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« October 2007 | Home
| December 2007 » |
Airports are the bane of many travelers' existence, with frazzled crowds, salty food and interminable delays. But for marketers, they may be Shangri-La. What's better than a captive audience craving distraction?
Hefty and Glad Products Co. are taking full advantage of new security measures that limit travelers to carry on one one-quart bag holding their liquids and gels in 3-ounce containers by handing out free storage bags to unprepared passengers in the security line.
And Airborne, the cold-fighting herbal supplement, is in on the game, too. Airborne reps are traversing the concourses at Chicago's and Denver's airports this holiday season, handing out free samples of lemon-lime powder for passengers to mix with water and stave off the sniffles.
Evidently, the Airborne folks did the same thing last year at Boston's Logan Airport.
Brilliant, no? Who's next?
This is one of my favorite customer service stories of 2007.
Sometimes it takes a 75-year-old hammer-wielding woman to get a snoozing utility company to sit up straight and pay attention.
Mona Shaw, the senior citizen in question, took issue with Comcast’s languid installation of her Triple Play service (TV, phone and Internet). After going through the usual customer service channels by phone, Mona paid a visit to her local Comcast call center office in Manassas, Va., on a Friday afternoon in August. She and her husband wanted to speak to a manager. They were asked to wait outside, which they did … for more than two hours. Then, they were told that the manager had left for the day.
Mona Shaw spent the weekend simmering over the insult. On Monday, she returned with said hammer. She smashed the keyboard of the CSR who had ignored her. She demolished the telephone and then eviscerated the computer monitor before the cops showed up and relieved her of her hammer.
“I scared the tar out of some people, at least. It had never occurred to me to take a hammer to a phone company before, but I was just so upset,” Mona told The Washington Post. “After I hit the keyboard, I turned to this blonde who had been there the previous Friday, the one who told me to wait for the manager, and I said, ‘Now do I have your attention?’ ”
Mona received a three-month suspended sentence for disorderly conduct (a misdemeanor, thankfully), a $345 fine and is barred from paying any visits to the Comcast office for a year. A Comcast spokeswoman called the incident “truly a unique and inappropriate situation” and, while not revealing Mona’s service record, indicated that the company’s service records did not match Mona’s account of its services.
I'm thoroughly impressed by YouTube's efforts to compile video questions from both its Democratic and Republican debates.
Check out the pages!
Money, apparently.
Crain's Chicago Business has reported that Chicago is mulling over the idea of selling naming rights for some of its landmarks and institutions.
This might be a good idea to help alleviate the city's transportation woes, but where would the city government draw the line?
Check out this interesting post by David Armano over at Critical Mass and learn about the influencers in your office.
It looks like NewsCorp may be looking to dig deeper into the social networking game.
TechCrunch UK reported on Thanksgiving that Mr. Murdoch could look to buy LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals, as early as January 2008.
As you probably know, NewsCorp took over MySpace a couple years ago when it bought Intermix Media Inc. in 2005.
Since then, MySpace's user base, while not shrinking, has started to level off. Why? Here's my theory (which, with $2, will get you a bus ride): Youth marketers will tell you that young folks hate anything "corporate," so once NewsCorp stepped in, kablooey.
Okay. So do us older folks -- of which there are more than 16 million on LinkedIn -- feel the same way? If the NewsCorp deal does happen, will the number of subscribers also taper off?
Is a NewsCorp deal the "kiss of death" for Web 2.0?
I was checking out the Marketing News blog this morning, and it seems we're finally part of the famed 3,000 club.
Well, not quite; we're not that athletically inclined. But as of this morning, we have 3,006 RSS subscribers.
It seems like just yesterday when I thanked you, MN readers, for helping us eclipse the 2,000 RSS subscriber mark.
And now we're at 3,000. So for everyone here at Marketing News, I'd like to thank you. Because of you, we've grown our readership by 50% in less than three months, which is nothing short of astonishing!
Keep on checking out the site, and if you have any feedback for us, please comment on one of our posts or e-mail us at news [at] ama [dot] org.
In the spirit of giving, you absolutely have to check this site out. FreeRice, a sister of the World Poverty site, is pretty darn cool.
On it, you'll find a Web-based, multiple-choice vocabulary quiz. For each word you get right, advertisers on the site donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help fight world hunger.
This is my last post before Thanksgiving, so I hope you all have a happy Turkey Day!
This holiday travel season, the Hefty vs. Whimpy debate and "Don't Get Mad, Get Glad" take on new meaning.
The TSA's air travel security measures are a boon to these storage bag makers, and their marketers are taking full advantage.
Maybe there's a sponsorship opportunity here. This security line is brought to you by...
Last night I found myself immersed in a delightful chat with a woman at the grocery store. We sank deep into conversation-- peppered with compliments on my bag, my sense of style-- discussing shopping and careers in the cereal aisle like fast friends.
She asked about my job. I said I was a writer. She said she worked in design and helped women start their own businesses. We exchanged business cards. I had a lovely time.
And then came the pitch.
She slipped it in unobtrusively, in an upbeat, cheery tone. She worked for a well-known direct-sales company. (I won't name names.) She was building a local business development team of like-minded women (or something along those lines) and she'd love the chance to chat with me about her work.
Her presentation was flawless, but I felt bamboozled. I left the store shaking my head in awe, feeling like a sucker.
Chatting with my coworkers today, I've discovered that this was not an isolated incident. One coworker had a nearly identical experience at a clothing store a few years ago.
As a journalist with a background in business, I know how hard it can be to solicit comments or contacts, but I question this underhanded approach. It seems disingenuous not to state your aim from the start, prompting chatty, unsuspecting consumers to offer up their time or, worse yet, their contact information.
This is not a knock on the company in question; it's a giant in its field, and business is business. This is just an attempt by a baffled batter to draw a new pitch.
Here's a good tip I found from Mark Hunter's Web site. (Mark's an Omaha, Neb.-based sales consultant.)
In the first half-hour of your work day, instead of checking the status of your fantasy team, make three sales calls. (Being an early riser, I found this tip quite helpful, as I get in to work each day at 7:30 a.m.) Also, when you get back from lunch, make a couple of calls once again.
It's a simple tip, but one worth following.
This one sounds interesting...
My girlfriend can tell you: I'm no crazy holiday shopper. But evidently -- and I never understood this -- a lot of people are. More than there were last year, too.
A new poll conducted by Fenton, Mo.-based Maritz Inc. found 37% of respondents said they intend to go shopping on Black Friday, up from 34% last year.
According to the study, however, holiday shoppers will spend less this year, dropping $637, down 10% from 2006.
This also reflects where they'll shop, as -- perhaps not unexpectedly --big box stores will rake in the green. 63% of people said they'll do at least some holiday shopping at Wal-Mart, and 57% of people said they'd drop some dough at Target.
Facebook's new advertising offering has already elicited the ire of advocacy groups, which question how Facebook's ad targeting program will affect consumers' online privacy.
How will the Federal Trade Commission respond?
How far can marketers ethically tread into the realm of social networking? Is there-- or should there be-- a boundary, and how will that boundary be defined?
You know, after I heard the U.S. Product and Safety Commission recalled Aqua Dots, I got to thinking.
But first, let me back up for a second. The toys were recalled because of the presence of Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, a date-rape drug.
Pretty bad, no? But just bear with me for a moment.
What if, after the 4.2 million Aqua Dots toy sets are taken off store shelves, a black market forms for the dots? How will this affect Spin Master, the product's distributor? I mean, let's be honest; this isn't lead we're talking about.
Crisis managers, help me out here...
As the new kid on the blog, I thought I'd start out with a post that shows my age.
I remember the Dewey Decimal system. I remember when a church having a Web site was a ridiculous idea. I remember when e-mail was a novelty and when chat rooms were considered antisocial. I remember when colleges gave incoming freshmen an actual, tangible book of who's who, a "fresh meat" book that generated gossip and guffaws that flowed from dorm room to dorm room, seemingly faster than any information could spread in any forum on Earth. I remember the days before Facebook.
And I'm still in my 20s.
It's almost impossible to comprehend how our lives would have been different had we had earlier access to Facebook-- that thrilling, heaving, pulsating morass of personal information. Billy can see your new pair of sneakers. Cousin Sue can find out what you're up to. And if you "poke" it, the New York Times can more carefully target ads to your interests and online buying habits.
Er, what was that again?
Facebook announced this week that corporations can now create their own Facebook pages for free and can buy banner ads that would appear under feed items, with links that'd take users back to the brands' profiles. The New York Times Co. has already set up pages for its publications (New York Times, Boston Globe, etc.). Facebook users can declare themselves "fans" of a product or brand and spread their thoughts on it to their Facebook pals.
It's an interesting move, really. But as many reports have noted, some marketers will have to do more than simply post content for Facebook members to preach the gospel according to [Insert Brand Name Here]. Coupons? Freebies?
Where will this lead? How will marketers keep their Facebook pages from being overlooked, left alone in a corner of the social media marketplace, as so much unloved (and "unpoked") Internet fodder? With so many more social networking sites popping up, will this potentially pervasive ad targeting drive Facebook members to use other sites instead?
Early adopters, especially in the consumer electronics world, were the focus of the 11/1 cover story of Marketing News. Who would know more about them than Peter Rojas, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Engadget, one the world's leading tech blogs.
In an exclusive interview with MN staff writer Daniel B. Honigman, Rojas talks to us about early adopters, Engadget and bad PR folks.
Peter Rojas is chillin' (Photo courtesy Peter Rojas)
Before you were a tech reporter, obviously you were a tech enthusiast. What got you hooked on a product? Was it the marketing or the product itself?
I got into technology through my father, so it’s hard to say. He was a physician who was very passionate about home theater and early computer programming, and he turned me onto it from there. Technology is something that was always around and part of my life.
How do you think tech companies reached out to consumers [like your father] in the past, and how do you think that part of it has changed?
I think there are two ways electronics companies try to hit early adopters: One was in trade and enthusiast publications like Stereophile, and then the other was obviously point-of-sale. It was about having people who were good at explaining the merits of various products, whether at the AV store or, increasingly, at the big-box stores.
The Internet has really transformed that. Now you have an opportunity for the enthusiasts to communicate among themselves, and that’s what Engadget is. It’s a bunch of people who are really enthusiastic and passionate about technology sharing that passion. I’m a journalist, but I also consider myself a member of the Engadget audience. In a lot of ways, we’re writing for ourselves. We feel there’s no reason for us to bullshit ourselves when we write, and I think that’s the difference. The community has a way to share its knowledge, expertise and experiences.
In a way, it transforms marketing into a very different beast. If you have a poor product, you used to be able to market your way to some success if you had good advertising and PR.
These days, you can’t do that. If you don’t have a good product, there’s not much you can do to make it a success. It’s the community that makes something a success or a failure these days. For companies that have great products and stand behind them, marketing is just about turning people on to the product in really organic ways.
For marketers, is it getting easier to reach early adopters because there are more avenues—blogs, sites, enthusiast groups—or is it harder to reach them because there are just more products out there?
It’s both at the same time. The Web offers more of everything, so it’s easier and harder to reach people. It just depends on the product you have, but I think if you have something that’s really innovative, unique, or just resonates with people, it’s one of those things where the cream rises to the top.
If you look at Engadget, we constantly have our ear to the ground, because our job is basically to turn people on to new and exciting things. We’re also racing to be the first to write about a cool or exciting product, and we’re one of many sites, whether it’s blogs or community forums or whatever. For us, if you have something great, we want to share that with the world, so to speak. Have something interesting and we’ll write about it.
Generally speaking, is the innovation we see now different from what we’ve seen in the past? Is it more exciting or is it just documented better?
There are a lot of really exciting things going on now. It’s a very relative judgment, though, so it’s the sort of thing you can’t judge. We’re in the moment.
I was speaking with several consumer electronic companies that seek out early adopter feedback in different ways, with focus groups, forums, that sort of thing. Have you ever participated in any of these?
Not really. I don’t like to have that relationship with the companies we’re covering. I’m sure I have at some point, but not lately.
So now that you do have Engadget, how do technology companies market to you? I’m sure you get lots of pitches every day.
I do. I get an endless amount (laughs).
How many?
Oh, man. I don’t even know; maybe about 75 a day. And by and large, I’d say most of them are completely tone-deaf.
How so?
Sending out a generic press release is a terrible way to get my—or anyone’s—attention. Everyone knows that, but for some reason people still do it. I think there’s very little downside to doing it. The worst that can happen is you’ll be ignored. Every once in a while, someone will send out an awful press release and they’ll be mocked, but that’s rare.
There are companies that put out press releases every 2-3 days and I put up a post mocking them, and, of course, they end up going out of business. Issuing lots of press releases seem to be a good sign that there’s something going wrong at a company, rather than something right.
You can tell when someone contacts you if they’ve read the site. Any journalist or blogger will tell you if you understand what their [news outlet] covers. I think it means marketers and PR people need to work harder. I work hard, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t work harder.
Instead of blasting out to lists of 5,000 sites, why not hire people who focus on and develop a relationship with only a few outlets? It’s not that we’re going to get chummy and I’ll overlook your faults or make thigns easier, but if I know you’re not going to waste my time when you have something to share, you will get my attention. There are marketers or PR people that, when they call me, I’ll take their call.
That parallels the conversations I’ve had with technology companies that seem to cultivate relationships with its early adopters and, as a result, they come up with some very innovative products. Out of curiosity, is the Engadget audience all early adopters or are they regular people looking to make educated decisions? Who are your readers?
When you have 9 million readers, you run the gamut. We have people who are early adopters, we have people who are leading-edge adopters, we have people who are at the companies making stuff, we have enthusiasts and hackers who are pushing the limits of their hardware, and we have more casual people who discover the page through Google when they’re looking for the iPhone.
By and large, with Engadget, we try to stay focused on offering in-depth articles, because our most important audience is the enthusiasts who, for example, follow new cell phones like other people follow sports. That’s who we want to stay true. People ask us if we’ve had to water the site down to appeal to a wider audience, but we’ve been able to actually grow the audience by staying true to what we’re all about.
Sorry, folks. The much-fabled gPhone won't be in your Christmas stocking this year. Or probably even next year. (Damn sensationalist Marketing News blog...)
On Monday, Google announced Android, the company's new open-source platform for smartphone application developers.
They also, along with 33 other mobile companies, announced the formation of a new venture, the Open Handset Alliance, an organization whose goal is to encourage, essentially, open sourcing of mobile code. The OHA includes mobile and tech behemoths like Sprint, T-Mobile, Intel, LG, Samsung and Motorola. (You'll notice mobile notables AT&T Wireless and Verizon are missing from the list.)
What they didn't announce was that Google stock topped $1,000 per share. Don't worry; that will happen soon enough.
What is it about November that makes if feel like everyone is now fully immersed in the 'going green' phenomenon? Did media planners schedule this blast of do-goodery specifically to hit us when the clocks rolled back and we are spending more time in our nests? To get a dose of moral righteousness in us before the holiday gluttony ensues?
The most brow-beating effort of late comes from NBC Universal, which is currently in the midst of its "Green Week," where programs, PSAs, news reports and adverts are themed around the environment. Characters on Days of Our Lives are having a green-washed wedding this week. The Today Show talking heads are reporting from the Arctic Circle, Antarctica and the equator. Even the peacock's feathers are shimmering in shades of green.
Does anyone see this marketing campaign as anything more than green-washing? Perhaps the goal is simply general awareness, but a TV channel as social preacher isn't what most people look for in their television (except maybe Fox News). As I've caught bits and pieces of these green stories on the evening news, all it has elicited in me is a 'so what' and an urge to flip the channel.
As I browse this morning's headlines, I see that all eyes in the tech world -- and on Wall Street -- are focusing on Google.
The behemoth company, valued at more than $150 billion, is expected to unveil plans for its Google phone later today.
Central to Google's plans is its goal of having all of the software open for developers to make use of. What's still up in the air is which carriers will carry it. Apple's iPhone, launched in June, is only carried by AT&T Wireless. It's since been cracked for use on other networks.
More on the Google phone soon, folks!
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