Marketing with Mike Volpe

To catch up, read the article Why Pampers Diaper Fail is a Lesson in Marketing Transparency to get the back story and the updates in the article Pampers Steps up Digital, Social Media Efforts.  Here are my thoughts...

Pampers does not have a communications problem as much as a product development problem.

• Change is BAD for products with a high emotional quality to them, and diapers are for babies and people are very emotional about babies.  There is a huge risk in changing products for babies, even if you improve them.
• You can't tell people what to think anymore in TV ads about your product or even by getting 3 magazines to endorse your product.  You can't fix a poor product with good marketing anymore.
• P&G's product development cycle is famous and studied in business schools.  But, it was developed in the era of one-way broadcast media.  Customers were told what to think by a few TV stations, and had no way of communicating effectively with each other and product ratings and feedback didn't exist.  The P&G product development process is no longer relevant in an age where things move much faster, and customers have much more control and are much easier to involve in your development.

What should Pampers / P&G do now?

Change their product development process.  Get rid of the 2-3 year cycle.  Get rid of the focus groups.  Create "P&G Labs" which works on experimental products.  If people buy them, they know they are experimental and might be cool or might suck.  Bring customers into "P&G Labs" and co-develop products with them.  If you get customers feedback really early, and be more public about the process, people will respect it, and get more involved.  They will also become advocates.  Then, after the product launches and leaves P&G Labs, if someone says they don't like the product, all the customers involved will tell them they are crazy and tell them the 20 reasons why this product is better.  And P&G won't have to say a thing.

If they had done something like this, the launch of Pampers Dry Max would have been very different.  

Apparently public service workers in the Netherlands get beat up all the time... and everyone just watches and does nothing to stop it.  How do you change this behavior?  Create an alternate reality where it happens right in front of you, and then tell people how they should react.

Normally I'm not a big supporter of billboards, but this one works because it is a perfect fit among media, message and audience.  Hat tip to PSFK on this one.

This is a guest post by Chris Englund who writes "Chris is an MBA navigating Social-Mediaville. Follow him on Twitter: @cgenglund".

Paid tweeting is a good idea: phenomenal measurability, incredible reach and extremely high conversion. But, am I the only one who thinks so?

In the late 1860's Italian chemist, Angelo Mariani engineered a wine that had the ability to restore health, cure the flu, fortify the brain, etc. What distinguished Mariani's from the vast array of contemporary concoctions was the Pope Leo XIII Bump. His Holiness appeared in print advertisement for the wine and awarded it a Gold Medal. Vin Mariani flew off the shelves across Europe and North America. 


Let's imagine my client is selling makeup, not coca wine, and they're advertising in 2010, not 1873. Should I get the larger-than-life Kim Kardashian to influence her 2,875,876 followers:

"My skin is glowing & healthy. Way excited about this new foundation! Pick some up at Walgreens, RT & tell me what you think: http://url"

A Tweet From Our Sponsor

Through Facebook, Email, or Twitter the link remains connected to the original campaign. URL shorteners ensure the destination can't be deciphered and offers instant click-through stats for free.

Tweets go to fans and followers, individuals who have specifically opted in. This isn't an email list, these individuals show their appreciation for the message through intentionally following, replying, and re-tweeting.

Short messages are naturally intriguing and inspire action. Good tweets elicit response and reaction. Unlike text ads in search results, this message is unframed by other advertisements and does not appear distinct from other tweets.

Kim Kardashian is no Pope, this I know, but nearly three million twitterers hang on her every word. She's acquired social status and authority. Like a Pope urging Catholics to the wine shop, I would want Kim calling customers to the makeup counters.

What do you think the value of a paid tweet is?  Leave a comment and let's discuss.

Full article here.

I've known folks in and around Long's Jewelers for a while.  They are a HubSpot customer, and I know a couple of people in marketing & management there.  I have also purchased a bunch of things there, including our wedding bands and engagement ring.  I was happy with the price and quality, and my wife loves the friendly service.  She still stops by often to have her ring cleaned.

I recently got an email from a friend there asking if I might have any additional ideas for how to promote their once a year sale.  I thought that maybe I could ask the community to offer up some ideas.

Here's the situation... Their industry is clearly more difficult today than in past years.  With the economy in decline, fewer people are buying jewelry.  There is not much we can do about that.  So far this year, they have promoted the sale like in prior years:

1. They have done some mass promotion through traditional outbound marketing (print, mostly).
2. They have reached out to their community through inbound marketing - communicating with their base of loyal fans and customers through email, mail and phone (per the customer's preference). 

Finally, not specific to the sale:

1. They have been doing some SEO and have first page rankings for terms like "engagement rings Boston", "diamond expert", and "Antonini jewelry" as well as a long list of other medium tail terms.
2. They have created a blog as well, so they are publishing come ongoing new content.
3. They recently launched a Facebook page with some fans and a good amount of content.

Your Help - More Ideas to Promote a Jewelry Sale?

The real challenge here is that it has to be done on short notice... pretty much within the next 24 hours.  But, bigger ideas will influence their planning for next year's sale, so you can share those too.

I thought about it for a while and I think my best idea is to reach out to people using social media with a special offer.  So, while it might not be the most creative thing in the world, Long's is running a new experiment this year - if you become a fan of their Facebook page and mention "Facebook" at the sale you'll receive an EXTRA 10% off the once-a-year sale prices.  This gives you an even more special deal, and it allows Long's to track how effective social media can be to promote their only sale.

Do you have any other creative ideas for this year or future years?  Or what about ideas on getting more people to become a fan on Facebook and spread the special discount this year?

The Wall Street Journal predicts an uncertain future for the display ad market (basically banner ads).  Why?

• More inventory/content - People (both big media companies and people like you) are creating more and more content online, so there are lots more places to put ads
• Low performance - most banner ads get a click throgh rate of 0.2%, meaning that most people don't look at the ads much, they are there for the content
• Inbound marketing transformation - It is now cheaper to publish your own content (blog) and promote it (social media) than it is to buy ads (that people ignore) next to someone else's content

Because of these trends, ad prices fell 54% last quarter (according to the WSJ article).

I found this on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog.  This politician lets his supporters write on the sign why they are going to vote for him.

What would your customers or supportes say if you asked them to tell other people why they liked you?  Would it be the same as you company pitch?  Probably not.  Why not?