Don’t be afraid to say ‘I don’t get it’

Posted on May 21, 2015 by markkolier

big-tom-hanks-robotI don’t know about you, but the 1988 movie BIG starring Tom Hanks has stayed with me since I first saw it in the theater and it’s one of those movies that when stumbled upon on television I always end up stopping and watching at least for a while.

Frequently, a particular scene from the movie comes into to my mind when I hear what is simply a bad idea from a client, partner, or even a service provider.

The scene link here has protagonist 12 year old Josh (Tom Hanks) inside the body of a 30 year old man (I figure I cannot give away a plot line that happened more than 27 years ago). He works for a toy company (run by Robert Loggia’s engaging character in the movie and who wouldn’t want to work for a guy like that?) and in a boardroom meeting on a new product development Josh raises his hand as if he is in a 6th grade class and when called upon:

Any questions? Yes? Yes?”

JOSH (CEO)

“I don’t get it.”

PAUL

“What exactly don’t you get?”

JOSH

“It turns from a building into a robot, right?”

PAUL

“Precisely.”

JOSH

“Well, what’s fun about that?”

Clear, concise and dead-on. In marketing as in just about any other area of business, the simple sentence “I don’t get it” is not stated nearly enough.

Too often people fall in love with an idea without considering it’s actual intended use. Making it worse is the people around them that propagate a bad idea and fall in line behind it. We all like to read and hear about the disruptors and the rebels that won’t accept the status quo. In truth we’ve all been in far too many meetings at which a bad or non-workable idea is promoted and it’s just easier to let it go and fall in line than challenge it for what it is.

Of course if actually raising one’s hand in a meeting and declaring, “I don’t get it” borders on corporate suicide then I would not recommend it. There are many more subtle ways to make that point but maybe, just maybe, there will be a time when the plainest and simplest response to an idea that has little or no merit is to say – “I don’t get it”.

You know you want to. When will you?

Posted in Best business practices, Career Development | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Being a good partner means being part of the company culture

Posted on May 14, 2015 by markkolier

people-and-machines-ss-1920The final episode of AMC’s MadMen airs this coming Sunday and with it will close a look back on a workplace that when I started in the early 1980’s, only had echoes of the MadMen business culture of the 1960’s and 70’s.

Back in the day –- and it seems that I am using that expression ever more frequently, I used to pound the paved sidewalks and streets of Manhattan pitching myself and whatever service to anyone that would listen. It was a planned effort but hardly scientific. I would research (pre-internet!) agencies, companies and just show up. These were the days prior to security checks and I could spend hours visiting an agency and the various creative personnel. Getting business from those people wasn’t easy but by being there constantly, business opportunities arose simply because of my presence.  I’ve already written about the value of being there in a prior post.

Yet something more was happening while I wasn’t paying attention. Without meaning to I was becoming part of the agency’s culture. I knew many of the people more than casually, like what they did outside of work, what they liked to eat and drink, what their favorite teams were etc. When we did business together, that familiarity came in handy as we worked together to solve whatever issue or problems there might have been perhaps because of trust built up over time and my experience with other members of their department.

Last week I had a meeting not far from one of our highly valued clients. I had something that I could have mailed or messengered over, but I decided to go old school and just drop by after my other meeting. While several people I see upon occasion recognized me, I did not see any of the people with whom I work regularly. I did get the feeling that I was part of their team and that was because I was in their offices enough to be viewed that way.

Obviously the old days of cold calling are not nearly as effective when it comes to pounding the pavement and ‘dropping by’ to see a prospect. But when it comes to being seen as a good partner to gain a better understanding of their business I suggest making it a point to be there regularly enough so as to have a feeling for their internal corporate culture. You never know what you might learn that can help make your efforts more effective just by showing up.

Here’s what I recommend; invite yourself to come in with an idea or two that might make a difference. You may find you’ll be more welcome than you think.

 

 

 

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What if Twitter isn’t an effective marketing platform?

Posted on May 7, 2015 by markkolier

Twitter in troubleOn Wednesday May 6, it was reported in the Wall Street Journal that Twitter’s CFO Anthony Noto has also been named CMO of the company.

From the article in Wednesday’s WSJ:

“The changes also come as Twitter’s management, led by Chief Executive Dick Costolo,has come under fire from investors after missing revenue estimates last month. Mr. Noto ascribed the first-quarter shortfall to a “demand issue” with its advertising products that resemble tweets and allow users click on them and take an action, such as downloading an app or watching a video. Twitter’s stock has fallen 28% to $37.42 since the day before that earnings report.

This news should be taken in the context that Twitter remains unprofitable and according to a Motley Fool article from last month is being asked the question – will Twitter ever be profitable?

I was guest-lecturing at a marketing course at FIT last week and mentioned that Twitter founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Jack Dorsey, and Noah Glass when they conjured up Twitter way back in the mid 2000’s (it launched in 2008) they probably figured that they had an interesting new communication tool, they’d build audience through utility and usage and then figure out to monetize that audience later. Classic Silicon Valley. The trouble is that more than 7 years later Twitter is still seeking a long-term revenue model. It was thought to be advertising but that has become a much bigger struggle than it might have been.

One of my business partners posited that Mr. Noto who came to Twitter by way of Goldman-Sachs, is holding the CMO position to highlight that marketing at Twitter has to be accountable in terms of positive revenue and ROI for its clients. That’s nice window dressing but what still remains is that users need to consume Twitter-promoted deals (i.e. BUY STUFF) and up until this point it’s just not happening at a great enough rate.

I likened it to the now defunct Napster, which at one point had 30 million ‘users’ but that’s all they were since they did not spend any money! So they were not customers, they were users – in the truest sense of the word.

Twitter applications Vine and Periscope (which was in the news over the weekend vis a vis Periscope’s streaming of the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout (which was the $100 Pay-per-view but free for those that were able to stream off Periscope), are making money – so it’s not all doom and gloom, and as the Motley Fool article presumes,

“As long as it continues making progress toward these opportunities, Twitter should turn a profit for its shareholders fairly soon. While it might not be as lucrative as Facebook, the potential revenue and earnings growth at this point account for the high valuation. At the same time, the uncertainty surrounding the execution of these initiatives will also result in significant volatility.”

I am more than a bit dubious about that notion. The jury is not yet in but Twitter users are proving difficult to move to being customers of sponsored (and non-sponsored) brands and marketing efforts. Changing that behavior is not becoming easier with the continued expansion of new platforms and useful tools.

So what if Twitter simply is not an effective marketing platform? What then?

Posted in Digital media, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Companies at the end of their lifetime tip their hands

Posted on April 30, 2015 by markkolier

failing_companyWhen it comes to closing a company as I did nearly three years ago there’s pain, anxiety and even grief involved on a daily basis. And if you are doing business with a company that is near the end there are often similar signs of distress. I’ve seen this with several companies with whom we’ve done business with over the years – sad to admit. Most of the time the way things were handled at the company denouement left a bad taste in our mouths and the avowal ended being to never work with the principals of the company again.

What are those signs?

Here are just a few:

Lack of communication – when things are going downhill the tendency is often to hide away and not communicate what’s happening. Calls, emails, and any entreaty is simply ignored which only serves to increase ire and frustration There could be legal reasons for this but more often it’s a combination of embarrassment, uncertainty of what to communicate and it’s easier to deliver no news than bad news. Whether it is clients, vendors/partners or both, not communicating is NOT the answer and may well destroy any opportunity there is to work with those people again.

Degradation of service – the timeliness of deliverables will slide and get later and later. Promises made are not kept. The work itself is substandard compared to what was done in the past.

Excuses, Excuses – when communications are made they are fraught with excuses as to why there are extenuating circumstances impacting the ability to deliver. The excuses can run from – ‘We’re slammed with work from a big customer (reminding you that you are clearly not one of those), ‘our team has people out’, to personal issues with those involved.

Billing issues – Watch out for mistakes in billing and believe it or not difficulties in getting timely and correct invoices. And you wonder why companies are in trouble in the first place?

Request for payment – even on uncompleted projects requests come to ‘help’ them through a difficult time by paying invoices early, partially or completely.

Even if you know the train is coming down the tracks it’s still difficult to get off the tracks and rerouted without undue stress and impact on your business. Keep an eye out for the signs so you can recognize a problem in the making as early as possible. If you have enough relationships with service providers it is inevitable that it will happen from time to time.

If you have any other tell tale signs please do let me know!

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A would-have-been great marketing story that wasn’t

Posted on April 23, 2015 by markkolier

Moon hoaxI was an adolescent when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in July of 1969. Consequently I am more than a bit of a space geek and have always felt that NASA for better or worse has served the United States well. I had a recent conversation with a colleague regarding the moon landings from 1969 -1972 (there were six and twelve astronauts walked on the moon) and his own doubts that they really happened. Initially I was – well incredulous. And then I thought well, he’s a marketing guy and he thinks anything is possible. Even propagating what would have to be the greatest hoax of the 20th (and maybe any other) century. Now that would be marketing! Except that it wasn’t.

It’s easy to understand why people might have bought in to the moon-hoax idea. The United States and Soviet Union were deeply involved in the Cold War and showing technological superiority was tantamount to owning the respect and envy of the entire world!

Wikipedia has a pretty good entry describing the time.

Back in my junior high days (yes they called it that back then in the 1970’s), we had teachers – good ones that told we students that the moon landings could well be a hoax. It was designed to foster arguments – both pro and con on how the whole thing could have been conjured up by the evil U.S. government and the reasons why. Yet the United States went to the moon (and back) six times in four years! Wouldn’t that qualify as hoax overkill in and of itself? And to what end? After the second time (see we not only did it once but twice – why a third time? A fourth etc.?), wouldn’t that have been too much?

Combine that overkill with the incredible level of conspiracy it would have taken to drumbeat multiple moon landings (that’s marketing) and it’s as far fetched as the idea of going BACK to the moon today without much of a reason. I don’t feel that way about going to Mars however as I am all for a manned Mars mission not only to prove that the United States still can be a world leader in areas other than social networks and fast food.

Going back to (in the case of the U.S). and exploring space gives Americans and humanity a better chance to be the best versions of ourselves we can be, since space travel begs for mankind’s humility. The vastness of the universe is awe-inspiring and humbling. When a nation – any nation for that matter as it does not have to be the United States (but it should be) achieves success in exploring worlds beyond our own planet, we become ‘Earthlings’ and we forgo nationalities – at least for a little while.

A better marketing plan would be to help construct a viable plan to continue to explore our solar system and beyond. It’s not that people can be against exploring space, it’s outlining and agreeing to what would be the benefits and coming up with an acceptable way to pay for it. For me simply reminding mankind to remember to be humble is nearly reason enough.

What do you think?

Posted in Leadership, Living in the World Today, Marketing stuff | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Score one for AOL

Posted on April 16, 2015 by markkolier

aolnewAs reported in Computerworld  and other media outlets yesterday, AOL announced its new “One by AOL platform, unveiled on Tuesday, promises a consolidated and holistic view of brands’ marketing expenditures and performance across all screens, including TV”

Also from the article: “One allows advertisers and agencies to use data as the foundation of their marketing strategy, looking at consumers through a single, media-agnostic lens, from Web to TV,” said Bob Lord, president of AOL, in the company’s official announcement. “Connecting audience data to media exposures throughout the purchase path lets brands accurately measure return on their marketing dollars.”

This is a very good sign from a company that I have not been positive about for a long time. Back in February AOL CEO Tim Armstrong discussed more layoffs at the company which did not surprise me at all. After all, I have written about AOL’s pending irrelevance going back to 2011. In fact whenever I receive an email from someone using an AOL account it feels to me like 1993 all over again and I even have recently heard the classic “You’ve got mail” sounder in my office.

In truth I did not properly evaluate the reach of AOL sites like Huffington Post and Engadget and while AOL and Mr. Armstrong continue to plow ahead toward the goal of lasting relevance, it is in many ways (particularly in the area of branded content) better positioned than is Yahoo and its somewhat beleaguered CEO Marissa Mayer. Even today there are calls for her ouster.

So while AOL’s days as a default email provider are less important, and its content more important, the development of the One by AOL platform may be just what many of us involved in digital advertising are waiting to employ.

From the Computerworld article:

“One is very important to AOL for many reasons,” said Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst with Constellation Research.

In the past, it’s been “very hard to work with AOL to get the customer insights across all the acquired platforms,” Wang explained. “So, the solution is mapping these new journeys by continuity of experience across channels, screens, process and other contextually relevant insight.”

The real test now will be how much simplification advertisers and agencies actually see in the new service, he added.

The more important issue, however, is providing a unified platform that customers can build on top of to track audience, attribution, conversion rates and other contextual insights, Wang said. “This is more than just multiple screens,” he noted. “Why? Customers don’t care what channel or screen they operate in, and marketers know this.”

Well, smart marketers do at least. Does this score one for AOL? Even if it is AOL is still trying to come from behind.  That’s the way I see it.

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Is Samsung on the comeback trail?

Posted on April 9, 2015 by markkolier

Samsung-Galaxy-S6-versus-iPhone-6Working in an office ruled by Macs and firmly entrenched in an Apple driven world (hey I even work in the Big Apple regularly), when it comes to my smartphone I have resisted the move to be all Apple all the time and have a Samsung S4. An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal noted that with the release of the Samsung S6 the company is ready to make amends for its misstep in releasing the S5.

When I bought my S4 in March 2014 I was given the option to upgrade to the S5 when it was to be released (which was only a week or two away). I passed on the opportunity and from what I can tell that was a very good call as there’s been very little positively written with regard to the Samsung S5.

Not all that long ago Samsung was the #1 smartphone in the world. Much of the sales came from outside the United States. Over the past few years Apple has continued to gain market share while China based upstart Xiaomi has skyrocketed to a strong market share. In their collective wake you will find HTC, ZTE, and Amazon’s Fire phone (remember that one?).

Why have I foregone the move to an iPhone? Not because it’s not a great piece of technology. It’s being a fish in a fishbowl worry that concerns me. If you don’t experience other technology you have no idea about what other options might be. The Android platform is a very good platform and integrates well with Google (maybe even better than Apple). If it’s all Apple all the time I might never get out of the fishbowl and that would be bad for having a more well-rounded user view of how the world is outside of Apple.

It’s also interesting to me that Samsung’s S6 is being released the same week as the Apple Watch. Is it coincidental? Do you think Samsung is on the comeback trail?

Posted in Mobile Communication, Smartphones, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Age of Adjunct Professors

Posted on April 2, 2015 by markkolier

ProfessorsBeing of a certain age and experience I’ve a number of colleagues and partners that have taken to teaching in and around area universities as adjunct professors. An article in last month’s New Yorker magazine highlighted the writer’s experience and opinion regarding the increasing amount of courses taught at universities by adjunct professors.

My two partners and another associate all teach at NYU Stern in New York City. Personally I’ve had a half-dozen occasions to ‘guest’ lecture at various universities on the subject of direct marketing and entrepreneurship. The now fully tenured Professor who invites me to guest lecture in his class was not enamored of the New Yorker magazine writer’s article noting that it fosters misconceptions and in large part is just wrong.

Are students benefiting from the teachings of adjunct professors? The teaching (and reputations) by fully accredited professors – is it being damaged by adjunct professors? Are students and parents being dis-served when adjunct professors teach college courses at the undergraduate and graduate level?

The answer, like so many, is that it depends. Since I have not yet taken on a class for an entire semester complete with a syllabus (that is often derivative of what others have done since inexperienced adjunct professors likely have little to go on when it comes to creating a syllabus from scratch), I can only offer an outsider’s viewpoint. The reason I note that ‘it depends’ is that there are good ‘full’ professors and less-than-good ones as there are good adjunct professors and less-than-good ones as well.

My take is that most adjunct professors come from the business world and like me want to share their knowledge and experience with today’s students. This real-world experience can be invaluable to a student that wants to hear how things are from someone who’s doing them or has done them recently as opposed to only hearing from a long serving professor who has not worked outside academia for many years.

These adjunct professorships do pay a stipend by semester. It’s not all that much on an hourly basis when one takes into consideration travel, class time, student meetings, creating syllabi and grading papers and presentations. There is cachet to referring to oneself as a professor (although I have to laugh whenever a student calls me that since I am far from being one at this point) and I can offer that from personal experience that teaching is at times exhilarating and exhausting. Sometimes those two things are coincidental.

It’s important to remember that universities benefit from adjunct professors in that they make less money than full professors. But from my small sample of experience the students don’t mind at all and in fact like it since adjunct professors have direct lines into jobs and introductions to people directly associated with the student’s field.

I am continually debating with myself whether or not I wish to take on teaching a class in a coming semester. It’s a big responsibility and I am keenly aware that my partners and colleagues that are teaching put a great deal of time and effort into their teaching and truly care about their students.

I come down that this new age of adjunct professors is much more positive than it is negative – as long as the effort and desire are there to truly help the students learn.

What do you think? Are adjunct professorships a sneaky way for universities to cut expenses? Or are adjunct professorships a practical way give students a viewpoint that is outside of the normal academic approach?

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Experienced direct mail professionals should make great internet marketers

Posted on March 26, 2015 by markkolier

Direct mailI went to see a good friend participate as a panelist at a local direct marketing association HVDMA business lunch today. I was a member of the association for a number of years and generally enjoyed seeing and talking with my fellow direct marketing professionals most of whom specialized or still specialize in direct mail. I was reminded that at times people use the terms direct mail and direct marketing interchangeably. Let me make it clear that for the purposes of this lost direct mail is mail. This means anything picked up, or dropped off and then mailed by the USPS or some other provider like Fedex, UPS, DHL, that might arrive in your mailbox. Everything else that constitutes direct marketing is non-mail.

Having plied my trade for more than twenty years in direct marketing (many years primarily via direct mail) I want to make this clear. I LOVE direct marketing. Yet I rarely do any work in direct mail and so far in 2015 I haven’t had the opportunity to employ direct mail for any of our client’s campaigns.

Many of the professionals I saw at the event today are longtime experts in direct mail. I find that these pros while often sporting some grey hair, have by osmosis a deep and thorough understanding of internet marketing. Yet in many cases they continue to work in direct mail since apparently it’s in that area that opportunities are most prevalent for them. It’s not that they are uninterested in search, display, content, native, and social media marketing.

The best digital marketers as I’ve said before, are the best direct marketers. If you found yourself nodding and thinking ‘well that’s obvious’ you’d be surprised how many people miss that point – both on the provider side as well as the client side. The buzzword and acronyms associated with digital marketing can be a bit intimidating. Terms such as DSP, DMP, MSP, SSP and RTB (to note just a few) can make older eyes roll back in their heads. I know how this feels. Yet to have all that talent and experience on the sidelines because of a lack of deep understanding and recent experience in new channels and techniques is such a waste.

Whether companies are in start-up mode (as most are) or around for awhile but in the process of adapting to the rapidly changing e-commerce marketing landscape, consider talking to and working with a direct marketing and even a direct mail expert. Great direct marketers are almost always at ease with math. Why? Because they, (as my partner Nader says), “measure the snot out of everything”. And he’s 100% correct.

What I’ve found in my process of focusing on digital marketing (as direct marketing), is that I regularly employ almost all of the techniques I’ve learned along my path from direct mail.

In return for receiving my endorsement of direct mail professionals, I ask that as a group the question of ‘is direct mail dead’ be dead itself. Direct mail is not coming back to what it once was ever again. Ever. I do like to think that marketing professionals will continue to employ direct mail in appropriate circumstances (I still love the smell of ink on paper as old habits die hard) particularly for B-to-B efforts as well as more expensive consumer products (and those with higher LTV’s). There will be some to point out that overall direct mail is growing year over year as did Bruce Biegel of Winterberry in his annual remarks to the DMCNY this past January. But keep in mind that postage continues to rise and there are more people in the United States every year. The days of mass mailings are long since past. Let your guide be the shrinking amount of printers, mailing houses, direct mail list and other service providers as to whether direct mail is somehow going have some sort of renaissance.

Not every business is constructed with the principles of direct marketing at its core. But with so many companies involved or becoming involved in e-commerce it makes good sense to talk with experienced professionals who have a deep understanding of direct marketing.

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Non-drivers commuting time activities have changed the game

Posted on March 19, 2015 by markkolier

smartphone-and-tabletStories in both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal this week focused on the time Americans take to commute to and from their jobs. In the New York City area a story in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the need for upgrading the Port Authority Bus terminal given that there are more than 6,500 buses each day now going in and out of the facility.

From an article in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal ‘

In 2003, 6,556 buses carrying 133,835 riders came through the Lincoln Tunnel on the average weekday nearly all of them heading to the terminal, according to the RPA.

More than a decade later, ridership was up about 30%, according to the RPA. In 2013, there were 6,905 buses carrying 174,396 riders over the same route on an average day.

The Port Authority expects the terminal’s rush-hour passenger traffic to grow by as much as 51% by 2040.’

More people are commuting than ever before in New York and other large American cities. There are a number of reasons for this but chiefly the reason is that housing affordability is directly correlated to the distance from the city in which you work. The further away you live the more affordable it is to rent or buy a house or apartment.

Commuting in 2015 is vastly different than it was in 2005 before the iPhone and other smartphones became ubiquitous. As recently as 1995 what you did while you were commuting by bus, train, or carpool was much like it was in 1975, or 1955. You chatted with your fellow commuters, read newspapers, magazines, books, or slept. Some people played cards. A few still do.

The top three things people do while commuting – at least as I have observed repeatedly are:

#1 Stare at their smartphone

#2 Read on their tablet

#3 Sleep and listen to music or whatever since I can’t hear it but many have earphones

I notice that fewer people than ever before read actual newspapers or books.. Trains and buses are much quieter than ever before since a majority of the people are involved with their technology – often to the exclusion of what else is going on around them.

Commuting time has also become productive time (if desired as I acknowledge that some people are not interested in being productive while commuting). More significantly people today are able to do many of the same things they do at home while on the move. That’s a huge game changer. 

If these trends are not making you even more certain that location based mobile messaging and advertising are ever more relevant marketing actions then you may not have a long career in advertising. In baseball they say ‘hit ‘em where they ain’t’. When it comes to marketing and growing sales it’s ‘hit ‘em where they are’.  

Commuters might be served location-based offers on their mobile devices for things that are relevant to the lives of commuters. Offers for cultural events, restaurants, shopping and sporting events anywhere along the commuter line. After all they are ‘there’ twice a day on the commute back and forth. It makes sense to target people who already have experience in traveling to or through your location.  People will tell you they don’t want ads but everyone wants an option on a good deal.  

The bottom line is that commuting by public transportation is the least boring it’s ever been before. What do you do while you commute?

Posted in Best business practices, Living in the World Today, Location based marketing, Targeting, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments