We Need a National Do Not Mail Registry

Most people have heard of the National Do Not Call Registry.  What about a National Do Not Mail Registry?  I for one am sick of receiving piles of junk mail.   It makes me cringe filling my recycling box with wasted paper.  Especially those credit card applications!  Direct mail accounts for 2.4% of all land fills, and then factor in all the wasted ink and energy to produce and deliver them.

I do have to applaud the efforts of the industry to set a green standard with formation of the Green Marketing Coalition.  Understand direct mailing has its place in marketing.  It does return $12 for every dollar spent.

But they could save their time and money by allowing people like me opt out.  So all of us who have the knee jerk reaction of tossing it in the garbage, should demand a National Do Not Mail Registry.

Product Placement On Cable TV

The average U.S. household now receives a whopping 119 cable channels.  With packages ranging from a handful of the basic channels to packages  with over 500 channels,  the  large number of channels  will dilute ratings.  The growth of channels could actually  help  advertisers  in the placement products.  While consumers have a myriad of options, much of the growth has been in niche channels, such as Animal Plant or Cartoon Network.

These niche channels may receive lower ratings, but have a more targeted audience.  This smaller targeted audience allows advertisers to reach the consumers more likely or interested in a particular.  For  example, a new toy could be advertised on the Cartoon Network to reach the desired audience of children., or Home Depot advertising on the Home & Garden Network.

Also the dilution of ratings will reduce the cost of advertising on these niche channels.  Although they’re more effect of reaching their intended market.

Celebrity Clout

We all see those celebrity endorsements on TV or in print. Have they ever swayed you to buy a product?  Never really had any effect on my purchasing decision.  Probably cause my celebrity IQ is in the single digits. I am the guy at the party or in the conversation who doesn’t know that famous star.  The one guy who’s asking, “Who’s Hannah Montana?”.  My five year old daughter had to clue me in to her being the greatest rock star alive.  Any thing she sees with her image, she has to have.

According to New York Times online article, Nothing Sells Like Celebrity, advertisers double the use of celebrities in advertisements over the last decade, and last year they appeared in 14% of all advertisements.  Celebrity endorsements do help sell a product.

What makes the celebrity endorsement sale a product?  The blog, Celebrity Endorsement, Once More Softly, by Grant McCracken sheds a lot of light on this question.  Check out this blog, and especially the comments.  Let me know if you agree with him.

Branding At Its Best

When you think of successful branding, a hand full of companies come to the mind. The company with best branding has to be Coca Cola. Although I do have a bias. Growing up my in mom’s house, drinking anything other then Coca Cola was considered a sin.   We

Coca Cola has one of the best brands, cause of all the merchandise.   If you ever been to a flea  market, your sure to find tons of it.  I searched coca cola on Ebay.  I found over 12,000 items for sale.  WOW!  It had everything from coca cola refrigerators  to  old  bottles,  and everything  in between.

Plenty of coca cola collectors out there to buy all this stuff.  If want read more about coca cola, check out there blog.

Oh one more thing, my mom created the coke float long before McDonald’s did.

Social Media Future of Online Marketing

Recently a Google executive, Tim Armstrong, spoke to Canadian Business magazine about the importance of online Social Media in marketing (Link).  Many large corporations have started blogs or social media sites to interact with customers or for communications within their organization.  The online article 35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action list many corporate examples.  General Motors has created a blog to interact with its customer base on design issues.  The interesting in my opinion is the New York Times Firefox add-on.  This new add-on allows readers to comment on the articles.

So go check it out, and let me know what you think!

Shifting Away From Paper

Today the largest newspaper publisher, Gannett Company, reported a 36 percent drop in second quater earning.  The company contributes the decrease in earning to lagging advertising sales.  The publishing advertising revenue declined by fourteen percent with its main printed publication, USAToday, declining seventeen percent. 

Although the U.S. economy is weaking, can’t help to wonder how much of decline can be contributed to the  migration readers and advertisers to the internet.  Yes, Gannett does have a large internet presences with over 100 online sites, and they have a USAToday online.  But the internet is full of choices, unlike a news stand with only a handle full of any particular subject.

Has Starbucks watered down its’ coffee?

Not speaking literally, but has the Starbucks brand been diminished by it product placement and too many stores.  I remember the first time I had a Starbucks.  Was visiting my dad in Dallas.  The first thing I noticed was all the young people hanging out and drinking.  The place was packed inside and out without an empty chair or table.  Now when I visit Starbucks, I see one or two working professionals typing away on their laptops, or small a group of people conducting a business meeting.   Its never near full, half for that matter, with the exception of the Starbucks located in Barnes & Noble.

Don’t get me wrong I love Starbucks coffee, but am one of the many grab it to go.  The experience and atomsphere has gone from the local coffee shop to hang out to the fast food of coffee.  According to a Business Week online article Starbucks: How Growth Destoryed Brand Value,  the founder, Howard Shultz, in a leaked internal memo admits the growth of Starbucks has destoryed the Starbucks experience of a “warm feeling of a neighborhood store.”

Recently they have annouced they shutting down 600 stores.  This comes as no surprise to anyone.  With so many stores and so close together. 

For example, near where am living at highway 635 and MacArthur, there are three stores within a quarter mile.  Not only are they competing with each other, but it destorys the whole concept of being a local neighborhood coffee shop. 

Not only do you have three Starbucks to chose from, you have the option of purchasing a pound of their coffee or one of their packaged drinks from two super markets and the numerous gas stations. 

Clearly closing their stores will cut cost and boost sales in remaining stores in those areas, but feel they taken a small step and need to take more radical action.

Blogging In China

With the raise of global economy and China as an economic power, China has been a new market for international companies.  According to The Economist web article “The party, the people and the power of cyber-talk“, since the end of 2002, the amount of computers connected to the internet has doubled to 45.6 million.  It also states there are 111 million daily internet users, and over 30 million blogs.  China has now become the second largest users of the internet, second to only the Unit States.

About a month ago, I read an article in The Economist magazine at a bookstore (Sorry don’t remember the title, and couldn’t find it) about company in China.  The company is in the business of monitoring bloggers in China for multinational companies.   For  example, if McDonald’s introduced a new sandwich, they would search through thousands of Chinese bloggers for customer feed back.

The company also would enlisted bloggers to post positive comments or blogs about its’ customers, or counter negative postings from bloggers.  Basically, they try and sway the online community’s  perception of a company.

It was a very interesting article recently published in The Economist with the last month.  I’ll continue to try and find it, but you have a copy of it or know it name.  Please let me know.

Advertising Jingle

The following jingle goes to the tune of the Marine Corps Hymn:

From the halls of Home Depot,
To the stores of Wal-Mart;
We market our store brands
On the radio, TV, and Internet;
First to rebate and discount
And to keep our store’s clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of Northwood Marketing.

Our banners’ unfurled to every breeze
From the sales to salesroom;
We advertised in every market
Where we could make a buck;
In the malls of far-off northern Richardson
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job
The Northwood Marketing.

Here’s coupons to you and to our demographic
Which we are proud to sale;
In many of sales we’ve fought for shelve space
And have never lost our sales;
If the competitor and the customer
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes;
They will find the streets are advertised
By the Northwood graduate.
This is what I have so far.  If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to post a comment.

Census Data And Marketing

The use of the government census data can help marketers determine where to  place  advertisements.  The census data can be accessed for free online at http://www.census.gov/.   The website contains all sorts of information that may be helpful in creating a advertisement geared towards the demographic or help determine your target market.  Helpful items may be the average median  income by state, or the population projected estimate growth.  The major draw backs are:  the information can be several years old, projected growth trends or patterns /  trends may have changed, and looks at the entire of a state, not local metro areas or counties.

Well I find the site to be very interesting and helpful.  And recommend checking it out.