Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Marketing to Women

Shopping in Beijing
Image by xiaming via Flickr

This is from a Mashable post entitled “10 Musts for Marketing to Women on Facebook“, but it just as relevant outside of facebook too.

Here are my top 3:

1. Quality Counts

Tom’s Comments: This is top #1 no matter what.  People was and need quality, and as I have said already.  2010 is the year of customer service, and quality helps.

6. Complement Her Life, Don’t Complicate It

Tom’s Comments: This goes for men, women and children.  We just don’t have the time (or don;t take the time) so if we can make something “easy” then it will follow the principal of the path of least resistance.

9. Remember: She’s a Social Shopper

Tom’s Comment: How true is this.  I know my wife needs the feedback from me and her friends as she shops.

Check out the other 7 ideas and add any others you can think of to the comments.

Thanks,
tom

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Businesses Can Use Twitter to Predict Sales

Not sure if I’d call it new – but I guess mainstream either way.

There’s a new tool that can help companies predict sales for the coming weeks, or decide whether to increase inventories or put items on sale in certain stores.

Businesses Can Use Twitter to Predict Sales – WSJ.com.

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Google, breaking the brand for Morse.

googleNot the search, or the gmail, or the reader, or event eh Google voice.  Just their attitude.  It may even border on cocky…but cool none the less.  How many times have you seen a company (I know mine does it all the time lately) worry all about the brand.  They do not sacrifice the brand image for anything…almost to the extream.

Google broke the  rules on that the other day – April 27 – the birthday of Samuel Morris.

The flippin’ changed their logo for the day.  OMG.  Seriously – but when you think about, is it crazy?  Or crazy like a fox?  If you do something so different – it actually causes more of a stir and eyes to “look”and if it was a subtle change.

How many people looked extra hard at the logo that day?

I just think it’s the kind of thing we need to try once in a while – teh “secret weapon” of bradning.  But I also think it can only be used when you have a firm grip on the audience and are at a place where traffic is also very good.

If you know of any other interesting ideas like this – please add them to the comments.

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When NOT to Use Social Media

When NOT to Use Social Media – ReadWriteWeb.

This post brings up a good point.  Soical Media is not for everyone, all the time.

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Craigslist: Use Craigslist as Your Personal Shopper with SMS Alerts

Craigslist: Use Craigslist as Your Personal Shopper with SMS Alerts.

Just when Craigslist was getting out of control TO control…hello SMS.

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Don't listen to anyone

gary vaynerchuk » Dont listen to anyone, listen to everyone – my 2 minute take on life.

Good comments by Gary V – how true.

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More consumer first talk & Squarts

Soda fountainImage via Wikipedia

As I posted the other day – I am engaged in a opportunity to work with a media company who is trying to move and create some new offerings on the web.  It has been fun working through and debating the different aspects of each.

One execllent debate came when we were speaking about how to “get the word” out about a new product.  One option was to use a differnt product this company already has to make a first splash.  I was really opposed to it – because the demographics are all wrong and I feel like it pollutes more than it adds to the appeal of the new product.

It reminded me of the early 1990’s when QT (QuikTrip) came out with the “squart”.  The Squart was a totally new container you would buy at QT and bring back for cheap refills.  But it was the shape of the container that was so cool.  It was the modern day sports water bottle – but no one had seen it before.  (It appears they may have brought the Squart out again!)

To get to my point – the marketing was the cool part.  They didn;t do any.  They didn’t need to.  It was the laws of supply and demand that skyrocketed the Squart into the marketing record books.  They couldn’t keep them on the shelves.  Kids would wait around hoping a new shipment would come in so they could get their hands an a squart container.

It wasn’t that this was that big of a deal – I think if they would of had enough for everyone, it probably would have died as fast it started.  But – because not everyone could get one…it was a frenzy.

That was my point with the new product we were discussing, we want this thing to be the BIGGEST secret in town.  Create the viral buzz the squart did – and they will be lining up to get their hands on their very own Squart – 2.0!

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Invisible images in an image

I saw this video yesterday and then kind of forgot about it – I really thought it may be a hoax.  Then it popped up in my reader again today.

Here is the video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAX_3Bgel7M]

It seems like this could be a very interesting way to superimpose images, text and logos on different things.  Because I work with some people from broadcast TV – I’m wondering how long it will take to get something “posted” on the news @ 10?

Does this change the way people will “advertise” in the future?

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Effective networking – art or science?

David and Jonathan  The Biblical account of David and Jonathan has been read by some as the story of two lovers.  Image from WikipediaFrom a post today from Jonathan Farrington’s blog called “Are You Really An Effective Networker?

Networking effectiveness starts with a positive personal attitude and an understanding that successful networking is built on a spirit of giving and sharing and not of bargaining and keeping score.

I love the last line in the quote above.   It’s like, dude…if you’re networking simply to see how many connections you can get, please!  But if you look at networking as a conversation and a relationship – it can be more sucessful or at least more fruitful.

I think of it like all these guys (Robert Scoble and  Jason Calacanus) who try and see how many Twitter followers they can aquire or facebook friends.  (And I understand they are looking at more as marketing than networking.)  But they are definitely not engaging people in two-way conversation, they cannot keep up if 10,000 Twiiter-fans and facebook friends are asking for help.

I think of it as more art than science myself, but there are definitely formulas to success.

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Can "free" work as a business model.

There has been a bit of buzz about the concept of free and how much business is gained or lost from the idea.  Here is a post on SocialMediaToday called “How Does ‘Free’ Impact Your Business?

The “free” model doesn’t fit well with traditional business models and mindsets. People have a hard time figuring out how to convert “free” to earnings. Most everyone considers the social web as a primary point of distribution for advertising and view advertising as the only means for converting free to earnings.

Chris Anderson – author of The Long Tail has a neat podcast over at IT Conversations called “FREE: The Economics of Abundance and the Price of Zero

We think of free as scary and radical but this economy has always existed. Previously not dignified as an economy, its currency is not money: It is reputation, attention, respect, fame, fun or money from a superior service after giving away something inferior for free.

I think we all need to take a good look at how we are doing “free” today and check to see how much something costs and what the impact of giving something away will have on our business.

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