Montreal Marketing Consultant - Montreal Business Marketing - Silver Maple

Oh those Boomers, how could we ever forget them? Depending on who you speak to the generation that was born after World War II, from 1945 to 1964, represents the largest demographic segment in the U.S., if not the world. 76 million Americans were born in that period, rejecting traditional values and growing up wealthier and happier than previous generations. For many years, marketers focused solely on this generation of consumers because of the enormous wealth and their need to spend it on something.

Traditional marketing theory has always focused on marketing to the up and coming generations. The logic followed that they had more disposable income, they were entering the stages of their lives were they were making big-ticket purchases on items such as cars and homes and because of the baby boom, there was more consumers in those segments. Fast forward to 2012, and the theory is undergoing a major transformation.

According to Nielsen, Boomers spend 38% of Consumer Packaged Goods dollars, however less than 5% of advertising dollars are currently targeted towards adults 35-64 years old (which includes my fellow Generation X’ers, born between 1965 and 1976 and the Boomers) You don’t have to be a math wizard, and I’m certainly not, to understand that there is a large opportunity for marketers.

Even better news is that Boomers have similar tastes as 18-35 year olds, including technology and online shopping. They represent 1/3 of one-third of all online users, social media users and Twitter users and because they watch the most video, up to 9:34 hours per day, they are an ideal market for online video applications. Reaching out to Boomers online and through technology has never been easier. Companies that recognize the consumption model has changed will gear their products and their marketing efforts towards the forgotten Baby Boom generation.

I was thumbing through a copy of Profit Magazine and I came across a great article on a hot trend for 2012 – Recommerce. Recommerce is really just bringing the garage sale junkie out in all of us. We want our old stuff to be worth something. We’ve been conditioned steadily by the auto industry, video stores and video game retailers etc… But the recommerce trend is bringing it all full circle and we now want everything to have a resale value.

There are three + factors driving this trend a) a tight economy b) low savings rates c) the green movement and one more common sense. Let’s face it, we consume too much. The E.U, U.S. and China represent 55.4% of the world’s entire gross domestic product. With more people being added to the planet by the minute, we will have to learn to do more with less, its just simple math. We have too much stuff. When I flip on A&E and watch Barry, Jarrod and the rest of the cast on Storage Wars buying abandoned storage units for hidden treasures that can be resold, I realize that we are spending too much on things we don’t need.

If this recommerce trend is for real, how long will it be before we have two sets of prices the next time we walk into a major retailer – brand new and slightly depreciated (lightly worn)? It’s a well-known fact that most retailers work on the new styles, new trends etc… so it might take a while for this to take shape. And there will always be fears of product cannibalization – the slightly worn jeans stealing sales from the hot new jeans. But I am not proposing anything all that revolutionary; I just think that retailers will have to change with the times.

Recommerce is more than a hot new trend; it’s becoming an everyday reality. Consumers who don’t have as money as they used to and are more eco-conscious are demanding more and more that the products they buy have some type of resale value attached to the price.

Networking has probably been around since the days of the Romans, which has been deemed the point in time when the term “market” came into existence. It’s kind of hard not to imagine the following conversation not taking place somewhere in Europe “Listen Faustinus, Decimus has some wheat that he’s willing to part with for some barley, do you know anybody who’s interested”

There are several networking gurus out there, who have their own view on networking. With many years of trial and error, I think that they all have something relevant to add to the conversation. However, like everything else, networking is evolving as the world becomes smaller and social media usage increases. Networking is an essential form of business development; however the mistake that most people make is thinking that it is the only form of business development that they should engage in. It may be the case for some professions and industries but for most sales and marketing will always be the king of the hill.

In my experiences, I see networking or referral marketing falling down in the reciprocity stage. In Robert Cialdini’s, the Arizona State University professor who published the classic book "Influence", sociologists and anthropologists concur that we humans believe and live by the rule of reciprocity. You know, I do something for you, you’ll repay me. In a sense networking lives and dies on the rule of reciprocity. If an act of giving isn’t repaid, there is no sense in the referral relationship continuing. With compressed product life cycles, hyper competition and economic instability, the lack of time and the importance of investing the little time that we all have comes into play. Choosing one’s networking partners is becoming more important than ever.

Many modern day technology entrepreneurs feel that customers should be seen and not heard and that they should never listen to their customers for product feedback. It’s hard for me to argue with the success of those multimillionaires who have introduced innovative products that have changed the world in the IT, telecommunications and medical fields. However there is strong evidence that suggests companies that don’t listen to their customers won’t be in business for that much longer. Based on a sample size of 32 startups, Chubby Brain, an online data-driven company that provides tools for entrepreneurs, found that the main reason that startups fail is because they ignore their customers. And three of the top four reasons were marketing related.  (excluding picking the right team)

You don’t have to be a statistician to understand that for every business idea there is a chance for success or failure. In fact, studies have indicated that more than 90 percent of all new products fail in within 2 years and only 40% of new consumer food, beverage, beauty, and healthcare products will be around in 5 years! Since most startups survival is based on developing a product that will be a hit with the market, we can  conclude that  company failures are caused mainly by new product failures.

In my experience, marketing research which can save a company from making mistakes, the most underutilized marketing tool.  I’ve heard that with the short product life cycles, it would take too long to get the product to market. Or it’s better to introduce the product in order to beat the competition to market.  Although these reasons are valid, they are prone to failure. For startups surviving on a shoestring budget, investing in primary and/or secondary marketing research would increase their product success rates and long-term viability significantly.

Way back when, we used to pick up a phone book and find the business or service provider when we had a need.  Times have changed. The wonderful people at Google and before them Yahoo etc… made it so much easier to type a query into a search engine and get pages and pages of results! They created the perfect information resource for a time-starved and attention deficit generation that needed everything yesterday.  

As Internet adoption rates are increasing all over the world, more and more people are finding what they need online. And mobile technology makes it easier for us to connect from anywhere. Globalization is no longer a textbook theory, it’s here and it’s happening now. Businesses who haven’t embraced the importance of marketing via the Internet, risk slipping into irrelevance as far as their customers are concerned, wherever they are in the world. Top of mind awareness matters even more in the present marketing context. And in order to stay top of mind with your customers, you have to make Search Engine Optimization (SEO) a top priority.

Search Engine Optimization, simply put, is how high your website (your strongest branding tool) ranks on SERP’s (search engine results pages) for keywords that describe your company, product or service.  Either your on the first page or your not. And if you aren’t don’t expect customers to go looking for you on page 20 of a search engine query.

SMB’s (small and medium businesses) really can’t afford to not do SEO, since their websites are their most effective marketing tools. You can only print and distribute so many brochures. So why don’t more companies invest in SEO? There are many answers to that very interesting question. Perhaps management doesn’t feel comfortable with the technology. I’ve been told in the past that “We get most of our clients through word-of mouth”. And while that may be true presently, the one constant since the 90’s is change. And customers and how we reach them is changing everyday.

In 2011, it seems like business has finally bought into using social media to reach prospects and build its online brand. Aside from the obvious SEO benefits of creating external links, generating buzz, adding another customer touchpoint and in some cases generating and nurturing leads, what’s not to like?   It’s really inexpensive; it only costs the salary of an employee or an external contractor. All of the major platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Linkedin etc... are free.  You might even surprise yourself and get an actual client.

And just like the old saying goes, when it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.  In an earlier blog, I spoke about consumers being bombarded by 5,000 marketing messages daily. I think people have figured out what a marketing message is by now. Companies that take a Me-Too approach to social media end up with me-too results.

Its one thing to build a community of followers or have people following you on Twitter (it’s what people do online nowadays) It’s another thing to generate sufficient interest in your product or service that they’ll actually buy a product from you. So how do you cross the Social Media Canyon without burning the bridge?   Very carefully

Social Media is the kid who moved away from your neighborhood but came back. Bigger, stronger, faster (My apologies to the Six Million Dollar Man) In the 90’s, literally eons ago in the online world, message boards was the original social media. They still exist but are truly depassé. Bulletin boards became Internet forums and then morphed into modern message boards. Very Web 2.0 in the age of Web 1.0. A combination of events including cheaper and more advanced technology led to the social media landscape of today.

Although experts are using many anthropology, psychology, web analytics etc… to get a better handle on evaluating and converting social media traffic, their haven’t been that many examples of business models built solely on social media success. It’s been on the nice to have list.

How do you convert these visitors REGULARLY? A dedicated resource that would work under the marketing umbrella like a community manager would be a start. Unfortunately many small companies don’t have the resources. Outsourcing is a solution but choose your service provider wisely.  Next off you need to integrate your social media plan that into your overall marketing plan.  Just like SEM and SEO, social media plays a large role in how your customers will find you online. You’ll have to introduce cross-metrics such as Registrations from Social Media Websites, Visits to Store Locator Pages, Visits to the Contact Us Page, Impact on Customer Lifetime Value etc…Finally you have to take action. The best plan will fail if no one monitors and tweaks it over time. Plan. Measure. Take Action. Are you ready for your to get the conversation started about your brand?

I recently worked with a 3^rd party email marketing service provider on a white paper that describes how companies can increase the effectiveness of their email campaigns. Now email marketing has been around since the beginning of the Internet. In those halcyon days of the mid 90’s when Hotmail was giving out free email addresses, the power of this new mass communications tool was still unknown. And just as quick as you can hit the delete button, email marketing took off as a low cost direct marketing tool for small businesses. According to the DMA, 94% of marketers use email marketing which is more than direct marketing (86%). With everyone jumping on board, what techniques could be used to maximize their effectiveness?

You have to ask your customers out on a date before they can trust you.  Seth Godin, the brilliant marketer who wrote “Permission Marketing” said it best”…that means you have to offer something that makes it interesting enough to go out on the first date” A whitepaper, a discount, free products etc… even if the prospect doesn’t accept your initial offer. It’s not just a smart sales technique but a sound business practice. By giving potential customers something of value, you position yourself as a resource and you initiate trial.

And then she told two friends and so on. By getting your customers and fans to refer you to their friends, you can grow your mailing list organically. Just include a “forward to a friend” link in your email and watch your list grow! Also, make your site content, newsletters, and social media both “sticky” and “sharable” by adding links on your page to “bookmark this site”, “send this article to a friend”, and “connect” on Facebook”.

Companies have to do a better job at targeting their email campaigns and testing the results. How many email marketers bother to verify their lists regularly? It’s very difficult to hit the target (2% open rate, 20% signup rate etc…) if the person has changed positions or doesn’t work there anymore. Email marketing is an iterative process which is a fancy way of saying you learn from your mistakes before try again.

Which leads to the next point, you have to have a follow up engagement strategy. It feels good to give away something for free but you have to plan the next steps to take. It could be a string of emails with special offers based on recipients browsing habits on your website. (Yes, there is a way to find out what visitors do after they come on your website). You could also direct them to your Facebook page and encourage them to become a fan for even more discounts. An email campaign is how they get to know you; the rest is up to you.

Goodbye doesn’t mean I don’t like you. For those people who unsubscribe because they prefer less communication; you could suggest that they follow you on Facebook or Twitter. You can keep the relationship alive with people who unsubscribe without offending them it just takes tact and diplomacy.

For more tips on email marketing visit me on Facebook!

Puisque que les propriétaires d'entreprise ont du mal à trouver des moyens plus efficaces pour atteindre leurs publics cibles et de créer plus d’engagement entre eux, il existe une tendance croissante parmi les consommateurs de ne pas écouter vos messages. Les budgets limités, une concurrence accrue, une plus grande vitesse d'aggraver les problèmes de marché et de réduire les marges d'erreur.

En prenant compte les publicités de la télévision, les annonces de la radio, l’affichage, les annonces dans les journaux, les bannières publicitaires et les annonces PPC (Paiement Par Clic), les consommateurs sont bombardés par 5000 messages de marketing par jour! Les consommateurs sont confrontés à la lourde tâche de déchiffrer tous ces messages et de choisir le produit qui répond le mieux à leurs besoins. Alors, comment pouvez-vous démarquer le message de l'encombrement de marketing et de renforcer la crédibilité de votre marque?

La réponse pourrait être dans votre stratégie des relations publiques. Longtemps considéré comme cousin éloigné du marketing, les departements marketing n’ont pas nécessairement intégré la PR dans leurs plans. La raison principale est que contrairement à la publicité, le marketing ne peut pas contrôler le message, les obligeant à s'appuyer sur l'avis d'un tiers impartial. Juste pour démontrer la puissance que des relations publiques peuvent avoir un impact négatif sur votre marque, nous pouvons simplement regarder ce qui s'est passé quand l'American College of Chest Physicians a publié un rapport sur l'inefficacité des médicaments contre la toux. Les ventes dans tous les segments de sirops contre la toux ont considérablement diminuées durant Janvier 2006, lorsque les éditoriaux des principaux médias qui l’ont publié ont atteint leur plus haut sommet. Lorsque l'intérêt des médias a diminué, les ventes ont rebondies. Des études ont démontré que les consommateurs sont plus susceptibles de prendre une décision d'achat basée sur un article que fondée sur une annonce. Alors pourquoi ne pas détourner les fonds du marketing aux relations publiques?

Ne pas être en mesure de contrôler le message n'est pas la seule raison pour laquelle les compagnies n'ont pas toutes sauté dans le train des relations publiques. Peut être n’avez-vous pas remarqué, mais les journaux, les magazines, la télévision et les stations de radio sont prospères dans l'ère de l'Internet. Le déclin du lectorat, les fusions, les réductions et l’affaissement des revenus ont un impact négatif sur l'industrie.

De plus, même si une entreprise décide d’optimiser ses efforts de relations publiques, cela ne signifie pas nécessairement qu’un média va publier un article sur son produit ou service;  Les relations doivent être forgées; la confiance et la crédibilité doivent être développées, tout nécessite temps, effort et argent. Avec des délais plus courts pour obtenir des résultats, il est difficile de blâmer les compagnies de ne pas investir du temps et des ressources dans une stratégie de relations publiques stratégiques.

Pour ces compagnies qui souhaitent établir leur crédibilité auprès de leurs publics cibles et d’accroître la notoriété et les ventes, un investissement (et non une dépense) en relations publiques est un investissement que les entreprises doivent faire.

Then you have to take into consideration all of those companies that have become international success stories through YouTube videos, such as Blendtec, the commercial blender manufacturer. In 2007, founder Tom Dickson took $50 and bought a white lab coat, some marbles and with the help of some other accessories (a few McDonald’s Extra Value Meals, garden rake etc…) and shot a series of five videos, asked viewers the Internet’s version of “To Be or Not to Be” in the form of “Will it blend? That is the question.” The Blendtec team then proceeded to blend everything and anything, posting their videos on YouTube. Not only did online sales increase by 500%, Blendtec created a viral storm with 155,945,374 views and 369,067 subscribers to its YouTube channel at last count.  I am guessing that more than a few viewers went and checked out the www.blendtec.com website and bought a blender. The Camera Store, Dave Carroll and Taylor Guitars and Old Spice are some of the other companies and brands that have capitalized on generating YouTube buzz.

When Google acquired YouTube in 2006 for $1.6 billion, it bought more than a website that showed everything from music videos to corporate presentations. It bought its entire video library, and then fed it into its search engine’s results pages (SERP’s).  YouTube receives the third most visited site in the world, with 2 billion views a day and 24 hours of video being uploaded per minute!

Now consider this scenario. You’ve hired a top notch SEO firm that’s been trying to get on the first page of Google search engine results without any success. There’s too much competition in your product category for you to higher organic search rankings. Have you thought about adding a video? According to Forrester Research, websites with videos had a 50% better chance of showing up on the first page.

Getting onto the first page of a search engine result and staying there, takes a lot more work than recording a video. But if you’d like to take one action today that will help build your brand, get customers to remember your brand and put you where customers are more likely to find you, maybe you should consider producing a professional video.

Cela fait longtemps que les departements des ventes et de marketing sont déconnectés. Le marketing crée des campagnes ciblées et se plaint que les ventes n'effectuent pas le suivi des clients potentiels.  Les ventes se plaignent qu'elles ne reçoivent pas des clients potentiels de qualité de la part du marketing (selon l'organisation, la qualité est une mesure subjective). Le marketing développe leurs interprétations de la messagerie pour les outils de ventes (les brochures, les vidéos, le publipostage et les présentations) et les ventes font leurs propres présentations PowerPoint qui causent de la confusion chez les clients potentiels par la réception de messages multiples pour le même produit. La discussion se poursuit jusqu'à ce que les directeurs réunissent tout le monde à la même table. Ça vous semble familier?

À la fin de la journée, les ventes et le marketing doivent se rassembler pour offrir une proposition de valeur unique claire et cohérente qui permet de développer une image de marque cohérente de l'entreprise et de ses produits. Forrester Research a récemment rapporté des résultats similaires dans une étude intitulée "L’alignement des ventes et marketing’.  Seulement six des soixante-six dirigeants marketing et des ventes qui ont répondu à l'enquête de Forrester, ont indiqué que les deux groupes ont travaillé en étroite collaboration.
Jeff Ernst, un analyste principal chez Forrester et auteur du rapport, déclare que tout d'abord les deux parties doivent s'entendre sur un profil de client idéal et déterminer le marché cible pour le produit. Ensuite, ils devraient arriver à une compréhension des besoins du client et identifier tous les facteurs qui influencent le processus d'achat. L'acheteur prend alors en charge la direction du processus.
Ironiquement, les ressources de l'entreprise avec le moins de contact avec l'acheteur, le Chef en Marketing, généralement mène le processus. À mon avis, un alignement véritablement représentatif inclurait l'acheteur dans une certaine mesure (personnage développé par la recherche marketing et recherche et développement) et le directeur des ventes. Cela peut prendre plus de temps pour développer un consensus, mais toutes les parties ont intérêt à ce que cela fonctionne.
Quelle que soit l'opinion que vous avez peut-être de réduire l’écart signifie que les ventes et le marketing devraient passer plus de temps à communiquer les uns avec les autres. Qui sait, peut-être qu'aller déjeuner avec le gars du marketing ou aller à la pêche avec le représentant n'est pas une si mauvaise chose après tout.