Smart Marketing

Open source marketing; The wave of the future?

As the calendar turns into 2006, I asked myself what new marketing trends are emerging? The answer is quite simply...open source marketing. One way to define open source marketing is by calling it a willing collaboration between a company and its customers to help market the company's products.

Firefox, just got into the act by launching its Firefox 1.5 browser version using an open source marketing campaign.  In this campaign, the company invites users to record video testimonials, enter a contest and link to video.spreadfirefox.com .

This move to open source marketing is a natural outgrowth of word-of-mouth marketing (as well as word of mouse marketing) and, in my opinion, will only gain strength in 2006.

But, what do you think? Is there something here to open source marketing or is it just another fad?

Retail Marketing Tricks

Here's a great post called 8 Things Stores Don't Want you to Know by John Nardini that gives all retailers proven marketing tricks to increase their sales. In this post you'll find answers to marketing questions on:

• How to use color to increase sales
• What kind of music to play to make shoppers feel more welcome
• Which scents put a shopper's mind at ease.

Retail marketers, remember that successful marketing is about doing a thousand little things right. Start with these retail marketing tricks and you'll be well on your way to success...

Brands are NOT dead

I just finished reading an article in one of our local business publications Minnesota Business
that had the curious title "Brands are Dead". Written by an author claiming to own a "marketing architecture consultancy" (whatever that is) it quoted a CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi as saying "Brands have run out of juice. They are dead."

This is way off base. Sure, the dynamics of the marketplace are changing to a more opt-in environment, and yes competitive pressures are found most everywhere these days. But brands are NOT dead. In this hyper-competitive environment we face, you are obligated to build a strong brand; rooted in trust and customer confidence. If you don't, your customers will turn elsewhere, in the blink of a mouseclick.

My second book Stand Out from the Crowd: Secrets to Crafting a Winning Company Identity (due out  next year by Dearborn Trade Publishing) will cover all the tools a company needs to distinguish itself from its competitors. But building a company brand, is at the heart of it, and still very much alive.

Do you agree?

The Sounds of Marketing

My daughter and I srolled  into my favorite coffee bar yesterday for a Sunday morning daddy-daughter bonding event. After ordering, we took our seats and it was then that we noticed the music playing. It was a grunge/metal band, heavy on the yelling, that played over the loudspeakers at entirely too loud a level.

Since we were 2 out of just a few people in the joint at the time, I walked up to the counter and asked if there was any chance of listening to a different CD. My request was met by the manager of the place with a steely-eyed look and the words "We don't honor music requests ".

I couldn't help but notice another worker, who was far less severe in her attitude, watching with great interest, but deference just the same.

After getting our orders, my daughter and I proceeded to talk over the music for a couple of minutes. Then, I noticed,  out of the corner of my eye, the other worker turn the music down. The rest of the morning went just fine and my daughter and I had a great time after that.

But the whole incident raised two questions in my mind:
1) Do you think music influences the mood of a retail environment?
2) Is it right for customers to request a change in music? Should the owners comply?

How to get marketing and sales to work together

It's no secret there's an inherent friction between the marketing and sales staffs at most companies. Borne of different personalties and shaped from different experiences, these two fields often fight like starved cats over a mouse.

But it doesn't have to be this way. I've posted an article on my website called "Cut bickering between sales and marketing with these tips"  Check it out.

Here are a few kernals from the article:

• Sales thinks in days; Marketing in years
• Marketing’s view is 30,000 feet; Sales’ is 3 feet
• Marketing must schedule ride-alongs with Sales
• Sales must let Marketing develop the messaging

What else needs to be accounted for between these two groups?

Your buyers want control

I just received an apology letter from WorldVision, an organization through which my family and I sponsor an African child. Here is a portion of the letter:

"We sent several notices to you over the past months stating that we planned to increase your monthly commitment UNLESS you contacted us to say that you wanted to remain at the lower rate. We recognize now that we needed to ASK you, rather than simply assume you would join us."

First off, kudos to any organization that can admit its mistake so honestly. More importantly, the apology indicates a bigger trend in today's marketing: the buyer has control.

Increasingly, marketing efforts must have an opt-in mentality to them. Buyers are swamped with spam, telemarketing calls and unsolicited direct mail and a backlash is brewing. As a result, buyers are choosing which companies they want to market to them, and which they don't.

Do your marketing efforts have the buyer's choice at the center? Are you making it easy for buyers to opt-in (and conversely, opt-out)?

The need for focus in your marketing

For a while now, I've ranted about the importance of focus in a business' marketing effort. Now, the Big Picture Small Office blog comes out with a post today about how valuable focus would be to this large, public company.

Read it carefully, then refine your focus to just one marketing priority this week. Your company's very survival may be at stake.

Service marketing tips

What are the #1 and #2 ways buyers are most likely to learn about your service business? Referrals from colleagues (#1) and referrals from other sevice providers (#2).

Now what are the next 3 biggest ways for buyers to learn about you?

• Presentations at conferences or events (75%)
• Personal recognition or awareness of service provider (69%)
• In-person seminar (67%)

These facts, and dozens more like them, can be found in the latest guide from the folks at RainToday.com called How Clients Buy.

If you hve a service business, you owe it to yourself to check out this handy resource. In fact, I found this report so valuable, I'm going to try to post aother set of data next week.

PS - One lesson that can be drawn from the data above is this: If you are a service provider, you must do some form of public speaking to draw new leads.

Agree? Or is there another tactic that you service providers have found particular fruitful?

Brochures - The James Brown of your company identity

A brochure is your company’s James Brown: the hardest working tool in your identity kitbag. Just think of all the ways a brochure is used in this world and you’ll come to appreciate its overall importance to your marketing effort.

A good brochure helps your company:

· Establish credibility in a buyer’s mind

· Build consistency for your visual company brand

· Craft a unique image for your company

· Standardize your marketing messages

· Move prospects along to the next step in the buying process

· Remain in your buyer’s in-basket

· Appeal to those who prefer to read

From acting as a leave-behind after sales calls to a pass-out at trade shows to a download on your website, your marketing brochure is the most versatile and powerful marketing tool there is.

What else does a brochure do for a company?

Color in marketing - A need for contrast

Contrast is created when colors with opposing qualities are used together. The dissimilarity of the colors actually works to benefit marketers. The most basic example of this (and one that I see violated all the time) is the contrast between the background color and the text you want people to read. One job of yours as a marketer should be to always insist upon successful contrast between any background and the text appearing on it.

Look at this page for a moment. What do you see? Black type against a white background; one of the most effective (and popular) contrasts possible. There’s a reason for this: it’s easy to read.

If your objective is to get readers to read what you’ve written, choose readability over creativity.