The Marketing Mix Blog

Beer brewer; better run better run

Posted on January 14, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

One of the headline stories online today began like this:

Queensland brewer Castlemaine Perkins has been forced to defend its latest TV ad for XXXX beer after complaints were made about the commercial containing a song about a school shooting.

You can read the whole article and view the ‘offending’ ad by clicking here.

Now the ad itself is actually quite good, but it’s the music, Foster The People’s popular song ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ that’s the real issue. I’d always wondered what the lyrics of that song were on about;

“All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, better run, better run – out run my gun. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, better run, better run – faster than my bullet”

Ahh…now I see. Somewhat bleak but a catchy song nonetheless. Also, I think its about a fictitious school shooting not a particular one; but still a song that deals with pretty dark themes.

LA band Foster The People

Now when you decide to pour a whole lot of dollars into your new TVC you certainly need to think long and hard about audio; because in reality it’s half your ad! Not to mention the fact that royalties for music can often be half the cost of the TVC itself. You need to consider both the beat/tune of the music (is it upbeat enough, is it fast enough/slow enough etc) and the lyrics. Do the lyrics reflect your brand and your message?

In the case of XXXX the ‘beat’ suits the commercial but the lyrics certainly don’t. But probably the biggest issue here is the company’s response to the allegations that the song choice was, in short, poor.

“The brewer responded to the criticism with its own post, defending its choice of song, saying the lyrics have “no association” with the ad.” (ninemsn.com.au)

How can you say the lyrics have no association with the ad? It’s playing during the ad, it was chosen for the ad and the point of a music bed is to create a feeling/scenario/enhance the ad. You simply cannot choose a song for your ad then claim it has no association with it. That’s like going to a Collingwood match dressed in your black and white and when they lose claim that you have “no association” with the team.

A simple ‘whoops, our bad, we didn’t really research the song well enough’ from the company would have been a much better reaction. So really there are two lessons to be learned here;

1. Take some time to pick your music bed carefully and;
2. Take responsibility.

Alternatively, get someone in PR to handle the situation because the company’s reaction in this case was downright ridiculous.

Having said that, don’t be afraid of the TVC, it’s one of the funnest and best ways to promote your business. Just make sure you trust your marketing company and don’t overlook audio as the ‘less important’ component.

*TMM love TVCs and have created many ads from animation to real-footage for their clients. They also have a ‘jingle guy’ who writes many of their catchy tunes.

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Posted in Advertising, Advice, Case Studies, News

Tagged crisis management, public relations, television

Boycott success of Harvey Norman after Kyle scandal

Posted on November 24, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

Due to the relatively new nature of social media it can be hard to judge exactly how powerful it can be and indeed what it is capable of. Recently however, we can see a controversial case study of how social media can affect the advertising of a brand.

Austereo lost several huge advertising clients including Holden, Blackmores, The Good Guys, Medibank, Vodaphone and Fantastic Furniture after one of it’s more famous announcers Kyle Sandilands made an aggressive attack on air against News Ltd Sydney journalist Alison Stephenson.

Stephenson wrote a negative review of Sandilands’ new show, Kyle and Jacki O’s Night With The Stars which Kyle took as a ‘personal attack’ and as such launched is own personal attack in which he said:

“Some fat slag on news.com.au has already branded it a disaster. You can tell by reading the article that she just hates us and has always hated us. What a fat bitter thing you are. You’re deputy editor of an online thing. You’ve got a nothing job anyway. You’re a piece of shit. This low thing, Alison Stephenson, deputy editor of news.com.au online. You’re supposed to be impartial, you little troll. You’re a bullshit artist, girl. You should be fired from your job. Your hair’s very ’90s. And your blouse. You haven’t got that much titty to be having that low cut a blouse. Watch your mouth or I’ll hunt you down.”

As you can imagine, the backlash over these arguably sexist and downright despicable comments has been bordering on viral. Twitter and Facebook are buzzing with calls for Kyle’s head and advertisers and sponsors are fleeing in droves. Holden withdrew support yesterday afternoon according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Over the past day consumers have been boycotting Harvey Norman’s Facebook page demanding they withdraw advertising from the Kyle and Jackie O Show. Consumers wrote on Harvey Norman’s page that they would not buy from them again until they dropped their support for Austereo. The reason? Consumers did not want to buy from a brand that associated itself with the show after Sandilands’ recent outburst.

Three hours ago they succeeded.

295 people currently LKE the status update and no doubt more will follow. Certainly this case study shows the power of social media for both brands and consumers. In this case, advertising is directly affected by social media. Indeed it is also interesting to point out that consumers really are concerned about the brand image of products they buy.

So what does this mean for the future of marketing? It means we need to listen to our customers through their social media channels and we need to respond. Harvey Norman had to withdraw their sponsorship or risk losing customers to The Good Guys, Fantastic Furniture and other competitors. It was a perfect example of dealing with a crisis. Their response of “We hear you” was absolutely perfect and exactly what their customers needed to hear from the company.

Go Harvey Norman Go!

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Posted in Advertising, Case Studies, News, Social Media

Tagged corporate sponsorship, crisis management, Facebook, Twitter

Why social media is good news for Small Business

Posted on November 11, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

If you haven’t heard about it already there’s a great American website call the Social Media Examiner and it contains a heap of great articles concerning new social media trends. Unfortunately it is based on American statistics but since their market is very similar to ours, we can take a lot away from it.

One such article is titled 26 Promising Social Media Stats for Small Businesses and it’s well worth a read. We’ll summarise a few of the most important ones here for you though and explain why they’re important; saves a bit of reading time!

1. There are now more than 800 million active Facebook users and over 200 million joined this year alone.
This means social media is on the rise, has a huge audience and therefore is a huge potential marketing avenue.

2. Approximately 40% of social media users access their accounts through mobile devices
This means you need to be mobile optimised so customers can access your website on the go.

3. Nearly 23% of online time is spent on social networks.
This means just having a website is not enough; you need to have a social media presence because this is where all those eyeballs are for a huge percentage of time spent online.

4. The average Facebook user has 130 friends and is connected to 80 pages, events and groups.
This means just securing one LIKE from one person means their entire network has seen the activity; exposing your company to more and more users and potentially more LIKES.

5. Comscore released a study earlier this year that showed how business brands that post at least once every day will reach 22% of their fans in a given week.
This means you need to commit to your Facebook page when you create it; don’t just leave it sitting idly in cyberspace. Update often and give your fans a reason to LIKE your page; offer them competitions, information and connection.

Credit to Comscore and the Social Media Examiner

6. 51% of Facebook users and 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from the brands they follow.
This shows that customers are influenced by companies they follow on social networks; so you need to be at the forefront of their mind when they decide to purchase a product or service.

*You can read the entire article here or talk to one of the team at TMM about how to set up your social media strategy.

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Posted in Online, Social Media, Trends

Tagged Facebook, marketing strategies, mobile optimisation, Twitter

Tweet with TMM

Posted on November 3, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

With Twitter becoming increasingly popular, we thought we’d better get on board here at The Marketing Mix. So click here to follow us! If you don’t have an account, think about getting on board now because it really is a fantastic way to interact and gather information.

As a business, Twitter is great because it allows you to send your customers information instantly as well as being able to communication with them one-on-one. George Patterson Y&R have a great article about how best to use social media like Twitter as a corporation. You can download it for free here.

The article gives 7 great strategies for businesses to succeed in the social media world and gives real examples of Australian company’s successes and failures to meet these strategies. Well worth a read, but if you’re feeling lazy we’ll give you a quick summary here!

1. Listening
Monitoring discussion across social media can enable your business to better understand what your consumers are saying about your product, or at least the industry you’re in. So get on Twitter and start listening to what people are saying because it’s the one of the best ways to get honest feedback without the need for customers to fill out surveys.

2. Customer Service
Facebook and Twitter allows personalised, instant customer service without the need for call centers and through a medium they have chosen. It also means this good customer service can be seen by other customers and projected across social networks.

3. Crisis Management
If your business has the misfortune to be in a crisis situation, social media allows you to reach customers and diffuse the situation before it hits mainstream media. Social media provides a platform to provide instant information to customers in a time of need. For example Qantus has been constantly Tweeting updates regarding current industrial action.

4. Content Distribution
Social media is a cost effective way to distribute information and brand updates to a large community of customers. It also allows your business to gather a large database of like-minded people.

5. Recruitment
It’s now easier than ever to show that your business is a great one to work for; by showcasing employees, culture and projects to the community. Social media such as LinkedIn allows you to generate networks and recruit new talent directly.

6. Community Engagement
Brands build positive relationships with their customers by creating branded communities; and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow your customers to collectively discuss their interest in your brand/product. This means more publicity for you and the potential to attract new followers.

7. Internal
Using social media can increase interaction between staff members, leading to co-creation and collaboration in otherwise segmented departments. This means better corporate culture and happy staff.

As you can see there are some huge benefits for company’s in the social media landscape, but you can’t just create an account and expect the customers to roll in. Social media only works if you stay relevent, keep updating and give customers a reason to follow or like you. So watch this space because in our next update we’ll tell you how to do exactly that.

*Still unsure about social media? Call TMM on (08) 9204 3111 and we’ll send you a free copy of our social media package to get you started.

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Posted in Branding, News, Online, Social Media

Tagged customers, Facebook, marketing strategies, networking, Twitter, word-of-mouth

China Trip

Posted on October 21, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

As you may or may not know, in early 2007 TMM entered the importing industry and opened an office in China. Initially we were a motor industry specific supplier; but we have now expanded to a complete service that includes the sourcing and end to end logistics of delivering a wide range of promotional products that cover the needs of our entire client base.

As we’ve developed we have begun to specialise in branding promotional products to maximise the attention for retail or loyalty campaigns. It’s with this in mind that regular trips to China are made by TMM staff in order to source new promotional products and broker deals with suppliers. On TMM’s most recent trip to China, Director Chris McCarthy and Print Coordinator Joshua McCarthy hit five cities in five days.

The five day trip to China was made to ensure that all our orders for products ranging from new orders of Key Return Keytags, to other promotional products was under control.

Day one saw Chris and Josh visit the TMM office in Shenzhen where they met with TMM’s Office and China Manager, Edward MA. Here they also had meetings scheduled with the Key Return suppliers who manufacture the promotional keytags designed by TMM. Key Return is a partner company of TMM and you can check out examples of client keytags and how they work on their website. The boys visit to Shenzhen also included visits to the factories that manufacture our promotional water bottles and furniture.

Edward and Josh, Shenzhen

Day two was the city of Ningbo, where Chris and Josh met with their contacts at the Sunshade Factory. We’ve used this company in the past to produce promotional sunshades for several of our automotive clients. These sunshades can be given away when cars are sold, or used for promotional reasons in the dealership itself.

On Day three the boys made their way to Hangzhou, where they met with a Textile Factory TMM are looking to do work with. Finally on Day four and five they flew to Hong Kong and Macau for the final leg of the trip. This is also where they got into the business end of the trip – Chinese chili.

Apart from the chili, the trip was relatively pain free and successful. TMM look forward to continuing our good relations with China and our current and new suppliers. By dealing directly with manufacturers in China, TMM are able to cut out the middle man so the creation of value for your customers with your promotional campaign is never eroded by other parties. Not only that, but we know we’re getting our clients the best value options because we are sourcing direct from the factory. Plus, by buying in bulk we can pass all the savings directly on to our clients, and their customers.

*For help with your next promotional campaign, talk to TMM about their importing/exporting products or Key Return International

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Posted in News

Tagged china, importing, promotional products

Surfing with The Mix

Posted on October 19, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

As a local business ourselves, here at The Marketing Mix we like to give back to our local community in any way we can. Every year we attend the National Breast Cancer Foundation charity fund-raising breakfast and we also work for and donate to The Athritis Foundation of WA and Breast Cancer Care WA. We currently sponsor our valued client, Surf Life Saving WA, and this week we presented them with a cheque for $1000.

Darren presenting TMM's novelty (but nonetheless unbounceable) cheque to Surf Life Saving WA

Surf Life Saving WA is a volunteer based not-for-profit community service association committed to saving lives and promoting Australian beach culture. In their words, it protects life, it saves life, it promotes life. Surf Life Saving is Australia’s largest volunteer movement of it’s kind and exists soley through community donations, fundraising and corporate sponsorship. As a Perth company not far from Scarborough Beach, TMM have partnered up with Surf Life Saving WA in both a client and corporate sponsor relationship.

Every year Surf Life Saving WA holds their ‘Up The Tower’ fund raising event, and this year TMM sales rep Darren Tardrew took part; and boy did he enjoy himself. Darren will do anything to get out of coffee machine cleaning duty on a Friday afternoon, and this was a pretty good excuse.

Up The Tower and on the phone

This year, the Up The Tower was hosted by Karinyup Shopping Centre and the event saw 20 individuals and businesses head up a patrol tower to raise funds for Surf Life Saving WA. Once the participants are ‘Up The Tower’ they have a 20 minute challenge to call friends, collegues and family to try to raise as much money as possible.

Surf Life Saving WA’s Marketing Manager Scott Hine said that all the money raised will go to priority areas of need and help fund the work of volunteer surf lifesavers, ensuring WA beaches remain some of the safest in the world. Local Surf Life Saving clubs were also out in force throughout the centre over the weekend as volunteer surf lifesavers shook collection tins to raise over $8,000 for the clubs.

The event was hosted by Postcards WA presenter Pip O’Connell and featured summer fashion parades, giveaways and live entertainment. The event was also supported by Perth Wildcats star Matthew Knight who signed autographs and made some fund raising phone calls.

If you want to get involved with Surf Life Saving WA like us, then visit their website and find out how. Oh, and yes we do giant novelty cheques, so talk to us if you need one of those!

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Posted in News

Tagged charity, corporate sponsorship, loyalty, surf life saving WA

The Future of Marketing

Posted on October 13, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

Is Social Media the Future of Marketing?

Not exactly; ‘social media’ is the past, the present and the future of marketing! What I mean is that social marketing really is nothing new; what’s changing is the mediums in which it occurs and our ability to engage with these mediums. Before mass marketing, how did most people decide which products and services to buy? Simple, just ask a friend.

People’s purchasing decisions were based on recommendations from trusted sources rather than direct appeals from the businesses themselves. Ask anyone in sales what their best leads have been and their answer will be ‘referrals’ every time. The reason for this is that the hard work of earning customer trust has already been done for you; the customer trusts their friend and therefore already trusts your business.

So, if the majority of leads coming into your business are referrals from people endorsing your product, the effect on your bottom line is going to be substantial. Referrals have the best conversion rate of all enquiries because the ground work has already been done for you. They’re basically already sold, and this is the whole theory behind a solid social media strategy; taking the power of word of mouth and multiplying it.

The idea behind creating a social media presence on mediums like Facebook is that it gives your customers the ability (and hopefully, the desire!) to recommend your business to their family, peers and friends alike with the click of a button. In this sense, you don’t have to wait for a person to ask their friend to recommend a certain product or service; they’ve already Liked you on Facebook or linked to your blog or Twitter. The potential customer has already seen the referral through their online networks without needing to ask for it.

A full page press ad or billboard sign just doesn’t have the same audience pull it used to; and it’s entirely a one-way communication with your potential clients. Social media marketing is interactive and powerful. You can answer customer questions and concerns in a transparent and positive way. You can build trust and create raving ‘fans’ for your business that will promote you within their networks. With the arrival of the internet and online social media, that’s a lot of people and some serious word of mouth.

It’s with this in mind that we have launched the TMM social media platform for our clients. We’re not going to tell you to get on every available social media site; we’re going to work out a package to tailor to your businesses specific needs in this emerging market place.

Chris McCarthy

Executive Director
TMM

*this letter was sent to all TMM clients on behalf of Executive Director Chris McCarthy. If you have any questions regarding social media marketing, give the TMM office a call on (08) 9204 3111 during business hours and they’ll be happy to help.

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Posted in Advice, Marketing, Online, Social Media, Trends

Tagged Facebook, loyalty, networking, referrals, word-of-mouth

Dirty Data Not Done Dirt Cheap

Posted on October 9, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

The following article will be appearing in TMM’s quarterly newsletter being distributed this Monday. Request your free copy by emailing info@marketingmix.com.au

Database marketing is a form of direct marketing using databases of customers or potential customers to generate personalized communications in order to promote a product or service for marketing purposes. The method of communication can be any addressable medium, as in direct marketing.

The distinction between direct and database marketing stems primarily from the attention paid to the analysis of data. Database marketing emphasizes the use of statistical techniques to develop models of customer behavior, which are then used to select customers for communications.

There are two main types of marketing databases,
1.) Consumer databases, and
2.) Business databases.
Consumer databases are primarily geared towards companies that sell to consumers. Business marketing databases are often much more advanced in the information that they can provide. This is mainly due to the fact that business databases aren’t restricted by the same privacy laws as consumer databases.

The “database” is usually name, address, and transaction history details from internal sales or delivery systems, or a bought-in compiled “list” from another organization, which has captured that information from its customers. Typical sources of compiled lists are charity donation forms, application forms for any free product or contest, product warranty cards, subscription forms, and credit application forms.

The effectiveness of Database marketing can stem from the data that is captured and then entered into the database. It then becomes essential to have clean and regularly updated data.

Why would my data not be clean?
The biggest reason that data isn’t termed clean is due to human error! Human error can occur from the customer’s bad handwriting, to the data entry person having a small case of dyslexia. It also means that having the correct type of information in the relevant fields. An example of this would be placing company names within a field that has customer names, eg The Marketing Mix in the same field as Paul Wilson. There is no way this type of information to be split into a usable form without viewing every record within the database.

The next reason is that customers have a tendency of changing details without informing you or the customer details aren’t verified again after the initial entry into the system. The most common occurrence of this happening is with mobile phone and email details. With so many different email providers on the internet and ISP’s customers tend to change this specific detail every 1-2years. The same applies with mobile phone numbers, with so many deals out in the marketplace for mobile phones only a small percentage of people carry across their number from a previous carrier.

Why does my data need to be clean?
Direct mail is the biggest form of communication when talking about direct marketing. To keep costs down and high ROI it’s essential to have the correct addressing information. Earlier last decade Australia Post introduced a revolutionary system of keeping track of addressable and deliverable mail known as DPID (Delivery Point Identifier). When customer databases are checked against Australia Post’s DPID they are assigned a DPID for all relevant records, and given discount and even more based upon quantity. All other records are given a rate slightly smaller than your regular postage. Having a clean database essentially means that possibly more for your records will get matched with a DPID and a lower rate of postage sees a higher ROI for a marketing campaign.

How do I keep my data clean?
Keeping data in the correct filed is the first step to cleaning up a database. So keeping information separate as needed, and if there isn’t a suitable field create one. An example of this would be, C/O Paul Wilson, 307 Selby Street North. Here you can see that we have some attention information and some address information. It’s best to have the C/O Paul Wilson within a separate field. Eliminating carriage returns within a field to house more information that could be split up.

By checking the database quarterly even if only a small portion of it for this these things although time consuming will down the track pay off.

How do I keep my data updated?
Keeping data current is time consuming but essential. If you are in a client facing business the easiest way to do so is at point of sale, this is potentially the best way to do so but is time consuming. Alternatively an online form for you customers to enter their relevant information, could be easy on your time, but then relies on the customer to enter the information. Lastly you could always use a customer details form, which can be given to a free staff member or a data entry consultant to input for you. The set back with this option will always be that some peoples hand writing isn’t always clear leading to data entry mistakes.

Best methods for keeping a database
To utilize your database it’s better to have more information than not enough. It’s great having a contact name, but it would be better to have the contact’s first name and last name. It’s even better if you have them as separate fields within the database, this allows you to personalize communications with your clients even further by addressing them by their first name.

Summary
Clean and up to date data helps you to communicate to the client effectively and also helps lower the cost of doing so. When you have a great campaign or deal on that will ensure that your clients will stay with you, these tips will help you communicate that information. The added bonus shows the end recipient of the communication, the professionalism of your business or brand. And your willingness to keep their business!

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Posted in Advice, Marketing

Tagged customers, databases, loyalty

Steve Jobs and the Smart Phone Age

Posted on October 8, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

It was a sad and strange twist of fate that saw Apple founder Steve Jobs lose his battle with cancer a mere day after the latest iPhone 4 S is released. Jobs is mourned by millions for his innovation in this age of technology as well as his work with animation giant Pixar, who brought us the much-loved Toy Story franchise. But perhaps one of Jobs greatest legacies is the iPhone, which has changed so much of the way we function in our day to day lives. Specifically for us in the marketing world, Jobs has changed our customer’s behaviour and consequently the means by which we reach them. So how do you stay relevant to your customers in the aftermath of Steve Jobs and the age of the smart phone?

There is no doubt that a large proportion of your potential customers will own a smart phone and will be using it on the go. As it stands, 79% of all mobile phones shipped into Australia are smart phones, with Apple iPhones representing 31.4% share of the market. It’s a hard statistic to ignore and a huge pool of potential customers that actually want to be reached.

One of the key points we have to understand about the iPhone and its competitors is the way in which it creates immediacy and convenience for the user. That is, smart phone users want to be able to access your business quickly and easily because it’s convenient for them to have you waiting right at their fingertips. In this sense, reaching customers via their mobile isn’t so much a case of advertising to them but of allowing them to reach and indeed buy directly from you via their mobile.

Users who require a product or a service will often look it up on their phones during their work day and they’ll do it in a variety of ways. They may search according to their location using their GPS capabilities, Google a service in their area or even use an App such as Urbanspoon to search for restaurants. It is essential for you to be there waiting; so how do you do it? The first step is a mobile optimised webpage. It sounds fancy; but all it really means is that your website is clearly viewable on handheld devices with smaller screens.

There are nearly 1 billion mobile internet users worldwide, so to help more customers reach you, it’s essential to have a mobile version of your current website. The main reason being that if a user accesses your current website on their mobile phone they may encounter blank spaces, or worse, a site that isn’t readable on their small screen. With users spending an average of 74 minutes a day on the internet using their mobiles as of June this year, it is vital that your business be available to these potential customers. With mobile optimisation, not only can customers contact and find you, but they can even purchase goods or book appointments directly. The smart phone user is all about convenience, so by offering this service you’re appealing directly to your target market.

In short, getting on board with the iPhone generation will allow you to;

Increase sales: Your clients can purchase products or gather information from your site while they’re away from their PC.
Reach more prospects: Expand the reach of your website to include prospects who do their research on the mobile web.
Show your clients your business is cutting edge: By creating a mobile website you are showing your customers that your business is forward thinking and tech savvy enough to cater to all web users.

Steve Jobs saw a chance in the iPhone to cater to a generation of people who want access to information instantly and conveniently, by putting the web in their hands and weighing about 150 grams. He has created an entirely new way of accessing information, and for us, a whole new mobile market that needs to be understood.

For advice on reaching smart phone users and mobile optimisation, visit our website.

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Posted in Online, Research, Trends

Tagged customers, iPhone, mobile optimisation, technology

Beer brewer; better run better run

China Trip

Surfing with The Mix

Dirty Data Not Done Dirt Cheap

Steve Jobs and the Smart Phone Age

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