Current Affairs Archives - Page 13 of 14 - McLellan Marketing Group

Is that Paris Hilton jammin’ with a PS3 while calling George W. Bush a fascist?

November 22, 2006

Headline writing used to be an art. A well-crafted headline enticed the reader into your body copy. It was the appetizer, hinting at what was to come and on rare occasion, if it was tasty enough, it could actually satiate an appetite without another word or morsel.

But it seems of late, everything I read is about writing headlines to trick people to visit your blog, even though they have no interest in what you’re actually writing about. Using names of the infamous, "hot" topics and other elements of bait and switch, all for the intent of rankings, rankling, being dugg, ditched and double-dipped. It’s like having a puppet on a string, right? You tug and they jump.

Good short-term gain? Maybe. More clicks? Probably. But at what cost? How about losing the very audience that actually gives a rip about your topic? Or you.

Hype, over-promising or out and out manipulation can’t be hidden forever. People hate being made the fool. Don’t let your headlines, online or off, put them in that position.

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Indulging in my own gratitude

November 21, 2006

I try very hard to make every post in this blog about you. The reader. The businessperson. The marketer. The writer. I want to infuse value, insights and fresh ideas in every post.

So I hope you’ll forgive me this self-indulgent post. What I would love is to have you add to it with your own self-indulgent gratitude. That would make me feel better. (Does that make this post even more self-centered?)

Anyway…enough prelude.

Over at the Balanced Life Center blog, Nneka has created the Season of Gratitude. She’s invited other bloggers to share “a gratitude moment” and she’ll weave them all together with links and blog magic. I couldn’t resist joining in.

Rather than create a laundry list of the incredible and plentiful blessings that I am surrounded with every day, I decided to narrow my focus to my greatest gift.

My daughter. She is quite simply, the best part of me.

Her questions force me to find my own clarity. Her humor is the perfect salve for a stressful day. Her fears remind me of my own humanity and her teen-induced insecurities keep my heart tender. Her zest for life’s delights feeds my spirit and her need to re-charge urges me to slow down now and then. Her laughter triggers my own (sometimes in the most inappropriate places and times) and her tears show me the depth of my own vulnerability.

Her drive to succeed tempers my own so we can talk about balance and her sense of discovery (both academic and of self) lets me indulge in the same. Her need to learn about the responsibilities that come along with being given a good life allows me to share my talents unselfishly and take her along for the ride.

Her presence gives me purpose. Her future gives me hope. And her faith in me inspires me to be a better person.

She is my Jiminy Cricket. She is my legacy. And she is, every single day, my season of gratitude.

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Are you really listening?

November 21, 2006

Innovation is certainly one of the buzzwords of the day. Business leaders are wrestling with how to create a culture that inspires innovation and expecting their R&D team to create the new wonder product. But, it’s not just R&D’s job. Anyone can be innovative.

Patricia Seybold makes this point over and over in her blog Outside Innovation. She contends, and I agree, that our clients/customers will innovate for us, if we let them.

How do you start? I think you start by listening. Really listening. I think your customers are giving you all the clues you need, if you’re tuned in. Want an example? Let’s take a product that’s in the mature phase of its marketing life cycle. Toilet paper. Really, once we got past the one versus two-ply, there hasn’t been a lot of innovation in this product line. Until recently.

You can now buy toilet paper with paw prints on each square. The paw prints lead to a puppy. That’s how the kids know how much toilet paper to use. If you have ever unclogged a toilet because your child used half a roll, you know how brilliant this is.

This was a problem that consumers of toilet paper have complained about for years. It wasn’t enough to make us stop using the product but it was aggravating. And then one day, voila, someone at Cottonelle was listening. And looked at the product in a new light. Hello jump in marketshare.

What are your customers grumbling about? I’m not talking serious complaints, but minor irritants or frustrations. It probably seemed so small that you just dismissed it. Or as in the Cottonelle’s case, it wasn’t really your product’s fault at all. It was really user error.

They didn’t dismiss it. They listened. And now they’re innovators. It’s time for you to follow suit. Pay more attention. Listen more intently. Wonder a little.

Ask yourself…what could you put paw prints on?

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Ease into the week — Wave your Magic Brand Be Gone wand

November 19, 2006

I don’t know about you but Sunday nights are time for me to catch up. On my reading, on my work, on my relationships — all with an eye on Monday morning and knowing that the 180 mph pace is about to resume.

Sundays also seem to be my day for deep thoughts. I thought it might be fun to ease into the week together with a question that is sort of about branding and marketing but also has a personal element to it as well. A chance to get to know each other AND talk shop. Perfect for a Sunday night.

Once a brand becomes part of the consumers’ consciousness, it’s pretty tough to shake. It’s a lot easier to seed a brand than it is to do a 180 degree adjustment to a brand that is already firmly implanted into people’s mindset. So here’s this week’s question:

If you could wave your "Magic Brand Be Gone" wand and erase a bad brand that you don’t think can be repaired or redirected, whose brand would you erase so they could start all over? Oh…and Paris Hilton is off limits, that’s just too easy!

My answer? Reality TV shows. I will say right up front, I think most of it is dreadful. And deserving of the brand it has earned. But, in the midst of the greed, nastiness and gratuitous everything…I think there are a few shows that spotlight the human spirit, like ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Unfortunately, TV producers believe their own brand and see to try to outdo themselves in making the worst, most exploitive reality TV shows possible.

With my wand, I’d wipe out those pre-conceived ideas and let them try again.

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Hey Scrooge, is that you?

November 15, 2006

Every year it seems to get earlier and earlier. This year, some of the major marketers launched their holiday campaign before Halloween. They argue that over 40% of us begin our shopping by then, so why shouldn’t they be out there. Maybe they’re right.

Advertising Age (a trade pub for the advertising industry) is doing a survey this week. I thought we’d borrow their question.

Do you think consumers will be resentful of retailers and other marketers that begin Christmas advertising before the end of October or even before Thanksgiving?

Share your thoughts here and also…if you are a marketer, do you market any differently during a holiday season? Are you a President’s Day special kind of business? What do you think of that as an advertising strategy?

(After we vote, I’ll tell you what the Ad Age readers have said.)

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Hey Goliath, I think you’re going down!

November 13, 2006

David and Goliath. A pretty famous tale. Little guy takes on the big guy. Logic tells us the big guy should win. But, instead, he goes down.

It’s hard to imagine a bigger Goliath than Microsoft. They usually win the fight. But this time, I think they’re going to go down.

This week, Microsoft releases Zune, their answer to the iPod. Their beige answer to the iPod. Over at the True Talk Blog, Tom Guarriello great job of comparing the two products.

Here’s the problem. Microsoft’s size begot a dash of arrogance and they made a classic marketing mistake. They forgot to ask the customer. In fact, they forgot all about the customer.

People buy the iPod because its cool. Cool colors. Cool online store. Cool features.

People buy the iPod because its convenient. Convenient to use. Convenient to find accessories. Convenient access to music, movies, TV shows and music videos.

People have invested a significant amount of money in iTunes downloads and iPod accessories. They are not likely to switch. They are likely to add to their iPod collection with either an updated version (so they can move all their files) or more iPod stuff.

Keep in mind the #1 target for mp3 players like Zune and the iPod are the tweens and the teens. They are all about cool and fitting in. That trumps functionality and screen resolution any day. And they are mortified if they appear to be "posers" or people are trying to be cool, but didn’t quite make it. I suspect Zune owners will be viewed as iPod owner wannabes.

The smart strategy for Microsoft would have been to either out cool and out convenience the iPod. But they aren’t doing either. They are counting on the holiday advertising push and the wifi feature (you can share music…but it evaporates after a few plays/days) to topple the iPod.

I don’t think that’s going to happen. Tomorrow, more on why not.

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Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review Series: Apple

November 11, 2006

Image via CrunchBase

When I read on Easton Ellsworth’s blog about the Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Project, I decided I wanted to participate. The premise is simple…volunteer bloggers choose one or more of the Fortune 500 companies and do a little legwork to see if the company has an official blog. Post it wiki style and voila, together we have created some pretty impressive knowledge.

I chose one of my favorite companies, #159 Apple. (AAPL) I have to admit, I made the assumption that of course they’d have a corporate blog. I mean, come on…it’s Apple.

Typical of Apple, they aren’t doing it like most others. Instead, on their homepage is a link to what they call Hot News with an RSS feed. But the Hot News is a blend of internal news and links to outside sources, like O’Reilly Digital Media and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

There are no opportunities to comment or trackback. So not exactly a blog, but more than a website.

There are plenty of unofficial blogs focusing on Apple, their products, et al as you might imagine. Technorati lists over 4,300 of them.

If you haven’t grabbed a company to research — grab one soon. I’m off to add my 2 cents to the wiki.

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Listen up! (How all companies should use blogs)

November 11, 2006

Despite a bazillion new blogs being started every day, business blogging still seems to be in its infancy. Many companies are still wondering why they would need a blog. And maybe they don’t. Creating and maintaining a blog is not for everyone or every organization. But that doesn’t mean blogging isn’t an important business tool.

You should use blogs to listen to your customers. You’ll be amazed at what they’re saying. Here are a couple links that say it better than I can. Mike’s post tells you how to do it. Tom’s two-parter will give you a remarkable example of how a company turned a rant into a rave…all by listening to blogs.

Mike Sansone’s How To Listen In post.

Tom Vander Well’s Real Life Example posts. Part one. And…part two.

Read…and learn. And start to listen.

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Our glass was WAY past full this morning!

November 10, 2006

Did you feel it? About 8:30 central time (US)? A slight rumble underfoot? An eerie aura or sense that it was no ordinary day?

Me too. Because here in Des Moines, IA (the blogging capital of the world) we had a gathering. And a guest.

Starbucker of Ramblings From a Glass Half Full was in KC for business and decided he had to come up and see what the blogging mecca of Des Moines was all about. As you can see, he had dinner with Tim Johnson of Carpe Factum last night and then got some good rest so he was ready for “DSM Goes a Blogging” (no, not clogging Tom VW) this morning.

What ensued was quite a bit of raucous laughter at Panera, as we online friends put faces and voices to the thoughts and ideas we’ve been sharing together for months. It was tough, after more than 90 minutes, to drag myself away and actually get to the day job. But I have no doubt we’ll get together again.

Here’s a snapshot of the motley crew. In order, from left to right (or as I like to think of it…most handsome to….)

Me
Sandy Renshaw of Purple Wren
Tom Vander Well of QAQNA
Tim Johnson of Carpe Factum
Mike Sansone of Converstations
Starbucker the guest of honor (gotta love a guy who only uses one name!) of Glass Half Full
Mike Wagner of Own Your Brand

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Is wacky marketing a good idea?

November 7, 2006

Now there’s a loaded question, eh?

The answer, of course, is…maybe. Maybe not. How’s that for decisive marketing counsel? Wacky for wacky’s sake is fun but its for you, not for your customer. Wacky for the right reasons, in the right place…for the right business? Now that’s worth looking at, from your customer’s POV.

It all wraps around the bigger issue of branding. Does your brand fit with wacky? If so, you can probably come up with an attention-getting marketing tactic that celebrates something unique about your brand. But if you’re a law firm, it probably doesn’t make much sense.

An article in an old Entrepreneur Magazine caught my eye. The author lists 10 "crazy marketing stunts." Frankly, I think most of them are bad ideas. Which doesn’t make the concept a bad one — but it does point out that being silly for silly’s sake also speaks volumes about your brand. So be wacky mindfully.

The Travelocity Gnome…great idea. It fits their brand. The lizard with the accent and the funny commercials — Geico has done a great job of making themselves different from all the other insurance guys — much like their AFLAC competitors have done with the duck.

So don’t discount wacky. But do it for the right reason. Because it fits your brand.

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