What is Market GoGo?

Market GoGo is a specialized Marketing Consultancy, based in Calgary. Market GoGo focuses on a few things that will help you to make your company more successful. Those things are strategic in nature, and focus on things that many companies just don't have the experience or the depth to do. Those things are:

• Brand Audit: A review of the "personality" of your company or a particular "brand" your company represents. It covers a wide swath of customer interactions and experiences with your brand from brand standards (signage, lettering, colors, etc.), to advertising, to customer service representatives, to your website, to your positioning statement, and so on. The goal of a Brand Audit is to help you understand your brand's assets and customer perceptions and subsequently to make decision and changes that will ultimately help you to drive more sales.
• Web Marketing and Advertising strategies: Web Marketing is all about doing five things as part of your Web Portfolio: Get prospective customers to your website, Convert prospects to customers, Up-sell and cross-sell to customers, Provide online service to customers, and Get customers to come back to buy from you again. This portfolio runs the gamut from bidding on Google text ads, to banner ads served by Advertising Networks, to mapping the web sales process flow, to researching customer behaviour on your website through analytics and customer research, to opt-in email marketing, and on, and on, and on!
• Project Management of your Strategic Marketing Projects: Marketing Project Management ensures that projects are delivered on-time and on-scope by the "delivery partner" (e.g. an IT Development Team or a Product Development Team). The Marketing Project Plan also ensures that the Marketing specific tasks - such as Communication and Advertising - are put in place at the right time.
• RFP Response for your B2B opportunity: Writing an RFP response is an arduous task. It is also one that you may not get to do enough, and consequently you aren't practiced in crafting a great response that will catch the attention of the team that both crafted the RFP and will review your response. Your response should get you noticed, and get you to the "next step" in the negotiating process.
• Aligning your Contact Center's Behavior with your brand: Most Contact Centers or Call Centers focus on technologies and practices that will drive cost-cutting through their business. For example, the use of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems has been lauded by the Call Center industry as a great way to cut costs. But just find a customer who REALLY likes dealing with an IVR. Wouldn't you like your Call Centre's behavior and technology to provide the appropriate brand experience that your customers expect? That's the goal of Market GoGo's Contact Centre Strategy Approach.

Contact Market GoGo to find out more about how we can help you with your Branding and Marketing.

What's so important about a Marketing Project?

Is planning, running, and delivering a project for a Marketing department any different than delivering for a Finance department or an Operations Department? One short word ... YES!

There is a dramatic difference between a Marketing project and any other project. A Marketing project is a time-constrained activity that needs to deliver so that:

• Press Releases, Advertising, and other communication can be coordinated for the launch,
• Sales teams can be made ready to go,
• Call Centres can be informed of the change, and
• You can make a whole bunch more money!

On the other hand, if a Finance project runs late, the CFO gets a little bent out of shape. Sales don't plummet or jump. No one goes to jail. (Well, okay, I guess that could happen but typically it won't be the fault of the project. Unless of course the project required a big paper shredder.) Similarly, if an Operations project runs late you can forecast the delay, and people can get ready for the whole thing.

That's why things need to be handled a little differently for a Marketing project.

Have a look at how Market GoGo will help you plan, manage, and deliver your Marketing Project in order to make it (and you) successful.

Nintendo Wii Fit Balance Board - I wish I'd thought of that first

Don't tell my wife (shhhh...). For the last week I've been looking for a Nintendo Wii Fit Balance Board for her for Christmas.

Congratulations to Nintendo for creating the MUST HAVE Christmas gift for three years running. For the last two years the Wii and a wide variety of their games have been THE hot item at Christmas. This year it is the Wii Fit Balance Board.

I've tried searching the web. I can't find any Balance Boards anywhere for their real retail price of about $100 Cdn. I could buy several of them on eBay for about 3x that price. And, I could buy them from Amazon's resellers (again for several times their actual price). I found a couple of US-based e-stores that are selling them for several hundred dollars as a kit with different types of software and accessories. But, I just can't bring myself to do that!

Then I searched every retail store in town. Strike out! They are sold out everywhere. A few stores pointed me to other stores when they heard a rumor that the other guys might have the Wii Fit. My hope soared. I checked. NOPE.

But, I did find out the other day that a Toys 'R Us location was going to have 50 of them this morning. They expected line ups. They didn't even advertise it. They only went with word of mouth. By 9am the line had about 300 people in it. I wasn't one of those 300.

Going back nearly 20 years, one of the jobs I held down while in school was front-line retail. It just happened that those were the years of the Care Bear frenzy. I remember line ups in front of the store, and people literally fighting for their space in line.

So - aside from the fact that my Wii Fit Balance Board search continues, and I only anticipate it to get more desperate (and I expect that I'll have to change out my gift giving aspirations sooner rather than later) - at some point I want to be involved with the opportunity to help create a brand like the Care Bears or the Wii that absolutely changes consumer behavior.

The Renaissance of Web Advertising?

"Renaissance" according to Wikipedia comes the French and means "rebirth".

Since about 2001 when the big internet bust took place it has been hard to convince hard-core traditional marketing people that they should be turning their hard-won advertising dollars to advertising "experiments" on the web. Even in the face of grossly successful tests, hard-core traditional advertising people still believed that their dollars were better spent on out-of-home bill-boards, prime-time TV spots (plus production, etc.), and weekend newspaper inserts.

But, new research from MarketingProfs.com shows that the tide might be turning. The renaissance for Online Marketing could be the current Financial Crisis. In the MarketingProfs research report Benchmark Research on Marketing in the Economic Crisis ($199 for members, and free for Premium Members (the Premium Membership pretty much pays for the research report)), they note that 16-26% of firms are looking to reallocate their marketing budgets among alternatives. The big winner stands to be Web Marketing. From their report ...

Digital marketing vehicles may provide an opportunity to stretch a marketing budget. Those marketers who can best position themselves vis-à-vis the competition and can capitalize on creative and innovative use of online marketing tactics may be able to reap the greatest return on the shift in allocation to this new media.

So - the time is right to plan your web marketing and advertising strategy.

• If you are a traditional advertising person ... don't delay, get online now.
• If you are an online advertising person ... the time is right. Strike while the iron is hot.
  

Brand Audit Sprints

I was inspired by a blog by Neal Stewart this week. In short, he did a great job of quick brand audit for Cracker Jack. Based on that, I am going to follow in his footsteps, and do a quick weekly brand audit of a company.

How will this Brand Audit Sprint be different than a regular Brand Audit?

1. First and foremost, where a real Brand Audit would take several weeks to do right, my goal is that these Brand Audits should only take a few hours.
   
2. Also, where a real Brand Audit would include substantial market research, these will rely solely on the social element of the web to provide me user reviews, etc., and consequently give me an indication of the perception of the brand.
   
3. Finally, where a real Brand Audit would require substantial face time with a company's Marketing Department and several of their front-line operations teams, this Brand Audit will only be based on my guesstimates of the company's Marketing Plan and Brand plans.

The outline for the audit will start out as:

• Select a Brand and take or find photos of it in use. Purpose = a Visual "record" of the product.
• Learn about the Company's Strategy by figuring out what I can from publicly available documents (e.g. Annual Reports, etc. from their website). Purpose = a background on what the Brand should reflect.
  
• Analyze Porter's 5 Forces (really briefly). Purpose = A snapshot of Competitors, Substitutes, Suppliers, Customers, Potential for New Entrants
• Research public perception of the Brand & Direct Competitors using the Internet. Purpose = a cheap (and likely poor) substitue for real research
• Review Brand Identity Standards by taking a closer look at the product, it's packaging, it's web-site, and it's advertising. Purpose = a "Guesstimate" at the brand book for the Brand.
• Review Brand Expression at Touch Points: Test out the Brand's 1-800 number, their email, instore, help, etc.. Purpose = Understanding of how Brand is engrained in employees, e-contacts, etc.
• Review Advertising & Promotion including YouTube, Press Releases, any other media campaign I can easily find. In addition I will look for commentary on the Brand's advertising from Marketing and Advertising sites. Purpose = Understanding of how the brand is advertised.
• Evaluate Brand Positioning and Differentiators. Purpose = Understand what "word" the brand owns, and how it supports that differentiation.
• Review brand extensions. Look at how the Brand is used (or misused) on extensions. Purpose = A guess at how and why the company has stretched the Brand assets.
• Summary & Recommendation: After looking at all of that, I will provide my summary and recommendation. Purpose = A bit of satisfaction at a dive into a brand.

"Check this space" frequently to see how the Brand Audit Sprint experiment works out!

Bad Call Centers

I used to have the worst job in the world. I designed IVR and CTI systems. If you don't know what that means, try this for a scenario ...

I called this frickin 1-800 number for my insurance company and got one of those darn automated systems. It wanted me to tell it what I wanted. After several failed attempts I told it that I wanted it to F-off. That didn't work. Then it asked me for my policy number. I read it in. It got it wrong. I tried again. It got it wrong. Finally it transferred me over to a real person. That's what I wanted right from the start. A real person.

Yah - IVR and CTI are those cold systems that make call centers and contact centers run. And, they are the systems that everyone hates. Even the people who created them hate them. The first thing all of us do is attempt to zero out.

At a party, the best way to end a discussion is to tell people that you create IVR and CTI systems. Typically an Internal Auditor or a Colorectal Surgeon will have better luck starting an interesting conversation than an IVR and CTI consultant.

But, I have seen the light. What do I mean?
Improving a call center or contact center is not actually about shaving a second off each call. While operations personnel in a call center believe that it is, the Marketing department knows better. Improvement in a call center is all about synchronizing the experience at the customer touch-point with the brand's promise.

The process to synchronize a Call Center's operations with a Marketing Department's brand aspirations starts with a mini brand audit, and ends with a road-map for improvement. The road-map provides a call center an appropriate technology, process, training, and "people" plan that will empower the call center to deliver on the brand promise. It also involved educating Finance, IT, HR, and other departments along the way about the need to align the brand promise, and the cost and (even bigger) benefits of doing so.

The road-map can include IVR, CTI, and other technologies. However, it will specify the brand alignment that is critical for success. In the end, you can have your branding and save some seconds too.

I was reading a great blog and LinkedIn question today by Patrick Byers. In it he posed the question "Will the economy kill creativity?"

My answer to that ...

The economy may not kill creativity, but it will beat it around for a while.

It is time for the accountants to do battle with the marketers. For the past 15 years or more the Accountants have had to dream up projects to suck the life out of companies (SOX, Y2K, etc.). Meanwhile, Marketers have been able to run rampant with poorly performing ad campaigns and nary a concern for their own brand. It didn’t matter. The economy was so strong and people were so crazy about spending every last dime and then some (a lot of some apparently), that no marketer could do wrong.

Now it’s time for the Accountants to have their revenge! Over the next year or more every Marketing effort will be pecked to death and creativity will die.

So - it is time for Marketers to “start again” and do some navel gazing to make sure they are doing the right thing. The right place to start is to clearly understand your brand and to be able to own a word in the consumer’s mind with respect to your brand. From there, you can start again on your marketing plan, and ultimately some great and successful marketing projects.

What will you do for the next 18 months?

According to the latest buzz from our world leaders, this economic "crisis" will end in 18 months. The CBC reports:

The global financial crisis will be overcome by mid-2010, say leaders from the 21 member countries attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru.

The leaders issued the optimistic forecast at the end of their two-day summit in the Peruvian capital.

"We are convinced that we can overcome this crisis in a period of 18 months," the leaders said in the statement. "We have already taken urgent and extraordinary steps to stabilize our financial sectors and strengthen economic growth."

The words of confidence were added early Sunday to a joint declaration that APEC leaders originally issued Saturday.

One delegate, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the changes were made at the request of the summit's host, Peruvian President Alan Garcia.

All very interesting. I wonder if it is at all credible. What is credible is that the dip and sway in the economy has put Accounting departments all over the world back in charge of the corporate controls. That means that if you are in a Marketing position, you are really going to have to watch your activities to ensure that they are providing great payback.

Where does that start? I think it starts at the top of your Marketing mission - ensuring you have a solid brand. To do that starts with really understanding your brand and how you stack up against your competitors. One way to achieve this is through a Brand Audit.

• The goal of a Brand Audit is to put a line in the sand with respect to "getting" where you are with your brand, and where you need to take it.
• Flowing from this you can set your Marketing Strategy, Advertising Tactics, and so on.

Another thing it means is that every project you take on will need to be successful. That means that Project Management will take on an entirely more important role. You need to be sure that you have:

• A great business case,
• A solid project plan,
• A skilled and coordinated team executing on the plan, and
• An inspiring Go-To-Market communication plan.

You have 18 months to take a breather and get the important stuff done. I hope you just enjoyed that breather. That 18 months needs to start Monday morning.

Looking for a job in Marketing ... maybe you should look for something else

I've been working on the Search Engine Optimization for MarketGoGo.com, and in running at test I searched the simple term of "Market GoGo" on Google, I'm not ranking very high yet.

In scrolling pages of Google search results, one of them caught my eye. I ended up looking at a site by Simply Hired, that showed the trend on hiring GoGo Dancers. Based on hiring trends, it looked promising. Not that I'm really going to be a GoGo dancer in any way shape or form (fortunately for everyone). That led me to do a search comparing the demand for "Vice President of Marketing" personnel versus the GoGo Dancer.

As it turns out, the Gogo Dancer kicks butt.

Check it out. Since March 2007, the following has occurred:

• Vice President Marketing jobs increased 2%
• Gogo Dancer jobs increased 361%

Okay - the numbers might not be telling the whole story here. First off, people who are qualified to be a VP of Marketing probably won't land any of those GoGo Dancer jobs any time soon. Secondly, there are 107 VP of Marketing jobs on SimplyHired, and only 5 posted for GoGo Dancers.

There has to be a deep marketing lesson in here somewhere. Maybe it is that you can always fine a way to use numbers to support your case. On the other hand, you really shouldn't ever try to make numbers tell a tall tale rather than the truth.

Great Reads

Looking for a good book about Marketing? Head on over to your favorite online book store and buy a copy of:

• David Ogilvy - Ogilvy on Advertising --> this book is a bit dated, but as soon as you crack the cover it calls out to you "Read me and don't put me down until you're done." It is full of some terrific insights from one of the greatest visionaries in the field.
  
• Pretty much anything with Al Ries' name on it, including... - The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing --> I found that as soon as I started reading my first Al Ries book I was hooked. It was fun to read through his laws and start to apply those to the work I was doing (man - was I ever off track on some things). It was also fun to start thinking aobut some of the other brands that are close to my heart and seeing where they were winning and losing. Once you apply these laws, it is so obvious "why".
  
• Alina Wheeler - Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands --> Here's a great book that will give you that Popular Mechanics "How To" for creating your brand look and feel. This is a fun read. Every page will give you something to take away, think about, and use!

The 222 Immutable Laws of Branding and the Designing Brand Identities books each provide great input into putting together a Brand Audit.

Market Gogo is open for business.  This small business is being put together to do a few things.  Those few things are strategic things that many companies just don't have the experience or the depth to do.  What are those things?

• Brand Audit, 
  
• Web Marketing and Advertising strategies, 
  
• Project Management of your strategic marketing efforts, 
  
• RFP Response for your B2B opportunity, or 
  
• Aligning your Contact Centre's Brand to the real image your brand should project.
  

"Watch this space" for articles on these and other topics.