January 2012
1 post
Kodak Failed By Asking The Wrong Marketing...
For 40 years, you couldn’t walk through Grand Central Station in New York without admiring the Kodak Coloramas. These 18×60 foot photographs showcased the Kodak brand to commuters, highlighting the creativity of great photography in a series of “Kodak moments.” Kodak marketing executives were adept at weaving the brand into the fabric of America for generations. In fact, at its peak, Kodak...
November 2011
1 post
How to Bridge the Marketing Gap Between Gen X and...
It’s been said that you can’t please all of the people all of the time and it holds true for marketing, as well. Especially, when it comes to the generation gap between Gen-X and Gen-Y consumers. That’s the finding of new research by Nelson Barber, an associate professor of hospitality management at the University of New Hampshire, who looked at the shopping habits of Gen-X and...
October 2011
6 posts
The McRib's Magic Marketing Sauce
McDonald’s brought back the McRib this week, but once again just for a limited time. Cruel and unusual? Maybe. It’s also brilliant marketing. Here’s what you can learn from the country’s most in-demand pork sandwich.By Nicole Carter | Oct 25, 2011
What can a boneless barbeque-pork sandwich teach you about marketing? More than you might think.
McDonald’s announced...
WatchColgate Wisp: Case Study
Marketing lessons from Steve Jobs
Look closely at the marketing strategies used by Steve Jobs and other visionaries and the first thing that comes to mind is the realisation that marketing is not a democratic process and that those who are really successful at it are, yes, visionaries.
Great marketing, I believe, requires visionary leadership in the form of a benevolent dictatorship capable of inspiring teamwork among those...
Marketing lessons from Steve Jobs
Look closely at the marketing strategies used by Steve Jobs and other visionaries and the first thing that comes to mind is the realisation that marketing is not a democratic process and that those who are really successful at it are, yes, visionaries.
Great marketing, I believe, requires visionary leadership in the form of a benevolent dictatorship capable of inspiring teamwork among those who...
Five Ways to Gear Up Your Marketing for the...
For many small businesses, the holiday season is an opportunity to bring in significant sales and revenues. But many businesses don’t start preparing for holiday season marketing until it’s too late, and they end up missing out on opportunities. For optimum success, you should identify your holiday marketing budget and begin planning your holiday marketing months in advance.
None of these...
How Brands Were Born: A Brief History of Modern...
There was a time, going back at least 70 years, when all it took to be successful in business was to make a product of good quality. If you offered good coffee, whiskey or beer, people would come to your shop and buy it. And as long as you made sure that your product quality was superior to the competition, you were pretty much set. Well into the 1970s, a savvy consumer could distinguish between...
September 2011
4 posts
8 Guerilla Marketing Tips For Small Businesses
Thoughts … These ideas are pretty much the polar opposite of what we discuss re: social media marketing (digital vs. non-digital) but there are times when not only do “old school” techniques work—they may be the best option.
Guerrilla marketing is a term reputedly coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book, “Guerrilla Marketing,” first published in 1983....
How to Assess the Market Potential of Your Idea
The facts are sobering: the majority of small businesses fail within five years of starting up. While there are many reasons that businesses fail, including some that have nothing to do with an owner’s skills, it’s also possible that many of those same businesses collapsed simply because they couldn’t get enough customers to buy their product or service. In other words, the owners founded...
Free Shipping: Seven Ways it Can Hook Your...
If there’s one thing Americans love, it’s free shipping.
This shopping perk has gone from a rare bonus to almost an entitlement in consumers’ minds. Nearly half of transactions last year involved free shipping, and 61 percent of consumers say they will cancel their purchase if free shipping isn’t offered, according to a recent comScore survey.
There’s more than one...
US Airways offers free lunch from Logan -- sort of
Maybe there is such a thing as a free lunch, if you include a little advertising.
For a few weeks this summer on select US Airways Shuttle flights from Logan International Airport, passengers got a snack box without charge - thanks to a sponsor who paid to print a commercial message on the box.
The ads were the brainchild of Ryan D. Matway, who founded Air Advertainment LLC, based in West Palm...
August 2011
2 posts
The Driving Forces of Change
It’s essential to provide strategic guidance to the innovation process, so in this chapter we take a look at six essential forces that are driving the changes that are occurring across much of today’s world. While these may not be the most pressing issues for your company, chances are that some combination of them will have huge influence on your situation, on the strategic choices you make,...
8 Tricks That The Big Brands Use To Increase Your...
How often do you sit down to read a book or article and think “That’s fine for your consumer product, but what about my industrial B2B product or service? That won’t work for me!” I hate to burst your bubble, but it will work for you.
Consumer brands are popular illustrations of branding and marketing strategies for two big reasons: we’ve all seen and interacted with these brands and these...
July 2011
1 post
5 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch
If this year’s SXSWi conference is any indication, the foremost digital marketing trends of 2011 will be central to one theme: user presence.
Too often, businesses over-engineer their marketing efforts in an attempt to capture the attention of their audiences’ minds and wallets. But audiences are smart, and they’re immune to these efforts.
We no longer seek out information — we expect...
March 2011
2 posts
Mommy Bloggers - New Face Of Marketing
When it comes to word-of-mouth marketing there’s probably nothing more honest or more powerful than a group of moms.
Mommy bloggers are the new faces of marketing.
Many have degrees, corporate backgrounds and passionate hobbies.
They all have a lot to say, and businesses are listening.
Their sites now have paid ads and brand sponsorships.
They get a lot of free products to review,...
Six Archetypes of Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing leaders, like the rest of us, come in a multitude of personality types. But only a handful of distinctive styles have emerged within the leadership ranks of each of these disciplines. And the two groups of styles are different. Understanding those differences is key to figuring out what makes them tick and how to work effectively with each other.
In the case of sales and...
January 2011
4 posts
ack to the dinner table: 11 restaurant trends
Each year I would return home from the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago and wonder which of the latest trends I had just witnessed would take South Africa by storm? There was the Low-Carb/No-Carb Trend, the Zero Trans Fats, the Organic Trend, The Mini Dessert Portion Trend, the Health Trend and the ‘that looks like another trend’ trend.For some reason none of them really...
[2011 trends] The year of accountability
From a marketing point of view, 2011 is destined to be the year of accountability, both in terms of the efficiency with which budgets are employed and perhaps, too, this year will see advertising agencies and their strategests finding it harder and harder to keep convincing their clients that the 30-second TV commercial is still worthwhile, but that it makes sense to spend more money per minute...
The Top Mobile Trends of 2011
The mobile computing year in our collective rear-view mirror was, without doubt, all about the tablet. Apple’s iPad became available in April 2010, succeeding where no previous tablet device had — and then some. So we’re going out on a limb and predicting that 2011, in terms of mobile technology, will be the year of the…tablet.
But there will be plenty of other small...
December 2010
3 posts
Who Really Wins at Cause Marketing? The Non-Profit...
Earlier this year I wrote about the expanding relationships between non-profit and for-profit organizations. Historically, these relationships have been either adversarial or based on corporate philanthropy and cooperative marketing. Today, however, we see more in-depth collaborations, based in the reality that no one group can meet our social and environmental problems in isolation. These new...
Fast-Food Chains Influencing Pre-Teens with Offers...
Fast-food chains are alluring children towards theirproducts by sending direct mails to children under 12 years of age and offering them special schemes, free food vouchers and competitions.
The marketing campaigns targeting pre-teens by fast-food outlets Hungry Jacks and Taco Bill Mexican Restaurants have come to light due to submission by nation’s coalition of leading health bodies to a...
How Social Media Is Changing the Way Movies are...
The Movie and Tech Series is supported by DVDVideoSoft. Discover Free Studio, a full collection of free software to process video, images and audio at DVDVideoSoft.com. Clean, free and user-friendly.
From self-funded independent projects to big-name Hollywood blockbusters, the movie industry has embraced social media. Big time.
Historically, of course, this makes a lot of sense. Classical...
November 2010
4 posts
College Students' Most Wanted Employers, But Are...
This is actually kind of sad …
There are many polls published each year that rank the companies college students want to work for most. For the most part, they have similar results: everyone wants to work for Google, followed by major accounting and consulting firms, with Wall Street banking firms sliding down the list.
Take thisrecent survey from Universum Group, a corporate branding...
Game-Based Marketing: The Ever-Growing Trend in...
Ever wonder how much of Twitter’s success hinges on the simple fact that you can see how many followers you (and others on Twitter) have? How about why more than 50 million monthly users play Farmville on Facebook?
Answers to these questions begin with an understanding of game mechanics, which encompasses a range of rules and theories aimed at positively engaging human behavior.
What...
Clorox Could Teach Apple A Thing Or Two About...
Steve Jobs is constantly hailed as a great marketer, but the man has amazing gadgets to sell. You want to see marketing? Look at Clorox (CLX): its biggest product, liquid bleach bearing the corporate name, couldn’t be more of a commodity. One would expect consumers to choose the cheapest brand.
And yet, a few blocks from where this is being written, in a Chicago supermarket, Clorox brand bleach...
Is Your Marketing Campaign Risky Enough?
Earlier this year, Leslie Hearne, owner of a company called Cow Wow, approached our agency about doing something really different on a modest budget to promote her liquid compost product made from dairy cow waste. Ms. Hearne calls herself the Grand Poobah and is an enthusiastic believer in the “power of poo” and, after seeing her Poop Loop and hearing about the very green aspects of her product,...
October 2010
5 posts
Hey, Groupon Clones, What's Your Marketing...
Having already achieved levels of success, Groupon and LivingSocial rely heavily on user discovery, communication, and online advertising to push their brands and names further into the market. In the battle of nomenclature, Groupon may have already won. What’s the best way to describe your new daily deal, one deal a day, or social shopping site? For many, the words that convey the most...
Procter & Gamble promotes new products with...
Procter & Gamble, producer of a number of popular consumer-facing brands, is encouraging shoppers to try new products with a multichannel marketing campaign that began on Thursday. The “Have you tried this yet?” initiative supports 18 products, ranging from new Bounce dryer bars to Pringles potato chips. Melanie Healey, the 20-year Proctor & Gamble veteran who is leading the...
For Marketing, Twitter Crushes Facebook
Facebook makes up 78 percent of traffic among all social network sites and micro-blogging site Twitter accounts for 5 percent, but on average “tweets” with embedded links get 19 clicks while Facebook’s shared links only get three clicks, according to a study by SocialTwist.
The marketing firm, which offers viral social media marketing campaigns, analyzed more than a million...
7 Marketing Claims That Took Heat
A snack that prevents heart disease. A drink that bolsters the immune system. A supplement that burns off pounds. Is all of this stuff true? Is any of it true? What’s behind claims like these?
In recent years, dozens of companies have gotten heat from government watchdog agencies because of inflated or unsupported claims of health benefits. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission sued...
Top 5 Emerging Brand Trends on Facebook
Field of Dreams may have popularized the notion that, “If you build it, they will come,” but in today’s Facebook generation, brands are beginning to go where the masses are, instead of relying on the masses to come to them. With 500 million members, Facebook represents real-time access to the online mainstream.
For years, brands have been using their Facebook Pages to connect with customers. As...
September 2010
4 posts
Walmart Changes the Cell Phone Game
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is joining the telecom game. Starting today, the Walmart Family Mobile plan launches as a contract-optional service, carried on T-Mobile’s USA network.
Interestingly, Walmart’s plan costs less than T-Mobile’s—$45 per month for unlimited calling and texting, and $25 for each additional line. Yet T-Mobile has encouraged the...
New contracts, new direction for Harley
A new labor deal that will keep Harley-Davidson’s remaining Wisconsin factories operating is an essential step toward revamping the way motorcycles and their component parts are produced and sold, according to a top company executive.
“It’s about changing the culture in how we operate as a business, not just in manufacturing but in product development, sales and marketing, and extending into...
Entrepreneur tips: How to increase your influence...
As an entrepreneur, one of the main aspects of running your business is to market it. Part of marketing directly relates to your brand; which, in turn, determines your overall influence. Building an influence online is the easiest way to help improve your branding and networking amongst those within your market place.
Unfortunately, entrepreneurs often approach building an...
Study Finds Customers Value Email, Facebook and...
A new study released today by ExactTarget finds that while email, Facebook and Twitter may compete with one another for their share of marketing budgets, consumers expect brands to interact with them across all three channels.
“Marketers should focus on developing and implementing an integrated strategy that combines—not isolates—the powerful strengths of each of the online channels.”
...
August 2010
4 posts
Acronyms: The Best Ones Also Deliver Meaning
Have you ever gawked at the fountains at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas? It’s a magical show of water and music, dancing across nine acres. The business behind the show is named WET Design, with WET standing for Water Entertainment Technologies. Behind that persuasive name is a team of former Disney “imagineers,” creators of 200 fountains and architectural water displays. The thinking behind...
Facebook Places Makes Marketing Relevant
Facebook Places is still new to the location-based check-in game and is missing some key elements to really compete head on with rival services. As it matures, though, Facebook Places will be a powerful tool for businesses to engage the vast Facebook social network, and identify what really matters to customers.
Companies can take advantage of the popularity of Facebook, and the new information...
Are Marketers Struggling to Keep Up with Social...
Social media is no longer new, but it’s still a turbulent space. Just a couple years ago MySpace was on top of the world, only to be ousted unceremoniously by crowds flocking to Facebook. Twitter crept onto the scene and then exploded with growth in 2009, putting itself on every marketer’s radar. New trends are developing in the social location-based area, and that’s not counting the seemingly...
Are Studios Releasing Too Many Upcoming Movie...
How much is too much when it comes to promoting a movie with teaser clips? I’ve already written about my desire to go into movies like Inception totally blind, and in fact, for the most part, I avoid trailers unless I’m writing a preview of a movie. Over at AdAge’s blogMadison + Vine, Chris Thilk asks if we’re overloaded with movie clips, which he refers to as a...
June 2010
1 post
These Companies Are Built To Enjoy
In my Feb. 12 column Entrepreneurs: Getting To $1 Trillion, I introduced the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) project. My proposal is that if 1 million entrepreneurs can reach $1 million each in revenues, that would translate into 10 million jobs. Over the last few months I have been studying the entrepreneurs who come to pitch at 1M/1M roundtables. There are exciting opportunities for angel...
May 2010
4 posts
Product placement in social games proving fruitful
The behemoths of the social gaming world, such as Mafia Wars and FarmVille, attract millions of active players. Mafia Wars, for example, is played by more than 25 million Facebook users each month.
This huge audience, which includes a wide range of demographics, particularly women, is highly engaged and motivated to interact with brands, particularly those thatreward them with virtual currency...
Taking sides: Is guerrilla music marketing...
Earlier this week, the blogerati hurled criticism at Pink Floyd vet Roger Waters for a guerrilla marketing campaign promoting his upcoming The Wall Live tour. Turns out, street artists under Waters’s employ hadwheat-pasted a swatch of viral advertising onto a Los Angeles mural widely recognized as a memorial to the late songwriter Elliott Smith.
Waters later apologized for the goof-up,...
Service Is The New Marketing
While everyone continues to ponder the continuous shift of marketing budgets from traditional media to digital (and social), I’m wondering why more marketers aren’t shifting dollars to enhance their organization’s ability to service guests and motivate employees.
Increasingly, the most vital marketing tool your business has is service — the kind of impassioned, caring,...
April 2010
6 posts
A great topic for class discussion . . .
Activists call foul on KFC bucket campaign
Can chicken breasts help beat breast cancer? KFC officials are hoping customers will flock to help the chicken chain make a record-breaking donation of $8.5 million.
But some critics are calling foul on the company’s mixed message, especially in light of the recent, heavily publicized addition of the aggressively fat-and-sodium laden Double...
Measuring The Value Of Social Media Advertising
Good stuff follows … .
Nielsen and Facebook recently joined forces to develop ad effectiveness solutions to determine consumer attitudes, brand perception and purchase intent from social media advertising.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, immediately after the two companies announced their strategic love affair, Nielsen started publishing glowing reports about Facebook and how much time people...
Daredevils Not Required For Stunt Marketing
We could all learn a marketing lesson from the Miss America pageant, which debuted back in 1921 as a stunt to draw tourists to Atlantic City after the high season.
It’s proof that no daredevil is required for stunt marketing, which is anything unusual or spectacular done to gain publicity or generate buzz.
In Sydney, Australia, the Aussie Coffee Festival created a 20-by-13 foot replica of...