Christmas Cheer and Marketing - Good, Bad and Ugly

In the early darkness of the morning after Thanksgiving it begins. The promotions leading up to Christmas are a harbinger of the general economy and the December campaign can bolster those lagging year-end figures, particularly in retail.

So effective marketing in the competition for those final discretionary dollars of the year is critical. Although the zeitgeist is one of generosity, the board of directors is looking up from the balance sheets and saying "You know that last dime? We need it." Are there marketers out there who are successful in appealing to both the rock and the hard place?

Some companies have seized the opportunity to be Christmas-friendly. In a recent survey of that category by John Stossel, the pole position is held by Bass Pro Shops, followed by Cabela's, Lands End, K-mart and Sears. Other businesses are more inclined to be snowy, frosty, wintry, festive, etc. in hopes of appealing to Obama's "no longer Christian" nation. Retailers will have all of January to figure out whether they offended the right people.

Here are some other pre-12/25 strategies you may be seeing out there lately - see if you think they're effective:

Good
- Megabus is giving away 100,000 free seats on their Facebook page on trips booked for 1/6-3/20.

- Apple has a free Christmas music download set (20 songs) on iTunes.

- ELF Cosmetics is offering free shipping on any purchase.

- Joseph A. Bank is offering $550 suits for $180.

- Cepia's hot new "Zhu Zhu Pets" are under $8.00 each (and the rumors of toxicity are false).

Bad
- Verizon doubled its early-termination fee for smartphones last month.

- Joseph A. Bank evidently clears at least $370 on its normally $550 suits.

- Today, stores sold out of Zhu Zhu Pets within minutes of getting a shipment, pushing the eBay price up to $35.00.

Ugly
- The girls in Gap's seasonal ad saucily tell their parents they won't wear that (old stuff) anymore, and if they don't like it, they can "talk to the moose." (The only sign of seasonal cheer at the brick-and-mortar store reads, "Do the moose. Shake your caboose.") The moose video has already generated some spoofs on YouTube.

- Mitsubishi is running ads with the jingle, "We wish you a Mitsubishi."


On that note, I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. God bless us, every one.

______________________

Some of you have asked about the Discovery Channel's "Everest: Beyond the Limit" with John Golden's amazing summit climb described in my 10QatAtime interview with him in October. The update is that the episode was delayed but is now scheduled for Sunday 12/27 - see the link here.

Marketing Obama's Noble Steps

Since the Nobel Prize committee's surprise decision in October to recognize President Barack Obama for the 2009 peace prize, a great deal of discussion has ensued around the reasoning in the decision. The arguments revolve largely around the timeline and general requirements for accomplishments, rather than plans or intentions.

Interestingly, the peace prize is an anomaly among the thirteen Nobel Prizes. It doesn't carry the "tested by time" caveat for qualification, so there is plenty of room for interpretation by the committee on what ought to be considered. The formal award statement describes the decision as recognizing Obama's "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," primarily through work toward nuclear anti-proliferation and a new international political climate. Also cited is his role in "meeting the great climatic challenges" in the world, echoing the 2007 award to Al Gore and his climate-change (formerly "global warming") panel. The Peace Prize is again unique among the thirteen Nobels in its presentation, as the only prize given in Oslo rather than Stockholm at the specific, and somewhat enigmatic, request of the dynamite inventor himself.

Curiosity about the field of nominations in which President Obama competed will have no doubt waned by the time nomination records are unsealed in 2059, but the field of past recipients into which he has been inducted is certainly a distinguished cast. Among the honored peacemakers are the Dalai Lama, Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa. Notable achievements from the Cold War days came from both Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost and Lech Walesa's Solidarity. For his part, Mr. Walesa has been bold to note that on the basis of actual contribution, his award was harder earned. Critics also point out the absence of any recent Republican presidents, whose peace dividends have evidently not made the cut.

The next of what civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson called President Obama’s “noble steps” in the process is to travel to Oslo today to formally receive the award. In addition to the medal, the $1.4 million cash prize has already been promised by Obama to an unnamed charity. Based on the widely-reported costs of up to that exact amount for the President’s recent trip to Copenhagen, the cost of the Oslo trip might be better offset by a “donation” back to the taxpayers who are funding the trip, rather than another perceived federal redistribution.

Seth Godin's Top Ten for Business Laggards

Is your business running on all cylinders in terms of new media? If so, you can bypass this one.

Author and internet übermarketer Seth Godin has written up an intriguing list of ten recommendations for businesses (and organizations or clients) that are web laggards. (It's the sick who need a doctor, right?) Those who qualify have:

- No real website
- No social media
- No permission assets
- No real cash

All ten of them are good, but these are my favorites:

- Use gmail to give every person in the organization that can read English an email address.
- Start an email newsletter using Mad Mimi or Mail Chimp. Give the responsibility for the newsletter's creation and performance to one person and offer them a bonus if they exceed metrics in sign ups and in reducing churn.
- Offer a small bonus to anyone in the company who starts and runs a blog on any topic. Have them link to your company site, with an explanation that while they work there, they don't speak for you.
- Start a newsletter for your vendors. Email them regular updates about what you're doing, what's selling and what problems are going on internally that they might be able to help you with.
- Get a white board and put it in the break room. On it, have someone update: how many people subscribe to the newsletter, how many people visit the website, how many inbound requests come in by phone, how long it takes customer service to answer an email and how often your brand names are showing up on Twitter every day.

Here's a link to the rest.

Thanks, Seth.

VW is having fun with video marketing

In "The Illustrated Man," Ray Bradbury describes videos and beer becoming the new ersatz for books and wine.

A year after its debut, YouTube was acquired by Google. Three years later, traffic is at over a billion videos - per day, that is. At the top of the list is: Charlie the finger-biter (here's an article with a complete list of the top ten).

What does this mean for business? The world's biggest company (VW) has undoubtedly made some significant investments in marketing distribution, but what about a shift toward content? What if, instead of investing a much smaller amount in creating a one-page ad (paying the graphic designer, photographer, and copywriter) and then paying Car and Driver to print it, the distribution were free? The savings could go toward a more elaborate message like "we are all about using 'fun' to influence people's behavior," and then depend on the viral spread to get over three million views in its first week at no cost.

Good idea.

Video Marketing (Evian)

Does this make you want to go out and get some Evian water or what?

It stands to reason

If you're working for a monolithic, impersonal, quota-driven organization in these tough economic times, you're aware of the extra scrutiny people doing the "real selling" give to those applying the "marketing spin."  Being under the loop makes it all the more important to stay above the fray, far from the madding crowd and be the voice of discreet but genuine candidness.

Seth Godin (All Marketers Are Liars) does this on a regular basis. So does fellow New Yorker and Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Krauthammer, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in person recently.  No matter which candidate you're voting for next week, Charles has a knack for saying it like it is.  He does it again in last Friday's Washington Post. 

Simplicissimus

I like simplicity. There's undeniable value in being overprecise and overconcise, especially in communicating something complex. Not because the people you're talking to are simple or can’t understand complex thoughts, but because there’s a true beauty in being able to communicate succinctly and well in efficient terms.

In English, the word “simple” doesn’t really lend itself to any convenient philological breakdown. In German on the other hand (where a refrigerator is a cool-cabinet and a glove is a hand-shoe), the word simple – einfach – means one thing, one subject, one stuff something is made of. When you want to keep something simple, keep it uncluttered. Find your main idea and stick to it.

When you see the single swoosh stripe on Jorge Posada’s chest and knee protectors (the only player without any other insignia showing) every time the camera zooms in at a Yankees game, you don’t have to know the Nike corporate vision or the layers in their marketing strategy. It’s just that simple statement of quiet strength and athletic style. The fact that you have so much in so little makes it all the more powerful.

As you're getting together your next presentation and see all that verbiage in your slides, think of Hamlet’s response to Polonius about "the matter that you read." "Words, words, words.” Cut out a few. Make the font readable from the back row. Speak your presentation instead of using it as a prompt. Your audience should want a copy of your notes, not your slides.

Marketing Yourself

A friend asked me to review a resume recently and it struck me how much time is sometimes spent on format for a generic resume vs. content for a custom resume. Format is great -- it's good to show attention to detail and the ability to present well.

But for every job you're really serious about, your resume should be different, not changing any of the core components, but emphasizing the strengths that are appropriate to the position. Depending on your versatility and how far along in your career you are, no two of your resumes should be the same and some could look very different. It takes some work to find out just what the job entails and why you are the best qualified candidate -- which is what both sides want to know, right?

An e-mail blast of the same resume to ten or twenty or fifty companies is likely to get a response that is just as generic (if not moreso).

Selling Technology at the Super Bowl

How about 'dem Bears? The flags are flying on the antennas down the Dan Ryan today and all the kids who aren't wearing Urlacher, Hester and Grossman jerseys to school at least have their blue and orange socks on.

And of course how about that holy grail (and last bastion) of TV advertising, 'da commercials? As Smith and Dungee run their strategies, you'll be seeing some of the biggest investments in annual marketing strategy unfolding in HD. For Americans, XLI shares the title of biggest sporting event and biggest marketing event. At $2.5 million for 30 seconds, and even allowing for a halo-effect of an entire quarter of reruns on youtube, advertisers will need to see a marginal profit of about $30,000 a day to break even.

That's a lot of ambivalent Pepsi-Coke railsitters being pushed one way or the other. And a lot of beer bought on the basis of horses playing football in the snow. And a lot of computer buyers being swayed in their next laptop purchase. Yup, HP breaks into the football-technology market with their Orange County Choppers-themed ad this year, following a long break since the top Super Bowl ad of all time, Apple's "1984" piece.

On Sunday, temperatures in Chicago will warm up to a balmy 7 degrees (from 5 at the moment), but Chicagoans who aren't in Miami in person will be there in spirit anyway -- where it should top out in the low 70's.

Noise Without Signal

Our family was recently watching the new Curious George movie and at one point I asked my ten-year old son if he noticed anything interesting about a truck the man in the yellow hat was driving. “It’s a Volkswagen” he said immediately. (He’s got a marketing gene.)

In the 70’s, typical urban dwellers saw about 500-2000 messages a day. By 2006, they are seeing between 3000 and 5000. And there’s no mute button for most of them; it’s just clutter. Noise. Marketing noise.

Venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki recently changed the title of his blog to Signal without Noise, as in the opposite of spam. We tend to think of spam as worthless – a spam filter blocks junk. But spam usually has some value for someone, just an absolute lack of targeting. The more the good marketers are able to target their audiences, the more obvious spam becomes and easier to delete, block or ignore. With new ways to identify it like digital markers, getting the value of untargeted noise-without-signal to approach zero and disappear is coming closer to reality.

How Ideas Spread

We think of ideas that spread by word of mouth as most often the new and the clever. But that's not what spreads most, according to a new study available as a free download from the Keller Fay Group. Among several interesting findings is that word of mouth has more to do with the interest level than in novelty. Easy to talk about and worth talking about were leading characteristics, while innovative was in the lowest group.