…than lower level recommendations and these trusted sources are typically friends or family members., reports McKinsey.
Three key telegrams from McKinsey’s word of mouth report are that WOM recommendations drive 20% to 50% of all purchases; influentials make up about 9% of the population and drive about 3X more WOM; and, the payout of pursuing WOM excellence is enormous, delivering a huge competitive edge over other strategies such as advertising which is a distant second!
Now, I’m sure you believe WOM is a powerful tool, but these staggering numbers should put your marketing team on high alert to devise a strong WOM marketing system.
To help you along, check out McKinsey’s Word of Mouth report here: McKinsey_Word_of_Mouth. And, check out more about WOM from WARC.
For anyone looking for a new job (pay attention college grads) or trying to get that next big sale and running into a roadblock because you can’t get the attention of a key decision maker, check out this brilliant job search strategy by copywriter Alec Brownstein.
- Brownstein used Google AdWords to target Ad Agency Creative Directors on Madison Avenue in New York
- He bet 15 cents per click that these Creatives were no different than the rest of us self absorbed people who Google ourselves
- What the CD’s saw when they Googled themselves was a personal ad from Brownstein – BRILLIANT!
- Young & Rubicam offered him a job!
Note: Brownstein’s Google Job Experiment YouTube video has been viewed over 500,000 times! Rock on Alec!
One of the things that sickens and saddens me in homelessness.
On a such special day as today – Mother’s Day – where is our “mothering” skill when it comes to others – we’re all connected aren’t we?
In this rich country of ours, these homelessness statistics are mind blowing to me:
- About 3.5 million people experience homelessness in a given year
- 40% are families with children—the fastest growing segment
- 1.37 million (or 39%) of the total homeless population are children <18.
- 1 out of 50 American kids will be homeless
And, with people losing their jobs the homelessness situation is getting worse.
Last Friday, we helped out our good friends and former Steelers Tunch Ilkin and Craig Wolfley reconnect with the super cool folks at KDKA’s Pittsburgh Today Live TV Show (many thanks to KD’s super producer extraordinaire Jill Neely) to talk about their 8th Annual Walk for the Homeless on Saturday, May 15 – benefiting Pittsburgh’s area homeless via the unsung heroes at Light of Life Rescue Mission on the city’s North Side.
Check out the very funny and yet touching Tunch and Wolf KDKA-TV video here.
What can you do to help?
Here are a few more marketing ideas that might spark a few more from all of you terrific marketers and brands:
Love this gal – one of my new heroes – Shay Kelley and her Project 50/50 – here’s her amazing story about helping the homeless after becoming homeless herself as told by CNN – Jobless woman finds generosity on the streets
Here are three great Web sites to kick start your thinking:
And, here’s a list of more ideas and ways (some overlap of course) to help:
- 12 ways to help the homeless
- 34 more ways to help the homeless
- 54 more ways to help the homeless
Granted, a lot of the ideas are tactical in nature, but certainly a lot of tactics can build up to a strong strategy.
You know one thing for sure and that is, your good, sainted mother would be proud of you, if/when you would help those less fortunate than you.
I have come to realize more and more that the greatest disease and
the greatest suffering is to be unwanted, unloved, uncared for,
to be shunned by everybody, to be just nobody [to no one].
Mother Teresa ‘My Life for the Poor’
Growing up in the city of Pittsburgh in the 60′s and 70′s, hockey wasn’t the hot sport it has become, and even today I’m what the NHL calls a “casual fan.”
However, when it comes to NHL hockey marketing, I’m a rabid fan. After the lockout season of 2004-05, the NHL has put forth an amazing marketing power play. The NHL has become more relevant, is skating with a cool, new swagger and is scoring huge marketing goals!
This New York Sports Journalism feature outlines several of the key marketing initiatives the NHL has embraced such as getting back to the roots of their game with the Winter Classic, embracing and communicating player’s unique stories, creating special events aligned with sponsor brand needs, taking full advantage of the 2010 Olympics in Canada, becoming an online category killer and more. Their social media strategy is a killer one too.
The NHL offers great marketing lessons to all brands in search of a comeback.
As an added bonus, here are a few mobile marketing insights from the Chicago Blackhawks featuring an SMS case study and the New York Rangers $1 million dollar mobile sweepstakes.
P.S.: More good news. Brand NHL has got it’s groove back and introduces its cool new NHL iPhone App announced via NHL.Com
Go Pens!
…and “Average Joe Marketing” is for losers!
If you’re wondering why your “family-based” marketing strategy isn’t working like it used to, maybe it’s because you’re treating everyone the same. Sure you should treat your customers the same with regard to being respectful and being nice, but your marketing should treat them different with uniquely targeted messaging, services and products.
Today, America is a big diverse nation of over 300 million, with no single dominating household arrangement. America’s “nuclear family” of today consisting of a married couple with their own kids is a prejudiced old-fashioned, out-of-date model often seen as the quintessential average American family.
In 1970, 40.3% of U.S. households were nuclear family ones, but today these households count for <25% of all American households. And consider these facts:
- Married couples without children count for 28.7% of households (bigger than nuclear ones)
- Single households – single persons residing alone – count for 25.5% of households
- Single male households are about 11% of all households
Telegram: There are no average American families – no average Joe’s or Joannne’s!
If your marketing is “family-based,” make sure you’re speaking the right language and using the right visuals. A big reason, this year’s big TV hit series and family comedy Modern Family is doing so well!
…not percentages.
Following yesterday’s post about testing, someone asked me about testing promotional offers and wanted to know which has more appeal, a dollar off coupon or a percent off coupon.
After saying, “Test them both,” I told him that in my experience a “dollar off” promotion typically outsells a percent off promotion. Dollar offs, BOGOs (buy one get one free, cash rebates etc.,) rock harder than a simple percent off promotion.
Why?
One big reason.
Money talks and you know the rest.
It’s far easier for busy people (aren’t we all) to understand the value of a dollar figure vs. calculating percentages.
But hey, don’t take my word for it
Check out this Marketing Sherpa article which supports my view and highlights how one brand’s test proved that its dollar off promo delivered 170% more revenue.
For our clients, I find that emailing campaigns early in the morning and early in the week provide better results. Early morning emails work better for us because it’s easier to get people’s attention before they jump into their daily activities. See B2B Magazine article here and this eMarketer chart which both agree. I’m sure early morning deployments work well for both B2C and B2B businesses alike.
Giving people ample time to react and respond along with a respectful reminder works wonders too. Marketers forget that not everyone opens their email every day and often their addresses are personal (non business) and may only get opened once a week.
Email timing is critical to the success of a marketing campaign. And, deciding the right time of day, and the precise day to deploy your email message is as important as the message itself, but many brands don’t pay enough attention to timing.
You need to get the timing right because your message competes with every other message received by land line phone, mail, social media and smart phones.
Pivotal Veracity discovered that the average elapsed time between when messages are first sent to when they are first seen is growing to about 26 hours.
See their report here: pivotal_veracity_email_engagement_index_q1_q3_2009
In addition, another email marketing best practice involves testing. Email testing is pretty easy to do and I continue to be amazed by the lack of it by brands of all sizes. eMarketer reports that only about 63% of Marketers test their email campaigns! Ugh!
According to a recent ExactTarget study, 40% of email marketers’ lists are unengaged recipients and another 44% have a low level of engagement.
Different strokes (messages) for different folks is key to having an engaged database.
So, what can you test? What should you try? Well, just about anything and everything! Check out just some of the opportunities in this chart:
Marketers need to maximize message relevance and avoid sending email subject matter to people who do not care to receive it.
Try creative copy split-run email tests by taking your list and divide it in half (or thirds) and simply test two/three different subject lines or calls to action or other features such as copy, design, offers or more.
Start testing your email marketing campaigns. It’s easy…just do it!
I don’t have many favorite politicians – check that – I don’t have a one! And, I’d bet most of you don’t have one.
Until maybe now.
Republican candidate for Congress and former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Allen West is someone I’ve been following throughout his race in the Sunshine State!
And you should too.
Allen West, is a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and is running this November as a Republican candidate for the United States Congress in Florida’s District 22.
Watch this video of West in action. No notes – pure passion and conviction – clear message coming from experience – a complete mastery of the power of video and the mastery of the public speech!
When the Republicans and McCain and Co., got outgunned and derailed by the Obama campaign in the last presidential election, there’s no question that one of big contributing factors was that they were far behind in mastering the New World Order of interactive and social media marketing tools.
In the next election/s, you’ll see that everyone will be on the SMM bus. And, it will be somewhat of a level playing field in terms of marketing execution since most everyone will be wearing a pretty nice SMM tool belt and carrying a well equipped toolbox.
Check out West’s Web site and you’ll see its complete with all the appropriate SMM tools however, his talent, integrity, character and clear brand message and performance rules.
Certainly money helps, but in this online, always on world we live in, citizen journalists can help West even out the playing field for his underfunded brand.
Watch out for the Allen West’s of the world (performance based brands with character, integrity and trustworthiness) and remember that tools are cool, but tools don’t rule because anybody can buy them and learn how to use them.
To excel these days, recognize that for today’s informed consumer, what truly matters is a clearly communicated and meaningful brand promise delivered from a trustworthy, proven brand. Guaranteed.
P.S.: I call Lt. Col. Allen West a Marketer’s dream because it’s so easy to promote a brand you believe in. I’ll bet West wins in November – this American Patriot prays and hopes that he does – we need more good people like him in government.
I suppose with all the beautiful newness and growth that Spring brings, I find myself more inspired and looking for ways to help my clients breakthrough with innovative new ways of doing things.
Spring never fails me.
I truly work on being innovative and constantly look for inspiration inside and outside of my industry.
And, it’s always awe inspiring to me to see common things done in an uncommon way.
How about square watermelons?
As you know, a round watermelon can take up a lot of space in your refrigerator and the usually round fruit often sits awkwardly on refrigerator shelves.
Innovative Japanese farmers have forced their watermelons to grow into a square shape.
They do it by inserting the melons into square, tempered glass cases while the fruit is still growing on the vine.
Here’s a picture of the packaging.
And, here’s one way Mr. Clean uses Crosswalk lines for advertising/product placement:
And, here’s another use by a local office supply store:
If you’re inspired to become more innovative – anyone can learn to be more innovative – try using Ideo’s method cards and/or reading: The Ten Faces of Innovation: Ideo’s Strategies for Beating the Devil’s Advocate & Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization. And, read a few of Roger Von Oech’s books too. Roger and I go back a long way – he’s been giving me whacks on the side of my head for many years..
I’ve been a practicing (and far from perfect) Roman Catholic and Christian all my life, and for over 25 years, I’ve been a practicing (also far from perfect) marketing professional.
For the past few months, I’ve been working on a lot of brand positioning exercises and marketing audits as well as attending a weekly bible study. As I’m preparing to enter Holy Week and Easter – my favorite time of the year – my professional and personal life is colliding in an interesting way.
I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ ministry and his time on earth a lot lately. And, I’ve been thinking about him as a brand too. And, when I think of him as a brand, his radical and remarkable message and unique selling proposition is clearly one of unconditional love, tolerance and forgiveness – but, love is his foundational core message. And, he demonstrated his core message of love by living it out loud through his actions and by making the ultimate sacrifice.
I say radical and remarkable because if you closely study The Sermon on the Mount, you’ll see what I mean. C’mon…turning the other cheek is one heck of a radical concept! Even today!
When I try to stand outside of my faith and look at Christianity as a product, it’s amazing that it has spread throughout the world and has welcomed 2 billion adherents without depending on large scale ad campaigns, social media and the like.
Christianity has spread because one person – Jesus – started it by speaking his message of truth, being authentic, transparent and following a singular focused devout message of pure unconditional love for everyone.
It’s a great lesson for all of us people of the world and marketers too.
Happy Easter to all of you.
P.S.: With all due respect, this post is not meant to be sacrilegious at all, but merely an essay in effective branding/messaging. Also, for those of you interested in religious marketing lessons, I came across this Blog – Church Marketing Sucks – and found it pretty interesting. The site’s goal as stated is to…“frustate, educate and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ.” Another interesting post is here, Jesus Is Not a Brand; Why it is dangerous to make evangelism another form of marketing, by Tyler Wigg Stevenson.
