Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S2E03 - Timing Is Everything

Episode Date: January 20, 2013

This week, we look at the critical importance of timing in marketing.It’s one thing to put the right message in front of the right person, but it’s a fine art to put it in front of them at the perfect moment.We’ll look at how the United States Navy used perfect timing to double their applications by taking advantage of a certain movie playing in theatres. We’ll explain why Dr. Scholl’s chose to pitch inner soles in the washrooms of nightclubs and how Hellman’s Mayonnaise used perfect timing to talk to women in grocery stores. We’ll also talk about how Target stores know you’re pregnant before your family does, and we’ll wrap up the episode by explaining why the fishing lure industry has Marilyn Monroe to thank. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. new year new me season is here and honestly we're already over it enter felix the health care company helping canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year weight loss is more than just diet and exercise it can be about tackling genetics hormones metabolism felix

gets it they connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 2, 2013. You're not you when you're hungry. You're in good hands with us. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. The movie The China Syndrome was released in 1979. It was the story of a newswoman, played by Jane Fonda,

and her cameraman, played by Michael Douglas, doing a routine TV news story about a nuclear power plant. But while they are at the plant, they feel a tremor. As the tour guide plays down the rumble, cameraman Douglas secretly films some workers through a window as they seemingly panic. He later screens the footage for another scientist, who confirms they've just witnessed a nuclear meltdown, and in doing so, explains the meaning behind the movie's title. If that's true, then we came very close to the China Syndrome.

The what? If the core is exposed, for whatever reason, the fuel heats beyond core heat tolerance in a matter of minutes. Nothing can stop it. And it melts right down through the bottom of the plant, theoretically, to China. He also explains the size of the potential devastation of a nuclear meltdown by saying,

Render an area the size of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable. Later, with the help of a sympathetic nuclear plant manager, played by Jack Lemmon, Douglas and Fonda leaked the story to the public, but the plant authorities immediately tried to cover the story up. Suddenly, the lives of the reporters and the plant manager are in danger.

It was a tense thriller directed by James Bridges. He heightened the suspense by using no traditional music score, because Bridges wanted the film to almost feel like a documentary in its seriousness. Twelve days after the film opened, this happened in Pennsylvania.

For many years, there has been a vigorous debate in this country about the safety of the nation's 72 nuclear energy power plants. That debate is likely to be intensified because of what happened early this morning at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Max? Frank, it was an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant which is located on an island in the Susquehanna River 10 miles from Harrisburg. A cooling pump

broke down and the plant did just what it was supposed to do, shut itself off, but not before some radioactivity had escaped. People watching their televisions felt like they were seeing the China syndrome unfold in real time. It happened at the number two generator about four o'clock this morning. Something caused the secondary cooling system to fail. It shut off the reactor, but heat and pressure built up and some radioactive steam escaped into the building housing the reactor and eventually out into the plant and the air. The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown gripped the nation. While the severity of the malfunction was initially downplayed by authorities, the governor

of Pennsylvania soon requested all pregnant women and children within a five-mile radius leave the area. Eventually, 140,000 people were evacuated. As fears mounted, Walter Cronkite noted, Every emergency creates its conflicting accounts, but in the matter of the Three Mile Island accident, the waves of confusion reached tidal proportions. Many analysts feel the China syndrome heightened the public's mistrust of nuclear malfunctions, and that the movie played a large role in dismantling the billion-dollar nuclear industry. Seventy nuclear plants were scheduled for construction in the United States in 1979. Not one has been built since. But it was the incredible timing of the China Syndrome colliding with the worst nuclear

meltdown in U.S. history that was astounding. Initially, the timing of Three Mile Island was box office poison for the movie, as the studio pulled the film out of theaters for fear of looking like it was exploiting the situation. But eventually, the incredible coincidence of the film and the real-life meltdown generated over $50 million at the box office. In the world of marketing, as in life, timing is everything.

Many ads are not just aired according to media schedules, but are, in fact, timed to influence your state of mind or to leverage it. Because when you see an ad has a huge impact on what you buy. And it may surprise you to learn just how carefully timed advertising is. You're under the influence.

So much talk about advertising and marketing is centered around what to say, how to say it, and who to say it to. All critical aspects of an effective marketing campaign. But there is a fourth question that should be asked, and that is when to say it. The most effective marketing campaigns have exquisite timing, meaning the advertising message is delivered at a critical moment in time. That moment may be when you're about to make a decision. Or it may be the exact moment when you're feeling discomfort.

Or it may be when something important has just changed in your life. Or it may be a perfectly timed delivery of a service just when you need it. And in one case we'll talk about today, the most perfect timing of a message can be completely accidental. I feel the need, the need for speed. The movie Top Gun was directed by the late Tony Scott in 1986. He was chosen by producer Jerry Bruckheimer because he liked a commercial Scott had directed for Saab the year before that featured a fighter plane and a very cool fighter pilot.

Saab. Nothing on Earth comes close. The movie Top Gun was a story of a rebellious jet fighter played by Tom Cruise and his training at the Top Gun School for Elite Pilots in Southern California. It featured some of the most exciting aerial photography ever done, following F-14 Tomcat fighter jets as they executed breathtaking combat maneuvers at speeds of over 1,000 miles per hour. Each plane was worth $38 million and burned $8,000 worth of fuel per hour.

Those aerial dogfights and the cool Top Gun pilots thrilled audiences and made it the top-grossing movie of that year. 300, go get him, Mav. I'm going for missile lock. Let's see if we can scare this guy out of here. Come on, lock up, baby. Lock up, baby.

Lock up. I got him locked. Bingo. You got him, Mav. He's bugging out and going home. The popularity of the movie also led to a very interesting marketing strategy for the U.S. Navy. They decided to tap the moment. So, they set up recruitment booths in theaters where the movie was playing.

As a result, applications for the Navy doubled. But it wasn't just the success of the movie that led to the surge in applications. It was the timing of the Navy doubled. But it wasn't just the success of the movie that led to the surge in applications. It was the timing of the booths, attracting recruits just as they were leaving the theaters while they were in a state of heightened desire to be as cool as the fighter pilots they had just witnessed on the screen.

Timing was everything. So much of marketing is designed to strike while a consumer is in a very specific state of mind. A state of mind when they are most receptive to a selling message. Recently, Dr. Scholz placed the right ad at exactly the right time. It was a poster advertising Dr. Scholz Fast Flats shoe inserts, which makes shoes feel more comfortable. They placed the poster in the girls' washroom at dance clubs. The headline said, Ladies, are you really in here taking a break from your high heels?

Just take them off and slip into Dr. Scholl's Fast Flats. Any girls listening right now instantly get that ad. Most men won't. What Dr. Scholl understood about women was that they wear very uncomfortable high heels when nightclubbing. And one of the biggest reasons for going into washrooms isn't to tinkle it's to take their shoes off and rest their aching feet that ad in those washrooms at that exact moment caught women when they were feeling extreme discomfort which meant they were at their most receptive to receiving that message from Dr. Scholl.

Seeing that ad later in a magazine would not have had nearly the same impact as seeing it while they were clubbing. Timing was everything. Only Taco Bell can take real nacho cheese Doritos and turn them into the shell of a Taco Supreme. How good does that sound after midnight? The new Doritos Locos Tacos. Get one for fourth meal. Taco Supreme. How good does that sound after midnight? The new Doritos Locos Tacos. Get one for fourth meal.

A relatively new marketing trend has been taking place in the fast food category lately. It's called the fourth meal, which is defined as after dinner and before breakfast. Essentially, it is late night food advertising apparently aimed at stoners who get the munchies or people leaving bars late at night. In this Taco Bell commercial, a 20-something spokesperson walks around a nightclubbing district while extolling the virtues of the fourth meal. It's late. You're hungry. You're not, Karen.

It's time for fourth meal. The late night meal. Between dinner and breakfast. Heard of the pyramid? Check out the square. All the tastes in a delicious fourth meal. Melted, crunchy, spicy, and grilled. Tastes are exciting.

Only Taco Bell's got them. Everyone's a fourth mealer. How you doing? Some just don't know it yet. If it's not fourth meal, it's got them. Everyone's a fourth-mealer. How you doing? Some just don't know it yet. If it's not fourth meal, it's just food. Under constant pressure from Wall Street to show quarter-over-quarter profit growth, fast food companies struggled to find new ideas. Then they hit on the notion of the after-midnight crowd

and appealed to them with lines like, the best dinner is after dinner. The timing of these ads was critical, as they had to air late enough to remind all-night partiers that fast food locations were open and ready to serve. McDonald's is more family-oriented than Taco Bell, so when it seized the opportunity, it had to be less obvious about appealing to partiers.

Advertising a breakfast after midnight, between 2 and 5 a.m., posters were put up advertising McDonald's Nocturnal Vore menu, with lines like, If restaurants weren't meant to stay open late, they wouldn't have lights. Launched recently in Ohio and Florida, more than 70% of the 186 McDonald's Tampa restaurants are now open 24 hours. That's up from 50% just a few months ago.

Wendy's launched their own fourth meal campaign with the slogan, Better Later. Some fast food franchises are reporting income boosts as high as 10 and 20 percent. And it all comes down to perfectly timed late night ads when partiers are most receptive to the message. Not long ago, Hellman's Mayonnaise took advantage of technology to put a message into the hands of women at just the right time.

Teaming up with a supermarket chain in Brazil, they installed software in over 100 cash registers that recognized when customers had purchased Hellmann's. Then, remarkably, the software quickly created recipes based on the other

items in the customer's cart, using Hellman's mayonnaise as a main ingredient. The recipes were then printed right on the grocery receipt. The Hellman's recipe receipt was brilliant on several levels. First, a large percentage of households still think of mayonnaise as just for sandwiches, which limits the use of Hellman's to lunches. The recipes extended the use of mayonnaise to

dinners. Second, it took advantage of location. Shoppers were in a grocery store and were in the frame of mind to think about food. And third, it was all about timing. Ask any mother what the worst decision of the day is, and they'll say, Just as they were struggling with that question,

Hellman's gave them a custom-made recipe using the ingredients they already had in their shopping cart. So, if you had purchased chicken, parsley, curry powder in Hellman's, your receipt gave you everything you needed to prepare a delicious curried chicken finger dinner. Recipe, ingredients, and cooking instructions. In-store signs near the cash register said, if there's Hellmann's in your cart, there's a surprise in your receipt. Thousands of recipes were printed, teaching consumers how to use Hellman's to

make delicious dinners with salads, meats, pastas, and sauces. Using perfect timing, sales of Hellman's increased 44% in the first month alone. And we'll be right back. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives? Available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. Charles Dewey wrote a fascinating article in the New York Times recently. It was about how companies learn secrets about their customers. He tells the story of a statistician who worked for Target. Two colleagues from the Target marketing department dropped by his desk one day

and asked him an interesting question. They wanted to know if there was any way to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she hadn't told anybody yet. As Dewey points out, new parents are the holy grail to retailers. But most consumers don't shop for everything they need at one store. They'll do the grocery shopping at one place, buy their books at another, and their toys at yet another. But Target sells everything from food to diapers to lawn furniture.

So they are constantly trying to convince shoppers that Target is the only store they need. And once shoppers' habits are ingrained, it's extremely difficult to change them. But there are brief moments in a person's life when habits are susceptible to persuasion. And that's usually when big life changes occur, like graduation, marriage, new jobs, buying new homes or moving to a new town. But one of the biggest is the birth of a child new parents are exhausted and overwhelmed and as a result their shopping patterns and brand loyalties are in flux because birth records are public the moment a couple has a baby they are immediately bombarded with offers and ads for baby items it's part

of the new hyper targeting aspect of. As soon as news of a baby is added to your data profile, stores start to market to you accordingly. So the key for a marketer is to be the first to reach you before any other retailers even know a baby is on the way. The second trimester of a pregnancy is when most expectant mothers change their buying habits. Target knew that if they could start marketing to new moms as early as the fourth month of pregnancy, they stood a good chance of persuading that mother to continue shopping with them. Hypertargeting uses collected data to predict how you'll shop. In this day and age, every major retailer knows whether you're married, have kids, which part of town you live in, how long it takes you to drive to the store, your salary, what credit cards you carry, your credit rating, your ethnicity, job history, the magazines you read, if you've ever declared bankruptcy or got divorced, the year you bought or lost your house, where you went to university, what brands you prefer, and

your political leanings. To name just a few things. So, with all this information, retailers use algorithms to predict our shopping patterns. Consumers going through these life changes usually don't notice that their buying habits have shifted, but retailers notice. And if a marketing message is timed just right, those habits can be influenced. Not just for a one-time purchase, but for years to come.

And a new baby is the top of the life change list. When Target started to use predictive behavior analytics, they learned some very interesting things about pregnant women in their second trimester. For example, they begin to buy large amounts of unscented lotions. They also start to load up on supplements like calcium, magnesium, and zinc. They buy extra cotton balls and washcloths. Target was able to identify more than 25 products that, when analyzed together, allowed them to assign a pregnancy prediction score to their customers and could even estimate their due date to within a small window based on purchases,

which allowed Target to send coupons and offers timed to very specific stages of a pregnancy. Target applied that program to every regular female shopper in their national database and soon had a list of tens of thousands of women who were most likely pregnant and began marketing to them. About a year after Target created its pregnancy prediction model, a man walked into a Target store outside Minneapolis and demanded to see the manager. He was angry because his teenage daughter,

who was still in high school, was receiving pregnancy-related coupons from Target. The father demanded to know if Target was trying to encourage her to become pregnant. The manager apologized profusely and even called a few days later to apologize again. But the tone of that conversation was decidedly different from the first one.

The father was much more low-key this time. He'd had a talk with his daughter. It turns out she was due in August. He apologized to the Target store manager. Target knew about her pregnancy before her family did, all based on her shopping patterns. It posed an interesting problem for Target, because many women reacted badly to the fact the retailer was,

as Charles Dewey puts it, studying their reproductive status. So Target had to slow down their marketing. They now send pregnant women, who are in their second trimester, advertisements for lawnmowers, frying pans, and diapers, so the baby ads look random. Because sometimes you can be just too timely. Fishing lures owe a lot to Marilyn Monroe. Let me explain. Rapala lures are famous in the fishing world. They were first created in 1936 by a Finnish man named Laurie Rapala.

He was an observant fisherman and noticed that big predator fish would dart into a school of minnows and attack the weaker ones that swam with a slightly off-center wobble. So he carved a wooden lure to look like a small fish that wiggled in the water like an injured minnow. The exact kind of small fish that big fish love to eat. His Rapala lures worked so well, he started a small company in Finland to manufacture them. But his biggest

marketing success came completely by accident. In the August 1962 issue, Life magazine ran a small article with the title, A Lure Fish Can't Pass Up. It featured the original Rapala lure and told the story of the lure's amazing ability to attract big fish. There had been other articles written about Rapala in the past, but this one was different. See, unbeknownst to Rapala, this particular issue of Life magazine had a photo of Marilyn Monroe on the cover. She had just died, the country was mourning her passing, and the issue was all about her life and career. It just so happened that this edition broke all circulation records and became the biggest selling issue of all time. And that enormous readership had a dramatic effect on the small Rapala company. They immediately received over 3 million orders for lures, which was a bit overwhelming

considering the U.S. Rapala office only had a staff of two. Needless to say, Rapala struggled to keep up with the orders, receiving more than three bags of mail a day. Many of those envelopes stuffed with cash begging for as many lures as they could manufacture. That issue of Life magazine launched Rapala lures into the stratosphere. And today, Rapala is sold in over 140 countries and holds more world records for catches than any other lure. It's all because they were in the right place at, accidentally, the right time. And in 2008, Rapala inducted Marilyn Monroe into its fishing hall of fame. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative.

And that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year. Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. There are big penalties to be paid in this world when you are behind the times. You can also lose out by being too far ahead of your time.

But when your timing is right, when you seize the moment as the moment presents itself, the world is your oyster. In marketing, getting the right message in front of the right customer is the foundation of selling. But getting that message to the customer at exactly the right time is a fine art. When Top Gun was filling theaters, the U.S. Navy seized the moment by putting recruiting booths in the lobbies of cinemas. As a result of that exquisite timing, their applications doubled. When Dr. Scholz wanted to sell insoles, they chose to talk to women in the washrooms of nightclubs. They knew that women go into washrooms to take their

high heels off and soothe their aching feet. It was the perfect moment to talk to a receptive audience. When Hellman's Mayonnaise wanted to time their pitch just perfectly, they figured out a way to print recipes on the grocery receipts,

just as moms were shopping for dinner solutions. It was a smart marketing strategy, because 1% of all daily searches on Google are for recipes at dinner time. And it's remarkable to think that Target knows you're expecting even before your family does, just by analyzing what you buy. That insight allows them to send you maternity offers at just the right time, getting the jump on the competition. There's no doubt about it. Timing is everything in marketing. It's the result of analysis, predictive algorithms, a keen understanding of human nature, and a talent for recognizing opportunities. And sometimes, you just get lucky with Marilyn Monroe

when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Thank you. Hello, Terry O'Reilly. This is Robertson's department store calling. Our records show that you recently purchased an unscented lotion, some vitamins, and a bag of cotton balls. May we be the first to say congratulations. We hope a woman like you will continue to shop at Robertson's, so we'd like to offer you a 15% discount next time you visit. Have a nice day. Under the Influence was produced at Pirate Toronto. Sound engineer, Keith Oman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre.

Series coordinator, Debbie O'Reilly. Research by Warren Brown. Download the podcasts on iTunes. See all the visual elements from this episode at cbc.ca slash under the influence. See you next week.