I’m looking forward to this

by Ann on January 18, 2012

VW has posted a teaser for their new Super Bowl ad. If you loved what they did last year this should be good!

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Triangulate the Truth

by Ann on January 9, 2012

One of the most powerful ideas I know in marketing is to make people comfortable with the idea that no one market research study, no one gut call, no one secondary research study, no one of anything can answer challenging business and marketing questions.

Only with lots of information and lots of insight, can you “triangulate the truth”. This isn’t my phrase, its the brainchild of Dr. Barb Watts, who I worked with on some research studies at Dairy Queen. While trying to explain this concept to students, I realized it needed to be visual as well as explained, and one of my talented students undertook the challenge of making this concept come to life. If you wanted or needed one visual about how to understand your brand or know how to become a good marketer, this is it: ambiguity rules, best combatted by finding the information to allow you to Triangulate the Truth.

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The death of cable TV

by Ann on January 7, 2012

Hello Netflix, Hulu, general streaming. Goodbye cable.

That is the premise of today’s article in the WSU by Kevin Sintumuang entitled  ”Cutting the Cord on Cable”

While Kevin may have beaten me to publish, this has been on my topic list for 2 months. Cable is gone. Let me share with you my proof.

As many of you know, I teach students at UBC in Vancouver, BC and WWU in Bellingham WA. Last semester a UBC student shared a terrific ad they had seen on a piped-in US show. We pulled it up on YouTube, and it ended up being a great shared learning moment.

The next day down at WWU I asked if anyone had seen the same ad. The students looked at me oddly. I explained further that I knew for a fact it had been on the West Coast feed two nights before. The students still looked at me oddly. Finally one student said “I think you’re confused about how we watch TV. We don’t watch it live.”

Well that’s a conversation stopper. So I asked the room how they watched “TV”. They Tivo’d, they Hulu’d, and the Netflixed. They didn’t “watch”. They knew what they wanted to see, and they watched it when it was convenient to them.

I asked further how many had cable. There were 10 of 40 who had cable, and in all of those cases it was that someone else in their living situation – parent, partner, friends – who insisted on the cable connection.

“Live” is viewed via smartphone. Everything else is accessed via “service of choice”.

For readers in Canada, where Hulu is blocked and cell plans are much more expensive, this snapshot of behavior is perhaps a bit premature. But for the United States, cable is gone. Much like long distance plans and land lines, there will be a long tail of residual income…but from a planning and marketing perspective, media planners would be well-served to put a fork in this longterm staple “meal” – its done! –  and move on to the future.

image credit http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/

 

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Tebow Marketing

by Ann on December 14, 2011

Alternately titled “what Tim Tebow teaches us about marketing”.

I’m sure there are a few of you out there unaware of Tim Tebow. He is the “unofficial starting quarterback” of the Denver Broncos, a team in Denver, CO who plays American Football.

Tebow is a new from college quarterback, and according to people who know such things, not very good at it. There is a brilliant article from sportswriter Cam Cole in the Vancouver Sun that articulates the characteristics of Mr. Tebow’s football capabilities both better than I could and far more entertainingly.

I’m a marketing person, and Tim Tebow interests me as a marketer. Mr. Tebow exhibits a particular attribute which most marketers could learn from: he believes in himself and in his teammates.

Tebow not only believes in himself but is self-depricating when confronted with his shortcomings. As Mr Cole cites amusingly in his article, when confronted with the indisuptable numbers that he is at best an average quarterback Mr Tebow responds that he needs to practice more. With good humor, by the way. Which means he knows what he does well, knows what he doesn’t do well, and is willing to admit he needs more work on the “doesn’t do well” stuff.

Learning #1 for marketers – believe in your skills and capability yet be everpresent to the opportunity to learn and improve.

Far more importantly to me is Mr Tebow’s boundless and vocal support of his team. The guy who booted home an improbable 61 yard field goal in the waning moments of the surprising game for Denver was interviewed after the game. My paraphrasing of that reply is this “Tim told me that when it counted I’d get the job done. He told me that weeks ago. So I figured he knew something and believed it.”

Learning #2 for marketers (and dare I suggest humans in total): believe in your teammates. Tell them so every day. Reward them and heap praise on them when they do great, remind them of your faith in them even when they fail.

What Mr Tebow reminds all of us as marketers is to believe in our own gifts and believe perhaps even more in the gifts of others. Teams that believe they are good are good.

Marketing is never a solo effort. It always happens in teams. All too often a hotshot “player” thinks they can “go it alone”. They can’t. They need to first learn that teams matter, and then learn from Mr Tebow’s: BELIEVE.

That is the official end of this insight. I will continue, however, for those who are wondering if the real issue at hand isn’t whether or not Mr Tebow believes in HIM. Much of the buzz about Tim Tebow is that he is an expressive person with his faith. He believes that anything he does comes from God, and is open, frank, and expressive with his thanks when he believes HE has had a role in his performance.

My contention is this: the source of Mr Tebow’s belief in himself is irrelevant. His belief system is part of the magic that makes him Tim Tebow and not anyone else.  Mr Tebow’s belief in his teammates comes from a deep seated innate sense of teamwork and belief in his fellow humans and teammates. If that is rooted in his beliefs about HIM or his beliefs about coffeetables isn’t relevant either.

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A health idea we can all endorse

November 30, 2011

I was very excited to read today from  Springwise about a mobile phone based ultrasound device selling in the “just under $8,000 range”. It was developed for “the developing world” in terms of their needs. I think that is a marketing mistake. I think this should be for “every world”. Right now we are fixated in [...]

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Help doesn’t need help!

November 12, 2011

What a fun concept this is. Help born of the idea that drugs should be drugs and do just what they say – and not anything else or add anything else to them – help takes their simplistic “helpful” nature into a full participative feel with options that take you to more than just their [...]

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Leadership Qualities @ Crotonville

October 14, 2011

During my MBA program I had the good fortune to work as a Research Assistant for Noel Tichy, who amongst many things was/is a Professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan as well as the head of GE’s Crotonville School of Leadership. In the October 13 issue of the Financial [...]

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Canadian Thanksgiving

October 10, 2011

Freshbooks has a terrific overview, irrererently written, of the differences between US and Canadian Thanksgiving. For those interested, its a good read. From a marketing perspective, its a big deal that those to the north celebrate today and those to the south celebrate at the end of November. Up here there is no Black Friday, and [...]

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Michael! Michael!

October 7, 2011

Some readers will not get this post. That is your warning. Some readers will be mildly impressed that I saw this. It was only posted October 5th,when I first watched it, and I’m writing this at 9pm PDT on the 6th. In case you’re interested, it already has 3,520,956 views. Have a look: To assist [...]

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Sports, concussions, and Marketing

October 1, 2011

Marketing is intimately involved with sports, well beyond the phenomenon of Air Jordan shoes.  Marketing provides the impetus for many team fans to come to the game, watch the game, buy the merchandise. Marketing buys the ads on TV, in the stadiums and on the ticket stubs.  Marketing is at the tailgaters and Super Bowl [...]

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Marketing can do so much good

September 21, 2011

My prediction of one of the most important upcoming trends in marketing: Using the power of marketing to do good. Within that prediction, my breath caught in my throat today on the brilliance of a new website 2Date4Love.  This site is design to match potential partners together who are unable to include sexual intercourse as part [...]

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Starbucks locations continue to amaze

September 19, 2011

as we all know, Starbucks reduced its unit count by a 800 stores. This has not stopped them from keeping profitable units, sometimes in seemingly ridiculous proximity to one another. Here is a fine example: Yes, that is a shot of a Starbucks taken from inside a Starbucks. Its actually quite clever – the one [...]

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Smart Marketing – Bob Rennie Village @ False Creek

September 13, 2011

In Vancouver, the sale of condos that were once the Olympic Village have been a challenge. One of the people in the thick of it now is Bob Rennie, who sounds like a truly fun individual as well as tremendously successful soul both marketing and real estate focus. This appeared in the Vancouver Sun today, [...]

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Apple are all of your customers the same?

September 9, 2011

Because you leadership sure looks that way.               The best companies have a diverse leadership that echos their customer base. From the picture, sourced from www.apple.com, this is a relatively homogenous group – although pictures don’t tell the true depth of diversity. I look at this photo and appreciate [...]

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Marketing performance evals – a note to agencies

September 7, 2011

It was only a matter of time before this happened: Draftfcb loses 60 year relationship with SC Johnson. I had the great priviledge to work with [then] FCB Chicago during my 8 year stay at SC Johnson. I stay in touch with many of those folks. In fact I blogged about it a year and [...]

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Ann in video

August 30, 2011

I don’t usually publish my own “stuff” but I did a couple of videos for the UBC Marketing club and they didn’t turn out half bad. While they were ostensibly for marketing students, their applicability goes beyond just educational situations. BIG SMILE But then again, I said them!  They’re permanently on my site at videos, [...]

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