Monthly Archive for August, 2007

The Issue of Lingo

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 31, 2007
in Bad Marketing, Communication, Marketers and New Marketing
. 0 Comments

I know this page is beautiful, but if you're into feeds, you can subscribe and get all this ANM goodness right in your feed reader. And hey, do you love comments? I know I do. Feel free to let me know what you think!

Marketers have the good fortune of being in a discipline where it is completely acceptable to create new phrases or terms. Not only is it acceptable, sometimes it’s encouraged. If you want to be an expert on something, just make something up.

Try doing this in most other industries. I doubt you’ll get away with it. You can’t start calling a car cup holder a “vehicle dependent hot/cold beverage safety policy” or decide that you’re going to call a cheetah a “leopard 2.0 - now with speed boost!” - it just won’t work.

One of the biggest jobs of a marketing department is to create excitement and whip people into a frenzy about one thing or another. A lot of phrases that get invented are made just for that purpose. They’re like fireworks, fun to look at, impossible not to acknowledge, and easy to talk about (ooh..ahh), but once the show is over, there’s nothing left but smoke and empty sky.

However, there are a lot of great terms out there (Purple Cow, Long tail, Viral Marketing) that have taken hold in the marketing lexicon, and why is that?

Because these terms actually have meaning.

They’re connected to a concept or ideal that has substance, and that makes all the difference.

So next time before you coin a new phrase, think about how many times you’ve heard (or said) “I think that’s something that came out of the marketing department” or “That’s probably just a new marketing term for _____” and really decide if it’s necessary. Marketing is already cluttered and convoluted as it is. I guess if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.

More Than It Seams

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 31, 2007
in New Marketing
. 0 Comments

In a recent post, Seth Godin talks about the importance of seams. He mentions that seams help us get a grip and that we should worry about putting them in places that are useful.

I agree with this, but I think there’s more to it.

I believe that seams in things, from user experiences to polo shirts, help us understand and comprehend better by breaking things down into pieces. It’s human nature to want to find where one things stops and another begins, so when something is completely seamless, it makes us uneasy.

Really what people want to be free of is snags, not seams. Snags are problems, seams are just transitions. And while I agree with Seth that we should put seams where they’re useful, We should also do our best to make them easy to identify and understand.

In A Vacuum

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 29, 2007
in Advertising and Marketers
. 0 Comments

What would happen if your favorite brand of cola stopped advertising? Would you stop buying it? What would happen if any of your favorite brands stopped advertising all together? Would we be able to survive in this unthinkable advertising vacum?

My guess - absolutely.

The thing about advertising is that it’s great for building brand awareness and making announcements, but once you’ve got people on board, you’re just wasting your money on them. And companies spend/waste billions a year.

The line over the past few years has seemed to be “more advertising” and the only way to compete with that, naturally, is more advertising. They’ve been figuring out ways to advertise to you in your email, in your car, on your cell phone, in video games and almost everywhere else you can think of. I think it’s time that we start thinking about “better advertising” instead. Google AdWords is a good start, but with all the creative geniuses out there, why isn’t more advertising like it?

Maybe we should work on creating a “bad advertising” vacuum. One that hopefully no one will fill.

Why I Don’t Follow The Speed Limit

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 27, 2007
in Bad Marketing and Marketers
. 0 Comments

Does it bother anyone else when they see cops speeding, making illegal u-turns, driving over medians, etc.? I understand that in the pursuit of bad guys that they have license to suspend the rules of the road, but how about when they’re not going after criminals?

The fact that they can do almost whatever they want and not have to answer to anyone about it doesn’t really inspire me to keep it under 65 and not turn on red. It’s a double standard, and the fact that they’re the ones enforcing it really makes it frustrating.

The moral of this story is - don’t act that way to your customers. Be honest and fair.

Don’t set up a rebate policy you know is incredibly difficult and then deny rebates to most of your customers.

Don’t give one quote as an estimate and then charge 25% more when you show up with the truck.

Don’t call something an “unlimited internet” plan if you fully know it’s not really unlimited.

Don’t start closing the store 15 minutes early, and then complain or give poor service to someone who comes in at 8:57.

Sometimes in marketing, the extra mile is the only one that counts.

Lazy Sunday Linking - 8.26.07

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 26, 2007
in Links
. 2 Comments

People Skills Can Affect Your Brand
-Sometimes it’s how you say it, not what you say.

Anatomy of A Successful Viral Video
-A great look at how viral works from YGG.

How to Get a Job on Craigslist
-Guy Kawasaki explains his hiring process.

The Marketing Spiral
-L+E’s take on the traditional marketing funnel.

A Mobile Advertising Platform That Could Work
-Maybe it’s not all junk…

Weekly Godin
Follow Through

ANM 1.5 - A New Look

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 24, 2007
in ANM
. 4 Comments

Welcome to the new look of ANM version 1.5

Why 1.5 and not 2.0? This update was purely cosmetic. I’m still running Wordpress with a modified version of K2. The feed (which you can subscribe to here) is still through Feedburner. So nothing is different under the hood.

What is new is the logo, color set, tag line, and overall feel.

In the logo, you’ll notice the old circle has been replaced with the Enso, a traditional symbol of Zen Buddhism. The Enso represents enlightenment, strength, elegance and is considered “an expression of the moment.” All things that, to me, represent good marketing.

The new color scheme is more focused. I think it’s cleaner and calmer, yet has some good energy to it.

The new tag line simple. clear. honest. creative. marketing. is a great fit for me. It really outlines what this blog is about in 5 words, and while it might not be the best from a SEO standpoint, I think it represents this blog well.

But what really matters is what you think. How do you like the new design? It’s certainly a work in progress and I’d appreciate any feedback so I can continue to try improve ANM.

My Mantra

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 22, 2007
in Marketers
. 2 Comments

I use iGoogle as my homepage. I love how I can have everything I do online (email, rss, news, etc.) in one place. Recently I added a module called “Sticky Note” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s a little text box that lets me put whatever I want in it, and it stays there. And in my little text box I have these seven words that I see every time I hit my home page.

Make a Connection. Be Honest. Never Settle.

Thats my mantra. And it keeps me focused.

What’s yours?

Facebook’s Bell Curve Kids

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 21, 2007
in Web 2.0 and Web Sites
. 1 Comment

I joined Facebook in October or November of 2004 - less than a year after it’s inception - so I guess you could say that I’m “old school” when it comes to the social network du jour. I’d usually consider myself an early adopter, but being midway through my sophomore year at PSU, it was a case of right place right time. So I joined and watched as it grew and grew. I watched as it let high school kids join, and then as it let everyone join. I watched as it grew from under 800k users when I signed up, to it’s current notch of over 34 million users. And I watched in May as it opened it’s API - unleashing a flood of new apps.

But here’s what I’m seeing now.

“Old school” Facebookers - people like me, age 20-24 who have been on the site since the early days - are slow to jump on the application bandwagon. They’re not used to the gizmos and gadgets you can add to your profile. Instead of a flood of incumbent users adding cool new stuff, it’s been more of a trickle. Social Media Marketers are quick to sing the praises of the new open API and it’s possibilities, but at least to me, it looks like it’s following a slow version of the Rogers Innovation Adoption Curve.
curve.jpg

Just now, I’m noticing that more of my friends are starting to add some of the utilitarian apps such as the video player or “where I’ve been” module. And yes, even some of the more “interesting” apps are growing in popularity (I’m a level 35 Pirate in the Pirates Vs. Ninjas App) but there’s a long road ahead.

So while I think all the hooplah about Facebook is warranted - it’s my favorite social network - we have to be careful not to forget about the people that built it up and got it to where it is today.