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By Jim Nelems

The AMA (and Marketing News) needs to be aware of the many differing member firms who rely on the AMA for its many services, and in particular, consciously or not, to not promote one type of member or individual firm over another.

Case in point. As one of many marketing research firms in the U.S. whose business depends on Internet research, it was wrong for the provider of your recent "Marketing News Recession Survey," who competes with every research firm member, to promote, essentially, eliminating the use of marketing research firms and promoting clients doing their own marketing research through their firm. ( I note that the last page of the survey is a full page ad by that firm, for eliminating marketing research firms, although it does not say so in so many words.)

I participated in the survey to provide useful, valid information to the AMA, not hear a sales pitch from a competitor, Apparently they talked you into their doing the survey at no charge in order to make a direct sales pitch from them. I would have no problem with their name on the survey, but it's the last page, a full screen ad so to speak, which goes over the line. Now I wonder if, by participating, I will be on their e-mail list for direct sales presentations.

It is very unlikely I will participate in any more surveys from the AMA or Marketing News, at least without knowing who is sponsoring the survey and if they are likely to be biased in any way.

Jim Nelems,CEO
Marketing Workshop, Inc.
jnelems@mwshop.com

Editor's Note: Marketing News is no longer using the online survey firm involved in the recession survey, but we would like to hear your comments on using free online survey options vs. using established research firms since this is a choice many marketers face in these tough economic times. We thank Jim for his thoughts and for starting this discussion here.

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The Aug. 30th issue of Marketing News is the "International Marketing Edition," featuring the Honomichl Global 25, Elisabeth Sullivan's engaging Best in Class featuring Canadian airline Porter, and some features regarding localization in emerging markets.

One of those features is a Q&A with Nigel Hollis, a name you should follow. The executive vice president and chief global analyst for Millward Brown Group recently authored the new book The Global Brand: How to create and develop lasting brand value in the world market. One section that really got to me was Chapter 9, "How Global Brands Have Met the Challenge of Going Local," which delves into those challenges and presents some illuminating case studies from the likes of Nestle and General Motors.

In the chapter, Hollis offers up five steps for entering a new foreign market:

1. Adapt products and services to meet local needs and tastes (this is what Kraft did with Oreo in China, as you can read about in the Marketing News article "Live Like Locals," also in Aug. 30).
2. Solve the value equation through product and pricing strategies
3. Create a strong presence and distinctive identity
4. Adopt more aggressive point-of-purchase tactics
5. Keep track of consumers' evolving relationships with brands

All are important naturally, and their levels of importance may vary depending on the category and product. But in an interview with Marketing News, Hollis specifically cited step two as a particular challenge for marketers. "The temptation is to make things cheaper, and I think one of the biggest challenges is to avoid lowering margins simply to extend your footprint within a category and to drive volume," he told me. "You can always drive more volume by dropping the price of a product or a service, but once you've done that, unless you can cut costs appropriately, you probably lost margin even though you may have gained volume. And it's a lot tougher to gain back margin that it is to gain back volume."

If you're still on the fence about the book, consider reading Hollis' interview in Marketing News' Aug. 30 issue (available at marketingpower.com soon). You can also check out his blog at mb-blog.com.

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Marketing doesn't just have to be about the benefits for your company and customers. It can also be used to change the world at large for the better.

Attending the American Marketing Association's Summer Marketing Educators' Conference this past Sunday in Chicago, it was refreshing to see a marketing session on the schedule with this name: "Marketing Strategies for Helping the Poor Get Up and Out of Poverty." Not that there's anything wrong with sessions about social media, marketing in the recession and the like -- those are essential -- but it is important to recognize how mighty marketing can be beyond aiding the pivotal bottom line.

To session presenters Philip Kotler, Nancy Lee, Bill Smith and Alan Andreasen, the ultimate bottom line is that a majority of the world's population is suffering from great poverty. Given marketing's power of persuasion, there are ways that marketing can be used to decrease poverty rates, death from diseases and other societal difficulties, by marketing to the afflicted and those with the means to help.

Smith, senior fellow of innovations management for Washington-based global development nonprofit AED, shared insights from a recent study. Findings showed that growth in GDP doesn't impact life expectancy, but education sector aid and investment in the health sector does, while health sector aid and education sector aid impact primary school enrollment. His conclusion: there's a need to balance investment in health, education and confidence, and tailor marketing to these arenas.

In his presentation, Andreasen, professor of marketing at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, stressed the importance of marketing upstream in order to change public policies. But the wrong way market is to strictly tell potential partners that the world will be a better place, he said. Instead, you have to show what's in it for them. He drew a strong analogy connected to McDonald's marketing; the company doesn't encourage people to buy hamburgers because its stockholders will make a lot of money, but to eat hamburgers because they taste good.

Lee, president of consulting firm Social Marketing Services Inc. in Seattle, and co-author with Kotler of the new book Up and Out of Poverty: The Social Marketing Solution, discussed five principals to consider as a means to influence positive financial contributions to get people out of poverty: segment and prioritize markets; focus on desired behaviors, identify the barriers to benefits; develop target strategies, while bearing in mind product, price, place and promotion; and target public, private and the nonprofit sectors.

One of the session's best illustrated examples, which tied into a need for segmentation, involves condom advocacy in Thailand. Headed by ex-Thai senator Mechai Viravaidya, dubbed "The Condom King," the strategy has targeted married couples and young adults, and eliminated the stigma associated with condoms. Birth control pills have been rebranded "family welfare vitamins" and are sprinkled with holy water by Buddhist monks. Teenagers engage in condom blowing contests in school. Bank tellers pass out condoms, and there's even 12 Cabbages and Condoms restaurants in the country, where free condoms are distributed to guests. This may sound strange, but it delivered results: AIDS infection has dropped from 140,000 in 1991 to 20,000 in 2003, says Lee, and the average number of children in a family has been reduced from seven in 1974 to 1.2 in 2005.

Posted by Piet at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Carla Stratfold
CEO, OnRequest Images

The third of three posts on branding

Resonance with clients and consumers is different for every brand. The good news is there is a brand for every customer, business and walk of life. The presence of social media and networking sites is proving this point better than any marketing researcher in history as organizations are witnessing instant feedback on their brands and campaigns.

Brand resonance can be defined as how well you connect with your customer both formally and casually. Creating resonance with your brand means your message has to permeate consumers’ minds and lives. More than ever, marketing needs to be impactful and emotive to create this type of resonance.

While there is a formal brand presence defining what a company is, there is also a more casual side that says a brand is human. This is the way brands earn trust. Creating resonance means you do not hammer people with your message, but offer them a solution to their unique problem. It’s about adding value.

One of the quickest and most impactful ways to break through the information overload and clutter is with compelling visual material, be it photography, video, illustrations or an iconic element. Typically to evoke the most recall with consumers, you need a fun, simple and to-the-point campaign. However it’s important that consumers link the campaign to your brand and not just recall the ad or marketing piece because it was cool or fun.

Think about how simple and to the point Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG campaign was. Its success was unprecedented; the yellow band became a global symbol of what it means to be a survivor while providing a personal statement about the individual that wore the yellow band.

Another successful campaign was the E*TRADE baby ads. These ads became a phenomenon on the Internet and YouTube, because they are entertaining, viral and memorable with clear E*TRADE branding.

We hope as marketing managers continue to strive to create brand resonance, they’ll remember the importance of images that capture the personality, emotion and benefits of their brands.

About our guest blogger
As CEO, Carla Stratfold brings more than 20 years of experience to OnRequest Images, a leading provider of custom photography for some of the world’s leading brands.

Posted by John at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My son’s first soccer coach – a man who inspired me to go into coaching for nine years while my children were growing up – once told me the secret to team building is to determine each player’s strengths and weaknesses and then put them in positions where they can play to their strengths and where their weaknesses won’t hurt them.

I thought that was wonderfully insightful and have tried to follow it, not only in volunteer efforts like coaching, but in business as well.

This economy, though, has forced many professionals to play out of position, so to speak.

Layoffs, hiring freezes, bankruptcy filings --- all have meant doubling and tripling, if not more, of duties for those still working. The strains are palpable in corporate America. I was reminded of that by a Wall Street Journal story today about Cisco Systems which talked about how managers there have so many committee assignments they have been cutting back on time with customers to handle their new internal company assignments.

That story didn’t address marketers per se, but I think the pattern would hold in marketing as it does across other corporate functions.

Are you playing out of position in this economy? How have you coped? What have you learned? Have you found you have a natural talent for your new duties and has the situation gotten you to re-evaluate who you are professionally? Or are you chafing and waiting for the good old days to return? And to any HR or life coaches out there, what coping skills can you recommend?

I’d love to get a discussion going on the topic since I doubt the world is going to change on this score anytime soon. Post your thoughts here.

Posted by John at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)