Monthly Archives: November 2008

NJ Nets Promote Jobs

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The New Jersey Nets have a brilliant promotion whereby their out-of-work fans can attend a Nets game for free and have their resume distributed to Nets sponsors. Being out of work is a kick in the pants and one that impacts discretionary spending. The Nets have turned this negative into a sales positive. It creates trial for new fans who may never have been to a Nets game. It suggests empathy for the fans, creating loyalty. And it’s newsworthy – I just heard about the promotion on the radio. Good free PR.

 

It’s what the marko-babblists call a “win, win.” And if the Nets actually win, it could be a three point play (sorry.) Peace!

 

 

 
 

Best Buy and Social Something

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What’s the idea with @15

 

You’ve got to give Best Buy credit for trying to do something in social networking. And Cause Marketing. And Market Research. And Customer Relationship Management (CRM.) And Youth Marketing. But this effort is going to be a million dollar dud. As my drunken mentor Dick Kerr once said though, “The idea to have an idea is often more important than the idea itself.” (I told you he was a tippler.)

 

Best Buy may indeed extract its million back thanks to some unforeseen consumer insight, but targeting 15 year olds with a “what’s important to you” social net, is not the way. It doesn’t support a viable branding idea.

 

I know Walmart and the big box stores like Costco are dinging Best Buy and (RIP) Circuit City, but slapping a social net together isn’t going to win the youth market. And yes, kids aren’t exactly price shoppers and they do care about brand, but there are other ways for Best Buy to earn brand points than positioning itself a generic one-stop entertainment and technology shop. They need to dig deeper and not go all tactical. Peace!

 

 

A letter to Martin A. Nisenholz, The New York Times

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Dear Mr. Nisenholtz,

 

Do you realize you are at the reins of what should be the world’s largest media property, an online property poised to be the world’s news source — with circulation dwarfing that of the paper?  Newspapers are not going away, paper is. The New York Times is a news reporting organization. Yet one, I submit, whose officers are sitting around a conference table wondering about paper vs. video vs. podcast vs. mobile vs. HiDef. 

 

You are thinking medium not news. Here a social media idea that might help: How about paying people around the world to report stories as they happen in a Twitter-like application, supported by a news algorithm that culls for accuracy. Now there’s a meeting.

 

Mr. Nisenholtz, I think you’ve dropped the ball. According to Alexa, CNN.com is ranked #50 and you are #90.  You need to be in the top 5. Globally, 300 million uniques a day is within reach. Please don’t think that’s out of the question.  Web penetration is planet ubiquitous.

 

The world’s most famous brands are Jesus, Coke, Mohammad Ali, U2, and The New York Times.  You can do this. Peace!

 

New York Times, Martin A. Nisenholz, Alexa, CNN, NYTimes.com, whatstheidea, whats the idea, marketing blogs, Jesus, Coke, Mohammad Ali, U2, twitter

Hayden Panettiere Next Season.

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What’s the idea with Heroes?  One of NBC’s biggest revenue generators, Heroes has been losing audience for two years now. The rub, supposedly, is that the plotlines are getting too complex and the growing number of show characters is making the program harder to follow.  Add to that all the science fiction twists and the program becomes hard to watch for first-timers and less loyal viewers. Plus the sci-fi genre on TV is getting nauseatingly crowded.

 

I don’t watch a lot of Heroes and don’t know too much about the talent and their respective Q scores (popularity scores,) but I’m going to borrow a page from the program and jump to the future to say there will soon be a spin-off about the life and times of Claire Bennet. Claire, portrayed by Hayden Panettiere, one of TV’s hottest properties, is the feisty cheerleader and commands lots of attention.  NBC knows it and viewers know it. With story lines closely tied to her character and her own show, think Jack Bauer meets Gossip Girl, Claire will generate some seriously strong numbers for NBC in 2009-2010.

 

NBC, Heroes, Claire Bennet, Hayden Panettiere, Jack Bauer, whatstheidea, whats the idea, marketing blogs. Gossip Girl

G.M. and the “Detroit Bailout Challenge.”

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Riffing on yesterday’s post, here’s what I fear. GM is cutting, cutting, cutting to show it deserves a bailout. To wit “In July G.M. announced plans to cut $10B in costs and raise $5B thought the sale of Hummer brand, and new borrowing. On Friday, the company said it would cut another $5B, including slowing production at 10 factories and cutting capital spending next year by $2.5B – a move that will delay the introduction of several new vehicles.” (Source NYT 11/08/08.)   

 

This type of stuff won’t win the What’s the Idea? “Detroit Bailout Challenge.” It’s numbers crunching accounting stuff.  No vision.  Speed up the delivery date of the Chevy Volt. Buy the Smart Car company from Mercedes. Cut production of all SUVs by 75%. Now you’d be talking.  Be bold and win the challenge. Peace. (Oh yeah, and go St. John’s Red Storm!)

 

Detroit Bailout Challenge

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 pic by Reuters 

I would love to have heard what went on in Washington yesterday as the heads of GM, Ford, Chrysler and the UAW sat in a room with congressional leaders asking for $25 billion in loans. The meeting lasted an hour and a half. After introductions, posturing and pictures, I’m sure the real meeting lasted less than an hour – not enough time to do anything. What a waste of plane fare.

 

The car guys were pleading their cases, no doubt, as to how the economy will be further hurt if the Big 3 are allowed to go out of business. Rather, they should have been explaining what they are going to do in real terms, not theory, to turn their product lines around.

 

Here’s my idea: the government should offer the loan to the car company that comes back with the best plan to change the way they do business and build cars. Winner takes all. Ask for all proposals by January 1st and let’s see what happens.


And could we get a few of auto geezers out of the room?  Have you ever seen such a geeze-fest?  Peace!

 

 

Barack’s Thank You Email.

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What’s the idea with Barack Obama winning? Here’s a clue. This is an email he sent out to supporters upon hearing of his election. Note the time:

 

From: Barack Obama [mailto:info@barackobama.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 12:11 AM
To: Terrence Last Name
Subject: How this happened

 Terrence

I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing…

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

 

Remembering to say “thank you” is an important way to build loyalty. Peace!

U.S. News and World Report’s Syrupy Announcement

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What’s the idea with U.S. News and World ReportAre they trying to become a monthly newsweekly? Have they decided that becoming an online news property is their future? Or, have they decided to become a publishing organization specializing in rating colleges andhospitals? The answer is "yes" to all three questions. 

 

According to a recent internal memo that fell into the hands of the New York Times, written by president Bill Holiber and editor Brain Kelly, “the magazine was accelerating its plans to focus on Internet publishing and a handful of topics: national and world news and opinion, health, money and business, education and rankings and reviews.”

 

Try writing a branding brief on that.  Have you ever tasted fruit cocktail? That sweet syrupy concoction with pears, peaches, grapes and one other mystery fruit? Every element tastes the same. One taste: syrup. Mort Zuckerman should know better. This melange of media will turn to gunk. No idea here.

 

 

Campbell’s Vs. Progresso

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There’s an old fashioned war going on in the soup category between Campbell’s and Progresso thanks to Campbell’s Select Harvest brand extension. The Select Harvest line is made with all natural ingredients — notice they didn’t use the word “healthy.” Campbell’s is dinging Progresso for too much MSG and unnatural flavorings. 

 

Now playing defense, Progresso just published the results of a taste test which is a a sure sign the market is changing. In their latest ad they claim 7 of 10 prefer the taste of Progresso’s Chicken Noodle soup over Campbell’s Harvest Chicken with Egg Noodles.”  Well, duh. Unnatural, unhealthy and preservative-filled food often tastes better.  (I like regular Hellman’s Mayonnaise better than lite mayo, but I use the latter because it’s better for me.)  It takes a lot of R&D to be able to make a natural soup that tastes good, that tastes like the individual ingredients, and “does no harm.”

Campbell’s knows this and shouldn’t worry about taste tests at this juncture. They need to keep pushing the natural ingredients and working in the test kitchen to improve taste. Maybe use born-on dating to help keep the food fresh, or a new container. Douglas Conant, Campbell’s CEO, is onto something with this fresh and healthy approach…and he knows it. 

 

 

Social Web Usability

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For consumer web properties, especially the free ones of the social network/social media variety, usability is king.  I was employed by a company, Zude.com, that had a great online concept but poor execution when it came to usability.  People couldn’t figure out how to use us. 

 

I conducted some usability studies with college kids and found there are basically three types of users. Let’s call them: Know-hows, Diggers and See-yahsKnow-hows believe they know how to use any site and keep trying different things to get the answers, often bypassing the Help button. They scan the page overlooking instructional text boxes, assuming the answer is staring them in the face. Know-hows give up eventually, but rarely ask for help.  Diggers are the most analytical and once confronted with a non-intuitive site look for help immediately. If they can’t find help, they keep digging – taking it as a challenge. “The answer has to be here somewhere.” Diggers are relentless and will find the answers, but will not come back if the experience was too stupid or goofy.   And See-yahs, just have better things to do. They may try to figure you out two or three times but if they can’t, they leave.  See-yahs want intuitive and easy and if they don’t get it, they go they are better understood. Peace!