Get To The Grapes

Wendy’s has its $0.99 menu! McDonald’s, Taco Bell and almost every other major fast food restaurant has some sort of ‘cheap eats!’ So, what’s so special about Subway’s new $2 Six inch Sub promotion? First, the company talks about “showing a little love” to its customers as a basis for this December promotion, which is brilliant marketing in itself.  During these tough economic times, instead of talking about how they need to boost sales in December since it is typically a very slow month for fast food chains, they instead talk about the benefit to the customer: smart! And, given it’s drastic price reduction, it’s garnering tremendous press coverage.  It’s one thing to offer fries at $0.99, but a sub sandwich has a greater perceived value than your average $2 burger or fries, so the news media is covering it as ‘news!’ In fact, USA Today ran this headline in its “Money” section: “Meal-deal trend: Catch a (6-inch) Subway for only $2″ You can’t ask for better advertising than that!

So the next time you’re preparing to run a promotion, make it not only compelling to your audience (your customers), but to the media as well. Getting a “little love” from the media can go a long way for your promotion and your brand. Read full article here.

Did you know that “Back-to-School” is the second largest selling season of the year ($69 billion in sales)? And of course, with the potential for sales comes TV advertising. Check out the Top 10 Back-to-School ads according to Adage.com.  I’ve seen most of these commercials, and while many of them are entertaining, I have to say that the Best Buy Geek backpack creeps me out a little bit. Besides, it doesn’t make sense! Is Dell saying that their products are so unreliable that you need to carry this Geek with you were ever you go? No thank you.

What’s your favorite? Is it missing from this list?

The California Milk Processor Board altered a PMS-themed ad campaign after two weeks because of criticism to its subject matter.  The original campaign portrayed men as the victims of temperamental women who were well, “pms-ing.” The goal of the campaign was to highlight that milk can actually soften the effects of PMS symptoms, according to ad campaign spokeswoman Tatum Wan.

As a marketer, I found the campaign clever and humorous.  Ah humor… The Super Bowl is watched by millions of people, many of whom are not football fans. Why? Because of humorous, heart-warming and sometimes quite inappropriate (but funny) commercials.  It will be a sad day when ALL advertisers give in to the pressures of the very few overly sensitive consumers that take themselves far too seriously.  In fact, I thought AdRants did a pretty good job of summing it up in a July 22 post by Steve Hall who wrote: “Unlike many, we have no problem with this campaign. Why? Because if we can’t poke fun at ourselves, what’s left? If we can’t inject a bit of humor into our lives, we might as well all become monks. Oh wait, even they know how to have fun. If we can’t take a moment and just chuckle, we’re going to turn into a world filled with cause groups that will dumb us down to the point where we all turn into emotionless robotic automatons.”

The question we’ll soon be asking ourselves is “Got funny ads?”And the answer will be “No.” Because after all, great humor must have an element of truth and it seems as though the small but humorous element of “truth” hurts too much.  The original URL was www.everythingidoiswrong.org, but now consumers are being redirected to  www.gotdiscussion.org, which is meant to “encourage discussion of the issue,” which I can promise you is not nearly as funny as “everything I do is wrong…”

What are your thoughts? Humorous or humiliating? I’d like to know… See one of many articles here.

McDonald’s is making an interesting move with its brand – shunning bright red roofs and yellow table and chairs for a more muted and sophisticated look and feel. First, they launched McCafe’s to compete with Starbucks and now they want to compete further by designing their chains to keep their customers around awhile.  McDonald’s business model has always been to get as many people in and OUT as possible. However, their new design is meant to keep their customers comfortable and cozy – think Starbuck’s and the Apple store. I know, as odd as it sounds, that is exactly who they are trying to emulate.   It will be interesting to see how this new approach resonates with its customers and its brand.

See article, video and pictures via @USATODAYmoney here.

Make sure customers’ experience is in line with marketing promise

Sacramento Business Journal – by Debi Hammond, Contributing writer, Marketing

Loyalty. It’s what retailers and marketers want but few are able to garner. Even as a marketing professional, I find my loyalty swayed by, what else? Advertising.

My husband and I purchased a sporting goods product a year or so ago and the service was fine. Not exceptional, but very good. So, as we were contemplating another purchase, we were compelled to try a new store that has been doing a great amount of advertising with a compelling message. The problem? They simply didn’t deliver on their message.

They claim to be the “friendliest” sporting goods store, but quite frankly, they weren’t all that friendly. They were running a radio promotion that said if you came in you’d get a free T-shirt, so when I inquired about it, I was simply told “we’re out.” The sales guy wasn’t really rude about it, but he wasn’t really friendly either — or accommodating. He didn’t offer a rain check or even an apology.

Given that it was two days before Christmas, I decided to go ahead and make the purchase I’d gone in for anyway — a T-shirt my husband wanted. I bought the shirt and before I left the store, I pulled it out of the bag to look at it, and it was stained. Of course, they didn’t have any more in the size I needed, so I asked if I could get a small discount. The answer? “No, but you can return it.” Really? That’s so “helpful!”

What the sales guy probably didn’t realize is that although that day I was there only to buy a T-shirt, I was also there to determine where my husband and I would be making another, much more expensive purchase. I had been frequenting another retailer but chose to check this one out because of their advertising and endorsements. Advertising can definitely drive traffic, but it’s a company’s ability to deliver on its brand promise that matters most. (more…)

Friday, October 1, 2010

Biz Savvy

Focus should be on messaging, usability, personality, then design

Sacramento Business Journal - by Debi Hammond Contributing writer

Ah, the wonderful world of website design. A place where everyone you talk to is either an expert or knows someone who is. And a place where everyone wants to share the great deal they got on the design and development. And why not? I mean, it’s just one of the most important parts of your brand. The place where most of your customers and prospects will visit to learn more about you and your business.

The fact is many business owners are frustrated with their websites because they’ve put their brand in the hands of these so called “experts,” usually a graphic designer, or a website churn mill, where templates are applied to something that should be treated with the utmost care and attention to detail.

After all, your website is an extension of your brand. It should reflect who you are today and what kind of company you want to be five years from now.

I’m not here to belittle or begrudge graphic designers or their craft, as they are absolutely an integral part of the process. But a website is so much more than aesthetics. A website is visual and it should be visually appealing, but the design should be the last phase of your website, not the first.

So, whether you’re getting ready to build a website from scratch or redesigning an existing one, follow these five steps to make it successful. (more…)

Juro Osawa/The Wall Street Journal

Technology never ceases to amaze me.  And as a marketer, I love it when it can truly enhance our work by taking the guess work out.  Imagine running a print ad campaign and being able to truly track who’s reading your ad and how they are taking in the information.  Well, although you can’t track it in print, yet, you can with billboards and vending machines.  It’s already being done in Japan, which means you’ll see it here very soon.

Check it out via The Wall Street Journal.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Social media allows businesses to create a customer connection

Sacramento Business Journal – by Debi Hammond Contributing writer

Many companies tout their customer service, but few deliver. Deliver and they will come. I hear so many business owners and CEOs talk about how they want to be the Nordstrom of their business sector. In fact, one of the best-selling books on customer service is titled “The Nordstrom Way.” Yet so few companies actually deliver.

Great customer service is all about the experience people have with your brand. And that experience takes place at every point of brand interaction: From the quality of your product or service to the way the receptionist answers the phone (that is if you even have a live person answering your phone — which you should!). Here’s a quick tip: When it comes to “pressing 1,” people hate it. No, really. They actually hate it and do not consider that good customer service.

There have been many articles and books (like the one mentioned above) that talk about great customer service in the traditional sense. But what about online? Can you even have a truly great online customer >service experience? The answer is absolutely!

MODEL SERVICE

Here’s a personal story to illustrate the point. My husband and I went on a leisurely bike ride a few weeks ago and as we were riding my eyes were drawn to movement near his feet. When I looked closer I saw strings, lots of them, dangling from his Chuck Taylors, and flapping in the breeze as he peddled. I was thinking I should really buy him another pair. Now in defense of his tattered “Chucks,” he does wear them as if they are his only pair of shoes. By the time we got home from our ride, I had long forgotten about my thoughts of replacing his favorite shoes. Later that evening, I went online to check my e-mails and this is the message I received: (more…)

I wrote a post praising Zappos‘ customer service ( Zappos: The Nordstrom of Customer Service?) and that was before I read this:The 10 Reasons “I love Zappos” issue via www.gaspetal.com.

Customer service can make or break a brand and it all starts at the top – CEO’s listen up!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Target your social media efforts by going for quality over quantity

Sacramento Business Journal – by Debi Hammond, Contributing writer, Marketing

Dunkin’ Donuts has 80 percent fewer Facebook and Twitter followers than Starbucks. So it is losing the social media game, right? Well, it depends on your definition of social media success.

If your goal is to be like Ashton Kutcher (he was the first to reach the 1 million “follower” mark on Twitter, even before CNN), then I guess you could consider your social media program a success. However, my recommendation is to focus on quality over quantity.

Besides, what do those 1 million followers really represent for a celebrity? More movies? More money? Or was it simply a bunch of people experimenting with a new medium who now have inactive accounts?

After all, according to a recent Nielsen Online data study, 60 percent of Twitter users quit after a month.

From a business perspective, the question you want to ask yourself is, does having more “followers/friends” equate to having more business and more brand equity? If you want to use social media effectively, then stop “selling” and be more “social.”

Be authentic

The biggest mistake marketers and small businesses make when trying to market their businesses is trying to use social media the same way they do traditional media. Social media is not traditional media and should not be treated the same way.

Television and radio use a “hard sell” approach. It’s one way and directional: “buy me” now. Social media is “social,” meaning people need to be engaged to want and to learn about your product, service or other information. You can, and in most cases, should, use it as an integral part of your marketing campaign, but don’t treat it as a traditional marketing tool.

Social media is about engagement. It’s bi-directional. It’s about providing value. It’s about being authentic. If all you do is tweet about what’s on sale, promotions and the number of “friends/followers” you want, buy an ad because social media is not the place for the “hard sell.”

You want followers that want to follow you. You want followers who are truly engaged in your brand and are following you because of the value you bring to their lives. If you’re wondering what kind of social media marketer you are, take this brief quiz (answer yes or no): See article at the Sacramento Business Journal (more…)