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    Wu hoo…activism.

    Steve Poppe -
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    Google Reason.

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    A Clear Brand Idea.

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    Marketing

    “Honey. Wash With This.”

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    There is an interesting strategic disagreement going on in the men’s body wash category these days.  The commercials and video on TV and YouTube from competitors Axe and Old Spice focus on different targets. Old Spice, acknowledging that 70% of men’s body wash (a more expensive, soap substitute) is purchased by women, is using the much talked about “smell like a man” campaign from Wieden + Kennedy directed toward those women buyers. The campaign is smart because the message in not lost on men.  Conversely, the Axe work shoots straight at men, suggesting “Use Axe body wash and you won’t have to aks (New York for ask) girls out, they’ll flock to you.”  Axe is attempting to change behavior. That is, they’re trying to convince men, young and old, that it’s okay to use cleansing gels rather than the traditional, inexpensive, manly soap.    

    Bud Light convinced young men that it’s okay to drink light beer, so growing the body wash category is not a bridge to far.   

    It should be interesting to see who wins this strategic battle.  Will the guys without dates who are most motivated to spruce up not respond to the Old Spice work targeting women?  No, I think they will.  They’ll get the message.  But probably not ask strongly as they will receive the “chick magnet” ads from Axe and BBH. Will lady-less men’s mothers buy them body wash?  I hope not, that certainly will be counterproductive.  “Honey, I saw something on TV….” Peace.

    Listening Starts at Home

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    listening

    So (today everyone starts their pontifications with the word “so”) the talk on the marketing street these days is all about “starting the conversation” and “being a good listener.” These are axiomatic teachings of the social media movement.  I appreciate this view and love listening to consumers, but I’d like to throw a trump card on the pile: Listening to employees. What is often forgotten in the social media world today is the role and input of employees.  Employees touch customers.  Lots of them. Employees know the product inside and out (if the company is well led). Employees have a stake in the performance of the product. Companies need to mine their own people for product and selling insights, because employees are the aggregators of smart marketing intelligence.

    New Product Ideas

    If you look back through time, I’d bet that 75% of all new product improvements, line extensions and new product ideas have come from within the company. Add to that all the new ideas and suggestions made off-the-cuff by employees that never saw the light of day and you begin to see a bigger opportunity.

    Smart social media software companies, building enterprise 2.0 applications through which employees share, commune and contribute business building ideas, are what’s up in 2010. Listening to employees through social media will be a marketing breakthrough to Tweet about. Peace!

    Rewiring the Web for Commerce.

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    Steve Poppe
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    Twitch Point Planning is a communications planning process whereby a company understands, maps and manipulates consumers closer to a sale. How does one do that?  On a devices, with creative prompts, and smart motivating landing content.

    A prospective client has a multi-million dollar business selling maintenance parts and equipment; everything from paper towels and generators to lock washers. Like Thomas’s Register, sales gained traction when they moved to a catalog business; providing easy access to skillions of parts, SKU numbers, pictures, sizes and discounts.

    Along came the Web. Now the company has moved the catalog online, automating a good deal of the process. Online there are two default customer care tools: search and pop-up chat apps. A great many of visitors to a site, however, already know what they are after. They have a shopping list. But what of the remaining visitors who have a need but aren’t sure what they want?  Customers for whom typing a lengthy description in a chat box is not optimal?  They are more apt to go to a box store or a distributor for a talk with a SME (subject matter expert). Visitors who fall into this category are likely to twitch away. Buh-bye.

    Here we need an app to keep them on the site. Not an app that asks why they are leaving, what we did wrong or, God forbid, provides a customer sat survey. Something that moves them closer to a sale. In their new book Multiscreen Marketing: 7 Things You Need to Know to Reach Your Consumers, Natasha Hritzuk and Kelly Jones, suggest start with the consumer not the technology.  I’m certain with five well bracketed questions and a decision tree, a customer can be brought to the brink of a buying solution, even when they are not sure of a part name. And that is how we rewire the web for commerce. Understand, map and manipulate on your own site. Thoughts?

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