NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR 

George Orwell’s classic novel of a dystopian future overseen by the all-seeing despot, Big Brother, embodied omnipresent government surveillance, perpetual war and historical negationism (the rewriting of history).

It is a portrayal of government power and suppression of individual freedoms far beyond Orwell’s 1949 England and today’s governmental operations… or is it? 

If one were looking for a perpetual war, today’s never-ending War on Terror, 18 years old with no sign of ending, would certainly serve. The government surveillance exposed by Edward Snowden makes clear that your every phone call, Internet search and email is washed through Uncle’s digital fingers. And facial recognition software is embedded in cameras now strewn across the nation’s commercial landscape.

If you read 1984, you’ll recall that the protagonist, Winston Smith, worked in the Ministry of Truth, revising history to fit the current political demands.

“Comrade Ogilvy, unimagined an hour ago, was now a fact. Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.” (Orwell, pp.47-48) “It might very well be that literally every word in the history books, even the things that one accepted without question, was pure fantasy.”

Rewriting the past could never happen here, of course – setting aside the current destruction of statues of Civil War Generals throughout the South. It appears Robert E. Lee never existed, or so the City of New Orleans would have you believe.

I ran into this kind of historical revisionism, working on my 4^th fiction novel. I write a detective series (if you enjoy fiction thrillers, my books, under the pen name of John Truman Wolfe, are at Amazon. The fiction titles are Mind Games, The Gift, and Ransom. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=john+truman+wolfe&ref=nb_sb_noss_2 

At any rate, Tom McKenna, the protagonist, is a private eye who went to Boalt Hall, the heralded law school of the University of California at Berkeley. So, I was writing something about McKenna and in researching Boalt Hall found that it no longer exists, at least not as the official name of UC Berkeley’s law school, which it had been for over 100 years.

What happened?

The law school was named after John Boalt, a lawyer and sometime judge. In 1906, his widow, Elizabeth, donated land in San Francisco to be sold with the proceeds going for the construction of a new building for the law school at UC Berkeley.

The law school proudly carried this name for more than a century, when some committee at Cal, protecting the feelings of Berkeley’s Generation Snowflake, called for a name change because John Boalt had made some racially insensitive (racist) remarks more than a century earlier.

No one is justifying racist remarks. People who make them are low IQ fools, self-identified by what comes out of their mouth. But the Boalt brand had long ago outgrown and out shown the turn of the century lawyer for whom it was named.

Boalt was a brand. A brand that stood for graduating some of the greatest legal minds of the century.

Brands mean something.

Nike means sports – in all its ramifications. 

Google means search. (It has growing PR problems, but the brand still means search).

Titleist means golf ball.

B of A means banking.

But there are also local and regional brands. And having a brand that communicates and stands out above its competitors is valuable, indeed.

Some businesses don’t bother branding their product or service at all.

Some throw a name on what they produce without thought as to its communication value. You know, name a new tech product after their first-born child. Sure, the digital age has spawned some brands that don’t follow the rules – Google itself being an example.

But unless you have some seriously deep pockets to drive a non-sensical brand into the mind of your public, a brand should be descriptive of what you do. It should be memorable. 

Some communicate wonderfully. How about the organic/natural food market…Whole Foods? A great brand.

A while ago, a friend recommended a particular health supplement to me. It’s called Organifi.

Huh?

He sent me a link and I got some. But if someone had said, “You ought to get some Organifi…”

Which is a better contact lens brand?

SofLens…? Or Polycon?

Clarity…? Or Paragon?

Descriptive.

I have a brand of reading glasses called Peepers. Cute, clever brand.

There is an exact method of surveying for a name/brand for your product or service. We have conducted naming surveys for a wide variety of products and services.

A naming survey, particularly for a new product or service, can make a world of difference in the acceptance and want of the product.

Naming surveys are fast and quite reasonable.

If you are launching a new product or service, or perhaps are thinking about renaming one that you have, give us a call and I can let you know cost and timing.

Of course, to really boom your sales and income, we should also survey your products for buttons and positioning.

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

            ———–

“I can’t say enough how delighted I am with the result.  You and your team do a fabulous job. I really do like the positioning.  It fits exactly with what we ourselves know to be true about our brand and to have it concisely stated is exactly what we need.”  AS – Owner

———–

“[Before On Target]…I was only seeing 40 to 50 new patients a month.  After On Target… we have averaged over 100 new patients a month with a high of 132 (with a 50% raise in income).”     MB – DDS 

Marketing, advertising and PR should all be based on surveys. Omitting this vital step means you are taking a buzz saw to your own income stream.

Call us. We deliver surveys that drive sales.

Best,

Bruce

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

In 1997, Steve Jobs said that Apple was 90 days from bankruptcy. Today Apple is the largest company in the world with a net worth of a trillion dollars.

But Steve Jobs died in 2011. And while Apple was a tech power brand in 2011, it was “only” the 8^thmost valuable brand globally at that time and so there have been other factors.

“Apple has been the largest name in technology for years. This is not necessarily because they are the most innovative. Instead, it is because they use market research to find out exactly what their customers want from their devices; they then figure out how to make those wants a reality.”
…
“These surveys have led to different designs and modifications of Apple products. Such modifications include having bigger screens to view videos and games more clearly.^”
https://www.surveypolice.com/blog/how-5-massive-companies-changed-using-market-research/

They conduct massive amounts of market research including breaking down surveys by location, market segment [age] and other differentiators. As an example…
“After several quarters of declining sales, McDonald’s executives decided, in 2015, that major changes were required to combat the public perception of McDonald’s products as being unhealthy. Based on market research, the company made menu changes and no longer sells chicken products containing human antibiotics or other ingredients, such as phosphates and maltodextrin. Other changes include the addition of more salad choices and healthier desserts including apple slices.”
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/market-research-2948350d
Okay. Eliminating antibiotic laced chicken and including apple slices with Happy Meals may not make them the Whole Foods of the fast food restaurant world, but it’s movement in the right direction, driven by customer sentiment. We’ll give them a happy face on the refrigerator door.
How about that cuppa’ Joe?

“Starbucks has been successful over many decades largely because of its stellar business strategies. The company expertly employs market research to keep its offerings and marketing messaging in line with consumer sentiment.”
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/brand-equity-case-study-engaged-starbucks-customers-2296829

There is a short 2+ minute video on our site that gives a couple of excellent real life examples of positioning – ontargetresearch.com.

“In addition, the positioning that grew out of your research was nothing short of stellar! We now have a strategically researched, laserlike position that will dramatically assist us in rolling out our new brand.”
JLD, President.

“The business we received from these surveyed menus was phenomenal. Our take-out business increased 150% in just a few days. It has leveled off in a range about double what it had been before the survey was done.”

P B Manager

Best,
Bruce

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was one of the most ruthless dictators in modern history.

Lenin was actually a code name that he used in the days of his early revolutionary activities, which he kept.

But regardless of the name he used, Lenin engaged in treachery, extortion, blackmail and murder as his weapons to control the Russian government and the country’s population.

Picture from https://www.history.com/topics/russia/vladimir-lenin

He doesn’t measure up to Genghis Khan or Stalin or Mao, but Lenin was responsible for killing about 10 million people – a grizzly legacy of death and destruction, much of it carried out by the Checka, the secret police organization he created. 

An assassination attempt on Lenin’s life in 1922 spurned the Checka into the “Red Terror”, a massive political witch hunt that took the lives of about 100,000 “suspects”.

To give you a further sense of how he thought, here are a few quotes from Lenin himself.

“Those who are opposed to armed uprising … must be ruthlessly kicked out as enemies, traitors and cowards.”

“Atheism is the natural and inseparable part of Communism.”

“We can’t expect to get anywhere unless we resort to terrorism: speculators must be shot on the spot.” 

So, you can image what went through my mind when, in Moscow in 1992, invited to make a presentation to senior members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the Russian Federal Police – like the FBI), I entered an historic conference room and saw a large picture of Lenin high on the wall above where I would be speaking.

(I have told this story before, but not all of it.)

The Vice Minister extended his right arm, inviting me to the front of the room – a room that was full of uniformed Russian Federal Police brass, many of whom had been communists up until a few months earlier; indeed, many probably still were. 

I went to the front of the room and stood before this audience of senior level Russian Federal police (the emotional tone level of which was unexpressed resentment), turned to my translator to ensure he was ready, and commenced my talk on the value of surveys of Russian citizens for the MIA (Ministry of Internal Affairs). I wish I’d had a couple of Rodney Dangerfield jokes but I’m not sure even that would have cracked the ice.

My wife caught the moment with her camera.

But I was completely blown out when I finished (and answered a series of questions about the subject of communication) that the tone level of the room had come up to mild interest.

That, and the invitation by the Vice Minister to share a little tea and brandy with him, made my day.

Introducing this survey technology to the Ministry was further acknowledged when the Lt. Colonel who had facilitated my talk was driving me back to my hotel.

“The Director of Personnel has invited you to become a member of the Hunt Club,” he said.

“Thanks so much,” I said, being polite but not terribly interested. “What exactly is the Hunt Club?” 

There’s a lodge in the forest outside of Moscow. Members can hunt fox, deer and bear,” he said.

Personally, I’m not much of a hunter. I acknowledged and, told him to thank the Director. But he had stated this with a certain amount of reverence and then said, “Only senior members of the KGB and Ministry of Internal Affairs are members of the Hunt Club.”

The prestige of the invitation struck me. If there was a “Deep State” in Russia at the time, these would have been the guys. I told him how honored I was.

Not long after that I was presented with my membership document.

The pictures of which are below.

And look whose visage is in the upper left-hand corner, above my picture.

I made several trips back to Russia in subsequent years and would always show my hunt club membership to immigration – kind of covertly, in an effort to speed up my passage through that plodding labyrinth.

In some cases, I would get raised eyebrows; in others, a smile. As you can see, I still have it to this day.

And as I have told the story before, On Target Research did conduct surveys for the Ministry. In so doing helped solidify the relationship between the newly opened Hubbard College of Administration in Moscow and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Established in Los Angeles 30 years ago, On Target Research has now become a global brand. We have conducted surveys in Mexico, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and, of course, Russia. But the vast majority of our work is right here in the U.S. where our clients are local single-owner operations to more regional and national firms.

Lenin may not have approved, but then the Soviet Union collapsed and Communism an economic disaster.

Here’s a testimonial from a client in Australia.

“Working with Bruce was like working with the Roger Federer of Surveys.  The questions evoked exactly what our public was thinking.  Now with the button and positioning in place our promotions are like an arrow going through tissue paper rather than a fist into a brick wall.  Our copy and imagery say exactly what the clientele is thinking and therefor procures more leads.

You served up an ace Bruce. Thank you.”

And one from the US.

We would like to highly recommend Bruce Wiseman and his company, On Target Research. My wife and I (retained) Bruce four months ago with the purpose of bolstering our sales and our business in general in our Real Estate brokerage. We began to notice indications of positive change after about two months. Since that time the results continue to expand like throwing a pebble into the middle of a pond. The ripples just go out further and further. We have never had so many unsolicited reaches into our business… 

Thanks to Bruce’s good work we not only have an increase in current business but it is also quite apparent that it will only continue to get bigger and better. 

Thank you Bruce. You are a Star!

So if you want to increase your leads, your sales or your income, give us a call.

We love helping businesses boom.

Bruce Wiseman

President & CEO

On Target Research

ontargetresearch.com

818-397-1401

I’m not sure how the advertisers did, but I counted 52 Super Bowl commercials Sunday. At a cost of $5.25 million for 30 seconds – more of course for the 45 sec. and one minutes spots – CBS banked a cool $382 million for an afternoon of broadcasting to the 100 million pairs of Brady-watching eyeballs on Super Bowl 53.

BURGER KING

There were a couple of the commercials that communicated with power and class. And I will share my opinion on what those were below. And I don’t care to focus on the negative here because if I get started I will turn into a carping shrew.  But can someone tell me please how an ad agency can produce, and a CEO can approve spending $7+ million for 45 seconds of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bv9LMxPkqk

Forget the flaccid content of the commercial, whose idea was it to position a Burger King hamburger with Andy Warhol?

I mean, Really?

There were two commercials that I liked a lot.

GOOGLE TRANSLATE

One was the commercial that was produced for Google translate, the online translation service Google makes available. They start by saying that 100 billion words are translated every day. 

Wow.

It then shows examples of people all over the world getting in communication by the “simple” use of a smart phone and the Google translate feature.

The commercial shows how one can be in communication virtually anywhere on the planet in an instant. 

Fabulous. It helps put the world into communication. Watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXfJc8up6cM

I use this feature from Google for On Target Research with growing frequency. Prospective clients, mostly from Mexico and South America find us online (ontargetresearch.com). They are seeking to have market research and surveys done in order to introduce a product or service to the U.S. market, which they view as the ultimate market place – and they are right.

Calling my Spanish rudimentary is way to kind.

I put the query into Google translate. See what prospect needs or wants and then answer them in English, have Google translate my response to Spanish, copy, paste into an email and send. The entire transaction goes this way.

But the commercial demonstrated the software’s use in many ways and in many cultures. It was well produced and got the message across wonderfully.

WASHINTON POST

It wasn’t so much the production values of the Washington Post’s  commercial, it was the message.

I am not a fan of the Post’s liberal editorial policy and the slant of their journalism that seems to come from the mind of a Georgetown graduate student.

But if anyone has the right to be called the apostle of the First Amendment, it is the Washington Post.

Their iconic expose of the Watergate scandal including the illegal activities of the Nixon White House was immortalized by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in film (All the President’s Men).

And, more recently, it was Stephen Spielberg that called on Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep to tell the story of the Post’s fight (along with the New York Times) to publish the Pentagon Papers.

The Pentagon Papers “… revealed that the presidential administrations of Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, , John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson had all misled the public about the degree of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, from Truman’s decision to give military aid to France during its struggle against the communist-led Viet Minh to Johnson’s development of plans to escalate the war in Vietnam as early as 1964, even as he claimed the opposite during that year’s presidential election.”

So the Washington Post has bragging rights. But they didn’t brag. They promoted the use of journalism to tell the important stories.

I fear this mission has gone astray in recent years. But the Post’s commercial reminded viewers of what it should be. And for that, their commercial said something important and stood out.

Their message: Democracy Dies in Darkness.

It’s true. It does.

It is worth a look, or even a second look if you saw it Sunday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDjfg8YlKHc

I will spare you a long commercial here and simply say that if you are going to give your website a facelift, create a new marketing piece or produce a commercial you should spend a few bucks first and survey your public to see what they think is valuable about what it is that you sell. It will increase response and leads and ultimately sales. Which is, after all, is why most folks are in business.

“In short, and you know I am a believer, without good surveys, marketing dollars are wasted. Way more dollars wasted than are spent with you doing the surveys. Surveys are the aerodynamic engineering of any marketing plan – is that positioning? Without surveys, you can get there. But you are wasting energy/dollars along the way. 

And when it comes to doing surveys, you and On Target will always be my first choice.” TW Public Relations Professional

Best,

Bruce

Bruce Wiseman

President & CEO

On Target Researcj

ontargetresearch.com

818-397-1401