Microsoft is doing it the customer´s way

I have found an interesting article at betanews.com (the whole article read HERE).

Why is it brilliant? Because it describes the contrast of Marketing and Apple´s strategy today.

Where is the contrast? The strategy of Apple is much less about choice than customers being chosen for. They offer examples:

• Apple product development is secretive, rather than encouraging customer feedback and participation.
• Product choice is limited to the few computers that Apple releases, such as the same aluminum construction and design for iMac or MacBook Pro.
• Mac OS X is deliberately designed to discourage customization. There is one look for all Mac desktops.
• Apple sells only one computer -- the entry-level Mac mini -- for less than $999. Buyers must choose to spend $999 or more.

Apple's product and marketing approach is very much "Have it Our Way." Microsoft wants you to "Have it Your Way":

• You help Microsoft improve Windows to meet your needs.
• You choose the PC that looks and functions your way.
• You customize the desktop any old way you want it.
• You choose how much you want to spend on a computer.

Microsoft long has advocated this kind of choice and participation. The difference now: Microsoft is using these attributes to really sell Windows, in ways the company hasn't done for years and in other ways like it never has. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Burger King and Microsoft share the same advertising agency: Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. Some examples of Microsoft's Windows 7 participation marketing:

• The aforementioned TV commercials asserting that "Windows 7 was my idea."
• Windows 7 House Party, where real people celebrate the launch and share pics and videos online.
• Social Website that collects "What people are really saying about Windows 7" from blogs, feeds and social networks, such a Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube.
• Microsoft home page, which today rotates Windows 7 reviews and comments from real people -- mostly via Twitter -- rather than from bloggers or journalists.

How have we reflected this strategy here in Slovakia?

• Slovak beta testers significant contribution during product development
  
• Consumer campaign asserting that "Windows 7 was people´s idea."
• Social Website that collects "What people are really saying about Windows 7" from blogs, feeds and social networks, such a Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube.

The environment is changing and so is Microsoft. We have very good feedback from customers and from press so far. Our mission is now to let people try the product and with that the idea of "your PC, simplified".

BTW my MSI Eee PC with Intel Celeron processor took 14sec to start from hibernation this morning. This is what I wanted!

Peter

Summer is over

An it was a very challenging summer of 2009. Work experience in Atlanta at Microsoft´s Global Exchange, exciting road trip to Czech Rep and Austria as well as lot of other gatherings, events happened to me. But it was exciting also at work. Preparation for launch wave with most focus on Windows 7 are at maximum speed and by the comming launch date more adrenaline comes into our veins. I have just recently seen the final visuals and together with strategy I have to say they are humble but also with new approach very persuasive! I think this is what Microsoft needed and we in field will do our best to adapt the concept to the local needs to the most.

In a week´s time I am leaving for 2w honeymoon but keep tuned for more around Win7 and other marketing observations I´ve experienced in last two months!

Bing bang?

Few people turned to me concerning Bing so you may want to hear something from myself to this new engine.

Okay so what is the primary reason why were are still working to be Nr 1 on providing easier access to informations on internet (objective)?

In spite of undeniable progress up to 40% of searches still remains without relevant response. Almost half of attempts to find information lasts up to 20 minutes. And that is why there is clear motivation for a company like Microsoft.

And what is the secondary (my subjective) reason?
As 5 years ago the catalogue search was the way we looked information on the internet, with the Google´s entrance into internet new era begun, the fulltext search. But as the internet is fastly developing, there will be something new again, soon. It might be visual, verbal search for instance but Microsoft doesn´t want to wait and we made the first half step and introduced the decision engine.

When will it be available for Central Europe´s languages?
Bing as a search tool is provided in all Microsoft present country. The full functionality decision tool is not only about search, but provides sophisticated answers based on language, first major market are already covered (English, Spanish and German). After the bugs will be corrected, more countries will come but for CE we don´t expect Bing as a decision tool before end 2010.

What are the results so far?

Bing already achieved 1% percent on the market (one month result) and based on New York Posts article from June 14th Google´s co-founder Segey Brin assembled a team of top engineers to conduct Bing study and try to upgrade their service.

If you think, this is subjective reasoning, of course, it is. But to do you own consideration, try Blind search and decide, which is the most relevant for you. There is not big difference, is there?

Pause

Hi folks, sorry not posting any blogpost for so long but I had to prepare and execute my wedding as well as marketing planning for next fiscal year within Microsoft. And all of you from this company know that this a quite complex process.
I will be back with lot of my campaigns, thoughts and observations soon.
Keep tuned!

Spending abroad

Lot of Slovaks visited not only before Easter shopping centers and groceries in Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland due to depreciation of their local currencies against Euro. It gained 10-30% against national currencies in last couple of weeks. Our banks reported up to 10x increase in payments with cards in these countries.

Reactions:

• Citizens usually tend to say: local stores should decrease their price and find savings in order to keep up with their counterparts in abroad.
• Local authorities say: we have 19% flat VAT compared to 7 or 10% VAT on groceries in Poland or Czech so there is the reason of higher price level in Slovakia.

Whether is the truth on one, or other side or somewhere in the middle one thing is indisputable: price of cars or real estate today compared to last year´s are much lower. This answers their earnings of 3,4 billions Euro for Volkswagen in H1 2008 or 183 mil. Euro for Immoeast (biggest CEE developer) in Q1 2008.

New Microsoft viral

Have you seen it?

It is aimed against Apple as continuation of the "I am a PC" campaign. It´s goal is to convince people that PC platform is cheaper and offers much wider range of products where everyone can easily choose according to his/her preferences.

Microsoft asked 2 people Lauren and Gianpaolo called as "laptop hunters" to get laptop as they want between 700 and 2000 USD. They were allowed to keep the laptops they selected plus the difference in money from what they had originally planned to spend and what they actually spent.

See Gianpaolo video


See Lauren video

There are more than 340 000 of Lauren and 500 000 views of Gianpaolo virals on YouTube today.

Campaign was again created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky. Reported The inspiration room.

Cultural difference

Our globe is getting more cross connected but there are still differences:

• When I was in Spain or Italy you know that the restaurants are empty until 8pm but full at 9pm. There is hardly a chance to get a seat without reservation in good restaurant. That is the time when people get from work and have a good time in usually larger company.
• When I was on New Zealand you know that after 8pm you hardly get a seat in restaurant and after 10pm it is impossible. That is the time, when people are at home or getting to bed that is why you should hurry to restaurants before 6pm there.

We in Central Europe are somewhere in between. Our dinner time is usually between 6-8pm. We are the golden average.

Fascinating pictures

You already may have seen these pictures but they still be amazing and thrilling:

- Nissan has announced plans to cut its Sunderland workforce by 1,200. Thousands of unsold cars are stored around the factory's test track:- Imported cars stored at Sheerness open storage area awaiting delivery to dealers:- The build-up of imported cars at the port of Newark, New Jersey:

Slovakia produces most cars per capita in the world. VW, Kia, Peugeot are produced here which makes automotive industry the biggest by contributing with 30+% into country´s GDP. With that we are strongly affected by the current economic situation. The situation is the same here at local car dealerships. Parking lots and also the grass lawn around are usually full of cars.

So what to do?
The local government decided to support new cars sales by financial contribution if someone decide to scrap his 10+ years old car. I don´t want to be too protectionist but this helped mostly to foreing producers as approx only 5% of all production ends on local market. Thanks God that "scrap funding" is introduced in more than 15 EU countries.

Continuous Partial Attention

On the blog of Linda Stone I have found an interesting article describing new behaviour of young people today called continuous partial attention. I am posting some interesting excerpts of this article:

What is continuous partial attention? Continuous partial attention describes how many of us use our attention today. It is different from multi-tasking. The two are differentiated by the impulse that motivates them. When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. We're often doing things that are automatic, that require very little cognitive processing. We give the same priority to much of what we do when we multi-task -- we file and copy papers, talk on the phone, eat lunch -- we get as many things done at one time as we possibly can in order to make more time for ourselves and in order to be more efficient and more productive.

To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention -- CONTINUOUSLY. It is motivated by a desire to be a LIVE node on the network. Another way of saying this is that we want to connect and be connected. We want to effectively scan for opportunity and optimize for the best opportunities, activities, and contacts, in any given moment. To be busy, to be connected, is to be alive, to be recognized, and to matter.

We pay continuous partial attention in an effort NOT TO MISS ANYTHING. It is an always-on, anywhere, anytime, any place behavior that involves an artificial sense of constant crisis. We are always in high alert when we pay continuous partial attention. This artificial sense of constant crisis is more typical of continuous partial attention than it is of multi-tasking.

Is continuous partial attention a good thing or a bad thing? Like so many things, in small doses, continuous partial attention can be a very functional behavior. However, in large doses, it contributes to a stressful lifestyle, to operating in crisis management mode, and to a compromised ability to reflect, to make decisions, and to think creatively. In a 24/7, always-on world, continuous partial attention used as our dominant attention mode contributes to a feeling of overwhelm, over-stimulation and to a sense of being unfulfilled. We are so accessible, we're inaccessible. The latest, greatest powerful technologies have contributed to our feeling increasingly powerless.

More on the link above.

Consumer priorities in a tough economy

Association of National Advertisers Brand Management Committee discussed the consumer view of purchasing in this economy and which categories are still seeing growth.

What are consumers thinking today?

• "Why do I have to pay more?"
• "I have choices, especially with private label products."
• "I'm delaying my purchase until I have a better sense of economic stability."
• "I'm looking for ways to save money and will consider brands with the most value for my money."
• "I'm making fewer shopping trips, so my trip has to count."
• "I'm carefully considering each of my purchases and doing more research prior to buying."
• "I still want convenience and to save time."
• "I look for special offers and coupons and will sacrifice my preferred brand if necessary."
• "I want my brand/company to know me (e.g. special attention from sales/customer service)."
• "I appreciate being rewarded (e.g. automatic discounts, frequent buyer cards)."
• "I want to be kept up to date on new trends."
• "I want to trust that you will be around and be confident in the product you are selling me (e.g. especially financial services and automotive)."
  

What are consumers buying more of?

• Beer.
• Lottery tickets.
• Comfort food.
• Cosmetics ("a little bag of happy").
• Short-term liquidity (e.g., money markets).
• Household safes.

Does this list sound familiar to you?

People trust consumer product reviews

According Forrester research survey published in one of my earlier post most people (77%) trust an information received in email from someone they know and on the second place (60%) consumer product rating/review. So let´s look at this review thing, as I have found an interesting slide:

Let´s mention at least the two websites using this method BestBuy or Amazon:

And some of them build their business on it as Consumersearch:

or epinions:

Bottom line? When making an TV ad for your company keep in mind, that prospectives will far more believe in what is written on these sites by another users. So use your cretive energy for something else. Article originally published on my Slovak Word-of-mouth blog.

How success is born...artificially

There is a consensus that by 2012 all countries in EU should decrease the number of fatal car accidents on the roads by 50%.

Slovak Republic was one of the lasts to implement new regulations in order to achieve this. We decreased the city speed limit to 50kmh as last but one country in EU, the fines went up significantly, etc.

The new law is valid as of February 1st and couple of days ago the police announced first month results: 60% decrease in accidents y-o-y! Some people say: yes, that is it, finally law and order on the streets! Minority says: ok, ok, that is the initial fear, it will turn a little worser after some time. But almost no one realize (and you can hardly find this in media), that this significant decrease is mostly due to change in statistics: accidents under 3000 euro are not considered as accident anymore and you are not obliged to call the police. The two sides have to arrange it between each other and go with report of accident to the insurance company directly.

So this is it: 60% percent down, significant success! Better don´t ask, how we got there...btw do you know that there are elections in 2 years?

Best global brands 2008

Interbrands published the 2008 Best Global Brands annual report.

From my employee perspective it is good to know that my employer finished at rank #3, valued $59 007 million with quite positive comment: "Despite maintaining its position as one of the world’s biggest brands, Microsoft has had a slightly rocky year. The new operating system, Vista, was poorly received, not least of all by Intel, which refused to install it on its machines due to compatibility issues. The failed takeover of Yahoo! and Bill Gates’ decreasing role piled
further pressure on a brand already struggling to articulate how its offering fits together.
Looking ahead, the company is hoping a diversification from software into the broader
online and entertainment arenas, coupled with a US$300 million advertising campaign
starring Jerry Seinfeld, will breathe new life into the brand and pave the way for a brighter future."

For more brands report comments and news check out the report above.

Microsoft influencing presidential elections!

As Slovak presidential elections are in Slovakia in less than 5 weeks we wanted to use this opportunity for something extraordinary. We had a brainstorming and which resulted into joint online project with with largest printed media publishing house Ringier (best selling tabloid). We agreed to build an online entry page for all, who want to be informed about everything about presidential candidates in a modern way. After this I think better headline would be "Microsoft contributing to better information about presidential candidates" :)

Result?

Starting this week Slovak internet users have the chance to visit new internet site with presidential candidates – http://www.prezident2009.sk/. Ringier provides all important information to Slovakian voters such as:

• actual preferences today and how they evolved,
• hot news,
• comparison of opinions on 6 selected topics,
• Facebook fan site plus multimedia content like video, pictures,
• and all necessary infos about candidates like CVs, up-to-date career, etc.

So where is the difference?

The most important thing from my company is that the whole site is build on Silverlight 2.0 technology and candidates photogallery in DeepZoom. These technologies allows to visitor out of the box work with content showed on website, for instance continuous fluent zooming of pictures or dynamic work with charts and much more.

Since Ringier is very popular on Slovak market we believe that this cooperation will help us with Silverlight (plugin) penetration among internet users and change perception of Microsoft as provider of innovative though easy to use technologies. On the other side Ringier is connected works with state-of-the art technology which offers them advantage compared with competitors.

Check out the site at http://www.prezident2009.sk/

Let´s make fun of economical downturn!

This was obviously idea behind the new selfpromo of Slovak radio called Funradio.

Their management was fed of all those excuses made of their perspective clients.

What they felt in past few weeks?They are sorry for everyone who feels impact of the crisis on business, but they are not sorry for those, they just want to blame the crisis for their problems, based on personal incapability. The aim of their campaign is to show even in tough times it is good not to forget humour and there is always a solution. Solution that is more helpful than an excuse.

What is their response?

• launch a dedicated microsite
• collect all funny excuses, e.g. "sorry for being late for the meeting we were driving slowly all way long in order to save fuel", etc.
• show satisfied advertiser of Funradio supported by 4 facts from surveys, e.g. reach the young generation addicted on brands, etc.
  

I think this campaign is good at least from two perspectives:

• it showes that Fun Radio is able to handle three topics in one: drive for advertising revenue, tough times and humour
• they are not afraid to come up with proactive communications in time of tough advertising budget cuts. But this is good time for radio, online and printed media to win those customers, they cutted the most expensive media, the TV ad.

No baby nursing pics on Facebook?

There was an issue with nursing pictures published at Facebook recently. This portal censored all pictures with this theme. For thinkers within PR agency a good opportunity to promote a product.

A Slovak website dedicated to children care http://www.baby-web.sk/ used this as good starting point for self promo. They hired a well known Slovak photographer and did a photo session with nursing mothers. 30 of them came and created a nice picture, see below.

This Slovak response has been taken over into almost all relevant newspapers what created huge media coverage.

Why this was a good idea?

• this message of censorship has shocked almost all mothers, therefore created large awareness and interest (mothers wanted to discuss their feelings and shock),
• the Slovak response was nice (lovely picture of renowned photographer) taken over by all relevant media (printed, electronic),
• it was published at the particular website and furthermore supported by statement, that all mother they want to express their support with this can send their pictures to the gallery at the website (from awareness to engagement).
  

Article originaly published on my Word-of-mouth marketing blog.

Product launch by buzz

A year ago when new product of new Customer Relationship Management 4.0 software was announced for Slovak market, we started to think how to introduce it in an unusual way.

We wen´t down to the core of the product which is to create and maintain relationship for business purpose. Of course, our CRM is not the only one on the market and that is why out of the box thinking was required.

It happened like this:

• What are most of people interested in? Gossip.
• Which is the most successful gossip media? Novy cas, part of Ringier publishing house.
• How could we connect our product with public attention supported by attractive content? By creating a network of well know local celebrities and map their past and current relations.

That is how Kto s kym (who with who) was created and made a huge halo on the market. It is today considered for another clear example of good cooperation of two brands with low cost and high impact activity.
Next step? In couple of day the site will be transformed in Silverlight technology which allows us even more funcionalities and better design. Besides this project has been taken completely over by Ringier publishing house and would like to start in all countries they are present.

Significant change of purchase funnel

We know the traditional marketing funnel called AIDA for years. Attention, Interest, Desire and Action were popular long years but with massive use of internet it has to be changed, especially two phases, says Cathy Clift.

She showes that consumers using internet:

• expand their consideration set
• take advantage of the experience of existing owners and users to help guide their choice

According to a comScore survey:

• 70% start their search query by a generic term ("LCD TV"),
• 20% with specific product term ("BestBuy") and only
• 10% with a specific term ("LG 42 LC 55"). This leaves space for producers to catch the attention of prospective early enough to be involved into consideration proces.

And be active and also open and honest on websites as BestBuy or Najlacnejsie.sk in order to have good reviews from current users of the product or brand.

Not that usual photos

You were astonished by CNN´s report about Obama´s inauguration made of all those sent in pictures?

Do you wanna promote your real estate development project or current offer in your car dealership in another way?

Let´s try then new technology which is easy to use but free and available to you today.
Check out http://www.photosynth.net/ , register and you can do similar 3D pictures at your home desk.

Links about product:
Photosynth on CSI
Photosynth architect on the product
TED presentation on Photosynth

Sticky ideas

According to bestseller of Chip and Dan Heath any succesful idea/campaing/activity should reflect 6 basic rules of SUCCES:

• S hort - not to bother with too much details. Life is fast today.
• U nexpected - surprise or shock. Purple cow.
• C oncrete - in what we try to achieve.
• C redible - support by relevant source, quotation, numbers, survey.
• E motion - you know, 80% are emotions, brain only 20%.
• S tory - aka storytelling, which makes it easier to digest and spread.

If interested in more details check their blog or buy the book.

Number of the day

Not only control of wealth but also influence is getting concentrated. In the time of information overflow it is not the company communications (e.g. advertising) what influences us, but rather blogosphere and opinion leaders (see also this post).

The changing role of marketer

David Thorp of Chartered institute of Marketing has written a paper called "The changing role of the Marketer" where he suggests splitting marketing roles into 3 areas:

• Science (analytics & research),
• Arts (creative) and
• Humanities (social networking and collaborative behaviours).

This seems reasonable but I think the marketer in 2009 needs to go further. He needs to be strategic, creative, emotional and also able to see beyond horizon.

As my friend Nick Baggot writes "I think we need to be more rounded, more free thinking and more innovative in everything we do. Marketing teams will get smaller this year. So those that are in roles, need to step up to the plate and make it happen. That means taking risks and stepping out of our comfort zones."

324 brands using social media

Is your favourite among them? Check it out!

Do you want to add your company? Don´t forget to check the actual stats and also the rule of success before taking first steps.

2009 top online predictions

Top 10 E-marketer published its predictions for online space in 2009:

1. The Internet is a Buyers’ Market: Marketers will continue to stretch their budgets by making use of cost-efficient online ad placements. In addition to the internet’s accountability and targeting, which permit more-focused media buys, lower prices for most display ads and less competition for many search keywords will make online a buyers’ market.

2. Search Marketing Remains Recession-Resistant: While search marketing is not recession-proof, it is recession-resistant, with estimated spending growth in 2009 at 14.9%, to $12.3 billion.
Key reasons for search’s strength: Search is highly measurable and will help retain many budgets and increase some others, as advertisers look for secure and effective marketing methods to combat the fear inherent in an economic meltdown. Consumers who monetize search ads by deciding whether or not to click, will be both taking money off the table (by shopping less) and putting money back on the table (by searching for deals). While search advertising will grow less in 2009 than in any previous year, its inherent strength means greater spending gains than for any other major form of advertising, whether online or through traditional media.

3. Video Ad Spending Will Run Counter to Economic Trends: Video ad spending growth will run counter to overall economic developments, rising by 45% in 2009 to reach $850 million. Supporting this trend are two key factors: First, the sharp escalation of professional video content on the web — coming mainly from TV networks — is creating a viable base for brand marketers. Second, even though most advertisers are increasingly cautious with their budgets, they still need to reach online audiences, and woo their shrinking wallets, with messages that reach their hearts and minds. This should add up to more video, eMarketer said.

4. Social Network Shakeout: With US ad revenue growth slowing, smaller and niche social networks will have a tough time gaining traction and several may close down or be acquired by larger players. In addition, marketers that have built standalone social networks tied to their brands will either shutter them or migrate them to existing social network platforms where they can reach a broader audience.

5. New Revenue Streams for Social Networks: E-commerce will be a growing revenue stream for social network sites. Expect both MySpace and Facebook to enhance their self-serve advertising systems to allow consumers and businesses to buy and sell real-world goods and services. Facebook, already a de facto business networking site because of the number of businesspeople who use it, will develop ad programs aimed at B2B companies. This will directly affect LinkedIn.

6. E-Commerce Sales Growth From Existing Online Buyers: Online retail sales (excluding travel) will grow by only 4% in 2009—the first full year to feel the impact of the economic crisis. Over the long term, online sales growth has been on a downward slope as the number of online buyers approaches saturation. So, the economy accentuates an existing trend. Most retail e-commerce sales growth in the future will come from increased spending by current online buyers.

7. Seismic Shift in TV Ad Sales: US TV ad spending will decline 4.2% to $66.9 billion in 2009. This precipitous drop in spending reflects not only expectations of a continued poor economy but a seismic shift in the way television advertising is bought and sold, eMarketer said. Like other traditional media, TV advertising was already suffering, and now the climate will be even tougher. Fragmentation on TV and declines in viewership have made it more difficult for advertisers to reach audiences. Broadcasters will be pressed to redefine their businesses in an increasingly digital world. They will focus on expanding programming to the online realm and will continue to test business models.

8. More Newspaper Companies to Become Casualties: Newspaper advertising will decline in 2009 more than any other medium. Industry-wide cutbacks will continue, and there will be some consolidation, while firms will be forced to undertake drastic measures to stay afloat. The industry was limping before the recession and the market can expect more newspaper companies to become casualties.

9. User-Generated Content Aggregation: With so much user-generated media populating the web and mobile channels, content aggregation will become more important than ever. In 2009, expect to see the emergence of real-time aggregation tools that combine algorithmic approaches with human input. These aggregation tools will develop from the ground up, much like the content itself.

10. Multicultural Marketing Will Gain Intensity Online: Although white Americans make up about 70% of the US internet population, more and more African-Americans and Hispanics are going online through their PCs and their mobile phones. Marketers will follow, targeting these segments with language and culture-specific messages, which will evolve from their general-market campaigns.

If interested, you may find tons of another predictions here.

Triple "A" for my employer

I am forwarding the list of *remaining* "AAA" corporate names based on ratings according to Reuters news:

S&P

• ADP
• Exxon Mobil
• GE (Outlook Negative)
• Johnson & Johnson
• Pfizer (Credit Watch Negative)
• Microsoft

Moody's:

• ADP
• Exxon Mobil
• GE
• Johnson and Johnson
• Microsoft
• Toyota Motor (on review)

What to add? Just to hope that my employer will still remain among them.

The positive side of technology

In last two years companies went into couple of joint ventures for cross product and cross brand cooperation in field of jogging and healthy lifestyle. Let´s name only the well known:

• Adidas and Samsung´s MiCoach
• Nike and Apple´s Nike+

Result? I experienced a lot of people not only to start jogging but also achieve their first biggest targets, like first 5k, first half-marathon under 2h or even marathon.

I see the positive side of this kind of joint venture for both sides. To consumer they give a feeling to people which is rare: an accessible technology of today in help of healthy lifestyle. For companies this is a combination of two brands which makes the one more popular among the fans of the other.

Revised logos

Source

Brotherhood

McDonald´s managers use to say, that if there are two restaurants side by side, their income is higher that it was only one.

It is the same for number of car dealers located on one street.

And finally, the same it is for Media markt and Saturn electro-retail stores. Even more, if they are competing to each other and - owned by one owner.

Company online strategy finally important?

e-consultancy have recently released their 2009 online engagement report. Here are some highlights from the Exec Summary carried out amongst 1,300 marketers (2/3 of which are UK based):

• only 45% have a defined online customer engagement strategy
• 51% say that a deteriorating economy has led to a greater emphasis on customer engagement
• 38% say they are focused on increasing value from the customer, whilst 34% say it is about creating value for their customers

The survey also asked them which channels they will focus on:

• 59% say e-newsletters,
• 41% user ratings & feedback,
• 37% user generated content,
• 36% blogging & 36% branding in social networks like facebook.

What is the situation in Central Europe?

I think we are lagging one or two years behing the UK. Online strategy is more a rarity today and also user rating and feedback and generated content are important only to small number of companies. However I often hear companies´ representatives to express a desire to build customer engagement online, but many of them have little idea how to do this, which channels they should use or what they should measure.

In addition, to achive results online you have to have well synchronized relationship of a skilled company marketer and an experienced advertising agency or direct marketing agency with digital departement. It takes time to play well together but there are already some CE examples - let´s take a look at successful czech WOM campaigns.

Does viral appeal to companies?

Most advertising companies do believe in viral.

So do lot of their clients.

Until it comes to the budget.

After presenting the idea and needed investment, there are usualy three ways of answers comming from clients:
A - So expensive? Let´s leave it out...
B - Too expensive! We would go into it but with much lower budget.
C - Good idea. Let´s lower the budget by 10% and go for it.

Of course, the best answer for the ad company is C, however the question is: how to deal with the situation if the answer are only A or B?

If it is a major client worth to risk for, an ad agency might cover (some part) the production cost. Crazy? No, some virals shown on the link below wouldn´t have been executed without this approach.

As already Onassis used to say: if you believe in yourself and aim to get a dream job dare to work for free at the beginning. If you are really good, they will hire you.

List of successful Slovak and Czech viral campaigns.

The 4 Ps

Yes, I know there are sometimes mentioned 5, 6, 7 and even more „P“ in marketing. But let´s still with 4 for this time.

Sometimes people ask me: "what makes your marketing job for an multinational company so interesting? You may hardly change what is dictated from the headquarters. You can maybe add something local to the promotion, but the rest is still outside your control."

Usually, this comes from people working for German or French companies, where the company culture USUALLY doesn´t allow much liberty. The US companies are other. Let make this as my first statement.

As my second point yes, the promotion is mostly where marketers are active and where the changes can be made. But why don´t state this for the rest as well?

The place – in our case the partners are the key to our success. Without healthy partner ecosystem with right motivation and up to date readiness about products and solution we cannot be succesful. And it this all company marketers are active in local or international level.
The product – we cannot influence it directly. But we are often asked for feedback or might participate in developing or testing teams at headquarters.
The price – yes, ther the specialy big deals there might be special price agreed or can decide whether or not to participate for retail price discount promo.
The promotion - this is, where we are most at home. We can decide either to adopt WW campaing, to adopt it with local changes or to create a new one. Of course, only after we decide the HQ marketers that it makes locally more sense.

Bottom line? Yes, we can more or less impact also the place, the product or the price. But what makes me happy even more is the fact, that if we create something interesting in promotion locally, it is often used also for foreign markets, where our company is present. What could be for marketing manager in multinational company more motivating?

Rule of success

Friends, colleagues often come to me to tell me about great new business idea they have.

I do believe, that great idea is only 33.3% of success. There are a lot of interesting new business suggestions in business magazines or internet, but is it enough?

I also do believe, that successful implementation is another 33.3% of success. Without having the right team, enough quality funding bringing idea into reality is difficult. But this is still not enough.

And finally I do believe, that endurance to survive the growth or initial troubles in first 1 or 2 years is the last 33.3% of success. Stats are clear 60-70% of businesses fail in first 2 years.

33.3% - 33.3% - 33.3% is success. Idea itself is not enough.

Does social media help candidates in politics?

Help fo 587 000 fans on Facebook and 330 posted videos at Youtube was not enough to John McCain to become the president of the USA.

Help of 3 650 000 fans on Facebook and 1827 posted videos at Youtube was enough to Barack Obama to become the president of the USA. He had also Flickr, Twitter, Linkedin and all possible social network and services accounts.

There will be presidential elections also in Slovakia in 4 months. Let´compare the two most possible candidates in online space:

-> The current president, Ivan Gasparovic. He has no Facebook site and 8 videos at Youtube.

-> His rival, Iveta Radicova. She has Facebook fan site with already 7300 fans and growing and 11 videos at Youtube.

According to US model status Iveta Radicova should will win the election. I am not sure about it but definitely paying consistent focus on these services by posting speeches, react to fans or at least became a friend with them may bring additional % of voters. Today maybe only the minority, but those, which may decide.

If interested, another interesting politics marketing lessons you can find in Seth Godin´s post.

Biggest crisis ever?

I don´t dare to compare. There were brig economic downturns in the past too.

What changed is the fact, how it affected almost the whole world. And how quick it came.
But this is one of the hopes for the future. Because what makes us different from the past is that we have today means to deal more quicky and professionaly with informations. We can find out the roots of the crisis and start correction initiatives. All the informations are at our fingertips. CRM, BI, media, internet and all other information and reporting tools bring all necessary information in no time.

Let´s only hope, that right managers will handle them. Because right information makes only half of thes success. The remaining half makes the right decisions upon them.

Polls

There are thousands of polls, surveys as a baseline for decision on marketing strategy or tactic.
But do we act upon results?

Most of the time no. Or not enough.
Managers, usualy not experienced enough or less connected with marketing profession still prefer their personal opinions in the end. I feel that this would be better...

In this situation I love to use the words of marketing guru Sergio Zyman: If you buy all the production, I act upon your preferences. Until then, let´s respect the customer.

Jobs I don´t want to do

I wanted to work as a marketer for premium car maker or premium airline company. Their business is often about fullfiling people´s dream. They work with emotions and might charge higher fees for top service.

But today no company in car or aviation industry is safe in these turbulent times. Customers are reprioritizing their needs and cutting budgets. Cars and planes are also depending on oil price and this brought and even will bring hard times for them.

Toyota predicts loss for 2008 for the first time in history and gives 4200 discount per new vehicle in the US today (according to BusinessWeek). Czech carmaker Skoda is down by 37% y-o-y in UK market.There is said in 3 years only 2 major carmakers will remain in Europe. There is also said that only 3 - 5 low cost airline will survive this winter in Europe. There are 58 of them today.

In spite of all this facts I think this is a challenging time for marketers in these industries. They are facing some of problems for the first time, but this is exactly the situation, when they can prove our impact on business. And in close cooperations with production and sales try to find the easiest way back to the growth.

What is a successful event?

As the indicators of successful event is mostly mentioned numbers of participants.

Yes, I can agree, but need to add: where is the quality? Where is the subjective satisfaction of those participated? How many perspectives did it bring?

Because people participated and particulary events itself, are in general only one of the marketing vehicles. The targeted ratio invested dollar vs revenue out of satisfied participants should be the infitite indicator of success for a real marketing manager.

People don´t trust company blogs

According to Forrester research only 16% of respondents trust in information found on company sites. 77% believe in personal recommendation, even 28% believe in email and 25% dmail from a company or a brand. Does it mean that companies should give up blogging and get back to traditional communication vehicles?
I don´t think so.

First: a company shold be specific in expectation, topics to communicate and needs on the market and accordingly select the mean. I think for long term awareness blogs are very effective.

Second: get credibility. Depends if you want to build renome for the professionals in the company, or change/build awareness for your product or brand.

Example? In Spring 2008 we in Microsoft Slovakia also considered how to get closer to public with informal communications which may send traditional press releases to the past. There were 2 possibilities:

• create company blog on our platform feeded by our internal profesionals, or
• create external plaftorm to blog for selected external bloggers, specialists in the field.

Despite the fact that we employe skilled professionals and that it was more challenging from development and time perspective to choose the second option was right decision. Not only looking at the results on Forrester above, but based on figures and feedback.

Based on my experience I believe that company specialist after a year loose the consumer/business partner insight which makes engagement of external contributors particulary important. About this in one of my following posts.

After first day: Euro conversion in reality

So the Euro has arrived to Slovakia. The Slovak crown was supposed to be withdrawn from the market automatically by paying in Slovak crown but the change given back in Euro in the retail. Reality after first day? 2 times payed yesterday 2 times the change returned in Slovak crowns. If it continues like this in following days we may expect long ques in the banks after dual currency flow end on January 16th.

Cause? Uninteresting awareness campaing about Euro that was communicated in last 6 months which didn´t attired the attention enough?

I don´t think so and I guess it is much more simple. It is about the attitude of each person. It seemed too far away even couple of days ago but today it is here. That is why I think the learning curve in following days will exceed that in last couple of weeks by far. If not, let´s meet in the banks.