Empirical Rationalism and Other Oxymora
Clips and Quips
Quick thoughts and random posts from around the web.
Friday Fun: Data is the New (S)oil
Sep 3rd
Thanks to Andrew Borg for sharing this inspiring TED video of David McCandless on data visualization… “let the dataset change your mindset”.
Rethink Your Loyalty Programs…
Aug 30th
Jonathan Salem Baskin is right, it is definitely time to rethink loyalty. He presents a couple of ideas in this Ad Age article to get your creative thought process going… How about tying in social programs? Then we’d really see some game changers.
Amplify’d from adage.com
Their marketing presumes that they’ve never before met their customers, and as if this year is the first time their target audiences have gone shopping for school stuff. The ad creative is frighteningly similar across brands, evoking variations on the theme of “we have low prices on whatever you’re looking for.” The fashion offerings are also quite similar, as buyers have spent the past year studying the same trends, interviewing the same third-party factories and otherwise chasing the idea that they can somehow exclusively address the identical buying whims of the same would-be customers.
I just don’t get it. Offering such true relationship marketing would constitute a far better loyalty program than any CRM email campaign or pointless chat on a social-media platform. Back-to-school shoppers must shop — it’s not an impulse or option, but rather more like taking the car in for a yearly checkup — so why don’t retail brands re-imagine their strategies and recognize the dimensions of that behavior? Low prices? Come on, now. Where are the agencies and consultants with the guts to propose some real, large-scale innovation?
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9gua
Save me from myself!
Aug 28th
This is a great example of solving unresolved problems. So simple, but (unfortunately) necessary for many many people.
Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com
Coming soon: credit and debit cards that cut you off when you disregard your own monthly budget.
In the next couple of days, MasterCard is expected to announce that Citigroup will be the first company in the United States to issue MasterCards with special features intended to protect consumers not only from thieves but also from themselves.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9dg6
Strategic Product (Dis)placement
Aug 25th
“Preemptive product placement”, “unbranding”… strategic product displacement, whatever you call it, this is simply fantastic…
Amplify’d from www.observer.com
There is a wicked new marketing strategy currently sending shock waves through the high-stakes competitive world of luxury fashion. It’s devious, delightful and deliciously dirty.
Remember how Snooki, drunk or sober, was never seen without that Coach bag dangling from the crook of her arm? Snooki and her Coach were as synonymous as The Situation and his six-pack. But then the winds of change started blowing on Jersey Shore. Every photograph of Guido-huntin’ Snooki showed her toting a new designer purse. Why the sudden disloyalty?
Allegedly, the anxious folks at these various luxury houses are all aggressively gifting our gal Snookums with free bags. No surprise, right? But here’s the shocker: They are not sending her their own bags. They are sending her each other’s bags! Competitors‘ bags!
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/97k5
The CPO as CMO?…
Aug 24th
I don’t think so. While there is no doubt that procurement has been increasingly effective at getting more categories of spend under management, the shift away from advertising isn’t because procurement is controlling the purse strings – this is a fundamental shift predicated on efficacy and customer preference.
Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com
Between 2007 and 2012, advertising’s slice of the total marketing pie is forecast by Jack Myers Media Business Report to decline from 30.7% to 25.9%. That represents more than $100 billion that is shifting away from traditional media spending to alternative marketing options during this five-year span. Even with hundreds of millions of dollars invested in effectiveness, engagement and emotional connections™ research studies by media companies and agencies, advertising remains a cost center that is increasingly subjected to procurement oversight and intensifying cost controls.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/963d
