In this issue…
MARKETING
• Ubiquitous Marketing
NEWS
• Is technology reducing productivity?
• Pay-per-action ads ready for the big time
TRENDS
• America in 10 years
• Separating the rich from the ultra-rich
TIPS
• A simple way to boost email readership
• Make sure your employees know what matters most
• What to do when your regular buyer leaves their company
• Why newspaper advertising is still a good bet
• A great source for hiring qualified employees
• Much more…
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MARKETING
Ubiquitous Marketing
As marketing becomes more challenging, discover how to apply new tactics to some timeless principles.
NOT SO LONG AGO marketing was a lot simpler. One broadcast or print buy was enough to canvass the entire market with a new product or steal share from a competitor. Life for marketers was good.
What can you do to recapture some of the golden age marketing magic even though the playing field has changed? How can you create a ubiquitous presence in the minds of your target audience when you can’t even reach them as a collective whole?
Bundle Your Media, Boost Exposure
Repetition is still king for getting results. But to get repetition these days, you have to reach an audience that’s constantly on the move.
Bundling your media choices allows you to reach the same audience at different times in different places. If you’re running radio spots, for example, invest in a companion outdoor effort. Imagine someone listening to your radio spot in the car only to see your billboard a few seconds later. That’s impact. Or if you send a direct-mail piece, follow up with telemarketing. The second will drive home the message of the first.
Some media work better together than others. But make no mistake, combining two mediums together creates a far greater impact than investing the same amount in just one.
Two’s Great, Three’s a Crowd
You’d think if two mediums combined spelled success, three or more would be divine. That’s the idea behind integrated marketing -— running the same basic advertising message no matter what the medium.
Integrated marketing may work for the Fortune 500 with ad budgets to die for. But the same message across the media spectrum loses its intimacy. It lacks the relevancy of a promotional message created exclusively for a particular medium and target consumer.
For companies looking to optimize their marketing investment for maximum impact, it would be far more profitable to integrate their marketing with sound strategic thinking instead. Like targeting your media and messages in ways the golden age of marketing never could. Technology has made it possible to customize media buys by region, parts of the city, even individual zip codes.
And by tapping into powerful databases, you can create personalized marketing pieces targeting loyal customers, first-time customers, new leads, whatever. So while you can’t reach your target audience all at once anymore, you can make the most of your capability to reach out and sell to prospective consumers one-on-one.
Make a Great Impression and Leave Your Calling Card
The media explosion — along with advancements in information technology — has created a world bent on catering to the consumer. Entertainment 24 hours a day. Products purchased, shipped and delivered overnight. Services that can intuitively anticipate the customer’s needs.
The result? High-maintenance customers and fickle prospects. They have zero tolerance. If they don’t like your marketing pitch because it’s too self-serving, too crammed with information or simply impertinent, they’re on to the next one in a matter of seconds.
As such, today’s marketing, the successful kind anyway, is less obtrusive, more relevant and increasingly interactive. Campaigns offer compelling ideas, evidence to support them and customer- friendly methods for contacting the company. The more you can push yours in this direction, the more in tune you will be with your market.
We’re in a new age for marketing. Examine it closely and the golden era loses its luster. This one is more challenging with greater opportunities. All one has to do is dust off timeless principles and apply new tactics. Do that and all the right people -— present and future customers -— will think your marketing is everywhere.
Mike Ogden works in the creative department at Bernstein-Rein Advertising in Kansas City, Missouri. He can be reached at (913) 485-8434.
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NEWS
Is technology reducing productivity?
Most U.S. workers say they feel rushed on the job, but they are getting less accomplished than a decade ago. Last year, workers completed two-thirds of their work in an average day, down from about three-quarters in a 1994 study, according to research conducted for Day-Timers. The biggest culprit of this shift is the technology that was supposed to make work quicker and easier.
Because of the increased pace in today’s workplace, workers never concentrate on just one task at a time anymore, making it harder to feel a sense of accomplishment. Today’s workers are bombarded with email, computer messages, cell phone calls, voicemails and the like.
Six out of 10 workers say they always or frequently feel rushed, but those who feel extremely or very productive dropped to 51% from 83% in 1994. Put another way, in 1994, 82% said they accomplished at least half their daily planned work but that number fell to 50% last year. A decade ago, 40% of workers called themselves very or extremely successful, but that number fell to just 28%.
Expectations that technology would save time and money largely haven’t been borne out in the workplace; however, the existence of technology increases the expectations that people have for productivity, leading to increased stress.
Companies that are flexible with workers’ time and give workers the most control over their tasks tend to fare better against the sea of rising expectations, experts said .
Source: Wired.com, February 23, 2006
Pay-per-action ads ready for the big time
Imagine if you only had to pay for an ad if a customer bought something? That’s the idea behind pay-per-action ads. And while the technology has been around for some time, the service is finally ready for practical use.
Unlike pay-per-click ads, pay per action requires that the advertiser’s customer take a significant action like make a phone call, sign up for a newsletter or even make a product purchase.
The appeal of these new services is easy to understand. Some 30% of calls lead to sales compared with a mere 3% of clicks, according to Jupiter Research. At an average of $1.95 per click, pay per action appears to be much cheaper even though one provider charges an average of $5.50 per call. Plus, pay per action is less likely to suffer from the same fraud problems that pay per click does.
So far, the technology is best suited to local merchants such as plumbers, electricians and mortgage brokers. However, as pay per action moves beyond just calls, it should appeal to a much wider range of advertisers. For example, Snap advertisers pay if a customer makes a purchase, logs on and requests additional information or registers for a sweepstakes.
There are currently only a few players in the pay-per-action market right now — Ingenio, Jambo and Snap. However, Google, Yahoo and MSN are all expected to roll out their own versions of pay per action later this year.
Source: Inc., March 2006
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TRENDS
America in 10 years
The United States of 2016 will find itself in the throes of demographic shifts that will upend our economic, political and technological priorities and redefine our lifestyles and markets. In the coming decade, “average” in American will tend to be older, browner and more female.
The demographic concentration of senior boomers, backed by their vast reservoirs of disposable income, represents the next American gold rush. The successful companies of tomorrow will be the ones that unlocked the hearts, minds and wallets of elder boomers. For example, consumer electronics firms are investing in designs tweaked to the needs of older consumers. IBM has even developed a computer mouse that compensates for hand tremors. The biggest profits will come from companies helping boomers to hold on to their youth.
As America grays, its skin will become more polychrome. Minorities will make up one-third of the U.S. population in 2016. In the decades to come, Hispanics, now one of every seven Americans, will be one in four, becoming a mass market in its own right. High schools will soon routinely offer Hindi and Mandarin as Asians become a still more influential slice of the populace. The rise of these new blocs will change American diets, tastes and cultural references — but it will also redefine the notion of race itself, perhaps permanently.
Gender demographics will change, too. Women currently make up approximately 58% of the undergraduate college population, and that figure is rising. Because educational and economic achievement are so strongly correlated, those gains will inevitably translate into cultural influence, purchasing power and corporate leadership. Already, the percentage of single female home buyers in the past 20 years has nearly doubled. And the number of women buying high-end consumer electronics like plasma televisions is growing faster than the number of men.
Finally, the American family will undergo tremendous change. Many boomer retirees who’ve outlived their income — or failed to save any of it — will move in with the kids. As those boomers move back in and millennials live at home longer, families will change from a two-generation “nuclear” family to a three- or even four-generation affair, a return to the beginning of the 20th century.
These new multigenerational families will be a fertile new market for everything from new senior-plus-family transportation to travel, entertainment, cooking and shopping.
Source: Fast Company, March 2006
Separating the rich from the ultra-rich
What can the very wealthy do to distinguish themselves from the new masses of millionaire commoners who buy the same clothes, automobiles and vacations? Stop consuming? Why, yes, as a matter of fact.
In recent years, merely wealthy status seekers have been cutting costs on things that don’t convey status or style, in order to splurge on items that make a personal statement or communicate position. In what The Economist calls “selective extravagance,” they shop in the same stores as the super-rich, buy a piece of the good life via a timeshare in an exclusive resort or purchase “fractional ownership” in a private jet.
As a consequence, the very wealthy must find other ways to draw a distinction when such luxuries alone no longer indicate exclusivity. Some dress down or drive old cars as if to say “I have more money than I know what to do with.”
But the very richest give their money away. Philanthropy is more than fashionable among the very wealthy — it’s now mandatory. In one instance, Bill Gates, George Soros and Warren Buffet took out ads to announce their opposition to proposals to abolish estate taxes, and encouraged the government to tax them to help meet the needs of the economically disadvantaged.
Source: Trend Letter, March 13, 2006
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TIPS
- Use graphics to boost email readership. Previous studies have shown that most people focus more on text than graphics when reading online content. However, that doesn’t mean that only text should be used when marketing by email. New research shows that when a graphic is added to an email, the readership increases dramatically compared to the same message without a graphic. Surprisingly, people spend little time actually looking at the graphic, but its presence appears to raise the engagement level of the reader.
Source: www.marketingsherpa.com
- Do your employees know what matters most? On a one-on-one basis, ask your employees these questions: What is the one thing that is most important about your job? What are your most critical responsibilities? What do your customers need from you? What seems like a waste of time to you? Why is your job important to our company? Listen carefully to what your employees tell you. Any disconnect between your perception and your employees’ can be costly.
Source: www.judywhitehouse.com
- When you can pinpoint customer demographics, such as location, type of company, age, gender, income, etc., a direct-mail campaign may be your most cost-effective method for triggering new business. Without charging you a dime, InfoUSA.com allows you to find out how many potential customers exist in the set of categories you specify. For example, men and women who move to somewhere in Connecticut: about 415. Before buying such a list, find out if your nearest public library subscribes to a database called ReferenceUSA.com. If so, you can download your list from the library for free.
Source: www.yudkin.com
- Your regular buyer has just left the company — what do you do now? Don’t assume that the new contact person will be eager to buy from you; he may have existing vendor relationships. Start with a low-key approach. Send a handwritten welcome note congratulating him on his position. Do not sell in the card. Just mention that you look forward to speaking with him and sign your name and company name. Snoop around and find out where he came from and any personal interests. Then call to introduce yourself, keeping the focus on him, not you. Briefly mention how your company has been providing value to their company. Then request setting up a specific time to discuss his preferences for working with vendors or anything else that you can do to make his job run more smoothly.
Source: www.businessbyphone.com
- With all of the talk about the decline of newspapers, you might think that newspapers are a poor choice for advertising. This isn’t the case, especially regarding inserts. A recent study reveals that advertising insert readership levels are consistently at 85% or above. Additionally, the study finds that even Web-savvy individuals still rely on ad inserts, as 88% of Sunday newspaper readers surveyed via the Web said they read Sunday newspaper inserts, while 79% of those surveyed by phone read them.
Source: www.vertisinc.com
- A great source for hiring qualified employees is to rehire your previous employees. But how likely is it that they would want to return? According to a survey by Korn/Ferry, 64% of the more than 4,000 respondents said they would consider returning to their previous employer. Rejoining a previous employer may seem safe, comfortable and lucrative, because most companies allow you to resume benefits at your previous level. Companies often like to rehire people because little or no additional time and money may be needed to train them. Plus, it’s been estimated that hiring a former employee costs companies about half as much as hiring someone new.
Source: www.meansbusiness.com
- Give your salespeople an edge by developing a “battle card.” This card is more than just a cheat sheet for product specs and features. Instead, it goes beyond the basics and helps salespeople anticipate objections they might encounter while trying to close sales. Consider including: info on common competitors; features of competing products, along with key differentiators; common sticking points that other salespeople have encountered; profiles of typical decision makers who bring up certain objections; responses that have worked to overcome the objections; and responses that have failed to overcome objections.
Source: www.siriusdecisions.com
- Here’s a low-hassle way to build credibility: Post customer satisfaction data on your company’s website. That’s what CustomInk, a Virginia-based screen printing and embroidery company does. It uses an entire sidebar on its home page to tell prospects about its 98.87% (as of 3/1/06) satisfaction rate. It then offers links to unedited and uncensored customer reviews so prospects can read about others’ experiences for themselves.
Source: The Marketing Report, 370 Technology Dr., Malvern, PA 19355
- It’s hard to sell to an unhappy person. Recent research indicates that emotional states like happiness, gratitude, anger and guilt can directly affect how much someone trusts others. The research showed that happy participants in the experiments were more trusting than sad participants, and said participants were more trusting than were angry participants even though they considered their impressions of others to be completely rational. For example, our anger over a speeding ticket is likely to affect how we judge someone later that day. Good salespeople instinctively know this and will use positive small talk or amusing stories to ensure that their prospect is in a good mood before continuing through the sales process.
Source: knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
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