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TwistImage Blog

• The iPhone Of The Future 10 June, 2010, 11:18 am
  How many articles can one person read about another newer version of the Apple iPhone? Apple head honcho Steve Jobs launched the iPhone 4G this week in San Francisco at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. This is the fourth generation of the smartphone that changed (and continues to change) the world. And, while no one knows how cool, fast and impressive this next generation smartphone will be, there are some key lessons all businesspeople can take away from the presentation and promises of what this device is and what it can do. Let's start with the raw features: Jobs did not invent video conferencing and the fact you can now multi-task (have multiple apps open at once, instead of one at a time) is not that big of a breakthrough (the Palm Pre -which was an industry flop -offered this years ago as does BlackBerry and other smartphones). Having a battery that now lasts up to seven hours also is tablestakes when you look at the average person's work schedule and how long other mobiles can go without a charge. In the end, the new iPhone is not about the new features, but it's about where we are going with both computing and connectivity. Remember when nobody paid for a cellphone? The culture of "free phones" permeated the mobile carrier business for years and what Apple did with their first generation iPhone is shift the mass mind-set from free to paying close to $600 for a mobile device. That mindshift opened the floodgates and, suddenly, the everyday person was comfortable (no, happy) to shell out their hard-earned dollars for a mobile device that was not only feature-rich, but would offer them a level of social status among their peers. The iPhone became a product of envy for those who didn't have one and an object of pride for those that did. Design is everything. One of the best business books of the past decade is Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age by Tom Peters (DK, 2006). Beyond the beauty of the book design and page layout, Peters continually highlights - in words -the importance of brilliant, jaw-dropping design in relation to the brands that have truly created businesses that are built to last. If Apple does one thing magically great, it is their industrial design. Apple products are beautiful. They fit with the times and they give us a glimpse into the future. This new iPhone also is an object of beauty. Every micro-inch of space was optimized and rethought and - by the looks of it - nothing was spared (not the weight, overall size or even how it feels in someone's hand). Creating a product that people will marvel at is no small feat in a world like ours. It's not the inside, it's not the outside and it's not what goes into it ... it's how those pieces all come together that make it so special to consumers. It also is not about the phone. When you pull together all of the features of the iPhone 4G, what becomes abundantly clear is that this is no longer about telecommunications. The phone (or calling) part is now shadowed by everything else. The new iPhone offers us some preliminary glimpses of what our world of connectivity, communications and computers will be. It's less of a phone and more of a remote control for your life. A fully featured computer that has all of the necessary moving parts for what a mobile device should be. When everything from the quality of pictures and videos become comparable with devices that only serve those individual purposes, we begin to really see how - in the not-too-distant future - we won't be trudging around laptops, iPads and mobile devices. There will be one device to rule them all -great text, images, audio and video in one hand-held/portable device. It's all about the resolution. Apple calls it Retina Display, and it boasts four times the pixel count of previous generation iPhones. Apparently, the pixels are so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels. Jobs made a comment during the launch that the iPhone displays content so clearly that it is virtually indistinguishable from text on paper (everyone from Amazon and Sony to every book, newspaper and magazine publisher's ears must have perked up). Funny enough, everybody thought the existing resolution of the iPhone was already pretty impressive. You have to respect a company that iterates and innovates when what was presently in-market seemed more than above average. Finally, it's all about the media and apps. Music, movies, books, television, newspapers, magazines, games and more. Apple is as much of an entertainment company as they are a design and hardware company. They not only provide the hardware and connectivity, but also get a fair chunk of change by charging for the content and applications that run on devices like the iPhone. And, as if that were not enough, their new iAd advertising platform also is going to go gangbusters for the launch of the iPhone 4G. Apple will get money for the apps and they will get money from the ads. And while many are highly critical of the fact Apple is not more of an open environment, that didn't seem to stop 2 million iPads from flying off the shelves in under 60 days, and by the looks of things, the iPhone 4G will experience a similar effect. The iPhone 4G is newsworthy beyond the innovation of the hardware, software and connectivity. Apple turns people from consumers into loyal evangelists and they also are perfectly fine with those who can't stand them. What great bands aren't polarizing? The lessons of innovation, pushing technology and providing a product, brand or service that consumers don't even realize they may need are the real lessons that every business can learn from Apple -time and time again. Have your say below... The above posting is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation. I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original versions online here: Montreal Gazette - One device to rule them all. Vancouver Sun - New iPhone offers a glimpse into the future. Tags: advertising platform amazon apple apple worldwide developers conference application blackberry book design brand brand evangelist built to last business business book business column canwest cellphone communications computing connectivity content design dk publishing entertainment iad industrial design innovation ipad iphone iphone 4g iphone app laptop magazine media mobile carrier mobile device montreal gazette multi-tasking newspaper newspaper article object of beauty palm pre phone portable device reimagine resolution retina display smartphone social status sony steve jobs telecommunications tom peters vancouver sun video conferencing
• Marketing In Twenty Minutes (Or Less) 13 June, 2010, 2:03 pm
  Let's face it, when it comes to getting things done, most people want to do it either quick or easy (ok, sometimes both). If you have a strategy in place and take the time to build some semblance of (loyalty) - and yes, that can be either online, offline or both - you can push your marketing to be cheap and easy (sort of). The truth is (and there's no big insight here) that the best brands have built up enough equity within their audience that a lot of the tactical execution can become cheap, easy and effective to boot. Remember, cheap and easy doesn't mean annoying and bad. A Blog does this very well. No, you can't build your entire Marketing portfolio by simply starting a Blog, but Blogging and many of the other Social Media tools, channels and platforms do allow you to market on-the-fly. I recently sat down with some fairly senior marketing executives and when the topic of Blogs and Blogging came up, many of them reverted back to the old, "I simply don't have enough time in the day to get to Blogging," chestnut. Many of the other Marketing folks who were still updating their Blogs on a fairly frequent basis complained that they still need to allocate a chunk of time to get the Blogging done. A good strategy should never trump some fast tactics, but... Whenever you think to yourself, that you need X amount of time to do something (like Blog, create a presentation, whatever...), why not simply allocate twenty minutes (maybe even fifteen) and see how far that road will take you? Odds are you will surprise and impress yourself. The amazing thing about trying (or doing your best) to bang out a Blog post in fifteen minutes is that your thought might not be complete. It might not be one hundred percent ready for "prime time," and because of that, it just might spark an unusual amount of comments or conversation. Plus, by simply mixing things up, you may be creating a new tempo, pulse and flow that ignites some never kinds of innovation or creativity. You can do some marketing in twenty minutes or less. Why not try? Why not try to publish a Blog post in fifteen minutes and then point to it via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or whatever online social network you're connected to? You may be both surprised and impressed by the level of conversation, engagement and connections that tiny piece of speedy content can do. What do you have to lose? Why not give it a try? Tags: audience blog blog post blogging brand comments conversation engagement facebook linkedin loyalty marketing marketing executives marketing strategy marketing tactics online community online social network social media twitter
• The Price Is Right 5 June, 2010, 5:38 am
  When it comes to Marketing, nothing else will happen if you don't get The Four Ps right. It's all about the fundamentals (it always was, it always is). And while I think the new "P" (which is "participation") is just as important as the original Four Ps, you need that right marketing mix to get yourself to the point of marketplace success where "participation" starts playing an important factor. Let's review The Four Ps of the Marketing Mix: Product Promotion Price Placement Just remember, if you don't get the price right, nothing else will save you. Pricing is critical, and when you make it arbitrary, strange or not clear and obvious to your consumers it causes tremendous friction and skepticism. Think about your local car mechanic: You walk into the garage because you have a problem with your car, the mechanic takes a look, then looks at you and randomly pulls a price out of the air that seems like an arbitrary combination of the parts required, the time it will take to fix and the potential amount you may be able to pay based on the type of car your drive, the clothes you wear and the neighborhood you live in. That seems fair, right? The service industry struggles with this as well, because the financial model is built around a "time is money" business model. The companies that get this model right are the ones who find the healthy balance between what seems like an arbitrary dollar amount and the actual value delivered. This is where the airlines (well, most of them) get it all wrong. Here's a personal example... Since January, I've travelled close to 85,000 miles (according to TripIt). Most of those trips are either full-fare economy flights or executive class. (I rarely travel on the cheapest flights because they are difficult to change and have too many penalties attached to them). In recent months, many airlines have (once again) changed their policies where instead of charging a simple "change fee" when you need to move your flight, they now charge you the flight fare difference (granted they sometimes charge you both a change fee and the fare difference). This causes tremendous friction. As a frequent flyer and loyal customer to a specific airline (so that the points can be accumulated for status) it is incredibly frustrating and stressful to have no idea what the outcome of a phone call or interaction at the actual counter might be when a flight needs to changed. In one instance, I had a full-fare executive class flight that was priced at over $6000. I needed to change the flight from a direct-flight, mid-day to a red-eye with stopovers, and the airline wanted to charge me over $1600 as that one ticket was now priced higher (obviously because it was closer to the departure date than when the first one was purchased). Funny enough, had I downgraded to a lower pricing/status structure, they would have owed me money. Always watch your pricing. "Whatever the market will pay" may feel like the right pricing strategy, but in order to remove the true friction and maximize profits, always focus on the different types of customers you have, what their specific needs are and how you can best accommodate them. There are very few people who don't believe in fairness when it comes to business. The net result is that the buyer and seller both feel like value was delivered and that both sides profit from the outcome. It's when that scale tips in either direction too far that problems arise (or when people feel like they are blatantly being taken advantage of). Pricing (like the other Four Ps) is about finding the right (or perfect) balance. Pricing is not about surprises, uncertainty, consumer stress and the perception that it is arbitrary and changes from person to person and moment to moment. It's why people hate airline, gas stations and other pricing structures that are both mysterious and highly artificial. Social Media won't save you if your products and services aren't priced perfectly for the marketplace. What types of pricing nightmares/models make you crazy? Tags: air miles airline industry business model financial model four ps of marketing frequent flyer friction marketing marketing mix participation placement price pricing pricing model product profit promotion social media tripit
• Marketing Critic 25 May, 2010, 10:41 am
  In looking at a newspaper or even more of the headier magazines, isn't it always fascinating to see some of the titles they give to the writers? Recently, I came across some media titles that made me smile: "Architecture Critic," "Drama Critic," "Wall Street Correspondent." Granted, it is titles just like these that make John Stewart's The Daily Show as funny as it is (make sure to listen for the titles Stewart gives his reporters), but a title can be as meaningless or as creative/inventive as you want it to be and many would argue that in a world like ours, we need many more cooler and smarter titles. Marketing Critic. While perusing those publications, I wondered what it would be like to ultimately be labeled a "Marketing Critic." And when I say "labeled" I mean in my inevitable obituary or something for the tombstone (don't worry, there are no plans to expedite that process that I am aware of). I am probably the furthest thing there is from being a "critic" as we have known the role to date, but I am highly critical of the Marketing, Advertising and Communication industry. Without calling brands out, we can all be doing a whole lot more to build trust with customers. Why do I not call brands out to task (unlike other Bloggers)? In a very simplistic way: you never know who you are going to run into, who you are going to need as an ally, and who you are going to be working with. I do much more than just Blog. I run (with my three business partners) a 100-plus-person Digital Marketing agency (Twist Image), I sit on the board for many non-profit organizations (including the Canadian Marketing Association), I speak to roughly 70 different types of audiences every single year, and I believe that I will (or have) run into so many brands that it would be to my professional detriment to spend my time ragging on those who I feel may not truly understand the merits of Marketing in 2010. That doesn't mean that brands get a free pass to keep on doing what they're doing. In fact, it's the polar opposite. By being critical of the industry (or even an act from within the industry) it gives all of us Marketing professionals an opportunity to look at ourselves more objectively, and wonder how we can get better at improving the relationships that people have with our brands. Doing the whole "tsk tsk tsk" to other brands simply continues the cycle of repulsion that the masses generally have for the Marketing profession (we like to eat our own). Elevation. Elevating the conversation by looking at the issues and attempting to create a semblance of guidelines and better strategies is the route that works best (for me). It's also one of the missing links in the toolbox of some of the best Bloggers and Journalists with the cooler titles. Most (and yes, that is an unfounded generalization based on my own, very myopic perspective) are easy to criticize and inject how they would do it, few spend the time to also analyze the entire landscape and dig beyond a bunch of tactics that could have (or should have) been used. Think about Facebook. Regardless of where you sit on Facebook and their constant struggle with privacy (more on that here: The Fuss About Facebook), elevate the conversation beyond what they should be doing about privacy to the core issue: this company probably never anticipated the growth, size and care that the users are expressing, so they are rapidly attempting to evolve from a company that was created in a college dorm so people could hook up to what resembles a mirror image of our society and how we are all connected. This is about more than privacy settings as this monstrous company tries to redefine it's overall corporate culture. Just wondering: wouldn't it be a better industry if people became "Marketing Critical" instead of "Marketing Critics"? Tags: advertising blogger brand branding canadian marketing association communications digital marketing facebook facebook privacy job title john stewart journalist magazine marketing marketing critic marketing industry marketing professional marketing strategy media critic media title newspaper publications the daily show twist image writer
• The Upside Of Irrationality 5 June, 2010, 4:31 pm
  It's amazing to think how irrational our rational minds can be. We often think we're making the best decisions when often, we are dead wrong. It turns out that Dan Ariely has been on this train of thought for some time. His best-selling business book, Predictably Irrational, is one of the most fascinating, entertaining and smart books we have seen on the market in a very long time. In fact, it quickly became one of the top selling business books in the world (and continues to sell amazingly well). Not one to rest on his laurels, Ariely just launched his second book, The Upside Of Irrationality. What is the Upside of Irrationality all about? "In The Upside of Irrationality, he exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives. Focusing on our behaviors at work and in relationships, he offers new insights and eye-opening truths about what really motivates us on the job, how one unwise action can become a long-term habit, how we learn to love the ones we're with, and more. Drawing on the same experimental methods that made Predictably Irrational one of the most talked-about bestsellers of the past few years, Ariely uses data from his own original and entertaining experiments to draw arresting conclusions about how--and why--we behave the way we do. From our office attitudes, to our romantic relationships, to our search for purpose in life, Ariely explains how to break through our negative patterns of thought and behavior to make better decisions. The Upside of Irrationality will change the way we see ourselves at work and at home--and cast our irrational behaviors in a more nuanced light." OK, that's some fine marketing copy from the publisher, but let's take a look at what Ariely actually has to say... This book rocks. Dan Ariely Rocks. Every Marketer should read all of his stuff. I have a huge soft spot for Dan Ariely. During an interview prior to the publishing of Predictably Irrational, Dan was kind enough to recommend and introduce me to his literary agent, which is where I signed and how the book deal for Six Pixels of Separation came together (so, you can blame it all on him!). Over the years we have become friends and it really is a honor for me to say that because he is, without question, one of the smartest, kindest and curious people I know. Have you seen his TED Talk? Watch this... Buy his brand-new book, The Upside of Irrationality, now! Tags: behavioral economist book publishing business book buying decisions dan ariely literary agent predictably irrational publisher ted ted talk the upside of irrationality
• The Numbers Game 5 June, 2010, 10:40 am
  Is it ok to change your mind about something you really believe in? For years I've been telling brands that it's no longer all about how many people you put your marketing messages in front of. What's important - especially when dealing with Digital Marketing and Social Media - is who you are putting your message in front of. Enough people are posting and exchanging information online that there's no need to "spray and pray" your marketing message. You can finally listen to the myriad of conversations and questions online and be active within that river of chitter chatter. It seems perfectly logical, but it's not the whole story. Numbers do, indeed, matter. Here's why: the only way to find the right people that you need to connect to is by spreading your message far enough and wide enough that your ideas do catch on with an audience. Social Media is perfect for that, specific, action: to spread ideas. You can have a thought and publish it in text, audio, images and videos instantly (and for free) to the global online population, but for that idea to get any semblance of traction, you are going to have to wave your hands at a pretty frenetic pace. Even the great ideas take time to spread, and what really makes them spread is the amount of people who then take idea and kick it around their circle of influence. As always, everything is "with" not "instead of." Using Digital Marketing and Social Media to get your ideas to spread is going to require a tender balance of both quality and quantity. The ideas and concepts brought forward on this Blog spread dependant on the current size and state of the audience and the community it serves. Anybody can pump out content, but it takes quality content to get the attention of the "right people" and enough of those "right people" to give it any semblance of attention and push it towards some kind of tipping point. The point is not to get your message out to a small group of people, but to the right people. There is a mass audience within every niche. It's important to remember that. Whatever niche you serve, there is (usually) enough of an audience (or even consumer base) to justify the business. The real trick of marketing is to figure out the balance of that marketing mix, channels and platforms. Success will (probably) come for those who can equalize the ides and stories that they want to share and connect with by also figuring out how to get that message to enough people that matter (i.e. spreading it far and wide). It turns out that Marketing - in the end - is, was, and will probably always be a numbers game as well (whether we like it or not).  Tags: attention channels content conversations digital marketing ideas that spread marketing marketing message mass media numbers game online population platforms publishing quality quantity social media tipping point
• Make Them Feel 12 June, 2010, 4:14 am
  People have a need... a want... to feel something. It's incumbent on Marketing to make people feel something because if you don't move them with your messages, they won't make a move to do anything for you, your brands, your products or your services (this includes buying from you and telling others how great you really are). When I present, I usually wrap-up with a well-known video. It's the endearing story of Juan Mann and the video "Free Hugs" (you can see it below). The video is moving. No matter how dead inside you may be, it's hard not to put a smile on your face or even spread a smidgen of warmth to some of those colder areas when you watch this video/movement unfold. Does your marketing make people feel something? In the grand scheme of things, people don't hate marketing and they don't despise advertising. What people hate is bad marketing and they despise bad advertising as well. Decades have been spent trying to quantify and qualify what might be considered "bad marketing" or "bad advertising" and there are more event and award galas to celebrate the best of the best in marketing and advertising than you can shake a Cannes Lion Award at. But did you make them feel something? Putting awards aside and putting aside the fact that people will PVR past a lot of advertising, why is it that some TV spots that are placed on YouTube get millions upon millions of views? In a world where people claim they would skip over commercials or prefer not to have them present in the first place, why are millions of people flocking online to actively search out these same commercials, watch them, rate them and discuss them... in droves. We are creative and spiritual machines. If more Marketers focused on feeling, emotion and attempts to stir the human condition, more and more people would not only embrace advertising and marketing, they would actively seek it out (in fact, going back to the YouTube example example, they already are). Marketing fails when the final product is produced like any other cog from any other random factory that produces boring cogs. Push for feelings. We're all going to be trapped as Marketers. Whether it's by conservative clients, limited budgets and/or business objectives that don't provide any semblance of clarity, but it's our job to turn those perceived limitations into an opportunity. Because if somebody in the food chain of the brand and agency isn't whipping out the microscope trying to uncover why the consumer will care and what the campaign or initiative is going to make them feel, all is lost. How does that feel? Tags: 30-second spot advertising advertising agency advertising awards brand business objectives cannes commercials creativity digital marketing feel feeling free hugs human condition juan mann marketer marketing marketing agency marketing awards one award online video pvr tv advertising youtube
• The Fuss About Facebook 18 May, 2010, 1:40 pm
  You can't poke a person you hardly care about without reading a complaint about Facebook and their changing/evolving privacy issues. This is not a big deal and - on top of that - what did you expect? Facebook can (and will) do what they want. They're not a charity. They're not an online social network established for the greater good. They are a business. And, like all businesses, they are trying to figure out how to make a dime (and then how to make many more of them). Facebook is also free to users around the world, so how did you think they were going to makes those dimes? It has to be more than advertising. Sure, Facebook surpassed Yahoo! recently as the one online platform that has served the most banner ads, but in a world where everyone is a publisher, and the amount of content being published daily is staggering, it should come as no surprise that the value of banner ads (or any other form on traditional online advertising) is going to drop (both in price and people's engagement) - with a few notable exceptions for the near future. In case you have not been playing along at home, the amount of people clicking on banners ads has dropped over 50% since 2007. On top of that, the inventory to place those ads is no longer limited (traditional advertising in print was always driven by the scarcity model - only a handful of places to get your message in front of a mass amount of people). There is plenty of inventory available on plenty of sites with plenty of choices in the Digital Marketing channels. It's not like the "good old days" when a city only had one or two newspapers with a limited page count. It never was about the advertising, because it was always about the data. Facebook can tell you weeks in advance if your relationship is going to end (more on that here: The Slate - Facebook predicts your relationship is over). They can see if you are looking for a new mate simply by what's you're doing on Facebook (maybe you've been friending more boys or girls than you usually do, attending certain types of events, etc...). Robert Scoble of the famed Scobleizer Blog recently had a Blog post titled, Much ado about privacy on Facebook (I wish Facebook were MORE open!!!), which reminds me of Howard Stern's frequent rap that those who are doing nothing wrong should have nothing to be afraid of if the government and police start recording our every move in public spaces (who cares what they're recording if you're not up to any shenanigans?). That's one side to take (while many others are concerned about their privacy and the information that is being stored against them). Resign your privacy. That's not a new concept (in fact, it's a big part of my first book, Six Pixels of Separation). The crux of it is this: if you want to use Facebook, and it's free you're going to have to be very comfortable with the fact that your information could become public. On the latest episode of the Media Hacks Podcast (SPOS #202 - Media Hacks #28), Chris Brogan (co-author with Julien Smith of Trust Agents and the author of Social Media 101) reminded us that everything we say and do online is being recorded and it's forever, so you must guide yourself accordingly (it's all public - from text message and emails to status updates and who you're poking). As Facebook continues to look for more revenue streams, their only choice is to open up and make more of their content (or your information) public. Let's make a break for it! On May 31st, 2010 there will be a groundswell of people looking to delete their Facebook accounts in defiance of Facebook's current policies, terms and service agreement (it's called, Quite Facebook Day). This seems silly to me. Anyone at any point in time can opt out of taking part in Facebook (or any other digital channel). No one is holding a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to play Farmville. There's even a new open source online social network called, Diaspora, being created for those who want more control over their online profiles. Did everyone forget that you control what you publish... always? If you don't want Facebook to know something, why publish it? Granted, they have the trending tools to make some pretty accurate assumptions, but it's pretty simple to not share on Facebook. What is the cost of not sharing? Therein lies the rub: the less you share, the less you connect, the less likely you will be to truly benefit from the Facebook experience (and other online social networks). In the end, if you're a private person or concerned about your information, status, etc... there is only one option: don't publish, don't network and don't connect. Just be prepared for the consequences of truly being unplugged... and be sure to ask yourself if it's worth it? Tags: banner advertising business business book chris brogan content data diaspora digital channel digital marketing display advertising facebook facebook privacy farmville groundswell howard stern julien smith media hacks newspaper online advertising online profile online social network open source open source online social network podcast poke privacy publisher publishing quit facebook day robert scoble scobleizer social media 101 the slate traditional advertising trust agents web analytics yahoo
• The Last Mile Of Marketing: Listening At The Point Of Need 18 May, 2010, 6:03 pm
  There is still a strong (and growing) argument for the power of search, online social networks and how they beat traditional advertising to the sale. In the past few months, I've been devouring business books on branding and traditional advertising. For some reason, I have always felt that some of the answers we're looking for in terms of the future of Marketing, Advertising and Communications could well be buried in its history (sorry for the Indiana Jones crypticism). Why were brands created? Which out of the first few advertising campaigns really worked? How is it that after all of this time, brands are more important than ever? How did branding and advertising evolve over time as technology and innovation continued to push on? We live in the most branded generation ever. In an era where we can skip and block ads, and find - with a few simple clicks - the cheapest price for whatever it is we're interested in, why are people still loyal to brands? Look at Twitter: prior to launching their advertising/marketing models last month, Twitter was an ad-free environment yet multiple studies came out saying that over 20% of all tweets had a mention of a brand within them. Left to our own devices, we love talking about brands, what we're buying, and the things we've watched on TV (and this includes the ads). But, there's something more: The concept is old but the ability to do it is brand new. The best time to get someone to buy something is when they are in need, and they know they are in need, and they are asking for help. Some would argue that the best advertising makes a consumer think they need something (even when they don't). Search engines, Twitter, Foursquare, status updates and other location-aware platforms are the true last mile of Marketing... They help Marketers listen (and respond) to consumers at their point of need. How many Marketing campaigns have really led with this truism as a core to the overall strategy? Listening tools (and social media monitoring tools) are all the rage these days. You won't see a Marketing proposal from a Digital Marketing agency that doesn't include "listening" as part of the overall program, but how many brands have really made the shift away from the more traditional branding initiatives into one where the focus is primarily targeted and spent on listening to their consumers at that point of need (and them helping them fulfill that need)? It's amazing to even think that we can actually do exactly that right now (yes, today). There's a lot of lip-service being paid to these kinds of thought and Social Media, in general. If things were pushing beyond basic lip-service, something tells me that Foursquare would have more brands pounding down their door while Google, Yahoo and Bing would be busy trying to install more phone lines instead of hiring outbound advertising sales reps to hit the pavement and close the big ad deals. What will it take for brands to really make the move over to where their customers are (and asking for them)? Tags: advertising advertising campaign advertising sales rep bing brand branding business book communication digital marketing agency foursquare google indiana jones innovation listening tools location aware marketing marketing strategy online social network point of need search engine social media social media monitoring status update technology the last mile of marketing the most branded generation ever traditional advertising twitter yahoo
• Kill All Marketers 19 May, 2010, 7:21 pm
  Where does Marketing land in terms of professions that are perceived to be honourable by the mass public? Something tells me, Marketing sits well below both lawyers and used-car salespeople, and maybe even slightly beneath scumbags and charlatans (but I can't be certain). I'm proud to say that I am a Marketing Professional, but even as I write those words, I can smell the oxymoron-ness of it all. It's a sad state of affairs. One of the primary reasons why I put my body through the rigors of intense travel is to be an evangelist of marketing (wow, using those words might smack me right back to the charlatans and scumbags). It's not evangelism as you think it to be, and it's not Social Media evangelism either. It's about getting people excited about how new and different Marketing is (and, it's about getting new and exciting clients to work with my agency, Twist Image). Real interactions between real human beings. It's one of the many reasons I decided to take on Marketing as a career. When I first started tinkering with the Internet (back in the late 80s, when it was nothing more than online bulletin board services and sporadic connectivity), I realized (like many others) that this was the game-changer. That the ways in which we were doing Marketing, Advertising and Communications was going to change (forever and drastically). Slowly, over the years, we've begun to see this come to fruition. Some like to call it "Social Media" others "Web 2.0", but the nomenclature means nothing next to the function it serves and the disruption to the traditional ways it has caused: Our ability to publish our thoughts out in text, images, audio and video instantly, free and for everyone to consume/take part in. Our ability to share and collaborate with that content (or any other form of content). Our ability to connect at the local level or at our points on interest. Our ability to build a network, community or group of people who care about our shared values. When people say "you marketers are all the same" it really wrinkles my britches (I'm not even from Europe). Yesterday, Bill Dumphy, posted to the comments section of the Blog post, The Fuss About Facebook, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a marketer would stand shoulder to shoulder with Facebook on these issues, but I refuse to believe ALL marketers are amoral. Sadly, your piece runs contrary to my optimistic outlook." Let's just kill all of the Marketers, why don't we? Sure, there are some Marketers who don't believe the hype (or the changes) that the Internet has brought forth, and then there are the "other" kinds of Marketers who are involved in the black hat side of things (spammers, unsolicited telemarketers, sketchy infomercial-types), but every industry has it's own fair share of bottom-feeders. Maybe Marketing has more bottom-feeders than the average profession? It's not an unfair/unjust argument, and the truth of it is that I would not know. So, as someone who spends their days trying to shift perceptions, trying to build community and trying to give abundantly to help this industry elevate itself, it can be sorely annoying to be lumped into a generalization like that (welcome to the world, sadly). For Marketing to thrive, we're all going to have to do our part. From product innovation and customer care to really getting down to the nuts and bolts of thanking our customers. We need to be spending the right amount of time building those relationships and the loyalty that comes with it. We need to be ensuring that what we're communicating and marketing lives up to what the product, brand or service can actually do. Nothing less will do. I think Marketers are up to the challenge. What do you think? Tags: advertising black hat collaboration communication community connectivity content customer care customer service internet marketer marketing marketing evangelist marketing professional networking product innovation publishing shared values social media social media evangelist web 20