The Marketing Plaza

Question: Our CEO was recently featured on a broadcast TV talk show to discuss his topic of expertise.  The show ended up on YouTube, so we can post a copy on our company web site, right?

Answer: Nothing is that simple.  Even if you are in the video as a featured guest, you don’t have rights to the segment.  The copyright is owned by the TV station.

On more than one occasion, after successfully getting a client placed as a guest expert on a broadcast or cable statione, we’ve asked on behalf of the client for rights to post interviews on a company web site. Almost 100% of the time, the answer has been “no.”  The TV stations will allow you to link to their site, but rarely will give rights to repost the interview even if abridged.

The reason is simple. The TV station is in the business of driving traffic to its own site and sells advertisers to the broadcast station as well as to the online page based on eyeballs – the documented number of people who view the segment.

Posting a video on YouTube muddies the waters a bit. Some fine print has suggested that you are giving up your rights to your own material when you upload to YouTube. It’s the reason some purists use other channels, even though YouTube is clearly the leader.  If you’re posting a video in hopes of being found, YouTube may be your clear choice. But, if you’re merely using the service as a way to get a video posted for use on your own web site, other services may be preferable.

As more and more small businesses go online with Facebook or work to make their web site more dynamic in the web 2.0 world, the issue of video posts is being questioned more often. It’s considered the competing rights of publicity versus the rights of privacy.  For a great, commonsense review of the topic, check out this short primer and accompanying video by intellectual property attorney Mark Rosenberg of Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.

Tip: If you still want a video interview of your CEO on your web site, there’s one easy way to make it happen without worrying about copyright.  Hire your own videographer, have him or her sign a work for hire agreement, use your marketing consultant or staff person as the interviewer and create your own online video show. You’ll own the rights, keep the questions to one the CEO can answer, and have some great multi-media additions to your online sites.

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Business and marketing always love acronyms. It’s the reason we have 3Ms, IBMs as brand names not to mention ROIs and KPIs in strategy discussions.*  Sometimes the names are used to mask an original identity, allowing a brand to move into a new era with a new persona. Other times acronyms are used as field jargon to make the presenter appear brilliant and in-the-know.  Other times, and less surreptitiously, the acronyms are just a quick shorthand for fast communications particularly in an increasing digital world limited by character counts. OMG, LOL!

Another use of acronyms is to help people remember things, particularly students studying for tests.  For middle schoolers trying to name the Great Lakes for a social studies test, the acronym HOMES helps them recall Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. Not all acronyms work for everyone, but one acronym does suffice for all marketing endeavors.  It takes you back to basics on the ABCs of Marketing – for Always Be Communicating.

There are great debates in the marketing world about what media to use when, and the value return of a broadcast spot on The Daily Show versus a Tweet on Twitter. With aplogies to Marshall McLuhan, the ABCs of marketing remind us that the medium is not the message. The message is the message  and whatever medium allows you to communicate consistently to the right audience is the right medium for you.

If the cost-effectiveness of a blog allows you to communicate more than a broadcast commercial, then a blog is your better bet.  In contrast, if you don’t have the wherewithal to blog and do have the funds to produce a broadcast spot and air it consistently, then the spot hits the spot for your needs.

Marketing plans by definition admit that there is no one solution for everyone, which is why plans need to be carefully crafted based on time, budget, resources, needs, mission and skill sets. But any plan that doesn’t account for the ABCs and gives you great one-time hits, is not a marketing plan at all.  If you are not communicating, you are not marketing.  It’s as basic as it gets; as basic as the ABCs.

*For those who don’t remember or are intimidated by jargon:
3M originally stood for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
IBM was International Business Machines
ROI is Return on Investment
KPI is Key Performance Indicator

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Is Shakespeare finally obsolete?  Is it no longer true that a Rose by any other name would smell as sweet?

In marketing, names are the brand, and not naming a company or product correctly can make the road to success all that much harder to travel. Given enough time, money and talent any name can become a household brand, but not everyone has the deep pockets of Apple, Google, Cher or Madonna.

In today’s hyper-connected world, naming protocols are all that more complicated and need to take into account Internet compatibilities among other things.  A new company, for instance, needs to be registered with the correct state authority, but if the corresponding name is not available as a url, even the best name can prove troublesome with online brand congruity.

Initials, once popular in the Fortune 500 realm, from IBM to ATT&T, are difficult for smaller companies.  Initials tent to be hard to remember, don’t help in SEO searches, and feel cold in the ever-funky social media world.  In the digital-sphere, better to have a name that means nothing such as Starbucks for coffee rather than initials that reek of corporate culture.

Unfortunately, small businesses, in particular, sometimes have to just get started with a less than perfect name and deal with the consequences later. But without the deep pockets of larger corporations, rebranding at a later date is not always an option.

The answer?  When starting up – get as  close to the perfect name as soon as possible, but don’t invest too much in it until you’ve completed your due diligence, which includes:

1. A check of state records in any state in which you think you’ll do business.
2. A check of available urls  in the .com arena.
3. A check of alternative url choices in the .com arena.
4. A review of similar names with minor misspellings.
5. A gut check on the look and feel of the name with not only company principals and close loved ones, but a decent designer.

It takes most people nine months, the full gestation period, to choose a name for a new baby.  Businesses frequently  launch in far less time, which can result in some odd or oddly uncreative names, frequently named after the business owner.  If you just want to send out an invoice, any name will do, but if you want to build a brand, get a marketing person on your team to give you a broader view of options.

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Q: What do marketing people and therapists have in common?

A: They both deal with insecurities.

Q: Is marketing a discipline that belongs in a business school, communications school, or in the school of social sciences?

A: Yes.

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In his book In Search of the Obvious: The Antidote for Today’s Marketing Mess,” marketing guru Jack Trout states the obvious: “…the human mind tends to be insecure when it comes to purchasing things.” The role of marketing, he argues, is simply to make people feel more secure with a purchasing decision.  It’s also the reason, Trout notes, that a leadership is so important and should be utilized whenever possible in a marketing campaign.

In psychology, he states, it’s called the “herd mentality.” The consumer assumes that others know better and are willing to lessen their psychological risk by following others in the marketplace. If a brand is number one, it must be number one for a reason.

Ironically, many company CEOs, CMOs and Communications VPs get humble when they hold a leadership position. From watching too many Greek Tragedies, they fear corporate Hubris and being toppled from the mountaintop should their position be discovered.

Odd, isn’t it?  Marketing is about helping a company be discovered and differentiating itself in the marketplace to make a consumer’s choice fsst, easy and obvious. Nevertheless, Trout has example after example of companies who go quiet when they are, in fact, number one in their profession.

I’m facing a similar challenge with a current client, who is clearly number one in its field.  Others, with a longer history with the account, emphatically state that the client will not admit in public that they are number one in their industry. They will say the are an industry leader, have the largest network, and make many other claims that imply number one, but will not use the term. “We’re number one!”

In the recent movie Whip It, starring Drew Barrymore, the featured roller derby team consistently comes in Number Two.  They even take up the chant, “We’re number two,” after every game. Roller Derby becomes about “attitude” as is “marketing.”  I won’t tell you the end of the movie. It isn’t a formula and may not be what you expect.

Here’s an interesting fact: Roller Derby is one of three major league sports invented in the U.S.  If you count marketing as a major league sport, perhaps it’s one of four.  However, it’s no secret that there are tons of sports analogies used in business. Perhaps it’s time, we stole a few from Roller Derby.  Attitude Matters and it’s not about just going around in circles.  The goal is to come in first.

Here’s a takeaway from yet another sport – horse racing – not invented in the U.S. You can be a leader and not be number one. You can be a leader in a Win, Place or Show position. You can only be number one in the Winner’s Circle.

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How is Marketing different from Sales?

If I’ve been asked it once, I’ve been asked it many times. It’s an ironic question given that Marketing is largely about image awareness, and if there’s one discipline with both image and awareness problems, it’s Marketing.

Here’s my answer: What separates Marketing from Sales is the difference between Traction and Action. From Isaac Newton, we know that “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” But, the real question is how do you get action to occur in the first place? It’s called Traction, or Marketing.

The very definition of traction is “pulling power.” That’s Marketing in a nutshell. It is anything and everything that draws or “pulls” the prospect to you.  In today’s climate, people have many choices. What helps them choose you? What draws them to you?

Of course you’ve got to have the goods or services that are wanted or needed. That’s business basics.  But, Marketing is not a “Field of Dreams.” If you build it, they will not come, not without word-of-mouth, or other viral marketing. The world will no longer beat a path to your door, unless you first blaze the trail with very clear markers.  So, take a break from baseball, and a hint from seasoned hikers.  Make it easy for those behind you to find the trail. Leave clear “markers” of where to go, and clear signs of the heady view ahead to keep them moving towards you. That’s traction.

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Marketing is an elusive discipline with lots of definitions.  I’ve created a few of my own over the years and just when I think I have it nailed, I realize  I don’t.  Here’s my latest definition of marketing:

Marketing is those thing you do to touch customers and feed their desire to do business with you.

I like this definition for a number of reasons:

1. It implies that marketing is a sum of many different things. No one outreach effort is marketing. Marketing is the sum of a many tactics based on a strategic campaign.
2. It puts “customers” front and center as your raison d’etre. You market in order to present yourself in an attractive way to prospects and current customers.
3. It talks about “feeding a desire.”  Great marketing makes people want to do business with you.
4. It separates marketing from sales.  This part is subtle. Again, it notes that marketing is feeding a desire not closing a sale. If the customer is primed to want to do business with you due to on-target messaging, closing the sale should be easier for the sales force.

Let me know what you think.  Is it  a definition you think might stand the test of time? Do you have a better one? Let’s hear it!

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Do testimonials have any value? Sure, they do, but that’s the wrong question. When evaluating the worthiness of testimonials, here are questions to ask yourself:

1. Is it a celebrity endorsement? OK, most of your customers aren’t celebrities, but are they well known in your industry or among your customer base?  If not, their words may have limited “credibility”. There’s a reason soap opera mass marketers used celebrities in their ads.  A well-known testimonial carries weight.
2. Is it tied to proof of performance? This can be a case study or something that gives the testimonial (here’s that word again) “credibility”. Does the testimonial just say you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, or does it say you helped increase results by X% in a matter of days?
3. Does it help position you? If it just says you’re great but doesn’t help position the unique value of your services, it’s a platitude.  You don’t need platitudes (most testimonials) but better positioning.
4. Does it take up valuable space? Is it pushing or crowding something else off your page, thereby stroking your ego but not helping get a more important message point across to your audience?

Bottom line: As I wrote on a LinkedIn Group post – Testimonials should not be medicinal in nature, “Do no harm.”  All marketing, including testimonials,  should be designed to help — your message, your positioning, your credibility, your perceived value.  If the testimonial can do that, use it.  If not, reconsider your options.

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