That’s what I wanted to know last week.

The answer:  Kiehl’s, the self-proclaimed “purveyors of the finest skin care” products, wants to boost sales with men.

So they targeted WSJ readers in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco on June 6th with a high-quality Marvel custom edition insert.  It caught my attention for marketing investigation purposes.

Call it content marketing, branded content or co-branding.  The “comic book” features a Captain America cover and 12-page custom comic book story, plus seven more pages of men’s skincare advertising from Kiehl’s, who claim they don’t advertise.

I understand the marketing logic for high-end grooming products targeted to men who read The Wall Street Journal.  The newspaper has frequent ads for premium-priced products, including for men.

It’s hard to explain the comic book connection, though.

Kiehl’s President Chris Salgardo told Advertising Age that he’s a comic book fan who reached out to Marvel:

“Of all of Marvel’s iconic characters, Captain America was a natural fit.  He is an American icon and the story-line fits well.”

Uh oh.  This reminds me of the marketing fable where the golf-loving CEO tells his team to sponsor a professional golf tournament because, well, the sales team can entertain customers.

I don’t get it.  Maybe Kiehl’s mined some data and discovered that men who buy high-end skincare products like comic books.

At least they’re all in with integration.  Note this page from their website:

Photo: http://www.kiehls.com

Here are my marketing concerns:

1. Branding.  What do comic books have to do with the Kiehl’s brand?
2. Communication Idea.  Maybe the goal is to make an irreverent connection between the powers of Captain America and the efficacy of the products.  If so, it makes the reader work way too hard.
3. Context.  How many WSJ readers simply tossed the comic book in the trash without a second thought because they were confused and/or time-pressed?  Consider all the time and effort for development and approval.  Ouch.
4. Superhero or Product Hero?  Even if readers got to and spent time with the product advertising (I mean product information), Captain America probably overpowered the product story.

Maybe this comic book marketing is a smashing success.  Only Kiehl’s will know if the investment ends up panning out.

Still, give Kiehl’s credit for marketing experimentation.  Unfortunately, from the outside looking in, Captain America seems like the wrong marketing vehicle.

Despite all the powerful tools and creative interactive communication opportunities at our disposal today, marketing fundamentals still apply.  It will always be about engagement and connection between buyer and seller, however that happens.   I just don’t know that men who might buy high-end skincare products want to be engaged with Captain America.

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High-end skincare products seller Kiehl’s wanted to spike its men’s marketing with a custom Marvel comic book distributed inside Wall Street Journal newspapers in select markets.  It was an interesting content marketing effort.  However, what the heck is the connection between Captain America and Kiehl’s current and/or potential users?

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.

“Talk about strategy as the animating force of a company, the energy that directs everything that a company does.”

So says Cynthia A. Montgomery (video interview below), the Timken Professor of Business Administration and author of The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs.

Montgomery has formed new thoughts about strategy based on years of teaching and coaching global business executives.  She writes:

“I came to see that we cannot afford to think of strategy as something fixed, a problem that is solved and settled.  Strategy – the system of value creation that underlies a company’s competitive position and uniqueness – has to be embraced as something open, not something closed.  It is a system that evolves, moves, and changes.”

The professor advises executives to consider four basic questions when it comes to strategy:

1. What does my organization bring to the world?
2. Does that difference matter?
3. Is something about it scarce and difficult to imitate?
4. Are we doing today what we need to do in order to matter tomorrow?

Watch Montgomery discuss why strategy needs to be reimagined.

Here is one of her tools you and your team can put to use. 

“To visualize and record how a system of value creation backs up a firm’s purpose, I use a time-honored approach that has come to be known as a “strategy wheel.”"

Diagram from The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs. Cynthia A. Montgomery.

Montgomery explains:

“The strategy wheel provides a picture of how you will win.  The purpose in the center says why you exist – what you do differently or better than others – and the unique configuration of activities and resources around the rim shows what will enable you to deliver on that promise.”

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Leaders must step up to the role of strategist.  That’s a central message from HBS professor and author Cynthia Montgomery.  And strategy should be embraced ”as something open, not something closed.  It is a system that evolves, moves, and changes.”

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.

Photo: http://www.plaxicoburresscollection.com

Having shined on pro football’s biggest stage, NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress wants to score as a fashion accessories playmaker.

Burress, now on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster, caught the winning touchdown pass for the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII (2008).  He has launched a line of high-end hosiery for men called The Plaxico Burress Collection.

For better or worse, being a pro athlete gets attention and opens doors unavailable to the average entrepreneur (even one who shot himself and served jail time for illegal gun possession).  Does Joe Designer get coverage in The New York Times and USA Today, among other media outlets?  No.

Is there a need and/or market for these $24 and $39 socks?  Who knows.  They sure are eye-catching and funky, though where the heck could the average guy where them?

I wonder who Burress thinks his sweet spot is for customers.  Here’s what his website says:

“The collection caters to the fashion conscious man. With colorful, Modern Art inspired designs, that can be mixed and matched in seemingly unlimited combinations. These socks can be worn in accompaniment with casual and dress shoes, sneakers, or even formal shoes with a tuxedo. While still allowing the man wearing them to express his character and individuality.”

I figured one important sock feature would be highlighted on the website store, but it’s surprisingly not, and that’s sock size. As any guy with a 12+ shoe size knows, it’s hard to find the right size socks. They just aren’t carried in department stores (specialty stores and online ordering only).

The Burress socks can be purchased from his website and are supposed to hit retail stores soon.  It will be interesting to chart his distribution success rate.

Burress plans to expand the product line.  He told The New York Times:  “The ultimate goal is to get into bow ties, cuff links and belts.  Definitely belts. Come on, who doesn’t need a great belt?”

Maybe so.  But do we need a Plaxico Burresss belt?

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It’s not fair, but pro athlete name recognition opens business opportunity doors that the rest of us can’t access.  However, after that, the playing field begins to level.  At the end of the day, the products win or lose on their own merits.

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.

Let’s face it.  If you’re not engaging off-site with everyone and everything that makes your company tick, that’s a problem – and lost opportunity.

That’s why you and your business team colleagues need to periodically get out of the office and, for example:

•  Listen to your customers;

•  Get direct feedback from your ultimate end-users;

•  Work with sales colleagues;

•  Investigate and learn about important marketing geography;

•  Talk with manufacturing colleagues in the plant.

Photo: Company Facebook.

I was reminded of this critical factor for success by Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Twice in the last two years, Starwood has temporarily moved corporate HQ to another country for month-long immersions:

“To get to the heart of two of Starwood’s key markets — China and the Middle East, which account for 75% of its growth — the hotel group’s leadership team, including Mr. [Phil] McAveety [Executive VP-Chief Brand Officer at Starwood], the CEO, chief financial officer and others, took a month to immerse themselves in each location. The team spent March in Dubai and visited China in 2011.”

(Emma Hall, Advertising Age, A Peek Into Starwood Hotels’ Marketer Immersion Program)

Starwood does this to learn.  Here’s what they said in a company statement:

“Following the company’s successful relocation to China in June 2011, this second leadership move reflects Starwood’s innovative management approach to cultivating a more global culture by understanding, appreciating and leveraging different societal and associate perspectives and approaches to business and hospitality.”

Obviously, Starwood’s approach is unique and limited in application.  But, you can still leverage the spirit of what they’re trying to accomplish.

So, make sure you provide the resources and justification for key business team members to travel.  Look, despite the scrutiny on travel expenses, it’s your job as a leader and manager to make it happen.  Here’s how:

1.  Build specific out-of-office learning objectives into individual work plans;

2.  Require team members to write trip reports with lessons learned and key action steps that are shared with the wider organization;

3.  Go even further and have them present their learning to colleagues (hey, with smartphones, this learning can now be easily brought to life with photos and videos).

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For sustained business excellence, make sure business team members have the opportunity to engage and learn outside the office.  There’s really no substitute.

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.

First I tried the international medical companies and even the U.N., but they weren’t the right fit for the product. Then it occurred to me that there’s only one organization that can get a product to any village in the world: Coca-Cola.  Dean Kamen in Fortune interview.

Dean Kamen & Slingshot water purification machine. Photo: http://www.coca-colacompany.com

Where do good ideas come from?

Inventor Dean Kamen wanted to bring his water purification system to the people who need it the most in the developing world.

He found that a traditional analysis of product distribution partners did not generate the solution he desired.  Only when he turned the challenge on its head and looked at it differently, did the right outcome emerge.

Kamen needed an entity that already operated in the remote geographies he wanted to reach, and he wasn’t deterred that such a company didn’t neatly fit the definition of a small machine distributor.

By broadening the process by which he assessed his options – to think about capabilities instead of company description – Kamen and his team came up with an unlikely answer: soft drinks giant Coca-Cola!

“In a partnership with Coca-Cola, Kamen’s firm DEKA Research and Development will bring Slingshot to communities in need of clean water in rural parts of Latin America and Africa.”

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There are no easy answers to difficult business problems.  But sometimes, if you start with the end-game in mind, you might discover a clever, if not crazy, solution.

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.

You see, the Chicago Bulls defeated the Brooklyn Nets Saturday night in the NBA playoffs.  Had the team I was rooting for won, I wasn’t going to write this.  Instead, there’s an extra impetus to highlight why even non-sports fans can take something away from the “corporate culture” instilled by Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau.

Thibodeau has become well-known in NBA circles for his leadership and coaching philosophy of “we have enough to win” and even his more pronounced “we have more than enough to win.”  It’s a refusing-to-blame-injuries-and illness belief system he’s had to put to good use since the team’s best player Derrick Rose tore up his knee in last year’s playoffs (still hasn’t returned to action); and throughout this year’s season and now playoffs.

The Bulls beat the Nets on the road in seven games despite two starting players out with injury/illness for games 6 and 7 and several others playing with the flu (garbage pails were needed on the bench in game six for at least one player to umm, get sick in).  Chicago has a deep and talented team, but their depleted-roster victory can also be credited to the Nets’ poor performance.  Really, Chicago had no business winning the series.

But, this isn’t a sports story.

It’s a lesson about the power of team attitude, mindset and culture.

Check out this quote from Bulls player Jimmy Butler, courtesy of ESPNChicago.com:

“I think whenever you hear it enough each and every day, you start to buy into it.  Thibs [Coach Tom Thibodeau] is constantly saying that, we’re constantly saying that. And we know that we have enough to win because even though (our injured teammates) aren’t on the court with us, they’re with us spiritually. Whenever we come into that locker room, they’re saying things that they see from the TV. They’re always helping, just maybe not physically out there on the court with us.”

Let’s say your organization has to operate without your best competitive asset and a 40% budget reduction (analogous to the Bulls situation versus the Nets).

We’ve all been in business situations where we don’t have the resources we think we need to get the job done right (manpower, budgets, etc.).  The first natural tendency is often one of woe or negativity (we can’t get it done or now we can only achieve X minus).  It sure isn’t - no problem, we have enough to win.

Look, at the end of most days, talent and resources matter. Despite Thibodeau instilling a tenacious we-can-get-it-done-no matter-what culture, the defending champion Miami Heat should still send the Bulls home in the next playoff round (even though the Bulls shocked to victory in game one). But again, this isn’t a sports story.

The point here is that sometimes the attitude you instill can make up for other shortcomings across the business.  We all know how bad attitude weakens culture and can drag down even the best companies.  However, the right kind of culture, leading to the right kind of team engagement, has the potential to supercharge results.

So, the next time you and your team face business adversity, remember the “we have enough to win” mindset and determine the best action plan.  Better yet, start instilling that way of thinking into your organization today.

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Attitude does matter and it can be infectious – good or bad.  That’s the lesson from Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau and his “we have enough to win” team culture.

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.

“Brands may need to perform an even tougher trick: redefining their own definition of value to one that’s additive.  When not reduced to the question of price, value speaks directly to what benefits a product or service adds to a customer’s life.”    Maureen Morrison and Matthew Creamer in Advertising Age)

There’s more to value than just low price.

Canadian sports retailer Sport Chek believes that.  It’s going high-tech to create what it hopes will be a unique customer buying experience.

Photo: Sport Chek Facebook.

Sport Chek recently unveiled a technologically souped-up retail store in Toronto that will serve as a living retail laboratory to bring shopping innovation to all of its 163 stores.

Sport Check is leveraging a fundamental shopper insight to battle the “showrooming” phenomenon enabled by website retailing:

Online shopping is great except you can’t always see the product fully, and it’s difficult to experience the product completely because you can’t touch and feel the item.

So, it’s bringing a 360-degree integrated marketing experience to Canadian sporting goods buyers.  It’s convergence, the best of all worlds - see it, touch it, try it, customize it, order it, take it home - all in the same place.

Sport Check is using technology as a value-creating differentiator:

“If you look at the value proposition that retailers have always provided in the past, it was features, benefits, and assortment.  You’d have to go to a retail store to be able to find those things.  With the internet and online environments, all of these things are available.  So from a retail perspective you’ve got to create a new value proposition and I think that’s what technology does.”  (Paul Reid, Vice President, Operations at FGL Sports – owner of Sport Chek banner - Infusion blog interview)

It has partnered with leading sports and technology brands such as Nike, Adidas, Reebok and Samsung.  Features include:

• 140 digital screens installed throughout the store, with touch technology and near-field-communication (NFC) capabilities that enable personalized content and greater customer interaction with merchandise.

• Build-your-own Reebok shoe kiosk to custom-build every single part of your shoe.

• Find the right shoe for your sport or activity with a comprehensive gait analysis via walking or running on a special treadmill.  Sport Chek associates take the data and recommend what they say is your “perfect shoe.”

• Get your custom-built Oakley sunglasses while you wait via a design kiosk that lets you pick from lens, frame, color and logo options.

Take a look.

Sport Chek says its retail lab “delivers the perfect mix of great products, expert staff and next-in-class digital innovation for an unparalleled shopping experience.”

“We believe if we change the shopping experience into an entertaining experience, an engaging experience, we will do better,” explained Eugene Roman (Chief Technology Officer for Canadian Tire Corporation, parent of FGL Sports/Sport Chek, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.)

He called it ”shopper-tainment,” and said “I believe it’s the future of retail.”

Here’s the CMO in a magazine video interview:

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Price is important, yet there are many other ways to deliver customer value.  Make sure you and your team are working to find some of them!

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.

“I wish there was a book I could read that would tell me what to do.” (former brand management colleague)

As soon as I heard these words, I knew her days at our company were numbered.

They were, and it was a shame.  She was a new, junior marketer with an MBA from one of the best universities, and clearly a bright person.  At the same time, though, she was not cut out for the rough and tumble world of brand management, at least not in that company at that time.

One of the most prized business capabilities is being able to think on your feet, to take basic knowledge and principles and to be able to apply them in new and challenging situations.  As my former colleague learned, magic instructions rarely exist.  Notwithstanding training and coaching, you’ve got to figure it out!

The challenge is how to develop these capabilities.

There’s much good learning from the book Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines (David H. Freedman).  It’s an easy read and contains excellent lessons and/or reminders for marketers and business leaders.

Consider this.  If you were given an inside opportunity to learn from this company, wouldn’t you want to?

[They] ”have specialized in operating under chaotic, fast changing, high-intensity conditions that provide not only little way of knowing what the opposition is going to throw at you but perhaps no way of knowing exactly who the opposition is going to be.”

Hell yes!

I’ve previously written about Principle 1, Aim for the 70-Percent Solution:  ”It’s better to decide quickly on an imperfect plan than to roll out a perfect plan when it’s too late.”

You can learn all 30 principles and more in the book.

In the meantime, I’ve organized 8 Key Nuggets and highlighted 3 More Principles that particularly resonated for me.

1.  Keep Getting Better

“No matter how good the Marines get at any aspect of their mission, they never consider themselves to have reached a pinnacle.  They always suspect that somehow there’s a better way to do things.”

2.  Foster a Climate of Action

“But it does want its people to be bold – that is, to take initiative and, when in doubt, to act rather than mull things over while critical events are unfolding.”

3.  Apply Knowledge and Think on Your Feet

“The challenges you face tomorrow will not be the same ones you face today, so don’t get stuck on a particular set of strategies and tactics.”

4.  Re-think Your Leadership Definition!

“The Marines have emphasized a simple, Darwinian test as part of determining an officer’s suitability for promotion: Is he or she someone who inspires people to follow?”

5.  Encourage Productive Questioning

“Subordinates should feel free to openly disagree with their managers, up until it comes time to carry out a final and legitimate decision.”  (Principle 18)

6.  Make Comments – But Provide Solutions

“Don’t just tell me what’s broken, tell me how to fix it.”

7.  End Up at the Right Place with Good Directions

“The essence of the Marine style of giving direction is to avoid telling someone exactly how to do things when giving orders.  Instead, Marine officers provide two clear statements; first, how they would like the situation to end up, what the Marines refer to as “the end state;” and second, the broader goals that they would like to achieve through the entire unit’s actions, information that Marines call “the commander’s intent.”" (Principle 13:  Manage by end state and intent.)

8.  Motivate with Positive Recognition

“There are always medals and awards you can give out.  But what these people want is day-to-day recognition in front of their peers.  It doesn’t cost you anything to stroke your people in public.  And it doesn’t have to be anything big.  It can just be, ‘You did a nice job on night watch.  Thank you; I noticed.’” (quote from unnamed commander)

9.  Make Tempo A Competitive Advantage

“Controlling the pace of competition can exhaust and demoralize the competition.” (Principle 24)

10.  Be Smarter Than Your Opponent

“Marines don’t look for a fair, head-to-head fight; they try to put the fix in.  That means coming up with tactical plans for a battle in which they can draw on their strengths while robbing the enemy of the opportunity to draw on its own.”

11.  Encourage & Allow Experimentation   

“Even the most successful organization will eventually stop winning if it doesn’t explore radically new approaches.”  (Principle 27)

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You don’t have to join the Marine Corps to get their best teaching on leadership and decision-making for the business crucible.  Just read David H. Freedman’s Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines.  The push-ups are optional!

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.

In recent years, medical professionals and hospital systems have begun to market directly to consumers, with mixed results I’m sure.  For instance, my dentist has an annual photo contest – maybe that helps build engagement and loyalty, I don’t know.

On a bigger scale, we see the venerable yet still effective “case study” tactic being utilized.

Most of the time, the ad features a person who has significantly benefited, or maybe even had her life saved, due to the great professionals and technology of XYZ medical system.  There’s merit to this approach.  It helps create awareness, builds capability recognition and possibly influences the provider selection decision-making process.

However, it can go too far.

In my mind, a new ad for NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital crosses the line and becomes ”no, they shouldn’t have done that.”

But first, you watch the ad.

Part one of the story is terrific.  The hospital’s doctors have miraculously saved the boy.  Unfortunately, it’s only temporary.

From the hospital’s website:

“But the tumor continued to grow and over the next few years, Danion underwent four more brain tumor surgeries and 10 procedures related to fluid-draining shunts in his head.  Several months after making the video you see here, Danion succumbed to his condition and sadly, he passed.  His mother says, “If it wasn’t for Dr. Souweidane, the four years that I had with Danion would not have been possible, and I’m forever thankful for that.”"

I watched the interview with the Mom posted on the hospital microsite.  I get what she’s saying about the extra time with her son.  Who wouldn’t?  That’s not my purpose here.

What troubles me is the decision to publicize this story on behalf of the hospital.

My view is that the story is inappropriate for this usage.  It feels wrong and perhaps even somewhat exploitative of the family, especially noting the extra patient history details on the hospital’s microsite.  The totality of the story involves assessing quality of life, weighing the impact of invasive medical treatments and factoring time spent together.  These are heavy topics for private family deliberation, not a case-study marketing celebration.

The hospital’s agency, Munn Rabot, says it’s trying to engage, but for me, I was saddened and turned off:

“Who likes hospitals? Who likes hospital advertising? We’ve worked in the hospital category since 1995, so we know how difficult it is to engage people in this area.”

Sometimes, to break-through, it’s okay to have the advertising recipient feel uncomfortable.  Doing so depends in part on the message, product and how the idea is delivered.  But this ad made me feel uncomfortable in a negative way.

Sorry, NewYork-Presbyterian.  You want to give me a case study, give me a happy ending.

You’ve done it numerous times before as part of the same campaign, called ”Amazing Things are Happening Here.”  It’s excellent marketing,  described by the agency as:

“an idea that changed everything. It resonated with every constituent within the hospital, and effectively engaged people outside of the hospital. It’s proved to be such a powerful and driving force that it just may outlive us all.”

Check out another ad.  See the difference?

More “amazing stories” are on the hospital’s microsite.

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Case study marketing for hospitals and health care providers can be an effective branding and positioning tool.  However, there are limits about what kind of story should be told.  NewYork-Presbyterian mostly demonstrates how to do it well, but a new TV commercial goes too far.

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.

That’s why I quickly grabbed my smartphone to learn more about Arrow Electronics after seeing their new Innovator’s Club commercial Saturday night during the NCAA Final Four men’s semifinal basketball game.

Photo: Arrow Electronics website.

I needed to know more about who they were, what they were doing and why they decided to unveil a major new branding campaign during the Final Four.

After all, when a $20 billion company launches a branding campaign, I’m interested.

Arrow’s marketing is yet another example of a B2B company using consumer marketing channels to reach a business audience.  That’s smart, though, as both audiences and communication vehicles continue to converge.

But, I’m still trying to figure out exactly what they’re doing.  There are multiple objectives and you have to work a bit to make sense of and truly understand the depth of the communication (e.g., enabling “five years out” innovation).  One question:  will customers make the time to engage with the Arrow brand?

Oh, the launch ad is captivating and beautifully produced.

You can watch more of the campaign on Arrow’s YouTube page.

The company’s marketing chief described the strategy:

“This is the right time to define our identity to the broader marketplace and convey the extent of our reach across the technology landscape, and the true breadth of our offering, to customers, suppliers and employees.”

“The campaign aligns with Arrow’s focus on expanding into global markets, attracting the best talent and driving technology to inspire the next generation of courageous innovators to look five years out and create smart solutions that explore the boundaries of what’s possible and deliver what’s practical.”  (Rich Kylberg, Vice President, Corporate Communications and Global Marketing)

The Innovator’s Club was created as an advertising idea to communicate Arrow’s corporate brand platform:

“The campaign builds on Arrow’s “Five Years Out” brand platform, the creative expression of Arrow’s unique vantage point across the entire technology landscape and ability to see trends long before they appear on the market.”

Yet, the branding campaign has a more general purpose.  As described by the company, it’s ”a multifaceted, multichannel awareness effort designed to promote the company’s leading position in the electronics supply chain and distribution industry and its communities.”

Is awareness really the marketing challenge?

After all, as a “supply channel partner for over 100,000 original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers and commercial customers through a global network of more than 470 locations in 55 countries,” Arrow seems pretty well-known (company website).

Nevertheless, according to The Denver Post:  [Arrow] ”remains largely anonymous outside the sphere of electronics and technology.”  Then this from the company’s marketing chief:

“It would be nice if the rest of the world knows who we are.” (Richard Kylberg, Vice President of Corporate Communications and Global Marketing).

I think the campaign will generate attention.  The key is what happens next.  I hope Arrow has prepped its sales and customer facing teams to handle the likely questions and inquiries.  Doing so can produce good outcomes if done well.

Note that Arrow’s post-TV launch marketing communication plans include reaching out to ”stakeholders through media relations, social media, op-eds, and blogs.” (PR Week)

I am a bit concerned with the objectives, and how they’re tied together and prioritized.  Besides corporate awareness generation, The Denver Post reported five more objectives:

“After making two dozen acquisitions in the past three years, Arrow needs a more unified identity [1].  Promoting one brand rather than 30 represents a more efficient use of its marketing dollars, he said.” [Kylberg]

 ”Arrow also hopes a more recognizable corporate identity will give employees a greater sense of pride [2] and make it easier to win the attention of recruits [3], not to mention investors [4] and Wall Street analysts [5].”

Overall, Arrow has embarked on a signficant marketing and branding initiative, most likely with a sizable financial commitment.  Hopefully, the marketing team has a tight scope, along with a set of tracking metrics, and senior management buy-in.  I wish them success.

Headline

Arrow Electronics has invested in a major corporate branding campaign with an attention-getting idea called The Innovator’s Club.  National TV was used to reach a B2B target.  The marketing looks like it can produce the attention that Arrow seeks, although a full understanding and appreciation of the company’s message probably requires a bit of effort from customers.

Harvey Chimoff is a hands-on marketing leader and business-wide collaborator who builds marketing capabilities in B2B/B2C organizations that drive customer success. Contact him at hchimoff at gmail dot com.