Whats in a name?

Translation faux pas in marketing are legendary...and as new products continue to enter this globalized world it’s not uncommon to hear of brands running into such quandaries

The latest to join the list is the Microsoft mp3 player Zune. Launched to compete against the IPOD, Zune found itself in a linguistic pickle when launching in Canada. Turns out Zune sounds like a French-Canadian term ‘zoune’ used as a euphemism for penis or vagina."

Interestingly, the naming firm responsible for Zune, which uses 80 linguistics in 39 countries to catch such double entendres, claims that they were well aware of this likely translation as was Microsoft and this was a deliberated decision which took into account the possible impact. In this case, the likely translation was a not very popular French Canadian slang, and so Microsoft didn’t expect it was cause much more than a few giggles and at the most of couple of articles/posts in the media/blog universe— A calculated move that seems to have paid off for Zune and Microsoft.

I don’t envy such a conundrum though – considering there are around 6700 languages in the world, never mind the dialects and slangs. So as a marketer, when looking into possible translation trouble, don’t go in thinking you will be able avoid it all. What is more important is that you identify potential issues, analyze the scope and possible impact…and then decide whether or not to proceed.

Rules of Intergration

We all know that integration of a brand's message across all outreach platforms make the message stronger and stickier. But is integrating only about extending a message/creative to other platforms?

In most cases, integration, while a common word in a marketer’s vocabulary, gets implemented as an afterthought. Only once the TV commercial or print ad is developed does the marketer start thinking about extending it on to an online banner or outdoor advertising.

Effective integration, however, happens when ideas are integrated at the core. And the execution is not just about extending creative and forcing it to fit different formats but building creative that works gracefully between multiple platforms. The idea is for not everything to say the same but to understand how the consumer consumes media and messaging and then leverage these platforms to build a story…

So why are millions spent on measurement and research

Still on the topic of measurement - I was recently in a class listening to ( with my "marketing with common sense" hat on) research experts talk about how they track, evaluate and measure advertising with complex models and tools that cost millions of dollars.

Now, the sticker price for this media analysis and measurement has always intrigued me, especially since the results often match the initial hypothesis. Makes me wonder - did you really need to spend all that money to get this answer? This question has come up before but no one ever did a good job responding to it - until this time around. And the answer put things in perspective.

This senior research executive who manages a multi million dollar research budget said - "Yes, in most cases the research may show you what you may have known intuitively. But what you are getting when you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more on research is - the ability to quantify that intuition. And when you are dealing with marketing budgets of hundreds of millions of dollar, saying its working isn’t enough. One needs to be able to quantify it.”

I see it as putting a layer of science on an art :)

Measure your marketing with a next to nothing budget...

Tracking studies, media mix models, concept testing - are all tools to ensure that your advertising and marketing plan is successful and effective.

But what if you are like me, a marketer with a small marketing budget….and a smaller (or should I say non-existing) measurement budget? Are you doomed to have to rely on guess work, intuition and will you always have to battle the sales team or senior management to prove that you contributed to sales? Not really. While you may not be able to quantify impact and efficacy at the level that some of those above mentioned tools can, you can certainly track your efficacy by doing some simple things.

1. Ask your prospects or customers how they heard about you. Most will be happy to tell you.

2. Track - while you may not always know how many people you truly reached with your outreach effort, make sure you map traffic against when you are in the media. If you are doing things right, you should see a spike in traffic – whether its traffic to a store, to a website or calls to a call center.

3. Collect information of your prospects wherever possible... and then map it to your account owner base. Did Mr. Jones from ABC Street, XYZ town who ordered an enrollment kit via the direct mail flyer open an account?

4. Reach out to existing customers via a basic web survey and ask them to tell you what they think about your brand, product or service. If you can convince them that you will take action on their feedback, they will be happy to share their true feeling

5. Don’t hesitate to do a quick focus group - find a group of people in your office who represent your target audience. And ask them what they think of the new creative you are looking to launch. Their feedback may surprise you. Sure, the results are not scientific - but they can be indicative.

6. Set up a special #800 number or vanity URL for your advertising. This will help you track web traffic or interest that can be related to the advertising.

7. Compare data against the historical data that you may have access to and try to analyze why there may be changes – could it be because of a coupon promotion or a radio ad. Be sure to consider some external factors like weather or the economy.

Not all of these may apply to you… But no matter how small you are – whether you a small for profit business, or a not-for- profit business— you will be able to import these ideas to substantiate your efforts or course correct.

“look at me” versus “here’s what you were looking for”

Building a website is easy, but building an effective website is hard.

I have spend hours listening to the experts, reading articles and blogs and arguing with colleagues and friends on what makes a website great... and while i have collected many little pearls of wisdom on this topic over the years, a blog post i came across recently did a great job of consolidating the insights.. and not being afraid to say it like it is ...

Its no surprise that the blog i am referring to is that of marketing guru Seth Godin. You can read his complete post here...but here are my favorite pointers -

1. Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a deal breaker. I cant agree more. I recently worked on a web project that suffered from the "too many cooks" syndrome. The result - a shoddy website

2. Insight is good, clever is bad. Many websites say, “look at me.” Your goal ought to be to say, “here’s what you were looking for.”

Brand Extensions.... what to keep in mind...

As I continue to ramble, I want to reiterate (one more time) that most of what I say in this blog may not seem like rocket science. And its not. But as we strive to over perform in our professional/personal roles, it’s the very basic and seemingly mundane concepts that we take for granted....

That said; let’s go back to the world of brand extensions. What are the 5 things to keep in mind when considering a brand extension?

Top 5 things to consider:

1. The brand should have equity and awareness in the market....if the brand isn’t recognizable, the extension is pointless

2. The extension should be a logical fit for the consumer. There should be synergy (and that’s why Trump Steak didn’t work)

3. The extension should make business sense.

4. Look out for over-extension - avoid slapping the brand name on everything possible.

5. For the extension, select a permeable category - not an over-saturated category with strong market leaders.

Common Sense Tip of the Week

When it comes to website design… we all want a cutting edge, cool and sexy website for our products. Our wish lists include fancy animation, music, video and other popular web 2.0 tools. However, what we forget to consider is – who is the audience? Is my wish list really relevant to my target audience or does it just make me look good in the board room?

For e.g. when building a hospital website, focus on organization of information, on font size, on content, on search optimization. Spend the marketing dollars to build tools that can help the patients and their families…rather than fancy flash intros.

If you find your self saying to yourself, I know that… I urge you to think again. The best of us fall into the trap of focusing on what we want for our firms/products website rather than focusing on what our audience wants from the website

An introduction to "CS"

Growing up, when i would ask my dad a question that had me perplexed or confused ...very often his response was "CS"

What he meant by this cryptic acyronym was "Common Sense". This was his way of teaching his little girl to think through the situation at hand--to gather information, to process, to digest--and to come up with her own answer...rather than be handed the answer on a platter and take it on face value

So what does this have to do with marketing? Almost everything.

As the marketing landscape rapidly changes in this digital world and the media consumption habits of consumers evolve every minute, marketers overloaded with information and options are overwhelmed about how to reach their marketing goals. It is here that "CS" can saves us from making marketing blunders. How often have we come across a marketing initiative that tanked and thought "What were they thinking". This is where CS steps in.

While my attributing marketing sanity to two letters might seem too simplistic, there is some truth to it... And that is the hypothesis that this blog is out to test.

Can CS help us marketers keep it real in this rapidly evolving digital world?