What can I do for you?

During my 2nd year of university (1994), I took an elective called Introduction to Computers. At that time, the professor was using an overhead for most of his lectures and discused bizzare & forgetable things like C++ and Fortran. However, there was one day that sticks out like a polar bear on a tropical island.

From the back of the lecture hall, I distinctly remember staring at my prof's George Carlin-like, balding head and long ponytail while listening to his deep gruff voice tell us "uh, class, what we're going to talk about today is this thing called the World Wide Web" What and where is this web, I thought? Everyone I knew in school was still going to the library's card catalogues to search for the books they needed.

He proceeded, "on the internet, you can communicate and share information with people from anywhere in the world with this other thing called email. It's the next big thing" I quickly evaluated the lecture notes and decided that the only people I needed to communicate with were my roomates so that I didn't get locked out of the house again.

Then my prof magically connected his new laptop to a projector and navigated around some strange program called "hotmail" while I drifted in an out of sleep.

In 16 years, a lot has changed. Especially consumers. Attached and online at http://www.slideshare.net/MarcBinkley I've summarized the key points of the new consumer decision journey from a multinational study of over 20,000 consumers conducted by McKinsey Quarterly. The full pdf is here http://www.marketingritson.com/documents/theconsumerdecisionjourney.pdf

If this study is as accurate as I believe it is, then you too are changing the way that you shop for & evaluate your media buying. Beside my name you'll find a list of icons where I archive content that relates to marketing and advertising. I've made a promise to myself to continually update the content for my clients which you can share and comment on. If there is anything that you'd like me to research, I'm happy to do it for you. Which leads me to one last question....

What can I do for you?

Social Media Revolution

How to Guide on Social Media

I didn't get it. Facebook for business? What brilliant 140 character message can I Tweet? I couldn't understand how social media works for business. However, according to the Fleishman-Hillard 2010 Digital Influence Index nearly 70% of Canadians have a Facebook account and 85% have heard of Twitter. I reckon it's time I learn.


Give me a ring if you're interested in brainstorming a mixed marketing plan for your business that includes social media. We've got 100,000 loyalty members that can help you jumpstart yours. 403-686-9715 or marc.binkley@calgaryradio.rogers.com

I saw Gary Vanerchuck at a conference. I've attached a link to his presentation notes here http://marcbinkleymarketing.blogspot.com/2010/06/crush-it-by-gary-vanerchuk-presentation.html. Gary made a compelling argument to all the marketers present, that wether we 'get it' or not, doesn't really matter. Social Media is the new marketing language and as such, anyone worth their salt had to learn to speak it. So I decided I should read his book, "why now is the time to CRUSH IT!".

Here are a couple of highlights from his book and below that, a few examples (local ones too) of businesses that are "CRUSHING IT"

• with social media the best marketing strategy ever: CARE, authenticity rules
• choose a medium that suits your DNA ie. video, word blogs, twitter, flickr
• get involved in the community that your passionate about

1. Figure out what your passionate about
2. Register at godaddy.com and Start a website to display your passion
3. start a blog (wordpress, tumblr, google blogs)
4. Get a web designer if you can afford it. The better your site is designed, the 'stickier' it is
5. If video is your communication vehicle, get a $200 flip cam. HD is best.
6. Create a Facebook Fan page (normal facebook accounts only host 5000 friends)
7. open a twitter account with your domain name
8. open a tubemogul (video) or Ping.FM (blogs) account
9. Pump out content
10. Deliver your content through Tubemogul or Ping.FM
11. Go to Search.twitter for conversations about your passion and reply to them publicly
12. go to Blogsearch.google.com for blogs on your passion and leave comments with your name linked back to your homepage
13. Search Facebook for content of your passion with "all results", "pages" and "groups". Join as many active groups as possible, but keep track of them
14. Repeat Steps 8 - 13 over and over
15. do it again
16. and again

Here are some great examples of social media

• The Camera Store - www.photorepublik.com (Calgary based international photography community)
• Stuff My Dad Says - http://thingsmydadsaid.com/ (apparently getting a movie deal...remember Julie & Julia?)
• Fishing on The Bow - http://www.bowriverblog.com/
• MEC video contest - http://www.bowriverblog.com/ (social media is about collaboration and creativity)
• Facebook advertising Fan Page - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Advertising/112259292124160?ref=ts
• Youtube Channel Subscriptions - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=222o-OJXq2A
• Lainey Gossip - http://www.laineygossip.com/ (i'm pretty sure she got a job as a TV host because of this blog)
• Skiing around Calgary - http://skihere.ca/

By the way, I am learning. http://twitter.com/marcbinkley and http://marcbinkleymarketing.blogspot.com/

The Most Revolutionary Consumer Product to Date?

XBox Project Natal

I'm in the market for a new game console.  I'd never really been a gamer, but I played my fair share of Zaxon, Techmo Bowl and Qbert and growing up.  Two years ago, I bought a used Xbox from a friend a and while the sports games are entertaining, I was kind of disappointed with the resolution & image quality of the games which got me thinking about an upgrade.

A few of my friends have PS3s and have been suggesting that I get one so that we can play games online together.   I'd heard of this new infrared sensor type game console about a year ago and thought I should check into when it's going to be released before buying anything.

I am absolutely blown away by this....As a marketer, think about the possiblities that exist in our future.  This Project Natal and the devices that come after it (location services) will undoubtedly change how future consumers shop....for everything.

The Art of Marketing Presentation Summary

I had the pleasure of attending an incredible conference monday put on by The Art of....Marketing.


I took detailed notes from all the speakers, which are too lengthy to include on this email but I've posted them by speaker (see below). Where possible, I've linked most of the references to the acutal videos, commercials, photos, websites and articles that the speakers spoke about. It's difficult to summarize an entire days worth of knowledge into one email, but I'd like to try and pass along my take home message from the conference.

We are living in the future. Brands that don't adapt to this will go extinct and to be competitive, you have to be able to fascinate your audience. I've often thought the best example of this is the Sony Walkman. When I was growing up, the Sony Walkman was the dominant portable music device. Sony owned the market and should have developed the iPOD, but they didn't. In light Sir Ken Robinsons talk, I believe it's because Sony didn't foster an environment of creativity in their organization and didnt learn to communicate with their customers.

This digital revolution isn't over, rather it's just begun. For marketers, the best time to start figuring out this new world is now. Ironically, we can do this by going back to old values. Get involved and contribute to your (online) community. Be respectful of customers...they're interested in more than just the latest sale price or financing offer. We can no longer use mass media exclusively to pound our own agenda. We have to invite conversation and communitcate on the platforms that buyers are using ie. twitter, facebook, Yelp, blogs, review sites. Our brand is no longer what we say it is, its what Google say it is....The truth always wins.

The internet gives each person and business the opportunity to become their own 'channel' with the same distribution scale as any major media outlet. As consumers, our opinions matter and our opinions can be amplified. As marketers, we will not have to make a choice between the old ie. Radio & new, but rather find a way to make the new media work in with with the old.

The bottom line is that marketing today is what it's always been about...communication.    More specifically its not just how many we communicate with, but who communicate with.



We adapt to this new world with a few simple principles.

1. Do an intellectual audit of our own companies - what do people know?

2. Promote creativity - how should we interact with customers?

3. Encourage Innovation - how do we apply & reward creative solutions?

4. Get involved - sign up for twitter, facebook. See what it's all about and learn the new marketing language.

5. Learn how to make change - rider direction, motivate the element, shape the path

6. Get excited! - it make you more fascinating, and fascinating wins

Leading a Culture of Innovation by Sir Ken Robinson: presentation notes from The Art of Marketing

• Las Vegas has no reason for being there except for one thing...the power of imagination
• Imagination has the power to bring into mind things that aren't there or seem possible
• with imagination, you can anticipate the future and if you can anticipate the future then you can help influence it
• creativity is not the same as imagination
• creativity means you have to cdo something...it's applied imagination
• innovation is simply putting good ideas into practice
• in the 50's & 60's the world was different.  If you worked hard, went to school, got a college education, then you would have a job for life.  At that time formal education was a guarantee for success [not anymore]
• cultures evolve.  For those born around World War I, the world was very different then [as it is now]
• because of imagination we are in a constant state of revolution. 
• this revolution is now moving at a faster rate than it has ever moved before
• to make sense of this revolution, we have to think differently about ourselves.  Those who are in "their element" love what they do, have a natural knack for something
• being good at something isn't reason enough to do it, it's about having a feeling for it
• most organizations have a narrow vision of the talent around them
• we need to have different strategies to manage and inspire...imaginative possibilities
• Sir Ken's work is to promote higher levels of creativity in an organization and which leads organizations to become systematically innovative
• you can teach people to be more creative
• creativity is the process of having original ideas with value.  It's a process, not an event.  It's material...people love the material ie. painters love ink, dancers love movement.  It's also about critical judgement
• The way that Radio, TV & the Internet transformed culture, social media is now too
• Creative people are everywhere.  Anything that involves intelligence can be creative.  Creativity can be promoted
• This revolution is not over.  Its just begun
• Today, computers have the brain equivalent to that of a cricket.  In 10 years, they will have the brain of a 6 month old baby.  At some point we'll reach singularity, whereby infomation systems will merge with our own minds

Redefining Genius

• A study was done to examine our rate of learning.  It did so by starting to redefining what a genius is, then test a large group of children early in life and then retest the same group as they grew older.
• if we were to redefine genius from a high IQ score to that of a person with a high capacity of Divergent Thinking (the ability to see multiple options to a single problem) ie. how many uses can you think of for a paperclip?  This study found that...
• 98% of 3-5 year olds were considered genius
• by the time these kids were between 8-10 years old, 32% were
• and by the time they were between 13-15 years old, only 10% were
• in a similar study of 25+ year olds, only 2% of adults are considered Genius by this divergent thinking methodology

Promoting Creativity is a 3 phase process

1. Personal

• people with ideas
• everyone should explore their own talents and invest in them

2. Group

• Manage and facilitate teams
• find connections between teams and disciplines

3. Culture

• foster a culture of originality
• make it a habit & create the habitat for creativity
• eliminate the creativity spoiler

How are you creative?  What brings you alive?

• in Math Phd defenses, Doctors of Math evaluate a defense based on 2 criteria.  1. creativity 2. Beauty of the solution. 
• just as in nature, beauty is an informal test of truth
• intelligence is fantastically diverse

How are you intelligent? Have you done an audit on your company's intelligence?

• By most accounts, Death Valley is dead. 
• seeds of possibility exist right below the surface and when conditions are right, life abounds. 
• However, if conditions are not right, life protects itself hidden away from view

Anais Nin -“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”

Brand New World by Max Lenderman: presentation notes from the Art of Marketing

• Feel the consumer pulse. 
• trust is at an all time low for both public and private sectors.  consumers want honesty
• http://www.experiencethemessage.com/
• If the world were made of 100 people...57 would be asian, 21 european, 8 african, 5 north american, 12 would speak mandarin as their 1st language, 7 would speak english as their 1st language, 70 would be non-christrian, 70 don't read, 1 owns a computer
• consumers are price conscious & brand atheistic
• he studied how marketing was done in BRIC nations ie. Brazil, Russia, India, China

4 key themes emerged in marketing to BRIC nations

1. Experience

• 300 million Indians are in the middle class, soon to be 580million
• most gage their ascention into the middle class with the purchase of a cell phone. [I made it when...]
• there are approximately 7 million new cell phone activations per month in India
• in a market as competitive as that, how do you stay ahead?
• Nokia has created mobile vans to travel out into the rural communities not serviced by TV or Radio.  These vans convert into a stage whereby bollywood type performances relay the message about how great cell phones are and what you can do with them.  This has become the #1 way for Nokia to communicate its message
• in north amercia, event marketing is huge.  Creating branded experiences and events are proven to dramatically increase the purchase decision and word of mouth
• ie.  At a time when approval for the war in Iraq is at an all time low and the job description includes the possibility of death, how is it that the army is able to surpass their recruitment objectives? click here to see the virtual army experience .  they've got these in malls, amusement parks and mobile locations all around the US
• Confusious say... tell me an i will forget, show me an i may remember, involve me and I will understand
• ie. Camp Jeep  Jeep owners have involvement in the brand experience and can share that experience with other users

2. Authenticity

• anything can be copied except for experiences ie. watches, purses, phones, cars made in china
• experiences are the driver for authenticity ie. apple store, genius bar
• The Apple Store is the fastest growing brand concept store since GAP 20 years ago
• how can it be fake if real people use and recommend their product
• pop up store is a new trend in retail.  it's the brand as a living store so you know its real

3. Big Think

• Rustam Tariko is a russian Oligarch [big time businessman] who started Russian Standard Vodka
• when it launched, Russians were dying from drinking watered down rubbing alcohol labelled as vodka
• Rustam chose to position his vodka as the highest quality
• then the government decided alcoholism was a problem and banned the liquor industry from advertising
• Rustam wanted to maintain his branding efforts so in response, he opened the Russian Standard Bank.
• Rustam used the same logo, type set, font size and imagery as if he were still advertising vodka
• Russian Standard Bank became the largest bank in Russia
• Other examples of Big Think 7-11 changed to Kwik E Mart for The Simpsons Movie and sold Duff Beer, Bounty opened make a masterpiece stores, Mountain Dew sold game fuel when Halo 3 launched

4. Goodness

• in some major cities ie. Sao Paulo, billboard advertising is outlawed.  The government felt that the Billboards were to visual pollution that exhaust is to air pollution
• Nedbank did some good with theirs. Their Power to the People billboard campaign had solar panels on top of the billboard which supplied power to the villages & communities below it
• other examples are Charmin's Potty Party Bathroom experience in times square, Tide Loads of Hope Laundry service

Crush it by Gary Vanerchuk: presentation notes from The Art of Marketing

• Gary Started WineLibrary.com and wine library TV
• grew to over $60million dollar business.  He's 33.
• from '95-'03 he spent over $4.5 million in marketing (annually?)
• from '03 to now he spends about $25,000 (annually?)
• Liquor laws prohibited mass distribution so he started trying to build his own brand
• push marketing - pound the message with traditional media
• Pull Marketing - Social media.  it's about caring.  You cant buy friends & relationships in online communities.  Your content has to be relevant
• Content is King.  But Marketing is the Queen that steers the ship
• Big Box marketing approach is rapidly changing
• Those businesses that go back to "small town values" will win.  In the small towns as a business owner, you've got to hustle, care and understand that people appreciate the bakers dozen price point
• online relationships are just as real as in person ones
• he has 850,000 twitter followers
• the web is just a baby.  it's only been 15 years since we even had such a thing as email.  Youtube is only 5 years old
• Virtual Currency:  Facebook Credits ,  Foursquare
• brands will have to care because word of mouth is now on steroids
• the truth is undefeated.  doing the right thing is never wrong
• if you're trying to reach consumers, you need to have a facebook fan page
• look at other companies that didn't adapt.  Zagat is getting killed by Yelp.
• you need to understand this stuff, play with it, taste it.  get on twitter and facebook and experience these new platforms of communication
• respect the customer
• be socially engaged 24/7.  get committed to it. seek out and engage conversations.  give authenitc non-salesy answers.  You don't need to convince people this is important...find the ones who already believe it is.

Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel: presentation notes from The Art of Marketing

• After months of sailing Cortez & his crew finally arrived in the new world.  His crew asked "how long are we going to stay here for?".  Cortez waited for everything to be unloaded from the ships...then burned them
• How do we get forward moving today?
• CTRL, ALT, DEL - time to reboot
• -50% people who clicked on banners since 2007 (comscore)
• under 8% of online users click through.  There are over 2 billion online users
• this is not a talk about the future.  its about the present.  we are living in the future ie. snaptell, red laser, google goggles, yelp  
• video is king
• media is becoming untethered ie. iPAD
• the question is not when is the web going to take over traditional media, the question should be WHEN IS THE INTERNET GOING TO BE AS PERVASIVE AS ELECTRICITY?
• Apple sold 2,000,000 iPADS in 60 days
• we live in the most branded generation ever
• there are more grandparents on facebook than high school students (readwriteweb - July 7,2009)
• 88% of canadians are on facebook
• Eckhart Walther from Yahoo! says "it's about doing, sharing, socializing, collaborating & most of all, creating"
• Facebook is like your very own "channel" (Think in terms of CBC, NBC, CNN...it is scaleable)
• 81% of online holiday shoppers read online customer reviews (neilson online - Dec 2008)
• Bazaarvoice proves that if you let people open up, you will win.  They have 150 billion impression reviews.  The average review is 4.3/5.  A negative review converts to sale more effectively than a positive review
• with the internet, people are having real conversations between real people
• these conversations are important because they are distributable and scaleable
• the internet isn't about the number of people you can get your message to, but who sees it
• same with Facebook.  It's not the number of 'friends' you have but WHO your friends are that matters
• mass media helps but you need permission for entry.  online allows communication with no barrier to entry
• 1/2 of youtube.com's audience is over 34 (marketingvox)
• the average Canadian watches 15+ hours of youtube video per week.  The average TV commercial is 30 seconds.  The average youtube video is 4 minutes
• Top 3 search engines? 1. Google 2. Youtube 3. Twitter
• Every day on Google, 20% of the searches have never been done before.
• your marketing has to change because of how we connect with one another
• BUT, if your IT consultant says to cancel all your advertising and move everything online...fire him
• the biggest change in this new world is amplification.  Consumers have always had the ability to choose to buy or not and tell their friends if they liked a product or service or not.  The word of mouth is now amplified
• Your brand is no longer what you say it is.  It's what Google says it is.
• Bounce Rates are important metrics to measure your website 'stickyness'  if the bounce rate is really fast it's "i came, I puked, I left"
• identify the pages on your site that have the most traffic and evaluate how the user interface is
• the best value of a brand is in its community
• Digital Darwinism 'we were on facebook & twitter, but it doesn't work'.  The problem is because you're not engaging.  What are you doing to add value? 
• you need to build a community before you launch a product

how to manage in this new world?
1. accept it
2. it goes with.  not instead of traditional media
3. dont write cheques with digital media you cant cash.  it's about honesty
4. open up. let the community share, create
5. attitude, not age related
6. Ask Why? not what.  It's not what are we doing, it's why is this better alighned with our business objectives

• if you have the right message, and you tell the right people, your story will spread....check this free hugs video out,  over 59 million views and counting

Fascinate by Sally Hogshead: presentation notes from the Art of Marketing

• When competition increases, the more essential fascination becomes.  Since most often, the most fascinating option wins
• 100 years ago we had 20 minute attention spans.  Today we have an attention span of 9 seconds...which is that of a goldfish
• Sally's Website
• free book download here
• So how do unusual things break through the clutter?
• fascinating things don't speak to everybody.  The create an immediate reaction and are polarizing
• there are 7 triggers to fascination 1. Power 2. Lust 3. Mystique 4. Prestige 5. Alarm 6. Vice 7. Trust
• imagine these 7 triggers are chemicals in a chemistry set. 
• Every fascinating brand has their own unique potion
• Fedex - high on Alarm & Trust
• Kraft foods - high on Lust & Trust
• Rachael Ray - high on Lust & Trust
• Angelina Jolie - high on Lust, Mystique, Alarm, Vice
• KMart - low levels for all triggers
• Fascination is different from marketing.  It's irrational, instintive, innate, irrestistable. 
• you don't control fascination, it controls you ie. Jagermeister is one of the fastest growing brands of all time and yet has a very low budget, but an extremely high fascination level
• In relation to Facebook, they did a survey to find out what status updates are fascinating...and get passed on...they end up being the ones with high amounts of trigger elements
• In your own marketing, messages are fascinating are like facebook status updates...they're more likely to be passed on.  This is important since it's not just about trying to reach your network, but your network's network. 
• In otherwords, its not about how many people you reach, but who.
• when you become your most fascinating, you are at your most inspiring
• take Sally's test to find your {F}Score. 

I got an {F}Score high in Lust & Mystique, low on Alarm.  If you know me, I 'd love to hear your opinion if this is accurate

Switch Presentation Notes by Chip Heath @ The Art of Marketing

- here is a link to another presentation by Chip


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs9NbxJHV-w


The following are the notes I took from Chip's presentation

• how do we change things when change is hard?
• there is an struggle between emotional and analytical motivators that can be explained by the elephant and rider analogy http://www.anecdote.com.au/archives/2010/01/the_mahout_the.html
• when it comes to change, we need to align the rider (analytical) and the elephant (emotional)
• to make change There are 3 components 1. we must give direction to the rider. 2. create motivation for the elephant. 3. Shape the Path these two will travel

Rider Direction

• The rider loves to analyze problems, however focusing on non-productive problems and paralyze the rider & elephant. While the analysis may be valid, it can be T.B.U...true, but useless
• the key to productive analysis is to find bright spots in any situation, analyze why those bright spots exist and replicate the strategies that let to the bright spot
• ie. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/41/sternin.html

Motivate the Elephant

• how do you make people care about your product/issue?
• ie. Dont mess with Texas campaign.
• road litter in Texas was primarily caused by 18-30 year old truck drivers that the state affectionately called "Bubba"
• the don't mess with Texas campaign was designed to speak to Bubba using the celebrities he recognized & respected as Texans such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson etc
• in the 1st year aluminum can litter was down 25% and in 5 years it was down by 75%
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Mess_with_Texas
• to make change you need to grow the elephant

Shape the Path

• focus on people rather than the situation. In other words, if you tweak the environment the people operate in, you're more likely to effect change than by expecting people to adapt to your environment
• ie. Amazon - "buy now with 1 Click" is a registered trademark.
• ie. Playtex - most women wear the wrong bra size. Playtex put ads in magazines like "O" with encouragement that women can calculate their right bra size in 2 easy steps. Most people now don't have measuring tapes handy so the ad included a tear away measuring tape
• 100 calorie food packs - available for calorie counting consumers everywhere

7 Insights into the Consumer Mind

After seeing my favorite commercial last night during the hockey game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE&feature=related I wondered why am I so affected by this series of commercials? More importantly, why have I switched my soap brand loyalty and started buying Old Spice?

Perhaps this article can shed some light on these questions and help you make a bigger impact with prospective & existing consumers.



http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/neuromarketing.htm


In traditional marketing, we are told ... "follow the proven formula of compelling headlines, benefits, satisfaction guarantee and a call to action, and your sales will skyrocket." Yet, even top marketers can attest that successful campaigns are a "hit or miss" proposition to find those that generate big sales

"Our unconscious mind -- not our conscious mind -- drives how we respond to ads, brands and products and, ultimately, drives all our buying decisions. Customers don't really know why they buy what they buy, which is why traditional market research fall short."

According to neuroscientists, there are 3 main parts to the brain, each functioning as a brain unto itself. These "three brains" - nestled inside one another -- are as follows.

The "Human" ("New," or outer-most) Brain: Most evolved part of the brain known as the cortex. Responsible for logic, learning, language, conscious thoughts and our personalities.

The "Mammalian" (Middle) Brain: Also known as the limbic system. Deals with our emotions, moods, memory and hormones.

The "Reptilian" (Old) Brain: Also known as the R Complex controls our basic survival functions, such as hunger, breathing, flight-or-fight reactions and staying out of harm's way.

The reptilian, or "old," brain drives your customers' buying decision
To strengthen your brand, loyalty and sales, you must understand your customers' "reptilian hot buttons." A "cortex" message -- such as "Buy my product because it is 20% cheaper" -- doesn't buy customer loyalty. It all comes down to who triggers the first reptilian reaction. That's why Coke, after all these years, continues to dominate the market.

The "Reptilian Brain" and Profits: 7 Critical Insights You Must Know About How and Why Your Customer Buys

1. The old brain is driven by emotions

The more senses you trigger and associate with your products/services, the more you will appeal to your customers' emotions and influence their buying behavior.

2. The old brain "decides" on the basis of the gain vs. pain tradeoff
Marketing guru, Seth Godin illustrates through his Joy/Cash Curve that high value purchases often trigger increasing amounts of buying pain. His solution: add more joy and pleasure to the buying process, such as he did in his work with Lexus. According to Godin, when you make buying pleasurable, you actually reset the customer's "value meter." How are you adding more joy to your buying process?

3. The old brain is highly influenced by beginnings and endings.

In marketing, for your message to be accepted, it is critical to leave a strong first impression -- like a compelling story, a big smile, etc. Also, if a customer has a pleasant or unpleasant experience with your product or company, that most recent experience will influence future purchases more than all other experiences combined. What impression are you leaving with your prospects in the first few seconds or words? How has your last customer contact enhanced or jeopardized repeat sales?

4. The old brain is visually oriented and responds rapidly to images

Enhance and deliver your core marketing message visually -- eg., the design of your product, images in an ad, external packaging, etc. Where can you visually strengthen your brand and emotional connection with customers?

5. The old brain perceives the "pain of buying" in relative, not absolute, terms.

From various posts by Roger Dooley (Neurosciencemarketing.com), key strategies include:
Emphasize "sales" prices (which does not activate pain in the old brain)
Utilize "package" pricing over pricing of individual components (the latter shows greater "pain activity in the old brain)
Series of small "bite-size' investments in place of one large investment (Netflix)

6. The old brain understands only what is tangible, physical and concrete.

To speak to the old brain, you must use tangible "benefits" -- ie., what a customer will see, feel, hear, taste or smell as a result. Eg., a promise of "greater happiness" is gibberish to the old brain. Instead, tell your prospect how he/she will wake up every morning with a smile. Or use metaphors (such as referring to your service as the "Cadillac" offering) to make your benefits more tangible.

7. The old brain's control over buying decisions varies from culture to culture.

Adapt your marketing communications to each culture and what part of their brain drives buying decisions. Use emotional appeal with Americans; use logic with European cultures

Segmentation Marketing

Lately it seems a growing number of clients have been talking about switching to a 'segmentation' based marketing model. The simplest way that I can explain this concept is with an example.

JACK FM has an average weekly audience of 346,000 Adults listening over the age of 12. This know as our CUME or put another way, JACK's market. However, as a marketer, I'd like to break down our audience into the groups of people who are most important to my business. These groups, or segments, have similar needs and can be identified by on

1. Demographics (age, family size, life cycle, occupation),
2. Geography (states, regions, countries),
3. Behavior (product knowledge, usage, attitudes, responses) and/or
4. Psychographic (lifestyle, values, personality).

Each segment has unique set of needs from each other and each should be marketed to differently. If JACK FM was trying to sell a product or service, I would determine which segments are most profitable, choose a only a few that I want to attract as customers, then develop a marketing strategy to communicate with that particular segment.

Below is a very short list of some segments within our audience. This data is sourced from BBM-RTS Calgary Fall ‘09 Base: P12+, Tune into JACK FM. If you'd like me to get some research done on your preferred segment, please feel free to call or email me at 403-686-9715 or marc.binkley@calgaryradio.rogers.com

Demographics - age, family size, occupation

Child born/ adopted: 14,933 listeners
Between 35-54: 117,640 listeners
Employed as Owners,Managers or Professionals: 114,180 listeners


Behaviour - product knowledge, usage & attitudes

Dine at casual/ family dining restaurants 1+ times/ month: 25% more likely than the average Calgarian (24,789 listeners)

Visited a national/ provincial park 7+ times/ year: 21% more likely than the average Calgarian (13,727 listeners)

likely to buy/ lease a vehicle in the next 12 months: 17% more likely than the average Calgarian (35,996 listeners)


Psychographic - lifestyle & values


Spent $3,000+ on last vacation: 28,015 listeners
Occasionally/ regularly cycle (mountain/ road biking): 84,055 listeners
Occasionally/ regularly golf: 75,547 listeners



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_segmentation

A market segment is a sub-set of a market made up of people or organizations sharing one or more characteristics that cause them to demand similar product and/or services based on qualities of those products such as price or function.

The process of segmentation is distinct from targeting (choosing which segments to address) and positioning (designing an appropriate marketing mix for each segment). The overall intent is to identify groups of similar customers and potential customers; to prioritize the groups to address; to understand their behavior; and to respond with appropriate marketing strategies that satisfy the different preferences of each chosen segment. Revenues are thus improved.

Market segmentation is the act of identifying and profiling distinct groups of buyers who might require separate products and/or marketing mixes
It is the process of splitting customers into different groups or segments, within which customers with similar characteristics have similar needs. Benefits: 1) marketers are in a better position to locate and compare marketing opportunities 2) marketers can easily and effectively formulate and implement marketing programs 3) marketers can make finer adjustments in their products and marketing communications. 4) Competitive strengths and weaknesses can be assessed effectively 5) Segmentation leads to more effective utilisation of marketing resources
Once a market segment has been identified (via segmentation), and targeted (in which the viability of servicing the market intended), the segment is then subject to positioning. Positioning involves ascertaining how a product or a company is perceived in the minds of consumers.This part of the segmentation process consists of drawing up a perceptual map, which highlights rival goods within one's industry according to perceived quality and price. After the perceptual map has been devised, a firm would consider the marketing communications mix best suited to the product in question.


http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_segmentation.htm

Segmentation is essentially the identification of subsets of buyers within a market that share similar needs and demonstrate similar buyer behavior. The world is made up of billions of buyers with their own sets of needs and behavior. Segmentation aims to match groups of purchasers with the same set of needs and buyer behavior. Such a group is known as a 'segment'. Think of your market as an orange, with a series of connected but distinctive segments, each with their own profile.


http://marketing.about.com/cs/sbmarketing/a/smbizmrktseg.htm

A business must analyze the needs and wants of different market segments before determining their own niche. To be effective in market segmentation keep the following things in mind:
1. Segments or target markets should be accessible to the business
2. Each segmented group must be large enough to provide a solid customer base.
3. Each segmented group requires a separate marketing plan.

he 5 most important keys to successful advertising

Over the last while, I've been trying to wrap my head around how and why mass media how really works. Put simply, I think the key to successful advertising is communication. No matter which mass media you pick ie. Radio, TV, Internet, Print there is a very large group of individuals that your business can connect with on the other side of that dial, channel, site or page. I believe that those individuals are open to marketing messages when they enter the "consumer window" and are unknowingly conscious of the messages when they are not. This is a key point to why long term advertising is the most successful... only some people are buying now. Far more are planning to buy soon. The largest group of consumers are those who will buy, but haven't been triggered to do so.



As a client so eloquently put it yesterday, you'd never know there were any yellow cars on the road until you are about to buy one.



So in an effort to simplify marketing strategies, i found this article which make some great points.

http://db0898.com/the-five-most-important-things-you-need-to-know-about-successful-advertising/



1. establishing the exact message you are trying to put forward


Advertising needs to be planned and it needs to be simple.

Give them a reason to pick up the telephone or to drop into your business

If you can’t summarise what you want your message to say in one short sentence, go back to the drawing board until you can. Once this magic sentence has been determined, build your advertisement to portray this message clearly.


2. being clear about your target audience

Knowing exactly the type of person you want to see your advertisement is an essential component for planning your campaign

Different people watch television at different times (and of course they watch different shows). Different people read various sections of the paper, listen to particular radio stations and so on.


3. making your advertisement stand out from millions of others

The main reason advertising doesn’t work for a lot of businesses is because the advertisement or commercial fails to catch the attention of the targeted customers

It is very important to remember that consumers are bombarded with advertising from the minute they wake up until the minute they go to bed

Marc's Note: a unique selling proposition will at least help you stand out from your immediate competition


4. ensuring people see your advertising often

get as many people as possible to see your advertisement as often as possible and your advertising will bring much greater results.

The aim is to look at your whole campaign and make certain you are going to reach as many people as often as possible. Advertising in more than one area is a key to this, so it is wise to consider this strategy


5. giving your advertising time to work.

It is very rare for a potential customer to see your advertisement once, then race off to pick up the phone or jump in the car.

It will generally take a person seven visits to a website (including your own) before they will make a specific purchase

the response to an advertisement will generally increase the longer it is out there because more people will see the advertising more often

"I have monitored a lot of advertising campaigns where we have done the same amount of advertising for a specific product over a six-month period. Each month the response increased, with the last month being the most successful, illustrating the long-term benefits of advertising. Likewise it takes a while for advertising to stop working once the momentum is gained. For those campaigns we ran for six months and then stopped, new customers continued to flow for up to two months before finally slowing to a trickle or stopping."

Media Comparison in Calgary

With the 1st quarter nearly over, there are a number of marketing managers I’ve spoken to recently who are planning their next few quarters. Given all of the options available out there, I thought it would be great to get some research done to ask the following questions…

How do Canadians Consume Media?
How do your different options compare in Price? In Reach? In Frequency? In production costs?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of your media options?


The answers to these questions are sourced by the Radio Marketing Bureau.

Popcorn, Peanuts, Hotdogs....Get your media value here

I'm willing to bet that Popcorn, Peanuts and Hotdogs are a part of the fabric of baseball, not because they're good for you, but because the fans appear to get a lot for their money (and ball parks get big mark up). In a year like this, we're reminded by nearly every marketing group that we, as consumers, should expect to get more for our money. The McDonalds Value Meals, www.Hotwire.com 's "Best Value" deal, Hyundai's incredible growth http://www.thestar.com/business/article/759602--hot-hyundai-revs-up-january-auto-sales are but a few examples that illustrate this point.

So what is value? According to thefreedictionary.com, value can be defined like this..."reasonable or equivalent return"

My next question is, SO WHAT? How then do we deliver value in Media? Wikipedia explains that "When an organization delivers high value at high price, the perceived value may be low. When it delivers high value at low price, the perceived value may be high." When it comes to media, one way to define value is to say that a high value media is one that can deliver your message to the most potential consumers, the most times for the least cost.

Each media has it's own strengths and weaknesses so it's hard to find an apples to apples comparison. However, for the purpose of this article lets look at how many consumers are using each media on any average day since it's indicitive of consumer behaivour.

According to the Canadian Newspaper Association http://www.cna-acj.ca/en/aboutnewspapers/circulation, the 2008 average daily circulation of the
Calgary Herald is 119,909
Calgary Sun is 49,633

There is limited information on how many people use Yellow Pages on an average day, but according to the Fall 2009, BBM RTS survey of Adults 12+, the number of people in Calgary who will use the Yellow Pages today is 36,016.

According to S4,2009 PPM results, our Radio stations would reach the following Average Daily Audience
JACK FM - 110,150
LITE 96 - 94,338
660NEWS - 48,148
FAN 960 - 46,837

Using my best estimates a full page, full color yellow pages ad costs about $5000/month and given you have to buy 12 months thats accounts for $60,000 of my annual budget.

With the same budget, I could buy about
16 full page ads @ $3600 each in the Calgary Sun.
12 full page ads @ $5000 each in the Calgary Herald
26 weeks @ 21 or more ads per week on either FM station PLUS 26 weeks @ 35 or more ads per week on either AM station

Which media has the most value for you?

James Brown of Media

This year is different. Gone are the 'good ole days' when to be successful here in Calgary, all a business had to do was open their doors. Many of the clients that I speak with that have survived the recession have come out of it with a renewed positivity, a hunger for success and wanting more out of their advertising.

Right now, many of my clients are reviewing their marketing budgets, re-evaluating their past media choices and making some very tough decisions about how to best spend their marketing budgets going forward. Please consider the following article when making your decision. I'm always available to chat at 403-686-9715 or marc.binkley@calgaryradio.rogers.com


http://www.rmb.ca/news_detail.aspx?id=22968&terms=why+radio

just like James Brown was ‘the hardest-working man in showbiz,’ radio is the hardest-working medium in advertising

Advertising is about creating awareness for a brand or service and in order to do so, consumers must be exposed to an ad. Radio increases opportunities for exposure to ads because it accompanies Canadians throughout the day, reaching them anytime, anywhere

Results from the independent Foundation Research study show that more adults report an increase in time spent with radio and the Internet year-over-year than with any other medium.

The intimate nature of radio has a halo effect for advertisers – RAEL study participants believe that companies advertising on ‘their’ station are trustworthy and interested in speaking to them personally.

busy adults often edit their time spent with TV, print and the Internet; radio listening remains unaffected because it doesn’t demand the listener’s time, and it adapts to their lifestyle. BBM reports that radio reaches 81 percent of adults daily

Typical media costs for radio are one-third that of other major media

A 2005 RAEL study examining the effect of adding radio to TV and newspaper advertising found that unaided brand awareness increased 270 percent when radio was added to newspaper and 34 percent when added to TV.

45 percent of adults said a radio ad had prompted them to search the internet, and 35 percent typed an address into their browser after hearing it on the radio.

The Best Bang For your Buck

It occured to me that many marketing directors are looking for the same thing that I am as a consumer, great value. From my point of view, I imagine that great value means being able to deliver your message in multiple foms to the largest target rich environment of consumers at a reasonable cost. These consumers, both new and old, should then inquire and ultimately purchase your products and services and help you grow your business over last years results.

With that in mind, I found this article which I hope will help shed some light on how to get the best bang for your marketing buck.

I've got several resources available to me that could help you identify your target customers, define your brand DNA, perform some market research, and can pull research on our audience to find out how well they match your target customers. Feel free to contact me if you'd like more information at 403-686-9715 or marc.binkley@calgaryradio.rogers.com

http://www.businessknowledgesource.com/marketing/how_to_maximize_your_marketing_budget_029594.html

You need to find the target group for your business to target their marketing to. You can do this by writing down any demographic data about your customers; you want to get as detailed as possible. Write down things like marital status, education level, career, income level, where they live, their hobbies, what movies they like to watch, etc

move onto the psycho-graphics of your ideal customer. This is where you are going to need to determine things like life style, social class, opinion, attitude, and beliefs of your ideal customer

If you are going to be mainly doing business to business selling you are not going to need to worry about creating the ideal customer, you will need to instead focus on the ideal business for your products or services

For target marketing, you are going to want to focus all of the marketing towards that type of customer, which will ensure that your marketing dollar is being spent wisely.

figure out all of the different marketing tactics that you can use to effectively reach your target group of customers. The best way to figure out what marketing tactics you should use is to do some market research

You will need to develop your marketing plan to include the marketing tactics that you think will work the best for your marketing needs, you will also need to figure out how much money you will be setting aside for your marketing budget

Once you begin putting the marketing tactics into place you will need to go back and review your marketing plan to see what is working at what is not. You need to get rid of the tactics that are not working and place that money into tactics that are proving to be successful.

Wizard of Ads, Yellow Pages and Tape Recorders

I recieved this memo from the Wizard of Ads that I thought was quite interesting and reflects the sentiment of a growing number of my clients. Research shows that 80% of all Calgarians use the internet, regardless of age. Consumers are shopping online and more often, avoiding the Yellow Pages.

The chairman of the board looked at me and said, “You’ll be speaking to about 16 hundred members and delegates from the US, Canada, England and Australia. They’re looking for ways to boost attendance at their fairs.”

“Son,” he said as he stopped abruptly, “the average age of the people you’re about to address is 72 years old. Many of them are over 80. There’s no one in the house younger than 65. These just aren’t internet people.”

Then I raised my hand and said, “How many of you have used a search engine in the past 7 days to research a purchase you were considering?” Sixteen hundred hands went up simultaneously.

Pennie and I found a plastic bag at the end of our driveway last Tuesday. In it were 3 different Yellow Page books. This triggered a discussion between Pennie and me about icons of the past. We recalled the famous Yellow Pages ad of 1962, “Let Your Fingers Do The Walking.” We talked about all the different tape recorders we’d owned. I told her about the J.C. Penney Golden Pinto mini-bike I coveted in 1970. And then I dropped the bag of books into the garbage

Yes, money spent in the Yellow Pages (and their associated websites) is basically wasted.

Have you ever Googled a product or service and had the search engine direct you to the online Yellow Pages listing for a company? I’ve never once experienced it. Search engines elevate the most commonly clicked links. Think about what this implies. (Okay, I'll spell it out for you: if people were using the digital Yellow Pages, those online Yellow Page ads would rank higher on Google and the other search engines. The ads don't rank high on Google because most people never see those ads.)
During the past few years, a number of our service company clients (foundation repair specialists, plumbers, HVAC companies, etc.) have taken our advice and abandoned the yellow pages completely, moving virtually 100 percent of their ad budgets to the radio. They already have websites, of course. These businesses, without exception, are outdistancing their competitors in the area of new customer acquisition.

Learning from Canada's Top 10 Brands

Many of the conversations I've had lately with clients revolve around planning their 2010 marketing strategy and how to seperate themselves from their competition. I figured a good place to look for some information & insight on this topic is with Canada's "Best" brands.

“Branding is about having a unique personality, a point of view and a positioning.”
David Haigh
CEO, Brand Finance plc

http://www.brandfinance.com/Uploads/pdfs/BrandFinanceCanadaMostValuableBrands2009.pdf

companies have experienced a dramatic shift from tangible to intangible assets as the main source of value creation. Though roughly two-thirds of global market value was intangible as of 2007

Total enterprise value for the Top 50 brands has decreased by almost -32%

Brands generally create value by shifting both the demand and supply curves. On the demand side, they influence customer behaviour - leading to greater trial, improved frequency of use, increased loyalty, and a willingness to pay a price premium. On the supply side, strong brands can attract better employees, influence terms of trade, and even reduce the cost of capital.

conditions are already having a major impact on the global and Canadian brandscape, as brands with strong value-oriented positions (e.g. Wal-Mart, McDonald’s) are seen to be making headway in this ‘thrift as chic’ market.

given the anticipated prolonged economic weakness in the months to come, brand values can be expected to decline - at least in the near to intermediate term
This said, the effects will likely not be evenly distributed. As noted, among those to thrive (all other things equal) will be brands with strong value-based positionings

we can also expect large and stable brands with significant reach and share of voice (many of which are represented in this year’s ranking) to make exceptional market share (if not value gains) in 2009, as short-sighted competitors blindly cut brand support during these challenging yet opportunistic times.

On this note, perhaps the more relevant issue for brand owners is: what should they be doing to prepare for the inevitable upturn in the economy?

Now is the time to prepare and invest - identify areas of inefficiency - marketing and otherwise - to enable investment in the brand, or at
least to hold investment relatively flat.Do this properly and, as the market turns, you should be disproportionately rewarded.

More deeply understand the drivers of your brand’s value - Quantify your brand’s value, derive insight into the key drivers therein, and connect your organization’s current investments against each driver area

Sharpen your brand’s positioning and key point(s) of difference - A meaningful, differentiated positioning preserves profit margins and provides purposeful brand investment.

Ensure organizational alignment to support consistent brand delivery - Seize the opportunity to examine how your brand is delivered against all key touch-points and stakeholders, and spearhead initiatives (across the organization) to address opportunity areas in this regard.

“Survival in a recessionary era is about far more than simply cutting prices, reducing spending and hoping you can hold out long enough for the recovery to gain traction. Smart firms recognize these times as ushering in an era of restructuring: within firms that thrive, areas of inefficiency are identified and reformulated. These actions generate new “degrees of freedom” for marketing executives who now find they can self-finance programs directed at adding value for customers, clients and consumers. The research is unequivocal: those that do, win – those that don’t, lose.”
Ken Wong
Vice President, Knowledge Development, LEVEL5 Strategic Brand Advisors
Professor of Marketing, Queen’s School of Business

2009 Top 10 Canadian Brands
1. RBC
2. Blackberry
3. TD Canada Trust
4. Manulife Financial
5. Bell
6. Scotia Bank
7. Loblaws
8. Bombarier
9. BMO
10. CIBC
11. Rogers

2009 Top 10 "Iconic" Canadian Brands

1. Canada Post
2. Canadian Tire
3. Tim Hortons
4. CBC
5. Air Canada
6. Toronto Maple Leafs
7. Montreal Canadiens
8. Petro Canada
9. Via Rail
10. CN Tower