Fizz from ConsumerPop

IDEO: Sharing Ideas

Fast Company reports on the latest innovation in idea sharing from the ultra-cool design firm in "Open-Source Innovation: IDEO's Human-Centered Design Toolkit" by Alissa Walker:

A series of PDFs that are free to download, the Human-Centered Design Toolkit hopes to empower organizations and design firms by giving them their field-tested tools for social impact in a way that focuses more on sharing information than authorship.

I've used IDEO's Method Cards for years now when developing consumer research design. Their approach is not just useful for designing products. I love that rather than holding their innovative approaches tight they are distributing and sharing them. IDEO is unique and highly successful in what they do and sharing in this way is in no way a threat to their business. Rather it helps up everybody's game and builds their brand and business in the process.

Could Alice.com Be Your New Shopping BFF?

When I first heard about the new e-commerce site, Alice.com, I scoffed. Fresh Direct in the New York City area is once again growing after suffering some setbacks. And Peapod and Amazon show some signs of success and growth in their grocery delivery business. But Alice.com is being pitched as the hottest new delivery site and service, in part because it is both Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), i.e., stuff you buy at the grocery store, manufacturer friendly and consumer friendly.

For CPG companies, Alice.com offers a way to dip their toes back into the waters of selling directly to consumers and bypassing retailers who increasingly compete with them by offering plain-wrap-no-more, attractively packaged, directly competitive private label products.

For consumers, negotiated prices, free shipping and built-in coupons combined with reminders to re-order your favorites promises to help ensure that you will never run out of toilet paper or other essentials ever again. Plus they have several bloggy and social media community features which help Alice really feel like a trusted friend you can get to know.

Part of my initial scoffing was because Alice.com doesn't eliminate the need to go to the grocery store for perishible items. Delivery service makes more sense to me in someplace like Manhattan where there are not ginormous sprawling suburban grocery stores, Walmart Superstores and Super Targets where you can fill all your needs at once from tomatoes to toothpaste. But, if you're still going to have to go to the grocery store anyway, why would you spend the time filling up your cart both in person and virtually?

Then I started reading bloggers writing about Alice.com and I was reminded of why, when you are building or marketing a business, you always do your homework and research because often, you are not the customer. And, despite my CPG smarts, I am not the customer here.

Kristen at Cool Mom Picks, however, is the customer. She signed up to be a beta tester for the site and fell in love. One reason?

Plus, you get it all delivered right to your doorstep. That's got to be at least one less grocery store tantrum a month.

I don't have to wrangle kids plus I work from home and have a flexible schedule. Although it is still hard sometimes for me to get away from the computer to do my grocery shopping I don't have anyone else to shop with or around. If all you have to run into the store for is a gallon of milk and a pound of apples and the rest can be delivered, I bet it would be a useful service for families of more than one.

And from the perspective of CPG manufacturers, I think the era of worrying about annoying retail partners by bypassing them and pursuing direct sales is long past.  And the opportunity to compete with private label while potentially delighting consumers is an opportunity worth testing. I appreciate hearing bloggers describe how they are finding Alice.com useful but it will interesting to watch how adoption and use develops.

What do you think? Does Alice.com seem like a service that is opening a useful door to manufacturers? As a shopper is it something that seems like it would be a helpful tool?

Selling Content in a Free World

Newspapers are on a long, sad death spiral. The rise of the Kindle leads reactionary publishers to eye the failed journey of the music business as a model for how to throw tantrums and demand protection for an existing business model on their way to oblivion.

I don't have the answer but I suspect it lies in rethinking what is advertising and what is value people are willing to pay for. I was thinking about music videos which started out as advertising for recordings. Although music videos can be useful tools in selling music, they no longer do much for selling recordings. In this digital era, recordings now serve as advertisements for live concerts in many cases. Recordings can be pirated, experiences cannot.

Publishers, like record companies, seem fixated on being paid for developing and packaging content. Fair or not, consumers have made it pretty clear that they don't see value in that proposition and are no longer willing to pay for it. Therefore, content creators and publishers need to figure out what their content and value-added production and packaging can sell.

iTunes did a great job for years of selling iPods until Amazon figured out how to sell iPods, any other MP3 player, content and Amazon itself much as they are doing with the Kindle. Now apps sell iPods and iPhones and iPhones sell AT&T cell phone service. Cell phone service, other than at the margins, is equally unpleasant regardless of which carrier you choose. There is not much to differentiate carriers other than price for the majority of consumers. Except if you want an iPhone.

Eric Pfanner at The New York Times is musing along the same lines: Pay Walls Alone Won't Save Newspapers.

How about you - any bright ideas on how content, publishing and value can be rethought and what they could sell other than packaged content itself?

Two Examples of Marketing Mistakes and How To Do Better

First, The New York Times trots out an age-old story. "Marketers" don't think they can sell as much to an older demographic as to young people. But, hey, it's a recession and that's where the money is so AARP and CBS here we come!

The problem is that smart, strategic marketers market to the consumers who are the right target market for their product or service. That might or might not be 50+ consumers. When I worked on Jell-O brand products, we spoke to kids, parents and grandparents but targeted the right product to the right group with an appropriate message. For AARP magazine we featured fat-free pudding sugar-free gelatin cups for boomers who wanted lower calorie snacks that fit their still active lifestyle. We didn't send this message because someone age 55 has more money in their wallets than someone age 5 or because kids don't love Jell-O products and parents no longer treat their kids to colorful, wiggly gelatin treats.

It's no secret that 18-49 is the prized demographic sweet spot just because consumers in that age range are assumed to be more free spending and less brand loyal. And if your marketing somehow actually starts and ends there you deserve to fail. (Though this may be a case of "there are no new stories under the sun" stale reporting rather than actual fact - I certainly not aware of any company that is that limited in their marketing thinking.) But a big part of the problem is mentioned in the article, as well. Too many marketers forget brand management 101: You are not your target market.

“When you’re a 27-year-old media supervisor or a 32-year-old brand manager, what do you think the world looks like?” Jerry Sheveshewsky, chief executive at Grandparents.com. “You think it looks like you.”

Smart marketers understand consumer psychographics as well as demographics and market accordingly and respectfully. That's how you build a brand and grow a business.

Second, Pizza Hut appears, belatedly, to be grasping how to engage consumers in a social media conversation and that before you dive into the discussion you begin by listening.

Late last year Pizza Hut thought they'd put out a "viral video." This is one of my pet peeves. You cannot create viral videos. You create a video, you can make it with the hope it will go viral, you can promote it in an effort to help it to go viral but ultimately either it goes viral or it does not regardless of whether or not you made a "viral video."

The video clip of Susan Boyle on Britan's Got Talent was not made as a viral video. Thirty-eight million views and counting later, it is a viral video.

Pizza Hut, however, apparently hired a company that makes so-called viral videos and offers a money back guarantee that their efforts will generate a certain minimum number of hits. Pizza Hut marketing folks, it seems, said to themselves, well our market is young guys and dudes they love the viral videos so we will make one of them there viral videos so as to speak to them in their language.

The result was a video that received a fair number of views and several bad reviews. The message was intended to portray the deep love Pizza Hut fans have for their preferred brand. So much so that they go to other pizza shops, sit down, order delivery from Pizza Hut and get kicked out of the mom and pop shops they invade - all caught on low quality video cam so as to give the appearance of genuine amateur prank.

Oh the hilarity of punking small neighborhood businesses in this economy so as to show loyalty to the big corporate chain! Um, branding fail. All this tells me is not that Pizza Hut is delicious but that it is the brand obnoxious young guys choose.

Now Pizza Hut is looking for a Social Media Intern. It seems to be somewhat similar to the Australian Tourism "Best Job in the World" promotion where applicants applied via video for a $100,000 a year job snorkeling, lounging on the beach and blogging. Now that's viral. And the millions upon millions of free media they got in exchange for $100,000 is well worth it.

Pizza Hut's "Twintern-ship" doesn't come with some fabulous salary posted. The New York Times says it will be competitive with other Twitterers - which would mean working for free. In fact it appears to be an actual job where they expect you to work. But for a college kid it could be a great high profile resume bullet. And hopefully Pizza Hut will incorporate social media marketing into its larger marketing function and strategy and either hire a full time social media evangelist or explore ways to redefine the priorities of marketers in their company so as to create time for social media as part of their job description.

I'm glad to see though that Pizza Hut is now planning to do what they should have done in the first place before attempting to create social media content and that is to listen:

Monitor social media for pop culture news, off-the-wall stories or anything else quirky and fun that he or she thinks would be of interest to loyal Pizza Hut fans.

They need to also listen to what their consumers are saying but it's a start. And if they are really serious about getting it right this time then I hope they do get their desired server-melting onslaught of YouTube videos.

Maybe I am a Social Media Expert!

How Knowledgeable Are Marketers With No Social Media Experience?

Marketing Sherpa's Chart of the Week:

Majority of Marketers Believe No Experience is Needed to be a Social Media Expert

Much like Beth Harte and Michelle Tripp, I steer clear of calling myself a Social Media Expert - I consider myself a marketer (one with a record of success and several years of experience working with social and new media) - and for many of the same reasons as they express in their posts. Proclaiming oneself as an expert implies that one believes they no longer have anything to learn. Also, knowing how to use the tools does not mean you know anything about marketing and marketing strategy. Social media marketing is still marketing but with new tools. You need to know both and any "social media expert" who can only help you learn how to use the tools but not also understand why, when and where to use them is not going to be able to help you adopt and utilize them in an effective manner to build your brand or grow your business.

But then I saw the chart above.

Using social media tools, no matter how prolifically, does not mean you understand how to integrate them into a marketing plan. Marketing Sherpa sums it up nicely:

You may have spent a lifetime watching hours of television on a daily basis and being exposed to an infinite number of commercials in the process but, based on that, would you consider yourself knowledgeable about producing a TV commercial? Of course you wouldn’t.

However, since a majority of my fellow marketers believe that familiarity with social media is sufficient and experience using the tools in service of a marketing strategy is not a necessary condition to consider oneself knowledgeable, I can at least not cringe when well-meaning friends call me a social media expert. Though really I'm holding out for social media goddess.

3 Tips for Creating Deeper Connections with Consumers

I read a terrific post recently at Media Post's Marketing Daily Blog. Sarah Mahoney identifies product labels as an often missed marketing opportunity. Mahoney points to findings by the Hartman Group, a leading "green" research company. I've had the opportunity to work with the Hartman Group and their research and the finding that the opportunity to better use product labels to tell stories about sustainable products is spot on. However this insight can be used as the basis of for connecting with consumers not just for organic/sustainable products and not just on product labels. By integrating three story telling techniques across your marketing mix you can better connect with consumers and build your brand.

1. Tell a compelling story: Don't just give facts. Share your mission, describe your brand essence, make your brand promise, offer a history of how your brand or product came to be or what you are using it to do to create more good in the world.

2. Put a human face on your story: And I don't mean cheesy stock photography. Relate someone to the brand promise, to the product story or to the consumers buying the product. Are you selling peas picked fresh at the farm and flash frozen? How about showing a picture of the farmer who takes great pride in ensuring that those peas are the freshest and best tasting peas?

3. Share your consumer's journey: Hartmann Group research makes a good point:

Finally, she says the company's research shows that for all the media attention that has been given to greenwashing, consumers are less concerned: "They understand that they're taking small steps toward sustainability, and they seem to understand that companies are, as well."

Hardcore perfectionists in any area will either not buy your product or service or will always find something to quible about. Let's say you're taking efforts to make your coffee more sustainable. The most committed will argue over the finer points of fair trade, shade grown, organic and whether or not if you're in the continental U.S. you should even be selling coffee which requires burning of fossil fuels to transport because it is not a crop that is grown locally.

Most consumers who read your story will be happy to know you are on the same journey as are they. You don't need to be perfect. Relatable is great.

An example of a company who takes all three steps with their product is Jones Pure Cane Soda.

1. Compelling story: Their brand promise is simple and authentic. Their story (label copy) tells us this by noting that they make: "Good old soda made with pure cane sugar. No hidden meanings, no billion dollar ad campaigns, and no high fructose corn syrup."

2. Human faces: Well, mostly - sometimes they have pets or trees and such. Jones solicits pictures from consumers to feature on their labels. How much more relatable can they be?

3. Shared journey: They ask you to recycle the bottles. Not bring your own containers. It's not organic. No talk of fair trade sugar. But simple steps towards sustainability like most consumers. Recycle. And as they say: "Run with the little guy... create some change."

Two Upcoming Conferences Worth A Look

First is the 5th Annual New Communications Forum. NewComm Forum is a project of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) which was founded by Jennifer McClure, and runs April 27-29 in San Francisco. New Comm Forum is a wonderful practical learning conference with thought leaders, in-depth case studies and great opportunities to learn from top practitioners in the field and take away tons of practical information you can put to use immediately.

Second is new conference called Big Omaha. Brought to you by Silicon Prairie News, it will focus on creativity and entrepreneurship, Midwest style. They've got some terrific speakers lined up like Adriana Gascoigne, founder of Girls in Tech, the always entertaining Gary Vaynerchuk and Micah Baldwin, smart guy with a big heart who will always be a hero for rescuing me and Erin Kotecki Vest (AKA Queen of Spain) when our car was held hostage by the ATF and a bomb squad at the Democratic National Convention which we covered for BlogHer and our partner in crime, videographer extraordinaire Katy Chen was off to party with Moby. Omaha is a great town and worth visiting if you've never been.

Both conferences still have discounted early bird registration available so check them out, consider signing up and let me know if you're going so I can follow your tweets, blogging, etc...

Buy This Because We Say So

People hate marketing because too often it's pushy and unconcerned with consumer wants and needs. Instead of giving you the information you need to make a purchase decision, bad marketers bombard you with useless information and emotions so that you will hopefully be enticed into buying something just because they want to sell it to anyone willing to pay the price.

This approach is stupid for many reasons but mostly because it is thoroughly unsustainable. Perhaps this approach to marketing worked when choices and information outlets were limited and constrained. But that is no longer the case. Here are three examples of current marketing efforts that are puzzling at best and seem to contain absolutely no genuine consumer insight.

A Schick (Canada) Quattro Razors For Women PR release asks and answers: "How can Canadian women help boost the economy? By investing in a cute mini.... History suggests that as skirt lengths rise, so does the stock market." Therefore you should do your patriotic duty, buy a mini skirt and, of course, shave more of your legs more often and buy their razors to accomplish this goal.

Fun, silly, irreverent, flirty...? Perhaps. Maybe some woman's service magazine will pick this up, write a cheeky story, a few women will get a laugh and make Schick Quattro their razor of choice or be inspired to rock a mini and claim "it's for the economy!" and pick up a few more blades.

But for those women concerned about the economy or interested in more efficient hair removal, this bit of fluff offers no information to help them determine if purchasing a Schick Quattro will meet their needs. Granted razors are very much a commodity item so this can be seen as a way to create more of an emotional connection with consumers but I'm not buying it. Perhaps because some other ads have left me a bit disappointed by my fellow marketers.

Quiznos is taking the concepts of "sex sells" and "food porn" to a strange new level. In the ad for their new "torpedo" sandwiches, the voice over announcer representing the oven demands that the young man selling the torpedo give his spiel in a sexier voice. Then the oven demands that the young man put the foot-long torpedo in him. Much like the Schick PR this could be seen as irreverent, humorous and congruent with the Quiznos brand identity. However, I doubt consumers are looking for a sandwich touted rather explicitly as representing a phallus. And parents are probably weary of the increasingly inappropriate advertising to which their children are exposed.

And speaking of parents, I seriously doubt there are many out there who will appreciate Dunkin Donuts latest message, promoted on television, that TV is evil and sucks your kids in like zombies caught in a tractor beam and that the way to break the spell is to feed them donuts. The underlying concept here is to remind consumers of the donuts in Dunkin Donuts after focusing heavily on coffee and sandwiches. But given that consumers have been bombarded with the message that childhood obesity is an epidemic crisis, I suspect the ad subtly screams - you are a bad parent!!! I've seen some tweets saying that some find the ad humorous, but my reaction and that of many others was head scratching.

Marketing like this might get attention. Each of these efforts have certainly broken through the clutter as I've seen discussion around them and it's not just my own insidery advertising and marketing interest that's been piqued. But what of those enticed to buy based on these efforts? Clever, humorous marketing in and of itself gives me no signal that any of these items is right for this consumer and if I try and am disappointed you've just built frustration and bad feelings into your brand. Good marketing should connect the right consumers for your brand with what you are selling. Unless the message is that these products are only for consumers with a particular sense of humor, all three of these efforts fail.

When Marketers Stop Listening

http://view.break.com/542649 - Watch more free videos

This is what happens when marketers focus on their perception of their own brilliance instead of listening to consumers.

H/T @ageekmom

TechCrunch50: Like TC40 but 10 Louder

I had an opportunity to attend TechCrunch50 this year. This new conference, in its second year now, gives startup companies a chance to pitch their business, get evaluated by an expert panel and potentially win $50,000.

Mint.com, last year's winner, is a successful personal finance money management site that a number of bloggers now use. This year's winner is a twitter-like service for businesses called Yammer.

What will bloghers be using from the TC50 lineup? I spotted a few possibilities.

First is iThryv which is money management and financial literacy software for kids and schools. Charlene Li hopes they succeed if for no other reason than their plans to give the software to schools for free.

One that parents might be avoiding though is (the cute and extremely charming - women, men and dogs were all breathlessly following him around) Ashton Kucher's offering, Blah Girls. Charlene Li has already decided that this mashup of South Park and Perez Hilton with animated, rude, gossip hungry tween girls is going on her home's ban list. It's too bad that this show is so parent-unfriendly because the product placement/integrated advertising business model is, I believe, the future of digital entertainment.

Miss Olive says that Closet Couture is "going to make social shopping a reality online."

Miss Olive also believes Causecast.org will change the world. Heather Snodgrass thinks it looks good, too.

Amy Jussel of Shaping Youth watched the live stream from home rather than brave the crowds (though, other than the non-functioning internet day one, I am always surprised at how much I enjoy this event). Her pick is FitBit which is a gadget that tracks your fitness.

My only disappointment is that since I am not an actual girl reporter on the go and just play one occasionally on the internet, I couldn't hang out for the entire time. That meant I missed Joss Whedon speaking on the Hollywood Goes Silicon Valley panel. Fortunately one of my favorite real life girl reporters on the go, Jessica Guynn, has a writeup for the Los Angeles Times' Technology blog.

More reports from Jessica Guynn can be found here.

I also sat next to (and commiserated with over the internet woes) the charming Orli Yakuel of Go2Web2.0 and she has several posts from TC50 on her blog.

Did you check out TC50?  Did you spot any must try services or products?  Do any of the ones I mentioned looked intriguing?  Let me know what you think in the comments.

Cross posted at BlogHer.com