Fizz from ConsumerPop

My Next Adventure

Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

~ Oh! The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss

Short version: BlogHer

Much longer (now-spoiled but still totally worth grabbing a cup of tea and sitting down to read) version:

After graduating from business school I embarked on the consumer brand management phase of my career. That path led to some tremendous learning opportunities and incredible experiences for me. Then, over five years ago I stepped off that path and moved to running my own small branding and marketing consulting and research company. Life as an entrepreneur has introduced me to a whole new world of challenges and it has been rewarding. But, I won't lie, it's also a life that can be difficult and often frustrating.

Over the years the types and scope of engagements I've had the opportunity to pursue have changed. And the kind of challenges I'd like to work on in the future have become clearer.

I've had the great fortune to work on some very cool early social media efforts including some by the kind of big consumer-facing brands I'd worked for previously. My background in both classical brand management and digital marketing was sufficiently unique that my skills put me in a position to be a part of some fascinating projects.

Over the past 18 months or so business has been tougher and less rewarding for a variety of reasons. The great recession has been part of it, certainly. However, at the same time there has been quite a bit of growth in boutique agencies and an explosion of social media consultants. Though I am clear that I am a marketer not a social media guru (though, I will accept "goddess"), these days social media is where the demand for marketing is at.

I'm someone who needs challenges, preferably big ones. And so I've considered two paths. The first is building my business out into an agency. The other is to bring my skills and experience to either an established agency or back to a consumer brand company to help them build their in-house digital and social media expertise. I've believed for a while that companies must and will build their knowledge of social tools and integrate that learning across the company. I agree 1,000% with Susan Getgood in her post at Shamable: "Who owns social media?"

If there is an owner of social media, it is the marketing function within the organization. Note: not a social media function.Social media is one of the marketing functions, just like PR and advertising, but the top, and bottom, line is the chief marketing officer. Marketing sets the strategy. Owns the business results. And calls on its agencies for support.

Agencies are partners — in developing strategies, executing programs, handling crises — but the agency role is first to help the company “learn to fish,” — to understand the social media environment, and then to work with it to develop exciting social media campaigns, programs, endeavors that will engage the customers.

Ultimately that's where I realized I wanted to be; I want to help build expertise in service of driving business results.

So I decided to seek out a new challenge. And, coming full circle, to that end I'm joining BlogHer as a project manager. It's not a marketing role. It will be a little along the lines of looking for Herbies (shout out to fans of The Goal, the most awesome book ever about operations management in the form of a love story and novel) and developing processes to better manage the hike except not in a factory. Also it's somewhat similar to my team's MAP for my Ross alumni friends. [Don't worry - those previous two sentences won't make sense to most of you reading this] But bottom line is it is an opportunity to contribute to BlogHer's growth and success which I welcome.

Some of you might be surprised to read this and find out that I don't already work for BlogHer. That's the best part of this move for me. I'm joining a group of people I already know and love and with whom I've worked with since the beginning. And now I won't have to go through my long winding explanations about how I'm representing BlogHer at that event or I'm making inquiries on behalf of the company that I'm closely associated with but don't actually work for.

I started my business shortly before discovering business blogs and Elisa Camahort at Worker Bees and soon after that the idea for the first BlogHer conference was born. As a result, I raised my hand, offered to help in any way I could and I was tasked with planning a dinner and some other activities at the first conference. From there I've spoken at several of the conferences, served on conference programming advisory boards, worked on a variety of initiatives including BlogHers Act, BlogHer's political coverage, the holiday cooking videos, the creation of the ad network and several others. Most prominently, Lisa Stone invited me to join the inaugural group of contributing editors and 400+ posts later, the first result for my name in Google is not my business, my name domain or any of my own blogs - not even the one that pre-dates BlogHer - but my writing at BlogHer.

I know Elisa Camahort is now Elisa Camahort Page because I officiated her wedding to her S.O. who I also count as a dear friend. Jory Des Jardins was my neighbor for most of BlogHer's life and I've enjoyed spending social time with her and her charming husband. Lisa (sometimes along with her partner Chris) has entertained, amused and killed me dead in restaurants and for hours on airplanes with her wicked wit. I've broken bread and come to love their parents, sisters, partners and children. I treasure their friendships as well as those of many BlogHer employees, my co-CE's and scores of people I've met as part of the BlogHer community.

It feels destined. I'm thrilled that Monday I start my next phase and new adventure. I'm looking forward to the challenge, the opportunity and most of all officially being part of the BlogHer team in addition to the community.

Marketing 101. Chapter 1: Introduction

Welcome to Marketing 101!

This is the first in a series of about some of the basics of marketing. The series is designed for everyone – whether you’re already a social media smartypants or you’re working on building your blog, your brand, or your business; whether you need to know more about all the marketers approaching you about your blog, or you’re just curious about the marketing jargon flying around the internet and the stories behind those crazy companies who try to sell you stuff.

To help set the stage, let me tell you a bit about my background. I received an MBA from the Ross School of Business at The University of Michigan and have worked in marketing for more than a decade including for companies like Kraft Foods and Campbell's Soup. Many of my examples will be from the world of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) or, in other words, stuff you can buy in a grocery store. Both because that's a marketing world I know well and because we have all shopped in a grocery store, so such examples should be easy to grok.

I hope you'll all jump in and add your perspective, understanding and questions. I have a set of topics planned but I would love to cover the topics and questions you have. So with that, let's get started!

What is Marketing?

The exchange of information between buyers and sellers

I wear shoes. I like cute, functional shoes. If all the people who make and sell shoes never told me about their shoes, I would be frustrated and barefoot. I really hate going barefoot, so I’m happy to learn about their shoes. But as much as I hate going barefoot, I also hate ugly, painful shoes. I'm not going to continue to buy ugly shoes that hurt my feet. If I tell the people who make and sell the shoes what I think is cute, and functional -- what I would gladly pay for -- the shoe manufacturers are happy because ultimately they can offer shoes that people like me are happy to buy.

Sellers gather information from buyers and develop goods and services. They communicate what they have to sell, and the benefits of their products (which is an umbrella term for goods, services, ideas, etc...), to potential buyers. Buyers then exchange money or other forms of payment for products from sellers.

This system of communication –- the exchange of information to facilitate the trading of products for payment (which can be money, credit, time, labor, attention, etc...) -- is marketing. As you can see, when done well it is a win-win for both buyers and sellers.

Who Are The Buyers?

Customers and Consumers

You'll frequently see the terms "consumer" and "customer" bandied about, often used interchangeably. From my CPG perspective, there is a clear distinction. A manufacturer sells the goods they produce to a grocery store. Grocery stores are therefore their customers. Grocery stores however don't use the products that the manufacturers make. The people who do are the consumers (or, in tech terms, sometimes referred to as "end users") of the manufacturer's products. In this equation the manufacturer's consumers would be the grocery store's customers. Got that? Customers pay you for goods and services, consumers use goods and services. And sometimes they are one in the same.

Not everyone makes that distinction, however. Social media types in particular seem to have a deep distaste for the word "consumer" so customer is a safer choice to use when you're having a social media conversation. But, if you are getting pitched by or want to work with or consult for a company that does use this terminology (and many, if not most, of the companies who approach you do) it is important that you understand this fundamental difference.

Who Are The Sellers?

B2C and B2B

Manufacturers who sell to retailers and whose products are used by consumers have different ways of marketing to customers and consumers. When they approach you to feature, advertise or promote something on your blog, they are marketing to consumers. The shorthand lingo for this is B2C or Business-to-Consumer.

Another example of B2C is television advertising of grocery store items. Manufacturers hire advertising agencies to create the ads and pay for the time to air them even though consumers don't buy products directly from them. However, by letting consumers know about the products they make, consumers will go to grocery stores and purchase them. This means then that grocery stores have to stock their shelves by buying the products from the manufacturers. Therefore B2C is a major and crucial component of a CPG marketing strategy.

B2B is another term you frequently see. An example of Business-to-Business marketing is shown on the show The Office. The fictional Dunder Mifflin sells paper to business customers not to individual consumers. Another example might be companies that manufacture copiers and printers. The manufacturer of copiers would use B2B marketing for selling to offices and would use B2C marketing for individual printers for home use.

Why Should Bloggers Or Anybody Else Care About Marketing

Let me give an example that can help you think about where you might fit in this marketing system as a blogger. Not all payments have to come in the form of cold hard cash. As a blogger you are selling your words and you might hope to be rewarded in the form of readers. You can then market yourself by providing information about your product, soliciting feedback from your readers and improving your product by writing more of what they want to read and less of what they don't.

Even if you aren't a blogger, we all market ourselves in some way in many situations. And we can be better and smarter as consumers and help marketers do a better job of communicating with us and providing the information we need and want when we understand the process.

____

In this series I am going to primarily focus on B2C marketing and will generally use the term consumers.

Now that we are on to the same page with our lingo we are ready to go! Let me know what you'd like to learn and I'll do my best to help.

A few smart marketing blogs:

Susan Getgood - Marketing Roadmaps

Toby Bloomberg - Diva Marketing Blog

Nancy Friedman - Fritinancy

Cross posted at BlogHer.

Integrating Social Media With Marketing And Across The Company

Jeremiah Owyang has an excellent article in Forbes calling on CMOs to learn and deploy social tools to connect with consumers. His arguments support a couple of points that I've advocated for a while now.

First, marketing is the function that needs to lead companies into understanding, adopting and integrating social media tools into their mix. Second, that there needs to be an internal group that educates companies on how to spread the use of social media tools across company functions such as customer service. In either case, social tools cannot only be relegated to the province of outside agencies to implement in short term campaigns.

Two excerpts from the article:

CMOs must think of social marketing as a horizontal effort across all of their digital marketing assets--not as an independent experiment.

and

Dedicated social roles should be enablers, not controllers. We now know that social technologies are pervasive and affect all digital assets. Yet to be successful, CMOs should appoint dedicated staffers to coordinate efforts. Success will require these people to teach, provide resources and select technologies on behalf of multiple business units. Take, for example, Intel's Social Media Center of Excellence, which is a team that trains, helps, and enables other business units with this new medium.

It's no surprise to me that Owyang highlights consumer brands as leading the way in integrating social tools into their marketing mix. At many leading CPG companies it is marketing that leads the business, understands the consumers who purchase their products and owns the P&L for the brands. The marketing function therefore is not only is the natural function to begin the adoption and integration process but to lead company-wide education efforts.

I, for one, am fascinated to watch as this change starts to build.

They Lost, We Won and Other Lessons from the CMO Summit

Last week I attended the excellent CMO Summit put on by Aberdeen. It was an terrific opportunity to learn how to be a better marketer and even brush up on my statistics.

I took away insights from each of the presentations but my favorite was from Michael Williams, VP Marketing for the San Francisco 49ers. The whole presentation was, in internet-speak, full of win, but the insight that has really stuck with me was that when fans talk about a game the next day, if their team won fans will say "we won!" However, if their team loses they'll say "they lost."  How do you connect so deeply with your consumers that they see themselves as a "we" and not your brand as a "they?" And there is no reason why any brand cannot be a "we" brand. I feel that way about my razor (the Schick Intuition) of which I am an unabashed raving fan.

Also, an aside, if you need a speaker to talk about marketing, branding, managing competing organizational goals and a variety of different challenges and opportunities, and you can persuade Michael to join you, you won't regret it. I honestly had no idea professional football marketing could be so relevant and compelling.

Another excellent insight came from Matt Smith, VP Marketing Services for Best Buy. Matt talked about Best Buy's "Twelpforce" on twitter. The interesting aspect of the Twelpforce is that, other than basic guidelines, Best Buy employees are empowered to be a part of the force and provide customer service. This seems to be very much in line with Best Buy's employee-trust centered Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE). Seeing companies approach social media and use it in a way that is consistent with company values provides smart case studies.

Burt's Bees CMO, Mike Indursky, gave us another fantastic example of leveraging company values to guide social media use. When Clorox bought Burt's Bees there was a lot of fear expressed in the blogosphere that Burt's Bees would lose their green and natural standards once a bleach company was running the show. Mike described how Burt's Bees smartly engaged skeptical bloggers while maintaining and enforcing their core values. Great learning.

Sylvia Reynolds, CMO of Wells Fargo, which has long been a leader in innovating consumer-facing social media use among large companies, especially heavily regulated companies, talked about pro bono marketing and other professional services  work Wells Fargo employees do with the Taproot Foundation. In the course of her talk she mentioned an eye-popping statistic: 1 in 500 Americans work for Wells Fargo. I tweeted those numbers. Several people re-tweeted it. The next day, Aberdeen President, Andrew Boyd saw the tweets because I used the #CMOSummit hashtag. He (kindly without naming me) pointed out the tweets propagated through social media and will live on. Andrew made a great observation: of course the proper statistic would be 1 in 500 working Americans. Still a wow for me but a very different number. In addition to remembering to be precise in statistics, it provides an important reminder about how social media can quickly and easily share and spread information that shouldn't always be taken at face value.

Marketers vs Bloggers: Why We All Need To Learn To Be Bilingual

Recently I read two posts that neatly illustrated just how much bloggers and marketers don't get about each other. One was written by and for marketers in an effort to help marketers better understand bloggers, how we think, how to approach us and how to market to social media communities. The other was written by bloggers to explain how marketers are getting their approaches to bloggers and social media communities wrong and how marketers could do better.

Both were cringe worthy reading. Marketers don't get bloggers and bloggers don't get marketers. Neither speaks the others' language, understands the others' process nor the others' goals. What seems obvious to me is that if marketers are to grasp how to successfully add social media tools to our marketing mix, bilingual translators are needed and we are in short (but growing) supply.

I am purposefully not linking to either post because I don't wish to single the authors out for criticism. The points made in their posts are not unique but reading them back-to-back helped crystallize my line of thought in this post, so let me tell you a bit more about what the marketers and bloggers are thinking.

1. The Marketers:

I've long lost count of the number of pixels that have formed to express how badly marketers, and the PR function in particular, have gone about pitching to, working with and attempting to partner with bloggers and social media communities. A post from a well known, well respected media outlet did a good job of clearly articulating the need to get past the models of cluelessly sending press releases, offering interviews and product samples. They pointed out why bloggers are not the same as newspaper journalists or magazine editors and why it is important to modify your approach. However, they still managed to make the same fundamental error of insight that most marketers who don't grok blogging and communities make; i.e., they did not move past the medium to understand the varying motivations of bloggers and the dynamics of communities.

Bloggers are not a monolith. People do not read, join networks or participate in communities for the same reasons or with the same goals. The advice that sending a press release will likely be received differently and, likely negatively, by bloggers is a step forward but still reveals just how much the authors don't know.

Sites like TechCrunch or Mashable could be considered blogs. Also there are individual bloggers who mine similar territory. However, what those sites do is vastly different than a personal blogger who writes about her life. Bloggers like the former are more akin to newsites and sending press releases or offering product for review might make sense. A blogger who develops a blog that functions not unlike a beauty or women's service magazine might enjoy and appreciate being approached like a magazine editors because it serves her mission and expectations she's set for her reader community.

Many personal bloggers write of and for themselves. They don't exist nor are they set up to do your marketing for you. They don't hunger for "content ideas." For many, finding the time and sometimes the motivation to write about the many ideas swirling in their head is the much bigger problem. That however does not mean that they are unapproachable. Rather it means that you need to understand the different types of bloggers as well as their different goals, motivations and readerships. And that is what is missing from the marketer perspective and why bloggers (and folks on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc...) remain frustrated and often hostile to so many marketers.

2. The Bloggers:

This time the post was from a well known, well respected group blogging site. The authors pointed out what they perceived as ineffective, even offensive marketing efforts from large companies to bloggers and social media communities. As is often the case in these broad missives and dismissals (vs. individual bloggers calling out specific egregious behavior from a marketer they've experience directly) is that it reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of how consumer marketing, from both big and small companies, works.

It is fine to be outraged by the message you hear. It is important and worthwhile for marketers to hear your reactions and the lenses through which you are filtering your messages. However, I have noticed a trend from bloggers to believe that because they understand their own experience and values that they know how to teach marketers how to do their jobs. And that attitude was in full effect in this post.

What is disturbing about this trend is that more than a few bloggers think that because they blog they not only know how companies should market and that companies should therefore listen to them and that they should be paid as consultants to teach companies how to market. The sad and frustrating thing about this trend is not only the mistaken hubris on the part of bloggers, but that some companies out of fear of missing the social media marketing train and/or ignorance of the blogging and social media universe, actually entertain and engage this advice.

In the long run it will only be bad for marketers, bloggers and social media communities.

3. The Bilingual Translators:

For bloggers who desire to engage with marketing and PR representatives, it is important that if you do not have a background in and understanding of marketing from a company and business perspective, your experience as a blogger, consumer and recipient of clueless pitches does not qualify you as a social media guru nor as a marketing consultant. If you seek for companies to hire you for your expertise and you offer ill-informed, bad advice it is not only bad for companies but bad for you and your fellow bloggers in the long run.

However, this is the smaller problem by far. What is more important is that companies get help from people who really understand using social media tools.

I don't mean that companies should pursue the rather clueless efforts to hire college-age digital natives who have a blog and just looooove to update their Facebook status every hour and have thousands of followers on twitter as I see with alarming frequency (oh and pay them nothing as an intern because they get to learn marketing). The recent Goode Job search and initial Best Buy hiring requirements debacles show that companies, get that they need to develop understanding and expertise around social media but don't know what to look for. In Murphy-Goode's case they disregarded the results of the popularity contest they promoted and were more concerned with marketing credentials which aren't often the basis for winning popularity contests. In the case of Best Buy, they got called out by marketing professionals who rightly questioned how having 250 minimum followers on Twitter transformed a graduate degree into social media marketing expertise. To Best Buy's credit they listened and refined their approach.

In fact, Best Buy's new job posting for Sr. Manager of Emerging Media provides good guidance for the kind of in-house expertise most companies, especially larger companies that engage in consumer-focused marketing, need to develop. There need to be resources in companies who have both an understanding of classical, proven effective marketing techniques and meaningful, relevant experience in the social media space.

And I believe companies need to have that expertise, those bilingual translators who speak both blogger and marketer, in-house. Although companies often work with outside agencies to execute and implement marketing efforts such as advertising and PR, they still have internal departments and deep knowledge of how to plan and use those tools as well as how to measure results and adjust efforts accordingly. Just as companies don't hire PR or advertising agencies without having some basis for determining the agency's qualifications and the desirability of campaigns they propose and then evaluating their effectiveness, companies need to be prepared to apply those same standards to social media marketing proposals and efforts from outside agencies. Also it is increasingly important that marketers become fluent in these languages and that they <i>get</i> the social mediasphere. Having in-house expertise will help them develop that fluency and deep understanding so that digital/emerging/social media marketing becomes part of the tool box of every good, well-rounded marketer.

The best news is that bilingual translators exist. We are out here and valuable collaborators continue to emerge. Plus, as marketers work with the new tools they will build not just expertise but best practices. I'm not going to name names here just because I'll miss too many but if you have questions, feel free to contact me and I'm happy to discuss my services or point you to who I believe some of the companies, practitioners, potential hires, PR, advertising or other agencies out there are that can speak both languages.

I firmly believe that best practices will really be established when proven marketing techniques meet the exuberant frontier of passionate expression and communities. Let's not ignore or fail to understand one or privilege the other. 

Bonus Reading:

Two posts from a marketer perspective emerging from the 2009 BlogHer Conference

Jeremy Pepper at POP! PR Jots: Don't be THAT PR person at BlogHer (Or Any Event)

Annie Heckenberger at Social Media Is The New Black: Let's talk about Blogher '09

CPG Brands and the Private Label Challenge

As I mentioned recently, CPG manufacturers are looking for ways to combat the growth of private label offerings which are increasing in quality and appeal. The days of generic plain-wrap are gone. Two routes CPG manufacturers can take are 1. build consumer connections to brands through smart social media use and 2. Create packaging that has stronger shelf impact.

Route 1 is a conversation for another post. Route 2 is expensive, slow and it is difficult to gain approval for bold, challenging designs within a multi-layered, conservative bureaucracy which is true for many large CPG companies. Consumers almost always will go further than CPG companies are willing and then they wonder why watered down, safe choices in package design change don't move the needle as much as hoped.

Here is an example (H/T Live4Emma on FriendFeed):

From the blog, Lovely Package. Their comment? "If only all supermarket own-brands had packaging that looked this good…" I'd ammend that to say "if only all brands..."

UK design firm Pearlfisher has created numerous fantastic, arresting designs which serve their brands well. The product quality of the soup has to deliver, but if it does I would be willing to bet both that this brand would eat market share from established CPG players and that a bold design like this would never make it through to shelf at a big U.S. CPG company. Pity it seems to be a lesson that's unlearnable.

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?

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."

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.

CPG at BlogHer

I was very happy to see that there were several CPG companies at BlogHer.  Given my past in the sector it is gratifying to witness the growing understanding of and use of social media to communicate with consumers.

I noticed Kraft (Singles), Con Agra (Butterball Turkey) and Del Monte in the exhibition hall.  I had a chance to chat with some of the brand team members from Del Monte's new Fruit Chillers frozen fruit sorbet and was further impressed that the brand team was there learning and not PR reps or hired booth hands.

Dove with one of their newest products, Ultimate Clear, was a major sponsor presence and got it mostly right with their activities and promotions.  Other than a couple of missteps with t-shirt sizing (note to PR peeps from big cities who work in fashion and beauty - although I'm sure you are all lovely tiny wispy girl sized things - most of us women are not and most certainly your consumers are not running around in Marc Jacobs and Choos - offer sizes accordingly and stop making this mistake year after year) they did a great job of building buzz around their product and I'm sure they'll get some strong blog buzz as a result.