Get to the Point

Simple Evaluation Can Resolve an Ineffective Campaign
December 2007.


Though they're a great way to boost short-term sales of products and services, promotions can also lose their impact over time. Senior marketing consultant and MarketingProfs seminar presenter Michael Goodman suggests trying fresh techniques throughout the year. "See if you can develop a promotion that works better than whatever you did last time."To do this properly, however, you must study both the effectiveness and the efficiency of your promotions.

Boring, you say. Perhaps. "It may not be fun," says Goodman, "but if you don't figure out if a promotion is working, you could spend money you don't need to spend and miss the opportunity to develop a promotion that will exceed your goals."

The first step is to define your objectives and set clear measurement criteria. Armed with this knowledge, you will be better prepared to launch successful promotional campaigns, implement them more effectively—and ultimately achieve higher sales at a lower cost.

The Po!nt: Keeping track of how well your promotion works and the additional sales it generates may not be sexy, but it's the best way to get the maximum return on your promotion investment.

Get to the Po!nt

Use Promotions to Develop Relationships That Stick
December 2007.

"There are several reasons why smart marketers promote their products and seek short-term volume increases," claims senior marketing consultant and MarketingProfs seminar presenter Michael Goodman. And the reasons extend beyond a desire to immediately increase sales. There are a number of possible objectives for a promotion:

• Initial trial. The reality is that consumers constantly check what's available in the marketplace. Marketers may be willing to sell a trial product to attract new customers if they believe that "once the customer tries [it] they'll be back for more," says Goodman.
• Loyalty programs. In these days of seemingly never-ending new products on the market, the smart businesses reward their customers for repeat business. Loyalty programs range from airline frequent flyer programs to free coffee after 10 purchases. The cost is usually small in relation to the incremental sales provided.
• Awareness. Some promotions are designed to generate awareness of and familiarity with the brand. These often appear as relevant giveaways with a purchase, and may have the seller's name and logo emblazoned on the freebie. This way, the customer sees your name, even when they aren't using the product.

The Po!nt: Design your promotion with your objectives in mind. What works to maintain customer loyalty may not attract new customers.

Print Ads of the week - IV

Client: Sony / sub: Wega

Agency: Euro RSCG

Location: Buenos Aires

Print Ads of the Week - III

Client: Sony / Wide screen TV
Agency: Assyria
Location: Beijing, China.

Print Ads of the Week - II

Brand: Louis Vuitton

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

Location: Worldwide

Print Ads of the Week - I

Brand: Louis Vuitton
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Location: Worldwide

Word of Mouth Marketing

Dynamite Branding
December, 2007.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a video worth? And how many more is it worth if it arrives in your inbox from your best friend?

Some months ago I received one such video, accompanied by this note from a good friend of mine: "You just have to watch this one. It's from your home town!" I watched and was so surprised by what I saw that I immediately forwarded it to two other friends.
Titled "Dynamite Surfing," the apparently homegrown video features seven masked teens and a lake in the center of Copenhagen.

While one guy jumps into the small lake with a surfboard, the rest of the gang race for cover and one of the cohort makes for the bridge that spans the lake. As the surfer reaches the lake's center, the guy on the bridge lobs a lit cartoonesque bundle of dynamite into the lake. The subsurface explosion generates a massive wave in the peaceful lake, generally home to flocks of placid ducks. The surfer paddles ahead of the wave, catches it, and proves that you can go surfing in Copenhagen's city center. The scene is dramatic and very convincing, no matter how unlikely you know it to be.

But as transparent as it all seems to be, the truth behind the scene may surprise you. Contrary to appearances, this is not the work of a gang of like-minded friends with a cool idea and a hand-held camera.

"Dynamite Surfing" is the carefully crafted creation of a large, professional film crew. Weeks of preparation preceded the 60-second Quiksilver stunt, directed by one of the world's largest advertising agencies.

And, it turns out, I hadn't been sent the link by accident. An expert in spreading word-of-mouth branding on the Internet kick-started global interest by handpicking one thousand opinion leaders to send the link to. This ensured that I, and the other base group of recipients, would receive the ad unhindered by spam filters.

But just because the production was professional doesn't mean the creation, the message, and its delivery weren't authentic. No hi-tech cameras or lights, flashy backdrops, or highly paid models were used in the creation of this viral ad. Its authenticity and mystery propelled the viral to instant fame—12 million downloads the first three months—and even inspired headlines pleading for legislation against such outrages as youths being allowed to run about with explosives, vandalizing ornamental lakes, and shattering public peace.

Yes, the creation was very convincing.

So here it is: the new world of advertising. A discipline in which the professional is ostensibly replaced by the amateur; where the established media buyer is replaced with the consumer; and where provocation, like shock, surprise, and hilarity, are essential ingredients for capturing the attention of consumers who have an insouciant disinterest in the amount of money spent on an ad, but an active predilection for sensation.

As YouTube, Google and MySpace announce that video advertising will become a key driver in their future revenue strategies, the glitzy, perfect, anonymous ads we have been used to for years will have to change course. After all, we don't really watch these ads unless we're forced to. Ads need to be intriguing in some way; they need to urge us to watch them.

To achieve this, ads need to make an impact, leaving an impression in which the brand message is embedded. These creations required sophisticated thinking, a thorough knowledge of your consumers, and a sound appreciation of the culture that surrounds your product in the community.

Viral advertising will put your team to the test, its ultimate proof of success being that your creation is so fascinating that millions of people can't help but share the experience of it with their friends.

Would your current brand communication pass this test? Would it be able to run by itself, or does it need that million-dollar budget to fuel interest? If the latter sounds more like you, you'd better regroup, fast.

The brand-building turnaround is well on its way; and while Rome—or, rather, cyberspace—wasn't built in a day, once it stood it prospered for a thousand years.


[Martin Lindstrom (www.martinlindstrom.com) is the author of Brand Child and BRAND sense. ]

Know How - Experts Speak

Presentation Secrets for Social Communicators
December 2007.

Speaking and presenting is something I’m passionate about. Why? Because it’s another way to start conversations and build relationships. Or, it can be, if you think about how you present. Here are some recommendations on ways to turn your bullhorn into a party hat in the presentation world.

First, Defuse the Bomb
You have less than two minutes to set up your relationship with the audience. Your audience needs to LOVE you. They have to want you to succeed. And as part of this, they want you to succeed, because they’re hoping to learn something about themselves from you.

Let me highlight that so you take it home with you: People want to learn about THEMSELVES through what you talk about in your presentations.

SUPER SECRET TIP: Tell a funny story. Not a joke. A story. Tell it EARLY. Be as FUNNY as you can muster. Self-depricating humor helps, if you’re any good at that. Be the authority, but be human.

Sneak In With Questions
You need to sneak into your audience’s hearts and minds. I love asking questions, but not so much the hand-raiser types. Sure, I do that schtick. But if I’m trying to get you engaged early, I want to ask you questions that get you rummaging through your own internal autobiography? Why? Because I want you to be connected and engaged to what I’m saying. If I’m getting you to stir up internal memories, I’ve snuck in.

Think Television, Then Break It
We are a world of TV viewers. We are used to screens. Think HARD about this when planning your presentation. First, think about slides. Slides are PART of your TV screen. Know who the other part is? YOU. Now, if you and your slides are the presentation, which is more interesting? A big glowing screen? Or you hiding behind the podium.

Use Your Body
Learn how to move. First, don’t fidget. Second, step away from the podium (unless it’s a HUGE room and the mic is glued to the podium). Get around and move. Get CLOSER to your audience. BLEND for a moment with them. You’ve been to rock concerts. Crowds go CRAZY for contact with the star. And, uh, you’re the star, bub!duh!...whatever.

A Word About Slides
Never ever EVER use pre-built slide formats. Just don’t. Know why? Because they all look THE SAME. Don’t make my eyes bleed. Don’t make me sleep. Next point: bullets are for guns. Be creative. Think about it this way: if this were a TV commercial, would YOU watch? Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth is basically a slide show with Al talking and some dramatic music. Think that way and work backwards.

In format, don’t do title, agenda, name, payload, contact me. Know why? Because EVERYONE does that. Try mixing it up. Just a little. Think TV and all the various formats.

SUPER SECRET TIP: Find lots of great photos on Flickr (use advanced search to select Creative Commons photos, and add a slide near the end of your slideshow giving people attribution for their work).

Your Voice is Important
If you speak in a monotone voice with no stops and go on and on and use ums to cover the spaces where you don’t know what you’re going to say next, people will fall asleep almost immediately, and then the best you can hope is that they dream that you did a good job.

WAKE people UP! Be loud. Be soft. Use your voice with as much energy as a radio announcer or your favorite entertainment personality. Think on this. Practice it. Use shorter sentences. (Notice I do this when I blog?) And try hard to mix up HOW you’re talking about things. Ask questions. Make statements. Pause for breath. Kill “ums.”

Finish With Idea Handles
ALWAYS end a presentation with things people can run off and do. Verbs. Give people ways they can take your ideas, and use them. Giving ideas handles means letting people pick up your idea, take it home with them, and incorporate it into what they’re doing and thinking. It makes the whole time you’ve taken from everyone worth it.

And make sure folks know how to reach you, okay?

So now get going..the world is indeed your stage..!!

[In conversation with Joseph D'Callister from the Wellesly University for Communication.]

Get to the Po!nt

Price Reductions Can Backfire!!!

December, 2007.

The goal of marketing promotions is to stimulate short-term sales. This dictum leads many marketers and small-business owners to reduce prices. However, as Michael Goodman explains, cost cutting is not always the best or most effective way to achieve this goal.

Sound counterintuitive? After all, if the goal is to increase sales, wouldn't cutting prices accomplish this?

According to some senior marketing consultants and presenters for a number of seminars, there are several things to consider before jumping on the price-cutting bandwagon:

• Margins. The amount of profit you earn on the product or service greatly impacts the amount of discount you can offer. "You need to consider what the cost of the discount is as well as the benefit,".


• Trade loading. Will the promotion subsidize future purchases? After all, if customers stock up on your product during a promotion, they may not need to purchase your product next month. That could negatively impact future sales.


• Cheapening the image. Frequent discounts can lead customers to believe that the product is overpriced.


• Long-term effect. Recurring price reductions also influence buyers' expectations. After all, if customers know the product will soon be discounted, why would they make a purchase today?

The Po!nt: Before attempting to increase short-term sales by offering a price promotion, consider the long view. Think about the long-term sales potential and the image of your product.

{courtsey & reference: Hunterz Ignite Archives }