Recently in Marketing Category

Being someone who:

a) lives with a vegetarian
b) works closely with the design industry
c) buys a lot of organic items on a weekly basis

I have to say how surprised I am that:

a) the organic movement has taken off the way it has
b) many organic foods I see are still sold in non-recyclable containers

I always thought that if the organic/green movement grabbed hold, it would follow that many of the companies selling these organic items to consumers would naturally (ha!) choose recyclable materials to package their products. But that doesn't seem to be the case, especially in the organic food aisle. Baby carrots, bagged lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, etc. all shipped and sold in non-recyclable plastic bags.

And yes, I cringe every time I crumple one up and throw it away. (Thanks, Olivia.)

According to the "one of the world's leading authorities on plastic pollution," Dr. Anthony Andrady, Sr. Research Scientist at North Carolina's Research Triangle, "Except for a small amount that's been incinerated, every bit of plastic manufactured in the world for the last 50 years or so still remains. It's somewhere in the environment."

That figure might not be so scary until you realize we only started making plastic 50 years ago.

Anthony is, I believe, one of the people who has been talking about the island of plastic the size of Texas (yes that Texas), floating in the South Pacific.

I'm not sure what the disconnect is, quite, and maybe any of you Packaging Designers can enlighten me - why would a company that sells organic produce not think about the waste generated by their packaging?

I don't think it's cost. It doesn't take a business whiz to figure out that the people who buy organic foods are willing to spend a lot more for their food products - a couple pennies more on packaging wouldn't make or break the sale.

A few years ago, I got to see Chris Hacker, former Creative Director for the ultra-eco company Aveda, and to see some of the amazing, creative (and yes, outside the plastic bag/box) thinking his team was coming up with for packaging their products.

Maybe, like organic farmers themselves, it will just take a few rugged companies to be brave enough to set the standard for selling their produce, start the revolution, and have everyone else follow in their green tracks.

Otherwise, I'm afraid that track is now heading toward a giant floating island of polymers floating somewhere in the Pacific.


(Recycled milk crate image by SOCIALisBETTER)

I admit it, I have no idea what Tots, Tykes, Tweens, or Teens are into. Why? Because that's not my core audience for anything I write for Aquent.

In fact, if I was into whatever that audience is, I think it'd be rather suspicious, don't you think? Plus, as the father of a elementary school daughter, I can't imagine listening to the Jonas Brothers for one moment more than I already have to.

All this would, of course, change in a heartbeat if my audience actually changed to Tykes, Tots, Tweens, and/or Teens. Which, let's face it, happens to Marketers and Creatives with alarming regularity when they, say, switch from being on the Crest Whitestrips line and start working on the Crest for Kids one.

Reason enough, wouldn't you say, for us to be hosting another AMA/Aquent Webcast later this June on this very topic: Insight You Need to Successfully Market to Tweens and Teens.

The Senior Vice President of C&R Research, Brenda Hurley, is going to try to help you understand the ever-elusive Tween and Teen market. Highlights of the talk will include:

• What they do with their free time
• What's important in their lives today
• Their relationship with technology and its role in their lives
• Their engagement with social issues
• Where they get their money and the power of their spending
• How today's economy is impacting them
• How they find out about new products

(I can answer that last one. "TV and their friends".)

Did I mention it's free?

Just pop over to the site and register for the June 23rd Webcast.

And when we're done listening, we'll all know what to buy our nieces and nephews for their birthdays.

That's like a two-fer!

Once upon a time in a faraway land known as Perth in Western Australia, a senior marketing professional entered an online chat forum and became cyber friends with a young marketer on the other side of the world, in a rather large village called New York.

You see, the two new friends had a lot in common - the Perth based marketing professional previously lived and worked in New York with an international advertising agency, and the young New York marketer previously lived in Perth as an international exchange student. Both were passionate about social media, especially the New Yorker who worked at a dedicated social media agency as a social media strategist.

The New Yorker also had other ties to Perth - heartstrings - as this was where her beau resided.

When the New Yorker told her new Perth friend that she was journeying across the sea to explore new work opportunities, her Perth friend said, "If it's employment you seek, then do not dally, proceed with haste to Aquent and meet with Karen, the Marketing Matchmaker."

A meeting was held between the New Yorker and the Marketing Matchmaker after which a proclamation was sent out, via LinkedIn and Twitter (after all this was a Social Media Strategist) to all interested parties, heralding the arrival of the social media maiden.

The proclamation was received with glee by a number of forward thinking artisans from the local marketing community. However the king of a digital advertising agency was quite perturbed as he was away whilst the maiden was in town. "Fear not," said the Marketing Matchmaker, "through the magic of Skype and other technology, an introduction can yet be made".

And so it happened that the king of the digital advertising agency and the social media maiden conversed and both were in agreement that a match could be made. The king arranged for members of his court to progress with the necessary paperwork to bring the social media maiden back to Perth. It is said that she will arrive late winter or early spring (August or September) and it is forecast that everyone will live happily ever after.

Image courtesy of: benrybobenry

I love clever catalogs. No, really, I do.

I imagine coming from the writing side of the house, instead of the graphics side, has a lot to do with it. Though I love a beautiful layout, I really appreciate any company that takes the time to put a spin on product description and, hopefully, crack the reader up.

A lot of times when I'm stuck for inspiration, I'll head over to American Science & Surplus for  hilarious descriptions for often useless products. Consider this:

HIKER'S HELPER
You can always find your way out of the woods or signal for help with this whistle/compass/red LED/ mirror, magnifier/ thermometer combo on a 19" neck strap... (The thermometer is for telling people how cold it was while you were lost in the woods.)

My current fave is from the folks over at Uncommon Goods, who have a section in their marketing emails called Uncommon Knowledge. It's just a little bit in the corner which features a product tied to a lingering question such as, "What is the origin of 'fall off the wagon'"?

(Which they explain this way: Before you can "fall off the wagon" you have to actually be on the wagon. The original version of this expression was "on the water wagon" or "on the water cart." During the late 19th century, horse-drawn water carts wet down dusty roads in the summer. In the 1890s, during the temperance movement, men who vowed to stop drinking would say that they would rather climb aboard the dusty water cart for a drink than go back to the bottle. When people said they were "on the water cart" it meant they had given up drinking. The phrase "fall off the wagon" entered the language shortly thereafter.)

Archie McPhee may have wackier merchandise, but these guys definitely give you something to talk about over at the water cooler.

(That is, if people are still meeting at the water cooler in your office.)

Photo by Br0m

(by guest blogger, Greg Carter from the Aquent's Orange County office)

I started blogging because one of my friends suggested that it would be a useful tool to keep my writing skills in shape. I hemmed and hawed, but finally gave in, and after re-reading many of my earlier posts, I believe (hope? pray?) that I'm a much better writer than way back when. But what started out as a way to hone my skills has given me the opportunity to chronicle bits and pieces of my life, to share my views on books and movies, to post a recipe or two, and to even post a few samples of fiction.

That works for me. I like talking about different things when the mood strikes me. And being able to read the blogs of others, to catch a glimpse into their lives (and even to meet a few face to face) not just in my neighborhood, but in New York, Denver, Portland, Atlanta, Montréal, and England, to name a few, has been quite a happy bonus. I've never expected my blog to be more than a journal of my life. But, as author Paul Gillin discusses in his book The New Influencers, many companies are slowly beginning to see the far-reaching impact that blogging has had on the way corporations communicate with the public.

With the growing shift to electronic media, marketers need to stay on top of new venues of communication, and blogs present the best opportunity. Take a look at almost any blog, and what you'll find is a mini-community, with blogrolls containing links to myriad other blogs who communicate back and forth constantly. Any kind of news -- good or bad -- gets passed on, linked to, talked about much faster than any magazine or newspaper could have imagined.

Take, for example, AOL. Back in 2006, Vincent Ferrari had heard the rumors about the high-pressure tactics used by AOL when someone tried to cancel an account, so he decided to record his own attempt then post the recorded file on his blog. He then emailed a consumer activist site, The Consumerist. The site, in turn, published a link to his post, which soon swarmed across the blogging world and eventually into mainstream media. That small post from a single blog generated so much negative publicity that it helped to influence a change in AOL's policies.1

And that's just from personal blogging. Quite a few other blogs deal with a specific topic and have reader bases focused solely on such things as graphic design, Microsoft, Netflix, plant care, and so on. A smart marketer will find a way to communicate with such groups because those bloggers are passionate about that particular topic, and their readers are more likely to listen to their recommendations.

Another blogging form discussed is the corporate blog, one written and managed by a company. In one of the many Influencer Profiles peppered between chapters, Gillin describes how Microsoft used the corporate blog as a means to allow the public a glimpse into life at the personal computer giant. They seemed to realize that if they weren't out there communicating about the company, then someone else was -- and not always in a positive light. By allowing Microsoft employees to discuss their jobs or whatever moved them in such an open and public forum and by using the blogs as a way to answer questions and criticisms, Microsoft was able to slowly reverse the negative view of the company.2

So thanks to the Internet, the world really has become a much smaller place. More companies and marketers need to change with the times, and The New Influencers is the perfect guide for that, explaining how blogging (and podcasting) works,  how they can be used to generate buzz about a product or to change/enhance a company's public image, and how to get along in this new age of communication.

1. Gillin, Paul. The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media, 2nd printing. Sanger, California: Quill Driver Books, 2007. pps 1-3.
2. ibid., pps 105-112


(Yes, I did read the book myself.)


Image composite by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

What would Asia be without them? A quick bowl of "ramen," as they are called here in Japan, can bring you back to life on chilly winter nights or make you sweat like a hog in the summer. The busy Japanese businessman or university student can pick up the instant type for a few yen at the corner convenience store, make them and wolf them down in a matter of minutes.

Such is the love for ramen in Japan, that, ramen lovers, young and old, sometimes line up outside restaurants and even whip out their own fantasy noodle recipes! Well, lo and behold, the digital world has caught up to the world of cooking. The smart folks at Yahoo! Japan noticed "fantasy ramen" soup and garnish recipes floating around in blogs, as well as actual blogs and entire websites dedicated to noodle appreciation, tasting, making and just about anything about them. There is even a ramen museum here in Tokyo.

Those smart marketing guys then asked bloggers to come up with a winning noodle soup concoction and believe me, they received thousands. What to do next? Well, why not talk to Acecook, an instant noodle soup manufacturer, and get their product managers to develop a Yahoo! branded consumer originated line of products? They not only came up with one recipe, but many consumer originated variations including non-traditional ingredients like bacon and eggs.

The idea has been so successful that social networks like Mixi, the Japanese version of Facebook with more than 15 million members, have partnered with yoghurt manufacturer Calpis to get their members to contribute recipes. The project started late last year and 4 Mixi Juice mix products have been released to date. The online community was involved in everything from the recipe, catch phrases, right through to the bottle design. What a great way to get consumers involved in product development and marketing. The instant food and drinks market in Japan is a jungle, yet these innovative efforts do put brands ahead of the competition.

If you'll excuse me, I'm getting the munchies, so let me go for my Yahoo! Noodles and a bottle of Mixi Juice Mix for lunch.

Image courtesy of: moriza

Imagine this ... you've just been to the movies and seen ... either the best spine tingling, edge-of-your-seat, popcorn spilling cinematic block bluster, or the worst and most painful sleep inducing insult to the silver screen ever!

As an avid tweeter the first thing you do is reach for your mobile phone and update your status on Twitter. Good or bad you want to let the world know!

For any bird brains in the dark, Twitter is, according to the ever trusty Wikipedia a free "social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them".

Comments range from the mundane to the downright topical and even controversial and everyone from the chap next door to Richard Branson is tweeting.

Directly or indirectly Twitter is increasingly being seen as an invaluable resource for Market Research, Marketing and PR professionals. With millions of consumers every day talking about what makes them happy and what makes them sad you can bet your bottom dollar someone somewhere is talking about the brand/product/service of interest. By listening in on these tweets, marketers are able to get real time market intelligence on what consumers are thinking and feeling.

Twitter has a search function that allows you to search by key words and phrases and there are an ever-increasing number of applications (Tweetdeck, Tweetbeep, and NearbyTweets) that are designed to help you managing the morning chorus of bird song coming from the Twitter community.

But Twitter isn't the only source of Consumer Generated Media (media consumers create and share amongst themselves) that those within Market Research, Marketing and PR are listening too. There are a whole host of other online venues including message boards, forums, ratings and review sites, group, social networking sites like face book and of course blogs. And with companies like Nielsen Online producing products like BuzzMetrics, which are designed to give their clients a competitive advantage by uncovering and integrating data driven insights culled from millions of these places you can be guaranteed that big industry is listening.

So if you want to get your consumer voice heard - go on, get out there and start tweeting!

Image courtesy of: obLiterated

Well, if you're Costco.

I like Costco, but it's that kind of store that has always seemed weirdly gluttonous to me. That kind of "I went in to buy two loaves of bread, but came out with two 65" plasma screen TVs" gluttony, that always makes me feel weird.

I might actually be onto something. Just take a look at the offerings from the Costco emailer I just got yesterday.

The Blackline 6x8 foot greenhouse only $699.99 delivered!

The Evolution 6-person spa only $4,999.99!

A Pescaso Gold Chandelier only $389.99!

The Tuscan-looking home office, merely $1,699.99!

The only things that look vaguely recession related are the selection of pain relievers and the business surveillance system, which, sad to say, may come in handy if you're worried about your merchandise.

Either the people shopping at Costco aren't feeling the pinch, or this retailer kind of needs to come to grips with the times.