I read this great study called Grounding the American Dream. It was written by Context-Based Research Group and Carton Donofrio Partners, Inc. who “conducted ethnographic interviews and observations with consumers across the United States to understand the impacts and implications of the ’08 financial crisis on American culture.”

In their report they talk about the evolution of consumerism. According to the study, the modern day consumer is going through 5 stages:

1.  Realisation - How the economic changes affect them personally.

2.  Life is not a loan - Bye-bye to the credit based life. Living within your means is becoming the top priority.

3.  A new value equation - It’s no longer just about “me” it is all about “we” and balancing rational, emotional and social needs.

4.  A new consumer toolkit - They will start to remove all the excess “stuff” in their life. Although they will be cutting back, they will still be looking for small luxuries to reward themselves from time to time.

5.  Walking the talk - After this realisation and transformation into better and smarter consumers, they will realize that the road to happiness isn’t necessarily paved with purchases.

Now what does this mean to us marketers? If means we need to evolve too. It means that we have to re-evaluate what we talk about and how we talk about it. We need to be conscious about the people we want to talk to and more sensitive to what they are going through. We need to help them achieve their goals, and if we can, they will help us with ours.

To download your free copy of Grounding the American Dream visit: www.thegroundedconsumer.com

Nov 2008 - M Marketing and Sears Canada proudly received Silver at Canadian Marketing Association 2008 Annual Awards in “Digital: Interactive and Email” category.

Sears What’s in Store for You? is a personalized email program that surpassed aggressive goals in 2008. Subscribers database grew by 220% thanks to active acquisition plan; total sales generated through email program increased 390%. Sears email customers were clearly engaged in 2008!

Sears What’s in Store for You? program overview>
Canadian Marketing Association Gala Awards>

Of course you can. But I am terribly sorry to tell you that “going viral” is really not up to us. In every brainstorming or planning session someone always says: “Can we add a viral component to the campaign?” It would be fantastic if we could add such component to every campaign we work on. The thing is: we (client and agency) are not in charge here. We don’t have the power to decide if something is worth spreading or not. Consumers do. They own your brand.

It’s about time we stop spoon feeding content and stop telling them what to do. Consumers will serve as filters and they will make that call. So, don’t worry about it. Do your part: choose the right medium, come up with a great idea, explore insights, know your audience, execute well. These are things you can do. If it goes well, you get lucky and it hits the sweet spot, it may happen. it MAY happen. Going viral should not be the objective. It is the outcome of a well executed idea. So, don’t worry about going viral. Don’t try too hard. Just keep on doing what you are doing. If it truly speaks to the audience, people will share and if they share you win. Just don’t let the necessity of going viral drive what you do.

So I am talking to a co-worker the other day and he says to me “Have you seen the new Microsoft ad with Jerry Seinfeld?”

I quickly Google it and watch Jerry Seinfeld help Bill Gates buy discount shoes while eating churros and rambling on about nothing. It ends with Bill Gates adjusting his shorts and a tag line that says “The Future. Delicious.”

Let me first point out that I am a very big Seinfeld fan and have watched every episode of the television series more then once, but when it came to this commercial, I was completely dumbfounded. I immediately looked into the other news about the ad to find that Microsoft was paying Mr. Seinfeld 10 million dollars to do this and spending $300 million on a campaign to improve their image because Apple has been portraying them as drab, dull and unimaginative.¹

Coincidentally, I was also reading an article on www.psychotactics.com and this phrase jumped out at me “If you don’t have a benefit for the customer, just being different is going to get you nowhere.” This was a phrase that summed up all my feelings for this commercial. It was an ad about nothing and it was wasting my time. To be honest, I was insulted as a consumer and enraged as a marketer! How many marketers have 300 million to work with when developing a campaign or program? Was this really the best they could do for the money?

Microsoft’s objective was to make them seem more hip and fun to shake the image that the Apple ads have created for them. Let’s talk frankly about Microsoft and their image. They are the majority, the ones with a monopoly and the bar in which all technology is judged against. Their software is often full of bugs and is released to the public often with full knowledge that it isn’t perfect.

Apple’s ad campaign is built on “We are reliable and easy and PC isn’t”. The fun and hip aspects are byproducts and secondary. Microsoft is saying “We can pay someone to say we are fun and hip too” but they are not addressing the actual issue which is they are unreliable and require more tech savvy to operate.

If they really want to change their brand image, an ad campaign about “nothing and Bill Gates adjusting his shorts” isn’t going to do it.

Watch the ad here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM_72QXCtN4&feature=related

¹Wall Street Journal - Microsoft Enlists Jerry Seinfeld In Its Ad Battle Against Apple:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121928939429159525.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news

“M’s new creative strategies transformed the Sears Canada email program into a leading edge, highly effective and cost efficient relationship marketing program. With customer
acquisition and relevancy as its focus, the e-newsletter surpassed all goals. Active
acquisition helped grow significantly the e-newsletter subscriber database and total sales.
Average open rates and click-through rates were all well above industry average…”
press release

Lots of companies focus solely on increasing web traffic. The real questions is: Is traffic a measure of success? Some YouTube videos have millions of views. That doesn’t mean anything. Some websites have huge traffic but that doesn’t mean anything either. Focusing efforts on reaching a smart, loyal audience with a relevant and valuable message seems the way to go to me.

So, rather than spending thousands of dollars on increasing traffic marketers should be really thinking about how to reach the right people with a message that makes sense to them. No brainer, uh? Now take a look at what you are currently doing. Are you thinking “who” or “how many”?

More cartoons by Randy Glasgergen.

April 08, San Francisco - it felt great to be recognized based on a pure merit - no politics involved!

m marketing was a finalist in Ad:Tech annual awards 2008. As one of three finalists, we were awarded for the work and results achieved for our Sears Canada client on Sears What’s in Store for You? email program.

Go m team - Ramal, Gustavo, Richard, Nadine, Isabel, Tanya!

The way people interact with one another and with the things around them continue to change at a rapid pace and as a result, marketing and the way marketers communicate to consumers continues to evolve. I would argue that most marketing is slow to adapt to this change and continues to be one step behind. As marketers, it is important to stay one step ahead of the consumer.

So why is it so difficult?

The consumer moves at ten times the speed he/she did 10 years ago. Why? Because consumers have to. We live in a world where time is of the essence. Innovation has emerged because of “time”, or lack there of. Speed exemplifies success. For example, you don’t see a medal awarded to the slowest runner in a 25 km run. Too far fetched? How about in factories, where success is based purely on efficiency. Efficiency is instilled in our society because it means higher profits for everyone, especially businesses. Because time is valued more than anything else, ways to help preserve time in everything we do has blossomed, through innovation. Blackberry devices (as some would call the electronic shackle) are becoming NECESSARY because someone has to be accessible to work at all times whether through their phone, text message, PIN, messenger, etc. Now some individuals reading this blog without a blackberry attached to their hip would argue that this does not apply to everyone. Well think again. If you don’t believe me, look yourself in the reflection of your computer, because you’re guilty as you read this blog. The computer, or better yet, the Internet has become imperative in our lives … and why might you ask? Well that’s easy … it makes your daily tasks easier and more EFFiCIENT. The blackberry is simply an extension of the home or work computer. The way we do our “everyday tasks” has changed, and will always continue to change. Whether its from looking up recipes, finding directions, looking at pictures, searching for a new house, staying in touch with family and friends, etc. The way we do all of this has all changed because of the computer, and Internet. The pace that businesses are working at right is staggering and it continues to move faster and faster. Why? Because innovation will always be alive. If there is a way to complete any one of the average’s persons’ daily tasks more efficiently, it will be invented … its just a matter of time.

So where does this leave us marketers? How does all of this affect the way we communicate to our target audience? It affects us deeply. Consumers don’t have “time” to take in any messages that they don’t want to. It’s just that simple. The average consumer is exposed to over 3,000 ads (messages) in one day and is very likely to dismiss every single one of them. So how does your message breakthrough? What is that “tipping point” from all the other messages being shouted at the consumer that will grab the consumer’s attention at that very second, and spark an interest? It’s easy … relevance. As my fellow marketer friend would say, relevance is boss. Consumers don’t have the time to listen or watch something that does not speak to them specifically. And that is why relevance is boss. As a result, some may say, mass media is dead. I would beg to differ. Mass media is not dead, its purpose has changed. Mass media no longer expects to directly change or drive a consumer’s behavior and it shouldn’t (although some might). Mass media has evolved to awareness. It’s the way you feel about a brand. The way you identify with a brand and the brand’s personality. What feelings do you get when you see the “golden arch”? Some would automatically think convenience, fast, fun, cheap (not in a bad way), and tasty. While others might think unhealthy, cheap (in a bad way), busy and an impersonal experience. It is these very feelings that determine the way you look and relate with a brand. The brand symbolizes a person and its personality may coincide with some and not with others. Mass media has the ability to portray a personality (or brand) instantly through a marketing channel that has the capabilities of reaching a wide audience. It is a push strategy. If you want to change or drive behaviour (in an action form), then you will have to look elsewhere. How do we as marketers make it easy for consumers (in an age where even the dead don’t sleep) to interact with our product/service. As marketers, we must travel at the same speed as the consumer. We must understand our target audience, and understand everywhere they go and do … we as marketers have to talk directly to our target audience (1 to 1) and ensure the target audience wants to hear what we have to say (relevance). Again, relevance is key to successful marketing. There is absolutely no point marketing your product or service to a target audience who does not want to hear it, or would never be interested. The consumer decides what they want to hear and see and what they want to dismiss. A perfect example would be PVR … the ability to watch any TV show they want at any given time. Why should consumers have to plan their schedule around an episode of the Bachelor on at 8 pm each Wednesday?

So how do we as marketers move forward, knowing that the scale of product/service and consumer has tipped to the consumer’s end? How do we evolve and change our traditional marketing ways to develop impactful and successful marketing initiatives? Well because relevance is boss, it is first important to identify your target market. As marketers we must “hone” and “embrace” our target audience. Our net result should be turning our target audience into brand ambassadors. Turning your target audience into brand ambassadors is important for any brand, because if the target audience’s experience with your product or service is positive, they will tell their friends, co-workers and family. We live in a world where we doubt marketers and only trust those around us. If your product or service can create positive experiences, your customers will become your most important marketing channel. We must speak directly to these brand ambassadors.

So how do we do that? Think outside the traditional marketing box that so many of us have been drawn into. For example, maybe it’s putting an ad in the middle of a video game. Sounds silly? Well video games continue to be an important part of many people’s lives and will only continue to grow. The difference in video games today and video games 10 years ago is that it continues to capture the new youth audience while maintaining participation by their original aging demographic. The people who played and grew up playing video games are still playing, because the experience is that positive. Innovation in video games continues to expand its horizon. If you look at what the Nintendo Wii and games such as Rock Band and Dance Revolution have done, they have opened video games up to a whole new category of people (e.g., older users and females). More and more people are now playing these types of games because they are easier to do and are considered “party games”. A video game by the name of War of Warcraft hit more than 9 million users in July 2007. To put that into context, if War of Warcraft was a nation, it would the 90th most populated country in the world, ahead of Haiti and just behind Sweden.

That is only one example. Perhaps it is sending out an offer through a text message. Text messaging has been an “undervalued” medium for marketing. There are over 20 million cell phone users in Canada. That is 20 million people who carry a communication piece with them everywhere they go, which can be used to send or receive messages. Everywhere they go is the key. This gives marketers the ability to reach an audience immediately. They don’t need to be sitting in front of a television or computer screen at a given perfect time to receive your message. We have seen how television commercials have used a drive to internet as a “call to action”, but why not drive people to .mobi addresses. It is probably easier for the consumer to see the television ad and visit the website on their cell phone then getting up and finding the computer. There is less room for slippage. .Mobi addresses are going to be just as common as a .com address in the forth coming years, so why not be at the forefront of this forthcoming change and use it to your product/services’ advantage. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, then you cannot ignore the fact that over 10 billion text messages were sent in Canada over the 2007 year. If we think about text messaging, it is almost like taking a step back in innovation, but if you really drill down to the purpose, it makes sense why it is the biggest way people communicate in the world today. Text messaging is a product of the fast paced world we live in set above. We use text messaging because it is straight and to the point. We get the necessary answers we need through text messaging and are not committed to having a long conversation with someone. Heck, text messaging has “evn cr8d its own language” to be more efficient.

It could be creating a youtube video that has the potential to be more viral then the common cold. It could be inviting your target audiences to “experiential” events. Whatever tactic you decide to choose, make sure it is engaging and speaks directly to the customer. Ensure you stay one step of your consumer and keep your ear close to the ground. Ensuring you are up to date with market trends is very important and can provide a window of an opportunity to capture your audience in a creative way that has never been done before.

Sears hosted a gala dinner at the Marriott Hotel Grand Ballroom honouring their top 75 vendors from over 1,700 who supply products and services.

M Marketing was nominated by Sears Canada’s eCommerce team headed by LeQuan Truong, Internet Marketing Manager, Sears Canada

“Since creating the ‘What’s in Store for You’ Sears email program 5 years ago, we are pleased to partner with Sears providing strategic, creative and executional excellence” said M Marketing, president Peter McGoey. “To receive this honour recognizes the double-digit growth of Sears eCommerce and the contribution of both the Sears and M Marketing teams. It is impossible to do great work without a great client. Sears is an exceptional client. We treasure the deep relationship we have with them”.

Sears President & CEO, Dene Rogers presented financial results for the last 3 years and outlined the need for innovation going forward. The Senior Leadership Team was introduced. Showing Sears’ commitment to the environment, the evening was carbon neutral, serving local wine and food under energy efficient lights and purchasing carbon offsets for the cars driven to the event.

View Sears What’s in Store for You?