What's in store for online marketers in 2008?

eMarketer has issued predictions for 2008 in key online areas, including those related advertising, videos, social networks, e-commerce and entertainment, saying online advertising will ride out potential economic storms in the US - and YouTube will decide political elections.

from MarketingCharts

Brand Bigotry

"Marketers pay a lot of attention to brand loyalty and cultdom and devotion. But what about its opposite number -- the brands you simply refuse to consider consuming?"

Rob Walker's piece in December's Fast Company, Just Say No, is a fascinating perspective on the brand loyalty idea. Basically, we all hear about "Lovemarks," those brands with abnormal consumer affinity, but what about the opposite side of that coin? What about the brands that are vehemently disliked?

I Googled "brand bigot" and found a plethora of conversations in which the term was used. One fascinating observation is that brand bigotry is not confined to the usual suspects (Apple/MS, Nike/adidas, Coke/Pepsi, Ford/Chevy, Harley/Honda, etc.). One's affinity for a brand, and subsequent aversion to another, can be applied to any product, even something as mudane as UV Bulbs.

• Cameras & Photography
• Firearms
• Footwear (Nike)
• Laptops
• Motorcycles
• Pick-up Trucks
• UV Bulbs

Which leads me to agree with Marketing Fishbowl, who attributes brand bigotry to direct experience (i.e., conditioning) with specific brands. Some products simply leave a bad taste in your mouth as a consumer - poor fit, questionable quality, etc. This theory can be applied to any product.

I find it fascinating that in some of these posts, people want to make sure they aren't labeled as a brand bigot, as if the term "bigot" applied to anything is inherently shameful. If you truly hate a brand for legitimate reasons, that's not your fault, its the company's fault (versus say, racial bigotry). Their job is to get you to like their products. I think being a brand bigot means you're a discriminating consumer, which will drive companies to improve themselves to win you over. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

Brand bigotry in my life?

• My wife is a brand bigot against Starbucks coffee that you buy in a Starbucks store (Starsucks is the term I believe she uses). She prefers independent coffee roasters or Peet's.
• I'm a brand bigot with Pepsi, I love Coke
• Although I'm typing on one now, I'm a Dell bigot - this will be my last purchase.
• I used to be a bigot against any tennis racquet that wasn't a Head. But I've been using a Wilson racquet and like it, so my horizons have officially broadened.

Tell us about your brand bigotry.

Don't get a drink thrown in your brand's face with pick-up lines

"Customers reject pick-up lines from companies, just like women will reject pick-up lines from guys. Pick-up lines don’t work. They might get a customer’s attention for a nano-second, which is just long enough for a customer to see through the ploy in order to reject a brand’s unwanted advances." - from John Moore's (author of Tribal Knowledge) essay in BRANDWEEK.

Building on the pick-up line analogy, Moore explains why it’s critically important for marketers to go beyond shallow attempts to get attention. The answer is to build connections with customers through an ongoing playful conversation. Some of his suggestions on how to do this:

• Be a Playful Brand: Customers do not want their brands to take themselves too seriously. Examples: Trader Joe’s, Voodoo Doughnut.com
  
• Be a Challenging Brand: Customers want to tango, they want you to be interesting in order to get them interested. Examples: Threadless.com, Sendaball.com
  
• Be a Predictably Unpredictable Brand: Customers are turned off by complacent brands. They value brands that are willing to take calculated risks. Example: Google

Read Tribal Knowledge: Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture

Image courtesy of Neville's Financial Blog

Higher Budgets and Online Spending in store for B2B Marketers in 2008

B2B Branding. Not nearly as easy to get your head around as consumer branding, but absolutely just as important. BtoB Magazine's 2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans study says that most B2B marketers (60 percent) plan to increase their 2008 marketing budgets, but fully 79 percent plan to increase their online marketing budgets. Their 2006 survey had found that nearly 76 percent of marketers planned to increase their online budgets in 2007.

Nearly 30 percent of marketers said their budgets would remain unchanged in 2008, and 10 percent said they plan to decrease budgets, according to the survey of 213 B2B marketers conducted online in the last week of November and the first week of December.

Other key findings here.

Read The Case for B2B Branding: Pulling Away from the Business-to-Business Pack

via MarketingVOX

CPG companies finally get in the digital game

Ted Mininni wrote an interesting post on the Marketing Profs blog today regarding the latest comScore data in an Advertising Age article. The article, and his subsequent post, revolves around the increase (but still lagging) involvement by Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies' in digital marketing. Here are the major points he notes:

• First, even the most staid companies with product offerings in the most basic categories are learning that they need to have more of an online presence.
• Secondly, these companies understand that they have to do more digital advertising to drive traffic to their sites.
• Thirdly, if they build more of an online presence, they (the consumers) will come.
• Lastly, the Internet is increasingly becoming the place consumers turn to for information, and to shop. It’s easy, convenient, fast.

As a former digital marketing person for a consumer goods company (Airwalk) in an "old-school" industry (footwear & apparel), I know first hand the difficulties of getting such an organization thinking and acting the way they need to in order to get effectively involved in the Internet game, especially in these user-driven days.

Apparently Diageo has never watched YouTube

Take note, this is how to use social media to accomplish exactly the opposite of what you want to accomplish. User-generated video, selling liquor, promoting responsible drinking...yeah right, good luck.

Drink company Diagio is using OpenAds.net to solicit creative materials from creative types — both professional and amateur — for use in a responsible drinking campaign.

From MarketingVOX

Political Giving Shifts To Democrats - Pixelection Uses Marketing & Advertising to Shift Power to the Pixels/People!

The Iowa Caucus is today, so we figured we'd talk politics.

Nielsen analysis has reported that 8/10 of the demographics that most likely to contribute to a US presidential campaign — including the most affluent, influential and well-educated voters — made most of their contributions to Democrat candidates in the first half of '07. That's up from four of the top 10 segments during the same period in 2003; moreover, of the two segments that donated a majority of their money to Republican candidates — Country Squires and Second City Elite — are now trending Democrat. Blah, blah, blah...Read the rest of the article in MarketingVOX.

Do you find political polling boring, or just plain irritating because each one says something different? As marketers, we believe in the market, naturally. So wouldn't it be interesting to see how the political landscape looked if people could "vote with their dollar?" There is a new site that just launched called Pixelection. It takes the Million Dollar Homepage idea, but for politics. And instead of being a pure gimmick, its donating a % of the ad revenue to the political parties and to three charities: The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, The National Center for Policy Analysis, and the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation.

Why is Pixelection an interesting idea? One, the aforementioned "voting with the dollar" idea. Two, it utilizes an advertising platform that has shown promise, but has only been used for gimmicks. Three, it provides an affordable advertising medium for the normal people who want to promote their candidate - you don't have to be a big company or a PAC to place an ad for your candidate. Four, advertisers get to advertise for their cause/candidate AND donate money - instead of donating $100 and not knowing where it goes.

Check out Pixelection to check out the new way for voters to promote their candidates.

Data via MarketingCharts

Web Advertising Trends For '08

With an economic downturn or worse, a recession looming, marketers will "likely drive more money to the Internet," which is more cost effective than other media. Some of the biggest spenders may be large multinational advertisers, few of whom have spent more than 5% to 10% of their budgets online. Merrill Lynch believes Web spending will grow 18% in 2008, while Publicis Groupe's ZenithOptimedia expects it to surpass radio this year and magazines two years later.

In '08, look for the long-awaited integration of media departments within the ad industry's largest holding companies. The lack of collaboration among agencies and marketing services firms operating under one roof is astounding, and marketers demand better. Some, like P&G, have founded their own ad groups in response to the agency holding companies' slowness. Another trend to watch for is large companies being criticized for their "green" efforts. You can be sure that those who don't live up to rising environmental friendliness standards will be singled out on blogs and in chat rooms.

Elsewhere, expect the social-networking craze to taper off a bit, as consumers realize that they don't have 5,000 real friends. As Tim Hanlon, senior vice president of Publicis' Denuo Group says, "At the end of the day, it just becomes one big cauldron of noise." He says marketers will find social networks are more valuable as a research tool than an advertising platform.

On that note...check out our post about using social media to monitor the buzz about your brand.

Read the whole story from the Wall Street Journal

Netscape gets the gold watch from AOL

The Netscape browser, nearly 14 years old, is being retired by owner AOL who is focusing more on Mozilla's Firefox browser.

The question in my mind...when is Time Warner going to retire AOL? Talk about marketing myopia (and terrible mergers of course). They're struggling to make themselves relevant in this ad-driven, social web world - something that seems to be like quicksand. The harder you try, the more you sink.

Do You Have Marketing Myopia?

From Online Media Daily

Why companies better be paying attention to "Web 2.0"

For all you companies and brands out there thinking that your "Web 2.0" strategy is to have a blog, a MySpace page and a Second Life presence...you're thinking too narrowly. Consumers are now in complete control and have incredible power to spread the word nearly instantly. This can be amazing if the word of mouth is positive. But what about if its negative? What if it shows a product flaw, or worse a product defect?

Just look at this video on how to open a Master Lock. Master Lock, of course, being the premier lock brand in the country, maybe the world. And its opened by a soda can. Kryptonite bike locks ran into the same thing when someone showed how to open their new lock with a Bic pen.

Master Locks Are NOT Safe!

Although this video I'm sure sends chills up the spine of Master Lock, its not all bad news. You can use these viral conversations to glean product enhancements, consumer benefits and positive testimonials as well.

So you have to ask yourself...are you listening to your consumers out in this crazy new world? And if so, what are you doing about it? There are companies who can help with this, by the way. Crawdad Technologies uses patented technology to monitor and analyze online buzz, for example, for brands like Cold Stone Creamery. You can also see their technology monitoring and analyzing the 2008 Presidential election at Wonkosphere.com.

Uninspired, lazy advertising

This Holiday season we've noticed a lot of ads which are using the animation, look and feel of the old children's Christmas specials, like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.



The ones which we see the most are the Alltel ads. Same characters as their other campaigns, but looking like Herbie the Dentist and Santa Claus. Let me state this clearly...this is lame. This is simply putting an existing ad into another skin. That skin happens to look familiar to anyone who watched the shows during their childhood. It is laziness on the part of the creatives, and shows that they are uninspired.





The other one we particularly remember this year is the Apple ad. Same thing, we have the "I'm an Apple...I'm a Mac" thing going, but animated. We expected better from Apple...



Defenders of this might say that by using this animation treatment they are tapping into a specific demographic, say mine, who remembers Rudolph and the other shows. This is not unlike the Burger King ads which play nostalgic, classic rock & roll songs while showcasing their Whopper. Again, this is lazy advertising. Using a song or a classic Christmas tale to inspire emotion is missing the point of emotional advertising. You want the emotion to be between the product/brand and the consumer...not the consumer and the theme of the ad. The emotion of a Nike ad makes me want to compete, work out and play sports - things I need sneakers and apparel to do. I can tell you, I'm not inspired to switch to Alltel.

Marketers' Top Brand Strategies in 2007 - and Resolutions for 2008

MarketingVOX reports that marketers' biggest regret of 2007 was not investing enough in understanding customers, according to the Brand Strategy Trends Survey of marketing executives. Read More

Getting More Clicks at the Bricks

Retail stores are scrambling to catch up with shoppers empowered by the web. What it comes down to is realizing that online, consumers have more control than ever before, and that you must figure out ways to translate that control to the consumers when they are in-store.

Some interesting success stories:

• Bloom - Visitors to can key in a shopping list and get a printout of the aisles they need to hit. That can be risky, because when shoppers know what they want and where to find it, they may be less likely to buy on impulse. Echoing the Internet's user-generated craze, Bloom also lets people "build your own six-pack" of imported brews.
  
• Barnes & Noble - kiosks that allow people to search inventory, locate merchandise, and order out-of-stock items.
• Nordstrom - a personal shopper keeps 5,000 customers in a database and routinely blasts come-ons to 500 of them - says they are selling 37% more merchandise as a result. Now Nordstrom is experimenting with text-messaging the cell phones of younger customers.

Read More

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The right way to pitch a blogger

If you've ever tried to reach out to bloggers to promote your product or service, you've no doubt realized that you need a much different approach than you would for traditional media. With bloggers, its all about personal touch and specifically NOT the hard sell (Hmmm...what a novel idea).

If you're still not sure how to get bloggers to write about you without offending them, read the full article at "Now THIS is how to pitch a blogger" at The Viral Garden.

Get Back in the Box - How Constraints Can Free Your Team's Thinking

Chip & Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick, write a monthly column in Fast Company. In the December 2007 issue, the talk about how to become more creative by actually constraining your thinking. This may sound counterintuitive, but it makes sense. When you have 100% free reign, its often too much to be effective.

"We're always told to think outside the box. But it's about time someone spoke up for the box. Because, paradoxically, thinking inside a box can spark creativity, not squelch it. So maybe you don't need to think out of the box. Maybe you just need a new one to think in." Read the full article here.

Read Made to Stick

Subscribe to Fast Company

Banyan Tree: The brand imperative

INSEAD recently interviewed Ho Kwon Ping, founder of Banyan Tree spa hotels, regarding branding and strategy. "There are only two advantages in life which are proprietary rather than relative: technology and branding," Ping says. Truer words were never said, especially in the world of technology, start-ups and entrepreneurial companies. In an increasingly global marketplace where products can be replicated easily, inexpensively and quickly, you must create something for your customers to be drawn to. The ultimate question - do you know enough about your market to "own your customer?"

Thanks go out to my friend and advisor, Timothy Heath who sent me this piece.

Watch the Video

Robert Reich gets it all wrong

The January 2008 issue of Conde' Nast Portfolio has two very interesting articles that are in the general vicinity of one another. The first is No Obligations by Robert B. Reich (former Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton) and current Berkeley professor. The subhead reads, "Why companies should forget social responsibility—and why we should let them," which at face value sounds like an uncharacteristic laissez faire statement by the liberal economist. As you read on, you see that his point is that companies should not worry about social responsibility because consumers have shown that they aren't willing to pay more for such activities, and companies should justifiably work to be profitable. Again, strangely capitalistic of him. Then all again becomes right in the world...

"Unfortunately, improving the bottom line doesn't always make the public better off, of course. Polluting, stiffing workers on health care, and encouraging kids to eat junk food are often better for profits than taking the opposite approach...That's why we need government. It's not the job of private enterprise but our representatives in Washington and state capitals to tackle public policy issues...The answer isn't to push companies to be more socially responsible; it's to get corporate money out of politics so we as citizens can decide what the rules of the game should be. Condemning companies for not giving their employees better pay and health benefits may be emotionally gratifying, but it's a sideshow. What we really ought to be doing is condemning large corporations for polluting our democracy."

Nobody wants big companies ruling government, I agree. But Reich states a fundamentally different world view than that of a capitalist. He doesn't trust the market to agree with his views, so he calls for government to mandate those views. And one thing he failed to mention...for every government mandate on business, there is a cost to that business. More costs equal higher prices. That doesn't sound like a consumer-friendly idea to me.

Now, juxtapose that article with the second by Roger Lowenstein, The Wild Blue Yonder of Markets. In this article, Lowenstein talks about a new book, The Blue Way: How to Profit by Investing in a Better World about how companies who back Democrats and populist causes outperform those that do not. I'll let you read the whole article, but the point Lowenstein makes, which is 100% correct, is that they have their causality backwards. Strong companies happen to be led by Democrats, its not their Democrat views that make the company successful.

"Google's cushy employee benefits are not the reason its stock has soared; its search engine is. Indeed, if ample employee benefits were their own reward, wouldn't GM's be a hot company instead of one on the verge of going broke?"

Why do I praise Lowenstein? Because he is the only one of the two that is giving proper credit and respect to the real drivers of the economy AND the government...the consumer. We get what we ask for, on the shelf and in our government. Reich insultingly thinks that price is the sole driver of consumer preference. Tell Toyota that, as they sell the Prius in big volume for well over market value. Tell that to Method, who is selling safer, cleaner, environmentally better cleaning products like hot cakes. Tell that to Patagonia, who leads the apparel world in social causes as well as outdoor wear.

Why are these companies successful? Not simply because they are more socially conscious, but because that social consciousness is coupled with great design, great quality, great service and a reasonable price. In other words, these companies (and others) provide VALUE to the consumer. Value is the comparison of perceived benefits to price. Didn't they teach you that in Econ 101 Mr. Reich?

For all you companies out there, be socially responsibile to the degree that you can, be innovative, and make sure that when you do it its wrapped around a great product that has more to it than simply being responsible. Do that and we will all win.

Subscribe to Conde' Nast Portfolio

Cool Quote for 12.30.07

"There is only one boss. The customer. And she can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending her money somewhere else." - Sam Walton

Marcus Buckingham Thinks Your Boss Has an Attitude Problem

Marcus Buckingham teaches CEOs how to get the most out of their people and their organizations. His first lesson: Forget everything you think you know about being a leader.

FAST COMPANY, August 2001, Page 88, By: Polly LaBarre

Read the whole article

The Clear Leader

Dip into most corporate or business-school curricula on leadership and you'll find a mind-numbing list of skills that the aspiring leader must master, from motivating to communicating to counseling to managing conflict, and on and on. Corporate America has vastly overcomplicated the role of a leader, says Marcus Buckingham, and that's a shame, because those disciplines, while important, fail to get to the heart of true leadership.

FAST COMPANY, March 2005, By: Bill Breen

Read the whole article

Lights, Camera, Action Sports!

An unlikely crop of blue-chip marketers are tapping extreme sports as part of their pitch. Will daring moves put them over the top?

By Barry Janoff, BRANDWEEK, 2.28.05

Cool Quote: 02.24.05

"All things being equal, people will do business with a friend; all things being unequal, people will still do business with a friend." - Mark McCormack - founder of IMG

Branded Brands

Focused and well-respected brands are cashing in by enriching each other's brands, bringing to the party their particular core competence or signature ingredients. Think Heineken and Krups, or Chanel and Ducasse.

From TrendWatching

Read the article

Making Lemons Out of Lemonade

By Michael Masterson

We got to Grappa, Park City's best Italian restaurant, at 8:44. Our reservation was for 8:45.

"I'm sorry," the hostess said, smiling. "We're running a little behind."

We were immediately disappointed.

"But we'd like to offer you complimentary Champagne and hors d'oeuvres," she said, "in the boutique across the street."

I looked out the window at the boutique. It was brightly lit and festive looking. I could see a half-dozen people milling around, sipping drinks and looking at the furniture and knick-knacks for sale. They looked like they were enjoying themselves.

"OK," I said, "but . . ."

"We'll page you there as soon as your table is ready, Mr. Masterson," she said.

Many restaurants purposely "run a little behind" so you'll wait (and spend money) in their bar. But Grappa came up with a different way to turn a restaurant's most common annoyance (waiting for a table) into a pleasant way for customers to pass the time. (And spend more money.)

It turned out to be a nice experience for us -- browsing through an upscale boutique full of interesting impulse buys for the affluent shopper. The store was half-full, which meant you could navigate your way around easily without the risk of spilling your drink or getting stuck in a crowded aisle.

I spoke to one of the boutique owners, a young guy who told me that the joint venture was working out well. "We split the cost of the Champagne and hors d'oeuvres. But the profits on the business we do is ours to keep."

One of my friends bought a silver wine-pull. I was thinking about ordering a coffeemaker when we got the call: Our table was ready.

Back at the restaurant, I mentioned that this idea -- two seemingly unrelated businesses linking up for a synergistic effect -- is an old one. In the early 1980s, Jay Abraham talked about it. Since then, I've done it many times. But this particular application was very impressive.

We talked about other potential ways to apply the same idea. The most obvious opportunity is for movie theaters and bookstores. It's not by accident that they are so often in close proximity. (See "Word to the Wise," below.) Bookstores realize that moviegoers often buy their tickets early and then look for someplace to spend the intervening time. All that extra "idle" traffic results in a lot of extra book sales.

But what's in it for the movie theaters? Right now, not much. And that's why there are so few actual joint ventures between the two. But if more of them were to get together and promote a single book-browsing and movie-watching experience, they might all do better.

For example, the bookstore could sell advance tickets at a discount up to a half-hour before the show. It could advertise this service in the store and possibly in its newspaper ads.

Promotions could be created around specific movies -- i.e., featuring related books and maybe serving dessert and coffee after the 8:00 show. At the same time, the theater could help promote after-movie book browsing through its on-screen advertising.

It seems to me that the theater/bookstore combination would provide an entertainment/education experience that people would appreciate and pay for. If a few good marketers got together and brainstormed, all sorts of good and useful ideas could be developed.

The result would be good for everyone: More sales for the bookstores and movie theaters and a more enjoyable night out for the customers.

Cool Quote: 02.21.05

"Marketing is not an event, but a process... It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely." - Jay Conrad Levinson

Starbucks' genius blends community, caffeine

The company knows that emotion, not logic, powers the decision to pay $3.22 for a double-tall latte, extra hot with a shot of sugar-free vanilla.

From MSN Money, by John Markman

Read the article

Not Your Father's CFO

Few business roles have changed as dramatically during the last generation asthat of the chief financial officer. The classic model -- the CFO as chiefaccountant and technical expert focused narrowly on the firm's financialstatements and capital structure -- has been passé for a decade or more. Today'sCFOs have become a vital part of the corporation's leadership team and haveassumed responsibilities of a breadth and magnitude that make the title "chieffinancial officer" slightly antiquated. No longer mere business partners,leading CFOs have become active, innovative, and independent transformationagents, managing global growth and creating greater value.

From strategy+business; by Vinay Couto, Irmgard Heinz, and Mark J. Moran

To read the full article: http://www.strategy-business.com/resilience/rr00016

What's Important?

Recently I attended a meeting at a client’s headquarters. The company had
recently conducted a corporate training session, so the conference room was
littered with manuals, charts were taped to the walls and the dry erase boards
covered with notes. Amid the clutter were posters featuring inspirational
quotes. The kind that make weak managers feel strong and office workers cringe.
But there was one that was different from the others. It has stayed with me. And
its meaning becomes more clear to me the longer I consider it. It is by Charles
Swindoll and it is called “Attitude”:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the
past, than education, than money, then circumstances, than failures, than
successes, than what other people think, say, or do. It is more important than
appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a
home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude
we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the
fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The
only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our
attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90
percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our
attitudes.

Are you in control of your attitude or does your
attitude control you? What can we do to keep our attitudes from standing in the
way of our goals? Of what’s important?

From: WHAT'S IMPORTANT Vol. I Issue 2 January 19, 2005 Durakis Executive Search

Affinnova in FORBES!

Check it out. Affinnova is featured in the cover story of this month's Forbes magazine! It took 9 mos. to make this happen. Takes a lot for a small, relatively untested company to get into one of the big 3 business pubs.

Read the article

Vendor Watch - ALT TERRAIN

They seem to be a cool guerilla firm.

ALT TERRAIN's mission is to be the premier industry resource for Integrated Alternative
Media and Brand Experience Marketing. ALT TERRAIN creates and implements integrated alternative media and brand experience marketing campaigns that authentically engage and influence consumers.

They specialize in providing advertising agencies, PR firms, marketing agencies, and media
planning/buying companies with opportunities to create consumer connections, ignite word-
of-mouth, and build relevant experiences for their client's brands.

Nontraditional media and marketing platforms are based on propriety lifestyle research, return on investment, cultural trends, touchpoint insights, and the constant analysis of the
changing relationship between consumers and media.

http://www.altterrain.com/guerilla_media.htm

How Companies Turn Customers' Big Ideas into Innovations

strategy+business/Knowledge@Wharton White Paper
January 12, 2005

Traditional product development has portrayed the inventor, from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs, as the hero. The truth is, though, successful product innovation has always required imagination and incisive action from heroes in the lab and in marketing. Whether it's wizards in Menlo Park or Xerox PARC leading the way, the best product development and commercialization processes are based on a dynamic and complex exchange of ideas and interests among engineers, marketing experts, and the end-consumer.

From Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs, the conventional view of product development has always portrayed the inventor as the hero. In fact, the inventor is only part of the process. Edison himself hinted as much when he described the inventor as being a “specialist in high-pressure stimulation of the public imagination.”

Click here to read the entire White Paper

Cool Quote: 01.13.05

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself." - Peter F. Drucker

TrendWatching.com

TRENDWATCHING.COM now allows instant access, 24/7, to all of its published trends, newsletters, updates etc. A great source of new ideas around the world and potential business opportunities. Its good to subscribe to its newsletters as well.

http://www.trendwatching.com/trends

Building a Brand by Not Being a Brand

Some people seek their calling. For others, like Dov Charney, it is bred in the bone. "I think I was born a hustler," said Mr. Charney, the fast-talking founder of American Apparel, the rapidly expanding youth-oriented T-shirt chain. "I like the hustle. I like selling a product that people love. It's nice when a girl tries on a bra or a tie-dye T-shirt, and it's, `Ooh, I love it,' " he said, affecting an ecstatic moan. Mr. Charney cultivates his faintly off-color persona, part garmento, part 1970's pornographer. In fact, he works it studiously, as attested by a photo of him in his store on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, which shows him preening in a snug polo shirt and white belt, his mustache scrolling from his upper lip to his mutton-chop whiskers. He is nearly a ringer for the photographer Terry Richardson, famous downtown for bringing the aesthetics of soft-core pornography to fashion photography. The image is meant to resonate with a target market of 20-somethings. Urban hipsters — and some of their elders, too — are scooping up Mr. Charney's form-fitting T-shirts, underwear, jersey miniskirts and hooded sweatshirts, sold in white-on-white stores that double as art galleries. On the walls of the 26 American Apparels that have sprouted across the country and in Europe and Asia are snapshots of 1970's suburban proms and Christmas Eves, poster-size blowups of seedy Los Angeles storefronts, surfers, skateboarders and, not incidentally, scantily outfitted street kids vamping for the lens...Perhaps most important to younger consumers who have grown suspicious of corporate branding, there is not a logo in sight. A business built on the mystique of no mystique, American Apparel had sales of $80 million in 2003, which are expected to double this year, as they have in each of the last four years, Mr. Charney said. He is planning to open 14 more stores before Christmas. Fast outgrowing its status as an under-the-radar phenomenon, the chain is seen as a new model for the marketing of hip...Consumers may like Mr. Charney's management style, but industry insiders are more impressed by his marketing skills, which they say are in tune with a cultural shift. "There is a highbrow stand against commercial culture right now," said Alex Wipperfürth, a partner in Plan B, a marketing firm in San Francisco. "People are sick of being walking advertisements for clothing. By stripping brands of logos and of pretense, by being more subtle in your cues, you are saying that you are more about quality than image."

By RUTH LA FERLA, NYT, November 23, 2004

Read the whole article

Visit American Apparel's website

Cool Quote: 1.6.05 - That's not the only thing that is ironic Tony...

"The irony about selling out is that they only call you a sell-out when your stuff finally sells - I've had products bearing my name since I was 14, but nobody was buying them then." - Tony Hawk, professional skateboarder

Vendor Watch - BzzAgent

As lovers of good vendors, I've decided to add a new regular segment on the hypermediate blog. As new and/or interesting agencies or resources we'll post them for us to check out, in case any of us are in the market. Scott, this particular vendor looks like it might be a good one for 180s.

If you come across any good groups, send them along for posting.

BzzAgent, a small Boston company recruits thousands of propaganda agents who agree to talk up certain companies and products to their friends, family and colleagues. Its clients have included Anheuser-Busch, Estée Lauder and Monster Worldwide.

www.bzzagent.com

McKinsey - New strategies for consumer goods

Many companies in the industry are struggling despite improved productivity anda focus on core brands. What can they do to spark growth?

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/links/15925

Making the Perfect Marketer

A study from the Association of National Advertisers and Booz Allen Hamilton suggests five ways to make marketing more relevant than ever.

Read the article. You have to register with the site, but it doesn't take but a minute.

Cool Quote - 12.28.04

Scott came across this quote and thought we would enjoy:

So, in 2005, marketers will need to understand the essence of their brands -- the one thing that they stand for -- then communicate symbolically to reach these consumers (all of us) who are struggling to process the information load that comes their way on a daily basis. Keep it simple, sensory (sensorial experiences reunite us with our biological rhythms), empathetic (understand our time-pressed needs), and optimistic (give us small moments of joy as we go about our day).

Back to the ABCs--Make That the Three Ps--of Marketing

Marketing in America is adrift today. More than 90% of all new products launched are not on the shelf two years later. Manufacturers are scrambling to maintain brand share in the face of a sea of private-label entries. Consumers are showing less and less willingness to pay a premium for "national brands."

A hundred years ago we had it figured out. Marketing was about product, place, and price. Get a good product to a place where someone could buy it for a price that reflected the intrinsic value of the product and how difficult (or dangerous) it was to get it to the buyer.

In the decades since, while creating more product and place options than we can effectively use, we've forgotten the basics of product, place, and price. In the face of this myriad of options, consumers are reverting to a simpler approach to making choices.

Consumers, it seems, haven't forgotten the basics of product, place, and price. Just as we followed consumers into the frontiers of cable television, online shopping, warehouse clubs, and dollar stores, now we must follow them again as they change the rules of the game to fit their needs.

Read how to profit from the three Ps of marketing.

By Ben Ball, PROMO

Cool Quote - 12.20.04

"Marketing is not an event, but a process . . . It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely." - Jay Conrad Levinson

Cool Quote 12.16.04

"To have great poets, there must be great audiences too." - Walt Whitman

For all you current & former youth marketers...

Ypulse is an independent blog for teen/youth media and marketing professionals providing news, commentary and resources on commercial teen media (teen magazines and websites), entertainment for teens (movies, games, television, music), technology used by teens (cell phones, instant messaging, SMS), the news media's desire to attract teens (newspapers, cable news), marketing and advertising (targeting the teen market) and civic youth media (highlighting organizations' efforts at promoting youth voices in media).

Check out Ypulse.

Ypulse is affiliated with a cool guerilla marketing agency called ALT TERRAIN.

Cool Quote - 11.30.04

"If you wish in this world to advance your merits you're bound to enhance; you must stir it and stump it, and blow your own trumpet, or, trust me, you haven't a chance." - William S. Gilbert (1836 - 1911)

Brand Loyalty 2004

Search engine extraordinaire Google has shot up to No. 1 among consumers in the latest Brand Keys' Customer Loyalty Leaders survey, overtaking Avis, which held the top spot for the past seven years. Brand Keys adds new brands yearly according to respondents' unaided mentions in the twice-yearly study, which polls 16,000-plus men and women aged 21-60.

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BRANDWEEK, October 25, 2004

The Marketers' Challenges

The marketing and advertising industries are feeling the pressure more than ever to change and innovate. Commenting on what the persuasion industries are confronting today are Kevin Roberts, CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide; Douglas Atkin,chief strategy officer for Merkley+Partners; Bob Garfield, columnist for Advertising Age; Andy Spade, Song Airlines' creative consultant; Naomi Klein, author of No Logo; and Mark Crispin Miller, media critic.

These excerpts are drawn from their extended FRONTLINE interviews.

Cool Quote - 11.11.04

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all." - Helen Keller

The Decline of Brands

Sure, there are more brands than ever. But they're taking a beating - or, even worse, being ignored. Who's to blame? A new breed of hyperinformed superconsumers. (That's right - you!)

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By James Surowiecki, WIRED, November 2004

Cool Quote - 10.21.04

"Consumers build an image [of a brand] as birds build nests. From the scraps and straws they chance upon." - Jeremy Bullmore

The Next Generation of Global Branding?

Coca-Cola is not an American brand, L'Oreal is not a French brand, and Samsung is not a Korean brand. Rather, they are global brands.

They are symbols of a global culture created by the Internet, travel, music and other influences that easily seep across borders. So what are the implications for brand strategists?

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Nick Wreden, MarketingProfs.com, October 19, 2004

Can anyone say, "Matrix Boots" ?

Online Experience Shapes Shoppers' Perception of Brand

By Rama Ramaswami

At last--one place where Wal-Mart isn't at the top. The retail behemoth placed fourteenth in a study of the customer experience offered by 20 leading online retailers. The survey of 2,000 customers, conducted by market research firm Vividence Corp., evaluated each retailer's site on more than 250 measures of the customer experience. Not surprisingly, Amazon.com topped the list, followed by Barnes & Noble, Circuit City, and eBay. Wholesaler Costco hit rock-bottom, coming in at No. 20. So why should you care?

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Where Do the Great Brands Come From?

...For 80 years they (brands) floated on the periphery of marketing, an interesting by-product of our process, convenient for organizational purposes, but nothing special. Then we took a closer look, and were we ever astounded by what we found...

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BRANDWEEK, October 11, 2004, Sam Hill

Mantra of the Day - 10.15.04

"Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make yourself a happier and more productive person." - Dr. David M. Burns

From Morning Mantra

More Networks Are Pulling the Plugs

The Ad World is Changing...

Commercial-Free TV Shows Gain Traction as Marketers See Benefits of Such Deals

By BRIAN STEINBERG; THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; October 15, 2004

BRANDWEEK's 2004 Marketers of the Year

BRANDWEEK's 2004 Marketers of the Year

• Grand Marketers of the Year: Las Vegas
• Chrysler
• McDonald's
• IZOD
• Indie Filmakers
• Apple
• Detroit Pistons
• Hershey
• AstraZeneca
• Procter & Gamble
• Trump

The Power of the Industry Blog

Word of mouth may be one of the more informal elements of the marketing mix, but it's by no means less effective.

In fact, if your company is releasing a new product or service, no formal marketing method meant to increase its exposure can match the power of people talking to each other about it.

When it comes to Internet marketing, one of the ways to kick-start this process is to get your piece of news mentioned on possibly the most effective online mouthpiece around: the industry blog.

Get the full story

Catherine Parker, MarketingProfs.com, October 12, 2004

Airwalk & Burton Making Snowboards Together?

Am I reading this right? Does it say Airwalk/Burton snowboards, meaning they are the same company, or are they just being grouped together?

Edgy, hand-painted (snowboard) graphics get mainstream ride

"If you want to get freak-nasty and pipe at high speed, you need the right snowboard. And to do it with style, your board needs the right look. Art that expresses individuality, provokes thought or gives offense. Graphics that convey your wicked sense of humor or intense energy."


Denver Post; Mon, 11 Oct 2004 0:37 AM PDT

Cool Quote - 10.04.04

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them." - Henry David Thoreau

Andy Mac Makes Pogo-Sticks

Flybar - a new company by Andy Macdonald and CBI Enterprises. They go for $299 - that would have been a nice licensing gig for Airwalk, no?

Check out the Flybar website - at least you can see the Airwalks on the homepage...

Or if you want to buy one, its for sale on Amazon.

Starbucks, its brand, and toilet paper...

A Brand Is the Sum of All Touchpoints

by Guy Smith, MarketingProfs.com, September 28, 2004

There is a legendary story about Starbucks, its brand, and toilet paper. From within the offices of Starbucks, a branding guru had summarized the Starbucks brand into an extremely concise brand statement: A great coffee experience.

Read More

The "New" Rules of the Corporation

From Greg Woodman:

This “rule book” is from a best selling book back a long long time ago in 1993! Why I pulled out this classic was purely to enlighten (people) that a book 11 years old is still somewhat an “aspire to” here in 2004. And I sense continuing schisms in philosophy. As we develop fully to our outsourcing model I am continually challenged on how to communicate my plans as it relates to people and roles and vendor partners. Certain people just do not get it, and continually challege these ideas. So with that in mind enjoy the basic tenants of the book “Reengineering the Corporation”…..a manifesto for Business Revolution…this book was all about processes and the cover said “Forget what you know about how business should work-most of it is wrong!” How are we doing 11 years later on the following……and if anything you can see why certain people do not fit into the following rules...

Old Rule: Information can appear only one place at one time
Disruptive technology: Shared databases
New Rule: Information can appear simultaneously in as many places as it is needed

Old Rule: Only experts can perform complex work
Disruptive technology: Expert systems
New Rule: A generalist can do the work of an expert

Old Rule: Businesses must choose between centralization and decentralization
Disruptive technology: Telecommunications networks
New Rule: Businesses can simultaneously reap the benefits of centralization and decentralization

Old Rule: Managers make all the decisions
Disruptive technology: Decision support tools (database access, modeling software)
New Rule: Decision-making is part of everyone’s job

Old Rule: Field personnel need offices where they can receive, store, retrieve, and transmit information
Disruptive technology: Wireless data communications and portable computers
New Rule: Field personnel can send and receive information wherever they are

Old Rule: The best contact with the buyer is personal contact
Disruptive technology: Interactive videodisc
New Rule: the best contact with a potential buyer is effective contact

Old Rule: You have to find out where things are
Disruptive technology: Automatic identification and tracking technology
New Rule: Things tell you where they are

Old Rule: Plans get revised periodically
Disruptive technology: High performance computing
New Rule: Plans get revised instantaneously

Cool Quote 9.27.04

"If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced." - Vincent van Gogh

Twinkies Maker Seeking Ch. 11 Protection

It is a sad, sad day...add another to the list of giant brands who need some help...

Associated Press, 09.22.2004, 09:04 AM

Interstate Bakeries Corp., the nation's largest wholesaler baker whose products include Twinkies and Wonder Bread, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early Wednesday. The company also named a new chief executive.

New Airwalk Apparel Line Announced

Bluetorch Inc. Introduces New Airwalk Apparel Line at Magic Show-Sales Agency Contracts Next Up - 9/8/04

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Cool Quote - 9.16.04

"Ordinary people can spread good and bad information about brands faster than marketers." - Ray Johnson

What Should I Do With My Life?

The real meaning of success -- and how to find it

It's time to define the new era. Our faith has been shaken. We've lost confidence in our leaders and in our institutions. Our beliefs have been tested. We've discredited the notion that the Internet would change everything (and the stock market would buy us an exit strategy from the grind). Our expectations have been dashed. We've abandoned the idea that work should be a 24-hour-a-day rush and that careers should be a wild adventure. Yet we're still holding on.

Read More

Fast Company, Po Bronson, January 2003

How Much Music Can You Make?

On November 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Lincoln Center in New York City.

If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him.He was stricken with polio as a child, and has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches.To see him walk across the stage one step at the time,painfully and slowly, is a sight. He walks with difficulty,yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the braces and clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up his violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.

By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage tohis chair. They remain silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs, they wait until he is ready to play. But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violinbroke. You could hear it snap -- it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what hehad to do.

People who were there that night thought to themselves, "We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again,pick up the crutches and limp his way off the stage to find another violin or else find another string for this one, or wait for someone to bring him another violin.

But he didn't. Instead he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity, as they had never heard before.

Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that,you know that. But that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that. You could see him modulating, changing and recomposing the piece in his head. At one point it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before.

When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. Everyone was on their feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything they could to show how much they appreciated what he had done.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from his brow, raised his bow to quiet the audience,and not boastfully, but in a quiet reverent tone said,

"YOU KNOW, SOMETIMES IT IS THE ARTIST'S TASK TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH MUSIC YOU CAN STILL MAKE WITH WHAT YOU HAVE LEFT."

Cool Quote - 9.13.04

"Only intuition can protect you from the most dangerous of all, the articulate incompetent."

- Robert L. Bernstein, president, Random House, on his experience interviewing MBA graduates

Cool Quote - 9.13.04

"Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning."

- Igor Stravinsky

The New Nike

The cover story in this week's Business Week. Talks about how NIke is no longer the brat of sports marketing, and has a higher level of discipline and performance.

Some points of interest and relevance...Nike has shortened its development cycles, getting products to market faster; embraced the operational/financial, bottom-line orientation, not just the aggressive top-line, market share building of its past; and embraced fashion, hiring an ex-Polo designer to head up the apparel division. Not to mention a solid aquisition strategy. And the results are impressive.

Full Story

The Customer Is -- and Always Will Be -- King

Every so often a customer will really try your patience. Consider him a blessing. If you can figure out how to keep him happy (at least for a while), you'll have developed skills and resources that will bowl over your other customers.

Leadership Strategies used the following story as an example to try to make a case that customers "aren't always right":

"When Citizens Financial Group CEO Larry Fish heard that a customer had treated one of his tellers poorly, he called the customer and suggested that she close her account. Although the customer had $172,000 deposited at the bank, Fish arranged for a check to be mailed to her."
Leadership Strategies praised Fish not only for protecting his teller but also for making the happiness of his employees his No. 1 priority. "People work for more than their pocket," Fish told Ronald Alsop at CareerJournal.com. "You can't have a successful business without happy employees."

I don't know the details -- I'm definitely looking at this as an outsider -- but it seems to me that Larry Fish, CareerJournal.com, and Leadership Strategies have gotten things mixed up. Businesses do not exist to make employees happy.

Businesses provide products and/or services to customers. It is the customer who, ultimately, pays the employees' wages. The employees are getting paid to service the customer. Toward that end, their main job is to make the customer happy.

When we say, "The customer is always right," we aren't naive enough to think that this is literally always true. There are many times when a customer may be uninformed, out of line, unrealistic, or downright unpleasant. What we mean is that in any employee-customer transaction, the end result must please the customer, not necessarily the employee.
If you think otherwise, you will destroy your business. If you begin with the idea that your business is about your employees, it's only a short leap to believing that if your customer interferes with your employees' happiness, you ought to "fire" him. That sounds like what might be happening at Mr. Fish's bank.

You can see this employee-first mentality on most airlines today. Whereas once the cabin attendants (Don't call them stewardesses!) were pleasant and bend-over-backward helpful, they are now self-centered and often belligerent (see "Word to the Wise," below) Hollywood wannabes who have no idea how to do their jobs. (They are, after all, nothing more than glorified waiters and waitresses.)

"One more word out of you, you filthy swine, and I'll have you manacled and dragged off the plane!"

I recently "softly" fired (i.e., relocated) a business manager who had that kind of attitude. She was hardworking and eager to please her bosses, but she treated her customers as if they had the plague -- and within a few short months, every member of her staff was treating them the same way. Eventually, they were treating me like something the cat dragged in. And I was paying their salaries!

TODAY'S ACTION PLAN
If you want your business to grow, ignore the self-indulgent, inwardly turned, unforgivably naive management philosophy of the Larry Fishes of the world and stick with the old-fashioned customer-is-king approach.

Absolut Cool

Sure, the company's new website is sexy. But will it move the wheat juice?

Absolut is a leading producer of corporate chic. It has to be. Why else would you pay $35 for a clear, odorless liquid when a nearly identical bottle of Popov or some other supermarket brand is priced below $10? Is it Absolut's superior distillation process? Is it a company history stretching back 160 years? Perhaps it's the organic wheat, grown and harvested in idyllic Ahus, Sweden?

No, sucker. It's the mental image Absolut has created of you, sipping fabulous cocktails in a swanky nightclub, surrounded by beautiful people who hang on your every witty word.

Read More

Business 2.0, Thomas Mucha, September 07, 2004