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Olympian Ryan Lochte, who was dropped this week by major sponsors including Speedo and Ralph Lauren, has found a brand willing to take him on. Pine Bros. Softish Throat Drops signed an endorsement deal today with Lochte, who will appear in commercial and print ads for the brand. The swimmer thanked the company in a tweet today. Lochte embellished the story of what he claimed was a robbery at gunpoint with fellow swimmers at a gas station in Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics earlier this month, lying about it to NBC's Billy Bush and Matt Lauer (and inspiring some shade from the likes of Al Roker, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, who all called him out for his behavior). Lochte apologized to Lauer in an interview that aired on the Today Show on Monday, saying that he "over-exaggerated" the events of that night. Lochte's ads for Pine Bros. will feature the tagline, "Pine Brothers Softish Throat Drops: Forgiving On Your Throat," just as the company—and Lochte, himself —is asking the public to forgive him. ...
What's a little e coli among friends? That's the question US fast-casual dining chain Chipotle will soon be asking its best customers. After publicly eschewing the idea of launching a customer loyalty programme last year, Chipotle executives said on an earnings call last week that they aim to stem the flood of frequent diners abandoning the chain with - wait for it - a loyalty programme. Though the programme is likely to be temporary, Chipotle hopes it will reignite customer passion for bowls and burritos. The problem: Chipotle executives still seem to display a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of loyalty programmes.
The announcement was one of the only positives in an earnings call that can only be described as apocalyptic: same store sales fell nearly 30% in the first quarter of 2016 and the company posted a net loss of $26.4 million. The company has tried everything to pull out of the free fall: giving away millions of free burritos, BOGO offers, national advertising campaigns; nothing has worked. Money quote from reporter Virginia Chamlee over at eater.com:
"The aim is to target the most loyal Chipotle consumer — i.e. the one who visits 25 or more times per year. The company saw the largest declines among its top loyal (25+ visits a year) and its 'light' consumers (those that visit two to five times per year). Noting the decline in visits amongst its once most-loyal customers, [Chief Marketing and Development Officer Mark] Crumpacker said the company would love to get that 'habit' back up. "We do believe it's beneficial to us to get people back in the habit of visiting Chipotle [as often as they used to]."...
t every marketing effort can be a success, that’s why there’s testing and optimization programs – to find what works and build on those wins and learn from those losses. And usually when things don’t totally go as planned, the result is more, "meh," than "time to break the panic glass."
But then there are situations marketers never want to find themselves in, whether it’s a social media meltdown of their own creation or worse, a full-blown crisis.
Here are cautionary tales from 2015 where marketing definitely went wrong... in a major way
Today more than ever, food has become one of the most important—and discussed—choices among U.S. consumers. Since food purchases are heavily influenced by trust, Boston-based consultancy C Space released a study exploring customers' perceptions. "In today's marketplace, consumers are more actively engaged than ever in choosing what foods to buy and what brands to buy them from," said Alan Moskowitz, director at C Space.
"Given the speed that information travels, brand trust can increase or erode very quickly in consumers' minds. For brands, staying close to their customers can help them stay in touch with evolving attitudes and help them collaborate with consumers on new products, packaging and marketing that earns or maintains trust."...
What needs and priorities define the contemporary American consumer? The Future Foundation took a look as at some key trends shaping modern life, and using its findings, selected four startups the research firm feels will appeal to these consumer needs and desires.
“They all skirt the boundary between the real world and virtual world in ways that suggest that very boundary is breaking down. They all help people take control of their lives and its objectives, and they all propel real trends. That’s why we’re watching them with keen interest,” said Meabh Quorin, managing director of the Future Foundation. “When a startup addresses actual changes in consumer behavior, it’s not just an innovation; it’s a solution.”...
...If you read the profiles of many of the heads of customer service on LinkedIn (or the service areas of their company’s websites), you might be forgiven for concluding that they were almost all focused on the lofty goals of “exceeding customer expectations” and/or “creating customer delight”. Maybe your organisation claims the same.
But ground-breaking recent research by the CEB (the organisation that brought you “The Challenger Sale”) makes a strong case for all this talk of delighting customers being a stupid and – for almost every company on the planet bar a few shining stars – ultimately unprofitable strategy. As anyone who has had cause to phone O2’s customer service line (note: other mobile phone companies offer an equally awful experience) will recognise, I think most of us would be prepared to sacrifice the occasional opportunity to have a truly “wow” experience in return for not ever having to suffer any more of the much more common “doh!’ experiences....
Fashion company Benetton caved in to pressure from the Vatican and pulled a Photoshopped ad that showed Pope Benedict XVI kissing a leading Islamic imam, the International Business Times reported Thursday.The Vatican responded with furious protests over the image in the company’s Unhate campaign, released Wednesday, which showed the Pope smooching with Egyptian Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayyeb.“This is a grave lack of respect for the Pope,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi fumed.
Among major U.S. corporations, who’s winning and losing in the creation and protection of their reputations online? A new infographic from MGD Advertising in Southern Florida provides some surprising results. First, the trends: Currently, 94% of Google GOOG +0.27% search results are organic–not paid ads. Yes, your online reputation is that important. Forty-two percent of adults have scoped someone out on the Internet before doing business with them (I would count myself among those numbers). Of those, 45% have changed their minds about doing business with someone based on something they found....
...Organizations such as Intel are beginning to look and operate more like media companies. They’re evaluating topics and trends in real-time and creating a brand narrative across multiple networks, a transition that doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of content to fuel that many channels–and a dedicated team to manage the ideation, creation, and analysis of that content. More importantly, it takes a lot of quality content to generate engagement with audiences across continents and timezones, and for Intel engagement is a key metric. In fact, Intel conducted a study benchmarking the Facebook engagement rates of other brands similar to Intel in size and standing. They found–much to their delight–that Intel came out on top with higher levels of engagement than any of the other brands. Intel also discovered that organic engagement (vs. paid) had steadily increased over time, confirming the right content is hitting the right audience. But how does Intel come up with the “right” content, then find the “right” audience? What are they doing differently than those other brands?...
How should companies respond on social media when their followers are focused on a crisis? Should they shut up? Offer condolences? Here are some thoughts.
One of the hardest things that brand reps have to plan for in social media is what to do in the event of a national tragedy.
Perspective comes first, of course.
When news broke about the school shootings in Connecticut on Friday, the marketing firm where I work had to decide how to advise our clients. There is no single right answer, but there are plenty of wrong ones. Our goal was to actively avoid the wrong ones.
As we saw in the aftermath of the Newtown school shootings last Friday, marketers are still learning how—if at all—to respond when such devastating instances arise.
Here are a few things we can take away from these experiences...
...The big question that opened the conference: which has more influence on purchase consideration and recommendation, reputation or brand? As new research presented by Robert Fronk of Harris Interactive revealed, the answer depends on what dimension you’re looking at. The Harris study found “excitement,” “quality,” and “outperforms expectations” rating high among brand-centric influencers, while “clear vision,” “strong growth potential” and “good company to work for” mattering among reputational factors. None of that should come as any surprise. The big wow came from Harris’s painstaking cross -tabbing of data. As it turns out, the combination of positive brand equity and positive corporate reputation drives purchase and recommendation to a degree that often far exceeds the sum of parts. The Council packaged it up well as Hidden Harmony, a valuable white paper on the study.... ["Hidden Harmony" is a valuable white paper and important reading for PR, branding and marketing. The most important take is the power of brand equity and reputation working in concert. ~ Jeff]
It's safe to say that at the height of Groupon's popularity, almost everyone, even Google, bought into the hype. Trouble is, you can't build a successful business on hype. Somewhere, someone at Google was smiling last week as Groupon’s stock fell 30 percent to it’s lowest price since IPO — below $3. But it only takes a quick review of Groupon’s business model to make you scratch your head and wonder what that someone smiling was thinking when Google offered to buy Groupon in late 2010 for $6 billion. It’s safe to say that at the height of Groupon’s popularity, almost everyone, even Google, bought into the hype. Trouble is, you can’t build a successful business on hype. Long-term growth requires an actual investment in something much more tangible — your customers.... [Another valuable dotcom lesson ~ Jeff]
I was on a short flight from NY back to DC yesterday and opened a copy of the NY Times to find a full page ad with the simple declaration “Marketing is BS.” Beneath that attention-grabbing headline, Adobe called this “Myth #1″ as part of their campaign to speak to marketers and business people about how to measure results more effectively. The ad was targeted to marketers, but it has an unintended side effect … a lot of people agree with the so-called myth. Despite working in marketing for more than 10 years, let me first share this rare point of view among people in my industry: a lot of marketing actually IS complete BS. One reason is because much of it looks like this recent ad from Chanel #5 featuring Brad Pitt... [and I agree LOL... ~ Jeff]
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Speedo and Ralph Lauren have ended relationships with U.S. Olympian Ryan Lochte, a decision that comes after the swimmer was accused of fabricating his tale of being robbed in Rio de Janeiro.
"Speedo USA today announces the decision to end its sponsorship of Ryan Lochte," the brand announced in a statement. "As part of this decision, Speedo USA will donate a $50,000 portion of Lochte's fee to Save the Children, a global charity partner of Speedo USA's parent company, for children in Brazil."
As for Ralph Lauren, the company said its endorsement agreement with Lochte "was specifically in support of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the company will not be renewing his contract." ...
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending my seventh Edelman Trust Barometer launch event in Toronto. This year’s results are some of the most interesting I’ve seen, highlighting a disparity in trust amongst what we call the “informed” public and the mass population, and the ongoing failure of businesses to live up to the expectations that people have of them when it comes to societal good (you can see the full results on SlideShare).
One of the interesting notes in this year’s Canadian Trust Barometer results was that trust in social media has fallen over the last year. In fact, social media was the only one of the five media types we examined to experience a decline in trust....
Transparency is important to all elements of the food movement, but it is particularly relevant in the realm of chocolate, Carla Martin, lecturer on African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and founder and executive director of the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute, told Quartz. She cites examples like Cadbury’s ignoring the use of slave labor in its supply chain in the early 1900s, and early industrial chocolate makers who were found to be bulking up chocolate with corn sugar.
“It’s something that people involved in the craft chocolate movement are very concerned with,” she says. “There are ideals about this kind of openness in one’s business practices and it comes from very real concerns about fraudulent practices in the food industry.” Similar concerns continue to the present day: Most of the world’s chocolate comes from West Africa, where practices like child labor and rainforest clearing are rampant.
It’s easy to attribute all of the negative comments to resentment from other chocolate makers—Mast Brothers gets incredible press from a range of publications all over the world. “There is a certain kind of jealousy,” Bernardini told Quartz over email, “but more of an anger.” “But [chocolate makers] should also be angry with the media as it is the fault and responsibility of the media that Mast Brothers became so famous (with a mediocre and sometimes also bad quality). Only because they wore clothes like Amish people with long beards.”
Within the last couple of years, you are now starting to see actual companies sharing their revenue numbers and many other things (likeemployee’s salaries). Often times, these sorts of posts are the most read. It attracts readers of all kinds, not necessari,ly just potential customers.
Some of the companies doing this are venture backed, and some are bootstrapped. It’s what makes them fun to read. You see a diversity of tactics and strategies being implemented based on what stage they are in.Here is a list of companies providing regular revenue reports that are worth the read, along with a quote from their founders about why they do it....
Two years ago Savannah Peterson worked as the head of marketing for a design firm in Silicon Valley. She was introduced to a company making a newfangled photo device. The gadget, called Instacube, ...
Instacube launched a Kickstarter campaign in August of 2012 with the promise of a March 2013 ship date. The Internet fell in love with Instacube, and the device raised nearly three times what it sought. Cut to March of 2014 and not one Instacube has been shipped. Today, at a one-on-one interview at South by Southwest, Peterson told her story....
It worked. Peterson was able to wrangle an article by Engadget, and from there the dominoes fell. Instacube was on CNET, Mashable, and TechCrunch. The campaign had intended to raise $250,000. Within the first 24 hours it had secured more than $100,000. By campaign’s end D2M had raked in $621,049.
Then D2M had to build it. This is where things begin to fall apart. The March 2013 deadline came and went and zero devices had been shipped. Backers, understandably, became impatient....
Apple's new ads are failing.
Here are the 10 most effective ads of Q2 2013, according to Ace Metrix, a company that measures audience responses to commercials. The No.1 spot was by AT&T, advertising a Samsung Galaxy S4 Active, which can survive being dunked in a fishbowl. Samsung's own ad for the GS4 came in at No.8
Apple wasn't on the list...
U.S. consumers have fallen out of love with tech giants Apple and Google, according to recent market research by YouGov BrandIndex.The two companies have fallen off the top ten list of best-perceived brands in 2013. Google was listed at number 10 in the second half of 2012, while Apple had already dropped.
However, it doesn't seem to be technology the public has lost interest in: Amazon made two appearances in the list with its Kindle e-reader brand at number nine and Amazon, which took out the top spot for online retailing, came in at number two out of all brands....
While shipworkers in Mobile, Ala., are busy scrubbing and sanitizing the ill-fated Carnival Triumph, it seems cruise passengers are cleaning up with big discounts... Subsequent problems with the Carnival Dream and Carnival Legend, however, put the company back in the spotlight — the Dream cut short a cruise in March while the Legend had to skip a port call — and a soon-to-end sale was extended for another week. “The word I would use is ‘desperate,’” said Jay Caulk, general manager of The Travel Experts in Pompano Beach, Fla. “They have a lot to do to get rid of the black eye.” That’s not the reason for the discounts, says Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen: “These prices apply to just a handful of close-in sailings,” he told NBC News. “We’re trying to top off the voyages.”...
A recent study shows that fewer than one-third of big brands that have Twitter accounts answer customer tweets. They interact more on Instagram or Pinterest.... "Leaving a tweet unanswered is more damaging than not having a Twitter profile at all, but many businesses learn this lesson too late," he says. Even more confounding is that Twitter seems to be alone among social networks in that regard. Though fewer retailers are active on Pinterest and Instagram, most of the ones that have active accounts on those networks regularly interact with customers. So what's the reason so many tweets directed at retailers engender no reply? Social media experts have a few theories....
What happens when you combine corporate reputation and brand equity? A powerful “Hidden Harmony” that can result in exceptional business results. According to a 2012 research study by the Council of Public Relations Firms and Harris Interactive, the outcome is a powerful “Hidden Harmony” that can result in exceptional business results....
Recent research conducted by the Council of Public Relations Firms reveals that there may be an even stronger relationship between brand equity and corporate reputation than previously thought. An analysis of 50,000 consumers showed that when these two strategies are combined, the effects are stronger than the individual power of each. These results have a big impact for marketers. They suggest that by combining brand efforts and corporate reputation efforts, companies can achieve better results with respect to things such as purchase consideration and recommendation.... [Interesting study worth noting by both marketing and PR ~ Jeff]
In face of disaster, where should you draw the line between an opportunistic sales push and complete silence? “Sandy Sale”, “This Storm Blows (but Free Shipping doesn’t)”, “Franken Storm Franken Sale” and “Every Cloud has a Silver Lining” were amongst the slogans used by businesses during the disaster – leaving many New Yorkers gobsmacked and outraged by the insensitivity. Superstorm Sandy hit New York almost two weeks ago, taking over the East Coast of America and leaving it in turmoil. Sparking 20 million tweets, and an estimated 1.3 million Instagram photos, Hurricane Sandy is one of the most talked about topics on social networks to date. With New York slowly getting back on its feet and recovering from the disaster, we take a look at how retailers and businesses reacted online during the largest Atlantic hurricane and investigate how sales and marketing should be managed times of tragedy. Just because something’s made the social news, should you join in?... [Quick review and analysis of marketer missteps during hurricane Sandy ~ Jeff]
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Disgraced Olympian Ryan Lochte, who was dropped this week by major sponsors including Speedo and Ralph Lauren, has found a brand willing to take him on. Pine Bros.