Monthly Archives: January 2013

Meep meep.

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No back-patting here (okay maybe a little) but my prediction that the Chrysler/Fiat combination was a smart one has come true.  The car market grew 13% last year and Chrysler sales weighed in at 20%.  Chrysler outperformed the market by 7%.  GM and Ford at 3% and 4%, underperformed the market. Bringing a little European design and smaller car sensibility to America has, indeed, translated into sales and margin. The approach, tempered by some Jeep and Dodge DNA, put Chrysler back on firm ground.

A point of concern, however, is CEO Sergio Marchionne’s comment at the Detroit Auto show.  He feels a U.S. recovery will pave the way for growth of his more heavy metal cars and trucks, like the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Dodge Ram truck. This is just the type of talk that got us into trouble in the first place.  I would expect to hear this from Ford and GM but not Chrysler (Fiat).  Twenty somethings and the emerging car buyer market (read future) will not be demanding guzzlers. And in 10 years a 30 MPG car will be a guzzler.

Don’t fall for this Mr. Marchionne. Keep your eyes on the big prize. Stop the supersizing.  Find beauty in the small. The efficient. Meep meep. This is way forward. Peace.

 

 

Marketing Monetization Musings.

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Never is a marketing consultant more ill at ease than when a client asks “How much revenue will this tactic generate?”  Or, “If I run this ad campaign, how many inquiries will it generate?” CEOs and CFOs ask these questions because they want to know what the return will be. I’ve often written about the importance of ROS (return on strategy) over ROI (return on investment) which tends to measure tactics. The reality is, all marketers and their agents want to know their marketing efforts pay off.  But just as tech start-ups get away, quarter after quarter, without monetization plans, marketers keep trotting out the old lazy axiom “I know half my advertising is working, I just don’t know which half” and muddle on.  

That’s why we should be measuring strategy, not tactics. Strategy crosses channels and tactics. Strategy informs tactics. Sure tactics can be strong or weak, but graded on strategy delivery creates a third dimension for analysis.

How well does this package design convey the brand strategy?  How well does this retail experience deliver the brand promise?  How convincing is this video at making a prospect believe the brand claim? Grading our marketing work not simply by action but by brand conviction is the way toward marketing monetization.  Measuring awareness, first mention or a porous tagline is not measuring strategy. Nor is measuring time on page.    

When measures become endemic to your business and not generic, you will know you are on the right path. Peace!

Don’t think different, think new.

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Have you ever gone back to your old neighborhood and noticed that everything looks smaller?  It’s not because you have gotten bigger, it is because we tend to fill up empty spaces with more stuff: bigger houses, sheds, plantings and more houses.  It’s what man does. We build and we plant.

This is how I view the media world.  Man likes to build more forms of media. And we add clutter and density to the existing ones. Our job as marketers, planners and media agents it to find new ways to share out targeted messages. New exciting ways.  Ways that move customers closer to a sale. Let’s not add clutter, let’s open new vistas.

Think new. Don’t think add-ons or media extensions.  New.

Peace.

Going Comando.

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I was thinking about what’s wrong with education and it dawned on me that a teacher could go for decades without changing his/her  lesson plan.  Okay, that might be an oversimplification but bear with me.  So let’s says that happens for an American history teacher…how does that teacher refresh? Well, one might say they focus on the pedagogy – the teaching itself. With all students being different, the lesson may stay the same but the means of getting though, packaging, and connecting the lesson to “this years” student may change. (Let’s hope.) In other words the material doesn’t change the delivery does.

So what does that mean for branding and marketing? Do we use a syllabus to create our marketing approach? I suspect we do. I, for instance, have been using a couple of planning tools over the years that have not changed much: 24 Questions and a battery of Fact Finding questions.  Sounds kind of formulaic, no?  Am I lazy? These rigors act as fishing nets for me and what I catch will vary. What I do with that catch creates the differentiation. Hmm.

But suppose I approached each assignment more like composing a song. Or creating some other form of art?  It would dash the formula don’t you think? This would be a case of getting rid of the syllabus. And going commando. Let’s think about that in 2013 and see if we can blow some doors off our approaches to strategic development. Peace!

 

A boastful new roast.

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One of Starbucks cornerstone brand traits is its rich, hearty, no-nonsense coffee. A brilliant differentiator for the masses. The aroma in the store, the bags of beans the real time brewing all contribute.  It is this rich taste however that has kept some coffee drinkers from being customers. And that is a sales opp. How do we convert a person from a “drive by” to a “drive in?”  And do it while preserving “our thing.”  The answer is by moving the cheese a little. And these cheese is the roast.  Roast gets you credit for rich and flavorful.

Introducing Starbucks new Blonde Roast – a lighter flavored, easy drinking coffee option. Tagged with the line “It’s the coffee we’ve been missing for the people we’ve been missing.”  I haven’t tasted the product, but I like the marketing and positioning. It’s quick, telling, contextual and a focused new product. It’s what consumers, or should I say non-consumers want.  It’s not a tea or a slushy…it’s coffee. And a long time coming.

Turn on the sales steamer, this puppy is going to be hot and bring in  a lot of new faces.  Bravo team!

PS. I’m sure hours were spent deciding to leave the “E” on the word blond or take it off. Interesting choice.

Patience and Pursuit.

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There is a very special Op-Ed piece in the NYT today by Mark Bittman entitled “Fixing Our Food Problem.”  And so I don’t come off as a Paster (pasting other people’s content) I will leave the main argument to Mr. Bittman but will jump on a point he makes regarding “patience” when it comes to change.  The abolition movement, he noted, was 100 years in the making and began 200 years before civil rights reform.  A women’s right to vote took 75 years. Gay rights, though not complete, so far a 40 year slog.

The interneck (sic) has changed much of this. The ability to use online tools and communities to inform, share, argue, and build consensus — across many divides has collapsed time frames as never before. Governments have been changed in a matter of weeks because of the tool that is the web.  Much in real life has changed for the positive, thanks to the web.  Important, meaningful things. Yes, cyber-bullying, stalking and fraud are bad…but not nearly as bad as what is and will happen as we refine this tool for good and the good of the planet.

Mr. Bittman is right that patience is a virtue as it relates to fixing the mess that is our current U.S. food chain. But let’s not be too patient.  The Yin and Yang of patience and pursuit is an American trait. Let’s make a New Years resolution to burn calories in pursuit this year. In action. And use the tools at hand to do so. Peace!