Here are 11 pieces of timely logic from Jim Cusson, partner and chief strategist at birdsong gregory, a Charlotte, NC marketing agency and advertising agency.
1. Don’t panic. Yes, the economy has been knocked down pretty hard. But if you let your emotions get the best of you, you won’t be much good to your employer ... or your loved ones.
2. Keep marketing. People are still buying stuff. You simply need to find buyers at a cost-effective clip. If you stop marketing you’ll lose customers forever and be among the last to participate in the recovery.
3. End mediocre approaches. If they didn’t contribute much during the upswing they’ll probably contribute even less today. Accept that reality and move on.
4. Find opportunities in crisis. What doesn’t kill you may indeed make you stronger if you’re willing to open yourself to better ways of doing things. If you’re unable to be objective, get some help from a Charlotte, NC marketing agency.
5. Do your homework. Understand who’s buying right now -- and why. Then find similar buyers.
6. Put friends ahead of strangers. People most likely to buy are your past customers, followed by genuine prospects who’ve inquired but didn’t convert. Turn your buyers and fans into evangelists. Start with people in your database.
7. Tune your message. Show why your product or service is particularly relevant today. If appropriate, sell escapism. Or stress relief. Or savings. Position your offering as got to have rather than nice to have.
8. Run smart experiments. You needn’t bet big on an unproven strategy. The best marketing agencies in Charlotte are the best testers. The key is to minimize downside risk while maximizing upside potential.
9. Keep score. Stop making decisions based on opinions and start counting actual dollar votes. After you test, do the arithmetic -- then change or eliminate your losers and roll out your winners. Eliminate waste and start tracking your outcomes to the bottom line.
10. Embrace the newer stuff. Take advantage of digital opportunities to cut costs, raise profits, and be greener. Put some sweat equity into social networking and other Web 2.0 options.
11.Dare to be great. Be bold. Do something unforgettable. Or newsworthy. Or viral.
This sounds like the kind of stunt a Charlotte, NC marketing agency might pull. Audi, the German automaker, applied for a permit from the Film and Television Office of Toronto to shoot a commercial that would allow it to place double “T” statues measuring six feet high and fifteen feet long throughout the city for a period of three days. A press release issued by Audi, however, subsequently confirmed that no commercial would actually be shot. Rather, that the statues are meant to act as viral billboards advertising the new Audi TT.
Sound like a good idea? This creative branding stunt did attract a lot of attention in the blogosphere. Unfortunately, a judge quickly ruled the placement of the statues as advertisements violated the city’s signage laws, and Audi was asked to remove them. So if you’re a Charlotte marketing agency, please take note: viral marketing campaigns don’t always stay on the right side of the law.
At birdsong gregory, a Charlotte, NC advertising agency, we’ve understood the benefits of maintaining an active, relevant blog for a while now. How about your own company? Looking for a great way to connect with customers and demonstrate your expertise to the marketplace? Call us if you want to get started. We can help you design your blog template, create content, and get noticed. Find out more about this exciting new marketing tool.
Charlotte advertising agencies and marketing agencies should put their collective heads together and come up with a Japanese-style mascot for the Queen City. Apparently, in Japan, local governments and other organizations are increasingly turning to mascot characters to boost regional development.Certain of these beloved yuru kyara (literally “loose characters”) are even transcending their home regions to become popular nationwide. And yuru kyara collectors’ events are taking place across the country.
The reason for their popularity lies in their surprisingly unpolished and awkward appearance. Yuru kyara possess a certain warmth, which means that they fit nicely with the general trend toward seeking coziness and relaxation. Many of the characters were designed by ordinary citizens or local government officials and reflect too boldly the emotional attachment of their creators. The proportions of some designs also present difficulties in terms of scaling the character up to make a costume. It is these imperfections that make them “looser” than the meticulously designed characters common to anime and video games.
After the recent purchase of Alltel’s 13.2 million customers, Verizon decided it was the perfect time to radically redesign into their dated brand. Designers for the new identity remarked, “From the start we were keen to reposition Verizon and help it adapt for 21st century communications. Its old look still looked like first generation telecoms, didn’t match with Verizon’s future ambitions and lacked a distinctive tone of voice.” After being publicly mocked for saying no to Steve Job’s and Apple’s iPhone Verizon hopes to create new energy with their new identity and “Very” campaign set to launch in July. Although most of us at birdsong gregory, a marketing, branding, and advertising agency in Charlotte, NC, are avid iPhone users, we give kudos to Verizon for a Very cool new look. Read more here.
In it, the author Brian Sheehan discusses how a book on business strategy called "Blue Ocean Strategy" took corporate America by storm a few years ago and how given today’s economy, it may be time to reconsider the approach espoused by the title.
A trademark is any phrase or symbol that functions as a brand, that is, it tells the public that there is a particular source or manufacturer for products or services (e.g., “Mattel” is a trademark for the toy company; the Apple logo is a trademark for the computer company). The scope of what can be a trademark is very broad — words, images, sounds and colors can all function as trademarks. Even packaging and promotional concepts for products or services can be protected as “trade dress,” which is another form of trademark rights (e.g., Apple’s iPod ads).
So North Carolina advertising agencies take note, trademarks must be distinctive, which means consumers recognize the mark as a designation of source, rather than just a phrase or decoration. Unfortunately, what makes a mark “strong” from a legal standpoint may be the opposite of what Charlotte graphic designers and their clients might think of as a strong mark. Under trademark law, marks that describe or suggest some feature of the goods or services are “weak.” For example, “Apple” would be a weak mark for a bakery that sells apple pies. Other food businesses would be able to use Apple marks without infringing the bakery’s trademark rights.
The strongest trademarks are made-up marks, or words or images that don’t suggest the goods or services. Xerox is a classic example of a made-up mark. Apple and the Apple logo for computers are also strong marks.
This animated short film sums it up. Back in the day, an advertising agency in Charlotte, NC could simply buy some air on a local television channel or radio station, and people had no choice but to watch or listen. There wasn’t the internet, social media, satellite radio, or an army of global competitors selling the exact same thing. Today, the men and women who work in marketing in Charlotte have to contend with a fractured audience with less time, more choices, and a hunger for authentic, relevant brands. We think Charlotte advertising will never be the same.
Today, it’s not enough to have a well-designed website or a secure e-commerce presence. You need people to actually go there and interact with your online brand. And if you are a member of the branding Charlotte or marketing Charlotte, NC communities, you know you have to pay to play.
Pay per click search engine marketing is a form of online advertising where the advertiser pays to be listed in the sponsored link section of the search engines. When you launch a PPC advertising campaign, you pay only when someone clicks on your ad. Of course PPC ads, also called sponsored links, are related to the searches made by the users. You have to buy keywords using an auction feature that determines the Cost Per Click (CPC) of a given keyword, this bid also has an influence on your position among the other ads on the page.
You then set a maximum budget for your campaign. That means that if you set a $500 budget for a $1 keyword your ad will virtually be printed on search pages until five hundred users have clicked your ad and landed on one of your website’s pages.
Charlotte, NC advertising agencies please take note: PPC advertising is one of the most effective marketing methods used on the Internet. According to some experts, online marketers will spend more than 5 billion dollars on PPC campaigns by 2010. Consequently the competition for keywords is likely to get tougher and tougher as time goes by, making the optimization of that process ever more necessary for North Carolina advertising agencies, from Charlotte to Raleigh.
In 2009, the marketing, advertising, and branding gurus who set the trends will help consumers adopt new media consumption methods. And they’ll pave the way for small business owners to follow suit without the risk or heavy financial outlay.
If you’re a Charlotte, NC company, here are four ways to increase sales and your advertising ROI by capitalizing on the hottest trends for 2009.
1. Engage the customer. The move toward alternative advertising versus some of the more traditional methods coincides with the emergence of technologies that enable a one-on-one dialogue with customers. For example, follow the trend of social media by posting your products on sites that encourage customer or peer reviews. Social media add an element of impartiality and are increasingly looked to as reliable sources of information.
2. Integrate your off-line and online campaigns. Look for ways to use off-line media to drive traffic to a website with specialized landing pages that tell a deeper story. Use print and TV ads to start the customer education process and direct potential buyers online to learn more and take the next steps in the purchase process. And direct an e-mail campaign to your current customer database to offset the cost of direct mail. Simply alternate e-mail and postal mail for a cost-effective one-two punch. 3. Move some off-line dollars online. Online advertising now offers a strong alternative to some traditional media, such as print yellow pages. Consider moving some of your traditional directory advertising dollars into online directories and search engines. The vast majority of Americans research their products online before making purchases, so a paid search campaign is an ideal way to make sure you turn up at the top of search results. 4. Follow your customer. Alternative out-of-home advertising opportunities let you place your message wherever your customers go. You can put your name and company logo on the umbrellas used by urban street vendors, or name hiking trails in wilderness areas. The key to using these new opportunities effectively is to place your message where it will appear in the proper context and reach your potential customers when they are in the right frame of mind.
The new year comes full of high-return marketing opportunities for Charlotte, NC business and the advertising and marketing agencies that serve them. By closely watching the hottest trends, you can make smart choices that let you step ahead of your slower-moving competitors.
It’s been a while since we came across a street art site that we like as much as Oddwall. Oddwall.com is a new website showcasing street art in San Francisco. The photographs, taken by Steve Ensminger, are terrific. Over 1,000 images are cross-referenced by neighborhood, artist, style, and theme. Among the photographs are eight new pieces that Swoon did a few weeks ago. This site begs the question, of course, why the creative design and advertising community in Charlotte, NC hasn’t yet found a way to promote our underground art scene in a similar fashion as oddwall.com
The creator of the TV-B-Gone, Mitch Altman, has turned his love of open-source electronic mayhem into a one-man business. His website offers the basic TV-B-Gone, a $20 keychain device with a protruding LED that emits 140 different TV power-off codes, enabling it to shut down 98 percent of all televisions with the press of a single button, Altman says.
“The way I see it, it’s only fair,” Altman says of his infrared light-emitting device. “If a TV shines light at me, I’ll shine a light at it. And if it stops shining light at me, I’ll stop shining light at it.” He also sells a $20 TV-B-Gone kit for do-it-yourselfers who want to assemble the parts themselves, and a $50 TV-B-Gone Pro that looks a bit like a chunky iPhone and has a range of 100 meters.
“I used it in the hotel lobby last night,” Altman says. “I was trying to get some work done and there were four TVs on, with no one watching them. I aimed it at the two in front of me and all four turned off, that’s how powerful it is.”
Jim Cusson, partner at birdsong gregory, a Charlotte, NC branding and marketing agency, feels that this fun little subversive device is only a sign of what lies ahead for conventional advertising agencies. Namely, television advertising can no longer guarantee a captive audience.
First things first: Who are these boomers, and why are they so important? For any marketing, branding, or advertising agencies in Charlotte, NC or anywhere else, the numbers are staggering.
An American turns 50 every seven seconds. There are 76 million of Americans age 50+ out there right now. Trillions of dollars of spending power is in their hands.
So what’s new when we’ve been marketing to them for years already? The difference is that these individuals have been defined in the past by their age and now need to be defined by the patterns of their lives.
Over time, they have become complex and complicated consumers. One-size-fits-all does not work. The challenge will be to understand the segment as a whole and then design solutions that address specific needs for a complex group of people.
The world is experiencing huge demographic changes. Over the next 30 years, most countries will undergo huge growth in the number of 50+ citizens, along with a corresponding decline in the number of youth. This group is living longer than any other generation, and collectively they are rapidly becoming a huge economic force.
This force will end up being the catalyst for massive change within many industries. These demographic changes have created a new, profitable, and challenging market segment: the baby boomers.
To fully serve the boomers, one needs to understand the intricacies of desired lifestyles combined with ideas about aging, working, retirement, and family. Only then can a more integrated and updated approach to this market be developed. It’s not your grandparents’ golden years anymore. Understanding the total picture of how boomers see their lives will yield a rich and complex view of the opportunities when reaching for this vast audience.
Lifestyle is a Big Deal Research shows that boomers are planning on living long and living fully. As a result, huge market for new products and services will emerge. Already, 80% of luxury travel is being done by boomers, over 40% of cars are bought by them, and they already have 75% of the wealth in this country. Furthermore, the upcoming liquidation of billions of retirement assets gives this group the means to realize the lifestyle they want. This wealth creates huge opportunities for travel, education, homes, foods, goods, and services to support the various aspirations of this segment.
As boomers age, they will have physical, emotional, educational, and technical needs to be fulfilled to help them achieve their desired lifestyles. Think about the product opportunities for car manufacturers who need to serve aging yet technically savvy consumers. Intelligent transportation systems will need to be developed to solve vision, reflex, and ergonomic issues. Aging Americans won’t stop driving due to limitations; they will just demand new products to overcome them.
New Terms Around Work and Employment Although boomers are veering away from rocking chairs, research shows the desire for achieving a balanced life as they age. As a result, the definition of work is changing as boomers start to move toward traditional retirement ages in their careers. Trends show that new, part-time, and modified careers are all on the table along with the need for continuous skill refinement and new learning.
This will create new forms of employment that challenge the traditional 9-5 routines. A large percentage of boomers plans to continue working in the next stage of life. A new recruiting market will emerge as skilled boomers are asked to backfill due to declining availability of younger populations. Even the concept of volunteering is changing as boomers divide their free time. Industries will emerge that are addressing the work style, compensation, and benefit needs of this generation.
New Views on Aging — Growing Younger Advances in medicine, healthcare, and drugs allow for longer and healthy lives. As a result, new industries are emerging to address aging needs in ways never used before. Entire industries around anti-aging products are emerging. The recent proliferation of cosmetics and cosmeceuticals come to mind as a market that will continue to explode.
Most interesting is the marked change in recent ad campaigns that show aging people as far different from traditional views of what “old” is, and which display more positive images with which to identify. Aging with grace and dignity will become a mantra allowing boomers to stay on the path to achieving work, life, and retirement goals.
Ah, the Apple App Store. Since July 2008, the month when Apple opened its wildly popular library of applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the world has been treated to more than 20,000 Apps, with some 500 million downloaded as of February 2009. So Charlotte, NC communications and marketing agencies take note: consumers rely on their smartphones more than ever, and the advertising and branding possibilities for companies in the Carolinas are endless.
For anyone living in a cave the last two years, the iPhone is an internet-connected multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a flush multi-touch screen and a minimal hardware interface. What sets this device apart from other smartphones, however, is the proliferation of the programs or “Apps” designed to run on the iPhone and enhance the user’s life in some way. Programs run the gamut from necessary, useful and a ton of fun all the way through to “none of the above.” So while you may find it laughable that someone would pay for an App that simulates a glass of beer being drained or a game of miniature pool (remember the screen is only inches across), Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs stand to make a bundle.
Piper Jaffray Apple analyst Gene Munster puts a dollar value on Apple’s new iPhone/iPod touch software market: up to $1.2 billion in retail next year. How does he get there? Munster estimates a total market size of 85 million iPhone and iPod touch owners by the end of 2009.
In his “neutral” case, he assumes 91% of those 85 million people will use the App Store, and that they’ll spend an average of $10 per year on software — basically, that they’re buying an App or two per year. That’s a $777 million market; Apple’s 30% cut is $233 million. At a 60% operating margin, that’s $163 million in operating income — a 2% addition to his estimate for Apple’s calendar 2009 operating income.
In his “aggressive” case, he thinks 95% of iPhone/iPod touch owners will use the App Store, spending an average $15 each. That’s a $1.21 billion market; Apple’s 30% cut is $363 million. At a 60% operating margin, that’s $254 million in operating income — or a 3% bump for Apple.
The days when uptown condo projects were shooting into the Charlotte, NC skyline with ease have come to a screeching halt. A dozen are either planned or under way, but Center City Partners said one-third are having problems. Catalyst was supposed to have more than 400 condos. Now the developer is thinking about renting some out instead of selling them because of low sales. Three major projects are currently on hold. The Park Condos has run into well-publicized money problems, 210 Trade has had legal problems, and Wachovia’s housing venture was stopped short because of the Wells Fargo merger.
What does this mean for Charlotte area marketing, branding, communications, and advertising agencies? It means you can no longer count on a steady stream of new real-estate clients with deep marketing budgets and a voracious need for marketing and branding collateral. It also signals a good time to find clients in more recession-proof industries like healthcare or renewable energy.
Google has announced a new feature for its AdSense Advertising network – Interest-Based Advertising. Often known by its more Orwellian moniker, “behavior targeting”, Interest-Based Advertising gives advertisers a way to deliver their ads to users who have shown interest in related items.
In short, Google plans to track your online moves and build a collection of “interests” based on the websites you visit. For example, if you start your day on the Major League Baseball homepage everyday, Google will know that you’re more likely to respond to ads for baseball paraphernalia.
Along similar lines are the “previous interaction” ads which will allow Google to show ads based on demonstrated behaviors. For example, if you put a shiny new Nikon D700 in your shopping cart, but never actually purchase it, Google will offer Charlotte, NC branding, marketing, communications and advertising agencies a way to place ads for the D700. Think of it as a way of constantly reminding you of the things you’re lusting after.
Creeped out yet? Well, on the plus side Google is handling the rather sensitive issues surrounding behavior tracking with a reasonable set of privacy controls. The first is that Google is allowing users to control their interest profiles, something many other similar ad systems don’t allow.
In a perfect world Google’s new ad system would be opt-in. Unfortunately in our world it’s opt-out. Perhaps not ideal, but at least you can turn it off.
Charlotte, NC marketing and advertising agencies take note. As we continue to hurdle into uncharted economic territory, this is a good set of inspirations for a year in which everyone needs to be realistic.
Sometimes actually seeing viral marketing examples helps explain this exciting new marketing technique. Viral marketing is a marketing method by which content is passed by word of mouth from one person to the other. The content may support the company’s brand, or simply generate the coveted buzz or excitement among customers. Viral marketing is spread much in the same way viruses and germs are, passed along from user to user. The Internet makes this method of engaging customers very easy, but it also makes competition fierce.
The best part? According to Leslie Kraemer, Creative Director at birdsong gregory, a Charlotte, NC advertising, marketing, and branding agency, viral marketing is virtually free advertising for any company. “After the initial cost in time and effort invested in the campaign itself,” Leslie points out, “the actual sharing of the message is free for the company who originated the message. But getting customers to engage in the content and share it among friends, family and coworkers can be tough.”
Want to market your brand better? Then tell a story. That’s the top finding from an intensive three-year study released this month, and Charlotte advertising agencies should pay attention.
The Advertising Research Foundation and American Association of Advertising Agencies, both based in New York, set out to measure consumers’ emotional responses to TV advertising. What they discovered is that advertisements that tell a branding story work better than ads that focus on product positioning.
The report contends that in many ways, advertising is stuck in the past. The 20th century was dominated by a one-way transactional focus where ads were pushed at consumers. Today, consumers interact with ads to “co-create” meaning that is powered by emotion and rich narrative. “Advertising has been standing on the sidelines, stuck on the language of positioning,” said Jim Cusson, Principal at birdsong gregory, a Charlotte, NC branding and marketing firm. “Telling a story about the brand is more engaging, memorable and compelling than telling a bunch of facts. What worked 30 years ago with a 30-second spot doesn’t work today.”
Thirty-three ads across 12 categories, from brands like Budweiser, Campbell’s Soup and MasterCard, were analyzed by 14 leading emotion and physiological research firms. The research tools varied from testing heart rate and skin conductance of the ad viewer to brain diagnostics.
One such pattern was that a campaign like Bud’s iconic “Wassup” registered more powerfully with consumers than Miller Lite low-carb ads that essentially just said, “We’re better than the other guys.” Why? Because Bud told a story about friends connected by a special greeting.
A handful of Charlotte, NC advertising agencies, marketing agencies, communication agencies, and branding agencies showed up at the perennial Addy Awards last Thursday night. The Addys are presented by the American Advertising Federation-Charlotte, formerly the Charlotte Ad Club.
Overall, it has been a difficult year in the advertising business with many clients cutting back because of the recession. “People are covering their heads up and waiting for the problems to go by,” said Richard Halliburton, president of the AAF-Charlotte and senior media buyer at Specialized Media Services. “Charlotte advertising agencies are down because their clients are hurting.” But he said the contest still attracted a high level of entries this year. “The judges were pretty impressed with what was out there. We have good talent in Charlotte.”
Birdsong Gregory won a Silver Addy for work on behalf of Meridian Yarns.
Google has announced a new feature for its AdSense Advertising network – Interest-Based Advertising. Often known by its more Orwellian moniker, “behavior targeting”, Interest-Based Advertising gives advertisers a way to deliver their ads to users who have shown interest in related items.
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