AANA gets real with AdWatch, its new one-stop web portal

by Marketing ON 17 May 2013

AANA today launched AdWatch, dubbed its ‘one-stop web portal’ that offers up real case histories illustrating evolving community standards, particularly around the portrayal of people, language, sex and nudity, violence and health and safety in Australian advertising.

AANA Acting CEO, Alina Bain believes AdWatch will be a key marketing arsenal tool for advertisers in explaining why public complaints have or haven’t been upheld by the ASB, and making for a more streamlined approach to comply with both the code and AANA self-regulatory system.

“This system is underpinned by a concept of community standards which in themselves are not static. AdWatch will go a long way to keeping marketers abreast of community expectations,” she says.

The Codes are platform and technology neutral and apply to all marketing communications. They cover media such as television, radio, newpapers, magazines, store posters, online and social media.

“No matter where you’re advertising or who your audience is, AdWatch will ultimately serve as a learning device for advertisers and become part and parcel of any induction process for new and junior marketers,” admits Bain.

“It’ll be updated monthly to reflect the most current thinking on community standards and to give guidance and understanding to members on changing community values and expectations.”

AdWatch will address each section of the Code of Ethics independently and explain ASB decisions relevant to each section. From here, members will be able to access the most recent learning on the development and application of community standards by viewing the following:

– a summary of the complaint

– a description of the advertisement

– a summary of the ASB decision and

– the learning that arises from that decision.

AdWatch will even include an instructive video presentation by the CEO detailing the machinations of each section of the Code of Ethics.

Social media ROI: What’s next?

by Mark Cameron ON 16 May 2013

Over the course of this social media ROI series, we have moved from theory and strategy to the practical implementation of a social media plan. We looked at metrics and measurements in Part One, discussed the art of growing your community in Part Two and developed real world guidelines for the different social media platforms in Part Three. The fourth and most recent article in the series examined the utilisation of social media data for lead nurturing and conversion. In this final article, we will look at where social media marketing is heading and discuss why your company should be prepared to capitalise on this rapidly- evolving space.

Before gazing too far ahead, one needs to understand that social media has forever changed the market and, as a result, the advertising industry is in the middle of major disruption. The thematic trend in these types of articles is backed up by an Econsultancy report, which shows that 71% of businesses worldwide are planning on increasing their spend on digital marketing this year.

What’s going on? Why is the marketing industry increasingly going digital? In Part One of this series, I referred to an article titled ‘Marketing is dead’, published on the Harvard Business Review website in August 2012, which can again provide further insight. It cited research showing that 73% of CEOs think that, “CMOs lack business credibility and the ability to generate sufficient business growth,” and 77% of the same CEOs have, “had it with all the talk about brand equity that can’t be linked to actual firm equity or any other recognised financial metric”.

These damning statistics suggest that in the current post-GFC world, the traditional ‘soft’ metrics so often used to justify marketing spend are failing to deliver. Business leaders want each dollar spent on marketing linked directly back to sales figures. The need for accountability is part of the attraction of digital marketing. Every activity can be measured, in real time, down to a single click.

A far more important factor is consumers driving real change in the market, forcing brands to interact in new ways. Social media and the consumption of content through digital channels has now reached near ubiquity. While this will not spell the end of TV, radio and newspapers, digital is capturing an increasingly larger proportion of market share. Today’s consumer is sophisticated. When she wants something, she wants it personalised and she wants it right away.Only the online environment can meet these kinds of demands.

Additionally, businesses are looking to invest in new talents and people experienced in the digital field. The majority of businesses do not have the skills required to keep up with the pace of change. An IBM study, ‘Fast Track to the Future: the 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report’, found that across four technology areas – mobile, business analytics, cloud and social business – only one in 10 organisations had all the skills it needed.

Within each area, roughly one-quarter reported major skill gaps and 60% or more reported moderate to major shortfalls. An integrated approach to digital marketing would address all of these areas, so it makes sense to invest wisely.

With all of this budget upheaval, the one thing we can be sure of is that the marketing industry is undergoing a transformation. When it emerges from this phase it will be permanently altered – and this is a really big deal.

As the famous management author Peter Drucker once said, “Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation.” Digital communication gives the brands of today the ability to address both of these functions at once. But it is going to take a drastically different approach to digital marketing to do this effectively. Banner ads and landing pages are no longer enough. The future of digital marketing needs to have social media, and the data it generates, at its core.

BUSINESSES ARE LOOKING TO INVEST IN NEW TALENTS AND PEOPLE EXPERIENCED IN THE DIGITAL FIELD. A 2012 IBM STUDY FOUND THAT ACROSS FOUR TECHNOLOGY AREAS, ONLY ONE IN 10 ORGANISATIONS HAD ALL THE SKILLS IT NEEDED.

What will be happening in the next few months? What are the trends that brands need to be aware of? How can we see beyond the complexity of technology and find the opportunity that really exists? You can be sure that any strategy that is not focused on data-utilisation won’t get off the ground. As The New York Times stated in an article titled ‘Marketers celebrate glimmers of recovery’ in 2011: “Data rules… content may be king in media, but, in advertising, it is data.”

While I don’t have a crystal ball, providing commentary on the digital space in publications across the world allows me to take a step back and see how things are evolving. Below is what I see coming.

CONTENT WILL START TO TAKE CENTRE STAGE

Marketing professionals are quickly moving beyond understanding digital and social platforms and are now focusing on how to make their chosen digital communications channels come alive. A recent study by Econsultancy found that only 38% of companies surveyed had a developed content strategy in place, but 90% believed it would come into focus over the next 12 months. In the TV-centric advertising world, the creative firepower of the storyteller for the 30-second spot became the hero. Similarly, the skilful weaver of the digital narrative will be what every brand is looking for.

AGENCIES THAT CAN DEMONSTRATE ROI WILL LEAD THE WAY

The advertising industry is currently going through disruption. One of the major factors driving this change is the huge volumes of unstructured data available. Unlike having a set of predefined fields that fill a database, such as old style CRMs or competition entry forms, unstructured data is conversations, interactions and preferences such as Facebook ‘Likes’ that will be different for each customer.

The forward thinking companies are now firmly focused on generating conversion-focused insights out of unstructured social media data.

BRAND DATA PLATFORMS WILL COME INTO FOCUS

In mid-January, Nike quietly released a framework for developers to connect to its Nike+ platform. For those of you who don’t know, Nike+ lets you put sensors in your shoes and track how you are using your trainers.

In doing this, Nike has managed to build a data platform that extends its connection with its customers for the whole life of the trainers, creating much deeper relationships and new opportunities to sell product. With the release of the new developer framework, Nike is making a transition from active clothing product brand to active technology brand. It wants to effectively own the active lifestyle data space.

COMPANY INTERNAL INVESTMENT WILL INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY

Not so long ago the terms ‘community manager’ and ‘social data analyst’ didn’t exist. Now every major brand is investing in resources with titles like these. Companies have learned, some the hard way, that community building is not only important, but requires well-developed skills.

BRANDS WILL WORK OUT HOW TO USE FACEBOOK

Most businesses have been lost when it comes to Facebook. There has been a lot of hype, many mistakes and the occasional spectacular success. The lessons from this experimentation have been learned and brands are looking to drive real business results from the communities they have invested in. There is no one ‘Facebook formula’, but there is a right way for each brand.

It is not only the brands who have been learning. Facebook itself has been trying to get its offering to businesses right. This year, we’ll see the social media giant step up its game and offer a range of enterprise- oriented tools and training to help brands realise the potential of the platform.

MARKETERS WILL BEGIN TO THINK ABOUT ‘CLOSING THE LOOP’

It’s interesting to look at the spectrum of data available from a marketing perspective. Facebook knows what people are doing, Google knows what people want, companies like Amazon know what people are buying and brand platforms like Nike+ will make it possible to know how product is used. Pulling all of that information together will be extremely powerful for marketers. Better products and services, combined with more relevant communications, equals happier customers who spend more.

Each of these developments illustrates the importance of making social media marketing techniques more accessible to the business community. It is far too easy to get lost in conversations about the technology in an industry that is moving at breakneck speed.

The technology is important, but it will only ever be a method for delivering a brand story. Storytelling is in our cultural DNA. Great stories capture the imagination and help us relate to the underlying message. For your business, compelling storytelling is essential for one simple reason – people do not really care about brands. It’s easy to forget that the business you live and breathe is not as interesting to your market as it is to you. And real customer loyalty is difficult to maintain. Developing a good story helps to make your brand interesting and attractive. The story about the business’ origins, for example, can help to put a human face on your brand.

Social media gives you the ability to tell stories in a new way. While no technology can help you construct a narrative, knowing how to use each platform correctly helps you be more effective in its telling. Finding out what sort of content your audience will engage with can be tested, and refined, quickly through social media. It’s then a matter of utilising social media data to refine and personalise your story.

There is no magic bullet when it comes to social media ROI. Of course you need to know how to use the tools, but what is more important is how you use them to engage your market. Invest in engaging your audience, and they will return the favour.

YouTube domination: online video challenges TV for share of marketing spend

by Marketing ON 6 May 2013

After recently hitting more than one billion unique visitors every month, YouTube has upped it to six billion views per month according to the Wall Street Journal. As a result, YouTube generated roughly $4 billion in revenue in 2012, up from $2.5 billion in 2011, and it has made the online medium a major drawcard for businesses looking to reach out.

In fact, countless marketing departments are leveraging YouTube by building custom channels, hiring upcoming talent, and sponsoring YouTube ‘stars’ to assist them in reaching a new audience.

“Follow the audience,” is the message from executive chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt. The chairman informed in a recent pitch to advertisers that, “your company should pay attention to the site if any of the below stats ring true for your organisation.”

70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US and the site is localised in 53 countries and across 61 languages, and
in 2011, YouTube had more than one trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth.

And subscriptions are also key, with millions of subscriptions happening each day. Subscriptions allow you to connect with someone you’re interested in — whether it’s a friend, or the NBA — and keep up with their activity on the site.

Yet it’s the continued rise of mobile and the stats surrounding its dominance that intrigue most. With 25% of global YouTube views coming from mobile devices, that’s one billion views a day on YouTube mobile, is available on hundreds of millions of devices and traffic from mobile devices tripled in 2011, so the evidence is clear.

It has been reported that the majority of the online video traffic is for entertainment, mostly an opportunity for advertising to consumers, but there still “remains a window for businesses to create original content themselves and share it,” says Schmidt.

Infographic: Mad Men mob would be digesting metrics instead of martinis in 2013

by Marketing ON 23 April 2013

Correlating with the latest season of Mad Men, Responsys examines the history of the marketing industry over the six decades since the hit advertising-themed show was fictionally set.

A lot more has changed in that time than the disappearance of boozy lunches and the increasing abundance of females in senior creative and executive roles (wait…)

Put simply, the marketing industry has changed significantly over the 1960s, in some areas more than others.

“Mad Men shows just how fast the marketing industry continues to evolve. These developments didn’t happen by accident; rather they were a response to rapidly changing consumer behaviour and demands,” says Paul Cross, president of Responsys Asia Pacific.

Cross says that, in Australia, marketers are still dealing with this shift, with modern consumers going digital, fast-forwarding through advertising on TV, reading fewer articles in print and heading online for information.

“We’re now in the era of customer-focused, relationship marketing,” says Cross. “Brands need to move away from mass-market, broadcast advertising and harness digital technologies to develop lasting, one-on-one relationships with their customers.”

From the launch of the Xerox fax machine in 1964, the first electronic message in 1971 and the introduction of early telemarketing, it seems the World Wide Web in 1991 was what changed the game completely.

From data analytics experts, revolutionised mobile communications, and the fact that 70% of companies now have a chief marketing technologist as of 2013, things have clearly evolved exponentially for marketers.

“Who knows,” says Cross, “maybe if Don Draper was around today he’d be digesting metrics instead of martinis for lunch!”

TCL makes most aggressive Australian push yet with Iron Man 3 partnership

by Marketing ON 12 April 2013

A comprehensive marketing campaign is currently underway to promote Chinese home entertainment and whitegoods brand TCL’s flat panel TVs, alongside Marvel’s Iron Man 3 film to gain exposure for its brand.

All TCL products feature in Iron Man 3, including the brand’s 110-inch LCD TV, which is used by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) in the film.

All point-of-sale imagery and branding of the Iron Man 3 deal is displayed across Harvey Norman and Betta retail stores to endorse the connection with the film.

An enormous push for TCL in a monetary sense, with a local marketing spend in the region of $1 million, general manager of TCL Electronics Australia Sunny Xiang believes the campaign is also a scoop for the Australian market.

“A campaign like this adds an important third element, as it also demonstrates to them that we can be exciting marketing partners too, delivering something compelling on the floor that will excite consumers and give them more reasons to consider and purchase a TCL TV,” he says.

Included in the marketing activity is the digital campaign highlighted by a savvy treasure hunt for Iron Man suits concealed around Australia with clues provided via social media.

The TVC will air from mid-April through until May.

CMOs and C-suite execs clash over value of marketing

by Marketing ON 21 March 2013

There exists a genuine divide in the vision of many organisations, namely between chief marketing officers and the rest of the C-suite over the value marketing provides to the business, according to a new global study.

The Economist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by analytics firm SAS, is titled ‘Outside Looking In: The CMO Struggles to Get in Sync with the C-Suite’, and finds that non-marketing executives (CEOs, CFOs, CIOs) focus primarily on driving revenue, which ranks third for CMOs, whose top priorities are new product development and customer acquisition.

There is also a differing of opinion between CMOs and other C-suite executives on the most accurate metrics to best track return on marketing investment.

Issues concerning customer tastes and needs, actually who represents the voice of the customer within the organisation, and which channel is most effective for customer engagement are all identified issues.

A disturbing one-fifth of CMOs say they are only consulted on marketing strategy, but don’t take the lead (3% report playing no role at all). 28% of CMOs blame their incapability to deliver more value on a lack of senior management support for marketing investments.

Half of CMOs believe their ability to be more strategic is thwarted by a scarcity of marketing talent and challenges in clearly demonstrating return on investment.

You can find the full report here.

Online B2B marketing in 2013: SEO is not a goal

by Marketing ON 5 February 2013

Staying ahead of the game. Being proactive. Reading the play. These are the type of terms marketers have drilled into their ears almost daily. Stand still and you go backwards – there’s another – so how exactly do marketers avoid these catchphrase?

Thorough research of the market, knowing your brand better than anyone and believing in the outcome, according to Sarah Pern of g2m Solutions, a Sydney-based B2B marketing agency. Pern has outlined several major trends for online B2B marketing in the year ahead.

Valuable advice

Pern predicts the demise of the culture of pumping out keywords in the hope of sailing to first page placement in search results. Why? Because everyone is doing it, and the market is saturated – plus with Google’s increased focus on personal endorsements and social signals, the area is close to flooding.

So what to do? Shift focus from ‘content creation’ to ‘value creation’ – more creative, unique and insightful use of marketers’ time. By investing more into exactly ‘what’ content target clients are after, you will see benefit. Be at one with them by focusing on neglected niche markets and even becoming thought leaders within that space – before soon word will spread.

Community calling

Relationship building and social interaction trumps mechanically-driven SEO. Many successful B2B online marketers are now spending more of their resources visiting LinkedIn groups, Google Communities and cultivating relevant, interested Twitter followings.

Participation and engagement is the rule here. Don’t just get in to this sphere for content distribution, instead look to create real value and cultivate relationships by personalising everything. Work from a single database, keep it simple and connect at an individual level.

Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm and its new Graph Search application will be integral for marketers, helping us search for content within personal networks and zone in on specific markets.

Content types

Content is king, but context is better. Look into the world of infographics, video, and creative blogging to suit what your audience needs, and be creative it with, like these guys:

Be an expert

“Smart B2B marketers are already focusing on their Klout scores and Google’s author rank, as they have picked up on the fact that personal online reputation impacts search rank, social reach and online influence,” says Pern.

Building relationships, reputation and leveraging social rank also benefits organisations as it is all these factors that will have you informed when converting a sales conversation into a genuine sale. Know your stuff and reap the online marketing rewards.

Games B2B big boys play (or, a cautionary tale for little guys)

by Kimon Lycos ON 17 January 2013

Ooh, imagine the wonders of hooking up with a big boy. You know, one of those massive multinationals, who, despite their power and size, lack the very innovation you can deliver. Thus, with one order, you can raise your sales by a staggering 30%. The global marketplace is opened up like a ripe clam, and you have a ready-made sales force that can bolt on your brilliant solution to its established customer base.

Sounds like a match made in heaven. Well, welcome to a common hell for the little guy.

Perspective is critical. You have to stop looking at all the pluses from your end, and think about what your small bananas mean to the 2000-pound gorilla who already has a whole plantation. A common misconception is that big players are looking for new things to gain an advantage. The reality is, they are working at such a scale that new things are a threat. Changes represent a massive risk of upsetting a huge apple cart, and often the margins for large players are so skinny, they make Paris Hilton look disastrously obese.

The tantalising allure of playing with the big boys is very hard to resist. The upside seems so tremendous, that the downside is often overlooked. Often times, it is better to say to the big boys that all empowering word: ‘no’ (you can also add ‘sod off ’, if the occasion demands it).

Let’s consider some examples of the games big boys play.

Game One: Rope-a-dope

Off you head to the US to meet with a large player (“Gee, Mike, can you believe it! They will meet with us! This could be huge!”). Your offering is perfect, you know it is, and you are pretty damn sure that they know it is, otherwise, why would they meet you?

The meetings go very well. Chad, Bob, Tex and other people with single syllable names nod in agreement with you, as you explain your technology, how it works with their stuff, how the market needs a thing like yours, and the terms of licensing.

You have made a promise to yourself not to offer an exclusive. But the charm is switched on and they start to discuss the volumes, the reach, the market scope and their ability to deliver. You hold out, so they ask for a reasonable timeframe, seeing there is technical risk from their end. You have the agreement in place, with speciﬁed targets for them to reach, and it all feels like money in the bank.

Now let’s fast-forward 12 months. You and your technical team have been tied up feeding a massive range of requests, and troubleshooting. Your big global partner has not sold a thing under the licence agreement.

This game is played to tie up good IP so competitors don’t have access, and so that they can also get a lower price out of you by hobbling your resources, time to market and leading you on for as long as possible to hopefully make you go broke. Then they have a ﬁre sale on what’s left.

That licence agreement you have is worthless – actually it’s worse than that, it can be the trigger that annihilates you. Because if you want to go legal, don’t you think they have a team of lawyers who make Jack the Ripper look like a sissy? For them legal costs are not legal costs. It is allocated as a cost for acquiring and crushing the competition. Competition to them is anything that does not bear their name.

Game Two: Collectors

This is not as sinister as Game One. In fact, the intentions can be very good. The problem is big players like to add stuff like collectors, just for the sake of having it. Let’s say you gain a big player who has a vast distribution network. So the thinking is, while the sales guys are talking to customers, they can sell your bit too. Well, the downside is that salesmen often stick to what they know.

If there is any form of training required, you will struggle. Especially if you have a mismatch on the sales process required. For example, one small high-tech company had an advanced product for the irrigation industry. They snagged a big deal with one of the world’s largest suppliers of irrigation equipment. Match made in heaven, right? Wrong!

The sales staff were used to selling millions of bits and pieces to farmers, stuff like pipes, clips, hoses etc. This highly advanced technology product required an explanation of agronomy, the setting up of test sites and a cost per unit that far exceeded what the salesmen normally sold. The result was pathetic sales volumes that nearly drove the company to the wall.

Game Three: Gimp maker

A slight variation on Game Two, except you do actually get stuff sold, but at an increasing cost. This is also known as the ‘Walmart effect’.

You gain a first order! Yay! Now you have to deliver. The first year is a blur. So are the second and third. Increasingly, the demands from your big boy grow and grow to the point where at least 30% of your business rests with them. Soon they start having conversations about streamlining, decreasing costs, making the partnership more ‘efficient’.

They cheerfully send their own experts to your business to work out where savings can be made. Suggestions, if not taken, turn to threats – a 30% to 60% chunk of your business has a gun to your head. Not only that, but you have invested in systems to service them, a lot of time and resources.

As you slowly but surely give in, their share of business grows with you, but the profits are going the other way, as you get squeezed to produce more with less, and told to get back into your box once they have ‘had their way with you’ at review time. Those first three to five years seem like a dream. Now at year 10, you can’t recognise your own company, and the activity at reviews has you walking with a gait akin to a cowboy who just rode for 24 hours straight.

Before looking at the big boys, consider all your options, including being patient and growing slowly. Chasing that big white whale can end in tears, and it can be very hard to think like the big boys do. When you are small, sometimes you have to accept that some things are out of your league.

Qantas and Swisse partner to bring Ellen Down Under

by Marketing ON 11 January 2013

First Oprah visited our shores, and now Ellen will come Down Under in a deal brokered by Qantas and Swisse to bring the American comedian to Australia in March.

The visit was announced by DeGeneres and Swisse Wellness global ambassador Nicole Kidman in an episode of the comedian’s self-titled show filmed today that will be watched by a global audience of more than 16 million people.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show will film numerous segments around Melbourne and Sydney in March that will air in April to around 60 countries around the world.

During the in-studio announcement in Los Angeles, the show’s audience each received a free return flight on Qantas between the United States and Australia. Unlike when Oprah visited however, they will not be required to use their ticket to coincide with filming and will not be part of the segments filmed.

And also unlike Oprah’s visit, Tourism Australia has not backed the deal. The rift between the national tourism body and Qantas appears to be still in place after Qantas suspended the pair’s $50 million marketing deal in November last year over claims the tourism body’s boss, Geoff Dixon, was involved in a consortium to takeover the airline.

CEO of the Qantas Group, Alan Joyce, says bringing the show to Australia was a fantastic opportunity to market the country to a massive worldwide audience. “This is a great coup for Australian tourism,” Joyce says.

“The Ellen DeGeneres Show is one of the top-rating shows in the United States and screens in several key source tourism markets, making it a great platform to profile what Australia has to offer as a holiday destination.

“Ellen is a household name and her unique brand of fun and optimism is a perfect match for the relaxed Australian culture.”

The United States is a key source market for visitors to Australia. The show also screens in other key source markets including the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Japan.

The announcement comes in the same week as Qantas’ Spirit of Australia party in Los Angeles.

Qantas suspends $50m Tourism Australia partnership over sabotage

by Marketing ON 28 November 2012

Qantas has suspended its $50 million marketing deal with Tourism Australia over claims the tourism body’s boss, Geoff Dixon, is involved in a consortium to takeover the airline.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce wrote to Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson yesterday to put its 40-year partnership with the federal government’s tourism body on hold, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Joyce claims Dixon, a former Qantas CEO, is deliberately trying to sabotage the airline, tried to block the airline’s deal with Middle East carrier Emirates and was “agitating” behind the scenes to remove Qantas’ management.

A spokesperson for Qantas confirmed the split between the long-term partners to Marketing. “This conflict has arisen from the involvement of Tourism Australia’s chairman with a syndicate that is actively canvassing fundamental changes to the Qantas Group strategy, including the proposed partnership with Emirates,” the spokesperson said. “Qantas cannot continue to collaborate with an agency whose chairman is a member of a syndicate committed to unravelling Qantas’ structure and direction.”

In the letter sent to Mr Ferguson, Joyce is believed to have cited an “untenable” conflict of interest on the behalf of Dixon amid claims he was leading the consortium to buy out the airline.

The group is reported to have been buying up shares in Qantas, with a view to potential takeover, and has been scouting for global investors, according to aviation sources. It’s reported retailer Gerry Harvey, media investor John Singleton, former Qantas executive Peter Gregg and venture capitalist Mark Carnegie are part of the group, which recently bought 2% of stock in the national carrier.

Joyce is understood to have voiced concerns to the government in the past over Dixon’s involvement in the scheme. The Qantas chief claims Dixon could not act impartially as a government-appointed chairman while privately seeking to undermine the carrier.

In the meantime, Qantas said it will redirect the marketing spend to state-based tourism bodies. In a statement, the airline said, “Qantas remains committed to supporting Australian tourism. Not one dollar will be removed from tourism marketing as a consequence of this decision. Rather than providing this support through the federal agency, Qantas will instead look to do so through the states.”

The suspension includes both Qantas and Jetstar, barring some key initiatives already underway to avoid impacting on the tourism stakeholders involved.

10 pricing lessons from cartoons: the sequel

by Jon Manning ON 3 October 2012

But wait… there’s more!

Last month, I shared some of my favourite pricing cartoons with Marketing mag readers. The ongoing popularity of cartoons surprises me, given the decline in the medium that for many years they’ve called home: the newspapers.

With that in mind, here are another ten great pricing cartoons.

Paired products

This first cartoon illustrates one of two things (possibly both). Firstly, the advantage of have two pricing levers (the tree and the axe) that come from using non-linear/two-part pricing models, or secondly the advantage of selling paired products (like razors and blades, iPods and iTunes).

Bundle carefully

There are many risks associated with bundling products and services. The risk that is illustrated here is creating a bundle with a product or service that customers don’t really want.

Computers often get bundled with software (or is it the other way around?), and this gets taken to the illogical next step in this cartoon, with the caption reading “I haven’t the slightest idea who he is. He came bundled with the software”.

How not to price a new product

I am still amazed how often I see this happen… and how late it happens in the new product development process. Companies or people design and build fantastic products and either leave the pricing until the last moment, or pull a price out of thin air, like we see here.

Pricing should be part of the new product development process. It should be a forethought, not an afterthought.

Bati the customer

As I mentioned last month, cartoons can be a great way to get a serious message across using humour. This was exactly the thinking in the cartoon, which appeared in an ACCC publication a number of years ago. This cartoon illustrates what is known as bait advertising: in this case, advertising actual bait for sale, when you don’t have any or do not intend to sell it… you want to sell something a little bit more expensive… like fishing boats.

Collusion

This cartoon is taken from the same publication, and points out that it’s illegal to collude with your competitors to set the price of a product or service.

Cheap ills

Here are two cartoons that share a common theme: the pricing of pharmaceuticals. In the first cartoon, we see a patient hoping she’s coming down with a ailment she can afford the medicine for. Maybe she’s hoping for a ‘cheap’ disease, like the patient in the second cartoon, for which she can take a cheap, generic medicine.

Empty the customers pockets

There never seems to be any shortage of cartoons lampooning the oil companies and their pricing. This is the first of two such cartoons where the driver filling up his car is also filling up the profits of the oil company.

Highway robbery

The second, captionless cartoon likens the oil companies to Australia’s most famous (or infamous) villain, Ned Kelly, bearing a striking resemblance to a petrol pump.

Speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

This penultimate cartoon really doesn’t need much of an introduction. It’s a cryptic criticism of the pricing model commonly used in a wide variety of professional services industries, most notably in this cartoon, the legal profession.

The customer’s revenge

The final cartoon is from the early 1990s, and prior to the real commericalisation of the internet. The hand coming through the computer terminal is that of an airline passenger who has just been told by the reservations agent that the cheap airfare they have just purchased now has even more restrictive terms and conditions.

The timelessness of this cartoon is that this situation still happens today, perhaps even more so. Passengers may not be ringing call centers to book their flights, they do that themselves online, but they can still vent their spleen via their computers, their tablets and their smart phone (via social media) if they’re not happy with anything.

Traditional PR gives way to ‘brand journalism’

by Marketing ON 10 September 2012

Traditional PR may disappear altogether as it gives way to ‘brand journalism’, shifting the focus of a brand’s efforts from bombarding consumers with me-oriented messaging to a pull-style, content marketing approach where the brand acts like a newsroom.

The future belongs to businesses that become the media, says Tim Gray, content strategist for online marketing firm Blue Fountain Media, advocating an approach where PR practitioners create content by covering their business and industry like a reporter.

“‘Me’ is a losing proposition if you want to build an audience in today’s vast digital landscape,” Gray writes on communications news site ragan.com. “It’s old-school public relations and marketing.”

Storytelling designed to attract, engage, entertain and inform your target audience is the way of the future, Gray adds. A recent report from social shopping agency Bazaarvoice seconds Gray’s sentiments, arguing that advertising and marketing is becoming so ubiquitous that it’s increasingly ignored.

“Brands no longer have a captive audience in traditional media channels,” the report reads. “Companies today can’t just broadcast any message and expect everyone to listen… social allows anyone to create, publish, and share media.”

Brands must become media companies, capturing attention by being helpful, interesting, or entertaining, rather than interrupting consumers and expecting them to listen. “Stop marketing. Stop selling. Start educating, entertaining, and informing in ways that captivate the people you want to reach,” the report adds.

Gray highlights a number of big brands in the US who are already engaging in a brand journalism approach. International bank HSBC started Business Without Borders, a website that offers business tips and market trends that the bank’s products may touch. Its ‘journalists’ rarely speak directly about any HSBC loans or banking tools, they simply crate interest around subjects HSBC is involved in.

Software company Cisco’s also began brand journalism efforts last year with The Network, a technology news website the company pairs with its social media engagement program.

Gray offers several tips for organisations embarking on a brand journalism approach, including:

Act like a journalist: Learn the questions and concerns of your audience and create a discussion around those interests,
encourage team members to pitch and produce news stories around topics you focus your business on,
develop an editorial calendar that lets readers know they can expect fresh content on a regular basis,
create content you can reuse and repurpose across multiple media platforms,
show the world you are an expert in your field, not just a producer of goods and services,
the content must have a life away from your product or service. A campaign will make it far across social media,
request feedback and hone your skills from comments (add a comment section at the bottom),
use Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ to pull your audience toward you. Add social buttons on each content page to make it easy for readers to share, and
develop interesting and unique content that will encourage readers to learn more about your business.