Friday, November 24, 2006

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Raymond Carver, in his eponymous short story collection, goes not just for the concept of love but for how we think and feel about love. I like Jayne Anne Phillips characterization in her review of the book: we speak not of love itself, but of the delicate structures and distortions that support love.

That's why I was struck by the Advertising article in the NY Times today by Louise Story on W-O-M, word-of-mouth marketing. She notes how a new word-of-mouth firm, the Keller Fay Group, seeks to demystify consumer conversations about brands. Keller Fay asks people to keep a diary of conversations that mentions products or brands and later asks them for the details. She quotes Ed Keller as saying, "When you talk about engagement, as a lot of marketers are, people talking about your brand is the ultimate engagement." On average, Story writes, Keller Fay finds that people discuss dozens of brands each day.

Keller Fay is doing great work that can be very valuable to marketers. The challenge, though, is how do you go deeper to understand what those brand mentions mean. Like Raymond Carver's short stories, how do you understand the structures and the distortions that support the dropping of brand names?

I would recommend building on this initial research by seeking to understand the psychological and cultural nuances beneath the structures of the words. Wal-Marting in Texas is certainly different from Wal-Marting in New Jersey, especially when, from town to town and from state to state, the income levels and the needs of those customers can vary widely.

How do you contrast the power of highway billboard with that David Ogilvy-inspired long ad copy in The New Yorker?

Building up the context is critical in really getting to the heart of how consumers think and feel about your brand. Word-of-Mouth is a powerful tool. When I put together the marketing plan for Listerine Pocketpaks (and this was before Gladwell's The Tipping Point), I knew that no 30-second ad was going to convey the power of the product. My whole plan was predicated on buzz and sampling.

As marketers have become more sophisticated about using word-of-mouth to launch and build brands, the challenge is no longer how to surf along on the cresting waves of conversations. I think Keller Fay is doing a great job and providing a needed service. The goal should be to dive deeper into that sea of chatter and to understand what consumers mean when they talk about their brands. That is when you will get pearls of wisdom.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Muddy Waters: Who do you trust (online)?

Ain't that right? Muddy Waters singing Who do you trust? It's perfectly clear.

The Wall Street Journal published an article last week noting that the web site for Wal-Mart is in the top 5 for online retailers and that the growth rates for pure online retailers will be lower this Christmas vs. last Christmas. They noted that many consumers are using the internet to vet their choices for information before they go into the stores, and, if they want to buy online, they are more and more trusting the web sites of bricks-and-mortar retailers.

For many marketers, that big Directions for Use sign is becoming increasingly clear. Consumers want to buy from "trusted advisers" who also offer worry-free shopping experience.

The challenge online is in becoming that trusted adviser. The need is there to bundle together:
- Packaging information
- Advertising and promotion
- Frequent buyer programs
- Consumer education
- the Virtual User experience
- Friends and Family and Word-of-Mouth endorsements.

Five-star guarantees go to the best and the brightest in communications this holiday season. And it is up to many manufacturers and retailers to pay extra attention in how they communicate to earn that customer's trust.

One of the best ways of determining your success is hosting online site research, allowing real people to provide real-time reactions to site design, information and purchase experience.

There is so much unfiltered, diluted and poor information experiences, that those brands that stand out in terms of how they put out their products will be the real winners not just this season but for seasons to come.

Friday, November 10, 2006

The Power of Altering Perceptions

Last night I attended a reception for Equal Access, a non-profit organization. Equal Access provides information and education about healthcare and social issues through radio in developing countries. The organization is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Kathmandu, Nepal; Kabul, Afghanistan; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and New Delhi, India. It was founded in the belief that people everywhere are entitled to Equal Access to information and education and should have the opportunity to join the dialogue as both recipients and contributors of that information. The organization's radio programming focuses on healthcare issues like HIV awareness, women's rights, youth issues, teacher training and migration.

I have done some advising for Equal Access, and you can learn more about the organization by reading my Wikipedia article on Equal Access.

The reception was particularly noteworthy because it featured a reading by the Pulitzer-prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri. I was struck by the fact that Equal Access is all about providing people in rural areas with information that will help them change their perceptions of themselves, while, the characters in Ms. Lahiri's book of short stories, The Interpreter of Maladies, are changed by the discordant knowledge of how they see themselves and how others perceive them.

This is the truest impact of insight. Whether it is about how you think about brands, evaluate your health or perceive your status in society. Good communications possess the power to alter perceptions and drive growth.



Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Is Personal Care Geared For Boomer Gadgets?

Boys love gadgets. Girls say they don't but they do. Do either boys or girls want a straight edge in their hand that vibrates like a razor with Parkinson's? Let's go beyond the Fusion and move to Mach 50.

The number of US Boomer Consumers over age 50 is going to increase 25% from 89 million to 111 million by 2016, while the number of 18-49 year old consumers is going to remain flat at 135 million.

Have you seen those razor studs electronically trimming those whiskers like a hot knife through melted butter leaving their skin soft and smooth to their woman's touch? Or the women enjoying a glide as smooth as Botticelli's Venus rising from a sea shell?

Well, that's just fine if you want to target your product development and advertising to a consumer segment that is flat and your real goal in marketing is to steal share.

The last time I figured it men and women over 50 still shave, but who is taking the time to understand the changing dynamics of older skin care or older teeth or older hair.

Now there's a growth market that can be targeted by

- understanding the physical dynamics of body change
- adapting product performance to deliver superior benefits
- using built-in technologies to provide performance feedback
- offering clear, simple, "readable" directions
- creating design that excites and delights.

Every day 10,000 Boomer Consumers turn 50. If you captured those newly minted birthday boomer boys and girls via a promotion at Wal-Mart or Walgreen's, you would be thrilled with the incremental sales.

But if you gave them an small personal electric product that truly met their needs, looked good and felt good, they would be thrilled.

Now that's consumer satisfaction.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Hippes Hype Habits into Rituals

I listened to an interesting presentation by Jody Crane of New Solutions and Caroline Gibbons of Portico Research about how people adopt "new" habits for themselves.

They were making distinctions between habits, routines and rituals. I won't go into the details of their proprietary research, but here is what struck me about developing insights and pitching products to consumers.

Forget those Eisenhower-era marketing touts focused on functional benefits.

Those Hippies (now Baby Boomers) are more interested in the emotional benefits of products. Yes, they expect certain functional benefits, but functional benefits alone (those reasons to believe) are not enough in commodity product categories.

In an increasingly complex, threatening, multi-multi-media world, people want things that not only do good but make them feel good about using them.

Good design is an increasing cost of entry. And why not? Do you want a lime green tea kettle or a shiny, sleek Michael Graves tea kettle from Target? They cost the same. But which one makes you feel good about using it.

It all goes back to that Sixties revolution that asked for everyone to tune in. Today, the marketing translation of "tuning in" is an appeal to emotions. Eisenhower moms bought in to what worked best. Soccer moms expect that what they buy works; what seals the deal is the emotional appeal.

That soap in your shower. Lifebuoy, that gets rid of B(ody)O(dor) or L'Occitane's high-lather, citrusy Verbena soap. Unilever has got it down now with Dove. Real pampering soap for real women.

How do you transform your product from something that people use out of habit into something that becomes a ritual. Understand the emotions at play and play to them. Rituals operate at a higher level of involvement. That is where the premium play is.