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Customer Behaviour

2008-03-27T11:18:00.002+04:00

Make It Fun to Keep Them Loyal

What makes consumers love your Web site? The answer might be as simple as child's play. Research shows that customers have a more positive attitude toward a site when their online experience is engaging and enjoyable. And enjoyment is an important determinant of why consumers shop.

When they become immersed in your site, customers view being on it as fun rather than work. Since their experience feels like play, they return more—making them more loyal to the site, the company and the brands it sells.

What creates this immersion? Research suggests you gain loyalty when:

The site challenges customers. Customers don't want to be bored. When the skill required to navigate your Web site marginally exceeds customers' search skills, they see the experience as an enjoyable escape rather than a burden.

Customers believe they have the skills to find what they want on the site. If customers can't follow the site navigation, they will lose interest in their search and, perhaps, your company and its products.

Customers feel they have control over the search. If the navigation is too complicated for the average user to master, they won't return to the site.

The Po!nt: Design your Web site with the end-user in mind. Make it a fun challenge, not a task. Customers who become immersed in your site will be more loyal to the site, your company and your brands.

Marketing Inspiration

2008-03-22T10:42:00.002+04:00

The Deviant Approach to Creativity

Take a look around your office—what do you see? The traditional mix of memorabilia, photos from company golf tournaments and perhaps a few mementos from some recent successful product launches?But you probably don't have a poster of the Sex Pistols above your desk. And Amantha Imber of Inventium says its deviant imagery, or something of similar shock value, might be just what you need for optimum brainstorming.

Imber points to a Jens Forster study that looked at deviance and creativity. "[They] hypothesized that objects or pictures that relate to the concept of deviance in some way, such as a photograph of punk rockers, are likely to promote divergent thinking," says Imber. The research team divided participants into two groups and tasked each with devising uses for a brick while looking at posters of the letter X repeated in a four-by-four matrix.

For the first group, each of the 16 Xs was the same color; for the second group, one X had a different hue from the other 15. The second group, staring at their deviant X, produced more ideas and exhibited a higher degree of creativity.

In the event your CEO or clients object to radical office décor, Imber recommends meditating on events from your rebellious past to stir up inspiration. "Thinking about one's deviant history is a great way to get the brain geared up for some creative thinking," she says.

Your Marketing Inspiration: Concentrating on a deviant image or memory may help activate unconscious thoughts that lead to good ideas, and more of them.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-03-22T10:37:00.002+04:00

Creating Your Company's Own Online Reality

"While many business owners are beginning to understand that information is the currency of the Internet," says Rick Sloboda of WebCopyPlus," few act on it." Yes, your business has the potential to create a website that can go toe-to-toe with larger corporate sites, but there's a chance that ill-defined, irrelevant and self-centered content may conspire to undermine this natural advantage.

Instead, use language to create an online reality that impresses your target audience. "The right web content will make you concrete and credible on the ... Internet," he says. Here are some tips on creating the right image:

Use customer-centric copy. Small businesses tend to be preoccupied with their own story. People who visit your website don't want to hear about you; they want to know what you or your product can do for them.

Publish case studies. This is something larger companies do—so why shouldn't you? It never hurts to offer a detailed examination of a successful project. In addition, case studies build a sense of trust.

Put your guarantee in plain sight. Highlighting your promise communicates confidence, and creates a sense of stability.

The Po!nt: "Your web copywriting doesn't describe reality, it creates it," says Sloboda. "In fact, every word you feature on your website has the ability to build—or damage—how prospects perceive you."

E-mail Marketing

2008-03-22T10:34:00.002+04:00

Four Tough ESP Questions

Now, wait just a minute. Don't hand that online campaign to just any email service provider (ESP)—at least not before you ask some hard questions.
Here are four tough ones that SendLabs' Josh Nason says you should always ask an ESP:

What do I get? You might want a full-service shop that handles everything from software to creative services, or you might prefer an a la carte approach that complements your in-house skill sets. Make sure you know upfront what the ESP can and cannot provide.

How's your customer service? Ask how long it takes an ESP to respond to reported problems: the industry norm, according to Nason, is within an hour. Also investigate how their service levels might vary based on the plan you choose.

What will this cost me? Most ESPs charge either by the month or by the campaign. "There are positives and negatives to both," says Nason, "so … communicate your list sizes, your deployment habits and your needs" to find the right payment plan.

What's the word on the street about you? A quality ESP will have a relationship with an email reputation monitor that confirms email arrives safely, provides blacklist monitoring and offers spam checks. "Feel free to ask [an ESP] what their latest reputation score is," he says.

The Po!nt: "If checking out a company's site or speaking with a rep gives you that not-so-confident feeling, there's probably a reason for it," says Nason. So keep looking until you feel comfortable. By asking the right questions, you'll find the right fit.

e-mail Marketing

2008-02-26T12:52:00.002+04:00

A Permission Marketing Primer: Picking and Choosing

Permission email marketing has morphed from best practice to legal requirement in several countries. In the next three issues we'll explore what Karen Talavera, president of Sychronicity Marketing, refers to as the "Six Cs of Permission Email Marketing." Here are the first two:

Conscious consent

"Terms like affirmative consent, passive consent and third-party consent abound," writes Talavera. "But when it comes to genuine, 100 percent permission marketing, the only consent that matters is conscious consent." This means subscribers make an active decision to receive future communication. This is different from having the box for future messages pre-checked on a registration form and expecting subscribers to deselect it if they don't want future messages. For conscious consent, the subscriber must physically check the box and agree to your correspondence.

Choice

Let recipients set their preferences for the manner and types of communication they receive. Some might want news about your company but not promotions, or accept messages by email but not postal mail. Some sites let subscribers determine the frequency of contact. "It's fine to restrict choices solely to what you can realistically manage," says Talavera. "Aim your sights on under-promising and over-delivering rather than vice versa, and your customers will reward your efforts."

The Po!nt: Says Talavera, "With marketing channels of choice proliferating and messaging devices diversifying, it's not hard to imagine ... [a] future where permissions are granted not only by marketing channel ... but also by content, device, time and place."

Customer Behaviour

2008-02-26T12:50:00.001+04:00

Who Can Resist a Bargain?

Many marketers believe customers are attracted to discounted prices. Yet this assumption may be wrong. While a lowered price might make people more inclined to buy your product, they may also be less satisfied with their purchase.

Researchers at Stanford, INSEAD and MIT found that consumers who were given an energy drink felt the product was less effective if it was purchased at a discount. Consumers who drank the discounted product felt they that had a less intense workout than those who purchased the drink at its regular price.

When advised that the drink helped improve mental acuity, consumers who were told that the drink was purchased at a discount were able to solve fewer word puzzles than those consumers who used the same product purportedly purchased at the regular price.
Also, consumers exposed to strong claims about the energy drink's effectiveness were able to solve more word puzzles than consumers who received weaker advertising about the product. Your marketing messages, therefore, may impact your product's potency. Advertising claims, even if not based in fact, may become reality to customers.

The Po!nt: Customers may, in fact, get what they pay for. Price drops, and advertising overall, may shape consumers' expectations, making them believe a product is not as effective, and hence lower in quality.

Get to the Point

2008-02-26T12:45:00.002+04:00

Nickel and Dime on the Not-So-Sly

In a post at his Living Light Bulbs blog, Ryan Karpeles talks about the wrong way to make a buck. And he offers a prime example: Dollar Rent a Car, which recently introduced a $2 "topping off" charge to any vehicle returned with a full tank of gas. "Not only is this obnoxious," Karpeles complains, "but it's also unfair to the customer ... you either pay $2, or you get stuck with the bloated 'local refueling charges' (which are always higher than the market cost of gasoline)."

If the company needs to generate an extra two bucks from each transaction, Karpeles suggests that rolling the surcharge into a rental fee—where it's likely to go unnoticed—would secure the revenue without alienating customers.

It's a principle worth considering if you find yourself in a similar situation. For instance, would you feel ripped off if your $240 hotel room came with complimentary Internet access? Of course not. But you might resent a $15 connection charge when it's added to a $225 daily rate. Likewise, you probably wouldn't give a second thought to a $603 plane ticket that included refreshments; but if you pay $600 for the ticket and they want $3 for a soft drink, you're going to roll your eyes at the price gouging.

The Po!nt: "Before you enact a bunch of new policies to make an extra buck," writes Karpeles, "think about what kind of message you're sending. There's probably a lot better way to accomplish the same thing."

Marketing Inspiration

2008-02-26T12:42:00.001+04:00

Social Security Shenanigans

Everyone knows you're supposed to guard your social security number like a state secret. After all, those nine digits are the open sesame for criminals who want to run up huge tabs on credit accounts opened in your name. They get new computers, Caribbean holidays and expensive watches; you get to spend years rebuilding your credit.

So it's more than a little shocking to watch this television ad for a service called LifeLock. It shows a large panel truck cruising the streets of Manhattan with the social security number of its CEO Todd Davis emblazoned in a bright red, easy-to-read font. We kid you not—it's right there for all of New York, and anyone with a television, to see. The seeming insanity continues at the LifeLock Web site, where the first words you'll see are: "My name is Todd Davis. My social security number is 457-55-5462."

It turns out Davis isn't out of his mind. Instead, he's actually making the best possible case for his product. "Why publish my social security number?" he asks. "Because I'm absolutely confident LifeLock is protecting my good name and personal information, just like it will yours." He finishes off by announcing a $1 million guarantee.

You can probably anticipate why we consider this Marketing Inspiration: By making himself as vulnerable to identity theft as anyone can possibly be, Davis exhibits a breathtaking confidence in the service he sells. How we can convey that level of faith in our own companies?

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-26T12:33:00.003+04:00

Setting Your Evangelists on Track

In a post at the Church of the Customer Blog, Jackie Huba asks a question you've probably faced at some time: How do you handle a customer evangelist who is misrepresenting your company? Even though the offender's facts may be correct, his or her stance could be off mark. It can be a tricky situation.
On one hand, you've put a lot of thought into positioning your products or services in a certain way; on the other, attempting to micromanage the word of mouth is likely to backfire. So how do you react? According to Huba, you have four basic options:

Make a public correction. Leave a comment at the customer evangelist's blog, for instance, that thanks them for the attention and gently clarifies your company's message.

Make a private correction. Include the same content in an email that leaves the person free to follow up as they see fit.

Acknowledge the mention without a correction. Express gratitude privately or publicly, and leave it at that

Do nothing

Huba recommends the third route, and offers a tip for keeping future evangelism on target: Invite the person to join a special program that gives "inner circle" access to your latest news and updates.

The Po!nt: "If the customer's information is technically correct but incomplete, or uses her own words and not yours, get over it," she writes. "A word-smithing scold is old."

Marketing Inspiration

2008-02-17T12:13:00.001+04:00

A Super Bowl Strategy That Paid Off

In a post at MarketingProfs' Daily Fix, Steven Schreibman discusses Nationwide Insurance's controversial decision last year to leak its Super Bowl ad a week before the sporting event. Outside observers weren't the only skeptics. "There was even some debate among our own advertising team about whether this was 'spoiling the surprise' and watering down the ad's game-time impact," he says.

But his company's gambit paid off. The spot—starring Kevin Federline as a rap star wannabe who works at a fast food joint—garnered 600,000 hits at the company's Web site, and the majority of these were from first-time visitors. Further, Schreibman notes the unorthodox strategy didn't prevent the ad from winding up on several "best of" lists.

Other companies recognize the value in the Nationwide approach as can be seen by the companies that posted their Super Bowl ads on YouTube long before their scheduled airtime. Pepsi, for instance, offered up the differently EnAbled humor of Bob's House; Bridgestone, gave us a sneak peak of Richard Simmons as the target of a speeding automobile.

"This experience has made me a true believer in the power social media," says Schreibman. "In fact, the early buzz we built by making the ad available to social media outlets became a catalyst for overwhelming interest from traditional media." And that's our idea of Marketing Inspiration.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-17T12:09:00.002+04:00

Master Your Domain

In December, Hollywood learned that the AMPTP—which represents producers in their protracted negotiations with striking writers—hadn't covered its online bases. While the organization owned amptp.org, it didn't control amptp.com. A pair of TV writers with time on their hands used this oversight as an opportunity to make jokes at AMPTP's expense. Nikki Finke of DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com described the satirical coup as "laugh-out-loud funny no matter what side of the issue you're on."

Ed Lee of Blogging Me, Blogging You provided a side-by-side comparison:
From the "real" amptp.org: "The WGA has now been reduced to pounding the table, and this baseless, desperate NLRB complaint is just the latest indication that the WGA's negotiating strategy has achieved nothing for working writers."

From the "spoof" amptp.com: "We are heartbroken to report that despite our best efforts, including sending them a muffin basket, making them a mix CD, and standing outside their window with a boombox blasting Peter Gabriel songs, our talks with the WGA have broken down. Quite frankly, we're puzzled as to why this happened."

The comedy writers only rented amptp.com for a few weeks, so their site didn't last long. But it forced the AMPTP to spend energy counteracting it rather than promoting their own cause.

The Po!nt: "You'd do well to remember this story next time you propose a Web site," writes Lee. "Don't be cheap. Buy all the relevant domains you can. Even buy some common misspellings of your domain." This can prevent you from being sidelined unnecessarily, whether at the hands of merry pranksters or malevolent competitors.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-17T12:02:00.002+04:00

Freedom to Brand Fearlessly

In the most recent edition of Editorial Emergency, Simon Glickman and Julia Rubiner warn businesses against fear-based branding. Many clients approach the dynamic copywriting duo with requests for their signature wordplay and then second-guess the recommended strategy, worrying that the punchy copy might not appeal to the widest audience. Maybe, these clients wonder, we're better off going with something safe—like our competitors use.

But Glickman and Rubiner don't see the point. "Your competitor's site? Dullsville, daddy-o. They're trying to be all things to all people, so there's no telling who they really are." Among the "muddy biz-babble" the two dismiss:

Highest quality

Industry leader

Commitment to excellence

Years of experience

Solutions-oriented

We defy the average visitor to recall a single phrase from such a dreary spiel," say Glickman and Rubiner. In order to achieve indelible branding, they continue, you must (a) clearly separate yourself from the pack, and (b) figure out who your ideal clients are and speak directly to them.
So fear not. If your target audience responds to an irreverent, edgy tone, for instance, be irreverent and edgy. Your branding might not appeal to the entire world, but it will appeal to your customers.

The Po!nt: "[T]hough you may feel you're just playing it safe, fear-based branding is actually toxic to the development of your brand," argues Glickman and Rubiner. "As the old saying goes, standing in the middle of the road only means you'll be hit by traffic in both directions."

Marketing Inspiration

2008-02-17T11:57:00.003+04:00

Did He Really Call It a 'Nymphomercial'?

In a post at his blog, Drew's Marketing Minute, Drew McLellan presents the case of Jay Nussbaum, a novelist who figured he might as well use viral video to promote his latest effort, A Monk Jumped Over a Wall.
To tease the reading public, Nussbaum dramatized a scene from his story of an ethical lawyer who battles a devious client. Doesn't sound all that exciting, does it? But Nussbaum overcame that obstacle by giving his (possibly NSFW) video a name guaranteed to generate page views at YouTube: Nymphomercial.

The title isn't totally off-topic because, before we get to the novel's surreal sequence, we're treated to a Portia de Rossi look-a-like in a turquoise bikini who rolls around on the floor and reads excerpts from the book. She then makes an improbable appearance in the scene itself—it isn't clear if she's part of the novel, or simply an extension of the nymphomercial's gimmick—and also to offer a final thought: "I mean, if a book is good, you don't need a hot girl to sell it. But she just might get you to jump the wall." Wink.

"Was it a safe choice?" asks McLellan. "Hardly. How many remarkable products/companies stay in the safe zone? How could you use viral video to shout over the crowd and be heard in a remarkable way?" And we think pondering those questions will give you plenty of Marketing Inspiration.

Marketing Inspiration

2008-02-09T13:16:00.000+04:00

I Am McLovin!

Even if you missed the gleefully raunchy hit comedy Superbad, you probably remember clips from a NSFW scene that got heavy rotation in trailers and television ads: A high school student played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse obtains a fake Hawaiian driver's license that gives his full name as "McLovin." When he proudly presents the fabricated identification to his friends, they're nonplussed. Teenagers loved McLovin's undaunted optimism—nobody remembers the character's real name—and reveled in his drunken misadventures with a pair of cops who seem to believe the license is legit.

His popularity is no doubt why Norman Lear's voter registration initiative Declare Yourself invited Mintz-Plasse to get back into character for a PSA. The brief video opens as McLovin lies on his bed, unbuttons his shirt and seductively intones, "Hello, America. Welcome to my bedroom. I'm just about to register to vote. Join me." He then rolls over to a laptop computer and does just that. When finished, he turns back to the camera. "Now stick around and you can watch me touch myself." It might sound creepy out of context, but coming from McLovin it's hilarious.

In a post at the What's Next Blog, B.L. Ochman says the video shows "exactly how to use social media for election impact." Declare Yourself hopes this campaign will help reach its goal of registering 2 million new voters by the general 2008 presidential election.

Any Superbad fan will watch this—and very likely take action—just because they like McLovin. Your Marketing Inspiration: Find out what your customers like that much, and you might have a social media bonanza on your hands, too.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-09T13:13:00.000+04:00

The Name Game

Stroll over to MarketingProfs' Know-How Exchange and you'll find that small business owners ask one question with remarkable frequency: What should I call my company/product? Sometimes they already have ideas and are looking for feedback, and sometimes they're at a complete loss. Whatever your situation, Scott Trimble has some helpful pointers:

Look for a name that is memorable but easy to pronounce and spell.

Avoid a name so specific (e.g., Dave's 256K Flash Drives) that it might hinder later growth

Choose a name that doesn't carry negative connotations, whether in English or other major foreign languages

Check for existing trademarks and the availability of domain names.

Trimble recommends asking yourself questions such as:

What does my product do?

How does my product benefit the consumer?

What are the "ingredients" that go into my product or service?

What makes my product unique?

And consider the various ways you can "stumble" on a great name:

Find a synonym using Thesaurus.com.

Think up puns and plays on words.

Deliberately misspell a word you like.

Borrow from industry lingo.

The Po!nt: "There are plenty of highly successful businesses and products out there with bad names," writes Trimble. "So, take your naming, like your friends' opinions, with a grain of salt. And, as with everything, the more you stress about obtaining perfection, the less likely you'll come up with that killer name that seamlessly fits your offering."

Customer Behaviour

2008-02-09T13:10:00.000+04:00

Warm Up Your Thinking Cap

Organizational psychologist Amantha Imber, Head Inventiologist of Inventium, claims nothing saps creative juices like the hyperlogical mindset that professionals often bring to the table. "Most idea generation or problem solving meetings are scheduled immediately after a strategy or finance meeting," she says. "[Consider] how difficult it is to come from a meeting that requires analytical, rational thinking into a meeting that requires us to think laterally."

To ready yourself for creative activities, Imber suggests a solution she calls Fat Chance. The idea is to warm up your brain for the task at hand, much as you might stretch before going for a jog.

Here's how it works: The team chooses an impossible goal to be solved in an unrealistic time frame. "The tighter the better," she says. Since this is an exercise, have fun with the subject matter and use the brainstorming session to tackle topics such as how to boost Paris Hilton's IQ 100 points by the end of the week, or how to raise $10 billion dollars by dinner tonight. Break into small groups to generate three solutions that don't have to be logical or rational. "Indeed," she says, "those types of solutions won't actually solve the problem." After five minutes, present your solutions and have a good laugh. You're now ready for business.

"It only takes a few minutes of effective warming up to shift your brain into an open-minded and lateral thinking mode," says Imber. We think any exercise that puts you in the right frame of mind for peak creativity is Marketing Inspiration.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-09T13:07:00.000+04:00

Show Me the Way

Suppose you want to make a quick online purchase, but get annoyed when you can't find the product you want on the Web site. The problem with this scenario, claims Rick Sloboda of Webcopyplus, is the site's architecture. It's important to ensure your customers aren't having a similar experience at your site. According to Sloboda, typical problems with a Web site's architecture include:

Complicated navigation. This fundamental design error means visitors don't have a clearly marked path to the information they want. Present customers with an online labyrinth and they may give up and leave.

Confusing classifications. Sloboda points to one client that had a dedicated page for each department. "That's how they wanted to present information," he says. "But was it logical from a potential client's perspective? Not by a long shot." To find information, site visitors had to hop randomly from one page to another.

Problematic content that decreases the efficiency of your site can compound the frustrations of inelegant architecture with:

Self-centric copy. Address a customer's needs first when you write your copy. "What you want to say is not important," says Sloboda. "It's all about what the customer wants to do."

Outdated information. It's critical to keep your content current.

The Po!nt: "The right Web site architecture means fewer clicks to get desired information and less effort to complete tasks," says Sloboda. "You're telling visitors you care. Bad Web site architecture sends your visitors a completely different message: Get lost."

E-Mail marketing

2008-02-09T13:05:00.000+04:00

Remember Me?

"Most marketers have email addresses for less than half their customers and prospects," says Reggie Brady. If this sounds familiar, you should consider using an email appending service. The larger services maintain databases with as many as 90 million individuals. You provide a name and mailing address, and they give you the email address associated with that contact. In a B2B setting, match rates range from 10 to 15 percent; the B2C scenario has an expected 25 to 30 percent success rate.

Once you have the email address, your next step is to get the contact's consent by sending what's called a permission pass. "You should explain the existing relationship, tell recipients you would like to ... communicate with them via email, and give them a clear opportunity to opt out," says Brady. After that, the regular rules of email marketing apply.

Brady says one magazine publisher reached out to her using this method, and she was generally impressed with its approach. She received seven messages over the course of three weeks. The first offered 26 issues for $20. The second and fourth contained variations on the initial deal while the fifth and seventh messages offered a four free trial issues. She did not appreciate messages three and six, however, which came from third-party advertisers. Although the permission pass had mentioned the possibility of such offers, it wasn't clearly worded.

The Po!nt: Using an email appending service is a great way to reach existing or past customers. As long as you follow proper etiquette, you could see a great response.

Customer Behaviour

2008-02-09T12:52:00.000+04:00

Do Touch the Merchandise

Despite its merits, online shopping has a severe disadvantage: Customers can't touch the products they find on the Internet. Is tactile sensation a concern, even if you don't sell products such as hand lotion or clothing, where feeling is a factor of quality?

Surprisingly, yes. Researchers have discovered that many consumers use touch to gather information or make judgments, even when an item's physical form has nothing to do with its value. Some people have a high need for touch—feeling products and packaging creates a pleasurable or fun experience for them. For these people, a pleasant or even a neutral sensation creates a positive reaction that can carry over to their judgment of the product.

While product packaging and point-of-purchase displays can obviously benefit from a shopper's interest in touch, companies can also use tactile stimuli in direct mail and print advertising. "Recent trends in advertising have focused on the experiential and aesthetic aspects of communication," the report states. "Incorporating touch may be the next step in adding a hedonic or experiential aspect to advertising and other marketing communications." Even people who are not tactile can be influenced by touch because they can see its relevance to the message.

The Po!nt: The way your product feels can affect how much consumers like it, even when touch has no relevance in determining whether the product is good or not. Communications that incorporate physical sensation is a subject area ripe for experimentation.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-09T12:50:00.000+04:00

Lessons From Your Favorite Store

Enamored of Whole Foods Market, Jackie Huba decided to spend a week patronizing the various food and beverage stations at the chain's 80,000-square-foot Austin flagship—for each and every meal. Huba recounts the experience at the Church of the Customer Blog. "My week wasn't Oprah-transformational (I didn't cry)," she says, "but we bonded." And she learned a few marketing lessons, among them:

Cater to the niche. "Organic food may have started as a tiny beacon in the world of corporate farming," writes Huba, "but for nearly 30 years, Whole Foods stayed true to the niche. Maybe nurtured it, too." As an example, she includes a snapshot of a sign explaining why you won't find one packet of Splenda in the store. It reads: "Due to our commitment to sell only products with natural ingredients, we cannot offer artificial sweeteners or sugar-free syrups." Now that's devotion.

Let fans spread the word digitally. Though the media badge Huba collected each morning allowed her to photograph the store's interior, she says, "that didn't stop employees, sometimes herds of them, from accosting me (politely, usually) when I whipped out my D40 Nikon to snap a picture of some sexy cous cous." According to Huba, the store's strict no-photograph policy—designed to prevent competitors from stealing ideas—is not only impossible to enforce in an era of camera-equipped phones, it hobbles customer evangelists who want to spread the word through social media.

The Po!nt: Studying a store you admire, even if it has nothing to do with your business, can be a critical element of defining do's and don'ts for your own business.

Marketing Inspiration

2008-02-09T12:47:00.000+04:00

Get Over It, Kid

It usually happens when deadlines are looming and there's so much going on you can't cope with one more thing. A nasty message from a customer or a colleague sends you over the edge, and your immediate desire is to tell them exactly where they can stick their grievance. But before letting your emotions rule, consider the case of Candy Tistadt, wife of the COO of Virginia's Fairfax County school district.

Dave Kori, a senior at Lake Braddock Secondary School, called the couple's home to ask why the district had not declared a snow day when three inches were predicted in their suburban Washington D.C. town. Tistadt responded with a minute-long tirade that included choice lines like: "[My husband] is out almost every single night of the week at meetings for snotty-nosed little brats, and he may not have called you, but it is not because he's home because it snowed. Get over it, kid, and go to school."

Kori might have deserved an angry response. Though few people will notice that they haven't heard the message he left on the Tistadt's answering machine—meanwhile, Candy Tistadt's scathing words zip around the Internet, attracting the attention of media heavyweights like the Washington Post and CNN. What most people will remember is that a grown-up lost her cool.

Your Marketing Inspiration: Don't forget that social media can be a two-edged sword. So go ahead and lose your temper, but calm down before you pick up the phone or hit reply. If you don't, you might have a starring role in the viral video of your nightmares.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-09T12:46:00.000+04:00

Network Like Charlie Wilson

If you've seen Charlie Wilson's War, you'll probably agree that Wilson seemed an eminently likeable and accomplished individual. Tom Peters, who read the book upon which the movie is based, noticed that Wilson also provides many lessons on how to do business. Peters wrote a detailed post at his blog providing 33 takeaways; here's a snapshot of those related to networking:

Make friends! And then more friends! And then more friends! Wilson's gentile heritage didn't prevent him from joining the congressional Jewish caucus; the Texan also joined the Black caucus. According to author George Crile, "The House, like any human institution, is moved by friendships, and no matter what people might think about Wilson's antics, they tend to like him and enjoy his company."

Make friends with people several levels down from decision-makers and with disenfranchised groups. Writes Peters, "the key to sales success is 'wiring' the client organization three or four levels down—where the real work gets done."

Seek unlikely allies—or at least don't rule them out. Simply because someone doesn't meet with your complete approval doesn't mean their buy-in and follow-through won't help move your project forward. Says Peters, "Find the right path (often $$$$) and the most bitter of rivals will make common cause relative to some key link in the chain."

The Po!nt: "I'd guess that 98 percent of projects fail in terms of even near-total implementation," writes Peters. "And 98 percent of [those] are the results of lousy political and networking skills—not selection of the wrong project management software package."

Marketing Inspiration

2008-02-09T12:29:00.000+04:00

A Doctor Who Only Makes House Calls

Dr. Jay Parkinson's Web site is stylish enough to belong to an ad agency or a media start-up rather than a general practitioner. Then again, Parkinson isn't like your average family doctor.

For starters, he only makes house calls. Each visit costs around $200, and he stays for as long as he's needed, not the five or ten minutes you're allotted in a traditional office. Also—hold onto your hats—he's easy to reach. On the site, he displays his mobile phone number, his email address and a quartet of IM addresses.

In another shocking twist, Parkinson demystifies the process of diagnosis and treatment, using hypothetical situations like falling on your wrist in the park. You could go to an emergency room for a seven-hour visit and a $2,000 bill, writes Parkinson, or you can call him to do the following:

Based on a phone conversation, he suspects your wrist is broken. He sends you to nearby radiologist, who charges $80 for an x-ray.

Your wrist is broken. The radiologist emails the x-ray to Parkinson, who directs you to an orthopedist in the neighborhood who can see you in an hour and charges $400 to cast your arm.

Parkinson's summation: You've saved $1,520 and five hours of your day. "But say your wrist wasn't broken," he concludes. "It was simply sprained. You only spent $80. I then tell you what to do about that sprained wrist."

By making convenience, transparency and value the central thrust of his unconventional practice, Dr. Parkinson makes himself virtually irresistible to his target audience. And we'd say that's a healthy dose of Marketing Inspiration.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-09T12:26:00.000+04:00

Would Anyone Care If You Went Out of Business?

John Moore of Brand Autopsy blog has a provocative series of posts in which he asks: "If [company name here] went out of business tomorrow, would anyone care?" Subjects have ranged from Sears to Subaru.

When Moore asked about Eddie Bauer, he received a range of answers that hinted at the struggling clothier's strengths and weakness. Interestingly, readers who said they would miss Eddie Bauer tended to cite specific products, while detractors focused on the company's image. "They stock tall size in shirts and pants that fit off the shelf," said 6' 4" commenter Jamey. "Very few places meet that specific need." A contrary view from commenter Jon Gabriel: "I would identify EB as a mall-bound pretend-outdoors brand containing items that look vaguely rugged, but wouldn't last an hour in the wild."

Moore's inspiration for the series came from Bill Taylor and Polly LaBarre, who say it's the question every company needs to ask itself. How would your company fare in the harsh glare of self-examination?

Do you provide such a unique product or service that customers would be saddened to see you go?

Have you forged an emotional connection with your customers that another company couldn't duplicate?

Could your employees find an employer that treated them as well as your company?

The Po!nt: "How does your company rank?" asks Moore. "Can you answer YES with conviction? Or, do you have to concede by answering NO?" If the latter, it's time to work on drumming up support.

E-mail Marketing

2008-02-09T12:21:00.000+04:00

Give 'Em a Good Tease

Whether your email campaign's audience is B2B or B2C, most recipients use a preview pane to decide whether they want to read the message or hit delete. Reggie Brady suggests several ways to maximize your preview pane's effectiveness. Here's the overview:

Include your logo and a headline above the body of your email. Traditionally the location for housekeeping items such as "Add us to your address book" or "Click here to view online," this space is wasted without a headline to highlight a product, service or offer. Other items to include in this valuable real estate:

Personalized salutations. People are drawn to their own names.

Your toll-free number. "Today, the customer is in control," says Brady, "and should have as many options as possible to conduct business in their channel of preference."

A secondary offer. Don't crowd too much text into a small space. Relocating "Add us to your address book" to the footer could free up room for an additional offer.

Link to an HTML version of your email's content. "I am astounded to see how many marketers who rely on images in their emails ignore this," Brady writes. "[I]mage blocking represents a major challenge and it is likely that many recipients will not see your message as you planned."

The Po!nt: Says Brady, "What readers see in [the preview pane] can influence their decision to open your email." Remember this, and you'll increase the odds that readers get your message.

Customer Behaviour

2008-02-09T12:13:00.000+04:00

How Saying the Least May Achieve the Most

Clearly the things you say and show in an ad can convey something about your product. But how about what you don't say or show?

A study has revealed that ads containing considerable white space lead customers to perceive the advertised product as more prestigious, sophisticated, trustworthy, higher in product quality and leadership, and lower in risk than the same ad without white space.

Researchers note that these associations hark back to the minimalist movement, a reaction against artwork perceived as deceptive or full of illusion. In advertising, the less-is-more approach to graphics is a response to the text-heavy, authoritative, "scientific" or "information"-type ads of the early to mid-20th century—examples of which include, for instance, extolling the digestive benefits of smoking Camels or drinking Schlitz beer. The removal of excessive imagery and language makes the information in the ad appear more truthful, and makes the advertiser appear as if it has nothing to hide.

The Po!nt: If you are trying to create a sophisticated and trustworthy brand image, consider saying less—not more—in the ads you create.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-09T12:11:00.000+04:00

Time Is Money

It doesn't matter if you work in an entrepreneurial or corporate environment: Demands on your time can pull you in two—or ten—different directions. Taking control of your schedule can be challenging, but blogger Jeremiah Owyang suggests to wrangle your workday by thinking of time as money. Though Owyang speaks from the perspective of a Web strategist, much of his advice can be applied to a variety of disciplines. Here are some ideas that you can put right into action:

Pay yourself first. Each morning, Owyang budgets two uninterrupted hours for online reading and blogging; he enjoys both activities and they increase his professional value. "Like the advice from most financial advisors, they encourage you to pay yourself first by investing in your own funds, paying your bills and making yourself (reasonably) happy before paying off your creditors," he explains.

Cut back on unnecessary expenses. If an element of your workday doesn't provide ROI on the time invested, spend less time on that element. Owyang cites email as a typical problem area in his daily operations. "As soon as you answer emails, you're now paying for someone else's time," he writes, later noting it compounds his loss of time: "The more you respond to emails, the more you will receive."

The Po!nt: "Cherish your time as you do your wallet or purse," writes Owyang. "[T]his is yours, and unlike money, you can't invest and grow new time, you can only manage the existing time you've got, cut into other areas, or hire someone under you to do it."

Marketing Inspiration

2008-02-07T15:49:00.000+04:00

Rules Schmules

Ben McConnell has been campaigning against inane corporate rules at the Church of the Customer blog. In a round-up of marketing resolutions for the new year he puts "Vow to eliminate a stupid rule" at number six. "You know what it is," he says. "Customers (or bloggers) have already told you. So eliminate it already. For extra points, give it a funeral." McConnell cites two examples of rules gone wild:

A customer at a pack-and-ship store who wanted to tape his package was asked to do so outside. Huh? It turned out a woman had once sued the store for cutting her hand on its tape dispenser, and the company chose to avoid future lawsuits by banning the practice altogether. "One customer's misfortune inspired an unnecessary rule at the expense of 10,000 others who aren't clumsy and litigious," notes McConnell.

In another logic-defying case, the manager of a high-end grocery store ordered an employee to release a shoplifter he had restrained, and then fired him for violating a hard-and-fast rule that prohibits employees from touching customers—a loose definition at best—for any reason.

"More rules are proportional to less convenience," writes McConnell. "More rules = fewer customers. You either let the tyranny of one customer influence your organization, or not. When someone wants to add a new rule, how about eliminating an existing one instead?" And we think that removing rules, not adding more, is Marketing Inspiration.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-07T13:28:00.000+04:00

Don't Sabotage Your Creativity

Even for an out-of-the-box thinker, being creative on demand can be aggravating. In a guest appearance at Drew's Marketing Minute, blogger Katie Konrath offers advice on how not to get tangled up in frustration:

Don't reinvent the wheel. "Look around to see what people in other fields are doing," says Konrath. "Then adapt their solutions to your particular situation. It's not cheating if you expand on a concept that came from somewhere else." Henry Ford took the concept of an assembly line and applied it to cars. Likewise, the technology for roll-on deodorant was inspired by the inner workings of a ballpoint pen.

Actively pursue brilliant ideas. When you have an epiphany at three in the morning, or while waiting in line, don't be fooled into believing it's a random thought that came from nowhere. Writes Konrath, "Serendipitous ideas occur because you've set your mind to looking for a solution, and—even when you're not thinking directly about your problem—your brain is ticking in the background."

Think before throwing out a "bad" idea hastily. A brainstorming session often produces a few real duds, but concepts that seem implausible, impossible or silly may still have potential. "A lot of ideas that sound completely backwards at first are actually gold mines for new and better ideas," Konrath says.

The Po!nt: There are a million tools and strategies for sparking creativity, says Konrath, but none will "help unless you stop ... self-sabotaging behaviors that destroy your best ideas before you have them."

Marketing Inspiration

2008-02-07T13:24:00.000+04:00

A Week at IKEA

Mark Malkoff, a comedian best known for patronizing each of Manhattan's 171 Starbucks in a single day, needed a place to stay while his apartment was fumigated. Since his friends had no extra space in their tiny apartments and hotels were too expensive, Malkoff decided to spend his week of temporary homelessness at his local IKEA. "My apartment is 80 percent IKEA anyway," narrates Malkoff in the first video documenting his experience. "It would be like living at home."

The premise is a bit thin. But whether a skunk works brainstorm from IKEA marketers or one comedian's inspired self-promotion, the series of videos collectively known as Mark Lives in IKEA are a win-win situation for all involved.

IKEA gets lots of free press and product demonstrations from someone who appears to be the ultimate customer evangelist. (There seems to be no official support from IKEA, and Malkoff claimed he wasn't paid.) Additionally, the Swedish company's bemused cooperation reinforces a good-natured image.

Malkoff has a viral venue to audition for a larger role on The Colbert Report, where he currently works as an audience coordinator.

Viewers are entertained—and, perhaps, slightly appalled—by someone with the chutzpah to brush his teeth at the self-serve soda fountain and toss a used towel back on the shelf. All of this, meanwhile, is set to a diverse soundtrack that runs the gamut from Herb Alpert to Mötley Crüe.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-07T13:21:00.000+04:00

This Deal Available Only Last Week

How often do you come across an advertisement with a limited-time offer that has already expired? Or a seasonal offer still lingering after the holiday has passed? Like any public goof, you're probably just grateful it wasn't your screw-up. But it could be—and that's why Susan Gunelius of the MarketingBlurb blog says it's important to stay on top of your various campaigns.

An obviously outdated ad does more than embarrass your company; it can permanently change the way people think of your company, brand or product. After all, if you don't pay attention to your marketing, what other details do you gloss over? "Even if the ad works and catches a person's attention," she says, "the negative effect of the expired offer is enough to turn that person off of the advertised product completely."

To demonstrate, she provides an example she came across online in early January. The ad is from a prestigious automaker and reads "Now's the time to bring one home for the holidays." There is a link with the ad that takes to you to a local dealership, where you see yet another version of the expired ad prominently displayed on the dealer's homepage. Simply put, Gunelius says, "An outdated ad or promotion does not drive sales."

The Po!nt: "Make sure your copy and ad placement are timely and don't have a chance to become outdated," writes Gunelius. "Or else you'll risk negating your ad's effectiveness and throwing your advertising dollars out the window."

E-Mail Marketing

2008-02-07T13:19:00.000+04:00

Newsletter No-No's

How can businesses use email newsletters to achieve their marketing goals? Knowing what not to do is a good place to start. Mark Brownlow claims there are six big mistakes marketers make when publishing newsletters. Here's a peek at three:

Confusing newsletters with promotions. Brownlow claims that newsletters' "real potential lies in building, over time, a lasting, long-term relationship with the reader." Instead of promoting your ergonomic office chair, for instance, provide an article on avoiding back strain at work. You aren't asking for immediate action—you're starting a conversation that might lead to eventual action.

Focusing on yourself, not your audience. Is your average reader really interested in the new employee gym at your office or the retirement party for your receptionist? Probably not. Save that info for internal publications and give your readers useful, timely and relevant content to build newsletter loyalty.

Making it difficult to unsubscribe. "Some marketers still believe a disgruntled subscriber is better than no subscriber at all," says Brownlow. "So they make people jump through hoops to get off an address list, or they wait a few more newsletter issues until the unsubscribe request is properly honored." Big mistake. Not only do you annoy and alienate potential customers, you create a statistical headache by throwing off response rates. A quick, painless process is in everyone's best interest.

The Po!nt: In your eagerness to get the most out of your newsletter, you might inadvertently defeat its purpose. Avoiding these common mistakes can help keep you on the right track.

Customer Behaviour

2008-02-07T13:16:00.000+04:00

Nobody Wants to Be a Tightwad

It would be logical for consumers to use a coupon to save money rather than pay full price for a purchase. Yet redemption rates for coupons are really quite low! Is it simply that consumers don't have the time to clip and retrieve coupons from newspapers, magazines or product packages?

Researchers have discovered another reason why consumers might not like to redeem coupons: They make the buyer look cheap. Consumers are concerned with more than price when shopping—they are also aware of the impression they are making on fellow shoppers. They not only worry about others' impressions of the quality of their purchases, such as the amount of junk food in their shopping baskets, they also care that others might consider them stingy if they whip out a stack of coupons.

Consumers do not behave the same way, however, if the coupon is attached to the package or if they make the purchase online. In the first case, the consumer is not actively going out of his or her way to save money, so there is no negative connotation attributed to the behavior. In the second case, no one sees the online purchase being made, so there is no fear of others' negative reactions.

The Po!nt: To make coupons a viable part of your promotion arsenal, you may want to rethink how they are distributed.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-02-07T13:09:00.000+04:00

Five Ways to Boost Intranet Traffic

If you aren't familiar with intranets, they are essentially an organization's online network (a private Web site) that can be accessed only by employees or authorized users. Intranets can be a great way to communicate with employees, but getting everyone excited about logging in can be a challenge. If you're having trouble building buzz for your intranet, or are still in the planning stages, Shama Hyder of the After the Launch blog offers this advice:

Feature intranet-only content. Would you visit a site that rehashed information you had already read in memos and newsletters? Probably not. So offer worthwhile content available exclusively on the intranet.

Make the login process easy. Don't let a labyrinthine login process convince your employees that it isn't worth the trouble.

Solicit user input. The most effective question to ask users might be, "Why aren't you using the intranet on a regular basis now?"

Implement a rewards program. "[R]eward your members for using the intranet," writes Hyder. "It's a great way to increase participation and cultivate a healthy competitive spirit within the organization."

Results won't happen overnight. Even the best intranet offerings might take a while to catch on, so don't get discouraged if it takes a few months to build enthusiasm.

The Po!nt: "We often think about marketing as an external practice, but it is just as important to market within the organization," writes Hyder. "Once employees are on board, the entire operation runs easier."

Print Ads - Released January 2008

2008-01-19T13:06:00.000+04:00

Client: Harley Davidson Clothes Collection

Agency: McCann Erickson
Location: Russia

Print Ads - Released January 2008

2008-01-19T13:04:00.000+04:00

Client: BMW 5 Series
Agency: .sTaRt GMBH

Location: Munchen`

Print Ads - Jan 2008 Release

2008-01-19T13:01:00.000+04:00

Client: DIESEL Fashion

Agency: Marcel

Location: Paris, France

Marketing Inspiration

2008-01-19T12:46:00.000+04:00

Jingles 101 with Dinah Shore

If we said, "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese," you wouldn't miss a beat before replying, "Pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." Some jingles are that effective.

General Motors had its own catchy tune in the 1950s and 1960s, when crooners Dinah Shore and Pat Boone stroked patriotic pride and invited viewers to "See the U.S.A. in Your Chevrolet."

Here's a typical rendition of the classic song with lyrics that actually addressed a number of customer concerns and desires. Take, for instance, an extensive dealer network:

Traveling east, traveling west

Wherever you go Chevy service is best

Southward or North, near place or far

There's a Chevrolet dealer for your Chevrolet car

But Chevy didn't restrict itself to the signature song. This duet by Shore and Boone playfully teases the soon-to-come 1959 model with faux-subliminal peeks at the car's low, wide lines. And in this bluesy number, Shore touts the Chevrolet booth at the 1961 Detroit auto show.

Your Marketing Inspiration? "...it is nice to look back at messages and techniques that worked in eras gone by," The Dinah Shore Chevrolet jingle was legendary, and stayed in the public's mind for decades. Maybe looking back at this classic will ignite your creative juices."

E-Mail Marketing

2008-01-19T12:36:00.000+04:00

Clicks-and-Mortar Mix-and-Match

Email campaigns can be effective tools to encourage multi-channel sales, leading customers to make online and in-store purchases. I've highlighted a number of steps you can take to heighten the all-around effectiveness of your online efforts:

Help subscribers find your stores. The greatest email offer in the world won't generate in-store sales if customers can't find a store locator on your Web site. Put a directory of your various locations where it's hard to miss. "Make sure they know you are there to serve them."

Encourage cross-channel behavior. "Make it easy for customers to engage with you whenever and wherever they are". I suggest sending out coupons that can be used either at the store or for online orders. I also recommend allowing flexible purchasing options—let a customer shop online and take delivery at the store, at home or at the office. In other words, at their convenience.

Don't sell all the time. Think like a newsletter. Offer some content that benefits the customer such as general advice and little-known facts. Or split the difference with testimonials or anecdotes about the interesting ways your product can be used. This strategy helps build a relationship that can yield sales through any channel.

The Po!nt: Online solicitations can encourage a cross-channel buying experience. It doesn't matter if you complete a sale with an online shopping cart, by phone or at the register—a sale is a sale

Get to the Po!nt

2008-01-19T12:09:00.000+04:00

Who Are Your Secretaries?

No discussion of product development is complete without 3M's Post-it® Notes. When Dr. Spencer Silver first developed his low-tack, reusable adhesive, he couldn't persuade anyone within the company of its value. That is, until Art Fry devised the Post-it concept several years later. Still, company executives weren't interested.

Then Fry had a brainstorm. After making a batch of pads, he bypassed traditional channels and distributed them directly to secretaries at 3M. He correctly assumed they would use the product, become fans and share them with others. In no time at all, the secretaries—and their bosses—were using the handy notepads and calling for more. The initial product launch built on the same strategy when 3M sent samples to executive secretaries at many Fortune 500 companies.

Ask your most loyal customers for testimonials and referrals.

Look for people who call on your customers. If they truly see the benefit of your product or service, they will become evangelists for your brand.

A few caveats, however. Networking is a two-way street; you must be willing to reciprocate. Also, these relationships don't occur overnight—it takes time to turn a customer or strategic partner into a raving fan.

The Po!nt: "Everyone needs a great secretary... "You simply have to find your secretaries, people who understand your product and will share information with others."

Get to the Po!nt

2008-01-17T14:19:00.000+04:00

A Challenge to Conventional Wisdom

We spend a lot of time oohing over the newest ideas and technology, but it never hurts to get a contrarian perspective. And, boy, does Gene Marks have one! In a column at BusinessWeek, the cost-conscious author takes aim at everything from RSS feeds to blogs and antivirus software.

Here's a sampling from his top 10 list of items a small business owner might find overrated and underwhelming:
Spam filters. They sound good, says Marks, but they often block the customer messages you actually want. "Or [they] require a sender to complete a Sudoku puzzle before 'allowing' their email to reach your in-box," he claims. "In the end, it's cheaper for your employees to just sort and delete spam as it comes in."

Online video. Why not post videos at YouTube? Because, Marks says, the cost and complexity of using this ostensibly free and easy service might be too high. "Videos require production companies," he writes. "Otherwise you'll have grainy, useless footage."

Web 2.0. Marks saves some if his most damning comments for the online darlings of forward-looking marketers. "I hear all these great predictions of earth-shaking developments to come. I hear words like 'mashup' and 'wiki,' and I'm still trying to figure out how these affect my business," he says.

The Po!nt: "My life as a small business owner has been littered with stuff that doesn't work as billed, particularly technology," writes Marks. "We business owners are subjected to an endless array of tools that never fail to disappoint. We're promised. We pay. And we're let down." It's a pessimistic viewpoint, to be sure, but one to ponder before spending lots of cash for technology that won't necessarily improve your bottom line.

Customer Behaviour

2008-01-17T14:17:00.000+04:00

Where's the Best Place for Your Ad?

Before you place your next ad, think carefully about its location. Research at Northwestern University and the University of Iowa discovered that where and when your advertising appears may influence whether consumers react to it positively or negatively.

While some media buyers opt for space in a lower-key environment so that their ads stand out, others believe it's more effective to place their ads in an exciting medium, one in which consumers are engaged with the material. The study revealed that of these two schools of thought, the latter is more likely to be better received.

Consumers who are engrossed in what they are reading, seeing or hearing become irritated by ads that intrude on that immersion. Thus, the audience projects this negative sentiment onto the brand, thinking of it as an uninvited guest. Engaged readers, meanwhile, may be positively inclined toward relevant advertising that comes at the end of a story or program, since the ads enhance rather than disrupt.

The study found these results were particularly true for consumers to whom the brand is relevant.

The Po!nt: Perfect ad placement requires fine balance. Attract your target market by placing your ad in an engaging medium, but make sure that it does not disrupt the main content.

Marketing Inspiration

2008-01-17T14:15:00.000+04:00

When Your Video Isn't Viral

Great content doesn't guarantee 100,000 hits at YouTube or the adoration of bloggers around the globe. So how do you promote your video, short of tearfully defending wayward pop stars or grossing people out with the unorthodox use of excrement?

Viral marketer Dan Ackerman Greenberg of The Comotion Group has some suggestions, which he details in a controversial post at TechCrunch. While we don't endorse his less savory methods, Greenberg claims an outstanding success rate for unnamed corporate clients—he says 20 million views—in campaigns for around 90 videos during a three-month period. Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't. Whatever the case, the upshot is that some of his ideas are worth considering. For example:

Keep it short. Greenberg says videos should be no longer than 15 to 30 seconds. "[B]reak down long stories into bite-sized clips," he writes.
Avoid overt advertising. If the video feels like an ad, viewers are less likely to share it with friends.

Post everything at once. "If someone sees our first video and is so intrigued that they want to watch more, why would we make them wait until we post the next one?" he asks. "If a user wants to watch all five of our videos right now, there's a much better chance that we'll be able to persuade them to click through to our Web site."

Optimize your thumbnail. "Two rules of thumb," Greenberg writes. "The thumbnail should be clear (suggesting high video quality) and ideally it should have a face or at least a person in it."

Your Marketing Inspiration: Though great content doesn't guarantee viral success, there are ways to enhance a video's contagious capabilities. (Avoid Greenberg's creepier advice.)

Get to the Po!nt

2008-01-17T14:11:00.000+04:00

CUSTOMER SERVICE…The LEXUS way!

In a post at the Mavericks at Work blog, Bill Taylor discusses how Lexus follows through on the lofty ideals spelled out in its covenant, which asserts (1) Lexus will win the race because Lexus will do it right from the start; (2) Lexus will have the finest dealer network in the industry; and (3) Lexus will treat each customer as we would a guest in our home.

It's all well and good to have high-minded goals in a mission statement; follow-through is something different. Taylor illustrates how Lexus' commitment could be a standard for customer service:

Shortly after launching the inaugural LS 400 sedan nearly 20 years ago, Lexus discovered that about 3,000 cars had minor technical problems. The company responded by sending small teams of executives to visit each customer at home. They apologized in person and offered a gift while a Lexus technician resolved the mechanical glitches right there in the customer's driveway.

Last year, the automaker became aware that 700 ES 350 models had been delivered with problematic transmissions. Instead of installing a new gearbox, Lexus gave owners a brand new ES 350 as a replacement. "Based on surveys, the affected customers were more loyal to Lexus than buyers who didn't have the problem in the first place," says Taylor.

The Po!nt: Writes Taylor, "[W]hen you do go the extra mile, you earn the appreciation and loyalty of customers who have come to expect so little from the companies with whom they do business."

Marketing Inspiration

2008-01-12T12:38:00.000+04:00

Potty All Night Long

If you travel to Europe or Asia, you're bound to encounter self-cleaning toilet seats in public restrooms. They work in a couple ways: either a mechanized arm reaches out and sanitizes the seat, or the seat rotates beneath a cleaning element that extends from the rear of the toilet. They're fun to watch, and reassuringly hygienic, but how on earth do you market such a product?

"Most marketing managers would talk about their 'flexible, scalable solutions for toilet-cleaning processes using cutting-edge technology' or some such gobbledygook," writes David Meerman Scott at his Web Ink Now blog. Instead, he notes, manufacturer CWS decided to show everyone exactly how its toilet seat works.

You might be thinking this isn't such a great idea—perhaps you should just take their word that it works well—but go ahead and click on the link. At the beginning of the minute-long ad, you'll see a beautiful blonde model navigate through the chic, all-white bathroom of a high-end nightclub into a spacious stall. She shuts the door behind her, kneels beside the toilet and—wait for it—draws a packet of cocaine from her bra. After emptying the contents onto the toilet seat, she rummages through her purse for a bank note with which to snort the lines she cut. But then, suddenly, the seat starts to rotate, cleaning itself, and ... we'll let you watch how it ends.

By playing with a naughty, yet not stomach-turning, use of public restrooms, CWS demonstrates its product in an amusing way that has now reached a million views on YouTube. And that's Marketing Inspiration.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-01-12T12:34:00.000+04:00

Think Twice Before Hitting Send

We talk a lot about the importance of creating a personalized pitch when you want to send a great story idea to bloggers and journalists. Yet if you still think casting a wide, generic net will yield a low, although productive, rate of return, think again. Why? People like Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, have finally had enough and they're taking action.

In a post at The Long Tail blog, Anderson condemns PR professionals who litter his inbox with irrelevant pitches. "Lazy flacks send press releases to the editor in chief of Wired because they can't be bothered to find out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested in what they're pitching," he writes.

Anderson delivers swift retribution by publishing each of their email addresses with a note that they will be blocked irrevocably. This would be embarrassing enough for the chastised—domains in the lengthy list include powerhouse PR firms—but Anderson's decision to out their addresses also raises the chances they'll be harvested by real spammers. In other words, offenders will be subject to the same treatment they've been dishing out. "Turnabout is fair play," reasons Anderson.

The Po!nt: "So fair warning," writes Anderson. "I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I'm interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that." Our best advice: Assume everyone you're pitching feels the same way.

E-Mail Marketing

2008-01-12T12:31:00.000+04:00

A Resolution You Can Keep

Did you make a New Year's resolution to optimize your online campaigns in 2008? Probably not. But Reggie Brady says now's a good time to develop a plan to improve your email programs. Here's a sampling of her best tips:

Do your homework. Since good planning starts with an analysis of previous results, consider why some of your campaigns worked better than others or why your list is not growing at the desired rate. Measure your numbers against industry benchmarks with a service like Bronto. "While your own metrics are more important," writes Brady, "you [need a gauge for] how well your program is working in comparison with your peers."

Test new features. Don't let your email programs go stale. Ensure recipients can easily update personal information and preferences. Up the ante by letting readers select message frequency and the specific topics or products they want to hear about. This tailored approach can help segment your audience, which is the lifeblood of a successful email campaign. Says Brady, "If you already see the value of using this technique, it's time to test additional groups."

Make your email work harder. "View your emails with images disabled," she says. "Is there enough supporting text to ... stimulate interest and activity?" Since image blocking is common, you need an effective preview pane and a link to an HTML version.

The Po!nt: There's no time like the present to reassess your email program's strategy. Writes Brady, "Any plans or changes you implement in the first quarter should pay dividends for the balance of the year."

Customer Behaviour

2008-01-12T12:19:00.000+04:00

How Customers Are Like Lab Rats

It seems we are more like animals than we may think. In the 1930s, research revealed animals tended to work harder as they got closer and closer to a reward—a phenomenon dubbed the goal gradient hypothesis. New findings indicate this concept also applies to consumer loyalty programs.

Research at Columbia and Fordham Universities found that consumers in a coffee loyalty program bought coffee more frequently the closer they got toward earning a free cup of joe. Another study found that Internet users who received reward certificates for rating songs rated more songs and visited the Web site more often as they neared their goal.

Even the illusion of approaching a reward appears to make consumers work harder toward their goal. When presented with frequent purchaser cards of equal value (a 12-stamp card with two stamps given for the first purchase and a 10-stamp card with no stamp given for the first purchase), consumers in the coffee loyalty program study behaved differently. Surprisingly, the customers given the 12-stamp card bought coffee more frequently, thus earning their reward more quickly than customers who did not get stamps for their initial purchase.

The Po!nt: Customers in loyalty programs speed up their product consumption as they get closer to getting their reward. Experimenting with how customers perceive your offer might improve their uptake.

Get to the Po!nt

2008-01-12T11:49:00.000+04:00

Are You Ready to Rock?

Rock stars are, in actuality, fantastic marketers. According to Mack Collier, in a recent post at The Viral Garden, "[M]usicians do such an amazing job of exciting the people that buy their music, and turning them into fans." If your company has an inner Gwen Stefani just begging to break out, here are a couple steps Collier suggests you can take:

Think of your customers as a community to which you belong. Tori Amos fills front rows and interacts with her fans throughout her energetic performances. She makes it clear she's one of them. In the business world, Collier points to Willie Davidson of Harley-Davidson, who conducts in-the-trenches market research by hitting the open road with enthusiasts. "Since the company is participating in the customers' community," writes Collier, "they better understand their customers, and as a result market to them more effectively."

Align your perceptions of a product or service with those of your customers. Rock stars see themselves as cool—and so do their fans, who become cool by association. When the iPhone launched, there were long lines at Apple stores although the item was easily obtained at any (less fashionable) Cingular/AT&T store. As Collier explains, "But it was 'cool' to stand in line to wait for an iPhone at the Apple store. Apple thinks the iPhone is cool, and Apple's customers agree."

The Po!nt: "Marketing doesn't have to be viewed as just a necessary business function, but instead could be seen as a way to excite your customers into becoming fans," writes Collier. "Besides, don't we all really want to be rock stars?"

Marketing Inspiration

2008-01-07T21:46:00.000+04:00

Burger King Tells a Whopper

Some recent television ads have featured extremely distressed Burger King customers, distraught after being told that the fast-food giant dropped the Whopper from its menu. The signature burger's demise is, of course, a lie—and one designed to elicit strong negative feedback.

Burger King hasn't actually lost its corporate mind—it's using a negative situation to highlight the Whopper's popularity. In a long-format viral companion to the television ads—a YouTube special styled as a documentary of the experiment and entitled Whopper Freakout—director Henry Alex Rubin tells Burger King employees, "We're not doing this to be mean. We're doing this just to prove a point."

And what a point! Believing the Whopper is no more, customers could hardly contain their love for the sandwich. One gentleman claims to have driven from another state, just to eat a Whopper. Another flabbergasted customer says, "It's the best burger nationwide."
In the viral video, Burger King also has a little fun at the expense of competitors when employees start substituting burgers from Wendy's and McDonald's for their own. The results—when annoyed customers return to complain—are predictably sour. "I hate Wendy's!" exclaims one exasperated diner, no doubt much to Rubin's glee.

Writes B.L. Ochman at the What's Next Blog, "It's seven minutes long. It pisses off Burger King customers. It makes fun of competitors. In other words, it rocks!" And to break the rules so successfully is utter Marketing Inspiration.

[The above excerpt has been the blog author's personal learning so far amongst various cities and Burger King outlets.]

Get to the Po!nt

2008-01-07T21:23:00.000+04:00

Burdened with a Bland Web Site?

If you outsource your Web site design to a firm that uses templates as a quick, inexpensive solution, your site probably has the standard layout: content in the middle; a banner at the top; a menu at the left; and, possibly, a column on the right with ads and resources. There's nothing wrong with a plug-and-play site like this, says Olivier Blanchard of The Brand Builder Blog, except that you won't stand out.

"When it comes to creating or driving a brand," writes Blanchard, "understand that having a Web site that essentially looks like everyone else's, a Web site that looks like you took little more than a couple of hours to put together, a Web site that offers nothing interesting or compelling for your users and fans, [will fall] short of expectations."

If you're concerned about your site's indistinctive design, Blanchard recommends to put a small team of branding, marketing and customer service experts in a room with a handful of customers for a 360-degree review of your site. Then gather their feedback and hire the best Web designer or firm you can find to implement changes or undertake a comprehensive overhaul.

Although expensive, Blanchard argues that creating an extraordinary—or at least adequate—Web presence is one of the best marketing and communications investments you can make for your company.

The Po!nt: "Your Web site is your global storefront," says Blanchard. "You can't afford to allow it to be boring, ineffective or outdated."

Marketing Inspiration

2008-01-06T14:34:00.000+04:00

Seal Your Pitch with a Kiss

How, oh how, do you persuade a busy media professional to look at your story idea? If your message is too theatrical, it can backfire; dignified understatement, however, might earn your missive a swift trip to the recycle bin. But David Armano says Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo got it right when they sent him a handwritten note—or, more precisely, a digital photograph of a handwritten note—by email. Armano liked the clever idea so much he stopped everything to say so at his blog.

Though the format captured Armano's attention, Barefoot and Szabo's pitch also works from a content perspective:

They make it clear they're talking specifically to him by referencing what they like about his blog.

They make a polite and reasonable request

They give Armano a personalized URL to download the book

A commenter at the blog takes the duo to task for the your/you're typo in the note, but Armano blithely brushes the criticism away. "That didn't bother me," he replies. "A standard email that was grammatically correct would have failed where this succeeded."

Your Marketing Inspiration: "If you want to grab the attention of someone who isn't always easy to get a hold of, do something special just like Darren and Julie did," writes Armano. "Send a 'love note.' It's that simple."

Get to the Po!nt

2008-01-05T20:16:00.001+04:00

It Isn't Easy Being Green

Now is a wonderful time for companies that offer an environmentally friendly product or service. Political, environmental and economic concerns have created a marketplace that's extremely receptive to the idea of going green. But, before you proclaim your credentials from the treetops, consider Jacquelyn Ottman's five rules of green marketing:

Not everyone shares the same concerns. Be sure your audience is aware of the issue your product addresses, and wants to do something about it. "Whirlpool learned the hard way that consumers wouldn't pay a premium for a CFC-free refrigerator," writes Ottman, "because consumers didn't know what CFCs were!"

Explain how your product makes a difference. No one wants to feel like their contribution is a drop in the ocean, so provide a compelling demonstration of its environmental benefits—whether on an individual or collective basis.

Preempt skepticism with transparency. Make it easy for customers to see your commitment is genuine. "Consumers must believe in the legitimacy of your product and the specific claims you are making," Ottman says.

Position your product as a high-quality alternative. Reassure customers that it performs at least as well as trusted products from your not-as-green competitors.

Consider the impact of premium pricing. Customers might understand why your product costs more, but that doesn't mean they can afford the extra outlay—or that they think it's worth it.

The Po!nt: According to Ottman, "A strong commitment to environmental sustainability in product design and manufacture can yield significant opportunities to grow your business, to innovate and to build brand equity." But do your homework before diving in.

Print Ads of a kind - VII

2007-12-30T16:24:00.000+04:00

Product: BICE - 'Bread is life'

Print ads of a kind - VI

2007-12-30T16:23:00.000+04:00

Product: La Farge Healthcare, Barcelona

Print Ads of a kind - V

2007-12-30T16:22:00.001+04:00

Product: Del Monte Foods

Print Ads of a kind - IV

2007-12-30T16:20:00.000+04:00

Product: Max Magazine

Print Ads of a Kind - III

2007-12-30T16:18:00.000+04:00

Product: Volvo

Print Ads of a Kind - II

2007-12-30T16:17:00.000+04:00

Product: Playboy Website

Print Ad of a Kind - I

2007-12-30T12:53:00.000+04:00

Product: Schneider Breweries

Print Ad of the week

2007-12-28T20:56:00.000+04:00

Client: Manix

Category: Lubricants

Agency: DDsyR, Europe

Hunterz Inspire

2007-12-28T20:49:00.000+04:00

Branding Customers—Literally

There you are, wandering around SEMA, a trade show for the automotive aftermarket industry, when a promotion at the Dunlop Tires booth catches your eye. If you let them tattoo the Dunlop logo on your body, you get a free set of tires. Crazy? Of course it is. But blogger Debra Mastaler explains why this smart strategy works on a number of levels:

It exploits mainstream acceptance of tattoos, particularly among SEMA folks, and ups the ante with celebrity artists like Kat Von D.

It generates publicity aplenty—like this—without the use of traditional media.

It builds on the company's earlier marketing efforts, like the "Treadhead" promotion, in which hairstylists shaved Dunlop tread patterns onto customers' heads.

According to Mastaler, 50 Dunlop enthusiasts took the plunge, and there are hundreds more on a waiting list. Mack Collier at The Viral Garden adds that Dunlop filled every available appointment within minutes, and that one recipient didn't even realize the tattoo came with tires—he was just thrilled about getting some free ink!

"You have to remember that a customer evangelist is crazy about their favorite brands!" writes Collier. "So Dunlop ... made it easier for [their evangelists] to engage in actions that they were already performing."

Tattoos may be an extreme example, but if you aren't providing inventive ways to help your customer evangelists spread the good news, you might never learn just how far they'll go for you. And that is Marketing Inspiration.

Hunterz Tips

2007-12-28T20:45:00.000+04:00

Another Way to Dodge Spam Folders

As good as your online campaign might be, you'll accomplish nothing if messages wind up in spam folders alongside pitches for counterfeit watches and herbal remedies of dubious merit. Neil Anuskiewicz claims it's easy to avoid this fate by establishing an SPF (sender policy framework).Don't let the techno-jargon scare you. In layman's terms, it works similarly to the authentication process a merchant uses for credit-card transactions, and assures Internet and email providers like AOL or Gmail that you are who you say you are. All told, an SPF vastly improves the chances that your message will go straight to a recipient's inbox.

Getting one is not only simple, says Anuskiewicz, it's free. You can use the setup wizard at sites like this, which walks you through each step, or you can create a manual record with your domain name registrar or hosting provider. Another option is delegating the task to your email administrator. A few things to keep in mind:

You can't create an SPF with a free email provider like Gmail or Yahoo. This means you'll need a personalized domain name. They're inexpensive and there's a payoff: An email from sales@yourcompanyname.com has much more credibility than yourcompanyname@yahoo.com.

Always use your domain name as the from address when you publish your SPF record. If you send email from sales@yourcompanyname.com, register the domain yourcompanyname.com.

The Po!nt: Setting up an SPF is a free and easy way to avoid the spam filter. If you don't have one, get one today.

Get to the Po!nt

2007-12-27T15:14:00.000+04:00

How Caricatures Help Your Brand

Seth Godin points out a post at Boing Boing about a study suggesting that people are twice as likely to identify celebrities correctly when they are depicted as caricatures that exaggerate prominent facial features. "A caricature falsely highlights various anomalies while diminishing the boring parts," writes Godin. "So Jay Leno gets a ridiculous chin, or Jimmy Durante gets an even bigger nose."

The concept, says Godin, also applies to business. "The best brands are caricatures of their true selves," he continues. "Yes, they must have exceptional 'features' (a step that's easy to skip, but without which leads to failure) but then, over time, those features become a caricature."

To illustrate, he cites a pair of effective corporate caricatures:

In its early days, ads from FedEx showed dedicated drivers doing whatever it took—even renting helicopters—to deliver a package on time. A wild exaggeration, to be sure, but it made the point.

The standard joke about Starbucks, meanwhile, is the pretentiously complex order à la "half-caf, extra hot, short macchiato, extra foam, with soy, in a ceramic mug." Everyone takes their potshots, yes, but they also know they'll get exactly what they want. Far from doing damage, a caricature might actually make your company's most outstanding features more memorable.

The Po!nt: "Coloring inside the lines and pleasing most of your customers most of the time almost guarantees you'll be bland," writes Godin, embracing personality over popularity. "It's a lot cheaper and faster and more effective to have a big nose."

Print Ads of the Day - II

2007-12-24T21:07:00.000+04:00

Client: Svenson - deforestation & re-birth

Agency: Publicis

Location: Singapore

Print Ads of the Day - I

2007-12-24T21:03:00.000+04:00

Client: Svenson - deforest & re-birth

Agency: Publicis

Location: Singapore

Get to the Po!nt

2007-12-24T20:44:00.000+04:00

A Blogger's Guide to Building and Maintaining Readership

In a post at The Lonely Marketer, Patrick Schaber, who just celebrated his first anniversary as a blogger, talks about his criteria for choosing the blogs he reads. "When I first got involved with social media, I was subscribing to anything and everything," he says. "A while back I purged and got down to a manageable amount of daily blog reading."

With so much engaging content available, he's frequently tempted to re-expand his reading list. To help him decide what to read, Schaber developed a list of blog must-haves.

Here's some of his advice for drawing readers like him:

Provide unique, actionable content. "To be honest," writes Schaber, "I don't care if you've been blogging for five years or five minutes, if I feel I'm going to leave a site having learned something new, count me in." He gives extra points for highlighting recent content in a sidebar.

Post frequently. This doesn't mean that you have to blog every day—a few each week will do the trick—but if multiple weeks pass between each post, readers will stop checking in.

Maintain focus. Nothing says you have to restrict yourself to a single topic, but you'll confuse readers if you hop randomly from subject to subject without explaining why.

Add visual interest. You'll notice that many bloggers include an image with each post. Follow their lead. "So much of social media is visual perception!" says Schaber.

The Po!nt: Good content is good content. Even the busiest people make time for their favorite blogs.

Experts Speak

2007-12-24T20:29:00.000+04:00

Speak to Me!!

December 2007

Some people are born speechmakers. They thrive on the rush of speaking to hundreds. They deliver rousing presentations without notes. They never want it to end. And we hate them. Because we dread the thought of getting on stage, of seeing those expectant faces, of flubbing our lines. It isn't fair. But speeches and presentations are a fact of life, and Christine Whittemore has some great advice for ways to feel like a born speechmaker.

In the days before a speech:

Practice to boost your confidence. Videotape practice sessions so you know what works and, more importantly, what doesn't.

Learn to project your voice and your presence. You can use an empty church or auditorium for trial runs.

In the minutes before a speech:

Don't eat bananas before a speech. Seriously. Like with dairy products, you'll feel the need to clear your throat. Again and again. Caffeine works better!!!

Drink plenty of water with lemon to avoid dry mouth.

During the speech:

Make eye contact with each part of the room; remember to smile.

Don't read your presentation or clutch the podium. In fact, stay away from the podium unless you need a sip of water.

"It's OK to feel nervous," says Whittemore. "Anticipate it ... Yes, you'll be aware of it, but the audience won't." And for anyone who gives presentations.

This is Marketing Inspiration.

Get to the Point

2007-12-22T13:07:00.000+04:00

Blog Ads That Work

When an ad that appeared on her blog failed to impress, B.L. Ochman provided its purchaser, a television network, some pro bono feedback. "Please don't get me wrong," Ochman writes in an open letter at MarketingProfs Daily Fix. "I love you for advertising ... on my blog. But I want you to get results so you'll keep coming back, and this ad sucks."

Blunt talk, but Ochman speaks from experience: her blog ad campaigns for companies like American Greetings and Budget Car Rental have achieved click-through rates as high as 2.1 percent. And if you advertise at blogs—or have considered the idea—you might benefit from the advice she offers:

Be intriguing, interesting, entertaining. Blog readers respond to a fresh approach, not the traditional advertising that they see everywhere else. So go ahead: Show your sense of humor. Get edgy and fun, topical and timely.

Readers aren't interested in hearing your story; they want to know what you can do for them. Get right to the point and spell out the ROI. Tell readers how they benefit from your product or service. "We want you to tell us, in the headline, why we should care," says Ochman.

White space is your friend. Ads compete with lots of other copy at a blog. If yours isn't easy to read at a glance, it might as well be invisible.

The Po!nt: Get the most out of your blog ad by tailoring your design and copy to the format and the audience.

Get to the Po!nt

2007-12-20T12:43:00.000+04:00

Are Your Web Customers Engaged?

December 2007

Your Web site is an ideal venue for holding your customers' attention. But how do you measure the success of your efforts? Inspired by Eric Petersen's presentation on the subject at an eMetrics conference, Katie Paine, of KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog, decided to make a list of the basic information you'll need:

The percentage of increase or decrease in unique visits

The 10 most popular pages, and changes from the previous week

The number and percentage of sessions that represent more than five page views

The percentage of sessions that last more than five minutes

The percentage of visitors who return for more than five sessions

The percentage of sessions arriving from a Google search, a direct link at your Web site or another site related to your brand

The percentage of visitors who become subscribers, download content or provide an email address

Paine says it isn't hard to find this data. Your webmaster should be able to compile a report on a regular basis using tools like Visual Sciences, Google Analytics and ClickTracks.

The Po!nt: Ask the right questions about your Web site's traffic, and you'll learn more than the number of people who visit—you'll gain insight into how effectively you engage your customers.

[Source: KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog.]

GET TO THE PO!NT

2007-12-18T19:09:00.000+04:00

What Surveys Can Tell You—and Your Customers

December 2007.

What are you trying to accomplish with a survey? It's likely you're asking a series of questions designed to elicit valuable feedback for ongoing improvements of your product or service. But in a recent post at his blog, Seth Godin discusses the various ways a survey—and its results—can be used for much more.

One option is to use the survey question as a marketing tactic:

"You can TEACH people with a survey," writes Godin, "simply by asking them questions that help them notice things they never noticed before." For instance, you might ask, "Do your prefer option A or option B?" when the real purpose of the question is to let the participant know that they have an option B.

Another twist uses survey results to influence behavior:

Godin cites the marketing campaign for Trident, which claimed four out of five dentists recommended the sugarless gum to their patients. "Hardly scientific," he says, "but publishing the results made dentists feel better about recommending the gum and made people with teeth happier about chewing it."

The Po!nt: A survey's usefulness is not limited to gathering data—you might also find that it can be a useful marketing tool. So explore all the ways a survey can benefit your company.

Product Launches

2007-12-16T10:09:00.000+04:00

New Products: The Real Challenge Is in Execution, Not Strategy
by Barry Curewitz
December 2007

Marketers love talking about products like the Swiffer or iPod, two colossal successes in terms of brilliance in innovation and new product development. In fact, rumor has it there are more consulting firms taking credit for Swiffer's development and success than can fit into the new Yankee Stadium.

The puzzling question remains: Why aren't there more examples of unabashed new product successes?

To gain insight, we recently implemented a research study exploring the factors that have an impact on a company's ability to succeed in the ever-important CPG growth domain.

Our survey, titled "Creativity in New Products, A Reality Check," queried 128 senior CPG marketers to gauge the challenges they face in growing their businesses as well as the strategies and thought processes they employ.

In planning the research, we theorized that new-product development efforts could be influenced by both strategic and tactical elements. Therefore, we developed a list of five strategic and five tactical pitfalls that could limit a company's ability to succeed.

Then, we asked participants to identify those issues that currently challenge them; those they addressed three years ago; those they expect to face three years from now; and which single factor occurs most frequently.

Based on our experience, we hypothesized that strategic issues would be the most relevant causes of new-product disappointment. We were way off base. We learned that, yes, there are strategic issues affecting the outcome of new product activity, but the more relevant issues focus on tactical elements—those things that can be addressed in the short term.

In fact, 63% of survey respondents identified tactical issues as the leading prohibitive factors in the development and launching of new products.

The need to satisfy stockholders (Wall Street) has had a profound effect on our ability to identify, develop, and launch new products as reflected in the lack of human capital, financial resources, and company competencies (another form of human capital). Strategically, we're confident we know where to "place our bets," it's just that financial limitations prevent us from doing it.

The following data illustrate that three of the strategic categories we identified have become less of an issue in the last three years and are expected to become even less relevant over the next three (or at least remain status quo). These include the identification of differentiated opportunities, identification of the key consumer insight, and development of a motivating consumer proposition.

Two issues that will become more relevant to marketers have to do with competitive challenges and the elasticity of brand equities. It appears our own tactical issues have caused a bit of paranoia that the competition is moving faster than we are. And, the research further suggests that brand equities (perhaps our most valuable asset) have reached their breaking point and can't go any further.

Tactically, while all but one factor (the lack of product technology) are expected to decline over time in the amount they can limit our success, several of them are working against higher levels of frustration today, as compared with three years ago.

For example, the lack of human capital and financial resources are more relevant today than they were three years ago, but they are projected to be less relevant in '10 than they were in '04. Why? Because new product development efforts are often disrupted or delayed in order to meet the immediate corporate financial obligation—we're responding to the financial needs of the current quarter.

What are we to do? Well, we're called "managers" for a reason. We need to manage the innovation process so that we can support the best, most promising initiatives, with the limited resources available to us.

And, when possible, convince our management that additional resources are prudent in order to realize the success that the Swiffer and iPod have enjoyed.

[Barry Curewitz is managing partner of Whole-Brain Brand Expansion (www.wbbe.biz); reach him at barry@wbbe.biz. ]

Get to the Point

2007-12-15T11:46:00.000+04:00

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

2007-12-13T14:09:00.000+04:00

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

2007-12-11T16:59:00.000+04:00

Client: Sony / sub: Wega

Agency: Euro RSCG

Location: Buenos Aires

Print Ads of the Week - III

2007-12-11T16:44:00.000+04:00

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

Print Ads of the Week - II

2007-12-11T16:41:00.000+04:00

Brand: Louis Vuitton

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

Location: Worldwide

Print Ads of the Week - I

2007-12-11T16:36:00.000+04:00

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

Word of Mouth Marketing

2007-12-11T15:59:00.000+04:00

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

2007-12-11T15:40:00.000+04:00

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

2007-12-11T13:43:00.000+04:00

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 }

Get to the Point - II

2007-12-08T12:57:00.000+04:00

"What does your Web Copy say about you?"
Invest 60 seconds to your small business

According to Rick Sloboda, a senior copywriter with Webcopyplus, the words you use on your Web site should project the personality of your products, services and business. "They signify what you stand for and promise to deliver," he says.

As an example, Sloboda cites Web copy from three different auto companies, each of which uses language designed to reinforce the brand:

Mercedes-Benz stresses luxury: "Enjoy bold, spirited styling with an air of sleek confidence."

BMW is about performance: "Do bear in mind that 0-100 km/h in 5 seconds limits your chances of actually spotting the BMW M Coupe on the road."

Volvo has a reputation for safety: "Preventative safety features like Dynamic Stability and Traction Control (DSTC) help you, the driver, avoid accidents by evading them."

So, how do you choose the right words?

Focus on your strengths. Customers will respond to words that underscore the functional or emotional benefits of what you sell.

Use an authentic vocabulary. Be true to your company's location and values.

Give your employees a voice. Many businesses post employee photos on their Web sites—why not quote employees in your Web content? It adds a human touch, and touts your staff's expertise.

The Po!nt: "Make your words count—a confused customer equals a missed opportunity."

Get to the Po!nt - Customer Feedback

2007-12-08T12:37:00.000+04:00

Say You Love Me
Invest 60 Seconds in your small business!

If you're unhappy with the quality of a product or service, you know exactly what to do: You call or send emails until the problem is solved—many companies devote entire departments to handling complaints. But what if you couldn't be happier with the transaction? How do you heap praise on an employee or company?

Oddly enough, it isn't all that easy for pleased customers to sing high hosannas. Often the best you can do is to thank the person who helped you. In a post at his Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That! blog, Andy Sernovitz suggests a number of ways your company can encourage and generate positive feedback:

Let customers leave compliments on an "Employee Thank You" wall stocked with paper, pencils and thumbtacks.
Ask your customers to vote in the Employee of the Month contest.
Put your Web site's feedback form in a prominent location.
Invite free-form comments on post-purchase surveys. "You're not going to get praise from a multiple-choice question," writes Sernovitz.

The Po!nt: "Companies need a feedback loop," says Sernovitz. "You need to open the door to positive feedback. If you don't ask for it, you're not going to get it."

The Marketing Files

2007-12-01T10:35:00.000+04:00

The Power of Marketing: Is It Outright Trickery?
December 2, 2007

by Elaine Fogel

Can the average consumer tell the difference between two identical products when they have dissimilar labels? Do restaurant enthusiasts order more food when the descriptive menu language is more detailed? Are consumers suckers for marketing trickery?

As marketers, our job is to influence market behaviors. Our success depends on our ability to sell products and/or services or socially change attitudes. We've done such a good job at it, that many consumers are duped into thinking certain ways.

Last week on the Today Show, Brian Wansink, Ph.D., author of “Mindless Eating — Why We Eat More Than We Think,” displayed two identical bottles of wine - one with a label indicating it came from North Dakota, and the other from California. (In case you live outside the U.S., North Dakota isn't known for its wine, but California is.) In taste tests, he said, consumers drank more of the California wine and said they liked it better.

Dr. Wansink then showed two identical plates of restaurant food with two different menu descriptions. Tests showed that people bought more, and enjoyed the taste better, of the plate associated with a more descriptive menu (Menu B).

Menu A
Red beans with rice
Seafood fillet
Grilled chicken
Chocolate pudding

Menu B
Traditional Cajun beans with rice
Succulent Italian seafood fillet
Tender grilled chicken
Satin chocolate pudding

Although this research was conducted to change America's eating habits, it's also indicative of what good marketing can do to influence consumer habits overall.

A couple of months ago, I remember a similar TV taste test demonstration with assorted vodka brands. Consumers who indicated that they could tell the difference between their preferred vodka (the more expensive, well-known brand) and lower-end, less expensive brands, failed miserably when taste testing Cosmopolitans using a variety of vodka brands.

Now this isn't rocket science to marketers. We're familiar with the power of marketing and good copywriting. But what does it say about the consumer market? Are many of us tricked into thinking one product is better than another, or one service supplier superior in quality based solely on descriptive words and engaging images?

Whether we believe in what we market or not, is marketing simply a form of trickery and behavior manipulatation?

What do YOU think?

Elaine Fogel has worked as a senior marketeer at Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé Carnation, Warner-Lambert and Shopper’s Drug Mart. She is now an avid collumnist and a consultant of the best genre.

Get to the Po!nt...

2007-12-01T10:12:00.000+04:00

Quick Tips for a Marketing Plan

Invest 60 seconds to your world of business!!

Three Tips for Developing an Effective Marketing Plan

You know you need a marketing plan, but where do you start? Drew McLellan, who blogs at Drew's Marketing Minute, is also a frequent corporate speaker at the UAE commerce chambers offers this advice:

1) You can be too ambitious. Most small businesses make the mistake of launching too many marketing initiatives when they don't have the resources to follow through on each one. You're better off doing fewer things, but doing them frequently and well.

2) Don't depend on a single medium. Says McLellan, "No matter how much you believe in word of mouth, direct mail, e-newsletters or an interactive Web site, one of your goals should be delivering key messages through a variety of media." It isn't called a marketing mix for nothing. With a more diverse campaign you are likely to increase your reach and your number of impressions.

3) Remember your core audience. You want to attract new customers, and there's a natural urge to invest all of your marketing resources in doing just that. But, warns McLellan, it's a shortsighted strategy. "The two most important audiences are your employees and your current customers," he says. "Be sure your marketing plan gives them enough attention." These groups deserve at least half of your time and budget.

The Po!nt: It's easy to spend your marketing budget on the wrong things. An effective marketing plan can keep your focus on the goal.

Print ad of the day - III

2007-11-26T15:23:00.000+04:00

Brand: Harley Davidson XL 1200 N Nightster (Tag)
Agency: WAX, Canada
Copy: "When the horsemen of the apocalypse arrive, we bet they won't be riding horses. The XL 1200 N Nightster is coming. "

Print Ad of the day - II

2007-11-26T15:19:00.000+04:00

Brand: Harley Davidson XL 1200 N Nightster (Tag)

Agency: WAX, Canada

Copy: "Some flirt with death. Others have their way with it. "

Print Ad of the day - I

2007-11-26T15:12:00.000+04:00

Calle is a brand that promotes underground street soccer. As far as Calle is concerned, soccer is appropriate anytime, anywhere. These stickers are attached as a hang tag to all of Calle's apparel and once placed, the ambient piece is designed to blend in with public signage and quietly promote Calle's message.

Brand: Calle Soccer

Advertising Agency: Struck

The Five Simple Rules of Green Marketing

2007-11-26T14:59:00.000+04:00

The Five Simple Rules of Green Marketing
by Jacquelyn Ottman November 20, 2007

To shine a spotlight on sustainability issues, NGOs and consumer groups often target the most respected and trusted brands in the world.

That's why Home Depot was targeted regarding sustainable harvested wood, Nike for child labor practices, McDonalds for Styrofoam clamshells and now obesity, and why Coke is similarly targeted regarding sugar and packaging.

What does this all mean for your business? Simply stated, if you don't manage your business with respect to environmental and social sustainability, your business will not be sustained!

But the converse is true, too: A strong commitment to environmental sustainability in product design and manufacture can yield significant opportunities to grow your business, to innovate, and to build brand equity. All you have to do is get the word out... right?

As with any other major business endeavor, that's easier said than done.

Many a responsible company has run into trouble with these very same sustainability-minded NGOs and consumer groups, due to poorly planned and crafted marketing messages.

The "Rules of Green Marketing"
Protect your company from these common pitfalls and start taking advantage of new opportunities by heeding my "Rules of Green Marketing":

Know your customer. If you want to sell a greener product to consumers, you first need to make sure that the consumer is aware of and concerned about the issues that your product attempts to address. (Whirlpool learned the hard way that consumers wouldn't pay a premium for a CFC-free refrigerator—because consumers didn't know what CFCs were!).
Empower consumers. Make sure that consumers feel, by themselves or in concert with all the other users of your product, that they can make a difference. This is called "empowerment," and it's the main reason consumers buy greener products.
Be transparent. Consumers must believe in the legitimacy of your product and the specific claims you are making. Caution: There's a lot of skepticism out there that is fueled by the raft of spurious claims made in the "go-go" era of green marketing that occurred during the late 80s to early 90s—one brand of household cleaner claimed to have been "environmentally friendly since 1884"!
Reassure the buyer. Consumers need to believe that your product performs the job it's supposed to perform—they won't forgo product quality in the name of the environment. (Besides, products that don't work will likely wind up in the trash bin, and that's not very kind to the environment.)
Consider your pricing. If you're charging a premium for your product—and many environmentally preferable products cost more due to economies of scale and use of higher-quality ingredients—make sure that consumers can afford the premium and feel it's worth it. Many consumers, of course, cannot afford premiums for any type of product these days, much less greener ones, so keep this in mind as you develop your target audience and product specifications.

Now let's take a look at some eco-designs (improvements over existing products), and eco-innovations (new types of products) that do a great job of winning over green consumers while grabbing market share.

Tom's of Maine
The husband-and-wife team of Tom and Kate Chappell created this full line of personal care products about 25 years ago. Ten or so years later, the brand broke out of the "deep green" niche to achieve distribution in CVS, Duane Reade, and other mainstream drug outlets.

The company is now owned by Colgate-Palmolive and is just one of many "deep green" brands that are being purchased by mainstream marketers. Other examples are Estee Lauder's purchase of Aveda, Danone's partial purchase of Stonyfield Farm, and Unilever's acquisition of Ben and Jerry's. The messages on the sides of the Tom's of Maine toothpaste packaging may be one reason why. Check out the letter from Tom and Kate stating their company's mission.

Signing the letter lets customers know there really is a Tom, there really is a Kate—just like there really is a Ben and there really is a Jerry: i.e., two real live people "minding the store" and staking their personal reputations on the quality of their products.

On another panel is a list of all the ingredients in the toothpaste—all natural spearmint oil for instance, and next to each ingredient is the role each plays in the toothpaste. There's even a third column that lists from where each ingredient is sourced.

This is unprecedented in the history of consumer goods! Can you do this with your product's ingredients? How many of them may contain warning labels? (Crest and Colgate each do.) For Tom's, listing the ingredients, such as natural spearmint oil, helps get consumers over any price barriers at the point of sale. They are choosing a brand with natural ingredients and recognize that it must come with a price.

Toyota Prius
I know you've been hearing a lot these days about Toyota's Prius. For lots of good reasons, it's likely the most successful "green" product in the US.
It provides consumers with all they seek in a sedan and more—attractive styling, fuel efficiency, the ability to drive for an unlimited amount of miles only stopping for fill-ups (versus, for instance, having to stop for a 12-hour recharge if the engine were only electric), and because of the hybrid engine, a quiet ride, since the car doesn't idle at stoplights.

The car's dashboard comes with an unusual feature: a screen that lets the driver know which of the two engines is in use and how efficiently fuel is being used at any given moment; according to anecdotes, Prius owners try to beat their previous record each time they drive!

When the car was introduced, ads focused on superior performance evidenced by a quiet ride, and supplemental ads touted its environmental bona fides. With energy prices on the rise, the Prius is now being marketed for its superior fuel efficiency, and a PR machine fuels efforts to link the car to environmentally conscious celebrities and causes. Some owners, it is reported, even buy the car for what is being called "Conspicuous Conservation"—letting all know that they are environmentally astute.

Tide Coldwater
Tide Coldwater is a line extension of Tide that is helping it build brand equity and stay fresh in the marketplace.

A "Life Cycle Assessment" commissioned by Procter and Gamble found that 80%-85% of the energy used to wash clothes comes from heating the water. P&G calculated that US consumers could therefore save $63 per year by washing in cold water rather than warm. So, with the proviso that it could persuade consumers that coldwater washing was efficacious, P&G positioned the product as a way to save on energy bills.

First, marketing efforts reassured consumers of the product's efficacy. On a special Web site, consumers could calculate the amount of energy they could save yearly personally and in conjunction with all the others who took the "Tide Coldwater Challenge."

Advertising showed how long major US landmarks such as the Empire State Building could be lit with the energy that could be saved if all of the consumers in those cities switched to cold-water washing.

Finally, the Web site provided various energy saving tips and resources, starting with information about switching to Energy Star certified energy-saving compact fluorescent lighting, tips from respected environmental group the Alliance to Save Energy, and encouragements to "Consider buying a Different Kind of Car"—namely, the Prius.

This type of marketing no doubt reassured consumers of the product's performance. They were empowered by the ability to calculate their own savings and to aggregate that savings with those of others. By using the Internet versus traditional advertising-led messages, they were engaged in the message. By leveraging word-of-mouth via the Tide Coldwater Challenge and associating with notable third parties, any barriers of skepticism were overcome. And Tide

Brand found a fresh new message that was in step with consumers' need to control rising energy prices.

Method Line of Household Cleaning, Laundry and Personal Care Products
The environmental movement is about doing things differently. Method is a brand that is trying to express this "differentness" in nearly every way possible, starting with how the product looks and smells.

The bottle for the dish soap looks like an upside down teardrop. It was specifically designed by well-known fashion designer Karim Rashid so consumers would feel comfortable leaving it right at the kitchen sink, helping the user project a status of sorts.
The product label sports a very understated lower case "m" in a circle, with "method" also in lowercase just beneath. No splashy lettering. No flashy starbursts like those that were designed to capture consumers' attention at mainstream store shelves. What attracts consumers to this product is the distinctiveness of the package shape and the unique coloring of the product inside.
This product may look expensive, but it actually sells at competitive prices at Target, Office Depot and Safeway!
Method doesn't advertise. It attracts consumers via strong price value and word-of-mouth that is generated in highly effective ways, starting with the uniqueness of the product itself. Visit the Web site and read how Method tells visitors what it stands for: A page each is devoted to the elements of the Method "mantra": Efficacy, Safety, Environment, Design (do your brands consider design?), and Fragrance. (In-home interviews I conducted for a client recently attested to the importance of light scent to this brand's purchasing decision.)

Do your brands have mantras—or simply a list of benefits, or possibly just a marketing and creative strategy?
Another thing you'll find at the Method Web site is a campaign called "I Fight Dirty." (Note the "anti" tone.) This campaign empowers users to not only fight against dirt but also dirty practices by industry. Thus, its captures the essence of what the brand is about from both functional as well as emotional standpoints. (Another breakthrough.)

It also sends a newsletter to consumers who sign up. Recent issues have proffered tips on how to compost Christmas trees, locate brands of reusable diapers, and save pristine beaches by fighting dumping in oceans of plastic laundry bottles.

The Web site talks about the places where Method has been spotted—like the "Green Festival" hosted by Coop America each year. And it even gives visitors the opportunity to buy merchandise, like T- shirts emblazoned with the method name. How many of your users would wear clothing with your brand's name on it? How many of you would even think to offer it?

Putting the "Rules" to Work for Your Business
To start capitalizing on the many market opportunities represented by sustainability, consider the following:

Think and act holistically. It is no longer enough to focus on functional benefits alone. ASK: What are we making (product or service? Green or not?) How are we making it? Who are we working with?
Take advantage of the opportunities that green marketing represents to engage consumers on an emotional level and thus, build brand equity. ASK: how can we make our passion and vision relevant and engaging—and our consumers into advocates? How can we empower consumers to make a difference by providing them with education, infrastructure, events, and experiences?
The way you communicate will be critical to success (and will help you avoid "greenwashing"). ASK: How to ensure that our approach is viewed as authentic? Transparent? Are all stakeholders aware of our intentions and progress? Is our vision embedded in the fabric of our company?
Eco-innovation represents new ways to grow top line sales. ASK: How can we inspire consumers? What technology and partners do we need to gain access to?
Strive for an ideal goal of "zero" environmental impact. Strive to eco-innovate rather than simply eco-design. ASK: What would it take to achieve zero environmental impact and still meet our consumers' needs? Can we make consumers more "responsible"? It's one thing to design better products and technologies. But, at some point, industry's efforts will go only so far. Achieving "zero" environmental impact will come about only if changes can be made in consumer behavior—thus the genius of Toyota's dashboard, and Web sites that engage consumers in more responsible forms of behavior.

[Jacquelyn A. Ottman is president of J. Ottman Consulting, Inc., a New York City-based marketing and new products firm that advises on strategies for green marketing. She is the author of Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation (2nd edition). Contact her via (info@greenmarketing.com). ]

Partnership Brand Marketing—It's About Distribution Channels

2007-11-24T13:51:00.000+04:00

Partnership Brand Marketing—It's About Distribution Channels
November 2007.

Walk down any supermarket aisle. What do you see? Brands, brands, and more brands. And, individually, each has its own equity—along with consumer appeal, value, unique brand-defining characteristics, and a brand essence that evokes loyalty among target consumers.

The smart marketer uses strategically planned distribution to enhance brand equity. Although gaining new distribution with an alliance partner is less common, it can be extremely powerful. In fact, especially during challenging economic periods, the power of marketing partnerships brings expanded credibility and a cost-efficient means to gain distribution.

Many companies and managers today have mastered and are effectively using promotional programs, which can range from couponing to licensing and merchandising, among others.
However, such marketing tools are often used independently or in more of a silo approach. And it can take a long time to create these programs, especially if another partner brand is included or a promotional overlay is involved—such as an entertainment property: theatrical, DVD, or otherwise.

And today many companies and brands are engaging in "Partnership Marketing," "Marketing Alliances," "Strategic Partnerships," and even "Partnership Brand Marketing" programs. But often they boil down to just promotions, perhaps maybe even on a larger scale.

But the true success of partnership brand marketing lies in its power to open up new and alternative channels of distribution for both the companies and the brands involved.

Finding Customers Where You Aren't
The whole idea behind partnership brand marketing is to find customers where your company and brand do not compete: It not only provides your brand with additional credibility in aligning with another company but also opens up distribution channels, allows you to reach and market to customers that may not be aware or thinking of your brand, and—most important—it captures the attention of new potential buyers who may not have your brand top of mind.

But the key ingredient is integration. It is not enough to create a promotion or align with a licensed property. It is not enough to create a joint merchandising display.

Well-crafted partnership brand marketing should include every possible touchpoint that your business has with its customers—both traditional and nontraditional marketing, including Internet, special events, advertising, promotions, public relations, packaging, merchandising, and a host of other marketing components.

Accordingly, strategic partnership brand marketing programs not only need to be created and designed at the senior level in each company but also need to involve the brand group and marketing managers that will run, implement, and monitor the program's success on a daily basis.

Marketing alliances don't just present an opportunity to create promotions; they also establish a base from which to create distribution opportunities, providing a great chance to leverage either geographic distribution or merchandising within a store.

An example: if an entertainment property links with a packaged-goods brand to create a promotion, there could (and should) be advertising program overlays in the form of television, print, FSIs (free-standing inserts), and event packaging.

But to extend this to a true partnership brand marketing program, other elements such as a joint selling and distribution team between both companies should occur with the goal of gaining incremental and sustained distribution. Other elements, including corporate programs, could come into play.

And even greater challenge and desirable end result is to create an umbrella strategic Partnership Brand Marketing program in which at least three companies and brands align to share in their distribution and marketing programs, with the goal of providing even greater value to all three company's customers.

And the best part is that, ultimately, the customer, the consumer, and the buyer win: They are introduced to several brands, initiatives, new products, new features, and a host of other promotional activities designed to induce trial and build loyalty while providing value.
Though targeted distribution has been proven a clear and successful strategy for ensuring success for a brand, fewer brands are actually capitalizing on marketing alliances to obtain alternative distribution for their brand.

Case in Point
Recently, our company, PBM Marketing Solutions, created a national strategic partnership brand marketing program on behalf of LEGOLAND California and Volvo Cars of North America.
Rather than creating just a marketing sponsorship or promotional program, we developed a multi-level marketing partnership that now extends far beyond the promotional arena. This includes cross promotions, joint advertising, a dealer component, marketing exposure on the national auto show circuit, a life-size Volvo LEGO car placed in high-trafficked areas, Volvo cars placed at LEGOLAND California, LEGOLAND marketed in the Volvo auto dealer channel, special events, corporate/employee programs, as well as safety awareness activities.

As a result of this partnership brand marketing program, Volvo can now reach customers in a channel where it does not compete—the theme park industry—and LEGOLAND California and the LEGO brand can now reach customers in a channel where it does not compete: automotive.
* * *
It is key to realize that companies and brands have two types of equity. First is their brand equity—but of equal validity is a company or brand's distribution equity.
The brand equity is the value that consumers and buyers feel about the brands that they are loyal to, whereas distribution equity is a brand's foothold, strength, and presence where the products are actually sold.

Being able to parlay a marketing partnership into an ongoing alliance to help gain further distribution and sales takes partnerships to a higher level. In fact, often a marketing alliance can have more than just one promotion built into it—it can feature multiple program layers that can transcend the supermarket to include the Internet with web-site links, on-pack messages and co-branding placed in alternative channels as well as unique locations where consumers are most apt to see your product.

In today's busy world of brand marketing, utilizing the strength of marketing alliances to get product into new channels and venues is an essential marketing tool to generate incremental sales.

Gregory J. Pollack is founder and president of PBM Marketing Solutions (www.pbmmarketing.com), a partnership brand marketing company. He can be reached via gpollack@pbmmarketing.com.

Metrics for Managing Marketing Performance

2007-10-30T15:16:00.000+04:00

'Classic Truths': If You Don't Measure, You Can't Manage: The Best Metrics for Managing Marketing Performance

October, 2007.

Without metrics to track performance, marketing and business plans are ineffective.
Businesses need to know which success factors require measuring, and they must understand the differences between measurements (the raw outcomes of quantification), metrics (ideal standards for measurement), and benchmarks (the standards by which all others are measured).

For marketers, three primary metrics constitute a starting point for tracking their performance. Once companies are aware of their competitive position, their desired outcomes, and what it will take to achieve those outcomes, companies will be better able to identify the success factors, benchmarks, and appropriate metrics to meet their target.

Why Measure?
Metrics are a part of our everyday lives: from our heart rate, to our bank balances; from our weight, to the gas mileage on our cars. If we don't pay attention to these numbers, we create a risk for getting a heart attack, being overdrawn, or running out of gas.

The same is true in the business environment. If a company doesn't identify and track important performance measures, it increases its risks.

Metrics provide a means to assess progress; they provide valuable data points against which the marketing organization can track its progress. Metrics demonstrate accountability and allow marketers to better know, act upon, align efforts, and reduce market exposure. Metrics enable the marketing organization to truly serve as the eyes and ears of the company.

And, more importantly, establishing and tracking metrics will have a positive influence on the leadership's satisfaction with Marketing and the marketer's ability to secure funds. Only 38% of US executives say their companies are now measuring the results of their marketing efforts, according to a study of senior business executives conducted in the second quarter of 2004 by Blackfriar.

Will measurement actually change investment in Marketing? Blackfriar compared planned marketing spending for companies that measure marketing with those that don't. The result? Firms that measure marketing planned to spend an average of 41% of their annual marketing budgets during the second quarter. Those that don't measure planned to spend only 33%; apparently, they felt more comfortable planning to spend their marketing dollars than those that don't measure.

Measuring marketing also has an impact on the satisfaction of senior executives regarding their investment in Marketing. Some 16% of executives at companies that measure marketing said they were dissatisfied with their marketing efforts. But at firms that don't measure marketing, 28% said they were dissatisfied.

The simple act of measuring marketing results reduced the dissatisfaction of senior executives significantly. In other words, measurement allowed Marketing to prove its worth.

Defining Metrics
The world of metrics can be confusing for people new to these concepts. To better understand metrics and how they work, several terms must be defined:

Measurements are the raw outcome of a quantification process, such as a company's numbers, ratios, and percentages.
Metrics are the standards for measurement, providing target values that a company must achieve to reach a certain level of success.
Benchmarks are the best measurements to aspire to, the standard by which all others are measured. Companies that set benchmarks in their industries are the ones often lauded in "Top Ten" and "Most Admired" lists and articles.

A good example of a marketing benchmark can be traced back to the early 1990s. Over a decade ago, market research firm IntelliQuest (now Millward Brown IntelliQuest) conducted a customer satisfaction research study for the personal computing industry.

The firm spoke to customers who rated the companies in the industry, which resulted in a measurement on a one-to-nine scale. It then learned that 84% of users who rated their satisfaction as a seven, an eight, or a nine would consider the same brand for their next purchase. Seven, eight, or nine became the metrics that companies aspired to attain. The benchmark was nine.

Three Metrics Gauges
To determine which success factors to measure and the appropriate metrics for each, marketers must have a clear understanding of the company's goals. A young company looking to gain traction in the market is focused on factors different from those of a more established company wanting to improve its customer relationships.

For those beginning to use metrics, listed below are four key performance indicators that support three metrics gauges: market share, lifetime value, and brand equity.

These gauges are directly linked to the three specific performance areas that Marketing can impact: acquisition, penetration, and monetization.

The first responsibility of Marketing is to identify and enable the organization to acquire customers, without whom there is no revenue, without which there is no business. Acquisition enables the company to increase its market share.

Although Marketing may not close the deal, marketing strategies move the customer through the buying process, from awareness to consideration. Four key performance indicators enable you to address market share:

Customer growth rate
Share of preference
Share of voice
Share of distribution

The second responsibility of Marketing is to keep the customers that the company acquires and increase the value of those customers. It is expensive and ultimately disastrous to have customers coming in one door only to go out another. High customer churn signals a variety of problems and hinders your ability to create leverage.

The following performance indicators will help your drive these penetration-related metrics:

Frequency and recency of purchase
Share of wallet
Purchase value growth rate
Customer tenure
Customer loyalty and advocacy

The third responsibility of Marketing is monetization. Up until the 1970s, a company's value was determined by its book value. Over time, intangible assets, such as a company's intellectual property, customer value, franchises, goodwill, and so on have had an increasing effect on a company's market value.

Marketing professionals can improve the market value of their company by improving their performance in four key areas:

Price premium
Customer franchise value
Rate of new product acceptance
Net advocate score

A recently published report, "Measures + Metrics: Assessing Marketing Value + Impact," by Glazier, Nelson and O'Sullivan, corroborates these gauges and performance metrics. In their report for the CMO Council, the authors specified four performance metrics:

Business acquisition/demand generation, which can include such metrics as market share gains, lead acquisition and deal flow
Product innovation/acceptance, which can include market adoption rates, user attachment and affinity, loyalty and word-of-mouth
Corporate image and brand identity, which can include growth in brand value and financial equity, awareness and retention of employees
Corporate vision and leadership, which can include share of voice and discussion, retention and relevance of messaging, and tonality of coverage

Regardless of which model companies choose to deploy, to fully capitalize on the benefits of metrics they should consider establishing a continuous process in which metrics are collected, analyzed, and reported on a regular basis.

Over time, metrics can reveal valuable information about which marketing tactics are most effective, what types of prospects are most likely to buy, which customers are most profitable, and how the market in general develops over time.
Also important to remember is that metrics themselves can change over time. As the market and the company evolve, marketers must diligently review and adjust their metrics.

Innovative competitors will continue to set higher benchmarks, ratcheting up the acceptable range of metrics. The airline industry's 45-minute airplane turnaround time was considered standard until Southwest Airlines decided to do it in 15 minutes. Some metrics may become outdated, and newer metrics and methods of measurement will require attention.

To work without metrics is to work blindly. A lack of metrics makes it extremely difficult to assess whether a course of action is working or needs adjustment. The proper use of metrics can provide guidance to help a company expand market position, lower costs, and retain the best customers so that the company can ultimately set the benchmarks in its industry.

Advertising's Most Important Word

2007-10-30T14:39:00.000+04:00

What Is Advertising's Most Important Word?

October 30, 2007.

If you had to guess the single most important word in advertising, what would it be? Free, special, discount, sale, new, improved, bigger, better...?

So many words have lost their meaning or been corrupted by misuse or abuse that it is not an obvious choice.

The terms "luxury," "exclusive," and "world-class" have been rendered meaningless after being applied to everything from 800-square-foot condos to restaurants that serve microwave frozen dinners. We can't even rely on "light," "diet," or "low-carb" to actually describe what's inside a package.

What advertisers have done is create a hyper-cynical marketplace, where the audience for whatever you sell has lost faith in what is being said.

But the Web with its emphasis on content gives advertisers an opportunity to redeem themselves and to deliver meaningful information to its audience.

All Content Is Advertising, All Advertising Isn't
Some may cringe at the thought, but in the final analysis all content is a form of advertising. Content is rarely if ever neutral, even if it doesn't overtly promote a product or service. Content always has a point to make, or an idea, concept, or position to advance.

If content doesn't provide some perspective, some meaningful knowledge, then does it really qualify as content?
The same can be said for advertising, if it doesn't explain, enlighten or engage, it is just noise.

What Is Advertising's Most Important Word?
My vote goes to the simple, innocuous word "like": a nondescript word that carries with it all the conceptualization power you need to create a business identity, to form a brand personality, and to position your product or service in the mind of your audience.

My vote goes to the simple, innocuous word "like": a nondescript word that carries with it all the conceptualization power you need to create a business identity, to form a brand personality, and to position your product or service in the mind of your audience.

Metaphor, Analogy, Stories: The Adman's Best Friends
A metaphor explains complex concepts and hard-to-comprehend processes by comparing them to common, everyday knowledge. We use metaphors every day without even realizing we're doing it. We "race" to the office. We work "like dogs." And we all know, it's a "jungle" out there.

Metaphors are critical to the way we communicate with each other and to the success of our marketing communication and advertising.

Metaphors can be extended into analogies, and analogies into stories, and stories into campaigns. And campaigns developed in this manner have a higher probability of achieving the elusive status of meaningful content that embeds your message in your audience's collective consciousness.

There is no better way to overcome a client's objection than to put that objection into perspective with an appropriate allegorical story.

Overcoming Objections: How Long Is Too Long?
We've all heard the constant bellyaching from impatience Web users about how long they have to wait for everything on the Web. Every time I hear this from somebody, I am reminded of the story (perhaps apocryphal) of the early introduction of the Polaroid Land camera.

Before the days of one-hour photo shops, digital photography, and instant video feedback, people had to wait up to a week for their pictures to be developed by the local pharmacy or camera shop. When Polaroid came out with a camera that delivered a finished photograph in sixty seconds, people were amazed; the era of instant gratification had begun.

And, so the story goes, a group of adventurers traveled deep into the Brazilian Rainforest to learn about the indigenous people. When they came across a tribe who had never seen outsiders before, they befriended them and took pictures of them with the Polaroid cameras they brought along. The natives loved the pictures since they had never seen anything like this before, but they did have one complaint, "Why did it take so long for the pictures to develop?"

The problem is not technology; the problem is one of perception. Like the natives who perceived the 60-second developing of photographs to be slow, so to do many Web users perceive the Internet to be slow when in fact it is an incredible technological achievement where anyone with a computer and Internet connection can access information from all over the world in seconds or, heaven forbid, minutes.

The Better the Story, the Better the Communication
The solution to the problem is better communication to make yourself and your message instantly understood. People who are truly interested in what you have to say will wait for your Web page or video to load. What gets them frustrated is that when they wait—and instead of getting a meaningful message they get a bunch of nonsense that is irrelevant, self-congratulatory, or completely incomprehensible.

A video or audio message on your Web site is more easily grasped than a page full of densely written text or cryptic bulleted points. But you will loose your audience quickly no matter what the form of your message if it's confusing, muddled, overly complex, or buried in b-school platitudes and industry jargon.

You need your message to be understandable, engaging, and memorable. And one of the best ways to convey that message is to compare it with something your audience can relate to.
It's like teaching your kids a life lesson by reading them one of Aesop's Fables.

Finding Your Metaphor
Some people have a knack for expressing things in a way that an audience will instantly grasp and, more importantly, remember.
For those of us in the communication, marketing, advertising, and creative-development businesses, it is a necessary skill learned over the years. But for those in the day-to-day grind of business's nitty-gritty, it is rarely an ability that ever gets developed.

Creating a Web video campaign that your audience is going to watch, remember, and pass on to colleagues requires a commitment of time and money, and you'll want to make sure it communicates your message effectively. Rather than using your traditional-approach concentrating of features and facts, try something different: Try developing a campaign based on a metaphor that delivers your brand's personality and emotional value-add.

Where to begin? You need to set yourself free from the concrete and concentrate on the conceptual. If this seems like a difficult thing to wrap your head around, start with baby steps.

Concentrate on the Conceptual
Any effective marketing campaign—whether it's a series of Web videos, direct emails, magazine display ads, banner ads, outdoor billboards, television and radio spots, or any combination thereof—will work only if it focuses on a single message.
At the heart of all advertising is the promise you commit to delivering to your clients. No matter how clever or memorable your marketing, if you fail to deliver on that promise, you will fail.

Learn a lesson from the politicians. The general publics' opinion of politicians is about on a par with having a prostate exam. Politicians can't help themselves; they promise the electorate what the electorate wants to hear, and then fail to deliver on promises that can never be kept. Consequently, people become cynical and distrust everything politicians say.
Failure to deliver on your promise to be the cheapest, the best, or the guy with the most features, is like a politician promising no new taxes. Read my lips! Those kinds of promises are a prescription for marketing disaster.

Taking the conceptual approach requires a certain degree of confidence and an understanding that you are going to have to give up something to get something in return.
If you present your identity as the Timex of widgets, inexpensive and ubiquitous, then you are giving up the audience looking for the Rolex of widgets, expensive and exclusive.

Audience Resonance: It's All About Striking a Nerve
One of the most memorable commercials ever to appear on television was the 1985 introduction of the Apple Macintosh computer. The anti-Big Brother message said nothing of bits or bytes, or anything else computer-related, but it did establish Apple's character and personality with its allegorical message, which is still valid today.

If your marketing message lacks this kind of power and personality, if your advertising is getting lost, or drowned-out by the competition, try finding a metaphor that instantly tells your audience who you are and why they should care.

Marketing to Women - Nike

2007-10-30T13:47:00.000+04:00

How Nike Women's Marathon Wins the Gold in Marketing to Women

October 23, 2007

On October 21, Nike hosted its 4th annual Women's Marathon in San Francisco... and, friends, this is no ordinary marathon.
Yes, it's still 26.2 miles of courage and pain, but this course is also full of female-friendly delights and surprises. Specifically designed with women in mind, the Nike Women's Marathon motivates women to bring their body, mind, spirit, and camaraderie to run their best race.

Let's take a look at the core marketing-to-women strategies that Nike is using to elevate the impact of this event: Surprise & Delight, Community, Corporate Halo, Storytelling, Emotional Connection, and Inclusiveness.

Surprise & Delight

Random acts of kindness are wonderful ways to connect with your female audience, create a great memory, and give them something to tell their friends about. In fact, in this age of word-of-mouth marketing, the Surprise & Delight strategy is consistently the most effective way to create positive word of mouth—your most powerful marketing multiplier.

From the spectacular views along the course to the sweet treats during the Chocolate Mile to the foot-pampering pedicure stations, Nike has designed every detail of the Nike Women's Marathon to delight the women runners.

On Thursday night before the big weekend, participants are invited to the Ladies Night happy hour, featuring drinks, appetizers, and special raffles, including a chance to win diamond earrings from Tiffany & Co. At the Nike Expotique, the racers can indulge in free massages and manicures, tune up with Nike+ trials, fitness consultations, training and nutrition seminars, and have some fun at the hair and make-up stylist stations. Post-race, there's a big party at the finish line with music, more free massages, and lots of good food.

At the end of the 26.2 miles, each runner gets a Finisher's necklace from Tiffany, a little bit of bling that serves as a badge of honor for every woman who fights her way to the finish line. As one blogger put it, "Crossing the finish line and having a tall, handsome man in a tuxedo hand you a little blue box makes it worth all of your hard work!"

And picture this the day after the race: 20,000 runners fan out from San Francisco, returning to their homes across the country and across the world exhilarated by the experience and singing its praises to everyone they encounter.

With this event, by showing its commitment to women, Nike has in effect created a corps of brand ambassadors visibly and publicly committed to the brand.

Men aspire to be at the top of the heap, the King of the Road. Psychologists have found, however, that women generally don't want to be looked up to, any more than they want to be looked down on. Female gender culture operates within the worldview of a peer group, and women like to look across, to feel a sense of bonds among equals. Women want to be a part of a community, to be with people with whom they have something in common.

Nike has figured out how to bring empathy and community to their marathon this year, and it's doing it in a creative "new media" way. In addition to the actual, on-site, physical race in San Francisco, its is also holding the Nike+ Women's Half Marathon, a local counterpart to the real deal that women can run on their own turf.

Women across the country can run 13.1 miles on a course of their choosing on October 21, log their results onto the Nike Web site by the end of the day, and become an official half-marathon finisher. And as the Nike site says, finishing has its privileges: When you cross the finish line on nikeplus.com, you get a virtual trophy in your online trophy case (hey—a trophy's a trophy—I'll take it!). And, not to worry, you too get a box in Tiffany blue—a silver key chain—and in the mail you'll receive your very own Nike Finisher's T-shirt.

Also online, Nike helps women find a support network while training by hosting an online forum. They can meet other women who will run on race day, share training tips, encourage each other, share favorite routes, etc.
Even if you couldn't be in San Francisco next weekend, Nike created a way to engage women all over the world, inspire them to "Run Together!" as this year's tagline goes, and bond with tens of thousands of women across the planet.

Corporate Halo
The "corporate halo" principle—shorthand for companies that dedicate real time, money, and commitment to acts and programs of good community citizenship—is one of the strongest "marketing to women" tools in any strategic plan, because it can help a brand stand out in a meaningful way.

When all other things are equal (and in this era of commoditization, they so often are), a company's good community practices can be the deciding factor that builds a bridge to your brand instead of to your competition. Study after study shows that the majority of men and women care about corporate halo—but the women always care just a little bit more. And since it's the women who buy 80% of everything, that opens up doors of opportunity for marketers seeking to invite their best prospects in.

The Nike Women's Marathon benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research. Via a partnership with Team in Training, the marathon raised more than $40 million in its first three years for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Storytelling, Emotions & Inclusiveness
I do miss one thing from last year's event: the stories featured on the Web site. There were hundreds of them, some serious, some funny, some moving, and all inspirational.
They represented the broad range of women's reasons to run: Some love to run just for the heck of it, some seek goals to accomplish, some run in honor of survivors, some run in memory of loved ones, some run to bathe in the beauty of San Francisco, some run to lose weight and gain a fitness routine for life, some run to be social and to train with friends.

Regardless of the reason, the Nike Women's Marathon fulfills a dream for each of them. This inclusiveness strategy is important to Nike's success with women. Most Nike ads come across as only for serious hard-core athletes. With its marathon communications, Nike recognizes and includes all women, who have many different motivations for running beyond being a hard body.
The hundreds of stories on last year's site were listed as links with a memorable first line for each story. With lead-ins like "Began running in my 70s," "In memory of my son Nick," "To prove a point," and "The Ladies Lunchtime Running Club," who could resist the urge to read them all?

I think I clicked on every one—and it's no exaggeration to say that the whole time I felt steeped in good vibes about the benefits and blessings that the Nike Marathon was bringing to these women in mind, body, spirit, and camaraderie.

Every year, the Nike Women's Marathon has been sold out in a matter of hours—and it's easy to see why. If you were one of this year's runners, I hope you had a great time. If you are a marketer looking for inspiration on how to "just do it" with marketing to women, look to Nike—the goddess of victory, don't you know!

Prepare for an Ad Campaign Success

2007-10-30T13:17:00.000+04:00

How to Prepare for an Advertising Campaign's Success

You've done your homework and planned a solid advertising campaign. But, says Elaine Fogel, Vice President of Team Y & R, you need to be sure you're ready for its success. Is your small business really prepared to handle the surge in volume you're hoping for?

Her advice:

Plan for the best-case scenario. If a big response has the potential to overwhelm your staff, hire temporary workers or recruit friends and family to help out. "It's always better to be over-prepared and hire too many people in the short term than to miss out on sound business leads," claims Fogel.

Educate the entire team. Anyone at your company who answers the phone or responds to customer email needs to know about the promotion. Share your objectives and how to handle anticipated questions. Everyone should be prepared to pinch-hit if salespeople are overwhelmed.

Tell the truth. Follow the old maxim of under-promising and over-delivering by giving accurate information about product availability and wait times. Record follow-up requests in a database. Try to be as speedy as possible, but never make an appointment you can't keep.

The Po!nt: "It's a balancing act to have the accurate number of staff and resources to handle increased sales while ensuring that customers have a positive brand experience at every touch point," writes Fogel.

All about being naughty - The Axe Effext

2007-10-30T13:11:00.000+04:00

It's Nice to be Naughty!

If you don't make a habit of watching channels like MTV or Comedy Central, it's possible you’ve missed an array of gleefully sophomoric spots for Axe body spray. The usual premise: When an average-looking guy uses Axe, attractive women start throwing themselves at him. Literally. Sometimes—locked in passionate embrace—the lucky lad and a new girlfriend roll down a hill, oblivious to the rocks, fences and cliffs they encounter along the way. It's a none-too-subtle message aimed squarely at adolescent boys, but even those of us outside the target demographic can appreciate its unapologetic cheek.

Now, Axe has gone even further with a viral-friendly video. Approached from the female perspective in the style of a Daily Show satire, this faux news report examines the Axe Naughty to Nice Program for Wayward Girls, which attempts to rehabilitate "nice" young women turned "naughty" by the irresistible power of Axe body spray.
Clocking in at a full five minutes, the video boasts exceptional production values and enough off-color humor to make an FCC censor blush. A special extra for marketers: The riotous send-up of a dim-witted PR director.

Axe delivers its tried-and-true message with the twist so entertaining that the video begs to be forwarded on entertainment merit alone—we call that Marketing Inspiration.
See the Axe clip on YouTube.

Returns on Marketing Integrity

2007-10-20T11:08:00.000+04:00

What Is Your 'Return on Marketing Integrity'?

by Lynn B. Upshaw October 16, 2007

A Yankelovich study a few years ago found that as many as two-thirds of Americans believe that businesses would take advantage of the public if those businesses did not think they would be exposed. As many as one-fourth of Americans agreed that there is literally nothing that business can do to recapture their trust once it is lost. ("State of Consumer Trust," 2004).

We live in a time of omnipresent scrutiny by citizen journalists, regulators, attorneys general, and virtually anyone with a computer and a point of view. The risks of shaky integrity have never been more real. Now would be a good time to measure how well a brand's marketing helps or hinders its perceived integrity, which is to say its ability to build and hold customer trust.

Metrics for a New Kind of ROMI
Most marketers may be honest in the sense that they do not habitually break the law, but the definition of "honest" is shifting to a higher plane, just as it has for stock-option grants and board directors' liabilities.

Marketers need to consider a new calculus: "return on marketing integrity"—that is, a new type of "ROMI"—which can lead to stronger business performance.

Traditional return on marketing investment is calculated using gross margin generated by marketing efforts (GM), minus the marketing investment (I), divided by that investment: ROMI = (GM - I) ÷ I. The calculation for return on marketing integrity is identical, except that investment is replaced with marketing integrity. Simple enough to explain, considerably more difficult to measure.

One of the advantages of an integrity metric is that the additional investment is not like any other factor that could confuse the calculation. Consequently, it may be difficult to extract the market impact of a specific marketing effort from the effects of sales development drives or unexpected distribution gains. However, integrity investments are unique and thus—at least in theory—should be more trackable.

For instance, if a company invests significant person hours and some out-of-pocket spending behind ensuring that every marketing claim is ruthlessly checked for accuracy, then any attitudinal or behavioral gains among customers can be at least partially credited to those investments.

Patagonia asks its people to continually check the earth-impact of its fabrics and to be certain that what it claims in its catalog is as accurate as it can be. Kiehl's Since 1851 does the same when it comes to its cosmetics lines. Herman Miller screens all its marketing materials through a simple filter suggested by a former CEO: "The truth is good enough."

These extra efforts cost resources and time, and some portion of what those companies reap in terms of positive customer attitudes and loyalty can be rightly attributed to such actions.

Exactly how much is attributable would be based on a weighted factoring system that could be established by the marketing teams, with the concurrence of other contributors to company/brand performance.

Why Integrity Is a Return Worth Measuring
Here's why measuring the impact of marketing integrity may be well worth the effort:

> Measuring the impact of integrity can help marketers learn some key reasons why customers may remain loyal, leading to increased profitability. Infosys is a Bangalore, India-based IT services company with a growth rate that is the envy of its industry. The 90% of Infosys customers who return year after year are there for one major reason: They can count on Infosys to deliver what they promise because they believe in the company's integrity, not just its past performance.

> Tracking integrity impact may yield new ways to attract more new customers than if the company had not adhered to such standards. Kiehl's, since 1851, has operated like a neighborhood apothecary, which means that the people of each store have a personal stake in what they sell. The products they serve and the service they provide are uniquely superior to so many other alternatives, and customers return because they know authentic integrity when they see it.

> Measuring a return on integrity can help build strong competitive strategies that could provide an edge in the marketplace. A competitor may gain some ground over the short term by stretching the truth or endangering its brand's equity, but this is an arena where what goes around tends to come around. Companies that demonstrate "disruptive integrity" stand out as organizations that customers believe, and which deserve their competitive advantages, as has been repeatedly demonstrated by Trader Joe's, W.L. Gore, and Timberland Shoes.

> By regularly evaluating integrity performance and its impact on the financials, a company may also be able to reduce or eliminate the unforced integrity errors that have cost other companies major brand equity and sales declines. For example, the business decline and fall of Guidant Corporation was prompted by alleged integrity flaws in its products, and the ultimate liabilities of those problems were gauged to be well into the billions. At last check, the Guidant brand itself was slated to be ash-heaped and, with it, an enormous amount of brand equity. A simple set of integrity metrics and measurements might have prevented such losses in both of these cases.

> Maintaining a measurable sense of integrity can protect brand equity when a company's integrity is under scrutiny. Hewlett-Packard has historically been a company that operates with exceptional integrity, but that ethos did not prevent members of its management from allegedly making serious ethical mistakes when investigating an information leak on its board of directors in the fall of 2006. On the other hand, when CEO Mark Hurd promised a Congressional subcommittee that such an integrity breech would not happen again, his promise may have carried a bit more weight because of the company's 68-year legacy of spotless integrity prior to the scandal.

Aggressive Integrity
The probabilities of such companies making serious integrity errors are much smaller than for other companies because they have committed to aggressive integrity through organizational and cultural honesty. That makes an enormous difference in how they create their products and services and how successfully they market them to their customers.

During a credibility crisis involving the troubled General Re acquisition, Warren Buffet once observed, "Berkshire can afford to lose money, even lots of money; it can't afford to lose...even a shred of reputation." If the Oracle of Omaha can't afford it, neither can the rest of us.
Whatever success a brand or company has in generating revenue with its marketing programs, that success will be enhanced and protected by aggressively cultivating and tracking marketing integrity.

Print Ad of the Day - II

2007-10-18T11:51:00.000+04:00

Client: The Economist

Category: Publication & Media

Agency: AMV BBDO, UK.

Print Ad of the Day - I

2007-10-18T11:28:00.000+04:00

Client: Sanctuary, India

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, India.

Print Ad of the Day - VI

2007-10-17T10:24:00.001+04:00

Client: MTV

Category: Corporate Image
Agency: Y&R, Buenos Aires

Print Ad of the Day - V

2007-10-17T10:21:00.000+04:00

Client: MTV

Category: Corporate Image
Agency: Y&R, Buenos Aires