Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
Customer Retention - Seafood
Two nights ago, a friend brought a couple of us to this little coffeeshop that sold seafood in Serangoon. The food was pretty good and to our surprise, the owner gave us a free dish (fish head curry, to be precise) for us to try. The owner made an intentional effort to come out twice during the night (although he also cooks the food) to make sure everything was fine.
Over dinner, I made the point to my friends (both business graduates) that this really is the way businesses should market themselves.
Why spend all that money on the bus ad or print ad that people see and forget in an instant, with the hope that it will serve as an acquisition strategy and bring in new customers? Instead why not delight your customers who have already voted with their wallets to buy from you and encourage to come back time and time again?
Needless to say, in the two days since then I’ve told four other people about it and will soon be bringing my family to check it out.
So what are you doing to get your customers to come back? Or are you letting your competition put in that little bit of extra effort to enhance the customer experience and win them over?
Ps: The idea of using retention isn’t new (nor mine) and you can read Joseph Jaffe’s new book Flip The Funnel to find out more, but I thought this was a great case study to practically illustrate how it can be done.
Pps: The address of said coffeeshop is Blk 153 Serangoon North Ave 1 #01-512 (and no, I was absolutely not incentivised by the store to share this with you.)
[image credit: jensen_chua on Flickr]
Tags: acquisition strategy, bus ad, business graduates, coffeeshop, fish head curry, flip the funnel, joseph jaffe, print ad, serangoon
Posted in Marketing, Singapore, case studies | 4 Comments »
Saturday, January 16th, 2010
I came across this article titled Five questions every CMO should ask a prospective ad agency and want to draw attention to two specific questions.
Part of Q3 (What’s your criteria for hiring people?)
And find out for sure how many digital natives your agency’s hired recently. You definitely don’t want them playing catch up.
This I think is huge. And you know what? If the company says they’ve hired 10 new digital natives/Generation Y staff in the last year, ask them to show you a sample of their blogs/Twitter stream/etc to give you an idea of what these people are up to. This is a definite sign, trust me.
Q5
What are five recent creative ideas that aren’t ads?
This could be anything. An interesting use of social bookmarking for internal archiving purposes, running a new project entirely on Google Wave, using Facebook as the new company “intranet” to share information – something that demonstrates out of the box thinking which isn’t client driven – ie there’s some innovation from within.
The entire article is pretty good and definitely worth a read, and so are the comments. Once you’ve checked that out, what do you think? What questions do you need to ask your prospective ad agency?
Tags: advertising agency, Blogs, CMO, criteria for hiring people, digital natives, facebook, generation y, google wave, hiring talent, innovation, intranet, out of the box thinking, prospective ad agency, sharing information, social bookmarking, twitter
Posted in Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
For the last year and a half, only one carrier, Singtel, had the rights to distribute the iPhone here in Singapore. Two days ago the other two telcos, M1 and Starhub announced their price plans and entered the market, generating lots of chatter everywhere.
Something interesting happened during this pricing scheme, which later led to somewhat of a “price war” between the three telcos. I think this is a really good case study to illustrate why you shouldn’t compare yourself with the competition.
When Starhub released its pricing plans earlier in the day, they modeled their pricing plan after Singtel’s. The basic plan started with 1gb of data usage at a price comparative to Singtel’s.
When M1 released their pricing plans later in the day, they didn’t even bother with what Singtel and Starhub were doing, and launched their basic plan at 10gb of data usage at a similar price to the other two.
In one bold move, by not limiting themselves to the existing paradigm, M1 turned the perception of data and price on its head. A day later, Starhub and Singtel upped the ante by increasing their basic plans to begin with 12gb of data (which really begs the question of how high the margins were on the original 1gb….).
In other words, they forced Starhub and Singtel to play on their terms, whether or not their networks could theoretically support that kind of data.
While this isn’t a perfect example because price is easily mimicked, this illustrates the power of not benchmarking yourself to what’s already existing in the market or what your competition is doing or offering.
For your next business decision, are you going to be a Starhub and mimic the status quo, or be an M1 and lead the way forward? You decide.
[also check out Daphne's take on the iPhone data war on her blog and Weimeng's take as well.]
[image credit: hongkiat.com]
Tags: data plan, iphone, iphone plan, m1, price plan, singtel, starhub
Posted in Marketing, case studies | 6 Comments »
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
I got home today and there was this brown envelope in the mail (click for larger images):
Direct Marketing Example 1
Direct Marketing Example 2
It’s a menu (that has more pages than this) for a grill and bar called Rocks over at The Sail. Nothing particularly exciting about a menu, except that it represents a clear actionable next step: check out the restaurant. Those pamphlets/flyers telling you why their restaurant is the best are too easily ignored, but seeing “certified Japanese Wagyu beef” kinda gets you hungry.
Three things, if you’re listening, Rocks:
1) Make the link to your website on the direct mail larger so that I can immediately send the link to my friends to see if they’d be interested in going.
2) Have a working website?
3) Attach a coupon together with it, preferrably with a unique code for each postal district, so at least you can track response rates and know where is delivering you results and you can focus there for future promotions.
All in all, nice different direct mail compared to the usual riff raff, and probably very profitable on the ROI, even at the typical 1% direct mail response rate, considering it won’t be a party of one that eventually checks out the restaurant.
Tags: certified japanese wagyu beef, coupon, direct mail singapore, direct marketing, direct marketing singapore, example of direct marketing, response rates, rocks grill + bar, rocks grill + bar menu, rocks grill and bar, rocks grill and bar menu, rocks menu singapore, rocks urban grill and bar, the sail, website link
Posted in Marketing, case studies, social media | 2 Comments »
Monday, August 31st, 2009
Today Coleman tweeted that the Ministry of Education’s teachers’ day website was a risky move, and coincidentally at the time when I clicked on the link the one and only “careless” tweet appeared (screenshot courtesy of Coleman):
Teachersday.sg
Yes, I give MOE credit for trying something new and for experimenting, but there are still points to be made/lessons to learn:
1) It may have been the only negative tweet, but I think we need to think about these things. Who else will see these tweets besides the teachers? Other kids? Parents of kids? It’s entirely possible to get on to a service like Pheed.me and remove foul language in advance. And I think we need to be keenly aware of our target audience.
2) I understand that the purpose of keeping it uncensored was to maintain authenticity, but looking at the tweets that came out.. I’m not sure how many were just set up for the sole purpose of tweeting this one hashtag.
3) As Daphne points out, this web portal wasn’t largely publicised and therein lies why this was the only “careless” tweet. If more of the general public got to know about it, I bet it wouldn’t be long before tweets like “Miss Lim from [whatever] school I remember you for being such a b!tc# 20 years ago and I hope you’re still single #tday09” start appearing, and this turns into a #skittles fiasco – where people tagged on racist/malicious comments to the #skittles hashtag for everyone to see.
So for a moment, let’s forget this is the Ministry of Education (MOE), let’s forget that the people tweeting are predominantly kids, and let’s think about it in the real world:
First, while I don’t think the people who are involved are inexperienced or ignorant of social media, I think they jumped on the shiny object bandwagon without thinking it through. From their blog post:
If Facebook was the vehicle that brought social media to the mainstream, Twitter is the shiny new Ferrari F70 of the online space
Accurately said. I shiny new Ferrari isn’t an everyday, run-of-the-mill car. It’s like re-taking your drivers’ licence test again and making sure you understand the vehicle and can control it under all sorts of conditions, sunny or stormy.
Second, I know I’ll get some flak by being critical of something like this where there’s one negative post in a sea of hundreds. But that’s not where I’m coming from. It’s not specific to the case. It’s specific to the understanding, usage and application of social media that I think we have to be aware of. Those of us who are fortunate enough to work in this space really have to be conscious of this. If you did this for a client, or your CEO of an MNC and they saw this happen. What do you think are the odds you’d get budget for your next “social media experiment”? Slim to none?
Basically, I think you have to be careful how much risk you take with your brand. It’s great to hand over control to the consumers, but you gotta know your audience. Have you already been in the community cultivating “antibodies” for awhile who will come to your defence when someone steps out of line? Or are you jumping in cold? Just because you introduce a platform for one, noble purpose, doesn’t mean it will be used that way by everyone. And you have to take the good and the bad.
Back to the specific case, although the boy managed to delete his tweet and seemed quite embarrassed afterwards, I really hope he doesn’t get punished or anything because of this. It was a conscious decision to make this platform public, and therefore consequences that arise of it being public comes from that choice to be public, not the user.
After all, he just served as a reminder to us that anybody can be made aware of anyone’s social media efforts at any one time, and they’re not always going to be in sync with your organisation.
Tags: know your audience, metacole, ministry of education, teachers' day website, teachersday.sg, twitter
Posted in Marketing, SMU, Singapore, case studies, education, social media, social media breakfast, twitter | 6 Comments »
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
In the last 10 days or so, I’ve come to learn a few things about data.
1) Data tells stories
It tells you what people are interested in, what people are talking about, and that can sometimes be a polar opposite from what your brand would like them to talk about. Dorothy, who works at a similarly data-driven company, Brandtology, tells the tale of brand mentions and searches telling the financial sector that they should sit up and pay attention. Everything is data, data, data. If you’re not plugged in, you’re losing out.
2) Data is imperfect
Dorothy and I have said this before on The GennY Podcast. As much as existing web analytics does not report statistics in the depth that people are (unreasonably) demanding, it’s still miles galaxies ahead of “faith based initiatives” as Avinash puts it:
How do you measure the effectiveness of your magazine ad? Now compare that to the data you have from doubleclick. How about measuring the ability of your TV ad to reach the right audience? Compare that with measuring reach through Paid Search (or Affiliate Marketing or …..). Do you think you get better data from Neilsen’s TV panel of between 15k – 30k US residents to represent the diversity of TV content consumption of 200 million tv watching Americans?
There is simply no comparison. So why waste our life trying to get perfect data from our web sites and online marketing campaigns? Why does unsound, incomplete, and faith based data from TV, Magazines, Radio get a pass? Why be so harsh to your web channel? Just because you can collect data here means you won’t do anything because it is imperfect?
Lesson? Give me half-sound data over guesswork any day.
3) Data Surprises
One of the data related posts I read early on came from Avinash, telling us how gun websites and car rental sites can be platforms for targeting older men who have performed searches on Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian. I took a long time reconciling that fact. And maybe at some level I still haven’t. It’s going to be one of those things I need to do, test and see the results to believe. But I do believe data doesn’t lie – but it will surprise.
Does data have a place right now?
Frankly, I’m of the personal opinion that a data-driven, results/strategy-focused mentality has yet to be the norm in organisations. It’s not always going to be this way. Sooner rather than later, people are going to tire of experimenting with the “shiny new object” and wonder just how much traction their Facebook, blog, email, search, Twitter efforts are getting for them, which they need to invest more money in and which need to go.
And the only thing that will deliver those results, is data.
Tags: affiliate marketing, avinash kaushik, blog, brand mentions, brandtology, data, data tells stories, data trends, data-driven, dorothypoon, email, facebook, faith based initiatives, genny podcast, nielsen, paid search, results focused, ROI, Search, SEO, strategy focused, tv ad, twitter, web analytics
Posted in Marketing, social media, social media business | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
I really wanted to write this up over the weekend, but I got hit by a flu bug (and fever) and was literally knocked out all weekend, so better late than never.
Challenging
Week One at Blue has been really challenging, but fulfilling at the same time. As much as I know I can bring some knowledge to the front end of things, the extent to which Blue has the back end of things nailed down really, really blew me away. These are the hardcore people who will slice and dice your email database, implement a targeted (not shotgun) approach to executing a campaign, calculate the predicted results to +/- two standard deviations, prove it makes financial sense across the board, and go right ahead to do just that. From day one I’ve really felt that what I know is like 2% compared to what my colleagues know.
Accountability
It shouldn’t be surprising to me that this is a big deal at Blue. After all, their tagline is “the measurable marketing company”. But on the second day I was told accountability and results are “something we hold close to our soul”, and I’m reminded about that every day. (By the way, that would make a great Blue t-shirt). The whole kumbayah soft approach “engage customers” and all that is thrown out of the window and I am really having to dig deep to find powerful, compelling and trackable ideas that come from well-regarded sources.
Data data and more data
On Friday I was introduced to the “listening” tool we use at Blue and it took me close to six hours to get familiar with the terms, what they do, what I should look for, the story it tells and how it makes a difference to our clients. The sheer power behind that tool and how we use it is just staggering. I’ve always kind of flipped through Avinash Kaushik’s blog for stuff on analytics, but I’ve never read them word for word. Needless to say, I am now, for every single post. (And his posts are long).
One thing I’m sure of is that my decision to get into digital or social media over a year ago was the right one. There is no way I would have ever been picked for this job if I graduated from school with what we’re being taught in marketing classes these days. Understanding how social technologies empower marketing and conversations and conceptual understanding of how the back end stuff like SEO and optimisation has really saved me a lot of pain. And you know people ask me all the time why I never monetised Social Media Breakfast, the answer is plain as day: It created a platform for me (and anyone interested) to meet industry practicioners who were dealing with this stuff every single day. Many of whom I respect and are happy to call friends. I don’t think that would have happened if I made them pay $20 a session. Hell, I couldn’t buy the experience and exposure I got from it if I tried.
Tags: accountability, avinash kaushik, blue interactive, blue singapore, challenging, close to our soul, engage customers, financial sense, first week at blue, fulfilling, marketing classes, measuring marketing company, new job, optimisation, SEO, social media breakfast, standard deviation, targeted campaign
Posted in Gen Y, Marketing, social media, social media business | 11 Comments »
Friday, July 17th, 2009
Experiential marketing – “the art of creating an experience where the result is an emotional connection to a person, brand, product or idea” — Wikipedia
So awhile ago my girlfriend was interning at an agency doing “experiential marketing”. Through frequent updates on how work’s going it seemed to me that creating this “experience” through which to market a product to a consumer, largely manifested itself in the way of holding costly, one-off events with some snazzy technology or maybe some alcohol.
During one particular talk I asked: When was the last time such an “event” really created a connection and motivated either of us to check out or purchase the product? We both drew a blank.
Then three nights ago a few of my friends were at my place having a drink and out of nowhere, one of them asked “remember that time we almost drank 8 litres of beer?”
Erdinger
Short story: In 2007 two of my friends won a contest with Erdinger Beer and four of us got invited to dinner with free flow of said beer.
While talking three nights ago, what did we remember?
- How much we drank
- The brand manager who kept coming by to talk to us, making sure we felt great the whole night (and that our glasses were filled all the time)
- The alternative (read: proper) way to clink glasses together after a toast (which is a ritual we now share)
- Other embarrassing things I shall not reveal in public
After that night in 2007, what happened?
- When Erdinger was available, more often than not it was purchased
- One of my friends tells everyone he knows how that beer is his favourite (I’ve witnessed this countless times)
- We still clink our glasses together that same way
- We’re still on the Erdinger “Honour Roll”
It’s now 2009, two years later. Clearly the experience has stuck.
So my question is: Will your projector/laser/holographic screen do the same? Would your branded liquor party be any distinguishable from the ten other parties the partygoers got sloshed at? Or will these “experiences” merely be over-expensive events that are one time only?
As Joseph Jaffe says: Marketing is a committment, not a campaign. Let’s try to remember that.
Tags: alcohol, brand manager, campaign, emotional connection, erdinger beer, erdinger honour roll, Events, experience, experience has stuck, experiential marketing, holographic screen, honor roll, laser screen, liquor party, marketing is a committment, projector screen, snazzy technology
Posted in Events, Marketing, SMU | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
I chanced upon the banner ad rates offered by one Singaporean company awhile back, and saw that a prominently placed banner ad goes for S$4,000 a week, with the promise of “reaching” millions of “eyeballs”.
In Seth Godin’s book “Purple Cow”, there’s a chapter called “law of large numbers” where he bought 300 million banner ads for US$600. That’s more than one banner impression for one person in the United States. The result? He made a loss. Selling $500 of merchandise in total. He doesn’t specify what merchandise, but does it matter?
To break even on S$4,000 a week, you need to sell:
- 8 16gig iPhone 3Gs (about one a day)
- 10 Amazon Kindles (about 1.5 a day)
- 50 Xbox games (about seven a day)
- 400 movie tickets (just over 50 a day)
and that’s on revenue, not profit.
The flipside of this is of course, there’s no guarantee that some people of the 300 million saw the ad, and bought the merchandise some time later, thus making it untrackable. But isn’t it the same as any TV, radio or print ad you buy anyway?
Do you think you’re going to do better than Seth Godin’s case study? I’m going to leave the parallel of “reach” and “eyeballs” to traditional media to you.
If you’re in marketing, you’ve probably heard of the old adage “I know half of my marketing doesn’t work, I just don’t know which half”. The good news is if you’re employing banner ads in your marketing “arsenal”, they automatically fall into the half that isn’t working.
But that’s just one case study, if you’re buying banner ads, I’d like to ask you: How have they worked for you?
Tags: amazon kindles, banner ad, eyeballs, iphone 3G, law of large numbers, millions, movie tickets, online marketing, print, profit, purple cow, radio, reach, revenue, seth godin, tv, xbox
Posted in Marketing, Poor Practices | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
As everyone knows by now, Singapore has it’s first H1N1 case, a schoolmate of mine from SMU (I don’t know her name or who she is). She came back from a business study mission to New York, and I was on a similar trip two years ago in 2007, and many of my friends were on trips before, during and after that.
So when the media gets hold of information that
a) The H1N1 case is a student from SMU
b) She was on a business study mission to New York
What do they do? Call/email/sms/instant message anyone and everyone they know who has ever gone on the trip, regardless of which year it was. I personally was contacted for information, so too were other friends who were on the previous trips, and not this year’s. They then start asking for the phone number of the professor in charge.
Look. If you want to do responsible reporting, do responsible reporting. Call the hospital, ask the doctor how she is, ask the ministries if we’re prepared for the flu, whatever. Don’t sensationalise reporting by finding out facts that don’t matter, and don’t harass people who have nothing to do with it!
You know the rules. You want a comment, call the school, not the students.
And for goodness sake, leave the poor girl alone to recover in the hospital. It’s bad enough she has to go through the trauma for having the virus, the last thing she needs are vultures circling around her door, phone and anywhere else to get every juicy tidbit of information that matters.
By the way, Channel News Asia, there’s no point being on Twitter which is meant for instantaneous messaging, if you break the news almost five hours after it’s out.
Tags: business study mission new york, h1n1, h1n1 singapore, singaporean press, SMU, vultures
Posted in Marketing, Plurk, Poor Practices, SMU, Singapore | 15 Comments »
