Randy Weiler

on July 13, 2010

category: direct marketing

USPS Logistics Specialist

Postal and Logistics Highlights for July

It’s easy nowadays to forget that, while staying ahead of the digital curve, we still need to know what’s going on in the physical world. Here are a few updates pertinent to marketers from the US Postal Service.

BMC no longer:
The USPS continues the switch in terminology from BMC (Bulk Mail Center) to NDC (Network Distribution Center). The locations and purpose of the facilities generally remains the same; just don’t call them BMCs.

Saturday delivery:
The USPS marches forward with its proposal to eliminate Saturday delivery. There is no date set although FY 2011 is currently being mentioned. This proposal is still pending approval. If approved, the intention is only to eliminate delivery, mail processing and transportation would continue. Read more about it here: http://www.usps.com/communications/five-daydelivery/

Did you know?
The Postal Service has different tab requirements for self-mailers and booklets.

Tabs used on self-mailers must be 1 inch in diameter and can be perforated. For booklets, tabs must be 1.5 inches in diameter and cannot be perforated. There are three different types of tabs; clear poly, translucent paper and white paper. Clear poly tabs cost the most and white paper tabs the least. Tab placement requirements vary based on the design of the self-mailer or booklet.

 

 

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Jürgen Stephan

on June 24, 2010

category: direct marketing

Executive Director, New Business Development

Stick to your loyal base and grow with them

I recently talked to the executive team of a prominent financial services organization discussing their plans to upgrade their customer profile from beginner to advanced user.

While seeing higher transaction frequency, higher average dollar values per customer and a higher lifetime customer value seem like obvious goals, this isn’t a gimme. Other competitors want the same thing and the question becomes who’s better equipped to deliver. If some competitors spend four times as much in media and invest heavily in tools for advanced users, that may give them a leg up.

Being a passionate soccer player, I know a thing or two about leveraging one’s strength. If you have an excellent striker on your team, you use him and support him through the wings. If you have a strong defense, you destroy the opponent’s game and rely on a few counterattacks to win the game.

There may actually be nothing wrong with sticking to the beginner segment, following them along the lifecycle as they mature and varying the service offerings to stay their default choice: from first job, to marriage, to first child, to first house, to first college student, to divorce, to retirement planning, etc. Of course, you need to be smart about catching them early on in each stage – or they may fall into the arms of others. Never a dull day in marketing, is there?

You can even use your beginner customers to recommend you through a well-orchestrated referral program and you will become a more meaningful part of their life and network. 

If your industry category is fairly commoditized and highly competitive, growth may come less from adding different kind of customers, but through increasing your sphere of influence from within your core market.  And as long as your target universe is sizeable enough, and the industry category is growing as well, it’s good to carve out a niche that others don’t seem to be that interested in or have less credibility in.

You can always test your way into the advanced user segment, perhaps you may even consider a separate premium brand if you find early success, but be careful not to do a “180” on your core product or service all too quickly.  Rather, stick to your loyal base and grow with them.

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on April 21, 2010

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

5 ideas for customer targeting

Human beings love categorizing. It must be our survival instinct. You see something and you need to know: Friend or foe? Predator or prey? (My dogs get confused on these issues quite a bit. Thank goodness they don’t live in the wild.)

Human beings hate being categorized. When you put people in a box based on age, gender or skin color you’re going to annoy them – at the very least.

That’s the fun of database marketing. It’s a politically correct way to put people in boxes.

Some marketers still don’t realize how powerful this can be. We have an ideal in our heads about sending out one-to-one marketing messages – but that would be impossibly expensive and time-consuming. In reality, we pick out similar people in our database and send a message to the group.

What are good groupings for targeted messages?

1. New customers. People love you most when they first come across your wonderful product. Now’s the time to ask them to refer their friends to you.
2. Customers who’ve bought from you in the past 30-90 days. For most consumer products (except annual subscriptions or very expensive purchases), the longer it has been since purchase, the less likely that customer will ever buy from you again.
3. Customers who spend a lot with you. They deserve special treatment. Make sure you know who’s in this group.
4. Customers who bought product A and, because of that, are likely to buy product B. Retailers are often brilliant at cross-selling. Look at Amazon – they have it down to a science.
5. Prospects going through a life change. Marriage, births, divorce, moving to a new city – these are spending triggers for many, many products.

These are the broadest of categories. Depending on the size of your database and complexity of your product offering, there can be thousands of ways to slice up the data and achieve significant results.

It’s really up to your imagination to see the interesting ways your customers fall into patterns.

 

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Tom Reid

on April 6, 2010

category: direct marketing

Chief Healthcare Marketing Strategist

Boomers and Medicare marketing – hype vs. reality

Medicare marketing specialists are clearing their throats, revving their engines and getting ready to get ready for the influx of Boomers  who will be turning 65 starting in 2011. We have heard all the speculation about Boomers’ attitudes, their hopes and dreams, their innermost insecurities and their dedication to their grandchildren.

What’s implied in all of these articles and blog posts is that, because the quantity of Medicare-eligible people is about to expand, a huge shift in strategy is called for.

I don’t deny that marketers may need to be aware of some generational differences. But the differences between someone born in 1944 vs. 1946 are not nearly as great as many marketing pundits want us to believe. There’s no secret sauce that will make a Boomer respond at a significantly higher rate than the people who have been aging in to Medicare for the past year or two.

Marketing strategy for Medicare should evolve, not wipe the slate clean. It would be suicidal to start from scratch because demographers have labeled your new audience “Boomers.”

This means, if print advertising has given you a satisfactory cost per lead last year, don’t drop it for a completely digital campaign this year.

On the other hand, if you’re not thinking about social media when 46% of online Boomers maintain a social network profile, you’re going to be left in the dust. Maybe not this year, maybe not next. But soon.

Medicare marketing has always been about engaging content and smart targeting within the over-65 audience. That has not and will not change. Boomers will not retire all at once. Some Boomers are much healthier than others. These are the more salient issues for marketers than their status as a large group born in the same cohort.

We need to treat this group more like the individuals they are, as far as possible, and less like a massive market waiting to be exploited.

 

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Jürgen Stephan

on January 5, 2010

category: direct marketing

Executive Director, New Business Development

Why are they buying?

Just found this quote from Steve Jobs on my recent AMA MarketingPower newsletter.

"It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them."

Darn right, Steve. I would even go a step further. Customers are unpredictable: not only until you show them, but until they buy.

There are more choices with time and money than one can imagine, or handle for that matter. As witnessed throughoutt this holiday shopping season, if you walk into an electronics store with a straight mission to buy a new iPod, you’re golden. If, however, you are looking for any type of music player for a gift and are price conscious, the choices have just increased exponentially. Especially if you walk into an independent retail store or shopping on the worldwide and never-ending Internet.

So now you have seen it all on display or on the Net, and maybe a competent sales person explained it to you. Now what? You buy one, or you go home and defer the purchase until later. Chances are you left the store with product, bag, receipt and a good feeling.

But how did we get here? Well, at the start someone built a good-looking product, invested money in building a brand – like Steve Jobs and team. Perhaps they made a smart and timely offer to make the sale: a discount coupon of 20% that you brought into the store; a secondary product that convinced you of an added value; added points to your loyalty status; or something else stimulating.  Most likely, both  retailer and manufacturer helped you with convincing arguments to purchase the item.

If, however, we asked shoppers in a focus group, they couldn’t tell you what enticed them to buy. They’d make up stuff or take guesses at best. Better to track responses live in action, via item-level coding. It’s amazing what technology is out there already in retail or online, but hardly ever gets used to measure marketing success. Sure – we have seen coupons both printed and digital; barcoding has been used mostly for cost-saving focused supply chain management – and digital screen displays and more intelligent RFID tagging allowing retailers to interface with the end customer wirelessly in store aisles.

Both manufacturers and retailers are interested in faster product turnover, lower inventory cost (you may have noticed empty shelves during this holiday season) and more direct feedback mechanisms with the customer, allowing both to make smarter decisions on matching supply and demand.

As an agency accountable to manage our clients’ marketing spend, we have limited influence on this type of shopping infrastructure. Yet as direct marketers we always like to help push the envelope and zero in on cause and effect. When we do, we really are at our best. And our clients get credit for their effectiveness when asking the CFO for more budget.

Let’s do more of that in 2010 and measure more where the register rings: better, faster and with predictable ROI.

 

Comments:

3/9/2010 at 2:01 p.m.
Delay . . .
I agree with Brian that often multiple messages help push someone to consider buying. For one thing, it can help build some credibility for the advertiser. However, I think companies like Capital One would do better if they did a little better job of data mining -- and even list hygiene! In their heyday, my husband and I would get identical mailings on the same day. That's just wasteful.
>>Carolyn Hansen, Seattle WA3/8/2010 at 2:45 p.m.
delayed ring
agree that monitoring the register is ideal. sometimes, the marketing goes out...and that customer doesn't reply in a given 'window' when an offer is valid or some arbitrary timeframe. sometimes, the register rings not after the first mailing, but after the second, or twentieth (e.g., why Capital One keeps mailing us all). second, it's important to use experimental design to vary offers...and i believe you do this...to figure out the 'optimal' offer to give to a prospect with a certain profile.
>>brian flynn, seattle WA

Karl Kukor

on December 28, 2009

category: direct marketing

Manager Business Development

2009: The Year of the Ostrich

The Chinese have an animal name for each year, but I proclaim that 2009 was the Year of the Ostrich. Hallelujah and jubilation, it is almost over. I work in Business Development here at Hacker and have been in sales and marketing for more years than I like to admit. This has been the roughest year in my memory and has been called the toughest since the headline appeared October 30, 1929, “WALL ST LAYS AN EGG”.   It must have been an ostrich egg because the first six months of the year many marketing executives had their heads buried in the sand, or maybe just hiding under their desks. I felt like the Maytag repair person: No one to talk to, everyone scared, in hiding. One contact said she could not talk to me today because they just announced 42,000 layoffs and “I have some fires to put out today.”Gives you an idea what Business Development is facing.

Is your head buried in the sand? What that does is leave your backside VERY vulnerable. Competitors will be pouncing on your customers and prospects while you think you are playing it safe.By summer, folks started to face reality that the world was not ending, the sky was not falling and, lo and behold, they began to talk. They were not ready to act but at least they would talk to us. We switched from the Year of the Ostrich to the Year of the Dragon. Every meeting, every action, every decision seemed to Drag On. As Bears owner George Halas was known to do, they “threw nickels around like manhole covers.” Marketers facing smaller budgets, smaller departments and perhaps the threat of losing their own jobs, became extremely cautious, watching every penny spent and wanting to know what it was doing for them immediately. Well, folks, that’s why direct marketing is so hot right now, everything can be tracked, measured and analyzed to measure ROI.  

Be gone Dragon, Damn the Torpedoes and Full Speed ahead!

We are in a unique period in history. Never in the last 234 years as a nation has there been such a shake-up of marketing executives and personal. Almost every company in America has different marketing management in new positions seeking new ideas as we enter a recovery year in 2010. What a great time to be in Business Development as these new execs seek proven ways to keep the business they have and acquire new customers.

Marketing execs in America, my advice to you is to explode out of the gates in 2010. Your competitors might just be reading this, too! Either you are part of the steamroller or you will be part of the pavement. If you are content coasting, you are sliding down a hill.

2009 is gone. To all a New Year’s toast: “To your health and a safe and prosperous explosive 2010!”

 

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on September 11, 2009

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Is our fate written in the stars?

Nobody likes to be labeled, but everyone loves putting labels on other people. Baby boomers, Gen X, Millenials. You can’t avoid the label. You can only say, "Wait a minute. I’m not like that."

Here’s a commentary on MediaPost that tells us about the motivations and feelings of people based on their age.

This makes me a little crazy. I share a birthday with my husband. Same day. Same year. We do not necessarily share the same outlook on spending, saving, investing, the future or anything else.

I’m not saying we’re at odds about these things. I’m just saying our birthday doesn’t make us identical. Others in our circle are different from us -- even though they’re close in age.

This is the equivalent of astrology in my book. Complete bunk. Does anybody buy this, besides the people making it up? They do these interviews . . . and they find patterns. But it’s all subjective.

Then you end up with conclusions about Gen Xers that sound odd: "Their orientation -- about everything -- is defensive." That’s just not a believable conclusion. Unless you’ve never met anyone born in the ’60s or ’70s, except maybe to interview them.

Maybe I sound defensive. But I shouldn’t be, because I’m not an Xer. I’m one of those "resilient" boomers.

 

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Jill Kaufman

on February 5, 2009

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Account Services

Happy Customer Appreciation Day!

We may not be in a real depression (yet), but a lot of marketers could use some Zoloft about now. Customer attrition is throwing a wrench in our plans for the quarter, if not the year.

My usual take on things is to see the glass as half full -- but it seems pretty empty. New leads and new customers are certainly harder to come by and churn is depleting the base. It’s become even more important to focus on current customers and stem the losses.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Segment your list and get closer to your most valuable customers. Take a look at what they’ve been up to and make them a sweet offer.

2. Survey customers and find out what you should stop doing. What irritates them about your customer service? What inconveniences them that you can fix?

3. Take a holistic view of your customer marketing program. What should trigger a communication from you? And what’s the call to action?

4. Start a dialog. Do you need a company blog or a presence on Twitter? It couldn’t hurt.

5. Stop marketing to the customers who cost more than they’re worth. You don’t need to "defriend" them.  Just ignore them. This money-saving idea will allow you to move budget to the customers who deserve your attention.

Customers, as we like to say, are the reason you’re in business. If you think you’re depressed, remember they could use a little TLC, too.

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on January 29, 2009

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Identifying new audiences for your product.

Targeting, segmenting, media planning . . . all those things are tailor-made for spreadsheet junkies, right?

We’re so darned rational in the marketing world. At least when we’re explaining what we do to clients. We do all this research, you see. Qualitative, quantitative, all of it. We mine your customer database and overlay somebody else’s database and see what shakes out.

We know your audience’s age, income, height, weight and eye color. They index high for left-handedness, have 1.14 children and prefer cats to dogs.

The client has to be pleased when we’re so familiar with their target . . . but where do we find more people like this?

It’s tempting, in a new era that punishes wastefulness, to paint ourselves into a corner with our targeting. Let me suggest that carefully testing into new ideas may be appropriate right now. Let’s have a little less "rationality" and a little more creativity -- because we should be looking for customers wherever we can find them.

Why not invite a group of smart marketers who may be less familiar with your product and your target into a room and have a little brainstorm.

• Who might be interested that we’re missing right now?
• What halo around the target might be ripe for picking, partly because they haven’t seen our marketing over and over?
• Look farther afield, as well. What else might your product be used for that has resonance with a completely out-of-target audience?

Human beings are prone to stereotyping and, for the most part, it works well as a survival mechanism. It allows us to think about the more likely threats before the unlikely ones. But there’s a time when our stereotypes hold us back from thinking bigger.

When everyone else is thinking small, try thinking big.

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on January 23, 2009

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

What's worth measuring.

Yet another survey of marketers has shown that they are unable or unwilling to measure marketing return on investment. This time the information comes from The Conference Board in a report called Managing and Measuring Return on Marketing Investment.

I don’t doubt that technical and other issues seriously inhibit measurement. But it doesn’t mean you can’t make a start. Here’s the kicker from this report:

Leadership commitment (63 percent) is the most important driver of marketing ROI. An additional 37 percent said that executive sponsorship in particular is an important driver, supporting findings that identify senior leadership as the most important component of the business environment for the advancement of an ROI-driven marketing effort.

If I’m understanding what this says and my math skills are up to par -- 63 plus 37 . . . carry the 1 -- 100% of the marketers surveyed who aren’t able to measure ROI think it’s because their boss won’t let them. I must be misreading this.

The real issue looks like something else. Another quote:

Although the inputs and expenses associated with marketing can easily be measured on a monthly or quarterly basis, the results of a successful marketing effort — enhanced brand recognition and reputation, customer loyalty, improved market penetration, expanded networks and cross-selling opportunities — may not be realized in the form of increased revenue within a specific timeframe and may be difficult to forecast,

Some of these things are either nearly impossible to measure or else really not important.

Brand recognition is not necessarily worth measuring. You should have an idea if your brand isn’t well known. If it isn’t well known generally, you may also have a pretty good idea if it’s known within your target market. When you talk to potential customers, have they heard of your company or product? If not, brand recognition may be an issue for you. Measuring it isn’t as important as fixing it -- because (as noted) it can’t really be attributed to a single effort anyway.

Reputation is rarely impacted by advertising. Perhaps this metric can be foisted on the PR people.

Customer loyalty can be measured, and relatively easily, if you have a customer database. If you don’t have one, you need to figure out whether it makes sense strategically to build one. If it doesn’t make sense, maybe all you need to measure is revenue growth.

Market penetration is something like brand recognition. It may not be an important metric. And wouldn’t revenue growth (again) be an easy substitute, until the time comes when you’re able to determine market penetration? If it’s that big a deal, can you hire a research firm? Outsourcing is a possibility for measuring many of these things.

Expanded networks. Umm . . . what does that mean in this context?

Cross-selling opportunities? If you have customers and you know who they are, e.g., have a database so you know what they bought or have a retail store so they’re standing in front of you when they’re buying, you have cross-selling opportunities. Since these are both one-to-one examples, you should probably be able to get some measurement in place. If your boss lets you.

So much depends on what you’re selling and how you sell it that my generalizations sound as fatuous as the results of this 73-person survey. So, seriously, before you rant and rave about how hard it is to measure results, remember that it’s okay to decide that some results aren’t worth measuring.
 

 

 

Comments:

2/3/2009 at 12:35 a.m.
Thanks!
Thanks for the suggestions, Dave. We're having a meeting about how we can improve this blog on Monday . . . and I'm forwarding your comments to the rest of the team. (I make no promises about when you'll see changes, however!)
>>Carolyn Hansen,  2/2/2009 at 7:20 p.m.
Measurements
I like your blog, your team is obviously focused on creating great content. I have a couple of recommendations. 1.) Use Blog software that will allow a commenter a link back to his website. That will create more comments, which inturn creates better ranking and thereby more sales. 2.) Supply a trackback link so that if someone wants to talk up your great post on measurement they can give you credit. That will create more links, which creates better ranking, and you guessed it more sales. Blogging is marketing and you guys have infrastructure and talent depth to rock at it. Positively, Dave Pavlu Measurement Freak http://www.AdsUpNow.com
>>Dave Pavlu, Snohomish  WA

Carolyn Hansen

on January 6, 2009

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Marketing smarter, not harder

We’re all being a lot more careful with our budgets in 2009 -- consumers and businesses alike.

"Do more with less" is back in style with CFOs everywhere. Argh.

I have a proposal for you: Use some of your marketing budget for split testing -- even if that budget is smaller this year. In fact, do it especially if your budget has shrunk.

Multivariate testing is an inexpensive and fast way to learn what your target audience responds to. Try all your brilliant ideas -- creative, media outlets, offers, etc. -- all at the same time and see what happens. Then you can stretch the rest of your budget much further by spending only on what works and dropping the losing ideas.

You don’t need millions of dollars to do it . . . and the learning is priceless.

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on December 10, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Better and Greener

I attended the Good and Green Conference last week. I’d love to sum up what I got out of it . . . but I haven’t quite reached a pithy conclusion yet.

One thing was confirmed to me about marketers that I hesitate to discuss in this post -- because it’s negative and I met such lovely people in Chicago. But I’ve made this knock so many times already in this very space that I hope that (if any of them ever stumble across this) they’ll take it in the spirit I intend it.

Marketers care way too much about generic surveys of consumer attitudes.

Everyone is trying to divide all of us into three or five or nine or 167 convenient shades of green. I’m too pragmatic for that approach. If attitudes predicted behavior, I’d be a much better person than I am. Hypocrisy is the human condition.

My contention is that behaviors are more measurable and more meaningful than attitudes.

I got a terrific book, Strategies for the Green Economy, by one of the conference’s keynote speakers, Joel Makower. He sums up the frustration with all the segmentation that doesn’t really work this way.

For the record, here’s my own unscientific market segmentation, based on nothing but intuition, common sense, and 20 years of observing the green marketplace. Like the other segmenters, I divide the world into five kinds of green consumers:

• Committed -- knows what to do and does it often
• Conflicted -- knows what to do but often doesn’t bother
• Concerned -- wants to know what to do but doesn’t yet
• Confused -- doesn’t know what to do or how to make a difference
• Cynical -- doesn’t know and doesn’t care

Of course, any one of us, depending on the day, our mood, and what we’re buying, can be any one of these five consumers or even a little bit of each.

I love this conclusion, because it rings true and it’s actionable. You can use this list as a filter for your creative work to be sure it speaks to all, except perhaps the cynical.

 

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Jon Bell

on November 17, 2008

category: direct marketing

Senior Copywriter

Breakthrough insight: people like stuff

I like stuff a lot. And I like a lot of stuff. I imagine other people do, too. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was George Carlin who said that "home is where you keep your stuff, while you’re out getting other stuff."

Knowing that, it was hard to keep a straight face when I read in Adweek that a survey was needed to discover that people really like it when advertisers give them stuff. If the stuff has the advertiser’s name on it, people remember the advertiser. They may even buy something from said advertiser.

The icing on the gateau? The survey was done by the Advertising Specialty Institute. They’re an organization that helps bring advertisers and tchotchke vendors together. Not exactly the least biased of all sources.

It’s fun to mock them but, of course, they’re right. Marketers wouldn’t use these branded items if they didn’t measurably increase results. And if marketers didn’t use them so much, there’d be no need for an Advertising Specialty Institute.

One clarifying point. The best use of promotional swag is not to get the target market’s attention. That’s why "clever" agencies and advertisers don’t often go for the idea. And if they ever try, those agencies and advertisers rarely know how to make the swag work for them.

In direct marketing, we don’t give this stuff away without a plan. We call these items "offers" and we use them to get the action we desire from our target market -- from giving us their contact information to closing a sale.

Branded stuff, promotional swag, tchotchkes, offers . . . whatever you call it, it’s a direct marketer’s secret weapon. I’m not too worried that the secret is out. Most Adweek readers won’t understand.

 

Comments:

12/20/2008 at 4:02 p.m.
Great Affirmation
What a great article, I couldn't agree more. I am amazed everyday by the utter lack of understand of how powerful these items are. Both internally as well as externally. I know a gal at the local yellow pages that has every piece of swag the company has given her over the last 20 some years proudly displayed in her office. I especially like your comments about their use to promote action. Why just give swag away at a tradeshow, make the prospect earn it! Thanks for giving us tchotchke dealers a little kudos.
>>Steven Paul Matsumoto, Bellevue WA11/19/2008 at 3:58 p.m.
Ouch...
Nicely put.
>>Tara, Seattle WA

Carolyn Hansen

on October 7, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Communicating credibly in a crisis.

At a certain point, people stop believing your messages. For banks, that day has arrived. For political candidates . . . well, I have to think their time for "setting the record straight" may have come and gone. The hysteria has reached a fever pitch and cynicism is everywhere. No one believes anything that doesn’t match their pre-conceived ideas about the candidates.

If you’re going through a troubling time, it’s tempting to pull yourself into a fetal position and wait till the storm is over. Unfortunately, that only makes things worse.

I’m not an expert in crisis management. But I do know something about communicating, as well as building -- and keeping -- trust through your marketing efforts.

If your company has something important to communicate in difficult times, you want to keep what you’ve learned from the marketing department in mind.  If you’re a politician, you should know a thing (or twelve) about communication. 

First, think about all your market segments. A company has its employees, customers, stockholders and the general public (or potential customers) to consider. If it were me, I’d take care of those audiences in that order -- unless, of course, you have a public health crisis on your hands. Talk to employees first. They deserve your honesty. Don’t hide from your customers. They’re your lifeblood. Explain things to your shareholders. And deal with your advertising or PR campaign last of all.

I have a friend who goes online to check her bank account every day. I won’t name names, but its initials are WaMu. The bank hasn’t talked to her as a customer about what’s going on . . . but each day as she signs in, a new tagline greets her. That’s not reassuring. That just makes her a little more nervous. She’ll be moving her money to a credit union soon because the advertising department has gotten ahead of itself and hasn’t talked to customers directly.

After you determine your target segments, where will you find your audience? How can you reach them with the least amount of waste? That’s your media plan.

Then consider the action you want those groups to take. Put the message and offer together that will drive that action.

And, finally, follow through with what you promised. That’s really the only way to build trust or build a brand.

 

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Spyro Kourtis

on October 2, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

Marketing strategy in a downturn.

Buy low. Sell high. Now that’s wisdom for the ages.

It’s pretty clear we’re going to be hitting bottom in the economy one day soon.  And we may be hanging out at the bottom for a while.

That’s an opportunity to buy.  As a marketer, you may be able to pick up market share on the cheap.  But it takes guts.  You have to believe you’re going to outlast the bad times. 

My company is in the same position as yours. We’re thinking about how to cut costs during the recession. But we’re still investing in marketing. In fact, one of our unbreakable rules is "Never Stop Selling." 

 

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on July 8, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

The future of precision targeting.

I have hope that one day general advertisers and direct marketers will speak the same language.  That day is not yet here—but we're getting closer.  In a July 7 article in Ad Age about the changing consumer market, Peter Francese said:

In the past, target marketing focused mostly on what TV shows people in a segment watched or what radio formats they preferred or what periodicals they read.

Good to see someone in Advertising Age use the words ''target marketing'' like that. 

However, in the past, target marketing didn't really focus on TV all that much.  Advertising did.  It's great that advertisers are trying to target now.  I give them a lot of credit for that.  Francese goes on:

To some extent, that type of targeting can still work. But precision targeting in the future will rely more heavily on ethnographic research into the culture, beliefs and activities of target consumer groups, as well as their media preferences.

That makes the skeptic in me pause.  Precision targeting in the future (as now) will not be about mind-reading—so why the ethnographic research into culture and beliefs? 

I have to admit, I wasn't completely certain I knew what ethnographic research was.  So I looked it up on Wikipedia and found this amusing nugget near the end of the article:

Where focus groups fail to inform marketers about what people really do, ethnography links what people say to what they actually do—avoiding the pitfalls that come from relying only on self-reported, focus-group data.

Consumer activities (we call them behaviors) and media preferences are extremely important to know.  They're also observable and measurable.  It doesn't really matter -- to marketers -- what people say, only what they do.  Ethnography, while fascinating, can easily be left to the anthropologists.

 

 

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Jon Bell

on July 3, 2008

category: direct marketing

Senior Copywriter

Consumer engagement.

So many marketers are still caught up in old school marketing, where the goal is to drive someone from unawareness to ''awareness'' and, finally, all the way to ''brand liking.''  Or something like that.  There may be an ''intent to buy'' after that.

A post on Advertising Age fine-tunes this a bit further.  Between liking and intent to purchase, there's something the author, Troy Young, calls an ''intent to engage.'' 

It makes measuring real leads and actual sales seem a little crude, doesn't it?  Being able to learn someone's intentions -- now that's refinement taken to hair-splitting, angels-dancing-on-a-pin extremes.

Direct marketers don't try to read minds the way general advertisers and other pseudo-psychics do.  I think the reason for that is that we know our own minds so well.  When I have to make a considered purchase, like a new home or a new car, I may dither right up until the last possible moment.  The length of time between intent to purchase and no intent at all and back again could move as quickly as the flutter of a butterfly's wings.

For something like an ice cream cone, I can go from unawareness to awareness to intent about as quickly as it took to me to see the Ben & Jerry's logo on the store.  Even though, up until that moment, I specifically and consciously had no intent to ever eat ice cream again as long as I lived.  And it doesn't mean I've engaged with either Ben or Jerry in the past.  It could be a local vendor in the town where I happen to be vacationing.

This is why direct marketers don't try to measure intentions.  Instead, we give the consumer plenty of reasons to purchase.  We try to connect them emotionally.  We urge them to respond sooner rather than later.  If they indicate interest, we call them a lead and nurture the budding relationship.  If they give us money, we call that transaction a sale.  We measure those.  And we respect their preference to keep any other intentions to themselves, if they wish. 

 

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Jürgen Stephan

on July 2, 2008

category: direct marketing

Executive Director, New Business Development

The limits of behavioral targeting

Life is a trade-off.  My dad used to say, ''You can do anything you want.  You just can't do everything you want.''  Saying yes to one thing means saying no to many, many others.  It makes logical sense, but just about everyone still has trouble with it.

EMarketer.com came out with an article that says it all:  behavioral targeting is great, as long as you have the data.  The trade-off is a loss of reach.  Here's a quote:

Chris Kilkes, interactive media manager at Godfrey Q & Partners, said, ''The biggest problem with testing different kinds of behavioral segments is maybe we are only reaching 10,000 people on a specific site, like NYTimes.com. When you are talking about reach and trying to get frequency, that becomes pretty problematic.

''Why do I spend 10 grand on 10,000 people?'' Mr. Kilkes continued. ''Of course you would say, 'Well, that's a richer audience.' That's one of the big challenges for behavioral is you're narrowing your universe so much.''

And that's why online marketers fall back on old-school demographic targeting.  It's just plain easier.  Are you wasting money?  Almost certainly.  But at least it doesn't look like you're spending 10 grand on an audience of 10,000 people.

In my opinion, marketers are only fooling themselves with this kind of thinking.  Yes, you get more reach -- but with the wrong audience.  And when you're ''reaching'' the wrong audience, you're contributing to the clutter and irrelevance that is the enemy of marketing.  Is there a stronger word than ''enemy''?  Whatever that word is, that's what clutter and irrelevance are to your marketing campaigns.

That's why no one pays attention to your relevant advertising -- because there's so much irrelevance out there.  That's why click-through rates have dropped drastically since the beginning of banner ads.  That's why response rates to every other form of direct marketing have declined. People can't like or feel good about watching twelve irrelevant commercials for every ten minutes of television.  They hate it.  And they prove it by getting DVRs and fast-forwarding every chance they get.

Let's not try to do everything anymore.  Let's do the right thing and only market to the audience that could possibly be interested in our products or services.

 

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on June 26, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Marketing strategy.

Generating ideas on the creative side of an agency is almost always a team sport.  Copywriters and art directors get together and brainstorm.  Often creative directors and designers are invited to join the fun.  (It really is fun . . . the laughter from those conference rooms can get pretty annoying to the rest of us.)  On big assignments, multiple teams will be given the same challenge.

It's a little harder to get a whole team together for ideas on the account side.  Our Account Managers are expected to be solely responsible for the marketing strategy for their client.

Over the years, we've developed a way to spread this responsibility -- although not the final accountability.  As our agency has grown, we've added an Account Director level to the organizational chart.  The Director provides feedback on the AM's plans before they are presented to the client -- and is especially involved in developing strategy for new clients. 

We also keep all of our senior executives involved in our twice-a-week Strategy Council meetings where we review plans or brainstorm new strategies when new challenges come up.  We intentionally cross-pollinate these meetings with Account Managers who have worked through similar challenges.

And every week our Account Managers, Account Executives and Business Development team meets.  At almost every meeting, an AM will present a case study or the equivalent of a quarterly client presentation, to spread the word about what's working now throughout the company.

Making sure that knowledge is retained, that good strategy is used and new ideas are generated by an expert team is one of the great benefits of using an agency.  Otherwise you'd be sitting alone in your office bouncing ideas off the ceiling instead of collaborating with your off-site agency team.

 

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Spyro Kourtis

on June 16, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

Targeted marketing and advertising budgets.

The June 10 Wall Street Journal had an article about how six cable companies have developed new technology that will help advertisers better target TV watchers.

I think this is great news -- both as a marketer and as a TV watcher.  If I'm going to spend money on TV as a marketing medium, I want to know that the people who will see my commercial are actually likely to buy my product.  And if I'm going to spend any time in front of the tube, I'd prefer to see more relevant ads than the ones I'm watching now.

Here's what the Journal suggests is the downside:

Something that may concern programmers -- and damp enthusiasm: Because targeted advertising theoretically offers more bang for the marketing buck, advertisers may end up reducing their overall cable spend.

I honestly hope this doesn't damp enthusiasm.  If it does, it's short-sighted on the part of the programmers.

First of all, marketers ought to pay more for a targeted audience on a CPM basis.  This is how it's been done in direct marketing forever.  Smaller, more exclusive lists -- whether mail or email -- cost more per name.  On a cost-per-impression basis, direct mail could never compete with broadcast.  It's not about the costs so much as it's about the return on investment and the net profit you make from a campaign.

But, second, I see this as an opportunity for cable companies to keep their audience -- the audience that's turning to the Internet for entertainment -- and perhaps turn the cable medium into something different from broadcast TV.  Perhaps, with targeted audiences and higher prices, cable companies can provide more entertainment with fewer commercials than the big networks.  The argument for higher prices would get marketers both a tighter audience and more attention.  Without ten or twelve other commercials in every pod, your ad will stand out more. 

Wouldn't this be a win-win-win for cable companies, advertisers and the cable TV audience?

Even as I write this, I know it won't happen.  There's just too much fear and greed locking us into the current system.  But I can dream.

 

 

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Spyro Kourtis

on June 10, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

Customer churn.

One of my favorite marketing challenges is helping our clients find new customers.  But in an economic downturn we can't forget the enormous problem of losing current customers.

Formerly loyal customers can be tempted away by a competitor's lower prices. They may even decide to forego your product or service altogether, if the value proposition isn't clear to them anymore.  It's no good to continue to fill the bucket with new customers, when current customers are leaving through a hole in the bottom.

Patching that hole should be one of your top priorities.  And the first step is a detailed analysis of your customer file to answer questions like:

  • How do we identify which customers are most likely to leave?
  • What events seem to trigger the loss of a customer?
  • Is there anything that can be done to prevent the triggering event?
  • What can we do after the trigger is pulled to keep the customer with us?

Answer these questions and you have the beginning of a churn strategy.  Put it in place now -- and keep it going, even when times are good.

Here's another, counter-intuitive question that your analysis could help with:  Which customers do we want to fire?

Everyone knows the Pareto Principle, that 80% of your revenue is generated by 20% of your customers.  A parallel truth -- call it the Spyro Principle -- is that 90% of your problems are caused by 2% of your customers.

That may be a blog post for another day.

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on May 27, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Happy summer!

I hope your Memorial Day celebration was full of fun and kicked off summer with just the right amount of verve.

I read in last week's New York Times that tourism marketers are nervous about getting your travel dollars and are changing tactics to be a little more hard-hitting.

Hacker Group's early roots are in travel and tourism.  Little things like calls to action and urgency drivers are not news to us.  We've been using them for twenty-plus years.  It's kind of a kick to see What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas morph into Do Vegas right now! 

Panama City Beach, Florida, is throwing a “Summer white sale.”  Orlando has added Say yes to special values to its Say yes to Orlando campaign.

One of the lessons my Mom taught me (and one that's served me well as a direct marketer) is that it never hurts to ask.  It looks like some tourism marketers are starting to ask.  I'll bet they're also starting to get better results.

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on May 19, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Sweat equity.

If a commercial gives you goosebumps, are you more likely to buy the product?  If your palms sweat, does it mean you're going to reach for your wallet?

Disney thinks so -- and I'll bet they're right, if they're talking about entertainment advertising.  Nothing is worse than going to a movie that doesn't arouse your emotions.  Most of us figure that if the trailer doesn't do anything for us, the movie certainly won't.

And other products?  What about a considered purchase, like a computer printer?  Or an impulse buy, like a Diet Coke at the local mini-mart?  How about something somewhere in between, like shoes?

The International Herald Tribune says Disney will be doing research on the biometric responses (heart rate and skin conductivity, i.e., how much they sweat) of people watching commercials.  This is important because TV is not a rational medium, it's an emotional medium, according to Duane Varan, the head of this new laboratory. We can get to a deeper layer of what's motivating people by seeing how they behave, observing them in experimental settings and seeing how their body reacts.

Apparently NBC did similar experiments several months ago, according to The New York Times.  It's not all that new.  I heard about these kinds of experiments back in the '80s, when I was taking advertising classes in college.

Varan's premise is very interesting to me.  Is TV really any more emotional than radio or search engine marketing?  People aren't either rational OR emotional.  It's hard to believe that media can be one or the other. 

Marketers often use TV in an emotional way -- and much of that has to do with the limitations of the 30-second spot.  Emotions are definitely communicated much more quickly than reasons.
They're working awfully hard at Disney to get to some pretty esoteric information.  It'll be interesting to see if this new lab gets any more helpful data than all the other experimenters before them.

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on May 15, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Outcomes

A nice article in Strategy + Business, a Booz Allen Hamilton publication, lays out the recent history of marketing measurement in a straightforward, unbiased way.  I admit to being very biased toward metrics that are about outcomes rather than inputs.

Christopher Vollmer, the article's author, says marketers are demanding outcome metrics -- and I say, yay!

Every time I see something about a new way to get at people's demographics, I get a little more frustrated.  It's not about how many 25-44 year-old women will see your ad.  It's mostly about how much you spend on your ad and how much money you make from it. 

If you spent $10 to send a certified letter to the right buyer and they spent $10,000 to buy something it cost you $1,000 to make, you wouldn't care if the target was male or female -- as long as you knew they were predisposed to buy your product.

Knowing which person to send your $10 letter to or which group of people are most likely to become one of your buyers may involve demographics -- pregnancy tests are sold to women of childbearing years -- but not always.  And not always as a first cut of who might be most interested.

Inputs are meaningful, of course, but the first focus must be on how you will measure results.  If you don't start with the outcomes, you'll never know what worked.

 

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Spyro Kourtis

on May 12, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

Food for thought.

What is it about fast food that makes people think corporations ought to sacrifice profits for creativity? 

I talked about Wendy's decision to (finally) pull their ads featuring a guy in a red wig a couple of months ago in The Madison Avenue Journal.  Now The New York Times is questioning whether Applebee's should have pulled its quirky talking apple and replaced it with a tried and true approach:

Early tests showed mixed results — some people loved the apple’s attitude, though others found it off-putting — but the real problem was that the fruit in question failed to give the company’s bottom line an immediate lift.

They go on and on about how this was an opportunity to make Applebee's cool.  (Yeah.  Good luck with that.) 

Hidden at the bottom of the NY Times inverted pyramid is the stat that should have been the lead -- the good news for Applebee's now that they've gone back to selling food:

The chain . . . reported a 0.5 percent increase in same-store sales for the first quarter. Among company-owned stores (and excluding franchisees), the increase was 2.1 percent.

“The first quarter release is our first positive same-store sales in two years,” Ms. Scott of Applebee’s said. “It’s safe to say this campaign is working for us, so we’re going to stick with it.”

 

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Joe Ellis

on April 29, 2008

category: direct marketing

Business Development Director

How to know you're really, really good at marketing.

My five year old grandson just joined a baseball team for the first time. Two weeks ago their first practice session was held.

To get to know one another, the coach asked each player to tell the team a little about themselves. He asked for their name, the school they attend, and whether or not they had played baseball before.

One six year old youngster announced his name and his school. He said he’d never played baseball before, “But, I’m really, really good”, he proudly proclaimed.

Intrigued, his coach asked how he knew he was so good if he had never played on a team before.

The future major leaguer quickly explained, “My Dad and I play baseball all the time. And, every time we play he tells me I’m really, really good!”

Good for the dad for encouraging his son! And, good for the young lad for believing him! The kid’ll probably play a better game of ball because of it.

I’ve told that story so many times because it kind of warms the soul. So cute!

Earlier this week I was talking with a team of direct marketing professionals. They manage a lead generation program to support their outside sales team. They told me the new program they created had done extremely well, so they probably will continue executing it the same way.

I congratulated them on their success. Trying to understand their situation a little more, I probed for key performance metrics achieved in the program – response rates, cost per lead, the conversion of lead to sale rate, cost per sale, etc.

They responded, “You must track things differently than we do. We don’t have that kind of information.”

For some reason I was reminded of the little baseball player. In the absence of proof of his abilities, he simply believed his dad. There’s something wonderful about that.

In the absence of proper tracking and measurement, the marketing professionals were convinced of their success as well. They believed one another’s opinions, feelings and congratulations. I think there’s something tragic about that.

One thing I love about direct response marketing is that you can know how a program performed. Beyond opinion. No feelings involved. Know. Good tracking and measurement can pinpoint what went well, and what needs more attention. I’ll watch and believe the numbers!

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on April 24, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

You can observe a lot by watching.

Just read an interesting Ad Age CMO Strategy piece on "Why Consumers May Never Be the Same" after the recession.

The author, Eric Spahr, talks about how to figure out consumers. And he suggests observation, rather than focus groups. Here's what he said:

Consumers are notoriously bad at predicting or remembering their behavior, so don't rely on what they say in focus groups or one-on-one interviews. Instead, watch what they do. Last year, people were ready to trade in their SUVs for hybrids at the thought of $3-per-gallon gas. Today, those same SUVs are swerving across three lanes of traffic for the opportunity to fill up for gas that cheap.

That made me smile. It's true, isn't it? What was unthinkable a short while ago becomes business as usual soon enough.

Yogi Berra, the great 20th century baseball zen master had it right. You can observe a lot by watching

Spahr's proposition also reminded me of a focus group I observed many, many years ago. The client was a non-profit organization. They wanted to know why some people wouldn't respond to our most successful direct mail package. It had been the best idea we could come up with . . . but there were still some folks who wouldn't give, even though they'd received it several times.

The group was selected based on the criteria that they had given to this organization in the past and they had received this direct mail piece at least twice, but hadn't responded.

They were gathered in the room behind to one-way glass. They were loosened up with some small talk. Then the real meeting began. Each person was handed a sample of the mailing and asked what they thought.

The consensus? It was brilliant! If they got something like this in the mail, of course they would respond. Nothing could stop them from writing a check.

That didn't answer our question about how we could improve our mailing. But it did give us valuable information. We concluded, as did Eric Spahr, "consumers are notoriously bad at predicting or remembering their behavior."

Don't ask. Merely watch. You'll observe more.

 

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Spyro Kourtis

on April 23, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

Learn from your customers

This month the CMO Council came out with a new report suggesting that marketers are "struggling with amassing and strategically applying data and customer insights to effect substantive business growth and strategic gain."

In other words, they don't know their own customers well enough to keep them -- or make money from them.

(Those multi-syllable words sure make them sound a lot smarter, don't they?)

The report goes on to detail just how unhappy these executives are with their ability to collect data, to share data, to come up with actionable insights from the data they have and more.

It's a little depressing. These are supposed to be some pretty high-powered individuals -- and yet they come across as somewhat helpless.

There are a couple of ways to handle this enormous problem.

One approach is for the CMO to get the CIO on his or her team. The CIO controls the data. If they're focused on business results (as they should be), the CMO's request should be a priority. Many times the CIO and CMO just aren't connected -- so the CIO doesn't even know the CMO has a problem. What's more, the CMO could build a powerful alliance. It's an old saying, but a true one: You can accomplish just about anything if you don't care who gets the credit.

If that doesn't work, another idea is to completely circumvent the CIO. Start your own database with new customers -- the ones you bring in through your own marketing efforts. (Of course, I'm talking about direct marketing here. That's the only way you'll know who these folks are.) Make sure you track the data you need. Start building on the information and insights you gain with your own database, then extend it to the big group the CIO still controls.

Another truism, which applies in this case, is that it's easier to get forgiveness than permission.

If all this seems difficult, keep in mind . . . it's the CMO's job that's at stake. And that's why they call it work.

 

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Spyro Kourtis

on April 18, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

The only metric that counts

Ever since the beginning of online advertising, marketers have been trying to get a grip on measurement. We can all agree that there are too many data points to absorb and act on, if we're going to retain our sanity.

It's old news that click-through rates are not the key. (Marketers started saying that just about the time when click-throughs started dropping through the floor.)

Brandweek came out with an article last week saying that perhaps the new metric is "engagement." Of course, the people pitching this idea are the social media experts -- and social media are all about getting consumers to participate in a conversation . . . or pass along a widget to a friend . . . or make a video of themselves using the product . . . or create a commercial. You get the idea. Engagement.

Brandweek quoted some skeptics.

"There's always been a certain level of engagement as consumers click on a banner," said Jeff Hinz, svp/director of client services at ID Media, a digital services company in New York."

Of course, Jeff's company buys online media for banner ads.

Others said that brand recall and favorable impressions were more important.

I have my bias, too. I say none of it matters unless your marketing efforts make a profit for your company.

Net profit. That's the metric that counts.

 

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Brian Gilbert

on April 10, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Integrated Marketing

Thinking critically.

You must remember Charlie Brown's saying, "I love mankind. It's people I can't stand."

I love statistics, it's analysis I can't stand.

It drives me nuts that people derive their own conclusions that basically just prove their own point when looking at data. And when the "data" isn't that great to begin with, the conclusions just get wackier.

What got me going this time is a Forrester report called The Connected Agency. Looks like it was released in February. I exaggerate when I say it involves data. Mostly it's about observing the agency zeitgeist and piling on the "what this might mean" conclusions. It looks like they plan to market this "intelligence" to the big agencies they're trying to throw the fear of God into.

Here's one takeaway from this report that makes no sense to me.

Rethink consumer segmentation. Traditional segmentation models work with demographic approximations of consumer understanding, similar to the blunt target audiences of the mass media. But a 41-year-old woman may have little in common with a 25-year-old, even if they both watch Desperate Housewives or American Idol. In reality, consumers cut across multiple lifestyle, life-cycle, and behavioral segments. Today’s generations have shortened, requiring marketers to reformulate audience strategies. For example, Nike now plans with age gaps of as little as four years; Procter & Gamble has moved from decades to a handful of years.

I agree that traditional agencies don't have a grip on segmentation -- but, judging from this paragraph, neither does Forrester.

For one thing, marketers -- as we've said many, many times in this blog -- shouldn't be segmenting on "demographic approximations." To me, it's much more interesting that a 41-year-old and a 25-year-old may something in common-- something that has relevance to me as a marketer. So what if their lifestyles differ? If I sell kitty litter and they both have cats, how old they are makes no difference. If they're both fashionistas and I sell shoes, there may be a difference in how much one is willing to spend on accessories -- but I'm not ready to hazard a guess which woman is which until I see a previous buying pattern, not an age.

And how do they justify the statement "today's generations have shortened." Really?? It seems to me a lot of 40-year-olds have more in common with their teenagers than parents and kids back in the 1970s or earlier. My guess? Procter & Gamble and Nike have better data now, so they can identify ages with more accuracy. They haven't provided the data to back this conclusion, so my conclusions have as much weight as theirs . . . until they show me the difference those shortened generations really make on their marketing (or on their products).

 

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Spyro Kourtis

on April 7, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

Direct marketing in less-than-direct channels

One of the wonderful things about direct marketing is complete control one has over the entire selling process. We like to talk about "planning backward from the point of sale." And we actually can do that. If the customer is going to buy direct, the direct marketer can fine-tune every communication and transaction along the way. We create a breadcrumb trail of offers (if you do this, we'll give you that) and lead our prospects down a path that culminates in a purchase.

This generally makes direct marketers control freaks.

We're always tweaking headlines, testing offers and incorporating more value propositions into the copy to see what has a big impact on results at each step.

So when we're asked to use direct marketing tools and techniques to do something other than sell directly, we usually have a lot to offer our clients -- and not necessarily where traditional agencies would be likely to try.

If you ask a general agency to try to drive traffic to retail stores, you'll get a lot of questions about the products you sell and the consumer profile. The result will be a media plan and a new creative approach.

If you ask a direct marketing agency to do the same thing, you'll get a lot of questions about the whole process of the sale. If you're selling cars, for example, the process is a lot more complicated than if you're selling jeans. What are the steps consumers take before coming into the store? What happens once they're there?

The result from your direct agency should be a media plan, a new creative approach and a communication plan once you get a prospect to express any kind of interest.

A lot of us enjoy focusing on the creative aspects of our marketing campaigns. Don't forget that the changes you make to the sales process can have a far bigger impact on results.

 

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Jürgen Stephan

on March 28, 2008

category: direct marketing

Executive Director, New Business Development

Aligning marketing and sales

In many organizations, sales and marketing report to the same executive leader or are even in the same department, but they rarely seem to be on the same team. When things aren't going as smoothly as desired, the finger-pointing begins.

"Sales just doesn't care about maintaining our standards on branding or lead generation."

"Marketing couldn't sell their way out of a paper bag."

One of the most effective ways to start selling more for your company is to get both organizations on the same page.

I have my bias. Even though sales quota typically trumps, I think it is the responsibility of marketing to drive towards alignment. The marketing team needs to take the first step. If you've never been in sales, you'll have a tough time getting any credibility until you start listening to what they tell you. If it's been awhile since you've sold, you'll also have a bit of an uphill battle.

Here's a good place to start:

This should take you in a positive direction. When something you've done for sales starts getting results, you'll have built a winning team. And top executive are happier, as marketing spendings are better targeted and more predictable in outcome.

 

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Spyro Kourtis

on March 27, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

What the voices in your head may be telling you

The articles about marketing mind-readers are starting to scare me a little. Brandweek just published another one . . . this time about using hypnosis in focus groups.

Why don't we just go ahead and implant a post-hypnotic suggestion to go out and buy the darn product right in our advertising? Oh wait. There's already a guy doing this.

Am I overreacting or could this kind of thing blow up on us?

Do marketers really want to be associated with the old "subliminal advertising" soap?

Tracking Internet cookies are one thing. Keeping your medical records secret is an even bigger deal. But privacy issues will be seen in a whole new light when people think you might be poking in their brains.

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on March 26, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Do you love a bargain?

I do a lot of traveling and I've finally come to terms with haggling with street vendors. I used to just say "Okay!" (universal language) when I heard the price of something I wanted. I'd hand over the lira or pesos or whatever and be done with it. My husband took the opposite approach. He'd start out offering half the asked-for price. It was muy dificil for me to keep a poker face during these transactions. It just seemed rude.

Now people are negotiating price right in the middle of Best Buy and Ralph Lauren stores, according to The New York Times.

On the plus side, experts say, this gives stores a better chance of retaining customer loyalty. When you "empower the customer," they'll like you more and return to your store.

On the other hand, according to Priya Raghubir, a marketing professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley . . .

Rather than retaining customers, the rise in haggling is making shoppers highly price-conscious and loyal ultimately to the least expensive offer, not to a brand or a retailer.

On the third hand, one could argue that, in a recession, we're already price conscious.

I got over my problem with haggling with street vendors when I realized many of them really do want me to name my price. If I agree too quickly, these vendors feel the price they gave me must have been too low and they've left money on the table. If we both work toward an agreement, they know they've probably gotten as much as they could get from me.

 

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Michelle Schmoelzer

on March 18, 2008

category: direct marketing

Account Manager

Deal or No Deal

In today's fast paced world we are constantly challenged to do more, faster. We must make decisions at lightning speed, sometimes with no looking back. Recently a few of my colleagues and I had the opportunity to attend a speech of keynote speaker and Olympic speed-skiing champion Vince Poscente. He recently published a business book entitled The Age of Speed – Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World. The topic of his speech, and his book, was how to unravel the notion that in today's world we need to slow down, and why harnessing the power of speed is the ultimate solution for those seeking less stress, less busyness, and more balance. Wow. Now, that's a concept many of us in the room never thought of until that day. Speed is our friend? You don't say. . .

As direct marketers we thrive on results. Everything we do is measurable – and we love to showcase our abilities in this arena, sometimes to a fault. You want to know how cell A performed against cells B & C on the 21st day of the month when it was a full moon? Sure! We have that data and we'll be happy to slice and dice it any way you want to see it!

But often enough we all fall into the trap I like to call "analysis paralysis." This affliction can affect our ability to make timely decisions for our clients' direct marketing campaigns. We're so afraid we are going to make the wrong decision that we either don't act soon enough, or in some instances, at all. We tend to take the conservative route and decide to wait for another round of analysis. We tell ourselves it can't hurt, right? Well, it depends on what you're up against. Is speed the strategy? More than likely in today's world it is, whether we like it or not.

I liken this unsettling feeling of "analysis paralysis" to being a contestant on Deal or No Deal. The pressure to make the right decision quickly is so intense that you freeze and you have to look to the audience to make a key decision for you. Unfortunately, in the business world, you don't always have that supportive audience cheering you on to just "go for it." So, the challenge for us direct marketers is how DO we balance our need for measuring everything under the moon and at the same time embrace speed as a concept to set us free? If anyone has the answer let me know. But make it fast, okay?

 

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Paul Ford

on March 13, 2008

category: direct marketing

Senior Copywriter

Our brand of DM

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to The B-to-B Marketing Conference in Orlando where I was the poster-boy for something that no Hacker-ite would have dreamed of just a few years ago:

Brand.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a direct guy. If the writing, the creative, the offer, the strategy all aren't working on a particular, identifiable individual to take a particular action that leads to a particular, measurable business goal, then I'm not having half the fun I should be.

But . . .

Times have changed. Those individuals we're talking to are lot smarter than they used to be. They have to be. With 5,000 or more marketing messages vying for that person's attention every day, your little bit of mind-space must make itself clear from the start and do so in a way that's instantly relevant, desirable and trustworthy. Otherwise, the finger is always poised over the delete button, the envelope is that much closer to the trash, the clicker finger is more ready to TiVo-forward through your message. In short, you're toast.

But it's not just a matter of coming out with soothing brand messages with consistent color palettes, calmingly symmetrical layouts and copy so minimalist you could call it haiku. That's simply not DM.

So, what's the solution? Wire direct into brand from the ground up.

If you want to know how to do it, call Jürgen at 425-454-8556. He's our business development guru and if you tell him about your marketing program, he'll be happy to give you a proposal. (Okay, that was fun.)

 

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Carolyn Hansen

on February 27, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Our new favorite color.

Did you know Hacker Group has a green initiative that involves all of our clients?

We started working on it last year. We've come up with several ways to reduce our clients' impact on the environment without a huge hit to their budgets. We call it our green best practices.

Our goal is to compensate for our own office's carbon footprint through all the green practices we implement on behalf of our clients.
 

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Carolyn Hansen

on February 12, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Age before beauty.

Ad Age recently published a survey about marketing to Baby Boomers.

...The results found that marketers overgeneralize, misrepresent and sometimes ignore the generation, lumping them together and, in the process, alienating them.

Apparently those wacky Boomers don't like the generalizations made about them any more than Gen Xers or Millennials do. Nobody knew this before, because Boomers don't whine about that kind of stuff. They just roll over anyone dumb enough not to pay attention.

Here's a fascinating tidbit.

An overwhelming majority of survey respondents felt misrepresented and neglected by the advertising industry...

Why would that be? Advertisers focus on demographics like age and gender. How could they neglect such a huge group?

One answer is that advertisers like the idea of appealing to a younger demographic. They may believe the older audience is already either loyal to them or the competition, so they're not worth fighting for. And they'd better make sure to get the kids on board with the brand as soon as possible. They may also believe that for many products, Boomers follow the lead of the youth target in order to stay as young and hip as possible. I certainly know people like that.

Of course, direct marketers look at the concept of "target audience" through an entirely different lens from general advertising agencies. Age isn't important. Interests and behavior are the critical data points.

No one needs a survey to find out whether cat owners ... or people who travel ... or gourmet cooks feel neglected by advertisers.
 

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Carolyn Hansen

on February 8, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

No such thing as bad publicity?

The New York Times just announced that Salesgenie.com is pulling an ad it ran on the Super Bowl — the one with the animated pandas with the awful fake Chinese accents.

People found it offensive. I have to admit, it struck me as going a little too far when I saw it during the game.

The guy who wrote the commercial, Vinod Gupta, owns the company. He's a direct marketer who knows what he's doing. My guess is that orchestrated the whole thing. I've never met the man and it's probably wrong for me to guess what his motives were. But, he made the New York Times, for heaven's sake!

Direct marketers know that anything that's agitating enough to get a big negative reaction is probably going to get you a lot of positive response as well. You rarely can soothe someone into buying something.

What's great about knowing this is that you can dial up or down the agitation to match your goals. Gupta doesn't care about the long-term impact of his bizarre commercial. He's not hoping to build a brand in the same sense most of our clients do. He wants a quick sales boost.

Most of us have longer term strategies. And direct marketing is only one tool in the CMO's box. All branding, sales and marketing goals need to mesh. That's part of the challenge and part of the fun.
 

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Brian Gilbert

on February 7, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Integrated Marketing

If you were spending $2.7 Million, wouldn't you try to get the most out of it?

I love the Super Bowl. All the hype ... fantastic athletes ... it's the one time of year I allow myself to eat Ruffles and French Onion dip guilt-free ... and just about as much excitement regarding the ads as around the game. As an integrated marketer, closet junk food junkie, and die-hard football fan, it's a day that hits on all cylinders.

In the "post-game analysis" of the ads, there has been some interesting research released from Reprise Media. Only 6% of Super Bowl advertisers offered an online call to action during their 30 or 60 seconds of fame. That's a pretty odd decision for 94% of those smart marketers. If you were hoping to drive some consumer action – or even (gasp) revenue for crying out loud – why wouldn't you make it clear what you wanted the millions of watchers to do.

Some brands definitely seemed to make their ads work harder and get my respect as a direct marketer. My "touchdown" marketer this year had to be Tide. They engineered a masterful scoring drive:

DM strategy - included a call to action in their spot driving them to a campaign specific microsite (www.mytalkingstain.com)

Creative – offering bizarre but intriguing creative that broke through and was memorable

Integration – they supported their campaign with Search Engine Marketing

Follow-through – they built a great microsite that involves the consumer and gets you to identify yourself. Heck, they even got me to build my own customized talking stain – and now they have my mailing and email address.

Brands that also scored apparent touchdowns – but the score should be called back on a penalty for bad creative – include GoDaddy.com and SalesGenie. They offered strong integration, but they need to fire their agencies for negatively impacting the brand with horrible concepts. Talking cartoon Pandas with horrible voice over talent ... Teenage boy humor ... Gimme a break!

I'm also surprised to learn from reprisemedia.com that 30% of these big advertisers failed to buy any paid search advertising on their own brand names in case somebody decided to seek them out online. Wake up people!

Many of these advertisers teased their ads to the trade press. They love talking to themselves ... they just seem a little frightened about starting a dialog with consumers. Isn't that where they should be focusing their energies first ... and then getting into the Super Bowl "hype" only after they hit the mark for the brands they represent?

I can't wait to see if marketers roll out anything interesting for March Madness ... you can bet I'll be watching ... and snacking on some chips and salsa – Tide Stain remover at the ready.
 

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Spyro Kourtis

on February 6, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

All stakeholders are asking for accountability

"How do you know your new campaign won't suck as much as your last one?"

That was the big question on Monday when Wendy's International gave their fourth-quarter report on a conference call to stock analysts. When the analysts start asking about your marketing strategy, it's got to hurt.

The honest answer would have to be that they have no idea how good their new advertising is. It took them a full year to realize that their critically-acclaimed, red-wig campaign had failed with the masses.

I understand that advertising campaigns need some time to take hold. But this is fast food, not a considered purchase like a new car. If it doesn't move the sales needle within a month or so, that would be the time to start looking for a new answer.

Plenty of people will be questioning your judgment if you don't.
 

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Carolyn Hansen

on January 16, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Now we're cookin'.

I've recently taken up cooking as a way to relax on the weekend. My husband is the family chef, so the pressure is off. This has been an enjoyable way to spend Sunday afternoons. I take about half an hour to sort through recipes and find what looks appealing. I check our pantry and then go to the market for everything we don't already have on hand. I come home, pour myself a glass of wine, and start chopping, slicing and dicing.

Most of the time, this has culminated in a really terrific meal — if I do say so myself. But this Sunday was a disappointment. The great salmon fillet I started with ended up tasting pretty awful. What went wrong? Did I make a mistake? Were the ingredients wrong or in the wrong proportion?

I retraced my steps. I had followed directions exactly. The marinade ingredients were just what had been called for. I had to conclude that this particular recipe was terrible.

When we analyze our direct marketing programs, we also ask questions. What made this program successful (or not)? Did we choose the right media? Did the segmentation strategy precisely target the correct audience? Was it an irresistible offer? Was the creative work brilliant?

My a-ha moment with the fish got me to thinking. Like my ruined meal, sometimes it's just one overriding issue — not a dash of this and a tablespoon of that — that makes or breaks a program. My new rule of thumb is this: When everything goes right, you can spread the credit fairly evenly. When something goes wrong, there's often one major factor — often just one wrong strategic assumption — to blame.
 

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Spyro Kourtis

on January 10, 2008

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

Another reason not to advertise on the Oscars.

Last year I got some press for my contrarian views on media buys that focus on the Super Bowl and Academy Awards.

My view is that this is almost always a vanity play — often on the part of both advertiser and agency. I guess ego is as good a reason as any to follow a particular strategy . . . unless you have a good faith responsibility to do your best to bring in a profit for your company. Stakeholders like your employees might prefer that you put that wasted ad spend toward salaries and bonuses. Stockholders might like a growing bottom line better than viewing thirty seconds of glory on Oscar night.

Here's another reason. In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, they stated the obvious. The Oscars might not happen at all this year due to Hollywood's writers' strike. Many agencies create special commercials just for the Academy Awards, in order to make a big splash.

You may argue that stuff like this happens rarely and it's certainly not predictable. True enough. But, while a specific disaster can't be predicted, Murphy's Law says something is bound to go wrong sooner or later. Hurricanes come each spring. Summer brings tornadoes. Winter has its blizzards. And — possibly worst of all — 2008 is a presidential election year. I guarantee that people will get distracted.

That's why putting all of your eggs (or even most of them) in one fragile basket is usually a bad idea.

When we create marketing campaigns, we always spread the risk as much as possible. Every program involves tests, in case our control campaign doesn't work for some reason. We spread out the campaign over time so that if the whole country is completely focused on Britney Spears' custody issues for a day, it only makes a small dent in our ROI.

Mitigating risk is just one of the many things we consider when we're strategizing — and why we won't be buying any time for Oscar night.
 

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Jill Kaufman

on January 8, 2008

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Account Services

Question everything.

There was a popular bumper sticker a long while back that said "Question Authority." Of course, the correct response to that is, "Who says?"

Around here, we question everything. It can get a little annoying. But in the long run it's the best thing for our clients. Here are some of the questions I've heard in the last week:

• What would it take to get that creative out to the client for approval sooner?
• Is that the best headline we could come up with?
• Should the background be blue or white?
• Are we targeting families with children at home?
• What's the most relevant benefit of the product for this target group?
• If we move some budget from mail to online, what would the results be?
• If we put more budget into mail, what would the net be?

I love questions. It shows that people are thinking. Even if the answers are only opinions, you learn something. And, as direct marketers, we're in the unique position of getting some factual, real-world, quantitative answers to the perennial question "What do consumers really want?"

Here's to more smart questions (and answers) in 2008!
 

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Jürgen Stephan

on January 3, 2008

category: direct marketing

Executive Director, New Business Development

An energizing start to the New Year.

This morning we started with a strategy session that really inspired me. About twice a week the company's executives get together for a Strategy Council meeting that focuses on one of our clients or prospects.

This time we got a number of other account people involved to share what's working with their clients — so that we could use that information on behalf of a specific client who's looking for high-performance ideas. Not just based on a hunch, but based on market test data.

The room was packed and the energy level was high as account managers and executives talked about current best practices and new marketing ideas that have promise. Ideas for data segmentation strategies flew. New media opportunities captured the spotlight. It's really amazing how much is going on in the world of direct response marketing, and how having many clients, can add to a larger aggregated knowledge base of best practices. Both for consumer and business markets.

This is what makes working for an agency so great. We learn what works (and what doesn't) and see how our best practices apply in new situations. It gave me new ideas that I'm hoping to present soon.
 

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Carolyn Hansen

on December 11, 2007

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Emotion-phobia

Do you have an irrational fear of fear? Your phobia may be making you a less effective marketer, pulling down your response rates and impacting the profitability of your campaigns.

Many, many years ago, I worked for a software company as a marketing copywriter. The vast majority of people there were software engineers. The business owner was, too. She's a brilliant woman and I learned a lot from her — including that it's harder to break software than you might think. She would insist that I play with every part of the systems they were developing, so that I could describe everything the software did. No feature was too minor to mention.

The other thing I learned in my brief-ish tenure there is engineers have emotions just like the rest of us. They just have a harder time admitting it.

Engineers want to believe they base all decisions on a rational set of pros and cons. As long as I'm generalizing, I'll go on and presume this is true of a majority of intelligent, highly educated folks — like marketers and CMOs. We'd feel a little weird saying, "It just looked so cool I had to have it."

It would be even harder to say, "I thought there was a chance I'd (look like an idiot/lose my job/lose my nest egg) if I didn't buy it."

All of us are motivated emotionally. One of the biggest emotional drivers is fear. That surge of adrenaline you get when you realize you've forgotten something important comes from fear. It can physically lift you out of your seat without you being conscious of getting up.

Emotional motivation is a powerful marketing tool. Greed can make us work hard, but fear of loss is an even stronger motivator than want of gain.

As protectors of our clients' brands, we don't want to appear to pander to people's darkest emotions. On the other hand, if you believe your product is helpful to people, putting the full picture in front of them — including the potential negative consequences of ignoring your message — is of benefit to them. If it strikes an emotional chord, they'll feel good about your brand.

Go ahead and raise the emotional temperature of your marketing materials. If you don't, you'll leave money on the table.
 

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Spyro Kourtis

on November 28, 2007

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

The big media squeeze

It wasn't that long ago — just fifteen years — that all Hacker Group did was direct mail and a bit of telemarketing. Over the years we developed expertise in other media, partly because we were excited about the opportunities in the online space.

Now we must be multi-channel marketers. There's no choice in the matter. It's to the point where it's just about impossible to depend on a single medium. As media have fragmented, nothing scales the way it used to.

The good news is that most media have some sort of targeting, so there's less waste. Almost all media have become more measurable, and that means we're all more accountable for our marketing efforts.

The bad news is, by focusing ever more tightly on a particular target, all media are becoming far more expensive to use — and campaigns are harder to scale.

Marketers will need to become smarter and smarter to make their campaigns pencil.
 

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Carolyn Hansen

on November 20, 2007

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

We are women. Hear us bleat.

I just read an article announcing a new advertising agency. It's called "Womankind." According to Adweek, they "will use a network of women to conceptualize and execute ads designed to appeal to females."

They say their "premise is that 85 percent of brand purchases are made by women." And yet the agency's founders claim women are "often not influenced by traditional brand messages . . . Most brands fail to meaningfully connect with a powerful buying force."

Huh?

Does this mean that the old accusation that "half my advertising is wasted" is actually an underestimation?

It gets under my old-fashioned-feminist, came-of-age-in-the-80s skin when the "premise" is that 85 percent of brand purchases are made by women, and the conclusion is women must be the victims here.

Because I can do a little math, it looks to me like men's connection to traditional brand advertising is the problem. Do I have it wrong? What am I missing?
 

Comments:

11/20/2007 at 5:16 p.m.
Traditional brand advertising and bad research
I agree that a more traditional branding approach is used in most advertising targeting women, but I also believe there is a lack of research. Here's a little bit of what I've come across in regards to advertising aimed at women. http://benvanavermaete.blogspot.com/2007/09/female-ads-i-guess-arent-working.html
>>Ben van Avermaete, Seattle WA

Paul Jenulis

on November 13, 2007

category: direct marketing

Proofreader

The world's still spinning

I've gotten a little flack for referring to what Hacker Group does as 'junk mail.' It's been suggested that maybe I should refer to it as targeted media, or perhaps simply: direct mail. That's all just fine with me. Call it what you want. But when people ask me what I do, and I explain it, usually they have no idea what I mean. So I just say, "I proofread junk mail."

They get it then.

Whether you refer to it as such, or prefer a more sophisticated option (which is ironic, since most of what is produced is written at a sixth-grade level. Not that we have sixth graders working for us; far from the truth: we have very talented and creative writers who are smart and know how to influence readers), it all comes out the same. You can't hide the fact that a great majority of society would understand the term junk mail. A small portion probably understands targeted media, or direct mail, but that's because they're the ones creating it.

But why is junk mail considered a negative term?

Hacker Group produces it for our clients, clients who are rather happy with what we do for them. I'm sure they don't care what it's called, as long as it produces phone calls, results, and ultimately, financial gains. And Hacker does that quite well. All things being equal, that's all that matters when the sun sets each day.

But I still don't understand the fuss.

Targeted media?

Direct mail?

Either way, I'm reading it Monday through Friday. And Saturday, after I check my own mailbox. Any way you slice it, it's the same thing. Any way you label it: it's the same thing. You say po-tay-to, John over there says po-tah-to. Either way you slice it and fry it, it's French fries...

The point is that we create solid, creative, and innovative packages for our clients. And no matter how you look at it, when all things are equal, it doesn't matter what it's called. If the audience understands it, it's golden. If it does what is intended – changing behavior, convincing someone to purchase something – then it's done its job. Whether it's called targeted media, direct mail, or junk mail.

The point is: why not keep things simple? It's much easier that way, right, when everyone understands, when everyone's on the same page? Simplicity lessens the chance of misunderstanding. The less misunderstanding, the better for everyone involved. It's less stressful. It makes more sense.

Less is more, more or less.

Junk mail doesn't have to be a negative term. It's merely a universal one.

It's okay to say it.

Go ahead, say it.

Junk mail.

See? The world's still spinning.

And no one's any worse off than before...
 

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Carolyn Hansen

on October 30, 2007

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Marketing

Is 1:1 marketing going to get boring?

Do direct marketers love targeting too much? One advertising person recently mentioned that she was a little nervous about the idea of a time when only dog-owners would see dog food commercials.

That may sound a bit bizarre to those of us who hate advertising waste. But I think I have an inkling of what she was worried about.

If at some point we’re living in marketing utopia and I’m only getting commercial messages aimed at what I've already done or expressed interest in, how will I find out about cool new stuff? How will I figure out if I’m living the best possible life for me, if what I learn about has been determined for me based on my previous choices? A lot of us, particularly in this business, have a bad case of FMS – Fear of Missing Something.

No worries. Marketers will always need to expand the circle to include people who may not have thought about their product before. My old boss, Bob Hacker, would call focusing in on smaller and smaller target groups as Foobird Marketing — explaining that a Foobird flies in tighter and tighter circles until it flies up its own butt. Vulgar, but there's truth in it for you.

And, because of that, I promise that even in marketing heaven you'll occasionally see a dog food commercial – even if you don’t have a dog.
 

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Spyro Kourtis

on October 15, 2007

category: direct marketing

President and CEO

Going green at the DMA

Everyone's talking about the environment here in Chicago at the DMA. But is anything really happening?

After the first full day of the conference, we've certainly gotten an earful about going green. There were lunches and breakout sessions. John Greco announced 15 green initiatives on behalf of the DMA itself in a keynote address.

Those of us here from Hacker Group were ready to fill our notebooks with ideas. We didn't come away with much.

So let me take this opportunity to announce that Hacker is launching its own green action plan. We've been working hard to find ways to provide our clients with options to execute environmentally friendly campaigns. This includes:

• Sourcing recycled paper and environmentally friendly materials
• Partnering with vendors who are committed to protecting the environment
• Reducing waste through better targeting and data hygiene to reduce the amount of undeliverable mail

We are currently conducting environmental profiles of our approved vendors for:

• Documented environmental policies
• Material sourcing capabilities
• Manufacturing process (UV presses, soy-based inks, etc.)
• Recycling programs
• Renewable energy use
• Waste disposal and compliance policies
• Compliance with FSC and ISO 14001 Standards

These aren't empty words on a page. Hacker Group has always been committed to environmental responsibility in our own offices. We've been recycling, reducing waste and conserving energy here for all my 15 years here. I know we can make that a goal for our clients and vendors, as well. As is true in so much of what we do, it's all about execution.

 

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Jill Kaufman

on October 10, 2007

category: direct marketing

Vice President/Account Services

Maintaining tribal knowledge

Just came out of a client meeting where the CMO asked, "How do you keep track of all the learnings?  You pride yourself on learning something from a test with one client and applying that knowledge to the next.  I have a guy over here who knows something the woman over there needs to know but doesn't.  How do you guys make that happen?"

I wish I could say we were perfect.  We'd love to have Hacker University, where new employees go for a week or a month and come out with a B.A. in What We Know.

We do have some systems, of course.  A rather long list of people in the company gets raw response analysis reports for every client as soon as they're completed.  Our senior management team is fanatical about being involved up to their elbows in client work.  We have a great record of low turnover, so many people at all levels have been here a good long time and will at least know that we tested something before - if they can't call up the results at their fingertips - so they can at least start digging up answers.

We also have a tradition of open forums at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, when our Strategy Council meets.  This is a group of senior executives who make themselves available to any Account Manager who wants to pick their brains on behalf of a client.  I highly recommend making this a practice at your company.

And our Account Managers formally present client results to their peers at a weekly meeting.  The team gets up to speed on test results for each client at least on an annual basis - and for important information that has broad application, more often.

One of the many things I appreciate about Hacker culture is that we do share information with each other quite liberally.  Some people in my past work life felt that knowledge was power and they certainly didn't want to disseminate any of their personal power.  We have a much better spirit of "we're all in this together" here - and that makes it easier to share what we know.
 

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