Marobella's Branding SoapBox

reBlog from socialmediaexplorer.com: Facebook Tagging For Business

I found this fascinating quote today:

A few weeks ago, Facebook unveiled the ability to tag, or electronically connect, friends and other Facebook users in your status updates, notes and such using the “@” sign before their name. As you start typing the name, the list of friends comes up, just like they would if you were addressing an email to them, and their name then magically becomes hyperlinked to their profile page. The same works for group or pages you’re a member or fan of.socialmediaexplorer.com, Facebook Tagging For Business, Sep 2009

You should read the whole article.

@

Commonly referred to as the 'at' symbol, this enigmatic little mark has no official name. However, many countries and their languages attempt to describe it:

apenstaartje - Dutch for "monkey's tail"
snabel - Danish for "elephant's trunk" 
kissanhnta - Finnish for "cat's tail" 
klammeraffe - German for "hanging monkey" 
papaki - Greek for "little duck" 
kukac - Hungarian for "worm" 
dalphaengi - Korean for "snail" 
grisehale - Norwegian for "pig's tail" 
sobachka - Russian for "little dog"

While the exact origin of the @ symbol is not known, many believe it to be from the Medieval Ages and was used for shorthand as the printers tried to be more efficient. The irony there is that we are now using it in ways not too dissimilar from their motivations. We use it in our email addresses, our twitter names and now as the prompt for tagging people in facebook statuses. 

The @ symbol is finally getting its due after hundreds of years. From the printing presses of the monks to the shiny macs of the twitterati. 

Learning From France's Gross National Happiness

Leave it to the French. 

President Sarkozy, a man married to a super-model, decided that a measure of a nation's worth shouldn't be measured in just GDP (gross domestic product) and should have other 'softer measures' to gauge the true value of the community and country. He embarked on this mission a few months ago when he hired former White House advisor and economist Joseph Stiglitz to create these measures. Mr Stiglitz calls this new measure, Gross National Happiness.

Surely with France emerging from the recession, like the US, unemployment is still high and much of the country's wealth has been diminished. So while the GDP figures will look better, people are working harder than ever, spending more time away from their families, taking less 'holidays' and generally doing less of what makes them happy. Now, this is in a country where short work weeks, strict labor laws and long holidays are the norm. Imagine what our Gross National Happiness would be in the US? Holy crap, we'd be depressed if we have a true economic measure that aligned and tracked with our GDP. 

But I digress. The real purpose of this post is to learn from this softer measure in measuring the true value of an entity whether a country or a company. We've talked a lot about the relatively new metric of 'sentiment' as the social media and listening tools allow us to get real-time feedback into the community's feelings about a brand, organization or product. Convincing CEO's that they should be concerned with sentiment along with their revenue and gross margin figures is difficult, for sure. Maybe the stud, Sarkozy's move will be a bellwether for us as we try to straight-line people's feelings about a brand to sales and the capitalized value of an organization. This isn't the first time that the bean counters and auditors have tried to value something that isn't tangible, think about the goodwill line item on a companies value statement. The notion of what is the brand worth to the price point and value of the company. 

I suspect that we will have to get in touch with our feelings a little more and determine how sentiment, happiness and well-being plays into how we value our own organizations, our lives and how we create value for our clients. 

At The Speed of Academia

Someday, when I hang up the marketing cleats, I have always thought that the next step in my career would be to be a University professor. I'd draw on a long career in marketing, telling stories of surviving the battles in the thousands of campaigns I'd have worked on by then, the cases of what worked and what didn't-  and then send those kids off into the world with a better perspective on what it meant to be a marketer. Back at Bentley, I received a degree in marketing and I knew it was going to be what I did for my career. All the marketing classes I took on consumer behavior, integrated marketing communications and direct marketing all held true as I went off into the real-world. 

Over the years, I've gone back to my alma mater and spent time with the students in various classrooms and talked about different areas of marketing - and, it looks like I will be going back very soon to Bentley and other universities around the country. As I think about what I would say to these kids and as I ponder my own future in teaching marketing, I keep having a recurring thought: Consumer behavior is changing, marketing communication channels are changing faster and how can we prepare these kids appropriately? How can professors and universities keep up with the pace of marketing change if they aren't in the world experiencing what's working and what isn't? At most schools, they require a PhD from an accredited school to be a full-blown professor. I think that should be altered and 20-years experience, being published and a recognized thought-leader in the category should hold sway. And, somehow schools need to keep pace to the change. Even us practitioners in the private sector struggle to keep up with what's changing. It is a full-time job just to stay current. It is analogous to how a pro athlete has to work out between seasons and each game to stay a step ahead of their competition, we have to be well-read, network with other thought-leaders and study other brands. And, that's between our full-time jobs. 

Certainly, there are core elements into the strategic planning process, understanding how a brand impacts a buying decision (although that is changing generationally), consumer research (also impacted by the new listening tools) and other areas of marketing that will still act as the foundation that no matter the technology and mediums will help a marketer take the right steps in marketing planning - these should still be taught, of course. But these higher-education institutions can augment their faculty with people that are setting the trends and the pace of change in application to provide their students with a better-rounded perspective on marketing. 

If not, then I guess I should start preparing for my PhD. The upside is my wife will have to call me Doctor. Ha. 

Would You Shop Here?

With all the talk about what comprises a compelling retail experience, I thought I'd walk my readers through an experience I had to see if you'd shop at this store. Over the past 5-years, I've had many conversations with high-ranking retail executives about creating a more compelling environment for their shoppers - with much money being spent on shopper behavior, aisle size, research from Paco Underhill and so forth there are some stores that are breaking the rules and still cashing in. 

A retail experience I had yesterday, had me thinking about all of those talks and how the hell this store continues to thrive. 

So, imagine if all of the following retail attributes were tested in a series of focus groups. In my opinion, this store would have never seen the light of day. 

Okay, here goes: 

Not everybody can shop here. 

You most likely will have to park two or three hundred yards away from the front door. 

Once you get to the front door, there is no discerning logic as to which door is the one you should walk in and which one you should exit - the mass of humanity fighting to get in and out proves that point. 

The carts are the size of a Smart car. 

You have to show I.D. to get in the front door.

The merchandise changes constantly. Once it sells out it is gone (except for staple items).

There is almost never a sale on anything in the store. 

You'd most likely not just 'run in to get something, quick.' You can't buy one loaf of bread, always 2 wrapped together and you can't buy one-package of bagels, always two. 

In most interior aisles, the Smart car-sized carts do not allow two-people to make it through an aisle at the same time. 

The clothes and books are in stacks, the jewelry is in a locked case and the DVD's, video games and CD's have the old-school big packaging.

The help are mostly stockers and not consultative or experts on the merchandise, even in the electronics section. 

You can't buy one of anything, products are usually in packs of 2 or more and is typically more than you'll ever need. 

In the food section on a weekend, you can barely get your cart through any of the aisles. 

On the weekends, they have sampling tables set-up at the end of aisles that blocks the aisles and stops up traffic in all the busiest sections. 

The take and bake pizzas are the size of man holes and don't fit into the smart car cart. 

They have bottles of wine that are vintage and over $100 in a box next to cheap wine. 

The bottles of spirits are for a party, not for a home bar. 

You often will need two of the smart car carts because the food and merchandise comes in boxes and packaging so large, one cart fills up quickly. 

At check out, the lines are always long - granted, they move quick. 

Once you get to the check-out, you have to show your I.D. card again. 

The cart goes to the left and you go to the right. 

You can only use an Amex, debit card or cash - Mastercard, Visa or any other card not accepted. 

It is almost impossible to spend less than $100/visit and you will most likely spend over $200. 

Once through the check out, you are seduced by the most delicious hot dogs, churros and pizza you will ever taste for super-cheap, you might like it but your cholesterol doesn't. 

After you are in a hot dog coma, you have to prove that you bought all of that merchandise in your smart car cart by showing your receipt on the way out. 

Do you know where you are, by now? I bet you do. 

Costco. 

Kudos to the people at Costco for creating a retail concept so compelling and attractive to the consumer that we deal with all of the supposed retail faux pas' I document above. Kudos to them that even in a recession, a Costco on a Saturday afternoon is one of the last places I want to be, even though it was one of my favorite stores in America. 

Do you have anything about Costco you'd add to this list? 

The Social Media Silver Bullet For CEO's

The next time you are preparing for a pitch with a CEO about why s/he should invest in the new communications channels a.k.a social media, do a little digging. If the company is public, search through Seeking Alpha for a transcript of his or hers last few transcripts of investor calls. I'll bet you a shot of Cabo Wabo that you'll find a quote about his/her company doing a better job of 'listening' to their customers. Quotes about how they are developing new experiences, new products/services, tweaking customer service based on that 'mysterious' input and feedback. 

Pull out the juiciest quote from him/her and make it the first slide in your presentation. Remind him/her that listening is part of their agenda and something they've told Wall Street. Tell them that they can remind The Street that they've implemented new ways to capture feedback in real-time & can almost instantaneously inject change into their business. The learning organizations are the ones that create great value. They'll listen. 

Unless you're presenting to Tony Hsieh or Michael Dell, that CEO is looking for the straight-line between investment in the new communications channels and the value creation. That value creation search will most likely be for sales/revenue. But if you are reading this blog post, you already know that the new dialogue-channels create value in other ways that are measurable. In this case, listening & responding. It's no secret that world-class brands are deriving value from minimal investments (relative to an SAP implementation or a TV campaign) by turning on a new dial-tone through social platforms. In fact, I have always wondered how much value has been created for social brands simply through the use of their case studies and logos in the presentations given to senior executives. 

Then, after you've hooked them with the listening agenda through social platforms, show them how they can create values in other ways with the social influencer strategies - whether through marketing, internal functions, employee relations and so on. 

Thank You @edwardboches!

This week marks the 3-year anniversary of The Branding SoapBox. Since then, I've written hundreds of posts, had tens of thousands of visitors from all corners of the earth and have learned a ton from others perspectives. But over the past few months, I've had my head down in @wirestone business working hard to make moves in a fast & furious yet exhilarating time for our business and that has taken me away from my writing. And, when I am not writing as much, I notice that I am not as perceptive, not as present and my mind isn't as open than when I am writing consistently. 

But recently, I've found my spark. I started reading @edwardboches' Creativity Unbound blog and am re-inspired. Edward is one of the founders of Mullen Advertising and the Chief Creative Officer/Chief Social Media Officer. See, being from Boston and working in the shadow of his great agency, Mullen, I've respected his work and thinking since being a wee-lad in the business. In fact, I even interviewed with him for a digital media position back in the 90's and did not get the nod. Oh well, life has worked out. Having been with Greco Ethridge Group in Boston, unbeknownst to him, we sometimes competed for B2B tech brands in the wild west .com days. 

His blog is one of the more insightful I've read and really enjoy reading about his perspectives. Now that I live in Chicago, I especially enjoy when he writes about Cape Cod or Mullen's new office in downtown Boston. But, even more, I enjoy his POV on how fast things are changing, the more they stay the same.  That consumer behavior is changing and will continue to change, but diving deep in trying to understand that behavior will always be central to our job as brand consultants. 

So, thank you @edwardboches for re-igniting my passion to write my blog. I look forward to swapping comments, contributing to the mutual admiration society, healthy debate and disagreement on topics and learning from you as we move forward. 

And, please tell Brewster and Kerry Shea I said hello. 

Is It Any Wonder?

     

After leaving ad:tech/Chicago this week, I found myself asking myself the question, 'is it any wonder?' 

Is it any wonder that clients keep asking us for spec work?

Is it any wonder that procurement keeps asking us to lower our hourly rates and pricing? 

Is it any wonder that clients send out RFP's to 10-agencies and expect ideas from all of them?

Is it any wonder that our ideas get watered down most of the time? 

Is it any wonder that marketing is the red-headed stepchild or after thought in many client organizations? If you don't agree, how many CMO's become CEO's?

The reason I kept asking myself this question was because we continue to air our dirty laundry with our clients in the room. If we are going to hold an event like ad:tech, clients should not be invited. You know, like those District 9 movie posters that tell humans to keep out, we should have those on the front doors of our industry events, keeping clients out. 

In front of our clients, we are arguing, debating and pontificating our craft. And let me stress the word, pontificating, because there is much pontificating to go around for everyone. We can't agree on anything - we can't agree on measurement, we can't agree on social media's role, we can't agree on how brands are built in this new digital age, we can't agree on what coffee to serve - well, you get the picture. 

Do you think that our clients' lawyers, accountants, financiers or other core business function consultants get together and debate? And, more importantly when they do get together and set policy and hammer out those details - do they do that with the clients in the room?! I don't think so. 

I think that the associations and governing bodies need to step in and help us help ourselves. the 4A's, the ANA, The AMA, someone - please help. Bring us together so we can hold hands, agree on at least a general direction and then set us loose into the world to compete. 

Live Blogging: Ad:Tech Chicago - Client Bashing

There is a saying in poker that goes "If you can't identify the mark at the table, you are that mark." 

That saying kept going through my head as the morning sessions for Ad:Tech/Chicago wore on. After two keynotes and two breakout sessions, I kept wincing every time someone bashed the 'client' for not understanding how social and digital marketing planning should proceed. Then, after seeing the agency or service-side people argue on panels or contradict each other on the proper way to plan, I can't help but thinking "no wonder why clients are so apprehensive and anxious about this burgeoning category!" We can't get our shit together as marketers and agree on some standards at it relates to platforms, metrics and more.

We're arguing amongst ourselves and we're using numbers to contradict our cases. In one session, we hear about how TV is still the kingpin and will be for the next 5-years, on how digital will still only account for 20% of the dollars in 2014. In the next session, the numbers tell a very different story about how social and digital are the most important mediums at key points in the decision-cycle. We are using numbers to serve our own purposes. If I were a client (and who knows, I could go to the other side, someday) I'd be horrified at the discombobulation we are showing. 

My unscientific observation is that 30-35% of the attendees are client-side, both local and larger-brands with offices in Chicago. Most probably hosted by their agencies, media or otherwise. It seems that the people that are speaking (that I've seen anyway) keep mentioning that clients just don't get it - sometimes they come at it directly, sometimes they are more subtle. 

Is the mark the client or the agency in this case? I argue we are the marks. The agencies and all of the service providers that surround us are the marks. Because, for the most part we aren't even looking around the table to see who the mark is. This is a wake up call to all of us agency-folk, leaders or otherwise. We are our own worst enemies. We are spewing buzzwords, cliches, empty case studies where the 'idea is king' and still haven't answered the key questions that the CEO's that rose to to top are still asking us. 

The clients are sitting back and watching us beat each other up and selectively choosing which ones of us to work with on their 'experimental' campaigns and/or budgets. Let's get it together, people. Let's all agree that TV is still important (even if you don't do it) and that the other mediums are critical, as well. We get paid to tell our clients how to spend their dollars to make the most impact against their core targets. 

Okay, off the soapbox. 

I'm Not A Social Media Expert

                                          

"Please don't call me a social media expert."

That is a phrase I've heard muttered from some of the best minds in the marketing business and I'm sure I will hear more of at Ad:Tech/Chicago, this week. So this dubious distinction got me thinking. Why would this offend any of us? Isn't it something that those of us that have been accused of being an 'expert' at anything we do, would welcome and be proud to have showered upon us? 

Approaching almost the 20-year mark in various aspects of a marketing/advertising career (I know, I don't look that old) I have reflected back on other areas of marketing that I've gained deep insight into. Early on in my career, healthcare marketing when I was at Blue/Cross & Blue Shield then leapt headfirst into the digital space where I was one of the early marketers trying to crack the code on the development stages of web marketing & online advertising sometimes with a media planning bent (mostly for B2B technology brands) and then into retail marketing (mostly print) and then back to digital marketing around the time digital marketing was going through it's second inflection point - social media - now at Wirestone. 

Two things have remained a constant for me throughout my career, which I believe, have been driving values in my passion for adopting the principles of integrating the new social computing technologies not only into marketing but for other core business functions. 

First, I've always had a passion for understanding what the consumer/customer really wanted from a brand/organization. Not what they tell you in a focus group, but what are the unmet needs that maybe they don't even realize and then how can we solve that challenge?

 Second, I've always had a passion for what's next in marketing.  Coming out of school in the early 90's, that what's next was interactive media and digital marketing. I happened to be there for that inflection point in marketing. I dove in headfirst and became 'an expert', I guess. Then around 2002, I moved into retail marketing at around the time digital marketing stagnated or progressed more slowly. In 2006, I came back to digital marketing and social media was starting to take off. I was hooked. It felt like a renaissance of digital marketing - I wanted in. To me, social media is the perfect storm of my marketing passions - consumer connection, consumer persuasion, technology, brand engagement & fast-moving.

And, as I think about the other people that have risen to the forefront of the new age of digital marketing, they have similar backgrounds and have embraced the challenge of waving the flag for a new type of enterprise and a new type of commerce through the use of non-technical functions (like listening) empowered by the new technologies falling under the heading of social computing - like the new entity The Dachis Group. We can all learn from their perspective and admire their pioneering spirit to espouse a new type of commerce. 

Being a rebel by nature also contributes to my passion to demonstrate to stubborn executives that business is changing. Their way of conducting commerce is changing. They can either accept it or decide to not change at their peril. More on that in coming posts. 

So, while I might have a real passion for integrating technology & social computing throughout this new age of digital marketing & might have a real knack for it. Don't call me a social media expert. If you must, refer to me as an expert in driving business, an expert in making the cash register ring by connecting brands with customers a new ways empowered by technology. 

Thank you.