There are countless definitions of the word “genius” online and elsewhere. The one below is a good one.
– Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabilities of competitors.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/genius

– A person having such capacity.
These days one can’t help but think of Elon Musk. Scanning back through recent history, Nelson Mandela, who’s managing of South Africa after his release from prison can’t be deemed anything less, or Winston Churchill during the Second World War.

These are people that demonstrated political genius as opposed to the more common academic genius like today’s news article about the 13-year-old who just graduated college with separate degrees.

https://local12.com/news/offbeat/gallery/13-year-old-graduates-four-diplomas-elijah-muhammad-osu-computer-science-cybersecurity-oklahoma-cincinnati-ibm-google-it-langston-intelligence?photo=7

In October of last year, a genius passed from  the world in which I operate – market research, marketing and PR – the genius was Al Ries.
“Al Ries was the father of positioning, a legendary marketing strategist, a global brand in his own right and the bestselling author of 12 books that have sold over 4 million copies worldwide.”

https://www.alries.com/

After reading Ries’ marketing classic, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, decades ago I was “hooked” and followed his writings via his many subsequent books and had the privilege of communicating with him on some marketing ideas. I keep his validations of some of my marketing ideas in a secure location on my computer.

When one talks of Al Ries, one must talk of positioning.
There are countless definitions of positioning and how it works.
Simply put, positioning makes the unfamiliar* familiar by tying it to something that is already familiar in the mind.
(*Think of the unfamiliar as your product or service).
This facilitates instant communication (because what you are tying your product to with marketing or PR is already in the recipient’s mind).
Positioning has long been used in politics – usually negatively.
“The famous speaker and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), for instance, when he defended his supporter Sestius, did not shrink from publicly accusing the enemy Clodius of incest with brothers and sisters,”

Political Debates In Ancient Rome: Great Harshness, Personal Attacks And Unpleasant Atmosphere

(Positioning the enemy with incest.)”

This kind of positioning goes on daily in the U.S. Congress.  One is no longer just a Kennedy Democrat or Reagan Republican today. The campaign, sourced by the Democrats, driven by the media, the intelligence community and the Justice Department to position Donald Trump with Vladimir Putin was one of the most vicious and well organized I have ever seen.
Of course, Cicero did not have access to Twitter, Facebook or any of today’s digital weapons. But he had an enormous presence and ability to communicate. His presence and oratory in the Roman Senate is easily compared to modern social media.

“Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, writer and academic skeptic who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman empire.  He is considered one of Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists and the innovator of what became known as Ciceronian rhetoric.
His influence on the Latin language was immense. He wrote more than three-quarters of extant Latin literature that is known to have existed in his lifetime.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero

But politics is far from the only use of positioning. When used correctly in marketing and PR, positioning can not only drive business sales, but, more importantly, establish your brand as an industry leader.
Here are some excellent examples of positioning.

Here’s a commercial for strong cheese that uses positioning very cleverly. Click the link.

One of Burger King’s cleverest commercials starts with a shot from the back of a Burger King restaurant. There is a number of people standing in a single line waiting to order.
In the middle of the line is someone with a hat with orange hair sprouting out of the sides. The person is wearing an overcoat, collar up, obviously trying not to be recognized. He turns his head for a moment and his identity becomes obvious: this is Ronald MacDonald who has snuck into Burger King to get a hamburger, trying not to be recognized.
This is, of course, Burger King cleverly positioning against Mac Donald’s.
One I had a great time creating was some years back. Around 2000, Internet service was largely done via dial up. Remember that?
High speed broad band was just beginning to roll out.
ISPs (Internet Service providers) were just beginning to provide high-speed Internet. Our client, an ISP in the Southeastern United States was just introducing their high-speed service, as was their chief competitor, Time Warner.
Positioning takes two surveys. The first survey that we conducted of small to medium-sized businesses (our client’s public) in that region, found that the main thing businesses wanted from Internet service providers was speed . No surprise.
Time Warner had a visual icon going for it that they could use to promote speed, the Road Runner (a type of bird known for running at high speeds, that was always being chased in a cartoon series by a coyote [Wiley Coyote]. Wiley Coyote was always just about to catch him, but the Road Runner was always too fast).

Road Runner Rd., Runner clip art related keywords to dash wikiclipartwikiclipart.com

When we did the follow-up positioning survey, we found that what represented speed to this public was a Daytona racing car (the client was headquartered in Florida).
The advertisement?

A Daytona racing car with the client’s name on it roaring down the highway. Off to the side of the road bent over and panting is the Road Runner.
Positioning.

Here’s feedback from a couple of startups we positioned.

“The positioning that grew out of your research was nothing short of stellar work. We now have a strategically researched, laser like position that will dramatically assist us in rolling out our new brand.”
J.D. – President

“ In launching our new company, I considered one of the most important things we would do is brand and position the company. Your work to help us get into the minds of our customers and prospects really pinpointed – with precision – what our brand should represent. And the rest fell in place from there.  …I feel confident that we have hit on a position and brand that impinges on our public and will have lasting value. I look forward to continuing to work with On Target as we build our company.”    M.D.  – EVP

This came after we implemented an in-depth market research program followed by positioning surveys.
“When we implemented On Target’s research survey findings, our profits increased and marketing cost decreased. From a financial analysis of our company, we discovered that over a two-year period, On Target Research saved our firm over $300,000 a month or, ballpark, a total of $7.2 million so far.”      R.C. – President

Does your company have a position that drives sales? If not, give me a call. We can discuss what would be involved.

Bruce Wiseman
President & CEO
On Target Research
www.ontargetresearch.com
Br***@br**********.net
1-818-397-1401

We surveyed the marketing directors of the 7 largest oil companies on the planet.

We’ve surveyed state legislators, orthopedic surgeons, movie producers, Mexican cell phone users, and German businessmen. We’ve surveyed CEOs, CFOs, IT directors and consumers of virtually every kind of consumable.

The answers to many of the survey questions are often surprising. Not always, but often.

Here’s an example.

The relationship between the United States and Russia has gone through its ups and downs. There was the Cold War, of course – if a Russian was caught having a conversation with an American in Moscow in the 80s, Lubyanka awaited.

What a change after Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet Union in December of 1991.

It was just 6 months later, in June of 1992 that I handed my passport to the surly immigration officer at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

I subsequently traveled to Moscow several times in the 90s and, in so doing, developed a close relationship with the senior executives of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) – the federal Russian police (like the FBI).

It was a fascinating relationship, made more so because the MIA execs were fascinated with survey technology.

You may have seen this picture previously but, if not, this is a snapshot of me delivering a talk to 50 senior MIA executives in an historic conference room in the headquarters of the MIA. Yes, that’s a picture of Lenin behind me.

In the course of my meetings with a Colonel Pylov, he “confessed” that they were having trouble recruiting police – could we conduct surveys to help?

Yes.

The survey of Russian police required bilingual surveyors and tabulators but, once completed, the answer to the key question was startling. Though it really shouldn’t have been.

“What was the primary reason that you joined the MIA?”

“To get free transportation on the metro.”

What?

Yes. Ordinary Russians didn’t own cars in the late ’80s and early ’90s when these policemen would have originally joined the MIA. And police rode free on the metro. This was a big benefit.

There is more to the recruitment story, but I tell this to make the simple point: you don’t really know until you survey.

Something we have been doing for more than 25 years.

If you want to know what your customers think about your products or service, or what will motivate your prospects to buy from you as opposed to your competitors, call us or shoot us an email.

Best,
Bruce

Bruce Wiseman
President & CEO
On Target Research
www.ontargetresearch.com
Br***@br**********.net
1-818-397-1401

“On Target Research is fantastic. Their ability to extract relevant and powerful data from C-level executives is remarkable. In the short period of time, we were able to get profound insight into the hearts and minds of our potential clients. The research is invaluable for all of our marketing branding and sales initiatives.”

MA – President

What is the common denominator between Martha Stewart, Superman, Alex Trebeck, Britney Spears, David Beckham, Kermit the Frog and Muhammad Ali?

That’s right, they all wore the milk mustache in the fantastically successful “Got Milk” ads, as did just about every celebrity in the 90’s and 2000’s. Here’s a few others: Tony Bennet, Lauren Bacall, Wolverine, Taylor Swift, Larry King, Elton John, Angelina Jolie, Yoda and Beyonce.

(The pictures with milk mustaches are copyrighted)

The ads were produced for the California Milk Processor’s Board in 1993 with the mustache added in 1995. The ads were created by advertising agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and were directed by Michael Bay. Driven by the country’s biggest celebrities, the ads ran for more than two decades and became a part of the culture. In 2022, they were named one of the best commercials of all time based on a poll by USA Today.

You will not be surprised when I tell you that the ad agency did an exhaustive amount of research and surveys before having the creative light bulb go on. Almost all successful corporate advertising campaigns are based on information the advertiser gets from his customers and prospects.

And that is true for our clients as well. Let me give you an example.

A company came to us looking to market telecom systems to the correctional industry – payphones for inmate use. (Unfortunately), this is a billion-dollar industry.

We conducted surveys of wardens and sheriffs across the country to find out what it is that they thought was important or valuable about an inmate phone system.

We found one “button,” a hot button that really resonated. They wanted the phone system to be indestructible. (If the phone breaks, the inmates get upset, fights break out, the press gets wind of it…you get the picture.)

Okay, so we had a button — a point of agreement among this public.

But we wanted to position the company so it stood out from the competition; so that the company’s advertising was not only unique but communicated instantly. The way this works is that we use a button/s from the first survey and create and then conduct a second survey based on that information, called a positioning survey.

In this survey, we asked this same public, not necessarily the same respondents but the same public, what object or activity represented indestructible to them.

The answer was a TANK.

This information went to the marketing department and this company rolled out a whole marketing and PR campaign: The Indestructible Tankphone with all the graphics to match.

The company (a startup) went from zero to $30 million a year in sales in three years and became the largest independent provider of inmate phone systems in the country.

Why? Because we found out what the sheriffs and wardens thought was valuable – “indestructible” – and then we got what represented that to them: a tank. The company used the survey results to create a sales and PR campaign around that positioning. Sales soared; the company skyrocketed.

It is hard to overestimate the value of a surveyed position for your company’s marketing and PR.

Do you have one?

“The positioning that grew out of your research was nothing short of stellar. Now we have a strategically researched, laser-like position that will dramatically assist us in rolling out our new brand.”

JLD, President

Best,

Bruce

Bruce Wiseman
President & CEO
On Target Research
www.ontargetresearch.com
Br***@br**********.net
1-818-397-1401

I didn’t have a dog in the fight this year. But when one is born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, opposition to the Rams, Dodgers, and the Lakers is part of one’s DNA.

Still I couldn’t help but admire the Rams defensive line that sacked Joe Burrow, the Bengals quarterback, again, again and again. Bottom line, I have to wait until next year for the 9ers.

The game aside, the commercials this year generated eye-watering amounts of money to NBC and star power that only Hollywood could deliver to the major marketing event on the planet.

Revenue for commercials for this year’s Super Bowl was about $600 million. Serious coin for a single program. But the commercials don’t just cost the airtime ($6.5 million for 30 seconds, $13 million for 60 seconds). The talent is pricey, and this year more than any other, the commercials featured high profile celebrities flogging everything from beer and potato chips to mortgage lending, electric vehicles and 5G phone service.

Everyone from Arnold and Salma Hayek promoting the new BMW EV to Ana Kendrick selling mortgages, Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd doing their potato chip thing and Scarlett Johansen and her husband demonstrating Amazon’s Alexa, to name a few.

The Rams’ team members each got $101,000 in bonus money for winning the Super Bowl, but the movie stars score much more dinero for appearing in their commercial work. So, besides the cost of the airtime ($6.5 > $13 million), celebrities typically pick up anywhere from $500,000 to $2,000,000 for promoting everything from sea shells to the metaverse to the Hard Rock cafe. Some are paid more.

For example, here are some past pay checks – Super Bowl commercial stars and the amounts they were paid, leaked from various sources: Kate Upton was paid $1 million for her appearance in a milk bath for the Game of War video game, Arnold was paid $3 million for a Bud Light Super Bowl commercial in 2014 and Brad Pitt picked up $4 million back in 2005 for a Heineken commercial.

Celebrities attract eyeballs…and get paid for it. (This year’s viewership clocked in at 101.1 million.)

https://www.thelist.com/437370/heres-how-much-celebs-get-paid-for-super-bowl-commercials/

So, with airtime, cost of talent, production costs and the director’s fees, figure $10 to $20 million depending on the length of the spot. Yet it is stunning to me that corporate marketing directors or CEOs approve these multi-million dollar budgets when the commercials position their products with harm, damage or loss in an apparent effort to be funny, not to sell.

This is a a disease, probably borne out of some Harvard MBA class that has metastasized to ad agencies and corporate marketing departments that humor sells and that humor is generated by some kind of negative, damaging or disparaging occurrence.

AMAZON

Scarlett Johansson and her husband, comic Colin Jost, “stared” in a commercial for Amazon’s Alexa, which is kind of a video butler. Now I am a Scarlett Johansson fan (who isn’t) and she and her husband go through various scenes where in there is the implied possibility that Alexa can read minds. It’s kind of silly but OK, then at the end, Alexa announces to dining table full of guests that Colin left the oysters in his car for five hours at which point everybody at the table chokes and  barfs out their oysters onto their plate.

See the last scene for yourself – everyone  is regurgitating oysters at the end of the commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0UEAr8I9G8

Really? Is this supposed to be funny? Do you think you are going to sell more Alexas cutting a commercial the last scene of which positions the product with a table full of friends regurgitating oysters?

PEPSI

There’s a Pepsi commercial staring Payton and Eli Manning the great NFL quarterback brothers, both now retired. They are about to watch the Super Bowl, they toss jabs back and forth as Eli drinks Pepsi and Payton munches on Lays potato chips. Then, famed NFL running back Jerome Bettis storms into the house in an effort to get them on a bus to the game. Payton says no so Bettis ties a tow line from bus to the house, drives off and rips the living room out of the house.

Huh?

There’s more but please tell me why you couldn’t produce a Super Bowl commercial staring Eli and Payton Manning promoting Pepsi  without destroying their house?

What’s the message? Drink Pepsi, get your living room demolished?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2C6ZJEb0kg

There are others.

The Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd commercial promoting Lays potato chips ends with Seth marrying a ghoul that looks like she has been dug up from the grave. You know, something out of the walking dead.

The commercial ends with the picture of this ghastly looking female. Just the positioning that would prompt you to run to the store and grab a bag of Lays potato chips.

Not.

Every Super Bowl 56 commercial, ranked

And the Hellmann’s mayonnaise commercial is 60 seconds of people being slammed to the floor, the last of which is Kim Kardashian’s new squeeze, Pete Davidson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_1Ordi5GjY

Like I said, it’s a disease. But, thankfully, they are not all produced this way. With a Dolly Parton introduction Miley Cyrus belts out a ballad promoting T-Mobile’s 5G network. Miley displays some really impressive vocal chops. The lyrics are weird but the girl can sing. And the maps that compare T Mobile coverage to Verizon’s  are very convincing.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/dolly-parton-miley-cyrus-super-bowl-commercial-t-mobile-1235180320/

If I were in the market for a new pickup, the commercial for the new Chevy Silverado EV pickup would get me to the dealer for a test drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bZYqFsU72Y

But the commercial that really scored, that got the public to REACH, was that of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S.

The super clever commercial was 60 seconds of a QR code floating across the screen. That’s it. No audio, no “hot button” text, just the floating QR code.

The result? 20 million people copied the QR code, and went to the Coinbase site. The volume was so intense, it temporarily crashed their server. Coinbase has yet to reveal how many of those 20 Million visitors signed up for a new account.

That is what is what you call marketing success – a commercial that gets a response, a huge response, a huge reach.

So, how did they know? How did they know what to offer that would get a response?

They survey.

That’s right, Coinbase surveys both their existing customers and their prospects to find out what they need and want or consider valuable.

https://help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/other-topics/other/coinbase-user-research

You think Amazon conducted surveys that suggested they position their brand with people getting sick at dinner, or that Hellmanns’ research revealed that seeing people get knocked to the ground would motivate more mayonnaise sales?

Surveys let you know what is in the mind of your publics (both existing customers and prospects). They open the door to more leads, more sales and more income.

How do I know?

We have been conducting surveys and increasing sales and income for clients for more than 25 years

Bruce,

I want to thank you and your team for the amazing survey On Target performed for Energy Professionals. 

We have been using your survey results for our website, all of our marketing materials, our training for our sales reps and for the foundation of all our company communications.  One of the results we have achieved using this information was our highest ever sales last month.

Your services are very valuable, and we will be back for more surveys.

Sincerely yours,

Jim

Jim Mathers

CEO/President

Energy Professionals, LLC.

If you want to increase your sales and income, give me a call or shot me an email.

Best,

Bruce

Bruce Wiseman

President & CEO

On Target Research

www.ontargetresearch.com

Br***@br**********.net

1-818-397-1401

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