The Changing Channel
In the “good old days” companies built a ubiquitous brand, unique products and then dictated their terms and funds to sales channels. Brand advertising was typically handled via one of the three major TV networks aimed at the mass market to create a “pull” that would have customers do whatever it took to get those products regardless of price, location or availability. 
 
Product marketing teams would assemble sales and marketing material, and route it to partners via partner portals or directly to their offices, assuming the partner had everything needed to sell the companies a certain product or service. And that approach worked, especially with those partners who were former employees.

Business was good and predictable, but then things began to change. More channels became available and, as a result, it was harder to reach and influence key customers; the window of having a truly unique product shortened, and partners started seeing a greater choice of products to recommend, all with different incentive programs.
 
Gradually the power of the transaction was shifting further down the value chain, leaving companies with less influence over the point of sale. Companies began asking themselves how they were going to get back into the game. Along the way, they discovered the following concerns:

• Inconsistencies in communication about marketing programs, incentives, service and who owned the customer left partners confused and frustrated. 
• Partners felt as though they received little to no marketing support from manufacturers, despite having piles of marketing material and funds thrown at them.
• An even more concerning trend was starting to develop, with partners using less and less of the marketing funds available to them.

The old “push” product and programs through partners and “pull” customers to your products through mass marketing was no longer working. It was time to rethink the model.

Scott Gillum

Senior Vice President - Practice Leader

Channel Marketing

This is the really good stuff: getting a peek into the psychology of buying behavior. Having studied it for years, I will say, in general, we business people are highly motivated by the perceptions of our peers. We’re often equally, if not more so, motivated to make decisions that will reduce the chance of negative water-cooler chatter as we are by making decisions that are or will be perceived as ”smart.” What do you think Freud would have said about that?

Judy Begehr
Senior Vice President, Brand Consulting – North America

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

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Rick Segal
Chief Executive, North America
Global Practice Leader, B-to-B

Vowel Sounds Influence Consumers’ Perception of Prices
By ALEX MINDLIN
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/business/18drill.html

Researchers have known for 80 years about a symbolic connection between speech and size: back-of-the-mouth vowels like the “o” in “two” make people think of large sizes, whereas people associate front-of-the-mouth vowels like “ee” with diminutiveness. Marketers can use this effect to make consumers think a discount is bigger or smaller than it truly is, according to a study soon to be published in The Journal of Consumer Research by Keith Coulter of Clark University and Robin Coulter of the University of Connecticut.

In one experiment, researchers told consumers the regular and sale prices of a product, asked them to repeat the sale price to themselves, and then, a few minutes later, told them to estimate the size of the discount in percentage terms. Products with “small-sounding” sale prices (like $2.33) seemed like better deals than products with “big-sounding” sales prices (like $2.22).

In another experiment, the researchers used a pair of sale prices — $7.88, which sounds “big” in English, and $7.01, which sounds “small” — but are the other way around in Chinese. Chinese and English speakers had opposite perceptions of the products’ relative value.

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Rick Segal
Chief Executive, North America
Global Practice Leader, B-to-B

Everyone has a theory on the causes, from the shrinking longevity of CMOs to the changing sophistication of consumers to the squeeze of the economy. As much as it frustrates agencies, I believe it is a multiple of that for clients who desperately want success (and who doesn’t?) but struggle to find an agency relationship that gives them what they think they are looking for—impressive results generated by big ideas, ingenuity and strategic prowess. 

Many years ago, I read an article by Mark Goldstein, who was then at Fallon, talking about how clients could get the most out of their agencies. There were some good insights. Since then, I have come up with at least nine (and probably more) fundamental principles that nurture a meaningful relationship between the marketing agency and client, which ultimately leads to powerful, game-changing results. If a client will demand these principles by removing the perhaps natural roadblocks that might exist in the organization, it will create with the agency a flourishing, productive and impactful relationship that will outlast current trends.

1. Demand complete agency immersion in your business. Great clients open up their kimonos to the agency. Let agency employees work in your stores, go on sales calls, and sit in product and sales training meetings. Share everything—research, sales figures, good or bad news—that is relevant to helping the agency do its job.

2. Have the agency known at all levels within your organization. The more information shared, the greater the contribution from the agency. It’s not just a relationship between the marketing officer (or department) and the agency. It’s a merging of the best thinking of both organizations.

3. Have your CEO involved. When there are big, courageous decisions to be made, the ultimate “where-the-buck-stops” person must be involved. And it’s not just for decision-making. Have that person involved in the strategic discussions early on so he or she has ownership all the way through.

4. Have the agency sit at the strategic table. To maximize its impact, give the agency the opportunity to contribute at the executive strategy level. You’ll find the agency to be much more in tune with corporate vision and will realize ways to enhance it.

5. Set clear, measurable goals with the agency. What is considered success? Notice, I said “with the agency.” It’s a collaboration so everyone feels ownership. Give the agency your sales figures in real time so they see and feel it as you do and can adjust and collaborate accordingly.

6. Be brave. Empower your agency to explore innovative solutions that may be outside your comfort zone. Give them the opportunity to prove their ideas and then support them inside the organization.

7. Give your agency room to fail. If you want your agency swinging for the fence, you have to give them the latitude to miss once in a while. If you give them confidence to think big, they will. When you do criticize them, make the feedback constructive and then press on.

8. Celebrate successes. Celebrate big ideas that got you there. Acknowledge the agency. Praise them often. Find opportunities to bond with them. Be their biggest fan. You’ll find they will fall on swords for you.

9. Show them the money. Give your agency ample resources to do their job. Be realistic and understand what it takes to accomplish your objectives. Take time to know how they allocate resources and collaborate with them. Allow them to set up compensation structures that untie their hands to contribute and be creative at the highest level.

Bryan Thomas
President, GyroHSR Denver

4. Nokia sells phones, among other things. They created a mobile app called Nokia Money to handle basic financial transactions through their mobile device.

You get the idea.
 
Think of it like this: Marketers have always given stuff to customers and prospects to keep them interested in their brands. And it used to be good enough to offer a coupon, a white paper or more recently watch a video of a white paper as a means of connection. But now brands need to try harder to become more customer-centric and connect in more meaningful ways. We need to be asking: What do my customers need, want and desire? What would make their jobs easier, their lives more fulfilled and maybe more fun? 
 
Combining that customer insight with creative and engaging solutions is the key to creating usable, useful and desirable experiences that ignite your customers and your brand. Activity like that keeps your brand alive and well considered for the slam-dunk purchase.

Mike Tittel
Senior Vice President -
Global Practice Leader - Digital

This has also been posted to Mike’s blog: http://artistinthefield.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-has-your-brand-created-for-me.html

1/ 0.02mm is interesting in the right hands. Especially if those hands are the D&AD award winning team behind Sagami’s ‘Love Distance’ campaign

2/ Markets can behave irrationally. How else can we explain UK bookmakers making England second favourites for the World Cup? (Yes I know, it’s the punters not the market that are behaving irrationally).

3/ We’ve gone real time. We’re texting, twittering, facebooking like …. It’s all about ‘Now’. Admittedly Vodafone cottoned onto that a while ago but Samsung tapped into that nicely with ‘impatience is a virtue’

4/ Hash can be bad for your health - hash tags that is - as Habitat found out earlier in the year when trying to use coverage of the Iranian election to sell sofas.

5/ The success of a campaign can be judged on recall of a TV execution? That was the argument some experts made to explain why an ad by ‘Confused.com’ had performed better than one by ‘Compare the Market’. Missing the point I think when you see that Mr. Aleksandr Orlov now has well over 600K facebook fans.

6/ That being said, TV advertising is far from dead. Comcast proved that without question – simply genius

7/ There is more than one way to skin a cat. Or launch a new car. As VW showed with the Golf GTI in the US

8/ You really are only as good as your last burger. See Fallon + Sony + Balls.

9/ Baku is interesting the first time you visit. On each subsequent trip it is blustery, dusty and a long way from home. Bakcell were doing well when we left them though.

And finally, one other thing that I now know all too well:

10/ Nappies are easy. Not pleasant, but easy. Thanks for every one Avie x.

Richard Mabbott
Group Head of Planning
GyroHSR

http://vimeo.com/8220802

Rick Segal
Chief Executive, North America
Global Practice Leader, B-to-B

My husband, Paul, and I decided to run a race about two hours away from home. The last time we did something this ridiculous, we had a good friend who showed up and cheered us on at various points along the route. It meant more than she will ever know.

This time, we were far enough away, and not entirely sure we would finish the race, so we didn’t ask—and didn’t want—anyone to show up and witness this physical and mental self-inflicted torture. 

When we picked up our number bibs the day before the race, we noticed our first names were printed on them right above our numbers. We remarked at the time that it was a nice touch and didn’t give it another thought.

The first half of the race was actually really good. We were making great time (for us), able to carry on a conversation without passing out, and generally in decent spirits. Then, at about mile 18, I hit the wall. Hard. Like really, really hard. Paul was going … “strong” would be an overstatement, but certainly he was going, and fairing a bit better than I was. At this point I was calculating how big of an embarrassment it would be if I didn’t finish. How much it would kill me if I really did quit. How deeply I could dig to keep myself going, knowing that was my only option.

And then we heard it. All of a sudden, as we turned a corner onto a side street, someone yelled, “Way to go, Paul!” We looked at each other in utter bewilderment. Then we looked around and verified there was no one there we knew and decided it must have been a fan yelling to someone else. About five minutes later, we heard it again. The third time we heard it, we finally figured out what you have surely deduced already: Spectators were reading our bibs and personalizing their support. It’s not unusual for people to yell and cheer for strangers in that last stretch of the race, but the personal aspect really made the entire experience quite different. Every time we heard, “Keep going, Paul!” or “Looking good, Paul!” or “Great job, Paul!” we both grinned from ear to ear. It was truly amazing! There was only one problem: No one was cheering for me.

Maybe I looked unapproachable, maybe Paul is cuter, or maybe people just didn’t like my spandex running outfit, but rightly or wrongly, we decided that it must be because my name is so much harder to pronounce. “Paul” is pretty easy. It’s hard to mispronounce that name, right? But “Adryanna” is a four-syllable head-scratcher, not for the faint of heart. I was OK with this. Really. I got it. But I didn’t quite share in the adrenaline rush Paul was getting every time he heard his name called out by complete strangers. The easy name. Personalization about as basic as you can get. Like printing your first name on the outside of an envelope or at the top of an e-mail. Good stuff—don’t get me wrong—but pretty basic.

Then someone took a chance. Paul and I both confirmed we heard someone yell something that was pretty darn close to the pronunciation of A-d-r-y-a-n-n-a. Paul and I burst out laughing. Woot!!! I got one! And before we crossed the finish line, I got another one!

The fact that people went to the effort to cheer us on in a personal way was motivating, without a doubt. The fact that two people went the extra step to muddle through my name  was inspiring, and it helped me find that little something extra I needed to finish the race.

So personalization, to me, has taken on a whole new meaning, and I will never underestimate the power of being personal.

Adryanna Sutherland
President, GyroHSR Cincinnati

In the second phase of our research, entitled “Minding the Eco-Gap”, we’d like to uncover what marketers currently think about the green consumer. Our questionnaire comprises of nice short questions that should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.

You can complete the questionnaire by visiting http://green.gyrohsr.com

For every completed questionnaire, we will donate £1 to MacMillan Cancer Support.

By

Patrick Danaher
GyroHSR
Marketing Manager