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Forrester Research released a report Wednesday indicating that 75% of global marketing teams will reorganize by 2011. "The reasons are many," Jon Symons, director of media relations, wrote to Marketing News, citing "economic turmoil, the rise of digital marketing and social media and maladaptive organizational charts that are slow to react to consumer needs." Click here for a take on the report.

As your competition seeks to renovate and improve their marketing structure, you can't just sit idly by. So, (cue Marketing News plug), get a sense of what you can do to build/rebuild your marketing structure from a new Marketing News feature, "Under Construction," appearing in the April 30th issue out now. The story includes insights from marketers at some of the fastest growing companies in the country (plus a university in Indiana and a hotel company in Italy) into how they successfully built up or renovated their departments and today ensure that their marketing structure stays solid. The article also lists six "building blocks," considerations for marketing department construction or renovation.

AMA members, take a look at the article by clicking here.

Posted by Piet at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It isn’t often one gets to be in the presence of someone who changed a profession, so I jumped at the chance recently to attend a ceremony at Northwestern University honoring Don Schultz with a newly created award, the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award.

Schultz, who is a regular columnist for Marketing News, is one of the fathers of integrated marketing communications. It’s hard to imagine a time before IMC but Schultz certainly can; he helped bring together the siloed worlds of what was then called promotion, advertising and public relations into what became the IMC program at NU’s Medill (called the Medill School of Journalism when I earned my journalism masters there, but that’s a blog post for another time).

Having IMC in what had been the journalism school instead of the business school has always made for some interesting tensions at NU, something Schultz’s alluded to in his acceptance speech. I personally think it helped the program prosper, freeing it from any preconceived notions from business school academia but that too is subject for another post.

It was wonderful to see someone like Schultz honored. I look forward to working with him on Marketing News and AMA’s Marketing Management, for which he also writes a regular column. We’ve also been talking about putting out a book of his collected columns of the last decade, so keep watch for that.

And if you’d like to read more about the ceremony, marketing guru Gary Slack has a post on his blog with photos and more history that's well worth reading.

Posted by John at 4:07 PM | Permalink

By guest blogger Amiad Solomon, founder and president, Peer39

Too many brands today entrust their online advertising strategies to targeting solutions that do not have the capability to place ads in the appropriate content. It may be hard to believe, but many marketers have no idea where their ads are appearing online. Content is always changing, and information today hits the Web before anywhere else, making the Internet a potentially risky place for advertisers.

Imagine you're an advertiser for a financial services company. It stands to reason that you would want your ads in financial or business sections of publications. Then what do you do when these sections are filled with content about fraud and Wall Street excess? Unfortunately, your ad will still be sitting there...untouched. A brand can quickly damage its reputation and image if its advertisement is the first image consumers see next to negative or unsavory information.

Luckily, there are steps that brands can take to help ensure the security of their online presence, powered by semantic targeting solutions.

* Content may be hazardous to your health…that is, the health of your brand. Semantic systems can automatically recognize objectionable content or phrases in text that are associated with negative events, and prevent an ad from running. As the past year has shown us, scandals break in an instant. Unlike other technologies that only target according to keywords or user behavior, semantic targeting protects brands from potentially harmful changes in sentiment.

* Beware of using targeting methodologies that may upset consumers or regulators. With Congress and the FTC debating the use of cookies and privacy control, semantics remains in the clear as it targets ads utilizing only the current page of content and guarantees consumer privacy.

* Make sure you know where your ads are running. If you’re going to invest the money in an online campaign, you should be fitted with the proper tools to make sure your ads appear where you want them to, and that your brand is protected.

* Reach audience engaging in content when it’s hot. With 80 percent of new content being consumed within the first 48 hours, having your ad in the wrong place at the wrong time means severely losing out on valuable impressions. Semantics gives marketers peace of mind, knowing that every impression is an informed connection – in real time.

As a last piece of advice to advertisers, keep a sharp focus to your brand’s effectiveness and the targeting strategies with which it engages. Brand protection and issues regarding the FTC's debates over privacy concerns will continue to challenge marketers, and those that don’t consider innovative targeting technologies are likely to squander both monetary and reputational capital.

To help advertisers, Peer39 has created a must have check list, to ensure the health of brands online.

Posted by John at 1:04 PM | Permalink

By B.J. Bueno, guest blogger

Harley-Davidson, Nike, Playboy, Coca-Cola, VW, and Apple logos have been permanently etched into the skins of customers worldwide. Why do they do it? Why do these raving fans, or Brand Lovers, scorch their bodies with a company’s mark? And what can marketers and brand managers learn from them?

Most acts of unabashed brand loyalty are a genuine mystery to marketers: Why do customers anxiously camp outside IKEA grand openings? Why do bikers brand Harley’s flaming eagle onto their arms?

From our research into the nature of cult brands and brand lovers, we understand that a brand's outliers—their most outrageous fans and radical customers—are the people with whom marketers should engage, talk, and most importantly, listen.

Although tattooing brand logos and imagery may seem too extreme to marketers, these outliers represent a brand’s choir. These radical customers understand your business on a deeper, more meaningful level than marketers.

Tattoos, when understood, can teach marketers about consumer motivation. Tattoos were once considered counter-cultural in America. People branded themselves with tattoos to mark themselves as different and to challenge the societal status quo. Today, body art is a part of mainstream American culture.

Why Do People Get Tattoos of Brands?

Think about what the term “branding” really means and you'll have a better appreciation for the importance of the psychology of tattoos. We have a biological instinct to mark ourselves. While body art may scar the body, its meaning is branded into our souls.

There are many psychological reasons customers brand themselves with tattoos of the companies they love:

1. Membership into Social Groups: Brand tattoos help customers bond with others in the same social group who share special interests and common values. Brand tattoos send a message that they belong to a unique, personally meaningful community. You only “get the message” if you're part of that group.

2. Finding Meaningful Associations: Brand tattoos remind customers of personal values. The tattoo is a permanent badge with special meaning. It creates a powerful recall cue of the memories, experiences, emotions, and other positive associations they have with the brand. A single image, as represented by the tattoo, can encapsulate a series of complex memories and feelings.

3. Connecting with Ideals: Brand tattoos are reminders of the customer's ideal life. The brand becomes associated with specific ideals, as Apple has become inextricably linked to creativity, beauty, and expression. Customers see the brand's mark as a reminder of these ideals, and they draw strength from the image.

Customers instinctively look for meaning; they naturally look for something to rally around; they crave an emotional payout from their interaction with the brands they love. Brand tattoos create a permanent physical connection between the customer and the brand. In a world where most businesses focus exclusively on growth and sales, the opportunity for businesses to serve customers on a deeper level remains open and waiting. The results can be magical, and yes, growth and sales often follow suit.

What Four Qualities Do Tattooed Brands Share?

The most popular brands that people tattoo on themselves like Harley-Davidson, Nike, Playboy, Coke, and Disney share certain qualities:

1. Tattooed brands are iconic in nature; they are deeply rooted in our contemporary cultural mythology.

2. Tattooed brands have strong visual appeal—an iconic image like the Nike symbol is a powerful visual marker.

3. Tattooed brands are effective at lifestyle marketing. They represent and promote a way of being in the world, a lifestyle philosophy. Vans and Jimmy Buffett are terrific examples of successful lifestyle marketing.

4. Tattooed brands tend to offer a promise of an ideal experience the customer is seeking. For example, Harley's blazing eagle symbolizes freedom on the open road.

What Can Smart Marketers Learn From Customer Tattooing?

Where’s the most prevalent place for customers to tattoo the brands they love? It's not their arms, shoulders, or even backs—it's in their minds. Customers instinctively create mental tattoos, powerful associations between brands and experiences. The smarter the marketer, the more he or she will focus on creating experiences the customers want. These experiences leave a mental imprint that’s difficult to measure, but undoubtedly present. We can say that a salient mental imprint—a tattoo on the customer’s psyche—is the goal of successful branding efforts.

Smart marketers will learn to see tattoos as portals from the customer’s personal values to their real life experiences instead of a gateway from brand to customer. The purpose and role of the brand is to open their customers up to a meaningful experience that later becomes associated with the brand.

Again, tattoos represent an intricate web of experiences, feelings, and memories. As marketers, your job is to set the conditions for these experiences, feelings, and memories—not simply sell a product or service.

How do you set the conditions to create meaningful experiences for your customers?

1. Start by understanding your customers. Ask your customers direct questions. If you operate a retail store with cooking supplies you might ask:
a. What is your ideal customer experience when you enter our store?
b. What do you value most when you’re cooking in your kitchen?
c. How do our products make your life easier?
d. What are the dominant feelings you get when you shop in our store?

Questions like these can provide you with infinitely more useful information about your customers than demographics, psychographics, or focus groups.

2. Brainstorm ways to create the ideal customer experience on a consistent basis.
a. How can you surprise your customers?
b. How can you serve your customers better than anyone else?
c. How can you create a consistent experience that your customers will come to expect and enjoy?

3. Develop a Brand Model around your best customers. An effective Brand Model:
a. Highlights what’s most important to your customers.
b. Aligns your organization to better serve your customers.
c. Helps you make better decisions that will impact long-term loyalty and growth.
d. Predicts consumer behavior by understanding your customer’s motivations.

The measure of success is not in the number of customers who rush out to tattoo your logo on their bodies. The most important mark will always lie in your customers’ minds. Creating consistent meaningful experiences for your customers will help you “tattoo” your brand’s image onto your customers’ hearts and minds.

B.J. Bueno is founder of The Cult Branding Company, a consumer research firm devoted to building brand models for successful businesses. His company helps businesses use psychological research to identify the patterns their best customers share and to predict consumer behavior. B.J. is the author of Cult Branding Workbook (2008), co-author of The Power of Cult Branding (2002), and Why We Talk: The Truth Behind Word-of-Mouth (2007).

Posted by John at 11:04 AM | Permalink

by John Tantillo, guest blogger

This week the lesson is: those who stay true to their brand succeed.

The Winner
Spirit Airlines has been getting a lot of flack for its imposition of a $45 fee for using the overhead luggage racks.

Sound like an outrageously stupid marketing move? The media thinks so and has castigated Spirit for mistreating its customers.

It’s easy to understand why people can feel outraged about extra fees and charges (at first, even I felt that Spirit might have overstepped on this one), but the media really is dead wrong in this case. Why?

Because the media isn’t thinking about Spirit’s Target Market. Spirit’s flyers are for the most part young people who are squeezing all they can out of each and every travel dollar. They fly Spirit because Spirit is cheap. These people are not consumer victims; they’re consumer sharks seeking out the best price in a competitive marketplace.

Sure, there might be some people who will be taken by surprise and upset by these fees, but my guess is that Spirit’s Target Market will understand and adapt accordingly. Folks, not every extra fee should be cause for consumer (and government) outrage. As Ryan Air in Europe has shown, giving smart consumers the freedom to decide how and when to spend their hard earned dollars, can lead to great brand success.

The Loser
The SEC must clean up its act —especially if the government wants to make it the central authority for financial reform and regulation.

As if missing Bernie Madoff and the global financial crisis wasn’t bad enough, the SEC is now embroiled in a porn scandal that is —let’s not mince words— simply outrageous, even by the measure of government scandals.

The SEC missed Bernie Madoff. The SEC missed the 2008 global financial crisis and over-leveraged banks. And now we see that its ranks seem to be filled with amateur and professional pornographers. Discipline at the SEC is so lax that even those who committed egregious offenses were merely penalized for a week or two while being paid salaries in excess of $200,000. One employee was even setting up a porn business using SEC time and computer equipment. Another employee was blocked from trying to access sex sites 16,000 times in one month.

Fuggedaboutit. Other government agencies and organizations have had their problems, but few have gone so thoroughly off the tracks as the SEC.

The SEC needs a Crisis Management Plan and a brandover of legendary proportions. The country and the taxpayers deserve it, and if the White House hopes to invest the SEC with new powers, they would be wise to demand it.

In terms of a Crisis Management Plan, the first step is for the SEC to acknowledge that it is in deep trouble and has a long road to recovering its authority and being useful again.

Next the SEC must show that it can and will strenuously regulate itself. This means that it must clean house: get rid of the pornographers and other corrupt elements in its ranks and start rebuilding its regulatory service. Without restoring confidence in its operation among Americans, the SEC cannot regulate others effectively (and everyone agrees that some new approach to financial regulation is needed to counter today’s culture of greed).

What is probably required is for an outside figure who is respected for his or her integrity to step into the top spot at the agency and do the tough work of giving the bad and the incompetent their walking papers. Wall Street and Main Street must be kept apprised of the changes that made at the SEC, and these changes must be promoted as fundamental and positive. Part of this change initiative must be tied to the SEC’s expanded role in any legislation to oversee the finance industry. A name change would also be appropriate to drive home the fact that the SEC has broken with the past. How about the FMA (“Financial Markets Authority”)?

Bottom line, when a brand becomes as toxic as the SEC is now, but still has an important institutional role to play, it is best for all concerned to do everything just short of starting from scratch. The brand re-invention must be promoted as vigorously as possible.

And, remember, things are always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.

TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY -

Your Target Market must be the gauge of your business decisions, especially when it comes to pricing your goods and services.

Posted by John at 8:54 AM | Permalink

By Adam Bierman, BRANDX GROUP president

I was in a very interesting meeting last month. Myself, our creative director and COO were in the boardroom of a $100M-a-year company that has about as strong of a brand identity as a business can have.

Their business is helping restore hair growth in men. We were invited by their marketing team to discuss a rebranding. We were excited, as we always are, when the potential to work with such a successful brand arises but this meeting went very weird very fast.

The first question I posed was, “Why are you choosing now to initiate a rebranding?” Their response was that they had not rebranded the company for 10 years and they needed to make it sexier. My follow up was, “What is the goal of hiring a company like ours?” The response was that they really loved our creative work.

What’s wrong with this scenario?

Let’s start with what marketing is: Marketing is delivering a message to a target audience, which compels them to act in the manner the marketer desires. When it comes to the male population, the adage sex sells, is frequently spot on.

Men are visually stimulated and it goes back to psychology having to do with child bearing that was probably slightly more important when we all lived in caves but nevertheless it still controls our brains today.

In this boardroom… the problem was that marketing for the sake of marketing, selling sex for the sake of selling sex is a meaningless waste of marketing dollars. So why has Testosterone Driven Marketing flooded our media and literally changed the way our society operates? Because it works!

It appeals to the side of our society where vice exists and whenever marketing campaigns can tap into the forbidden and socially incorrect; that creates response. Finally, when something works everyone wants a piece of the action.

One of the best examples of a successful Testosterone Driven Marketing campaign over the last few years is Axe Body Spray. The commercials of the geeky guys being attacked by sultry women have been a sensation. You need look no further than their website where shampoo is sold with descriptions like “Be the bait, with hair this soft you’re sure to hook her heart.”

Yet for every example of a successful campaign there are a multitude of failures. Companies that decided to sell sex for the sake of selling sex and lose. For every Axe there are many more like Carl’s Jr. For the millions of people that protested the Paris Hilton campaign (featuring her in a bikini washing a car in what under other circumstances could have been classified as soft porn) and the negative press that created I never once saw sales numbers posted showing a spike due to the racy campaign.

In fact, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe the follow-up campaign featuring Kim Kardashian was simply an attempt to show resiliency when they had clearly already lost. C’mon Carl’s Jr. Kim Kardashian eating a salad?

The problem is that Testosterone Driven marketing works in some circumstances and when it does work it is extremely memorable. Probably goes back to the whole caveman thing. This being the case, when brands are looking to grow their marketing initiatives and are conjuring ideas, oftentimes things can revert to the success of a sexy campaign and they become inspired. Unfortunately this has flooded our media with Testosterone Driven marketing that creates an excess of trash.

Back to the aforementioned weird meeting: Well, now that we have been through this it is really not that weird at all. The marketing directors wanted to change up their efforts and they immediately thought: sex. Sex is on their brain and has worked countless times before. What should have happened is this thought: Marketing is delivering a message to a target audience, which compels them to act in the manner the marketer desires. T

They could have posed the question and done the research on whether a Testosterone Driven campaign was the way to go. If that were the message that was going to compel their audience to buy more of their product then that would have been a great decision. If not, then the campaign would just be added to all the other trash that floats around interrupting our short time on this earth.

Posted by John at 1:19 PM | Permalink

The marketing jobs picture is starting to brighten but don’t expect a large salary increase if you change positions anytime soon, advises Tracy Sinclair, the practice leader for marketing with Aquent, a talent agency for marketing and design professionals.

“Things are definitely picking up, we saw an uptick beginning in November of last year,” says Sinclair, who is based in Chicago.

Many companies, however, remain wary about taking on new staff in these still unsettled economic times and so instead are offering contract positions for specific marketing projects, she explains. Even within the contract space, however, there’s reason for marketers to be optimistic about the jobs picture, Sinclair notes. More than 50% of the contract positions Aquent is working to fill involve options to be hired permanently if job candidate and employer agree.

Most in demand now are analytical abilities and database marketing expertise, Sinclair counsels. On the consumer products side, “companies are collecting reams and reams of data. They don’t necessarily have the people internally to create consumer insights out of that data,” Sinclair says.

Another hot area is brand and product marketing as many companies that cut back on new product introductions during the recession gear up to start rolling out new offerings again.

More detailed information about salary trends will emerge from a survey Aquent is currently doing with the American Marketing Association, Sinclair notes. You can click on the survey link here to take part yourself.

But anecdotal evidence to date suggests “salaries are flat,” she says. And changing jobs isn’t the guarantee of a higher salary it once was, she adds.

Marketers can see what average salaries are in their specialty and geographic area with a salary calculator that uses data from the 2009 AMA/Aquent study.

Posted by John at 4:27 PM | Permalink

Dr. Bob Deutsch
Brain Sells

Men are, well, men. They live in the 'now.' They are concrete thinkers that like to consummate, finish. A male axiom is "complete what you set out to do." Men are interested in power and in looking good, even more than being good. In short, that's the nature of beauty for the beast.

You cannot market to men the same way you market to women. It's not a simple transformation of changing colors, fonts or packaging. Men and women are different biologically, psychologically and socially.

Of course, when it comes to attractiveness, both sexes want to garner attention, but each for different reasons. For men, looking good is looking strong, confident, authoritative, adventurous - a standout. Men concentrate on looks to the extent that it signals something about what they do, have done or can do. Regardless of how much a woman wants to attract in the contest of beauty and brains, their focus is on hope and details, and they concentrate on how appearance reflects their inner be-ing.

Consider four fundamental gender differences and their impact on marketing:

TIME
Men tend to hone in, more quickly than women, on what they're looking for. Men are not browsers. A male motto, "Get what I want and move on." Men shop for what they need "now." Women can shop for something
and put it away for "later." (An interesting reflection of how men and
women relate differently to time is found in how differently they follow instructions for antibiotics prescribed by their doctors: Very often, men will stop taking antibiotics as soon as they feel better, even though the regime's effectiveness calls for a full 14-day intake.
Women, much more frequently than men, complete the recommended regime.) Women want to get the underlying dynamics of things while men attend to the mundane mechanics of life.

CAUSALITY
Men are concrete and tend to tightly focus their awareness; their notion of cause and effect is linear and men are visually-oriented because of this concrete literality." What you see is what is, literally). Seeking clarity, men create absolute distinctions: black-white, yes-no.

Women often think, "it depends." You never hear a man voice this sentiment. These different ways of defining what leads to what also impacts what goes with what. Men dislike ensembles. Men tend to buy individual items. In contrast, many women like to think about how they can put together "outfits" and are creative in selecting, say, a variation on a scarf or a belt that will change the nature of one basic dressing.

SPACE
Men structure and relate to space as compartmented and sequential. To men, space is not relational, as it is for women. For example, when a woman gives directions, she will say, "Go three blocks south (as she points or orients in the direction indicated), then bear right, and when you see the clock tower, watch for your street on the right." Men say, "Go three blocks to Pullman Street and turn left on to Main, the turn left to Brighton Street."

These kinds of underlying, fundamental gender differences can have critical implications not only for what makes an item compelling, but also for store design and product layout. For example, many women like the challenge, the somewhat disorganized variety and the catch-as-catch- can nature of places such as TJ Max or Marshalls. Men, even men who shop in such places because of price, are not there out of joy or desire.

OTHER PEOPLE
For the male it's every man for himself. Men prize individuality and self-reliance. They conceive of other people as "my competition." Daily life for them is a contest with winners and losers. This is in contrast to women, who often view other people as a source of strength. Note, too, that men never shop together. Women often shop with a friend and make a "day" of it. A man focuses on himself - the "me" while a woman is focused on the "we."

Men are interested in power. Women are more interested in security.
Men relate to "things" themselves. Women relate to the relationship between things.

In today's world, men might, for example, be paying more attention to grooming aids than they did years ago. But men are still grooming to go up the hierarchy, to be Number One, and be recognized as Number One.
Modern man is still primal man, regardless of how much hair a man has to groom.

Posted by John at 3:11 PM | Permalink

In the latest issue of Marketing News, we feature an array of content on mobile marketing, including:

- exclusive research on mobile usage in the United States
- tips on how to design a mobile Web site
- a feature story on how researchers are using texting to conduct surveys
- and a feature story on what U.S. marketers now entering the mobile space can learn from marketers in countries such as Japan and South Korea who've been experimenting with the medium for the better part of a decade

In the latter feature, experts working in Asian markets pointed to an innovative mobile campaign that Motorola ran in Hong Kong in 2007 as an example of how marketers are leveraging mobile's own channel portfolio as part of their integrated marketing strategies. Here's a video on that marketing effort:

Posted by Elisabeth at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley in Boston had a problem. The non-profit wanted to boost attendance and donations for its annual Women's Breakfast event -- and cut down on marketing costs at the same time.

Greater results for less spend? Not always a formula that works. But United Way found a way to do just that in teaming up with e-mail marketing agency Flimp Media, which uses video e-mails as its calling card. With a video message featuring a speaker and sponsor from the breakfast, United Way secured a 63% registration rate amongst those that watched the video, increased attendance by 28% and ultimately attained a 97% leap in donations -- all for $1,000, $9,000 less than last year when direct mail was used.

Find out more about this case study in the article "An E-motional Call to Action," appearing in the April 30th edition of Marketing News , out now. The article will also be made available on the American Marketing Association Web site, MarketingPower.com, later this month. (Click here to check). And you can see the video and e-mail template yourself by clicking here.

Posted by Piet at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This week, the marketing winner is professional golf, thanks to the Masters, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and the conduct of the people in charge of the game and the institution of golf.

Fact is that despite the old-timers who have lamented what they say is a loss of class in the game, golf has shown that it is stronger and more broad-based than ever.

Far from damaging golf’s image, the Tiger Woods’ scandal has underscored what a potent brand the PGA has become.

Not only has golf managed to retain its elite and traditional image, but it has expanded to the blue collar set, making golf both clubby and universal at the same time. That is, the brand has successfully engineered a brand extension via Tiger Woods and the democratization of golf. This is borne out not only by the impressive ratings enjoyed by this weekend’s Masters but also by Augusta club chairman Billy Payne’s public dressing down of Woods with these words: "It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here; it is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids.”

Moreover, the fact that Mickelson went on to win the Masters in the face of the Tiger hype reminds everyone that at the end of the day, it is the game of golf that matters, and it is this great game and its long tradition that still powers the brand.

Fore!


The Loser
This past week’s Senate findings on Washington Mutual has only confirmed what we all know: after the last two years, commercial banks are still badly in need of a brandover.

The conclusion of the Wamu investigation? Greed and fraud led to the bank’s demise. No surprise there —the only surprise is that the banking industry hasn’t made a concerted effort to counter the toxic mess that continues to swirl around all commercial bank brands.

Over the last two years, I have argued that banks needed to get back to their fundamentals of thrift, prudence and loyalty to their customers. (Here’s the latest post with links to all the others.) This meant showing that the banks are there for their customers. Banks hold a special place in any economy and a special trust. Without banks, businesses can’t grow, and communities can’t prosper.

Wamu’s failure is the story of a main street bank striving to be a Wall Street bank and, in the process, betraying its customers and forgetting the mission of its brand.

Obviously, not all banks failed as spectacularly as Wamu, but all banks suffer from the same brand image problem as a result of the missteps and excesses of the last decade.

Bottom line: banks aren’t doing enough to change their image. I’m not talking about slick public relations and advertising. I’m talking about customer experience and facts —because at the end of the day, marketing is the reality of whether customers’ needs are being served or not.

For the most part, banks still aren’t serving their customers’ needs. We keep hearing about credit lines being restricted or cut completely and loans to small businesses being denied. Those areas where the banks seem to be improving (i.e., eliminating punitive bank fees) are the result of government regulation, not industry self-regulation.

Overall, this is rotten marketing. The big banks might have been saved on the balance sheet (thanks to a lot of taxpayer money), but the fundamental marketing problem remains: lack of trust.

To get this trust back, banks will have to risk where it counts. They will have to decentralize, forget about being Wall Street cash machines and focus on what their local customers need and want. They’ll need to focus on the small business owner and ways to help their customers save. (Why not initiate special savings programs?)

If the industry doesn’t take this kind of collective action, then I guarantee that those banks that decide to work on their brand image themselves will be the long-term winners.

And, remember, things are always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind.

TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY -
Brand image begins and ends with how your customers’ needs are actually met day after day, week after week, year after year.

Posted by John at 3:56 PM | Permalink

You'd think an organ donation awareness effort would fall under the purview of the other Chicago-based AMA-- the guys with the lab coats and stethoscopes-- but, in fact, the American Marketing Association is behind this one.

The AMA's collegiate chapters are in the midst of a two-year project to improve the awareness of the need for organ donation and to increase the number of registered organ donors in the United States. Known as AMASavesLives, the project encourages AMA collegiate members to spread the word about organ donation to their friends, families and classmates via social media. The effort includes competitions among AMA collegiate chapters including the number of YouTube videos they can post for the cause or the number of people they can register as organ donors. And the project's Web site, AMASavesLives.com, includes links to each state's organ donor registration process so that site visitors can sign up immediately.

Led by James Peltier, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and president of Applied Ph.D. Research LLC, in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin Organ Procurement Organization and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the AMASavesLives project is an effort to determine whether student organizations can develop grassroots marketing campaigns for organ donation or another cause, says Andy Dahl, the project's program director and the director of research at Applied PhD Research in Wisconsin.

"In a couple of states ... we're testing how an integrated marketing plan that includes some offline communications" compares with a solely online marketing effort and trying to determine "how this can be replicated outside of organ donation," Dahl says.

At the AMA's 32nd annual International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans last week, AMASavesLives encouraged student attendees to film more than 190 videos to raise organ donation awareness on YouTube and more than 80 attendees to register as organ donors with their states, Dahl says.

For more information on AMASavesLives, visit AMASavesLives.com.

Posted by Elisabeth at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Whether Nike's use of Tiger Woods' deceased father in its first Tiger Woods commercial post-scandal was brilliant, dramatic creative or exploitative and crass, one thing is for sure - it definitely got people talking.

Is that all that matters? I personally was puzzled to see Nike, who had stuck by Woods through his scandal namely because he's a sport icon, address his troubled personal life in this way. As someone in our office asked, what does this ad have to do with selling sports equipment, or even selling Tiger as an endorser?

Brannon Cashion, senior vice president of brand agency Addison Whitney Inc. in Charlotte, N.C., says the ad was a way for Nike to make Tiger Woods seem human so that consumers can better relate to him as an endorser. "This is a way to make him more acceptable in the eyes of the mainstream public," he suggests. "America loves a winner. When he starts winning golf tournaments, it will be easy to transition back [to the old Nike/Tiger Woods marketing strategy]."

But I wonder if given the volume of commentary out there about this commercial, so much of it negative, if Nike may have taken a hard hit on this one. A survey released by HCD Research Inc. in Flemington, N.J. indicates that favorability for the Nike brand declined from 92% prior to viewing the commercial to 79% after viewing it. Approximately 44% of viewers felt the ad was confusing, and 37% felt skepticism from the spot. Is this an indication of consumer sentiment toward Tiger Woods as an endorser? Will such negative reactions have long term ramifications for Nike? Will that not matter if he excels at golf? And what do you think of the ad? Was it strong creative? A big mistake? Do you think it will cause any significant brand damage?

As always, we'd love your comments. Post your thoughts below. And check out the April 15 edition of our e-newsletter Marketing News Exclusives for more perspectiive on the controversy surrounding the spot.

Posted by Piet at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Larry Light earned his marketing chops when, as global chief marketing officer for McDonald’s from 2002 through 2005, he helped the fast food giant rejuvenate its brand image, and its bottom line, by reconnecting with customers and bring many of them back to the Golden Arches. Today Light runs his own management consulting firm, Arcature, and he’s not happy about what he’s seeing in the marketing world.

Marketers are getting too caught up in the tools they use and not thinking big picture, as well as not thinking about the role they serve as the voice of customers within their organizations, Light tells me in a podcast I did with him recently as a prelude to his scheduled talk at AMA’s SMART xChange conference May 5-7 in Chicago.

“Instead of marketing evolving, marketing is devolving,” Light says. Chief marketing officers today are spending a disproportionate share of their time “managing and executing marketing communications. Rather than being a business leader they have become a marketing communications implementer,” Light argues.

His advice: “The one thread that crosses every silo (in an organization) is what does the customer want and marketing should be the voice of that customer,” Light says.

Listen to the podcast to hear more and come to SMART xChange to hear Light and a lineup of other impressive speakers too.

Posted by John at 11:57 AM | Permalink

Guest Blogger Dr. Bob Deutsch
Brain-Sells
Boston

Happiness is a hot topic these days. Scholars have recently noted some
non-intuitive dynamics as to what makes people happy, and, of course,
Americans are always in the pursuit of happiness.

Marketers rarely, if ever, talk about happiness directly, but in
designing digital offerings that promise an "experience," or when
focused on building customer relationships, the covert subtext of most
advertising should be the creation of the feeling of happiness.

Must-Have vs. Want

A complication usually arises, though, when advertising creative meets
the CMO's meat-grinder that tends to delimit brand into tomorrow's
sales' numbers. Perhaps one way out of this dilemma is for marketers to
note the difference - emotionally, experientially and cognitively -
between consumers' must-ing and wanting.

When a person is on the prowl for a specific item they must have - say,
a classic black dress, a box of tampons or their brand of after-shave -
the consummation of a "must" produces the feeling of relief.

A very different emotional experience derives from something you want
but meet up with unexpectedly. This buying situation gives rise to
satisfaction.

Relief (minimizing loss) and satisfaction (maximizing gain) are
experienced differently and are, in fact, represented by different
neurological activity patterns.

If I like a product and buy it because its attributes meet my interests,
I can be relieved to have it. If I feel a product reflects my identity
and expands its latent expressions of self, a certain relationship
develops with that product. It is that relationship that makes me happy.

People feel happy not when a product or a store demonstrates an
understanding of the consumer as a purchasing process, but when it
authentically displays it understands who the consumer is as a person.

Understanding of a person as an identity is different than explaining
them as a consumer. At best the former generates "liking" while the
latter establishes "attachment." I can like a transaction but I am
happiest in a relationship.

Posted by John at 8:28 AM | Permalink

I went to a fascinating conference a few weeks ago of a group called the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB). It’s mission, viewable on its site, is to “establish marketing measurement and accountability standards across industry and domain for continuous improvement in financial performance and for the guidance and education of business decision makers and users of performance and financial information….The role of MASB is in setting the standards and processes necessary for evaluating marketing measurement in a manner that insures credibility, validity, transparency and understanding.”

In other words, its members believe that if there were marketing metrics that could translate marketing activities into income, marketing would be more respected and seen more strategically within a given organization.

One topic discussed caught my ear, a proposal that marketing should be accounted for in the same way capital expenditures are, essentially built into budgets over a multi-year period. If that happened, marketing could be moved off the annual expense budget merry-go-round that often finds marketing as the first cut in tough times.

Getting corporate America and the accounting governing body (the Financial Accounting Standards Board or FASB) to change how marketing expenditures are recorded on corporate books is an immense challenge, but it’s an idea worth exploring. It gets to the nub of what is the true value of marketing programs and campaigns and how can those be translated into bottom line dollars and cents.

I’m hoping this idea gets more discussion in more forums, let me know what you think and contact MASB to find out more about next steps in its efforts on this and its many other projects.

Posted by John at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Winner As the marketing lens predicted months ago, the American auto industry is making a comeback, despite the odds and the naysayers. The last week has shown that the major auto makers are starting to sell significant numbers of vehicles again. How did I know? It was obvious once the major players began to embrace the core marketing value of listening and responding. When GM promptly abandoned the Vuick (the story and my take is here), it signaled the company was no longer simply going to pursue a build-it-and-they-will-buy-it approach. (There’s nothing like staring bankruptcy in the face to get the marketing concept going.) Not only that, but GM’s flexibility suggested a new responsiveness that would mean the right products made it to market and the wrong ones didn’t. And that is exactly what’s been happening. Moreover, you’ll notice that all the major automakers are rolling out hybrids and electrics with more variety and choices much faster than anyone could have anticipated. Bottom line: the industry has gotten leaner, and as long as they continue to deliver what their Target Market wants, this turnaround will have staying power. The Loser Given that religion is always a sensitive topic, I want to preface my comments about Pope Benedict by saying this: my criticism is not personal; it’s about the business of branding and the urgent need for the Pope to do the work of branding better —much better. Pope Benedict’s predecessor understood that, good or bad, the world was dominated by a video-dependent, sound-bite hungry media. As Pope John Paul II once supposedly observed about moments like his historic visit to Poland: “If something isn’t filmed, it didn’t happen.” Like his contemporary world figure, Ronald Reagan, he also understood that he had a specific brand, and that the image of this brand needed to be clear and consistent. In other words, Pope John Paul II challenged the world, but he understood the modern ground rules of branding and message-making. Pope Benedict and those advising him must take a page from the John Paul II playbook, because over the past weeks —notably the week that just ended with Easter Sunday— they have done serious brand harm. The first mistake has been the obvious defensiveness of the Pope and those around him. One leading Vatican figure dismissed some of the charges and accusations of pedophilia as “gossip.” Wow. That is simply mindboggling. Why not embrace this sad episode in the history of the Church and use it to teach that even noble endeavors run by humans will struggle with flaws and failing? Sure, there might be anti-Catholicism involved in some of the coverage, but a story is a story, and this story —which is based on clear institutional mistakes and even criminality that led to the cover-up of abuse— is not gossip. And to call it such only suggests a continuing cover-up. The second mistake was made by Pope Benedict alone. He had a golden opportunity to use his Easter Sunday homily to the world as a platform to address this scandal, still festering after almost a decade of wide-spread coverage. He did not do so. This only reinforces the image of the Vatican as out of touch with people’s concerns. Contrast what the Pope didn’t say with what Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Ireland, actually did say: “There is no shortcut to addressing the past. This has been a difficult year. We see how damaging failure of integrity and authenticity are to the body of Christ. Shameful abuse took place within the Church of Christ. The response was hopelessly inadequate.” Now that’s a statement. But for it to be truly effective, it must come out of Pope Benedict’s mouth. Once it does, the Pope shouldn’t stop there. The only way to combat the profound negativity and horror of this scandal is for the Pope to take an extremely active role in making sure it does not happen again. A strong statement of regret and an appeal for forgiveness must be followed up by the rollout of a comprehensive strategy that will be both preventative and punitive. Most importantly, the Pope must be seen to be listening to the people. What better way than for him to actively meet victims and families in a single, world-wide tour dedicated to this purpose alone? This would instantly broadcast that the Pope and the Church are serious about dealing with the problem and moving forward. It would be hard for even the Church’s most active attackers to criticize it for that. Moreover, it is a fact today that such bold and even grand gestures are necessary to counter-balance the negative images and ugly truths. While apologizing and reaching out to people, the Pope can also underscore that the Church may have done the right thing in many cases. He can remind the media that in the nineties, when this story first began to break, he pioneered a policy of zero-tolerance in such matters. He can also explain the Church’s thinking that meant in some cases offending priests were not defrocked —i.e., if kept as priests on a short leash they could be controlled, but if cut loose they’d be an even greater threat to children. In other words, the Pope can rebuild the image of the Church without appearing defensive. He or others can also begin to expose the anti-Catholic sentiment that might be driving some of the coverage —again, without appearing defensive. The Pope’s brand has been seriously hurt, but the nature of the papal brand is one of fundamental strength; it is hard to imagine a more influential personal brand platform. If Pope Benedict taps into this strength, things will turn around faster than anyone can believe right now. And, remember, things are always easier when you keep marketing and branding in mind. TODAY'S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY - The worst brand response to negative attacks is to become defensive.

Posted by John at 9:34 AM | Permalink

Guest Blogger John Heenan
Chief Marketing Officer
RP3 Agency

I recently had a conversation with the CEO of a digital firm whose mission was to improve consumer engagement with their brand through the online experience. That's good and important because there are over 200 million people online in the US, and his work was comprehensive and outstanding.

But the conversation went south when he said, "I told my client, don't waste your money with online advertising. I can take that $5 million and build an incredible online experience." I thought to myself, "If you build it will they come?"

There is clearly a "digital divide" within our industry.

An incredible online experience is important but not if you don't get people to 'experience' it. Does that happen organically? Can you do that through SEO, WOM or social media? Will that happen if your site appears on FWA?
Maybe, but not likely.

Traditional Delivers... Fast
Can you do it with traditional marketing tactics? Yes and fast. For one client we recently increased site visits and subscribers by 250% using a combination of on- and offline tactics, with a modest budget, in four months (and the site was no award-winner but we didn't build it).

Another client was 'sold' a best-in-class website from a well-known digital agency for a super-sized fee, replete with wiz-bang widgets and whistles, "absolutely critical" to lead the industry and leap-frog the competition. If only it were that simple.

Advertising agencies have a wider view of their client's needs. And, they have a more comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior. It is true that time spent on the internet searching, friending, and sharing is increasing, but even more time is spent in the analog world for almost every consumer segment. According to most studies, people go through a behavioral process of need recognition, discovery, and decision making that occurs in the analog as well as the digital world.

Digital Alone Won't Fill the Sales Funnel
Remember the classic sales funnel; awareness, interest, comparison, and purchase, then referral and repeat purchase? A website alone won't bring the requisite quantity of qualified prospects into the funnel but it certainly can help move them along the route. Cool widgets have great appeal to build interest with certain sub segments but don't do well to convert the playful into a customer. Don't get me wrong. These are all great tools but alone don't make great marketing.

A cool website can be an important part of a marketing strategy just like a great retail experience or exemplary customer service. An engaging app or clever widget is helpful to keep the brand front and center but can't stand on its own. The only thing missing is the customer. That's where the new generation of advertising agencies has it all right. They know how to find and deliver customers on- and off line to experience and engage with all these new tools and techniques. And they know how to pre qualify, retarget, follow up, and strategically move the customer down the path to success.

Agencies Can Improve
Can advertising agencies improve? Absolutely. Many have lagged behind the development of new technologies and techniques. Some cling to the past for fear of what the future has in store. In this post recession era there is a new generation of agency that straddles the digital divide bringing best practices of the past together with the most promising of today's techniques.

The new generation advertising agency provides greater value and more efficiency to marketers who may have brought on specialists from digital firms before. Marketers are more likely to look for new agency partners with a comprehensive skill set to free up their time and resources for the other Ps.

We always hope that the customer experience, once they arrive, is top notch, and we eagerly work with clients to ensure it is so. And we seek new ways of engaging customers through apps, widgets, social tactics, events, viral, combined with traditional tactics built around a powerful creative idea and a sound consumer-centric strategy focused on business results. I'm sure there are digital agencies that do the same, right?

John has worked as both a client and at on the agency side, working on brands such as Sony, Commerce Bank, Phillips, SoftwareAG, Playstation, and Columbia TriStar Pictures. He also is an adjunct professor at the Kogod School of Business, American University, exploring the role and relationships of brands and consumers in the new media landscape.

Posted by John at 5:11 PM | Permalink