It says I blog like a boy….
April 27, 2007
Great tool called the Genie Gender located here. You input your post and the analyzer tries to predict whether you’re a male or female blogger. I’m heartbroken. It says I blog like a boy
Meanwhile it told Howard Kaplan that he blogs like a girl. So, it’s a fun but not so accurate tool. But of real interest to me (which may be why the tool thinks I’m male instead of female) is how "viral" such a tool can be. People LOVE quizzes… and love gizmos and gadgets.
Want to drive traffic?
Try setting up a nice little tool like this. Once one blogger finds it, he/she will point others to it as well. Before you know it, you’re talking serious traffic numbers.
Social Networking and Niche Marketing
April 23, 2007
When you define your niche market, your vision clears, your options narrow, and the extraneous falls out of view.
A great example of this principle in action is Playskool. According to an article in Adweek, Playskool is dipping their toe in social networking sites. A giant corporation being attracted to the glitter that social networking sites offer is nothing new. However, Playskool is ignoring the grand daddy of all social networking sites, MySpace for the greener pastures of a brand new social networking site called CafeMom.
The four month old social networking site is a mini MySpace, the key term being MINI!
By defining their niche market, CafeMom has made their site extremely attractive to advertisers who have also carefully defined their target market… advertisers such as Playskool.
According to the article:
While MySpace boasts that it generates the most page views of any site, some marketers are focusing instead on networks barely a fraction of its size to serve as marketing test beds. The obvious advantage of niche networks: advertisers are less likely to talk to the wrong consumers.
Niche Marketing is all about talking to the RIGHT customers! It’s not about trying to find a secret, hidden cache of customers who have been overlooked or ignored by other businesses… it’s about tailoring your message to your target customer. Because when you start viewing the world from your CUSTOMER’S point of view, you rise above the noise and your message can be heard.
When you tightly target your target or niche audience, suddenly MySpace is too broad, to fractured to be of any use. When you come across a site like CafeMom and your target audience is mothers of small children, you don’t have to think twice. You know you’ve found a place for your message.
What is a Niche Market?
April 14, 2007
Quite simply, a niche is defined as “a situation or activity for which a person or organization is especially well suited.”
Interestingly, many “online experts” define a niche market as an under served group.
“Establishing a niche market give you the opportunity to provide products and services to a group that other businesses have overlooked.”
This is “magic fish” thinking.  Trying to find the market that has been “overlooked” is a DISASTER waiting to happen. Typically, the market that has been “overlooked” has been overlooked for a reason.
The reason you should define a niche market for your product or service is NOT so you can “discover” untapped “markets”. The reason you should define a niche market is so you can create compelling content for your marketing messages.
When you’ve defined your niche market, suddenly your options narrow, your vision becomes focused and the extraneous falls out of view.
When ignorance is bliss…
April 11, 2007
Great post over at ask.enquiro where Gordon writes about getting the “willies” over being “behaviorally targeted”. He writes about his “ordeal” and ends with:
Did Orbitz succeed in getting my booking? Well, yes, and no.
The ad certainly caught my attention. In fact, it totally derailed my train of thought, which could be why I forget what it was I went to About.com for in the first place. But I didn’t book, at least, not yet. I’m still sorting out whether I want to or not.
It’s really strange. Intellectually I have totally accepted behavioral targeting and even welcome it as an advertiser, but emotionally and as a prospect, I’m still not sure. I had no idea I would be so prudish about this until it actually happened.
Welcome to Advertising 2.0, where you can hone in on your target customer so precisely, you actually give them the chilly willies about doing business with you.
I recently read that Expedia converts roughly 5% of their visitors into paying customers. I’m sure this campaign launched by Orbitz is an attempt to boost a similar conversion ratio. Looks like in Gordon’s case, it may have backfired. Sometimes, it’s best to leave the psychic readings at the county fair…
What Car Brand Are You?
April 6, 2007
Over at the blog Car Brands Like Me, Rosemary writes:
When it comes to cars, especially mature car brands that have been on the market for years, people’s brand perceptions combine their own personal experience with stories told by others and the manufacturer’s brand marketing claims that align with both their own and other’s perceptions.
One individual who participated in the “name your favorite brands†exercise volunteered both Ford and VOW as cars that are very reliable, and easy to find excellent service for. After hearing two such different brands married in this one sentence, can you hear the bodies dropping at Ford’s and VW’s respective ad agencies? Chevy was also described as reliable, better priced, better styled with better interiors.
She even has created a fun interactive quiz which tells you what “brand” of car you are.
When Compelling Goes Horribly Awry…ATHF
April 4, 2007
I’ve talked about how creating clever and compelling content frequently means walking a fine line between the positive and the negative. Just as the opposite of love is not hate, but rather apathy, the opposite of positive compelling creative is NOT negative creative.
Take for example, the not so recent Terrorists Marketing Tactics Campaign launched by Cartoon Network to promote their upcoming movie for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The campaign certainly took the awareness of the upcoming release to new heights, garnering top mention on almost every media source in North America when they placed small LED circuit boxes featuring a character from the show giving the middle finger. (Which this character is prone to doing on the show.)
The marketing ploy turned full fledged incident brought Boston bomb squads running, closing roadways and bridges, tying up the city of Boston for most of the day in question. Not only was legendary Boston traffic snarled, but it’s been reported that the Pentagon was alerted and the U.S. Northern Command was monitoring the situation from its headquarters in Colorado Springs.
The question we always ask at my house when something like this happens is this: “Does this make me want to see the movie (or purchase the product in question)?”
Because my home is populated with pubescent males and a pubsescent female, I know it’s a real turd if NO ONE in the house answers the question above positively… and no one could in this case.
By the way, the story’s a bit old now, but I’m amused by one online account that reported the event with this spin:
“A great family-oriented brand has been damaged in an incalculable way, and significant monetary damage could follow via compensatory damages, fines and legal fees.”
Um… obviously the author has never WATCHED even a single episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. My 12 year old is NOT allowed to watch a single episode. The characters on the animated show are routinely maimed and disfigured. Actually, to promote the film in a way that DOESN’T conjure up imaginary threats to national security would probably be out of character with the genre.
By the way, Cartoon Network promoted the film the other night by playing the ENTIRE movie, in it’s entirety, during their regularly scheduled programming. The movie played constantly in a TINY box on the screen. At inopportune moments, the movie would take up the full screen and then would revert back to it’s tiny portion of the small screen.
Clearly Clever and Compelling Content
April 3, 2007
It’s a fine line that separates clearly clever creative content from content that is offensive and abusive.
Content that is clearly clever and creative easily rises above the cacophony that is modern media and creates a positive wave upon which a company can proudly ride to shore….and content that crosses that line frequently finds it too rises above the cacophony.
The reason the line is so fine…is because when you are creating clever and compelling content, you’re walking the edge.
When you look at messages that “went viral” you’ll usually find one of these four elements at work:
- It’s odd… very odd. Never underestimate the value of “weird” in making an impact.
Case in point… spongemonkeys and Quizno subs:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oRwkPY04qc[/youtube] - It’s only funny until someone gets hurt… then it’s freaking hilarious!
Painful things either happening to OTHER people or SEEMING to happen to other people seems to be a crucial element in creating compelling content:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-RbjFleoQs[/youtube] - A little Bling Bling to catch the ladies’ eye…. impressive displays of courage, wealth, physical prowess or intelligence (or lack thereof) never fail to impress:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNlmfqv9YWU[/youtube] - Current Events…. create content that speaks to the condition known as “here and now”…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo[/youtube]
What kind of fool do you think I am?
April 2, 2007
Consumers are becoming more and more adept at screening marketing messages than ever before, which has driven some advertisers to try to come in “under the radar” and try to fool people into responding to ads.
Fawn Filter in a post at Imediaconnection.com writes:
Sometimes you end up with something that builds positive brand associations in a subtle, elegant way. Other times, you get a PR disaster, like the two blogs ostensibly written by happy Wal-Mart customers that were so relentlessly positive almost no one was surprised to learn the retail behemoth had funded them. And somewhere in between are attempts like the viral video purporting to be a leaked amateur shot of Tiger Woods filming a Buick spot. Such attempts are neither straightforward about their origins nor remotely exciting.
Treating your customers like mindless twits isn’t a good way to establish a functional and positive relationship, which is becoming more vital than ever in the early 21st Century.
Walmart’s distain for their customer is so pervasive that their “paid blogging” exploit came as literally no surprise. It’s just another in a series of “corporate mis-steps” which reveal Walmart’s TRUE view of the customer: the customer nothing more than a living, breathing debit card pin input device or provider of signature for the credit card. Their part of the transaction is to aid in the transfer of funds from their account to Walmart’s account…. pure and simple.
Which is why, if you’re operating a “small potatoes” style establishment, you can literally RUN CIRCLES around Walmart… but ONLY if your view of your customer differs from theirs.
