Buzz!Words

Marketing and Personal Productivity

I just found the best book "Ready for Anything" by David Allen.  It contains 52 productivity principles for work and life.  I'm hooked already.  His website also contains a free newsletter with regular updates on personal productivity, that frees you to do the creative things that count in life.  Great read. 

Blogging for Fun and Profit

The great thing about experimenting in a new medium, like blogging, is that no one really knows where it's going. 

I read blog posts, and traditional print articles on the phenomenal growth of blogging almost every day. 

Newsweek (I'll be darned if I can find the link to the article) recently told the story of a 19 year old in Florida making $55 K a year posting a blog about new models of cell phones.  That right.  He reviews new cell phones, and then has links to retail stores selling these cell phones (called an affiliate).  If a user clicks on that link and makes a purchase online, the blogger gets a small percentage of the sale.

Blogs can be used as communications/pr tools, as marketing tools, or as a way to build credibility.  As long as you fit within the basic rules of blogging - respect for your reader, listening to their comments and engaging with them, you can use a blog pretty much any way you want.  Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher of StarTrek Next Generation fame) started a blog about life as a frustrated actor.  As a result, he has a contract to write books. 

Experiment, just for the fun of it and see what a blog might do for your business today!

Blogs - More Mainstream than You Think

As a marketing tool, blogs might be something you think is pretty cutting edge, right?  Well, it turns out that blogs aren't that new, or that niche.  They are a great way to communicate regularly with potential clients. 

Here are some interesting facts from Pew Internet and American Life project on blogs.  Blog readership has grown 58% in 2004, to 27% of US internet users.  Certainly the US election spurred some of this massive growth, but as the number of blogs grow, so to will the number of readers.

So, Who Reads Blogs? According to a study by BlogAds, published in  IMediaConnection, US blog readers are older (61% are over the age of 30; 42% are age 40 or over.  They are wealthier than you would expect as well, with nearly 40% having an income of $90K or more.  They are looking for news, information and perspective. 

Why does this matter?  If blog readers are older and wealthier than we thought, then blogs become a great tool to build a relationship with prospective customers, and could help build a virtual community that supports your business.  You can establish yourself as a credible expert in your field, and that can help you build a business.   

If you give your readers news, useful information and a perspective on your field, you will create a readership. 

Blogs are inexpensive in terms of money.  They do require an investment of time to post to your blog on a frequent basis.  So you have to be sure that you can commit to the effort. 

Help Users Imagine Themselves There

A recent Pew Internet and American Life study shows that 45% of online US adults have taken a virtual tour online.  About 2 million US users take a virtual tour a day. I don't have Canadian stats, although my guess would be that more than 45% of Canadian users have tried virtual tours, since there is a higher level of high speed internet service in Canada. 

This is great news for online marketers who target consumers at distance, including accommodations operators, tourist attraction operators, real estate agents and cultural exhibits. 

We've always known that pictures help to sell an experience, whether on TV or in print.  Now we know that a virtual tour can help people imagine themselves there, whether living in a house or going on vacation. 

There are lots of inexpensive, high quality virtual tour companies.  A good local company in southwestern Ontario is Virtual Properties.

Try a virtual tour on your website, and see if you can increase your online bookings. 

Brands as Cults

I like to read a lot of books, especially those I think that I will profoundly disagree with.  Constantly challenging my opinions is part of my learning process.

I'm about halfway through Douglas Atkin's new book The Culting of Brands.  And I have to say, that I'm surprised, but it looks like he has a lot to say that makes sense.  Essentially, Atkins proposes that Brands are becoming the centre of virtual communities, which are replacing the old fashioned geographically centred communities that we are used to.  He also believes that brands help us create meaning and identity.

My only reservation about this concept is that it will likely be misused and misapplied by those who are addicted to management ghuru books.  Not every brand is ready to become a cult brand. 

Here is the thing.  You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.  If a brand is not well managed, does not have strong brand equity, and a clear brand positioning, good distribution, if its fundamentals are not carefully managed, it will never get to the point where a community or cult will form. 

Yes, savvy marketers can do things to encourage the development or culting of a brand, but, if the foundation of a strong brand isn't in place, then the creation of a cult can never happen. 

Social Responsibility

I've written a lot in this blog about the need for companies to be socially responsible when developing and marketing products and services, whether they food, tobacco, pharmaceuticals or any other product that will have an impact on the environment, the health or well being of our community. 

I this month's HBS Working Knowledge, there is a great article on the stages that many companies have gone through to improve their corporate responsibility. 

Okay, corporate responsibility is critical.  But, it's just good marketing.  Over the past twenty years or so, consumers have become much more activist - and they use their economic power to reward and punish companies in part based on their behaviour.  According to Don Tapscott, author of the Naked Corporation, the ability of activist consumers to influence others has only increased with the advent of the web, and the effectiveness of email, blogs, Instant messaging and other new technologies. 

So it's time to wake up and acknowledge that all of our marketing decisions must now have an additional criteria - is this activity/product/service socially responsible? 

The sooner that businesses start to respond, and be proactive, the more influence that they will have on the outcome.  If you don't get on the train before it leaves the station, you can bet that you will have little influence on its destination. 

About Buzz! Marketing

Buzz! Marketing is a marketing consultancy that helps small and medium B2C organizations who are worried about the effectiveness of their marketing. 

We work with them to develop a marketing strategy and plan, as well as executing marketing activities where they are needed. 

Our special interests include:

• Marketing strategy development for retail and professional services businesses that target consumers
• E-marketing including websites and email marketing
• Marketing training and coaching to build marketing capability in small and medium size businesses

Service With a Smile

I've been doing some reading about emotions and how they impact the way we think about brands and products.  My friend Vanessa, a PhD student at Ivey Business School, sent me some fascinating academic articles about smiling, and how a smile impacts our assessment of a product. 

According to Daniel Howard and Charles Gengler, in "Emotional Contagion Effects on Product Attitudes" in the Journal of Consumer Research, Sept '01, happy people have more positive attitudes to products than people in a neutral state of mind. 

As well, when a person is happy, and smiling, it increases our likelihood of liking them and being happy ourselves.  And, when we are happy, our assessment of a product is likely to be more positive. 

Interestingly, this transmission of happiness only seems to happen if the person is smiling. 

So, service with a smile isn't a cliche, it actually means something -- people really do respond to positive, happy feelings, and it can impact their perception of your business.   Bring on the Crest.