Probably the most annoying phrase heard this year is "joining the conversation," as in, businesses actually responding to customer comments, needs, and complaints via social media networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter status updates, or by email/web campaigns.
That is so 1990.
Isn't listening to your customers one of the servicing fundamentals of doing for-profit business in the first place?
Secret Sauce
The flavor of the year is web intelligence.
While web analytics companies had fallen out of favor with their burdensome plethora of datasets and a marketer's inability to spare the time to digest it all, the latest trend is to provide integrated dashboards that marries most of the online and offline transactions together so that marketers can make meaningful purchase decisions with respect to advertising and campaign spends. This is a snake eating its tail. But, what purveyors of web analytics do not tell you is that there isn't a single solution available that is an actual standalone single solution.
By standalone, I mean to say that there isn't a single dashboard entity that has all the necessary tools under its own dashboard. It may show up in the UI as a single utility, but it is the merger of several tools from different providers each of whom you have to purchase to use.
The secret sauce that has everyone whispering about at conferences and marketing webinars this year is how to combine online data transactions with offline data transactions so that marketers can better understand online marketing, retention efforts, create more targeted advertising, and ultimately generate higher conversions.
Customers interact with your company and its brands everywhere:
While web analytics companies had fallen out of favor with their burdensome plethora of datasets and a marketer's inability to spare the time to digest it all, the latest trend is to provide integrated dashboards that marries most of the online and offline transactions together so that marketers can make meaningful purchase decisions with respect to advertising and campaign spends. This is a snake eating its tail. But, what purveyors of web analytics do not tell you is that there isn't a single solution available that is an actual standalone single solution.
By standalone, I mean to say that there isn't a single dashboard entity that has all the necessary tools under its own dashboard. It may show up in the UI as a single utility, but it is the merger of several tools from different providers each of whom you have to purchase to use.
The secret sauce that has everyone whispering about at conferences and marketing webinars this year is how to combine online data transactions with offline data transactions so that marketers can better understand online marketing, retention efforts, create more targeted advertising, and ultimately generate higher conversions.
Customers interact with your company and its brands everywhere:
- Twitter, Facebook
- Via mobile phone, Skype, or call centers
- In-store kiosks (Starbucks, bank branches, photo duplication, etc.)
- Brick and mortar stores
- Print publications (magazines, newspapers, flyers, postcards, POS)
- On the web
Future of Screen Technology
Probably the greatest benefit that marketing and advertising gives to the world is the ability to invoke desires from potential consumers. While this is just a concept video from TATmobile, if touch screens could do this today and have a low cost of ownership, I would be one of those pushing demand for these products.
Watch the video.
[Edit: 3/5/2011, we may never get the chance to see this as TATmobileUI has been acquired by Research In Motion, Ltd., and is now tasked with developing UI for the Blackberry ecosystem.]
Watch the video.
[Edit: 3/5/2011, we may never get the chance to see this as TATmobileUI has been acquired by Research In Motion, Ltd., and is now tasked with developing UI for the Blackberry ecosystem.]
Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM for Marketers)
At the first marketing consulting firm I worked for the agency's lead consultant believed that the database was the lifeblood of the company. This still rings true today. The cleaner data that has gone into it over its lifetime, the better able you will be to evaluate a customer's lifetime value (CLTV) and identify potential customers that meet the same specifications. Likewise if your data migrated from one CRM system to another but only retained the past year of customer data, there will most certainly be knowledge gaps about those customers.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) databases have long been used by salesforce-driven companies to store datasets such as customer/vendor/partner contact info, purchase history, product interest, product registration, and occassionally market research data on individual customers. It has only been last five years that all this data has been coming together for small-to-medium sized businesses with emerging web platforms that enable sales professionals and marketers to better target their optimal 20% (The Pareto Principle suggests 20% of customers produce 80% of revenues).
Relationship marketing is primarily focused on customer retention and satisfaction rather than the achievement of sales quotas using sales-related promotional methods.
A themed viral marketing campaign, for example, would target existing customers and also:
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) databases have long been used by salesforce-driven companies to store datasets such as customer/vendor/partner contact info, purchase history, product interest, product registration, and occassionally market research data on individual customers. It has only been last five years that all this data has been coming together for small-to-medium sized businesses with emerging web platforms that enable sales professionals and marketers to better target their optimal 20% (The Pareto Principle suggests 20% of customers produce 80% of revenues).
Relationship marketing is primarily focused on customer retention and satisfaction rather than the achievement of sales quotas using sales-related promotional methods.
A themed viral marketing campaign, for example, would target existing customers and also:
- be supported by a microsite, YouTube, Facebook, and/or Twitter
- encourage customers to "Like" the page, ad, or video or Tweet it to their friends
- aimed at a specific demographic segment appropriate for the offering
- could include a loyalty program to help customers save time and/or money on future purchases, e.g., season pass holders for the local symphony could be automatically subscribed to receive alerts
Groupon: Local Area Advertising
If you were already willing to discount your products and/or services by half, and of the remaining half of the expected revenues, only take in 25%, then maybe Groupon might be a decent advertising channel for local area advertising. But, if you think that 75% of an expected sale is way too high of an acquisition cost of new customers, you may just be among those who believe that Groupon is bad for business.
Like any advertising strategy, you should weigh the pros and cons of using the service, as well as the ROI and costs involved. For example:
Pros:
Like any advertising strategy, you should weigh the pros and cons of using the service, as well as the ROI and costs involved. For example:
Pros:
- Can bring in robust traffic to a storefront in a short period of time
- Consumers love Groupon and can't wait to tell their friends about it
- Customer pays for the opportunity of using a voucher instead of receiving a comparable offer in the mail for free
- Groupon voucher offer language must be carefully constructed
- Groupon vouchers apply to one person only and cannot be redeemed for the benefit of the group; Customers have to read the fine print to see what they are really getting
- No lasting relationship with Groupon (no business directory listing, no customer reviews)
- Customers become Pavlovian in response to deep discounts for your products/services, meaning, they will only shop with you if a coupon or reward is involved
- Very high cost of acquisition of new customers who must have an extraordinary experience in order to become a repeat customer or spend more (without coupons) with your store
- Overuse of coupons can cause brand erosion, loss of operating margin, and decreased long-term profits
- Your business, existing employees, and in-store technology may not be able to handle the immediate influx of new customers (e.g., your hidden costs will rise because of this; adding new employees, training them on how to redeem Groupon coupons, increased staffing management issues) and quality of customer service or first-time customer experiences could suffer as a result
- You may, as a business owner, feel fleeced from the whole Groupon experience
- And, there's no unique technology nor business model that separates Groupon from its competitors
- Entertainment Book, RelyLocal, PayBack Book, Goldstar Events, the "blue envelope" local coupon mailer
- Start your own customer email list and offer a monthly newsletter; Constant Contact starts at about $15/month; Vertical Response offers pretty decent rates and does postcards too
- If you're a professional services business owner, after hours business mixers, Chamber of Commerce events, and local/regional networking events through Meetup.com are excellent places to meet new customers
The Microsoft Advantage
One of the reasons for not adopting a game console through the various generations of consoles is because the decision standard I used was to find at least five games I would be willing to play more than once or would be engaging enough to offer more than 24 hours of play. Single user PC games have this flaw. Most are solvable within 24 hours, except those that are coded to deliberately become progressively harder by throwing more minions at you so you cannot. The result: none matched this criteria. All console systems are priced about the same. The console games are priced per brand and market opportunity rather than if they're any good or not. And for users, the measure for buying a game is based on the Borg-collective of gamers on sites like Gamestop, IGN, or CNET, where game ratings from hundreds of players factor largely for new players to consider the game title. Games aren't cheap anymore. The average new release costs a player $50-70 per user license, depending on what kind of bundle it is. And, you can't return a game after the box has been opened or you purchased it online and downloaded it.
But, I digress, this post is not about console games, its title publishers, or consoles, but rather Microsoft's near-term strategy for its media portfolio.
Today's top console manufacturers are Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.
When a marketer thinks about media outlets, what generally comes to mind? Print. Broadcast radio/tv. Internet web/email. In-game advertising has been around for at least a decade, maybe longer. Barack Obama used in-game advertising during his 2008 campaign. It's nothing new. What is revolutionary and adds a whole new dimension to advertising is the ability to stream in real-time, ads and programs, from partner firms, like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, or Pandora radio, through a new media platform, the game console.
This includes, but is not limited to video-on-demand (VOD), web conferencing, simucasts (from existing radio and web tv stations), HD radio, or user-generated content.
Here is a rough timeline of partnerships:
Microsoft
...and the WWW - no official add-on, but this capability has been around since 2005
...and YouTube - no official add-on, but this capability has been around since 2007
...and Netflix - May 2008 (Netflix gained a new distribution network; Microsoft gained access to partner media content)
...and HD radio - May 2009
Nintendo
...and Virgin Radio - Apr 2007
...and YouTube - Jan 2009
...and Netflix - Apr 2010
Sony
...and IPTV - Jan 2007 (IPTV has roughly 28 MM subscribers, though when introduced to the PS system, this was free content)
...and Virgin Radio - Apr 2007
...and Netflix - Nov 2009
After subscribers reach into the double or triple digits worldwide, what's left to conquer in the media universe? Someone else's subscriber universe for their revenue annuity, of course.
Ahh yes, but what is the advantage if everyone jumps onto the same bandwagon? KPI metrics and the ability to target content based on user behavior. You wouldn't know it from observing console users or buyers. When you register a product, all that demographic info you fill out in a questionnaire isn't just for marketing. It's for customer profiling. Even if a manufacturer is only able to get 25% of its users to register and opt into receiving more info, if XBOX Live really has over 17 million subscribers, that still represents a lot of data points. Microsoft has been at the partner integration strategy for a lot longer than anyone else and executes it pretty well.
Toshiba debuted a motion-sensing tv experience at CES 2009. It won't be long when more users of Internet-ready TVs will be able to change channels, switch between 'screens', or open up a video conferencing window just by using simple hand gestures, regardless of tv brand or media platform. Now how cool is that?
And a side note: Apple didn't show up to E3 because of a business decision not to. If you look at what companies comprise ESA, they are all top devs, publishers, and manufacturers of pc, console, and Internet gaming. Apple does not make a gaming device. Users may use the iPad/Phone/Touch, or desktop/laptop Mac as a gaming device, but that's not its core purpose nor revenue model. You'll find Microsoft and Sony at the E3 Expo because they are multi-verse companies.
Disclosure: I'm a PC.
Related:
This Is Microsoft's Opportunity
Microsoft and Netflix Unveil Partnership to Instantly Stream Movies and TV Episodes to the TV via Xbox LIVE
Obama's in-game ad bill: $44.5K
Apple and Windows Computers Living Together Under One Roof, Oct 2009 stats
But, I digress, this post is not about console games, its title publishers, or consoles, but rather Microsoft's near-term strategy for its media portfolio.
Today's top console manufacturers are Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.
When a marketer thinks about media outlets, what generally comes to mind? Print. Broadcast radio/tv. Internet web/email. In-game advertising has been around for at least a decade, maybe longer. Barack Obama used in-game advertising during his 2008 campaign. It's nothing new. What is revolutionary and adds a whole new dimension to advertising is the ability to stream in real-time, ads and programs, from partner firms, like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, or Pandora radio, through a new media platform, the game console.
This includes, but is not limited to video-on-demand (VOD), web conferencing, simucasts (from existing radio and web tv stations), HD radio, or user-generated content.
Here is a rough timeline of partnerships:
Microsoft
...and the WWW - no official add-on, but this capability has been around since 2005
...and YouTube - no official add-on, but this capability has been around since 2007
...and Netflix - May 2008 (Netflix gained a new distribution network; Microsoft gained access to partner media content)
...and HD radio - May 2009
Nintendo
...and Virgin Radio - Apr 2007
...and YouTube - Jan 2009
...and Netflix - Apr 2010
Sony
...and IPTV - Jan 2007 (IPTV has roughly 28 MM subscribers, though when introduced to the PS system, this was free content)
...and Virgin Radio - Apr 2007
...and Netflix - Nov 2009
After subscribers reach into the double or triple digits worldwide, what's left to conquer in the media universe? Someone else's subscriber universe for their revenue annuity, of course.
Ahh yes, but what is the advantage if everyone jumps onto the same bandwagon? KPI metrics and the ability to target content based on user behavior. You wouldn't know it from observing console users or buyers. When you register a product, all that demographic info you fill out in a questionnaire isn't just for marketing. It's for customer profiling. Even if a manufacturer is only able to get 25% of its users to register and opt into receiving more info, if XBOX Live really has over 17 million subscribers, that still represents a lot of data points. Microsoft has been at the partner integration strategy for a lot longer than anyone else and executes it pretty well.
Toshiba debuted a motion-sensing tv experience at CES 2009. It won't be long when more users of Internet-ready TVs will be able to change channels, switch between 'screens', or open up a video conferencing window just by using simple hand gestures, regardless of tv brand or media platform. Now how cool is that?
And a side note: Apple didn't show up to E3 because of a business decision not to. If you look at what companies comprise ESA, they are all top devs, publishers, and manufacturers of pc, console, and Internet gaming. Apple does not make a gaming device. Users may use the iPad/Phone/Touch, or desktop/laptop Mac as a gaming device, but that's not its core purpose nor revenue model. You'll find Microsoft and Sony at the E3 Expo because they are multi-verse companies.
Disclosure: I'm a PC.
Related:
This Is Microsoft's Opportunity
Microsoft and Netflix Unveil Partnership to Instantly Stream Movies and TV Episodes to the TV via Xbox LIVE
Obama's in-game ad bill: $44.5K
Apple and Windows Computers Living Together Under One Roof, Oct 2009 stats
Apple's iAd
Since when does ownership of a mobile device entitle the manufacturer to broadcast third party ads to your service plan? Has something changed radically in the way technology handles multimedia that users can block out advertisements if they don't want to see it? And, if that isn't the case and this is rolled out to everyone who owns an iPhone or i-device, who pays for the additional bandwidth these ads are going to suck up? Obviously, the end-user if they don't have an unlimited bandwidth plan for their mobile device.
The revenue model sounds great for Apple with its very high barrier to entry for those who want to advertise on the exclusive and closed system iAd network. 6.4 million iPhone subscribers in the US isn't paltry. It may not make the most sense or make the best use of online advertising budgets right now; but in time it could grow from being a mere goldfish to an invasive carp species in a few more years. This is just one channel in Apple's distribution network for content that leapfrogs beyond how traditional media is served up.
End-users already pay subscription fees for bandwidth for their mobile device, they are now (or soon will be) at the mercy of ad serving on a device that used to offer a more private space.
Where should marketers draw the line when it comes to exclusive ad networks?
Read more?
Related articles:
Number of iPhone subscribers, 07/2009
The revenue model sounds great for Apple with its very high barrier to entry for those who want to advertise on the exclusive and closed system iAd network. 6.4 million iPhone subscribers in the US isn't paltry. It may not make the most sense or make the best use of online advertising budgets right now; but in time it could grow from being a mere goldfish to an invasive carp species in a few more years. This is just one channel in Apple's distribution network for content that leapfrogs beyond how traditional media is served up.
End-users already pay subscription fees for bandwidth for their mobile device, they are now (or soon will be) at the mercy of ad serving on a device that used to offer a more private space.
Where should marketers draw the line when it comes to exclusive ad networks?
Read more?
Related articles:
Number of iPhone subscribers, 07/2009
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