ANA Marketing Maestros

Generate Exponential Revenue by Investing in the Booming Halal Market

By Irina Skaya

Today, Islam is the fastest growing religion on earth with the Muslim population estimated to reach two billion by 2010. The global Halal food market is estimated to be worth $632 billion a year.. A new study by JWT points out that the six million or so Muslims in America are, on average, richer and better educated than the general population. Two-thirds of Muslim households make more than $50,000 a year and a quarter earn over $100,000; the national average is $42,000. Two-thirds of American Muslims have a college degree, compared with less than half of the general population. Muslim families also tend to have more children. With these stats, businesses should indeed be tapping at this growing market segment.

An article in this week’s Time Magazine shows that even non-food companies like Nokia and LG are catering towards Muslim customers. For instance, Nokia provides free downloadable recitations from the Koran and maps showing major mosque locations in the Middle East. LG has an application that helps users find the direction of Mecca.  What’s really interesting is that hotels, banks, and other organizations that operate according to Shari’a law are doing well despite the global downturn. 

And the fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s in Singapore have seen an influx of millions of patrons annually after obtaining Halal certifications. Since being certified, “Halal, KFC, Burger King and Taco Bell have all seen an increase of 20 percent in customers” (Hairalah, cited in Hazair, 2007a: 13). Nestle has become the biggest multi-national food manufacturer for Muslims, producing halal food in 75 of its 481 factories and earning over $3 billion in annual sales.

To read up on marketing to Muslims, visit:

http://bit.ly/8Mu4k

http://bit.ly/mcZzb

http://bit.ly/2lP1UC

Golden Opportunities on Twitter

By Irina Skaya

Not a day goes by without someone asking me, “Why do you use Twitter? It’s so useless. Why do I care what you are up to every second of the day?” Wake up people! You are missing out on engaging with and learning more about your customers.  As Cynthia Ashworth, Vice President of Customer Engagement @Dunkin’ Donuts said, “We don’t have to justify Twitter. It’s free customer-service.” Indeed it is, Cynthia. It’s a free focus group and a cheap option for collaboration.

As I try to keep up with the cutting edge marketing trends, I enrolled in a two-hour course on Twitter Love where I learned how marketers can utilize the microblogging Web site to promote their products and services, research consumer insights, improve customer service, converse with and engage their customers, and group collaboration.  For instance, @JetBlue is using Twitter to help improve customer services and teamwork across business units.  As a customer service tool, Twitter’s benefit is that everything people say about your product/service is public on Twitter and is easy to find via using their built-in search tool. This makes Twitter an instant focus group with over 10 million participants, many of whom are your customers.  Collecting customer feedback via Twitter is easy and effortless, especially when you compare it to the number of responses you get back through email surveys.  Zappos is using Twitter to make personal connections among employees, and between the company and its customers.  For those marketers who want to improve their corporate culture and customer service, Twitter is a great tool.

So just like there was Facebook and then came LinkedIn, a professional social networking Web site, Yammer is like Twitter for business. Yammer offers groups for discussions on a subject between people in the same workgroup. It can connect employees from different departments, so if you work in a 500+ company, you won’t feel like just a number anymore.  Although some may argue that Twitter and Yammer may be distracting and may affect employees’ productivity, it can, if used moderately improve corporate culture by connecting employees to one another and letting them know what the organization is up to, its achievements and pretty much anything.

So for the Twitter rebels, get on it, add ANAmarketers to your list of the following, and most importantly, start talking and listening to your customers.  And here are some Twitter tools to get you started:

TweetLater.com – helps you in following everyone who follows you; includes auto DMs and a tweet scheduler.

Twitter Karma - keeps a follow-to-follower ratio in order for you unfollow those who are not following me, with a few exceptions.

TwitterCounter - see my followers in graph form. It also predicts how many followers you will have in 30, 90 or 365 days.

TweetDeck – as an Adobe Air app, TweetDeck allows you to see your @replies, direct messages, timeline, and a lis of folks you follow whose Tweets you want to make sure you read. You can also use it to update your Twitter and Facebook accounts simultaneously. I use and love this tool!

PS.  Download our most-read 101 on Marketing with Twitter. 

Recession: Glimmer of Hope?

As a follow-up to my blog, "Is an economic recovery near?" I would like to share with you are new video snippets from the 2009 ANA Building in Tough Times Brand Conference where heavy-weight executives from Dunkin' Donuts, MillerCoors and Wal-Mart shared their insights and best practices in regards to overcoming tough economic times.

Thank you to AdAge for these valuable video highlights. If you have any best practices on coping with the recession, please share in our comments section on this blog, YouTube page, or email me at irina@ana.net. I'd love to hear from you!

The Psychological Boost of Coffee Marketing

Turning Beer Temperature Into Marketing Gold

Partnerships, Not Brand Renovation, Best Growth Strategy

Who Are You? Mac or PC?

By Irina Skaya

                                                                 There has always been a constant debate between McDonalds vs. Burger King, Porsche vs. BMW, and now Mac vs. PC. I use both—I have a Macbook at home and I work on a Windows Vista machine at work.  Although I use them for different purposes (Mac when I am feeling creative), I like both for different reasons.  However, I really love Apple ads for their creative!  A recent online video ad produced by TBWA/Media Arts is especially intriguing—it takes a unique approach by telling users NOT to click on the ad.  It’s sort of like reverse psychology that a parent uses to get their teenage child to listen to him/her.

This recent article reported in AdAge this week shows an ad that tells the user if he/she clicks on it, they will receive an electric shock.  AdAge says that this may be the only way in the world to get more than 2.5% of viewers to click on an ad.  Will this work? It will definitely arouse some curiosity, but chances are if the user is a loyal PC customer, he/she would not click on it regardless.  It’s definitely creative, but I am not sure if it will help generate market share for Apple, but cheaper products might.  

Is an economic recovery near?

By Irina Skaya

Yesterday’s ANA Brand Building in Tough Times & Beyond Conference was filled with optimism, actionable ideas for marketers to cope with the depressed economy, confidence for a speedy recovery, and Donut Love.  How does one recession proof their brand?

Dunkin’ Donuts emphasized the importance of relevance and empathy with their “You Kin’ Do It” campaign.  The goal of this campaign was to build trust and emotional connection with their consumers because 91% buy from companies they trust.  While Dunkin’ Donuts’ challenge was to convince people to spend a discretionary $4 on a cup of coffee for breakfast, Wal-mart partnered with Kellogg to encourage people to save money by eating breakfast or the Kellogg cereal at home.  And unlike Dunkin’ Donuts, Walmart had an evergreen approach that wasn’t fundamentally different from when the economic times are better.  Their proposition, “Save money, live better” is just as relevant today as it’s always been, except now they shifted their focus from functional to an emotional relationship with their consumers.  As a matter of fact, the two themes based on both campaigns emerged at the conference: 1. Know your customers and 2. Build an emotional relationship with them.  This is nothing new, however.  Instead what marketers are doing today is they are going back to marketing 101. In 2006 at the ANA Annual Masters of Marketing Conference, the same theme emerged, and we certainly did not foresee an economic crisis then. 

The other commonality all of the presenters shared at yesterday’s event was involvement in social media.  After all, it’s free and everyone is using it—what’s a better way to continue marketing your business in tough times? Dunkin’ Donuts said it best, “We don’t have to justify Twitter, it is a real-time customer service, customer promotion.”   It seems like everyone is tweeting—thank you for everyone who was tweeting at the conference. Just search #ANA to see all of the tweets from the ANA Brand Conference. 

Finally, I’d like to leave you with a touch of optimism, “I was asked what I thought a recession.  I thought about it and decided not to take part.”—Sam Walton, founder of Wal-mart.

Holding Up in a Tough Economy

By Irina Skaya

When the economy tightens, many companies resort to the mislabeled sales strategy of offering discounts. Discounting on price is not a sales strategy.  It's an impulsive move made by desperate salespeople.  In a tough economy, customers think and expect everything is going to be discounted.  Because of this, salespeople feel it’s necessary to oblige the customer to close the deal.  Unfortunately, the discount ends up altering the attitude of the customer who now believes the real value of the product or service they bought is the reduced price and not the full one.  Maintaining your pricing integrity in a down economy is truly a winning strategy because, in the end, profit margins are higher, the ability to service a customer is better, and the confidence of the salesperson is greater.

Although Starbucks (SBUX) has recently reported a 77% profit drop, the company is launching a multi-million marketing and advertising campaign "focused on the quality and values Starbucks offers ”  in order to combat perceptions that its products are over-priced.  The goal of the campaign is to remind customers why they’ve loved Starbucks coffee from the beginning.  In today’s marketplace where most are cutting ad spending and are offering discount with increase retail market share, Starbucks is taking a different approach.  I have to applaud Starbucks for sticking to its brand message and showing confidence despite closing doors to more than 300 Starbucks restaurants. Customers will shop where they feel confident in that business, one that is communicating and is sending the message out that it is here to stay, aka Starbucks.

At a recent ANA workshop, Don Sexton, Professor at Columbia University said companies who maintain or increase their marketing budgets during a recession experience higher sales growth than those who reduce or cut their budgets.  “Top Ten Ways to Bounce Back From Tough Economic Times,” written by Bob Liodice, CEO/President of the ANA also urges marketers to invest  in a brand more rather than less.

The Twitter Revolution

By Irina Skaya

You know Twitter is powerful when the tiniest and the poorest country in Europe, Moldova, where I was born is tweeting to draw thousands of people to antigovernment demonstration in its capital, Chisinau following preliminary election results that show that the ruling Communist Party has won the majority in weekend parliamentary elections. Not only are the Moldovans are using Twitter to announce information about the organized protests, but are blogging and tweeting to spread the word to the West. In my opinion, that is their exact intent—if you did not know that Moldova was a country, now you certainly do.  If that wasn’t the case, they could have easily used Friendster and LiveJournal, which is still the number one choice of social networking sites for Eastern Europeans.  So how powerful is Twitter?

To illustrate just how powerful blogging is, one of the leaders of ThinkMoldova youth movement has posted a blog to spread the word about the demonstrations, and within hours, she was able to recruit 10,000 people to join the rally. That’s a staggering number period, but for someone who comes from a town of a population of 10,000, that is ‘ginormous’. 

This is not the first time the Internet has been used to gain support in political rallies, but this is the first Twitter revolution to date.  Why was Twitter so effective in organizing the demonstrations? One microblogger said, “When you follow somebody, you usually know this person, so you trust this person — it is coming from a real person, not an institution.”

In tough times, most companies do create new brands—they still to the well-known existing brands to avoid risk. My theory is as long as we create good products, consumers will use them and spread word about them via the Internet. But the Twitter revolution that took place in Moldova shows that social media and blogging is so powerful and is truly changing the way we communicate, marketing online, and do business. 

Geiko's Gecko Gets Jiggy With It

By Irina Skaya

Having been around for almost ten years and gracing the screen with funny television commercials and 30-minute vignettes on National Geographic’s Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr" and "Wild," Geico’s Gecko has become the most popular ad icon since Taco Bell’s Chihuahua brand mascot. In 2005, it was named the top advertising icon during Yahoo’s Advertising Week in New York. This week, Geico launched a new marketing campaign that combines viral video stars such as the “Numa Numa” guy, Gary Brolsma with the green lizard.

The campaign is expected to release nine parodies of popular videos by April 9, three of which have already been created.  The campaign created by The Martin Agency and promoted by Geico’s media agency, Horizon Media, is a new way to engage the viewers without bombarding them with direct response messaging.  The paraodies are featured on various video-sharing Web sites such as YouTube, Metacafe and Slide, next to the amateur-produced superstar originals. The views of the online videos are already racking up traffic numbers, but only time will tell whether or not these videos will generate leads and drive sales.  

Check out the parody of the “Numa Numa” video (that has generated over 18 million hits since 2004) with the dancing Gecko (my favorite of the three-I think I am addicted!):

You can watch the Numa Numa Kid's original lip-synch performance to the Romanian "“Dragostea din tei”" pop song here.

Here is another parody video that depicts a girl who photographs herself everyday for three years:

Watch the original here.

Keep up with all nine parodies at http://www.youtube.com/user/itsthegecko. I certainly will!

Social Media Predictions in 2009

By Irina Skaya

I love all things social media. I am always fascinated by how social media evolves each year. One of the best ways to look at the evolution of marketing is what businesses did in the past that they will do differently in the future? So what awaits us in 2009?

How will the economic downturn impact our decisions in social media marketing? How will measuring success of engagement change? How the Obama's 'social media presidency' influenced social media in general?

 

I stumbled upon this great, 'Social Media Predictions 2009' presentation on Slideshare.com that includes some fresh and forward-thinking ideas by well-respected thought leaders in the industry.

 

Feel free to let us know if your company is already implementing some of these changes.

View more presentations from Taly Weiss.

Happy Valentine's Day: How to Steal Your Customer's Heart Away

By: Irina Skaya

According to Jonathan Kranz of Kranz Communications, every sale is a kind of seduction where marketers make introductions, pursue relationships and hope for the perfect “happily ever after” ending —the sale. He said, “As in any love affair, we know that reason plays a subordinate role to emotion. To win a portion of our prospects’ bank account, we must win their hearts first.” 

Customer relations were always important, but in these days, it is especially important to go that ‘extra mile’ to satisfy and exceed the expectations of your customers. Companies that succeed are those that develop meaningful relationships with consumers. How do you win the hearts of consumers?

• Make them feel special: Consumers are tired of being talked to. Like at the initiation of any pursuit, you, the marketer must engage the consumer by having an open conversation with them and showing empathy with their consumers, not selling them your services.
• Them, not me: A first date really gone badly is probably one where the other person continuously talks about him/herself and asks zero questions about you. It’s the same kind of thing.  President and “2008 Marketer of the Year,” Barack Obama led a successful, “We, not me” marketing campaign.
• Make a commitment: Take a risk and make a guarantee. Especially in these tough economic times, you must give existing consumers another reason to continue using your product and new consumers to try it. You have to give them a certain level of security; by offering them, “Your money back, no questions asked,” you’re developing trust between you and the customer.

In the days of social media, dissatisfied customers spread the bad news fast and can negatively impact your business. That’s why it’s especially important now more than ever to always put your customers first and continue to exceed their expectations through satisfaction and engagement.