Dolly Parton for IE8? Big business opportunity mistake for Dolly. Think what could have been possible if she had partnered with G(.)(.)GLE!!
Marketing genius…buy a Weezer Snuggie and get their new CD for free! I’m in.
iCan do it better than you can!
Is there a rivalry in your life that you have experience with, whether it be in sports, business, marriage, etc. where the other party just takes anything negative from you and uses that as their slogan/catch phrase, etc? Sort of like the University of Texas and Oklahoma University rivalry where the Oklahoma’s signs is just the upside-down
longhorn. Not that I care enough about either university, but how lame do you have to be where you don’t even have enough creativity to make up your sign?
In business, I’ve been noticing lately that the advertising I see around new products seems to just highlight what the other product can’t do. You don’t have enough faith in your own product where you have to keep talking about your competitor’s? Maybe this is an advertising 101 tactic that I am not keen on, but it’s God awful boring.
Take for example the new Motorola Droid. All the commercial does is say what the iPhone can’t do. Are there that many people waiting around for the next phone that can beat the iPhone and then rejoice with…”FINALLY!!!!”
What about Verizon’s coverage for their 3G service? Is your beef with Apple or AT&T? Most people who know that Verizon has better service already didn’t get an iPhone. The people that got an iPhone would rather have bad service to own the phone. So what exactly is your point Verizon?
Again, we don’t have any problems with any of these crappy fine products. We don’t urge everyone to experiment with these services. We just want to find out in the history of product promotion…How many products that directly went after a rival product actually won?
Diary of an Intern #1 - A Digital World
In an attempt to spread the light on the future generation of the employment force, I’ve decided to keep a loose diary on my experiences/thoughts of the professional world (namely marketing, advertising, and PR related). This is the first entry.
Internships are a no brainer. Especially if you are still a college student. They provide not just job experience, but also insight into the real world — at all angles. You see in college, and I say this with first hand knowledge, things are unintentionally shielded from your young virgin eyes. Coursework teaches you the terms and practices, but rarely does it teach you how those terms and practices are actually put to use or how they tend to change on a daily basis. And that is the biggest problem I wish to point out here.
With technology advancing so rapidly, it is so important to be able to stay in touch with the change. The world is digital now. However, in my five years of school, I did not take a single course on digital technology. And I’m not just talking about how to use twitter or facebook (a small child can figure that out). I’m talking about how these technologies are changing the world. I’m talking theories and trends and how you can use them to create a community. I’m sure as I say this, many colleges are quickly changing their strategy, but I’m sure many aren’t. Which is why it is so important for the student to make up for this. Please bookmark all the technology sites, blogs, whatever. Start with Mashable.com. It’s pretty much amazing. Code your own website. It doesn’t have to be amazing. Simpler is better. Check out all new media outlets, and figure out how to utilze them. How do stories become top stories on digg.com? How does a single youtube video, along with the billion other videos, get noticed? I’m not saying there is one single answer for these, but it is something to think about. Traditional advertising is done. The only people who take it seriously are people in advertising. It is important now, to be able to have a two way conversation with your audience. Listen, learn, talk.
Check out these schools, as they are among the best in the digital world:
Utilization is good and communicating with your audience/customers is even better. But it’s also important to maintain a level of sincerity when using social media as an outlet for your business. Far too often, companies waste their time creating Twitter accounts, MySpace Facebook (insert hip new site here) pages, etc. without focus. These things quickly become less enjoyable than the updates from the hundreds of beautiful fembots I currently have following me.
As a consumer, I’m smart enough to realize that the ultimate goal of these marketing efforts is to improve the company’s image trendiness bottom line. So don’t try to paint your image as anything other than a marketing effort. And if that effort fails (which it probably will), you can only blame yourself. Yes, we’re talking to you, greedy corporations of the world.
Why would I want to invest my money into social media when you can’t even identify what the ROI is from my investment? I have several marketing programs going on that I’m investing in. Each one of those programs has a specific dollar amount that is put in and a specific dollar amount that is generated aka ROI. In order to invest in social media I’m going to have to take money out of some of the programs that have already shown me a clear ROI and put it into something that you apparently can’t calculate the ROI from. Why do I want to do this?
My company is already making money and has been profitable for the past 10 years without ever using social media, why should I start now?
The average lifespan of a CMO is 2 years, by the time we build and internal social media structure, benchmark/create metrics, research, and then execute; I won’t be here anymore. Why do I want to approve a budget for something that I won’t be around for?
Social media is really just a guessing game. Things are changing so quickly in the space that it’s impossible to know what’s going to work and what isn’t. I can’t take the risk of investing in something that has the potential to blow up in my face. It’s just not reliable.
We can’t measure any real bottom line value from conversations that are taking place online. So what if the social media efforts are driving more eyeballs, clicks, or conversations. I need to invest in something that can actually make me money.
The tools, metrics, and methods in the social media space are not consistent. I hear consultants talking about all sorts of things like “risk of ignoring” or the “social influence index,” what the hell does that mean? The industry can’t even agree with itself and I’m supposed to get involved? Maybe I’ll wait another year or 2.
We’re a large international company and more of our audience probably exists offline then online, why should I be spending my money on online activities?
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Why Social Media Makes Absolutely No Business Sense (via sfh)
A Special Note from ThereGoesFun:
We urge all of you, especially our competitors, to read this excellent take on Social Media. It is not a worthwhile strategy since there are no real ROIs to measure. Do not connect with your customers. Do not form relationships. Do not be part of a community. Move on and reallocate dollars to CEO bonuses. Nothing to see here.
Where are they now? Joe Isuzu - How to stay relevant?
Remember Joe Isuzu? How could you not? He was solely responsible for making Isuzu a household name. After successfully doing so, why did he stop there? He could have started a business in trying to launch brands.
Instead of hiring Jerry Seinfeld, Microsoft could have hired Joe for much less and I’m sure it would have been a much less random commercial. Hyundai could also use his services. After decades of trying to be the next Toyota, they’re still struggling to find their way in to the mainstream. Hello…Joe Isuzu has automotive background.
Bring back Joe!
Marketing Tip #3
If you want instant visibility for your brand, design your logo almost exactly like something that is famous. For example, Apple! I wish we had used an apple for our logo. Ours will be Golden Delicious with a bit on the left hand side. Completely different than the Macintosh apple with bite on the right. So really not stealing.
Imagine the media attention we’ll receive from that…Instant visibility!
I don’t know what my failure to discover this blog earlier says about me, but I do know it says something.
We would love to follow this blog, but they are so 3 years ago and stuck on Blogger.
Advertise in New York’s Times Square for Nothing
Get your brand shown in New York’s Time’s Square for dirt cheap…here’s how:
- Go to Canvas Pop and sign up for the cheapest account
- choose a picture of your brand to turn in to a canvas
- they have a promotion where the first 100 customers, they will show that picture in Times Square in New York City
- Cheapest Ad Buy ever!!
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Me (via alexjcampbell)
Well that’s profound and all, but we don’t see this as any different as:
The problem with hungry people in the world is that they don’t have enough food to eat. If they get enough food, they will no longer be hungry.
Identifying the problem is one thing, but man, give us some solutions!
