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September 07, 2005
Mmmmm, Kool-Aid
IBM is about unveil a massive advertising campaign for its multi-million dollar, B2B consulting services.
And Business 2.0 is as giddy as a schoolgirl:
According to Ogilvy group creative director Andy Berndt, who helped dream up the campaign, here's how it works: "You take boring, complicated stuff and explain it. Since the topic isn't that interesting, you need to add some dialogue and characters with humor." To round out this human connection, the spots and related website are accompanied by a playful, soaring musical score by Brian Banks of Ear to Ear.
The strategic marketing effect of IBM's narrative-cum-humanistic techniques, Berndt says, is to show consumers that Big Blue -- on some basic human level -- understands their problems. "I don't think CEOs or the guys leading the IT departments want to see an ad specifically about supply chain management," he says. "They want something they can identify with that's humanistic, funny, and witty. They want to see that IBM gets it."
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I don't think CEOs or the guys leading the IT departments want to see an ad specifically about supply chain management,
Hey, look! A multi-million dollar mistake!
I can get humor anywhere. I don't particularly care if my business partners "get it" socially; it might make business dinners more interesting, but what I really care about is A) whether or not the service they offer is something I want and B) whether or not they can perform that service as advertised.
Besides, how wide a market is there for this product? Wouldn't they be better off taking the multiple millions of dollars they are about to spend on this ad campaign and put it into hiring a team of direct sales people?
The first paragraph up there is supposed to have a blockquote around it. Shoulda used the preview button.
Hmmm - I agree with Blog Jones about hiring a crack sales team to make personal calls on key decision makers, but I'll take issue with the first comment on the humorous approach.
Seems to me these types of services are becomming a commodity - there isn't much you can say that doesn't translate into blah-blah-blah. Perhaps the humor is an attempt to grab some sort of franchise in the buyer's mind. Something to set the particular service apart from the noise.
To me, it's a disconnect. For the past five years, IBM has been a company on top of its marketing game, but this seems like step backward in its customer evangelism theology.
