Design marketing: total control, or third-party diffusion?

by marcaf ~ March 23rd, 2011

Today I am looking to add a brief post: a meditation of sorts really. For the past few days I have been plagued by a single question. To what extent should the basis of a sound marketing strategy be design? When is it most appropriate to market a product post production, when should marketing research influence product development, and when can the supportive infrastructure around an industry allow a well designed product to market itself?


In regards to the second question mentioned above, need is often claimed to be the mother of necessity, however I have often taken exception to this statement. More often than not, in recent product development invention appears to give birth to need, not the other way around.

Nevertheless the majority of my thought has been regarding the third question in the series above. In the hotel industry, fashion, architecture, design, marketing – when awards, blogs, magazines, TV shows exist for the sole purpose of promoting an industry – should one aim to portray a message directly, or to facilitate its diffusion via third-party, supposedly unbiased, sources?

And for such a strategy, what limitation on marketable products exists?

If Renova can design black toilet paper, and have a story carried by the New York Times, what can such an approach do for us all?

History will be made: Hockey, Hope, and History

by marcaf ~ March 21st, 2011

Here, I am taking a moment to expand upon a campaign and some additional commentary made in a post by Wyatt Hamilton. Wyatt posted a number of the NHL’s recent ‘History will be made’ advertisements. He goes on to describe both the success and ubiquitous presence of the campaign. Indeed, as Hamilton mentions, this campaign is to be broadcast on TV, online, in magazines, in arenas, and through social media: the campaign is meant to be immersive, both in its message and multiple mediums.

There is undeniably a growing trend in professional sports to promote the history of the game, as opposed to current excitement. Legends of past always carry greater weight than those developing in the present. Moreover with the NHL’s most marketed player, Sidney Crosby, out indefinitely with post-concussion syndrome, the individual player approach appears to be demonstrating its limitations. Great way to hype a game, but a significant investment in an individual, and much less likely to attract attention to the league as a whole.

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The memory of the average NHL fan is limited. How many of us have seen Rocket Richard adorn the jersey, or for that matter, the Russian Rocket (Pavel Bure)? Hockey is a sport played at a rapid pace. The league is trying to keep fans’ memories from forgetting at a similar rapidity.

Moreover, by using fan favourites, Stevie Y, Bobbie Orr, Patrick Roy, the league is investing in timeless stories, those that will not fade into irrelevance, and cannot be sidelined by a headshot.

History is constantly being made, but through this historic campaign the NHL is inviting its viewers to witness the next chapter: not a single, far removed event, but the continuation of a time-honoured legacy.

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History will be made, will you be a witness?

Response: Radiohead and marketing (or lack thereof)

by marcaf ~ March 21st, 2011

Today, I caught myself reading through Pierre Schiffler’s blog. I was quite frankly shocked. Radiohead released a new album? Wait what? I realize that I have been somewhat distracted from my usual musical research of late, but I have difficulty seeing how I could have missed this. Yes Sufjan Steven’s Age of Adz went under my radar for a rather lengthy stretch, but this is Radiohead.

Thus as anyone thoroughly ashamed by his ignorance in such matters would do, I tracked down a number of articles detailing the release and the album. Not the most productive afternoon of my life, but rather interesting.

This most recent release was described as a natural progression from Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want online release of In Rainbows four years ago.

Pierre, in his post, effectively juxtaposes the remarkably limited marketing campaign with the album’s predictably meteoric rise on The Hype Machine, Last FM, and similar sites. However I disagree that the release strategy undertaken was a ‘bare minimum’ undertaking. Perhaps describing it as a less-is-more approach is more appropriate. Yes, limited promotion (just stopping short of saying nothing at all) was used; however this is perhaps more reflective of the album itself, the direction of the industry, and Radiohead’s general unpredictability, than anything else.

Although pushing the boundary, it appears to be more of an EP that a full album, Radiohead does not appear to be touring in support of the EP/Album, and the majority of Radiohead fans are likely to come into possession of the album via less-than-legal downloads regardless of release strategy. Interestingly, as Pierre himself mentions, the album’s online uproar appears to have outdone In Rainbows: even though critical reviews appear less favourable.

In brief, the traditional marketing and distribution platforms for music are increasingly compromised: especially when a dedicated fan base is particularly technologically savvy. By limiting the campaign, Radiohead focused on customers that will actually consider paying for the content. Radiohead’s strategy appears to extract value from fans willing to pay, while refraining from investing in individuals who are just going to download the album anyway – I won’t even mention buying a traditional CD from a record store, as demonstrated by this release strategy, an increasingly irrelevant platform.

Hotel Marketing strategies: lessons from the blogosphere, and Istanbul.

by marcaf ~ March 9th, 2011

In continuing with the Turkish theme, I recently read through a blog by the title of ‘hotel marketing strategies’, which posted two recent interviews with a Turkish hotelier. The focus of the discussion was the importance of online user-generated content, reputed design, and strategies to maintain a positive online presence in the hotel marketing industry.

The article argues that, when it comes to hotels, players in the industry do not control the predominant industry channel — online hotel-review and travel sites. Thus, perhaps the best marketing strategy is not really a marketing strategy at all.

The hotel in question, the Witt Istanbul, has been tremendously successful: winner of the 2010 Design Award by Wallpaper Magazine, and rated a World’s 100 Best Hotels by the Sunday Times Traveler Magazine.

As mentioned in the article, the emphasis in the project was on design, and quality. By successfully fulfilling these elements customers are doing the marketing themselves. As found in the interview,

I think we’re going to see more and more of that in the future. Improving ‘findability’ will give a better return on investment than outbound sales efforts. Having an impressive online presence pre-sells potential guests before they even contact you.”


By hiring reputed young designers and emphasizing guest experience, a word-of-mouth campaign grew naturally. This campaign was certainly aiding along by Gradigio, a digital communication agency. Nevertheless, this online, blog and review-driven campaign has been successful, and a manner in which smaller individual hotels can beat out international chains.

When it comes to hotel marketing, guest reviews are key. Thus in a certain sense, the product itself is the marketing campaign. The medium really is the message. And as Seth Godin often repeats, design is the foundation of marketing.

Sources:

http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/hotelier-interview-tuncel-toprak-of-witt-istanbul-suites/

http://www.autoban212.com/

http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/maintain-interest/

http://www.wittistanbul.com/awards/

Turkish Tourism: the hypermodern intermeshed with the historic and the quixotic

by marcaf ~ March 3rd, 2011

I have just recently received news that I will be travelling to Istanbul near the end of March. Thus, the past few days have largely been spend rummaging through online reviews, tourism information, and blogs, as I wait for my Lonely Planet Turkey to become available at the local library.

In the process, I have come across the Ministry of Tourism sanctioned Turkey advertisements. After noting the beauty, and juxtaposition, I came accross the extent of segmentation undertaken throughout the video campaign.

Messages such as

I dream of: Turkey

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Welcome home: Turkey

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Unlimited Turkey

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Go with the rhythm…enjoy Turkey

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Istanbul: timeless city

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And others all end with the signature Tourism Turkey Logo. Although not overly disparate in title, the varying advertisements are clearly targeting different portions of the tourism market.

First the similarities, all of the commercials prominently display the ocean, central mosques, yachts, and of course, pretty women.

However the differences are of particular interest. Turkey itself appears to be fraught with duality. Europe and Asia, Islam featured alongside Christianity, postmodern architecture laid beside Byzantine ruins, Armani suits amidst traditional dress, a unique blend of escapism intertwined with familiarity. The ministry advertisements appear to emphasize this juxtaposition and yet do so while hinting at an underlying uniqueness, difficult to replicate elsewhere.

The lavish and outright gaudy opportunities, notably in Istanbul, are hinted at; however they are underscored by a genuine culture, a musical scene, local cuisine, and incredible biodiversity. The combination of this ‘easy access’ with genuine authenticity allows Turkey to set itself apart from newly-emerged Arab competitors such as Dubai while also presenting unique, ‘foreign’, and historic aspects simply non-present in many European tourism destinations.

It appears that Turkey has a proposition for everyone, from adventure travel to weekend getaways. I am looking forward to finding mine.

Marketing the revolution: social media’s role in the toppling of a dictatorship.

by marcaf ~ February 24th, 2011

This post was largely inspired by Malcolm Gladwell’s recent New Yorker article – Small Change: why the revolution will not be tweeted. In this article Gladwell comprehensively undermines the notion that new mediums in themselves – twitter, facebook, blogs, or other are able to drive, to initiate meaningful societal change. The resultant ‘weak ties’ diminish barriers to activism yet do not promote the forms of activism that permit the overthrow of government.

Interestingly the disabling of the Internet on January 28th, three days after the initial day of rage in Egypt, is argued to have ha a greater impact on Mubarak’s eventual fate than the social media tools he so feared. Shutting down the Internet further enraged much of the younger generation and forced individuals on to the street in order to have an idea of what was going on, to know if a loved one was safe, and to vent their frustrations.

So when this protest was initiated by Egyptians – even if influenced by Tunisians, largely through traditional communication channels, and the influence of the outside world likely had little impact. What role did social media play: my intuition, although undoubtedly inadequately founded, is little at all. This is not a situation paralleling the Rwandan Genocide or Darfur conflict in which outside support was being asked and increased western consciousness regarding the issue could have prevented significant bloodshed. Within Egypt itself Arab news outlets such as Al Jezeera appear to have had greater impact than the predominantly English-language tweets hash-tagged #egyptrevolution.

Thus social media appears to have significantly altered the manner in which conflicts are portrayed to third parties, but not how they are undertaken on the ground.

It has not, however, altered the basic organizing structure of revolution, and has played a limited role in the overthrow of Mubarak, Ben Ali, and likely overthrow of Qaddafi.

Sources:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell#ixzz1Ev5Kawbw
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/world/middleeast/17sharp.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&sq=egypt%20peaceful%20protest&st=cse&scp=5
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/business/media/21link.html?ref=socialnetworking

The Best Laid Plans: of mice, men, and literary publishing

by marcaf ~ February 10th, 2011

The literary publishing industry is in a difficult spot: a Porter’s analysis should not be required for either explanation or justification. E-reader sales are heating up, the general public appears to be spending an ever-decreasing portion of their time reading, and the notion of personal libraries packed with expensive hardcovers appears, for my generation at least, to be an archaic form of interior design.

With his recent self-publication of The Best Laid Plans, Terry Fallis has shed light on another difficulty facing the industry: the increasing ability of writers to interact directly with their potential audience. After experiencing difficulty securing a publishing contract Terry decided to distribute his satirical commentary of the Canadian political scene virally: via a self-narrated podcast. Since then the novel has won ‘The Stephen Leacock Award for Humour’ as well as the ‘Canada Reads 2011 Selection’.

This dissemination strategy may be a sign of things to come: Terry Fallis could be doing for the literary publishing industry what The Arcade Fire accomplished in the music industry: utilizing the internet to circumvent the powers that be and forge direct relationships with audiences. It is important to note that both Terry Fallis and The Arcade Fire have signed traditional contracts; however this ‘pull strategy’ is an aberration to say the least. Normally a writer (a previously unpublished one at least) will produce an unsolicited manuscript, try to get it picked up by a literary publishing house, which will then push it on to audiences.

Terry Fallis’ novel not only ‘deftly explores the Machiavellian machinations of Ottawa’s political culture’ but also new avenues for successful, award-winning content distribution and literary marketing.

Full Press; Fallacious marketing or bound for success?

by marcaf ~ February 3rd, 2011

At his moment I would like to take a brief look at the Full Press Vineyards marketing strategy. This has been an interesting and, in a manner, simple campaign. In the world of wine marketing, differentiation can be difficult. The options are just about endless, quality product is now coming from multiple continents, and the average consumer appears to be, at times, overwhelmed. To be frank what percentage of casual wine consumers actually knows the meaning of body, nose, brightness, new vs. old world fruit, oak flavours, etc. The adjectives, varieties, domains, and pairing recommendations are endless. And for myself at least, unless I am accompanied by a connoisseur, my choice is often rather random: a few bottles I consistently enjoy, and often hit or miss beyond this point.

Full Press is attempting to simplify this decision-making process for a particular audience: the beer-drinking male. The tag line ‘Man’s Guide to Wine Pairing: Goes with Meat’ is undoubtedly designed to simplify the decision-making process. A number of individuals don’t need to know about the cassis undertones, oak casketing, or a sulphurous nose. Full Press is positioning itself towards a male audience looking to have a bottle of wine as opposed to a few beers with a steak, rib, or lamb dinner. The secondary slogan ‘Crafted with Pride’ is a phrase which could easily be used to describe beer.

My assumption is that this marketing strategy has been largely propelled by market research. Full Press is targeting itself towards a non-traditional market, and in my opinion, quite successfully so. All that is left is to try a bottle and see if the taste can back up the campaign.

For my favourite source of wine information try viewing a video on Wine Library TV.

BCSalmonFacts.ca – fact, fiction, or something fishy?

by marcaf ~ January 27th, 2011

An interesting recent PR and marketing campaign has been that of BC Salmon Facts: an initiative intending to change the opinions of the BC public regarding the farmed salmon industry.

The TV, print, and online campaign is being funded by a conglomerate of companies within the industry. As ‘BC Salmon Facts’ (the moderator of the online forum) states, ‘The BC Salmon Facts campaign does not hide the fact that it is salmon farmers speaking up.’1

You may view a few of the campaign’s commercials below.

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This is an interesting example of a cognitive campaign looking to challenge negative connotations of the industry pervasive in the minds of many British-Columbians. The basic message is this, check your facts, and don’t listen to anti-industry opinions without gaining a proper understanding of the situation. In brief, “Many people are being fed a diet of misinformation and that’s exactly why our members have launched www.BCSalmonFacts.ca, a new web site where we will separate myths from fact and set the record straight.”2

From my limited exposure the campaign appears to be rather effective. The advertisements themselves are not particularly informative however they did succeed in directing me to their website where information, and debate, is abundant.

Moreover the campaign is successful in two separate means. Firstly, it does provide relevant (although potentially biased) information – via video, text, and hyperlinking to external sites. Secondly and perhaps more importantly the site’s forum allows for direct control of the conversation and immediate response to critics. In a very clear, direct, and thorough manner an industry spokesperson responds to individual comments made in a number of separate threads.

The primary and most prevalent critique of the campaign (keeping industry critique aside) is the use of the term FACTS. In fact, the majority of the site’s information is not fact. It is a point of view, often scientifically or economically founded; however these are areas of continued debate. As one member of the forum states, “the whole “facts” approach just further disengages me.”3 Yes a industry response is valid, and in this case does successfully dispel much misinformation. But, claiming that industry opinion is an exclusive source of facts may be misleading, and, importantly further antagonize critics.

For a full understanding of the issue please visit http://farmedanddangerous.org/ for additional information.

1)   http://www.bcsalmonfacts.ca/forum/#!/cd8cb50032
2)   ibid
3)   http://www.bcsalmonfacts.ca/forum/#!/33553ad6ea

Value Based Marketing in a B2B environment: imperatives and strategies

by marcaf ~ January 20th, 2011

I simply wanted to take the opportunity of this first blog post in order to apply concepts of value-based marketing in a business-to-business (B2B) environment. Although a number of the underlying tactics are similar regardless of weather the target audience is an individual or a business, the preferred means of diffusing information in a B2B environment is quite different. Information is more commonly destined for a small number of strategically important individuals as opposed to a widespread audience. Also targeted individuals are generally much more informed about their respective industries and product offerings that exist within them; in comes the increasingly important medium of choice for many firms (notably tech firms) in B2B environments: whitepapers and thought leadership marketing.



source: The Economist Intelligence Unit B2B marketing survey 2008

Strategies for the strategic use of thought leadership are numerous. Increasingly mere publication of articles, blogs posts, podcasts, etc. are not enough to guarantee returns on this form of investment. I synthesized a basic approach below.

The development of a strategy to engage and maintain dialogue with interested parties is also important. A traditional means of contact is simply having a sales agent follow up with interested parties; however, increasingly this is being viewed as ineffective. It is important to maintain dialogue so that when a firm is in a position to purchase services or product open channels of communication exist. Also allowing for direct contact with a company employee outside of the sales department may create an avenue to satiate increasing interest without being subject to sales pressure.



In brief by thinking of TLM in terms of value marketing and not being overly focused on one-time sales firms may create a community of interest and an intellectual discussion, which, to an extent, they control. Thus setting their company up to be an option of choice when interest transitions to purchase.

References

http://www.thoughtleadershipstrategy.net/2010/07/five-steps-to-excellence-for-thought-leadership-marketing/

http://www.wdfm.com/thought-leadership.php

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1292013

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