68

Marketing Profs Daily Fix

• Turn Data Into Wisdom 28 May, 2010, 7:38 am
  “That’s out of my pay scale.” “I don’t get paid to think” “I’m not authorized to do that.” “Hmmm … That’s a bummer …  I’m sure someone will fix it.” Chances are, unfortunately, you have probably heard one of these statements from someone whose job is to help you. It could be the person at the motor vehicle department, the woman who works in accounting, or someone on your own team. People can be pretty stubborn and sometimes bitter about what they are willing to do (despite what they are actually able to do). I’ve recently come across a communication and knowledge management model called DIKW that is about how we act at our jobs. The acronym represents: Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom. DIKW expresses how we process information—starting with raw data and mastering it as wisdom. Well-operated companies are run by people who know how to act and react in different business situations. They have a level of wisdom. They know how to swiftly remedy varying customer complaints. They know how to build a marketing promotions that successfully connect customers with products/services. They know how to create or change product and services to meet customer needs. Presented below are the elements of DIKW–slightly modified to meet our marketing/business needs. Data Data are the raw facts. A description of the pieces of the puzzle, but not understanding what the picture is. An employee notices something happening, but it pretty much stops there. Information Information is data prepared/presented in a meaningful way–with context. Information involves understanding how different pieces of data connect to each other.  An employee sees water (what) on the floor (where), drips (what) currently (when) falling from (where) the overhead pipe (what). They conclude there is a leaky pipe. Hopefully, they’ll forward this information to someone. Knowledge Knowledge is acting on information. Data and information are combined; understood and proper action is taken. The “how” is figured out and applied. Wisdom Wisdom is understanding “why” and instinctively knowing how to act and react. As an employee becomes more seasoned, and grows in their job role they gain more wisdom. Unfortunately, as I started this article, some choose not to apply their wisdom (but that’s a topic for a different post). What can you do to empower your employees and co-workers to do more than inform and apply knowledge to act? (Early in my career a boss taught me, “Don’t bring me problems. Bring me solutions.”) How can you develop employees to use wisdom to prevent problems? How far along the DIKW scale are you, your employees, and team members? Read more about DIKW on Wikipedia and this article by Gene Bellinger.
• A New Method of Laundry: Concentrating on Packaging 1 June, 2010, 8:21 am
  In 2004, the “little company that could,” San Francisco-based Method, took a lot of water out of laundry detergent to create ultra concentrates—and started a revolution in the category in the process. The concept was a winner all the way around. It required less packaging, was cheaper to ship (less weight), and the more concentrated detergent went further for the consumer. Then every laundry detergent jumped on board as a result. In 2010, Method Laundry Detergent with Smartclean Technology™ debuts in packaging as unique as its new patent-pending formula, eight times more concentrated than conventional detergents and 95% plant-based. One sleek 20-ounce package will do 50 loads of laundry. The pump-top package is so light, it can even be dispensed with one hand. There are two scented varieties and one dubbed Free + Clear (unscented). The packages are color-coded by variety and convey only the most important selling points on the front: 4 pumps = 1 load. 50 loads. Powered by plant-based smartclean technology™. According to Method, the packaging for its new detergent requires less energy to produce and creates less waste. The “new bottle uses over 36% less plastic compared to traditional 2x detergents and 50% of that comes from recycled plastics.” The website states,  “This is the world’s first Cradle to CradleCM certified laundry detergent, thanks to its comprehensive green design.” Now this is the way to create marketplace buzz! When innovative product concepts are paired with packaging that’s just as innovative, consumers sit up and take notice. But am I plugging the product? No. As a design consultant, I’m bullish on all ground-breaking consumer products and packaging. Question is: Will consumers ditch their old laundry detergent jugs and pick up the new pump tops? My guess is that, as usual, the early adopters and the environmentally conscious will right off the bat. Other consumers will make use of the manufacturer’s coupon, save $2.00 and give it a try. The whole concept is new, so why not? For the rest of the consuming public, it will likely come down to WOM. Word of mouth from family and friends has the power to sway them to try the product. If they’re enthused by its ease of use and its efficacy, that is. That’s what I call the second moment of truth. If the brand doesn’t deliver on its promise, it’s over for a new product. Finished. Kaput. But knowing Method’s track record, I’m betting on this to be a winner. Questions: • Have you tried Method cleaning products in the past? • Do this new laundry detergent and its new packaging delivery system excite you about trying the product? • Do you think consumers will ditch their jugs and opt for even more concentrated detergents like this in the future? I’d love to hear from you.
• Introducing a New & Vastly Improved Digital Marketing World (Yes, It’s Still Free) 2 June, 2010, 7:57 am
  This past weekend kicked off the start of summer for most of us. As it happens, it also kicked off our virtual conference season––which means you can wear white to the first few Digital Marketing World events of 2010! We’re trying something new this year. Instead of having one or two mammoth online events covering all things marketing (like we have in the past), we’re devoting the first Wednesday of each month to a new and improved Digital Marketing World.  Next month, we are debuting a new monthly series of focused digital marketing online events from now through December. On July 7, we’ll bring you Digital Marketing World: Email Marketing—the first in the series. And by the way, it’s completely free! Each month, you’ll get: Three new 60-minute presentations from real-world practitioners Plenty of live Q&A time with speakers Guidance on the latest tools and strategies from leading vendors Ample networking opportunities with your peers A full-featured virtual conference environment with networking lounge, exhibit hall, and resource center Sound intriguing? See the full schedule. I hope to see you there! It is free, but you need to reserve a space. Please register here to ensure your derriere lands in a chair.
• Listen Up! Radio Media Directors Consider PSAs Very Important 7 June, 2010, 8:59 am
  Remember radio? The listening device in all our cars and trucks? With all the focus on Internet-related topics, let’s talk about one of the oldest communications channels of the 20th and 21st centuries. The recently released National Media Survey of Radio Community Service Directors indicates that radio media directors believe that public service advertising is very or extremely useful. Yay! Based on the survey, “Radio thinks, acts and ’surveys’ local. Like their TV counterparts, radio media directors said they most wanted their stations to support their local community organizations and the issues they represented. They put a priority on helping out locally, first and foremost, regardless of the issue.” Here are just a few of the survey’s major findings: Radio media directors ranked community-based organizations (and the issues they support) as the issues most important to them. This focus on all things local was reported by their television counterparts as well in a prior survey. Health issues were however very prominent among their specific concerns. Health issues ranked as the most important specific issue for their stations to support among radio television directors. Among the issues they wanted our government to take on with public service advertising, again, health concerns topped the list. When asked to discuss specific health issues important to their community and listeners, most radio media directors named actual diseases. The most frequently named attribute that makes public service advertising effective was the impact and action-ability of the campaign. The relevance and urgency of the topic to their community was the second most cited factor in making PSA campaigns the “best.” In continued difficult economic times, an amazing 97% of respondents said that PSA time provided by their station would increase or stay the same. Seniors topped the list of audiences for which radio media directors do not receive enough PSAs. So, here are my questions for you.  What are your thoughts on the use of radio (or TV) airtime for public service announcements? Does broadcast have a responsibility to the nonprofit sector to provide free PSAs? Even though PSA origins came out of World War II, are they still relevant and needed today?
• Crayola Colors Outside of the Lines 7 June, 2010, 11:56 pm
  Crayola. The ubiquitous crayon. How common can a brand be? Turns out Crayola has made an uncommon move—from a crayon company to an art and design company. In a recent Brandweek article, we see that Crayola has given birth to a new brand: Liv Crayola. The company has wisely leveraged pleasant associations from childhood with Crayola and extended it to “design-centric school supplies in Target stores next month as part of a move to reconnect with teens.” This move came as a result of a terrific revelation. Research showed that teenage girls felt the Crayola brand left them as they grew up, not the other way around. Wow. Good stuff. We all know there are good ways to extend brands and plenty of bad ones. We’ve seen enough examples of failed brand extensions that have led to real consequences. So it’s refreshing to see what can be done if executed correctly. Liv Crayola targets girls ages 13 to 18 with a product line of binders, notebooks, pens, pencils, and stationery products. “Design packs” or custom patterns can be created by girls online so they can personalize their items. A deal was made with Target as the sole retailer for Liv Crayola. How did Crayola kick off its new brand? • Social media and WOM ad campaigns during April pre-launched the brand. • Two apps on the Crayola Facebook page allowed kids to “jazz up photos with Liv Crayola-inspired designs or “create your own Crayola color nickname and find your True Colors.” • Print buys in the fall issues of Seventeen magazine set the stage for digital and SM marketing campaigns. When asked about using traditional media to reach teen girls, Victoria Lozano, Target VP Portfolio Marketing observed that it wasn’t “the best way to connect with them.” Liv Crayola may have a stronger than usual opportunity for success in its effort to reach teen girls. Research showed that the brand brought back “happy, pleasant memories of childhood” for teens, when “Crayola as a very integral part of their lives.” Tapping into teen girls’ desire to express who they are in a creative, unique way by letting them co-create their own products ought to resonate with this demographic. Questions: • Do you think other brands that appeal to kids might be losing opportunities to “grow” with them into their teen years and beyond? • Which brands besides Crayola do you think might benefit from the kind of research Crayola did? • What do you think of Crayola’s use of interactive and social media vs traditional media? Do you think it’s especially effective for young demographic groups, or for all consumer groups? I’d love to hear from you.
• Takeaways for Achieving Relevance in Direct Digital Marketing 9 June, 2010, 8:57 am
  What is relevance? The term is thrown around quite a bit in the marketing world. Marketers continually strive (and at times, struggle) to achieve it and even define it. Many marketing departments struggle with implementing a relevance-based approach and often encounter several barriers like out-dated or ineffective technology, and other organizational constraints. I am in the midst of penning a six piece series for MarketingProfs on achieving relevance in direct digital marketing. The series sheds some light on how to achieve relevance, outlines the common barriers to achieving it, and offers five keys to overcoming those barriers. For this post, I am going to break out some of the key takeaways and give you a taste of what’s to come with the rest of the series. In the first installment of the series, I defined relevance in the realm of direct digital marketing as: Tailoring direct digital marketing communications to customers and prospects, and ensuring that the information, offers, and calls to action are optimized based on a user’s known attributes, behavioral attributes, and past activity. Now that we have a working definition of relevance, how do we get past the various barriers to implementation? For many marketers and brands, the most significant hurdles to delivering timely and relevant marketing communications come from inside a marketing organization.  Challenges from within an organization can put limitations on the adoption of technology and best practices, as well as the manpower to create engaging programs and campaigns. As I mentioned in my second series installment, “Achieving Relevance in Direct Digital Marketing: Overcoming Organizational Constraints,” you may have to shake things up a bit within your organization to overcome these barriers. Sure, the thought of making organizational changes can be daunting, but the need to make the necessary changes to adopt a relevance-centered direct digital marketing approach is very real. If you’re feeling intimidated by the thought of where to begin or how to approach the process, take a look at the three most common organizational constraints, and how to overcome them in the second installment of the series. Barriers from within an organization may be the most significant hurdle to overcome. But, barriers to technology adoption come in a close second. It is important to remember achieving relevance with your marketing communications requires technology that makes the process more efficient and effective, not painful and prohibitive. It is also important for marketers to ask themselves, “How involved in the technology selection process am I?” If you’re not very involved, it’s time to grab the reins and aggressively drive technology adoption and consolidation within your organization. If marketers are being held responsible for a brand’s connection with consumers over the digital channels, they can’t afford to be isolated from the technology evaluation and selection process. So how do you piece together the technology puzzle to find out what you need, and how do you become more involved in the evaluation and selection of that technology? Take a look at the two critical steps every brand must take when choosing a technology, outlined in the third installment of the series, and what marketers can do to become more involved in the selection and implementation process. The upcoming fourth installment of the series focuses on the importance of segmentation and targeting in a relevance-centric approach to direct digital marketing. It will be full of actionable ideas and analysis to help you achieve relevance in your direct digital marketing efforts. Articles five and six will focus on how to take an incremental approach, and how to develop a plan for implementing what you’ve learned.  Stay tuned! What barriers do you encounter when implementing a relevance-based approach? How are you overcoming them?
• 5 Strategies for Surviving Contagion 9 June, 2010, 9:05 am
  In a tightly interdependent global economy, information is exchanged everyday between people, communication networks and computers. Sometimes the information flow is benign or favorable. However, when the flow consists of gossip, rumor, bad news or panic, there is a tendency for such information to accelerate and take on a life of its own. When contagion swirls, five strategies can help marketing executives control the damage and even take advantage of chaotic circumstances. Contagion takes many forms in our global economy. Some definitions for contagion include the “spread and transmission of disease, ideas, influence and emotions.” Another aspect of contagion is that it spreads in unimaginable ways. Thus, sometimes what seems like a tiny spark ends up as a full fledged forest fire. Marketing professionals know that contagion can sometimes be extremely dangerous to our companies, brands and reputations. Therefore, it’s imperative to not only recognize early warning signs of contagion, but to react quickly when contagion spills over. Below are five strategies that can help us plan, prepare, manage and even seize the advantage when contagion strikes. First, manage your risks. Author Nassim Taleb of Black Swan fame, says the essence of risk management, “lies in maximizing the areas where we have some control over the outcome while minimizing the areas where we have no control of the outcome.” One method of risk management is to maintain a significant buffer against unforeseen forces. For example, in financial services, companies are required by regulations to maintain a liquid capital cushion to buffer financial losses. Financial services firms also measure their risk exposure via Value at Risk (VAR) modeling or other stress test methods. And while it can be intelligently argued such methods are flawed, for many companies they remain the best tools available for analytical risk management. Second, calmer heads prevail. When the European debt crisis threatened to engulf nation states in the European Union, German Chancellor Angela Merkel did her very best to stay above the fray. While contagion swirled around Merkel, she maneuvered among constituents, political leaders and central bankers to find a solution that would benefit both Germany and the greater European Union. And though some pundits argued that Merkel perhaps made matters worse by delaying action for weeks, sometimes it pays to gather information and not make hasty decisions. Third, have a plan. Suppose a crisis hits, have you considered the likely outcomes? This is where scenario planning can help. Scenario planning is the consideration of known facts with plausible alternatives. Think about a given a situation and the top five likely outcomes. Then prepare a plan of action. Afraid you won’t get scenario planning right? Author Bill Ziemba reminds us that it’s darn near impossible to get scenario planning exactly correct. “What is important,” he says, “is to cover the board of possible occurrences. Then you will make sound decisions with risk under control.” Fourth, consider using overwhelming force to deal with contagion. Sometimes the only way to restore confidence is via “shock and awe” or the use of the “big guns”. Best practices include the recent response of forty-three children’s medicine manufacturers to remove all potentially tainted products from store shelves until contamination causes can be determined. In another example, facing fraud allegations by the Securities Exchange Commission, Goldman Sachs hired Greg Craig, the lawyer who “saved Bill Clinton from impeachment.” Instead of responding in piecemeal to contagion, often it is better to respond in force. Fifth, when contagion strikes look for opportunities in chaos. When the Wall Street “flash crash” occurred on May 6th 2010, liquidity evaporated from the market and bellwether companies like P&G saw their stock drop 35%, while global consulting firm Accenture’s stock traded briefly for one penny! Meanwhile, on financial news network CNBC, the normally hyperactive and boorish Jim Cramer calmly announced that anyone with modicum of common sense should buy those two stocks. Ultimately, the market corrected itself within a twenty-minute time frame and those who listened and immediately acted on Mr. Cramer’s advice made a mint. Where there’s panic, nervousness or irrational behavior, there’s also likely opportunity for gain—if you’re paying attention! With today’s global economy tightly linked by capital, labor, and information flows at the speed of light, it’s not uncommon for bad news, nervousness, or outright panic to spill across borders and disrupt even the most stable of companies and industries. Moreover, what may seem like a non-event can quickly transform into a full blown crisis. Listed above are five strategies when contagion swirls. Do you have others?
• Lesson From a Factory: Know How It Works 10 June, 2010, 7:36 am
  One of the best incentives I had for going back to college each year was my summer job. From my high-school graduation  to my college graduation, I worked a 6 a.m. factory maintenance shift. Getting up at 5:15 a.m. every morning during the summer months to cleaning heating boilers, sweeping floors and painting was not ideal for a young college student. However, looking back, it was a great experience and one where some practical lessons were learned that apply to my business today. One lesson that often comes to mind is the day I was assigned to Ron, the head of maintenance for the factory. My job that day was to follow him and do whatever he needed done. In the first few hours he got a call on his radio that one of the assembly lines was down due to one of the machines breaking. When we arrived at the line there were about five people looking in, around and under the machine. Ron then opened a flap on the side of the machine, took out a flashlight and set of pliers and spent the next 45 seconds under the flap with only his legs visible. Once finished, he walked over, turned the machine back on, and all was back in working order. As we walked away, he looked at me and said, “Sometimes fixing things is all in knowing how it works.” This principle can be applied in many B2B organizations today and one that will be the focus of my blog posts. As a new contributor to MarketingProfs, I will focus on marketing and sales process– in other words, how things work. Repeatedly, I see marketing and sales groups vastly improve their return on their marketing and sales investments by focusing on process improvements. I am very excited to be a part of this community and look forward to providing insights and having great dialogue around the marketing and sales process in hopes that this will be an interactive forum for the MarketingProfs community.
• Balance Your Personal and Corporate Branding 10 June, 2010, 7:59 am
  There seems to be a new emphasis on personal branding, especially as it pertains to achieving a balance with the corporate brand. If you work for a company, should you focus on personal branding or keep the corporate brand at the forefront? LESSONS LEARNED THE HARD WAY I worked for a small company where I was given the task of carrying out social media and other online marketing initiatives. I had already built something of a personal brand, thanks in part to my books and long-term engagement in both the blog and social media spheres. While I maintained the brand’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as blogged on the company website, in an attempt to leverage the social capital I had built, I made references to the company from my personal Twitter account and blog. I also made repeated efforts to get other members of the company more engaged in social media, the rationale being that if several of us were tweeting, blogging, posting on Facebook, etc., over time it would help to strengthen the corporate brand within those circles. However, I was never able to successfully get the company to make that transition. That’s not to fault the company mind you. It testified to the fact everyone already had a job to do—and tweeting wasn’t part of the job description. The end result was that my personal brand continued to rise, but at the expense of the company itself. STRIKE A DELICATE BALANCE Dan Schawbel, who one could argue knows more about personal branding that just about anybody, had this to say in a recent Bloomberg Businessweek post: “If you’re an employee, start considering what brand you need to build and why. By focusing entirely on your personal brand, you become unemployable. No company wants a selfish worker who isn’t concerned with the business’s results. On the other hand, if you concentrate solely on your company’s brand, you make yourself vulnerable: If the company dies, you die with it.” My motive was not to be selfish in nature, but the end result was that it made more sense for me to step away from the company and continue leveraging my personal brand rather than stay in the fold. And that’s what I did. What Schawbel is suggesting is that a balance be struck, a balance that can often be delicate and tenuous. It takes diligent effort on both the part of the employee and company to make it work in a way that benefits both. GUIDELINES FOR EMPLOYERS I think the onus for ensuring that employees maintain a healthy balance lies with the company. Here are some guidelines companies should adhere to: 1. Have an employee social media engagement policy in place.  This is not merely to prevent employees from giving away proprietary information or saying something that would embarrass or misrepresent the brand. It’s also for the purpose of ensuring the personal brand does not override the corporate. 2. Don’t make social media engagement the job of one person. I’ve come to believe that social media is more a function and less a role. That means the burden gets shouldered by more than one person who carries a special designation as social media director. That’s not to suggest you shouldn’t have someone serving that role. It is to recognize their job is more internal than external. Scott Monty, Ford Motor Company’s head of social media, will tell you his job is as much about serving as a catalyst for creating a more transparent, socially responsive organization as it is tweeting or blogging on Ford’s behalf. To cite his blog, “[Scott] is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.” 3. Encourage employee participation within social media. For example,take  Microsoft, who has thousands of employees who blog, tweet, and engage in other forms of social networking on behalf of the company, often informally, but always with the company’s blessing. 4. Provide media channels that foster employee engagement.  Zappos has its own Twitter aggregation channel. Microsoft has sites that aggregate employee posts. Any number of companies have blogs where multiple employees post on a regular basis. 5. Tie the person together with the brand. Inside social media circles, people relate to other people better than to brands. In that case, follow Dell’s example and tie the person to the brand. Most Daily Fix readers follow (or at least know of) Richard Binhammer, famously known as richardatdell on Twitter. To me, that’s a perfect way to keep the personal and corporate brand in check. (I know I’m citing some of the most well-known examples, but don’t allow their popularity diminish the value of the principles being taught.) GUIDELINES FOR EMPLOYEES 1. Respect the brand. Don’t use company time to promote your personal brand. Remember that you are receiving a paycheck. Work for it. If there are social media engagement guidelines in place, respect those as well. 2. Make every effort to promote the company. Whenever possible, make references to the company, it’s products and services, and do so in a manner that will reflect well on you and your company. I’m not suggesting you become a company shill. Be genuinely enthusiastic. If you love your work and the company you work for, that shouldn’t be difficult. Remember the adage: If you don’t have anything good to say, then say nothing at all. It really comes down to a matter of plain common sense. 3. Encourage other employees to do the same. If you find yourself in the unenviable position of being the sole voice of the company within social media, start a campaign to get others involved. 4. Recognize when you get “too big for your britches.” Invariably, there will be those whose personal brand takes precedence over the corporate. In those cases, it may be best for that person to do what I did and move on. Perhaps a healthier tack is to recognize the person’s achievement, celebrate it, and use the person as a spokesperson or evangelist, not dissimilar to what Microsoft did with Robert Scoble. There is a way to make this a win-win situation for both the employee and the company, but it takes patient effort, a genuine desire to evolve the cooperate culture to one characterized by transparency, and a willingness to experiment with different approaches in order to find one that works. What do you think? Should corporations be open to employee’s building a personal brand? What advice would you give to a company, or to an employee? Can you cite some examples of companies you feel have done a good job in this respect? Feel free to weigh in with a comment.
• World Cup 2010: A Social Media Gooooooal! 10 June, 2010, 9:31 pm
  The world’s most widely viewed sporting event, FIFA World Cup 2010, begins today. Every four years since 1930 (with the exception of 1942 and 1946), soccer teams have fought, kicked, run, defended, and left everything on the field in fierce matches in the world’s spotlight. This year, 32 teams battle in South Africa. And for the first time ever, the World Cup is playing in the digital age. During the last World Cup, social media was barely kicking: Twitter hit the field on July 2006; Facebook wasn’t public until September 2006. In 2010,  it’s a whole new World Cup. The World Is Watching From June 11 to July 11, hundreds of millions of soccer  fans around the world will be glued to their TV and computer screens to watch the FIFA World Cup. And unlike the last World Cup,  fans who couldn’t afford to jet to the hosting country are no longer limited to screaming, jeering, and cheering just in sports bars or their living rooms. Thanks to Twitter (@FIFAcom) and Facebook, fans can have their shouts and whistles heard around the world. How important is social media to World Cup 2010? FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter (@seppblatter) says, “…  social media websites will play an important role in connecting everyone who cares about the game of football. I’m very excited to be sharing my own personal experience of the 2010 FIFA World Cup with football fans from all over the world.” And Twitter employee Robin Sloan says, “… The World Cup will eclipse everything we have seen so far on Twitter, including the U.S. election, the Oscars, or the Super Bowl simply because it is so international.” He’s not exaggerating. Fans everywhere are putting on their country’s jerseys and cheering on their teams in the world’s  most anticipated sporting event at: Facebook’s official group for worldwide fans of World Cup 2010 @fifacom on Twitter (official news from FIFA) their country’s soccer team Twitter feed tweetbeat Get in the Game With such a tremendous audience, consider taking advantage of the soccer love and fandom by putting a touch of soccer (or “football” if you speak English anywhere outside the United States)  on your business, tweets or blog posts. Ask yourself: Are there ways that your business can join in this worldwide event? Do  you have a product or idea to share with soccer enthusiasts around the world? Can you share about your country’s team on the corporate blog or Twitter account? Is there someone at your company who is a soccer enthusiast and can tweet, blog or share about World Cup 2010? Today begins a month-long experience of breathing, eating, drinking, sleeping, and dreaming soccer for World Cup 2010 fans. Don’t be late to the game. And feel free to leave a comment or just share who you’re rooting for. I’d love to hear from you!