The New 5 C's For Successful Marketing

The 4Ps Don't Work Well Anymore

By David Miranda

For years, the 4 Ps of marketing - product, price, place, and promotion have served the discipline well, e.g. the product offered, the selling price, the place available for purchase, and the promotion (advertising, etc) to solicit consumers to purchase.

Today, the 4Ps are no longer effective. Products abound, pricing is dynamic, locations are both online and bricks and mortar, and advertising media has fragmented into many shapes and forms. Marketers, large and small, are left scratching their heads on how to effectively and efficiently reach their target audiences.

It's time to mothball the 4Ps and embrace the 5Cs - Consumers, Context, Convenience, Convergence, and Community.

Consumers - Market power has shifted from the seller to the buyer. Consumers, using the power of the Internet, can search, shop, compare, and buy from a myriad of sources located either across the street or around the world. This has meant the erosion in the power of mass marketing and the growth in sophisticated targeting.

Context - Sophisticated targeting has led to message customization providing targeted consumers with relevant content and products/services making marketing more effective, efficient and precise than ever before.

Convenience - In an A.D.D., time poverished world, consumers seek convenience - drive-thru windows, express check-out, online shopping and banking, etc.

Convergence - Consumers want to access what they want and who they want anytime, anywhere from anyplace. This convergence of media and distribution channels is upon us.

Community - Consumers are individuals, but are also social creatures who aggregate in business and social groups both formal and informal to share ideas and experiences. This social networking trait has been powerfully enabled by new technology and platforms and will continue to have a powerful impact on marketing.

An effective marketing plan must consider the 5 Cs in its research, development, and execution.

Understand the nuances of the target audience; provide relevant and contextual offerings; provide the ability for the consumer to purchase more convenient than competitors; communicate and provide offerings across appropriate channels that the target audience frequents; and finally understand that a brand needs to "communitize" itself within the business and social groups of its target audience.

Are Your Customers Having An Affair With Another Brand?

Never Let The Honeymoon End With Your Customers

By David Miranda

If you closed your eyes and listened to any marketing presentation, you would think you were listening to a dating consultant or marriage counselor referring to their brand, as in, the brand "personality", the brand "identity", the brand "relationship", brand "loyalty", and most recently, brand "engagement".

There is a great deal of similarity in marketing brands and marketing yourself, as in a social relationship.

As a single male or female wishing to meet that special someone, you typically get all properly groomed and attired and seek out places where you are most likely to find that special someone, say a popular watering hole on a Saturday night. Upon entering, you peruse the landscape filled with others with the same idea. If you are fortunate, you will connect with someone who meets your criteria. If first impressions are positive, contact info is exchanged and perhaps a date will follow. A successful date might lead to steady dating. Steady dating might lead to engagement and engagement might lead to a walk down the aisle and, presto, marriage.

Marketing brands is similar. Brands want to meet "that special someone" - their target audience. Brands get marketing groomed and attired and seek out places where they are most likely to find that special someone - store shelves, television, radio, print, online, direct mail, and out-of-home. Brands seek to enter into a dialogue with consumer and contact info is exchanged. If the consumer experience is positive; it may lead to a relationship with the brand and perhaps even moving to the ultimate committment - brand loyalty.

The similarities don't end at the altar or with brand loyalty, however. Strong marriages and strong brands with loyal customers have a great deal in common. Each requires efforts to keep the bonds strong and robust over time. The biggest challenge is apathy - taking the other for granted.

We're all familiar with "You don't understand me anymore"; "You don't appreciate me"; "We've lost that spark in our relationship"; or "We don't communicate like we used to". Normally attributed to personal relationships, they are just as applicable to brand relationships. Only problem is that customers don't bother to express these thoughts. They just move on to another brand who really cares about them and promises not to take them for granted.

Treat your customers today like you are wooing them for the first time. Never let the honeymoon with them end or they might decide to have an affair with a competitive suitor and eventually show you the door.

Save the brand marriage!

Business Prevention And Its Seven Deadly Sins

Proscrastination, Lethargy, Arrogance, Superstition, Myopia, Antipathy, Stupidity

By David Miranda

Before someone buys something, they first have to want it. That's what marketing does. It's supposed to create and sustain preference to "sell stuff". Sounds reasonable, right?

More often than not, however, marketing success is thwarted by the "business prevention department".

What is this "business prevention department"?

It does not appear on an official org chart, but it exists in almost every business, large and small. It is comprised of people in various positions within the company that do their part, either knowingly or unknowingly, in stifling or smothering potential business opportunities by being guilty of one or more of the seven deadly sins of business prevention. The irony is, however, is that these "business prevention specialists" honestly think they are doing their small part in contributing to the success of the enterprise. They are, of course, delusional.

The seven deadly sins of business prevention are as follows:

First, procrastination.
This refers to business preventionists who put off to tomorrow, things that needed to be done yesterday. These necessary, but belated actions eventually taken tend to be too little too late with opportunities lost as "competitive barbarians at the gate" threaten existing and future business.

Second, lethargy.
Great plans sluggishly executed causes frustration and eventual attrition of clients, customers, and key talent.

Third, arrogance.
Arrogance is the offspring of the marriage of ego and power. It assumes that business preventionists believe that they have all the right answers leaving no room for collaboration and dialogue with competing views.

Fourth, superstition.
This refers to the notion that there is a direct cause and effect between certain historical behavior and the resulting consequences as in the ridiculous example " whenever I wear a blue suit on a client pitch, I get the business." or "we've always done it this way".

Fifth, myopia.
Myopia is short-sightedness. It is the "Mr. Magoo Syndrome" where business preventionists lack "strategic corrective lenses" to see the bigger picture - the one beyond today and tomorrow. Those competitors with 20/20 strategic vision have a better view of marketplace.

Sixth, antipathy
By definition, antipathy is a feeling of intense dislike. This is the case when business preventionists have an aversion to those people and ideas who are change agents. Their antipathy causes animosity both internally and externally and stifles innovation.

Seventh, stupidity.
As a wise sage once noted "ignorance means you don't know; stupidity means you'll never know". Ignorant people can learn, stupid ones cannot. When an enterprise has "stupid" people in key positions, it is a terminal condition requiring amputation to save the patient.

Business prevention thrives in an environment where one or more of theses deadly sins are practiced.

You can, however, exorcise these business prevention demons before it its too late.

Marketing Today - The Sky Is Full Of Dogs

There's A Smarter Way To "Bag" Consumers

By David Miranda

An inexperienced bird hunter bought some prized bird dogs from a breeder for, what would be, his first ever bird hunt. After several hours of futility, he returned to the breeder quite disgruntled and demanded his money back. The stunned breeder inquired what the problem was. "Didn't get one bird!", replied the hunter, "not even close." "That's impossible," responded the breeder, "those are my best performing bird dogs." "Well," said the hunter, "perhaps I wasn't tossing the dogs up high enough."

The same can be said for a great deal of the marketing done today. There are consumers everywhere and marketers futily "toss up" marketing effort after marketing effort in hopes of bagging their prey. In fact, the marketing "sky" is full of "dogs".

To "bag" consumers today, marketers must be smarter hunters. The first step is to understand the media consumption behavior of their target audience and design a campaign accordingly. The mass market has given way to many niche markets each with its own unique characteristics. The proof can be seen in the audience erosion of traditional media such as broadcast television, newspapers, magazines, and terrestial radio and the exponential growth of the internet including social networking sites, user-generated content, and mobile.

Here is some advice to smarter hunting:

• Zero-base your marketing. The marketing landscape is morphing very fast. New channels are emerging that can be more effective and efficient. Don't be married, therefore, to the status quo.
• Feed what works; starve what doesn't. Set performance benchmarks for marketing efforts. Have a clear R.O.M.I. (return on marketing investment) and hold people accountable.
• Avoid I.G.T.D.T.T. (I've Got To Do That To). This is the infamous me-too approach when a marketer observes a competitor's marketing initiative and copies it irregardless whether the initiative worked or not.
• "Do" outside the box, not to be confused with "think" outside the box. Observe consumer trends and behavior in the marketplace and adapt accordingly and quickly. Today, preference is perishable and consumers are literally only a mouse click away from a competitor's offerings.

Here's to smarter hunting!

Who's Minding The Store?

You Have To See Things For Yourself

By David Miranda

Corporate America is blessed with many highly educated executives whose resumes' are filled with post-secondary degrees and certifications. A considerable number, however, lack the common sense, empathy, and practical experience to run a successful department, division, or company. They have graduated from the classroom to the meeting room without "rolling up their sleeves" or "getting their hands dirty" on the shop floor, behind the counter, on the phone bank, in the warehouse, or wherever else the business is really done. And for these businesses, it shows. Regardless of what is learned in a classroom, there is no substitute for getting on the front lines of the enterprise and seeing it for yourself.

Ray Kroc, the legendary founder of McDonald's would visit his stores, cook a few burgers, work the counter, and, yes, pick up trash in the parking lot. When asked the secret of McDonald's success, he said "We take the hamburger business more serious than anyone else".

Norman Brinker, the founder of Brinker International, would require new corporate management to work a week in a one of his restaurants washing dishes, bussing and waiting tables, prepping, cooking, and bartending as a prerequisite for a desk job. He also required them to pull a restaurant management shift visiting each and every table to thank guests and solicit first-hand feedback.

Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, the co-founders of Home Depot, were reknown for putting on the famous orange aprons and touring their stores to get "up close and personal" with their business. The company, during their tenure, was a perennial top performer as a most admired company by their customers and employees.

If you are cloistered in your office, shackled to your desk, held hostage at meetings, rely on second or third hand information on "how things are going", chances are you are out of touch and have abdicated your responsibility of "minding the business".

Get out, get out often and introduce yourself to your business.

See what's happening!

Marketing Perfect Storm - The Impact Of Consumer A.D.D., Time Poverty. And Clutter

No Time, Short Attention Span, And Clutter Build Case For Brand-Building

By David Miranda

Three major phenomena have converged today in a perfect storm that challenge marketers to find the best strategies for success.

First, time poverty. Time is today's most precious commodity for consumers and 24 hours never seems to be enough to get everything done. Never enough time. Consumers are constantly playing King Solomon in attempting to balance the demands of work and home. Juggling, shuffling, rushing, and rescheduling are more the norm than the exception in day to day life. To cope, consumers have to prioritize. Tending to those things that are most important. Back burner the things that can wait. Time-saving products and services have become necessities in our lives - the drive-thru window, express check-out, the ATM, the cell phone, and the Internet, for example.

Second, consumer A.D.D.. With time poverty comes less time to spend on watching, reading, listening, surfing, researching, eating, shopping, and communicating. Consumers browse through the newspaper; surf the Internet; channel surf the television; flip through magazines; sort through email, voice mail, and snail mail; get frustrated waiting and impatient with anything that wastes time - people, bureaucracy, incompetence.

Third, clutter. Depending on one's perspective, consumers are either the beneficiaries or victims of abundance - hyper-choice of products and services and hyper-solicitations for those products and services from everywhere - television, radio, print, the Internet, outdoor, direct mail, coupons, flyers, brochures, and sales people to name a few.

What are marketers to do?

Invest in branding. Here are some reasons why and suggestions for dealing with the perfect storm:

1. To combat time poverty; clearly distinguish your brand from others. Brands save people time. They shouldn't have to guess what they're buying and why. Brands are short hand for the senses.
2. To combat A.D.D; keep the marketing message simple. People don't have time to listen or read lengthy copy whether it be on TV, the radio, print ads, brochures, direct mail, social networks, or Internet sites. Don't say in 3o seconds what you can say in 15. Just because you bought a half-page ad, doesn't mean you have to fill it with copy. Twitterize your brand messaging.
   
3. To combat clutter; seek media opportunities where your brand is not just a part of the noise integrated with a strong public relations plan. Don't be an "marketing litterbug" where your marketing is strewn across the marketplace in hopes of someone noticing it.
   

In summary, in developing your marketing plan, it is important that you deal with the impact of the perfect storm or your brand's "ship won't come in".

Brand+Content+Frequency+Recency+Distribution=Digital Success

All Elements Are Keys To Digital Brand Success

By David Miranda

Brand

A brand is not a logo, URL, or name. It is short hand for communicating your entity's personality to your target audience.. Think what comes to mind when you consider Starbucks, Coke, YouTube, Apple, etc. What is your brand identity? Ask others and see if it matches your definition.

Content

Whether you are an aggregator of the content of others or create your own, it must be relevant to an audience other than yourself and it must be updated regularly to keep people's interest.

Frequency

How often does your audience interact with your digital properties? The more frequently, of course, the better. Frequency shows you are doing something right.

Recency

Recency measures the time between interactions. Someone, for example, may interact with you 12 times digitally, it is better to have this interaction over a week rather than over a year.

Distribution

Unless you have a pile of money, distribution is the key to generating, sustaining and growing traffic. This is a complex undertaking that requires a clear strategy, measurable tactics, and relentless experimentation. Organic search optimization, paid keywords, affiliate marketing, social media, link sharing, etc. requires the guidance and expertise of specialists in the field. It is not for novices.

In summary a successful digital brand strategy demands relentless oversight. Success goes to the the vigilant.

Imagination - The Ultimate Venture Capital

What We Can Learn From The Walt Disneys And Steve Jobs Of The World

By David Miranda

Over the past century, there have been a relatively small number of individuals who have eternally changed our lives - Einstein, Edison, Ford, the Wright brothers, Gates, Disney, and Jobs to name a few. (My apologies to others not mentioned in this elite group.)

The common denominator of this group is imagination, the ultimate venture capital. Mr. Einstein said it best, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." This is why ideas are today's currency. Instead of placing emphasis on someone's resume, e.g. education, job titles, etc., that measures knowledge and experience, we should pay more attention to the critical intangibles - their imagination and creativity. It should be noted that Messrs. Edison, Disney, Jobs, Dell, and Gates do not have college degrees. In fact, in today's resume conscious world, they may never make a short list of candidates. Yet these individuals were blessed with the great intangible - a fertile imagination.

Of these individuals, Walt Disney and Steve Jobs have demonstrated the power of imagination in a world of "me-too". These men have one thing in common - what Mr. Disney called "imagineering". There was animation and amusement parks before Disney, but he gave us Mickey Mouse and Disney theme parks. There were computers and music before Jobs, but he gave us Apple and iPods. The former introduced the world to the personal computer and the latter changed the world of music.

Steve Jobs gave us the iPhone, some 2 1/2 years in the making. It has been received with great fanfare. Analysts, however, have said that the iPhone has a disadvantage in that the likes of Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, etc. have been in the marketplace longer and have a substantial market share advantage. These same pundits said the same when Mr. Jobs introduced the iPod. Back then, the incumbents were Sony, JVC, LG, Samsung, etc. and the music distribution insurgent was Napster. Today the iconic iPod has an over 80% market share of music players and, to date, has sold over 2 billion iTunes.

The prognosis for the iPhone? I, for one, wouldn't bet against the imagination of Mr. Jobs. He has raised the bar in the cell phone sector while at the same time thrown down the gauntlet on the holy grail of personal technology - convergence. He gave us more than just a hint of his future intentions in the less reported announcement of Apple Computers Inc. formally changing its name to Apple Inc.

What can we learn from Mr. Jobs, Mr. Disney and others? Resumes don't determine greatness, people do -people with imaginations. Mr. Disney said it best.

"You can dream, create, and build the most wonderful things in the world, but it takes people to make the dream a reality."

People with imagination!

Marketing In Tough Times - The Relentless Pursuit Of Positive Outcomes

Because Business In Tough Times Is An Extreme Competition Where The Clock Is Against You

By David Miranda

Team sports is the most ubiquitous metaphor used in business to illustrate the similarities between a successful enterprise and a winning team. Examples abound such as "There's no 'I' in team" ; "We need to play our 'A' game"; and "Business is a contact sport". Even quotes from sports legends make their way into the boardrooms of corporate America such as the famous saying attributed to legendary Coach Vince Lombardi "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing".

Okay, we get it already. Business and team sports do have a lot in common, but sometimes we can take the team sports thing a little too far and forget the critical difference.

Let's consider that critical difference.

Unlike team sports, in business there are no time outs, no half times, no off season, no spring training. Business is a relentless 24/7 high stakes competition. If things are not going your way, you can't call a time-out to get your bearings. The competition goes on relentlessly and it's not just you versus another competitor - it's you against a world of competitors, all the time. The "season" is 24x7x365. Hard to imagine any team sport as gruelling.

Marketers, therefore, must understand that marketing, particularly in tough times, is a verb - an action verb. Successful marketing must embrace a culture of the relentless pursuit of positive outcomes. Gone are the days when a business had the luxury of spending months to develop a marketing plan with its strategic direction and tactical elements to be executed over the next fiscal year.

Today, marketers must employ a "stratactical approach" - a concept that conceives and executes the enterprise's strategy and tactics in tandem. Using a football sports analogy, this is like allowing the quarterback to call an audible - to change the originally called play at the line of scrimmage in order to exploit a defensive vulnerability or counter a defensive threat.

The ability to exploit opportunities and counter competitive threats as soon as they occur requires a new marketing perspective - one that is more agile, more athletic, more manueverable and less bureaucratic, less cumbersome, and less traditional in form and function. Old school marketers will find this approach uncomfortable and, maybe unnerving at times, but it's a brand new "game".

There is no "I" in team, but there is an "us" and "I" in business.

It takes bold leadership and strong teamwork to achieve positive outcomes in a relentlessly challenging world.

Game on!

Recognition Marketing - Blessed Are The Curious

For They Create A Better World

By David Miranda

All the great things in the world have come from the curious among us.

The enemies of curiosity? Arrogance, the status quo, complacency, incompetency, and envy to name a few.

Curiosity is the basis for all innovation. Someone, somewhere thinking "why isn't there a better way to do this or that?" All the great inventors and innovators had or have it - Da Vinci, Edison, Gates, Jobs, Page & Brin (Google founders), and Salk to name a few.

Curiosity, like other intangibles like passion and perseverence, cannot be taught, but it can be nurtured and it must be nurtured in every successful organization and valued by leadership. It creates wealth.

In our youth, the cradle of curiosity, we explored new things; relentlessly asked questions of our elders on why this and why that. We discovered in the answers new and exciting horizons. Curiosity led to learning and learning led to enlightenment.

Curiosity today, however, in many cases has been atrophied by the requirement to conform; to follow the company line; not to rock the boat. Asking too many questions has unfortunately become a trait of "not being a team player".

Curiosity, however, is not a team endeavor. It is a personal trait.

It needs to be recognized as critical to the success of an enterprise.

Be curious about your life, your surroundings, your business, your industry.

It will, curiously, pay big dividends.

The Art Of Managing "Yes"

Sometimes Agreement Can Turn Out To Be Bad

By David Miranda

The Yes man (or woman) has gotten a bad rap in business circles - and rightfully deserved. These bobble heads of assent, particularly when its viral, aid and abet in allowing a bad idea to be disguised as a good idea.

The higher a bad idea rises on an organizational hierarchry, the greater the potential damage. How does this happen? People in the enterprise not knowing how to manage "yes". We all know how to manage "no". We stop. We rethink. We revise. "Yes", however, gains momentum in the organization and, unless tested by constructive dissent, is like a snowball rolling down hill. It eventually becomes an unstoppable force. When a bad idea disguised as a good idea attains this kind of organization momentum, without constructive dissent, a disaster is waiting to happen.

Yes people whose little voice told them "this is a bad idea, but everyone else including the boss likes it, so I'll keep my opinions to myself" are accessories to the crime. These are the same people who comment after the disaster "I knew all along that that was a bad idea". It's like the old adage "success has many fathers (mothers), but failure is an orphan".

Bad ideas disguised as good ideas? There are many historic examples. Here's two.

Where were the voices within Coca-Cola during the creation of New Coke? Didn't somebody speak up in one of those many meetings and say "hey, what if we upset all those millions of people that like Coke just the way it is? Think any of them might care?" New Coke has too much momentum and senior management support of "yes".

How about IBM thinking it was a good idea to out-source the operating system for the IBM PC to an unknown firm called Microsoft? It's the hardware that's more important. Bad idea disguised as a good idea.

The moral of these story is that there is an art in managing "yes". Here are some guidelines

1. The higher you are on the org chart the more weight your "yes" carries. Be careful and prudent on your influential vote. Other people are watching and listening.


2. Trust your initial gut reaction. It's probably the most honest.


3. Speak out and be vocal of your opinions particularly if dissenting. Silence translates into tacit approval.


4. Don't dissent just to dissent or approve just to approve. Have good solid foundations for your opinion or you will just be considered just negative or a yes person.


5. Collaborate, listen, create dialogue with others in your organization - not to build consensus but to build confidence in the process and the ultimate decision whether it is yes or no.


6. Don't be afraid to expose a bad idea regardless of its maturity in the planning cycle. Saying its gone too far or its too late to stop is a cop out and implies corporate cowardice.


7. If everyone is agreeing, there is a problem. No one agrees on everything.

Bottom line? Don't take yes for an answer.

"Contact Us" On Web Sites Really Means "Please Don't"

If You Really Mean It, Post Your Personal Email Address And Answer Your Phones.

By David Miranda

Every web site has the obiligatory "Contact Us" on the "nav bar" and corporate telephone numbers, but don't really mean it.

It really means "send an email to a generic email account that one or more people have access to and one of these people may get back to you or you may get a programmed response like 'Thank you for your email. We appreciate your feedback. Someone will be back to you within the next 24 to 48 hours.' "

The telephone version is the 1-800 number, as in,

"Thank you for calling, X Company, press 'one' for English or 'two for Spanish'."

"Thank you".

"For billing, press 'one'. To open a new account, press 'two'. To cancel an account, press 'three'. For all other requests, press 'four'.

"Thank you".

"Your call is important to us. We are experiencing an unusual level of call volume. Please stay on the line for the next available operator."

Music.

"Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line for the next available operator"

More music.

"Your call is very important to us. Please stay on the line for the next available operator"

Recommendation: "Contact us" should mean "we really mean it". Put real people's email addresses on web sites and have real people answer the phone. If real people can't, then have the call go to a recording - and not vice versa.

If people at the company are too busy to respond to existing or potential customers via email or phone, what the hell are they too busy doing?

If you can't personally respond to emails or have humans answer the phone, change "Contact Us" to "Just buy our stuff and leave us alone".

"Contact me" with your comments.

The Business Prevention Department

The "Yeah, But's" Of The Corporate Bureaucracy

By David Miranda

You won't find it on any organizational chart, but it's there - the business prevention department.

It's prime objective is to champion attitudes that discourage the new and the innovative within the organization. They are "you can't get there from here" people. Chances are you have attended meetings with some members of this department. They are easily identified. They are most likely your boss or boss' boss or members of your peer group. They are the ones shaking their heads on your new idea after just seeing only the title slide. They normally begin their comments with "Yeah, but", as in, "Yeah, but, we tried that before"; or "Yeah, but, you don't understand".

The business preventionists come in all shapes and sizes, genders, ethnic groups, religious and political affiliation. They are good at what they do - resisting change.

Examples are many.

Take the IBM business preventionist who, after hearing a suggestion that "since we would be manufacturing millions of personal computers, we should also market our own operating system for it" replied, "Yeah, but, we don't do operating systems. We make computers. Let's get this guy, Gates, to do it."

Or how about the major television network executive who, after hearing a pitch for a 24 hour news channel replied "Yeah, but, who is going to watch news for 24 hours, Mr. Turner? I think this CNN idea is pie-in-the-sky."

Or the Barnes & Noble executive who, after hearing a pitch for selling books on the Internet said, "Yeah, but, I don't think you get it Mr. Bezos. People prefer to buy books in a real store. I am also not too crazy about the name, Amazon."

There's more. Newspapers could not see the threat of the likes of eBay and Craig's List. The music labels could not see the potential impact of Napster or the iPod. Microsoft missed the opportunity to be a Google, Yahoo!, MySpace, or YouTube. Blockbuster should have foreseen Netflix.

How about your organization? Is the business prevention department active? Here's a quiz:

• Are new ideas encouraged in your organization?


• Are they really? If so, what part of your marketing plan represents encouraging the new vs. reinforcing the status quo?


• Do new ideas come from the bottom up, top down, or as the result of competitor's initiatives?


• Is your company spending more time analyzing than doing?


• Does your company pride itself more in doing things right or doing the right things?

In summary, today's currency is ideas. The suppression of ideas and innovation is terminal. Don't let the business prevention department succeed.

Defeat the "Yeah, but's".

Neuromarketing - Marketing Science Or Snake Oil?

The Lure Of The "Persuasion Rosetta Stone"

By David Miranda

For those of you that missed it, I highly recommend viewing the PBS Frontline documentary, The Persuaders, originally broadcast in 2004. The compelling and comprehensive report takes us behind the curtain of the relentless pursuit of persuasion - of consumers and citizens alike.

From market research gurus, to advertising agencies, to the brands themselves, the documentary explores the quest to discover and exploit the "code" that persuades us to buy a specific brand or vote for (or against) a specific candidate or issue. It introduces us to something called "neuomarketing" - part psychology, part anthropology, part multiple regression. part etymology.

As the marketing landscape continues to dramatically morph, marketers are desperate to find the secret formula that enables their brand to "cut through the clutter" of hyper-choice. Consumers have become desensitized to marketing "er" claims as in, "brighter", "better", "cheaper", "faster", since these are quickly "me-tooed" by competitors.

Successful brands have created a "cult-like" emotional connection with their consumers as with Starbucks, Apple, Volkswagen, and Nike, for example. The question is why.

Those proponents of neuromarketing suggests that it is the result of some "reptilian response" meaning these brands have been successful in understanding and satisfying some basic Maslow-type needs in their lives. In other words, people prefer Starbucks for more than the coffee or prefer Nike more than the just the sportswear.

Is this snake oil promoted by marketing consultants or is it marketing science? I suggest that it is some of both.

Make up your own mind.

Top 10 Marketing Basics For Surviving A Recession

The Time To Act Is Now

By David Miranda

To survive a recession (they historically last 10 to 12 months), marketers must be assertive, timely, and transparent. Assertiveness demonstrates confidence; timeliness demonstrates proactivity; and transparency demonstrates open and honest communication. This is not a time for the timid, the procrastinator, or the indecisive.

The following are 10 marketing basics for surviving a recession:

1. Don't panic. A recession is exascerbated by fear. Avoid knee-jerk reactions that appear to be desparate measures.


2. Over-communicate to stakeholders. Silence can cause anxiety among the faithful.


3. Be and stay aggressive. More aggressive competitors will seek to take advantage in a down market by stealing customers and, ultimately, share if they see an opening.


4. Focus on the basics - product/service quality, customer service, value pricing. During a recession, customers seek the optimum price/value for their money and trusted brands have a home field advantage over new entrants.


5. Concentrate on your core customers first. It is easier and less costly to get your core customers to spend incrementally more than it is to derive business from new customers.


6. Understand the difference and impact of both revenue displacement and revenue dilution before making price promotion decisions. Displacement means that your discounting displaces higher margin business to a competitor. Example: Coffee shop "A" decides to sell $1 cups of coffee to steal traffic from Coffee shop "B". The promotion is so successful that it creates long lines forcing many customers to get their coffee at Coffee Shop "B" at a higher price. This is displacement. Dilution is discounting the price on business you already would have achieved at a higher price. Example: Coffee Shop "A" normally sells coffee at $2 per cup, but decides to distribute coupons for $1 cups of coffee to boost traffic. Regular customers who were going to pay the $2 show up with the coupon. The result is that revenue is "diluted" with the coupons.


7. Be flexible and be ready to call "audibles at the line of scrimmage". The marketplace in a recession is volatile requiring many course corrections along the way.


8. Reduce the gap between thinking or talking about doing something and doing it. Cut through or eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy that can inhibit or delay timely actions.


9. Put people in charge, not committees.


10. Fund things that work and stop things that don't.

So, get going.

Why A Recession Is A Great Time To Increase Marketing Budgets

With A Smaller Pie, Brands Have To Insure A Bigger Piece Of The Action

By David Miranda

It is generally common practice that when a recession looms, companies have a knee jerk cost-cutting reaction, as is manifested with reduced headcounts and smaller budgets. This process, in itself, negatively affects morale and momentum of the marketing effort. The short term impact will indeed improve the P&L, but at what price? Typically, when the recession subsides, those companies that were fast to cut expenses are also typically slow to increase funding at the onset of a growth cycle.

Of course, it makes perfect sense to bean counters. We all have heard the mantras, "we must live within our means"; "we must be more productive and do more with less"; "we need to do the necessary belt-tightening", etc, etc. etc.

Here are the facts.

In a recession, people (and businesses) still spend, albeit less; creating a smaller demand "pie" to go around. If a company, therefore, wants to maintain or grow revenue; there is no other choice than to aggressively go after a bigger piece of the pie. Simply put, stealing share from others. Those that cut their marketing budgets during a recession are conceding business to more agressive competitors and, by the way, the best time to steal share is in a recession.

Coming out of a recession who would you guess is better positioned in an upturn - the company that cut its marketing ranks and budgets or the company that became more aggressive?

Spending during the boom times? No brainer.

Spending more during a recession? A bigger no brainer.

(ME)dia - The Age Of Personalized Media Consumption

Do-It-Yourself, On-Demand Programming Shifts Power To The Consumer

By David Miranda

Today everybody is their own personal media mogul. We are all our own managing editor for our news (myCNN, myYahoo), TV programmers (Tivo), personalized music labels (iPods) and film festivals (YouTube), media distribution channels (MySpace) and commentators (blogs). We can even create our own virtual reality (Second Life).

Media consumption, which used to be time and device specific, is now time and device agnostic, i.e. consume anything, anytime, anywhere, on any device.

It is the age of (ME)dia.

This has made the lives of marketers miserable. How do you market to millions of MEs each with their own personalized media consumption patterns across many channels? The answer is not easily. Like scientists searching for a cure to a major epidemic, experiments on various cures to the problem are many but with mixed results. Each experiment is given its own name, i.e. behavioral targeting, search engine optimization, engagement, one-to-one and integrated marketing, etc., etc.

The findings - promising results, hopeful outcomes, no cure.

Why? Many times in the past, the problem in dealing with the new is trying to solve it with the old. When television was in its infancy, early programming was former radio shows in front of a camera. Why? Radio executives owned the new television networks. TV eventually found the right formula and prospered. There have been some examples in more recent history. AOL missed its chance to dominate the Internet and become eBay, MySpace, YouTube, and Google all wrapped into one. At its zenith, it had over 32 million subscribers.

The age of (ME)dia requires new thinking for new times. Past success is not an indicator of future success. Ask executives at broadcast television networks, local newspapers, yellow page directories, terrestial radio stations, retail books and record stores, etc.

The lesson is this - (ME)dia is here to stay. The consumer of media is in the driver's seat. Find new solutions not retreaded ones. Ambush marketing does not work anymore. More does not work anymore.

What does work? Get to know your target audience from the bottom up - not top down. Find your audience. Observe how they naturally aggregate.

(ME)dia-ize your strategy.

Marketing - Brand Foreplay For Sales

Before Someone Buys Something, They First Have To Be Romanced

By David Miranda

The field of marketing has many descriptive terms to describe and measure brand success such as awareness, recognition, preference, engagement, and relationship to name of a few. The best way, however, to describe and measure brand success is sales.

This is because before anyone buys anything, they first have to desire it. That is what marketing does. It is the business discipline of seduction.

Simply put, marketing is foreplay for sales.

All too often, brands think that a clever "pick up line" (advertising slogan) is enough or perhaps "offering to buy the pursued a cocktail of their choice" (discounting, coupons, free offers) will win their favor. These may be good techniques for "one-night stands" with consumers; but not for sustainable brand relationships. Brands need to create a conversation with the consumer - get to know them, understand their needs and wants.

In other words, consumers want to be romanced by brands - to be recognized and appreciated. This is what great brands do. This is what great marketing does.

Every sale and every repeat sale is the direct result of brand foreplay. Too often a great deal of effort is placed in acquiring a new customer, but also all too often this newly acquired customer is taken for granted wrongly assuming that an acquired customer will be a repeat customer. In a marketplace where preference is perishable, this is a critical miscalculation.

This is why it is critically important for a brand to understand that, in today's highly competitive marketplace, without brand foreplay-without romancing, competitive suitors are relentlessly seducing your current and future customers.

Don't try to "pick up" customers; romance them instead by employing the foreplay of sales.

It's called marketing.

No Country For Old Marketing

If You're Pining For the "Good Ole Days", You're History In Today's Marketplace

By David Miranda

Pundits opine daily whether the country is in a recession or merely a "slowdown" as the President recently described the present economic malaise.

Whatever term one decides to use, the fact is that record foreclosures, credit card debt, trade and budget deficits, and gas prices; declining value of the dollar; 48 million uninsured citizens; soft housing market; a credit crunch and a volatile stock market set the stage make for a challenging time moving forward for marketers.

What companies will do is predictable - they will contract and adapt to survive or be added to the "endangered species list". In a slowdown or recession, there is a "culling of the herd".

In this environment, advertising and promotion will not solve their company's revenue problems. As a matter of fact, desperate measures by desperate competitors could exascerbate the problem.

This is no country for old marketing.

What to do?

1. Don't panic.


2. Recognize and protect your base (your most loyal and frequent customers) from being "poached" by competitors.


3. Improve your price/value offering to consumers, i.e. adding value rather than reducing price.


4. Manage "stratactically", i.e. although economic slowdowns are typically characterized by tactical warfare, always consider the strategic implications of your tactics. Example: reducing prices instead of adding value will have long term negative implications on revenue and margins.


5. Be proactive, not reactive. A "me-too" tactical approach, i.e. waiting to see what the other guys are doing, can be fatal in a hyper-competitive environment.


6. Amputate anything that is extraneous to success, i.e. products, services, people.


7. Get back to basics.

Now get on with it.

"We've Got To Stop (Internally) Meeting Like This!"

We Are Singing Off The Same Song Sheet, But We Aren't Making "Music"

By David Miranda

The cliches' are numerous describing teamwork and collaboration, i.e. "let's all get on the same page"; "we need to sing off the same song sheet"; "we all need to be rowing in the same direction", etc. Yada yada yada.

Truth be told, most internal meetings, despite the good intentions, are a waste of time. People meet just to meet - to review the minutes of the last meeting; plod through the agenda of the current meeting; and confirming the date and time of the next meeting.

An internal meeting is nothing but corporate overhead. At you next internal meeting, look around the room. What you will see is pure cost to the enterprise. If you are going to have an internal meeting, ask yourself the question "what is the ROI on the overhead of this meeting?", i.e. "How much revenue and/or profit is going to be generated as a result of our collective time in this room?"

One might argue that some meetings are necessary to discuss operational, human resources, accounting, processes, software, etc. This is true, but shouldn't all these subjects be discussed in terms of improving the company's financial performance. Otherwise what's the point?

If you are in a meeting where there is no discussion of top or bottom line, raise your hand and ask politely, "what does this meeting have to do with the company's financial performance?"

A relevant meeting begins with a relevant objective, i.e. "We need to increase our revenue by 4%" or "reduce our costs by 5%" or "increase our market share by 1%". "That's what this meeting is for so let's start the discussion".

People are generally eager to attend and participate in meetings that are action and objective oriented- where they can see results.

They don't want just to "sing off the same song sheet", they want to make "music" - as in revenue, profits, and market share.