Alberta Business Marketing

I’ve been pretty busy working on election type stuff for the past few weeks – not for any candidates however – and so I haven’t had much of a chance to write on anything else. But I wanted to share some info with everyone about Reboot Alberta 3.

I’m happy to have been invited to help organize the upcoming event and I hope many of you that have found a new level of engagement in the October 18 Alberta-wide municipal elections will consider attending too.

What a great way to stay involved.

Below is a personal invitation to all of you regardless of your political leaning or potential party affiliation. Even if you’re a staunce moderate like me, I’m confident you’ll find the format and discussion useful.

An Open Invitation to Join Other Progressive-Minded Albertan at RebootAlberta 3.0, November 5-6, 2010 in Edmonton

Times have changed since the Alberta Advantage became the governing philosophy of the province.  The attack on debt and deficits with a continuous lowering of taxes and downsizing of government was of another time.  The new Alberta focus includes the integration of oil sands challenges and opportunities for our economy, environment and society.   It includes a more active, informed and engaged citizens asking more questions and insisting on better answers.

What does responsible oil sands development look like?  What must Alberta do to be sustainable in an uncertain world?  Can we create an Alberta culture of adaptability, creativity and innovation?  How can we protect and enhance our environment as we prosper from our natural resources? We have enormous natural resources and talented human resources but are we coasting and resting on our laurels?  What are we leaving as our legacy to future generations of Albertans?

Alberta has the wealth to be one of the best places in the world.  With all our blessings and potential we can aspire higher and strive to be the best place for the world. This will only happen if we can invest in our future by harnessing our resources, strengthening democracy and reviving servant leadership and re-engaging as citizens.

New research shows that 63% of everyday Albertans share the same progressive values as Reboot Albertans.  There are enough of us to be a positive force for progressive change in our province.  We can have significant influence over the direction of our province now and in the next election.  But we must chose to get informed, intentional and active about reaching out, speaking out and making a difference. Progressive Albertans we can define design and deliver on a new Alberta Aspiration to be the best place for the world but first we have to commit to making a difference.

If you desire an Alberta that is progressive, moderate, prosperous and inclusive, you need to be at RebootAlberta3.0 November 5^th and 6^th in Edmonton.  You will meet a growing community of concerned Albertans who believe the change we want starts with each of us re-engaging in our citizenship roles. You can start now by connecting with other progressive-minded Albertans and join in the movement atwww.rebootalberta.org.  Or go to Facebook and join the Reboot Alberta group and find us Twitter with the hashtag #rebootab.

To register for Reboot3.0 visit, http://www.rebootalberta.org/rsvp. For more information contact Xanthe@rebootalberta.org

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Tags: Politics, Reboot Alberta
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Paying more for what you want is not looking so affordable — or sustainable — anymore. Trading up was always a fragile phenomenon. But the context seems to have changed in the past two years. It rested, in large part, on consumer psychology — a feeling derived from self worth.

Masstige is in. Its prestige products available to the masses. Consumers want to connect emotionally with brands in categories where they expect quality, performance, and engagement. But in other categories that aren’t emotionally important, they become bargain hunters. For example, a passionate BMW driver will shop for store-brand groceries every weekend. Which one of these categories is your brand in?

A new emerging market segment called Masstige is growing at the expense of the premium segment in several product categories. Retail has seen a lot of activity in the Masstige space. 2008 and 2009 saw the introduction of new store concepts by the mainstream retailers, such as Murale by Shoppers Drug Mart and Oasis by Sears, while Sephora and Bath & Body Works continued their geographic expansion. Additionally, Yves Rocher introduced a new store concept that was well-received by customers.

This trend is notable in such products as skin and hair care, where Olay and TRESemmé positioned themselves directly against the premium segment, openly questioning the need to pay extra. There are many more successes - Coach persuaded women to buy $300 handbags when a $40 version from a value chain could have sufficed. Williams-Sonoma trained shoppers to covet a $50 stainless-steel hand-crank can opener, even though Wal-Mart sells a high-quality electric model for less than half the price.

The term Masstige was popularized by Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske in their book Trading Up and their Harvard Business Review article "Luxury for the Masses".

Why is this trend important to senior marketers? Democratization of brands is strongly associated with higher market share and margins. It drives value and makes brands more resilient. Plotting your brand in the continuum of Masstige hierarchies can reveal new insights on how to optimize brand value and strengthen pricing strategies.

Merril Mascarenhas

Tags: Branding, Customer Experience, Research, social media, Strategy
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When Mayor Bronconnier announced in February he would not seek another term, there was a sudden buzz in the air.

There was another — albeit smaller — buzz when Liberal MLA Kent Hehr proclaimed he would run for the open seat. Then again, a little more public interest began to percolate when Ald. Ric McIver made the long anticipated announcement of his intention to win the centre chair at the council table.

Then in August, Barb Higgins, a familiar face to any Calgarian with a television and an interest in knowing what’s going on in the world, created the biggest buzz of all by declaring she was entering the fray. The media and the public immediately began talking about her as a potential “game changer” in the mayoral election.

Since then, however, Bronconnier has not publicly spoken about the election, Hehr has dropped out of the race, and McIver and Higgins are running solid campaigns filled with a traditional amount of “substance” — which is to say, enough to get voters curious, but not enough to get the candidate into trouble.

Behind all of this buzz, though, there is a candidate who has steadily risen in the polls from dead last in July to third place.

Much has been said about Naheed Nenshi as nothing more than the “social media candidate” because of his skills at using Facebook, Twitter, iPhone apps and text messages to get his ideas out to the public. Social media can become an echo chamber, and I too wondered if he might be living in a world of friends just telling him what he wanted to hear.

But I’m starting to think Nenshi may actually win. (My editor changed this sentence from my original and I think it may have changed my intent a little. The original sentence was “But I’m starting to think Nenshi has an actual chance to win.”)

During two mayoral forums this week, the audience was asked to vote for who they thought should be our next mayor. In both cases, Nenshi won the straw poll. And not just by a little bit.

At both events he got more than 50 per cent of the vote.

In both cases, McIver barely even registered.

How is it that a little-known candidate can have such sway over a room of people, the majority of whom have probably never heard of Twitter before, while the candidate leading in the polls has such a dismal showing?

It looks like Calgarians who are interested and concerned about the issues enough to show up to a mayoral forum are voting for Nenshi in great numbers, while the uninformed — who perhaps are relying more on name recognition — are getting behind McIver.

Whatever the reason for this split, the question for both candidates is clear: Will there be more engaged or more traditional voters on Election Day? The answer may well determine who leads our city for the next three years.

Original: http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/local/article/644020–could-naheed-nenshi-be-the-real-game-changer

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Tags: Calgary, Metro Column, Politics
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Venture Publishing, the award-winning publisher of Alberta Venture, Alberta Oil, Unlimitedmagazine.com, Hard Hat, Tracks & Treads, Open Mind, Alberta Innovators, Commerce News and Leap magazines, has an opportunity available in our Edmonton office for a qualified associate art director. Working in a collaborative team environment, the associate art director reports to the art director and participates [...]

Tags: Careers at Venture
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The industry is abuzz with the notion of having to create a community online. Unfortunately with all of the hype comes what Charlene Li (co-author of Forrester’s Groundswell) calls the GMOOT (Get Me One of Those) syndrome. This is evident when searching through social networks like Facebook and Twitter where numerous brands have created accounts only to leave them dormant without any interaction or consumer fanfare.

On the same token there have been some organizations that have done a great job of making their brands relevant to consumers. This is lesson number one in building online brand communities.

Lesson #1: Make your brand relevant to consumers

A great example of this would be Method Cleaning products. Playing in the household cleaning category can be challenging when trying to connect on an emotional level with consumers. Where perceived efficacy, price point and brand reputation play such key roles in driving purchase behaviour, the brand needed to find a differentiator that would allow it to stand out from the “sea of sameness” in the category.

The approach was to stand for something, to view their brand as a cause and to allow their consumers to be their advocacy group. By marketing it in this manner they were able to gain permission from consumers to leverage them as a marketing channel in which they could spread the message on behalf of the brand. Their cause is simple, “Getting a bunch of dirty things out of the world” which ranges from stopping animal cruelty to improving air quality. Granted, the brand cannot deliver to all of these things although it can stand for them and can do its part through the type of products they make, how they make them as well as through its marketing efforts.

The brand has created a People Against Dirty blog, its own social network comprised of “cause advocates” on its corporate site and is highly active in multiple social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

The key lesson to be learned from this example is that in order to connect with consumers, brands need to take a step back and try to thoroughly understand their consumers. What makes them tick? What do they care about and how can your brand connect on a level that extends beyond the product or service itself? Once this has been established then the next step would be to figure out how the brand can fulfill an unmet need. In this case consumers are provided with the tools to communicate with like minded individuals who share a similar interest in “getting dirty out of the world”.

As a result, you’ll not only capture their attention but also build a relationship that will ultimately lead to stronger brand affinity, loyalty, reputable WOM activity and the ever elusive…brand community!

Jeff Pontes

Tags: Branding, social media, Strategy
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