78 posts tagged “marketing”
The CMO Trends 2009 webseminar took place on 2nd of February 2009. With 40 people signing up from around 20 countries, the webseminar was truly international.
ADVERT: More web-seminars here
I (Michael Leander) had anticipated that I would need to add content to the CMO Trends 2009 survey result in order for the webseminar to be interesting to the attendees.
That didn’t quite work out. I simply didn’t spend enough time preparing and reviewing the contents and structure. However, the webseminar was nevertheless relative well received.
Judge for yourself - review the evaluation below
I (Michael Leander) am conducting a new survey about social networking, how business people use social networks, which social networks business people prefer and more.
You get a summary of the report for free + an invitation to participate in a web-seminar where we discuss the survey results live.
If you are interested in joining a web-seminar to learn about marketing through social networks, you can check this one out.
Google, Apple, Amazon.com, Zara and Nintendo are among this year’s top gainers in Interbrand’s annual ranking of The Best Global Brands, and not surprisingly, financial services giants Merrill Lynch, Citi and Morgan Stanley are among the companies that have slipped dramatically down the list.
Coca-Cola (No. 1) remains the best global brand for the eighth year in a row. Yet, a notable shift in this year’s rankings was made by IBM, which took over the No. 2 position from Microsoft (No. 3). Google also moved into the top 10 brands, at No. 10, after ranking at No. 20 in 2007.
“The Best Global Brands 2008 ranking is a reflection of the global economy - the current credit crisis in the U.S., the growth of emerging markets and the increased emphasis on sustainability are all key trends that resulted in brands rising or failing on the list,” said Jez Frampton, Global CEO of Interbrand. “The increasing complexities of the global economy reinforce the importance of protecting and growing a brand. It is a company’s most valuable asset - and a far less volatile asset than others during a time of economic uncertainty.”
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Tumultuous credit markets effect
Movement in the Best Global Brands 2008 ranking confirms that the tumultuous credit markets are affecting leading financial services brands, including Merrill Lynch (No. 34) and Citi (No. 19). However, some strong industry leaders have survived such as HSBC (No. 27) and credit card companies Visa (a new entrant to the list at No. 100) and American Express (No. 15), which have all been able to transcend the credit crisis due to their trusted brands.
–> You can download the full report here
Other brands that fell significantly on the 2008 list include Ford (No. 49) and Gap (No. 77). While notable newcomers include H&M (No. 22), Thomson Reuters (No. 44), BlackBerry (No. 77), Giorgio Armani (No. 94), Marriott (No. 96), FedEx (No. 99) and Visa (No. 100).
Emerging markets impact
Emerging market growth has had a significant impact on this year’s ranking. As customers in these markets accumulate wealth and seek to demonstrate it, luxury brands are seen as a clear indication that one belongs to the new elite. Companies like Porsche (No. 75), Ferrari (No. 93) and Prada (No. 91), have experienced great success in the world’s emerging markets.
Not surprisingly, sustainability is driving brand value across all sectors - from automotive, to consumer products, to financial services. Auto-makers like Honda (No. 20) and Mercedes (No. 11) are creating new, more fuel efficient car models. Honda was the only car manufacturer to report better U.S. sales this year, in June 2008, than it did last year. Companies like GE (No. 4) and BP (No. 84) increased their brand valuation by investing a substantial amount in sustainable business practices. BP also rose among the ranks as a result of its leadership position in working towards greener energy investing in sustainable energy sources.
“In troubled economies business doesn’t cease. Companies may struggle, but the practice of buying and selling continues no matter what,” says Frampton. “Many of the Best Global Brands know this and come through these difficult times stronger and better poised to compete. The key to success, in good times and bad is understanding how your brand creates value.”
Best Global Brands 2008 Methodology and Results
To qualify for inclusion in the BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands 2008 list, each brand must derive at least a third of its earnings outside its home country, be recognizable outside of its base of customers, and have publicly available marketing and financial data. This methodology evaluates brand value in the same way any other corporate asset is valued-on the basis of how much it is likely to earn for the company in the future. Interbrand uses a combination of analysts’ projections, company financial documents, and its own qualitative and quantitative analysis to arrive at a net present value of those earnings.
About Interbrand
Interbrand, the leading brand consultancy, combines the rigorous strategy and analysis of a management consulting practice with the entrepreneurial and creative spirit of branding and design. The company offers a comprehensive array of consulting services that guide clients in the creation, enhancement, maintenance and valuation of their most valuable asset — their brands. Founded in 1974, Interbrand has offices in over 30 cities in more than 20 countries around the globe and clients from among the most respected businesses. For more information visit the world’s only online exchange about branding, produced by Interbrand, at www.brandchannel.com.
Email marketing acquisition tactics: How to increase
your subscriber database fast using proven and cost
effective techniques
In this 60-minute web-seminar Michael Leander will show you how to effectively increase your subscriber base.
Michael Leander will ….
- show you how to setup an effective email marketing acquisition program
- teach you how to communicate your key acquisition message effectively
- show you how to write your Unique Email Selling Proposition
- inspire you to effectively utilize all touchpoints to attract an ever increasing number of email subscribers
- share case studies and examples from successful marketers
- provide you wit concrete and tangible advice that you can begin practicing immediately after the web-seminar
Most email marketers are challenged when it comes to attracting a sufficient amount of subscribers to email campaigns and newsletters.
This 60-minute web-seminar will teach you and inspire you to help you overcome that challenge. You will be taught by one of Europe’s most experienced email marketers.
The web-seminar takes place the first Thursday each month at 10:30 CET (09:30 GMT)
Sign-up below or visit the event website here
Direct mail…it’s not like any other marketing medium. Have trouble with a TV ad you’ve placed?or a magazine placement? “Make goods” are available.
But in direct mail, disasters happen just days before the drop-dead mail dates. And then, it’s too late. All is lost. With direct mail, disaster can lurk in a million different locations, and often, where least expected. So take heed of the horror stories I’m about to share with you.
In this article James E. Sullivan of Optic Nerve Direct Mail Marketing in San Francisco shares a few direct mail horror stories with you.
Direct mail horror story 1
One production manager had the same printer print all the components of his mail package at the same time: the outer envelope, the reply envelope, the generic letter, the lift note, and the 4-color brochures. He also decided to have all those materials shipped to the mail shop all at once. That sounded like a good idea. The mail shop would get all the required materials at the same time and then the job would be ready to mail after the sample package was approved. What could be more efficient?
Well, this was the hinterlands of Pennsylvania, In the dead of winter, So getting from point A to point B wasn’t something to take for granted. The semi truck transporting all of those beautiful envelopes, letters, lift notes and 4-color brochures, slid on the ice-covered roadway, turned over, rolled down an embankment and then burst into flames. The fire burned for FOUR hours. Guess why? Yep, all that volatile fresh ink. Luckily, the driver of the truck was OK. But, given that every single mailer was inside that truck, the whole campaign was sunk. All that money spent and nothing to show for it. Needless to say, the mailing didn’t go out the day it was promised. The State Troopers called the resulting firestorm, “the Perfect Barbecue”. Gotta love “COP HUMOR”.
Direct mail horror story 2
A major telecommunications company wanted to advertise and promote its prestigious data recovery capabilities. Its direct mail agency came up with the following concept: The package would be a large, shrink-wrapped plastic pill bottle with a brochure/letter inside, with the theme “First Aid for Your Data Network.” The local post office approved the design for mailing but the client decided it wanted to mail from a different post office, and the actual mailing post office was not contacted to look at and approve the design of the mailer.
This was just after the 9/11 attacks, and the “anthrax through the mail” scare was a major concern. So when all 50,000 of the bottles showed up at the client’s chosen post office, all 50,000 were promptly rejected. So they all needed to be shipped to the post office that approved the mailing in the first place. But that wasn’t the worst thing that happened. Not even close.
The worst came after all the bottles reached their recipients. The client received over 70 phone calls from prospects and customers expressing outrage over receiving such a “scary” package.
In conclusion, even the best of direct mail talents are sometimes in awe of the ingenuity of “Murphy’s Law” creeping in and spoiling your mailings. Regardless, if you plan on doing direct mail marketing, go with an experienced professional or agency that has learned and experienced these types of disasters so you will be not the client that we can all learn from these types of direct mail marketing mistakes.
Get James E. Sullivans “Six things to consider when establishing a direct mail campaign”
James E. Sullivan, a NorCal BMA member, is the Project Manager of Optic Nerve Direct Marketing, a direct mail consultancy and advertising agency. Check out their website for additional useful resources, including a “75 Point Checklist” for direct mail.
Faced with significant challenges in 2009, CMO’s (chief marketing officer’s) all over the world need to rethink their marketing approach.
In February we are releasing the report CMO Trends 2009 based on the CMO Trends survey conducting in November and December 2008. But before we do, we are presenting a summary of the survey at a web-seminar. The web-seminar will provide tangible input to how marketers can effectively increase the Return on Marketing Investment in 2009 and beyond.
A recent discussion about the difference between advertising and marketing on the Chief Marketing Officer’s Exclusive group on Xing, made me search for various definitions of marketing and advertising.
The real discussion was about the difference between advertising and marketing. Something which might not be clear to many business people, let alone marketing people.
The difference between advertising and marketing - short version
Laura Lake wrote on About.com
Definitions of marketing from various sources
From AMA - The American Marketing Assocation the definition of marketing approved by the American Marketing Association Board of Directors is;
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (Approved October 2007)
and the 2008 version of same
“Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.
From Know.com - author unknown:
Marketing consists of the strategies and tactics used to identify, create and maintain satisfying relationships with customers that result in value for both the customer and the marketer.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing define marketing as ‘The management process responsible for identifying , anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitability’
Philip Kotler defines marketing as ‘satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process’
Advertising defined
Many definitions of advertising can be found searching for same, here are some;
“Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media” (Bovee,1992)
Wikipedia’s entry about advertising
42 people signed up to participate in the first Marketing Through Social Networks webinar organized by FEDMA and yours truly - Michael Leander.
Below you can review the evaluation, the testimonials and critique of the webseminar.
Stressed for time, I will self-evaluate my own effort in more depth later, but for now I have these comments;
- 50% did not show up. Only 3 cancelled pre-event. That is 17 adults whom I am sure all had a good reason not to join, but still…. As a presenter volunteering time and money, I am quite frustrated about this. It’s similar to cooking for a party of 12 and only 5 show up.
- As a result, we are going to start asking payments for these web-seminars vsooner than planned.
- Good thing, though, is that the 21 people that did show up, were a great, interactive group of knowledgeable people whom I hope will join us for more web-seminars
- While the kind-hearted attendees did reward me with a relatively good rating, I felt I didn’t do well at all. In fact if it weren’t for a couple of quite motivating emails directly following the event, I would have been kicking boxes around for hours that afternoon.
- My presentation was too loaded with content without a proper structure and clear direction. So it’s really my own fault, I could have started the presentation earlier, given it more time to zink, run it not 2-3 times, but 5-6 times to get it as good as possible.
- And then there is the ever existing challenge of participants with very different backgrounds, experience and seniority on the subject. We will have to see what we can do about that in the future.
- Not being a quitter, I will of course do my darnest to improve for the next Marketing Through Social Networking web-seminar.
- I am thrilled about the many relevant comments and the critique providing me with some concrete areas to improve for next time.
After I have listened to the recording, I may add more self-criticism here.
Michael Leander’s Marketing Tip 11 provides a brief introduction to Xobni. Bill Gates called Xobni the next generation of social networking. I call it an interesting tool that makes my day more productive. Especially for social networking, keeping track on files and email conversations.
Xobni says: “Xobni is the Outlook plug-in that saves you time finding email conversations, contacts and attachments.”
Watch the introduction below now
Want to watch previous episodes of Michael Leander’s Marketing Tips?
Click on the links below.
Marketing Tip 10 about monitorering what is being written about you on Google
Marketing Tip 9 about mind mapping your marketing projects and more
Marketing Tip 8 about marketing planning and marketing budgeting
Marketing Tip 7 about important web-metrics
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Customerization is a neologism and can be defined as the customization of products or services through personal interaction between a company or brand and the customer. A company is customerized when it is able to dialogue with individual customers and respond by customizing its products, services and messages on a ”one-to-one” basis. But it is also a form of personalization that allows the customer to modify or tailor a product or service according to their needs.
In my opinion customerization represents a real opportunity for many brands interested in engaging customers and communities of prospects. Customerization certainly does create involvement, is engaging and will, if done properly, become the talk of the town.
I have searched for some (cute) examples. Haven’t found many, but here are a few. If you have more examples, please do share in the comment box below.
Creating your own Heinz Ketchup
Heinz offer a solution where you can customize your message on a number of Heinz products. So far this solution is offered in USA and Canada only. Too bad.
Could even be great for restaurants to promote dessert, coffee or… Or for the company canteen.
For birthdays or other events, this gimmick might be the most talked about experience from the event.
Your face or brand name on an official US stamp
I love this one. And I think it might turn out to be a great add-on for a successful direct mail campaign. I guess you would have to post your direct mail from the USA, though. Hope that some of the European postal companies will pick-up on this soon. How about Swiss Post – they are usually very innovative?
Sure your children, grand children or your friends children will love this one. Or perhaps your chocolate loving spouse ? The image here doesn’t do the concept justice. I think this is one of the customerization products one have to see physically. What happens is that you get a message on one side of an M&M and a picture on the other side. The picture will look like the illustration on the very right. And of course you get to choose your favorite M&M colors. Cute, ehh?
