Marketing missteps create opportunities for competitors
I don't see the latest Super Bowl Halftime Show as a political play. I see it as a gross misread of "the market" by marketers.
Marketing is tricky business. Most customers are not able to use words to describe what they desire. In many cases, we don't have a firm picture of what we desire. Rather, we have experiences with products and services that left us dissatisfied, so we can tell you what we DON'T want.
Another major issue that marketing teams have to deal with is that prospective customers unconsciously tell marketers what the customer thinks the marketer wants to hear. That is why marketing clinics are run by third parties and have an equal number of samples from the proposed entry's main rivals in the market segment.
The Ford Edsel is a prime example of poorly designed market-surveys telling the marketing team what they wanted to hear.
This gets tricky because marketing teams have to guess what the customers will want in two-to-five years due to tooling and regulatory lead-times. The "really smart people" look at various bleeding-edge pundits and trend-setters and place their bets. They see the growth rates in numbers of transgenders (Bud Light) and Hispanics (Super Bowl) and throw the dice.
The Fly in the Ointment
The cost of this strategy is that loyal users of your "product" might feel abandoned while the target of the marketing campaign might totally dismiss your offering.
One place I think this is happening is when the Church Elders (often in their 70s) hire a trendy, "young", forty-year-old, with tie-died hair and wears Wiccan charm bracelets "to attract younger people to the congregation".
That fails spectacularly. Nobody under the age of 35 thinks a 40 year-old is young. They look at a 40 year-old preacher trying to look "trendy" the same way 50 year-old me looked at 60 year-olds with mullets and tie-died, "Give Peace a Chance" tee-shirts. My first reaction is "Grow up!". My second reaction is "Let go of your childhood".
Fashion trends age like un-refrigerated milk. The value of Christianity is that it is changeless. Chasing "trends" is wasted effort and results in people taking their eye off the ball. Man's nature and the war between good-and-evil does not change. God's message has not changed.
Opportunities for competitors
I think the NFL and the broadcasters screwed-the-pooch because there is now a precedent for "alternative halftime shows". How much will advertisers be willing to pay when the first, shambolic alternative halftime show siphoned off 10% of the TV viewers and pulled in 20% more via on-line viewers?
The major broadcasters (CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN and FOX) who are in rotation to broadcast the Super Bowl collude to NOT compete with the official halftime show because they have a piece of the action.
The dike has been breached. Viewers will be able to click-over to their favorite Country Music or Polka Music or Gospel Music cable channel and watch their alternative with 1/4 the advertising and then click-back to the game when it restarts.
See, and I think shows such as the halftime show are used to normalize what otherwise wouldn't be acceptable.
ReplyDeleteSpanish isn't the mainstream language of the US, but by doing an entire show in spanish and having the entertainer give the message that "you should have learned spanish in order to appreciate my art" is a subtle attempt to make you think that the invasion of our culture and our language is normal and that it is ok.
Capitalism is a wonderful thing. Advertisers will balk at paying astronomical prices for ad space as eyeballs flee.
DeleteCompeting venues can have real entertainment queued up for when the SB goes to ads. Those competing venues can have a banner telling their viewers when the SB broadcast returns to live, game coverage.
Some of the people toggling between venues will stay with the alternative and watch their advertising.
The fish stops swimming after you gut the advertising revenue.
What B said....
DeleteI respectfully disagree with your first assertion - I do not hold that this was a marketing mistake. I think this was a very deliberate maneuver. That of course is predicated on my paradigm as to where we are and what's actually happening in our world, which I freely admit is labeled "Tin Foil Hat Material" by the media these days (unironically, the same group of people who chose a queer bunny for the gladiators halftime show).
ReplyDeleteThey're pissing down your neck and telling you it's rain, in other words. This was a calculated and deliberate insult to traditional America. At least that's my read of the situation. I certainly respect your reading of the tea leaves, just disagree.