Canadian Marketing Blog

Brand measurement

As organizations devote more funding to brand development, many marketers find themselves wrestling with the need to demonstrate to board members and shareholders that these efforts are resulting in tangible pay-back. Stakeholders want to see the ROI; they want quantifiable results from their brand building investment.

But how do you draw a hard data link between the customer experience and business success?How do you produce hard numbers that benchmark employee engagement with the brand promise?

I would be interested in your comments? We have had success recently through employee surveys. What is your organization using to measure employee engagement as it relates to your brand?

Can you spell...

Over the years few movies have actually inspired me. The elite few that did are limited to Lean on Me, Rudy, Billy Elliot and Radio. The underlying theme in each is an underdog overcoming challenges facing them.

I couldn't understand why Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks, insisted everyone see Akeelah and the Bee. He even ran a contest because he believed in it so much. Having watched it, I understand why. What a great movie.

Around the time of the DVD release of 'Akeelah and the Bee', Blockbuster ran in-store spelling games and activities in their retail stores nationally. This was a tag-team with ABC Canada and other partners to promote literacy nationally in Canada. How cool is that? (Ironically, weeks later the Federal Government slashed funding for adult literacy programs.)

In my humble estimation, the best way to improve literacy is through reading but Blockbuster deserves credit. This was a creative and educational way to promote a new release. They could have just handed out a free pack of M&M's with each rental but they didn't.

Can you spell impressive?

The Bubble Project

I have been following the bubble project for sometime now. Why? Because it makes me laugh … out loud.

No really, what’s the bubble project you ask? Wikipedia defines it:

The Bubble Project, as proclaimed by its manifesto, aims to counterattack the one-sided corporate onslaught of marketing and advertisement messages which propagate public space. The project was conceived by an artist and art director Ji Lee who originally printed 15,000 stickers that look like speech bubbles used in comic strips. He posts these blank speech bubbles on top of advertisements throughout New York City allowing anyone who sees them to write in their comments and thoughts. By filling in the bubbles people engage in the project and transform “the corporate monologue into an open dialogue”. After time passes, the comments are photographed and posted on the project’s website.

Cool idea and dead simple. I had the chance to hear Ji Lee speak about his project at the Gain: Business and Design Conference. As you can imagine many marketers and advertisers are not very happy with his little experiment. After all, this is vandalism ... right? However, some advertisers saw this as a great way for people to interact with their ads. It’s like some crazy version of an offline mashup meets consumer generated content. Not to mention the viral aspect of the project. Ji has also written a book, Talk Back: The Bubble Project. The book explains why he did this and what he learned.

Love it or hate it, this is just another great example of consumers taking control.

Give or Take 10 Pounds

There has been some debate recently surrounding new digital cameras that have a 'slimming' feature that reduces the size of images, objects or people. It's apparently as easy as the press of a button.

Hewlett-Packard proudly markets this product 'enhancement'. Truth be told, they took some harsh criticism of posting images of women to promote this. They quickly changed course and replaced them with images of overweight men. So rather than reinforce anorexia, they now justified obesity instead. Sometimes marketers just can't win.

The capitalist in me says this is a growth area and there will be demand for this product for years to come. Evidently, it's been reported that sales of this type of product for the upcoming holidays have been brisk.

However, I'm inclined to agree with the view that this 'product' is in poor taste. No, I'm not trying to kick HP while they're down. I love my HP desktop and some kind people there helped me with my thesis but this just seems wrong.

As per the video below by Dove, 'No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted." It's said that the camera adds 10 pounds. It's also said the camera never lies. I'd rather get rid of the 10 pounds via exercise and a healthy diet. Even if it takes longer than clicking a button.

What's In a Name?

How will our product marketing role transition from product to solution focus? This question often emerges in my discussions with b-to-b marketing executives. As the b-to-b world has moved away from wanting to be viewed as “product-based” to “solution-based,” confusion has grown as to where this leaves product marketing. Even when an organization can complete the difficult journey of moving from product to solution, that doesn't mean that product transactions will disappear; in fact, I believe that a “solutions” organization will still likely conduct about a third of its overall business in a purely product-focused manner. To reflect this mix, I am starting to see organizations refer to their product marketing function as “portfolio marketing,” as it better reflects the reality of the mix of product, solution and even segment-based marketing that will be considered optimal in the quarters and years to come.

This seemingly subtle move of renaming a product marketing group in this fashion is actually quite significant. It allows existing structures to be placed under a new umbrella, professes that there still is very good reason to continue to do business as we’ve been doing in the proper circumstances, and demonstrates that the organization is committed to developing a more comprehensive structure and tactical plan where it is warranted.

Tease Me!

Clearlly I'm in my car too much because that's where I'm seeing most of the new advertising out there for the holidays. Right now the one that has everyone talking (seriously!) is the intriguing new series of Out-of-Home with blue wrapping paper and in some executions, a real silver bow. No copy. Just wrapping paper and a bow. I hadn't seen it myself until this morning. But ironically, last night, on my way to vote, I ran into a friend who happens to be in the business. She described the campaign, asked if I'd seen it and told me it was driving her and her colleagues crazy trying to figure out who was doing the teasing. They had even gone online searching for clues. You can bet when the reveal happens, she's going to take notice. Hopefully she won't be underwhelmed.

While I'm on the topic of being intrigued, I'm looking forward to Friday night's CMA Awards. This will be my twentieth consecutive year at the awards (the stories I could tell!). And while the award show itself has changed, one thing has remained the same. It's still THE night to catch up with old friends and colleagues, gossip a bit, meet a few new people, and generally blow off some much needed steam. Of course, you may be intrigued by who and what wins, but one things is for sure. You will not be underwhelmed by the reveal.

Toronto-Created CaseCamp Enters Second Life

CaseCamp – a marketing case study unconference that was started in Toronto last June by Eli Singer is now making its way into Second Life – the online virtual 3D world. This is a mash-up of major social media proportions.

First off, an unconference, is an event that is set-up through a wiki (an editable web page) and all of us are responsible for it. This includes self-registering, choosing your speaking topic and slot in the day. It is, typically, promoted through channels like Blogs and Podcasts.

CaseCamp is geared towards marketers (the usual unconference are more techy and geeky – which, for the record, is fine by me) and presents a rare opportunity to showcase real case studies and results in a conversational environment.

Since its creation, CaseCamps have been held in Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa and, on December 14th, 2006, Second Life.

Joining Singer in the top-level organization of CaseCamp Second Life is Vancouver-based Blogger, Kate Trgovac from MyNameIsKate, C.C. Chapman from crayon and host of the Podcast, Managing The Gray, and Bryan Person from the Podcast, New Comm Road.

Due to the technical limitations of Second Life, those interested in attending are asked to register for CaseCamp Second Life and then a draw will be held for the limited spots.

CaseCamp Second Life is also presently accepting submissions for those who would like to present.

As someone who helped organize CaseCamp Montreal, I can personally attest to the power of community, sharing and conversation. The event in Montreal was a night where marketers not only got a chance to connect, but to disclose what works (and what doesn’t).

For all information and to get self-organizing, please visit: CaseCamp Second Life.

‘Search’ event

Quick post about an upcoming event - Yahoo is host to a preview of their next generation search marketing technology. It’s on Nov 28, 6:00 pm at The Richmond (477 Richmond), downtown Toronto.

There will be a demo of Yahoo’s new search marketing platform, and a meet and greet with Yahoo’s Executive team. Of interest to anyone who needs to be in the know or has questions about search - bloggers, media, advertisers, etc.

Details here – RSVP required.

Astronaut Marc Garneau Speaks about Innovation

Innovation is a popular and common term these days in the marketplace. Thinking out of the box on innovation and technology, space exploration is playing a crucial role in the development of emerging technologies. There is an opportunity to hear two of Canada's leading authorities discuss innovations propelling Ontario into a higher orbit of global competitiveness. Marc Garneau, Canadian Astronaut, and Dr. Robert Zee (U of T Institute for Aerospace Studies) will present at the Ontario Centres of Excellence "Mind to Market" breakfast series Thursday November 23rd (7:30am) at the Board of Trade.

For more infomation, or to register, visit www.bot.com or e-mail events@bot.com.

Not Sure About Blogs As A Marketing Tool? Join Me

It’s still a big question and it’s one that you deserve an answer to. The only way to find the answer is to immerse yourself in it and then make the right call. I’ve done the heavy lifting, so all you have to do is join me for one special day in Toronto.

On Monday, November 27th, 2006 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, I am conducting a full-day seminar for the CMA – Canadian Marketing Association – called, Blogs – A Marketers’ Secret Weapon.

Here’s how the seminar is described on the CMA website:

“Blogs are quickly becoming a marketers' secret weapon or worst nightmare. Join us for an interactive look at how to set-up and manage a successful Blog. In this full-day session you will get specific insight into the basics and beyond, including how content can be developed for a Blog that will build tremendous buzz. You'll learn why trackbacks, permalinks and pinging (Blog-talk for linking and link sharing) is not only easy and simple but highly effective. We'll also look at how a corporate website can find the right ‘voice’ to create a powerful Blog, and you will see how, within 48 hours, we managed to get our keyphrase of choice on the first page of Google for a term that returned over 1,000,000 results. We will also breakdown and explain the technology of it all, including RSS, XML and the many other Blogging technologies that make ‘personal instant publishing’ one of the easiest ways to build buzz, loyalty and rocket to the top of the search engines. This is your marketing primer on Blogs.”

I also cover Podcasting (both audio and video).

You can view the full seminar outline over here: Blogs – A Marketers’ Secret Weapon – Seminar Outline.

I will also be joined by a special guest: David Jones, co-host of the excellent Podcast, Inside PR, Blogger over at PR Works and, when he’s not immersed in the social media space, he’s a Senior Vice-President at Fleishman Hillard.

By the end of this full-day seminar, you’ll know everything I know about Blogs and Podcasting and you’ll also be empowered to make the decision about whether or not you (or someone in your company) should be Blogging.

I hope you can join me.

You can register here: Blogs – A Marketers’ Secret Weapon – Registration.

Justification for a Higher Education

The one poster I distinctly remember having from my college days was entitled "Justification for a Higher Education". Unfortunately, my U2 posters were not as inspirational.

I recently read in the N.Y. Times an article entitled 'For the Super-Rich, it's time to upgrade the Old Jumbo Jet' by Joe Sharkey. Let's just say it reminded me of my old poster.

If you haven't heard, the ultra-rich are now converting large wide-body aircraft such as Boeing 737s, 767s and 747s into private jets. Where they carry 12 to 15 people in luxury and their Ferraris, Aston Martins and prized Arabian race horses. Learjets and Gulfstreams are so yesterday.

And the cost is a few million dollars. What's $150 Million between friends? (All funds in USD of course.) But when you are Larry Page and Sergey Brin (co-founders of Google) $150 Million is pocket change after having dropped $1.3 Billion on YouTube. Mr. Page and Mr. Brin bought a used 767 and spent mucho dinero converting it to a home/office with wings.

What's mucho dinero? According to the Times article, to enchance the interior of a Boeing 747 one can easily drop $50 Million. I suppose I'll be flying commercial a little longer.

Perhaps the pictures below should now serve as the new motivation or rather justification for a higher education for students and marketers of the future.

Lufthansa Technik's proposed movie theatre for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Lufthansa Technik's proposed master bedroom for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Bubble Project and Politics

The Bubble Project is a great idea as it relates to advertising, and I wonder if there's a suitable spot in the editorial pages of our nation's newspapers? Just as Steve Mast points out that some advertisers could use bubble tactics to better engage consumers with advertising, perhaps newspapers, TV and Internet news could try to engage readers and viewers in such mundane discussions as national politics, foreign policy or healthcare?

While I do grow tired of the media's ongoing and unabashed efforts to portray our Prime Minister as the most fashion-challenged politician there is, the Globe and Mail's shot of our world's leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in China this week begs a bubble entry:

President Bachelet: Honest, Stephen, you don't look fat at all in that dress, and the colour brings out your blue eyes. Mind you, when you turn your head just so, you do have a bit of a double chin.

Prime Minister Harper: You're nice to say so Michelle. I think George is still fuming that I took the last XL off the rack.

Learning from Kramer

Michael Richards, the actor who played Kramer on the popular comedy television show Seinfeld, is unlikely to get many invites to comedy clubs in the future. His recent antics are all over the news.

Richards was heckled by audience members and responded by using very offensive and racist language. I debated posting a video of the incident but thought it would be in poor taste.

Richards's representatives did not return calls immediately after the incident. I'm not surprised as they were probably just as stunned when they saw a video of his 'performance'. In fairness, it was reported that Richards apologized.

Jerry Seinfeld made a statement saying he was "sick over this horrible, horrible mistake." I was a Seinfeld fan and thought Kramer was funny. Unfortunately, the show Seinfeld won't be the same when Richards appears on the screen.

Three observations. The first one being no matter how stressful the situation, always keep your cool. Whether you are a stand-up comedian or marketer. And no, losing your cool or being under the influence does not justify racism regardless of what your last name is.

Secondly, marketers should note that a brand (be it Seinfeld or Kramer) that took nine years to cultivate may have been damaged beyond repair by the ignorant actions of one person.

Finally, we will always have George.

Gettin’ out the vote

I love it when our members get recognized for their amazing work. We received our stack of Marketing Magazines yesterday and I was so pleased to see so many CMA members nominated as Marketing Magazine’s “Marketer of the Year” 2006.

I will be honest: I hadn’t taken the time (yet) to go to their site to vote.

But then I received an email from Pamela Davis, WWF’s Director of Marketing, letting me know about their nomination, urging me to vote and telling me how. Personalized ask, good copy and simple instructions. Of course I clicked on the link. For Pam’s effort WWF is ahead with 83% of the vote.

Why don’t you check it out and vote?

And here’s what Pam had to say in her email:

That's right! WWF has been nominated for Marketer of the Year 2006. You have the power to help the little guy win. We've got a week in order to do it.

You know, it's easy to sell cars when you have lots of money. We're trying to save the planet with a little money and A LOT of help from our friends. Of course we should be Marketer of the Year!

Please help us lay waste to the competition. All you have to do is:

1. Click on this link: http://www.marketingmag.ca. Find the poll on the lefthand side of the page and click on WWF-Canada.

That's it, that's all.

And I know some of you have very long tentacles into the on-line world and can really help us out. Please put out the call to your contacts via email, or put it on your blog, or whatever fancy Internet magic you can make.

Thanks for taking a minute to vote!

p

P.S. To win this is important because the exposure in the business community makes us more attractive to potential corporate partners because they see us as being very professional and having a brand that is valuable. The biz community is a source of revenue to help us do our conservation work. Please vote right now.

Your Next Great Marketing Idea

I've wondered why we marketers sometimes work in silos or with our blinders on, when the very answers we look for could be in a cubicle or office just across the floor.

Recently, we launched a travel website for Sears associates. Why? The logic is as follows. There are over 40k across Canada. Sears employees get a further discount on travel. The corporation gets a more attractive looking top line. It's a no-brainer.

The best part is that the idea originated in part from a colleague in finance.

Results? The associate website has generated enough sales to justify its launch. Sales that would have gone to competitors. (We also a launched an exclusive associate email contest - details to come in a future post.)

My intent is not to be self congratulatory per se but to demonstrate how anyone can leverage non-marketing colleagues for ideas. If you are not doing so already, what are you waiting for?

By no means do I suggest bean-counters do your marketing. Or that marketing does your finance. But sometimes asking for an opinion that takes 5 minutes could result in $500k in incremental sales or savings.

I was recently told a story of Walt Disney. He was a workaholic and one morning he walked the streets of the Magic Kingdom at 3am. He saw some third shift maintenance workers, opened up a drink stand and invited them to have some lemonade.

After a while their supervisor said they had to prepare for the park opening. Mr. Disney said no problem and bid them adieu. As the crew walked away the supervisor asked him "Why would the CEO of Walt Disney World hang out with a cleaning crew?"

To which Walt replied, "Because I never know where the next great idea will come from."

New Donor Crisis???

What’s hot today in nonprofit direct response marketing?

Most would agree it is how organizations cost effectively acquire new supporters.

The after-effects of recent privacy legislation and increased competition for those potential donors has made it more difficult for nonprofits to find new supporters. Where do we go from here?

New channels and greater channel integration, more rigorous up-front analysis, geo-demographic profiling, an indepth exploration of internal names, increased use of premiums, are among the responses some organizations have had to the “crisis”.

What’s working for you? Or are you still a ‘spray and pray’ organization?

Ring a Bell?

Well, it's out of the bag so to speak. By now, most people know that the blue wrapping paper with silver ribbon and bow teaser campaign is for Bell. If you go to http://www.bell.ca you can click on a wrapped box being held by one of those beavers and view a Bell ExpressVu HD demo. The unwrapping isn't animated in Flash. And you have to keep rolling over the bow to find the small section of it that allows you to click through. Overall, I'm afraid I'm underwhelmed. The wrapping paper and bow outdoor tease campaign is still up. And frankly, I'm not sure how anyone knew that it was for Bell. Purely word of mouth I guess. So the question is this: Cool teaser campaign. Created a lot of buzz -- at least among Marketers. But was it good creative? Was the pay-off well-executed? Did it sell? I guess only someone from Bell can answer the last question. What did you think?

Somebody likes those Beavers. In my last post, I spoke about the mystery teaser campaign and how much I was looking forward to the CMA Awards and seeing what would win. Little did I know I was teasing for Bell on both counts. The teaser campaign was for Bell and the Best of the Best Award was won by Bell for the Olympic Beaver campaign. Like it or not, I guess they're doing something right.

Whole-Being Branding: How it’s Unique and Different

Whole-Being Branding is unique and different in its holistic view, including everything from the culture, values, and benefits of the corporation to the way it thinks and works, and how it creates wealth.

Whole-Being Branding looks at total communications internally and externally. It examines every touch point between the brand and its stakeholder group. It concerns itself with where the corporation has been, where it is now, and where it is going.

Another significant difference is that its key goal is building relationships—up front and personal relationships and customers for life.

IKEA is the epitome of the 21st century retail Brand. Tapping into basic human needs and providing universal benefits regardless of country, class, age, or income. To see concepts of Whole-Being Branding demonstrated in all its glory, look to new age brands like American Girl, Whole Foods, Starbucks, Virgin Atlantic, Tim Hortons, and President’s Choice.

Advertising agencies and graphic and design specialists can help bring your Brand to life with words and pictures, but first you have to decide who you are and how you are different and unique. The Whole-Being Branding process can help you do this.

Confessions of a PVR User

After owning a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) for nearly a year, I've had plenty of time to reflect on how my television consumption habits have changed. I knew the PVR would have an impact on my 'relationship' with television; what I didn't know at the outset was how.

For years, friends had told me how getting a PVR will "change your life," which always struck me as giving the device far more credit than it probably deserved. While I can't say my life has been profoundly changed by the addition of this gadget, I have made a number of observations about my life A.P. ("After PVR") that I thought would be worth sharing:

I almost never watch live television anymore. Perhaps if I was into sports I would, however the only time I can recall watching live television in the last few months was the night of the Toronto mayoral election.

I am addicted to the "skip back" feature of the PVR. There have been a number of occasions where I've gone to see a movie in a theatre and found myself reaching for the remote (that wasn't there, of course) to quickly rewind the last 30 seconds of what I just saw. Then it dawns on me that I can't. Then it occurs to me that I don't get out enough!

I have become far more 'open-minded' in my choice of television shows to sample. Since I can store something like 200 hours of programming on my PVR, and it's so easy to program the recorder, I'll happily record a show that sounds interesting. If I don't like it, zap, it's gone in seconds. This ability for people to easily 'sample' new shows is one of the PVR's greatest strengths for content providers.

Since the PVR's remote control has a handy "skip forward" button that skips exactly 30 seconds ahead, commercial "breaks" are no longer breaks and rarely have commercials in them. When the show we are watching fades to black for a commercial break, I press the "skip forward" button six times and we're back into the show.

Yes, this means we watch far fewer TV commercials, however every now and then we get a momentary glimpse of a commercial that so intrigues us that we deliberately "skip back" to watch it in its entirety. The fact that we're consciously choosing to watch certain commercials - to devote our full attention to them - is not something I imagined would happen, however I am sure it's music to the ears of some advertisers. (By the way, it would seem that any commercial that features cute animals will get the "skip back" treatment in my household since my wife is a huge animal lover. Not surprisingly, she's seen every Telus commercial ever made!)

Finally, although my home theatre has become fully digital, my mind has not. I still ask my wife if she "taped" a show using the PVR when, of course, there's no tape or taping involved. Old lingo dies hard, it seems.

Do Your Metrics Measure Up?

Behold the corporate research project. Generally commissioned by a single division or function, as soon as others get wind of it they want to put their two cents in and add “just a question or two here or there.” Before you know it, the list is so huge that the cutting starts, and the original reason the research was asked for is lost in a morass of competing agendas.

Those whose jobs it is to measure sales and marketing performance often feel the same way. With a barrage of specialized requests coming from above, below and sideways seemingly every day, it’s easy to forget which metrics are actually worth unearthing and tracking.

If an organization wishes to be successful in tracking and assessing its sales and marketing functions, it should adhere to three guiding principles of measurement:
1. Metrics should either drive action, or be axed
2. Metrics must be measurable
3. Confidence comes from consistency

Peel away the special requests, the pet projects and the wild goose chases, and you’ll find the core set of metrics that we believe are the most impactful in the b-to-b world. These include:
o Reputation - Historically, the job of managing reputation and assessing its impact has been highly manual and highly unreliable. Now, however, there are a growing number of third-party tools and services that allow organizations to bring reputation-building activities largely in-house.
o Demand creation - Five metrics provide a view into an organization’s demand creation funnel, and how marketing has impacted that funnel. They include: inquiries/responses, marketing qualified leads, sales accepted leads, sales qualified leads and closed business.
o Sales optimization/revenue - Between sales expense and revenue lies a series of competencies, activities and opportunity management structures that when in place make sales more productive. A focus on measuring sales productivity in a way that reaches beyond just revenue is highly valuable.

Everyone wants to measure. It’s how we justify the existence of our functions and our requests for additional dollars and bodies, as well as how we validate our strategic approaches. But measuring just for the sake of measurement gets us no closer to achieving any of these goals; it merely fills in the need for charts in our corporate presentations. By focusing on the metrics that truly make a difference – and compiling these metrics in a credible, consistent fashion – we are much more likely to turn even the most skeptical head.