01/22/10
The Intelligent Booth at IBS
At this year's International Builder Show, we helped three brands of the Masco Builder Cabinet Group make a big splash with a clean, interactive, powerful experience that was true to their exciting new offerings. With touch screens everywhere, evolved and cohesive brand messaging throughout, we led the look, feel, messaging, and many of the technical elements within the show. It also included live Social Media, Polls, and analytics throughout. We led collaboration with 3 other agencies and several vendors. The result was one their most successful shows ever - with a dramatic improvement over last year's leads and overall attention.
12/11/09
Website launch: Pitney Bowes.
We're proud to announce the launch of a new website for Pitney Bowes Marketing Solutions. The site is complete with a Flash homepage navigation function, and is fully Content Management System driven. We think it does a nice job of showing a corporate B-to-B entity in a clean, fresh light. Click on the image to see the site.
10/28/09
Emergence and marketing.
Marketing seems simple. But in all reality, it’s an extremely complex system of pushing, pulling, experiences, word of mouth, face-to-face, sights, sounds, feelings. Put on top of this the fact that all of these transactions are highly personal, and are multiplied across a large population. To think that you can control this is futile, but these complex systems generally form fairly straightforward and trackable patterns.
In comes the theory of emergence. A simple explanation of emergence is that an emergent behavior or emergent property can appear when a number of simple agents operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective. You begin to discern patterns based on the big picture of the complexity. In marketing, human behavior differs greatly individually, but the sum total of activity and movement can become predictable and repeatable.
What can be learned from emergence theory when applied to marketing? You need a few key things to help ensure success:
- You need to learn as much as possible from as large a sampling as possible before you begin. The purpose of truly good surveys is to discern trends and patterns through disparate answers. Therefore, individual answers are meaningless, but the sum total is the true guide.
- Crafting a communications plan must cover enough venues to create multiple paths to the same conclusion. Since people act individually, you cannot assume that even a successful campaign worked to engage enough people for a sustained effect. Instead, there have to be enough points of contact to create a tapestry of communications in order to connect this complex world of individuals.
- There needs to be some heavy-duty analytics available to take in all the information. With so much happening so quickly, emergent systems are hard to predict. But through today’s technology, they can be relatively simple to track. There will be no two success stories that will happen in exactly the same way. However, there will arise patterns that appear as trends, and therefore can be replicated and expanded.
Many organizations fall prey to the “one resounding success” syndrome, where they try to replicate lightning in a bottle by looking at a success sampling of one. This may prove to be disastrous because the overall pattern may differ greatly from the one experience. The next potential success may be out there, ready to capture. But it may look entirely different from the previous. And there may be several in between, somewhere in the complexity of how people live, decide, and purchase.
10/8/09
New website launched for Second To None
We proudly announce the launch of a new website for Second To None, a leading mystery shopping organization. The website has some very cool new features, including a robust situational analysis with many opportunities to capture data.
The site is now available at www.second-to-none.com.
09/24/09
The ultimate marketing trend.
There is a single word that describes where marketing has been going for decades.
Personalization.
Advertising, at its peak, was all about mass. Buy a spot on one of the three networks, and you’re talking to everyone – for better or worse. You had a captive audience. People would even have to stand up to change the channel, so they didn’t bother.
Then along came cable. Then more channels. And more channels. Each more specific than the last. A channel for home improvement. A channel for arts. A channel for pets. An arts channel for pets. Etc. Then Tivo. And on demand. Etc. Each more fragmenting then the last.
Print has gone the same way. There is a magazine about literally anything. Don’t believe me? Check this list out.
Then came the internet, 1.0. A way to instantly break down interests into specific pages. There were hundreds of thousands. It got as specific as you needed it to get. Whenever and wherever.
Then came the internet, 2.0. A way to claim your own homes and requests on the web, allowing advertisers to speak to you directly by interests. You can contact the advertisers and request things directly and ignore everything else.
Now, comes mobile. The ability to communicate with you based on your interests, your preferences, and your exact location. It all comes to you, as you wish to receive it.
Advertising is moving from mass to groups to sub-groups to the ultimate sub-group: you. Who wins? Both consumer and advertiser. You are sharing the information without putting up with the noise or the extra costs.
If you’ve seen Minority Report, you've more or less seen where we’re ultimately headed. Your environment literally changing and speaking to you directly. You’ll still be inundated with everything, but now it will be things specific to your likes, taste level, and selected preferences. It was an average movie, but that part was spot on.
Personally, I’m excited about the shift. I’ve always been uncomfortable with the idea of “bothering” people. “Interrupting” their life. “Getting in the way” of what they enjoy. In the future, we can have real, meaningful conversations with only the people who may actually care. Creating the ultimate in advertising accountability and efficiency.
09/14/09
Marketing paralysis.
There’s too much.
As a part of several marketing groups, both in real life and online, I feel for anyone out there who is trying to understand what is going on out here. Just today, I’ve been invited to an AdWord optimization presentation, a website strategy presentation, a how-to on video on the web, a how-to successfully use Twitter seminar. And oh, by the way, I’m writing this at 10am. On a Sunday.
It’s enough to overwhelm and confuse me, and I’ve been doing this for quite some time and consider myself pretty darn savvy on this stuff. I occasionally go to some of these presentations, mostly to make sure I’m not missing out on the next big thing. Guess what? 99% of the time, I end up wasting my time.
Why? Although things are moving and changing quickly, the basics have always remained the same. The means and the reporting tools are vastly improved, but there are always too many people out there who are trying to say that the means is the message. That has not, is not, and will never be the case. Some of it is helpful. The vast majority is snake oil.
I’ve spoken with several prospects recently who are literally doing nothing to market because they don’t know what to do. They believe they should be doing so many things that they don’t know where to begin. They are trapped by paralysis of choice and too many people moving around telling them what to do.
My advice? First figure out who you are and who you’re trying to reach. Then create a magnetic brand that will resonate with that specific market. Understand their world and how they (and only they) consume media. Then formulate a plan around what’s best for them. This focused simplicity is counter to what many are saying, but it is in line with the way things have always been.
You will be inundated with hundreds of new ways to reach your audience. Over the next many years, there will be new tools and new specialists and industries created. These are just distractions, not strategies. It is just sound, not clear, concise brand resonance.
In my opinion, groups talking about the next big thing aren’t really doing much except running around yelling trying to exploit a moment in time. And brands that react to all of the things they could be doing are missing out on the few focused things they should be doing very well. My favorite question in any one of these seminars? “Tell me a success story that you’ve been involved with personally”. Usually its crickets, followed by stuttering, followed by how they increased sales in a local vacuum store (or the equivalent) by 3%. Hey, good stuff.
Beware of the empty promise(s) of the next big thing(s). Keep focused on a comprehensive strategy, and stay true to it. And don’t let anyone with a soapbox interrupt that path.
08/24/09
Newspapers, advertising.
It's no secret that newspapers are having a tough time. But smaller, more focused local papers are finding that their readership loyalty is stronger than ever.
We helped Booth Mid-Michigan create an outdoor campaign for each of their cities: Flint, Bay City, and Saginaw. These will help assuage fears and rumors in the community that the papers are disappearing. In fact, they are becoming stronger than ever.
08/13/09
The answer is simple.
Nearly every situation and organization we walk into shares a common theme: communications have become more complex, more layered, and the sales process has gotten murky and difficult to manage. The common problem? The company is way too close to the products and services, and the day-to-day operation and politics. More often than not, we are there to simplify.
Easier said than done? Absolutely. Stakeholders talk about the reasons why they cannot change using similar language and patterns. Generally, it is people who are so passionate about their one piece of the pie that they fail to see the other pieces and their own individual passions. Our biggest early challenge is getting people to see the big picture and understand the greater purpose of the organization.
First, we strip away the years of cobwebs: the politics, the outdated reasoning, turn over of people – all the things that lead to an inward-looking organization. Then we talk with customers: the current ones, some prospects, and a few that left. We find out the true pain points vs. the ones that seem to be prevalent from the inside looking out.
A common thing that we find is that the company is no longer capable of seeing past the day-to-day tasks. Even mission and vision sessions have diminishing returns almost immediately because of their lack of implementation and tangible results. Unless the outside world sees your reason for being, it really doesn’t matter at all.
Too many companies also just go through a cosmetic rebrand. That is, they paint over the cracked paint and think they have made a difference. A true rebrand goes deep: scrapes the old paint off, sands thoroughly, cleans up, and then starts to repaint once again
It takes a lot more work, but the result is always cleaner, simpler, more evident to the outside world, and far more sustainable. And it begins to pay dividends right away.
08/4/09
Stop marketing. Start “marking”.
In the traditional world, marketing has been all about push. Just send out as many things to an audience as possible and hit them until they start paying attention. But people have changed. Now, it’s about creating a brand that makes a mark in someone’s mind so that a customer is drawn to you. You must create a gravitational pull toward your brand – and leaving a solid mark in a potential customer’s mind is the only way to do it.
How can this be accomplished? It’s a change of mindset. You must think of your brand as a living entity, capable of conversation and engagement instead of just standing on a soapbox and yelling. It must have the ability to respond, react, answer, and build a relationship.
Where do you begin? Make certain you have something important to say. This happens just like any other conversation you have in life – you’d better understand your audience inside and out. Don’t assume they just care about “value” or “quality”. Maybe they care more about intelligence and consistency. Once you begin the conversation, you need to give people a place to respond and engage. This type of communication will help imprint you in their minds, building trust, and gaining entry into your psyche in powerful ways. Once you have this trust with customers, the sale has already been made, and you only have to be available instead of needing to inundate.
We call it marking. Which is much more complex and nuanced than marketing.
In many ways it’s much more complicated to execute. But once it’s underway, it feels far more natural and empowering to both you and your prospects.
07/23/09
Does your brand need work?
When a brand let’s itself go, there isn’t a defining moment. It’s a series of almost unseen, unremarkable moments. The best brands in the world can head down a slippery slope quickly if they aren’t cared for on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis.
- You have no idea what’s on your own company’s website. You haven’t been there in months. You don’t really want to go there right now.
- You currently present using a 7th generation PowerPoint. You click to see the original author. You don’t recognize the name.
- You always frame what your company does by first saying “we used to”.
- You search for your company on Google News and the most recent item is a press release from 2003 announcing that your company hired someone who hasn’t worked there since 2005.
- You have lost more than 5 consecutive pitches. In at least one of them, you were asked the question, “what makes you different?” You then inadvertently explain why you’re exactly the same, just a little less dynamic or interesting.
- Your business card was once a proud hand out – 2 sided, thick, uncoated, and well designed. Now, it’s a fourth generation card on a flimsy stock that is glossy and has basic information listed in a font that simply doesn’t belong.
- You used to get tons of calls to the HR department with people excited to work at your company. Now, those calls are all outbound.
- Your trade show booth was once a Mecca of activity and excitement. Now, it’s a heavy, overproduced, out-dated monument to the late 90’s.
- You cut your prices recently. And then again. If you can’t beat ‘em, undersell them.
- You dreaded waking up and going into work today. And every day. Not due to lack of interest. Just lack of vision and direction.
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