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New Year’s Marketing Resolutions

Thursday, January 1, 2009

resolutions

With the beginning of a new year I thought it timely to suggest my top five marketing New Year resolutions for 2009:

  1. ROI, ROI, ROI! There may be some great sounding marketing tools coming out this year, just remember that the only thing that matters with a marketing campaign is that you make more money than you spend!
  2. Stay true to your brand’s mission. Do you remember the reason you launched your company? Return to your roots and your clients / customers will thank you for it.
  3. Create Raving Fans out of your customers. This can be accomplished by obsessively executing on what advertise.
  4. Work ON your business instead of IN your business. It’s easy to get caught up in the fast to day issues of your company. However to truly develop your business into a thriving organization you will have to develop looking term strategies that fuel innovation and growth.
  5. Always remember to not sweat the small stuff, and then remind yourself that it’s all small stuff.

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Jordan Hudgens
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Multi-Channel Marketing

Monday, December 22, 2008

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Many organizations struggle to optimize online and offline marketing campaigns across an ever increasing number of new marketing channels. Silos of information reside in separate channel-centric technologies, and distributed marketing efforts, from both internal groups and external relationships, add organizational challenges to managing multichannel marketing efforts. Most of all, the proliferation of sales and marketing channels has made multichannel campaign performance difficult to track and monitor.

According to a new study published by Aberdeen, Best-in-Class companies are 1.5-times more likely to address these challenges by utilizing next-generation solutions that enable cross-channel optimization across an enterprise.

The report reveals how top performing companies currently execute multichannel campaigns to extract maximum value from their marketing investments.  By combining organizational capabilities and marketing technologies, Best-in-Class companies are able to positively affect return on marketing investments and customer profitability.

“Traditional multichannel marketing is largely a function of delivering multiple separate campaigns across multiple channels,” explains Ian Michiels, Research Director at Aberdeen. “Best-in-Class companies are executing structured, collaborative cross-channel campaigns, and they are deriving extraordinary results from these tactics.” The top challenges organizations face when implementing a multichannel marketing campaign are data integration problems created by disparate systems, the lack of technology to centralize multichannel management, and the organizational challenges associated with department silos. “The challenge of executing, measuring, and optimizing multichannel marketing has far reaching implications that affect marketing performance, measurement, and customer retention and acquisition.”

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Jordan Hudgens
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Aim and Fire

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

targeting

A phrase I hear countless companies say in regard to advertising is, “I know I am wasting half of my marketing budget, the problem is that I don’t know which half!”  This is a common dilemma that is directly related to where, when and how you are distributing your brand.

A research report was just released by Advertising Age that revealed that the automotive industry would be much better served by transitioning away from television towards radio. This case study is key in understanding domain expertise. If automakers migrate away from television to radio they could be able to dramatically cut their collective marketing budgets while still hitting their target audience; thus increasing their advertising ROI.

If you feel that your marketing dollars are being wasted on the wrong mediums, don’t get frustrated… GET FOCUSED!

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Jordan Hudgens
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A Love/Hate Relationship

Monday, December 8, 2008

Let me introduce you to your best friend and sometimes worst enemy: social media marketing. You have heard the success stories of companies driving powerful consumer awareness via a viral video on Youtube or attaining expert credentials through relevant blog postings. However I want to talk about what happens when social media marketing gets ugly. If you purchase advertisements through an online ad network, there is a strong possibility that you do not know where your brand its being displayed. This has two negative components:

  • Your business could be placed next to brand harming content
  • Your banner ads could be simply filling in remnant inventory, which means you are practically guaranteed to lose your return on marketing investment

So what can you do to protect your brand’s reputation in the marketplace? Focus first and foremost on where your ads will be shown. This is where traditional advertising had it right. Companies paid based on placement, not solely on impressions. Secondly, experiment and choose innovative advertising mechanisms. If your marketing strategy has little to no risk, then you will produce little to no results. Good examples of fresh advertising placements are:

  1. Sponsored blog posts
  2. Video advertising
  3. Mobile marketing

Social media marketing can be your best friend, but only if you have a well thought out plan and clear objectives.

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Jordan Hudgens
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Becoming Disruptive

Friday, December 5, 2008

The most common question I’m asked by clients is: where should I be marketing my business to drive results? The funny thing is that the answer is never the same for that particular question. Your tactical advertising plan needs to be in line with your product strong suits. A good rule of thumb is:

If your advertisements are annoying to their audience, they are being distributed on the wrong medium.

For example, if you are running social networking ads that constantly get complaints, you probably shouldn’t be placing your banner ads on sites like Facebook or Myspace. Every business has its sweet spot, the key is being able to recognize how to become ‘disruptive’ without becoming annoying.

Let’s compare two ‘disruptive’ advertising mechanisms: Product Samples vs. Internet Pop Ups. Both of these marketing tools ‘disrupt’ the user experience, the key difference is that giving away product samples help to establish brand loyalty while pop up ads simply annoy viewers and many times drive them to competing companies.

Every business sector has a specific medium in which their advertisements should be placed, below are some of the best pairings I’ve witnessed with clients:

  1. Car Dealerships – Newspaper and TV
  2. Legal Counsel – Yellowpages
  3. Consumer Electronics – Search Engine Marketing
  4. Movie Studios – Online Video Pre-Roll Commercials
  5. Business to Business Enterprises – Blogging

So remember to keep on disrupting your audience (it’s the only way to get their attention), however make sure that you are building strong and positive relationships with consumers as opposed to simply throwing an ad in front of their face.

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Jordan Hudgens
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Smart Marketing Tips for a Difficult Holiday Season

Friday, November 28, 2008

Ahhh, the holiday season is here. From the exuberant faces packed into the malls during ‘Black Friday’ to the hopefulness of New Years, this is traditionally the best time of year for brands and retailers.  However the current market uncertainty has frightened the everyday consumer, and scared shoppers into frugal individuals. Essentially every major research agency is projecting the worst retail season in years, and these reports will most likely come to fruition.  So am I saying to pack it in?  Of course not.

Even though the season may offer several obstacles not seen in previous years, there is still plenty of opportunity for brands to emerge victorious over the next thirty days.  Below are my three tips for having a successful holiday marketing campaign:

  1. Take a lesson in logic and live by Occam’s Razor, which states that the simplest answer to a problem is usually the best option. In other words, do not try to take drastic branding action over the Holidays in order to drive consumer awareness. When considering where and how your advertisements will be shown, live by the phrase: keep it simple stupid.
  2. If you have an established presence in the marketplace, continue to build deeper relationships with preexisting clients. Strong market research has shown that it is ten times as expensive to capture a new customer as to retain a previous client. So RIGHT NOW is the time to start hitting your email list, you very well may have a goldmine at your disposal of new sales from old clients.
  3. Cut all unnecessary spending and reevaluate all existing vendor relationships. You may be paying four services that have cheap of even free alternatives. A good example of this principle in action is CRM software. I have worked with organizations that pay thousands of dollars on services like Salesforce when web applications such as Zoho are completely free for small businesses and extremely cost effective for large enterprises.

It may not be easy, but if you stay smart this Holiday season your business can still flourish.

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Jordan Hudgens
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Reinventing Your Brand

Monday, November 24, 2008

I have previously discussed how important it is for a brand to strive to be different from its competition, not simply “better”. And I just reviewed a case study this morning that bolstered my belief in this principle. The perspective came from Jim Stengel, the former marketing head of Procter and Gamble, when he spoke at the Association of National Advertisers this past month. In his exhortation Stengel described how P&G’s Old Spice product had been stagnant for years, and had been consistently been losing market share to Axe for years.

But Old Spice has recently made a strong surge and has been robbing consumers from Axe like never before. So what h has Old Spice done to trigger the momentum shift? Stengel says the keys to success were two actions: Deep introspection, Switching ad agencies And what did P&G discover when they analyzed their brand? They realized they had no true market image, Old Spice needed a new image. Unless you have been hiding under a rock you have seen the result of Old Spice’s evolution.

I have placed an image from one of their latest commercials, Old Spice has successfully become the “older brother”of American males 14-25. This strategy and brand positioning has reborn the Old Spice product, and most importantly translated into market share ownership for Old Spice. So if you are looking to take market share from a competitor, do not look outside for your solution, take a page from the Procter and Gamble playbook, and look inside.

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Jordan Hudgens
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Obama’s 2 Year Plan for America

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Right on the heels of the strong trading day yesterday, President-elect Obama has released a comprehensive two year plan for:

  • Revitalizing the economy
  • Creating new jobs

The full transcript is below:

Good morning.

The news this week has only reinforced the fact that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions. Financial markets faced more turmoil. New home purchases in October were the lowest in half a century. Five-hundred-forty-thousand more jobless claims were filed last week, the highest in 18 years. And we now risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further.

While I’m pleased that Congress passed a long-overdue extension of unemployment benefits this week, we must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again. We have now lost 1.2 million jobs this year, and if we don’t act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year.

There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. But January 20th is our chance to begin anew - with a new direction, new ideas, and new reforms that will create jobs and fuel long-term economic growth.

I have already directed my economic team to come up with an Economic Recovery Plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011 - a plan big enough to meet the challenges we face that I intend to sign soon after taking office. We’ll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels; fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead.

These aren’t just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis; these are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long. And they represent an early down payment on the type of reform my administration will bring to Washington - a government that spends wisely, focuses on what works, and puts the public interest ahead of the same special interests that have come to dominate our politics.

I know that passing this plan won’t be easy. I will need and seek support from Republicans and Democrats, and I’ll be welcome to ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle.

But what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action. Right now, there are millions of mothers and fathers who are lying awake at night wondering if next week’s paycheck will cover next month’s bills. There are Americans showing up to work in the morning only to have cleared out their desks by the afternoon. Retirees are watching their life savings disappear and students are seeing their college dreams deferred. These Americans need help, and they need it now.

The survival of the American Dream for over two centuries is not only a testament to its enduring power, but to the great effort, sacrifice, and courage of the American people. It has thrived because in our darkest hours, we have risen above the smallness of our divisions to forge a path towards a new and brighter day. We have acted boldly, bravely, and above all, together. That is the chance our new beginning now offers us, and that is the challenge we must rise to in the days to come. It is time to act. As the next president of the United States, I will. Thank you.

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Jordan Hudgens
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How to Achieve the “Cool” Factor

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I am sitting at a hipster themed coffee shop at the moment writing this post, and one question is dominating my thoughts:

What makes a brand have the “cool” factor?

The answer is that there are many ways to make a product or brand “cool”, the secret sauce is maintaining a laser focus on your objectives. Know thyself, know thy audience You can ask any marketing executive, “Cool” is a fickle and many times a cruel master. What I have discovered is that the top prerequisite for a brand establishing a sleek public image is to fully understand its target audience.

Let us take the case study of Apple and the iPhone. The iPhone has undoubtedly set the precedent for the “cool” factor as it relates to technology. It has achieved international mass market appeal and revolutionized the mobile industry. From day one Apple marketed the iPhone as the first mobile phone that had the full suite of features previously only available on traditional computers.

But the best marketing campaign in the world will not create the “cool” factor by itself, it takes a solid product offering. And the iPhone delivered (and then some). The device gave consumers:

  • An unbelievable user experience
  • Innovative hardware performance (touchscreen, Wii- like controls, etc.)
  • Infinite functionally possibilities (the app store)

Also, Apple has successfully created an entire ecosystem that did not exist only a few short years ago with users, developers and advertisers seamlessly interacting together. And it is the combination of all these factors that create the “cool” factor for products. Put simply, the secret sauce of effective brand marketing is to never lose sight of type audience. If you can successfully maintain your focus on the pulse of your target consumer, you will consistently achieve the “cool” factor.

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Jordan Hudgens
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Becoming Different

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

If you are in the advertising industry, the past few years have offered some great examples of effective branding. I’m talking, of course, about the presidential election and the lessons it has taught the marketing sector. Regardless your political viewpoint, the race between President-elect Obama and Senator Mccain has been a prime illustration of how to establish market dominance. Let’s look back at the race the same way we would review a client case study.

The Problem
 A new market participant (Obama) was looking to enter a industry (presidency) that no other peer (African American) has been successful in (winning).

Solution
 Develop a hyper-focused marketing message, offering a solution to a wide range of audiences. The message will be distributed with a multi-platform approach, including: TV, Internet, Social Media, PR, ‘Guerilla’ marketing, along with several other mediums.

Result
 Ubiquitous brand awareness and expert positioning, resulting in making history.

In reviewing the marketing campaign, one key component stuck out to me:

Obama never wavered in his message of ‘change’. While Mccain altered the focus of his campaign several times, resulting in a lackluster apeal to the nation. If you are looking to establish consumer awareness for your brand it is vital that you stay consistent with your message.

In case you doubt this hypothesis, look at the following phrases:

  • Just Do It
  • The Ultimate Driving Machine
  • I’m Lovin’ It

I didn’t have to say: Nike, BMW, and McDonalds; because the simple mention of their slogans (message) conjured not only their names, but also the way you feel about the company. This is the way it works in my mind:

Just Do It > Nike > Athleticism

Ultimate Driving Machine > BMW > Luxury & Performance

I’m Lovin’ It > McDonalds > Fast Food

How have these brands implanted these pavlovian responses in my mind?They have ‘pushed’ their message to me across a variety of mediums for decades, and this is the key: they have never wavered from the message.

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Jordan Hudgens
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