Recently in Marketing Management Category

When I was at university, my all time favourite subject was Consumer Behaviour.I loved learning about the relationship between organizations, their brands and their customers.In those days though, most marketing messages were delivered via a one-way street - broadcast from company to consumer.

Today, the dynamic growth of digital channels, and in particular social media, has truly shifted the communication paradigm. Marketing as a conversation has arrived!

There's no better example of this than the recent case of Vegemite iSnack 2.0. I'm sure there isn't anyone in Australia that is unaware of this saga but for our friends elsewhere I'll give you a quick overview:

Vegemite (http://www.vegemite.com.au) is an iconic breakfast spread that has been enjoyed by Aussies since 1922.They recently decided on a brand extension, adding a Vegemite and cheese spread.As was the case when they named the original product all those years ago, they decided to choose the name of the new product through a competition. iSnack 2.0 was the winning name but it didn't resonate well with the public. (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1101797/Backlash-kills-off-iSnack-2.0)

The new name was revealed last month during the Football (AFL) Grand final.I was enjoying the game but also had an eye on Twitter and saw an avalanche of protests appear before my very eyes. Not long after the social media uproar commenced, traditional media jumped on the bandwagon and for days the naming of this product was headline news.

This story got me thinking about a case study we had looked at in class years before. It was the Cola Wars and Coca Cola's introduction of 'New Coke' in April 1985.Coca-Cola did the unthinkable and changed their secret formula.They too received an 'instant' backlash. Consumers wrote letters of complaints (Remember them? They got delivered by snail mail). They phoned the company and talk-back radio stations and wrote letters to newspapers. The outrage was enormous!

(http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_newcoke.html) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke)

There are a lot of similarities in these two stories. One could argue that decisions were made without enough research and consultation with their customers. Anyway, both cases required a reversal of decisions made by the marketing and management teams.The difference in the stories is the speed of reaction:

- Time to change Coke back to its original formula = 3 months
- Time to change the name of Vegemite iSnack 2.0 = 3 days!

If you're a 21^st century marketer, engage in conversations with your customers! The powerbase has definitely shifted and consumers are speaking - are you listening?

PS - The new Vegemite product was renamed Vegemite Cheesybite. How was the name chosen? By an online poll :)

by Eric Waldinger
Practice Leader

To develop an online marketing function that will drive ROI for an organization, companies need to understand and know how to leverage a key set of knowledge areas.  Although bringing this online marketing function in-house is the ideal structure, you do not need to hire a large base of as permanent employees, nor can you assume that you can find one person to know all of these areas of online marketing.  You need to be able to know how to access the right talent for the objectives of your campaigns.  

The following knowledge areas have become vital for the marketing management structure to understand and know how to access to create marketing programs utilizing online media in today's marketplace.

These core functions include Online Marketing Management, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization technology strategy, Email Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Online Public Relations and Analytics.

Online Marketing Management

Online marketing management has a key role to identify and evaluate new tactics and channels to drive traffic and grow brand awareness. This function manages online advertising campaigns and marketing programs and maintains relationships with advertising partners.

With any media programs, testing is key to developing an optimal mix. So the marketing management function conceives tests and evaluates the performance of online marketing efforts.

This role is responsible for preparation and monitoring annual advertising budget and creating deals that are at a minimum CPC and in most cases a CPA structure.

Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) should be the most cost and results effective online marketing medium.    Search engine optimization and vertical key words and landing pages are key to successful search engine marketing. Search engine marketing has emerged as a vital marketing function to leverage search traffic and convert it to leads or purchase.  

The SEM function in an organization should:

•    Promote websites by increasing visibility in search engine result pages.
•    Develop in-depth understanding of keyword advertising & direct marketing.
•    Manage & execute operations across various interactive channels.
•    Manage day-to-day operations of search marketing - keyword bidding, copy & optimization
•    Report & analyze advertising success and ROI

Email Marketing

Just like Direct Mail requires a specialized knowledge base, managing email campaigns has its own set of requirements best practices and specifications that can lead to the best outcomes.  Developing a clear strategy is vital, but many factors in testing and development of email programs from subject lines to offer prominence can drive differing results.  

Core staff should manage the functions of email planning, analytics and strategy, but bringing in specialists to complement your best practices and to execute complex campaigns can drive higher clicks and conversion rates.

The email marketing function in your organization should:
•    Design, quality test, deploy, and report on manual and automated email campaigns for both internal customer databases as well as lead lists.
•    Coordinate and maintain the email marketing communications production schedule to ensure accurate and timely delivery.
•    Assess all email creative to ensure communications are aligned with internal email content policies and compliant with CAN-SPAM legislation.
•    Monitor email volume and track to established budget.
•    Maximize revenue utilizing best practices for direct marketing promotion and 'endorsement' selling optimizes promotions.
•    Maximize the revenue from available web and email marketing banner ad positions through the use of effective analysis, scheduling and creative approaches.

Online Public Relations and Content

This function focuses on Online Reputation Management and Public Relations.  As consumers have increasingly adopted the self-service model companies need to cover key areas of content online throughout new media.   This should address specific questions on products and make sure that the right messaging is going out online.

The Online Public Relations function should:
•    Write, manage, edit, and source website content
•    Improve site engagement through user management, guerilla marketing and leveraging social media groups and in-club marketing initiatives
•    Utilizes content management tools and systems for content, page and document creation
•    Partners with subject matter experts inside and outside the organization
•    Utilizes visitor traffic reporting to analyze site success
•    Contributes to and participants in content planning
•    Maintains in-depth working knowledge of related topics, sources, and trends

I wrote a post here advocating greater transparency in the staffing business and someone left the following comment:

"Graphic design is a tough business. That being said, seeing positions posted for a web designer that knows Flash, web design, and print design for the jaw-dropping salary of 35K isn't going to cut it. That is senior-level design knowledge."

I couldn't help but agree with this individual, and not just because recent salary data published by Robert Half puts starting salaries for graphic designers at $36K, with motion graphics specialists commanding salaries starting in the mid-$50Ks.

I thought that we had put the days of kitchen-sink web positions well behind us. Overlooking the significant and long-acknowledged differences between print and web design, a position description like the one above indicates a failure to recognize that certain sub-specialties of web design, as one might consider Flash, for example, have actually become viable career options in their own right.

Interactive design has always been a team sport precisely because it is interactive. The web is undeniably a visual medium, hence the importance of visual design in the creation of websites. But a web site must function in addition to looking pretty and the technical complexity of its functioning demands skills and expertise that are more math than Matisse, if you know what I mean.

The classic division of labor on web projects has always been design AND development. Although most designers will have some technical chops, and developers, on the front-end anyway, will understand design basics, this just means they can communicate and collaborate with each other, not that they are interchangeable. Indeed, they are less interchangeable than ever as the "classic" division of yesteryear has been replaced by today's "baroque" arrangement of sundry strategists and marketing mavens corralling a shifting constellation of user experience specialists, designers, copywriters, Actionscripters, programmers, and analysts, and more.

I know that money is tight and that the web is critical to everyone's efforts. Nevertheless, you don't do yourself or your business any favors by trying to cut costs by hiring one person to do the work of four (or more). Instead, you will be better served by starting with a comprehensive plan for your web efforts, which may in the end be "owned" by one person, and then hiring talented specialists on a project or contract basis to bring the plan to life. Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it ALWAYS takes a team to create good web stuff.

Image Courtesy of elvissa.

A recent survey we conducted with the American Marketing Association showed that, even though most marketers are turning to online marketing for salvation in these dark times, they are finding themselves in a bind because they don't want to outsource these efforts but they don't necessarily have the in-house expertise required to get it done. Turns out that, although online marketing was a stated priority for many in 2008, few were able to actually make the online marketing hires they'd planned earlier in the year.

Lesson 1: Unfettered demand for online marketing translates into unflagging demand for interactive designers and developers.

The cultural revolution unleashed by web technology is ongoing and has produced an increasingly refined level of specialization. Whereas ten years ago we primarily distinguished between creative, front-end designers on the one hand and technically-oriented back-end coder/programmers on the other, today we see a proliferation of web-specific roles ranging from Flash gurus to user experience managers to web analytics wizards and beyond.

In addition to this morphing, expansion, and multiplication of web roles, we've witnessed an intense transformation of the way web work happens. The nature of the technology allows for teams to function without regard to geographical location and the fact that the web is always "on" means that web projects know no temporal limitations; they can and sometimes must be executed at any time, day or night.

Lesson 2: Innovation on the web isn't just about what people do, it's about where and when they do it.

The demand for interactive talent obviously means a wealth of opportunities for web professionals whether their focus is design, development, or marketing. The innovations brought about by the web mean that companies who hire web professionals have an amazing variety of options when it comes to engaging the people they need. The fact that the web and what people do with it continues to grow and change means that no one can predict exactly what new opportunities it will create in the future. However, it is undeniable that understanding these opportunities and their implications will mean the difference between success and failure for businesses and professionals alike.

Lesson 3: To take advantage of new opportunities, you need to have a grasp of the possibilities engendered by technical innovation as well as the limitations imposed by the demands of the marketplace.

On that note, if you want to get a better handle on the opportunities offered or precluded by the current interactive talent market, you ought to tune in to this webcast that Aquent is putting on in conjunction with Monster: Hiring Interactive Talent in the New World of Work .

Tell 'em, Matt sent you.

As the scope of the current economic downturn expands and evolves, marketers are responding with pragmatism rather than panic. The pragmatic view, as revealed by research conducted by The Dihedral Group (TDG) on behalf of Aquent and the American Marketing Association, is driven by three factors: new technologies; the availability of highly-skilled contractors; and the understanding that organizations must plan for the recession's inevitable end.

Last spring, Aquent and the AMA enlisted TDG to conduct a survey asking marketers about salaries, hiring plans, and their outlook on the future. We turned the results of that survey into a marketing salaries calculator. Since the initial survey asked a lot about plans for 2008, we sponsored a follow up survey to find out what had happened in the intervening six months. Of course, we found that some plans had changed (only about a third of anticipated interactive marketing hires had been completed, for example), but we also found that, despite the severity of the current economic crisis, marketers seem to responding with a forward-looking level-headedness.

1. Guess what? Technology has changed marketing!

Everybody knows that email, the web, and the rise of social media have changed and are continuing to change the practice of marketing, so naturally these are changing the way marketers respond to a downturn in the economy. Specifically, whether companies are faring well or are struggling right now, online marketing plays a key role in their plans to weather the current storm.

They are, however, using the technology for different reasons and to different ends. On the one hand, those companies that experienced growth in 2008 are concentrating on using online capabilities to deepen customer insight, analyze their behavior, and continually improve the effectiveness of their digital marketing efforts. On the other hand, the strugglers are increasing their reliance on interactive marketing for increased efficiency and cost-savings.

Great digital marketing managers have several things in common: they are passionate users of technology; they exhibit a fanatical attention to detail; they know how to connect the dots in very complex, dynamic systems; and they are skilled at translating business needs into technological reality.

At least that's what I gleaned from conversations with two Aquent talent: Terry Kong, a digital marketing manager represented by Aquent's New York office; and Becky Huber, a marketing manager with strong online experience represented by our Richmond office.

Terry currently oversees direct digital marketing (email campaigns, newsletters, etc.) and intranet management for a major financial company's corporate and institutional business. Becky has worked through Aquent at a well-known credit card company where, among other things, she was involved in their first online marketing campaign. Here's some of what they told me when I asked, "What separates the great from the good, digital marketing-wise?"

1. Passion for Technology

"Subject matter expertise is good," Terry told me, "but you really need to know the technology. Actually, it goes beyond knowledge and understanding. You have to be into technology."

"I'm looking for internet junkies and email junkies," adds Becky. "People who are not just interested in or familiar with technology, but actively engaged with it." Terry, who builds websites and explores the world of gadgets in his spare time, explains it this way, "I want the folks on my team to understand the limitations and the power of technology because they've actually used it." On that score Becky points out, "There is a lot you can learn and pick up in the execution space, but you have to start with genuine enthusiasm for the tools."

2. Attention to Detail

"Effective online marketing, whether we're talking about banner ads or SEM, requires that you compress everything you want to say into 6 to 10 words. You have to drill down to the core, the heart of what you do," says Becky, "then you have to get your hands on all the research you can and find out what it is about what you do that really engages the audience. And THEN, you have to test continually."

The ability to test continually was something that Terry really liked about e-retailing specifically. "In contrast to B-2-B online marketing," Terry points out, "with retail stuff you can see results day to day and you can tweak on the fly to get closer and closer to the pot of gold."

On January 27, Aquent and the American Marketing Association will host a webcast entitled, "Digital Marketing Staffing Trends." The featured presenter will be Eric Waldinger, who recently joined Aquent as our Online Marketing Practice Leader.

Eric cut his digital marketing teeth at CareerBuilder where he served as vice president of Interactive Marketing and Affiliate Partnerships. His message in this webcast is simple: Companies can save a lot of money by bringing their search engine marketing (SEM) efforts in-house.

Many realize that by outsourcing SEM to agencies they are incurring unnecessary costs, but they don't know exactly how to create an in-house team. What should the team look like? What tools will they need? Moreover, how should you measure their success?

These are exactly the questions that Eric will answer in this webcast, so, if you're asking them, you should tune in. Again, you can register here.

If you happen to miss this webcast, it will be along with past ones here.

I'm pleased as punch to tell you that the next Aquent-sponsored AMA Webcast, "Social Media Is About Socializing," will feature Harry Gold, founder and CEO of Overdrive Interactive.

I had a chance to see Harry speak at the New Marketing Summit in Boston and was digging on his tales of getting the likes of Harley Davidson into the social media game. I think you will too.

Great speaker whose company has done some great work for some great brands. I implore you in the strongest possible terms to CHECK THIS OUT. It all goes down on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 10:00 am Pacific Time (that's like 1:00 pm Eastern). Please join us.

Image Courtesy of bogenfreund.

Enough scribbling about social media and the marketing associated therewith. Here are 5 (count 'em, FIVE!) videos that introduce you to various aspects of social media, how to get into the game, and what you can get out of it.

1. Birds + Bees | 4 Truths about Social Media Networking

Laura Bergells tells a charming and insightful tale of beekeeping and falconry that will help you think about how you approach and use social media.

2. Social Marketing: What you NEED to know for today's market

This is Paul Chaney, the Social Media Handyman and Conversational Media Marketing advocate, talking about why social media matter.

3. Social Media in Plain English

Another brilliant overview by the brilliant geniuses at Common Craft. Oddly enough, it also involves bees. And Twitter has that bird thing going on. Hmm.

4. How to Be a Social Media Change Agent

Forrester's Josh Bernoff, co-author with Charlene Li of the influential Groundswell, talks with Harvard Business Digital about becoming a "social media revolutionary."

5. Social Media Addiction Rap

And because I've always been a fan of Chuck, the Poetic Prophet, I include here the totally ill, "Social Media Rap."

Image Courtesy of Dave Q.

Just yesterday, the Godin One published a post on the 90/10 Rule of Marketing a Job. This brief ex cathedra tidbit boils down to these two questions he poses:

If marketing works so well that you spend a fortune on it, why aren't you marketing your jobs? If talent is so important that you are betting the company on it, why aren't you actually investing in finding and retaining that talent?

Maybe this is just one of those cases where the word "marketing" starts to mean "everything anybody does," but I don't believe that "marketing jobs" is the same as "investing in finding and retaining talent."

For example, finding good talent rarely involves advertising job openings to the world. It usually means leveraging personal networks either on your own or by engaging a recruiter. We have found again and again that the best placements we make result from referrals. But these referrals, while sometimes encouraged by offers of "referral bonuses," usually come from talking to people we know about the people they know and following the chain of trust to the right candidate.

Similarly, retaining talent depends on creating an experience and an environment that draws talent in and gets them invested in their role and the organization. True retention doesn't happen when you convince people to stay; it happens when THEY DON'T WANT TO LEAVE.

But wait a second. Maybe Seth isn't saying that hiring managers should act more like marketers. Maybe he's saying, marketers should think and act more like hiring managers.

I mean, what if you actually sought out your customers via trusted networks, engaged them in a meaningful way, and then provided them an experience that engendered intense loyalty and commitment to you and your company. You know the way effective recruiters and hiring managers do.

Can't.... write....Mind....blowing.....