Monday Mornings with Madison

Category Archives:
Planning & Strategy

April 23, 2012

Spring Cleaning Your Marketing

Issue #229

Part 1: Collateral, Promotional Items, and Trade Show Materials

With record high temperatures sweeping the nation in April, it’s clear that Spring has arrived. It’s time to put away the coats and boots, roll up the sleeves and do a little spring cleaning. After you’ve cleared the cobwebs in the basement or attic and cleaned out the closets and pantry, you should also do a little Spring cleaning at work. A good place to start is tidying up your marketing. Depending on how long it’s been since you did this last, it may take only a day or as much as a week… or for some poor souls who’ve put this off a long time, it may even take a month. However, whatever the investment of time, it is well worth the effort.

Just like when you clean the windows of your home, wiping away the winter grime so you can let the sun pour in, Spring cleaning your marketing will allow you to see your business more clearly. This will then allow you to focus on what is needed and what will generate the biggest return for the investment. Here are six areas that could use a little spring cleaning: collateral materials; premiums; trade show booths; websites; PR and advertising. This week, we’ll look at the first three. Continue reading →

Leave a comment
March 26, 2012

What Makes A Video Go Viral? – Part 2

Issue #225

Last week, we looked at the psychological drivers and emotional triggers that can cause a video to ‘go viral.’ Specifically, we looked at Kony 2012, a video that had been viewed nearly 80 million times, shared 8+ million times and generated 650,000+ comments (at the time of the writing of the article nearly 10 days ago). In addition to being #1 on the video viral chart for the last two weeks, the same video with Spanish subtitles is also ranked #11 on the Video Viral Chart.

What was interesting about the Kony 2012 video was that it wasn’t selling a product or service. The video’s goal was to raise global awareness about Joseph Kony (who has been indicted by the International Court of Justice for crimes against humanity… particularly against children) and lead to his capture. In that regard, the Kony video was a call to action. From a purely marketing perspective, the video’s message was successful in generating strong emotional responses from viewers, educating viewers on a little-known topic, and aligning itself with a cause to which most people could easily identify and support. These are considered some of the key psychological drivers that cause a video to be widely shared.

One may wonder, though, if brand-generated videos (such as a webisode or a commercial) could possibly generate such strong emotional responses as the Kony 2012 video did. The simple answer is yes. Even brand-generated videos can and do ‘go viral.’ But it doesn’t happen automatically. There are factors that spur the viral effect. Read more to understand why some videos go viral. Continue reading →

Leave a comment
March 19, 2012

What Makes A Video Go Viral?- Part 1

Issue #224

Arguably the biggest challenge that businesses face today is for their brand to be ‘known’ — seen and heard – by clients and potential clients despite the onslaught of marketing noise bombarding our eyes and ears from all directions. Newspapers. Magazines. Television. Radio. Social media websites. Emails. Blogs. Even if someone tries to ‘turn off’ the noise and disconnect from telecommunications, it would still be impossible in the industrialized world to completely avoid marketing messaging. Billboards. Bus benches. Street signs. Unsolicited circulars (a/k/a junk mail). Marketing is everywhere. The challenge for any businesses, then, is to cut through the clatter so that potential customers can receive their specific message.

Yet, some messages are being delivered to millions of people with little cost or effort. That is what happens when a video ‘goes viral’. Case in point. One 30-minute video posted on March 5, 2012, just 13 days ago, has been viewed 77,384, 697. That same video has also been shared on Facebook 8,012,263. Since the average FB user has 120 confirmed friend connections, that means that potentially, in time, 961,471,560 people may end up viewing that video. (Note: Studies also show that people will remain watching a video three times longer when it has been shared by a friend, as opposed to finding it online themselves.) Additionally, that video has been posted on 7,472 blogs and has had 643,616 people post comments about it. Indeed, that video is currently the #1 video online, according to the Video Viral Chart. What causes a video to ‘go viral’ (marketing-speak meaning to spread like a virus)? Opinions abound. But new research provides some real insight on what causes a video to ‘go viral.’ Read on to learn more. Continue reading →

Leave a comment
March 12, 2012

When Business Systems Fail

Issue #223

Systems are a structured way of doing something so that it can be done the same way consistently. Most companies put business systems in place to do the “heavy lifting” in terms of performance and maintenance. Companies without business systems are generally less successful than companies that have such systems in place. No matter how many talented people are on a team, without business systems that work regularly, a business cannot gauge how it is doing in the sea of competition and in which areas of the business it needs to improve. Without business systems in place, a company is doomed to repeat mistakes and customers are forced to tolerate inconsistent quality and service.

Business systems can be a great support in businesses. But, like most things in life, they have to be monitored and nurtured, and sometimes even repaired. Poor performance and frustration within an organization is usually a sign of broken systems or processes. According to a law of physics, all things naturally tend to break down over time. That includes business systems. When they do, the business must repair, improve, or elevate the business system to a higher level of functioning in order to be successful. Continue reading →

Leave a comment
February 27, 2012

Keeping All the Plates Spinning

Issue #221

There is circus act in which a person starts a plate spinning on a stick. Then on the table next to it, he starts another plate spinning. And then another and another until the person has dozens of plates all spinning on sticks at the same time. Every so often, the person has to go back to the original plate and spin it some more as it loses momentum and starts to wobble before crashing to the ground. In order to keep all the plates spinning, the person must race back and forth amongst the plates, adding some velocity as each plate, in its turn, begins to slow down. The Guiness World Record for plate spinning was achieved in 1996 with 108 plates spinning simultaneously. Anyone who has ever watched plate spinning feels the anxiety build as plates on the opposite ends look like they are about to teeter off their sticks, but the plate spinner races back and forth just in time to give each another spin.

Even those who have never seen the plate spinning act can probably relate to it. For most people, life is a lot like a plate spinning act thanks to today’s fast-paced world. There is a constant pressure to race back and forth between tasks, responsibilities and chores to keep all the plates spinning. Work. Chores. Honey-do lists. Errands. Family demands. Children’s activities. Doctor visits. Dental checkups. Tax prep. With so much to do, there’s often a plate in the daily grind that is about to teeter off its stick and come crashing to the ground. We race to give that plate another spin just in time to keep it from falling. With so much to do, it is easy to lose track. Thanks to technology, though, there are increasingly better tools to help track and keep all our proverbial plates spinning…. especially at work. Continue reading →

Leave a comment
January 30, 2012

The Power of Procrastination

Issue #217

Procrastination has been defined as the act of replacing high-priority or important actions with tasks of lower priority, and putting off important tasks to a later time. Some industrial psychologists consider it procrastination if the action is counterproductive, needless, and delaying. Others consider it procrastination if a course of action is voluntarily delayed despite expecting to be worse off for the delay.

Regardless of the definition, procrastination and procrastinators are generally viewed in a purely negative light. However, the truth is that every person procrastinates sometimes. But, according to Psychology Today, only about 20 percent of people are true procrastinators… those who consistently avoid difficult tasks and deliberately look for distractions. How do you know if you or one of your employees is part of the 20% that are true procrastinators? And, if so, is procrastination always a bad thing? Continue reading →

Leave a comment
January 23, 2012

Be Unreasonable!!

Issue #216

In business negotiations and political discussions, people are often urged to ‘be reasonable’ if they stake out a position that seems untenable or challenging. Being reasonable is billed in polite society as a virtue. Indeed, most people would consider it an insult, or at least an affront, to be accused of being ‘unreasonable.’ Reasonableness is seen as the quintessential characteristic of a civilized and educated person. We always want to be reasonable and seem reasonable to others.

The only problem is that being ‘reasonable’ will only get you so far in life. If you want to go further and take your business or career — or some other equally important aspect of your life — to a whole new level (not just the next incremental level), you need to go far beyond being reasonable. To achieve a great breakthrough or make a quantum leap forward, you need delve into the realm of the unreasonable. But how and when is it okay to be unreasonable? Continue reading →

Leave a comment
January 16, 2012

Competition: The Best Medicine

Issue #215

Ask most any business owner or manager about their competition and they are likely to spout off a litany of criticism and complaints about ‘those other companies’ and probably particular rant about one rival in particular. Entrepreneurs who take the high road and conduct themselves with dignity may not tell customers what they really think of their competition, but you can bet that privately they can list every shortcoming of their fiercest competitor. In fact, in certain industries – where the fight for market share or even survival is most fierce — C-O-M-P-E-T-I-T-I-O-N is the longest four-letter word in the English language. Just ask anyone who works at Mac about IBM. Lays Potato Chips vs. Doritos. Harvard vs. Yale. Coke vs. Pepsi. They don’t call it “the cola wars” for nothing.

Most organizations think of competition as the unavoidable and most unfortunate evil of doing business. There probably isn’t a business leader alive who hasn’t thought, at least once, ‘If only my product or service was the only game in town.’ The thought is that doing business would be paradise were it not for competition… or a particular competitor. After all, while competition may be great for customers – offering choice and driving down price — it is really nothing but a pain for business owners. Right? Wrong. The truth is that competition is the best thing for any business. Continue reading →

Leave a comment
January 9, 2012

Something Old; Something New; Something Borrowed… and Now Something True Blue

Issue #214

For the last two weeks, we took an old English rhyme “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, And A Sixpence in your Shoe.” and applied it business. We started by examining the old – but valuable – marketing strategy of PR to promote brand continuity and investigated a new, related marketing trend called Brand Journalism that is helping customers connect to businesses in a new way. Then we borrowed the strategy of Corporate Giving as a way to help businesses connect with and engage consumers.

However, sometimes the smartest thing a business can do is go back to the basics. Despite the many changes in technology, communications, and marketing over the last 25 years, the fundamentals of running a sound business remain unchanged. This week, we’ll look at some ‘true blue’ business practices essential to any organization. These ten strategies are a must for long-term business success. Continue reading →

Leave a comment
January 2, 2012

After Something Old and Something New…. Something Borrowed

Issue #213

Part 2 – Borrowing the Successful Business Strategy of Corporate Giving

The old English rhyme “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, And A Sixpence in your Shoe.” was told to brides on their wedding day. With a look toward 2012, we tried to apply this wedding lore to a bright business future. We started last week by examining an old – but valuable – marketing strategy to promote brand continuity and investigated a new, related marketing trend that is helping customers connect to the business brand in a new way.

This week, we’ll look at ‘something borrowed’, symbolic of happiness borrowed from a new family. We’ll borrow a wise business strategy – that of corporate giving – as a way to connect with the community, engage consumers and stand apart from the competition. It is a strategy that has proven profitable for many companies, large and small… and even for one savvy start-up. Continue reading →

1 Comment