June 24th, 2009 — Think about it
Have you ever seen a Bed Bath & Beyond ad on TV? In a magazine? On the web? I haven’t. Yet they have the biggest brand recognition in the space and enjoy industry leading customer loyalty. How do they do it?
Instead of giving their marketing budget to NBC or Martha Stewart, they give it to their customers. Every week in the mail they send a coupon for $5 off or 20% off any item. I went in with my wife a few weeks ago to by a new set of pots and pans. BB&B had what we wanted on sale. They also had an offer of a $50 gift card if you spent over $500. And we got 20% off the entire deal from the coupon. As we were checking out (with a $100+ in other merchandise that we happened to pick up) I giddily said to the guy working the register “Add in the $50 gift card and you guys paid me over $100 to buy these pans. How can you afford to do that?”
And he said: “Have you ever seen a Bed Bath & Beyond advertisement? We’d rather pay you. Have a great day.”
[Admin note: Sorry for the unexpected silence over the past week.]
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June 11th, 2009 — advertising
Good news, bad news.
The Good News: Study after study is confirming that marketers are spending more on word of mouth advertising at the expense of more traditional advertising. Marketers are finding consumers to be far better and more valuable marketers of their product than media companies. Nice Work!
The Bad News: We don’t get the money.
But volunteering makes you feel all warm in the inside right? Not in this case. You and I provide the value. We do the work. Advertisers write the check. The money just isn’t flowing to us. But it can.
Over the next 2 weeks, I’ll be blogging more often and more specifically about an effortless way to redistribute the flow of advertising dollars to consumers. To you and me. After all, advertisers are spending more on word of mouth. We should be getting a raise.
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June 4th, 2009 — It's Official
Some of the folks I speak with think the advertising industry is simply in a normal recession induced funk. That is not the case. The ad industry was in turmoil prior to the economy turning and the downturn will only serve as the timber that broke the camel’s back.
To demonstrate this point in humor and in song, I present Mad Avenue Blues. The latest parody video on YouTube, expertly put together to the tune of American Pie. It’s a bit lengthy (as was the original song) and certainly aimed at people associated with the ad industry. But when I watch this and think about all that is broken and crumbling, it makes me even more certain that change is a comin’!!
In all this turmoil, there is one point that is often forgotten. Marketers still want to spend lots and lots of money getting their message in front of us. The people spending the money are still on board. They love us more than ever. It’s just the middleman part that is broken.
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