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June 30, 2004
PowerPoint: Prison or Pallette?
This week's quote supports where I come out in the recent heat around PowerPoint: My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action... Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit. - Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971), Poetics of Music There seem to be four basic views on this very simple product that we helped launch ages ago. Let's look at each: 1. PPT is evil, it is turning minds to mush and worse Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune looks at all the arguements that PowerPoint is dumbing down the world and making us all superficial. Kinda like calculators allowing us to forget math but worse. Hightext also sees PowerPoint as evil and as really monocultural, derived from and pushing a purely Western, American way of thinking and expressing. While Paul Kedrowsky points out that all this sublimation of our brains by may not be such a big deal, just slowness of innovation. 2. PPT is bad communications and should be replaced This is typified by Edward Tufte's view in the Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. Smart guy, terrific influence on UI design. But made my brain hurt. 3. PowerPoint is a canvas, good or bad because of the painter Hey, if David Byrne uses PowerPoint to make art, it can't be all bad. And besides, it can be supremely funny. Just look at the Gettysburg address or Clinton's recent book as PPT (in one case at least PPT may have forced an improvement). 4. PowerPoint is a fact of life, deal with it. Get good at it. Most others see PPT as a tool that can be good or bad depening on how you use it. And a bunch of great entries have strong guides to help. Here are a few: Beyond Bullets is chock full of strong suggestions but here is one I really like. Peterthink and Michael Hyatt has a great list of resources to help you. Brad Feld and Oliver Thylmann offer some strong tips if you are pitching to a VC. Business2.0 highlights the secrets of PPT "KungFu Masters" my all time favorite of which is Jerry Weissman. And of course, Seth Godin offers some great advice on how not to creat really bad PPT (but remember to buy his book before you get this free prize). For me, I clearly net out on the third and fourth points. I love PowerPoint. It helps. Why? For the same reasons as Stravinsky.
Posted by johnza at 08:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lance Armstrong Promotions
Well, the Tour de France is starting and its Lance's try at winning six times. Its hard not to get excited, but from a marketing point of view, folks seem to be really revving up. I was actually amazed last year that only Suburu really seemed to do much around Lance. Could be because no one in America knows what cycling is. Sure not true this year. "Armstrong lack of endorsements":http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/N339.tribuneinteractive.com/B1107884.3;sz=468x60;kw=noinitial;ord=2004.7.1.4.1.31.0?. It is one of those interesting blind spots in promotion that Lance won't do it. And again it might be that Nike has figure this out given how much they are pushing. Checkout Nike: See Lance Ride. Nike has really done a great job. First with livestrong, their cancer promotion that ties into the yellow jersey (symbol of winner in the Tour de France) to their latest TV spots. There are others like "Dasani":http://www.beverageaisle.com/beverageaisle/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000531989. Armstrong will star in a new Dasani commercial entitled "Can't Live Without a Challenge," which highlights his non-stop competitive spirit. In the spot, Armstrong takes on a stronger rival in a chin up contest and shoots hoops with opponents who tower over him, replenishing himself with the refreshing taste of Dasani throughout each uncharacteristic activity. The ad, which debuts this week, closes with Lance on his bike next to a motorcyclist, his eyes shining at the opportunity to race.Posted by rich at 08:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 29, 2004
Aquantive buys Razorfish
MediaDailyNews 06-30-04. Another example of consolidation. Aquantive is really an ad agency plus a cookie pool. Now that ad business is growing, its time to buy other web development and design service firms.Posted by rich at 08:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Local Search
MediaDailyNews 06-30-04. Overture Local offers small advertisers a new local search product. Interesting to see how market gaps are getting filled in the online ad business. A classic thing that happens is a rush to get the big bang. That happened with google.com and overture.com getting contextual ads mainly for global products. You can ship anything anywhere, so it makes sense to get your books from across the world. Or your DVDs or your curios from eBay. Now th next step is going local. You can now buy "Chevrolet dealership" for just a local area (city, state, ZIP or even an IP address). Interesting to see how folks take advantage of this. This includes web hosting too of a page. Another company doing well here is "YP":http://yp.com. This is a yellow page listing service.Posted by rich at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 27, 2004
And the email battle rages on...
Looks like a three way email Dragrace is now in full force. Do something pioneering, unique and attention-grabbing and you won't be alone for long. As noted before, Yahoo quickly copied Gmail's free storage play with their own. Well, now Hotmail has jumped on the megastorage bandwagon with what some think of it's own "gratuitous" offering. Now things get really interesting. Of course, controversy and suspicion immediately arose with Microsoft in the game, to the point of buzz that Hotmail was blocking Gmail invites (including a post from me on the subject). Talk about a SPAM filter. But it turned out not to be true - we tested it. All that said, the all the PR buzz and heat still seem to be in Gmail's favor. Frogbody has a very nice summary of what they did right in marketing Gmail. Covered all the bases, from product offering, to positioning, to targeting. (And hey, it was a great way to generate noise in what is supposed to be a quiet period.) But one key thing seemed to make all the difference. Scarcity. As noted by MediaPost, By Invitation Only added prestige, cache and a sense of preciousness that verged on lunacy. Everyone wants a Gmail beta account. Why? For one thing, the chance to have first (or at least early) crack at getting a cool name. I know that was a key thing for me. Also, it got very cool to be able to give them as little "Aren't I cool?" gifts. This notion reached it's peak in my POV with the launch of Gmail for troops that takes donations of email accounts and sends them over there. Click here for even more wacky reasons people are frothing to get a Gmail account. There is a contrary view. For one thing. They haven't made it oparticularly easy for users of the competition to switch(makes me think of how important “help for 123 users” inside Excel during the spreadsheet dragraces), although we did find this nice little guide. Given that Gmail is still in beta and Hotmail and Yahoo are not, is Gmail missing the boat? Are they going to have their thunder stolen? Who knows? But the good thing about dragraces is they are fun to watch. And this one has clearly changed the shape of the email playingfield permanently.Posted by johnza at 09:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 26, 2004
Packaging as Poetry
plastic bottle lovely
attracting a waiting eye
now wallet open
OK, it's not very good, but the packaging of ITO En's new quietly delicious teas sure is. And each bottle comes with it's own Haiku, the results of a terrific contest with truly amazing prizes and real honors.
Here's another terrible attempt:
positive feelings
conversations as products
customers blissful
Posted by johnza at 09:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 24, 2004
I'd like to teach the world to... jingle
In all the talk about the end of mass marketing and marketing as we know it, I've been wondering where has all the music gone? (Sorry for the strained references, I'm just full of them) I mean jingles. Maybe I'm dating myself again, but I think... Jingles are great. Jingles are powerful. Jingles are memorable. What has happened to them? Music is such a powerful, emotional conduit. It's also tuned for all media, internet included. Why don't we see more of this integrated consistently into campaigns? Anyway, check out this terrific site from American Food Century. It's got the actual audio and lyrics of a ton of terrific jingles. Also AdAge, has a very nice site called Advertising Century. It has a cool timeline, and lists of the top slogans, campaigns, people and yes, the top 10 jingles: 1. You deserve a break today (McDonalds) 2. Be all that you can be (U.S. Army). 3. Pepsi Cola Hits the Spot (Pepsi Cola). 4. M'm, M'm good (Campbell's). 5. See the USA in your Chevrolet (GM). 6. I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Wiener (Oscar Meyer). 7. Double your pleasure, double your fun (Wrigley's Doublemint gum). 8. Winston tastes good like a cigarette should (Winston). 9. It's the Real Thing (Coca Cola). 10. Brylcreem-- A little dab'll do ya A lot of fun to browse through all this and jog your memories. And to wonder at some of their rankings. For example, my favorite, most moving, most highly manipulative but eerily timely campaign - Coke's I'd like to teach the world to sing - is strangely missing.Posted by johnza at 07:18 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 23, 2004
Smiles, lollypops and no Buck-Fifty
This week's quotation: By far the best proof is experience. - Sir Francis Bacon There has been a bunch of talk recently about the fundamental importance of the customer experience in building a brand, heck in building a real business. To us, products are the customer experience. The whole experience. That is what we take the notion of products as conversations to be all about. Fast Company is now conducting it's first ever Customer Experience Awards. Brand Autopsy invites all of us to help. Clearly Starbucks is a contender, although some folks voice dissappointment. Meanwhile Lowe's is getting some pretty damning attention. For my part, I love WAMU.
Ever since we got our simple refinance, free checking (with interest!) and free passbook accounts for the kids I have been plain old impressed with Washington Mutual. Somehow despite all their mergers they have been able to keep paying attention to the details. When I had questions about online billpay, they actually answered the phone. When we got disconnected, they called right back. And apologized!! Everytime we go to the branch, the employees smile, work hard to help, and explain things simply. And, potentially most importantly, they give the kids lollypops.
Posted by johnza at 09:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Salesforce.com IPO, and now...
As both John Battelle and Davenetics noted, finally, the long questioned, long awaited Salesforce.com IPO happened today and is off to a fast start. The questions on most people's minds center around what this means for IPO market, the Google offering and all the others waiting in the wings. We are thinking about this too. But we have a another question about the future. What will being a public company do to Salesforce.com's ongoing dragrace/battle with Siebel. What will Siebel's response be? What about new entrants? We happend to be very partial to one called Entellium. Will be interesting to watch this playing field as it evolves in public.Posted by johnza at 08:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 21, 2004
The mundane can be remarkable
Brand Autopsy: The Soup Peddler – A Case Study in the Art of Being Remarkable This story about a guy who sells soup from his bike reminded me of an amazing marketer that I knew when I used to live in Brooklyn. The guy was a Russian imigrant who had a laundry. He got a local neighborhood directory and started sending everyone a note saying he was new to the neighborhood and to come in and get some free shirts. Everyone who came got free shirts and some Russian cookies. Each week he kept track of who came in from the list. And each week he sent a little reminder saying hey, why haven't you come yet, my wife and I are waiting for you. Then finally, he sent notes to the people who hadn't come saying "Hey, what's wrong with you? You sick? You don't want clean shirts? You don't like to meet new people?" People came and he gained total neighborhood market share dominance. No anti-trust suits have been filed yet as far as I know.Posted by johnza at 09:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The next leg of the email dragrace
Strategize: Hotmail Blocks Gmail Emails (and Invites) We were wondering why Hotmail seemed so strangely silent in all the buzz on the yahoo vs. gmail dragrace. Well now they enter the race or at least try to slow it down, by supposedly blocking email from gmail. Hmmm... Doesn't seem very sporting.Posted by johnza at 09:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 20, 2004
McDonalds: WHO'S Loving It, Really?
McDonald’s CMO, Larry Light's recent comments in AdAge about McDonald’s move to “Brand Journalism” have set off a large flurry of blogmentary. (Hey, if he can push a new phrase why can’t we?)
Across all these comments there seem to be three basic threads:
The Death of Mass Media
· Buzz Machine sees that McDonalds is only now catching on to what has long been inevitable. McDonalds is just one more of the big brands to shift away from broadcast.
· Pheedo agrees and sees finding these niches in blogs (look for an at least semi-official golden arches blog soon?)
The validity of McDonalds' message/real value proposition
· As usual Hugh Macleod of Gaping Void, cuts through a lot of this and just wonders what the heck the Brand Journalism buzzword really means.
· AdRants shares this confusion, notes that this really adds up to abandoning the whole concept of a unique selling proposition and doubts whether adding hiphop music to the I'm Loving It campaign is going to make McDonalds any more relevant.
· Seth Godin, as always, challenges us to think a bit deeper and look at the real value. Taking a page from Starbucks book he suggests moving the Golden Arches from just the home of the Big Mac to a real meeting place.
· Robert McLaws/The Bleeding Edge agrees but kinda wonders why, if "you can get a Sausage McMuffin with Egg, hash browns and a cup of OJ for the same price as a Tall White Chocolate Mocha," that more people hanging out there.
· Finally, Planet Brand, also agrees but gives Larry Light some credit for progressive thinking.
Our two cents:
· First, seems like diversification away from mass media, just makes sense. So here here. Just because it's inevitable doesn't mean it's not hard to do.
· Second, all the buzzwords aside, the real issues all seem to center around Positioning. What the heck are their XYZs?
· What's their Category X? Is it a fast food place? Or is it a meeting place? Which is more relevant, which is their strength?
· Who is their Customer Y? Yuppies who want to hang out or budget conscious families?
· What is their uniqueness Z? Their menu?? Their decor? Or their happy meals?
Seems to me that for all the talk about trying to target, to adapt and evolve, it might make sense for them to look to and to refresh their strengths. Maybe I'm dating myself too much but I really remember the jingle "McDonald's is our kind of place." It was a great expression of thier value. Which went way beyond burgers. It was a fast, clean, affordable place for families who didn't want to cook at home. And it was so memorble that the take-offs on it were endless and fun.
Maybe they should look back to that simple target, understand their wants and desires (I've got kids and they still love to go, get their happy meals and play on the indoor playground). Maybe rather than a place for business people to meet, it should be a place for parents and kids to meet. Maybe, instead of starbucks they need to study folks like Chucky Cheese and offer conference rooms, support groups, massages for parents, and the equivalent of slot machines for the kids. Just a thought.
Posted by johnza at 09:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Writing well is hard to do good
Johnnie Moore's Weblog: Made me smile Having just finished writing a #@*$~! book, we had to smile at this terrific list too. Here's two of the best (and hardest to comply with): 15. Avoid slang. It sucks. 39. Last but not least, avoid clichés like the plague. Seek viable alternatives.Posted by johnza at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 17, 2004
When you think Lucite, you think of... indulgence??
Saw this in a recent ad in Dwell Magazine for Lucite of all things: "Unwind in unconditional indulgence" Sure maybe that makes sense given they are advertising spas but somehow it seems a bit over the top and strange. Made me think that maybe the copywriter was... "Indulging in unabashed incongruity"Posted by johnza at 01:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Starbucks knows what they are doing
Strategize: Lessons from Starbucks' Howard Schultz Nice entry on Howard Schultz lessons from Starbucks. Here are a few, they are pretty darn good. - Think like an athlete. Keep pushing yourself. - Dream big but stay small (feel small). - Customer loyalty is not an entitlement - Great brands aren't built on ads or promotions. - Stay humble. There is no room for arrogance.Posted by johnza at 01:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 16, 2004
Just plain fun
debbie's blog - google doodle guy
Isn't it great when your identity (brand relevance)is strong enough that you can play around with it. Click here for all of Google's fun/holiday logos through the years from Dennis Hwang.
Posted by johnza at 08:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The price is right, or is it?
Lots of interest entries recently with some great thinking about the thorny topic of pricing: - Market pricing is the right approach, but how do you find that balance when you don't know the market yet? Business Pundit highlights the value of "soft entries" in pricing when you are first getting started. - Wizard of Ads warns against the temptation of temporary price promotions because they "produce up and down sales blips at a great cost" and marginal short term benefit. - And, apropos all the talk about dragraces, Brand Mantra, highlights the importance of doing the right work with your product and value proposition to avoid the never ending spiral of price wars. Lesson: make sure to do your ABCs across the market, competition and yourself before doing anything rash on your price and your margin.Posted by johnza at 07:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Email dragrace heating up
A lot of talk around the blogsphere noting the next leg in the free email Dragrace:
Davenetics says Yahoo's increase in free space and functionality was not a moment to soon.
The Unofficial Google Weblog says "2GB of mail, No Adversitising and a new interface. WOWOWOWow!!! Take that, GMail."
Frogbody does not think this will cut it. Yahoo's announcement is just too me too.
John Battelle, of course, provides a full review in what he describes as the next shot in an ongoing war of attrition that is not really about email at all but is really about registration.
Interestingly enough, also check out Gmail is too creepy for a very different perspective on the whole Gmail phenom.
Posted by johnza at 07:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
What does your brand add up to?
Brand Autopsy: Brand Mathmatics. I really like this concept and Paul's adjustment of it: Awareness x Reputation = Brand Relevance He illustrates with Starbucks. Sometimes the answer is really clear. Most of the time that is really positive - Southwest Airlines, Costco, Dell, etc. But what about Enron? What about your company's brand? What about the brand of you? How much does your reputation and your awareness add up to?Posted by johnza at 06:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 15, 2004
Is marketing hard?
John Porcaro: Marketing Is Hard John at Microsoft talks about how hard it is to get Marketing right. And Kevin Schofield gives a nice set of tips about the ingredients required and notes that "Marketing is a difficult discipline, that requires both theoretical and practical knowledge. Just as marketing people should respect technical people, technical people should respect marketing people." Here here. But does marketing have to be so hard? Well, we think, at least the core elements don't have to be. Marketing strategy is not voodoo or a mystic rite. It does not have to be something that only high priests are allowed to practice. It is a process a method. And while yes it requires creativity, once smart people take the time and discipline to understand the system they will have the tools and judgement required to make it a clear, not mysterious process. That's what this Marketing Playbook thing is all about.Posted by johnza at 03:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
One of us or one of them
A recent entry from Mark Ramsey and Mercury Radio brought this one to mind: Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. - William Butler Yeats A darn good idea. As Mark says, "Consider this next time you stoke up your fancy-pants positioning line."Posted by johnza at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
One or two things of importance
Strategize: Two Things. Glen Whitman says ""For every subject, there are really only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important." His examples are compelling. We like to think that when it comes to communicating in marketing (from soda, to software to presidential candidates), it all comes down to one thing - your promise. One promise. Loud, clear and repeated often.Posted by johnza at 07:05 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Chinese Search Engine Battle: to the loser goes the...
Not long ago we noted how Baidu (a local Chinese search engine) beat Google in a terrific Dragrace (see also Real SEO for some of the stats). Well, the thick plottens. After losing it's race, now, according to China Herald AP, and MarketingVox, Google is buying a stake in Baidu. John Battelle notes that some think this was a response to Yahoo's investment in Beijing 3721. If you can't beat 'em buy 'em. Often happens if you have a strong enough Platform, you embrace and extend. Well, still hope Baidu can keep Google on it's toes, even with some of their money in the bank.Posted by johnza at 06:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 14, 2004
More on naming
Naming is a huge topic, never ending. Some interesting new thoughts out though. One is from a recent RedHerring article. They talk alot about how important a company name can be to your success. They interviewed a bunch of naming companies and got these guidelines 1. Find your focus - Figure out what you want to communicate 2. Think different - A good company name is both familiar and refreshingly different. 3. Watch your mouth - Check that the ideals behind your new name won’t get lost in translation abroad. 4. Don’t rush it - Investing time in making sure your name doesn’t violate any existing trademarks can save headaches later on. 5. Make it an inside job - if you don't have the money, keep it simple and use services such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Nameboy. 6. Look ahead - think Company, not just your first product or category. 7. Stay out of the box - don't be generic. Too dangerous. 8. Stand out - go beyond descriptive, to memorable 9. Beware the verb - Having a name that is used as a verb, may lose you control over its use. 10. A name’s not everything - It’s the values that you build into the name and brand over time that matter. We like these, but admit to our own bias toward the more straightforward, easy to spell variety (especially when it comes to product names). Don't forget to check out Igor's guidelines too.Posted by johnza at 09:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Yep. Makes sense to me.
gapingvoid: all products are conversations
Another great one from Hugh Macleod.
Posted by johnza at 09:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
From Teapots to Toilet Brushes - TARGET
As much as I may hate to admit it, I, like Oprah, love Target. What a store. What a brand. They are a terrific example of a Best of Both play. They took the KMart category and made it cool and hip, while still being for everyone. How did they do it? I think they did it by paying attention to every element of their brand. From their simple cake and eat it too promise and positioning (expect more, pay less) to their imagery in all their communications (from the power of the red bullseye - as simple and uniform as the Nike swoosh - to their cool billboards). But above all they paid attention to one specific dimension - their product selection and in particular, it's design. Their stuff is cool. Period. For example, one of their top designers is a huge name, Michael Graves. He has done all kinds of terrific things. But one, particularly illustrative item is his bird teapot from Alessi. Which runs around $129. Nice, we had one.
Well now, Target has a teapot from Michael Graves. And honestly, it's pretty darn cool. Oh yeah, and did I mention? It's 30 bucks. We just ordered one.
And they don't stop there. They have a whole line of affordable, strangely lovely household items by Graves, including... a toilet brush.
You're right Oprah. Target is terrific.
Posted by johnza at 09:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
What do we mean by Campaigns?
This entry is a bit overdue. We've talked a lot about this Marketing Playbook system. It has Plays, a Playing Field and Campaigns. So let's explain what we mean by that. If the Play is the strategy, the Playing Field the market and other conditions you face, then the Campaign is the tactical action of running the play down the field toward your goal. These tactics consist of a ton of things, all of these are really choices. Our list includes the product and it's packaging, how it is priced, the positioning and messaging that makes it compelling and different, the promotions you use to drive demand, and the media you choose to reach people with. All of these elements come together to create a successful campaign. The true test of your play.Posted by johnza at 08:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 13, 2004
Targeting goes deep - Neuromarketing
Behavioral targeting - trying to predict behavior based on your target's past behavior - is one thing. But now, how about trying to predict behavior based on how your target thinks? That's what Neuromarketing is aiming to do. The current Economist Technology Quarterly has a great review of this new "trend." Bascially, marketing mad scientists are trying to use the tools of neuroscientists, such as electroencephalogram (EEG) mapping and functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI), to learn more about the mental processes behind purchasing decisions. Wild. Talk about Market Research. One company, BrightHouse Neurostrategies Group, claims to "integrate marketing expertise with the most advanced neuroscientific research capabilities and understanding of how the brain thinks, feels and motivates behavior... To offer clients: • More confidence and accuracy in marketing decisions through a better understanding of how the brain mediates consumer preference and purchase behavior • A new, powerful analytical approach & tool for learning what drives consumer behavior at a conscious and subconscious level • Strategic insights and implications that will help establish the foundation for loyal, long-lasting consumer relationships not easily superseded by the competition. Pretty tempting. Lieberman Research is using the technique to test film trailers (which, by the way now show up on T-Shirts). And of course both parties are using it to work to figure out how different voters brains work (better not comment on this or I will get in trouble). This technique is not without controversy. Zack Lynch of Corante is generally positive. "As neurotechnology becomes more precise, all aspects of business, including the art of marketing, will be reinvented. Marketing firms will use brain imaging to understand how and why people buy different products... "neuromarketing" has a long way to go... but with billions of dollars at stake, the search for the brain's "buy button" will definitely be an area of heavy investment." Sean at Patternhunting is a bit spooked by the whole thing, like something out of a novel. Joshua Allen remains skeptical but intrigued. But according to Broken Engine, Neuroscientist Daniel Glaser, of University College, London wonders if Neuromarketing may not be terribly effective: "Lots of companies are seduced by the thought that if you can see into the heads of your consumers you can design products to target them. I think it's premature." I happen to agree with Tim Ambler, a neuromarketing researcher at the London Business School who says: “A tool is a tool, and if the owner of the tool gets a decent rent for hiring it out, then that subsidises the cost of the equipment, and everybody wins.” Marketing tools, no matter how wierd, are only as effective or as scarey as the people who use them.Posted by johnza at 09:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
So, who's publishing this book anyway?
We were astonished, amazed, stunned in disbelief. But after the smelling salts we realized we were in truly awe-inspiring company. Our book, The Marketing Playbook, is coming out this fall from Penguin Portfolio. We were even more astounded when we found out that Portfolio's founder and publisher, Adrian Zackheim also did books like Seth Godin's Purple Cow, Jim Collins' Good to Great, and Jason Jennings' Less is More. Wow. Pretty humbling.Posted by johnza at 08:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More great company
We continue to be humbled by the terrific company we are keeping with our publisher. Just announced, "Geoffrey Moore, author of four Wall Street Journal and Business Week bestsellers -- Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game, and Living on the Fault Line -- has signed with Adrian Zackheim at Portfolio." The book is called DARWIN AND THE DEMON: Enabling Innovation and Overcoming Inertia in Established Enterprises, and is scheduled for publication in late 2005. Very, very cool.Posted by johnza at 08:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Cat's out of the bag. We wrote a book...
Christopher Ireland's recent Fresh Perspectives entry sure made us blush. She is one heck of a smart, cool person. And although her flattery is more than we deserve, her support is a real honor. And she's right, we did write a book - about marketing no less. More about that in a bit.Posted by johnza at 08:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Salesforce.com will it happen?
More on the discussion of Salesforce.com communications and its IPO. Now Cliff Allen has posted a survey. Do you think the IPO will actually happen? Look on the left toolbar of Allen.com and vote. We'll look forward to hearing what people have to say.Posted by johnza at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 11, 2004
Behavioral Targeting
Well, one of the great trends in marketing is how to target users. There are two great families of promotions. The first is brand, that means, get the name out for my more recognition. The second is direct mail where there's an offer. The internet has really been mainly about direct. That is, see something, click on it and then get an offer. The current state of the art is optimization. That is, churn the actually copy of a banner or whatever and the time. Measure response rates and then you can switch to the most effective ad. Now we are headed toward behaviorial targeting. That means, knowing the target segment that clicks. That way, if you were to search for google:"Iraq" you now get banner ads for the GSA contracts to bid on in Iraq. As opposed to an ad for Tiffany's because you are probably wealthy. You get the picture. A few companies are in this area and its the hot new thing. Some of them: * MediaDailyNews 06-12-04. Tacoda to Publishers. These guys are letting publishers of sites identify their customers by segment. * "RevenueScience":http://www.revenuescience.com/home.asp. These folks are around the corner and are doing the same thing.Posted by rich at 08:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
It’s not personal, it’s just business. Or is it?
VentureBlog: The Who Hates Who Of The Technology World We've talked alot about Dragraces as the most typical Marketing Play. Can be a very smart, rational strategy. Defines your advantage, draws attention and is fun to watch. But sometimes maybe it goes beyond the rational. David Hornick observed from the "All Things Digital Conference" that in tech many of these rivalries may go beyond the hard core rational business strategy dimension. The leaders actually, kinda hate each other. Here's his list: - Gates hates Google - Jobs hates HP, Dell, Gateway, etc. - Fiorina hates Dell (and pities Sun). - Rollins hates HP (and R&D). - Ellison hates . . . yes, you guessed it . . . Gates. Human nature, ain't it fun?Posted by johnza at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Call to action - push my buttons
Several sites have been highlighting these cool doorbells by SpOre. BoingBoing of course posted them. And Peter Davidson wrote a nice note about the importance and work required for great design: "It's not enough to be well designed. These days to be remarkable for the right reasons you need to be fully designed and thought out."
Great design and packaging are topics we are passionate about. They make a huge difference. They generate attention, they invite action.
I know, we have this doorbell in green at home. We love it. At night it is like a little beacon for visitors. But we also hate it. It's also an irresistable beacon for our two young boys when they are tearing around the house. It says "Press me over and over one million times" to them. And believe me they do.
Posted by johnza at 06:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
PC+Mac = Best of Both?
Boing Boing: HOWTO skin a PC to look like a Mac According to Boing Boing, Engadget's recent guide actually makes your PC desktop nearly indistinguishable from a Mac OS X. Is this a kind of do it yourself Best of Both play? Where you get the best of nice, soft Mac UI and the price/performance of a whitebox from China? Not sure I actually WANT to go through all the steps to find out.Posted by johnza at 05:50 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 10, 2004
Speak up or shut up.
Two quotes of the week this time. "I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up." - Tom Lehrer I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead. - Samuel Goldwyn I thought of these after looking at The Writer's Path entry (of June 4) on finding your e-voice. "Successful bloggers tend to have clearly defined e-voices. They’re described as having an edge or exhibiting a kind of quirkiness. There are those who growl and, otherwise, act curmudgeonly. They write with bite. There are reasoned, logical voices in the blogosphere, but far more are content to turn a phrase into a turn of the screw rather than attend to the tune of their pitch." Really provoked some introspection about this blog and about the importance of a genuine voice and personality in all communications but in marketing for sure. Brands without a consistent and distinctive personality are confusing and not lasting. And I guess blogs that lack that are just plain boring (or autobiographies with the author as the most important audience). Still working on finding the right e-voice for this site, but will think about it a bit differently now.Posted by johnza at 04:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 09, 2004
Sorting through the clutter
the media drop: Having difficulty reading all your news and feeds? Media drop notes that Microsoft is working on something that will sort through all the media feeds you get and pull out just what you are interested in. Hmmm.... We'll see. Meantime, it's hard enough just on blogs. If you are trying just to do key word search, we use BlogPulse. It's also got some cool tools. For tracking the blogs you know you look at Bloglines is pretty darn cool. But what if there are just subjects and themes you want to stay up on? Boy, that still seems hard. Searching is easy, intelligent, focused browsing, not. Well, today, had an interesting chat with the folks from ThinkTank23. They created some thing called Nav4 which does great info retrieval and they are working on a whole bunch of fun blog search, and browse stuff in thier labs at Waypath. Mostly still beta, and not fully indexed but worth checking out. They also have 2 blogs: Blog23 and Waypath Weblog. Always on the lookout for other good tools. Let us know if you have any suggestions.Posted by johnza at 08:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 08, 2004
Marketing Yourself, and Breaking Through
Seth's Blog: Needles, haystacks & magnetism points how rising above the noise is even more critical when it comes to finding a job. A resume is not enough. I agree. Reminds me of how I got my job (in the Mezazoic Era) at Microsoft. It was in response to an ad for a job for which I had no qualifications at all. The headline of the ad was "No One Wants to Be a Cog in a Machine." My response, along with my irrelevant resume, was "NO COG AM I" and an incredibly cheeky note about how although I had no qualifications for the job I could do 18 million even more important things. A testament to the company that they actually hired me (or an indictment, depending on your POV of my subsequent contribution ;-)Posted by johnza at 09:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More on the topic of truth in blogs (and advertising)
Seth's Blog: Are we all journalists? As per the Jefferson quote about advertising and newspapers/journalism, Seth Godin has sparked another really interesting discussion about objectivity, ethics and the choices we make when we write. Now we bloggers can all relate (at least sort of) to journalists and their moral dilemnas.Posted by johnza at 05:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Form, function, and a really straight-forward name
Apple does it again. They take something kinda complicated and boring (802.11g) and make it small, simple, and elegant. It's called Airport Express. It's for Mac and PC. Integrates with iTunes - now "Airtunes", acts as a wireless repeater, and more. It's white for now but look for the cool colors soon (?). And what a nice example of solid product naming. Simple, straightforward and cool.
Strategize has a bunch of details. As do Signal vs. Noise and Gizmodo.
Posted by johnza at 04:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Go Martin
VentureBlog: The Future in Review Fun, really engaging report card on the future from our Ignition collegue and pal, Martin Tobias.Posted by johnza at 04:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Google gains or holds share
A bunch of new stats from the ongoing search Drag Race. Marketing Tom notes that (at least in Europe) Google gained 0.3% of the search engine market moving share numbers as follows: 1. Google 56.4% 2. Yahoo 21.1 3. MSN Search 9.2% 4. AOL Search 3.8% 5. Terra Lycos 2.0 Visual Knowledge highlights new stats from Internet Retailer.com on share of total traffic combined across search and portal: 1. Yahoo.com, 29.24% 2. Google.com, 15.26% 3. MSN.com, 11.26% 4. Search.Yahoo.com, 10.01% 5. Search.MSN.com, 7.24% This is a 21% year/year gain for Google and declines for Yahoo and MSN. Meanwhile Cooee notes that for all this, Google still only represents 2.7% of all web visits. Search as a whole is 14%, while - surprise, surprise - porn is 18.8%. Hmmm...Posted by johnza at 04:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 07, 2004
Salesforce.com Violation
The New York Times just reported that Marc Benioff's statements in a previous article with them may have been the cause of a violation with the SEC. According to EWeek, Salesforce.com denies this but has nonetheless delayed their IPO. The Street calls this "cooling off."
Well, a number of blogs have been saying for some time that Mr. Benioff should do just that. While Paul Kedrosky came to his defense, sort of, "Benioff would vibrate wildly and then burst into flames if he ever had to stop talking about his company... Far from hyping his company, Benioff is actually saving his own life." Maybe, but PR Opinions is scratching its head over this miss of PR 101.
Whatever the case, although a Dragrace Play has served Salesfoce.com well growing to the point of IPO. Maybe now they will finally understand, that even raging companies need to shift to Stealth mode now and again.
Posted by johnza at 04:01 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 06, 2004
Finally, they see the light
BusinessPundit: Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Hey, we've always known that everything was marketing and marketing was everything ;-) But it's great to see that others are coming around. Seriously, it's great to see books like Kumar's Marketing as Strategy, that recognize the importance of marketing as a way of thinking and approaching problems rather than just a set of tactics. At the same time, Johnnie Moore highlights how much in reality ends up just being brow-beating from the CEO and cya from the marketing folks.Posted by johnza at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 05, 2004
What else is in a name...
While we're on the the perennial and often painful topic of naming, here are some recent entries that hit the spot: With their normal sense of humor and snarkyness, Snarkhunting highlights a recent naming doozy... "We utilize our proprietary Ideonics™ process which encompasses BrandVision™ phase, strategic ideation, market feedback, analysis and refinement, cogent presentation of actionable results, and brand roll out assistance." Nice, really nice... The namergods at Wordlab highlighted the lovely lawfirm name (thought it was from CarTalk) of Dewey, Cheatham & Howe (ha, ha) and how these kinds of names can get you in trouble (also noted by the busy bloggers over at startup skills.com) Mercury radio highlights this very comprehensive naming guide from the branding/naming folks at Igor (Seth likes 'em so they can't be all bad ;-) It's 51 pages long but it's a lot more than just creative guidance. It's really about strategy and positioning. Which you had better do before you create a name you wish you could uncreate.Posted by johnza at 02:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What's in a name
Recently, I was working with a company on both their product and company naming. Here was some of the basic guidance used to guide the decisions:
Some naming realities:
Names are for people outside your company
* Names are things you want an audience (i.e. people) to remember
* Names are things you brand and even trademark, they are things you invest in, if you don't they are just words
* Names communicate and simplify
Some people realities:
* People are easily confused - complexity does not work well in names
* People have a limited cache - they can't digest too many names at once
* People forget - they need to be reminded over and over again of the same one or very few names
* allows you to know WHAT you are actually naming and not naming,
* helps keep these names consistent and compelling, and
* makes it faster and easier to name each time.
Keeping things straight.
Generally the things you name are as follows (make sure you really know the difference between them and how they relate to each other):
* the company - this is the longest lasting name you have to have. You pour your values,
personality, mission, vision etc into this brand (e.g. Microsoft)
* the product line - a family of mulitple products that are related to each other (e.g. Office)
*individual products - the products within a family, either different variations or component
products of the core family (e.g. OfficePro)
*product versions - as the specific individual products evolve, this is the means of keeping track
(e.g. OfficePro 95)
*ingredient names - the green crystals or Secret Sauce. These should be lasting technologies or
concepts that cut across more than one product (e.g. Intellisense, Retsin)
*feature names usually version specific functionality, that you want to highlight in promotion but
not in packaging (e.g. Pivot Tables, the Blue Dot)
*program names - not products, but supporting efforts that are worthy of naming, putting marketing investment behind. Often at the corporate vs. the product level (e.g. MSDN not Visual Studio Developer Network)
Some ground rules for a good naming convention
* Names should either be memorable or meaningful
* They should create the right emotion or communicate/imply the actual thing they are naming
* Company names should be flexible and bigger than the names of the products, they are receptacles that you put meaning into. They don't have to be as concrete as the product names (Salesforce.com is kicking themselves, they are going to have a hard time launching an ERP product)
* Invest in very few core names, build the rest of your convention around them
* Do not name stuff you are not going to support or invest in over the long term
* Don't work too hard. Even if you don't love the name, even if it doesn't make sense, if people already love it and are aware of it, keep it.
Also wanted to make a quick plug for Susan Giordano and Christopher Ireland who have done a bang up job for us on a number of corporate ID and naming efforts.
Posted by johnza at 02:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 03, 2004
More about truth...
the media drop: Truth Be Told Great exposition by the folks at The Media Drop on our Jefferson quote about truth in advertising. They clearly note that in some ways ads are forced to be more truthly both by law and by what they describe. Where news and other media have to make tons of choices about what they cover and don't cover, face the biases of their reporters, owners, advertisers etc. Really interesting. Makes me feel less bad about being a marketing shill.Posted by johnza at 04:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 02, 2004
New "Marketing Ps" for Blogs
Pheedo - Maximizing the Value of Weblog Advertising The Marketing Ps are one of the most standard tools for marketing strategy. Also known as the marketing mix, Product, Price, Place, Promotion. Alterations and additions abound. Most common is adding a 5th P, such as "people' (frankly we have often used 5 with postioning and packaging - as distinct from product - both playing an important role). The folks at Action Plan Marketing seem to agree. Now, the folks at Pheedo suggest that weblogs have "spawned a new set of P’s. 1. Personal - blogs add personality to your company 2. Permalink - the more comments, the more interesting and communal 3. Publish - the more fresh the better 4. Ping - keep listening, and listening to who's listening 5. Participate - link to others" And, they add another one - "patience" - weblog audiences are not built overnight.Posted by johnza at 10:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack