Just rats with better outfits, in my opinion. However, I love, love, love Marketing Experiments, and, I'm IN LOVE with their Fight the Squirrel campaign.  Basically, Fight the Squirrel is a pitch for using testing methodologies to improve your marketing ROI, which I too am a huge fan of - both testing and improving ROI!  Marketing Experiments defines “the squirrel,” as:

“… that one bad marketing idea on the site that you just know deep-down is hurting your conversion, but that someone with more authority in your organization loves.”

Watching the videos of the poor marketers fight the evil “founder” hit a little too close to home to find truly funny, but appreciate the ammunition Marketing Experiments gives the marketers fighting those #@$& squirrels that wreck campaign objectives.

Wish I would have had live site testing data when a start-up founder insisted his wife be included in the prototype testing (she was sooo not the target audience), and then we had to do a re-design because, “yellow is such an unhappy color!”  Really?  Yellow?  Any who . . .

Fight the squirrel with testing – it works! (Unless the squirrel is a yellow prototype!) 

 

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I've had the YouTube video, below, bookmarked for awhile with the intent of a post.  The engaging graphics, coupled with the mind-numbing statistics regarding the worldwide adoption of social media, spoke to me.

The frames that cited social media adoption got me thinking back to grad school days.  I had the honor of studying marketing science under Dr. Frank Bass.  Dr. Bass created a marketing model using differential equations to predict product adoption; that theory, published in 1969, became the eponymous Bass Model -

“The Bass Model assumes that sales of a new product are primarily driven by word-of-mouth from satisfied customers. At the launch of a new product, mostly innovators purchase it. Early owners who like the new product influence others to adopt it. Those who purchase primarily because of the influence of owners are called imitators.”

In 2004, Dr. Bass’ paper on the Bass Model was selected as one of the 10 most frequently cited papers in the 50-year history of Management Science.  During class, many, many years after first publishing his paper, Dr. Bass told us that he first started to formulate the model while contemplating the adoption of advanced farming techniques through rural America.  The first practical application of the Bass Model was to predict the adoption of color televisions! 

Dr. Bass died in 2006; I can only imagine how he would have loved that Wikipedia states, “The rapid, recent growth in online social networks has led to an increased use of the Bass diffusion model.” 

Watch and enjoy!

I've had the opportunity to sit “behind the glass” and witness representative customers engage with brands and products in testing session. Sadly, occasionally I've been horrified by the comments, but thankfully, also pleasantly amazed. As I've said before during research, "I love people!" Truly, I do - especially when someone gives you that "golden nugget" of insight - that one user that gets it and can articulate their needs and how your product fulfills the need - it's golden.

That response was shared by Leah Buley during her insightful blog post,"Design a Super Hero."Hearing another researcher in love with her participants is what initially drew me in. But, then I found the golden nugget of her post -a proposed task for user research meant to elicit product ideas.

I've found this task to be difficult in a lab situation; it's usually more beneficial for the product team to devise the product ideas then test the concepts. Test participants usually aren't able to ideate "pie-in-the-sky" questions in a lab setting. However, this task proposed by Buley just may work - have your user complete the following statement and draw their story:

Experiment: You are designing the superhero of _[insert your industry]______. This superhero has secret weapons that make it possible to overcome the things that frustrate ___[users of your product/service]_________ like you and me. What secret weapons would you give this superhero?

As a blog commenter said, this may be more effective assigned as pre-test, "homework," instead of an on-the-spot task, but again, if you can get that golden nugget and have users "express their needs and frustrations in particular areas of their lives" that your product can fulfill, a competitive advantage could be yours.

Also, this hero metaphor is used in my current read, "Storytelling: Branding in Practice," by Klaus Fog, Christian Budtz, and Baris Yakaboylu. With rave reviews by Kotler, Godin and Peters, this book will not disappoint brand practitioners attempting to craft company stories to support the brand. Like the super hero exercise, this book offers "simple guidelines and practical tools" to help craft your company stories using the four elements of storytelling: the message,the conflict, and characters, and the plot or "the fairy-tale model."Like Buley's research task, the center of the brand story is the hero,the character to overcome the conflict in pursuit of a goal.

So, if your users can articulate a hero to surmount their product conflicts by imagining new features, as either described or sketched,you could not only have your product roadmap, but the beginning of a unique brand story.

I've decided that Buley's super hero task, coupled with the book's storytelling brand framework, could be the beginning my marketing utility belt!

The evolution of the conversation regarding social media and social networking is occurring - taking the dialog beyond the technology to the strategic use of social media and social networking for marketing objectives.  Bringing together a few Forrester Research publications on social networking and a recent Harvard Business article on social strategy, a framework for using social media strategically to reach your marketing objectives is emerging.

Following up to Groundswell, Forrester’s Josh Bernoff writes “Objectives: The Key to Creating a Social Strategy”  and “Social Technology Strategies for ‘Boring’ Consumer Brands” -  two reports that apply Forrester’s strategy methodology, POST - People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology to direct the social conversation with actionable strategic road maps for using social media in marketing.

The help with the people part, if you don’t have the resources to research your customers, can be gleaned from “Understanding Users of Social Networks,” by Sean Silverthorne (published September 14, 2009 by Harvard Business School). This report distills research for understanding users in the process of developing a social strategy, answering the questions, "how are people using social networking sites?" and "what are they doing?"  A few key insights from this report:

    - Pictures are the killer app of all online social networks – 70% of all actions related to viewing pictures

    - Social networks are a form of “voyerurism . . . biggest usage categories are1.)  men looking at women they don’t know, 2.) men looking at women they do know, and 3.) women looking at women they know – overall women receive two-thirds of all page views”

    - It’s the 90/10 rule with Twitter – “90% of Twitter posts were created by 10% of users”

    -  Women are more likely to create content (comment) and men are more likely to reference other content (re-post or link)

Another big take away – the advertising model is not successful on social networking.  It’s about jumping in and participating, in some form, in the discussion. Again, with Forrester’s strategy methodology, POST, understand what your customers are doing in the social space first, then participate in a strategy that fits their social behaviors.

Most of us marketeers market a product or service that is less than "sexy," which means we can’t “talk” directly about our products if we want anyone to participate.  But, on some level, our products/services do solve problems.  So referring to Josh’s report, “Social Technology Strategies for ‘Boring’ Consumer Brands:  To Create Borrowed Relevance, Get Customers Talking About Their Problems.”   Pick one of your product’s pain points and then create the dialog around that issue.

Our role, as marketers, is to host, facilitate, and/or participate, at some level, in the discussion with this “borrowed relevance.” Find how your product is relevant to your user, then tap into that pain point to create the social dialog.  The Harvard research takes it a step further and suggests finding a “social failure in the offline world” and then choose the appropriate strategy to find that brand connection.  A few social failures could include: 

1.) Anonymity:  maybe the product you market solves a problem that people don’t want to disclose.  Great - here’s your user ID - no name required!    For instance, maybe the topic is taboo - it's easier to discuss personal finances or a medical condition with a user ID than with a name. 

2.)  Proximity:  if distance is the social failure, then getting your audience together online, may be the answer.

3.)  Probability:  if the chance that your user's offline social network doesn't includes the same "type" of user, then creating an online social network will help bring those users together.  

So, if you aren't lucky enough to market athletic shoes or electronics, and can't talk about your product directly, then start listening to your customers to learn what's relevant and jump into the social media pool.  Remember, it's not about how well you swim, it's about being at the pool party . . .  and  just make sure you invite the women!
    

One day, I pulled into my local CVS (nee Eckerd's) to stock up on "product."  As I'm parking the car, a car pulls in next to me and the man in the car walks into the store in front of me.  So, as I'm following this older man, I'm thinking, "wow, that dude looks a lot like Ross Perot."  Einstein that I am, I quickly figured out that it WAS Ross Perot. 

So, in true celebrity stalker fashion, I follow Ross as he shops around the store.  He went to the pharmacy, talked with the tech, they walked to the shampoo aisle, and then he purchased some shampoo.  Well, I'm thinking, "if I was Ross rich, I'd have someone check my "product" level on a weekly basis and re-stock as needed.  Unlike my current m.o., which is turn every bottle upside down to get every single drop of product out then scurry to CVS to re-stock. 

Well, god love the Internet entreprenuer.  Welcome Alice.com.  Alice is a shopping site for "product."  She tracks purchases and, based upon your usage profile (number of people in house, etc.), she notifies you when you may be running low on product and need to re-order.  Ross, tell your venture arm to write Alice.com a nice check!

Here's how the "cut, copy, paste" feature will work on the new iPhone: 

Click and hold the word to copy and the copy dialog will appear:




Can't wait to hear the turn-by-turn directions! 

A few months ago, when I lived in Texas, I remember an uproar because Six Flags was petitioning the TABC (Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission) to sell beer at the Arlington, Texas park.  A group of local citizens were concerned about mixing alcohol and children.  (I would be more concerned about mixing alcohol and amusement rides, but to each his own.)   However, since Disney sells liquor at its parks, the request didn't seem out of the ordinary.  Plus alcohol fits more with the Six Flags brand than it does the Disney brand, anyway. 

However, while visiting my new local mall, King of Prussia, I saw a "coming soon" sign on a vacant store front - it was for Six Flags' Rollercoaster Cuts - a new children's "salon."  This one does seem a little out of left field for Six Flags brand extension.  And, for the record, the creepy old guy and children just don't mix - more so than beer and children.  Thoughts? 

I've never really wanted a tattoo, but during cocktail party chit-chat, I always break out with the, "I don't want one, but I know what I'd get if I did."  Which is, a barcode.  Yes, a barcode.  Of course, a Google image search reveals I'm not uniquely creative, see below:



Also, I'd want it to function - scan - and I'd have it programmed for some random product, like Boudreaux's Butt Paste, or some "dollar off" coupon for a product I always buy at the grocery store, like Silk Lite Soy Milk.  However, nothing that would land me in jail! 

Now I can let Google scan my barcode tattoo.  Check out Google's blog for more details.



Beyond product comparisons, ReadWriteWeb did a three-part series  "The Scannable World" - see Part 3:  Barcode Scanning In The Real World for great marketing ideas, aside from my not-so-novel bardcode tattoo! 

In a recent post, I highlighted the obvious links between key life events (graduation, marriage, new job, new home, birth/children, new job, etc.) triggering the need to acquire certain financial products and services (student loan, credit card, deposit products, insurance, home loan, etc.)

 

Forrester Research, in the their North American Consumer Technology Adoption Study (NACTAS), uncovered greater correlation between key life events and a need for seemingly un-related financial products and services, thus reinforcing the power of life event marketing to obtain greater share of wallet.

 

The study’s key takeaways involved life events and the impact on banking and insurance products, including:

-          Car buyers acquire more credit cards

-          Job changers apply for checking accounts and credit cards

-          Families with more children need more auto loans and mortgages

-          Retirees shift their investment strategies to include annuities

-          Homebuyers need auto insurance and life insurance

-          Newlyweds buy auto insurance

 

 

As Forrester also highlight, financial services providers have historically been siloed into product/business lines with little integrated marketing efforts.  Historically offering the “right” product at the “right” time was 1.) costly and 2.) trial and error.  However, even if data warehouse and marketing automation applications to determine product purchase propensities are out of budget’s reach, start online with “low-fidelity” online cross-selling and lead generation using Forrester’s life event related products findings.

 

1.)     Create navigation paths related to life events – speak to the user’s intentions.  Create the online conversation surrounding these life events.  Integrate value added content to help users understand the impact of the life event to their financial well-being.  Create interactive and on-boarding programs surrounding life events. 

2.)     Share information – opt-in.  Be sure to ask the customer to share their information with sister product teams and “affiliated entities.”

3.)     Offer related products online – “want fries with that?”  Don’t wait until the application is submitted; subtly offer related products during the application process (test usability!), but always follow-up via e-mail.  A 2007 Javelin survey of 2,230 consumers found that 42% prefer to receive e-mail communications from their bank after opening an account, compared to 24% favoring direct mail and 12% each for telephone and branch follow-up with sales messaging after account opening. 

4.)     Remove barriers to purchase - write once, use many.  Pre-fill product applications with related data already entered, or in the case of existing customers, tap into the customer information files to pre-fill the applications – saving the user time and removing barriers.   

 

While online cross-sell campaigns are likely to still be largely trial and error, the Forrester Research findings can, hopefully, shorten the learning cycles.   

Howdy to all Linkedin, EDS Internet and New Media Alums Group Members. 

Scan down to the Pepsi.com 1996 image - remember this gem?  This was in the latest issue, March 2009, of The Magazine of Online Media, Marketing, and Advertising.