On the go

If you're wondering if mobile computing is ever really going to "take off," check out these astounding statistics from a variety of sources:

• 1.7 billion people using mobile internet services by 2013.*
• By 2014, mobile internet is estimated to overcome PC internet use.*
• 56% of American adults are now smartphone owners. (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2013)
• Mobile now accounts for 12 percent of Americans’ media consumption time, triple its share in 2009. (Source: Digiday, 2013)
• Twice as many web ready mobile devices today as PCs.*
• 700% growth in traffic on smart phones by 2015.*
• Of the 70 percent of shoppers who used a mobile phone while in a retail store during the holidays, 62 percent accessed that store’s site or app and only 37 percent of respondents accessed a competitor’s site or app. (Source: ForeSee, 2013)
• Retailers’ apps with store mode gather five times more engagement. (Source: Point Inside, 2013)
• Last year, only 12% of consumers bought anything through social media. (Source: PwC, 2013)
• By the end of 2013, there were more mobile devices on Earth than people. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• Mobile internet is growing faster than desktop internet ever did.*
• Mobile data traffic is expected to increase by almost 4000% by 2014.*
• 25% of international media and marketing executives see mobile as the most disruptive force in their industry. (Source: AdMedia Partners, 2013)
• 65% of U.S. shoppers research products and services on a PC and make a purchase in-store. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• 54% use or would like to use digital touchscreens in-store. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• 48% use or would like to use a smartphone to shop while in-store or on the go. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• 80% of smartphone owners want more mobile-optimized product information while they’re shopping in stores. (Source: Moosylvania, 2013)
• Nearly 50% of shoppers believe they are better informed than store associates. (Source: Motorola, 2013)
• Americans spend an average of 2.7 hours on mobile internet each day.*
• 75 percent of Americans bring their phones to the bathroom. (Source: Digiday, 2013)
• Mobile brand exposure can be more effective than other media messages. Mobile internet users are 60% more likely to be open to mobile advertising than the average mobile data user.*
• Mobile visits to Facebook increased by 112% and Twitter by 374%.*
• It took 20 years for the first billion mobile internet subscribers and only 40 months for the second billion.*

          *Data collected from Adobe Web Analytics, Omniture, Smart Insights, Mobile Marketing Statistics 2013 by eSchool.

The summary of all that data (and there was much more I could have included) is that mobile computing is exploding.  What that means, is that while many of us marketers are struggling to figure out how to make social media relevant and valuable to our marketing strategy, we must now also consider mobile computing.

Including mobile computing into your marketing strategy is more than just making sure your website looks good on a smartphone.  It is figuring out how to use the unique aspects of mobile computing to enhance the customer's shopping experience.  It might include promotions or strategies to lure people who are near your physical location into your establishment, or it might be ways to engage visitors once they cross the threshhold.

It also means you need to understand that customers are comparison shopping while in your store; with your competitors and with your own online presence.

Marketing and communications are changing.  The tools that we have to reach customers and other stakeholders are constantly changing as well.  And the speed of that change seems to ramping up faster than the speeds of computers.

The important thing to remember is that the key responsibility of marketing to communicate with and develop relationships with customers and prospective customers has not changed.  You probably won't participate in every new tech innovation that comes along.  You probably shouldn't.  But don't have your head in the sand either.  Keep yourself aware of what the opportunities are and identify those that are strong opportunities for your business.  Then try your best to take advantage of all the new opportunties to make your brand shine.

You need to adapt some of the new technology.  You don't want to stay in one place because your customers are obviously on the go!

Related articles

• 7 Ways Mobile Will Change Business In 2014
• Do you have a people strategy?

Please and thank you

The movie Minority Report was recently playing on TV and I was reminded of one of the most chilling scenes in this futuristic, dystopian movie.  I am referring to the short scene where Tom Cruise's character is walking down a street and through a commercial area and is bombarded with advertising messages directed specifically to him.

I found myself very disturbed by this scene of direct marketing on steroids on many levels.  On the plot level, Cruise's character is trying to sneak away unnoticed.  Having billboards and holograms shouting his name, trying to sell him things, was preventing that.  On a societal level, I could not help but think how strange it would be if society became accustomed to that level of personalized and targeted intrusion, noise and hubbub.  On a marketing level, I have to admit I was disturbed by my eager thoughts of all the different things you could do if you could literally target marketing messages to the individual at the point of sale, or at any point in the decision making process you wanted.

The reason I am writing about a science fiction movie is that advances in data management and data mining technology are making the fiction in Minority Report closer and closer to fact.  While not currently using eye scan technology (that I know of), we are capable of greater and greater specificity in our marketing messages.  We are capable of faster and faster matching of consumer's actions and behaviors to the messages that we send them.  We can combine and divide customer and prospect data faster and cheaper than ever before.  It is safe to say that marketers have the ability to know more about their customers likes and dislikes, demographics and psychographics, purchase and shopping habits, and everything in between, than ever before.

But to quote another movie that was released the same year as Minority Report, "...with great power, comes great responsibility."

Marketers and businesses must tred carefully when mining data for marketing messages.  As we have seen recently, people will respond negatively and sometimes strongly when they feel that their privacy is being violated, especially for commercial reasons.  Internet companies and their advertisers have seen some push back from consumers and the media when they are perceived to have reached too far in mining individual information and personalizing marketing messages.

While the temptations to use new and powerful capabilities, I suspect that used recklessly that the benefits will be short-lived at best.

The good news is that the solution of how to employ new and emerging technology without alienating customers and prospects is very easy.  It is also very basic.  All you have to do is ask permission.

As we learned in kindergarten, saying please and thank you goes a long way.  That is still true in marketing and especially true when you are pushing the boundaries on your customers' comfort levels.  By asking permission, you can mitigate a whole slew of potentially negative reactions.  It doesn't happen any more, but there was a time when people who got direct marketing letters in their homes that were personally addressed to them and had personal information in the letter would freak out.  People were upset and felt they were being spied on.  Strong reactions also greeted internet companies like Facebook when they changed privacy rules to allow more sharing of data with paying marketers.

Asking permission has a couple of significant benefits.  First, your prospect is not surprised by your personalized marketing appeal.  That minimizes the negative reactions and increases receptivity.  Second, by asking permission, you are pre-qualifying a prospect. You know that this person has a certain level of interest. This makes them a less risky marketing investment.  More tools and more data can be focus on those who have given permission.  Finally, the very act of asking permission projects a positive image.  A company that cares enough to ask before they plunge into full force marketing shows that they care about customers.

That is a huge advantage!  And it seems much less intrusive.

10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of learning from our elders, even if they have never used Twitter.  With that in mind, today I bring you a 10 tips on writing by advertising great, and original "Mad Man," David Ogilvy.  As I read these tips, I find myself reaching for a skinny tie and a martini as much as a pen and paper.  The tips below can be found in the book, The Unpublished David Ogilvy.  Enjoy!

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather.

People who think well, write well.

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well.

Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing.  Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk.  Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally.  They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
6. Check your quotations.
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it.  Read it aloud the next morning -- and then edit it.
8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
10. If you want ACTION, don't write.  Go and tell the guy what you want.

                                                         David

Related articles

• The Hardest Working Man In Advertising
• Take your pick
• Ogilvy's Principles of Creative Management

False Advertising

The reputation of the advertising industry is such that most people expect a certain amount of exageration and stretching of the truth in commercial messages designed to sell you a product or a service.

It has become somewhat anticipated that the hamburger won't be as big or juicy as it is in the photo, the shampoo won't make your hair as shiny and manageable as it shows in the video, or the service provider won't be as cheerful and knowledgeable as they claim in the webinar.  Many people expect that the three out of four doctors who recommended the toothpaste/pain killer/weight loss treatment are getting paid or are relatives of the CEO.

This cynicism is exponentially more true for those born since 1980.

Think about the shock a company would create if they avoided hyperbole and puffery and simply shared the facts and told the truth.  Anticipate what the reaction would be if they said, "You need a car for transportation and our car will get you there safely and at a reasonable price."  Imagine the ripple effects it would cause if consumers responded to a straightforward recitation of product features and how those features might help address some of your needs.

Some would probably be looking for the catch.

Related articles

• Fooling Around
• Advertising Industry Gives Up

Fun and Inspired Marketing Ideas

In honor of US celebration of Labor Day, instead of laboring over a blog, I thought I would share some fun and creative examples of marketing that I have come across.  I only wish I had labored on these creative and unique ways to raise awareness of a brand.  The link after the last picture takes you to a longer list of these fun and creative examples of marketing.  What are your favorites?  Let me know in the comments.  I have a hard time choosing between the radio station air guitars stand and the hot wheels billboard.  Happy Labor Day!


































http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2012/02/23/48-inspired-marketing-ideas/gallery/image/ngg-image-5648/

A Numbers Game

It is very easy to feel overwhelmed by the quantity of data that is increasingly available to organizational and marketing leaders.  It is very easy to find yourself wanting to retreat to a analytic fetal position and ignore the data.

But the reality is that we value what we measure. Similarly, we should measure what we value.  There is a nuance between those statements.

The very act of collecting data on something, imparts value on it.  When my wife and I bought a new hybrid car 10 years ago, one of the things that we were fascinated by was the dashboard graphic that showed us our gas mileage at that instant.  We quickly learned how different ways of driving impacted that all important MPG number.  Our fuel efficiency was important to us in concept prior to that, which is why we bought a hybrid.  But with the graphic in front of us it became much less of an ethereal concept and much more of a focus every time we got behind the wheel.

Similarly, a long time ago, when I worked in an advertising agency, we collected the column inches of newspaper articles that appeared about our clients.  Because we were collecting that data and sharing it internally, it was a frequent topic of conversation.  Eventually, we recognized that as an advertising agency, not a PR firm, we really didn't impact our client's newspaper mentions.  We realized that we were collecting newspaper mentions "because we could," not because it was important.  We discontinued it and the topic of column inches was never discussed again.

With so much of our marketing and communication lives happening online, data collection is no longer the issues it once was. There are metrics galore available to any marketer or communicator who wants them.  The challenge for marketers has shifted from trying to figure out what information to gather to trying to figure out what, of the plentiful data available, is useful data.

Whereas before, marketers measured "what they could," now to a greater extent they can analyze what they should.  It seems to me that easily available data still has that allure of importance.  Like with column inches at the ad agency I worked for, marketers need to be careful about chasing after measures such as Facebook likes or Klout scores simply because they are available.

Just as social media options should be a tool in your marketing toolbox, not your marketing strategy, available metrics should help you measure whats important, not a measure of what is important.

The Broken Promise of the Internet

"As an advertising medium, the web is like communism. It's never very good right now, but it's always going to be great some day."        Bob Hoffman, The Ad Contrarian

The promise of the web is intense, amazing, awe-inspiring, breath-taking, mind-blowing, [insert wonderment adjective of choice here].  The reality of the web depends on who you are and what you hope to get out of it.

To the casual user who likes that disputes can be instantly settled with a Google search on their smart phone, the internet meets its promise and then some.

To the teacher who is looking for new tools to excite his students with, the internet meets expectations, even though bandwidth doesn't always.

To my Dad, who knows that he would enjoy the wonders of the internet, but he is a little afraid of doing something wrong and breaking something, the internet represents a tantalizing mystery.

To businesses, who are trying to figure out how to use it as a promotional tool, the internet is often more than a little frustrating.  Banner ads and pop up ads don't usually live up to their promised effectiveness.  Facebook page "likes" and Pinterest "pins" often (usually) don't translate into sales.  

For a business, its all about generating sales.  For businesses born in the time of the internet, like Netflix and Amazon, the internet has been awesome.  For most businesses that had a brick and mortar existence before the era of Google and You Tube, the internet, while awe inspiring, has been less than awesome.

Many companies that were around before 1980 that have had financial success on the internet have basically moved their catalog operation online (think Lands' End).  A few industries have transitioned to providing their services online (such as H&R Block).   

Regardless, the internet hasn't been the land of milk and honey that so many were predicting in its infancy.   It HAS transformed business and the way we communicate and gather information.  It HAS transformed whole industries and created new ones.  It just hasn't been the advertising panacea that some were claiming it would be in the 80's.    

And it certainly hasn't proven itself as an advertising powerhouse as many expected and some promised.  Clicks and likes haven't translated to dollars and cents.  For many, if not most online advertisers, the promise of internet advertising appears to be a broken promise.

Frequency

There is a rule of thumb I use when talking with someone about how long they should run a particular ad or promotion.  About the time you absolutely cannot stand looking at your promotion anymore; when it is driving you nuts to look at or listen to the ad/promotion/billboard/poster/website/etc. one more time; when it seems as if every time you turn the page or log onto a site you see the ad...THAT is about the time your target audience is just starting to notice it.

This is, of course, a broad rule of thumb.  There are always those customers who are hyper-attuned to your brand who notice ads and posts well before the general public.  Because they care.

There are also those who don't give a hoot about your brand or your industry.  They could read or view everything you put and not remember it a moment later.  Because they don't care.

I think that this same rule of thumb is even more applicable these days.  It also now applies to information of all sorts, not just promotional information.  Since there are so many sources of information, people who care about a particular subject often know about news related to that subject long before that news makes it in the local paper or on the Yahoo news feed (if it ever does.)

While this makes it easier for someone to solidify their expert status, it also raises a red flag.  If you are a interested in local food, for instance, you most likely keep up with what is written about it, current best practices, new or pending legislation, etc.  For the local food advocate, monitoring this information across multiple streams of information has never been easier.

The challenge, as an advocate, is to recognize and remember that the general public isn't doing the same.  They don't have the same awareness of the topic that you do as someone who cares about the topic and is following it.

The challenge, as a marketer, is to figure out that sweet spot where you are sharing your message frequently enough to reach your target market, but not so frequently that you end up annoying those early adapters of your message.

Years ago, when I was working for a local hospital, I used my wife and daughter as models for an ad I needed to run.  It was a print campaign that ran mostly in the local newspaper.  Naturally, my whole family was VERY attuned to the ads I ran in the local paper.  My wife commented that it seemed like she came across the ad every time she turned the page in the newspaper.  I remember at the time the ad was running mentioning her comment to a colleague.  Oh, he said, are you running an ad?

If you are an advertiser, or an advocate, don't make the mistake that the general public is as aware of your topic as you are.  It is important to remember that in today's "seek it out" environment, those who are passionate about a subject, a product, a company or a cause WILL inform themselves.

Most likely your target audience is more than these passionate few.  Most likely most of your audience will need you to repeat yourself a few times.

Related articles

• Frequency, repetition and the power of saying it more than once
• The Many P's of Marketing: Perseverance

Boring

Hugh MacLeod, author of gapingvoid.com, stated in his blog yesterday that "Advertising is the cost of being boring."   I think that is more true today than it has ever been.  

It used to be that the best way for a company to get the attention of prospective customers was to advertise in mass media forums and, if they were really working hard, get a press release or two picked up by that same mass market media .

These days, more than ever, there is a value to being a company or a brand that is unique, interesting and/or newsworthy.  More and more consumers get their information (news, product information, entertainment, etc.) via electronic media.  Electronic media differs from traditional media in many ways, but most significantly in that it is of the moment and often of the community.  It is also 24/7 and has an insatiable appetite for new content and anything that will get eyeballs to stop and look for a few seconds.

If a brand is newsworthy or interesting, it can capture the attention of a blogger.  A mention on a blog can be picked up by a larger blog or online news source.  In the blink of an eye, a quirky, risk-taking videographer or an attention-grabbing charity can be in the center of the spotlight, at least for a moment.  For a start-up company, the attention that time in the spotlight brings can be a remarkable boon.  Boring companies don't get in the spotlight.  As Mr. MacLeod suggests, they have to pay to have the spotlight shine on them.

The downside of these new rules is that the spotlight never stops moving.  You have to dance pretty hard to stay in the spotlight.  Most companies, even the most exciting and innovative ones, only cross paths with the spotlight from time to time.

Andy Warhol said that in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.  What he didn't say was that it would be 15 seconds at a time!

Guts & Numbers

"I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination."                                                                               David Ogilvy

"I don't need somebody behind a desk to tell me what a marketing survey says is funny. I got 3 million miles and 70,000 tickets sold, telling me that I know how to make people laugh."                                                                                                                                   D. L. Hughley

As long as there have been marketing departments and advertising agencies there has been a tension between practitioners who use research to back up their decisions and those who trust their judgement, or their gut.

The problem with this argument is that there seems to be no middle ground.  Believers of research are most comfortable when every decision is backed up with data.  Proponents of "the gut" will often talk about their superior instincts, their understanding of the target audience and their track record of creative, off-the-beaten path solutions.

It seems to me that there is a place for both decision making strategies in developing creative and effective marketing programs.  The history of advertising is full of stories about the maverick adman who bucked the trend and the research department and had a huge success, based on his instincts.  If we relied only on market research, we probably wouldn't have some of our most popular and revered marketing campaigns.  You see, research is really good at measuring the effectiveness of messages and media that the public is already familiar with.  It is not nearly as effective at capturing the effectiveness of new ideas or new platforms.  You may know the Henry Ford quote "If I asked my customers what they want, they simply would have said a faster horse."  Likewise, 10 years ago, if you questioned people about whether they would like to get information about a company on a free internet site that is primarily social in nature (Facebook) or on access special offers from a retailer on their telephone, I am pretty sure you would have gotten poor responses and a lot of strange looks.

What those stories don't tell us is that the same maverick geniuses have a lot more strike outs than home runs.  Research can help focus a message or a strategy to help it become more effective with target markets.  Research can also help identify shifts in public perception, both in general, say in their understanding and desire for Model Ts, or about a product in particular, say the Edsel.

So it seems to me that "marketing magic" is not in having great instincts or being able to craft surveys that accurately measure customer intentions but in striking the right balance between guts and numbers.  Using data to help make decisions only makes sense but measurement and analysis have never been as good at measuring the new and innovative as they have been at analyzing the tried and true.  I suppose this is why I consider marketing and communications an art as much as it is a science.

Make 'em Laugh!

Marketing is about making connections.

Studies have shown that most people make purchase decisions emotionally and then sometimes rationalize those emotional decisions with facts.

So it stands to reason that if you are a marketer or a salesperson and you can get your target audience to respond emotionally to your message -- you make them laugh, or cry, or feel nostalgic -- then you have a better chance of making that connection.

It seems to me that a good strategy is to have a message that communicates the emotional impact and benefits of the product or service but with enough details that the potential customer is able to act on the purchase decision and enough facts for them to justify it.


Some other posts to my blog that you might enjoy:
Read the Label: Pay Attention to the Subject of Your Messages
Could I have a few moments of your time?

Primary Elections and Local Ads

There was a primary election yesterday in my home state of Illinois.  Voter turnout was extremely low, at around 24%.  The CBS Chicago reported that it was the lowest turnout for a presidential primary in more than 70 years.

What I find interesting about voter turnout is it inverse relationship to the importance of the election. Turnout is always lowest for the elections that have the most direct impact on the voters' lives.  Local elections, where we elect city and county officials, school board members and judges, are the elections which pick the people who will be passing the laws that determine speed limits, library hours, parking rights, community development, etc.  In retrospect, the President, whose election always has the best voter turnout, really does little that directly impacts your day to day life.

I was thinking that this is not too different from how we look at ads.  There is always a lot of conversation and discussion about the ads that run during the Super Bowl, when those ads are largely branding campaigns.  These image ads are the topic of water cooler conversations and Yahoo articles for days or weeks after the big event.  The ads that really make a difference in your day to day life, ads that tell you that grapes are on sale or that your favorite band is playing in town or what the phone number of your local barber is, are ads that you hardly even notice, even though you use them daily.

Perhaps we would start getting better voter turnout at local elections, if we could figure out a way to help people see the impact they have on their lives.  I suspect the same is true of local ads.

The Dragnet Approach

A while back, when I worked at an ad agency, a client told me one day that he wanted an ad that didn't sound like an ad.  Actually, I think that is what most clients want from their ad agencies, but this guy was the first one to express it so succinctly to me.

There is a very simple strategy to writing an ad that doesn't read like an ad, a sales pitch that doesn't sound like a sales pitch, an excuse that doesn't sound like an excuse.  Tell the truth.  A colleague of mine used to call this the Dragnet Approach.  Just the facts, ma'am.

The truth, told in a straightforward and direct manner, will resonate with the reader or the listener.  More advertisers don't use the Dragnet approach because it is harder.  In the short term.

Frequency vs. consistency

A hundred years ago when I was in school taking marketing and advertising classes, Reach and Frequency was the mantra of the day.  In an era when mass media allowed you to reach everyone relatively cheaply, the way to get your message seen/heard/viewed and remembered was to make sure the message reached a broad audience and that the audience saw YOUR message frequently enough so that it would be remembered and, hopefully, acted upon.

With today's electronic media, and with some of recent and upcoming changes to the golden oldies of print, radio and TV, we can send customized messages to micro-targeted audiences inexpensively and efficiently.  Reach is still important, even though it now is a bit more nuanced.  I would argue, however, that frequency in less important these days.  Instead, the extreme targeting power of social and electronic media shifts the focus from frequency of message to consistency of message.

Old marketing messages no longer go into the recycling bin with the morning's newspaper.  They last forever on the internet.  What is almost more disconcerting is they can be found and read by your prospects with almost as much ease as they can find and read your current, intended message.  Because of this, I would argue that long-term consistency of message is as important, or more important, as frequency once was.

Reach and Consistency is the name of the new game!