New Year’s Resolutions Forgotten? Keep Your Resolve to Adapt and Drive Change

January 31, 2012 Leave a Comment

With the confetti, champagne and parades of a month-ago a seemingly distant memory – and with the nation’s attention squarely on things financial and political – 2012 is shaping up in real terms. 30 days in, what are the resonant themes and areas of focus for marketers this year?

  1. Customer churn reduction: In plain English—keeping the customers you’ve got. When they are lost, it’s $$$$ gone and you’ll need to spend more $$$$ to attract new ones.
  2. Blue-ocean strategies: With all the sharks scrapping over the same old whales in the nearer depths, it is time to head farther out, where the fishing is less competitive. Who are the new audiences for your products and services?
  3. Technology innovations (or new uses for existing technology): What else can you do with the proprietary IT and data tools you’ve invested in? Where else can you leverage those investments?
  4. Efficiencies that enhance brands (without loss of value): Discover a better, faster or—sorry for this ugly word—cheaper way to do something and it can pay dividends.
  5. Lighten up: Go leaner, springy, more nimble, and better able to hit the muddy road of today’s marketplace. From a business perspective, are you hauling a big rig, or a fuel-efficient, pound-for-pound power ride?
  6. Refresh yourself: Is your message right for right now? Does your brand still have impact, or is it looking a little 2007-ish?
  7. Value-add: In the words of the guy at the buffet, “What else you got?” Do you bring more than just the minimum to the table? Minimalism is one of the biggest enemies of excellence. What services or consulting can you appropriately package as a deliverable?
  8. Innovation: It is still possible in the year of lean and less to think big. Innovation pushes everything forward, including your business. Where can your team deliver innovation, even in small ways?

Will these ideas still be relevant in a month from now? Subscribe to our blog to keep tabs on which have gained more traction than others.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

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Does the Telecom Industry Equate “People” and “Viewers”?

January 24, 2012 Leave a Comment

Imagine living in the Keystone State’s capital of Harrisburg this past Saturday Night. It was a blistering 19 degrees, and while Steelers and Eagles fans were licking their wounds following a season that ended much too soon, they at least had an opportunity to see if the Tom Brady vs. Tim Tebow matchup would be at all competitive.

The pizza is ordered; the beer is ‘’fridged’ and the couch is awaiting its owner. All that needs to happen is to tune into CBS, when the unthinkable happens: There is nothing there.

This was the reality of the Verizon FiOS subscriber over this past weekend in Central Pennsylvania, and with DirectTV (although with different networks) in places like Miami and Boston. The reason was the ongoing fee negotiation between carriers and providers to broadcast.  And while we do have an opinion on how these negotiations have gone, that isn’t what this post is about.

This post is about what we are paid to think about: What the Public Wants.

Too often, a company’s Marketing Department (or agency) is required to confer with their legal department on a campaign or a message. Rarely is the shoe on the other foot, but in this case, it should have been. If an organization like ours were consulted, we would have made it clear that beyond the ratings juggernaut a game like that would be, the perception immediately becomes that neither side is willing to take a step back from the conflict in order to do right by its customers. Whether it was a 48-hour extension or an accelerated timeline to get the deal in order, the absolute last case scenario should have been a blackout.

Some make the argument that the public doesn’t have the inalienable right to expect to watch a football game, but the public has a funny way of determining what they expect (and an even funnier way of retribution against those that take away what they expect). Companies can take that moral and philosophical stance of “business is business” argument, but shouldn’t do so without considering the repercussions. Viewers aren’t inanimate objects. They’re people.

We conclude with this thought. A company like Verizon or DirectTV could explain its actions by discussing how it’s working to improve stock prices and, in turn, help the stockholder. That’s a great Monday morning answer, but on a cold, Pennsylvania Saturday night in January, the average stockholder just wants to watch the game.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

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Can Social Media Replace Polling in Presidential Primaries?

January 3, 2012 Leave a Comment

Direct Choice, as a company, does not take political stances. Our opinion is similar to Michael Jordan’s view of taking sides politically. However, we also wouldn’t be doing our job as experts in communications if we didn’t recognize the presidential campaign season is now in full-swing, and that marketing a candidate as an entity is the ultimate example of a branding case study.

There are plenty of sides to examine as wall-to-wall news coverage has taken place for much of the year, but our focus today will be on the role of social media.

Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign of 2008 represented the premier example of  how to use social media to gain traction and momentum in creating a popular, robust, grassroots-without-the-grass-or-roots campaign online. However, it was the best example four years ago because it was almost the only example four years ago, and those in the social media industry believed that with nearly half a decade to develop and hone a social media strategy, today’s candidates would be fully ready to embrace the medium.

So who has done it best thus far?

In a recent study by consultancy Sociagility, the organization analyzed popularity, receptiveness, interaction, network and trust of candidates and their communications platforms, and determined that Texas Congressman Ron Paul is the apparent leader among the Republican candidates when it comes to effectively using social media channels (former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich finished in second place). This is not a surprise because Congressman Paul’s unique, against-the-grain messaging resonates with people (both positively and negatively), causing it to be easy to react to and comment on.

In their press release, Sociagility dubbed the Iowa Caucuses (and subsequent primaries) as the first ‘social’ Presidential primaries, insinuating a linkage between social media chatter and its ability to be used to conduct straw polling.

As a marketing organization, we believe social media is an amazing equalizer for some candidates, especially those that have less money in their war chest,  Through these channels – FREE channels – candidates can easily communicate to their base and swing voters on events and messages without the need for an ad-buy or editorial board meeting. However, using it as an accurate polling mechanism is a bit beyond the medium’s means thus far. Where social media’s weak point lies is its ability to judge true engagement beyond the computer screen. Is the person writing, responding, reacting, etc. on social media actually going to visit their voting precinct?

Social media will continue to be a huge influencer in this and future campaigns, but to put unproven reliance on it and labeling it as anything other than a powerful tool to use in the full body of campaign outreach is dangerous at this point.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

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