MarCom Professional

Further evidence that consumer confidence is taking a beating emerged this week and made me think more about what this will mean for marketers operating in a depressed commercial environment.

My previous post alluded to the need to adjust marketing and PR strategies to take into account the fact that none of us are going to feel particularly flush in the next 12 months, and how this might impact on the habits of the great British public. I had dinner with some friends earlier this week and realised that talk of us spending more time at home (and less time spending money on the high street) isn't just theory - it's happening now!

Two out of three have spent the last two weekends at home, one has installed Sky Broadband so that she can download music and movies and, she says, order takeaway. More...

I noticed a couple of months ago that lots of people on my commuter train were using Facebook on their mobiles. Quite normal people, happily poking friends on their way to work. Last week, during a presentation to a big media group, we ask the question we always ask (which is a bit of a hostage to fortune), ‘how many of you use the mobile internet’. Half the room’s hands shot up. Half! And what were they using? Facebook!

Figures from the company back up this anectodal evidence; according to a post on the Facebook blog, the company has tripled its mobile users to 15 million over the past year. More...

People aged over 40 are often amazed by what is happening online. Sometimes they find it difficult to consider things the way those born in the 1970s do. For instance, people under 30 tend to distrust corporates and they also seek the best solutions for what they want to achieve, regardless of brand. In spite of what you might think from media coverage, surveys tell us that the younger generations are not really that brand aware.

That's a problem for traditional business which is geared around promoting brands. Indeed, it's still the way that much business is generated online. But the world is changing fast. More...

Consumers are never happy unless you give them what they really want

In another recent post, Seth Godin commented on how consumers are never happy, but are constantly demanding freebies, updates and product improvements from businesses.

Seth suggests you can continue feeding the demands of unhappy customers, as though trying to buy a spoilt child’s affection, or you can give them what they really want: a sense of connection, to feel appreciated and loved.

Generic mass marketing cannot make people feel special or loved. Email blasting the same message to every customer is like sending a bulk message to your entire address book at Christmas, when what they really want is a personal message in an individually addressed card. More...

I was invited to speak at an event in Vienna by Comverse last week. The conference topic was Ring Back Tones (Comverse are the market leader in this field) but with a focus on mobile advertising. I gave a presentation on what must be considered to effectively implement mobile advertising from a users perspective. 

I must admit to having not considered RBT as a channel for mobile advertising. An interesting presentation from Turkcell showed how brands jingles are being used in the channel. A customer can select to have a brand jingle as their ring back tone to receive free air time minutes. More...

An interesting campaign for Pepsi in Latin America turned up in my inbox this week.

Pepsi’s “Kung Fu Fighting” Widget is a mobile software application that is part of an international TV ad campaign for the Pepsi brand and beverages that began airing last week in Latin America.

Pepsi’s TV commercial for “Kung Fu Fighting” features modern remakes of the 1974 funk classic “Kung Fu Fighting,” and centres on a light-hearted competition to win the last can of Pepsi. In an attempt to secure the can, people break out in a freestyle dance-off to the sounds of “Kung Fu Fighting,” as remastered by Grammy-award winning artists Shaggy and T-Pain, along with hot new female recording artist Tami Chynn. More...

In a culture jaded from decades of interruption style advertising, people praise their digibox, for enabling them to skip the ‘annoying’ ad break, and ruthlessly bin emails which have the merest whiff of spam. Some think that advertisers and marketers are out to trick them, to make them feel unhappy or inadequate so they can then sell them products to heal their pain.

When you add the credit crisis to the equation, it’s unsurprising why some believe/hope we’re on the verge of a cultural shift away from consumerism and towards (supposedly) a bright new utopia in which people find meaning in other ways than the pursuit of ‘things’. More...

Customers love to be loved. In fact, we tend to shy away from companies who dislike us in some way. Only last week, after 9 years of loyal custom, I cancelled my Annual Membership with the RAC; I had found I could get an equivalent breakdown service for a quarter of the price. I rang the RAC and said I wanted to cancel my membership. I was asked why and I explained I had found an alternative supplier. I was then told my membership would be cancelled in 30 days. I wasn't asked any further questions, nor was any attempt made to keep me as a customer. In other words, they were just collecting "data" for themselves and I was treated just like a number; I'm glad I left and I won't be going back. More...