In Sight

With the announcement of a new Apple iPhone today, we’re reminded just how fast technology moves. And it’s not just Apple. There’s a whole line of new Amazon Kindles and brand new Facebook features rolling out constantly.

As The Price Group approaches our 40th anniversary, we can look back and see many more examples of this race to be the latest and the greatest. Advertising, it seems, is even more susceptible to jump on the newest bandwagon and declaring it the “next big thing.”

Maybe it’s because we’re from West Texas, where life moves a little slower. But at The Price Group, we like to be a little more methodical. In our minds, the way we do business - even the way we live our lives - really hasn’t changed all that much over the years.

Sure, we use new tools. There are many Apple fans in our office who still get excited about these announcements. But certain things have remained constant over our 40 years.

Advertising is still about persuasion, and how people are persuaded hasn’t changed. Even Apple, when announcing the latest new toy, still uses sales methods that are tried and true.

Our industry is still based on working with a business to develop a relevant strategy that is communicated to their chosen audience using the clearest and most creative ideas. After all, we’re in the business of ideas. 

While new technology may open some new opportunities and allow us to do things we haven’t done before, the idea process still works. We work with our clients to discover their problems and find solutions. It’s as simple as that.

So yes, some of us still huddled around to watch and discuss the big iPhone announcement. But we have to remember that what we do is much bigger than any one tool.

Every so often, The Price Group will use this blog to highlight a newly launched campaign. We’ll give our readers a behind-the-scenes look at the strategy and thought-process that led to what you eventually see in the media. Today, American State Bank’s 2011 Product Campaign:

Lady Gaga served as the inspiration for American State Bank’s new West Texas marketing campaign. With innovative production techniques, original scores and our impressive creative team’s “good cents” (pun intended) ASB is sure to have as many fans as Gaga has little monsters.

There were three different marketing strategies and target audiences American State Bank was attempting to attract with this new campaign series, including teen banking, Good Cents and business banking.

The last campaign for teen banking was targeted more towards parents teaching their teens fiscal responsibility with facts and figures. In order to appeal to a more teen friendly audience, The Price Group turned to every teen’s favorite source of procrastination… YouTube.

Through countless creative meetings and several days of sorting through YouTube videos, Lady Gaga’s Google Chrome video provided an unexpected surge of excitement throughout the creative team at The Price Group. The video featured Lady Gaga utilizing social media outlets to communicate directly with fans.

American State Bank also wanted to communicate with current and potential customers. Our innovative Price Groupies incorporated the idea into the teen banking campaign. Teens are seen using Facebook and YouTube look-a-likes to upload videos of slumber parties and homecoming night all centered on the idea of using their teen banking accounts to show their independence and the conveniences ASB’s teen banking accounts provide.

The challenge of Good Cents was to attract an entirely different demographic while still keeping the campaign cohesive. Good Cents focused more on family values and the ease of mobile banking while on-the-go. Another challenge was to portray the complicated concept of Good Cents through a 30-second video.

To illustrate the idea of rounding up purchases made with the ASB debit card to the nearest dollar amount and adding the remainder into their savings account, the creative team looked to visuals. A bar appears every time a customer makes a purchase that demonstrates how much money was transferred into their savings account. To keep the campaign cohesive, the same original score (thanks to one of our own, Jared) was used for both teen banking and Good Cents. 

The idea behind the business banking spots was to portray a down-home image. With real West Texans used as the actors, we tried to show that ASB combines West Texas values and good banking sense. The ad will lay the groundwork to eventually provide a vehicle to promote more product-focused efforts once they are developed.

In order to take the campaign to the next level, The Price Group utilized a new type of production technology, the Red One Camera. The Red One Camera allowed the production team to become totally digital, and use an uncompressed file with no film. The camera also allows the camera to shoot footage that is as close to film quality as possible.

On top of showcasing all three banking products, a goal of the campaign was to attract attention to ASB’s new social media platforms. You can find and connect with American State Bank on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!

The events of September 11, 2001 impacted all our lives. While we were in different places and at different stages in our lives, it will always be one of the days we forever remember. Here are a few recaps from some Price Group employees about that fateful day 10 years ago.

Phil

This weekend we, as a nation, will be looking back at the 10^th Anniversary of the 911 attack – not just on the Twin Towers but our way of life.  The attack changed the way we live our lives today.  The reminders of how the world has changed are brought back every time we book a flight or enter a courthouse. We no longer feel safe in our homeland. I was born as WWII ended but by the time I started school I knew what had happened at Pearl Harbor on December 11^th, 1941. That war was for real estate and resources. The ones we are in now are for deranged religious beliefs and the power to dictate the lives of others. 

Amy

I remember the events of 9/11 like it was yesterday. I was a sophomore in college and living in my very first apartment. Like a normal day, I had a bowl of cereal and coffee and was sitting down to watch the morning news. I lifted the remote up and pointed it at the TV to turn the set on and I am not sure exactly how long the remote stayed in the air but it had to have been a few minutes before I lowered it. I sat there in my pajamas all afternoon watching the ongoing coverage. I remember calling my parents but not even they could offer me any relief for the sadness and terror I felt. It was not until I went to church that evening and sang "It is Well" that I felt the peace and security I had been searching for all day long. 

Tara

A little Dollar store book with torn pages and chewed corners has a permanent place in my son's baby memoirs. It is a simple illustrated book, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Before and after he was born, I read it and several others to him.  A couple of nights after that fateful day, I was reading this book to him and turned to the last page, "Life is but a dream," it says at the bottom. After reading it hundreds of nights, for the very first time I took notice of the city skyline behind the kid in the boat sitting in a harbor.  How many times in those first days of the tragedy had I seen the image of those twin buildings in that cityscape on television, in newspapers? I remember worrying about waking Vincent with my sobs then finally falling asleep next to him exhausted with the grief of the last couple of days and hoping in that moment, "life was but a dream." 

Samantha

At 9:38 a.m. on September 11, 2001, Flight 77 crashed into the side of the Pentagon. The middle school I attended was just 12 miles away. 191 people died as a result of the attacks on the Pentagon—including three people I knew. The plane went directly through the office of my best friend’s dad. He was on the other side of the Pentagon for a meeting. 

The events of September 11 affected everyone, even those who are too young to remember the real details. I will never forget the feelings of complete desperation and sadness. However, it also evoked compassion and a sense of community throughout the country. The events changed everyone’s lives, but it also inspired a country to show the world their spirit and tenacity by continuing to evolve and recover from the horrific acts. I hope we always remember September 11 not only as the day we were attacked, but as the day we began to recover as a more united and powerful force to be reckoned with.

Mary

Like everyone else, I’ll never forget where I was that morning. I was getting ready for work; about to walk out the door for the Holiday Inn Hotel & Towers, when I saw the second plane fly into the tower. Disbelief, shock and awe overcame me and I called my dad for reassurance that what I was seeing was in fact actually happening.

I jumped in the car and got to work quickly as it dawned on me that while everyone else in the country was frozen with shock and fear, our phones at the hotel would be blowing up. Flights were grounded and airports closed which meant that every flight crew on the ground in Lubbock needed to be picked up at the airport and their friends and family were frantically trying to find out if anyone was in the air.

Time seemed to move in slow motion that day and in the days that followed, I have never been more proud to be an American. I will never forget.

Amanda

Because of my job at the time, I was sort of secluded from my surroundings. I left my desk to go on break, and a friend of mine (who is always playing practical jokes on me) came up and told me that the World Trade Center in NY had just be blown up with airplanes. I stood there waiting for the punch line and one never came. In fact, I looked around and to my surprise there were grown men working in the shop with tears in their eyes.

Days, even weeks, after that, everywhere you looked you would see the American Flag. On cars, homes, motorcycle helmets ... I even saw someone walking their dog and the dog had a flag t-shirt on. It brought a country together and changed it for a lifetime. So many lives were lost that day, but let’s not forget that many more lives have been lost since because of that day. My final thoughts are it makes me sad that it takes a tragedy on such a large scale to make us care for our country and fellow man.

James

I was in high school.
I was 1700 miles away.
It was a normal day.
I lived in (perceived) peace.
I thought it was joke.
I saw the tower collapse.
My world was shaken.
I was not a U.S. citizen, but that didn’t matter.
I was sad, confused, angry, ignorant, numb.

I will never forget.

Andrea

I was in my last semester at Tech.  I woke up to get ready for class and had my radio on listening to a local station, just like I did every morning.  They interrupted the morning show to announce that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  Because I didn’t have visual, I honestly thought it couldn’t be real.  All the way to campus I processed the information I’d just received.  When I got to the U.C., people were gathered around TVs, and the U.C. was the quietest I had seen it over the past 4 years that I had been at school.   Most professors cancelled their classes, but I had one that refused to do so.  So, I spent my afternoon in a class that I couldn’t focus on.  I went home and sat in front of my TV for the rest of the night.  That didn’t change over the course of the next two weeks.  I was an emotional wreck over the whole thing – almost like I had lost a loved one in the terrorist attack.  I just couldn’t believe something like this had happened to our country, and I felt hopeless. 

It personally changed my life because I graduated from college a few months later when the job market was not so great.  My plans to move to Dallas to spread my wings quickly turned into finding a job here in Lubbock, wherever I could find a job.  It turns out, I met my husband here a few months later and have since had three kids, AND I’m still at that same job I took 10 years ago.  My plans for my future completely changed because of the events that took place so far away from tiny Lubbock, Texas.

I was listening to the radio on my way to work this morning as they were talking about the events of 9/11, and it sent chills down my spine because it brought me back to that day that changed our country forever.  I cannot believe it’s been 10 years – it still feels like it was just yesterday.

There have never been more ways for a business to talk with their customers, both old and new. And yet, it seems all they are doing is saying the same thing everyone else is saying. How does a business stand out among the clamor for attention?

The best way to set yourself apart is to stand for something. That does not mean saying your business stands for good customer service or the lowest prices in town. No, today a business must find a cause to tie itself to, and it has to be something its customers care about too.

This means you must look beyond your own walls and find a way to be a part of people’s lives. Support your local community in meaningful ways. Or start a world movement as TOMS Shoes did with a simple premise: One for One. With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need.

At The Price Group, we try to impact the lives of those in need in our own community with Pitch-In. By doing so, we’ve found we make just as big an impact on our own lives and company culture. Maybe because of this, and maybe a little because of the people who work here, we also like working with clients who believe the same thing.

Based in Denton, Texas, Accolade Homecare provides health services for seniors in their homes all around the state and into New Mexico and Oklahoma. As an organization, they created a private, 501(c) (3) nonprofit foundation named Twenty-six:Twelve.

Twenty-six:Twelve provides opportunities for its employees to serve those in need around the world. The foundation gets its name from the passage in Isaiah 26:12 which says, “Lord, You establish peace.  All that we have accomplished, You have done for us.” The foundation is a Christian ministry, but welcomes involvement from employees of all faiths.

Twenty-six:Twelve strives to offer opportunities that draw upon the passions and talents of its staff. Past missions have taken employees overseas and around the U.S. to provide a wide range of services including caring for orphans, providing clinical skills at medical clinics, construction and manual labor. Serving around the world is important and exciting, but local communities need help too. A goal of Twenty-six:Twelve is to touch every community in which they work and live. 

This week, volunteers are spending their Spring Break in Arizona, but not on vacation. They are helping Naomi House, an emergency shelter for Native American children who have suffered from abuse. They will be doing some construction to help update the facility to state regulations and will be spending their free time with the children.

Accolade is connected to Naomi House through a ministry called Mission Discovery. They have partnered with Mission Discovery several times in the past, including trips to Africa, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Jamaica and Haiti.

Volunteers all work for Accolade, and some are even including their families in the experience. It is this type of person that we at The Price Group love to work with.

What is your organization doing to stand out by standing for something? What about larger companies you like? What are they doing?

The Price Group currently has a client who is running an experiment of Facebook Deals. Caprock Café, a local sports grill here in Lubbock, is offering a free burger to every person that checks in with a friend (more about what that means in a bit).

So what’s the deal with all this online incentivizing? Why should a business use Groupon or Facebook Deals? Most importantly, what’s the biggest difference between the two?

Group Couponing

Group couponing has been catching on as the flavor of the week for local businesses. Groupon, the largest of these services, even had a Super Bowl commercial, albeit a pretty unsuccessful one.

How they work is customers sign up to receive coupons for the city they live in. I live in Lubbock and get deals just for businesses in Lubbock. Each weekday morning, I get an email with the latest offer, typically 50% off products or services.

The email has well-written copy that grabs attention, explains the deal and gives a description of the business. The deal, distribution and copy are all controlled by Groupon, making it easy and hands-off for small businesses.

The trade-off is that Groupon takes 30-50% of the revenue. That means for a coupon that’s 50% off, the business splits the remaining 50% with Groupon. This way, you only pay for each actual customer you get, instead of a lump sum ahead of time.

Businesses can (and I would say are highly encouraged to) set limits. Groupon lets you set the minimum amount of people that need to sign up and pay for the deal before it’s activated. Then you as a business can set a maximum so you are not overloaded with too many customers to handle properly.

The biggest advantage of group couponing is brining in new customers. If you are a new business, a business that isn’t well known in you market, or if you have a projected slower month coming up, this service is an easy way to drive traffic through your door.

With the onslaught of new customers, you have the chance to provide an exceptional experience. One that will hopefully get people to like your product or service and come back as repeat business. This is where the true value comes in.

But what happens if you are an established business that doesn’t need a huge rush of new customers?

Facebook Deals

If you have a physical location, you probably have a Place Page on Facebook, even if you don’t already know about it. Facebook Places is a location-based service (LBS) created to compete with platforms like Foursquare, Gowalla and Yelp.

When a person uses a location-based service, they use an app on their smartphone to check in to a physical location using GPS. This can include businesses, parks, houses, really any location one can think of.

Fousquare was the first big-time player in LBS. Introduced at SXSW in Austin a few years back, it’s really started to gain momentum in 2010 and is expected to hit mainstream this year.  Their system was originally based on points, giving them to a user every time he checked in.

They recently started letting businesses offer special incentives for checking in to their location. If you check in the most times, you are dubbed that location’s “mayor,” and many businesses have mayor-only specials. Others give coupons or free stuff for a certain number of checkins.

Last year, Facebook took notice and decided to create their own system. At first, there were no points and no real incentive for people to use it. Then Facebook Deals was launched.

This works similar to Foursquare in that it lets businesses set their own specials. A business can offer a deal for every single checkin, every set number of checkins or when a person checks in with a friend. Deals can also come in the form of a donation to a specified charity.

The biggest advantage to Facebook Deals is that it’s a better way to reward current loyal customers. These are the people who are probably already your fans on Facebook and are spreading the word about your business every time they visit and check in.

As a business, Facebook also gives you more control to set the specifics of the incentive. So a deal doesn’t have to be a certain percentage off. It can be buy one, get one or just plain giving something away for free. It also costs you absolutely nothing beyond the cost of the discount.

The downside to that is it could be hard to get the word out about your deal. Since you don’t have a platform like Groupon that distributes it to a captive audience, you need to take the initiative and advertise the deal to your Facebook fans and current customers in your shop.

Bottom Line

It really all comes down to whether you’re looking for new customers or would rather create a loyalty program for current customers. Both are great ways to engage with people using new tools, and both have been proven to be successful. The rest is up to you.