Two Cents on Marketing

MarketingForecasting.com Direct Marketing Planning Tool Reviewed

2008-04-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

My MarketingForecasting.com ROI calculator -- designed for b2b marketers seeking assistance in calculating campaign and annual marketing plan ROI -- was just reviewed in Sales and Marketing Management Magazine in a review entitled "Charting ROI on the fly."

Here's an excerpt:

"Measuring return-on-investment may never qualify as a fun endeavor, but thanks to homme6, it's now become a much easier one to undertake."

Visit MarketingForecasting.com for more information and to purchase the spreadhsheet tool.

-ip

Marketing ROI and Return On Marketing Investment (ROMI) Book Reviews

2008-03-13T05:36:00.000-07:00

After a two year hiatus, I am pleased to report that I am back to blogging. The topic today: brief book reviews for 'Marketing ROI, The Path to Campaign, Customer, and Corporate Profitability,' and 'Return on Marketing Investment, Demand More from Your Marketing and Sales Investments.'

Marketing ROI, by James D. Lenskold'

Marketing ROI aims to serve as a comprehensive reference for marketers to understand marketing ROI formulas and principles and apply marketing ROI.

In my opinion, this books is meant exclusively for senior marketers - marketing directors to VPs of Marketing - as well others in executive management, and primarily for larger Fortune 500 type companies.

The strengths of this particular book are its areas of focus on the foundation of marketing ROI principles, outlines of key financial concepts, identifying where ROI measurements go wrong, analyzing investment and return patterns - acquisition and retention, assessing ROI thresholds, reinforcing the marketing manager's responsibility for campaign performance, and reviewing issues that are prevalent within larger corporate settings.

This is worth the cost of investment, but additional information would be useful in any future editions - more detailed implementation tactics, strategies for small and mid-market companies, and emphasizing in greater detail the decision making trees for acquisition and retention, and direct marketing ROI forecasting.

Want to know if this book is right for you?
Here are some keywords from the book: ROI, profitability, formula, methodolgies, CRM, financial concepts, point-of-decision perspective, incremental measures, calculating return and investment, customer lifetime value, acquisition and retention, cross sell and loyalty, campaign metrics, marketing budgets, multilevel ROI measurements, benchmarking, market resting, customer segment investment strategies, the Marketing ROI Control Panel

Return on Marketing Investment, by Guy R. Powell

Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) was developed to deliver tools and methodologies that tie successful marketing communications and sales programs together. It is meant for any sized organization, but will be particularly relevant to marketers at small to mid-market companies - marketing managers and upwards/director-to-VP and downwards/associates-to-coordinators -- as well as less analytics- and technology-driven companies.

The strength of this book is practicality, which translates into instant usability by the reader post-reading. The strongest sections and topics covered in the book are its program selection guide, its risk comparison overview for marketing tactics, its section on the appropriate allocation of funds between different marketing programs, sales alignment messages, and its ROMI Hurdle Rate Calculation Worksheet, and Return on Marketing Investment Calculation Worksheet. The examples given are also practical and extremely useful in "showing" the concepts presented.

The only suggestions I'd have for improving this book would be to present marketing ROI decision making trees, to look at benchmarks and present industry data, and to present a case study briefing on going from zero marketing ROI calculations to a successful implementation. A greater emphasis on the importance of research and marketing ROI forecasting would also be good.

Want to know if this book is right for you?
Here are some keywords from the book:
ROMI, accountability, measuring risk, hurdle rates, acquisition, retention, markting nirvana, calculation worksheet, expenditure, investment, yield, budgeting, hit rates, invest more or less, budgeting process, sales lead generation, risk factors, marcom programs, brand awareness, tradeshow, PR, direct mail, advertising, e-mail, telemarketing, telesales, contribution margin, fixed costs, competitive pressures, growing markets, costs for cost centers, cash basis vs. accrual accounting, tracking revenue and costs, sales feedback, tool, web, cross-selling

KEYWORDS FOR THIS POSTING:
marketing forecasting, marketing ROI, sales analysis calculators, homme6, B2B direct marketing response rate calculator, bookings forecast calculator, forecasting marketing, campaign ROI measurement calculations, marketing campaign ROI spreadsheet, excel ROI calculator, forecast per lead calculators

21st Century Marketing Defined....Simply.

2006-09-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

Marketing has changed profoundly in the last 5-10 years, fueled by advances in data accessibility, targeting capabilities, technology-enabled interactivity, etc. It is no longer the marketing of old, before the Internet and the advent of brand management. Spend five minutes looking at job postings of today and compare versus your recollection (or your paper archives, if you've beeen around long enough!) and you'll see what I mean.

So, how should "marketing" be defined in this day and age?

But first, you may ask why this matters....well, it matters in as much as it has become a driver of the business-world of today that many of us now live in for up to 12 hours a day and six or seven days a week. It also embodies aspects that have permeated the entire non-work ecosystem that we live in as "consumers."

So, back to the question at hand: marketing defined. To describe it in a simple, straight-forward fashion (hint: think "what would you tell your grandma" simple), and taking account of its most fundamental components and functions, then my definition of marketing is as follows:

A function of building relationships, demand, interest, and/or sales for a brand, utilizing: segmented audience targeting and engagement, words, numbers/data, data capture and measurement techniques, analysis and pattern recognition, and iterative planning.

Of critical importance for marketers like me are the two variables : data and words. Critical for the offline world and connecting with targeted audiences, and critical for the online world of search and promotions.

Compare this from definitions on Wikipedia:

Definitions

* Marketing, as suggested by the American Marketing Association, is "an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders".[1]

* Another definition, perhaps simpler and more universal, is this: "Marketing is the ongoing process of moving people closer to making a decision to purchase, use, follow...or conform to someone else's products, services or values. Simply, if it doesn't facilitate a "sale" then it's not marketing."[2]

* Philip Kotler in his earlier books defines as: "Marketing is human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes". Add to Kotler's and Norris' definitions, a response from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) [3]. The association's definition claims marketing to be the "management process of anticipating, identifying and satisfying customer requirements profitably". Thus, operative marketing involves the processes of market research, new product development, product life cycle management, pricing, channel management as well as promotion.

All three definitions are somewhat abstract. Two of the three describe only the pursuit of marketing, but do not present the methods. The third definition, from the reputable Kotler described methodology but at an extremely high macro-level. The variables that I've presented in my definition all apply to the Kotler version, but provides marketers and non-marketers alike with something more tangible to grasp.

It is my hope that the definition of marketing continues to evolve within industry and academia into a more suitable form, one that captures its true nature of the science and the art that ties business to its various audiences. For marketers, reminding ourselves of these basic building blocks is ideal. So whether you're spreading the marketing bug to junior cohorts or simply planning the next marketing campaign and you remember to start with your segmented audience profiles and move to keywords that will resonate with them and the audience of search engines, hopefully this fundamental reminder serves you well.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Websites - 70 Practical Tips from Ian Palmer

2006-07-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

I had an all too quick vacation to the Pacific Northwest and a quick jaunt out to Taiwan recently, but I'm back!

For this post, I'm not going to jump on my blogsoapbox regarding the importance of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), prospect and online data capture, the power of content, and online or web marketing in general.

What I will do, however, is share with you all a running list of items that I know to be important when creating or re-tooling a website according to SEO best practices.

Please use this if you are marketer, web designer, web developer, editoral staff member, product or brand manager, or just a geek like me looking to do things right. We live in a world of convergence, so we must do our part to make it work.

Finally, if you've gotten lost and found your way to this website, feel free to add your two cents.

- Ian Palmer

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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION - A Quick checklist of 70 dos and donts to consider.
(Warning: lengthier than a normal top-10 SEO tips & without technical explanations or prioritization by importance - I'm not doing all of your work!)
***************************
1. create a list of keywords & key phrases for each page that already exists, and create a list for any new pages BEFORE starting content

2. ensure that keywords and phrases are used in content, particularly near the top paragraphs, in page titles (browser and on the page), as well as in any meta description or meta tag fields in the source code

3. label all images with keywords that describe whatever is on the image

4. include meta tags and a meta description for as many pages as possible

5. create a site map with hyperlinks to other pages or sections; create google site index too

6. create your website in thematic sections as much as possible

7. For dynamic pages:
- 1,000 or fewer characters in URL
- 2 or fewer dynamic paramaters
- no session identifiers usually displayed as 'ID=...',
- ensure spider path to every valid product number if you have a catalog
- rewrite urls, especially critical ones to ensure key identifiers/words used

8. try to avoid javascript as much as possible or meta-refresh redirects; if using javascript then move from web page to an extended file

9. use 302 redirects for vanity urls (e.g. marketing campaign for www.gofastmamma.com if redirect to another url)

10. keep to 100,000 character limit per page (for Google and Yahoo!)

11. test and measure as much as possible; if re-vamping a current site then measure-test-measure-test-etc.

12. when measuring effectiveness, use search results rankings, traffic analyses, site search results, log files, data from web analytics packages (entry pages, exit pages, paths, funnels, etc.).

13. make sure all (current) pages are indexed in search engines and are not banned; use Google "site:www.xxxxxx.com", MarketLeap tools, or others; CALCULATE inclusion ratio vs. total, and use this to measure improvement in a dashboard

14. create a dashboard of metrics - SEO projects will be lengthier than ongoing metrics

15. ensure spiders are visiting the site

16. check if other sites are linking to you, enact a linking campaign to recruit links, and ensure links back to you include your company and product name and keywords NOT just www.url.com

17. check site for major internet browsers and versions

18. if not listed in search engines then manually submit, but DON'T oversubmit or use all-in-one submission software

19. create a search engine site checklist for creating webpages to complement keywords and key phrases

20. consider / model the ROI from a Yahoo! paid inclusion program which will include you in the search results versus the paid advertising portions; uses an XML feed

21. add site search to your site: critical to helping prospects and customers (more important than search engines, since they've already found you!) find what they want and provide you with data on what they're looking for

22. eliminate spider traps and create spider-friendly paths and links

23. reduce ignored content

24. use robot.txt on pages you don't want search engines to follow: important so as not to include useless pages, to become spider traps, and to use up your currency for paid analytics web pages

25. create page, section and site templates

26. create/use a metatag for language (e.g. English)

27. keep urls shorter if possible with not too many levels

28. create webpages and optimization plans by (measurable) objectives

29. build your website and optimize pages based on user groups / profiles....marketing is all about segmentation and personalized messaging

30. don't use words that are too hot or too generic

31. if optimizing campaigns, tie keywords across both campaign copy, search engine marketing (SEM) copy, and web page copy

32. understand your keywords and phrases - multiple audiences? multiple meanings? multiple intents? singular vs. plural? variations? etc.

33. validate site html to make sure no errors and no broken links

34. add text links at bottom of key pages, ordered in terms of importance

35. Google: free xml rss feeds (hint: on sections with reguarly new content added, for example blogs and press releases!)

36. audiences: customers & prospects, search engines, and possibly a salesforce if you have one (e.g. business-to-business B2B instead of business-to-consumer B2C)

37. as part of metrics, include organic search rankings, search referrals, and web conversions

38. back your way into your page creation or re-creation: check and not page ranks in search engines for each keyword (and more importantly phrases)

39. ensure keywords in title of page - the fewer the keywords the greater the density and impact, so be selective

40. keywords: bold keywords where it makes sense on the site since this is an indicator to search engines about increased importance, just like hyperlinks are; keyword frequency also matters as well as prominence (in first 25 words, near top, high density, etc.)

41. have a call to action in mind and identified on each page: this is optimization for humans. what do you want them to do or what do you want accomplished? links, buttons, actions, should all be clearly identified here

42. dynamic pages can be difficult but have benefits, for example are good for trusted feeds. optimize through the addition of titles, custom description fields, etc.

43. create hub or authority pages (text from...links to...) - related sites, site with lots of traffic, etc.

44. perform a link audit of your site: to, from, text in links, location of links vs. ideal location, missing links, etc.; list business partners and trade associations

45. ensure marketing, product teams, community/pr, and any editorial departments or divisions are aligned and communicate

46. keep description tag to 150 characters per page (a larger and still acceptable range is 100-200)

47. develop a link strategy for your site and understand what each click reports in any post-click analysis (call to action)

48. if using cascading style sheets (css) then make sure not too big, use few images, and add alt text to images

49. understand your off-the-page factors (e.g. link popularity)

50. set objectives and ROI estimates for any SEO or SEM work; marketing is a science as much as an art

51. if you don't have the expertise in-house, know that your options are: firm, individual consultant, offshore such as India

52. for large website development or multi-department authorization, utilize wireframes before creating webpages, to support strategic early stage discussions so as not to waste time and money on aesthetic execution, etc.; wireframes allow for talking points on a page-by-page objective basis

53. create 'person paths' - keywords, key phrases, topics of interest, what they need to know

54. before creating content and site architecture, understand each customer type and the buying process: current versus ideal

55. include customers/prospects in any major SEO projects or website re-design/re-architecure

56. add new content often

57. remove bad/unused content (if moving it or paths to it don't make an impact)

58. text content should be greater than html

59. use text links instead of images where possible

60. use heading tags where possible, start with H1, if H1 is too big use CSS, follow H1 by text or graphics instead of H2 where possible

61. use hyphens (-) NOT underscors (_) to separate words in directories

62. ensure the web server and service provider have 99.9% or higher uptimes - this is critical

63. don't use flash when possible, especially on homepages

64. keep design aspects simple (sounds basic, but trust me!)

65. absolutely do NOT use black hat SEO tricks

66. review other sites and see what they do, particularly those at the top of results pages that you'd like to be at for keywords or key phrases

67. study, study, and study more - keep on top of seo/sem news, tips & tricks, etc.

68. do not use frames, doorway pages, multiple pages, subdomains or pages with duplicate content

69. if you delete or move pages, use a redirect

70. make sure all links on the site work

Okay, that's all for now. Here are a few links (not using anchor text or keywords this time!) for your additional viewing pleasure...and utilization!
www.americawebworks.com/metatagplus
www.mcdar.net
www.ecentralmarketing.com
www.seoelite.com
www.wordtracker.com
www.sitecontentanalyzer.com
www.webceo.com
validator.w3.org
www.adwordanalyzer.com
www.google.com
www.msn.com
www.yahoo.com
www.searchenginelowdown.com
www.searchenginewatch.com
www.sempo.com
www.seochat.com
www.marketleap.com
home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

Audience Types for B2B Marketing

2006-07-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

A quick pre-4th post...was cleaning up my library tonight and found notes I'd made during a few good reads lately. One, in particular, caught my eye - the three major audiences for those in marketing within most mainstream B2B organizations. The first audience and first audience sub-category below being the most important, of course:

1. Customers/Prospects
a. Existing Customers
b. Potential Customers
c. Former Customers
2. Sales Teams
3. Search Engines

Perhaps the most underrated unifier within a strong market management program is CONTENT. Content that educates, influences, persuades, engages, and motivates. It is applicable to all audiences. Many marketers and non-marketers (even in the executive rank) underestimate or don't even bother to think about content as a critical-to-success factor in a company's marketing and financial success.

My two cents for the night...

A Better/Alternative Way to Market Automobiles?

2006-06-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, after a long hiatus...I'm back. Was taking a stroll through Brentwood today with my colleague Karl S. during lunch. Somehow we wandered onto the topic of cars and marketing.

My two cents.....

From my outside-the-industry/consumer perspective, automobile "push" marketing is primarily split into three segments: (1) brands targeting existing owners, (2) mass marketing to potential owners based on demographics from media outlets, and increasingly (3) online and experiental marketing.

Kudos for #1 and #3 above, for the segmenting by #1 hits the loyalty segment while #3 leverages the power of the Internet for enhanced targeted....thus driving more specific messaging, promotional call to actions, etc., to increase the likelihood of a greater return-on-marketing (ROM).

As for #2, in the brisk walk I was on it dawned on me "wouldn't it make sense to get them in the car?" Most consumers may not be committed to the idea of buying and therfore, not committed to dealing with a local salesman should we want to actually test drive and kick the tires of a new automobile, whether a BMW, Hummer, Mini Cooper, Toyota Highlander Hybrid, Hyundai Santa Fe, etc.

So....why not try to get them in with free or discounted day or weekend rentals. Not only could they test drive it, but they could actually "use" it - transporting items, picking up others, etc., and really EXPERIENCE the ride. The concept is simple: strike a business development deal with a rental car company (e.g. Enterprise Rent-A-Car "we pick you up"), find a list of auto owners for autos 5+ years old (e.g. banks and financing cos.), offer the promotion with tie in to financing co. for whatever special financing offer, follow-up with respondents after the car rental, and have a real list of targeted prospects and additional market research.

I confess that I am not an auto industry marketing professional, but I would love the opportunity to crunch some numbers and pass the idea by a focus group or trusted group of individuals who've agreed to be contacted for research to see if this concept had legs in this form or a variation.

That's all for now. Until next posting....

Ian Palmer

Revival of the Lowest Common Denominator

2006-01-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

Can you guess what DHL, Travelocity, and Citi have in common? Well, as you guessed, I plan to tell you.

Besides the obvious fact that they are service providers, they have all brought back the theme of better or guaranteed service in recent campaigns as part of overall brand re-positioning.

DHL touted the fact that service is back in the shipping business. Travelocity has the 'Travelocity Guarantee' that your orders will be correct without fail, and Citi now offers a credit card that helps you to better manage your account by being able to press '0' on your telephone to speak with a real person.

These occurrences and their success are all very interesting from a strategic marketing perspective. I say this because it defies so many of the assumptions that are so frequently clung to by marketers in industry and academia.

This includes the belief that service businesses must provide a certain level of quality to stay in business, however quality may be defined: speed, personalization, reliability, etc. Many agency folk, academics in higher education, and more senior-level literature on the matter assume that this is the lowest common denominator for business survival and therefore are not uniquely viable long-term positoning strategies.

In the fact of technologically-optimized (read: computer automated) businesses and increased outsourcing, it will be interesting to see if "better service" remains viable in campaigns or actually finds itself defying textbook strategy and becoming a pillar of successful brands and their overt positioning and messaging platforms.

Signs of Change in the Traditional Publishing World

2006-01-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

I received a notice from one of the product managers for our R&D product lines today. It was from the editors of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)reputable Technology Review (est.1899), announcing a number of MAJOR changes revolving around their print magazine and website:

1. investing a greater percentage of available resources in interactive media.....podcasts, blogs, RSS feeds, and other new technologies
>>>read: evolve or fade away...in the traditionally tight-budgeted world of subscription publishing, a quick response is necessary since fading can happen fast.

2. drastically increasing the number of in-depth stories published online at technologyreview.com
>>>>read: create stickiness to increase loyal customer base, particularly in the face of growing competition that threatens the TR subscriber base.

3. decreasing in the frequency of the print magazine to a biomonthly level
>>>read: give readers what they want/need - fresh content in the format that is most easily personalized and digested.

4. shifting of coverage to the impact of emerging technologies and discontinuing the coverage of business modeels and financing of new technologies
>>>>read: business model coverage is passe since new models are now birthed on a seemingly daily basis; shift coverage to an in in-the-moment, reader-centric viewpoint based on deciphering what the current and future implications are.

For those who haven't put their chips down that revolutionary change is at our doorsteps, then this is surely a sign of what is to come in the world of content.

========================================

P.S. Wonder why this matters for marketers not in the content world? The answer is simple:

(1) Because this is impacting our customers, prospects, and brand evangelists in both B2B and B2C marketing. We either grow with them and help them grow, or risk being outgrown ourselves. It ain't about us anymore.

(2) Content (increasingly long-form content) is king in the marketing world of 2006 and beyond - it is our jobs to dish it up in quantity, quality, and in a multitude of engaging/entertaining/modern ways.

B2B Media Stepping Up

2005-12-17T03:09:00.000-08:00

Been pleasantly surprised of late....

Multiple B2B media outlets - some online/offline trade media and other strictly online media - have started forwarding leads to me over the last year for my current company and its laboratory informatics enterprise software solution.

These organizations, of course, always have the chicken-and-egg issue: advertising is needed to support spending for increased readership levels, but readership levels depend on quality content.

Companies like mine can meet two of their most salient needs in support of increased readership:

1. Content through media outreach - press releases, pitches on stories that would interest their readers, blog comments, etc.
2. Advertising to fund ongoing content and community development

So, the fact that companies like mine now receive quality leads from these organizations and in some cases company-related information viewing statistics, means that it is a much more enticing ordeal to invest time to expand a multi-dimensional relationship.

All companies, especially B2B ones, ultimately place a significant amount of value in being able to quantify return on investment (e.g. campaign, customer acquisition, customer lifetime value, etc.). The fact that media entities are growing to meet our needs, will help to ensure our success, the success of our customers/prospects, and their own success. A win-win-win situation.

Ad Campaign Insights - Southwest Airlines & Miller Beer

2005-12-10T21:58:00.000-08:00

Southwest Airlines and Miller Beer each have television advertising spots running this month (December 2005). Southwest is using a direct response seasonal promotion for a gift card, while Miller is employing a branding play.

Southwest Campaign:
I've been thinking about this for years....wondering why gift cards haven't been touted more prominently, in campaigns and the various customer touchpoints. In a time when air travel has been commoditized and most airlines are competing heavily on price - particularly with 3rd parties involved in sales (e.g. Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc.) - a golden window of opportunity is to offer gift cards or gift certificates.

This is a wholly different market available to capture, since most airlines devote the dollars and messaging to enticing consumers to purchase from them at or around the time(s) they need/want to fly. Well, why not create a market by making credits available to give away for whenever anyone wants to enable anyone else to fly whenever they want - students away at college, senior citizen parents living off of social security and away from grandchildren, best friends, etc. Absolutely brilliant. Timing was right on, too, since consumers are thinking about gift-giving and flying. To top it off, the clutter around the promotional messaging is minor, meaning chances of success increase.

Finally, I am of the personal belief that there still exists an opportunity for a stand-alone third party to own the 'spend it anywhere' gift card/certificates, so they could be applied at Southwest, American Airlines, United, etc. The technology is in place and airlines have embraced channel partners, so maybe this will someday come to be.

P.S. A beautiful model wherein money is collected up front as a gift credit, making it recognizable revenue immediately

Miller Beer:
Seen the recent campaign: can't buy it unless you're over 30 campaign? A bar none, less than intelligent marketing/advertising campaign strategy, particularly for such a competitive industry and (U.S.) market. I am trying to imagine how the idea for this campaign was hatched and then approved. I am picturing a couple of creative types sitting around looking at the research, focusing in on the fact that the primary target audience consists of males over 30 years of age...."So, why not just make 30 the new 21 for the beer!" I wish I could have played devil's advocate in that room.

First, marketers have to decide between targeting the lowest common demoninator or choosing the median (not the mean!). This case seems to be the lowest common demoniator. Second, why adopt a strategy that MAY influence your primary audience, but SURELY alienate any secondary audiences costing you customers, short-term sales, and the life-time value from many could-be customers? Third, this doesn't even engage the over-30 audience in any meaningful way, meaning that there isn't even a case for ad hoc balancing for points #1 and #2 above. Fourth, using demographics as the sole basis for a campaign (vs. psychographics and other available data) isn't recommended, and neither is translating demographic research into a creative that highlights demographics. Finally, it isn't even funny.

( -- sigh -- )

The good, the bad, and the ugly. Much to witness, much to learn. Here's hoping that success can be mirrored and improved upon, and mistakes not repeated in the new year.

Community > PR

2005-12-04T07:53:00.000-08:00

The writing is on the wall: public relations is no longer a separate, stand-alone, 1-way marcom channel. Technology has empowered consumers and opened up (one-to-many & one-to-one) communication and relationship building opportunities. The proof is in the pudding:

- Press releases are no longer the only source of "news" - check out this Oracle homepage screenshot, where the most recent press releases AND a blog posting appear together

- Blogs encourage 2-way dialogue - comments and responses
- Dialogue is happening in online communities, both formal and informal, where consumers are sharing their brand experiences...good, bad, and those that are just plain interesting
- Experiential marketing has exploded

The BIG questions marketers face is in how to deal with this, either pro-actively or passively/reactively:

1. Serve as one of the hosts of this dialogue or stay out of conversation altogether (not recommended!). Hosting the dialogue requires you to address any product, service, or customer experience issues that tie in to your brand promise and to be true

2. Integrate and/or align your marketing and communications channels - anything that happens online is 'community,' even if its a campaign that is marketing-driven, lead/sales-oriented, etc.

3. Develop strategies for moving forward effectively in what will surely be a major shift for most organizations

A Gift That Won't Fit In Your (Marketing) Stocking

2005-11-30T23:02:00.000-08:00

Was watching a Los Angeles Clippers game tonight when a Lexus ad popped up tonight on the television. The ad touted the idea of giving a Lexus away as a gift to a loved one for Christmas. STOP! Is it just me, or does this seem strategically a bit off on multiple levels?

A few things:

1. How many people actually buy someone a Lexus for Christmas? Personally, I think there are many more selfish people in the world. Plus, if you are or have been married, you know that a gift purchase of that magnitude would have at least 90% of the population sleeping on the couch (or maybe your spouse's old car) for most of the holiday season.

2. How many people, even in Lexus' target audience, would be persuaded or further influenced to buy a Lexus as a gift because of a 30 second television spot?

3. How many true Lexus prospects would be watching a Clipper basketball game on a Tuesday night?

I'm sure there are exceptions to the points above, but believe that these are all fairly valid points. They highlight something that I've seen for quite some time: one industry (auto) that continues to overly rely on mass marketing. Marketing to the masses can be like marketing to everyone, which ultimately is like marketing to nobody.

To take a page from marketing thoughtleader Joseph Jaffe (check out his online blog Jaffe Juice), the 30-second spot in its current form is dying....I'll be a bit more diplomatic and call it "evolving" since I personally believe that television itself is morphing, not just the advertising/ad alternatives. TV will soon be an integrated medium, like cell phones, PDAs, and personal music devices. Sorry got off point.....the point is that other mediums, particularly online ones, have proven potential to be more effective as the centerpiece of a company's marketing engine.

Car manufacturers should take note along with every other type of company that has a product or service to promote, and customer relationships to develop. While car manufacturers have dealers in disparate geographical locations, there are more effective ways to communicate and to spend money.

This is where companies get into trouble, particularly in those industries that change more rapidly than the auto manufacturing industry. If a competitor can make their $1 work like $2 to every $1 you have, then you'll be in trouble.

So this holiday season, give the gift that'll make a lasting impression, give a smarter marketing plan. This is the type of marketing that'll look good with or without a bow.

Where to Cast Your Marketing Fish Pole

2005-11-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

In planning (business plans, market penetration analyses, new product development) and in practice (marketing plans) it is an all too common mistake made by marketers to zero in on the largest segment of any target audience and to assume this is the market to pursue...at least first-off anyways, which may be counter-intuitive to the instincts of many that tell them smaller segments are only good as part of a future growth strategy.

While it may be right for some businesses that have done their research and have the right formula, for most it usually is a set-up for failure. Further segmentation of a large audience/segment or targeting of a seemingly less targeted audience/segment can often be the sweet spot for a company.

Two examples of this principle:

#1
In reading a USA today article titled ‘Marketing to the Masses Tends to Miss the Many’, it identifies that the African American community is usually either not marketed to or marketed to the same/generic way as other cultural groups through mass marketing. The example of Royal Caribbean successfully promoting their cruise packages through targeted marketing is a prime example of this. In this case it is a growth strategy. For a competitor though, this could well be a viable option to enter, compete, and thrive.

#2
While working on a branded high-tech dry-cleaning start-up in the dotcom era, my former colleagues and I were trying to decide how to prioritize roll-out plans. We had a map of all the dry cleaners in Manhattan, which was to be our first market. Manhattan has dozens of dry cleaners, more than 700 to be precise. For the consumer side of the business, we initially thought we would just target the areas where there was the most density and the most dry cleaners. Upon further analysis, we realized that we needed to add a few other aspects into the mix, including: targeting residents that would best embrace our brand and considering less dense and less well-served areas where there may be more of a need for our service and less competition to uproot. Sometimes less is more.

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My parting thought is this: fishing where the fish are is often the logical and most effective strategy; However, never assume the obvious and be sure to consider whether there are better ponds to fish in. Who knows, the fish may be a lot bigger and more willing to bite your hook.

First RSS, then Podcasts…So, What’s Next?

2005-11-23T12:47:00.000-08:00

Developers/inventors are pioneers of the latest and greatest technology apps. Trend-setting consumers make it spread like wildfire. Businesses ultimately find a way to evolve and monetize new technologies. This is my opinion of what we have seen historically and will continue to see moving forward. Which brings us to today. RSS feeds exploded this year, follow by its Irish twin (within a 12-month period) Podcasts. So, today is November 23, 2005, and I’ve been thinking about what comes next.

Here are my predictions, based on the premises that (1) the recent shift of media/communications control back to consumers/customers is permanent and only in its infancy, and (2) that professionals like so many that I know in Fortune 500 companies - investment banks, marketing, and a multitude of other businesses, currently use a minor amount of company-sponsored resources and a major amount of personal/consumer apps to peform their jobs:

1. Consumer versions of social networking and personalized content will make its way into the business side. Social networking in the business sector will be birthed in a different way than the acquaintance/6-degrees-of-separation networking versions of existing tools such as LinkedIn.com, the very focused collaborative tool sets that may exist within any niche industries, or the traditional databases, search solutions, or the linear supply chain management solutions that exist for research reports and other types of content.

2. These versions will appear in two major forms: (i) for B2B prospects who are buyers, administrators, decision makers, or influencers within an organization; or (ii) for end users within an organization.

3. For the buyer/administrator segments, vendor management consoles will appear where RSS feeds and Podcasts for all vendors related information/updates/reports, industry media, and other items will be populated, possibly within intranets or other secure online locations. It will a place where administrators and department managers will be able to perch themselves for easy relationship management and customized content views. Similar channel partnership consoles will also appear. So, instead of the big tech companies like Oracle having a partner network that you go to OR an advertising or PR firm having a client intranet to go to, there will be a shift from vendor-centric to client/organization-centric, where their custom information can be pulled rather than pushed.

4. End users consoles will also appear for professionals within organizations, enabling users to have business-like versions of social networking and custom content portals like Yahoo360 (http://360.yahoo.com), Google, Orkut, MSN, AOL, and some other small fish. It will be like an enterprise electronic laboratory notebooks are for scientists, enabling them to access, personalize, publish (peer to peer/P2P and also publicly) and disseminate, and manage information. They will have tie-ins into business versions of instant messenger and other communications apps and enterprise versions of enterprise social software/project management tools (e.g. SocialText.com). With the flexibility to integrate with internal information, tools, and resources, and there will be one heck of powerful engine for professionals and businesses. An adoption struggle could threaten this wherein businesses will want this type of infrastructure set-up under their umbrella and professionals will want an infrastructure that is portable to go wherever they go, which often means bouncing around the same industry for 20 years.

To summarize:

RSS feeds and podcasts have been the hottest technologies lately. Individuals pushed the envelope with businesses quickly jumping into the fray after picking up on their potential business/customer impact. There will undoubtedly be other individual killer apps that come out, but the next evolutionary step will be to have something that ties these together and in a way that conforms to the seismic shift towards the individual, whether consumer, business decision maker, or the working professional. The impact will greatest in small to medium organizations - particularly start-ups, and working professionals who are business managers at early- to mid-career level positions.

Does Your Brandmark Have a Gender?

2005-11-18T06:03:00.000-08:00

I've seen a lot of T-Mobile ads recently as I've considered going high-tech and actually purchasing a Blackberry. In my searches, it grabbed me that "The T-Mobile brandmark is kind of feminine." Yet, their spokesperson for the last few years has been Catherine Zeta-Jones - arguably, more of an (sexual) icon for men based on her historical movie roles.

I am curious to know more about who their current customers are, demographically and psychographically, but am still a bit startled by these observations. I am also curious to know more about the actual process and development work used to create their brandmark/logo/lovemark.

On the topic of brandmark development (BTW: notice my choice in using brandmark > logo...there's a reason!), this is a highly strategic undertaking as I learned from mentors of mine many moons ago. Although there are web or graphic designers who can whip these out for whatever price, the absolute worst thing you can do is to simply task someone to create a logo for you.

In my most humble opinion, the proper process for the creation of your brandmark can be summarized and simplified as follows:

1. understand what your brand means to customers via primary and secondary research, if possible
2. understand what you want your brand to mean to customers and other key audiences
3. survey the competitive and also non-related landscapes
4. analyze positioning and creatives, including existing creatives for your company if already in business
5. start with a number of samples, black & white first
6. narrow down the options
7. move to color versions
8. narrow down the options & refine
9. select the finalist(s)
10. test in target audiences, if possible
11. presto! re-branding done...then comes the real challenge, making operational changes to support the new you.

On a side note, my current company recently updated its brandmark after 20 years in business. We actually did not go through this entire process in creating a new logo. I would have preferred to though and would be curious how the brandmark would've appeared if we did. Either way, I would've actually preferred to have been involved in the creative process, too, had I not been away due to the birth of my daughter at the time! ;)

In summary, brandmarks > logo. Creating a brand or re-branding is really an excercise in strategy, research, and understanding customers.

Your Brand's Co-Pilot = Your Consumers

2005-11-14T20:21:00.000-08:00

Marketers can be control freaks and perfectionists. Many marketers and non-marketers think that having control is the only way to obtain perfection. Well, I have a few thoughts that take quite the contrary opinion.

First, I am a believer of the quote that "perfection is the enemy of progress." This means that 90% correct and 30% more productivity is better than 100% correct and 30% less productivity. In this case, 90% is the abitrarily acceptable number that I've chosen, but the concept is whatever the industry and customer will accept. In total quality management principles, closely related to six-sigma, this means the goal post theory (def: the range of acceptable results falls between the goal posts). The point is that you can do more - more than your competition and than you would do striving for perfection - and still be successful so long as you meet your customers' expectation of quality.

Secondly, regarding "control": releasing control is critical to success, in any sized business. Hands on and in tune to what's going on, but trusting your colleagues or direct reports. The key to being able to do this is to have smart people working for you and to have a brand that follows through on its promise/expectations to consumers. If you fulfill these requirements, then you qualify for the chance to take the next plunge: releasing control of your brand to consumers. Yes, it comes with risks. With calculated risks, however, come calculated returns.

In my current line of work - marketing search technology, enterprise software, and information services - this is a theme I return to time and time again in my planning and vision. Sometimes it may be in the form of a company-confined topic, other times it may be a competitive comparison or totally related to a niche consumer-centric need/interest. Whatever the flavor, these concepts have the potential to be wildly successful with proper resource allocation and execution. Doing so in my business or yours can empower consumers to take our brands, relationships, and businesses to the next level. And quite frankly, we all need co-pilots to be successful sometimes.

Sense & Respond

2005-11-09T20:18:00.000-08:00

Was going through some archived marketing materials I have lying around tonight and came across an article that I tore out from Inc. Magazine's August 2005 issue. Two articles grabbed my attention in particular:

1. "A New Syllable From Our Sponsor" - a new ad format that threatens the 30-second tv ad spot/media buy from yet another side - more on this next time.

2. "Knowing What Customers Want" - the subject of this evening's blog posting. The article was about the Japanese arm of the 7-Eleven chain that used "sense and respond" supply chain technology. Essentially, the technology "senses" when an item is pulled from the shelf and "responds" by sending the data to the appropriate information system, pinging it for whatever pre-determined business rule response.

This is certainly a facet that involves much more than 7-eleven's merchandisers and marketing departments. It involves finance/procurement and others, as well as suppliers (both manufacturers and distributors). My point is not to get into the impact value of how's and who's within 7-eleven, however. Rather, it is to highlight the applicability of this concept to other businesses, specifically to building in "sensing" and/or "alerting" features into products, portals, etc.

Sense implies need. In 7-eleven's case is the supply chain need to replenish or prepare to replenish. Sensing is also applicable to other businesses though. For example:

- For content or search related companies, current awareness alerts or xml or rss feeds about desired content/content types
- Cars, such as BWM's new service feature, which calls drivers/customers to inform them when their car needs scheduled servicing

The opportunity exist to automate relevant selling, re-selling, upselling, cross-selling, and relationship building with your constituents. This is a company/provider-centric viewpoint. More importantly, it can increase value, satisfaction, and loyalty for your customers. What could be more important?

So what are you waiting for, determine how you can sense and respond what your customers (will) need.

Direct Response Marketing 101

2005-11-07T22:07:00.000-08:00

Marketing tip of the day: 'Sell the Offer' in direct response marketing campaigns! Your ultimate goal might be to sell product, build your database, etc., but whatever your call to action is - that is what you need to sell.

A test I did earlier this year with colleagues to generate leads for a technology product via direct e-mail campaigns to in-house lists had results that support this theme: under a 5% response for the messaging that promoted the product; a greater than 10% response when we promoted the free giveaway. The 10% respondents were further qualified with bona fide leads making it into the greater sales pipeline.

All Brands & Ads Are Not Created Equal(ine)

2005-11-05T21:53:00.000-08:00

Albertson’s recently unveiled Equaline, it's private label health & beauty brand. Design firm Anthem Worldwide, San Franciso, CA, helped Albertson’s, the second largest U.S. supermarket chain, create and launch its new OTC and health and beauty private label brand, Equaline.

According to information located online, "Equaline was created by Anthem as a single, comprehensive OTC, health and beauty brand to house all pharmacy, health and beauty offerings sold under Albertsons five grocery store banners (Albertson’s, Acme, Jewel, Shaws, Star Markets) and two pharmacy banners (Sav-On and OSCO.) The brand architecture for Equaline was created to reference national brand equivalents, while establishing a differentiated, ownable brand. Equaline enables Albertson’s to unlock the potential of 1,240 SKUs in seven categories in 25,000 stores across 37 states."

My two cents on this launch:

- Searches on both sites using the new brand name generated '0 results,' as of Nov.5, 2005 = Poor integrated launch execution
- Design + Packaging = ugly
- Positioning & Messaging = awful! I drove by a billboard on I-5 North tonight heading back to Los Angeles from Orange County, and the ad stated (not verbatim) something along the lines of "Introducing Equaline, Its Our Brand so Why Wouldn't We?"....a super ego-centric advertisement that does nothing to own a unique brand position or special place in consumers' minds/hearts. Likely, this brand will do nothing more than to ultimately compete on price and point-of-purchase convenience with branding, positioning, and messaging like this.
- Branding = the quintessential issue with most generic brands...branding multiple products for multiple and very different audiences makes your brand just that, generic.

Cool Technology Update

2005-11-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

Was on register.com a few moments ago for my job and saw this animated person (advertisement) talking to me. Very cool, indeed! Let's you create custom animated characters to put on your website and enhance the customer experience. The demo ad even allows you to type words or phrases in that it will speak back to you. Check it out. Another next-generation marketing tool as your command.

The Balanced Calendar

2005-11-02T21:30:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most significant error a marketer can make is to start or continue the cycle of robbing Peter (the current year) to pay Paul (the next year). The year in this case being defined by your audience whether businesses, academic institutions, government organizations, or consumers.

The challenge in marketing is to have a healthy and (**key point**) continuous pipeline of qualified leads that can be converted into sales, and to ensure that the company is meeting revenue projections and per product/line projections.

From the in-house marketing perspective of a company with multiple products, a common scenario that I've seen many times is either not taking a balanced approach. A balanced approach considers projected sales cycle, one-time versus residual sales, existing versus new customer targeting, profitability, how revenue is recognized (e.g. term versus perpetual licenses), etc.

For example, a product with a longer sales cycle may be promoted too late in the year to close deals and recognize revenue. Or, a services campaign that nets a customer who will make repeat sales may not be marketed to until too late in the year to increase the annual value of that customer. Perhaps this is more common to you marketers: there is no budget left in Q3 and/or Q4 so the next marketing spends can only occur in Q1 of the following year, in spite of the fact that "it takes money to make money." Spending in Q1, depending on your sales cycle, could mean leads aren't realized until a few quarters later which is disastrous.

To meet the demands of the current year and to keep a pipeline full into the next year, a balanced spend is required. This requires an ability to understand your audiences, their buying cycles and budgets, your products and sales team, and also marketing and other departmental resources. This is market management which is dynamic. 12-month planning is more of the traditional "marketing management" which is a more static and fixed course philosophy. Of course, as marketers, our calendar is really 22-months - assessing 4months and earlier, dealing with the 12-mo. calendar, and projecting 4months and out past the 12-mo. calendar.

What Marketers Can Learn From Trial Attorneys

2005-11-01T06:42:00.000-08:00

It is often said the a court case for which a jury is involved is usually over before it starts. Why? Because you need to get the right people on the jury. As marketers, our targeted audience(s) serve as our jury. We need to first select the right audience to achieve whatever it is our objective may be, then deliver the right message in the right way at the right time. If we choose the wrong people, then regardless of what we do or which tools we use (e.g. direct mail, advertising, integrated campaigns, podcast promotions, etc.), then our chances of success our diminshed from the get go.

Moral of today's blog posting: choose wisely to make sure you don't end up with "12 Angry Men."

'Must Have' Versus 'Nice to Have' Products

2005-10-30T20:35:00.000-08:00

I've reflected a lot this weekend on marketing messaging strategies and promotions after going through my snail mail (mainly direct mail), catching a minor amount of TV, and perusing the web. Noticed a lot of poor messaging - usually based upon the indefensible features of a service or product (e.g. speed, price, etc.). Also, noticed multiple instances of poorly selected promotional vehicles, the worst being a 30 second television advertisement for a B2B provider of document management enterprise technology solutions during a consumer-oriented television show.

In thinking about the positioning, messaging/branding, and promotion of products and services, two key principles need to always be considered: audience segmentation/targeting and consideration of 'must have' value versus 'nice to have value.' When considered intelligently, these two tasks will support better decision making for the competitive (= context) positioning, branding, and media and campaign components selected for promotion.

Segmentation is simple. Differentiate your pool of potential prospects and understand the key differences between them and methods for influencing with them.

As for the must-have versus nice-to-have aspect, Maslow's hierarchy of needs diagram is actually pertinent. Think of the must-have products/services owning the bottom rungs of the pyramid, and nice-to-have products/services as owning all rungs above it except for the top one of 'self actualization.' Now to make sense of how to use this distinction in a practical way....

With must have products, the emphasis can often be weighted more towards market and competitor analysis. With nice to have products, you'd better dig as deep as possible to understanding what in your target audience will truly move them to get something they may not need, and make your message simple yet memorable and powerful so that it moves your audience. The creation of new markets or new market segments has historically been built on new technology and new product applications. These, however, ultimately depend on marketing know-how to generate uptake in the market.

The American Marketing Machine

2005-10-29T04:50:00.000-07:00

With all the hubbub around the White House and W. lately - the 2,000 American death milestone in Iraq, Miers Supreme Court Nomination withdrawal, and the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby scandal - I felt that a blog posting dedicated to the White House was appropriate.

So, ever wonder which organization typified the prototypical American marketing machine? Well, my friends (all eight of you who've read my blog this week!), I have to say that my I think the White House takes the cake. Forget what the marketing history books teach you about Procter & Gamble (P&G) being the founders of strategic brand management. Ditto for N.W. Ayer & Son, the first American advertising agency. The White House (1776) v. P&G (1837) v. N.W. Ayer & Son (1869). You do the comparisons.

Comparisons aside, there are two points that I'm going to make about the White House being THE American Marketing Machine:

1. Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase "the medium is the message. Well, for too long the medium has been the message and the White House has historically controlled this it with varying levels of success. Regardless of results, they have been a model source for a comprehensive machine that incorporates high-level strategy and finite detailed planning around such aspects as branding, positioning, messaging, communications, and strategic marketing planning. What I wouldn't give to see their internal guides, processes, etc., developed over all these years.

2. Ironically enough, McLuhan also coined the term "global village." Well, the global village is re-focusing the medium from being the message back to the message being itself. Thanks to new community technologies (blogs, wiki, etc.), which are the parent technologies of PR and other subsets. So, as businesses - American and others worldwide - are learning, transparency is required when the message is THE MESSAGE again. Now the White House must re-create itself if it stands a chance to hold its title as the American Marketing Machine of today, rather than that of the past.

(It would be quite interesting to know the inner workings of the White House and how they are educated or stay informed of new technologies. Maybe they should take a page from my last posting and also monitor job postings!)

A Customer Engagement Campaign Considered

2005-10-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

Following a recent co-marketing conference call, I recently e-mailed an engaging marketing campaign concept to a strategic partner of my current company, a major manufacturer of scanners, faxes, and 2-in-1 machines. Their products are of significant importance to libraries, both interlibrary loan centers at academic institutions and R&D support centers at corporations.

I am not sure if the partner will reply, act upon, or evolve the idea, so I hope by sharing it on my 'Two Cents On Marketing' blog, that it may inspire others to think about how they can take traditional businesses online with smart planning and an authentic way to reach out to their target audiences.

The manufacturer's goal is to sell the newest model of its scanner. The challenge here is to identify targets and get them to give a damn, i.e. engage them. This means getting past the traditional '10% off if you act now' promotions which can diminish brand equity in many cases. My idea: to create a campaign micro-site; communicate to target audiences via press releases, listserv postings, email marketing, website postings, newsletter inclusions, etc., offering something of value (compatible software, actual free scanners, etc.), with the requirement to send in a picture of you from the time period of the actual age of your scanner. The older or the wackier the picture, the greater your chances of winning.

So, imagine hundreds of librarians - a close knit commmunity, by the way, where word spreads like wildfire (viral marketing), particularly around freebies - sending in photos of themselves (then and now) and visiting the website to see themselves, their friends, and their colleagues. Oh yeah, and entering a sweepstakes to win one of x number of prizes. The target audience could be reached, engaged, and segmented particularly along the lines of who would be most willing to buy...now, next year, and 5 years from now, since you'd know the age of the scanner.

To me, this is a winning idea. Of course, I could be very full of myself since I devised this idea. I think it has legs, but either way it could serve as the start or something even better if the concept is/was embraced.

Cheers!