This has nothing whatsoever to do with advertising or marketing. But when you’re married to someone who can design a costume like this, you just have to tell the world about it. Thank you, PDXKnitterati.

Full disclosure to start: KXL Radio is a competitor of mine in Portland, Oregon. They’re good people, but when the Internet Gods offer me this kind of opportunity, I’m not about to pass it up.

This appeared on KXL’s web site on Monday afternoon. What makes it especially interesting is that Tina Larson (Monarch Medical Weight Loss Center, at the top of this screen shot) is married to KXL talk show host Lars Larson (Oregon Weight Loss Surgery, at the bottom).

Hat tip to Adam Orth of 1190 KEX, who brought it to my attention.

I’m one of the dwindling few who still reads a newspaper every morning.  The generation behind me may not know how to operate a newspaper, but for me it’s as much a part of breakfast as the cup of coffee.

Since I toil in the persuasion industry, the advertising is as important to me as the articles. So when I opened the paper on a recent Sunday, it hurt to see this:

West Hills Health and Rehabilitation spent a significant sum of money to let Portland know that it is… “deficiency-free.” For the casual reader, this raises several questions. For instance:

• Shouldn’t “deficiency-free” be a minimum standard for this sort of operation?
• Are we, perhaps, setting the bragging bar a little low?

Whenever you make a claim in your marketing copy, you need to imagine your prospect sitting across from you, arms folded, asking,

“So What?”

It’s possible, I suppose, that the state inspection is extremely challenging, and that “deficiency-free” is actually a tough standard to meet. Maybe the designation represents a real benefit to patients. Perhaps West Hills has some important qualities that make it an attractive choice for those in need of rehabilitation services.

If so, that information doesn’t appear anywhere in the ad. And there’s nothing in the copy that gives the consumer any reason to look into the subject any further.

It’s your job to make sure that your message is one that your target will care about — your prospect doesn’t have the time or the attention span to figure it out for himself.

This copy fails the “So What” test. How about yours?

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Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein, Portland’s Advertising Expert, at 503-323-6553.

After nearly fifteen years as Portland’s Finest Media Rep, I’ll be moving to a new opportunity soon:

Beginning in January, I’ll be a Senior Consultant with the firm of Jim Doyle & Associates. In this role, I’ll be traveling throughout the country, helping TV reps to sell more effectively by developing better advertising campaigns for their clients.

There’s an expression I heard often during my recent visit to Vietnam: “Same-same, but different”. I’ll be using many of the skills that I’ve developed over the years — thorough needs analysis, positioning, copywriting, and sales — in a different way.

Instead of meeting with auto dealers, aesthetic-medicine practices, and funeral homes in Portland, I’ll be meeting with auto dealers, aesthetic-medicine practices, and funeral homes all over the country. It’ll be TV instead of radio. And rather than working alone, every call and proposal I make will be in conjunction with a television account executive.

And “Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog” will become “America’s Finest Advertising Blog.” Because my ego hasn’t gotten any smaller lately.

I’ll be with Clear Channel through the end of November, 2009 — so if you’re in Portland and want my help on a radio campaign before I go, there’s still time. Call me at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

As advertising has continued to pop up in areas that were formerly ad-free — supermarket conveyor belts and airline tray tables come to mind — I’ve often wondered where the line is. At what point will people just refuse to allow any more clutter?

The City of Galveston, TX, in partnership with Frito-Lay, inadvertently stepped over the line not long ago. According to the Houston Chronicle, Frito-Lay offered to donate $1 million to repair Fort Crockett Park in Galveston. Grateful city officials agreed to rename the park “Sun Chips Park at Fort Crockett.”

The public objected furiously, Frito-Lay backed off, and the space will remain Fort Crockett Park. The company was smart enough to let the city keep the money.

So if you’re mapping out the line, note that renaming a stadium or arena for a corporation is on the acceptable side. Renaming an iconic city park is not.

It’s worth noting, as an aside, that my 50th birthday is coming up in January, and Portland Trail Blazers officials have indicated that they’d be willing to consider selling naming rights to the Rose Garden Arena. If any of you would like to pay to rename it “The PhilDome”, I wouldn’t object.

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Check out Phil Bernstein’s Facebook Fan Page — and become a Fan – here

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein, Portland’s Advertising Expert, at 503-323-6553.

Last week I called on an orthodontist — or more specifically, the practice’s office manager. I learned two things of note:

1. Things are really, really slow these days. Parents are still bringing their kids in for braces, but in smaller numbers. And their lucrative adult-braces business is way down.

2. The doctor has steadfastly refused to advertise.

So it was with interest that I read — and mailed to the orthodontist — Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal article on the trend among those in the dental profession to increase their marketing. The article told the story of Dr. David Wong of Tulsa, OK.  Dr. Wong’s business has dropped about 10% in recent months.

Dr. Wong has upped his advertising, taking advantage of low newspaper and broadcast rates, and now sends email reminders to customers on top of traditional mailed postcards. He is even on Twitter, aiming to connect with customers as “not just the guy in a white coat with a drill in his hand.”

“It’s a lot more work,” he admits. “You can’t go to the office and just be a dentist anymore; you have to go to the office and be a dentist and a CEO.”

Ed Ridgway, a practice consultant, offered this take on his Dental Marketer blog:

Are you growing your practice – or just waiting for the competition to eat your market share?

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Check out Phil Bernstein’s Facebook Fan Page — and become a Fan – here

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein, Portland’s Advertising Expert, at 503-323-6553.

There are probably lots of ice cream trucks cruising through Manhattan on any given summer afternoon.

But there’s only one Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. As a marketing tool, the name has three important things going for it:

• It is so far from the expected that it forces  people (i.e. potential customers) to pay attention.
• It establishes a genuine point of differentiation. That differentiation doesn’t have to be the product itself to be significant, which is likely similar to ice cream you can buy elsewhere.
• It implicitly accepts the risk that some people will be offended. Some people will refuse to buy ice cream from this truck because of the name — owner Doug Quint is willing to sacrifice that business in return for a (presumably larger and more loyal) customer base that will seek him out. (For more on this concept, go here)

Thank you to Zach Newman for tipping me off to the NPR story on this.

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Check out Phil Bernstein’s Facebook Fan Page — and become a Fan – here

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein, Portland’s Advertising Expert, at 503-323-6553.

The next Clear Channel Portland Career and Education Fair is Monday, August 17 at PGE Park. We’re doing it in conjunction with a Portland Beavers baseball game.

The Job Fair starts at 11am, and the first pitch is 1:05pm. The first 500 people through the gates with a resume can attend the Job Fair and the game free. After the first 500, anyone with a resume will receive a $15 infield ticket for only $5.

Details, including an updated list of schools and employers, are at this link.

As of this writing, here’s a list of exhibiting schools and employers:

• • Albertina Kerr Centers
  • Apollo College
  • Bonneville Power Administration
  • Clear Channel Radio
  • Concordia University
  • Evans Glass
  • First Investors Corporation
  • Multnomah University
  • New England Financial
  • Oregon Army National Guard
  • Penguin Windows
  • Warner Pacific College
  • Washington State Vancouver

If you’re a recruiter looking for good employees, or if you represent a school looking for studients, we still have room for exhibitors — if you’re interested, give me a call at 503-323-6553, or email me here.

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Check out Phil Bernstein’s Facebook Fan Page — and become a Fan – here

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein, Portland’s Advertising Expert, at 503-323-6553.

Barbara Bell owns Bell’s Velvet Hammer, an auto collision repair business in Vancouver, Washington. For years, Bell’s Velvet Hammer has delivered high-quality repair and restoration work to Portland/Vancouver area drivers. The shop has also been an integral part of the local community.

When Barbara Bell wanted to use the power of an endorsement to tell the Bell’s Velvet Hammer story, she chose Paul Linnman of 1190 KEX Radio.

In the video below, she discusses how she chose Paul, the relationship they’ve built, and the results the campaign has delivered.

If your car’s been in an accident in the Portland/Vancouver area and you need it fixed right the first time, Bell’s Velvet Hammer is the place to go. My thanks to Barbara Bell for allowing me to tell her story.

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Check out Phil Bernstein’s Facebook Fan Page — and become a Fan – here

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein, Portland’s Advertising Expert, at 503-323-6553.

During my presentation/interview at the Northwest Business Virtual Summer Conference, Tom Cochrane asked me what the big difference is between marketing with social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and using the traditional sources such as TV, radio, and print.

I replied that there has always been something of a “contract” between the audience and old media — radio listeners get their content at no charge, and in return accept the fact that advertising is part of the landscape. Same for newspapers and television: the information arrives either at no charge or heavily subsidized.  Although there is more interaction than there used to be, the content is still “consumed”, and must be paid for somehow.

The fundamental difference with social media, I told Cochrane, is that people use it to communicate with each other, and do not expect to be pitched to. Even though Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace are essentially free services at this point, the users, rightly, or wrongly, have a different set of expectations.

Since making those remarks, I’ve encountered a couple of good posts that expand on the topic:

At Marketing in Progress, Brett Duncan takes on the Twitter spammers:

It saddens me to see so many people constantly posting tweets and Facebook updates that go something like this:

• Brand X is helping me lose 10 pounds a week. It can help you, too. CLick here . . . .
• If you want to make $1,000 this week on the Internet, I have what you need.
• Want to earn what you’re worth? Sign up with Brand X. Ask me how.
• I get 300 followers a day. Go here to find out more.

Nobody gets on Twitter looking for crap like this. There’s nothing “social” about using social media as your own advertising medium.

And The Digital Marketer offers counsel on how to avoid damaging your social media reputation.

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Check out Phil Bernstein’s Facebook Fan Page — and become a Fan – here

Click here to learn the shocking truth about Phil Bernstein

Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein, Portland’s Advertising Expert, at 503-323-6553.