Sep 28, 2010 | Branding, Communication, Customers, Social Media
Social media, as I keep saying, has changed the rules completely.
In the pre-digital days of mass marketing, the consumer simply ignored most of the stuff thrown at them, and there was no genuinely effective mechanism to measure the waste.
Now, using the tools of the web the task has changed, as we can measure many dimensions of a messages effectiveness very quickly, and effectively, so the waste is measurable, and the degree of engagement, or “opt-in” becomes a key performance measure of marketing.
This is a whole lot harder than going to lunch with the ad agency, and then just throwing money at the TV or popular magazine in the hope that some of it would stick, as we can now measure not just awareness, but the degree of consumer “opt-in” any communication generates.
Sep 8, 2010 | Branding, Marketing, Small business
Many companies face the challenge of commercial sustainability in mature markets, with declining patronage, increasing costs, and often a fatalistic view of the future.
Last year, I went with a couple of my kids to a performance of ‘A midsummer nights dream” in the Sydney Domain. Wonderful!.
This performance recognises there is an untapped market for these wonderful plays amongst people who would be unlikely to be theatre goers in the “normal” sense, i.e., they do not subscribe to a theatre season, or frequent Shakespeare performances, but the less formal, relatively cheap experience of seeing a classic comedy play under the stars, enjoying a picnic on a summer evening is irresistible to some of those missed by traditional theatre marketing.
What a great way to introduce new customers to Sir Bill, and perhaps convert them to regulars, opening new avenues for exploration, a lesson for others in mature markets?.
Aug 22, 2010 | Branding, Strategy
Almost everyone has heard the term “Dow Jones” or perhaps “The Dow” and know at least that it is something to do with stocks in the US, but few would immediately think of it in the context of a brand. It probably would not get onto a list of the most famous brands, unlike Marlborough, Microsoft, Exxon, Coca-Cola, and others, but is nevertheless is a great brand.
The “Dow” was created in 1896 by Wall Street Journal founder Charles Dow, and originally indexed 12 stocks on the NY exchange, since expanded to 30 in 1916, and has had various indices added to follow differing segments of the US economy.
The Dow now has 116 years of delivering a simple, transparent, and consistent service to its consumers, who have faith in the integrity and purpose of the product they consume, and is the standard against which others are measured.
What more could you want in a brand?
Aug 15, 2010 | Branding, Customers, Innovation, Marketing, Social Media
How do you compare prices in a range of stores when standing in the aisle of your local supermarket?
The easy answer now, is “on your iphone“. A crowd called Red Laser have an app that scans the code, compares the product/price to others scanned (presumably there is a data base somewhere out in the cloud) and using google maps is able to compare prices in your general location.
This development has the potential to re-write the equation between brands, the value of things like location and parking, and price in the retail space, and with effectively an FMCG retail duopoly in Australia, it will consume some headspace in Co-op castle in Melbourne, and the Taj in Sydney.
It is a “pity” we wasted millions on a “Grocery Watch” white elephant, a technology/populist bet in the early days of the Rudd government, when a couple of years down the track, a similar thing can be done better on your phone. We now have the same sort of thinking making a 45 billion dollar bet on the NBN, a bet that will impact on generations. Hope they get it right this time!
Aug 5, 2010 | Branding, Marketing, Small business, Strategy
Many businesses are sorely tempted to drastically reduce marketing expenditure during a downturn, it is often the most visible, and usually the least understood item in the P&L.
The evidence indicates that you should be keeping spending up.
Time and time again we see businesses that keep their marketing expenditure going during a downturn are in a much better position when the cycle moves up again. A dollar spent in a tough environment (assuming it is intelligently spent) is of far more long term value than the same dollar spent in the flush.
Now we appear to be in the recovery stage of the cycle, although anecdotally all bar mining appears to be pretty flat, opportunities will emerge to leverage the better circumstances, but discipline is needed to retain the focus that usually is heightened during a downturn. Below are three of rules of thumb:
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- Have a “Sku spring-clean”. Now things are improving, it is tempting to keep that small volume Sku, the “homeless” small brand, the small subsidiary acquired by accident, better to manage out of them to free working capital and enable management focus, and now times are a bit better, the cost of exit will be reduced.
- Don’t just push growth for growths sake, because it seems possible to get some, use the freed up resources to strengthen existing business before you chase growth for the sake of it.
- Don’t take the pressure off the cost cutting initiatives, the next downturn is somewhere just ahead, and your competitors will keep reducing their costs.
The cycles of economic activity appear to be getting much quicker, and competitive activity more aggressive and reactionary, so it is becoming even more important to have a firm view of the long term positioning. Define the brand development program, set long term performance measures, and stick to them as it will now take several economic cycles to get any meaningful result. Rather than being able to invest and make the return in the one cycle as has been the case in the past, it will now take several cycles to generate any long term depth .
Aug 3, 2010 | Branding, Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales, Social Media
Social network marketing is a fundamentally different beast to “traditional “marketing. When talking to marketers, they usually see social media as being in effect free, the challenge is to get the message spread, often by being outrageous, generating awareness for little money compared to traditional media.
To my mind, it is much more complicated than that. “Word of Mouse” on social media has to be earned, and that is really challenging, requiring intimate knowledge of the marketplace, customers, their behaviour, and what is likely to positively engage them. Traditional marketing makes it easy to gain a general level of awareness, you just have to pay for it, but like most things that are easy, the return is very low.
