Vintage Filings Business Blog

Here’s to a prosperous and successful 2009 for you and your company!

Let me introduce you to your best friend and sometimes worst enemy: social media marketing. You have heard the success stories of companies driving powerful consumer awareness via a viral video on Youtube or attaining expert credentials through relevant blog postings. However I want to talk about what happens when social media marketing gets ugly. If you purchase advertisements through an online ad network, there is a strong possibility that you do not know where your brand its being displayed. This has two negative components:

• Your business could be placed next to brand harming content
• Your banner ads could be simply filling in remnant inventory, which means you are practically guaranteed to lose your return on marketing investment

So what can you do to protect your brand’s reputation in the marketplace? Focus first and foremost on where your ads will be shown. This is where traditional advertising had it right. Companies paid based on placement, not solely on impressions. Secondly, experiment and choose innovative advertising mechanisms. If your marketing strategy has little to no risk, then you will produce little to no results. Good examples of fresh advertising placements are:

1. Sponsored blog posts
2. Video advertising
3. Mobile marketing

Social media marketing can be your best friend, but only if you have a well thought out plan and clear objectives.

A phrase I hear countless companies say in regard to advertising is, “I know I am wasting half of my marketing budget, the problem is that I don’t know which half!”  This is a common dilemma that is directly related to where, when and how you are distributing your brand.

A research report was just released by Advertising Age that revealed that the automotive industry would be much better served by transitioning away from television towards radio. This case study is key in understanding domain expertise. If automakers migrate away from television to radio they could be able to dramatically cut their collective marketing budgets while still hitting their target audience; thus increasing their advertising ROI.

If you feel that your marketing dollars are being wasted on the wrong mediums, don’t get frustrated… GET FOCUSED!

Many organizations struggle to optimize online and offline marketing campaigns across an ever increasing number of new marketing channels. Silos of information reside in separate channel-centric technologies, and distributed marketing efforts, from both internal groups and external relationships, add organizational challenges to managing multichannel marketing efforts. Most of all, the proliferation of sales and marketing channels has made multichannel campaign performance difficult to track and monitor.

According to a new study published by Aberdeen, Best-in-Class companies are 1.5-times more likely to address these challenges by utilizing next-generation solutions that enable cross-channel optimization across an enterprise.

The report reveals how top performing companies currently execute multichannel campaigns to extract maximum value from their marketing investments.  By combining organizational capabilities and marketing technologies, Best-in-Class companies are able to positively affect return on marketing investments and customer profitability.

“Traditional multichannel marketing is largely a function of delivering multiple separate campaigns across multiple channels,” explains Ian Michiels, Research Director at Aberdeen. “Best-in-Class companies are executing structured, collaborative cross-channel campaigns, and they are deriving extraordinary results from these tactics.” The top challenges organizations face when implementing a multichannel marketing campaign are data integration problems created by disparate systems, the lack of technology to centralize multichannel management, and the organizational challenges associated with department silos. “The challenge of executing, measuring, and optimizing multichannel marketing has far reaching implications that affect marketing performance, measurement, and customer retention and acquisition.”

Just in case you thought that US companies were the only ones needing a government bailout, think again.  Canada’s biotechnology CEOs are calling for an economic stimulus package that includes targeted measures designed to protect $1.7 billion of annual spending and preserve high-value “21^st century” jobs in Canada in the face of a severe economic times. These measures include a one-time cash refund on tax losses, an exemption from capital gains tax on the next two years’ of investment, and changes to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) credit program to support the sector during the economic downturn.

“We are asking for immediate targeted measures in order to protect Canadian world class technologies from competitors in the US, the UK and other countries, where governments are making significant commitments to protect their biotechnology industries in recognition of their social and economic value,” said Rainer Engelhardt, Chair of the Board of Directors of BIOTECanada and CEO of Eulytica Biologics Inc., Ottawa. “Ultimately, our goal is to get through this downturn and have the high value jobs inherent to this industry stay in Canada.”

BIOTECanada’s proposed economic stimulus package includes three key measures. A one-time redemption for unused tax losses would be available to SMEs with revenues less than R&D expenses and be limited to the lesser of $20 million or twice a company’s annual R&D expenditure. An exemption from capital gains tax is proposed for investors making new direct investments in 2009 and 2010. Both measures require companies to reinvest in Canada. Changes to the SR&ED program to process refunds quarterly rather yearly and an expansion of program eligibility to all firms engaged in research and development in Canada will create a competitive stimulus to support more domestic jobs and investment.

“With limited sources of financing available for the industry, many Canadian biotech companies are wondering where their next six months of operating cash are going to come from and need the Canadian government to take immediate action,” said Andy Sheldon, President and CEO of Medicago Inc., Québec City. “For the industry to survive, we need a commitment from our government to facilitate investment and provide short term relief.”

Without an immediate cash infusion and tax support, $1.7 billion in annual R and D spending, thousands of Canadian jobs and even Canada’s long term economic prosperity are at risk according to Canada’s national biotechnology trade association, BIOTECanada.

“Canadian governments have done the right thing in supporting major investments in post-secondary education and basic research because that research ultimately saves lives. As Canadians and as entrepreneurs we want to see that investment bear fruit,” said Gordon McCauley, President and CEO of Allon Therapeutics Inc., Vancouver. “Our recommendations are targeted measures aimed at protecting these investments, in order to spur Canada’s economic recovery, and get these advances in the hands of physicians and patients.”

It’s resolution season. And in today’s unstable economy, people are resolving to trim more than just their waistlines; they plan to trim their budgets. According to a recent survey by Progressive, more people are resolving to save money in 2009 than in 2008. In fact, those surveyed chose “save money” over other perennial resolutions like losing weight, quitting smoking, or getting a new job.

So how are people planning to keep that resolution? By doing typical things like cutting unnecessary costs and controlling household finances. More than 80 percent plan to eliminate nonessential items such as dining out, movies, and vacations, while nearly half (47 percent) will clip coupons.

“When trying to save money, people sometimes forget about things they might consider to be ‘fixed’ costs, like car insurance. Few realize just how much they could save by shopping around and comparing rates,” said Rick Crawley, insurance expert for Progressive. “One in four people surveyed mistakenly believe that all car insurers charge the same rates when, in fact, people who switched to Progressive in the summer of 2007 reported saving over $350 on their annual premium.”

There are other ways to save money that also have “green” benefits, which men lead women in, according to the survey: they’re more likely to take public transportation (14 percent versus 8 percent), carpool (14 percent versus 11 percent), or drive a more fuel-efficient car (16 percent versus 9 percent).

A new online Word of Mouth Marketing research study conducted by OTX confirms the value of brands engaging directly with consumers online. The initial findings of the new study, “The Impact of Social Media on Purchase Behavior,” revealed that 54% of consumers agree that information from a brand representative would be more valuable than what is typically found on a company website.

In addition, 63% of consumers would like to share their opinions about a brand or product with a representative, and 67% of consumers are likely to pass along information from a brand representative to other people. Just as important, 57% of consumers are likely to take action based on the information from the brand representative, such as shop at the retailer, buy the product, etc.

The study was commissioned by DEI Worldwide, a leading social media marketing agency with specialties in conversational outreach, integrated strategies, market research & application development, to gain valuable intelligence on how consumers interact with and perceive information coming directly from conversations with a brand online.

In an effort to help brands determine if Word of Mouth and Social Media Marketing is relevant for their product, DEI is using the data from the study to launch a new Social Media Analyzer tool on the DEI website. Starting today, brands can access select questions from the study to see how their target audience (by age group) uses social media, in comparison to corporate websites, to make purchase decisions.

“62% of consumers responded that information from a brand representative would be more valuable than advertisements or promotional materials,” said Lou Cuming, chief operating officer of DEI Worldwide. “These findings are particularly interesting because they support what we have been saying all along, that Word of Mouth is a valuable marketing tool that should be combined with traditional media to create an integrated marketing strategy.”

According to the research findings, people rely on social media websites as much as company websites for product information and 70% of consumers have visited a social media website such as message board, social network, Instant Messenger, Blog, Video Sharing Site or Chat Room in order to get information on a company, brand or product.

The survey also showed that people who search information exclusively via social media websites are more likely to spread the word. More than one-third of consumers have passed along information found online and among those, six out of 10 used social media websites to pass along the information. 74% claimed that most of the information they passed along was positive.

“Word of Mouth is a strategy that brands are evaluating more than ever and this survey certainly supports that consumers are placing a high value on information about brands found in social media environments and that interactions with brand representatives are perceived to have real benefits,” said Erik Rabasca, VP Social Media at PHD.

The biggest challenge faced by inventors and small businesses is how to get their new products into retail stores. Who do you call? What documents do you have to prepare? How do you pitch the product? Anybody who has gone through this process knows what a nightmare it is.  To solve this problem for inventors and businesses, The Geisheker Group, an international marketing firm has partnered with Sellion, a leading new product retail incubator located in North Kingstown, RI, to offer businesses a step-by-step retail marketing program to get their products into retail stores.

This new retail marketing program provides businesses with the following services:

• Professional product evaluation.
• Professional marketing materials and product package creation.
• Retail-focused marketing plan preparation for presenting products to major chain retail stores.
• Putting the product on store shelves in a multi-store retail incubator program to test market the product to consumers in a real-world environment.
• Press release writing with national distribution.
• Personally pitching the product to buyers at major retail chains including Walmart, Costco, Sears, Radio Shack, Walgreens, CVS, Home Depot, GNC, Rite Aid, and many other national and regional retail chains.

Peter Geisheker, CEO of The Geisheker Group, states, “Getting national distribution for a new product is the Holy Grail of inventors and business owners with new products. By partnering with the retail marketing professionals at Sellion, we have developed the most affordable and results-based retail marketing program available for getting new products into retail stores. I truly believe this new program will revolutionize how new products are launched.”

So how is the global supplier business doing in the economic downturn?  Not as well as I would have hoped. Panjiva today released a startling analysis that highlights the dramatic impact of the economic downturn on global suppliers. Panjiva’s analysis of the apparel industry in the second half of the 2008 reveals staggering statistics, including:

• The number of suppliers actively serving the U.S. market dropped over 70% in just three months; from 22,099 suppliers in July to 6,262 suppliers in October.
• Of those factories still active in October, 40% are now on the Panjiva Watch List as a result of suffering a year-over-year drop of 75% or more in volume shipped to U.S. customers.
• The Panjiva Pain Index, a measure of the risk present in the global supply chain, stood at 43 at the end of October, up from 24 at the end of July.

According to Panjiva CEO Josh Green, “These numbers paint a frightening picture of the state of the world’s suppliers. U.S. companies who maintain their customer base through the economic downturn may nevertheless find their survival threatened by the disappearance of their supplier base.”

SmartDraw.com, publisher of the Working Smarter blog, which offers practical strategies and ideas for businesses of all sizes, has announced the formation of the Working Smarter Network (WSN).  The WSN is an exclusive consortium of websites and blogs that provide varied, relevant and useful information to help businesspeople be more effective.

“There are dozens of sites, in addition to our own devoted to providing valuable business and marketing information. The problem is that most people who can use this knowledge don’t know they exist,” said Paul Stannard, CEO of SmartDraw.com. “We started the WSN as a way for a businessperson to readily identify sites—in one location—that offer only relevant, truly usable and proven business strategies, tips and tactics that can help them succeed.”

WSN members are nominated for membership by an advisory group that conducts a rigorous site review process focused on quality, relevance, content, and applicability. WSN members are then identified by the exclusive Network emblem on their web site blog roll. All members then include the blog roll links on their sites so that businesspeople can quickly jump to and from sites that are most useful for their needs.

Importantly, WSN content, which includes articles that contain lessons and free eCourses, is shared with millions of business owners, managers, consultants and other professionals looking to improve their communication, business processes and productivity, whether it is by visually communicating processes, improved sales tools, more convincing presentations, enhanced marketing and management skills or general professional development.

Charter members of the Working Smarter Network include:

1. Altman’s Better PowerPoint

2. The PowerPoint FAQ

3. B2B Sales & Marketing Knowledge Sharing

4. Drew’s Marketing Minute

5. The JF Selling Resources Blog

6. Indezine – PowerPoint & Presentations

7. Marketing Interactions

8. Selling Magic Sales Journal

9. The YouBlog – Presentations & Communication

10. Wilder Presentations

11. B2B Marketing Confidential

12. PBR – Sales Training & Leadership

13. The Sales Hunter