The Marketing Muse

Are You Ready for the Digital Age of Books?

2008-03-20T20:18:00Z

I remember Len Riggio, founder and Chairman of Barnes & Noble used to say that people buy far more books then they ever read, which was good for business. Those books piled up by the bedside table, filled home dens and offices, and gathered dust, profitable dust. Then came audiobooks, great for those long drives to Vermont. And finally, reluctantly, the publishing world was pulled into the digital age.

Barnes and Noble experimented with the early days of on line books, with eBooks and the eReader from Microsoft. That was in the late 90's, but it never took off. But now it looks likes books may be ready to go digital in a much bigger way. New digital devices, readers as they are called, have emerged from Sony and Amazon. On line readers configure text on line so it is easier on the eyes.

About three years ago, I got asked to join my colleague, Sol Nasisi, on the board of his business, The Next Big Writer.com. I was shocked how quickly the site gathered steam among amateur writers who would pay $49.95 a year in order to have their work reviewed and critiqued. A unique credit system allows reviewers to earn credits that allow them to post more of their own work. There is a free site, too, called Booksie, that attracts a younger more hip audience and is big on genres like sci fi and fan fiction.

And this week, it seems the business press caught on.

Kim Blanton today published an article entitled Author, author with the byline:click here to view the story

The Web offers a ready outlet for aspiring writers who want to get their work out in front of professionals for critiquing, publishing, and promotion.

She not only mentioned TheNextBigWriter and Booksie but also featured many of the writers from the site.

The article discusses how publishing, like music before it, is going digital and explores some of those consequences. To me, it includes new ways for traditional publishers to find talent (via writing communities, social networks, etc.) as well as ways for authors to publish and promote themselves.

Books are clearly lagging music in terms of their migration to a digital, portable medium, but it’s coming. All I need to do is look at my kids and how comfortable they are on a computer and with electronic devices to see that soon paper books will be seen as luxuries - like real wood in cars.

That’s my opinion at least. If you disagree, feel free to say so below.

Your Customers Are Creative, Too!

2008-03-09T20:25:00Z

Perhaps it started with the Doritos ads on the Superbowl over a year ago. It appears that "user generated content" is everywhere. There is a site called ExpoTv where consumers have created thousands of video product reviews. Consumers get paid $2 to $10 per review and the opportunity to win bonus money, but that seems like a small incentive for the amount of work that goes into the videos. There must be something uniquely embedded into our American DNA that takes us away from TIVO and friends to spend time in front of the camera reviewing the most mundane of products. Here's one recent example for Hanes panties Expo TV Hanes Panties ad that might not get you clicking to Walmart.com to buy them any time soon. Or how about this one for Hanes socks. This guys got it going on! Hanes Sock Consumer video

These consumer video reviews are enough to make you long for the good old days of three TV network mass marketing. But wait a minute. There are some hidden gems out there. Heinz ran a YouTube contest for the best consumer ad where the winner would get $57,000 and they got hundreds of entries. Here's one they did not pick but should have; I worked on Mad Ave, I'd be worried.

It seems marketers are listening and recognizing that if consumers can have fun creating web YouTube videos, maybe they can, too. Rolling Rock used the medium well, recognizing that what might not pass the network regulator standards for TV is fair game in the wild web. They ran brilliant teaser ads on TV that drove millions to the web to view the full ad show here.

Another great example of the promise of social media for brand building is the Vaseline Sea of Skin video. It launched on YouTube on the home page for 24 hours and got 3 million hits, and many viral shared hits after that. It's a simple promise. Your skin is amazing. Help keep it that way. But again, the ad was just a bit too racy for TV, which drove millions to view it. Have a look for yourself:

I know much has been written about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. And I think at it's core is a great idea that strikes at the heart of the beauty industry, that girls and women should be happy with their own real beauty, and their inner beauty. It's highly differentiation. How Dove delivers on this promise of this idea with breakthrough product and the philanthropic charity is critical. Their ProAge product video (again, internet only, too racy for TV) is brilliant, as is the tag line, Beauty Has No Age Limit.

With all this new user generated media, the role of marketing communication shifts from trying to saturate or burn a message into the minds of consumers to one of facilitating the conversation about brands and how they fit into the lives of consumers. If brands are in their essence relationships formed between a product or service and the consumer, then social media is building communities of interest, then it should be ideal for brand-builders. Just remember that you no longer control the conversation, you are part of it, facilitating it, influencing it perhaps.

It's The Branding, Stupid

2008-03-09T03:41:00Z

This is an interesting article by Jack Trout in Advertising Age sanctifying the role of marketing as defined by Peter Drucker: to develop “the distinguishing and unique function of the business” because a business exists for customers and a differentiated brand drives customer growth. He then cites and charts a joint study between the Marketing Executive Networking Group and Anderson Analytics and argues that senior marketers are focused on the wrong things, like data mining and ROI and segmentation and Wall Street. As a result, he says, we CMO’s can’t hold our jobs for more than 24 months.

I can’t help but want to believe both Jack and Peter, as a classically trained brand guy (JWT, J and J, Pepsi), but then I catch by breath and ask why is it just so damned hard to convince our CEO’s, our CFO’s and ourselves that this creating distinct and poweful brands and branded experiences is our primary purpose in life? Why is branding such a naughty word in the C suite and beyond? Is it because we don’t see our role as working on innovation to build superior products and services and experiences that drive differentiation and propel customer demand? Is it because we let our colleagues confuse branding with marketing communication or god forbid, advertising? Is it because we can’t stand tough to the CFO’s and CEO’s or even the CTO’s who don’t value a differentiated brand’s impact on the bottom line? I’ll tell you one thing, A.J. Lafley the CEO of P and G quotes the same Drucker quote, too, and it shows because P and G is doing a good job re-defining the process and role of innovation and marketing in collaborative, global world.

Then I wonder, too, in a Google and Facebook world, a TIVO, iPod world and tomorrow’s new medium world, that we senior marketers may very well be spending too much time worrying about what works tactically (because we really don’t know do we?) and we justify this as a marketing plan, or worse, a brand-building strategy.

Yes, Peter Drucker and Jack Trout, you are right: branding is king, because over time it does bring in customers. And we need to convince to our colleagues in the C suite that it takes time, and patience is a virtue. I believe the real reason for the short tenure of CMO's is that the gulf between accountability (for revenue and profits and brand and customer experience) and authority (to drive these things through the organization) is huge and continues to widen. Until that changes, the revolving door will continue to spin.