Marketing Matters

Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

Thanks to Chris Anderson, there’s a lot of talk lately about the true value of “free”.  Most people like the idea of “free” of course, but “free” is like most poisons – it’s ok in small doses. You can’t get carried away with free, though, because not only does it have a negative impact on the bottom line, but it’s messy, too.

As much as people like free, they don’t like messy. Messy things make it hard for us to feel at ease. There’s no peace in a mess. MySpace is pretty messy compared with Facebook, which is why MySpace is on the wane and Facebook is growing. Sure, you don’t have the ability to personalize your page, but the conversations are nice and tidy and can be followed more easily. Twitter is entirely messy – it’s hard to cut through the chatter sometimes to find the things you really want to know, so I fully expect to find it’s been replaced by something else in another year or so.

Free things are messy in the same way that Twitter is messy – there’s a certain amount of chaos in them and you need to feel at home with chaos to be able to make the most of it. The other day, some friends and I went to a restaurant’s anniversary celebration which featured free food. We got there about 5 minutes after the doors opened and found the line reached down the block. The line moved painfully slowly and once you got your food, there was no place to sit because everyone in town, it seemed, showed up for the free food. The restaurant hadn’t been prepared for the consequences of “free”. The food was delicious, but if you weren’t able to embrace the chaos, it was not a good place to be.

So before you leap on the free bandwagon, make sure you’re prepared to ride the wave of chaos it creates. It’s not for everyone. It’s messy.

The other day I was at a breakfast meeting at the Cornell Club where the topic had turned to how to use social media for business. The guy sitting next to me, who is rather successful in his field, rather abruptly announced that if he knew his insurance agent or financial advisor were “playing around at those sites” he’d get rid of them.

You can imagine the stunned silence that fell over the room for a few seconds before it got very loud. Everyone around the table had something to say about that. My response to him was very blunt: Customers are on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites – current ones, potential ones, you name it. If you have something to sell, you’d be remiss to not be where your customers are and to interact with them there. Let them talk to you, listen to what they have to say, and they’ll be more open to talking to you. Ignore them and they’ll go away and take their money with them.

Businesses exist to make money and they do that by communicating with their customers. Social media makes it easier to communicate, so it’s smart business to use it.

Personally, I’d like to think my financial advisor is smart. Wouldn’t you?

There are a lot of reasons to follow me on Twitter if you care about marketing, compelling ways to tell a corporate story, or if you want to read about me writing my book. But from the look of the landscape, there are some good reasons not to follow me on Twitter, too, that warrant mentioning. Here are the top 5.

1) I care more about the brand than the brand’s products.
When I mention a company’s great branding initiative or a way they’re using social media or some new technology to communicate with their audience, it’s not a given that I’ll be talking about the same company tomorrow. If I write about Ducati, I’m going to follow the development of their new social media ad campaign as results become available, but I won’t write about how wicked cool their new model is or what it’s like to restore a ’62 bike. Apply that example to any brand you can think of and it will hold true for me and my tweets. If you’re really into a brand’s products but don’t care about how they voice their brand, I’m not your guy.

2) I only tweet when I have something interesting to say.
I follow PR and social media guru @sandrafathi and she recently noted that she loses followers when she doesn’t tweet for 24 hours. That’s crazy. She constantly has great content, so if a day goes by with nothing, there are still the other 6 days each week that have compelling content. I don’t tweet as often as her and have let more than that period of time go by without tweeting. So if you’re constantly weeding your list of people who haven’t posted in 24 hours, you’re probably better off not adding me in the first place.

3) When I do other things, I usually don’t tweet.
I follow a serious business leader who shall remain nameless who recently tweeted that “peeing is great twitter time”. He wasn’t kidding. I enjoy multi-tasking as much as the next guy, but there are times to put the PDA away or to not have your laptop on your lap. If you want me to tweet while I’m “busy”, I’m not your guy.

4) I’m not in it for the numbers.
I’m not on Twitter to be Ashton Kutcher. I’m there to talk about great brands and interesting marketing ideas. Not everybody cares about that and that’s fine. Accordingly, I don’t care if I have only 2 followers, as long as they’re the 2 right followers for me. Would I rather have 2000? Sure, but only if they care about what I’m writing. It’s better to have the right audience than a big but disinterested audience.

5) I’m not going to buy your Twitter tool.
“Millions! You’ll make millions!” I hear it every day. Paid content, paid followers, spam followers, games, toys – the list keeps growing. No matter how many times you want to try to convince me to place myself at the vanguard of social media marketing by letting Dell buy my every tenth tweet, I’m not going to bite. I don’t buy crap. I buy into great ideas. If you’re shouting at me in bad grammar in bold print or all caps, I’m not going to listen.

Thankfully, that’s not most of you, but it is a large number. Twitter is a pretty interesting tool and for anyone who gets exactly what I mean with this post, I look forward to seeing you there.

I spend about an hour in the car every day taking my son to playschool and listening to Phil Schaap on WKCR talk about jazz in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Not only does Schaap play great music, but he has insights into how the greats became household names and a lot of what he says is relevant to anyone interested in building brands.

The other day, Schaap mentioned that “Lester Young was on the charts when the charts mattered.”  Who knows what the #1 record is right now? And since the demise of the single, how is that even being measured? People used to know but they don’t anymore. The charts used to matter, but that was a long time ago.

That immediately got me thinking about our “marketing charts” – independent brand valuations. What’s the #1 brand in America right now? Can you make a good guess? There are three right answers, but do any of them matter?

I recently Twittered about an article that discussed the wild fluctuations of brand value as measured by Interbrand, Millward Brown, and Brand Finance. When such seemingly similar valuations aren’t comparable, what are we left with? When no one can agree on the basics, do our metrics matter?

When I listen to CMOs talk about metrics, they always confess that part of gauging success is “gut”. I don’t think anyone would actually call that a metric. Is that how we’re measuring our brand value, too? Is it just gut?

When we have three different answers and three different perspectives of rising or falling value and no way to bring them together into a coherent view of the market, we may not have anything better to rely on than gut. Marketers either have to find a way to combine those three perspectives to make one sensible brand value or ignore them all together. It would be nice, though, if we could find a way to make the charts matter.

In the meantime, I guess we can all just listen to Phil Schaap and Lester Young.

Burger King advertising around the world is in a cycle of offense and apologies. Is this an odd plan or a symptom of a lack of global brand coordination?
Read about it in Ad Age.

By the way, are you following me on Twitter? You should be. I regularly post articles of interest regarding marketing like this as well as updates about my other blog, Writing in the Sun, about my current book project

I’ll confess that my original title for this post was “It’s Cool, It’s Useful, It Makes Life Simpler – It’s from Microsoft???” Like most people, I’ve done my fair share of Microsoft bashing. After all, I use Vista, so that’s really no surprise. But I have to give credit where credit is due: Bing is really cool, very useful and even pretty.

Haven’t heard of Bing yet? It’s designed to do to Google what Google did to AltaVista  – lay it to waste by making life exponentially easier for the people who use it.

Bing’s introductory video does a good job at making it clear that this is a serious tool designed with the user in mind. That’s great, of course, but for me, though, what stands out the most is the approach Microsoft is taking with its marketing. The thing that impresses me is that it’s so thorough: they employed standard big-brand tactics like issuing a press release and doing a tradeshow launch, but then they created an interesting video that informs you about Bing’s functionality pleasantly in less than 3 minutes, and they make it easy for you to follow their progress on Twitter and Facebook.

As if that weren’t already an exceptional marketing program, they went and did it all really well. The video lets you know exactly why you should care and why we’re all probably going to end up using Bing. It elicits more “oh cool!” and “hey, look at this” reactions than most campaigns. The social media pages have actual information on them. And the site itself is sleek and well-designed.

I want to make it clear that I’m not just swooning for no good reason. I’m swooning for two good reasons: first, Microsoft really rose to the occasion in marketing Bing well. Second, it’s actually good.

To my friends in Redmond, my hat is off to you. Thanks for the pleasant surprise.

As if you need another reason to fast-forward over commercials on TV or ignore them in a magazine, have you noticed how most ad campaigns are increasingly cynical?

Apparently, someone told the major advertising agencies that a brand can only build an audience right now by appealing to our sense of snark. It’s actually gotten so bad that every time I’ve mentioned the subject to friends lately, I get another handful of examples that support the point. Don’t know what I mean? Just look at Old Spice, Super 8 and even Cheetos. Old Spice has no idea what its brand means anymore, Super 8 is shouting at me and Cheetos belongs on an after-school movie about clinical depression. It’s pathetic.

A brand is a promise a company makes about its products to its target audience. It’s supposed to be about a positive sense of emotion and community. If you don’t see something you want to be a part of, why buy that brand and not a competing one? Are we, the audience, really supposed to feel addressed by shouting sarcasm and lost identity?

Enter Cat Stevens.
After 30 years of silence, Cat came back. OK, well, he’s Yusuf Islam now, but his new album, Roadsinger, is out and he’s making rounds on TV (check out his interview with Stephen Colbert here), talking about peace and openness and singing about it, too.

He may have changed his name to Yusuf, but he sounds just like Cat: He’s delivering songs with a message and a point and he rewards listeners with insight and reflection along with memorable melodies that you find yourself singing quietly later.

It’s amazing that he can have such a positive and educational message, encased in a 30 year-old brand, while everyone around him is broadcasting the exact opposite. I don’t think he would have had the same impact a year ago as he does right now. The contrast wouldn’t have been as crass. Most of what we’re hearing these days is louder, more aggressive and more cynical than we’ve ever heard before.

I don’t know if it’s more dispiriting to hear those commercials or to think that that’s what marketers believe resonates now. The only thing I can think to say is, “Yell all you want, advertisers, I’ll just turn up the volume on Roadsinger.”

I’ve never met a business owner who hasn’t believed that change is good, but sometimes changing nothing will provide better brand value. Ben & Jerry’s were recently presented with just such a perfect pitch by one of their main competitors, Haagen-Dazs.

Here’s what happened:
Haagen-Dazs noticed that their production costs were rising and started trying to find solutions. They had several options:

• Exert market pressure on suppliers who are jacking up prices because of last year’s increase in oil prices
• Reach out through social media channels to their most active consumers and explain the situation
• Launch a viral campaign in which they demonstrate the way they’re fighting for summer against the forces of evil
• Pass on the cost increase to the consumer
• Reduce their profit margin
• Improve their internal efficiency to save money
• Shrink the size of a “pint” and hope no one notices they’re getting less with no change in price.

Which do you suppose they did? If you guessed “shrink the size of their pint” you win the kewpie doll. With a murmur on their Web site Haagen-Dazs explained that they are no longer in the business of selling pints of ice cream. They shrunk their packages from 16 to 14 ounces

Ben & Jerry’s responded immediately with a well-distributed press release that was very simple. Everyone’s feeling the pinch, they wrote, and “now more than ever you deserve your full pint of ice cream.”

With that simple statement, they positioned themselves as a brand that cares about you and your family in this economy and Haagen-Dazs as the brand that doesn’t.

Sometimes business realities are harsh and prices need to go up and things need to change. A wise company will figure out how to come out a hero when it’s struggling against market forces. That’s why they employ hundreds of professional storytellers (read marketers): to figure out how to structure the story. That’s the way you stay on top of it and preserve your brand value. And these days, marketers have incredible tools with which to be clever and reach out to their consumers.

What you don’t do is ignore the fact that acquiring new consumers is about brand image. Don’t blow yours by handing your primary competitor an opportunity to make huge gains in brand value by doing nothing except issuing a press release.

It was a pretty harsh wake-up call to have the Online ID Calculator tell me I’m only digitally dabbling.

source: http://www.onlineidcalculator.com/digitalscale.html

Considering the pains I take as a marketer to establish continuity in my messaging across my blog, site, LinkedIn profile, Facebook page and Twitter (which I’ll admit I only do when I have something to say), I was surprised I didn’t cross the threshold into “digitally distinct”. That’s a good indicator of the lengths you have to go to truly make your brand distinct.

The Calculator was created “to help [you] understand how [your] personal brand shows up online.” It’s free and it’s certainly worthwhile. No matter who you are or how you’re using your online presence, it’s worth knowing. Brands can quickly get away from you, no matter how hard you try to control them – just look at what happened to Domino’s this week.

A tool like this is a quick and easy way to check up on the status of your brand. If you find out it’s in a bad quadrant, you should take a firmer grip of the reins and start to steer your messaging in the direction you want it to go.

If you’re not sure how to coordinate your branding efforts, be they your personal brand or for your company, take a look at this video I did for TheLadders.com. It’s directed at job seekers, but it’s really for anyone who cares about a brand they’re involved with.

Did you try it? How do you rank?

There was a very kind article written about me in the Career Advice section of TheLadders.com yesterday. It was a bit unexpected – while I had spoken to a journalist they had hired, I thought it was background on a different project.

The article wraps up a very eventful ten days for me – last Monday I was on Fox & Friends. Two days later, I was taping a segment for a new venture I hope to be writing about soon, and now this article.

If you’re a Ladders subscriber, you can read the article here, along with a lot of other great career advise. Otherwise, you can see it below.

Many thanks to TheLadders.com for this great story!

Marketing Pro Remakes His Image
Marketing executive details his job search and offers tips to other marketers looking for work.

by Patty Orsini

William Scheckel is a marketing executive skilled in marketing financial and technical services. He had never thought much about marketing himself, though, until one day last May, a couple of weeks after he had been laid off from a management consultancy in New York.

“A colleague, who is the chief marketing officer at a company I respect, pitched me back to me,” Scheckel said. “It was an eye-opener. I realized that I needed to put together this pitch, to get the word out about me. It was very helpful to get that kind of support.”

For Scheckel — who was still upset about being laid off and the way his former employer had handled the situation — it was the right thing to hear at the right time. “I could continue to be angry, shocked and concerned about the layoff,” the Montclair, N.J., resident said. “But I pushed myself to take that fear and anger and turn it toward making the effort to market myself.”

The MktgLadder member had many reasons to regroup as quickly as possible. “A few weeks before I was laid off, I had told my wife, who is a teacher and was miserable in her job, to go ahead and take some time off, rethink some things and then find a new job,” he said. “And my son had just turned 1. So, talk about putting everything in perspective! I knew what I needed to do.”

A video introduction
One of the first things he did was redo his Web site, adding a video introduction that would make that all-important pitch. “I put it to together with a friend of mine who is a film editor, who offered to do it for free,” he said. “We created this introduction that says, ‘Here’s what it’s like to talk to me, here’s what we will be talking about. If you like what you hear, let’s continue this conversation in person.’ ”

That exercise led Scheckel to rewrite his resume, using much the same language he had used for his Web site. On both his Web site and in his resume, he is doing the same thing, he said: marketing his brand.

“If I were a marketing consultant to myself, I would be hammering out the different aspects of my brand,” he said. “I know what I am good for: small- and medium-sized businesses. I wanted to make sure my messaging says this. If I do it right, I will display my value properly.”

While Scheckel is looking for a full-time position, consulting work is keeping him busy, in between job interviews, networking and taking care of his toddler son. His sense of humor keeps him going. “There are extra hours in the day when other people sleep,” he joked. “I stay up late, I get up early. I’m home with my son a couple of days a week, and on those days, if I can tire him out by 1 p.m., I can get a good three hours of work in. There’s not a lot of time to watch Battlestar Galactica re-runs.”

Scheckel has structured his week to fit in job hunting with consulting and refreshing his Web site. “Wednesdays and Fridays are job hunt days,” he said. “Mondays I have a regular gig with a company doing marketing work. I do like to have one day that’s flexible. But getting into a routine, where my day is structured like a job, is important.”

Beware of pigeonholes
While he is looking to broaden his search to other industries, “no matter what I try to do, I get tagged as someone who does marketing for financial and tech companies,” he said. “Marketing is marketing, and it can be applied across the board. In the 1990s, I worked in Germany, and my clients came from a lot of different businesses. But the places that are most likely to talk to me are financial companies, and no one is hiring there right now. With tech, I prefer small to mid-sized companies, and finding something viable can be difficult.”

But if he could choose any industry to market? “If Carnegie Hall or Jazz at Lincoln Center came knocking on my door, I would bend over backwards to work there,” he said. “I’m a musician; I would love to work in the arts.” But he is being realistic right now. Scheckel said he has been told by people in other industries that “no one is taking a chance right now. They want you to come in and be up to speed. They expect you to know the landscape, know the people. There is no time for ramping up.”

Career Advice from TheLadders

• Designer Clears Security to Land Defense Job in D.C.
• Hired! Creative Possibilities in Software Sales
• Sales Rep Leaves High-Volume Quotas for Higher Elevation
• Real Estate Director Plans Exit Strategy

Some days are tougher than others, he said. “My outlook varies from moment to moment,” he said. “It can go from staring into the abyss to feeling like something has got to give.” One big relief: His wife did go back to work, as a part-time teacher and part-time administrator at a local college.

And he keeps marketing himself, even to himself. “I’m good at what I do, and somebody is going to see the value,” he said. “I never let a contact rest. I never know where an idle conversation is going to lead. I’m in marketing, I’m not a salesman, but I’ve become a good salesman. I pull on whatever thread I can find.”