Watch out for cross-selling

When you try to increment your cross-selling you need to be careful about a handful of dimensions. But one that is key is profitability, as highlighted on the latest edition of Harvard Business Review.

Cross-selling may seem a marketer dream - you are expanding the size of your customers checks with you, without the cost of acquiring a new one. But that may actually be deceptive, as there are no free lunches - you will probably have to communicate or give incentives for that basket increase. My advice on cross-selling is:

- have a good and solid profitability analysis and carefully monitor cross-selling in-market performance. It is easy that in products with different profitabilities, one of them might mask the other's lower margin. So, think about this;

- ensure you have the right incentives to your sales people. Make sure that they are being measured in terms of profitability and not volume;

- make sure you are taking all costs of cross-selling in your analysis.

- focus on your consumer. Why would those products association make sense? What can we ensure our customer is winning with this association? Remember that consumer and customer should be at the centre - not your cross-sell intention. Don't start selling baby diapers because a 80 years old is buying baby food.

But don't be afraid to cross-sell. It may just be the right think to do. You just need to make sure you are not taking your eyes from the ball.

Some of the best social campaigns from 2012

I will not dare to say these are the definitive 10 best campaigns from 2012 (I am noticing Red Bull Strato Jump is not there), but, if you want to see a number of good examples, backed by good monitoring, you might want to follow this link and see Nike, Cadbury and Old Spice mingling up with unknown brands on the best social campaigns for 2012. Enjoy!

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/11244-10-of-the-best-social-media-campaigns-from-2012

Wear out

Campaigns and campaign themes will not be effective forever. After a while, the target audience will grow tired of the ad, it will lose its freshness, its surprise. It will become predictable and boring. And it is time for a change. 

There is no scientific way to predict the wear out of a campaign. It depends a lot on the market, the target group, even the way the campaign was built. The best more, way to understand it is to keep track of the target group response to the campaign, using emotional attributes. Most of the consumers will try to rationalise and will speak loudly about a successful campaign that they really liked in the past - even if nowadays it is borgin to them. Thus, ask questions like "what does this campaign make you feel now", "what is the first reaction you have when you see this ad now",... So, keep close watch of your campaigns. Because one thing is for sure - however successful a campaign has been, if the target is perceiving it as old and boring, if it is not refreshing to watch it anymore, it is worn out. And it is urgent to have a new concept on top of your mind.

Note: A great campaign idea that is now completely worn out? Nespresso's with George Clooney. Simply predictable and tirable to watch nowadays. And it has been a classic.

A couple of basic social media tactics

This article from Brad Smith ( http://socialmediatoday.com/fixcourse/991816/3-best-social-media-tactics-get-more-customers ) highlights 3 usual social media tactics to drive customer acquisition and conversion, namely:

- Associate your social media account with a traffic generator - being it a relevant database or a complementary social account that share the same target group.

-  Advertise on relevant social media, but don't forget to give prospective consumers a nugget to convert views to engagement

- Ensure you have good, engaging content for your target group that can actually "grab" them consistenly.

6 basic ways to reach your consumer through mobile

Mobile is becoming a key media to reach consumer and get his / her engagement with our brand.When we think about mobile, we usually think about 6 ways to get contact with consumer:

- through plain (or enhanced) messaging, that takes advantage of the very high penetration rate of phones and smartphones - but that might be an intrusive contact, if not managed the right way;

- having mobile prepared website. Just keep in mind that this shouldn't be your usual site, you need to make sure that it is prepared to fit a smartphone / phone screen and avoids any conflict in terms of files being used (just remember the classic flash issue with Apples...). This allows the engagement on-the-go, totally spontaneous. It is also cross-mobile platform and enhances your reach in a very simple way.

- prepare apps. This is turning to be the new way of engaging consumers over the last 2 years, as it usually allows for greater quality of contact. But, the fact is this requires a higher initial level of engagement vs a mobile web site. And to prove it, there is the stat that in the US, a considerable number of apps (25%)  is bought but never used more than once. So, do it - but make sure that you have content and your app is robust enough to engage your target

- QR codes are used only by a restricted number of persons and, actually, let me tell I am still not very sure if it will actually catch or not. It is used to redirect traffic and provide further engagement with your brand or product

- geo-location streams might be provided when someone crosses a or gets into a specific area, impacting the consumer with our message

- and then... social media. Twitter, Facebook, G+ all have apps that provide a way to engage with your target on the go. Each of these platforms has a huge penetration and allows for very good interaction with your target - expanding the interaction beyond only one person But then, remember to combine the rules of these 2 games - social and mobile.

Some of this is further explained in http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/33024.asp?goback=%2Egde_78240_member_182512374 . But I think the main message is that you should be aware of these basic ways, put pay attention to their development in the near future - in addition to other mobile communication paths that are still being developed. Keep your senses open!

Creativity is not fueled by money

I was reading this very good article from Daniel Goleman ( http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121113194359-117825785-people-aren-t-creative-for-money ) and I found myself nodding approvingly. I started thinking about the most creative people I know, and revised if money was a top incentive for them - if you paid them more, could they be more creative? And the answer was "no".

You can pay for time that is allocated to your projects - and that might actually result on a redirection of creative efforts, or in you hiring an external creative team to do the work or inspire it. But that is it! If you are talking of the talent that you already have in your company, it is not the act of paying it that will make them more creative.

Creativity is fueled (as Daniel is saying in his article) by motivation and passion. It is feeling excited about the work one is developing, positive about outcomes and conditions. It is believing that the idea that is being developed will cause an impact. And that is where a company can work the most to stimulate creativity - it is on ensuring that positive mood, focus on what is important, make sure employees find themselves meaningful. I truly believe the human mind is an amazing thing, and, nothing drives positiveness as much as feeling we are making progress in something that matters and has an impact (as Daniel is stating).

Multi-site innovation - a challenge

One of the biggest challenges when you have innovation development spread through multiple sites is on alignment. You need to make sure that everyone's progression is visible and aligned - from project's objectives to market and technical specs, financial assumptions to in-market reality, from global design to local execution. The truth is, when you have teams that are distant, with different functions, you need to ensure everyone is working together in the same direction - and that's no easy task.

Just a couple of examples that highlight this:

- a company that has its development spread across 2 sites (one focused on consumer that then briefs the technical site that actually develops the product) soon discovered both of them were not aligned. The technical site was actually working on projects the consumer team had already scrapped.

- it is frequent that in-market teams innovation cases don't reflect the design teams assumptions, especially in areas like net price, as they simply are unaware of them.

Frequent communication between all sites, both formal and informal, is part of the solution. But it shouldn't be the only. The fact is, it is not enough - and that's a hard lesson for single site innovation companies when they grow bigger. You need to go beyond that.

You need to establish a tool that drives alignment. A tool that clearly states the current state of development at multiple levels - stating clearly its objectives, financial and non-financial targets, consumer and costumer requirements and expectations, competitive considerations, technical development. That is very up-front about where the project is in terms of its development stage and highlights next steps and challenges ahead. A tool that is accessed, commented and updated by the different teams at their multiple sites and can, thus, reflect and spread reality throughout all sites. 

Though this may seem obvious to bigger multinationals and operating framework experts, many times, the importance of this is not well understood by smaller companies that want to expand rapidly or even by teams that don't understand how key updated and spread out information is. Because, the truth is, this is a crucial step (though not the only one) to help multi-sited innovation to be successful. So, if you are working on innovation development that is spread across multiple sites, take my word, and start working on this tool.

Pick up the right measures of success

A recent article in Harvard Business Review pointed out a key problem - too often, many businesses pick up the wrong measures. That means, they evaluate their success and monitor their strategy deployment through the wrong eyes. And this is as true for finance as for in-market performance. Too often, we see "number of consumers using our product" objectives set through "market share" (instead of "penetration"), "sales growth" measuring "equity strength" or brand awareness mixed with communication awareness. So, just remember the mantra of that HBS article:

1) Define your objectives

2) Assess drivers of value, based on the understanding of cause and effect in your market

3) What does it need to be done to improve performance on those value drivers?

4) Monitor regularly and adjust adequately

Take advantage of the situation

If you have a very well defined brand, with a very clear positioning, mission and benefits in it's target consumers heads, you can do something amazing - you can take advantage of tactical opportunities to surf on their social surge. A good example is what Axe / Lynx is doing in Hong Kong, saying that it will help you win 65 Million USD by helping you claim and convert a multimillionaire's daughter to heterosexuality. Isn't this genius like?

http://mashable.com/2012/10/17/lynx-facebook-gay-woman-straight/

Pay what you want

Imagine that you have a restaurant and you decide you will not have prices. Consumers will go, eat an will pay what they want. What do you think will happen? Will most of them leave and pay you nothing?

No! According to an article published in this month's Harvard Business Review, only 0.5% of patrons have eaten free (on a 2 years observations done at a self-service Pakistani restaurant in Vienna). The average pay per meal has been around €5 (which seems is enough to cover costs) and daily traffic went up more than 50%. 

So, is this a viable strategy? Well... we know it covers operational costs, but we have no idea about this strategy's profitability... 

The best brand advocates

I was reading a post by Richard Branson in his LinkedIn blog, when I stumbled upon one of the biggest (and almost forgotten) truths on marketing - the best brand advocates are its staff. They are the ones who know more about the products (and its competitors), who lived it daily, who can strongly relate it to consumer experiences, who can recommend it the most to other consumers (being it friends, relatives, anonymous people on the streets), who can defend them in countless arguments wherever they are in the most absurd situations. So, make sure they understand your brand, products, strategy, potential. Make sure they love and live the brand. Make them take pride in working for such a brand. Engaged employees are one of your best marketing assets!

Creativity and backlashes

When someone does something out of normal, it must prepared for positive reactions (that will mostly be silent) and negative (that will be loud!). The trick, is not only to understand the end game of them (did we generate more positive than negative impact) but also to manage them - meaning to boost your positive and to actually minimize your negative. 

A good example is the latest activation from Cacharel - "Searching for Diana. It was the ("true"...) story of this average guy that met the girl of his dreams during a demonstration and was searching for her throughout Lisbon. Besides massive social media exposure (Facebook, Twitter,...), the campaign actually bridged to newspapers and TV (it had massive exposure right in prime time!). But then, yesterday, the story exploded - it was a fake, an advertising campaign. It received a strong backlash from consumers that felt cheated and it received even more media attention than before - but negative one...

Now, there are a few lessons to take out from this:

- enhance your positive reception - when L'Oreal explains that this activation matches the newest Cacharel perfume campaign communication idea, I get. But I need to be explained. Nothing in the campaign actually hinted at Cacharel. Branding connection was low and too subtle - you had to actually now this connection existed to bridge it to this new perfume. So, the positive PR you could get was not reverting to the brand. You could improve this a lot by using a couple of simple techniques.

- attention to details - the story was blown over by someone that spotted that... the Facebook page that "the in-love guy" created to search for Diana had actually been created 3 days prior to the demonstration where they "met". Blunder! This has put the activation out of the brand's control.

- control the negative PR - brands need to understand that creative and different activations might generate negative reactions - specially the ones that mess up with strong human feelings like love, solidarity, compassion, like this one. Everyone fell for the poor guy searching for this girl - every guy has a "I should have gone there I and get that girl's phone number" situation and every girl wants to be desired by a stranger (especially if it is a nice and handsome guy, like this one). It is slice of life! So, brands need to understand the risks of these campaigns - and they should have plans. Plans for "this will might go wrong anytime if this is exposed ahead of time". You need to have your PR contacts ready to control and minimize this negative exposure, so that people accept this was an ad stunt. 

More than minimize negative exposure, and if it is well done, the end of this campaign (even if ahead of the planned) should be about bridging to the brand's communication core. That their core target has this romance dream, and that Cacharel keeps their dreams alive. If you shatter them by making this (great) campaign look a corporate trick, then, you are losing your "share of heart" of consumers. So, there is a lot to learn from this one - keep an eye on it.

http://www.publico.pt/Sociedade/afinal-a-procura-de-diana-foi-uma-estrategia-publicitaria-1565524

iOS6 Maps

Everybody is now talking that Apple messed up with iOS6 Maps - moving out Google Maps and replacing them by an Apple-owned app. And they are right - the number of flaws in that feature transformed Apple (for the first time ever) in joke material (everybody heard of the new airports that popped up around the world). 

But the fact is that Apple needed to launch its own maps - and for a very simple reason. Maps are at the core of consumer experience in mobile business. As the article that I am linking below puts it, "maps are where the physical intersects the digital" in the mobile market. Consumers actively look for maps that allow them to interact with the real world around them - and they will keep doing so, as companies are able to expand features and information based on geo-location. An important dimension to that will be indoor mapping, that will actually allow navigating through shopping malls, museums, stores,...

Thus, and though already crucial, maps are becoming more and more a core application to future development of consumer experiences. And a company that wants to lead consumer experiences and lifes cannot stay away from it. It is as simple as so.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2012/09/21/why-apple-had-to-do-maps-a-mobile-engagement-analysis/

Facebook tracking advertisers ROI

It seems Facebook is finally tracking in-store impact of ads run in its website. It is doing so through loyalty cards (of course) on American households. Though limited (it is not a global programm), this is the way forward to showcase investment return on this media - as Google has been doing for years...

P.S- Privacy concerns? Not on this area, please. All companies that collect this data don't break it down individually, they work collected data through clusters. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/23/business/facebook-datalogix/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

India's retail market

India's retail landscape transformation is a revolution waiting to happen. Government laws have hindered the efforts of mass retailers to establish in the second largest country in the world - seen by some of the largest retail companies in th world as a "gold mine". But, a word of caution here. India's a very different market. And it is not only Government laws that are hampering mass retail efforts - it is also the consumer and shopper profiles, that are very different from western's. While China's consumers had been educated for dozens of years to shop at Government shops and warehouses (enabling an easier transition to western-like retail chains), India has more than a thousand years of shopping in small, messy neighbourhood stores, with very specific types of services. Any mass retailer that wants to take on the Indian "gold mine", needs to know that Government laws are not the big barrier - and have a very swift and flexible plan to understand and adapt to local shoppers. It won't be easy...

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/21/business/menon-india-supermarkets/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

Bottom of the Pyramid strategy in Europe?

Interesting news that Unilever might be looking at bottom of the pyramid strategies for Europe. Having worked in bottom of the pyramid projects in Asia (Indonesia and China) and Latin America I think this might be an interesting approach. As long as it takes into consideration two very big differences between European and these markets:

- in Asia and Latin America, bottom of the pyramid approaches target not only low income consumers but also low income and small costumers - small traditional trade. It's adaptation to a modern trade reality is not necessarily an easey step;

- In Europe, DOBs are very strong, already competing in the low income price tier. This is not true in Asian and Latin American markets, where DOBs are almost non-existent.

But, as always, markets and consumers dictate the rules - and I was expecting this move from FMCG companies for a while.

http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/unilever-preparase-para-o-regresso-da-pobreza-a-europa-1560539

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/unilever-mulls-smaller-cheaper-europe-packs-rpt-2012-08-27

QR catalogue

One of the biggest challenges for airport stores is to expand their touch point with the consumer beyond the departure gate (yes, even thinking on arrivals as a shopping occasion is a challenge). In this very moment i have an example of how the main lisbon's airport store is trying to tackle it - a gigantic QR activated board, with free shipping all overdose the world. Will it work? Only time will tell, but it seems to me this is a good effort and example of using technology to move outside of normal business boundaries.


- enviado de dispositivo móvel.

Rule of thumb - always make it easy for customers...

... to spend their money on your products. Lift as many barriers and obstacles as possible. And never, ever create new ones - even if they look create on a mock P&L exercise. Your turnover will suffer if you don't keep things easy.

Attitude towards failure and innovation

An organization culture can have a strong impact on its innovation delivery. One dimension of this is the attitude toward failure - should we strive on an extreme competitive culture that strongly punishes any failure or should we tolerate it and try to learn from them. In this interesting article from Fast Company ( http://www.fastcompany.com/3000524/encourage-innovation-eradicate-blame ), it is defended than a company has actually more to win if it eradicates blame, as it actually promotes and then encourages bolder initiatives that can result in frequent and more different innovations. I must say I am a strong supportive of this thinking, also quoting Edison's electrical lamp process ("each mistake got me closer to the right solution"). But then... how to compound this with the most innovative company in the world, Apple, whose mentor (Steve Jobs, if you have been isolated from civilization over the past 30 years) is usually quoted as an example of severe discipline toward failures? Probably, the secret is all about eradicating blame but still not being passive about failure, taking hard stances to learn from mistakes and to prevent their recurrence.

I am a very proud Axe ex-Brand Manager

And I think it really shows off how important it is to understand the target consumer, and everyone that surrounds him. You need to be able to put yourself in your consumer shoes, to understand what they want (girls or a girl...), what they do, how they behave - and then to transpose that to your work. It was an incredible experience, to work in the brand and produce and use some great assets that actually impacted the consumers - and to feel how they felt the brand and how each interaction was a lot more than a marketing one, it was a smile, a moment of pleasure. Axe is not a brand - it is an icon. 

P.S- Thanks Bernardo, for pointing me down to the link below.

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681417/how-axe-built-a-highly-scientific-totally-irresistible-marketing-machine-built-on-lust?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcocreate%2Ffeed+%28Co.Create%29

A few tools to help you manage your Twitter communication

Twitter gives you access to a large, informal group of potential shoppers and consumers. But it is not an easy media to manage - so, let me present you some tools:

- Commn.it - to manage your community

- inboxQ - what is going on around in Twitter

- Tweriod & Buffer - to understand the best time to tweet

- Brandfluencers - identifies the users who have referred the most visits to a blog via twitter


Read the original article in - http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/twitter-tools-to-enhance-your-marketing/

One of my number one ads

Many times I am asked what is my most preferred ad. I always answer the same - I don't have only one. But this is a very exclusive club - there are no more than three in it. Today, as the London Olympics are about to start, let me share one of them with you.

Celebrate Humanity was a campaign for the Sydney Olympics of 2000 (if I am not mistaken), that featured incredible quality ads (let me also highlight the one named "Courage", about Derek Redmond Barcelona performance in 1992, one of the most incredible and inspirational of all times). I especially like this one, "Giants". It is incredibly engaging - it draws your attention from the beginning, that voice shuts down any other sound around it and the music just increases your engagement with the ad. Branding is all there - from the second you see the female gymnast running, you know these are the Olympics. And the message is so strong, and inspirational, represented by Olympic heroes everyone knows - Strug, Muhammed Ali, Segey Bubka, Greg Louganis, Jesse Owens.

But, maybe the best way to describe how good I think this is to say that, 12 years after I have seen it for the first time, it still plays in my head! And that, whenever I watch this ad, I am drawn to the Olympics - and they gain relevance to me!

Facebook losing its advantage

It is not that advertisers are stoping investing in Facebook - no way! But, we are seeing a diversification of investment, as new alternatives gain room (like Pinterest) and other companies make a stronger effort to demonstrate their superior ROI (namely Google). In my opinion, Facebook has been having a dismail performance in terms of establishing is ROI credentials, prompting the question if it is really that good of an investment.

Please, see the stats and the original article in http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009184

Consumer Barometer

And welcome to the latest Google tool on explaining and datashowing the importance of search for consumers and shoppers worldwide - welcome to Consumer Barometric! A very graphic tool, developed in partnership with TNS and iabEurope, this tool provides you a lot of answers to your digital questions - especially the ones related to purchase and search behaviours. Please, do look around! 

http://www.consumerbarometer.com/#?app=home&viewMode=0

A quick rule of thumb on point of sale communication

Remember that shopper attention is low and disperse when navigating through aisles, moving from one category and product to the next, going for its next buy, surrounded by different stimulus. Under these conditions, it is proven that only top-notch IQ persons will read 7 or more words. So, as a rule of thumb, remember your in-store communications shouldn't have more than 4 words to convey a message. If you want to explaing anything more than that, you have to think on 2 moments materials - the first one to get attention (a "no more than 4 words headline") and then a second one with the more detailed explanation (but just remember no shopper is actually keen on reading long explanations so, if you really need to do this, keep  it short and visually appealing - simplify, simplify, simplify or nobody will read it...).

Different shoppers, different prices

What was a dream for offline retailers is actually common practice for online ones - to adjust price for each customer. How to do it? Cookies trace each computer's online navigation history - keeping a record of the sites you visited, the words you searched, where have you clicked, what's the computer you are clicking from, where is it located... If consumers don't want this to be known (apart from computer and location, that's unavoidable), they should actually clean their cookies once in a while (a very simple process) - but if they don't do it, then, this information is then used by online stores to actually taylor made their offering to consumers. Retailers may then personalize price, offerings, promotion, communication,... It is an incredible and powerful feature - a marketeer dreamland!

If you want to know some real examples, just follow http://blogs.smartmoney.com/advice/2012/06/26/how-online-retailers-personalize-prices/

Mobile payments

I already hinted at it here and there - I firmly believe mobile payments (the ability to make offline purchases through your cellphone) will strongly lift-off during this decade. I don't think it will be dominant (I think large chunks of population will refrain to use it for some time, because of security concerns, price of using it - especially from business side - or difficulties in adapting to the technology.) but I think it will capture an important chunk of the payment business. And it will do so based primarily on convenience, and then, maybe, on cost (if apps are able to compete with cards on fees levered to businesses). Still, I don't believe that the main drivers will be the individual apps that now thrive (like Starbucks'), but the integrated solutions that will allow multiple usage across multiple businesses and will integrate online purchases with the on the go offline's (solutions like Square, depicted in the video in link below, and PayPal's - and that might be why I just bought some eBay shares...). For some businesses, this represents an opportunity (if they want to be cool and technologically trendy) and a threat (if they don't adapt fast enough and don't bet in the winning solutions). Because, this will also be a battle of industry standards (like VHS vs Beta, or Visa vs Mastercard) - nobody believes there will be room for more than 1 or 2 global integrated mobile payment systems...

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-digital-wallet-20120624,0,7698751.story

Clustering social media usage

Aimia, a firm that works on the loyalty management area, recently published a clusterization of American social media users that might be quite useful. They worked by identifying 2 axis (on trust = participation on social media; and control = exposure) and then clustering consumers to it, highlighting 6 big groups of consumers.

Personally, I must say I am not totally convinced by this study - primarily because I think there is limited differentiation between the 2 axis (is trust that different to control that generates a different dimension of behaviour? I don't think so), and that is very visible on the differences between the 6 groups as charted in the summary you may find in the article (they are primarily based on volume of consumption and not substancial differences around different patterns). I would prefer differences based on time of usage (during the time), duration of interactions, number of media used, brand engagement frequencey. Still, I think it is a good clusterization effort, and it might be worth giving it a look.

http://socialmediatoday.com/node/564409

Brand Name

The name of our brand or company is key - it serves the double effect of communicating the purpose, market and product of the company, but also of inspiring potential consumers. It is not only key - it is titanic! As so, if you are working at the early stages of a start-up, maybe it is useful to think on how to brainstorm its name - have a look at the article in http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223694

Look out for social commerce

What if we combine social media and e-commerce? The result is what Mark Zuckerber said would be the next big thing around digital - it seems he might be right. Just think on the power of word-of-mouth for buying services and products. If companies can leverage recommendations of friends they trust and know seek similar products with easy and accessible shopping, it's potential might be huge.

If you want to know some of the ideas going around, please, have a look at http://mashable.com/2012/06/04/startups-social-commerce/

Global brands becoming more important

A financial times article about the 100 biggest brands highlights the importance of having a strong, well-known brand - size, awareness, quality perception, clear and aligned values seem to be protecting the biggest brands against recession in turbulent times. And this is carving a gap between big, global brands and smaller, country or regional ones. You can read the main conclusions in IE maketing blog in http://marketing.blogs.ie.edu/archives/2012/06/global-brands-still-make-the-difference-during-a-downturn.php?utm_source=feedburner


- enviado de dispositivo móvel.

A thing you should remember on price

If you keep adding value to a product, through a great product that is spot on a consumer need, incredibly attractive packaging, strong sensorials, technology that provides over-reassurance to consumers, alignment to brand values, then, price becomes more and more inelastic, as people are willing to pay more for it. Naturally, there will always be clusters of consumers who will focus on price, but you have to understand if those are the ones you want to target. Systematically adding value to a product is at the core of business sustainability and growth. Look at Apple. Look at BMW. Look at Gillette.

Eternal consumer pains

There are some pains that seem eternal - never end, are nevel fully met, consumers will always feel them or are easily made aware of them. Many of them actually tickle on Human insecurities on social context. Just look at some products around you and you will see them. Just a couple of examples (on male consumers): 

- Have you ever noticed Men's Health magazine covers? Just compare a few of them and you will find some recurring subjects. They will always promise you how to have a flat and shapen up belly - that actually goes after (and fuels) men insecurity on their looks, and exactly on the "soft" spot. But you should always spot that every cover also promises you better sex - men will always be concerned with their sex life and ensure they are able to always leave a good impression.

- Then, just look at Gillette's innovation strategy and communication - they always capitalise on men's worry with (again) a shapen up and fit look, that conveys a professional image. Gillette will always promise consumers the same thing - better shaving, better look.

- And the ability to feel socially integrated, to have a good time with friends, to meet new people and feelhave fun - if you think, that's beer brands usual hunting ground.

Simpatia by TAP

Yesterday I was writing about relationship marketing - and I got a good example when I got home. TAP launched a program to reward... employees through consumers. The model is very simple - when a frequent flyer (I think that was why I was invited to be part of the program) sees an example of good service from a TAP employee, s/he will hand her a card recognizing her effort (each customer only have 3 cards to hand out, ensuring selectivity). This is an initiative actually aimed at improving service and employee engagement, but, you know what? The intelligent way it is done, through consumers, also empowers them - and, at least to me, I appreciate being recognised and given a tool to reward service and improve a company I like. Sometimes, you don't need to give consumers anything physical - you just need to give them meaningful power. So, congrats TAP!

Consumer relationships

This interesting HBR article ( http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/three_myths_about_customer_eng.html?goback=.gde_1952271_member_119509501 ) highlights two important points in terms of building relationships with consumers:

1) You have to clearly identify the consumers with whom you have already established a relationship, the ones with whom that is potentially possible and the ones with whom that will not be possible. And treat them differently, with clear strategies and tactics for each one of these groups.

2) You will only be able to establish a relationship with a consumer if you share strong, aligned values that speak at their hearts. Those might be on product quality (think of baby care products), attitude (think of K2), social / environmental responsibility (Unilever),... If you don't offer them products that remind them of those values that you share, if you don't reinforce that alignment on every single opportunity, you will lose your relationship. 

And, if you don't share a relationship, don't spam - build it by striving those values.

Women paying more for deos?

This Time article on how much some specific groups (women, men, ethnic minorities) pay more for some goods and services is very interesting ( http://moneyland.time.com/2012/05/18/when-consumers-pay-more-due-to-race-or-gender/ ). But especially when we think about deos. Because the fact is there is no reason for this to happen – there is no technology reason for this, prices tend to be the same across men and women ranges,… I think the reason for this to happen is pure consumer behaviour. I would speculate that, actually, women, are prone to buy more expensive deos then men, as they go after value added benefits – like anti-stains, dermatologic care, hair control,… Many of these variants and benefits (premium ones) are also available for men, but I would say that probably more women buy them then men, which then increases the average. Still, as personal care companies continue to explore the male market, driving needs and benefits, I would say that it might be really interesting to have a second look at this in a few years. 

What's Facebook ads ROI?

According to GM's CEO, not enough! They are pulling their ads off air! <p><p>
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304192704577406394017764460.html

Walk the talk

A really interesting article about the need to walk the talk in terms of strategy. Strategy is only 30% about formulation - the rest is actually making sure the defined path is trailed. And usually problems stem from execution. Because, too often too much attention (the best talent, external resources, senior management time) is devoted to the formulation process, and execution is left primarily to teams who had minimal participation in the previous steps. There isn't a deliberate thinking of resources to implement the strategy. There are gaps in objectives formulation and their cascading through the teams. There is not enough confrontation and challenge of implementation. And that makes strategies go off and not produce the expected results. <p><p>

http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2012/05/why-strategies-go-off-the-rail.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

IBM's Global CMO study

In this very recent IBM study, it is interesting to understand how crucial is ROI becoming. In an era of multiple solutions to reach consumers and shoppers, CMOs are focusing on understanding effectiveness of contact vs cost - and how will activities actually deliver value to the consumer and contribute to long-lasting relationships between consumer and brands. If you are curious and want to dig a bit deeper, I recommend you to follow the link to the actual study in http://www-304.ibm.com/businesscenter/cpe/download0/223912/CMO_MM_Study.PDF .

Blue Clay

In tennis, why should clay be always orangish? Why couldn't it have a different colour? Madrid Open accepted the challenge from its main sponsor and created a hype - being polemic, again, it differentiated further from all the other professional tournaments in the world. It created distinction and recognition that is talked all over the tennis world, without a negative impact. Don't you think that is brilliant marketing?

The true value of search

"81% of internet users start their purchase journeys with an online search". This is one of the key sentences on Google's video explaining "the true value of search". I deeply recommend you to watch this Google Classroom video, that provides a good overview of how important search may be - together with very useful insights on impact on offline purchase, duration of purchase journeys and how to create more "bang for your bucks" through SEO tools AdWords.

"It's impossible to communicate functional benefits in an engaging way"

If you said that, I think you should have a look at this 2009 campaign from Knorr...

Never underestimate the power of a strong movie

Movies are powerful things! With a good storyline, credible leads and involving play, they can draw the attention of millions of people worldwide. And help introduce habits or innovation or build perceptions. <p><p>

We are just seeing an example of that, on these days. "The Hunger Games" is a strong movie, one of those that actually makes millions based on a good story and book. The main character is particularly skilled at shooting arrows - and owes her survival to that, making archery a key element on the movie. So, guess what - in the US (at least), archery schools are seeing a steady in flow of new students, sales of bows have tripled, archery became cool. You can read more about it in http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/22/hunger-games-fever-makes-archery-cool-for-kids/<p><p>

Now, just think on what a smart and sustained inclusion of a brand and habit on a good storylane can do. Just think of Martini and James Bond, Steve McQueen and Ford, Top Gun and Air Force recruits. It really works doesn't it? Just remember, as always, to try not to be intrusive and to make it an integral part of the story, being a key part of the flow, naturally.

"Share a coke" - Australia

50% of teens and young adults in Australia hadn't taste a Coke - so, Coke came up with this brilliant campaign, perfectly aligned to individualism but also the joy and happiness of sharing. Don't you admire a 150 years old brand that is capable of doing engaging campaigns like this one, putting its full weight behind a crazy idea?

http://vimeo.com/38134755

A quick word on TVCs

It is kind of fashionable to say "the TV Commercials are dead". For many it is a way to claim they are fully embracing the digital and social media trend, completely rejecting the predominant communication model of 1920 (with the radio) - 2005. It is a modernisation claim! That I don't agree with.

First of all, "interrupting advertising" (the advertising the consumer gets because s/he is watching a show and then gets advertising in the breaks) is still a major force. Daily, many consumer choose to watch TV shows - it is not something that is forced upon them. Consumers have the choice of TV channel, of TV vs digital vs social vs newspapers vs ... and still choose specific shows. And the most effective way to communicate on that specific type of media consumption is through commercials in TV breaks.

Now, the point is quality. Of creativity, of being able to break the (considerable) clutter and strike the message on the hearts and minds of consumers and shoppers. And is actually the crucial point! It is not enough (it shouldn't be!) to air a commercial - it has to be the right commercial! Consumers need to remember the commercial, the brand, the message after watching the commercial. Creativity and quality need to strike these points!

And people like good commercials! It is curious to see that it even breaks strongly into the digital world. One of the most successful sites is Youtube, that has TVCs as one of its backbones - everyday, millions of people look for the "so dead" TVCs in this site. People like good commercials.

Now... Remember that TVCs shouldn't be considered alone. They should be integrates in a whole multi-touch point campaign, that shares the same creative idea.

Pinterest is already the No 3 social network in the US

I told you a couple of months ago - Pinterest would be big (http://consumerconsumerconsumer.blogspot.pt/2012/02/interested-in-pinterest.html) ! It already is! In March, Pinterest got over 100 million visits in the US, above Linkedin, Google+ and Tagged. And now, it is rolling out globally...

http://mashable.com/2012/04/06/pinterest-number-3-social-network/

Skype vs Facebook and Twitter?

There was a time Skype would advertise its benefits vs phone companies - Skype then positioned itself like a "free phone calls" company. Now, it has released a new ad - and with strong ties to a different positioning. In that ad, Skype is comparing vs... social media! It is stressing that staying in touch involves real image and voice, and not only a few scattered messages in a Facebook wall or a tweet. And, on doing so, it is actually saying, we are the best and most qualitative social network consumers have in the digital world. And that is a very interesting positioning evolution!

http://mashable.com/2012/04/05/skype-facebook-twitter/

Some quick sentences on trends

There are actually a few places in the world where you can see trends starting to emerge earlier and then spreading out across the world. Clear examples are New York, California and Japan, especially on anything that involves electronics, internet or social sites, or Paris and New York on what relates to the beauty industry. Those are the places where trends are generally born before they take on the world – just think about Facebook a few years ago, Pinterest or brunches.

That means that many times, the best way to understand how a trend will settle in your country, you shouldn’t rely only on the data that is presented to you on the current state of that trend – you would actually do better in looking at the place where the trend was born and what it implied there and then understand how is your country lagging behind, catching up and doing any specific local adaptations. That will work like a time machine – by looking at the past, you will be able to understand the future in your country on what relates that trend. Trust me - it is a very powerful and efficient tool!

On higher prices

Consumers’ perception on price is a funny thing. Sometimes and for some products, a low price is a must have, other times and products you can’t sell if you don’t have a high price. And the fact is that too often marketeers focus on pricing as the ultimate barrier to sell a product to a consumer, and forget pricing is actually a key area on the marketing mix.

First of all, if you have a high price, you need to sustain it with a tight and strong mix in all the other dimensions. Consumers who are ready to pay higher for a product are usually the ones that demand very high standards in product performance and packaging. They are the ones who can only be impacted by clever and spot on communication. And usually place (where is the product actually sold) is cornerstone – you don’t expect to buy a Ferrari in a shack or a Dolce & Gabbana perfume in a Lidl discount store, right? If you can’t actually deliver high performance against high standards in those 4 areas (vs consumers expectations and competitors performance), then, you sure can’t command a sustained high price for your product.

But then, again, there is the other side of the mirror – consumers’ perception and how they are influenced by prices. If you have a great product, but you sell it too cheap, a large proportion of consumers will probably say that the product isn’t better than competitors sold at higher prices (even if they fail to meet the other 4Ps standards) – and thus will reject it. If you want to build a quality perception of your product or brand, you have to sell it at a high price, in order to drive higher segment volume. And be extremely careful at managing your promotional price.

But managing a high price is also incredibly difficult – especially if you need to rely on distributors or trade to reach your end target. They will usually be very pressured to actually drive prices down – especially if they compete vs other stores that sell your product. You have to be extremely careful when managing your price with them, to ensure correct deployment, stressing the strength of all your mix (a tip, make sure your trade actually values higher priced mixes and is interested in sustaining that pricing strategy).

But then there also is a magical side on higher prices. By having the right price, you can actually improve your business margins. And, in a high quality product, a higher price means longer strides – to reach a turnover target, lower priced products need to run, to have a higher volume of sales. Many people think that by selling at a lower price, you can actually sell more volumes and thus compensate the lower prices – but that is not necessarily truth. When thinking about volumes and prices, one also needs to think about elasticity. And the objective is actually always play at the top of it – sell at the highest possible price, without breaking volume.

If you can build a higher quality mix, able to sustain a higher price without significant volume breaks and you can effectively (and legally) manage price in the market, then you can play the high card – a higher sustainable pricing strategy, able to command both higher revenues and margins. Congrats!

Unexpected, positive impact

Yesterday I had a good example of unexpected, positive impact advertising. I got into a traditional black cab in London and, inside of it, I found a Vodafone sponsored mobile-phone charger - that included plugs for iPhone, Nokia, Samsung,... It shows how incredibly insightful the Vodafone marketeer was in this one - it is true that many times, your phone batteries are almost dead, and you just pray for an opportunity to recharge it. So, why not do it free in the cab if you have taken? And I am sure you will not forget which brand saved you then - Vodafone.

This execution comes from a very clear insight - and actually on a situation that almost every single one of us experienced. But it requires ability to understand the experience one lives is felt by many other people, has a significant impact in their day-to-day life and represents a marketing / communication opportunity. So, what situations do you go through everyday that might be a good insight?

A quick advice on newspapers

If you want to understand your potential consumers, don't jump to the business section of your newspaper. Go through the major lifestyle, local, society news, understand their fears, their aspirations, their economical situation - business sections are almost always about what businesses do or did, and people actually matter the most. And, by the way, consider reading more than your newspaper of choice - also force yourself to also read the same newspapers as your target.

Long tail and niches

Usually, there are always niches in any market - small groups of consumers that have a clear preference for products that (though satisfying the same basic need) are different from all the other. Many times, companies think those niches to be too small to be actually considered and leave them for small players that especialize on those niches - or, as happens many times, leave those specific needs unanswered.

But there is a flaw in this line of thought. And the flaw is to think 1% of a market can't be profitable and attractive to a large scale business - your questions should be what's the size of the universe (so, how many people are actually 1%, what is their purchasing power and how much do we think they are ready to pay for this product) and what's your business operational model. You can actually put up an operational model that profitably sells to 1% of a market. Just think of an internet based operation, with a potential universe of more than 2 billion consumers - like Amazon did. Amazon sells mainstream titles, but also incredibly obscure and hard to find books that are only appealing to some fringes of their consumer universe - but it's business model allows to sell both of these books (the mainstream and the niche) exactly the same profitable way. And a considerable amount of their income actually comes from those titles that "nobody wants". Amazon operates on what is called a "Long Tail" model.

So, even small niche markets may represent huge opportunities - you just need to make sure you think the market right and you are able to put through the right operational model. One that is actually able to appeal and reach to the whole universe niche and not just to a fragment of it. And one that is then actually able to serve your whole customers on a simple profitable way. The internet has become the answer to many of these long tailers, because of its broad reach and simplicity to use and it is where you can find most of the long tail techniques being used and developed.

Learn with Google webinars

Interested in online and mobile communication and marketing? Ok, let me give you a very quick free tip - you should actually have a look at Google Webinar pages. They are free and will help you understand and get the max out of your communication with Google.

http://www.google.com/ads/experienced/webinars.html

Newspapers

Traditional newspapers have been facing an incredible challenge in the last 10 years - the amount and speed of information internet is now providing its consumers has made traditional newspapers obsolete. Nowadays, that is unquestionable. But, some newspapers are actually faring better than others. Because they have actually understood their part on the news value chain to consumer and the best way to play it. Those newspapers, like Portuguese Publico, have learnt that they need to play a price vs benefit ladder:

- They give for free relevant and fast to read information, supporting it through online advertising, helping it pay for the news structure that is behind. They made this available in all online media - internet, smartphones, tablets,...;

- And then they have a second tier of information, with good and deep analysis, that actually goes a further notch in terms of quality. And that is paid-access only - either by purchasing the paper edition, or paying an online subscription fee, again, for all kind of online access - internet, smartphones, tablets,... These newspapers are able to do this because of the equity they have harnessed before the massification of the internet - an equity based on quality and deep information.

It is rather interesting to see that this involved quite a good comprehension of how consumers think of this product. There are times of the day when consumer wants quick on the go news, that can be aprehended by a quick headline and developed in a 5 minutes reading. But there are also times of the week (end of the day for some persons, early relaxing Saturday morning with your coffee for others...) when the consumer has the time and wants to actually get a deeper comprehension of the world he / she lives in. It is a different benefit, and one a good reputation news paper can actually charge a premium for.

So, let's actually keep a keen eye on the newspaper and information markets - it is going through a product revolution!

Reading on tablets

According to a comScore study, 55% of the 234 million cell phone subscribers in the US use it to go through media. And 14% of those 234 million also own a tablet. And if you go through the link below, you will see that what is happening is that people are starting to use their devices as suplements of a multi online touchpoints, accessing media on the go through their PCs, TVs, paper, smartphones and tablets, depending of the time of the day and where they are. That for workdays people use their PCs until 5pm, and then tablets peak afterwards. That people tend to use their tablets in the evening while watching TV (this is part of a Nielsen study), and for emailing, social networking and (of course, men...) sports checking. And that on weekends, tablets tend to be used in the morning - probably replacing or supplementing the traditional newspaper read while taking breakfast? But what is important for a marketeer is actually to understand this evolution and to blend it in the way we read our consumers - their habits are strongly changing in these times.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/29/tech/mobile/comscore-report-gahran/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Why videos go viral

Kevin Alloca, Youtube Trend Manager, presents us a few reasons for videos to go viral. This TED presentation is not necessarily intended at business, but it should give you a few hints. It is just 7 well invested minutes...

Mega-trend: A smaller, more connected world

The picture that a recent Cisco report depicts (and that you can find in http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=668380 ) is astonishing:

- In 2016, there will be over 10 billion mobile connected devices in the world, clearly surpassing the world population

- Global mobile traffic will increase 18-fold till 2016 (and Latin America will follow this average)

- Two thirds of the world’s mobile traffic will be video in 2016.

In a few words, this will mean a smaller and more connected world. And if anyone thinks it can stay aside from mobile marketing, it better think twice. This world will be an on-the-go one, as phones, tablets and whatever clearly overtakes computers as the main access point to the world.

So, main conclusions:

- mobile interaction with the consumer will be more than a potential opportunity – it will be a must need for any brand. And if you want to take a meaningful part in 95% CAGR for the next 5 years, you should start doing it now. Make mobile communication and consumer interaction part of your world, now!;

- have you noticed the sentence about video mobile traffic? Yes, it is true, Youtube and Vimeo are very well positioned to take the “lion share” of this growth. So, again, you should make sure your brand is in there, in a positive and impactful way;

- if connectivity increases on the go, then, location interaction opportunities will also increase. Think about this in your plans – how can you play with locations to impact your consumer. This is an area that after giving baby-steps in the last years, is now bursting through FourSquare gamification – but this is just a simple angle, be prepared to deeper and more meaningful dimensions;

- Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East will represent an amazing opportunity – if infra-structures keep up with the growth pace. So, if you are thinking about investing in those markets, don’t forget this dimension – it might be the easiest way to impact some people;

- and, as a last message – this is great news if you are in the mobile infra-structures industry. Someone will actually have to build all the capacity that this growth will demand.

This post was inspired by this Time article: http://techland.time.com/2012/02/21/the-connected-human-how-the-world-is-about-to-get-even-smaller/

Viral - remember the key message you want to drive

The Australian Central Institute of Technology released a viral ad that actually makes a splash on the traditional way to communicate an educational institute. It is different from the traditional walk arounds through campus, showing beautiful students relaxing, reading and working in computers (or tablets, recently). This one is sarcastic, ironic, dark, humourous - different. And thus, eye catchy! It is a great viral, that will make you stay throughtout the length of the ad and actually share it with your friends.

But a viral needs to be more than that! It also needs to convey a message associated with a brand! Too often I see viral ads just being judged under the criteria of standing out and talkability. They need to do more than that - they should answer a brand or product strategic objectives! It is something that all marketeers should remember! Or they will end up doing a number of laughable and memorable campaigns, but no sales at all...

Now, looking at this ad, I can see the campaign objectives very clearly. For a clever, witted and young target (and which university doesn't have that?) this is a great ad - it shows that this college shares the same attitude they have, creating empathy. But I would definitively recommend them to push branding a couple more times in the ad.

Eye

A marketeer needs to have a keen eye, one that detects beauty, that is able to understand a composition, to find it beautiful, impactful, aligned with the communication objectives. Not knowing and cherish your eye is actually to put yourself half a step away from failure. So, that is way I always carry my camera around, and organize sessions of photowalks, searching for the bizarre, the unexpected, the beautiful, the gentle, the striking. Photography is part of my marketeer CV - what is your trick for nurturing your eye?

Consumer centric

Think consumer. Drink consumer. Breathe consumer. Many times, consumer marketing is defined this way. These are neat words, but they actually mean one thing - to be consumer centric, you have to "be" your target. You need to go to the same places, be in the middle of them, see, interpret, think. Don’t rely only on focus groups or research tools – they are useful, but only up to a point. Get out of your comfort zone and start living like your target. Humanize it, give it a name, think of it as more than just numbers and behaviours. You can only be consumer centric if you feel your target at heart and mind.

Gamification - remember this word

You never heard of it? Well, lets put it plainly - FourSquare fits in it! It basically is the use of a game to engage consumers and keep them interested in your product, making them follow the steps you want. It does so by a "play our game and get your reward" (even if the reward has no monetary value, like a video game level) system, that effectively drives consumer interested. I am more used to see this being used as a complement to social marketing (see FourSquare interlinking with Twitter and Facebook), but it might also be looked as a stand alone - though I would say the really value of it is as a part of a bigger campaign.

So, if you really want to impress your agency, just ask them how could their creative idea be gamified. But if you want to impress and impact your costumers, think of gamification as part of your initial brief. This is just my hint...

http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/12/no-longer-an-awkward-teenager-gamification-grows-up/

Interested in Pinterest?

Welcome to what is starting to be hailed as 2012 hottest social network. Pinterest ( http://pinterest.com/ ) offers users the possibility to identify content in the web, commenting on it and sharing it. Content is exactly that - it may be pictures of a beautiful landscape, cookies recipes, clothes and shopping images,... After you mark them ("pin"), you can share your views, recommend (repin) to your friends, start a conversation on comments with them,... Now, just think about the potential for advertisers (on direct ads, related suggestions,...) and monetization - this may really be a winner and you want to pay close attention to it! Stay tuned!

DOBs getting more expensive - does it make sense?

Yes it does. Price is directly linked to quality perception, product awareness and attractiveness and brand equity. If a distributor has good products and a strong, well known and positive brand, why shouldn't it price its products at a higher tier vs A-brands competitors?

This is a move that is starting to be seen in some of the most developed markets in the world, like the UK (Tesco does it with their super-premium brands) and the US (Sam's Club, Archer Farms at Target,...). They are usually only part of DOBs portfolio of store chain, but they pass a very clear quality and brand equity confidence message to the consumer - "we are not only for savings, but also for quality". It also means consumers are seeing DOBs more and more just as another brand, getting more and more used to them.

All of this is actually bad news to Consumer Goods companies - it means their trade is starting to compete head on in equity strength. But good news for the consumers (especially if there still is a complete DOBs portfolio playing at different price ladders) - they have more choice available and they can be sure A-Brands will try to differentiate and innovate even further. As always, competition is good for the markets and consumers...

http://moneyland.time.com/2012/02/02/why-were-now-paying-more-for-generic-groceries/

What is Twitter?

According to its CEO, if you answered "A Media Company", then, you are wrong. The right answer is that it is a distributor of traffic and content. Which, when you think about it, actually is something subtly different - and opens up new and different business dimensions.

Twitter is one of those major breakthrough companies that put together a great and disruptive product, impacting and changing the lives of millions of persons globally - but that struggles with monetization. Saying that they are not in the business of billboarding and advertising messages, but yes on getting the traffic to where their customers can interact deeper and more directly to consumers is refreshing - and provides clarity of purpose! It states very clearly that a company shouldn't expect to sell products just because it twitted a bit - but that they need to use it complementarily to their communication campaign, as a useful tool. And, when get further clarity when Dick Costolo to the Super 8 campaign that Paramount ran on Twitter - that used hashtagged tweets to trend the movie, but also to drive traffic to its trailer.

The fact is new businesses require clear definitions - and I think that Twitter just provided that by stating it is not a media company. It positions itself as something different, a new business that can be used by companies to successfully impact their consumers on very different ways. It all depends on clients objectives, talent and imagination...

http://mashable.com/2012/01/31/twitter-is-not-a-media-company-ceo-says/

Can you keep a client that is just not interested anymore?

The question is relevant when you think of some business models that are focused on getting clients, and not so much on retaining them - like Holmes Place gyms. In those businesses, the customer signs a long term agreement, committing to stay in the gym for a number of months. The problem is when the customer is not interested in staying with you anymore - for several perfectly reasonable reasons, like job loss, disease, poor service from the company... If the company tries to keep the customer committed to the contract, it is just generating badwill and creating potential negative word-of-mouth - and would you like a former customer refering to your company as a "don't go there!" to his friends?

If you understand Portuguese, have a look at this great article - http://www.tudomudou.com/2012/01/26/o-modelo-de-negocios-do-holmes-place-esta-condenado/ .

Troubles reading package labels?

A worldwide online research done by Nielsen to over 25000 consumers unveils a scary truth - around 59% of consumers have issues reading nutritional information on labels. They only grasp part of the information that is stated there or don't understand it at all. And, the ones that understand it, have doubts on the credibility of the information that is written on labels - they consider part of it ambiguous and biased. And this could probably be said on 95% of all packaged products – whatever the industry!

The truth is label information should be considered crucial. It is the only information we know will be directly associated to our product and always present where our product is. And, if label design is key to get shoppers attention and stand out vs competition, the way we present information on it might be cornerstone for our communication (think about diets and foods and you get the point I am trying to convey).

But too often, label information is not considered part of marketing. It is basically left to technical departments to sum up the legal and maybe a quick claim and then to write it up somewhere in the label. There are limited concerns on readability, on passing key messages on a clever, easy and mind grabbing way, on alignment with point of sale or above the line communication. The potential progression margin on labels design and information is huge – and with clear benefits on brand and product equity, and revenue potential.

http://www.hipersuper.pt/2012/01/26/mais-de-50-dos-consumidores-nao-sabe-ler-rotulos/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=linkedin (in Portuguese)

Social network - a must do for athletes

This morning, I woke up to know Frederico Gil had achieved a remarkable achievement for himself and Portuguese tennis - he is off to a third-round match on a tennis Grand Slam Tournment. But I couldn't find him nowhere on my twitter - no references whatsoever. Sports players need to understand they are a brand, they are media that passes messages and can carry them to a larger audience - thus, meaning it is on their own interest to make themselves as visible as possible. Just look at Carlos Sousa amazing social network (Facebook and Twitter) exposure during the last Dakar (also conveying Great Wall Motors brand) or the incredible work on twitter that Wayne Rooney (footballer) or Maya Gabeira (surfer) do. For a professional athlete, being active on social networks is a must do - please, just do it!

P.S- I just found out Frederico Gil's twitter account - it has around 150 followers...

Stengel 50

"Maximum profit and high ideals are not incompatible. They’re inseparable. Companies with ideals of improving lives at the center of all they do outperform the market by a huge margin." – Jim Stengel

Jim Stengel former P&G’s Chief Marketing Officer wrote a new book – GLOW. In it, Stengel moves on to probe the statement above – that brands and companies that actually engage with their consumers in a positive and responsible way enjoy steadier and fastest growth. Partnering with MillWard Brown, he was able to actually prove that the brands in his top 50 list (“Stengel 50”) generate stronger gains to investors – 400% over the last 10 years. And that companies that focused on improving people’s lives triple their growth vs competitors that don’t.

Doing well by doing good, has been the motto for a growing number of big companies – and it seems that is the right approach, the one consumer feels relevant and strikes a string at their hearts.

If you want to have have a look at MillWard’s Brown introduction to GLOW, please go to http://www.millwardbrown.com/Sites/Brand_Ideal/The_Book.aspx .

Can out of stocks be part of a marketing strategy?

I am fully convinced that Apple's recurrent out of stocks on theirs iPhone and iPad series are part of their strategy to keep everyone talking about them, as well as create a feel of scarcity that drives higher prices. And, let me tell you, it is a pretty good tactic - one of the things that makes me say Apple is probably the best marketing company in the world!

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/13/apple-halts-sale-of-iphone-4s-in-chinese-cities-after-scuffle/?iref=allsearch

Is touching that important?

According to Martin Lindstrom, it might make all the difference between selling or going back empty handed. According to his latest article on Time ( http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/10/the-secret-cause-of-buyers-remorse/ ), just holding a product might activate a sense of ownership in our brain, that we then strive to protect - a theory supported on FMRI studies that show that touching a product activates the emotional center of the brain. It is a very interesting side of the equation that is never looked at - but might actually be true. How many of us, after grabbing something, feel the need to take it home? The fact is, Martin looks at it as a threat to online shopping and the reason behind rising rates of returns - just because after holding the products they ordered, the feeling consumers get isn't exactly the one expected. Do you think he is right?

24 hours around the clock in your consumer shoes

This is one of my number one tools. It is all about media and communication.

One of marketing’s classical problems is actually to reach your target audience in an efficient way. Many years ago, the answer to that question seemed easy – you just put an ad on TV and on the most read newspapers and that was it. Well, actually, that was probably not the most efficient solution – but it was the traditional one and everybody would be happy with it. But now, the myriad of media that surrounds us make this an especially tough question.

The 24 hours clock is actually one of my preferred tools to solve it. Just put yourself on your consumer shoes and map its day, being aware of all the opportunities that might be around. Let’s think about a 30-something working mother of 1, married. She (Kate):

6.30am – wake up, with the alarm clock on her radio station;

Till 7.15am – take a shower and get ready for the day. Keep listening to radio and dress her daughter (Anna).

Till 7.30am – breakfast with Anna and Paul (husband). TV is turned on for quick news, meteo and traffic news

Till 8am – drive and leave Anna at school. Cross billboards and listens to radio

Till 8.30am – drive to work. Listen to radio

Till 12.30pm – work. Occasional 15 minutes stop to read online news, go to her facebook, read her emails in her smartphone

Till 1.00pm – lunch time at her desk. Surf the web a bit – facebook / youtube/ going through some travel sites / blogs to pick up ideas / dream a bit.

Till 6.00 pm - work. Occasional 15 minutes stop to read online news, go to her facebook, read her emails in her smartphone

Till 7.00pm – Pick up Anna and drive home. Listening to radio and driving past billboards.

Till 8.00pm – Her time to cook. TV on

Till 9.00pm – Dinner with Anna and Paul. TV on.

Till 10.30pm – Watching TV with Paul while answering and writing emails, facebooking, maybe a bit of web surfing.

So, looking at this 24 hours clock, what media mix would you choose? The fact is Kate follows an average pattern, and she is kind of conservative in her media choices – she is not on Twitter or on Google+, she is not checking in on FourSquare, not watching any movie on NetFlix. We could easily spice it up a bit – but, for that, we would need a tighter profile. And, as usual in marketing, if you have your target well defined, then, the number of opportunities and their importance and potential increases.

The fact is this simple tool can help you a lot on defining which media to consider. The weight you give to each one of them, the way you will explore them and make them interact based on the same campaign idea will then depend on the work that has to be developed based on actual penetration on target, impact, budget and prices,… But the 24 hours clock is a good starting point!

Kodak

The imminent bankruptcy of Eastmann Kodak is a severe and sharp warning for all the companies - one day, you will have to face the challenge of keeping your business model up to the future times. If you don't do it in a way to play and enhance your sustainable advantages, the market and the way the consumer thinks and behaves will end up overthrowing you. Watch it carefully!

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/05/business/kodak-bankruptcy/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://economia.publico.pt/Noticia/kodak-corre-risco-de-entrar-em-insolvencia-1527866

Consumers are (first and foremost) people

I was just reading Marc Mathieu (SVP Marketing at Unilever) interview to Marketing Week when I stumbled across this sentence - "to do marketing for people who are human beings first and foremost and not just consumers." And I strongly agree with this statement - actually, I agree so strongly with it that I had intended to right a post about it (I was just waiting for the right occasion).

Human beings are complex. We are never straightforward and out thinking and feeling processes are far from being simple, involving contradictions, past memories, senses, rationalisations,... When a brand tries to engage a person as a consumer, it moves on those shady waters that talk not only about the message of that brand, but actually about all the memories that might be associated with the brand, product, people involved... If a marketeer is not carefull to understand of all those contradictions and complexity, the brand message might not come across.

My motto on this is always the same. Treat consumers with the respect you would like to be treated - it is the only first step for having people who will actually admire and buy your brand.

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/analysis/qa-marc-mathieu-senior-vice-president-of-marketing-unilever/3033003.article

Branding vs Attention? Some real examples

So, let's look at http://aeiou.expresso.pt/sexo-na-publicidade-adivinhe-onde-esta-a-marca-fotogaleria=f697484 , as promised yesterday. And let's do a quick analysis:

1) The brand might make some sense in this ad – but actually, it is completely crushed down by the model. Even the idea that is blistering hot at that moment is not immediate – how many persons have actually noticed the melting radio in the image?

2) This is a very funny and surprising ad. It really is different and it drives attention to understand what happened in that salad. But the brand has no tradition in this advertising language. The big question here is to understand the alignment of this ad with the brand’s strategy – maybe it actually makes sense

3) Too subtle. I don’t really get any branding here. Unless the target is very specific with the brand and this is actually clear to it, I would dim it a waste of money.

4) Spot on! This ad breathes sexual attraction that is exactly what the brand sells to its consumers. And it does it in a funny way. I am sure you will remember this ad and brand longer than all (or almost) the other ones in this collection

5) The branding here is a lot stronger than in the first Perrier ad. So, everybody will understand it is Perrier – the only point is what does it have to do with a nice bottom? Maybe it helps you be in good shape, maybe there is some sort of association to a higher social class – the point is, as a stand alone ad, I have some doubts here.

6) Axe is about attraction – so it is more than ok to use images like this, it actually, is almost compulsory. I just think that branding should be stronger – with a bigger pack, maybe? Apart from that, it makes sense.

7) Perfect! Great association between ad and product benefit.

8) This is a very good ad from Hawaiian Tropic – and it makes all the sense to use bikinis for a sun tan brand. I would probably just improve visibility of the message (“Extreme Waterproof”) that unfolds the meaning of the ad – probably by placing it at the feet of the model (and this would elect me to a major discussion with my creative agency…)

9) I really don’t know what to say about this ad. I understand the message – but I am not very sure if it is the trigger that would make someone register in a donor database…

10) This is a good ad, in my opinion. Even because of positioning as a street billboard – you never know what can happen on the street and want always to look your best…

11) Again, Durex shows it is one of the brands that can use sexual innuendo, as it is part of their brand proposal.

12) I always found it difficult to advertise cars – because, nobody outstands itself. Most of the ads are very similar. This is a little different, but, on my opinion, still falls short of presenting a strong reason or of creating a bond that is compelling to drive a buying decision

13) For a masculine magazine – it makes sense. In my view, “let’s keep dreaming of a better world” is a strong connector to the image that is presented, as part of a “men’s world”.

14) Again, Wonderbra is a brand that is entitled and should use sex to sell – it is part of their brand core

15) Ok, let’s use a sexual innuendo image. And it has some glamour. And is emotional, to try to establish the necessary link with the potential consumer. Bread is not easy to sell – so, if you actually have it in your communication DNA that you should be using sexual promising images and you are consistent about it – why not?

I hope that these examples drive the point. It is more than ok to use sexual images if it is part of your brand – whether it is part of the product core (like Wonderbra and Durex), your brand promise (like Axe) or the way you consistently communicate your brand (like it might happen with Kohberg). The product then plays a relevant part in the ad, interacts and flirts with the consumer mind and will leave a positive and lasting feeling in its brand. But if you don’t have anything to do with attraction or sex, using it seems just a cheap and ineffective way of driving attention – and the consumer will soon forget the association with your brand (let me be more explicit – you might remember the bottom on ad number 5, but do you remember the brand?)

And now, the analogy we just did with sex can actually be fitted to many other subjects in the communication world. It is a very simple rule that many good advertisers forget – your product or brand needs to play a relevant part of the ad, that actually is strong and fast enough to endure a positive and enduring memory and feeling in ths consumer heart. If you need to think to much about the part of your product, you probably should brief differently or move to a different angle.