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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How Is Your 2010 Plan Working?

There are 4 months remaining in 2010 (just 100 days to Christmas).  So how is your marketing plan working so far?  In December of 2009, Entrepreneur magazine listed the following marketing goals for emerging technologies this year:

• Test search engine optimization
• Invest in paid search
• Test blogging
• Invest in e-mail marketing
• Start a social media effort
• Invest in your web experience for users
• Invest in online video

Of all the goals, the three I believe you should be moving up on your priority list are:

1. Online video:  Add video to your website and post videos on YouTube.
2. Improve your website experience:  It’s time to energize your website and make it more focused on the people who use it.
3. Work on search engine optimization:  It’s great to have a good website, but people need to be able to find it when they are looking for the things you do.

No matter where the technology takes us in marketing, the ongoing goal for all of us is tightly focusing on the audience.  No matter which media you use, you need to make sure your message is refined directly in the bull’s-eye of your target audience.  And just think, only about 20 more blogs until I start talking about goals for 2011.

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Screens Are Flat; Content Is Not

I was reading a series of articles in Media (yes, a real, paper magazine) titled, “Screens Are Flat.  The Content Is Not.”   The coming visual age is here to stay.  Screens of all sizes, shapes, abilities (from HD to 3-D) and locations are now possible.  I was even riding in a cab in Vegas that had a video screen in it.

The announcement of Google TV will allow video to become much more interactive.  Every television ad can become an interactive event.  It will also blur the lines between online and watching TV.

So how do you jump in?  Start by placing more video on your website.  Keep it YouTube short (2 minutes max).  Instead of putting another copy block on your site, add a video viewer and tell and show people what you want them to know.

The danger with video is that you can look amateurish—fast eroding your valuable credibility.  Be sure to practice your talking points until you are very relaxed and use a teleprompter (so you can read the copy while looking into the camera),  and ensure the lighting makes you pop.

According to e-Marketer report, “[Retailers] find that videos boost sales-conversion rates and reduce abandoned shopping cart and product return rates.”  The report found that consumers rank other purchase decision-making tools ahead of video in importance.  One of those was customer reviews.  So imagine the double-shock power of a video customer review will have on your website.

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Focus on the Family PR Win

Don’t get mad at me.  This is not a blog about pro-choice or pro-life movements.  It is a blog about the power of public relations and the fact that I believe Focus on the Family did one of the best PR campaigns I’ve ever seen with their Super Bowl ad. 

What did they do that was so incredible?  They stopped barking, for one thing.  And, they started thinking about selling benefits.  They then enlisted the perfect spokespeople for their cause — the Heisman-winning quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother — and had them tell a very compelling story.  Focus on the Family also developed an ad ”safe enough” for CBS to approve for air during the Super Bowl (and the fact CBS really needed the nearly $3 million for the commercial).  Once CBS released that Focus on the Family purchased the commercial, the PR buzz (in traditional press and on the Internet) was incredible.  By including Tim Tebow, the public relations train even made stops on sports talk radio. 

Most advocacy ads use shock value and righteous indignation to sell messages.  Anger might help win for Super Bowl teams, but not on the field of public support.   Only true benefits rule the day in marketing. 

Sure, the ad was safe, but with the heavy pre-air PR, the ad achieved a national awareness it could never have generated on its own. 

So what can we learn?  Sometimes lowering your voice can make your point loud and clear.  And, telling the right story can build PR value beyond your commercial’s placement–even if you place the ad in the Super Bowl.  Let’s hope all advocacy advertisers learn from this example.  Save the barking  for the dogs.   

Equal time rebuttal:  Even this Jimmy Kimmel rebuttal feeds the Tim Tebow PR value–but it is really funny. 

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Viral Video and the Cowboys

Did you watch the Dallas Cowboys game Saturday night?  Did you see the super-sized HD screens?  Even the players and coaches could be caught watching the big screen TVs from the sidelines.  Today, video is more compelling and video is viral. 

In the new stadium there are 71-foot-high and 160-foot-wide mammoth HD monitors stretching from one 25-yard line to the other.  Surprisingly, there are another 3,000 video screens in the stadium  (1 for every 30 fans).  

That is so, according to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, you can tell the “whole story” of the game.  Video cameras are everywhere in the stadium so they can show people in the stands or a player going to the locker room for an X-ray during the game.  You see the game and the ‘back stories.’ 

“They can’t turn away, so you can hammer them with your message,” said Mr. Jones.

It is TV’s on-screen movement that keeps you from turning away.   White space leads the eye in print media, but movement directs the eye on a video screen.  And video (or video-like) movement on a Web site makes for a more compelling brand/selling experience.

Video is also the best way to go viral:  A Canadian singer couldn’t get United Airlines to pay for his guitar damaged by baggage handlers.  Finally, United paid $3,000 to the singer’s favorite charity.  Why? He made a music video about the experience, “United Breaks Guitars,” and generated  7 million hits on YouTube.   Now that will get things moving in any company. In fact, United now uses the music video to train service reps, but alas, not baggage handlers. 

Blog Brand Promise:  This blog will energize your marketing in less than 1 minute — unless you are a very slow reader. 

Note:  The idea for today’s blog came from one of my ‘pickets.’  A ‘picket’ is a lookout, a soldier watching for a surprise attack.  Thanks for the photo Dee. 

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Amazon’s Kindle and Pay-for-Content

There are so many marketing ideas to talk about from the Christmas holiday:   high-tech gifts, Urban Meyer’s mixed status messages to the press, record holiday movie attendance, and retail vs online sales.   However, a gift for me under the tree reaffirmed my thinking about paying for content. 

My wife got me an Amazon Kindle for Christmas.  I was skeptical at first, but now I’m hooked and I have not even read a book on the e-book device.  The reason is as we drove to my family’s celebration in Mason City, I read the New York Times and then USAToday.

I have a 14-day trial with the papers, but I know I’m going to subscribe to at least one.  I personally believe reading the paper at a computer is ridiculous.  You can’t carry (or read) the computer at the beach, in the restroom, the car, the deck or hammock.  The Kindle fixes all that. 

What I miss with the newspaper on Kindle are the special offers and ads.  So newspapers will need to find a way to distribute some key information for people to peruse if they are interested.  Newspapers will also need to rethink how some of the content is laid out and disseminated, but this new medium could be the way magazines and newspapers find a way to make money in this digital age.  

People will pay for content.  But the content must be relevant to the readers or they will get on the Kindle store and find a new source — and that consumer control is what is making this a new age for information and media.

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HO to the Third Power

I have a button I wear every Christmas.  I believe I’ve had it for more than 20 years.  Some people get the message, many do not.   The way my mind works, I got it the first time I saw it and I had to buy the button.  However at parties and in group settings,  I see some people struggle to find the true meaning. (Sounds like a good Christmas tale?)

When I see the way different people react to the button, it always reminds me of how people respond differently to messaging and advertising. 

Scientists and physicians rarely get the button’s message.  I’ve had many say, “What element is that?” or “I know what H2O is, but what is HO3?”   Kids get the button’s message fast and are the first to yell out “HO-HO-HO.”  More women than men decipher the meaning.   Detail people don’t get it; 10,000-foot people usually see the joke.   

It doesn’t mean that one group is better than the other.  It means we are different in how we view and interpret messages.  One message rarely works for all people.

We really need to think about our target audiences psychographically, rather than just demographically.  So the next time you are thinking about putting a message out there, think about what the people you are trying to reach are like:  How do they view the world? Are they left- or right-brain thinkers? How are they moved emotionally?  Then ,craft your message accordingly.  

And if you are too clever, you may be missing a large part of your audience. Loud and literal always wins the day, even at Christmas.  HO HO HO.

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Does ‘Since’ Matter?

In advertising we make great efforts to include “since” in our names.  Some even use it as a tagline:  ‘GBL bank since 1888.’  How about  Facebook, since 2006?  In this new economy, does ‘since’ matter?  In this new day, being the newest may matter more.  Do you care as a consumer that MySpace started before Facebook or that GM started before Toyota?  

Benefits matter, not the year you started in business.  Imagine if we went around and introduced ourselves like we do our organizations: “Hi, I’m Mark since 1958.”  Actually, I’d rather hide my age.  New really seems to be in (since 2009):  New media, new economy, new age, new technology — all seem to indicate that we are in the age of “NOW.”  We were in the information age; it is now, the NOW AGE.   

Cell phones, smart phones, Twitter, Facebook posts, LinkedIn, even blogs all point to the now-ization of our lives and how we communicate.  We all tend to be living more in the now than ever before.   And, this is changing how we need and consume news and information (and marketing messages).   Also, this now-ization explains why our attention spans are getting so short.    

The other problem with ‘since’ is that it gives no benefit or underlying reason to use the company or organization.  “Acme Dry Cleaners since 1964.”   They may have been operating poorly since 1964.  

Normally, you should have a feeling of stability and credibility because of the ‘since’ tag line.  However, because of the new normal economy and technology takeover. I have a  sense that ‘since’ is gone — well, at least since 2009.

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Throwaway Marketing Words

Words mean things.  Yet in marketing, we tend to puff-up everything.  We try to sound comprehensively smarter.  We try to sound very excited.  We try to sound louder!

George Carlin hated unnecessary words, such as, “Let’s begin the boarding process.”  Why a “process?” Why don’t we just begin boarding?  He also hated shower ‘activity,’ confidence ‘level,’ knowledge ‘base,’ and fear ‘factor.’

Here’s a short list of other advertising words that should be cut from marketing lingo:

• Simply…the best.  Why do we always explain so much and then end with “simply…________.”  It is never that simple and everyone knows it, but you.
• Crush the competition.  This is mostly a car-dealer line.  Do people know or care about the elusive “competition?”  Most business is not playing a game, so try selling benefits instead.     
• Most competitive prices.  That is a sure sign you don’t know why you charge what you do.  Competitive with what?  Competitive means you’re not the lowest. 
• Comprehensive care.  ”We simultaneously center our programs on an integrated approach to healthcare delivery.”  That almost makes sense.  I wish comprehensive would go the way of tertiary care.
• Very.  I especially love that very unique attribute of making something more than it can be.
• And More!  There never is more.  There is always just what was listed.
• !  We were all given 5 exclamation points at birth.  Use them sparingly.  They mean a yell such as “Fire!” “Look out!” ” He’s got a gun!”  Not “Limited time!”  “Come in and see what we have for you!” ”Cider and cookies this weekend! “And more!”    

As Mr. Carlin said, “…my typing process is beginning to tire my finger area…It’s time to consider the break factor before I have a fatigue incident.”  Sounds really smart.

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The Band Won’t Play On

I went to the Iowa Hawkeye football game last Saturday.  The Hawks won and are now 9-0 and number 4 in the BCS rankings.  But I think as I was watching the game I was also witnessing a ‘shift’ change:  I believe I’ll be telling my grandchildren about how a live marching band use to come on the field and play. 

The marching band is being replaced by what is called Hawk Vision (giant video screens) and some super strong speakers.  Television ads, athletic event promos, sponsorships and hip music are drowning out any band performances during non-playing time.   Iowa kicks off to the Rolling Stones, not the band.   The team doesn’t enter to ruffles and flourishes , but high-tech animation and very loud recorded music. 

Even the Indiana and Iowa bands combined couldn’t compete with the decibel level from the press box.  The athletic department is in total control of all the sound of the game. 

What’s happening?  Marching bands have not kept pace with technology or modern music.  Bands look and sound basically the same as they have for years.       

It is Darwinism at its best.   There used to be a group called the Highlanders who played bagpipes at halftime, but changes in musical tastes and budget cuts moved them on.

I believe highly charged (recorded) music, video playback and a budget cut here and there will replace the marching band as we know it.  If, of course, they don’t adapt.  Marching bands need to go on a retreat and rethink the core. 

Marching bands, just like so many businesses today,  are wondering why no one is paying attention. Toot your own horn, but make sure your competitor isn’t playing synthesized music and showing video on a big screen.

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