchase
bonuses to buy your product offset some
of that opinion about your negative some
that negative opinion about your pricing
and over time you can overcome okay
we’re going to take a short break we’re
going to come back and focus a bit on
New Coke all right back
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