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May 31, 2009

On Bailing Out Large Corporations...

This is not a political blog. But today we are on the verge of another historic financial event and I cannot hold back my thoughts.

I have been working all day today (a Sunday), as unfortunately for my family...I often do. I cannot find proper credit for our company which is experiencing a tremendous demand in activity. And while I was raised in a blue collar family with shift-work roots in NJ, I am finding it hard to accept why we will pour $30+ Billion more into GM.

In the free market economy, the weak fall by the wayside. For my company, if I do not sell enough or do not pay bills long enough, eventually I will go out of business. Why is it different with some mega-corporations?

I hear the calls of "too large to fail"... but already the special interests are lining up to impact policy. GM and its dealer network need to right-size to the market. No more deals...no more handouts.

This is a painful time, and the human suffering is beyond compare. But, innovation rarely springs from handouts to antiquated organizations. GM missed the boat 20 years ago and continues to lose distance to the leaders even today. Propping up a money-loser while innovative startups lack access to capital is a mistake.

Ultimately, smaller business continues to be the lifeblood of our country. As you get larger, only the truly magnificent corporations retain the nimble, risk-taking mentality required to succeed in today's markets. Alas, GM is not one of those companies.

Domine in pacem.

Posted by jcioban at 11:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 28, 2009

Information Unleashed. Marketing Inverted. (Again)

I was doing research for a new project and got into the world of chemistry blogs. Yes, sites like totallysynthetic.com or In the Pipeline. It was rather fascinating, because of the openness, the interaction...the transparency.

My graduate degree is in chemistry and I was raised in the world of peer review journals and arcane publishing rules. To read journals for projects early in my career, I would have to visit medical or university libraries, or make journal requests through library sharing services. Now, the world of science is increasingly online. And the social media concepts that are sweeping B2C markets are rewriting the rules for scientific collaboration and technical publishing. Sites like ResearchGate are emerging to create social networks of science geeks sharing research notes like others share photos on Facebook.

Of course, this whole Internet thing did start as a government and university resource, so it is not totally surprising. In a fascinating PPT presentation by Antony Williams, a vocal proponent of the "freeing" of technical publication content, I came across an interesting quote attributed to Peter Frishauf of The Medscape Journal of Medicine who predicts "within 5 years, most medical journals will be open access, .... provide access to trusted articles and data at no cost." That concept is almost more amazing to me than the Boston Globe ceasing to publish its hardcopy edition. That both scenarios are immensely possible speaks volumes about the changes occuring.  

The implications for B2B marketers operating in the midst of this shift are substantial. As information becomes more fluid, accessible and portable, new content navigation paths will emerge and formalize. And the distribution of product information will become more susceptible to the combinations of search and word-of-mouth (reference) marketing that are redefining consumer markets. Companies seeking to notify audiences of exciting technology breakthroughs will face the same challenges of reaching an audience that controls its content inputs. 

For individuals trained in the old research paradigms, these changes can seem scary...how is content validated and curated? How is trust established? Yet, the promise of accessible, indexed, structured content is so energizing that the community in these pure science markets are rapidly evolving to address these challenges. And, in the process, leave many companies struggling to devise new ways to market those shiny new devices, chemicals, drugs, polymers, etc..... 

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May 26, 2009

Television Is Not Dead.

I was reading David Carr's thoughtful piece in the yesterday's NYTimes, "As TV Dwindles, It Still Leads," and realized how much it fights some of the commentary and rhetoric that pervades the blogosphere regarding the death of television and the end of the 30-second spot. Individuals have become famous on the "TV is dead" platform, yet we still find time to absorb it. And, while I too have touted the dwindling attention span of viewers, we still find ourselves regularly connected to the medium -- at the health club, while prepping dinner in my kitchen, while eating a late-night meal at my kitchen table.

In fact, as most savvy commentators recognize, the changes we are experiencing in media are less about "death" than they are about "transmogrification." As Merriam-Webster's so eloquently points out, that means "to change or alter greatly often with grotesque or humorous effect". And along the way, we are seeing some amusing transformations!

TV continues to connect an audience, albeit a dwindling one, in ways that other media have not yet duplicated. And as computing and television futher converge, we may find ourselves arguing about whether the ad we are watching is on "TV" or the "computer." But one thing we won't be arguing about is whether there will be ads. As long as there are marketers, there will be ads. And they will continue to look for venues...with TV being one. Who makes the programs will change, how they will be distributed will change, and what the definition of entertainment is....all will evolve. But count out TV at your own risk.

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May 22, 2009

A Matter of Perspective: A Banana-licious Holiday Tale

A couple of years ago, I read a story about monkeys and bananas. In somewhat amusing fashion, the author described why bananas were such a perfect fruit, including the fact they came with their own handle to make them easy to eat. That's right...a "handle." It turns out, monkeys eat bananas by holding the stem and peeling from the "top" of the banana. It appears we humans decided that the stem was "easier" to snap off to open the peel, so we reversed the process to our tastes. Alas, it's all a matter of perspective which end of the banana is "up."

It is that way with a lot of marketing lately. As my free time has shrunken over the past years, I look at an increasing amount of marketing as "intrusive", or even "abusive." Newsletters I signed up for years ago, hoping to follow what other companies were doing so I could assess "best practices", have suddenly become annoying. I hit the spam button with frightening regularity.

Of course, on the other side of this dilemma, are the marketers. They are desperately trying to reach a "target" prospect, and feel justified in trying every possible tactic to get my attention. To them, any campaign (online or offline) is justified under the name of "marketing."

Again, it is just a matter of perspective. Only, now, I can easily block these marketers out of my life if they annoy me enough -- at least on the electronic side. And in print, if they piss me off online, they can presume my animosity will gladly extend to their annoying print...where is get the extra satisfaction of wasting more of their money.

Which demonstrates, that while "persepctive" can be invoked, in reality, customers hold almost all the cards when it comes to what is accceptable in marketing. That means, marketing practitioners must work harder than ever to avoid crossing the line and getting blocked (literally and figuratively) from a prospect's radar.

And with that thought...have a happy Memorial Day.  

Posted by jcioban at 5:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 11, 2009

Mining Your Loyalists

  I am a big fan of Internet radio station, Radio Paradise, run by Bill Goldsmith who used to be a DJ/Music Director on traditional over-the-air radio. Radio Paradise is a little unique in that it does not run ads...eschewing promotion in favor of "listener-support." Over the years (the station started in 2000), the platform has evolved into a rather sophisticated effort, fueled by its periodic requests for donations.

Their latest effort at promotion, is a great example of current trends in social media. "The Great RP YouTube Challenge" is an effort to get listeners to post a video to YouTube, Vimeo or other service, then get 1,000,000 views. For your efforts, you can win...$1,000, or for a few runners-up, a bag of RP goodies valued at $100. Obviously, people won't be doing this to become rich and famous. But, for the little band of loyal followers, the contest is a great chance to leverage their social graph to promote the station they love.

This very loose, yet really true-to-the-brand, contest is a great example of promotion without advertising...of facilitating the movement of a message by leveraging word of mouth. It will work because there is a loyal following, and because from Day 1, Bill Goldsmith has worked hard to make RP listeners feel like a family. RP makes extensive use of affiliate links and other Web tools to capture revenue wherever it can, while maintaining its consistent avoidance of advertising as we know it. 

In a world where advertising simply can't support everything, and where getting an ad message through to people is getting harder and harder, engaging loyalists is is the essence of marketing. And leave it to a little two-person "radio station" in Paradise, CA to demonstrate to many larger, more resource-rich marketing departments, how it's done.

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May 9, 2009

Learning From "The Worst Person In The World"

This morning I read a thought-provoking editorial in The Economist, titled "The perils of unpopular populism." It reflected on Republican efforts to rehab the party's image and associated flagging political fortunes. It got me thinking about some marketing lessons that can be drawn from current political theater.

In this past election, we saw (and continue to see) Barack Obama use the Internet and social media to brilliant advantage. But, it was not social media or marketing that got Obama elected. Obama presented a timely message in meticulously controlled fashion to overcome the overwhelming disadvantage of his race and relative inexperience. He reached people across all voter segments to coalesce a coalition. He did something else almost unhead of in recent politics -- while his fiscal policies are decidely liberal, he campaigned (and is governing) from closer to the middle than many pundits thought possible.

So, why the ongoing war of words between Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann...and by extension between Fox and NBC? Their childish rants against each other are increasingly unattractive to anyone with a brain. As The Economist's article so elegantly pointed out, there is an abiding comfort gained from talking to your tightly aligned followers, but if the objective is to sway the other side, then irrational invective does little to swing votes.

AIDA -- Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. We learned that in Markeing 101. Screaming about your rival/opponent certainly creates awareness. But bellowing about how your rival is a neanderthal or crook or "worst person in the world" does little to help sway moderates to your point of view. IT may galvanize your rabid followers, but isn't the objective to create new followers as well as keep the one's you have?

In fact, many talking heads continue to ignore the realities that Obama leveraged so well -- a really resonant message will move virally if properly facilitated. If you think back, Obama was not a fire-and-brimstone preacher...he was a measured, calm, albeit articulate and emotionally-engaging, speaker. He would hold a town hall meeting, and inspire a crowd, but the energy did not come from his pounding his fist or dashing around hystrionically. The energy came from the crowd. When people went home, the campaign creatively supplied tools and techniques to allow the new followers to spread the word..."Hey, you ought to listen to this guy....".

That, is social media marketing at work.

As marketers, the lessons above aptly apply to your day job. We all want to scream from the mountaintop about our products. And to create awareness, some screaming is needed. But, once people notice you, are you empowering them with the tools and opportunities to help you move the message if it really is resonant?

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May 3, 2009

Inbox Woes

My Inbox continues to be under attack by various orgainzations, some legit and some purely spam. Eveyone thinks e-mail is the savior which is putting the medium every more at risk. Seth Godin does a wonderful job putting the issue into context in his post "Friction saves the medium."

His point, that because e-mail is free it is inherently subject to excessive use is right, and is something I have said over and over. While spammers don't care, even legitimate businesses just can't help themselves...like addicts. We all use the rationale that "CAN-SPAM only requires an opt-out" as the reasoning to send things to people that they did not really ask for. But, in the long run, such efforts fail.

If you are sending bulk e-mail remember the steps:  invite, acknowledge response, confirm, respect decisions. We all risk killing the goose that laid the golden egg, and the continuing recession is accelerating that death.

Posted by jcioban at 2:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 1, 2009

Overhyping vs. Underhyping. You Choose.

Watching CNBC yesterday, it was interesting to watch a segment called "Most OverHyped Stories". The three choices were:

• Chrysler Bankruptcy
• Swine Flu
• The Demise of Newspapers

Eveyone agreed that Swine Flu was ridiculously overhyped. Of course, there is plenty of time for this virus to mutate and wreak havoc on the globe. But given that almost 10,000 people die each year due to standard winter flu, the relatively benign swine flu seems to be garnering an inordinate amount of press.

Welcome to the new world of reporting. As we saw with Twitter Mom's, a seemingly small slight can result in a significant backlash. That same phenomenon can take a relatively minor news story and elevate its rank ...(excuse me)....virally.

In itself, that is not necessarily bad, except that in the case of something like swine flu, it could affect the misallocation of resources across the globe or the unjustified actions/reactions of millions of people. Overhyping is as much of a risk in the information age as is underhyping. And fear mongering is not always a desired action (ask Joe Biden).

For my money, the wild spread of swine flu stories reflects both the promise and the challenge of our new social media powered era. LIke the story of the little boy who cried wolf...after you are hit with too many "swine flu pandemics" will you become lax when the real pandemic arrives?

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