Women Are Taking Over

Women are in high demand.  True marketers know that women have a large target on them when it comes to messaging.  For example, we know that women are the decision-maker when it comes to healthcare decisions.  In fact, a boomer mom makes healthcare decisions for her kids, spouse, herself and her parents.  That is a lot of power when it comes to a target demographic.

Online, women also rule:  More than 60% of online transactions are made by females.  A comScore white paper, “Women on the Web,” says that women spend more dollars and have more transactions on the web, but account for less than half the Internet users.

And when women shop online, they want ads that have “money-saving offers,” according to ad server Unicast.  Women appreciate interactive components, such as prize entries or quizzes, but when it comes down to messaging, we need to show this audience the money and how to save it.

According to e-Marketer, women represent 80% of household spending in this country.  And that means women control $1.7 trillion annually in the US.  That is a takeover.  If you are selling something, why would you target anyone else?

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Blender Company Leads Viral Craze

The leading viral ad is not a funny chicken, a broken guitar, a crazy daredevil or a kid on a skateboard.  It is a boomer guy with a blender. 

According to Advertising Age’s Micheal Learmouth, “What’s remarkable about the top 10 is that viewers would voluntarily watch an ad 100 million times.”  What is also remarkable is that Blendtec, a maker of high-end blenders ($400+), has the No. 1 position on Ad Age’s Viral Chart of most-viewed viral campaigns.

The commercial is a somewhat funny, but the key may be that it has been around in the same form for more than four years.  Now that is consistency.  The Blendtec ”Will It Blend” series features CEO Tom Dickson in a white lab coat stuffing iPhones and iPads into a Blendtec blender.

The Top 5 are:  1) Blendtec ”Will It Blend?;” 2) Evian “Live Young;” 3) Old Spice “Responses;” 4) Pepsi ”Gladiator;” and 5) Microsoft “Xbox Project Natal.”

What is interesting is that these are, for the most part, commercials that have gained a huge audience.  The reach is incredible.  However, what is more respectable is how brave these brands are to move into the viral world.  Are you ready to blend up someone’s iPad?

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A Gravy Ladle’s Worth of Marketing Ideas

Thanksgiving is a great holiday:  food, friends, fun, Little Debbie Christmas Trees hit the stands and football.  With the holidays coming here is a buffet worth of marketing ideas for you to feast upon.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving, thank you to all I have stolen these ideas. 

• Give away turkey basters with a note inside saying how much you appreciate their business.  The basters are cheap and usable.
• Send a Thanksgiving card to people instead of Christmas cards.  It’s a great way to thank people for their business or contribution.
• If you don’t have a company/organization mascot, think about a turkey.  Every year it is the big bird on campus.  You could hold an annual Turkey Trot and have a real reason to call it Turkey Trot.
• Send out Cranberry recipes prior to Thanksgiving.  “We are berry thankful for your support.”  If you really have a budget, send out cranberries.  Always a welcome surprise.
• Protest for “Good Customer Service” or some other unusual idea.   Think of the attention of picketers chanting and marching for good.  There is no news over Thanksgiving so imagine the positive stories.
• Hire a quartet to serenade your favorite customers or stakeholders.  Have them carry a sign that let’s everyone know who is providing the music.
• Send elves (would have been a good idea for Halloween as well) to deliver treats to your clients and contributors.
• Hire some sign twirlers to send a strong message.  Don’t just promote a sale, promote an idea—it is more likely to get press coverage.

As I look through this list, there are a number of ideas that are just remakes of sound image-building techniques.  In this high-tech age, it is good to know some old-fashioned marketing really gets attention and brands you in real, relationship-building ways.  I’m abundantly thankful for that.

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Brand Loyal Boomers?

I continue to hear people talk about younger demographics as the sweet spot of a marketing plans.  I say baloney.  The sweet spot is boomer-age people and here is just one more reason.

According to the Burearu of Labor Statistics reported by the New York Times, unemployment for 15-24 is 16.7%.  For 25-44 it is 8.2% and 45+ is 6.3%.   1 in 8 of Millennials have boomeranged back home to parents.  Brent Bouchez, partner at agency FiveO, says that Boomers have 2.5 times the discretionary spending power of any other demographic group and hold 75% of the nation’s current wealth.

“Yes, but” Boomers are already brand loyal?  Are you kidding?  I’m going to look at my own brand usage (yes, I’m a Boomer) for some quick research:

Brand	1980s	2010
Beer	Old Milwaukee	Bud Select 55
Car	SAAB	Cadillac
Wine	Gallo	SilverOak
Cell phone	None	HTC Ozone
Computer	None	Dell
Health Ins	Blue Cross	United Health
Fast Food	McDonalds	Subway
Grocery Store	Randalls	HyVee
Soap	Zest	Dove
Ketchup	Heinz	Heinz
Mustard	French’s	French’s
Soda	Pepsi	Sprite 0
Toothpaste	Crest	Acquafresh
Coffee	Folgers	Starbucks
Soup	Campbell’s	Campbell’s
Running shoes	Nike	Nike
Laundry Soap	Cheer	Tide

There are very few brands that stand up to time.  I know this is not scientific, yet every time I see a Boomer carrying an iPad or a Kindle I know that this is a target rich marketing environment.  Younger demos, keep looking for those jobs.

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Photograph Employees on Monday

You may have heard of the ‘magic hour’ in photography and video.  It falls an hour before sunset or an hour after sunrise.  The light is magical at those times and the shadows add depth and contrast to photographs and video. 

There also may be a magic hour to shooting employee photographs and video.  According to Psychology Today, “Monday is the best-looking your colleagues will get.”  In a British study, the average woman spends 76 minutes on Monday primping, but only 19 minutes on Friday (including bathing, makeup, outfit and hair).  Men spend 28 minutes on Monday and 11 minutes on Friday.

Some experts believe that this effect is caused by our need to hype ourselves up for the work week, so we spend more time getting ready at the beginning of the week.

So, the next time you want to take a photograph of your CEO or colleague, book the shoot for Monday.  Avoid Fridays.

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Hallowed Halloween

Think Halloween is just for kids?  It is quickly becoming a major holiday full of decorating, food and costumes for kids of all ages.  And it is big business.  Is Halloween part of your marketing plans?  According to Robert Miller,  Central Michigan University marketing faculty member and retail trend-watcher, Halloween is starting to give even New Year’s and the Super Bowl a run for its party money.

Here are some trend-watching facts from Mr. Miller about Halloween: 

• Halloween was a one-evening event, but now stretches for a month.  Halloween bridges back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons.  That provides great cash flow in these slow economic times that are estimated at more than $3 billion in sales.
• Halloween is the third-largest party occasion, after New Year’s and the Super Bowl.
• Halloween continues to be the second-biggest holiday for decorating next to the winter holiday.  Halloween, not Thanksgiving, marks the beginning of the decorating season.
• It’s estimated that more than 65 % of people 18-40 will wear costumes.
• Halloween is a great stress release.  People can be anything without being overly judged.
• The American holiday is now invading in Canada, England, Australia and Japan.

The National Retail Foundation says that the average American will spend a little more than $66 on Halloween–and adults make up 50% of the costume sales.  Trick or treat?  I’ll have the Pumpkin Pie Martini please.

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Fun Facts to Know and Tell

From a marketing perspective, an abundance of trends and shifts in lifestyle are starting to impact our lives.   It is hard to make sense of them all, but here are a few that recently caught my eye:

• Time spent online in 2000 was 2.7 hours per week; in 2010 18 hours per week
• My kids won’t wear the wrist watches we got them for Christmas (they check the time on their cell phones)
• Number of daily newspapers in 2000, 1,480; in 2010, 1,302
• Books published in 2000, 282,242; in 2010, 1,052,803
• Top health website:  WebMD with nearly 8% market share.  #2 Righthealth.com; #3 Yahoo! Health.  WebMD is also the top general health content site visited by physicians.
• Half of adults 50-64 use social networking sites.  26% of people 65+ use social nets.
• 60% of Americans get news from a combination of online and offline sources:  Internet is now third-most-popular source behind local television news and national television news.
• Average time it takes a person to search the Internet following a doctor appointment is less than 20 minutes.
• The most time spent by mobile Internet users is doing e-mail (average 25 minutes per month); a little over 6 minutes for social networking; nearly 3 minutes for news.
• Average Facebook fan is worth a $137 ($270 is best case, $0 is worst case).  Facebook fans participate with a brand 10 times per year.
• More than 60% of online transactions are made by women.
• Average US citizen watches 158 hours of TV per month.
• Direct-to-consumer drug advertising on TV and online was more than twice as effective than advertising on online alone.
• 61% of Americans believe customer service is more important in today’s economic environment and will spend 9% more with a company that provides a high level of service.
• Social media tactics are growing for small business, but most (around 30%) do not integrate or cross-sell social media in e-mail campaigns or on their websites.

Don’t worry, there will be no quiz over this material—at least not from this blogger, but from your customers and stakeholders there may be a few questions.

Sources: Newsweek Backstory; Marketing Charts, Hitwise, comScore, Pew Internet & American Life Project, Nielsen, eMarketer.

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I Want My ‘Friend’ Discount

So you are a fan of a business on Facebook.  And just like a real fan or friend, you expect something in return, some value,  from your relationship.  Well, we know now it is money when it comes to social media.

According to a new study from ExactTarget and CoTweet, the “number one driver for consumers to ‘like’ a brand on Facebook” is receiving discounts.  Two other popular reasons, getting free samples/coupons and updates on upcoming sales, also helped boost the discount reason.

Providing feedback, interacting with the company and learning more about the company rated at the bottom of motivations to ‘like’ a company, brand or association on Facebook.  Showing support for a company to others surprisingly ranked very high.  So social marketing (sponsoring events, taking a stand on some efforts, etc) seems to have a high value for ‘liking’ a company on Facebook).

This study really shows that marketing on social media builds relationships.  In any relationship, there needs to be value added by each side.  In the case when customers ‘like’ a brand, there needs to be a cash incentive of some kind to keep the relationship alive.

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Kids and Puppies

I’m a big fan of using kids and puppies in advertising.   Children are like magnets for people’s eyes.  And puppies, well they are just so darn cute.  The problem is that some kids can get in the way of communicating your message if not done properly.

I was watching a local ad on television that included a child who was obviously part of the family business.  I’m sure this child is as cute as a puppy off camera, but for this television commercial the child was uncomfortably ‘busy’ and totally unintelligible.  In fact, it was so bad that the producer of the commercial included subtitles when the child was speaking.  There should be a simple rule:  If you need subtitles, you need different talent. (Now if you are using subtitles for a different reason, like TiVo, then subtitle away).

Selecting talent or spokespeople to represent your brand is important business.  You can damage your image and brand status with the wrong person speaking on your behalf.

The camera loves certain people:  Some people look incredibly striking on camera and others, many of whom are very attractive people in person, do not.    And just like big people, not every child is made for advertising.  Some have it and some don’t.   It takes years of experience to successfully select talent.  It is why casting companies are so prominently displayed in movie credits.

Now if you are going to use kids in a commercial, and you want to be safe, use babies.  E-Trade used a barfing baby and it was perfect—although E-Trade dubbed in big-people voices.  Now there’s an idea. Cue the kids’ chorus and bouncing puppies.  I’m exiting stage left.

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Betty Crocker Knows How to E-mail

I love the Betty Crocker e-mails.  I know I’m not the target, and I’m mostly a meat and potatoes cooker, but the Betty Crocker e-mails make my mouth water.

Here’s what Betty does better than any other e-mail I receive:

• It is timely.  Food is related to the seasons.  It all makes sense to me.
• Great photography.  I know we all have cameras in our phones, but what we all don’t have is the eye and patience to really do photography right.
• Short, poignant copy.
• Always include a valuable coupon.
• Ideas.  Lots of ideas.
• Usually have a contest of some kind.
• The e-mail comes on a regular basis, but not too often.
• It is colorful, bright and looks fun.

What don’t I like:

• It’s not humanized.  They have a perfect opportunity to create an iconic character.
• It is not interactive.  I want to talk with Betty.
• The subject line sometimes looks like spam and not my Betty Crocker e-mail I requested.

The real problem is that my food never looks like it does in the photographs—those advertising people.  The best part of the Betty Crocker e-mail is that it really sells its products without cramming it down my throat.  And that is an art and a science, just like cooking.

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