Google, making the smallest customer feel important

I opened my Outlook today and saw an email from Erica F., subject Google Adwords: Optimization Offer for ICBA (my company).

Oh great i'm thinking, they are trying to upsell me, saying their standard "You could be getting more clicks by increasing your budget." Which is a pretty obvious statement.

Then I read through the email and got to this part:

"Based on a preliminary look at your website and account, i've attached a short presentation to this email wtih some examples of the types of changes we might propose. In order to ensure that the optimization is tailored to your exact needs, I would love to schedule a time to speak with you to hear more about ICBA's marketing goals and objectives. Please let me know when you are available, and I will give you a call at your earliest convenience."

Wow.

Now I know Google has all sorts of fancy databases, and electronic mail systems, etc, etc. But this email is probably one of the best marketing emails i've ever received.

a. They make us feel important even though our tiny account is no doubt just a drop in the bucket, and personalize the email to such an amazingly deep extent
b. They provide me with something that shows value, trying to help me improve my campaign
c. They do a great job of making the massive Google seem smaller by personalizing the email from "Erica"

Just another reason why Google is taking over the world, they are able to make even the smallest person feel important and needed. Now if only I can get over the fear of the possibility of a virus and open the PPT attachment with their "suggested changes".

Social Strategy for Boring Brands

Was flipping through my monthly Marketing News magazine from the American Marketing Association and found and interesting article called "Social Strategy for exciting (and not so exciting) brands", written by Josh Bernoff, VP at Forrester Research.

The article discusses how "talkable" or popular brands have an easier go with social networking because people already want to discuss them and talk about them. In a recent survey of theirs they asked online consumers whether they'd like to interact with various forms of social applications with their favourite brands. 42% of respondents said they would like to. Thats a pretty nice number. When it came to how they preferred to interact it was a little different
- 1 in 4 would prefer a discussion forum
- 1 in 6 would be interested in connecting through a social network profile (ie. Facebook)
- 1 in 5 would prefer watching online videos
- Only 12% would want to read a blog about the brand

Interesting stuff.

Now onto the "boring", non-talkable brands that no one really cares about or wants to interact with (much like insurance, which is the sector I primarily work within).

"Boring brands have a different problem, but social applications can help them, too. The key with boring brands is to get people talking about their problems, since they won't talk about your brand. In advertising, you can force messages on people watchiing other things. In a social context, this fails miserably."

An interesting point, and one that I agree with wholeheartedly. Ie. the post that I did earlier on the pharmacy centre advertisement. If they wanted to get into social networking they could provide a place where people could talk about what ails them, etc. and help provide health advice and that sort of stuff.

An interesting article, its not up yet on the http://www.marketingpower.com/ website but check back here soon and it should be http://www.marketingpower.com/AboutAMA/Pages/AMA%20Publications/Marketing%20News/MarketingNews.aspx

The Discount Economic Indicator

As I mentioned in an early post (and as is obvious to most everyone) retailers have been using sales/discounted items to try and entice customers to keep buying during these rather tough economic times. Walking through a mall it is tough to get a look into a store because of all the discount/sale signs cluttering the front windows. You can practically see the invisible hand lunging out and grabbing at people's wallets as they walk buy.

But, according to my freshly developed economic measuring tool - The Discount Economic Indicator, we may be starting an upward turn. Now my tool is not something Al Einstein would be proud of, and really when you think about it, its just me taking notice of one thing. In fact maybe I should call it the Banana Republic Economic Indicator, because it is based off of the email flyers they send me. Here's a breakdown of how it works:

• The higher the discount they offer me, the worse off we are economically

Simple eh?

So here's what i've seen so far:
1. First signed up: 10% discount and let me know when new items arrived
2. Last fall: 20% discount flyer
3. Christmas: 30% off flyer
4. Christmas: 40% off flyer
5. End of winter: 35% off flyer
6. Spring: 30% off flyer
7. Today: 20% off flyer

Now i'm sure everyone will want to pat me on the back, call me a genius, and give me an honorary doctorate, but it is interesting to see how their sales have pretty much followed the economic outlook for Canadians. Plus, good work by the marketing team at Banana Republic to continually offer sales to their best customers (the ones that gave them their email) encouraging them to buy.

Although I stand by my Discount Economic Indicator, i'm not quite as optimistic about the economy rebounding this quickly and I think we have some more downtime ahead, but this appears to be a good sign.

Microsoft vs. Apple

One of the most interesting business battles going on is the PC vs. Mac feud. PC was dominating until Steve Jobs came back and turned Apple into the current powerhouse it is, making it the hip and trendy company with teens, young adults, hipsters and artsy style people. PC continues to dominate the workplace computer landscape with no real signs of Apple breaking in.

But PC isn't happy with the big chunk of personal use sales that Mac has grabbed from it thanks to their amazingly effective television advertising campaigns including these:





Microsoft/Windows waited a couple of years and then countered with this:



Which led apple to easily come back with this:



But now Microsoft seems to have taken a different approach, one that I think is quite brilliant and well thought out. They continue to plug away softly at the young adult market, but are now focusing on the young child market and seemingly trying to create lifelong PC enthusiasts from a young age. Also they probably casted the cutest little girl in the world.



Who knows whats coming next but this advertising battle is definately one of the most entertaining in the world. Apple was dominating, but PC has started to put more money in and is making it a closer race.