MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over

Books. Gifts. Goats

Sep 7, 2009 A Good Laugh, Consumer Brands, Retail Marketing

I don’t know if this is a new sign – or I am just noticing it for the first time. I thought it was “Indigo Music and Books” – but they have the right to change their tagline.

However, this is just weird.

Books – check (picked up Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julian Smith and Six Pixels by Mitch Joel).

Gifts – check (picked up a gift certificate for my sons teacher).

Kids -didn’t see any for sale there.  Couldn’t they just say “Toys”? Books and Gifts will cover any other children’s products they sell.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Tags: Books, children, indigo books, Retail Marketing, shopping

Skittles: Flavour of the Week

Mar 4, 2009 Advertising, Branding, Consumer Brands, Digital Marketing & Metrics, Marketing & Communication, Social Media

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.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Looking for Options: Avoiding Telemarketers and Net Throttlers

Feb 28, 2009 Consumer Brands, Customer Service, Internet General, Marketing & Communication

Prepare yourself for a rant.

For some time now we have been searching for a new Internet Service Provider (ISP), one that doesn’t throttle P2P sites (file sharing sites). Sadly, in Canada it seems this is difficult since while we aren’t forced to purchase our access from the operator (in Canada: Bell, Rogers and Shaw are the most dominant players)- the truth is most flow through their network anyhow.

Frustrated with this service and the fact that every month our bill seems to sneak up a few cents, we had also started to look into alternatives to our phone service.  We spend nearly $170 every month for Phone, Internet, and Television service from one provider. Despite calling to take advantage of new bundle packages (note: they didn’t automatically give me the bundle discount- I had to CALL!) our bill is still ridiculously expensive if you consider the fact that they throttle P2P sites on our Internet, the majority of our phone calls are from 000-0000 and 123-4567, and I can get what good TV shows exist, elsewhere – it really makes me question the money being spent!

Today, after dealing with more telemarketers calling (and, yes I signed the useless “Do Not Call list! Reminds me,  check out this hilarious video from This Hour has 22 Minutes) I decided to call and de-list our phone number, hoping that this might help. I really don’t need to have my phone number listed – any one who wants to get a hold of me can e-mail me if they don’t know my phone number! Guess what privacy costs at the phone company – $2 A MONTH. Are you *&^% me? Why should I pay an additional $2 a month to keep my phone number private? Don’t I already pay over $40 to have a land line? Interestingly, someone on Twitter told me that if I wanted to list my cell phone number I would HAVE TO PAY! I began thinking do I need an expensive land line? If I scan my Caller ID, there are only a handful of calls I actually want to take. My family talks to us on Skype, my friends talk to me on e-mail or Blackberry Messenger, or Gmail, Facebook, or Twitter.  So… to solve phone issue – I am going to get VOIP phone service – apparently some actually have a filter for telemarketers!

Finding an alternative for Internet is more difficult. Currently I have been unable to find any ISPs that don’t use the networks provided by the three big guys who currently are throttling certain sites, or throttling during peak hours. In fact, the CRTC will be reviewing this very issue in July.  So far CRTC has taken a “let’s do nothing” attitude. Go figure, they are the same brainiacs that created the Do Not Call Registry which was oh-so successful! The hearing in July will examine the principle of  “network neutrality” in Canada and whether ISPs will be able to continue to “manage” traffic as they have been for the past year. “Network neutrality” is a principle that obligates the companies that own the infrastructure to “refrain from blocking, degrading, or prioritizing certain content, services, or applications based on their source, ownership or destination” (SaveOurNet.ca).  SaveOurNet.ca has an interesting PDF that outlines the issue, the current laws, the facts vs. fiction.

A couple interesting bits and pieces on the issue from SaveOurNet.ca:

• Tiered, non-neutral networks limits customer choice, and determine which Internet businesses succeed by prioritizing or degrading specific content based on who is willing to pay for it. Large ISPs would use traffic management to charge content providers for speedy access for their web users – therefore smaller companies, start-ups (or blogs!) that couldn’t afford to pay would suffer. Interestingly, ISPs could slow down their own competitors. Bell for example throttles P2P sites, yet it is unlikely that they are slowing down downloads to their new Bell Video Store.
• The major ISPs insist that throttling is necessary in order to offer equal service during peak time to consumers. Yet, when asked to produce numbers it turns out that bandwidth us is actually down! So, if we aren’t short on bandwidth – then the only reason to throttle seems to be to make money, and turn web consumers into a commodity.
• A free and equal platform fosters innovation in Canada:  The Internet provides start-ups, and innovators with an incredible platform to reach their customers at a low price. But, if ISPs are allowed to pick and choose “which content gets to ride in the fast lane, future innovators will have to impress (or pay off) the ‘gate-keeper’ before gaining access to consumers” (SaveOurNet.ca). Which begs the question why you would choose to do business from Canadian soil…
• Many consumers are not aware that their ISPs are slowing their speed of access, and incorrectly assume that it is the content provider instead. Imagine you are watching a live-stream video of your favourite author reading and the picture and sound is splotchy and fragmented, how do you rate your experience? Isn’t your enjoyment of the Internet based on the speed at which you can find and do what you set out to do. Do you visit that site again?
• The ISPs built the infrastructure so it is their belief that they deserve to compensated for their investment. However, as SaveOurNet.ca points out – it would be ridiculous to imagine a hydro company charging a premium to particular customers for “enhanced service” – essentially double-dipping by charging us for access and then the content providers to give customers reliable access to content.
• The Internet is ours. I think this is an important distinction to make – the networks provide the access, but they “contribute very little to the resource” (SaveOurNet.ca) The value of the Internet, the information, the content, the social networks, the communication vehicles available -  those are not due to the work of the ISPs they are authored by other companies, supported by volunteers, or created as a collaborative effort of many.
• If net neutrality is not upheld by public policy we can be sure that the ISPs will manage traffic in a way that best satisfies their bottom line…not ours.

Until Monday the CRTC was accepting public input on the issue to review for the public hearing in July. SaveOurNet.ca sent over 5000 letters from web users as of midnight on the 23rd of February. However, we will have to wait until July to see what happens when the CRTC deliberates the issue. In the mean time, I guess I am stuck paying out money for less than adequate service.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Tags: bell, Bell Video Store, canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, crtc, internet law, Internet service provider, law, net neutrality, rogers, shaw, web

How Email Blasts Work

Feb 26, 2009 Advertising, Branding, Consumer Brands, Digital Marketing & Metrics, Marketing & Communication

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?

Popularity: 31% [?]

Tags: Amazon.com, Banana Republic, Conversion rate, Direct marketing, email marketing, marketing & communication, Online shopping, Retailing

Isn’t this so 1982? Shopping Old – School

Jan 15, 2009 A Good Laugh, Advertising, Consumer Brands, Digital Marketing & Metrics, Environment, Marketing & Communication, Retail Marketing

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 ; )

Popularity: 42% [?]

Tags: catalog, Environment, green, internet shopping, online, Retail Marketing, sears, shopping

sNOw Fun

Jan 12, 2009 Consumer Brands, Family and Friends, Games and Toys, Short and Sweet

Yesterday we took to the hill for some sledding. It was Bear’s first time out on the “slopes” . This morning he asked – “can we go play sledding” – so I guess he enjoyed it.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Tags: family, fun, sledding, snow, winter

#GNO with @jessicaknows: A Summary of Twitter’s Girl’s Night Out

Jan 7, 2009 Advertising, Blogs, Books, Consumer Brands, Digital Marketing & Metrics, Microblogging, PR, Search Marketing, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Web Analytics, social networks, word of mouth

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?

Popularity: 36% [?]

Tags: #gno, blogging, girls night out, jessicaknows, marketing & communication, promotion, seo, traffic, twitter, Web Analytics, web traffic

Wordless Wednesday: Mac Family

Jan 7, 2009 A Good Laugh, Consumer Brands, Family and Friends

Mac Family

Popularity: 12% [?]

Tags: Apple, family, Mac

Idea for Sale: What a mom wants!

Dec 16, 2008 Consumer Brands, Family and Friends, Marketing & Communication

We are looking to get a new car in the new year. So I have been perusing car sites, brochures and car lots. We are (gasp!) looking at a van. I swore I would never buy a van, it screams “I am mom, hear me roar” and might as well be a box on wheels. But with two kids, strollers, other gear – along with friends and family it only makes sense.

Three years ago when we got the X-trail I don’t recall all these gizmos and gadgets that come in cars….

Popularity: 6% [?]

Tags: automobile, cars, family, gadgets, innovation, purchasing cars, technology, vans

iPhone Robot

Dec 5, 2008 A Good Laugh, Consumer Brands, New

Just what everyone needs for Christmas.

Hat tip to Techmamas for this one.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: Apple, gadgets, iPhone, robots, technology