Better response for marketing campaigns!

I’ve just chanced upon Marzar’s business sharing portal. From what i’ve seen as a user so far, the site is a pretty good place to connect with other professionals from the same industry. Their groups allow you to meet other marketing professionals in areas like direct marketing, small business transitions, digitial marketing, consulting, etc.

It seems a good niche networking site that should get more useful if it continues increasing its user base.

Check it out at: www.marzar.com

Another useful resource with links to other social networking sites and with a couple of good ideas of how to use these resources to create and maintain loyal customers. It has many simple ideas which marketers probably should have thought of themselves, but never quite find the time to.

http://www.businesscreditcards.com/bootstrapper/100-tiny-tips-to-create-and-maintain-loyal-customers/

There’s a lovely little recycled paper company in Wales with a slightly different approach to paper making and with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Their showcase product is Sheep Poo Paper! By allowing the sheep to pre-process cellulose, they can then easily separate it out into pulp suitable for papermaking and fertilizer to grow more grass.

Take their Sheep Quiz for added fun!

From their website (this bit is a little more serious in tone than most of the pages):

We have sited the paper mill in one of the most beautiful places on earth, the southern reaches of Snowdonia National Park, only 3 miles north from the world famous Centre for Alternative Technology. We want it to stay that beautiful for many more generations to come, so we are committed to constantly pursue only the most environmentally friendly options and to work as part of a sustainable community.

The non-craft papermaking industry is notoriously intensive in its use of resources, destroying vast areas of forest every day and with staggering energy requirements (Paper Industry Fact: large paper factories often have to give advance notice to their national electricity grid networks before they can switch on their pulping machinery! Not surprising when you think about how much power it would take to chew up and spit out a forest or two every day). They also have a bad habit of using very large amounts of chemicals and other environmentally contaminating nasties in their processing – this is because trees are bound together by a tough chemical called Lignin, which is very, very (and very) hard to remove.

We’re seeing more and more greenvertising these days as people become more aware of the impact of their buying decisions upon the environment. AMD is the one I see the most around here but the Gear6 posting lists quite a few more. It’s the message of "every bit helps" and it sells to a growing percentage of the market.

As Seth tells us in many of his blog postings, marketing is about telling a story that connects with your audience. Often, we focus on the product side of the story. The marketing that I tend to connect with best also conveys a unique story about the process, people, or philosophy behind the product.

…is like Pushing a Rope… but only a little bit because, sometimes, it does work. It would probably be more accurate to say that it’s putting the cart before the horse but that’s a rather old-fashioned metaphor and it doesn’t entirely suit, either.

Eric Sink provides us with some thoughts on the excercise in frustration that many companies are ardently pursuing in trying to create Word of Mouth marketing. Word of Mouth is the latest brass ring but, because it depends on other people, it’s a bit butterfly-like; you never know quite which way it’s going to head next and pursuing it often sends it off in another unexpected direction.

There are better ways to go about pursuing that butterfly.

Eric recommends that you create something that a small target audience will LOVE because something that people love is something they talk about.

Apple has operated this way, rather comfortably, for a remarkably long time. They don’t try to capture 100% of the computer hardware market or 100% of the MP3 player market; they focus on a much smaller group of people and create something that is highly useful to that group. (Of course, they also create products that happen to be outrageously stylish and fun but maybe I think that simply because I’m part of their target market.)

Consider the approach behind different lines of cars. Once upon a time, Saturn built a lot of buzz and a loyal following over their unique low-pressure sales approach before they were swallowed. SUVs are built for a particular audience and so have enjoyed tremendous penetration and surprising sticking power because they are well-targeted. (And that one is a market that I most definitely do not fall into.) The Mini is another "lifestyle" car that people tend to either love or hate.

The point here is that Word of Mouth is much easier to achieve when you have something worth talking about.

But I still don’t have a metaphor I’m happy with. 

I clicked on this story from Seth thinking that it would be a riff on linkbaiting instead of being something that I found linkworthy.

I saw the new Hummer Happy Meal toys at McDonald’s earlier this week and was slightly appalled. I’ve hated Hummers ever since I worked with someone who owned one and had to deal with the way it didn’t fit into parking spaces. And then I learned what kind of gas milage it got. That didn’t improve my opinion any.

And now, Seth shows me that there is a fun little site where I can express my displeasure with humor. Below the fold there’s even a form allowing me to send a message to McDonald’s about the promotion. The "Vote for your favorite" section needs a little work but it’s otherwise good.

Some of the features we’re working on will make creating signs like these for personalized direct marketing messages much easier. So I looked at this site and immediately sent it around the office as fodder for thought for future demos.

Update (8/24/2006): The Ronald McHummer site has officially gone viral (from MarketingShift via the Search Engine Guide).

Update (9/12/2006): McDonald’s has a blog about their sustainability efforts. It’s moderated and critical comments on their Hummer post didn’t show up for nearly a week. Now, the community is hoping for a substantive response. Reading Bob’s postings, however, does not give me confidence that he will address the issues in a truly open way - his postings are very scripted. Of course, as one commenter pointed out, it is not very likely that one major corporation is going to really be critical of another major corporation when they are currently in partnership. I’m certain there is a fairly lengthy contract involved in this promotion and that McD’s can’t say a whole lot on the subject. Read Matthew Fried’s excellent post for links to other blog postings on this subject.

I want to integrate our software with these folks!

I have to admit, I have no real interest in seeing Snakes On A Plane - morbid curiosity, sure, but no interest. And yet, the opportunity to send a highly personalized audio message promoting the movie was one that I simply could not pass up. The Snakes promotion application can be found hosted by VariTalk.

At first, it was curiosity that led me to fill in all the little personal bits. It was the amusement factor that made me send it… And then I actually thought about what these folks were doing in the application and how it applies to our own business.

So here’s a really interesting audio application with two delivery channels (that I know of) and incredible personalization. Is it any wonder that I’m in love?