Pepsi recently announced that they plan to move away from traditional marketing and toward a new strategy that involves leveraging social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to "become a catalyst in the culture" and "add value to a community". Tom Asacker discusses this in the following post from his blog, AClearEye.com.

I've just read that PepsiCo is evolving away from traditional mass market advertising towards an approach that connects with its audience in a direct and more meaningful way (WARC News).

According to Frank Cooper III, chief consumer engagement officer for PepsiCo's US beverage arm, "We want to become a catalyst in the culture rather than act like a big brand announcing something."

This is big, big news. It may be a sign that the ship of big brands has finally become aware of the changing environment and is beginning to turn.

In Better than Rational: Evolutionary Psychology and the Invisible Hand, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby explain that “form follows function: the properties of an evolved mechanism reflect the structure of the task it evolved to solve.” So what is the structure of today’s marketing task?

Yesterday’s marketplace was a much simpler environment. People were easy to find, easy to reach and easy to persuade. The marketer’s task was simply to make people “aware” of their new and improved offering. And they did just that, primarily through mega spending on mass media advertising. But the marketplace has evolved. And it appears that it has changed faster than most marketers have changed.

While the marketplace pendulum has swung from a fascination with image and consumption to a preoccupation with experience and value, marketers continue to focus on exposure, messaging and other extinct concepts. But mere awareness is not the nature of the task today.

The marketer’s new task is one of clarity: “How do we make it clear to our audience that we’re in business to help them (and not to hunt them)? How can we get a clearer view and understanding of our audience, so that we can design a business that best feeds their hungers? How can we provide them with a clear view and appreciation of the value of our offering? How can we make it clear to our people that their activities define our brand?”

Clarity should be the guiding principle behind every marketing effort. Clearness of thought. Clearness of appearance. Clearness of purpose. Clarity should inform every campaign, drive every question, and rationalize every dollar spent and every piece of data captured and analyzed.

Whether you’re launching a large scale branding effort, producing an event, or simply crafting an email message, follow these two steps to marketing clarity:

1. Discover -- Ask yourself; are we truly clear about our purpose and how to create superior value such that customers are continuously attracted to us? And by value, I mean the qualities that render your product or service highly desirable by your audience. It may be financial value, time value, social value, identity value, or some combination.

2. Execute -- Now that you understand how to create superior value, you must clearly and precisely align all spending and activities to both communicate and deliver that value. Note: If you can’t find the value in an activity, it does not exist.

That’s it. Until marketers understand and embrace the concept of clarity, we’ll continue to witness millions wasted on new logos, goofy ads, irrelevant viral campaigns, et al. Open your eyes marketers! Your marketing plans are a smorgasbord of expensive and misguided tactics that collectively fail to add up to a clear and compelling idea -- a reason to believe and to choose. We can see it. Why can’t you?

You can read more marketing discussion by Tom Asacker at his blog, A Clear Eye. This article has been republished from A Clear Eye and is licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 License.

This is a great presentation by Simon Sinek about how some organizations are able to achieve so much more than others with seemingly the same amount of resources. Why did no one buy Gateway's flat screens or Dell's MP3 players? The following video, which I think marketers should watch over and over, explains why.

The most important Simon makes is that "people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it". I love the following quotes:

"If Apple was like everyone else a marketing message might be: We make great computers. They're user friendly. Want to buy one? ...Here's how Apple actually communicates: everything we do, We believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?"

"The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have, the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe."

So start with why instead of what when you are rethinking your marketing strategy, and this flip can change how people think about your company and why they should do business with you.

People do business with companies that believe what they believe because of our strong tendency to want to align our actions with our self perception. This is why people who identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats, will vote against their self-interest. We don't want to experience what psychologists call cognitive dissonance - "the uncomfortable feeling of holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously" (Wikipedia). Therefore companies that have a strong identity often become very strong brands.

Tom Asacker argues that Toyota lost its way when it shifted its focus away from an obsession with making quality cars and more towards the numbers and Wall Street. That loss in focus by the company may now result in a loss of focus in the mind of the consumer. See the following article from Tom Asacker's blog, A Clear Eye.

Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota and grandson of the company's founder, testified today in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform as lawmakers continue to examine Toyota's record recalls. During the proceedings Toyoda remarked:

“My name is on every car.”

I suppose that statement was intended to convey that, as a leader, nothing is more important to him than the customer (after all, a car brand is only as strong as its customers' feelings for the brand). Unfortunately for Toyoda, that's simply not the case.

In the past, Toyoda said, the company's priorities were safety and quality, and sales came last. But as Toyota grew to become the world's biggest carmaker, "these priorities became confused, and we were not able to stop, think and make improvements as much as possible."

Sure they were. It was a choice. Like every business, Toyota could have chosen to stop, think and make the right decisions. They chose not to.

By confusing the essence of his business with the numbers that essence produced, Akio Toyoda has dug himself into a very large hole. By turning Toyota's obsession from quality and reliability to sales and profitability, he may have unwittingly destroyed the reputation -- the brand -- that took four decades to create.

Akio Toyoda is not alone in this misguided business approach; this rigid, inside-out focus on the organization and its "numbers." Many leaders are losing their sense of empathy and becoming narcissistic; obsessed with their image as reflected by internal goals and measurements and by Wall Street analysts.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again and again and again: Business is not about numbers. It's about people and their feelings. Numbers simply tell you how well you're doing with those feelings; with the contribution you're making to your customers' lives.

Why did so many Americans buy Toyota vehicles? Because we believed that the people at Toyota were obsessed. We believed that they cared deeply about us and our cars. We believed that they were passionately committed to the truth and to the pursuit of perfection. And so, we felt cared for and safe.

Now we're finding out that, indeed, they were obsessed. But, like so many businesses today, they just weren't obsessed with us.

As usual Einstein was right, "Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age."

This article was republished from Tom Asacker's blog, A Clear Eye and is licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 license.

Whether you love them or hate them, Apple has been one of the greatest business success stories of our time and it can be argued that most of their success is attributed to their marketing. Here are the top 7 things marketers can learn from Apple.

Create suspense around new products
Apple is known for its obsessive secrecy of new products which helps build anticipation and excitement for new releases. There is such a strong thirst for information about what's next that fans of the brand will create and visit rumor sites. Creating a sense of scarcity around your new product's information can increase demand for that information.

Draw a crowd
Apple clearly communicates a release date for new products so that it draws long lines of fans eager to be first to get the new product. Apple takes advantage of the popularity effect that influences people to mirror the behavior of the crowd. There is also a full restaurant effect which implicitly communicates that if people are lining up to buy - then it must be good.

Create something remarkable
Apple's remarkable products encourage people to tell their friends and family about why they are excited about their purchase. Excited friends will influence others who will want to also feel the same excitement themselves.

Simplify the marketing message
When portable MP3 players first came out it was a revolutionary technology that was completely different from prior technology. So a clever person from Apple came up with the tagline "1,000 songs in your pocket" to explain the value proposition in an extremely simple way.

Compare yourself to the competition
By directly comparing itself with the competition in its advertising, Apple was able to effectively communicate the main differences between a Mac and a PC. Before their Mac vs PC ads, the average consumer probably couldn't explain why a Mac was different. Now many more consumers could probably name some key differences.

Take Advantage of the Halo Effect
Apple's great success in selling iPods created a halo around its other products like laptops and desktops, helping Apple gain significant market share.
See Creating The Brand Halo Effect by Branding Strategy Insider

Create a great experience around a product
From the time a customer walks into an Apple retail store to opening the product packaging to Genius Bar support, every step is a planned experience that aligns closely with the brand of elegant design and simplicity.

What other lessons can marketers learn from Apple?

Also see the Marketing Apple blog by Steve Chazin

I am excited to be talking to Bob Gilbreath, author of The Next Evolution of Marketing which outlines a new approach to marketing called marketing with meaning. He has also worked as a brand manager for P&G where he was recognized by AdAge for his turn around of the Mr.Clean brand. He is currently Chief Marketing Strategist at Bridge Worldwide, a digital and relationship marketing agency and blogs at Marketing With Meaning.

1. Your book has a ton of great examples of companies from Xbox to Yoplait who have used meaningful marketing to improve sales while adding value to consumer's lives. Can you summarize why you think this is a better approach compared to traditional forms of interruption-based marketing?

The fundamental problem with most marketing and advertising has always been that our customers don’t like it, and now they have growing power to avoid it. They have always disliked being interrupted by our messages whether they are trying to watch a television program or driving down the highways. Historically they had no choice in the matter, as print, radio and television advertising was forced on them. But today people have more and more freedom in their media. They no longer huddle together in mass in front of a handful of TV programs, and they are using media ranging from iPods to the Internet, which either lack advertising altogether or the advertising is easy to skip or ignore. As the future unfolds, people’s power over media choices will only grow—and no one is choosing more advertising interruption, no matter how “targeted” it is.

So those of us in the marketing business face an enormous challenge. We need to find ways to introduce people to our brands, products and services, but if we cannot interrupt them what do we do? Well, I believe that the only choice is to create marketing that people choose to engage with, and advertising that itself adds value to people’s lives. This is what we call “Marketing with Meaning” – and a growing number of brands are beginning to results in this entirely new model for marketing.

2. What advice would you give marketers who have bosses that are afraid of the risk they associate with changing their strategy from traditional marketing to marketing with meaning?

I actually was in the shoes of these marketers as a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble, so I know that there are many, many challenges to drive change within an organization. I really wrote the book to be a guide for the marketer that is looking for a new model, and I include many suggestions and stories of how to “sell in” this kind of change. One suggestion is to convince senior management to invest a modest percentage of the budget in a meaningful way as a test—perhaps as part of a large initiative, or in a way that is “pay-for-performance” (i.e. the money only comes out of the budget if the program delivers results). The key is to make sure that the program’s results are measured, show business results, and then are shared broadly across the organization.

3. Can you still achieve meaningful marketing by using traditional forms of media like television or direct mail, although they are inherently interruptive forms of media?

I think the right way to start is to create a meaningful marketing platform or service as the heart of marketing efforts. Once you have this, you may need to get on the radar through more interruptive media to draw attention to the program. What happens is that people actually pay more attention to your interruptive advertising when you are pointing them to something valuable. One example is the gift recommender site that MasterCard launched around the holidays. The brand created a free, relevant tool and used television advertising with Peyton Manning to draw attention and traffic to it. To me, this is much more effective than Visa’s advertising at the same time, which simply reminded television viewers that Visa exists.

4. Can meaningful marketing work for any company or are there situations where non-meaningful marketing, like a standard billboard or commercial, is more effective?

I am convinced that any business has an opportunity to grow sales and long-term loyalty through meaningful marketing. If you can narrow down your business objectives and unearth some insights about your target customer’s higher-level needs, then it is simple to begin coming up with ways that you can shift your marketing funds and sales approach toward adding value to their lives. By offering something of value, your customers give you the gift of attention that eventually can lead to sales.

5. Can meaningful marketing stand on its own or does it require a mix of other traditional methods of marketing as part of the overall marketing strategy?

I really think the key to success is to re-think the purpose and measures of marketing. Interruptive marketing is based on the premise that the more people who are exposed to your ad, the more will buy your product. Meaningful marketing is based on the premise that the more people who choose to engage with your value-added advertising, the more will buy your product. You may decide to use television or print as part of a meaningful marketing program, but instead of measuring “exposures” you measure how many people followed the ad to your website, iPhone app, or in-store event. All the old and new media alternatives are still applicable, but they should now be held to a different, higher expectation.

6. What advice would you give to young marketers who would someday like to get to your position in marketing?

I think too many new marketers feel that they should come into a company and simply learn how to follow the established “rules” so that they can climb the organizational chart. But this is a time where companies actually need people to come in and challenge the rules and lead their thinking, so young marketers should look for ways to take risks and lead the organization. I always found success by asking myself, “What can I do that no one in the organization has done before to grow the business?” That’s gotten me a long way so far!

In The Next Evolution of Marketing, Bob Gilbreath describes an alternative approach to marketing called "marketing with meaning", in which marketing becomes a product or service in of itself that people choose to engage with. Gilbreath provides a ton of examples of how marketers can create marketing that is meaningful, like Nike's social network for runners that tracks member's runs and Charmin providing luxury restrooms in Times Square. While some marketers have been trying to invent "innovative" advertising that cuts through the clutter, meaningful marketers creates marketing that adds value to people's lives.

Some advantages of meaningful marketing are that consumers are more willing to listen to your message, it often drives word of mouth and attracts media attention, and it can build loyalty beyond reason. It can also improve attitudes about your company and I think people tend to reciprocate when brands improve their lives with marketing.

I think this is a valuable read for marketers and was one of the best marketing books of 2009 (full disclosure: I received a review copy). I like that it provides tons of examples and also goes into depth on how to implement a meaningful marketing campaign, including how to get key people in the company to sign on and how to work with creatives. If you are in B2B or small business, know that this book focuses on B2C and has few examples outside of B2C, but I think the concepts are transferable and useful.

Here are some of my takeaways from reading this book:

Create an information resource as marketing
Gibreath writes "The Web offers marketers a significant opportunity to help people uncover whatever it is they want to know, whenever they want to know it...Companies that provide answers to our endless information needs have a great shot at earning a steady stream of interested customers."

Home Depot offered free courses on home improvement after they had the insight that people were skeptical of commercials showing people doing home improvements on their own. Blue Nile provides buying guides on their site that educate guys about jewelry, highly-sought out information for men buying important high-ticket items. And Sony created an online learning center called Sony 101, providing education on topics from digital photography to HDTV's.

Lower the risk of switching by offering samples
If you have ever shopped at Costco and been able to have a full meal from the free samples alone, you know the value that samples can have for people. Samples can also lower the perceived risks and cost to consumers of trying new things.

Gilbreath writes "According to a survey conducted in February 2007 by the Promotion Marketing Association, nine out of ten consumers say that they would purchase a good or service if they experienced it and were satisfied".

Cause marketing can be a strong differentiator
Gilbreath writes "A 2008 Cone/Duke University Behavioral Cause Study showed that a whopping 87 percent of consumers will switch from one brand to another that's comparable based on its association with a good cause - that's up 31 percent since 1993." This is compelling evidence that associating your brand with a worthy cause can be a strong differentiator. An example is Yoplait's pink caps that support breast cancer research.

Keep business objectives in mind when creating meaningful marketing
Some marketing efforts have been hugely successful in generating buzz and adding value to people's lives, but have failed to achieve any business objectives. An example of this from the book is Office Max's Elf Yourself. Despite tons of media coverage and millions of people who made elf videos of their family members, many people couldn't recall which major office supply store was behind the campaign.

Customer service is extremely important for retention
Studies suggest that customer service is the main reason people switch brands across every major industry. An Accenture study found 67 percent had switched brands because of poor service taking an average of $4,000 of business with them.

I like the idea of marketing making selling unnecessary. If you have to do a lot of personal selling of your product or service, then perhaps your marketing is not very effective. I also like Tom Asacker's point that marketing should deliver value to people in exchange for their time and attention. Check out Tom Asacker's blog, A Clear Eye for more insightful marketing ideas like the ones below.

by Tom Asacker

What is marketing? What is its purpose? The AMA defines marketing as, "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." That's certainly part of it, but it hardly goes far enough. Peter Drucker wrote, "The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous." In other words, it's about creating a valuable product, service, and experience that draws customers towards the brand and commands higher margins because of its superior desirability. In essence, the brand sells itself without the need for persuasive techniques. I agree with Drucker and would go one step further and say that the purpose of marketing is to create and keep customers while making selling superfluous.

Understanding

Drucker also wrote, "Because it is its purpose to create a customer, any business enterprise has two - and only these two - basic functions: marketing and innovation." And in today's marketplace, marketing and innovation are not about "making and selling;" or doing to people. It's all about doing with and for; creating strong feelings and relationships through shared information, insight, collaboration, and coordination, both externally and internally. It's about being strategically captivating, desirable, real and interesting in every customer exposure to, and interaction with, the brand, the organization, its operations, communications, people, and other constituents.

Action

What’s a marketer to do in this chaotic environment of abundant products and services, high expectations, fast-flying consumers, and a rapidly changing landscape? I'll tell you what not to do: Don't sit around and navel gaze, mulling over your brand's and organization's "essence." Do something! Be a bold and creative force in the lives of your customers, community and people! Will Rogers once remarked, “Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.” Orderly inaction describes today’s ineffectual, status quo marketing. Chaotic action is the new marketing imperative; to wit:

1. Be wherever and whenever your audience is most receptive to you (verifiable metrics be damned);
2. Get their attention by being unique, relevant, passionate and human;
3. Deliver value in exchange for their time and attention; and
4. Do it over and over again without being bothersome or boring.

Your core business theory should be fanatical pragmatism, along with a strong distrust of abstraction. You should be constantly striving to figure out what works by doing with, not doing to, people. And you must be audacious in your execution. Because boldness is scarce, and scarcity is what drives marketplace value.

This post is republished from Tom Asacker's blog, A Clear Eye and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

If you haven't seen the movie Breach, don't read this post because there will be spoilers. Breach is a movie based on the capture of the the most "successful" spy in US history, Robert Hanssen. He worked in the FBI for about 25 years and spied for the USSR/Russia for about 22 years, and was even assigned to lead a team to look for a mole in the FBI (which was himself). What can we learn from the success of Robert Hanssen's ability to evade the authorities for all those years? Here are my takeaways:

Sometimes the best answer is the most obvious:

According to the wikipedia article, Hanssen did several things that should have raised red flags that he was a mole. He hacked into another federal employee's computer, he would search his name in the FBI data base, his brother-in-law found stacks of cash in his drawer and reported this to his superior. He even walked into the Russian embassy and showed his face and gave his code name name to a Russian officer. The FBI spent millions to find intel on the mole, but ignored the obvious clues. Often in marketing, firms will spend millions on complex marketing research, when they can just listen to the customer complaints and often find out what the problems are.

Don't underestimate your competition

In the movie, Hanssen's biggest mistake was to underestimate his clerk, Eric O'Neill, who was actually undercover to observe Hanssen's every action. At one point Hanssen said told O'Neill that he was as dumb as nails. Because Hanssen underestimated him, O'Neill was able to gather valuable evidence from Hanssen's PDA. Often large firms will scoff at the small guy that they are competing with, and often the small guy takes over the dominant amount of market share because of the bigger firm's carelessness.

Did you learn any lessons from the movie? If so, please leave a comment.

Links
Eric O'Neill Wikipedia
Robert Hanssen Wikipedia
Breach IMDb

When Fred Reichheld wrote The Ultimate Question, he argued that the best way to drive strong revenue growth and return on equity, was by using the simple question "How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague"? This question, goes right to the source of your business, the perceptions of the customer. According to Bain & Company analysis, "NPS(Net Promoter Score) leaders outgrow their competitors in most industries—by an average of 2.5 times" (1).

Do you know how likely your customers are to recommend your product or service? Recommendations from friends or colleagues are much more effective than almost any company marketing message. What does your company do to encourage recommendations? Do you have a remarkable return policy like Zappos which allows returns within 365 days and provides free shipping both ways? Does your product's unique selling proposition blow the competition out of the water, like the BlendTec blender which can turn an iPhone into dust within seconds? People usually don't tell their friends, family, or colleagues if they are satisfied with their purchase. They usually recommend products that are exceptional, or provide over the top value.

Social technologies like Facebook or Twitter are empowering customers to be able to communicate faster and easier than ever before. The Ultimate Question, was written in 2006, before almost everyone had a Facebook account and before Twitter started. Rather than having to be physically with a friend or on the phone, to recommend or detract a brand, anyone can now go on Twitter and Facebook and send a message instantly to hundreds of people. If Net Promoter Score was important before, just imagine how social technologies are affecting the influence of promoters and detractors. I can send a text message from my mobile device, and my Tweet will be sent out to 200 followers. This has scary implications for companies - if your product is average or worse. But if your offering is exceptional, this can also be a great opportunity to engage your customers to market your products for you.

The Companies With the Top Net Promoter Scores (Mar 30, 2009 Brandweek)

1. USAA
2. Apple
3. Amazon.com
4. Costco.com
5. Google
6. Facebook
7. Wikipedia
8. eBay
9. Craigslist
10. Barnes & Noble (bn.com)

1. The Ultimate Question Website

Photo by ninjanoodles

This article was republished with permission from The Executive Marketing Blog

The marketing landscape is currently undergoing a monumental shift that will change how products and services will be marketed for many years to come. Technologies such as digital video recorders, the internet, and mobile phones have fundamentally shifted how people consume media, which changes the relationship between company and consumer. Here are some eyebrow raising stats.

• There are 31 billion Google searches executed every month. In 2006, this number was 2.7 billion (1).

• The number of text messages sent per day exceeds the world population (1).

• Today 4 billion people in the world have mobile phones (2).

• Nokia predicts that by 2012, 25% of entertainment will be created and consumed within peer circles (3).

• About 34 percent of American households use a DVR of some sort to record shows for viewing later (4).

What this means, is that shouting at the consumer will no longer work. A one way dialog will no longer work. Companies will need to really communicate, which means a two way conversation. Do you embrace new marketing tools such as search engine optimization, blogs, social networks, and Twitter? Or are you sticking to what has worked in the past and believing that it will still get you enough business so that you won't have to change your marketing? Remember, Charles Darwin said "it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change".

1 Did You Know 3.0 Video
2. Marketing Over Coffee Podcast Episode 3/25/09
3. Nokia Press Release
4. DVR Fallout: More People Delaying Season Premiere Watching The Tampa Tribune, March 12, 2009

Photo by Mark j Sebastian

This article was reposted with permission from The Executive Marketing Blog