1. The percentage of vehicle purchases made by women ranges from 50 to 90%, depending on the automaker. (Diversity Best Practices, 2005 WOW! Quick Facts: Women publication)
2. Women influence over 80 percent of all automotive sales(CNW Marketing Research)

So, what on earth was BMW (not) thinking with this jail bait ad?

The “call to action” You Know You’re Not The First (selling “BMW Premium Selection” Used Cars) So, this girl, who looks all of 14, is already used? Wonder how the senior management of BMW would feel if this was a photo of their daughter or granddaughter?

…and a reader recently commented that I was needlessly repeating myself about “marketing to women.” People already get that, don’t they? Well, obviously not.

By way of Yvonne DiVita who added her thoughts re Sabine Clappaert’s post Wanted: Second-Hand Woman for sheer driving pleasure

Even if I didn’t care about the objectification of a very, very young woman - this ad is so incredibly tacky and tasteless, it leaves me (almost) speechless. This from a supposedly upscale car brand? Comparing a woman (of any age) to a used car? My highly professional and expert reaction about this marketing: Yecccchhhhh….and Ewwwww…

Classy, BMW, classy. What’s next? Sharon Stone with “The Ultimate Driving Machine” splashed across her thighs? I can hear the “edgy and brilliant” ad guys now…“Hey, old tag line, old broad, perfect fit! And, everyone still remembers that scene in Basic Instinct!” I dunno - maybe they’ve been watching too many episodes of Mad Men.

If BMW did this to get attention: see the two data points above. While this ad was created by BBDO, Greece (which I seem to recall ain’t a hotbed of sexual equality), somebody at BMW had to approve the thing.

Tags: marketing, marketing to women, marketing troubleshooting, advertising, BMW, BMW ads

Bank of America’s better-than-anticipated results kick off another week of bank earnings but follow a roller-coaster week for the financial sector. Stocks plummeted early last week amid widespread investor fears, but quickly shot up after banks like Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup reported results that were less horrible than investors expected.

No, no - come back. I’m not going to beat the real estate dead horse.

That depressing mess - as big and sticky as it is - is nothing more than a symptom of the real problem. Big companies aren’t in business to stay in business these days. Most of them are so focused on making money NOW, they shortchange their systems, their employees and their customers. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing…as long as it’s counting money, nobody cares.

Very small but telling example: Bank of America STILL sends me notices about my account services, and special offers, since I’m a valued customer. One tiny problem - I’ve not had an account there for years. Little wonder nobody there connected the real estate dots before it was too late. If they don’t even know who is and isn’t their customer…what hope is there for responsible management?

So, just how is the relevant to you and your business? If you’re a small company, you can keep up close and personal with your customers. You see them live and in person (or should) on a regular basis. You can manage the company without complex computer systems. (If it’s broken before automation, it’ll be very, very broken after automation.) You can rely on good old-fashioned file folders and a filing system if need be. You can return phone calls. You can make phone calls. You don’t have to obsess about Wall Street. You can focus on real business with real people.

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, US Economy, Bank of America, real estate bust

Now, I can kind of accept things like restaurant and show ads; that might be at least semi-helpful, although a long stretch from delightful. (And I’ll still ask the locals for their recommendations). It’s not like the boarding pass is going to talk to me (Please God, not yet….but we’ve got talking greeting cards…).

So, not the greatest idea but basically harmless. But then I take a gander at the sample:

Great. The airlines are going to be draining my color printer so they can pitch something I may or may not want to read. And, just how long is that boarding pass going to be now, anyway? Any bets that many people will throw out the pages they don’t absolutely need? (I already do. Often, I simply grab the actual boarding pass portion and just print that.)

Supposedly we’ll be able to click a box to NOT print the ads, but one wonders how easy it’ll be to find that box? My bet - not very.

Yet another example of “everything you do is marketing.” It’s the “little things” (Like wasting people’s time, paper and printer ink) that’ll kill you.

And there’s this:

“Gordon Whitten, Sojern’s (the ad agency) chief executive, estimated that about 40% of U.S. airline passengers check in online. ‘Here are 250 million billboards per year that were sitting there … with nothing on them,” Mr. Whitten said of the boarding passes that passengers now routinely print at home or in the office.’”

Well, by all means, let’s fill every available bit of empty space everywhere! That’ll really make your message stand out.

Then for good measure, there’s the “branding” spin: “The ads offer local advertisers a big audience of customers headed their way. ‘You are hitting them as early as possible, when it’s easier to get their attention,’ said North American Cirque du Soleil spokesman Shawn Rorick. “This is to help build brand awareness before they arrive.’”

Right. “Hitting” people as often as you can. Great marketing.

I’m with Andrea - give me a little space and quiet.

P.S. Isn’t it interesting how advertising agencies always think advertising (anywhere, everywhere, all the time) is a great idea…;-)

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, advertising, airlines

A lot of people ARE really feeling the pain of the high gas prices - the folks who depend on Meals on Wheels for food, and - probably even more importantly - human contact. I used to do MonW when I lived back east and I often spent more time talking (listening) than I did delivering meals. There was the little 95-year-old lady who loved to talk about lipstick and gardens. The macho Italian Iwo Jima vet with the handlebar mustaches who flirted madly and talked about opera. And so on. It only took a few hours on a Saturday for me to make someone’s (and my) day.

Volunteers all over the country are pulling back and monetary donations are down. In June, MonW reported a 30% reduction in the frequency of delivered meals among 277 of its programs. Some programs that once delivered hot meals daily now save gas by making weekly deliveries of one hot meal and four frozen meals.

“What we’re finding is a crisis situation,” says Enid Borden, president and CEO of Meals on Wheels. “It’s a life-and-death issue.”

Me and my big blue box Jeep are signing up. What about you? Just a few hours a month could make a big difference (and we’re going to get old one day too, ya know. We might really need MonW.) You can find a program here. You can make a monetary donation here.

Tags: Meals on Wheels

While our economy has a LOT of problems that aren’t easily fixed in a single bit of legislation or a few thousand political sound bites, we DO need to take a deep breath, as he recently said.

I’ve seen this time and again - when things get tough, rather it’s all over or for a single company - the automatic reflex is to hunker down and go into bunker mode.

People cut back on marketing and sales expenditures - just when they should be increasing their efforts. I’ve heard “we’re cutting back” from all kinds of people lately - from a car dealer to high tech.

Certainly, we should all manage our budgets responsibly and focus on things that yield results, in both good and bad times…but you can’t sell more by doing less.

You should be looking for ways to get more creative with what you already do, then do more of it. Do something special for the customers you already have (they’ll tell others about you); get involved in some worthy causes that have been hard hit lately (Meals on Wheels and food banks, for example…great PR!); (finally) renovate that web site (it sells 24/7 worldwide if done right) ; give your top performers a big check and ask them to think wayyy outside the box…and then let them go do it…and so on and so forth.

P.S. Blindly throwing big chunks of budget at things like advertising (or - ack, ack - consultants) is never a good idea, no matter how much money you have to spend (or how desperate you feel.)

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, US Economy, George Bush, marketing budget

Earlier this week - lots to do, in a hurry - needed to whip through the bank drive-thru with a large deposit and go. Uh, no go.

The teller called for branch manager approval (?!) and was told I had to come in the bank, since it was flagged as a “new account.” It’s monsoon season here so I show up in the manager’s office mad (and as wet) as the proverbial hen. Well, gee, don’t I know that there is a huge problem with bank fraud? Large deposits on a new account must always be approved or placed on hold. And, “I can’t see anything about your old account or your personal one here.” (as he stares into the magical mystical database.) Which is funny, because I can go online and see all my accounts, including the closed one. Finally, the manager approved the deposit and said he’d try to see if there was a way they could ‘link the old account to the new one.” Lastly, sorry, but I’ll have to deal with this “inconvenience” for about another 60 days.

Automated systems shouldn’t mean taking the person out of the equation. One transaction can (as in this case) erase years of customer good will. People aren’t account numbers.

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, Compass Bank, customer service

I remember seeing a long progression of billboards about “The Thing!” on family road trips here in the wide open western spaces. We were literally out in the middle of nowhere, on a straight two-lane road…with nothing to look at…but those billboards. They started with cryptic one-liners, then moved onto questions, “Is it…?” By the time we reached the tourist trap where THE THING was, I was begging my Dad to stop. We never did. So, yeah, they got our interest but the person controlling the wallet knew it was a hokey c’mon.

As an all growed-up marketer, I can fully appreciate the teaser approach in the billboards. However, wide-eyed little me was a captive audience. I really had little else to look at and I was forced to follow the sequence of messages they laid out. (There were also still some Burma Shave signs around when I was a child - which were also a great use of billboards.)

And so we come back to web sites. The old Mad Ave “they’ve got no choice but to read/listen” methods don’t work anymore. People can (and do) come into your site on any page. And, they get info about you from multiple sources, with a two-second Google search - not just what you want them to know. If you build your site (or so you think) to force people to go through multiple pages before they get to the real business, you’re falling into the old billboard mentality. The Web isn’t a straight two-lane road and your site visitors can choose where and when they engage with you, if at all. And, they can exit any time they darn well feel like it.

P.S. Anybody know what “The Thing” was???

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, emarketing, web development

Unfortunately, thanks (no thanks) to technology these days, the pros are vastly outnumbered by goofballs and sleazebags, who can bombard us with the push of a button. And, the balls and bags all seem to think we bloggers are anxiously awaiting email from them. Even here in the Z-list blog backwaters, I typically get emails pitching something several times a week, which usually start by telling me how brilliant, funny, and/or amazing I am. Nice ego stroke effort there, but it’d have a lot more meaning if the emailers showed they’d actually read my blog. Plus, I’m an Aries only child - self-esteem ain’t a problem.

Maureen Rogers of Opinionated Marketers gives a great clueless emailer point-by-point example, in Viral Marketing From La-La Land. Maybe the PR goofball is aiming for clickthroughs only (as Maureen surmises) since the actual email isn’t relevant to Maureen and the links re a “Strike Survival Guide” (a semi-catchy title) don’t match the title claims. And, “J” (the emailer) doesn’t have a web site. (Right, and she’s telling her client she’s an expert in emarketing.)

So, if you’ve been pitched by a PR firm on a “Viral Marketing” campaign, ask:
1. Do the people you’re going to contact have an interest in me and my product?
2. Do you have permission to send them emails? If not, how are you going to approach them?
3. Show me examples of other campaigns that have worked. Why have those worked?
4. (Duh) Do you have a web site? (You’d be surprised how many “marketing experts” either don’t have sites or the sites are bad and broken.)
5. How are you going to measure results? (Clicks don’t mean business.)

And - ask yourself:
1. Does this make sense for my company and my culture? Will it seem phony and artificial? (Example: A bank - outta the blue - sending out emails calling people by their first names and saying things like, “We gotta tell ya, recession is a beetch!” Okay, this may never have happened, but I’d be willing to bet that somewhere somebody pitched something like it to a bank.)
2. How does this fit with my other marketing programs? Could I better spend the dollars the PR firm wants on customer service or employee benefits?

It’s really, really hard to artificially induce spread of “viral” marketing messages. As with real viruses, they can’t be controlled in the real world and can turn into disasters. (Bloggers writing about your cluless PR person, for example.)

Related Posts: Level 4 Breach. The Monkeys Are Free!
“New” Viral Marketing - Some Perspective

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, PR firms, public relations, viral marketing

So, in no particular order and with tongue firmly in cheek, here are some things from my amusement (bemusement?) file for your reading pleasure. Happy Friday! WARNING: I talk some about a verboten topic, politics, which I find endlessly amusing, tiring, depressing and fascinating.

Cindy McCain Cookie-Gate. Geez, media, get a life. There IS no such thing as an “original” family cookie recipe. They all came from the back of a jar, bag, or can at some point. And, there are only so many ways you can vary on the recipes. Can’t we move past the whole First Lady cookie thing once and for all? It’s a hoary relic of the “little woman” days. Here’s what Ms. McCain should have said when asked for a recipe, “Honey, get real. I’ve got over a hundred million dollars. I fly planes. I don’t bake.”

The new movie, Wanted. This is possibly the dumbest movie I’ve ever seen….and I liked it. I won’t spoil it for ya, so I’ll just say the thing with the rats and peanut butter was really the way-over-the-topper. I think all actors involved should get an award for managing to keep a straight face.

We’re All Whiners. Ouch! I feel for Senator McCain - this ain’t helping his marketing. And, (gasp) I partly agree with Phil Gramm’s remark that we’ve sort of become a nation of whiners. Still and all, I find it amusing to watch the media pile-on regarding the remark, beating it to death three ways from Sunday, like they do everything else. Guess we’re a nation of bitter whiners, clinging to things and having hallucinations about the economy, heh?

Spammers. Yes, spammers. Thanks to my spam filters, on my email accounts and this blog, I get very, very little spam. So, I actually read some of it for fun. The sheer stupidity and naivete of most spammers is oddly endearing. You can tell the ones who are just starting out, bless their dumb little hearts. They’re the ones still oh-so-craftily misspelling Viagra and various body parts, and loading blog comments with a gazillion links. And there’s the whole new wave of pleas from Africa.

People who are shocked, I tell you, shocked that Barack Obama turns out to be a politician! Hey, I voted for the guy, plan to vote for him again. I like his wife for all the reasons my Mother hates her. I believe he’s sincere about wanting to change things (just as I still believe both McCain and Hillary have some good ideas and intentions in there somewhere. But running for President does weird things to people.) What part of “South Side of Chicago politico” did everyone miss on the first go-around? Further, anybody that would run for President has to be a tough egomaniac, ready and willing to dance a few turns with the Devil.

Stuff White People Like: Statistics and Comparing People to Hitler

There’s lots more - but why don’t you stop reading and go do something amusing.

Who would buy it?
Who would buy more than one?
How many “whos” are there? (Horton may be able to hear ‘em, but can you sell to them?)

Consider: When introduced in 1957, 63,110 Edsels were sold in the U.S. within a year - one of the most successful car launches to date. It was gone by 1959. But don’t those fellas look happy and optimistic? (Of course, that was before Ford’s final loss tally of $350 Million.)

Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, Edsel, product development, entrepreneur sanity check