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  • What Comfortable Will Get You

    Posted on August 31st, 2006 by Spike and currently 3 commenting.

    The boys and girls over at Brandweek report that TV ad spending for ‘06 is up 7.4%. Is anyone really surprised?

    Nope.

    But there’s an interesting quote in the piece from Wes Brown - an analyst with Iceology, Los Angeles - about the GM and Ford spends (which have been pretty steady):

    “There’s been lots of rhetoric, but they still like to spend where they’re comfortable…’

    And therein lies the problem. Would somebody please tell me how any company became successful by being comfortable? How any really hard work was accomplished while keeping comfortable?

    Comfortable means content. And content means stale. And stale means you will most definitely fall behind. Yes, Ford and GM have been comfortable for a very long time. And look where they are now. So what do they do? They talk about “changing everything” and instead come out with new ad campaigns (not movements) and start the (read: downward) cycle all over again. Oh, I’m sure they’re very comfortable with it.

    (Sigh.)

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  • How NOT to get a job at Brains on Fire

    Posted on August 30th, 2006 by Robbin and currently 6 commenting.

    Step One: Address an envelope to Robert Phillips, President.

    Step Two: Start the enclosed letter with “Dear Mr. Phillips.’

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  • The Bastardization of “Brand Ambassador”

    Posted on August 30th, 2006 by Virginia and currently 6 commenting.

    In our travels, Geno, Spike, Robbin, and I often find ourselves talking about the power of brand ambassadors and the many different positive effects they can have. In certain industries, there is some stigma around the term “ambassador” that we face head on. In tourism for example, there can sometimes be the tendency to think of “ambassador” as a euphemism for the red-vested volunteers in the visitors center. Those folks play an important role, but represent only one aspect of what ambassadors can be. But, we think ambassador is such a good term that we continue to use it to describe this phenomenon.
    Yesterday, we thought twice about that. We received an unsolicited email from a marketing firm with the subject “Brand Ambassadors!”. We were intrigued. In the note, we were asked if we had the need to “outsource any brand ambassadors, street teams, or models”. Interesting grouping of needs. They boast “attractive, outgoing brand ambassadors in over 100 markets nationwide”. Brand ambassadors equated to models doing liquor samplings in bars? And we thought the red vest was the only stereotype we had to bust!

    At its core, what they are calling “brand ambassadors” is street team marketing. This company’s employees are unquestioning “ambassadors” for whatever product or service they are paid to promote - regardless of their experience, knowledge, or passion. Qualifications? They’re good looking and brand promiscuous.

    Captain_Morgan_Eating.jpgWe had been using brand ambassador to describe authentic, passionate fans of a brand. Sometimes these folks are recognized by the brand and empowered with authority and tools to represent them. But, are THEY right? Has this term “brand ambassador” come to mean the guy dressed up like Captain Morgan or the Bud Light girl in the bar? Should WE be looking for a new term? Any suggestions?

    *note, I am not blogging this morning’s WSJ cover story on Dell, but I highly recommend it as a cautionary tale on ignoring the customer experience*

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  • Small is the New Big

    Posted on August 29th, 2006 by Jennifer and currently 2 commenting.

    smallbig.jpgWell, Seth Godin is at it again. I came to his latest book through my BzzAgent status. Yup. I’m a BzzAgent on the Small is the New Big campaign. So there’s my full disclosure.

    At any rate, as part of the campaign, we’ve been receiving excerpts of Seth’s rants to read, share, love, etc. So I’ve been dutifully reading and forwarding articles like “Verbs (Gerunds, Actually)” and “Brand My Car.” Now, as a reward for a particularly thoughtful BzzReport (according to the letter I received, anyway), a select group of us were chosen to receive a full copy in the mail. And this isn’t just any book. No. It’s autographed! Woohoo!
    Okay… here’s what I have to say about this book. I haven’t read it all yet… since I just got it Friday. But I like that the pieces that I have read are self-contained, so I’m not full of self-loathing for not managing to plow through all of the 194 rants yet. (I am filled with self-loathing about not finishing Brand Hijack though. I’m almost there!) I’ll admit that I scoffed a bit at the big reward of an autographed copy… but it was a nice gesture (if a little egocentric), so I’ll let that slide. I’ll also skip the discussion of the “best of me” blog-to-book phenomenon (cuz I still think it’s a little weird to expect me to pay for what I can read online for free). Instead, I’ll go straight to the heart of the matter. The book is classic Godin - he manages to state the obvious in a well-written and engaging way, so you spend pages and pages alternating between “duh!” and “why the hell didn’t I think of that?” with the occasional “I never thought of it that way!” peppered in for good measure.

    Overall, so far it appears to be a pretty successful collection of potent quotables (that was a somewhat sly Jeopardy reference there… anyone with me?), if not altogether earth-shattering. Seth is always good for a pithy catch phrase to back up your thinking… and even sometimes to turn your thinking on its ear. I think it’s worth a read (and hey, if you want a peek at a couple of the sample chapters, let me know), and I do look forward to getting through the whole thing in its pleasant, bite-size chunks.

    Even though the babies on the cover are unassailably creepy.

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  • Marketing Numbers That Are Good to Know

    Posted on August 28th, 2006 by Spike and currently 5 commenting.

    From a February ‘06 Customer Experience Management Study by Strativity Group:

    (via Fast Company 9/06)

    Do you know the average annual value of a customer to your business?
    Know: 12.9%
    Don’t know: 87.1%

    Do you know the cost of a customer complaint to your business?
    Know: 9.7%
    Don’t know: 90.3%

    Do you know the cost of acquiring a new customer?
    Know: 8.6%
    Don’t know: 91.4%

    People, people, people. While I don’t think marketers need to become mathematicians to figure out the exact numbers per say, I do think it would be good to at least have a rough idea to the answers for the above questions ” ESPECIALLY that last one. If you have your finger on the pulse of how you’re spending your marketing dollars and how those dollars are ” or are not ” working for you, then you have the knowledge you need to make your plan flexible. Add to it. Take away. Change this nuance. If you’re not, then you’re another exec blindly doing what your predecessor did….because ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it.’

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