Marketing-Gimbal

If You’re an Over 40 Marketing Professional You Must Wake up and Understand the Importance of Twitter

Recently I have heard several of my professional colleagues across small and large companies, but all over 40, commenting that they didn’t get twitter, thought it was stupid, and didn’t have time for it. I have heard these same musings from work colleagues, and other marketing professionals. In fact I think it’s a badge of honor for some us to say that we just don’t get the social media thing and all its hype, and that we like to do it old school.

I can understand these feelings. Most of us are managing departments, have huge pressures, and we were brought up in a different marketing age, operating under different rules. However; we must begin to understand the paradigm shift taking place in how we communicate, and how we need to market going forward. I won’t go into a long diatribe of all the changes, but I do want to focus on twitter as I believe it to be one of the more significant tools, that we over 40 marketers really need to understand. We need to understand, why our customers are using it, and how it impacts our brand experience and marketing strategy.

To start things off twitter is a communications platform or, as some would call it, a micro blogging platform with over 4M users.  It allows its users to send short text messages, about 140 characters in length, on anything they wish. These text messages are called “tweets”. If you like someone and their message you can choose to follow them. The more people that follow you, then the more people you ultimately communicate your messages to.

Twitter can sometimes get a bad rap as most people new to twitter start off by tweeting about their day, as in “I just ate breakfast”. However there are many communities that exist within twitter. For example, I follow people related to social media, marketing, demand generation, and b2b marketing. These people tweet on points of view, and even share linkable information within their tweets. So every time these folks tweet, I get an alert, and I can see what they are saying or simply look at the feeds later in the day. Today, twitter has now become my #1 source of news across my professional peer group.

Why should marketers care about twitter? There are many reasons, but here a few that may get you thinking:

1.      Twitter enables your brand to have voice. I started a branded twitter feed about 5 months ago. You can check out it here at http://twitter.com/_Lumension . I did this, as I wanted to communicate on key news and events across Lumension and in the IT Security industry. We now communicate on Lumension news, blog posts and our own commentary on industry events. We have over 250 followers of IT professionals that share a passion on all things information security. We have also learned a few things within the industry that enabled us to respond ahead of the curve. There is debate about whether brands should tweet or if individuals from your company should tweet. My answer is yes. Just start doing it, and you will learn and find what works best for you.

2.      Twitter enables your brand to be conversational. Now that we are “tweeting”, people can converse with us. This is where we really want to expand our use of twitter,  in getting more conversational with our community. We’re not there yet, but we know that’s where things will get exciting for us. Imagine real-time communication with your brand and customers, partners, prospects, analysts, press etc. Here’s an example of how a major brand like Whole Foods is using twitter to connect with their base.

 

Here are some of the major brands found on twitter today:

 

 

 

 

3.      Twitter enables you to listen in on your Brand. In my view this is the single most powerful feature of twitter. In the past we had to conduct research to see what people we’re thinking or saying about our brands. Today, twitter now gives us a real-time snapshot into what people are saying about our brands, products, and their perspectives on the experience they have when dealing with us. This is incredibly powerful to marketers. Imagine seeing and knowing what people are saying, and their feelings, complaints, all in near real-time. Then imagine being able to converse with those people in real-time. Starting to get it now? Here’s a video from Gary Vaynerchuk on this and I recommend you watch it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.      Twitter enables you to extend your brand experience. Imagine being able to see that someone has a question about your product and immediately extending an offer to help. Or more importantly, let’s say you see a complaint. Instead of letting it linger you reach out, and offer additional support or an explanation. No other platform out there can scale this type of brand engagement for so little cost. Twitter is free for now.

Several industry announcements this week have elevated the importance of twitter to brands. Recently SalesForce.com announced that they were extending an interface into twitter so that companies could see what was being said about their brands or if people we’re having questions about their product service( In the demo, SalesForce showed how someone working for a telecom provider could spot and track a discussion about a headset that a user was having trouble with. The telecom worker could dig through their company's internal knowledge base and then send the Twitter user a link to a help document). This is a significant event for a major CRM vendor to interface to twitter. This shows that twitter is becoming more powerful and more important to brands every day.

In another announcement twitter, Federated Media, and Microsoft announced a Brand sponsored twitter aggregation platform called ExecTweet. Basically ExecTweet aggregates all major CEO tweets into one place, with some community features, while Microsoft sponsors it. Now imagine the opportunity to be the sole brand sponsoring aggregated tweets from key people on topics within your industry.

So how do you get started? A Few recommendations:

1.      Get Started. I’m sure that several companies are still trying to figure out who owns social media, what the strategy is (or rather what new power point deck looks best), and how they should get started, let alone deal with the cultural shift on how to deal with open and honest feedback about your company. The point is to get started. Start a twitter feed today. I don’t pretend to be some expert on all this, and we are evolving our thinking everyday in how to best use social media, but at least we are evolving and getting more enlightened. Get started now no matter what your company’s size is.

2.      Start Listening: As I mentioned this is the single most powerful feature of twitter. It’s easy to do and I’ll show you Ed’s budget way to aggregate tweets about your company or any topic into one place. First go to http://search.twitter.com/. Enter the brands you want to follow (your own, products, competitors, or other topics). When you get the results then click on the rss “feed for this inquiry”. You will be taken to the rss page where you can then click on “Subscribe to this feed”.

 

 

 

 

      Try it. You will be amazed and see the real power behind this platform.

3.      Get Educated. Educate yourself on the changing rules of marketing, pr, and technology. Here are a couple of great twitter feeds that I would recommend you get started with:

a.      http://twitter.com/jowyang

b.      http://twitter.com/briansolis

c.       http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan

d.      http://twitter.com/dmscott

Yes, we as marketing leaders are in a new environment where the rules we once knew are changing rapidly, but the fundamentals are still the same. The worst thing we can do is not to educate ourselves, and understand the impact of the changing marketing paradigm. Start opening up today, and I guarantee you will begin to see things in a new light, and with a different perspective. Feel free to share your thoughts, comments and ideas with me on twitter at http://twitter.com/cedwardbrice

Nuff said.

City Of Phoenix Brand X Campaign Misses Mark

First let me start off by saying that I love Arizona. I love the Phoenix metropolitan area and after living in the NY/NJ area I’m thankful everyday I’m here. Where else can you put the top down on your drive home, and watch the sunset in March?

However the city of Phoenix has an identity crisis. It has had an identity crisis ever since people left the central core of cities all over America in the 50's to move to the suburbs. While several cities have had an amazing resurgence in their downtown areas of late, Phoenix has failed to materialize a strong identity with an emotional perception or experience associated with it.

In attempts to rebuild downtown and draw back its audience downtown Phoenix has built a basketball arena, and a baseball stadium. Then came “Copper Square”. Copper Square was a campaign to brand the 90 block district in downtown Phoenix with an identity. This “branding” was an attempt to help revitalize the urban core of Phoenix, as the stadium building didn’t really entice people to stay after the game was over, let alone move into the area.

Copper Square didn’t work in my view because there was no Copper Square. It would have been too logical to carve up some parks and make a real “Copper Square”. No it was a mythical place in a lonely prospector's mind. Now we have coming to downtown, in yet more attempts to revitalize the area, Arizona State University, and the new Light Rail system.

Will those work? I doubt it, but to ensure success the business consortium (Downtown Phoenix Partnership) came up with the bright idea to launch yet another branding effort for the 90 block area. They partnered with local company SHR Perceptual Management to come up with a new brand strategy. Here’s what the brand gurus came up with:

Phoenix. Arizona’s Urban Heart

Logo: A Big Green X

 

Wow! Doesn’t that just want to make you get up and come to Phoenix? If you lose your way, make sure to find the big green x so you know you’re in the right place. I mean who wouldn’t want to go to the Urban Heart of Arizona. You don’t really come here for the natural, scenic and cultural wonders of the state, do you? No, you come here for the Arizona Diamond Backs, The Phoenix Suns, and the unfilled high-rise condo towers in downtown right?

What Should Phoenix Do

The challenge Phoenix has is that its downtown lacks character. No one goes into downtown except to see a game or work and then everyone leaves to surrounding locales like Scottsdale, Tempe, and Glendale. Here's a video of downtown shot at 8pm that captures the challenge:

For a brand with a city to work there must be some type of emotional connection or experience associated with the town, and this is where I think the latest attempt at branding Phoenix goes awry. Downtown Phoenix is pretty boring when you get right down to it. So if the brand brief objectives were about attracting locals and tourists to downtown we need to have some reason to attract them downtown in the first place. Here are some ideas that might have a more sustainable effect.

1.      Get More Grocery Stores: My personal belief is that if downtown Phoenix wants to have a vibrant and self sustaining city center life then they need to start with grocery stores. That’s right grocery stores. For a vibrant center you need people first, and to have people you need grocery stores. Go to downtown Phoenix and you will be hard pressed to find decent grocery stores within walking distance of the unfilled condo towers.

2.      Stand For Something: Now assuming that you have grocery stores what does Phoenix want to be known for? Scottsdale has Old Town, Tempe has Mill Ave and University, Glendale now has City Centre. The Urban Heart? That doesn’t sound very appealing, does it? How does this stack up with “What Happens In Vegas. Stays in Vegas.”, which, by the way, is a very bold brand position. Or Austin’s “The Live Music Capital of The World”. I remember when it used to be Seattle. Of course there is the ever omnipresent ‘The Big Apple”. So what could Phoenix stand or be known for? Here’s a few free ideas from yours truly:

a.       Phoenix. The Heart of Arizona. This State revolves around Phoenix and it's better than Urban Heart of Arizona.

b.      Phoenix Rising: Admit that you’re not where you want to be and then develop a campaign around that. Build a campaign around people and feature the unique individuals and experiences that downtown has to offer.

c.       Phoenix. The West’s Original City. Okay just a thought but you get where I’m going.

3.      Create a Center of Community: This is more of a development concept. Copper Square never really worked as there never was a Copper Square. X won’t work as there is no X or spot to go to and congregate within a vibrant downtown community. Why not get bold and develop a “Central Park” in downtown, and then promote unique festivals, conferences, etc. The city needs something to be really proud of, that no other city has. We don’t have a waterfront as other cities have, so we need something else.

4.      Get Serious About Branding Phoenix and Not Just 90 Blocks. A brand is more than just a slogan or a logo. It’s a promise, an experience that you expect to receive. Currently this “brand” effort is lead by an independent group of business people in downtown and is not really focused on the city itself, but rather a 90 block area. This is the first problem. How can branding a 90 block area be successful when the perception of the city itself is lacking? The city needs to take ownership of this effort and craft a long term brand and marketing stragey around Phoenix. What experience do you want a local to have when they come to downtown? What experience do you want a tourist to have when they visit? I bet this vision has never been developed, and as a result I guarantee that this slogan and logo won’t last two years. Wasting $160K (the cost quoted with developing this new slogan and logo if you can believe that) on a tactical approach focused on a slogan and logo is not the answer. A real marketing and brand campaign needs to be invested in, year in and year out, if you want to change perceptions and beliefs.

So I hope Phoenix and the Mayor learn from this feeble attempt again to reposition the 90 blocks within Phoenix. If Phoenix is going to be successful in repositioning itself it must first define a vision, and then offer a different and unique experience to visitors to the downtown area. This will be the only sustainable brand strategy in the long run. Nuff said.

Has Online Social Media Failed Starbucks?

To start lets define social media for Starbucks. From a tactic point of view they deploy four discernable tactics:

1.      Twitter: Mindless feeds veiled as cool employees hawking the latest beverage or card promo. Why anyone would want to recive a Twitter feed from a coffee company is beyond me but they have some 70K who do. Do they give away free coffee?

 

 

 

 

 

2.      Facebook: Typical corporate facebook page

3.      Youtube channel: Social oriented videos extending the brand to be viewed as something more than just a coffee hack.

 

4.     Idea Exchange: Online forum to vote on ideas to make Starbucks better

 

It’s the Idea Exchange that my beef is with. The idea is that by tapping into the community of passionate Starbucks customers’ you can leverage the wisdom of crowds. In theory the crowds identify and vote on ideas and as a result the best ideas would rise to the top thus propelling your companies offerings, and brand beyond all competitors.

Well my friends (as John McCain would say) it has been a failure. Don’t get me wrong I think the idea of leveraging your customer community to drive co-innovation is a great idea, and has some merit. However; we have to remember that the wisdom of crowds is not always correct, and in fact some of the greatest innovations never would have been validated by crowds as they could not understand the innovation.

Let’s take the Sony Walkman for example. A famous story goes that when the inventor of the Walkman showed his idea to potential customers no one understood the value of the proposed product. This promoted several in Sony to say that customers do not want the Walkman. To which the engineer replied "Sometimes the customer doesn’t know what they want”. I’m paraphrasing but the story is well known in Sony circles as I used to work there.

In fact we need to understand who is actually participating in our social communities. Forrester points out in their latest research that only 21% are creators and some 37% are critics. The rest are inactive, join for the sake of joining, or just like to watch the show.

 

 

So in reality the feedback we are getting from these forums is imited and may not represent the true base of the audience as we think it does, in fact it may represent more of a vocal minority which is not the wisdom we may want.

So back to my view yhat the Starbucks idea exchange is a complete failure. First let’s look at the all time most popular vote getters:

#1 at 95K votes: Great Conversation @ Starbucks:

"My idea is simple - Starbucks does a lot of things well - good coffee, interesting locations. One of its challenges though I believe is to create a sense of conversation and community within its locations.

One way of doing this would be to use the power of media and wireless new media in particular to foster a sense of conversation about the arts, current events, etc. In other words to stimulate Starbucks patrons that wish to interact as part of a 21st century "cafe society" such as they have in Europe traditionally - people gathering together to discuss the arts, world events and culture.

For instance one of the ones that springs to mind is a new online program called "The Alcove with Mark Molaro" which is based in New York. They have wonderful conversations with fascinating world-class guests and it seems to me that this sort of program is the kind of thing that would foster subsequent conversation and community within Starbucks locations.

The key is to provide cultural leadership through media to promote conversation and community within Starbucks locations. That would be a quantum leap in terms of engagement and experience at Starbucks. Thank you."

You’ve got to be kidding right? Now for #2.

#2@58K Votes A Punch Card System

"From the My Starbucks Idea team: We have moved this idea into the review process! Please check our "Ideas in Action" section for updates.
Offer customers a free drink, after purchasing a set number of drinks. Similar to a punch card system or by tracking it thru their Starbucks Card.
- From a customer in Feb. 08"

This is the #2 innovation folks, a frequent buyer program. You mean that all the totaled salary for the brilliant marketing minds Starbucks must pay for never thought of a frequent buyer program. I wonder how much all that salary plus the cost of licensing the Salesforce Idea Exchange platform adds up to in order to come up with that brilliant concept. Which by the way I might add is still not introduced.

Now if the Idea Exchange was truly working what would it identify? Hmmmmmmmm let me think. How about a new coffee lid that works! This is why all this technology has failed. Here is a company that sells millions of cups each day around the world, and they have the worst lid. It doesn’t work.

 

 

The most basic element to the product delivery system doesn’t work because coffee spills allover you, your car, everywhere. What do the brilliant minds come up with in cup land? A green stick to plug the hole in the lid that doesn’t work. What does the great Idea Exchange say about it (40 votes).

 

 

Now lets look at Dunkin Donuts. Same Twitter and Facebook approach. Although the YouTube channel is really more about promoting Dunkin Donuts  coffee, and no Idea Exchange. However the lid at Dunkin Donuts works. Hmmmmmmmmmm wonder if there is a correlation somewhere here.

What is working for Starbucks? Building a community the old school way. Its apparent that local employees are now trained to know all their regulars’ names, and there is a pointed outreach into local civic groups to get involved with local activities. Old school in that they want the store to become part of the fabric of the local community, just like the coffee shops of yesterday. Imagine that. No fancy YouTube channel, no Twitter, no Facebook, and certainly no Idea Exchange. Just “Good morning Ed. Venti drip bold, with a green thing right? Nuff said.