We deployed our twitter feed today.
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10Aug
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05Aug
Tom Haire, Editor in Chief of Response Magazine had a solid column in Michigan’s Corp. Magazine. We’re proud to be associated with several of the brands he cites as some of the best case studies of the DRTV industry.
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27Jul
In the July edition of Electronic Retailer Magazine, there is an interesting article on behavior analytics by Jason Rushin of Quantico, a California-based company that explores behavior patterns and how they influence the buying public. In a nutshell, the company develops tools to enable clients to put the right message in front of the right audience to increase sales.
While direct response marketers have always tested, tweaked and retested offerings to better pinpoint customers, the advent of behavior analytics have provided a clearer initial microscope. As Rushin points out, companies can use behavior analytics capabilities to discover affinities, relationships, patterns and trends in large volumes of data. In essence, help you cut to the chase and target the behaviors that matter to your specific product. You can also explore at a general level or target specific areas to pursue a hunch or a hypothesis.
For example, the huge group known as Generation Y (born 1980-2000) will supplant the Baby Boomers as the largest consumer group in U.S. history. Unlike their boomer parents, they consume the equivalent of 20 hours of media a day – all in about seven hours. The most successful companies marketing to Gen Y members will be those that are able to constantly reinvent their brands, use integrated marketing, make marketing more accountable for results and re-create internal marketing teams.
Why will it be so important in the future to reinvent brands? Two of the reasons are the instant results and reactions from the Internet and that Gen Ys support “cause-related” marketing. Approximately 83 percent are willing to switch brands for a good cause if price and quality were equal. Just when you thought you had a niche nailed down . . .
It was gratifying to see in Electronic Retailer’s special section on DR’s first 25 years that two of our partner products were mentioned as “changing the face” of the industry. We were privileged to work with Orange-Glo and The George Foreman Grill in their early launch days and enjoyed the ride with those companies . . .
Talk about providing information and adding value . . . At the recent Connect Conference technology in San Francisco, an East Coast real estate broker said has hit on a novel way to build loyalty and brand recognition — his company is helping homeowners appeal their property taxes. The company invites groups — typically, the residents of a given subdivision — to a free meeting and brings in speakers to explain the requisite forms, the reasoning and the tactics that may be involved in getting a tax bill whittled down.
“We don’t necessarily want people to find us when they’re ready to buy or sell — we want them long before that,” said. Ken Baris, president of Jordan Baris Realtors in West Orange, N.J. “We tell them, if we lower your taxes, we increase your property values.”
What’s your value-added proposition? -
28Jun
A trusted partner means different things to different people.
In direct response, it often means asking a partner to trust you while you develop a terrific vehicle that can best promote his product and his brand. A trusted partner can also be a person in a specific industry that is admired by his peers and customers.
Our initial relationship with Sonicare Toothbrush was a good example of both.Eric Meyer, a Sonicare executive who previously worked for Johnson & Johnson, was a bit concerned about how a DR campaign would impact the young Sonicare brand. We teamed with Eric on a terrific production yet he was still a bit worried about guilt by association with Ginsu knives.
In the end, he was extremely pleased and admitted that our DR efforts had no negative impact on the brand. In fact, it built the formative stages of it. The company was a one product business and was therefore having difficulty getting its product into retail. The big block was the product’s price point. It was $150 toothbrush they called Sonicare. At the time consumers were used to paying $5-$7 for the best brushes on the market.
Eric and his partner, David Guliani, put incredible trust in us that we could demonstrate to consumers the benefits of the product well enough to override the high price. The Sonicare show provided us with the perfect opportunity to create the ultimate problem-solution show.
Sonicare also partnered with a dentist who had a newsletter. When he wrote about the product, it generated more than 60 percent of sales the first year, helping it break-even faster than expected. That one article article outperformed a credit card insert than went out to more than 10 million consumers. It shows how a trusted partner in a chosen field can really make a difference . . .***
Ever since James Cameron’s epic movie Avatar splashed across or screens with three-dimensional features that boggled the senses, the push has been on to test 3D in video everywhere. Some major firms, including Proctor and Gamble, tested 3D commercials on ESPN’s new 3D sports channel during the World Cup. Jackie Jones wrote a short piece in Response Magazine wondering if the costs of the new technology was paying off for clients. It seems the jury is still out. It would be interesting to take the same amount of money and invest it in a targeted, test-measure-retest DR campaign in select markets and compare the results. Technology is great, but if it doesn’t serve our customers . . .***
Thomas Haire’s article “Looking Out for Everyone” in Response Magazine is also an interesting read. The piece was an in-depth feature on Sir Bob Geldof, the keynote speaker at Response Expo 2010 in San Diego. As many readers are aware, Geldof is founder of the Band Aid Charitable Trust and the organizer of the famous 1985 Live Aid and 2005 Live8 concerts – successful, well-received events that brought the massive famine problems of Ethiopia and other third-world countries to the front of our news pages . . . -
20May
A few years ago, there was an intriguing television commercial that tweaked a tender nerve for many companies – large and small. In the opening scene, a distraught manager had called his representatives into a sales meeting and relayed his story about how he had lost a long-time customer.
According to the manager, the company had lost its personal touch by relying on faxes, emails and voice-mail messages. The commercial ended with the manager handing out plane tickets to his troops, requesting that they personally visit every customer, shake hands and look them in the eye.
“And I’m going to call on my long-time customer . . . show him we still have it.”
The roots of direct response are deeply planted in the passion and creativity of inventors and entrepreneurs. They have often spent years nursing a product and can’t wait to let it out of the box. These people continue to “still have it” throughout the life of the product and interact enthusiastically with the buying public. This first typically takes place at trade shows and state fairs, then, with acceptable approval and partnerships, to television, radio, online and print.
It’s a crawl, walk, run process. A successful campaign feeds off itself, yet always with the benefit of personal touch and passion.
For example, Max and Elaine Appel’s first steps toward expansion were small but significant. In addition to offering cleaning products through direct mail and at home shows, the Appels introduced Orange Glo to the retail market in 1992, making products available through grocery stores. The company’s leap into large-scale operations occurred through access to television audiences. When the Home Shopping Network (HSN) featured Orange Glo Wood Cleaner and Polish in 1996, the 4,000 bottles available sold rapidly. Through its regular distribution channels, the company generated sales of $700,000 in 1995. After a few months on HSN, sales increased to more than $300,000 per month.
Orange Glo next invested profits in its first infomercial. Three videos provided the perfect venue for promoting Orange Glo products. The visual impact of product demonstration and detailed explanation mirrored Max Appel’s home show demonstrations. The investment paid off as sales increased to up to $2 million per month. In 1998, Orange Glo generated $12 million in revenues, primarily through response to television advertising.
Much credit for the success of the infomercials went to pitchman Billy Mays who conveyed the passion of the inventors to the public. Max Appel and Mays met at a Pittsburgh home show and became friends as their paths crossed at other shows. Trained by veteran salesmen along the Atlantic City boardwalk, Mays brought a terrific energy to the infomercials that resonated with consumers. Eventually, Orange Glo spent $400,000 per week on response television advertising, which generated 15,000 orders per week.Crawl, walk, run.
At Cesari Direct, we believe in keeping the passion alive for inventors and entrepreneurs. That’s why we recently announced a strategic partnership with Tradeshow Marketing Company, Ltd. (Pink Sheets: TSHO), a company that specializes in discovering and promoting new products at fairs and trade shows. Consumers respond to the personal touch, and nobody can express that better than the product’s originator or chosen spokesperson. We want to help them take that message to television, online, radio and beyond . . .
R. Cesari
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26Apr
The initial view of big-ticket purchases in the United States was focused on Dad and his checkbook. What was this man going to approve when it came to the critical workings of the home?
Major companies formerly catering to the male wage earner are finally starting to “get it.’’ They now are well aware that women make a majority of the decisions in the home, that they no longer are merely housewives of a nuclear family and assigned dish soap and laundry decisions.
Since the 1960s, the percentage of men entering the workforce has diminished. During this same period, the percentage of working women has increased substantially. Today, women are independent, empowered, educated and employed – and often single.
For example, a profile of home buyers and sellers from the National Association of Realtors showed nearly 30 percent of all U.S. home buyers were single. Single women accounted for the second-largest segment of home buyers, accounting for 21 percent of transactions, after married couples who bought 59 percent of homes. NAR also estimates that 47 percent of condominium owners are single women.
Women are just as busy as men and they appreciate anything that saves time. Convenience, in terms of location and saving time and effort, are a big plus with females. They also look to products that play into the specific needs of children.
According to Doris Perlman, founder and president of Denver-based Possibilities for Design, women control 80 percent of consumer purchases and guide 94 percent of home furnishing choices. While Perlman’s research has delineated many of the specific home features that are likely to particularly attract older women, she also suggested that these customers are apt to be “circular, exploring and tactile” in their spending habits and “do not make linear decisions.”
“Her needs for personal connection and security are key,” Perlman added. “Women don’t just buy a product; they join it.”
And joining is what social media is all about. In their recent study Marketing to Moms on Facebook, authors Kevin Burke and Lisa Finn revealed that Moms log on frequently. More than eight in 10 Moms log on daily, and three in 10 log on five or more times a day. Three-quarters of Moms are fans of at least one company on Facebook, and parenting-specific sites are Moms’ top picks.
Facebook is fertile ground for marketers to engage mothers and drive sales, but communication must be on Moms’ terms. While they don’t have time for brands that don’t get it, they embrace the brands that play by their rules.
As a result, it is more critical than ever for a marketer to maximize that information in building a brand and taking advantage of genuine desires and tastes. It’s all about efficiency, providing information and delivering what consumers want. -
05Apr
We often talk about – and absolutely attempt to implement in our daily business – the creative interaction between our customer and our team. After all, the best salesperson for a particular product often is the person who developed and nurtured it to a point where it is ready for market. The initial energy and passion behind a product can be irreplaceable if properly conveyed to the consumer – especially when the offering clearly provides a solution to a common problem.
However, when do you decide a partnership simply will not work? How do you handle runaway expectations or clashing sales philosophies? The most difficult decision is informing a potential customer that in our opinion her invention is not going to attain the results needed to launch a comprehensive campaign. For many marketing firms, turning someone away is a touchy and tender subject especially in a soft economy when cash is tight and marketing dollars help pay the bills.
Several blogs, including a good piece by radio specialists Brett Astor and Jeff Small, have approached the topic of “Firing Your Customers.” Seth Godin, the creative author who is more direct about avoiding problem clients, calls some “short-sighted, greedy and selfish.” I like to believe those types of customers are the exception to the rule.
A friend of mine is a real estate broker in a very successful residential office. While much of the nation has suffered with substantial price reductions in popular neighborhoods, some waterfront and view properties have held their value because of their unique amenities. As my friend often says, “the good Lord is not making any more waterfront.”
Because my friend specializes in view and waterfront real estate, he’s often approached by sellers who are convinced that their home is worth much more than the market will bear. The argument becomes a chicken-or-the-egg debate: How do you know how much someone is willing to pay for a home until you expose the home to the open market? Well, you take the best estimates you can from your best sales people and you give that data to the seller, supporting a suggested asking price.
It is human nature for the seller to believe his home is worth more than it really is – just like it is human nature for an entrepreneur to believe his latest solution will attract a greater number of consumers than projected. While anything’s possible, you try to work within the reality of your research and present a plan that you believe will work. It’s better to under promise and over deliver than the other way around.
That’s why my friend still refuses to take a listing for property with an asking price he deems unreasonable. While many brokers would say “we can try it at that price and then lower it if we don’t get any offers” than strategy often brings frustration and anger when the home is labeled as overpriced by the public and the owner gets no offers.
The same can be true in direct response campaigns. Inflated price points can mean warehouses filled with unsold inventory, unhappy owners and entire brands bruised by a too-pricey reputation.
Inflated expectations need to be sorted out and explained early for any relationship to prosper. While it’s difficult to turn away any paying customer, it’s my experience that the consequences can be far greater down the road.
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10Feb
While I am always absorbed in the advertising that runs during the Super Bowl, I could not help but be captivated by the rising Saints, carrying the hopes of the entire Gulf Coast region on their shoulders, gaining the possibility of fulfilling their dream in the nation’s most popular athletic event?
Given the record viewership of the game, I was certainly in a large group intrigued by this compelling story. More than 98 million people watched the 2010 National Football League’s Championship Game, a contest that a former commissioner thought might be a good idea to brand as the “Super Bowl”, or ultimate game.
The idea certainly paid off for teams, fans and advertisers. In fact, this year’s broadcast gained nearly ultimate statistics: Where else could expect to get almost every one in three Americans watching a program? Talk about captivation . . .
Anheuser-Busch thought so much of the possibilities that it returned this year and purchase an event-high five minutes of advertising time. Some were clearly better than others, but at an estimated $2.5-$3 million per 30-second spot you wonder if the brewer’s return on investment will meet expectations – if it can be accurately measured at all. Other companies spent less than 10 percent what Anheuser-Busch spent and garnered a greater buzz.
And, speaking of ROI, I was a bit surprised that companies did not adopt a more direct-response approach. While several were crafted with the idea of second viewers to websites or social media outlets, there was a decided void in the DR category. The reason I found this interesting is that Bob Barfield of Advertising Age voiced a memorable report of the 2009 Super Bowl ads indicating the commercial that would probably score the best ROI was a direct response piece for Cash4Gold.com, a website encouraging consumers to turn in their unwanted gold for money.
Garfield called the commercial that featured Ed McMahon and MC Hammer “one of the worst pieces of creative work” yet felt quite confident the message would have a terrific ROI.
My question is: Why didn’t companies with great creative use a more traditional direct-response format? If inferior creative results in a very positive ROI, would not a campaign with a dynamite message stand even a better chance of being successful?
One of the 2010 Super Bowl commercials bound to produce website traffic was HomeAway, which brought back Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo who starred as Clark and Ellen Griswold in the 1983 movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” The idea was offer the idea of a private home instead of gambling on an unacceptable hotel room. Good concept, mainly because all ages groups identify with the Griswolds – including the kids who are now GenXers and GenYers in the position to rent a hotel alternative.
While the message encourages families to consider the possibilities of renting a vacation home, it does not directly recruit second-home owners into becoming part of the HomeAway network. Why not take a small portion of the $2.5-$3 million spent on the 30-second Super Bowl ad and target vacation home owners in Vail, Tahoe, Scottsdale, Fort Lauderdale . . . with a direct response campaign that be measured against (and complemented by) the shotgun approach of the Super Bowl ad?
With more major companies employing some sort of DR, will traditional direct response ever be a major part of Super Bowl advertising? What would it take?
I’d welcome your opinions.
Rick -
19Jan
Wrapping different products into one package often leads to misjudging the individual contents.
For example, ever since the mortgage mess began to unravel, consumers have raced to fixed-rate loans, reportedly with a newly found “pay-it-off” mindset. Adjustable-rate loans, especially those with an interest-only component, recently have been shunned and criticized, hammered and nailed.
The same can be said about the different items and services sold via a direct response campaign. It is not accurate or wise to bundle every product under the DR umbrella and label them as emotionally purchased mistakes. However, a recent front-page story in Consumer Reports calls into question the entire DR strategy and process.
According to a line in the story “About half of infomercial products deliver on their promise, 30 percent do what they say but are a bit expensive, and the rest are junk.”
So, the answer is to group all of the products into one foul basket and caution the buying public to be leery of anything being advertised during off hours and sold with a slam-bam message? Should I be genuinely skeptical if a former heavyweight champion tosses a right-cross punch and tells me a cooking appliance is going to “knock out the fact?”
We’ve been privileged to have been a part of some of the more useful and popular household products ever brought to market, including The George Foreman Grill, The Rug Doctor and Oxiclean. There have been countless of other offerings marketed by some of our competitors that have reached the same levels of respect and acclaim.
“I think it’s a shame that all DR folks get lumped in with some of the worst little chotskies ever invented,” said Tim O’Brien, Cesari Direct’s vice president of business development. “I thought major publications were beyond just focusing on the rip-offs that are in the marketplace. After all, many Fortune 500 companies now employ some form of direct response. The idea that consumers are upset and up in arms about infomercials is an old, tired story.”
What is the difference between a Sleep Number Bed message on the television announcing that a sale ends Sunday and a live sales person on the floor of a retail outlet encouraging you to act before the end of the Sunday sales event? Why might the TV ad be more effective? The average consumer feels more comfortable (and can save travel time and fuel) making that decision in the comfort of their own home.
Speaking about the home, let’s consider a quick sampling of 10 brands that now have DR as a critical component of their marketing. Let’s start with the sweet tooth in everyone and include Hershey’s Chocolate, head over to the computer room and pickup a Hewlett Packard computer to run a Rosetta Stone language program; check on the new Tempur-Pedic in the guest bedroom along with the Bose Wave music system; help grandpa hear his favorite program with some TV Ears; support a teenager’s skin car with Proactiv Solution; clean the air in the boys’ game room with an Oreck Air purifier; blend a night-time snack with a Juiceman juicer and then dream of the weekend’s woodworking projects with a Kreg bench-top router tool.
So much for all of those no-name companies that only supply widgets that will last 10 minutes . . . I truly thought we were passed all that.
What was your impression of the Consumer Reports story? What tweaks a tender nerve regarding the portrayal of our industry? Let us know!Rick
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14Dec
If there’s one time of year when people are especially influenced by their thoughts, beliefs and emotions it’s the holiday season when many families reunite and renew bonds.
Christmas revitalizes relationships and quickly rewinds our memory tapes of the cherished people, places and things of the past. Remember when your kids seem to help more at Christmas, perhaps knowing the consequences of how whining as an art form nets fewer presents under the tree?
As direct marketers, it is a terrific time to remind our clients of the value not only of tailoring compelling seasonal messages, but also of being mindful of the different generations receiving that message. Christmas is not the only selling season for targeted products and services nor is there only one best way to expose information about a company or bargain.
Modes of marketing have simply multiplied. In fact, the most important marketing story of 2009 for customers has been identifying and accepting social media as a vital piece of marketing campaigns. Twitter, Facebook and blogging are no longer viewed simply as an addictive waste of time. Nearly 20 percent of all tweets contain a referral to a service or product.
In the book Generations: The History of America’s Future 1584-2069, authors William Strauss and Neil Howe describe a generation as a “cohort” or cluster people born approximately during the same twenty-year time period. Strauss and Howe contend that since people form values from common historical events, experiences and influences, we can understand and often anticipate how a specific generation will think and respond.
The idea is to leverage the capabilities of segmentation to identify consumer wants and needs by stage of life. As newer consumers and primary wage earners flow through the life stages, marketers can examine their changing tastes and interests against a backdrop of their needs. We also need to examine how they best receive information.
For example, when’s the last time one of your children actually left you a phone message when it was not your birthday? Generation X and the next bunch, Gen Y, would prefer to text message you because that’s become their generations’ favorite mode of response. Perhaps a Baby Boomer or a member of the Greatest Generation would deem a telephone conversation more appropriate. The primary and “blended” modes of interaction are dictated by the generational cohort.
In a provocative article in the recent edition of Response Magazine, marketers are reminded of the vast numbers of potential customers included in the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomer cohort and how differently these groups adapt and change to various types of media.
As the article mentions, the Greatest Generation is now “aging in place” and many have embraced the Internet as a place to receive information even though the vast majority prefers television. Many of them took on as little debt as possible and are in no hurry to dive into their financial assets. They “would rather leave it for the kids” even though the kids are in a far better financial place than the folks.
Baby boomers – the healthiest and wealthiest group ever appearing on the U. S. growth landscape – never met a loan they didn’t like. It was the largest, but Gen Y now has the biggest numbers. After leveraging appreciation in their homes to pay for cars, college tuitions and trips, they are now forced to rethink where and how they will age. While some analysts say the boomers will gain wisdom with age and curb their spending ways down the road, others won’t be persuaded. How they will behave continues to confound researchers – but what else is new?
But if you think the baby boomer group was immense and steered every element of the retail industry, get comfortable with the throng that contains many of their consumer-crazy children – the proud members of Generation Y. This gang, born in 1979 or later, has 74 million members (an estimated three million more than the boomers) and will make up 34 percent of the population by 2015. They seek utility, not prestige, and their preferred ways to communicate are quickly spreading to other age groups.
Social media is absolutely here and helpful. Now, if you are one of the few people who have not already done so, ask your child or grandchild to set up your Twitter and/or Facebook account. Tell them it’s their Christmas present to you.
All the best for a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous 2010!Rick
