Alberta Business Marketing

The biggest challenge for the marketer is to get prospects to actually pay attention and read what you are sending them. It does not matter if your list of Twitter followers is 100,000 or your email list has 10,000 if no one reads what you send.

The easiest (well not real easy) way to get people to read is to send something that is personal.

I never cease to be amazed at the people who use the standard Linkedin "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn." with no additional comment. Adding a simple, "Jim, we met at such and such show..." would go so far in making me click the connect.

Recently I have been promoting a book I contributed to called "Entrepreneurial Effect". I have been sending dozens of emails saying "Sue - I would appreciate your help by tweeting this...." (that is a blatant hint, please tweet it for me) And if I have something personal like "How is your son", I add that too.

So why is this not easy? It is, but is takes a lot of time. Personal emails often evoke personal responses that again need action. And just the time to personalize them can take a minute each so it is tough to do that to a 10,000 person list.

Being personal has a secondary advantage. I tend to develop and keep relationships with people that I personally correspond with.

The mail equivalent of this is the simple hand written note on the mailing. This is a highly effective technique for getting things read (and improving your handwriting muscles).

This is the age old marketing dilema. Quality (the personal touch) vs Quantity (worst case would be straight spam). Quality gets response (I get 80-90% of the people I send a personal email to, to respond) where just sending emails to a list often evokes only a 1-2% response. Personal can be 40-90 times as effective.

For true results - try personal.

Jim Estill

Tags: Direct Marketing
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Marketing is about engaging consumers. Or is it? Sometimes consumers can lead the process of engagement by becoming activists for a cause, an idea or a need. Today, marketing has shifted from “mass marketing” to “social marketing” to a new frontier I like to call “social activist marketing”. Some brands such as Lululemon have tapped into this emerging concept.

A teaching moment for marketers

The Occupy movement is different and could potentially become a teaching moment for marketers. As you see in the video below, produced on the one month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, most protesters don’t know where the movement is going or what it should achieve. And yet they are united by common themes and beliefs.

According to posts on Wikipedia, "The original protest began on September 17, 2011, and by October 9, similar demonstrations were either ongoing or had been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S. Internationally, other "Occupy" protests have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide.

A catchy 1% and 99% slogan certainly helps (My favourite- "The 1% have Addresses. The 99% have Messages"). There is even a claim that the protests were initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters.

Elevating the conversation

One lesson that resonates with me is the importance of elevating your conversation with consumers. Find a big theme that is above a specific need, want or desire. The theme represents a deep insight about a belief that needs to be unearthed. It is rare that campaigns dig that deep. Most focus on insights, benefits and product features. Our research indicates that campaign ideas that have withstood the test of time are based on basic beliefs that connect a group of consumers.

Merril Mascarenhas

Tags: Branding, social media
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It’s getting harder for young people to land their first job in their profession of choice, in spite of fulfilling an undergraduate degree. Competition is fierce in this economy. And it’s tough for grads to be overly optimistic when so many of their peers are in the same boat.

None the less, getting a post secondary education is the best option leading to employment for most youth today. The 2012 Canadian University Survey report, distributed through the Globe and Mail recently, says that future employment ranked the highest of eight reasons to earn a degree – with 43% of survey respondents citing preparation for a specific job. The report goes on to say that earnings of Canadian University graduates were 70% higher than those coming out of high school or trades training and 63% higher in country members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It further makes the point that those with an undergraduate degree will earn on average $1.4 million more over a lifetime than others without a post-secondary degree and $1 million more than college students.

Making the most out of the undergraduate/college experience by participating in a range of activities while at school is a sure way to open doors and opportunities. McMaster University’s Degroote School of Business is just one of the many schools that offer a compelling opportunity - specifically for business interested students. Its Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec competition is cultivating talent for the marketing/advertising professions through its rigorous case competition, just launched last week.

In short, students across Canada compete in teams of two for the title of Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec, the current competition involves developing a marketing campaign on a budget of no more than $5 million to launch the all new 2013 Chevrolet Spark (in the fall 2012). The winners each get a 2013 Chevy Spark, there's other awards and scholarships, and all the top finalists get the prestige associated with their participation in a top-notch competition. Win or not, the experience and personal growth from competing will give students an edge. Business undergrads, undergrads completing a business minor and MBA students are invited to compete. Check out the competition and submission details here . To enter the competition, a registration form must be submitted by end of day January 23, 2012.

Now back to the Canadian University Survey report - 33,000 current undergraduate students took the survey, answering about 100 questions. Some of the results are presented by school size in the report. McMaster is one of 13 schools in the large size category. It ranked in the top three for a number of measures, including campus atmosphere, instructors teaching style, work-play balance, student-faculty interaction, and most satisfied students. Just the right kind of environment for a national competition to take hold.

CMA is a proud media sponsor of Canada's Next Top Ad Exec competition

Sandra Singer

Tags: Marketing Talent
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A weekly 'marketing lesson' from Quizative on the heels of its participation as a 'Marketing Mentor" in the reality show Recipe to Riches airing on the Food Network.

Intro and Episode 1 here
Episode 2

Recipe to Riches: Episode 3
Marketing Lesson: What’s in a Name? Quite a bit!

In this week’s episode, the final two came down to energetic Diana Petrini with her Olive Lapedonasi and the gentle giant John Grass who joined our team at Quizative. Right off the bat John stepped up with his presence. His sheer size and giant handshake dominated the room but he didn’t dominate conversation – he was open to our feedback and direction all the way.

Much of the marketing-related conversation this week centered on the product names and whether they were good, bad or just plain confusing? John came to Quizative with his “Chicken Grenades.” When it comes to naming a product or company, many times we balance the dual challenge of making it descriptive vs.distinctive . Take for example iTunes vs. Google. The name iTunes is descriptive and tells you that you’re likely dealing with some form of digital music. Google on the other hand tells you nothing about what it is or does, but it stands out. Google’s name is distinctive.

The name “Chicken Grenades” is actually a bit of both. You know there’s chicken but frankly his recipe also included the ever popular bacon, plus cheese, jalapenos and spices. By adding “grenade” to his product name he instantly became distinctive. True naming exercises go through many rounds of revisions, many iterations, much debate and often extensive research (feel free to ask me about the process and strategy behind naming our agency Quizative!). In working with John to name, design, market and sample his product in less than 20 hours there was none of that - just experience and instinct. He liked the name, the team at Quizative liked the name and we ran full steam ahead with it.

Diana on the other hand went with the traditionally accurate name “Oliva Lapedonasi” – it is descriptive, but downright confusing. She made a great pitch to the judges on other food categories that had tough names which have become renowned, but in the end they felt it was still confusing. Throughout the show they had to refer to her product as generic “stuffed olives.” Imagine someone walking in to a grocery store that couldn’t remember her product name and asking for “those stuffed olives.” What are the chances they’d end up with her product?

When it came down to it, the instinct of the judges also agreed with the distinctive Chicken Grenades. Tony Chapman said he liked it. Galen Weston said, “… it was a blockbuster of a name.” At the store level and in homes across the country the judges could imagine families asking for “those grenades.” In the end, John took home the $25,000 weekly prize based on a combination of his product, the taste and yes – the name!

The lesson learned here is that when it comes to naming, if you can be distinctive, do it!

Adrian Capobianco

Tags: Strategy
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A weekly 'marketing lesson' from Quizative on the heels of its participation as a 'Marketing Mentor" in the reality show Recipe to Riches airing on the Food Network.

Intro and Episode 1 here

Recipe to Riches: Episode 2
Marketing Lesson: The Value of Endorsement

In this episode, the two finalists were Melissa Lam with her Banana Chocolate Cake and Jacqui Keseluk with her Peach Bliss. After hearing that they were the two finalists they raced off and Jacqui joined us at Quizative. We immediately saw the opportunity! She stood out and we knew that we could market with HER, not just her product. She was bold, friendly and very tattooed. In Episode 1’s blog I said that “… in the world of marketing, different is good” and she fit the bill. We immediately tied her persona as “Cake Girl” to her product and made them one and the same. She was bold, different, and stood out from the crowd.

Our first objective was achieved; we made her product stand out. But a bold, tattooed woman doesn’t necessarily make for a credible cake chef. We needed to make her and the product believable. We needed to help her prove that her cake was great. We needed to do that in less than 20 hours. We needed someone to endorse her.

One of the most common forms of endorsement is celebrity endorsement, but many argue it doesn’t work. For example, a recent Adweek/Harris Interactive poll says that only 4% of people are swayed by celeb endorsement. This of course assumes that consumers want to admit and/or consciously know that they’re swayed. But either way the numbers are pitifully low.

However, endorsements by subject matter experts are a whole different game. If you have a few factors working in your favour, subject matter endorsement can be effective. Here are four R’s to keep in mind for effective endorsement:

1. Recognized: Is the person known?

• They don’t need to be widely famous, just known to the target audience

2. Relevant: Is the person relevant to the product or service?

• In this episode, Chef Ren weighing in on a recipe is absolutely relevant

3. Realistic: Can the person credibly provide an opinion on the matter?

• It needs to be believable and backedup with credentials

• Are they known to be critical or discerning? Do they only selectively endorse products, or do they put their name to anything like this guy?

With Jacqui and her Rockin’ Peach Bliss endorsed by Chef Ren of the private member Spoke Club, we’re hitting 4 for 4 on this list. Ultimately it helped her take home the $25,000 prize, and put her in the running for the $250,000 big prize.

Adrian Capobianco

Tags: Strategy
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