Tag Archives: Marketing and Advertising

September 17, 2018 · 10:36 am

You’re The Customer Too, Dummy

We haven’t had a screed in a while in which I point out the on-going silliness of many of us in marketing, so let’s start the week with one! There was an article in the eMarketer newsletter about a recent study. I’m just going to quote it directly:

In an August 2018 survey of 103 ad agencies, publishers and marketers in North America conducted by Pressboard, 27.2% of respondents said they use an ad blocker to block ads on the websites they visit. These figures are similar to those found in the general population. According to eMarketer forecasts, 25.2% of US internet users will use an ad blocker in 2018.

Pressboard’s research showed that advertising professionals are more likely to rely on their friends than on ads when they decide whether or not to purchase a product. Nearly eight in 10 respondents (78.6%) said that word-of-mouth from friends influenced their recent purchase decision. Just fewer than 16% of those surveyed reported making a purchase after being influenced by banner ads.

I hope you can see immediately why this precipitated my response. It’s might be easy to shrug this off. I mean, what does it really say? Marketing and advertising professionals are humans too? How is that a surprise? Well, it’s not, but it does point out a fundamental problem. Apparently, when they put on their business hats and get to work they forget how they feel as consumers. After all, if they react badly to banner ads and rely more on word of mouth, why do they persist in figuring out how to invade the consumer’s website use in as many ways as possible? They use ad blockers because, to paraphrase Barry Goldwater’s campaign slogan, in their hearts, they know it’s right. The state of web marketing is akin to that of an Arabian bazaar or a NASCAR driver. Ad blockers at least make the web tolerable.

The message to any of us is that we’re customers too. We need to think like customers and not as marketers when we’re figuring out the best ways to interact with our audiences. How can we solve their problems? How can we deliver information that’s useful to them and not just scream at them? Keep that in mind and not only will your customers be better off, but you will be as well. Make sense?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, digital media

Tagged as , , , ,

September 5, 2018 · 11:11 am

Mental Images, Mental Mistakes

Shut your eyes and picture the typical “All-American” family. Go ahead, I’ll wait. OK – have that picture in your mind? What does it show? Mom, Dad, and a couple of kids? My guess is that if you’re Caucasian so is your picture, and I’ll bet the typical family is also quite heterosexual.

Here’s the problem with your mental image. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, only one in four American families matches that description. That was almost a decade ago and I think we’re all aware of the changes that have been happening with respect to familial, and societal, composition.

If you’re in marketing, that mental picture has some fairly important implications. It might impact how you make creative for your campaigns, how you plan your media, and how those decisions provide relevance and meaning to consumers. For an example, the folks at HP brought together 13 Chicago families of different races, ethnicities, ages, genders and sexual orientations. They were split up and another group of people was asked to reassemble the families.

Guess how many people could put the families back together? Exactly none. In general, they tried to find groupings of the same race, different gender, and heterosexual. Oops. But this has implications even for those of you out there who aren’t in marketing. It speaks to the broader issue of preconceived notions and how we can’t just form opinions without adequate evidence. Some folks are seemingly determined never to let the facts get in the way of a good story, whether they’re reporting something to their boss or just ranting among their friends. It’s really a bad idea.

How often do a new employee or a business prospect walk into the room and you make a snap judgment before they’ve even uttered a word? We all do it, unfortunately. In fact, it’s sort of a “truism” that hiring decisions are made quickly. Well, according to a research study, some of the interviewers did make snap decisions about candidates. Roughly 5% of decisions were made within the first minute of the interview, and nearly 30% within five minutes. I think that has to do with the preconceived notions in the interviewers’ minds about who they saw in the job as well as who they saw in front of them.

Rip up those mental pictures as best you can. Do the research, seek the facts. and THEN form the pictures. Ready, fire, aim rarely works, don’t you think?

Leave a comment

Filed under Huh?, Reality checks, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , ,

July 18, 2018 · 10:19 am

Messing Up Moviepass

Do you have MoviePass? I do and I think it’s fabulous. For roughly $10 a month (about the cost of a ticket here) you can go see one movie a day as long as they’re not IMAX or 3D. Too good to be true? It really seems that way but I’ve never had an issue using it.

You might be asking yourself how do they stay in business? Lots of other folks are asking the same question since I gather they have to pay the theater the full price of admission when you use the pass. I go to an average of one movie a week (4/month) which I gather from this article on Recode is more than average. They’re recently starting charging a premium if you want to see a very popular movie right as it’s released, but that’s a minority of what’s out there. Still, they must be losing money on most users so how do they stay in business?

In a word, data. I go to see some movies in the theater that I might ordinarily wait to see on pay cable or via streaming. I often hit the concession stand, which is where the theaters make most of their profit. Good deal for them, right? Where Moviepass is thinking they’ll make their profit is from understanding the moviegoer and selling that data. That’s why they’re so inexpensive – to scale quickly – and they’re hoping to become so ubiquitous that they end up getting a cut of the increased attendance they are generating (the 3 extra trips to the theater I make in a month!). With me so far?

A friend of mine also has a Moviepass that she was given as a gift. Her 6-month gift ran out the other day and she went to renew. Here is where the fun begins and where we all can learn a little something. There is no way to renew a gift subscription. Seriously. She wanted to convert the gift to a regular subscription on her own credit card and Moviepass won’t let her. Instead, they require that you start all over and create a new account using a different email. Let’s think about how many things are wrong here.

First, you’re a data company. By demanding an existing customer start all over, you’re blowing off all the data you’ve collected on them to date. Second, since Moviepass requires a physical card to work, you now must issue a new card. Besides being an expense for you (create the card, ship the card, etc.) it’s extremely inconvenient for the customer. Third, I’m anticipating that since an account is married to a device, there will be an issue when she gets her new account and tries to tie it to her existing phone. You can’t use your pass without using the app and the app is tied to a device and your card. There isn’t a single reason I can think of that makes this a smart policy.

This silliness has forced many customers to reach out for customer service (a cost!) and from the heated postings on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and elsewhere, it’s resulted in a lot of lost business for Moviepass. One of the main advantages of the digital world is how there is far less friction in many transactions. Online commerce brings your shopping to you and you never leave the house to lug stuff home unless you care to. Moviepass seems to have found a way to increase friction among its existing customer base – those who received gifts and want to remain as customers. Not very smart in my book. Yours?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, Huh?

Tagged as , , , ,