The age old saying about your mom having eyes in the back of her head has some scientific back-up. Okay, not actually having eyes in the back of her head, but scientifically, the rods in women’s retinas are greater in number and result in greater peripheral vision and the ability to see the whole picture, which is something to take into consideration as marketers to female specific items and environments.

Read more at: The Eye of the Female Consumer, 6/16/08 from WonderBranding: Marketing to Women

This summer, Starbucks launched a Smoothie campaign to reach out to consumers wanting a healthy drink choice. More recently, the coffee conglomerate announced 600+ stores would be closing nationwide. Yesterday, Starbucks rolled out Sorbetto - an idea formed from customer research and (!) a trip to Italy. Sorbetto is available in Los Angeles and Orange County, CA. Starbucks it seems, is facing a fundamental problem: “Starbucks is a mass brand attempting to command a premium price for an experience that is no longer special.” (John Quelch, Working Knowledge, 7/9/08).

Now it is possible to have some packaging for your walls, in wallpaper form of course. The whimsical, bright pattern consists of assorted graphics that resemble packaging of some favorite food products, like Skippy PB  and Ritz crackers. Seems like it would be fun in a small space, or against a single wall - though it would be crazy-making if an entire space were papered in its fun, off-kilter style.

Read this article that just came out from BrandWeek on the post-soccer mom that is now the “we” mom living and moving between digital tribes that is shifting how marketers work WITH (note, not AT) this new Gen Y mom.

Direct Mail Still Effective for Marketers

Marketing Sherpa

Jun 19, 2008

How To #HOW632

If your market includes tweens – preadolescent children who want to be teens but still act like kids – knowing how to get their attention is a critical first step.

The media habits of these 8- to 12-year-olds include TV, radio, magazines and video games – just like the Gen X, Gen Y and Baby Boomers before them. But those choices merely scratch the surface of the media worlds they enter for information.

Tweens – also known as Generation I (as in Internet) – are the first demographic that takes the online world completely for granted. After all, the Internet has always been there for them. Here’s a Special Report based on chats with a host of marketers to discover how to reach out to preadolescents. Why tweens? Well, for one, they control tens of billions of dollars in spending power.

Data About Tweens
Tweens are children who want to be teens but aren’t quite old enough yet. The United States has approximately 20 million tweens. Annually, this demographic spends about $1,442 each, or about $28.4 billion total, of their own cash, according to C&R Research Inc.’s ‘YouthBeat Syndicated Report, Fall Wave 1’ study. But that figure is only the start. Factor in the purchasing power that their parents spend on them, and that jumps to at least $260 billion a year.

How do tweens get their hands on all that cash? Other data from C&R:
o 77% are gifts from people other than parents/guardians
o 57% are gifts from parents/guardians
o 58% are allowances

Here’s what they spend the money on:
o 82% on video games, music, movies, books, videos/DVDs, virtual worlds, etc.
o 57% on food/beverages.
o 42% on toys (games/dolls/collectibles)
o 40% on clothing/shoes/accessories

Even though tweens grew up with the Internet, they don’t spend as much time online as their older siblings. 48% spend less than one hour per day online, compared to 81% of teens, according to a December 2007 study by the Nielsen Company. And, when tweens are online, 70% are gaming.

Now, let’s look at the sites they visit online. Here are C&R Research’s top five tweens’ websites:
1. WebKinz.com
2. YouTube.com
3. MySpace.com
4. Nick.com
5. Disney.com (a tie with Nick.com)

Here are the types of sites they visit:
o 82% entertainment/media sites
o 53% TV channel sites
o 46% music sites
o 36% video-sharing sites
o 20% movie sites
o 15% magazine sites
o 15% sports sites

Tweens do spend some time on social networking sites, such as MySpace and YouTube. But most don’t become seriously entrenched in those sites until the last phase of their tween years.

“We see migration to usage of social networks sites at about ages 11 and 12,” says Jacqueline Lane, VP, TeenEyes Division, C&R Research. “Overall, tweens who are on [these sites] are not really that engaged in it. And, for the most part, they end up on these sites because of older siblings — wanting to be like a brother or sister.”

Tweens also use mobile phones, according to Nielsen:
o 35% own a mobile phone
o 20% have used text messaging
o 21% have used ring and answer tones

Tweens Evolve into Multitaskers
Past tweens’ brand favorites were influenced by television the most. Now, they have several media entities competing for their time. There’s plenty of evidence that tweens multitask: they’re surfing the Web while watching TV.

For instance, Grunwald Associates’ 2007-08 study, “Kids’ Social Networking,” discovered that 30% of young people ages 9-17 multitask between the Web and TV at least once a day.

Peter Grunwald, President, has watched the change and points out the opportunities for creative programmers and marketers. “They should be developing real-time online environments designed to run while the show is airing. This includes character-specific chat environments, real-time games that pit fans of one character [against] fans of another, real-time polls, etc.”

And here’s a compelling data point from Grunwald’s study: nearly 40% of children age nine to 12 have participated in sponsor-branded interactive activities.

Tweens as ‘Internet Natives’
The first point marketers have to understand about today’s tweens is that they see computers as extensions of themselves, says Kelly Thompson, Associate Director, Strategy & Insights, Space150. “It’s often a situation where the 12-year-old is the tech support person in the family. Technology is really a second language.”

Thompson has worked on marketing to this segment for several well-known brands – most recently launching a tween site for Dairy Queen. The site is concluding a soft launch and has been getting an impressive 10.9 minutes average time spent.

Based on Thompson’s experience, here are three factors that marketers need to consider when focusing on tweens:

-> Factor #1. Tweens are media-savvy

Unlike their Baby Boomer, Gen X and Gen Y predecessors, tweens are digital natives. “These kids are so media-savvy. It’s about engaging and involving them with interactivity – rather than talking *at* them. They can smell when someone is being condescending to them, which represents a brand they do not want to be a part of.”

-> Factor #2. Tweens want to be entertained online

Tweens want a fun interactive online experience that accents their social behaviors in some manner. Think virtual worlds, games, creatures and quizzes – experiences they want to be a part of.

“Kids are always looking for something new, something entertaining,” Thompson says. “They’re seekers. Their online experiences become cultural currency for them to take back and to talk to their friends about.”

-> Factor #3. Tweens’ development is complicated

With the help of today’s more democratic parenting style, tweens have more choices how to spend their time, so they want their time to be valued. “They are a complicated segment developmentally to connect with in a relevant and authentic way. So, that’s the mindset we take when focusing on tweens.”

-> Top 7 Dos and Don’ts for Tweens Marketing

Tweens know they want to enjoy their time no matter what they do. This makes it hard for marketers to get their heads around addressing this demographic.

Here are seven dos and don’ts:

#1: Target with a tween sensibility

Tweens are testing the boundaries of independence. They still need the reassurance that children require, but they won’t respond well to being targeted as children in a public way.

That’s why it’s crucial to avoid referring to the fact that they can’t make up their own minds about issues in the household. Highlight how your product helps them achieve control. If it’s a child-oriented product, don’t try to make it appealing to all tweens by misrepresentation.

#2: Combine online and offline

Grunwald’s research points out that the possibilities for multichannel marketing to the multitasking tweens is growing. Here are three examples of ways to combine your online marketing with promotions in the offline world:

- Street teams that hand out flyers at events that tweens attend
- Direct mail where the primary call to action is a dedicated website for tweens
- Ads on TV shows that are popular with tweens

#3: Make them laugh

For five years, C&R Research has found that humor is the No. 1 aspect tweens value in an online experience; they love to laugh.

Boring them or missing their hot buttons can have strong repercussions, says Space150’s Thompson. “They might try your brand out and say, ‘That’s not for me.’ And, that is the real challenge here. You want that experience to be rich enough and engaging enough for them to come back to.”

#4: Avoid nonconformity

Community and “fitting in” is critical for tweens. While teens might enjoy being out on the fringe, tweens won’t find a break from the crowd to be a characteristic of coolness. Instead, they’ll see individuality as something negative and even scary. Show your product in a social setting that projects group unity.

In fact, being comfortable is at the heart of tweens’ sites, such as the one Dairy Queen has created. “It’s about providing an experience that’s both compelling and appropriate for their age,” Thompson says.

#5: Downplay the “ick” factor

A commercial on TV may be totally kid-targeted, but online, you’re likely to be reaching kids and their parents. Therefore, be kid-targeted but Mom-friendly. In other words, if your product is gooey or has other elements Mom might consider unsavory, don’t overdo it.

#6: Blend fantasy & reality

Teens are rooted in reality; kids love fantasy. For tweens, a fantasy/reality combination is most appealing. Think of tween-oriented shows, such as ‘High School Musical,’ ‘The Suite Life of Zack & Cody’ and ‘Bindi, the Jungle Girl.’

Better yet: look at what the No. 1 tweens’ site, Webkinz.com, has done by combining their plush animal dolls with their website. Talk about interactivity. Webkinz.com is the Holy Grail of where reality and fantasy merge in the tween mindset.

#7: Deliver different messages to boys and girls

Boys want to demonstrate mastery. They’re all about gaming and winning. Give them games and tools to interact with one another. Those might include the ability to email game scores, challenge a friend to a game, show how high up they can get their names on a high-score page.

Girls, on the other hand, want to know how others perceive their world. They’re much more interested in fitting in and being popular. Girls want to see polls of what’s important to others, have the chance to vote on their favorite model and find idols to emulate. Show them trends in fashion and anything else that helps them wear the right thing, like the right people and talk to the right group at school.

#8: Avoid email campaigns

Emailing tweens is generally an unsuccessful marketing approach. Plus, you need to follow laws about children very closely (more on that in the next section).

“Newsletter marketing is not an effective tactic for tweens at all. It’s the interactivity stuff that really wins,” says Parry Aftab, Executive Director, WiredSafety, an online child privacy authority.

COPPA Overview: Follow the Law
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) mandates that websites must obtain parental consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information from children under 13. COPPA applies to individually identifiable information about a child that is collected online.

This includes:
o Full name
o Home address
o Email address
o Telephone number
o Any other information that would allow someone to identify or contact the child

According to COPPA’s website, it also covers other types of information – for example, hobbies, interests and “information collected through cookies or other types of tracking mechanisms – when they are tied to individually identifiable information.”

The legal landscape gets a bit more complicated when it comes to tweens. For example, Texas Attorney General’s Office settled in March 2008 with TheDollPalace.com that tested COPPA’s restrictions. Mainly, the final agreement mandated that the company had to make sure “all information displayed or collected on their websites is age appropriate based on the average users of those sites.”

“COPPA never said anything about [appropriateness],” says Aftab. “If the attorney generals at the state level are now working with COPPA in a new way, you are going to see a lot of different [legal] applications.”

Therefore, make sure that you stay in touch with your company’s legal counsel to watch for potential state-by-state developments.

Denise Tayloe, President, Privo, a privacy management website, adds: “Social networks are under extreme pressure by 49 state attorneys general to figure out how to protect or separate kids and adults, and this is leading to discussions of age and identity verification and parental consent.”

If you decide you want to email tweens, make sure you follow the COPPA guidelines closely. These include a mandate to get a parent’s email address, send a confirmation message and allow for a chance to opt out the child from your database.

Another tip: in the email, make clear what content is for which gender or create defined-content areas for boys and girls so they can easily go to their specific areas of interest.

Useful links related to this article

Creative Samples from Tweens Campaigns
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/tweens/study.html

Past Sherpa articles on tweens:
Tweens: A Force to be Reckoned With: Changing Consumption Habits of 8-12 Year-Olds:
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/research-detail.html?id
4859

Email Marketing to Tweens: COPPA Loopholes, Demographics, Creative Samples”
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/barrier.html?ident=2332

Reality Marketing Story Part III: 4 Unexpected Lessons of Marketing to Teens and Tweens:
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/barrier.html?ident=2372

COPPA.org:
http://www.coppa.org

COPPA Privacy Law Blog:
http://privacylaw.proskauer.com/tags/coppa/

Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARUE):
http://www.caru.org/

C&R Research:
http://www.crresearch.com

Grunwald Associates LLC:
http://www.grunwald.com/

Nielsen Company:
http://www.nielsen.com

Privo:
http://privo.com/

In a sign that the apocalypse is near (and enjoying a plate of Moons Over My Hammy), the hot new club in town is, apparently, Denny’s. Hoping to appeal to the youth demo, the chain is launching a “Denny’s AllNighter” multimedia promotion that includes, per Brandweek, a “dimly lit club ambiance” and alt-rock music from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. (Can diners stay open that late? Aren’t there zoning laws?) The waitstaff, probably all MTV wannabes, will swap their crisp Denny’s slacks for T-shirts and jeans. Of course, there are blogs and social-networking components and an “Adopt a Band” contest that lets diners choose which groups get promotional support and free Denny’s food out on tour. The latter would probably compel most bands to make it big as quickly as possible so they can trade in the Denny’s fare for buffets at the Four Seasons. The tagline is a real oddity: “Nothing good happens after midnight—except Denny’s.” Actually, I’m too old and unhip to know.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Essentials for Integrated Marketing
As More Power Shifts to Consumers, Need Grows for Common Metric and ‘Renaissance Marketers’

By Bob Liodice

Advertising Age, June 09, 2008

Integrated marketing communications isn’t new, but it’s gaining momentum as power shifts from the marketer to the consumer and as marketers recognize the power and efficiency of taking a holistic approach to engaging consumers.

Several studies, including one recently conducted by the Association of National Advertisers, indicate that achieving effective IMC campaigns is marketers’ primary concern. But there is considerable uncertainty about how to staff, design, manage and measure the success of such programs.

Although 74% of firms we’ve surveyed say they are using IMC approaches for most or all of their brands, only 25% rated the quality of their IMC programs “excellent” or “very good” — underscoring the need to identify best practices and address the barriers that can impede IMC efforts, including a lack of strategic consistency across communications disciplines; the absence of a common IMC measurement process; the existence of entrenched functional silos inside marketing organizations, as well as within their agency partners; and the dearth of cross-discipline skill sets among marketing staff.

So what it will take to overcome these obstacles? Four imperatives:

1. STRATEGIC CONSISTENCY

An IMC campaign should start with a compelling consumer insight that can be translated into a strong, differentiated marketing strategy. This leads to the development of a creative “brand idea” that drives each discipline’s tactics. For many brands, however, a very different process typically takes place. Each discipline articulates its own strategy and develops its own brand ideas, which, executed independently, fail to deliver the exponential power that’s possible with a strategically integrated campaign.

Teamwork: All Kraft Foods brands use cross-functional teams to create integrated campaigns. One of the successes of that approach is its South Beach Living line.

Procter & Gamble’s brand-building framework requires that every marketer, multifunctional brand builder and agency understand who the target consumer is, what the brand represents in consumers’ minds, and how marketing can be optimized to reach target consumers when and where they are receptive.

MasterCard’s marketers took another path in creating the “Priceless” campaign. It was less about linking different media and more about connecting all components of the marketplace — merchants, issuers and consumers. Each audience received tools that enabled the “Priceless” vision to seamlessly integrate across the business.

Ensuring consistency is the responsibility of the marketer, who must keep all disciplines — people, messages, tactics and budgets — performing in unison and must constantly guard against tactics straying from the overarching brand strategy.

2. COMMON MEASUREMENT PROCESS

Traditionally, each marketing vertical uses its own measurement protocols. Vertical or function-specific measurements are useful, but we need to go further. Although organizations have become more skilled in crunching numbers, there is no single, consistent set of metrics that transcends discipline-centric measurements.

In a recent article in Ad Age, Jack Neff noted the “new opacity” arising from having a multitude of information but no common way to process it. The lack of a standard measuring process is one of the most serious integrated-marketing challenges.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Liodice is president-CEO of the Association of National Advertisers. Prior to joining the ANA in 1995 as senior VP, he was VP-global marketing and sales for Grupo Televisa, a worldwide broadcaster.
ANA marketers are finding new ways to overcome this impediment and working to create a new, more comprehensive cross-functional approach. Advances in marketing-mix modeling make it especially useful in today’s multichannel marketplace because such models can isolate the effects of individual elements — even when they appear to be working in concert. This new thinking requires flexibility, creativity and a willingness to change.

In an ANA Advertiser magazine IMC roundtable, Karna Crawford, director of media and interactive integrated communications for the Sparkling Business Unit at Coca-Cola Co., discussed the importance of having the mentality to think differently and end some “tried and true” measurement approaches. In her opinion, “there is no ’silver bullet’ change, particularly when you think of how TV is measured. That’s a deeply held, entrenched, traditional approach that has all sorts of financial and systematic factors related to it. It will not be easy to get people or the system to change.”

3. FUNCTIONAL SILOS

For too long, marketing functions have been vertically organized by media type. This siloed approach is mirrored on the agency side, with rewards based on discipline-specific P&L models. These silos must be torn down.

The client-side strategic integrator must involve and lead a team of colleagues who have the responsibility, vision, understanding and commitment to engage in a media-agnostic planning process. And this team of enlightened marketers must be willing to let strategic goals — not historic patterns — drive budget allocations.

Useful links: MasterCard (top) and Wachovia each connected with different parts of the marketplace — consumers, marketers, analysts — to make integrated approaches work.

To eliminate silos, the strategic integrator should lead a multistep process that accomplishes the following: looks at different silos that operate together and determine who should be engaged and the scope of their role; evaluates any resistance, whether it is technical, political or cultural; determines a tactical approach for each in the new initiative; creates purpose-driven teams by focusing on core objectives, not the company organization chart; and takes steps to improve process and technology issues so that all players have the correct information and resources at all times.

All of Kraft Foods’ brands, for example, use cross-functional teams to develop IMC programs — an approach that has led to many successes, including its South Beach Diet initiative. Wachovia Bank created a triumvirate of resources by merging executives from finance, marketing and analytics — a unique partnership that created the culture, organization and functional expertise necessary for its vision to succeed.

4. PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

Achieving strategic integration requires a top-to-bottom reinvention of the marketing organization. This transformation must be led by “renaissance marketers” — a new breed of holistic professionals who are system thinkers, customer-centric believers, innovators and dreamers.

These individuals should be cross-trained to understand the entire marketing spectrum and learn discipline-specific skill sets. Increasingly, these leaders will need strong quantitative skills — a key finding in the ANA’s Marketing and Media Ecosystems 2010 study — in order to analyze the data-rich resources and leverage mathematical tools now available, especially if they are to drive cross-disciplinary approaches that fuse disparate consumer-engagement channels. Above all, they need to be superior team leaders who have the insights, talent and passion to take marketing integration to new heights.

]]> http://ultracreative.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/essentials-for-inegrated-marketing/feed/ http://ultracreative.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/wii-is-1/ http://ultracreative.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/wii-is-1/#comments Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:25:17 +0000 ultracreative http://ultracreative.wordpress.com/?p=45

By Randy Salas

Nintendo’s Wii has surpassed Microsoft’s Xbox 360 as the most popular video-game console in U.S. homes. We just don’t know yet when it happened exactly.

Every month, the industry-tracking NPD Group releases video-game sales data for the previous month. Last week’s June report once again showed the Wii outselling the 360 by a significant margin in May, nearly half a million units (675,100 to 186,600). That gap has been holding steady for the past several months. (In fact, even the once-sputtering PlayStation 3 is now consistently outselling the 360.)

So I asked NPD what the installed user base — the total number of systems in U.S. homes — was for the Wii and 360 as of May. These data are not part of the monthly report. The response from NPD spokesman David Riley: 10.2 million units for the Wii and 10.3 million units for the 360. (The PS3 is a distant 4.5 million.) With the Wii’s recent performance, it doesn’t take much to extrapolate that the Wii has already made up that 100,000-unit gap in the first few weeks of this month and is now the top console, not just in monthly sales but also in total sales to date.

The Wii has done this even though it came out a year after the 360 — and it’s still hard to find in stores. It has succeeded based on its agreeable $249 price and buzz over its unique motion-controlled games. Casual gamers of all ages have flocked to the Wii. 

We’ll know for sure when NPD releases the June figures in mid-July that the Wii is No. 1. But consider this an early heads up.

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Starbucks has launched a new website promoting the care to hear and promise to honor the ideas of their consumers with My Starbucks Idea.

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