Retail Marketing | Brandtailers

Archive for the ‘Retail Marketing’ Category

Aug

by Brandtailers

Sounds like a crazy question until you look at the way Facebook, YouTube, Flicker and simple templated blogs can easily duplicate a website’s content these days. Besides, websites can be frustrating to maintain, challenging to keep current, and expensive to upgrade, right? Plus, with more people using Twitter and Facebook as search engines, who needs to pull up first in Google anymore? Remember the announcement a few months ago that Facebook surpassed Google in weekly internet traffic? Makes you think you might not need a website as much as you used to.

Wrong.

There’s no question that a company’s website is still it’s most powerful marketing tool. You own it, you control 100% of it’s content, you manage its destiny. Your Facebook page? Well, ask Mr. Zuckerberg what he’s thinking of next and that’s what your Facebook page will look, feel and behave like next month. Your YouTube channel? Have you ever gotten into its content management system? Nope. And it’s the same with most of the other marketing tools we mentioned. Today you need a great website more than ever.

In fact, there is even more opportunity for today’s corporate websites to drive business straight to your doorstep. But you still have to start by focusing on your brand. Forrester Research says 67% of today’s customers create their initial opinion of a company via their corporate website. This is the classic branding part of marketing, where you build trust with your consumer. But a well-designed website can also take your potential customer into the actual sales process at the right place and right time. A website that’s been designed to offer both a brand and retail message has proven to be stickier, with more time spent browsing through pages, clicking additional links and converting to leads or online sales. Look at Home Depot, Wahoos Fish Taco and Morgan Stanley for a few good examples. They have places within their sites where their call-to-action request is not only appropriate, but expected.

So then, what do you do with your other marketing tools like Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube channels and Flickr? Simple. Use them to create conversations. Get people (aka customers and potential customers) talking to you, about you, and for you. Sure, you can include calls-to-action when appropriate. But mix them up. Remember, people don’t want to be sold – but they love to buy from companies they trust. Build your website with this in mind and you’ll be on the right path to online marketing success.

Tags: branding, website design, website development
Posted in Brand Management | Brandtailing, Consumer Behavior, Retail Marketing, Social Media, Twitter | Leave a Comment »

2 Responses to “Do You Still Need a Website?”

Brandon Yanofsky says:

August 13, 2010 at 2:25 pm

John Jantsch has an awesome visual of how websites work with your social media in his book “The Referral Engine.”

He calls it the hub and spoke model, where your website is your hub and social media your spokes. Social media pulls people to your website.
Mirna Bard says:

August 14, 2010 at 4:58 pm

Absolutely! Right on! A website is the HUB/Blog and social networking tools should be used to direct prospects back to the site because this is where you are going to try to get them into that sales funnel! Too many businesses are neglected their sites in order to do social media, but the key is to know how it all works together!

Jul

Can Great Creative Make Up for a Weak Product?

by Brandtailers

Recognize this guy? He’s “The man your man could smell like” from the Old Spice campaign that launched during this year’s Superbowl. Now, with over 11 million views and 20,000 consumer comments on You Tube, this campaign is the ad industry’s year-to-date darling, winning Clios and dozens of other creative awards. This Old Spice manly man also ambushed YouTube for two days this month, posting over 200 instantaneous videos responding to Twitter requests from the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and Perez Hilton. The campaign was owning both Twitter and YouTube like no other campaign has done yet.

Wow. Quite a marketing success, right? Wrong.

Sales of Old Spice’s Red Zone After Hours Body Wash, the product in the commercials, have dropped 7% in the last 52 weeks. Ad critics are blaming the confusion of who our Old Spice manly man’s message is targeting. Is it the ladies who giggle and gawk at him, or the men who want ladies to giggle and gawk at them?

It doesn’t matter. Because that’s not where the campaign went wrong. In fact, the campaign didn’t go wrong at all. The client went wrong. So often this happens when you have great creatives like Wieden and Kennedy, where the client (P&G) gets so caught up in the creative, they think it will make up for a weak product.

Any adult male who knows what Old Spice is, probably still relates the smell to his grandfather. It’s a 73 year old brand that people still think smells like a 73 year old brand. Maybe P&G hoped women would go out and buy one Red Zone After Hours Body Wash as a joke for their boyfriend or husband. That could create a few million extra sales – once. But think about it, what guy really wants to be a repeat buyer of a product that reminds him of his grandfather. Worse yet, a product that sends the message, “I want to be a manly man.” Come on. There’s a saying in advertising: “The fastest way to kill a campaign is by doing great creative for a bad product.” This may be the case for Old Spice.

P.S. Selfishly, we hope sales pick up. The spots are hilarious.

Tags: creative advertising, old spice commercials, old spice man, social media advertising
Posted in Consumer Behavior, Retail Marketing | Leave a Comment »

Jun

Will Hulu’s New Subsciption Program Kill Traditional TV?

by Brandtailers

The on-demand web video site Hulu announced a new subscription service Tuesday called Hulu Plus, which will allow users to unlock full seasons of premium shows on ABC, NBC and FOX across a variety of new platforms for a flat monthly fee of $9.99. This includes a growing library of 120 seasons of TV and 2,000 episodes, according to Hulu.

While the business world debates Hulu’s business model, we marketers are looking at it as one more significant move that will put television as we know it in the grave. Especially because Hulu is offering its new service in mobile formats on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, as well as select Samsung internet-enabled TVs and Blu-Ray players. It will also soon offer Hulu Plus service on PlayStation 3 and X-Box 360, as well as devices from Sony and Vuzio.

Advertising space will continue to be sold, which means Hulu is adopting Cable TV’s strategy of collecting fees from both advertisers and subscribers. But advertisers will soon be able to geo-target specific messages to specific audiences in specific areas making their ad dollars much more cost-effective. And millions of people have already said they’re willing to pay $9.99 a month in order to watch almost any show they want anywhere, anytime, on any media player.

But don’t throw your TV set away. After all, antique shops are always looking for classic oldies. Your 72″ screen may someday become a valuable relic.

Tags: hulu, hulu plus, ipad, iphone, television
Posted in Consumer Behavior, Marketing Technology, Retail Marketing | Leave a Comment »

Apr

If Your Website is Your Best Sales Tool, What’s it Worth?

by Brandtailers

Imagine that you’re moving your company to a new office space. You have the opportunity to let it say everything about you that you want your customers, business associates, and vendors to know. You spend time with an expert contractor coordinating improvements. You work on room designs with a space planning specialist. You use your IT guru to ensure your computers, phones, etc. will operate effortlessly. You do this because when it’s finished you’ll have work space that not only helps your company’s productivity, but also defines your brand for every visitor to see.

Now, replace this office space design process with your website development process. These days, there’s not much difference. You’re just replacing tangible brick and mortar with virtual space. But if you consider which of these walls and roofs more people visit, you’ve figured out the true value of your website.

So back up for a moment and ask yourself, “How much am I willing to pay for experts who know how to turn a cookie-cutter office space into my company’s brand?” Chances are good you’re willing to pay more than a few dollars. So, why, when your website is your opportunity to show your unique brand, would you settle for one that has nothing unique?

Interesting paradox, huh? Websites are much less expensive to build than they were just a few short years ago, but if you want to make yours stand out, to represent your brand and do a big part your selling for you, you’re going to have to pay for some real experts. Not just programmers who know html, php and css, but designers and brand strategists who know how to represent your best assets online. And writers who know how to take the hundreds of keywords necessary to help your site show up well in search results, and incorporate them into enticing content that flows seamlessly.

Websites like this are not just necessary for e-commerce businesses, they’re imperative for any business that wants to take advantage of the wonderful benefits the web has to offer your brand. It’s a new way of thinking, isn’t it?

Tags: digital agency, website development, website fees
Posted in Marketing Strategy Research, Marketing Technology, Retail Marketing | Leave a Comment »

4 Responses to “If Your Website is Your Best Sales Tool, What’s it Worth?”

Daniel P. Mitchell says:

May 25, 2010 at 11:14 am

Makes perfect sense. But unfortunately today’s business is being run from the bottom line backwards. Thus the key motivator is cheap and cookie cutter is cheap. Now creative solutions will have way more impact because so much competition is still scared. You certainly nailed the truth. Truly good luck and persistence in selling it to your clients. Dan
Bertram Dandrow says:

June 15, 2010 at 12:28 pm

Hi thanks to you for the last post.
Aaron Weiner, CPM, CCIM, LEED AP says:

June 21, 2010 at 9:44 am

I think you meant paradox, not parody!
Brandtailers says:

June 21, 2010 at 9:52 am

Oh my gosh you’re right! Thanks for the catch Aaron

Apr

How Should Agencies Be Paid?

by Brandtailers

I found this fascinating blog quote regarding agency compensation:

Media costs are market determined, so they’re easy to value. An hour of time is easily measured by a clock. But, how is the brightness of an idea measured, or the effectiveness of communication? These are really fuzzy, non-touchable things to measure. In the land of lawyers they’re called “intellectual property,” and payments for them are generally determined through royalties and licenses.kilgannonsays.wordpress.com, Kilgannon Says, Mar 2010

Just yesterday I was with a great client of ours debating how our agency fees should be valued. He noted that when we first started working with him two years ago our compensation was based on a much heavier level of traditional media use. He very politely argued that now, since we have moved away from so much traditional media, the fee doesn’t make sense. I responded saying how ironic it was that, since we moved away from the traditional media, we were actually investing more time and effort into his account. Neither of our thoughts were valid points. His tied our value to traditional media commissions. Mine tied our value to the clock. As an ancient wise man once said, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

I love the story about the plumber who shows up at a home for an emergency repair. He spends five minutes fixing a very large pipe leak in the kitchen. After his five minutes of work he hands the homeowner a bill for $150. The homeowner is exasperated and accuses the plumber of highway robbery, stating that the repair only took him five minutes and how dare he charge that much for such a quick repair. The plumber calmly replies, “I just saved your kitchen flooring, which appears to be worth thousands, not to mention your water bill, which would have been very high had I not known what to do quickly. Are you paying me for the five minutes, or for my ability to solve your problem?”

As agencies we spend most of our working hours helping clients solve their problems. This usually means helping them generate more customers, more leads, and more sales. But even with today’s amazing online technology and the ability to measure consumer movement and actions, there is still a lot of intangible effectiveness that can result from an agency’s problem-solving efforts. Like the ability to pick the right musical background for a radio spot that increases it’s stickiness. Or being able to negotiate lower printing costs for a mailer that, in turn, increases the project’s ROI. Or how about not only coming up with the big idea, but then making sure it’s delivered through every brand touch point from website to floor graphics, to business cards, to POP to traditional media?

An agency’s value should be based on their ability to quickly and accurately determine the problem, develop a strategic solution, and deliver appropriate results. That’s what the plumber had. That’s what the customer was paying for. And that makes sense. So, maybe we should change our name to Brandtailers Plumbing?

Tags: advertising agency fees, advertising agency's worth, agency fees
Posted in Brand Management | Brandtailing, Marketing, Retail Marketing | Leave a Comment »

One Response to “How Should Agencies Be Paid?”

Brandon Yanofsky says:

April 11, 2010 at 10:21 pm

I agree, I think agencies should be paid on their effectiveness to solve a problem. But the correct problem should be used as measurement.

Let’s assume a company hires an agency to increase sales. The agency does some great work to bring more traffic to the site. But customers don’t buy the product. I think the agency did its job very well. It’s the company who isn’t doing what it should.

Anyways, I think that performance based pay is the best way to pay for anything, disregarding time and all extraneous factors.

Mar

Our Next Move: Face to Face Office Space

by Brandtailers

Brandtailers has moved four times during our 20 years in business. Each time we’ve moved to a bigger (although not necessarily better) space. Before we made our last address change a little over four years ago, it felt like we were stepping over each other just to get around the office.

So we made the move from 5,800 square feet to just short of 14,000. For the first few months the extra room to breath was so refreshing. The Creative Department had their own wing, the Media Department had theirs. The Interactive Department was on the other side of the building, while Account Services and Admin were off in a whole other section. Ahhh, space.

But guess what happened over just a couple of months? People stopped talking to each other face-to-face. They weren’t collaborating like they used to. Instead of getting out of their chairs and walking 100 feet to talk to someone in another department, they’d send them an email. We thought we came up with the brilliant solution of encouraging instant messaging to make the communication feel more personal. That was dumb. People stayed in their offices even more.

Our lease is coming up for renewal in the next year and, yes, we will be moving to a different type of space. No more “wings” for us. It just doesn’t work. Hopefully in our next office instant messaging will involve vocal chords, emails will be for external purposes, and collaboration will be spontaneous moments of smart, creative people within ear shots of each other.

For those of you who like coming to our office, don’t worry. We’ll be taking the pool, ping-pong and fuss ball tables with us. And our walls will still be bright and tell their stories. Yes, we’ll take the African spears too. But we may be stepping over each other again, so bring your own chair.

Tags: advertising agency, moving, office
Posted in Events & Meetups, Retail Marketing | Leave a Comment »