Emergence Marketing: July 2007 Archives

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July 30, 2007

Mad scientist, wanting to destroy the world...

That is the profile of a Myers Briggs' ENTP personality according to Xero Magazine.

Quite a funny description of the personality types if you ever took the test :)

A quirck in consumers' thinking about prices

Eleven years ago, researchers found that consumers acted as if low digits were farther apart than higher ones (via the New York Times).

The research found that students who saw ads showing a $233 skate marked down to $222 thought they were getting a larger discount than did students who saw a $199 skate marked down to $188. The first group also rated themselves about 20% more likely to to buy the skates than did the others.

That is a pretty interesting finding, especially considering that so many products are priced with the highest digits 99...

[Tags: promotions discounts consumer behavior]

July 27, 2007

Interesting research on online video usage

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released some interesting research about online video usage. It was especially interesting to see those results in light of a project that we are working on (work in progress at www.crappybills.com - feedback welcome!).

57% of online adults have used the Internet to watch or download videos, and 19% do so on a daily basis. More than half (57%) of online video viewers share links with others, and 75% say they receive links to online videos from others!

For young adults (18-29) comedy is the biggest draw, with 56% watching humorous videos.

[Tags: online marketing online video youtube]

July 25, 2007

64% of emails get read on mobile devices...

...and chances are that your email campaigns look like crap on those devices.

New research from MarketingSherpa indeed shows that 64% of all emails get read on mobile devices (available for free for a period of time here). The article has some recommendations on what to do if you are a heavy email marketer, and also contains some interesting stats on mobile email usage.

[Tags: email marketing mobile email direct marketing]

July 24, 2007

In New Product Introduction - more is less

The Executive Corporate Board has a great white paper entitled "Boosting the Impact of Innovation and New Product Launch Processes." In it they have some mini case studies of how companies who try to achieve top line growth by introducing an increasing number of product/service extensions often times end up with reduced revenues instead.

They also recommend that companies focus on "market segment" innovation rather than pure product innovation - which has traditionally been used to help differentiate products. With the advent of fast followers becoming increasingly faster, product innovation no longer helps with product differentiation. They describe the case studies of P&G and Best Buy as good examples of "market segment" innovation - where you look at product innovation based on the insights gained from well defined market segments.

[Tags: innovation product introduction market insight]

July 23, 2007

What do you do when the old foundations are no longer there - attention, differentiation, and loyalty...

Many of today’s companies are realizing that traditional marketing no longer works – they are finding it increasingly difficult to reach their target audience and to differentiate their offering in ever more overcrowded markets, as well as finding that with commoditization becoming the norm rather than the exception, customer loyalty is becoming a thing of the past.

And while many of today’s agencies are catching up to the new market realities, most of them have yet to make the shift and help their customers in ways that deliver quantifiable ROI’s – which is why many companies are turning for help to alternative sources.

The key to success these days is a company's ability to tap into communities - existing or created ones. Communities can help with everything - from getting the word out, to gaining insight from the market on product requirements to market research and innovation.

As a few of us are embarking on a project to quantify how companies are leveraging communities within their business practices and how they measure success, we would love to hear from anyone involved with business communities. If you have a story to tell, please contact me at francois [at] emergencemarketing [dot] com

[Tags: innovation marketing community]

July 19, 2007

When large companies buy innovative startups - a case study: HP buying LogoWorks

[warning: rant coming] I have used LogoWorks for 4 projects now. The first two experiences were so delightful that I could not stop talking about them - resulting in more than one referral customer. The third experience had a little problem, but they addressed it by giving me a change, which I would have had to pay for, for free - so I was still a champion.

Then came my last experience. I ordered a logo last Wednesday, which was supposed to be ready this past Monday at 4:37pm Mountain time. When that time came and went and nothing happened I emailed support - getting a machine generated response. The next day came and went and nothing happened again, so I emailed support and got that same machine generated response. On Wednesday I took a closer look at that email only to find out that it listed the email for my project manager and that I should contact that person (for some obscure reason the system could not do that I guess...). So I did - sent an irate email to my project manager.

She simply responded: "Sir, you must complete your billing informatin for us to continue." After a quick check, I found that not only had I received a receipt, my credit card had been charged. So I sent back all the supporting information with a closing saying: "Now what? This is RIDICULOUS..."

Now at some point in time I did create another account by accident, but that one had no projects in it - all four of my projects were in the same account that kept showing me:

My project manager sent me another saying: "Ok Sir I am so sorry about this I was looking up your project under your gmail address...I can see that the problem with your logo is that we do not have enough information about the company to get started." Now, just like any other time I created a project with them, I followed the instructions and filled out the whole creative brief. But I never received an email asking me for more info...not at my main account nor at the other account, which had an email that I also use. In addition, I could not even access the brief to add more info...it was closed and telling me that designers were working on my project. I complained to my project manager about the fact that no one ever contacted me and that there was no way for me to add info to the profile.

My project manager responded by explaining that they never contacted me because they were looking at the other account - the one that has no active projects in it! And that I could email her the additional information about my company.

What are they thinking? That their customers are stupid or something?

So I responded: "That makes no sense (and note that in my experience as a marketer it is never a good idea to BS a customer – especially not an irate one)...But even if your system would have gotten confused, as you are, then I should have received a email there and that did not happen either...I am still not sure what info you require to continue….when you say you can email, what do you need? Address, telephone number, number of employees, color of my eyes? I am pretty sure that I said that this was a marketing services company – providing marketing consulting services. What else do you need???? When you are the one that is screwing up and aggravating the customer beyond belief, don’t you think you should be a little more helpful in trying to get the customer somewhat satisfied again?"

That was yesterday afternoon....I have not heard from them since - and my dashboard still says "Designers are working on design concepts....Check back Jul 16, 2007 4:37 PM Mountain Standard Time to view design concepts."

Is this a case of a large company screwing up a gem by integrating it with their customer prevention processes? Or is this just a case of a team that made money on the acquisition and lost their passion around the business? Obviously I cannot tell, but having done 4 projects now, I could clearly see the downhill trend in this case.

[Tags: customer support logoworks customer+service ]

What do you do when a customer insists on a standalone ROI?

So you have developed a project which enhances PR, improves the amount of feedback you gain into the new product development process, helps with lead generation and which perhaps impacts a few other business areas. Yet your customer or your manager insists that you measure ROI on the project as a standalone project - not including how it positively impacts other business areas for which you are not responsible for.

What do you do?

Quit?

Modify your project so that it can be measured as a standalone project - perhaps at the expense of positively impacting other business areas

Wait until they shut down your project

Obviously, none of those options are beneficial to the company as a whole, yet considering that it is unlikely that you can change the manager or the customer, those seem like the only options. One way or the other your project will end up being crippled at the ROI altar...

Measuring ROI can hurt companies if not done properly - badly!

July 3, 2007

Sony to share PlayStation data

The Boston Globe today reports that Sony will start sharing PlayStation data with Nielsen in an effort to boost sales. The plan is to lure game developers by better understanding advertising behavior in games.

Don't you think that the main cause for lagging PS3 console sales is that they have passed the upper limit of price elasticity for game consoles? If you look at the embedded Blue Ray DVD player you might consider it a bargain at $599. Most people, however, are not buying a DVD player when they consider buying a PS3, they are buying a game console - often times for their children -, and for a game console $599 is one heck of a stiff price.

Pricing 101...

July 2, 2007

Cool PSP ad

Sony came out with a fake book - including fake hands - to let you play with your PSP while looking seriously busy with your book. Too bad it's in Italy or I would definitely try to get one of those :)

[via engadget]

8 pm news on CNN led by a die-hard "conservative"?

Glenn Beck is subbing for Paula Zahn on CNN this week. In the first 13 minutes of tonight's broadcast he must have said 10 or more times that he is a "proud conservative" (whatever that means) - commenting on what's "right" in the American Justice system and on the "moral values" of middle eastern religions.

Who the heck at CNN thought that it would be a good idea to have an outspoken "conservative" to be a prime time news host?

Ah...maybe Harris was right - too many people in this country believe in "rapture" and that is what is selling ads.

At the end of the day, it is a sad story for democracies across the world to have people who should be limited to doing op-ed pieces and special programs present the daily news on major networks like CNN.

Maybe it's time to go back online for relatively "unbiased" news sources...if those still exist.

Emergence Marketing

Thoughts on marketing, innovation, social networking, new products and the impact of technology on all those thingies

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