Marketers Market~ We’re Not Magicians

Howdy Gorillas,

Anyone take a trip recently?

Is it just me or has air travel taken a nose-dive in the last decade. Nothing like  sitting at a dingy diner straight out of a bad movie where the waitress looks at you like you’re vermin and calls you suga, then realizing you’re actually in an airplane, squashed in the middle seat on a flight. I sit and reminisce about the good old days  when flight attendants actually smiled at you. There’s a guide book I read years ago on becoming a steward of the air. ‘Nails must be manicured ; hair must be neat and attractive; manner must ALWAYS be professional and friendly; and my personal favorite -  must maintain a maximum weight of 145lbs for women, and 170lbs for men.

Before you condemn me for flagrant superficiality, hear me out. I was just as bothered about this rule. Insulted even. But now I understand that there might have been an unstated reason behind it. A method to ensure that the big picture was kept in perspective. The brand was represented from every angle and every touch-point was an opportunity to strengthen the company name. These rules were not made to discriminate or repress. They were made to remind brand representatives – AKA – flight attendants that an airplane was not their living room couch. Customer service came first and they were one of the most important touch-points for consumers.

As a traveler, I miss those days. As a marketer, I wonder if airline CMOs are being plucked directly from the loony bin. Although to be fair, there is so much Marketing can do for a brand that refuses to keep in line with their message. After all, Marketers Market, they don’t do magic.

Today, I can count the number of airlines (national)on one hand (more like two fingers), that still maintain brand image. Have consumers gotten so complacent that they let big brands treat them badly? Or do we all have a secret desire for masochism? And when did we deem it ok to be charged $7.00 for a stale sandwich after paying hundreds to travel?

Naturally, kudos must be given to those airlines that have maintained their brand image and taken the idea of customer service from the drawing board all the way to beverage service.

How is this relevant?

My earlier blog posts such as ‘Why does the hype lead to such a letdown?’ and ‘We ain’t stupid: Would McDonald eat the McRib and Domino’s use of truth.’ cover some of the questions consumers ask when a marketing campaign promoting a brand image is completely disenfranchised from the actual truth.

When an airline promises a consumer one thing and does not deliver, they alienate that consumer. When they fall even lower – well – that might be the explanation for the demise of the airline industry as a whole.

Here’s the question of the day.
Excluding ticket price as a factor, name two airlines that that you think of positively.

Until next time – fly high; but don’t be cheap about it.

KBG~
www.keyboardgorilla.com

Sneaky Stealthy Marketing

Howdy Gorillas,
Have you ever sat on a bus minding your business when someone sits next to you, whips out a gadget you haven’t seen before and starts fiddling with it. Suddenly the person starts talking to you about it. Weird right? If only because no one talks to anyone anymore but more importantly, why would you care about their new toy?
Once you’ve determined that this person isn’t crazy, you start listening to what they are saying. They seem quite excited about it and you don’t want to appear rude. After all, you’re a friendly, civilized person.
However, mentally, you’re still wondering what the deal is and you consider your options:
A. This is a very lonely person who starts up conversations with strangers on public transit. The pity factor kicks in and you listen.
B. This new gadget must be so kick*** cool that they just can’t contain their excitement and if that’s the case, it might be a good idea to learn more.
By the time you get off the bus, you know more about the gadget than if you’d read a brochure. You know the make, the model, where you can get it and that it’s a pretty darn cool gadget. Hey, maybe you even made a friend. The truth is less pleasant. Chances are – you were just marketed to by a paid representative of the manufacturer. This my friends, is called Stealth Marketing. Other labels include Undercover Marketing and the ever so nicely put, roach baiting.
Stealth Marketing is marketing to consumers without their awareness of being marketed to. This is quite a controversial practice and has elicited a huge ethical debate. However, there is no debate on its initial effectiveness.
The Joneses, a comedy released in 2009, provides a hilarious depiction of Stealth Marketing at its finest. Watch the preview here. The Joneses
Stealth Marketing combines several components that make it so powerful.
1. Defense: Your defense wall, which you have developed due to too many marketing messages, is down because you don’t know you’re being marketed to.
2. Word of Mouth: Research shows that the oldest, most powerful source of persuasion is word-of-mouth or advocacy. When someone (without ulterior motives) advocates a product or service, you are more likely to listen and believe them.
3. Product Presentation: Part of this practice is the opportunity to discuss the product and present the benefits to an open-minded consumer.
4. Budget-friendly: It goes without saying that 20 stealth marketers is more cost-effective than 30 seconds on traditional media.
A word of Caution! If you consider this marketing practice, be prepared for the potential backlash from consumers that may occur when the cat’s out of the bag. This can be seen with the infamous Fake Tourists Campaign launched by Sony Ericsson in 2002.
The campaign entailed 60 actors in major cities pretending to be tourists and taking pictures. The catch is that they always asked someone else to take a picture for them with their cool new phone that doubled as a digital camera (in 2002 that was pretty nifty). Naturally, people were curious and asked questions which the ‘tourists’ were happy to answer. Unfortunately, when consumers learned that they didn’t discover a new product from a coincidental tourist and were actually an unwitting subject to a sales pitch, they got mad. Very very mad. Read more here.

In 2006, Proctor and Gamble launched a Stealth Marketing campaign to promote their products, which are mainly, household products. They elicited the help of 600 thousand moms all over the country to talk to their friends about Proctor and Gamble products. You can read more about this here
The questionable ethics of this marketing practice led the FTC to set up guidelines in an attempt to protect consumers. In addition, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) strictly monitors this practice.
So the question is – what do I think?
It’s double sided. As a marketer, it’s a great way to get to the bottom line. As a consumer – well, I’m on the fence. On one hand, I feel exploited by marketers trying to sell me their wares without my knowing. On the other hand, the moment I (and we all) purchased a fast food because Paris Hilton said it was hot, was the day we said it was OK to market to us any which way they please.
Until next time – keep it real, even if those darstardly marketers can’t.
KBG~
www.keyboardgorilla.com

No Money, New ideas: You May Look, But Do you Remember? The Effectiveness of Flash Mob Marketing

No Money, New ideas: You May Look, But Do you Remember? The Effectiveness of Flash Mob Marketing

You May Look, But Do you Remember? The Effectiveness of Flash Mob Marketing

Howdy Gorillas,

Last time, we talked about Flash Mob Marketing: A low-budget, high-impact marketing tactic used principally to create brand awareness. (To get a better understanding of what Flash Mob Marketing is, click here). Today we’ll delve a little further and analyze if this marketing tactic, which has become very popular among marketers in the last few years, is actually effective.

Is Flash Mob Marketing effective? Well that depends on what you think effective means. Here’s a secret, there’s no right or wrong answer. The effectiveness of this method depends solely on your objective. Your marketing goal. So, the sweet, short answer to the question – is flash mob marketing effective? is ‘Yes but it’s relative’.

The primary purpose and use of flash mob marketing is to create awareness such as introducing a new business, a new service or product or a new feature of an existing entity. The very nature of flash mobs makes it almost impossible (and very annoying for an audience) to use as a long-term tool. Businesses exploring the use of flash mobs should strive to have the following components in their efforts.
1. Make it CREATIVE. You will have about 60 seconds to capture your audience’s attention. No point wasting it on something trite.
2. Make it SURPRISING. The goal of flash mob marketing is to shock, awe and generate interest.
3. Make it BUZZ worthy. That is, it should be creative and surprising enough to encourage those exposed to it to spread the message. Integrate other marketing tools such as Social Media, Public Relations and more to further spread the BUZZ. This will hopefully result in making your flash mob VIRAL.

Finally, using flash mobs as a marketing tool demands that it is RELEVANT. Relevant to your business, your audience, and to the bottom line.

I know, it’s seems a little daunting. But when a business understands that flash mob marketing is not just for entertainment value; that it is a bonafide, strategic marketing move that serves a purpose, it can be a very strong and effective part of your marketing plan.

Until next time, think Buzz. What would make YOU want to talk about something?

KBG~
www.keyboardgorilla.com

Congregate-Flash-Disperse: Flash Mob Marketing

Hey Gorillas,

When it comes to guerrilla marketing, Flash Mob Marketing may just be one of the most budget-friendly, high-impact tactic to alert your consumers to the existence of your business.

A business goes through five steps in their marketing strategy starting at the introduction and hopefully ending at the loyal client. The marketing funnel presented below shows the stages of the relationship between a marketer and a consumer.
1. Awareness
2. Consideration
3. Preference
4. Action
5. Loyalty

Flash Mob marketing is used mostly for the first stage, the Awareness stage. Simply put, Awareness is introducing your brand to your market. The biggest challenge in this stage is standing out from all the other brands trying to steal your audience's attention.

This challenge has led to some of the most creative, bizarre and ingenious marketing campaigns we have today. It has also resulted in the jaded consumer who, frankly, is sick and tired of being sold to. It's a catch 22 relationship: Consumer is bombarded with marketing messages -they tune out - marketer finds new ways to create awareness - consumer is interested for a second - is overexposed - feels bombarded - marketer goes back to the drawing board to cook up new ways to create awareness....

With the rising prices and declining effectiveness of traditional marketing, the popularity of non-traditional marketing, including guerrilla tactics such as Flash Mob marketing, has steadily risen.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Flash Mob is defined as "an unusual and pointless act".  Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary provides a kinder definition. " A flash mob is a group of people who organize on the Internet and then quickly assemble in a public place, do something bizarre, and disperse”.

Although Flash Mobs have a history dating back to the 1800s, the modern genesis of the flash mob was in 2003 when Bill Wasik, Senior Editor at Harper's Magazine, organized a flash mob at the Macy's department store in New York City. Wasik directed a mob of over 100 people to the Rug department of Macy's where they gathered around and stared at an expensive rug, naturally peaking the curiosity of shoppers.

Since then, the flash mob phenomenon has grown exponentially with marketers using the shock-and-awe nature of this tactic to create awareness about a brand. Without a doubt, flash mobs are cool, entertaining and incongruous enough to make us go "what just happened?"

The question remains, are they effective as a marketing tool?
We'll answer that question next week. In the meantime, here are some examples of flash mobs.
We would love to hear your thoughts on these.

Frozen Grand Central by ImprovEverywhere






Christmas Flash Mob






 Until next time, think incongruous. Nothing like an element of surprise to give your customers a wake-up boost.

KBG~
www.keyboardgorilla.com

Don’t You Wanna Scan Me: Quick Response and Mobile Marketing

Remember what a big deal it was when people started renting out foreheads to advertisers (I know, how shamelessly capitalistic). But it was bold and effective. “Headvertising”, as was coined by the founder – Justin Kapust, had two strong attributes: it was eye-catching (and possibly offending), and it was mobile.
We’ve come a long way since then. The advancements and adoption of mobile technology has taken mobile marketing from foreheads to more sophisticated depths. Gone are the days when a walking advertisement was a guy in a chicken suit or a logo on a forehead. Today, marketing messages can be targeted, molded for specific audiences, dynamic, visual and more mobile than ever because they go wherever your market goes.
The advent of Text messaging and it’s popularity had us marketers in an excited tizzy (as we tend to get) and led to the swift introduction and somewhat bastardization of text message marketing.
The evolution of mobile devices continues at the speed of light and consumers are progressively harder to attract and engage. Mobile marketing has to evolve just as fast and as creatively to keep up.
One of such mobile marketing evolutions is the rising trend in Quick Response Codes (QR Codes), a square-shaped, two-dimensional matrix barcode that can be read with barcode readers and with (drum roll please) smart phones. Why is this exciting?
SCAN ME

Well, QR Codes were originally designed by Denso-Wave (a Toyota subsidiary) for tracking vehicle manufacturing parts. It proved a helpful resource because large amounts of information in the form of text, URLs and other data could be embedded in the QR Codes and then scanned to quickly (quickly= under 1 minute) encode the information using a scanner or a Smart Phone.
QR codes are wildly popular in Japan and South Korea however, the west is just beginning to catch up.
So what does this mean for Marketers?
The QR Code allows marketers to construct integrated marketing campaigns that marry online and offline media and effectively reach their target. The QR Code allows for inexpensive marketing budgets, and engaging audiences in an interactive way. And for those of us with bolder and riskier ideas, the QR Code has just become our favorite new toy.
Until next time folks, think moving targets – the tools are in place to reach them.

KBG~
www.keyboardgorilla.com

No Money, New ideas: 5 Fun Snippets For You On Cinco De Mayo

No Money, New ideas: 5 Fun Snippets For You On Cinco De Mayo: "Happy Cinco De Mayo Gorilla Buds, It's always great to wake up in the morning and think - it's Thursday, May 5th - same thing, different d..."