Marketing Strategy Thoughts

Rather Shop than Write a Marketing Plan?

Bobette Kyle — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:13:51 +0000

A lot of small business people balk at writing a marketing plan, thinking it is too time consuming. Think about it in terms of shopping, and you may see things differently. If you go Christmas or grocery shopping without making out a list, it can get expensive pretty quickly. Why? Because you don’t have a master plan. When you are in the moment, there is no reliable way to tell if a particular purchase is needed, excess, or redundant to what you already have. Diane Aull at BootstrapSEO.com has a great post on the matter, with more reasons why every small business should have a marketing plan. Check it out.

Superbowl 2009 Commercials - Doritos Contest

Bobette Kyle — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:43:52 +0000

The 2009 Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest entrants seem to have stepped it up a notch this year. Similar to past contests, the winner’s 30-second spot becomes a Super Bowl commercial. Since the recession and the fear of being perceived as frivolous is causing many former Super Bowl advertisers to dial down their lineups or drop out completely, the Doritos commercial may be one of the most interesting ads. (Sadly, GoDaddy is expected to produce another chesty commercial. Blecchhh!) Others -

[Scroll to bottom to watch entries mentioned below.]

Among the 1961 commercials entered are some very professional-looking spots, such as the fast-paced comedy spot by writer-director Chris Armstrong, featuring experienced feline movie actor Snowball. There are also some animated entries, such as prize-winning illustrator /animator Allan Dye’s visually professional spot. Others employ experienced talent. Writer-director Brad Bosley’s “Bold Burglar” commercial, for example, stars James McMann and Jeff Lorch, who have both been featured in TV shows and had other walk-on parts.

One wonders, however, about the viewers’ preferences. Currently most viewed in the Crash the Super Bowl Gallery, including the current number 1 “No Distractions,” tend to be less professional produced. In any case, the rules are these: A panel of judges will select the top five based on Originality and Creativity; Adherence to Creative Assignment; and Overall Appeal. The public will choose the winner from those five by voting at crashthesuperbowl.com January 5th through January 25th.

Scroll down to take a look at the Super Bowl commercial entries mentioned above, starting with Allan Dye’s Animated commercial (http://crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/video/190/).

Chris Armstrong’s commercial featuring Snowball (http://crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/video/1256/)

“Bold Burglar” (http://crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/video/1146/)

“No Distractions” (http://crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery/video/562/):

Coupon Users Demographics Nonintuitive

Bobette Kyle — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:29:23 +0000

Coupon users tend to have higher income and more education than non-users. And the wealthiest among us are some of the most frugal. Think about it.

Break Even Analysis?

Bobette Kyle — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:58:27 +0000

Sometimes a formula just isn’t enough. A reader, who recently read the Figuring Break Even Point piece from a few years back, was confused about how to use the CPM formula. I responded, explaining — in words and figures — how to figure the break even point using his numbers. Analytical Bobette was pleased with the number-crunching distraction. Marketing Bobette wanted to elaborate. (There are more of us, BTW. Fortunately, the others were distracted elsewhere at the time.)

For all the talk of break even points and ROI, there are business- and profit-building activities that simply cannot be reliably captured in a formula. There are times when the formulas say “no,” but your sensibilities scream “yes!” How can you quantify the potential for pushing the envelope into an as-yet-undeveloped technology, one the customers cannot understand until they see it in action and no pricing and cost structures yet exist? Or acting from your heart, choosing to “pay it forward” when the numbers say there are better uses of your time? Even the future profits from doing something for nothing are fuzzy. Yet, there are times when — in truth — these types of activities have the highest break even points of all. The lesson: Numbers don’t tell the whole story. Pay attention to other cues when making marketing or other decisions.

Do you marketing plan the future?

Bobette Kyle — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:01:03 +0000

When updating your marketing plan, do you imagine the future and take into account how your business environment will change? Throw the current environment out the door, predict what will happen to turn your industry on its head, and plan for that? Perhaps too few of us take that approach. Most (including yours truly) tend to plan in increments from the current situation.

If that describes you as well, take a look at Seth Godin’s new article Lessons learned from my biggest business mistake, where he explains how, early on, he didn’t believe in the Internet. Consequently, lost out on much wealth. While Larry Page and Sergey Brin were developing Google in preparation for the future business ecosystem (Seth’s term), he was incrementing by authoring a smiley dictionary.

The lesson: set aside part of your planning for imagining and building for the as-yet-unrealized future. It could make all the difference to the future bottom line.

Motrin Marketing Collides With Social Media #MotrinMoms

Bobette Kyle — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:56:04 +0000

If you had any doubts about the power (or swiftness) of social media, think again. Over the last several days, Johnson & Johnson has felt the downside of this power. Through social media such as Twitter (#MotrinMoms) and YouTube — and blogs across the Internet — moms rebelled at a commercial many saw as patronizing. According to Kathy Widmer, Vice President of Marketing, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the commercial “was meant to engender sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their kids, but did so through an attempt at humor…” The humor flopped. Instead, the implications that babywearers do so as a fashion statement (and other innuendos) hit a raw nerve.

The Motrin Marketing Lesson

My “baby” is 25, so I really cannot relate to babywearing itself. From a strategic marketing prospective, however, I can see how this went wrong. From the beginning, the commercial took a light-hearted approach and featured a mom with a flippant and self-centered attitude (excerpts from the narration: “…supposedly, it’s a real bonding experience.” and “But what about me?”). What Motrin brand managers did not take into consideration is the significant subsegment of babywearers who are quite the opposite of self-centered and flippant. Motrin marketers did not understand that these customers would see the ad as an affront upon an issue more emotionally mature mothers hold near and dear to their hearts. Or maybe these marketing managers knew exactly what they were doing and this was a planned negative-attention campaign.

In any case, the lesson here is know your customer profile beyond basic demographics — how they feel, what they think, and their viewpoints. “Female” and “new mom” Motrin marketers got. They most certainly did not get the emotional side — especially the feelings of educated or less-than-shallow babywearing moms.

As I watched videos on YouTube in preparation for writing this post, I ran across one from a marketing guy who doesn’t understand the uproar. The short, respectful video explains his view (Re: Outraged baby-wearing Momma responds to new Motrin campaign). This marketer’s very forthcoming viewpoint (in a nutshell: What’s all the fuss? Plus, you’re not adequately making your point.) demonstrates why advertisers and marketers MUST UNDERSTAND how the intended customers think and feel. He tries to analytically quantify an emotional issue (at one point he even speculates that baby sites are “jumping on the bandwagon” for SEO reasons), which is very difficult to do. The more effective approach: understand the customer to understand the impact.

On the up side, McNeil Consumer Healthcare — and other companies following the drama — have learned a lesson in social media which should effect 2009 marketing plans. In a broader sense, I noticed some college students’ comments that marketing class discussions have revolved around the event. Next, a Harvard Business Review Case Study?. One can hope.

Anyway, I’ve sat here too long writing. Think I’ll go take an Advil for this head and back ache.

The Motrin Moms Fiasco - Blog posts, News Stories, and YouTube Videos

For the record (and for marketing research purposes) here is a list of stories, posts, and videos relating to the “Motrin Moms” uprising. I’ll add to the list over the next few days, so please comment or tweet me (@BobetteKyle) with others.

Blogs Posts:

- McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s blogged response

- Should Big Brands Fear or Revere the Mommybloggers?”

- Blame Me for Motrin Moms

- How Green Options #MotrinMom Brought Down J&J

- Thank you Motrin for Listening (@KatjaPresnal)

- The Motrin Controversy

- If I had written the Motrin ad (@writingroads)

- Motrin Moms: Tying Up Loose Ends

Resulting New Stories:

- Moms and Motrin (NY Times)

- J&J Pulls Online Motrin Ad After Social-Media Backlash (Wall Street Journal)

- Exploring Social Media: The Motrin Moment Impact of Social Media (Blog Herald)

- How Twittering Critics Brought Down Motrin Mom Campaign

Spoofs on YouTube:

- Motrin for Ad Execs

- Loading…A Motrin Commercial Alternative

REAL baby-wearing moms respond on YouTube:

- Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad (9 minutes of Twitter tweets expressing outrage. Compiled by @KatjaPresnal)

- Outraged baby-wearing Momma responds to new Motrin campaign

- Anti Motrin Reply Re: Motrin Babywearing Ad

- UPDATE video to my motrin ad video

- Stephanies Video Response To Motrin’s Babywearing Ad

- Motrin’s Ad - Wrong Message, Wrong Time, Wrong All Around

- Babywearing Mamma = No Headache

Here’s the controversial Motrin commercial:

Links in Blog Comments. What is your View?

Bobette Kyle — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:54:34 +0000

Used correctly, I believe commenting on blogs (and leaving a Website link) is a good strategy. Signature links — or links to content supporting or expanding on a point — help the reader learn more about you or find more information and are good strategy. Links plastered on a forum or blog along with a nonsense or irrelevant comment is quite definitely unwanted spam.

My measuring stick (both when deciding to approve comments on my blogs and when posting) is whether a link (1) will add value to a READER (Search engines don’t come into play in my decision-making. In my view, focus on the readers and search engine rankings will take care of themselves) and (2) is relevant to the topic. In addition, the associated comment itself must be value-added. If all three hold true, then I post a link (or approve the comment). If the link is off-topic or comment not value-added, then it’s a no-go for me.

Tag Lines and Value Propositions. They are Different.

Bobette Kyle — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:45:24 +0000

Listening to the MarketingExperiments Powerful Value Propositions Webinar, it hit me that many marketers do not realize that the tag line and value proposition are two different things. While the tag line is a short phrase — often worded to elicit an emotional response — the value proposition answers the question “Why should I buy from you and not a competitor?”

When writing a value proposition, general vagaries are weak. Details and specifics will convince your ideal customers to buy from you. Just how convincing is a function of two things: desire and exclusivity. When customers can find what you offer nowhere else AND it is something they really want, you’ve hit a home run.

Halloween: Anne Rice Cuvee Lestat Wine Project

Bobette Kyle — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:05:05 +0000

I am way off topic, but hey, it is Halloween. I spent part of Halloween 2008 admiring and inventorying my collection of Anne Rice’s Cuvee Lestat wine. In 1995 and 1996, she — along with her husband Stan Rice and Babcock Vineyards — bottled only a few cases of this “vampire” wine. There was blood-red Syrah, Claret, and Chardonnay. I bought and kept some of each — along with signed limited-edition commemorative posters from each year. Check out pics of the wine and posters here.

Recycling Article Marketing Content

Bobette Kyle — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:23:07 +0000

Writing and distributing articles can be a high-ROI activity (thanks, Chris Knight, for that post), but the potential marketing uses do not stop there. Any place you use the written word represents an opportunity to “recycle” that content. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
- Convert part of an article to blog posts by using pieces of the content and adding an opinion or other unique spin.
- Put several articles into an ebook and offer it free as an incentive for subscribing to your newsletter or blog OR
- Use the ebook as an add-on bonus when customers purchase a product or service.
- Go multi-media by recording instructive videos based on your articles and/or podcasts. (Paul Burani has an excellent white paper here, with specifics about distributing video content online.)
- Use one or more articles as a springboard for Internet radio interviews. You can find program hosts at VoiceAmerica.com.