UWW - American Marketing Association: September 2016

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Did You See the Tweet?

In the Sunday paper in Wisconsin, the feature article in the sports section was on the… I really could not give an answer. Yes, there is still a Sunday newspaper, but the only time I would be reading it is if I am at home and my parents had left it laying around. To pick up a newspaper, and read it with a cup of coffee in hand, is not the way most young adults think. This is because the generation that is growing into adulthood, and our society in general, is more concerned with technology.

Sports scores are now available at the touch of a phone screen, tablet, or on a computer. A way that people are getting these scores is through social media. Social media is updated every minute, giving viewers the ability to see if their team is on top. Social media is not only the way people are able to view scores, it is a major form of marketing. It allows for companies and organizations to be ‘in the now’. Social media is always developing and has the ability to intrigue viewers while scrolling through an online feed.

Scores are not the only thing easily accessible. When an individual clicks on a link, it opens them to many other links, pages, pictures, or videos. Social media really allows our society to be one with their favorite teams and to continue to stay interested between downs, innings, or in any sporting situation. It leaves friends asking each other, “Did you see that tweet?”.

Do you believe that sports organizations now depends on social media sources, such as twitter, to keep the younger generation interested? Why?

How often do you use social media, if at all? Is it your main source for on the go sports information and scores?

Source: https://blog.sysomos.com/2016/08/26/social-media-trends-sports-marketing/

4 Ways to Improve Personal Branding Using Facebook

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/282259

YouTube is known for being the number one channel for personal branding, with over and estimated 81 million videos published worldwide. Many people must wonder how can one be heard, or stand out in the online community? Well, the next trend for personal branding is here and there are four main ways Facebook Live will help individual or businesses increase their online presence. The first way is Facebook Live offers well-known brands, small businesses and independent entrepreneurs the chance to network with possible new customers, and strengthen personal connections between existing customers and your business. Facebook Live makes it easy for the viewer to interact with your post by simply scrolling over it. The next benefit to Facebook Live is that video’s are designed and intended to be a little raw. The viewers understand it is not meant to be a completely professional video, and that is it supposed to be more of a “point and shoot” type of video. The third area is considered technical tips. Many suggest using a high quality smart phone. Start by picking a well-lit area, but try not to have the sunlight coming in directly behind you because it will fade and create shadows on the video. The final and fourth way Facebook Live can help improve personal branding is with marketing tips. Try to schedule a time for the live stream when you know your target audience will be watching. Write a detailed summary of your video, so your viewers know who you are, and why you are doing the video. Asking questions is a great way to get the audience involved, and create more traffic on the feed from comments and interactions. Make sure to thank your audience after the video and give them a “call to action”. For example ask your viewers to follow your LinkedIn or Twitter account. This will help you further a connection with your viewers as well as follow up with them. Facebook Live is a powerful and affordable tool that can help create awareness about your product or service.

Selling a Price Increase

Mark Hunter discusses one of the biggest things that plague sales people in today’s world: selling a price increase. In a struggling economy, many companies are forced to raise prices which leaves sales people in a hard spot. But as Hunter explains, the way to find success in this environment is all about the mindset of the salesperson. In the article cited, Hunter focuses on selling in a ‘soft market.’ A soft market is defined as a market where there are more potential sellers than there are buyers. “it is imperative for the salesperson to understand that regardless of what the market or economy is doing, if a price increase needs to be sold, it needs to be sold. This means that the salesperson can’t go into the sales process believing that the customer is going to reject the price increase and that they must offer some type of discount to secure the sale. If they approach the meeting with this attitude, they almost guarantee failure because a customer will never pay more than a salesperson tells them to.” During a sales meeting, the first thing that a potential customer will say is a comment on the price change, most sales reps will agree and therefore lose the battle almost every single time. Hunter has different approach, “ignore it. The reason? Many times the customer merely wants to get it off their chest and by telling it to you, they feel better. The first response the salesperson should make is to ask the customer questions about how they intend to use what they’re buying and whether or not they’ve been able to achieve the results they’re looking for. If the customer continues with their line of discussion about the economy and they can’t accept the price increase, then the salesperson should ask about the steps involved in their buying process. The objective is really to get the customer talking.” It is possible to sell a price increase in a soft market, it only takes patience and hard work. It is without a doubt difficult to sell in a soft market, however, learning how to sell a price increase in all markets will greatly enhance a sales person’s effectiveness.

http://thesaleshunter.com/resources/articles/selling-a-price-increase/selling-a-price-increase-in-a-soft-market/

Robots in Restaurants: Retail Marketing

Robots in Restaurants

In a day and age where technology is advancing at an exponential rate, hearing about new advancements like self-driving cars or 3D printing is commonplace. Robotics has been making its way into consumers’ everyday lives. Now, a small startup in the Silicon Valley is introducing the world to robotics in restaurants.

Zume Pizza in California is a startup pizza company that is interrupting the food service business and introducing the world to food-tech firms. Zume Pizza uses machines and robots to send pizza dough down a conveyer belt, add sauce, spread it, and place the pizza in the oven. They will soon be adding robots to make the dough, add toppings, take the pizzas out of the oven, and slice them for delivery. The firm has even spoke about delivery trucks that make and cook the order while en-route.

The goal of adding robots to do boring, repetitive jobs is to eliminate costs and allow human employees to do more meaningful and valuable tasks. By cutting out interaction between employees and machines it also decreases injury risk. Robots will also be able to control quality and consistency measures. Although there are numerous pros to robots in restaurants, it may eliminate the number of people employed in the restaurant business. Robots also do not yet possess the capability to use judgement to make quick decisions or have the complex skillset to make dishes in certain restaurants. Only time will tell how successful robots will be in restaurants. What are your feelings about this major change to the restaurant business?

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-09-14/hungry-startup-uses-robots-to-grab-slice-of-pizza

Experiential Marketing

The purpose of marketing can be traced back to the same goal that all companies have, to build a positive relationship with their customers. Experiential marketing is a tool that has grown in popularity in recent years. Experiential marketing is exactly what it sounds like, it is the experience that a customer will take away after an interaction had with a company. Examples range from the simplicity of giving away free samples at a grocery store to the complexity of a mobile tour to increase brand awareness.

One of the most common negative effects of experiential marketing is creating a customer base that is too large to continue giving each customer the same positive experience that they could when they were a smaller business. While getting interviewed in the article, Rupani gives his opinion that the largest obstacle in maintaining a positive experience is the interactional side of experiential marketing. He believes that finding customer-focused employees with a passion for human interaction is the hardest part of experiential marketing. The more a company expands, the harder it is to oversee one-on-one interactions between staff and customer.

The key takeaway of experiential marketing is to simply know your customer and engage with them. Experiential marketing is the most personal interaction a customer will have with a brand and that is what they will think of when they hear the company’s name. Ensuring that every customer leaves a business feeling that they had a positive experience will lead to a growing and loyal cus

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

The Key to a Salesperson's Success

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/remember-your-first-time-jonathan-farrington

Keeping up a good relationship with customers is crucial to a salesperson’s success. Does anybody remember their first times for things? The first hit in baseball/softball? The first successful sale?

Everyone remembers the first time they have done things, however when it comes to sales, customers seem to remember the last time and then compare it to the first time. Companies rope in customers in the beginning with great service and deals. However, over time the customer relationship deteriorates and customers become frustrated. A lot of companies leave a lot of money on the table because they fail to keep up a good customer relationship.

“What all of us should never forget is that the right to do business has to be continually earned and never assumed. This is where the companies that scored highly in my survey excelled.

It has been suggested that, as customers, we simply need “The Five Rights:”

The right product or solution

At the right price

Delivered to the right place

At the right time

In the right way

But I would like to add, every time because whilst we all value responsiveness, we value reliability more.”

With this information in mind, it becomes increasingly important to maintain good relationships with all your customers no matter how big or small their account is. Doing this is not only important for the individual rep’s reputation but also the entire companies reputation.

New Opportunity in Crowdfunding?

In the business world, whether it is trying to penetrate into a new market or understand why your sales have tanked in the fourth quarter, market research is a great tool to help reach your company goals. However, it can also be another expensive overhead cost on your financial statements. In addition, we want this opportunity to be accessible, but according to the US Census Bureau, with almost 90% of firms in the US considered to be small (20 employees or less), they may not have the capital to acquire this type of advantage. Working for the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center here at UW-Whitewater, we have many clients that come to us for exact that reason.

Collaborata is a company that is committed to solving this problem. Essentially, the company of 10 co-founders crowdfunds market research projects. Their business model is that many people may want the same data in a specific project, and since crowdfunding is on the rise, it can also make it extremely affordable too. Clients submit requests on Collaborata and research firms bid on those projects. Then, once these research projects are released to the public, they can then be co-funded by other users to bring the cost down. Once you are a co-funder on the study, you can be given access to all the data, according to James Risley at Built in Chicago. This prevents companies for paying large amounts for research that another firm may have already acquired.

However, one can also see how this concept may hurt the marketplace as well. As stated before, there are many reasons businesses may request market research projects. But one of the main reasons is because they want a competitive advantage over other firms in their market. So, if many firms in the same industry decide to co fund a project, given that most of them want the same type of data, what competitive advantage do these companies have now? But, it is all about how you perceive market research. Looking at it at a more collective angle, this may not be a problem. Like said before, the goal of Collaborata is accessibility. Making this data more accessible can help everyone in the market to understand their customer base better, not always about knowing something someone else doesn’t. Ultimately, your success as a business depends on capitalizing on your own internal competitive advantage, not depending on someone else for it.

Do you think Collaborata devalues market research or opens the door to new opportunities?

Referenced article: http://www.builtinchicago.org/2016/09/16/collaborata-crowdfunds-research-projects-make-market-research-affordable

Retail Marketing

Robots in Restaurants

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-09-14/hungry-startup-uses-robots-to-grab-slice-of-pizza

MWW Group

MWW Group and Bank of America had an event to help consumers figure out which consumers would search for “lost change”. MWW is a group that provides marketing communications and public relations services. They planned this event because research has showed that the one thing consumer’s associate with finding “loose change” is a couch. In October the MWW Group transformed New Yorks Grand Central Terminals Vanderbilt Hall into an oversized living room and tied the sofa search for loose change to a book signing by financial expert David Bach, who hosted the event while signing copies of his book, The Automatic Millionaire. Bach helped explain the benefits of saving even just small amounts. This event attracted over 1,000 consumers, many of who signed up for the product while they waited for their chance to attack the couch cushions.

Marketing Companies Looking for Their Own Touchdown

In the last month, some large companies, including Fox Sports, are looking to get a whole lot richer. The companies are battling it out to buy Learfield Communications. Learfield Communications is heavily involved in marketing and advertising in collegiate sports. To be exact, the company is paired with 120 colleges and universities, owning their media rights.

Some may never know about the transaction that is about to occur. For some of the companies looking to buy, the impact will hopefully be well known. If a smaller company could ‘rule’ the media world in college sports, their company would make up at least a little ground on a powerhouse like Fox Sports. This would be possible because collegiate sports are a big part of America’s past time. Most people gather around the TV during football and basketball season, hoping their team will make it to a national championship.

This transaction could be possibly change the advertising world for college sports, so it is just goes to show how important marketing really is. It can allow for more viewers to watch if games are more appealing. So companies are fighting to buy out Learfield Communications, looking for their own spectacular touchdown.

If a smaller company were to buy out Learfield Communications, do you think we would see a slump in how many viewers there are in college sports?

Does how appealing a college sporting event is portrayed really effect how much you would like to watch it?

References:

http://nypost.com/2016/08/23/big-suitors-line-up-for-piece-of-college-sports-marketing-firm/

US Digital Ad Spending to Surpass TV this Year

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/US-Digital-Ad-Spending-Surpass-TV-this-Year/1014469

This year digital will represent 37% of US total media ad spending, overtaking TV ads for the first time ever. By the end of 2016 almost 0.8 billion dollars will have been spent on digital ads than TV ads. Analyst believe this is due to all of the advertising opportunities local and nationwide. Even though TV ads will not be the leading source of advertising, they are still growing this year due to the Olympics and Presidential Election. Digital ads success and rapid growth is because of a few factors including mobile. Mobile is predicted to be more than a third of total media ad spending by 2019. Google is still dominating mobile and will for the foreseeable future. It captures 32% of the mobile market, which is 10% more than its biggest competitor, Facebook. Another factor that plays into the success of digital is video ads. This year video ad spending will reach over 10 billion dollars. Lastly Display will continue to be the top format for digital ad spending, slightly ahead of search.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Sell on Commitment Not on Understanding

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/increase-sales-get-customers-commit-little-time-frank-cespedes

Sell on Commitment Not on Understanding

“It’s too expensive”

“I’m okay with the way things work right now”

Any salesperson knows that the worst time to get an ‘objection’ is in the close. When a prospect gives an objection, or reason not to buy, in the close it generally means the salesperson did not do a good enough job of getting that prospect to commit to the product or service. Seeking belief in your product from a prospect is the best way to close a deal and gain the sale. So why is it that prospects will not give that commitment? As Frank Cespedes of Harvard explains, it is because salespeople fail to properly execute the sales process.

Instead of dumping all the information at once and hoping the prospect believes that your product is better, the more effective process is to explain things incrementally, this process allows the prospect to digest more information and get all the objections out earlier. As Frank explains, “reps are taught to listen for phrases from prospects such as “that makes sense” or “that’s a valid point” or nonverbal signals such as head nods. But these cues mean only that a prospect is comprehending what you’re saying. They’re analogous to the conversational si in Spanish and many other languages, which means “I hear you,” not “I agree with you.” (paragraph 5). Using a ‘traditional’ approach, reps are trained to make the prospects understand their point…not to convince the prospects. Approaches like these lead to objections in the close, the prospect understands but does not agree. As Frank explains, these objections, may in fact be phony: “This is why the end of a sales process is the worst time to handle objections — prospects typically contemplate their objections long before “close,” and, to avoid conflict, often cite a socially-acceptable rationale such as price, which may not be the real barrier to buying. To better address this reality, sellers should ask prospects to make incremental commitments throughout the process.” (Paragraph 3). As Frank explains, a rep can exponentially increase sales by selling based on commitment rather than on understanding. By doing this, a rep will discover and overcome authentic objections earlier in the process, therefore, in the close prospects have already committed and are ready to buy. Approaches like these are beneficial for sales but can be applied broadly for many different uses. For example, “Along with improving sales results, research has shown that incremental commitments can boost charitable giving, increase show rates for blood drives, and reduce smoking.” (Paragraph 8).

Using incremental sales approaches will allow sales reps to boost their numbers and build more successful relationships with their client base.

Mobile Ad Effectiveness

Mobile Ad Effectiveness

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person in possession of a smartphone or social media, must be in want of a product, right? When scrolling through Facebook, and you see an advertisement that appeals to you, you are enabling market researchers to identify your wants and needs. This helps researchers tailor this information to target more products and services of more value to you. When smartphones and social media platforms were first launched, it was easy to collect behavioral data, but identifying purchase conversions remained a struggle.

Today, market researchers have narrowed the gap between linking clicks and finger swipes with “actual purchase conversions.” According to the article, “Mobile’s Power to Track Purchase Influence,” comScore did a study that consumers see around 1,700 banner ads per month and don’t click on any of them which raises whether or not these ads are being useful. Unique advertising identifies (IDFA’s or advertising IDs), is the key to identifying whether or not ads are effective because it tracks how consumers are interacting with their ads. Since smartphones aren’t cookie enabled like computers, IDs act as cookies. A computer cookie is downloaded into a computer when a certain website is accessed and stores a users data.

Many apps offer a location feature with benefits, which many consumers eagerly take advantage of which also is a benefit market researchers who can use geographic information to identify ad effectiveness. Another measure of ad effectiveness is that market researchers use is geofencing. Geofencing is a technique that uses GPS to define geographical boundaries send messages, coupons, and alerts to consumers. Apps like Groupon and Ibotta that offer deals of goods and services use this technique to appeal to consumers.

Unique, personalized, location based messages can generate a huge amount of data that is very beneficial to market researchers. They can determine if their ads are effective and help to make their ad campaigns more efficient.

Ford Trucks and the NFL; What Else Does a Man Need?

Ford Trucks and the NFL; What Else Does a Man Need?

‘Tick tick…. tick tick…’, a famous catchphrase from the well-known sports icon Chris Berman, was what all of Ford has been thinking recently. Then they finally made a breakthrough with the NFL.

Ford is known for their heavy duty trucks, that all manly men dream to have. The trucks are sought after due to their toughness and strength. Sure, Ford can bloat about their amazing trucks all the time, but every automobile manufacturer claims to have the best vehicles. It’s always a battle to become the more dominant company.

Offensive linemen are some of the most dominant, strongest, and hefty men in football, and Ford came up with an outstanding idea. Ford paired with the NFL to have a “Ford Tough Offensive Line of the Week” (Lefton, 2016) to promote their trucks. This sponsorship by Ford recognizes which offensive line performed best each week and one award for the O-Line of the year. Ford hopes that more men will be intrigued by the trucks, and the company will see an increase in truck sales.

Do you believe that this sponsorship will really help sales increase for Ford?

What type of sponsorship, with the NFL, do you think would boost Ford’s sales the most in the future?

References:

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2016/09/07/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Ford-NFL.aspx

The Evolution of Event Marketing

THE EVOLUTION OF EVENT MARKETING

Joe Pulizzi, head of the Content Marketing Institute, shared his predictions on the future of event marketing during an interview. Pulizzi is confident that the process of planning events is transitioning from building an event from scratch to purchasing existing events and tailoring them to better fit their company’s brand.

Pulizzi’s reasoning behind purchasing an event is that this method has a greater output value with a smaller input. The cost of purchasing an existing event is less than the value of the amount of planning that goes into building an event. Another benefit to purchasing events is that they come with loyal attendees. By being able to target the customers loyal to the event and the customers loyal to their product, a company can multiply the total amount of their customers.

XOXO,

Hales

Honest Brands

Over the past few years, the topic of health has dominated social trends in the United states, making consumers more health conscious than ever before. Now, not only are people concerned with how much exercise they are getting, but what they put into their bodies as well. Some companies have adapted to meet consumers’ demand; they have altered their marketing campaigns, labels, and commercials to reflect the worlds new values. Companies are becoming more and more transparent in sharing what is in their food and where it came from; these brands are taking on the new title of ‘honest brands’.

Studies have shown that consumers are more likely to choose or switch to brands that are ‘honest brands’. It is clear what American’s value in a health conscious world. There is a skyrocketing demand for brands to be open about what is in their products. The trouble that these demands pose for many brands, is a time consuming and costly change to their previous labels, commercials, and other outlets of marketing. They also face the challenge of having some of their ingredients produced or manufactured in various places, making it difficult to give completely accurate data. Despite these challenges, a brands willingness to become more transparent could potentially make or break the future of their company.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/consumers-prefer-honest-brands-are-willing-pay-extra-them-n644916

Digital Marketing Trends for 2016

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/09/29/the-top-7-online-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-2016/#e5439b34c04c

Each year companies need to adapt to the new technology and keep up with modern software. It is difficult to keep pace with the changing trends, and new software formats. If these organizations fail to adjust with the online marketplace they may be missing prime marketing opportunities. 2016 is looking like another big year for online marketing. There are 7 digital marketing trends that could change the landscape, and are predicted to dominate over other strategies and technology.

Video ads are more prevalent. People are becoming more welcoming to the idea of video ads, and now even Google is joining the bandwagon.

2. Applications indexing will lead to more Google applications to be created. 2016 is the year companies are realizing all of the advantages of having an app, and how it can boost their online advertising because apps can have everything websites do.

3. Mobile applications will continue to dominate over desktop applications. Mobile apps make everything available at your fingertips within a few seconds and Google is anticipating spending on mobile advertising will continue to increase, and desktop advertising will is in the early stages of decline.

4. Digital assistants like Siri and Cortana will help SEO optimization. These digital assists help people locate websites and businesses quickly. The key to working with these formats is to make sure a company’s information is easily accessible as these digital systems continue to add more content.

5. Virtual reality will continue to be in focus. There are many different Virtual Reality (VR) devices that are being worked on, and could emerge within the next few years. Google, Facebook and Amazon are investing heavily in Virtual Reality. There are indications that VR could be a fad. However, I believe these companies would not be investing billions of dollars unless they thought VR was going to be the way of the future.

6. Wearable technology will continue to gain ground. Smart watches such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit are good examples of this type of technology. These are first generation devices that could change our daily routines, and help optimize our future of healthcare.

7. Advertising will become more expensive. Competition in the online world is growing rapidly. Increasing digital output could put pressure on pricing as the demand outpaces supply which could lead to rising prices.

These 7 items mentioned in this article will not be only trends for 2016, but they are a good starting point for some primary areas of awareness. Transformation within the digital marketing world is changing so rapidly that organizations that rely on digital marketing need to be flexible and constantly adapt to change.

UWW - American Marketing Association