A Midsummer Day’s Nightmare
If your livelihood depends on this business, you have reason to be scared.On the heels of the new book, Permission Marketing, in which Seth Godinessentially predicts the end of marketing as we know it, comes SergioZyman’s more blatant The End of Marketing as We Know It. Godin annihilateseverything we thought we knew about the media. Ditto Zyman about themessage. Marketing self-help tomes are stacking up to the point wherethey’ll soon need their own section at Barnes & Noble. And while we’respending 18 hours a day rebuilding the business plan to survive in theirmanic new world, who has time to read the books? It’s enough to propel thehapless promotion practitioner into a psychotic depression. So if youencounter a babbling co-worker cowering beneath his workstation, give him ahug and a word of encouragement. Then crawl into your own space and scream.
Bloody truth is, keeping up with escalating change can be overwhelming. Weare engulfed with new approaches to promotional marketing – not only newtheories, but new technologies. We’re becoming only as good as our capacityto filter. The alternative is analysis paralysis – that condition whichstems from too many choices.
As mass marketing transforms to relationship marketing, the minutiaeexpands by geometric proportions. Imagine the potential nightmares lurkingin the current “Coke Card” promotion, which presents 37 national discountoffers and 11,000 local deals coordinated through 5,000 partners. Not tomention that it targets teens through a toll-free voice mail network at amoment in time when targeting teens is a subject of national concern.Here’s a hug for the person charged with bringing all that togetherflawlessly.
Imagine being webmaster of the recently unveiled www.promoscoop.com, whichaspires to become promotion clearinghouse to the world. Much of theinformation offered here appears to be outdated or wrong – a testament tothe terrible job marketers do at executing toll-free numbers. To sort andverify this mess must be a nightmarish task. So here’s a word ofencouragement to the brave souls who break this new ground: Keep at it,it’ll get better. It has to.
Two high-tech tactics worth watching. The above notwithstanding, we mustever embrace innovation. Packaged goods practitioners might want to checkout two new technology-based promotional media – one Net, one not.
ShopperPerks – Imagine consumers being able to log on to their favoritesupermarket Web site and getting substantial savings automatically. It’s nodream. They click on what they want, go to their store, swipe theirfrequent-shopper card, and the digital deals are deducted from the tape! Nomuss, no fuss, and no paper. This offering from Inter-Act has justcompleted online testing and is being expanded as we write. It reallyworks. If you’re lucky enough to carry a Waldbaum’s frequent-shopper card,you can check it out for yourself at www.waldbaums.com.
AirAd – Attention shoppers: Now there’s in-store radio from outer space.AirAd is wiring supermarkets with computers that receive commercialstransmitted via satellite. What’s the big deal, you ask? Every spot canhave a different version in every store. Get it? Store-specific media,store-specific pricing, and store-specific creative themes, including theannouncer’s voice in different languages, dialects, and even genders. Yodude!
On a more low-tech note, there’s a new trend in partnership promotion;going beyond brand-equity borrowing to actually engage the product itself.Mott’s Applesauce pioneered the method with its Blues Clues promotionalpack featuring a blue (berry) flavor. Now Burger King has hooked with Kraftto extend its Teletubbies promotion. A Tubby Custard dessert was availableonly at Burger King during the same period the chain gave away millions ofclip-on Teletubbies beanbag finger puppets. Dessert as promotional premiumitem – a first? Maybe, but more importantly it is a good way for Kraft totest product appeal. It’s good promotional leverage, with the cost of asponsorship shared. And it’s good for Burger King, which doesn’t have muchdessert business at risk anyway.
And that’s the truth.
