Musings Of A Marketer

What may be best for you - sign a contract to get a superstar an official endorser of your brand, or count on the ordinary people to spread the good rumour around? The answer, as obvious as it may seem, is never so clear.

With the recent Olympic hype, let me take a couple of examples from this huge event of the year.

Nike were set to a heavy position when their competitor Adidas were taken as the official sponsor of the Games. Their obvious way around, of course, was to use the athletes they are sponsoring as the official endorsers of the brand. One of the most important figures that Nike gave credit to was Liu Xiang, the “best Chinese track-and-field athlete ever”, as Nike’s manager had put it. Not to put the athlete’s skills and prominence to doubt, but he lost his race this time, without showing any spark. It is up to Nike to calculate the outcome of this failure, but obviously, they lost on this sponsorship, at least during these two weeks.

Let us now take a woman, who has hardly been known to public before the 2nd week of the Games started. This story from USA TODAY has caught my attention, so here I pass it further. Debbie Phelps is a loyal customer of Chico’s, selling clothes targeting at baby-boomers. I am sure the Chico’s people would have never expected anything from this lady. But, see, her son had to beat a outstanding record to bring his mom on to public. Guess what she was wearing. Every time she was on TV or print, Chico’s had free exposures to the world.

“Customers have been coming in and asking for what she’s wearing,” the Brand President Michele Cloutier said.

Of course, Debbie Phelps is not an ordinary person any more, but I believe she used to be one not so long ago. And no one could imagine her as a possible powerful brand advocate just a month ago… Now, there she is, not as good as her sponsored son, but good enough to pay attention…

What happens when you start marketing before you are ready? Do you know a great way to throw your marketing money away without any effort?

I have changed an Internet provider recently at home. I am not loyal to anyone here, so I don’t have a problem switching to the one with a better offer. Akado approached me with a decent offer: higher speed, lower price - just what I needed. After 2 weeks of happiness, the connection was down. For several days the customer service kept promising to fix it (always tomorrow, of course) until finally they confessed that they didn’t know when they could actually fix it. So, after a week offline, I changed back to the previous provider.

Conclusion: why keeping extensive efforts on acquiring new customers when you have no power to deal with the existing ones?

P.S. When the connection was down I received an invitation to join Akado in my mailbox. How careless (or should I say, stupid) would you be to do that? Do they keep any track of who they contact?

These guys are advertising very aggressively: TV, radio, outdoor, print… But try to search in the forums - most of the feedback on Akado from the existing clientelle is negative - why not spend some money on winning their credit back?

I was writing not so long ago, about Jon Lunetta trying to approach the Russian mobile marketers here in Russia, and how slow (actually zero response) the latter were… This is the tendency with mobile marketing here in Russia: companies open for a certain client - be it a old buddy or good partner from previous business, and that client remains a very major one - if not the only one. Basically, the methods of mobile advertising would focus on text-to-win campaigns.

Just today I noticed a poster advertising a mobile marketing campaign for a beer brand Velkopopovitskiy Kozel. And this is the first campaign that I have in memory, which focuses on something more than simple text-to-win. This campaign attempts to create a certain community around the brand. The technique is as follows: you need to sms 2 codes to a short number (priced at the level of ordinary sms) to be able to create a virtual tavern. Here is where you invite your friends, who need to have a couple of beers at your tavern (i.e. sms a couple of codes to the shortcode). In the end the winner (announced every day, according to the number of friends who visit your tavern) receives a prize. What is not so good about the campaign is that it only lasts 2 months - not so smart if you wish to build a community around your brand. I guess this was not the idea… Another problem is the campaign’s website. It’s nice, cute and has got a bit of humour. But it’s soooo slow - must be lighter, definitely.

Anyway, good to see that the innovative methods are acquired around here. Wether this is a single exception or a tendency - we should see, but anyway. Unfortunately, this cool idea comes again from a beer brand, which means that the major threat for businesses come not from competition but from legislative restrictions. The bonds imposed on alcoholic brands make the players keep searching for new ways of advertising, while the industries where legislation is more liberal are still seeing sweet dreams of prosperity, without having to compete with their peers, the clients or government… None needs to do anything as long as everyone is happy…

Valeria Maltoni, writes here in her posting about the talking that can fail or improve your customer service. She has 10 points, which I would summarise into the following:

1. Instead of your own talking - let your customers do it, and keep listening to the carefully. Which, in its turn, means that you will HAVE TO act on the feedback you receive.

2. Let you front people - those who actually are assigned to receive the feedback - act on the feedback. This will increase your flexibility - just let them feel they have the power to da it, and allocate the necessary resources to act. And ALWAYS listen to the front people - they are talking your customers’ position.

3. Keep your brand promises. Positive experience is the best advertisement you can come up with.

4. Have your customer service. And now that you have it - use it. It is not smth you are forced to have by law, so do not treat it as an inevitable cost, but turn it into an inalienable asset that brings value to you and your customers.

Paul William’s post at MarktetingProfs Daily Fix Blog has caught my attention. Dealing with branding in terms of reputation in the first place would sound pretty much like something obvious, but how often do you really take that step as the first step?

A number of factors (call it filters) are put down for you to consider how well you are performing to keep your reputation at a decent level:

1. Being remarkable. Obviously, try to not only find a point differentiating yourself from your customer, but make it as clear for the customer. Make them notice you and give them a chance to talk about you as someone who stands out (in a positive wat, naturally).

2. Having Values. Financial results are part of the objectives, but they can’t be the core of the business. Try make the financial success smth that goes alongside with the main idea of the business essence. Stand for something that your customers will believe in.

3. Being Genuine. Be real, do not try to disguise yourself into something you want to be but you are not. You will be discovered one day, and that’s the end.

4. Having Empathy. Treat your customers so they become loyal customer. Treat your loyal customers so they bring you more loyal customers. Breed the evangelists, mother the fans so that it pays off soon enough.

5. Having Vision. I mean, really having it. Not for having it but for having it but for doing it. Create a dream and live to bring it through - for yourself, your employees and your customers.

6. Being Conscientious. This is about everything you do. Be honest to yourself and to everyone around, have strong beliefs, cultivate and support them.

A nice one from Paul Williams, should bring some thoughts on the subject, whatever business you are in…

Among other things, I have been busy last week completing the content-filling and adaptation / localization process for a website. This is an international company, they have sites for at least 10 countries already, and now they are opening in Russia, too.

So, what is the main lesson one will learn when creating a site (be it from the scratch or just an adaptation – believe me – no difference)? The lesson is that you will never finish with it…

No matter how carefully you check it, serious bugs, or as a best case scenario, stupid mistypes – they are always there. Check it… Double check it… Wouldn’t help…

But this is not something that has to stop you from going online. That is where you need this small lable BETA. Tell your visitors that you are ready to go, but still looking for bugs, and encourage them to help you with it. Leave the contact form and the contact details as visible as possible, let people talk to you, and start collecting wonderful ideas from smart and experienced net-surfers, let alone their comments about the bugs and mistakes you might have missed…

One day or another you have to expect that you will have to increase prices for your product/service. The level will depend, of course, and here, in Russia, it is hardly acceptable. Government can’t help it, their forecasts and plans for the forthcoming year are never true. So, what would be your way out - how are you going to settle your pricing policy without jeopardising your relationships with the customers?

Depending on your industry flexibility, there’s a good way to implement target price increase. Raise air ticket prices as much as you can for those business people who need to fly urgently on a specific date, and return the next day. Raise you hotel room prices for those who order specific rooms on a specific date - and that means tomorrow. Keep the prices fixed for those who order 3 months before. Keep the prices at the same level for schoolkids who travel on their summer holidays, and increase the prices for the parents accompanying. Keep the prices (or try to lower them) for oldies who visit their kids’ families.

Or, simple as that - give your customers a little more than you offered before. For me here, in Moscow, a nice and sincere smile from a pretty sales lady will be more than enough in many cases (’cause it’s really a rare occasion and a very big deal here)…
Big deal for me - big deal for you if you sell me smth that way

That’s a strange feeling - being neglected as a loyal customer…

Think of it this way: who you could be loyal to in your life? Your parents, your kids and your spouse. Your friends and your very best partners. Think of being neglected by them. Exaggeration? Not really: I may be exaggerating the customers’ feelings a bit, but not the way you as a business should treat this sort of situations. Never make people feel any close to this - there are too many businesses who will gladly take over your position.

There’s a great computer/electronics store here in Moscow, Sunrise. A very interesting self-service idea: you come over, order everything by yourself using one of the many computers inside. Get a slip to pay with, and after paying you pick up your order at a storeroom. This is a rough description, but I must say, basically, all is very well organised, and they save a lot of costs there, which positions them the best in the city in terms of procing - better even than Internet-shops.

Just recently I found myself nearby and bought an portable HD, and, separately, a rack for it. 2,5 inches drive, and, naturally, 2.5 inches rack… Coming home I find that the rack is 3.5, double check with the papers: 2.5. Ok, I have to go back, which I do. But they would not take it back, and the reason is… there is no serial number, and I cannot prove that I bought it from them, even though all papers are with me… I have to write an official letter, and their lawyers will reply… yeah, right… If you know these procedures in Russia, you rather kill yourself than start all this red tape. And all because of 10 bucks… No problem, I eat it. Just one good deed: I should write to the people from their website, just to help out: guys, you have a mistake - just change 2.5 to 3.5 in your online price list. Not so big a deal… 2 months have passed, no response, no reaction…

Over the last year I spent around 10,000 bucks there, buying stuff for myself and bringing my friends there… Can I hope for a better treatment? Can those 10 bucks be a way to mess it all up? No, not so much the 10 bucks, but their neglect - maybe. I know at least, that I will think twice now before I choose to order from that store again…

This is a very interesting phenomenon: some brands that have a specific emotional background tend to age together with their consumers. Many examples would come from cosmetics brands: these very often target various ages with various products. Soon as the audience is firmly up on your product you have to treat them with special care: people are the same but they are not the same people any longer. Communication must change respectively, and so must the product accompanied by that communication. Chanel #5 did a good job to come back, who else?

Something similar goes to brands in transition economies. These brands, however, grow old overnight. They do not just age with ageing audience but rather become outdated with new mentality coming in. Economies are set free, borders open and new strong brands with strong managerial expertise come to play. The “old” brands are just not able to compete, and the only connotative aspect that is left is the nostalgic emotions that people feel when hearing the brand name familiar from those “good old days when we were young”… This is the feeling that managers often appeal to when trying to revive their brands. But in most cases it’s a dead end - the audience is not as promising as the new wave…

Here below is a very interesting idea how to ornate a public toilet in a mall. This was implemented in Portugal. Allegedly, this is for a more lusty experience in a lavatory. Could be just a joke for fun. But here is an idea for an advertiser: dress those ladies in branded underwear, and a cool, fun advertising media is there for you