As social media becomes more popular across the US, companies have begun merging different social media facets into their marketing strategies.  While some obvious choices of platforms, there are some that many people still question.  As a social media user myself, I am aware of the ability to reach a magnitude of people--including potential clients.  However, when I first hear of Twitter and the way it works, I was a little skeptical.  How could it possibly be that effective when you can only write a message with limited characters?

What I failed to realize was that Twitter has over a million users that post over three million posts a day!!! Talk about reaching a magnitude of people.  As people respond to different areas of their everyday life, they may include a company's name or theory for everyone to see.  They may say good things or bad things--but wouldn't you want to know either way?

As word-of-mouth continues to grow and those consumers listening and entrusting others opinions on products/services grows as well, having a company name in a Twitter post is right where I would want it to be.  Even a short message can be used as a promotion for a product or service, customer service, or even a place where a brand can become characterized. 

In addition, because Twitter messages are seen by so many consumers, it is the perfect place to begin a buzz marketing or word-of-mouth marketing campaign for many start-ups or small businesses.  Rather than spending a ton of money to get your business out there using traditional marketing strategies, a company could use outlets like Twitter to educate consumers and further develop their brand. 

So before you question the magnitude to how much social media can help market your company, remember just how many people will see your company's name daily--good or bad!

I attended a great event this morning put on by the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Marketing Association called the Digital Marketing Summit.  My favorite talk of the morning was that of Ted Murphy of Izea.  In it, Ted gave some very helpful pointers on how to get started in the maze of social media opportunities.  While we're all caught up in traditional brand development and the interactive marketing programs we've always done, there's an entire ecosystem out there right now of consumers, fans, critics and their conversations that happen whether we participate or not.  It's time to get involved, and to start influencing the conversation.

My key takeaways:

1. Start listening -What is currently being said?
2. Create some goals for your social media efforts
3. Determine what content you can draw from -Text, video, photos, audio, etc.
4. Find content you can capture -Customers, partners, employees
5. Decide what you're willing to share
6. Choose your platforms
7. Participate in other conversations, don't just broadcast -The most important conversations may not be those you start.  Seek out conversations about your brand & add value to them.
8. Create your own storm of social media content

Really great event, and I think Ted's talk helped make some sense out of the social media storm, and gave everyone a few clear steps to getting involved. 

At R.O. Why! Marketing, we already take part in some of these opportunities.  I'm on Twitter.  We're blogging for business, and I have a Facebook page, but there are many more opportunities that I look forward to stepping into.  All it takes is a plan, right?

At R.O. Why! Marketing, one of the things we do for clients as part of our blogging for business solution is to review their blog posts before they go live.  It's all part of an effort to make sure that as an organization, the client sends a consistent and clear brand message to the market.  In most cases we catch a couple of spelling errors or we recommend rewording something so the brand development police won't worry about competing messages.  Not a big deal and pretty easy to deal with.

Today, in reviewing a post that included an image, I saw something fuzzy in the image and when I blew it up larger, it was a copyright watermark.  Yes, the client had used Google Image Search to find a picture to help illustrate the point in the blog post.  Harmless enough, but they didn't realize that it was a copyrighted image.  OOPS!

We quickly removed the blog post, notified the client, and the image was replaced with another royalty free photo.  Luckily our client wasn't approached by the photo's owner, but this was a good lesson for them to learn.

Don't assume that images you find on Google are free for you to use as you wish.  Google doesn't own these images, but simply stores a thumbnail in its cache.  When you click on one, Google splits the screen to show you the thumbnail and the page that the full size version appears on.  The site that the image appears on is (or should be!) the rightful owner with license to use the image.

The better route would be to seek out royalty free image sites, or better yet, purchase credits to a stock photo site like iStock and purchase inexpensive web resolution images as you need them.

Be careful.  Just because it's freely accessible, doesn't mean it's free!

The old phrase "you learn something new everyday," does not even come close to the amount of information that I have acquired during my first week on the job.  Coming into the office, I knew a lot about the theories and definitions of many marketing strategies, however, I had never really been able to apply them completely to the real world from a small business marketing firm's point of view.  Now, though, I am beginning to feel extremely comfortable about blending theories and applications together with a hint of creativity and a new perspective. 

Not only do I feel comfortable sharing my ideas within the office, but after a meeting with one of our clients, I feel as though my fresh ideas will spread like rapid fire with our clients as well.  While sitting in a meeting, I couldn't help but sit back and listen as to how other businesses operate and brainstorm ideas.  I really took the time to immerse myself in their culture to understand exactly who they are, how they operate, and what is important to them.  This not only allowed me to feel part of the group as we discussed new marketing strategies, but made it easier to come up with ideas that matched the positioning and brand development of the company.  While each company is ultimately unique in its processes, I found that my adaptability to create ideas or suggestions works in other settings that I am not used to.  I now realize that whatever setting I am thrown into, I feel confident enough with my ideas and intuition about the culture of the company to be able to create some solid ideas.   Whew! I was hoping this would be the case!

In addition to feeling confident within the office, I now feel confident with taking my ideas out of the office.  I have now even been able to take a majority of concepts out of the office now and apply them to the other areas of my life.  After learning more techniques regarding search engine optimization and email marketing tips, I have been able to continue creating a strong marketing tool for a local horseback riding facility.  Even the knowledge I gained from our client's perspective, has allowed me to help this same facility with its brand development and creatively sharing this positioning with its clientele. While i could do this to an extent before working with ROWhy! Marketing, I have a lot more to offer knowledge wise to other passions within my life. 

Who knew that even after one week of work and the immersion into a small business and its culture would not only tell you about the type of worker you are, but would give you enough knowledge to begin applying techniques to other areas of your life?

Today was an exciting marketing strategy day for us at R.O. Why! Marketing.  I began the day with an intensive marketing strategy session with a client that focused on brand development and market segmentation.  After weeks of analysis, we came together to put things in motion toward achieving the company's $100MM revenue goal.

Some of the questions on the table were:

• How do we differentiate ourselves in a market that is cluttered with like firms?
• We know what's unique in our business model, but do customers value that?
• If they don't value what we feel is unique, is it truly a differentiator?
• Do we continue to serve broad markets or should we tailor our solutions for niche markets, as the The Long Tail professes?
• The path to $100MM has several different, but equally valid approaches, as proven by larger competitors.  Which marketing strategy is best?
• What is our brand today, and what should it be in the future?

All good questions, and together over the next few weeks we'll answer them, and create a go to market strategy that delivers on the brand promises.

In your business, which approach prevails?  Single solutions delivered to broad markets or multiple product variations tailored for smaller, but potentially more lucrative niches?  Pursuing The Long Tail takes courage.

Are you willing to ignore the masses and differentiate, tailor to smaller niche markets, and say no to some business in order to own your niche?  Perhaps Macy's is starting to embrace this approach.  Will you buy more?

Would your customers?

I subscribe to a free service that let's me know what stories and sources reporters are looking for.  It's called Help a Reporter Out (www.helpareporter.com)  You should check it out.

So this morning I get an email about a contest that an online resource for those going through divorce is holding, and they're asking for promotion ideas.  The winner receives a Kindle.  Although I think the Kindle is super cool and of course I'd like to have one, I also get totally jazzed about coming up with interactive marketing ideas.  Companies today are looking beyond email marketing, search engine optimization and other brand development strategies toward more interactive marketing approaches to involve their audiences.  No, I'm not the first to suggest a viral video marketing strategy, but I believe that this approach has a lot of merit if building word of mouth is important to you.

Here's the idea I submitted:
(Remember, this is for a website that provides resources for those who have gone through a divorce, so the strategy needs to fit.)

Potential titles:

The ‘Dear John, It’s Over’ Video Contest
The ‘I never meant to hurt you’ Video Contest
The ‘It’s Over!’ Video Contest
The ‘I’m Starting Over…I Need a Makeover!’ Video Contest
The ‘I’ve got to get something off my chest’ Video Contest

Potential promotional copy:

Hey, divorce is a difficult thing to go through, and through these tough times we could all use a little laugh, right?  [Contest sponsor] announces the ‘I never meant to hurt you’ video contest.

Is it time for a divorce?  Time to tell your significant other to take a hike?  Need to come clean about seeing ‘someone’ else?

• Have you  been burned by your PC too many times?
• Cheated on your PC with a Mac?
• Had a Miller Lite while your Bud wasn’t looking?
• Has Windows Vista taken you for granted one too many times?
• Time to say goodbye to your 3 year old’s binky when it no longer quiets your little hellion like it promised to?

Confess to your ‘significant other’ about it in a short, funny, 2 minute original video.  What counts is  humor, originality, video production quality, and the tangible metric – YouTube views.  Videos must be sent to [the contest sponsor's website] where they will be screened (for inappropriate content) and uploaded to the contest channel on YouTube.  [The contest sponsor] embeds the YouTube video code into the site and builds a quick polling feature to allow visitors to vote, and the highest combination of website visitor votes + YouTube views wins.

Here’s an example of a script for a video:  Telling your SUV that you’ve been seeing a perky little hybrid.

“Hi honey, we need to talk.  We’ve been together for a long time.  We’ve had some tough times and some really great ones too.  But over the years I feel that I’m the only one putting the effort into this relationship.  I take care of you, keep you looking great, and I will say that you’ve been pretty reliable.  But the world around us has changed.  Gas prices are skyrocketing and frankly, people think we’re unsafe.  They just look at us differently now, and as hard as I have tried to remain content, this relationship just takes everything out of me.  I fill you up with my love every week, but then I have nothing left.  No passion, no excitement, and no money.  It costs so much more now to keep this relationship going than it ever used to.  I feel taken advantage of, and I….I’m so sorry…I just can’t do this anymore.  I need to tell you that there’s someone else.  For the last few months I…God I can’t believe I’m telling you this….I’ve been seeing a hybrid.  No, it’s not someone from work, and I really wasn’t looking.  It just kind of happened.  I’m so sorry.  I never meant to hurt you, but I need to go this direction in my life right now.  It’s what I need to feel like myself again.  And you’re going to be fine, really!  I think we’ve both been pulling each other down.  You’re a smart, good looking, enormous SUV with a strong personality and a command for the road.  There are other people out there that would appreciate you, give you all the gas you need and not feel guilty about it.  You know, the wealthy elite.  I just can’t afford to give you what you need anymore.  I’m so sorry.”

We'll see if the idea wins the contest, and I'll of course post it here, but let me know what you think.  Have any viral video ideas or examples you'd like to share?

We just finished a fun contest for one of our clients that uses our blogging for business platform.  The blogger with the most posts in June won a Flip Ultra video camera. 

We're coaching this client to post great blog content on a frequent basis in order to develop a more casual dialogue with their market, further their brand development efforts, and also to accomplish the search engine optimization goals we have agreed on. 

Blogging for business doesn't have to be difficult or time consuming, but it does take some effort to get into the habit.  Upon announcing the contest, the blogging really took off.  As a result, blog and website traffic have tripled since April, with much of that traffic created in June, and we have a very, very excited client who can't wait to receive her new video camera.  (Have you seen these things?  Very cool.)

In order for blogging for business to succeed (and long term success is still on the horizon here...), R.O.Why! Marketing not only needed to deliver a great blog platform that was built for search engine optimization, but we also needed to help each blogger create the interest, time and passion for blogging.  For the cost of one great dinner out, the contest helped create that spark amongst an entire team of people, and now they're reaping the benefits.  When was the last time your blog and website traffic tripled?

There's an opportunity here for every marketer to identify what we need our audiences to do in order to help us all succeed in the long run (yes, buy stuff, but what else?) and to find exciting ways to help them do it.  Contests are just one way.  Peter Shankman's figured out a way.  Events and PR stunts are another.  Speaking of, have you seen his book? 

It's inspiring to meet people who work for companies that really understand what brand development means.  Over the last couple of weeks I've enjoyed getting to know a local market research company, yet even as I write this it seems unfair to place them in that category.

At the risk of this sounding like a restaurant review, I'll describe what I found.

What I have experienced is a company filled with some of the most fascinating people I've met in a long time, who together create an atmosphere that is infectious.  From the moment I read their website I was drawn to them.  Upon entering their offices I felt like I was stepping into someone's home, and from the first introduction it was clear I had found a diamond in the rough.

There are no mission statements or corporate values on the walls, but everyone has had a hand in crafting them, and each person I met truly knows what they mean and lives them everyday in their work.  No Madison Avenue advertising agency was hired to create the brand, but it is very much alive. 

In discussing what we might do for this company, I was delighted to discover that for this team and this company, it truly isn't about the marketing.  And it really never should be, should it?  But all too often I see companies whose taglines are more impressive that the product itself - where the company, the people, and the product or service can't live up to the hype.  In fact, it needs the hype to get in the door.

Here, at this tiny little boutique research shop, there is no need for gleaming signage, billboards and television commercials.  There will be no mass communication strategy designed to blanket the country with buzz.  The role of the marketing programs we deliver will simply be to let the good stuff out.

We won't be creating the story; the story already is, and it grows as new pages are added everyday.  At most, we'll bring some structure to a message that has taken on a life of its own.

What's exciting is that this company has done it in the right order.  They've taken something as old and potentially boring as market research and innovated the solution to such a degree that clients get to know their customers in ways they never imagined.  They quietly built the product first, then tested it, perfected it, wowed clients with it for years, developed an experience around its delivery that can't be had elsewhere, and created a magnetic force around them that draws onlookers in at rates the best sales executive would drool over.

Brand development wasn't an initiative.  It's what happened when a small team set out to do something great.  And it's become a movement with serious momentum.

Now they're ready to let some of this story out.   Now they're ready for marketing, and humbly, marketing will take its place as the enabler - not the reason for being in the first place.

"Doing something is better than doing nothing." 

"Taking action is better than standing still."

Is it really?  Just because you're sending out those sales letters each week doesn't mean it's getting you anywhere. Sure, you have a monthly email marketing broadcast, but are people reading it?  Is it really helping you form deeper connections with customers?  If the answer isn't a clear and resounding "Yes, and here's how we measure it," you need to be open to the idea that it all might just be a giant waste of time.

Here's an example.  I recently had a problem with a piece of software we use.  It wasn't doing what it was supposed to.  I contacted the company, explained the problem, and asked for them to look into it.  Within 24 hours I had a reply from support:  "I've done A, B, and C.  Please let me know if the problem persists."  Super, so I go check, and the problem is still there.  What's more, the person could have seen this before even replying.  Don't they realize that I'm less interested in the action they took than I am in making the problem go away?  I want a solution, not a description of what you did.

Your marketing needs to deliver solutions.  Your executives who hold your feet to the fire don't care how many email marketing broadcasts you send.  They don't care how many tradeshows you attend and flyers you print.  It doesn't matter how many impressions your brand development efforts make.  They want results.

Your customers want the same.  Give them value.  Make something about their life better, faster, more enjoyable, more efficient, cost less.  They don't care about what you're saying.  Change something big for them.

I had a meeting with a business owner and the VP of sales recently to discuss the findings of their new customer & prospect research project, which would culminate in a new marketing strategy and marketing communications plan.  They had recently hired a Cincinnati advertising agency, but were less than pleased with the output.

I had met this company before.  I understood the business.  They fit nicely into a box called IT staffing and services.  Yet pouring through the volumes of feedback, a very different company was coming to life in the comments from its customers and prospects.  What became clear was that this company was, and would become, much more.

Having long ago set the goal of distancing itself from the commodity business of staff augmentation and consulting services, this company was already delivering the 'trusted expert', solution oriented experience.  The problem is that too few people knew it.  Customers' understanding of the business was limited to the services they purchased.  Most had no idea the depth and breadth of talent and experience that lived here.  

It was time to start telling the story.

As we pieced together the major elements of the marketing strategy, this new direction fit the company better than the path they are currently on.  We needed to capitalize on the intellectual capital resident in the people.  We need to get them talking, blogging, and connecting with customers and prospects.  We must capture customer successes and tell powerful stories of how this firm has changed the business landscape for its customers.  We must define and claim a thought leadership position in the market, sharing educational content and valuable resources at every opportunity.  The enthusiasm for this newfound clarity permeated the room.

Then it was time to talk about the identity.

Considering the time and expense of historical brand development efforts, the owner of the firm preferred to 'stick with the logo we have.'  Sure, as a business owner I can understand the complications of such a change.  Materials, market communications, and the associated efforts can be expensive.  Meanwhile there's a closet full of trinkets with the current logo.  He felt like he'd be taking a few steps back before really getting started.  I understand.

The problem is that the packaging no longer fits the product.  The product is amazing.  It changes businesses.  It delivers increased productivity and revenue, decreases costs across the enterprise, and lays out a deliberate path for using IT as a strategic advantage.  Yet it's sold in a paper bag.

The market can't see it.  They can't sample it's uniquness.  They can't form a connection with a brand that doesn't clearly fit the products, services, and people it represents.  It gets pre-judged before anyone has a chance to realize its value.  It doesn't form a connection, tell a powerful story, and inspire the market to act.  And so, neither will the company.  Judging a book by its cover may not be fair, but you do it everyday, and so do your customers.

Does your brand fit?

Breaking down big revenue goals into actionable steps & aligning with sales

I keep running into sales & marketing alignment 'opportunities' and felt compelled to expand on my thoughts from a few posts ago...

If you're like most marketers, you struggle with how to champion your company's brand, set forth marketing programs that drive revenue and profit objectives, and to align your activities with the efforts of the sales team.  Add the responsibility of conducting ROI marketing and that's a big job!

Often times we see marketing communications strategies that 'swing for the fences'.  After all, that's what heavy hitters do, right?  But in baseball, the most successful players aren't always the home run kings; often they are those that get on base the most.  They hit singles and doubles consistently.

Marketing should do the same.

Now I'm not saying that we should take our eye off our financial targets, or broader brand development objectives, but by breaking down the big goals into smaller, easier-to-achieve milestones, I believe we stand a better chance of scoring big.

When it comes to email marketing, event marketing, interactive marketing, or other such lead-generation programs, focus your marketing communications on the sales cycle.  Focus your marketing strategies on the sales cycle  What steps does your sales team follow today?  I contend that every business has to do 4 things very well:

   1. Attract
   2. Cultivate
   3. Close
   4. Retain

Every sales organization has variations of these basic steps.  For some it's 5 steps, or even 10 or more, but the main objectives are the same.

Next, in which steps of your sales process is the team lacking?  Perhaps you're creating tons of highly qualified sales leads, but failing to cultivate the opportunity.  You might be finding great leads and cultivating well, but fall short at the close.  Proper marketing strategy can play a big role here.  Consider implementing a series of communications designed to mirror these steps in the sales process.

Attract:  Use your Cincinnati advertising agency for brand development and broad market awareness, and search engine optimization and blogging as attraction methods.  Cast a wide net

Cultivate:  Email marketing is built for building and maintaining relationships.  So are event marketing programs and interactive marketing endeavors.  Build an educational video series for your blog, or a strategic customer event to get in front of your market.  Use these opportunities to build a solid understanding of those you serve.

Close:  Of course, nothing happens if you don't make the sale.  Document your past successes and leverage case study programs and customer testimonials.  Deliver 3rd party content and proof of concept.  Demonstrate the use case and ROI.

Retain:  The worst thing you could do to a customer is leave them all alone.  Using the above methods and channels, deliver value added content.  Your email campaigns turn to a nurture marketing approach, offering tips, resources, and ideas on how to get more value.  Your blog is an obvious channel to deliver content from your product managers, engineers and manufacturing staff.  Leverage these channels to constantly collect customer feedback and new use cases.  Let your customers know you're listening and use their insight to improve the product or service, or to even build and entirely new one.

If there's one common mistake we see in small business marketing and that within larger enterprises, it's the fact that marketing communications programs are tasked with too much.  With such big expectations of any one effort, it's tough to deliver and even more difficult to measure.

Break down the big goals.  Create small wins.  Measure success in inches, not miles.  Focus on hitting lots of singles.  It's easier to win and make corrections when you're not swinging for the fences.

I had a great meeting today with a company that is looking for a Cincinnati, Ohio marketing firm / agency.  They operate in the IT consulting space and are faced with a cluttered market of "Me Too's".  As we talked about brand development, marketing strategy, and host of other issues, I asked them:

How unique do you want to be?

It's an important question because as many small and medium sized businesses develop marketing programs to compete against the big guys, most of them that I see choose to, at best, say the same things as differently as they can.  Of course this rarely results in a strong competitive differentiation. 

• Are you willing to be different, not just in your marketing, but from the inside out?
• Are you willing to change your company entirely?  Product, service, culture, deliverables, customer experience and then your marketing?
• Are you willing to be confident enough in what you're great at to cross off all of those other 'services' from your list of capabilities and focus on your top 3?
• Are you willing to hire people that stand out?
• Are you willing to fire your ad agency for not pushing you to be different?

Saying yes to any of these questions requires you to be willing to take the risk of being the Purple Cow.  To quit playing the game your competitors play and to change it entirely.  You'll face scrutiny.  You'll attract attention and naysayers.

And people will remember you.

Apple did it.
So did Google.
And MySpace, 37 Signals, Mint.com, Marc Cuban, Boon, Chipotle, Slide and Obama.

How unique do you want to be?

Are you willing to change something, or everything to get there?

I don't think there's a company we've spoken to that didn't want a better return on their marketing investments.  Everyone understands the concept of demanding a tangible ROI from marketing.  The challenge lies in helping clients understand that in order to effectively monetize marketing results, you must break down the initiative into smaller, digestible parts.

Swinging for the Fences
When we evaluate marketing programs, the most common mistake we see, whether it be an interactive marketing program, an event marketing strategy, an email marketing newsletter, or even a brand development effort, is that the promotion itself is trying to accomplish too much.  If we understand the buying process, and embrace all of the steps necessary to take a someone from cold prospect to loyal customer, we can start to shed some light on this.  With the exception of pure impulse buys, how many times has one ad, one email, one promotion causes you to make a major purchase?  We shouldn't expect the same from our customers.

In my experience the best approach is to break down the overall goal of increased revenue into digestible steps that mirror the buying process.  At the simplest level, we need to attract, cultivate, close, and retain.  Now, what should your next print advertisement, tradeshow or customer event marketing program, or email marketing campaign be designed to accomplish?  I might argue that it should be one clearly-defined step in your sales process or the customer's buying process.

For example, if I do a great job of getting people to sign up for a webinar, attend it, download a whitepaper afterward, participate in a demo after that, and discuss their particular requirements with me following the demo, I stand a great chance of developing a solution that meets their needs and closing the sale.  My communications around each of these should focus on accomplishing just that one step.  My goal is to achieve multiple small commitments from a prospective customer that are likely to lead to a signature on the proposal. 

By separating my communications and properly aligning my expectations with the achievement of these small steps in the buying cycle, I stand a much better chance of measuring my success and marketing ROI on each endeavor, and monetizing the results along the entire spectrum of marketing programs.  That's how you build an effective ROI marketing strategy.

In my trip around the internet this morning I stumbled across a great tool for creating custom tag clouds for your website.  As you know, a tag cloud is a means of visually representing information of any kind.  It could be the contents of a website, a song, a speech, a whitepaper, whatever.  It gives you a visual representation of word frequencies within any piece of content.

Here's a tag cloud with terms related to Web 2.0


There are lots of applications for this:

• As a means to visually measure keyword density for a search engine optimization campaign
• As topic summaries for a business plan or interactive marketing strategy
• An 'at a glance' resume
• As brand clouds to give companies a view of how the world sees them before launching a brand development effort
• A means for political figures to visually measure popularity
• A research tool before you make your next hire, or before you choose your next Cincinnati advertising agency
  

The list goes on!

Want to have some fun?  Plug in your website, your advertisement, email campaign text or press release into the tool at http://www.tagcrowd.com/.  You can even get the code to place your very own tag cloud on your website. 

Just received another notice of the April 18th luncheon from the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Marketing Association which will feature Ken Pendery and Chris Tomasso of First Watch Restaurants, Inc.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First Watch was founded in 1983 on this simple concept. Today, First Watch Restaurants, Inc. is the largest privately owned, daytime-only restaurant company in the country.   Headquartered in Bradenton, FL, and operating more than 76 restaurants in 11 states, First Watch offers something for everyone, from traditional Breakfast, Brunch and Lunch favorites to their signature creations. Business or pleasure, First Watch takes pride in meeting the special needs of their customers.

Ken Pendery, President and CEO of First Watch Restaurants, is a visionary in the restaurant business.  He has created several restaurant concepts and has held numerous executive positions.  Ken and Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Tomasso will speak on the concept building and brand marketing strategies that have led to the success of First Watch Restaurants.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I've known a few restaurant owners who have really struggled with brand development, and defining a niche.  First Watch has definitely done a great job of that and I'm looking forward to learning just how they did it, and potentially bringing back a few tricks I can share with our clients.  As I've already said, I really do love this place.

I just read a piece on virtual brand ambassadorsthat discussed Gonzaga University's unleashing of Spike, the mascot online avatar being used to communicate with the school's online community.

There's no doubt that the interactive marketing technology that was once reserved for gaming communities has some interesting applications in other sectors.  Gonzaga's website now allows them to bring the mascot to 'life' in some way and create an interactive dialogue on the site. 

I think what I'm challenged with is the first part of a comment from the article:

"As a university, we need to foster warm, life-long relations with our alumni, parents, and friends," says Joe Poss, Gonzaga's director of development for university relations.

I'm supposed to build a warm, life-long relationship with your university by talking to a database of pre-written answers to common questions?  Isn't this really just a character culling through a complex series of FAQs and reading me the answer?  Ugh.

People develop relationships with brands, no doubt, but we truly relate to people.  I just fear that too much of the personal side of brands is getting replaced with avatars, auto attendants, email marketing auto responders and other technologies.

It's the second part of Mr. Poss's comment that I am more inclined to identify with:

"We were looking for an effective, creative experience for the website, with an emphasis on creative, when we came across the idea for Spike."

Definitely a creative approach to brand development that brings some personality and more of an interactive marketing mechanism to the website.

R.O.Why! Marketing recently launched two new client websites.

Health Force  For over four years, R.O.Why! Marketing has served as the outsourced marketing department for this national travel nursing and allied health staffing company.  Health Force wanted to take a big leap forward in their overal marketing strategy, brand development, and the level of interaction on their website.  Built with the specific needs of healthcare travelers in mind, the new website allows candidates to build a profile and receive specialized job alerts as opportunities come available.  Travelers can also easily build a customized job cart and apply to many different positions at one time.  Our work now is focused on driving traffic to the new site using search engine optimization, email marketing, print advertising, and soon, a blog just like this one.


IPLogic, Inc. is a leading provider of communications technology solutions across the northeast United States.  Coming off an acquisition of a telephony solutions provider in 2006, the company redeveloped its marketing strategy to better communicate its offerings across the 7 geographic markets in which it now operates.  A series of interactive marketing, email marketing and event marketing programs throughout 2007 culminated in the lauch of the company's new website in early 2008.