Linguistics & Marketing Research

Linguistics has a lot to do with marketing, more than just advertising & communication... it is the link between the consumers and the marketers.


Unraveling the mysteries of consumer spending

The one that feeds an understanding the unmet needs and desires.

Also chk - Zipf's Law

Leaders Pushing Limits

Leaders Pushing Limits: Grace Andrews dabbles with Risk and Leadership in her post on FastCompany Now. Some nuggets from her post:

How do I keep the edge without jumping off the edge?

Continue moving…inaction leads to stagnation.

Read…anything.

Talk to people…constantly.

Ask for feedback and be open to what you hear.

Try something that seems counterintuitive.

Don't let others in your organization do all the dirty work.

Go work "on the line or in the trenches".

Do a 360 on yourself.

Try This

Make a list of all the things that inspire you about other leaders. Compare them to your skill sets. What are you missing that they have? This is a great place to start understanding what you need to do to go to the next level. Then start learning those skills and practicing them. Start now, even if it's scary. You don't have to jump out of a plane to get your heart pumping; sometimes it is as simple as looking in the mirror and telling yourself the truth about something you should be doing and then taking the steps to do it.

One last thought

I think finding and pushing your freak-out point occasionally is a good thing. If you're the adventurous type, then go for the gusto and climb, jump, surf. If you are not, don't let that stop you. There are ways to keep your edge, but lying down is not one of them.

All very relevant and interesting thoughts.

Echo boom...

I bet someone heard the word sonic boom and crafted the word echo boom... For a marketer the Echo Boomers (born between 1979-1989) are a $2.45 Trillion opportunity. An article in this morning's MediaPost talks about the attitudes, behaviors and personalities.

Some nuggets from the article: Visa Tells Marketers: Turn Your Attention To Echo Boomers

• Echos are more practical and mature in their spending habits and more generous to others
• Echos are are concerned about saving for retirement
• Echos see having money as a way to give back to others, especially family members and charities
• Nearly half of Echo Boomers (48%) describe themselves as savers
• When it comes to shopping, Echo Boomers are focused on getting more value for their money: 69% consider themselves wait-and-see shoppers, and 83% say they are bargain shoppers
• 80% of Echo Boomers stick to a strict budget when making purchases, and 81% describe themselves as trying to cut back on what they spend
• Even at their young age, more than 70% of Echo Boomers are concerned about having enough money for retirement, a degree of concern similar to the about-to-retire Baby Boomers (78%)
• 65% of Echo Boomers believe their generation is falling behind economically
• 81% do not believe their generation is spending more responsibly
• 88% of Echo Boomers like to buy things for others more often than buying things just for themselves
• If they had extra or discretionary money to spend, 63% of Echo Boomers would most likely spend that money on something for others
• Approximately 81% of Echo Boomers say they are giving what they can to charities
• Only 25% of Baby Boomers describe the Echo Boomers as an admirable generation compared to 68% of Echo Boomers who admire Baby Boomers
• Approximately 68% of Baby Boomers believe Echo Boomers are too self-centered and focused upon themselves
• While Baby Boomers have a desire for youth, only 7% would prefer to be a member of the Echo Boomer generation

Additional highlights from "How America Spends" include:

• According to the Yankelovich Monitor, being seen as "financially successful" is important to 49% of Echo Boomers, a 13% increase since 2002
• Echo Boomers (77%) more often feel the need to manage their spending better than Baby Boomers (66%)
• Echo Boomers believe they have more stress and anxieties compared to other generations (71%)
• Nearly half of Echo Boomers (49%) think that they do not have a better life compared to other generations

...disarm with a HELLO!

An article in this morning's New York Times on how advertising are embracing the hello again!

Madison Avenue Says Hello to ‘Hello,’ Again

From the Apple Macintosh in 1984 to the Applie iPhone 2007 and a lot many long the way - Avon, Level Vodka, even a twist from Colgate-Palmolive. The images are as interesting as the skits, gags & commercials.

What is your carbon footprint?

It is hard to ignore the topic of sustainability with the media coverage on the issue of global warming & climate change. An article in the MarketingNPV journal addresses the issues of Metrics associated with a brand and organizations environmental friendliness.

How Green Are Your Metrics?: At the dashboard level, there are four key areas companies should be making improvements in and measuring when trying to affect a positive change in greenhouse gas emissions:

• reducing your carbon footprint;
• reducing energy/fuel consumption;
• utilizing more renewable and sustainable resources; and
• recycling or reducing waste.

Some links:

• Redefining Progress
• My Footprint
  
• Hybrid Center
• Natural Step
• Global Footprint Network
• Turn the Tide
• Gaiam
  

Let's be Clear…..

Let's be Clear….. - I have been a long time fan of Marcus Buckingham. This morning I came across a post on FastCompany Now by Grace Andrews. Here are some nuggets...

What does clarity mean and how do you know if you have it?

The official definition is "free from obscurity and easy to understand; the comprehensibility of clear expression." There is nothing more likely to create chaos in an organization than confusion and unclear communication. So, how does one establish clarity? Mr. Marcus Buckingham suggests you focus on four powerful and defining questions: (1) Who do we serve?, (2) What is our core strength?, (3) What is our core score? and, finally, (4) What actions can we take today?

Question 1: Who do we serve? When answering this question, you must tell your team clearly and vividly, who their main audience is. Tell them who they should empathize with most closely. Tell them who will be judging their success. When you do this with clarity, you give your people confidence - confidence in their judgment and confidence in their decisions. It frees them to better serve those you have identified are the one audience whom they serve. Please do not give them many masters - it only adds confusion; pick one and focus on it. This clear strategy makes it easy to follow you.

Question 2: What is our core strength?Thirty years ago, Peter Drucker wrote, "the most effective organizations get their strengths together and make their weaknesses irrelevant". No statement could be truer today. Focusing on weaknesses brings down your team. Look at your core strength and go after the business and situations that play to this strength. Understanding and clearly communicating your core strength allows people to follow the vision you create.

Question 3: What is our core score?Simply put, this means finding a way to measure success. This is the most important contribution you can give your organization or team. Once defined, your people know when they are achieving their objectives, when to work harder or faster, and when they are winning! Defining that measure is hard, but essential. If you want people to follow you and take initiative, tell them what the core score is, so they know what to use to measure their progress. This also gives an additional benefit of people being able to manage their progress, so you don't have to be the one that always does it!

Question 4: What actions can we take today?Action is unambiguous. Actions are clear and they speak volumes. Actions let people know exactly what to do. As a leader, there are many actions that you can take each day. The question to ask is "what actions can I take today that will have the most meaningful impact on my people and those we serve, and will move us closer to achieving our goals?" Remember, choose your actions carefully, and choose just a few. Guided by the
clarity of your actions, your team can move into the future easily and without the fear of the unknown. This will not only instill confidence in you, but also raise the confidence of your people.

What can you do?

I strongly suggest you begin by answering the four questions above. If you think they already exist in your organization, go out and test that assumption with a group of people from all levels. Do their answers match your own? Do they match each other's? This is one way to know if you are bringing clarity to your organization as a leader.

One last thought:

In the military, the general leading the charge must be clear or his people die. In sports, the coach, quarterback or captain must be clear or the team loses. The same can be said in your businesses. If, as a leader, you are not clear, then the company runs the risk of losing – losing clients, market share or potentially dying and closing your doors. I encourage you (not by hollering at you) to look at all the messages you are sending - verbally, by e-mail, and in meetings - are they clear? Because as leaders, it's okay to be wrong, but it isn't okay to be unclear; the risks are too high – what you must be is clear.

The Beauty ENTROPY!

This morning I came across a very fascinating quote...

Joan Collins - "The problem with beauty is that it's like being born rich and getting poorer."

Reminded me of a concept I had studied many many years ago - ENTROPY. I feel strange even making a link to the definition/description on Wikipedia given the weight of the concept.

Just to get the weight off my chest one of my favorite print campaigns, to levitate the situation

A-to-S, par excellence!

I always wondered what "Engineered like no other car in the world" compares with "The ultimate driving machine"? It took a little thinking to realize that Engineering is about Comfort not necessarily or limited to driving. Guess what that means to me is you 'drive' one while you enjoy the comfort of a ride in the other? Anyway... that was not the point of my post, the philosophical discussion seems to have beleaguered the point I intended to make.

I was fascinated by the Engineering excellence in the interactive marketing site for Mercedes Benz.

Pendulum Swing

I love reading the business classics, the ones by Henderson, Drucker, Reeves, Bower, Aaker, Kottler and even Marx & Adam Smith. I am intrigued by the swing of the pendulum and of vertical business integration followed by a strategic divestiture only to identify and create new and ever different offerings to integrate again.

What particularly fascinates me is an understanding of the inflection points that stimulate the actions. A study of the industry closest to my heart is telling.

Consumer product manufacturers started the strategic outsourcing of services like selling through retailers, advertising and even manufacturing in many cases. Some of these key suppliers soon embarked on their own strategies of vertical integration to enhance the value addition to the clients and personal growth to evolve into competitors to these same clients (most retailers today are customers and competitors to consumer products companies).

The recent acquisition of Doubleclick by Google and Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive is along those same lines a vertical integration into the advertising and measurement.

Learning Curve is by far the most interesting and exciting literature on the topic of business evolution and inflection points. Some of the early writing by Bruce Henderson are quite fascinating.

>> Update: What Causes Industry Agglomeration? Evidence from Coagglomeration Patterns (Harvard Working Knowledge)

BRAND Love & Socio-Economics

A couple years ago I watched a movie about love and affects of socio-economic conditions, yesterday I happened to see it again. While I sat through the early part of the movie the episodes and dialogs sprouted thoughts and ideas. As soon as I had a moment to myself I decided to do some of my own hokey research and pen down my thoughts about BRAND love & socio-economics.

My obvious first destination was Lovemarks© (Saatchi & Saatchi), then InterBrand® (& Businessweek), followed by BrandZ© (MillwardBrown & FT) the order was just a coincidence. I ran up and down the various lists on these sites only to notice a strikingly polar insight around predominance of Brands in developed countries and regions of the world. Thats not to say that the developing countries/regions of the world don't respond to brands (having lived in one for many years I have experienced DEFAULT brands myself-Singer Sewing Machine, Mercedes Benz, Colgate Toothpaste, etc.) & not to argue that the metrics that assess equities are biased any more in favor of developed countries/regions. One of the most powerful weighted element PPP of the consumers in BRIC countries certainly stands to skew results in favor of the developing world.

Then why are brands linked to a countries of origin and its organizations HQ location? In a world where we have global brands is it fair to think of brands with a country of origin? Over a 100 yrs ago Singer Sewing Machines had one of the most global brands! Although Singer closed shop during the 80's, Singer is now assimilated and acculturated in most countries to an extent that it would be tough to argue Singer is a US Brand having started since the late 19th century.

Love has no boundaries that true as much for people as Brands and it is obviously independent of socio-economics! Socio-economics is a sales fundamental (for a shopper) that very marketers needs to remember and rise above and beyond to connect and communicate with the consumer.

What Media Builds Brands?

What Media Builds Brands?: The ANA fielded a survey as part of the Brand Innovation Forum in April'07, "What Media Builds Brands?". The result of input from 300 client side marketers is published in a blog on the Marketing Maestros Blog with the same name today...

No surprise - and panelists from Wells Fargo and Pepsi agreed - TV is considered the most effective.

Surprise - Banner ads are considered the third most effective medium.

Most surprising - Pop Up Ads. I would think these contribute to brand deterioration not equity.

Other channels were mentioned but didn't make the Top Ten - they include webcasts, direct mail and database marketing, sponsorships, SEO, public relations and blogs.

Trust – Risk

There are two or sometimes more sides to everything! I am not playing on words when I said ‘or more’. I am serious… We live in a multidimensional world so many opportunities, so many challenges and so many touch points into people and their lives. As many sides as the number of touch points!

Each time I see, hear or read the word “Trust” in a leadership tryst or an organization’s manifesto, I cringe. I have written a couple essays on the topic in this blog. Trust is intangible! So I thought it help me to think about “Trust” in order to substantiate my concern or elevate my argument to a philosophical level.

There is no denying ‘Risk’ is the flip side of Trust. When we talk of trust we imply that some or all of the relevant risks will be addressed. Given the scope of trust is undefined the scope of risk is too. To some the risk may be entrusting his or her potential and being evaluated objectively to get promoted in an organization while some one else may be entrusting the value of their work to be measured, tested for the right level of compensation; Some one may be entrusting their career and time to be aptly compensated at retirement, while others may be entrusting their health when consuming a branded product hoping for the positive?

Trust can thus be a two edged sword, where one offers a commitment to fairness the other promises judgment, failure in one can be failure in the other. Wouldn’t it be more sensible and easier to accept imperfections while working towards ‘Building Credibility’?

Give me a poor metric and I will give you a reason to fail!

I have always believed ‘Experience is a tough teacher’, as long as one invests time and effort in performing a postmortem of every situation & reflecting on the positives and the negatives. A biased penchant for one can lead to unhealthy results. I recently ran into some one (organization) that had the best of interests but an unnatural bias. It seemed like as if they had their blinkers (British term for blinders) on. So gruesome was the situation that I had to revise my quote above, ‘Success can sometimes be a poor teacher’.

Individuals and organizations always learnt what works and reapplied it over and over and often times independent of the situation, the challenge or the opportunity to its own peril. Strategy is not a formula, nor is success a recipe! The only ideals that can be reapplied are frameworks and principles.

Don’t look for a manager when you need a leader and don’t look for a marketer when you need a salesman! Each one in his/her different and unique way defines and measures success, instant gratification works for one while the other is out to build, one strives to create direction while the other chooses to be focused.

Poor metrics are a sure short recipe for failure! It is unfortunate that organizations can make their success the very reason to fail.

Faithful Follower, but No Leader

Faithful Follower, but No Leader - John Baldoni touches on a raw nerve in his blog on FastCompany Now

...plenty of other corporate managers are performing as ineptly. These inept managers, hitched their stars to a patron who looked out for them. Many times, they performed admirably as assistants; they were trustworthy, reliable and accountable. But they lacked independence and so when they were put into positions of authority, they were ill-prepared to shoulder the responsibility of administering systems and leading people.

Rather than blame individual managers, it is often more appropriate to blame the system and the senior people who put them in positions where they would fail. Asking some hard questions might help you decide about whom to promote and who should remain as is.

Can she think for herself? People who have served as competent employees do so because they defer to their bosses. However, when you are a manager, you must learn to think for yourself. Assistants who have demonstrated initiative and responsibility are ones that should be considered for the next rung on the ladder. Those who cannot should be left holding that ladder.

Is he accountable? When you back up your boss, you stand in his shadow. You are not wholly responsible for his actions. But when it comes time to run your own show, everything you do is up for scrutiny. People watch their managers to see what they do, not simply what they say. Senior managers must hold their direct reporting managers accountable for agreed upon results.

Can she lead? Leadership is a privilege; it is earned by gaining the trust of others, not simple one superior. Faithful employees have earned trust from above, but if they must manage others, they need to demonstrate that they have a vision consistent with the mission. What’s more, they need to demonstrate that they

Candidates for management positions who can demonstrate by words and more importantly actions that they are thinkers and doers -- as well as accountable leaders -- are people destined for moving up. Those who are more comfortable in the background are better off staying there. Otherwise they may, find themselves at a big table all alone and facing some very hostile questioners.

Research - Be Careful What You Ask Your Customers

Be Careful What You Ask Your Customers - Stanford:

Simonson and Utpal Dholakia of Rice University have also discovered pitfalls in asking customers to compare two or more brands. “Telling consumers to make comparisons, which is a practice that marketers use a lot, can be very uncertain because it can change the behavior of consumers in very fundamental ways,” said Simonson.

Consumers who decided on their own to compare products behaved as you might expect, looking for the best buy. But consumers who were told to compare became unusually cautious. “The mere fact that we had asked them to make a comparison caused them to fear that they were being tricked in some way,” said Simonson.

A seemingly unbiased method of studying consumer preference can nevertheless change behavior. And that calls into question the accuracy—and usefulness—of the opinion survey ...

... Once again, those who voiced expectations in advance were significantly more negative and even rated the same store features such as cleanliness or the professionalism of employees more negatively than the control group.

World's Most Ethical Companies

Ethisphere™ Magazine - 2007 World's Most Ethical Companies

Teams are Teams!! In a sports arena or the Ivory tower.

May be we ought to invite the Michael Jordan's, Mia Hamm's of the world to come and coach corporate leaders. After all the rules of the game are fairly similar... As for difference in performance measures, you can always train a parrot to speak.

In traditional FastCompany Style... Superstar: Deliver or Else!

Be clear in expectations. Make it known what you expect from people in terms of performance and behavior. Be explicit in terms what they can earn and how they can be promoted. Also make it clear that superstars must achieve, but also set the right example. That is, they are expected to participate in team activities.

Be open about exceptions. When superstars get special treatment, be open about it. Talk about why they are stars, that is, how they achieved their status. Where managers get into trouble is by trying to hide things, or worse by covering up for non-performing superstars. Being transparent is essential.

Be frank about what it takes to succeed. Make it clear that every employee has the opportunity to improve. Not everyone can outperform the normal. Discuss ways the employee can improve his or her performance and find ways to help that employee achieve.

Blue Ocean Strategy...

It has been so long since I read the book (BOS) that I wasn't even planning on writing about it. But when I came across a post by Wendy on FastCompany Now this morning I felt compelled!

Google and You: "Joann Seddon, global CEO of Millard Brown Optimor, the firm’s finance and ROI arm, said of the brand study, “Success stories from this year's BRANDZ™ Top 100 demonstrate that winning brands leverage major market trends effectively to create business value. Strong brands are capable of extending into areas of opportunity to access new revenue streams and to help businesses respond to market changes.'"

I am inclined to believe Joann would significantly benefit from reading the concept of consumer value innovation presented in BOS. Although value innovation are not just short transient fads they can be sustainable long term growth opportunity like the one discussed by Clayton M. Christensen in The Innovator's Dilemma.

A follow-up on Authenticity...

Ever noticed how when you start looking or thinking of something it seems like what you were searching or looking for was all around and over you all this time? For some reason you were just oblivious to it or may be did not relate to it?

Thats what I felt this morning... AUTHENTICITY. Just the other day I referenced a post on authenticity in brands and leadership and this morning I saw it again... though the article this morning is focused on examples & tactics the other day it was the concept & the framework. These articles are worth a read...

Will the Real Juan Valdez Please Stand Up?

An Authenticity Timeline

Does Their Corporate Culture Pass Your Sniff Test?

Cultural Fit can be the final word on success in a role or with a company! Even Lou Gerstner was deeply influenced IBM while turning things around - Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?; Jim Collins reinforces the idea of indoctrination into the corporations culture in both his books - Good to Great and Built to Last.

Contrary to common belief cultures are NOT STOIC, a great company will influence an individual/leader and will be influenced while rising to ever higher levels of greatness, cultures evolve, the only thing that must remain constant are VALUES!

This mornings post on the FastCompany Now blog is interesting to all those at a critical juncture in making a choice.

Does Their Corporate Culture Pass Your Sniff Test?: "If you have the advantage of working with a recruiter here's what to check out:

* Before the recruiter talks to you, the recruiting firm should spend time with its corporate client and conduct a thorough assessment of the company's culture. What is it like to work there and which types of employees are most likely to fit in and succeed?
* The culture of the company should be embedded into the job description, says Kris. If it's not mentioned that could mean that the recruiter doesn't know.
* Once there appears to be a good match and a job offer seems imminent, arrange to talk to your prospective boss's direct reports. 'Ask what it's like to work here and what this guy is like to work for?' suggests Kris. You need answers 'before you make a life-changing decision.'"

The appeal--and risks--of authenticity

Last year I read Bill George's first book - Authentic Leadership, a true reflection of what leaders ought to be, a true reflection of Bill George! The book was holistic from style to values to overcoming hurdles and setbacks a true leader needs to be able to handle.

I was reminded of the book this morning when I came across an article on FastCompany - Who Do You Love? Brand-Authenticity (the title of this essay is excerpt from the article).

The article is focused on brands and products but is just as extensible into authentic leadership as relayed by Bill in this classic. Following are some nuggets from the article.

What does it take to be authentic?

Authenticity constantly requires reinforcement, and it can come from a number of sources: craftsmanship, timeliness, relevance. But it is a brand's values--the emotional connection it makes--that truly define its realism. And there are four primary strands that draw out that connection.

• A sense of place. "Authenticity comes from a place we can connect with,"
  
• A strong point of view. Authenticity also emerges from "people with a deep passion for what they are doing,"
  
• Serving a larger purpose. Consumers quite rightly believe, until they're shown otherwise, that every brand is governed by an ulterior motive: to sell something. But if a brand can convincingly argue that its profit-making is only a by-product of a larger purpose, authenticity sets in. "Just as there are purpose-driven lives,"
  
• Integrity. Authenticity comes to a brand that is what it says it is. In other words, "the story that the brand tells through its actions aligns with the story it tells through its communications,"
  

How do you stay authentic even as you get big?

• Ubiquity might not be toxic to authenticity, but it certainly dilutes it. When a brand spreads far beyond its home turf, its branches almost invariably (though not inevitably) weaken
  
• growth and authenticity are not wholly incompatible

Can you be authentic when you're trying to be authentic?

• Authenticity is necessary, but it cannot be compelled
• And therein lies an authentic paradox: A brand doesn't feel real when it overtly tries to make itself real. To the hypertargeted consumer, baldly billboarding a brand's message smacks of insincerity

Can you be cool and still be authentic?

• To maintain its integrity, a brand must remain true to its values. And yet, to be relevant--or cool--a brand must be as dynamic as change itself. An authentic brand reconciles those two conflicting impulses, finding ways to be original within the context of its history

Ogilvy - The Basic 25 Styles of Blogging

The "What if" articles...

I am usually attracted to articles that start on the "What if..?" note. No clue why? But I certainly hope to see/hear/experience a new perspective. Valeria Maltoni has a post in FastCompany Now blog this morning with the "What if...?" title. Interesting and engaging enough to initiate a hear a new perspective with the Conversation Agent. The idea is not new or revolutionary but worthy of a 'ear' as in 'give all thy ear but few thy voice' (WS, Hamlet) though the quote barely makes sense in in the world of blogs, but you get the point.

What if Customers WERE the Service?

innovation is mostly about looking at the same things and seeing something different. What if Best Buy were to provide space to encourage those conversations? What if instead of just having a counter where, by necessity – being short on staff, long on help needed – they placed a nice set of armchairs and small tables nearby.

Customers could sit down. Some coffee company could provide coffee and snacks. People dropping by after work might enjoy a little something while waiting. Most importantly, what if they helped customers talk with each other by putting the space there for them to do so? Jim solved my Palm problem and I walked away having made a new friend and feeling good about Best Buy.

Instead of feeling let down, I now have a warm and fuzzy feeling about the store where I had such a good experience. Never mind that it wasn’t the staff to provide it. I had it anyway, and it’s associated with the store. Let’s take the idea a little further and think about what would happen if Brian, another customer, stopped in for a repair and during the wait learned that Jane, also waiting, knows everything about digital cameras. He has been thinking about buying one, but he feels skittish about asking the store staff. He doesn’t want to be sold to just yet; he wants to buy after taking his time exploring options.

They strike a conversation, and now Bill writes down a list of features he wants in a camera. Jane just asked him how he was thinking of using it adding stories of her purchases and what she learned from them. We all love to learn, we all hate to study and many of us dislike researching, especially when we feel harried in the store.

The business gets to keep its costs down by maintaining a fixed number of geeks on hand to help. The customers get the help they need by receiving assistance also from other customers. And the store now has the potential to sell more, all wrapped up nicely in good will. But wait, you say, what if I’m the only one there on a given night?

Word of mouth travels faster than information on fiber optic cable, you could:
- Wait until someone else arrives in for help – I was there probably short of two hours and the flow of people was constant
- Self select as the “go to” person for certain types of devices and volunteer help while you’re there

People love being helpful and there isn’t always time to meet new people by going to networking events. The businesses that can help lower the barriers to entry to make conversations among customers happen, win. Now, how about a good cup of coffee at, you guessed it, Best Buy? I was thinking about purchasing a digital camera…

Generated Wisdom

Its my lucky day!! I love to start the day reading interesting articles, quotes or even ideas that invigorate me. This morning I read three such articles...

I grew in a world where we discussed transition from DATA to INFORMATION to KNOWLEDGE. We have now evolved into transitioning KNOWLEDGE to WISDOM. The new continuum is:

DATA to INFORMATION to KNOWLEDGE to WISDOM

From FastCompany Now - Generated Wisdom by Donna Karlin

• In many organizations wisdom is generated but not captured.
• wisdom isn’t captured or catalogued for subsequent teams and future use.
• Once the consultants leave, the knowledge leaves with them.
• Think of how much time and money is wasted when you have to start from scratch time and time again.
• Every retreat, strategy session, project and program should be captured, documented and archived for future use
• Coach them now and they’ll be ready to hit the floor running if you bring them on board.

Recognition Makes Dollars and Sense

Nuggets from FastComany Now - Recognition Makes Dollars and Sense by John Baldoni

Find positives in other people’s work. At your next staff meeting, before you criticize, say something nice. Thank people for doing the research and doing the grunt work. Show some appreciation of effort.

Talk up the work of your team to the higher-ups. When you interact with senior executives, talk up the contributions of your team. Make specific mention of key contributions and contributors.

Compliment your boss on a task well-done. Find an opportunity to give your boss a pat on the back. Pick out something that she’s done well, such as overcome an obstacle, shown restraint in a crisis, or developed a key insight that benefits the entire time. Do this in private.

Be honest. Do not compliment for the sake of being nice, do it with meaning and conviction. When you criticize, be constructive. Being tough does not imply meanness. Sincerity counts because it adds depth to what you say when you are critiquing as well as when you are stroking.

Ramotions

I don’t aspire to contribute a new word into the Oxford English Dictionary but would be delighted to introduce one into my fellow marketer’s vocabulary. Ramotion is my effort in their direction… It is a synthesis of peopl's actions based on their rationale and emotions.

With an argumentative personality and passion for reading I combine some fairly potent skills. Together they lead me to flesh new ideas, extend my thought process and point of view into new and often uncharted areas.

The best part of my passion is it helps me understand peopl's reasoning and rationalization, their hot buttons and soothers. Both as a marketer and as a leader I can present opportunities, challenges and propositions in light of “The individual” not a cookie cutter.

As reasonable as it sounds, I have come to realize Rationale is not truly RATIONAL. It is logic with a twist… We rationalize based on where we came, what we saw, our family background and sometimes even the side of the bed we wake up that morning. So why and how is it any different from emotion? I wonder? The only LOGICAL explanation I could frame up was that emotion is a short lived feeling while the long term effect of emotion filtered through a structured process is rationale. I hope I have presented my argument why Ramotion should have its due place in our vocabulary. I am hoping this is also a foundation for another argument in TARGETING at the right place and right time.

David Armano’s Logic+Emotion, has been a long time favorite blog of mine for all those things other than the specific discussion on the social element of Logic+Emotion.

The engagement measurement conundrum

Over the past year ENGAGEMENT has been the big buzz on Madison Avenue and the overall marketing world. Every marketer has faced the question of ROI on spending but was just a financial measure, ENGAGEMENT is an eMOTIONal one... How do we get to it?

To date interactive marketing spend in the CPG world has yet to exceed the 7-10% threshold, clearly driven by the fact that conversion cannot be measured just from a "visit" to a iMarketing website. Although AMAZON.com, some niche-niche products, custom cosmeticeutical, adult use products have bridged the gap, there is a long way to go for the household use products, foods, automobiles, clothes, etc.

Much like I told the COO of one of the major media metrics companies, I believe until we get to a point where we can measure true conversion from visit to a brands iMarketing website or at least find a common sense way to translate the visit into purchase ENGAGEMENT, may be an uphill battle.

MediaPost had an article yesterday on the question of Measuring User Engagement In A New Metrics World there were some interesting points made:

• Many have dropped the page view altogether as an audience metric.
• To fill the void, vendors are coming up with their own interpretations of engagement.
• This "visits" metric, defined as the number of times a unique person accesses content (with breaks between accesses of at least 30 minutes) is a key component of user engagement, explained comScore.
• an alternative for measuring user engagement that tells us how frequently visitors are actually returning to the site to view more content.
• The challenge and opportunity therefore, for vertical content publishers, is to combine engagement metrics with strong compelling content to those users who are engaged with the site.
• offer content to users anytime and anyplace, through the Web and on their mobile device, for instance.
• content is what drives loyalty and engagement.

How do you measure numb?

There are two articles that I came across this morning that addressed the issue of our "Short attention spans", the title of this essay came from one of them...

There are a number of interesting anecdotes in both the articles that I have summarized below:
From: Attention Deficit

• How do you measure numb?
• Clutter is media-agnostic.
• The digital age is what, two years old, and already we're all cyber casualties.
• Too overwhelmed to move.
• Too tired to care.
• Buried in choices and driven by technology, we consume media like butterflies, flitting from one communication channel to the next and remembering less of it every jacked-in minute. And it never stops.

From - Our Abbreviated Attention Span

• Imagine if this summer's biggest moneymaker turns out to be a 13-minute video on iTunes.
• Now everything from the blockbuster to a 2-minute video on YouTube is content.
• it's all content, regardless of venue or length. The only real differences separating these types of content are their modes of distribution and the associated revenue models.
• short clips can't be attributed to YouTube, iPods or even the Web
• the fragmented, multitasking lives of Gen Y and, frankly, most of us, which makes the short form so appealing

Who is a marketer? Really?

I recently read an article on communication. The article was very holistic and certainly well written; I learnt a lot and more coaxed me into reevaluate the true job of a marketer and marketing research.

Communication occurs in four distinct forms – Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Listening itself can be active or passive and the many elements of our personality, lifestyle and culture influence our listening. Active listening is the process of absorbing the meaning, processing the information to enable action, while passive listening is mechanical and disengaged. It article also drove home the lack of structured training in active listening, creating an opportunity for strategy & targeting.

As a marketer I should strategize in developing an ethical, poignant, effective and convincing pitch across platforms, media and venues to communicate with my prospects the value proposition of my brands when she is most receptive to my message. If that means presenting my solution to her when she is watching her favorite show in the family room, sitting in the hair dressers chair, on her drive to work, at a conference or even at her best friends party. It never hurts for me to know her preferences so I can forge a connection and leverage her association with her favorite brand/brands in inducing her to try my brands.

While my marketing research team studies her to know her persona, her passion, her life in developing the landscape of the most effective touch points to engage her in my dialog.

BrainJuicer - Predictive Markets for new concepts

Predictive Markets- Is the Crowd Consistently Wise?

As posted on the BrainJuicer's website.

The theory behind the analytical BrainJuicers® (Mind Reader and Best/Worst) comes from cognitive psychology and is based on the power of associations.

Modern psychology makes much of insights into the associative structure of human memory and the distributed understanding of meaning, using associative techniques to identify how an idea is positioned in the mind in order to unpack its subjective meaning. How an idea is positioned in the associative networks of memory may be seen as describing the meaning of that idea for its holder. This is why the simple association game that Psychologists play with patients is an incredibly insightful way of revealing what people think and feel about a subject.

The theory behind the creative BrainJuicer® (BrainStormer) is recent work done on 'Electronic Brainstorming'. Rather than a brainstorm taking place aloud with a team in a single location, the BrainStormer asks people to contribute their ideas individually and remotely. Empirical findings reflect the success of this approach, both absolutely and relative to 'regular' brainstorming. The size of the group means you tap a wider pool of conceptual capital and generate more ideas.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

My muse introduced me to a fascinating site and a resource so amazing I had to post it.

Of particular interest to me were their thoughts on Life skills for the 21st Century, As I read I wanted to know more. The area the partnership identified transcend time and geography and straddle across education, corporations and social/cultural boundaries.

Leadership

• Use of interpersonal and problem-solving skills to influence more than one person toward a goal
• Ability to leverage strengths of others to accomplish a common goal
  Ethics
• Demonstrate integrity and ethical behavior in personal, workplace and community contexts

Accountability

• Set and meet high standards and goals for one's self and others
• Adaptability
• Adapt to varied roles and responsibilities
• Tolerate ambiguity and changing priorities

Personal Productivity

• Utilize time efficiently and manage workload
• Be punctual and reliable

Personal Responsibility

• Exercise personal responsibility and flexibility in personal, workplace and community contexts

People Skills

• Work appropriately and productively with others

Self Direction

• Monitor one's own understanding and learning needs
• Demonstrate initiative to advance professional skill levels
• Ability to define, prioritize and complete tasks without direct oversight
• Demonstrate commitment to learning as a lifelong process

Social Responsibility

• Act responsibly with the interests of the larger community in mind

These Life Skills are a copyright of the PARTNERSHIP FOR 21ST CENTURY SKILLS
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 organization. The Partnership's work is supported by the U.S. Department of Education & a host of member organization & corporations

Advertising: What's Next?

In his introduction Joe Plummer, Chief Research Officer, The Advertising Research Foundation mentioned...

... the dialogue was focused on "the hole, not the doughnut." Asked to explain, I offered the observation that the focus was on the negative ñ a sense that "advertising was dead," "all the marketing models are broken," "market research was at fault," "consumers were tuning out." Conference after conference filled with Chicken Littleís warning that the sky was falling. A mood of doom and gloom, possibly traceable to 9/11, the dotcom bust and the war in Iraq, was pervading the mindset of the advertising industry and the trade press in the US.

"So, what should we at the ARF do about that?"

Joe continues on to share...

... a series of workshops in the fall of 2005 focused on the future of advertising and particularly on positive future we could create together with industry thought leaders. Unlike so many conferences with speaker after speaker and no time for reflection or intelligent dialogue about possibilities, we could construct several workshops with a few stimulating speakers and much time spent between the participants constructing alternative future possibilities.

The results are one of the RICHEST and most amazing scenarios every marketer should consider and leverage! I have personally found this to be an invaluable resource - Advertising: What's Next?

Who cares whether they care?

Insights from InterBrand on Organizations and the effect of Pride in the organization.

What impact does pride have on organisational performance?
To test the impact of pride on organisational performance we used structural equation modelling to measure the relationship between pride and a number of key behaviours for employers. These included:
• Recommending the organisation as a great place to work
• Recommending the organisation’s products and services
• Putting in extra effort
• Actively looking for a job elsewhere

Here is one from a recent post on the ANA Blog- A Customer's Story - What Bad Employees Do To Your Brand

Stories, Conversations & Engagement

A couple days ago I came across a post on The Viral Garden - Problem Avoidance Isn't Problem Management. I guess the following could act as a primer to the Interactive Marketing team for Splenda(© McNeil Nutritionals, LLC).

From this morning's FastCompanyNOW - 5 Steps To The Conversational Economy

1. Make it easy for consumers to talk about you - good and bad.
If you sell products, let users submit reviews and ratings on your site. If you're making good products, you shouldn't have to worry because you'll see glowing reviews. If not, you've most likely found the source of your profitability or marketshare issues.

2. Customers are always right.
Even when they're wrong, in their heads, they're right. You have an opportunity to educate them but at the end of the day, they choose whether to stay with you or leave. You cannot control that. How you handle the education part makes a big difference in their decision.

3. Stop trying to please everyone.
Make an awesome product for one segment. Dominate that group of users. Turn them into your biggest advocates. When you try to make something for everyone, you end up with mush. Think Apple. The only way to survive the conversational web or economy is to have people talking about you. They can either love you or hate you, but if you're stuck in the middle, you're toast.

4. Understand that each customer counts.
Like Chris Anderson said, "the ants have megaphones." You have to recognize vocal supporters and address vocal critics. One bad review by an influential blogger and you've lost untold revenues. People don't trust mass media. They trust people like themselves. And if you feel like addressing individual users is too much hassle, you now see how far you have to come to participate in the new marketplace.

5. Do something worth conversation.
I'm not talking about a press stunt. I'm talking about developing products that people love. I'm talking about delivering service that is delightfully unexpected. Simply meeting expectations doesn't count anymore. There are too many options to pick from. That mentality comes from a scarcity mindset and we live in an abundant world. Create joy. Make a difference. Get people talking.

Be Excellent™: The 12 Elements of Great Managing

Be Excellent™: The 12 Elements of Great Managing

All common sense and very sound.

These 12 statements -- the Gallup Q12 -- emerged from Gallup's pioneering research as those that best predict employee and workgroup performance.

1. I know what is expected of me at work.
2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.
7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
8. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
9. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
10. I have a best friend at work.
11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
12. This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

(The Q12 items are protected by copyright of The Gallup Organization, 1992-1999. All rights reserved.)

Laisser-faire

Hail free markets! Hail competition!

The post on FastCompany Now - The World Turned Upside Down, is a robust proof. Challenge current models, please the consumer (hopefully more than the most obvious cheap price) and the market will reward you! Ryanair may be about to transform trans-Atlantic travel.

Laissez-Faire or Laisser-faire, is a French phrase meaning "let do".

Is no news really good news?

Ever transitioned from a line management role into a staff management role? The transition is like nothing else one may experience. Over the years I have my own model to evaluate a role based on the Challenge it offers, Recognition potential and Compensation to be drawn. The model is simple and effective and has helped me in identifying the tactical merits when choosing between multiple options.

I am an ardent believer in building the “Brand YOU!” and as a marketer there is nothing greater than “Brand YOU!”; Managing, promoting, positioning and communicating to a larger than life yet smart, humble, connected and personable self.

Recently I sat back to think of all those jobs and brands that present a touch point with the consumer/customer but lack the regular dialog of a consumer brand. I was reminded of all the utilities that service us-Water, Electricity, Oil, Gas, etc. How often do we call any or all to thank them for ensuring continuity of service? I certainly never do, I don’t expect many amongst us either! Yet by the same token we are the first to pick up our phones as soon as we experience an interruption.

So where is the dialog between the brand the consumer? How do I build and make myself “Brand YOU” known?

My colleagues and friends in staff roles the forecasters; the IT staff; the facilities team; etc. often face the same fate. I rarely ever call to thank them for services and yet am often the first to express my dissatisfaction when things are not right. As a marketer I have mined information from consumer affairs on what my strategic target consumers and current base likes, wants, desires and even avoids in my brands to drive my strategies but what do you do when communication is nonexistent? We have clearly raised the bar, continuity is not longer a measure of excellence and it is the datum for survival in commodity markets.

As I thought further an old english word, “EPHEMERAL” popped. Leverage the craze of the day to market yourself – Productivity improvement, Sustainability, Ecological footprint, Organic, etc. Essentially “No news can be good news” but being “NEW” and “IN VOGUE” is the only survival and differentiation for “Brand YOU!”.

10 Ways Marketing Will Be Transformed in 2007

ANA's Bob Liodice published 10 Ways Marketing Will Be Transformed in 2007

• Consumer in Control
• New Agenda for Agencies
• Hail to the Chief
• Unconventional Outreach
• Media Buying Metamorphosis
• Let the Fighting End
• Organizational Overhaul
• Research Renewal
• Blow up the Back Room
• Continuous Marketing Reinvention

Alls not lost on measuring marketing effectiveness

MediaPost Publications - Proof: Looking At the Little Picture

Althought not quitely directly related here is another perspective on measured progress with a Human Touch - Measures Progress

Martha Rules!!

Martha has always impressed me tremendously with her elegance, her creativity and her style. The Alderson Federal Prison experience has only made her stronger and better.

Martha Rules is a MBA in as few as 196 pages. Written in the classic Martha style - Simple(Everyday), Lucid and Original!

The Martha Rules:
1 What's passion got to do with it?
2 Ask yourself, what's the big idea?
3 Get a telescope, a wide-angle lens, and a microscope
4 Teach so you can learn
5 All dressed up and ready to grow
6 Quality is everyday
7 Build an A-team
8 So the pie isn't perfect? : cut it into wedges
9 Take risks, not chances
10 Make it beautiful

The part I find most inspiring is her ability to reinvent herself from a Model to a Wall Street Broker to a Caterer to Entrepreneur and now a phenomenal Coach!

Emotional Intelligence

The article brings to light timeless and transcendent values that extend from the playground to the boardroom.

• Self-awareness
• Empathy and social skills
• Feedback and open communication

From the Playground to the Boardroom: The Importance of Emotional Intelligence

Grace Andrews, the author of the article and an executive coach refers to Daniel Goleman as a valuable resource:

• Self-Awareness: knowing one's internal states, preferences, resources, and intuitions and having the willingness to share them.
• Self-Regulation: managing one's internal states, impulses and resources, and taking responsibility for said.
• Motivation: ability and emotional tendency to inspire, guide or facilitate the reaching of goals.
• Empathy: awareness of others' feelings, needs and concerns.
• Social Skills: adeptness at effecting change through listening and communication; openly communicating and nurturing relationships.

IBM Many Eyes Update

Mind mapping has been a long time fascination for Marketers and Researchers to get into the consumers minds and product/brand associations. To elevate the process of drawing out meaning of what the consumers said and really mean lead me recently to yet another interesting process called, "Meaning based linguistic search".

IBM Many Eyes Project on his blog is a worthy visit - The Eponymous Pickle: IBM Many Eyes Update

[Ad]vantage

This morning's article in MediaPost talks about the challenges and chaos from fragmented (emerging) media and engaging brand stories, without doubt marketers need to manage risk judiciously.

Kirk Drummond presents a framework to balance this risk.

>> Stay within the range and relevance of your brand.
>> Have an organizing idea and a reason.
>> Organize your efforts.
>> Be equally as innovative on how you measure your efforts.

Invaluable consumer research data

Boomers have money, aren't afraid to spend it - ONLY FROM BRANDWEEK
Research lead and conducted by C&R Research

• A significant number with kids said they’re now “Empty Nesters”
• Financial concerns top the list of worries, and the next most worrisome is family and health/diet
• 71% of 50-64 year olds and 84% of 30-49 year olds report high Internet usage; those 65 and over, regular Net usage is reported by 32%
• Boomers who took the online survey say they most often shop online for travel, books, clothesand electronics
• Respondents have adopted healthy eating habits - reading nutrition labels, eating smaller meals, changing their diet to maintain their weight and stay healthy, eating low-fat foods, monitoring their carb intake

Disposable income for the baby boom generation has been pegged at about $2 trillion a year.

Success stories - Tween Traits & Targeting

Interesting article from this morning's USAToday - As kids get savvy, marketers move down the age scale

Some other tween girl traits:
•They're driven by imitation
•They want more of everything
•They are environmentally aware
•They like attention, sort of

The article was a great read into the mind of a tween and strategies to appeal to their psyche as early as 3-4 yr olds.

Integrated: Brand-Bonding Drives Desire

As I read Jean Brandolini Lamb's article in MediaPost, the words drove home!

Lately I been searching for words that are overly repeated in every marketers lingo, I thought before I post a link to Jean's article I would add some of my own value. I thought of a couple words and tried counting the number of instances they appear/repeat in the article.

Emotion - 11 times
Desire - 5 times
Feel... - 4 times
Important - 2 times

The past year has seen a huge push towards marketing accountability. We have read and seen many articles but some how those words/measures are yet to make their way into some of these posts. I do acknowledge, I am guilty as charged!

Here are some nuggets from the article:

• Shopping and logical thought are often worlds apart
• We buy it because we want it. It's about pure desire, rationalized either before or after purchase
• Neuropsychology theories [connection between physiology and psychological responses] that are replacing the old consumer behavior beliefs [AIDA (awareness, interest, desire, action)]
• We are all driven first by emotion (We all still act based on primitive, emotional instincts)
• Emotional connection leads to brand desire, which ultimately leads to demand
• Convenience factors and rational concerns play a part in the decision-making process, but it is a feeling that acts as the initial spark of interest
• "feel first, think later" advertising model is in line with theories surrounding brands
• Brands are simply the established meaning or reputation of a product or service within the minds -and hearts - of consumers
• Brands have values, ideas, and feelings attached to them that allow consumers to make unique emotional connections with them
• Advertising is moving from "creating brand awareness" to "creating brand demand."
• Not only do consumers need to know about your brand, they need to want your brand
• Marketers need to define value for the target consumer, and deliver a brand that not only is unique but also motivates them on an emotional or instinctive level
• Build brands that are differentiated and connect to the target market emotionally
• "Emotion involves and motivates and can transfer positive perceptions to the brand."
• A brand is built on a "compelling truth." The compelling truth is transformational, ideally creating emotional preference and differentiation
• Compelling truth delivered consistently across the customer experience, drives emotion and breeds motivation

Playing in dangerous territory - Hearts & Minds

This morning's quote from the AMA News letter is a breath of fresh air...

"A brand that captures your mind gains behavior. A brand that captures your heart gains commitment." - Scott Talgo

Scott used to be Chief Strategy Officer at Landor.

Brand equity creep

Ever seen a composite sketch of an alleged criminal on the evening news? I watched one last night and a strange thought popped. The image was the best the police (artist) could develop, after all he/she was drawing out an image from some else’s eyes/mind. The quality of the image was so generic and poor; I can’t imagine anyone being able to identify the alleged criminal even if the person stood next to you.

The business of marketing could be as tricky as that of the artist. A brand’s equity is no longer communicated purely through constructive efforts of a savvy marketer. Every touch point is a communication opportunity, the brand ambassador, the influencers, moms at the PTA, moms at parties, moms at the grocery store, blogs, the list is endless.

Today all marketers need to think of the following questions:
How strong is your brand's equity?
How important is the channel and what does the channel speak about your brand?
Do you have consumers or fans of your brand; how do you manage equity creep?

Writing… - Advertising & Strategy

The last weekend I was engaged in a discussion about writing. For all those who have read Ken Roman’s (ex-CEO of Ogilvy & Mather), ‘How to write better’ will attest to his wisdom:

1. The reader does not have much time
2. Know where you are going
3. Make what you write easy to read
4. Short sentences & short paragraphs
5. Make your writing vigorous and direct
6. Avoid clichés
7. Avoid vague modifiers
8. Use specific concrete language
9. Find the right word
10. Don’t make spelling mistakes
11. Don’t over write or over state
12. Come to the point
13. State things as simply as you can
14. Handle numbers consistently
15. Avoid needless words
16. Be concise, but readable
17. Be brief, simple and natural
18. Don’t write like a bureaucrat or a lawyer
19. Never be content with your first draft
20. Have somebody else look over your draft

… & those of us who have been students of Kaizen understand the value of asking Why 5 times. It is so interesting to see the similarities and differences. Although Kaizen involves asking ‘why’ at the end (counter intuitive to what is expected to be already clear and precise) , better writing starts with asking ‘why’ before one starts.

It is the dichotomy between developing a strategy and analysis.

I might just add a certain amount of indulgence through ambiguity is an essential ingredient in the romance of a good creative.

How to fight your personal brand demons and win

Lyn Chamberlin's Post on Brandchannel.com - Following are some nuggets Lyn presents to the audience (Women).

My non-scientific analysis is that we are caught in a self-perpetuating, interconnected web of myths, myths that have been handed down to us in one form or another ever since Eve took a bite out of the apple. Myths such as:

Myth #1: If I Am Good, They Will Come
This is the biggest hurdle that we, as 51 percent of the population, must overcome—whether we're at home, in the workforce, or in the C-suite.

Myth #2: Marketing Myself Is a Dirty Business
Successful personal branding means continually standing far enough away to see yourself and your work as if it were not you and your work that you were looking at.
Successful personal branding means wearing labels such as "leading" and "expert," "sought-after," "popular," and "well-regarded." It means creating a brand identity that is authentic, consistent, and memorable, one that you own and are proud of.

Myth #3: I Can't Control What Other People Think
Develop a tightly honed messages that are reinforced and repeated over and over again.

Here are several simple steps you can take right now to bottle and market YOU:

1. Figure out who you are, what you stand for, and why you are different than anyone or anything else.
2. Create a story that communicates your value and your market differentiation.
3. Pull the key words that you have used to create that story and weave them into everything that you say, do and publish about yourself and your business.
4. Tell your story relentlessly, passionately, and unapologetically to anyone who will listen. You will refine and improve it as you go along, figuring out which parts work and which don't.

A network is larger than sum of the parts

The big buzz these days is networks, networks and more networks. I am not referring to Information Technology Systems that power these networks I am talking about Social & Professional networks that create and capture value for the participants.

Networking is not new business by any stretch but some creative marketing and advertising has brought it back in vogue. With ever greater need to deliver bottom line savings, shrinking product life cycles and need for more block busters (which translates into 'trying many new ideas' fast and cheap), it is no surprise P&G's Connect & Develop is such a huge hit.

General Mills just threw its hat in the ring...
General Mills Launches Innovation Network To Develop Products

P&G's New Innovation Model

From “No Pain, No Gain” to “Run Easy”

Branding is a funny business, I mean it! It is Negotiation 101 and playing mind games.

It is also the kind of thing that excites me, the idea of reframing and positioning a product with the point of view to engage the consumer, create excitement and leverage from within the portfolio to extend equities.

The title of this essay draw from the recent news on Reebok’s repositioning itself to target Nike. “No Pain, No Gain” is not new news but we how often do we gravitate to the “Easy” and “Convenient” as a trade off, multiplies our available time. Easy sells, convenient works, that’s also why fast food sells, it is also what motivates us to consume the weight loss pills both the ones approved by the FDA and those yet to be approved.

Essentially what smart brand managers try is to reframe a problem to lead the consumer to happy feelings, engage them and overtime translate the brand into a Lovemark.

The devil is in the DETAIL

Media Metrics: Connecting With Hispanics - This morning's MediaPost

It is easy to get caught in the buzzzzzz... of emerging market segments and the top line of the opportunity, the challenge is to see under the carpet. Susan does a great job of laying the ground work for the much needed insight on the "WHO?" and "WHAT?"

• English-speaking Hispanics have more in common with non-Hispanic consumers
• it's critical to look at the specific brand that is being advertised when it comes to deciding how and when to communicate to Hispanic audiences
• English-speaking Hispanics comprise only 45 percent of Hispanics
• English-speaking Hispanics are younger, better educated and earn higher incomes
• English speakers comprise a full 77 percent of Hispanics who have professional/managerial occupations
• They are 74 percent of Hispanics with an individual employment income of $40,000 or more
• English-speaking Hispanics are a ripe market for movies, electronics, CDs/DVDs, fast-food restaurants, candy, and liquor
• Nike is a favorite brand of English-speaking Hispanics, while Spanish-speakers favor Adidas. Coke has a Spanish-speaking skew, while Pepsi skews to English speakers
• Both are interested in personal style and improving their social status, Spanish-speakers have a more traditional outlook for women/gender roles and are slightly more religious. They are also more likely to be sensitive to the environment
• English-speaking Hispanics, collecting sports trading cards, participating in karaoke, and playing chess are some of the leisure activities they participate in well above the general population
• Participation in civic/public activities by Hispanics, is well below that of the non-Hispanic population
• The two language segments overlap somewhat in Texas and California

There is more in the article to help a brand manager develop media spend strategies and targeting plans.

Nuggets from - Rules of Engagement

From this morning's MediaPost - Invitation Marketing: Rules of Engagement

• Always picture the person you're writing the ad for before you write the ad
• People still respond to brands that treat them as people and to ideas that engage them
• Embrace the idea that where, when, why, and how we talk to customers has changed forever
• Be comfortable by now with this fragmented, complex, consumer-controlled, user-generated new media landscape
• Great ideas can be supported by experiences that invite greater exploration
• It's an amazing opportunity for creative and media teams to come together to create the ideas and plans to support the intimate dialogs that make true engagement possible
• Discipline of talking to individuals, instead of marketing to groups. It forces us to avoid the mushy middle of appealing to everyone
• Relevance - finding the intersection between what a brand wants to communicate and what a customer wants to hear

Über-consumers: While account planning and psychographics have already helped us tighten our approach to media and creative, the new landscape demands that we apply even finer filters. GenY isn't a target market, it's a target continuum. Ideas need to reach individuals across that continuum. Consumer involvement also needs to be factored in - ranging from highly engaged "prosumers" to traditional consumers.

Talking vs. marketing: Our audiences are incredibly sophisticated. They understand the marketing context of communications. Not only do they know there's a man behind the curtain, but they know his motivations. Let's be upfront with the people we're talking to and not try to disguise marketing messages. Let's continue to create ads and online experiences that get people involved.

The mushy middle: This is work that plays to the common denominator and, in so doing, diffuses the message. Example: For a technology brand, the mushy middle comes from an idea that straddles the tech needs of a smart IT person (with a finely tuned BS meter) with the broader needs of a manager who is interested in the business benefits, not how the technology works. In the mushy middle, the it person is left seeing "fluff." The business decision-maker is often left confused.

Relevance: It's the antithesis of the mushy middle. Relevant ideas address the individual's needs with detail and language that rings true. You run the risk that many people won't "get it." But the ones who do are the ones you want. (Best example: ESPN's long-running "SportsCenter" TV campaign. The more obscure the reference, the more rewarding the experience for viewers.) Relevance has to be integrated across campaigns. A spot-on ad is missing huge opportunities when the landing pages, Web sites, e-mail and direct campaigns aren't supporting it with the same level of thinking.

The result of this approach? More intricate media plans, more individualized creative executions, more precise message maps, and more enriching rewards for people who choose to take the next step. As campaigns move from macro to micro, the ability to measure their impact also needs to be adjusted. Engagement metrics need to be expanded to reflect the true value of the time spent by users and the content areas that draw their attention. It's the start of a dialogue. Actually, hundreds of them.

Two interesting articles

Simplicity isn't simple - Doug Sundheim

Doug's filter to identify the top 3 focus area.
1. Write down your objectives for the next year.
2. Identify the 3-5 primary buckets in which you spend your day (might be Admin, Development, Production, & Personal for instance).
3. Write down active tasks in each bucket.
4. Prioritize each list.
5. Consult your objectives and pick the top 3 tasks across all buckets.
6. Each day bring yourself back to them when you get off course.
7. Repeat steps 3-6 daily.

There is no alternative to being prepared: Don't Leave Home Without Your Tools - Wendy Marx

The next time you attend a meeting bring your game plan: Here are a few tips to help make you a better player:
• Think ahead. What is your client likely to ask you? What will he or she want to know?
• Bring alternatives. Don’t be a “One Note Charlie.” Instead, think about a number of ways to help your client or prospect and be prepared to present another scenario if one gets shot down…or two…or three gets shot down.
• Be flexible. If your client or prospect isn’t responsive, don’t keep repeating the same failing message. Be bold and try something different.

Shopportunity is not Available, Okay & Cheap

It is Respect, Discovery, Romance, Adventure & Personality.

I didn't agree with everything in the book but the ideas read like a marketing case study and real experiences from my past life and alma maters.



I Just read Kate Newlin's SHOPPORTUNITY. BrandAutopsy has an interesting post on the book from October 2006.

How to be a Retail Revolutionary.

Secrets of an HR Superstar

I just noticed an interesting article in Business Week - Secrets of an HR Superstar

Thought the article is directed towards an HR exec, the tenets are as real as the sun and the moon and re-applicable to every exec in every organization who is interested and willing to see the big picture.

DARE TO DIFFERENTIATE
Relentlessly assessing and grading employees build organizational vitality and foster a true meritocracy

CONSTANTLY RAISE THE BAR
Leaders continually seek to improve performance, both their own and their team members

DON'T BE FRIENDS WITH THE BOSS
HR executives make the mistake of focusing on the priorities and needs of the CEO. That diminishes the powerful role of being an employee advocate

BECOME EASY TO REPLACE
Great leaders develop great succession plans

BE INCLUSIVE
Within every organization, there's a tendency to favor people you know. That can undermine success

FREE UP OTHERS TO DO THEIR JOBS
one of my jobs is to take things off his desk, not put things on his desk; give people the tools and permission to work on their own terms

KEEP IT SIMPLE
Most organizations require simple, focused, and disciplined communications. "You can't move 325,000 people with mixed messaging and thousands of initiatives"

Interactive Marketing & Targetting...

Interesting post by Marc Pickren is co-founder and managing partner of The Leadstream in the PerformanceInsider from MediaPost

Rule #1: Don't Harm The Brand That Feeds You

Ask any advertiser who lives and breathes by acquiring new customers what they consider to be the biggest threat to their professional standing, and in most cases they'll say the need to control and monitor both where their message is displayed and what it says. Unfortunately, for many businesses, the real-life experience in this space has been fraught with inappropriate and/or non-value based placements by companies both large and small. I've seen publicly traded media companies place offers with second-tier vendors leaving little or no control over where their client's message appeared and worse, the specific contents of the message. If anything should be causing great alarm to advertisers, it is this utter lack of control of their brand's message. So first and foremost, be sure to scrutinize the wording of any insertion before taking the leap of faith into content-land. Ask yourself; is there any potential harm to our brand?

Rule #2: Be Sure Your Media Parts Add Up To A Whole

The primary focus of any lead generation strategy is media mix and distribution. Here are the questions any advertiser should ask their media agency of record and any associated vendors before committing funds to a plan:

• Where does the company get its traffic?
• Where will the offer be displayed?
• Will the offer be re-sold? If so, will I have approval over these networks in advance?
• Does the company receive traffic or benefit from other lead providers?
• How do they get their traffic?
• Do they buy media and deliver leads or do they buy leads from "partners"?
• How do they track "click-throughs" and referring URLs?
• Do they scale delivery slowly or deliver volume from the first minute, hour or day (known as "slamming")?

Rule #3: Don't Let This Happen To You

A large company engaged a publicly traded media concern and entered into an agreement to buy leads. The program's cost was quoted as $15 per lead. The advertiser looked at the network's Web site and determined that it appeared to have a very broad and capable media network. The advertiser did not question whether or not the offer would be re-sold, nor did it request that the offer only be displayed on top-tier properties (most media concerns have several levels of service and most large ad networks engage in the affiliate space). In addition, the advertiser trusted that the media network would never place the offer within sites that are solely based on "freebie" content. Lastly, the advertiser forgot to request that there be a cap on the first two week's lead volume.

Result? Within two hours of going live, the offer was re-sold to a broad array of lower-tier networks at $10 per lead. These networks were not made aware of the display rules and placed the offer in many places that it should not have appeared. The offer was then resold again to an even lower tier network at an even lower rate of $5, and that network was not even verifiable as a legitimate company.

Within a week, the advertiser had 50 percent of the volume and the internal CRM or Sales Response Team struggled to sort through the volume. Then came the truly bad news, what we like to call "lead mutiny." The internal team did not respond or purged the data because it was of little or no worth.

Clearly, this advertiser proceeded wrongly and at the end of the day paid $15 for a $2 to $5 lead. The entire metric being used for that price was based on a flawed model, and therefore, only created a lessening of the price and a lowering of the bar.

Rule #4: Try This Best-Practice Approach

A shared risk model, with a fair price based on "display media buys", would have been the best option. For example, if the latest media buy on Yahoo delivers leads at an average of $78, the lead generation company takes over the risk of buying the media, and only charges the client a cost-per-lead fee of $54.60 per lead or (30 percent off of their self directed media CPL).

Here's one approach to avoiding any kind of brand damage: create a micro-site that is non-branded but exclusive, thus giving the advertiser an opportunity to have arms' lengths distance from the campaign.

And if you're engaging your partner to buy "leads" in the broader market, have them create terms that ensure that no offers will be resold -- nor will they be fooled into running into market segments that are not clearly defined. Click analysis will show the source of the lead "referrer." If it is found that the source is not a verifiable media concern or that the site is not constructed of information that shows relevant value, they need to take strong action against the concern.

Remember: there may be a lot of leads out there... but all leads are certainly not created equal.