Finding consumers' strike zones

"I've got people," goes the H&R Block TV ad set in a sauna where a client of the tax processor is bone dry while two other men are drenched in perspiration as they talk about taxes.

"My people take the heat," the sweatless one says.

"H&R Block customers feel exposed when they come in," said Jonathan Hoffman, president and chief creative officer of Minneapolis ad agency Campbell Mithun, which created the ad. "They're a middle-American demographic who feel excluded from the world of financial services. Now someone's on their side."

Advertising themes like Block's are built by "brand planners," who know that to reach a target audience they must go beyond the use of traditional focus groups. Instead, they bring an anthropologic approach to understanding how human behavior fits in with products and services and wants and desires.

"This is about consumer insights. It's learning about different cultures, different age groups," said Denny Haley, president of the Minneapolis office of BBDO, who cited a study of Cheetos aficionados that showed the product's prime customers to be young and defiant, people who ate the snack because it was loud when eaten and made an orange mess on the hands. "They liked the product because it annoyed their parents," Haley said.

Most brand planners watch the consumer in action, sometimes going home with the consumer and filming the interaction with a specific product.

George Creel of Periscope in Minneapolis had Rustoleum, the spray paint, as a client, and as part of his research he observed everyday people using the product. The agency and the manufacturer quickly learned that consumers used the product for much more than touching up their metal deck chairs. They used it on wood and plastic too. Rustoleum's marketing effort was adjusted accordingly.

"You get opinions and total honesty when you're in someone's home," Creel said. "If you can get really close to where the consumer makes his or her decision, your information is much more reliable and fun."

Marcus Fischer, the group planning director for Carmichael Lynch, never travels without a digital camera at his side so he can take pictures of folks at the airport, in their hotels, in groups, multitasking in their down time.

Fischer's observations of hectic lives and limited family time helped create an advertisement for Discover Boating that showed a family in a mall waving at strangers and no one waving back. Then the family was shown in a boat waving at other boaters and everyone waving back and smiling.

"When you wave to another boater, they always wave back," Fischer said. "People want to take control of their lives. Free time is so precious. It all comes down to the story that you want to tell."

Iconoculture Inc. is a Minneapolis company that projects consumer trends. Ad agencies as well as corporations and media companies use its services. It has trained professionals across the country watching for cultural changes by reading blogs and watching television and listening to the radio.

"We are observing consumers in the malls, at restaurants, at concerts," said Iconoculture's Kirk Olson. "We ask ourselves what motivates behavior. As we see patterns, we define a macro-trend. We don't think anyone can predict the future, but we can definitely put together our projections about what will be the big trends and market movers."

The small ad agency Mono does image consulting with clients ranging from Harvard Law School to "Sesame Street," interviewing students in a university cafeteria for Harvard and mothers who grew up on "Sesame Street" for the TV show's producer, Sesame Workshop.

"Our job is to figure out the most compelling brand idea," said James Scott, Mono's managing partner. The Harvard pitch is a work in progress; the "Sesame Street" brand print advertisement featured the faces of a diverse mix of children among "Sesame Street" characters.

"'Sesame Street' is really about the potential that lies within every child," said Mono account director Erin Keeley.

Said Campbell Mithun's Hoffman: "The best ideas work viscerally. You don't want to shout at them. It's about reinventing yourself. You need a supple understanding of where the customers are and how to talk to them."

David Phelps • 612-673-7269