The Kleber Critique
Advertisements permeate our lives – from television and radio (and streaming services, if you don’t happen to be a subscriber) to web pages, eblasts and billboards (yes, they still exist). However, not all advertising is created equal. The following articles share K&As take on the good, the bad and the “uncomfortable” when it comes to ads related to home and building products. All opinions are our own.
Your Brand is not Your Logo. (Re)branding efforts should focus on substance, not style
Our old friends Sears are in the news again. Having, against all odds, staved off bankruptcy, the venerable challenger home improvement retailer is trying to build a new brand image and distance itself from its troubled past. And what do you do when you want to...
Realtor.com Misses An Opportunity, And We Miss Elizabeth Banks
What was wrong with Elizabeth Banks? It’s a question we find ourselves asking Realtor.com (not that they’d answer) after seeing their new “Unreal” series of ads. If you don’t remember, Realtor.com retained the services of actress Elizabeth Banks to appear in their...
One Home Security Brand Scores During the Super Bowl, and One Doesn’t
Well, another Super Bowl is behind us, and with it are all of the over-thought, dubiously strategic, creative-for-creativity’s-sake commercials. As with every year, the time between the on-field action (such as it was) was filled with gems and duds in almost equal...
Moen Tells, But Doesn’t Show
If there’s one thing we find especially irksome, it’s when companies issue press releases announcing the unveiling of “a new branding campaign.” Outside the marketing and advertising industry, nobody cares about these announcements. Yet that’s what Moen did recently....
What’s at the center of your customers’ lives? Spoiler alert: it’s not you or your products
Here’s a newsflash: building products are not at the center of consumers’ lives. People don’t think about appliances, windows, and flooring all the time. Even when they’re actively shopping for these items, audiences don’t think their quality of life will be...
Is The Subscription Razor Blade Model Coming To Home Appliances?
A long-admired model in the CPG business has been refillable razor blades. The basic idea is that brands like Gillette don’t make their money on the handles, but on the refillable razor cartridges that need to be replaced every week. Could this model work in other areas, like the food/home appliance category? Tovala is betting on it.