News – Page 4

The Oscars, More or Less

The telecast of the 87th annual Academy Awards is admittedly not the same type of advertising blockbuster as the Super Bowl. They do, however, provide some insight into current marketing trends and some subtle and not so subtle marketing tactics. So, after the final credits rolled, what do we want to see more of and what do we want to see less of?

We Want More:

Lady Gaga: we always knew she had pipes, but wow, she did a wonderful tribute to Julie Andrews. Let her sing something at every awards ceremony from now on.

Now we really are wanting to see Glen Campbell’s documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, which shows his life since his Alzheimer’s diagnosis and his final tour; Tim McGraw sang the final song that Campbell penned and there were many tears flowing in the auditorium and in our homes, too.

We haven’t been that interested in Birdman, but boy, those Hollywood-types seem interested in it, so we guess we’ll hunt it down.

Eddie Redmayne: British, skinny, beautiful voice from Les Mis, he’s a god. And he speaks well and loves his wife.

We might have to see Grand Budapest Hotel again, as it really was an artistic achievement, and was duly recognized by the Academy.

More awesomeness: Did you see all the cameos in “Everything is Awesome”? Devo, Andy Samberg, a possum, Oprah holding an Oscar made of Lego’s and the list goes on!

Boyhood and Still Alice also went below our radar but the winning actresses representing them looked pretty compelling on screen, even if Patricia Arquette is a touch goofy.

We Want Less:

Underwear: It’s a hard gig for Neil Patrick Harris, but we could have done without the tighty whiteys, (but oh, did you see his pecs?)

Memorializing: Have somebody sing while the names are being shown of the people who died; don’t make us listen to another sad song afterwards. No exceptions, even Lady Gaga (see above). Also, where was Joan Rivers in the memorializing?

Dakota Jones: She was so petulant with her mother Melanie Griffith. Get over yourself, Dakota.

Dresses that people trip in: If Jennifer Lopez can’t walk in it, it should be illegal.

Paying a Fair Price for Marketing

Many small business owners and service providers have trouble coming up with an appropriate marketing budget. They struggle with figuring out how much to spend, mostly because they can’t do the “opportunity cost” analogy. It’s hard to quantify how much future business you are missing by not marketing appropriately and putting a portion of those costs upfront.

It’s clear that small business owners and professionals value their own time. Most service providers and business owners would never dream of giving away their product or services and pricing themselves so as not to make a living. Yet, these same business owners and service providers have trouble envisioning marketing as a service and a product, and one that needs to be priced fairly.

So, consider some of these costs and opportunity costs:

Creation of new written content: Do you have the time to “populate” your website or write new, effective posts on your existing or nascent social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, linkedin)? If you don’t love to write or don’t have time to do so, then this is clearly something you should pay somebody else to do. Writing for websites and for social media is somewhat specialized. A reputable marketing professional can give you a good idea of how much time this writing takes and what an approximate cost for it should be.
Advice and input on graphic components of you work: Do you have an eye for design, an idea for branding or logos or a good sense of style or do your eyes roll into the back of your head when you’re dithering between slate gray and heather gray? The graphic design component of marketing is critical. Graphic designers have so many tools at their disposal to tweak a tired logo, they are up on the latest fonts and which ones are looking passe and they provide an invaluable service.
Assessment of past and future marketing plans: How do you know if your previous marketing was successful or not? Do you have any in-house tracking of how you obtained new clients and customers? Do you have any sense of the success of past ad campaigns, social media blitzes, coupons, corporate sponsorships or listings? Your marketing professional will be able to help you track the past (if at all possible) and make plans for the future that include real-time analysis of engagement with social media and development of non-intrusive in-house marketing research.

Marketing isn’t free, but the opportunity costs of not marketing may be very expensive indeed. It’s important to engage marketing professionals who understand your goals, your budget and who can provide the services that you do not have time or the ability to provide yourself.

Sweet and Not-So-Sweet Tweets

We love Jimmy Fallon’s Mean Tweets bit. He is able to catch celebrities reading fairly nasty tweets about themselves. It is a commentary on how hateful people can be when anonymous, and a reminder that celebrities aren’t immune to negative comments.

Fallon has captured the popularity of Twitter for lots of people who use Twitter in a variety of different ways. Some people follow their favorite entertainers (particularly comedians whose tweets are funnier than most). Others use Twitter to find like-minded opinions, searching through the hashtags as well as resources. Yet others utilize Twitter to develop a following and to create buzz.

Two Twitter stories from this past week:

One of our children had trouble with shipment of a coat she had ordered from a major department store. She got on the chatline and was treated quite favorably (especially for a 13 year old). She received an apology and a refund of the shipping cost. The next day, the Mom on her own Twitter account told about how great the store treated her daughter, including the store’s Twitter handle and the hashtag #customerforlife . The mom received within 12 hours a tweet back from the company, saying thank you for the shout-out and further inquiring about if the coat had arrived. Great use of Twitter.

A neighbor had a very unfavorable encounter with a third party installer of window blinds, purchased through a large national company. The neighbor happened to see the tweet of the CEO of the company, complaining about the poor customer service he was receiving as an airplane passenger. The neighbor sent a tweet to the CEO, saying that the airline’s behavior was nothing compared to how he was treated by the vendor. Within 20 minutes, the neighbor received a call from a representative and his blinds were installed within 48 hours.

So, the Twitter takeaway:

As customers, be aware of the power of Tweets. They might not make it to Jimmy Fallon, but companies are watching their @, and minding their reputation in the Twittersphere.
As business owners, you or your marketing professional should be checking on your Twitter reputation as well and should be checking to be sure you are answering everyone, your fans and your critics.

Super Bowl Successes and a Few Fumbles

Super Bowl XLIX is now in the history books with an exciting, close game resulting in the New England Patriots’ victory. Also victorious were the NBC execs and shareholders who brought in a tremendous amount of ad revenue. Here is our review of the evening (mostly in chronological order):

How does Idina Menzel do it? Great sound and she coordinated it with the Flyover…awesome!
The Chevy Colorado fakeout ad where it looked the like the TV went on the fritz had us going for a second. Good one!
Although we “sorta” liked the Esurance celebrity components (Lindsay Lohan, Bryan Cranston), we didn’t quite get the “sorta” branding. Were we having to think too hard, even though our brain was congealed with seven layer dip?
Kimsdatastash (TMobile) about saving the data was mildly amusing, but we kept thinking the hashtag would be #kimsubiquitoustush.
Speaking of butts, one of our daughters (we won’t name names) was following the Super Bowl,along with buzzfeed‘s list of the best butts in the Super Bowl. Bragging rights go to the Seahawks’ Earl Thomas III (#29). It truly is noteworthy.
Big fumble on the part of Nationwide insurance. They had a great ad with Mindy Kaling and Matt Damon (Am I invisible?) but they brought down the party with a strange ad about childhood accidents. Not only did most people think the ad in poor taste (and what is it actually selling?), but family members of those who had died from an accident were actually offended. The Twittersphere blew up right after the ad aired, overwhelmingly negatively. Hmmm.
We loved the BMW I3 with a throwback of Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric talking about the nascent internet back in the day and driving together and grappling with the technology of the BMW.
Avocados from Mexico was an unexpected treat with the depiction of the first ever draft of animals to various countries.
A whole host of commercials were the heartstring tugging kind. Maybe we were feeling giddy from the snow day coming up the next day, but we weren’t particularly cynical about these, but we also thought they were, to use a so “last year” term: meh: So “meh” to Budweiser’s Buddy and the Clydesdales, although the dog is cute, “meh” to Dove’s ad about Daddy’s, “meh” to the Nissan ads (actually we thought these were actually maudlin, double “meh”), “meh” to Coca-Cola.
Moving on to Always’ #likeagirl campaign. This ad has already been making the youtube circuits for so long, that all of us who buy feminine hygiene products had already seen it multiple times, and every girls’ PE teacher and coach had already seen it. I guess the fathers of boys saw it now too. It’s pretty good, but so 2014 at this point.
Half time show really should not be a source of complaint. Katy Perry left nothing on the table, except why didn’t we get more of Lenny Kravitz? Bringing back Missy Eliot was awesome, and the fireworks with Katy suspended were pretty cool. If you have to suffer through pop music, at least let it be a spectacle.
What is #superbowlrally? There were ads for it, but what is it? How can you advertise something mysterious?
The greatest car ad (although Pierce Brosnan’s Kia ad was OK) was the Fiat ad where an elderly man’s Viagra (unnamed blue pill) bounces around until it lands inside a Fiat gas tank, expanding it (get it?), creating a hybrid with the tagline “Go a little longer”. Perhaps it was the alcohol in us, but it was clever.
Weird ad: With Jeff Bridges sort of looking Dude-like on Square Space. Again, like superbowlrally, what is Square Space? We’re admittedly far too lazy to figure it out on our own.
Perhaps the two best ads of the night were the result of improbable celebrity hawkers. The first was Pete Rose wearing his Skechers in “the hall” and being told he’s not allowed in the hall, even that one. A great way to be self-deprecating about his continued disbarment from the Baseball Hall of Fame and to include the audience in an inside joke. But, far and away, we love intense Liam Neeson and to see him with that intensity in the Clash of Clans ad was pure genius.

The Three R’s of Marketing: Research, Research, Research

Continuous research has to be part of the weekly and monthly (sometimes daily) work for whoever does your marketing.

Research may not be the sexiest part of marketing, but without it, you might as well be sending bubbles into the ether.

There are different phases of research, depending on where you are in your relationship with your marketing partner.

At the beginning, a new client should be the beneficiary of research on not just the business they run but also trends in their industry. When the marketing professional and the client work well as a team, the marketing professionals “get” their client’s business. They understand the day to day struggles, they understand the issues that impede growth, they understand the challenges and opportunities. Excellent marketers can present information about a large scope of business issues, including current business communication issues with the office, how the office or business is perceived in the community and how much room there is in the market for growth.

After establishing a strong relationship, the marketing professionals still have research to do. Industries are never static, whether it is the practice of law, medicine, dentistry, real estate, publishing, retail, or communications. Research with a well-established client means interpreting the data regarding social media reach, it means understanding the various niches of television, radio and internet advertising, and it means continually staying on top of new challenges and opportunities. As an example, understanding the intricacies of the Affordable Care Act affects the writing and the social media that we do for medical, dental and legal clients, and it also informs our understanding of the challenges of running small businesses.

Project specific research is often a part of marketing services. For example, if a client wants to purchase an ad in an industry magazine, it is the marketing professionals’ job to figure out the best way to spend money in that endeavor through interpreting who the audience will be, what advertisements seem to “grab” the most significant industry players and even what look works best for that publication.

One of the great aspects of doing work in marketing is that there is always more to learn: more to learn about our clients, their products, their successes, their challenges and how best to formulate a cohesive marketing plan.

Year-End Exercise: Take a Walk on the Client Side

Lots of people put “exercise more” on their New Year’s Resolutions. We concur with that, but as as marketing professionals we offer a marketing exercise idea for you:

Take a Walk on the Client Side

What does this mean? To walk on the client side means to pretend that you are a real client, a real patient, a real customer. Approach doing business at your office or your establishment as a brand new person “walking in”, either through your actual front door or through the portal of your web presence. Here are some things you might want to resolve to check on:

How “findable” are you? When you Google your name, what comes up? (If you are paying for Google Ads, don’t go on and click on yourself or your website, or you’ll end up paying for the click!) Many single attorneys or doctors in a larger practice are surprised to find that their firms or their practices aren’t necessarily as visible as they would have hoped. We have met potential clients and eventual clients who were practically invisible! Typically, these clients weren’t thinking about marketing and thought “the practice” had that covered. If you think that you have paid for other internet listing services or the Yellow Pages, check your presence on those entities, too.
What are the first impressions that clients receive? How friendly is the first voice on the phone? Is a new client going to talk to a real live person? What’s the time frame for someone to return a phone call? What is your parking lot like? Is it well-maintained? Is it safe? Who sits at the front desk? Do they greet people appropriately or are they too busy multitasking? Do you have the right staff as your “line of first defense”?
What does it feel like to encounter you and your company as an outsider? Is there insider lingo in your website? If so, does it enhance your reputation to show that you are experts in your field, or is it too arcane? Does somebody have to have connections to get a return phone call or are potential new clients welcomed?
Can you even handle new customers or clients at this point? If your practice is thriving to the point that you cannot handle new patients or new customers without hiring new staff, consider what that new client experience is like. Are there lengthy wait times for appointments or meetings? Are there insufficient chairs in the reception area? Is your database or file management being taken to the brink? If you cannot handle new customers without added infrastructure expenses, you may be unwittingly turning away potential new customers, too. Consider how to prioritize your spending so you can accommodate growth, or make a decision not to grow. If you choose the latter, it’s best to put the word out that “you are not taking new clients right now”, offering to put people on a waiting list or making referrals to another trusted professional.

Cyber Monday, Shopping Satisfaction and Sales Tax

If you are living in a cave, perhaps you have missed that today is Cyber Monday, that tradition of just a decade of pointing at an icon and then clicking as opposed to pointing at a window display and then clicking your heels inside the store.

Cyber Monday became a “thing” as a response to the perceived crazy antics of Black Friday, combined with the growing popularity of online shopping. Retailers realized the huge jump of purchases that occurred online when workers returned to their offices after a long weekend, logged on to their computers, and instead of doing actual work, began to buy a kitchen’s sink worth of stuff. Now, retailers have embraced the Cyber Monday shenanigans, offering online discounts on Cyber Monday and contacting their regular or past customers and clients to entice them to shop.

Perhaps you are under the illusion that an additional benefit of Cyber Monday is being able to buy items tax-free. Not so fast…

You still pay sales tax if the establishment from which you are making a purchase is “domiciled” in any way in the state in which you live. So, if you love Francesca’s in Birmingham and online (and we do), and you live in Michigan, then you pay a sales tax when you shop online at Francesca’s, a nationwide clothing retailer, because Francesca’s has a physical store in Michigan, several actually.

You may not have to pay a sales tax if you are buying from a place that does not have a brick and mortar store or distribution place in your state.

But that’s not all. There is a pesky other tax called a “use tax“. Essentially, you are required to pay for using the internet (I know this doesn’t seem fair). But the strange thing about the use tax is that retailers are not required to collect them. No indeed. The purchaser is responsible for filing and paying. We repeat: you are still liable for the paying the use tax, even if the establishment doesn’t collect it. The Michigan use tax is 6% and the rules about the Michigan use tax can be found right here:

Michigan Use Tax

But what about Amazon? Michiganders are in the enviable position of still enjoying a sales tax holiday on Cyber Monday with regards to Amazon (although that use tax officially does come into play). Twenty-three other states (soon it will be 24) are now paying sales tax on items purchased on Amazon. Michigan residents are not on that list.

So, the takeaway? Shop to your heart’s content on Cyber Monday. Do so with the knowledge that it is convenient, and requires no parking lots or crowds, but it may still be taxing in other ways.

Media Change-Up: Baseball, Viewership and the World Series

We are in the thick of the days of October, the time of year that baseball fans, players and sportswriters live for. October is the month of heroics on the pitching mound, at the plate and in the field.

Unfortunately for baseball, the number of people watching the World Series has been getting lower and lower.

Major league baseball is probably planning some significant marketing conversations once they are done with the San Francisco Giants vs. Kansas City Royals World Series. They will have to consider what is happening, both to their sport and to viewership.

We have some guesses as to how the situation got this way:

Maybe the number of sports that people can follow is indeed finite. With the supremacy of professional football, perhaps fans just are choosing to watch and keep up with those games and foregoing baseball for the moment.
Small market teams make for small market World Series. San Francisco and certainly Kansas City both have loyal fan bases, but they pale in comparison to the size and buying power (and TV marketing presence) of a Yankees team or a Cubs team. Sadly, for Michigan the lowest World Series ratings were during the Giants vs. Tigers series in 2012.
Major league baseball has to grow their newest fans by becoming part of reaching out to young potential players. Both softball and baseball players gravitate to those sports, typically, because of some sort of family involvement in the sports. Baseball has always assumed that fathers would pass down their love of the game to their children, but there seems to be a disconnect here.
Soccer (the other football) is not only reaching more fans than baseball (World Cup viewing numbers in the U.S. eclipsed World Series Nielsen numbers so far), but more young players are playing soccer than baseball. In Michigan, high school girls have to choose between soccer and softball. Boys still can play soccer in the fall and baseball in the spring.
Baseball games require a certain patience among the viewers. It’s not a concussion a minute type of game, and there seem to be some amazing pitchers. Although the World Series has included some high scoring games, there is some evidence that scores in general are trending lower. Are low scoring games part of the problem and should this be “fixed” or is just part of the new normal?
Has the ban on steroids put a damper on sustained amazing hitters? Or did it damage the reputation of the teams in an irreparable way?

Baseball has inspired so many American generations with its combination of individual achievement and teamwork. Countless fans have enjoyed beautiful days at the ballpark, days of excitement and lulls in the action, times when the 7th inning stretch was something to look forward to, along with the Cracker Jack and the crack of the bat. I hope that Major League Baseball can find a way to perhaps rebrand themselves and make themselves relevant and visible for years to come.

The (TV Commercial) Times, They Are Changing

We’re living through an era of tremendous change. We have read about people who lived through the Industrial Revolution. Perhaps older relatives have told you about buying their first television. Lots of us and our kids can no longer conceive of a time before cell phones. (How many “Seinfeld” episodes would need to be rewritten if all of the characters would just have had cell phones?)

We are also in the midst of the television viewing revolution.

We are seeing it with our own clients, who are changing the way they purchase advertising time. Even as recently as three years ago, it was de rigeur for lots of clients to put their money first in radio and TV ads on network and smaller local stations. With their leftover money, maybe they would put a bit into improving their internet presence or other marketing initiatives.

Now, we help our clients examine how to buy that time, and even if they should buy it in the same way.

Clearly, the TV and radio landscape is changing every day. The youngest generation pretty much doesn’t listen to stations on the radio at all. That’s been the case for several years. And the radio scene is changing very quickly with so many choices: internet radio stations, SiriusXM (sattelite) radio as well as old-fashioned terrestrial radio are all competing with one another for an audience, with fewer opportunities for ad time, but bigger opportunities to really deliver to a niche or slice of the market.

But the changes in radio are dwarfed by the immense changes in how people access television or video. Dwindling, and perhaps soon gone are the days when people watched a specific program at a specific time. Now people watch on demand either through streaming services, Tivo, and on demand services. The exception to this is sporting events, which are tied of course to a certain date and time.

Cable TV is changing rapidly, too. HBO has had a very strong online streaming service called HBO GO. But to access it, you had to use a login from being a cable subscriber. This week, HBO announced an impending departure from that arrangement and will soon offer some kind of streaming without cable subscriptions, something that could save consumers who only want to watch HBO shows a lot of money. The details of this HBO streaming innovation have not yet been released, in terms of what shows will be available, what archived shows will be available and what the cost will be.

Good marketing advice incorporates all of these changes in devising a specific plan to target potential clients and customers.

The Singular, Slow Tour: Slowing Down the Images

Do you ever feel that images are rushing by you? There are so many that come into our space, onto our screens, in our reading material, on our Facebook feeds.

I had the opposite experience recently: one where I could focus on one image for a while. I have to tell you, it was majestic, rejuvenating, and refreshing.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts. The DIA is truly one of the jewels in the crown of the cultural legacy of Detroit. Indeed, the DIA is chock-full of amazing, world class art.

I go a few times a year to the DIA, usually to see a new exhibition or sometimes to bring out-of-towners. When I come, I sort of mentally check off the “biggies” that I want to see or show off: the Diego Rivera courtyard, the Van Gogh paintings, the multiple Picassos, the Chapel from the Chateau de Herbeviller that overlooks the Kresge courtyard, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Wedding Dance, and so many more.

This past week, I was aware that there was a special guest at the DIA. The Musee D’Orsay in Paris has loaned the DIA one of their stars: Claude Monet’s Waterlily Pond, Green Harmony. The painting, part of Monet’s ouevre of work that he painted at Giverney, France, will be shown at the DIA until January 4, 2015. (I believe that the Musee D’Orsay loaned the painting to the DIA as a way of showing solidarity with the museum and to demonstrate to the Detroit community that a solvent, major museum has the “swat” to bring in big, important art. The DIA and its collection was part of the “Grand Bargain”, Detroit’s bankruptcy proceedings.)

What I didn’t know is that the Monet painting was installed in a very special way in a gallery adjacent to the Diego Rivera courtyard. As you approach the gallery, there is a directional sign indicating that you are about to see the “Guest of Honor”. Then you walk into a lovely space…and the only artwork shown is the Monet, hung right in the center of the room, lit perfectly. There are no other images, and pretty minimal information posted nearby. I was practically alone with the Monet (and the security guard). Nothing distracted me at all. I lingered, and I lingered a little more and then I turned away to leave, and I came back again. I had a question about how we got the piece and I sought out the docent nearby. In total, I probably spent about 15 minutes interacting with one painting, an eternity for my typical Type-A quick, sometimes frenzied forays through the DIA and other museums, too.

You should note that this image of the Monet doesn’t even begin to do the painting justice, but it is posted here for your reference.

As I left the museum, I pondered how we perhaps need to find time to simplify, to engage with a message or an image without distraction, how we overrate multitasking. I also began to contemplate how the DIA accomplished something so singular: they advertised a special exhibition and they truly made one painting its own star. I have to thank the DIA for allowing us all to slow down for a moment and to linger with Monet’s Waterlilies.

For more information about the Monet exhibit:

http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=4744&iid=