Mad 4 Blog

The height of marketing power right now may come in the smallest of forms; in fact, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Although marketers have been employing cell phones for years—via call surveys and even text message campaigns, for example—the newest and smartest way to engage on-the-go customers is now by creating mobile applications that smartphone users can download immediately and use indefinitely.

Can’t They See My Website Online?

Yes, but mobile apps load faster and provide a much more user-friendly experience for someone who’s viewing your data on a small screen, with the range of buttons available to them (as opposed to a full keyboard and mouse). With a mobile app, your menu can be tailored to services that people are most likely to be seeking while out-of-home. For example, your main page can reflect your directory and a map to your location. Or you can offer one-click sales without all the flash and graphics or the dense text information that’s available on your website. Plus, you’ll be listed among their favorite and most-used programs on their phone. It’s an automatic bookmark and frame of reference so they’ll never forget your name—or that cute little logo or icon that reflects your brand.

What Perks Does a Mobile App Offer?

The greatest single advantage to offering a mobile app is that you can interject your business at any time, anywhere and give your customers—or prospects—an immediate, direct connection to your products and services the moment they think of needing them. Besides that, constantly seeing your application and thinking of your brand keeps you top-of-mind. At the very least, because mobile apps are so prevalent, if you don’t have one, it’s probable that your competition will make one first.

How Can I Stand Out in the Crowd?

There are numerous jokes being made about the number of apps out there in the world; but the answer to making a big statement with yours is actually quite simple: Target your key audience. It’s not like your account is going to be the new Facebook and show up on the face of every cell phone; not every single person will want a direct route to your business information. But there is a group of niche individuals who will. The greatest task with mobile applications, as with most forms of marketing, is identifying and getting in contact with those who will benefit the most by communicating with you. Once the app is downloaded, it’s all downhill from there.

By tying in your mobile app with a comprehensive marketing campaign, you can direct interested parties to your mobile app and keep them connected. Once someone has you listed among their collection of valued apps, you can offer incentives that are only available through your mobile app and then consistently reward prospective customers for having it on their phones and checking in on a regular basis.

A few weeks ago, The New York Observer and other outlets began reporting on a trend making its way through the celebrity world: reverse or anti-product placement. Called a “wicked” new marketing strategy, this fascinating pattern describes marketing and public relations companies sending out free samples to famous persons with the hope of linking that brand with the A-lister’s strong public image.

But what’s so strange about that? Haven’t agencies been mailing out free samples and swag for decades? Isn’t it actually a commonly used form of publicity and sponsorship?

Yes; but now the difference is that they’re not just sending out the goods of their clients. They’re sending out samples from their client’s competition. Why would they do that? Well, because they’re sending out those branded products to celebrities with whom their own brand would never associate. For example, gleeful (albeit probably untrue) rumors are rampant in the fashion industry that a competing designer brand sent Snooki (the moniker for Nicole Polizzi of MTV’s “Jersey Shore”) a handbag from Gucci—all in an effort to devalue the respectable brand and boost their own sales. Snooki, who’s been in the news recently due to an arrest for disorderly conduct, is infamous for her less-than-brilliant comments and untoward antics on her hit reality television show, now in its second season.

The Observer also calls this tactic “deviously dirty” as a form of “unbranding.” It sounds technically legal—but could there be connotations of negatively associating a brand that fall under libel? Maybe someday; for one thing, the worlds of fashion and celebrity certainly love to argue about brand and copyright infringement, and they never shy from a potentially publicity-inducing legal battle.

So what do you make of this practice? Is it bratty or genius? Is it even ethical?

In a world where Tiger Woods can still swing a club like nobody’s business but can’t sell a pair of sneakers because of the goings-on in his personal life, there’s certainly something to be said about how seriously the American public takes brand association. In fact, perhaps we should be a little surprised that this sort of thing didn’t become common practice a lot sooner, especially way back when there were Martha Stewart arrests and Britney Spears breakdowns to capitalize on with anti-product placement.

At Mad 4 Marketing, reverse product placement doesn’t quite bear the level of finesse that we would want to enact for our customers and clients. We prefer to help you build and market strong brands that stand out simply because they’re the best and reaching the best-suited audiences for your products and services. But in the meantime, it does provide us with a hearty laugh behind our hands and something to chat about on meeting breaks.

And it makes us pay a little more attention to what Ms. Snookums is going to wear next week on “Jersey Shore”—and wonder where it really came from!

On the heels of this article, which explains how Hulu.com uses surveys to gauge an audience’s opinion on ads, comes a recent story out of Australia. The down under nation’s Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) is dealing with less-than-positive feedback on its published content. But not only is this feedback negative, it’s also out of left field. Naturally, when you ask for your audience’s opinion, you have to take what you get. And as every suggestion-box-key-holder knows, every informed and constructive comment comes with a dreary downside: the throngs of merciless, inapplicable complaints.

Surveying is one of the most useful tools for marketers, and having eyes and ears in the field is invaluable. How else to accurately and objectively measure how well your work is doing? But when you solicit for comments, it means taking the good with the bad (and having the wisdom to know the difference). Someone has to read them, and someone has to sort them, but is there any easy way to whittle down the winners from the whiners?

As outlined by the Sydney Morning Herald, examples of useless reports included:

- A dancing child as being too perverse.
- A child eating an ice cream cone as being sexualized.
- A rude redhead as being vilified for her coloring.
- An errant wool ball as promoting violence against Victorians.

Tactfully, the ASB states that the real problem comes down to allocation of resources, stating that time and money can’t be spent addressing irresolvable issues. Marketing survey site Mumbrella, which analyzed a sample of received complaints earlier this year, was far less restrained, calling the task a matter of dealing with “idiots” and “single-issue zealots.” Many of the criticisms led the agency to believe that complainers might even be reporting out of spite for a particular brand or product, rather than actually taking issue with the commercial itself. However, due to quality control regulations currently in place, even one raised issue warrants an investigation by the ASB. And the number of incoming complaints has more than doubled in the past half-decade alone.

Even if a significant percentage of feedback is coming from “the nutty fringes of society,” according to the ASB, how can the bureau separate the wheat from the chaff? A system of standards is being implemented that takes into account a new set of clauses dictating what is and isn’t nationally pre-approved. For example, dogs on a leash are not examples of animal abuse. While it may seem painstaking to parse out the more minute depictions of questionable behaviors, these guidelines are expected to make it that much easier to quickly sort and reduce complaints so that only the most practical are left to consider.

Chief Executive Fiona Jolly of the Advertising Standards Bureau informs that an estimated 10-30% of incoming complaints would be filtered out by this system. The percentage of previously discarded pre-filter complaints is unknown, but at least will be markedly reduced—making it that much easier to focus on the comments that can actually be used to approve quality advertising content that appeals to most audiences.

Collecting a random survey group to test products and offer unbiased feedback is one of the bedrock systems of marketing. Whether this method means dragging a clipboard outside for street polling or years of formal data collection, one thing is for certain: As technology advances, so do survey methods. But how advanced is too advanced? And when does surveying cross the line between enlightening and overblown?

Well-known soup brand Campbell’s recently conducted extensive surveying to test how a remodel of their iconic logo would go over with consumers. Understandably, tweaking a design that’s been used for more than one hundred years is not a decision that the brand would want to take lightly. But they didn’t just ask what people thought of different images. Rather, they hooked participants up to monitors that would gauge their biological responses as they viewed various soup cans. This process is known as neuromarketing.

Campbell’s decided to use this tactic rather than polling or verbal surveying to avoid the discrepancies that traditionally exist between what people say they like and their actual buying habits. Executives decided not to rely on consumers to accurately report what they liked. Instead, they based their decisions on pure physical responsiveness such as pupil dilation, heart rate, sweating, breathing and posture. Scientists and specialists monitored participants as they went on simulated shopping experiences and browsed the aisles for soup. Campbell’s new soup can design is based on these results. For example, if survey members salivated over a soup can displaying a bigger bowl of soup, that bowl would now be on the label. This testing took place over the course of two years.

It would probably take a lot of surveying to determine if this sort of investigation is considered worthwhile in the conventional world of marketing. But one thing is certain: Most businesses cannot afford to dabble in the same kind of pricey testing as Campbell’s.

A more realistic option with time-tested results is a focus group, which can be arranged by a marketing agency such as Mad 4 Marketing. Unlike the Campbell’s technique–which cuts consumer opinion right out of the picture as if it’s out of style–a focus group really explores what select candidates think and feel about brands, services and products. Unlike a poll, which can be out-of-context and impersonal, focus groups go more in-depth as participants familiarize with the topic at hand. And rather than cutting a broad swath of random survey participants, a focus group can be tailored to really reflect a company’s audience. If you’re selling women’s sneakers, for example, you’d collect a group of athletically inclined females who regularly shop for gear, as well as those who have expressed an interest in becoming more active. Naturally, the process of choosing participants would be based on previously collected data and demographical information that would also be used in all future marketing endeavors for that campaign.

Overall, focus group testing is shorter and simpler than neuromarketing—plus, it’s a much more cost-effective research method. And despite what Campbell’s seems to think, asking people what they want and letting them provide thoughtful and voluntary responses is still a viable technique when it comes to marketing.

Marketing to Women – Fast Facts

For the past few weeks, we have been talking about how to adjust your advertising tactics to specifically target the female market. To provide a lighter, broader overview, here are some fun facts, interesting quotes and extra tips we have collected:

Quick Quotes

-  “When it comes to big purchases, the conversations have been primarily directed toward men. The theory seemed to be that the hunters decided what to get and the gatherers went out and got it.”
-  “Many companies make the mistake of thinking they need to create a separate brand to reach women, one that is softer and more accessible. And let’s be honest, they’re also afraid that feminizing the core brand will alienate the guys.”
-  “Women are great at detecting inconsistencies. If your marketing message doesn’t match up with your product performance and your retail experience, you’ve lost her trust and she’ll go somewhere else.”
-  “Women are suckers for quality and, more importantly, when they find it they’re willing to pay for it.”

www.startupnation.com

Five Fun Facts

-  Women buy 50% of all automobiles sold, and play a role in influencing the purchase of 30% more.
-  61% of women have eaten peanut butter straight from the jar, says Glamour.
-  40% of households with assets of more that $600,000 are headed by women.
-  Teen girls are twice as likely as teen boys to actively follow fashion blogs (34% vs. 19%).
-  69% of women over 18 wear lipstick, reports L’Oreal Paris.

Marketing to Women for Healthcare Services

-  Women prefer campaigns for total wellness with lifestyle messaging, as opposed to ads boasting products, solutions or services.
-  Women may respond to healthcare ads with links to real causes in the community.

Marketing to Women for Travel and Lodging

-  Women make 75% of all travel decisions.
-  Women make the safety of their destination and accommodations a priority.
-  Women are wooed by ads promoting art, ambience, architecture and atmosphere.
-  Women are more likely than men to seek out all-inclusive vacations.

www.allbusiness.com

Women are responsible for 85% of buying power. In fact, American women spend about seven trillion dollars per year. So if you think you do not need to dedicate time and money to address women in particular with your products and services, then you might as well be throwing money out the window.

Mad 4 Marketing can put those dollars to better use by devising advertising tactics specifically geared toward women. As a woman-owned and women-run marketing agency with an eye on the trends of gendered buying, we believe we know a thing or two about marketing to women. Here are just a few helpful tips:

Market to Women in a Modern World

One commonly made mistake is when companies assume that marketing to women means separating them according to attributes that were outdated about a century ago. Obviously, women are not black-and-white cookie-cutters of one another—and they should never be pandered to as stereotypes. Remember, women aren’t all mothers and housewives. Even though they make purchasing decisions for men and children, they have their own unique standards and don’t want to be addressed as conduits to the men and children in their lives. In fact, treating all women like Susie Homemaker can actually dissuade a female audience from working with your business. Women don’t just want kitchen appliances and pink products and handsome male models. When you market to modern women, you have to keep in mind relevant, recent analytics about what women are responding to in advertising and how they think about their purchasing power. Relying on research rather than creating a caricature of your female audience is essential.

Think About How to Market to Women – Not What

There is no need to market different products to men than to women. Assuming that a woman wants a silver minivan while men want a blue sports car means that you are alienating large segments of the population. Instead, marketing must simply speak in a certain way to its intended audience. The fact is that women communicate differently than men. Within creative, women want to see organization; for example, they are more likely to buy from a website that is easy to use than their male counterparts, who may linger longer on a less-organized site. Women also like strong, appealing visual design and are more affected by aesthetics than men, who may zero in on the product specs. Contrarily, women like to know about value rather than attributes. Most importantly, women want to build a relationship with your brand. Creating an ongoing bond—such as through membership or rewards for return business—may encourage the female buyer.

Since its inception in 1992, Mad 4 Marketing has focused on keeping the female perspective in mind, and we consider ourselves experts in marketing to women. The company devotes ongoing energy and resources to understanding how women think about buying and investing. Contact Mad 4 Marketing to learn how our insight about marketing to women can help your business grow like MAD.

You may be surprised to hear the above statement, especially coming from us, but it is the simple truth. In good times and bad times, a large percentage of the marketing efforts you put out into the world won’t be as effective as you had planned. What makes marketing successful is the strength of your brand and the emotional connection of your unique message.

An important thing to keep in mind is that failure should not be seen as terminal. In the world of marketing, we tend to look at failures as part of a greater growth process. It’s important to understand what aspects of your marketing endeavors failed or succeeded and then analyze your results to discover why. Many marketing efforts are actually staggered, so that continual analysis/improvement is built directly into the process. Being able to adapt as you go is always a bonus, which is why we never recommend blowing your annual budget on any one tactic. Rather, you should seek cost-effective and well-rounded strategies that will allow you to explore multiple angles and make the greatest possible impact on your determined audience.

Good marketers know that success or failure can be measured in many different ways. For example, even if your conversions aren’t hitting the marks that you expected when you began your marketing campaign doesn’t mean that you haven’t connected with your audience. Every time you engage with prospective clients, you’re building up a bigger presence and allowing them to familiarize with your business and services. Naturally, we always want these impressions to convert to sales. However, the ultimate success of some marketing techniques may not be measurable in nickels and dimes; but by introducing your brand and opening a line of communication, you’re still accomplishing invaluable marketing connections.

As always, consistent and comprehensive marketing campaigns that approach niche audiences from multiple angles over time are the most surefire way to guarantee marketing results. At Mad 4 Marketing, we offer strategic insight that will allow you to enhance brand awareness and connect deeply with your audience through targeted messaging. To address every agenda–from rebranding your company to engaging in social media or even building a complete 360° campaign–we’ve got the talent and experience to help you achieve impactful, successful marketing.

Rebranding can breathe new life into a business and attract new customers. It can also help keep your company current with trends in the marketplace. In 2008, InterMedia became Mad 4 Marketing, so we are definitely familiar with the hurdles of designing, building and exposing a new brand. We know exactly how tricky it can be to spread the word, establish key messages and ensure client retention. But with today’s digital marketing options, rebranding is made even simpler with the help of a few key strategies.

Cost-Effective, Automated Rebranding

First and foremost, using the Internet to establish rebranding is an incredibly cost-effective way to make many people aware of the change. You’ve already got the real estate to advertise it: your own website. Naturally, you don’t want visitors to arrive at your address one day and see that there’s been a complete overhaul. They’ll probably assume they’re in the wrong place and leave altogether. So in weeks and months prior to your rebranding, be sure to let visitors know what they can expect down the line.

Changing your website address entirely? You can retain some of your presence online by setting up an automatic redirect from your old site to your new site. Or, you can leave the old website up but change the homepage to explain where you’ve moved and why. Letting readers click through manually can make an even more solid impression, while providing necessary information. Remind them to also change their bookmarks and links!

Keywords and Consistent Messaging

Today, many businesses earn referrals and acquire clients directly through their website. Naturally, you don’t want to sacrifice your strong online presence or lose incoming traffic when you change your content or location. The only way to combat this is to have an advance plan for SEO. As a large part of your rebranding efforts, remember to target words and phrases that can be used throughout all advertising efforts and tied back into Pay-Per-Click (PPC). Researching effective keywords may take some trial and error as you watch how traffic lands on your new site’s pages. Then you can adapt your PPC investments accordingly to keep your new website at the top of search engine lists.

However, by evaluating where traffic comes from and how it moves through your old website in the months prior to your new brand’s launch, you should be able to deduct which keywords should be carried over, what should be ditched and which content should be carried over directly to your new page—with a change of names, of course. Careful analytics before and after your rebranding process will help you utilize the strongest possible keywords to grab online traffic and express your new message to all visitors.

Using the Power of Links

Aside from keywords and targeted content, another quick way to loan strength to your new page is to build link connections with influential websites. By having many pages linking to your site, especially heavily populated websites, you’ll not only receive direct references from those locations but this will also cause search engines to rank your website higher by association. Once again, web analytics play a large role in this process. You can track who’s been landing on your page and from where to determine all of the major sites who link to yours. Rebranding is a great excuse to reach out to everyone who used to link to your old website and asking them to update their links–while announcing your rebranding initiative.

Of course, it’s also a good time to make new connections and develop contacts online. Figure out which websites might be interested to hear about your rebranding and provide them with all necessary information to promote you. A great way to encourage promotion is to offer a link exchange with them, so that your website is returning the favor to help strengthen them. You may want to come up with other incentives for this kind of partnership, or directly purchase a link. Powerful websites may take your offer more seriously if you begin by linking to them first as a show of good faith. Linking without reciprocation to relevant websites may make them take notice of your page organically while they’re doing their own analytics follow-up.

The most important piece of advice to remember is to be patient. As with all steps in the rebranding process, gaining a solid footing online through redirects, links and keywords may take time. But by utilizing available web analytics and other resources–including your own contacts and existing website–rebranding your business can be much more efficient and affordable.

Want to keep your business relevant with modern marketing? You don’t have to be a super-savvy website guru to do it. But there is one trick you must master: Balance.
Balance is the key to building a strong, successful advertising campaign now and in the future—no matter how the face of media may change. While everyone else is scrambling to keep up with the latest trends, you can build a solid and multi-dimensional campaign that will withstand the latest fads. Here are 5 ways to stay current and stand out:

1) Balance targeted, consistent messaging with multiple approaches.
Hit the same audience over and over with the same message—but from different sources. It’s not enough to use online analytics to geo-target web users without matching that data with local print and/or broadcast ads. Surrounding your prospects on all sides not only enhances brand awareness, but creates an aura of accessibility. Point-blank exposure then graduates into familiarity, leaving room for relationship growth in the future.

2) Balance traditional and non-traditional media.
Break up a series of weekly magazine fliers with a guy in a gorilla suit outside your door. Attention-grabbing techniques create a buzz which can be followed up by more conventional means of communication. Or use out-of-home opportunities (such as a billboard or bus stop ad) to remind passersby of an ad seen earlier on TV. By employing both classic and alternative tactics, you can appeal to more markets. Going all one way or all the other may create an unbalanced tone for your brand—or worse, you may miss out on one audience entirely.

3) Balance analytics/research with creative (be smart but stand out).
Many companies rely on number-crunching and perfectly placed ads to carry their message into the right market. But all the visibility in the world won’t help if you don’t have the compelling concepts and engaging visuals to back up your brand and catch the eye of potential clients. In the increasingly competitive world of marketing, it’s more important than ever to complement strategy with creativity when building a successful campaign.

4) Balance customer retention with customer acquisition.
All of your amazing, cutting-edge advertising across varied media with perfect placement and alluring creative won’t help if your message is simply aimed at new clientele. It’s important that you reward prior and current business with gratuity and acknowledgement, and devote a large portion of your advertising budget to customer retention. It’s much harder to woo a client once they’ve moved on than it is to nurture an existing relationship. Remember: satisfied clients have friends–and so do dissatisfied clients.

5) Balance accessibility/transparency with alluring content that draws return.
Everyone knows how important it is to be straightforward in today’s market. Potential customers expect businesses to be highly visible and transparent about products, services and goals. This is especially true of social media, where accessibility is paramount. However, putting it all out there doesn’t mean that your business shouldn’t have a hint of mystery and allure. Teasers about future deals and further information are a classic that will remain consistent even in the advancing world of marketing.

Embarking on a new relationship with customers isn’t all that different from starting a courtship with a new girlfriend or boyfriend. You begin by trying to catch their attention, and then slowly build upon mutual interest with the hope of turning it into a long-term engagement. There’s a lot of give and take. Communication is optimal. And of course, both parties have to be honest and uphold their end to make things work. This Valentine’s Day, think of the ways you can romance your customers to achieve a lasting relationship.

First Impression
A first encounter is your chance to make one amazing impression with the person you’re hoping to woo. In marketing, this refers to the initial point of contact between your business and your prospective customer. Before you can ask this person out to dinner—or even ask for a phone number—you need to be sure that you’re ready to put your best foot forward. Your first point of contact should be an accurate reflection of who you are and what you can provide, so that they can make up their mind if they want to learn more. Bold, memorable creative is also a key aspect (it always helps to look your best). Your call to action should also be a highlight of your first impression. If you want to make future contact and set up that pivotal first date—if you want to get your foot in the door—then you’ve got to get your customers invested and curious to learn more.

Dating
Once you’ve started going out on dates with your object of affection—or in this case, once you’ve gotten past the first point of contact and initiated a relationship with your customer—the next step is to begin to get to know them, and let them get to know you better as well. It’s not enough to achieve one transaction one time from an interested party. You want to take the successful sale and turn it into a deeper familiarity with your brand, and a deeper investment in your company. Throughout point-of-sale interactions and beyond, you must continue to show your customer that you are committed for the long-haul. That you appreciate their former business with you, and welcome its return. Reminders of prior interactions while keeping your line of communication open are vital at this stage. And to be perfectly honest, it wouldn’t hurt to send flowers. Small tokens of continued interest and gratitude go a long way in nurturing a growing relationship.

Engagement
Okay, so you’ve made it through the trial-and-error period (perhaps provided some products and services to your target audience) and now it’s time to get serious. You want to exclusively supply your products or services to them from now on. This might entail developing incentives for customer loyalty, such as additional discounts or benefits for long-term users. It may also mean that your customer has been invited to register for further information and involvement, such as through a newsletter or subscription. Either the promise of future business or a well-established opportunity to embark on future relations is the equivalent of engagement between you and your customer.

Marriage
Between businesses and their target markets, a marriage is achieved when your customer decides that your brand is the best choice for their continued patronage. They are very familiar with everything you can and will do for them, and they are no longer shopping around. This marriage may come in the form of a contract, or it may be a far less tangible connection. Whatever the terms and conditions may be, this promise of fidelity is never simply cemented with an ‘I do.’ It takes ongoing effort and continued work to ensure that your business stays top-of-mind and best-suited for your betrothed. As you both grow over time, communication and flexibility may be necessary so that the relationship remains mutually beneficial.

If you’re thinking that a baby in a carriage is what comes next, you’re absolutely right. The offspring of your business/customer relationship are the referrals and reputation that you earn through your ongoing trustworthy performance. The longer you maintain satisfying and strong relationships with choice consumers, the stronger your brand will grow and the more rewarding contacts you will gain throughout the life of your business.