Emotion and Value Go Viral
I recently read an article about marketing in the difficult economic environment of 2010. The article talked about how companies were employing value as a messaging tool in much greater numbers this year due to the consumers’ focus on frugality in light of the tough economy. In fact, only about a third of companies said that their branding stressed an emotional element in their ad messages. Most of them stressed value, usually price driven or through some other rational based value message. This occurs in spite of that fact that most marketing professionals understand the importance of an emotional connection with their customers. The fact that emotion has value is not disputed, but emotional marketing can take time to work while a quick value message can ring the register fast. read more…
Going Digital? Of course, of course!
News Item: Barnes & Noble, battered by competition from the fast-growing world of digital media, announced Tuesday, August 3, that it will consider selling the company.
This announcement comes weeks after reports that Amazon sold more digital books than physical product during the month of June. It seems that digital sales of books not only outstrip physical sales, but also threaten to upend a huge and almost iconic book chain. Barnes & Nobel has come late to the digital party with their Nook. A head start in market share and digital share by Amazon has made for a tough race for the book retailer. read more…
Are Private Label Products Brands?
There is no doubt that consumers have embraced private label products. In fact, Symphony IRI reports that 99% of U.S. households purchase at least one store brand regularly, 83% are willing to try a private brand at least once, and 75% of store-brand shoppers make at least 30 store brand purchases each year.
This week we were working on a proposal to a client that offers private label products. Most of the products this retailer sells as private label are the equivalent to the national brand goods and in some cases, identical. The question arose, do we just put it on the shelf or should we devote some of the ad spend dollars to brand it to potential customers? read more…
Logo Design: Skills and Sensibilities
Of all the different creative things I get to work on, perhaps my favorite is logo design. The opportunity to create an impactful logo that clearly and instantly communicates the essence of a brand is to me the Holy Grail of graphic design. It summons the use of almost every skill and sensibility a designer has at their disposal.
The humble simplicity of a great logo often belies a tremendous amount of work that churned through the meat grinder before evolving into that “clever little logo”. Logos are certainly not to be compared with the great edifices of our time, but great logos are definitely among the building blocks of the greatest businesses in the world.
My methods are most likely very common among designers. Creative individuals as we strive to be, we almost all use the same or similar tactics in the creative process. read more…
Our Three Blogging Moms
We have just launched a Disney themed micro site featuring 3 blogging moms for our client f.y.e. The same day this was launched I read new study that confirmed the wisdom of the mom blog strategy. The new study, a joint venture by iVillage and SheSpeaks, points out that interaction between women through online community websites, forums and message boards have a “dramatic” influence on driving product preference, loyalty, and purchase. Reviews by other woman have a strong influence on purchase behavior. Women are 77% more likely to look for products and 67% more likely to purchase them in a store after reading online reviews on a community forum or message board. read more…
Can You Hear Me Now?
Remember the old question if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound? That question came to me as I was considering the failed web and social media efforts of a company that I am familiar with.
The company in question is a national brand that sought to increase its brand awareness and customer loyalty with a social media campaign. They hired a very expensive ad agency which employed highly educated and expensive “social media experts” who crafted a costly online program. read more…
Social Media Disintegration
There is an ongoing debate on one of the regular marketing web sites I subscribe to regarding the value of social media for brand marketers. The most recent post by one of social media’s detractors points to recently published research by Convergys Corp. that shows that a negative review on a social media platform can cost a company about 30 customers. The writer suggests that a company must control the message about its brand and, therefore, should disengage from social media because they cannot control the message in that arena. What this writer does not seem to get is that the message is out there anyway. Consumers who have a bad experience with a brand might post about their experience whether you have a Facebook fanpage or not. read more…
The Band is a Brand
More years ago then I’d like to remember I attended a few concerts by The Grateful Dead. In fact my youthful picture on our web site was taken at a Dead concert. The band came to mind last week as I was reading an article about the tremendous job of they did to “brand” the group, even though in the early days no one would have used that term. With great foresight in 1968, they were the very first musical group to establish a proprietary customer database and newsletter to stay in touch with their legion of loyal fans. They had millions of followers long before the term became associated with twitter. Their connection with their customers, that is their fans, has lessons for every marketer. read more…
Multiple Channels Build Trust
Regular readers of this blog and our newsletter know that we are huge believers in a multi channel approach to marketing your product or service. So many times we run across businesses that stick to a single channel approach to advertising because “it works pretty well.” Usually it is because this is what they have been doing for years or because they think their budget will not allow for multi-channel engagement. Both of these arguments are fallacies and will ultimately keep the business from achieving optimal results from their efforts. read more…
Air America Runs Out of Air
News Item: Air America Radio the liberal radio talk network declares chapter 7 and will cease operations.
This news item held some interest to me because our agency has bought a lot of network radio over the years and we sponsored a good deal of talk programming. We have had several popular talk show personalities voice spots for our clients and it has been a successful strategy. The failure of Air America, however, could have been predicted and has lessons for companies trying to market and grow their own business.
Back in 2004 when Air America first launched, one of our clients asked what I thought of it. We had used talk radio with much success for several of his products and he thought Air America might be a good fit. I told them that I thought Air America would have trouble getting a foothold on the national airwaves for one important reason: many of their natural advocates, their most likely listeners were already NPR listeners. Their listening habits were well established, they were very loyal to NPR and NPR is “commercial free”. This was a problem right leaning talk personalities did not have. I told my client that if he wanted to reach that audience we would be better advised to underwrite NPR programming and get the “halo effect” there.
Air America had other problems as well. They were a progressive Democratic radio network with a definite agenda. Talks show personalities on the other side of the political spectrum, however, are part of networks whose only agenda is profit. The business of running a radio network is best if it is politically neutral. I distinctly remember the Air America rep suggesting that I buy his programming for my clients because it is “the right thing to do.” Aside from the fact that he had no idea what my politics were (for the record, when it comes to business, my only political creed is to do the best thing for my clients) it was insulting that he would consider that I would allow personal political beliefs to color a business decision I might make for my client. Ideology and good business can co-exist, promoting green products and corporate policies, for example. For Air America, however, it was a losing combination.
One lesson for marketers from the Air America failure is to know your competition. I wonder if the executives at Air America ever considered that to a great degree their success involved stealing listeners from NPR? They thought of the conservative talk show hosts as their competition. I would bet they were loath to consider NPR competition, but they were, indeed, competing for the same listeners.
Another lesson is to understand the size of your niche and develop a business model that allows you to profit from it. Ten years ago Polaris rolled out a new motorcycle brand, Vision, aimed squarely at Harley. They marketed themselves as “the other American motorcycle company”. Harley riders, like NPR listeners, are very loyal. Polaris had no illusions that it could convert legions of Harley riders to its brand. What it did do was to build a good product, introduce design innovations and develop a business plan that allowed it to be profitable while taking only a fraction of Harley’s market share.
Developing a new motorcycle brand, like developing a new radio network is a capital intense undertaking. If you are going to be successful in either it is wise to have an objective view of your competition, a smart marketing plan to gain market share from them, a realistic understanding of the market gains you can hope for, and a business model that allows you to make money once those gains are achieved.
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