tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51032625305910903772024-03-07T23:24:02.474-05:00Kim's Big ChairKim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-21452552345744887162011-06-20T16:12:00.000-04:002011-06-20T16:12:46.168-04:00The art of the "daily deal"<em>"The art of the daily deal" appears in the latest issue of Social Media Marketing magazine. Check it out at </em><a href="http://www.smmmagazine.com/"><strong><em><span style="color: #669922;">http://www.smmmagazine.com/</span></em></strong></a><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was never a dedicated coupon clipper – at least not when coupons came in the daily newspaper or an overstuffed envelope in my mailbox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As my favorite retailers became web-savvy, they started sending me coupons by email…posting specials on their websites…tempting me with offers on their Facebook pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The object for the retailer, as any Marketing 101 student knows, was to drive top-line sales by reducing price (and margins) slightly in order to generate a sufficient transaction increase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s a notion that today seems almost quaint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Welcome to the age of the daily deal.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Daily deals companies have been proliferating at a dizzying rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Groupon, the 2,000-lb. gorilla of the market, is said to be the fastest growing company in history, according to </span></span><a href="http://mashable.com/2011/03/17/groupon-now/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Mashable</span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And if a daily deal isn’t enough, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there’s Groupon Now, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a smartphone app that will allow users to click an “I’m hungry” or “I’m bored” button to open up a list of time-specific daily deals, based on his or her location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>LivingSocial is testing a similar concept </span></span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/livingsocial-announces-instant-deals-lunch-gets-even-cheaper-2011-3"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">InstantDeals</span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>AT&T is testing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://mashable.com/2011/02/28/att-location-based-ads/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">ShopAlert</span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">, a mobile service that notifies consumers of nearby deals from HP, Kmart, JetBlue and others. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><em><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Facebook, too, is entering the space, joining the roughly 500 group buying sites that, according to </span></em></span></span><a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2784"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Wharton marketing professor David Reibstein</span></span></a><em><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-style: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>have emerged worldwide.</span></em><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And scaring the bejeepers out of the entire industry, </span></span><a href="https://www.google.com/offers/t#!subscribe"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Google Offers</span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> is in test.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Exciting, yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sustainable, no.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s destined to become a downhill spiral, for three key reasons: trade down, one-and-out customers, and diminishing supply of offers.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">First, trade-down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I subscribe to six different sites -- which is kid-stuff to those consumers who actively play – so as I manage the barrage of offers, I do exactly what that Marketing 101 student would tell you is the inherent flaw in the system: I skim for deals on stuff I was going to buy anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I subscribed to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one</i> daily-deal service, I might be tempted to visit a retailer I hadn’t tried before…buy a new product…try a new service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I might become a new customer, a new transaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what I do instead is “trade down.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wharton’s Reibstein talks about the second issue, the one-and-out customer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Unfortunately, the people Groupon is attracting are those who are referred to as ‘deal prone customers.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These customers tend not to be the most loyal of customers. And because you have attracted them with a low price, you are more likely to lose them because somebody else offers a lower price. The merchant might say, ‘Well I am not making money on these customers, but hopefully I am building some future business.’ But there is the challenge of whether they are really building future business, because what they really getting is a fickle customer. Merchants are going to discover that the Groupon customer is not where you build your future business.” </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Reibstein points out the third cloud on the daily-deals horizon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<span style="color: black;">As the economy picks up and there is less excess inventory, the availability of supply will go down. The willingness of the merchant to offer deep discounts will go down. The business proposition to the customer will be less attractive if [the item or service being offered] doesn't have the same deep discount.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How long<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>will it last?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a recent report from </span></span><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/23/pf/daily_deal_overload/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">CNN Money</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“T<span style="color: black;">raffic to flash sales and daily deal sites has been dropping over the past few months, according to online traffic monitor comScore. Gilt is down 22% since the start of 2011, and Groupon has fallen off 13% during the same time period.”</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the consumer – particularly the cash-strapped consumer -- it’s been a great ride.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For new businesses aiming to generate trial among a large pool of consumers, it’s been an effective – albeit expensive – tactic to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for the established retailer who feels the pressure to play in the daily deals arena, as one retailer I know put it, shaking his head, “You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br />
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</div>Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-53290303430266101612011-03-24T22:35:00.000-04:002011-03-24T22:35:11.433-04:00Brand Marketers: Listen When the Consumer Says, "Enough is Enough!"<em>Brand Marketers: Listen When the Consumer Says, "Enough is Enough!" appears in the latest issue of Social Media Marketing magazine. Check it out at <a href="http://www.smmmagazine.com/">http://www.smmmagazine.com/</a></em><br />
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New <a href="http://www.exacttarget.com/Resources/SFF8.pdf">research from ExactTarget</a> has proven what we already suspected: too much of a good thing is, well, too much. The study concluded that if marketers use social media to barrage customers with self-serving, non-engaging messages, they're likely to be "unliked" faster than you can say buh-bye.<br />
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The conclusions may not be surprising, but what is surprising is the number of brands choosing to simply ignore the data, forging ahead with the great barrage. Sayeth the consumer, "We're talking about YOU!"<br />
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According to the study, when a consumer quits following a brand on Facebook, for example, it's because the company posts too much (44 percent), its pages are cluttered with marketing messages (43 percent), the messages are repetitive and uninteresting (38 percent), the messages are overly promotional (24 percent), and the content is irrelevant (19 percent).<br />
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Let's talk about frequency of messaging. While I've seen only anecdotal information about the optimum number of posts from a brand—and relevancy will always impact that optimal number anyway—I'm fairly confident that most consumers do not wish to receive brand messages every day. Yet the vast majority of brands that I personally/professionally follow are compelled to post messages five or six days per week.<br />
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None of the brands I follow ever posts on Sunday. While I will allow that social media usage is comparatively lower on Sunday—see <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/10/28/facebook-activity-study/">Mashable's excellent article on Facebook usage</a>—I could argue that the less-cluttered environment might be a good trade for the slightly lower usage. And if a broader audience was the goal, why would brands post on weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., knowing that 65 percent of users access the site when they're not at work or school, typically early morning or evening? According to Mashable's Adam Ostrow, "That means that if you're making social media only a part of a 9-to-5 workday, you might be missing out on connecting with consumers during the times they're likely to be online."<br />
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I'm going to pick on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/bestbuy">Best Buy</a> for a moment, a brand that often uses social media very well, but sometimes makes me crazy. Today, I received nothing fewer than four messages from Best Buy. Message number two was a repost of message number one. I have additionally received six messages from Best Buy over the past two weeks about their buy-back program. This is precisely why I have hidden posts from Best Buy and go to its Facebook page only when I'm seeking specific information.<br />
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What is unfortunate about that is that buried in the clutter are some genuinely interesting posts. For instance, while most brands seem compelled to post their latest commercials—what may be the best example of the overt marketing message that survey respondents said they did not want to see—Best Buy has done it right. To create additional interest in its <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS9sUm5Y0sg">Super Bowl commercial</a>, Best Buy invited Facebook friends to vote between four different endings for the spot. In the second part of its one-two punch, Best Buy <a href="http://stores.ebay.com/Best-Buy-Outlet-Store/Ozzy-Osbourne-Justin-Bieber-Suits.html">auctioned off</a> the autographed costumes worn by Justin Beiber and Ozzy Osbourne in the spot, donating proceeds to charity. Great stuff. But Best Buy, please lighten up!<br />
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Many brands still fight the urge to use friend and follower counts as a measure of success. What brands would do well to consider, though, would be the number of friends and followers who decide that enough is enough. Optimum frequency and the value of the posts' content will become clear.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-49330266125667875282010-12-02T11:18:00.000-05:002010-12-02T11:18:24.382-05:00Power to the people: How brands are rallying consumers to engageby Kim Hennig<br />
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<em>"Power to the people: How brands are rallying consumers to engage" appears in the latest issue of Social Media Marketing magazine. Check it out at <a href="http://www.smmmagazine.com/">http://www.smmmagazine.com/</a></em><br />
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Four years ago, Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired magazine, coined the term “<a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html?pg=1&topic=crowds&topic_set=">crowdsourcing</a>” to describe what was then an emerging trend: using the Internet to reach people with specialized talents, and harness their skills. Not long after, he published a <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307396204">book</a> on the topic, aptly titled, <em>Crowdsourcing: How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business</em>. Call it crowdsourcing or just a good, old-fashioned contest, evidently that future is now.<br />
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Rarely does a day go by, for instance, without stumbling across yet another brand inviting consumers to create their own commercials, one of the most popular crowdsourcing tactics. <br />
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Doritos, a pioneer of this approach, launched its “Crash the Super Bowl” ad contest in 2007, generating both widespread participation and consumer interest in the spot. Two years later, the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UukD_cIw08E">winning entry</a> scored at the top of USA TODAY’s popular Super Bowl Ad Meter. “For the first time, it wasn't an ad agency that created the best-liked Super Bowl commercial,” quipped USA TODAY, “ it was two unemployed brothers from Batesville, Ind., whose ad for Doritos — created for an online contest for amateurs — won them $1 million from Doritos maker Frito-Lay, and leaves ad pros with a lot of 'splaining to do.” Beyond the live Super Bowl audience, the winning Doritos spot generated more than 2.3 million views on YouTube.<br />
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Other brands getting into the crowdsourcing act include CareerBuilder, whose 2010 winner “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1FxwagDP8A">Casual Friday</a>” has generated more than 1.2 million views on YouTube, and GoDaddy.com, which used the 2010 Indy 500 as the stage for their contest-winning spot, “<a href="http://videos.godaddy.com/godaddy_media.aspx?isc=adcon10se&ci=11207">Go Momma</a>”.<br />
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Since not every consumer has the wherewithal to actually create a commercial, some brands have taken the idea and made it more accessible. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/PetSmart">PetSmart</a> offers a great example. Housed on their Facebook page, the “Scare Your Way into a TV Commercial” contest invites pet owners to submit a photo of their pet in a Halloween costume. PetSmart does a lot of things right with this contest – after consumers enter, they are provided with a link to post on their own Facebook pages to extend reach beyond contest participants, they post weekly winners to maintain interest in the contest, and they award random gift cards on a daily basis. They’ve also made their voting rules clear and fair, specifying, “Remember: you can vote for as many entries as you'd like, but you can only vote for an individual entry once per day.”<br />
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Clear and fair rules are essential in such efforts. Consider the ill-will generated by the indomitable Oprah Winfrey in the “<a href="http://myown.oprah.com/audition/index.html">Win your OWN Show</a>” contest for the new Oprah Winfrey Network. More than 15,000 people entered the contest, either by submitting audition videos on which viewers could vote, or showing up at a casting call at Kohl’s stores. Why participants should choose to audition at a Kohl’s store or to send in a video was unclear, as was how many finalists would come from each. There were no rules ascribed to the voting process, allowing participants to vote over and over for themselves, or worse, to utilize auto-voting software to do it for them. Consider this: the top vote-getter generated 9.1 million votes…with only 1.3 million views. <br />
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Not all crowdsourcing efforts involve television. Take the <a href="http://www.refresheverything.com/">Pepsi Refresh Project</a>. In 2010, Pepsi took $20 million it would have spent on advertising on the Super Bowl and created a massive social good program in which consumers voted on non-profit programs to fund. At the Mashable & 92Y Social Good Summit in September, PepsiCo’s<a href="http://mashable.com/2010/09/27/pepsico-social-good/"> Bonin Bough</a> pointed out that the project generated more votes than the 2008 U. S. Presidential Election. Pepsi extended the reach of the program by partnering with Major League Baseball and its legion of fans, with <a href="http://mlb.mlb.com/sponsors/pepsi/refresh/y2010/">MBL teams</a> nominating worthy projects to receive funding. Two million fans casted votes in the MLB portion of the program alone.<br />
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Non-profits have engaged consumers in similar – if not quite so grandiose – efforts. <a href="http://www.habitat.org/hw/photo_contest/2010/">Habitat for Humanity</a>, for example, launched a photo contest, inviting friends of the organization to submit images “that communicated something vital about the organization’s life-changing work”. The contest was promoted, and hundreds of photos shared, through a variety of social media channels, including Habitat’s <a href="http://www.facebook.com/habitat">Facebook</a> page, and <a href="http://flickr.com/">Flickr.com</a>.<br />
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Some crowdsourcing programs are less about marketing, and more about the products themselves. A great example is <a href="http://www.electroluxdesignlab.com/design-lab/about/">Electrolux’s Design Lab</a>, an annual global design competition open to undergraduate and graduate industrial design students who are invited to present innovative ideas for household appliances of the future.<br />
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Every day in social media, brands are utilizing crowdsourcing approaches to name a product, sing a jingle, pick an all-star team, create a recipe, nominate a winner. The drawback? If such programs become ubiquitous, their talk-value will diminish and their effectiveness is bound to decline. Further, if consumers are given more rein to shape corporate messaging, brand strategy objectives could become more difficult to meet.<br />
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But make no mistake: the consumer now expects to be not just part of the conversation, but also part of the decision-making. As Jeff Howe predicted, they’re driving the future of business.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-952863869450094472010-09-13T18:40:00.002-04:002010-09-15T08:46:03.580-04:00Sharing Secrets with Friends<br />
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<em>"Sharing secrets with</em> <em>friends" appears in the latest issue of <strong>Social Media Marketing</strong> magazine. Check it out at http://www.smmmagazine.com/</em><br />
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One thing friends just love to do: share secrets. But what if you've got a million friends? All the better. For many consumer marketers, sharing secret behind-the-scenes videos, short films on the making of commercials, and exclusive interviews with celebrity spokesmen has become a great way to engage customers in the social media space.<br />
Hollywood has been doing this for years, since long before the advent of social media. Celebrity interviews and behind-the-scenes videos are de rigeur in the pre-release marketing of any film. Check out the YouTube video on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2_vB7zx_SQ">making of Avatar</a> to see a great example. Film producers understand that engaging moviegoers with the actors and filmmakers creates a more personal relationship that ultimately helps to generate buzz and ticket sales.<br />
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Some retailers have borrowed a page from Hollywood's book. For example, for its holiday television shoot, Victoria's Secret spawned no fewer than three separate, behind-the-scenes videos, plus a digital greeting card with the lingeried beauties expressing their holiday wishes exclusively to Facebook fans. The Victoria's Secret strategy is clearly working: their Facebook page has amassed two-and-a-half million fans.<br />
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It's a bit of a surprise, actually, that more television advertisers are not sharing behind-the-scenes videos from the making of their commercials. What many are doing, ineffectively, is inviting consumers to "preview our new commercial." Not particularly exclusive or viral-worthy, unless it's a banned commercial—like the PETA spots banished from last year's Super Bowl or its more recent <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjKRxa7ZyMs">Thanksgiving effort</a>—or one that's just plain steamy, like the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYWQ5sX0-5Q">Kim Kardashian spot</a> for Carl's Jr.<br />
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Even if the finished commercial is too self serving to have genuine viral potential, outtakes versions often do. Consider the huge success of E*TRADE's hilarious outtakes video of their well-known <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Ev5HgGACg">"Babies"</a> spot: more than five million views, with a five-star rating. And Sears generated several hundred thousand views of its <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmMLBiXQY7g&feature=PlayList&p=BAE5EF558F509E1C&index=0">Brett Favre spot</a> outtakes pitching big-screen TVs.<br />
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While movies and TV commercials provide an easy transition to behind-the-scenes videos, some marketers have had to think more creatively. Book publisher Simon & Schuster invites readers to get "the story behind the story" on BookVideos.tv, housed on YouTube. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/bookvideostv#p/u/1/R-LDNyX8_8M">Authors talk</a> about their lives, their inspirations, and the challenges they faced in writing their books, an opportunity previously available only to the precious few who landed a talk show appearance.<br />
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Hallmark, another consumer retailer playing almost exclusively in the world of print, had a unique idea in the development of its <a href="http://blog.hallmark.com/">100th anniversary blog</a>, designed to give consumers a peek under the tent at corporate headquarters. However, instead of posting interesting features about how cards are developed, facts about card giving, the most popular cards ever (and the like), the site disappoints with videos of talking-head executives and photos of the anniversary cake. One entry, "High-Tech Hallmark," comes the closest to having real consumer appeal, but it leaves viewers wanting more.<br />
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Which brings us to the Golden Rule for marketers who wish to share behind-the-scenes secrets in social media: share material that consumers find interesting. As simplistic as that sounds, a sizeable number of consumer marketers seem to think that we're intrigued to know that they are running out for a latte or are keen on viewing the CEO's speech. Avoid the mundane; the best secrets are juicy ones.<br />
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And a final thought. Sharing behind-the-scenes material can be highly effective, but be sure to give fans and followers an opportunity to comment, question, and respond. Remember that there is a social part of the social media equation.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-33165741682724005572010-06-06T09:47:00.000-04:002010-06-06T09:47:59.843-04:00Have you tried our soup today?<em>"Have you tried our soup today?" appears in the inaugural issue of <strong>Social Media Marketing </strong>magazine. Check it out at <a href="http://www.smmmagazine.com/">http://www.smmmagazine.com/</a></em><br />
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The scene: two strangers sitting on a park bench. One turns to the other and tentatively says, “Hello…” The other spins around, grabs the first by the shoulders and bellows, “HI, THERE! HAVE YOU TRIED OUR NEW SOUP TODAY?!?”<br />
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A little off-putting, to say the least.<br />
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Yet this is the scene played by far too many consumer marketers as they seek to establish themselves in social media today. The traditional marketing playbook – seek (or build) a sizeable audience of potential customers, then pummel them with “sell” messages until they buy – doesn’t work here. In fact, it can be downright damaging to the brand.<br />
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While consumer marketing in social media is no longer in its infancy, it’s not much beyond toddlerhood. A number of marketers, however, have grown up quickly and learned to execute well…in a variety of ways, but always consistent with the brand personality. Newcomers, as well as established players, would do well to learn from them.<br />
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These marketers probably didn’t start with the questions, “Who will we have tweet for us?” or “Should we manage our fan page internally, or outsource it?” For them, the real question was, “”What’s the appropriate voice for our brand?” While much has been written about the hugely-successful efforts of several marketers, like Whole Foods, Jet Blue, Best Buy and Starbucks, what they share in their approaches, each unique, is a relentless adherence to the voice of their brands.<br />
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Take a closer look at just one of them, Whole Foods. What comes to your mind when you think of the brand? It might be a passion for good food, a fresh-market of specialty purveyors, experts in all that is organic and natural, an accessible boutique of gourmet items. If those characteristics capture the essence of the brand, we certainly wouldn’t expect messages like, “One week only! Two-for-one frozen peas!” What we’d expect -- and get -- from Whole Foods, is expert advice, like insights on cheeses from Whole Foods Fromagerie on Facebook or from Cathy Strange, @WFMCheese on Twitter. Like a visit to your local farmers market, through Whole Foods’ social media channels, you can establish a relationship with the cheese monger, the vintner, the butcher.<br />
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Which is not to say that price-point messages don’t work in social media. Old Navy, for example, does an excellent job of sharing “exclusive” offers with their fans and followers, like their Deal of the Week. But the Old Navy brand is about deals, right down to their warehouse-like store décor. Do we really want a relationship with Old Navy, or are we looking for a heads-up on jeans at half price? The “value” voice plays to the brand.<br />
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The recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas provided social media fodder to a plethora of players, many of whom did it very well. Let’s look at one…Sony Electronics. Sony clearly knows what its customers want: news about the latest-and-greatest technology, a firm grasp of what’s hot, a peek under the tent. Sony delivered access for its fans and followers, with a virtual booth tour before the show, a live stream of their press conference (featuring Taylor Swift) by way of a button on their Facebook page, an opportunity for camera buffs to ask questions of celebrity photographer Nigel Barker on Twitter. The Sony brand spoke with the voice of authority, experience and expertise.<br />
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Small businesses can establish a social media brand voice, as well. When “meet us on Facebook” popped up on the sign at my local dry cleaners, I visited their fan page, and found not just coupons (though those were welcomed), but also advice on how to treat holiday party stains, what types of clothing to store professionally, how to recycle hangers and laundry bags. With all of the dry-cleaning options I have, Best Cleaners has become the voice of the expert in my little world.<br />
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Recently, I came across a colorful analogy that social media has become something akin to trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose. While our social media journey in recent times has been largely focused on amassing friends, fans and followers, for most of us, the fire-hose stream of messaging has become downright overwhelming. As a result, 2010 is likely to become a year of constriction and selectivity, as consumers begin to pare their streams to those marketers who are most meaningful to them, and most consistent with the consumer vision of the brand. Those marketers who can’t update the old playbook will quickly learn the power of unfollow.<br />
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Establishing a social media brand voice, then, is more than just a way to begin in social media – it’s an imperative for survival there. <br />
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To make friends on a park bench, you need some social skills…and you need to use the right voice.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-41230991339680484152010-05-05T15:59:00.002-04:002010-05-12T14:49:48.944-04:00A marketer’s personal dilemma: targeting versus privacyIn the Mad Men-days of advertising, targeting usually meant little more than selecting a TV show (from among three networks) that the “ladies” were inclined to watch. My, how we’ve focused.<br />
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As a marketer today, armed with the necessary data, I can find you, my potential customer, with microscopic precision. I know where you live, how much the houses in your neighborhood cost. I know your age, your sex. I know the websites you visit, the products you buy. This makes my job ever so much more efficient, and my marketing dollars more effective.<br />
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If I <em>weren’t</em> a marketer, the chances are still good that I could ferret-out a great deal of information about you. I could probably ascertain not just your age demo, but your exact birth date. I could determine whether or not you are married, the names and ages of your children, your cell phone number, your email address, your street address, and where (and when) you are going on vacation. <br />
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How? You told me. You probably didn’t mean to, but there it is…right there on the Internet. And armed with what I know – as a marketer or not – I can invade your email, your mailbox, your Facebook, your home, your bank account, your privacy.<br />
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Two things happened this week that gave me pause…should give ALL of us pause.<br />
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The first is the <a href="http://www.boucher.house.gov/images/stories/Privacy_Draft_5-10.pdf">much-anticipated draft</a> of a Congressional bill that would provide privacy protection both on the Internet and offline. The draft made no one happy. Advertising industry groups issued ominous predictions about the certain death of direct marketing, and the inability for consumers to be served valuable, relevant messages. Privacy advocates argued that the bill did little more than tell consumers to read the digital fine-print.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/business/media/05adco.html?partner=rss&emc=rss">New York Times</a> describes the legislation this way. “The proposed bill would greatly extend what information should be considered sensitive. It would require companies to post clear and understandable privacy notices when they collect information ranging from health or financial information all the way to Internet Protocol address (which many companies are using to target now as a way of getting around privacy concerns), name, any unique identifier including a customer identification number, race or ethnicity, precise location or any preference profile the customer has filled out.”<br />
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“Essentially, whenever any information can identify a single person — or a single computer or device — companies would need to alert consumers about that with a notice.”<br />
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According to the bill, once that information is provided, the user has the opportunity to opt-in or opt-out of allowing the data to be used or shared.<br />
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Industry groups argue that the process will interfere with the user experience, and that a free Internet depends on sophisticated targeting models. They suggest a better approach would be to follow their recently put forth <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/business/media/02adco.html?_r=1">self-governing principles</a>. Hmmmm, to all of that.<br />
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The second thing that gave me pause this week was the release of a new <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2010/june/electronics-computers/social-insecurity/overview/index.htm">Consumer Reports study </a>that suggests a majority of people seem unconcerned with online privacy – or safety – as they post risky information on their social-network profiles. Fifty-two percent of American adults have posted personal information, like their full birth date (38 percent), photos of children (21 percent), their children’s names (13 percent), street address (8 percent) and mention details about being away from home (3 percent).<br />
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The study says that one in four households with a Facebook account have users who aren’t aware of, or don’t choose to use, Facebook’s built-in privacy controls.<br />
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Are we really unconcerned about online privacy, or are we simply unaware of how exposed we are? I suspect it’s the latter. As a professional marketer, I am keenly aware of how precisely I can find you – and people quite like you – in order to serve up my product messaging. As an Internet user, however, I resent being targeted, and find it to be enormously intrusive. I’m a “mature female” consumer, and thus I am barraged with wrinkle-cream advertising. It makes me mad. <br />
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Unlike many of my fellow Internet users – and the majority of the 300+ million Facebook users – I’m pretty careful about maintaining my privacy online, although I could probably be even more vigilant than I am. I look for, and share, articles that provide privacy tips, like <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2010/june/electronics-computers/social-insecurity/7-things-to-stop-doing-on-facebook/index.htm">7 Things to Stop Doing on Facebook</a>, and Mashable’s recently-released guide to disabling Facebook’s insipid <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/04/25/disable-facebook-instant-personalization/">"Instant Personalization"</a> feature. I repost warnings from friends and colleagues about the newest privacy attacks, such as the creepy website <a href="http://spokeo.com/">spokeo.com</a>. It bills itself as an online phone book, but offers photos of your house, your credit score, profession, age, income level, horoscope, how many people live in the house…most of it erroneous, but available nonetheless. Astoundingly, you must provide them with your email address in order to opt-out through their privacy program!<br />
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Our collective tolerance for such matters may be running out. In a recent <a href="http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2010/05/12/hearing-the-call-for-protecting-personal-information-online/">SmartBrief poll</a> regarding legislation that gives consumers more control over their personal information online, nearly 62% said it's about time Congress took action. According to SmartBrief blogger Jesse Stanchak, "It's not every day you get 60% of a group to advocate federal intervention in private industry."<br />
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Marketer or not, I’m going to support any legislation that takes steps towards allowing ME to decide what information about me is shared, and what information is private. The industry will get over it. Remember how the email industry was going to be obliterated with the introduction of the Unsubscribe button? We’ll live.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-82511651333642666312010-01-31T13:16:00.004-05:002010-02-02T11:20:20.512-05:00The Super Bowl ad circus<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The marketing mavens at GoDaddy.com had their work cut out for them. It’s getting harder and harder to achieve the real Super Bowl prize: having the network reject your ad. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But CBS handed them their touchdown this year, rejecting <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68WTMYxoSck">Lola</a>. In a <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/news/release_view.asp?news_item_id=291&se=%2B&app_hdr=">press release</a> quickly posted on their website, GoDaddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons said, “Of the five commercial concepts we submitted for approval this year, this never would’ve been my pick for the one that would not be approved. This is about a guy who starts an online business and hits the jackpot. I just don’t think ‘Lola’ is offensive, in fact we didn’t see this one coming –were absolutely blindsided!”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s some insight: national marketers do not produce five commercials in the hopes that the network will approve one of them. They would only shoot five commercials hoping the network would REJECT one of them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GoDaddy became the second Super Bowl ad declined this year, and the third to stir public debate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MQWFiIrBLA">ManCrunch</a>, a dating site catering to gay men, was also rejected. Evidently, the CBS sales department additionally questioned the company’s ability to pay for the ad time, calling into question whether it was ever considered a viable option to air, or if the folks at ManCrunch were hoping for the wave of publicity that accompanies rejection, and the viral activity that follows. Rejection-pioneer PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) enjoyed a viral bonanza when their 2009 spot, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqW7B3-Ptlo">Veggie Love</a>, was given a pass by NBC. Other rejects from the class of 2009 included <a href="http://www.spike.com/video/airborne-mickey/2664193">Airborn's</a> entry, featuring a gratuitous shot of Mickey Rooney’s butt, and a particularly repugnant effort from AshleyMadison.com, a <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/entertainment/2010/01/26/banned-super-bowl-commercials?slide=8">website</a> aimed at promoting extramarital affairs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year, many observers were stunned when Focus on the Family, a conservative religious organization that opposes abortion – as well as homosexuality, gambling (including church bingo) and premarital sex – got a green light from CBS for their Super Bowl ad entry, featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. The spot reportedly tells the story of Tebow’s mother, Pam, whose doctors recommended that she have an abortion while serving as a missionary in the Philippines. <a href="http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/01/exclusive-interview-gloria-allred-threatens-cbs-allowing-tim-tebow-anti-abortion">Experts</a> have questioned the veracity of the story, pointing to the fact that physicians and midwives who perform abortions in the Philippines face six years in prison, and may have their licenses suspended or revoked, and that women who receive abortions - no matter the reason - may be punished with imprisonment for two to six years. A <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2612635220100126">coalition</a> of more than 30 women’s and advocacy groups have called on CBS to pull the ad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why all the hoopla about commercials in the big game? It may be because the commercials are bigger than the game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to recent <a href="http://ow.ly/11u1G">research</a> from Nielsen on trends and effectiveness of paid Super Bowl advertising, more than half of those who tune in are watching for the commercials, not the game itself. Add in those who are watching primarily for the on-field action, but admit to an interest in the commercials as well, and you’ve got the attention of a significant percentage of the nearly 100 million Super Bowl viewers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And with Super Bowl ads, viewership translates directly to consumer action. Super Bowl ads can boost the web traffic of the companies that run them, especially in the short term. Among all Super Bowl XLIII advertisers in 2009, overnight web traffic as measured by unique audience grew an average of 63%. Growth in unique audience from January to February 2009 grew an average of 6%. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s ironic, though, that the ads that are deemed the most offensive are the ones that generate the most buzz and drive the most web traffic. These are the spots that do the best job of demeaning, insulting, stereotyping and shocking. These are the spots you don’t want your kids to see.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The “Catch-22” for the networks is that by rejecting the ads (and foregoing the $2.5–3 million revenue that each spot generates), they contribute to the viral value. Online news articles and blogs that link to rejected ads generate unparalleled click-through.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The proof point? How many ads did you watch here? I know…me too.</span>Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-4756742003075111562010-01-16T14:32:00.001-05:002010-01-31T21:54:19.263-05:00Blah, blah, blahA funny thing happened over the holiday break. I became less social.<br />
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I’m not talking about traditional social activities…I spent plenty of time with family and friends, doing my part in the annual eat-drink-and-be-merry season. What I <em>didn’t</em> do was make a whole lot of effort to keep up with social media.<br />
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Ordinarily, I’m all over it. I scan more than a dozen newsletters each day, both for my own personal edification and to spot interesting articles to share with friends and followers. I review my Google Reader feed, where I track around 60 news feeds and blogs. I keep up with the twitterverse in TweetDeck – at least with the people and keywords in which I’m most interested – and in HootSuite, where I manage multiple accounts. I link, I friend, I digg, I blog. Every day. All of that, plus my “real” job.<br />
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Over the break, when I did check in, I found myself punching the Mark As Read button, rather than actually reading. My updates were fewer, and further in between. I actually unfollowed a couple of hundred tweeters, finding myself tired of sifting through that which is mundane, self-serving or duplicative. I hid a bunch of Facebook fan pages that barraged me with updates that bordered on spam. <br />
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I trimmed the “blah, blah, blah.”<br />
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What I noticed along the way was that others seemed to be doing the same thing. Twitter seems to have <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/twitter-growth-stats/">flat-lined</a> since mid-November, according to Quantcast, and in my non-scientific observation, even my closely-followed tweeters have become notably less prolific. As January begins to roll towards February, the post-holiday uptick I expected just hasn’t occurred.<br />
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Perhaps in this season of resolutions and reevaluation, we’re taking a closer look at the value of all this effort. We’re feeling overwhelmed by it all, calling to mind one of my favorite social media management analogies: it’s like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose. How many are admitting, as my friend Barry did in a recent post, “I still don’t know what I’m doing, or why.”<br />
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I’m not deluded, though. Social media is here to stay. It has changed, and will continue to change, the way we communicate and the way we go to market. But I’m wondering if we have come to – or are nearing -- a turning point in social media…a period of constriction and selectivity as the novelty of social media begins to wear off and each of us begins to establish personal “value screens” for messaging we’ll allow in.<br />
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Ironically, social media itself is predicting this. With frequency now, the ubiquitous “10 Steps to Success in Social Media” posts now include advice to quit the relentless counting of fans, followers and subscribers. For marketers, that means worrying less about how many people are listening, and more about whether the RIGHT people are listening. For the rest of us, we’ll keep that which enlightens, enriches, entertains and educates, and get rid of the blah, blah, blah.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-20613087949478826712009-12-05T19:47:00.000-05:002009-12-05T19:47:43.420-05:00Awww, Tiger...<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The news this week about Tiger Woods’ transgressions – and I think it’s safe to assume we are looking at something beyond the point of mere allegation – left me surprised and disappointed. And I should know better.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Athletes and celebrities have been a big part of my professional life for many years. I’ve signed dozens of them to endorsement deals for my brands…deals that include TV and radio commercials, print ads, packaging, appearances. With athletes, as the contract is inked, I hope for three things: one, that my guy stays healthy and on top of his or her game; two, that he motivates my customer to buy more of my stuff; and three, that he keeps his nose clean. Mostly so that my customer will buy more of my stuff.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before an athlete enters the stratosphere of endorsement deals, he’s got the top-of-the-game part down pat. In most cases, he’s been training since he was single-digits-old, carefully steered and groomed by coaches, team managers, trainers, athletic directors. It’s all about performance…on the field, on the court, in the pool. The off-the-field rules are as clear – and as strictly enforced – as the on-the-field rules. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But here’s the rub. When his performance becomes so good that endorsement deals begin to appear, he enters a game for which he has absolutely no training, and the odds are decidedly stacked against him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He’s now playing the celebrity game.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’ve got a taste for some champagne? Snap your fingers. Done. Table at a five-star restaurant, right now? Done. A little something to take the edge off? Done. That cute little brunette over there? Done. You can have what you want, whenever you want it. For many young athletes, the world becomes a blur of insiders and outsiders trying to satisfy their every whim and curry their favor. And always, <em>always</em>, there are throngs of women who draw no lines in the quest to bask in the halo of celebrity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why are we surprised when our athlete-heroes can no longer distinguish between that which is acceptable and that which is not?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But back to that pesky contract, and the keeping clean of one’s nose. Those of us who see what could sometimes be called the filthy underbelly of celebrity are, thankfully, a precious few. The athlete’s public face is what’s real to millions of consumers and fans. What’s it worth? According to mediaedge:cia, a whopping 25% of consumers report their purchase was influenced – either positively or negatively – by a celebrity endorser. Among Millennials, 30% of 18-34-year-olds said they would try a product promoted by an admired celebrity. “Admired” is the operative word…and as a marketer, that’s what I’m buying when I trade my corporate cash for a celebrity endorsement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do have some appreciation for the argument that star athletes pay a hefty price for their celebrity, in terms of relinquishing privacy and being held to a role-model standard while they are still, at the end of the day, only human. That’s why the Tiger Woods debacle is such a disappointment – I can no longer point to him as a great example of how it <em>can</em> be done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Worse still – at least worse for Tiger’s corporate partners – we’re not talking about simply shelving a commercial until the dust settles, as Subway did with their Michael Phelps spots after the notorious bong incident. Pulling a spot, or postponing a media tour, may be aggravating and expensive, but probably wouldn’t have permanent impact on the brand. The Tiger endorsement machine, on the other hand, is unrivalled in sports from a financial perspective, and arguably in a category of just two (Michael Jordan in his hey-day being the other). He has endorsement deals with Nike, Gillette, Accenture, AT&T and American Express, among others, that total $100 million annually, according to <em>Forbes</em>. But we’re not talking just commercials here…we’re talking whole product lines. Try to fathom the number of zeroes in the cost to Gatorade to pull the Tiger drink off the shelves. Imagine the gnashing of teeth at Nike’s offices as they contemplate the impact on The Tiger Woods Collection of apparel at thousands of retailers…and right at the beginning of the holiday shopping season, no less. "Nike supports Tiger and his family. Our relationship remains unchanged," said Nike Golf spokeswoman Beth Gast. "Tiger and his family have our support as they work through this private matter," said Gatorade. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’d be saying the same thing. At least for now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"A lot of the brands have built their entire positioning platforms around him," said Rick Burton, professor of sport management at Syracuse University, to the <em>New York Daily News</em>. What does that mean in dollars and cents? To Tiger, 87% of his one billion dollars in earnings – yes, that’s billion, with a b – have come from endorsement income. To the brands that bear his name, the value may be incalculable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Might the whole thing blow over in time? History would suggest it will. Kobe Bryant today is one of the top athlete endorsers in professional sports, even after he was accused (though not convicted) of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old hotel worker, and admitting to cheating on his wife. Michael Phelps lost only his Kellogg deal after being photographed with a bong. Michael Vick, after serving jail time for federal dog fighting charges, was welcomed in Philadelphia. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the pedestal on which Tiger stood was very high. And that could make the fall more damaging.</span>Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-48572755294179598142009-10-31T15:16:00.002-04:002009-10-31T15:26:53.727-04:00Crackberry reduxLong, long ago – around 2005 or 2006, I think – it came to pass that a significant number of my friends and colleagues had suddenly acquired Blackberry devices. Most kept them in a pocket, a purse or a briefcase, and would refer to them every now and then…between meetings, for example, or while waiting to board a plane at the airport. There were others who became instantly hooked, personifying the phenomenon that became known as “crackberry addict”. I recall joking with one colleague that he probably took it to the bathroom with him – the sheepish look told me that he actually did.<br /><br />Now there are Blackberries, iPhones, Palms (again) and a whole host of PDAs or handheld computers, and the word “crackberry” has vanished from our lexicon. But brand proliferation is not the reason the word is no longer in fashion…it’s because we’re ALL doing it.<br /><br />In my line of work, I often do presentations for large groups of people. I used to gauge the audience response by watching their faces. Today, I present to the tops of heads. Their eyes are on their Blackberries, held discretely on their laps.<br /><br />We talk on the phone and text at the same time. We hurtle down the interstate, checking our email. We tell our dinner partners, “I just need to take this call real quick.” Car horns blast at us in the middle of the intersection…while we were typing, the light changed.<br /><br />Boundaries have vanished. We text in church, from our vacations, from the boardroom and the classroom. We check our email on dates, at the beach, in the bathroom. A few weeks ago, I saw a man checking his Blackberry while riding a bicycle – at full speed.<br /><br />We just can’t seem to stop.<br /><br />Remember the way it used to be? In a previous work life, I managed crises at a large, multinational corporation. Over those years, I handled hostage situations, employee murders, product tampering that made national news…true emergencies. As those occurred, I got calls at home. If I was on a beach in the Caribbean, someone else got the call. It worked pretty well, as archaic as that sounds. But today, we can be instantly connected, and in many, many ways, that’s a wonderful thing. Especially in a true emergency.<br /><br />Problem is, most of all the instant communication that occurs today is nothing at all like an emergency. It’s not even urgent. Hell, it’s not even important. “I’d like an answer right now” does not constitute emergency, urgency, or import. But we have talked ourselves into believing that accessibility – all day, all night, all year – is practically a sign of character. A year or so ago, a colleague was in the hospital, in the process of giving birth. She was actually responding to email <em>from the labor room</em>. While most of us were horrified at her inability to draw the line, I will tell you that there were those in our office who said, “Wow, now that’s real dedication.”<br /><br />We live our lives in shades of gray…but THAT, my friends, is just wrong.<br /><br />Please don’t misunderstand me: I don’t long for the days when there were no cell phones and handheld computers. I love them. I do not miss searching for a pay phone, or worrying where my kids were, or racing back to the office to pull an important document off my computer. Good riddance to all of that.<br /><br />But can’t we agree on the boundary thing?<br /><br />My friend, Bill, is the CMO of another large, multinational corporation. He’s a very, very important guy, and he’s my Blackberry hero. He does not bring his Blackberry on vacation (or if he does, he’s just peeking and not responding). He uses that time to recharge his OWN batteries, which in the long run, is better for both him and the people with whom he works. When I have dinner with Bill, his Blackberry is nowhere in sight. If I send him a message while he’s in a meeting, I’ll be sure to hear back from him…when the meeting is over.<br /><br />And you know what? That large, multinational corporation gets along just fine.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-57963677996158741722009-06-15T12:23:00.003-04:002009-06-15T12:32:20.546-04:00Senior prom, and loss of innocenceWe pause this morning to reflect on the senior prom, a break from my usual thoughts on marketing…or perhaps it’s marketing come home to roost.<br /><br />Saturday night, my beautiful daughter attended her senior prom, the culmination of many weeks of planning, organizing and spending. For readers with no children, or with children still young, this story may come as a jolting surprise. For those who have experienced this phenomenon, you will nod in shared understanding.<br /><br />The Dress is where we begin, and for those of us who remember our own proms, it’s where we end in terms of any sort of common experience. The Dress is procured, along with “party shoes” to match. Ideally, these purchases would occur at a designer boutique in a city not-too-close to home, avoiding the unfathomable disaster of another prom-goer procuring the same one. Jewelry is next, rhinestones preferred. Undergarments…restraining here, padding and pushing there. For many – not my daughter, I am relieved to say – a desperate diet begins. As do the trips to the tanning salon to acquire a bronze glow that otherwise wouldn’t come naturally for another month.<br /><br />On prom day, manicure and pedicure are first on the agenda. The shower is midday. Then it’s off to the mall for professional makeup application. The hair salon is last, as an elaborate up-do is sculpted and shellacked into place. (“It doesn’t even feel like hair anymore!” proclaimed one girlfriend in triumph.)<br /><br />We meet the luxury party bus – others took stretch limousines – at the commuter parking lot beside the golf course, where couples gather and their parents are armed with cameras. I see that someone has evidently arranged for catering for the bus-loading event…cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, veggies and dip. We pose the couples on the green, snapping pictures of each daughter, each son, small groups, everyone all together.<br /><br />I look through the lens and I can’t help but wonder, who are these people? How did this rite of passage morph into something more like a red-carpet premiere than a memorable high school dance? I see my daughter and her friends – ordinarily fresh-faced, sweatpantsed, pony-tailed and laughing – now kohled and sprayed and bejeweled, busting from their bustieres. It is surreal…and, as the kids like to quip, not in a good way.<br /><br />The bus loads, the parents wave, and thousands of collective dollars start rolling down the street to the banquet hall. In a few hours, it’s over.<br /><br />The next afternoon, she sits cross-legged on the couch, still-starched curls akimbo, glasses on, in shorts and a tee-shirt, makeup washed away. She laughs and tells her stories. She’s beautiful once more.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-6995670076587364022009-05-16T15:58:00.002-04:002009-05-16T16:02:54.268-04:00Religion, politics...and TwitterTwitter, I have decided, joins religion and politics as subjects best avoided by well-mannered conversationalists. This past week, I found myself embroiled in no fewer than three separate debates on the subject, with friends who I count among the smartest marketers I know.<br /><br />“I really don’t care what some teenager in Omaha had for breakfast,” said one.<br /><br />“It’s a testament to narcissism,” said another.<br /><br />“Passing fad, and a giant time suck,” said the third.<br /><br />All three cited a widely-reported Neilson Online study (<a href="http://tinyurl.com/cmudyd">http://tinyurl.com/cmudyd</a>) which found that 60% of Twitter first-time users never return. Twitter Quitters, they’ve been dubbed. The staggering number of Twitter Quitters proves my colleagues’ points, right?<br /><br />Right…and wrong.<br /><br />At the risk of critiquing the emperor’s new clothes, the fact is, joining Twitter – and figuring out how to use it – can cause frustration of epic proportions. It’s not the least bit intuitive. If a new user is not armed with a helpful news article about how to use Twitter, they’re sunk. Twitter becomes something to conquer…after much time-consuming research and a whole lot of trial and error. Along the way, you will inevitably feel stupid.<br /><br />What successful business attracts new customers by making them feel stupid?<br /><br />The other thing one quickly learns is that Twitter itself is not particularly useful. The usefulness comes from related programs, such as Tweetdeck, WeFollow and Twellow. Twitter won’t do what these applications do, and there is no link to them on Twitter. You have to go find them yourself.<br /><br />The Neilson Online statistics come as no surprise to me.<br /><br />And yet…<br /><br />If one actually does get past the painful process of joining Twitter -- figuring out how to use the related programs, building a respectable numbers of followers, and following smart and interesting people -- it’s an invaluable tool. Yes, there are teenagers in Omaha tweeting about what they had for breakfast. Yes, there are narcissists who produce literally hundreds of tweets per day – I hope they get professional help. I don’t follow these people.<br /><br />I do follow various breaking news sources, and enjoy being kept up-to-date on events around the world. It saves me time. I follow leaders in my field and get interesting bits of information, all in 140 characters or less. I have found ways to research companies, products, and customer perspectives that can’t be duplicated by conventional search engines. I get links to articles and blogs that I would never have found on my own. I’ve made important business contacts and developed “virtual” friendships. <br /><br />I am a fan of Twitter: The End Product, but certainly not Twitter: The Process. And although I’m not a Twitter evangelist, I do find it extremely useful.<br /><br />But what is it about Twitter that evokes such vitriol from so many people, whether they are Twitter Quitters or simply social observers? Certainly there are those who are uncomfortable with the way social media – including the monstrously-successful Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn – lays bare many of the details of our professional and personal lives. Those folks may never get on the bandwagon, even as the bandwagon leaves without them. But Twitter commands a uniquely hateful response from millions of otherwise savvy internet users, and the reasons for that may be more complex. Is it fear of a technology that moves just too fast? Is it the realization that, as we get older, we may become this generation’s version of Grandpa trying to master the cell phone? Or could it be the frightening vision, in the extreme, that we may someday find ourselves chained to a computer, tweeting our thoughts, while no one is listening?Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-41757092952451725742009-02-25T11:02:00.003-05:002009-02-25T12:05:39.725-05:00Business as usualYesterday, the Conference Board, an independent research group, reported that consumer confidence has reached its lowest point since the measurement began in 1967 -- 25 points on a 100-point scale. At the same time, retailers like Macy's and Nordstrom's reported 4th quarter profit drops of 40-60 percent.<br /><br />Man the War Room! Fire up the promotions engine! Let's get aggressive! Right?<br /><br />Evidently, wrong.<br /><br />Last week, finding myself with a couple of hours to kill between out-of-town meetings, I did what any red-blooded American girl would do: I went to the local mall. Although I wasn't looking to acquire anything in particular, I'm not afraid to brandish the plastic when the right opportunity presents itself.<br /><br />It didn't.<br /><br />In all but the two "anchor" department stores, I was the only customer in each shop I visited. I did received the perfunctory, "Welcome to fill-in-the-blank" when I entered, but was promptly abandoned. Aware that these are tough times for retailers -- hey, I read the paper -- I scanned the racks for the sales...the special-purchase displays...the two-fer shelves. Know what I found? Row after row of shiny new merchandise at full, start-of-the-season price. Every item in the full array of sizes, untouched. Dangling tags unmarked, and unmarked-down. The only sale prices to be found were on the ubiquitous rack at the back of the store with last season's orphans in their final gasp.<br /><br /><em>Huh-lo</em>?? Have all the marketers been laid off? Did the CFOs lock the War Room door so the retailers couldn't get out? Has supply versus demand been redefined, and I missed it?<br /><br />Sheesh, people. Let me know how it goes with those first-quarter profits.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-50907544226737491312009-01-29T10:31:00.003-05:002009-01-31T11:14:39.392-05:00Getting smallAs I get older (old-ER...not old), I've noticed that the typefaces around me seem to get smaller. One might logically conclude that my eyes are getting worse, but a trip to the optometrist revealed that it was only marginally so.<br /><br />The problem is rooted in 20-something-year-old graphic artists designing packaging for baby boomers' eyes.<br /><br />I have before me a can of what my beloved cousin Nancy calls "magic powder" -- it's an anti-aging dietary supplement aimed at boosting energy, giving skin a youthful glow, improving digestion, and generally peeling years off one's naturally-deteriorating body. Putting aside whether there is a credible proposition to this product (Nancy is enthused, so I'll be enthused with her), one might assume that its makers mean to appeal to an over-40 crowd, to be generous. Why, then, would the directions, disclaimers and other package information appear in 6-point type? <em>Reverse-type,</em> no less.<br /><br />I see the same trend in restaurant menus. The more exclusive the restaurant -- with an older and more affluent customer -- the smaller the type. And the more likely that the small typeface will be some silly script designed to look like handwriting with excessive flourishes. Look around: at that table over there, the woman is gripping the menu and stretching her arms across the table, attempting to bring it into focus. Over there, the man is trying not to burn his fingers as he holds the votive candle up to the page, hoping a little more light will make the words legible.<br /><br />Now I'll name names. I needed the ESN number (whatever that is) from my Blackberry; it's conveniently located on the original box and inside the battery case. So small -- in both places -- it was impossible to discern a "B" from an "8". I literally used a magnifying glass, being lucky enough to actually have one. Anyone who has registered a new iPod knows that the unit number is positively miniscule. It's so small, in fact, that it's difficult to even find it on the unit.<br /><br />Walk into any pharmacy, and try to imagine what it would -- will -- be like to read the packaging on over-the-counter medicine with 80-year-old eyes. I wonder about the possible legal issues that could evolve: do manufacturers have an obligation to provide dosage or interaction information that is at least reasonably legible?<br /><br />The problem is pervasive...anywhere the printed word appears, more often than not, it appears small. Packaged goods (good luck with ingredient or nutritional information), newspapers, printed advertising, even cookbooks. I have little appreciation for tiny instructions floating in a sea of white space while juggling a searing skillet.<br /><br />As the headlines tell of war and financial collapse and issues of great importance, small typefaces seem hardly worth mentioning. But this, this is a problem we can solve. Yes we can.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-47543198718248181122009-01-28T08:29:00.003-05:002009-01-28T09:21:11.188-05:00Adventures in Luggage LandEarlier this week, I forked over $15 to Delta Airlines for the privilege of checking a bag. Frequent travelers on Delta are evidently well aware of this new charge: there was clearly an even greater number of passengers going the carry-on route, and a higher percentage of carry-ons stuffed so full, it was impossible to cram them into the overhead bin.<br /><br />What ensued:<br /><br />After about two-thirds of the passengers had boarded, there was no longer any room in the overhead bins. Let the gate-checking begin. (Did those passengers pay the $15, I wonder?)<br /><br />Although the overhead bins were closed, the tail-end of the passenger line felt compelled to open every bin all the way down the length of the plane, then turn around and try to jostle their way back upstream to gate-check the bag.<br /><br />Some passengers, finding that their overstuffed bags could NOT be crammed into the overhead bins, began unpacking their luggage in the aisle, to remove items and shove stuff under the seat, while the line behind them came to a screeching halt.<br /><br />It was chaos.<br /><br />Is this the law of unintended consequences? Is it possible that Delta did not foresee that by charging to check a bag, they'd force passengers to try to carry it all on? Did they think they'd encourage passengers to travel with fewer clothes? If not, and if the gross weight of the baggage remains the same, whether it is checked or carried on, what's the economic advantage to Delta? And if it's simply a new revenue stream, why not "up" the ticket by $15 in the first place?<br /><br />This one, I don't get. But I do know this: no good can ever come of creating a bigger hassle for your customers. Competitors, take note.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5103262530591090377.post-9606781685946003062009-01-13T17:27:00.003-05:002009-01-13T17:56:24.708-05:00The Big ChairEuphemistically speaking, I am "between engagements." While there is little to recommend not working full-time, I have used the break to catch up in the brave new world of social and professional networking, something I was always going to get to as my busy schedule allowed.<br /><br />And thus I become a blogger. <br /><br />If I am to share thoughts and observations here, it would have to be called Kim's Big Chair. There is an actual Big Chair in my house. It serves as my life headquarters -- part office, part sanctuary, part think-tank. It has begun to fade and fray, but I can't fathom parting with it. It's the furniture version of a pair of old slippers.<br /><br />I'll get to the thoughts-and-observations on another day. But for now, the Big Chair will enjoy its Internet debut.Kim Hennighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15806964753798007593noreply@blogger.com1