tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-99063142024-03-13T23:19:54.891-04:00Marketing Guy 2.0Commentary on marketing, ebusiness, commercial communication, media, web development and whatever else is fit or at least fits.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-46215992669255546262009-06-16T20:23:00.004-04:002009-06-16T20:41:34.238-04:00You Talking To Me?The hundreds of millions of computer users who visit websites every day do so through a web browser. Since the first publicly released browser, Mosaic, in 1991, there have been a few contenders and many also-rans. Browsers have improved and certainly gotten more features.<br /><br />The current market leader is still Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but it has been losing share to its chief rival Firefox. These days all browsers are free for the downloading, but do we need another one? How often have you awoken in the middle of the night, worried that your browser may be suboptimal? Google seems to think so and last year launched its <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome" target="_blank">Chrome</a> browser.<br /><br />Google’s marketing support for Chrome has consisted primarily of quirky short videos on a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/googlechrome" target="_blank">channel</a> of its popular YouTube portal. Google has extended its advertising to independent properties such as LinkedIn and plans to run ads on TV (via its own <a href="http://www.google.com/adwords/tvads/#" target="_blank">AdWords</a> system, of course).<br /><br />These ads, which can resemble <a href="http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/04/11-short-films-about-browser.html" target="_blank">mini film festivals</a>, finesse the venerable debate about features versus benefits by ignoring both. This is a campaign targeting early adapters. The message is neither emotional nor rational but, simply tries to associate coolness with the product. These short bursts of creativity evoke the feeling of an independent film competition. If viewers already understand and care about browser issues they may get it; if not it’s interesting eye candy. This if fine if appealing to a niche, but browsers are mass market products.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieqscYOxp_I09hXS5hyphenhyphenfadHNoLUh1OqGwfz09OIzJa7M4NnOAJMy4QSXPYanMDQGMZTnkMTXbAtZ1V9gczMi4OkrVqZWWLImQWi8_Rswl4HweRGKT07ImDbhbhMLTMPhWcB5y8Lw/s1600-h/browsershares.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 372px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieqscYOxp_I09hXS5hyphenhyphenfadHNoLUh1OqGwfz09OIzJa7M4NnOAJMy4QSXPYanMDQGMZTnkMTXbAtZ1V9gczMi4OkrVqZWWLImQWi8_Rswl4HweRGKT07ImDbhbhMLTMPhWcB5y8Lw/s400/browsershares.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348088263225841346" border="0" /></a><br /><p>To date, Chrome remains a footnote. According to data compiled by <a href="http://gs.statcounter.com/" target="_blank">Statcounter</a> Chrome has a market share of about 1.5%. Like many Google products, it may be forever in Beta (never formally released). The game is still early and there is no shortage of budding filmmakers with edgy ideas.</p> <p>Advances in computer browsers may be secondary to the main browser war - on the phone - where most of the world will be getting its Internet. Google also has an offering here - the Android browser.</p> <p>Android’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2FpDDEVWtk" target="_blank">YouTube promotion</a> is classic technology messaging - watch my benefits or sometimes features or sometimes the engineers who develop Android. Nothing artsy here. This is a market strategically important to Google.</p> <p>Do you need a new computer browser? Tough to tell based on Google’s marketing, but you might find Chrome’s half minute spot diverting.</p><br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SHZFsJKlsuA&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SHZFsJKlsuA&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-39415583183519048632009-05-20T15:04:00.002-04:002009-05-20T15:10:04.045-04:00This Blog Has MovedThis blog, Marketing Guy 2.0 has moved to a new home, <a href="http://blog.threshold-group.com">blog.threshold-group.com</a>. Please visit.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-18550493017449082572009-05-08T21:36:00.016-04:002009-05-09T14:49:01.512-04:00Running on Water or Just All Wet?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVAdYuEx4POpwN0dbGHVjQisAWiTrAqAyQ3NblV7HhG8CAdkJy1V0VWGLd1kdxkPOQiWL26mgjvDclkw7GQbz3_GLeUPisk1Pfr9ffHtbXaBtRDSRjMOBXSCL6WnkzavuW6HC7g/s1600-h/pumaRace.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVAdYuEx4POpwN0dbGHVjQisAWiTrAqAyQ3NblV7HhG8CAdkJy1V0VWGLd1kdxkPOQiWL26mgjvDclkw7GQbz3_GLeUPisk1Pfr9ffHtbXaBtRDSRjMOBXSCL6WnkzavuW6HC7g/s320/pumaRace.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333638420401996658" border="0" /></a><br />Sports shoe and apparel maker Puma has been making footware since 1924. Olympic champions from Jesse Owens in 1936 to Usain Bolt in 2008 have worn its running shoes while setting world records. Yet in the race for market share, it barely wins the bronze in shoes and finishes without a medal in apparel.<br /><br />What to do when competing in a crowded category during a worldwide recession? I could have imagined many initiatives from channel development to grass roots social networking to a basketball connection with a prominent amateur (think 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.).<br /><br />How about joining with a number of mostly money losing companies such as Volvo in a round the world <a href="http://www.volvooceanrace.org/" target="_blank"">sailing competition</a>. Apparently golf tournaments are not elitist enough. And the image portrayed in much of Puma's communication is closer to urban street kid.<br /><br />In each port its racing yacht visits, it will assemble a modular performance space/nightclub/bar with built in gear store called Puma City. Puma City even has its own <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pumacity" target="_blank"">Facebook page</a>. At a recent reception there, everyone seemed to be having a good time. Yet no one seemed to be patronizing the store.<br /><br />Puma does make deck shoes and foul weather jackets, but their sales contribute negligibly to overall revenue. The race has eleven ports of call, only one of which is in North America, namely Boston. It’s tough to see how this will develop the market.<br /><br />The race is being supported by mixed media ranging from subway placards and traditional PR in Boston to a suite of social media including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs. So far, it seems not to have a lot of traction or the internal logic of Puma’s running events and sports clinics.<br /><br />Is this yet another case of let’s spend the stockholders' money on what someone in management thinks might be fun or has a suppressed desire to try? Did someone in corporate marketing read <span style="font-style: italic;">Two Years Before The Mast</span>? Who needs ROI, when you've built the meanest looking racing yacht of the bunch?Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-60775423406212060912009-04-19T12:37:00.020-04:002009-04-19T16:32:37.609-04:00Preserve Us From The Uncool<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTmJwMXFGA8irlL5HjFrSosH3f8POooJxtiSHPCeIQtP_EwhsjQTZVWloo-mYOF9JTW_2T1crVioZJ_wK-2_v9njNvabkIndDViy2Q5aZgfl0gV9XWqdnQW9VEn7P8yeFJaZRQ-Q/s1600-h/twitter_uv.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 165px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTmJwMXFGA8irlL5HjFrSosH3f8POooJxtiSHPCeIQtP_EwhsjQTZVWloo-mYOF9JTW_2T1crVioZJ_wK-2_v9njNvabkIndDViy2Q5aZgfl0gV9XWqdnQW9VEn7P8yeFJaZRQ-Q/s400/twitter_uv.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326457670975858866" border="0" /></a><br />Twitter, the once esoteric microblogging utility has "crossed the chasm." It is now popular, if not yet mainstream.<br /><br />Consider:<br /><br />In case you missed it, last Friday, 17 April 2009, was "Twitter Day" on Oprah. And Oprah has shown she can move markets, if not mountains. Not only is she on Twitter, but at least for Twitter Day was<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M-h9c0frPg" target="_blank"> tweeting live </a>on her show. Oprah herself has in a few days gone from a standing start to over 300 thousand followers. If you want the current stats on the followers, visit her <a href="http://twitter.com/oprah" target="_blank">Twitter page</a> and see the block in the upper right corner.<br /><br />Actor Ashton Kutcher became the first to amass a <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/04/16/ashton-twitter-million/" target="_blank">million followers</a> on Twitter. This was not spontaneous. Rather it was the result of well orchestrated marketing campaign, including — you guessed it — Twitter.<br /><br />Many radio and TV shows accept or even solicit listener input via Twitter, while businesses and organizations are actively playing with it.<br /><br />During the presidential campaign of 2008, one Twitter account dominated all others. As you may have guessed this was Barack Obama’s. His campaign understood and applied social media better than any competing candidate. He currently has about 887 thousand followers.<br /><br />In these depressed times, meteoric success like Twitter's cheers me up - all the more so, because it was so improbable. Who’d a thunk it? Initially the experience of most Twitter users, and I include myself, was not love at first Tweet. Gradually, we found ways of making this lightweight utility pretty darn useful. Each of us did this in different ways with different constituencies.<br /><br />All is, however, not well in the Twittersphere. It is very likely that increased traffic will strain Twitter’s servers. There will be more temporary interruptions in service just as we had come to depend on Twitter.<br /><br />Among certain quarters, the objections are more profound and profoundly less rational. That is, by becoming popular, Twitter will loose the cachet it had by being esoteric, counterintuitive, or to many just plain weird. As in one of Yogi’s bon mot "it’s so crowded nobody goes there."<br /><ul><li>PR maven and Twitter user <a href="http://adage.com/article?article_id=135899" target="_blank">Steve Rubel</a> posits the decline of Twitter because the geeks, who were its first patrons, will desert it for the next cool thing.</li><li>Technology analyst <a href="http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/04/19/what-happens-when-twitter-gets-mainstream-attention/" target="_blank">Jeremiah Owyang</a>, expects a backlash as Twitter approaches mainstream.</li><li>While PC Magazine columnist <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2345445,00.asp">Lance Ulanoff</a> laments that “Oprah and Ashton will destroy Twitter."</li></ul>I don't think so. Email may be uncool, but it's not going away anytime soon. Most of those who joined Twitter only because of Oprah may drop out, unless she starts Tweeting messages relevant to them. Those who find it useful will stay, no matter how they first got there.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-68996995837375822762009-04-16T15:35:00.010-04:002009-04-17T17:11:21.992-04:00Social Networking Or Social Notworking?At a recent charity breakfast, the topic turned to social media such as Facebook and Twitter. My table mates were intelligent and accomplished people in a variety of careers. Their consensus was that they didn't get it and weren't sure they wanted to. They assumed that these had nothing to offer their professional or personal lives.<br /><br />Here is my take on why, whatever your cause or concern, you might want to consider using social media.<br /><br /><div style="width: 425px; text-align: left;" id="__ss_1257293"><a style="margin: 12px 0pt 3px; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; display: block; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/buechler/social-media-whats-in-it-for-me?type=powerpoint" title="Social Media - What's In It For Me">Social Media - What's In It For Me</a><object style="margin: 0px;" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=socialmedia-090406211908-phpapp02&stripped_title=social-media-whats-in-it-for-me"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=socialmedia-090406211908-phpapp02&stripped_title=social-media-whats-in-it-for-me" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></div>Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-48488641485940397382009-03-25T21:47:00.006-04:002009-03-26T19:19:07.176-04:00You Call This Service?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwOGFfxGbH_4eaQoR16MctV0YmWa8JwwTkHkrmuGs3e7A7JVuLmzr-vXEVMJeCxBomBbBr34Lg-XJpzVo3vrviMViV_obXLQ1U-r4vOvqNkmqetED4YDqEoeOzDqKb9JrX2V8GQ/s1600-h/package.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 80px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwOGFfxGbH_4eaQoR16MctV0YmWa8JwwTkHkrmuGs3e7A7JVuLmzr-vXEVMJeCxBomBbBr34Lg-XJpzVo3vrviMViV_obXLQ1U-r4vOvqNkmqetED4YDqEoeOzDqKb9JrX2V8GQ/s200/package.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317310180846568386" border="0" /></a><br />Business Week's 2009 <a href="http://tinyurl.com/bdvqp8" target="_blank">Customer Service Issue</a> (2/19/09) names Amazon.com as the customer service champ of the year.<br /><br />I’m a customer of Amazon and buy a couple of times a month through them. Still, they don’t come to mind when I hear the term "customer service." Theirs is a robotic business in which the delivery is, as much as they can make it, untouched by human hands or voices.<br /><br />Is this yet another case of "Less Is More." Does it illustrate the power of invisibility? Or is it yet another case of radically reduced expectations?<br /><br />Unlike a Nordstrom, LLBean, a good garage, favorite coffee shop, or the Apple store, there is no immediate experience of being served let alone well served.<br /><br />"Service" for Amazon is designing processes, which are both robust and comfortable for the customer. The goal is to create reliability and reduce cost there by delivering superior value. It also teaches shoppers and changes their behavior such that both their expectations and demands are different.<br /><br />An extended definition of service in Amazon's world might contain components such as:<br /><ul><li>Finding products – Here Amazon excels. Why don’t libraries allow you to find something so easily instead of merely automating the old fashioned card catalog?</li><li>Shipping – The availability of free shipping on many products could be thought of as part of the service. This is fine, yet arrival time is unpredictable.<br /></li><li>Recommendations – The knowledgeable store clerk is increasingly rare. Amazon does make suggestions on its home page. This seems to be based on my prior searches and misses the mark by a wide margin. Its customer reviews, which are a form of social networking, can be helpful. They are a feature not found when shopping in a physical store. Indeed the potential for Amazon customers to form community offers the intriguing potential for them to transform the shopping process.</li><li>Returns – Yes you can make them, but Amazon makes you hunt and click to find out how. The return policy is an adequate standard 30 days subject to conditions. Amazon does not facilitate this, presumably by design. It pales when compared to merchants, who guarantee satisfaction by taking returns, period.<br /></li><li>Conversation – you can exchange messages by email, chat and even phone by entering your number in a form and requesting a call back. If the shopping process is a way of connecting with people, I can recommend a great local bookstore.</li></ul>Since you’re reading a blog, you’ve probably shopped at Amazon and can decide for yourself whether they are service champs. Perhaps a more significant award is that their sales continue to grow in a very poor economy. Amazon has been continuously improving its process to deliver a vast array of goods at competitive prices. Service Champ or not, its nice that so much of what we need is a click away.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-8404473647655974592009-03-18T09:21:00.010-04:002009-03-18T15:20:16.318-04:00Marley Brew<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihFiAKILF61lOJ7iSGxBZeh4ydvgeOQHhx6c_IqQOwnC7TKJZUE0c64jyzkRhi7td3IWtyDaz7Ip5cZs19vir9deHfuhcSzJtDN8x6Zea2MC5sOs81aBvoJYCUbZq3Pt19TkNYsg/s1600-h/bob-marley2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 166px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihFiAKILF61lOJ7iSGxBZeh4ydvgeOQHhx6c_IqQOwnC7TKJZUE0c64jyzkRhi7td3IWtyDaz7Ip5cZs19vir9deHfuhcSzJtDN8x6Zea2MC5sOs81aBvoJYCUbZq3Pt19TkNYsg/s200/bob-marley2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314521108094807346" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.nme.com/news/bob-marley/42703" target="_blank">First Music News</a> reported that the estate of reggae singer and song writer Bob Marley may license his name and image to a range of products including snowboards, hotels, coffee, headphones, and beer. This is in part a defensive strategy to capture revenue from unlicensed use of his name or image, but is this good marketing?<br /><br />Marley's music remains popular 28 years after his death. A visit to the iTune store, shows that 16 of his tunes have a popularity rating of 7 bars or more. Start searching on iTunes, YouTube, or even Google for "bob" and “bob marley" is the first suggestion. His YouTube videos such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEQXvsQJVnY" target="_blank">Buffalo Soldier</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg2n039txnk" target="_blank">No Woman No Cry</a> have been viewed millions of times. This is brand equity.<br /><br />Marley and the Marley brand are known for music and associated with Rastafarianism, Jamaica, and cannabis. He has no relation with any of the product categories he may be endorsing from the grave. Just as, say, Tiger Woods has no logical relation to the cars, watches, and consulting firms he endorses. Marley Beer looks like an extreme case of brand extension and brand extensions are often a bad idea.<br /><br />There could be McDonalds headphones, Ford coffee, Apple snowboards, etc. There aren’t. These, and most other companies are very cautious about what their brands mean and what businesses they compete in. If Procter & Gamble had a new way to clean something, it would very likely launch this as a distinct brand rather than as an extension of an existing brand. Similarly, Coca Cola is in the juice and water businesses, but not under the Coca Cola brand.<br /><br />Most brand extensions disappoint. They risk diluting the position of the core brand and the extensions seldom thrive. Even multi-business wizard Richard Branson has had indifferent success with his derivative brands such as Virgin Mobile and Virgin Money.<br /><br />Conventional marketing wisdom is not always right. Unlike classic brand extension, no investment or market risk would be born by Marley. The brewer or snowboard maker affixes a new label to an existing product and assumes what business risk there is. None of the proposed brand extensions appears to clash with the Marley brand as perhaps a Marley breakfast cereal or motor oil might.<br /><br />I'd recommend they do a deal if they have credible licensees. Excuse me, I have to don my IBM athletic shoes and get the gym.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-41854278145241076532009-02-26T12:32:00.007-05:002009-03-12T10:32:55.884-04:00Just What The World Needs...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXODDOFD9HARHmH-App8g_CuZPN3YTrfdIWUbk-u78ZV6fG8X7aaSwP-zQuJdz5um-mn_Nq8YZdMcIIhFdq5OoSHW968xgvLMcgRkxtMU62JveXnMnzsp_AoZdaaOJwdcFnAiIg/s1600-h/cut.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRXODDOFD9HARHmH-App8g_CuZPN3YTrfdIWUbk-u78ZV6fG8X7aaSwP-zQuJdz5um-mn_Nq8YZdMcIIhFdq5OoSHW968xgvLMcgRkxtMU62JveXnMnzsp_AoZdaaOJwdcFnAiIg/s200/cut.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307163999426349426" border="0" /></a><br />Most probably, the world does not need another video, whatever its content. On the other hand, your website, blog, or Facebook page may. Whatever the product or purpose behind the site, video may be better than text, colors, or static images to communicate emotion and affect.<br /><br />Of course video can inform and instruct, but it can also convey what customers feel about your product. But if you make industrial solvents (or any other product not likely to be featured on Oprah). Show Customer Success. Whatever your product, customers buy it to solve a problem or obtain a benefit.<br /><br />For example, your video might include engineers delighted that your ball bearings enabled then to design an engine, which powered a safer airplane. Honda’s <a href="http://dreams.honda.com/#/video_la%20target=_blank">Dream The Impossible</a> is a current example.<br /><br />Forrester Research analyst Nate Elliott reports that including video content on a page tends to improve its <a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2009/01/the-easiest-way.html%20target=_blank">search ranking</a> on Google, though not on Yahoo or MSN. Moreover his research found that<br /><p style="margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px;">"videos stand a much better chance than your text pages of being shown on the first results page."</p>Short form video does not have to be expensive. Some rather rough home videos, or user generated content, UGC, in current jargon, have achieved a substantial audience. If you already have too much to do, spending a few hundred to a few thousand on an experienced videographer is money well spent. If your total budget is $100, then don’t be afraid to get a basic Flip video camera and give it a try. You could also use third party content or make a video from still photos and narration.<br /><br />Once you have suitable video, upload to video sharing sites such as YouTube, AOL video, Flickr, Vimeo. Video sharing sites also enable you to embed video links in rich text email. Further you can syndicate your video across multiple sharing sites through a service such as Tubemogul.<br /><br />Have you budget for a director's beret?Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-29971213844059817482009-02-16T21:17:00.004-05:002009-02-17T12:22:54.935-05:00An Unstimulating Stimulus<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNm6PXw_0b-9vvVLQDL-aERBNVxsraim4B0s9W2wJeHRltesx3Qh3XB40LEP7TSfo_pNPU-IKW5e8oDhWaXIaQsiSvOv18eevjdkOXx_YcCfc5WDUpDMdI2_y2Ln9x_v8bMQbkzg/s1600-h/stimulus.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 124px; height: 124px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNm6PXw_0b-9vvVLQDL-aERBNVxsraim4B0s9W2wJeHRltesx3Qh3XB40LEP7TSfo_pNPU-IKW5e8oDhWaXIaQsiSvOv18eevjdkOXx_YcCfc5WDUpDMdI2_y2Ln9x_v8bMQbkzg/s200/stimulus.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303586388560811218" border="0" /></a><br />Congress has passed a Stimulus plan. It is supposed to revive the economy and reduce unemployment by inducing people to buy more than they otherwise would in these lean times. The plan is a mixture of tax cuts and federal spending. Together they will provide more money to many consumers.<br /><br />To my knowledge no marketers were consulted in assembling the stimulus, yet getting folks to buy is what we do. As a marketing strategy this Stimulus is, at best, incomplete. There are no specific incentives for consumers or businesses to spend their additional funds. Thus some will be saved, some wasted, and the rest spent.<br /><br />The cumulative effects of the Stimulus related spending, do not seem to have been rigorously modeled. The desired outcome of 3.5 million jobs "saved or created" thus seems quite arbitrary. In this respect the Stimulus resembles many marketing plans we see. That is - wishful thinking.<br /><br />Interestingly saving 3.5 million jobs at cost of $787 billion is about $ 225 thousand per job. This seems no bargain, even if the Stimulus works as hoped. Considering the lack of specific incentives to increase spending, this seems optimistic.<br /><br />What would marketers do? Faced with flagging demand, we might:<br /><br /><ul><li>Have a sale</li><li>Change the business or pricing model</li><li>Offer incentives - buy 2 get the 3rd free</li><li>Provide cross promotions</li><li>or premiums</li><li>Give warranties or guarantees</li><li>Strive to better understand the buying and adoption process and address causes for not buying</li><li>Solidify and reinforce the value proposition</li></ul>There are analogous features, which could be part of a stimulus package.<br /><br /><ul><li>Sales tax holidays – specifically reimbursement to states, which hold sales tax holidays, for lost revenue.</li><li>Targeted tax credits for individuals such as for cars, homes, and investment tax credits for businesses.</li><li>Subsidizing mortgage interest rates to boost housing demand and liquidity.</li></ul>Doubtless, you can formulate your own list. My point is that marketing oriented programs will increase demand more than doling out money and hoping or the best.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-67522337488208437132009-02-08T10:31:00.002-05:002009-02-08T10:36:18.376-05:00The D WordBy the time establishment economists acknowledged there was a recession, we had, according to their terms, been in one for 9 to 10 months. Nonetheless, not being in a “recession” may have made some people feel better and allow others to lie with a straight face.<br /><br />For marketers and their customers, a “recession” has little to do with “two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth” or any specific formal definition. The economist’s recession is not the marketer’s and vice versa. It is a perception and more important a feeling.<br /><br />The same could for the less commonly heard “depression.” Like recession, depression had its origins as a euphemism. Herbert Hoover did not like the term “panic,” which had been used to characterize earlier financial dislocations. That may have been inspired web-smithing and accurate in that panic can hardly be sustained for more than a decade as the Great Depression was.<br /><br />Use what term you will, customers know what they’re experiencing. The latest (January 2009) <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" target="_blank">employment report</a> shows a loss of 598,000 jobs and that 3,200,000 jobs were lost in the last 12 months.<br /><br />For most firms, this was not part of their planning assumptions. What marketing messages are we going to say to consumers and firms (including those, which used to employ some of those consumers)? In more general terms, what are we going to do for our markets, which are a lot sicker than we imagined?<br /><br />Pricing does have to be realistic. Whenever I hear a supplier claim his business is recession proof I wonder how much is delusion and how much dissembling. There may be such businesses, but neither you nor I are in them. Price cutting alone won’t be enough, but be prepared for concessions.<br /><br />An interesting wrinkle on this are pre-announced price freezes. Professional sports are an example. Demand is down, and not just for personal seat licenses. Demand for this years’ Superbowl tickets weakened such that in the week before the game, ticket brokers were selling some tickets at less than <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090128/ap_on_re_us/fbn_super_bowl_economy">face value</a>.<br /><br />The response of teams such as the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox, was to announce there will be no price increases for the coming season. The market was clearly not going to support an increase, so they are trying to take credit for doing the obvious.<br /><br />This is not a bad tactic, but it is not enough. Prediction: professional sports, like most other marketers will have to offer further incentives to maintain their market share. With customers feeling increasingly gloomy, we’ll need to continually reinforce how we are adding value. How do customers feel about your business or brand, such that you will not be the first one to be cut in tough times?Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-72949283141578382002009-02-01T12:52:00.002-05:002009-02-01T12:59:03.618-05:00Short Elevator RidesA common metaphor, or cliché, is the “elevator pitch.” It seems to mean a compelling story in 30 to 60 seconds, which conveys the essence of your product, service, mission, or goal.<br /><br />The classic 30 second commercial or one page magazine ad ought to be an elevator pitch. They are forced to be brief, but often fail to engage or communicate. They commonly try to cover too many points, lack focus, and contain much that is inessential or irrelevant. Even worse, they will do all of this without ever getting to the point.<br /><br />I was thus intrigued, when I chanced upon a short video by artist Matt Shlian. YouTube lists this video as 9 seconds, but we could edit out the static trailing space and it would be 7 or 8 seconds. There is no text, no color, and no audio. The I comes away knowing something of Shilan’s talents and wanting to see more. Fortunately he has other short videos on YouTube. Search on Matt Shilan if interested.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xSrDnIVgVv0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xSrDnIVgVv0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />What can you get across in 8 seconds?Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-91427736339521169812009-01-27T21:53:00.004-05:002009-01-27T22:06:57.306-05:00It's Back - This Time in 3-D<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibFc58wuFUtzle3w4XTxgrOQrpPVaZdZfCJW6C6UDbyOq2lq5SwWq2la3bsPZD687oBqZ01lC7wuYwuEwezpSsO9b2rJ8ZaB4H3hgcPq830oqwL3DHaIiPxO7cc1CwbydhW1y8Fg/s1600-h/3Dglasses1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 80px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibFc58wuFUtzle3w4XTxgrOQrpPVaZdZfCJW6C6UDbyOq2lq5SwWq2la3bsPZD687oBqZ01lC7wuYwuEwezpSsO9b2rJ8ZaB4H3hgcPq830oqwL3DHaIiPxO7cc1CwbydhW1y8Fg/s200/3Dglasses1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296174446562129826" border="0" /></a>Superbowl XLIII is charging down upon us. We are the worst recession since this annual rite of advertising with football obbligato began. Large advertisers are writing off assets, closing facilities, firing thousands, and reporting record losses. This has caused panic - and panicking executives are even more likely to do the familiar, including the familiar, which has never been shown to work.<br /><br />In particular, major advertisers have agreed to pay up to $3 million for 30 seconds of air time during the game. Of course with production, not to mention the expense of senior staff “needing” to attend the game, the total cost can be substantially higher. So we’re starting to talk about real money for a marketing expense, whose value remains to be demonstrated. Rather than worrying about the niceties of ROI, PepsiCo and DreamWorks, will try to make their Superbowl ads more memorable, by presenting them in 3-D.<br /><br />Those of us old enough to remember an earlier generation of 3-D movies and comic books also remember having to wear cardboard glasses, whose right and left lenses were of different colors. The movies tended to be horror movies and westerns, in which the monster or villain, though thought dead, somehow survived to appear in a sequel.<br /><br />So much for progress, the funky cardboard glasses are back. No glasses - no 3-D. Pepsi is using its considerable retail distribution to try to get 125 million pairs available to the viewing public by game day glasses. The Wall St. Journal(1/23/09, B8) reports that the glasses alone will cost about $7 million. To PepsiCo’s and DreamWorks’ credit they have gotten <a href="http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20090105corp_a.htm?iid=SEARCH" target="_blank">Intel</a> to pay this.<br /><br />What Intel gets for this another remains to be seen, but kudos to the deal makers at Pepsi. This challenge has made the commercials themselves news and DreamWorks is even advertising the commercials. Dreamworks new 3-D feature Monsters and Aliens is a major product push. Thus the game gets prime real estate on its <a href="http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/" target="_blank">animation site</a> (warning - visiting this link will shift your browser to full screen).<br /><br />In case you didn’t find the glasses at your local supermarket, you can get some by calling Pepsi at 1-800-646-2904.Curiously, Pepsi does not invite consumers to order online. There was no promotion of the event either during the on-hold recording (background music) or when I spoke to an attendant, who indifferently took my shipping information. The promotion is not featured on Pepsi’s or Intel’s web sites.<br /><br />What does this have to do with selling SoBe Lifewater or microprocessors? Perhaps this would be clearer seen through a pair of 3-D glasses.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-1981047259622157942009-01-16T11:07:00.004-05:002009-01-16T11:24:10.194-05:00Where's My Cookie?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghRzstzqLg_ST2QdDMUie4MmcMH2SL4rdPKhboAa1s5x2S9mwEF1i7OMwKgRUqRvzbwjNI71ys8ndc0dFikrR0qoCdddNUDIr9YB-zqi9vpmgIc_U_W-FvFNwlmi9842yNzRuiw/s1600-h/cookie-monster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghRzstzqLg_ST2QdDMUie4MmcMH2SL4rdPKhboAa1s5x2S9mwEF1i7OMwKgRUqRvzbwjNI71ys8ndc0dFikrR0qoCdddNUDIr9YB-zqi9vpmgIc_U_W-FvFNwlmi9842yNzRuiw/s200/cookie-monster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291924106998454370" border="0" /></a>Marketing should give customers something. In retail, direct mail, print, or the venerable 30 second spot, we try to show what our product does and what’s in it for the customer. Our communication and programs associate our brand with a customer goal, sometimes called a "cookie." <span style="vertical-align: top;font-size:small;" >1</span> Depending on customer needs, a cookie could be information such as a product description, prices, free samples, the ability to do or buy something here and now, etc. We don’t deliberately challenge readers or viewers to work long and hard to figure out where the good stuff is. Once we’ve understand which cookie customers want, lift notes, end aisle displays, and headlines take them there.<br /><br />There are some notable exceptions. If you’ve ever stayed at a Las Vegas casino hotel, you have probably had the frustrating experience of having to navigate acres of gaming tables on route to your room.<br /><br />That’s Vegas. In the real world we don’t deliberately frustrate customers. What about the virtual world? After we manage to get prospects to our web site can they find their cookie? This is a four part problem:<br /><br /><ol><li>Finding the site</li><li>Finding the relevant page</li><li>Finding the relevant content on the page</li><li>Being able to get to the next step by clicking, calling, or going somewhere</li></ol>Trying to negotiate many sites feels far too often like being trapped in a labyrinth. The bounce rates on many landing pages, show that visitors get frustrated, fed up, and leave.<br /><br />Far too many web sites are more concerned with design than usability. In post mortem interviews within companies having dysfunctional sites (some of which were “award winning”) we often find no consensus on what the site was supposed to do. In some cases it seems the cookies are missing altogether. Where do you hide your cookies?<br /><br />1) I am indebted to Nadia Direkova of <a href="http://www.razorfish.com" target = "_blank">Razorfish</a> for this metaphor.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-41770316981905140662009-01-07T11:38:00.002-05:002009-01-07T11:42:14.163-05:00Forecasting Season<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizZt8mBzwJyDjz1aUHDvF8Q6D4oeAGcmUPoAwePZ5R6BtMbbd08rAf0PnCnxlm6Fb5YgKzXpv-6IH5zNg9pSO2R18SgpsMh9BFvjPMyOz8qEDaHOvX7aldbtLsIkwPe4LNJZqQMQ/s1600-h/telescope.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizZt8mBzwJyDjz1aUHDvF8Q6D4oeAGcmUPoAwePZ5R6BtMbbd08rAf0PnCnxlm6Fb5YgKzXpv-6IH5zNg9pSO2R18SgpsMh9BFvjPMyOz8qEDaHOvX7aldbtLsIkwPe4LNJZqQMQ/s200/telescope.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288592499294798674" border="0" /></a>Along with post-holiday sales and carcasses of Christmas trees on the curb, this is the season of forecasts. Pundits, gurus and mavens emerge from their dens to favor the rest of us with insights about the next big thing or the soon no longer to be big thing. As with forecasts of stock markets and fashion trends this can be risky and tough to do. Forecasting does have advantages. Comedian Jay Leno summarized these when he assumed his long running late night show:<br /><br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">There’s no heavy lifting and nobody tells me to comeback and fix the jokes, which weren’t funny last night...</blockquote><br />As marketers we are often asked to predict. How do we do it? Mostly badly. Do we have an alternative? I suggest following the advice of the late Peter Drucker and "predict the future, which is already happening" rather than speculate or paying others to speculate on your behalf.<br /><br />What do we already know about 2009?<br /><br /><ul><li>Consumer sentiment is negative</li><li>Real spending will decline</li><li>Commercial and consumer credit will decrease</li><li>More ad spending will be allocated to measurable media than broadcast</li><li>Your competitors will launch fewer new products</li><li>Promotional budgets will decline</li><li>You will have fewer marketing staff</li></ul><br />For your own market and business you can extend this list and probably provide some relative quantification. This approach will save significant management and staff time. More important, it will let you focus on telling customers why your product or service is what they need even in a down economy.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-52165445458974354682008-12-30T17:58:00.004-05:002008-12-30T22:35:12.412-05:00Nobody gets Twitter"Nobody gets Twitter." This was the opinion of Evan Williams, Twitter cofounder and chairman. during an <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=11306%20target%20=%20_blank">interview</a> in December 2008.<br /><br />He confirmed what is apparent to many of us and true for most of us - the value of Twitter is not self-evident. With use you start to get the hang of it and at some point the light bulb goes on. His observation is not restricted to Twitter or social media or even technology, though tech examples seem particularly easy to find.<br /><br />First time users of word processors and spread sheets not to mention such “time savers” as content management systems are usually thwarted by their first attempts to use these technologies. “Easy to use” is easy to say. The same applies to myriads of products from digital video recorders to kitchen appliances.<br /><br />I once did some field research for a maker of high end appliances. My in home investigations showed customers struggled mightily just to set them up. The manufacturer responded by including an instructional video. The video proved to be so unhelpful, that it increased the return rate. Apparently it convinced customers that the product was too difficult for home use.<br /><br />Even the fabled iPhone is sufficiently non-intuitive that Apple sells supplemental training. Indeed there is a healthy market on how to use iPhone books – a search Amazon.com’s book section for “ iPhone” returns 1,613 results.<br /><br />It’s not just the products. Suppliers compound the problem with opaque instruction manuals (if any at all); unsupportive product support (what easier expense to cut in tough times); and compounds these with marketing communications, which fail to communicate.<br /><br />Making stuff, whether on line systems or garden tools, easier to figure out isn’t easy. I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions. If I were, helping customers, readers, or partners <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">get it</span> might be one.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-75966918987235385652008-12-16T21:53:00.003-05:002008-12-16T22:17:33.866-05:00The $0 Gift CardA-list blogger <a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com" target="_blank">Chris Brogan</a> in is involved in a <a href="http://paulgillin.com/2008/12/ethics-and-the-500-gift-card/" target="_blank">controversy</a>.<br /><br />Unlike his usual commentary on marketing and media, Chris blogged about <a href="http://dadomatic.com/sponsored-post-kmart-holiday-shopping-dad-style/" target="_blank">shopping at Kmart</a>. On the shopping trip, he used a $500 gift card provided by <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=96540" target="_blank">Izea</a>, a marketing agency retained by Kmart.<br /><br />Chris began his post by stating that it was sponsored by Izea, though it was not clear that the sponsorship was his getting the $500 card. <br /><br />Sponsored posts aren’t new. For example an influential blogger may be given a computer or appliance to review. Many journalists would hold this compromises independence and so decline gifts or any sort. Most bloggers, on the hand, don’t have sponsoring organizations to buy them products. They may advocate a standard of full disclosure of any gifts or compensation. <br /><br />Chris could have visited Kmart without spending $500 or indeed anything at all (unlike, say, a restaurant review). His post would have been different, but it could have been done with a $0 gift card.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-850003806997578282008-12-15T19:09:00.006-05:002008-12-24T13:28:58.318-05:00Fish Where The Fish Are<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigADYdfPRBsdxLlYyHVYKaU6ssCWWOX5kaaIo0or5j08S5nDKGrtmz6N9w5C3cZN48AOv1r5qsVqJYIK2mlnfq4O8Lnorvg4468aiCtDFODG_InhzV4rHKYKTiZuoPHK47KHBcuA/s1600-h/mobi_logo.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 156px; height: 86px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigADYdfPRBsdxLlYyHVYKaU6ssCWWOX5kaaIo0or5j08S5nDKGrtmz6N9w5C3cZN48AOv1r5qsVqJYIK2mlnfq4O8Lnorvg4468aiCtDFODG_InhzV4rHKYKTiZuoPHK47KHBcuA/s200/mobi_logo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283425341383702146" border="0" /></a>About seven million iPhones and six million Balckberrys were sold in the <a href="http://blog.toptenreviews.com/?tag=android-phone-sales" target="_blank">third quarter of 2008</a>. To this add a million and a half <a href="http://blog.toptenreviews.com/?tag=android-phone-sales" target="_blank">Android phones</a> and growing “smart phone” (the dumb phone begin the one you currently have) sales from Sangsung and LG and you have a significant number accessing the online world not from the desktop or laptop but the palmtop.<br /><br />How are you going to attract and retain these potential customers? You might start by trying to access your current online presence – email newsletters, web site, blog etc. – from a handset. Chances are their appearance and usability range from ungainly to unreadable. Your fancy design work just gets in the way.<br /><br />Some web sites really get mobile. Google.com, for example, apparently senses that you’re coming from a mobile browser and serves a page formatted for a phone. This is the exception. A simpler, though workable, approach is to have a mobile presence with a different URL.<br /><br />A common practice is to use the subdomain name m. For example,<br />m.cnn.com or m.flickr.com take you to versions of the parent site, which are much more readable on very small screen. Alternatively, some firms have created sibling web sites with the new top level domain .mobi. Working examples include time.mobi, msn.mobi, fox.mobi, hertz.mobi and zagat.mobi. Other attempts such as businessweek.mobi were less readable on my iPhone as well as having some problematic links.<br /><br />For sites requiring more interactivity, special client software may be needed. For example, the full functionally of Twitter is not available through m.twitter.com, though I suspect it could be. Instead you need special client applications such as Twiterfon and Twitterberry.<br /><br />What’s an over worked marketer to do? Until you can get a site designed for mobile The exercise of distilling your message, format, and content for a simplified handheld site might be just what makes your brand or products standout from the usual suspects.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-79449786557506399902008-12-01T20:49:00.005-05:002008-12-01T20:57:37.507-05:00When The Client Doesn’t Get ItTwitter, is a light weight online service. It is limited, like text messaging, to messages of 140 characters (called Twitters or Tweets). It has the potential to afford rapid two way messaging either broadcast or personalized conversations among customers and partners.<br /><br />In two years Twitter has grown from nothing to an estimated six million registered users. Other estimates are half of that. Whatever the actual number, it has moved beyond technologists and early adopters and is mentioned in mainstream publications such ad Fortune, Business Week and the Wall St. Journal. Twitter has become a channel in its own right.<br /><br />The service is free to both individual and corporate users and can be accessed through the Web, mobile phones, or computer software. The potential is there to inform, intervene, monitor and connect with far less overhead and start up costs than email, web, blogging, Facebook, or other social marketing tactics. Its rapid response and low bandwidth make among the ost immediate and compelling of a new crop of mobile applications.<br /><br />Yet when I suggest Twitter to marketers, who are not already users, their responses range from indifference to rejection. They are seldom even interested in trying it. Why is this?<br />They ask for clarification - so, what is it? And that’s the problem. It has been described as:<br /><ul><li> Light weight social networking</li><li>Micro-blogging</li><li>Instant messaging</li><li>Many to many texting</li></ul>Huh?<br /><br />Visiting Twitters home page and viewing the torrent of passing traffic isn’t compelling. Twitter messages, they can indeed seem like self absorbed babbling.<br /><ul><li>It doesn’t fit well in any established category</li><li>It seems at least as much abused as well used</li><li>It demands creativity and a degree of innovation from its users. Success will require experimentation and evaluation</li><li>It has the danger to degenerate into online drivel</li><li>Good business cases and “best practices” are just starting to emerge</li></ul>Twitter’s business model has yet to be developed. It has yet to figure out how to make money. At present, that’s more Twitter’s problem than yours; but you don’t want to invest thought an effort into a medium if it is not like to stay around.<br /><br />Our old friend ROI is hard to measure. Actually the investment in a Twitter campaign or marketing program can be trivial - no money and Much less effort than say a blogging or Facebook strategy. However it will take some thought, time, and inspiration. It you start a Twitter conversation, be prepared to maintain it.<br /><br />Twitter is, of course, just one of many media. It has been used successfully by Barack Obama, but less so by Hillary Clinton, and still less by John McCain (based on followers and traffic). Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts use Twitter; Peets Coffee, Folgers, Maxwell House and many others in the category appear not to. Dell and HP use it; Lenovo, Toshiba, and Sony don’t.<br /><br />Among marketers, technologists, and some media cognoscenti Twitter is cool. This of course is no reason to use it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What to do:</span><br /><br />See if your firm, industry, products or issues are actively discussed on Twitter by searching at search.twitter.com.<br /><br />Track and follow discussions of those influential in your industry.<br />Respond, when you have something to contribute.<br /><br />Even Twitter fans admit it may take some getting used to. It looks quite different after using it for a week or two.<br /><br />Are a significant number of your customers, or those who might influence your customers using Twitter. If you don’t know, you should to try to.<br /><br />If they do, Twitter is worth a try. You may gain valuable market insight, test a concept, or launch a guerilla promotion campaign.<br /><br />Otherwise, you would do better to reach prospects where they are through media they are acquainted with. Leave the cool to someone with venture capital to burn. Even if you’re sure Twitter could be a useful part of the marketing mix, let it go. In the words of the late LL Bean, who left no opinion of Twitter, “Nobody ever won an argument with a customer.”Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-24695116307610731622008-11-12T14:19:00.009-05:002008-11-21T13:54:39.051-05:00ROI Is Dead — Long Live ROI"Some things that count can't be counted;<br />some things that can be counted don't count" – attributed to Einstein<br /><br />MBAs, accountants, financial analysts, and many others have been trained to evaluate activities by their Return on Investment (ROI). This has often been honored but ignored. Particularly in marketing initiatives such as mass media advertising. In this case, the often large expenditure is either accepted of faith or evaluated against questionable criteria such as recall.<br /><br />The issue of ROI returns when asking questions such as should you mount social media initiatives such as blogs, wikis, or a presence on Twitter. The ROI question was prominent at this mornings <a href="http://www.socialmediabreakfast.com/2008/11/03/boston%E2%80%99s-social-media-breakfast-10-set-for-wednesday-november-12th" target="_blank">Social Media Breakfast.</a> The good folks at <a href="http://tinyurl.com/SMBBoston" target="_blank">HubSpot</a>, have provided a <a href="http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4405/How-Do-You-Measure-the-ROI-of-Social-Media-You-Don-t.aspx" target="_blank">video</a> of the talks.<br /><br />A broader and I think more appropriate question is what is the value of a social media (or any other program)? This begs two kinds of questions – relating to benefits and costs. Some authorities such as <a href="http://www.webinknow.com/" target="_blank">David Scott</a><br />Wish to finesse the question entirely. At a recent seminar I attended, he asked “what’s the ROI of putting on your pants?”<br /><br />I think the question or something like it deserves an answer and you should expect it to be asked.<br /><br />There are a variety of conventional and emerging ways of tracking traffic, repeat visitors, time visiting, mentions, searches, etc. Of course, it always pays to ask customers how they found you. In aggregate these are more comprehensive than measures of traditional advertising, but not as compelling as measures of direct response advertising.<br /><br />Costs for new media can and generally be far lower than traditional media. A viral video on YouTube need not and generally should not have the same lavish production values or costs as that for a 30 second prime time spot. The key to mew media success is rapid experimentation with low cost programs. Low cost does not mean free. The person who blogs, follows twitter, maintains your Facebook page, etc. could always be doing something else. Managers will always have to use judgment. Reasonably designed tests of social media should be cheap enough that they approach the Nike test of “just do it”.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-24457370955845116212008-11-11T10:42:00.004-05:002008-11-11T11:33:26.143-05:00Marketer Of The YearMarketing publication, Advertising Age, recently chose its 2008 marketer of the year. Finalists included such familiar and prodigious brands as Apple, Nike, and, for its turnaround, Coors. Accomplished as the contestants were, the winner overshadowed them. It grew his brand from obscurity to ubiquitous name recognition in the US and wide recognition globally.<br /><br />We could dismiss Ad Age’s choice. What cannot be dismissed are the accomplishments of this marketer.<br /><br /><ul><li>The product rose to category dominance over a dozen competitors, many of which were initially better known and funded.</li><li>A self financing <a href="http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/cancomsrs/?_08+P80003338">MARCOM budget</a> exceeding half a billion dollars</li><li>A dominant market share of 53% with November sales exceeding 65 million units.<br /></li><li>A devoted group of product fans and evangelists.</li><li>A multi-channel affiliate network.</li><li>Integrated inbound and outbound marketing campaigns through families of web sites, blogs, text messages, newsletters and email. Online media were matched with massive national and locally targeted TV advertising (this may have appealed to Ad Age). Paid media coverage was dwarfed by news coverage of product development and launch.</li><li>Leading in every age category except for those 65 and over.</li><li>Mastery of new media, word of mouth and viral marketing as shown by having more than:<br /></li><ul><li>One hundred thousand followers on Twitter</li><li>150,000 results on Flickr</li><li>900,000 results on MySpace<br /></li><li>3 million supporters on Facebook</li><li>400,000 videos on YouTube</li><li>90 million results on Google</li></ul></ul>This brand is still in the early stages of its life cycle.<br /><br />If you haven't guessed already, the marketer of the year is <a href="http://www.barackobama.com/index.php">Barack Obama</a>Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-85575718361854845832008-11-04T09:08:00.004-05:002008-11-04T09:53:10.999-05:00Crunchy Time — Will User Generated Commercials make The Superbowl a Winner?The Superbowl does deliver a mass audience. <a href="http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/02/09/super-bowl-tv-viewers-1967-2008/2625" target=_blank>Nielsen</a> estimates that TV audiences for the Superbowl game have been on the order of 90 million per game for the past decade. As in many other cases, size may not be decisive.<br /><br />As regular readers of this blog may remember, I have a low opinion of advertising on mass events such as the Superbowl. They are expensive and have not been shown to be effective. Their ROI would be small, if their results were measurable at all. It is more reasonable to look at these campaigns as boondoggles. Corporate execs and key clients have a fun weekend at someone else’s expense.<br /><br />An interesting case is <a href="http://www.doritos.com" target=_blank>Doritos</a>, one of Frito-Lay’s chip brands. Not only does Doritos want you to consume more of its junk food, it also invites you to make a <a href="http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com" target=_blank>commercial</a>. <br /><br />There are already quite a few do it yourself video contests from Apple’s <a href="http://www.apple.com/education/insomnia/" target=_blank>Insomnia Film Festival </a> to freecreditrepost.com lip synch contest. Doritos differentiates its contest by offering the winning commercial to be shown during the 2009 Super Bowl and with a top prize of $ 1 million – not bad for a user generated 30 second spot. A reading of the contest rules shows that Doritos is likely to pay only $ 25,000 and a trip to the game.<br /><br />Social media introduce another dimension. Their marginal cost of redirected media, including Superbowl ads, can be very small. With user produced ads, Doritos will save a bundle on creative and production costs and generate a lot of customer input. If the winning campaign goes viral in a significant way it will extend reach and frequency beyond those who saw the game and may or may not have seen the commercial.<br /><br />ROI or not, the Superbowl and the ads which make it possible, will be around for a while. For those advertisers, going viral and employing user generated content should at least allow for an extra point conversion.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-41421308718969674602008-10-29T13:41:00.003-04:002008-10-29T14:05:32.333-04:00Driving Into A DitchHertz car rental joins Alamo, Enterprise, and National in raising rental by about 10%. Hmmm, we are in a recession, both business and consumer travel are decreasing. The cost of new vehicles of the type bought by rental companies are also falling as Detroit tries to unload its products. <br /><br />Let's not accuse the (in this case) car rental industry of being overly alert. According to today's <a href="http://online.wsj.com" target=_blank>Wall St. Journal</a> (10/29/08, p D5) other companies are "...going to wait and see what competitors do and then consider raising rates..."<br /><br />This could be an opportune time to increase share and loyalty by keeping prices level. Speak to your customers concerns about the economy. Social networking programs would be particularly cost effective here. If your competition wishes to drive into a ditch in tandem, for example, by increasing prices at the wrong time - so much the better.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-19514569250770791302008-10-26T13:22:00.005-04:002008-10-26T18:46:37.020-04:00And The Real Winner Is...This November Fourth, the most expensive product launch in history will end.<br /><br />The campaign has been interesting to practitioners of non-traditional media of all political persuasions. Blogs, webinars, Tweets, ‘zines, established social networks such as Facebook, as well as special purpose online communities have enabled even obscure aspirants to become contenders. For example, new media enhanced and extended the candidacy of <a href="http://www.ronpaul.com/" target="_blank">Ron Paul</a>. With them, he could mount a boot-strap campaign becoming better known and then raising more funds in an increasing cycle.<br /><br />There has been a marked difference in effort and effectiveness of employing new media among the candidates. Obama’s campaign has been far more active and effective than McCain’s. This has propelled Obama’s advantage in fund raising and via social-networking increased his online coverage versus that of McCain.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.threshold-group.com/blog/uploaded_images/ObamaVsMcCain-714875.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.threshold-group.com/blog/uploaded_images/ObamaVsMcCain-714845.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Obama has raised over $600 million and McCain more than $ 350 million[1]. What can you do with such a marketing budget? New media are so effective and efficient, that it would be really hard to spend it in that way. Thus the campaigns are buying huge amounts of airtime. This leads to the ironic result that the real winners of 2008 are <span style="font-weight:bold;">old media</span>.<br /><br />[1] There are a number of other active candidates, such as <a href="http://www.votenader.org" target =_blank>Ralph Nader</a>. According to <a href="http://www.fec.org" target=_blank>Federal Elections Commission</a> data, total amount raised by all other candidates is less than 0.5% of what McCain and Obama have raised.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-77978282940256550492008-10-23T15:07:00.004-04:002008-10-23T16:31:15.933-04:00Going ViralAs marketers, we usually have pay to say or show something. So we have budgets for advertising, promotion, PR, events, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice, if we could get others to do this for us. Not only would this amplify the reach or our message, it would increase its credibility. Those who spread our message are to some extent recommending us. Here’s where viral marketing comes it.<br /><br />Viral marketing is not new (what in marketing is?), but new technologies make easier and can increase its impact. In addition to email, we have blogs, social networks, Tweets, and content sharing sites. They have the potential to launch an epidemic, which distributes our content farther and wider than we could, even if we had the budgets we wanted. It may be the latest embodiment of our eternal quest for the free lunch.<br /><br />In its simplest form this means creating some communication so interesting, irritating, or attention grabbing that people will send it unsolicited and unpaid to friends and colleagues. If each recipient sends to multiple associates, you can get a hypergrowth, which resembles an epidemic hence the term viral.<br /><br />Perhaps the best single example of a viral medium is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/" target="_blank">YouTube</a>. It is built to make sharing quick, easy, and free. Of course, this guarantees nothing. YouTube has not stated how many videos it hosts. Estimates are on the order of 100 million. If all you do is upload, an audience will probably not come.<br /><br />Going viral is a long shot. As always, start with content. When creating something, whether for a local 30 second spot, a trade show, or a sales conference think about how it could be used or adapted as a viral communication. Reuse and mashups should be encouraged.<br /><br />Marketing consultant and author <a href="http://www.webinknow.com/" target="_blank">David Meerman Scott</a> cited the case of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo" target="_blank">Cadbury Gorilla</a> http:// at the recent <a href="http://www.gonewmarketing.com/" target="_blank">New Marketing Summit</a>. David relates that Cadbury was able to reuse an existing commercial to the tune of over 3 million views on YouTube. The epidemic didn’t stop there. This video has spawned more than a dozen derivative videos, many of which have been viewed a substantial number of times. So there is a significant echo of the original message.<br /><br />The video has no call to action – Cadbury can’t tell how many more chocolate bars it sold. The ROI is thus unknown. This could be a problem, but the cost of the program is negligible. In this case it amounts to the effort of monitoring viewership, links and references to the videos and to Cadbury itself.<br /><br />To see what types of content are watching and more importantly sharing, consult <a href="http://video.google.com/videoranking" target=_blank>video.google.com/videoranking</a><br /><br />Not sure how viral fits your message and strategy or are generally uneasy about video production, you might wish to get started promoting something else. A number of firms are hosting <a href="http://www.youtube.com/contests_main" target="_blank">contests</a>. Draft a 30 to 60 second script or an idea on which to improvise and grab your home video camera. We hope to feature your video in an upcoming post.Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9906314.post-62083181181866342902008-10-16T15:22:00.005-04:002008-10-16T17:38:29.639-04:00Gary VI had the chance to spend some tome today with that New Media force of nature — <a href="http://garyvaynerchuk.com/" target=_blank>Gary Vaynerchuk</a>. For those, who haven’t seen him, Gary is a dynamic and passionate speaker. Witness, for example, his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4" target= _blank>keynote performance</a> at the recent MyWeb 2.0 conference (note: contains some strong language). But there's a key difference between Gary and a number of prominent business speakers — not only can he talk the talk, he has also launched and grown successful businesses and recently published a commendable no nonsense book on <a href="http://www.rodalestore.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10002&storeId=10051&productId=117536&langId=-1&nav_wt=search" target=_blank>enjoying wine</a>.<br /><br />How does he do it? More important, what can we as marketers do — not to be clones of Gary — to grow our own brands and products?<br /><br />As he tells it, he grows community. He uses tools such as blogs, Tweeter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, YouTube and SEO/SEM. It’s not the tools per se, but how he uses them. He is online to listen, learn, contribute. This is not just feel good marketing. It’s ROI driven and embraces measurable media such as Google AdWords over conventional pay and pray media buys.<br /><br />How does this busy entrepreneur spend his time? "I read and respond to blog comments, hang out on social network groups where my customers go, and (at least try to) answer all of my email."<br /><br />How have you connected with your customers today?Peter Buechlerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388838696552598247noreply@blogger.com1