Super Bowl Redux

Super Bowl 2008 set records – most of them off the field. $ 2.7 million for 30 seconds of air time was one; (estimated) “viewership” of 97.5 million was another.

Add production costs and that most advertisers ran more than one 30 second spot and this starts to involve real money. These costs don’t include extras such as “business travel” by senior management to the game, presumably to see how the commercials look on the large high definition monitors in their sky boxes.

Undoubtedly the Super Bowl delivers the largest mass audience of any domestic medium. Viewers are not restricted to youth, men, or even sports fans. For this event at least, advertisers can reach most of their market. Actually, none of the Super Bowl advertisers from Audi to GoDaddy to Budweiser to eTrade to Garmin sells to so broad a market. As with all mass media, marketers have to buy more exposure than they can use in an attempt to cover a market.

In addition, the Bowl ads have a following and life of their own. They are covered by business and news media and are replayed on sites such as YouTube. This secondary and sometimes even tertiary exposure is free.

What do they get for 3 or 5 or 10 $ million? It gets fuzzy here. For example, IAG Research ranked ads by most liked and most recalled. The implicit assumption is that better recall and higher preference for an ad lead to more effectiveness. If this means higher sales, of which they present no data, how much is a likability point worth?

The “research” seems to decline from there. Internet tracking firm ComScore asked 1139 respondents two questions:

1) Which of this year’s Super Bowl advertisers’ ads would you like to see again? (Select 3)

2) Which Super Bowl advertisers’ ads improved or damaged your impression of the brand in any way?

Notably, their research did not try to track purchase behavior.

More substantial data are available from web traffic measurement firm HitWise. It reports that of the 32 Bowl advertisers, 9 had traffic increases to their site of 25% or more compared with the previous day while 10 of the advertisers actually had decreased traffic. Comparisons with the day before the game are not the most relevant. A better comparison might have been with the final playoff game two weeks prior, but HitWise does not volunteer these data.

Of course, a visit to a web site is hardly equivalent to buying a product, especially one not sold online. Indeed most of the advertisers sell nothing online. If the Super Bowl ads were an exercise to drive web traffic, they start to look a bit pricy.

What we haven’t seen are Bowl advertisers specifying the incremental sales of these campaigns. In some cases they may not know. Their ads generally didn’t include trackable URLs, phone numbers, coupon codes, etc. An impartial observer might wonder if these advertisers did not really want their Bowl campaigns evaluated.

What the heck, those chips taste really crunchy in the Sky Box.

Hit ‘Em Where They Ain’t – Trying To Imitate An Entrenched Competitor Is Risky

A few years ago, I managed a field marketing program for one of the (at the time) major maker of MP3 players. The client, whom I’ll call Xco. was a multiproduct company known for computer accessories. It’s early music players had achieved some success, though they were a minor business for the company. These players were light, compact, relatively inexpensive, flash memory devices which used a replaceable standard AA battery.

That year the iPod was hot and it grew the category as it expanded its own business. The iPod featured an ability to hold a large collection of tunes made possible by a micro hard drive and came in an elegant polished metal case. It was the most expensive player, but it held the most tunes.

Xco and several competitors launched similar products – MP3 players with small hard drives. Xco’s product lacked the polished design of the iPod, but was serviceable and easy to use. To try to secure a beach head, Xco priced its players 10% to 15% below Apple’s. Not surprisingly, this wannabe product a – poor cousin at a slightly lower price – failed. Xco eventually exited entirely from the category.

There were a number of reasons for failure, but poor marketing strategy was significant. In effect, Xco tried to position itself as a parity product against the category leader with no positive differentiation except a small price discount. Since my research showed 80% to 90% of consumers preferred the look and feel of the iPod, the product was not perceived as competitive even at the lower price. Xco’s product was doomed.

What might Xco have done? Instead of trying to be an iPod, it could have built on the demonstrated market success of its initial products. Customers liked its solid state players, which were smaller, lighter and fit comfortably in the hand or pocket, in contrast to the bulkier and heavier iPod. Moreover, the ability to replace the battery with an inexpensive standard battery, satisfied a perceived need, which Apple still has not adequately addressed.

This compact light weight inexpensive player with replaceable batteries could effectively have positioned Xco against Apple given that Apple would have had no comparable product (with or without replaceable batteries) for two years. Thus with proper execution, Xco might have defended and grown its solid state player business.

This is not to predict that Xco could have indefinitely withstood Apple as it broadened its product line. At the least, that would have required continued innovation. But by avoiding a “me too” strategy, it would have likely earned a far better return on its business.

Extra Bases in Boston

Boston Baseball Fans and some normally indifferent to the game are even more enthusiastic leading up to the 2007 World Series. The reason – not just the Sox’ chance or a second title in three years – but furniture.

Those who bought sofas, dining room sets, etc. last spring at Jordan’s Furniture, a group of four retail stores near Boston, stand to have their full purchase price (up to $2,500) refunded if the Boston Red Sox win the World Series.

This promotion created news coverage at the time and thus amplified Jordan’s own marketing of the event. The press also reported that sales volume was substantially above the prior period and that during the last week of the event the store was “mobbed.” Jordan’s hedged their expense of the promotion through an insurance policy.

What does this have to do with the furniture business or yours? Why is Jordan’s so much more successful than most furniture retailers?

Sports relates sales promotions are common. But this one was unique. It was not a ho-hum official sponsor of, hire an endorsement from a particular sports figure, or buy and be entered in a drawing for World Series tickets.

A key question for any marketer is or ought to be what business are we in. For Jordan’s, the answer appears to be show business. The thought of dragging your family to look at mattresses, living room ensembles, and dining tables is not appealing. It becomes a chore to be avoided.

But if you could see first movies on a giant Imax screen, have free popcorn, and have a year-round Mardi Gras. In short be entertained and while your at get that desk and filing cabinet, you’ve been wanting for your home office. Going to Jordan’s during this promotion was participating in an event

Barry and Eliot, Jordans’ top executives and spokesmen, have long used entertainment to position their company as a venue as well as a furniture store.

All of this adds perceived value to what could seem like a boring commodity, encourages shoppers, and engages customers.

You don’t have to swing for the fences the way Jordan’s has, but what are you doing to get past first base with your customers?

The Blog Turns 10

The Blog turned 10 this summer. Aside from disappointment that you missed the party, why should you care? Should you join scores of millions of organizations, pundits, and malcontents in creating a blog for your business, hobby, or cause?

I’ve not seen a really good definition of blog. I’d characterize it as organized web content, such as by date and subject, which is very easy to update. You as a blogger don’t have to know more than how to type or cut and paste and click a button or two. Blogs can be far more elaborate with graphics, audio, and full motion video; but in general, you need no more than an Internet connection and an idea. Far too many blogs seem to dispense with this second ingredient.

As marketers, we like to experiment. Blogs can be quick experiments. They do not require significant investment. If your blog is getting bogged down in design reviews and policy meetings, stop. Your blog doesn’t have to be ugly, but its purpose is to dispense content. As in so much of marketing, the KISS principal (Keep It Simple Stupid) applies.

What can a blog do for you? Occasionally blogs become a hit and get lots of traffic. When that happens you can profit by selling ads through programs such as Google’s Adsense. This does happen, but is as optimistic as panning for gold in your bath tub – not the basis for a business plan.

Blogging systems typically allow readers to comment, though this option can be turned off. If you enable this, a blog can be useful source of customer information and an early alert to problems. It’s also a way to engage customers, especially those who care about the product. These engaged customers could be the basis of a community of users.

Even unhappy customers have value. They could signal perceived or real problems you ought to know about, and the blog can be a vehicle to directly reach and respond to them.

Any visitor to the blog can comment, so a rude, lewd, or overly persistent commentator can be a problem. There are ways to deal with these such as moderating your blog, but they add complexity and labor to what is supposed to be an essentially simple system.

The key reason we recommend blogs is to keep adding new content to your site. Blogs are an almost spontaneous way for you to add relevant information, without another web design cycle. Indeed some blog software, WordPress comes to mind, could be used as a full blown web publishing and content management system. Having a blog can help your site’s search rankings. Because blog content can be readily refreshed and enhanced, it’s a reason for visitor’s to keep returning.

Because of their informal style, blogs can also be a window on the personality of your brand or products; and so a way to get closer to your customers. If you’ve got something to say, get a blog.

TNAR

Professor Robert Sutton’s latest book is short and easily readable in a few evenings. It’s provocative title is *The No Asshole Rule (Random House, 2007). It’s content is relevant to your business.

The book focuses on the disfunctions of teams and organizations caused by bullies, jerks, and “assholes”. The book is commendable in its cases, descriptions, and prescriptions for alleviating some of the damage caused by these toxic people.

In essence, the Rule is:

Avoid hiring them, even if they have other desirable skills. If need be include this formally in your job search requirements.

Failing this -

Find them. That is, diagnose and distinguish between the aberration and the occasional bad behavior, most of us occasionally commit, from the true chronic, certified jerk.

Fix them. This is problematic but sometimes possible. If an outright cure is not feasible, perhaps these bozos can be assigned a role, which best uses his strengths while insulating the rest of group from him.

Fire them. This can be tough to do. Very tough in some organizations. The result justifies the effort.

Sutton’s specialty is management not marketing, but his ideas are directly relevant. As marketers, we occasionally have these types as customers. The Rule should apply here as well. We’re not talking about simply difficult or demanding customers. We get paid to satisfy them. Their complaints and criticisms may improve our business.

What we don’t get paid for is dealing with tainted customers and prospects. Even if they’re “profitable”, and often they are not, they are not worth it. Even customer sovereign organizations, such Nordstrom and LL Bean, have come to recognize this. Ideally a CRM system would flag such individuals. In the real world, we shouldn’t be afraid to apply TNAR to our customers and if necessary fire them.