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Is it more effective to tell customers your brand name right away in advertising? Or is it better to create a little mystery, and reveal the brand name only at the end of the ad, once you've intrigued them? One might think that it's better to create some mystery. (After ... more
While good SEO boosts site traffic, not all tactics used these days are above-board. Some, designed to "trick" search engines, are not only bad business: they can get your site banned. And that's no treat. To make sure you're operating with the good guys, it's best to avoid using questionable tactics. ... more
In late August, 2.9 million subscribers learned the identity of Barack Obama's running mate with a 26-word text message delivered via SMS (Short Message Service). The announcement joined a trend of strategies employed by the likes of NBC (Olympic coverage), Fox (American Idol) and others. According to R.J. Talyor, the ... more
When Apple unveiled its first iPhone in 2007, most reviews highlighted features that skewed to personal—rather than business—use. You could use the iPhone for many things, but you surrendered a measure of professional functionality in the tradeoff. A recent re-design, however, coupled with the introduction of the App Store, has made ... more
Whether customers come back and buy your product again may likely depend on whether they remember it fondly or not. So, how do you promote positive product memory? Well, research on consumers' memories for experiences (eg, listening to music, attending an event) shows that whether they remember an experience as good ... more
Even if your email campaigns meet goals and deliver great ROI, you probably wonder how you compare to industry standards. If so, you’re going to love the spreadsheet in a recent blog post from Mailchimp. The company analyzed 271 million emails delivered by its system on behalf of small business ... more
If you dropped everything and followed the leader every time a social media tool went live, you'd never have time to do real work. Right? Not this time. Chin up: the social media gods have smiled upon you. While your rivals fought for the title of Early Adopter—taxing both their ... more
No doubt about it: corporate images are important, and many companies work very hard to cultivate them. But how do specific corporate images (eg, an image of being innovative, trustworthy, socially conscious) affect customers' impressions of the products a company makes? In some instances, quite a lot. Research shows that ... more
A recent television ad from Britain's Hovis has gotten as much press for its cinematic scope as for the bread it markets. Shot with 750 meticulously costumed extras over a week in the city of Liverpool, the spot checks in at a full 122 seconds—one for each year of the ... more
If you have a television, you've seen the snarky Apple ads that personify Microsoft as a hapless dork in a bad suit. That "loser" characterization went more or less unchallenged until a recent Microsoft campaign kicked off with some surreal spots featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. One vignette—set in a ... more
"[Your subscribers] are reading e-mail on mobile devices more frequently than ever," says Winston Bowden in an article at MarketingProfs. "[And] there are some specific issues to consider." At a minimum, he suggests you keep PDAs in mind as you design: Optimize image ... more
Do you have a live Internet video channel in your future? You may scratch your head wondering how such a Web presence might improve your business. But, even though it's not a mainstream marketing vehicle today, real-time streaming is a trend to watch. What started as live sports and concerts on ... more
Of course we want customers to like our brand. But recent research suggests that an even more important driver of brand equity is brand attachment. Brand attachment represents the emotional bond that consumers have between a brand and themselves. (Ahhhh! That's the cologne he wore on our wedding day!) Consumers ... more
In a provocative post at the Online Marketer Blog, DJ Francis argues that the days of email marketing—as we know it—are numbered. "Marketers are no longer interrupting customers' lives with sales pitches," he says. "Instead, they (or the good ones, at least) are concerned with providing value so that the customer ... more
Some advertisements stand the test of time, and a classic television spot for Volkswagen is currently making the online rounds. It opens with a shot of two neighbors emerging from a pair of identical houses. "Mr. Jones and Mr. Krempler each had $3,000," intones the narrator as each man walks ... more
It would be terrific if email marketers had universal standards for the creation of all their html messages. In the absence of such comprehensive guidelines, Winston Bowden offers some fundamental design rules as a jumping-off point: Aim for a width of 600 to 620 pixels. Use CSS inlinks ... more
According to Drew McLellan, there exist only a few rules for outdoor advertising—for instance, use provocative visuals and less than seven words. But in a blog post, he recalls a 1989 campaign devised by Crowley Webb for Garcia's Irish Pub in Buffalo, New York, that ignored this conventional wisdom. "[This] ... more
We live in an age of euphemism. A used car isn't "used," it's "pre-owned"; we're sold "bathroom tissue," not "toilet paper"; and no marketer in her right mind would dream of calling wrinkle cream anything but "rejuvenating moisturizer." This is why the decidedly un-euphemistic name of a Beverly Hills clothier—Jimmy ... more
Over 50 percent of music downloaders consider iTunes the best fee-based digital music service. And a growing legion of iTunes users are implementing Coverflow, which lets you scroll through a music collection by album art, for aesthetic purposes. Millennials may be a generation obsessed with instant gratification, but music remains ... more
"It is a sociological fact that when times are tough, people turn to the past—to what they know—for comfort," writes Patrick Byers in a post at the Responsible Marketing blog. "So, it should come as no surprise that recent advertising is taking us away from the present and into our ... more
In post at the Neuromarketing blog, Roger Dooley says, "U.S. consumers have been conditioned to believe that proper wine comes in a 750ml glass bottle with a natural cork. Artificial corks and screw cap closures are suspect, to say the least. And box wines are traditionally suited only for penniless ... more
New Media Monetization Series, Part I: Web Advertising Online advertising spend continues to increase, but the process remains fraught with doubt. This year, NBC paid $894M for the programming rights to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This "most ambitious single media project in history" will deliver 3,600 hours of coverage over ... more
"So I'm flipping through Entertainment Weekly and I come to an ad for some kind of beverage that waylays me with the headline 'SUCK ON THIS,'" writes Julia Rubiner in the Editorial Emergency newsletter. "The copy was so arresting that I was compelled to read on. Imagine my surprise when ... more
As video continues its great migration from the television set to the Web and smartphones, advertisers face a new challenge: how to reach customers in three places at once. The so-called "three screens" (TV, PC, and wireless devices) require different ad strategies to engage audiences. The 'lean back' TV viewer's focus ... more
Marketers may try to distinguish their products from those of their competitors by engaging in comparative advertising. (X Detergent cleans 25% more loads than the leading brand!) But be careful when you pull out those comparisons: make sure you don't denigrate your competitor. Research is showing that consumers become quite sensitive ... more
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