My creative brief

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Grand brands are not deceptive

I went to target the other day and was craving something sweet. I came across little debbie 100 calorie triple fudge brownies. This is what the packaging looked like:


I opened the box in the car and I laughed uncontrollably outloud. The product was so small and deceptive it was laughable. In fact, the product shot on the box was bigger than the actual product. The box also shows three brownies. They failed to mention 100 calories was only for one brownie the size of my thumb.

I looked up consumer reviews on this product and this is what the people had to say:

Hungry Girl blog: " The world's smallest fudge brownie. With tiny stripes. In an itty bitty plastic bag. It is laughably tiny. Really, REALLY tiny. Almost a joke. And it's fiber-free. Bummer. Even though this brownie tastes pretty good, it's hard to justify spending 100 calories and 4g fat on something so depressingly small."


Associated Content: "Not only are these brownies small, they are very flat and really, there is not much to this snack. These brownies were a disappointment to me. These brownies are too small. Period. Don't let the name fool you."

And those above reviews were just a few of the many angry consumer reviews I found.

Brands should use impulse buys to jump over one of the major hurdles of brands: getting the consumer to try your product. It is not effective for brands to get consumers at an impulse buy and then disregard them. This is detrimental for revenue because it eliminates repeat customers.


Brands more and more these days are trying to adapt to consumer trends instead of being true to what their brand stands for. If a brand does extremely well at making fattening brownies, then that is where they should put most of their efforts.

Little Debbie's brand promise is unwrap a smile. Unfortunately I unwrapped a hatered for the brand.

A twist on insights

I believe that the role of a strategic planner is to make the ordinary into extraordinary. Really good insights do just that.

Here are some insights:




***Non-branded art: Filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns



***Non- branded art: Cappuccino Art

***Duck Tape: Stuck at prom - Duct brand duct tape scholarship contest

***Toyota: Banana leaf print advertisement

***Honda: Plant this letter direct mail piece

"This is the best hamburger I've had in a long time." -Leo Pike

There is a burger and hot dog chain restaurant in Richmond, Va that I think is an interesting brand. All of their food is apparently "famous". While "famous" might not be an added value they sure live up to their brand promise. Their hamburgers and hot dogs are made with high quality meat, which makes them taste like real meat. My friend Tristan and I were discussing what kind of restaurant we think Five Guys is classified as. Is it fast food? We knew the food was fast, but to us the connotation fast food meant something less. Also this so-called "fast food"/restaurant/chain/outstanding place adds a lot of extra value to their products for their customers. They provide an array of free toppings, which includes: grilled mushrooms, grilled onions, etc.. If this is a fast food chain joint, then why are they offering so many toppings for free? Isn't that the essence of a chain restaurant?

When the customer orders fries they put the fries in a cup in their brown paper bag. They then take the french fry scooper and dump another serving of fries into the brown paper bag. This makes the customer think that they are getting more bang for their buck. Tristan also thinks the grease that appears on the outside of the brown paper bag is added value. I agree with that disturbing pleasure. The whole point of this post is an opportunity that I think some brands are missing out on. I predict that in the future more brands will understand how small added values can add up to create a big impact in their consumers' minds.

The next generation of art directors

Elephant painting an elephant

In the spirit of internship season