MOSQUITO VERSUS ELEPHANT: WHICH IS MOST DANGEROUS?

Depends on your point-of-view. Head to head, no one wants to face an angry elephant. Each year more than 500 people die from elephant attacks.

But a bigger risk is easier to ignore. In 2009, 780,000 people died from mosquito-borne malaria -- one child every 30 seconds. Other mosquito-borne diseases infect more than 700 million people each year.

As Joseph Stalin remarked while reviewing his tank forces before counter-attacking the Germans at the Battle of Kursk, "Quantity is a quality all its own."

Consider a disease/viral message analogy. Today more and more people are catching news and information from small sources on the web and through other digital communications. Fewer are getting it from the "elephants" -- the major TV networks, large newspapers, national magazines and radio.

Social media plus blogs, online news etc. are delivering more while the elephantine mainstream media are lumbering along attracting fewer prime viewers and impressions every year (excluding their online operations).

That's hardly news but it does pose a question: What makes a good "mosquito" messaging strategy?

The 10th Anniversary of an Ad: What did you say after 9/11?

What can an advertiser say right after an overwhelming tragedy like September 11, 2001 without appearing self serving?

This is the ad that St. Joseph's/Candler, a faith-based hospital in Savannah, Georgia, chose to run during the week following the attack.

What else to say?

WHAT IS "ORGANIC MARKETING?"

Organic marketing is starting where you're at and making small incremental efforts at growing your business with sharp marketing strategies and cut-through communication tactics. Organic marketing matches appropriate strategy and tactics to your stage of growth. It's all about making messages that make sense for your business and the stage it's in.

Organic marketing is also accountable. A particular effort may or may not pay off but what is important is discovering what works for your business. Measurable results and pay-for-performance are two things organic marketers believe in. We don't ask you to bet the whole ranch -- just a portion that your feel comfortable with. And see what happens.

Where does an organization that has never done marketing communications start? First, understand that marketing communications is different from advertising. By definition, advertising is a commercial message whose placement in a medium or media has been paid for.

Today, advertising is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to marketing communications, which is the general process of selling a product, service or issue to members of a specifically targeted audience.

THE 3 MOST POWERFUL WORDS IN BUSINESS

In the ad agencies we've worked, account and creative people used to all agree on one thing: When it comes to client demands for Good, Fast and Cheap, he or she may choose two.

You can choose Good and Fast but it won't be Cheap. You can choose Fast and Cheap but it won't be Good. Or you can choose Good and Cheap but it won't be Fast. That, we believed was simple a law of advertising and marketing, if not a law of nature.

Times have changed. Now clients don't only expect Good, Fast and Cheap. They expect...

Better, Faster, Cheaper

In this New Economic Era, a business that can't deliver on all three is at a competitive disadvantage.

One thing I tell all my clients is that if you can get it better, faster and cheaper somewhere else, you'd be a fool not to go for it.

Same is true of your customers.

The Domino's Dilemma

Domino's had a great success with the faster and cheaper aspects of the pizza business. The 30-minute guarantee and the low (compared to local pizzarias) price won them a lot of business.

The problem was the quality. Domino's wasn't better -- it wasn't even good, by their own recent admission. So they had to reformulate. And they did.

It will be interesting to see if Domino's adds "better" to "fastest" and "cheapest?"

Pizza Hut is responding with new lower prices. Is there a Domino effect in the pizza biz?

Walmart's Move

Walmart has been changing.

Walmart started as the cheapest. As it expanded, more stores meant easier access for more people. For the last five years Walmart has been working on being better.

If the last time you were in a Walmart was 10 years ago, you'd be surprised at the clutter-minimized merchandising, improved presentation and neater organization. More like Target than K-Mart.

That's what makes them such a formidable retailer. They're the cheapest. They're the fastest (most conveniently located). And their quality is getting better all the time.

What Are You Branding On?

Your brand is many things. But answer these questions (honestly) and every other question will be answered. Are you better? Or best? Are you faster? Or fastest? Are you cheaper? Or cheapest?!

As a brand you have to pick one, minimum. Or two maximum. Are you a high-end handyman service? You probably do a very good job and your customers are very satisfied. And you probably aren't the fastest -- because good things take time. You're prompt, reliable and do an commendable job -- at a price.

If you're a book-keeping service, are you better? (Whatever that means, which in this case probably means honest, accurate and secure.) Are you the fastest? Probably not. Nor are you the cheapest. But given the government penalties for dishonesty, inaccuracy and lack of security, your customers are better off being safe and paying more for you.

QUALITY, AVAILABILITY, PRICE.

There's no way to avoid them or fake them.

Those three words are the core/foundation of any business, product or service in the minds of your customers and prospects. Quality, availability, price. They determine success.

How do you position your business?

And how will you position it in the future?

Better? Faster? Cheaper?

"AMERICAN HEALTHCARE": THE "BRAND"

One definition of a brand is "consistency of experience that satisfies expectations." A consistent experience at Nordstrom's is different than what is expected at a Wal-Mart, for example. They each have a distinct brand.

"American Healthcare," -- that's to say, the mixed 50/50 private/public-financed U.S. healthcare system -- is considered by a substantial majority of Americans to be the best brand of healthcare in the world -- compared to the government-run Canadian, UK and Cuban brands.

The healthcare reformers/reformulators in Congress who pushed Obamacare think they can do better. Because, after all, "look at Medicare" (a success except it will bankrupt the nation). But it's easier to start a new brand than to reformulate an old one. The difference between Medicare and the new healthcare law, is that in 1965 Medicare did not for the most part substitute for some other care. It was new -- not a replacement. It started small and grew to be gargantuan. Obamacare is starting out as gargantuan.

If people react as they did to a reformulated soft drink like New Coke, try to imagine the uproar to come as they gradually see American Healthcare being replaced by Obamacare.

MOSQUITOHEAD TWEETS SELECTED FOR LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ARCHIVE

If you follow on Twitter, check out "mosquitohead." (Go to twitter.com, click on "Find People" and type in mosquitohead.)

The U.S. Library of Congress has chosen to save all Mosquitohead tweets and make them available to scholars researching the history of America and media.

Of course, ALL tweets ever posted dating back to March 2006 will be included as well. Every one.

But Mosquitohead is pleased to be included in such distinguished company.

THE GAGA PHENOMENA

The Digital Issue of Ad Age (Feb. 22) had its cover story on Lady Gaga, the exploding-out-of-nowhere 23-year old singer/songwriter who crashed the scene in fall, 2008.

Already she has sponsors that include Virgin Mobile; she has her own lipstick color as spokeswoman for Mac Cosmetics Viva Glam; and she is the new Brand Creative Director for Polaroid, a company looking for a new leading-edge identity. She's the first recording artist to notch four consecutive #1 singles from her debut album -- with 20 million digital-single sales and 8 million CD-album sales (who buys CDs anymore?).

How did she do it? Smart, creative decisions by her and her manager, sure.

But 5.2 million Facebook fans and 2.8 million Twitter followers don't hurt.

Social media made Lady Gaga. No amount of conventional paid advertising could have done it.