Hand Sanitizer Manufacturer Reaches Out Hands.

we picked up below from Reuters...bravo to the publisher of this "open letter"!

AN OPEN LETTER TO PARENTS, STUDENTS,

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS,

& HEALTH CARE OFFICIALS

November 8, 2007

re: MRSA School Scare

Every day brings new reports of students becoming infected – and in some cases dying – of MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus), a potentially lethal form of staph infection that’s easily acquired in public schools, universities and colleges. The most prominent symptoms include skin abscesses and/or infections.

While MRSA is more pervasive within health care facilities and attacks those with low immune systems, children and young adults in school and public environments are equally susceptible, as the bacterium is spread easily through skin-to-skin contact, open cuts, abrasions, and contact with contaminated surfaces.

On October 16, the US Center for Disease Control (CDC), reported 94,360 MRSA infections and 18,650 MRSA deaths in 2005, more than the number of AIDS-related deaths in the same year. Most experts expect that once tallied, MRSA-related statistics for 2006 and 2007 will prove to be considerably higher.

Even more disturbing, officials representing the CDC, the country’s foremost source of information for best hand hygiene practices, have acknowledged that’s it recommendations, first published in 1996 and specifically intended for health care institutions, have not been updated with regard to the use of rinse-free hand sanitizer products.

Although the CDC actually cautions against the use of alcohol-based products in particular situations, it remains steadfast by exclusively promoting alcohol-based sanitizers as the alternative to soap and water; all despite the fact that in recent years, equally effective and altogether safer, alcohol-free (non-flammable and non-toxic) hand sanitizer technologies have been developed and introduced to the market place.

Selective, and responsibly manufactured alcohol-free sanitizers have proven to be not only as efficient in killing MRSA and other common germs and viruses, but certain of these products remain effective longer, kill bacteria that alcohol cannot, and safer to use in any environment.

Most importantly, given that schools, universities, and licensed day care facilities throughout the country have been outright banning alcohol-based products due to their inherent dangers and noxious side effects, including skin irritations and risk of infection when exposed to open cuts, the current MRSA outbreak has created a dangerous conundrum for students, teachers, parents, and our communities.

The good news is that MRSA, and most other easily transmitted germs and viruses can be avoided with simple precautionary steps. The most essential include frequent hand washing with soap and water, and proper bandaging of cuts and abrasions. But when washing with soap and water isn’t readily convenient, appropriate hand sanitizing products should be applied.

Alcohol-Free Hand Sanitizers -- The Popular Choice

Our product is called Soapopular®; and includes a full line of independently tested, alcohol-free, rinse-free, and fragrance free foaming hand sanitizers. First introduced to the Canadian marketplace three years ago in conformance with strict medical and food compliant guidelines, Soapopular® is FDA-registered and now available throughout the US and worldwide.

We’re passionate about the quality of our product, and we’re determined that alcohol-free is the most logical and most pragmatic hand sanitizing alternative. We‘re ready to put our resources into your hands, and offer a national proposition.

• We invite any official school administrator or licensed day care facility to contact us via our website, or our toll free hotline and receive complimentary case(s) of Soapopular® alcohol-free hand sanitizer for use throughout your organization.*

• We invite all proactive national corporations or local businesses to work with us in sponsoring the delivery of dispenser-based hand sanitizing solutions to schools in the communities that you serve.

Soapopular® is dedicated to promoting responsible hand hygiene practices and helping to eliminate the spread of MRSA. We’re determined to keep our schools and workplaces protected, and our kids safe.

Be popular by staying healthy. Contact us to learn more.

The Board of Directors

MGS Soapopular, Inc.

www.SoapyUSA.com

Toll Free: 888-703-7941

US License:

In Your Face: Courtesy of Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg, the new God of the Internet, unleashed yet another new way that Facebook plans to exploit its platform and provide a way for its users, and more importantly, its advertisers to leverage the power of social networking.

We laughed hysterically when Zuckerberg, barely a twenty-something, dismissed a $1 billion offer from Yahoo to buy him out last year. After all, what kind of a dolt would turn down that kind of loot--and know that he could spend the rest of his expected life--another 70 years or so--without a financial care in the world.. Proving why Bill Gates was happy to part with $250 million just to own a teeny slice of Facebook.

According to Unilever's director of media and entertainment, 'ads on social networking sites are a number one priority--the numbers are staggering"

Time will tell...want to know where I went for dinner last night?

Angel Groups Spread Their Wings-And Raise Their Hands

The Wall Street Journal reports today that angel investors, a group typically associated with providing technology-oriented firms with initial seed capital (before venture and vulture capitalists step in for a second round), are more frequently investing in a wider spectrum of companies, including retail, consumer products, food, and service-oriented companies.

Two striking examples include Wilton-based Artemis Woman a beauty care company, and MGS Soapopular, another CT-based company with WBENC-certification, that, within three months of startup, has since gained a significant market share in the alcohol-free hand sanitizer space--the recent MRSA outbreak has catapulted this company into the limelight, and with initial funding of less than $350k, the company's products will be appearing on 1000+ retail shelves before year end (including select Target stores throughout the country) and is expected to deliver $1million in gross revenue during its first 9 months of operations. Not bad..High Five!

Rocket Racing League-Sponsors Sought at Speed of Light

Only a few weeks ago, I thought that bull riding will prove to be the next great frontier for sponsors seeking to embrace sports enthusiasts! Apparently, the Rocket Racing League is setting to taek off, thanks to league founder Peter Diamandis's deep pockets.

Strategies to Succeed-Its Online!

If you don't subscribe to the NY Times--the link won't work, but yesterday's article in the Small Business section is worth excerpting:

"These days, a Web site may not even be the best place to start promoting your products or services. Instead, you can consider setting up a blog, participating in social-networking communities like Facebook and creating a storefront in virtual worlds like Second Life to get the buzz going.

“We launched our company in May 2006 with a blog, not a Web site,” said Jody DeVere, the president of AskPatty.com, an advice site that helps women find car showrooms and repair shops that are friendly to them. “Our blog has been the driving force of our branding effort and become the way we find our readers and our customers.”

Earlier this year, AskPatty created a virtual coffee shop at the online community site Second Life, where people can swap tips and stories. That move turned out to be a gold mine for the company. “The women in Second Life are the ultimate power Internet users, and are very comfortable doing business online,” Ms. DeVere said. “Plus, it is a very cost-effective way to reach lots of people.”

The Race is on in Hand Sanitizers

A little followed battle is breaking out in the $250 million a year hand sanitizer market place. And we could be wrong about the US market size, it might be as much as $500 million when considering the institutional market.

The battle heating up is about a new technology that could displace the primary ingredient used in 99% of all hand sanitizers...we're talking about the alcohol. The base ingridient in Purell Germx and Ecolab products. These 3 brands own 75% of the marketplace.

Whoever can crack this space will very likely become soapopular.

Ford Advertising-Intelligent??

I just saw a Ford ad on TV promoting the Lincoln Navigator---which included a mention that the car has 'intelligent 4 wheel drive"

I can hear comedian Jack Black now...

"Who came up with the word "intelligent????

Is there such a thing as an "intelligent" 4 wheel drive? And does that mean some 4 wheel drives are stupid?? And are there others that are totally, f--ing moronic??

What's next? Is Mercedes or BMW going to top it with "exceptionally intelligent "4 wheel drive"??? Or, "the smartest 4 wheel drive"?

Thanks Ford! That's what you get for making the former CEO of a airplane manufacturer the head of your turnaround campaign.

Breaking News: Internet Crash Update

Click on the story title for the latest news coverage on this global catastrophe..
:)

How to Use PR and Product Placement Positvely to Promote a new Product

We love these types of product placement human interest stories so much that it makes us pee. Seriously!

Former Minneapolis Fire Chief: A First Responder in I-35W Bridge Collapse;

Coordinates Helping Hand Contribution of Soapopular Hand Sanitizers

Minneapolis, MN, Aug 8, 2007-- Former Minneapolis Fire Department Chief Bonnie Bleskachek, an embattled hero to many in the Minneapolis community, hasn't allowed recent personal controversy to stand in the way of helping Minnesota citizens in times of crisis.

Bleskachek, a career firefighter who, in 2004 was celebrated nationwide for being one of the country’s few women to be appointed Chief of a major US city fire department, only to be demoted two years later after becoming embroiled in a political firestorm, is one of the many heroes emerging in Minneapolis’s I-35W bridge collapse.

Since the August 1 catastrophe first occurred, Bleskachek has been working tirelessly by coordinating volunteer and emergency supply logistics, and she was the first to respond to an unsolicited call from a Connecticut company offering to contribute a shipment of Soapopular, a new, alcohol-free hand sanitizer, for emergency workers at the disaster scene.

Pedro Mata, a partner of Mata Global Solutions, the Connecticut import firm that distributes Soapopular throughout the United States, stated, “Last week’s catastrophe struck a particular chord with us, as we had just returned from a planning session in Minneapolis with executives from Target, Inc., and we were immediately compelled to do whatever we could to help the emergency workers on site.”

According to Bonnie Bleskachek, Former Fire Chief of the Minneapolis Fire Department, and now coordinating disaster relief efforts, “All helping hands are being welcomed by our community, and the hand sanitizers contributed by Soapopular are particularly appreciated.”

Soapopular is one of few, next generation, alcohol-free hand sanitizer products that have been introduced since national news media first began reporting about the side effects of typical hand sanitizer products, including more than 12,000 cases of child-related, alcohol-poisoning cases directly attributed to generic products such as Purell and other brands, which account for more than 95% of the country’s hand

sanitizer market. FDA-approved, Soapopular’s active ingredients provide the same bacteria and germ killing efficacy as more widely-known alcohol-based products, but, unlike most hand sanitizers on the market today, Soapopular is non-toxic, non-flammable, antiseptic, hypoallergenic, kid safe, fragrance fee, and because its alcohol-free, it doesn’t cause hands to dry or become irritated with prolonged use.

* * *

For Additional Information

203.255.0034

http://www.MGSmata.com

http://www.Soapopular-USA.com

How To Qualify a Client

Exactly 8 days ago, my firm received an unsolicited call requesting a sponsorship sales proposal for an event in Las Vegas that would be hosting 2000+ "top gun sales execs" making 250k+ per year.
Despite my being leery as to how many sponsors really want to pay to be in front of sales people--who are notorious for being tough sells themselves, "What do these sales execs sell?", I asked. Reply: "Oh--We're one of the top mortgage sales companies in the US." And they were--NYSE listed American Home Mortgatge

Why would they need sponsors to help underwrite a sales event for their brokers? Gee.. Massive company ringing the cash register with commissions every day..You'd think they could pay for their own party, even if it cost them about $4million a year for this one week seminar/boondoggle in LV....It took a few bangs of my head against the wall to conclude that they were about to go down the tube--just like a bunch of other financial service companies being dragged down by the Real Estate Epidemic thats been cratering the mortgage markets

Mortgage sales company seeking help to defray costs of big party...mmmm...sounds a bit dicey, but....We submitted a comprehensive proposal on Thursday night (thinking that we knew at least 10-12 companies that would want to have the opportunity to be in front of top gun sales people making mid six figures)

Two days later, the company announced they were cutting their dividend, the day after that the stock was halted for trading, and today (one week later), they announced they'd be firing 7000 employees, leaving a skeleton staff of 750 and bankruptcy filing would be taking place shortly.
So much for the boondoggle in Vegas...

As a former trader, the first sign was the most obvious-I should have shorted the stock as soon as I was briefed on the client and what they were hoping to accomplish.

NY Times: VC Investing in Sex-Related Businesses

I love it...always did...I remember back in 1998 when a brilliant friend came up with the idea for a website that was called WallStreetGals.com --It was a Bloomberg Meets Playboy..with double entendre market coverage with live audio streaming, real time prices, mid-day updates from sexy starletts.....The site was profiled in a bunch of newspapers, and it got a fair amount of traffic when it first launched, but it was ahead of its time and soon folded...

But...today's NY Times article...excerpted herein--suggests that VC's are warming up to the idea that sex-related businesses might be a good investment. Duh. Rick's Cabaret (NASDAQ :RICK) shareholders could have told you that.. And what about the literally tens of millions of dollars being generated by professional companies operating online video chatting platforms--little overhead (and still littler underwear)..

Several former Wall Street investors are now specializing in marrying mainstream money with companies that offer such content or products. Separately, a handful of venture capitalists have already financed start-ups that receive a big chunk of revenue from making or distributing sexual content or products, and others are considering such investments.

Jimmyjane, a San Francisco company that sells sex-related consumer products including high-end vibrators (a gold-plated one sells for $250), has six venture capitalists among its investors. The company’s chief executive said he was close to completing a $3 million to $5 million round of financing with one or more funds — not merely individual venture capitalists but marquee funds.

“It will be a watershed,” said Jimmyjane’s chief executive, Ethan Imboden, formerly a design consultant to Nike, Motorola and other mainstream brands. He said the deal could be among the first major venture fund investments in an overtly sexually themed business.

The involvement of mainstream investors in such companies is still very much in its infancy, and even those with a vested interest in developing it say it may not evolve further. There are considerable hurdles, chiefly and simply the discomfort of many in being affiliated with products and services they consider immoral or that they think could tarnish their reputations.

In addition, investors are dubious that these companies can turn a sufficient profit to justify the risk. Pointedly, investors may find it tough to take sex-related companies public, or find big companies to acquire them, limiting their profit-making exit strategies. And the universities and endowments that invest in private equity funds and venture capitalists are not likely to approve deals they see as pornographic, investment bankers said.

But there are also som

Bull Riding=The Next NASCAR

Sounds crazy? Don't bet against it.
As a matter of fact, smart money is betting ON it--including a few hedge fund traders that have proven to be prescient in just about every move they've made.

Amongst all sports categories, bull riding has had the greatest growth i.e. TV viewership in the last four years, and attendance at major tourneys is increasing by mid double digits.

Why? Think David vs. Goliath. Man Meets Animal in Sporting Arena.
Testosterone at its finest--and the sponsors are quickly beginning to appreciate the many different angles at which they can tatoo their logo. Thrilling, exciting, physically stimulating.

This is a sport that doesn't need a Spice Girl's husband to spice up the entertainment..This is no bullshit bull riding and 20 seconds of pure entertainment.

While soccer tries to be the next football, bull riding IS going to be the next NASCAR. You read it here.

Venture Capital Education

In the course of a recent "pitch" conference call with a prominent VC firm (specializing in BRIC wireless telecom initiatives), the VC said "We need to get more up to speed on the technology, so we'd like to see how it plays out and perhaps visit on the second round"

So that means:
We were talking to a low-level analyst that presented himself as a decision maker. Any VC worth their salt that puts themselves out to investors as specializing in a niche---necessarily implies they are up to speed--and their investors can expect deployment of capital quickly, at early stage companies--so that investors can expect better returns than they might get at another VC firm, or a maybe a private equity firm.

The only way to get an education is to participate or watch. Those that participate share in the glory of the gold medal. In this case, real gold. Those that watch to learn, get a bronze medal. They come in 3 places behind the big winner.

In the world of investing, the first round participants are paying for the first look, and a front row seat. Their returns (on winners) can be 500x initial capital. Can you spell GOOGLE?. OK, there aren't many GOOG's in the course of a decade---but the point is---the second round investor in a company that's proven itself, is passing hurdles without a blink, is going to pay 5x, or maybe 10x the valuation. And is ideally going to earn 4x-5x over the next 10 years.

Or the company is on such a trajectory that they can get bank financing for their next $50 million round.
VC's--or any other "professional investor" that says 'we need to be better educated, and watch the market mature" shouldn't be claiming to be experts.

NBC News Lights Fire Under Flammable Purell

Two weeks ago I touted a new product that can maybe make $3million in 2 years--a well-branded, alcohol-free hand sanitizer.. If you use Purell, or another type of traditional product that you can easily pick up at an airport news stand, or any drug or grocery. Its a $150million/year product.
98% of the products are alchol based--they have a sticky gel application, they often have a fragrance (that is often noxius), and when you use frequently--they make your skin dry/irritated. Sound familiar?... Its the alcohol that kills the germs but also causes the side effects. OK...lets not forget the 11,000 reports of alcohol poisoning attributed to hand sanitizers (mostly kids--they're apparently inadvertently, or not, ingesting the gel by licking it off their hands....taste bad, and causes some medical problems....
Click on the Title Link to see Matt Lauer light a fire on Purell...Its a pretty flammable message that is probably going to torch the current product category

What's the product that solves this problem:
Soapopular
where can you buy it legally? http://www.mgsmata.com

Who else knows about it... ?The smartest merchandisers in the country have already planned national product launches starting in Sept.. You can buy it right now on Amazon.com

CEO and the Brand

	July 16, 2007

IN THE LEAD By CAROL HYMOWITZ

Some CEOs Advertise The 'Me' Brand -- With Limited Success July 16, 2007; Page B1 Companies budget large amounts of money to develop brands that stir excitement and cement loyalty from customers. "Fly the Friendly Skies" still evokes United Airlines and an era of hassle-free travel. The "snap, crackle, pop" of Kellogg's Rice Krispies brand conjures up for many consumers an image of a cereal that's fun for kids. Now, some top executives are branding themselves as distinctly as they brand their companies' products. They want to ensure their names also are quickly recognized and tied to a particular sentiment. They believe they have to do this to retain the support of increasingly fickle directors and investors. A strong public image may also help them build alliances with government officials and business leaders across the globe. And in the Google age, they want their names to be more prominent than those of their rank-and-file employees, who are competing for high placement on search engines and social-networking sites. FORUM 1 Have you ever worked for a company, where the company image hinged upon a single individual? Do you think that executives should put themselves in the spotlight? Share your thoughts2. Building a personal brand gives the executives fame beyond their companies. Numerous retired CEOs, from GE's Jack Welch to Citigroup's Sandy Weill, are on speaking and publishing tours making sure their names remain in bright lights. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs have demonstrated the benefits of linking a strong name and personality to their unique products. Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, has turned her name into one of the most successful brands in business. It is on her bedroom sheets, dishes and other household products; her magazine; her television show; and, most recently, her architectural designs of new homes. (See related article3.) Ms. Stewart's 2004 conviction for lying to prosecutors over a stock sale, followed by a five-month prison stay, hasn't damaged her image as a maven of trendy and tasteful living. Oprah Winfrey has used her name to build a powerful brand that emphasizes self-empowerment, reinvention and spirituality -- themes that she has said are at the center of her life and that she highlights on her TV talk show, Web sites, magazine and other ventures. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson portrays himself in his own books and in media interviews as an unorthodox pathfinder and a daredevil who has escaped death by shipwreck, gunfire and balloon crash. He uses this image to snag deals and realize novel ideas across a broad spectrum of industries represented by the 200 companies he operates. His customers can fly Virgin Atlantic, take balloon rides and buy mobile-phone service, life insurance, bridal gowns and pop music. Yet, corporate executives should be wary of too much personal brand-building. Unlike entrepreneurs who boost their companies when they promote themselves, an executive at an established corporation who brands himself is competing with his company's image. Such executives risk quashing the spirit of teamwork essential to innovation and productivity, and they tend to fail to do vital succession planning. A high-profile CEO can make sense for a company that "is seeking a stronger identity in the financial markets," says Gurnek Bains, chief executive of YSC, a London-based corporate-psychology consultant. "But all our research shows that it's humbler executives with less ego -- the ones who stay very connected to their employees and customers -- who get the best results for their businesses." Tom Kuczmarski, a consultant on business innovation and a professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, adds: "When you're the rock-star brand at the top, you're conveying to people in the ranks that they're second-class citizens -- and you stop thinking about how to develop the next group of people who will run the show." At Toyota, President Katsuaki Watanabe isn't a household name. Unlike some of his counterparts at other auto makers, such as DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsche, Mr. Watanabe likes to keep a low profile and has never appeared in his company's ads. Yet, consumers have made Toyota the most profitable car maker in the world. The company is expected to sell some 9.34 million vehicles this year. Other successful CEOs forgo developing a personal brand to focus on building bench strength in leadership. Procter & Gamble's A.G. Lafley, following a company tradition, assigns new M.B.A. hires to be brand managers for products such as Tide detergent and Clairol hair-care items. The work stresses the importance of knowing everything possible about customers' buying habits. Mr. Lafley teaches by example. On his own business travels around the world, he quietly talks with customers in supermarkets and even, sometimes, their homes, asking them which products they like and use most frequently. Most corporate chiefs know success doesn't rest on one charismatic leader. Companies such as Intel, PepsiCo, Goldman Sachs and General Electric also are known for developing leaders up and down their ranks. Only the most confident CEOs are willing to advertise their employees more than themselves. • Email me at inthelead@wsj.com4.

The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped

John Mackey and Patrick Byrne..and the First Amendment...
What complete and total moron believes that the Chief Executives should be allowed to manipulate public opinion by surreptitiously publishing comments that are misleading, and otherwise designed to sway people into believing things that might not be totally true?.

Ok, so George Bush says I'm way out of line--and probably believes that shareholders, just like voters, should expect their CEO's to be the DecisionMakers--and are allowed to do and say whatever it takes to improve the share price of the stock.
Or maybe he would only apply that rule to Halliburton?

Sure the Constitution includes an amendment that ..it might be the 1st one....but didn't your elementary school teacher tell you that anything you put into digital format can be traced back to you...? Here's the Rule. If you don't want it to appear on the front page of the NY Times (or Washington Post) with your real name as the author, then don't write it down...this applies to email, text messages, blogs, faxes and postings on websites..GET IT?

Are you using the right hand sanitizer??

If you don't carry around a small bottle of Purell, I promise that you know someone that does, and they probably also have larger dispensers for their home, office and/or car. Why--can you spell F-E-A-R? Asian Flu, Bird Flu, you name it, we're all getting freaked out about the little germsn and mutants that are so easily transported.
What do you think you're touching when you pull that shopping cart out of the stack at the local A&P? Or how about when you (finally) put your hands on the arm rests of a plane, train or bus seat? How about when you open and close a taxi door?

Yikes...
Whats the point? Hand sanitizer sales in the US alone have doubled in the last 4 years. According to Neilsen, the market has grown from $50 million to $150 million since since 2002.
BUT..the real news is that Purell, which owns 90% or so market share is now getting its comeupance, and consumers are discovering that ALCOHOL-FREE ALTERNATIVES , such as Canada's "Soapopular" brand not only provide the same degree of germ/bacteria killing potency, but alcohol free products are safer and friendlier to use.
No sticky gel
No unpleasant fragrance (Soapopular is fragrance free)
No drying/chapping / irritation caused by alcohol
KID Safe...Want to guess how many incidents of children inadvertently ingesting Purell and winding up in the hospital have been reported this year?? Literally dozens.

Go Alcohol-Free.

Marketing Videos Became a Hit in Their Own Right

Sure, we've all read about the various home-made videos that make it big on YouTube and some not only prove powerful in the course of creating brand/product awareness, but actually turn out to be revenue producers in their own right.

Its a long distance to haul before a video on YouTube turns out to be a stand-alone money maker, but the point of today's WSJ article is that home-grown videos, especially those with a creative and irreverant twist can accomplish more than a $1million ad campaign.

Its about word of mouth!--And if you can add images/audio to the words that attract, inspire, entertain--then you've got yourself a grass roots marketing campaign that, through email alone, can land you a spot on Donny Deutch's next TV show.

Here's an excerpt:
E-commerce started with television commerce,” he said. “The sites who engage and entertain customers will be winning here in the near future.”

Such a prospect is not necessarily daunting to other e-commerce executives. Gordon Magee, head of Internet marketing for Drs. Foster & Smith, based in a Rhinelander, Wis., said a transition to video “will be seamless for us.” The company, Mr. Magee said, has in recent weeks discussed putting some of its product on video “so customers could see a 360-degree view they don’t have to manipulate themselves.”

Because Drs. Foster & Smith lacks a history in video production, Mr. Magee said the company would rely on vendors “who’ll do the video for you and just send you a piece of code to get it on your site. It’ll be an easy switch for most people. And I do think it’ll become a major thing in e-commerce.”

Whether it will be an expensive transition is unclear. In the meantime, Mr. Magee said the company should sustain its customer satisfaction levels as long as it continues to anticipate even basic needs. For instance, he said the company’s customers expect prices on the Web site to reflect what they see in the printed catalog, even though other retailers often post different prices in stores, in their catalogs and online.

Its All About the Video!! What You See is What You Get!

Come on webkins!....Why could you possibly be waiting to introduce video elements to your website???

To Raise Shopper Satisfaction, Web Merchants Turn to Videos

Mike Mergen for The New York Times

By BOB TEDESCHI

Published: July 2, 2007

FOR years Internet merchants have poured millions of dollars into new technologies to make their sites easier to use. So why aren’t online customers happier?

Customer satisfaction levels have remained almost flat through the last several years, according to a survey of about 20,000 online shoppers recently released by ForeSee Results, a consulting and research firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich. The problem, according to Larry Freed, ForeSee’s chief executive, is not so much that consumers have ignored the many improvements made in recent years. Rather, he said, they still expect more from Internet shopping than it has delivered.

“If we walk into a local store, we don’t expect that experience to be better than it was a couple years ago,” Mr. Freed said. “But we expect sites to be better. The bar goes up every year.”

In ForeSee’s latest survey, released last month, just five e-commerce sites registered scores higher than 80 out of 100, and no site scored higher than 85. They were, in descending order, Netflix, QVC.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the pet supplies site Drs. Foster & Smith. It was much the same story a year ago, when just five scored higher than 80, with no site surpassing 85.

“Scores have inched up over time for the best e-commerce companies, but the overall numbers haven’t moved drastically,” Mr. Freed said. “At the same time though, if you don’t do anything you see your scores drop steadily.”

That dynamic has been a challenge for online merchants and investors, who a decade ago envisioned Internet stores as relatively inexpensive (and therefore extremely profitable) operations. Now some observers predict a future where online retailers will essentially adopt something like the QVC model, with sales staff pitching the site’s merchandise with polished video presentations, produced in a high-tech television studio.

QVC.com is evolving in that direction. The Web site, which sold more than $1 billion in merchandise in 2006, has for the last five years let visitors watch a live feed of the network’s broadcast. But in recent months, QVC.com has also given visitors the chance to watch archives of entire shows, and in the coming months visitors will be able to find more video segments from recent shows, featuring individual products that remain in stock.

Bob Myers, senior vice president of QVC.com, said the Web site’s video salesmanship is especially effective when combined with detailed product information, customer reviews and multiple photographs.

“E-commerce started with television commerce,” he said. “The sites who engage and entertain customers will be winning here in the near future.”

Such a prospect is not necessarily daunting to other e-commerce executives. Gordon Magee, head of Internet marketing for Drs. Foster & Smith, based in a Rhinelander, Wis., said a transition to video “will be seamless for us.” The company, Mr. Magee said, has in recent weeks discussed putting some of its product on video “so customers could see a 360-degree view they don’t have to manipulate themselves.”

Because Drs. Foster & Smith lacks a history in video production, Mr. Magee said the company would rely on vendors “who’ll do the video for you and just send you a piece of code to get it on your site. It’ll be an easy switch for most people. And I do think it’ll become a major thing in e-commerce.”

Whether it will be an expensive transition is unclear. In the meantime, Mr. Magee said the company should sustain its customer satisfaction levels as long as it continues to anticipate even basic needs. F

Some businesses, however, have managed to build extensive customer service systems without spending much money — and build them in a way that, they say, improves their overall customer satisfaction levels. Take, for example, Lala.com, the online barter service for CDs and DVDs.

When the company began last year, it did not have enough money to hire an extensive customer service staff. But the site’s founders created online discussion boards to encourage a sense of community among customers. Shortly thereafter, they witnessed customers helping others with problems or questions, and a de facto customer service team was born.

Now, according to Anselm Baird-Smith, one of Lala’s founders, customers find help through so-called guides — a designation earned by a few thousand volunteers who have shown a propensity to answer questions in the forums. Not only do the customers get help, he said, but the volunteers are more loyal to the site than they might otherwise be.

“Those guys like coming to our site, spending a few minutes and contributing,” Mr. Baird-Smith said. “People like being known in their own community.”

Its About Time: SmartAds from Yahoo!

duh...displaying an ad based on the profile of the reader...

Online Customized Ads Move a Step Closer

By LOUISE STORY

Yahoo will announce new tools for online advertising today that could pull the company ahead in the race for what is called “behavioral targeting,” that is, the ability to better tailor online advertisements to the people most likely to buy.

The product, Yahoo SmartAds, would help marketers create custom advertisements on the fly, using information on individual buyers and information on real prices and availability from the vendors. For example, a person who had recently searched for information about blenders might see an ad from Target that gives the prices for the blenders that are on the shelves in the store closest to that person’s home.

The Internet has long promised this kind of one-to-one marketing, but it has often been difficult for advertisers to customize display advertisements with a broad reach.

“Ad agencies have been really struggling with how to scale the value proposition of the Internet,” said Todd Teresi, senior vice president of display marketplaces at Yahoo. “We now can get scaleable one-to-one marketing.”

The announcement of SmartAds also comes while Yahoo is recovering from an extensive reshuffling in the executive offices, including the departure of its chief executive, Terry S. Semel, and Wenda Harris Millard, the company’s longtime chief sales officer. Yahoo has struggled to catch up with Google in search advertising and has disappointed investors with its ad sales the past few quarters.

SmartAds is one attempt to catch up. Although the technology is complex, the goal of SmartAds is simple: show the right advertisement to the right person at just the moment that he is about to pull out his wallet to make a purchase.

“This fills a need that some advertisers have needed for a while — applying personalization to display ads, so they work like search and listing ads,” Mr. Kenny said. “Yahoo has a real advantage in SmartAds because of the data from their big and engaged audience, the combination of deep display and improving search capabilities, and the new changes to work with us at the technology level instead of just selling inventory.”

How Marketers Hone Their Aim Online

Can you spell behavioral targeting? Of course you can....but are you embracing it?

If you're not, you need to adjust your behavior. The driving force behind Web 2.0 and Web 2.5 billion dollar acquisitions isn't content--its search technology that empowers advertisers to strategically place their ads exactly where their most likely customers will be looking.
10 different ad placement agencies are leading the charge---and however nascent stage their applications are right now....this is where you want to allocate ad spend dollars.

Speaking of innovation, Synovativ's AdDiem --a desk top electronic billboard that I mentioned six months ago is making big inroads---the latest adopter : NASCAR....its a brilliant approach to staying in front of your customer, and not only delivers timely updates (daily) about your latest offerings, but its a trojan horse device that can be used for you to sell advertising on top of...and it cost pennies to implement....do end users get annoyed when a pop up appears on their PC screen at a pre-determined time every day? Some do , but audits indicated less than 14% remove the applet...and the balance of users will click thru at least three times. Not bad!

Landing Page 101

Introduction

You need copy for your landing page but you're not sure where to start. First let's clarify what we mean by a landing page. A landing page can be a page that visitors come to after clicking on a promotional banner or link. Ultimately, the landing page must convince the visitor that they should stay on your site. You may also have a goal that you want accomplished, such as:

• Signing up for a newsletter or filling out a förm
• Buying a product
• Reading informational pieces

What's going to keep them there? The structure, the language, and the visual appeal all play a part of it. Chëck out these tips to create a great landing page, or reinvent the one you already have.

The Structure

People arrive at your site looking for answers. They scan to see if they're in the right place and assess whether it's going to be a quick and easy visit or a long grinding one. Your landing page is the welcome wagon inviting them in and feeding them the information they need. The structure of the page will either pull them in and encourage them to fulfill your goal, or distract and cause them to cut out of there before getting the whole picture.

The structure of the landing page in general should be matching that of the banner, äd or link they clicked on to get them there. So for example, if your PPC Ad is targeting SEO articles, your landing page should discuss exactly that. If a Victoria Secret's äd for lingerie shows up and you clíck on it, you will be transferred to a landing page with the exact image and structure of the äd.

The Visuals

• Copy placement – Strategic use of copy and graphics will catch the visitor's attention. Don't muck up the page with large, distracting graphics. Use plenty of whitespace and place your message in the central portion of the page rather than placing information down the sides, where the focus can be lost quickly. Keep the copy short. The visitor expects a precise message, so don't choke it up with tons of mindless prose.
• Beauty is in the eye – Use a consistent color palette. If you have advertising or banners that link visitors to your website, make sure the concept and color scheme match across the board. It's also a great visual indicator for the visitor because they can easily identify that they're still in the right place.
• Simplify – Remove any distracting elements like advertising banners, links, or additional blocks of information from the page and get down to the specific message.

The Goal

Before you design the landing page, decide what the goal of the page will be. If you're looking for newsletter subscribers, the goal will be to have the visitor enter their information and become a member of your mailing líst.

Be a Sleuth

Do your research. Keep your visitors in mind when building your landing page and tailor it to suit their needs. By narrowing your options and focusing on your visitor, you'll stay on target.

Keep Your Focus

Keep the focus on you. You've dangled a large poster board over their head and pulled them in. Now that you've got them, don't give your visitors a reason to wander.

Use a Call to Action

A call to action, such as 'subscribe now' or 'get this offër' reminds the visitor why they are on your website. Place them toward the top of your page. For users that want to clíck, it allows them to find it easily. For those who are still deciding, it's a great reminder.

Many sites place the consultation or contact förm directly on the landing page, which may not be such a bad idea. Again, you need glaring calls to action. Don't add several useless links on the page that will take the visitor back to your main site; rather include the links that will get them to actually purchase your product/service.

Write Like a Pro

No, you don't have to hire one to look like one. What's the best way to come off like a professional? Create landing pages with no grammatical or spelling errors. I recently hit a website offering 'discount holideys.' As I clicked out of there, I pictured the four-star flea-bag motel by the swampland I might have booked if I stayed.

Reassure

People get leery when they're asked for their personal data. If you're asking for personal information, make sure you have a credible privacy policy to back you up.

Staying in Front of Customers--

Marketing Sherpa's latest edition included a great article re: e-newsletters, including a customer-centric tactic that is too often overlooked: using surveys to elicit feedback..

Tip #3. Consider conducting surveys. We do about 10 per year involving various Sherpa reader groups (not everyone sees all of them) and then feed the results right back to the audience as articles.

What does this accomplish?
1. Demonstrates your interest in what your customer's interests really are
2. Provides a vehicle that makes it easy for your customers to provide their feedback
3. Gives you two different strategies to stay in front of customers. The #2 punch is delivering them the results of the survey...now they'll feel as if their feedback has actually been taken into consideration

Couple above with a prize for completing the survey (a coupon, a free something, whatever)...and now you are on the path to a consistent strategy that adds significant good will..and additional business

Hedge Fund Mania-Gordon Gekko is Back

Having spent most of my career on or next to Wall Street, I've watched trends come and go, which inspired me to apply my intuitive skills to marketing and sales. After reading that 20th Century Fox is re-incarnating the infamous Gordon Gekko in a new film--of course starring Michael Douglas--only one thing came to my mind. The bubble is about to burst.

The original film, Wall Street, which was released in 1987 (about the time that most of day's PE and Hedge Fund czars were in high school) epitimozied the greed and glory of the pandemic Wall Street boom of the '80s. The timing of the film's release also marked the peak of a financial market cycle, which ended with one of the biggest crashes in the history of Wall Street.

The stark similarities between then and now are plainly obvious. Private Equity players are the new junk bond czars, who are accumulatng massive personal wealth of courtesy of historic-proportion leverage. Once again, this trend is about greed--and the benchmark of success is measured only by how many billions one has put into his pocket.

Good, bad, or indifferent (if I were one of the winners, of course I'd say its good), the fact is that entertainment media is the best benchmark for picking the top in the markets. Keep your shorts on--if media and entertainment projects focusing on Wall Street mania's are as predicative as they've been for the past 50 years, we're in for an interesting ride. The only difference today is that the moguls in hedge fund and private equity have accumulated so much cash, that when the bubble bursts, their mansions in Greenwich will be far removed from the epicenter...

Why Do I Need A Website??

Part of my business includes helping legacy companies get with it and get on it (the internet).. Sounds silly, right?--Doesn't every company have a website??? duh!!

After all, in 1999, Andy Grove said "In 5 years, every company will be on the internet, or they won't be companies any more." Andy is certainly prescient, but like many others, he miscalculated the life expectancy of the modern dinosaur. More than 50% of small-to-medium sized businesses don't have a website. Its fair guess that many don't need a website, which makes that practice area of my business a bit challenging when my salespeople encounter the traditional obstacles.

And I won't even mention the number of businesses that built websites 5 years ago and have yet to make a change or update them...things like displaying a phone number to contact...
In any case, I tripped across a good third party article written by Gord Hotchkiss for Search Insider i.e. Why Do I Need a Website??...below is the excerpt.

What Web Site? I Don't Need No Stinking Web Site!

One of the challenges faced by ThomasNet, or for that matter, any online property that is targeting industrial manufacturers, is in convincing some of the advertisers of the need for establishing a Web presence. These are traditional and, very often, conservative businesses that have been around for decades, and they cast a jaundiced eye at anything too new, too trendy or anything that even vaguely smacks of "geekiness." In many cases, they've been turning out steel widgets and doodads that have a very specific niche market. They know their customers, and their customers know them. So why would they need a Web site? Why would they need to advertise on a search engine? And why do they have to worry about a global marketplace? All the reasons can be summed up in two words: things change.

Agents of Change

In 1990, the travel industry was a relatively stable place. Travelers went to the local travel agents and the travel agents acted as the channel for the information from various airlines, cruise lines, hotel chains and vacation companies to the consumer. They served a vital part of the value chain in the industry. And with something as highly personalized and variable as travel, it was hard to imagine how these travel experts could ever be disintermediated.

Even when the Internet started to gain traction and the first online agencies popped up in the mid-'90s, travel agent' place seemed relatively secure, because of many of the same reasons we currently hear from manufacturers: They knew their customers, their customers knew them and the exchange of information back and forth between the two parties proved the value of this relationship.

In 1995, the number of single-office travel agencies peaked at almost 22,000, according to the Airlines Reporting Corporation. And then things changed. The online travel agents upped the ante. They demystified travel and opened up control of information to anyone who had Internet access. Airlines and hotels readjusted their booking channels to be able to go first to online agencies, and ultimately, direct to savvy travelers. Online communities formed that allowed travelers to connect with others who'd been there, seen it and done it, getting firsthand advice of where to stay and how to get there. And by 2004, the number of single-office travel agencies had been cut in half. Less than 10 years and an industry was decimated. Things change quickly!

Look East for the Future

In 1999 Intel Chairman Andy Grove said, "In five years, all companies will be Internet companies, or they won't be companies at all." Grove may have been a touch optimistic in his timing (imagine, someone over-hyping the Internet in 1999), but I don't believe that takes away from the importance of his message. One of the mistakes that travel agents made, and the mistake that many small manufacturers are making again, is to assume that just because they're not interested in a global market, all other competitors are likewise uninterested in their market.

The balance of power in the manufacturing world is dramatically swinging eastward. Another sobering fact that I came up with in the preparation for my presentation was the fact that in the U.S., there are currently about 14 million jobs in manufacturing. In all G-7 countries combined (U.S., Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Japan), there are about 53 million manufacturing jobs. In China alone, there are almost 110 million jobs in manufacturing. A manufacturing powerhouse the likes of which we've never seen before is gearing up in Asia. And those Asian companies are desperately eager to learn how to use the Internet to connect with new markets right here, in our backyard. To add to what Andy Grove said, not only will all companies be Internet companies, we'll also have to become global companies. At the very least, we'll have to be acutely aware of our global competition

Keeping Blogs Fresh--Is This a Fad?

Common wisdom for those that want the world to zero in on their blogs: keep the content fresh and keep it current.

It doesn't have to be daily, and other than professional news reporters and the professionally unemployed, who really has the time to make pithy posts to a blog on a daily basis? And who in the world has the time to go surfing around reading blogs every day??

Well..the answer to the last is tied to the first comment. Apparently worker bees within the venture capital community are magnetized to blogs. In the course of sending a quaterly news letter to my firm's fan base (predominantly those in the investment and private equity universe), I included several links within the newsletter, including latest projects and engagements, and a link to my blog. Of the 1000 receipients that read the newsletter, 470 clicked on the link to the blog, overshadowing clicks to the other links by a factor of 400:1 .

Had I known that the response to that particular link would have been so overwhelming, I would have been better prepared, and updated this site with a more current and entertaining observation. But I blew it...Every one came here and found the last posting was two months stale..
Sort of scary that so many 'professionals' within the deal world have the time to surf blogs.
So the moral to the story is..if putting an Open sign on the door, make sure to dust of the welcome mat.

Ads Made: No Agency Required

Once again, we're ahead of the curve..6 months ago we profiled Spot Runner, a start-up "on-line ad agency" that was leading the way via a website that allowed small business advertisers to create their own TV and video commercials using a wide selection of 'templates' available on their website...And after the commercial was created, SpotRunner's "media buying/placement' service allows you to select the media channels, times, frequencies that you want the ad to run...Just insert what you're budget is, your demographic targets and their platform produces a comprehensive plan...its pretty much a matter of drag and drop, point and click and you're all set...All for a ridiculously low price...The commercial itself can be created for $400---and the placements is simply a matter of what your budget is..5k buys a big selection of media outlets (local cable tv, local network tv) with upwards of 200 or so spots over the course of 4 weeks...

Should I be surprised that the NY Times business section dedicated half the front page and a all of the second page to this trend, including identifying the players in this space and their respective offerings? Nah..thanks to Jay Berkman, we stay in the curl of every new wave in marketing, advertising and tools that connect the tag line to the bottom line

Using Video-Email To Market & Sell!!

I'm not a techie--but as a marketer, I've always been a big proponent of using video apps to deliver personal messages..Years ago I pressed several clients in the financial services to embrace the application --so that research analysts could create their own morning commentaries from their desk--and deliver it via email with attached video file to their clients....3 years ago, the technology was nascent stage, and required both the sender and the receiver to make multiple steps in order to effect the process...and there was the obstacle of high speed connectivity..

Thats all changed...as noted today in Walter Mossberg's WSJ column...His report details exactly how easy it easy for someone to create a quick vignette from their desktop..and it only costs the price of a $40 mini video cam that plugs into your computer...

Happy to report that two days earlier..I had decided to take a stand on this entire subject and pound everyone I know to re-iterate what I've been saying for years...So I created my own 1minute video and emailed it to clients and telling them that they can finally embrace this concept quickly, easily and with no cost...and use it as a means for a quick sales introduction, delivering a resume...whatever....

connecting a face to a voice, or to initial emails is the most rudimentary party of establishing a relationship....Google figured this out long ago when it bought YouTube....and now that pundits from every industry are doing it ---short morning message attached to the morning email...or similar approaches....in the business world...it makes too much sense..
The simple "rules" that one needs to follow i.e. producing their own video for business purposes are limited to the same rules you would follow prior to making a brief presentation in person..you're going to dress properly, you're going to have a prepared 'speech', you're going to speak clearly...In the case of video though, you need to make sure the background isn't too bright or too dark and is appropriate for the message...And the great thing is you can edit and fix your video as many times as is necessary to get it right...Get your videocam (logitech is a good product) and start in..Windows Movie Maker can do the rest...even for technophobes like me!

Marketers and Bankers -Internet Gambling

In June, we posted a story about how US Federal prosecutors were busy arresting CEO's of London-based public companies that operated online gambling enterprises. We facetiously suggested that as long as the justice department has nothing better to focus on than internet gambling (is it because this worldwide business is encroaching on Las Vegas public companies??)--why not go after the investment bankers that took these companies public, such as Goldman, Deutsche Bank and Merrill and the rest. After all, they'd already pounced on advertisers and their agencies for facilitating the promotion of these 'illegal enterprises'

Well, it seems that George Bush's team of Elliot Ness wannabees took my suggestion to heart--as the front page news story today focuses on subpeonas issued to a variety of global investment banks that have underwritten an assortment of companies. Now, I guess its a matter of time before Fidelity and larger institutional investors are subpeoned for buying the issues for their various portfolios. Then the FBI will need to arrest the individual investors that own Fidelity funds.

In a world where our National Guardsmen, who sign up to protect the borders and cities of the US are shipped off to fight battles in Iraq and other foreign lands..and come back without arms and legs..it begs the question as to who should be prosecuted for sending them there. After all, the entire campaign in Iraq was precipitated by George Bush and Co. telling everyone that there was a clear and present threat of WMD's and that Iraq was on the verge of attacking the free world. He and everyone close to him knew that Saddam Hussein didnt have WMD's, other than his bad breadth and the entire story about WMD's was a lie. It was simply a strategy to exploit fear and get Americans to buy into the crappola. And there's plenty of documentation that we've all read that indicates all kinds of fraud was committed by making those representations and putting our children in harms way. Sort of odd that no White House staff member and only two or three Congressmen or Senators have children serving in Iraq.

New campaign slogan for '08--Anybody But Bush

Run A Sweepstakes At No Cost

Gadzooks!..Come to my site and win a prize!... Kudos to WSJ..today's edition is chock full of ideas..
You've always known that running a sweepstakes as part of your marketing strategy was a good idea, but you're either too small a business to afford it, or you don't have the resources to manage it..... Time for Caffeine!!!

Here's how it works---according to today's column by Gwen Bounds

Making Big-Time Promotions
Available, Affordable

Sweepstakes Operator
Offers Online Contests
For Small Firms' Sites
January 16, 2007; Page B11

This week, a new low-cost Internet service launches that lets small businesses run sweepstakes for items such as plasma TVs, trips and diamond rings on their Web sites as a way to attract visitors and cull valuable marketing information from them.

The service, nicknamed Caffeine, helps users design and run these promotions without having to pay for the prizes or do the legal legwork needed to operate the contests.

A sample promotion for Fathead LLC using the new Caffeine service.

Big companies often use sweepstakes and giveaways to woo consumers, and research shows such programs make Web sites "sticky" so visitors are more likely to make repeat visits and spend more time looking around. They're also a good tool for enticing consumers to proffer personal information such as age, location and gender. However, most small businesses don't have the finances or resources to offer such promotions.

Caffeine was developed by a Detroit-based company, ePrize LLC, which runs interactive promotions for behemoths such as Disney, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble. With the launch of Caffeine, ePrize is seeking to capitalize on a growing online movement toward pay-per-action advertising.

Unlike the traditional pay-per-click model, small firms using Caffeine don't pay a dime until a visitor clicks on the promotion and registers by providing identifying details, including an email address, that the business can then use in marketing and research efforts.

"We're trying to democratize the promotions business," says ePrize Chief Executive Josh Linkner.

Here's how Caffeine will work: Business owners go to the Internet site www.caffeinenow.com and choose the prize they want to offer from different categories. Some samples: a two-year BMW Mini Cooper lease, a kitchen makeover, and a $10,000 Amazon shopping spree. Promotions are designed from various templates that include animated scratch-and-win cards and virtual slot machines. It takes about 10 minutes to get a customized banner, which businesses then place on their own homepage or other advertising outlets including search engines.

Businesses pay Caffeine $1 for every qualified customer lead and 15 cents per repeat visitor, though they can implement restrictions. A Seattle coffee shop, for instance, can decide to only pay for names of contest entrants within, say, a 20-mile radius. And owners can also set a limit on how much they want to spend with Caffeine. However, Caffeine will continue to store all entrant information in case a business ever wants to purchase more sales leads or broaden its reach. There's also a coupon-builder option; businesses pay five cents each time a coupon is downloaded.

One early beta tester of Caffeine is Fathead LLC, a Livonia, Mich., maker of life-size peel-and-stick sports images. The company chose a promotion that gives away a trip for four to an unspecified sporting event and is collecting about 100 entrants a day.

"We spend a lot of money trying to get people to our Web site through advertising and we want to collect data on people who visit the site and aren't buying then -- but might be interested in doing it later," says Aaron Chestnut, Fathead's vice president of marketing.

There are drawbacks to Caffeine. It is not a pure pay-per-sale advertising model, and people entering the promotions may not have any intention of ever buying a company's wares. Plus, entrants of Caffeine promotions can "opt out" of having their information used for marketing purposes -- standard practice in sweepstakes, Mr. Linkner says -- but a business still must pay for the sales lead. Mr. Linkner says that while such leads are "not as valuable," he believes they are still worth something because they represent traffic and provide a business with information about who is visiting its site.

Also, prizes are doled out via "pools," which means multiple businesses may run promotions for the same gift item. So, just because a business advertises a satellite radio giveaway, doesn't mean one of its customers will necessarily win that item. There is no limit on, or disclosure of, the number of applicants.

A challenge for Caffeine will be integrating its service with existing advertising opportunities. To that end, the company is in talks with Yahoo Inc. about a possible alliance where Yahoo will include Caffeine as an option for businesses buying keywords for Yahoo's search-engine advertising.

Mr. Linkner of ePrize hopes this may one day distinguish ads using Caffeine on the sponsored results of search pages. "If I'm searching for 'drycleaner' and see one with 'chance to win,' I'd probably rather go to that Web site," Mr. Linkner says. Yahoo declined to comment on the talks.

To promote Caffeine, ePrize already has signed up a handful of partners including localbiznow.com, a search-marketing firm for local businesses, and a couple of search-engine optimization and advertising firms in ePrize's own backyard of Michigan.

Eric V. Melin, president of SpiderSplat Consulting Inc. in Boston, hasn't tried Caffeine, but he says he thinks the concept is "a natural," particularly if it's integrated into the services from the likes of Yahoo and Google.

"Promotions are a great way for small businesses to make their site separate out from the crowd," says Mr. Melin, whose search-engine-optimization firm serves large and small clients. "Another thing that tends to happen with a promotion is that people will email the link to all their friends. It's a viral effect."

That's what Jeff Broaddus, owner of Quality Cleaners in Royal Oak, Mich., hopes. He's been testing Caffeine as a way to differentiate his service by promoting a $20 Gap gift card giveaway and a $1,000 Nordstrom's shopping spree on his site, myqualitycleaners.com¹. Mr. Broaddus thinks the contests could induce loyal customers to send him referrals. "That's the lifeblood of small businesses," he says.

Write to Gwendolyn Bounds at wendy.bounds@wsj.com²

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Managing Expectations

Great article by WSJ's Jared Sandberg in today's edition i.e. why over-estimating deliverable schedules can make you look like a star..But there are caveats to this strategy, and managing expectations is a tight rope to walk on.. Here's an excerpt--the link brings you to WSJ online and you need to be a subscriber to access the entire article...

Why Preparing Others
For an Effort's Failure
Can Bring You Success
January 16, 2007;

To understand how Tony Sharpe approaches managing expectations, consider what happened in "Star Trek": Captain Kirk's grumbling engineer, Montgomery Scott, admitted that in order to be viewed as a "miracle worker," he had padded his time estimates for finishing jobs so he could handily beat them.

"That's pretty much how I manage my clients' expectations," says Mr. Sharpe, an advertising executive. He might tell clients that certain work may involve extra time or money, or that he might not be able to do it at all. "Then I come back with it done," he says.

Asked why he does this, Mr. Sharpe responds that the tactic helps him ensure that there will be only good surprises, which can help "keep clients from getting mad at us." As long as the results are positive, he says, "they won't even notice you're crying wolf."

In January, the clock starts ticking for all kinds of company measures, from budgets to performance reviews. The next 11 months are spent trying hard to manage expectations about how these things will turn out. In a system where the facts don't govern opinions nearly as much as expectations do, failure to manage those expectations properly can turn success into failure or a well done deed into a disappointment.

That's why, for example, a company that has just reported a 4% gain in net income compared with a year earlier might still suffer a drop in share price. And it's why rain-making employees can lose their luster compared with laggards who surprise everybody by showing some small evidence of a pulse.

When Joe Glavin managed a software development group, a project manager who was developing record-keeping software for him kept reporting that everything was "Going great!" But a week before the scheduled rollout, the project manager "behaved as if he was being chased by a loan shark," says Mr. Glavin, and then finally admitted that the whole system was unusable. Mr. Glavin ended up getting burned, and the project manager "never got a management assignment again," Mr. Glavin says.

You would think the tactic of managing expectations downward would be so obvious that it wouldn't work. But, as Wendy Wood, a professor of psychology at Duke University, notes: "You can be a physicist and study gravity and still fall down."

One explanation for why managing expectations downward works so well may be the psychological phenomenon of "anchoring," or the tendency to overvalue an early piece of information, such as an expectation set by an employee. Even as new information surfaces, notes Max Bazerman, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, "We adjust insufficiently. Wherever we start from has a significant influence on our final estimate."

Research also suggests that the penalty for missing expectations can be greater than the benefit for beating them. In his research on promises, Nicholas Epley, assistant professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, concluded that while breaking a promise is bad, "exceeding a promise is often not worth the effort." In other words, he says, people sometimes value beating expectations little more than meeting them.

That's why managing expectations downward is so widespread. "The chips are stacked against us," says Prof. Epley. First, employees, investors and bosses don't normally expect failure, so expectations are generally high. Second, "the loss from that already high expectation is going to be that much more painful."

Melissa Marsh, an IT project manager who works on deploying new software systems, concurs. "You project the worst-case scenario publicly, when you fully anticipate that you will be able to bring the system up earlier," she says. After all, she says, to deliver 99% of what you promised only leads people to sorely miss the remaining one percent.

"There are a lot of opportunities to disappoint people," she says, "and it can be really difficult to impress them."

• Email Jared Sandberg at jared.sandberg@wsj.com

Marketing Pizza-

Let's just bag it all and open a pizzeria. Its a cash business, and the margins are great.

But be careful if trying to be innovative in the course of marketing--you might attract the wrath of lunatics.. Case in point--The brouhahaha over Pizza Patron--a 59-store franchise based in Dallas that is promoting "pay in pesos" in its East Dallas locations---to accomodate customers that are on the cusp of the Tex-Mex border ..
Its actually a brilliant idea--as demonstrated by the increase in sales since the promotion was launched. The fact that the company is now receiving all kinds of complaints from anti-immigration zealots--including the Washington, DC-based Center for Immigration Studies is appalling.

And if you ask me, its anti-American.
The entire foundation to our country is based on the melting pot philosophy. And a private enterprise working to accomodate customers ease in paying for products/services emodies the entire foundation...
Shame on those that take exception to Pizza Patron's innovative business strategy.

What is "Best Practices"

Great insight from Razorfish's David Baker...Below excerpt from this week's MediaPost

THE BUZZ PHRASE FOR YEARS has been, "let's apply best practices" to help improve our e-mail or online programs. We go through the same motions, we look at what has worked for others and try to repurpose the key call-outs for our own programs.

I'm as guilty as every other strategist or consultant in our space who makes "best practices" presentations to clients, spouting every statistic in the book to describe the consumer/marketer landscape and what works. But when push comes to shove, and I have to show five "best practices" examples of relevancy in e-mail programs, triggered e-mail programs, surveys, opt-in registration pages, or media creative... I grit my teeth and smile and present work from the industry to show what others are doing. Does that make it "best practices," though? I've seen three presentations from e-mail vendors in the last month about "best practices," and I find them less and less useful.

Best practices are like benchmarks. They are very personal and contextual. Applied incorrectly, best practices can become handcuffs. Let's face it, you can't build a differentiated business or strategy around some other company's work. While I don't completely discount looking at what's happening with your competitors or others in the online marketing space--and I've stolen an more than an idea or two that way myself--too many marketers and consultants have a copy-and-paste mentality these days. We're 10 years into this channel, and there are very few things that we haven't tried in e-mail marketing. Yes, the landscape has changed; we have more robust technology, better reporting, more dynamic abilities, a more complex delivery environment, and a more complex consumer to reach. However, the principles of what works in marketing have not changed. Honestly, I still refresh from best practice presentations from years ago and chuckle when I see the same content re invented today.

I tend to scoff at people who tout the "best practices" as a test-and-learn approach. They remind me of the consultant who did a brainstorming session and wrote everyone's comments on a large sheet of paper. After the session he walked out of the meeting and left the sheet with all the critical feedback on it behind. What's worse, he never realized his mistake or called up to ask for it. We felt cheated, as is the case with most "testing" strategies.

When you've been in the space long enough, you have already learned or figured out 80% of what you need to do to be successful at e-mail and integrating it into your interactive or customer relationship programs. The value you bring is your ability to apply it as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is called "applied learning".

As marketers, we are so tasked with production-side marketing that we are relying on artificial creativity to spawn our programs. We need to build interruption exercises into our routine to infuse creativity into our programs.

While many folks make a living off copying other programs and tactics and re-applying them in a different context, the best marketing programs don't rely on best practices alone. They rely on a mix of discipline, business rules, creativity, and timely intervention to reinvigorate the programs and teams.