CK's Blog

Voice-In: Unethical Practices in the Ethical Medium?

I'm sorry it took me so long to publish this post, but my paid-hosting service wouldn't save it; I guess the third time really is a charm. Been having a lot of issues with TypePad. And I'm far from alone.

With all the ups, downs, lost posts and time long lost I started to wonder: does TypePad pro-rate my bill when its 24-7-365 service falls short? Be it the entire service experiencing an outage, or a portion thereof? I pay for the full package. Not just a portion. So surely it must. Right? Wrong. At least not on any of my credit card statements.

Take Time Warner Cable, a company that also makes the brand promise to be available for our viewing pleasure 'round the clock. When it goes down, in part or in full? It reimburses me. When my electric takes a dive and I'm left in the dark? Con Edison lightens my bill. Heck, Con Ed even reimbursed me for perishables lost in the '03 Blackout. I'm still wondering how they recovered from that shortfall.

So, in not pro-rating our bills when not maintaining full-service integrity, is TypePad committing an unethical business practice? Worse still, is it committing this offense in this, the most ethical medium going?

Mind you, we TypePad users don't want reimbursements, we simply want for every feature of the service promised to us to deliver--and to be better communicated with when it doesn't.

I've written to TypePad. Several times. They'll likely tell me that in my service agreement (who reads those?), I agreed to pay when I couldn't use the product. But I hope not. Because I like TypePad. I've offered to give them several recommendations to ensure their brand improves, maintains users and, well, delights us. And I'll do it for free.

I'll spend time with them on the phone. I'll even take an extra day to meet with them when I'm on the West Coast next week. We'll see if they respond. Be foolish not to get closer to their markets and get 100%-discounted advice from a marketer who is otherwise paid well for it (that said, please don't tell my clients I'm giving away freebies; I'll be hanged!).

For all you TypePad users: If you'd like to offer some suggestions on how they can improve our experience...feel free to leave it in the comments. I'll keep on them. Naturally, I'll be sure to give each person credit for their recommendations--they're yours, after all (and anything else would be....you guessed it...unethical).

Coming soon to a city near you.

Since I'm bouncing around for client travels I decided to use it as an opportunity to meet some of my newfound colleagues...geez, what kind of marketer would I be if I didn't leverage opportunities? It's an exercise in going offline, if you will:

• In a couple weeks I'll find Nirvana while grabbing a bite in San Francisco--and yep, I'm billing dinner back to the client.
• Fast forward a week later and I get to meet a logical, if emotional blogger (whose coming to NYC for a BIGwig prez and just got covered in BusinessWeek)
• November will find me in 'Big D' (Dallas) where I will most assuredly be having a Hee-Haw time. And several martinis.
• Only to wind up in Alabama a couple months later to visit with my southern, oh-so-cute momma--and where I'll meet up with a gardener...of the viral variety.

At some point, I really should make an effort to meet some NYC bloggers, eh? 

Actually, I'll soon be at a birthday party at a local marketers' studio...but he's been friend long before my blogging buddy. I'm proud to call you guys colleagues (and friends) and look forward to meeting you soon. Thanks for making such a terrific impact on me.

To my many other pals: let me know when you'll be in NYC as I'm dying to meet you, too.

CK's got a new line.

I've got a new line for my (often crazy) clients who are doing often crazy things. See, in my work, I hop from project to project, many times coast to coast. Every quarter is unlike any before, or after.

Many people don't like change. I'm the opposite. Stability freaks me. There remain just too many juicy accounts in this world to market. And, constantly walking into new challenges keeps me top of my game and really in tune to the market, not in a bubble in just one sector.

But when my clients start doing viral for the heck of viral (yes, that's original). Or social media programs that don't integrate with their brand in any type of meaningful manner. Or targeting one audience yet messaging to another. Or, my personal fave, saying "the strategy will be finalized later, let's just get out to market now". After I've exhausted all of my pedigreed MBA speak and run through all my findings, I lay this line on them:

You understand, this is the type of myopic move that we marketing bloggers will make fun of you for? (better I say it to you before they say it about you).

It stops them dead in their dead-end tracks. I only say it once I've tried all other avenues; it's a preventive, tough-love tactic. But I've had to say it a few times lately. Sort of like gauging on a blog-a-bility barometer.

It's working wonders.

So I offer it to you. Maybe it will help. Use it with your clients and companies (maybe you already do). But use it sparingly. It necessitates the gravity that a statement can hold only when used infrequently.

Riddle Me This: those tricky techies...

You know what the best thing about tech companies is? Why their technology, of course. So riddle me this: What's the worst thing about tech companies?

Ah, you've heard this one. Yep, it's a trick question. Their damn technology. Of course! But why?

Because they're focused on the technology. Not the customers and the market so much.

As soon as you've hit on a winning piece of technology that can do this, that, the other thing and then some, call a marketer right then. It needn't be me (but I'll take your call). Just enlist a "marketing type" at the beginning of the product cycle. We really add a lot of value at that point, too.

Many times building the business and marketing model after the technology is primed and polished can work. To be sure, you need a product before you can market it. But once you've got a product, or even a strong concept, that's the time to be thinking about the outside (the market) as much as the inside (the cool code).

I love working with smart, lightning-fast tech companies. It's just that because I'm on the consulting side I work many different companies at a time. And there's one commonality that's as true now as it was when I started working with tech co's years ago: Tech companies need to think marketing a lot more--and a lot sooner in.

It truly is your critical success factor (and my want is for you to succeed). These days the competition is too fierce, the customers too savvy, and the first impression too vital. I once told a client if every tech company was as focused on marketing as they are on tech, well, then we'd have a lot of apples.

Hospital goes viral to stop spreading bacteria (ironic, but effective).

Each week I look forward to the NYT column penned by the authors of Freakonomics. While a book about economics, the marketing principles are invaluable, as are the columns. This week's piece really struck a chord me since it hit home my position on how we marketers can learn some of the savviest lessons from the most unlikeliest of sources. I'll leverage the article's findings to better explain:

Our hospitals have a real problem on their hands. Literally. The problem is the spreading of bacteria, much of it due to the simple fact that doctors aren't washing their hands enough when caring for many patients. You see, too many people are dying from infections acquired from inside the hospital (not due to the illnesses that landed them there in the first place).

It's not that doctors are intentionally careless, it's that they're juggling a lot of patients and non-stop emergencies during the course of a marathon shift. The numbers are startling: according to the Institute of Medicine up to 98,000 Americans fall victim to medical errors each year--that's more deaths than from motor-vehicle crashes or breast cancer.

It's the equivalent of losing a commercial-size plane full of passengers. Every single day of the year.

Even Cedars-Sinai in L.A., decidedly one of the country's most prominent hospitals, was grappling with this issue. Their hand-hygiene scores were hovering at 65%. But regulations required they be at 90%.

The administration's first tactic was an awareness campaign distributed via e-mail, faxes and posters. While it increased awareness, it didn't change behavior. As we marketers know, awareness sans action is a BIG waste of budget and bandwidth.

Then the administration handed out bottles of Purell to doctors in the parking lot, arming them with a disinfectant that was always handy, even if a sink was not. They also leveraged an incentive-based strategy that spotlighted positive role models: the administration would catch doctors who were scrubbing up and reward them with a $10 Starbucks gift card. Oh how we love caffeinated incentives.

The strategy upped compliance rates to 80%...dramatically better...but still falling 10% short of compliance levels was discouraging to the hospital's leadership.

That's when Rekha Murthy, the hospital's epidemiologist, decided on a "show vs. tell" approach, letting the germs tell the tale. Murthy asked doctors to press their hands on a petri-dish sponge, then they cultured and scanned the findings.

See the illustration up top teeming with all that icky bacteria? Indeed a picture is worth 1,000 germs (admit it, it makes you wonder what's on your hands, mouse and keyboard, doesn't it?).The photograph was made into a screen saver and posted to every computer in the hospital.

The result? Compliance scores shot up to nearly 100%. And stayed there. According to the article: "Whatever reasons the doctors may have had for not complying in the past, they vanished in the face of such vivid evidence."

I've marketed projects in both biotech and healthcare. The breakthrough drug discoveries and state-of-the-art tech innovations these companies develop are mind blowing. So it gives me pause that it wasn't a cutting-edge application, but rather a basic use of technology--a simple screen saver, mind you--that is serving to save so many lives.

And back to my original premise, it wasn't a fancy ad agency that delivered the goods. Nope, it was a band of dedicated physicians and nurses (who just so happen to be great marketers, too).

Illustration: Paul Sahre and Loren Flaherty (from NYT)

The Power Nap as Profit Center: turning zzz's into $$$'s

Having run out of ways to monetize every minute of our conscious time, marketers have now turned to squeezing sales out of the so-called "sleep economy", purportedly a $20 billion-dollar sector.

Folks, we're just working, partying and blogging too much, sleeping too little. It's a real problem...but every problem is a marketing opportunity just begging to be exploited. And I just love watching new businesses scramble to slice, dice and innovate a newfound marketspace.

Marketers are already making a killing on "sleep aids", the $3 billion we spend popping pills like Lunesta or Ambien to rest our restless minds (not only are we getting to bed too late, we're also having a hard time shutting our minds' down once there).

But those pills are for inducing a full 8 hours. The super-size of sleep. Why limit ourselves to just one offering when a mid-day quickie holds such profit potential?

Now, for $14 a shot, you can pop into MetroNaps for a power nap anytime of day. The company's premier sleep center is in the Empire State Building. How's that for the city that never, er, sleeps? They've recently added a facility in the hustle and bustle of Wall Street.

While I couldn't imagine going into one of these pods to take a mid-day snooze, I know of enough people who take a catnap in their cars at lunchtime--or corporate raiders who crave a late-day snooze before they burn the midnight oil.

Smart marketers indeed, they're actually not marketing peace. Or quiet. Just the opposite: they're marketing alertness, vibrancy, productivity. Smarter still, they're even promoting the following "nap strategies":

• The Recovery MetroNap 11am. After a late night a mid-morning nap will help you function for the first half of the day.
• The Mid-Day MetroNap 4pm. To avoid the mid-day slump, nap in the mid afternoon or approximately 8 hours after you wake.
• The Coffee MetroNap Any time. Boost your energy quickly and substantially by combining a nap with coffee. Drink coffee right BEFORE your nap. Nap during the 20 minutes it takes for your body to metabolize the caffeine.
• The Disco MetroNap 5pm. If you know you’ll have significantly less sleep tonight, prepare with an early-evening nap.

If successful, they'll make naps relevant across younger demos (this ain't your grandfather's afternoon snooze) and perhaps even convince employers to advise their slumping workers to "take 20". Hey, other nations have been taking siestas since the dawn of time, so perhaps we're behind the curve.

And yes, they even feature gift certificates...novel idea for your office Secret Santa this holiday?

Mr. Right. Or a Refund.

Between enlisting Dr. Phil to help girls with their "Guy Q" and their "Make Love Happen Guarantee", Match.com sure has made a business out of e-shopping for love.

If you think about it, the matchmaking model is one of churn-and-burn. A paradigm based on turnover since the customer's goal is to stop searching for their soul mate--and ergo, stop subscribing to the service.

I've attended weddings where the match wasn't made in heaven so much as online; but those instances are few and far between. Most of my friends who subscribe to dating sites seem to have a lifetime membership, their searching...and their subscription fees...continue year in, year out.

So in recent months--seemingly to show that they're serious about landing you a serious relationship--Match has unveiled a guarantee that you'll meet "someone special" within 6 months. Or get 6 months on them to make another go at it.

This is obviously a trial by Match's marketers since the promotion is only being held through year's end (with love, just as in life, you need to read the fine print). But it got me thinking...

• Gym memberships: If we don't shed those 10 lbs. in 6 months, can we get back all that time spent climbing the stair-stepper and walking in place?
• Health food regimens: If our cholesterol doesn't go down in 180 days, can we get 6-month's worth of saturated, fatty foods...so at least we're fat and happy?
• Self-help programs: If we don't find our "center" can someone else recite those tedious affirmations on our behalf for the next 6 months?
• Crazy clients: If you make us batty and shift scope for 6 months, can we then torture you for the next 2 quarters?

...in life, or love, what other unsuccessful attempts should marketers provide refunds for?

The Little Cause that Could: CK working L.A.

I'll be on the other coast this week. But not for client work, nor vacation. Nope, this week I'm working pro-bono to support my cousin and her troupe of savvy, if struggling, actors. Oh the things we do...and the miles we fly...for family.

She's part of an urban rock drama titled "The Playground". Inspired by true events, it's an edgy, ensemble show that chronicles the lives of runaways and homeless teens. While a remarkable performance yielding great reviews, it's been a marketing challenge: a BIG one.

• Low Budget? try NO Budget: I've worked in entertainment but that was for networks who had big stars and bigger budgets.
• A play...in L.A.? You've heard of off-Broadway? Try way-off Broadway. If it were NYC at least I could leverage the theatrical community. But L.A. is the land of screen celebs.
• Small Venue: The venues I marketed boasted 16,000 seats--this venue has 50 (and we'll have to break fire code to fit an extra 25 seats for the event).

But where I have a great challenge, I'm also armed with a good cause: In L.A. there are 12,000 kids living on the street, with 13 dying each day. So what I've strategized is to hold a special awareness-raising event that will bring the issue front and center.

We've partnered with the LA Youth Network, a non-profit dedicated to helping abused, neglected and runaway youth. We'll have 15- 20 kids who've rebuilt their lives after living on the streets at the event to elicit action from the community. And since we're leveraging good art for a good cause, we've been able to land sponsors to cater the event and celebs to attend--which in turn prompts media coverage since otherwise it would fall under their A-List radar.

Celebs attending the event include: Alan Rosenberg (president of Screen Actors Guild, starred in The Guardian), Adrian Grenier (heartthrob star of HBO's Entourage), Chris Klein (another hunk, most known for American Pie and We Were Soldiers), Louis Mandylor (played the brother in My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Ginnifer Goodwin (plays the youngest wife on HBO's Big Love) and David Anspaugh (director of Rudy, Hill Street Blues and Hoosiers).

Being that 2 weeks ago we had no budget, no media coverage, no celebs, and no sponsors and I had absolutely no contacts on that coast, I'm proud of how our small bunch has overcome big obstacles--and most especially that we'll call attention to a very worthy cause.

And here's the plug: if you're going to be in L.A., here's information on the show. It will be running until September 30th and it's truly moving.

The show MUST go on: passion fuels profit.

The thing about Sci-Fi fans is their passion. It equates into a fierce loyalty. Sci-Fi gives them an outlet to get completely engrossed in the moment. And they extend that moment beyond the 30 or 60 minutes each week by congregating like-minded watchers.

That's why so many Sci-Fi shows are brought back from the verge of cancellation. See, the community doesn't bond solely to save the show. The community is already intact and strong. So when they need to initiate campaigns they've been organized for some time; an army standing at the ready.

But many marginalize them. Label them "weirdos". Yet those very weirdos have gotten their way more times than not. They've successfully rallied to save shows at the brink of extinction. Created enough momentum to make movies from shows (shows that were already canceled, no less). And created some of the most lucrative trade shows in the consumer arena.

So call 'em weirdos, but how many times have you fought long and hard for a marketing campaign...only to receive the budget ax? Yeah, I thought as much. You needed an army, too.

Take the culture phenom Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show, which started as a movie (it stunk) then became a TV show for seven seasons (it rocked), is now a movie again. By mistake, really. It's not a big-budget thriller. It's a rerun of a special "musical" episode that played five years ago (the arc for that episode happened to be demons casting a spell that made everyone sing and dance to death, so Buffy and gang sing and slay for the greater good).

So this movie...turned television series...turned TV musical episode...has come full circle...to big-screen movie. Got it? Good. Because there's more.

A la Rocky Horror Picture Show where people dress up for midnight showings with fans singing along to the movie, different cities have been holding Buffy Showings, a sort of "touring movie musical".

So what happens when you take a show, that's been off the air for several years and was otherwise free to viewers and then charge $10.75 for a 60-minute midnight viewing (all the other movies at the theater have already run, midnight is "dark" time) to sell-out crowds?

You make a pretty penny and increase the fan frenzy around existing and new merchandise. And you minimize risk, and cut costs, by taking this proven entity to a passionate community that does most of your marketing for you. That's profit fueled by a hell of a lot of passion.

And, luck be a lady, this weekend the Buffy Singalong Tour stops off in Greenwich Village--bet you can guess which marketer will be singing along on Saturday :-).

P.S.: To witness fan armies in action, check out this site, or this one, vying to save Stargate SG-1.

Update: I've had several fans e-mail me asking when Buffy will be at a city near them. I inquired with the "Buffy Guy" (yes, that's his nickname) and he informed me this is a completely organic, fan-orchestrated effort in various cities (Boston, Austin, NYC). There will be more Buffy Showings in NYC and they're working to hold them monthly. If I can find out when they'll happen in other cities or a centralized site, I will apprise...or you may be able to organize one on your own :-).

When low rent feigns luxury (branding boo-boo).

I'm a tea fanatic, religiously drinking 2 cups every morning. I've made many a Starbucks employee's day with my simple "hot water and a tea bag" request. But this post isn't about tea: It's about how some companies make all the right moves when moving up the branding ladder...only to miss the BIG picture.

At $6.2 billion annually, tea sales are up 400% in the last decade (NYT article). With demand such as this, the market naturally diverges making room for luxury, high-premium tea. And low-rent Lipton wants a piece of the action.

With its new line of "Pyramid Teas" Lipton spent two years in R&D leaving no stone unturned, including:

• Upped Quality: Used full, long leaves instead of tea bits (the junk known in the industry as "dust").
• Added Finesse: Packaged the tea bags in nylon mesh bags (not as nice as silk bags, but nicer than paper).
• Minded the Details: Sealed the tea in pyramid-shaped bags to underscore their brand name (clever!)
• Prettied the Packaging: Developed a portfolio of beautifully packaged teas with such names as "Bavarian Wild Berry","Black Pearl" and "White Tea with Island Mango". Yum.

But it's all for naught. Why? Because it kept the darn "Lipton" name! See the pretty package? With the red Lipton Logo just glaring at us, as if to say, "I clean up good, don't I? My pretty package has fooled you into paying 3x as much as you used to!"

Sure, they made the logo smaller. Problem is, they needed to make it invisible. While Lipton is undeniably associated with tea, it's a far cry from luxury. More homegrown than high end, Lipton is known for such hits as Sun Tea--not with crumpets at the country club.

For a few extra bucks, Lipton could have created a new brand name for it's new line (or, why not keep it at Pyramid Teas and just leave off the Lipton logo?) and used its retail competencies to make a real dent in the market. Instead it will confuse its loyal customers. But hey, it will make for the butt of many jokes at tea time.

Marketers: the weight of the world is on OUR shoulders.

Madrid's Fashion Week has turned away underweight models after protests that girls and young women were trying to copy their rail-thin looks and developing eating disorders.

Having turned away 30 percent of models who took part in the previous event, organizers say they want to project an image of beauty and health, rather than a waif-like, heroin chic look. Yep, they actually had medics on hand measuring BPI indexes (fat to body-weight ratio).

It may just be the beginning of a positive trend. Milan Italy's Mayor Moratti also spoke up this week, telling an Italian newspaper she would seek a similar ban for her city's show unless it could find a solution to "sick" looking models.

But New York's Elite modeling agency said the fashion industry was "being used as a scapegoat for illnesses like anorexia and bulimia." Yeah right, fashion and marketing execs are victims, bearing no responsibility whatsoever in feeding (pardon the pun) the frenzy that thin is, well, to die for.

Both marketer and fashion-conscious female, let me "weigh in":

As marketer: As much as we're working to push environmentally responsible products, we need to promote socially responsible messages (and models). In its "campaign for real beauty", Dove got it right--and landed Oprah's coveted support--by featuring average and above-average weight females in their advertisements that push less starvation, more self-esteem.

Heck, if we're not going to be responsible we might as well follow the money trail--with current obesity levels hovering at 30% of the population the real money is in the plus-size market, anyhow.

As female: Everywhere I turn I'm bombarded with you're-not-NEARLY-thin-enough messaging. And those messages are working. Take one of my dearest friends, having emigrated from the Dominican Republic several years ago, she suddenly lost consciousness for 10 minutes last summer. While in the ambulance with her I found out why her body had given out: she confessed she had stopped eating so as to look "more like American girls".

Even if we leave our jobs at 5pm our campaigns circulate 24/7. Let's make sure our messages advance not destroy--and let's lean on others to follow suit.

I applaud Madrid's decision and hope more marketers and fashion execs take a page from Dove's book. And to the women out there, here's my message...you're beautiful just the way you are.

Got Voice?

For a B2C client project, I need a voice-over talent (male).  It's for a high-energy, 3-minute demo targeting a mainly male audience (20s/30s age range). If you know of talent, please e-mail me.

The person need not be NYC-based, but will need to have a reel. Many thanks for any recommendations :-).

Trust is the bond that brands.

Many believe 'attention' or 'information' is the new economy's new currency. I think trust is. In this era, all purchases are evolving into transactions of trust. Like respect, brands have to earn trust. Running a trustworthy brand boils down to a really simple 3-point paradigm...so simple it makes me wonder why it's so hard for so many companies to maintain.

1: Deliver first. Promise after: It used to be deliver on your promises. Nope, no longer. In this environment the better practice is to deliver first, promise after. Under well-deserved scrutiny and exposed to wide-ranging, fast-paced feedback channels, brands should make sure they're locked and loaded well before launch-happy marketers run the ad reels.

2: Keep your promise: Brands are promises. Sometimes we promise certain features or functions, other times a particular service. Whatever your brand's promise make sure it's meaningful to your customers--and make darn sure, before you add more bells and whistles, that you're keeping your core promise.

3: Over-deliver, but don't oversell: It's the end of the "coming-soon" era. Overselling kills authenticity and diminishes trust. Why do that when trust is all we've really got?

P.S.: For a branding paper I penned back in '02 speaking to brand promises, click here.

nifty. sassy. better than a yummy paperback...

That's some of the feedback my little blog has garnered in the handful of months since its inception. It's also been labeled "entertaining", "friendly", and "personal without being personal" (so I guess impersonally personal?).

Another called one of my posts cheesy. Then another countered it was awesome. Indeed, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Like companies, I could do several things with the feedback:

• Reinvent: I could decide I don't like what I'm hearing and reinvent myself into something I'm not. And alienate all my readers and credibility in the process. That doesn't sound too nifty an option...yet many companies do just this.
• Rationalize: I could rationalize the feedback to serve my own agenda (hmmm..."sassy" actually means "the smartest, snazziest, bestest blog yet!"). But denial is a dead-end--which too many companies follow to their fateful end.
• Listen (really listen): I could take the valuable feedback with the honesty (and generosity) in which it was given and use it to understand my value, build upon my strengths and improve my weaknesses. Yeah, I'll take this one.
  

You gotta be objective with yourself and your company. A very hard, if not impossible, thing to do. That's why feedback is invaluable. Unsolicited feedback is preferred--it's best when you don't ask people how they feel, just let 'em feel it and then communicate it to you on their terms.

What does your company (or your clients) do with feedback: reinvent, rationalize or really listen?

I Heart NY (more than ever).

As we mark the distance of 5 years there will be many solemn, reflective posts on 9/11. I thought I'd use mine to answer a question. It matters not where you live as we were all affected by the tragedies. But, being a New Yorker, I get a lot of questions from people all over about that day. Most recently it's this one: Have people in NY forgotten?

It's impossible to forget how naive we felt that morning being certain the first plane crash was an accident, how anxious we felt that afternoon when buildings and planes continued to crash around us and how angry we became in the days after as our emergency rooms stood ready for someone, anyone, to be rescued. We so desperately needed for there to be survivors.

How to forget how eerily quiet the city that never sleeps was for days, maybe weeks, thereafter? Or the vacant look on everyone's face? How to forget being at a complete loss as to how to ask one of my best friends if her husband, who worked in the North Tower, was alive? How does one ask those words? And when I could get through and her husband answered, my relief was so overwhelming it felt as if I'd taken my first breath since the towers fell. We so desperately needed relief.

Most of all, how to forget the wait. Those long, interminable months with our city striving to get back to "normal". Among New Yorkers, that was our BIG question--when will life be like it used to? We so desperately needed for life to feel normal again.

We've not forgotten. But I can understand why it can appear to some that we have. It's just that while we're honoring the past we do the only thing we NY'ers know to do: focus on the future. It helps to give us the survival stories we never got, offers a little relief and makes life feel, well, normal again.

Best read with a shot (or two) of Vodka.

I must have read this post by Spike over at Brains On Fire 5 times. It's quite sobering (hence my excellent recommendation for the booze). I've included half of the list he's compiled here...

• 84%: Proportion of B2B campaigns resulting in falling sales.
• 54 cents: Average return in sales for every $1 spent on advertising.
• 100%: Increase needed in advertising spend to add 1-2% in sales.
• 95%: Failure rate for new product introductions.

...take another shot (or two) and read the rest of the list and sources here.

Never fear, there's never been a better time to be a better marketer--and maybe these numbers will get companies to wake up, open up, and seek better ways to listen and connect with their audiences.

Social Groups as your Psychic Friends.

Ever been thinking about someone and then, poof! (er, ring), they call? It may be less coincidence, more science after all. Scientist Rupert Sheldrake--who believes in the interconnectedness of all minds within a social grouping--is showing how tech is bringing us closer by promoting proof of what he calls "telephone telepathy". E-mails, too.

In his experiments, each person in the trial was asked to give researchers names and phone numbers of four relatives or friends. These were then called at random and told to ring the subject who had to identify the caller before answering the phone.

"The hit rate was 45 percent, well above the 25 percent you would have expected," Sheldrake explained, citing, "The odds against this being a chance effect are 1,000 billion to one." The same result was found with people being asked to name one of four people sending them an e-mail before it landed.

I don't know about you guys, but this happens to me all the time: with phone calls, e-mails, blogging, running into people on the subway I've just thought of but aren't on my normal route. And, oddly enough with TV; I'll think about an episode or movie I've seen way back and then it's on a few hours later. So I guess according to Sheldrake's hypothesis, TV characters are in my social grouping. Lottery numbers and hot stock picks most assuredly not.

Love is easy. Commitment's the thing.

'Twas a banner week for my little blog getting some link love. But love isn't my point. Commitment is (bet you've never heard that from a woman). See, through all this linking I find out about Max's goldmine of a series chronicling his "Adventures in MySpace"--now 10 episodes strong.

Let's face it folks, a series is a commitment. Especially when it's over 3 episodes. In blogland, that's the equivalent of reading a book. Not to mention I just jumped into Max's series at episode 9 so I'm back-reading. I mean that literally, I've now read eppies 9 - 6. And 10.

But Max gets my commitment. Why?  Because of his. Max is officially a MySpacer. And while MySpace isn't our space, it is their space (customers). He may not be the best MySpacer--sorry, dude--but he's in the game. Both producer and protagonist of his story.

Customers, not bottom lines, are who (not what) we commit to as marketers. So let's give customers our love, but, whatever their space, let's keep our commitments. Plus, poking around MySpace looks a heck of a lot more fun than focus groups. Thanks for the reminder and great read, Max. (Readers: here's episode 1, or start at 10 and back read like me.)

ROI on RIF: but were the e-mails pink?

Last Tuesday, RadioShack notified about 400 workers that they were being dismissed immediately as part of planned cuts...via e-mail.

After being told of job cuts, and that affected employees would be e-mailed, employees at the Fort Worth headquarters got messages saying: "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated." (they must have fired the marketers as it appears accounting is now in charge of messaging)

The company announced Aug. 10 that it would cut 400 to 450 jobs, mostly at headquarters, to cut expenses and "improve its long-term competitive position in the marketplace." (well, with language like that they must have kept at least one marketer)

But hey, their stock price rose by 1%. (best return yet on their e-mail campaigns)