This photo says is all. Less than two years from the U.S. financial crisis banks are back to their "consolidate and repackage" activities.

Having bought their way into new markets at the expense of other banks, Chase is back to business as usual. And the bank obviously is back in a strong financial position because it in the process of building not one, but two new locations less than two miles from my home.

Wachivia is also going through the aquisition blues, with most of their sites prepped for the unveiling of new branding elements by its new owner, Wells Fargo. In with the red, out with the blue.

As a nation, we might be in a slightly better position, but unemployment is still at record levels and retail spending remains down. As a marketer and experienced business owner, I can appreciate the efficiencies this creates. However, the banking industry is sending the wrong message, given the "issues" they presented to us all at the height of the financial crisis.

What message does this send to a consumer?

• We, <insert bank name here> did not learn from the financial crisis;
• Our marketing team seems to think everything is "back to normal" and consumers will never notice what we are doing;
• New is always better, right?
• Please forget the issues our practices may have caused you and visit one of our convenient and shiny locations near you!

Happy banking!

The launch of a new product can bring fame and fortune to some companies. And infamy and ruin to others.

Today Apple took the first step to try to take its infamy and magically transform it into fortune using its premier marketing tool: the Apple press conference.

In addition to raising the public's general knowledge of "attenuation" (Who would have thought that we would all become so intimate with physics and moble device transmissions?), Apple took a multifaceted approach to try to calm the storm...

1. Attenuation
Just the introduction of attenuation to the masses means Apple is scared and ready to throw off the scent. When in doubt, scare 'em off with voodoo IT speak. Strike one. Keeping this message on a high level would have been a good framework to start with had Jobs not had taken shots at the competition...

2. Competitive Redirects
"Theirs does it too," does not make for a great long term defense. As Steve was pointing out potential cracks in RIM and HTC and Samsung's armor, their teams and the blogosphere in general most likely had already begun their testing to prove Apple wrong. Strike two for Apple.

3. Giveaways
Finally... something everyone loves, freebies. Life may have had some continued bumps for Apple had they focused on this, along with the facts that 4 actually has a lower return rate than 3Gs. So is it the media that is making a mountain out of a mole hill? Besides, most of us cover our precious phones with some protective apparatus, or be smited with a full price fee to replace our damaged phones.

Even with one out of three, I believe Apple still stands a good chance. Only time, and the consumer voice will let us all know. Do you agree?

Effective Marketing + Product That Delivers = The Above Result

We should all be envious.

In today's "let's make it bigger" approach to consumerism, everyone wants everything large, big, and huge. This applies to technology and the Web in general. We're all consumed with larger monitors, more bandwidth and delivering a "big experience".

That's true in almost every area of the Web, except for one: photos in the shopping cart. For some reason, functions that are geared toward allowing visitors to "enlarge," just don't live up to their UI marketing hype.

   

Click here to download:

I_Want_It_Large.zip (254 KB)

Now, don't get all defensive... for the most part, the form and function of the design deliver exactly what needs to for this to work. There's generally some type of photo, supported by some type of call to action. But for some reason, whenever websites promise to "enlarge" or "view large image" or even a fancy-dancy magnifying glass icon, they just don't deliver.

The excuse for not enlarging images worked great back in 1998. But, what this generally comes down to is pure laziness on the part of the site owner. I can't believe that after all the money spent to research, develop and market a product that the ONLY available photo is one 200x200 pixel image. What's the point of 12 MB+ cameras, if all you are going to provide is a 200 pixels of dissappointment to your visitors? We want to see what we are purchasing.

Come on, marketers. We can do better than this. Here's a good formula (at a minimum) for us all to follow:

Web-based Image Enlargement Formula:
[original photo size] x 5 = Happy Visitor

And yes, in case you are wondering... clicking on the above image actually enlarges the view.

Over the past few days -- and weeks leading up to its official announcement -- the Apple iPad has been cross-analyzed on every high tech, gadget and media site from here (wherever you are reading this) to there (insert your favorite destination), which shows the potential impact this product has on popular culture. But the imminent release of iPad isn't so much about the product, but more about changing the way we think about consuming media.

Tech geeks have taken shots at the choice of processor, memory, display technology, etc. Many critics are not happy that the iPhone OS will power iPad, giving Apple ultimate authority over the software that can be installed on the device (note to self: in the near future, insert link to article about first jail broken iPad). That may be a large issue for some, but Apple has taken a smart approach by not trying to be "everything to everybody". Yes, there is a OS lock for installing applications. Yes, there is not a camera or a web cam. Yes, Flash is not currently supported. Yes, a full version of PhotoShop is unlikely to be able to be "installed" on the device. That's because this really isn't a computer, and Apple realizes this up front.

This brings us to the ever-increasing use of the Cloud for storing and retrieving information, applications and services. As we have seen with the Apple / Google fight related to the Google Voice offering, the importance of Web-based software will likely grow as innovators need to circumvent Apple's gateway to their devices. Though disappointed, even Google has followed its own prescription and has found a way to innovate in this area using the Internet, getting around Apple's gate and lock on the iPhone. Google is also quietly working on its version of a net connected device that uses the cloud as the primary storage area for the Google Chrome OS and supporting software. Although different in its approach, I am sure that Apple's announcement will only strengthen the viability for this particular "flavor" of device.

The release of iPad offers us all a new way to think about how we entertain, educate and communicate with one another. It's not the beat-all, end-all, killer device, but it does dramatically extend how we interact and consume media. Hopefully the publishing, news and other media dinosaurs will finally see the writing on the wall. Though I highly doubt it, since they have been dragging their heels over the past 15 years. These devices bring new opportunity for businesses who want to be relevant over the next 15 years.

Taking a quick trip to a local Wallmart yesterday I happened across a new product. I initially passed it by, then had to circle back to confirm what I had just been a witness to. And there it was... Chocolate Cheerios. As a child I am sure that everyone who has eaten Cheerios has dreamed about this. I think this is the childhood equivalent of finding the Loch Ness monster, the fountain of youth, etc. Could this be real? It was real and the display sat boldly in the center of the isle, almost mocking my childhood.

Call me crazy, but I can't see how launching a chocolate version of this cereal can really work, no matter how tasty it really is. It sounds great on paper, and probably had some great discussion in the General Mills product development teams over the years. However, every marketer has a potential product like this that while interesting, just can't work due to the realities of the world. I thought that the company had crossed the line a few years ago when it launched Frosted Cheerios, but this product has survived and its numbers must have supported this product introduction. To me, General Mills has "jumped the shark" on the core brand attributes that Cheerios has been built upon: healthy and heart friendly.

I don't care how you slice it, as a marketer, chocolate cannot be equated with healthy without taking some bruises. Knowing we're fighting an uphill battle, I thought that I would throw out some other messaging points that General Mills could use to cement this line extension in with the other "healthy" editions of Cheerios:

• "Now made with dark chocolate, the healthy version of chocolate."
• "Just as healthy as chocolate cake, chocolate milk and chocolate bars."
•  "Whole grains, covered in gooey chocolate. Yum!"

     

Click here to download:

Google_Navs_It_Up.zip (176 KB)

In case you have not noticed it, Google has slowly begun the process of making some "simplicity sacrifices" related to their expanding universe of product and service offerings. Take a visit to the Google Mobile site, the Google Voice site, and the new Google Nexus One site and you'll quickly see that the "simplicity of design" that was presented back in March 2009, isn't living up to the consistency strategy that was initially outlined. Many of the branding guidelines that were originally outlined, along with the supporting functionality of the related websites do not support the simplicity strategy.

I am not saying this is not bad or good. I also understand that these may be viewed as "stand alone" brands. It does, however, highlight the necessary evil when adding complexity to product offerings and the need to support the marketing of these on the web.

The takeaway: A defined strategy needs to have room to evolve over time with the changing business climate.

So, I was daydreaming today... wondering just what is really going on behind the scenes of the Tiger Woods scandal and thought I'd put my Xtranormal account to good use and peek into the public relations management nightmare of the decade...

Disclaimer: This is a parody element. The content of this post should in no way be construed as factual. Public figures used in this posting are portrayed for satirical purposes only. All other characters are fictional. Any use of real names or trademares is related to parody. Any similarities to actual persons is also pure coincidence, and not the intent. It cannot be emphasized enough how coincidental any fictional entities are to any real life individual, entity, or character. Content rating: NC17.