Posts filed under 'Uncategorized'
September 3rd, 2008
Despite high gas prices and general economic malaise, consumers are still spending money…but trading down to dollar stores and one-stop-shops like WalMart that are closer to their homes or offices. The biggest loser? Home improvement and home furnishing stores.
TNS Retail Forward’s survey shows a trickle-down thing but not in the way some economic theorists expect - shoppers that traditionally shopped at department stores are moving to discount retailers, and discount retailers are losing their traditional customers to dollar stores.
One of the most salient parts of the research shows that consumers (75% of them) are making a concerted effort to plan their errands to conserve as much gas as possible. Other results from the report:
| Planning errands to minimize the distance traveled |
75%
|
| Going to stores where I can do one-stop shopping |
58%
|
| Going to stores that are closer to home or work |
55%
|
| Doing more activities around the house instead of driving places |
47%
|
| Doing more online shopping |
26%
|
| Visiting friends and family that don’t live close by less often |
23%
|
| Reducing miles driven during vacations |
17%
|
| Walking/bicycling to places instead of driving |
15%
|
| Doing more carpooling |
10%
|
| Using public transportation |
8%
|
| Telecommuting to work/working from home more often |
6%
|
So, what’s a local business to do?
1. Partner with neighboring businesses. Saving on gas is making those “lifestyle centers” and downtown shopping districts a whole lot more attractive - park once and get all your shopping done in one location. Organize a sidewalk sale or cross-promote with your neighbor; chances are, people will be drawn in with the promise of saving a few bucks on gas.
2. Offer to rebate a customer’s gas bill. If you’re in a particularly far-flung location, a gas incentive might just be the ticket…provided customers make a minimum purchase.
3. Make sure your website has pricing information and displays sales details prominently. More consumers are doing online research instead of driving from store to store.
4. Highlight any “private label” brands you may offer. Consumers are now more than willing to try store brands to save a few bucks over name brands.
5. Recognize a shifting demographic in your store. You may be losing regular customers to lower-priced rivals but gaining others that shopped more upscale businesses. Capitalize on these new customers and don’t let them go. Capture their contact information to grow your database.
6. Make sure your customers feel appreciated and informed. Don’t let up on customer service just because you’re down in the dumps about the economy. New customers will turn into repeat customers if you provide a quality product at a fair price and with good service.
We’re all struggling at the moment - believe me, with a husband who drives back and forth to Hoffman Estates every day, I know from high gas prices - but we’re all in this together. As the inimitable Jerry Springer says, “Take care of yourself…and each other.”
July 24th, 2008
Young people don’t much like the Olympic Games, much to marketers’ chagrin. But 2008 could change that according to this piece in today’s Washington Post. This year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) loosens its rules on social media like Flickr and “Citizen Journalists” by allowing athletes to blog and networks to air live streaming video on websites instead of on TV. But sorry YouTube - the IOC is still clutching on to its video by embedding digital fingerprints and other fancy security software to keep “pirating” at a minimum.
NBC Universal is already on track to produce the most “digitized” Olympic Games ever with 3,600 hours of digital streams - triple what they did for the Athens Games. Which means more opportunities for you to watch those heart-rendering profiles on athletes who’ve overcome unbelievable odds to show up on the world stage…or to watch your favorite obscure sport (Handball, anyone?) online instead of waiting until it airs on tape-delay at 3 am.
Local business owners can tap into the Olympic spirit as well - local NBC affiliate WREX-TV already has its own Olympic Zone on its website - click here - and packages for local advertisers. WREX rep Scott Dimke says there are advertising opportunities still available for local ads to air within the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as daytime, evening and weekend spots. They also provide opportunities for online/digital exposure as well.
Can’t wait? Below are some Olympics-related commercials already on the air around the world. Or visit a previous ADWire post about Visa’s campaign.
Want to see Yao and LeBron duke it out or an absolutely beautiful 5-minute spot from China? Just visit YouTube and search for “2008 Olympics advertising.” I’m quite sure there’s more awe-inspiring advertising to come - stay tuned!
July 8th, 2008
Web site security. Although this is a technical discussion, it can have a serious marketing and business impact. Especially when you are trying to drive visitors to your site and it is down for two weeks because the data has been hacked.
Microsoft has taken the unusual step of issuing a security bulletin for something called “Rise in SQL Injection Attacks”. Although not a particularly attention-grabbing title, this is an exceptional subject for a security bulletin because it’s not about a specific Microsoft product that’s patchable, but rather coding practices in general.
“SQL Injection” is a technique used to “hack” websites, and unfortunately, a great deal of websites are vulnerable to it (some estimates suggest “hundreds of thousands”, but it may be many, many more). Hackers typically use automated tools to find vulnerable sites, and then “inject” malicious code that can do any number of things. In recent weeks there has been a huge surge in the volume of these attacks.
These range from simply adding code that causes a virus infection on a visitors browser, to editing or changing any content on your website, or in the extreme case, completely wiping out the website. The consequences of an attack should be pretty clear - for less extreme attacks, you may not even realise there’s a problem, but it’s more likely that the attack may cause inconvenience or embarrassment. In the extreme case, a well-crafted attack can have disastrous implications to a business-critical website, totally disabling a business, or result in the theft of credit card data and associated financial loss.
Links to documentation on SQL injection and coding best practices:
SQL Server Injection Protection
Preventing SQL Injections in ASP
How To: Protect from SQL Injection in ASP.NET
Coding Techniques for protecting against SQL Injection in ASP.NET
Filtering SQL Injection from Classic ASP
Security Vulnerability Research & Defense Blog on SQL Injection Attack
June 19th, 2008
Copy-writing is a skill, a talent and, in many cases, a gift. So what can you do to turn your company’s brochure into something that makes a good impression on potential and current clients? Here are some basic dos and don’ts for writing brochure copy:
1. Emphasize client benefits. The brochure isn’t about your company - it’s about what your company can do for your client. You have to shift your point of view to that of your buyers’. Empathize with them and tell them directly how your company or product can help them solve their problems, make them more efficient and improve their bottom-lines.
2. Write for your audience. Don’t talk to engineers like they’re pre-schoolers and vice versa.
3. Headlines matter. One of the hardest copy-writing skills to hone is writing tight, descriptive and interesting headlines. Spend some time in this area; headlines will draw your readers in and get them to read further. Mention titles or specific challenges within your target audience’s realm of influence. For example, which would be of more interest to a small-business owner reading a brochure about a new service that can manage, track and store his customer contact database?
“Announcing the End of the Spreadsheet”
or
“XYZ Corp’s Online User Interface and Tracking System”
4. Less is More. I was an English major at Rockford College, where complex sentences were the norm. Not so in advertising. Keep it short, witty and light. Break long paragraphs up with clever headlines (see above) and graphics.
5. A Call to Action. A brochure is only a first step in the sales process. Include a call to action - a phone number, a web visit, etc. - and follow up with a personal sales call or demonstration.
6. PROOFREAD. One of the tricks I learned at the aforementioned Rockford College is to read your copy backwards, sentence by sentence. Try it - it got me through 4 years of Shakespeare, Milton and Poe term papers.
April 22nd, 2008
A recent article from MediaPost Publications highlights the exceptionally high rate of word-of-mouth recommendations by expectant and new mothers. Overall, pregnant women and new moms engage in one-third more WOM conversations per day than women in general, and almost two-thirds of their conversations include brand recommendations, one study found. The same study also showed that nearly 70% of this group deems what they hear from their fellow moms to be very credible, and 51% are likely to pass the information along to others and indicate intent to purchase based on the information. As you would imagine, much of their conversation centers around children’s products, but it is evident that discussions go far beyond kid-oriented products/brands. That’s the good news!
Researchers point out that 76% of all U.S. moms say that they use the Net for support and guidance and 70% participate in online communities. One case-in-point in our area is “mom’s place,” (www.nwherald.com/moms) a landing page linked from the Northwest Herald Newspaper’s front page online.
The numbers are clear that marketers should include WOM within the marketing objective;
· make it easy for consumers to share info with one another
· use artful storytelling to create differentiation in the customer’s mind
· encourage participation, collaboration and contribution
So, could your blog use some stories? Have you looked at ways to reach this talkative segment of the market? One thing is for certain, always include a ‘send to a friend’ option on email news and publications because most likely, they will.
March 13th, 2008
So what does South By Southwest (SXSW) have to do with North in Illinois? Perhaps more than you think. This conglomerate show of music, new media, film, web and art design has grown into one of the best showcases of new talent and a preview of coming trends. Known by many as the Live Music Capitol of the World, Austin, Texas is a town of idea generation and the festival is growing exponentially. Having attended 2 years ago myself, I can attest to the sometimes baffling and no less than amazing amount of music (happening on 80 stages across the city), but have now become more attuned to what’s new in New Media and by viewing this year’s winners and it is clear to see that the rest of the country will be taking notes from the Texas capitol.
One of the most notable aspects of SXSW is the seamless integration of each division of the festival through websites saturated with video, links and interactive teasers sure to grab attention. We are talking about interactive podcasts, video of where to go in the convention center, and live chat with participants and presenters. It truly does seem like you can feel the pulse of what happened… http://pulse.sxsw.com/
Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh presents “Top Ten Lessons Learned in E-Commerce” at SXSW Interactive 2008. Photo by David Fox.
Check out top creative minds in music, art, interactive, blog, web design, business and film making, and learn how to stay fresh and inventive from the best in our field. http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/web_awards/winners/
“The SXSW INTERACTIVE FESTIVAL celebrates the creativity and passion behind the coolest new media technologies. In addition to panel sessions that cover everything from web design to bootstrapping to social networks, attendees make new business connections at the three-day Trade Show & Exhibition.” http://2008.sxsw.com/interactive/
Explore these sites and there is no doubt you will be energized to get creative!
March 10th, 2008
Is there something that your company can offer that will connect you with the community and potential customers, even at 2 a.m.? White Castle grabbed some attention by marking the time change over the weekend…something most people sleep through… and offered 2 free burgers to customers who came in between 1 and 2 a.m. Sunday morning. They made a celebration of a very mundane event, calling it “Daylight Cravings Time.” Though this was a short term promotion, it shows ingenuity and creative thinking and begs the question – how can your company or organization tie in to a holiday or calendar event like St. Patrick’s Day even April Fool’s Day!
Full article: http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=77966&Nid=40156&p=927852
March 6th, 2008
Fashion colors spring 08
There is plenty of evidence that colors in design mimic trends in fashion. As spring approaches, (and it is coming), it could be advantageous to bring some new color into your marketing materials to reflect the season. You can attract attention and reflect a contemporary image by simply adding new colors to an E-newsletter or postcard, or even something as simple as changing the color on your email signature. Check out this assessment from Pantone, the experts on all things color…
“Vibrant Snorkel Blue, a favorite this season among designers, is a dependable navy, but with more animation and sophistication. Warm, cheerful Freesia is an uplifting and inviting color to which people are instinctively drawn. It is also a color that allows for diverse accessorizing opportunities in jewelry and shoes. Brighter reds are consistent favorites in spring, and provocative Rococco Red is an exciting, attention-getting classic. The deep pink undertones of flowery Spring Crocus make it among the prettiest, most wearable purples.”
Read the rest of the article and get the latest news on color trends -
http://www.fashiontrendsetter.com/content/color_trends/2007/Pantone-Fashion-Color-Report-Spring-2008.html
March 5th, 2008
Is advertising on mobile phones the next great trend in the United States? With Nielsen’s latest report saying mobile phone ads are getting response rates of up to 50% - meaning HALF the people who viewed an ad actually responded to it in some fashion in the past 30 days - it would appear so. (And, for comparison purposes, a response rate in the mid-single-digits for a direct mail campaign is considered a smashing success.)
See the Nielsen survey results here.
This echoes earlier studies that shows mobile phone ads gaining acceptance - especially among “Generation Y.” This survey also noted that up to one-third of users would opt in to receive advertising in exchange reducing the cost of text messaging or other mobile communications options.
Certainly the field is in its infancy…at least here in this country…and will need to shake out before a reliable model is in place that everyday advertisers can use.
But, maybe ads on mobile phones aren’t as annoying as detractors would have us believe.
March 3rd, 2008
Rockford is home to lots of great advertising….and many of the area’s advertising pros gathered last Thursday (2.28.08) for the annual ADDY advertising award to recognize our work.
These awards are held by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) of Northern Illinois and are the first stop for campaigns as they move up to regional and, ultimately, national competition. Lots of great campaigns were recognized - take a peek at the winners and the video of the presentation:
List of winners
Award Presentation Video
ADDY Awards celebration pics
About the ADDY Awards
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