In case you have not heard, the Forrester Consumer Forum is going great guns. Rather than replicate all the links, check out Jeremiah Owyang’s summaries (there are also some great videos of the keynotes):
And, if you are quick, you can check out the live feed from Critical Mass’ Always In Beta site.
Emily is a dynamo. No sooner has she sent out a few emails, written a post … and next thing you know, the InterestingSouth website is live and happening. Of course, we are still looking for speakers … interested?
Interested, but don’t know what to talk about for 3 or 10 minutes? Take a look at this video from Jeffre Jackson. You have until October 25, 2007 to submit your topic.
With thanks to Diana for the movie.
Mapping out a marketing strategy is hard work … even when you have all the templates, approaches and tools at your fingertips, there is no substitute for deep thinking, creative play and brand insight. I guess, this is where you really earn your crust.
But when you extend your marketing strategy into the world of social media, it all becomes a lot murkier. You are dealing with a range of emerging networks and application systems, communities that are in a perpetual state of flux (growth and decline) and technologies that are unreliable.
One of the best ways of visualising this that I have seen is in this post by David Armano. It shows how the fragmentation of the social media landscape can both help and hinder the execution of your social media strategy. What the diagram shows is the multiple levels of influence that a brand has … often simultaneously. The ripples that occur on the level of an open network (such as the blogosphere) are amplified once they cross-over from the open network into the closed networks of personal/professional relationships (such as Facebook).
But how does this work and why is this important?
Some time ago I wrote a post on how it might be possible to apply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to the world of blogging. What I was trying to do was think through the connection between personal authenticity and writing, and attempting to explain the impact of this authenticity on a community. It seems to me, that the closer a blogger gets to the top of the blogger’s hierarchy, the more likely the community is likely to move from influence to action. Think about it … a recommendation from someone you trust is likely to move you to action pretty quickly. So if we superimpose the Maslow hierarchy on top of David’s Influence Ripples image, we end up with something like the diagram above (ok I hit a wall on the design side).
What is important to remember in all this, is as the ripple becomes more amplified (getting closer to the pinnacle of the pyramid), the NATURE of the engagement between media and community/audience changes. It becomes more personal. It becomes permissive. It intensifies. And it is this intensification that, in turn, drives the approach that brands must take when developing the messaging, conversational frameworks and activation elements of their digital strategies. Simple? My head hurts.
Diana Ceausu points out this great initiative by Daniel Mejia which seeks to replicate the success of blog ranking systems such as Mack Collier’s Top 25 Marketing Blogs, Ad Age’s Power 150 and Peter Kim’s M20 — only this time the focus is the top 27 ad blogs by people under 27 years of age. Daniel will be updating this list every other month — so if you qualify but aren’t on the list, you have two months to do something about it.
The inaugural Young Minds list is:
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How do you turn a great product or service in to a "cool" one? It is an age old problem … and we can often ask can you MAKE something cool or is there something about "coolness" that just IS? (I am happy for ANYONE to answer this question!)
Actually, it also strikes me that for something to be "cool" there is no prerequisite of quality. For example, I have owned cool motorbikes but they have been questionable on a number of other fronts — reliability, safety etc. But there is no doubt that they were cool. Harley Davidson is another great example in this space … they are difficult to handle, weigh a ton and (until fairly recently) have been plagued with reliability problems. But they stand triumphant at the pinnacle of cool.
What I love about Jeremy Gutsche’s (TrendHunter.com) presentation on Slideshare is the way that he unpacks "cool". He cites Rule #1 — Relentlessly Obsess About Your Story.
My thinking is that there is ONLY this one rule. This means — keeping the message simple, hitting hard with the title and capturing "cool" … making your story a "must tell". By way of example, Jeremy talks about a very expensive hamburger with two outcomes:
Of course, it is not so simple … as you can see from the presentation. There is a challenge that must be mounted at a number of levels. "Cool" places innovation at the centre of the product development lifecycle — and we all know how difficult true innovation can be to achieve. But STORY INNOVATION is a relatively cheap way to test and drive your market. You can start small and grow it. You can employ social media and cheap widgets to kick start your efforts. And you can do it from your bedroom or your home office. Sure you need a product … but that is just the beginning … the hard work comes at "storytime". And for that, all you need is your imagination.
Quick test — Look to the right of your computer screen. What is the first thing you see? Write FIVE WORDS describing the TREND that delivered this item into your life. Quick. Don’t think. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Time’s up.
Quick check — Do your five words capture the emotion and personal journey of the item? If so, great … you win the chance to guest blog here. Drop me an email and tell me your story!
There are thousands of blogs out there that talk about the importance of failure. They claim that it is important to fail … and to fail well. They claim that it is important to learn how to fail because until then you have not pushed your limits. But what happens when you reach those limits? What happens to your brand, your self esteem or your employees?
This month’s BrandingWire challenge asks the question — how do you market a failing business? The nitty-gritty is:
Revenues: $1 million to $25 million
Employees: 150 or fewer
Verticals: High-tech and health care
Location: North America
Challenges: Consumers and other businesses have so many choices, that high-tech businesses as well as their other target audience made up of clinics and hospitals are either showing stagnant growth or they are losing market share.
Client’s Problem: They don’t know how to differentiate themselves from their competition.
Now, having made a few poor decisions myself, the situation presented here reminds me of the great sadness that comes from needing to pullout of a project or business. But the most important thing to remember — is the need to make decisions. When businesses get to the point where it is obvious that they are failing, many choose to carry on as planned … burying their heads in the sand and working harder, longer and heavier. At this point in a business, the answer is not to do more … but to do less, well.
In many ways, this is not about branding and marketing but about business analysis and consulting … and sometimes your marketing folks will be the best asset you still have.
Start with your portfolio
Have your marketing person/team go through your offerings. Start again. Re-assess the strengths of your offerings. Check out your competitors. Choose to play in the top 50% of the market. If you realise that some of your products cannot secure a footprint in the upper echelon of that category, bundle up your clients and products and hold a fire sale. Also, ask your finance team to look at margins and clients — many companies draw >70% of their profits from 30% of their business. These are the clients that you need to delight — the rest should be politely fired. They are costing you too much to play … and you can ill afford them.
Reach out
While the last thing that you want to do is to spend money you don’t have coming in … there is still an absolute need to communicate with your clients. Remind your clients that you are committed to helping them grow their business, but also explain the restructuring that is underway. Ensure that there is a program of follow-up in place and that the sales and account teams actively make the calls and arrange meetings. Find ways of telling the new, value-add, better focus story.
The growth problem
Just as Malcolm Gladwell identified a tipping point for adoption of ideas, products and services, there is a similar point that occurs in the growth of business. When you are small you just need good people. When you grow, you need process and systems. And as you get bigger you need capacity and capability — you need to be able to scale. At each of these inflection points, organisations face potential ruin. It is IMPOSSIBLE to market yourself out of these situations … but you can honestly represent yourself.
Go back into your corporate history, find the genesis story — the reason that you came to being. Re-evaluate it in light of recent history — and ask yourself "how far from this have we come?". Begin to talk about the old times … the things that worked, the projects that were a success — and remind yourself and your teams about what makes your business a great, and important business. Tell your clients and mean it. Forget the powerpoint. Forget the spin. Talk about the difference you can make.
Keep your eyes on the prize
And as you continue to refocus, trim costs, drive profits and reimagine your business, remember to watch your costs. Watch the cash flow. Don’t get caught up in a hype cycle (whether marketing or technology driven) — start and keep delivering outstanding customer experiences … and the rest will look after itself.
Other BrandingWire viewpoints:
But don’t take my word for it … check out the views of the other BrandingWire folks:
Olivier Blanchard
Becky Carroll
Derrick Daye
Kevin Dugan
Lewis Green
Martin Jelsema
Valeria Maltoni
Drew McLellan
Patrick Schaber
Steve Woodruff
Some of the most fascinating blogs, websites, videos and music accrue their value to us readers due to their intense scrutiny of one particular topic. But it is not just the topic that is of interest, but the passion, storytelling and personality of the people involved (which often also includes a vocal and proliferate community).
A couple of months ago, Russell Davies put together an unconference called Interesting2007. As you can see from the videos, articles and pictures, it was far from the standard advertising/marketing get together — in fact, it was designed to be an event about ideas, passions and, well, interesting things. And from the reports, it seems to have been a great success!
In the wake of this success, Russell’s partner in crime, Emily Reed, is organising Interesting South … to be held here in Sydney, Australia on November 22, 2007. The venue, I believe, is the charming Bondi Pavillion.
NOW … all we need are some "interesting" speakers. So if you are interested in giving us all between 3 and 10 minutes of passion, fill out the form below and send it to Emily by October 25, 2007.
Now, you know I love a good gimmick, piece of technology or a chance to poke fun at yourself. And in a world where co-created branding is in the ascendency, there are more and more opportunities for self-deprecation arriving on our desktops. Of course, one of the greatest of these (which includes a fantastic drive from "real world" experience into the virtual, is the upcoming Movember campaign.
But before you start getting all hairy on me, get yourself over to the Taubman Malls Avatar Yourself site (powered by Oddcast of course). I don’t think my avatar looks as cool as BL Ochman’s, but you can’t have everything!
At the recent MarketingProfs get together, Ann Handley asked some of the crowd what happens when they Google themselves (is there a noun for this? Autogoogling, perhaps?). Here are some of the responses …
There was once a time when I was way down the list of "Gavin Heatons" … but these days I can normally claim the first and second spots. Then, my buddy Drew, kicks in … and it is a mess of Flickr, MarketingProfs and other sites after that. But I did find this interesting Google Ad on one of the sites.
Now, my name is Gavin … but even I would be hard-pressed to want to buy some "Gavin themed" items on eBay. But then, maybe I don’t know what I am missing. Just goes to show that even those smart, search context sensitive ad placements don’t always live up to their side of the advertising bargain! But, really … what DO you find when you google your own name? Do tell.
With thanks to Katie for sharing the vid.
I have a terrible memory for names … but faces I am pretty good with. But names … I can meet someone, say hello, and seconds later completely forget the name of my new acquaintance. It can be rather embarrassing — for both me and my new friend.
Of course, I have created strategies to help myself and have even tried clever strategic approaches to casually eek out the name of someone weeks later. But they don’t always work:
Once I was introduced to my next door neighbour but forgot his name between his letterbox and mine. Over the next few weeks we would chat as we walked to the bus stop together … and each time I would try to direct the conversation in a way that would reveal his name. I would live in fear that I would have to introduce him to someone that I knew on the bus!
Some time passed and I was becoming more and more concerned about this state of namelessness. Then for a change one morning, I was driving into work with my wife, and I saw my neighbour walking to the bus. This was a great opportunity — I asked my wife to introduce herself. I pulled over and offered him a lift. As he climbed into the back, she turned and said, "Hi, I am Angela". He smiled, extended his hand and said, "Hello, I am your next door neighbour!".
Foiled again!
In tribute to Seinfeld, we started calling him "Mulva" — but not to his face, of course.
And because we all have experienced a Seinfeld moment or two, I am sure you marketers out there will nod your head with some of Bill Gemmell’s clever observations on marketing. Check out his free eBook — Seinfeld on Marketing.
