Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Pinterest Keeps it Legal

Posted: May 2, 2012 in Branding, Marketing, Social Media
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@_IFB: RT @huffposttech: Pinterest’s new tool keeps it real. Real legal, that is. http://huff.to/JeKM0c

Woodward Windows

Posted: February 26, 2012 in Creative Thinking, Marketing, Pop Culture, Real Estate
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An introduction to the Woodward Windows from Street Culture Mash on Vimeo.

Groupon Strikes Again: A Must Read for Every Small Business Owner

Posted: December 14, 2011 in Marketing, Social Media
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http://videos.webpronews.com/2011/02/is-groupon-helping-or-hurting-businesses/

Groupon has made headlines in recent weeks as it prepared for it’s IPO, raising about $700 million.

With power like that, the company should be on every “watch this company” and “buy now” list in existence.

What is rarely talked about, and easily forgotten, are the tens of thousands of businesses across the country Groupon and, similar online couponing services, negatively impacts each year.

The point was hit home again in metro Detroit a few weeks ago when I chatted with a business co-owner I know. Knowing how I felt about the use of Groupon, he called to relay his tale.

It seems his business partner recently made the decision to run a promotion through the online discounter.

The good news was that the promotion was tremendously successful. The bad news was that the promotion was tremendously successful.

The phone hasn’t stopped ringing off the hook and the business can’t keep up.

The cost of the promotion is overwhelming and actually strangling the company’s operations.

If we look at the anatomy of such a promotion, we can estimate it’s true cost and impact on a business.

Take for example that you own a sun tanning salon and sell five visits at a rate of $10. As owner, your rudimentary cost to provide services is $5. Groupon is estimated to take about 52 percent of the original promotion. In our example, that’s $5.20.

So after you subtract the online coupon company’s $5.20′ he remaining $4.80 doesn’t cover costs, leaving the owner $.40 in the hole for every item sold. It also prevents existing customers from using slots booked by deal-seeking Grouponers. And don’t forget the cost of the added time and manpower needed to handle calls and book these appointments, which can easily reach thousands.

This is a very low cost example and business owners often suffer a much greater loss.

It doesn’t take much work online to find stories from small business owners who have been taken advantage of by Groupon. The following was excerpted from http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-03-14/strategy/30079937_1_groupon-s-ceo-andrew-mason-groupon-offer-business-owners :

“Jessie Burke, the owner of Posies Café in Portland, said her experience with Groupon proved to be too much to handle. Not only did she underestimate the number of shoppers her Groupon promotion might attract, the discount offer itself was too generous.

Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason called the ordeal, which Burke detailed on a post to Posies’ blog that went viral, “painful.” Groupon seeks to be a win-win for business owners and consumers alike, he says. Although he acknowledges that the serviceisn’tperfect,hesaysGroupon iswilling to considernew ideas. “It means a lot to us to make these promotions successful,”hesays.

Meantime, business owners like Burke can pay a steep price for marketing experiments. While Posies’ foot trafficshot up by about a third after the promotion, the majority of her new customers did not spend above the valueof theGroupon offer. Many of them used multiple Groupons at a time. They also neglected to tip staff members, attempted to use expired coupons and subsequently became irate with staff members when they were refused.

‘I consider it the single worst decision I’ve ever made as a business owner,’ says Burke. “I could have done a lot more advertising for $10,000 with a lot less frustration.’”

During my research, I even found a Facebook page dedicated to this “cause” ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Groupon-Hurts-Small-Businesses/182054251815316?sk=wall). The number of fans is ” one,” as many business owners mourn their losses in silence.

While Groupon and other companies like it are in the business to make money (totally fair), they need to be held accountable for devising promotions with their clients that work for both parties.– otherwise they both end up with egg on their face.

Using our tanning example, that would mean we could reasonably expect the discount coupon sales rep to put into perspective for the business owner the cap on the coupon. If the owner sells 1,000 certificates, that actually translates into 5,000 visits! If his five tanning booths work 8 hours a day, a visit (say) lasts a half hour, and all certificates need to be redeemed within three-months, can the owner fit in enough regular paying customers to sustain himself? PS- He’s closed on Sundays.

Flashbacks of elementary school story problems? I thought so.

He’ll be able to do it, but that’s as long as he books every available slot and always is open 6 days a week for those three months. He’ll have to say goodbye to regular customers who didn’t purchase a coupon. He just can’t fit them in. And he’ll need to pay his employees, who will still need to come to work and be paid while he’s running the coupon redemption period. Oh, yeah. Don’t forget the money he has to pay the coupon.

What about all the “new” customers he found through Groupon, you ask? Won’t they be there to support the tanning salon in the future?

No. Informal surveys on small business owners who have used Groupon often indicate that businesses see a giant uptick in business traffic from the promotion and then never see those people again. They come in to redeem their coupon and that’s it. They are bargain hunters and business loyalty often takes a backseat to the deal of the day. They are always waiting for the next great deal in their inbox.

That’s not to say a promotion like this is NEVER right for a business. You may want to draw a crowd to attract the attention of shoppers in nearby businesses. When he see all the people walking out of your store and through the mall with your logo emblazoned bags, you might catch their attention: “What is this place? I’ ve never heard of it, but I keep seeing people walking by with their bags. I should check this place out!”

There are probably other reasons, too.

But all require a large financial investment on the part of the business owner. Many times this investment is more than a small business owner can handle and he’s not made aware of the risks through the online discounter.

In an age where we’re working to support small business and ” shop local,” it’s a travesty that organizations like Groupon are allowed to operate as they do.

Facebook Exodus

Posted: September 25, 2011 in IT, Marketing, Social Media
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Was surprised to log into Facebook and be hit with this comment. I’ve never been a Facebook Fan, it’s not a secret, but still. . .

Will she stick to her guns, or cave to peer pressure? Stay tuned.

All Things In Moderation. . .Including Consumer E-blasts

Posted: September 15, 2011 in Branding, IT, Marketing, Social Media
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A recent article in the August issue of Direct Marketing magazine caught me by surprise. The publication dedicated space to a case study on a product which allowed email blast  list subscribers to take a hiatus from the list, for I believe up to about 90 days, as opposed to simply opting out.

Instead of demonstrating to readers a viable application for the product, they were introduced to an outdoor retailer set in their ways and determined to blast to their customers with a great ferocity. . .whether the emails being distributed were wanted or not.

The representative from the company using the product explained the product was not a stopping point. They intended to advance email software options and allow subscribers greater control over their “opt ins” in the future.

First, if as a company marketing representative, you have to pursue this type of software, your company has a problem. It means that there has been significant backlash from members of your subscriber list-enough that you’ve been motivated to actually take action. As a business, the message is that you’re not doing something right. Perhaps, ­­­­it would make sense for the company to review the frequency with which it distributes such material. The quickest and simplest solution would be to reduce the frequency of consumer contact.

Secondly, it’s concerning that there is no rush to alter the system and the method for making this transition is piecemeal. The ability to opt in and specify, which blasts you’d like to receive from a singular organization has been available for several years. Not sure why a transition tool would be required. This particular organization sends blasts twice per week. At a time when people are often trying to simplify their in box clutter and remove themselves from e-blast lists, a good web company can make the opt in process relatively painless. At the very least, subscribers can be invited to opt in/out for Monday or Thursday (or whatever day it is these blasts are distributed). More advanced options can be added at a later date as needed. This, to me, would seem like a better start than letting customers take a 90 day hiatus because you’re clogging their in-boxes.

Not a case study of a company with a successful product to help manage email blasts, but an example of a company that doesn’t understand how to review the feedback it gains from its consumers and act accordingly.

Do you agree?

The Case of the Killer QR Code

Posted: September 15, 2011 in Marketing, Retail, Social Media, Uncategorized
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QR Codes are all the rage these days. They’re very hip and fashionable. From in-store product displays to the pages of magazines like Vogue you spot them. And if you’re hip and cool and fashionable. . .you know how to use them. No instruction needed.

The challenge is that at least the hip and cool people know how to use them, but the businesses grappling to reach the Generation Y consumers often don’t.

Take the example of the billboard for Water Tower Place as displayed in Union Station in Chicago. In a high traffic area, the billboard begs for the QR Code to be scanned. But if a hipster stops to do so, they get plowed over by people in a hurry. . .people who aren’t in the leisurely mood for those playing with their mobile toys.

Because that’s exactly what’s happening. Marketing folks want to involve their potential consumers in a game. Tell them their company is hip and cool like them.  But there’s no need. In this instance, a busy walkway at Union Station isn’t the right place to play games. The folks at Water Tower know this. That’s why they placed the website address on the billboard too. It’s actually easy to remember, allowing people to look up the information when it’s an opportune time for them. . .when they aren’t as likely to be run over when they stop to pull out there smartphone, find the right app and then line the camera up with the QR code icon. . . .a least the code signals Water Tower is hip and cool, in case you ever doubted.

If our hipster does manage to scan the code and survive, there is little chance he can do anything with the information he obtains (in this case a very skeletal listing of upcoming events). He’s either coming or going and the last thing on his mind is getting a partial outline of upcoming promos at the local mall.

On the flip side, Jeremy Restaurant & Bar in Keego Harbor, Michigan has hit the nail on the head. Their ad in the Detroit Free Press celebrates their bar menu with outstanding prices and fun attitude. When you can their QR code, users get the full bar menu. It takes advantage of the right media as well. It’s located in the newspapers entertainment section with entertainment and food offerings. It’s the source people preview as they’re making their plans to go out. They have plenty of time to scan. And when they do scan, they will be surprised to find information that’s relevant. After all, the bar ad caught their eye.

Quick Tips For Real Estate Realtor and Broker Online Success

Posted: August 20, 2011 in Marketing, Real Estate
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Everyone knows that real estate, residential or commercial, is about sales. It’s a game of finding the right fit for both the buyer and seller. It’s about using psychology to get inside their heads,  identify their respective needs and close a deal.

Image Provided By 5 Recipes for Lifde the head of both and make a deal.

Following a few simple tips will can make brokers more credible overall, while simultaneously assisting them in  successfully market their listings online.

  • Do perform a quick clean up of the interior spaces you plan on shooting before you take photos  for web posting. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Many prospective buyers do their research online before calling their broker. Even for an individual with a tremendous sense of vision, it might be challenging to lookpast a room littered with pop bottles and empty paint cans or seemingly endless clutter in the form of stacks of VHS tapes and piles of clothing. Go ahead-set the scene as best you can for the buyer.
  • Do complete, and in a clear and articulate fashion, all the information requested by an online listing site in its information section about the property. The more information a property hunter has in advance of his or her call to the broker, the less time the broker will have to spend showing properties that don’t fit the bill. A little time invested entering this information could result in a whole lot of time saved later in the transaction.
  • Do clearly list the dates of any open houses or property tours on the listing, and remember to remove the dates after the showing. Listing dates makes it easy for a prospective buyer to pop in an take a look at the property without feeling committed-and can often result in a new broker-client relationship being formed. Failure to remove dates afterward, however, makes brokers look neglectful.
  • Don’t mark a property as a “new” listing if it’s not. People can shop for a new home or property for months, even years. They catch on quickly if a listing is marked as new in an attempt to have it stand out from other listings after it’s been on the market for a while. If I can’t trust you to tell me if a listing is new, do I really want to trust you to walk me through my six or seven-figure transaction?
  • Avoid using kitschy graphics on the listing photos themselves. Adding “Home Sweet Home” across a pic may at first seem like a great idea to help a prospective owner picture themselves calling it just that, but most prospective buyers click away with a bad taste. The images look like a toddler marred them up and detract from the product meant to be highlighted.

Another One Bites the Dust: Borders Begins Liquidation

Posted: July 19, 2011 in Marketing, Retail
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They say hindsight is 20/20, but Borders management must have been wearing thick blindfolds in a dark room as they continued to push the company forward during a time when revenues were in steep decline. The company expected only an impossibly sudden and dreamy shift in shopping behavior to save them.

The company’s business model was one destined for failure from the start. The chain of nearly 400 stores averaged more than 25,000 square feet-with some as large as grocery stores and a massive quantity of inventory they were required to house. A cost per square foot was not immediately available, but the format does not allow for an intense profit margin. The company was essentially storing large quantities of books for publishers for free.

For stores that size, what should have been seen as destination shopping experiences tried to be the neighborhood bookstore instead. With stores in many regions so closely packed together, the community populations simply were not able to support a facility of that size.

A Michigan retail analyst supported the company by saying they had been unjustly criticized for not changing with the times. His thought was that they were a bookstore. . .”what’s to change?” The fact of the matter is that the industry is changing. Stores needed to lower there overhead to stay in business and explore online distribution or risk becoming obsolete. Apparently, Borders was so married to the ideas of the company’s store formats and business practices, it chose obsolescence in the end.

Wonders never cease.

The Case of the Guitar and American Airlines

Posted: March 6, 2011 in Branding, Marketing, Music, Social Media
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While I didn’t have time this weekend, I decided to try to make some progress on my reading list anyway.  Picked up a copy of “Real-Time Marketing & PR” by David Meerman Scott.  I’ve read other works by him and always found them reaffirming of the work our agency does on a day-to-day basis.

A quick read, this book was reaffirming too. Long after I put it down though, I found myself coming back to one particular case study presented at the beginning of the text. It just bothered me.

The example surrounded Dave Carroll a Canadian singer-songwriter who had his guitar damaged by American Airlines in July of 2009.  The airlines failed to respond to Carroll until he released a YouTube video featuring an original song about how they damaged the instrument.

Scott chastises the airline for not responding in real-time and laments that damage to their brand could have been prevented by simply giving Carroll what he wanted right away. In this case,  Caroll wanted compensation for the damaged instrument. Was there damage to the AA brand and was how the airline handled the in really that significant in the end?

Hmmm.

I informally surveyed some friends.Our conversations generally went something like this:

“Hey. Have you heard of Dave Carroll?”

“Huh? Who”

“You know. The Canadian singer-songwriter?”

“Ummm. . .nope. . .”

“You mean you still aren’t reeling from what the airline did to his guitar a few years back?”

“Um….huh. Why would I care what the airline did to his guitar?”

Scott asserts that the airline did damage to its brand by not responding to Carroll quickly enough, but less than 2 years later, nobody seems to remember, or care about the incident. People aren’t likely to remember it for a few reasons: 1) Wasn’t my guitar 2) I don’t play guitar 3) Don’t fly with American Airlines with my guitar 4) Don’t all airlines damage checked baggage.

The damage, in fact, wasn’t done to one particular airline. The damage was actually being done to ALL airlines. The incident reinforced the stereotype that no airline is capable of handling baggage properly. Not only could American Airlines have responded to Carroll’s online pleas, but other airlines could have responded to show how they handled baggage transport BETTER than the airline shown, possibly admitting that every airline has challenges and how they work to avoid those. They would have also shown people how to pack their instruments properly.

From a customer service standpoint, businesses cannot give every customer what they want. Perhaps it was Carroll’s inability to pack his guitar properly that led to the problem. Why should the airline reimburse him? And if they reimburse him, then they should reimburse/give any current, former or future passenger whatever they want for fear that they might create a YouTube video? Where does a business draw the line? The company could end up spending millions of dollars per year to chase fraudulent customer claims. That expense would have to be passed on to passengers. That would probably result in a better video. . .

From the airlines perspective, an in all reality, while Carroll’s video experienced millions of views, few lasting impressions were actually made. People enjoyed it momentarily because it was clever and took aim at a corporate giant who has “wronged the little guy.” Nearly everbody loves to jump on that band wagon.

The video was then largely forgotten. The greater truth is that airlines destroy bags and don’t want to replace them-and it’s been this way across many airlines for a long time.

I don’t own a guitar and neither do most of my friends. The airlines didn’t damage a multi-media projector of a guy on his to a big presentation-more likely to hit home with us. They damaged a guitar. For musicians traveling by planes with their guitars, it hit a little closer to home. That’s a very niche audience and small demographic.

Also, not everybody flies American Airlines. If I don’t fly with them, it won’t hit home.

So in the end, the airline in question suffered almost no significant damage to its brand and Dave Carroll still hasn’t sprung to the top of the charts.

Just trying to work through the case study. Seemed like a lot was left out of the picture. Always looking for your thoughts. Let me know your take.

Social Media’s Dark Dirty Secret

Posted: January 29, 2011 in Branding, Marketing, Retail, Social Media
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Social media has been sold to the masses as a revolutionary tool for the owners of small and medium-sized businesses. After all, it allows business owners and marketing departments to reach the masses with a few simple key strokes-and at virtually no cost. Most social media sites are easy to use and don’t require much, if any, knowledge of code to get started like complicated websites. Customers can be update instantly and owners aren’t at the mercy of the media to publish “their story.” They can publish their own stories, directly to their customers when they like and message it exactly the way they see it.  What a breakthrough!

At CES, I had the opportunity to speak with representatives of companies like NASA and Play Station. Alone, NASA hosts more than 200 twitter accounts and Play Station is huge into gaming. During a panel discussion, speakers echoed a sentiment I too often counsel clients: Content is King. Provide good content to stimulate engage among audience members.

A portion of the discussion can be viewed here:

But after the discussion, I had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with a few of the panelists. The question on my mind? Content is great to KEEP people on your social media sites, but how do you drive people to your site if you’re not NASA or Play Station? I was met time and time again with dead silence. No surprise.

The panelists weren’t ignorant. The difference is they work with iconic brands. When consumers see a NASA logo, or hear someone mention the organization, they immediately make associations. They have familiarity. If a Facebook user sees that his friend is connected to NASA, or a friend suggestion appears, they may decide to become associated with the page without ever looking at it. “Oh. I know NASA. Yup. They’re cool. We should be friends.”

That’s not usually the case with small to medium sized businesses. They have to do a lot of serious leg work in addition to keeping their social media channels filled with great content and engaging their audiences.  They have to actively recruit consumers and lobby to attract fans. Certainly, having a loyal customer base who will help spread the word makes this process a lot easier. I often compare this to the question back in the late 1990s business owners asked: How do I drive traffic to my website?

And while nobody wants to talk about it, as I call it Social Media’s Dark Dirty Secret, techniques for driving traffic to social media channels is done in very much the same way as the same business  owners worked to let consumers know they had a website (Remember, back in the days before it was assumed EVERY business could be found on the web?). And it takes time. Just because there are people on Facebook doesn’t mean they will seek you out and scream about your business from their pulpit.

Retailers can post signage in their shops and print “Find Us on Facebook’ on their store receipts. Professional service companies may opt to list their Twitter icon on their ad in Crain’s Detroit Business and add their handle to their business card. Word-of-Mouth marketing is still one of the most potent tools to let  people know about your company.

I’ve spoken with many business owners who wanted to achieve rock star status on Facebook or Twitter over night. “How do we get to 10,000 followers by tomorrow?”

Just as a journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step, so does the building of a social media audience. You can have 10,00 followers by tomorrow, but 99.9 percent of them won’t care about your message and be even remotely likely to act upon it. 10 relevant followers would win every time.  One conversation at a time, one relationship at a time. Business owners have been misled into thinking social media works well for all types of businesses and for all sizes of business. Small/medium companies certainly can achieve success through social media, but it takes time. It grows along with their brand.

Social media can be a viable tool in the marketing tool box of small and medium-sized businesses. It’s just important to understand how the tools function and have expectations realistically inline when forging into the territory.

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