Category: Marketing Trends/News

By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, Energy & Sustainability, language, Marketing Trends/News, Politics, propaganda, Transparency vs. Secrecy, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Want to buy a scientist?

When you find a scientist who claims to show that human-caused catastrophic climate change either isn’t real or isn’t a problem or doesn’t really exist, you usually find a money trail leading to one of the worst polluters (usually, oil giant ExxonMobil, sometimes, petrochemical magnates and right-wing darlings Koch brothers).

But ultra-right-wing think-tanks play in this sandbox too. Friday, TriplePundit posted leaked secret anti-climate-change strategy documents from Heartland Institute; they actually have the chutzpah to put $100,000 toward developing a K-12 school curriculum to

…show that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain – two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science.

Oh yes, and they’ve also set aside $18,000 a monthly to fund pundits who present the climate-change-is-not-a-problem viewpoint.

Hmm, that sounds a lot like the attempts by creationists to throttle the study of evolution and biology. When science can’t back up your position, influence young kids with the Big Lie technique that was so beloved by Nazi propagandists. And the get television news commentators to present a “fair and balanced” approach, pitting your purchased experts against objective scientists as if they were equally credible, and sow doubt in the public mind.

To climate skeptics, I say “look out the window.” In my own area of Western Massachusetts alone, we’ve experienced the following just since June 1:

None of these events are the normal weather pattern around here.

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By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, General Commentary, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Marketing Trends/News, People Helping People, Publishing, Uncategorized

This is a guest post by Edward Hasbrouck, author of The Practical Nomad, in a rebuttal to Amazon’s latest blow against independent bookstores: getting its customers to spy on them for price checks and then buy online. Remember: when big dogs attack, we are stronger in a circle than standing alone.

Here’s Edward now.
—Shel Horowitz

Amazon.com wants you to browse your local bookstore to find the books you want, then go to Amazon.com to see if you can get them cheaper online. Why not turn the tables? Go ahead and browse the reviews on Amazon.com to find books that might interest you—then order them from your local bookstore, where there are no shipping charges and you can pick books up at your convenience without having to wait at home for a delivery.

The links from both my own Web site (Hasbrouck.org) and my publisher’s site for my book series (PracticalNomad.com) go to Powells. if you sign up as a Powells.com “affiliate”, and include the appropriate code in your links, you also get a cut of sales referred from those links. Small, but royalties on book sales are also small, and every penny helps. It took some effort to get my publisher to link from their site to Powells.com for my books instead of Amazon.com (their default), but eventually they agreed.

You can also create direct links for a specific book from Indiebound/Booksense, a joint online marketing effort of local independent bookstores. If someone follows the link, they can find out what store has the book in stock nearby, or request that a copy be sent to a store near them for pickup. And as with Powell’s, you sign up with them as an affiliate to get a small referral commission.

 

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By Posted on Posted in Abundance and Prosperity, Demographics/Psychographics, Energy & Sustainability, Frugality/Frugal Fun, Green Business, Marketing Trends/News, People Helping People, Shel's Personal Life Tagged with , , , , , , ,

This is a reminder of two critical concepts for the coming years:

1. Money is not a goal; it is a means of accomplishing something. While having more money means you can purchase the goods or services you want, there are often other ways to accomplish the goal.

2. Buying stuff is not the only way to accomplish something.

Here’s a look at how to leverage other  methods of getting your needs met and your wants fulfilled.

Zipcar just commissioned a study on the sharing habits of Millennials, showing that they are more willing to share not just cars, but a wide range of resources, than their parents and grandparents.

That may be true of the majority culture, but there are plenty of us older folks who know a good thing when they see it. I’ve been lifelong practitioner of this sort of approach, and a public advocate all the way back to at least 1995, when I published my fourth book, The Penny-Pinching Hedonist. I’m turning 55 on Saturday, and here are some among many sharing experiences I’ve had over the years:

  • As a college student in Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1973-76, I became aware of a mostly Quaker community called The Vale. Instead of everyone going out and buying a lawnmower, they pitched in and bought a communal tractor.
  • In 1990, when laser printers cost several thousand dollars, I organized a co-op and brought in a bookstore owner, a community activist, and a magazine publisher to share the costs of purchasing one (it lived at my house, since I organized it).
  • As a member of Servas since 1983 and Couchsurfing since 2009, I’ve shared my home with strangers traveling through, and received hospitality form others on three continents.
  • My neighbors, a Republican mainstream farm family, constantly drive each other’s vehicles. The question seems to be what’s the best car, truck, or tractor for the task, and not who owns it.
  • Two decades ago, I was on the board of a group called Homesharing in Hampshire County: a mainstream social service agency that matched up people with extra space in their homes (often elders in need of both companionship and home/property maintenance) with people who needed a place to live.
  • Thirty years ago, I lived in a community in West Philadelphia (a place with good public transit), where three or four cars were shared among about 120 people, as needed, and users paid a small fee per mile to cover costs. When we needed to make a supermarket run or fill our water jugs (we all hated the municipal water, so we self-bottled 50 gallons at a time at a spring in the next town), we borrowed one of the communal cars. Most of this community lived in group housing: six or eight people sharing a big old Victorian. It worked out very nicely.
  • For a decade at least, Freecycle has provided a formal structure to get rid of stuff you no longer need by passing it on to someone else, or to get something you need without having to buy it.

The article, in The Atlantic, also linked to a cool website (and concept) called Collaborative Consumption, which may be increasingly important as we try to turn the world green.

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By Posted on Posted in Business Ethics, censorship, General Commentary, Marketing Trends/News Tagged with , , , ,

There’s dumb, and there’s dumber, and then there’s really dumb.

Sometimes, it takes an advanced degree to be really dumb. Like the lawyers who work for the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A. In their infinite wisdom, these lawyers apparently decided they own the phrase “eat more,” and went after EatMoreKale.com for trademark infringement.

Sorry, but this doesn’t wash. Coupling the words “eat” and “more” predates Chick-fil-A, I’m guessing, by about 1000 years. Chick-fil-A also deliberately misspells its slogan, which is actually appropriate for trademarking, because trademark law rewards unique spelling (yeah, trademark law is one reason for the dumbing down of our whole culture—but that’s a post for another day). Since its actual slogan is “EAT MOR CHIKIN,” the company might have a claim for “eat” followed by “mor” without the e at the end, all in caps.

But NOBODY except a very dumb lawyer can possibly confuse three cows on a white background, each holding a word of the thin, handlettered-looking misspelled Chick-fil-A slogan, with the thick black letters, bright green circle, and black background of EatMoreKale.com—any more than they’d confuse eating fast-food factory meat with kale.

Is it any wonder that people make so many lawyer jokes? Can somebody please tell the Chick-fil-A lawyers to get a life?

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By Posted on Posted in Abundance and Prosperity, Diversity, Entrepreneurship, General Commentary, Marketing Trends/News, People Helping People, Socially Responsible Investing Tagged with , , , , , ,

The pundits have dubbed today “CyberMonday,” meaning we good little sheep are to go bravely forth over our modems and contribute to the global economy, from the comfort of our homes and offices.

Well, sorry, but I’m not playing. I did participate in Small Business Saturday, whose focus was on buying local. But I feel no need to glorify online commerce.

I’m actually a strong advocate of buying local when it’s practical. Local purchasing means money stays local. The people employed by locally owned stores spend their own money right here in my community. And the jobs I help create reduce unemployment right here where I live. And the culture of locally owned bookstores, artist venues, hardware stores and such makes my community a more desirable place to live. That’s the kind of abundance I wish to encourage.

Mind you, I’m not a purist. I do buy online. I do even buy from chain stores sometimes. I do see the occasional movie at the mall (though I see a far greater number at my local independent cinemas). But today, as millions rush to their workstations to undermine the lcoal economies, I can bloody well keep my wallet away from my computer. If I buy anything today, it will be at a local store.

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By Posted on Posted in Customer Service as Marketing, Marketing Trends/News Tagged with , ,

I have long said that your brand is the sum of people’s perceptions of you–real or imagined. Customers and prospects weigh more heavily in the construction of a brand than people outside your sphere, but all of it counts.

And that’s why bad customer service can undo all the hard and expensive work you might be doing with traditional branding such as your logo, slogan, appearance of your facility, and so forth.

If you don’t believe me, go read Tracey Ahring’s customer service horror story—and note what she called it: “Marketing Lessons from the Water Company.” Like me, she sees customer service as very much a marketing function, and you might get a kick out of watching tear this clueless company to ribbons. While this particular company is a monopoly, most of the time, our customers have choices of where they bring their purchasing dollars. And when a company behaves like this, it not only loses those dollars forever, but also the money their friends and colleagues and 10,000 social media friends might have spent.

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By Posted on Posted in Advertising, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Marketing Trends/News, Publishing, Uncategorized Tagged with ,

In this month’s newsletter, I wrote about the most elaborate press kit I’ve ever received, including a video player, a bottle, and more. To see, please click the link above and then click on “current issue” (that should work until about November 15).

I’d love to know what you think about it. Meanwhile, I got a reader response, and permission to share with you. If you have a response, please share it at the bottom of *this* page.

Wow, I’d wonder how many of THOSE packages the author or his minions had prepared and sent out. I would definitely want to at least scan the book to see where such marketing techniques are discussed, and I’d certainly (based on my own curiosity having been so piqued) be interested in a substantive discussion of such marketing and the strategies and principles that underlie it.

I’d also like to know if such a strategy gets results, or just a momentary interest.

Or if those two are actually the same thing.

And then, how does one translate principles at the heart of something like that — targeted to people interested in the very fact of the marketing campaign (a marketing expert!), who might be expected to look deeper into the marketing itself even if it were not so intricate — to selling, say, hair shampoo or breakfast food, where the motivation to look deeper would be less ever-present?

And finally, for us po’ folk, how do WE do something in any way similar to THAT! (Without being served a cease and desist order from Heinz Ketchup). Pat. PS- You can quote me, if you’ve a mind to and anything I said was not said by ten or twenty other people more concisely or entertainingly.

— Pat Goudey O’Brien
PGO Editorial Resource
The Tamarac Press
141 A Tamarac St
Warren, VT 05674
802.349.7475
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By Posted on Posted in Advertising, Demographics/Psychographics, Marketing Trends/News, Networking, Shel's Personal Life, Web 2.0/Social Media Tagged with , , ,

Memo to Mark Zuberberg: You are not invincible. Facebook did not get to be the top social media network because it was terrific, but only because it’s so much better than MySpace. There’s always been lots of room for improvement, and yet, in the 4 years I’ve been a Facebooker, at least half the changes make it harder to use and/or more intrusive.

And now, with Google+ waiting in the wings, your position is precarious. Just as it did with search, Google provides a qualitatively better user experience; all it needs now is an active and vibrant user base. Meanwhile, Facebook’s user experience just took a serious turn for the worse. Again.

Some of these bone-headed things I just don’t understand, especially when you think about how much of Facebook’s income stream is generated by professional marketers—marketers who have, in many cases, invested significant time and money into their fanpages and their ad campaigns.

  • All of a sudden, the default is NOT to get mail from Facebook. Facebook’s fastest growing demographic segments are 40 and over, and (unlike our children) we, for the most part, don’t spend our entire waking lives on social media. For those accustomed (as I am) to going on Facebook by following an e-mail link, you’ve just cut out much of their viewing time, unless they notice and switch the setting from the default (which I did).
  • Used to be, when you added a friend, you got access to your friend category lists and could add someone to multiple lists with a couple of clicks. Now, it shows just a few. Even clicking “Show All Lists” results in only the first nine choices. I have about 40 categories, in part because of the (idiotic and now finally abandoned, I think) 20-name limit on how many people you could send a notice to at once within a friend category. So for categories where I know a lot of people, like high school buddies, residents of my area, and marketers, I have multiple lists. Now I have no way to put people in the right category unless it’s one of the first nine in my selection. UGH! Google+ got this one right from the very beginning, noting that we have different types of people in our lives, and message/interact with them differently. Mark, do you really think paying my VA to do this simple thing for me is going to add value to my perception of Facebook?
  • Links from e-mails go to unexpected places. Several times, I’ve tried to click on a discussion and end up in my main page. then I have to hunt for the person I’m talking to, figure out where the message history is that day, and waste time. When that happens, the temptation is great to simply not continue the conversation.

Mind you, I’m not criticizing the changes just because they’re new and different (though it does seem that just as we learn how to navigate the latest interface, it shifts again). Some of them improve the experience. I like getting an e-mail with a whole thread worth of posts. I like the ticker. And I like that Facebook quietly introduced the long-sought feature a couple of months ago that allows owners of a fanpage to e-mail their fans (those who’ve clicked Like).

But really, you have to wonder if they’ve ever heard of beta-testing or focus groups over there. In the words of one well-known marketer who posted a comment on my annoyed post, “Google+ here we go!”

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By Posted on Posted in Advertising, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies, Marketing Trends/News, Shel's Personal Life Tagged with , , , , ,

If you’re in the marketing world, you’ve probably heard people say “I want this to go viral” or even “I’m going to make a viral video.”

The problem with that is that none of us can control what takes off in the public imagination, or even in the imaginations of enough of a cult that something goes viral within a niche.

Sometimes, the deliberate efforts of creators are successful. I am guessing the “Will It Blend?” ad series was designed very carefully to be passed around a lot. But other times, all the careful design in the world still results in only a few thousand pass-alongs. I’d say the vast majority of projects designed to go viral achieve very little traction—because the market recognizes when it’s being manipulated, and most attempts at deliberate “virality” contain a strong, obvious commercial element

And yet, the ones that really do go viral often don’t try to make any money. I am quite sure that Susan Boyle never dreamed that her video audition for “Britain’s Got Talent” would be seen by more than 86 million people (the combined view stats for just the first two out of 1,460,000 results for a Google search on “susan boyle britains got talent”). I just watched it again, and am still amazed by not only the power of her singing, but the contrast with her frumpy appearance and clueless personality. How could you not fall in love with that video?

Thinking about this today as I look over the comments for two recent blog entries: My 10-year reflection on 9/11 and the lost opportunity for peace, posted September 11, and a guest post by a conservative Christian friend, Steve Jennings, reflecting on his friendship with me—an unabashed progressive—despite our huge political differences, posted September 15.

I had some hopes in writing the 9/11 piece that it might go viral: posted on the tenth anniversary when everyone was once again talking about the attacks, talking about the better world that could have been created had we been blessed with visionary leadership instead of the small-minded vengeance of George W. Bush and his cronies. I tweeted the link a few times, a few other people picked it up, and response was very positive—but very limited. It did not bring me new audiences, though was reasonably popular among my existing readers. It has so far earned four comments and a bunch of retweets. and it somehow managed not to draw even a single attack from the right-wing lunatic fringe.

Steve’s post, which I didn’t promote as heavily, drew a number of retweets (which are, oddly, not showing up on the blog page), though only one comment. Again, uniformly positive, though not big numbers.

Steve’s post was not tied to a particular day and will be timely for many years; it may yet build more comments over time. The 9/11 article, other than from those reading here, is not likely to draw much attention now that almost a week has gone by.

Of course, I never had any dream that my 9/11 post would get as big as Susan Boyle, or even as big as “United Breaks Guitars” (10 million+ views). I’d have been thrilled if a couple of thousand people read it and a few dozen commented, because I’m just trying to get my ideas into the world, and I’m not using sound, video, or even pictures to do it. I still believe in the power of words.

If you find that either of those posts (or this one, for that matter) inspires you to say something, I hope you’ll share it on the comment page, Like it on Facebook, etc. Meanwhile, I’ll keep sharing my ideas, and hoping they make a difference in at least a few people’s lives.

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By Posted on Posted in General Commentary, Marketing Trends/News Tagged with , , ,

Master marketer Seth Godin used his own ignorance of/lack of interest in Lady Gaga to make the very valid point that marketers should go after their unique audience and not worry about those who don’t choose to opt in.

But then he says,

I’m virtually certain that Lady (do her friends call her that?) doesn’t read my stuff, so we’re even.

Seth, Lady Gaga is a very savvy marketer. It would not shock me at all if she knows your stuff and dips in regularly for great ideas (as I do). 🙂

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