Phil's Blog

The Popular Strategy

Need a solution for your sales slump? Trying to build brand loyalty? Well, do what all sophisticated marketers doing these days: go social.

Wanna be popular? Then go for what's popular!

Sometimes, when something doesn't make sense, you do it anyway. Don't you remember high school?

Seriously, ad agencies telling their clients and pitching potential clients that all their answers are in the social media are advising from the shallow end of the pool.

So, befriend, poke and tweet. But do little thinking, too. What will get people to try your product and what won't? 

Monkey see, monkey do is not a sound marketing strategy. Even if it's popular.

Consulting For You -- A Fourth Anniversary

This blog celebrates its fourth anniversary this month. Hooray!

To celebrate, here is my very first blog post from November 2005:

“My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions.” --Peter F. Drucker After I retired from 30 years at General Mills, Six Flags and, on the agency side, from Campbell-Mithun (Minneapolis) and my own advertising agency partnerships, I traveled, I relaxed and I taught for a semester at the University of Florida. But I became a little bored. What to do? I love capitalism and, especially, marketing and advertising. So I became a part-time marketing consultant, part-time retiree. In the first two years of this new consulting career, I have been hired to coordinate ad agency (and PR firm) reviews. I have also helped advertisers (aka "clients") to negotiate better, often less expensive compensation agreements. I love it. If you and your management want to improve your marketing, conduct an agency review, negotiate a better compensation agreement, please call or email me. Let’s talk. Thank you. Phil Schwartz

Toy Strategies For Real Challenges

Two of the largest national toy retailers have announced (and begun) their holiday promotions.

Wal-Mart is repeating a program they started last year -- "100 Toys for $10." Instead of using the traditional strategy of lowering prices on what toy companies call the staples, they are lowering the prices on some well-known brands of toys (i.e., Barbie, LEGOs, etc.) to draw in customers hoping they'll buy the staples at full price. 

Toys R Us is going express. They're opening Toys R Us Express (280 locations) in vacant spaces of malls and shopping centers just for the holiday season. This saves on year-around staffing and overhead while focusing on this critical sales period. With about 250 toys per "pop up" location, they'll all be closed by mid-January.

They're also opening Holiday Express (60) areas within current Babies R Us stores. 

This Express or Pop Up strategy is often used by Halloween retailers. They take over vacant space or share space with retailers who aren't doing so well. Once Halloween is over, they're gone. 

Seems to me the strategy will become more prevalent in this Great Compression we're in. However, it isn't exactly new. Years ago, there were Marts that had dealers with seasonal items for sale. It was all based on quick opportunities to make a buck.

Phil

Unmarketing

Marketing Spending Plan Alternatives for 2010: Tight, Very Tight and Out of Business

Most marketers have been using the equivalent of a child's magic slate for their advertising plans recently. They inscribe a plan and, shortly thereafter, lift the sheet and the plan is erased. Then, a new one is written. It will meet the same fate. 

Now that it's planning season for 2010, a longer perspective (i.e., twelve months) is created. The spending levels laid out are so conservative that many of these companies will suffer substantial share losses. Some will "unmarket" themselves out of business.

This is the moment in time for advertisers to be opportunistic not to hide their heads, embrace denial or wait for things to return to the way they were.

It is now that we will start seeing the new concepts and new leaders that will emerge for our Great Compression. Who will avail themselves of opportunity and who will unmarket their former advantages?

Crowd Magnet at a Trade Show

Very few companies understand how to market themselves and their products at a trade show. Proof can be found in two forms. First, walk down the aisle of any trade show, consumer or industry, and count how often you are even slightly enticed by design or by humans to enter a booth. The number will be small. Second, observe who at the company is given responsibility for trade show marketing. You will discover it varies wildly and is often split up between two or more departments. All this is plainly wacky considering how much it costs to rent a booth; build, furnish and ship a display; supply collateral materials and pay for travel expenses and sales people to man (and woman) the booth for 3 days. Here are the key objectives of trade show marketing: 1. Draw qualified attendees to your booth, 2. Teach attendees about your product(s) and 3. Obtain their contact information for follow up by sales people at and after the show. In my experience, the consistently successful solution in getting qualified trade and consumer show attendees to enter your booth, learn about your product, and willingly leave their information is to hire David Stahl, who calls himself: the Crowd Magnet. On a 26-inch platform, in a booth 10 feet square, even in an obscure area of the exhibit hall, Stahl can bring into the booth at least 25% of the attendees walking the floor at a given moment. Yes, 25%. The booths around you should be pleased. And, he works from your product creative brief to tell, even teach, booth visitors key points about your product before he turns them over to your sales people. He does 4-5 (different) performances a day. He’s been doing them for 25 years, mostly in tech and finance shows plus many consumer shows. He is nothing short of amazing. In a 2-3 day show, he will attract almost everyone in the hall at least once. Visit his site.

Phil

The Cisco Kidding

"The future is already here. It's just unevenly distributed."                                                                            - William Gibson

There has been a lot of criticism of Cisco CEO John Chambers' new management structure. 

Cisco execs sit on ten-plus company committees to make them continually "rethink how they work" and what projects they work on. In total, there are now thirty management committees moving eventually toward fifty. 

In the business media and blogosphere, Chambers has been challenged, chided and some critics are even questioning his sanity. Well, when all the voices say the earth is flat, I'm inclined to take the other side, er, shape. 

When economists say times are great just before the collapse of financial and real estate markets, why should we believe them ever again? Today, they're saying the recession (Great Compression, to me) has now bottomed. Are they credible now? Course not. Next, you'll be believing in politicians and UFOs!

Back to the Cisco kid-ding. I think Chambers might be on to something significant for many large companies. I don't mean those just in technology but also in marketing, service and other big companies where innovation is key to their successes. Most of them are so structured, they become lethargic. They don't seem to be able to get out of their own way. 

Chambers says the committees will "keep people open minded." And focused on the future. Sounds good to me.

Phil

Lead, Follow or Be Pushed Out of the Way

"When we fix something, we break something else." - Ray Magliozzi, auto mechanic and Car Talk co-host.

Okay. This is not your plan for the future success of your company. But what is? In the agency and PR world, many are waiting. Waiting until "things get better" before investing in new ideas, services, directions. 

They've cut people and salaries a time or two like most everyone else. And they believe they'll be ready when "things get better."

That's a mistake. A big one. When "things get better" someone other than your agency will emerge already stronger and ready for the new normal. They weren't sitting on their hands (and minds) waiting to see what happens.

Try something now. Or when your ship comes in, it may be the Poseidon.

Much Ado About Nothing.

What's in store for you? Nothing.

Microsoft will (allegedly) open its first retail store more than 8 years after Apple opened its first stores. Gee, they introduced Zune just 5 years after the iPod. This time they don't want to rush.

Note: The photo shows the wall of their soon-to-open Mission Viejo store. Interesting choice of cities for their first store. Mission Viejo means "old task."

In other news, Microsoft announced the closing of its Museum of Progress due to a lack of exhibits.

Broken Brands - Part 3

"Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science but an art."           -Bill Bernbach

In the market for a new car? Even with uncertain prices at the pump, there's always a considerable consumer group in the market. Naturally, you would assume that the Web sites of auto companies, domestic and foreign would be more energetic and engaging than ever. After all, more than 85% of new car buyers do online research prior to visiting dealerships. That figure has remained constant for almost a decade. 

Apparently, the marketing brains at the car companies remain asleep. Their sites are, as my mother says, "dull as dishwater." 

No motion. No emotion. No people. No focus on you, the prospect. Just a picture of a car. Some have prices (Hyundai's are in motion). BMW asks you to complete a survey. General Motors is an essay about themselves. Chrysler assembles scenes before you for a variety of vehicles and may be the best of the dull.

It's hard to believe that companies without enthusiasm for their own products can succeed over time. There's opportunity for the car company that wakes up its brand and its site. Apparently, however, they think it takes as long to design a new approach as it does to design a new car.

Yawn.

Broken Brands - Part 2

Dear Copywriter,

Let's imagine it's a year from now. Or five. What are the emotionally charged and motivating words that you, an advertising copywriter, can use to draw interest, create buzz and, most importantly of all, get people to buy?

For the first time in advertising history, the word "New" with or without an exclamation mark will be innocuous. So will the word "Special." And forget about using the word "Sale" unless it's a sale on a sale on a sale.

"Lowest prices ever." -- Right.

"Never before seen" -- Uh huh.

"Today only" -- Sorry, I can't make it.

"Supplies are limited" -- Yawn.

Sorry, my copywriter friend, the welcome mat has been worn out during this recession.

Fortunately, there are two answers. Number one, is doing what used to be called "high school" advertising meaning using naughty words (oh no!) or writing suggestive headlines. What's the big concept here? Pull down your pants to get attention. (For examples, check your local stations. Cable, too.)

The other answer? Some strategizing with your favorite thinker, me. I'm only an email away.

My word!

Sincerely,

Phil