Archive for the 'Marketers' CategoryPage 3 of 8

The Issue of Lingo

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

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.

In A Vacuum

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

My Mantra

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 22, 2007
in Marketers
. 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?

Dr. Allister Bixby’s Search Engine Cure-All and Hair Tonic

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 15, 2007
in Bad Marketing, Marketers, New Marketing and Web Sites
. Comments

Now I’m sure this kind of thing has been said before, but I feel that there’s more to the search engine optimization (SEO) industry than meets the eye.

If you’re running a website or a business today, there’s no doubt you’ve heard of SEO. The industry, which appeared to have sprung up overnight, is booming. It seems like almost every person/marketer on the internet is a qualified SEOer all of a sudden. But how did this happen?

fat.jpg
It reminds me of the patent medicine boom in the 1800’s. During that time, the market was flooded with products claiming to cure everything from hair loss to “stoutness” to fever. There was no regulation, so people put together whatever ingredients they wanted, got a fancy label with a fancy name, and peddled it as a magic cure-all. Little did most people know that these tonics had bogus ingredients with serious side effects such as addiction and death.

Now I’m not claiming that SEO can kill you. What I am saying is that it’s easy to be tricked. There’s no four year degree in search engine optimization, and unlike a lawyer, you don’t need to pass a test to be a practicing SEOer. You have to take their word for it (or client testimonials if you’re lucky) and really believe that they can deliver.

It’s important to note that I’m not knocking SEO here. While you could say that I’m in the “Content is King” camp, I honestly believe that SEO is an important tool. However, I still believe that search optimizing a site with poor content is like wrapping a crappy product in a pretty box - it won’t do much good.

That being said, I’d like to invite the SEO readers to respond to this. What could I do to make my website better/more SEO? What are a few simple tips that the average person could use to help them out? And how do you know when a SEO is legit?

The Man/Company/Product in the Mirror

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 8, 2007
in Marketers
. Comments

In business, and life, we spend a lot of time trying to manage how others perceive us. But the problem is, if we don’t know ourselves how can we expect anyone else to know who we are?

We have to find our guiding principles, our goals, our focus - commonly referred to as our core values

Core values apply to individuals, companies, blogs, products, and almost everything else. But many times, they get overlooked. Sure they might have a small page on a corporations website, but how many people really are influenced by that?

Here at ANM my core values are simplicity, honesty, common sense, and thinking outside the box. I believe that everything I write and do is guided by those 4 simple principles and I continue to strive to embody those ideas.

I’d like to see what drives everyone else so I invite you to tell me what your core values are by leaving them in the comments.

Further Core Value reading:
Conversation Marketing - Apple Unwrapped
ProNet Advertising - Me-too Mentality…
QuickSprout - What does your business card say about you?
Young Go Getter - Plastic Bags Getting Trashed

Why you have to be incredible

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 5, 2007
in Marketers
. Comments

You can be just a good baker, and a good marketer and be successful.

You can be just a good IT firm, and be a good marketers and be successful.

But if you’re just a marketer, you have to be incredible.

In most other industries, being good at what you do and being good at marketing is enough to be successful. A fair amount of core competency combined with marketing forces goes a long way, but with marketers, marketing is what we do. You can’t get by on a little bit of core competency. You have to be incredible, remarkable, spectacular, etc.

How do you know someone is a good marketer? If you know their name. If someone is good enough to position them self above the crowd, to separate them from the roaring masses, then they might be someone worth listening to.

So how do you become that person? Be original. Be inventive. Be lucky. Be different. Be special. Be fearless. Be spontaneous. And pretty soon you’ll find that you’re incredible.

Where’s the hook?

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 1, 2007
in Analysis, Marketers and Products
. Comments

I love TV on DVD. I’m not sure where it came from, or who thought of it first, but there’s no question that it’s good for viewers and networks.

But there’s one huge opportunity that’s being missed. The hook.

By selling a series’ first season at such high prices, they’re cutting out all the people who want to get into the show. There are several shows out there that I’d probably love, and what better way to get started than to buy the first season on DVD? The thing is, I’m not willing to shell out 50-70 dollars just to catch up on something I might like. And I’d bet that I’m not alone.

If I were the networks, I’d sell the first season cheap. Not at a loss, but cheap enough to get people interested. The benefit would be twofold. First, it would make the studio money, and second it would increase the viewership because people would want to continue to follow the story.

Who knows? It might just be all the hook you need to take a show from obscurity to the big time.