Those were the days. Back in the 70s, 80, and early 90s, you could mail catalogs and marketing pieces to your hearts content, sit on your hands, and watch the returns come in. Oddly enough, several of my clients who are high volume marketers, until recently, were still using this model. They just couldn’t figure out how to readjust their marketing strategy. Honestly! As if they didn’t see the signs about nine years ago!
Certainly, we may see the USPS gone by then. The post office has almost put itself out of business by setting postal compliance with NCOA (National Change of Address), and other Move Update requirements. Now, postal workers may be going to a five-day delivery with fear of losing more than $6 billion in revenues.
But what will marketing look like in the future? Francis Anderson’s blog, Making a Connection, claims marketing may hit a wall by 2020, indicating that marketers will need to compete for a much smaller share of a large market. Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Work Week, advocates marketing your products and services to a very narrow and niche market. Both Anderson and Ferris could be considered true visionaries!
What caught my eye this week was the NY Times article on the growth of marketers moving into statistics. Moving into Web 2.0 and the digital world, companies are now turning to statisticians for turning their data into meaningful information to chew on, then move forward with products and services.
I don’t have any profound assumptions or answers to this movement. All I know is that I’m going out in about ten minutes to buy a lottery ticket!
Categories: Branding · Marketing · Vision
It’s been evident after the release of iPod and iPhone that Apple is stealing more market share away from Microsoft. It’s been reported last week that Microsoft has just closed one of the worst quarters in its history.
Apple, led by Steve Jobs, shaved off most of the complexity and made things much more simple by focusing on cell phone and MP3 space, in addition to their PCs. Microsoft can’t handle the competition. It is still too complex and cannot retain a focus. And, clearly Microsoft is unable to meet Apple’s match on cell phone or MP3 products.
Google is also struggling. The economy, yes, has much to do with it since people and businesses overall are still holding back on spending.
Google, too, is focusing on too much, creating many divisions within the corporation by taking on libraries, maps, utilities, and other off-shoots that are making Microsoft look like a simple cookie jar.
So, as an iPhone user, Mac lover, and Apple advocate, I promote being just like Apple. Keep it simple, stupid! Stay good at the core of what you do, do it well, perfect it, and market it well.
As for Google, well… I still use Yahoo!
Stay focused!
Categories: Branding · Business in general · Marketing · Vision
There’s always one in the crowd. Some people will complain just to complain. Some customers whine and will not let up until you cry uncle. Others will wallow quietly in their misery on something your company did, how your products failed, or how their expectations weren’t met.
For example, in a customer complaint letter to a company that produces feminine products, she was horrified when she say on her maxi-pad was printed on the adhesive backing: “Have a Happy Period.”
She ends her letter with:
Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending bull ****. And that’s a promise I will keep. Always.
I applaud her for her charm, her wit, and her journalism. I wonder what the company did in reaction to this, particularly since it was PC Magazine’s 2007 editors’ choice for best web mail-award-winning letter.
I think I have dealt with customers that continually strive for that award…
Categories: Branding · Business in general · Customer Service · Marketing
Probably not. On Michael Parekh’s blog, he describes how Japanese novels, written on cell phones, are now being published in book form. Prior to that, the novels were written on the key pads of their phones, then read by fans on the cell phone screens (lots of doctor appointments in doing that, I’m sure). As publishers caught on, these are now being published in print. Of the top ten published novels written last year in Japan, five of these were from cell phone novels. (My fingers and eyes hurt just thinking how much work went into those… but, I digress).
Bring it back into the US businesses, and look at what is happening in the coffee world.
According to Branding Strategy Insider’s blog, things are not looking good for Starbucks. Starbuck’s is in a league of its own. Where else can you pay more than $4 for a carmel latte? But, was the focus on growing more stores, or selling coffee — or CD’s?Starbuck’s grew way too fast, due to having a goal of 15,000 stores throughout the US by the end of 2007.
As much as I am not a McDonald’s fan, I give the company high marks. Why? Because McDonald’s watched what people were doing, and what people wanted, and now they are going to give customers just that. McDonald’s is moving into the coffee bars world, selling lattes and a coffee bar experience. And, I’m sure will be less expensive than Starbucks. So now, Starbucks will be faced with having a competitor delivering a product that is nearly as good – and that cost less.
How did that happen? How did McDonald’s move into the coffee space? Why did book publishers move into the cell phone novel publishing space? Because someone in the Japanese publishing world and someone at McDonald’s corporate watched what people were doing. They watched what people wanted. They paid attention to what was happening around them.
Are you?
Categories: Branding · Vision
