Canadian Marketing Blog

Social Media, Kruger Park and "The Power of One"

Following a lengthy discussion on brands and their ability to remain relevant in our ever-evolving media landscape, I coincidentally received this video from YouTube:

Watching this takes me back to a lesson learned from a 90's movie "The Power of One": The answer to any question may be found in nature, if you know where to look.

Could this amazing nature video answer the question: How do marketers and advertisers remain relevant in this evolving landscape?

Is the consumer the buffalo? Are we as marketers and advertisers the lion? Is the competition the crocodile?

When we use aggressive tactics and hostile terms like "target audience", "bull's-eye demographic", "conquest" and "loyalty", should we be surprised that the consumer is fighting back?

As the influence of one consumer can grow to overpower the voice of the advertiser, it makes me wonder why we pursue the ways of the "Lion".

Perhaps it is time to add our voice to that of the consumer, and influence rather then pounce on them when they least expect it.

Ironically, a simple stroll in the new media landscape may provide the answers you're looking for... if you know where to look.

Thank you for calling....

As a marketer, one of the daily to do’s on the priority list is listening for customer reactions to our company, products and marketing initiatives. And we're spoiled with the choice of tools that do it – sales results, research, website profiles, meetings with sales reps, etc. However one way and some would say the best way to hear feedback in all its unfettered pointedness is listening to the customer service team and regularly listening in on inbound customer calls. You hear it all - frustrations, product complaints, disappointing in store experiences – it's where virtually all pain points come to life (I’ll save the positive ones for another article). Welcome to the world of the 1-800 customer service number.

It can’t be all good news.
Collecting and acting on feedback in a timely way is critical if an organization is perceived as one that truly listens. I’m reminded of a meeting I had at Microsoft that helped me understand the importance of always listening for bad news. It was a monthly product unit meeting with senior Microsoft business unit managers (BUMs for short). The goal – deliver a comprehensive update after which the go/no go forward decisions would be made. At this particular one there were no major issues to report - no significant bug fixes, the content deals were signed on time and manufacturing and packaging dates were on target.

To the BUMs, it sounded a little too rosy. Even though we were doing our best to make appropriate decisions and keep the product launch on track, to their trained ears it was all… too good. Once we finished our presentation one BUM piped up, “I’m glad your team is hitting all the launch milestones, but what I’m most interested in are the problems that I haven’t heard about - give me the bad news, not just the good.”

Over the years I’ve taken this insight to always listen for bad news and to troubleshoot problems regardless of what type of marketing program I’m doing – before they have a chance to fester and grow into major issues.

The Customer Service team – your eyes and ears
The insight helped me always be aware of the importance of a well briefed and prepared customer service team. After all these company ambassadors are your front line eyes and ears and truly do have their pulse on what's happening at any given moment. How they interact with customers is a reflection on the entire organization, so the more prepared they are, the better chance we have to create a positive customer interaction.

Here are some lessons I’ve learned (some gladly, some painfully) over the years:

1. Consider the Customer Service Team (CST) a key stakeholder with any project you take to market – they’ll anticipate issues you hadn’t thought of and highlight lessons learned from the past.
2. Keep the team updated on changes to launch timing – they may be staffing up based on your program and need to adjust levels accordingly.
3. Always give the CST the ‘macro’ view of the project and not just the components relating to them – it’s amazing how motivated people become when they understand the bigger picture and relate how their work contributes to the overall success of an initiative.
4.Act upon customer feedback as quickly as possible – don’t delay when responding to an irate customer. And circulate the resolution to all teams as history can repeat itself pretty quickly.
5. Give the CST a copy of every marketing piece – even something as innocuous as a letter sent to a few hundred customers - having it handy to review helps reps prepare and be responsive
6. Use customer feedback to build “Frequently asked Questions” or “Rude Q&As” which can also be used on your website – especially if a flaw has been uncovered in the program and there is a need to blanket message
7. If you’re running a contest, make sure the team is familiar with the rules and regulations – the less they have to put a customer on hold to clarify a point reduces your overall cost per call
8.Spend at least one hour a month (more if you’re launching a new product) listening in on calls – I guarantee you’ll be amazed what you hear. In one example we moved the location of an 800 number in a direct mail piece for the next wave of activity because customers had difficulty finding it on the layout.

Spending time with your Customer Service Team and listening in on customer calls helps ensure the feedback loop to your programs is complete. And you’ll begin to feel very connected to how your program is impacting your customers and the market. For any marketer, that feeling is very cool.

More Confessions of a PVR User

Last November I wrote a post for this blog (Confessions of a PVR User) about how my television consumption habits had changed since I'd gotten a PVR.

Six months later, based on my 'focus group' of two (me and my wife), I'm even further convinced that the PVR is not the dire threat to the television advertising industry some thought it would be. Not if the industry learns how to leverage this platform better, that is.

Here's why...

I'm watching more television, not less, because I have the ability to time-shift programming. Watching more television means advertisers, at least in theory, have more opportunities to reach me. (More on that later.)

The programming I am watching is more relevant to me because I am not confined to a choice of what is on live. Let's say I was into Egyptology. If a show about pyramids was on at 3 AM during the week, I'd hardly stay up to watch it. But with my PVR I can record it for playback at a time that is convenient for me. Once again, another win for advertisers who normally wouldn't have been able to reach me through this show.

I used to "skip" forward through commercials 30 seconds at a time, however I found this visually disorienting and acoustically jarring. So now, I fast forward through them at 15-times speed, which turns 30-second spots into 2-second Max Headroom-like "Blipverts". I find this allows me to get a sense of what the commercial is about, yet still navigate quickly through it should I not be interested.

If I am interested, I skip back and watch the commercial in its entirety. In a sense, I am scanning the commercials for relevance, then choosing to watch the ones that are relevant to me (or that my wife insists we watch, such as every single ad for Apple and Telus.)

Even the commercials I am not watching I'm still seeing in their entirety (although at 15-times speed). You can't tell me that some of the original messaging isn't getting through to me, even if only on a subliminal level.

While I'm probably watching fewer commercials than my pre-PVR days, I am giving the ones I choose to watch my undivided attention. Once again, another win for advertisers.

The most unusual thing that's occurred over the last few months has been what I call program sharing. You see, with a PVR it's easier to 'share' programming with another person. My wife, if she's watching TV alone, will sometimes find herself watching a show or commercial that she thinks I would enjoy. So she simply rewinds the live signal, hits record, then shares the recorded segment with me at a later date. Yet another win for advertisers.

Does the advertising industry need to wean itself, and its clients, away from the dependence on the 30-second TV spot? Yes, it does.

Do we need to develop a better understanding of how to effectively use some of the many new media channels (like the PVR) now at our disposal? Yes, we do.

Will the PVR kill advertising on television? No it won't.

Challenge and Opportunity

Canadians were asked in a poll early in August 2006 which countries and regions held the most promise for their future prosperity and well being. A significant 42 percent of respondents identified China as the market with greatest potential. The poll was conducted by an independent market research firm, The Strategic Counsel, for a west coast Canadian think tank Asia Pacific Foundation, and for a national Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.

Asia Pacific Foundation is funded by the government of Canada and the government of British Columbia. Results for the national sample are accurate to within 3.1 points 19 times out of 20. From 1996 to 2005, every year almost 40,000 eager Chinese arrive in cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Some 1 million Chinese have immigrated to Canada over the last century, making a significant contribution to our social fabric and helping develop the Canadian values of tolerance and generosity that we live by each and every day. Chinese immigrants of various origins are attracted to Canada by promising economic opportunities, both business and employment.

Canada welcomes them mainly because of their potentials to contribute to the country’s economic growth. The Chinese Community in Canada is an emerging market, to face this important market, are you ready? Are your marketing method and strategic effectively? Are your products marketable in Canadian Chinese market? Do you know how to tap Canadian Chinese consumers? It’s really a challenge and opportunity for us.

Sophisticated Boomers Account For LCBO’s Record Sales

The Toronto Star reported recently that LCBO’s net sales are up 6.4 per cent over last year and the bump is being attributed to baby boomers. A refined palate paired with disposable income equals a staggering $3.9 billion in business for the liquor distributor over the last year.

What’s flying off the shelves isn’t all Lucky beer though. Boomers are voting with their wallets and the consensus is quite clear – we demand quality. Boomers like to travel, tour vineyards around the world and try new wines. All of the product lines at the LCBO received a lift over the last year, but the big winner was the in-store Vintages section which stocks fine wine and premium spirits. This section grew a whopping 18.7 per cent over the last year. Compared with domestic wine, which only grew two per cent over the same period, the results indicate an increasing level of sophistication in alcohol sales. Kudos to the LCBO for responding to and capitalizing on these changing trends.

A glass of Zinfandel red, anyone?

Are you going to Search Engine Strategies 2007?

If you are, you’ll be surrounded by new search technologies, hear ways to make your online marketing dollars work harder, meet smart techies – even find out how to build your ‘purple cow quotient.’

It’s a global conference that stops in Toronto June 12th and 13th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This year sounds like a smart time investment judging by the conference lineup and list of exhibitors. In years past, SES attracted between 1,500 and 2,000 marketing types and business owners interested in brushing up their online marketing skills, networking with product managers and listening to technology innovations by industry leaders.

The conference itself is divided into three information tracks. The first – ‘Get me up to speed’ is an introduction to search marketing, optimization, key players in Canada, and how to identify online scams and performance myths. The second, ‘Let’s make some money’ covers monetization – there’s a website clinic, speakers who cover how to make cost effective online development decisions, and what skills we need in our online marketing tool kit. The third, ‘On the cutting edge’, discusses trends, innovations and new approaches in local search, paid listings and marketing to women online.

Of note is Track C (On the Cutting Edge) on Day 1 - Local Search: A Growth Industry. Leaders in the local search space including YellowPages.ca, Google and ZipLocal offer their update on the state of the art, explore chicken-egg frustrations, and attempt to glimpse into the future direction of local search. The moderator is Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner from Beyond Ink with speakers from Yahoo! Canada, ZipLocal and Darby Sieben, Senior Manager of traffic and distribution from YellowPages.ca. On Day 2, Microsoft showcases their much talked about new online advertising solution. The keynote address on Wednesday is entrepreneur and change agent Seth Godin, author of The Dip.

Make sure you spend time on the show floor too. Arguably this is where your investment really pays off. You’ll be able to meet with developers and product teams who work on search and optimization products everyday. These folks have an intimate knowledge of how the tools function and can showcase competitive differences between providers. Plus they offer unique and well thought perspectives on the online search industry as a whole. It’s a rare opportunity to get up close to the technology and the people who build it, have a personal demonstration and ask lots of questions relating to your specific business situation.

The Search Engine Strategies 2007 Conference & Expo is at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (Front Street) June 12th and 13th. To register, visit http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/toronto07

The writing is on the wall....literally

We all know that Facebook is the most popular social networking site in Toronto. In fact, Toronto is the largest network on the site. I admit that I am addicted and I would bet money on it that you, the reader, is also. I've noticed lately that there have been many new Facebook applications popping up - from Graffiti walls to fortune cookies to tickles. These applications are developed by the users, not the folks at Facebook. At first, I thought it was cool but after doing some digging, I've realized that all of your information is shared with the developers.
Here's what Facebook has to say about your privacy or lack-there-of.

"Information That May Be Provided to Developers. In order to allow you to use and participate in Platform Applications created by Developers ("Developer Applications"), Facebook may from time to time provide Developers access to the following information (collectively, the "Facebook Site Information"):

(i) any information provided by you and visible to you on the Facebook Site, excluding any of your Contact Information, and

(ii) the user ID associated with your Facebook Site profile."

Pretty scary huh? Just remember that once you put something online, it no longer belongs to you but to the millions of people who have access to it.

Summit 2007: Lessons Learned

What could have possibly happened in the desert that I simply couldn’t wait to share with you? Of course, I'm referring to our recent conference for sales and marketing leaders titled “SiriusDecisions Summit 2007: Return on Integration,” held in May in Las Vegas. The conference featured presentations from SiriusDecisions thought leaders as well as senior executives from organizations including Dow Jones, EMC, Salesforce.com and Software AG. It also gave me a wonderful opportunity to chat with a wide range of your peers to see what they are feverishly working to implement; I thought I would share the five key topics that seemed to be gaining the most mindshare.

ONE: A NEW KIND OF ROI
It’s the question that marketers have been trying to solve since the dawn of time: How much revenue does a dollar invested in marketing yield? Our theme of return on integration demonstrated that there are better ways to ask (and answer) this question, with thoughts that included:

Funnel-long participation: In the b-to-b world, marketing will never generate a dollar of revenue on its own. Instead, it must carefully coordinate and work with sales to facilitate a customer’s buying process from cold to close. This is why we continue to see marketing move its measurement aims toward creating/sourcing demand, and impacting opportunities created by sales.

Critical intersections: There are three key outputs a b-to-b organization must focus on to be successful: reputation, demand and revenue (generated through the optimization of the sales function). A return on integration philosophy examines the areas of overlap between these outputs, and focuses on the resulting metrics from the intersections as those that are most critical to report.

TWO: FIELD MARKETING 2.0
At our Summit, we introduced the next generation of field marketing – 2.0 – which takes the concepts developed in field marketing 1.0 and applies them in an adaptable, situational fashion that allow for different scenarios within a complex business to be addressed. At the heart of the ability to be both adaptable and situational is an emerging group of technologies, especially when overlayed onto advanced processes and strategies.

THREE: SALES READINESS, HERE TO STAY
Sales readiness is an emerging function under the sales operations banner that focuses on maximizing field, product and corporate marketing’s impact on sales. As a result of this role, a sales function can more effectively absorb everything from marketing-generated leads to new product launches. Our research currently indicates that roughly 25 percent of b-to-b organizations have developed a unique sales readiness function; those who have, devote approximately 15 percent of their sales operations resources to it. If discussions at the Summit are any indication, both of these percentages can be expected to shoot up in the not-so-distant future.

FOUR: USER-GENERATED CONTENT
Customers, salespeople and influencers are creating content about your organization; companies that embrace this fact rather than fight it will find themselves ahead of their competitors. At the Summit, we discussed the growing role of blogs in an overall b-to-b communications strategy; in fact, 22 of the world’s top 100 Web sites by traffic are now blogs. While you may not have the desire or the bandwidth to sponsor and/or manage your own blogs, you must become aware of those blogs that are talking about your company, and its products or services on a regular basis.

FIVE: GREATER INVESTMENT?
With stronger integration and a better ability to drive reputation, demand and revenue, marketing and sales will be better able to build their cases for increased investment. The question is, where will this investment take place? At the Summit, we discussed the continued shift of the b-to-b marketing function toward demand creation (and funnel support), and away from the branding and advertising efforts that spent much but generated little in the 1990s. To this end, even organizations that are greater than $1 billion in revenue commonly spend more than 40 percent of marketing dollars on field marketing (a number that jumps to nearly 60 percent for organizations $100 million and less in revenue), a fact that would have been unheard of 10 years ago. On the sales side, more dollars are being allotted around functions and activity that specifically drive sales productivity, from operations to readiness.

If there was one common theme from all the participants at the Summit, it was that marketing and sales have bought in to the concept of integration; they are now wrestling with exactly what this means. For those of you who were unable to join us at this year’s event, I'll ask this question: How far have you traveled down this road? Trust me; if your journey has yet to begin, I can point to a number of your competitors who are taking advantage of your slow start.

Event Marketing - the B2B version of Show Biz

Events are arguably the most exciting initiative a marketer can participate in. They’re fast paced, offer the chance to communicate directly to customers and have an unbeatable sense of immediacy. Receiving feedback to your work ‘real time’ is gold, which is why I find the experience, however intense, very gratifying. Good trade shows attract the most influential people in your market so it’s important you spend time crafting a solid approach and presence.

Like other marketing initiatives, when the big day finally arrives, it represents months of planning, decision making, countless agency meetings, telephone calls and contact reports. However, because most trade shows usually last just a few hours or days, when the doors open and customers wag their conference badges past security, it’s all systems go – and little margin for error. All your months of planning and decision making unfold in front of you.

Since most of us learn by producing, here’s what I’ve learned about producing trade shows and events:

1. Be clear about your goals before, during and after - is it to launch a new product (that requires pre hype and follow up?), to collect sales leads and establish a competitive presence? How are you measuring success? What’s your target cost per prospect? Is customer follow up messaging planned? The more up front thinking you do on your metrics and approach will help determine if the investment was worth it. As well, a good metrics plan helps make quick decisions when you’re in execution mode.

2. Start planning early – at least 3 months from the big day. Because you’re deciding on many details and collaborating with internal and external teams, yes and no answers take longer to implement. As well, issues may not be under your direct control (like unionized venue staff), so it’s important to leave lots of trouble shooting time before the big day.

3. Check out the show website for competitors – Most events host their own and it’s a great source of information on competitors, where they will be located, and their product focus.

4. Develop a solid customer demo – nothing impresses prospects more than an enthusiastic manager who knows the product intimately and who shows key features in a relevant, real life way. Watching a smooth demo is not only very cool but one of your secret weapons to keep people engaged in your booth and listening to your story– and away from your competitors.

5. Have a *final* checklist meeting where equipment is preconfigured, checked and prepared as much as possible prior to shipment. Also make sure you know where materials are delivered to at the exhibition hall. Just in case one of your suppliers didn’t fill out the shipping label correctly and your pallet of computers ends up nameless in the back of a warehouse and you have to go hunting for it.

6. Be ready for customer questions – As ready as you can be. Spend time with the product and develop ‘what if’ scenarios. Know the competitive offering and how your product is different or better or wins, feature by feature. Most people are receptive to you not knowing the answer, but if you say you’ll find out and promise to get back to them – make sure you do. I find 'lunch and learn' sessions prior to a show an effective way to help booth staff get familiar with products and concepts in a supportive environment.

7. Look prospects in the eye – If you have junior or inexperienced staff, make sure they’re friendly (are you having a good show?) and to invite people in. It sounds obvious, but you’ll be amazed how many prospects respond to this small nudge. Look for groups of chatting booth people and give them tasks to do. Nothing looks worse or more uninviting to people walking by than uninterested booth staff.

8. It’s nice to give something away. Not because everyone does, but because it’s an opportunity to put a lasting reminder in prospect’s hands. Tote bags or branded desk accessories generate awareness longer; edibles and water bottles don’t. Cardinal rule – keep costs low. Unless it has a call to action built in, it’s one of the hardest things to measure the value of.

9. Appoint a key contact on the booth – the ‘go to guy/gal’ should be able to handle emergencies, customer questions, leads, VIP customers, etc. Make sure they know key event personnel and how to reach technical support in case you need urgent equipment assistance. This person should also manage the booth staffing, breaks, etc.

10. Communicate results in a timely manner. Because trade shows have such a short life, share results with your senior management fast. Everyone wants to know if the show met expectations on number of attendees, qualified prospects and customer reactions. In many cases, you’re being asked to commit to next year’s show now, so having clear goals at the outset will make this task relatively straightforward to decide.

Done well, trade shows are an effective, immediate way to reach influential target groups in your market with key messages, new products and offers. Just remember to write a good brief, give yourself lots of planning time and realize that not everything will go exactly and according to plan. But odds are it will still be a terrific opening.

Navigating the Mobile Marketing Matrix

The number of companies that consider themselves part of “Mobile Marketing” is growing at a rapid pace. I thought I would take this opportunity to share with CMA blog readers what I call the Mobile Marketing Matrix so we can all navigate this space more effectively.

There are three primary areas of Mobile Marketing: browsing/search, content, and messaging.

Browsing/search involves using WAP (wireless application protocol) or mobile internet. WAP and WAP sites have been around in Canada for quite some time. Uptake of mobile internet usage has been very slow mainly due to the slow and cumbersome navigation. Often the term ‘WAP is Crap’ has been used to describe the user experience. However times are indeed changing; look for major leaps in wireless internet adoption rates. As wireless networks continue to evolve (bigger data packets and faster transmission speeds) and consumers subscribe to “all you can eat” data packages you will see advertisers soon follow and the internet model of advertising will move into the mobile world. At the recent annual conference for the US-based Mobile Marketing Association, setting standards and guidelines for mobile advertising took centre-stage.

Marketers should look to establish a presence in the mobile internet space now! I would recommend securing your dotMobi domains and WAP sites today. SEO (Search engine optimization) WAP banner ads, and mobile social networks will be a force to reckon with in the not so distant future.

Mobile content refers to ringtones, wallpapers, music, T.V., games which are usually created by content owners (or publishers). To distribute mobile content publishers most often use what’s called mobile storefronts, ideally your storefront should be cross carrier (i.e. with all the wireless networks). Marketers often ask my company to help them give away ringtones, wallpapers and mobile music (branded or not) to their loyal consumers. Unfortunately that is a very challenging request – especially in Canada. Mobile content is happening in Canada but there are very few instances of non-carrier based store fronts – the most popular storefront is Much Music’s.

Mobile Messaging is the most prevalent form of Mobile Marketing. We see it run through shortcodes, which are 5 or 6 digits numbers that are often used as vanity codes for brand names. There are different types of messages like SMS (text messaging), MMS (picture and video messaging), IVR (Interactive Voice Recording), and Bluetooth. For the most part, shortcodes offer marketers a wide variety of applications to execute: text to win, text voting, mobile coupons, text trivia as well as means to distribute MMS, mobile content and even SMS keyword search (Try using the GOOGLE shortcode to find your next Toronto Pizza spot – text PIZZA TORONTO to 47743).

Agree/Disagree? Something to add? We’d love to hear about your trips into the matrix.

Merging of Disciplines not new – It just finally has enough scale to get noticed…

A recent report released by the DMA , titled “The Integration of Direct Marketing and Brand” concludes that the lines between DM and brand marketing have all but disappeared.

So what exactly does this mean? Having spent a good part of my career in direct marketing and direct response, quantitative research supporting the secret that I have been sharing with clients over the last few years really gets my attention. The cat is now out of the bag…well sort of…

Some key findings of the report can be found here. So back to the question of what this report really means when all is said and done. Ultimately what it means is that there is yet even more credence and credibility supporting what a few select marketers have known and practiced all along – direct response and direct marketing tactics, working in tandem with traditional branding, can help to build stronger brands.

This type of thinking has manifested itself over the years, with the term, “brand response” becoming a self descriptive notion for an amalgamated version of the practice. Of course brand response is not the same as direct response – they are two entirely different practices, but more on this later.

Now I must clarify – direct response and direct marketing alone is not enough to build and sustain a brand – witness the current plight of Dell, a piece of business that in its heyday was at the pinnacle of DR advertising. I worked on the business for a period of time and let me tell you, it was science at work. The dynamic model, forecasted with good accuracy, the impact of all controllable inputs (ad vehicle, offer, positioning, day of week etc.) on weekly unit sales. Of course, ROI was the ONLY success measurement. Terms like brand awareness, brand health, and brand equity were all deemed to be foolish irrelevant terms reserved for those who couldn’t stomach the harsh realities of applying what we deemed to be rocket science to data. Ah the “D” word – data…

Data and the use of data is one of the major differentiator’s between direct response and brand response advertising. DR is all about getting a response – that’s it. Response mechanisms such as toll free numbers and url’s along with a strong offer or two are used to illicit a consumer response. The currency of measurement is the “cost per” metric – cost per contact, cost per lead and cost per sale. The “conversion to” metric links all the “cost per” stages together and ultimately ROI is established. The end goal of the data is to help establish a clear and visible link to dollars invested and dollars returned. The data’s only function is to define success through the dollar

Brand response or BR is really about ensuring that essential brand practices are used to encourage a response. “Cost per” metrics are important, but they are not the definitive success metric – sales and brand awareness are. Where DR is considered to be a hard sell, BR is considered to be a soft tell. We have executed BR campaigns where the metric of success was an opt-in email address along with identification of the respondent’s nearest product dealer. Yes – perhaps we couldn’t completely verify how much of our advertising spend resulted in product sales, even in the best DR Campaigns this is difficult to do. However, what we could say for certain was that several hundred people reached out to us and accepted our invitation to have us communicate with them on a regular basis. We now had an interested group of “brand respondents” - time to implement a solid CRM initiative.

Freedom 65 - Not so fast

Sixty-five might be the year of the gold watch, but by no means does it spell the end of a successful working career. Our parents may have gracefully retired like so many of their peers, but today’s 60-plus generation isn’t ready to be put out to pasture quite yet.

Articles appeared in all of the major dailies across Canada this week and all are abuzz with talk of boomers and retirement, or the lack thereof. The coverage revolves around a major report issued by Statistics Canada which illustrates an impending tectonic shift in the workforce.

2012 is the year when the first of the baby boomer generation will start turning 65. As illustrated from the chart above, the percentage of working-age people (the participation rate) resembles a tanking stock and unfortunately we can’t divest ourselves from this impending demographic drop.

With such important findings coming from the StatsCan reports, it’s easy to see why the story gained so much coverage. Some of the conclusions include:

- The proportion of the labour force aged 55 and over will dramatically increase to one in five in 2021, compared to one in seven in 2005.

- This study suggests that future economic growth may have to depend less on employment growth and more on higher productivity, which could offset the consequences of a slowdown, or even decline, in the labour force.

- This decline in the overall participation rate is mainly due to the aging of the population, a result of low fertility over the last three decades and the steady rise in life expectancy.

These findings should concern every Canadian and not just the economists and statisticians who prepared the report. The economic ramifications of StatsCan’s findings become more serious when you account for the fact that many boomers haven’t sufficiently saved for their retirement years. A long story short: there are going to be many more boomers continuing to work well into their golden years. Some of them will work because they want to and many will stay on because they have to.

Does your organization have a plan on how you will work with the new 40?

So You Want to Buy Technology?

Buying technology to support marketing and analytics can be a tough job. It often involves a relatively large (sometimes significant) investment and the benefits can be hard to quantify up front. Also, the problem you are trying to “fix” by purchasing the technology is often not as straightforward as you initially think. There are other systems or tools you might need to interact with and processes that might have to change.

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen technology purchased because somebody saw a cool feature but didn’t fully appreciate the scope of what they were buying and what it would take to install and deploy it within the organization. This then led to months of headache and struggle to get the thing implemented and cost a lot of political capital within the organization.

Determine what you need it for
In my opinion, this is the most important step in any technology purchase. Are you very clear about why you are making the purchase and what benefit it is meant to bring? If not, go back to the drawing board and figure that out before proceeding any further. It is possible that you don’t necessarily even need a technology solution but could simply alter a few simple existing processes and achieve the same result by bringing some people together internally.

Evaluate Your Current Processes
The purchase of a new tool or software involves not only training but also has to be integrated into the current processes of your department and organization.

This is especially true of larger, enterprise-wide initiatives. If you are simply buying a single license of software that is an add-on to some of your existing tools that has no impact outside of your department or work team, there are likely not too many impacts it will have to your daily activities and it will be relatively straightforward to implement.

Enterprise-wide initiatives, however, involve many complex and interdependent processes that will be exposed along the path of implementation. Once exposed, these are usually the things that delay an implementation and cause cost over-runs and sleepless nights.

To avoid this, if you are considering a large technology purchase, think about the various stakeholders and internal groups that might be affected by this implementation:

Sales Teams
Are they involved in your marketing activities? What elements of this new technology will change that interaction or the day to day things they need to do as part of their job?

Call Centres or Service Teams
Does this new solution require them to do anything differently in their jobs? Are they meant to change how they collect or action data?

IT and Systems
Can it interact with your existing environment or will it require additional customization and add-ons not previously planned for? Can it handle the amount of data you are putting in or taking out of it? Will you need to invest in additional server infrastructure to support the new tool to ensure it performs to maximum performance?

All of these groups should be part of your initial scoping and evaluation process to ensure you capture as good a view of the entire impact of an implementation as possible. By involving these groups early, you can also quickly identify areas of potential resistance that could be addressed before you are $1 million and 8 months into an implementation.

Establish an ROI
Depending on the size of investment, you will likely have to establish some type of return or payback scenario to gain approval for purchase.

There are a couple of areas to consider when building the business case:

Revenue or Customer Impacts
Depending on the technology, it may have some impact to your ability as an organization to generate further revenue or customer spend. If this is the case, it is useful to consider impacts to measures such as average spend, frequency of purchase or attrition rates to name a few.

Cost Impacts
Will the new technology remove cost from any processes or procedures? Can you now do something in 30 minutes that used to take 2 days? Are there people who can now be redeployed as a result of process changes? Will your cost to serve be reduced by using the new technology?

You can uncover many additional potential business case measures through the consultation process with internal stakeholders.

In the end, there are many measures you can incorporate into the business case, but the most important thing is to track the results once things are implemented. This is one area that a lot of organizations do not follow up on, yet being able to show that you did generate additional organizational benefit or cost savings helps to further reinforce the benefit of the investment and helps to get funding for the next one.

What if You Did Nothing?

I remember being asked that question by a manager more than 10 years ago. What if I didn't spend demand generation dollars to bring a product to market? What would happen? Could I remove promotion and be confident about the results? It's a question I believe is worth asking when you develop a marketing plan.

I had finally finished a software product launch plan I'd been working on for 3 months – an introduction that was strategically important – new technology and features our customers were asking for. The budgets were approved and allocated to various programs – primarily direct mail, PR, promotion. The metrics plans and forecasts completed – low, medium and high sales scenarios with corresponding costs and profitability.

Then after presenting the plan, answering the usual questions and getting through the internal approval process discussion, my manager suddenly asked, “So what if we did no promotion to launch this product and just got it on store shelves– what do you think our sales will look like?” Hmmm – that was the one question I hadn’t anticipated. After all I had an approved budget allocated and ready to spend. Doing nothing...I immediately thought of the night before - working till 1am preparing for this meeting.

For most of us, our nature as marketers is to do– develop a thought out approach we believe will be impactful, measurable and drive ROI. We assume we are going to spend money to launch a product into a category and watch the investment pay back. However what if we brought a product to market without pushing a launch button and spending promotion or advertising dollars? What would the market forces do without our inputs? What if corporate priorities changed overnight? Could we create customer awareness, interest and trial without spending demand generation dollars? How would the savings impact the P&L?

Before you answer the question, here are some business planning resources you may find useful:

1. Pragmatic Marketing - teaches a practical, market-driven approach to creating and delivering technology products to market.

2. Project Connections – A great resource of project management tools and templates.

3. MarketingSherpa.com –a research firm specializing in tracking for readers what works in all aspects of marketing (and what does not.)

4. Braingle.com – when the hour is late and you need a little creative distraction:

One of the reasons Canadian marketers are held in high regard is that we know how to create impact without spending enormous sums of money. Always looking at a glass half full and rising to a challenge is a natually Canadian trait it seems.

For any product or program launch you develop, include all the possible scenarios and trouble shooting – but add this last question to your list – “What if you spend nothing” - and see if it generates new, creative ideas as a result.

TV Alive and Well with Teens - For Now

The news in the media would suggest that teens have turned off the TV and are only watching the internet. Obviously this would be concerning to the TV industry because everyone expects teens and young adults to carry habits forward.

The following are some interesting statistics that help paint a current picture:
-Households with tweens and teens are most likely to have the greatest number of televisions.
-For households with tweens 12-14, there are an average 3.2 sets per household.
-For households with teens 15-19, there are an average of 3 TV's per household.

Physically speaking, TV's have not replaced computers just yet. (Source: Fast Forward Trend Analysis August 2006) Teen TV viewing has declined over the past 5 years but not as great as the buzz would suggest. In 2001, Canadian teens watched an average of 20.9 hours per week. In 2006, Canadian teens were watching an average of 20.0 hours per week. This represents a decline of 4.3% (Source: BBM TV 2007).

Teens are on the internet more than watching TV. The distribution of average time spent for persons 12-29 with the internet is 20% versus 17% for TV. (Source: Fast Forward Trend Analysis August 2006)

In conclusion, TV is far from dead with Canadian teens. In fact, we know that teens are on the internet, while watching TV. However, IPTV is only beginning to emerge.

Teleprospecting Specialization

I see this happen more often than not; inconsistent telemarketing/teleprospecting output, difficulty in finding adequate inside resources, and increasing friction between inside/outside sales.

As inside sales bears more of the overall burden of demand creation, professionals within the function are feeling the brunt. I continue to see individual inside reps responsible for telemarketing, teleprospecting and telesales, not to mention acting as de facto sales support resources. The skills required to be an effective teleprospector are vastly different from these other jobs, and often do not transfer well. Teleprospecting also demands a laser-like focus to generate consistent results, a focus that is not possible when tasked with numerous other jobs. Teleprospectors should be uniquely hired, trained, managed and measured, and should be kept on task for maximum productivity. Telemarketing requires much less skill; thus, it is a perfect candidate for offshoring or farming out to a third-party resource.

To blog. Or not to blog. That is the Question.

If you don’t like my opinion about the creative your company puts out, and you complain, should the blog entry be removed at your request?

Should a restaurant or play that receives a bad review be able to complain and have a retraction printed?

And what is a blog anyway but one person’s opinion? It doesn’t mean it’s the only opinion. It is simply intended to start a dialogue. It offers the reader an opportunity to respond (see that comments button over there to the right?). And, as one of the sections on this site suggests, allows you to get something “off your chest”.

All of these questions occur to me because blogging has become a powerful and influential force in the world of marketing. Of course, the blog on this site has become a popular destination itself. We’re here talking about marketing, marketers, advertising, creative – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

To my mind, (just my opinion) as long as the host site’s Blogging Policy is upheld by its bloggers, post a comment, respond, disagree, engage. Or don’t read the blog at all. But don’t censor. That’s not blogging.

By the way, here’s the CMA’s Blog Policy.

Blogging Policy
Views expressed are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the Canadian Marketing Association.
Be respectful of organizations, customers, partners and competitors.
Use common sense and refrain from matters that you suspect are confidential or might interfere with legal and or compliance proceedings.
CMA reserves the right to refrain from publishing submissions that fail to comply with any of the above guidelines.

Why Shouldn't Lawyers Advertise?

The Law Society of Upper Canada, that historic association that governs lawyers like me, has rules on how lawyers may advertise. It keeps us on a short leash.

They must have different rules in Illinois. You may have seen the sexy (vulgar?) ad for a Chicago law firm in various other blogs.

The irony that it was taken down because the law firm didn't have the proper permit has not been lost on commentators.

But why should lawyers not be allowed to advertise like every other business? One theory is that lawyers are not supposed to take advantage of people's emotions, but rather be professional advisors to avoid emotion. Try as you might, however, there is an emotional component to most legal matters. Divorce? Certainly. Intellectual property? You'd be surprized.

Another uncommon law firm advertising was at sporting events in Toronto. But the question remains whether such advertising produces results.

However, law firms usually keep thier advertinsments in "good taste". Only a few push the envelope.