Visual Hammer

by Laura Ries

  Another founder that has legs even though he departed the scene in 2008 is Paul Newman, the creator of Newman’s Own line of food and beverage products. Since 1982, Newman’s Own has contributed over $300 million to charities.

  What made Newman such an effective visual hammer was his steely blue eyes and good-humored charm.

  What’s lacking in most corporate executives today is a sense of humor, which Newman excelled in.

  As Newman’s Own website says: “Shameless exploitation in pursuit of a common good.”

  In the corridors of corporate America, nobody talks that way today.

  CHAPTER 9

  SYMBOLS

  VISUALIZING THE INVISIBLE.

  A verbal metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word normally used for one thing is applied to another.

  “America is a melting pot.”

  A visual metaphor is a symbol that can help bring an invisible product to life. How do you visualize “insurance,” for example? You can’t.

  That’s why insurance companies are big users of visual metaphors or symbols. These symbols can be strong visual hammers.

  Travelers uses a red umbrella to symbolize the protection its insurance provides. “It’s better under the umbrella” is its latest verbal nail.

  The history of the red umbrella demonstrates the enduring power of a visual.

  In 1998, in a misguided effort to create a financial supermarket, banking giant Citicorp merged with the Travelers Group.

  The combination was called “Citigroup” and it enlisted the red umbrella to symbolize the financial supermarket concept.

  The history of conglomerates is a dismal one and Citigroup was no exception. Four years after the merger, Citigroup spun off the Travelers in an IPO, but kept the valuable red umbrella as part of the Citigroup logotype.

  Two years later, Travelers was bought by The St. Paul Companies for $16 billion. The combination was called The St. Paul Travelers Companies.

  Consider the situation back at the bank. Citigroup had been using the red umbrella as the symbol for its banking operation for quite a few years and yet the public still thought the umbrella meant “insurance.”

  Almost nine years after Citigroup started using the red umbrella as its symbol, it threw in the towel and sold the symbol to The St. Paul Travelers Companies.

  Which promptly changed its name to The Travelers Companies.

  Chief executive Jay Fishman said at the time: “The recognition of the umbrella to the Travelers name was really quite remarkable.”

  When a visual conflicts with a verbal, the visual always wins. Take a picture of a beautiful woman and label the picture “ugly woman.”

  The viewer doesn’t believe the woman is ugly but just assumes that somebody put the wrong caption on the picture. Not the wrong picture on the caption.

  The visual always dominates the verbal.

  The sale of the red umbrella to The Travelers left Citigroup and its other brands including Citibank, CitiFinancial, CitiMortgage, without a visual. So the company created a red “halo” which I assume is supposed to be a highly-symbolic red umbrella. The red halo doesn’t work nearly as well as the Travelers’ red umbrella.

  A “red” symbol that works much better than the red halo is the red hat used by Red Hat, Inc.

  Red Hat dominates the market for Linux, the open-source computer operating system that is the chief rival to Microsoft’s Windows. Linux software is free, but the company makes its money with subscription-based support, training and integration services. In 2010, Red Hat had revenues of $909 million and a net profit margin of 11.8 percent.

  Visuals that can be verbalized are much stronger than abstract designs that defy verbal explanations.

  Most high-performing sales people are sweet, pleasant and affable individuals. Not Flo, the spokesperson and the visual hammer for the Progressive Insurance brand. “Irritating” is one of the milder things you can say about Flo. As one consumer said: “I wish Flo from Progressive would comb her hair or get a new style...and lighten up the flaming red lipstick.”

  All of which would make Flo look better, but at the cost of memorability. If your symbol isn’t memorable, then your message is probably lost, too.

  “Discounts,” Progressive’s verbal nail, is memorable, too. That’s particularly impressive because Flo didn’t make her first appearance on television until 2008.

  And Progressive Insurance is spending considerably less money than the big three auto insurance companies. In a recent year, Progressive Insurance spent $388 million versus Geico’s $827 million, State Farm’s $514 million and Allstate’s $418 million.

  Geico’s big budget and visual hammer (the gecko, a reptilian mascot) have created a highly-memorable marketing program for the insurance giant.

  Geico’s verbal nail, “15 minutes could save you 15 percent or more on car insurance,” is also highly memorable although Geico’s massive advertising budget, which dwarfs that of the other major players, is partly responsible for the brand’s success.

  Geico has also used Neanderthal-like cavemen in a modern setting to promote its Geico brand. The nail, “So easy, a caveman could do it,” was memorable, but not very motivating. The real motivation is the 15% or more savings which is lost with the cavemen. Cavemen don’t care about savings.

  When the nail is weak, it’s usually a sign that the marketing people picked the hammer first, which violates the basic principle of nail first, hammer second.

  Cavemen might make interesting television spots, but they lack a strong, motivating verbal connection.

  However, they were different. As a result, Geico’s Cavemen even got their own short-lived TV show.

  Both Geico and Progressive have been shaking up the auto-insurance business. So much so that long-time leaders like No.1 State Farm and No.2 Allstate felt forced to respond. In 2010, Allstate introduced “Mayhem,” its visual hammer played by actor Dean Winters.

  The brand’s verbal nail, however, is a mess. One version goes: “You can save money and be better protected from Mayhem like me.” In another version: “Mayhem is everywhere. Are you in good hands?”

  In essence, Allstate now has two visual hammers (Mayhem and Good Hands) and two verbal nails. The resulting confusion is never a good idea. This is particularly true for a brand whose name (Allstate) is often confused with its leading competitor (State Farm.)

  State Farm has a memorable verbal nail (Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there) but lacks a visual. Its “three rings” logotype is a cliché that has been used by many brands in the past including Ballantine Ale (purity, body, flavor.)

  On television, State Farm is turning its verbal nail into a “magic jingle.” Sing the good neighbor jingle, point your finger and your wish will come true.

  What makes good television? Demonstration, action, motion … all the attributes of the State Farm commercials except one … a visual hammer.

  State Farm has none. In the long term, that’s a big mistake, especially for an invisible product like insurance.

  Perhaps the oldest visual hammer in the insurance business is the “Rock of Gibraltar,” used by Prudential since the 1890s.

  The company’s toll-free phone number (1-800-THE-ROCK) tied into the symbol as well as various verbal nails: “Get a piece of the rock.” And also: “Strength of Gibraltar.” Time, however, has weakened the rock. It was a good symbol yesterday when print was the dominant communications medium, but not today.

  Today, when it comes to insurance advertising, television is the dominant medium. The industry spends many billions of dollars a year on TV advertising.

  Having a visual hammer that doesn’t move is a serious handicap on television.

  That’s one reason Prudential has been moving away from verbal rock metaphors. “Growing and protecting your wealth” is a recent Prudential slogan. Sooner or later, Prudential will also need a new hammer.

  On the other hand, Pacific Life has a hammer that works well on television. The hum
pback whale which represents qualities such as performance, strength and protection.

  The whale was an outgrowth of the Pacific Life Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preservation and conservation of marine mammals.

  The Foundation pre-dated the company’s use of the whale in TV commercials.

  For more than a quarter century, Snoopy and other Peanuts Characters have served as visual hammers for the MetLife brand.

  Currently the MetLife company uses airplanes and blimps to animate its TV commercials.

  While the Snoopy hammer is memorable, the verbal nails are weak. They include: “Get Met. It pays.” And: “Have you met life today?” As well as MetLife’s current slogan: “Guarantees for the ‘if’ in life.”

  What’s missing in the MetLife program and also missing in most marketing programs today is the notion of locking the hammer and the nail together.

  It’s as if a copywriter selects a nail and an art director picks out a hammer and the two never seem to connect with each other. That’s a shame.

  Like insurance, a lot of marketing time and money goes into selling pharmaceutical products, but while the pills may be visible, the hammers often are not.

  Or if they are, they aren’t exactly appropriate visual hammers.

  Take erectile-dysfunction drugs. The first brand in the category (Viagra) made a wise decision to pre-empt a color by using blue pills.

  What should competitors have done to differentiate their brands from Viagra? One of the oddest symbols is the twin bathtubs used by the Cialis brand.

  Cialis is currently a close second to Viagra, the brand that pioneered the erectile-dysfunction drug category.

  And the Cialis brand is widely expected to become the market leader very soon.

  The rise of Cialis is remarkable because it was the third drug in the category, after Viagra and Levitra.

  (It’s as if Royal Crown, the No.3 cola, suddenly became the cola market leader.)

  Why the twin bathtubs? Consider the situation from the company’s point of view. There’s no acceptable way to demonstrate the benefits of an erectile-dysfunction drug.

  But the bathtubs convey the idea of two naked people without showing anything remotely exotic.

  The verbal nail (the 36-hour drug) also strongly differentiates Cialis from Viagra and Levitra.

  Together with the bathtub hammer, they are combining to produce a dramatic marketing victory.

  Baking soda is a widely-used household product and the leading brand is Arm & Hammer. Its visual hammer is an old-fashioned arm-and-hammer logotype that dates back to the 1860s.

  Once your brand is strongly imbedded in the mind, it is wise to keep changes to a minimum.

  With inexpensive products like baking soda, a strong and consistent visual that locks itself with the name makes the brand almost impregnable to competition.

  Take salt, for example. Morton has been the leading brand of table salt for many decades.

  Morton’s visual hammer is a young girl walking in the rain with an opened umbrella and scattering salt behind her. According to one source, the Morton salt girl (which has been redrawn over the years) is one of the ten best-known symbols in the United States. The verbal nail, “When it rains, it pours,” is not only a benefit of the brand, it’s also a memorable double-entendre.

  Car-rental companies provide a service that is invisible and deliberately so. Who wants to rent an automobile with a Hertz logotype on it?

  Hertz, however, is trying to increase its visibility with a mascot named Horatio, an animated yellow dashboard figurine with a football-shaped head. Unfortunately, the verbal nail, “We’re at the airport and in your neighborhood,” is one of the blandest slogans ever developed.

  We’ll have to wait and see how well Horatio is received by consumers. I have my doubts. He’s not wacky enough to be memorable and his connection to car rentals is almost non-existent.

  (Hertz named its mascot after Horatio Jackson, one of the first people to drive a car across America.)

  Symbols, whether they are used as visual hammers or not, play an important role in today’s society. On products, on websites, on clothing, on retail stores and on billboards.

  The Swoosh, for example, identifies a Nike product in situations where the Nike name might not be readable. Like on an athletic shoe or a baseball hat.

  Instead of developing a recognizable symbol, too many companies take the easy way out and use initials instead. Who makes the “N” shoe? Many people probably don’t know.

  But most people can readily figure it out. But it still takes awhile to come up with the name, New Balance.

  Here’s the difference. When you see the Swoosh, the Nike name instantly registers in your mind.

  When you see the letter “N,” you have to think about it for awhile. And most people won’t bother to do so.

  When you have more than one name, you need all your initials if you have any real hope of widespread consumer recognition. In fast food, “M” can stand for McDonald’s, but could “B” ever stand for Burger King?

  The letter “E” is used on a chain of hotels. What hotel chain is this? The street visibility of the Embassy Suites hotel chain might greatly improve by using two initials instead of one initial.

  Human minds think in terms of words. If the Face Book logotype were two words, it should have used “fb” as its symbol. But the single word Facebook allows the site to just use “f” as the visual hammer for its button and its icon.

  Where the brand has the space, Facebook wisely uses its name and singular blue color for its visual hammer. Words are almost always stronger than just initials.

  A tree is a simple shape. One of the most effective visual hammers is the tree used by the Pebble Beach Company as a corporate trademark.

  It’s a drawing of the iconic “Lone Cypress” tree.

  Not only is this symbol memorable, it also deflects consumer attention from the literal meaning of the name, Pebble Beach. After all, consumers tend to prefer sand beaches, not pebble beaches.

  The Lone Cypress has been an icon of the Pebble Beach Company for nearly a century which documents both the enduring power of a visual symbol and the need for marketing people to think in decades, not just years.

  On the other hand, the DoubleTree hotel chain uses a stylized version of two trees as a trademark.

  But the chain has reversed the logical order of things. You have to read the name (DoubleTree) before you can identify these symbols as trees. They look more like ping-pong paddles.

  Recently, DoubleTree changed its logotype. The new design demonstrates how verbally-oriented DoubleTree management has become.

  Instead of two trees, the DoubleTree trademark now has one tree and one “D.” If your name is DoubleTree how can you show just one tree? And the D is shown after the tree instead of before it? As if the name were TreeDouble. Talk about backward thinking.

  This is not a visual that instantly communicates a message. This is a mash-up that needs to be decoded. Let’s see, a tree and a D. What could the “D” stand for?

  Dogwood? Dutch elm? Or maybe the color brown means that it’s a “dead” tree?

  Aah, I have it. DoubleTree.

  That’s not good enough. A visual hammer needs to be perceived in a blink of the eye.

  A visual hammer is not a puzzle to be solved.

  Compare Tommy Bahama with DoubleTree. Not only is the tree a visual symbol for the brand, but it’s obviously a palm tree, a perfect symbol for a “Bahama” brand.

  CHAPTER 10

  CELEBRITY

  PROS & CONS.

  A marketing message can’t be all message and no come-on. You need to do something to attract consumers to pay attention to what you have to say.

  A celebrity can often fill that role.

  Nobody, but nobody was as good as Bill Cosby in delivering an advertising message.

  In the inductions to the 2011 Advertising Hall of Fame, Mr. Cosby received the “President’s a
ward for special lifetime contributions to advertising.”

  What made Bill Cosby effective? In a word: sincerity.

  Consumers are remarkably able to detect celebrities who are just “mouthing the words” as opposed to those who seem to strongly believe in the merits of the product.

  Bill Cosby’s best work was for Jell-O pudding products, emphasizing key phrases like “Yummy for the tummy” and “Thank you, mother dear,” sounding just like some young kid enthralled with having Jell-O pudding for dessert.

  Bill Cosby is exactly the kind of celebrity you should be looking for when you launch a new brand.

  Cosby also did memorable work for a range of other brands including Crest, Kodak, Coca-Cola and Ford.

  Too many marketing people hesitate using celebrities because they figure consumers know they get paid for their endorsements. That’s understandable, of course, but can be overcome by a celebrity who can project absolute sincerity.

  As Bill Cosby once said: “I want to make the program interrupt the commercial.”

  But there are also three reasons to not use a celebrity as a visual hammer: (1) Celebrities are very expensive and (2) Celebrities aren’t always credible consumers of your product (3) Celebrities are human and subject to human frailties which could damage your brand.

  Witness the recent rash of negative publicity about Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen, Kobe Bryant, Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears, Martha Stewart and Mel Gibson, to name a few.