Richs Blog

Why marketers don't have time to develop a social media strategy

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-25T06:26:22-08:00

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Marketers hell of trying to implement social media

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-24T12:21:25-08:00

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Social Media users life-cycle

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-24T11:00:25-08:00

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Who do consumers trust?

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-23T07:44:28-08:00

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Online trends to watch

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-23T07:30:17-08:00

As the browser becomes the new operating system for all things digital--complete with applications and content--interactivity will grow more powerful in the Internet cloud, as exemplified in Google's new Chrome browser. ..."Now it's about engaging customers in conversation and managing relationships online," IPG contends in a new slide show forecast. ...One of the most dramatic examples of late--the top three online activities of Gen X Moms (using photo sites, rating, reviewing products and shopping for peers) and Gen Y Moms (reading blogs, participating in online peer communities, creating and sharing videos). ...The third notable trend is the transmission effect, or the speed with which conversations and content spread everywhere like rapid-fire-- beyond the reach of editorial controls, sites or institutions. ...Brands must keep pace with consumers with a presence at every stage of the conversation (where they can respond, not react) and formulate a Web reputation strategy to manage viral insurrections. They also should be developing their content and other strategies across all platforms: mobile, digital, out-of-home, broadcast, broadband and social media. ...An online experience punctuated by smart signs, interactive mirrors, loyalty programs and other features is enhancing the consumers' and brands' ability to constantly be connected to the Web and each other by mobile phone. Google's mobile bar code reader Zxing enables photography and decoding of barcodes for more product data, and SnapNow provides price comparisons and peer ratings from Amazon.com. Such real-time shopping assistance is matched by audience measurement on sight in stores to provide more relevant target advertising that more likely results in a purchase. ...Already very discerning about their choice of media and tech platforms, empowered consumers want to enjoy and use the fruits of technology (from texting and personal digital assets to media players and Web browsers) unencumbered by wires or chunky devices. Whether a product of the recession or tech overload, consumers are opting more for single-purpose applications that provide easy, more cost-efficient solutions. ... One in five households is cutting their landlines; 60% of consumers will cut spending in at least one area of communications and media entertainment in the New Year, IPG says. While there continues to be a privacy pushback in response to overexposure of online profiles and personal data shared in transactions, there also is a push for digital sustainability.

Are brands prepared to listen?

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-23T06:51:11-08:00

Social media can be a brutally honest way to get feedback on your branding activities. Let's face it there are so many marketing programs that do not add value to the brand and don't move the needle but are implemented to make marketers feel better about the work they are doing. Ad agencies are particularly great at patting themselves on the back for their work and submitting the names of clients for bullshit awards. I recently had a chance to go to Twitter and see some people criticize the auto industry for their TV ads saying things like "TV ads are a waste of money, save your money and keep the service departments open on weekends and after 5PM". For sure it's hard to watch any sporting event without a bunch of ads for SUV's and other light trucks. While Americans had a shock to the system with $5.00 gas it seems that the car companies believe that the lower prices on gas is going to lead to amnesia by the public. We talk about social media marketing but social media is great for market research and customer service. I recently used social media to invite some people to a secure website to view new product concepts and give us feedback and boy did we get honest and open feedback. We had planned to show the designs to around 20 people but we had over 70 who wanted to see the new product concepts. As for customer service, adding a link to a Twitter account where people could talk to customer service right away was also successful. A lot of people prefer online contact versus the phone or in person as online nobody knows who you are and you're not embarrassed by 'stupid questions". The real issue facing brands is that they have to be prepared to listen more and talk less. People just want to know that someone is listening to them and that brands value their business.

More proof that CEO's view marketing as an expense

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-20T07:04:19-08:00

What is it about American businesses that reward failure? Mr Nardelli left Home Depot a mess and under his watch a lot of people who built Home Depot left the company because of his management style. When Chrysler hire Mr Naradelli I had no doubt that it was to cut and cut so the investment group could sell the company and make a tidy profit. Rather than give up any of his golden perks at the automaker he fly's around the country in his corporate jets and fires a great marketing person who was stupid enough to leave Lexus as the head of marketing. Mr Nardelli has never been a fan of marketing as he cut the marketing budget at Home Depot as well which is indicative of his ignorance of the true value of marketing. I am growing really tired of a business environment whose philosophy is "make Wall Street happy at all costs". You see Wall Street doesn't care about strategic marketing or the value of brand equity, they only care about the balance sheet and so that they can earn their huge bonuses which are still going to be paid out with taxpayer dollars. At a time when auto dealerships are going to shrink and car leases are disappearing one would think that marketing would play an important role to get people into dealers showrooms. Not for Mr Nardelli, he just wants to cut and cut an live the high life and ruin another company. At a time when consumers are buying products and brands based on the conversation the brands have it astounds me that anyone could think of marketing as an expense. There are a number of extremely smart business executives out there who understand the value of increasing marketing during a down economy but there are way too many executives with financial backgrounds who see the marketing people as employees who walk around with a cocktail glass. Marketers are going to have to do a better job measuring their programs but they also need to ensure that their managers understand the basic principles of marketing and consumer empowerment in a new business environment.

Nearly Half US Women Would Give up Sex Before Internet

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-19T09:58:50-08:00

The survey revealed that 65 percent of adults feel they cannot live without Internet access1, and even more – 71 percent – responded that it is important or very important to have Internet-enabled devices, such as laptops, netbooks and mobile Internet devices (MIDs) that can provide them with real-time updates on important issues including the state of the economy. Most U.S. adults also identify the Internet as a key tool in today's economy for managing personal finances, finding discounts and the best deals while shopping online, and many rated access to the Internet as indispensable compared to other discretionary items, such as dining out, shopping for clothes and gym memberships. ...: According to the survey, nearly half of women (46 percent) and 30 percent of men would rather go without sex for 2 weeks than give up Internet access for the same amount of time. ...Internet Access Essential in Today's Economic Climate: Ninety-five percent of adults feel that it is very important, important or somewhat important for people to have devices that allow them to access the Internet. A majority (82 percent) agree that Internet-enabled devices help them stay up to date real-time on the state of the economy. ...Sixty-five percent say the Internet has helped them save money by allowing them to search for coupons, discounts or special Internet promotions. Move over Gym Membership, the Internet is a Must-Have: When asked to rate certain discretionary items on a scale of 1 (completely expendable) to 5 (cannot live without it), having Internet access ranks highest among the items listed, with 65 percent of U.S. adults reporting they cannot live without it. ...The Internet Trumps the TV: The majority (61 percent) of adult women would choose to give up watching TV for 2 weeks instead of giving up access to the Internet for only 1 week, and more than half of all U.S. adults (58 percent), both male and female, agree. Many shows and movies are available online, and laptops with powerful, energy-efficient processors make TV watching – even when on the go – possible almost anywhere. Sixty-seven percent of U.S. adults aged 18-34, 57 percent of U.S. adults aged 35-44 and 52 percent of U.S. adults aged 45 and older would rather go 2 weeks without watching TV than give up Internet access for a week. Life is Better Because of the Internet: Nine of 10 U.S. adults (91 percent) report that the ability to access the Internet has improved at least one aspect of their lives. ...Nearly half (47 percent) say they are able to manage their finances better because of the Internet through activities such as online banking and paying bills. This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Intel from Nov. 18-20 among 2,119 adults ages 18 and older.

Facebook and Retailers

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-19T08:02:58-08:00

Marketers are trying to figure out how to use social networking tools to do what they do best: persuade consumers to buy. They're watching platforms such as Facebook, which has more than 130 million users worldwide, to see how they can use social commerce without turning consumers off. ...Plano-based Penney's doghouse campaign, produced by Saatchi & Saatchi, is one of the first to use the new Facebook Connect application, which lets visitors put their Facebook friends in the virtual doghouse. ...Victoria's Secret has developed Pink Collegiate Collection merchandise for 31 universities, including the University of Texas, Texas A&M, University of Oklahoma, Louisiana State University, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Southern California and University of Arizona. "The trick is to do it in a way that you're not turning off your fans," Mr. ...People who received Dell's red laptop with a big green ribbon discovered it in a "news feed" on their home page where all their friends could see it. Virtual gifts are not real merchandise, but they are representative icons that have meaning and value to people as they share them. ...Part of unleashing your message is allowing it to be criticized in an interactive way, said Beryl Raff, executive vice president of fine jewelry at Penney. ...Los Angeles-based fashion designer Antthony Mark Hankins will be live on HSN today selling his design originals, as he has for 16 years. ..."But also by learning what customers are doing every day through Facebook, that helps me as a creative person," Mr. ...Austin-based PureSport's performance drinks are endorsed by Olympian Michael Phelps, who has more than 1.7 million fans on Facebook. The 1-year-old company finds swimmers, teams and coaches on Facebook because of profile information on their home pages, said Kevin Embree, responsible for PureSport's social networking efforts. "Facebook users don't want to be sold, but they want to buy what their friends are using," said Michael Humphrey PureSport's chief executive.

In implementing a social media strategy companies can be their own worst enemies

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-19T06:30:00-08:00

Corporate America, say that to some people and they cringe because to them it means never ending meetings and a lot of time to implement even minor programs that benefit customers. A recent poll by a top management magazine showed that managers spend more time trying to implement programs than actually developing or thinking about new programs. You can imagine the resistance that most people run into when they say that they want to implement a social media program and have a conversation with customers. For some companies this is unheard of and they are not prepared to engage consumers this way. ...Just try and tell people that we need budget dollars and have to get some people to deploy a social media strategy and watch people laugh. The reality is that companies are just not prepared to talk to people and they haven't learned that they need to adapt to the new rules of marketing and that the old rules are dead. They will continue to have people working on outdated marketing materials like brochures that nobody reads or print ads that nobody reads while the people who want to talk to brands find a deaf ear. ...They need to sit with them one on one to "win them over" with good data and presentations that show that the environment is changed. This process can take a long time however as senior managers can decline meetings when they see "introduction to social media" in the meeting notice. A lot of people get frustrated and KNOW that they need to implement a social media marketing strategy but the endless processes and dead ears lead to a program that either gets buried or deprioritized. ...I am passionate about Internet marketing and recognize the need for corporate America to change and start talking with consumers instead of at them. I know consumers have more power over brands than ever before and brand loyalty is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Well the market has a way of punishing those companies that don't listen or don't embrace change and time will tell who are the winners and who are the losers.

It's getting really cold out there

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-18T09:26:59-08:00

Like I have been saying in all my presentations this is all bad news for marketing people. As consumers look to channel their frustrations can you imagine what they are going to be saying about products and brands that fail to listen to them? It's going to get ugly and marketing people had better prepare themselves and their organizations for painful spanking. Social media will stay hot for a while, probably the next year and then it will start to cool down. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter will soon cater to specific demographic and psychographic segments while they search for a way to make money. Some marketers will try social media but will fail because to them it's a tactic not a strategy and the after all the finance people will want to know the ROI of any social media program that requires resources. In some companies you can't even fill out a request for a PO without entering the projected ROI. As I stated in my new presentation, the first step is to get to the influencers within your company and convince them that social media is a viable marketing strategy and that you need to get started now rather than later. In a recession this is going to be really hard to do for a lot of companies as they look to maintain the status quo when budgets are cut. It's pretty ironic when you think about it because social media can be a great way to keep your current customers happy while turning them into brand ambassadors. In the meantime, with more bad news expected to come expect the social media climate to remain hot and the marketing climate frozen.

My Facebook, My Therapist

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-17T09:43:04-08:00

"These new channels are providing a sense of community in an environment where there is a sudden, almost compelled, need…not to feel alone," says Sherry Turkle, a professor of social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ...(YHOO) began laying off 10% or about 1,500, of its employees, tech industry blogs like Valleywag and Silicon Alley Insider published minute-by-minute updates on where layoffs were happening in the company, while hundreds of readers chipped in with front-line news, such as how managers were carrying out cuts and what was included in severance packages. ..."What has struck me is that so [much] of what is being said is in the nature of support rather than information, perhaps because people don't know what information will be useful," says Turkle, who founded the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. ... More than 1,100 Facebook members have joined a group called "I will NOT be participating in any Recession" where they trade advice on how to shore up finances and stay employed. ... Searches for other Facebook groups with "recession" and "downturn" in their names yield dozens of results, from the activism-oriented "I oppose the bailout" to the more despairing "The Second Great Depression (2008-?)." ..."When someone is initially laid off their inclination is to avoid being in social environments," says Marlin Potash, a New York psychiatrist who counsels workers exiting senior positions, primarily from the financial and media industries. ...Connecting with others in the same predicament can also remind a person that others are in the same boat, says Richard Sherman, a private-practice psychiatrist based in Tarzana, Calif. "When [my patients] believe that they could have done something different to ward off some of these consequences, they're embarrassed and they feel some shame," he says. Using online social networks helps to "reassure them that they're not alone, that we're in this together, and people are successfully overcoming this." ...The site has signed up about 35,000 members since it was launched, and according to Ryan FitzGerald, both activity and new user registration have spiked by as much as 25% over the past three to four months. ...In between visiting social networking sites, he says, "people are checking their stocks, they're checking the latest news alerts, and this is creating more anxiety and more stress—that's a real problem." ...Online well-wishes and support groups can provide some succor, but what the unemployed often need most urgently is a new job. ... "Before, it was more of a way to talk and share ideas and to expand upon things you normally wouldn't have been able to figure out for yourself," he says.

Great minds think alike..more predictions on social media

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-16T15:34:03-08:00

We impulsively adopted everything from hastily assembled Facebook friends and Twitter followers to groups, apps and widgets (usually while shadowing others, such as uber-early adopter Robert Scoble), yet rarely revisited them. Many of us will feel compelled to join the social media equivalent of Weight Watchers, eager to trim the excess and rediscover a modicum of don't-follow-everything discipline. Meanwhile, a new wave of "diet" apps and services from the still-revenue-hungry social media entrepreneurs will flood the market: "For $10 a month, we'll promise you a downsized, manageable, and authentic Friends list." ...We'll see that certain social media platforms will attract certain demographics and psychographics as each carves out a niche market and tries to establish itself as the top social media platform. Time is the new currency and anyone that spends a lot of time on social media is in dire need of getting a life. Yes they serve a purpose and that is the emotional need to stay in contact with friends and past coworkers. ...Social media will continue pushing beyond one-trick hits and buzz-building to more operational considerations like customer service and employee empowerment, but 2009 will also be the year we rediscover the appeal of living, breathing connections. Our industry research will find that real conversations with consumers, empathetically executed, can yield returns that trump the most sophisticated precision targeting. Brands certainly won't hit the Zappos.com gold standard but many 800 numbers will move from the locked closet of invisibility to visibility and we'll see lots more moderated chat on sites. Also, expect to see more companies using Video FAQs versus text or even doling out good old fashioned hand-written notes and letters. ...The question that a lot of companies are going to have to answer is "do we have the infrastructure to support new approaches to communicating with our customers?". A lot will try to do it with minimum staff and will fail while other will try it but will not allow the brand ambassadors to have the responsibility to make decisions that could impact the customers perception of the brand. With all the cutbacks right now it's hard to imagine that a lot of companies have the people to support a social media program.

Consumers want to talk to brands

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-16T13:40:21-08:00

Additional survey findings: ▪ 54% of consumers say information from a company’s brand representative who directly interacts with them online is more valuable than information they find on companies’ websites. ▪ 57% of consumers are likely to take action based on the information from a brand representative, such as shop at the retailer or buy the product. ▪ The top categories that consumers search for online information about are electronics/telecommunications, entertainment and travel. ▪ Consumers rely on social media websites as much as company websites for product information, and 70% of consumers have visited a social media website such as message board, social network, instant messenger, blog, video sharing site or chat room in order to get information about a company, brand or product. The survey also discovered that people who search for information exclusively via social media websites are more likely to spread the word. More than one-third of consumers have passed along information found online, and among those, six out of 10 used social media websites to pass along the information. Nearly three-quarters (74%) said that most of the information they passed along was positive. “These findings are particularly interesting because they support what we have been saying all along, that word of mouth is a valuable marketing tool that should be combined with traditional media to create an integrated marketing strategy,” said Lou Cuming, CEO of DEI Worldwide. About the survey: The research was conducted by OTX among a national sample of 500 men and women, age 13+.

Social media users getting tired of social media?

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-16T06:07:57-08:00

The younger people felt that the Web was both a tool to help them manager their lives as well as an information resource and these people were less likely to use traditional media like newspapers and TV. -Older consumers use the Web primarily for information and although they are aware of the tools that can help integrate the Web with their lives they are reluctant to use them because of privacy concerns and connectivity issues (slow connections) on mobile devices. ...They tend to generally "surf" the Web when they have time at work or at home. (they are all spending more time at home because of the economy). ...-Gen X & Y were familiar with all the top social media sites and everyone (29 people) had social media pages or registered on a social media site. ...-Gen X&Y feel that social media is a great way to stay in contact with friends "back home" and with family but admitted that over time they were using social media less and less. "If I can update someone on the way to work that's OK but lately it's a bit harder to text people while riding the subway", then we heard "I don't have to go and let everyone know what I'm doing every minute of every day anymore, with my job it's just too much time to do that". -Boomers: Only half were aware of social media and most did not know that they could upload videos on YouTube and did not see the advantage. ... "I just don't see a benefit of letting people know what I'm doing and where I am every minute of everyday" said another. ... However we learned that a lot of Boomers were registered on Classmates.com, mostly for sentimental reasons of seeing what classmates are doing or to get back in touch with past flames. ...-On multiple accounts across different social media platforms: Gen X& Y are more likely to have accounts on several social media platforms but overall they are now using one as their primary social media connections. ...Finally we heard from both Boomers and Gen X & Y that in a way their "constant connections" are becoming a pain in the ass. Two women in the groups remarked that they had told their boyfriends to turn off their cellphones when they were together and another one remarked "I wish restaurants would ban the use of phones at tables". One guy said "it's really easy to get addicted to this stuff and tweet all the time but then my girlfriend told me to talk to her and that she doesn't want to be my "tweetheart"

Everyone's jumping on the social media bandwagon

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-15T10:50:47-08:00

Finance wants accountability and doesn't have to learn the aspects of marketing that build brand equity. To them everything we do and every dollar we spend has to have a way to directly contribute to ROI and keep investors happy. The Street isn't focused on long term brand building they want instant gratification and often punish companies who are positioning for strategic (long term) growth and want short term sales increases. ...Most of the information was news yesterday but for the executives at senior levels this maybe eye opening them. ... Social media, as a marketing tactic, is not something that can be measured right away. It requires a belief that talking with our customers and prospects is better than talking at them and this turns the whole marketing paradigm upside down. Ad agencies, who often have great relationships with the most senior people, could view social media as a threat to their business and as thus try and persuade company executives to continue to spend millions of dollars on TV and print ads that just aren't effective anymore. To them losing control of the message is scary even though they have lost control months and in some cases years ago. ...There is no need to focus group concepts anymore when you can get instant results via social media. Customer service can be immediately implemented via social media but remember that it requires speed and matrix companies are not set up for speed today. There have been times when I have cursed the developer of Power Point for ALL the decks that I had to do and then redo and redo again. Marketers are going to be scrambling to collect information to present to executives to try and convince them that social media is in fact a viable strategy that can help meet business objectives. However, during an economic downturn when people want results NOW social media may become a tactic rather than a strategy.

Prediction or wish list social media ?

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-15T08:11:27-08:00

I have worked with, and auditioned, a LOT of interactive, advertising and creative agencies over the years and one thing I have noticed is that a LOT of creative people have no basis in reality. They come in with their big ideas but don't talk about success metrics, they talk about change and embracing the customer without looking if the organization is ready for change. Most of them are legends in their own minds and you can easily see them at meetings multitasking because they are too busy to really get involved with presentations where they are NOT the center of attention. Yes, social media is hot and everyone is looking to do something social but the reality is that most marketing departments are not set up to anything social and a lot of senior people don't understand the importance of social media to consumers or the brand. ...It's new, it's fun, it's cool but after awhile time constraints will force a lot of users to say "why in the world do I want to share all this with everyone". A lot of people will also drop off when they realize that it's hard to get people to follow them or find friends online. ...They are just not set up to have one to one conversations with customers and pressure from ad agencies will continue to push traditional ad models (top down). ...I believe companies should spend more in a down economy to attract and retain customers but the reality is that senior managers care about the numbers and only the numbers. Convincing them to spend money and allocate employees to social media programs that may or may not work will be a long, pain in the ass task for most eMarketing people. ...More and more consultants, interactive agencies, brand agencies and research companies will start to fuel the fire that marketing as we knew it dead and that the new future is not a traditional marketing model or its impact points within the organization. ...Option ARM mortgages are soon going to become a new buzzword as the interest rates start to kick in and a lot more people are going to lose their homes or walk away from their homes as mortgage payments increase 40, 50, 60% . (Option ARM's, which were sold in 2006 and 2007 are mortgages that were sold to people with very low interest rates like 1% for the first 2-3 years. ...They are looking at social media but believe me if P&G is questioning its effectiveness more and more companies are going to stay on the sidelines.

Will pay for BLOGGING work?

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-15T06:02:34-08:00

OK, so you have something really good to say about a product or a brand. So why not get paid for it? Because that's when you cross over to the dark side and become a paid endorser and that's when people get suspicious. It's also very easy to write something you don't really believe to enrich yourself and I for one believe there are always people who will try and "work the system" to make money. Bloggers don't BLOG for money (click to enlarge) Blogging for money will be nothing but a novelty (click to enlarge)

Will the recession change marketing forever?

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-14T14:46:19-08:00

It used to be so easy to go online and order a new iMac or set of audiophile speakers for your computer. After all Boomers, who still represent the biggest demographic segment in the US, had a lot of equity in their homes, 401K's that were doing well with the stock market and secure jobs. Now with the collapse of the economy people are actually living in fear which has led to closed wallets and people staying home rather than taking the family to eat out. ...One of the reasons that social media is hot right now is that people are pissed off and want to vent to others about the bailout. A recent NBC News Wall Street Journal poll found that 60% of people thought the bailout would benefit big companies as opposed to 5% feeling it would benefit individuals. -Store brands will see increases in sales: Consumers are substituting now and I expect that to continue as a lot of them realize that there is not enough benefit to paying for branded products. -Social Media will become an important marketing channel: Now is the time to get your feet wet not later. -Brands that do not deliver on all aspects of brand touchpoints will lose share: Have to continue to learn to add more value with less cost to the consumer. -Boomers are going to have to work well past retirement and as thus they will cut back their spending. The only trend that can reverse this is if housing values come up to a level where they were before the bubble burst but I don't believe that will happen anytime soon. As a result of all these trend I believe that organizations that restructure the traditional marketing roles will be successful and positioned for share increases while those that do now will lose share and may not make up for lost customers. Marketing is going to have to take a major role in keeping customers happy as well as increasing penetration within prospects. These are challenging time for marketers no doubt but those that are willing to react and not need a 12 months worth of focus groups to tell them what they already should know are going to be the real winners in a new frugal economy.

Mini, BMW or Mercedes ?

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-14T12:50:04-08:00

There is no doubt that the buyers for a Mercedes C300, BMW 328i and Mini Clubman are different with different needs but in case you haven't been reading the headlines luxury car makers are hurting right now too. I have admired the marketing that Mini has done with very cool CD-ROM's, DVD's and in-magazine brochures so when it was time for me to buy a new car I looked at the Mini. ... The Mini is a hot car right car right now but of the three models sitting on the dealers lot the cheapest was just over $40K without the tax. ... Now I understand why I have seen so many Boomers driving Mini's, they are the only ones who can afford them. ...But seriously one the trends that is going to stick after this recession is a return to really smart shopping and that means people are going to compare everything from computers to cars upside and down before laying down that plastic. ... They are quality built German cars and even though Mercedes has had its share of quality problems the new C300 is getting a lot of great reviews. For consumers there is a sense "that I made it" when you drive a Mercedes or BMW but I really don't believe that the Mini has that type of equity. The people I see driving Mini's here in California are a mix of Boomers and Gen X & Y. ...Nissan is getting ready to introduce a new car called the Cube which really looks great and Kia is also going to introduce a smaller car. ... I'm sure the people who market cars know the market a hell of a lot better than I do but I am going to be watching the sales of Mini Clubman over the next year because I just don't believe that there are a hell of a lot of people who are willing to fork over $40K because the Mini is cool. Keep in mind that a basic Mini Clubman can be had for the mid $20's but try and find stripped down models on dealers lots as options are where they make their money. ...You see I don't believe that there are going to be a hell of a lot of people who are willing to switch from a Mercedes or BMW to a Hyundai who has been trying to crack the American luxury car market for years. ... It's interesting to note that the President of Hyundai has fired a lot of American marketing people from Hyundai because they could reposition the brand.

Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites-DUH !

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-14T06:16:49-08:00

Independent experts on Web advertising have been watching, however, and what they see is a myriad of difficulties in making brand advertising work on social networking sites. ...Seth Goldstein, co-founder of SocialMedia Networks, an online advertising company, wrote on his Facebook blog that a banner ad “is universally disregarded as irrelevant if it’s not ignored entirely.” When advertisers invite members to come to pages dedicated to their products, they can attract visitors only by investing in expensive creative material or old-fashioned promotions like prize contests. And when they try to take advantage of new “social advertising,” extending their commercial message to a member’s friends, their ads will be noticed, all right, but not necessarily favorably. ... IDC, the technology research firm, published a study last month that reported that just 3 percent of Internet users in the United States would willingly let publishers use their friends for advertising. ...Facebook is privately held and a spokesman told me that it does not disclose revenue or any information about its ad sales. ...One could argue, however, that with the additional enticements that Crest provided — thousands of free movie screenings, as well as sponsored Def Jam concerts — a brand of hemorrhoid cream could have attracted a similar number of nominal “fans.” ...When Facebook talks about its 130 million members worldwide, it’s careful to include only active members, defined as those who have logged on within the past 30 days. ...I ran a small-scale test ad myself over two weeks and paid a varying rate that dropped and dropped, and on the last day would have permitted me to place the add on one million pages for only $80. ...His remarks were offered as his personal reflections, not the official position of his employer, and were available on the Web in a podcast of the talk. ...As an experiment, he and a colleague set up an ad that would target all Facebook members who were 22- to 27-year old women, who worked for P. ...These ads are accompanied by an invitation for a member to take some action besides just looking at the ad or viewing an embedded video, but without leaving the page. ...Social media is NOT for advertising and marketers should not think of the platform as a new place to position ads.

Get your exec's tweeting

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-13T15:39:46-08:00

Transparency, we all hear about it and consumers want it, but teaching someone within your company to "talk" to people via social media requires a new way to think, listen and talk. If any business executive goes on Twitter with promotional messages or sales talk the social media strategy will fail. Here is what you need to do in order to use Twitter effectively: ...Listen to what they are really saying and determine the best way to respond. Don't make promises you can't keep and remember that on the Web "instant gratification takes too long". ...You have to convince business people to use Twitter all the time and Tweet whenever possible. ...Allow people to contact you directly: If someone has a problem with your company or product get it resolved as quickly as possible. ...Also be aware that there are some people out there who like to complain and do nothing but complain. No matter what you do you're never going to be able to satisfy these people but over time you'll be able to identify them and do your best to quell their outbursts. What I have found is that most executives have a hard time letting their guard down and really talking to people. They are so used to talking to the street to promote their company that transparency with consumers is foreign to them. Before you start any social media program please ensure that your target market is using social media, and that you have an objective and strategy in place including a measurement plan. Social media can be quite rewarding if you use it the right way and in tough economic times you need to reach out to each and every customer.

My Space vs. Facebook (Demographics)

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-13T12:56:58-08:00

(Click to enlarge)

The brand called you has no audience

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-13T06:33:56-08:00

It seems that the recession is now starting to take its toll on not only white collar workers but on people working for online properties as well. This shortsighted approach means that these online properties are not willing to invest in marketing at a time when everyone should be investing more in online marketing. Yahoo, as we know it, will cease to exist soon and CBS Interactive truly does not even register in top Web properties. ...You develop a great Web strategy and finally put the pieces in place when all of a sudden you're reacting to tactical pet projects that can derail your overall Web strategy and make for a lousy user experience. Yet if you read a lot of BLOGS on the Web you'll hear about "developing your brand". ... You see when you interview for a job you don't have the time to fully communicate you brand attributes. Rather than looking at "your brand" employers are looking at your mannerisms and the clothes you wear. You could talk about Web strategy but that's when the interviewers eyes glass over because he, or she, usually has no idea what you're talking about. I just heard of one story where a candidate went through 3 rounds of all day interviews, was offered the position and then on the second day was told that her interactive budget has been frozen for the rest of fiscal year and that she now had to write Web content. ... I wish this was an exception rather than a rule but welcome to working with people who don't understand the Web. ...You can continually tell a story with Web metrics and try and get people to think as users rather than salespeople but all too often business has not learned to embrace customers and shelve mass push marketing. The companies today that are laying off people will be the ones that are going to lose share and will have to spend more money to get it back. So stick to what you believe and do what is right for the people who visit your Website because if you don't they will turn you off with a click of the mouse.

In your face Starbucks

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-12T12:21:22-08:00

From my friends at single serve espresso.com: Armed with a big old Bag of Hurt, McDonald's is taking it to Starbucks in the middle of the downturn, and doing it on their home turf. Everyone knows that Starbucks is hurting, closing stores and seeing the profits dry up like old coffee grounds, but that's no time to baby them according to McDonald's latest efforts taking shape in Seattle. According to this story, they have put up billboards "Four Bucks is Dumb" and "Large is the New Grande" around Seattle, pitching the news that Starbucks is so yesterday. Should be interesting to see how that works. McDonald's has launched a website unsnobbycoffee.com. McDonalds is winning the coffee wars and the question becomes will Starbucks be able to win back the customers it is losing to McDonalds?

Women are using social media

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-12T09:41:54-08:00

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Kill the pets !

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-12T09:00:52-08:00

Marketing people can be very impulse driven to implement new online initiatives but it's up to the eMarketing person to keep his/her eye on the strategic version while trying not to implement every damn pet project that comes your way. ...What's the objective: Whenever someone came to me and asked me to "implement" something on the Web I always asked "what's your objective" and tried to tie it back into business objectives. Often what marketing people want is NOT the best way to implement something on your Website and you need to convince them that once they have a business objective that needs to be implemented on the Web they need to work with you to determine the best way to integrate their needs. ...If you know that what you're being asked to do does not make for a good user experience and can hurt your online strategy than ask for money to implement. ...If you have too many cooks in the kitchen your Website can very quickly become a bulletin board of confusing calls to action which means your users are going to leave you with a click of the mouse. ...At my last company one of the managers asked us to put up a rotating message on the home page about a new product that was going to be shipped to all existing customers. ... An analysis of the Website quickly showed that over 60% of our traffic was from prospects and that the message about the new product did not drive them any deeper into the site. I explained this at a meeting and as soon as leads dropped I was instructed to get the message back to one that would drive leads. ...Now of course your IT and Webmaster already is working on stuff for your Website and some of these things could result in a better user experience which in turn could improve sales. ... After reviewing all the projects I usually told them it could be 3-6 weeks upon which they would either forward my eMail to their supervisor or just get pissed off. I always liked to meet with the supervisor so I could ask them "which priority project should I cut and who is going to inform the business owner that it has been pushed back?" ...Finally, stand your ground and continue to remind everyone that the Web is about users not about what marketing wants to do or put up on the Website. Yes, I know, the Website is there for business objectives but if you lose control of the strategy and direction of your online property it will become less effective and then you'll have to explain why traffic or leads has dropped.

US Internet users learning the "Web"

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-12T06:10:10-08:00

One of the reasons that social media is growing so fast that "newbees" on the Web are starting to disappear. With people spending more an more time at home and network TV in the trash one the places that people turn to for entertainment is the Web. The more people use the Internet, the more they learn and experiment with Apps and social media platforms. I also believe that is one of the reasons that videos on the Web are growing, it's mindless entertainment that costs nothing and it's fun to use your computer for multimedia. However what I have been preaching is that although social media is growing you need to keep in mind that like any product within the lifecycle there will come a time of saturation and people will start to drop off as the newness of using social media wares off. There are some demographic segments that integrate social media platforms into their lives but others will find the consistent updating a consumer of time. It would be interesting to see some data on just how often BLOGS on the Web are updated (% by everyday, 2 days etc). It's fun for people to get online but "I have to do this everyday" is going to take its toll.

Videos on the Web are hot

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-12T05:35:55-08:00

U.S. Internet users viewed 13.5 billion online videos during October, representing an increase of 45% versus a year ago, according to comScore. The data showed that Google sites again were the top U.S. video property, with a 40% share of all videos viewed. YouTube.com accounted for more than 98% of all videos viewed on Google sites. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 3.8%, followed by Yahoo! sites with 2.7% and Viacom Digital with 2.3%. Although Hulu ranked sixth with 1.7%, the duration of the average online video viewed at Hulu was 11.6 minutes, higher than any other video property in the top 10. The duration of the average online video was three minutes which is huge in Internet time.

Resources to measure social media

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-11T08:30:01-08:00

If your goal is to better understand what’s happening in your marketplace, and what your competitors are doing, these sites are vital resources for ongoing insight: ...This helps you find blog posts with the keywords you provide so that you can identify where people are talking about you and your market (and find out what they’re saying). GOOGLE GADGETS is the best place to tell which widgets are the most popular, because when you find the gadget, it shows the number of pageviews it has gotten. WIDGETBOX also provides a wide array of gadgets … but not the counts. BLOGPULSE is a simple, free tool which identifies trends from the blogosphere for the frequency of occurrence of keywords which you provide, as well as providing links to the actual blogs where those conversations are occurring. ...NIELSEN BUZZMETRICS is the Ferrari of analytic tools, providing a robust package of functionality … for a price, of course. Tools provide rich detail about what consumers are saying about your brand and your competitors’, how many are talking, in how many places, and where it’s happening. ...You set up an account and define keywords, and it starts collecting, tracking and analyzing content, reporting the results in a slick dashboard of ongoing daily metrics about what’s being discussed, where, and so on. It also enables you to identify who the Influencers are so that you can reach out to them and form a relationship. ...You enter a keyword and it provides a dashboard of the major social media sites showing short snippets of what’s being discussed relating to that keyword. ...BUZZLOGIC tracks the bloggers who are influencing your market, identifying which ones have the highest “influence” (i.e. traffic), as well as the posts on those blogs which affect you, so that you can keep track of who you need to establish relationships with and what they are saying. iGOOGLE and GOOGLE READER are personal tools you can use to create a central place where you can view RSS feeds from your top-priority blogs on a regular basis. They’re a great place to simply monitor the industry stories and blog postings that are of most interest to you (so that you can “get in” on experiencing Web 2.0 personally).

The end of mass marketing

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-11T08:05:38-08:00

Social media derives its value simultaneously from the collective and the individual, no the mass. This is a traditional reversal of marketing and creative models where a single message is developed and pushed out to the masses. Social Media Marketing in an Hour a Day Dave Evans

Guidelines for soical media marketing

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-11T05:47:02-08:00

Engage with influencers in interactive communities so that the message can be spread within the communities. ...If you expect immediate results or want to band-aid a troubled brand you're barking up the wrong tree. Social media programs sometimes will not yield results for months and requires consistent participation. ...Remember you walking onto a level playing field and users have little time for corporate propaganda or sales messages. ...Target customers who complain and see what you can do to change their attitude towards your product or brand. Sometimes these people just want to know that someone is listening to their complaints and will do something about it. However be aware that there are some people who complain about everything who you will never be able to change. ...Believe it or not a great emotional message can spread quickly throughout the world and unite audiences. ...One person is hard to reach but within the collective network groups of people are valuable. ...Talk to people online the same way that you would talk to them as if you were talking to them in a bar or cocktail party. People are fed up with "elitism" and the more genuine you sound the better your chances of making a real connection. ...Look your customers are talking about you regardless of your interaction with them. ...Well remember more than half of all social media programs will fail and Wal*Mart is still looking for a successful social media model.

Those who cut marketing will pay a steep price

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-10T14:47:43-08:00

This is the first recession I can remember where people waited overnight for stores to open and waited online for the new iPhone from Apple. That tells me that people have money but they are scared to spend because of all the bad news. All you have to do is turn on the network news and hear about more layoffs and more billions going to bail out bad strategic decisions. The really sad news is that a lot of companies use the recession as an excuse to cut budgets and layoff people. "Surely we don't need so many people in cube farms, there has to be a way that we can cut the population?" Hell even the NFL is laying off people because God knows people are watching less football today because of the recession. What is really troubling is that when consumer spending kicks in, and it will kick in, people are going to be spending and a lot of companies and marketers will be ill prepared to meet the demand. This means a lot of people will be doing 3 jobs and working 12-14 hour days with little help. This means that eMarketing people are going to asked to implement a whole bunch of tactics with little thought to the strategy or the brand touchpoint. Now is the time for marketers to get closer to their prospects and customers. Now is the time to listen to what they are saying and respond with a great social media strategy. ... Well when companies have to spend big dollars to get back share they lost during the recession someone might get up the nerve to say "why?" , but then that would make too much sense.

Keys to social media marketing

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-10T06:01:54-08:00

Humanization : This is one of the things that I can’t stress the importance. i have talked about humanization of business on one my previous post. This is a critical element to any social media campaign and might as well call it a soul to building a community online that revolves around your business. HUmanization is simply individual participation within the community to make potential customers aware that you are not just a business but an individual like everyone else. ...Although time after time we hear people talk about how easy it is to manipulate social media, its not the fact. ... If you want to build a community around your product the key is to become an active participant and showing that you actually want to become a part of the community. Being part of the broader community will help you build a community of your own as time passes by. ...While building a community and being an active participant you do want to show people your personal side but not always. ... If you are planning to build a community or become an active user within a community, you do need to provide value to other users. ... Some might join a mobile forum to learn from others and some might join to let others know what can be done with their mobile devices. ...While you are still trying to capture users from the broader community to revolve around your’s do not forget to try out some buzz marketing tactics. ... Give people something to talk about you and they will embrace you and this will certainly help the growth of the community. ...Your main goal while building a community is to enter into a broader community and be able to generate interest from community members. ... You can either start out from scratch or join a broader community and slowly build a community within the broader community.

Customer Engagement 2009

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-10T05:57:38-08:00

"Customer engagement is widely seen as a way of deepening and enriching a product or service offering and a method for gaining customer insight". - The cScape Online Customer Engagement Survey Report 2009 Here are some of the key findings: Only 42% of organizations surveyed have a defined customer engagement strategy in place 41% of respondents said that deteriorating economic climate has resulted in a greater focus on customer engagement There’s interest in creating relationships with customers to increase the long-term customer value and also to increase the value delivered to the customer. Most organizations feel that sensitivity to price is a key customer behavior that will have to be addressed in the next 12 months (48%). Email newsletters are the most likely tactic to improve customer engagement (59%). Web 2.0 and social media such as user ratings & feedback (41%), user-generated content (37%), blogging (36%) and social networks (36%) will also be used to engage customers. Very few companies (5%) have a strategy that uses mobile channels. Lack of resources continues to be a barrier to successful customer engagement. About a third of companies site problems with technology as a significant barrier to cultivating better customer engagement.

What we have here is someone with too much time on their hands

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-09T13:52:31-08:00

As I have come to love the use of social media for business I also know that updating my LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter status is becoming a big pain in the ass. I therefore have chosen not to update my status as much or use apps to do it for me. At first it's kind of fun to share what you are doing with others but after awhile I'm not sure a lot of people want to do this. I mean does a guy want the girl he asked out to know that he is going on a date with one of his coworkers? What we have to remember about social media, and the Web for that matter, is that it's still evolving. Different age groups use the Web differently with some doing everything digitally with PDA's or cell phones and others using the Web primarily for research and eMail. It's OK to love your job but is it really necessary to answer eMails on your Blackberry at dinner? I was at concert earlier this year in New York and low and behold there were at least 6 people within sight who were using their PDA's to check and answer eMails while the show was going on ! I couldn't believe it, talk about the need to get a life. The Internet has shown how easy it is to connect to other people and share a lot, but I really believe that in a little while people are going to come to realize that they don't want to be tracked all the time and that relaxing in an eMail free zone has it's rewards.

Best video that describes the state of social media marketing

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-09T12:28:07-08:00

Predictions about Web 2.0 (2009)

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-09T12:20:14-08:00

Look for more companies that currently host the user's identity to have less control over that, as things like Open ID take over and more companies try to compete by giving users more control over themselves. Look for ways users can own their own data, and companies that might offer that, sort of like a personal information bank. The changes may seem subtle but I think we'll see companies now, like Facebook, who try to be everything to you: your bank account for info, your identity, your tools for publishing, and your bar/restaurant for socializing, having to give up some of those roles or hold them less powerfully. ...Of course, Facebook will fight this to the last, so they won't be the first to give up some of this control. ... The other big change will be in companies finally building for revenue in the social and any other space online, as they build for growth in their free or social products.” ... Customers are major players in the arena of marketing - I would argue more so than the marketing professionals themselves now - so it is important to realize that and shift the marketing program to be more about how you interact and empower those customers rather than how you control and spread the message.”  ...This means that everyone will experience what bloggers and gamers learned at least 5 years ago--following people online is a great way to virtually know and screen potential contacts and friends, as well as a tool to maintain connections. As for tech, I'm excited about personal devices--smart phones, integrated devices--I want to see them come down in price and go into wider distribution so people don't need to rely so much on computers.” ... Of course this can be used for applications like "find pizza places near me", but also can be used, for example, when a natural disaster hits. ... In terms of social media, I think we are just at the beginning of "collaborative mapping" - people working together with friends and colleagues to build shared maps of places they care about. Also, the grassroots environmental organization Appalachian Voices has combined social networking and mapping in an interesting way on their advocacy site to end mountaintop-removal coal mining: here's a map of all the people referred to the site by actor/activist Woody Harrelson, including their "degree of separation" from Woody. ... The amount of data we can consume as humans stays limited, but filtering that data to become useful for specific reasons is not only something that's doable, it has an incentive... targeted customers. Those customers might be businesses or consumers, but the days of shooting from the hip with a shotgun approach are quickly ending.

You Tube for Business

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-09T11:55:45-08:00

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley says the average viewing time for a clip on the site is 2.5 minutes. ... However, his introduction, which lasted less than a minute and a half, garnered 12,000 views in the first week. ... People simply don't have the time, nor, in most cases, the inclination to watch anyone for more than 10 minutes, even in person. ... If your presentation is longer, edit the segments, and upload them as shorter clips. ...When I worked as a CNN correspondent, my videographers would spend a lot of time setting up audio for interviews. ... However, very few video clips on YouTube make use of an external microphone. Most users simply use the built-in microphone on the camera, which results in very poor audio quality, and is sometimes completely unintelligible. ... You can buy an unobtrusive clip-on microphone from Radio Shack (RSH) or Best Buy (BBY) for $20 to $50. ...Bullet points on slides are hard enough to see in person on a large screen; slides on YouTube are impossible to see. I don't believe in using bullet points anyway, and in this case, the slides were a real distraction. ... If you're going to share a presentation that you delivered, use a program to edit your presentation into shorter segments first, insert full-screen slides, and then upload the talk. ...It can jump-start your marketing by creating a more personal, direct connection between you and your customers. ... People will forgive bad lighting and audio at your daughter's school play, but they expect more from your business.

Don't segment all baby boomers

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-09T09:39:57-08:00

Marketers shouldn't make the mistake of treating all of the 77.2 million baby boomers the same. According eMarketer's new report, "Boomers Online: Attitude Is Everything," the 56.7 million online boomers are the largest group of U.S. Internet users, making up almost 30% of the Web population. And how they act online is as diverse as they are. "Older boomers, ages 54–62, use media more like the 'matures' who precede them, and younger boomers, ages 44–53, act more like Gen Xers online," said Lisa Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report.

Why most businesses have not embraced social media

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-08T11:25:44-08:00

At first, the world at large ignored the Web, missed it's significance, scoffed, then jumped in with both feet, thinking it was a bandwagon, asked the wrong questions about how to make money with it, got too excited when it seemed something it wasn't, too depressed when it turned out to be what it actually is: mirrored fractal nets within nets, the collective intelligence of the human race unfolding in real time-and for the first time, on its own terms. Most companies kept on shooting for imaginary mass markets on the Web. Well said ! Before you can use social media for marketing you have to understand what makes the Internet so great and this is a great explanation. There are still a lot of Websites out there that suck from a user experience and don't understand that the Website is about its audience not what a business wants to push via sales messages. Mass media was created to serve the marketing requirements of corporate America. The Internet, on the other hand, is about users and connectivity. Can American business really embrace the Web and make it relevant to an audience? Yes but it requires a whole new way of thinking and has to be driven from the top down. How many Internet marketing people spend hours and hours of time creating and editing Power Point presentations on the Internet? How many senior executives really understand the power of social media at a time when they have to cuddle Wall Street analysts who don't know anything? It's going to be fun to watch companies flounder as they try and deploy a social media strategy, for these are the people who say "we need to do something social" and expect one person to set up a site on Twitter. To get a free copy of this book click here

The psychology of bad news

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-08T07:39:31-08:00

"The other day, I got in a cab and there was a news report on the back seat television about soaring unemployment in New York. ... The news zippers in Times Square were full of reports of crumbling consumer confidence even as people streamed in to the stores beneath them." ...An RSS feed from Reuters was waiting on my desktop saying, “U.S. employers axed 533,000 jobs from payrolls in November, the most in 34 years.” My e-mail inbox not only included a note from a friend that she had been laid off, but it was flanked by contextual ads from Google labeled “Unemployed?” ...It means that people are scared to spend money, scared about losing their jobs and in doing so are going to refrain from spending. There are however some things that we can learn from this consumer behavior: first, video game sales are up as people look for entertainment and look to escape the bad economic news. Second, sales of ED drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are all strong, so even though the headlines are bad people still want to have sex. If they can't find comfort in spending money they will do it at home as we all need to find a way to escape and find something that makes us feel good. ...As I have said here before, when people are angry they look for a way to vent and what better way to vent than to let off steam with other people and share experiences. ...Media companies have been hammered on the leading edge of the recession because they run on advertising, a discretionary expenditure that always is among the first things to go. Viacom had third-quarter earnings of over $400 million in 2008, down 37 percent compared with the same quarter last year, but it was still nicely profitable. ...A Web and pop-cult savvy journalist who has covered everything from Britney Spears to the shootings at Virginia Tech, she is, at 28, just the kind of talent media companies fought over in the last couple of years and will again in the future. ...Well yes, people are going to discover social media, this may bring about an age of not getting in over your head with credit cards, something that American consumers have been very good at doing, and when consumers finally do open their wallets and start spending there is going to be a hiring frenzy for Internet marketing people like you have never seen before.

Facebook advertiser applications find few takers

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-08T07:35:10-08:00

It's well known, for instance, that banner ads perform poorly on the site. ... But the Facebook Platform, launched 18 months ago -- which lets developers create social applications for users -- was thought to offer the perfect opportunity to move beyond banners to provide "branded utility." So far, however, Facebook apps from brands like Coca-Cola, Champion, Ford and Microsoft are as popular as desolate Second Life islands. Mike Murphy, vp of global sales at Facebook, defends the platform by noting success stories would likely involve much broader efforts than they've seen so far. "We find that if a brand builds an application as their social strategy and not as a tactic that contributes to their overall strategy, then more than likely they won't see good results," he said. Application experts pointed to several other reasons so many top brands have fallen short. In some cases, they said, brand apps are too complicated. ... And despite Murphy's admonition, most exist as one-off experiments, tied to a launch-and-forget campaign approach versus one created with the mind-set of a developer, which leaves room for tinkering. What's more, many companies build applications on the cheap, frequently relying on "viral" distribution rather than buying media. ...This is a clear illustration of developing a strategy before charging head first into social media. In addition to that strategy marketers have to ensure that their "applications" are easy to learn and add value to consumers. Who has time to learn complicated applications even if they help me manage my day to day life? The bottom line is that social media marketing is very unforgiving and unless you can adapt to the platform and consumers needs then be prepared to hang it up.

Another brain surgeon

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-07T16:25:10-08:00

"What does this tell me? Consumers might "hate ads," but not enough to pay even as little as a few cents a day to avoid them. " This insightful quote comes from an article in Ad Age online today and has to be the biggest DUH on the Web. Yes consumers don't want to pay for ad free content and why should they? They have the power now and if the Website doesn't like it consumers will take their business elsewhere. Why do you think Facebook is still trying to find a profitable model and LinkedIn let people go earlier this year? The bottom line is that in the new age of consumer power via click of the mouse traditional advertising is as dead as the Bush presidency. Consumers know they have the power and are not going to pay anyone for commercial free sites. Give us what we want or we'll move onto another site that can.

Time is the new currency and it's in short supply

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-07T06:14:03-08:00

At any time of the day or night people can go online when it suits THEM and not have to adhere to any schedule. ...Well most people tend to go to their favorite bookmarked pages on a regular basis to get the news, sports or to see what's happening in their neighborhood. The search for information comes when they have a need, such as doing research on a health condition or a new car. ...Well given how tight car sales are today I decided to see what people were saying about that on different car buying sites like MSN Autos. I was actually surprised with what I found, it seems that most people have surmised that the cost of maintenance is "built into the lease price". One person said it this way "I was going to get the 530i but it was $80 more expensive per month than the Mercedes E320. I realized then that this whole free maintenance thing was a load of BS, you are paying for it every month !" I found several posts like that on boards all over the place and although it might have been a great position it is getting worn out now by smarter consumers. ...In order for marketers to be effective with an interactive strategy they need to think about how their customers use the Web. Do people have time to go to a Website for the oil companies to see what they are doing for alternative energy development? ...A great Internet marketing person is worth their weight in gold and companies should do everything they can to hold onto these people. It has been my experience that some Internet marketing people are being starved for budget dollars in this recession and as thus are looking to move on. If the Web is one of the first budget items to be cut than that is a great indication that your company does not understand the value of the Internet in strategic business planning and objectives.

Will social media stay hot?

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-06T15:45:33-08:00

Go to Nielsen Blog Pulse and type in social media and you'll get a confirmation that it is in fact really hot right now. More and more books on social media marketing are starting to appear and a bunch of authors are making big bucks telling uninformed business people what they should already know. Yes social media is hot right now, but I guarantee you that the "buzz" around social media will cool down for several reasons. ...It requires a commitment on the back end in people and other resources as well as empowering employees to make decisions based upon what they feel is best for the brand/company. ... If you look at the ages of people who use social media you'll find a direct correlation in social media use with age: the older a Web user, the less likely they are to use social media. As older Web users learn about the advantages of social media they may try the different platforms but I believe that a lot of them will find that it's just another thing they have to learn and won't really see a clear benefit thus they will register and try it out but after awhile it will lose its newness and just be another thing I have to update. ...Now more and more marketers are saying "we should be doing something social" but the reality is that they will fail. You can't apply old reach and frequency models to social media and most eMarketing people are still trying to figure out this whole ROI thing. Some industries are made for social media (Jet Blue, Subaru) but there probably aren't many people who want to have a conversation around pasta sauce or gasoline. Remember with social media the group is in charge and if you don't listen to what is being said and what they are talking about you'll never make your conversation engaging to be successful. So yes, social media will cool down because companies don't have the resources as they lay off people to experiment with something new. Some companies however will begin to understand that marketing today is about the conversation and they will begin experimenting with social media. This will lead to enhanced brand equity but translating that into dollars is always going to be a problem for people who just don't understand marketings value.

Think there is no such thing as brand equity?

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-06T07:05:48-08:00

The bigger question — and the one that will earn marketers a seat at the boardroom table in a way that no amount of ROI measurement can — is whether brands truly are assets that enable the business to generate superior returns over time. The first point for marketers to recognize is that, to qualify as an "asset" in financial terms, a brand needs to be measured in terms of its ability to generate future cash flow. ...So the third point is that brand equity needs to be measured in a way that captures the source and scale of this emotional augmentation that the brand provides to the underlying functionality of the product or service. ...The first type of approach measures equity in terms of "outcomes," such as the extent to which customers are prepared to stake their personal or professional reputation behind a brand by recommending it to others or the price premium they are prepared to pay; ...The second type of approach tries to quantify the extent of brand equity that a brand enjoys by measuring the degree of "relevant differentiation" provided (although most do not explicitly use this term). "Relevant differentiation" is an important metric because it measures the success of marketing in terms of the extent to which two goals have been achieved — maximization of the perceived fit between your brand and your customer's needs; and maximization of the perceived differentiation of your brand versus its competitors. ...Underlying each of these macro constructs is a further layer of analysis that expresses performance as a function of product and service attributes, and affinity as a function of the brand identification (the closeness customers feel to the brand), approval (the status the brand enjoys among a wider social context of family, friends, and colleagues), and authority (the reputation of the brand). ...Importantly, it situates a brand's attitudinal equity (measured in terms of differentiation, relevance, popularity, quality, and familiarity) in the context of the degree of customer involvement with the category in question. ...The constructs of differentiation and relevance are then combined into a single metric of brand strength that, through Young & Rubicam's collaboration with the financial consultancy Stern Stewart, has been shown to provide a powerful explanation of superior market value. ...Although not available as a commercial methodology, Kevin Lane Keller's brand equity model is worthy of mention because of his authority within the brand equity measurement arena (he is professor of marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and recently co-authored the 12th edition of Marketing Measurement with Philip Kotler). ...All of the aforementioned approaches suffer from the fact that they are attitudinal in nature and have yet to establish the definitive relationship between measures of attitudinal engagement/loyalty and observed behavior. ...Of potentially greater importance than a credible ROI model for marketers is the development of a robust methodology for defining and measuring brand equity in a way that meets the financial requirement for an asset, namely that it represents a source of incremental cash flow over time. ...Well the essential truth is that in order to measure a social media strategy it's going to require working closely with market research to get some quantitative and qualitative measurements which in turn are then going to require you to work with someone in finance to turn these findings into dollars.

The real power of real social media

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-06T06:12:26-08:00

If you want to know about the real social media and influencers look no further than Oprah. Last week on her show she talked about her Amazon Kindle and within two days Amazon was completely sold out and will not have stock again until February 2009. This, of course, is going to lead to a lot of pissed off customers and one has to wonder why, when they knew the Kindle was going to be featured, didn't they get on the phone to their supplier for a rush order? ...With one mention of a product or book she can instantly make it a bestseller bringing in millions of dollars of revenue to the seller. I am sure that some companies have tried to get to meet with her to endorse their products but Ms Winfrey is surely in the drivers seat here. Remember last year when she gave everyone in her audience a free car? That of course is going down as one of the worst marketing blunders in history as it did little to make the car a bestseller. ...People trust her- She comes across as genuine and talks to her audience like they are her friends. ...She is great at conversation-rather than ask questions like a typical host she tends to engage her guests in conversation. ...She is not perfect- She has been fighting her weight all her life and the audience can sympathize with her as most people also fight their waistelines. ...She is for the underdog-She always has a habit of praising the underdog which her audience can really relate to. All the elements of a great social conversation in 1 hour a day on TV. Ms Winfrey of course is also a very smart business woman and makes millions of dollars through her production company Harpo, but as long as she engage her guests in vibrant conversation and share the wealth with the audience she is a social media superstar.

Traditional marketing is dead

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-05T12:20:56-08:00

If anyone doubts that take a look at some of the Apple sites that have pictures of people unboxing new Apple products. Over the last couple of days there have been a number of stories about traditional ads on social media sites being ineffective. ... Remember it's social site users who are defining how the site is going to be used not advertisers who want to intrude with ad messages. ...Because they don't know what to say and they are not set up to talk to people they are set up to talk to segments of people and that model too is becoming outdated. Every time I see a company laying off people on TV I know that company is NOT marketing driven. Take AT&T, the deal with Apple will keep a steady stream of revenues coming for quite a long time and as rumors circulate about a $99 iPhone being sold at Wal*Mart and Costco AT&T should be gearing up to provide world class customer service. ... Hmmm, the cell phone market is pretty saturated with or without a recession and you have a lot of business thanks to Apple, yet you are laying off 12,000 people? Seems to me that customer service is going to take a huge hit here and in the long run AT&T will lose customers and Apple maybe forced to sell the iPhone with another carriers service. ...They should be everything they can to ensure that current customers are happy because they can add revenue to the company for many years to come. WIth all the layoffs one has to wonder what is going to happen when the economy gets back in gear. ... The economy will get back in track and when it does people who have money and haven't been spending are going find out that because of all the cutbacks inventory will be hard to find and customer service will be non-existent. Too many marketing budgets are also being cut because the bean counters finally have an excuse to tighten, what they feel, is an expense. Too bad because when sales go down that is a crucial time for marketing to kick into high gear.

The bailout of the auto industry

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-12-04T16:35:47-08:00

This is the same industry that has held onto the same outdated model of big SUV's and trucks and fought MPG guidelines for decades. These CEO's make millions and get perks that most of us only dream about and make no mistake about it the people suffering for all their bad business decisions are the guys and gals who work the line everyday. I am continually amazed that people who lead companies are allowed to take a company to the edge of ruin and then leave with golden parachutes that ensure they will never have to work another day in their lives. ...American CEO's are the highest paid in the world and they say they deserve the money because of their responsibilities. ... How many white collar senior managers would give anything to lead a company, make decisions and get paid $300,000 a year as opposed to $5 million or more. Their perks include fine hotels and meals, private company jets that they often use for personal reasons and a "scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" mentality that lets them earns thousands of dollars sitting on company boards. Americans are fed up with CEO arrogance and greed and there is no doubt that if we do bail out the auto companies that ALL the executive managers have to go. ... Let these people find out just how hard it is to try and find work when your resume includes AIG, Morgan Stanley or CitiBank. I remember reading an article in the NY Times a couple years ago about Wall Street managers who would go steakhouses in New York and order $4,000 bottles of wine. How they would go to BMW or Mercedes and pay cash for a new car and then buy a 2nd house in the form of a condo costing a million dollars or more. Regardless if WE made money, their firms made money and they were free to spend while people in Ohio were losing jobs and watching 401K valuation decrease. We have to bail out the auto industry because it would be less expensive to lend them the money than to tell them to take a hike, but changes have to made in ALL businesses in America. Capitalism is good but all too often it leads to greed which in turn leads to really bad business decisions in an unregulated industry that has proven it can't be trusted.

How true

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-09-13T09:57:35-07:00

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Work to live don't live to work

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-08-25T14:06:56-07:00

I'll be the first to say that when I was working I would check eMail first thing in the morning when I got up and be eMailing people just before bed. Now that I am a consultant I realize that this is pure insanity no matter how much you love your work. There are so many little things around us that are beautiful that go overlooked while we are answering eMails and it's time to slow down and be thankful that we can appreciate this beauty and that it's in our world. I am seeing things that I have not seen before: a humming bird in the garden, new flowers coming up and a sunrise and sunset that are spectacular. It's time for people to stop working so much, even if we really enjoy what we do and slow down to appreciate what we have. Life goes by way to fast and right now a lot of people are gonna miss it because they were on the phone.

How the mighty have fallen

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-07-01T15:00:04-07:00

There was a time when it was really cool to walk around with a Starbucks cup; that was then this is now. A coffee chain with brand equity that most marketers would have killed for has taken a turn for the worse and there are some lessons to be learned here. ...Yes it was cool to walk around with a cup of Starbucks coffee but in a down economy people start asking themselves “do I really need to spend $4.00 for a cup of coffee”? ... New products were slow coming and not promoted well and essentially Starbucks lost that part of their brand equity that made them cool. ...McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts launched major counter offensives against Starbucks with beverages that not only tasted better but were a hell of a lot cheaper. ...You could go relax with friends, read the paper, check your eMail or just hang while enjoying your brew. The problem is that as the brand started to grow and open more stores they became almost anemic looking with no personality. Then came bad quality control..no longer could you get a Latte at one store and have it taste the same as other Lattes that were purchased from other stores. ...Starbucks tried to change this with the reintroduction of Pikes Place Roast but alas it was too late. Now the Chairman of Starbucks wants to install $20,000 espresso machines in each store, like that is going to make a difference. ...Brand equity has a lot of elements but the intangible elements are often the ones that can easily get damaged when you lose sight of what made you great. Apple is enjoying the brand equity of “being cool” but if Apple ever stopped innovating they would also lose their platinum brand equity. ...That’s hard to say, for when you lose customers it costs 5 times as much to win them back and I am not sure that Starbucks has the marketing smarts to do that anymore.

Team building events suck

richardameyer@me.com — 2008-06-27T14:00:21-07:00

There are some people that I work with that I really like, but over the course of my career I have learned to be very cautious about who I call "friend". I have had people stab me in the back to get ahead and have had a lot of people take credit for the work that I did. I therefore have learned to be very guarded about what I say and to whom. But managers still feel that we need to go offsite and spend 8 hours together and that will make a cohesive team. ...I have managed people before and they always like the way I manage them. ...Understand that peoples lives do not rotate around work and other personal issues may sometime take up work time. ...Learn what motivates them and where they want to go in life. ...Hold them accountable for their work but remember a good manager takes all of the blame and none of the credit. ...Understand that risk may sometime lead to failure but learn to manage the risk and reward those who are willing to take a chance. ...During the spring and summer don't be afraid to tell people to go home early and enjoy the day. ...Always coach them but remember that sometimes they are going to need to fall off the bike in order to learn how to ride it. ...Compliment them and thank them personally when they make you look good. ...Yet you would be surprised how many people can't learn this and would rather spend money for an off site of team building.

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