Category Archives: Marketing

General marketing information

Social Media is Not Just a Fad!

Posted on by

If you Google “is social media a fad” you will find experts that fall on both sides of the audienceissue. However industry experts, in general, agree that social media is still one of the best tools for inbound marketing, it is not a fad, and not going away anytime soon.

A significant 92% of marketers said that social media was important to their businesses in a recent study by Social Media Examiner.  This was up from their 2013 report in which 86% said it was important. What most marketers find is that social media as a whole is important – but the channels shift from “in vogue” to fad status depending on the audience.

Social media opportunities change over time. Some, like podcasting, are seeing a resurgence and others, like Google Plus seem to finally be gathering more users. Social media channels are not all equal. You need to find where your customers are and use those channels to express your content. Fads within social media are part of the ever changing platform for companies to make sure they are on the proper channels. Google Plus has only recently been viewed with more acceptance, in the recent past it was perceived to be more faddish than other channels. Pinterest is a perfect example of something that initially was a fad but as savvy marketers realized the opportunity by using this channel, they jumped on board, using the channel to showcase to their products.

Marketers use multiple channels to reach their audience.   Some argue that it is too many channels to be effective, most marketers know – your customers are not all on one channel – they are usually on one or two and the message needs to be amplified on all channels that are relevant. Creating a cohesive brand representation and integrated social platform is the key to creating solid content and keeping it fresh. Social allows your brand to “manage the message”, and that is crucial to this form of advertising. Social media will be part of the overall marketing and communication package for a brand, and also art of the mission-critical business communication tool for all business objectives.

Interaction with your customers is also one of the key benefits of this form of marketing. Interaction you may not of had before, is now possible. A customer complains on twitter, reply in like channel, meaning reply on twitter. Recently I sent out a tweet about my disappointment in Dillards for a sign that was in their stores. They replied back immediately on twitter with an apology and something more interesting, they said someone else put the signs in the store. Now that makes me curious if it was someone that didn’t like Dillards, or if it was their competitor that posted the signs. What I do know is that they replied fast and succinctly.   This ability was not available before social media – the total turn around time from my post to their post back was in minutes.

Twitter conversation below:

GeekyMarketer  @Dillards – I expected more from you – who thought this was a good idea – http://t.co/8ypLqukDAY

Dillards  @GeekyMarketer We apologize to all that were offended by this story. The sign was not placed there by an employee & has since been removed.

According to the author of the book Digital Leader – “The ROI of social media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.” The truth is that we do not have a magic ball that will tell us what the future holds. While some channels may come in-and-out of popularity, this is why you hire good people to monitor your social efforts and to know when to change the message and the channel to meet growing needs. At this point in time social media is still ranking high with in-bound marketers and the future right now, and it looks promising for the continuation of this practice.

Keywords

#socialmedia #socialchannels #twitter #roisocial

Marketers must be mindful of the dangers of “greenwashing”

Posted on by

You don’t have to look far to see examples of green marketing — they’re all around you. Plastic bags that decompose, Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper, and bio-based cleaners all have something in common — they are green and can prove their products are less harmful than their non-green counterparts.

However when a company actively engages in greenwashing — the promotion of a product based on misleading “green” claims — it’s looking to deceive the user into believing it’s helping the environment, when in fact it may be contributing more to its decline. Sometimes the promotion is unintentional, such as a promotion plan that was not well thought out.

Let’s take a look at a few greenwashing examples for analysis, with links for further details.

Adding the term — green, eco-, environmental, bio-, organic and others to your promotion, but the truth is your product or service has little to do with anything green.

Example: Eco-Conscious Female Doll. In 2008 a large toy producer was ecstatic to introduce their latest version of their toy — a doll whose accessories were partially made by excess fabrics and trimmings from their other doll accessories. Problem was, no one saw this as an eco-friendly product. Most of the product, including the doll and accessories are made from plastic (oil consumption and chemicals), very little reused product was put into the new products, and it was all made in China. This led to numerous posts on blogs (especially the mom blogs) and other web sites identifying this as a greenwash by the company. Negative publicity by bloggers and anti-greenwash sites with high readership only hurts your brand or product.

Adding the color green to your logo, literature, name etc. — “if you paint it green, they will buy” attitude.

Example: A cleaning product that has been around for several decades not only used the color green as part of its labeling but also used the word “green” in its product, long before it was cool to use the term and the color. The marketing worked and still does — a lot of people think this product is healthy and good to use in your home. However if you use this product without wearing a mask, you will quickly learn something is not so green about this product.

Adding a leaf or a tree to your promotional messages — probably the most common and simplest-to-execute greenwashing technique.

This example actually hits the trifecta of greenwashing. 1. Added green terminology 2. Added green color 3. Added a leaf to the message

These diapers were touted to be organic, hypoallergenic, latex and fragrance free, and a host of other claims that somehow made it green. However, as many noted — organic wasn’t backed up by being certified organic, nor did the company state how much of the materials were organic. The packaging and inks were not green friendly, and the biggest fail of this product’s greenwashing attempt: The diapers were not biodegradable, which would have made this product a win.

Sadly, all of these promotion types work. People buy into the hype because it is easy and they don’t look beyond the claims associated with the promotion. However for those that are informed and looking for greenwashing — not only do they spot it, but they blog about it, they tell their friends about it, and they send a message to anti-greenwashing websites. Negative perceptions of your product are not the goal. Make your product or service a real ecologically healthy product and then eco-promote.

Further reading:

The seven sins of greenwashing.
A branding primer: Green is a color. Sustainability is a practice.
FTC proposes crackdown on greenwashing.

This article was initially published on AnnArbor.com – I own the copyright to it.

 

Steve Jobs and Instant News

Posted on by

The night that Steve Jobs passed away I was teaching a marketing class at a local community college.  Suddenly my students started waiving their cell phones and pointing them towards me – almost in unison I heard – “Steve Jobs just died” – some

life in the fast lane - image of dashboard of a MG Cabriolet - by JalilArfaoui

life in the fast lane - MG Cabriolet - by JalilArfaoui - flickr

only mouthing the words.  The impact of his contributions would be discussed in a future class, but it was the impact of the instant news that night that made me want to write about it for my blog.

It was difficult to continue teaching.  A man I admired had left the earth a better place but, his genius was gone with him.

We live in a world of instant news!  Life in a fast lane – destined to not slow down.  I am old enough to remember when you got your news at night on the TV, WOW how the world has changed!  The evening news is becoming obsolete, along with other forms of news that delivers content long after the event.

Like many, my news comes in a variety of different instant sources – twitter, internet, facebook etc. – most of the time the news is legit – some are rumors.  I had hoped that the news of his death was just a rumor – it has happened before.  Sadly this time it was legit.

The life in the fast lane means that we sometimes hit overload – that is when I unplug!  While I love all the content I can get at a moments notice, I also find that instant news, instant updates, instant instant instant…makes me wand everything in life to be instant…and that isn’t always good.  I have quite a few friends that unplug on the weekends – I usually unplug from work (unless needed of course).

Of course if I am out fishing I am unplugged unless there are electronics on the boat finding me big fish!!