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Social Media Business Plan & ROI

Found in: Strategy
Monday
December 1, 2008
2 Comments

Missed this last week due to the holiday, but I wanted to share a link to Beth Harte’s excellent post called Want to Figure Out Your Social Media Plan? Consider a Plan. It’s an excellent primer on developing a business plan for social media and setting clear goals in order to measure ROI. Not only is the post informative, but it has spurred a great conversation in the comments on different ways to define and measure ROI with a social media plan. I’ve just skimmed through the comments, but I know I have a lot to read and digest tonight.

Black Friday design and aggressive retail marketing

Found in: Black Friday, E-Mail Marketing, Holiday 2008, ecommr
Wednesday
November 26, 2008
No Comments

Over at ecommr, we’ve been adding e-commerce elements related to Black Friday. Head to ecommr to see a roundup of the different banners, homepage landing, and e-mails that retailers are using to promote their Black Friday specials. More will be added as we come across them.

As a related note, it appears (to me) that retailers are being more aggressive in their marketing for Black Friday, with earlier campaigns and with more detail. Normally, promoting specific price points for comes right before Thanksgiving. But this week has been filled with “online previews”, television commercials, and e-mail marketing that seems to be more aggressive and detailed than years past. Retailers are trying to step up their game in order to capture a larger piece of the shrinking sales pie.

Walmart and Target both have their Black Friday ads online and featured prominently on their homepages. Kohl’s even has an entire section on their site that allows customers to browse the Black Friday ad and make a printable shopping list.

Express Lane for November 13

Found in: E-Mail Marketing, Economics, Express Lane, Holiday 2008, Retail
Thursday
November 13, 2008
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Some stories that are on my radar this morning:

McDonald’s is testing no-brand marketing in Japan by opening a store without any of the colors, logos, or branding of their traditional stores. Supported through non-traditional marketing such as hand outs, viral campaigns, and a unique website, the store offers two menu choices and that is it. Intriguing concept and I wonder how long it is until we see that more often in the United States. Jon Sykes also shares his thoughts on this campaign.

Linda at Get Elastic has a very informative post about the benefits of pushing educational content, rather than sales promotions, in e-mail. In Should Retail Email Sell or Inform? An A/B Split Test Case Study, she provides a look into an study into different types of e-mails that were sent out from a retailer and provides concrete information on ROI, conversion rates, and sales results. Summary is, content is king and the e-mails that were focused on educational content and information performed better than the sales oriented e-mails. Good information for all retailers.

Over at CNBC, Cindy Perman writes about the impact the economy is having on second hand and consignment shops. Some intriguing sales numbers from Goodwill and quotes from consignment store owners that reflect the uptick in sales and traffic they are seeing this holiday season. At least someone is seeing positive gains this season.

Lesson in how not to brand: Cocaine Energy Drink

Found in: Branding, Business
Wednesday
June 6, 2007
2 Comments

Cocaine energy drink is a drink marketed by Redux Beverages, LLC. Last month, it was announced that the FDA had issued a warning letter to them suggesting that it was not proper to market an energy drink under that name with the slogan “a legal alternative”. In response to mounting pressure against the drink name, the drinkmaker said that it was ceasing distribution of the Cocaine energy drink and shortly after announced that they would be renaming it as Censored.

As I wrote last month, this was the first time I had ever heard of the drink. I agree that the name of the drink was quite silly and they were trying to build a brand about something controversial without actually investing the time to build an lasting brand. It was a horrible attempt to be edgy.

Last night, while at my local deli, I noticed that they still had several cans of the energy drink. I figured I would give it a try to see if maybe, just maybe, there was something there. If the drink is great, maybe the company can spin the band press and use that level of awareness during the rebranding. All PR is good PR, right?

But boy, is this drink putrid. I’m sorry, I’ve drank a lot of energy drinks and weird sodas, but this one was pretty nasty. I couldn’t even finish the can without getting heartburn, so I put it down and moved along.

Maybe the drinkmaker was right to try to brand themselves in an edgy, controversial way in order to gain marketshare. It’s obvious they don’t have much else going for them. The product, in this case, seems like an afterthought. It’s almost as if the brand was conceived of first and then the product was developed.

Lesson learned: develop a great product first and build a brand around that. Focus on what sets you apart from the competition and what you deliver to the customer. Don’t rely on a gimmick when sculpting your brand, today’s consumers are too smart for that and eventually, they will move on.

Coolata vs Coolatta – what’s in a name?

Found in: Branding
Tuesday
June 5, 2007
No Comments

Boy, do I feel like an idiot.

Yesterday I wrote about the new Sobe Energy Coolatta at Dunkin Donuts. But you know what I didn’t realize? In my multiple mentions of the word “coolatta” in that post, I spelled it wrong every time. Stupid me.

I don’t feel so bad, since I am currently the number one Google search result for “sobe coolata” and that has actually driven a bit of traffic to this site. Welcome!

Maybe this post will put me towards the top of the results for “Sobe Energy Coolatta” or “Sobe Coolatta”, with the proper spelling!

There’s some more information about the new drink at QSR Magazine (of course they spelled the name right!) and also an official website, that doesn’t seem to have much to it right now, at Coolatta.com.