Marketing tips, observations & philosophy, plus a few rants and random musings - from those who practice, preach and teach marketing, research, advertising, public relations and business strategy.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The Key to Successful Marketing in Tough Times
The sluggish economy continues to present challenges. While it has improved somewhat from its 1Q09 doldrums, the weak, recessionary US economy has taken its toll on marketing budgets, marketing programs, the media (most of whom depend upon advertising revenues) and marketing firms.
In tough times like these, a marketing professional has to ensure that every marketing dollar counts. There is little or no room for guesswork or errors. Now is not the time for guesswork, marketing from the gut or reactionary decision-making.
Now is the time for every marketing organization to have a marketing plan. At Maple, we are continually surprised by the high percentage of companies that have no such plan. Just this month we sat down with an industrial company with revenues of $25M+ who has no marketing plan. They have a large and capable sales force, but they have failed to equip and empower their team of sales pros with a high-impact marketing program.
Here are 10 rock-solid reasons to implement or update your marketing plan:
1- a marketing plan ensures more effective resource allocation 2- a marketing plan prompts analysis, whereby you inevitably learn something new about your customers, your competition or your competitive position 3- a marketing plan (implemented) makes your sales force more effective by compressing the sales cycle; it gives them a better chance of opening doors and it often reduces the number of sales calls required to close deals 4- a marketing plan enables all departments and functions (production, customer service, sales and QC) to become better coordinated and to synchronize efforts... the "right hand" knows and understands what the "left hand" is doing (and why and when it's doing such things). 5- a marketing plan eliminates guess work: should we buy this advertising package ... it sounds like a good deal? Don't guess or rely on a hunches, especially when dollars are tight. 6- a marketing plan gives you a solid reason to say no to media sales reps who continually pressure you to purchase (you can say honestly and forthrightly: it's not in the plan and there's no budget for it) 7- a marketing plan causes you to create a system of goals and measurements 8- a marketing plan is a reason (and a process) for focusing your team (think broadly and add "outsiders" to the project team) on growing your business and communicating more effectively with your customers. (And how can that ever be a bad thing?) 9- a marketing plan enables you to harness the power and cost-efficiency of flighting 10-a marketing plan enables causes you to consider (i.e., to evaluate) all channels, tactics and media. Many clients express to us that they feel stuck in a rut with the same old advertising, which often involves tired tactics. I guarantee if you take the time to formulate a marketing plan, you will inject a strong does of creativity into your promotional program!
Do you have a marketing plan? If not, contact Maple. Just post a comment here. We'll be glad to help you. Over the past several months we've begun working on about a half-dozen marketing plans for clients ranging from healthcare to professional services to educational institutions. We would be delighted to work with you on yours!
[This is not a marketing article. It's personal, and it is a great cause. For those wondering, "What is crossfit?" you may go here for information.]
Crossfitters, by nature, are battlers. We are warriors. I have had the honor to fight alongside each of you, as we’ve battled the Filthy 50, Murph, Dr. Tabata … even Fight Gone Bad. The important part is we have battled together. We have fought—and will continue to fight—through the pain and our own limitations, physical and mental. Today, in that context, I want to tell you a story and call your attention to a different fight: "The Good Fight."
Twenty-five years ago a battle ensued. It wasn’t between countries, companies, or people. It was between my father and his brain. His brain began to fail him, in little ways at first. Ordinary, routine things we all take for granted, like counting out money after getting a haircut, driving home from work without getting lost or knowing which kitchen drawer is the silverware drawer, were suddenly difficult, puzzling or impossible. The battle had begun, and dad began to fight. Oh, how he fought!
Rewind the clock. My dad, Jerry Sherman, was a strong, proud, successful man. He owned his own insurance/real estate business in downtown Williamson, WV. Like all of us today, Jerry was getting fit and eating right… way before it was cool to do so. He quit smoking. He took walks every day. He was even counting carbs--in the late 70’s. Then he discovered golf. It became his passion, and he finally enticed my mother into taking up the game. My sister Carol and I soon became "golf orphans" on the weekend mornings. My parents’ retirement dream after all five daughters were grown, was to travel the East Coast and stop at every golf course along the way.
Stop the tape. Cut to black and drag the needle across the record. The retirement dream never became a reality. Alzheimer’s Disease started to attack my father’s brain at the age of 52, way too young. Within a few years, my father had to close his business. He could no longer drive or be left alone for fear that he would wander off or unintentionally hurt himself. By the time my father died, seventeen years later in 2002, he was bedridden. He had been unable to speak for several years and needed round-the-clock care. Sadly, he never got to know my wonderful husband or my two beautiful children. They missed out on a relationship with an amazing man, my father.
Today, Alzheimer’s Disease affects over 47,000 WV families. It is the nation’s 7th leading cause of death, and the direct and indirect healthcare costs related to Alzheimer ’s disease amount to more than $148 million each year. The Sherman family, with the help of CrossfitWV, is hosting "The Good Fight" fundraiser on Sunday, October 25 at 2 p.m. at the box. Athletes will participate in the Fight Gone Bad WOD and pledge money for each rep performed during the workout. For example, if an athlete completes 250 total reps, based upon a pledge of $.50 per rep, the amount raised will be $125. Pledge a lot… or a little: every dollar helps in "The Good Fight." Get your friends, co-workers and loved ones to sponsor you (for an agreed upon per-rep amount -- $0.25, $0.50, $1.00). Every pledge will help the caregivers and families of those affected with the disease here in our state. All proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association of WV, and in accordance with their policy a portion will also go toward Alzheimer’s research.
Please join me and my family for this worthy cause!!!
Yours in good health, Lisa Sherman Lineberg
[Anyone interested in sponsoring or participating please post a comment, and I will get in touch with you.]
Is E-Mail Overload Hurting Response Rates to Online Surveys
For the past several years, we've had great success in reaching our audience with online surveys. Such surveys have been a great way to accomplish marketing research objectives including:
Testing concepts
Measuring customer satisfaction
Gauging public opinion
Improving and evaluating special events
Learning about the marketplace in general
But, alas, the world is always changing. This is especially true, I believe, in our high-tech, communication overloaded world.
Here's a recent example, which I think illustrates the situation. For the past six years, we have conducted a "reader survey" for one of our media clients. This year, the response rate was markedly lower.
2007 Survey 4,900 invitations sent via e-mail 3,000 e-mails successfully delivered (60% distribution success) 659 e-mail invitations opened (22% open rate) 363 completed surveys obtained (12% effective conversion rate)
2009 Survey 6,742 invitations sent via e-mail 3,200 e-mails successfully delivered (50% distribution success) 484 e-mail invitations opened (15% open rate) 260 completed surveys obtained (8% effective conversion rate)
Despite having a larger list, we were negatively impacted by a lower open rate and a lower conversion rate. Granted, we still had a good overall result, eclipsing industry norms. According to the information that I have studied, a 5% conversion rate is typical. However, my gut says that those 3200 invitees who received our email invitation had to wade through extremely cluttered inboxes to evaluate our message.
Tell me, marketing geniuses, what do you think? Do you receive too many online survey requests? If you send email invitations to online surveys, have you seen a drop in your open rates or conversion rates?
Moving WV Fitness (#FitWV) Closer to the Tipping Point
The idea of using Tipping Point tactics to overcome obesity in West Virginia became a little closer to reality today, thanks to an insightful editorial by Dawn Miller at The Charleston Gazette.
West Virginians try to tip scales on obesity Dawn Miller - Editorial Page Editor The Charleston Gazette August 7, 2009
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- If we all behave like cold germs, could we infect each other to better fitness and health?
Here is one of the most tantalizing ideas. Back on West Virginia Day, local PR guy Jason Keeling asked his blog readers to discuss solutions to the state's problems. Skip Lineberg, co-founder of Maple Creative in Charleston, chimed in with a "fragment of an idea." He posted it on Twitter:
"Let's make a Fitter West Virginia using tipping point tactics to overcome obesity."
Lineberg was inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's work on tipping point theories -- the phenomenon often seen among infectious diseases or social ills. One kid comes to school with the flu, and the next day a few more are infected. The next thing you know, half the school is home sick. Kind of like the way one day you had never heard of Twitter, and the next day it seemed to be everywhere.
Could West Virginians intentionally use this phenomenon to effect a more desirable change? Instead of giving each other the croup, could we, as Lineberg suggested on his blog, tweet our workouts, use Facebook to note fitness efforts, start conversations about the subject, support leaders who support fitness, encourage each other?
People responded, posting short notes on their workouts, hikes and meals.
As if they read our minds, or our Twitter posts, researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control last month released "Recommended Community Strategies and Measurements to Prevent Obesity in the United States." It reads as bad as it sounds, but it's full of jewels.
Readers, I pose the following hypothetical question: what does any of this WV fitness stuff, #fitwv and Twitter have to do with marketing? I contend that in today's marketing environment, tactics like viral marketing and online PR are not only opportune--but crucial! If we can use a zero-cost project like this one to elevate an important conversation and to affect behavior, what else might we be able to accomplish!
Kudos to ad agency BBH for a very nicely done campaign for Ally Bank. Perhaps you have seen the TV commercials? The one about the pony was so good that it caused me to go to the AdWeek Web site to see who created it.
The TV spots are great, but so is the positioning for the bank itself: Straightforward. In my opinion that message is right for our post-financial-meltdown times. And the payoff line in each of the advertisements is crisp and distinctive, too: "It's just the right thing to do."
Pushing Fitness Toward the Tipping Point in West Virginia
A couple weeks ago, in support of Jason Keeling's West Virginia Day project at A Better West Virginia, I put forth this fragment of an idea. I postulated that we could shift the perception--and even influence the behaviors--related to fitness in WV, simply (yet purposefully) by elevating the level of conversation. As the title suggests, this is all based on Malcolm Gladwell's tipping point theories.
Well, guess what ... it's working! Thanks to a core group of "Mavens" - (ref. Gladwell), this initiative (now dubbed #fitwv - read on for explanation) is taking off.
Here's what I offered for those who wanted to get on board. You too can begin, simply by doing one or more of the following:
Tweeting your workouts on Twitter ("Just had a great run along the boulevard!")
Utilizing your Facebook status update to note your fitness activities ("Heading to the gym!")
Used fitness topics as a conversation starter ("Hey, have you been to the new zip line course in the New River Gorge?")
Support fitness-minded leaders - search and follow Twitter leaders who are into fitness and health; subscribe to blogs and RSS feeds from bloggers who write about exercise, nutrition and wellness. ("Check out this great new yoga blog I found.")
Make it a personal priority--if not already--and begin advocating for fitness as a healthy lifestyle. Talking about it. Encouraging others. Inviting others to engage. ("Hey, do you play tennis. Wanna play sometime this week?")
Now, as for the #fitwv thing, I absently mindedly added a "hash tag" to my first post on Twitter about this idea. Following is my Tweet from June 20th:
It caught on. Folks began using it. The neat thing about hash tags in Twitter is that they can be "sticky" - short and memorable. If you want to appreciate the power of the #fitwv hash tag, just go to search.twitter.com and type #fitwv in the search box.
Following Gladwell's theoretical model, what we need now are some fitness-minded connectors to come on board and tell a couple dozen of their friends. Once that happens, we'll shoot from 30 to 300 advocates of #fitwv lickety-split.
Frankly, I am amused and excited to see where this goes. The payoff, of course, is when this movement really causes some movement ... and that's when our little project inspires a few more West Virginians to adopt the fitness mentality and lifestyle.
Before you go, please take a minute to check out the wonderfully written related blog post by my good friend Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher over at her Esse Diem blog.
I was at the store the other day picking out some items when my autopilot shut off and I became aware of the items in my basket. Crest toothpaste. Bargain mouthwash. Pantene Pro V conditioner. Bargain body lotion.
Since I used to be a faithful buyer of Scope and St. Ives, I began to wonder... How many more people are dropping name brands for store/bargain brands due to the current condition of the economy?
Happy West Virginia Day! Like many, I love West Virginia. So it's tragic, to me, that West Virginia is the most overweight state in the nation. (The depressing stats are at the bottom if you need a reminder.)
Hey - I want you all to feel good, look good and live good, long lives! In support of A Better West Virginia, and in honor of West Virginia day, let's create a fitter Mountain State. It may appear a daunting challenge, but we can do it if we work smart and work together!
Obesity is a complex, multi-factor health epidemic, requiring a comprehensive solution. Right? I'm not so sure. I contend that we don't have to make this so complicated.
According to theories put forth in Malcolm Gladwell's best-seller, The Tipping Point, change begins with a spark of action or a transformative idea (often from a maven) and spreads through communities via connectors and salesmen. The change builds momentum, gaining acceptance and attracting support, until it tips (i.e., becomes prevalent, becomes the new normal). He uses such examples as Paul Revere's midnight ride, the clean-up of crime and vandalism in New York City and the return of Hush Puppy shoes. Gladwell postulates that a group of perhaps as few as 150 people aligned around a cause, and constituted with a blend of salesmen, connectors and mavens, can affect bold transformations. He cites example after of example of tipping-point victories.
How might we apply "Tipping Point" techniques to make a fitter West Virginia?
What if ... 150 (or more) of the most connected, Web savvy West Virginians began talking about fitness? [If you are reading this article, there's a good chance you might be just such a person, by the way.] Consider the potential impact of weird, new ideas like these:
Tweeting your workouts on Twitter (Just had a great run along the boulevard!)
Utilizing your Facebook status update to note your fitness activities (Heading to the gym!)
Used fitness topics as a conversation starter (Hey, have you been to the new zip line course in the New River Gorge?)
Support fitness-minded leaders - search and follow Twitter leaders who are into fitness and health; subscribe to blogs and RSS feeds from bloggers who write about exercise, nutrition and wellness. (Check out this great new yoga blog I found.)
Make it a personal priority--if not already--and begin advocating for fitness as a healthy lifestyle. Talking about it. Encouraging others. Inviting others to engage. (Hey, do you play tennis. Wanna play sometime this week?)
None of this requires new systems or much extra work or time, really not even any money. I'm not urging you to join a gym or even to exercise more frequently. What I am urging you to do is to commit to elevate the conversation about fitness and to main it consistently. When you work out - put it out there across your network. Keep the conversation going. Support others. Simple and easy!
Imagine the power of 150+ visible, opinion leaders focusing on fitness! Others will take notice. It's leadership by example. It's advocacy. One by one, across social networks (both real and virtual) people will begin to think: Maybe I need to get going with this fitness thing. Behavior modeling will begin and change will occur. Powerful!
I believe that once West Virginia addresses its education and obesity challenges, everything else is easily tackled and overcome. To me, these are the two "biggies" (no pun intended). I will rely on others for educational ideas and reforms; there's already some good stuff underway.
When I turned 40 three years ago, I was 40 pounds overweight. My waist was 40 inches. My cholesterol was 240, and my blood pressure was 140-something (the top number). Not a healthy picture. Since that time, I've made some huge changes in my lifestyle with exercise, fitness and supplementation. Today, those efforts have paid off, and I will be around for many more years to enjoy my wonderful family, friends and beloved Mountain State.
While that's a happy story, it's not what's most relevant to this example. During the course of my fitness transformation, I casually, almost haphazardly began communicating about my workouts and fitness lifestyle on Facebook and Twitter--not in a zealous way, just conversational and without agenda. I did this mostly to hold myself accountable and to focus on my fitness.
This is the big surprising insight: over the past two years, I have heard from more than 30 or more people that they have been inspired and motivated by my fitness blurbs and quips. That's wonderful! Such feedback has helped me to stay focused and committed. It's an upward spiral. It's synergy. A community of enriched relationships is so powerful!
Are you ready to make this tip? I hope you'll join me!
I look forward to your comments and suggestions here or on Facebook and Twitter.
Obese West Virginians are more likely than their healthy weight counterparts to have suffered a heart attack, been diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes, and/or asthma, or been limited in their activities because of back pain.
The economic costs of obesity are tremendous. The National Institutes of Health have estimated the total cost of overweight and obesity to the U.S. economy in 1995 dollars at $99.2 billion, including 39.3 million workdays lost annually to obesity-related causes.
The obesity prevalence in West Virginia has been consistently higher than that in the United States as a whole. In 1990, the West Virginia rate of adult obesity was 15.0%, compared with a U.S. rate of 11.6%. By 2000, the state rate was 23.2%, compared with 20.1% nationally. The obesity rate has increased in virtually all of West Virginia’s 55 counties over the past decade.
