Random

    Marketing

    Driving Miss Economy.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    As someone who watches brands and markets I love inflection points. Consumer inflection points are most obvious in the retail landscape. One result of the financial crisis and bail out of Detroit was a reduction in car dealerships. Were you to drive down any long commercial highway 20 years ago and compare it to today you will see brand new banks on the sites once reserved for shiny new cars.  And as we legislate more fuel efficient car standards, those same streets have more eateries where gas stations once stood.

    Today in the news, Lord & Taylor in NYC is selling its block long retail space to WeWork. The supply-side driver? eCommernce and Amazon.  For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  WeWork, most know, started out as a low-cost office space solution — one where infrastructure, e.g., phones, cabling, office maintenance, coffee, is taken care of and asses in seats are rented for the day, week, month or year. They are now growing like wild fire. And the price points are increasing, as the amenities and addresses become more plush. The other inflection point driving WeWork growth is what’s happening on the demand-side: the freelance economy.

    The work force is changing. The nature of companies is changing.  Google “logged and tagged workforce.” Or write me (Steve@WhatsTheIdea.com).  Those who are ready for the logged and tagged economy shall winners be.

    Peace.

     

    Owyang on ROI. Ow for some.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang conducted a webinar a couple of days ago, along with Michal Della Penna of StrongMail, on social media today and tomorrow.  He made two very key important points.  Don’t market your ass off (my words) only to give your traffic over to Mark Zuckerberg.  And don’t use “engagement” as a key metric when trying to prove social media ROI to your executive committee. 

    Point 1.  I’ve heard on a number of occasions, from some pretty smart, that many companies are considering reducing the scope and scale of their corporate websites in favor of bulked up their Facebook efforts.  Mistake.  Overblown company and brand websites can be a blight, but they don’t really hurt anybody.  Letting all your customers and prospects learn about your product on Fotchbook on the other hand, can dilute your control and funded sales efforts.

    Point 2.  Consumer engagement, often defined on the dashboard as clicks, time on site, members, views, likes, check-ins are not sales.  Certainly they can lead to sales, but until tied to money changing hands, its engagement not a wedding ring.  It’s like dating without the you know. We all know dating leads to you know, so I’m not pooh-poohing engagement, I’m just suggesting as did Mr. Owyang that executives care about da monies.  When was the last time you read a financial article the headline for which was “Goldman’s Engagement Slid 53% In Quarter.”  Peace!

    The maturation of Algo.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    In the Netflix earning report yesterday it was noted that 75% or all streamed hours of content were recommended by the algorithm.  What does that tell you?  It’s an example of the algorithm winning over social recommendation — social recos being the “likes” and “ratings” and “reviews” which are the ballast of so many web communities.  

    Many marketing studies rate purchase influence and far and away the winning source of influence is always  “friends.”  Advertising is usually way down in the pecking order.  But where is the algorithm in those studies? Not included.

    Ad serving is pretty dumb most of the time.  I’m still getting ads served based on project work, not even closely related to what I care about in my personal life. Sluggish algorithm.  But the algorithm employed by Pandora and Netflix?  Now these use energetic algorithms. This is where big data targeting is going. This is where Twitch Point Planning is going. In the “understand, map and manipulate” triumvirate of the TPP process, smarter algos will feed the understanding component. (I am so excited about Twitch Point Planning I could pizzle myself. Even The New York Time paper-paper is using it by providing video links to twitch to a multimedia part of the story.)

    Understand the algo — the many competing algos — they are the keys to the marketing future. Peace!    

    Mine the Goodness.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    A friend of mine recently told me his family has not used a credit card in 8 years.  Sounds as if 8 years ago his family was spending a little beyond its means. Then something happened. Sanity happened.  The same insanity that drove my friend’s family to the brink has infected gov’ts and corporations alike over the past couple of decades and though I suspect the U.S. government hasn’t completely seen the light, businesses are starting to. Certainly families have.

    With unemployment creeping in the right direction and markets beginning to slide step forward, my gut tells me this recovery will be tempered in a positive way and we’ll all exercise more restraint. Business owners and families will be much more mindful of expenses.  Expenses will be monitored more closely and the work supporting them will be harder work — smarter work.  Case in point: Vermont.  Always a state known for thriftiness and hard work, Vermont was devastated by hurricane Irene.  Mile and miles of roads and bridges were washed out in late August and the expectation of repair was $1 billion and a year to complete.  Today Vermont is almost completely back to normal road-wise and the price tag looks to be more like $200 million.

    How?  The recession made us stronger, smarter, more willing to work together.  Certainly it did in VT.  Now that goodness needs to spread. A goodness born of tough times. Let’s mine that goodness y’all.  Peace!

    Brands planks, heroes and additives.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    What is heroic about Miracle Whip? What is heroic about the North Shore LIJ Health System? One is a dollop on a sandwich, another is a healthcare org that saves lives. What is heroic about Windham Mountain?  Actually, in the winter the resort has a program for the physically challenged – that’s pretty heroic.

    In brand planning I love probing consumers for heroes and pride; rich areas that get to the heart of a person.  Yet many planners ask questions such as “Tell me how you use mayonnaise?” “What’s your favorite sandwich and why?”  “Share with me a story about the best place you ever ate a sandwich?” All nice tactical questions, but not brand plank questions.  And don’t get me wrong, not every brand has or needs heroic traits. In fact, for mayonnaise the notion is silly. But an ad about a kid who stands up to a bully in the school cafeteria and is rewarded with a tasty sandwich may be compelling to a mom.  Context.

    Sometimes a brand plank may not have endemic value — it may be aspirational and tangential. It may not relate to heroics or pride but align with other human emotions.  As brand planners, we have to organize brand planks with hard values and soft values.  Just the right amount of lemon can turn Miracle Whip into Hellman’s. Hee hee. Peace!    

     

    Wither Yahoo?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    When was the last time you actually typed dub dub dub yahoo.com on your keyboard? Thought so. How about thumbed those keys on your mobile? Thought so. Yahoo needs a big shot in the ass. A story to break. A reason to visit. Now that it’s football season, I actually do spend some time on the Yahoo — on the Fantasy Football site. And I love their streaming Fantasy Football Live program Sunday mornings – but even that has been dinged by some silly heavy handed gimmicks called Daily Fantasy Price, moving them into the gambling business. But at least it’s a try. It’s something.  As for the rest of Yahoo: “ugotz.”  An Italian idiomatic phrase meaning nothing.

    It’s hard to innovate when you don’t innovate. It’s hard to create best in class web content (which is just content now) when you don’t innovate. It seems that Yahoo if just putting its toys in a vessel and shaking them up.  It needs new toys. Yahoo needs to make news by making interesting new technology than becomes content. Look at the home page. What do you see?  I see the ’90s.

    Peace.

     

     

    Nutrition and Health Education.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    govt healthcare

    Got a black eye last night playing hoops.  It was awesome.  I haven’t played basketball for a while, thanks to some back stinging and a little Achilles action. Think I’ve added a few pounds and certainly softened up in the musculoskeletal dept.  But I’m back.

    As a brand planner I’ve been thinking a lot lately about health, healthcare and the role of diet. At this point in time I believe that most Americans want to be healthier but they just don’t want to work at it. We are way too comfortable eating the wrong foods, in the wrong quantities and correcting those behaviors with pills, vitamins and unhealthy diets. (I wonder what would happen – and I’m not advocating it – if all Americans stopped taking their pills for a week.)

    Fast food is convenient.  Conveniently filled with fat, sugar and salt. Carrots and raw green beans are convenient. However they don’t taste as good as French fires. Or do they? Learned behavior.

    The most important person in our government is Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services. I also believe we can baby-step our way out of the health crisis (where 19% of the GDP goes to healthcare) if we educate children as to proper nutrition and eating habits.  Might we replace a K12 course, say chemistry, with a full year of nutrition?  

    We can’t medicate our way out of poor health and we can’t treat our way out of poor health – we can educate ourselves toward proper wellness.  There will be tons of lobbyists against this approach but that’s okay.  This is America.  Peace!  

     

    Snack Snack. Who’s There?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Mondelez International has a new line of snack foods called “Good Thins.” I suspect the name cost close to a million dollars to develop yet it is quite wan. It feels like it’s been around for years. Mondelez is a smart company with some seriously smart marketers, but this name says bup.  

    Snacks are a $6B business. Salty snacks a huge chunk. Everyone is trying to replace bad-for-you with good-for-you snacks but it’s hard to find things to replace chips, pop-corm and chocolate infused goodies. Smart Thins are innovative in that they have offerings contain garlic, sweet potatoes, rice, spinach and other healthier ingredients – and the thin profile keeps calories down and snap/crunch up. Perhaps these goodies can help quench some of America’s need for salty snacks, but the name is going to hinder sales growth.

    Abbott Laboratories, is launching a new line of snack products called “Curate.” (Labs guys.)  The NYT says these products will contain “flavor combinations like fig and balsamic vinegar, and apricot and Marcona almond.”   This feels like a better way to go, in that it at least has a specific regional ingredient slant as opposed to a haphazard grocery store shelf profile, but the name is goofy.

    The snack business needs a big punch in the gut. It feels like there is movement but as is the case with Just Mayo, it needs a new innovative champion brand in the category.  Who will step up? And let us not forget the all-important name.

    Peace.

     

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