CAT | Competitive Marketing

Aug/10

Brand Attention Span

Comments off · Posted by admin in Competitive Marketing

I read an article recently about the evolution of our thinking, as it relates to the Internet. It’s theory was that people do less thinking for themselves because they can quickly get answers by searching online. While we would be losing a more patient, thorough way of figuring things out we also gain the ability to multi-task in a much quicker environment.

Assuming that it’s true, to some degree at least, I can’t help but wonder what that means for branding. Companies have traditionally spent gobs of money to plant a seed of branding in someone’s mind because it has likely meant loyal customers. However, a simple search for “computer” will turn up more options than any single person can handle. While branding helps delineate to a certain degree, does the name “Dell” carry the same weight it used to? You can sift through product descriptions, consumer reviews and competitor products in the same amount of time it takes just to drive to a Best Buy. Consumers can be more educated, make quicker decisions, and find the right product much easier than they used to.

Look at marketing in general. I remember when TV commercials dropped to 30 seconds from 60 and people thought it just wasn’t enough time to hook the consumer. With Internet surfing you probably have 3 seconds to grab attention and websites limit messaging to 15 seconds of play time. To make any money off online advertising there has to be an instant hook accompanied by a compelling reason to purchase. Even companies like Ford, which traditionally run TV ads proving that their trucks are “built Ford tough” now target online readers with “$1,500 cash back” incentives instead.

I’m not so convinced that Branding means as much any more, especially with the reduction of an already low attention span by consumers.

attention span · banner · best buy · brand · consumer · dell · internet · marketing

Jul/10

“No” Report

Comments off · Posted by admin in "Hook" Rating, Competitive Marketing

It occurred to me that we often need some survey or study proving our theory to give it validity. How often have you tried to make a point and not had the ability to cite research of your suggestion? Often I even have different points of view with my wife and not been able to back it up. Today’s the day that all changes. That’s right, it’s time to put the power back in your side with your very own “No” Report.

Download your copy now and keep it on hand. You’ll never know when you need it. Complete with findings, charts, demographic breakdowns and recommendations you’ll impress your counterpart with mind-numbing details of how right you are. Today’s the day your confidence rises to unlimited heights. Without further delay, click this link to start your download!

NoReport

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business report · graph · lies · no · no report · statistics

Jun/10

How to Receive Critique

Comments off · Posted by admin in Competitive Marketing, Marketing How-To

The opposite of my previous post is how to receive criticism on the work you’ve put your blood, sweat and digital tears into. This can be equally as hard because communication often gets in the way. For example, when someone reviews what you’ve done and they say “Keep going”. What exactly does that mean? No doubt, there’s a skill to getting feedback and turning it into something fruitful.

Admittedly, as a new designer I thought my stuff was fantastic. I put time and energy into every piece I did and believed it to be a work of art. Years later I can laugh at that but it’s important to note my mindset at the time. Receiving input can be directly related to maturity in the profession. Don’t get me wrong, personality has a lot to do with it but I am much better at hearing harsh critique now than when I first started. Here’s kind of how I see it maturing:

Preemie Primadonna: Someone is new in the profession and believes everything they do is amazing. They can’t understand why people aren’t as good as them and often find it very difficult to digest criticism. They may nod their head but the entire time they’re thinking “what a loser”.

Design Dude: Someone who has had enough experience to understand business goals a little and may have even tasted an appetizer full of humility. They are probably a little more comfortable giving their opinion when receiving input and may actually put up a challenge. However, once you get them on the same page it’s usually going to turn out a much better product.

Excellent Extraordinaire: Ironically, this person probably needs the critique the least. They understand goals and have excelled at how to get there. Often, they critique their own work and have enjoyed a full meal of humbleness. These people are the ones you want to work with and all of us should strive to be. In my experience, not many actually make it to this level. In fact, it’s still the kind of person that I want to be.

Yes, you actually need to work on receiving critique. And no, you may not have the greatest giving it. However, ask yourself where you fit in the continuum of open ears and realize that almost all feedback can help you grow.

creative · criticism · critique · design · employee · management · manager

Apr/10

Where’s the Nexus One Already?

Comments off · Posted by admin in "Sink" Rating, Competitive Marketing

It's cool, it's Google but it's not on Verizon yet.

If there’s any question where my four year old gets his repetitive instincts from you have to look no further than my daily, sometimes hourly, checking for any news of the Nexus One availability on Verizon. The first phone from Google is listed as available in Spring of 2010 on it’s own website. What does that mean? Rumors flew that they would announce it back in March at the annual cell phone conference. Nope. Then Verizon had big news about new phone launches so of course it would be included. Nope. In fact, the HTC Incredible has been announced for April 29th without even a peep about the Nexus One.

Rumor has it (meaning any writing on the Internet at all that I could find, true or false) that Apple is suing HTC, the maker of the Nexus One, for patent infringement. That means we won’t get word of it until that’s been settled. Dude, seriously… not cool.

There’s a difference between creating demand and exhausting enthusiastic fans. Not too long ago the Wii was so popular you couldn’t get your hands on it unless checking websites dedicated to tracking their shipment and then parking out front of a store with your coffee and McMuffin. The demand was huge for a couple years. That’s impressive. In fact, nothing significantly better has come out since. The slow movement of upgrades along with an inflow, albeit slow, of products kept society salivating for more. Those are two luxuries Google doesn’t have.

Before it’s launch I’ve already been reading about several other products that are better than the Nexus One so that by the time it comes out I won’t need it. Heck, if I wasn’t so grumpy with Apple ignoring the Flash player on it’s phone I might even take a look at the iPhone (especially since it is coming out with OS4).

Ultimately I still intend to get the Nexus One but I can’t help the poor information Google has delivered for it’s arrival on Verizon. It may not be the best phone out or severely limited on how many fingers you can use to navigate but it will be a historic purchase as it’s the first phone Google’s put it’s ugly logo on. And if you didn’t know already, I am a huge Google-whore. But come ON, where’s the Nexus One already?

Apple · availability · google · htc · incredible · iPhone · mobile · nexus one · phone · verizon

Apr/10

Evony Where Have I Been?

Comments off · Posted by admin in "Sink" Rating, Competitive Marketing

I certainly did NOT click on the Evony banner with a darn-near-naked woman next to the button that simply says “Play Now”. I certainly did not notice the placement of the button was conveniently located near her woman lumps. If I had tried to “Play Now” I absolutely did not fill out the form hovering above a seductive woman, whose photo scrolled in the background allowing me to see a lot more of her body than I expected. And you can bet that I did not have any pre-conceived thoughts about what this might be. Nope, not me.

Evony is blatantly selling sex to gain more male customers to their online game

OK, so there’s only a little truth in that. Very little. In fact, I did not sign up. Since I had no idea what this company was or the kind of game I was going to play (only reason I knew it was a game was from their “11 Million Players” notification at the top of the landing page the banner sent me to). Instead, I typed Evony into my Google search box and decided to check out the Wikipedia information to get the scoop.

Evony's banner simply states "Play Now" over the half-naked woman

What a shock! Turns out that the game is a MMORTS (Massively Multiplayer online real-time strategy for you non-geeks) for building cities. Say whu? What do the advertisements with half-naked women have to do with building cities? Nothing, I found out. I guess I’ve been hiding under a rock and missed the hoopla about Evony’s advertising strategy. It worked on me… I mean, for all readers labeled my ‘wife’, it caught my eye.

There has long been the question in marketing about when a company has hit rock bottom. I’ve humorously stated many times that if we just put pictures of half-naked blondes that we’d grab the attention about at least 150 million Americans. The reason that’s always been a joke is because most companies attempt to build a brand. Good or bad, that’s the intention. Unless your brand has a bunny as an icon you might walk the tightrope of displaying fleshy curves pretty tight. Of course it will grab attention but you have to understand what kind of attention it will bring in. Customers with a false notion of your product are less likely to stay around and more likely to get upset about deceptive practices.

Evony uses a different landing page for their default website.

I did not, and will not, sign up for the Evony game for these reasons. Rather, I would be much more likely to sign up when the game is portrayed clearly and a friend recommended it to me. That’s the kind of customer that becomes loyal and helps lead to a profitable business that will be around for a while. Excuse me while I go get some coffee from a local drive-thru called “Body Shots”…

advertising · banner · evony · game · gaming · marketing · mmorts · review · sex sells · social

Oct/08

Familiar/Unexpected Ads

Comments off · Posted by Lewis Wright in Competitive Marketing, Marketing How-To

Me and a few others from my work started attending a concepting class from “The Bookshop”. It’s designed to help designers or copywriters build up a portfolio that will help them get a job. Everyone who has gone through the class swears by it. Since we’re just in the “Intro” class I’ll wait on my standing ovation until the end. If nothing else, it’s fun setting aside a few hours a week to come up with ideas not related to work.

The first homework assignment is based on something called “Familiar/Unexpected” ads, which has a headline that leads you in one direction and then a visual that pulls you another. Chris DeNino quoted one of his favorite ads, which used the headline “over 1 billion served” and then showed a visual of a tennis ball. We’re all familiar with McDonalds tagline and believe that’s what the product is but then have the unexpected visual be a tennis ball. Familiar/Unexpected.

My first shot at this was for a Powerbar billboard, “Running on empty?” OK, it’s nothing groundbreaking but plays off the headline which makes you think of your car as you’re driving by and then promotes an energy bar.

Familiar/Unexpected is a very clever form of advertising and lots of people enjoy viewing clever work. However, the thing I’m trying to understand is what drives people to purchase. Clever isn’t cool if it doesn’t convert.

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Sep/08

How to Make Money?

3 Comments · Posted by Lewis Wright in Competitive Marketing

There are a million ways to make a million bucks so which is the right way? There are a couple of biggies worth mentioning because they are the most prominent. First, you have companies that work very hard to create a great product in the hopes of satisfying a need and creating a loyal customer. Alternatively, you have companies that spend lots of money convincing consumers that their product is great. To be truthful, I think more companies lean towards the latter. That’s probably a function of doing what works. Great job impulsive shopping consumers, see what you’ve created? Wait, that TV would look nice in my house.

We all like making money. We all like providing for our families. That said, most of us probably don’t care which of the million ways is chosen to make a million bucks. Or do we? How long can you work for a company that puts so much effort into convincing consumers to buy from them? Marketing serves its purpose but have we deterred from the very fabric of inner happiness? Fantastic, you have a huge freakin’ TV in your house but you haven’t actually done much with your career. When we’re all retired and sipping through straws in a lawn chair I wonder if we’d all wished that there was a point we made the switch to a company that does cool stuff. At least we’ll have a straw and a lawn chair right?

I’m no angel.

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Oct/07

50 Cent & The Beatles – Marketing Hype

5 Comments · Posted by Lewis Wright in Competitive Marketing, Marketing How-To, Marketing News, Viral Marketing

Beatles Yesterday and Today Album Cover 50 Cent touted his feud with Kanye West to sell more albums in a dramatically declining environment for sales. No need to get appalled though, exploiting sensationalism is nothing new. Just ask the Beatles who enjoyed the hype of the ongoing conspiracy theory “Paul is Dead”.

In November 1966 it’s rumored (website detailing 358 clues) that Paul McCartney drove off in a rage after fighting through a song that wasn’t going the way he wanted. Not long after it’s said that he crashed his car so badly that it burst into a fire and eventually exploded, leaving few witnesses. The wreck was said to have knocked all Paul’s teeth out, burned his hair off and broke his fingers (preventing him from exiting the car). Once the Austin Healey exploded Paul was decapitated. Rumor or truth?

This eventually led to the growth of a massive urban legend that the remaining three Beatles replaced Paul with a look-a-like and left clues to tell the story without ever admitting it. A great example of that is the Beatles album “Yesterday and Today” which shows “Paul” sitting in the middle with two decapitated dolls pointing to his head. Harrison is in the background holding a doll head that has no hair and no teeth. However, there is a false set of teeth on McCartney’s arm. Coincidence or playing into the hype to help sell albums? It certainly didn’t hurt!

Before you roll your eyes at 50 Cent for using boxing-like hype to promote the sales of albums don’t forget that musicians have been doing this for a long time, whether you believe the “Paul is Dead” conspiracy or not.

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Sep/07

How Do You Compete with the iPod?

6 Comments · Posted by Lewis Wright in Competitive Marketing

Apple’s iPod

Our 101st post on hookorsink.com, the newest and coolest kid in the marketing discussion world, will be more of an interaction. As of January 2007 Apple commands a 72.7% market dominance in the mp3 player world. Sandisk comes in second and Microsoft’s Zune is a distant third. While Apple still gets consumers to look at their product and think “what CAN it do” instead of “what CAN’T it do” (like they do with Microsoft) how do you create a competitor?

Seriously, this is an interaction. What are your thoughts?

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Aug/07

Rank Marketing

Comments off · Posted by Lewis Wright in Competitive Marketing

Something monumental happened earlier this month and you probably didn’t even notice. Unless you’re a nerd with the Alexa tool bar installed on your browser you wouldn’t have noticed that MSN recently overtook Google, in terms of Global traffic rank, to own the #2 overall spot. This could be a sign that the do-no-wrong Google might be mortal after all. This is monumental because MSN can now offer advertisers the second highest traffic rank on the Internet, which means big bucks while Google just got a Whammy. When single day spots on Yahoo can fetch six figure placement costs what do you think moving up in ranking will do for MSN? Even a fraction of movement could have enormous financial impact, so believe me it’s important.

Then again, rank could just be digital smoke and mirrors. Media Metrix reports that Microsoft is only the fourth ranked property in the United States (July 2007), beyind Yahoo!, Google and Time Warner (AOL). If you look a little deeper you’d see that the only country it ranks #1 is in Chile and in the United States it’s the FIFTH most popular site, allowing MySpace and YouTube to crash the party behind Yahoo! and Google.

Did you see that? I said “property” and “site” while the actual domain is something entirely different too. Hitwise lists msn.com as the NINTH most visited domain, behind Microsoft’s own hotmail.com. All very compelling if put in the right sentence. I’m certain you can bet that salesmen at MSN are sure to be playing that tune to their advantage when collecting ad placement fees! If you are trying to buy those spots you may think this Rank Marketing (traffic rank) is rather rank Marketing (highly offensive; disgusting).

For the record, HookorSink.com’s rank has surged to #286,505 globally and #29,425 in the United States (Aug 30, 2007). Watch out Google and MSN, this marketing discussion blog is coming up fast!

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CAT | Competitive Marketing

Brand Attention Span

“No” Report

NoReport

How to Receive Critique

Where’s the Nexus One Already?

Evony Where Have I Been?

Familiar/Unexpected Ads

How to Make Money?

50 Cent & The Beatles – Marketing Hype

How Do You Compete with the iPod?

Rank Marketing

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