Integrating Marketing Communications

Monday, November 1st, 2010

In the land of agency buzz words, ‘Integrated Marketing’ is king – but how many companies understand what it’s supposed to mean? In much the same way that many business executives consider the company logo to be the company brand, there is a great deal of confusion on the subject of how to actually “integrate” the marketing. To integrate marketing communications means designing a messaging campaign to be effective in multiple mediums and ideally promote each in a synergistic way so as to surround a consumer or prospect with your campaign when and where they are of a mind to engage with you.

An article in a magazine references your viral video that links the consumer to a microsite for additional information and a coupon that they redeem in-store where they see a mobile promotion linking them to your social network site and info on new products to try and perhaps an invitation to a local event, sponsored by your products.  

Integrating marketing communications can be difficult to do – it involves managing a number of different media channels, schedules, formats and platforms – but done right, the effect is a dramatic ‘omni-presence’ for your brand and message that can cut through the clutter of daily noise and feel like a personal, relevant experience for those minds, hearts and wallets you want to reach.

What IS Experiential Marketing

Friday, October 8th, 2010

When I first heard the term Experiential marketing, I was not impressed. Coming from a background of traditional advertising and direct marketing, I found the term to be presumptuous – isn’t all good advertising and marketing ‘experiential’ after all? Turns out, I was getting caught up in the symantics. Experiential marketing isn’t a practice meant to deny that all customer communications evoke an experience of some kind (whether that’s passively watching a TV commercial or opening a letter). XM (as it’s often referred to) is meant to denote marketing activities that leverage the aspect of in-person communication (ie, events, tradeshows, street ambassadors, on-premise sampling, etc). And as we evolve to an ever-more digital customer engagement model, Experiential marketing has an important role to play. XM helps personify a brand in ways an email simply can’t – it literally puts a “face with a name”, thus adding a very tactile relationship element to any brand campaign. Humans are tactile creatures by nature, we like to see, hear, touch and smell things – that’s why the demise of brick-and-mortar retail stores is grossly exaggerated – we like to handle a product before pulling out our hard earned cash to buy it. Clearly, there are exceptions (how can you ‘handle’’ a music track?), but for Consumer Packaged Goods, creating an event for consumers to experience the product is simply smart marketing strategy.

Maybe it’s time for a Data Audit?

Friday, September 10th, 2010

You know it’s time for a Data Audit when:
*  customer information is kept in different places, by different people, in different programs for different purposes
*  you wonder what a customer would look like if all that information was in one place
*  you wonder what the true value of your customer(s) is – some are worth more than others, right?
*  you wonder if you should be spending more time keeping the most valuable customers and less time keeping up with the least valuable ones
*  you wonder how many customers leave you every year – and why
*  you suspect you could spend your marketing budget a whole lot smarter if you only knew the answers to your questions

A good Data Audit will solve these issues and provide you the visibility into your customer data necessary to identify behavioral trends, issues and segments you didn’t even know existed. That kind of insight into your customers can lead to some compelling message strategies that take your communication relevance to a whole new level.

Wonder if you’re getting the most value out of the data you have?  Maybe it’s time for a Data Audit -

Is Direct Mail Dead?

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Direct mail plays an important role in the Marketing channel mix. The email inbox has certainly replaced the mailbox as the most efficient channel for relationship development and maintenance, but for relationship creation, direct mail still remains king.

That reality may be challenged over the next decade without some major changes in how direct mail gets delivered – the USPS business model may well push direct mail right out of the marketing picture entirely. The effects of an entity with monopoly privledges and Congressional oversight are clear – higher prices and lower services. Consumers and business are responding – 2007 mail volume of 212 billion pieces became 177 billion in 2009 with a projected decline of another 15 billion pieces in 2010. I would say that business model isn’t working anymore. 

Is direct mail dead?  Far from it – even at 150 billion pieces going thru the system in 2010 (more likely than 162), that’s still a significant business waiting to be right-sized and restructured to better suit the economic realities of today.  I wouldn’t bet against the governments’ ability to push that elephant into the tarpit however – would you?

Rise Of The Machines

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

India just created a touchscreen “laptop” that will sell for $35 and is seeking large-scale manufacturers to mass produce it, targeting student populations worldwide. The device looks like a bulky iPad but costs a whole lot less.

Also mentioned is the intention of getting the price from $35 to $20 and eventually $10.  If there was ever a time to sell that student bookstore stock you’ve been holding on to, now’s the time.  We all knew the day would come when consumer electronics would reach the pricepoint of ubiquity, but I think most people expected to see laptops drop to the $99 price range before plumetting all the way to “Starbucks gift card” territory.  Leave it to India to drag the planet kicking and screaming into the future of efficiency – first the cheapest car on the planet, now the cheapest laptop.  In the dictionary under “outsourcing” I think there’s a hotlink to India.

It’s an exciting time to be in the Technology business – and realizing that India has simply dropped the pebble in the water with this announcement – the ripples we’ll experience in the following 6, 8, 12 months from every major laptop manufacturer will be intriguing to see play out on store shelves across America.  Question: does India manufacture flat-screen TVs?