Tag Archives: Marketing and Advertising

September 24, 2013 · 10:23 am

When I’m 64

I was not quite twelve years old when The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper. On that groundbreaking album was “When I’m 64“, which you might think is the topic of our TunesDay screed. Not so fast, dear readers.  The song is a young man wondering what his life will be like when he’s 64 and will he and his lover still be together. I remember thinking at the time that 64 was VERY old and picturing two old folks walking hand in hand slowly down a boardwalk someplace.

Let us now turn to the real subject of the screed this TunesDay:  a guy who turned the aforementioned 64 yesterday.  Here he is performing about a week ago so you can see what 64 looks like:

I know you’re probably tired of me writing about Bruce so let’s think about what the reality of him at 64 is vs. the mental picture of someone at that age most of us might have had when we were in our 20’s.  It’s a good business point too.

We can’t let our perceptions get way out of touch with reality nor can we let our prejudices about an age lead us to market our brands ineffectively.  How customers see them selves as they age is kind of counterintuitive.  In fact a Pew study shows that:

the older people get, the younger they feel–relatively speaking. Among 18 to 29 year-olds, about half say they feel their age, while about quarter say they feel older than their age and another quarter say they feel younger. By contrast, among adults 65 and older, fully 60% say they feel younger than their age, compared with 32% who say they feel exactly their age and just 3% who say they feel older than their age.

Moreover, the gap in years between actual age and “felt age” widens as people grow older. Nearly half of all survey respondents ages 50 and older say they feel at least 10 years younger than their chronological age. Among respondents ages 65 to 74, a third say they feel 10 to 19 years younger than their age, and one-in-six say they feel at least 20 years younger than their actual age.

The Boss is nearly 64 and Mick Jagger is 70.  So while they (and we) might be “older, losing my hair, many years from now,” if you talk to us that way you’re missing the boat.  Got it?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Music, Reality checks

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

September 19, 2013 · 9:11 am

Imposing Our Will

There is an expression used in sports that coaches sometimes employ when they’re trying to fire up their team.  They talk about “imposing our will” on the other side.  It’s a catchphrase that hints at a physical beating – being faster and stronger – as opposed to being smarter.   It’s often a good thing to impose one’s will when it refers to mental toughness and not so good when it refers to taking advantage of someone who is incapable of fighting back.

English: Evolution Directions of Mobile Device

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I got to thinking about this while I was reading a study on, of all things, email.  Hopefully if you’re a regular here on the screed you’re used to these little jumps in logic, but let me explain what prompted the thought.  The study came out a few weeks ago from the folks at Yesmail Interactive. It is all about the way marketers send email and how recipients interact with it.  There’s a bit of a disconnect:

The report reveals that marketers have failed to account for the shift to mobile by not optimizing emails read on a mobile device. While 49 percent of all email opens happen on a mobile device, the click-to-open rate (how many consumers clicked after opening an email) is significantly lower for mobile. Twice as many people click on an email after opening it on a desktop (23 percent) than a mobile device (11 percent)…The study finds that 61 percent of consumers now read at least some of their emails on a mobile device, with 30 percent reading email exclusively on mobile devices.

In other words, the differences in those click-through rates show that mail not optimally formatted for the device gets tossed, and with it, your opportunity for engagement or a sale.  That’s what prompted my thought.  Our job as marketers isn’t to impose our will, it’s to satisfy the desires of our customers.  Sending out mail and demanding that the reader struggle through a communication that is better read on a different device is dumb.  Wondering why the email channel isn’t performing is dumber.  We need to spend the time and resources to bend to the customer’s will – a desire to read on a mobile device in this case – and not demand that they change their habits.

We can’t impose our will on our customers.  It’s quite the opposite.  Make sense?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 18, 2013 · 10:30 am

Where’s The Wow?

Who remembers Clara Peller? She’s the “where’s the beef” lady from the Wendy’s commercials.

The picture sleeve of a "Where's the beef...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I think of her from time to time – well, maybe not of her but of the question she asks. I think of it a little differently, however, as you can probably tell from the title of today’s screed. Let me explain.

20 years ago, Tom Peters started his book “The Pursuit of Wow” with ”Being average has never had much appeal.”  If anything, I think that’s more true today given the explosion in choices customers have.  In addition, businesses have much less control over the information consumers receive about their brand, and word of mouth, according to a recent study by Nielsen, carries more weight than the company’s information anyway. I think it’s just as much about “wow” than it is about “what.”  The latter is the questions potential customers ask about your brand, your product, and your customer service.  The former is what gets them coming back and telling their friends (earned media as it’s fashionably called these days…).

So what is wow?  To me it’s understanding and setting customer expectations before they get there and exceeding them on a consistent basis.  You do this via data and through monitoring the various media channels, especially social.  Brands that are proactive in reaching out to unhappy customers via social channels and fixing the problem post-haste is one example.  Encouraging happy customers to post accurate reviews is another way (they shouldn’t over-promise on your behalf – that’s not helpful!).  Your challenge is to deliver beyond those expectations on a consistent basis.

When you promise to get a repair person someplace, they need to be there on time.  When you promise to deliver a product – say high-speed internet – it’s not good enough for the product to be fast – it needs to exceed the level of speed you promised.  I was promised some coupons from a brand that did a great job of proactively reaching out after a negative tweet from me.  That was a month ago, I don’t have anything, and now the positive experience is turning negative again – the “wow” is gone.

Wow doesn’t need to be overwhelming.  A great sunset is a wow, as is a quiet afternoon.  They’re subtile but they stand out because they exceed our expectations developed over the many other similar experiences we’ve had (a smoggy, cloudy evening sunset or an afternoon filled with the daily noise that makes us all a little nuts).  By stepping back and asking ourselves “where’s the wow” we become better businesses.  Agreed?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , ,