I have had the great pleasure, for the better part of the past seven years, to act like a kid, think like a kid and hang out with kids - or young adults as they like to be called - as a part of my day job. When I began working at Creative Strategies in 2000, I was tasked with trying to get inside the mind-set of the youth demographic and learn about their demands for technology … [Read more...]
New Communications Approaches in Marketing
The early part of the 21st century has witnessed an explosion in the number of media that marketers can employ to reach their customers. This began in the 1990s with the use of the Internet as an advertising medium. Web pages became the "new" medium, with banner and other types of similar ads (e.g., buttons, rectangles, etc.) that customers clicked in order to be sent to the … [Read more...]
Overlap Matters
Traditional wisdom says that cross-site duplication of online advertising is bad for business. And indeed duplication has traditionally been seen as redundant - a sign of media waste. A report from your third-party ad server would highlight which sites overlapped with which other sites on your buy, and by how much. That way, you could act immediately to pare back the buy and … [Read more...]
The Corporate Website: Five Strategies for Making Your Site More Relevant and Social
Corporate marketing messages do not always reflect the market's perception of a product or service. The practice of "push" messaging was designed to shape a brand and suppress its inevitable weaknesses. After all, even the most reliable products and services have the potential to behave in ways not anticipated by the consumer. And in the past (pre-Web) world, customer … [Read more...]
Web 2.0 and Marketing Strategy
Addressing the Association of National Advertisers in 2004, Jim Stengel, chief marketing officer of Procter & Gamble, threw down the gauntlet. As the man controlling the world's largest advertising budget, his words certainly instilled fear in the minds of the advertising agency executives in the audience. For the brand managers and marketing executives attending that day, … [Read more...]
Can You Connect With The Ad-Averse Segment Of Your Audience?
Your advertising is invisible to a substantial segment of your audience. Intuitively, you know they're tuning out, but you need more than intuition to re-establish connections. The solution for reaching an audience that ignores or pays little attention to your advertising is really twofold. First, you need to gain a better understanding of your audience; and second, you must … [Read more...]
The Customer Advisory Board: A How-to Guide for The Internet Age
Good market intelligence is imperative in today's increasingly competitive environment. Product segments are commoditizing; product life cycles are shortening; and with smart competitors in almost every segment, CMOs and their teams need all the good market intelligence that they can get to develop and implement their marketing strategies. The question is, how do you get good … [Read more...]
Think Liquid
Regardless of technological change, the future of social media will be dictated by the community's rapid adoption of new media forms. Change occurs dynamically in online communities as new applications develop. Though behavior changes, relationships must be maintained. That means successful marketers must use flexible strategies as they move forward with their online … [Read more...]
Two Sides of Consumer-Generated Media: Listening and Participating
Social media is providing marketers with an array of tools and opportunities that offer an unusual entrée into understanding the good, bad and ugly of how customers use and perceive brands, your company and even your employees. In today's world, it is increasingly critical to understand your specific customer needs and to build business relationships both on a local and global … [Read more...]
The New Pay-to-Play Model in the Blogosphere
The old model of journalism is dying, at least online. Relationships between companies and media writers have been supplanted by a new business model. My European colleagues, particularly those in Germany, clued me in to how public relations "works" in their countries: If you want your material to appear in newspapers or magazines, you must purchase advertising. Of course, … [Read more...]
Engage or Perish: The Choice Is Yours
Like the Industrial Age, the Conversation Age (often referred to as Web 2.0) requires businesses to change and recognize that the status quo is unproductive and unacceptable. If your company is to remain competitive, increase market share and grow its business, the time to reinvent yourself is now. That means it's time to invest in social media, specifically blogging, and add … [Read more...]
12 Essential Tips For Success in Social Media
Whether you call it social media or consumer-generated content, there's no debate over the accelerating popularity of Internet sites and forums where consumers share opinions and experiences about every product and service imaginable. From blogs and podcasts to wikis and social networks, social media allows consumers to rate and review products, advise fellow consumers and even … [Read more...]
A Firsthand Tale Of Adopting Web 2.0 Technology To Build Brand
As marketing evolves into a two-way conversation that technology enables, it changes how we interact with customers and the value we offer the marketplace. Traditional marketing - based on interruption, forcing oneself on others and being loud and mostly irrelevant - becomes obsolete. I consider this exciting. Some consider it scary. Many consider it a return to what marketing … [Read more...]
The Power of Corporate Blogging: Some Guidelines for Doing It Right
On May 31, 2006, The New York Times published an article by columnist Thomas Friedman that featured some pointed criticism of General Motors. Friedman charged that GM's promotion of SUVs was feeding America's addiction to oil. Comparing GM to a "crack dealer" for oil dependency, he said the corporation is "more dangerous to America's future" than any other company. GM officials … [Read more...]
The Rise of Social Sales and Marketing
The jury is in. Evolution hasn't really caught up with humanity's highfalutin attitudes about our species' uniqueness. Less than 100 years ago, human existence was purely about survival in most cultures. Our survival depended on our ability to work as a group. Like it or not, we are still essentially animals grouped in packs. We hunt in packs; we farm in packs; and, indeed, we … [Read more...]