Apathy concerning the epidemic of childhood obesity is crumbling under the weight of public outcry over a new ad campaign by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: the Stop Childhood Obesity campaign depicts the health and emotional problems brought on by the disease. It was recently launched in Georgia because, according to Linda Matzigkeit at Children’s Healthcare, “We felt like we needed a very arresting, abrupt campaign that said: Hey, Georgia! Wake up. This is a problem.” According to Children’s Healthcare, Georgia ranks second in the nation with the highest rate of childhood obesity. Many critics believe the ads do nothing but make fat kids feel worse about themselves and lead them to withdraw even more into bad eating and activity habits. I believe the campaign will be a success for two reasons. Firstly, it shows kids that they should take ownership of their body and lifestyle and seek their parents support in getting to a healthy weight. As an obese Middle-schooler myself, I was the one who approached my Mom about joining Weight Watchers. I’m sure more kids would take the same kind of action if they were inspired to do so. Perhaps this ad campaign can do that. Secondly, I believe in this campaign because it gives parents a much needed electric shock, waking them up to address the problem and take responsibility for the health of their family.

Marsha Davis, who researches child obesity prevention at the University of Georgia said, “If we want to get attention [and] say obesity is a problem, maybe [the campaign] will be effective. In terms of the social stigma about weight — it might actually make people feel worse about that…We need to fight obesity, not obese people.” I disagree, the fact is human behavior is causing obesity and we need people to realize that they’re killing themselves with poor nutrition and lack of exercise. We need to recognize childhood obesity as an issue and not continue to sweep it under the rug. Just like Isabelle Caro, the anorexic super model, used a billboard to bring attention to her disease brought on by human behavior, so too will Georgia’s obesity ad campaign.

Critics like Marsha Davis fear the Obesity campaign makes children feel worse about themselves. She wrongly assumes that the fear of not belonging, poor health, and low self-esteem, all caused by obesity, are not effective motivators to change human behavior.  The objective of the campaign is not to make Georgians aware of an obesity epidemic, that’s old news; the goal is to get people to do something about it –for children to seek support and for parents to regiment their family’s lifestyle. There is no better way to do this than with a campaign executed to shock everyone out of their stupor and take responsibility for their behaviors.

Through policies designed to increase economic development, the government has encouraged big businesses to propagate unhealthy foods and lifestyles. In turn, these businesses have used the power of advertising to create a Culture of Obesity in this country. Perhaps Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s campaign can shift the momentum just a bit by using the power of advertising for good.

To get to an insight, start with an observation derived from one of the four areas above. Something like “many men like spicy food” or “red cars get more speeding tickets than cars of other colors.” Observations are easy to come by. I bet you could think of 100 right now. To turn observations into insights look beyond the observation and ask, “Why is this?” Why do many men like spicy food? Why do red cars get more speeding tickets? The key is to find the root cause. Many times the answer is found by decoding and understanding human nature.

Why do many men like spicy food? Because it’s an area of competition and esteem, withstanding the intensity of spicy food is a sign of toughness.

Why do red cars get more speeding tickets? Because, like the flames of a fire, red objects appear to move quicker and be more dangerous than objects of another color.

Good marketing is based on insight and the strategy that leverages it; essentially this is what Planners bring to the table in their work. Here is an example from a famous campaign.

Why do people litter? Because when keeping the environment clean is everyone’s responsibility, there is no motivation for any one person to act. Leveraging this consumer insight, GSD&M created the “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign that positioned littering as a personal slight to every Texan with state pride.

Next time you are looking for insight, remember that an insight is simply an observation waiting to be decoded. Seek to understand the why behind the action.

The idea of democracy is that people have equal voice and vote in decision-making. The capitalist idea is that people working in their own self-interest will result in public good. These ideologies clash in the American system because capitalism corrupts true democracy. Capitalism allows those with the most resources (corporations and the wealthy) to buy a BIG voice for their self-interest. Their single voice is so large that it drowns out the smaller, disparate voices of the many. It commands more influence than the small voices and wins favorable laws, tax breaks and business incentives from the government. The Occupy Wall Street movement fascinates me because people are uniting their small voices to fight back against corporations. In six weeks, the “Occupy” protest has grown to over 100 U.S. cities. Americans are waking up the fact that capitalism and democracy don’t mix and that “being free” means liberty from big government and big business.

Ninety percent of the time I buy Charmin, Colgate and Poland Spring when I’m picking up toilet paper, toothpaste or bottled water. Why am I so brand loyal when the shelf I’m staring at is flooded with parity products?

It’s because in these categories, my brand selection has become a heuristic.

Heuristics are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that people employ during inductive reasoning and decision-making. Heuristic thinking often occurs at the unconscious level; we are not aware of taking these mental shortcuts as we go through our day. Using heuristic processing allows us to focus our attention on other things, which is an important part of its usefulness. The processing capacity of the conscious mind is limited. You can think about only so many things at once, and it is difficult to do too many things at the same time, such as picking up toothpaste at a busy Wal-Mart and thinking about where you feel like going for dinner.

How does this work for brands?

Throughout a lifetime people acquire information actively and passively about the things of the world.  As we accumulate information through trial, referrals, media and advertising we develop brand preferences, loyalties and ultimately heuristics.

Creating a favorable purchase heuristic for your product is marketing gold. It puts your consumer in tunnel vision mode in which they specifically seek out your brand. It turns brand selection into a mere reflex, rather than a thought-out process: I quickly scan the aisle for Poland Spring and grab it, rather than examining all waters, their prices, current sales, new products, etc.

Many things including the mood of the shopper, the environment, the involvement level of the category, and the likeability and familiarity of the brand contribute to the creation and strength of a brand purchasing heuristic.

Heuristics are valuable to people because they require minimal cognitive resources. In terms of decision-making, heuristic thinking can be adaptive because it allows for quick decisions rather than weighing all of the evidence each time. How many brand purchase decisions have become a heuristic in your life?

Price match guarantees are not good for brand building. These policies at stores like Staples, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Home Depot work to commoditize their brands, not build them.

Last week I went shopping for a DVD player. I had a $10 gift card to Best Buy, so I committed myself to that store. I compared the DVD players on the shelf, picked my favorite and then took out my smartphone to get a quick price comparison. Scanning the barcode of the Samsung DVD player with the ShopSavvy app instantly brought up other stores’ prices for the same product. It even showed what the DVD player was going for on Amazon and eBay. In less than 30 seconds I learned that Sears carried the same DVD player for 40% less. Once I had the Sears price, I was able to get Best Buy to match it. At this point, I was no longer shopping at a branded store, paying a premium for the Best Buy brand. I was at a commodity electronics shop. Without ShopSavvy or the price match guarantee I would have purchased the DVD player at BestBuy’s asking price. But, my smartphone enabled me to get information from competitors and I saved money that I would have spent at Best Buy regardless.

Brands exist to differentiate products beyond mere price. A likable and clearly differentiated brand is a powerful emotional reason to purchase one product over another. Price match guarantees are not a good strategy for retail stores because they create parity, not difference. In the past, few people took stores up on price matching policies; however, with today’s technologically empowered consumers, the need for powerful branding and smart retail strategy is essential to profitability.

Creating a brand is hard because brands are intangible. A slogan, logo, avatar, website or Twitter feed is not a brand; they are physical manifestations of a brand.

How do you create a brand if it is abstract?

Simple. Find out what your purpose is.

A brand is the reason behind why you exist. It is the higher calling that inspires your actions. It is a promise lived with conviction, connection, and consistency.

Below is the format I used to create my personal brand promise, my blueprint for why I matter in the world and how I should behave.

Brand Purpose

Brand Mission (my higher calling)

Solve problems by understanding people

Brand Positioning (the way I want my audience to think about me)

To marketing professionals, Thom Pulliam is the innovative thinker who makes brands interesting and relevant to consumers.

Brand Personality (the style by which I communicate and how I would like to be perceived)

Connected, sharp, clever, amusing

Brand Affiliation (the way my audience feels about themselves when interacting with my brand)

Forward thinking, adroit, daring marketers

A brand promise should feel true to its owner and be as differentiated from the competition as possible. Once you craft your personal brand promise, use it to guide the way you execute your brand. It should be the litmus test for everything you consider doing.

Brand promises are meant to be kept internal and used to inspire the identity and communications of your brand, they are not intended to serve as verbatim external marketing communications.

There is a fine line between ripping off the style of an ad like what Edge shave gel and Dairy Queen did with Old Spice’s “Man Your Man Can Smell Like” and mocking someone’s mascot, like what the new Pepsi spots do. But, Pepsi is smart. Coke owns the Winter season so there is a huge opportunity for Pepsi to be the drink of Summer, to go against Coke, the traditional soda and be the soda that’s fun, cool and now. The Foursquare integration is smart too. If you follow the brand on Foursquare and check-in at any “Summer-time” destination (beach, ballpark, lake, etc) you earn badges. It will be fun to see how Coke responds to these ads, if at all. Pepsi has fired a shot at Coke’s most beloved characters, will it lead to another Cola War?

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