I thought it a little odd when Jeff Rayportstated that advertising is “now universally acknowledged to be broken” in this month’s Harvard Business Review. Sure we’re a little challenged at the moment, but I’d say that Steve Jobs, Google, Bono, Dove and many others would heartily disagree. He goes on to offer (not) groundbreaking advice, like advertisers should try to hit people with the exact right message, at the right place and at the right time.
Then he slides completely off the chair by creating a new word, vivistitial, to go on at considerable length about obviously-good ideas such as Captivate’s elevator ads. How about locostitials (think “location,” not train…)?
And what of the psychostitial?? This is a new word for the timeless idea that an ad can be effective by bridging the gap between what a person actually does and what she aspires to do or be: so he backdates Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign to fit into his psychostitial definition.
And finally there is the anthrostitial (an effort that gives an individual a sense of belonging, a la Tupperware) and the autostitial, an ad that makes a person believe he is a car. I’m kidding. An autostitial, Rayport says, is an engaging ad that a person will choose to watch over other available entertainment options.
The May issue of Fortune offers a “Three-Minute Manager” lesson on how to handle growth without losing focus. The issue also tried to say something about CEOs based on how they comb their hair… but I digress.
Given that I’m a hardcore build-the-brand-through-customer-engagement person, I thought Ken Chenault’s insights were particularly useful – and American Express has certainly had its distractions in the past.
1. Watch for high turnover among new customers. This goes for consumers as well as business clients. I’ve been consulting for a company in the email marketing space. This company signed a new client… who then did not hear from the company for over 30 days. The new client exited the relationship.
2. Be careful of growth that comes from price promotion. While you’re ramping up to handle the new volume you may (a) neglect loyal ones and (b) lose these price-chasers the next time another firm offers a better deal.
3. Work hard to ensure that every business you enter has a natural connection to the brand and business model. Chenault offers the American Express Advisors spin-off (see above link) as an example of exiting a perfectly decent business but one that became a drag on the core of the company.
4. Never take your eye off innovation. American Express has set aside a $50 million innovation fund and employees win seed money for ideas approved by the management team. The multiples of good karma here are obvious.
5. Push forward when everyone else is holding back. This is good advice for companies that know they’ll weather the storm. The same actions and dollars spent will allow you to gain more competitive ground than in good times when everyone is equally geared up.
And fyi, AmEx took its own advice, bucking the trend among credit card issuers to cut marketing efforts. While spending for the overall category was down in 2007, American Express spent 3% more than it did in 2006. American ExpressKen Chenault
Barney’s New York, the shopping haven for chic (and loaded) ladies on New York’s Upper East Side, is getting smart about its website.
The company has retained a company named Proclivity to help it identify and leverage shopping patterns captured on barneys.com.
Proclivity was started by a genetics scientist named Sheldon Gilbert. After moving into the private sector, projects involving the websites for J.Crew, Best Buy and MSLO made him realize how much site data is wasted. Describing scientists as “pattern hunter[s],” Gilbert created a proprietary system to look for online behavioral patterns. The system is self-learning. Barney’s is Proclivity’s first client.
With Proclivity’s help, Barney’s can now look at spending behavior through many different filters. An online customer who has bought a necklace, bottle of shampoo and vase may not have yielded any meaningful information in the past, but Proclivity can identify the fact that all the items were on sale when purchased and tell the system to send this customer emails calling out sales and specials. If the customer’s shopping behavior changes, so will the emails he/she will automatically receive. Proclivity can identify other kinds of patterns, such as order of purchase (do women buy shoes before or after hosiery?) and products most likely to be bought together, such as handbags and wallets.
Just as Barney’s VP of e-commerce did, most of us should view a new whiz-bang system with caution. But with response rates 10x higher than before and a plan to integrate store shopping behavior into the system, I don’t need Gilbert’s degree in biophysics to predict that Proclivity is going to see a lot more retail business in the future. barneysbarneys new york”sheldon gilbert””pattern recognition”
I happen to like Starbucks’ new, more mellow “everyday” coffee, Pike Place. I’ve always liked Starbucks, actually, but certainly knew what my mother meant when she said she couldn’t drink Starbucks because she thought it was like battery acid. And I’m addicted to Sweet ’n Low (hold that thought for a different post) and find I can add less to the new brew, so that’s a nice added benefit in my book.
But when Howard Schultz said that he thought the brew and other changes would refresh/restore the brand’s luster, I was a little surprised.
Starbucks is an addiction for many many people. We line up like lemmings to hand over anywhere from $2.50-$7 for a cup of joe. The coffee itself is not the company’s problem. They did wander off the reservation a bit with other products, such as breakfast food, but I firmly believe that the new products themselves did not trigger the resulting gripes: it was the bad smell the food created and the way the new offerings slowed down the lines. In other words, the underlying problem was not the product but the reduction in service that resulted. The new products screwed with that delicate intangible – how it made us feel – and the fat lady began to sing.
Brand is based on characteristics that ascend a company’s products: desire, aspiration, pleasure. On top of their smelly and slow breakfast pitch, Starbucks is suffering because it isn’t doing a great job hiring, it’s not able to handle long lines (and the wandering minstrel wearing the headset is just plain irritating, because all it does is move the bottleneck down the line to the cashiers), and it compromised its physical environment: all of which punched a hole in the hipness (i.e. Seattle coffee house) that was so important to the company early on.
You know those little red straws that come taped to the side of WD-40 cans? I always, always lose them. And as a marketing person, I’m sad to say that I never really noticed such a significant product enhancement opportunity.
Luckily, it turns out that other customers have noticed… it’s just that they’ve been noticing (and complaining) for 55 years!Yes, in yesterday’s press release the company’s CEO refers to the past 5 years they’ve been working on this improvement – but reveals just how long they’ve been at it in more of a a cosmic sense.
For 55 years, the only consistent product complaint with WD-40 has revolved around consumers and trade professionals losing the little red straw,” said Garry Ridge, president and chief executive officer of WD-40 Company. “The conversion to the Smart Straw is WD-40 Company’s way of telling its end users that we’re not just listening, but also utilizing true product innovation to give them exactly what they need to get the job done.”
I love this company and its products. WD-40 first became available in stores in San Diego in 1958 and it’s been de-gumming just about everything ever since.
And actually, I think the “this shows our customers that we’re listening” statement reflects a certain charming quality about the company. But 55 years? 55 years! Whole generations of employees came and went thinking, “When will they fix that friggin’ straw??” Some must be dead!
A true case of “better late than never” that’s never been better. Pull out a new can of WD-40 and stop a squeak today.
As some of you know, I poke (and poke again) fun every once in awhile at off-reservation market research techniques, but some newfangled tools reinforce some old and worthy observations.
NeuroFocussays that a number of studies between 2006 and 2007 have yielded 60+ best practices intended to help marketers craft more engaging and effective visual materials. Through some trippy tools with names such as “galvanic skin response” and “electroencephalography” (which sounds painful), the company has created guidelines including the idea that individuals absorb text/information better on the left and visuals/graphics on the right. There’s a lot more to it – and Nielsen has made a strategic investment in the firm, which always makes my ears perk up - so I think the company’s work bears following.
One part that does seem new and notable to me is the conclusions they are able to draw when contrasting men and women and (dominant) English- vs. Spanish-speaking subjects.
The year is 1978. Disco, clubs, those long sparkly gold and silver scarves a bunch of us wore around our necks trying to look/be cool. Christie Brinkley was the model of the day and Billy Joel’s 52nd Street was the #1 album of the year – Big Shotwas the anthem of the wild New York coked-up beauty queen. My contemporary, Brooke Shields, played a 12-year-old prostitute in Pretty Baby.Star Wars had come out the year before and the idea that Times Square would someday look like Disneyworld would have been preposterous.
I was young, but just old enough to realize boys existed and that there was something going on there. Rod Stewart’s Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? moved me. I had absolutely no clue why, but it did. Big time. I am certain that you have a few sacred songs like this one, even though you’d never admit it.
So last night I hear the song coming from my tv and look up from the newspaper to see a huge claymation Chips Ahoy cookie singing “If ya want my body, and ya think I’m sexy, come on sugar let me know/If you really need me just reach out and touch me…” to a blonde female claymation figure sitting on (the bachelor cookie’s) couch looking – uh – hungry.
I was – plundered. Horrified. I mean, I’d seen Bob Dylan shilling for Victoria’s Secret and heard the resulting cries of angst but it hadn’t affected me: wrong coming-of-age decade. But now, Nabisco had taken my delicate young girl memories and, and, turned them into a chocolate chip cookie! Have they no shame? Will marketing people stop at nothing??
And the commercial most certainly did not make me want a cookie!
I am just Stephanie writing this, not a marketing executive. But I would say that many of my marketing colleagues and I frequently get a good laugh out of trying to picture the client/agency meeting that spawned an idea. Picture it: you are the cookie brand/category manager at Nabisco and someone suggests Da Ya Think I’m Sexy for Chips Ahoy. What. Goes. Through. Your. Mind?
Oh well. I’ll be ok. But if anyone uses Yvonne Elliman’s If I Can’t Have Youto sell a candy bar, I’m a goner.
As many of you gentle readers know, my other blog sometimes features the brilliant and brilliantly funny BrandCamp cartoons created by Tom Fishburne (like here and here and here again).
So now that we’re up and running on all cylinders here at SF:MOGD, I dare not deprive you of similar pleasures, right? To that end, we will sometimes feature the work of David T. Jones, creator of AdWeek’s weekly Adland feature. Thank you, David, for giving us permission several months ago – we’ll try to stay worthy.
As a great way to start, here is the viral video Jones challenged all ad folks to send around the Web… and its follow-up. Enjoy!
First JuicyCampus, now this.
UK-based www.missbimbo.com claims to target girls as young as 9 to find their inner tramp. A player’s ultimate goal is to get a “fun job to pay for your needs and all the clothes a bimbo could possibly want” and “become the trendsetting bimbo in town.” To do this, a player must do whatever it takes, even resorting to extensive ”meds or plastic surgery.” You pay for stuff with “bimbo dollars,” and if you run out of the free ones, you must send text messages costing £1.50 each or use PayPal to replenish your account. The tagline? “Become the hottest, coolest most famous bimbo ever.” The site claims to have over 380,000 registered players, mostly girls age 9 to 16.
The site was created by Nicholas Jacquart, a French entrepreneur who started with Ma-Bimbo and its 1.2 million subscribers. Parents are tweaking. A father says he was appalled when he saw his 9 and 14 year old daughters ”looking at possible breast operations and facelifts for their bimbos at the game’s plastic surgery clinic.” And you just know that’s gonna cost a whole lotta £1.50s!
Based on what I do for a living I’m not often the one to argue that movies/comics/games are corrupting our youth, but the site’s claims that it is “simply mirrors real life in a tongue-in-cheek way, [and that] the missions and goals for the bimbos are morally sound and teach children about the real world” are, I hope, over everyone’s line.
But chin up: the site has done away with the diet pills feature, and you can send your bimbo to college (to find a “sugar daddy,” but it’s still college!). missbimbo.comma-bimbomiss bimbo.com
Lobbycon. barcamp. SXSW. Foo Camp.
How many of these terms do you know? If you’re too busy prepping your slide presentation for that conference coming up, you may have a problem.
Web 2.0 has come to the conference circuit, and it’s crazy! Gone are the days when you sit, they present. You pay, and sit some more, someone else talks. You write your grocery list while – you get the picture. Web 2.0 tools including Meebo, Twitter, Utterz, the reliable old chat room, Flickr and a host of other sites are transforming audiences into event participants – or disrupting events entirely.
Witness the unfortunate, widely-covered case of BusinessWeek’s Sarah Lacy interviewing Mark Zuckerburg at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) on topics the audience decided were booor-ingggg. Many began twittering, and the angst in the room built to the point of mutual hostility between Lacy and audience members who began hollering (or worse) once the microphone was opened to the floor.
At a lobbycon, people show up to a conference without paying and mingle with speakers, organizers and fellow enthusiasts in the lobby for free. That’s how we get the most of these things anyway, right? And back at SXSW, the line for the Google party became so long that tech bloggers shot video of the line and started twittering they were going to set up a separate party down the street at a bar. Within 30 minutes, 100 people had arrived.
And then there’s the un-conference, where people show up and determine the agenda on the spot. A group might determine areas of key interest, vote on them and those able to present do so. The two most notable un-conferences thus far are Foo Camp and barcamp.
Personally, whether I’m on the dais or sitting there in the dark, I’m excited. If I’m presenting and can get some (polite?) signals to head in another direction, great. And if I’m in the audience and can help transform a tedious session, fantastic. This is just the beginning, but I’d say that the overall effect at tech-savvy conferences will be more value (and entertainment) for your conference dollar. And presenters had better bring their A game, or be prepared for some virtual tomato throwing. sxswlobbyconbar campfoo camprobert scobletwittermeeboflickrweb 2.0
This blogger is not at all happy to find out that women are less likely than men to begin saving for retirement before the age of 30. A Rasmussen/Country Financial poll found that 42% of men vs. 35% of women start saving for this goal before the big 3-0.
This is even more troubling when one discovers that women are becoming far more pessimistic than men regarding the ability of the average middle class family to retire. Of the 50% of Americans who now believe that a middle class family cannot successfully save enough to secure a comfortable retirement, only 29% of women vs. 44% of men overall believe the same. The gender gap is even more dramatic for married individuals: just 32% of married women compared to 53% of married men think a middle income family can save for retirement.
And just to beat a dead horse a little more… Men are most concerned about ending up with enough money to “do what they like to do ” as they age (47%), while women are closely split between the same concern (37%) and worrying that they will run out of money altogether (36%). Run out of money altogether! And yet, men are more likely to say they have taken steps to alleviate their concerns (61%) than women (48%).
So women worry more and do less. This is not entirely new information, of course, and we are aware of its social, educational and cultural underpinnings, but the numbers are alarming.
Those of us in the financial services sector need to do better. I’ve talked about women and financial services before. At the event that sparked that very post, I met Linda Descano, the talented COO of Citicorp’s Women & Co. Women & Co is a smart, savvy resource that’s free for select Citibank/Smith Barney clients and $125 a year for others. Worth every penny.
We need more more more. High school graduation rates in this country are a mess, we know. But college? When we’re in charge, no one gets out of college without taking a required series of mini-courses every year on how to save, invest and build credit. Yes, when we’re in charge…
Loyalty marketing is a hot topic for me, as – broad strokes – the very definition of said process is to take actions that bind a consumer more readily to your brand than another over time. That gets into all the sexy (I’m serious) issues such as CRM, behavioral targeting and datamodeling, or at least it should. TowerGroup, a research and consulting firm that works with nearly all the banks, estimates that reward programs are a factor in nearly 70% of all card transactions in the U.S. today – so loyalty programs and rewards (costs, administration, appeal, redemptions, etc.) are a big deal.
I recently blogged on the topic of retail/QSR loyalty programs and mainstream credit card technology here – take a look.
Now Tower is proposing that drastic economic challenges offer credit card firms an opportunity to adjust their reward programs to reflect benefits more in line with pressing consumer needs. So while some consumers may still want to pile on points to earn a Hawaiian vacation, there are many more who may respond to offers that help them improve their credit and pay off debt.
This approach might include an emphasis on cash-based credits that could be used to pay down card balances – perhaps the spend-to-point translation could even be set at a higher level if the cardmember agreed to apply the points to his/her balance vs. getting an HD television. Other incentives could include heavily discounted credit report subscriptions (that the issuer would subsidize) and tiered breaks on APR if the consumer is willing to spend down his/her balance quicker.
I’m inspired by this approach because it’s practical and reflects the realities of the U.S. economy. Hawaiian trips are great, and maybe a consumer who just lost his job will someday be able to once again aspire to such a reward but – today – you show that consumer you’re paying attention and that you care about his well-being by making adjustments accordingly. Done well, this will set an issuer apart from the pack.
There are plenty of trigger behaviors, too, that can help an issuer identify vulnerable consumers in its portfolio. It’s also good defensive behavior as consumers consider spending less or shifting to cash or debit.
So right on! credit cardsloyalty marketingtower groupcredit scorecustomer loyalty
* Why everyone is so up in arms over the idea of Microsoft buying Yahoo that they’re coming out of the woodwork to “save” Yahoo. I mean, isn’t the Microsoft-Is-Evil-And-Wants-To-Eat-Your-Face thing over yet? And – wait – News Corp.? So MSN-Yahoo-MySpace-AOL… ? Look, I’ve read everything you’ve read. I understand how non-competitive people think this could be. I just don’t think it’s relevant. All of the Internet efforts these companies are holding aloft (paging Hulu) because they don’t want someone else to figure things out first – and G-d bless them all (Hulu) - will see another inevitable shake-out (Hulu). There is too much online chaos, these companies are too big, there’s too little money being made outside of Google and I just don’t buy the old anti-trust worries here. We “web people” need to move on to the business of building and promoting sites that customers actually want. And P.S. Yahoo is testing Google AdSense – so they’re getting on with it while they’re not getting on with it. Neeeeext!
* Why the NY State legislature would pass the NY Internet State Tax, and how NY residents could possibly look at this as anything other than a new tax.
* How a sweet young woman, Melissa Riggio, could pass away. When I met her, there was practically a halo of energy and vitality around her. Our thoughts are with the Riggio family.
Why are they great? Entertaining, but not overboard. Educational, but not soporific. Look and feel that reinforces brand essence. Not all whiz-bang. Just product, spiffed up a bit.
VOLKSWAGEN: INNER BEAUTY
For the past three years, I’ve worked for the greatest comic book company in the universe, DC Comics(yes, the whole universe, and we comics people know our universes…).
And as I’ve written before, certainly one of the most significant boosts to the comics business and the U.S. publishing business overall has been the rise of the graphic novel, essentially a long-form comic in book form. A graphic novel can be about anything, just like a “regular” book: life, death, war, biography, sex, fantasy, you name it. The business has gotten an enormous push into the mainstream thanks to efforts including Art Spiegelman’s In The Shadow Of No Towers and several non-superhero graphic-novel-based movies in recent years including V For Vendetta , Constantine and A History of Violence (all DC/Warner Bros. Entertainment films, natch). The graphic novel business in the U.S. and Canada was pegged at $330 million at the end of 2006 and is likely to see another 10%+ growth when final numbers for 2007 are tabulated.
Now comes the first business-oriented graphic novel, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need. Billed as a career advice manual for just about anyone who wishes for a better career, the “first business comic book” is written by Dan Pink, a former speechwriter for Al Gore and the author of several influential books on the changing workplace, including Free Agent Nation (2002) and A Whole New Mind (2006).
Told through the eyes of a cublicle-dweller named Johnny Bunko, Pink’s overall message is that there is power in making career decisions for basic, true reasons, such as doing something you love, rather than tactical ones, like taking a job because you think it will be lead to something else.
The book itself looks great. In the U.S., graphic novels provide a fresh and new way to tell any story. It’ll be interesting to see how the book sells. Watch this space. graphic novelmangaJohnny BunkoDaniel Pink
“If I don’t hear from him, I’ll think: Matt’s passed out again… It’s happened four or five times.”
So says the blogger Matt Buchanan’s boss in yesterday’s popularNew York Timesarticle “In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop.” Six people have sent this article to me in the past 24 hours, including my mother.
It’s one of the first pieces I’ve seen on the “lifestyle” of the contemporary blogger, but then again, this is still a very new way to pass one’s time and/or make a living. It’s also a new way to drop dead from stress, as the article tragically explains. Two bloggers have died since December from heart attacks and Om Malik, the prolific founder of techy GigaOm, survived a heart attack over the holidays.
If I had to sum up the article, I would say that the total and utter lack of boundaries that once existed and protected our professional lives have caused such a fundamental breakdown in external and internal expectations that life has become work, and work – life. Not so long ago, you couldn’t work all the time even if you’d wanted to: there was a physical workplace to which one traveled that was only accessible at certain times, work hours were tied to mores and productivity, the ability to communicate (fax, copier, typewriter, computer…) was tied to the office environment, and so on.What appears to happen when the shackles are taken off is that we run in circles all day and all night long until we keel over.
It’s complicated, too, by this idea of “even if we’d wanted to”: generations of people worked to survive without particularly liking their vocation. Many still do. What happens when you actually enjoy your work, your pay is directly tied to production and you can work anytime from anywhere? Who’s responsible for setting healthy limits – for saying that loving what you do is only great unless it envelops your life and the life of your family and then kills you?
Personally, I have observed that writing two blogs has changed my level of awareness. Particularly since I began this daily blog, I am always thinking about my next post even when I’m not thinking about it, if you know what I mean. If a blog I write for fun (with a definition of “daily” that only covers weekdays) has had this impact, I don’t want to think about how quickly I could become a member of this stress-by-blogging club.
If I were a PhD writing a thesis, this would be fertile, untilled ground related to any number of subjects including sociology and anthropology, psychology, technology, communication and economics and business. As a marketer and student of consumerism, it makes me think about how products and services – and the method of attaining them – will evolve to accommodate a 24-hour-a-day work clock lived by people who no longer divide their personal and professional lives. I have no doubt that Mr. Buchanan’s admission that he stays awake by mixing a protein supplement into his coffee (bleck!) has people everywhere trying to think up the next “instant bloggy booster.” Hopefully, a longer-term equilibrium will develop within the professional blogging community, as well. blogsbloggingom malikdeath by blogging
Between Priscilla You-Only-Know-Me-Because-I-Married-Elvis Presley whooping it up on “Dancing With The Stars” and the recent lawsuit over Marilyn Monroe’s “right of publicity,” I’ve been thinking about dead celebrities lately. And it wouldn’t be the first time.
In fact, the famous(ly) departed are in such demand that Forbes has been issuing its “Top Earning Dead Celebrities” list for 7 years now, and many a marketer has used Q Score research to assess the potential fit of a celebrity endorsement or association deal. The Q Score is a product of Marketing Evaluations, Inc., a research firm that surveys a representative sample of U.S. adults every two years to determine the familiarity and appeal of over 150 personalities (actors, sports stars, authors, chefs, etc.), may they be alive or dead.
Both the Forbes list and Q rankings point to the incredible endurance of some stars, as well as the interesting difference between the fluffy concept of popularity and the iconic attributes that generate cold hard cash. Elvis Presley is the biggest money maker but not the most popular; Lucille Ball is the most popular but is nowhere to be found on the Forbes list. Rodney Dangerfield, Clark Gable and John Belushi all have higher Q Scores than John Lennon, but Lennon’s is the second-highest grossing estate in 2007 at $44 million, while none of these other gentlemen are big income producers
What does it all mean, other than dead celebs are big business? Who knows. What I do know is that Elvis has been dead for over 20 years – and it’s highly unlikely that Britney, Miley, Blake, Sienna or Ashton will be making these lists two decades from now. ”dead_celebrities”elvis presleyLucille balljohn lennon”q score”advertising
Jeffrey Rayport
Harvard Business Review
”Captivate Network”
American Express
Ken Chenault 
Stephanie fierman
paul dunay
internet marketing![](http://static.technorati.com/static/img/pub/icon-utag-16x13.png?tag=barneys"){kind=icon}
barneys
barneys new york
”sheldon gilbert”
”pattern recognition”
starbucks
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marketing
First 
missbimbo.com
ma-bimbo
miss bimbo.com
Lobbycon. 
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foo camp
robert scoble
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meebo
flickr
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credit cards
loyalty marketing
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credit score
customer loyalty
volkswagen
huggies
berlitz
graphic novel
manga
Johnny Bunko
Daniel Pink
om malik
death by blogging
”dead_celebrities”
elvis presley
Lucille ball
john lennon
”q score”
