Even though I didn't get a good grade - boo!  However, check out this brilliant campaign by the brilliant folks at HubSpot that promotes their marketing analytics services using their WebsiteGrader tool. 

If you haven't graded your site - get on it - http://websitegrader.com. 

Well, it seems getting to Austin for the Digital Marketing Forum will be impossible due to snowpocalypse/snowmageddon/snowlocaust 2011! 

My flight from Philly to Austin was scheduled to connect through Chicago - well, that's not happening.  So, considered changing to connect through Dallas - DFW is closed with ice and freezing rain.  Hopefully, MarketingProfs will make the materials available to the no-shows. 

Look out for the sea gulls! 

QRAPPING PAPER is available in pairs of 20-inch x 30-inch sheets for $19.99 on qrappingpaper.com!

As the calendar year comes to a close, ‘tis the season for “top trends” blog posts, where those in the know pontificate on the year’s picks and pans.  I especially enjoyed RedWriteWeb’s “Top Trends of 2010: Social Shopping ,” however, not because I’m a convert of social shopping, but I’m intrigued with bar code scanning, which this post highlighted.  The post mentioned two apps -  Red Laser (eBay) and Amazon Mobile.  I’ve been intrigued by bar codes for a while (my May 2009 post), and decided to follow up on the developments. 

In my “read me” file is the Forrester Research report, “2D Bar Codes: Learn Why There’s No Urgency,” by Julie Ask; so in preparation for this post, I dug into it.  Julie’s take away was, “invest modestly and experiment broadly.”   Her report was a good primer on this technology, mixed with a little Forrester WAVE vendor review, and a sprinkling of marketing applications for bar codes. 

The other report that I really like was mentioned in the ReadWriteWeb post - some primary research commissioned by Scan Life, a leader in this space.  The amazing takeaway – “the use of bar code scanners is up 700% in 2010.”  A few other key take aways from this report :

• Strong user interest in the overall concept of getting more information from the physical world – regardless of the code format.
• Two most popular categories are from every day products that one would find in their kitchen or bathroom.
• People are actually purchasing these items through the mobile device, although the books and electronics categories show higher sales conversion rates.
• The “long tail” of product types is significant showing that people are finding ways to scan virtually anything with a UPC code.
• The technology is widely relevant across age and income groups - half of the users are currently in the 35-54 group which is partly reflected by smart phone usage, males are over-indexing at this point which mainly reflects an early adopter group and those that are more likely to utilize mobile apps.

Since I don’t market a product that would be consumed in a kitchen/bathroom or books/electronics, I started thinking of other applications for bar codes, beyond social shopping. I few of my thoughts:

1. Greater level of engagement:  As Julie mentioned in her report, the amount on information that can be printed on product labeling and packaging is finite, however, the bar code to direct a user to a Web site offers an ability to give more product information, and even offer product usage, directions, and demonstrations.  No more having to remember how the sales person instructed you to put something together! 
   
   
2. Cross-selling and up-selling - the virtual, “want fries with that?”:   No more buying the product and getting home only to realize you don’t have the right tools, accessories, cables, etc. 
   
   
3. Beyond point-of-purchase:  How many times have you been away from your computer and see something that you want to remember later?  If you’re like me – lots!  (I have more random pictures of products on my phone that I want to remember to read about/look at later.)  The bar code holds promise for a “bookmark” function – scan the bar code and “save” the information for studying later.
   
   
4. "Follow" and "Like" offline:  The bar code allows offline marketers to extend social marketing to products/services consumed offline.  I've been meaning to follow my favorite lunch spot, Zoup, but never remember after I leave.  I especially like that the Scan Life report closed with this invite:

Hence, as 2011 planning is quickly upon us, I’m going to continue following the developments of using bar codes in marketing and resolve in 2011 to follow Julie’s advice and beta test a bar code program! 

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On Saturday, November 13th I co-presented at the 2010 Access Group conference for financial aid administrators (FAAs).  My talk was a tactical framework and road map for FAAs to communicate with their students.  I hope they are able to take this information and put together a plan for listening, sharing, and interacting! 


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Just finished rolling out electronic correspondence!



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The wrong list, the wrong template, the wrong template to the wrong list, etc. - the joys of e-mail marketing.  However, when an error happens, it's best to own up to it with your audience.  This is the best mea culpa e-mail I've seen in a while:

The original e-mail from Dogster, with the subject:  10 Ways to be a Better Cat Owner in 2010. 

The mea culpa e-mail subject line:  Our Apologies

The e-mail:





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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!