RTB = Reason To BUY, not Reason to Believe

The new poster advert from Quantas, the Australian airline, got me thinking about "reasons to believe": those truths about a product or service on which you can build a positioning. Now, as Mr Sausage, I am a big, big fan of brand truth. Its at the very heart of our view that the best brands are built on substance not spin. BUT, the Quantas brand truth in their ad left me cold: "Quantas: The world's most experienced airline." Huh?

Does anyone really care that Quantas are the most experienced airline? What is the inferred benefit from this? We've been flying for a long time, so we are good at it, I guess. It left me cold, and gave me no desire to consider Quantas instead of BA on a future trip to Oz.

The only thing it made me think of was a scene in the movie Rainman. Dustin Hoffman, playing a guy with autism, pisses off his brother, played by Tom Cruise, by insisting that the only airline he will fly is Quantas, because "Quantas never crashed".

So, we should perhaps forget about "reasons to believe", and replace them with "reasons to buy".

Here are some good examples of Reasons to Buy:

- Pantene: Pro-Vitamin B5 => unique ingredient for shinier hair

- Apple iPod (at launch): 1000 songs in your pocket => convenience and portability

- Blockbuster Guarantee: rent the movie you want, or get it free next time => confidence, choice

- Singapore girls: unique on-board experience, a taste of Asia in the air

 BA: the world's favourite airline => be with the best, must have good service-

- Pret a Manger: made fresh on premises every day => will taste better, and have no artificial crap in it.

- Moleskin notebooks: used by famous artists => I'm a creative type. Or like to think I am.

So. The RTB is dead. Long live the RTB.

Comments

[Miguel]

This spring's RTB MA will be the third relay for which I have been the catapin of an all female team. This has taught me three valuable lessons that likely are applicable to teams of all kinds re: food, I realized very early on that there was no way everyone would agree. Thus, everyone is instructed to bring their own food and if they want they bring one or two items that are shareable (i.e. a large pack of Twizzlers rather than a personal sized one), but no one shows up with a dozen bagels or five pounds of oranges. We also remind people that we can stop at a grocery store or minimart to supplement so people are less likely to overpack. tell people exactly what to bring. Each team member signs up for one or more items for the van (i.e. tissues, bandaids, baby wipes, etc) and there's a specific quantity. That way you get the two garbage bags you need not an entire box of bags you'll never use. for a team that worries about sleep and showering, invest in two hotel rooms near the midpoint of the course. Each year we have booked two hotel rooms with two beds in each so that after each groups 1st or 2nd set of legs, you can go to the hotel, shower and sleep for 3-4 hours in a real bed. It's a little tough to figure out logistically in terms of where along to course to book, but a shower and bedsheets are life changing after 18 hours in the van together. If you're strategic, the first and second van can use the same rooms at the same hotel which cuts the cost down to about $15 per person.

[Goa]

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[Nurasiah]

Most retargeting vendros' technology uses custom Javascript to scrape the product(s) you are viewing when you go to the advertiser's site, and stores them in your cookie. If the products change, the ad doesn't. This makes it hard/impossible to incorporate price/inventory changes, and makes it impossible for them to go beyond retargeting & into new user acquisition. Also, ideal retargeting systems should have intelligent algorithms to select an offer to match to the user. Perhaps the user didn't convert because they didn't like the offer on advertiser's site so another one would be better. Yet, most retargeting systems only show the exact offer(s) the consumer viewed, irregardless of whether the consumer bought or not. Furthermore, most of today's retargeting systems are unable to take pixel age into account and therefore make no distinction between someone who visited the advertiser's site 1 hour or 1 month ago, leading to frequency capping issues and poor product selection issues. Last, ideal retargeting systems should have Real-Time Bidding (RTB) so that buying decisions (pricing, placement, etc) can be informed by what content is being shown in the ad, and conversely informing in-ad offer decisions by the media on which the ad is running.

[James Whittington]

Do you believe Vodka is Russian...?

Despite the fact that the best distilleries in the World are in the UK, Vodka distilled in the UK is shipped to Russia to be bottled and sent ack to the UK, people/consumers still think/believe that Vodka is Russian! Where has the RTB in British distilling and British products in general gone?

[Yusuf]

Thanks for posting that *flattering* pic! Patty has delraay told me that she expects me to win the recently returned from Nicaragua division at the Summit Plummet. Looking forward to seeing y'all there!

[credit monitoring service]

Informative post I like it. I never read such awesome post before. It's really helpful to me. I always in search of this types of post. Thanks for sharing with us.

[true religion outlet]

Do we really want our schools and hospitals to be run like a typical branch of PC World or Sainsburys?
Instead, he says, what mattasdfffers are than the services be well run - in particular, that they “get the right people on the bus”, people of ability and motivation.
In this respect, hospitals and schools have a huge advantage over many private sector jobs.

[generic propecia]

i like this part of the post:"I am a big, big fan of brand truth. Its at the very heart of our view that the best brands are built on substance not spin. BUT, the Quantas brand truth in their ad left me cold: "Quantas: The world's most experienced airline." Huh?" is very good

[Wendy (Car Insurance Salesman Murderer)]

Most of the time, it's the little difference that makes a difference. Be in marketing a product to providing a service...even in terms of friendship, a little more smiles, a little more thoughtfulness than your neighbor really helps people remember you. This is the cheapest way to enhance any brand.

[immo te huur]

This blog is great and has provided interesting and useful information. Thanks and I hope to see such information in the future as well.

[David Taylor (brandgym)]

Brent,

Good push-back. You're right to focus on the content, not the jargon!

Your comment deserves a proper response, so I plan to do a post inspired by it.

David

[Brent Gosling]

Let's not get caught up in semantics here. Aren't you just talking about a benefit and its support. Of course where you choose to put the message depends on how obvious the implied benefit is, how credible your claim is and the mechanics of stimulus and response.

So your (great tasting) sausage is the reason to buy and the reason to believe is some evidence that helps get you there (made to a traditional recipe with no crap).

As your analysis suggests, both are useful:

RTBuy: Gives me shinier hair.
RTBelieve: Contains Pro Vitamin B5

RTBuy: 1000 songs in your pocket
RTBelieve: Breakthrough technology & design

RTBuy: Blockbuster has the video you want
RTBelieve: The promise that if you don't find it we'll give it to you free next time.

ETc..

Let's not start adding more confusion about three letter acronyms. It's the last thing this business needs.

Forget about what kind of 'TB' you call it, Quantas just need to come up with a decent 'R'.

[David Taylor (brandgym)]

David,
Good challenge.
Have scrubbed out BA, think you're right.. this was an ad slogan, not a reason to buy.

Have replaced it with a couple of others. See what you think!
David T.

[David MacGregor]

Interesting entry. By way of comparing apples with apples I think the BA claim is equally spurious and incredibly disingenuous. I am sure BA is not popular in lots of countries, Libya, Zimbabwe etc - which are part of the world (whether we like it or not). Therefore the claim is false - although I am sure some would suggest that some statistical interpretation validates the remark by shifting emphasis from 'world' to 'favourite' - torture statistics for long enough and the world surrenders. Maybe the days of advertising hyperbole should die with the RTB.