Understand The Power of Humor

“I just shipped my pants!” It’s a line that can be easily misheard, and that’s exactly what Kmart was hoping for. Capitalizing on some fast word play and semi-scatalogical humor, the floundering retail chain’s most recent video campaigns have captured the public’s attention, creating headlines all around the world. More than 15 million people have viewed the “Ship My Pants” and “Big Gas Savings” commercials online.

The shopping experience at Kmart has been notably sub-standard for years, in part because the chain invests the lowest percentage of revenues into their stores of any major retailer. Yet the Kmart leadership spent big bucks on the services of Draftfcb, the award winning agency responsible for the campaign.  Why? READ MORE

Know The Emotional Landscape

In early May, Target announced a limited roll-out of a new service offering. Shoppers in the Los Angeles and Orange County area will now be able to consult with a brand-agnostic beauty concierge who’s there to offer advice and insights about the cosmetics and personal care products available at Target.

At a time when retailers are scrutinizing every expense in order to cut costs, and pundits are predicting the end of full-time retail employment, Target is actually adding an entire new category of employee — a group that by definition will need to have greater product knowledge and customer service skills than the typical front-line worker, which may make them more expensive to recruit and retain. What’s up with that? READ MORE

Know What Time It Is

The Gilt Groupe is a flash sale company. On their website, they host extremely short-term sales events (most last less than two hours!) featuring limited quantities of merchandise from top brands. The combination of short duration and limited quantities makes an appealing mix for competitive shoppers, who are legion. In six years, the brand has accumulated 7 million customers.

Why, then, did the Gilt Group recently take a 90-day break from sourcing new merchandise, adding any new services, or even trying to attract new business? READ MORE

“We Don’t Want You In Our Stores?”

Being a great brand manager isn’t about understanding what will make everyone love your store. Being a great brand manager is about understanding what will make your best customers love your store.

These two things are very different, and we’re seeing this illustrated by the recent flurry of headlines surrounding Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries’ 2006 comments about why the apparel chain doesn’t carry women’s apparel in large and extra-large sizes.

Here’s what Jeffries said, “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny.” READ MORE

Mysteries of Retail: Toys R Us

Do you remember the Magic 8 Ball?

The Toys R Us leadership team could certainly use one, as the once dominant toy retailer appears to be on shaky ground with no clear path to relevancy. A planned IPO was recently withdrawn; the chain’s long time CEO Gerald Storch has stepped down, with no new successor named. Sales slid 3.5% over 2012, and investors are looking at the company’s not-insubstantial debt.

Factors contributing toward Toys R Us slide certainly include competition from Wal-Mart and Amazon. Wal-Mart wins on price, while Amazon’s got both depth of selection and (for their Prime customers) the ability to put any child’s desired toy in their hands within a day. Given this, how can the once great chain expect to compete? READ MORE

Retail’s Mysteries Revealed: JC Penny

The brand-breaking challenges JC Penney has had are in no way inevitable, Forbes magazine says, in this discussion of predictive analytics. By harnessing the power of mathematics, we’re told, retailers can significantly reduce the risk of going catastrophically off-brand, alienating your best customers, and losing market share. Does Forbes have it right?

Yes and no.

Yes, because statistical analysis of previous customer behavior provides retailers with tremendously valuable information. Objectively examining what has happened in your stores over the course of time can be a very revealing exercise. Retailers who engage in this type of analysis often discover things about their operations that they never otherwise suspected. READ MORE.

Retail’s Biggest Mysteries… JCPenny

We spend a lot of time considering the mysteries of retail here, but this one’s got us stumped:

Why did it take JCPenney so long to figure out that they should listen to their customers? Sixteen months after rolling out the new “Fair and Square” pricing strategy, the beleagured retailer is now returning to its old pricing strategy. The disappointed masses haven’t exactly been closed-lipped about what the brand was doing wrong. A commenter on the Forbes article, Who Can Save J.C. Penney? spelled things out pretty well:

A big mistake was made when Penney’s eliminated all of the coupons for the allegedly affordable everyday pricing. The merchandise that is now being sold is inferior garbage. Uglier, cheaper made clothes that looks like its for middle aged women. I’m middle aged and I wouldn’t even wear it because the stuf looks like Blue Light Polyester Specials. Even the sales aren’t true sales because that merchandise should be much cheaper on clearance. I know, I was just there last Thursday. READ MORE

How Do You Get A Customer For Life?

Here at The Cult Branding Company, we’re always saying that 90% of customer behavior is unconscious. We’ll tell you that customers don’t know why they act the way they do. We’ll tell you that the vast majority of people aren’t aware of the psychological and cultural forces that shape their decision making.

We say all of these things, and for every one of you who nods your head and says, “Yes, that’s true!” there are three or four people out there who say, “Yeah, right. That’s baloney. People know who they are, what they want, and why they want it.” READ MORE

Amazon and the Art of Picking Your Battles

Amazon understands one of the fundamental truths of retailing, and they’ve demonstrated that with their amazingly successful Amazon Prime program. For years, now, the industry bean counters have been looking side-eyed at the program that offers shoppers free two-day shipping and streaming of digital content in exchange for a one-time annual flat fee payment. It looks like a system designed to fail.

An Amazon Prime membership costs $79 annually. Researchers have found that the average Prime customer was using $90 worth of shipping and streaming services per year. The math seems pretty simple; 90 – 79 is 11. Amazon loses, the customer wins.

Does anyone reading these words really believe that Amazon, the company that tracks customer behavior so closely that they can make personal recommendations to each and every one of their 615 million customers, didn’t know this was going to happen? READ MORE

What Makes Customers Choose You?

Some zaftig mannequins are getting serious love from shoppers all around the world. More than 16,000 people have shared the image you see here, enthusiastically embracing the new profile on display at a Swedish retailer. ““Finally, mannequins showing how clothes fit on real women. I’m changing where I shop!”

It’s easy to forget that something as ordinary as a mannequin is a messaging vehicle. Fixtures are, almost by definition, made to be taken for granted. But as retailers, we can afford to leave no aspect of our operations unexamined.  The typical mannequin used in America is a size 4 or 6. Some brands don’t even bother with that—they use strategically arranged poles and hangers to display their wares. READ MORE

Solving the Mysteries of Retail

Showrooming has dominated the headlines lately. You know what showrooming is—the chances are better than good you’ve had it happen in your very own store. Customers come in, they shop around, they find something they like, and out comes the smartphone. The price is checked, usually against Amazon, and increasingly, it’s the online retailer who makes the sale. You’re left standing there with nothing. To stop the bleeding, many retail chains have adopted price-matching guarantees. Is this a good idea?

It may be, but it may also be a knee-jerk reaction that is being implemented much too soon.

Let’s look at showrooming. It’s not a new phenomenon. All showrooming actually is is the latest technology being used to facilitate human behavioral patterns that have been around since the dawn of time. The media coverage is bringing new panic to an old problem. READ MORE

Should You Lower Prices in a Tough Economy?

It’s a tough time to be in the grocery business. Walmart, which derives nearly half of its revenues from grocery sales, recently reported that February 2013 was the worst sales month they’ve had in 7 years — an absolute disaster, according to leaked internal memos. The SymphonyIRI Group, in a report entitled 2012 CPG Year In Review: Finding the New Normal, points out that consumers are shopping fewer grocery stores — 3 rather than 5— and they’re buying less when they’re there. What sales growth there has been is largely attributable to inflation. Customers are very aware that they no longer have the purchasing power they used to.

Given these facts, doesn’t dropping prices seem like a smart strategy? When things cost less, people buy more: it’s not a complex equation here.The answer seems obvious. READ MORE

What Makes Duane Reade’s Rebranding Work?

Duane Reade was facing an invisibility issue. The drug store chain was struggling in a crowded marketplace, surrounded by legions of Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aids, and Health Marts. With competition on every side, Duane Reade wasn’t giving their customers a reason to choose them—and they weren’t.

At the NRF show last month, there was a lot of buzz around Duane Reade’s rebranding. In an effort to give customers a reason to choose their drug store, Duane Reade began positioning itself as an iconic New York brand. The new tag line is “New York Living Made Easy.”

What is it going to take to make this approach work? READ MORE

The Mysteries of Retail

It’s one of the most common, frustrating, and expensive mysteries of retail. You start carrying a new line of merchandise—products that you’re genuinely excited about, high quality stuff that you can offer at a competitive price—and your customers just don’t care. They walk right by your carefully designed displays, not even slowing down long enough to give them a second glance. They ignore the line completely, yet your competitor is having a hard time keeping the exact same merchandise in stock. READ MORE

Walmart’s Promise to Hire Vets

When Walmart  promised, earlier this month, to hire any recently discharged veterans who want a job, it made headlines around the world.  Veterans have had a disproportionately difficult time finding employment after finishing their military service: the Huffington Post reports that unemployment rates among veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan was 10.8 in December, compared to a 7.8% general unemployment rate.  Homelessness has become rampant. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, nearly 63,000 were homeless on an average night in 2012. READ MORE

Is Profit the Most Important Thing?

What would you say if you learned that everything you learned in business school is wrong? Not just wrong, in fact, but fundamentally and fatally flawed, rotten to the proverbial core? How would that knowledge change how you function as a business leader?

These fascinating questions were featured during The Aspen Institute Presents, a new PBS series featuring leading entrepreneurs, politician, and thought leaders discussing philosophical questions and practical challenges. The segment that really captured our attention centered on the premise that increasing shareholder value is the most important thing to any corporation, and the accuracy of that premise. READ MORE

Trust as digital currency

Search engine optimization isn’t rocket science when it comes down to it: Keywords tell Google or Yahoo what you do, and links tell them how important you are. There are complexities, obviously – That’s why companies will spend thousands of dollars to have smarter people than I write and code their pages to be best friends with those algorithms. But as an article validated by Freakonomics on the Associate’s Mind points out this morning, SEO should be an afterthought when you’re taking the following no-brainer steps online:

1. Develop trust
2. Be transparent
3. Create high-quality, original content
4. Have a semi-presentable web page

If it ain’t broke…

As a designer, I tend to focus more on the aesthetics of applications, programs, and operating systems than functionality. So take what I have to say with a grain of salt, but my experience with iTunes 11 over the last week has certainly been a frustrating one so far. Where did the intuitive interface go? And what is this over-thought time wasting impostor that’s replaced it? What happened to the iPod search feature? Has album art really taken a back seat to cover flow? Because it’s disappeared from the bottom-left corner of the screen. And that handy feature that enabled easy duplicate track cleanup? Gone! That’s just the tip of the iceberg – Have a look at a few more of the critical features Apple saw fit to dump.

My takeaway is that if it ain’t broke, don’t break it just so you have a reason to fix it. Apple seems to have changed iTunes for the sake of making a change – A complete redesign certainly wasn’t needed. You can get iTunes 10.7 back here, luckily. But hurry: there’s no telling when Apple will decide to take this down.

Engagement vs. Experience

A fascinating article in this morning’s Harvard Business Review asks why it is that those with Android phones use them less than iOS devices. Michael Schrage points out a few telling statistics: “The Android operating system has been outselling Apple’s iOS by nearly a 5:1 ratio. Android dominates ‘device share,’” but “Where Android jumped from 1.43% of Black Friday shopping traffic in 2010 to 4.92% this year, Apple’s iOS pole-vaulted from 3.85% to 18.46%. Barely 3% of Adobe digital magazine downloads went to Androids, fully 97% were iOS.”

Schrage’s key quote comes about halfway through the article, where he says “To make a vulgar comparison, just because someone buys a lot of books doesn’t mean those books are read.” As he puts it, a great product doesn’t necessarily equal a great experience. It’s the latter, not the former, that leads to success. Customers don’t want a phone – They want what the phone enables. It has nothing to do with the product, just the feeling.

The Internet of Things

“Queen of the Net” Mary Meeker delivered her annual “Internet Trends Year-End Update” at Stanford University last night, mainly adding fuel to the Internet of Things fire, by pointing out a few key statistics for 2012:

• 29 percent of adults in the U.S. own either a tablet or e-reader
• The percentage of internet traffic accounted for by mobile devices has more than tripled since 2010
• iPad adoption has grown at three times that of the iPhone, and Android adoption has grown at six times that of the iPhone

After the 2012 Election

If there’s one story that bears examination in the wake of the 2012 Presidential election, it’s why so many people were so profoundly shocked by the outcome. This is a tale about the power of narrative, and how the stories we believe shape the way we interact with the world.

Jonathan Martin provides us with a vivid illustration of the concept in his Politico article, The GOP’s Media Cocoon. There are several points in there that are vitally important for those of us who are brand managers to understand. READ MORE

$1 billion? Meh.

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday retail stats are coming hard and fast at this point, and the one I’ve heard mentioned most is that over $1 billion was traded in e-commerce last Friday. That’s the first time online sales have been that high in a single day. But before you start calling demolition companies to level all your stores, it might be best to read Marcus Wohlsen’s article on Wired this morning, pointing out $1 billion isn’t all that crazy – In fact, percentage wise, it isn’t all that different from the rest of the year.

“The National Retail Federation says its survey results show spending over the Black Friday weekend topped $59 billion,” he says, ”Divided across four days, that’s nearly $15 billion per day. Even if a full $1 billion of those sales each day took place online, that’s still less than 7 percent of total spending.”  The lesson? Stores, the personal connection with associates, and the ability to touch what you buy before you buy it still matters. Relationships make a difference, especially during the holidays. So don’t neglect them.

Debbie Downer Monday Morning web tips for the Pragmatist

Just a quick reminder/downer to bring your pie-in-the-sky social media and marketing tech ideas crashing to the ground this morning:

• 82% of all web sharing is still done via copy/paste [link]
• Most people still use search engines to find stuff they want to buy (not Facebook) [link]
• The most effective digital ads are those that users share, not brands [link]

It’s always awesome when new stuff works. But if you want reliable results from a digital campaign, when the stakes are high it’s usually best to remember the fundamentals.

Advertising as advance notice

With so much talk about native ads, social commerce, and DVR’d television, it’s easy to start thinking that most customers don’t like advertising anymore. It’s true in a lot of cases – When a commercial interrupts an intentional activity (browsing Facebook, watching TV), the first thought that enters your mind is “How do I get rid of it?” But the truth is that people still value advertising, so much so that many are willing to pay for it. Just look at services like Birchbox that charge a monthly subscription fee to ship customers free samples, or Pheed, a “social network” that gives mobile and desktop users paid access to content from a variety of celebrities and brands. Those kinds of companies are in the advertising business as much as I am. And they’re successful because they provide a valuable service: Letting customers know about something interesting before everyone else finds out too. That’s part of what makes an advertisement successful, and it’s what will make most people pay attention in 2013.

Should You Care…

They’re called the “Nones,” and they’re one of the fastest growing demographic groups in America, according to a recent well-publicized study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Adults who have no religious affiliation number approximately 46 million individuals, roughly 20 percent of the total population. One third of adults under the age of 30 consider themselves unaffiliated.

Delving into the Pew report reveals some critical insights about this cultural change. Respondents still overwhelmingly report having faith in God. Many consider themselves extremely spiritual. They haven’t abandoned the absolute fundamentals of their faith identity. What they’re leaving is the church, and by extension institutionalized religion. READ MORE

Strategy is never dead

Data freak Nate Silver ruffled a lot of feathers between this latest election and the last by “predicting” the first outcome almost-perfectly across 49 states, and then, well, perfectly-perfectly across all 50 in the second. But if you take the time to read Silver’s book, The Signal and the Noise, it gets pretty apparent pretty quickly that the author doesn’t think information does a great job of predicting anything – Rather, in the words of Boing Boing, “the quintillions of bytes of data at our disposal actually make prediction harder, not easier.” Noise argues that data simply alerts us to the relative probability that a certain situation will occur. It can’t predict the future. And in most cases, it makes deciding on a course of action even more difficult.

That kind of truth makes strategic thinking, careful planning, and pragmatic reasoning more important in this day and age than ever before. Big data tells us people can behave in a lot of different ways, but it can’t tell us how or when. Just that they do. So before deciding that your customers “will be more mobile” in 2013, realize that a lot of them will probably be less mobile too.

Hurricane Sandy & Apple

Hurricane Sandy has secured its place in the  history books. The mammoth hurricane came late in the season, taking an unusual track through New Jersey toward the center of the country, lasted for days, and created billions of dollars worth of damages. Much of lower New York, including Wall Street, shut down for Sandy’s arrival.

Against that backdrop, a business news story has to be a pretty big deal indeed to capture any attention. Apple delivered, choosing Monday to announce major changes to their leadership team. Long-time Jobs protege Scott Forestall, head of the iOS division, is on his way out the door, as is retail store head John Browett. READ MORE

Convenience as an emotional need

Back in the ’60s, Howard Leventhal wanted to figure out the best way to get Yale students to vaccinate themselves against tetanus. His studies had shown that while most students intended to visit the campus health center to do so, only about 3% of them actually did. But a small change – simply providing subjects with a map, and asking them to check their schedules – made a ninefold difference. 25% of subjects intending to get the shot actually did when the messenger showed them how it was possible. As Melanie Tannenbaum writes in her PsySociety blog, “all it took to translate good intentions into healthy actions was the simple channel factor of making the action seem convenient and manageable.”

Remember though that it’s not a matter of informing a customer, but satisfying an emotional need. The students knew where the center was. But they didn’t know what that meant: convenience. The lesson here is that it’s often best to remind people not of information, but what that information stands for. The meaning is more important than the message.

Is the iPhone losing its luster?

If a pair of new reports this morning are any indication, Apple might have to actually put up a fight to keep the iPhone dominant in 2013. 88% of survey respondents polled in a Strategy Analytics survey say they’re likely to buy another Apple smartphone – That’s a slip from the 93% reported by the same company last year. And the number’s fallen even further in Western Europe, where 75% of users say they’ll buy from the company again, down from 88% a year previous. You might be able to argue a 5% margin is a minor difference, but when you throw in a separate set of figures from IDC released yesterday that show 3 of every 4 smartphones shipped in Q3 were Android-based, the idea gets a lot more interesting.

Of course, there’s no one big reason why people might be making the switch now. But when you consider the glitchy maps app the company pushed out with its new operating system, and customer dissatisfaction with marginal innovation in the iPhone 5, you can’t help but wonder if Apple might have poisoned the pipeline. It’s just a quick reminder of how quickly a loss of trust can affect sales.

A Tour de Farce

One cannot watch Lance Armstrong’s very public fall from grace—he has been stripped of all seven Tour de France victories, and has been barred from competitive cycling for life—without having brought to mind some words from Joyce: “They discovered to their vast discomfiture that their idol had feet of clay, after placing him upon a pedestal.”

There’s no doubt that Armstrong was on a pedestal. Prowess as a cyclist made him an idol to thousands. That number exploded as Armstrong battled and beat testicular cancer. These were the legions that supported the Livestrong Foundation, which provides support to people with cancer. Now that Armstrong has been found to be guilty of doping, many fans and supporters feel cheated. Livestrong donors have asked for their money back. Legendary cycling commentator Phil Liggett says he feels like a fool for having defended Armstrong so vigorously, for so long. READ MORE

A case for Small Data

Last week, Robert Plant wrote a few words on Harvard Business Review’s blog discussing his lukewarm attitude toward the Big Data trends that seem to be shaping the average marketer’s perception of their trade on the way out of 2012. “Companies would do better at satisfying and retaining customers if they spent less time worrying about big data and more time making good use of ‘small data’ — already-available information from simple technology solutions,” he says, reflecting consumer sentiment that says projects of the former sort are creepy, inefficient, and bothersome. The root issue he’s discussing is humanity, and how knowing everything there is to know about your customers on a high level often robs a brand of its ability to connect. Striking a balance is tough. That’s why when it comes to advertising, good creative and thoughtful social media programs are more important than ever, and why being pragmatic often trumps being on the cutting edge.

The 3 new ways Facebook is aiming to get paid

The world’s largest social network needs to start making money. Their investors know it, you and I know it, and if the number of new revenue streams introduced by the company over the past few weeks is any indication, they know it too. Here’s a rundown of the top three:

• Facebook Exchange – A new advertising model that lets marketers bid on the right to deliver personalized advertising to specific users
• Promoted Posts – For a small fee (about $7), users themselves can pay to have their posts appear higher up in more feeds
• “Want” and “Collect” buttons – Retailers are testing out a new kind of Like that allows users to create wish lists available to friends and retailers

Focus on What’s Fun

Over 60% of the world’s population is active on one or more forms of social media.  You’ve got to wonder what that’s about.  Why are people so focused on Facebook, so tethered to Twitter? On one level, this is an easy question to answer. We can talk about the fundamental imperative that drives human beings to communicate with each other. Talking is what people do: communicating with each other allows us to make smarter decisions, enjoy a higher quality of life, and attain goals more efficiently and effectively. READ MORE

Good science informs good design

MIT researchers have a new idea for eliminating car accidents on the highway: The way they figure it, collisions can be made scarcer by reducing the amount of time it takes for a driver to check how fast they’re going, or how much fuel they have left. That “glance time,” they say, can be affected in the simplest of ways – Like by changing the typeface on a car’s dashboard. Their study profiled by Wired last week showed that subjects looking at a “humanist” font on a simulated dashboard had glance times 12% lower than those dealing with a “grotesque” font. That’s a significant result, since reducing average glance time by just 11% means the driver sees about 50 more feet of freeway space per instance, a difference that can turn a collision into a horn honk.

One of Steve Jobs’s more famous quotes reads: “Design is not just what it looks and feels like. Design is how it works.” This study is a reminder of that important statement, and begs us to review an important question: What goal does our product help accomplish?

Understanding The Power of Imagery

What makes art art, and why is art so important to humanity?

These are big questions, and not ones that come up often in the context of connecting more effectively with your customers. That’s a shame. Understanding what art is, and why recorded imagery has such a powerful impact on human behavior is, in our opinion, a fundamental aspect of successful brand building. READ MORE

Social media doesn’t sell – But it still works

A new Forrester report making the rounds on the web this morning is perhaps the first by a major research firm to flatly state what most of us already know about retail: “Social tactics are not meaningful sales drivers.” Sucharita Mulpuru’s paper says “fewer than 1% of transactions for both new and repeat shoppers could be traced back to trackable social links,” a statement that should pretty much put the kibosh on sales and marketing budgets that put money into Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

We’ve said it before: Brands must resist the temptation to use word of mouth on Facebook or Twitter to sell products. Social media is best used to create a community of shared experiences, and to prove to that community that you’re adept at meeting their needs. That proof comes in the form of valuable content that provides an audience with tangible value. Developing those materials makes your social media program a resource, rather than a channel, which can go a long way to ensure your customers believe you when you talk. That makes your advertising more effective, and your customers more loyal. Which, despite Forrester’s report, eventually creates profit, growth and success.

Here’s why Samsung loses:

You might’ve seen the new attack ad against the iPhone last week, floating around the internet – “It doesn’t take a genius.” It’s from Samsung, obviously still a bit sour over the $1 billion they’re forced to pay to their biggest competitor, and you can take a look at it here. A conversation-starter? Maybe. Ultimately effective? No.

Looking at this ad reminds me of the old battle that Microsoft waged against the iPod with Zune. The latter was a superior product in almost every way: It was cheaper, faster, lighter, more flexible, and came with better headphones. But the Zune was sold with information instead of feeling: Its ads featured lists of reasons to buy theirs over the competition’s, while Apple’s featured a dancing silhouette. And in the end, it was the feeling illustrated by the latter that was more important than the knowledge. Samsung would do well to remember that lesson – A brand is about what a product means, not what it does. And while a long list of features might speak to the logical, people are ultimately more interested in what feels great.

What makes the iPhone 5 magical?

Bigger screen, faster processor, improved camera, different connector – Those are the four big headlines this morning as the world salivates over the newly-unveiled iPhone 5. At least, those are the ones Apple is pointing out. Truth is, there are quite a few posts calling the company’s newest round of updates to their most popular product “functional” at best, and “boring” at worst. “Where has the magic gone?” That’s the question they all seem to ask.

There’s a great article on TechCrunch this morning addressing that question indirectly. Apple’s magic, they say, has always been about The Turn – The act of making something ordinary look extraordinary. Take a look again at Steve Jobs unveiling the original iPhone if you need a good example. Let’s be honest – When was the last time you had an in-depth discussion about the merits of an 8-pin connector? Why do people care all of a sudden? That’s a magic trick in and of itself, even if the product isn’t exactly revolutionary.

Bic’s Lost Opportunities on Social Media

I love BIC Cristal for Her! The delicate shape and pretty pastel colors make it perfect for writing recipe cards, checks to my psychologist (I’m seeing him for a case of the hysterics), and tracking my monthly cycle. Obviously, I don’t use it for vulgar endeavors like math or filling out a voter application, but BIC Cristal for Her is a lovely little writing utensil all the same. Ask your husband for some extra pocket money so you can buy one today!

As of this morning, there are 56 pages of Amazon reviews for Bic for Her pens. Many of these are hysterically funny, while speaking to the peril of introducing needlessly gendered products. The reviews, many of which were added over the holiday weekend,  are being discussed everywhere, from the more feminist corners of the blogosphere to mainstream business publications.  It’s the type of publicity opportunity brand managers dream about at night. But when you look to social media to see what Bic has to say about the whole brou-ha-ha, you’re going to find a whole lot of nothing. READ MORE

Services > Gadgets

Speaking at an Amazon corporate event yesterday, CEO Jeff Bezos told the audience that the reason Android tablets have been selling poorly is because “most folks don’t want gadgets – They want services.” That’s a slanted view, obviously: A Kindle is pretty much a device geared to leverage Amazon’s library of content, and an Android device is designed to access… well, everything. But in my humble opinion, his sentiment is still right on the money.

Amazon’s outlook gets back to the idea that customers don’t want a hammer – They want a nail in the wall. So someone will forego the purchase of a hammer if the same service is provided to them at the same price, no matter the method. Of course emotion comes into play in those decisions. But Bezos has it right when he says customers don’t want tablets – They want movies, books, games, and internet access on the go. Which serves that purpose better – A Kindle? Or a device that’s seen a 700% rise in malware over the last year?

FYI: Windows has a phone too

Microsoft wants you to know that despite the brain-melting hype behind Apple’s newest iPhone announcement on 9/12, there are still alternatives to the king of mobile tech. Like its Windows Phone 8, for example, unveiled at a press event in New York City today. It’s interesting to note that the system is all about photos – A move that coincides with a lot of speculation that social media is moving farther away from text every day, and toward more visually-oriented sharing. Given Apple’s history of producing what eventually becomes the next big thing, it won’t be a real surprise when they start making similar moves too. But considering Microsoft has been The PC for the last few years, it’s refreshing to see the company making a move that makes at least a small amount of sense.

How does meaning change?

A new article by Derek Thompson and Jordan Weissman in this month’s Atlantic discusses why my generation is so cheap, particularly when it comes to cars and houses. There are a lot of factors, obviously – Low pay, student debt, bad access to loans… The list goes on. But let’s consider an idea that David Aaker’s blog discussed a while back: Relevance. “There was a time where [sic] cars… provided a community and a self-expressive benefit for young drivers,” Aaker said, and Thompson and Weissman put a finer point on that statement. Today, a smartphone is what enables community and self-expression – Not where you live, or the how you get there. Why drive when an inches-wide screen can take you anywhere you want to go without requiring you to even stand up? Why meet a friend at the movies when you can Facetime over a 4G network? What it all boils down to is that the meanings we ascribe to products aren’t static – They evolve, give up some things, and gain others. A car, house and white picket fence don’t mean what it did in 1972 anymore. And tomorrow, they won’t mean what they did today.

When is a pricing war like divorce court?

A new Bloomberg Industries study covered by the Consumerist last week shows that Target has lower prices than Walmart for the first time since October 2011. That’s an important position to be in when the economic climate is still recessionary – Consumers aren’t exactly insensitive to budgets at the moment. So it’s interesting to compare that branding contest to the one that (seemingly) concluded between Apple and Samsung over the weekend. In that case, it’s clear Apple customers have had a lower-priced comparable option to their iPhones for the past few years. So comparable, in fact, that Samsung’s been penalized over a billion dollars for being a copycat.

So why is it that customers sometimes choose to pay more for one product, but remain price-sensitive for others? Remember: A brand is a relationship. And it’s been obvious for years that Apple has a special one with its customers. A Mac will buy Apple, even when 1,000 PCs tell him or her they can get the same thing for cheaper elsewhere. But when your brand revolves around low prices, like in the case of Walmart and Target, that relationship is more about money than satisfaction – one that typically ends in divorce.

The Internet A Decade Later

BestEdSites put together an infographic making the rounds this morning that shows how the internet has grown between 2002 and 2012. You can check it out here if you’d like - Lots of “wow” statistics, showing how digital information has penetrated our lives in more ways than one. But to me, the most interesting and least-quantifiable portion of the illustration is its look back at the old home pages for CNN, Friendster, Yahoo and Apple. Compare what each company offers now, and notice that while the brands haven’t changed, the focus on design has definitely come to the forefront. There’s a far higher quantity of information presented by each presence, right off the bat. These two changes are put into stark relief when we look back on the last 10 years of digital media – In 2012, they’re fundamental to gaining attention on the Web.

Native advertising and the creativity challenge

We’ve reached a point with traditional digital advertising where clickthrough rates are measured in thousandths of a percent. That should be a pretty solid indicator that 99.999% of consumers aren’t interested in anything having to do with banners, but most companies just keep plugging along. After all, as Mathew Ingram writes this morning, “there is some money to be made with that approach (provided you have billions of pageviews to throw at it).”

Some companies are learning some new lessons though, realizing that getting customers to hear a message means crafting content that they actually want to consume. Ingram refers to “native” advertising – a strategy aimed at weaving a brand into the fabric of a site, instead of an irritating sticker pasted over the top. As he says, “That’s why major brands of all kinds are pouring billions of dollars into developing their own content channels, whether it’s YouTube or a Tumblr or a blog inside Forbes magazine’s advertiser network.” Those are great examples of the most effective way to use social media to your advantage. But it’s also the toughest – Crafting interesting, engaging content is a lot more difficult than a standard banner ad.

Can You Crowdsource Creativity?

We’ve got to hand it to Mountain Dew.  They’re trying so hard to do social media right—especially when it comes to listening to their customer base and soliciting creative insights from the people who actually love their products. If there was a direct relationship between efforts and results, someone in the Mountain Dew PR team would be getting top honors right about now.

But something’s not working quite right.  Mountain Dew was searching for a name for their new green-apple flavored soda. They turned to the masses, and the masses responded—not always a guaranteed thing in this world! Unfortunately, the masses didn’t respond with really brilliant, insightful, sales-generating names for the soon-t0-be-debuted beverage. READ MORE

Playing Chicken With Your Brand

If we ever needed an illustration of how social media has changed the dynamic of corporate communications, we need look no further than Chick-fil-A.

It’s no secret that the leadership of the quick-service chicken chain is openly hostile towards same-sex marriage; they donate millions of dollars to anti-gay organizations. Dan Cathy, son of the founder, uses what he calls Biblical principles to run the business. The restaurant is not open on Sunday; they operate debt-free.

How does this play out on social media? READ MORE

How advertisers got Americans to talk about B.O.

The turn of the century “was still very much a Victorian society,” says Juliann Silvulka, in a Smithsonian Magazine article posted on their site last week, “Nobody talked about perspiration, or any other bodily functions in public.” That didn’t mean customers back then didn’t mind their own body odor – Most simply masked their stench with perfume, and wore cotton or rubber pads under their arms to keep sweat from staining their clothing. The first commercially-available antiperspirant, Odorno, wasn’t without its share of side effects (suspending your active ingredient in acid tends to create those), but the heat surrounding the 1912 Atlantic City exposition – where the product was first sold – got customers to tolerate them, birthing what has become an $18 billion industry.

The product’s story is interesting, but not nearly as much as the strategy that went into its original advertising, which was designed to encourage conversation about a then-taboo subject. Funny how we’re still struggling to think of new ways to do the same thing, 100 years later.

Lessons Learned From Microsoft

Kurt Eichenwald, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, has investigated what he calls Microsoft’s Lost Decade—a period of lackluster performance and diminished profitability. He lays blame squarely at the feet of a cannibalistic corporate culture.  The story is getting lots of attention, particularly as it relates to the controversial management practice of “stack ranking.”

Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, went to Forbes to reply.  His response (Lost decade? What lost decade?) is full of enthusiasm for Windows 8, Bing (currently #2 in the search engine marketplace, trailing Google by only 51.2%!) and the Surface, Microsoft’s computer/tablet hybrid designed to showcase the power of Windows 8. READ MORE

Thriving in a free goods market

A few years back, Kevin Kelly wrote an essay titled “Technology Wants To Be Free.” It’s a long, somewhat technical, but incredibly thought-provoking read, describing how throughout all of history, every product is eventually lowered to a value of zero. That might seem exciting for consumers, but the truth is we don’t really notice it happening – Today you can easily get a cell phone for free, for example, when they all used to cost hundreds of dollars. But according to Kelly, the real value of a product isn’t in its parts and labor, but in how it networks with others. People won’t pay as much for a cell phone in 2012 as they did in 2000… Unless, of course, it can also send text messages, check e-mail, and browse the internet. Which is funny, because they won’t pay to check their e-mail, or browse the internet either when those experiences are on their own. The value comes when they’re all together, when the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts.

Beyond Batman

We join with the world in sorrow and grief over the Aurora, Colorado massacre.

As a culture, we’ll be a long time figuring out what went wrong, and why. As business leaders, we have to understand the impact of events like this have on our customers.

For the owners of movie theaters, this is a huge and immediate concern. But what does it mean for the rest of us? You may not think there’s an immediate connection. If you’re selling women’s clothes or automobiles or the finest financial planning instruments, at this point, you’re thinking, “Exactly what does this horrible shooting have to do with my customer base? READ MORE

Jack Daniels protects itself the right way

The internet has been chattering over the past couple of days about Patrick Wensink, an author who chose to “borrow” the Jack Daniels design for the cover of his newest book. A familiar brand demands protection, and so unsurprisingly, Wensink got a cease-and-desist letter from the manufacturer’s attorneys toward the beginning of July. Surprising, however, was how polite and supportive that letter was: All the company asked was that the author use a different cover on the next printing, even offering to help defray the cost of doing so. Score one for both parties involved - The artist stays happy, and the brand remains undamaged. Just another case study illustrating that people want to talk with people, not suits, and not bottles. That’s something we’ve discussed here before, but brands still tend to forget it.

Audi City

If I had to pick one word associated with mobile tech in 2012, it would be “personalization.” Good mobile tech knows who’s using it any given time, providing experiences tailored to a person’s location, time zone, and preferences. So if your aim is to become less of a “car dealer” and more of a “mobility provider,” you’d best be certain that memo has reached your desk.

According to this morning’s Wired, Audi is that brand, and their new “Audi City” dealerships are the action item. The company says it’s aiming to provide the same convenience and customization found online with the knowledge and personality of a traditional sales staff. I think it’s a great initiative – In our day and age, one-of-a-kind is what everyone wants. But it’s neither the smartest, nor most efficient way to pick out a product as high-involvement as a $60,000 convertible. Maybe this is the middle ground?

Common motivation

An MIT study outlined by Daniel Pink in this video talks about motivation. Researchers gave a group of students a series of challenges – memorizing a string of digits, solving a word puzzle, throwing a ball through a hoop – and gave them three levels of reward: high performers got a large cash prize, middling performers got a middling cash prize, and low performers got a low cash prize. When the tasks were simple or mechanical, overall performance improved, but when the subjects had to think, it got worse. The study seems to suggest that when a lot of mental effort goes into a task, material reward isn’t the best motivator.

Pink talked about this study in the context of compensation – What an employer can do to motivate an employee to work hard. But the same logic can be applied to marketing: When a customer has a lot of choices, and puts a lot of thought into making the right purchase, they’re not looking for a low price, or a material reward. There’s more to it than that – Emotion comes into play too. The question, by and large, is how?

When does “useful” become “magical”?

Whenever I sat down in a communications class that used Google as a case study between 2003 and 2006, my professors reminded me that the company was looking to “organize the world’s information.” That’s an exciting idea for academics, but let’s be honest, those words won’t exactly inspire most. They certainly aren’t inspiring people to use Google+. So it comes as no surprise that lately, Google is trying to show a more emotional approach to its branding and advertising. Initiatives like Project Glass, and the company’s push to be more “delightful” and “magical” – outlined this morning in TechCrunch – show that Google might finally realize that business acumen and book smarts only get a company so far: At a certain point, people want to know you have a heart and soul too.

Social Media & the Power of Public Knowledge

We’re starting to hear the rumbles, here and there, from businesses of every type and every size. Social media, the marketing tool that was supposed to deliver amazing results, doesn’t seem to work very well for some companies. They say effort invested isn’t providing anything much in the way of meaningful results.

The first response seems to be platform flight. Facing Facebook failure, organizations decide to move on. They decide to focus on Twitter, and if that doesn’t pan out, they move onto Pinterest, perhaps, or Instagram.  It’s the digital equivalent of the African Savanna, where the herds are traveling ever onward, perpetually in search of a water hole that will quench their burning thirst. READ MORE

“The Lipstick Effect”

As Scientific American reports this morning, beauty products typically show growth during recessionary periods, incongruous with most other luxury goods markets. In other words, lipstick sells, no matter what. And according to results published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, it’s all about mating: During times of economic prosperity, women tend to focus on personal growth. But instinct dictates that scarcity means a historically lower chance of survival – Which means attracting a mate with more access to resources becomes the paramount personal goal when times get tough.

I’d posit that there are broader implications here though. The research flies in the face of long-held conventional wisdom that spending money, in and of itself, is therapeutic. The truth is that people don’t buy things because they’re cheap – They buy what makes them look better, no matter the economic climate. For women, it might be makeup. For men, it’s likely much different. So what do you do that makes everyone shine? That’s the million-dollar question.

Winning the Battle of the Bands

What do you call a brand that has enjoyed long-term success, remaining profitable and vibrant for over 30 years, while the vast majority of their early competition struggles for relevancy?

In the music world, you’d call that brand Duran Duran. Get ready for your 80′s flashback! We’re going to talk about what it takes to create enduring customer loyalty. READ MORE

The audience is an illusion – But it works

Reddit.com is like the Garden of Eden for viral content – It’s easy to lose hours of your life on the site, browsing through every variety of the newest digital media available, voted up or down by the site’s tight-knit audience. It’s perhaps the model for digital community. So it’s certainly a surprise reading that the site built itself on an audience of fake accounts, detailed by Reddit’s founder this morning in Mashable. We say it all the time: It’s not the size of your audience, but what you do with it that counts. But how can we justify saying that when the model did the exact opposite?

The lesson here is that community is built on belonging – It doesn’t exist if members don’t feel they’re a part of something bigger than themselves, and talking to no one helps nobody. So it’s important when crafting a content marketing or social media strategy to distinguish whether you’re building a community, or enabling one. If your goal is to add 500 followers to an audience of 70,000, you’re probably doing it wrong. If your goal is to build 500 followers from nothing… Well, what are your thoughts on more traditional advertising?

Kinect tricking out TV?

Digital advertising has a leg up on traditional methods when it comes to engagement. That’s always been the sales pitch for the former at least – Potential customers are being talked to when they see an ad on their TV, instead of talked with. But that’s not the way it has to be, according to Microsoft, who seems to be finding an infinite number of ways its Kinect product can be used not only by gamers, but by brands.

The LA Times is reporting that Toyota, Unilever, and Samsung Mobile have all signed up for new interactive campaigns that will allow Kinect users to interact with regular TV commercials. Want to host a spot poll, or play a quick game with a potential customer? Or maybe give them a taste of a more tech-centric product? You have that option, once the new platform rolls out later this year.

Does Robin Hood Go To Starbucks?

In Customers First, we talk about Starbucks and some of the ways that the brand appeared to be heading off track.  It’s only right and fair that we should raise our coffee mugs and salute Starbucks when they get it right.

Check out this NY Times article about Starbucks’ decision to source their coffee mugs domestically.  It’s the tale of how Starbucks, a company with 200,000 employees, started doing business with American Mug. Here’s the Cliff Notes version:

American Mug was a company that was headed toward closure. READ MORE

Buy Facebook – Sell GM

Last week I posted a short piece talking about why even if advertising on Facebook doesn’t work, fueling conversation is a more than adequate substitute, worth the time and resources invested in it. And this morning, lo and behold, Fast Company’s Kirk Cheyfitz posted a far more eloquent and lengthy article discussing the same thing. As he says, “Facebook’s current and potential value has far more to do with connections, e-commerce, and data than with the ad industry’s anachronistic appetite for paying to stick traditional digital ads and banners on the site… [it's] about replacing traditional ads with shared content.”

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: They know you know they know. A 2012 Nielsen report shows recommendations from acquaintances as the leading purchase influencer, followed by recommendations from strangers online. So invest first in a great idea, and invest in trust second.

Ask it again: Do Facebook ads really work?

If Facebook was a technology, instead of a service, and had no Mark Zuckerburg or army of publicists, its advertising features might be just as maligned as QR codes seem to be these days. A recent Reuters survey showed 80 percent of respondents had never bought anything they’d seen in a Facebook ad. GM pulled its billion-dollar account just before the network’s IPO saying the same thing. But maybe we’re all being a bit harsh – It’s common knowledge that gauging the efficacy of a social media campaign is tough to do. Really tough. So why don’t we give Facebook the benefit of the doubt? After all, when people think “social media,” “Facebook” is often the first word that comes to mind.

The company, of course, has their own survey coming out next week through ComScore that puts its value in more concrete terms: “Facebook ‘earned media’ ads — the kind that Facebook users distribute on their own, via ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares,’ do help sell stuff.” That’s a fancy way of saying what we say a lot: When customers talk about your brand, others pay attention. When you talk about your brand, you’re just a line of text to ignore.

The Value of Brand Modeling…

It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye!

It was almost a year ago when we wrote this post, highlighting an innovative, effective emergency preparedness educational campaign from the Center for Disease Control.

In an effort to get people to stock up on bottled water, first aid supplies, and other hurricane-season necessities, the CDC urged people to prepare for the most outlandish of possibilities: a zombie apocalypse. READ MORE

A Conversation w/Geoff McFetridge

Geoff McFetridge is high on the list of my favorite artists/entrepreneurs. What I admire most is his ability to work across so many different mediums/fields. From title sequences to his on Nike, his style always shines supreme. Read the complete interview HERE. Enjoy!

A Conversation w/Jeff Staple

Getting a chance to pick the mind of Jeff Staple was special experience. It’s not everyday you get the chance to learn about the inner-workings company that has managed to expand their brand across many different yet related disciplines. You can read the full interview HERE. Enjoy!

What It Means To Understand Your Customers

In Customers First we look at some of the world’s biggest brands—companies like Apple, Ikea, and Volkswagen—to discover how they connect so effectively with their customers. To build powerful, profitable connections, it helps to understand that customer behavior is driven largely by a combination of psychological and social forces that are at play every single moment of every single day of our lives. These forces shape our customer’s worldview.  Once you understand what those forces are, it becomes much, much easier to craft messaging that resonates effectively with the customer.
READ MORE

A Conversation w/Aaron Draplin

Aaron Draplin started The Draplin Design Company in 2004 after working as a senior art director at the Cinco Design Office of Portland, Oregon and as an art director with SNOWBOARDER magazine. Since open the doors of the DDC Aaron Draplin and associates have worked for Coal Headwear, the Union Binding Company, Snowboard Magazine, Field Notes memo books and the list goes on and on. I really enjoy and appreciate the clean no frills design aesthetic and how much hard work this man put’s in each and everyday. You can read the entire conversation HERE.

A Conversation w/Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister was one of the first people I interviewed after graduating. I remember learning and reading so much about him in school but still there was much more I wanted to know. I picked up the phone and called him and he agreed to answer some questions. You can read the entire conversation HERE.

Four: Learning From Experience

I graduated from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2004 but knew my learning was honestly just about to begin. Beside learning from those people I worked with on a daily basis, I wanted to also learn directly from those I’d been reading about and following through conversations. I wanted to pick the brains of those that already had years of experience doing what I was a rookie at. I didn’t want to hoard these conversations for myself so I started a website called “the Marma Spot” to house and archive these conversations for anyone interested in taking time to read them. This week I will share FOUR of the many conversations I have had with some of the best creative and entrepreneurial minds in the world. Enjoy!

The MAD Business

Because I’m a graduating senior at UW-Madison, people are constantly asking me what my major is. And when I tell them “advertising,” their expressions usually indicate they’re thinking of some kind of stereotype. A lot of people think this industry is all about sex appeal, alcohol, and selling your soul, especially given the popularity of shows like Mad Men and The Pitch. Advertising, more than ever, has become entertainment on boring weeknights. How are students supposed to break into the world that they’re passionate about when everyone sees that passion as just another trend? Will employers take me seriously when I talk about respect for the creativity, the culture, and strategy behind the advertising? Or are they going to think I’m just another Peggy Wannabe hoping to jump on board with today’s fastest-growing career craze? Sometimes I feel I have to defend myself against family and friends who only see the glamor. I wish they could appreciate the art, the thought, and the execution as well.

Pebble… Making ripples or Waves?

The Pebble, a new watch that syncs with the iPhone or Droid, brings a simple concept to life. Using Bluetooth to act as a remote, it’s easy to download apps directly to the watch from your phone. It has a high-resolution e-paper screen, and apps to track mileage, average speed and more during exercise. Its battery lasts for over seven days. But some of its features just seem pointless:  “Around the house, pebble makes it easy to see who’s calling, whether your hands are full [or not]”? If your hands are full, you’re not going to answer your phone – You’ll look at your Pebble and miss the call, or you’ll look at your phone and miss the call. Either way, you’ve missed it.

In a world of screen-overkill, I find Pebble a bit redundant. But considering it holds the record for most pledged dollars on Kickstarter, there have to be some believers out there. Check out the developers’ and designers’ video from Kickstarter, where it all began to learn more.

Is Dropping Facebook Ads a Smart Move?

The news that GM has decided to stop using paid Facebook advertising has created a big buzz. If the nation’s third largest advertiser isn’t getting enough bang for their buck from Facebook ads, the conversation goes, what does that mean for the rest of us?

GM reportedly spends approximately $40 million on Facebook. 75% of that investment is devoted to monitoring and maintaining GM’s Facebook presence, through the organization’s Facebook page. The remaining 25%, $10 million dollars, was going toward paid advertising. READ MORE

A Generational GAP?

With high executive turnover and double-digit months of declining sales, the Gap has recently found itself in the process of closing more than 20% of its US stores. It follows the rough introduction of a new logo in October of 2010 that kept the classic “blue-box” logo, updated with a trendy Helvetica font. Fans of the new look were few and far between, the new image lasted only a week, and the executive overseeing its implementation resigned a year later.

That’s not to say the idea of a new logo is a bad choice. And there’s nothing wrong with the Gap’s clothes — I’d argue it’s the brand itself that’s keeping customers away. Twenty-somethings see a Gap bag on the street and see the same bag their mom brought home from the mall when they were kids. Apparel brands gain more from being associated with trends than traditions, unless the trend is closing stores on a continuous basis. So maybe it’s time for Gap to try a new logo entirely, one that aligns with the very current, clean-cut image its current collection presents.

Greetings from Glasgow!

If anyone reading has a chance to visit the UK, make sure a good chunk of your trip is spent in Scotland – Nothing here but sheep, rolling green hills, and awesome people. I still have a couple weeks left before I’m back, so we hope you enjoy a series of guest posts from the UW-Madison Ad Club. Cheers!”

#SocialMediaDarwinism

With a rapidly expanding global user base, @twitter offers companies virtually unlimited #possibilities when it comes to engagement in the digital space. #duh But rather than being #innovative, a lot of companies are failing to adapt. “Tweets” usually seen through more traditional channels like print ads and radio spots fail to #engage the digital audience. Why the difficulty?

Some companies seem to have “twivertising” down pat. Global leadership company @DaleCarnegie #engages its audience with interesting articles and daily trivia, and frequently responds to and retweets its followers’ feedback. Family-owned Milwaukee restaurant @LaPerlaMKE has a “Question of the Day” giveaway, tweets #MKE @Brewers game updates, and brings attention to local charities. Tactics like these make a Twitter feed more engaging, and help companies reach their potential.

Safety in Social Media: An Impossible Dream?

Social media is a powerful tool you can leverage to build your brand, but it can also leave you vulnerable to the the cruel contempt of the masses who think nothing of trashing your brand equity one “Like” at a time. That’s the thrust of this article in AdWeek, which details any number of social media “fails.” One misstep by a marketer—a poorly posed model, or too much enthusiasm for milkshakes—and suddenly, there’s a tornado in the Twitterverse.

No one, we’re to understand, is safe.  Henry Copeland of Blogads was quoted as saying, “The hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people out there are going to take your idea, and they’re going to try to shred it or tear it apart and find what’s weak or stupid in it.” READ MORE

Your Daily Dose of Drama

Europeans allow for a lot: dessert and coffee after lunch, 3-hour midday siestas, shoes through airport security, and commercial-less TV programming. Shows across the pond generally run from beginning to end without commercials, with a 7-minute break for advertising in between. As a result, TV spots aren’t the best way to reach European audiences because viewers often occupy themselves with something else between programs.

That’s why TNT’s latest European advertising tactic, “Your Daily Dose Of Drama”, was so impressive. In the middle of a quiet square in Belgium, a red button was placed next to a sign inviting passerby to “push to add drama.” When it was activated, an array of dramatic events unfolded in the square, including a mishandled cadaver, a shirtless fight, and a scantily-clad woman on a motorcycle. TNT found a way to take the commercial out of the television. The drama went viral and was named Creativity Pick of the Day by AdAge. The innovative idea attracted attention across Europe and added a dose of drama to the calmest of siestas.

Connecting the Dots

According to a survey on SocialMediaToday.com, businesses asked about why they leverage social media sites overwhelmingly respond, “to connect with customers,” “to enhance visibility,” and “to self-promote.” Most realize the importance of an online presence: It allows for constant, and direct feedback, which makes a difference when it comes to sales. Just the other day I tweeted at Red Robin to ask if they had a veggie burger – It only took a minute for them to respond that they did. And it was delicious!

As a marketing student, the Four P’s are beaten into your head constantly – Product, Place, Price, Promotion. Product, Place, Price, Promotion. They’re all important for any brand. But when it comes to advertising – what I’m interested in specifically – Promotion is where my interests lie. But it seems like a lot of people forget to connect the dots: Promotion exists to explain the other three – differentiate the product, and explain the price, in the right place. And social media makes it easier than ever.

Personal Branding via Pinterest

Branded correctly, products can evoke certain feelings, and make us envision particular colors or styles. And people aim for the same thing every day: We brand ourselves through the clothes we wear and the way we carry ourselves. In the past, brands have had traditional advertising to broadcast their identities, but most people couldn’t do the same. Social networking has made “personal branding” a widely-realized concept, however, allowing us to share ourselves with the entire world.

Pinterest probably has the greatest potential for personal branding. With 11.7 million users, mostly 18-35 year old women, creating “boards” based on events, hobbies, and interests that are filled with self-uploaded photos, or “repinned” content from other users, it’s a visual means of self-expression that text-based sites like Facebook or Twitter can’t achieve. Pinterest caters to each user’s personal brand, enriching our generic information with the many facets of our personalities that make us unique.

Say Hi to the MU Ad Club!

Greetings from Herenthout, Belgium! Since I’m busy eating fries and mayonnaise, and marveling at the 50 pound turkeys kept in the yard across the street from the house I’m staying at, this week we’ll be featuring a series of guest posts courtesy of Marquette University’s advertising students. They’ll be sharing their thoughts on the industry, as well as their own opinions on social media, and new trends that they’ve noticed. We hope you enjoy!”

Understanding the Need to Belong

“America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy,” John Updike once said, and it was with this in mind that I took in a debate between Johnathan Kay, author of Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground and Webster Tarpley, author of 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA.

I’m not particularly interested in the substance of the conspiracy theory, really, beyond a rock-solid conviction that Han shot first. However, this conversation went in a particularly interesting direction, examining in some depth why people are drawn to and choose to believe in conspiracy theories. Read More

When automating, ask ‘what’ – not ‘how’

“Customers demand a personal experience” seems to be the prevailing mantra for retailers in 2012. Of course, the trouble is that growth often relies on automation. Automation doesn’t exactly lend itself well to humanity. And even if that automation appears human, once the audience figures out a computer knows more about them than they thought, they tend to get creeped out. So how does a brand automate the right way?

It’s not really a question of how, but what. Few customers complain about using a menu system to check a bank balance. And Netflix’s recommendation engine is one of the service’s major selling points. When a customer knows what they want, and the stakes are low, they appreciate a digital channel that can provide a clear path to that outcome. But when it comes to feelings, uncertain outcomes, or a high-involvement product, a friendly face in a store, or a knowledgable voice over the phone is still the only way. Talk to the folks who buy what you sell, and ask them when they’d like to talk to you, and when they’d rather be left alone.

C&A Fashion Likes

Brazilian retailer C&A is bringing their Facebook presence into the real world with a new initiative that shows how many Likes an item has online, right on its hanger. It’s an awesome promotion for a number of reasons. First and foremost, C&A is enabling its digital community with a tool that can provide them with higher status – They are the ones determining what items are trendy, not a corporate entity. That engagement puts more C&A digital content higher in more user feeds, meaning more people outside the existing shopper community will see those items – Not only online, but in the store itself. And furthermore, it gives C&A administrators a concrete way to tie social media to the bottom line, simply by charting how well items with a lot of Likes sell in the store itself. It’s a human social media campaign, with measurable ROI. Where can we sign up?

Can You Listen to Your Customer?

If you were to conduct an immediate survey right now, this very instant, of all of the leadership of all of the companies you interact with, in one form or another, over the course of any given 24 hour period, I can say, with a pretty high degree of confidence, that they’ll all tell you they listen to their customers.

Some of these companies are telling you the truth. READ MORE

Why UBS/Guggenheim Makes Good Sense

The contemporary art world is buzzing about a newly announced collaboration between UBS Wealth Management and the Guggenheim Museum. It’s easy to see what the excitement is about, especially from a creative perspective.  The five year initiative is going to chart creative activity and contemporary art from all around the world.

Many of the stories you’ll see about this collaboration will focus, with good cause, on the fact that the project is a substantial investment in moving the current conversation about contemporary art from a very Western point of view to a more global perspective. READ MORE

“Marketing is dead”

At IoD’s Annual Convention in London yesterday, Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts declared the death of strategy, the big idea, management, and marketing, in that order. Which means he and I can both quit our jobs together, and move to the Maldives and drink tropical cocktails out of split coconuts until we die, right? Please?

Despite the hyperbole, most of the points Roberts made during the talk are good ones. In a world where everyone is constantly connected, and success in advertising is as much a function of word of mouth as it is media budgeting, it’s relatively useless to expect a specific outcome anymore when you’re operating on a massive scale like many of Saatchi’s clients. But that doesn’t mean strategic thinking goes out the window. As Roberts himself said, “To win today you need a culture and an environment where the unreasonable power of creativity thrives.” Fostering that environment is a strategy in and of itself, don’t you think? So despite the platitudes from the gurus and the sherpas, not much has changed – Just environment we operate in.

Is social media really social?

If a recent article in the New York Times is to be believed, the myriad ways we connect with each other through 1s and 0s are actually killing our social skills. As MIT’s Sherry Turkle says, “E-mail, Twitter, Facebook, all of these have their places… But no matter how valuable, they do not substitute for conversation.”  It’s the same argument executives often make when pushing back against investment in a social media program: Who cares how many Likes our page has? That’s no substitute for a face-to-face meeting in the real world.

Your boss, the reporters, and the researchers are all correct – It’s tough to form a real, fruitful relationship with someone exclusively in a digital space. I agree: That relationship is ultimately more important than any hasty transaction. But as Mathew Ingram points out this morning, it’s easy to see that those who are social online tend to be social offline too. Which means online connections often spark offline connections. It all goes back to a point we’ve made before: Marketers need to resist the temptation to sell in the social space. Focus on bringing your online network into the real world instead.

5 Things better than 2 Pac’s Hologram

Everyone’s talking about 2-Pac’s hologram appearance at Coachella. And while I’d bet it was a bit more impressive live, like I’ve read, the fact remains 2-Pac is DEAD. Also, while it was a cool collective moment to reflect on his contribution to music and wonder “what if” taking this act on tour wouldn’t be THE REAL THING and to me wouldn’t mean as much to witness. Here are five things that are better:

1. Advanced hologram technology in Japan that lets completely fabricated artists sell out arenas.
2. Photoshop is a pretty complex and handy tool. This guy decided to throw a Holiday Party and “invite” all of his celebrity friends.
3. Alejandro Chaskielberg has taken some absolutely gorgeous images of a community in the Turkana region of northwest Kenya at night.
4. A great web based studio lightning simulator to help save you some time.
5. World-class synths in your pocket.

The Power of Predictability

Starbucks, it turns out, is not synonymous with seamless, stress-free success. Embracing a global strategy is an integral part of the coffee retailer’s much-talked about turnaround strategy, but after ten years of effort, things still aren’t great in Europe.  Particularly not in France, according to this New York Times story.

Starbucks has embarked on a multimillion dollar campaign to win over the European marketplace. Their efforts are pretty straightforward, and from our perspective, logical: everything from the the coffee recipe to the physical plant is being examined and altered to bring it more in alignment with the tastes and preferences of the local customer. READ MORE

Trust Building Is Essential

Almost two years ago, Jose Lopez, executive VP of Operations for Nestle, was explaining to the Business Standard why the global foods, health, and nutrition brand, which claims to have a billion customers a day, is so successful. A particular focus of the interview was how Nestle decided to enter a marketplace, as well as their decision to source raw materials and labor in local markets. READ MORE

The Power of Groups

A new study from computer scientists at Cornell University, covered this morning in Science Magazine, lends some credence to the idea that decisions are influenced more by groups than they are by individuals. Researchers conducted a study that showed a person invited to join Facebook by four different friends is no more likely to do so than if only one friend did. That is, unless those four contacts had no other mutual friends between them – In that case, the invitee’s likelihood of joining Facebook more than doubled.

That’s all a wordy way of saying that people aren’t convinced to act when only one social circle gets into a product or service. We want to see that everyone can enjoy a new soft drink, movie or Web site – Not just a small niche of people. Proving to your customers that it’s not just about them and their friends, but everyone, is often the most effective mentality. Because in that case, they belong to something bigger.

Ace Hardware

Normally, when we talk about watching paint dry, we’re referring to something tedious or boring. But for the leadership at Ace Hardware, paint is pretty exciting.  According to this New York Times article, a new product line (coupled with an insightful marketing approach) may be what it takes to allow the 4,300+ hardware and home improvement store chain to double their share of the domestic paint market. READ MORE

Your Site Is Great (But Nobody’s Happy)

Heir apparent to Jerry Seinfeld, comedian Louis C.K. centers a big chunk of his last HBO special talking about how we whine too much about technology. Referring to people who complain that texting takes too long, he says, “if it ever gets there, it’s a miracle. It’s amazing the kind of stuff we can do today!”

But it’s not like he’s convincing anyone when it comes to digital experience. At least not according to a new infographic posted yesterday on Mashable that shows on the Web, speed is still preferred over style. Some of the more eye-popping statistics:

• Google has found that by slowing search times by just 4/10 of a second, the number of total searches on the site dropped by more than 8,000,000 per day.
• Almost half of all mobile users will abandon an e-commerce site if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds.
• Load times delayed by only a second can cost Amazon up to $1.6 billion a year

Social Media Policy’s New Poster Child

There are a lot of different terms and expressions that come to mind when crafting a company-wide social media policy. “Herding cats” is one. Something rhyming with “bluster” and “stuck” is another. No one wants their brand accidentally tarnished by careless employees. But in 2012, when word of mouth counts as much as a big budget, you don’t want them keeping silent either.

Gap leaked the major bullets of its new policy yesterday, and it should be taken as the model case study for how large, global organizations can manage employee communication without being intrusive. It’s written for humans, not lawyers. More importantly, it offers a lot of advice and guidelines, but very few rules. Employees like knowing what they can do, not what they can’t. And when your best marketing and advertising in the digital space often comes for free from the community that supports you, it’s best to keep it happy.

The Gap, Geo-Fencing, and Outdoor

In one of my first journalism courses, a professor told our class about the rule of seven: Often, for a person to recognize a message and commit it to memory, they need to see it in seven different formats before they’ll pay attention. That’s a rule of thumb, obviously – The point is that when it comes to making a message stick, it’s as much about variety and creativity as it is repetition. It’s about making your brand ubiquitous.

The Gap obviously took that lesson to heart when they launched a new campaign last week in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, tagging its outdoor ads with new geofencing technology. Its new “Be Bright” ads positioned at bus stops alert nearby smartphones that the ad is nearby, so when a consumer pulls up, say, Words With Friends, it knows to display related advertising in those apps. Gap is hoping that customers will see the ad walking up to the stop, and then again when they look down at their phone, before climbing on a bus that has it on the side. Creepy? Maybe. But three down, and only four to go.

YouTube going traditional?

At All Things Digital’s “Dive Into Media” conference in February, YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar talked about turning YouTube into a channel just like regular TV. As he explains it, content is worth more when it’s delivered more efficiently – For example, a “dog on a skateboard video” can command $2 per thousand impressions when it’s simply floating around on YouTube.com. But when it’s packaged as part of a dog lover’s channel, or a skateboarder’s channel, that same video is worth nearly 10 times the price. The trouble, of course, is finding those who are interested – And for that, Kamangar needs to rely on content that’s already available, with a known audience.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that strategy, that YouTube added over 70 videos from the Disney Channel to the site today. Disney, of course, knows exactly who watches its content. Which means it’s a lot easier to efficiently package advertising along with it. So don’t be surprised if kid-friendly suggestions from unknown sources start popping up in the right-hand column next to your Dora The Explorer stream. It’s gonna start happening a lot more.

Gilt’s Influence Coupon

Sucking up to the cool kid is a time-honored tradition that starts in pre-school, and really doesn’t end until you die. Gilt’s proving that behavior extends all the way to the corporate world today, by giving customers a discount based on their Klout score – A 60, for example, will give you 60% off your order, up to $100 in savings. A friend of mine works at the company’s headquarters and said this morning, quote, “RT’s are out the a**.” I think it’s a pretty clever way of getting more influential customers talking about the brand, but don’t expect any kind of long-term relationship. It’s always more fun to root for the underdogs, not the popular kids. And what kind of message does the promotion send to those who don’t spend the majority of their day staring their phone or laptop?

Success by the Slice

Perfection isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Just ask the folks at Domino’s Pizza.  In 2009, the company’s pizza came in last in a national taste test—tying with Chuck E. Cheese, an eatery known more for the presence of video games and children’s amusements than anything on the menu.  At that point, (and after bringing on a new CEO, Patrick Doyle) Domino’s launched a new marketing campaign, admitting that they weren’t perfect.
READ MORE