Utilizing a free focus group

There is a local radio station in Vancouver that does something I've never heard another station do - ask their audience what they think about the music they are playing. Sure other stations have phone lines and email addresses that allow you to contact them and indicate whether you like the music they are playing, but nothing like what 102.7 The Peak does. 

Every week or two I will get an email from them (I signed up as one of their Peak VIP members) asking me to take part in their "Rate the Music" survey. I click a link and listen to 30 seconds of 25 songs that they are currently playing or thinking of playing and let them know if I've heard of the song, how it rates from 1-5 and whether or not I'm sick of hearing the song. This last question "Are you sick of hearing this song" is an important and very sneaky one for the station to employ. They love to be the station in Vancouver that plays music no one else does and the first to bring new, hip music to the masses. Their group of passionate listeners has grown large as they introduce bands like Mumford & Sons, Alt-J and Black Keys to people in Vancouver.

Now they have an even better chance of continuing to provide this service for their music loving fans thanks to their willingness to give people a chance to interact with them. All this group of fanatics wants is a chance to feel like they influence the music on the station they listen to regularly. The Peak gets the benefits of having an almost weekly focus group with their customers without having to do much other than hit the Send button on their email software.

Awful Execution

Is there anything worse than a mass communication piece from a company you have a relationship with that forgets your name? As a marketer and someone with half a brain I realize that they don't send out individual emails, but I also understand that my cell phone company should have a system that allows them to put my first name into the email instead of....

They executed the "Dear" part well but that is about as good as they did on this piece in which they were asking their customers for help in making the company better. I have one suggestion for them, but I'm not sure if this email was meant for me because there isn't any name on it so I guess i'll have to save my thoughts.

When you are sending out a mass email or mass communication check your database, check your system, and for goodness sakes do a test run to make sure everything will go smooth. You are sending this out to YOUR clients, I wouldn't want to embarrass myself like this.

Let your customers do the work for you

While I am not the biggest fan of Ticketmaster due to their monopoly over ticket sales and thus some ridiculous "service fees" that are attached to most tickets, they do do a lot of things right.

One of their best marketing ideas is allowing customers to create a bank of bands/acts that are "Favourites". When one of your Favourites is having a show in your hometown Ticketmaster will kick out an email telling you as much. How genius is that? The customer feels special because they know right when a concert in their hometown is announced and Ticketmaster has to do less marketing of the show. These people will want to be the one to announce to their friends that they know a show is coming so you've got instant word of mouth, and all Ticketmaster had to do was put the tool in place so their best customers could do the selling for them.

Sometimes it pays to let your customers do a little of the work for you. All you have to do is provide them with the tools, just like how you outfit your sales team with collateral.

Dear (you),.....

There is something to be said for customization and personalization of marketing pieces these days. Especially for companies that you are currently a customer with who have no excuse to not personalize something.

This rings true for TD Canada Trust. I do most of my banking with them and I have for a while. They are great. They have friendly staff when I go in to a branch and their online banking system hasn't given me any problems so far. I also have a Visa card through them, a rewards card to be more exact....a travel rewards card (TD Infinite Visa Rewards Travel Card I believe is the longwinded title of it). I love it, and they have a pretty good Travel Rewards website that lets you book travel, research flights, etc. All signs point to great. In fact, I just booked a flight and car rental through them recently.

Then this morning I got an email newsletter from them, I hadn't opted in to receive it but no big deal, they are technically my travel agent after all and if they have deals then i'll look at them of course.

Jamaica for $500 + taxes! What a deal!

Oh it's only leaving from Toronto. Next.

Mayan Riviera for $430 + taxes! Wow, another great deal!

Wait, it leaves from Calgary. Useless.

I live in Vancouver, and if anyone knows this it is my bank and my credit card company. They know my address, they know the exact apartment I live in. I know they know this because they send me bills and statements. So why would you waste your time and mine showing off amazing deals that fly out of cities i'm nowhere near???

That just comes down to bad marketing execution and bad use of your database resources. And we had such a good thing going!

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".

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.

Sales promotion a true art form

With the recession in full force across North America it is tough to walk down a street and not see some kind of sign in a businesses window offering a sales promotion to entice prospects into purchasing. But what happens as we start to work our way out of the recession? People will have become addicted to sales because thats all they will know. Will there be a worldwide Intervention by major retailers to inform you that the sales no longer apply???? If so, I hope Jack Von Vonderen runs it, now thats an interventionist. Great mustache too.

What is the effect that these sales promotions will have on a company's brand image?

For example, I am part of Banana Republic Canada's e-mail database and they send me information on sales, etc. For the first 4 to 6 months that I was on the list I got maybe one offer for a 20% off one day only sale, which still seemed like a good offer. They make good quality, fashionable merchandise, at a mid-level price. There clothes are not cheaply priced, nor are they in the league of a Harry Rosen. That was until now. In the last 3 months I believe I have gotten at least one offer every month for a MINIMUM of 30% off, most of the time for an entire week or weekend.

Now obviously most people understand why they are doing this, the economic times mean you have to entice more consumers to purchase your products to meet your organizations sales goals. So you put items on sale and get more people in the door that way, including those that are not usually your regular market.

So what does that mean for the future, does this erode Banana Republic's brand image now that more and more people can afford to buy it? What happens when the sales dry-up? How many customers will they lose and will it lead to a counter-effect where they need to start producing clothes cheaper to hold on to these consumers that expect their items to be cheaper.

I assume there is quite a struggle going on between marketing and the sales teams at Banana Republic these days, but it is probably overshadowed by the increased volume they do everytime they push out another sale. I just wonder what the future consequences may be.

There's always time for email

As late night show host Craig Ferguson says daily "Yes, there's always time for email". Of course he says it with more pizzazz and flashy graphics, but hey when you working with a budget of $0 a title is all you get.

As I found myself preparing a mass email to send out to our prospects today I got wondering, What is the best time to schedule the email to be sent? Research places the best days to send marketing emails as Tuesday and Wednesday but what time of day do you want it to drop. Most would probably think just send it sometime early morning. Here is the issue, with blackberries and other smart phones in the marketplace many people have them rigged to beep when new mail comes in. Do you want to be the company waking up your prospect or client at 4 in the morning because you scheduled an email to go out then? I certainly don't want to be. Thats why I tend to schedule mine to arrive starting at 7am local time. My situation is a little easier because our targets are purely on the west coast, so only one time zone to deal with. But we are starting to push across Canada, and when we do more and more what do I do then? Obviously the easiest option is to segment my list based on provincial location and have a few seperate email lists. What if all I had was a big opt-in email list? Then I think I would probably try to shoot for a 9am delivery on the east coast which would put the mail into my west coast prospects hands at 6am, a reasonable time that is not too early.

I'm not sure if it has even come up that much because I am constantly getting emails from Marketing Associations anywhere from 2 - 5 am. I've had to alter my phone settings so emails come through silently.

Has anyone else run into this problem or thought deeply about their email distribution times?