- Over Deliver
- Think Big
- Give New Insights, New Thinking
- Make your Boss Look Smarter
- Expand your Job
- Do more than your Job
- Broaden your Job
...OVERDELIVER...
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Dear Graduate
Federal budget review
Australia's once in a lifetime chance to implement long term tax reforms
· Maintaining budget surpluses
· No net Debt
· Favorable economic growth, low unemployment, low inflation
·
Could the Australian government have been more responsible?
· The govern should have done better
· Could have saved more
· Could have better prepared Australia for the end of commodities boom, by identifying and pre funded infra structure projects
· Could have pre funded other non expenditure commitment
· More investments into education, skills training, research and development, measures to encourage participation in the labor force
· Undertaken far reaching reform of personal income tax system, broadening the base and using the revenue gained by removing concessions, exemptions, loop holes
· They have saved $15 billion
· They have done some measures to encourage increase participation in the labor force
· Supporting parents benefit
· Funded for medical research
· Tax rate reforms
· But they have not whole hearted embraced any of those things, the budget does represent a very significant missed opportunity
· They could have been more responsible by running bigger budgets surpluses or more adventurous
Are the tax cuts a catalyst for interest rate rises? Are the good times over?
· Business cycle – full employment, upward pressure on cost and prices, company profits are at high level, commodity price are high, government revenues are over flowing, high taxation on what we earn and spend
· Things are looking good, but it might be leading into a serious recession as a result of serious mistakes such as wages growing faster than productivity, mistake of failing to allow the Reserve Bank to lift interest rates a little bit in order to prevent inflation from raising rapidly and the mistake of over stimulating the economy through the budget by giving away revenue gains in the form tax cuts or cash handout on the opposite is required
Australia's resources boom and the global economy.
· Rise in commodity prices is the most important factor influencing the Australia’s economic environment
· Price of our exports has risen compared to the prices of our imports
Tax cuts or tax reforms? What should be the priorities for Australia?
· The population prefers tax cuts rather than Tax reforms
· The government lost its appetite for Tax reforms
What does the budget mean for the Australian labor market?
· Most of today’s labor market lack the skills in demand
· Employers are willing to pay more to retain or to attract skilled workers
"Most tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones'
· Maintaining budget surpluses
· No net Debt
· Favorable economic growth, low unemployment, low inflation
·
Could the Australian government have been more responsible?
· The govern should have done better
· Could have saved more
· Could have better prepared Australia for the end of commodities boom, by identifying and pre funded infra structure projects
· Could have pre funded other non expenditure commitment
· More investments into education, skills training, research and development, measures to encourage participation in the labor force
· Undertaken far reaching reform of personal income tax system, broadening the base and using the revenue gained by removing concessions, exemptions, loop holes
· They have saved $15 billion
· They have done some measures to encourage increase participation in the labor force
· Supporting parents benefit
· Funded for medical research
· Tax rate reforms
· But they have not whole hearted embraced any of those things, the budget does represent a very significant missed opportunity
· They could have been more responsible by running bigger budgets surpluses or more adventurous
Are the tax cuts a catalyst for interest rate rises? Are the good times over?
· Business cycle – full employment, upward pressure on cost and prices, company profits are at high level, commodity price are high, government revenues are over flowing, high taxation on what we earn and spend
· Things are looking good, but it might be leading into a serious recession as a result of serious mistakes such as wages growing faster than productivity, mistake of failing to allow the Reserve Bank to lift interest rates a little bit in order to prevent inflation from raising rapidly and the mistake of over stimulating the economy through the budget by giving away revenue gains in the form tax cuts or cash handout on the opposite is required
Australia's resources boom and the global economy.
· Rise in commodity prices is the most important factor influencing the Australia’s economic environment
· Price of our exports has risen compared to the prices of our imports
Tax cuts or tax reforms? What should be the priorities for Australia?
· The population prefers tax cuts rather than Tax reforms
· The government lost its appetite for Tax reforms
What does the budget mean for the Australian labor market?
· Most of today’s labor market lack the skills in demand
· Employers are willing to pay more to retain or to attract skilled workers
"Most tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones'
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Is the Sky Falling?
- Housing
- Credit Market
- Repricing Risks
- Credit Squeeze
Does that sound familiar?...
There will be definitely a impact on the growth of the economy. If you have a mortgage with a flexible rate, that might hurt your financial situation.
Although, One can look at it with a different prospect...where is the opportunity? There is always crisis, smart people will find their opportunities... to buy cheap properties, cheap businesses, grab cheap labor needed.
Smart people jump in when times are rough and tough.
Don't panic, look for opportunities, look under the rock...this is the time to do it!Just think Opportunity, not just panic...
"We are fools whether we dance or not; so we might as well dance"
GEN Y
- Exciting
- Aggressive
- Independence
- Responsible
- Self-Aware
- Busy
- Greedy
- Social Responsibilities
- Ethics
- Courageous
- Thoughtful
They are young people with great capabilities. Gen Y is transforming the world with new ways of thinking and viewing things.
"A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read"
Monday, October 1, 2007
Curbside, We’ll Never Have Paris
AMONG the many reasons to suspect that Europeans are more gifted than Americans at enjoying urban life is this: they eat outdoors because it’s pretty. We eat outdoors even though it’s not.
By we I mean New Yorkers, and I specifically mean the New Yorkers who, from the first rumor of spring to the dying gasps of an Indian summer, insist on restaurants with sidewalk cafes, apparently believing that nothing sauces roasted chicken like the exhaust from an M104 bus and there’s no music more relaxing than the eek-eek-eek of a delivery truck in reverse.
On the narrow and sometimes cobbled byways of Paris, Rome or Barcelona, a sidewalk cafe most likely has a view, a mood, a purpose beyond fresh air. (To be fair, it isn’t so fresh there, either.)
On Broadway, Columbus or Lexington, a sidewalk cafe has traffic — pedestrian and vehicular — so dense and close that a diner has to learn not to flinch.
"Every moment lived conscioulsy is a step toward spiritual maturity"
By we I mean New Yorkers, and I specifically mean the New Yorkers who, from the first rumor of spring to the dying gasps of an Indian summer, insist on restaurants with sidewalk cafes, apparently believing that nothing sauces roasted chicken like the exhaust from an M104 bus and there’s no music more relaxing than the eek-eek-eek of a delivery truck in reverse.
On the narrow and sometimes cobbled byways of Paris, Rome or Barcelona, a sidewalk cafe most likely has a view, a mood, a purpose beyond fresh air. (To be fair, it isn’t so fresh there, either.)
On Broadway, Columbus or Lexington, a sidewalk cafe has traffic — pedestrian and vehicular — so dense and close that a diner has to learn not to flinch.
"Every moment lived conscioulsy is a step toward spiritual maturity"
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
OUT OF TIME
Two hundred years ago, natural resources and raw materials were scarce. People needed land to grow food, metal to turn into pots, and silicates and other natural elements to make windows for houses. Tycoons who cornered the market in these and other resources made a fortune. By making a market in a scarce resource, you can make a profit.
But in today's free market, there are plenty of factories, plenty of brands and way too many choices. With just a little effort and a little savings, we can get almost anything we want. You can find a TV set in every house in this country. People throw away their broken microwave ovens instead of having them repaired.
There is one critical resource, though, that is in chronically short supply. Bill Gates has just as much as you do. And even Warren Buffet can't buy more. That scarce resource is TIME. And in light of today's information glut, that means that there's a vast shortage of ATTENTION.
This combined shortage of time and attention is unique to today's information age. Consumers are now willing to pay handsomely to save time, while marketers are eager to pay bundles to get attention.
Interruption Marketing is the enemy of anyone trying to save time. By constantly interrupting what we are doing at any given moment, the marketer who interrupts us not only tends to fail at selling his product, but wastes our most coveted commodity, time. In the long run, therefore, Interruption Marketing is doomed as a mass marketing tool. The cost to the consumer is just too high.
The alternative is Permission Marketing, which offers the consumer an opportunity to volunteer to be marketed to. By only talking to volunteers, Permission Marketing guarantees that consumers pay more attention to the marketing message. It allows marketers to calmly and succinctly tell their story, without fear of being interrupted by competitors or Interruption Marketers. It serves both consumers and marketers in a symbiotic exchange.
Permission Marketing encourages consumers to participate in a long-term, interactive marketing campaign in which they are rewarded in some way for paying attention to increasingly relevant messages.
Permission marketing is anticipated, personal, relevant. Anticipated-people look forward to hearing from you Personal-the messages are directly related to the individual.
Relevant-the marketing is about something the prospect is interested in.
Permission Marketing takes the cost of interrupting the consumer and spreads it out, over not one message, but dozens of messages. And this leverage leads to substantial competitive advantages and profits.
While your competition continues to interrupt strangers with mediocre results, your Permission Marketing campaign is turning strangers into friends and friends into customers.
The easiest way to contrast the Interruption Marketer with the Permission Marketer is with an analogy about getting married. It also serves to exemplify how sending multiple individualized messages over time works better than a single message, no matter how impressive that single message is.
"The foolish neither forgive nor forget, The naive forgive and forget, The wise forgive but do not forget"
But in today's free market, there are plenty of factories, plenty of brands and way too many choices. With just a little effort and a little savings, we can get almost anything we want. You can find a TV set in every house in this country. People throw away their broken microwave ovens instead of having them repaired.
There is one critical resource, though, that is in chronically short supply. Bill Gates has just as much as you do. And even Warren Buffet can't buy more. That scarce resource is TIME. And in light of today's information glut, that means that there's a vast shortage of ATTENTION.
This combined shortage of time and attention is unique to today's information age. Consumers are now willing to pay handsomely to save time, while marketers are eager to pay bundles to get attention.
Interruption Marketing is the enemy of anyone trying to save time. By constantly interrupting what we are doing at any given moment, the marketer who interrupts us not only tends to fail at selling his product, but wastes our most coveted commodity, time. In the long run, therefore, Interruption Marketing is doomed as a mass marketing tool. The cost to the consumer is just too high.
The alternative is Permission Marketing, which offers the consumer an opportunity to volunteer to be marketed to. By only talking to volunteers, Permission Marketing guarantees that consumers pay more attention to the marketing message. It allows marketers to calmly and succinctly tell their story, without fear of being interrupted by competitors or Interruption Marketers. It serves both consumers and marketers in a symbiotic exchange.
Permission Marketing encourages consumers to participate in a long-term, interactive marketing campaign in which they are rewarded in some way for paying attention to increasingly relevant messages.
Permission marketing is anticipated, personal, relevant. Anticipated-people look forward to hearing from you Personal-the messages are directly related to the individual.
Relevant-the marketing is about something the prospect is interested in.
Permission Marketing takes the cost of interrupting the consumer and spreads it out, over not one message, but dozens of messages. And this leverage leads to substantial competitive advantages and profits.
While your competition continues to interrupt strangers with mediocre results, your Permission Marketing campaign is turning strangers into friends and friends into customers.
The easiest way to contrast the Interruption Marketer with the Permission Marketer is with an analogy about getting married. It also serves to exemplify how sending multiple individualized messages over time works better than a single message, no matter how impressive that single message is.
"The foolish neither forgive nor forget, The naive forgive and forget, The wise forgive but do not forget"
PERMISSION MARKETING IS AN OLD CONCEPT WITH NEW RELEVANCE
Permission Marketing isn't as glamorous as hiring Steven Spielberg to direct a commercial starring a bevy of supermodels. It isn't as easy as running an ad a few more times. It isn't as cheap as building a web site and hoping that people find it on a search engine. In fact, it's hard work.
Worst of all, Permission Marketing requires patience.
Permission Marketing campaigns grow over time-the opposite of what most marketers look for these days. And Permission Marketing requires a leap of faith. Even a bad Interruption campaign gets some results right away, while a permission campaign requires infrastructure, and a belief in the durability of the permission concept before it blossoms with success..
But unlike Interruption Marketing, Permission Marketing is a measurable process. It evolves over time for every company that uses it. It becomes an increasingly valuable asset. The more you commit to Permission Marketing campaigns, the better they work over time. And these fast-moving, leveragable processes are the key to success in our cluttered age.
So, if Permission Marketing is so effective, and the ideas behind it not really new, why was the concept not used with effectiveness years ago? Why was this book just published?
Permission Marketing has been around forever (or at least as long as dating!), but it takes advantage of new technology better than other forms of marketing.
The internet is the greatest direct mail medium of all time, and the low cost of frequent interaction makes it ideal for Permission Marketing.
Originally, the internet captured the attention of interruption marketers. They rushed in, spent billions of dollars applying their interruption marketing techniques and discovered almost total failure. Permission Marketing is the tool that unlocks the power of the internet. The leverage it brings to this new medium, combined with the pervasive clutter that infects the internet and virtually every other medium, makes Permission Marketing the most powerful trend in marketing for the next decade.
As new forms of media develop and clutter becomes ever more intense, it's the asset of permission that will generate profits for marketers.
"Honour has not to be won: It has only not to be lost"
Worst of all, Permission Marketing requires patience.
Permission Marketing campaigns grow over time-the opposite of what most marketers look for these days. And Permission Marketing requires a leap of faith. Even a bad Interruption campaign gets some results right away, while a permission campaign requires infrastructure, and a belief in the durability of the permission concept before it blossoms with success..
But unlike Interruption Marketing, Permission Marketing is a measurable process. It evolves over time for every company that uses it. It becomes an increasingly valuable asset. The more you commit to Permission Marketing campaigns, the better they work over time. And these fast-moving, leveragable processes are the key to success in our cluttered age.
So, if Permission Marketing is so effective, and the ideas behind it not really new, why was the concept not used with effectiveness years ago? Why was this book just published?
Permission Marketing has been around forever (or at least as long as dating!), but it takes advantage of new technology better than other forms of marketing.
The internet is the greatest direct mail medium of all time, and the low cost of frequent interaction makes it ideal for Permission Marketing.
Originally, the internet captured the attention of interruption marketers. They rushed in, spent billions of dollars applying their interruption marketing techniques and discovered almost total failure. Permission Marketing is the tool that unlocks the power of the internet. The leverage it brings to this new medium, combined with the pervasive clutter that infects the internet and virtually every other medium, makes Permission Marketing the most powerful trend in marketing for the next decade.
As new forms of media develop and clutter becomes ever more intense, it's the asset of permission that will generate profits for marketers.
"Honour has not to be won: It has only not to be lost"
Permission is an Investment
Nothing good is free, and that goes double for Permission. Acquiring solid, deep permission from targeted customers is an investment.
What is one permission worth? According to their annual report, AOL has paid as much as $300 to get one new customer. American Express invests nearly $150 to get a new cardholder. Does American Express earn enough in fees to justify this expense? Not at all. But the other benefits associated with acquiring the permission to market to a cardmember outweigh the high cost. Amex sells its customers a wide range of products, not just an American Express card. They also use sophisticated database management tools to track customer behavior so they can tailor offers to individuals. They leverage their permission to increase revenue.
One of the leading brokerage houses on Wall Street is currently paying $15 in media acquisition costs just for permission to call a potential customer on the phone! Yes, it's that expensive, and yes, it's worth even more than that. They've discovered that the yield from an anticipated, welcomed, personal phone call is so much higher than a cold call during dinner that they're willing to pay handsomely for the privilege.
Permission Marketing cuts through the clutter and allows a marketer to speak to prospects as friends, not strangers. This personalized, anticipated, frequent, and relevant communication has infinitely more impact than a random message displayed in a random place at a random moment.
Think about choosing a nice restaurant for dinner. If you learn about a restaurant from a cold-calling telemarketer, or from an unsolicited direct mail piece, you're likely to ignore the recommendation. But if a trusted friend offers a restaurant recommendation, you're likely to try it out.
Permission Marketing lets you turn strangers, folks that might otherwise ignore your unsolicited offer, into people willing to pay attention when your message arrives in an expected, appreciated way.
An interruption marketer looks for a job by sending a resume to one thousand strangers. A Permission Marketer gets a job by focusing on one company and networking with them, consulting for them, working with them until they trust him enough to offer him a full time position.
A book publisher who uses interruption marketing sells children's books by shipping them to bookstores, hoping that the right audience will stumble across them. A Permission Marketer builds book clubs at every school in the country.
An interruption marketer sells a new product by introducing it on national TV. A Permission Marketer sells a new product by informing all her existing customers about a way to get a free sample.
"The language of truth is always simple and unadorned"
What is one permission worth? According to their annual report, AOL has paid as much as $300 to get one new customer. American Express invests nearly $150 to get a new cardholder. Does American Express earn enough in fees to justify this expense? Not at all. But the other benefits associated with acquiring the permission to market to a cardmember outweigh the high cost. Amex sells its customers a wide range of products, not just an American Express card. They also use sophisticated database management tools to track customer behavior so they can tailor offers to individuals. They leverage their permission to increase revenue.
One of the leading brokerage houses on Wall Street is currently paying $15 in media acquisition costs just for permission to call a potential customer on the phone! Yes, it's that expensive, and yes, it's worth even more than that. They've discovered that the yield from an anticipated, welcomed, personal phone call is so much higher than a cold call during dinner that they're willing to pay handsomely for the privilege.
Permission Marketing cuts through the clutter and allows a marketer to speak to prospects as friends, not strangers. This personalized, anticipated, frequent, and relevant communication has infinitely more impact than a random message displayed in a random place at a random moment.
Think about choosing a nice restaurant for dinner. If you learn about a restaurant from a cold-calling telemarketer, or from an unsolicited direct mail piece, you're likely to ignore the recommendation. But if a trusted friend offers a restaurant recommendation, you're likely to try it out.
Permission Marketing lets you turn strangers, folks that might otherwise ignore your unsolicited offer, into people willing to pay attention when your message arrives in an expected, appreciated way.
An interruption marketer looks for a job by sending a resume to one thousand strangers. A Permission Marketer gets a job by focusing on one company and networking with them, consulting for them, working with them until they trust him enough to offer him a full time position.
A book publisher who uses interruption marketing sells children's books by shipping them to bookstores, hoping that the right audience will stumble across them. A Permission Marketer builds book clubs at every school in the country.
An interruption marketer sells a new product by introducing it on national TV. A Permission Marketer sells a new product by informing all her existing customers about a way to get a free sample.
"The language of truth is always simple and unadorned"
Five Steps to Dating Your Customer
1. Offer the prospect an incentive to volunteer
2. Using the attention offered by the prospect, offer a curriculum over time, teaching the consumer about your product or service
3. Reinforce the incentive to guarantee that the prospect maintains the permission
4. Offer additional incentives to get even more permission from the consumer
5. Over time, leverage the permission to change consumer behavior towards profits
"Judge no man before you have walked for two moons in his moccasins"
2. Using the attention offered by the prospect, offer a curriculum over time, teaching the consumer about your product or service
3. Reinforce the incentive to guarantee that the prospect maintains the permission
4. Offer additional incentives to get even more permission from the consumer
5. Over time, leverage the permission to change consumer behavior towards profits
"Judge no man before you have walked for two moons in his moccasins"
The Two Ways to Get Married
Every marketer must offer the prospective customer an incentive for volunteering. In the vernacular of dating, that means you have to offer something that makes it interesting enough to go out on a first date. A first date, after all, represents a big investment in time, money and ego. So there better be reason enough to volunteer.
Without a selfish reason to continue dating, your new potential customer (and your new potential date) will refuse you a second chance. If you don't provide a benefit to the consumer for paying attention, your offer will suffer the same fate as every other ad campaign that's vying for their attention. It will be ignored.
The incentive you offer to the customer can range from information, to entertainment, to a sweepstakes, to outright payment for the prospect's attention. But the incentive must be overt, obvious and clearly delivered.
This is the most obvious difference between Permission Marketing and Interruption Marketing. Interruption Marketers spend all of their time interrupting strangers, in an almost pitiful attempt to bolster popularity and capture attention. Permission Marketers spend as little time and money talking to strangers as they can. Instead, they move as quickly as they can to turn strangers into prospects who choose to "opt-in" to a series of communications
Second, using the attention offered by the consumer, the marketer offers a curriculum over time, teaching the consumer about the product or service he has to offer. The Permission Marketer knows that the first date is an opportunity to sell the other person on a second date.
Every step along the way has to be interesting, useful and relevant.
Since the prospect has agreed to pay attention, it's much easier to teach them about your product. The Permission Marketer is able to focus on product benefits -- on specific, focused ways this product will help that prospect. Without question, this ability to talk freely over time is the most powerful element of this marketing approach.
The third step involves reinforcing the incentive. Over time, any incentive wears out. Just as your date may tire of even the finest restaurant, the prospective customer may show fatigue with the same repeated incentive. The Permission Marketer must work to reinforce the incentive, to be sure that the attention continues
Along with reinforcing the incentive, the fourth step is to increase the level of permission the marketer receives from the potential customer. The goal is to motivate the consumer to give more and more permission over time.
Permission to gather more data about the customer's personal life, or hobbies, or interests. Permission to offer a new category of product for the customer's consideration. Permission to provide a product sample. The range of permission you can obtain from a customer is very wide, and limited only by its relevance to the customer.
Over time, the marketer uses the permission he's obtained to change consumer behavior, that is, get them to say, "I do." That's how you turn permission into profits. After permission is granted, that's how it becomes a truly significant asset for the marketer.
The fifth and final step is to leverage your permission into a profitable situation for both of you. Remember, you have access to the most valuable thing a customer can offer - attention.
Wasted money. If an ad falls in the forest and no one notices, there is no ad.
" A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can"
Without a selfish reason to continue dating, your new potential customer (and your new potential date) will refuse you a second chance. If you don't provide a benefit to the consumer for paying attention, your offer will suffer the same fate as every other ad campaign that's vying for their attention. It will be ignored.
The incentive you offer to the customer can range from information, to entertainment, to a sweepstakes, to outright payment for the prospect's attention. But the incentive must be overt, obvious and clearly delivered.
This is the most obvious difference between Permission Marketing and Interruption Marketing. Interruption Marketers spend all of their time interrupting strangers, in an almost pitiful attempt to bolster popularity and capture attention. Permission Marketers spend as little time and money talking to strangers as they can. Instead, they move as quickly as they can to turn strangers into prospects who choose to "opt-in" to a series of communications
Second, using the attention offered by the consumer, the marketer offers a curriculum over time, teaching the consumer about the product or service he has to offer. The Permission Marketer knows that the first date is an opportunity to sell the other person on a second date.
Every step along the way has to be interesting, useful and relevant.
Since the prospect has agreed to pay attention, it's much easier to teach them about your product. The Permission Marketer is able to focus on product benefits -- on specific, focused ways this product will help that prospect. Without question, this ability to talk freely over time is the most powerful element of this marketing approach.
The third step involves reinforcing the incentive. Over time, any incentive wears out. Just as your date may tire of even the finest restaurant, the prospective customer may show fatigue with the same repeated incentive. The Permission Marketer must work to reinforce the incentive, to be sure that the attention continues
Along with reinforcing the incentive, the fourth step is to increase the level of permission the marketer receives from the potential customer. The goal is to motivate the consumer to give more and more permission over time.
Permission to gather more data about the customer's personal life, or hobbies, or interests. Permission to offer a new category of product for the customer's consideration. Permission to provide a product sample. The range of permission you can obtain from a customer is very wide, and limited only by its relevance to the customer.
Over time, the marketer uses the permission he's obtained to change consumer behavior, that is, get them to say, "I do." That's how you turn permission into profits. After permission is granted, that's how it becomes a truly significant asset for the marketer.
The fifth and final step is to leverage your permission into a profitable situation for both of you. Remember, you have access to the most valuable thing a customer can offer - attention.
Wasted money. If an ad falls in the forest and no one notices, there is no ad.
" A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can"
Marketer:
1. Human beings have a finite amount of attention. You can't watch everything, remember everything, or do everything. As the amount of noise in your life increases, the percentage of messages that get through inevitably decreases.
2. Human beings have a finite amount of money. You also can't buy everything. You have to choose. But because your attention is limited, you'll only be able to choose from those things you notice.
3. The more products offered, the less money there is to go around. It's a zero sum game. Every time you buy a Coke, you don't buy a Pepsi. As the number of companies offering products increases, and as the number of products each company offers multiplies, it's inevitable that there will be more losers than winners.
4. In order to capture more attention and more money, Interruption Marketers must increase spending. Spending less money than your competitors on advertising in a cluttered environment inevitably leads to decreased sales.
5. But this increase in marketing exposure costs big money. Interruption marketers have no choice but to spend a bigger and bigger portion of their company's budgets on breaking through the clutter.
6. But, as you've seen, spending more and more money in order to get bigger returns leads to ever more clutter.
7. Catch-22: The more they spend, the less it works. The less it works, the more they spend.
Is mass marketing due for a cataclysmic shakeout? Absolutely. A new form of marketing is changing the landscape, and it will affect interruption marketing as significantly as the automobile affected the makers of buggy whips.
Wasted money. If an ad falls in the forest and no one notices, there is no ad.
"A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read"
2. Human beings have a finite amount of money. You also can't buy everything. You have to choose. But because your attention is limited, you'll only be able to choose from those things you notice.
3. The more products offered, the less money there is to go around. It's a zero sum game. Every time you buy a Coke, you don't buy a Pepsi. As the number of companies offering products increases, and as the number of products each company offers multiplies, it's inevitable that there will be more losers than winners.
4. In order to capture more attention and more money, Interruption Marketers must increase spending. Spending less money than your competitors on advertising in a cluttered environment inevitably leads to decreased sales.
5. But this increase in marketing exposure costs big money. Interruption marketers have no choice but to spend a bigger and bigger portion of their company's budgets on breaking through the clutter.
6. But, as you've seen, spending more and more money in order to get bigger returns leads to ever more clutter.
7. Catch-22: The more they spend, the less it works. The less it works, the more they spend.
Is mass marketing due for a cataclysmic shakeout? Absolutely. A new form of marketing is changing the landscape, and it will affect interruption marketing as significantly as the automobile affected the makers of buggy whips.
Wasted money. If an ad falls in the forest and no one notices, there is no ad.
"A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read"
Marketing Evolution
It's not your fault. It's just physically impossible for you to pay attention to everything that marketers expect you to-like the 17,000 new grocery store products that were introduced last year, or the $1,000 worth of advertising that was directed exclusively at you last year.
Almost no one goes home eagerly anticipating junk mail in their mailbox. Almost no one reads People magazine for the ads. Almost no one looks forward to a three minute commercial interruption on Must See TV. Advertising is not why we pay attention. Yet marketers must make us pay attention for the ads to work. If they don't interrupt our train of thought by planting some sort of seed in our conscious or subconscious, the ads fail.
As the marketplace for advertising gets more and more cluttered, it becomes increasingly difficult to interrupt the consumer. As clutter has increased, advertisers have responded by increasing clutter. Over the last thirty years, advertisers have dramatically increased their ad spending. They've also increased the noise level of their ads-more jump cuts, more in-your-face techniques-and searched everywhere for new ways to interrupt your day.
Obviously, the mass market is dying. The vast splintering of media means that a marketer can't reach a significant percentage of the population with any single communication. That's one reason the Super Bowl can charge so much for advertisements. Big events are unique in their ability to deliver about half the consumers watching TV, so they're the perfect platform for Interruption Marketing aimed at the mass audience.
Other than buying even more traditional advertising, how are mass marketers dealing with this profound infoglut? They're taking four approaches:
(1) First, they're spending more in odd places. Not just on traditional TV ads, but a wide range of interesting and obscure media. Campbell's Soup bought ads on parking meters. Macy's spends a fortune on its parade. Kellogg's has spent millions building a presence on the World Wide Web-a fascinating way to sell cereal.
(2) The second technique is to make advertisements ever more controversial and entertaining. Coca-Cola hired talent agency CAA to enlist top-flight Hollywood directors to make commercials. Candies features a woman sitting on a toilet in its magazine ads (for shoes!). Spike Lee's ad agency did more than fifty million dollars in billings last year.
(3) The third approach used to keep mass marketing alive is to change ad campaigns more often in order to keep them "interesting and fresh." Tony the Tiger and Charlie Tuna and the Marlboro man are each worth billions of dollars in brand equity to the companies that built them. The marketers behind them have invested a fortune over the last forty years, making them trusted spokesmen (or spokesanimals) for their brands.
(4) The fourth and last approach, which is as profound as the other three, is that many marketers are abandoning advertising and replacing it with direct mail and promotions. Marketers now allocate about 52% of their annual ad budgets for direct mail and promotions, a significant increase over past years.
Of the more than $200 billion spent on consumer advertising last year in the US, more than $100 billion was spent on direct mail campaigns, in-store promotions, coupons, free standing inserts and other non-traditional media. Last year alone Wunderman, Cato, Johnson, did more than $1.6 billion in billings for its clients (folks like AT&T).
The next time you get a glossy mailing for a Lexus, or enter an instant win sweepstakes at the liquor store, you're seeing the results of this trend toward increased direct marketing efforts. Advertisers are using them because they work. They are somewhat more effective at interrupting you than an ad. They're somewhat more measurable than a billboard. Best of all, they give the marketer another tool to use in their increasingly frustrating fight against clutter. After all, there are only five or ten pieces of junk mail in your mailbox every day-not 3,000. And another few feet of shelf space at the supermarket can lead to a dramatic upturn in sales.
Direct marketing breaks through the clutter, temporarily. Even though they work better than advertising, these techniques are astonishingly wasteful. A 2% response for a direct mail campaign will earn the smart marketer a raise at most companies. But a 2% response means that the same campaign was trashed, ignored or rejected by an amazing 98% of the target audience! From the perspective of the marketer, however, if the campaign earns more than it costs, it's worth doing again.
Direct marketers are responding to this glut by using computers. With access to vast amounts of computerized customer information, marketers can collate and cross-reference a database of names to create a finely-tuned mailing list, and then send them highly targeted messages. For example, a direct marketer might discover that based on past results, the best prospects for its next campaign are single women who are registered.
Wasted money. If an ad falls in the forest and no one notices, there is no ad.
How was the read? Too long? Any ideas or feedback? Leave us a message or comments...
Have a Good Day.
"Rather than continuing to seek the truth, simply let go of your views"
Almost no one goes home eagerly anticipating junk mail in their mailbox. Almost no one reads People magazine for the ads. Almost no one looks forward to a three minute commercial interruption on Must See TV. Advertising is not why we pay attention. Yet marketers must make us pay attention for the ads to work. If they don't interrupt our train of thought by planting some sort of seed in our conscious or subconscious, the ads fail.
As the marketplace for advertising gets more and more cluttered, it becomes increasingly difficult to interrupt the consumer. As clutter has increased, advertisers have responded by increasing clutter. Over the last thirty years, advertisers have dramatically increased their ad spending. They've also increased the noise level of their ads-more jump cuts, more in-your-face techniques-and searched everywhere for new ways to interrupt your day.
Obviously, the mass market is dying. The vast splintering of media means that a marketer can't reach a significant percentage of the population with any single communication. That's one reason the Super Bowl can charge so much for advertisements. Big events are unique in their ability to deliver about half the consumers watching TV, so they're the perfect platform for Interruption Marketing aimed at the mass audience.
Other than buying even more traditional advertising, how are mass marketers dealing with this profound infoglut? They're taking four approaches:
(1) First, they're spending more in odd places. Not just on traditional TV ads, but a wide range of interesting and obscure media. Campbell's Soup bought ads on parking meters. Macy's spends a fortune on its parade. Kellogg's has spent millions building a presence on the World Wide Web-a fascinating way to sell cereal.
(2) The second technique is to make advertisements ever more controversial and entertaining. Coca-Cola hired talent agency CAA to enlist top-flight Hollywood directors to make commercials. Candies features a woman sitting on a toilet in its magazine ads (for shoes!). Spike Lee's ad agency did more than fifty million dollars in billings last year.
(3) The third approach used to keep mass marketing alive is to change ad campaigns more often in order to keep them "interesting and fresh." Tony the Tiger and Charlie Tuna and the Marlboro man are each worth billions of dollars in brand equity to the companies that built them. The marketers behind them have invested a fortune over the last forty years, making them trusted spokesmen (or spokesanimals) for their brands.
(4) The fourth and last approach, which is as profound as the other three, is that many marketers are abandoning advertising and replacing it with direct mail and promotions. Marketers now allocate about 52% of their annual ad budgets for direct mail and promotions, a significant increase over past years.
Of the more than $200 billion spent on consumer advertising last year in the US, more than $100 billion was spent on direct mail campaigns, in-store promotions, coupons, free standing inserts and other non-traditional media. Last year alone Wunderman, Cato, Johnson, did more than $1.6 billion in billings for its clients (folks like AT&T).
The next time you get a glossy mailing for a Lexus, or enter an instant win sweepstakes at the liquor store, you're seeing the results of this trend toward increased direct marketing efforts. Advertisers are using them because they work. They are somewhat more effective at interrupting you than an ad. They're somewhat more measurable than a billboard. Best of all, they give the marketer another tool to use in their increasingly frustrating fight against clutter. After all, there are only five or ten pieces of junk mail in your mailbox every day-not 3,000. And another few feet of shelf space at the supermarket can lead to a dramatic upturn in sales.
Direct marketing breaks through the clutter, temporarily. Even though they work better than advertising, these techniques are astonishingly wasteful. A 2% response for a direct mail campaign will earn the smart marketer a raise at most companies. But a 2% response means that the same campaign was trashed, ignored or rejected by an amazing 98% of the target audience! From the perspective of the marketer, however, if the campaign earns more than it costs, it's worth doing again.
Direct marketers are responding to this glut by using computers. With access to vast amounts of computerized customer information, marketers can collate and cross-reference a database of names to create a finely-tuned mailing list, and then send them highly targeted messages. For example, a direct marketer might discover that based on past results, the best prospects for its next campaign are single women who are registered.
Wasted money. If an ad falls in the forest and no one notices, there is no ad.
How was the read? Too long? Any ideas or feedback? Leave us a message or comments...
Have a Good Day.
"Rather than continuing to seek the truth, simply let go of your views"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
