At Least One Difference Between Taco Bell and Firefox
Authenticity is one of the most coveted qualities in the world of branding. The idea itself isn’t super complex – basically you have to make sure that the way you present the product is consistent with the actual qualities the product itself – but because it’s something that has to be earned rather than bought it can be a very elusive thing for a lot of companies.
When people complain about marketing, they’re often reacting to that lack of authenticity. As a case in point, take Taco Bell’s current campaign touting the “Drive Thru Diet“: sure, Taco Bell can be an occasionally delicious late night snack, but most reasonable people don’t associate their food with anything remotely healthy. But, despite that reality, they have ads touting the benefits of their new low-fat line…they even made their logo green, so you know it has to be good for you. Right?
In the case of Firefox, I feel really fortunate to get to work on a brand that, because of Mozilla’s community, history and mission, oozes with realness. The tricky thing is that it’s a lot harder to build up a sense of authenticity than it is to lose it, so we in the marketing department are always very careful to make sure our projects maintain the appropriate degree of Mozilla-ness.
There’s no magic formula – it’s more of a “know it when you see it” kind of thing – but the general idea is be consistent with the organization’s values, engage the community and perhaps most importantly, only say stuff that’s true (it helps to have a great product, of course). So, until someone lands a patch for Firefox that guarantees users weight loss and whiter teeth, we’ll keep the outrageous claims to a minimum.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:16 am
This is definitely one of those ad campaigns that makes you say “WTF?” I know that the job of marketers is to convince people of things, but to be outright lied to is pretty insulting.
January 6th, 2010 at 7:52 am
I think this ad was really aimed at my demographic, not people who really need to lose lots of weight. I’m a male in my low 20s who goes to Taco Bell with friends at 3am because nothing else is open (and McDonald’s is horrible). I found this advertisement hilarious. The first time I saw it I had to go to the website. It was some of the best comedy I have seen in a while. I think it should also be noted that this is the company that brought us the “4th meal”, so now we can have our Drive Thru Diet 4th meal. Perfection.
January 6th, 2010 at 8:31 am
If there is any truth to this claim of being lower fat or calories then chances are it is because they are doing the same thing a lot of food producers are doing right now – reducing the size of portions and/or putting less in them while keeping the prices the same.
Way to go trying to convince people that less is more!
Thankfully Firefox doesn’t need to pull features when times get tough!
January 6th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Would it be an outrageous claim to say that Firefox causes people to gain weight because it’s so enjoyable to use that they can’t walk away from it to go exercise?
Of course we now have the Firefox On the Go browser which should stave off litigation from those wanting to sue Mozilla for the extra pounds that I, ahem, they’ve gained since they started using Firefox.
“I lost 25 pounds with the Firefox On the Go diet.”
Ya, I know, I know. It’s gold.
Awesome post by the way.
January 6th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
I forgot to mention that another difference between Taco Bell and Firefox is that you don’t get raging gas from using Firefox.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
[...] John Slater, Mozilla’s Creative Director, vows that Firefox marketing won’t go the Taco …. [...]