Best Buy Best be Careful

Rick Stanton, Creative Director / Managing Partner, Stanton & Everybody Advertising + Design

Best Buy is undertaking a new creative direction.
They are attempting to take market share away from Wal-Mart by doing three things; calling them out by name, taking the stand that Best Buy’s employees are more knowledgeable than Wal-Mart’s, and their prices are as good as Wal-Mart’s.
Have you ever been into a Best Buy?
My experiences have led me to believe that the only criterion for employment is a pulse.
Not only is their knowledge dubious at best, they really don’t like customers getting in the way of doing business.
This is what happens in advertising when company’s ignore the single biggest mistake they can make in fronting their brands: the truth.
The days of brands just making claims and expecting the consumer to swallow whatever message they decide to put out are long, long gone.
The consumer is in charge and they will decide what is true and what isn’t.
This is why research is so important in today’s approach to brand building.
You have to ask people what they believe. And you have to do it in ways that don’t just add to category convention. My friend Sean Clark, quotes a great line from Henry Ford.
“If I would have asked the consumer what they wanted they would have told me they want faster horses.”
But getting at the truth also requires strong leadership and honest brand analysis.
If you look hard enough there is a pony in that pile of horse flop.
And when you find it, that’s how you begin to differentiate.
It might not be a stretch to say Best Buy’s people are smarter than Wal-Mart’s.
That’s like saying the Mariners are better than the Washington Nationals.
But anyone who thinks the lowest prices and the best service is a deliverable promise, especially in today’s economy when things like training get cut even deeper, I have some waterfront in Death Valley I’d like to show you.

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