marketing

LEGO Friends Petition: Parents, Women And Girls Ask Toy Companies To Stop Gender-Based Marketing

by The Huffington Post on January 15, 2012

Huffington Post…

Debate over gender-based toy marketing has reached a fever pitch. In December, LEGO — a brand that previously could do no wrong — came out with a girlified version of their beloved blocks called LEGO Friends, and the marketers behind this switch were greeted with a bellowing, albeit virtual, “Why?” Now, a pair of 22-year-old activists for girls, Bailey Shoemaker Richards and Stephanie Cole, have launched a petition to shut down the new line . The de facto spokeswoman for this campaign, as well as anyone who has ever protested so-called princess culture, seems to be 4-year-old Riley Maida . Her one-minute and 11 second rant about toy marketing took the Internet by storm in December. “Some girls like superheroes, some girls like princesses, some boys like superheroes, some boys like princesses. So why do all the girls have to buy pink stuff and all the boys have to buy different color stuff?” she asked. Sarah Maida, Riley’s mom, told The Huffington Post that this video was actually shot in May of 2011. She and her husband Dennis had shared it with a few friends, who responded positively to Riley’s message. But, after Sarah heard about LEGO Friends — shapely mini-figures that lock into pink, purple and pastel green settings, such as a dream house, a splash pool and a beauty shop — she posted the video on Facebook fan pages for Princess Free Zone and Pigtail Pals , companies that sell only gender-neutral products and stand up for girl’s rights. (Princess Free’s tagline is “Come as you are,” and they sell apparel featuring designs like a dinosaur on a scooter or a skateboarding octopus.) “I posted it because both sites were having a conversation about the new toys. I thought what Riley had to say was so perfect and relevant,” she said. According to the LEGO Group, their new line was designed based on four years of research into the ways in which boys and girls play. Bradley Wieners, executive editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, investigated why LEGO was trying to attract more girls at all . On the surface, he discovered they were responding directly to parents like Peggy Orenstein, author of “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” and poster-mom for equal-opportunity play. He quoted Orenstein saying, “The last time I was in a Lego store, there was this little pink ghetto over in one corner. And I thought, really? This is the best you can do?” The goal was to give little girls another option when they reach the “princess phase,” at around four-years-old, the time when boys their age enter their “LEGO-phase.” Because, as BusinessWeek reported, “Unlike tiaras and pink chiffon, Lego play develops spatial, mathematical, and fine motor skills, and lets kids build almost anything they can imagine, often leading to hours of quiet, independent play.” But, Wieners foresaw backlash to LEGO Friends. “They’re definitely running a risk here of reinforcing some stereotypes, even as they try to break down the ones about girls building,” he told NPR’s Morning Edition . And, within a few weeks of Wiener’s article running and the new LEGOs being announced, a 1981 LEGO ad surfaced — a photo of an adorable little redheaded girl (pictured below). She is wearing overalls and sneakers. She is holding an elaborate LEGO creation. The ad copy: “What it is is beautiful.” Parents and childless adults alike connected with the image, clicked their Like buttons and sent it flying around Facebook. For places like Princess Free Zone and moms like Sarah Maida, the ad was a perfect foil to LEGO’s newer, glossier, “sexier” girl-focused ads. “It would be easy to assume that this is just about LEGO, but [it] is part of a much larger marketing environment that puts the interests of girls and boys into … limiting boxes,” said Cole, one of the women behind the new petition agains LEGO Friends. Indeed, other classic brands including Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony — and even Troll dolls — have been transformed. The characters are much more slender, many look like they’ve gotten hair extensions, the Trolls carry purses. Sociological Images found nine examples which can be seen below. Still, LEGO Friends touched a nerve that these other brands didn’t. More than 45,000 people have signed Cole and Richards’ petition, and parents are taking to Twitter, helping to spread word about the campaign with their hashtag #LiberateLEGOs . My daughter & I saw the new “Lego for girls” & were both disgusted. Seems others are too. #LiberateLEGOs chn.ge/A7f5Ob — Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) January 13, 2012 To drive their message home, SPARK , the organization Cole and Richards are a part of, and Powered by Girl produced a video including footage of young girls today playing with traditional primary colored LEGO sets; they’re building houses, stadiums and “trucker hide-outs.” One little girl, wearing a princess dress, says, “I can build anything!” And, Riley Maida herself makes an appearance. She shares her favorite thing about LEGOs: “You can do whatever you want [with them].” For parents who are concerned about the potential negative impact of gendered marketing, the best solution may be encouraging this kind of creativity at home — and discussing issues around the dinner table. As Sarah Maida said: “I have no problem with them making pink LEGOs, but I really hate the message they send. [Riley] doesn’t need to be building a hot tub and serving drinks. I want her to build whatever she wants. We want her to be herself.” Click through to see LEGO Friends and other brands that have been updated in recent years to be more “girly” (via Sociological Images )

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LEGO Friends Petition: Parents, Women And Girls Ask Toy Companies To Stop Gender-Based Marketing

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Penny C. Sansevieri: Maximize Your Marketing With Autoresponders

by Penny C. Sansevieri on January 9, 2012

Huffington Post…

With all the talk of Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+, it’s easy to forget some of the good, tried-and-true marketing tactics. For instance, the autoresponder. I started using autoresponders about eight years ago, and since then it’s become a consistent part of our marketing. While autoresponders may not be as sexy as some of the new social media, it’s a method of marketing that should not be overlooked. Here’s why. We get flooded with information via text messages, Twitter tweets, or Facebook status updates — the information is endless. We don’t often retain what we read or hear just once. That’s why there is the “marketing rule of seven,” in other words it takes seven impressions to your book, message, or product for your consumer to take notice. Certainly it’s conceivable that you could manually send out email messages to your customer base. But if you’re trying to run a business, create a product, write new books, and all of the other things that fill your day, this really isn’t very reasonable. Why an autoresponder? As your email list starts growing and your followers start multiplying, you really want to automate as much as you can. You might not like the idea of automating your marketing, but without a certain amount of automation your marketing will never grow beyond what you can handle in a day. Yes, we all want a personalized experience within the company, and trust me when I say that a certain amount of automation will help you do that. As an example, we have automation handle all of our newsletter sign-ups. These are folks who come to our website and want to subscribe to our newsletter. They don’t need a personalized email; they often don’t need to call. They generally just want information. Other people land on the site who want more than just information, and they contact us in a variety of other ways. But the autoresponder that’s in place helps to manage the flow of new users that find us. It also keeps us on their radar screen. I created 52 Ways to Sell More Books for our autoresponder, and we deliver tips, insights, and helpful advice in two separate emails. Understanding how a good autoresponder works For an autoresponder to be effective it needs to be populated with small bits of information that are delivered sequentially over a period of time. In order to encourage people to sign up for your autoresponder you must offer them something they need. I’ve talked a lot about the “ethical bribe” to get someone to sign up for your newsletter. The autoresponder is very similar; give them something they need so you can get what you need: their email address. To understand how autoresponders work think about the last time you subscribed to an online e-course or some other type of “drip marketing campaign.” You gave your email address in order to get something valuable in return. That value was delivered in the form of information, and often this information was not delivered at one time. A good autoresponder is just a one-shot deal; it’s a system that drops information one bite at a time into the end-user’s email inbox. When I was first introduced to autoresponders I wasn’t really sure how to use them. Then I remembered that we are all content creators. At this juncture in our careers we probably have more content in the form of blog posts, Twitter updates, and e-books than we ever thought we would. This content has enormous value not just as a whole product, but also as bits and pieces. How would you use an autoresponder? There are a lot of uses for an autoresponder. As I mentioned we use it for our email capture. It’s our ethical bribe and people love it. But you can use an autoresponder for just about anything. Here are some ways I’ve seen an autoresponder used: Lessons: e-learning is a fun way to deliver information. You can drop lessons into an email that delivers them right to your customers’ inbox. Exclusive content: giving your end-user access to exclusive content via an autoresponder is another great idea. Book teasers: you can deliver any or all of your book via autoresponder. That’s what I did with 52 Ways to Sell More Books . I also gave folks the option to “Buy it Now” if they wanted to. Tips, wisdom, insight: deliver your brilliance via an autoresponder Interviews with experts: your consumers might love these interviews, they can be print or video, in which case you’d point them to your YouTube channel. Questions, questions, questions: readers love questions, especially the most frequently asked questions you might get. Timing of your messages Before you embark on your autoresponder campaign I encourage you to create a publishing schedule. My recommendation is to keep the first few emails close together. So, immediately when someone signs up they get email #1, then two days later they get #2, and two days after that they get #3. From there I tend to space these out a bit more so that my 52 tips can actually spread out over almost three months. Once we get through that first three or four email sequence, I recommend dropping back to once a week or once every 10 days. Remember, you’re still connecting with your end-users but you’re not staying in their face (and cluttering their email) in some obnoxious way. How long should my auto responder be and how many messages should I have? In my view autoresponders should be short. I keep them to 200 words or less. Especially when you’re delivering frequent content during days 1-4 of your sequencing, you don’t want people to have to read a lot. I can almost guarantee you if they do they’ll unsubscribe from your list. How many you should have is entirely up to you. You might talk to some Internet marketers who say you should always be communicating with your end-users but keep in mind the funnel that you’re working with. Our autoresponder is the key to our newsletter, which goes out every two weeks. We don’t want to inundate them with too much content, so at some point our autoresponder ends but gives the end-user the option to restart the sequencing. What you should never do with an autoresponder Years ago when autoresponders were first used by marketing mavens, they were often used to sell. The autoresponder was part tip and mostly a sales pitch. This worked for a while, but I can guarantee you it won’t work anymore. These days, it’s all about content. High quality, helpful advice and great content. Make sure that your autoresponder is 99% helpful or entertaining content and only 1% marketing. In fact we don’t even really market in our autoresponder. Instead, we invite folks to contact us for a free 30-minute consultation. Remember the call to action. Each autoresponder should have a call to action without being overly salesy. You’ll keep your readers a lot longer that way and create a fantastic marketing funnel of loyal and buy-ready followers. Autoresponders we love: Infusionsoft.com, Aweber.com, and Getresponse.com

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Penny C. Sansevieri: Maximize Your Marketing With Autoresponders

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Jeffrey Hayzlett: Marketing Predictions for 2012

January 2, 2012

Business leaders and employees know when their old ways of doing business must change or their business will die; they need to step out of their old ways of marketing and start to act like an agent of change. For 2012, here are my predictions of what will change in the marketing world. You can either choose to adapt, or die. 1. Mobile, Mobile, Mobile Throughout 2011, you heard me saying “mobile, mobile, mobile”. In 2012, I predict the mobile wallet will be the next big thing. With more and more online companies like eBay, Amazon, PayPal, using the mobile device as a platform to make instant online purchases, we’re now seeing technology built into smartphones that allows customers to swipe their phones rather than their credit cards at retail outlets. Banks are really taking advantage of this technology and offering their customers a new level of service. This is a space marketers need to not only be aware of, but be involved in. 2. Social – Crowdsourcing vs. Friendsourcing Crowdsourcing is a cool tool for spot surveys, quick answers, and general engagement, but friendsourcing is about trust: reaching out your most valued advisers — the people you really know — and finding out what they think. These people can be your close friends, colleagues, or mentors. However, they can also be your brand ambassadors–the social media friends and followers you’ve built those relationships of trust with over your social media network. 3. On-Line Qualitative Market Research 2012 will be an exciting year for the research industry. It is clear that the shift to on-line qualitative research has begun and likely to accelerate in the coming year. The need for deeper and richer insights to support making better marketing and business decisions is critical. Companies must be prepared to act fast. This category is rapidly growing and the corporate researchers that make the move will be best positioned to be the winners in this new game. It is a business imperative in my opinion. Jeffrey Hayzlett is a Bestselling Author, Maverick Marketer and Sometime Cowboy. Purchase his new book, Running the Gauntlet , here .

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John Fox: 2012: Your Marketing Department’s New Look

December 30, 2011

No doubt, 2011 was the tipping point for the marketing department. Marketing automation, content marketing and analytics entered boardroom conversations. Even at the smallest of companies (for which I consult), marketing directors and channel managers find themselves in the spotlight for the very first time. So how should the CMO, marketing director and CEO respond? I think that’s the real question McKinsey & Co. attempted to answer in their July 2011 report, ” We’re all marketers now .” (FYI: this report was the #3 most read in 2011, falling in just behind articles on strategy and brainstorming. And in typical McKinsey fashion, their research involved more than 20,000 customers… talk about comprehensive research!) Here are the highlights (you may also grab my personal, marked-up version of the report here ): “Customers no longer separate marketing from the product — it is the product.” “In the era of engagement, marketing is the company.” Customers are on the hunt for a solution waaaay before you can even think about reaching out to them in traditional direct/push marketing fashion. Translation: the conversation has morphed from “a monologue to a dialogue.” “Customers thirst for objective advice” and in response, “some have built publishing divisions to feed the ever-increasing demand for content required by company.” (aka, content marketing) “The marketing organization itself needs to become the customer-engagement engine, responsible for establishing priorities and stimulating dialogue throughout the enterprise.” The firm will “require a new kind of marketing organization… that orchestrates the delivery of the end-to-end customer experience.” What’s more, “‘Marketing is going to become a much more science-driven activity,’ says Duncan Watts of Yahoo! Research.” “A premium will be placed on problem-solving and strategic-marketing skills.” How will you respond? What are your plans for your marketing department in 2012? © 2011 John M. Fox. All Rights Reserved. John Fox is the Founder and President of Venture Marketing, a B2B consulting firm that helps business owners get their sales and marketing un-stuck. For more, follow John on LinkedIn .

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Penny C. Sansevieri: How to Keep Up with Every Piece of Information in Your Industry (Without Being Overwhelmed)

December 29, 2011

I don’t know about you but I spend much of my time trying to stay on top of the deluge of information that keeps coming my way. Between emails, newsletters, RSS feeds, Twitter, and Facebook, the information is sometimes overwhelming and, let’s face it, after a while it becomes white noise. Now, more than ever, it’s important to be super selective when you’re trying to keep up on your industry. Time is key and, for most of us, in very short supply. Using time wisely will not only help you stay current, but also keep the flow of information to a manageable level. Keeping up with information, regardless of the industry you are in, has become almost like drinking from a fire hose. A lot of people are out there creating a lot of stuff. Some of it’s useful, some of it is a waste. How quickly you can determine that will make a huge difference. During the past year, I found that I had an overwhelming amount of content to sift through and when I did, 70 percent of it wasn’t something I needed anyway. But I continued to remain a loyal follower often for no other reason than “just because.” When I became more diligent about the amount of content that flooded my inbox, I not only freed up my email bandwidth, but also created space to be more creative because I wasn’t overwhelmed with reading dozens of blogs, newsletters, etc. Look for solid content: This goes without saying, I know. But the reality is this: if you’ve been reading a newsletter for a while you might not notice the subtle changes, perhaps relating to content, that have made it less relevant with each issue. I encourage you to go through each newsletter, blog, fan page, and Twitter follower and see how many of them you haven’t read or whose information you gloss over. It might be time to un-sub from them. I find that sometimes people don’t like to do that, thinking, “It’s rude” to unsubscribe. No, it’s not. If the information isn’t helpful, it’s just clogging your inbox. The information is probably very good for someone else, but not for you. The less junk you have to filter through, the more you can pay attention to the good stuff. That’s what this exercise is really for. Find Filters: Filters are the people who cover a lot of ground in their content. Let’s say you’re trying to keep up with everything related to building apps, or maybe you’re in publishing. Try to find some key people who do more than talk about their stuff, in other words find people who can discuss the industry and who report on different aspects so you’re getting news and insights all in one place. Google Alerts: This is a great system and a terrific way to manage your news all in one place. Get Google alerts on anything you are tracking. Once a day Google Alerts will send you a list of news items on your topic so you can have them all in one place and not have to spend hours scouring the Internet to keep up on your topic. Don’t try to know everything: We all want to be experts but you don’t have to know everything. Instead network with other experts who can share their insights or who you can learn from. One of the things we’ve started to do this year is bring in experts who can speak to different topics, like Google+, YouTube, Facebook, etc. Limit yourself to five superb industry newsletters : If you’re like me, you probably get a lot of industry newsletters. Just about every expert has one, but here’s the thing: not all newsletters are created equal so unsubscribe from the ones that don’t enhance your knowledge. Again, it’s about being super selective when it comes to the amount of content you have to digest. Also, if you’re promoting online (and you are, aren’t you?) you also need to keep up with changes that will affect your social media campaign. Facebook updates often happen with little or no notice and with all the momentum Google+ is experiencing, it’s a good idea to keep track of a few key sites that will help you navigate your social media information. Here are some that I absolutely love, following these experts will really help you stay on top of the changes in social media: Social Media Examiner Mashable AllFacebook.com InsideFacebook.com Problogger.com Another great site, developed by social media guru Guy Kawasaki, is Alltop. Here you can plug in your area of expertise and get a page full of news items specific to your market. No more hunting around for top news stories, they are right there. This is also a great place for idea and content generation if you’re at a loss as to what to Tweet or post to Facebook. Next up is publishing; I mean if you’re in the industry you should keep up with what’s happening, right? There’s a great newsletter you should get called Publisher’s Lunch, you can access it at www.publishersmarketplace.com . Additionally, check out these blogs which are always helpful and insightful: http://www.amarketingexpert.com http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/ http://publishingperspectives.com/ http://blog.nathanbransford.com/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/books/ http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/ http://publishing.alltop.com/ http://radar.oreilly.com/publishing/ That’s it. Now make it your goal to cut down the noise and clear the decks for more time and more creative thinking. Too much clutter consumes not just our time, but our bandwidth, too. Keeping tabs is important but I think you’ll find that the deeper we get into the new year, the more selective we’ll all need to be about our content.

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Howie Jacobson: Marketing Lessons From Cake Boss

December 13, 2011

What if your business was a reality show, and you couldn’t hide anything from your prospects and customers? My kids spent a few weeks watching as many episodes of Cake Boss as they could, and I have to admit that once I started watching over their shoulders, I was hooked. In case you’re as clueless about Cake Boss as I was, here’s the synopsis offered by TLC, the channel that airs the show: “Buddy Valastro is the Cake Boss. Renowned cake artist and master baker of Carlo’s Bakery, he manages a team including his mother, four sisters and three brothers-in-law. And, when you’re working with family every day, there’s bound to be a lot of drama.” That, I soon discovered, is putting it mildly. Family members screaming at each other. Semi-abusive management techniques. Violent reactions to setbacks. People slamming doors and dropping cakes and messing up the frosting. Who in their right mind would want to do business with this crazy family? And yet… Every show ends with a beautiful — I mean stunningly incredible — cake being delivered on time and on budget to exactly the right location. Suspense and Happy Endings What the viewing audience finds so fascinating, of course, is not the happy ending. The resolution is satisfying, and often breathtaking, because Buddy is in fact a skilled baker and cake artist. But just watching a cake being designed and baked and constructed is like going to the movies just to watch the happy ending. It’s the 110 minutes of roller-coaster suspense, false starts, dashed hopes, and degradations that make the happy ending so powerful. Salvation without the constant threat of damnation is just boring. OK, so Cake Boss makes for good theater. But still, that kind of up-close-and-personal scrutiny can’t be good for Buddy’s business, can it? Are Prospects OK with Imperfection? Disclaimer: I actually have no idea if Buddy is a batter-and-frosting billionaire, or just one step ahead of the taxman. But my educated guess is that the TV show has been an incredible boon to his business. Despite the rudeness and nastiness and occasional sloppiness and incompetence caught in the unforgiving and ever-remembering camera lens. Despite? Or partly because of? As Seen on Reality TV You see, with Cake Boss, the prospect feels like they know exactly what they’ll get. Buddy and his family aren’t hiding anything. They can’t hide anything — they’re on reality TV. If you order a Cake Boss cake, you know the end product will be fantastic, regardless of the drama it takes to make it. Not only do you end up with a fabulous cake, you also get the intangible story of the cake, which you get to share with friends and family to make it — and you — that much cooler. We don’t want products anymore. We want experiences. We want stories. We want totems — physical items that have been magically imbued with someone else’s JuJu so we can bask in their vibrations. Business Storytelling My friend Sharon Livingston has a wonderful practice in which she interviews business owners about their businesses. But she doesn’t ask things like, “What differentiates you from the competition?” As important as that question is, YAWN. Instead, she asks, “What were you like as a kid? When did you know you wanted to go into this business or profession? What excites you about it?” She elicits stories and puts a human face on a product or service. She makes us care about the person first, and then we’re naturally drawn to their business. We see the passion that underlies the goods and services. We hear the emotion in their voice. We find out about setbacks, about struggles, and about practice-makes-perfect expertise. And the messy, non-perfect bits don’t stand in the way of the sale, as long as the professionalism and quality are there. In fact, they enhance the sale. The more is revealed, the less we worry about what’s being hidden from us. Fly Your Dirty Linen Proudly So what are you hiding and trying to spin in your business? About yourself? Most of it is probably not as bad as you think. (Please note, there’s a fine but very real line separating secrecy from privacy. I’m not suggesting you blog about your collection of pre-owned nipple rings. Some things really ARE better left to the imagination.) My friend Peter Bregman writes convincingly in his book 18 Minutes of the power of embracing your weaknesses. In marketing, embracing means sharing them freely. Admitting that you’re — gasp — not perfect. And then showing how those imperfections make you more approachable, more engaging, and more able to deliver the experience your prospect wants. We’re not looking for perfection. We’re looking for connection. So even if your business isn’t on reality TV, you can still be real in your marketing. You’ll inspire confidence. You’ll stand out. And you’ll have way more fun than if you try to keep it all safety tucked away. Let us raise our glasses to messy authenticity, and say, “Holy Cannoli!”

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Donald Cohen: Junk Food Companies Say Eating More Fruits and Vegetables Is a ‘Job Killer’

November 22, 2011

An effort to get American children to eat more fruits and vegetables should, even in hyper-polarized Washington, be a no-brainer. Last week, Congress declared pizza sauce to be a vegetable in school lunches. Now, major food manufacturers are escalating their attacks against healthy food, calling proposed food marketing guidelines “job killers” that will devastate the American economy. Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission, along with three other federal agencies (FDA, CDC and USDA), released a set of proposed voluntary guidelines for marketing food to children to reduce sugars, fats and salts and increase fruits, whole grains and vegetables in the diets of American youth. In 2008, led by Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), Congress asked for the recommendations to address the nations’ growing obesity crisis among our nation’s youth. Studies show that one-third of all children aged 10 to 17 are overweight or obese. In the past three decades rates have more than doubled among kids aged 2 to 5 and more than tripled among those ages 6 through 11. The incidence of “adult onset” diabetes in children and youth has more than doubled in the past decade. A coalition of major manufacturers of processed foods, fast-food chains and the media industry that depends on their advertising dollars are spending millions to derail the proposed guidelines. The FTC has already started to trim the proposal in response to the lobbying blitzkrieg but industry wants to go ever further. They want to use an industry-designed scheme that would declare Chocolate Lucky Charms, Marshmallow Pebbles and Cookie Crisp cereals as healthy. But despite industry claims these guidelines are not mandatory regulations; they are voluntary guidelines developed by an independent committee of nutrition experts about how we can improve children’s health. That hasn’t stopped industry predictions of economic disaster. According to comments filed by General Mills’ to Interagency Working Group “the economic consequences [of the guidelines] for American consumers and American agriculture would be devastating.” They also predict “severe” economic consequences for the media industry and their employees. They argue that the voluntary guidelines would cause consumers to eat more fruits and vegetables produced in other countries and therefore fewer grains grown in America. According to research funded by the Grocery Manufacturers of America, “demand for fruits and vegetables would increase by 1009 percent and 226 percent respectively” resulting in almost $500 billion more spent on imported food and $30 billion less on domestically grown grain. Even if the voluntary guidelines were that effective and their study was accurate, it’s an audacious marketing spin to turn an overwhelmingly positive victory for public health into a big government, job-killing attack on freedom. Another industry-funded study claimed that the voluntary guidelines would result in the loss of 74,000 jobs. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found the study riddled with “implausible” assumptions, historical inconsistencies and incomplete analyses of potential impacts to both the industry and economy as a whole. For example, the industry study assumes, without justification, a 20 percent decline in advertising and completely ignores the likely scenario in which companies shift advertising to other products or audiences. It also ignores the fact that there has been no negative economic impact since the industry adopted its own guidelines in 2006. In fact, EPI concludes that the guidelines could have no impact on jobs or could even lead to job growth in other parts of the economy. Finally, General Mills adds that the food companies’ $1.6 billion in advertising expenditures “would go up in smoke.” “$1.6 billion in economic activity cannot disappear without an impact on people’s jobs and livelihoods” they wrote. While it’s impossible to believe that food conglomerates wouldn’t redirect their advertising dollars, it’s even harder to think that media companies wouldn’t find other buyers. In fact, they’ve done it before. When Congress banned tobacco ads on TV and radio in 1970 media companies stood to lose $220 million in annual cigarette advertising. Like their counterparts today, the networks, and broadcasters associations lobbied hard alongside big tobacco against the ban. The media industry did fine. Total TV and radio advertising sales has increased every year before the ban and after. According to media analysts , in 1969 ad expenditures on TV and radio were $4.85 billion. In 1972, they were $5.7 billion. For decades, industries have opposed laws, rules and even basic consumer information that have made us all healthier. At every step they predict disaster but, in fact, they respond with new ideas and innovations, and we all benefit. These voluntary guidelines merely suggest a path that industry should embrace and applaud.

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Marc Ostrofsky: Traditional Marketing in an Online World: The Blinds.Com Story

November 16, 2011

When you think of e-commerce in its simplest form, you think of a store (website), a product (or service), merchandising (online marketing), a way to take orders (a shopping cart) and a way to take money (a merchant processor). That’s it! But you still have to provide value. You still have to offer something different from the competition, and you still have to increase your visibility to potential buyers. You need to stake out a niche and carry out all the marketing fundamentals, exactly as you would a traditional brick-and-mortar retail store. Jay Steinfeld, founder, owner and CEO of Blinds.com , took all these factors into consideration in 1994, during the dot-com boom. With little technological savvy, Jay entered the online world. He had an idea, he had $1,500, he had retail experience running a drapery store and he had some guts. He launched a simple, one-page website. At the time, shopping carts and online merchant processors were not commonplace on the Internet. Jay spent time and money getting his company listed high in the most popular search engines. He solicited links for his site and soon had over 1,000 inbound and reciprocal links. He made sure the right online ordering system was on his site. With these elements in place, he rode the fast track to success. Jay implemented and managed the right fundamentals for his online retail business, much as a brick-and-mortar retail store would: Serve a unique niche market Make it easy to buy Create and maintain a presence with your target market Ally yourself with others Offer something unique or better than what is currently available in the marketplace Jay knew online success depended on making the buying process easy. Emphasizing functionality over aesthetics, Blinds.com was listed as one of the top 200 in Internet Retailer Top 500 (even ahead of Nike), and Internet Retailer identified it as the tenth fastest-growing e-commerce company. Part of Blinds.com ‘s success depends on things brick-and-mortar retail operations don’t or can’t do: A. Blinds.com carries no physical inventory. They operate on a just-in-time, made-to-order manufacturing business model. B. Customers pay for orders online, prior to the custom blinds being made so Blinds.com has no accounts receivables. C. Blinds are drop shipped from a variety of suppliers. Blinds.com started its online life as nobrainerBlinds.com. Four years later, Jay changed the name to Blinds.com. He found the most popular domain name in the blinds business and purchased it. This was an exceptional strategic move that gave his company a competitive edge. It also helped search engine rankings, especially when prospects typed in “blinds” as a direct navigation term. At the time, the domain name resale market was just evolving and heating up. Jay spent well into six figures for the Blinds.com domain name, but it was a strategic move that has paid for itself many times over. How well is this model working for Blinds.com? Typically a Walmart superstore will do an estimated $600 to $700 in business per square foot of space. Blinds.com has a small office and area for order processing that generates close to $8,000 per square foot. What’s next for Blinds.com ? Jay Steinfeld realized his firm wasn’t a blinds company. It was a direct marketing company. With his processes, procedures, methods and marketing, he discovered he had a formula for extending that model to other complex, customizable products for consumers. His newest venture, under the umbrella of Global Custom Commerce, will offer a variety of products online. These products are unrelated to blinds and may not even be related to the home at all. Scale and a reproducible business model are the keys.

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Credit Unions Back In The Spotlight After BofA Debit Fee Hike

October 7, 2011

NEW YORK — Credit unions are basking in the spotlight again. Whenever a big bank rolls out a controversial fee, customers start fuming about taking their business elsewhere and the attention often falls on credit unions. That happened again last week when Bank of America said it would soon start charging customers a $5 monthly fee to make debit card purchases. This time around, it seems some customers have finally had it. The country’s largest credit union, the Navy Federal Credit Union, said new account openings over the weekend were 23 percent higher than normal. “`We’re getting a lot of calls and messages on our Facebook page about the debit card fees too,” says Tisa Head, who oversees Navy Federal’s savings products. The news may have been the final straw for some because paying to use a debit card was unheard of until this year. The announcement also capped a year of banks pulling back on perks and hiking fees. By contrast, credit unions are known for offering more favorable fees and rates as member-owned nonprofits. Still, the potential inconvenience and a fear of change have a tendency to keep even disgruntled bank customers from making good on their threats to leave. That’s despite the numerous online banks, small community banks and credit unions eager to welcome new customers. For those curious about what exactly a credit union can and can’t offer, here’s the rundown: ___ How They Work To start, there are more than 7,000 credit unions in the country so the fees and level of service will vary greatly. But don’t be overwhelmed; each credit union caters to a specific group, such as company employees, university workers and students or residents of a certain region. Most credit unions also let immediate family members of the target group join. So chances are that you’ll be eligible to join at least one, but narrowing down a long list of possibilities likely won’t be a problem. Joining also means you’ll need to buy a share in the credit union. The typical share value is $5 to $20, according to the Credit Union National Association, a trade group. That money is deposited into a savings account and represents your ownership interest; the money is returned if you decide to leave. About a third of credit unions also charge a one-time joining fee. The median fee is just $1, but it could be as high as $50 Once you home in on a credit union you can join, be sure it offers the service you want. For example, only about half of credit unions offer credit cards. Portfolio management, small business and other services tend to be more common at banks as well. So if you like having all your finances in one place, that might be a deal breaker. If you’re switching from a major national bank, also be sure the credit union you’re considering has a physical presence you can adjust to. Credit unions often participate in a “shared network” of branches. That means members of one credit union can drop in at locations of other credit unions around the country to make deposits or withdrawals. But the options still may not be as expansive as the branch network of a national bank. Many credit unions are also part of ATM networks. The Navy Federal Credit Union, for example, lets members make free withdrawals at about 45,000 ATMs. Even if your credit union doesn’t have a big presence, many members say the sacrifice is worth the more personalized service they get in return. For example, it may be more likely that you’re connected to a live person right away when calling customer service. Over time, you may even become familiarized with the names of the employees who handle specific matters. Fees & Rates Beyond their more intimate feel, however, the main attraction of credit unions for many is the lower fees and rates. A study earlier this year by Bankrate.com, for example, found that free checking is alive and well at the nation’s largest credit unions; three quarters of the top 50 credit unions offered free checking with no strings attached. The trend in the banking industry, by contrast, has been to increasingly require customers to meet certain conditions to qualify for fee waivers. Just 45 percent of banks offered free checking with no strings attached this year. That’s down from 65 percent last year and 76 percent two years ago, according to Bankrate.com. The survey on credit unions also found that nearly half do not require a minimum balance to open an account. Fees rose modestly from last year as well; bounced check fees are up by about a dollar at $26. At banks, the average overdraft fee was $31. The nonprofit status of credit unions means that the fees and rates on credit cards, mortgages and other consumer loans in general tend to be lower. This is in great part because the interest rates they can charge are capped. In most cases, the cap is 18 percent, according to the Credit Union National Association. To get a sense of how the cap affects rates, consider a recent snapshot of the market. Early this year, credit union members were charged interest rates of 10 percent to 17 percent, according to a study by The Pew Charitable Trusts. At banks, customers were charged between 13 percent and 21 percent. There was also a big difference in penalty rates; the typical penalty rate at banks was 30 percent; at credit unions, it was 18 percent. Of course, rates on credit cards, mortgages and other loans won’t always be lower at credit unions. It could be that the particular credit union you’re considering doesn’t offer rates as competitive as your current bank. And the specific rate you’re offered from either banks or credit unions will vary depending on your credit profile. It should also be noted that most credit cards offered by credit unions don’t come with rewards programs. So if your main reason for using a credit card is to earn points, you might be better off with a bank.

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Porter Gale: Is There A Recipe For Entrepreneurialism?

September 20, 2011

Some people thought I was crazy when I announced that I had resigned as Vice President of Marketing, at Virgin America. Others applauded and sent kudos. It’s time to try something new. Crazy? Maybe, but as the phrase goes, “we only live once.” So, all systems go. My story begins as a simple girl from Minnesota born to a probation officer mom and an industrial designer dad. My dad sat, day-after-day, in a musty basement drawing. He was creatively content, but fiscally frozen. He designed lawn trimmers, a floating calf feeder, a swivel chair and a plastic device you could put on a motorboat so your beer didn’t spill. That last idea might give you some insight into my “happy pappy.” With over thirty patents, he died without a dime. So why do some people make it and others don’t? I signed onto Facebook recently and a woman I know wrote, “this entrepreneurial stuff ain’t for the faint-hearted.” Posts of encouragement quickly filled the screen. A couple of phone calls later, two other entrepreneurial friends are on the upswing. A winemaker obsessed with Pinots bubbled over with excitement. And a handbag designer shared that this week she filled her own pocketbook. Both graciously offered to help – and one even joked, “I’ll take care of you until you get your stride.” Helping others–that must be one ingredient to success. Another ingredient will be learning to collaborate with new partners. Based on Myers Briggs, I’m an ‘ENFP’ and am defined as warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. I see life as full of possibilities. I’m spontaneous and flexible and rely on my ability to improvise and use my verbal fluency. Yep, that’s me. A therapist of mine suggested that we pick romantic partners who compliment our weaknesses; I’m guessing it works for business partners too. So future partners, I hope you can handle the financials and the excel charts. Other successful friends tell me the recipe for success is focus and follow-up. I’m usually good with focus, but admit if Ben & Jerry’s is in my house, I can’t accomplish anything. I love spending the night with those two guys. If I’m procrastinating, there’s nothing like an oversized soup spoon loaded with ice cream filled with chocolate shaped fish, oozing caramel and marshmallow swirls. I could eat the whole pint and fall asleep into a food coma. Or, I could focus. Ugh, I may have to implement a no ice cream rule if I want to make it. As I leave my kitchen table, I recall a conversation with a successful Bay-area business owner, “What people don’t see is the seven years of failures that didn’t make it. I finally have an idea that works, but it didn’t happen overnight.” This is a common theme I keep hearing, “don’t give up, work hard and success won’t happen overnight.” So maybe there’s no recipe at all, and it’s more like a test kitchen. You try, and try and try again until you find something that works. Adapt the recipe. Learn from your mistakes. Keep what’s working and get rid of the rest. What do you think? If you have entrepreneurial tips, I’d love to hear them. Comment here or let me know via Twitter @portergale . This is the first in a series of posts by Porter Gale on entrepreneurship and career changes.

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Andrea Sittig-Rolf: Mikey Likes It! How to Leverage a Satisfied Customer

September 13, 2011

Have you ever really thought about the power that peer review has over consumer decisions? It plays a major part in every industry, from which sneakers your teenager wants to wear on the first day of school to which company you hire to do your marketing, your promotion, even your payroll. Word of mouth and insider referrals are crucial, especially now, at a time when consumers and business owners alike are holding their cards (and their wallets) close to their chests. Consumer Reports, one of the top 10 most circulated magazines in the country, has over 8 million subscribers that consult its pages before they buy even a bottle of all-purpose cleaner. And these are referrals are from complete strangers! Imagine if your business had an army of ambassadors spreading good reviews about your service or product to their peers, colleagues, practically everyone they knew? In just a few days, you could enlist, and arm, your happy clients with everything they’ll need to promote your business easily and, even do the selling for you. Ambassadors will help you sell more in less time than you ever thought possible — but first, they’ll need the right tools to do it. Every business should assemble an Ambassador Toolkit. It’ll help you better leverage your satisfied customers and turn them into a walking and talking word-of-mouth army. By providing your Ambassadors with the tools they need at their fingertips, you make it easy for them to promote you. Here are the 5 Ambassador Toolkit Must-Haves : 1) A Real Company Case Study: The first step in designing your Ambassador Toolkit is to highlight an outcome you have created as a direct result of your solution. A case study tells a short story of your customer’s business challenge, the solution you’ve provided, the result of your solution, and a testimonial from your customer that speaks to their satisfaction. Regardless of the features or even the benefits of your product or service, prospects want to know the bottom line: what results have you provided for others that you might also be able to provide for them. Writing a case study allows you to showcase this and it doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it can actually be quite simple if you follow this basic formula — customer name; business challenge; solution; result; and testimonial. 2) A Hardcopy Brochure: Print up a marketing piece designed specifically with your customer, ambassador and their contacts in mind. Keep it short and to the point. Highlight the specific work you’ve done with past customers and include testimonials from those who have used your solutions. Electronic versions of this collateral should also be provided. Produce a leather-bound flash drive with your logo on it and then burn any electronic information you have that is pertinent to your ambassador’s industry so they may have the information for themselves, as well as share the information with their colleagues and peers in that industry. Plus, a flash drive is something that can easily clip onto a keychain (which often make their way into important business meetings, *hint*hint*). 3) Media Coverage: Any media coverage your company has should also be included in your toolkit, such as magazine or newspaper articles, online articles, TV interviews and the like. They can be assembled as a hard copy, on your website, and on that flash drive we talked about. Having everything in easy to find locations will make it easier for your ambassadors to locate the material quickly and effortlessly. 4) Published Materials: Anything you or an executive at your company has written such as journal articles, columns, and books should also be included. These items especially help to establish credibility with your Ambassadors, and show them that you, and those at your company, are experts in your field. 5) A Buzz Video: If you don’t have a video on your website you are behind the times, you must get one. The video should show personality, and it shouldn’t be overproduced and cold. Content should include an intro about you and your company. Keep this part very short. Focus on the viewer, what do they want to hear? Why does the viewer care about what you do? How can your company, service, or product impact them and better their lives, their bottom line, or increase their own businesses profits? Remember, you have 7 seconds to get their attention, 30-60 seconds to tell the story and convey what’s in it for them to do business with you. Include industry buzz words in the video so the ambassador, if sitting with one of your prospective customers, has all the info they need to excite their contact. Make sure your ambassadors know where to find this on your website, make it easy for them — all in one place! Once you’ve put your Ambassador Toolkit together, you are ready to use it as an effective tool to teach your customers how to promote you and your business. The passion that a happy client brings to the sales process is the one thing that you can’t manufacture yourself, but the Ambassador Toolkit enables you to spread that passion quickly and turn it into profits. Remember, you may not be able to be everywhere at all times, but your happy clients can be.

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Ernan Roman: Facebook Coupons: Money in the Bank?

September 13, 2011

Marketing Situation: Could coupons shared via Facebook add a powerful dimension to your marketing programs? This intriguing case study from Social Media Jungle, which profiles an online loyalty program from the specialty ice cream producer and retailer Cold Stone Creamery, suggests that the answer could be “yes” — if . As In: If you listen to your customers, if you create engaging content that motivates people to opt in, and if you can identify a compelling program that will engage online fans. If you can do that, you may be able to pull off what Cold Stone Creamery did: dramatically higher redemption rates (14 percent vs. 0.2 percent) at dramatically lower costs per redemption ($0.39 vs. $3.60). Questions to Consider: Do your best customers have the opportunity to “like” your company, product, service or brand via a Facebook page? Could you leverage that interest with a targeted eGift campaign, enabling a fan of your page to send a discounted present to someone in his or her network? Four recommended actions: The four best practices Cold Stone Creamery followed appear below. Create a strong reciprocal value exchange. By “liking” the company’s Facebook page, customers and prospective customers receive a stream of engaging, regularly updated content. Over 1.6 million people now follow Cold Stone Creamery on Facebook. Listen to your fans. The initial idea for an online coupon campaign came from Cold Stone Creamery fans. Give Facebook users a simple, memorable way to interact with each other. If Jack sees that his friend Maria is having a difficult day, he can send her an online coupon for Cold Stone Creamery ice cream from the company’s fan page. A staggering 14 percent of those encountering the offer redeemed the coupon, as compared with 0.2 percent of previous online coupon campaigns. The low-cost campaign generated $10,000 in incremental sales. Make online friends look good. Jack’s thoughtful gift to Maria shows up in Maria’s News Feed, which means Maria’s whole network of Facebook friends sees it. The coupon campaign generated 66,000 new fans for Cold Stone Creamery in just eight weeks. The Takeaway for Marketers: Consider building a loyalty program on Facebook that is based on a strong reciprocal value exchange, that gives users the opportunity to send a memorable gift, and that makes the sender of that gift look good.

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Rich Nadworny: Has Ben & Jerry’s Lost Its Way?

September 9, 2011

Ben & Jerry’s launched a new ice cream this week, ” Shweddy Balls ,” in honor of Alec Baldwin’s old Saturday Night Live skit. In an instant, Twitter was abuzz. Shweddy Balls and Ben & Jerry’s both zoomed to the top of the trending list. Mashable wrote about it , as did a number of other media outlets. However, the new ice creams looks like another indicator that the great Ben & Jerry’s brand has lost their way. The brand has always gone its own way. From the idea of putting lots of things in ice cream to committing itself to social justice, Ben & Jerry’s has always stood out. It’s done so by taking stands that are true to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield’s philosophy, but it’s always used a large dose of humor and word play. Once it launched Cherry Garcia, it also embraced an alternative, hippy style that was also true to the Vermont brand. It followed that with flavors like Phish Food, but also Chubby Hubby, One Sweet Whirled, Karamel Sutra and Half Baked, to name a few. Clever names, names that made you stop, think and laugh. This year, however, we’re seeing names like ” Clusterfluff ” and “Shweddy Balls.” To which I can only respond “WTF?” I wonder if Ben & Jerry’s is losing market share to younger college audiences and 20 somethings. Clearly, that’s where the brand is headed, with names like these. They’re certainly not targeting the people who buy Chubby Hubby. If so, that’s a major shift for the brand. What competition are they afraid of? Maybe they’ve just run out of creativity. For the past few years, it seems like half the flavors at the scoop shop have chocolate in their names. There’s also been a lot of focus on celebrity co-branding with Colbert and Jimmy Fallon. And now Alec Baldwin. Clearly, though, Shweddy Balls and Clusterfluff show that Ben & Jerry’s have crossed an invisible brand line. Branding “expert” Allen Adamson from the venerable agency Landor Associates explains what’s happening in an AP article: ‘You don’t get noticed today without taking some risks. If you do something that offends no one, you won’t get noticed,’ he said.” In one sentence, Landor redefined branding as offending someone. That’s not the Ben & Jerry’s brand. They’ve never been offensive. They’ve stood for what they believe, yes, even when it hasn’t been popular. They’ve been true to who they are, but always done so with a twinkle in their eye. But, offensive, never. I admit, as a Vermonter, I’m overly sensitive to our Vermont brands. Maybe it’s because we don’t have so many. In the last year, we’ve seen our beloved Magic Hat forced to sell to a beer distributor and watched the exodus of key people who made the brand what it is today. I remember going to the original Ben & Jerry’s in the old gas station across from the park and listening to Don Rose (the tallest guy in our shul, no less) playing the piano. I saw first hand as they expanded to Europe. I still follow what Cohen and Greenfield do to support sustainability and local businesses. And I’ve always enjoyed eating and laughing at the crazy flavors, even Sweet Potato Pie. But Shweddy Balls or Clusterfluff? No thanks. I’m sure they’ll be successful from a marketing standpoint, but from a brand standpoint they are way off. It’s certainly not anything I’d bring home to the kids. As a final nail in the coffin, there’s a quote from the AP article “The company’s not worried about offending people with the name,spokesman Sean Greenwood said. ‘We’re the caring company,’ Greenwood said Thursday.” If you have to say it, it’s not true.

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Tim Chen: 3 Credit Card Marketing Phrases That Don’t Mean Anything

September 2, 2011

It will surprise no one that advertising can be misleading. There’s lemonade with 0% fruit juice, pharmaceutical companies compare their drugs to placebos rather than what’s already on the market, and credit card issuers tout benefits that they’re federally mandated to provide. While reading credit card advertisements can certainly clue you in to exciting deals and promos, card issuers have a tendency to celebrate the bare minimum. Here are a few claims you should take with a large (read: mammoth) grain of salt. 1. $0 liability on unauthorized purchases It’s true: the credit card advertised will cover you in case of fraud. But it’s not necessarily out of the goodness of the issuers’ hearts. The Truth in Lending Act of 1968 limits your liability on unauthorized purchases to $50, and stipulates that you’re not on the hook for any charges that occur after you report your card lost or stolen. This means that if you call your credit card issuer as soon as you know the card’s missing, you probably won’t have to pay anything. Worst case scenario: you’re out $50. Sure, it’s not entirely enjoyable, but card issuers probably won’t be getting any medals for zero liability. 2. No co-signer required A number of college student credit cards will bill themselves as “no co-signer required.” Prevailing thought is that students must have someone else, usually a parent, sign on to the loan to guarantee the debt. A college kid could well think that the advertised card is special in allowing him to apply on his own. However, that card is in the same boat as every other credit card, student or otherwise. According to the Credit CARD Act , your credit limit will be determined by your individual income, not your household income. This means that a student can’t put down his parents’ income on his credit card application unless they co-sign. If he has an income, he can apply on his own; otherwise, it’s a co-signer or nothing. The Federal Reserve clarified earlier this year that this provision applies to everyone, from college kids to stay-at-home parents. Therefore, when a student credit card claims to not require a co-signer, it really means that if a student has an income, he will be considered for a credit card on his own. That’s a claim that any credit card, student or adult, can make. 3. No credit check This is a claim most often seen on prepaid debit cards (often erroneously called prepaid credit cards ). Unfortunately, it’s a lure that targets the unbanked, who tend to be less affluent, and less financially literate. Prepaid debit cards are just like debit cards: they don’t extend a line of credit. Why would you need to run a credit check on someone before allowing him to leave his money with you? A customer with limited or bad credit may quickly snap up a prepaid card rather than run the risk of being denied, leaving himself vulnerable to the hefty hidden fees that often accompany such cards. When you’re reading a credit card offer, do your research first. If a benefit is offered by every credit card in its genre, it’s probably nothing special. The best credit cards aren’t necessarily the ones that list the most perks. A few things that do distinguish credit cards are their rewards programs (do rewards expire, or are they subject to an annual limit?) the presence of fees (such as cash advance or late fees) and interest rates.

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Penny C. Sansevieri: The Quickest Way to Kill Your Online Success

August 31, 2011

I have a friend who lives in San Diego. She and her boyfriend rented this lovely home outside of the city. They have tons of land, a great house. It was really a fantastic deal. Since they were in such a good place, the rent was cheap and they had no intention of moving anytime soon, they decided to do some minor renovations to the house. This became their “weekend warrior” project. They’d paint, tinker, plant and in the end, they had a great and slightly improved property. Then one day the owner stopped by for a visit. “Bad news,” he said, “I need to sell this property and I have a buyer who wants to offer top dollar, in a market like this I’m sure you understand why I need to take it.” They had 30 days to move out. Now, you might think this is a very sad and unfair situation, but it happens all the time. And it doesn’t just happen in real estate, it happens online too. It’s a great thing, this social networking, but what a lot of people forget is that you don’t own the sites you are populating. While Facebook owns the world (pretty much) right now, things could change. But more than that, sometimes a slight “uh-oh” from you and a slight violation of the site’s terms of service can cause you a world of grief. We had a client several years ago who built up 5,000 friends on his personal profile. I kept cautioning him about doing promotion on that page as Facebook has rules against doing promotion on a personal profile. He continued to do promotion (though not heavy) and lost his page. He never got it back. His entire tribe of 5,000 people were lost in the minute it took Facebook to pull down that page. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to utilize these tools and promote yourself, but just remember: as much as you might feel “at home” on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and Twitter, you don’t own these properties. They do. Be smart and make sure you aren’t making these sites the center of your success. Here are a few tips to help you own your real estate. Website: You should always, always, always have a website. I know some authors who use Facebook as their websites. Big mistake. I know other authors who get a website that doesn’t belong to them, meaning they are part of a community of free sites they don’t own. If the community decides to stop doing websites and goes away, guess what happens? So does your content. Smart Social Media: One of the things I really recommend is that you center all of your content around your website. That’s partially why I suggest linking your blog to Facebook and Twitter. The content starts on your site and gets funneled from there, rather than in reverse. Other ways to promote: Consider other ways to promote your stuff that isn’t social media centric. Interviews on (other) blogs, websites. Yes, you are still putting stuff out there on other sites, I’m not saying not to. I’m saying that you need to make sure that whatever content you put out there is reflected on your site as well. Duplicate content: There’s a problem with posting huge amounts of duplicate content online, but unless you are pushing hundreds of pieces out a month, I doubt you have anything to worry about. However, the flip side is that you want to make sure you have copies of all the content you put out there. If you’re uploading a video on YouTube, don’t delete it off of your computer because you think it’s “safe” on this site. It may very well be, but if you lose your page or YouTube gets bought (again) and morphs into something else, you’re in trouble. Website… more: When I talked about having a website, I’m not just talking about having a one or two-pager. I mean have a robust site packed with content. Make sure that you have a blog, and you might consider adding a resource section, etc. All information about your books should be on the site (don’t rely on Amazon to house this for you) and be sure that any ordering information is on your site as well. Wait! You might ask, is Amazon in danger of going away? Not likely. But as they’ve shown in the past by pulling down books and buy buttons without warning: they are Amazon and can do whatever they want. Traffic: So, the nitty-gritty of promotion is what? Sales, right? Sure, and exposure too (though I think you should target exposure first, then sales, but that’s another article). If you’re sending all of your traffic to social media sites, guess what? Your website traffic is probably pretty low or non-existent. If you send traffic to social media sites guess who benefits? Well, certainly you do in the way of exposure, but long-term this isn’t a good plan. Let me explain why. If you aren’t promoting your site as the center of the universe, and instead pushing people to social media sites, then your website isn’t getting those super valuable incoming links from blogs, websites, etc. that you are promoting yourself to. As a result, your site will sink in Google rankings. That means if you lost one or more of your social media sites, you could certainly pick up the pieces and start sending people to your site, but that will be a long, hard haul. Better to focus on that now and gather that traffic, along with the buzz you create in social media, so you aren’t caught with a zero starting point if anything happens. You might think that the moral of this story is a slightly paranoid “trust no one” mantra but it’s not. It’s about protecting your stuff and being a smart and savvy author. You would never open up a store in a mall without a lease that locked you in for a certain amount of time, right? While there are no guarantees in anything, you need to be smart about all of these wonderful, free, not-owned-by-you social media sites. You might do a fantastic job of driving traffic, fans, and likes to various pages. But the reality is that you should focus on what you own, your website. I love my social media sites and yes, it’s a widely known fact that I’m addicted to Twitter. Yet they aren’t the center of my online universe, my website is. Yours should be, too.

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Karen Leland: How To Use QR Codes To Engage Your Customers

August 18, 2011

While on vacation seven years ago, entrepreneur Rico Elmore couldn’t find a pair of sunglasses that would fit on his not-so-small noggin. Elmore’s hefty-head experience spawned an ah-ha moment, and today he is the proud proprietor of Fatheadz Eyewear , a company that makes oversized sunglasses and extra wide eyewear for folks with large heads. Always looking for ways to innovate, Elmore has recently been using mobile marketing, and QR codes in particular, as part of his plan to engage customers. QR codes (Quick Response Codes) are commonly aimed at mobile phone users. If you have a camera-equipped smartphone with a QR code reader, your phone can scan the image of a QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network or open a web page in your phone’s browser. “In early 2011, I was flipping through an outdoor retailer trade publication when I saw a QR code in the magazine,” says Elmore. “I thought it was very cool and decided to look into how we might start using them in our marketing.” Within 60 days, Fatheadz had integrated the use of QR codes into their campaign involving the ongoing sponsorship of race car drivers. “For all of our sponsored drivers, we give them a ‘Hero’ card they can autograph and give out to their fans,” says Elmore. “We put a QR code on the back, and when the fan scans it on their mobile device, up pops our web page.” Once on the website, fans can see information about their favorite race car driver, including which sunglasses they wear — and buy them. Elmore says the QR code campaign has increased web traffic by a whopping 10 percent. What’s next? Elmore says he plans on expanding the use of QR codes to prospective retailers by printing them on business cards and other marketing collateral and then linking them to product videos on his site. Dan Hollings , an expert on mobile marketing, says that video is one of the most effective uses of QR codes. “The key is to create a short video (under three minutes) about your product or service or some useful information relating to your product or service,” says Hollings. “Then post the video on your website, YouTube and Facebook and link a QR code to it that brings the visitor to the video. It’s as simple as that.” Even though QR codes are relatively simple to set up and use, many small businesses don’t know where to begin. To start, check out Qr.net and createandtrack.com , just two of the hundreds of sites that offer QR code creation. Once you’ve created a code, Hollings says you can then easily link it to a video, your website or a podcast. Once you know where you want to send your potential clients, the next step is to promote it. Publish your QR code on your business cards, flyers, DVDs, brochures, mailers, signage or any other material you give to potential clients. Hollings says he’s even seen them placed on complementary coffee mugs at conferences. Still feeling a bit shy about bringing QR codes into your marketing mix? Get your feet wet by using one yourself. Now that you know what to look for, you’ll see them everywhere. So download a QR reader on your smartphone and scan away. Who knows, you might just end up with a pair of your favorite racecar driver’s sunglasses. Has your small business been doing anything with QR Codes or other forms of mobile marketing? We would love to hear your comments. This article originally appeared at Xero.com , online accounting software for small business. Karen Leland is a freelance journalist, best-selling author and president of Sterling Marketing Group where she helps businesses negotiate the wired world of today’s media landscape — social and otherwise. For questions or comments, please contact her at kleland@scgtraining.com.

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Four Weird Recent Economic Studies

July 24, 2011

Studies show that flexing one’s muscles may help fight off—or possibly cause—wasteful impulse purchases, and other weird money findings.

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Steve Blank: The $10 Million Photo and Other VC Stories

July 19, 2011

While on vacation I had a phone interview with Kevin Ohannessian of Fast Company who wanted a few “funding stories.” Here are two of them. Apologies for the rambling stream of consciousness. The original interview in Fast Company can be seen here . Throw in the Photo and You Have a Deal When we were trying to raise money for E.piphany, my last startup, I was negotiating with a venture capital firm called Infinity Capital. They really wanted to invest, but it was the beginning of the bubble, and I wanted (what was then) an absurd valuation. All we had were six slides, and I wanted a $10 million post-money valuation. But it was my eighth startup and my partner Ben was even more experienced: ex VC, ex Harvard Computer Science professor, genius at building products and teams. I had sat on a board of an Electronic Design Automation company with this VC, and we had gotten to know each other. So when I wanted to start a company he wanted to fund us. We had gone back and forth with them on valuation, but this was a new firm and they wanted to close a deal with us. After about our fifth meeting I’m in their conference room. I say, “Why can’t you guys do a $10 million post money valuation?” Picking the biggest number I could think of for three founders without a product a semi-coherent idea and badly written slides. Finally they admitted, “Steve, we’re a new fund; everybody will think we are idiots if we do that.” I said, “All right. Can you do some other number close to my number?” So I stepped out of the room as they caucused, and they called me back in 10 minutes later and said, “So listen. We can do $9.99 million.” I’m trying to play poker with the deal, and one of the partners at the time was a great photographer-the firm had big prints of his on the walls. I was really in love with the one in the boardroom. So without thinking, when they made me that offer, trying to keep a straight face, I reached behind me, grabbed the photo off the wall and slammed it on the desk, and said, “If you throw this photo in, you got the deal!” The $10 Million Photo The look on their faces was utter astonishment. I was thinking it was because I was being creative by throwing the photo in, but then I noticed that this cloud of dust was settling around me. I turn around and looked at the wall and it turned out the photo had been bolted into the drywall. And there was now a hole — I literally ripped a part of their boardroom wall off as I was accepting the offer. Without missing a beat they said, “Yes, you can have the photo. But we’re going to have to deduct $500 to repair our wall.” And I said, “Deal.” And that’s how E.piphany got its Series A. Invest in the Team Before we closed our Series A with Infinity, I had called on Mohr, Davidow Ventures , the firm which had funded my last company, Rocket Science . The senior partner at the time was Bill Davidow , a marketing legend and a hero of mine who had also funded other Enterprise software companies. I went in and pitched Bill the idea about how to automate the marketing domain. He gave me 15 minutes, then as politely as he could do it, walked me out the door and said, “Stupidest idea I ever heard, Steve. Enterprise software means across the Enterprise. Marketing is just one very small department.” As he was walking me out, I remember as I physically crossed the threshold of the door that: A. He was right, and B. I figured out how to solve the problem of making our product useful across the entire enterprise. So E.piphany went from a bad idea to a good idea by being thrown out by a VC who gave me advice that made the company. He has reminded me since, “Sometimes you invest in the idea, but you should always be investing in the people. If I would’ve remembered who you were, I would’ve known you would figure it out.” (Kleiner Perkins would do the Series B round for E.piphany. After our IPO, Infinity’s and Kleiner Perkins’ investment in Epiphany would be worth $1 billion dollars to each of them.) I still have the photo. Back from vacation soon.

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Ernan Roman: What Marketers Should Learn From the Murdoch Mess

July 11, 2011

THE SITUATION: An epic phone-hacking scandal abruptly forced Britain’s News of the World, the largest-circulation English-language newspaper on earth, to shut down. An online boycott of the tabloid’s advertisers played a critical role in the paper’s demise. THE MARKETING TAKEAWAYS: I want to share three important Reality Checks … and three essential Lessons that marketers should take away from this watershed moment. Reality Check #1: Social Media Groups Form at Lightning Speed. The online revolt that helped to take down the News of the World slammed into the paper with the suddenness and velocity of a hurricane. The speed was a function of the empowered, interconnected nature of today’s social media communities. As this blog relates, the initial idea for the boycott was first raised by a single outraged Twitter user on a Monday evening, following revelations that reporters had hacked into the phone of a missing teen. The boycott passed from one user to another to another, one of whom happened to have Web coding skills. By Tuesday night, the new online movement had a website, a Facebook page, and 41,000 hits… all within 24 hours! Reality Check #2: Angry Consumers Now Think Strategically. Today’s consumers aren’t just savvy about the use of social media tools. They’re also savvy enough to know how to target businesses at their most vulnerable points. In this case, British consumers didn’t simply stop buying the News of the World . They targeted the paper’s advertisers. By hitting the paper right where it lived, in its advertising base, the boycotters caught mogul Rupert Murdoch’s attention. At least seventeen accounts pulled out of the paper. This brings us to… Reality Check #3: Crossing Ethical Lines Now Means Risking Our Companies. Note why the boycott gained traction so quickly: Murdoch’s crew of reporters crossed a bright red line when they hacked into the phone of a missing thirteen-year-old girl who turned out to be a murder victim. There are now credible reports that the paper’s reporters may also have hacked the phones of 9/11 victims. In doing such things, they alienated not only their own audience of readers, but a global, digital audience as well. Those reporters jeopardized their 168-year-old paper, their jobs, and the brands of their advertisers by crossing that red line. There are many ways you can cross a red line, not all as egregious as Murdoch’s. You can cross a red line by shipping a product later than you promised, or being rude to a customer who calls Customer Service. Nowadays, crossing the line and getting a single customer angry means you may be dealing with a major level of consumer pushback. Now, the three critical lessons marketers need to draw from this event. Lesson 1: Monitor. You must closely monitor what is being said about your brand in social media forums. There is no longer any room for complacency about this issue. Even a day of ignorance about what is being said about your brand on Twitter or Facebook could literally take down your business. Remember: 24 hours is now enough time to launch a revolution! Lesson 2: Engage and Listen to the Voice of the Customer: If you don’t have real conversations — voice-to-voice and digital — with your customers, you will not know what constitutes a “bright red line” in their world. Simply avoiding egregiously offensive behavior is not enough! Lesson 3: Stay On the Right Side of the Ethics Line. If it’s wrong, just don’t do it. Ernan Roman is President of the marketing consultancy, Ernan Roman Direct Marketing. Recognized as the industry pioneer who created three transformational methodologies: Integrated Direct Marketing, Opt-In Marketing, and Voice of Customer Relationship Research. Clients include Microsoft, NBC Universal, Disney, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Ernan was named to “B to B’s Who’s Who” as one of the “100 most influential people” in Business Marketing by Crain’s B to B Magazine. His fourth and latest book on marketing best practices is titled: Voice of the Customer Marketing: A Proven 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay . Ernan is also the co-author of “Opt-In Marketing: Increase Sales Exponentially with Consensual Marketing” and author of “Integrated Direct Marketing: The Cutting Edge Strategy for Synchronizing Advertising, Direct Mail, Telemarketing and Field Sales.” www.erdm.com ernan@erdm.com

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Rare Ronald McDonald Costume Reveals Spokes-Clown’s Origins

July 7, 2011

In a more innocent age, Ronald McDonald was the most benign of media icons: a cheerful clown whose floppy red wig and striped clothes presented an image of family fun. But in recent years, another view of the spokes-clown has emerged: To detractors, he’s a heartless corporate shill bent on promoting morbid obesity to young children at the expense of good health. Is it possible that Ronald McDonald is just a victim of his own success? Of doing a job so well that he helped McDonald’s become the largest restaurant chain in the world, with a profound effect on both American society and meat prices? Believe it or not, the search for the origin behind a mysterious Ronald McDonald costume by Elyse Luray of the popular PBS series “History Detectives” turned into an investigation on the clown’s impact on both pop culture and waistlines. Recently, Luray got a request from Randy Liebermann, a collector of McDonald’s memorabilia man in Reston, Va., who wanted to find out whether a very old Ronald McDonald costume he had purchased several years ago was in fact the first one used in a national commercial. The costume was found at a sale for unclaimed storage locker items and came complete, including shoes, makeup and a bright red wig. But it’s unclear where and when the outfit comes from. “Maybe it’s simply just a Halloween costume,” Luray told Liebermann. “The only reason I think maybe not is that the label says Max Weldy and I know for a fact that he was a Parisian costume maker.” The search came at a unique time for the iconic clown. This year marks the 45th anniversary of his national debut. But what should be a happy time for the ad icon who introduced “Happy Meals” is one of controversy. On one hand, some public health advocates think he should be retired, and, on the other, McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner has had to declare that Ronald is still an ambassador for the company, even though he is getting downplayed as the corporation’s marketing focuses less on kids and more on adults. Whether or not Ronald McDonald is at all responsible for America’s obesity epidemic is a matter of debate, but Luray says it’s an indisputable fact that the clown has had a big impact on pop culture. “Ronald McDonald is one of the two most successful advertising icons of all time,” she told AOL Weird News. “McDonald’s changed how we eat and advertise and merchandise.” The hamburger harlequin made his national debut during the 1966 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, but the character originated three years before that in Washington, D.C., according to hamburger historian Andrew F. Smith. “McDonald’s was originally a local San Bernardino outfit with Maurice McDonald and Richard McDonald,” Smith told Luray. “When they expanded to about 10 different outlets, they made a contract with Ray Kroc, who lived in Chicago, to franchise nationally.” By the mid-1960s, the chain was cooking even faster than the burgers, adding about 100 new franchises annually. Although the chain worked on streamlining food preparation, menus and architecture on a national level, the brand didn’t yet boast the synergy in marketing and advertising that it’s famous for today. “That standardization was something that was very important to McDonald’s,” Smith said. “But they didn’t have standards on advertising, so each local franchise was responsible for its own advertising.” Around 1963, a McDonald’s in Washington, D.C., decided to boost business by sponsoring “Bozo’s Circus,” a children’s show featuring future “Today Show” weatherman Willard Scott. It was very successful, increasing sales by 30 percent fairly quickly. As part of the show, Scott created a new character, Ronald McDonald, that looked much different than the famed clown seen today. This Ronald had a food tray for a hat and a paper cup for his nose, but Smith says corporation executives were able to see the possibilities for something even more iconic. “Television in the 1950s and early 1960s really was a much more powerful media than it is today,” he said. “There were very few channels available in most communities, so, if you had a children’s program on, you had literally all the kids in a local community watching it.” Kroc recognized the possibilities of catering to families, especially because of something called “pester power,” which is when kids keep whining about something until parents give it to them. So he decided to promote McDonald’s to kids and families, Smith said. “The initial target were families in the suburbs,” he said. “Ray Kroc would fly over a community, look where the schools were, look where the new churches were being built and that’s where he wanted McDonald’s franchises.” It was a savvy maneuver since there were few food outlets in those suburbs. “Ray Kroc thought, ‘If I get all those children in here, they’ll eat a lot of hamburgers’ … And indeed they did.” The man who gets the honor for creating the Ronald McDonald we know today is Michael Polakovs, a circus performer who performed with Ringling Brothers under the name “Coco the Clown.” With the help of costume designer Max Weldy, Polakovs designed the outfit and makeup still in use today. He appeared in the first eight TV commercials featuring Ronald McDonald — including one that aired during the first Super Bowl in 1967. Polakovs died in 2009, but his widow, Hazel, said her late husband was always proud of the character. “Coco was always proud to be a part of this,” she said. “Anytime he was promoting Ringling and he got the chance he would promote Ronald McDonald together.” Thanks, in part, to Polakovs, Ronald McDonald’s first national campaign was a landmark from a culinary and pop culture standpoint. Not only was it the first national campaign for any fast food operation, it was the first time the industry recognized children as its real target market — and one it’s been catering to ever since. Though the clown has taken flak for marketing to children, Luray, the mother of two kids, 12 and 9, said Ronald McDonald has very little impact on her kids wanting to go to the restaurant. “It’s all about the toys,” she said. “Sometimes, we just go and get the toys and skip the food.” But Smith said that Ronald McDonald is the drop in the water that started an ocean of change. “It starts off with Ronald McDonald and the clown outfit,” he said. “It goes from there into Playlands and then the Happy Meal that comes on in the 1970s and then to tie-ins with movies and toys associated with those tie-ins.” As for the outfit that started Luray on his journey? Turns out that it wasn’t the first one on a national ad, but it does have significance for being one of the first costumes that was manufactured in bulk to send out to franchises around the country. As such, it has historical significance. But while Luray believes Ronald McDonald deserves his pop culture props, she doubts that he will ever have the popular acclaim he once had. “As a character, Ronald is too simple,” she said. “He doesn’t have the emotional impact to kids. He’s not a superhero. He’s just a clown. Plus, the Happy Meal tie-ins are what attracts the kid. He’s competing with, say, Green Lantern and he’s competing against his own food.” WATCH:

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Ernan Roman: Our Daily Emails: Guidelines for Improving Quality and Relevance

July 6, 2011

In previous blogs, I’ve provided recommendations for improving the quality and relevance of communications with customers and prospects. Today I would like to address improvements to the emails we send each other in the course of daily business. We have all endured countless emails which waste our time because they are not relevant. Emails that “CC” people as “CYA”, or recount inane workplace behavior, or circulate urban legends, etc. I ran across some valuable email guidelines. In his recent blog , David Pogue, the New York Times technology writer, wrote about Chris Anderson, who runs the influential TED conference. Chris put together his advice on the biggest dos and don’ts to consider before hitting “send.” This “Email Charter” makes perfect sense as a set of easy-to-follow ground rules for all of us who use email. Anderson’s ten points for respectful email behavior are a long-overdue online Magna Carta , setting out the fundamental rights, responsibilities, and boundaries of grownup communication via email. For your convenience, it appears below, at the end of this blog. Or, find it at: http://emailcharter.org/ . I have signed the Email Charter , and hope you will, too. In his blog, David Pogue shares a desire, as do I, to offer a slight amendment to Anderson’s ninth principle. Like Pogue, I believe that people should extend the courtesy of sending a brief confirming message (such as “Got it”) upon receipt of an email, to let the sender know their email has been received. In the spirit of contributing to the value of this important thread, I propose adding two more commandments: 11. Drop the exclamation points. Messages in which many sentences end in exclamation points, (or, even worse, in multiple exclamation points), do not call out the importance of each sentence. The reverse occurs: they emphasize that the author did not think their words could stand on their own without the crutches of the exclamation points. 12. Rampant Ongoing CC’s as CYA. Do not keep CC’ing folks just to have a paper trail that you “kept everyone in the loop” about some insight or action item. Having established that proof with the first message, which included the appropriate people, there is generally no need to keep CC’ing every single one of the original recipients on the subsequent (often mind-numbing and always mailbox-clogging) two- or three-party discussions that usually follow. Be kind and delete those who don’t have to be included in the on-going threads. Those are my additions to Anderson’s fine list of e-mail communication guidelines. What would you add? Please share your ideas below. Ernan Roman is President of the marketing consultancy, Ernan Roman Direct Marketing. Recognized as the industry pioneer who created three transformational methodologies: Integrated Direct Marketing, Opt-In Marketing, and Voice of Customer Relationship Research. Clients include Microsoft, NBC Universal, Disney, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Ernan was named to “B to B’s Who’s Who” as one of the “100 most influential people” in Business Marketing by Crain’s B to B Magazine. His fourth and latest book on marketing best practices is titled: Voice of the Customer Marketing: A Proven 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay . Ernan is also the co-author of “Opt-In Marketing: Increase Sales Exponentially with Consensual Marketing” and author of “Integrated Direct Marketing: The Cutting Edge Strategy for Synchronizing Advertising, Direct Mail, Telemarketing and Field Sales.” www.erdm.com ernan@erdm.com

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Robert Scheer: The Tea Party and Goldman Sachs: A Love Story

July 6, 2011

Face it. We live in two nations, sharply divided by an enormous economic chasm between the super-rich and everyone else. This should be an obvious fact of life for most Americans. Just read the story in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal headlined ” Profits Thrive in Weak Recovery .” Or the recent New York Times story pointing out “that the median pay for top executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million,” a 23 percent gain over the year before. In the midst of a jobless recovery, those same corporations are sitting on more than $2 trillion in reserves, refusing to invest in this country, as increasing percentages of their profits are garnered in tax-sheltered operations abroad. And the bankers who caused the economic meltdown have turned against President Barack Obama, who saved them; instead they favor a tea-party-dominated Republican Party that seeks to limit any restraint on corporate greed while destroying the ability of state and federal governments to bring some measure of relief to ordinary folk. The whole point of the tea party is to focus concern over our stagnant economy on something called “big government” while ignoring the big corporations that have bought the government as an accessory to their marketing strategies. Big government is big precisely because it now exists primarily to make the world safe for multinational capitalism, whether through a bloated defense budget, trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement, or monetary policies that serve the interests of the largest companies. It was their lobbyists who got Congress to end sensible regulations of financial shenanigans, and now, with the new tea party members of Congress as their most stalwart allies, they are yanking the teeth from the very mild regulations that Obama got through the last Congress. As the Associated Press reported : “Congressional Republicans are greeting the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s financial overhaul law by trying to weaken it, nibble by nibble.” It is nothing short of demagogic for the Republicans to be complaining about the debt when it was the radical deregulatory policies that they pursued which caused all that governmental red ink in the first place. What a hoax to pretend that teachers’ pensions or environmental protections are responsible for a debt that increased by 50 percent as a direct consequence of the banking collapse. Yet they want to gut even the tepid regulations that became law under the Obama administration, foaming at the mouth about sensible regulation as job killing when it is the uncontrolled greed of Wall Street that is at the root of our high unemployment. Congressional Republicans are cutting funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as if those already underfunded agencies are centers of anti-business radicalism. The CFTC is run by former Goldman Sachs partner Gary Gensler, who, back when he was in the Clinton Treasury Department serving under another onetime Goldman leader, Robert Rubin, teamed up with Republicans in Congress to gut financial regulation. He is one of the Obama regulators who has managed to delay even the minor controls that the Dodd-Frank law requires for the still wildly out-of-control $600 trillion derivatives market. What a joke that the tea party assertion that radicals have taken over the Obama government is embraced even by lobbyists for Goldman Sachs, whose former executives have populated the Obama administration as widely as they did the two previous administrations. All they are missing this time around is that they didn’t get to have one of their own named as treasury secretary, as was the case in both the Clinton and Bush cabinets. This week, the Los Angeles Times reported on Goldman’s renewed lobbying efforts in Washington aimed at watering down what remains of the promise of Dodd-Frank. True to Washington tradition, Goldman has hired Michael Paese, a former top staffer for the “liberal” Rep. Barney Frank to head its Washington operation, which last year spent $4.6 million lobbying Congress to soften the bill, a task now made far easier with Goldman’s tea party allies in the new Republican-dominated House. As the Times noted, “Goldman has spent much of its money on hired guns from major Washington lobbying firms, including former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and former House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.).” Between the faux populism of the tea party and the army of sellout ex-congressional staffers and politicians from both parties, the Washington fix is in. Short of hitting it big on a lottery ticket, the vast majority of Americans are sentenced to a future of lowered expectations, insurmountable personal debt and dismal job prospects. They may not know it, however, thanks to the constant propaganda from a corporate culture dominated by images of a classless nation in which all consume the delights of the American dream, from the perfect smartphone to the perfect pill for bladder control, while merrily hacking away on the perfectly manicured golf course of one’s fantasies.

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Tightening Supply Boosts Industrial Rents

June 16, 2011

The industrial sector is growing faster than expected, largely a result of a shortage of “suitable and available properties,” according to CB Ric read more

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Economic Uncertainty Hampers Construction Outlook

June 15, 2011

Rising construction material costs and continued economic uncertainty are two of many factors tempering the construction outlook through year-end, according FMI

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Lisa Earle McLeod: How to Be More Persuasive and Influential at Work

June 14, 2011

You know who they are, they’re the people who can walk into a meeting and charm the socks off everyone in the room. They inevitably wind up with bigger budgets, more support for their ideas and more promotions than their less persuasive peers. Knowledge is not enough, being the boss is not enough, if you want to succeed you have to be able to persuade and influence. Three significant changes in the workplace have made the ability to influence and persuade absolutely critical: 1. Ambivalent workforce : Employees still show up for work with their bodies, but many of them are leaving their brains at home. Gallup research confirms that only 29 percent of employees are actively engaged. If you want to get anything done, you have to win the hearts and minds of your employees, peers and boss. 2. More complexity and change : Companies are reorganizing at a furious pace. With cross-functional teams and blurred reporting lines, the days of command and deploy leadership are over. Getting results depends on garnering support from outside your department and being able to persuade others to buy into your ideas. 3. ADD culture : Facebook, Twitter, iPhone. Lots of bright shiny objects are competing for your customers’ and coworkers’ time and attention. Your topic might be important to you and your company, but if it’s less interesting than what’s on the Facebook feed, no one is going to give it any incremental effort. It doesn’t matter how smart and skilled you are, if you don’t know how to persuade and influence others, you won’t get results and you will eventually become irrelevant. Scared yet? Don’t be. I’ve spent over 10,000 hours studying the interactions of top performers to identify what makes them more persuasive than everyone else. You don’t have to be a master manipulator to be more persuasive. Here are three techniques of top performers that you can use in your own workplace interactions to be more persuasive and influential by Monday morning: 1. Lose your attachments : We tend to think of great persuaders as silver-tongued devils who manipulate others. But my research revealed that the most effective influencers are actually quite flexible in their interactions. They have goals and plans, but they’re not overly attached to everything playing out in a certain way. You’ll increase your influence if people perceive that you’re open to changing circumstances and hearing their perspectives. 2. Ask questions about other people’s goals : When you ignore the other people’s agendas, the result is resistance and lack of engagement. One of the things that differentiates top performing influencers is that they always make a point to understand where the other person is coming from. They ask about the person’s goals early in the conversation, and they do it often. 3. Validate their goals out loud : It’s not enough to hear people, they need to know that you understood them. When you repeat their point of view out loud, they know that you “get it.” They’re then more likely to listen to what you have to say. The guy who rambles on about his great new system isn’t nearly as persuasive as the person who connects their ideas to the goals of every person and department in the room. Persuasive and influential people don’t focus on their own goals; they understand everyone’s goals. The fastest way to get people excited about you is to start being excited about them . Business strategist Lisa Earle McLeod is President of McLeod & More, Inc. , a consulting firm that specializes in sales force and leadership development. A sought after keynote speaker , she is the author of The Triangle of Truth , a Washington Post Top 5 Business Book for Leaders . www.TriangleofTruth.com Copyright 2011, Lisa Earle McLeod. All rights reserved.

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U.S. Hotel Transaction Volume Rises

June 14, 2011

Year-over-year hospitality sector sales prices accelerated for the sixth consecutive quarter in 1Q11, according to

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Healthcare Real Estate Outlook Is Healthy

June 10, 2011

Capital availability and increasing demand are converging to create a positive outlook for healthcare real estate, according to Jones Lan read more

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Single-Tenant Investors Ready to Shoulder Risk

June 9, 2011

A shortage of single-tenant properties listed with credit tenants and a swelling buyer pool are expected to drive investors to seek more opportunistic plays in the coming months, according to

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UV Flu Technologies Announces Addition of Renowned Vice President of Sales

June 2, 2011

CENTERVILLE, MA–(Marketwire – Jun 2, 2011) – UV Flu Technologies, Inc. ( OTCBB : UVFT ) (the “Company”) is pleased to announce it has hired Denny Mulloy to assume the role of Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Alliances for UV Flu, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Rx Air.

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Investors Balance Risk and Return

May 31, 2011

Whether they are located in top-tier cities or secondary markets, commercial real estate investors share some common ground when it comes to being cautiously optimistic and weighing risk, accord read more

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FASB Lease Accounting Update

May 31, 2011

With the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s proposed changes to lease accounting standards, many firms and organizations have expressed concern. read more

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Jean Nelson Joins Allocade as VP of Marketing

May 31, 2011

Veteran Healthcare Industry Executive to Lead Company’s Marketing Department

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Jean Nelson Joins Allocade as VP of Marketing

May 31, 2011

Veteran Healthcare Industry Executive to Lead Company’s Marketing Department

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4 Examples Of Successful Joint Ventures

May 31, 2011

Joint venture commercial real estate . 07:51Examples of how rates of returns are increased by using joint ventures in commercial real estate . www.mdcrei.com. Joint Venture . 06:22. Strategic Joint Ventures & learn why your …

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Australian Power And Gas Company Limited (ASX:APK) Appoints Mr David Goadby As General Manager Of Sales And Marketing

May 26, 2011

Australian Power And Gas Company Limited (ASX:APK) Appoints Mr David Goadby As General Manager Of Sales And Marketing

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Sotheby’s International Realty is Exclusive Sales, Marketing Agents for Spruce Creek Home and Airplane Hangar in Florida

May 25, 2011

ORLANDO, FL — Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty was named exclusive sales and marketing agents for a $1.95 million luxury home and airplane hangar at Spruce Creek Fly-In in Volusia County. Roger Soderstrom, founder and owner of Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty, said luxury home specialists Rachel McGrath and Debbie Keilin (top right photo)  are representing the property and serve as principal contacts for prospective buyers. The six-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath luxury home offers 6,032 square feet of luxury living space with a separate guest house, huge courtyard, heated oasis style swimming pool and a second gated entry. The home features golf and lake views, summer kitchen, travertine floors, a ground floor master suite with spa style bath, a second floor media room and library. The 60-foot-by-68-foot tiled, air-conditioned airplane hangar was previously owned by NASCAR driver Mark Martin and features a full kitchen and a bath, conference room and private office. Visit http://tour.circlepix.com/tour/Nitro/loadingPage.htm?tourId=793509 For more information, contact Debbie Keilin, East Volusia Associate, Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty 386 451-4251 Rachel McGrath, East Volusia Associate, Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty 386 795-0911 Roger Soderstrom, Founder/Owner Stirling Sotheby’s International Realty 407-581-7890; rsoderstrom@stirlingSIR.com Larry Vershel or Beth Payan, Larry Vershel Communications 407-644-4142    Lvershelco@aol.com .    Visit www.StirlingSIR.com .

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HFF Atlanta hires Andrew Seng as managing director in debt placement group

May 24, 2011

,                                                                                                                                   ATLANTA, GA – HFF announced today that Andrew Seng (top right photo) has joined the firm as a managing director in its Atlanta office.   Mr. Seng will focus on debt and structured finance transactions for all property types throughout the southeastern United States.    Prior to joining HFF, Mr. Seng was an executive vice president with First Fidelity Companies where he was involved in securing more than $1.6 billion in debt and equity investments for real estate projects across North America.   Prior to First Fidelity Companies, he worked as an investment analyst with the University of Notre Dame Investment Office and an investment associate with Putnam Investments.   Mr. Seng is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Society of Atlanta, and currently serves as vice-chair for membership of the urban development mixed-use council for Urban Land.   Mr. Seng received his Master of Business Administration degree from Goizueta Business School at Emory University and his Bachelors of Business Administration degree from the University of Notre Dame. “Andrew is a welcome addition to the Atlanta team and brings with him a wealth of experience in various types of financings across all major property types,” said Mark Sixou (lower left photo)r , senior managing director of HFF Atlanta. Contacts:    Mark D. Sixour, HFF Senior Managing Director, (404) 832-8460 msixour@hfflp.com Kristen M. Murphy, HFF Associate Director, Marketing,   (713) 852-3500                        krmurphy@hfflp.com                                              

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Beverly Macy: The LinkedIn IPO Changes Everything

May 23, 2011

Brand new horizons for start-ups, conferences, corporate education and more. I was at a financial services conference this weekend and someone remarked, ” LinkedIn changes everything. It’s like Netscape in 1995.” So true. Yes, the flag dropped on Thursday, May 19, 2011 and the race is on. Yippee! It seems everyone is finally waking up from a long slumber — the VCs are suddenly voraciously looking for dealflow, the job market seems brighter somehow and there’s a kind of hope that smells of innovation, money and success in the air. And like 1995, we’re just at the beginning. Remember, Yahoo!, Google and Amazon weren’t even born in 1995. Jump to May 2011 and corporations are just waking up to the fact that they better get smart fast because real-time social media is here to stay. Yes, that conversation about their brand is taking place whether they’re in it or not. Yes, influence matters, and if you don’t know your Klout score, you’re not with it. Not only that, but the organization alignment issues that business process change engenders are coming like a fire hose blast. Does social belong in marketing or customer service? What about the legal implications, regulatory and policy considerations, talent sourcing (LinkedIn, again!) and more? We offer Social Media for Executives corporate education and since Thursday, my email inbox is full and my phone is ringing off the hook with requests to schedule that internal corporate ed seminar we discussed months ago. And rightly so. The social media revolution is going to happen with you or without you, so get on board now. Conferences have a new level of excitement as well. Whew, just when we thought we’d all die of boredom if yet one more smug executive preached the blah blah blah about “digital marketing,” something has shifted. We launched Gravity Summit back in February 2009 to great accolades and buzz. But our next event as part of the FutureM week in Boston is drawing the biggest buzz yet. Sponsors are lining up at the door. We believe it’s partially because we’re part of the MITX’s FutureM — an intellectual marketing mash-up: a five-day long offering of events, discussions and parties throughout the Greater Boston area. We see this as the way of the future in the ‘new conference experience’ and we’re excited to be involved. Second Line in New Orleans is another intriguing concept and format. Earlier this month, the inaugural Second Line launched as an interactive conference celebrating the New Economy successes and strategies with disruptive innovation, value creation and sustainable social impact. I’ll be involved in next year’s event and can’t wait. I’m personally fired up and ready to go. I’m excited about influencing what happens next and how this will play out. I’m also passionate about educating the business community on what this all means. So come on in, the social media water is fine. Beverly Macy is the CEO of Gravity Summit, Inc. the Co-Author of The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing . Contact her to schedule Social Media for Executives training at beverlymacy@gmail.com. And follow her on Twitter @beverlymacy; @PowerRTM; @GravitySummit or email her at beverlymacy@gmail.com .

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Former Staples Executive Joins Vistaprint as Chief Marketing Officer for North American Business Unit

May 20, 2011

Don LeBlanc Will Lead Company’s North American Marketing Department

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Polycom Appoints Key Leaders in Sales and Marketing to Expand Growth Strategy in Unified Communications

May 19, 2011

Promotes Key Sales Leaders Leveraging Asia Pacific Success; Adds Depth and Breadth in Marketing

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Metropark To Shutter All 70 Stores

May 19, 2011

GA Keen Realty Advisors has been retained to assist in the marketing and disposition of 70 leased properties across 21 states operated by Metropark – a high-end clothing company that filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. “Metropark has locations in some of the best malls and centers in the country, with great locations within those malls with build-outs that are first class,” said Matthew Bordwin, co-president of GA Keen Realty Advisors. “This…

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BrightRoll Continues Expansion of Senior Leadership Team With Addition of Christine Schoultz as Vice President of Marketing

May 17, 2011

Experienced Marketing Executive Joins Leading Provider of Digital Video Advertising Services

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Scott Gish Joins Cambridge NanoTech Executive Team

May 17, 2011

CAMBRIDGE, MA–(Marketwire – May 17, 2011) – Cambridge NanoTech at the cutting-edge of nanotechnology development, is pleased to announce the addition of Scott Gish as Vice President of Sales. Prior to joining Cambridge NanoTech, Mr. Gish served as Vice President of Sales at Veeco Instruments and later held the positions of Vice President Global Sales and Business Development and of Marketing & Corporate Communications at Photronics Incorporated. Scott brings to Cambridge NanoTech extensive experience in the solar, semiconductor, and data storage industries as well as significant sales leadership serving vacuum-based processing equipment markets.

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Encompass Lighting Group Strengthens Management Team to Support Growth of Tech Lighting and LBL Lighting Brands

May 16, 2011

Promotes Josh Weiss to Vice President, General Manager of Tech Lighting; Hires Marketing Veteran Tiscia Eicher as Director of Marketing for Tech Lighting and LBL Lighting

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RICS Survey Reveals Increasing Investor Sentiment

May 12, 2011

Investment is picking up around the world and emerging economies are catching up with Brazil, Russia, India, and China, or BRIC economies, according to the Royal Inst read more

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Ernan Roman: Powerful Strategies for Customer Retention and Engagement

May 11, 2011

THE PROBLEM: Given the soaring cost of customer acquisition, retaining customers has become a major priority. THE SOLUTION: New strategies for effective customer engagement are required. Traditional customer satisfaction indicators do not provide sufficiently detailed information to help you reengineer your complex customer retention strategies. You need in-depth customer insights to guide you regarding how customers define true engagement and what you need to change to increase retention. Life Line Screening is a leading provider of community-based preventive health services. The company provides affordable, high-quality screenings that are essential to the early detection of risk for stroke, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and other conditions. This relationship marketing innovator’s direct-to-consumer model is at the forefront of consumer-driven healthcare. According to Eric Greenberg, Life Line’s Executive Vice President of Marketing, Our goal was ambitious: To double the total number of returning customers from 2009 to 2012. Initially, our focus had been on the familiar Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures the consumer’s answer on a one-to-ten scale to the question, “How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?” In support of increasing scores using that metric, senior management undertook a number of important initiatives, including improvements in customer feedback and response systems, “training blasts,” internal incentives, the “adoption” of certain lower-performing teams, and the circulation of a fourteen-point Customer Guarantee. These initiatives led to improvements in the NPS scores, which already were at very high levels. But, management felt the improvements weren’t as significant as they expected. According to Eric, We knew that what we had been doing was adequate, but we weren’t convinced it was superior. Our customers are quite satisfied with the service we provide and the value for the money.Yet, sometimes customer satisfaction is not enough. Your customers can be quite satisfied with your product or service but view their experience with you as a worthwhile single event, not the beginning of an ongoing relationship. Life Line Screening realized that in order to achieve the projected magnitude of increases in customer retention, they needed a much deeper understanding of customers’ expectations for a more satisfying experience and relationship. So they initiated a research study using in-depth, 60 minute Voice of the Customer (VOC) interviews with a cross-section of customers. As Eric explains: What we are learning from the VOC research is that our customers trust us and value what we provide them. But, they are looking for deeper and ongoing engagement. This means that they are looking for us to be more proactive across all the customer touch points. If we want customers to truly value us as a part of their healthcare team, we have to more proactively engage with them — whether that means an outbound service call to allay their fears before their first screening, or a call to ask if they understood their screening results, or ways to help them feel comfortable and at ease during the screening process. They want us to provide information, solutions, and ideas that can help them stay healthy and independent. Results: By implementing retention programs per the in-depth feedback from their customers, Life Line Screening has already achieved a 40 percent increase in returning customers. Ongoing changes will drive further increases in retention. TRY THIS: Develop strategies for providing deeper and ongoing engagement. These strategies should enable you to be more proactive across all the customer touch points. Pre-test these strategies with customers to determine if these are appropriate and effective. Don’t rely on just one research methodology. Deploy different techniques based on the complexity of your objectives. In-depth VOC research is appropriate when you have complex objectives which require detailed information to guide development of strategies and action plans. The 60 minute interviews enabled Life Line Screening to benefit from in-depth discussion with customers which enabled them to identify, in great detail, the many steps required to significantly improve the customer experience. NPS was helpful to Life Line Screening because it helped them to launch important new initiatives that ultimately led to greater customer satisfaction. However, since NPS is based on responses to just one question, it is limited in the detailed guidance and direction it can provide for making changes. Ernan Roman is President of the marketing consultancy, Ernan Roman Direct Marketing. Recognized as the industry pioneer who created three transformational methodologies: Integrated Direct Marketing, Opt-In Marketing, and Voice of Customer Relationship Research. Clients include Microsoft, NBC Universal, Disney, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Ernan was named to “B to B’s Who’s Who” as one of the “100 most influential people” in Business Marketing by Crain’s B to B Magazine. His fourth and latest book on marketing best practices is titled: Voice of the Customer Marketing: A Proven 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay . Ernan is also the co-author of “Opt-In Marketing: Increase Sales Exponentially with Consensual Marketing” and author of “Integrated Direct Marketing: The Cutting Edge Strategy for Synchronizing Advertising, Direct Mail, Telemarketing and Field Sales.” www.erdm.com ernan@erdm.com

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An Xiao Mina: PHOTOS: How To Sustain A Pro Bono Design Practice

May 11, 2011

In 2009, Los Angeles-based designer Matthew Manos had a thought: “I was obsessed and fascinated by the idea that a design firm could actually devote 100% of is time to helping non-profits for nothing in return.” Two years later, his company, A Very Nice Design Studio , has done work for 100 clients, as diverse as a high school in Vancouver and the United Nations. It operates with 40 volunteers internationally, and 70-80% of the work is done pro bono, with the remaining work financially supporting the studio’s efforts. I interviewed Matt recently about his work and what it means to do pro bono design. What follows the slideshow is an abridged version of that conversation: An Xiao Mina: You have quite a diverse spread of clients. What are your criteria for working with an individual or organization? What do you look for? Matthew Manos: My answer is always “optimism.” I love working with individuals that are driven, passionate, and certain that the work they do will and does have a significant impact on our society. I take great interest in really specific or unusual concepts/models behind organizations — for example, in 2010, I worked with a non-profit named In Your Honor . Their mission was to provide the best birthday party for the elderly in assisted living. To me this is a prime example of a very unique, often forgotten about, and very specific cause. AXM: How does a pro-bono design studio sustain itself and its staff? What learnings can you share with other designers/studios interested in pro-bono work? MM: I learned about Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Bank , and the concept of a “social business.” A social enterprise is one that thinks and operates as a non-profit organization would, but has interesting design in its planning so as to be able to sustain itself and actually create a profit as opposed to relying on government funding and funding from donors. This concept fascinated me — to be able to do good while sustaining yourself and not relying on others for monetary donation. On any project that is pro-bono, our work is done as volunteers — on any project that is paid, all collaborators get paid. The paid projects provide opportunities for the volunteers to take on for-profit projects. AXM: Tell me a bit about these volunteers/contractors — I understand they come from different parts of the world and different professional backgrounds. MM: In the very beginning, I recruited a few like minded people — Chris Fung, Dru Bramlett, Erik Kristensen, and Steven Kukla. Once we got going, we attracted new volunteers who had been looking for an outlet to provide service to non-profits. When a volunteer joins, I typically ask them to tell me if they are particularly passionate about any cause, this way if a client working in that field pops up I go to them first. I love to think that we all have a lot of fun doing what we do. AXM: I do see a lot of smiling faces in your staff photos! It makes sense: develop a portfolio of work while working on a cause you believe in. I noted some brand name clients like Amnesty International and MTV Networks. It seems like these folks would either have in-house design teams or established relationships with studios. MM: You are very right! Most of these big organizations actually do have in-house designers to take care of small, daily tasks, more marketing related. I think there are two things about AVNDS that attract our clients: quality and “goodness.” When a client has a choice between two design firms, and one is helping out a lot of non-profits, they will be attracted to the idea that their website will make another website possible. Above all this, though, we know our work has to be the best it can be — there is a constant pursuit of perfection in our work. AXM: Tell me a little about how you’ve worked to create in-house design firms as well. MM: Marketing and design are crucial assets to any businesses, but especially non-profits due to the necessity of engaging an audience in order to spread awareness around a cause, or build trust in order to raise donations or recruit volunteers. Now a very problematic aspect of working with a non-profit client on a pro-bono basis is a lack of sustainability — just launching a brand or website really is not enough, and can lack the consistency in brand awareness and marketing tactics that are necessary in sustaining a successful social enterprise or non-profit organization. We have worked with numerous non-profit organizations such as The $100 Solution and Youth Leadership America to contribute to not only the design of their promotional materials and branding, but to the design of their business model by incorporating marketing divisions and building teams / filling the seats for those positions for these organizations. These two organizations as well as other small non-profits we have done this for are now able to sustain themselves with the help of these designed divisions within their existing infrastructures. AXM: It’s easy to see how an organization focused on social action might want to pour more resources toward fundraising, or programmatic operations. Can a design team also play a role in the bigger picture of a nonprofit? MM: Yes. The role of a designer is changing — the overall process of a design project (conceptualization, prototyping, execution, iteration, feedback) is synonymous to that of an entrepreneur. Designers have a natural ability to understand systems, and to (most importantly) find the gaps or voids within those systems. Designers understand the importance of “user” feedback and are in a constant working cycle of iteration. All of these qualities make a designer an ideal leader, if they want to. Now this is not a new idea, *design-thinking*, but I think there have been a lot of missed opportunities to guide entrepreneurs and designers in both the conceptual phase (anomalous object), and in the implementation phase (solid object). AXM: Thanks, Matt, for sitting down to chat. Volunteers interested in joining a very nice design studio should contact Matt directly at matt@averynicedesignstudio.org . Originally from Los Angeles and Manila, designer and artist An Xiao Mina is currently based in Asia. She blogs regularly on art, design, technology and culture at http://www.anxiaostudio.com .

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Market Trends

May 10, 2011

Best Lodging Buys Looking to buy a hotel? read more

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Toro Energy Limited (ASX:TOE) Appoints Mr Martin Janes As General Manager Marketing And Project Finance

May 8, 2011

Toro Energy Limited (ASX:TOE) Appoints Mr Martin Janes As General Manager Marketing And Project Finance

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Doug Sweeny Named President of Young & Rubicam West

May 6, 2011

Moves to Y&R From Levi’s Global Brand Marketing; Reunites With Former Creative Partner, Joe Kayser

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