For many of us in marketing, it is sometimes a challenge to work with very technically oriented people. They seem to see everything in terms of spec-points and checklists.

Imagine this story. Three guys running an engineering company wanted to hire a secretary. They agreed that they needed someone who could use Microsoft Excel, Word and the occasional PowerPoint. They also agreed that she had to be good with arranging schedules and handling clients who call. So, after interviewing 20 candidates, our three guys decided that Ms Scarlet would be the best - she had cute long legs.

How many times have we thought about buying something, listing out all the “features” that we want, calculating our budgets and so on… then throwing it all away when we walk into the store and see this latest and greatest gizmo that you would just die if you did not own?

Marketing is an art. Sure, there is a science to it. But there is no way that anyone is going to convince me that the pure mechanics of marketing can beat the power of a creative streak that is unsupported by any statistics or history.

Ask the market, “Do you need a Spreadsheet?” In fact, think about it, before they came out with it, how many of us ever imagined that the “presentation software” would be so important to our daily, working lives?

If it were up to the “bosses”, no on would have launched anything new.

Market studies, statistics, have had an up and down history. They have gone from boom to bust and back again, with companies first embracing it, then pooh-poohing it. But the reality is that most large corporations continue to rely on it.

We ask the market questions like:

- what do you like?
- which is better?
- which is tastier?
- what is the best feature?

But after watching this season of American Idol, the chill that was creeping up my spine has become a full blown blizzard. First, the survival of Kristy against so many of her betters for so long (but she was really smart…) and then now, the survival of Jason Castro.

I mean, that was the worse rendition of Memory I have ever heard. Yes, that includes sleazy bars, cheap cabarets and of course, cruise ships. Yet, I am guessing that they voted for his dreadlocks.

So, marketers, beware. The next time you wave your “indisputable” market study based on a cross section of “relevant” targets, keep in mind, that these are the same people telling you how great your product is, who voted for dreadlocks in a singing competition.

Another thing about statistics. If you read this article in eNews - American Idol: Carly Smithson Voted Off, you will see right at the bottom an interesting statistics that:

Nielsen data through last week showed that “Idol” on its regular nights of Tuesday and Wednesday was averaging 28.9 million viewers - down 8 percent from 31.3 million one year ago at this point…

If you think about the 28 million votes that Ryan claimed they received, it means that on average, everyone who watched the show voted. Yeah, right.

Simon said of David Archuleta, that he would be surprised if the song was chosen by him last night.

For those who do not follow American Idol because someone has held a gun to your head or tied you to the chair without passing you the RC first, David sang a really unknown song, bland melody and all that. That’s not the point. The point here, is that each singer has been told to “go with their hearts” and to understand their own vocals when making a song choice.

Very obviously, someone else chose the song for him. It was so out of character and it was such an esoteric choice, a 17-year-old could not possibly have even heard the song, much less prefer it. And the results were predictable - no one liked the song, though they still loved David.

Do you do this to your Ad Agency? Do you “choose the song” for them to sing?

If you did know better, why hire an ad agency in the first place, right? It could be an ego thing, to hire experts, and then telling them what to do. But it is hardly something that will be highly positive for the betterment of your marketing efforts.

Just as David could still be loved for his excellence in execution, so can your ads. But it would have been so much better if it was totally enjoyable rather than having to nit-pick to find something to like about the performance.

Do yourself a favour, don’t choose the song for your ad agency.

UPDATE:

David insists that he chose the song himself, and it was in fact, his personal favorite. OK, this brings to bear an interesting counter-point. Sometimes, even the best ad agencies can make wrong choices, wrong decisions, and it is the client’s who will then suffer for having trusted them. Look at the track record. No one is perfect. But if the evidence of excellence are there, then the likelihood of you being “more right” is lesser. We all know about caveat emptor… but it’s painful…

Sorry to have to get back to this topic again. But I just read this post about Burger King’s Inappropriate Commercial and I just had to heave that sigh… I wanted to say “I told you so!” but then, I would be lying.

You see, I have never met the marketing folks over at Burger King. If only they read the warning…

I would hate to repeat all that was said about this topic, so, do head on over to read what Eliza Ferree has to say about it.

A friend of mine in the tiny, sunny island of Singapore, just told me about a really interesting development that really got the people miffed: “The New Taxi Stand Rule“.

This was really interesting. You see, most of the policy makers, as commonly assumed, are government scholars. The best of the best. The brightest of the bright. So, they are supposed to, short of being able to see tomorrow’s stock index, be able to map out the plans for the future.

Now, the “central business district” is the downtown area that is consists mainly of offices and shopping malls. It is usually the most crowded and traffic is usually congested. This whole “taxi” rule came about because of a desire to improve road safety and to impose a stronger measure of orderliness in an already highly ordered society.

The problem occurs where the rubber meets the road, almost literally. While the measures are good, it created ripples of inconveniences that the law-makers never expected - the disabled, the elderly, and the vagarities of the weather. Having to trudge 50 meters in the rain to get to/from the allowed taxi stand is definitely not an improvement in the eyes of executives and office workers who used to have the convenience of a taxi to the doorstep.

Forcing a wheelchair bound person to use the taxi stand is even more ludicrous. Now, how is all of this relevant in a marketing blog?

Marketing is about communications. But communications is not all there is to marketing. How the example of logical thinking failing in the face of reality can be illustrated by one example that I will give below:

Everyone knows that there is no better way to drive volume and increase take up rate by giving away one free for every two purchased. Right.

Several years ago, a company wanted to launch a new game. The revenue model was for gamers to buy a prepaid card with a special code number on it, then, they get to play for 30 days when they enter this code into the computer. So, marketing said, “Buy 1 and get 1 free”. Simple.

Well, actually, what really happened was, instead of increasing sales and increasing take-up, they have just REDUCED SALES by 50% and lost 80% of the follow up sales. Those familiar with the online games market will understand this. What happened? Unlike other consumer products, online games have a definite, and usually short, life-span. Giving one for one simply made it so that gamers (who always move in groups) simply pooled together and bought half of what they would have purchased originally.

Then, follow up sales suffered because not everyone will continue. So, with a lower initial sales, follow up sales will also be lower. Now, this is again different from those instances where games are played for free and then later have upgrades to a paying model. It is not as simple as it appears at the outset.

All I am saying is, knowing happens at many levels. And sometimes, the heart and soul of a specific market could be very different from the norms of a generic market.

NOTE: As of now, they are reviewing the policies to address some of the concerns raised about the elderly and the disable. The rest of them just have to learn to use an umbrella, I guess.

Once upon a time, in a board room not far away, the Council met.

“You know what we want,” said the Head. “Deliver for us a creative of such excellence, none who view it can resist The Product.”

It was a daunting task. A task that would challenge the mettle of The Best. But it was not impossible. Properly targeted, armed with information, demographics, statistics and other magical tools; knowing the Final Objectives, The Product shall thrive.

“Indeed, we will!” the Leader of The Best proclaimed confidently. “Now tell us more.”

“There is nothing more to tell. You are The Best. You have the Knowing. Speak no more and go Create.” And so speaking, the Head turn and walked from the room.

For one brief horrifying moment, the Leader realised, finally, he has met the Mission Impossible.

When you think about creating a marketing plan, many people feel a huge headache come on. Everyone wants to have the “best” marketing plan.

You will always hear things like:

“We need a creative marketing plan”
“We need a practical marketing plan”
“We need an actionable marketing plan”
“We need an innovative marketing plan”

What exactly is a marketing plan anyway? If you decided to hire 10 sales personnel and go knock on the doors of all your neighbours, is that a good plan? Is that even a marketing plan?

Many people confuse the 4P’s of marketing with the marketing plan. Product, Price, Place, Promotions are essential considerations, but they are by no means the marketing plan. Most of us has learned what a marketing plan is in school and so, I will not insult all the readers by even attempting to define it. I just want to say that many people simply regurgitate the “4Ps”, add a SWOT analysis, talk a little about the competitors, put it into a nice format, and submit it as a marketing plan. Not in the real world, my friend.

I would like to venture that for the small business, an academic marketing plan is really totally unnecessary. The small business owners and managers need to understand this clearly. You do not need an elaborate, sophisticated “marketing plan’”. However, you do need one. A business without a marketing plan is simply a mom and pop shop disguised as a business. Heck, some of the more successful mom and pops do have a marketing plan - and you wonder why?

A good marketing plan for small businesses should be fun, exciting and most importantly, easily actioned upon. It is pointless to have a beautiful 99-page marketing plan that you are never going to use. Here are some simple pointers towards creating a really effective plan for your small business:

1. Figure out what you want to achieve.

This is commonly known as your objectives, or vision. It could be as simple as I would like to add one new, major customer this year that does $X of business with me. Or it could be a grand plan that says you want to have a chain of stores that circle the globe. But the most common time horizon a small business should look at is one year. Two feet on the ground, eyes lifted to the horizon.

2. Figure out who your real competitors are.

Just because you run a small eatery, McDonald’s might not necessarily be your competitor. If you are not even able to honestly appreciate who you are playing with and against, well, it’s easy to “win” when you are the only one playing.

3. Figure out why your customers like you.

If you are running a small business, you have customers. Why? They could easily have gone to the other guy. Understanding what value your customers see in you, will help you understand how to meet their needs better. It also tells you who you should target - people with similar tastes, needs, values… It is pointless to create an academic SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis at this early stage. Get the basics right.

4. Find a good agency to work with.

A mistake many small business owners make is to assume that marketing or advertising agencies do not want their business, or that they cannot afford one. Depending on your budget, there is always an agency willing to work with you and for you. I need to clarify one thing here - a freelance designer is NOT the same as a small agency. What you need is marketing and advertising expertise, not pretty pictures. Some designers do have the experience, skill and knowledge to meet your marketing needs. All I am saying is that you need to be clear about the difference between a great designer and a great marketer. Talk to them (agency/desginer/freelancer) and evaluate their track record. Then pick the one you like most. Go with your gut after all the evaluations are done.

5. Stick with it.

Stay with your plan. Give it a chance to succeed. Just because the first flyer distribution flopped does not mean your PLAN flopped. It is just one element of execution. Test. Experiment. Measure results. Adapt. But stick with your “vision”.

Above is just my view. I would welcome comments, questions and maybe, if you want to contribute, write me and I will gladly have your article posted up here.

Some resources:

Great marketing articles - http://www.versacreations.net
Good copywriters - http://www.writingthoughts.com; http://essentialkeystrokes.com/
Good designers - http://randaclay.com; http://davidairey.com

I learned that there are some *ist words that are quite controversial. Sexist, elitist, masochist, dentist… well, you get the idea. But the thing is, in marketing, controversy sells. Which is probably one of the reasons sex sells.

This then leads us into another controversy, your conscience. Are you my conscience?

When is it ethical to use sex to sell? Is it ever?

There was a study that was discussed in about Sex In Advertising (link has a few naughty images) that seems to imply that using sex in ads might not be as effective as is commonly believed.

So, if using sex might actually back-fire against your campaign, is it worth the risk then to take this route? There must be better ways to create impact and stir interest. Must we really resort to the lowest tier in Maslow’s little pyramid?

Tell me what you think!

It’s that time of the year, when old resolutions get dusted off and taken for a whole new spin as the beers go around. But this time, really, you are going to keep them. Right.

Many companies seem to have the same problem with their marketing objectives. They have brainstorming sessions, workshops, hire consultants, they do everything to get a set of nice, coherent marketing objectives for the coming year. Then, at the first move by the competitors, somehow, those objectives are forgotten.

“We must respond to this new threat”

“This new promotion must be countered immediately”

So, Mr Marketing Manager, why aren’t you doing something about it?

Well, you see, our “Marketing Objective” was to establish a strong brand name with a clear association with quality and consistency. So, responding to a “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” campaign with a “Buy 1 Get 1 Free” campaign is not in line with our objectives.

Yes. Of course, you are right, Mr Marketing Manager. But you see, you have been derelict in your duty as you allowed yourself to be complacent, acting only on your own agenda and ignoring market forces. Now, get off your high horse and get that new promotion out of the door.

And there goes another “New Year’s Resolution” out the door.

This year, I was thinking, to combat this, the ideal solution was to make a resolution that I would absolutely be able to keep. My resolution for 2008 was: “I will not make any resolutions this year.”

It was going pretty good. Until this evening. I made a resolution that I would need to commit to blog regularly with good quality posts…

OK, better minds than mine have grappled with the whole Google slap issue. It is fascinating to see how a company as savvy as Google can imagine that they can get away with clearly monopolistic actions disguised as “for the good of the users”.

Kenneth over at investorblogger.com and Denise in her internetmarektingreview.org post have both taken a shot at this. Both of them make good points. Kenneth’s article in particular deserves a careful read as he seems to have hit it on the head with some of his observations.

For those who do not understand what this is all about, read Denise’s post first as it gives a broad stroke treatment of this issue.

Technorati Tags: google, pagerank, blogging

Most people would love to find a method of marketing that is effective, fun and free. Well, blog marketing certainly fits the bill.

Unfortunately, not many people understand that “effectiveness” is not the same as having a lot of pages in the blog, nor is it getting listed in as many directories as possible. Actually, effectiveness of a blog marketing strategy really depends on the objectives. Any marketer will know that a marketing strategy is nothing more than a powerful sum of its parts. Hence, a blog marketing strategy cannot stand alone, that is a given. So, we will not talk about that. For a blog marketing to be deemed effective, there are usually three measurements: traffic, response, and action.

Denise has an interesting post on how to build blog traffic. Any new blog will face the challenge of generating traffic. The key is not the volume of traffic, but the relevance of it.

Response is one of the best indicators of whether your traffic is targetted or not. Interested parties will respond to your blog posts (unless they are so poorly written…) and they will respond through comments, feedback forms and even emails.

Arguably, action is the holy grail. A blog that has plenty of traffic and an active, responsive readership, but cannot prompt readers into action to become buyers, subscribers or whatever it is you are marketing, can hardly be deemed to be effective.

I am sure there are many other marketing metrics that can be used. But blow aside all the fluff and illusions of success, the above are, I believe, the 1-2-3 of a successful blog marketing program.

For the past few months, I am sure many of you have been reading about how Google have been going around “downgrading” the Page Rank of bloggers who do paid blogging, in particular, PayPerPost.

Well, I guess that is life. Things happen and other things happen. But the irony that I see here, is the fact that PayPerPost actually uses the Google Page Rank as a way for their advertisers to select and pay for bloggers. Talk about a vicious cycle! Advertisers pay more for a blog with a higher page rank. Google looks at these high page ranks, discover that they have PayPerPost, downgrades them, so PayPerPost loses revenue. Now, the question is, WHY would PayPerPost want to use Google Page Rank at all? Is there no other way?

I guess for most Internet Marketers, the discussion is pretty much a circular one. Google is NOT a public-service company. It is a commercial concern and it is very concerned about making money. The fact is that it’s doing a darned good job as a search engine. That is why everyone uses it. Now, think about this for a moment. That Google has so much power is because everyone is using it. Yet, there ARE other search engines around. Now, if Google’s new policies negatively affect the reliability and perceived neutrality of their search results, people will start using alternatives. But if the users feel it is still OK, then in reality, it will be “ok”. Just because a Blog has “paid posts” does it mean it is not a good blog?

In the end, bloggers blog because they have things to say. If they get paid because some people value their opinion, then they are like the many other writers who write for various publications offline. If Google feels that this somehow challenges the value of their search results, this is their prerogative. If users continue to feel that Google gives them the best search results, then all power to them. Others can use alternatives. That is the way of the free market.

Unless you are paying Google or you own Google, don’t expect a huge company like that to harken to the small still voice of a few bloggers. After all, you are just “content”, while they are the “engine”. There have been many arguments extended about how paid bloggers who blog intelligently and add value will not negatively affect search engine results. But I guess in the end, it is just a case of the Big Guy begrudging the crumbs, or it’s just me being sore about dropping a rank. I actually like what Rob wrote in his “no paid ads” post…

Technorati Tags: google, page rank, paid blogging