So many dumb moments in business, so little time. But Business 2.0 mag has their picks for the 101 dumbest of 2006.
Wal-Mart is #1, for hiring a big firm to create their "Candidate Wal-Mart" campaign. #2 is Northwest Airlines, for giving their employees a "How To Save Money" booklet after laying them off. #3 is the contest McDonald's held in Japan, with the winners getting free mp3 players with a virus on them. The rest of the top 10 are GM, Kazakhstan, Steve Wynn, The New York Times, Spirit Air, Porter County, and Comcast.
There are 101 in all, so grab a hot beverage and get comfortable. You can't see the entire list on one page, which is a little annoying, but there is a handy scroll function at the bottom.
People aren't talking about your ads, marketers, they're talking about what they're friends are talking about. And more disturbingly to advertisers, consumers say their purchasing decisions aren't being driven by the ads they see or hear but instead on the opinions of others whom they trust.
While this might be an accurate conclusion based on the data, there is some room to still argue that traditional advertising has a significant role to play. People often aren't aware of how ads influence them and therefore may not be reporting that impact correctly. For instance, if someone saw an ad for Ford they may have dismissed it but seeing that ad may have spurred a conversation with someone they know who owns a Ford about their car. So while the ad was not the direct motivator it did have a role to play.
That makes the role of continued customer-service and maintenance, regardless of the kind of product being sold, all the more important. If current owners or users aren't happy they're going to relay that discontent when queried on the subject. It's a combination of advertising and current user support that can have a powerful effect on how well an ad campaign works.
What, no agency? No client? No billion-dollar red carpet cigar-smoking creative suits to tie it all together. Nope, not a one. It has more to do with Time's person of the year, you. Power to the people! Mentos and Diet Coke and flying off the shelf because of a simple video you have most likely seen. The one with the guys in white coats who shoot off a bunch of mentos and diet coke rockets for "science." This form of non-advertising is boosting the sales for the products because people watching are having fun with the stuff. The other reason sales have gone up is that "it's cool." This explosive phenomenon gives people the feeling of danger, being a bit reckless, and does it all quite within the law (most times). As marketing professionals, we should take note of the simple yet powerful evidences in this video when we are creating advertising and trying to reach the masses. Here they are for those who are just joining us:
If it is clear that you can have fun with this product (perhaps in unconventional ways) people will buy it.
If people can do something themselves, hands-on to see how cool your product is, whether it is supposed to or not, they will buy it. This is a bit oldskool, like back in the fifties, when product demonstrations were all the rage. This example is just a bit more homegrown.
People crave adventure, danger, fun, and genuine excitement. Another movie explosion won't do it. A real-live backyard explosion will do it, and not just once. Several times. I can't imagine how many teenage kids (and dads) are outside in the yard right now shooting the next 100 videos of domino-type mentos explosions, because they can.
Obviously, don't encourage consumers to break the law, very bad idea. Since this doesn't break the law, you're good here.
In conclusion (yes, I am trying to write my ad thesis here, if you were wondering) if you can get your potential customers to see the adventure or fun in your product in a unique, creative, organic way via a medium that speaks to them (video, etc) you will win big in the ad game. Isn't that what we all are trying to do?
Word-of-mouth is enhanced significantly when online ads are part of the marketing mix. So-called "influencers" were over twice as likely to cite web ads as a source of information as non-influencers. Specifically, those influencers factored in the message from those ads when they were searching the internet for information about the advertised product.
Ummm...maybe it's the Maker's Mark talking, but, quite frankly, this is news? It's called contextual advertising. The appearance of relevant ads alongside searches or pages of product information makes the ads more, you know, relevant. So of course that means they're going to play a bigger part in overall brand/product opinion.
And don't get me started on the unreliability of asking people their recollections of how much they were influenced by ads. People are notoriously bad at giving accurate accounting of such impact.
So is there s a reason I chose to write about this? I guess not. I think I'll go back to the Maker's Mark.
While restaurants try to lure in patrons with promises of great food at low prices, and fast food joints entice families by offering kid's meals with crappy little trinkets, a new type of restaurant has sprung up in Utah and Colorado with a very different, and I think very cool concept: you pay whatever you think the meal is worth.
The One World Cafe in Salt Lake City and the SAME (So All Might Eat) Cafe in Denver are what some are calling "Robin Hood" style restaurants. Patrons are served organic food and asked to pay whatever they can afford. Even those with no money can "pay" by working: washing dishes, sweeping, and other tasks. Affluent patrons are asked to pay a bit more to balance things out. It would be nice to see real "word of mouth" advertising result in more restaurants like these, and I think that just might happen. When you treat your customers with dignity, they'll want to keep coming back, and they'll tell other people about it.
Wi-fi moochers are getting in trouble with the law in several scattered stories lying around the blogosphere lately. To our readers, do you think that mooching wi-fi is evil or simply fair game. If there was a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, I think their views would be somewhat different. The devil would say "hey, they didn't secure their own wi-fi, so mooch away, what's the big deal?" The angel would say "is it right to mooch off someone's wi-fi if you aren't a customer?" No matter which viewpoint you agree with, I think business owners should look at these "freeloaders" as a potentially untapped market to reach with their products. This issue reminds me of the whole skateboarder's dilemma I see everywhere I go. Every shop and storefront has warnings posted: "No skateboarding allowed" or something to that effect. If someone would build a half-pipe nearby their place of business and simply post a "skate at your own risk" sign, inviting skateboarders to stop by for a quick smoothie, they will garner the business and respect of the local skater population. Wi-fi moochers are the same way, invite them, give them coupons or other codes to get discounts, since they are already there using your wi-fi. Today's business tip for you shop-owners: Turn potential problems (freeloaders) into unsolicited sales. Make the moochers like you! Seriously, don't you want the ninja-bookmarking-socially-contagious generation of wi-fi moochers advertising for you with their invaluable word of mouth? Yes, you do.
The Idaho Business Review has an interesting article on The Cheesecake Factory and how the company has utilized word-of-mouth marketing efforts to tremendous success. The Cheesecake Factory (which is always packed when I go past one) has never formally advertised in the 28 years Howard Gordon, vice president of business development and marketing, has been with the company. Instead it's relied on the passionate customers it creates, who rave about the food to their friends and to people carrying around their bads of leftovers. It also works hard to establish roots in the local business community it opens a store within. All of that leads to some excellent word-of-mouth.
A pair of doctors who created their own infant skin-care treatment relied on the oldest form of advertising known to man to market their product: Word of mouth. When it came time to market the creams and other offerings, the two pediatricians turned to the patients and others whom they had involved in the creation to then spread the word. In addition to that they seeded popular blogs and message boards with free samples in the hopes of creating a little buzz. Doing so, tapping into that powerful and passionate user base, let them achieve greater success than they had planned for with little cost. It's a lesson that more marketers could stand to learn.
I don't remember this ad - actually a bit of direct mail marketing - but it's one of the most famous ever made. And it was never seen in print or TV or heard on the radio.
Martin Conroy created a letter that was actually a marketing campaign for The Wall Street Journal. It was a two page letter that talked about two different college graduates and how they were heading toward their 25th college reunion and how they both ended up working for the same company, but one became president of the company. The letter was first used in 1975 and last used by the WSJ in 2003, though the letter itself is still taught and talked about around the industry.
Now here's a cool yule idea: instead of just changing their main site for the holiday season, OfficeMax has created several microsites.
Fans of A Christmas Story will want to check out StuckToAPole.com, where you get to control a kid whose tongue is stuck on a pole. Get him to say "ham sandwich!" ReindeerArmWrestling.com is pretty much what it says. It's a lot of fun, though you have to be quick with the space bar. MisletoeInAnElevator.com is a Candid Camera style (oh, sorry, dating myself, I mean Punk'd) prank that's pretty funny.
There are 20 sites in all, and they're all very well done.
Peter Hershberg and Joshua Stylman lay out for marketers exactly what changes are coming from Yahoo! as the search giant builds toward the roll-out of its revamped search advertising platform, dubbed Panama. The overall redesign will bring it much closer to the functionality campaign managers now have through Google and other such platforms.
Clear Channel is launching two new niche-appeal radio stations, one targeting NASCAR fans and the other members of the gay and lesbian community. I'm not going to touch the 7,846 jokes that could be made about the intersection of those two groups. I'm just not.
The FTC has decided it will not investigate how some marketers are engaging in word-of-mouth practices, a decision that could result in some previously hesitant marketers jumping into the field. The call for such an investigation had come from watchdog group Commercial Alert.
I recently read the book "Grapevine" by BzzAgent founder and CEO Dave Balter. One of the main things he talks about is how the word-of-mouth firm has provided incentives for their agents in the form of points that can be redeemed for various items. He keeps talking about it in the book and each time also mentions how a very low percentage ever remember to claim their rewards. That's apparently leading the firm to consider doing away with them all together. Some campaigns have already gone without rewards and it seems no one has really complained. Some campaigns may still come with rewards but they're expected to be phased out entirely over the course of the next year. Instead people who act as agents will be praised publicly within the network and become part of an advisory board of sorts.
The Keller Fay Group, a new research firm, is attempting to find out how, where, when and to whom people talk about brands. We're not talking about internet monitoring of blogs or message boards. We're talking about the previously unquantifiable medium of everyday conversation. The firm asked conducted a series of interviews and asked other people to keep conversation diaries tracking what they were talking about. After six months and 18,000 people, Keller Fay is now ready to sell its data to companies looking to gain insight into people's minds.
The whole article is worth a read since it gives examples of how people are discussing Wal-Mart, iPods and other brand names. What was interesting is the finding that ads do tend to generate conversation, or at least brought up during conversation. That means the study's findings have important implications for future and current formal campaigns.
Ben McConnell at Church of the Customer has an analysis of this piece and the contention that engaging in word-of-mouth activities is the "ultimate" sign of engagement. He points out that we may discuss several brands depending on who we're talking to. That doesn't necessarily mean we have an emotional commitment to each one of those brands. Ultimate engagement is when someone engages in an activity that they feel directly contributes to the relationship they have with the brand. The former is just a shade above passivity, the latter is full on engagement, a point I agree completely with Ben on.
Interesting December issue of Esquire. They have a "Best and Brightest 2006" feature, where they profile people who are doing interesting and innovative things in the world. One of the people featured is David Droga, who they call this year's "advertising genius," the man who they say is reinventing advertising.
Droga thinks he can change the way the advertising world is structure, through viral marketing and videos and realistic ads that spread through word of mouth. An ad that not only presents a product or service but actually creates an experience for the consumer and sells a product.
According to a new white paper that's just been released, marketers can find tremendous success with word-of-mouth campaigns by placing agents in-store. By having an agent, such as those employed by BzzAgent, in the store and ready to talk up a product, marketers can do a pretty good job raising interest in a product. It's important, though, that the WOM agent be upfront and clear about their relationship with the product since shoppers are likely to suspect that relationship exists anyway. As with most things relating to word-of-mouth, there's still research to be done into just how effective the tactic is, but it's interesting to hear more stories like this, even if what they contain seems to be largely anecdotal evidence.
I did want to take issue, though, with the part of the story that says successful WOM agents approach strangers via e-mail, IM, blogging or phone calls. Let's dismiss all those but blogging, since I don't even know how you would talk up a product to a stranger on a phone call. If people are blogging about a product they're actively engaged in creating buzz about and not disclosing it that's a huge ethical problem. Those relationships need to be every bit as open and transparent online as they do in-store, if not more so. Blogging can be a powerful tool to empower brand evangelists, but the power it contains lies in its authenticity and honesty. Corrupt that and you foul the entire community's water supply.
So many dumb moments in business, so little time. But Business 2.0 mag has their picks for the 101 dumbest of 2006.
Word-of-mouth is enhanced significantly when online ads are part of the marketing mix. So-called "influencers" were over twice as likely to cite web ads as a source of information as non-influencers. Specifically, those influencers factored in the message from those ads when they were searching the internet for information about the advertised product. 
While restaurants try to lure in patrons with promises of great food at low prices, and fast food joints entice families by offering kid's meals with crappy little trinkets, a new type of restaurant has sprung up in Utah and Colorado with a very different, and I think very cool concept: you pay whatever you think the meal is worth. 
The Idaho Business Review has an 
A pair of doctors who created their own infant skin-care treatment relied on the oldest form of advertising known to man to market their product: Word of mouth. When it came time to market the creams and other offerings, the two pediatricians turned to the patients and others whom they had involved in the creation to then 
I don't remember this ad - actually a bit of direct mail marketing - but it's one of the most famous ever made. And it was never seen in print or TV or heard on the radio.
Now here's a cool yule idea: instead of just changing their main site for the holiday season, OfficeMax has created several 
Peter Hershberg and Joshua Stylman 
The Keller Fay Group, a new research firm, is attempting to find out how, where, when and to whom people talk about brands. We're not talking about internet monitoring of blogs or message boards. We're talking about the previously unquantifiable medium of everyday conversation. The firm asked conducted a series of interviews and asked other people to keep conversation diaries tracking what they were talking about. After six months and 18,000 people, Keller Fay is now ready to sell its data to companies looking to gain insight into people's minds.
Interesting December issue of Esquire. They have a "Best and Brightest 2006" feature, where they profile people who are doing interesting and innovative things in the world. One of the people featured is David Droga, who they call this year's "advertising genius," the man who they say is 
According to a new white paper that's just been released, marketers can find tremendous success with word-of-mouth campaigns by 
