Bentley College Marketing- Honors

Phillips Patents No-Ad-Skip Technology

2006-04-25T11:32:00.000-04:00

John Gartner of Marketing Shift made a posting on Thursday, April 20th reporting that Royal Phillips Electronics Company, who owns TiVo, has applied for a patent on technology that would prevent people from skipping through advertising on their DVRs. The consumers would be allowed to either pay a premium to see the program sans advertisements or be forced to view them at regular speed like the rest of the huddled television watching masses.
A few days earlier, John made a post that called out the need for an invention that bridged the gap between advertisers and consumers via DVR. He said “TiVo and the other DVR manufacturers must craft a difficult compromise that satisfies advertisers and the TV networks on one side while also mollifying consumers on the other.” The situation as it currently exists jeopardizes the trusted model of television advertising both from the side of advertisers who are experiencing diminishing reach, and networks who will ultimately have to slash costs for slots as a result of the shorter reach.
Similar to what happened with the Mp3 file sharing epidemic that threatened the music industry, the obvious alternative was to simply charge people. The central benefit of DVRs is not that they allow people to skip commercials (although no DVR owner would complain about this) it is that they enable their owners to record television and view it at your convenience. John says “I would still use my DVR even if I was forced to watch the commercials, but right now it is just too easy to avoid them”.
The trick is going to be implementing this technology universally. If some DVRs have the no-ad-skip technology and others do not, consumers are clearly going to choose the models that allow them to fast forward. Which company is going to be the first to restrict this feature voluntarily? My guess is that it will not happen until someone makes it happen. There will have to be a central mandate from the government (or other all powerful organization) that declares that ad skipping is illegal. They might say that it falls under the category of cable theft and by a certain date will have to be totally phased out. According to the article from the AP, found on Yahoo! News, “Philips wanted to provide the technology and seek the patent only as part of the broader developments within the industry, Philips spokesman Andre Manning said.”
In terms of strategy, this seems to be a great move for Phillips. Whether or not they can leverage the patent technology to other DVR makers, Phillips has made a stride for the industry as a whole and will benefit as a result.
As far as a critique of the piece, I applaud Gartner’s foresight in proclaiming the need for the technology before any of the companies in the industry publicly addressed it. It was a thorny issue with a seemingly simple answer. We will have to wait and see if people stop using their DVRs because they can not skip ads. John and I both agree that they probably will not.

To Be Searched or Not To Be Searchable

2006-04-25T03:12:00.000-04:00

April 24, 2006
In one of Toby Bloomberg’s most recent blogs entitled Diva Marketing - A Leader In Marketing Blogs, she makes a great point while simultaneously (and obviously unintentionally) tooting her own horn. Toby reflects on a recent study conducted by iProspect where the company analyzed search behavior trends by modern Internet users and reported their findings on consumer beliefs about companies found via online searches.

Overall, the results of the survey revealed two major points:

1. When searching online, it is crucial for companies to arise on one of the first pages. According to the study, “62% of search engine users click on links returned within the first page of search hits. A full 90% of users click on hits within the first three pages of search results. “

2. Consumers typically believe that the top results for internet searches are likely to be the industry leaders. “Among search engine users, 36% believe that the companies whose websites are listed at the top of the search results are also the leading brands.”
(quotes taken from http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003922)

This story is marketing related because marketers could definitely use the information presented to help them evaluate their own websites. Website design is a critical part of marketing, especially in today’s internet-savvy world, but the behind-the-scenes navigations are just as important. What good does it do for your company if you produce the best web site on earth, but if no one ever goes to it? Tracking trafficking on internet sites is becoming one of the fundamental aspects of marketing, allowing companies to gauge the success of certain layouts, designs, clickstream paths, and products.

The blog informs marketing by creating an increased awareness of the need for marketers to assess their own web pages and “keywords” that drive customers and potential customers to the sites. The study provides marketers with clear benchmarks as to what internet-users want when searching on the internet; the closer to the top of the page your website appears after a search is generated, the greater a chance you have of getting a visitor to your site, and the greater a chance you have at being perceived as an industry leader.

Reading about this study improved my understanding of marketing by re-emphasizing to me that there is more to the field of marketing than target markets, design and creativity. Technical, quantitative and analytical skills are very necessary in many everyday situations that marketers encounter. Learning how to draw traffic to your website is one such example of marketers needing such skills in order to excel.

My critique of this blog is not so much on anything that Toby had to say, but actually in regards to a quote taken from the study itself. In the article entitled Search Marketing: Coming Out On Top which discusses the survey, the author wrote, “62% of search engine users click on links returned within the first page of search hits.” I think he may be missing the word “only”: “62% of search engine users [only] click on links returned within the first page of search hits.” If he didn’t forget a word, then what do the other 38% of searchers do? Skip the first page and start looking on the second or third? Or do they run a search and then just not click any of the results? Am I the only one that is slightly mystified by the quote??

2006 not 1976

2006-04-24T23:22:00.000-04:00

Mike Wagner has been blogging up a storm recently over at “Own Your Brand,” and this week I have decided to focus on a blog posted on April 12th titled, “Sherman, Set the Date for 2006!” In this posting, Wagner expresses his frustration with organization who “are stuck back in 1976 when it comes to understanding brands, markets and advertising.” He comments on heavy emphasis on things like names, logos, and taglines which he describes as being part of a “broadcast” world, one in which we no longer occupy. Wagner describes some of the following symptoms of such out of date advertising techniques (just a sampling):

“People zoning out on their sales monologues but engaging in marketplace conversations called blogs”

“People yawning at their “better mousetrap” pitch, but “lighting up” when they hear a creative and passionate story about their people, their company or their vision of a better world”

“People tired of the “same old” and looking for something different”

The aspect of this blog that makes it marketing related is its reference to advertising and marketing practices and the methods that companies are using to reach their target audience: a (if not THE) core function of marketing.

Wagner takes his ideas and attempts to inform marketing that there has been oversight in methods of communicating to customers. Wagner essentially challenges marketers to overcome the traditional mold that many advertisements and customer communication methods have taken on and become creative and adapt to the ever changing consumer to reach them new and innovative ways. In addition, Wagner also attempts to point out a new method of customer communications (well known to our class of course!): blogs. By simply pointing out this method of communication, Wagner is informing marketing of a new possibility for marketing and advertising techniques and methods to reach customers. It is at this point in time, however, that I would also like to incorporate my critique of this blog! Clearly, those who come across and read Wagner’s posting on this topic are well aware and are actively invested in the process of reading blogs, if not personally blogging themselves. While I fully support Wagner’s attempt to actively inform marketing by providing an example (he does provide other examples but I am choosing to pick on this one) I believe he could have chosen an example that may still have the potential to reach his reading audience. Even though a person is reading a blog, they could still be stuck in traditional and out of date marketing principles when communicating with their clients in other areas.

An additional informative aspect of this blog is its mention of the non-existence of a "broadcast" world. I believe this is an important concept to comprehend, one that I am beginning to comprehend as well. In a presentation made by Caitlin, she discussed the transition to narrowcasting and the ability of individuals to choose to a greater extent the media and types of media they are exposed to. This paradigm shift further reinforces Wagner's point regarding keeping up to date and creative with marketing techniques and reaching people in the new ways in which they are searching for and acquiring information as well.

Finally, this blog improves my understanding of marketing by providing additional reinforcement of the need to evolve with customers, not as much in terms of product innovation, but in the innovation of how a company communicates with its clients. This blog also further solidified my understanding of the previously discussed concept of the shift from broadcasting to narrowcasting.

"Consistent Image is Everything"

2006-04-24T18:58:00.000-04:00

John Jantsch’s post written on Wednesday, April 19th, titled “Consistent Image is Everything”, goes into the subject of small businesses and maintaining a consistent brand image. This blog is similar to others that he has posted, as he is passionate about the idea that you have to be consistent in the image that you portray to your customers. This blog is different than the others because it does not just argue that you want to remain consistent over time, it also argues that you should stay consistent at one point in time, meaning that all your campaigns and marketing materials should have a consistent message. Jantsch points out that “the reason people resist change is because they like to have their expectations met and what they perceive as change often comes in the form of inconsistency. Prospects and clients like to know that when they do business with you, it will occur in the same manner they expected each and every time. The level of service, the delivery, the quality and, yes, even the bill needs to meet their expectation.”

Jantsch points out that many small businesses do not have a consistent image within their marketing campaigns. They produce different colored materials, with different fonts and messages written on them. Some companies even have their marketing materials produced by different agencies, with completely different techniques and tactics. He argues that this deteriorates from your business because you will not be recognized by your consistent image. He does not discourage change if your campaign is not effective; he just argues that you have to change everything if you are going to change anything. The point he strives to get across throughout the blog is that “inconsistency breeds doubt and small business owners can't afford doubt”. He also points out that it doesn’t matter if your campaign is very simple, you can still make it effective by being consistent and thorough in your marketing efforts.

This blog is marketing related because Jantsch touches on important points for small businesses and their marketing efforts. He explains that for small businesses it is crucial to maintain a consistent brand image so that you attract customers and do not confuse your target market on what your company is there for. He relates the blog to marketing throughout by stating that it doesn’t matter how much you spend on your brochures and other marketing materials, it only matters how effectively you use them to your advantage.

The post informs marketing by educating the reader on a common small business problem. It informs the reader that, although you can change your marketing tactics and strategies, you have to maintain a consistent image at a point in time. This means that you have to have marketing materials that go together and support the same brand image and message. This blog improved my understanding of marketing by discussing effective marketing strategies for small businesses. It improved my understanding of how many small businesses lose their customers out of confusion and an inability to be recognized because of their inconsistent image.

My one critique of John Jantsch’s blog titled “Consistent Image is Everything” is that it is very similar to other posts that he has written. He brings up some different points and valid arguments, but for the most part the idea has already been explored by him in previous posts. It would be good to read things he writes on other marketing related topics besides consistent brand image.

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

2006-04-24T11:45:00.000-04:00

In, Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems: Bryant Park, an archived blog posting by Katherine Stone, she discusses the issues of the Bryant Park in New York City. It has gone through many renovations and is now a popular sport for corporately sponsored events. In fact, many residents around Bryant Park are complaining that there are too many events now. The park no longer feels like a public space. Since the park is no longer publicly funded, the corporate user fees for hosting events such as Fashion Week are partially the reason that Bryant Park has been able to be revitalized. The blog discusses the balance between having a park that is pretty and clean and renovated, and a park that is no longer a public place but rather just a venue for corporate sponsored events.

This blog was extremely interesting. I have always thought of corporate sponsored events has helping the surrounding areas. They bring in publicity to the area and tourist or other people who are most likely to spend money in the area. However, I had never before contemplated the limit of corporate sponsorships. If an area is always the host of large scale events, there is less opportunity for the surrounding area to enjoy the park in the manner that it was originally set up for. Katherine Stone brings up the point that there is a limit of how many events should be in an area. Additionally, she talks about how there needs to be an appreciation for the surrounding area’s community and members. From her personal experience, she knows that when a company is planning a corporate event, it is often extremely busy. The company is trying to make sure that the event will run smoothly, that the correct people will be there including press, and that all necessary items will be on hand. There are so many things that need to be looked at for the event that often the person or company planning the event does not have any time to think of anything else. Therefore, they may sometimes forget to take into account the surrounding community and the affect the event will have on those people.

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems: Bryant Park informs marketing in a few different ways. Corporations often do sponsored events to get their names out and draw attention to their company. However, it is important for those companies to pay attention to the community that they are hosting the event in. If they work with community groups, then they are more likely to be sure that there event will be well received by the surrounding community. Also, not only should companies pay attention to community groups when they are hosting an event, but also at other times. It is important for companies to know that they are reaching their target market in manner that is appropriate and beneficial for both the consumer and the company. Community groups can help to tell companies when they are communicating in a beneficial manner for that specific area of the country. Community groups can be used as a tool to really understand the issues facing one’s target market and how to best meet those needs.

Lastly, the blog posting by Katherine Stone was interesting and put the corporate events in another viewpoint for my own information. However, Katherine Stone did not talk about how companies can really focus on the community, other than suggesting that they work with community groups. Also, she did not discuss whether the options she brought up for helping with the problem of event overload in Bryant Park, would actually work in that community. Finally, it would be interesting if Katherine Stone did a follow up piece on this topic. It has been a few months since she first raised this issue. I would be interested to hear whether any changes have been made in order to limit the number of events in the park. It is a difficult balance between having money to have a great park and getting so much money from user fees that the community no longer has the ability to use the park as a public space.

What do you do when your brand becomes the target of xenophobic rumors?

2006-04-23T17:43:00.000-04:00

The blog posting “What do you do when your brand becomes the target of xenophobic rumors?” presents this question of how brands should deal with rumors and criticisms that “either appeal to fundamental cultural anxieties or that are framed in popular worldviews.” It raises the case of Lenovo, which is a Chinese IT company that recently acquired IBM. Lenovo is under fire because “xenophobes” are voicing allegations that the computers sold by the company to the State Department “could provide shadowy spooks in the Chinese government with an ideal means of conducting espionage.” This idea is being “marketed” to the public as a “buy American” and “national security” issue. It is marketing related because with raised cultural anxieties, Levono must decide how to deal with these negative connotations to its brand, as it is the first of Chinese IT companies to experience a merger with an American company. Any way that the company tries to approach the issue, its brand image is at stake. They face the challenge of either fighting the allegations or waiting until it “all blows over.”

This story informs marketing because it clearly illustrates the power of cultural identity on brands. The author alludes to the fact that some of the criticism may be stemming from the strong cultural and national ties that American consumers had with IBM that were tainted by the company’s acquisition by a Chinese company. Clearly, this cultural identity not only impacts the brand, but also other factors such as customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, and employee relations, just to name a few. While a regular merger or acquisition between two companies of the same national origin may have negative brand impact, bringing another nationality into the equation impacts many internal and external matters in the company.

To me, this post improves my understanding of marketing because it illustrates the immense complications of the global economy on brand image. While the world is supposedly “getting smaller,” cultural anxieties and worldviews still play a prevalent role. Since the Levono/IBM merger is the first of its kind, it must be dealt with caution in order to set a precedent. It will be interesting to see how future decisions are made on how to approach brand image in these delicate situations as our generation gains management positions in the future since Dianne Durkin described our generation as the “global generation:” we have been exposed to more globalism than any other generation. It would seem that we would therefore understand how to prevent these problems or if they did occur, how to implement damage control.

The concept of “Buying American” also made me think of the theme that “consumerism won in America.” How are these two ideas related? Did only “American-made” consumerism win in America? Does this connotation apply to all product categories? Or only those that we associate with “American” or have some pride in, such as IBM? It is hard to believe that Americans stand by “Buy American” with the popularity of Wal-Mart in our country. What would happen if Wal-Mart was acquired by a company of another origin?

This posting does an excellent job of just stating the bottom line being that Lenovo is between a rock and a hard place in deciding how to handle this situation. It would have been more helpful to have a better explanation of the Lenovo-IBM acquisition at the beginning, because I had no prior knowledge of this situation but found some information on another blog. It really made me think of how I would approach a “damage control” situation such as this one. Damage control seems to be something that cannot be “taught” in a classroom, but is a vital lesson to be learned the hard way – by experience – in the workplace.

In Person

2006-04-23T15:20:00.000-04:00

In Kathy Sierra’s blog post “Why Face-To-Face Still Matters” she discusses a lecture she heard by a neuroscientist at the Conference on World Affairs. According to the lecture face-to-face communication is still very important. People think that because of the rapid spread of text messaging, emailing, and IMing there is no longer a need for real communication in the workplace. However, according to studies, there is no substitute for direct genuine communication. Kathy reiterates that we trick ourselves into think that text is as good as speech and that we can get all we need for the exchange of it, when in reality our brains are not hard wired that way. The point she makes is that text does not have the ability to convey instant information. In a study conducted, babies were put in front of a monitor that featured a person responding to their actions. When the monitor operated on a delay the babies’ emotions and reactions were completely different because they had already moved on in their minds. This is similar to the way email is interpreted in adults. When someone sends and email and then an hour later the recipient reads it and responds, the original sender will react differently in most cases than they would had they had a direct 20 second conversation with the recipient. Another point she makes is that while we can read text we may interpret it differently than it was intended. There is no body language or emotion in text. She then talks about audiovisual communication. Many businesses use this because then you can see and hear what the person is saying as they intended it to be, and there is immediate response. However, the neuroscientist points out that while you are looking at the camera the other person sees you but you don’t really see them, and as a result, the experience suffers. This is related to marketing because when businesses think that they can have a really elaborate website set-up to handle all of their business communications they are missing a critical function of life. There needs to be direct marketing and face-to-face contact. It is not enough for Doritos to feature some commercials on prime-time, and list their website on the bottom of the bag. They need to have people in stores giving out free samples and talking about all the different varieties. People need to walk into a grocery store under a Doritos banner and see the faces of children munching down the tasty snacks.

This informed my idea of marketing because in most of my classes we talk about what the most efficient types of marketing are and how to go about implementing them. This efficiency is usually expressed in terms of cost and time. It is a newer idea to think about the science behind the efficiency of the brain, because it doesn’t matter if a campaign is inexpensive and easy to launch if it will leave potential customers without an essential interaction that they need to really connect to the company or product.

Kathy Sierra is a businessperson under the same constraints as everyone else who has to rely on text-based communications, so she understands the difficulty in engaging in real communication. As a result, she covered the matter in a very real framework. She advocates meeting with peers and clients at least once a year. Kathy says that some direct communication is better than nothing, because even if you just meet someone a few times you will have a better idea of what they mean or are thinking when you correspond with them via email and the like. Additionally, she stresses the benefit of staying in touch in general so as to make necessary communication easier. Kathy advocates including a picture of yourself with emails and posts, and other easy ways to make the communication more real.

Note: This is me.
See? According to Kathy I've already improved this mode of communication a little.

Blog Elitism

2006-04-23T14:57:00.000-04:00

based on postings from the BrandBuilder blog by Olivier Blanchard

In this posting Blanchard discusses what he calls in the business world “the new snob mantra: Only “experts” should have a voice.” “Blog Elitism” was written in response to a posting by Spike Jones of Brains on Fire lamenting the decreased credibility of bloggers in the blogsphere. Jones writes that so many bloggers “have no real-life, hands-on experience to back [their ideas] up…And until you dig down and find out what really makes them an “expert,” then you just don’t know.” Blanchard believes that the beauty of the blogsphere is that individuals do not have to be experts to share their ideas. Further, the best ideas don’t necessarily come from those we consider to be experts. Blogging is not about “status and titles. It is about sharing ideas” and all marketers can benefit from considering these ideas and learning from them.

This article is marketing relating because it lays out the benefits of blogs for individuals in the field of marketing. Blanchard tells marketers that they can get the opinions of all types of individuals involved in their trade at any given time, as blogs allow all kinds of individuals to spread their ideas without the help of established journals or publishing companies. As a result, marketers are able to see issues that affect their trade from so many different angles and experiences, whether it is from a said ‘expert’ or a “retail clerk with no formal experience in marketing.” Blanchard also steers people away from ‘expert worship,’ pointing out that the “most relevant observations… come from the trenches, not the board room.”

Blanchard’s post informs marketing as it encourages marketers expand the sphere of what they consider to be credible, relevant sources for marketing. As noted above, relevant observations might not come from ‘ivory tower’ experts. Blogs level the playing field, giving everyone a voice. Blanchard encourages marketers to take this abundant source of information seriously and to realize that they can obtain great ideas from this medium.

This article improved my understanding of marketing by lending credibility to more blogging sources in my mind. So often in the academic world we are forced to look at what the ‘experts’ say, taking articles that have been published as the only source of credible information. It is still important to consider the opinions contained in these reputable sources. However, it is also important not to overlook the great ideas that appear in Internet blogs from people who work closely with the topic at hand. Considering so many points of view on a topic will greatly enhance a marketer’s depth of understanding of an issue. Blogs can make this possible.

Companies and marketers are starting to understand the importance of the fact that “everyone has a voice” in the blogsphere. For example, one of the students in our class does a blog scan at her internship and came up with relevant information, straight from the mouths of customers, on how they viewed the company’s product. It would not be possible to find such direct and impactful information from an expert in a published research journal.

An additional opinion/critique of this article: It is important to consider many points of view when grappling with a marketing issue. I agree with Blanchard’s point that one does not need to be highly trained in marketing technique to have great ideas on a topic. Experience “from the trenches” is sufficient to lend credibility to a blogger’s opinion. However, it is important for readers to know what that experience is.

That said one of the problems we have encountered in following our respective blogs in this class is that it is sometimes difficult to find out the experience behind the opinion. General class consensus was that biographies of our bloggers were not easily accessible or, in some cases, nonexistent. We had to work, to ‘dig,’ to find the experience behind our bloggers’ opinions. I could not a biography for Blanchard on his blog and had to Google him to find out his background. Since credibility is a big issue in the blogging medium, it is important that biographies be better utilized by bloggers to let readers know an author’s experience behind topics discussed whether the author happens to be a big shot CMO or a sales clerk.

Back to Basics: Quality

2006-04-23T14:49:00.001-04:00

This post was a continuation of the blogger’s previous post regarding quality. In the first post, Dave pointed to the fact that claims about quality in marketing practices is often abused due to the fact that there are no concrete standardized measurements that are commonly used. Thus, claims of quality levels are incredibly vague. In this post, Dave points to a new article written by Scott Dalgleish in Quality Magazine in which he asks a question of quality regarding product/marketing:

"I’m currently designing a line of product for my business and I’m facing some fundamental quality questions. Do I develop a high-quality product or a cheaper low-quality product? This isn’t an easy question. My inclination as a quality professional is to develop a high-quality product without even thinking about it, but that could be a foolish approach. As I drive past discount stores with packed parking lots, I quickly realize how much consumers love low prices."

Dave responds to this question as follows:
The basic 101 lesson:“Reading this article reminded me my MBA economics classes, which I really enjoyed because of the order it creates with such complex questions. It all is based on the supply and demand curves that intersect. Here is a good review of supply and demand with interactive curves. Scott also realizes that price, cost, and quality are not also always dependent on each other.”The 600 level case study:“Right now most of us are dealing with existing products, or new products similar to others, so that we can make some assessments of the market, at least in an educated gut/Blink-style. Scott's problem is that there is no existing supply or demand curve for his new product. While he decides that market testing will help him decide, he also acknowledges that his final decision will be the one he can live with.”This post is marketing-related because it is directly related to product development. Deciding how to design and create a new product is crucial in beginning the marketing process. Once the product design is secured, the rest of the marketing strategy can be developed.

This post informs marketing because it addresses a crucial question of quality: should the product be high quality or low? This is essential. Dave brings forth an excellent point regarding demand of the consumer. If there is a high demand for a low quality, cheaper product then it would seem illogical to develop a high quality, more expensive product.

I have learned quite a bit from this post. The original article regarding the vagueness of quality statements opened my eyes to the idea that quality may be becoming a less important product characteristic in the eyes of consumers and their purchasing decisions. Using a supply and demand curve to determine the level of quality in a product was a concept that most likely would not have entered my thought process initially. This seems to be one of the more logical approaches in reaching such a decision.

I would have liked to have read more about Dave’s thoughts on the subject. Perhaps giving an example of successful and unsuccessful product designs in relation to quality levels would have made the topic a clearer.

Back to Basics: Quality

2006-04-23T14:49:00.000-04:00

Bloggers weigh in on Envoy ad campaign: Should co-production include marketing activities?

2006-04-21T19:07:00.000-04:00

Remember my previous post about a GMC Envoy ad campaign where the public was asked to produce spots for the extra large suv? Well some marketing bloggers are weighing in with various opinions:

http://www.adrants.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4895

http://haloscan.com/tb/joelcere/114476169493385153

http://haloscan.com/tb/joelcere/114424668988680398

Honor Conference Successes!

2006-04-21T18:46:00.000-04:00

I didn't get to see everyone from class do their presentation but I did get to moderate the session with 5 of you. Good Job!

The Carnival of Marketing and Harvesting Collective Genius

2006-04-17T15:59:00.001-04:00

“Every employee idea, no matter how small, improves an organization in some way. It is when managers are able to get large numbers of such ideas that the full power of the idea revolution is unleashed.” -IDEAS ARE FREE by Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder

The blog posting I read for this week dealt with utilizing the abundance of ideas that can be generated from a company’s employees. I found a blog posting by Spike Jones at Brains on Fire, “The Carnival of Marketing,” which references the top seven best and recent blog postings in the industry. One such posting was by John Moore at Brand Autopsy, “Harvesting Collective Genius,” and it is the posting I will be discussing in my blog this week.

In this posting, John Moore discusses the way in which Rite-Solutions “created an internal idea stock exchange.” Employees at Rite-Solutions can suggest any idea or recommendation. These ideas then become mock stocks and employees are given fake money to invest in these ideas on a “Mutual Fun” board. One of the co-founders of Rite-Solutions explains,

“We’re the founders, but we’re far from the smartest people here. At most companies, especially technology companies, the most brilliant insights tend to come from people other than senior management. So we created a marketplace to harvest collective genius."

This is a brilliant idea by Rite-Solutions because employees often do have innovative ideas and no means to articulate them. By making this program into a game with stocks and pretend investments, it helps to make employees involved and interested. In addition, it helps to highlight the best ideas.

As our blog postings have been showing us over the past few weeks traditional means of marketing is becoming less effective. This blog posting is marketing related because this game or Human Resources idea could be used to generate new marketing ideas or activities. Moreover, it builds unity and enthusiasm in employees and we know from previous articles, happy employees create happy customers.

Similarly, this article informs marketing by shedding light on a new and innovative concept for companies in any industry. It also reminds marketers of the power of employees and the internal resources available. Hopefully, this “Mutual Fun” game will provide a stepping stone for other companies to develop their own game or company wide venue for idea generation.

Not only did this blog posting improve my understanding of current events happening in the industry, it also made me think of different and more marketing driven games that could become company wide events. One idea I had was that companies could play on themes from the industry they are in or the customers they are targeting. For example, a company like Home Depot would have a marketing idea generation game with a theme centered around tools and/or hardware.

My only criticism of John Moore’s posting was that he provided a lot of quotes but he could have possibly provided more of his own opinion and insights.

'Corporate FaceBook' Turns Profit

2006-04-11T11:45:00.000-04:00

A recent post on Marketing Shift Jason Dowdell noted that Linked In, a social networking site for professionals recorded profitability for the month of February. Dowdell has established a rapport with the owner of the site, Konstantin Guericke. The main difference between LinkedIn and other social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace is that they charge a membership fee.

Linked In is a global operation with over five million members worldwide and growing, according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald. The memberships start at the entry level for free and range from $5 to $200 a month. According to CNN Money, a job listing costs $95. Guericke contends that "The question is, do people pay for subscription-based services on the Internet? Especially in the business arena, if you provide enough value, the answer is yes." Xeni Jardin on an article for MSNBC.com says “There is growing evidence to support claims that some social networking services (SNS for short) can be a powerful professional ally to businesses — in particular, independent entrepreneurs and smaller companies, for whom each new personal connection is a significant business building block.”

On the site, people can maintain a list of professional contacts, search for a job, post a job, find services, or find people by several different search criteria. According to an article in Information Week, employers are able to find people who are not actively seeking a job, but were still open to hearing about opportunities. It also helps people connect with members of their college graduating class or colleagues that they have lost touch with in the past.

Unlike so many services, including AOL Instant Messenger, MySpace, FaceBook, and countless others relying on advertising for revenue, Linked In represents a different side of the internet. The freeloadeing spirit of the internet that has been so prevalent since its inception might be somewhat waning. The advent of iTunes may have been the watershed moment, paving the way for other companies that provide valuable enough services on the internet that people will pay for them. Linked In still has advertisements for its unpaid members, but the main portion of their revenues comes from their membership fees.

Another main difference between Linked In and many other SNS sites is that people who are on the site have something in common. Dowdell says, “People need a reason to connect to other people and I believe this is one of the main reasons Linked In is beginning to hit its stride in the social networking world. They've found reasons for people to join and find other like-minded individuals.” In a sense it is similar to E-Harmony and other online dating sites in that people join the site for a specific reason. This begins to explain why people pay a membership fee.

Expanding on my post from last week, if Google wanted to make a good investment, they should probably steer clear of FaceBook and look towards Linked In. The latter has a predictable revenue stream relying on the value of its services and not the trendy nature of website hits. In addition I have a feeling that in exchange for some control the CEO of Linked In would settle for less than $2 Billion.

Different Dunks

2006-04-11T09:58:00.000-04:00

April 11, 2006

Rather than writing about uses for blogs in marketing or other emerging technologies in the field, Toby chose to write about something totally different for this week: Nabisco’s latest marketing idea for its Oreo cookie. The classic American cookie sandwich has come out with an oblong-shaped Oreo cookie to improve the ease of dunking Oreos in milk: “Oreo Dunkers.” This is a drastic change for Oreo, which has never changed the shape of its cookie before (other than the Oreo 100 Calorie Pack snacks that it released a year or so ago – but those don’t claim to be authentic Oreo cookies). It does, however, reflect that Oreo has been trying eagerly to retain its market share in recent years.
I remember when I was growing up and there were only two varieties of Oreos to choose from: regular or Double Stuf, which boasted twice the amount of sweet frosting. A few years later, as a result of the American low fat/reduced fat/fat free trend, Oreo released its Reduced Fat Oreos. However, until this point an Oreo was still virtually the same Oreo, whether it was the original, Double Stuf, or Reduced Fat: vanilla crème frosting sandwiched by two round chocolate wafers.
It is evident that the Oreo cookie has reached the maturity stage in its life cycle, and the brand has appropriately taken several steps to prevent the cookie from fading out of America’s cookie jars. Over the past few years, Nabisco has launched many different flavors and varieties of the traditional cookie. Some of these include: Chocolate Crème Oreo, Golden Oreo Original, Fudge Covered Oreo, Fudge Mint Covered Oreo, Golden Oreo Chocolate Crème, Double Delight Oreo Mint ‘n’ Crème, Double Delight Oreo Peanut Butter & Chocolate, Milk Chocolate Covered Oreo and Milk Chocolate Covered Mint Oreo. Additionally, Nabisco has released many Oreo baking supplies, such as Oreo Crumbs, Oreo Chocolate Cones, Oreo Jello Pudding… the list goes on.
This blog is marketing related for obvious reasons. It provides an example of a company launching effective marketing campaigns once its product has reached maturity. Rather than give up on the brand, Nabisco has embraced the Oreo and gotten creative with it. By introducing new product lines under the Oreo name, the cookie is able to retain original Oreo lovers, who will most likely continue buying the original Oreo and may also try some of the new releases, while additionally attracting today’s children. These young consumers may not have the same nostalgia for the Oreo as their parents and grandparents do, but they are exposed to so many options in the dessert aisle of the store and the Oreo gives them the opportunity to choose the Oreo that is right for them. In effect, this means that Oreo is striving to create an “Oreo consumer identity,” allowing the consumers to identify themselves by which Oreo suits their individual desires and tastes. Similar measures have been taken all over the candy industry – Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups now offer an abundance of shapes and varieties of the original concept; the same goes for Kit Kat bars and many other candies that have been in the market for as long as anyone (or at least I) can remember. Apparently these cookie companies are doing something right, because they consume more shelf space than ever before with their many varieties.
Oreo’s story informs marketing by providing an example of a product in its maturity stage that has been able to retain market share and to remain innovative in a constantly changing world. By remaining creative and thinking outside the box, Oreo has been able to continuously hold the attention of dessert consumers of all ages.
The blog improved my understanding of marketing by reinforcing the ideas stated above. While I knew that mature products should strive to create marketing campaigns aimed at retaining marketing share, Oreo was able to refresh this concept in my mind and provide concrete examples. It also made me contemplate the motives which spawned the emergence of the modern day varieties of our old candy classics. By continuously launching new product lines, candy brands can keep attracting new buyers while retaining the loyal ones and potentially even getting more money from those traditional customers.
My critique of the blog is really of what Toby mentions after the Oreo Dunker; she attempts to segue into astrology and throws in an “Astro Tips” section. I would be interested in reading horoscopes, but I’m not sure what exactly those have to do with marketing, or why she only decided to publish the horoscope section once.

Take the Blame

2006-04-11T00:33:00.000-04:00

This week I decided to switch back to reporting on a blog posting by Spike Jones, “Take the Blame,” on Brains on Fire. In this posting he references an article in the April issue of Business 2.0. I did find a small discrepancy when I was searching for the original article. When Spike provides the name of the article in his posting, he says it was “Double Down on Execs Who Own Up,” by Jeffery Pfeffer; however, I could not find any articles by this name. The article I did find gave the same companies as examples and was by the same author but was entitled “Why It Pays To Invest in Bosses Who Blame Themselves.” It is possible that Jeffery Pfeffer may have changed the title or that these are two separate articles on the same topic. In any case, I am going to assume for this blog posting that the article Spike references and the article I read are the same.

In both the article and Spike’s blog posting, they discuss the idea that when companies fail or make mistakes, these companies and more specifically CEOs should step up and take the blame. Jeffery Pfeffer provides three perfect examples of companies that decided to put the blame elsewhere and in turn performed poorly. One example involved the CEO of Overstock.com. When the company’s “share price began plunging last year, CEO Patrick Byrne infamously declared it the result of a conspiracy among Wall Street short-sellers.” With all of the examples regarding companies that have tried to blame their mistakes on others, there are also some examples of companies that have gotten it right. In 2001, Anne Mulcahy became Xerox’s CEO and “told Wall Street that the company’s business model was flawed. Then she explained to employees the challenges they faced, the first step in a remarkable turnaround at Xerox.” I agree with both Spike Jones and Jeffery Pfeffer. If a company cannot own up to its mistakes, then it cannot make the changes necessary to turn the company around.

What makes this blog posting marketing related, is the fact that a company who can take the blame and own up to its mistakes will in turn improve its relationship with customers and its brand image. Placing the blame on outside factors is an “ineffective customer service strategy: Numerous studies have shown that consumers value an admission of failure and an apology.”

Spike Jones informs marketing by shedding light on an ethical issue that is on the surface incredibly simple, but in practice difficult to deal with. It is much easier for a company to avoid dealing with internal problems; however, in the end the internal problems will worsen along with the company’s reputation and public image.

Spike Jones aided in improving my understanding of marketing by giving me a fresh look at ethical issues in a corporation including the spreading of blame for one’s mistakes. In the past few weeks we have been discussing the possible ethical issues that we may experience first hand after graduation and I think that this is a prime example.

It is difficult for me to think of a critique about Spike’s blog posting, other than the fact that I believe there may be a mix-up with the title of the article referenced, but I would have to say that there was a lack of examples in this posting. Additionally, the blog posting was short and although it did include his opinion it could have included more reflection from Spike Jones.

Indecent Marketing

2006-04-11T00:10:00.000-04:00

A previous blog posting written by Katherine Stone talked about her experience on the other side of marketing tactics. Katherine had started a blog after she experienced post-partum depression. The blog was an outlet for people who had gone through similar situations. Katherine made this space as her own personal space. It was an area in which people could voice their opinions, what had worked for them, or question how to help the situation. The forum was used for the purpose of creating a support network for others. It was not a marketing blog, nor was it a way for Katherine to market to other people. It was purely set up as a person space for Katherine and people like her.

However, she received three comments posted by a person who was trying to sell her a screening process to make it easier for doctors to diagnose post-partum depression. This person was not someone who was trying to help the other people who posted or read the blog. The person was attempted to market a product or service to people who may or may not have needed his services. Katherine Stone states that this is “indecent marketing.” What is meant by this is that some marketers blur the lines of “decent marketing” in which you offer a product to a consumer and allow them to decide if that product is something that they need and what has and “indecent marketing” in which the marketer invades the privacy of the consumer. Katherine discusses the fact that it should not be the consumers’ job to delete unwanted messages.

This blog article was extremely interesting. It is a view of marketing from a marketer’s perspective. Katherine Stone is an experienced marketer. She has held many important positions within companies and now owns her own consulting firm. Finding ways to market to consumers is something that Katherine has had to do her entire career. However, she brought up an important aspect of marketing. There is a very thin line between being a marketer who cares about one’s consumers and a marketer who will do anything just to get at the consumer. This informs marketing because it discusses the fact that there are some tactics that are invasive into the consumer’s privacy. When that occurs, people begin to get a negative impression of the company. It is extremely important for companies to remember that they are trying to build a brand. Their job is not just to sell a product but rather to start and maintain a relationship with their consumers for the long term.

This blog informs my understanding of marketing in a few different ways. First, it was helpful to see that other marketers have come across situations in which they have experienced marketing that is not beneficial to the brand. I have often felt that there are lines that companies sometimes cross in regards to marketing. However, it has previously been difficult for me to understand how and where the line is that companies cross. The blog helped me understand how companies cross that line. Additionally, the blog article discussed the need for privacy in the minds of the consumers. It is extremely important for marketers to have a high regard for that privacy and relate to consumers in a mutually respected manner.

I found this blog extremely relevant. However, Katherine Stone took a personal viewpoint on the article. I feel that if she was able to remain slightly more objective then she would have been able to gain more credibility. Everyone hates feeling like their privacy is violated. However, it is important for Katherine to talk about specific manners in which companies can make sure to stay on the right side of the line. I was left wanting more from the blog report.

"What's the Opposite of Love?"

2006-04-10T21:43:00.000-04:00

John Jantsch’s blog titled “What’s the Opposite of Love?” discusses the idea that you have to reach out for feedback from your audience, even if it is not what you want to hear. He writes that “The opposite of love is indifference. If people don’t love your business, it’s unlikely that they hate it.” He goes on to explain that it is not enough to be happy that your business is not getting any negative feedback, because that just means that there are many people who are indifferent on your business and don’t care enough to give you the feedback.

Jantsch explains that, “If you're not getting any negative feedback, it may not be because all is well, it may in fact be because they don't care enough to tell you.” He says that you have to welcome and encourage negative feedback so that you can grow as a business and make improvements in response to this feedback. He realizes that you do not want a large negative reputation, but he believes that getting some negative feedback is good and means that your business has a presence in the marketplace and in consumers’ minds. He provides tips on how to accept bad advice and what to do with it, because you cannot respond to it all.

This blog is marketing-related because it deals with customer service within your business and the perception of your business in the minds of consumers. The issue of company image and brand perception deals greatly with marketing. The company needs to know how to market their company and this involves taking bad feedback and making adjustments to their company and marketing strategy.

This reading informs marketing by examining the issue of negative brand perception and how you can use negative feedback to better your business. This informs marketing by educating readers on the fact that even though they are not getting any negative feedback, it does not mean that their business is doing well. It could solely mean that their customers (or non-customers) do not care enough to provide them with feedback.

This blog improved my understanding of marketing by informing me on the issue of negative feedback and how it can influence and help a business succeed in the long run. The blog shows that marketing is in all areas of business, including the issue of customer service and customer critiques.

My usual critique of Jantsch’s blog is that he does not provide examples of what he writes about. This is not the case in this blog. Jantsch provides an example of an email critique that he received from a reader, and he included his response to the email and how he would respond to the critique. I have no critiques of this particular blog.

Tips from a Marketing HeadHunter

2006-04-10T13:20:00.000-04:00

Jay Lithe interviewed first-rate marketing headhunter Harry Joiner to try to discover the thought process of someone who recruits marketing professionals. Lithe asked Joiner what were the top 5 things he looks for in a person for any marketing job. He response goes as follows:

Business orientation. “Marketing candidates need to be able to think holistically about business. They need to understand that marketing is a means to an end -- not an end unto itself. No margin, no mission.”
Humility. “If you have a massive ego, forget it. I don't say this because I can't handle people with big egos. I say this because marketing people with big egos always think they know better than their customers. That's ‘death’ in the marketing business.”
People skills. “I do my job on the phone, which means that I am effectively blind. Minus the corn rows, there's no difference between me and Stevie Wonder. Therefore, if you aren't warm and empathic on the phone, then it's hard for me to imagine that you will be warm and empathic in person. People, including my clients, want to do business with people they like, and they always do a phone screen before bringing a person in for an interview. So relax and have fun. Otherwise, you are wasting your time. See the paradox? Have fun or your dead!”
An inquisitive nature. “Look, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I have gotten by on my obsessive compulsive desire to learn. Marketing is way too dynamic a field to be stagnant. So, if you think you can skate by on the "Four Ps" you are wrong. Learn. Keep learning. We are just in the top of the second inning of this Internet thing, and it promises to completely change not only marketing -- but the way we think about marketing. Don't get attached to any one marketing model of one-size-fits-all way of thinking. See note on Humility.”
A track record of accomplishment. “You can't talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into. If you have job hopped, or if you have not been promoted, or whatever, then no amount of my God-given sales talent is going to help you land a job. If you hate your marketing job, stick it out until you generate a sensible alternative for yourself. Nobody wants to hire a diva or a baby.”

This posting is marketing-related because it describes the characteristics a marketer needs to embody in order to be successful. Harry Joiner has a lot of experience in this field, thus he can be relied upon to give good, concrete information regarding when an employer looks for in an employee in the marketing industry.

This posting informs marketing because it allows us as marketers to gain insight into the thinking of current or potential employers. Knowing the criteria against which you will be judged while applying for a job or trying to maintain a current position is extremely important. Also, it is also important to recognize that these are the characteristics which we should embody in order to be successful. This posting informs us as to where to set the bar.

I have learned a lot through this post. It was extremely interesting to learn what potential employers are looking for when hiring employees. I have read over the 5 characteristics several times, trying to determine whether or not I satisfy each of them. I think I will be more aware from now on as to how much I do fit the bill as far as Harry Joiner is concerned.

I don’t have any criticisms on this post. Dave put up the link to Jay Lithe’s write-up, so he didn’t actually write that much on his own post.

Your Employees Own Your Brand - Like It or Not!

2006-04-09T17:24:00.000-04:00

I explored Mike Wagner’s archives a little this week and came across a posting titled, “Your Employees Own Your Brand – Like It or Not!” In this posting, Mike explores the idea of employees are brand representatives and communicating brand messaging to consumers through these employees. While the idea initially seems quite logical due to the fact that it is an organization’s employees who interact with consumers on a daily basis, however, Mike makes the assertion that “treating your employees as ambassadors for your brand is still considered a radical notion…. Perhaps the reason the employees in nearly every industry and retail store poorly represent their company is that leaders can’t get off their power trip and equip everyone to tell the story and live the brand.” He continues to hypothesize that this may in fact be the reason that so many people lack engagement in the workplace.

The element of this posting that makes it marketing related is the fact that employees are a main communicator with the customers of a business and brand communications to customers is a key part of marketing. As I previously stated, this seems like a logical concept, however, after contemplating Mike’s assertions and relating them to the employees of stores and businesses that I frequent, it has become clear that this concept is not universally applied to the level one might expect it to be, thus entering the ways that this posting informs marketing. It advocates that managers must develop the capability to relinquish control and empower their employees to participate in some of the most powerful techniques possible. Customer service is one of the most important aspects of any transaction and if a company determines a way to integrate their brand messaging into this interaction then it is likely, in my opinion, that the bond between the customer and the brand will strengthen and increased customer loyalty will be fostered. In addition, I believe that marketing managers must apply this concept to their hiring and training policies and ensure they are hiring people who properly display their brand image and have the skills necessary to communicate this properly to customers. Marketing managers must give up the idea that they have all the tools necessary to properly communicate a brand message and transfer some of this power to the face of the brand: the employees.

This posting improves my understanding of marketing by reinterrating the fact that sometimes the most logical and obvious marketing strategies are overlooked. It also got me thinking as to what companies I feel engage this theory and which have still not caught on to the power of their employees customer interactions. An example I came up with as a company who actively participates in this practice is Abercrombie and Fitch. Abercrombie goes through a great deal of trouble to ensure that the employees hired portray a specific image: attractive and cool, the message that they emulate as a brand. By hiring attractive employees (however shallow this may be) Abercrombie is actively stimulating their customers by presenting them with in your face advertisements of attractive people wearing Abercrombie clothes, an image that most Abercrombie customers are likely seeking.

As far as a critique for this posting, Mike provides a link to an article on how to create engaged employees, however, you have to pay to view it. I want to read it but, I won’t lie, most college kids aren’t willing to shell out $6 for an article download (then again, by assuming I’m the target market I’m making a mistake… so maybe this will be effective for Mike’s intended audience.) I also wish that Mike would have expanded a little more in terms of his own opinion. I would have loved to read more about what his experience in the industry says about this topic and ways he has tried to overcome it.

Negative Word of Mouth Hurts Retailers

2006-04-09T11:37:00.000-04:00

Although my blog, Emergence Marketing, is about innovation and technology impacting marketing, there seems to be a lot of posts about word of mouth (WOM) as well. The most recent one is entitled “Negative word of mouth hurts retailers.” The posting comments on the ever-controversial topic of WOM marketing by noting a new study that found that of those shoppers who experienced problems with a retailer, only 6% contacted the company. However, the 31% of the unsatisfied customers went on to tell friends and family, showing the immense impact spreading of negative WOM. The study also revealed that out of 100 dissatisfied customers, a retailer stands to lose between 32 and 36 current or potential customers. The blog posting notes that this study breaks the “old rule of thumb” that companies usually only hear from 1 out of 10 dissatisfied customers.

Overall, the study illustrates the impact of negative WOM, which is amplified through story-telling; for every reason that WOM is powerful for a company to harness in a positive light, it is equally as destructive when negative stories are spread. A quote from the study showed the importance of being aware of this impact: “the complaints have an even greater impact on shoppers who were not directly involved as the story spreads and is embellished. Almost half of those surveyed, 48%, reported they have avoided a store in the past because of someone else’s negative experience.”

This story informs marketing because it combines issues of customer service and WOM While it is important to spread the “positive” aspects of your brand through WOM, it is also equally, if not more important, to remember that you have to keep your current customers happy while trying to acquire new customers. As most marketers know, it costs a lot more to acquire new customers than keep your current customers satisfied. Furthermore, this study reveals that word of mouth efforts may be wasted completely if “prospects” have already been reached by a friend that had a negative experience with your brand. If you have superior customer service that has developed a strong loyal customer base, then WOM marketing efforts will not have to drain resources and time since those loyal customers will hopefully already be sharing their positive experience with others.

This posting improves my knowledge of marketing because it illustrated that marketing decisions are often ruled by physics: for every action in marketing decision making, customers have an equal reaction. This revelation shows the importance of getting a marketing decision “right” the first time so that customers react positively. It also prompted me to find out exactly how the Word of Mouth Marketing Association defines word of mouth marketing. They offer the following:

Word of mouth: the act of consumers providing information to other consumers.
Word of mouth marketing: giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place.

In other words, WOM is already happening in the marketplace, while WOM marketing is companies harnessing benefits within this phenomenon and using it to their advantage. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association distinguishes the fact that companies are not creating WOM, but apply it with marketing objectives through encouragement and facilitation.
I understand the benefits of WOM and why it is attractive for companies to integrate into marketing plans. At the same time, customer service to current customers cannot be forgotten.
As I continued to read WOMMA’s explanation of WOM marketing, the lines between WOM and customer service became even more blurred as it comments, “companies can word hard to make people happier, they can listen to consumers, they can make it easier for them to tell their friends, and they can make certain that influential individuals know about he good qualities of a product or service.” From what I can tell, if you have developed your brand well in other marketing aspects, the positive WOM piece should seem to fall into place.

Overall, I feel that this blog posting does an excellent job of showing the negative side of WOM generated by consumers. Marketing often focuses so much on promoting a brand or product that these types of consequences are forgotten. Providing examples of companies that have suffered from this problem would have been effective. Also, the topics of consumer-generated media can also be tied in here, since tools such as blogs and podcasts now serve as a way for consumers to spread both positive and negative stories about companies.

http://www.emergencemarketing.com/archives/2006/03/negative_word_of_mouth_hu.php

For Shame? Henderson Advertising 1946-2006

2006-04-09T00:21:00.000-04:00

Based on postings from the BrandBuilder blog by Olivier Blanchard

Two of Blanchard’s recent posts have dealt with significant news this week in the Advertising world: the fall of Henderson Advertising of Greenville, SC. On Monday, April 3rd, Henderson closed its doors, liquidated its assets, put its employees out of work and left its clients wondering what to do with their business. This once great agency was the first outside New York and Chicago to be named “Agency of the Year” by Advertising Age magazine. In this posting Blanchard speculates on why Anderson failed after 60 years of greatness.

Basically, Blanchard believes that the ‘big agency model’ is the reason for this failure. Bigger is not better in the case of many ad agencies. Size kills agencies for the following reasons:

Client erosion: Large firms place distance (more layers and walls) between the agency’s core talent and its clients.
‘Bulimic’ staffing model: Agencies hire and fire en masse to match the project workload demands of clients. Clients get sub par treatment when they are paired with account executives focused on holding their jobs instead of providing the best possible services.
Decreased relevance: The ‘bulimic’ staffing above devalues an agency to its client. The ‘revolving door’ staffing policy creates poor agency-client relationships, and eventually the client begins to spend their dollars in other areas, failing to see the importance of the agency.

Henderson is the only the first of many casualties anticipated over the next decade of the ‘big agency’ model for all of these reasons.

This posting is marketing-related because it discusses the future of advertising agencies. Blanchard says it well with, “Advertising is changing, and by this, I don’t mean the medium itself. What I’m talking about is the Advertising infrastructure. The framework of the industry.” He discusses why the ‘big agency’ model is failing and alerts agencies to this change.

Blanchard’s article informs marketing in that it articulates the specific reasons for the failure of these agencies. By discussing the issues that have developed Blanchard urges agencies to reflect on their own practices and clients. This posting is a warning to all agencies that says “Change or Fail.” Additionally, he gives agencies perspective on the issues from the client side as he has experienced them in his career. He shows agencies specific reasons why their clients are dissatisfied and attributes it to something measurable that can be altered to fix these problems. Essentially, he gives agencies a warning and a few tools to consider using (decreasing size and turnover of workforce and increasing quality) in fixing the problems that could lead to their demise if ignored.

This article has serious relevance to me. I am currently interning at a large advertising agency and will most likely be staying in the field upon graduation. The agency has a few glaring client relation issues. These problems were so apparent that I chose to explore them further in a paper for one of my classes in which I am trying to determine the roots of these problems and come up with possible useful solutions. This posting does exactly that and I will add it to my research.

Also, Blanchard’s article adds another dimension to the criteria that I will use to evaluate a potential agency employer when searching for work in the next year. While salary and company culture are important to a job, they are no good if the agency doesn’t exist in five or ten years. Looking out for the ‘big agency’ model and the problems that are associated with it could be a good indicator of job security and is something I will definitely consider when finding work.

A critique on this article: It would be useful to include more examples of agencies that are in similar situations as Henderson Advertising. I see these issues first hand at my internship and do strongly believe that they are accurate and do exist. The article would be even more verifiable if examples were added. I do think I read that such examples would be explored in postings over the next few weeks. If this is the case, I definitely look forward to reading them.

Fast Talkers

2006-04-06T20:49:00.000-04:00

In Kathy sierra’s blog posting “When Only the Glib Win We All lose” she discusses the idea that the first people to respond to a problem with an idea that sounds half-way intelligent are considered more credible and their ideas are taken to heart much more readily than the man/woman that may have a really good idea or point to make but cannot articulate it on the spot. She says that living in the “world of quick” we choose the instant over the slower better contemplated idea. She makes the point of explaining, "lots of people can be thoughtful, right, and quick to articulate. Just because someone can think and speak fast on their feet doesn't necessarily mean they're automatically wrong. The problem is that too often they're assumed to be automatically right."

She says there are two ways to combat this problem (which potentially can be very harmful to businesses): the first is to attack the quick culture, and the second is to make the people who often need more time to formulate their ideas better at thinking on their feet. Some ways to accomplish the latter are by:
1. Memorizing the phrase “I have some concerns, but I need a little time before I can really articulate them” and use it.
2. Compare the situation to things you have experienced in the past so that you do not need to do as much research.
3. Use “rubberducking” (i.e. talk to anyone or anything that will help you better articulate you ideas so you are practiced for when the time comes).
4. Look for a devil’s advocate who can help explain where your ideas fall short and need more work.
5. Take an improve class.
This is related to marketing because it is sort of a symbol for companies and marketing. In this case the management of the corporation is the consumer and the employees are the advertisements. Therefore, the “fast talkers” here are the advertisements that try to play on stylish rapid style advertising, whereas the others are the ones that are slower, make you analyze the brand or the product, and ultimately result in a better purchase decision for the most part. For example, if someone is looking to buy a blow drier, they may see a flashy commercial for one where the person using it is a celebrity that achieves an amazing hair style, and the consumer might go right out and buy it. However, if they stay in the potential buyer market a little longer they may discover that there is blow drier that has more power, a retractable cord, a gripy handle, and a lower price. This is the same idea as the fast talking employee that gets heard first and gets priority even when they may not have the best idea.

This post informed my idea of marketing because it made me think about the way I interview. When I go on an interview, one thing potential employees always stress is the necessity to think on one’s feet in order to do the job successfully. In fact, the entire interview is a test of this. Therein lays my critique of this post also. Employers, bosses, superiors, and what have you, almost always seek out candidates that have this very skill that Kathy Sierra refutes. The goal in trying to get a job or a promotion is to answer questions rapidly with confidence and flowery sophistication. Therefore, it seems that this idea can never really be changed because in order to even play the game one has to be fairly gifted when it comes to glib. Therefore, it seems (and I think Kathy Sierra begins to hint at this) that the idea of glib will never really be eliminated, it will only be improved. Glib will become less about insincerity and superficiality, but rather about offhanded ease and fluidity.

gmc envoy's ad campaign goes bust or does it?

2006-04-04T17:29:00.000-04:00

here's one journalist's interpretation of the gmc envoy story i mentioned in class today. do you agree or disagree with his stance?

$750 Million Not Enough for FaceBook Founder

2006-04-04T11:22:00.000-04:00

According to a post on Marketing Shift made by Evan Roberts, Google might be ready to purchase FaceBook. The college (and now high school) centered website was started only two years ago by a Harvard sophomore dropout named Mark Zuckerburg. The current offer on the table is $750 Million but Zuckerburg and the venture capitalists that initially backed his operation claim that they are holding out for $2 billion. Media conglomerate Viacom has apparently entered the bidding for FaceBook as well, to counter News Corp.’s acquisition of MySpace for a reported $580 Million.

FaceBook is a website where users can post their picture and a profile and expand their social network on their own campus and to friends across the country. People can send messages, store photos and ‘poke’ each other on the site. Is this another case of a classically overvalued website or the perfect medium with which to target the elusive college student demographic? There are arguments for both points.

I’ll start with the positive argument. FaceBook is already the seventh most trafficked website on the internet with 5.5 billion page views in the month on February alone, more than Amazon.com, according to Business Week. TechCrunch.com has recently indicated that 85% of college students have a profile on FaceBook. MySpace is the second most viewed website on the entire internet with 23.5 billion page views this February and FaceBook hopes to follow in those footsteps. Like MySpace, FaceBook is a hotbed of trends for the younger demographics. On both of these sites, people post or blog about their interests, favorite products, movies and books.

There are three types of advertising that are common on FaceBook. An article from the Roanoke Times names sponsored groups, which allow people to discuss products they are interested in, banner ads and text announcements. Prices range from as low as $9 per day for a text announcement to the high four or five figures for a comprehensive campaign for banner ads and sponsor groups. "[Advertisers] come to us because we have become the site or the conduit to reach the college audience," contends Chris Hughes, a FaceBook spokesman.

Those who doubt the value of FaceBook point to several factors. One contention is how appealing the college student demographic actually is. John Gartner of Marketing Shift said in an earlier post, “Can you imagine walking into a VC and saying, ‘I have an audience that is largely unemployed or making minimum wage, switches loyalties from month to month, can't legally drink, and will leave us in five years or less.’”

Another downside is that the college and high school student demographic is increasingly adept at putting up perceptual screens and blocking marketing communications. The success of marketing on these sites is hard to quantify which is the same problem that has always existed with mass media. How many people actually see the advertisements on the page they are viewing? How many people process the information? I am on FaceBook and I am not a member of a sponsored group, can’t recall a single brand that I have seen advertised on a banner ad, nor have I ever responded to a text announcement.

According to Brent Brandow, another author on Marketing Shift, six advertising executives were brought together for a panel hosted by the Advertising Research Foundation and the topic of advertising on MySpace was brought up. The reaction was less than enthusiastic. "I wouldn't be caught dead in that kind of environment. You only have to look around for five or ten minutes to find something offensive" explained David Cohen, executive vice president for Universal McCann Interactive. Dawn Hudson, the President and CEO of Pepsi North America added, "We're being cautious because there's a blurring between advertising and content, and the content does rub off on your brand." Granted, these are the leaders of massive business entities that have much to risk in terms of public relations and do not represent all companies. The jury is still out, but reports have it that Google has recently sold off approximately $2 billion dollars in shares.

In my opinion, the concept of FaceBook as a $2 Billion dollar entity does not sit well with me. From a somewhat traditional marketing standpoint of exposure and reach it makes sense. However, without any concrete evidence to support my theory, I think that people my age just don't respond that well to internet advertising. With television and radio broadcasts, the images and/or sounds are forced upon you, while on the internet it is much easier to block those communications via perceptual screens. My prediction is that it is only a matter of time before advertisers realize this and no longer support FaceBook's need for revenue generation. FaceBook is not the panacea for contemporary youth marketing. They need to supplant ad income with an membership fee or find new ways to link companies with members of the sites without impinging on people's online comfort zones.

"What Have We Been Talking About?

2006-04-04T09:40:00.000-04:00

taken from Olivier Blanchard of the brandbuilder blog

In this posting Blanchard discusses Mercedes recent failure as a luxury car brand, falling to 21 on the JD Power Satisfaction Survey. He references Francois Gossieaux’s posting on a terrible purchase experience of a Mercedes E320. After spending a good amount of money on the car, it progressively broke down and fell apart over the next five years. Gossieaux became more enraged when shoddy service from Mercedes dealerships in the area was provided to him. The car finally blew up on the highway due to a hole in the engine and an antifreeze leak. Gossieaux was given the run-around by contacts at Mercedes headquarters. Ultimately he was angry at the company for violating its implied brand promise of quality, luxury and service, stating “Mercedes customers are stupid…for being motivated by emotions instead of economics.”

Blanchard comments on Gossieaux’s experience from a brand promise standpoint. He writes that “as a company you either deliver on this promise or you get the boot from your customers, plain and simple.” Part of Mercedes’ promise was a purchase experience in which “you expect to feel like you are receiving VIP treatment by a dealership’s sales and service staff.” Although Mercedes’ failed on many levels (namely providing a junk product), it was this most critical service level that they “dropped the ball” on. He goes further to say “the Mercedes’ experience (and yes it begins when you first drive up to the dealership) should be on a whole different level than that of other, more budget-friendly brands.”

This article is marketing related as it discusses the consequences of failing to deliver on a brand promise. If a brand promise is created, consumer expectations for that company are raised as a result of the higher premium that product is able to fetch at market. It is also interesting to note how many second chances Gossieaux was willing to give the company. It is significant that he spent thousands of dollars on repairs to the car in a five year period instead of simply dumping it after his first bad experience. Blanchard and Gossieaux’s postings show the direct consequences of providing product and services that do not meet the expectations of the customer.

This article informs marketing with its establishment of a relationship between brand promise and service. We have often talked about the relationship between brand promise and product quality. This article takes this idea further and instructs marketers that brand promise, quality and service must all be aligned. This may seem like a subtle difference, but can be easily overlooked by companies, as it was by Mercedes-Benz. If a brand is associated with luxury, it is not enough to provide a luxury product. The customer expects luxury service as well and it is not enough to provide one without the other. Gossieaux seem most enraged and dissatisfied when he was consistently given poor service from dealership after dealership and was then brushed off by the corporate office.

The flip side is also true, although it is desirable to provide all customers with good service, customers purchasing a brand that does not promise such high ‘superquality’ will not be expected to provide ‘superquality’ of service. It is important for marketers to be sensitive to where their products fall on the ‘brand promise continuum’ so they can provide service that matches that level to retain a satisfied customer base.

This article improved my understanding of marketing by explicitly adding service to the brand promise-quality equation. It also seemed significant to me that consumers are willing to give second chances to the company, apparent in Gossieaux’s account. Despite the extremely poor, even dangerous, quality of the car Gossieaux still gave the company a sliver of slack, still wanting to believe that “this was just a bad movie and that nobody at Mercedes corporation would want anyone to perceive their brand this way” after fighting with the company over the hole in the car’s engine. He gave the company multiple chances to redeem itself, and instead was increasingly dissatisfied after every interaction with the firm. It seems to me that Mercedes seriously missed the boat by constantly excluding service (among other things) from their equation, especially because their promise is associated with ‘superquality.’

More of a comment than a critique: it would be interesting to see how Gossieaux would have reacted if the product was well made and it was only the service that was poor. This would be a true test of the importance of aligning brand promise, product quality and service and would display a more accurate measurement of the importance of service in the brand-quality-service equation. Otherwise, Blanchard’s posting is well done and informative and uses Gossieaux’s example to effectively illustrate his point.

Is McDonalds Betraying Its Brand?

2006-04-03T23:35:00.000-04:00

OK, I have officially changed my blog to Michael Wagner’s blog, “Own Your Brand: Everything About What it Takes to be a Brand Owner.” Frankly, I find his postings more relevant and more interesting than Michelle Miller’s blog (although I did just watch her video and like her a lot more since I watched her video on her blog) and it also doesn’t hurt to blog on someone who comments and requires me to think a little extra before I go and post! So, Michelle, please forgive me and Mike, you’re my new pick!

Mike’s most recent posting is titled “I Want Large Fries with My Fruit Buzz” and details McDonald’s new strategy of appealing to women through the creation and promotion of fruit, salads, etc. Mike then goes on to challenge this decision, calling out McDonalds on its decision to “lose their ‘difference’ ” and “ ‘forsake originality’ for ‘the latest political agenda’.” He promotes the idea to brand owners to think twice before making any changes to the brand image that has brought them success and has differentiated them in the past. People started going to McDonalds in the first place to bite into a juicy hamburger on the go, not munch on a crunchy salad to lose weight.

The aspect of this blog that relates it to marketing is the message that it sends to brand owners and its discussion of brand identity. In regards to informing marketing, this blog posting contains a good deal of “food for thought” (no pun intended) and the effect that changes in a brand’s messaging could potentially have on the success of that brand. Mike encourages brand owners to not “mess with, or in any way change what has historically made you different or relevant in the minds of your customers.” This touches on factors of brand loyalty and the emotions and connotations that one associates with a brand upon building loyalty. The farther a brand strays from the image its customers associate with the brand, the higher the risk of losing that customer and decreasing overall brand loyalty. This is an important point and assessment that every marketer should fully evaluate before making a change in messaging. Determining the level to which such a change affects the image of the brand and the emotions that customers associate and connect with the brand could represent a big differece in a company's overall customer loyalty and retention.

When I began to evaluate the level to which this blog improved my understanding of marketing, I actually found myself more confused on this topic after reading Mike’s posting (no fault on Mike’s part, simply due to varying class discussions we have had on this topic). While I fully understand and find his points compelling and applicable, I find myself confused as to where the line should be drawn between evolving with the consumer and sticking to your brand image and strategy. On one hand, I can see how deferring from McDonalds original and intended strategy to provide “finger lick’n McNuggets dunked into dipp’n sauce” would cause some people to lose faith in the brand and feel McDonalds is being untrue to itself. On the other hand, weight consciousness is a huge issue in today’s society and those in the fast food business who do not develop alternate menu possibilities for those looking to lead a healthy and still on the go lifestyle are missing out on a huge market opportunity. Hence my original question as to where the line should be drawn. When does a move to appeal to a new market cross into the territory of betraying brand identity? (I think all these weeks of writing essay questions for homework is finally getting to me…).

As far as a critique on this blog posting goes, I would have loved to read Mike’s thoughts on the opposite side of this argument (somewhere along the line of the question posed above) and see him negate the idea that there is a potential for new market capture by offering these healthy menu items. I feel it would have strengthened his argument and provided a more well rounded presentation of his argument.

Can you give the gift of Experience?

2006-04-03T22:09:00.000-04:00

In one of Katherine Stone’s previous posts she talked about the gifting experience. Each gifting experience is a ritual in which marketing theories come into play. Not only that, but the idea of giving a person an actual experience as the gift is something that is becoming more and more popular. As people begin to have more active lives, they enjoy being able to give and receive gifts that are active. Some such gifts can include going hiking in a park, white water rafting, going to various sporting events, or giving someone a gift certificate to a travel company. People are giving their friends and family trips to go wine tasting and to similar experiences. This type of gift allows the recipient to enjoy an experience that they otherwise may not have been able to have. The amount of “stuff” a person can have is limited. There are only so many sweaters or purses or picture frames that a person needs. After that limit the excess is just that, excessive. The item does not hold as special of a place in the eyes of the recipient because it is just like all the other “stuff” that is already making their houses or apartments burst at the seams. Katherine Stone’s own husband gave Katherine the experience of going to New York City, seeing the Rockettes, going to the theater production of Spamalot, and enjoying food at various restaurants in the area for her birthday.
This article informs marketing because it discusses additional gifting experiences besides simply products. In a time of over consumption in American culture, it is important for companies to think of what type of experience they are offering their consumers. Those experiences will be the way that companies can market their product or service in order to increase sales. Marketers must think beyond the physical product or service that they offer and think of the experience that consumers are receiving or wishing to receive.
Katherine Stone’s blog posting informed my understanding of marketing in a couple different manners. First of all, the idea of gifting experience to a person is extremely important in the world of retail. In my internship in Retail Marketing I must understand that we are not just selling children’s shoes but rather we are selling an experience in which the parents of the children feel that they have received the best possible product for their child. In addition, the parents of the children must be able to actually shop. Therefore, while in the retail environment the children must be entertained and have a good time in order to allow the parents to actually shop.
The blog was very well written as all of Katherine Stone’s typically are. However, it would have been extremely helpful if Stone could have gone into some of the ways that companies can market their experiences that the consumer receives. Stone went into some examples of how companies are gifting experiences, such as dancing with the Rockettes, wine tasting, or learning to belly dance. The blog is not as helpful to companies that already have an experience that consumers would be interested in but there is no marketing support in order to inform the consumers about the experience opportunity.

Pollution

2006-04-03T21:24:00.000-04:00

The post "Pollution" on the Brains on Fire blog by Jennifor Goff highlights a blog posting by another blogger Gareth Kay. Kay’s blog is entitled Brand New: Thoughts on Brands and Communications (and some occasional random stuff). In both of their postings Goff and Kay discuss the current pollution of television advertising. A survey by AdAge of more than 100 of the companies that spend the most on advertising showed 78% found that advertising on television was “less effective than two years ago.” Approximately “70% of advertisers believe DVRs and VODs will reduce or destroy the effectiveness of the 30 second TV ad.”

These blog postings are related to marketing because they question the entire future of television advertising. A majority of the advertisers surveyed by AdAge are exploring alternatives to traditional advertising: 61% mentioned “branded entertainment with TV programs," 55% are looking at TV program sponsorships, 48% “interactive advertising during TV programs,” 45% online video ads, and 44% product placement. These advertisers also mentioned that they would be looking to spend more of their budget on the Web. 80% will spend their money on Web advertising and 68% on search engine marketing.

The way in which these blog postings inform marketing is by presenting a solution to the decline of television advertising. Both bloggers feel that the way to solve this problem is not by switch to internet advertising or other alternatives mentioned above, but rather to concentrate on the message. Kay says “the biggest thing we can do is to put some focus back on the content.” I would agree that unless the message these companies are sending is unique and worthwhile, it is not worth spending money on either television or any other type of advertising. In Jennifer Goff’s words, “As we approach the critical mass of marketing pollution, the companies who will survive are the ones who realize that it’s not about how many ways they can sneak into our consciousness, it’s about creating a product worth talking about and a message- whether it’s traditional or WOM- that’s worth listening to.”

Although I knew about the declining effectiveness of television advertising, I did not know the opinion of the biggest spenders on advertising. My understanding of marketing was improved because I was able to see how these companies view television advertising and what marketing efforts they are planning to put their marketing budgets towards in the future.

If I were to critique something about this blog posting I guess I would critique the last statement that Jennifer Goff makes: “Nothing revolutionary in this post, I know… but I thought it bore repeating.” Although I found the posting extremely interesting and by following the links I could go all the way back to the AdAge article, Goff makes this study and blog posting seem insignificant and nothing readers should really pay attention to. Moreover, I believe that the topic of television advertising effectiveness is a significant topic and particularly important for future marketers like those in this class to examine.

"Your Real Competition is Perception"

2006-04-03T10:43:00.000-04:00

John Jantsch’s recent post, written on March 20th and titled “Your Real Competition is Perception”, discusses the idea that most small businesses have no true competitors. He argues that no businesses offer exactly the same product or service as another, so therefore they do not have true competitors. He writes that the real problem is that your consumers do not know what makes you special and different from other businesses in the market. As he says, “So, here's the real problem. Your prospects don't know what you have to offer that is unique so they perceive that your business is pretty much like everyone else that says they do what you do. And that's your real competitor.” This explains his title because he argues throughout his blog that other businesses are not your competitors, but your customers’ perception of your business is your true competition.

Jantsch writes that, as a small business owner, you have to find what makes your business unique and center on that in your marketing campaign. Businesses have to tell their consumers why they should go to them for business as opposed to other businesses that may appear to offer the same products or services. He writes that you have to “Make your unique point of difference small and simple. Don't try to accomplish something so grand that you must spend great amounts of time explaining why it's a benefit.” He gives examples of making yourself unique by packaging your product in a specific way, offering free shipping, different promotions than other companies, or a different pricing method. He writes that in order to discover where you are unique and different from other companies you should ask your existing customers because they are the ones who can tell you most accurately what you offer that has attracted them.

The blog is marketing related because it discusses the idea of competition in business and how to succeed despite it. Jantsch writes about competition and the idea that by offering a unique business experience you can overcome competition and succeed as a business. Throughout his blog he writes about marketing methods for small businesses.

Jantsch’s post informs marketing by expressing a different way to look at competition within a market. Most people would not look at the idea of competition and argue that there is no such thing as a true competitor. He changes the way a business could approach the idea of competition by making them realize that solely by stressing their advantages they can succeed. He also mentions that you should not make your unique selling point too complex. He stresses that you should make it a small, simple element of your business but yet still a strong selling point. Through asking your current customers what they find unique about your business, he says that the business will often find it is the small things that make the customer happy and have them continually coming back for business. Many businesses may forget this fact and think that the small details don’t matter in the large scheme of their business, but Jantsch informs his readers that it is the small details and amenities that can make or break your business.

This post improved my understanding of marketing by making me realize that the success of your business can be reliant on small details and selling points. Jantsch illustrates that you need a good business strategy and set up in order to compete with customer perceptions and norms. This is the first article I have read that approaches the idea of competitors as if there are no true competitors for every business. By doing so, and making the reader think twice about their business structure or strategy, Jantsch changes his readers understanding and perception of marketing.

I have no critiques for this post by John Jantsch. He does a good job of writing in easy to understand language and simple terms for people who may not be marketing experts. He does not provide any examples of his idea being used in a real-life situation but that is probably in response to the fact that he gives advice for small businesses and small business names and examples would not be recognizable to the general public.

Clever Avaya Podcasts

2006-04-02T21:49:00.000-04:00

Clever Avaya Podcasts
April 2, 2006

In this recent post from Diva Marketing, Toby writes about a recent step that Avaya, Inc. has taken to integrate podcasts into the business world. Avaya is an innovative communications company that provides large corporations and government agencies with IP telephony, web access, messaging, and interactive voice response services in order to optimize their business functions in today’s internet-oriented society.

Rather than marketing podcasts as a forum for peer-to-peer music sharing, Avaya has introduced them to the business world to be used as business tools, with the purpose of sharing important news and business information with partners, prospects and clients. On its website, Avaya includes links to the “Dummies” how-to books as podcasts, which is a very creative approach in itself. Instead of just informing visitors to the website about podcasts and their uses, Avaya makes an example of their uses by creating a podcast that informs visitors about the uses of podcasts!

As Toby reflects on the role that podcasts could assume in today’s business world, she writes, “What content do you have that can be spun into a podcast *that would be of value* to your customers and prospects? Think: Speeches, presentations, roundtable discussions.” She goes on to say, “Avaya turned customer testimonials/cases studies into podcasts… Listening to the people who used the product/service tell their stories brings a dimension that simply reading the cases can not.” These statements sufficiently explain the connection between marketing and her blog about podcasting. Podcasting is marketing-related because it is a new venue through which companies can distribute marketing collateral to their contacts – including employees, customers, potential customers, and corporate partners/sponsors. It is one more way that corporations can communicate with and market to the outside world.

The story informs marketing of the latest and greatest appearance on the technological front of the marketing world. It serves to create an awareness of the potential marketing uses for podcasts, enlightening readers that they can be used for more than just music sharing purposes. Podcasts could be used separately or in conjunction with blogs, another cutting-edge technological marketing tool that has only recently begun to gain respect in the industry.

This blog improved my understanding of marketing primarily by improving my understanding of podcasts. I wasn’t really familiar with them before, but after doing a bit of research subsequent to reading the blog, I realized that they really can be an effective marketing tool. The blog also reinforced in my mind the very important notion that marketers must constantly be keeping up with technological innovations, and they must be continuously monitoring possible implementations of new technologies into their everyday marketing practices. This will allow them/us to remain competitive in a rapidly changing marketing environment.

My only critique of both Toby’s blog and Avaya’s website is that neither one really offers a good explanation of what Avaya does. Toby simply mentions them, and provides a link to the website, which would be fine if the corporate website actually stated what the company does. (This is more of a critique of the Avaya website than anything.) I spent approximately ten minutes browsing Avaya’s site and still had a very vague picture of what the company was all about. I finally resorted to looking it up on Hoovers, which gave me a much better understanding than the company’s own website. I see this as a major problem for Avaya, especially since their service revolves around communications!

Rant on Wired

2006-04-02T19:32:00.000-04:00

In this posting, Dave goes on a rant regarding one of his favorite magazines, Wired. Dave discusses the fact that he started to notice that the monthly editions of Wired are starting to get “skinnier”. “The magazine is no longer an oversized publication.” According to Wired, “it now 'conforms' to industry standard size”. At the time, Dave writes that he accepted this fact without putting to much thought into it, although he did not really like the idea.

On March 29th of this year, Dave received a mailing to subscribe to Wired for a fee of $10. At this, Dave went into his rant:

“Friggin ten dollars! I don't know what I used to pay, but ten dollars is chump change for something as great as Wired Magazine. I freaked out.”

Dave came to a realization as to why this upset him some much:

“Obviously they don't think their magazine is special anymore… I don't want my ten dollars buying a shell of the magazine it used to be. I want it big, bold, beautiful. Unfortunately, I suspect that Wired has jumped the shark.”

This posting is marketing-related because it informs us as marketers because it offers us first-hand insight into the mind of what is probably the average consumer of a particular magazine. Dave liked the magazine for what it originally was: oversized and full of information. He developed a brand loyalty to Wired. However, when the magazine decided to change, Dave felt betrayed by his once-loved brand and is now losing this loyalty that he once felt so strongly. It is important for a company to make sure it is not losing its current customer base in order to try to gain a larger one.

This posting informs marketing because it provides consumer research. If Dave is the typical consumer of Wired, then it is important to understand why he is so distraught by the changes in the magazine. As marketers, we can learn a lot from Dave’s reaction as to what happens in the minds of current consumers when a product changes.

I have learned quite a bit from reading Dave’s reaction to the changes in his favorite magazine. Sustainability is a crucial aspect to all brands and it can be lost when changes are made to the brand and its products without the input and/or approval of its loyal customer base. This is another example of how marketing research is absolutely necessary when trying to alter an existing brand/product.

Due to the fact that this was an honest reaction from Dave, it is hard to critique it. However, I would definitely have liked if he had given some of the reactions of others who subscribe to Wired. There were a couple of comments from other readers, but they were so esoteric that it was hard to relate.

www.b2blog.com

The role of advertising in startups and new product categories

2006-04-02T13:08:00.000-04:00

The posting “The role of advertising in startups and new product categories” discusses recent research concerning the effectiveness of advertising for innovators and early adopters buying new products. The findings showed that although advertising works best for innovators and early adopters, it is not as effective for early majority buyers, who respond to information gathered from interpersonal communications. The research also looks at the larger picture, finding that interpersonal communication has a stronger effect on buying behavior by about tenfold over mass communication for buyers as a whole. The research also looks beyond the effectiveness of different channels on different consumer segments to the stages of the purchasing cycle. Advertising was found to be most effective in the awareness stage of the buying cycle. However, the buyer might have “the right predisposition to be informed by the ads,” meaning that they are already cued into the product by some other means, such as WOM. If they are not “primed” this way, then the advertising will be tuned out. It is in the preference stage when WOM becomes weighed more heavily.

This research informs marketing because it sheds light on the various factors that should influence the marketing decision making, especially for new products. Special considerations must be taken when new products are being brought to the market. How will consumers respond to the product? What channel and vehicle will be the most effective? Which target markets should be targeted first? If every aspect is not considered, if one step is missed along the way, then the rest of the marketing will be a wasted effort when the product fails.

This posting improved my understanding of marketing because it tied together a lot of the important step in developing an integrated marketing campaign for a new product, but in a short and simple way. It shed just a little bit of light on the major decisions that must be made for new products going to market. All of these decisions in the marketing plan must be optimized in order to reach success. For example, the stages of purchase decision making must be taken into consideration along with the consumer segment. Also, although the posting did not directly mention permission marketing, the concept is present with the idea that a consumer must be “primed” before seeing an advertisement for a new product or it will be tuned out along with all of the other “noise” in our media-rich world. I had never before thought of WOM as permission marketing since the concept is usually thought of as consumers opting in with companies to receive marketing messages. However, this got me thinking about how WOM is permission marketing in a pure form, since the consumer will either ask someone for information or listen willingly to a story about a product, brand, or company. It also seemed ironic to me that “start ups who are peddling new product categories to innovators and early adopters should not waste their time and energy on brand advertising. Instead they should focus their efforts on influencing the influencers so that the right interpersonal conversations can get started.” It seems that “brand building” is of utmost importance in today’s marketplace, but this research is proposing a different approach for new companies and products since if the initial awareness is not in place, the brand message will never be achieved.

The only critique I have of this posting is that it seems fairly general and broad. I would tend to believe that there would be a different approach to new product marketing depending on the product category. Also, if the brand was already established but introducing a new product, a completely different approach would be necessary. It would also be interesting to find out what the impact of negative WOM does to a new product. Also, the discussion of WOM, mostly called “interpersonal communication” in this posting, brings forth all of the difficulties, complications, and doubts associated with this marketing approach. Although it may have been proven more effective for cueing in consumers to new products, it is much more difficult to execute than an advertising campaign.

Relationship between freedom and consumption

2006-04-01T14:18:00.000-05:00

a recent article in ams review discusses the relationship between consumption and freedom . does capitalism and the free market and with it consumption promote freedom?

check it out:

The Unfree Consumers: Consumption and Freedom Under Subaltern
Conditions, a video by Rohit Varman and Ram Manohar Vikas.

Text summary available at
http://www.amsreview.org/articles/varman04-2006a.pdf,

Video available at
http://www.amsreview.org/articles/varman04-2006a.ram

Several scholars have argued that in this period of late capitalism or
postmodernity, consumption is increasingly defining human freedom. In
this video, we question this conceptualization of human freedom with
consumption as its prime facilitator. We contend that the relationship
between consumption and freedom is only a tenuous one. This argument is
based on a case study of a subaltern group of consumers. We observe that
majority of consumers continue to live in abysmal material conditions.
In a capitalist system governed by markets, access to resources remains
critical for consumers to exercise freedom in the domain of consumption.
For a vast majority of consumers, especially the subaltern groups, work
continues to be defining for their state of unfreedom. We show that lack
of empowerment in the domain of production translates into lack of
freedom in the sphere of consumption. Most significantly, through this
research we question the artificial nature of separation of the spheres
of production and consumption suggested by some theorists. We argue that
capitalism as an economic system is fundamentally concerned with its
propagation and separation of spheres of production or consumption
offers only a limited understanding of this systemic thrust. Finally,
with the concept of positive freedom we contend that realization of this
systemic thrust is essential for subaltern groups to emancipate themselves.
Our video provides an account of extremely tough living and working
conditions of subaltern workers in a North Indian city of Kanpur. These
workers lack legal protection, despite existing government laws, to
ensure payment of minimum wages. This subaltern group puts in long
working hours, far exceeding legal working limits, without any system of
over-time payment. This group has no employment guarantees, which make
them particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Inefficient and corrupt
government machinery fails to provide any protection against
exploitation by their employers. Disempowered workers in the sphere of
production find it impossible to protest and demand better wages or
exercise greater control of their working conditions. Video exhibits
that lack of control in the domain of work directly translates into
unfreedom for workers in the sphere of consumption. Abysmally low levels
of access in the areas of food, clothing, and shelter provide a
powerful, albeit tragic, description of unfreedom of this subaltern
group in the area of consumption. We further contend and demonstrate in
our video that consumption itself can become a panopticon and freedom
entails self-realization. Positive freedom also raises the issue of
consciousness and understanding of the ideological forces at a systemic
level.

Summarizing, the discourse of freedom inflected with elite interests,
obfuscates the systemic dimensions of capitalism. For the subaltern
groups described in the video, liberation from the systemic exploitation
will only translate into freedom in the domain of consumption.

Ultrafast Release Cycles and the New Plane

2006-03-31T08:42:00.000-05:00

In Kathy Sierra’s post, she discusses a comment her daughter made, and how it applies to release cycles and customer demands. He daughter’s comment was, “Myspace keeps doing what everyone wants, and it happens instantly. As soon as you think of something, it’s in there. It’s always evolving. It changes constantly. There’s always something new. Myspace is like a whole new plane of existence.” Kathy discusses how the inherent idea expressed in Myspace’s success is that they are so on top of new technology that they have created a cult following by innovating, and responding immediately to changing demands. Kathy looks at the problem from her perspective as a much older consumer, and asks her daughter if people get discouraged by the fact that nothing remains stable. He daughter just rolls her eyes, because in the daughter’s mind, the more change the faster, the more attractive the program. Her daughter goes on to say that even people who are dissatisfied by a particular change are not especially put off because they know that it will change soon enough again anyway. This idea relates to marketing because it explains that people want new options faster, but so what? This is a fairly obvious concept; however, the more vital aspect is what this means for the company. In my last post about Kathy’s discussion of what makes an expert I discussed her idea that companies just need to change and innovate as much as possible in order to be experts because if they just stick with what is working for them at the time they will never reach their full potential. However, this is a fairly risky strategy. But, what Kathy’s daughter brings to light is that it may not be as big of a risk as we had once thought because consumers may not punish a company for trying to stay cutting-edge and perpetually innovating. In fact, customers will probably reward it. Instead of customers focusing on what is currently wrong with whatever high tech product or service they may be using, they now appear to be focusing more on what the company has brought them in the past, and the limitless possibilities that await them in the future.
An important comment that Kathy makes about her daughters comments are that her daughter said that “Myspace keeps doing what everyone wants” and “As soon as you think of something, it’s in there.” Kathy makes the point that Myspace is in the consumer’s mind. It is no longer important to just listen to what consumers want, you have to know it intuitively. This crystal ball theory seems to imply that the employees must be consumers of the product/service themselves because otherwise they will not know what people really want and what they will and will not use.
This informs my idea of marketing because it shows that a company is allowed to make mistakes. For instance, our blog didn’t work last week. There was some sort of rogue code or a faulty template that had been implemented (certainly not by us), and yet we didn’t go elsewhere as a class. Why? Well, aside from the inconvenience, we like that fact that our blog looks cool on Blogspot, that it has a variety of fonts and colors offered. We like the ease of editing and previewing, etc. And even though our blog was down the one day we really needed it (the day a journalist came to document our class blogging project for publication) we stayed because who knows what Blogspot will come out with next? Maybe in the future we’ll be able to play videos in the background. Maybe we’ll be able to see a 3D visualization of Kelly’s discovery of radically new “urinal marketing.” Who knows?
My only critique is that Kathy seems to be discussing the demographics in terms of age the whole way through the post, and when she gets to the end, she comments “So there is a huge challenge for developers/authors/teachers like myself who are creating for people who are younger than we are.” As much as this makes sense on the surface, it doesn’t make much sense when talking about tech products/services because though teens may frequent sites like Xanga or My Space, and older people may use Blogspot, it is still the same technology and often it is the same features because the technology itself is so flexible and can be used for playing music in the background of an online diary or playing a video for a class full of students. In this sense it seems she should be focusing more on other segmentation that would require differentiation of employees in the tech industry and individual businesses.

New Legislation May Cause Online Casinos to Fold

2006-03-21T12:08:00.000-05:00

This week on Marketing Shift, John Gartner made a short posting entitled, ‘Congress Bets on Closing Casinos’. In it, he describes a piece of legislation that seeks to put stop to the hundreds of millions of dollars that flow from the 8.5 million regular online players in the U.S. through internet poker rooms and casinos daily to places like Antigua, Gibraltar, Costa Rica and the United Kingdom. Gartner’s post is quite short, but it links to an article on Reuters which goes a bit more in depth.

The article explains that the bill which originated with the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, would make it illegal for an online gaming business to accept money (in the form of a credit card deposit, wire transfer or otherwise) from a resident of the United States in a state where online gaming is prohibited. The law does not outlaw horse racing or fantasy sports. The bill will soon be open for consideration on the House floor.

Online gambling has become big business, to the tune of $12 billion per year according to Reuters. Party Gaming, the corporation who controls Party Poker, went public on the London Stock Exchange for over ₤5 billion last year and over ninety percent of their revenues come from the United States.

There are some major issues involved with this that I would like to discuss. It is already illegal to participate in online gaming because it is considered a form of money laundering under the Federal Wire Act. However these entities, online poker sites in particular, have been advertising primarily during poker related television programming. They do this by promoting .net sites at which players can only wager ‘play money’. The real wagering goes on at the .com sites. The problem with this is that the .net sites incur huge losses (₤70.6 million in 2005 for Party Gaming), and the only way they generate revenue for the company is to transfer people to playing at the real money sites where the companies collect ‘rakes’ by hand in cash or ‘ring’ games and entry fees for tournaments. Most players find the quality of play on the .net sites to be poor, and become annoyed or successful and ultimately try their hand at the .com, real money versions.

It is interesting that these sites operate in a gray legal area at best but are still allowed to advertise on national television and promote their sites in various other ways. It seems as though they have found a serious hole in the legal system and are driving their armored trucks loaded with cash right through it. As of now this is draining money from the American economy in that tax revenue is lost. In addition, the revenue from poker, which is an American creation, on the internet, another U.S. innovation, goes outside our borders.

The meteoric rise of poker, including online poker, has coincided with the nationwide, highly suggestive “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” 'Only Vegas' campaign. The advertisements promote using fake identities, and show awkward situations where people describe their trip to Las Vegas, leaving out what might be inappropriate to discuss with others. Is gambling illegal? In most places. Is it immoral? By the general consensus… probably not anymore. Poker video games have been rated ‘Everyone’, meaning they are appropriate for children. In the ‘wired’ age where almost everything is convenient and instantly accessible, why should gambling be any different? If Washington were to cast down this bill and legalize online gaming in addition, it would entice businesses to move from their offshore locations into the U.S., bringing their tax revenue along with the 60% margins that the sites operate with back to U.S. soil. The United Kingdom has already done so.

There are clear taboos about online gambling. One is that they target people with a problem, just like tobacco and alcohol companies. However only one of the former is publicly persecuted. Is online poker 'Evil, harmful and addictive' like tobacco, or 'Enjoyable! (harmful and addictive)' like alcohol. My feeling is that people can squander money or place wagers plenty of ways, and in turn outlawing online gaming will not solve the problem of problem gambling. Whatever the decision, the government needs to eliminate the gray area that these websites operate in so there is some grounded legality for the matter, even if the morality remains uncertain.

My critique of this piece is that it was very short and since I am very interested in this topic it left me wanting me more information. As a result I did my own research on Sports Illustrated, Lexis Universe, and Wikipedia.

Commie Marketing Manifesto

2006-03-21T11:54:00.000-05:00

Why is it communist? Discuss.

Advertising in Pink

2006-03-21T11:18:00.000-05:00

“Targeting Ads to Biz Women”

March 21, 2006

The blog that I chose to write about this week was an easy selection – Toby dedicated it to me! If that isn’t inspiration to make a comment, I don’t know what is.

In Targeting Ads to Biz Women, Toby writes about Pink magazine, which is a magazine devoted to career-minded women. She specifically analyzes the publication’s advertisements and their focus on business women (or lack thereof). How fitting for a female marketing major at Bentley.

Toby declares that 80% of the ads in Pink are appropriately targeted towards career women. Some of the different approaches that the ads took towards attracting women were interesting: Price Waterhouse Coopers featured an ad showing pink shoes on the beach, along with a narrative/poem written about women and their struggles to develop successful careers while maintaining their “feminine” roots and values; New York Life’s ad displayed three colored women with an inspirational message that could have been written for men or women; Toby goes on to describe several different approaches that were taken throughout the magazine which target female executives to various degrees.

This story is marketing-related for obvious reasons. Advertisements are a key component of the 4th “Marketing P”: Promotions. A crucial part of creating a strong ad is appropriately identifying and targeting a particular segment of the market. In this case, that segment is women in the business world, which is a rather new target market for companies to reach out to.

The blog notifies readers that marketing specifically towards career-minded women could be a huge opportunity for corporations, and the blog explores possible methods of pursuing such a target. Toby leaves it up to the reader to ultimately decide which ads were effective and which weren’t, but her goal seems to be to create an awareness of the recent trend in advertising and the emphasize its importance in a world where women are making great strides in their pursuit of respect and authority within the business realm. The idea of targeting such a growing demographic in today’s society could be very profitable for companies that pursue such a strategy early on: successful business women would be more likely to purchase from companies that support their goals, mentalities, and emotions in life. Also, as women in business continue to gain power and momentum, they’ll be a demographic with growing disposable incomes – this equates to money in the pockets of those creative advertisers that can effectively target the group.

Targeting Ads to Biz Women improved my understanding of marketing by opening my eyes to the many ways career women can be approached via advertisements. Successful ads could target their femininity while concurrently portraying women as business leaders. Conversely, ads could be just as effective if they spoke to women equally as they would to men, emphasizing the idea that if women truly want equality in the workplace then they want to be treated just like men, no “if”s, “and”s or “but”s. Ads can approach women as super-hero icons, highlighting their accomplishments in family life and in business; or they can speak strictly to the career-focused part of a women in the working world, hinting at the idea that women shouldn’t be expected to maintain their traditional housewife/soccer mom identities at the same time as they make leaps and bounds in the corporate environment. The many different options available to marketers targeting business women reflect the many different “types” of women seeking successful careers. Some hold very traditional family values and would like to maintain their maternal, domestic values while earning some money in the corporate world, while others are devoted wholly to their work and to becoming prosperous, authoritative figures at the office with no desire for a husband and/or children. The majority of women probably fall somewhere in between, but the varieties of “business women” out there are as numerous as the personalities they possess.

My critique of this piece is that readers (or at least me) are left wondering which ads actually were effective and which were not. It would have required some additional research, but it would have been very interesting to know which of the ads that Toby described actually caught their readers’ attention, which ones the women actually stopped to read, which ones convinced women of a certain message or idea, and which (if any) prompted them to act on that message. Did any create additional profits for the companies they represent in the long run? Maybe it would have been nearly impossible for Toby to really gauge the success of the ads in Pink, but it still would have been interesting information if it was feasible to acquire!

"Wagging the Long Tail"

2006-03-21T09:49:00.000-05:00

From The BrandBuilder Blog by Olivier Blanchard.

In this posting Blanchard explains Coca-Cola’s new marketing strategy and uses it as a spring board for providing his take on what makes an exceptional product. Coke is “shifting to the long tail,” as it provides a large number of low-volume, high-margin drink categories. Their marketing strategy is focused on how individual beverages fit into consumers’ lives with need states like “enjoyment today” and “feel good today” and “be well tomorrow.” Blanchard, however, believes that simple great taste is at the heart of the “Coke experience” and provides tips for companies on what we might call “How to Wag the Long Tail the Right Way.”

Here are a few core concepts from Blanchard’s “How to Wag the Long Tail the Right Way”:

“Drop the gimmicks.” Focus on quality. People don’t buy products because of a catchy slogan or clever packaging or because they make them feel happy or look ‘cool.’ People buy products and tell their friends about them because they are simply good products.
“Don’t quantify the culture, penetrate it.” Anthropology is the tool for understanding the customer and finding out what people really want, not statistics. Companies shouldn’t satisfy needs based on market research and numbers, but should really ‘get their hands dirty to find out what makes them tick.
“Do your research at the extreme end of the bell curve.” The “game is not about pleasing the majority of the market…It is about creating a product for a very specific core of rabid fans/customers.” Research should seek out those individuals who “live and breathe the stuff that is at the core of your product’s identity.”

Blanchard’s post is marketing related because it attempts to answer a question many marketers struggle with: “what is a quality product?” Primarily it deals with how to figure out what quality is in a product and where to look to find that information. The tips that the author provides warn marketers of the traps that are often easy to fall into such as gimmick-selling on a slogan or other company-created selling points. All of this, it seems, will produce an average product but not an exceptional and exceptionally successful one. A truly great product is based on quality as defined by the consumer.

This article informs marketing in that parts of it ‘fly in the face’ of traditional practice. It gives professionals a new way of looking at marketing strategy and product quality. Blanchard steers marketers away from “quantifying the culture” with numbers and statistical formulas that are created to come up with ‘perfect products.’ He instead urges them to see the bigger picture, understanding their true customers completely. Management usually requires numbers generated by Marketing Research to give them a sense of comfort with the viability of a product before market entry. If Blanchard’s tips are implemented they could initially cause quite a stir in a company. However if they succeed, management will see the results in hard sales figures from the dead-on product they produced for their specific audience.

Blanchard’s post improved my understanding of marketing as it gave me a new starting point for determining what customers want. Often we are taught that if something is not quantifiable, it is not as valuable as something that is. However, I have always found it difficult to forget information I have heard in a focus group, information that came straight from the mouths of the people who could be potential buyers of the product. That sort of information makes more of an impression, in my opinion, than a slew of numbers in a data sheet. This posting helped me to not discount these qualitative pieces simply because they are not as easily generalizable to a wider audience as quantitative data would be. Blanchard doesn’t seem to tell us to throw away the numbers completely, just provides us with a new starting point for research.

A few critiques of the article: we must be careful not to totally kick numbers to the curb. It is difficult to justify tactics if they do not provide adequate ROI. Marketers already have much trouble tying themselves to the bottom line. However, using Blanchard’s tips as a starting point is very valuable, as it allows us to better understand the customer and produce a quality product benefits that will hopefully speak for themselves in sales figures. Additionally, researchers must be cautious with generalizations. It is easy to feel that you understand a group of buyers and then generalize those feelings to other buyers on qualitative research. Such information should not be discounted but should be taken with a bit of caution.

Finally, the authors advice “Drop the gimmicks, focus on quality,” might not be universally applicable to products that are more central to a consumer’s image/identity. It is likely no one will look at you twice for carrying around a can of Tab, but a can of soda does not say as much about a person as the clothes they wear, for example, or the car they drive. Most people don’t buy Gucci or Prada for durability. In this case it is about the product making them “feel happy and look cool.”

Another Point for Publix

2006-03-20T23:01:00.000-05:00

This week I decided to comment on a blog posting by a different Brains on Fire author: Jennifer Goff. In this posting, “Another Point for Publix,” Jennifer Goff comments on the new packaging designs used on Publix products. The idea for this blog posting all started because of Goff’s colleague Cathy Harrison who has been a long standing “brand advocate” for Publix, but on this particular day she was excited about Publix’s Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips and their clever new packaging design. For anyone that may not be familiar with Publix, it is a popular chain of grocery stores generally located in the South. Although “most grocery stores try to mimic big brands in their package design... Publix has created its own clean, unique packaging for their store brand.” The package on the Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips catches one’s eye because on the front of the package it says “No tip required” and then on the back there is a small paragraph “that talks about eating restaurant style without being at a restaurant.”

I found this blog posting especially interesting because I also noticed Publix new package design this past Christmas when I was vacationing in Florida. I distinctly remember that when my family and I reached the isle with aluminum foil, the Publix brand packaging jumped out at me. It was extremely simple and clean with a white background but it was also eye-catching and clever. The picture on the front of the rectangular box was of an aluminum foil swan. Another package had an elephant on the front also constructed out of aluminum foil. This packaging was so different that it immediately caught my attention. After seeing this package I noticed that most of the other packages in the store also had white backgrounds and clever designs. From what I have read and observed Publix seems to have a large following of brand loyal customers. Personally, whenever I visit Florida, I will not hesitate to go out of my way to shop at Publix grocery stores.

“Another Point for Publix” is clearly marketing related because it basically discusses two marketing concepts: branding and product package design. It also relates closely to the articles that we had to read for class this week. In the article, “The Voice of a New Anti-brand Generation,” Amy Dacyczyn’s newsletter The Tightwad Gazette suggests saving money by purchasing generic products instead of brand names. While reading this article, I kept thinking that if consumers started buying generic products more frequently then wouldn’t these generic products become household brand names? The innovative marketing tactics and new packaging design used by Publix appears to be just the beginning of this new trend in store brands. Store brands may soon become much more than just generic alternatives.

This story informs marketing by bringing light to a possible new trend in marketing, the branding of generic brands. With the popularity Publix has received by differentiating itself from the big brands, other grocery stores and pharmacies will most likely begin to differentiate themselves as well.

My understanding of marketing was improved by this article because it provided me with a clear connection between our readings for this week and a practical example. This blog also improved my understanding of branding by giving an example of how package design can significantly improve a brand’s image in the minds of consumers.

One critique I have of this blog is that there could have been more information about the Publix company and their new marketing strategies. In addition, Goff could have discussed more of the reasons behind Cathy’s and other customers’ brand loyalty to Publix. One reader posted a comment to this blog explaining the reason that she is personally brand loyal to Publix. She gave examples of how Publix provides the ultimate level of customer satisfaction, where the employees know her by name and the store has created a community feeling with its customers. I believe this is another important factor in why Publix has had such high levels of brand loyalty and success.

Interesting vs. Interested

2006-03-20T22:12:00.000-05:00

In honor of my first blog comment (as those of you in class know, I’ve been quite frustrated that I have received no blog comments… until now!), I’ve decided to dedicate this week’s blog to my commenter, Mike Wagner, and write about a posting on his blog site, “Own Your Brand.” Mike is involved with a company (by involved it appears that he IS the company… telling from the website) called the White Rabbit Group that helps companies become “unstuck” in the key areas of sales, internet, branding and innovation.

Mike’s March 16th posting is titled “Want to be interesting? Start by being interested!” and he comments on his experience with brand building and his frustration with companies who perceive brand building as a simple advertising campaign. Mike describes the fact that this usually is a request to make the company appear interesting to its consumers, rather than focus on the true meaning of brand building and ownership, which Mike states is actually “about your interest in the product, the service and ultimately the human beings that become your customers. Brand owners study their customers, reflect on their business and always want to learn more.”

This blog is marketing related as it discusses brand image as well as advertising and the difference between the nature of the two and their relation to the company and the customer. Mike brought up points regarding the level of interest the customer feels a company has for the customer and its correlation to the success of a brand. Overall, Mikes discussion of brand ownership and keys to accomplishing this difficult task relate this blog entry to marketing.

In terms of informing marketing, I believe Mike packs a lot of insight into this blog entry that many marketers may find useful when attempting to build a brand themselves. Often times, as has been demonstrated by past readings (think the railway example), marketers find themselves wrapped up in trying to sell a product and a product alone and making themselves appear interesting to the consumer rather than focusing on the wants and needs of the consumer and actually being interested in understanding the dynamic of the customer. I believe this is a dynamic that is often overlooked and has most likely resulted in the demise of many brands. Mike’s also makes a point regarding the desire to always learn more about consumers and its positive relation to brand ownership. Again, I believe marketers often overlook the process of customer evolution. In order to stay in tune with the customer (especially in today’s post-modern, multicultural world), however, the brand itself must also stay on top of this customer evolution and remain interested in the consumer thus resulting in the customer finding interest in the company who understands him and the establishment of a relationship which ultimately leads to brand loyalty.

This blog greatly improved my understanding of marketing as I was able to gain a clearer perception of what building a brand entails and the work required and the ultimate relationship that is developed with the consumer. In addition, Mike comment, “gentle reader and eager brand owner – tell me: Are you genuinely interested, or are you just trying to be interesting?” further solidified in my mind the idea that marketing does require a level of sincerity and desire to meet the desires of consumers and true marketing and brand building is not a series of manipulative tactics as it can often be portrayed to be.

If I had to critique one thing about this blog posting I would recommend that Mike also include an example on this topic regarding an actual business experience he has had and more related to brand building. Mike provided an example involving his son telling a story, however, I would have loved to learn more about his experience with this topic through a business focused example.

"So Who's The Target Really?"

2006-03-20T20:14:00.000-05:00

John Jantsch’s blog titled “So Who's The Target Really?” discusses the idea that businesses should aim to be the target of the consumer market they are trying to sell their product or service to, as opposed to putting all of their efforts into targeting the consumers in different ways. As the author wrote, “Yes, it's true you need to find a narrow market and focus on them. However, I think that small business owners would fare much better if they realized that they could and should be the target. That's right, don't aim for a market, get a market to target you.” He argues that, with efficient and consistent marketing, you can get your target market to target you as opposed to the other way around.

He points out that many businesses change their marketing strategy so often that consumers can’t understand what they are trying to sell or communicate to their audience. Jantsch argues that the company should instead stick with one message for their marketing campaign and relentlessly market that message and eventually they will win over their consumers with their consistency. As he writes, “Stop changing what you say, what you look like, what you do - stick with something long enough, repeat it over and over until it makes you ill (or becomes a mantra) then, and only then, will your prospects target you.”

This story is marketing-related because it discusses a problem that many small businesses have. Jantsch writes about attracting consumers and also the concept of the target market, both of which are heavily related to marketing. He explains that in order to have effective marketing you have to stick with your idea or message and be persistent with that, instead of changing your message too often and losing potential consumers.

This reading informs marketing by exposing a small business problem and providing a plausible solution for it. He describes the Buddhist concept of the “monkey mind” which is “the name for that clamoring in you head that hates the silence, hates the mundane, hates to sit still”. He relates this to marketers who hate to sit still and listen to a repetitive marketing message. He informs the reader that this is not a healthy business decision because it will confuse the target consumers and will lose more of them than it will attract.

This blog improved my understanding of marketing because it informed me that, although it may seem that your method of marketing is not working, you have to give it some time in order to see the full effect of your marketing. It added to my understanding of marketing by exploring the topic of the target market and marketing message. It also provided me with a new concept, the idea of being the target as opposed to the consumers being the target.

My only critique of the blog was that it did not provide any examples. It would have been nice to read about real world examples with companies who have used this marketing method to gain market share and a good reputation. It would have made it easier to relate to the concept and would have made the article seem more trustworthy.

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php

Tier Today, Gone Tomorrow: Navigating the aftermath of the customer revolution

2006-03-20T11:03:00.000-05:00

The author believes that it is incredibly important for marketers to review some basic strategies and concepts in marketing. In order to help his readers do so, he began the week with a Back to Basics lesson:
The basic 101 lesson:
"Traditionally consumers' tastes and behavior were somewhat layered, tiered. Those with disposable income spent it on products that matched their buying power and budgets.”

The strategic 600 lesson:
"Indeed those tiering mechanisms alone are no longer sufficient to influence the purchasing decision. If customers care, they are willing to pay; if not, they will choose the cheapest available product, bragging about the bargain they hunted at, say, eBay, or on the internet in general. Sales decisions have become extremely bi-polar as well: very emotional, impulsive or very rational."

The author of this blog goes on to relate these lessons to a story he was told early in his career. There was a direct-marketing company that came out with a line of high-quality pots and pans, which they sold at a high price. They targeted the high-income tier that typically alligned themselves with expensive high-quality products. However, this company failed to recognize that their target audience mainly found the product to be a mere fashion accessory. Those who actually valued the quality of the product were the poor, working-class immigrants who cooked everyday. They author offers the following moral of the story:To sum up, product tiering is a smart strategy, if you are smart about how the customer is tiering your type of products.

This story is marketing-related because it reminds marketers that they need to be smarter about the manners in which they choose to both position a product and target an audience. Tiering is an excellent concept, but our fast-changing society makes the concept far more complex than it was before. The assumption that they upper-classes will be lured by high prices and high quality no longer stands. It is important to constantly reevaluate values that each target market has. It seems that they are forever changing.

This story informs marketing because it educates marketers as to how to effectively use a particular marketing strategy. Again, tiering can be a very good strategy, but only if it is used correctly. Marketing research is a must in this type of situation. Otherwise, you may find yourself pouring millions of dollars into pushing a product to a group that just isn’t interested in its features.

This improved my understanding of marketing in a very eye-opening way. At Bentley we are constantly preached to about the importance of marketing research. Seeing this lesson being applied to a situation which I could face one day was incredibly interesting. There is no point in placing emphasis on designing a particular feature of a product if that feature does not effect the decision of the target audience. This is where product design meets positioning meets promotion.

Again, the only real critique I have for this piece is that there are not enough examples. Although I found this particular example to be interesting, it would be helpful to see this lesson being applied in a few other instances. Overall, I found the piece to be very insightful.

http://www.b2blog.com/

Urinals: the new marketing medium...

2006-03-19T17:52:00.000-05:00

On January 19th 2006, Katherine Stone wrote an article about a new marketing campaign that is very different from anything else out there. It is an “interactive” Heat Activated Urinal Billboard (HAUB). This HAUB is the newest thing that uses the recent technology of heat sensitive ink and went five steps further. The HAUB works in the following way. A man comes into the bathroom and begins to use the urinal. The heat from the urine makes the message appear. Obviously when one is urinating, it is interesting if a message appears in the urinal. After the male leaves, the automatic flusher will wipe away the message by regulating the temperature. The next man that comes into the urinal will not have any idea that there will be a message in the urinal when he urinates.
The interactive Heat Activated Urinal Billboard is “the perfect guerrilla medium,” states Stone. And it appears that is the truth. The HAUB allows for a company to get across its message in an unconventional manner. People are bombarded with marketing messages and information all the time. In order to actually get through, companies must think outside of the box. The HAUB is definitely way outside of the box. It is a marketing communications tool that allows for companies to advertise to men specifically. Additionally, the HAUB will create a buzz effect. People will begin to talk about the funny or interesting advertisement that they saw while they were in the bathroom. Word of mouth around the campaign would explode. Something that eye catching would create so much talk around it that that word of mouth would almost be as important as the campaign’s capture rate itself.
The article informs marketing in a few different ways. First of all, it is important for all marketers to stay abreast of all the current technological advances that are occurring. The heat sensitive ink was taken to the next level of usefulness through HAUB. The article helps to inform marketers about this type of technology that may be helpful for their own campaign. Secondly, the article informs marketing by expressing the different ways to go outside of the box. Marketing managers must be creative and innovative when they are thinking of ways to get their message to consumers. The more ideas and information that they can receive about other companies that have successfully created a campaign that is different from anything else will help them to continue to go outside of the box. If a marketing manager stays ignorant to ideas such as the HAUB, then they will be at a disadvantage in compared to their competitors.
My understanding of marketing was improved in regards to the ways marketers can communicate with their target market. Ideas such as the HAUB cut through the marketing noise that consumers hear all day. It grabs a person’s attention and allows the company a few seconds of a consumer’s time. That is a very important thing for a marketer. The more time you get from a consumer that is focused on your product, the more saturation you will achieve.
The article was extremely interesting. It was very unique and something that I was unaware of before I read it. Stone touched on the technology of the HAUB as well as how one specific campaign used the technology. Additionally, it went into explain the ways that it is beneficial for a marketing campaign. However, it would have been helpful to see more specific numbers on the success of the campaign. I was unclear about how they measured the success of this campaign. The article mentioned that “the interest generated by HAUB in New Zealand, did more for drink driving awareness than any other campaign of its type in the past.” However, I do not have any way to compare that to anything else. It does not say what the capture rate was or any other way that they measured the success. In order for companies to invest in an idea such as HAUB, it is extremely important to be able to way the costs and benefits. If the cost of the HAUB was extremely high monetarily, but the success rate was double that of a slightly less expensive campaign, then it would make sense to use the HAUB. However, none of those numbers were included in the article. The HAUB sounds like a great idea but it was not clear whether it was really feasible for companies.

Original article found at: http://decentmarketing.typepad.com/weblog/2006/01/index.html

In Education, Class Matters

2006-03-19T13:35:00.000-05:00

The article “In education, class matters” discusses the impact that social class appears to have on education. The author opens with the hypothesis that “better education” comes from better teachers and more tax money to develop school programs. However, a recent UK study found that the primary factor in how well children do in school is not what type of school they attend, but social class

The study matched almost 1 million pupils with individual postcode and exam scores at ages 11 and 15. The results reveal the fact that although students may be receiving the same education, the actual “social class” composition of the school impacted both the individual students’ success and the entire school performance more than other policy and curriculum-based factors. The author sums it up well by saying: “Put simply, the more middle-class the pupils, the better they do. The more middle-class children there are at the school, the better it does. It is proof that class still rules the classroom.”

The discussion of this study illustrates how social class, however that may be defined, still dominates over so many other factors in determining the behavior of people. The overwhelming influence of social class is important for marketers when segmenting consumers. However, I believe it also provides marketers with information beyond segmentation to communication. If students are shown to have different responses in learning to the same education curriculum, the argument can be made that they would have the same degree of varying responses to marketing communications. If students are processing the information differently in school based on their social class, it can be inferred that they would process marketing communications differently as well. This relates to the article about health care and social class, which argues that “a subculture conceptualization requires that social classes exhibit distinctive modes of thought and lifestyle” (Henry 8). This leads to the proposition that “comprehension of new health information for lower-class individuals will require messages tailored to their specific cognitive styles” (Henry 21). Overall, the findings of this study can be used to support the same may be true for education.

This blog posting and study improved by understanding of marketing because it gave some statistical significance to the fact that behavior is shaped by background and social class. At the same time, the study shed light onto the severe implications that could come from these findings if administrators were to “segment” students based on class. This could lead to a “Tiffany’s/Wal-Mart” strategy in which the upper classes receive the “better” education or additional funding, with policy makers using this research to argue that the money is wasted on lower class students since their class, not the actual education, has a bigger impact on their performance. Also, schools could look at this information from a business perspective and “fire their worst customers,” which are the lower class students since the school’s overall success was also found to be influenced heavily by the social composition of the school. Will the low income, low class students become a low priority?

It is difficult to critique this piece since most of the questions that I have concern getting more details about the study. My previous understanding of marketing and social class from out class discussion made me question some of the terms used in the study. First of all, the posting does not mention exactly what the study defined as “social class” or “social background.” Warner’s model included wealth, occupation, education, and residential location. Many more “subjective” factors can be components of social class, such as race, religion, consumption patters, and manners. For marketers to understand the significance of the findings of this study completely, the exact definition of social class, social background, middle class, and other ambiguous terms would be necessary. Also, the author does not seem to point out the implications of the fact that the study was conducted in the UK, where social class may be more “rigid” than in the US. It would be interesting to conduct this study again in the US to see if it yielded similar results.

How to be an Expert (i.e. Not Suck)

2006-03-07T18:14:00.000-05:00

Kathy Sierra’s blog post “How to be an Expert” focuses on what separates experts from amateurs. She says, “The only thing standing between you-as-amateur and you-as-expert is dedication. All that talk about prodigies? We could all be prodigies (or nearly so) if we just put in the time and focused.” She talks about how people always relate masters of a particular skill to being naturally endowed with a predisposition toward it, but that this is not necessarily the truth. Kathy claims that concentration, desire, drive, and a willingness to improve are really the core values that one needs to excel. She extends this point when she says that the experts of fields do not practice more than others, they practice better than others. Kathy coins the phrase, “Most of us want to practice the things we're already good at, and avoid the things we suck at. We stay average or intermediate amateurs forever.” She says that many people do not want to “suck” but that many people get stuck at the satisfied amateur stage (whereby they know that they are not necessarily doing everything as efficiently or productively as they can but do not want to go through the hassle to change their practices). This is especially harmful because the closer one gets to being an “expert,” the more passion they develop about their work. Therefore, people that “suck” really don’t care at all about what they are doing, and they will not only bring themselves, but also the business down. This is related to marketing because firms that just rely on what they have done in the past and do not try to challenge themselves anymore will always stay low on the chain of powerful marketers. Therefore, companies should try to think outside their usual box and try things that they find difficult. This is a risky strategy because firms like to figure out what works for them and then just stay with it as long as the market will permit them to keep using it. However, according to Kathy Sierra, companies should keep pushing themselves to find a better way to do things.

This informed my idea of marketing because it put into clearly identifiable terms and graphics what really ends up harming firms. The mindset that settling at any point along the way will result in mediocrity (or as Kathy Sierra puts it “amateur status”) was something that had never crossed my mind. This is a really good idea to keep in your mind because a lot of people do think that natural skills and considerable amounts of practice are the vital components for success.

There are several critiques that can be made about this article. First of all, the graph is a little flawed. According to the graph, an expert will continue to reach to an infinite ability. Though this may be true on a large societal scale it is theoretically impossible on an individual basis (which is what this scale was designed to accommodate). Similarly, the “drop-out” will eventually reach a negative ability, which is indeed impossible. Also, the y-axis starts at “struggling, frustrating” and goes up to “expert, always in flow;” however, these are not opposites and the latter of the two makes little sense. Secondly, though inspirational this article tries to be so much to so many walks of industry that it is very broad and therefore, overly generalized.

Jason Dowdell of Marketing Shift

2006-03-07T11:48:00.000-05:00

Jason Dowdell of Marketing Shift is 32 years old and is orignally from Cocoa, Florida. He worked for a range of companies from Oracle to Gucci before he became an entrpreneur. Since then he has founded numerous companies Including Cutters Choice, Inc., Engine Studio, Inc., GlobalAudio.com, and GlobalPromoter.com. He also created APIBlog.com. Dowdell is also featured on Business Week, SlashDot.org, and TheInquirer.net. He has been designing web-based tools designed for search marketing, conversion analysis and market research since 1997, accoridng to his bio on Search Engine Guide. Currently, he acts as the CEO of GlobalPromoter.com, which pioneers new ways for using the internet for marketing. He currently resides in Merritt Beach, Florida with his wife and two children.

Toby Bloomberg: The Diva, The Myth, The Legend

2006-03-07T10:33:00.000-05:00

Toby Bloomberg is the woman behind the words of the Diva Marketing Blog. She is originally from Boston, but now resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Toby’s blog focuses on a fun, innovative approach to marketing concepts and customer service. She is especially interested in the integration of modern-day technologies and their implementations into the marketing world, primarily via the use of blogs. She has over 15 years of experience in marketing, and has been exposed to the field her entire life; her dad owned a marketing research company. Toby is a renowned national speaker and member of many marketing organizations, including the American Marketing Association, the Olympic Organizing Committee, SCORE, and the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association. In addition to the Diva Marketing Blog, Toby is also a published author of Marketing News and www.marketingpower.com. She is very well respected in the marketing industry.

Spike Jones and the Brains on Fire writers

2006-03-06T15:03:00.000-05:00

Brains on Fire is a company, based in Greenville, South Carolina, that focuses on brand identity consulting. In the company's own words its consultants have been "naming, creating and revitalizing memorable identities that sell products, attract kindred spirits and shake-up entire industries for more than 20 years." Brains on Fire was recognized in 2005 as one of the "World's Top 100 Re-Branding Companies" by ReBrand 100. Furthermore, Brains on Fire is featured in the book Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building and Maintaining Strong Brands- Volume 2 alongside other companies such as Mini Cooper, Fedex Kinkos, and Amazon. The Brains on Fire blog is written by five Brains on Fire consultants: Greg Cordell, Geno Church, Jennifer Goff, Robbin Phillips, and Spike Jones. I have mainly been following the posts written by Spike Jones, the Firestarter.

Spike Jones, a Texan, graduated from Baylor University with degrees in both Environmental Studies and Journalism. After working as a copywriter for companies such as BMW Manufacturing, he is currently a "New Business Hound" for Brains on Fire, mainly working with potential new clients. In addition, Jones has a 90lb. chocolate lab named Mud that is also featured on the Brains on Fire website as part of the clan.

Michelle Miller

2006-03-06T11:37:00.000-05:00

When I first read Michelle Miller's biography, I got a little nervous as one of her first sentences stated, "a classical musician by training." My panic ceased, however, as I continued to read and learned that Miller holds degrees in both education and business administration. Past places of employment include Diapers Unlimited delivery service, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Sirius Satellite Radio, as well as her own PR firm of 7 years located in New York. Miller is currently a partner in Wizard of Ads, a source of private consulting, speaking, teaching, and publishing of advertisements for companies. "She maintains a powerful roster of dynamic small businesses across North America, and is an international speaker and teacher on the topic of marketing to women." In addition, Miller has also published a book titled, "The Natural Advantages for Women," which presents the idea that women are "hardwired for personal greatness." Sounds good to me!

Who is Olivier Blanchard?

2006-03-06T01:00:00.000-05:00

Olivier Blanchard, author of the BrandBuilder blog, is the founder of BrandBuilder, Inc., a Greenville, SC based marketing consultancy firm that specializes in brand development, customer experience design, marcom and copywriting. These interests are reflected in his blog which often attempts to shed light on the complicated interactions between customers and brands. Blanchard’s postings are down-to-earth and witty and often incorporate hints of his life outside of his profession. In his spare time, Blanchard is a competitive triathlete and photography artist. Photography is more than a passion for Blanchard who is also the co-founder and managing partner of F360 Photo+Design, a visual design studio serving clients including Velo News, Gucci, Hincapie Sportswear and Carolina Triathlon. Blanchard is a frequent contributor to the well-respected Corante Marketing Hub and has received degrees from both the International School of Brussels and South Carolina’s Furman University.

About John Jantsch

2006-03-05T13:54:00.000-05:00

John Jantsch is the author of the Duct Tape Marketing Blog. His blog has been chosen as one of “Forbes Favorite for small business”. He has been awarded "Best Small Business Marketing Blog" by Marketing Sherpa. Jantsch resides in Kansas City, Missouri. He has written a book titled “Duct Tape Marketing - the Only Small Business Marketing Tool You Need”, which is due out this fall. He also conducts marketing workshops for companies such as “Hewlett Packard, American Marketing Association, Small Business Administration, Kauffman Foundation, Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, Associated Builders and Contractors, and National Association of the Remodeling Industry.”

Kathy Sierra: The Woman, The Programmer, The Legend

2006-03-01T17:36:00.000-05:00

Kathy Sierra is the main blogger on Creating Passionate Users, which has let her explore meta-cognition (i.e. how the brain works and how to exploit it for learning and memory) and its relationship to marketing. This study has produced blogs on such topics as why having fun matters, why it’s better not to look for “areas of improvement” on each performance evaluation, and why being an individual contributor preferred over being a “manager.” She is an expert on several software programs such as Java, and has written many tutorial books. These endeavors have earned her the Amazon Top Ten Editors Choice Award for 2003 and 2004. Since then, Kathy Sierra has founded javaranch.com (one of the largest community web sites in the world ). Kathy Sierra’s latest activity is as a master trainer for Sun Microsystems (teaching Java programmers how to program better and with the newest technologies and co-collaborating on the First Head series for John O’Reilly. Her interests include skiing, dunning, horseback riding, and DDR.

B2B Blogger Exposed!!

2006-03-01T11:20:00.000-05:00

David Jung is 39 years old is lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is a one-man marketing department for a small industrial manufacturing company (with a larger Japanese parent) that sells specialized test equipment to major companies across North America and the world. He started out at Rutgers University as a Mechanical Engineering student, was hired as a salesperson, and a few years later added marketing to his roles. He completed an MBA program at GVSU with a certificate in e-commerce. Finally, he shed the sales task and was promoted to Marketing Manager.

His job is primarily in the tactical execution of marketing, such as advertising, website, catalogs, trade shows, and sales support. He started B2Blog to give himself a place to react to the challenges of marketing in the internet era and the dramatic changes taking place.

David has this message for the class:

“It’s interesting to see your class blogging. I started blogging and reading blogs while I was taking MBA classes. It was surprising how often I wanted to cite blogs as sources in the papers I was writing for my e-commerce and marketing classes. I thing your professor is smart to get you interested in marketing blogs because it is the best way to stay on top of such a dynamic field.”

THANKS, DAVE!

http://www.b2blog.com/

About Francois Gossieaux

2006-02-28T22:33:00.000-05:00

Francois Gossieaux is the President of Corante Marketing and the blogger that I follow on Emergence Marketing. Francois joined Corante as a partner, investor, and head of marketing and business development in July 2005. Corante is the "world's first blog media company" with a community of contributors that mainly follows trends in technology and marketing, among many other ideas. Leading up to his time at Corante, Francois consulted on marketing and new media, mainly working with startups and new hi-tech companies. He says his last "real job" was five years in marketing at eRoom Technology. He has extensive experience with new media and has seen both success and failure in the world of eMarketing, experiences that have taught him valuable lessons and given him insights to various business processes.

Who is Katherine Stone?

2006-02-28T18:59:00.000-05:00

Katherine Stone, the author of the Decent Marketing blog, is the former Director of Experimental Marketing for Coca-Cola Company. Her experience in experimental marketing is her expertise. She is considered an expert in this field and has talked on the subject in various arenas. Katherine also serves on the board of the International Experimental Marketing Association. Her experience at Coca-Cola, one of the few firms that have an experimental marketing position, allows Katherine to have a unique perspective on how to surpass challenges that arise. She also owns her own consulting firm called Engage. Katherine lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Google Gone Wild

2006-02-28T12:02:00.000-05:00

This week I chose to comment on Evan Roberts’s column on Marketing Shift “Does Google Annoy You Too?” In the article he describes how Google has adopted some new marketing practices. First he describes that on a new Pontiac commercial for the Torrent, the call to action is “Go to Google and search ‘Pontiac’”. Roberts finds this rather interesting and wonders “Are they just trading search rankings for TV ads now?”

When you go to Google and search for Pontiac, the first result is Pontiac.com. It is a featured link with a heading “The Official Pontiac Site”. This means that Pontiac paid for it to be featured and may or may not have to pay Google each time they refer someone to their site. The link is then followed by ClassicalPontiac.com and HighPerformancePontiac.com, both enthusiast sites. All in all, the searcher is saved from typing the dreaded “.com”, which might take three quarters of a second. Roberts was also curious of why the commercial doesn’t just direct those interested to Pontiac’s website.

One possibility that occurs to me is that Pontiac is looking for a better way to quantify the effectiveness of the ad campaign and thinks that this would be a good idea. It is possible to take the average number of searches for ‘Pontiac’ per week, (probably quantifiable on two hands) and then see what the increase is when the campaign is running. Interesting, however is there really a difference between that and counting website hits? How can they be sure that people who have seen the campaign aren’t just going to Pontiac.com anyway? My guess is that you won’t be seeing a whole lot of this in the future because it does not seem to benefit the advertiser except if they feel that Google is significantly better at arithmetic than their company.

The other issue raised by Roberts is that while watching CSI, he noticed that a character on the show was using Google to perform a search. Product placement has become common place but I haven’t seen it used for websites before. It can serve dual purpose in that it adds an element of reality to a show, and of course Google can increase its brand recognition. The issue here is that Google is far and away the number one search engine, and when asked to name another one, people would probably come up with Yahoo!, who Google owns. So why pay for the placement?

At the end, Roberts laments that eventually the world will be controlled by Google and he will be eating Google cereal, and watching a Google TV. He admits that he might just be a bit jealous of the thirty something Google zillionaires and wonders if he was the only one that that the Google IPO $85 was absurd.

This piece opens up discussion for how much a search engine can really do in terms of marketing. It has already proven that they can be the map of the online world, performing the tremendously important intermediary function of directing people to their destination or at least the right town. I don’t have much to critique about this piece except the fact that Roberts could have gone into more depth about the motivations of each of the Google functions, but then I wouldn’t have too much original stuff to say. That’s all until next week.

"Blogs Go To School"

2006-02-28T10:29:00.000-05:00

February 27, 2006

In one of Toby’s latest blurbs posted to the Diva Marketing blog, she discusses the emerging acceptance of blogging into today’s mainstream marketing practices and even into college marketing classrooms. (She specifically mentions our Bentley College Marketing Honors blog – how ironic that I’m blogging about her blogging about me blogging about her blogs!)

In addition to the irony of the situation, it really is an interesting topic to discuss. It seems that blogs are the next big trend in the marketing world. Consequently, if the up-and-coming marketing leaders (i.e., today’s college marketing students) are introduced to the uses of blogs, and if they are taught to effectively implement blogging into their marketing strategies, it will further push this trend toward the mainstream. Marketing as a whole could be completely transformed.

In addition to changing the ways in which marketing strategies are executed, professors implementing blogs into their curriculums will allow the colleges/universities and their professors to market themselves. College blogs will be completely searchable, accessible, and reference-able in revealing information about the education, professors, classes, students, and campus culture provided by the institutions they represent. Prospective students will refer to college blogs in order to get information about the education they’ll receive and the learning styles of teachers at various schools when they’re sending out applications. Colleges will refer to blogs when looking to hire new professors. Companies hiring college graduates will look at the blogs those graduating students have authored. Blogs will truly reinvent the marketing of colleges, professors, students, and workers in addition to consumer brands of all kinds.

This story is marketing-related for the obvious reasons stated in the above paragraphs. Not only are blogs beginning to be used for the marketing of various brands, but for colleges and individuals as well. As blogs are integrated into marketing classes, their relevance to the marketing world is confirmed and their incorporation into brands’ marketing practices will be set in motion at an even faster rate once those students enter the business world.

The story informs marketing of the various ways blogs can be used beyond basic customer testimonials and brand public relations methods. It also reaffirms the idea that blogs really are the next big thing, since they’re being taught in educational institutions rather than being commonly regarded as simple online journals.

It improved my understanding of marketing by leading me to think about the various ways people can market themselves using technology, as opposed to just thinking about corporate marketing practices and techniques. In addition to newly emerging technologies such as “The Facebook” and “MySpace,” blogs will soon be used as a supplement to resumes and personal references for companies when they’re looking to hire new college graduates. It really does make you realize how much personal information will soon be accessible by employers, marketers, and individuals all over the globe. A little scary, isn’t it?

While the blog I reference was an interesting topic, Toby didn’t exactly go into the idea that I discussed here, about colleges and individuals using blogs to market themselves. I was easily able to extrapolate from her blog, as you can see, but if she had mentioned this concept it may have been a more effective “marketing” blog.

When Pigs Fly

2006-02-28T09:04:00.000-05:00

In Michelle Miller’s most recent blog posting, she comments on a business book she received in the mail titled, “The Wisdom of the Flying Pig – Guidance and Inspiration for Managers and Leaders” by Jack Hayhow. Miller states that she receives dozens of such books every month, all asking for her review, however, she never gives them a second thought. This particular book, on the other hand, caught Miller’s interest due to the insertion of a mechanical flying pig and also a personal note commenting on a blog posting of Millers on opening gestures, with Hayhow stating that he hoped his opening gesture passed her test of approval. What Hayhow’s opening gesture got in return was a well supported and enthusiastic recommendation of his book on Miller’s blog. In fact, Miller’s entire posting was essentially dedicated to Hayhow, his book, and how his personal gesture won her interest. “What made Jack’s stand out was not the book but the presentation. I happen to know that Jack sent flying pigs to several of my colleagues - but his note, connecting the flying pig to my blog, made it relevant to me.”

The element of this blog posting that make it marketing related is that Hayhow was, in fact, marketing his book to a targeted audience of business professionals. He determined what audience would best serve his purpose of promotion and then marketed his book to them in a way that differentiated him from the masses of other authors with the same ultimate goal and audience. His marketing campaign was able to stand out from others and therefore his goal was accomplished.

In addition, the depth to which this blog informs marketing is high. It emphasizes the importance of customization and personalization in the marketing world and how a simple gesture made by Hayhow in the process of marketing his book reached out and touched Miller and in a way made her feel like she had a personal relationship with this person despite the fact that she had never met him before in her life. This reaches back to past readings on the importance of relationships in marketing and the loyalty they develop. A little extra effort on Hayhow’s part went a long way in the mind of Michelle Miller and the personal connection prompted by Hayhow’s note enticed Miller to recommend his book and apply it in her professional life. Past book mailings to Miller had failed to establish this personal connection and therefore Miller was not inclined to read or recommend those books as she felt no connection or loyalty. Marketers can take a lot from this lesson and learn the power that establishing a personal relationship (or the sense of a personal relationship) has on the marketing of a product, idea, etc.

This blog improved my understanding of marketing by providing a tangible example of the power of personal relationships in the modern day world. I was already very familiar with the affect a personal note can have on a friend, relative, or job interviewer, however, this blog posting related that concept to the marketing world and opened my eyes to new and creative ways to integrate this technique into marketing strategies.

If I could critique one aspect of this blog, I believe it would continue along the line of past critiques made to Miller’s other postings. Miller’s blogs tend to be very focused on a story within her own life with a powerful underlying concept amongst them. It is very clear that Miller is a brilliant marketer and I would thoroughly enjoy reading more of her thoughts on the theory behind her story rather than just the story itself.

"Revenue Revolution

2006-02-28T06:48:00.000-05:00

From The Brand Builder (2.17.06) by Oliver Blanchard

In his post entitled “Revenue Revolution,” Oliver Blanchard of The Brand Builder Blog brings to light a new potential cash cow for television networks: downloadable television programs. As capabilities of networks become more sophisticated, many are beginning to utilize their broadband connections in new and different ways. For a few, the newest additions to their money-making arsenals are downloadable TV programs. These are downloadable, commercial-free, $1.99 episodes available to consumers through their broadband connections.

For television shows with a large viewer base, this means revenue for networks, and lots of it. Blanchard puts this into perspective with numbers to ponder the implications of this, pulling information from another marketer exploring this phenomenon, Diane Mermigas. One episode of a popular television series typically generates approximately $12 million in gross ad revenue and has about 17 million viewers, breaking down to about $0.57 in ad revenue. The same downloaded episodes, commercial-free and available at the viewer’s convenience, generate approximately $15 million revenue, breaking down to a base figure of $1.44 revenue per download (70% of total $1.99 download revenue). These staggering figures mean that this medium could generate more cash flow that an organization’s advertising. The beginning of what Diane Mermigas calls the “digital broadband rollout” is ready to seriously alter the advertising landscape as it is presently known.

“Revenue Revolution” is marketing-related because it discusses possible threats and challenges on the horizon for advertising professional. The “digital broadband rollout” will likely affect a company marketing departments or advertising agencies in the near future in how they choose to spend their advertising dollars and how effectively they will be able to negotiate media buys with those dollars. The article illustrates yet another way that technology is affecting how consumers are able to be reached with product messaging.

This article informs marketers in that it attempts to map out the future landscape, or environment, in which advertisers will be forced to operate. Blanchard notes that this change means a power shift in favor of the networks, as they have been dealt this commercial-free downloadable ‘trump card.’ He does not mean to say that this is the death knell for TV advertising, as it is cost-prohibitive for frequent viewers and the elimination of TV advertising would decrease the appeal of commercial-free downloads, but he does warn marketers to be aware of the changing landscape. Advertisers must be aware of this, meaning possible reconsideration where to place advertising budgets in order to most effectively reach the consumer. Those who are adept at finding ways to neutralize this threat, possibly by identifying new mediums to reach the consumer, will succeed.

As a soon-to-be advertising professional, this article improved my understanding of the environment that I will be facing as I enter the workforce. So often in advertising textbooks and other literature, it becomes a question of what medium to use to reach the buyer: television, radio or print. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that mainstream mediums are the best ways to reach the masses. This article implies that marketers need to find more creative, out of the box ways to cost-effectively reach customers. The advertising landscape is changing in a way that is forcing them to. This knowledge will give me, any other marketing professional, a leg-up in the field.

This article and its links were informative in describing what the marketing landscape will be like in the near future. Although I thought that this was a very useful post and very applicable to marketing practice, it might have been beneficial for the author to have taken the idea one step further, providing some practical solutions for marketers trying to operate in this digital, downloadable age after explaining the situation at hand.

The Thrill of Victory, the Agony of Defeat

2006-02-27T22:39:00.000-05:00

According to the author, “salespeople always like to compare themselves to athletes when describing their profession, and nowhere does the analogy apply more than in the Winter Olympics”. Through the article, the author outlines some lessons from business/life that he has observed from watching the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy:

Ø It’s not over until it’s over. The analogy between being too cocky during business negotiations is made here with the unfortunate fall on Lindsey Jacobellis. Jacobellis had a huge lead, got cocky, and did a trick that caused her to fall and lose the gold medal. Jacobellis admitted that there was a bit of grandstanding behind her poor judgment. The message is never to get too confident: “Your competitors are always right behind you, regardless of how far ahead you think you are.” No deal is ever sealed until a client signs the bottom line.
Ø Always be ready to seize an opportunity. The author uses the case of Emily Hughes filling in for Michelle Kwan in the women’s figure skating competition to illustrate the fact that as marketers we must always be ready to seize an opportunity. Always be prepared for the unexpected and run with every opportunity to the best of your ability.
Ø Be ready to recover from defeat. More than any other player in the world of business, a salesperson will have to deal with the rejection regularly. “But the A players are the ones who can shake it off and are always looking ahead to their next victory.” This point is made by making the example of the Chinese pair figure skaters who “crashed” only seconds into their routine, but bounced back with determination to win the silver medal.
Ø Recognition matters. “Most of the athletes don’t do it for the cash, they do it to show the world they are the best of the best—an experience that money can’t buy.” Employee recognition can be a powerful tool for managers in creating a successful business environment. Sometimes an employee needs to have his/her accomplishments recognized in order to continue to work to the best of his/her ability.

This blog is marketing related because it is focused on giving business/life advice to salespeople, as well as the business community in general. It is important to draw lessons from different aspects of life in order to remember that marketing is not all about textbook concepts and strategies. Applying everything a student learns in college will not dictate success; rather, one must have a deep common sense and some life experience to be able to effectively execute strategies.

This story informs marketing in the sense that it gives a broader, more personal perspective on the study. One must always strive for success but also be prepared to deal with failure. It is important to recognize the flaws in ones actions such that one can improve. Marketers must always be ready to jump at any opportunity to get ahead and must keep working hard until the task is complete.

This particular story has given me some insight into the aspects of marketing that you can’t learn in class. Failure is something we must experience to understand. Determination is something we have to teach ourselves. Being ready to jump at any opportunity is something we have to be aware of. This story really helped me to understand that marketing is so much more than case analysis and terminology.

Although the story was incredibly interesting and attracted my attention, it played on the emotions heavily. I personally liked that aspect of the story, but I can see why some would criticize is as being too “fluffy”.

Does Your Company Truly Matter? Part 1 and 2

2006-02-27T16:40:00.000-05:00

“Does your company truly matter?” What a great question Spike Jones poses! Although, I suppose there are those business people who only care about the bottom line, I am not one of them. I believe that companies should matter. This posting on the Brains on Fire blog puts forward ten questions any company can use to examine how much its brand matters. Spike Jones reminds the reader that “Companies that truly matter have a competitive advantage. They espouse values we believe in. They invite us to be the person we aspire to be. They move us to dream of making the world a better place to live. And sometimes companies that truly matter do business in a way that leaves us feeling more valued.”

This blog “Does Your Company Truly Matter? Part 1 and Part 2” does relate to marketing in several ways. Jones discusses marketing through the concepts of branding and customer relationships. Although all of Jones’ questions were note worthy, I found a few of his questions especially interesting. One such question deals with the strength of a company’s brand. Jones asks “If your company were (heaven forbid) to be hit by a bus tomorrow and exterminated, would your brand live on without you? In other words, is your brand loyalty so strong it’s self-sustaining?” Personally, it took me less than a second to think of the brands that I would try to keep alive after they went under, but there were only a few. For brand managers, this is an important question and should be their ultimate goal.

In such a profit driven society this article informs marketing by reminding us that brands can have a significant impact on their employees, customers, and society in general. A few examples of the issues discussed in these ten questions are that the core of a brand is its promise, employees and customers should be fans of a brand, employees should enjoy coming to work and not be afraid to give their opinion.

Although several of the ideas expressed in this blog may be considered common sense, I believe they are often overlooked. Throughout my marketing career here at Bentley, I have discussed many of the issues presented in this blog, but until recently I have not discussed the crucial role of employees. Jones did improve my understanding of the relationship between employees and a strong brand. Jones poses many important questions I would not have predicted would be in the top ten:
“If we randomly chose one of your employees and one of your customers, and put them in a room with each other, would a passionate brand lovefest break out between these two strangers?”
“Do you have talented people invading you with resumes?”
“If you threw an optional employee party, how many of your employees would attend?”
“Are your employees encouraged and empowered to speak up… or to shut up at work?”
“What is so important about your brand that you would work on it without compensation?”
These were five out of the ten questions posed and they all had to deal with employee relationships. In the past I have always known that good customer service would strengthen the public’s perception of a company, but I had never considered every single employee as a crucial part of a company’s success.

Because I truly found this blog to be interesting and thought-provoking, it is hard for me to critique. While this posting is thorough, there are not many examples provided. NASA’s overall vision of helping to put a man on the moon is given as an example of a company’s entrepreneurial inspiration. On the one hand, I feel as though it could be useful to provide a few examples of companies that do matter and can give positive answers to several of the questions in this blog; however, on the other hand, I feel as though it is important to leave the reader with the task of examining his/her own company and not complicate things by providing examples of competitors. In addition, several questions could most likely only be answered by employees with insider knowledge of the company’s culture. After thoughtful consideration, I did have one idea for an eleventh question: Is the brand personality of your company clear and easily recognizable by consumers? More specifically, if you asked any person on the street to describe your brand’s personality would they all say the same thing?

Strong brands are not the only key to success

2006-02-26T21:50:00.000-05:00

In his post “Strong Brands are Not the Only Key to Success” Francois disagrees with a blog posting by Laura Reis; he highlights his main disagreement with her on her statements: "Building strong brands is the key to success, in our opinion, not better products or better people," followed by: "Because in America marketing is not considered important. Management, human relations, customer service are all considered of higher importance that marketing." Francois calls her thinking “20th century and wrong.” Instead, he argues that the customer needs to be incorporated into the equation. He pushes the true meaning of brand by questioning who owns it – how is it integrated with the product and the customer service? He thinks that marketing needs to be thought of from a different perspective as he concludes with the statement, “We are seriously overdue for a new breed of marketers to come to the foreground and eclipse this old school of marketing thinkers.”

This blog is marketing related since it questions the importance of branding in marketing. Francois argues that branding is not the only key to success since he is supporting an integrated marketing point of view. He does not think that marketing is “silo-ed.” Rather, it crosses many disciples in business, being more horizontal in nature. Similarly, branding is not solely controlled by the marketing department since the entire organization has an impact on the brand. Francois also brings the marketing concept to Laura’s argument by asking where the customer fits into the equation of brands. He gives the example of Harley Davidson as a brand that began in the original definition of brands but has evolved to be more integrated and more in the hands of customers. Since brands only exist in the minds of consumers, the consumers clearly have a direct impact on them.

The story informs marketing by questioning different perspectives of the position of both marketing and branding. It supports the view of marketing as an integrated activity that cannot truly separate things such as product, people, and brands. Since brands are so subjective, they are impacted by all of the other elements and areas of the business. In the same light, there is no cut and clear way to approach branding since so many different elements have an impact on it.

This story improved my understanding of marketing because it made me think about how I view the role of both marketing and branding. Although I agree that building strong brands is a key to success, it is only one component that contributes to a firm’s success. I think that Francois’ idea of an integrated approach will yield the highest success; however, achieving this level of integration is difficult. Although no solution for how to view either branding or marketing is offered in the blog posting, it makes readers evaluate how they view these things and how they would approach them. As a marketing student, I was attentive to Francois’ final comment concerning the need for a “new breed” of marketers to enter the business world to overturn these “old school” ways of thinking about marketing. It made it more apparent that we must always evaluate the way we think about what we are doing.

As is often critiqued in our class, more examples could have also made his argument better; I particularly enjoyed his use of Harley Davidson as an example of a brand and would have liked to see more examples like this. Other than more examples, I don’t have any real other criticisms about this piece since it raised some excellent points for though. However, I questioned on of Laura Reis’ comments. She says: "Because in America marketing is not considered important.” From our discussions on mass consumption and American consumerism, I would say that marketing is extremely important and vital to firms’ success. However, I think that Francois does an excellent job of offering differing perspectives to counter Laura’s, all of which touch upon the integration in marketing today.

http://www.emergencemarketing.com/archives/2006/01/post_2.php

"Strategy before Tactics"

2006-02-26T17:46:00.000-05:00

John Jantsch’s marketing blog, written on Tuesday February 21, is titled “Strategy before Tactics”. This story is marketing-related because it discusses what he views as a major marketing problem. The blog is about the idea that many small businesses do not have a distinct marketing strategy and merely change their tactics week by week depending on the current fad. This constant change in strategy leaves their business vulnerable and weak because they have not identified distinct business goals. He explains that many business owners think their strategy is to sell as much as they can to as many people as possible. He redefines the strategy by saying, “What do you want your market to know about you, what do you want them to believe, what do want them to feel, experience, think, when they consider what you are about - that's what comes from strategy and that's what gets you out of the price shopper bin.” He relates his blog to marketing throughout the entire publication by identifying a problem that many companies have with their marketing plans.

This reading informs marketing by revealing a common mistake that many people make when running their own business. In reading his blog you can reevaluate your own marketing strategy and realize whether or not you are going about your business in an effective manner. He informs the reader that the strategy should guide your whole business and the tactics that you use should be in an effort to meet your strategy, not the other way around. He even provides the reader with some examples of good strategies, including: “Dominate a narrow market niche, package your services like no one else and create a category and become famous for doing one thing.” After reading the blog, the reader definitely leaves with more information on the subject than before.

This blog improved my understanding of marketing because it showed me that you must have a distinct strategy set out for yourself before starting a business. It taught me that a marketing strategy is necessary for marketing your business effectively. The strategy does not need to be product specific but more goals specific so that you know why you are marketing your product and what you hope to achieve in the long run.

I do not have any critiques of the blog that John Jantsch wrote. He does a good job of pointing out good marketing strategy techniques as well as bad ones. He identifies his subject and its importance right away by explaining that a lack of strategy is the “single greatest small business marketing mistake.” By identifying the problem, the implication of the problem, and the solution, the author thoroughly writes on the subject and leaves nothing to critique.

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php

Blogs: The Next Age of Enlightenment

2006-02-22T01:44:00.000-05:00

Kathy Sierra’s blog post “Naked Conversations on A Bus” is about her views on blogging. She notes that reading the book Naked Conversations made her realize that her belief in the power of blogging (something which she is intensely connected to now) has come only in the last 6 months. She says that blogs, once thought to be a silly waste of time and not yet even recognized by the dictionary, have now become widely used and wildly popular. Kathy claims blogs have become a staple of life because technology makes them so easy to start and maintain. All of this matters because it offers a simple tool for people to get their ideas heard, which means that no matter how out there your idea is you can find a population of people to support you. As Kathy writes, “Blogs are helping churches that suck at marketing, epileptics (like me) learn from others with the same disorder, and a guy who does chicken cartoons on yellow sticky notes find an audience.” This insanely simple tool can have a huge impact, which is applicable to not only individuals but also businesses. Therefore, Kathy adds, “Blogs let the ‘little guy’, from a cowboy horse whisperer, or a geek who can make your life a little simpler develop a global microbrand. That means they can keep doing what they love--what they're passionate about--rather than, say, working 60 hours a week elsewhere and leaving no time for doing the things that help teach, inspire, or entertain the rest of us. Because of blogs, the lone programmer or writer can create something that others will find (and potentially pay for), so the lone author can keep doing it. It means the little guy who can't out-spend the competition, can out-teach (through his blog) the Big Guys.”By this principle, blogs are the ultimate marketing tool because all an individual or business has to do is put an idea out there and let it spread. Kathy talks about how one person reads and article or has an idea or creation and blogs about it. People then read that blog and blog on it. More people blog on the blog reporting on the original blog, and so on and so forth. Then, before anyone knows it, the idea had spread like a wildfire. Therefore, without having to spend any money (or a minimal amount of money) a huge influence can be created. The result is not just important for profit motives, but also in terms of idea preservation. In a sense blogs could be responsible for the next age of enlightenment.
This blog relates to the idea of marketing non-tangible aspects for the benefit of doing so in and of itself. Usually when people focus on marketing non-tangibles they are usually talking about marketing consulting services, political ideas, religious doctrine, etc. but the blog post “Naked Conversations on a Bus” focuses on the emotional aspect of unconditional marketing. Kathy seems to illustrate the idea that there can be marketing for the sole purpose of making people happy, confident, and generally healthier and more connected. The mention of bringing epileptics together via blogs so they can interact with people who are experiencing the same daily issues is an example of unconditional marketing. The person setting up and censoring the blog has nothing to gain from people sharing their experiences.Additionally, blogs designed to assist small businesses and individual entrepreneurs provide a means to avoid the risk usually associated with going out on a limb and offering up ideas. Instead, Kathy points out that there is much less risk associated with blogging because people can post ideas and leave them for others to view at their leisure. There is no direct contact, and yet there is contact enough to make people lend their minds in an attempt to understand something new and try it.
The main idea that I took away from Kathy Sierra’s post was the way that one blog post can create a wave of further discussion. Initially I wondered how much this was true, and then I realized that Kathy was blogging about a book, and I am blogging on her blog. I would be willing to bet she is not the only one blogging on the book, and that I am not the only one blogging on her blog. But it doesn’t even stop there. I know for a fact that other Bentley community members and other marketing bloggers are reading this . As I try to wrap my thoughts around this my head begins to spin a little because blogs have already and will continue to achieve an immortality that so many authors, philosophers, and the like could only dream of in the past.
I was encouraged by Kathy’s post because she recommended that people keep blogging no matter what. Her point was that the scope accomplished through the butterfly effect of blogging is immeasurable, and therefore should not be discounted. She says that the sheer abundance of blogs recruits more people and encourages the practice. The fact that Kathy herself was a blog disbeliever in the recent past and now is so connected to it and gets so much out of it makes this point perfectly.

Go here for the original blog.

Customer Knows Best

2006-02-17T21:31:00.000-05:00

Customer Service: Letting the Customer Choose the Remedy

Customer Service always seems to be a hot topic. People are always sharing their horror stories of situations in which they did not feel valued as a customer. It is a consumer’s nightmare when they purchase a product and there is some type of problem. They attempt to contact someone about it only to get stuck talking to someone who does not really care about the problems.

Katherine Stone, however, talks about a good experience she had with Typepad and their customer service. Typepad had some difficulties with their service. Rather than hiding from a problem that their service encountered, Typepad sent out an email to all of their customers and allowed the customers to pick their remedy based on the individual experiences and problems. They took the initiative to provide service to their consumers. It helped to prove to their customers that Typepad value’s their patronage. Typepad opened themselves up for losing about 13.5 million dollars if all of the customers chose the highest reimbursement. Typepad could have just waiting till people complained and then helped those people but not others that did not complain. Stone explains how important it was to her that they recognized the problem, rectified it, and offered her a solution that met her individual experience. She did not have a big problem with the service; however, she was still offered the option of receiving a reimbursement. Overall, it was not the remedy offered that was important, but that Typepad was willing to admit to the problem, take ownership for it, and offer their customer’s something for their troubles.

This article informs marketing because an integral part of marketing is keeping consumers happy. If the customer is not happy then customers will not continue using the company’s products. Marketing helps to create a life long relationship with the customer. Marketing helps to inform the customer. Customer service allows the relationship to continue at various times. When done right, customer service can help improve and sustain the relationship with the customer. Additionally, good or bad customer service can help or hurt the company’s reputation through word of mouth. While marketing can not manage or control word of mouth, it is important for companies to be aware of what is being said by the consumers. Therefore, it is important part of marketing to offer the best customer service, as it is part of the post-purchase experience. If companies offer poor customer service then they are telling consumers that they should not waste their time with that company in the future. If the customer service is great, then the post purchase experience is positive and people are willing to use the company in the future.

Customer service is a part of the post-purchase decision that I believe does not get enough attention. This article helped to inform my own personal knowledge about marketing because it helped to validate that customer service is in fact, important for marketers to know about. Additionally, from a marketers’ point of view, it is helpful to know that often just the fact that the company is attempting to remedy the problem is enough.

I benefited from reading this article. Therefore, there was not a lot to criticize. I did think that if Stone had expanded the article it would have allowed her to go into more detail about how customer service can be beneficial to marketers. The article helped to bring up the subject; however, it could have been followed up with more information. It would be interesting to know how companies can perfect their customer service practices. Customer service appears to get pushed to the sidelines when budgets are tight or time is scarce. However, more attention and money needs to go into the customer service that is given to the consumer. Companies obviously want to be able to see the impact of the money that is being spent. Therefore, it would be interesting to see what customer service approaches are most successful in various industries so that companies could be more confident in their approach. Overall, however, the article did a great job to peak my interest in the topic and find out more information.

PR's Big Opportunity

2006-02-14T12:23:00.000-05:00

Blog reference from the Diva Marketing Blog à Modern Marketing Blog

PR's Big Opportunity
January 26, 2006

While traditional PR methods are commonly dismissed as “branded journalism,” the evolution of technology has allowed PR to reinvent itself and take on a much more respected role within the consumers’ minds. How has this happened? The majority of control over PR has been taken from marketing departments and put into the hands of the public. “Citizen’s Media” is the new craze, where millions of people around the globe can easily and freely express their opinions on any topic under the sun. These authors are trusted by their readers as unpaid, sincere peers and co-consumers.

The most well-known establishment of Citizen’s Media takes place via blogs. As James Cherkoff, Collaborative Marketing Writer for the Financial Times stated, blogs are “…growing fast. Online blog monitor Technocrati.com tracks more than 4 million blogs and adds 20,000 a day to its register.” Through blogging, consumers are welcome to publish anything they’d like to the entire world, and this has become increasingly popular to generate word-of-mouth marketing for or against brands. These critics are developing online reputations and the respect of many faithful readers. They are making traditional marketing methods seem untrustworthy and somewhat lame in comparison; commercials and conventional PR publications are paid for by invested stakeholders, and therefore are not necessarily honest in their claims.

So how is this technological trend an opportunity for PR? Instead of being viewed as media hawks that make phone calls and attempt to persuade third parties to publish brand-glorifying articles all day, PR may be turning into a much more studious field. PR representatives will need to learn how to reach everyday consumers, bloggers, associations and analysts, and convince them to independently spread the good word. PR executives will learn to really understand consumers and how they feel, and will ultimately be able to convey those thoughts to the firm. It can then modify its brand/products accordingly to better meet customer desires. Thus, PR can be transformed from a dying segment of marketing to an incremental part of the business.

This story is marketing-related because it addresses the changes that are revolutionizing the way marketing is approached. Rather than relying on TV commercials, magazines, and newspaper articles to persuade consumers to buy, marketers need to adapt to the times and pursue other methods that are becoming as or more important than the traditional counterparts. It is important for any marketer to understand these changes that are taking place and to jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late.

The story informs marketing of the changes that are taking place in consumerism and of opportunities that exist, especially within PR. While it may seem daunting that marketers can no longer simply produce ads and pay people to say what they want, with a little understanding and research the whole marketing process can be quickly reinvented. Marketers already spend a very significant portion of their time researching what customers want, right? Now they just need to take that research a step further and figure out how to make customers excited so that immediately after making a purchase they’ll be blogging rave reviews about the products. It could actually save marketers money in the long run; by investing a little more into R&D, they can create products that consumers will be dying to publicly praise, and they’ll be able to save millions on extensive ad campaigns that could become outdated and distrusted anyhow.

These blogs improved my understanding of marketing by, first of all, teaching me of the currently stale condition of PR. I was not previously aware that PR has been losing respect, and I hadn’t thought about the effect blogging could have on the success of PR. I also learned how the present condition of PR could be seen as a position of opportunity, and that with a little more focus on content rather than communication, PR representatives can revamp their image and become a much more highly regarded function of business.

I wish the author of this blog had included more of his own opinions. The blog mainly summarizes and links to the work of other writers on the topic; I would’ve been interested in what this person had to say. Also, I wish he’d gone into more explanation of his ending statement: “And tonight I am off to a Microsoft launch event that I have been invited along to in my role as the Modern Marketing blogger. Interesting times.” I would like to know more about why he was invited and for additional commentary to explain the “interesting”-ness of it all.

Netflix Nabbed for Neglecting Rampant Renters

2006-02-14T11:40:00.000-05:00

This week I chose “Netflix’ Not-So-Unlimited Plan” by Jason Dowdell on Marketing Shift. In this posting, Dowdell explains that Netflix came up with a plan that allowed them to manage their seemingly too good to be true internet DVD rental business. The policy was that the most frequent movie renters would be automatically placed at the end of the waiting list for the most popular titles and delivery of their movies was intentionally slowed down. Dowdell explains that he was a former member, and wondered why after a few months his movies took much longer to arrive.

According to the Associated Press, Netflix has since changed their terms of use to include the message, “In determining priority for shipping and inventory allocation, we give priority to those members who receive the fewest DVDs through our service". Their CEO has since acknowledged their nondisclosure of the so called ‘fairness algorithm’, and has said that few customers have complained about it. Netflix has a customer base of 4.2 million people and by many accounts has extremely high customer satisfaction.

The interesting part of this article is that Netflix is a company that can alienate its heavy users in the name of the less frequent renters by this process called ‘throttling’. In the world of unlimited memberships, the optimum revenue stream comes from the people that pay the membership but seldom, or at least less frequently, use the service.

This is quite the opposite of what goes on in most companies who are subject to the 80/20 rule, which approximates that twenty percent of a product’s users account for eighty percent of its sales. If McDonald’s told its most frequent customers that they would have to let less frequent customers pass them in the drive thru line, they would probably see a slack in sales. However there is one big difference, McDonald’s would actually have to ‘tell’ them.

If Netflix was being open and honest about this, they could have simply included it in the terms of use to begin with. They have not been forced to change its ‘unlimited rental’ policy which they founded the company on. It turns out to be another example of a large scale company cutting corners and getting tagged in the process.

The greatest irony of this whole situation is that since this story is public and might make people angry, it is just going to wipe out the most frequent users and give Netflix exactly what they want; an even lower contingent of people who rent an insane amount of DVD’s per month and drive their costs up. The only real downside for them besides the ‘negative press’ is that they agreed to pay $2.5 Million in a class action settlement, but then reconsidered. The case is back in court, and set to be heard February 22nd, according to the AP. Dowdell says that Netflix is doing it self a disservice by poorly treating those who are the best marketing vehicles for the company, but Netflix added 1.6 million new cusotmers in 2005.

This story is marketing related because Netflix openly marketed itself as an unlimited DVD rental business, when in fact there was some fine print… that didn’t exist. This story informs marketing because it shows a situation where the ethically correct thing was not done and sends a message to marketers that in the future the same corners can not be cut. This piece improved my understanding of marketing by improving the definition of ethical practices. If I had to critique this piece, the only complaint would be that it is somewhat brief. Other than that I found it to be very relevant and thought that Dowdell made the article very poignant by linking his own personal experiences in with the presentation of the facts.

"Quality Is a Promise"

2006-02-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

In a recent posting on his Brand Builder blog, Blanchard equates the ideas of branding and promise, stressing the importance of this topic to the success of particular products. Beginning with Apple’s iPods, which have consistently broken after only two years of use, he illustrates how the company is simply ‘digging its own grave’ in not delivering on the promise of quality they afford to individuals when they purchase Apple products.

The blog is relevant to marketing issues as it explains, in very rational terms, why individuals buy like they do. The article shed some light on the appeal of brands to consumers. A brand is ultimately intangible and it occasionally seems irrational that buyers choose products based on ‘brand name’ when generic products can often offer better value at lower cost. By explaining the solid benefits of a brand using ideas such as promise and quality, Blanchard rationalizes an irrational behavior. He states it best with this line:

“When I buy a brand name product, I am buying the promise of quality. That’s what makes me choose to drop the extra green in the first place.”

Understanding this concept is key to having successful business practices that are satisfying to the consumer.

Blanchard’s posting informs the field of marketing by illustrating the dangers of ignoring this branding principle. Companies that produce shoddy products will not only lose their customers, but will chip away at the value of their brand name. Each defective iPod Apple ships out makes all other iPods, and all other Apple products for that matter, less valuable to the consumer. Neglecting quality and producing at low cost, with corporate profits at the forefront of decision making will likely sink a company. This concept is critical for marketers to understand and has become still more critical with the prevalence of the Internet and mass communication. Bad experiences and dissatisfaction can spread like wildfire. This severely damages company sales and profits, the lines that they were looking to improve in the first place when they took the easy road and sacrificed quality. The posting, itself, is evidence of this: one in a chain of comments on Apple’s iPod, ranging from admission of the defects to ranting on their dissatisfaction.

Additionally, Blanchard adds to marketing practice, suggesting that the severity of negative response rests greatly in consumer expectation: if they don’t expect much, they won’t complain much. For example, if the picks fall off of a $1 hairbrush, the consumer might be slightly annoyed but does not feel the need to unleash fury on the company. He justifies this, noting that such a product is a commodity that one can “buy cheap, replace often.” An iPod, however, is supposed to be a luxury good, with a high price point, an innovative concept and brand name backing. Consumer rage is amplified when the iPod falls apart and, causing consumers to make sure that their stories are heard far and wide. If Apple wishes to be a luxury provider, they have damaged their brand name by trying to produce a commodity good.

This posting enhanced my understanding of this marketing concept, giving me a solid framework on the value of brands to the consumer. As I read on, I became increasingly perplexed, as it seemed ridiculous that some companies, like Apple, do not understand this. Is it not common sense to produce quality goods? Regardless of whether a product is a commodity item or a luxury one, all goods hold consumer expectations. Although luxury purchases will produce more negative response if dissatisfied arises, any dissatisfaction will likely drive consumers to buy substitute products or brands, even if it is only a different gallon of milk. Why not meet those expectations? It appears that many of these manufacturers get caught with tunnel vision and fail to see that providing customer satisfaction is a mutually beneficial exchange that will eventually meet the bottom line that they originally had in sight.

Although I understand length and depth constraints accompany all blogging, it might have been beneficial to provide other possible reasons why consumers choose brands in purchase decisions. For example, consumers often choose products because they hold monopoly as the only product that exists to satisfy a need. For consumers that value large memory space to store their music, iPod essentially has a grip on the market and consumers choose it for this reason. Personally, my simple MP3 does just fine, but memory space is not as large a concern for me. It would have been interesting to hear Blanchard’s take on whether there is more or less pressure to produce quality goods if a manufacturer has such monopolistic status, in light of the fact that they are sure certain consumers will bring their business to them.

Possessing a basic understanding of why consumers choose products and brands is essential to marketers. This knowledge can help shape the practices of companies and could prevent costly marketing mishaps.

"The Little Things"

2006-02-14T09:40:00.000-05:00

I decided last week that I was going to switch the blog I was tracking for the semester. After reading the posting entitled, “The Little Things,” I decided to switch my blog to “Brains on Fire.” The author, Spike Jones, got the idea for this posting from an inspirational quote on a tea packet: “All great things are only a number of small things that have carefully been collected together.”-Unknown

Jones relates this quote to marketing by commenting on how a strong brand is not built by one advertisement or any other single marketing event. He believes a successful brand is created by compiling “a number of small things.” With a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl costing companies $2.5 million, Jones suggests that these companies should spend their money on other less expensive but still valuable marketing communication. A link is provided within the body of his blog to an article, “What Would You Do With $2.5 Million?” written by iMedia Connection. This article provides examples of ways in which several marketing executives said they would spend a $2.5 million marketing budget. Although Jones does not seem to be incredibly impressed by any of the recommendations in the article, he does make some suggestions of his own: “Rewarding customer service. An engaging brand personality. A group of fascinating products. And a series of inspiring experiences.” Unlike Jones, I found one of the marketing executives’ recommendations to be extremely innovative and worth mentioning. Andy Sernovitz, the CEO of Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), proposes that a company “pass out two million $1 bills. Attach your logo to each bill with a removable sticker. Use $500,000 to hire staff to hand them out all over the country.”

Even though this blog appears to be about a simple quote from a tea bag and a simple question of how else you could spend $2.5 million, it is actually about seriously reflecting on one’s marketing practices. “The Little Things” informs marketing of one way a successful brand is believed to be achieved. It also suggests that marketers investigate whether or not advertising on television, especially during the Super Bowl, is worth the amount of brand equity it creates. Jones challenges marketers to “think outside of the box” and find other, possibly more cost-effective, ways to spend their marketing dollars.

“The Little Things” blog and the “What Would You Do With $2.5 Million?” article improved my understanding of marketing by giving me a new way in which to think about branding and different opinions regarding the money spent on Super Bowl advertising. Personally, I had always wondered if companies gained rewards large enough to exceed the money being spent on this type of advertising. The return on investment each company is looking to achieve may be different and in many cases hard to measure; still, I did always wonder if it was a beneficial way to spend marketing funds.

While I found this article to be extremely thought provoking, it would have been even more powerful if Jones had disproved some of the more common arguments in favor of Super Bowl advertising. Jones could have provided examples of the different reasons companies claim to benefit from a 30 second Super Bowl commercial and then explained why he believes that other smaller marketing efforts would be more successful. Jones does give some suggestions of general marketing efforts that could potentially build strong brand equity; however these examples are still quite large ideas and ones that are hard to implement. For example, Jones mentions creating “an engaging brand personality.” Brand personality is one aspect of marketing that is hard to control because it is solely a perception from consumers built by every experience consumers have ever had with the brand. In my opinion, the examples should have been even more specific and “smaller” considering the nature of the inspirational quote.

http://www.brainsonfire.com/blog/post300.aspx

"Great Products Can't Overcome Arrogance"

2006-02-13T21:25:00.000-05:00

John Jantsch’s most recent marketing blog discusses the idea that even though some companies have exceptional products, their longevity and market share will only last if they have amazing customer service as well. He uses the example of the Apple iPod. Although it is thought to be the only product of its kind on the market, it will not last if the company continues to treat their customers like they have. Many consumers have been having technical problems with their Apple iPod, and upon complaining they have been told to buy a new one. Jantsch’s point is that even in the case of such a popular product as the iPod, “if you constantly treat your customers as though they are disposable, well, that’s what they will become.” He argues that a company must get over their arrogance and realize that their customers are more important than their product in order to ensure their product will last.

This story is marketing-related because it deals with the marketing issue of customer service and creating a good overall purchase experience for the customer. The issue that Jantsch writes of is critical to the marketing process. Customer service and post-purchase company actions are an integral part of marketing because it is a part of how the company markets their brand and their name. A company’s reputation has either a positive or a negative effect on their brand image. If the company does not have good customer service after the point of sale, like the iPod example, the company name will be tarnished with bad press and bad word of mouth.

This reading informs marketing by expressing the importance of customer service, even after the sale has been conducted. Most articles and textbooks express the importance of marketing the company and product well in order to make customers buy your product and invest in your company name. This article informed the reader that it is not only important to market well before the sale, but it is critical to continue to service the customer and market your brand after the customer has bought your product. In the iPod case it illustrates that not doing so can eventually have a negative effect on your product image and sales.

This article improved my understanding of marketing because it provided a real world example of a company that exhibits problems with customer service. It explained what negative effects this poor service could have on a company in the long term. Many of the readings that we have been assigned in class stress the importance of customer service, but, once again, they stress the importance of it before and during the sale, not afterwards. Few articles explain how important it is to provide good maintenance and repair service to your already sold products. The blog improved my understanding of marketing through showing a different element of the marketing process, exposing that marketing is not as one-sided as I was once led to believe.

My main critique of the blog that Jantsch wrote would be that he should have presented an example of a company that has gone out of business, or lost a large portion of market share, because of poor customer service. He does a good job of presenting the current day iPod example, but it would have been nice to hear another example from the past few years where you can see the actual deterioration of customer loyalty and brand reputation.

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php

Quality is free! Freely abused, anyway

2006-02-13T21:20:00.000-05:00

This article deals with the idea of using the concept of “quality” in marketing. There most likely isn’t a company in the world that would claim publicly that it sold a product or service that wasn’t of at least “good” quality. Thus, the actual concept of the word and its value is diminished and holds no value to the consumer. In Scott Dalgleish’s column in Quality Magazine, he states the following:

“Do you know of any company that does not claim to have good quality? I can’t think of a single company that ever said, ‘Our quality is fair to poor.’ My experience has been that very few companies deliver the good quality that they claim.”

The reasoning behind this is that the claim to quality is free, which is the problem with its diminishing value. The author continues to assert that claims of quality are not supported in a substantial manner and management does not care whether or not claims to quality are valid. Because of this, customers do not consider “quality” when purchasing most products; rather, price becomes a more important criterion.

Dalgleish blames his fellow IT professional for removing the legitimacy of a once-commonly used quality rating system, the ISO-9000. Years ago, this rating system was considered incredibly valuable. However, today it means nothing in the eyes of other companies and consumers.

Further, the devaluation of the term “quality” has caused consumers to be increasingly price sensitive. This is termed the “Wal-Mart Effect”. Dalgleish believes that educating investors and consumers about product quality and its value will cause the management to care about claiming quality. However, the author of the blog questions this assertion:

“That’s an okay idea if it is done well so consumers will listen, but how much will they learn? The new Gillette razor has how many blades? We’ve been given that concrete information in a Super Bowl commercial. But the first question everyone asks is: does this really make it better? Without any worthwhile, concrete, and verifiable information on quality, buyers rely on inference and word-of-mouth, both of which are unreliable.”

This story is marketing-related because it addresses claims of a company regarding its product or service and how over time this has altered consumer behavior. When claims are thrown around about a particular aspect of products, it becomes generic and holds no value. Consumers will eventually adjust to this and will stop to hold any value in such claims. Thus, it is important, as a marketer, to note what matters in the eyes of the consumers and what is simply fluff, for lack of a better word.

This story informs marketing by helping to gain some insight into consumer behavior. It is important, particularly in the era of Wal-Mart, that the majority of consumers are price sensitive above many other criteria for purchasing a given service or product. Depending what the product or service is, quality might not have any bearing on the purchase decision. It is important to note which claims about a product will actually drive the customer’s decision.

The concept of “crying wolf” is very familiar to everyone. However, reading about how this type of story effects the world of marketing is incredibly interesting. I have been able to gain some insight as to how invalid claims regarding many products by many companies can create a sense of fluff. The claim means nothing. I have learned that finding manners of promoting a product’s attributes in new and not over-done ways is incredibly important in differentiating it from other products.

A main critique I would have for this author is that there were not many examples in this piece. He was very good at explaining concepts, but fairly poor at actually applying the concepts to demonstrate a point. The Gillette example was effective.

http://www.b2blog.com/ (THIS IS MY NEW BLOG!! I CLAIM IT!!)

"Leave No Stone Unturned" by Michelle Miller

2006-02-12T22:27:00.000-05:00

In one of her recent blog postings, Michelle Miller includes a link to her first article as a marketing columnist for Inc.com, “The Daily Resource for Entrepreneurs.” Miller’s article is titled “Leave No Stone Unturned” and emphasizes the fact that “your customer is affected by each and every interaction with you, whether its physical, emotional, or virtual. It’s up to you to make sure those experiences are positive on a consistent basis.”

Miller further comments on the fact that many companies are trying to be creative and imaginative with their customer experiences by providing seeming luxuries and additions to the experience, however, they are consequently neglecting to focus on the core logical elements of the customer experience, such as customer service and wait times. Miller also points out that it is the customer herself who often holds the most valuable insight into the areas that require improvement in the marketing aspects of a company.

The elements of this article that make it marketing related are the various aspects of influence that marketing can have on a place of business. “Every touch point the customer has with your business contains an element of marketing. It can be your advertising, the location of your store, or the way your staff answers the phone.” Miller attempts to reach out to business owners and make them aware that the impact and influence of marketing can expand beyond the typical mailing or brochure and is in fact pervasive in the day to day business operations. The quality of customer service is explored as is the need to return to the basics of marketing and be sure that every marketing activity is focused towards satisfying what the customer really wants or needs.

There are many ways that this article reaches out to inform marketing and bring matters to attention that many companies often fail to realize and even neglect. One of the most important marketing informative aspects of this article is Miller’s insight into the fact that management is simply too close to the operations of the business to be able to accurately focus on the needs of the customer. Miller’s suggestion is one that all companies should take into consideration and whose importance is verified by an article in this week’s readings titled “Start with the Customer” by Stephen Brown. Both Brown and Miller emphasize that empowering the customer by allowing their feedback on business operations can have a profound effect on their satisfaction as well as the satisfaction of other customers. Often times business owners can become too involved in trying to know everything that they forget that their most powerful and accurate resource lies within their customers, right at their fingertips. As Miller states, “Their suggestion of a subtle change in the way you do business can mean the difference between ordinary profit and miraculous growth.”

In terms of this article improving my understanding of marketing, I feel this article helped to balance my perception of the mix between the needs for logical and creative elements in marketing. Past articles discussed in MK402 have focused on the importance of creativity and thinking “outside the box” with marketing activities, however, Miller has emphasized the importance of satisfying the basic needs of marketing and getting in touch with the customer and her logical needs before becoming overly creative or being creative while lacking the basic needs of the consumer. “A consumer-electronics chain might be testing a female-oriented concept store – the décor is soothing and the background creates a nice ambience. But what if there are 25 very unhappy customers standing in line with only two flustered clerks at checkout?” I feel I now have a better sense that marketing requires creativity and appealing to customers in new ways, however, you must ultimately be in touch with the core needs of the consumer and be able to satisfy her on a basic level before the effects and rewards of creativity can come into play.

If I could critique one aspect of this article, I would suggest that Miller expand upon the topics presented in this article to a greater extent. Miller brings up excellent points and begins to illustrate excellent examples, however, I found myself wanting to read more and for a greater level of detail regarding the insight she provides on these topics. While I understand that this article was most likely limited to a certain length, I wish that Miller could have taken the opportunity to expand on these topics through the use of her blog, rather than simply providing a link to her pre-existing article.

article: http://www.inc.com/resources/marketing/articles/20060201/miller.html
blog: http://michelemiller.blogs.com/marketing_to_women/2006/02/index.html

"When your customers stay with you until you screw up"

2006-02-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

The article “When your customers stay with you until you screw up” illustrates an example of how companies forget about after sales service in marketing. It explains how the author needed to get his car serviced, he first tried to go to the Ford dealership that he always uses for his car purchases and services. When they wouldn’t accommodate him, he called another one who could “squeeze” him into the schedule. The author comments on how he will use this new dealership until they manage to “screw up,” and then he will start the process again. He projects how this seems to be a trend in many industries, especially service ones such as the phone industry. He says that companies focus on attracting customers, but only keep them until they “screw up” so badly that they customer leaves in order to find better service. It’s easier for customers to stay with one company after purchasing from them since they did a lot of research in order to make that initial purchase; receiving service from the company that they already researched is more convenient than beginning that research all over again.
This article is marketing related because it explores the after-sales service aspect of the marketing mix. While the marketing concept has gained widespread popularity, making companies focus on “putting the customer first,” the integral aspect of after-sales service is often neglected. The customer seems to come first in designing the product, in pricing it appropriately, in communicating through various channels, and in selling it in different outlets. In most cases, once the customer has been “persuaded” to purchase the product, the marketing ends. The development of customer loyalty programs indicates that some firms are taking advantage of the fact that holding on to current customers is so important since the cost of acquisition is so high. Companies can become much more successful if they learn how to increase sales from existing customers by keeping them happy for a long time.
This story improves my understanding of marketing due to its illustrative example of how customer service can affect brand switching so easily. In product categories with high risk, whatever type, pre-purchase research is common. However, the author points out how after this initial research, the consumer sticks with the brand that his research brought him to until a negative experience changes his perception of that brand. As a marketing student, marketing is often taught as how to get someone to purchase a product or service. Examples such as this illustrate how marketing can be applied to many other stages of consumer purchase. Also, the author says that marketers should make it “easy” for customers to return to a specific brand for service or repeat purchase. He implies that in today’s crowded marketplace, decisions that can be easy should be taken advantage of in order to keep customers coming back and spending their money on the brand they first chose. This article also reminds me of the “Social Consumer Manifesto” that urges marketers to treat consumers as they wish to be treated. If marketers could just apply the common sense to put themselves in the consumers’ shoes, every business would have exceptional after-sales customer service. Obviously, no one likes getting automated phone messages or unaccommodating service representatives. It just makes sense – treat your customers how you would want to be treated and they will come back to spend more money with you instead of with your competitor.
This piece does an excellent job of providing both an example of a marketing trend in the marketplace today along with an analysis of this trend in a marketing context. One thing that could have strengthened his argument would be to give another example of a company that is implementing post-sales service well. By having some illustrations of companies that are living these “best practices,” others can learn how to take full advantage of keeping their current loyal customers satisfied. One other thing that this posting could have explored is the after-sales customer service in B2B markets. I believe that B2B marketing concentrates more on the customer service aspect since businesses usually have more purchasing power since contracts for large dollar amounts are usually in place. When the business actually has a written “value,” more emphasis is placed on retaining that business and making sure that they are happy with the product or service being provided. Therefore, post-sales service may take more prevalence since renewal of a purchase agreement ensures a large dollar amount.

Celebrity Overkill

2006-02-12T19:27:00.000-05:00

Kelley Irwin
MK402

Celebrity Marketing Overkill

Katherine Stone comments on the overload of celebrity focus in marketing. Celebrities are often the focus of fashion and new product inventions. Marketers look to celebrities to show their products to the mass consumer. Stone discusses the fact that celebrities have tables of free items and services to choose from whenever they are at an event. Marketing has taken to giving celebrities products in order to raise the “cool” factor of products in the eyes of the taste makers. However, there has been such an overkill that giving these celebrities the products no longer has the same effect as in the past. Rather, the free goodies are just that, free things that celebrities can take home with them. The products do not necessarily have value to the celebrities. It does not help to market the products to the taste makers or to the mass consumer anymore. People do not even pay attention to those goody bags. Stone is commenting on another article “Bag Swag” in which the author comments that even celebrities “are commodities…and cheap ones at that.” Therefore, it is not as useful to market your products by having celebrities use them. Consumers are not likely to care enough about the free products given to celebrities to have that affect sales.
Clearly, the article is discussing a way of marketing by using celebrity endorsements or celebrity product usage. However, the article discusses how using celebrities and giving those celebrities their products is no longer a helpful tactic in marketing one’s products. Marketers need to acknowledge the over-saturation in celebrity goody bags. Additionally, there is a difference when thinking about marketing a product, between using product placement and seeding to get your product shown and putting out tables and tables of free products for people like Paris Hilton to pilferage through.
Celebrity goody bags used to be a beneficial way for marketers to get their products into the hands of taste makers. Goody bags, however, have become overused by marketers. The article informs marketing by explaining how goody bags of free products for celebrities are no longer as effective for marketers. There is not likely to be a strong affect on sales due to the free products for celebrities. Celebrities have the money to purchase products that they want. The average consumer will not generally be interested in the fact that a celebrity received a product free and is now using it. Therefore, the article helps to explain how marketers should no longer place such a large value on putting their products in the free goody bags. Also, the article points out that there are differences between beneficial product placement and the overuse of free products given to celebrities.
The article improved my understanding of marketing in a few different ways. First, putting products in celebrity goody bags reminds me of guerilla marketing. It is the type of tactic that is something to a relatively small amount of people but marketers hope that it will have an effect. Second, the article helped me to see how certain ways of marketing that may not be traditional can become overdone and no longer helpful for companies. It is like the saying “too much of a good thing will kill you.” Companies have used this way of getting products to the celebrities so often and to excess that it is no longer valuable.
One thing that I would critique about this piece is that it does not talk about the effects if certain companies stop putting products into the goody bags of celebrities. There may be backlash against those companies for not paying enough attention to the celebrities. It would seem to me that celebrities would become accustom to receiving such benefits as the free goody bags. Suddenly taking that benefit away could create negative feelings. Katherine Stone does not acknowledge or look at that problem or possibility.

Switching Blogs

2006-02-10T11:36:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to post that I am going to switch the blog I'm tracking from Brand Autopsy to one called Brains on Fire. I just wanted to let you all know in case someone wanted to take Brand Autopsy.

Have a great weekend,
Melanie

Standardization Creates Mediocrity?

2006-02-09T01:52:00.000-05:00

The post “Mediocrity by ‘Areas of Improvement’ ” on the Creating Passionate Users blog is marketing related because it deals with the marketing of motivation (yet again). Kathy Sierra talks about how performance reviews always stress “areas of improvement” and how, this is actually a bad thing. She says that in order to figure out where employees need to improve the managers first have to figure out their weak points. Kathy says that this is not really fair because they are not in a position to do so and also cannot evaluate everyone on the same set of values because all people and positions are different; or as she says “It’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.” She then goes on to emphasize that fact that by pointing out people’s short comings it causes them to overlook their strengths and therefore make them fall short of their potential.

The story informs marketing because it discusses the idea of a bottom line. Kathy Sierra takes the idea that “areas of improvement” is not helpful to a new level by saying that it is not at all on target. She says that standards are often set too high because no employer wants to tell an employee that he/she is perfect and do not need to improve on anything, because then he/she will get complacent. Therefore, they pick on every little fault the employee has in order to give him/her something to work on, and therefore drives up the standards higher and higher to the point where they get to levels that are unreasonable and unnecessary. Instead, she says that if employees are rewarded for their skills they will be able to develop a much more dynamic working environment, instead of the stale generic box that is created through standard performance evaluations. This is especially important in start-up companies, where every worker must be able to achieve their full potential to really get the business off the ground.

This was another article that made me think about how to get the most out of employees. So much of literature on marketing now-a-days is dedicated to employee satisfaction because employee satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction and therefore higher sales and a better reputation. Therefore, it is really important to be able to know how to work with employees and think of better ways to motivate and encourage them. Even though creating new and creative solutions is much more time consuming and expensive, posts like this make me realize that there is great reason for these efforts to be undertaken. Even though it is a gamble to invest resources in systems like this it is the belief of Kathy Sierra and other scholars in the field that these are not only justified, but also necessary.

Kathy Sierra mentioned that it is important to have standards and evaluations tailored to the each employee, and while this is clearly the best way to analyze employee performance and improve the company I think it is a little too rosy. It is one thing to make several versions of an evaluation, or to invest more time and effort in employee critiques, but it is a whole other to think that there can be something special for EVERYONE. I think that this hits at the idea of diminishing returns; because yes, this would increase profits, but not by enough to cover the enormous costs.

Go here for the full article.

"Ryan's Secret": From HR to Brand Building

2006-02-07T12:15:00.000-05:00

http://thebrandbuilder.blogspot.com/

A consumer’s world is saturated with advertisements, most of which they have the power to tune out. Flipping stations, speeding by billboards on morning commutes and deleting emails are only a few of the reasons why it is so difficult for marketers to leave their mark on an individual. Oliver Blanchard addresses this difficulty in a recent posting to his Brand Builder blog entitled “Randy’s Secret.” Here he unpacks the secrets to success of a small North Carolina triathlon shop, illustrating how exceptional hiring practices can be the key to customer satisfaction and, in turn brand building. Advertising may be effective, but Blanchard believes HR is the best path to brand building.

This posting directly relates to the issues that many marketers are dealing with today: how to reach their customer. Obtaining a voice and creating an image for a company through traditional advertising mediums is becoming increasingly difficult. As recent trends are placing the customer at the center of organizations and requiring much consumer satisfaction, marketing theory has begun to explore how HR can contribute to satisfaction, ultimately promoting the success of organizations.

Blanchard takes this idea one step further, informing marketers that implementing good hiring practices will not stop with consumer satisfaction. Hiring employees with certain characteristics will ultimately shape a culture and an attitude that will encircle a business. This attitude then becomes a point of differentiation for a company, sticking with a consumer and motivating that individual to choose that company over a competitor.

Hiring employees with the “right stuff” is key to the success of this brand building technique. Blanchard says it all with this statement:

“Employees are the heart and soul of [a] business…They’re the living, breathing, walking, smiling articulation of [a] brand.”

The “right stuff” essentially means hiring in accordance with what Blanchard calls “Randy’s Five Hiring Criteria.” These include employees that are:

“Infected” or passionate about what they are representing.
“Volunteers” or individuals who choose to work there.
“Talented” or knowledgeable about their product.
“Nurturers” who treat all customers equally, regardless of spending.
“Positive/Enthusiastic” because attitude is contagious.

These employees take care of the customer, making them feel wanted, needed and at home. This personal connection will go miles further to reaching a consumer than, say, a million dollar spot in Superbowl XL.

The atmosphere that these employees create often transcends the physical store product. Blanchard uses Randy McDougald’s Carolina Triathlon as an example. He writes,

“People don’t just go there to shop, they also go there to hang out, to find people to ride or run with. They go on their lunch break just because they feel at home.”

This personal and emotional connection, created in part by the company’s employees, brands the store and creates a distinct image in the consumers mind.

Finally, Blanchard states that this image becomes a point of differentiation between the business and its competitors. Consumers will choose this triathlon shop, for example, over others because it is more than just a triathlon shop to them. The store has become a place where they are able to make friends and build relationships.

Blanchard’s posting is a unique take on brand building. It brought my knowledge of the importance of HR one step further in showing how it is able to build brand while also satisfying consumers. Additionally, we have talked extensively about disconnect between marketers and customers that was fueled by consumerism and mass production. This post helped to close that gap in my mind, showing a direct way to connect with individuals that are important to a business. Blanchard’s reinforcement of the value of relationships gave me hope that we are still very much in need of human connection.

The author provides one specific example of successful brand building through HR from a very small firm in North Carolina to make his case. Skeptics would criticize that this principle is not universally applicable, as it is much easier to execute in a small firm. Although he had me a believer, it would have been beneficial to include other examples of firms that have succeeded in similar ways, possibly analyzing Starbucks’ techniques, a large corporation recently lauded for its use of HR as a marketing tool, to determine if they lend support to his argument.

Bentley College Marketing- Honors

2006-02-07T10:25:00.000-05:00

Bentley College Marketing- Honors

"Beware! Blogs On the Runway" commentary.

Beware! Blogs On The Runway
Jan 27, 2006

This is a great blog that ties fashion marketing to technology, via blogs. The author, an anonymous diva, describes the new trend that is emerging in the fashion industry to host virtual fashion carnivals online through blogging. The carnival in particular discussed in the diva’s blog was hosted by New York Fashion Week, which is actually going on right now (February 3-10, 2006). Almost Girl, Fashiontribes.com, Glam.com and Pajamas Media were named as the three main players in this event, and they will be displaying fashion through blogs, vlogs, and podcasting.
The diva then goes on to explain the importance of blogging as a new marketing technique for all industries and individuals. Through blogging, individuals and enterprises alike can define their unique identities and display their perspectives of the world. Blogs are the forum by which people can express themselves and make known their ideas, and they are also a new medium through which companies can communicate with potential and current customers.
Blogs have just recently become a popular use of the internet. Blogs are quickly becoming another technological mainstream way of life. As a virtually untapped area of marketing, companies who can develop and utilize effective blogs from the get-go will have a competitive edge over their rivals.
In addition, the author presents blogs as an effective career management tool. She recommends building a personal blog that will define individuals and market their abilities. This identification occurs in blogs through topic choices, thoughts and opinions on the topics, pictures and videos, visual layout of the blog site, etc. This will provide one more point of reference for employers to look into when investigating potential employees. Thus, blogs can be an effective (or equally disastrous) marketing tool for any citizen’s career portfolio.
This blog improved my understanding of marketing by bringing to light the fact that marketing can constantly be innovated and integrated into the newest technological trends. Gone are the days when marketing was limited to TV, radio and direct mail. Today marketing can be virtually anything and everywhere… the possibilities are endless.
My one critique of this blog is the lack of detail. The diva was probably just trying to be brief, but it would have been very helpful to the audience to define exactly what marketing activities would be taking place on the blogs during the carnival and how. I’m curious to see exactly how the fashion eBusinesses plan to capture the essence of their clothing through pictures and videos in a blog. I would also be interested in knowing what other online carnivals have/are taking place and what industries have been jumping on the blog bandwagen in recent years. Finally, I would have liked to learn more about blog marketing as it relates to corporations as opposed to individuals. The blog was slightly misleading, originally seeming to be focused on fashion marketing via blogs, and then dropping the ball on fashion and turning to convince readers to build blogs as personal marketing devices.

Review of Mini's Uncommon Practices

2006-02-07T09:02:00.000-05:00

John Moore’s blog on Mini USA discusses the ways in which the company is uncommon. Although he touches on the fact that the cars Mini manufactures are uncommon and their last advertising campaign was uncommon, he focuses on the unusual selection process Mini went through in order to decide on an advertising agency for their new campaign.

This blog directly relates to marketing because it discusses the process of selecting an advertising agency. Moore first describes the “common” way in which an agency is selected. Apparently, an outside firm is chosen to weed through the sea of agency applications. A final group of agencies is then brought in to pitch their advertising campaign ideas to the company’s executives. Fortune 500 companies spend millions of dollars on advertising a year so it appears strange that they would not make more attempts to change and improve the agency selection process.

Mini decided to do just that and took a new and different approach for the process. Like every other company looking for a new agency, Mini did hire an outside firm to select its top four prospective agencies; however, this is when Mini started to change things around. The CEO of Mini, Jim McDowell, created a “boot camp” environment where the different agencies would make presentations in front of each other and compete directly with each other. Each agency had to first be put on the spot to create imaginative name tags for themselves. The agencies were also given unusual questions to answer off the top of their heads. One example was “If Arnold Schwarzenegger runs for President, who should be his running mate?” As you may be able to tell from these questions, they were not related to the auto industry or Mini USA. Scavenger hunts were also given to the agencies to complete while driving Mini Coopers. In the end, after “boot camp” and advertising campaign pitches were given, Mini USA decided to go with the agency Butler Shine.

After reading Moore’s blog and the original BusinessWeek article, my understanding of the agency selection process has improved significantly. I cannot understand why more companies do not examine their own agency selection processes. No company wants their advertising campaign to be like everyone else’s because then consumers would not pay any attention to it. Therefore, it seems logical to me that it would be a good idea to be more creative and thorough in getting to know the top agencies before one is selected and any contractual agreements are signed. Mini was able to see how its chemistry fit with the chemistry of the ad agencies it was reviewing.

One critique I would make is that there were no examples of Mini’s past uncommon advertising, even though Moore mentioned that he thought it was unusual. The blog would have been better if he could have backed up his position on Mini’s unusualness with examples. In addition, when I went back and read the original article, I found that there were interesting facts Moore neglected to mention such as a portion of the campaign that Butler pitched. The Butler Shine agency showed a clip of Mini driving on Route 66 and had posted it on the internet. I was interested in hearing more about what the agencies actually did while at “boot camp” and on their scavenger hunt. Thus, I am willing to make the assumption that others would be interested as well.

Link: http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/2006/01/minis_uncommon_.html

"Landing Pages for Referrals"

2006-02-07T00:54:00.000-05:00

John Jantsch’s most recent marketing blog related to the topic of landing pages, a method of marketing which drives people to sign up for more information on your product or to enroll in a service. He discusses the basic use of landing pages as of now, and related this to his new idea of using them to market and refer more customers in a more efficient way. He writes of making the landing page idea completely online, where a company can market themselves through online web-pages which are specifically used for referrals. These referrals would be more satisfying to the customers and the company because of the personal attention that the customer received, and the ease at which they were able to access more product information.

This story is marketing-related because it deals with the company’s ability to inform customers about their products and to spread out their customer base. The last point that Jantsch wrote about not only touched on the idea of using landing pages as a marketing method, but also delved into the possibility of making multiple, personalized landing pages for those companies which have the potential to refer numerous customers. By personalizing the landing pages, the author is realizing the ability of a company to retain more customers and attract new customers through personalized marketing methods.

This reading informs marketing by letting the reader know that there are even more methods of marketing available than a regular businessperson, or even consumer, would think of. By taking an already existing marketing method, and making it more effective and efficient, Jantsch has informed the reader of a new possibility in the realm of marketing. Many companies would not consider the idea of online referrals to be a profit making venture, but Jantsch makes the idea not only seem profitable, but also entirely plausible.

This article improved my understanding of marketing because, although I was aware that referrals and similar marketing techniques were used, I was not aware of what they were called or how extensively they could be used to serve a particular purpose. I have never learned very much information on the subject that Jantsch wrote of, so it improved my knowledge of marketing by delving into a fairly unknown subject. It stresses the fact that marketing on TV and in print publications are not the only marketing areas that are profitable. It also makes the reader think more about the importance of getting referrals from both customers and companies in an effort to reach more customers.

My main critique of the blog that Jantsch wrote would be that he did not provide enough real world examples and things that made me apply what he was writing about. I would have preferred for him to mention companies that were successful in marketing using landing pages. He did include an example of a personalized landing page but I would have found it more insightful had he given the reader an example of companies that would be successful if they were to personalize their referral pages. Although he did write in a fairly easy to understand manner, it would have been more self-explanatory if he had included examples and things that related to his concepts through real world applications.

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/weblog.php

A New Era for Marketing Research

2006-02-07T00:08:00.000-05:00

This article addresses the importance of marketing research and the changes that are occurring in the marketing research field. In the beginning of the article, the author writes about a board meeting she was in with clients in which it was asked why they needed marketing research at all because they “knew” what the customer wants. It is exactly this attitude that directly contributes to the failure of many companies. Assuming one knows what the customer wants is by no means a sufficient substitute for directly going to the customer and finding out what they feel and have to say on the subject. As we have discovered in “Marketing Myopia”, such arrogance will not help a company to better target the market.
The author goes on to educate the reader regarding new developments in marketing research techniques. Many companies are now using CGM (consumer generated media) in order to gather information regarding the wants and needs of consumers. This is particularly helpful in trying to determine trends amongst the market. Once marketers can grasp a firm control on this type of research, they can they move forward in trying to determine outside influences on the market and its trends.
Many marketers are now using Consumer Generated Media as a substitute for traditional research methods such as: brand buzz, competitive intelligence, product development and improvement, pre-launch buzz, early warning crisis management, advertising effectiveness, and the voice of the customer.
This information shows that consumer sites, such as blogs, chat rooms, message boards, and various other personal websites can help marketing professionals gain insight into the minds of consumers. Gaining this source of primary research, primarily from the internet, opens doors that were not available to researchers of the past. Click-streaming and tracking a customer’s online orders is a revolutionary advancement in the world of marketing, one which was reluctant up until the past few years to use the internet as a research tool.
In our courses here at Bentley, we have mostly discussed marketing research in terms of surveys and focus groups. This article reveals a whole side of marketing that we have not been widely exposed to. Thinking outside of the box is critical in order to be a successful marketer and that is exactly what consumer generated media offers us. Using the latest technology is something that the marketing profession needs to pay attention to.
Although the article was short, concise, and easy to follow, it would have been beneficial to the reader if the author had included some examples of consumer generated marketing techniques. Left to my own thoughts, I came up with a few examples that I saw as fitting. However, it would have been interesting to read some specific examples of certain techniques used by a given company and what benefits and insights they received from using this technique.

http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/marketing_strategy/index.html

Civic Sloganeering by Katherine Stone

2006-02-06T23:21:00.000-05:00

Kelley Irwin
MK 402

Blog Report 1:
Civic Sloganeering

Katherine Stone recently wrote a blog article about how cities are now trying to create new taglines in order to draw tourists to their attractions. http://decentmarketing.typepad.com/weblog/2006/02/civic_sloganeer.html There were quite a few examples of cities that have attempted to create their own slogans but have, for the most part, failed. Atlanta’s new tagline is “Every Day Is An Opening Day.” Some states have even enlisted the help of others in order to try and find the perfect slogan. When Indiana’s tourist office decided that “Enjoy Indiana” was not really good, they solicited the public for ideas. The problem of selling your assets while differentiating your product is an important aspect of creating the slogan. Utah found this a problem when they tried to create their slogan that would not be similar to Colorado’s.
Many products that spend a lot of money in marketing also have to try to differentiate their product’s features from the competition. Marketers must be able to take two products that are very similar, such as milk, and create a marketing campaign to show how the specific brand is different from the competing brands. Therefore, states have the opportunity to use marketers in order to help differentiate their product, the various attractions in their state, and increase tourism and revenue for their state. It is clear to see that if the states hired marketers, they would most likely be able to create a whole marketing campaign in order to create a unified vision of the state.
This blog article also relates to marketing because that is what the cities are attempting to do. They are trying to market themselves in order to draw in tourists and revenue. The civic sloganeering shows how non-business entities, such as town offices, can use marketing in order to help promote their individual cities. As Philip Kotler and Sidney J. Levy discussed in their article, Broadening the Concept of Marketing, many of the marketing theories apply to non-business entities as well as the business entities. Various cities are trying to apply one specific part of marketing to increase tourism and the money that is brought in through tourist attractions.
While civic sloganeering is a good example of broadening the concept of marketing, it does not appear that cities have been able to effectively use marketing to their advantage yet. First, states have to think of their attractions as products. The products are the physical products of amusement parks, skiing facilities, and other physical entities. Next, states must understand their consumers. There are different versions of how businesses define consumers. States must decide how broad or specific they want to be when defining who their consumer is. In general, all people in the United States would be possible consumers because there is the potential for them to travel to the state and enjoy the tourist attractions. However, the target market would be a smaller, more focused group of consumers.
The article informs marketing in regards to showing the different uses of marketing in the everyday world. Marketing is often taught in regards to how corporations can use it to further their products and meet the needs and wants of consumers. However, other types of organizations, such as non-profit or state tourist boards, can also use marketing in order to further their products. The article helps to broaden the definition of areas that can use marketing in order to achieve the goal.
In regards to improving my understanding of marketing, this article helped to see how marketing concepts can be broadened to incorporate other organizations. As a Bentley marketing major I almost always think of marketing theory in regards to how it would affect corporations. Civic Sloganeering, the article by Katherine Stone, helped for me to see how marketing theories could be applied to a lot of different areas of life.
This piece was very interesting. However, I would prefer if Katherine Stone gave examples of civic sloganeering was actually beneficial to the states that properly used them. She talks briefly about Colorado’s slogan and the fact that Utah did not want to be too similar to that, but there were no examples of how states could create slogans that work. Also, by stating areas in which marketing outside of the corporate world helped to achieve a certain goal would be beneficial to be able to see how to use marketing in those situations. People would be able to learn more and take both a list of “do’s” and “don’ts.”

'Super Bowl' of Advertising

2006-02-06T20:49:00.000-05:00

This week the actual Super Bowl coincided, not coincidentally, with the “Super Bowl of Advertising”. These multi-million dollar mega-spots sometimes out shine the lackluster football games they have to thank for their exponential exposure. This year, there were the traditional brand building spots from Anheuser Busch & Pepsi with many other companies rounding out the pack. Adfreak (http://adweek.blogs.com/) chronicled the communications quarterly, with special sections for pre-pregame, pre-game, halftime, and a couple of post game, and morning after segments. I am going to focus on the posts up until and including the first quarter by Tim Nudd this week.
The first “super” ad was a sixty second one for Full Throttle, an energy drink made by Coke. The drink sponsored the pregame show, and there were teasers leading up to the actual ad. Tim Nudd, the author of this first post makes reference to the fact that truckers have actually been protesting the ad because it reinforces the negative view that many people have of trucker’s aggressive driving practices. What ends up happening is that a whole slew of 'extreme' motorists follow a Full Throttle truck in a scene reminiscent of Forrest Gump's trek across America. Towards the end of the spot, the Full Throttle truck tailgates and ‘encourages’ a Red Bull truck to get out of the way. The spot is also infused with tons of other reckless driving from racecar drivers and motorcyclists, but you don’t hear them complaining…
Following this was an ad for Pizza Hut starring Jessica Simpson doing a rendition of “These Boots are Make for Walking” by Nancy Sinatra but with ‘pizza lyrics’. This spot satisfied my roommates hopes who a few days ago while watching a Pizza Hut commercial for the same ridiculous crust pizza said “Why don’t they show Jessica Simpson in this commercial?”
After the kickoff, Burger King unveiled a sixty second production that was more or less a musical. Nudd called it “grand, eye catching and tongue-in-cheek”. He also states that it didn’t go over well at the party he was at. I concur on both counts. I thought that the spot was really well done, creative, and subtly humorous. My friends, however, thought it was “gross” and “stupid”. Fair enough, but I have always thought that the ads with the creepy King which they liked were pretty inane and irrelevant. This might signify a disconnect between the people who make ads and those who they are intended for. They managed to weave in the King and Brooke Burke at the end which redeemed it slightly in my friend’s eyes. I just can’t imagine Burger King reusing that spot too much, even in an edited 30 second spot.
Bud Light came out with some very funny ads, as always. The first one I liked was one with a grizzly bear and two guys in the woods. The guys run in opposite directions and the bear can only follow one. The man that the bear chooses subdues the bear by offering it a Bud Light, only to have his friend bolt on to the screen and nab the Bud Light, leaving his friend with the infuriated bear. Good spot, Nudd would agree. However I have an issue with the Anheuser ‘ad’ naseum. Do they really get $75 million dollars, or however much they spent, worth of brand switching or extra purchases no matter how many ads they run. I think you have to assume there is a point of diminishing returns and Bud’s ad campaigns vault it by leaps and bounds every year. Maybe they have locked themselves in with the old frog campaigns and couldn’t 'bear' to go through another Super Sunday without seeing the family name 32 times during commercial breaks.
One of the surprise successful capaigns that drew a laugh from my friends was the Ameriquest spots. One ad shows two doctors using a defibrillator to take down a fly buzzing over a patient. As the family walks in they say “That killed him”. Nudd says “Another great ‘Don't judge too quickly’ spot. This one will score well.” I agree and would add that this is indicative of the trend towards heavy advertising budgets becoming part of financial planning firms. Although the spots for the big four, or fidelity usually convey strength, (sometimes with large animals), the humorous overtones on the Ameriquest spots were a nice touch.
More Super analysis next week.

"Size Does Matter"

2006-02-06T10:35:00.000-05:00

“Size Does Matter”

http://www.michelemiller.blogs.com/marketing_to_women/

In the “Size Does Matter” blog posting by Michelle Miller, Miller expresses her anguish at not being able to find a stylish computer bag that fits her 17 inch laptop. The posting touches on the fact that women are not thought of as liking “big toys” and consequently there are no “big toy” accessories available to women that meet their wants and needs. All the bags available that suit that computer size are black and “boor-ing” and have clearly been designed to suit a male consumer.

The aspect of this blog that makes it marketing-related is the fact that there clearly exists a type of woman out there that does not fit the stereotype into which computer manufacturers place women. Women are typically thought of as being unconcerned with computer screen size and more concerned with having a lightweight, easily portable machine. Men, on the other hand, are usually associated with the phrase “bigger is better” and therefore most large screen computers and their accessories are designed with the male consumer in mind.

A project I was involved in last semester, a study of Tablet PCs in conjunction with Toshiba and Microsoft, confirmed these stereotypes through the use of interviews and focus groups, however, clearly the research done in this study and also done by computer manufacturers has failed to discover this group of women who are in fact interested in big computer screens. The emergence of a more powerful woman in today’s society has brought along a whole new market of women and it is up to marketers to design and offer products to satisfy this emerging segment. Perhaps this concept can be linked to recent class readings discussing the lack of creativity in marketing and the fact that marketers are not thinking “out of the box” and finding new ways to market their product and satisfy consumers to a greater extent.

Therefore, this posting can be seen as very informative to marketing as it further reiterates the core foundation of marketing, being to satisfy the wants and needs of consumers, and the fact that many companies are failing to do so. Many marketers are too focused on the product itself and forget that the product was created for a reason and that it is the customers who are making the purchases and the customers who are experiencing frustrations when they cannot find a product to meet their needs. Clearly, the computer and computer accessories industries are missing the boat and have failed to notice this evolution in the computer wants for women. Becoming too confined by consumer stereotypes and failing to follow and explore the evolving wants of your target market is clearly an invitation to fail and it appears that they are falling into this trap.

This posting really reiterated many of the concepts we have discussed and read to date, revealing many of the problems that exist within the marketing field and can ultimately destroy a potentially successful product. Marketers must ultimately realize that a customer orientation is the only orientation that should exist within the field and that satisfying the consumer is the ultimate goal of any marketer. If I could make one critique about the posting, it would be to include some theory and more direct connection to why she is having this frustration. Then again, if she had done it I might not have had anything to write about!

Review of "Word of mouth marketing is not hampered by disclosure" by Francois Gossieaux

2006-02-05T20:17:00.000-05:00

Word of mouth (WOM) marketing has become very popular recently. As a marketing student, I find it hard to determine if WOM is a growing trend or if it has always been popular, yet not talked about as widely or frequently. WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, aims to grow WOM marketing so that it is no longer regarded as just a natural phenomenon, but rather an integral part of marketing plans. With the advances in technology that have significantly increased communication, WOM has become more prevalent in marketing. It makes sense – use your most loyal customers to spread the word to people they know. However, many people have seen some issues associated with WOM such as accountability, measurability, and credibility.
This posting informs marketing because it is commenting on one of the main issues of WOM – credibility and disclosure. It would be instinct to think that if someone disclosed that they were “working” for a particular company to promote its product that the person that they were spreading the word to would be turned off by that fact. However, Francois cites a recent study conducted at Northeastern University that revealed the opposite. Respondents said that if someone was known to be affiliated with a company it was a “non-issue” and that “the rate at which messages were passed along was 70% higher when the relationship was disclosed.” This is an interesting finding for marketers implementing WOM because normally the relationship wouldn’t be disclosed.
The article does not give any detailed explanation to why this finding may have resulted in the study. I would tend to think that if someone mentions they are working for a particular brand, then the person they are informing about the brand will remember the conversation more and take into consideration that the person is so brand loyal that they are willing to “work” for that particular brand. This differs from the traditional scenario where the WOM person may in fact say the same exact thing, but the receiver of this information regards it as any type of conversation. When the person discloses that they are actually “working” by spreading WOM, this calls additional attention to the brand, making the receiver of the information more likely to remember it.
One thing Francois could have done to improve it would be to better explain how WOM is currently perceived in the marketing industry and mention past research that has been done on this topic. I am curious to know if this new study citing that disclosure will not hurt a WOM campaign contradicts any past studies. Since of the main issues with WOM is its measurability, it would be helpful to know what kind of measures this study used; it must be difficult to implement measures in a study on something that is difficult to measure to begin with!
Also, Francois does not offer any insight into the real significance of this finding. Rather, it just states the results of the study. It would have been helpful to see what he saw as implications from this study.

http://www.emergencemarketing.com/archives/2006/01/word_of_mouth_mnarketing.php

New Blog Offers Portal to Women's Blogs

2006-02-02T14:43:00.000-05:00

If you are interested in reading some blogs written by women in all areas of interest, check out BlogHer. Its new and features Halley's Comment which I mentioned in class.

Nicole claims her blog

2006-02-02T13:10:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to go ahead and claim WonderBranding: Marketing to Women by Michelle Miller

http://www.michelemiller.blogs.com/marketing_to_women/

Claiming my blog

2006-02-01T11:19:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to post and claim my blog: Brand Autopsy. Have a great weekend!

Melanie

Review of "REAL Motivation Posters" from Creating Passionate Users

2006-01-31T16:06:00.000-05:00

Kathy Sierra’s post “REAL Motivation Posters” talks about the cheesy motivational posters that hang in almost every business with slogans like “Customers are always right,” and “Employees are our greatest asset.” She claims that posters like this are so overdone and fake that they have absolutely no effect on employees. In fact, when posters were altered by impromptu post-it corrections, people did not even seem to notice a difference, or cared so little that they did not remove the faulty post-it notes.
This story is about marketing because it is about the marketing of motivation. The question is how does a company move its citizens to care for the company and their customers without sickening and irritating them? Kathy Sierra advocates the elimination of such clichéd posters because they so often do not match the company’s real agenda or approach. She cites the example of an employee at a hotel who let a customer use the copier behind the employee counter because the other one was going too slow and he was going to be late to his business meeting. The manager then yelled at the employee in front of the customer for several minutes, even though there was a sign behind the counter that read “The customer is why we’re here.” As a result Kathy then took popular posters with very cheesy phrases and rewrote them with the real messages the companies seemed to be promoting. (Ex. one of them was of Bill Gates with a line that read “The customer is always right” and rewrote it to say “The customer is wrong, lazy, dishonest and stupid. But maybe it’s because we treat them that way… Let’s be nicer in 2006.”)The only thing that this article did wrong was to treat the situation too negatively. Kathy mentioned all the things that these posters do wrong and how the employees and customers are really treated, but she did not offer a solution. What helped me understand the problem better were the comments that were left by upwards of 28 different people. These people suggested that companies take a more realistic stance and set-up posters that mean something personal, are inside-type experiences, or are funny. One woman said that she made a poster for her company that read “Be nice or leave.” By voicing these, the commenter showed that the goal of the original posters (employee unity, motivation, an improved work environment, etc.) could still be achieve but without the overused clichés. It might have helped more, if Kathy had been able to cite a source for better more real posters, which would have provided an example of what she was advocating… and yet the fact that she didn’t, that she couldn’t find one, reinforced her point.

Go here for the full article

FYI.... Today's vegetarian soup choice in LaCava: Apple Bisque

Students are beginning to claim blogs

2006-01-25T14:18:00.000-05:00

I wanted to let everyone know that some students are claiming blogs as their own for the semester. To prevent duplicates, I'll publish the choices here.

Katie's choice is called Passionate: Creating Passionate Users and can be found here.

Kelley's choice is Katherine Stone's Decent Marketing site and can be found here.

For the rest of you, just post your blog choice here and if its not appropriate, I'll drop you a note and we'll figure out another choice.

Marketing Honors Students at Bentley College Create Blog

2006-01-25T10:37:00.000-05:00

The students in the honors seminar in marketing at Bentley College have created a multiple author blog in order to complete a class assignment as well as to introduce other marketing students to cutting-edge ideas and principles by monitoring and commenting on some of the best marketing blogs in the blogosphere.

Each student will monitor a particular blog and post a commentary on a blog posting every week. Each student will post to the blog their own ideas and a link to the original post. I think this blog will be interesting to all marketing majors because it will be a good place to go to read a myriad of new ideas being presented at professional marketing blogs and will provide a student's perspective on the idea.

Have Fun!

Good Job, Kate! Welcome Students

2006-01-25T10:35:00.000-05:00

It looks like Kate was successful in setting up this multiple author blog. I already had an id and password so i was able to log in so I'm not sure how it will work for those of you who don't have one. either the group will use one userid and password or you all can create your own accounts. I don't see a problem either way.

2006-01-24T15:37:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the blog!