The Truth Hurts?

The truth can be quite painful, when it is actually the truth. Despite the pain and suffering it may cause, however, it is an integral part of marketing and advertising. Although the lines have been blurred between fact and fiction in recent years with exaggerations from advertisers, there is still a legal, compelling stature making it illegal to lie- or even mislead with the truth.

The federal Trade Commission Act is one piece of protection implemented by Congress to protect the American people from these untruths so often visible in advertising. (The Poznak Law Firm further outlines more of the regulations in its Basics in False Advertising.)

A recent campaign ad, released by the republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, may be latest target for legal actions with regards to false advertising. The first TV ad from his campaign, dissected in an article on Adage, has "pulled a blatant fast one (on the public)." Discrepancy occurred when Romney used a clip from then candidate Obama's speech in which he stated that we "need to quit talking about the economy." Mr. Obama did in fact say this. However, he clearly stated it as a quote from republican presidential nominee John McCain in one of his earlier speeches.

Campaigns get ugly. The attacks get vicious, but we must be able to observe these advertisements and commercials knowing they hold some level of truth and integrity. The First Amendment was granted to give us freedom of speech, however, if it is only lies and falsehoods being displayed, how are we as the public any better off or any more protected? The statutes enacted by Congress were done so to give us freedom, freedom to watch an ad or read a magazine knowing that what we are consuming is factual and credible, not filled with deceptions and distortions. Unfortunately, it looks as if Mr. Romney is going to have to recant the title of his book and offer the American people a very large apology.

Word-of-mouth marketing

Jonathan Kay, the ambassador of buzz at Grasshopper, and award-winning virtual phone system for small businesses, created a buzz department. He generated more than 500 mentions of Grasshopper in premier media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, TechCrunch, Mashable, Forbes, Inc. magazine and Fast Company. More than a third of the Grasshopper signups come from word-of-mouth referrals.

Mr. Kay uses guerrilla marketing, PR, business development, community management and word-of-mouth marketing. The buzz department builds and cultivates valuable relationships through high-level engagement and simple things, like listening and actually caring.

The basic idea is to reach the important few, creating an army of brand loyalist. He indicates social media is a learned skill and not difficult to teach. Actively talking and listening to customers is your best marketing strategy. He states if you show you care to the few, they will endorse your product by word-of-mouth to their friends and so on. Leaving a positive impression will bring dividends to your company.

http://www.openforum.com/articles/the-art-of-creating-buzz?intlink=us-openf-nav-gallery

Consistent Experiences

As the amount of online traffic and purchases increase, marketers feel more pressure to provide a shopping experience that is consistent with that of brick and mortar stores.  Companies also want to achieve similar sales and integrate personal selling methods into their online storefronts.  Using well planned IMC can deliver the same message through all marketing channels, but each channel has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages for the customer.  Companies may also receive different benefits from each marketing channel.

Katie Lombardi mentions one such situation in her post.  The ability to upsell does not translate well to online sales.  Many search methods are centered on finding the desired product at the best price, regardless of the website.  Online shoppers who are first time purchasers or gift buyers may not know about upgrades or accessories.  Customers that have some familiarity with the products may still fail to see the advantages of product upgrades.  Personal selling still holds an edge over online retail in this situation.

Online sales will always fall short when trying to draw business from social shoppers.  Some people simply enjoy the shopping experience and the company of others.  The ability to talk to a sales person and ask for opinions is hard to replicate online. 

Online sales also fall short versus brick and mortar when learning styles are taken into account.  A customer that has a tactile learning style will not purchase various items without being able to touch them.  They need to feel how they work or investigate the construction of the product.  Marketers should provide the most consistent shopping experience possible, while realizing some customers will provide better sales in different channels.

http://tinyurl.com/76ktcwm        

Privacy In Social Media

Last week a federal judge ordered twitter to turn over account information on three people who are being investigated due to their links to WikiLeaks.

This can be seen as a loss of privacy. When we think of facebook and twitter and other social media network, we think of everyone sharing their personal information with others. But we do have the options of privacy on these social networks. We trust these networks to keep what we want to be private, private.

Now investigators are able to recover information from accounts whenever they please if they think it is going ot help their case.

What all should people be sharing online? Are things like Twitter and facebook helpful or hurtful in our every day lives?

The Turkey has officially lost to the toys. For years Christmas has loomed over its Turkey themed cousin with the shopping bonanza known as Black Friday taking place the day after Thanksgiving, but now a new level of intrusion has arrived. Before marketing ads for this massive Christmas shopping spree began in early November. The competition to be the store first on every ones shopping list has gone to new levels. Instead of the traditional suspenseful opening taking place in the wee hours of the morning, many retailers have decided to open even earlier: at Midnight of that morning. For starters Target, Kohl’s, Best Buy, Macy’s and others are following the trend while other company’s  like Toy’s R’ Us’ and Wal- Mart are opening at 10PM on Thanksgiving night. This action begs the question: is this invasion of an important national and social holidayjustifiable to the employees and consumers it affects?

               Some major retailers are already feeling the backlash from their decision make their employees cut their holiday short to benefit the brand. For instance, a few Targetemployees have started a petition seeking 50,000 signatures to show the company their outrage. The petition reads:

“A midnight opening robs the hourly and in-store salary workers of time off with their families on Thanksgiving Day. By opening the doors at midnight, Target is requiring team members to be in the store by 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. A full holiday with family is not just for the elite of this nation — all Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones and get a good night's rest on Thanksgiving!”

               For example one Target employee in Omaha, Nebraska said the decision negatively impacts him because he would have to leave Thanksgiving dinner with his fiancée’s family so he could sleep before starting a shift around 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving, followed on Friday by a shift at his other job, at OfficeMax.

The employees are not alone in voicing their displeasure; even consumers are showing their outrage for the new trend.  One previous Black Friday enthusiast said what retailers were doing was crossing the line:

“I just don’t think that’s good business, in a sense, to make your employees come in on one of the biggest holidays of the year and cut their family time short. With the economy the way it is, no one’s going to say, ‘I’m not going to do that, I’m going to quit or get fired over it.”

                 However, CEO’s and managers say that their hands are tied: "We're trying to stay ahead of the curve... I don't like the fact I have to come in on Thanksgiving,but when you work in retail it's the nature of the beast.” But even with this rational is the decision for businesses to cut into a major holiday associated with football and family a smart move for the image of Black Friday and the effects it has on consumers and employees alike? I personally don’t think so. By having Black Friday cut into Thanksgiving you are isolating your consumers and forcing them to make the decision: Family or Bargain? Having Black Friday at 5AM allowed consumers to enjoy their traditional Thanksgiving with their families: separating Thursday as a day of family and Friday as a day to shop. However, by having the sales 5 to 8 hours earlier, companies are forcing their consumers to choose between the two.  Forcing consumers and employees into a corner to make decisions is not smart PR or Advertising. Black Friday will still be one if not the biggest shopping days of the year, but the decision to downplay Thanksgiving for a sales edge is still unsettling.

Resources Consulted:

http://adage.com/article/editorials/retailers-black-midnight-verges-black-hearted/230969/

http://consumerist.com/2011/11/target-employees-fight-back-against-stores-plan-to-open-thanksgiving-night.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/business/some-consumers-object-to-sales-on-thanksgiving.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=black%20friday&st=cse

Branded Marketing - Webisodes

Branded Marketing is nothing new. When radio stories were popular they included brand names within the story. Branded Marketing is making a comeback, but on a different platform: the internet.

Web Series, also known as Webisodes, are growing in popularity as marketers are striving to find alternative ways to reach new audiences. According to Stuart Elliott of the NY Times, print and radio ads have lost their catch to some consumers and commercials don’t engage them. However, educational or entertaining webisodes can grab a consumer’s attention while promoting a product.

Ellen Liu is the media director at Clorox Company. “[Webisodes] extend our reach,” Liu said. Accoding to Liu, webisodes have the unique ability to provided a “Higher level of engagement.”

Mashable’s Todd Wasserman reports on the upcoming Clorox web series “Supermoms” which intends to “seamlessly integrate products” into the story line.

For a glimpse at an already existing Branded Marketing webisodes, check out this video for Maybelline’s “The Broadroom”. Another example of an informative web series would be Hidden Valley's "Garden Party".

This is an interesting idea. As a I read about the existing webisodes, I thought to myself, “Why doesn’t Anheuser Busch do a webisodes with Budweiser?” Budweiser obviously puts a large amount of creativity and entertainment value into their Super Bowl advertisements. So would webisodes work for the company? Would the company be able to extend the 30 to 60 second long ads to an entire web series?

There are other concerns with this as well. What does it take to get consumers to watch your webseries? Is it funny without saying buy, buy, BUY!? How do consumers learn about webisodes if they do not visit the products website often?

I think there are some great ideas behind Branded Marketing on the internet and that this form of product communication has the potential to take off in a big way. However, there still seem to be some questions in my mind surrounding the effectiveness of such a medium.

Keep Learning

Strolling the internet trying to find a good topic for this blog I came across the following from Article Network written by Murri Kresse.http://bit.ly/uqMVsL He points out how IMC will forever be changing and evolving no matter how soon we walked out of college with a degree. Not only will marketing be changing but sites such as Facebook will continue to become more invovled with business and contacts than simply a way to monitor family and friends. As sites as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedn continue to expand the need for more integration in the company marketing campaign will only increase. We can no longer escape our daily jobs by punching a time clock. We now must understand that our work person is tied to our Twitter name also and with that the entire company can be seen through one employee. Marketers must now understand the value of teaching and training employeess the ideas of constantly being in the public eye and representing the image of the company.