Great insight on the new age of marketing communications courtesy of MarketingProfs.com:
If you're working on a deal that hadn't been made public, the last thing you'll do is announce it to your friends on Twitter. And yet, warns Rohit Bhargava in a post at the Influential Marketing Blog, savvy online observers could use a variety of tidbits to gather information you never meant to share. Here's his hypothetical scenario:
* You tweet about a business trip to the West Coast with a friend who is known to be a lawyer.
* She updates her Facebook profile, mentioning a client meeting in Redmond, Washington.
* Media outlets quote a Microsoft executive about being in discussions with companies in your field.
* A Microsoft engineer blogs about a new company in your town.
"In four small updates from unrelated people," says Bhargava, "a smart social media surfer could get a very direct sense of a deal about to happen and some inside information [you didn't intend to share]." To combat online "spying," he recommends the following:
* Educate employees on the potential ramifications of sharing information online.
* Teach selective friending.
* Monitor comments made from within your company to head off inadvertent "leaks" before they become major problems.
Says Bhargava, "It is only a matter of time before Social Media Espionage becomes a concern that some businesses will need to have a preemptive strategy to fight against." Your Marketing Inspiration is to be prepared.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Protecting The Corporate Brand: What To Do About Online Attacks
A bit dated, but this WSJ article can prove to be timeless in an age where aggravated customers can vent their frustrations to the world by simply pressing "submit comment"
Internet has drastically increased the potential damage to a brand or a company's reputation. Frustrations with a company's practices, products and service that once were confined to relatively small circles now reach complete strangers around the world. With a very low cost of entry, disgruntled customers, workers and former workers are free to post messages, create Web sites and blog about grievances. Advocacy and special-interest groups use their Web sites to stage attacks on companies and rally support for their positions. And all of it is often archived, searchable and printable.
The potential harm from such attacks should not be underestimated. They can damage a company's reputation, hurt sales and scare off potential -- and current -- employees. Investors may flee, and partnerships may be put at risk.
1.Companies need to monitor the Web for criticism and be able to move quickly on matters that could hurt their reputation or brands. Such monitoring should cover not only corporate, professional and industry Web sites, but also grass-roots sites, such as blogs and bulletin boards.
2.Companies should examine their current practices in dealing with grievances, gripes and concerns. Researchers have consistently found that the manner in which a company attempts to remedy a complaint and how the company interacts with dissatisfied stakeholders can either temper or exacerbate the conflict -- even when the company can't provide the outcome the stakeholder desires.
As a result, companies should limit heavy-handed responses such as threats of legal action to areas in which protective measures are more justifiable -- such as preventing financial disclosures, or discussions about strategic and proprietary information. They should also develop clear employee guidelines for when -- and when not -- to blog, post messages or generate other Web content.
3. At the most successful companies, dedication to fair processes percolated through all levels of the organization. Companies should train managers to understand the risks that attacks can pose to the brand -- and to appreciate the dangers that unfair treatment can pose.
4.Once a brand-damaging attack appears, companies should try to address it directly, and quickly, going directly to the site where the criticism originated. They should also drive the discussion in a way that displays the company's dedication to fairness and tries to restore a sense of justice for those involved.
Internet has drastically increased the potential damage to a brand or a company's reputation. Frustrations with a company's practices, products and service that once were confined to relatively small circles now reach complete strangers around the world. With a very low cost of entry, disgruntled customers, workers and former workers are free to post messages, create Web sites and blog about grievances. Advocacy and special-interest groups use their Web sites to stage attacks on companies and rally support for their positions. And all of it is often archived, searchable and printable.
The potential harm from such attacks should not be underestimated. They can damage a company's reputation, hurt sales and scare off potential -- and current -- employees. Investors may flee, and partnerships may be put at risk.
1.Companies need to monitor the Web for criticism and be able to move quickly on matters that could hurt their reputation or brands. Such monitoring should cover not only corporate, professional and industry Web sites, but also grass-roots sites, such as blogs and bulletin boards.
2.Companies should examine their current practices in dealing with grievances, gripes and concerns. Researchers have consistently found that the manner in which a company attempts to remedy a complaint and how the company interacts with dissatisfied stakeholders can either temper or exacerbate the conflict -- even when the company can't provide the outcome the stakeholder desires.
As a result, companies should limit heavy-handed responses such as threats of legal action to areas in which protective measures are more justifiable -- such as preventing financial disclosures, or discussions about strategic and proprietary information. They should also develop clear employee guidelines for when -- and when not -- to blog, post messages or generate other Web content.
3. At the most successful companies, dedication to fair processes percolated through all levels of the organization. Companies should train managers to understand the risks that attacks can pose to the brand -- and to appreciate the dangers that unfair treatment can pose.
4.Once a brand-damaging attack appears, companies should try to address it directly, and quickly, going directly to the site where the criticism originated. They should also drive the discussion in a way that displays the company's dedication to fairness and tries to restore a sense of justice for those involved.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Branding in Bad Times..and the Best of Times
With the nations consumers facing this generation's most challenging economic hurdles (although one or two of hedge fund friends believe this is a great buying opportunity) this is a good time to reflect on the importance of brand.
Brand isn't just a logo or a tagline. Duh. But way too many companies of all sizes neglect to appreciate that the brand image is what keeps the blood flowing. Brand value in the corporate financial sense is defined as a combination confidence, integrity, reliability, and satisfaction.
Confidence in doing business with you. This includes members of the senior management, vendors, distributors, employees, (for many, this also includes regulators), and of course customers, consumers and clients.
Integrity in the manner by which you conduct your business, including the manner by which you manufacture goods.
Reliability in good times and bad. You can be counted on to share the burden, and the wealth.
Satisfaction provided by the receiver in the delivery of your product/service.
Keeping the brand intact, regardless of which way the wind blows, comes from within.
Courtesy of Jay Berkman at The JLC Group
Brand isn't just a logo or a tagline. Duh. But way too many companies of all sizes neglect to appreciate that the brand image is what keeps the blood flowing. Brand value in the corporate financial sense is defined as a combination confidence, integrity, reliability, and satisfaction.
Confidence in doing business with you. This includes members of the senior management, vendors, distributors, employees, (for many, this also includes regulators), and of course customers, consumers and clients.
Integrity in the manner by which you conduct your business, including the manner by which you manufacture goods.
Reliability in good times and bad. You can be counted on to share the burden, and the wealth.
Satisfaction provided by the receiver in the delivery of your product/service.
Keeping the brand intact, regardless of which way the wind blows, comes from within.
Courtesy of Jay Berkman at The JLC Group
Monday, July 07, 2008
Corporate Sponsors Singing a New Tune
Courtesy of the NY Times reporter Robert Levine:
It’s American Brandstand: Marketers Underwrite Performers
By ROBERT LEVINE
The hip-hop and R&B producer Jermaine Dupri has discovered best-selling acts like Kris Kross and Da Brat, has produced hits for Mariah Carey and Jay-Z, and now runs the urban music division of the Island Def Jam Music Group. He’s also looking for fresh talent for a new label financed by a company new to the music industry.
The new player? Procter & Gamble.
The consumer goods giant is part of a wave of companies getting into the music business to promote their own products, essentially becoming record labels themselves.
At a time when online file-sharing is rampant, record stores are closing and consumers are buying singles instead of albums, getting into the music business might seem like running into a burning building. But as record labels struggle to adjust to a harsh new digital reality, other companies are stepping up their involvement in music, going far beyond standard endorsement contracts and the use of songs in commercials.
These companies — like Procter & Gamble, Red Bull and Nike — are stepping outside of their core businesses to promote, finance and even distribute music themselves.
A few months ago, Bacardi announced that it would help the English electronic music duo Groove Armada pay for and promote its next release. Caress, the body-care line owned by Unilever, commissioned the Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger to record a version of Duran Duran’s “Rio” that it gave away on its Web site to promote its “Brazilian body wash” product. The energy drink company Red Bull is starting a label that is expected to release music before the end of the year.
It’s not about money,” said Sarah Tinsley, a global marketing manager at Bacardi. “It’s a branding exercise.”
Although consumer brands are taking on roles once reserved for labels, they are investing so much money in music because the same digital technology that whipsawed the music business is also making it harder to reach consumers.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Press Release Writing 101: Sex, Green, Secret
Refreshing article courtesy of NY Times reporter Joanne Kaufman...Here's an excerpt, with tips that might bring a press release into the press:
The original pitch landed in the inbox with a whiff of medical authenticity overlaid with a snicker-inducing headline: “Toxic Ties to ‘New Shower Curtain Smell’ Evident, According to Latest Laboratory Testing.”
There was a news conference, this release said, at New York University Medical Center. It was led by a doctor representing an obscure if official-sounding group that few people have heard of, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. There were revelations about how shower curtains that are “routinely sold at multiple retail outlets” and can “release as many as 108 volatile chemicals into the air.”
Thus, the Toxic Shower Curtain Story was born.
ABCNews.com picked up on it, only to debunk it. With varying amounts of credulousness, other outlets ran with it as well, including U.S. News & World Report, The Daily News in New York, MSNBC.com and The Los Angeles Times. The gist of some of the coverage was that it was all a tempest in a bathtub, though other reports took the information at face value.
How do stories of this ilk get such bounce from major news organizations?
Those who make their living composing news releases say there is an art to this easily dismissed craft. Strategic word selection can catapult an announcement about a study, a product or a “breakthrough” onto the evening news instead of to its usual destination — the spam folder or circular file.
“P.R. people want to invest time in things that are going to get picked up, so they try to put something to the ‘who cares?’ and ‘so what?’ test,” said Kate Robins, a longtime public relations consultant. “If you say something is first, most, fastest, tallest — that’s likely to get attention. If you can use the words like ‘money,’ ‘fat,’ ‘cancer’ or ‘sex,’ you’re likely to get some ink in the general audience media.”
David Seaman, a P.R. stunt planner and the author of a book to be published in October, “Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz,” is a proponent of “safe,” “easy” “secret,” “trick” and “breaking” because they suggest that something is new and fresh, he said.
“Anytime you have ‘toxic’ next to an item everyone has in their house and has always been assumed to be the last thing that would harm them, you can be sure it will get picked up on the news, and the Web will spread it like wildfire,” said Allen P. Adamson, managing director of Landor, a corporate branding firm, and the author of “BrandSimple.”
The words that attract media attention change with the times. “Anything that speaks to long-term health risks is good these days, because there is a belief that there’s a lot of stuff out there harming us, from the cellphone on down,” Mr. Adamson said.
David B. Armon, the president of PR Newswire, a distribution service for public relations professionals, likens writing a news release to writing a headline for the front page of a newspaper: every word has to do heavy lifting.
“It’s a lot more scientific than it used to be,” Mr. Armon said, “because you’re not just trying to get media pickup, but to get search engine attention.”
“Green” and “environment” are huge right now, he said, as is “foreclosure.” “We’ve done 412 press releases that incorporate that word so far in ’08, up from 261 last year.” For the record, Mr. Armon added, the use of the word “toxic” in news releases is up 5 percent.
The words that may help get a news release picked up vary from region to region. Brenda Baumgartner, the news director and anchor at KPVI, the NBC affiliate in Pocatello, Idaho, for example, looks for words like “fishing,” “hunting,” “Mormon” and “polygamy,” she said, “because they fit the culture we live around.”
Words that help elevate a news release also vary from industry to industry. For instance, Tom Gable, the head of a San Diego public relations firm, said a news release about video games could benefit from a phrase like “faster graphics.” When talking about technology, he said, it would be “ ‘cost breakthrough,’ like the $200 computer.”
In the entertainment industry, on the other hand, the most basic of nouns will do — baby, breakup, marriage, divorce — according to Cindi Berger, co-chief executive of the public relations firm PMK/HBH. “Now attach names like Madonna or Jessica Simpson,” Ms. Berger said, “and of course the assignment editor is going to pay attention.”
Perhaps because many people in public relations are former journalists, they know what grates on the Fourth Estate. Mr. Gable, who was once the business editor of The San Diego Union, has compiled a list of words that will do a news release no good whatsoever, like “solutions,” “leading edge,” “cutting edge,” “state of the art,” “mission critical,” and “turnkey.”
Mr. Gable said that his company once did a weeklong survey of the releases that came out of PR Newswire and Business Wire, a commercial news distribution service, “and most of the releases identified their company as ‘a leader’ and described their research as ‘cutting edge.’”
“They were empty, unsubstantiated and had no news value,” he said.
Ken Sunshine, the head of a P.R. firm in Manhattan, said he thought the media had an institutional bias against “hype-y terms” like “world renowned” and “once in a lifetime,” which he studiously avoids putting in his news releases. “But ‘unique’ is fine,” he said, “if something really is unique.”
Ultimately, perhaps, the whole thing is less about terms than timing.
“Was it really the issue of toxic shower curtains that fired up assignment editors?” asked Mr. Armon of PR Newswire. “Or was it just a slow news day?”
The original pitch landed in the inbox with a whiff of medical authenticity overlaid with a snicker-inducing headline: “Toxic Ties to ‘New Shower Curtain Smell’ Evident, According to Latest Laboratory Testing.”
There was a news conference, this release said, at New York University Medical Center. It was led by a doctor representing an obscure if official-sounding group that few people have heard of, the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. There were revelations about how shower curtains that are “routinely sold at multiple retail outlets” and can “release as many as 108 volatile chemicals into the air.”
Thus, the Toxic Shower Curtain Story was born.
ABCNews.com picked up on it, only to debunk it. With varying amounts of credulousness, other outlets ran with it as well, including U.S. News & World Report, The Daily News in New York, MSNBC.com and The Los Angeles Times. The gist of some of the coverage was that it was all a tempest in a bathtub, though other reports took the information at face value.
How do stories of this ilk get such bounce from major news organizations?
Those who make their living composing news releases say there is an art to this easily dismissed craft. Strategic word selection can catapult an announcement about a study, a product or a “breakthrough” onto the evening news instead of to its usual destination — the spam folder or circular file.
“P.R. people want to invest time in things that are going to get picked up, so they try to put something to the ‘who cares?’ and ‘so what?’ test,” said Kate Robins, a longtime public relations consultant. “If you say something is first, most, fastest, tallest — that’s likely to get attention. If you can use the words like ‘money,’ ‘fat,’ ‘cancer’ or ‘sex,’ you’re likely to get some ink in the general audience media.”
David Seaman, a P.R. stunt planner and the author of a book to be published in October, “Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz,” is a proponent of “safe,” “easy” “secret,” “trick” and “breaking” because they suggest that something is new and fresh, he said.
“Anytime you have ‘toxic’ next to an item everyone has in their house and has always been assumed to be the last thing that would harm them, you can be sure it will get picked up on the news, and the Web will spread it like wildfire,” said Allen P. Adamson, managing director of Landor, a corporate branding firm, and the author of “BrandSimple.”
The words that attract media attention change with the times. “Anything that speaks to long-term health risks is good these days, because there is a belief that there’s a lot of stuff out there harming us, from the cellphone on down,” Mr. Adamson said.
David B. Armon, the president of PR Newswire, a distribution service for public relations professionals, likens writing a news release to writing a headline for the front page of a newspaper: every word has to do heavy lifting.
“It’s a lot more scientific than it used to be,” Mr. Armon said, “because you’re not just trying to get media pickup, but to get search engine attention.”
“Green” and “environment” are huge right now, he said, as is “foreclosure.” “We’ve done 412 press releases that incorporate that word so far in ’08, up from 261 last year.” For the record, Mr. Armon added, the use of the word “toxic” in news releases is up 5 percent.
The words that may help get a news release picked up vary from region to region. Brenda Baumgartner, the news director and anchor at KPVI, the NBC affiliate in Pocatello, Idaho, for example, looks for words like “fishing,” “hunting,” “Mormon” and “polygamy,” she said, “because they fit the culture we live around.”
Words that help elevate a news release also vary from industry to industry. For instance, Tom Gable, the head of a San Diego public relations firm, said a news release about video games could benefit from a phrase like “faster graphics.” When talking about technology, he said, it would be “ ‘cost breakthrough,’ like the $200 computer.”
In the entertainment industry, on the other hand, the most basic of nouns will do — baby, breakup, marriage, divorce — according to Cindi Berger, co-chief executive of the public relations firm PMK/HBH. “Now attach names like Madonna or Jessica Simpson,” Ms. Berger said, “and of course the assignment editor is going to pay attention.”
Perhaps because many people in public relations are former journalists, they know what grates on the Fourth Estate. Mr. Gable, who was once the business editor of The San Diego Union, has compiled a list of words that will do a news release no good whatsoever, like “solutions,” “leading edge,” “cutting edge,” “state of the art,” “mission critical,” and “turnkey.”
Mr. Gable said that his company once did a weeklong survey of the releases that came out of PR Newswire and Business Wire, a commercial news distribution service, “and most of the releases identified their company as ‘a leader’ and described their research as ‘cutting edge.’”
“They were empty, unsubstantiated and had no news value,” he said.
Ken Sunshine, the head of a P.R. firm in Manhattan, said he thought the media had an institutional bias against “hype-y terms” like “world renowned” and “once in a lifetime,” which he studiously avoids putting in his news releases. “But ‘unique’ is fine,” he said, “if something really is unique.”
Ultimately, perhaps, the whole thing is less about terms than timing.
“Was it really the issue of toxic shower curtains that fired up assignment editors?” asked Mr. Armon of PR Newswire. “Or was it just a slow news day?”
Monday, June 09, 2008
Viral Marketing Hall of Fame 2008: Top 10 Campaigns & Results Data
Great summary of top strategies executed by big and small brands, courtesy of MarketingSherpa.
The overriding theme:
-> Rise of social media
Most of this year’s candidates sent videos to YouTube, created Facebook pages or organized communities on MySpace -- or all of the above. These sites are free to use and add seemingly unlimited viral potential to any campaign. That means free additional exposure from powerful peer-to-peer networks. Marketers are hearing the social media message loud and clear.
-> Peer-to-peer sharing is critical
There were two distinct groups in this year’s entries: fantastically thought-out campaigns and wacky content. Either way, success hinged on peer-to-peer sharing. As our winners illustrate, both strategies can work if enough effort is put into the right places.
Clever marketers created funny videos or text documents, posted them to a few social media sites and people shared like mad -- ka-boom! Other marketers left less at risk. They created contests, microsites, full-assault ad campaigns and got on every Web 2.0 medium reachable.
-> All hail mighty content
You’ve heard the adage -- we’re not even going to say it -- but all it took for some campaigns to go wildly viral was great content. Not every content-based entry made it to Sherpa’s winners’ circle, but there were enough to denote a trend. Most of the content being passed around was funny or sarcastic -- even if it was a bit risky for PR. But being truly funny requires risks. Some of these marketers went out on a limb to grab the ripest fruit.
The overriding theme:
-> Rise of social media
Most of this year’s candidates sent videos to YouTube, created Facebook pages or organized communities on MySpace -- or all of the above. These sites are free to use and add seemingly unlimited viral potential to any campaign. That means free additional exposure from powerful peer-to-peer networks. Marketers are hearing the social media message loud and clear.
-> Peer-to-peer sharing is critical
There were two distinct groups in this year’s entries: fantastically thought-out campaigns and wacky content. Either way, success hinged on peer-to-peer sharing. As our winners illustrate, both strategies can work if enough effort is put into the right places.
Clever marketers created funny videos or text documents, posted them to a few social media sites and people shared like mad -- ka-boom! Other marketers left less at risk. They created contests, microsites, full-assault ad campaigns and got on every Web 2.0 medium reachable.
-> All hail mighty content
You’ve heard the adage -- we’re not even going to say it -- but all it took for some campaigns to go wildly viral was great content. Not every content-based entry made it to Sherpa’s winners’ circle, but there were enough to denote a trend. Most of the content being passed around was funny or sarcastic -- even if it was a bit risky for PR. But being truly funny requires risks. Some of these marketers went out on a limb to grab the ripest fruit.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Advertising 101- Don't Waste The Space
A full page ad promoting a Dow Jones service in today's WSJ reinforces my table pounding that someone needs to proofread advertising copy before spending mid-six figures on placing ads into the real world.
The entire text reads : "Make customers stick like glue." The first 'message' that my eyeballs transmitted to my brain was "Make customers sick..like glue." This was after my first cup of coffee, so perhaps my brain wasn't processing at the right setting. Then I looked at the ad again...same thing...I kept associating the ad with 'make customers sick'.... To the extent that it captured my attention, the strategy worked. But the ad failed, simply because it delivered a negative context and completely turned me off to what the actual service being promoted was.
OK, lots of ads out there, and many are carelessly thought out. At the top of the careless advertising list was a recent highway billboard campaign executed by Bloomberg LP's radio division. Placed smack dab on the busiest roadway in the heart of hedge fund country (Fairfield County, Connecticut), the billboard ad displayed an innocuous message "Check Your Pounds"...and a Bloomberg LP logo below. No radio station call signal displayed, no display of the company's cable television channel #--absolutely nothing in the ad that would drive the viewer to tune his/her car radio to the Bloomberg station. Bizarre.
When I called up the head of advertising buying at Bloomberg in connection with another topic, and pointed out what I thought was a surprisingly poor marketing strategy, he thanked me profusely for making the observation, and he said that it wasn't his decision in the first place t0 run or administer the billboard campaign. That billboard ad stayed in place for another 8 weeks and then it was replaced with an ad that displayed the radio call signal.
The entire text reads : "Make customers stick like glue." The first 'message' that my eyeballs transmitted to my brain was "Make customers sick..like glue." This was after my first cup of coffee, so perhaps my brain wasn't processing at the right setting. Then I looked at the ad again...same thing...I kept associating the ad with 'make customers sick'.... To the extent that it captured my attention, the strategy worked. But the ad failed, simply because it delivered a negative context and completely turned me off to what the actual service being promoted was.
OK, lots of ads out there, and many are carelessly thought out. At the top of the careless advertising list was a recent highway billboard campaign executed by Bloomberg LP's radio division. Placed smack dab on the busiest roadway in the heart of hedge fund country (Fairfield County, Connecticut), the billboard ad displayed an innocuous message "Check Your Pounds"...and a Bloomberg LP logo below. No radio station call signal displayed, no display of the company's cable television channel #--absolutely nothing in the ad that would drive the viewer to tune his/her car radio to the Bloomberg station. Bizarre.
When I called up the head of advertising buying at Bloomberg in connection with another topic, and pointed out what I thought was a surprisingly poor marketing strategy, he thanked me profusely for making the observation, and he said that it wasn't his decision in the first place t0 run or administer the billboard campaign. That billboard ad stayed in place for another 8 weeks and then it was replaced with an ad that displayed the radio call signal.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Communicating via LinkedIn
Eric Leebow, a finalist in IdeaBlob's latest contest for 'next great idea' recently initiated a strategy targeting LinkedIn members to go to IdeaBlob's site and cast a vote for his "FreezeCrowd" idea.
Eric had pinged me soliciting ideas about the best phrase he might use in his subject field--and while I was pondering, lo and behold my email alert registered an inbound from SiteProNews, which coincidently re-enforced the entire value proposition of Linked-In's business networking value for those seeking to crack open doors in the course of selling/marketing/communicating C-Level propositions. Click on the link...it makes for good reading!
Eric had pinged me soliciting ideas about the best phrase he might use in his subject field--and while I was pondering, lo and behold my email alert registered an inbound from SiteProNews, which coincidently re-enforced the entire value proposition of Linked-In's business networking value for those seeking to crack open doors in the course of selling/marketing/communicating C-Level propositions. Click on the link...it makes for good reading!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Technocrati Rocks
Pretty simple strategy for those publishing blogs and hoping that others will actually read your musings! Technorati Profile
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Online market for buying and selling ideas..that's marketing!!
Now this is going to be an interesting platform--an online exchange where product innovators seeking to get to the next level can meet and transact with intellectual property buyers.. While not exactly an innovative idea; Idea Connection is another one, and this has been tried via an assortment of initiatives over the years), its being backed by a formidable group of manufacturers, retailers and major corporations.
The obvious biggest obstacle is privacy--i.e. appeasing those concerned about promoting ideas that aren't protected (patented), and naysayers will suggest that this could become a flea market that can be raided by knock-off artists. Wonder what Donny Deutche thinks?
The obvious biggest obstacle is privacy--i.e. appeasing those concerned about promoting ideas that aren't protected (patented), and naysayers will suggest that this could become a flea market that can be raided by knock-off artists. Wonder what Donny Deutche thinks?
Monday, April 21, 2008
Selling Chat on Fox, and a Sex-Enhancing Potion on the Side
If you don't subscribe to the NY Times (who could blame you?), you probably won't be able to get much out of the link imbedded in the title, but here's a story you gotta love---another 'new product and marketing tactics' profile..
Who woulda thunk that a former professional wrestler would morph into a Wall Street investment banker and then turn that gig into becoming a financial market news talking head...? Only in America, folks!
Just when I thought that my condo association President (a former top gun at CIT Financial) had it right when he suggested the idea of a lotion format for a Viagra-esque product--along comes pseudo star John Layfield with "Mamajuana Energy" ....an energy drink/beverage potion from the jungles of somewhere south of Bora Bora---and a product that purportedly emulates something similar to what happens when you take a Viagra tab.
From the NYT:
Mr. Layfield, a 6-foot-6 Texan, actively cultivates an outlandish persona. His wrestling character is based on the television character J. R. Ewing, the ruthless oilman on “Dallas.” For a photo to accompany this article, his publicist, Pamela Johnston, suggested the following: “Layfield in a beach chair, wearing a suit and tie on the top and swim trunks on the bottom. N.Y.C. skyscape in background. Cabana girl serving him Mamajuana Energy on a silver tray.”
Hats off John--you got Vitamin Shoppe to take a gamble and stock your product--and you're no doubt being labeled a scoundrel and elixir salesman...but we love your tenacity and your passion---lets hope your beverage evokes the same response from those on the opposite side of the table!...
Who woulda thunk that a former professional wrestler would morph into a Wall Street investment banker and then turn that gig into becoming a financial market news talking head...? Only in America, folks!
Just when I thought that my condo association President (a former top gun at CIT Financial) had it right when he suggested the idea of a lotion format for a Viagra-esque product--along comes pseudo star John Layfield with "Mamajuana Energy" ....an energy drink/beverage potion from the jungles of somewhere south of Bora Bora---and a product that purportedly emulates something similar to what happens when you take a Viagra tab.
From the NYT:
Mr. Layfield, a 6-foot-6 Texan, actively cultivates an outlandish persona. His wrestling character is based on the television character J. R. Ewing, the ruthless oilman on “Dallas.” For a photo to accompany this article, his publicist, Pamela Johnston, suggested the following: “Layfield in a beach chair, wearing a suit and tie on the top and swim trunks on the bottom. N.Y.C. skyscape in background. Cabana girl serving him Mamajuana Energy on a silver tray.”
Hats off John--you got Vitamin Shoppe to take a gamble and stock your product--and you're no doubt being labeled a scoundrel and elixir salesman...but we love your tenacity and your passion---lets hope your beverage evokes the same response from those on the opposite side of the table!...
Email Software Delves Into Employees' Contacts
If you have a subscription to WSJ online--you can access the full article..but the story ( in excerpted fashion), brings to light the most integral element with respect to Sales. Its all about leveraging (some say 'exploiting') internal relationships.....at www.JLCgroup.net--resident guru Jay Berkman opines that "every single one of your employees is a salesperson--even if their job title is miles apart from traditional sales roles--and that secondarily...your most valued clients are the best third party sales executives..."
The article does point out that privacy concerns remain an impediment to full scale exploitation---but gee whiz golly gosh...contact information acquired by employees in the course of doing their job belongs to the company---NOT to the individual--and it merely requires a pragmatic, rational and mature business executive to determine the most appropriate way to leverage this data---taking into account relationships that exist between employees and their counterparts/relationships at other enterprises...
Bytes from WSJ article:
Companies are rolling out software that allows them to mine their employees' emails and electronic address books for contact information, in a bid to make it easier to establish relationships with potential clients and others.
The article does point out that privacy concerns remain an impediment to full scale exploitation---but gee whiz golly gosh...contact information acquired by employees in the course of doing their job belongs to the company---NOT to the individual--and it merely requires a pragmatic, rational and mature business executive to determine the most appropriate way to leverage this data---taking into account relationships that exist between employees and their counterparts/relationships at other enterprises...
Bytes from WSJ article:
Companies are rolling out software that allows them to mine their employees' emails and electronic address books for contact information, in a bid to make it easier to establish relationships with potential clients and others.
The products work by examining the contact lists on employees' email programs, as well as other information such as lawyers' billing records or contacts stored on special programs for managing customer relationships. Then it checks how often individuals email the contacts and whether they have appointments for face-to-face meetings or phone calls on their calendars. The software uses that information to determine how strong a relationship a person has with the contact. For example, individual emails that get replies rank higher than a blast email sent to many people.
"We're able to infer where people have relationships, based on their electronic vapor trail of activities," said Geoffrey Hyatt, founder of Contact Networks in Boston. The company, whose product is called ContactNet, said the program is used at about 40 law firms, including Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, both in New York.
If an attorney at a firm using ContactNet wants to pitch his expertise to a particular company, he can type in the name of the company or perhaps the general counsel. The system responds by saying how many of his fellow employees have relationships with the general counsel or other people at the company. The lawyer can then ask his fellow employee to introduce him to the contact. At other firms, the program reveals which employee has the contact, but details like phone numbers aren't shown. The employee may offer to share just an email address, or they may advise against pursuing business with that contact altogether.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Google_ Mystifying billing practices to be uncovered?
We're hearing from lots of Google advertisers that they are incurring charges for clicks that are not documented within Google's own analytic reports.
Here's an example of a complaint we just rec'd a copy of:
i have repeatedly brought this to your attention, and i have not been provided any type of adequate explanation
1. Site targeted campaign name :(blocked)
2. Campaign manager displays (1) Click for period mar 20-mar 23 I had selected approximately 500 different sites.
Your ad manager indicates i received 1 click from 1 site (www.legacy.com)
3. Despite above #2, when scrolling down the admin page, it indicates that (9) different ads resulted in 16 clicks, and I have been charged for those clicks, despite the fact that you are reporting to me only 1 click was made during this period.
I would like a credit for the 15 clicks that I was fraudulently charged for.
Thanks
Actually, we asked three different clients to take a close look at their monthly billing from Google adwords campaigns--each of which run both CPC and site-targeted campaigns (also CPC). In each case, clients reported an inexplicable discrepency between what GOOG reported as the number of clicks and the number of clicks that clients were charged for.
No surprise that in each case, clients are apparently being charged for more than the actual number of clicks---the dollar amounts are relatively inane (approximately 8-10% of total monthly spend)...wait a minute, that's not inane--that's INSANE.
We're guessing this is something that Wall Street analysts are going to take a closer look at.
Here's an example of a complaint we just rec'd a copy of:
i have repeatedly brought this to your attention, and i have not been provided any type of adequate explanation
1. Site targeted campaign name :(blocked)
2. Campaign manager displays (1) Click for period mar 20-mar 23 I had selected approximately 500 different sites.
Your ad manager indicates i received 1 click from 1 site (www.legacy.com)
3. Despite above #2, when scrolling down the admin page, it indicates that (9) different ads resulted in 16 clicks, and I have been charged for those clicks, despite the fact that you are reporting to me only 1 click was made during this period.
I would like a credit for the 15 clicks that I was fraudulently charged for.
Thanks
Actually, we asked three different clients to take a close look at their monthly billing from Google adwords campaigns--each of which run both CPC and site-targeted campaigns (also CPC). In each case, clients reported an inexplicable discrepency between what GOOG reported as the number of clicks and the number of clicks that clients were charged for.
No surprise that in each case, clients are apparently being charged for more than the actual number of clicks---the dollar amounts are relatively inane (approximately 8-10% of total monthly spend)...wait a minute, that's not inane--that's INSANE.
We're guessing this is something that Wall Street analysts are going to take a closer look at.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Name That Firm: What Should You Call Your Business?
We're in the midst of trying to come up with a name for a boutique product licensing/distribution firm that started out specializing in licensing and manufacturing rights to innovative/disruptive technology products, and has since grown to the point where we have multiple products under our umbrella; extending across environmentally- friendly consumer goods, health care products, eco-friendly cleaning products for commercial application, food, and some technology widgets.
At the moment, the firm has a next generation, alcohol-free hand sanitizer product line, a lubricant made from mineral oil that is Green Seal certified and best described as the eco-friendly alternative to WD 40 (making it a great product for both the consumer and commerical marketplace), and some food products that are Fair Trade certified. We also continue to look at software and hardware products.
My partners and I have been trying to come up with a moniker (which is currently Mata Global Solutions) to a name that will resonate i.e.--encompass the unique nature of products that we are licensing/distributing, can perhaps be universally applied to the products we are licensing (a tough one considering the breadth of products), and can be easily incorporated into a URL for optimal search engine strategies.
Today's WSJ profile "Name That Firm" is a solid primer do's and don't(s) when it comes to putting up a marquee for a business.
Here are good excerpts from the WSJ article:
At the moment, the firm has a next generation, alcohol-free hand sanitizer product line, a lubricant made from mineral oil that is Green Seal certified and best described as the eco-friendly alternative to WD 40 (making it a great product for both the consumer and commerical marketplace), and some food products that are Fair Trade certified. We also continue to look at software and hardware products.
My partners and I have been trying to come up with a moniker (which is currently Mata Global Solutions) to a name that will resonate i.e.--encompass the unique nature of products that we are licensing/distributing, can perhaps be universally applied to the products we are licensing (a tough one considering the breadth of products), and can be easily incorporated into a URL for optimal search engine strategies.
Today's WSJ profile "Name That Firm" is a solid primer do's and don't(s) when it comes to putting up a marquee for a business.
Here are good excerpts from the WSJ article:
FIND THE UNIQUE
The first step is usually pinpointing the company's unique value or service. Companies should ask themselves, "What are you doing to bring value to potential customers and what's your vision?" says Scott Kuehl, president of BrandResolve LLC, a St. Cloud, Minn., brand-consulting firm.
BUT DON'T BE OBSCURE
AVOID THE MUNDANE
Indeed, companies trying to create a unique brand sometimes err by choosing a name that describes too closely what they do. "When a company tries to describe its services, it usually makes the company sound generic," says Mr. Montoya. The names of many successful companies don't describe what they do, he says.
![[image]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-BD738_SB_Nam_20080314162033.jpg) |
| Josh Robbins of Geckotech. |
Names that describe a company also require a greater investment to promote the name in the marketplace, says Steven Winokur, CEO and founder of Turning Point Strategies, an Atlanta-based branding consultancy. "The only way I know how to do that is through repetition," he says. "You have to get people to see it many times."
GET REACTIONS
The best way to gauge the effectiveness of a small-business name is to find out how it resonates with people outside the company. It's an "ask people" question, says BrandResolve's Mr. Kuehl.
If people respond using phrases that echo the company's mission, that's good, he says. A catering company whose goal is to create irresistible, sinfully delicious food, for example, would know a name was right if people said it made them think of food that is "wicked good" or "devilishly tasty," he says.
Mr. Montoya says that people also should find a name memorable and easy to look up, either in phone listings or on the Web. The easier a name is to remember, the more it will benefit from referrals, he says. Similarly, a name that's hard to spell makes a company hard to find.
David Placek, president and founder of Lexicon Branding Inc. in Sausalito, Calif., notes: "You want to make people think a little bit -- not a lot. But if we don't make them think at all, they will walk past."
DOMAIN DO'S AND DON'TS
Check on the availability of a domain name, as Pacific Biosciences did, before making a final decision. An Internet domain name should be closely related to the company's name and make sense to users, says Mr. Winokur
Mr. Placek, however, cautions against sacrificing an effective name if the domain isn't available. He notes that many people surfing the Web don't look for corporate Web sites by remembering a domain name. Instead, he says, they type the company's name into Google, and then click on a link that is listed.
"Companies shouldn't sacrifice memorability and creativity [in a name] just to have a URL," he says.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Spitzer: A Marketing/Communications Classic
Eliot Spitzer. Former NY Attorney General turned politician (actually one and the same) . Qualities: Self righteous, sanctimonious, zealot, narcissist...and now a self-confessed criminal.
This is a guy that proclaimed to stand at the top of mountain in terms of ethics and morality, spending the last decade prosecuting, extorting and bullying anyone he felt like like, regardless of whether he had evidence of a crime, in order to advance his career--financed in part by his wealthy family.
Resigning in disgrace is great, what should happen is that he be prosecuted (pick a crime: abuse of office, fraud, using taxpayer money to commit a crime (hey, he's on the govt payroll, and no doubt that its a crime in the State of New York to procure sex for money--and if he paid, then we can assume that it was government money that hey paid with).
And of course, he should be sentenced to whatever the maximum jail is for the crimes he'll hopefully be charged and convicted of. US Attorneys investigating the case are no doubt going to be politically influenced by those that will dangle carrots in front of their face. Prosecuting Spitzer for violation of the Mann Act would be poetic justice.
And yes, its heart breaking to his wife and daughters. But Eliot wannabee Ness broke more hearts and families under the guise of ill-conceived prosecutions--without any concern or care for what the impact might be on innocent family members.
This is a guy that proclaimed to stand at the top of mountain in terms of ethics and morality, spending the last decade prosecuting, extorting and bullying anyone he felt like like, regardless of whether he had evidence of a crime, in order to advance his career--financed in part by his wealthy family.
Resigning in disgrace is great, what should happen is that he be prosecuted (pick a crime: abuse of office, fraud, using taxpayer money to commit a crime (hey, he's on the govt payroll, and no doubt that its a crime in the State of New York to procure sex for money--and if he paid, then we can assume that it was government money that hey paid with).
And of course, he should be sentenced to whatever the maximum jail is for the crimes he'll hopefully be charged and convicted of. US Attorneys investigating the case are no doubt going to be politically influenced by those that will dangle carrots in front of their face. Prosecuting Spitzer for violation of the Mann Act would be poetic justice.
And yes, its heart breaking to his wife and daughters. But Eliot wannabee Ness broke more hearts and families under the guise of ill-conceived prosecutions--without any concern or care for what the impact might be on innocent family members.
First came SpotRunner-Now Comes TalkMarket
Last summer we told you about SpotRunner--a "create your own TV commercial' platform targeting small businesses that have limited budgets. It was and remains a brilliant idea--and it includes a module for advertisers to use SpotRunner templates for creating a 30-second spot, and to place those spots on local and cable TV. Instead of spending tens of thousands to create the commercial, and thousands more for placement time, SpotRunner is a turnkey solution that can cost an advertiser as little as $3000 to reach wide audiences.
Now comes The Talk Market--billed as the "QVC for the Masses". Instead of provid9ing templates for videomercials as SpotRunner does, advertisers can jump on the YouTube style approach by creating their own spot, then uploading it the Talk Market platform. TalkMarket's business model is based on 5% commission on sales (mapped to clicking on a link imbedded in the commercial).
Brilliant--we wish you lots of success!
Now comes The Talk Market--billed as the "QVC for the Masses". Instead of provid9ing templates for videomercials as SpotRunner does, advertisers can jump on the YouTube style approach by creating their own spot, then uploading it the Talk Market platform. TalkMarket's business model is based on 5% commission on sales (mapped to clicking on a link imbedded in the commercial).
Brilliant--we wish you lots of success!
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Say it Ain't So! Video Doomed in the Workplace
As reported by the WSJ this week, it appears that web-centric video-based applications within the workplace, which I've been rooting for since before they became ubiquitous, is now destined to be doomed.
Apparently, video email and video presentations, the apps that I've been championing, have been overshadowed by office workers logging on and surfing the net to consume entertainment and other video content completely unrelated to work. This type of activity has overwhelmed IT networks, impacted worker productivity, and imposing a massive cost increase to business, as internet connectivity is priced to companies based on bandwith usage.
As a result, corporations across the spectrum are now banning employees from downloading the type of content that has made Google's YouTube.com and News Corp's MySpace so rich in advertising revenue. Oops.
Apparently, video email and video presentations, the apps that I've been championing, have been overshadowed by office workers logging on and surfing the net to consume entertainment and other video content completely unrelated to work. This type of activity has overwhelmed IT networks, impacted worker productivity, and imposing a massive cost increase to business, as internet connectivity is priced to companies based on bandwith usage.
As a result, corporations across the spectrum are now banning employees from downloading the type of content that has made Google's YouTube.com and News Corp's MySpace so rich in advertising revenue. Oops.
Lightbulb of An Idea: Its About The Packaging, Not The Product, Stupid!
Courtesy of last week's NY Times
Proving once again that retailers, marketers and manufacturers recognize that its all about the packaging--especially in mass merchandising. Getting onto a shelf is relatively easy, but having a beacon on your package will hopefully get the consumer's eyeball magnetized to it.
Getting consumers to buy products with gimmicky packaging is another thing. Especially when creating the packaging has a big negative impact i.e. 'environmentally friendly". A package that "shouts" or in this case, illuminates using battery-operated technology ain't so e-friendly. And obviously the fancy packaging is what you're paying for, the deodarant costs a few pennies to make and stuff into the dispenser.
A+ To NXT for a fun idea!. C for being e-friendly, and D for your investors believing this will make NXT an unforgettable brand within the minds of the consumers. Unless of course, you keep inventing other fad-based packaging and other fun stunts before the battery runs out
 |
A Package That Lights Up the Shelf
ABOUT a year ago, when Jamie Leventhal was trying to convince big chain stores to stock his new line of shaving gels for young men, a buyer for Target asked a crucial question: How much would he spend on advertising?
“I told him we would not spend a single dollar,” Mr. Leventhal said.
The buyer was stunned until Mr. Leventhal pulled a prototype out of his briefcase. The product, called NXT, is sold in an arresting triangular container that lights up from the bottom, illuminating air bubbles suspended in the clear gel. The plastic is tinted blue, and when the AAA batteries in its base are lighted, the whole thing looks like a miniature lava lamp or a tiny fishless aquarium.
The novelty of the light-up container worked, and NXT shaving gel — as well as its after-shave and face wash, similarly packaged — will hit the shelves at Target this month. It will also arrive at other retailers like Wal-Mart, CVS, Duane Reade, Winn-Dixie and Fred Meyer.
To call attention to themselves, the products, which are aimed at 18- to 24-year-old men, will glow on the shelves, inviting customers to pick them up. Every 15 seconds, a light-emitting diode (LED) in the bottom of the container flares on, stays lighted for a few seconds, then fades out.
Comic Books: Leveraging The Success of Graphic Novels within a Marketing Message
Last year, after noting a bulging trend out of Japan, we pontificated that "comic book-style" messaging would proliferate into mainstream marketing and assorted publications, including How-To books and mags.
Last week BusinessWeek Magazine re-affirmed that notion ""Graphic books on bsuiness are already a hit in Japan. With Johnny Bunko, the genre heads for the U.S..."
Why is this trend gaining traction? Pretty simple, really. We're inundated with txt msgs, overloaded with blackberry correspondences, and overwhelmed with email. Our eyeballs are looking at millions of alpha, symbol, and numeric characters, and for many, elevating premature ADD.
Putting a message within a visually appealing and easy to connect with format is a concept that started with the caveman. Expect to see lots more series-based messaging delivered within graphic novel aka comic book elements.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Retailers Perplexed :Branded Products Vs. Private Label
Guru marketers in the corner offices of major retailers continue to throw darts when it comes to merchandising private label vs. branded products.
Maybe everyone should take a hint from today's WSJ profile of Cott Corp--the private label soda manufacturer whose shares are falling flat--much in part because Wal-Mart has determined that its customers are more interested in branded products vs. the Sam's label.
We all know that manufacturers have been hammered over the past several years as retailers seek to introduce lower cost, higher margin goods. Private labeling necessarily accomplishes that goal, especially when faced with declining revenue from slotting fees that are part and parcel to many chain store business models.
But a funny thing seems to be happening on the way to the checkout counter--other than the most rudimentary staple items (i.e. napkins, nails, or the most highly commoditized), consumers still cherish a branded product--and the lower priced "house brands" within the food, beverage, personal care categories are simply not appealing, even to the most price sensitive shoppers.
Maybe everyone should take a hint from today's WSJ profile of Cott Corp--the private label soda manufacturer whose shares are falling flat--much in part because Wal-Mart has determined that its customers are more interested in branded products vs. the Sam's label.
We all know that manufacturers have been hammered over the past several years as retailers seek to introduce lower cost, higher margin goods. Private labeling necessarily accomplishes that goal, especially when faced with declining revenue from slotting fees that are part and parcel to many chain store business models.
But a funny thing seems to be happening on the way to the checkout counter--other than the most rudimentary staple items (i.e. napkins, nails, or the most highly commoditized), consumers still cherish a branded product--and the lower priced "house brands" within the food, beverage, personal care categories are simply not appealing, even to the most price sensitive shoppers.
Marcomm 201: Its All About The Customer
Stellar observation from JEFFREY FOX of Fox And Company:
Too many companies that sell directly to consumers think marketing is advertising. Too many business-to-business sellers think marketing is trade shows and literature. Marketing involves the profitable identification, attraction, getting, and then keeping of the most highly desired customers. It is the heart and lungs for every organization. Without customers, members, patients, parishioners, donors, the organization will die. Every single function, every single job, in every single organization must, directly or indirectly, today or tomorrow, be laser-beamed on the getting and keeping of customers. Every single job in every business must be a marketing job. Every single job must be tied to profitable revenue- without exception. If someone does not know how his or her job gets or keeps customers then, that person is either ill-managed, ill-trained, or, as the Europeans say, redundant
Too many companies that sell directly to consumers think marketing is advertising. Too many business-to-business sellers think marketing is trade shows and literature. Marketing involves the profitable identification, attraction, getting, and then keeping of the most highly desired customers. It is the heart and lungs for every organization. Without customers, members, patients, parishioners, donors, the organization will die. Every single function, every single job, in every single organization must, directly or indirectly, today or tomorrow, be laser-beamed on the getting and keeping of customers. Every single job in every business must be a marketing job. Every single job must be tied to profitable revenue- without exception. If someone does not know how his or her job gets or keeps customers then, that person is either ill-managed, ill-trained, or, as the Europeans say, redundant
1800 Flowers-Redeeming Response
Lo and behold--within 24 hours of my e-venting my frustration via email to senior execs at 1800 flowers for a total breakdown in customer service in connection with a special delivery for my 21 year old daughter's birthday--I received a personal call from Monica Woo, the President of the company's consumer floral division.
Not only did Ms. Woo express her apologies and acknowledgement that the company's system had failed to meet their standards during the most important week of the year--she insisted on sending both my wife and daughter a bouquet--both of which arrived exactly when she said they would.
Thank you, Monica!-You've re-affirmed my belief that the best executive leaders are those that focus on every customer complaint. I'll look forward to renewing my relationship accordingly!
Not only did Ms. Woo express her apologies and acknowledgement that the company's system had failed to meet their standards during the most important week of the year--she insisted on sending both my wife and daughter a bouquet--both of which arrived exactly when she said they would.
Thank you, Monica!-You've re-affirmed my belief that the best executive leaders are those that focus on every customer complaint. I'll look forward to renewing my relationship accordingly!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Its ALL about Customer Service! Don't You Understand That Yet??
Thank G-d that BusinessWeek is keeping its eye on the ball and keeping a scorecard about the absolute most important element to any business--start-up, turnaround or the grey, old battleships--CUSTOMER SERVICE.
It befuddles the mind when reading business plans for start-ups that fail to include a line item expense for customer service, and enrages the intellect when being subjected to the absolute worst customer service from companies that are purportedly brand leaders. Telecoms and high tech have been infamous for failing to appreciate that they have an obligation to deal with customer complaints--and many, even Dell, have recognized the error of their ways.
Although many figured it out after they lost their customers--and subsequently, the keys to the executive washroom (and all of the other keys to the building), there is actually a universe of corporate managers that understand that customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty are the lifeblood of any business.
Unfortunately, based on personal experience, I don't think that 1800Flowers falls into the category of "we get it"--and if you believe Warren Buffet when he suggests that poor customer service is a tell tale sign of a poorly run company, then 1800Flowers' revolving door of senior execs says something about the company's board of directors.
On Feb 10, my wife placed an order via the 1800Flowers call center--flowers to be delivered on Feb 13 to our only child ( daughter) in honor of her 21'st birthday. When it was obvious the flowers hadn't been received by 7pm on the 13th--we phoned 1800 flowers to discover the phone lines were overwhlemed, and no matter how we attempted to naviagate, we kept encountering insturctions ot leave a voice message. Then we tried submitting a complaint by email--and received an auto reply that our inquiry would be addressed within 24 hours--which by then would be almost a full day after the birthday presented was suppposed to be delivered--and five days after it was ordered.. We tried phoning on the 14th, but what a surprise, the automated answering system indicated they were not accepting any calls--as they were overwhelmed. We tried calling on the 15th---same thing--no matter how much we tried to speak to a human--all ports were blocked.
Finally on the 16th--6 days after the order was placed and 3 days after the birthday--we were able to connect to a live customer service representative--who explained the reason the flowers were never delivered was because "the local vendor they had designated was too busy." The customer service rep believed that was a reasonable explanation and when asked if thought it would be a good idea for 1800flowers to find another local vendor--as opposed to simply dropping the entire thing--without bothering to call us, he therwsie said''hey, this was our busiest week of the year--so I'm sure you can understand..."
What I understood is that the customer service rep could have the stupidiest person ever put on a customer service line--and when he offered to provide a 20% discount card on the next purchase, I became convinced he was from another planet (or a former customer service rep from Dell).
When I asked " Why in thew world would I ever purchase anything from your company again when they failed so miserably on this purchase, and made absolutely no effort to resolve the problem, and had absolutely no customer service available for 4 days...??".. The customer service guy had no response--and when we asked to speak with a supervisor, we were told that none were available, and "it wouldn't be any better--but we could still have the 20% discount on the next purchase. " I politely suggested that I'd never use 1800flowers again (I' probably used them 1-2x a year for the past 10 years)--and under no circumstances did I want him sending us any solicitations.
What a surprise that the following week, I received a form letter apologizing for our not being satisfied, along with a 20% discount offering on my next purchase.
What should have happened: the customer service rep should have been trained to understand english and customer frustration. Who in their right mind is going to be appeased with a "sorry--here's 20% discount discount card when a special flower arrangement for their only child's 21'st birthday is bungled so completely??....
What he should have done was immediately offer a free something--as in "can we send your daughter a bouquet right now?--or can we not only credit you, but can we keep an additional credit available for the next time you'd like to send flowers to anyone anywhere?" Not a measely discount on a purchase--and he made zero effort to keep me as a satisfied customer--or to prevent the situation from turning ugly-which I clearly forewarned him about: -includingthe liklihood of my lamenting on a blog that's read by hundreds of media and marketing industry execs--and emailing everyone in my family and universe of friends that they should never do business with 1800flowers.
OK--the birthday was the day before Valentines Day--the biggest flower day of the year (or is it Mother's Day?)--And shit happens. But to have no customer telephone support for 3 straight days--and to have voice recordings that suggest that if you leave a message, someone will get back to you within the next day is lunacy. On the biggest day of the year, a smart company would OVERSTAFF with customer support to make sure those customers come back for next year's busieest day of the year. This isn't rocket science .
Jim McCann--I hope you're reading this--because I doubt anyone on your staff really cares.
It befuddles the mind when reading business plans for start-ups that fail to include a line item expense for customer service, and enrages the intellect when being subjected to the absolute worst customer service from companies that are purportedly brand leaders. Telecoms and high tech have been infamous for failing to appreciate that they have an obligation to deal with customer complaints--and many, even Dell, have recognized the error of their ways.
Although many figured it out after they lost their customers--and subsequently, the keys to the executive washroom (and all of the other keys to the building), there is actually a universe of corporate managers that understand that customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty are the lifeblood of any business.
Unfortunately, based on personal experience, I don't think that 1800Flowers falls into the category of "we get it"--and if you believe Warren Buffet when he suggests that poor customer service is a tell tale sign of a poorly run company, then 1800Flowers' revolving door of senior execs says something about the company's board of directors.
On Feb 10, my wife placed an order via the 1800Flowers call center--flowers to be delivered on Feb 13 to our only child ( daughter) in honor of her 21'st birthday. When it was obvious the flowers hadn't been received by 7pm on the 13th--we phoned 1800 flowers to discover the phone lines were overwhlemed, and no matter how we attempted to naviagate, we kept encountering insturctions ot leave a voice message. Then we tried submitting a complaint by email--and received an auto reply that our inquiry would be addressed within 24 hours--which by then would be almost a full day after the birthday presented was suppposed to be delivered--and five days after it was ordered.. We tried phoning on the 14th, but what a surprise, the automated answering system indicated they were not accepting any calls--as they were overwhelmed. We tried calling on the 15th---same thing--no matter how much we tried to speak to a human--all ports were blocked.
Finally on the 16th--6 days after the order was placed and 3 days after the birthday--we were able to connect to a live customer service representative--who explained the reason the flowers were never delivered was because "the local vendor they had designated was too busy." The customer service rep believed that was a reasonable explanation and when asked if thought it would be a good idea for 1800flowers to find another local vendor--as opposed to simply dropping the entire thing--without bothering to call us, he therwsie said''hey, this was our busiest week of the year--so I'm sure you can understand..."
What I understood is that the customer service rep could have the stupidiest person ever put on a customer service line--and when he offered to provide a 20% discount card on the next purchase, I became convinced he was from another planet (or a former customer service rep from Dell).
When I asked " Why in thew world would I ever purchase anything from your company again when they failed so miserably on this purchase, and made absolutely no effort to resolve the problem, and had absolutely no customer service available for 4 days...??".. The customer service guy had no response--and when we asked to speak with a supervisor, we were told that none were available, and "it wouldn't be any better--but we could still have the 20% discount on the next purchase. " I politely suggested that I'd never use 1800flowers again (I' probably used them 1-2x a year for the past 10 years)--and under no circumstances did I want him sending us any solicitations.
What a surprise that the following week, I received a form letter apologizing for our not being satisfied, along with a 20% discount offering on my next purchase.
What should have happened: the customer service rep should have been trained to understand english and customer frustration. Who in their right mind is going to be appeased with a "sorry--here's 20% discount discount card when a special flower arrangement for their only child's 21'st birthday is bungled so completely??....
What he should have done was immediately offer a free something--as in "can we send your daughter a bouquet right now?--or can we not only credit you, but can we keep an additional credit available for the next time you'd like to send flowers to anyone anywhere?" Not a measely discount on a purchase--and he made zero effort to keep me as a satisfied customer--or to prevent the situation from turning ugly-which I clearly forewarned him about: -includingthe liklihood of my lamenting on a blog that's read by hundreds of media and marketing industry execs--and emailing everyone in my family and universe of friends that they should never do business with 1800flowers.
OK--the birthday was the day before Valentines Day--the biggest flower day of the year (or is it Mother's Day?)--And shit happens. But to have no customer telephone support for 3 straight days--and to have voice recordings that suggest that if you leave a message, someone will get back to you within the next day is lunacy. On the biggest day of the year, a smart company would OVERSTAFF with customer support to make sure those customers come back for next year's busieest day of the year. This isn't rocket science .
Jim McCann--I hope you're reading this--because I doubt anyone on your staff really cares.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Guru Marketing--from Guru Energy-Consumer Products 101
CRAIG MARGULIES is hoping to strike it rich in the grab-and-go beverage cases on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
A 36-year-old with a master’s degree in industrial psychology, Mr. Margulies left a corporate career to become a sales representative for Guru energy drinks, a new company started by a bunch of old Canadian high school pals.
It might seem like a strange career switch, until you consider that the investors in the last beverage sensation in Manhattan — Glacéau, the makers of Vitaminwater — split $4.1 billion last year after Coca-Cola bought it.
“Bust my hump and get some equity in the company,” Mr. Margulies explained. “That’s what we are all here for.”
Guru, which is already selling in Canada, is trying to crack the New York market by zipping around the city in electric minicars painted like Guru cans and hiring cheerful, attractive young women to offer samples at convenience stores, health clubs, supermarkets and delis.
But most of all, it is relying on the skills of salesmen like Mr. Margulies, who in three months on the job has received a quick education on how to win coveted shelf space in beverage cases around the city. It requires a gift for schmoozing, a comfortable pair of shoes and armorlike skin.
The nonalcoholic beverage market, in New York City and elsewhere, is tough. For decades, it was dominated by the soft-drink giants Coke and Pepsi, with a few other brands scrambling for the leftovers.
An enormous variety of drinks, a hundred or more even in small delis, have picked up the slack. And energy drinks, where Guru believes it has found an opening offering products with all natural and organic ingredients.
The explosion of new beverages has been marked by stories of regular folks who started small and made it big with a new drink that they hustled to local stores. Three New York friends created Snapple, which was sold to Quaker Oats Company in 1994 for $1.7 billion. Arizona tea was mixed up by a couple of Brooklynites who first tried flavored seltzer and malt liquor.
Glacéau’s Vitaminwater was the brainchild of J. Darius Bikoff, who insisted on selling his vitamin-spiked flavored water beside regular bottled water rather than in the soda section.
The four founders of Guru Beverage have a pretty good story, too. But the ending remains far from certain. While creating a drink in a blender and finding a bottler is relatively easy and inexpensive, making it a successful brand is difficult.
“Frankly, some of it is luck,” said Gary Hemphill, managing director of the Beverage Marketing Corporation. “Being at the right place with the right product at the right time.”
Bankrolled by the founders’ savings accounts, the company sold its first can of Guru at a small deli in Montreal in 2000. By the end of the first year of production, nearly one million cans had been sold, mostly in Montreal. By 2005, Guru was being sold throughout Canada, and the company was looking to sell in the United States. New York City was selected because it was the largest market, it was fairly similar to Montreal in terms of its many independent retailers
“If it doesn’t make it there, we would rather know up front rather than later,” Mr. Jolicoeur said. He said it was important for the company to prove to itself “that the Guru concept has legs.”
The company’s strategy in New York was similar to what worked in Montreal: trying to get the product into as many retail locations and company cafeterias as possible in a small area to create buzz, and then expanding.That kind of small-scale approach works to a point. But eventually you need to have a good distributor.
When he started, Mr. Goldman was driving cases of his tea around in a van, trying to persuade retail stores to try it. He realized that to gain any scale he needed a distributor who had a fleet of trucks and well-known relationships with retailers.
“You go into a store, and you’re asking a guy to take a brand on,” Mr. Goldman said. “Who are you? How are you going to get in there?” But if you are connected with an established distributor, he said, the relationship is already reputable.
Guru chose Exclusive Beverage as its distributor, hoping Guru would receive more attention with a smaller company...Steve Gress, Exclusive’s president, said his portfolio consisted of small start-ups like Guru. Asked what makes a hit, he said, “I wish I knew because I’d be a lot better off.”
Mr. Gress credited Guru as being “very hands-on” and willing to listen to advice on how to succeed in New York. “You need the company support,” he said. “You need to get it in people’s hands and get them to try it.”
The company started selling its drinks downtown last July. It has advertised in The Village Voice and Time Out New York, sponsored art and fashion shows, and scooted around the city in its electric cars to promote the idea that the car and Guru offer “clean energy.”
David Kessler questioned whether Guru was distinctive enough to rise above the growing pack of beverage choices. “We’re marketing guys,” Mr. Kessler explained. “I don’t know if it’s differentiated enough to get my attention to say it’s really unique and I’ve got to have it.”
Mr. Kessler’s comments crystallize the challenge for Guru’s salesmen, who must convince the managers of company cafeterias and health clubs, vitamin stores and bodegas that they must have Guru on their shelves. “There are so many drinks out there,” Mr. Margulies said. “The only niche we have to play off is that it’s an all-natural product.”
Yet Mr. Margulies exhibits considerable skill as a salesman. “The product is the product, but if you don’t sell yourself it makes no difference,” said Mr. Margulies, a Long Island native who is newly married. “You’ve got to make an impression in the first five minutes or you are done.”
Social Media Campaigns Have No Flight Dates
Superb insight courtesy of Joe Marchese at Online Spin!
Social Media Campaigns Have No Flight Dates
By Joe Marchese
Social Media Campaigns Have No Flight Dates
By Joe Marchese
Your social media campaign is always on -- like it or not. The only question is whether you are paying attention or not. Marketing Daily's Sarah Mahoney does a great job of highlighting the key findings of a study by OneUpWeb in her piece "Social Media Marketing's Disease: No Follow-Through." The finding that social media efforts positively influenced sales, while vastly underappreciated, is not the study's most interesting finding. I would instead direct marketers' attention to the rapid loss of return on social media efforts as those efforts lose support.
I know it doesn't sound surprising (please hold your calls to the Harvard Business Review). But what if someone told you that you might NEVER see a positive return on social media efforts without consistent monitoring and management, forgetting the traditional notion of campaign start and end dates. Effective social media campaigns incorporate community creation and communication. They incorporate various forms of B2C communication and dialogue, as well as enablement and monitoring of C2C communication. All this means that the creation of social media campaigns can require a significantly larger outlay of resources and patience upfront, while not returning in the typical time frame (re: in time to see how these efforts impacted this quarter's results).
This is because you don't "launch" a social media campaign. You begin a social media effort. You don't just create a campaign message for social media distribution; you test various messages and enable a dialogue with those people who will carry your message. This adds up to a greater upfront cost without seeing the typical returns associated with marketing spend. You never had to test messages so that they would get media distribution, you just bought media distribution and your message of choice reached its intended audience (but then again you've never been able to watch media distribution to determine message effectiveness or find a product enhancement -- these required separate efforts).
What this means is that abandoning a social media effort that has any traction is like rolling a gigantic bolder up a hill, then, once you get to (almost) flat land, giving up and letting the bolder roll back down the hill. Looking back on the exercise, it is easy to conclude that you did not see the return on the effort it took to get the bolder up the hill, because it's the ongoing return on maintaining the social media effort that shows far greater return on effort. But once you have found the mix that gets your social media momentum going, it's much easier to recognize a positive ROI on social media efforts, even if you are considering marketing objectives in a vacuum and ignore the potential for social media to provide brand and product feedback
Monday, February 11, 2008
Out of the Mouths of Babes-Email Marketing
Having just executed 3 different (list-based) email marketing campaigns on behalf of a consumer product company with a line of kid friendly, alcohol free hand sanitizers--I'd argue that the age of email marketing is dead and kapoot.
The emails were nicely designed, the subject field(s) were compelling, and the call to action shout outs were green-lighted by 4 unrelated email marketing advisors that received no compensation for their pre-launch opinion.
We sent out at 'best day of the week (tues and thurs), we provided tools that would encourage referrals (we included testimonials and discount coupons). Although the last of the 3 campaigns yielded somewhat better results than the first two, the overall results were abysmal.
With that said, Marc Lore, CEO of Diapers.com has demonstrated that email marketing can work--as long as it conforms to the discipline of leveraging lists that are acquired in-house--NOT acquired lists. And there are necessarily certain nuances to keep in mind. Attached article is from May, Marc was profiled in today's NY Times business section
The emails were nicely designed, the subject field(s) were compelling, and the call to action shout outs were green-lighted by 4 unrelated email marketing advisors that received no compensation for their pre-launch opinion.
We sent out at 'best day of the week (tues and thurs), we provided tools that would encourage referrals (we included testimonials and discount coupons). Although the last of the 3 campaigns yielded somewhat better results than the first two, the overall results were abysmal.
With that said, Marc Lore, CEO of Diapers.com has demonstrated that email marketing can work--as long as it conforms to the discipline of leveraging lists that are acquired in-house--NOT acquired lists. And there are necessarily certain nuances to keep in mind. Attached article is from May, Marc was profiled in today's NY Times business section
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Generation MySpace Is Getting Fed Up
BW's Spencer Ante and Catherine Holahan are the most recent media experts to observe what we pointed out back in December, and that advertising performance (clicks, purchases etc) is a fraction of what advertisers hoped, and that ad revenue projections for social networking sites are proving grossly over optimistic.
It doesn't take a social scientist to know that the value of a social networking site is predicated exclusively on the loyalty of its members--and obviously its that loyalty which inspires the aggregate traffic counts for the platform.
Facebook has quite the track record for introducing innovative ideas, but at the same time, they've imposed these innovations without asking the most important people if they would support it--and they've never invited them to participate in the enterprise value that these members created for its founder. And on more than one occasion, the members rioted , causing Facebook to lose face and retreat. God forbid they should actually conduct member surveys before introducing major releases.
In the case of advertising, this weeks BW article shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone i.e. the that social networking sites are proving to be grossly overrated insofar as a vehicle for advertisers, or as the next gold mine for those looking to make billions in advertising revenue.
We already know that the return on investment i.e. CPM based banners has been diminishing more rapidly than the value of subprime mortgage debt. That's why pay for performance (i.e. PPC and CPC applications are the bread and butter to Google's bottom line. But with that said, the actual # of clicks vs. impressions will always remain insignificant. But Google's Adsense program is exactly the type of application that should be introduced to social networking sites.
Why an advertiser would think that advertising on a social network site would be a panacea merely demonstrates how little most advertisers know about peer-to-peer marketing---and the BW article points that out.
Members on a social network go the site to communicate with other members, not to be inundanted with 3rd banner ads.. They don't click those ads when they're actually surfing the net, so they aren't about to click them within what is supposed to be a 'protected comfort zone'.
Yes, marketers know that products are best promoted via influencers--and a social networking site is by definition, a hotbed of influencers. But unless the member is doing the influencing, any third party advertising strategy is not only going to fail--its going to backfire--and negatively impact the loyalty of its members. Simple logic that any VC should understand before plucking down the next five cents of investor capital.
Facebook claims that allowing its members to advertise products of their own choosing on their own profiles wil make the page 'too cluttered'. Instead, Facebook is imposing what ads display where, including scrolling across member profile pages. That's the equivalent of inserting billboards on the side of my house, without asking my permission, and the fact that I'm not even being offered a piece of the ad revenue is almost incomprehensible.
My 22 year old is a senior in college--and I've polled her, along with two dozen of her peeps. They're all ready to graduate, and to leave Facebook behind them, for the simple reasons noted herein. With that said, if there is going to be ads on the platform, it only makes sense that individual members could select "My Favorite Stuff" and be allowed to maintain their own proprietary 'billboards'--and share in the revenue accordingly.
Out of the mouths of babes.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Have you been Phished? Has Your Identity Been Stolen?
Identity thefts due to on-line phishing continues to be a massive problem. Despite both low tech and high tech security strategies introduced by online payment vendors, credit card companies and banks, there still remain 'holes' that attackers can penetrate. These are often referred to as "Man-In-The Middle (MITM) and "Man-In-The Browser" attacks.
Consumers can't really protect against many of these types of incidences-hackers have a variety of ways to perpetrate your PC and lift your info--the most common of course is sending you an email that appears to be from your bank, from PayPal or from Amazon. Even the most experienced computer industry execs have been tricked into clicking on those links and supplying 'correct billing info".
We've just heard about KeyID, a new company that has come up with a very interesting solution that banks and credit card companies can integrate into their systems and otherwise add a completely new level of protection for their customers... We'll keep you updated as we hear more about KeyID !
Consumers can't really protect against many of these types of incidences-hackers have a variety of ways to perpetrate your PC and lift your info--the most common of course is sending you an email that appears to be from your bank, from PayPal or from Amazon. Even the most experienced computer industry execs have been tricked into clicking on those links and supplying 'correct billing info".
We've just heard about KeyID, a new company that has come up with a very interesting solution that banks and credit card companies can integrate into their systems and otherwise add a completely new level of protection for their customers... We'll keep you updated as we hear more about KeyID !
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Marketing and the Presidential Campaign
For those following my musings, you'll know that I have a tendency to be acerbic--but I try to stay away from political opining--and leave that to Bill Maher and Rupert Murdoch's Bill OReilly--as I don't need to risk potential consulting clients to be offended by my personal political viewpoints.
With that said, the current Presidential campaign, and particularly Mike Huckabee's comments today suggesting that his God supercedes the US Constitution has ignited my need to opine.
Have we gone so far off the path of common reason that more than 100 responsible, educated people would even consider voting for someone that suggests that religous beliefs should supercede the US Constitution. When and if the US Govt gives me back the right to vote, the odds of my voting Republican are pretty close to zilch, but if I had to choose, Ron Paul would be my fav.
I chuckled when I saw Huckabee's "Christmas" ad--but today's salvo compelled me to reach for Alka-Seltzer.. Is this guy a total lunatic?
Sure--I'm an east coast, quasi liberal. Harry Truman was my Dad's favorite President. But I can be a switch hitter--as I truly believe that party affiliation is less important than the personal perspectives of the top gun with his finger on the button.
I will always believe that Jack Kennedy was an inspiration for his and generations yet to come, that Ronald Reagan was a lousy screen actor, but smart enough to surround himself with very smart people; that Gerald Ford might have tripped on stairs--but he was a true American hero--that Jimmy Carter was the second worst President of the last 30 years--George W winning the trophy for that title--and that Obama should have changed his name if he wanted to be a serious consideration.
My fav would be Mike Bloomberg (notwithstanding his being a meglomaniac of sorts)--but alas, this country isn't ready to elect a Jewish person to the highest office--and its becoming ever more doubtful that we're mature enough to elect a woman or a person of color.
Lesson to be learned--any worthwhile contender for the highest political office necessarily needs to be politically astute--and his/her "message" will have to be re-engineered/tweaked to appeal to the targeted audience. The risk in overtweaking--or posturing a message that is so obviously designed to 'sell' one particular audience, and then changing it the next day to appeal to another audience is one that few people can afford to take. And right now, none of the candidates have demonstrated the ability to manage that kind of risk. There's a guy named Putin looking for a job--his posture is more appealing than Huckabee's. Mike-time for you to bow out and leave it to Mitch and John to duke it out. Sorry Rudy-you were never a realistic choice, and I'm a New Yorker that lost 10 good friends in the WTC on 9-11.
With that said, the current Presidential campaign, and particularly Mike Huckabee's comments today suggesting that his God supercedes the US Constitution has ignited my need to opine.
Have we gone so far off the path of common reason that more than 100 responsible, educated people would even consider voting for someone that suggests that religous beliefs should supercede the US Constitution. When and if the US Govt gives me back the right to vote, the odds of my voting Republican are pretty close to zilch, but if I had to choose, Ron Paul would be my fav.
I chuckled when I saw Huckabee's "Christmas" ad--but today's salvo compelled me to reach for Alka-Seltzer.. Is this guy a total lunatic?
Sure--I'm an east coast, quasi liberal. Harry Truman was my Dad's favorite President. But I can be a switch hitter--as I truly believe that party affiliation is less important than the personal perspectives of the top gun with his finger on the button.
I will always believe that Jack Kennedy was an inspiration for his and generations yet to come, that Ronald Reagan was a lousy screen actor, but smart enough to surround himself with very smart people; that Gerald Ford might have tripped on stairs--but he was a true American hero--that Jimmy Carter was the second worst President of the last 30 years--George W winning the trophy for that title--and that Obama should have changed his name if he wanted to be a serious consideration.
My fav would be Mike Bloomberg (notwithstanding his being a meglomaniac of sorts)--but alas, this country isn't ready to elect a Jewish person to the highest office--and its becoming ever more doubtful that we're mature enough to elect a woman or a person of color.
Lesson to be learned--any worthwhile contender for the highest political office necessarily needs to be politically astute--and his/her "message" will have to be re-engineered/tweaked to appeal to the targeted audience. The risk in overtweaking--or posturing a message that is so obviously designed to 'sell' one particular audience, and then changing it the next day to appeal to another audience is one that few people can afford to take. And right now, none of the candidates have demonstrated the ability to manage that kind of risk. There's a guy named Putin looking for a job--his posture is more appealing than Huckabee's. Mike-time for you to bow out and leave it to Mitch and John to duke it out. Sorry Rudy-you were never a realistic choice, and I'm a New Yorker that lost 10 good friends in the WTC on 9-11.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Cornel Bucks Privacy Concern-Stands Out in Outing Troubled Students
Let's give a round of applause to Cornell University--and their innovative approach to making sure that troubled (and potentially suicidal students) are under constant watch--and when even the slightest hints of danger are displayed, parents are the first to be called. This is a philosphy that every single school in teh country should be taking--as opposed to nambsy pamsy fear of violation of privacy laws---and in fact--universities that incorporate programs similar to Cornell's should be receiving federal grants--and those that don't should be losing their federal grants .
There. I said it... Ron Paul---are you listening?
There. I said it... Ron Paul---are you listening?
Buffet To Start Bond Insurer--Marketing Coup By Branding Genius
Warren Buffet only gets better with age.. And the stock price for Berkshire is miles higher than any other company--not only because it trades at $135,000 per share--but because Warren is uniquely masterful at identifying opportunities and leveraging the power of brand integrity.
Seizing the moment-Buffet is launching a municipal bond insurer--in a time when every other competitor is on the ropes as a result of investments in mortgage debt---he's starting with a totally clean slate, an over capitalized balance sheet, and the integrity of the Berkshire brand. Our bet is that in two years, this new company will be bigger than Ambac and MBIA combined.
Seizing the moment-Buffet is launching a municipal bond insurer--in a time when every other competitor is on the ropes as a result of investments in mortgage debt---he's starting with a totally clean slate, an over capitalized balance sheet, and the integrity of the Berkshire brand. Our bet is that in two years, this new company will be bigger than Ambac and MBIA combined.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Are Your Clients Happy-A Positive PR Agent Story
Todd Brabender--PR Pitcher of the Year Scores a front page WSJ profile of himself--with examples of how he succeeds for clients where most others fail. His rate of $2500/mo is likely to going to increase thanks to his own profile, it reads like he's someone that should be considered.
That tells me that not every PR agent should be pooh-poohed.
That tells me that not every PR agent should be pooh-poohed.
Paying For PR-But Only When It Works?
If you missed the Dec 17 WSJ Small Business section, or don't have an online subscription, below is a snapshot of the challenges faced by Cynthia McKay, CEO of Le Gourmet Gift Baskets.
After expensive and unsatisfying experiences dealing with retainer-based PR firms that were expected to generate buzz with media outlets, Cynthia ultimately opted for an agency that only charges for actual media mentions. Its an interesting approach--paying only for performance. McKay says that this model has generated great coverage, which in turn has sparked a big increase in sales.
We always like to believe that you get what you for, and unfortunately, too many think that a PR firm that imposes a hefty retainer falls into that category.
Our advice: If you have the passion for your product, and you're comfortable putting on a sales hat--try the old adage :"If you want to do something right , do it yourself." There are certainly some exceptions..as noted in the above anecdote from the front page of WSJ Dec 19 edition... (Hey Rupert---hope you don't mind that I keep on referencing your publication!)
After expensive and unsatisfying experiences dealing with retainer-based PR firms that were expected to generate buzz with media outlets, Cynthia ultimately opted for an agency that only charges for actual media mentions. Its an interesting approach--paying only for performance. McKay says that this model has generated great coverage, which in turn has sparked a big increase in sales.
We always like to believe that you get what you for, and unfortunately, too many think that a PR firm that imposes a hefty retainer falls into that category.
Our advice: If you have the passion for your product, and you're comfortable putting on a sales hat--try the old adage :"If you want to do something right , do it yourself." There are certainly some exceptions..as noted in the above anecdote from the front page of WSJ Dec 19 edition... (Hey Rupert---hope you don't mind that I keep on referencing your publication!)
The Situation: After years of trying different public-relations approaches with mixed success, Le Gourmet Gift Basket settled on a pay-per-placement program.
How It Works: CEO Cynthia McKay paid a PR agent an initial fee of $1,000. After that, she pays only when her firm gets a mention in a media outlet.
What It Lacks: Pay-per-placement firms usually just pitch a story and don't offer other services like strategy development.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Facebook: Hubris Leads to Egg on Face
Last week we posted a note sent to Facebook's head of advertising encouraging her to embrace a program that allows its community to share in the ad revenue that their eyeyballs are otherwise responsible for. The simple application would include a small box on the students' (or now everyone else allowed to be a member) home page with a "my favorite stuff"--and display links to advertisers that they want to endorse. It could work in a similar manner as the Commission Junction platform.
As a Dad with a college senior in house, I posed the idea to my offspring and her peeps, and they all thought it was a good idea--after all, it could be a source of income, however small it might amount to.
Lo and behold, I was unaware of a company called Weblo--which is apparently one of the hundreds of software companies that are taking up Facebook's "open architecture" invitation to introduce their applications to the Facebook community.
Per today's NY TImes- "Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer has said Facebook does not allow users to sell ads because Facebook does not want user's profile pages to become cluttered"
That's the wrong response, just like it was the wrong approach to allow Beacon to publicize users activity without getting their permission.
Weblo's CEO has it right : Rocky Mirza says that people should be able to sell space on their pages on Facebook (and a variety of other sites like MySpace and YouTube) because they are the content creators on those sites. Facebook would have no content if not for its users, he said, which makes it different from media organizations, for example, that have content because they pay reporters.
As a Dad with a college senior in house, I posed the idea to my offspring and her peeps, and they all thought it was a good idea--after all, it could be a source of income, however small it might amount to.
Lo and behold, I was unaware of a company called Weblo--which is apparently one of the hundreds of software companies that are taking up Facebook's "open architecture" invitation to introduce their applications to the Facebook community.
Per today's NY TImes- "Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer has said Facebook does not allow users to sell ads because Facebook does not want user's profile pages to become cluttered"
That's the wrong response, just like it was the wrong approach to allow Beacon to publicize users activity without getting their permission.
Weblo's CEO has it right : Rocky Mirza says that people should be able to sell space on their pages on Facebook (and a variety of other sites like MySpace and YouTube) because they are the content creators on those sites. Facebook would have no content if not for its users, he said, which makes it different from media organizations, for example, that have content because they pay reporters.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Short Life for Chief Marketing Officers
Latest edition of BusinessWeek merely profiles a job title that's been misinterpeted by too many for too long. David Kiley and Burt Helm's article points out that CMO's have typically been accountable for approving creative ads and managing the agency process, when in fact, its a job that's supposed to connect the tag line to the bottom line.
Now that metrics are the meter, it isn't any surprise that the average CMO is out of a job in 22 months. But..in all fairness, CEO's (and Boards) need to understand that re-engineering, re-branding and revitalizing sales are complex processes.
Now that metrics are the meter, it isn't any surprise that the average CMO is out of a job in 22 months. But..in all fairness, CEO's (and Boards) need to understand that re-engineering, re-branding and revitalizing sales are complex processes.
Monday, November 26, 2007
WSJ Report: How to use video to expand your business in a YouTube world
At the risk of violating WSJ rules re: republishing their content (when Rupert introduces the all FREE access to WSJ online, I'd simply incorporate a link to this great article)--below is a great follow up to an observation we were proud to make last month--how to leverage YouTube and drive traffic and generate SALES for your product
Managing Technology
![[getting the message chart]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/SM-AA173B_VIDEO_20071123160216.gif)
Managing Technology
Lights! Camera! Sales!
How to use video to expand your business in a YouTube world
By RAYMUND FLANDEZ
November 26, 2007; Page R3
November 26, 2007; Page R3
Online video has become a daily fix for millions of people. Now entrepreneurs are starting to cash in on that obsession.
Consider Valentina Trevino. The 29-year-old Chicago artist and filmmaker regularly posts videos on YouTube1, showing how she created a painting and what it means to her -- and musing quirkily on a host of matters. In one clip, she ruminates about the strange connection between the ballerinas in Edgar Degas's art and Britney Spears's custody battles.
The unorthodox formula has brought her a total of 8.2 million views on YouTube -- and, just as important, a host of buyers. At the end of her clips, Ms. Trevino includes a link to eBay, where viewers can buy the featured piece. (See an example.11) So far, she has sold every painting she has offered this way -- 49 at last count -- at prices ranging lately from $500 to $1,000 each. She also sells prints of her work and merchandise bearing the images and her slogan, "Eat Your Cookies." Before she started the YouTube diary, she says, she had to give up painting to pay the bills. Now it brings her a regular income.
A host of small businesses are trying this new twist on Web promotion, sending short films to Google Inc.'s YouTube and other popular video sites, advertising everything from root beer to blenders to bullet-resistant backpacks. For one thing, it's hard to beat the price: It costs nothing to put something on a video-sharing site, unlike buying television time or a regular Internet ad. And the videos let companies use a creative and personal touch that wouldn't work in traditional ads.
"It's so different than the message-driven approach to marketing that most kinds of advertising is," says David Meerman Scott, author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR." "You don't have to talk about your product per se. You can just have fun with it."
But that leaves some big questions for companies that want to try their hand at videos. How does a small business thrive in a YouTube world? What makes some videos skyrocket in viewership and others bomb? Are there guiding principles that will produce a bankable ad?
Many entrepreneurs say luck or timing had at least something to do with their success. But a closer look at their stories reveals valuable lessons that any small business can apply. Here, then, are some of the most successful small-business videos, and the factors that took them to the top.
BLENDTEC: BE FUNNY
By far, the most common element among successful videos is comedy. Rather than offering airless advertisements or canned commercial messages, these videos deliver laughs as well as pitching a product.
Case in point: Blendtec, a division of K-TEC Inc., of Orem, Utah. In the past year, the high-end blender maker has drawn more than 60 million views for its "Will It Blend?" video series12. The premise is simple. A laconic host, Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson, uses the company's blenders to grind up everything from credit cards to golf clubs to an iPhone. Cheesy music plays in the background, and cheesy jokes fly freely.
George Wright, Blendtec's director of marketing, says the series got started with a simple observation. He realized that Mr. Dickson tested his blenders by putting 2x2 boards inside and letting them rip. (See a video.13)
Retail sales of the blenders have shot up 500% since the company started the series last year. This year, total sales are projected to top $40 million. And the series has brought Blendtec tremendous name recognition. When employees demonstrate the products at big-box retailers, people come out and say, " 'That's the blender that can blend marbles!' " says Mr. Wright. "Before that, [employees] were having to introduce the company."
The videos have also brought some new opportunities. Earlier this year, Novell Inc., a Waltham, Mass., provider of open-source software and services, paid Blendtec about $5,000 to do a "Will It Blend?" video for a company event. In the movie, a number of items got blended: a Microsoft Vista CD, razor blades, a stuffed animal, a flash drive and a Red Bull beverage.
"We thought this would be something fun for our customer base," says Russ Dastrup, Novell's corporate videographer. The message? "Novell Technology allows you to blend a variety of operating systems and applications into a seamless network," Mr. Dastrup says.
MJ SAFETY SOLUTIONS: TAP INTO CURRENT EVENTS
At first glance, "My Child's Pack" breaks all the rules of online video. It isn't funny or entertaining -- in fact, it's downright somber. But it has gotten nearly 25,000 hits on YouTube since early August because of its timely message.
![[See shots of video]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/SM-AA178_VIDEOS_20071125203832.gif) |
| GOING VIRAL A Valentina Trevino work in progress; MJ Safety Solutions' backpack |
The video begins with a startling statistic: "328 school shooting incidents with injury or death in North America since Columbine." It segues into photographs and news clips of the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings. Then comes the pitch: a bullet-resistant backpack from MJ Safety Solutions LLC, of Danvers, Mass. (See the video.14)
Co-founder Joe Curran, a carpenter for a construction company, says the company has sold 1,000 backpacks, at $175 each, since the video was released. He says the company has also received hundreds of thank-you letters from concerned parents, and a local police officer has started buying the backpacks for his grandchildren.
The seed for MJ Safety was planted in 1999, in the wake of the Columbine shootings. Mr. Curran and the other founder, Mike Pelonzi, started talking about their own kids and how ineffective their school policy would be in the event of a shooting. They decided that there was a need for "products out there to protect children in that situation," says Mr. Pelonzi.
This summer, when the backpack was finally ready for release, the Boston Herald planned to publish an article about it. The co-founders knew that a visual demonstration would help, so they cribbed together a short video with the help of family and employees. Toward the end of the clip, Mr. Curran's 13-year-old daughter, Amanda, gamely smiles as she holds up the backpack to shield her head and chest.
The Boston Herald provided a link to the YouTube video, and the groundswell started. "In reality, we're just concerned dads," Mr. Curran says. "We're not business marketing geniuses. It just happened that way."
ALL NATURAL MAINE ROOT: FIND A PARTNER
Most small businesses don't have the resources for an in-house video-production staff. So, finding a partner such as an advertising agency can help get a video campaign off the ground or spiff up a lackluster idea.
But there are a couple of caveats. This option may end up costing thousands of dollars -- a significant payout for most entrepreneurs, and a lot more than most companies spend on promotional videos. It's also crucial for companies to shop around for the right partner. The videos will turn out better if the ad agency understands the small business well and plays to its strengths.
For instance, back in 2005 All Natural Maine Root LLC, an organic-soda maker in Scarborough, Maine, was looking to boost sales but had scant resources for a marketing campaign. It found a good partner in Door Number 3 Inc. of Austin, Texas. The ad agency liked the product and clicked with the company's founders, Mark and Matt Seiler. And the agency saw the chance to do a campaign that would showcase its own creative abilities.
That led Door Number 3 to give the soda makers a big break on price. Maine Root paid about $20,000 for the campaign, but the campaign could have easily cost between $75,000 and $150,000, says Mary Pat Mueller, president of Door Number 3.
The two companies decided the best approach to the videos was comedy. "The key to a successful viral video campaign is to make people laugh," Ms. Mueller says. "That way, they'll want to pass it on -- and, that way, they'll look like the hero and the deliverer of the entertainment."
The concept also fit the Seiler brothers' personalities. "Their sense of humor is their brand," Ms. Mueller says. "If you meet them at tastings, they're outgoing, they're always joking."
Together, the two firms came up with a premise for the campaign: mock exposés about soda. Root-beer activists pull off a late-night break-in at a corporate root-beer facility to free Maine Root soda bottles from the Director of Fructose Injection. A "Sugarcane Shuffle" rapper riffs about how "I like my root beer all natural / cause sugarcane is all my tongue will allow / All the others just taste like puppy chow / So Maine Root just stand and take a bow...."
Door Number 3 sent the videos to several sites, including YouTube15, stupidvideos.com16, ifilm.com17, purevideo.com18 and tvlinks.com19; it also created a dedicated site for the clips, freerangerootbeer.com20. To spread the word, the agency contacted popular root-beer and soda blogs. Major media outlets, such as CNBC and CBS's "Early Show," also picked up on the story.
The results have been dramatic. Before the campaign began last fall, Maine Root averaged about $500,000 a year in retail sales. So far this year, sales have soared to more than $3 million. "Door Number 3 played a huge part in our success," says Mark Seiler, Maine Root's co-founder. "They kind of took a chance on us. And I think it really worked."
MAKE MAGAZINE: BE USEFUL
Entertainment value helps a video succeed. But that isn't the only approach that works. Some small businesses have carved out a lucrative niche by giving viewers information they can use.
Consider Make magazine, a guide for do-it-yourselfers. Published by O'Reilly Media Inc. of Sebastopol, Calif., the magazine produces weekly how-to videos for a host of projects -- everything from making your own catapult to creating a cigar-box banjo.
The clips average about a million views a month on iTunes, Blip.tv21 and YouTube. (The most popular: a guide to screen-printing T-shirts.) The videos have also brought in lots of business. For instance, attendance has ballooned at an annual convention sponsored by Make, and the magazine sees dozens of new subscriptions every month. (See some examples.22)
"How-to videos are one of those things that lasts, that have a shelf life," says Phillip Torrone, senior editor at Make. "It's not like a YouTube video that's a 30-second funny thing. It might be something that they can watch over and over again."
Of course, entertainment value is still important, even if it isn't the main focus of the videos. For instance, Make realized it would need a charismatic host to make the clips lively. Mr. Torrone discovered Bre Pettis, an art teacher from Seattle who had been videoblogging about his students' art projects. Mr. Pettis, Mr. Torrone says, was like Mr. Rogers, Mr. Wizard and Bill Nye "The Science Guy" rolled into one.
Make's publisher, Dale Dougherty, agreed to bring Mr. Pettis on board in early 2006 -- after seeing a video of Mr. Pettis accidentally harpooning his cellphone. "There was a bad-boy kind of thing that I liked about it," Mr. Dougherty says. "It wasn't boring."
Mr. Pettis, jokes Mr. Torrone, "has been voiding the warranty of electronics ever since."
The 35-year-old Mr. Pettis, who now lives in New York, posts a video each Friday. In general, he spends one or two days on research and two days filming. He then takes a day or two to edit the video and write up a PDF with detailed instructions for viewers. "It's what I love to do," says Mr. Pettis. "It's my passion, making things and being creative and supporting others' creativity."
MOE'S SOUTHWEST GRILL: GET YOUR CUSTOMERS INVOLVED
There's one simple way to sidestep all of the complications of creating a video: get customers to do the work. Big companies have famously solicited user-made ads, including McDonald's Corp. and Domino's Pizza Inc. Now small firms are learning the value of the strategy.
Last year, Moe's Southwest Grill of Atlanta started a "Burrito in Every Hand" campaign, encouraging customers to send in 30-second videos about the food. The clips were posted on a Web site, where visitors could vote on them; the company reviewed the 20 highest-rated clips and picked a winner. (See the video.23) The grand prize: Moe's burritos for life, equal to 2,860 vouchers good at any participating Moe's franchise.
Moe's received about 40 submissions that met the guidelines, and the promotional Web site got 211,000 visitors. "We knew that our customers would really enjoy getting involved," says Sara Riggsby, director of marketing for Moe's, which is now owned by Atlanta-based Focus Brands Inc., the operator of Carvel and Cinnabon shops.
Ms. Riggsby says that the company has seen increased sales since the program ran. And Moe's achieved its goal of building brand awareness among younger customers: The majority of the participants were ages 18 to 25. The company's email marketing database also grew to 200,000.
The winners: four amateur rappers. Michael Squitieri, a 20-year-old acting major at Boston's Emerson College, wrote the script, and his friend Kevin Schwoer, 21, edited and put original music into the video. The group, which goes by the name "Notorious M.O.E. and Nacho Daddy," is now working on a radio commercial for Moe's.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Brilliant Idea For FaceBook To Give Back To The Kids That Made it a Multi-Billion Dollar Enterprise
Below was submitted to FaceBook Today.
To FaceBook's Head of Advertising
Dear Leah..I'm a Dad of a college student-and I'm in the marketing business..Given that its the universe of students that have made FaceBook a multi-billion dollar company--how about giving your community the opportunity to participate in your ad revenues...Real Simple--Let them sign up to post ads on their profile ..i.e. My Favorite Stuff....it can display a simple panel with text links leading to those ads.. You guys are charging advertisers like me a PPC cost--let them share in it!!..And help defray the cost of tuition!!..Sign up process can be just like Commission Junction--and you can give them a step by step process on how to sign up for PayPal (or other service) so that their piece of the earnings can be credited to their safe account. By the way..I'm going to post this idea to my blog www.marcomm201.blogspot.com and if you want to credit me with attribution for this idea, that would be very nice...
Jay Berkman www.jlcgroup.net
To FaceBook's Head of Advertising
Dear Leah..I'm a Dad of a college student-and I'm in the marketing business..Given that its the universe of students that have made FaceBook a multi-billion dollar company--how about giving your community the opportunity to participate in your ad revenues...Real Simple--Let them sign up to post ads on their profile ..i.e. My Favorite Stuff....it can display a simple panel with text links leading to those ads.. You guys are charging advertisers like me a PPC cost--let them share in it!!..And help defray the cost of tuition!!..Sign up process can be just like Commission Junction--and you can give them a step by step process on how to sign up for PayPal (or other service) so that their piece of the earnings can be credited to their safe account. By the way..I'm going to post this idea to my blog www.marcomm201.blogspot.com and if you want to credit me with attribution for this idea, that would be very nice...
Jay Berkman www.jlcgroup.net
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Tips on Becoming a Web Video Legend in Your Spare Time
We've been pounding the table for longer than we can remember i.e. the power of sight and sound--and the relevance of video messages delivered via the Net. Always ahead of our time, YouTube has demonstrated that 15 seconds of fame can belong to anyone, but those 15 seconds can now be extended indefinitely and transcend every border.
Lee Gomes from the Wall St. Journal was kind enough to assemble a list of tips from experts in this new realm. Top of the list:
Understand the dynamics of the medium and the nature of our audience.
What does that mean? You've got to hook your viewer in the first 15 seconds.
Other insights- pushing as many demographic buttons as possible; tenacity and self confidence is equally impolrtant---and one guru insists that you need to leave your viewer guessing.
Lee Gomes from the Wall St. Journal was kind enough to assemble a list of tips from experts in this new realm. Top of the list:
Understand the dynamics of the medium and the nature of our audience.
What does that mean? You've got to hook your viewer in the first 15 seconds.
Other insights- pushing as many demographic buttons as possible; tenacity and self confidence is equally impolrtant---and one guru insists that you need to leave your viewer guessing.
Endearing Marketing: Adiri
One simple, time-tested rule for entrepeneurs to follow: passion, determination and a good idea can be all that's needed to succeed.
Case in point, as profiled in today's NY Times Small Business section, is the story of former Yahoo! executive that gave up a career to salvage her Dad's idea--a baby bottle designed to have the same characteristics in form and function as the most natural delivery mechanism for feeding a new born infant: a mother's breast.
A classic entrepeneurial story-little working capital, the kitchen table serving as the corporate office and a cadre of equally passionate staff drawing no salary and working from cubicles in their respective residences, Jennifer Morrill has taken a blue print of her Dad's idea and transformed it into a consumer product that major retailers led by Toys R Us have embraced with open arms.
Now its a function of Adiri scaling up in order to meet demand for the product, including focusing in on logistics, cost efficiencies, and manufacturing. We love this story--and are cheering from the stands for these gals! And we have every confidence that we'll be reading about them again in the NY Times Business section-and we expect the follow-up story will be about their being acquired by J&J, or another consumer product company.
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