Tuesday, June 30, 2009 By Joe Marchese
It's been eye-opening to have conversations with thought leaders in advertising and marketing regarding the future of the industry. The conversations always start on how one could advertise effectively in social media, but more often than not it turns into a discussion of the bigger question: What's the purpose of advertising/marketing?
It's as if the new social media reality is forcing marketers and agencies to reevaluate the reasons for advertising in the first place. As a very good friend (who's a very smart media guy) asked me, "Where is the leverage in this industry?" (referring to media and advertising). We aren't talking about a small shift, but hundreds of billions of dollars spent on advertising and marketing. Marketers are being forced to ask themselves what the role of advertising is in the marketing mix.
If you make a product that sucks, you can't get by on advertising alone. Even if it's possible to build initial demand, word of mouth spreads so fast today, advertising can no longer be leaned on as the key to product success -- or can it? I guess it all depends on what the purpose of advertising really is, what return advertisers truly expect -- and, perhaps most important, when advertisers expect to receive that return.
The question is, is advertising's role to sell product -- or to sell product at a certain price? If Coke wanted to sell more soda, it could drop the price, or pull other levers in the marketing mix, but Coke, and thousands of other brands, are not simply looking to sell more product, they are looking to sell more product at a particular price.
The truth is, an incredible amount of parity among products exists in today's world in almost any product category. But brands mean more to people than a set of product functionality. Brand attributes occupy a place in people's minds -- while products can be functional or not, brands can be expressive, compassionate, funny, edgy, entertaining or trendy. The role of advertising has been to help a brand define and maintain its position in culture, most recently through message delivery in mass media. But today, when the brand can no longer simply define and distribute a message, what is the role of advertising?
I would argue that for marketers, finding a way to interact with consumer and strengthen brand perception is as important as ever. In fact, as production of perfectly functional, and higher and higher quality substitutes continues, it is a brand's perception by consumers that protects its economic value.
But it's not enough in today's media landscape to tell people what your brand values are merely by broadcasting them. Marketers must find a way to allow people to experience and share a brand's values. Brands found a way, through advertising, to be a part of people's cultural experience using broadcast media. The task is the same for social media, and it is an important one.
It is a brand's job to allow people to express themselves and to help people make purchase decisions in a world with endless selections. It is advertising's job to help shape a brand's story.
The form advertising takes to maintain relevance in media's latest evolution, has yet to be totally unlocked. And it may be that advertising makes up a smaller share of the media mix or (shockingly) a larger share, given that advertising's new role will be to create conversations, which can drive product insights, which can lead to maintaining a leadership position in product innovation.
It may be that the lines separating advertising, research and other marketing functions will simply blur, and elements of each be present in all brand communications. "Why" is always a good question to ask before starting any marketing or advertising initiative -- but how honest are we with our answers?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Top Ten Ways Women Entrepreneurs Boost Productivity
by Dr. Susan L Reid
Recently, I did an informal survey of 250 women entrepreneurs asking them this question: “What’s the number one thing you do to boost your productivity?”
Listed in David Letterman’s reverse “Top Ten” order, here are the top ten ways women entrepreneurs boost productivity:
10. Write out your to do list the night before.
Don’t wait until morning to make your list. Write your list the night before. Allow the process to percolate while you sleep. Then, when you wake up, it’s as if you’ve had an eight-hour head start on your day.
9. Prioritize your daily list using the “ABCD and E” method.
A = must doB = should doC = would be nice to doD = delegateE = eliminate
8. Wake up early and get off to a good start.
Wake up early to set the tone for your day. This allows you to get into the swing of things at an unhurried pace. Establish a morning routine that is of greatest benefit to you, not just to your family.
7. Delegate everything possible.
If it isn’t directly making you money, delegate it to someone else. Turn over data entry tasks, packing and shipping, and answering non-essential emails and calls to a competent administrative professional. Not sure if you should turn something over? Ask yourself, “Can this task be done by someone else, or does it need my direct attention?” As an entrepreneur, your job is to concentrate on what is of most value to you and your business success, not on errands.
6. Know your energy peaks and valleys.
You are in control of your business. You get to say when, you get to say how, and you get to say how long. As an entrepreneur, you aren’t locked into a 9 to 5 workday. You can start work at the crack of dawn, go to the gym in the afternoon, and outline a new product idea in the evening. Schedule work activities, family time, and personal quiet time around the natural ebb and flow of your energy peaks and valleys.
5. Find a way to love what you do.
If you love what you do then you are more apt to be productive because you are fully engaged. No matter what you’re doing at any given time, find a way to love doing it.
4. If in doubt, throw it out.
Make liberal use of your waste can and recycle bin. Regularly go through files and throw out or shred material that is outdated or no longer relevant. There is no need to save everything “just in case” you’ll need it later. Trust that if you throw something out today and you need it in the future, you’ll be able to get your hands on it again.
3. Break up projects into tasks.
If you have something on your to do list that’s been there for a long time, realize that it’s probably not a task. It’s a project. To do lists are for discreet tasks. When you put a project on your list, you’ll feel bogged down and productivity will slow. Many of the women entrepreneurs surveyed use business strategist Brian Tracy’s method for breaking up projects into easy-to-do tasks:
First, list the finished result you want.
Next, map out every single step of the project.
Then, put the steps into order, moving the important steps to the front.
Now, delegate tasks and assign responsibilities.
Finally, track the progress of the project.
2. Give 80% of your attention to what is important and 20% to what is urgent.
As an entrepreneur, your job is to discern the difference between what’s important and what’s urgent. To figure out the difference between the two, ask yourself, “Will focusing on this move my business forward and make me money or will I just be putting out fires?”
Dealing with the urgent all day is draining. Dealing with the important is energizing. Make sure you’re giving 80% of your time and attention to what’s important each day.
1. Focus on one thing at a time.
The number one thing women entrepreneurs do to boost productivity is… focus on one thing at a time. Although women are known to be exceptional multi-taskers, those surveyed said they were able to get more done when they focused on one thing at a time. Starting and stopping in the middle of things was frustrating for them and meant that not much was completed at day’s end.
Tip: If focusing on one thing at a time is challenging for you, have a pen and paper nearby. That way, if something pops into your head, just write it down and get right back to the task at hand.
What is the number one thing you should do to boost your productivity? As you’ve just seen, among the 250 women entrepreneurs I surveyed their answers ranged from prioritizing their daily to do list to learning to break projects up into smaller tasks to delegating everything possible. Decide which of their favorite techniques will help you the most, and start implementing them right now. You’re sure to boost productivity for yourself and your business.
Recently, I did an informal survey of 250 women entrepreneurs asking them this question: “What’s the number one thing you do to boost your productivity?”
Listed in David Letterman’s reverse “Top Ten” order, here are the top ten ways women entrepreneurs boost productivity:
10. Write out your to do list the night before.
Don’t wait until morning to make your list. Write your list the night before. Allow the process to percolate while you sleep. Then, when you wake up, it’s as if you’ve had an eight-hour head start on your day.
9. Prioritize your daily list using the “ABCD and E” method.
A = must doB = should doC = would be nice to doD = delegateE = eliminate
8. Wake up early and get off to a good start.
Wake up early to set the tone for your day. This allows you to get into the swing of things at an unhurried pace. Establish a morning routine that is of greatest benefit to you, not just to your family.
7. Delegate everything possible.
If it isn’t directly making you money, delegate it to someone else. Turn over data entry tasks, packing and shipping, and answering non-essential emails and calls to a competent administrative professional. Not sure if you should turn something over? Ask yourself, “Can this task be done by someone else, or does it need my direct attention?” As an entrepreneur, your job is to concentrate on what is of most value to you and your business success, not on errands.
6. Know your energy peaks and valleys.
You are in control of your business. You get to say when, you get to say how, and you get to say how long. As an entrepreneur, you aren’t locked into a 9 to 5 workday. You can start work at the crack of dawn, go to the gym in the afternoon, and outline a new product idea in the evening. Schedule work activities, family time, and personal quiet time around the natural ebb and flow of your energy peaks and valleys.
5. Find a way to love what you do.
If you love what you do then you are more apt to be productive because you are fully engaged. No matter what you’re doing at any given time, find a way to love doing it.
4. If in doubt, throw it out.
Make liberal use of your waste can and recycle bin. Regularly go through files and throw out or shred material that is outdated or no longer relevant. There is no need to save everything “just in case” you’ll need it later. Trust that if you throw something out today and you need it in the future, you’ll be able to get your hands on it again.
3. Break up projects into tasks.
If you have something on your to do list that’s been there for a long time, realize that it’s probably not a task. It’s a project. To do lists are for discreet tasks. When you put a project on your list, you’ll feel bogged down and productivity will slow. Many of the women entrepreneurs surveyed use business strategist Brian Tracy’s method for breaking up projects into easy-to-do tasks:
First, list the finished result you want.
Next, map out every single step of the project.
Then, put the steps into order, moving the important steps to the front.
Now, delegate tasks and assign responsibilities.
Finally, track the progress of the project.
2. Give 80% of your attention to what is important and 20% to what is urgent.
As an entrepreneur, your job is to discern the difference between what’s important and what’s urgent. To figure out the difference between the two, ask yourself, “Will focusing on this move my business forward and make me money or will I just be putting out fires?”
Dealing with the urgent all day is draining. Dealing with the important is energizing. Make sure you’re giving 80% of your time and attention to what’s important each day.
1. Focus on one thing at a time.
The number one thing women entrepreneurs do to boost productivity is… focus on one thing at a time. Although women are known to be exceptional multi-taskers, those surveyed said they were able to get more done when they focused on one thing at a time. Starting and stopping in the middle of things was frustrating for them and meant that not much was completed at day’s end.
Tip: If focusing on one thing at a time is challenging for you, have a pen and paper nearby. That way, if something pops into your head, just write it down and get right back to the task at hand.
What is the number one thing you should do to boost your productivity? As you’ve just seen, among the 250 women entrepreneurs I surveyed their answers ranged from prioritizing their daily to do list to learning to break projects up into smaller tasks to delegating everything possible. Decide which of their favorite techniques will help you the most, and start implementing them right now. You’re sure to boost productivity for yourself and your business.
How's Your Backend Looking?
by Janel Landis , Thursday, June 25, 2009
While optimists are hoping for economic recovery to begin soon, advertisers across all channels are desperately awaiting signs of the slightest uptick. All advertisers continue to scrutinize their marketing dollars during the present economic situation; however, many of these advertisers focus solely on a simple cost-per-lead goal and, consequently, rely on this arbitrary goal as a true gauge of performance. The result? No matter their heightened scrutiny, these advertisers are falling short.
The temptation to narrow your performance focus can be compelling. After all, performance junkies like to live in a world with concrete and statistically valid data. Performance ambiguity is the enemy, and so these advertisers grasp at what they know to be true. They are comfortable dealing with a preliminary cost-per-lead because they have either ruled it out for some reason or simply not even considered it. No matter the cause, if you do not intimately know your lead-to-close rate down to the creative type, media placement or keyword, then you are doing your lead program a severe injustice.
All too often, advertisers think they have a good solution in place and that they are adequately tracking performance at a given level; however, tracking by channel simply isn't good enough, and even "good enough" doesn't cut it when trying to stay afloat these days. You have to excel in your tracking efforts in order to maximize and optimally appropriate advertising dollars.
One of the biggest challenges in implementing a more granular level of acquisition cost tracking and analysis is the demand on resources. Sure, you definitely have to prioritize your needs, but this is a pretty big one that you cannot afford to neglect. Even when your initiatives are performing above and beyond your goals, you have to ask yourself, "Could my performance be better?"
As marketers we understand the 80/20 rule, but often it is more of the 90/10 rule when your program is under-optimized. Let's put the top of the funnel away for a moment and strictly look at backend acquisition. If 90% of your closes are coming from 10% of spend, then you may just have a serious problem on your hands. Understanding the tradeoff between volume and efficiency is important; however, the majority of corporate executives would take a 10% loss in volume when it means reducing costs by 90%, especially when there is another channel that could afford to spend more.
Call centers and lead times definitely challenge marketers running lead generation programs, but patience and persistence can get you to a more clairvoyant backend, which ultimately allows you to make better marketing decisions within an individual channel and across your initiatives as a whole. Clients of all sizes and business types have successfully implemented tracking to get to these granular data points, and you can, too.
While optimists are hoping for economic recovery to begin soon, advertisers across all channels are desperately awaiting signs of the slightest uptick. All advertisers continue to scrutinize their marketing dollars during the present economic situation; however, many of these advertisers focus solely on a simple cost-per-lead goal and, consequently, rely on this arbitrary goal as a true gauge of performance. The result? No matter their heightened scrutiny, these advertisers are falling short.
The temptation to narrow your performance focus can be compelling. After all, performance junkies like to live in a world with concrete and statistically valid data. Performance ambiguity is the enemy, and so these advertisers grasp at what they know to be true. They are comfortable dealing with a preliminary cost-per-lead because they have either ruled it out for some reason or simply not even considered it. No matter the cause, if you do not intimately know your lead-to-close rate down to the creative type, media placement or keyword, then you are doing your lead program a severe injustice.
All too often, advertisers think they have a good solution in place and that they are adequately tracking performance at a given level; however, tracking by channel simply isn't good enough, and even "good enough" doesn't cut it when trying to stay afloat these days. You have to excel in your tracking efforts in order to maximize and optimally appropriate advertising dollars.
One of the biggest challenges in implementing a more granular level of acquisition cost tracking and analysis is the demand on resources. Sure, you definitely have to prioritize your needs, but this is a pretty big one that you cannot afford to neglect. Even when your initiatives are performing above and beyond your goals, you have to ask yourself, "Could my performance be better?"
As marketers we understand the 80/20 rule, but often it is more of the 90/10 rule when your program is under-optimized. Let's put the top of the funnel away for a moment and strictly look at backend acquisition. If 90% of your closes are coming from 10% of spend, then you may just have a serious problem on your hands. Understanding the tradeoff between volume and efficiency is important; however, the majority of corporate executives would take a 10% loss in volume when it means reducing costs by 90%, especially when there is another channel that could afford to spend more.
Call centers and lead times definitely challenge marketers running lead generation programs, but patience and persistence can get you to a more clairvoyant backend, which ultimately allows you to make better marketing decisions within an individual channel and across your initiatives as a whole. Clients of all sizes and business types have successfully implemented tracking to get to these granular data points, and you can, too.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Lots "O $$ Coming from Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz Taps razorfish New York TimesMercedes-Benz USA has tapped Razorfish, a unit of Microsoft, for the online component Of a new marketing campaign, which is trying a different way to get customers to buy cars as it introduces its updated E-Class Series. The ad campaign for the midsize car, available as a sedan or a coupe, is the company's biggest in two years, estimated at $75 million. It does not talk about great value or good deals. Instead, it focuses on the cars' technology and heritage, a somewhat standard approach for the brand. The online campaign will include home page advertisements on sites like Bloomberg.com and CNBC.com. The E-Class update is meant to turn around an alarming sales slide for Mercedes, which is owned by Daimler. Its United States sales have declined 28.7% this year from the same time in 2008, according to the company. May sales were even further off, falling 33.4% from May 2008. The United States turned in the worst showing of any geographic region in May. - Read the whole story... Get to the client dealer and get them to make their push locally to tie in to the ad campaign.
GM AD Dollars Sames as Before Bankruptcy
DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- General Motors Corp. has been tight-lipped about what it's planning to spend while in bankruptcy, but Ad Age has the answer: $40 million to $50 million per month, which comes out to about same dollars-per-vehicle rate as before it filed for Chapter 11. The numbers come from the automaker's top marketing official, Mark LaNeve, who had dodged several Ad Age inquiries on the subject. Read the full story at http://adage.com/article?article_id=137453 -- Jean Halliday
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Could Twitter Replace Nielsen?
Thursday, June 4, 2009 By Dave Morgan
I'm living in the TV world these, spending my time trying to better understand television viewership patterns and how to improve the TV experience for viewers. Since I've spent the better part of the past 18 years in the online world, I am always looking for linkages between the online world and the television world, from anticipating an Internet Protocol-driven television future to leveraging Web services to better predict or influence actual television viewership.
Relative to the latter, my team has been spending a lot of time lately analyzing Twitter data to try to see if it could be useful in better understanding how people view television, since so many people regularly tweet about their TV viewing activities. The results have been interesting, but what was most eye-opening was the amount of interest and discussion that was generated in comments when the results were released on a popular technology finance blog, Fred Wilson's AVC (Disclosure: Fred is an investor in my company, Simulmedia).
What came through the strongest among the 100+ comments was whether Twitter might be able to replace Nielsen and other audience measurement services, or whether Twitter data might even be able to replace set-top-box data as a source for census-based television viewership. Could Twitter someday replace Nielsen ratings, or set-top-box data? In my view, it's too early to tell, but here are some of the advantages that it might offer:
Real-time results. What Twitter lacks in precision, it certainly makes up for in real time. Tweets tell you what people are doing in the moment. You don't have to wait hours or days or weeks for results. As more and more marketing becomes real-time, so must the tools that enable it.
Intention data. Twitter can not only tell you what people are doing, but why. Understanding intentions and motivations can take a lot of guess work out of marketing and media.
it's a focus group/survey tool on steroids. Twitter lets you watch, interact and survey lots of different types of people very quickly and very efficiently. The survey and focus group business will never be the same once companies learn how to leverage Twitter here.
Authenticity. Twitter today is as wide open and uncontrolled as TV panels are closed and controlled. Neither is ideal, but having both means that we're all more likely to find out the truth about viewers over time.
It's free. Yes. Hard to beat this one. Companies can tap into Twitter for free. I suspect that Twitter will find ways to charge for premium services and uses over time; now, however, it is free.
Is Twitter the new black when it comes to consumer marketing research? Should Nielsen and others be worried? What do you think?
I'm living in the TV world these, spending my time trying to better understand television viewership patterns and how to improve the TV experience for viewers. Since I've spent the better part of the past 18 years in the online world, I am always looking for linkages between the online world and the television world, from anticipating an Internet Protocol-driven television future to leveraging Web services to better predict or influence actual television viewership.
Relative to the latter, my team has been spending a lot of time lately analyzing Twitter data to try to see if it could be useful in better understanding how people view television, since so many people regularly tweet about their TV viewing activities. The results have been interesting, but what was most eye-opening was the amount of interest and discussion that was generated in comments when the results were released on a popular technology finance blog, Fred Wilson's AVC (Disclosure: Fred is an investor in my company, Simulmedia).
What came through the strongest among the 100+ comments was whether Twitter might be able to replace Nielsen and other audience measurement services, or whether Twitter data might even be able to replace set-top-box data as a source for census-based television viewership. Could Twitter someday replace Nielsen ratings, or set-top-box data? In my view, it's too early to tell, but here are some of the advantages that it might offer:
Real-time results. What Twitter lacks in precision, it certainly makes up for in real time. Tweets tell you what people are doing in the moment. You don't have to wait hours or days or weeks for results. As more and more marketing becomes real-time, so must the tools that enable it.
Intention data. Twitter can not only tell you what people are doing, but why. Understanding intentions and motivations can take a lot of guess work out of marketing and media.
it's a focus group/survey tool on steroids. Twitter lets you watch, interact and survey lots of different types of people very quickly and very efficiently. The survey and focus group business will never be the same once companies learn how to leverage Twitter here.
Authenticity. Twitter today is as wide open and uncontrolled as TV panels are closed and controlled. Neither is ideal, but having both means that we're all more likely to find out the truth about viewers over time.
It's free. Yes. Hard to beat this one. Companies can tap into Twitter for free. I suspect that Twitter will find ways to charge for premium services and uses over time; now, however, it is free.
Is Twitter the new black when it comes to consumer marketing research? Should Nielsen and others be worried? What do you think?
Re Knee
Hi all' Been absent from action for a coupla weeks since I just had my left knee replaced and haven't been able to add any news worthy or your time and interest. Just got on my laptop and deleted almost 1100 e-mails. I will work hard on my physiotherapy to get back into the groove and gather some viable media sales stuff for ya. Meanwhile....be cool ....get those local direct dollars.
Best...
Dr. Philip Jay...
Best...
Dr. Philip Jay...
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