The Voice of Demand

Archive for the ‘Brand’ Category

Studeo

Are people actually hardwired to buy guns in times of hardship? Is there some genetic predisposition that makes one person feel the distinct urge to own a gun? Are we talking some survival of the fittest, life-or-death, we need to “bunker down” and protect the fort logic? I hope not.

Since 4thquarter 2008, guns and ammunition sales are through the roof. All major US companies are seeing an increase in sales during this economic downturn. So this year, what plans do you have for your tax refund? 44-Magnum? Or, is the 45 Ruger more your flavor?

Equally alarming, is the increase in sleep-aids, antidepressant medications, fast-foods, diabetes, and bad movies. You like how we slipped in diabetes, huh?

So, as the economy helps a select few, what products are wasting their time advertising? Not one. But there are plenty of brands wasting marketing dollars in places that are far from recession-proof. What marketers must find is an emphasis on their true customers with local media—back to the basics of finding the target audience and earning their respect with sincerity and great deals. No more of this nickel-and-dime attitude! (hint, hint, wink, wink airline industry.) Need a cheap athlete or celebrity for an online campaign that’s recognizable to just the Midwest? Check out Brand Affinity’s platform! Need a localized approach to TV, Print, and Social Media? Turn to companies like Studeo Interactive or Recipe31!

Wal-Mart, an economic barometer in its own right, has the perfect business model during any recession. Beyond the cheap goods, they have a smiling face for a logo; typically become a small town center; have a great pharmacy program and sell guns and ammo to boot!

Great, just what we need—a bunch of Ambien and McDonalds loaded people buying guns and the latest DVD release, Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

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Posted in Brand, Direct Response, Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Studeo

Create a Movement

February 9th, 2009 - By LJ Jones

I recently read an article on Mashable about a Facebook member named Crazzy Eve, who after seeing a T-Mobile commercial with people dancing at the Liverpool Street Station, decided to organize a similar event through a Facebook group.  The group quickly grew as friends invited friends and on Friday night (Feb 6th), the group took over Liverpool Street Station and did a little dance of their own.

How were they able to accomplish this and why were so many people willing to join the group so quickly?  It was a movement and people are willing to participate in, share, talk about and join a movement that they believe in.  And while sometimes a movement is serious, other times it can be as simple as wanting to be a part of something bigger, even if that’s just a group of people meeting at a Train Station.

Some of the greatest brands have taken this to heart and have made a movement part of their brand.  Because lets face it, Starbucks is not the best tasting coffe and Red Bull is not the best tasting energy drink.   But their customers are loyal to those brands because they feel like they are part of a movement, something bigger.  Its what drives loyal fans to spend their own time and money to build a crazy contraption and push it off the end of a pier to see if it will fly in Red Bull’s Flugtag.

Starbucks understands this and when they advertise, they don’t sell coffee, they sell the movement.  Too often people get bogged down trying to sell a product and forget about selling something people can believe in.  They list all its features and tell everyone how cool it is, but fail to inspire.

If a brand can inspire, it will be talked about, forwarded, joined, engaged and people will want to be a part of it.  Don’t sell coffee, sell a movement.

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Studeo

You do not have to be an economist to see the impact “green marketing” is having on consumer brands/products. There are thousands of companies going “green” or “paperless” by the day, but are they sincere about their carbon footprint initiatives or merely jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon?

“Going Green” should certainly become a part of a company’s core values if they opt to make this leap. In fact, it should be woven in to their mission statement and every corporate decision should be influenced by this pronouncement. Too many businesses are flaunting the green emblem without sincerity of purpose, and it’s not long before America wakes up and starts pointing fingers at the posers making profit.

Marketers and advertisers must keep this in mind as more green opportunities come down the pike. If XYZ boasts its eco-friendly paperless billing it shouldn’t then go on a direct-mail binge with the money it just saved. Banks, credit card, insurance and cell phone companies should take heed to this notion. Just because a company saves a few trees in 2008 with “internal recycling programs” doesn’t counteract the footprint of five million credit card applications or high-gloss postcards.

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moss_carpet

Talk about taking the term “Greenwashing” to a whole new level…

Today’s green award goes to Nguyen La Chanh of Yanko Design for creating a living bathroom rug. Albeit, most bathroom rugs have plenty of living organisms on them but this is made from real MOSS. Actually, three different types of moss thrive on the moisture that runs off the body and the humid conditions a bathroom creates.

For some reason I sense the whole April Fools routine with this one. You make the call.

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Posted in Audience, Brand, Marketing | 2 Comments »

Studeo

Illinois Governor ImpeachmentSo, I was totally caught off guard the other day while watching CSPAN. They were airing the Illinois Impeachment trial of Gov. Rod Blagojevich and one of the State Senators began quoting from the FBI wiretap. He mockingly said, “I’ve got this thing and it’s “effin” golden, and I’m just not giving it up for “effin” nothing. I’m not gonna do it.” Of course he was referring to Gov. Blagojevich’s attempts to auction off the vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. Politics aside, what really struck me was that the state senator used the word “effin” on a public stage to replace the traditional four letter word (it rhymes with duck).

At what point did this behavior become socially acceptable? Why is “eff” okay to say, it’s just one less letter –the expletive meaning is still the same. If President Obama said on the evening news, “Chill the eff out, I got this!” would you respect him more?–would you consider the President to be more in-tune with Main Street? I think not.

Actually, I’ve seen many variations in the online arena. F, F’n, eff and effin seem the most common. It seems our youth have found creative ways to circumvent the obscenity-censoring programs that many online communities implement to keep things clean. The popularity of “eff” has transcended the blogosphere and is quickly penetrating corporate and political America.

When does a phonic word become so well used that it replaces another word? Shh!? Already taken. Bee!? Already taken. The answer is never. Once hipsters get wind that their parents and politicians are using the word “eff” it will quickly lack the creative luster it once adorned. The raw four letter form will rise again.

In the meantime, I predict that baby names starting with the letter “F” will decline, and I’m adding “eff” and “effin” to my dictionary for good measure.

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Studeo

I have often heard the phrase, “Your brand is not what you say it is, but what they say it is.”  And one of the great thing about social media and technology is the ability to get in and look at the conversation about your brand and see “what they say  it is”.

Do you wonder what people what people are saying about your brand?  Here are a few tools to give you a glimpse into what people are saying.  These two tools will help get an idea about the answers to two very important questions

  1. Are people talking about my brand?
  2. If so, what are they saying?

Social Mention

Social mention is great for helping you to see  if your brand is being mentioned in the blogosphere.  Go to www.socialmention.com and type in your brand name and see if and what people are saying.  They provide a social rank box to the right to help you understand how frequently your brand is being mentioned.  I like to use this box to compare one brand to a competitor or to a related keyword.  The left side of the page will give you a small idea of some of the things that people are saying.

Twitter Search

Another way to see what people are saying is to use the Twitter search.  Twitter is like a bunch of giant chat rooms and can give you a good idea of what people in general are talking about.  Go to search.twitter.com and type in your brand’s name.  See what comes up.  You will be able to see the conversations that are happening that involve your brand and what people are saying.  I think one of the coolest things about this is that you can see what people are saying in real time as its said.

For example, the Superbowl is this weekend.  If I were running and ad in the Superbowl, I might watch the search feature as the ad aired to see what people said as they saw the commercial.  People will Tweet about the ad they are watching as they watch it and you can get genuine response from your audience.

This is  a breif glimpse into the mountains of data that can be gathered from social media.  As we go through this data we will come to know our audience better.  Once we understand our audiennce better and understand what people are saying about our brands, we can design better strategies and campaigns to connect with our consumers and meet their needs.

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