MarketerBlog

CGM & Marketing Roles of the Future: The Future is Now

Ben McConnell at the Church of the Customer Blog wrote an interesting post in reaction to Dave Sifry’s most recent State of the Blogosphere report. McConnell identifies the need for a new marketing role within companies: the social media analyst. The role would be a kind of “consumer insights” expert for the blogosphere. These analysts would find ways to sift relevant information from blog posts and comments, and would combine that with industry and company-specific insights to form the basis of marketing recommendations.

Stowe Boyd poo-poo’s this idea as too much business intelligence fairy dust. Instead, he recommends that marketers begin to define the role of blog relations. Similar to media relations, these experts would cultivate relationships with influential bloggers with the goal of eliciting coverage in blog posts. 

My take? I think they’re both right, and that it’s not the wave of the future, it’s happening today. Nielsen Buzz Metrics, Cymfony and Umbria all offer blog mining and analysis on a fee-for-service basis. These companies provide Fortune 1000 companies with insights regarding brand awareness and buzz in the blogosphere. Clearly there is a need for a self-serve version of this for smaller organizations that lack six-figure marketing research budgets. Blog relations is a blossoming PR practice. All the major PR shops now have blog experts, and in some cases agency leaders themselves are now blogging.  New agencies are forming just to meet this demand. Certainly some of the most prominent bloggers hail from the world of PR or journalism, including folks like Steve Rubel, Jeff Jarvis and Om Malik. 

But with all due respect to Mssrs. McConnell and Boyd, I would add a third domain to the consumer generated marketing portfolio: Digital Word-of-Mouth (WOM) Marketing. WOM marketing is not new. Amway, Avon,  and MCI’s Friends & Family are all great examples from the prehistoric pre-Internet era. What’s different now is the ability to efficiently design these programs to meet the needs and interests of micro-segments of consumers. The blogosphere (and other forms of CGM) represent millions of conversations on a daily basis. These conversations are among passionate (or at least interested) users who are thinking and dreaming, designing and building a vast array of products and services. Digital WOM enables marketers to tap into these centers of conversation and harness that energy on behalf of the product or service. It’s part digital evangelist, part alternate sales channel.

Today there are a number of smaller shops and intra-preneurial units within larger agencies trying to figure out the magic behind digital WOM. There are no clear leaders yet, though the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is beginning to coalesce the community and define standards.

CGM is having profound impacts on marketing. Given the eroding effectiveness of traditional media, it’s logical that marketers would explore CGM as an alternative. But it’s early days, and marketers are just beginning to learn how to tap into this wealth of insight and activity.

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CGM, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Analysis, Word Of Mouth

Advertisers: Getting a Social Life and Just Plain Getting It

Two very different perspectives on the evolution of advertising hit the wires today. Steve Smith wrote a column in OMMA Magazine (registration required) about the adoption of consumer generated media by traditional advertisers. He makes the point that while marketers have been hesitant in the past, they’re now beginning to realize the opportunity these “alternative” media offer for reaching difficult and desirable audiences like young adults.  There are a number of interesting observations in the article. Jeff Marshall, senior vice president, managing director, Starcom IP recognizes that this is truly permission-based marketing, as marketers find ways to enter into these conversations.

 "We come up with really creative ways to invite ourselves in and provide some value as part of the environment."

Smith makes an astute point about the strategies and tactics necessary for success in marketing on social networking sites.

 “The smart way in seems to be the side door. The key is not to promote so much as facilitate, as well as provide people hip and humorous tools for expressing themselves.”

Over on the other side of the blogosphere ANA President Bob Liodice is rattling the chains of one of his opinionated members, Ron Berger. Berger apparently delivered a diatribe against multi-agency sourcing by marketers during the Four A’s conference last week. (Imagine that! A dyed-in-the-wool mass media bombast with an aversion to sharing his fees with people who might actually understand integrated marketing programs and recommend creative solutions beyond 30-second spots on the national news and ESPN. Who knew?)

Having suffered the slings and arrows of being the “below the line” executive at one of Mr. Berger’s largest clients I know how fiercely they fought outside intrusion from any other type of agency. So it wasn’t surprising to learn that he made the assertion that the single-agency model is superior.

Bob Liodice makes a polite yet forceful case that Mr. Berger is flat-out wrong in his claims.

 “In fact, it is my strong belief that in most instances, a roster of agencies – working in tandem – can provide better insight, stronger focus and broader expertise than any single agency. To me, it seems not only appropriate but necessary that marketers partner with a range of expert resources that collectively offer the full complement of competencies and best practices necessary to build strong, enduring brands. The single-agency model, in my view, is just not a compelling solution for most major marketers today.”

 
My response is less diplomatic than Mr. Liodice’s. Ron: get over it. The days of basing your marketing plan on a handful of 30 second spots and national media buys are long gone. The consumer is in control, and we’re tired of your irrelevant, self-referential ads. Stop talking and start listening. Learn how to gain permission to enter the conversation, instead of shouting over it.

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4A's Management Conference, Advertising, CGM, Marketing, Social Networking, Web2.0

Requiem for Telco Competition

I’d like to have a moment of silence for the passing of competition in telephony. Sunday’s announcement of AT&T’s acquisition of BellSouth signaled the end of local and long distance competition and a new era of the duopoly of Verizon and AT&T. I realize that not a lot of people love the phone companies. Most research shows that consumers dislike the telco’s as much as the cable companies. But a lot of marketing innovation happened during the period after the divestiture of Ma Bell in the mid-80’s. And in most cases it sprang from the competition between the long distance carriers.

Think Web 2.0 is behind of viral marketing? MCI launched Friends & Family in 1992 and propelled millions of families into selling each other long distance service. Convinced that iTunes is the first online music distributor? MCI’s 1-800-MUSIC-NOW was launched in 1995. It was a short-lived venture to open a music store operated through automated telephone prompts. It also introduced what would have been one of the first ever serious attempts at an e-commerce music store via the MCI.com site. 

Laugh if you will, but Bill McGowan was a world-class entrepreneur, and the marketing machine at MCI sparked a tremendous amount of competition and innovation in that industry and a few others … not the least of which was AT&T. 

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AT&T, Innovation, Telecommunications, Web2.0

Marketing 2.0: What’s Old Is New

It’s heartening to see people from the bastions of old, mass-marketing think start to embrace the new world order. Of course they realize that, as in many aspects of life, there is nothing new under the sun.

Today’s MediaPost (registration required) features an excellent editorial by J. Walker Smith, the president of Yankelovich Partners. He opens with the bold statement that the “Internet has matured into the most important medium since television”. He goes on to provide a thoughtful analysis of the reasons why.

“The smartest use of technology is to leverage this dynamic of participation and engagement. This is what people want to do in general, and it's what all of the new technologies do so well. E-commerce is booming, but the biggest trend online is social engagement, and this will be an essential foundation for e-commerce in the future.”

Both Smith and Yankelovich recognize that this is the age of consumer resistance, and that people seek engagement with each other, not brands. In this environment successful marketers will recognize and embrace this important shift. They’ll stop focusing on controlling the message and the brand. Instead they’ll engage users in everything from product design to advocacy, to word-of-mouth sales. They’ll learn to listen first and then to join the conversation, as opposed to trying to dominate it.

Scott Karp takes this a step further, and asserts that Web 2.0 cannot be successful without Marketing 2.0.

“If Web 2.0 is going to make any money, it needs to pursue these new marketing paradigms and not just depend on Old Media models like selling ads — even Google AdWords feels like its Marketing 1.2 at best.”

He refers to Umair Hague’s recent claim that Web 2.0 cannot live up to its enormous potential unless the “geeks step outside their geekery”. In other words, that they need to embrace one of the essential premises of marketing (being truly customer-centric); instead of categorically refuting old-school marketing, they need to change it. 

That they're evil doesn't mean you should ignore them - it means you should be destroying them and then redefining them: making them less about Madison Ave and BuzzAgent, and more about the deep 2.0 principles that in fact, are revolutionizing the deep economics of many industries - principles like peer production, gift economies, sharing, transparency, social capital, anticonsumption, and deep culture.

All of these recommendations resonate with anyone who’s ever managed a customer service center or a customer loyalty program. It’s about listening to customer needs, designing products and services that they actually want, and marketing thing in the context of their preferences.

Imagine, being successful by actually giving the people what they want. Now that’s new!

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Marketing 2.0, Media Economics, New Media, Old Media, Web2.0

Stealth vs. Quiet: A Tale of Two Launches

One question every new technology company faces is when and how to launch. There are several schools of thought about it, but they fundamentally break into two camps: Stealth and Not Stealth. There are pros and cons to both and determining which is best for your company or product is highly dependent on a number of factors including the competitive landscape, the nature of the technology (e.g. are you ahead of the market or improving on an existing offering) and the entrepreneur’s confidence in being ready for “prime time”. This isn’t a new problem, and it isn’t limited to technology start-ups. I’ve worked with a number of Fortune 500 companies who used goofy names and internal NDA’s to try to enforce an aura of secrecy prior to a product launch. 

Today’s environment of active, consumer generated media gives companies the opportunity to test the waters with minimum expense, but not necessarily minimum risk. Two examples of recent launches are Ning and CollectiveX. 

As they say on their site, Ning is a free online service for cloning, customizing and sharing Social Web Apps. They launched in Beta last October. The company was in deep-stealth mode prior to the October release, but given Marc Andreessen’s involvement has been under intense scrutiny by Silicon Valley tech-watchers.  The initial release fell short of expectations in some quarters, and they received some negative-blog-press in January. Ning did a superb job of handling the criticism from the blogosphere, and more importantly, delivering a rich new release today. They clearly used the Beta as an extended R&D exercise, and have built a new version of the product which should knock the socks off of any critics. Ning’s CEO,  Gina Bianchini, says their strategy is to focus on quietly delivering the best possible product for their users. 

To quote Michael Arrington, “CollectiveX is LinkedIn the way it should have been done in the first place”. It’s social networking created by and for groups. CollectiveX is a secure, private meeting place which provides group members with tools to centralize communications, synchronize calendars, and share files and information.  This approach stimulates viral growth of the service and more importantly, a richer user experience as group-members select where and how they want to share information with others. It elegantly enables cross-over between professional and personal interests. Again, CollectiveX took the quiet route though the CEO, Clarence Wooten, has been working on the concept for some time. They made a small announcement last week and plan to run a highly targeted Beta for a short period. Given their sales and marketing strategy (viral growth through groups/referrals) they’re smart to focus on developing some strong case studies before they do a full commercial launch. 

Lesson learned? The success of your launch is more dependent on the quality of your product than on any MSM or blogosphere PR plan. Listen to your users, develop the best possible product and focus on exceeding user expectations. CGM has just amplified the impact of happy (or unhappy users). A group of enthusiastic beta customers will do more for your launch than any PR flacks.

 
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Ning, CollectiveX, launch, social software, web 2.0

Old Brands, New Tricks

The ANA Blog features a post by the organization’s president, Bob Liodice, on the need for more disciplined strategic planning  in marketing. The post covers a number of important issues and underscores many of the same points made in MarketerBlog over the past several months. He talks about the need for media-agnostic strategies, as well as for sophisticated marketing analytics. One of his most profound statements is that new media has shifted power from the marketer to the consumer. He cites Daimler-Chrysler as an example of an old-line company who “gets it” in terms of reinventing marketing strategies to acknowledge today’s actively engaged consumer. 

In addition to the programs Liodice mentions, Daimler-Chrysler participated in the recent Word of Mouth Basic Training or WOMBAT Conference in Orlando.  They presented a case study of their successful use of consumer generated media to seed product influencers and to spark momentum for the launch of the 2005 Chrysler 300C. 

There’s also an article in today’s Online Media Daily (registration required) about a consumer generated media program planned for Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. Paris Hilton fans may remember the “Spicy Paris” ad created for Carl’s Jr., which generated so much viral traffic it brought down the site’s servers. (Note:  I'm not sure what that ad is selling, but it ain't burgers. Maybe another form of CGM?) 

Brad Haley, the EVP of Marketing for Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s was quoted on the new strategy, saying: 

"As traditional advertising becomes less and less a part of our everyday lives, then we're open to all kinds of non-traditional contact and marketing with people. As the impact of TV ads is certain to diminish over time, we're obligated to explore all forms of nontraditional advertising."

These are exciting times for marketing revolutionaries. When the President of the ANA tells marketers to get with the program in terms of alternative and consumer generated media, you know things are changing. Now if we could just do something about Paris Hilton’s Q rating … 

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ANA, Brand, CGM, Marketing, web 2.0

Wake Up and Smell the Espresso or the Mocha Java, or Whatever

I got an interesting offer for a “marketing barter” from a fellow I met yesterday. 

“My offer still stands… 2 lbs. of the ‘best’ fresh roasted coffee delivered by FedEx Ground to your office door for only a few nuggets of tactical marketing actions that would lead to sales of my fresh roasted coffee. Check the website out www.winterscoffee.com.” 

Now normally I’m not inclined to give away the farm.  And I don’t think it would be too revealing to say that my billable hour is worth a little more than a couple of pounds of Mexican Organic Decaf. But I liked his style and I’m a coffee fiend, so here are a couple of suggestions for Winters Coffee. 

It’s All About Strategy

First, devising tactical marketing campaigns in the absence of an overarching marketing strategy is a little like giving a decaf skim latte to a college student. While there are times when even 20-year-olds get caffeine jitters, the college students I know like their coffee with some kick in it. Without an understanding of the company’s objectives and the context for its marketing programs (e.g. what’s been done in the past, what you are trying to accomplish, competitive issues, etc.) it’s difficult to design effective marketing tactics. So invest some time in reviewing your business objectives and setting a marketing strategy that aligns with them.
 

Use CGM to Distinguish Yourself

Coffee is one of the most saturated markets. There are almost as many Starbucks as McDonald’s and they’ve extended the franchise from urban hipsters to housewives shopping at Safeway. In a highly undifferentiated category, Winters Coffee needs to create a reason for people to think it’s better than the (pervasive) competition. Consumer generated media is one alternative. A quick search on Google Blogs shows over 2.3m results with the word “coffee” in it, but just 104 with the phrase “coffee fanatic”. Technorati’s “coffee” tag shows a list of posts, blogs and related tags such as “fair trade”. One coffee blog, Single Serve Coffee, made it to Feedster’s Top 500 list last August. There are thousands and thousands of coffee fanatics. Winters Coffee should spend some time researching the top blogs and engaging in their conversations.  By becoming part of the coffee dialog Winters will position itself as distinct from large, impersonal brands.
 

Make a Case for Winters Coffee

The Winters Coffee site is a transaction engine. It tells you how to buy their coffee, but it doesn’t tell you why. Every good salesman knows that you have to get the prospect hooked before you can reel them in. The Winters Coffee site should tell the story about why its coffee is great. There are a number of different angles to pick for this from the fair trade/sustainable earth message, to the small vendor/high quality pitch, to latte art. Winters should experiment with positioning in some of its blog posts and see what resonates with coffee fanatics. Then redesign the site to tell a compelling version of that story.
 

Find Some Friends

One of the greatest advantages F1000 corporations have is the ability to leverage effective partnerships to develop joint promotions. Companies use this approach to enter new markets, increase customer loyalty and defray sales and marketing costs. The Internet and the blogosphere offer small and medium sized enterprises the opportunity to create joint marketing programs with similar benefits. A few weeks ago Diva Marketing introduced me to a very cool service: Gourmet Station. Gourmet Station packages elegant meals with international themes and ships them straight to your door. Thanks to the good work of Diva Marketing, they’ve had terrific media coverage with rave reviews of the service. Many of their meals include coffee service. Winters Coffee should consider approaching Gourmet Station about a test program. If their coffee is all that and a bag of beans it will surely be a terrific addition to Gourmet Station’s elegant presentation. This kind of partnership would provide Winters Coffee with exposure nationally and to consumers who already are ordering food online.

  (Note: Diva Marketing posted recently about the difference between blogs for small upstarts and major corporations.  This post should also provide some great ideas to Winters Coffee for their own blog.)

So how about it? Valentine’s Day is coming and I know my husband isn’t prepared. How about a Gourmet Station meal to go with my two pounds of joe? 

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Coffee Marketing Marketing Strategy

Cheap Thrills and a Super Bowl Postscript

Today’s post will be brief. I spent a good part of the day with some of the folks at the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, part of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at theUniversity of Maryland. The discussion centered on definitions and impacts of Web 2.0, and included entrepreneurs, venture investors and technologists. It’s always fascinating to hear others’ perspectives on top-of-mind subjects like this. Many thanks to Asher Epstein and Adam Lehman for giving me the opportunity to participate in it.

There are two articles in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) which provide great proof points for my presentation today. First is an article on how emerging technology companies are making smart use of word-of-mouth, blogs and viral marketing tools rather spending excessive amounts on traditional mass media programs. It would appear that today’s start-ups are savvier than their predecessors from Web 1.0. Of course the WSJ also points out that necessity is the mother of invention, and that it might be the result of the practical reality of the current economic environment. Either way it’s a significant trend and one the Fortune 1000 could learn from. 

The second article in the Journal is about the relative ineffectiveness of Super Bowl ads in driving site traffic. While a handful of advertisers saw traffic spikes the day after the game, many who were counting on this as a centerpiece of their marketing programs didn’t.

More evidence that marketers should think twice before laying out big bucks on mass marketing programs.

Addendum:

comScore Networks just issued a release regarding the spike in traffic after Super Bowl ads.  Predictably beer, cars and babes (Go Daddy) did very well. This data is in stark contrast to the WSJ report I posted about earlier.  Yet another example of the disconnect in blogosphere measurement.  As Steve Rubel said yesterday:  who's going to set some standards?

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Super Bowl Advertising Marketing

Football, Newspapers and Cars

A handful of studies have come out this week which again show the evolving nature of our use of the Internet vis-à-vis other media. Here are a couple of tidbits which demonstrate the increased influence the Internet has in our lives. 

This weekend’s beer and chip fest should see a spike in Internet traffic as well. According to a study by comScore Networks fully 72 percent of Internet users intend to go online this weekend. Nielsen Net/Ratings estimates that SuperBowl advertisers will experience a significant increase in traffic the next morning. Last year traffic surged 27 percent, to 22.3m users, the Monday after the game. 

A report released Thursday by the Newspaper Association of America shows that online newspapers drew an average of 53.6 million visitors per month in 2005, and that the average user stayed on longer than in prior years (42 minutes per month). Ironically this report came out in the same week that the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) announced it is coordinating a campaign to demand compensation from Google and other search engines that aggregate their content. Funny, I wonder if they would have received all those site visits without search engine referrals. 

Finally, a report from the Polk Center for Automotive Studies indicates that the Internet has become the most important informational tool for first time vehicle buyers, eclipsing print, television and radio advertising. Although first time buyers tend to be younger, which may skew the results, the Internet has become a preferred car shopping tool for many segments. 

There’s no particular theme here … just my usual rant that consumers are taking things into their own hands, and the more that companies understand and leverage this phenomenon, the better off they’ll be.

The Super Bowl Syndrome

It’s that time of year again. The time of year when hot-shot executives start hyperventilating about all the money that’s being thrown around. No, I’m not talking about the fee for the Stones’ halftime show. I’m talking about the annual spend-fest on 30 second ads for the Super Bowl. This year the Super Bowl marketing unit is $2.5m. That’s right, two and half million dollars for 30 seconds of air time. Unbelievable! There’s got to be a better way to spend that money.

What’s fascinating is that so many marketers still think that’s the best way to engage with their customers. And while it’s true that there may be a place for classic advertising and sales promotion in the marketing portfolio, it’s doubtful that anyone will generate a decent return-on-investment for a 30 second Super Bowl spot.

With all due respect to my friends in the business, much of the advertising crowd is the last holdout of marketing old-think. These folks remain stubbornly convinced that the best way to build brand equity and enhance customer relationships is by flashing something at an inattentive, fragmented audience who could care less about your message, much less your creative. (And besides, they are probably in the kitchen getting more nachos.) Worse, just as they did when online advertising started, these guys are trying to shoehorn the same principles (and in some cases the same creative) into Marketing 2.0. An article in today’s Wall Street Journal describes how some Fortune 500 advertisers are recycling creative from TV spots to podcasts. Talk about not getting it.

Today’s consumer is firmly in control and has time-shifted his/her way out of seeing or hearing the vast majority of advertising. As Bob Liodice, President of the Association of National Advertisers puts it, marketing is being reinvented.   “Technology has shaken the foundations of marketing in several distinct and profound ways.”

Today’s consumer is sick of receiving the endless stream of credit card solicitations and is buying larger shredders to eliminate the glut of paper. Today’s consumer has enrolled in the National Do Not Call Registry and has caller ID and won’t be answering your phone pitch during dinner anymore. Today’s consumer is twice as likely to respond to word-of-mouth referrals than any form of advertising or promotion.

So stop already with the overblown Super Bowl ads and the "science of stupidities" junk mail. Technology gives us unprecedented opportunities to understand our markets, to engage in customer dialogue and to build lasting brand loyalty. Stop thinking like a command and control tactician, and think strategically about ways to collaborate with your customers.

And by the way, since you don’t need it, the obliging folks over at iMedia have compiled a list of ideas for how to spend your $2.5m Super Bowl budget.

Addendum: 
Stuart Elliot has an article in today's New York Times about the various ways advertisers are trying to eek value out of the $83,333 per second cost of their Super Bowl ads.  The article includes a chart which  graphically depicts the inverse ratio of the rising costs of Super Bowl media versus the declining audiences.  Their justifications for the media spend sound a little weak.  These advertisers may talk the talk of consumer engagement, but they sure haven't figured out how to walk the walk.