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Tag Archives: Cynthia Fedor

Innovative Marketing Tactic or Ridiculous Attempt for Attention?

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le March 30, 2009 – 1:54 pm

I recently came across an article describing Kentucky Fried Chicken’s latest buzz-marketing effort. The company has put a call out to five of the United States’ major cities asking them to allow the fast-food fried chicken chain to “re-fresh” their streets. What does this mean exactly? According to Kenneth Hein’s article in Brandweek, the chicken chain will fill up the city’s potholes in the name of helping the community. Of course, a non-permanent street chalk will top the newly covered potholes with the phrase “Re-freshed by KFC.”

As noted in the article…

Giving back has become a trend for marketers, including Starbucks, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and others that have centered their message around helping the community.

But to me, this attempt seems a little too opportunistic and self serving. Where is the long-term benefit for KFC and for the community? And, is the connection of potholes to chicken meaningful in anyway? What are the positive and negative implications of purposefully making this type of connection?

My opinion of this buzz-marketing attempt and the frame that it’s all in the name of community is not favorable for KFC. As Robert Weissman, director of Commercial Alert, stated in the article:

There is an aggressiveness towards moving into new dimensions of public spaces. This would be another example of this unfortunate incursion of advertising messaging into [consumers' lives]… KFC should fix their menu first.

What do you think? Is this an innovative marketing tactic or a ridiculous attempt for attention?

Ramp Up Business Through Relevant Affiliate Marketing Strategies

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le March 23, 2009 – 11:25 am

dans Marketing Strategy

With all the emerging media and new marketing trends developing, a lot of marketers seem to be forgetting about the good old fashioned ways of driving revenue and retaining customers. There tends to be a singular approach to advertising businesses – an ‘everyone fend for themselves’ way of thinking – at least, that’s what I’m seeing a lot of now. Whatever happened to small businesses linking arms with each other and creating a collective force within their community to drive new business and strengthen bonds with existing customers?

Well, I was happy to come across today’s Duct Tape Marketing blog post that reintroduced this concept as a way to offer value to the customer and grow new business. In his post, John Jantsch discusses the power of teaming up with other businesses that complement your product or services to optimize your marketing dollar and offer better value to your customers. He suggests a more personal affiliate marketing approach:

What if you went out there and looked at the other things your customers need and buy and you recruited a team of partners to give you high value samples or trial products to pair with your core offerings as a way to differentiate and sweeten the deal?

…There are hundreds of ways to approach this and, done well, a smart marketer can greatly enhance their own core offerings, create referral relationships and add passive revenue streams.

In addition to the ‘idea starters’ he notes in his post, I found another great example of what he’s talking about in terms of valuable affiliate marketing on Steve’s Blog:

For instance, imagine the possibilities of a cleaning service, gardener and real estate agent working together. Agents selling homes could recommend a thorough cleaning and adjustments to a home’s curb appeal while the property is on the market. The benefit to the cleaning service and landscaper is new business. The agent, in return for recommending a particular cleaning service and/or landscaper, can negotiate a discounted cleaning or free landscaping consultation for new homeowners. This extra touch offered by the agent to their client may help to build customer loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.

In the end, it’s all about value and relevancy. As John Jantsch puts it:

The key is to focus on value not volume. Anyone can go out and sign up for a bunch of affiliate programs and start pumping those into the mix. Or, gather up promotional materials from other businesses to insert in the products you ship. While these approaches may offer some value, I think you can make this strategy a real winner with a little bit of creative thinking.

Fin. Have a productive day!

In Business, It’s All About the ‘You and Me’

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le March 16, 2009 – 1:09 pm

dans Leadership & Innovation, Marketing Strategy

With SXSW going on in Austin, Texas this week and topics surrounding social media and networking in the forefront of many conversations, I thought it’d be fitting to stress a point that I’ve been hearing a lot of lately. It’s one that I think we all know and value; however, it seems to be taken for granted and often forgotten.

As explained in Friday’s blog post on Steve’s Blog:

As many businesses are scrambling to build their prospect lists and generate revenue during this tough economic period, it’s sad but true, that some have completely forgotten about one of the most important elements in business – the relationship.

…The relationship is key to long-term growth; growth that continues during good times and in bad. Those organizations, where the focus is on the relationship, will thrive – overcoming challenges such as attempts by competitors to steal clients, general mistakes and missteps.

And, as Thom Singer notes in his recent post, Warning: Your Competition is Calling, relationship-building efforts should always be part of a business’ foundation and marketing efforts.

…networking has become very popular again… although my opinion is it should ALWAYS be popular, as it does not work if you turn “networking” on and off based on the economic conditions!…

The focus of and intent of relationship building, for some businesses, is to attract and acquire prospective clients. Singer points out that strengthening and developing the relationship between a business and their current clients is just as important, if not more so…

With the focus on new relationships it is imperative that your company not forget your existing customers. While your sales team is hitting the street chasing new business, you must remember that those prospects are your competitions current clients. While you pounce on their customers and referral sources, do not forget that they are doing the same thing. The difference is that their prospects are YOUR customers… Thus, while you are looking hard to uncover new business, do not neglect your existing clients. Hopefully you have always actively established strong bonds with customers. While it is easy to fire a vendor, it is hard to fire a friend!

So, although driving revenue and turning prospects in to customers are priorities for businesses, recognize that an essential element needed for true continued growth is the relationship.

What do you do to further develop the bond and relationship between you and your clients? Don’t be shy… share.

Where Direct Marketing Online and Offline Meet

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le March 9, 2009 – 1:41 pm

dans Integrated Marketing

As we know, a well-rounded marketing mix utilizing multiple channels improves awareness and boosts response rates. This is proven to be true when talking about traditional marketing and digital media, specifically, when combining direct mail and email marketing. But does it work for merging social networking with traditional marketing methods? Can two marketing methods, on seemingly opposite sides of the spectrum, learn to effectively work together and produce marketing harmony?

Paul Gillin, author of “The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to Social Media” and recently published “Secrets of Social Media Marketing,” thinks so. His article in Deliver magazine, offers 10 ways to blend direct mail efforts with social networking. In my opinion, not all of them are reasonable ways to integrate direct mail with social media marketing. But, some of them can certainly work to spark the interest of existing customers and prospects. The top three that I like include:

1. Guided by content provided by customers online, deliver highly relevant coupons, offers and promotions directly to customer’s physical mailbox.

Surprise them with pertinent mail offerings – Despite what some think, Web-savvy customers do enjoy relevant mail offerings. Drive members from the computer to the mailbox by letting them provide their mailing addresses in exchange for special offers – coupons, product samples, etc. – made exclusively through the mail.

2. Engage with customers online through contests and surveys. Announce winning entries via direct mail. I especially like his idea of integrating online content with a monthly calendar – something that the recipient will likely keep around.

Turn contest entries into direct mail – Have members of your online community vote on content, such as photos submitted by other members. Publish winning entries as a calendar and send it out via direct mail.

3. Use greeting cards to allow customers that are online to share content with potential customers that are offline.

Create a greeting card promotion – People love to send greeting cards to their friends, so make it part of your ongoing campaign. Give members a palette of creative greetings with images and slogans that relate to your business. Enable them to personalize the greetings and specify a mailing address. You do the mailing.

I’m sure there are many creative ways to mix these to channels together. As Gillin points out, the important thing to remember is that:

…community is content. By leveraging contributions from your customers and promoting interactive features on your Web site, you can revitalize direct mail content…

Valpak Not So Confident About Their Direct Mail Services?

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le March 2, 2009 – 2:32 pm

dans Direct Mail Marketing, Direct Response Marketing

As I was watching a little television this past week, I saw a TV commercial from Valpak. Their message was directed toward both consumers and to small businesses. Basically, Valpak was encouraging consumers to look for great coupons and deals in Valpak mailers while trying to describe to small business owners how effective direct mail could be at finding new prospects in their local marketplace. For some reason, this struck me as very odd. I understand why they’d use TV commercials directed toward consumers (to increase awareness of their mailed coupon packs); but why to small businesses? If they were so confident that their direct mail services could effectively connect with relevant people in local markets, why wouldn’t they rely on direct mail to find their own prospects?

As a marketer, I saw this TV commercial as a confusing message that conflicted with their value proposition for small businesses. On their own website they say:

National and cable TV and radio choices are too numerous to effectively and affordably target local audiences. However, almost everyone checks his or her mailbox daily.

So why launch a national TV and newspaper advertising campaign to convince small business owners to use direct mail? Are they sending the wrong message to their own target audience? What do you think?