The memo you missed re: Marketing Your Business; KISS

"Sales is not the same as Marketing"..whoever subscribes to that philosophy has been working in corporate cubicles way too long..
Yes, if you wanted to paint an org chart..in many enterprises, these two functions are typically separate, and depending on the industry (and/or size of company), Sales often reports 'up' to Marketing.

Whatever..regardless of  business size, the rules and tactics are often taken from the same playbook.

If you're  a 'small' business, and you just recently figured out how to get a website on the internet, before the world totally passes you by, read this week's NYT article "Small Retailers Open Up Storefronts on Facebook"...


Here's another in the latest trend i.e. "one size fits all" marketing KISS. Keep your message simple and stupid..whether its an advertising program, or a more 'institutional' strategy. Your target audience is actually not as smart as you think, and the more words and/or images that you use, the more likely you are to confuse them.

Don't believe me? Follow the talking head commentary re Presidential campaign advertising tactics and messages. Every 4 years, neuroscience gurus come up with even more granular strategies, and every cycle media analysts spend nothing but airtime critiquing them.

But the fact is, if all it takes to win an election today is a bigger advertising budget than your opponent, that proves that people in general are stupid. By that logic, this article is logical read

Venture Capital Firms, Once Discreet, Learn the PR Game

Remember when venture capital firms were more secretive than the NSA? I certainly do. That's when NDA's were signed in blood, and VCs were loathe to talk about anything other than how much and when a prospective fund investor would be wiring in a check, and would only make references to the industries they were focused on, nothing more.

New rules (duh!). As noted by Nicole Perloth in her NY Times column today : for all of you under-employed PR wizards, great news: the VC world is 'ramping up.' and hiring those who can tweet, blog, and word-smith--just like the start-ups those VCs invest in.

Self-promotion via aggressive, this generation public relation strategies is not only in vogue, its become an integral component to an industry that competes like gladiators for the opportunity to invest in deals as well as for fee-paying/profit-sharing institutional investors who are ever-more pernickety when it comes to allocating assets to 'alternative asset' managers.

A telling part of the article profiles the mindset of Andreeessen Horowitz (Marc Andreesen made his bones and mini-billion as a result of co-founding Netscape); each year 15 deals account for 97 percent of all venture capital profits. This means VC's need laser-like precision to identify and get a piece of a very small fraction of the deals that actually end up making money for investors.  And to do that, VC's need to be "out there" with magnetizing messages that start-up companies can gravitate to. 

 

Top Firm Leverages Online-Video To Create Series of Corporate MarCom Messages

For you branders and 'marcom gurus' who might have missed the latest memo: corporate deployment of video vignettes to better deliver the 'brand message' is now the top weapon in most 'mindshare' arsenals.

To illustrate, you'll want to read in between the lines re: new strategy from Omnicom subsidiary..(if you keep reading, you'll trip over the link!)

Yes, of course we know that Omnicom is the world's second biggest ad agency, so its only logical that a company in that space would necessarily embrace the latest and greatest tactics.

But, these aren't run-of-the mill mad men who happen to have lots of digital production facilities at their disposal to play with; these are the people that set the tone and tenor for "what's next?" and use themselves as guinea pigs to demonstrate strategies that make sense...and ultimately dollars for brand managers that follow their lead.

 today's profile in the NYT Business section  is a good read for any VP of Marketing trying to impress the boss with what your company is still too slow to do--while competitors start to eat your lunch..

Mad Men and Hedge Fund Marketing: Let The Games Begin

Courtesy of Huffington Post column re Hedge Funds Can Now Engage Mad Men: 
Mad Men, the wildly popular AMC TV show about the fictional 1960s advertising agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, is set in a haze of cigarette smoke, alcohol and chronically inappropriate behavior. Hedge funds, dating back to a similar era, have remained equally hazy to most Americans, as well as often being equally off-center in their behavior.

Today, as a result of the JOBS Act (Jump-Start Our Business Start-ups), hedge funds are now allowed to advertise their products through the mass market. And, to further confuse consumers, hedge funds come in all flavors, all shapes and sizes. Speaking of them as a single asset class is akin to going to the zoo and telling the zookeeper, "I'm here to see the animal."

We love creative marketing..and for you hedgies looking to hedge with a boutique outfit that walks, talks and knows Wall Street inside and out, here's a short selection of OUR recent favorite ads 

Marketing to Men?: Read This Memo!

Courtesy of Mark Jaffee, ModernMan.com

Men want to be entertained, no surprise there. So it makes perfect sense that brands would try to weave their message into articles, videos, games, shows, and films that men find entertaining. While the notion of branded content isn’t new, marketers have become increasingly more creative in their tactics. Last month’s Cannes Lions festival even added a “Branded Content & Entertainment” category to reflect the trend.

Engaging content beyond the standard pre-roll or banner ad can help brands move the needle in terms of consumer awareness, image, and sales. Yet many advertisers are hesitant to step outside their comfort zone and take on the role of content producer. For those looking to reach guys, they’re missing a huge opportunity.

No Need To Fool A Fool

These days, men -- as well as women, tweens, and domestic animals for that matter -- are savvy enough to know when we’re on the receiving end of an advertisement. But we don’t necessarily mind. Men are quite happy for marketers to throw their brands in our faces, so long as we’re entertained along the way. 

Old Spice proved that point with its clever “Old Spice Guy” campaign that inspired men (and women) to forward videos, tweet questions to a spokesman draped in a towel, and speak in a deep baritone for no particular reason. The result: Body wash sales went up more than 100%, and Old Spice became hip in a heartbeat. 

Audience First, Product Second

Brands can also get people talking even when the products are presented more subtly. “The Hire,” BMW’s series of eight short films from 2001, is considered a benchmark case study. Starring Clive Owen and directed by heavies such as Ang Lee and Guy Ritchie, the films cost $25 million collectively and stand on their own instead of feeling like an extended commercial. More than 45 million people viewed “The Hire,” which helped bump BMW’s sales by 17% in 2002.

So how does this style of branded content differ from straight-up advertising? As Avi Savar, the category’s jury president at Cannes Lions, explained, the key is to start with a story and then figure out how to connect that story to the product. 

Likewise, Schick’s recent “Clean Break” reality series about three guys escaping their daily rut doesn’t call out the brand within the episodes. Time will tell whether Schick sells more razors as a result, but clearly the company is attempting to create content that engages its target audience. The story comes first.

Knock Knock

I said it up top, but it’s worth repeating. Guys want to be entertained. And we especially want to laugh. When K-Swiss enlisted the HBO character Kenny Powers to be its spokesman (and eventual faux-CEO) in a series of videos, there was nothing subtle about how it promoted its Tubes shoe line in virtually every frame. But the videos were hilarious, and the ensuing buzz recalibrated the company’s image and resulted in a sales uptick in 2011. 

Creating quality content that resonates with consumers is not an easy task. If it were, TV shows would never get canceled and every film would have a $50 million opening weekend. But marketers have as much chance as anyone to produce entertainment that will get guys’ attention, especially since they supposedly know their audience inside and out.  

Hopefully, more brands will put on a content producer’s hat, or work closely with agencies and publishers like ModernMan.com that can provide the creative juices. Marketers are ultimately judged on how well they drive revenue, but making guys laugh, feel, and think will certainly help their cause.