The Internet and prevalent use of social media has certainly changed how brand messages are shared and created.  A search for a brand on Google may be more likely to bring up consumer-generated content then the corporate site. The company is no longer the sole communicator of brand messages through the traditional one-way methods such as print and television advertising. A marketer can talk about their high quality products all they want in their advertising, but if the product doesn’t hold up to those messages consumers will re-interpret and spread new brand messages to their peers and community.  You will often hear traditional marketers lament the lose of “control” over their brand messages. But are they required to give up control completely?  Does a marketer just throw up their hands and give the consumer the microphone? Certainly, a brand is not what you think it is, it is what your customer thinks it is. But while marketers can no longer easily control the brand messages,  as said well on Experience the Blog:

“Legal ownership provides certain benefits but imparts little control.
Managing a brand is like the proverbial herding of cats–it’s about
influence and not command. Particularly in the era of social media,
brands must strive to exert more influence with less control as the
voice of the consumer becomes a greater part of the marketing
environment.”

A company can still be involved in their brand messages by listening to and engaging with consumers, by understanding their consumers interpretation of the brand, and by ensuring that these consumers understand the company’s values – AND that the actions of the company reflect those values. If we didn’t have some opportunity to join the conversation – there wouldn’t be much point in a marketing or communication department would there?

I bring this issue of “control” over brand messages up as a jumping off point to discuss the recent change to Skittles.com. I know some of my readers don’t read the same blogs as I do so here is a quick summary:

A couple days ago Skittles.com got rid of their regular web site and essentially gave their site over to social media sites. They decided to let go, and let popular social sites tell you what Skittles are all about. Interesting concept, for sure.

This image was the “home page” – a link to Twitter Search for “skittles”. Click on Friends and it takes you to their Facebook page, click on Media and you get Flickr (anything tagged “Skittles”) and YouTube, click on particular Products and you get Wikipedia.

Takes a brave company to give their site over to the general public. And, I hazard to say – in this case – stupid. My opinion only.

Why?

1) Who is the primary demographic for Skittles? I would guess teenagers? Kids? Certainly not the over 18 crowd…but the site requires you to put in your age before you get access. So first mistake – forgetting your target demographic. Unless of course I am wrong and it is really a 18+ market…or they are trying to gather market share in that age group.

2) They underestimated the jokers and pranksters out there. Within 24 hours the Twitter stream using the word Skittles or #Skittles included people talking about drugs, racial slurs, religion and anything else you don’t want associated with your brand and certainly not on your home page! While I am all for transparency and not censoring – they could have created something to at least keep out the ridiculous  – and keep the it “clean” allowing for a more meaningful conversation. And, I am certainly not advocating removal of valid complaints or comments on Skittles – just the irrelevant stuff.

3) Lack of engagement. They have jumped in to point the site to various social networks- but what are they doing to close the loop? Are they conversing or is it still a bit one-way?

I had a conversation yesterday with friends Martin Waxman and Melanie Rockcliff when I met up with them yesterday about this interesting example of using social media. Melanie had a great point that perhaps Skittles just wasn’t the right brand for this type of experiment. I think she is bang on- imagine this kind of site for a product that is really edgy, or targeted to College/University crowds. Beer was one of the ideas we tossed around. Beer already requires a age requirement, and for those drinks targeted towards the younger College/University group – the bizarre and silly works well.

All said, Dave Fleet is correct that we don’t know the objectives for the Skittles campaign and perhaps this effort will accomplish what they set out to do. If they simply wanted to get some Google juice for their website (in which case – bravo objective accomplished – here is another link), or they wanted to get people talking about Skittles and build a little buzz – then they have succeeded . But, these are short term, and in my opinion won’t likely sell a boat load of Skittles.

Personally, unless they start selling bags with just red and purple….I am not buying. Yellow and green are simply icky. So I am not interested in “Tasting the Rainbow”.  Not my thing – coloured candy balls. Haven’t been into those since I walked to the corner store with my best friend with a quarter in my pocket.

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I am in the need of some new clothes. After two kids,  I have gained and lost weight twice, seen my body change size and shape twice, and bought “fat” clothes twice after each birth. Now, 6 months after my final baby my fat clothes are too big but my pre-baby clothes are too small.

I have signed up for a number of e-mail newsletters, most I rarely read, and some I never read. This morning I got one with the following subject header:

One Day Only! 30% Off All Full-Priced Items

And, it was from Banana Republic where I had recently seen a lovely pair of pants but didn’t purchase because $140 on pants when you are on Maternity Leave (and, in this economy) seems a bit extravagant.  So, I opened this email.

Guess who is going shopping!!

I got to thinking about email newsletters or email blasts – whatever you want to call them. They aren’t a “silver bullet”  – but they can be an incredible direct marketing tool. You have permission to enter a customers Inbox, but just by following e-mail newsletter best practices won’t get you click-through.

If I am not already considering a clothing purchase (Banana Republic) or looking for a new book to read (Amazon) I might not open the email at all.  Similar to print and TV advertising – I am not going to pay much attention unless I am looking for that type of information, or have a current interest in the product or service.  I have received many deals via email for clothing companies – but when I am not looking for a new pair of pants that email gets deleted – no matter how good the subject of the email is!

Of course, the subject has to be the most important piece of the email newsletter. It can mean the difference between Trash and Click.  Amazon does an incredible job of creating great subject headings by offering me customized deals on books that fit my purchase behaviour.  While I didn’t purchase on this one, I did click and added the book to my Wish List:

Save 37% at Amazon.ca on “The Mobile Marketing Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaigns” by Kim Dushinski

This was the message that came with this email:

amazon e-mail blast

Note there was nothing extraordinary about the design of the blast. It was simply well-targeted with a descriptive (if long…) subject heading that caught my attention. Obviously the emails can only be well targeted if the company has a decent amount of information on your purchasing behaviour. Let’s say I am not looking for a new pair of pants so I ignore the e-mail offering me 30% off at Banana Republic.  If on the other hand Banana Republic knew I loved their Martin Fit pants (they are the perfect fit for my body shape) and they send me an email blast that instead said “Save 30% on Martin Fit Pants” – even if I wasn’t looking for a pair of pants I might open that email because it reminds me how much I like those pants, and perhaps I need a pair of beige pants…and why not! At 30% off – what a deal!

I wonder, if more companies had Amazon’s ability to target email blasts, how that would effect their conversion rate? Of course Amazon has the benefit of being an online retailer – so data on it’s customers is easy to come by. A bricks and mortar shop like Banana Republic would have to request your personal information every time you shop – and most people are less willing to give that away at the front cash.  I know I dislike being asked for my phone number at retailers, and anytime someone asks for my mailing address I say no. Oddly, I gave all that information to Banana Republic ONLINE when I signed up for their newsletter. I wonder how they could join my purchase behaviour with my newsletter?  They could ask me to fill out a longer online form where I indicate my favourite BR clothes, or when I shop using a emailed coupon they could ask if they could add my shopping preferences to my account. I wouldn’t mind sharing my purchase behaviour with some stores in order to get more targeted email – how about you? Why is it that we are willing to share more online then in person at the shop? Will this change if we become more concerned about privacy online? Or is it just a matter of time before our online profile include a link to our favourite pants?

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I was going to make this a Wordless Wednesday but I had to talk about this weight that arrived on the doorstep.

Things that make you go hmmmm….

To me this is on the WTF side of the spectrum. First of all, with the Internet available for an infinite number of product listings and information – doesn’t a catalog seem like a colossal waste of money and resources? This doorstop of a book has got to cost a fortune to produce, and while I am sure a selection of folks still peruse and buy via catalog – this number has likely diminished a lot since the 80s. So, it begs the question – what is the return on the investment? Even if a few people still enjoy the feeling of paper and glossy ink between their fingers, there are equally a few people who will be offended by the waste and environmental negligence on the part of Sears for distributing this beast to a vast number of homes who will dump this in the blue bin without even a thumb through. At the very least could they not give these out “by request”!

It is no wonder other retailers have decided to dump their glossy catalogues for greener pastures online. Is it possible that the cost of the printing (mailing, production, creation etc), and anger of some foolish environmentalists is outweighed by catalog sales? Perhaps I am wrong. If so, it will only be a matter of time before this catalog beast is extinct. Sears, be watchful – the time is approaching to get rid of this tomb tome ; )

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Jessicaknows

I missed some of the #GNO (Girls Night Out) discussion on Twitter last night so I went into Twitter Search and read the discussion. As always, it was a bit of a dizzying conversation last night – trying to keep up with the multitude of posts. So, it was difficult getting all the tips from @jessicaknows during the discussion.

I tried to pull as much as I could into this compilation. I hope this helps others as well.

Attracting PR Peeps for your Blog

A lot of participants were interested in reviewing more products and wondered how to go about doing this more often.

@jessicaknows said that she doesn’t think that there is a magic number with regards to traffic on your site in attracting PR. She noticed a lot of attention once she had about 20,000 monthly visitors to her blog. However, she suggests if you write about the products you are passionate about the PR folks will follow.

My two cents: She is absolutely correct, while the PR people will look for an engaged community the numbers may not matter as much if you are passionate and are considered an “influencer”. In this case, your review would simply be the tip of the iceberg. An influencer will tend to spread “word of mouth” throughout a variety of networks online and offline -giving a lot of added value to the campaign – beyond the blog post.  I hope to write more posts on books in 2009 since that is my passion. I don’t have 20,000 monthly visitors – but I have already received two books for review in the past. (Dan Ariely – Predictibly Irrational and Don Tapscott – Grown Up Digital)

Use Social Media to Build Your Own Community

@jessicaknows suggests that you pick 3 social media tools & be consistent use them everyday. She uses three social networks: Twitter (obviously), Facebook and LinkedIn. She also uses StumbleUpon for bookmarking regularly. She uses LinkedIn to connect with lots of PR folks, and mom owned business she can partner and work with in the future. On Facebook she prefers to “friend” people she knows in real-life and friends she has met on other social networks (Twitter for example). For users concerned with privacy and sharing with virtual friends she had a great idea to have a user profile for personal use and a Fan Page for your business/blog/website. While the Fan Page will show you as an author, “fans” will have to request to be a friend in order to see your Facebook profile.

My two cents: I post all blog posts to Twitter and Facebook. I try to avoid using the robot when I have the time by personally summarizing the newest post in my status/tweet.  Twitter is also a great place to promote DIY or How To Posts to people who are looking for specific help. I use Tweetburner to track click-through, which can give me an idea of how successful the tweet/status was. Note – don’t just do self-promotion, make sure you tweet other content outside of your own that you think your followers will find value in.

I have just started using StumbleUpon but I have definitely seen some traffic to my site through my profile. StumbleUpon allows you to find “friends” that have similar interests to you which is a great way to find new and interesting websites. Stumble others and perhaps they will Stumble you. All about Karma!

Couple other thoughts on Social Media:
- Use Video to promote your site by placing your URL in videos posted to YouTube
- Participate in Forums and Discussion groups in your topic area
- There are niche Social Networks that you can be involved in TwitterMoms, ClassyCloset and more…Create a profile and participate in the community
- Comment, comment, comment on other blogs. This is an easy way to promote your blog on other similar sites, and show some love to other bloggers.
- Try to link to other bloggers in your blog posts when possible. Give credit where credit is due, and share great information with your community.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

There was a great discussion around SEO last night during the #GNO.  There were folks on all ends of the spectrum – from questions such as “What is SEO?” to helpful tips from experts. @jessicaknows suggests that this is an important part of driving traffic to your website. For Wordpress bloggers she recommends the SEO Plug-in, and she has signed up for SEOBook training to get up to speed on SEO.

My two cents: Having attended SES Toronto last year, I am a believer in SEO for building traffic to your site. I use All-in-One SEO Plug-in for my WordPress blog. I use H1, H2, H3 headers where possible in my blog posts, and try to include Keywords without sounding “canned”.  SEO is great, but you also must use Analytics to compliment your SEO work.  If you aren’t following your stats you won’t be able to measure your success, see what is working and what isn’t, and see where you might have holes. Your Analytics program can also tell you before you start SEO efforts what Keywords are driving traffic to your site, and later on you should follow data for trends in keywords and content that you may not have noticed otherwise.

My SEO for Marketers post is a good SEO 101 for new comers, and watch next week for my Google Analytics Series for Bloggers. Also, take a peak at my “learnings” from my analytics a little while ago

Blogger Relations and Onsite Details

A lot of blogger etiquette and on-site promotional ideas were brought up during the discussion, here are some of the points:

• It is all about helping others: @jessicaknows says “I establish relationships by learning about other ppl’s goals & what they’re all about & then introduce to each other”. This includes helping to promote blogs she believe in the most through her sites. I love this quote from her “it’s so easy…the key word is SOCIAL…use the “have a friend, be a friend” mantra in business and you can’t go wrong”
• Write often, and be consistent. She tries to write daily if she can. Obviously that isn’t feasible for everyone – but I know if I blog 2-3 times a week my traffic remains higher than if I blog 1 time a week. Perhaps that is just a no-brainer.
• Encourage conversation and open up channels for two way conversation.
  
• Show personality in your posts
  
• Offer Blog giveaways (check out @jessicaknows 15 days of Marketing Post on Giveaways)
• Attend offline events (Tweetups, Conferences)
  

For those of you who were at Girl’s Night Out – did I miss anything? Any other hints and tips to encourage traffic?

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The brilliant “Diamond Shreddies” campaign I wrote about a few months ago just won two awards from the Canadian Marketing Association. They won one gold in Integrated Multimedia Budget over $1,000,000, and the second in Creative Budget over $100,000 and Brand Advertising categories.

The lesson to marketers, sometimes you just have to turn the brand on its head, not reinvent it.

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It seems I leave for a week and a “big” social media story drops. Now, a week late on the game, after EVERYONE has already written about it, I will join the fray. Here I am a “me too” in the Motrin game.

Being a mommy blogger and a marketing blogger I feel that I couldn’t NOT write about this hoopla.

For the uninformed, the basics: ( If you have heard all this before, skip to my thoughts on the subject.

There are many legitimate ways that moms get pain that can be cured via pills. For example right now I am suffering from listening to a three year old whine because he didn’t want to eat his lunch, and my legs hurt from pacing the floor trying to get the baby to sleep, and my back hurts too – from carrying the bloody car seat around, Did I mention the ache in my neck from lack of sleep, and the arm pain from lifting both kids in and out of the car, stroller and grocery cart. Any one of these “pains” are very common amongst new moms…why not choose one of these.

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Most companies act as though their employees are easily replaceable. Certainly, there are plenty of potential replacements out there, but what companies don’t realize (or ignore) is that there is a cost to the loss of every employee.

Costs such as:

- Recruitment costs (advertising, recruiter/hiring company, screening)
- Termination costs (administration)
- Training

Beyond these direct costs there are the internal resources required to recruit a new employee and the costs involved in covering the position while it is vacant (overtime or temp work). A company needs to consider the value of the time an HR and hiring manager need to spend screening and interviewing potential employees, as part of the cost of losing an employee. As well, it will be likely necessary to fill the shoes of the lost employee while the position is vacant – and this also carries a cost to the company.

Finally, and probably the least considered factor to cost is the decrease in productivity. A new employee takes time and training to get up to speed – to be able to be as productive and knowledgeable as the person they are replacing. According to a variety of sources it can take anywhere from 3 months to 12 months (depending on position and learning curve) for a new employee to become fully competent in their new role.

So, what does it cost to replace an employee? While it depends on the position, level, industry, and required skills – many studies have shown turnover has a great cost to business. For an $8/hour employee estimates range from $3500-$9000. Other sources provide these estimates:

- It costs a company 30-50% of the annual salary of entry-level employees,- 150% of middle level employees,

- Up to 400% for specialized, high level employees.

If it costs so much to replace employees – why do so many companies treat employees as though they were easily replaced?

- Many companies have never likely calculated what it actually costs them- It is left solely in HR’s hands

- They believe turnover is just par for the course of running a business

- They think the solution to end the turnover would cost more than the turnover itself

I have worked at many companies that have ignored high turnover due to the belief that there are a hundred people waiting in the wings to take the positions left by the exiting staff, and it seems too often it was the “little things” the company could have done to retain that top staff member.

Sure, money talks – but sometimes a great working environment laughs louder! This is what crossed my mind when I read these benefits for working at Hershey Canada (my notes italic):

Benefits and Perks of Working at Hershey Canada:

– Of course. exposure to some of the finest chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products. drool, I hope they have a gym too- Health and Wellness Reimbursement program as well as other great employee benefits. check it! must be money towards a gym membership!

- Corporate social responsibility programs – because we should leave the world a little better than we found it ! Companies need to realize we spend 40 hrs a week (if not more!) at work – and we need to feel we are doing something for the greater good – not just selling consumer goods to the masses (although that can be fun too!) Gives me the warm fuzzies!

- Fantastic reward and recognition programs. A pat on the back often is the best glue to keep an employee happy, of course recognition through rewards and money help too!

- Flextime with required core working hours of 9:30 am to 3:00pm – subject to department approval Very nice

- Telecommuting – subject to department approval. Even better if you can work from home on those nasty winter days

- Summer hours from May to September – subject to corporate approval. Bonus!

- Working in a LEED certified and open concept environment. Sounds like a warm fuzzy environment.

Of course a job description is a selling tool for the company, perhaps it isn’t as fantastic as it is outlined. But on paper it certainly looks as if they are making an effort to do the “little things” that make work – less like “work”. There are of course “little things”, such as working environment, management style, and workplace culture that don’t make it to the job description. In the past, these are the things that the new employee finds out about once they take the job. In the near future however, companies beware, potential employees will be going online to find out the truth behind those “little things” that mean an awful lot!

Thanks to the onslaught of Social Media sites exist now, although none appear to have reached a high level of engagement to rate and share your experience at the companies you have worked for. It is only a matter of time before these sites become a regular part of the research process we take on when we go job hunting. We review books, television programs, movies, restaurants and consumer products online – why not the workplace! In the future before anyone takes a new position they will research it like they do purchasing a LCD screen – by reading and research online! Companies that treat their employees as replaceable will suffer when they find the hundreds of potential employees waiting in the wings are no longer there.

Sites to check out and rate your company!

Jiibe
JobVent
Criticat

Photos courtesy of Stock xchange.

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Usually I stop at Tim Horton’s on the way to ‘nastics (gymnastics for non-parental types). Where I stop is determined by the number and age of the children in the car. If I have both of the kids the coffee shop must have a drive-thru. If I only have my three year old I won’t walk into Starbucks because it ends up being an expensive trip (coffee for me and a two dollar donut for him!).

I digress.

Today I had both kids in the car and the baby was fussing at every stop sign. So, I knew there was no way we could make it through the 15 car line-up at Tim Horton’s without ear plugs! But, I required coffee. I don’t know a mom who doesn’t arrive at the gym without one! Across the street was a Country Style with a drive-thru with no line-up – so we went there instead.

Sitting at gymnastics I notice on the cup it says ” I wish…knew my name”. Huh? What does this mean? Why is this on my cup? It isn’t a clever quote like on the Starbucks cups, and there is no explanatory URL in the immediate vicinity of the statement. Just that sentence, if you would even call it a sentence. There is something missing between “wish…” and knew.

I turn the cup and there on the bottom (no where near the un-sentence) is “A Proud Sponsor of Make A Wish”. Oh, now I get it. But couldn’t they put an actual wish? Even better a real sentence? “I wish Michael Jordan knew my name” – and the name of the child who made the wish (or a fake name…that would be fine too). Not only would it make sense, it would make the need for support more real to the reader. Or, just put the “Make a Wish” logo near the “Wish” – then I won’t go through life thinking the folks at Country Style can’t string together a proper sentence.

Maybe I am wrong. Perhaps it is really clever, because it forces people to examine their coffee cup for a reason for the incomplete sentence.

Just a random thought on a Monday.

Related Posts:

A Stock Issue
Seinfeld and Microsoft – I Still Don’t Get it!
Facebook Advertising

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The US had successes and failures, just like any business and marketing campaign. What can we, as marketers, learn from the US Election. Here is my list! (Can you add anything?)

• Talk about the customers not yourself
• Don’t bash the competition
• Set up ways to listen to your customers and monitor what they are saying – ACT on it!
• Be yourself, show the world your personality!
• Make sure you pick the right promotional partners (If you are a premium brand, don’t choose to run a contest at the dollar store)
• Don’t promise things you can’t deliver, under promise, OVER Deliver is the name of the game
• On that same note, if you have made a mistake (recall? product problems) – own up to it, don’t make excuses
• Build your marketing campaign from the bottom up! Let the people send the messages, and develop the strategy from here
• Be flexible, be willing to change your strategy. But stand true to your vision and your core values.
• Use technology that is available to you
• Go to the people, don’t rely on them coming to you! Find them in their social networks.
• Look beyond your current playing field.
• Empower your customers, allow them to tell you what products to make, what colours they should come in, what changes need to be made, and what products should be dropped.
• It takes 21 months to truly brand a product (!)

Can you add anything?

Related Post:

Will Elections Ever Be the Same
I Can’t Help Myself: Sarah Palin Pranked by Canadians
Obama’s Loss Traced to [Insert Name Here]
Sarah Palin – Genius Flow Chart
Hey, Canada Where are our YouTube videos of National Leaders

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I started this post ages ago…so I apologize if you have already read 20 blog posts about the subject.

Apparently Microsoft read my post and decided that perhaps it was wise to drop the Seinfeld/Gates commercials…

After only two weeks of running the strange commercials that featured Gates shaking his butt and Seinfeld questioning the “moist and chewiness” factor of computers, Microsoft has introduced three new commercials. According to Microsoft marketing it was always the plan to run the initial three commercials for two weeks, but bloggers and news sources alike speculate that they dropped the ads due to negative reaction. From my perspective, this is most likely. No matter how big your marketing budget is -  I can’t imagine many marketing folks who would blow $10 million (what they payed Seinfeld), and $300 million (apparent cost of campaign), on a two week meaningless campaign. Perhaps, if it tied in to the most recent commercials it would make sense, but the Seinfeld/Gates commercials do not appear to be a precursor, nor do they share any similarities to the new Microsoft ads.

Intrigued?

Here is one:

Why I like this commercial?
- It acknowledges the Mac commercials directly, stating “I am a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype”
- The commercial positions Microsoft (well PCs) “for everyone” rather than Mac’s hip  20-35 year old tech geeks…
- Perhaps consumers will feel a bit more warm and fuzzy towards the software giant. Check out the Microsoft employee who spoofs the PC character on the Mac commercial. You can email him, his address appears in the right hand corner.
- The idea that PCs and Microsoft are for everyone has potential to be an incredible marketing campaign. Imagine the social media application and consumer generated potential!
- It simply makes sense. That is a bonus…no butt waggles and bizarre shoe shopping.

Why I don’t like this commercial?
- Once again it ignores Microsoft as a product, it discusses PCs…but Microsoft is a software for a PC…not a PC. How does this sell Microsoft products? Does it encourage you to move past all the negative word of mouth around Vista and purchase it?
- The tag line “Life Without Walls” would have been better replaced with “For Everyone”. Most people would see Microsoft’s anti-open source ways (at least in the past…) as a walled-garden, not the freedom they advertise with this slogan. Besides if the point of the various people (with beards, and sharks, and glasses, and green buildings), saying they are a PC, is that Microsoft is for everyone – shouldn’t the tag line be a reflection of this?
-

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