Posted by Rahna on December 23, 2007 under Uncategorized | 
There will be no new brilliant marketing discussion this week due to the Christmas holidays. It doesn’t mean that I won’t be thinking about marketing….I’m always thinking about marketing. (I’m certain there will be some marketing books under the Christmas tree for me.) I just won’t be able to share those thoughts with you until the new year. I hope you have a peaceful holiday filled with laughter and inspiration.
Posted by Rahna on December 20, 2007 under Consumer Engagement |
The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the settlement of a lawsuit that Apple & Steve Jobs filed against Nicholas Ciarelli, a student at Harvard who ran an on-line site that reported on Apple product news and rumors called “Think Secret.â€Â Apple wanted to know the source of some significant product information leaks; those were never revealed. Wall Street Journal reports, “Mr. Jobs never got the names of Mr. Ciarelli’s sources, but he got part of what he wanted: Think Secret will stop publishing as part of a settlement Mr. Ciarelli and Apple announced today.â€Â You can read the full article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119816965323942663.html?mod=fpa_whatsnews
This lawsuit brings up an interesting dilemma for marketers who are serious about consumer engagement. Part of consumer engagement is allowing—even encouraging—fans to build communities where they can talk about your products. It deepens the bond with the brand and strengthens customer loyalty.Â
But what about confidentiality? Trade secrets? There are serious competitive issues (not to mention a whole host of free speech and other judicial questions) to be considered. But let’s stick with the question of active consumer engagement. Other companies have run into this problem and it is one that needs to be managed carefully. In my experience, it pays to build relationships with those hosting such sites. These people can be seen as HUGE assets, not liabilities. If people are going to talk about you anyway, wouldn’t you like to have a seat at the table? I’m not saying that Apple doesn’t work with their community. Of course they do, many times with tremendous skill. There may have been no way to avoid this lawsuit. But there are marketing lessons to be learned.Â
I think of my own experiences, most notably with LEGO. LEGO has a huge fan base, with fan sites too numerous to count. There was direct interaction between the Marketing Department and the fans. In addition, there was a whole team of people devoted to developing and managing those community relations, building a mutual trust, finding ways both parties could benefit and, yes, working actively to avoid the kinds of sticky situations the Wall Street Journal article discusses. One guy who worked masterfully with LEGO fans while I was there now devotes all his time to helping companies think through, manage, and build community relations (you can find him at Communityguy.com).Â
Community management is an important part of your marketing efforts. It can have a huge, positive impact in building buzz about your product before it launches (hmm…kinda like when the iPhone came out). But if you don’t manage the relationships, you can end up on opposite sides of a lawyer’s conference room table (kinda like Steve Jobs and Think Secret did).Â
Make sure you actively work with your customer base, not against them.
Posted by Rahna on December 17, 2007 under Branding, Strategy |
A strong brand positioning statement can apparently withstand toddler-hood, our judicial system and the test of time. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on a campaign that Domino’s is introducing to play off of its “30 minute delivery†heritage.Â
It’s a smart play on an existing heritage, as the WSJ reports, “Research found that as many as 30% of Domino’s customers still remembered it as the 30-minute delivery chain, even though those ads hadn’t run since Bill Clinton’s first year as president. Meantime, delivery had become an even more important part of American culture because of online shopping and movie delivery.â€
The WSJ article states, “Domino’s made its name in pizza delivery by running ads that offered a discounted or free pie if the driver didn’t arrive within 30 minutes of an order. But in 1993, a St. Louis woman who was involved in an auto accident with a Domino’s delivery person sued the company on the grounds that the 30-minute pledge led to accidents…After hiring a new advertising agency, Domino’s now plans to rebrand itself around a play on the old slogan. New ads slated to start running Christmas Eve will carry the tagline “You Got 30 Minutes.”   The idea is to tell customers that ordering from Domino’s gives them back 30 minutes they would have spent rustling up a meal. But it stops short of promising delivery in a half hour.â€
The only part that doesn’t make sense is that they said that they are shifting their target audience to the under 30 crowd. Target consumers aged 18-30 were anywhere from 3-15 years old! I’m guessing that the media plan delivering the 30-minute guarantee in the late 80’s and early 90’s was not aimed at this target!
Regardless, kudos to the Agency for having the discipline to leverage the Domino’s heritage rather than settling for just another empty, “me-too† quality pizza message
You can read the whole story here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119784843600332539-email.html
Posted by Rahna on December 13, 2007 under Consumer Engagement |
Promotions work, even for the consumers that don’t take advantage of it! Have a look at this post about the “best customer service email I’ve ever received.â€Â It’s humorous and enlightening. Here’s what I get from it:
 ·        Outrageous offers absolutely create buzz.
·        Outrageous customer service absolutely creates buzz.
·        Customer complaints should always been seen as an opportunities in disguise, usually an opportunity to deepen the relationship with customers. The key ingredient here was to empathize and appreciate what the customer is looking for (even when you cannot supply it).
·        There are people out there with a delightful sense of humor. Question: Are you viewing your customer’s complaints as opportunities? What can you do to ensure that your customer service creates buzz? Here’s the post: http://consumerist.com/consumer/good/amazon-sends-best-customer-service-e+mail-ive-ever-received-332639.php
Posted by Rahna on December 10, 2007 under Uncategorized |
“I know I waste half the money I spend on advertising. The problem is, I don’t know which half.â€
John Wannamaker, founding father of modern department store retailing
ROI Marketing has been talked about for several years, but what does it really mean?  I can’t argue that one should know what marketing works and what marketing doesn’t. But everyone seems to have an opinion about exactly what to measure. Here’s a recent laundry list of many of  the various metrics being touted—some “classic†measures, some newer to the scene:
Share of Market
Share of Voice
Share of Wallet
Response Rates
Active Share
Purchase Frequency
ClickThru Rates
Event Traffic
Cost Per Thousand
Cost Per Lead
Cost to Acquire
Order Value
Customer Lifetime Value
Brand Equity
Lead Per Sales Rep
Campaign Payback
Lead Aging
Prospects Generated
Price Per Transaction
Churn Rate
Awareness
Persuasion
Net Advocacy
The articles that I have seen have high-profile MBA professors and high-profile consultants all talking about what they think should be measured, but it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Measuring any of the things on those lists is admirable, but it may be completely irrelevant to your particular business. You must first look at what your objectives are, then figure out a way to measure whether it is accomplishing that objective.Â
The most important learning to be taken from the concepts of ROI Marketing should be: measure something. In order to avoid Wannamaker’s malaise, don’t just blindly spend money without knowing if it is returning anything to you. Put metrics in place to measure it!
Posted by Rahna on December 5, 2007 under Consumer Engagement, Strategy |
In a tele-seminar course I am teaching, we are talking about how to develop Positioning Statements. To prepare, I was doing some background research and find that, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The marketing principles outlined by the advertising greats of the 60’s (David Ogilvy, Al Ries & Jack Trout, Rosser Reeves) are still the same today….they just have to “morph†with the times.Â
I read an article written by Nick Wreden of FusionBrand. He is brand strategists who helps companies doing business in Asia.  http://www.brandingasia.com/columns/011.htmÂ
In the article, he postured that brand positioning was dead because “…The exercise is a company-driven process that reflects how companies wish to sell (“the leading provider of …”) instead of determining what – and how – customers seek to buy. Such posturing worked well in the mass economy, but the tactic is doomed to failure in, as the Economist pointed out, a customer-driven world. …Companies can “position” themselves as anything, but unless there is essentially a customer-driven consensus on the brand”s wiki, then the “positioning” is no more than corporate posturing. Instead of seeking to unilaterally “position” their products, companies focused on branding today must devote resources to defining, delivering, measuring and sustaining the value that customers feel they receive.â€
That would be a problem if the company sits in an office and dreams up the positioning out of its own head….but that’s not how strong positions are developed! They are developed by talking to consumers, finding out what resonates, and reinforcing something unique that is already believed about a product. It must ring true, which was just as true in the 60’s and 70’s as it is today. The long-standing  “Avis. We Try Harder†positioning came from talking to people in the field, who told Rosser Reeves that they had to try harder because their business was struggling. The ad teams saw the possibilities and an entire company philosophy was then, over decades, built around that positioning.Â
It doesn’t matter what decade you are talking about; positioning must come from the mind of the consumer.
