Monday, February 25th, 2008 |
[Our Thoughts] Our including this article today is not political. We know you’re dying to believe it is. We know you’re dying to imprint your own prejudices about the media onto this report. Please, resist the urge to judge this right out of the box. Instead, visit each of the sites yourself, and evaluate your reactions to what you find. Not to the political content, but to the graphic design and how the candidate’s language, photos and layout tugs on your emotions. All these people are doing is marketing to you. So, use them to your advantage. Study them and identify what it is that speaks to you. Then implement those successful bits into your own website. ##
Source: Online Media Daily
MORE THAN HALF OF THOSE who visited the Web sites of Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul had a more favorable view of the presidential candidates after viewing their sites.
By contrast, only 36% thought better of Hillary Clinton based on her campaign site, according to a study by marketing research firm RelevantView. Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain finished in between, with 44% improving their view of him after visiting his site.
The results were based on a February survey of 780 people self-identified as Democrats, Republicans or Independents and RelevantView’s online behavioral tracking technology. Respondents were asked about candidates’ stands on the Iraq war, health care, taxes and spending, and immigration before and after visiting their sites.
Posted in Business Success, Internet, Lessons in Marketing | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008 |
[Big Idea] Seize every opportunity — even “little” ones — when they present themselves. Considering the lifetime value of even just one customer, it’s worth it! An ounce of perceived “good will” can become a quart of great results. ##
by Nina M. Lentini | Source: Marketing Daily
MARKETING LOVES A VACUUM. IN the wake of Starbucks’ announcement that it will close all of its 7,100 company-owned stores on Tuesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in order to refocus more than 135,000 employees on its espresso standards, other coffee vendors are leaping to the fore.
Stew Leonard’s, which roasts its 20 varieties of coffee in-house and brews more than 2,000 pounds of beans every day, on Wednesday said it will offer free cups of coffee, espresso and cappuccino while Starbucks is closed. (more…)
Posted in Business Success, Lessons in Marketing, Niche Marketing, Product | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008 |
Source: Chain Drug Review
The ads feature the tagline “Pharmacies. The face of neighborhood health care.” They support that theme with messages about pharmacies and pharmacists, including their convenience, accessibility, expertise, prevention of drug interactions, and counseling of patients to take medications as prescribed.
“Today we are announcing a major campaign to tell our story like never before,” Anderson said. “We are turning up the volume on this central message: Pharmacies are essential to health care.”
Members of focus groups for the ads had an “aha” moment when they appreciated the vital role of pharmacy in the health care system, Anderson noted.
“Personally, they had benefited from pharmacy services many times,” he said. “They had obtained a prescription when away from home. They enjoyed access to pharmacists’ advice and medicine when a child was in need. They knew a pharmacist helped an elderly parent when a new drug was prescribed. They trusted that someone was going to help ensure they weren’t taking incompatible medications.
“But they just hadn’t made the connection that pharmacy is part of the health care system and should be treated that way in public policy.”
Read the full story at Chain Drug Review >>
Posted in Business Success, Lessons in Marketing, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 |
[Karin's Take] Here’s a perfect example of how changing your advertising can result in a major sales boost. This is why it is imperative to understand who your buyer is, what they are looking for, and that your advertising message actually matches up and speaks to that buyer. If you’re not hitting them in a way that speaks to them, your ad isn’t doing everything it could for you.
So if you’re not getting the results you want, make a change and test it. Keep changing, and keep testing, and keep measuring and analyzing the results. If you don’t track the changes you make, measure and analyze the results of each change, then you have no idea what’s working and what’s not!
Now let’s read how the boys at Absolut kicked some butt. ##
By Jeremy Mullman | Source: Advertising Age
What happens when you ditch a legendary, iconic and recognized ad strategy synonymous with your brand for decades?
Absolut resurgence.
After trading in its print-based campaign tied to the shape of its bottle for a global multimedia approach last year themed, “It’s an Absolut world,” the Swedish vodka brand saw its sales spike.
According to the company, global case shipments jumped 9%, and Absolut gained market share in the crowded and increasingly competitive U.S. market — no easy feat for a mature brand trying to fend off an ever-expanding pool of upstarts.
Absolut, the No. 2 U.S. vodka brand, trailing only Smirnoff, also broke the 5 million case mark last year for the first time — a status shared with only Bacardi, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan and Jack Daniels in the spirits space.
“We took a really different approach and it paid tremendous dividends,” said Ian Crystal, Absolut’s brand director. “A lot of our key numbers had been flat or declining, and they’re all going up now.”
Absolut’s sluggishness was partially a result of an ad campaign that had fallen out of step with its product’s place in the market, executives said after they made the campaign switch last spring.
Even so, the marketer was reluctant to end one of the most celebrated campaigns in the history of alcohol marketing, no matter how irrelevant it had become. “We almost looked at [change] as heretical,” said Rob Smiley, creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day, Absolut’s longtime creative agency. “But consumers really needed to see something fresh.”
TBWA Managing Director Jamie Gallo said the campaign attempted to steer Absolut clear of what he called the “rational benefits” being claimed by so many upstarts in the category, many of whom boast the best taste or the smoothest feel. Many of these claims contradict each other, and a few have even wound up in lawsuits. “We know people don’t purchase as much on rational benefits as on emotional benefits,” he said.
Read the full story at Advertising Age >>
Posted in Legal, Lessons in Marketing, Marketing, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 |
[Karin's Take] Think about this one in terms of your business. Is there a way you can adapt WaMu’s approach to your shop or business, to break free of the mold you (or your industry) has been cast in, so people will SEE you in a new and inspiring light? So people will want to flock to your shop/business enthusiastically because they want to be a PART of it? ##
Source: SeattlePI.com
WHOO WHO? More bankers are hitting the unemployment lines, although this time they happen to be fictional.
Washington Mutual last week unveiled a new advertising campaign encompassing print, billboards, radio, TV, direct mail and the Internet, built around the theme of “Whoo hoo!” That’s supposed to reflect moments of “a dream-like state where customers visualize moments of personal elation in response to learning about WaMu products and services,” according to a news release. Reinforcing that message are such advertising tag lines as “We don’t nickel and dime you.”
The bigger story, though, is that WaMu has unceremoniously retired the pin-stripe-suited “bankers in the pen” supposed to represent those villainous competitors doing that nickel-and-diming. WaMu, which last year switched its advertising account from Leo Burnett to TBWA/Chiat/Day, says the new campaign is “a more forward-looking, optimistic approach,” one that emphasizes “who we are” rather than “who we’re not.”
Read the full story at SeattlePI.com >>
Posted in Business Success, Lessons in Marketing, Marketing, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, February 15th, 2008 |
[Karin's Take] “Web 2.0″ and “Social Networking” have become huge catch-phrases and in-crowd type marketing over the past 18 months. Yet, is it such a great idea? has been slow to play out. There have been plenty of adopters to Facebook (at least as evidenced by frequent referrals to the service on news broadcasts) but now we are finally seeing the Dark Side of Facebook… do you really want to subject yourself to this kind of headache? Will it be a headache for you? Think carefully before jumping in. Your short-term marketing gain today could be a long-term black mark tomorrow. ##
by George Simpson | Source: Online Media Daily
MULTIBILLIONAIRE BILL GATES, WHOSE COMPANY invested $240 million in Facebook just last year, has already abandoned his Facebook account. A Microsoft spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Gates hasn’t deleted it, but that he has stopped using it because he was inundated with friend requests. More likely, he tried to delete it and found out it is nearly impossible to do so. Even if you deactivate your account, according to The New York Times, Facebook still keeps a copy of all the information you ever posted. And, it’s still possible to contact people through deleted Facebook pages.
Not to pile on, but according to MSNBC, Facebook-types are turned off by too much advertising on social-networking sites–one reason the amount of time the average person spends on a social-networking site has dropped 14% over the last four months, according to comScore.
Did we just hear the death-knell of Web 2.0? Probably not, but I think we are seeing a divide between those who have a life and those who invent a life online. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Legal, Lessons in Marketing, Media Trends, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 |
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Knowing January would be tough, many retailers slashed prices to draw customers.
It wasn’t enough.
Despite extensive discounting, many department stores, women’s apparel sellers and even discounters turned in lackluster sales in January. Just about all of the companies missed analysts’ same-store-sales expectations for the month. Overall, same-store sales rose a mere 0.3% in January from the year-earlier period, the worst monthly showing since March 2003, according to an index compiled by Thomson Financial.
Virtually nothing that stores tried was able to boost sales during January. Gift cards promoted heavily during the holidays proved disappointing.
Full story at the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) >>
Posted in Business Success, Lessons in Marketing, Niche Marketing, Product | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 |
By Natalie Zmuda | Source: Advertising Age
Sales growth at the struggling Gap Inc. division began to slow in 2003 and has been steadily declining since 2005. A makeover, it appeared, was long overdue, and Mr. Cape, exec VP-marketing, was more than happy to oblige. “We were trying to be all things to all people before,” he said. “We really need to resonate with who we’re going after.”
To that end, Mr. Cape, a former JC Penney exec, plans to use the full force of his $225 million advertising budget to target, primarily, women in their 20s. Major spring and fall campaigns will highlight the retailer’s commitment to the group, while other segments, such as adults who make purchasing decisions for children, will be reached with circulars and direct mail.
How are they going to do it? – read the interview with Old Navy VP-Marketing Michael Cape >>
Posted in Lessons in Marketing, Marketing, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
