Monday, May 31, 2004
Online in de nieuwe EU-landen
European Union enlargement is the biggest upheaval for some Eastern European countries since the collapse of the iron curtain.
In the 1980s every newspaper in Estonia was owned and controlled by the Communist Party. Control over the media was so tight that national newspaper stories were censored before they appeared by the dedicated censorship body Glavlit. But despite this control and censorship, World Press Trends has reported that Estonians devoured the subsidised and censored press. More than 500 in every 1,000 Estonians bought a paper - one of the highest rates in the world. But, as papers were privatised and newspaper prices increased, that figure slumped to just 171 in 1994.
The remarkable irony that saw Estonia's newspaper readership collapse just as the press was given its freedom is just one example of how the legacy of communist rule dictates the state the media is in today. The upheaval had a different impact in Poland. Here, the collapse of communism and the surge in support for the Solidarity movement led to a surge in demand for local papers. Poland's most popular paper today was launched by Solidarity just 15 years ago. Yet in Hungary, not one new quality political daily paper survived after the regime change. This country failed to protect its written media from foreign control with the result that seven of the 10 national dailies and all of the local daily papers are owned by Western companies.
The expansion of the EU means these markets are in the early stages of yet another unpredictable upheaval. Eight of the 10 countries that joined the EU this month emerged from the Soviet Bloc in the early 1990s. In this review, dotJournalism looks at developments in online journalism in the East and, in a linked report, 'Online news bridges Cypriot divide', we also examine how the online journalists in Cyprus are facing different challenges.
Some of the best newspaper sites in the post-communist countries are those that have benefited from investment and are wholly or partly owned by Western multinationals. Director of the Bridges to the East Institute, independent media consultant and online magazine editor Jan Pieklo points to Gazeta Wyborcza as the site that has developed the richest online content in Poland. One of the few internet versions of a daily paper in these countries to have introduced a distinct brand, Gazeta.pl is now a news portal. Gazeta Wyborcza was owned by Agora, a company set up by the anti-communist movement, but is now partly owned by US-based Cox Communications. It has a circulation of 600,000. Other national dailies in Poland with notable sites include the broadsheet Rzeczpospolita.pl and the left-of-centre Trybuna.
Even the best online versions of national dailies in Slovakia are criticised by Andrej Skolkay, a lecturer at the Faculty of Mass Media Communication of UCM in Trnava. He told dotJournalism that the sites developed by Sme, Pravda and Hospodarske Noviny are 'very similar' and difficult to navigate.
Not surprisingly, other publications that have invested heavily in their online versions are those targeting an audience that is likely to have access to the internet - papers in English targeting English speakers and the business press. Etrend was developed by Slovakia's leading business publisher and has established pay-to-view content. An online version of a leading paper in English is the Prague Post - the most widely circulated English weekly in the Czech Republic. The online version reaches 300,000 readers weekly. The Warsaw Business Journal plays a similar role in Poland.
Internet publications in the former communist states are finding the search for a viable economic model even more difficult than it is in the West. Only 20 per cent of Hungarians have access to the internet. One of the most exciting and popular online developments in Slovakia - the entertainment site Inzine - closed in March. Despite picking up a sizeable and loyal audience and becoming media partner to several cultural events in the country, it failed to attract enough advertising to generate the profits its owner sought.
Predictably, this experience has been repeated across the region. One attempt to launch an internet-only news site in Slovakia died after a couple of years in 2000. Called Edom, it failed to attract advertising. Ildiko Kaposi from the Political Science Department of the Central European University in Budapest has reported that, aside from the online versions of newspapers and the business and financial titles, 'the other online news service initiatives did not become successful, and interest in them as targets of investment waned after the international dotcom crash'.
Both Andrej Skolskay and Jan Pieklo told dotJournalism that sites are struggling to remain sustainable. Jan Pieklo says that lively and popular 'alternative' sites that have materialised in the West have yet to emerge in Poland.
Even so, a few independent internet-only ventures targeting niche audiences have survived. Jan Pieklo points to the nicely designed Arabia as one example. Another example is the internet press review Newspaper.pl
One site that has struggled against the odds in Slovakia is Changenet. In six months its page views have doubled with 500,000 in April. A cleanly designed discussion and news-based site for the staff of non-governmental organisations, its editorial office survives on a small budget with no advertising revenue. Andrej Skolskay also points to the riotous Zion as a significant development. The 'Magazine for Chicks with Small Tits' mixes music, with reviews, interviews, biographies and photography. Features about death rub shoulders with reviews of heavy metal gigs. While it does not appear to be carrying obvious advertising, it clearly has many fans.
So has a distinct online editorial discipline emerged in the East? Jan Pieklo told us that Polish Journalist's Association formed its online journalism section two years ago. A distinct discipline is 'slowly emerging', he said.
Online news bridges Cypriot divide
Earlier this month three bombs exploded outside the offices of the daily Kibris in Nicosia in the Turkish occupied north of the country. Nobody was hurt in the attack but there is little doubt that the attack was intended to intimidate the paper's journalists who had supported the UN peace plan for the reunification of Cyprus in the recent referendum.
Reporters Without Borders has condemned continued press freedom violations in the north of the country. Over the past few years physical or emotional terror, more than 31 bombings, 10 arsons and four shootings have been directed at political personalities and newspaper staff. One journalist has been murdered and several have been subjected to death threats. The Annan peace plan, named after the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, was rejected by the Greek Cypriots but overwhelmingly supported by the Turkish Cypriots in the face of militant nationalists.
This is the backdrop to journalism in the North of Cyprus and demonstrates the deep divisions between, and within, the Greek and Turkish communities. The whole island population of less than one million supports an extraordinary number of newspapers. There are nine daily newspapers (eight in Greek and one in English) published in the South and another eight papers in Turkish published in the north. For most of these papers the readership is strictly defined along ethnic or geographic lines.
It is into this minefield that the Cambridge Foundation for Peace stepped in with the aim of promoting co-operation and understanding between the two communities. On an island that must have more daily publications per square mile than any other country in the world, the Foundation's remarkable idea was to launch yet another. CyprusMediaNet was born - a site set up with the simple aim of building bridges between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Dr Dimitris Apostolidis, project director and program associate for the Cambridge Foundation for Peace, explains: "The project sought to contribute to a sustainable peace on Cyprus by encouraging the development of an informed, active, dynamic civil society that can access, evaluate, and respond to a pluralized print media. As the Annan plan was developed and Cyprus was on final approach to EU accession, it became imperative that Cypriots, both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots alike, had a clear understanding of the developments."
He told dotJournalism that, while all Cypriots could follow the debate within their own communities "there was no mechanism that would allow each community to follow the interpretation of events by the other as reflected in their respective media. There was a real gap in following the fears, concerns, aspirations and desires of the other."
With backing from US Aid and the United Nations Development Programme, the Cambridge Foundation for Peace - an independent, non-profit charity for peacebuilding in Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean - launched (a href="http://www.cyprusmedianet.com" target=_blank">CyprusMediaNet. The site gives users daily access to around 30 articles from both the Turkish Cypriot and the Greek Cypriot press and each one is translated into English, Turkish and Greek.
According to Dr Apostolidis, only the internet made the project possible. He says: "In the 30 years that have elapsed since the events of 1974, the number of bi-lingual (Greek-Turkish) citizens is virtually non-existent. With circumstances on the island before the launch of CyprusMediaNet, that is the inability of either community to cross the Green Line, the development of a printed bi-lingual newspaper that would cover daily events was not an option."
Not only would a printed publication be difficult to distribute, he says, it would also represent a target for those opposed to reunification. Using the internet placed the process "away from the reach of those that might have been opposed to it".
Although none of the papers are paid for the material reproduced on the CMN site, all of them were consulted when it was launched. Only one objected to CMN giving its readers access to the original material. Even so, a few months after the launch, it changed its mind. Now TV, radio and other print media use CMN as a source of reliably translated news.
CFP has a track-record in using the internet to pursue its peacebuilding objectives. In Kosovo it launched an independent newspaper for the Serb minority in Kosovo. As part of this project it launched the website www.glasjuga.com. (Colin Meek – DotJournalism)
European Union enlargement is the biggest upheaval for some Eastern European countries since the collapse of the iron curtain.
In the 1980s every newspaper in Estonia was owned and controlled by the Communist Party. Control over the media was so tight that national newspaper stories were censored before they appeared by the dedicated censorship body Glavlit. But despite this control and censorship, World Press Trends has reported that Estonians devoured the subsidised and censored press. More than 500 in every 1,000 Estonians bought a paper - one of the highest rates in the world. But, as papers were privatised and newspaper prices increased, that figure slumped to just 171 in 1994.
The remarkable irony that saw Estonia's newspaper readership collapse just as the press was given its freedom is just one example of how the legacy of communist rule dictates the state the media is in today. The upheaval had a different impact in Poland. Here, the collapse of communism and the surge in support for the Solidarity movement led to a surge in demand for local papers. Poland's most popular paper today was launched by Solidarity just 15 years ago. Yet in Hungary, not one new quality political daily paper survived after the regime change. This country failed to protect its written media from foreign control with the result that seven of the 10 national dailies and all of the local daily papers are owned by Western companies.
The expansion of the EU means these markets are in the early stages of yet another unpredictable upheaval. Eight of the 10 countries that joined the EU this month emerged from the Soviet Bloc in the early 1990s. In this review, dotJournalism looks at developments in online journalism in the East and, in a linked report, 'Online news bridges Cypriot divide', we also examine how the online journalists in Cyprus are facing different challenges.
Some of the best newspaper sites in the post-communist countries are those that have benefited from investment and are wholly or partly owned by Western multinationals. Director of the Bridges to the East Institute, independent media consultant and online magazine editor Jan Pieklo points to Gazeta Wyborcza as the site that has developed the richest online content in Poland. One of the few internet versions of a daily paper in these countries to have introduced a distinct brand, Gazeta.pl is now a news portal. Gazeta Wyborcza was owned by Agora, a company set up by the anti-communist movement, but is now partly owned by US-based Cox Communications. It has a circulation of 600,000. Other national dailies in Poland with notable sites include the broadsheet Rzeczpospolita.pl and the left-of-centre Trybuna.
Even the best online versions of national dailies in Slovakia are criticised by Andrej Skolkay, a lecturer at the Faculty of Mass Media Communication of UCM in Trnava. He told dotJournalism that the sites developed by Sme, Pravda and Hospodarske Noviny are 'very similar' and difficult to navigate.
Not surprisingly, other publications that have invested heavily in their online versions are those targeting an audience that is likely to have access to the internet - papers in English targeting English speakers and the business press. Etrend was developed by Slovakia's leading business publisher and has established pay-to-view content. An online version of a leading paper in English is the Prague Post - the most widely circulated English weekly in the Czech Republic. The online version reaches 300,000 readers weekly. The Warsaw Business Journal plays a similar role in Poland.
Internet publications in the former communist states are finding the search for a viable economic model even more difficult than it is in the West. Only 20 per cent of Hungarians have access to the internet. One of the most exciting and popular online developments in Slovakia - the entertainment site Inzine - closed in March. Despite picking up a sizeable and loyal audience and becoming media partner to several cultural events in the country, it failed to attract enough advertising to generate the profits its owner sought.
Predictably, this experience has been repeated across the region. One attempt to launch an internet-only news site in Slovakia died after a couple of years in 2000. Called Edom, it failed to attract advertising. Ildiko Kaposi from the Political Science Department of the Central European University in Budapest has reported that, aside from the online versions of newspapers and the business and financial titles, 'the other online news service initiatives did not become successful, and interest in them as targets of investment waned after the international dotcom crash'.
Both Andrej Skolskay and Jan Pieklo told dotJournalism that sites are struggling to remain sustainable. Jan Pieklo says that lively and popular 'alternative' sites that have materialised in the West have yet to emerge in Poland.
Even so, a few independent internet-only ventures targeting niche audiences have survived. Jan Pieklo points to the nicely designed Arabia as one example. Another example is the internet press review Newspaper.pl
One site that has struggled against the odds in Slovakia is Changenet. In six months its page views have doubled with 500,000 in April. A cleanly designed discussion and news-based site for the staff of non-governmental organisations, its editorial office survives on a small budget with no advertising revenue. Andrej Skolskay also points to the riotous Zion as a significant development. The 'Magazine for Chicks with Small Tits' mixes music, with reviews, interviews, biographies and photography. Features about death rub shoulders with reviews of heavy metal gigs. While it does not appear to be carrying obvious advertising, it clearly has many fans.
So has a distinct online editorial discipline emerged in the East? Jan Pieklo told us that Polish Journalist's Association formed its online journalism section two years ago. A distinct discipline is 'slowly emerging', he said.
Online news bridges Cypriot divide
Earlier this month three bombs exploded outside the offices of the daily Kibris in Nicosia in the Turkish occupied north of the country. Nobody was hurt in the attack but there is little doubt that the attack was intended to intimidate the paper's journalists who had supported the UN peace plan for the reunification of Cyprus in the recent referendum.
Reporters Without Borders has condemned continued press freedom violations in the north of the country. Over the past few years physical or emotional terror, more than 31 bombings, 10 arsons and four shootings have been directed at political personalities and newspaper staff. One journalist has been murdered and several have been subjected to death threats. The Annan peace plan, named after the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, was rejected by the Greek Cypriots but overwhelmingly supported by the Turkish Cypriots in the face of militant nationalists.
This is the backdrop to journalism in the North of Cyprus and demonstrates the deep divisions between, and within, the Greek and Turkish communities. The whole island population of less than one million supports an extraordinary number of newspapers. There are nine daily newspapers (eight in Greek and one in English) published in the South and another eight papers in Turkish published in the north. For most of these papers the readership is strictly defined along ethnic or geographic lines.
It is into this minefield that the Cambridge Foundation for Peace stepped in with the aim of promoting co-operation and understanding between the two communities. On an island that must have more daily publications per square mile than any other country in the world, the Foundation's remarkable idea was to launch yet another. CyprusMediaNet was born - a site set up with the simple aim of building bridges between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.
Dr Dimitris Apostolidis, project director and program associate for the Cambridge Foundation for Peace, explains: "The project sought to contribute to a sustainable peace on Cyprus by encouraging the development of an informed, active, dynamic civil society that can access, evaluate, and respond to a pluralized print media. As the Annan plan was developed and Cyprus was on final approach to EU accession, it became imperative that Cypriots, both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots alike, had a clear understanding of the developments."
He told dotJournalism that, while all Cypriots could follow the debate within their own communities "there was no mechanism that would allow each community to follow the interpretation of events by the other as reflected in their respective media. There was a real gap in following the fears, concerns, aspirations and desires of the other."
With backing from US Aid and the United Nations Development Programme, the Cambridge Foundation for Peace - an independent, non-profit charity for peacebuilding in Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean - launched (a href="http://www.cyprusmedianet.com" target=_blank">CyprusMediaNet. The site gives users daily access to around 30 articles from both the Turkish Cypriot and the Greek Cypriot press and each one is translated into English, Turkish and Greek.
According to Dr Apostolidis, only the internet made the project possible. He says: "In the 30 years that have elapsed since the events of 1974, the number of bi-lingual (Greek-Turkish) citizens is virtually non-existent. With circumstances on the island before the launch of CyprusMediaNet, that is the inability of either community to cross the Green Line, the development of a printed bi-lingual newspaper that would cover daily events was not an option."
Not only would a printed publication be difficult to distribute, he says, it would also represent a target for those opposed to reunification. Using the internet placed the process "away from the reach of those that might have been opposed to it".
Although none of the papers are paid for the material reproduced on the CMN site, all of them were consulted when it was launched. Only one objected to CMN giving its readers access to the original material. Even so, a few months after the launch, it changed its mind. Now TV, radio and other print media use CMN as a source of reliably translated news.
CFP has a track-record in using the internet to pursue its peacebuilding objectives. In Kosovo it launched an independent newspaper for the Serb minority in Kosovo. As part of this project it launched the website www.glasjuga.com. (Colin Meek – DotJournalism)
Now you can read magazines on your phone
Mobile content producer Sendandsee has announced production of what are claimed to be the world's first magazines for viewing on mobile phones.
The Finnish company will launch the three weekly titles this month. Each magazine will contain at least 16 pages of news, images, sound and video and will cost around two Euros per week. Subscribers will also be able to use the content to personalise their mobile phone.
Whopla! will cover celebrity news, Riento! will cover sports news and ROCsport will be an extreme sports magazine. All the titles are designed for groups with high mobile use - young professionals aged between 18 and 45.
"We are selling the system as white label format to magazine brands at the moment," said Jussi Lystimaki, spokesperson for Sendandsee.com.
"Monthly magazines can, for example, promote their next edition to users in advance, developing brand recognition and improving newsstand sales and customer relationships."
Magazine content is sourced from news and images agencies and compiled by a small production team in each country. Editions are delivered as multimedia messages using the GPRS (general packet radio service) internet connection on the users mobile phone.
"There is a need for high-quality content services, and we believe that celebrity and sports content is a good spearhead for selected genres to start with," Mr Lystimaki told dotJournalism.
"Our studies tell us the market has good potential for this kind of product, which is easy to understand, easy to use and has extra value through the phone personalisation options."
The format offers huge potential for advertisers, with each magazine designed to carry up to four adverts. Advertisers have been keen to experiment with the format, said Mr Lystimaki, but so far there has been no publishing format ready to support mobile advertising.
"This is a focused customer group to reach and provide exclusive offers through mobile coupons or promotions," he said.
"Our magazines enable advertisers to take familiar methods and models one step further." (Jemima Kiss - DotJournalism)
Mobile content producer Sendandsee has announced production of what are claimed to be the world's first magazines for viewing on mobile phones.
The Finnish company will launch the three weekly titles this month. Each magazine will contain at least 16 pages of news, images, sound and video and will cost around two Euros per week. Subscribers will also be able to use the content to personalise their mobile phone.
Whopla! will cover celebrity news, Riento! will cover sports news and ROCsport will be an extreme sports magazine. All the titles are designed for groups with high mobile use - young professionals aged between 18 and 45.
"We are selling the system as white label format to magazine brands at the moment," said Jussi Lystimaki, spokesperson for Sendandsee.com.
"Monthly magazines can, for example, promote their next edition to users in advance, developing brand recognition and improving newsstand sales and customer relationships."
Magazine content is sourced from news and images agencies and compiled by a small production team in each country. Editions are delivered as multimedia messages using the GPRS (general packet radio service) internet connection on the users mobile phone.
"There is a need for high-quality content services, and we believe that celebrity and sports content is a good spearhead for selected genres to start with," Mr Lystimaki told dotJournalism.
"Our studies tell us the market has good potential for this kind of product, which is easy to understand, easy to use and has extra value through the phone personalisation options."
The format offers huge potential for advertisers, with each magazine designed to carry up to four adverts. Advertisers have been keen to experiment with the format, said Mr Lystimaki, but so far there has been no publishing format ready to support mobile advertising.
"This is a focused customer group to reach and provide exclusive offers through mobile coupons or promotions," he said.
"Our magazines enable advertisers to take familiar methods and models one step further." (Jemima Kiss - DotJournalism)
Guardian site to expand RSS services
The Guardian is planning to launch more XML-based services in the next few months, adding to the news feed services the site already provides to both commercial clients and individual readers.
XML, also known as RSS, is a method of streaming information from a website. Many sites now offer a free XML feed enabling readers to receive headlines from news sites via a desktop software program. XML also avoids problems involved with sending email newsletters, such as junk mail and out-of-date addresses.
"At the moment we do not have XML feeds for anything other than the general feed on the front page," said a Guardian spokesperson.
"We do plan to have XML feeds for specialised sections in the future, and are developing a platform to allow this to happen."
The Guardian first offered an XML feed to readers in 2002. But XML feeds do not provide a robust way of measuring subscribers, said the Guardian; email is more accurate.
XML feeds will provide a growing complement to email but will not replace email newsletters.
For commercial users, the Guardian's paid-for service offers specialised news headlines via XML to provide constantly updated news for websites. There are around 25 specialised content areas, including media, sport, education and business. Current clients include Tiscali and the UK Sports Council, which uses a Guardian feed to provide news and information to an internal network of council members. (Jemima Kiss - DotJournalism)
The Guardian is planning to launch more XML-based services in the next few months, adding to the news feed services the site already provides to both commercial clients and individual readers.
XML, also known as RSS, is a method of streaming information from a website. Many sites now offer a free XML feed enabling readers to receive headlines from news sites via a desktop software program. XML also avoids problems involved with sending email newsletters, such as junk mail and out-of-date addresses.
"At the moment we do not have XML feeds for anything other than the general feed on the front page," said a Guardian spokesperson.
"We do plan to have XML feeds for specialised sections in the future, and are developing a platform to allow this to happen."
The Guardian first offered an XML feed to readers in 2002. But XML feeds do not provide a robust way of measuring subscribers, said the Guardian; email is more accurate.
XML feeds will provide a growing complement to email but will not replace email newsletters.
For commercial users, the Guardian's paid-for service offers specialised news headlines via XML to provide constantly updated news for websites. There are around 25 specialised content areas, including media, sport, education and business. Current clients include Tiscali and the UK Sports Council, which uses a Guardian feed to provide news and information to an internal network of council members. (Jemima Kiss - DotJournalism)
Merkenbeleid bepalend voor bedrijfsreputatie
Consumenten houden bij hun beoordeling van bedrijven ook rekening met de reputatie op het gebied van maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid. Die reputatie hangt echter wel af van de manier waarop een bedrijf zijn ondernemingsmerk laat zien in communicatie over producten, het zogenaamde corporate merkenbeleid.
Dit stelt Guido Berens in zijn proefschrift ‘Corporate branding: De ontwikkeling van ondernemingsassociaties en hun invloed op de reacties van belanghebbenden’ aan de Rotterdamse Erasmus Universiteit.
Berens onderzocht de associaties die consumenten hebben met de vakkundigheid en de maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid van bedrijven, en de invloed van deze associaties op de voorkeuren van consumenten. Ook bestudeerde hij de manier waarop mensen associaties met een bedrijf vormen naar aanleiding van communicatie-uitingen van het bedrijf.
De promovendus stelt dat wanneer het ondernemingsmerk van een bedrijf dominant aanwezig is in communicatie-uitingen over producten, de associaties met het bedrijf de rol spelen van heuristieken, d.w.z. van gemakkelijk toegankelijke informatie die iemand kan helpen bij het vormen van een mening over een product. Wanneer, aan de andere kant, het ondernemingsmerk niet dominant zichtbaar is in communicatie over het product, spelen de associaties met het bedrijf meer de rol van 'extra' informatie die gebruikt kan worden om een beter oordeel over een product te geven.
Verder toont Berens aan dat een bedrijf een lage waargenomen vakkundigheid niet kan compenseren door een hoge mate van maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid. Wanneer het echter gaat om de voorkeur voor aandelen of banen, kan een lage vakkundigheid wel gecompenseerd worden door een goede maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid.
Ten slotte blijkt uit het onderzoek dat communicatie-uitingen over de maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid van bedrijven geloofwaardiger worden gevonden wanneer ze feiten over het gedrag van de onderneming bevatten, dan wanneer ze geen feiten bevatten. Echter, deze hogere waargenomen betrouwbaarheid hoeft zich niet per se te vertalen in een betere reputatie van het bedrijf.
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Consumenten houden bij hun beoordeling van bedrijven ook rekening met de reputatie op het gebied van maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid. Die reputatie hangt echter wel af van de manier waarop een bedrijf zijn ondernemingsmerk laat zien in communicatie over producten, het zogenaamde corporate merkenbeleid.
Dit stelt Guido Berens in zijn proefschrift ‘Corporate branding: De ontwikkeling van ondernemingsassociaties en hun invloed op de reacties van belanghebbenden’ aan de Rotterdamse Erasmus Universiteit.
Berens onderzocht de associaties die consumenten hebben met de vakkundigheid en de maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid van bedrijven, en de invloed van deze associaties op de voorkeuren van consumenten. Ook bestudeerde hij de manier waarop mensen associaties met een bedrijf vormen naar aanleiding van communicatie-uitingen van het bedrijf.
De promovendus stelt dat wanneer het ondernemingsmerk van een bedrijf dominant aanwezig is in communicatie-uitingen over producten, de associaties met het bedrijf de rol spelen van heuristieken, d.w.z. van gemakkelijk toegankelijke informatie die iemand kan helpen bij het vormen van een mening over een product. Wanneer, aan de andere kant, het ondernemingsmerk niet dominant zichtbaar is in communicatie over het product, spelen de associaties met het bedrijf meer de rol van 'extra' informatie die gebruikt kan worden om een beter oordeel over een product te geven.
Verder toont Berens aan dat een bedrijf een lage waargenomen vakkundigheid niet kan compenseren door een hoge mate van maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid. Wanneer het echter gaat om de voorkeur voor aandelen of banen, kan een lage vakkundigheid wel gecompenseerd worden door een goede maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid.
Ten slotte blijkt uit het onderzoek dat communicatie-uitingen over de maatschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid van bedrijven geloofwaardiger worden gevonden wanneer ze feiten over het gedrag van de onderneming bevatten, dan wanneer ze geen feiten bevatten. Echter, deze hogere waargenomen betrouwbaarheid hoeft zich niet per se te vertalen in een betere reputatie van het bedrijf.
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Ook voor kleine ondernemer is marketing haalbaar
Het opzetten van een marketing-campagne wordt dikwijls beschouwd als een complexe aangelegenheid. Dat is één van de belangrijkste redenen waarom kleinere ondernemingen er maar zelden aan beginnen. Maar volgens Barbara Findlay Schenck, mede-auteur van het boek ‘Small Business Marketing for Dummies’ kan het ook anders, op voorwaarde dat de campagnes herleid worden tot de basis en het proces eenvoudig gehouden wordt.
“Marketing-campagnes vergen een diepgaande research, waarna ook nog onder meer een reclame-campagne moet opgezet worden en mailings moeten worden verstuurd,” schrijft Joyce M. Rosenberg in The Seattle Post. “Daarom schrikken kleinere bedrijven er meestal voor terug dergelijke campagnes op te zetten.” Schenck stelt echter dat dit probleem perfect kan opgelost worden door een exacte bepaling van de doelstellingen. “Zo moet de ondernemer goed voor ogen houden hoeveel activiteit hij door de campagne wil genereren en hoeveel potentiële klanten hij wil bereiken,” benadrukt ze.
Het bepalen van juiste doelstellingen vermijdt volgens marketing-consulente Schenck dat de marketing-campagne te gecompliceerd wordt en zorgt er tevens voor dat de beste doelgroep wordt benaderd. “Zo moet een accountant uitzoeken hoeveel klanten hij wil en vervolgens gaan lunchen met die mensen die zijn diensten wellicht zouden kunnen gebruiken.”
Ook moet de ondernemer goed het onderscheid tussen publiciteit en reclame voor ogen houden. “Dit kan de marketing veel eenvoudiger maken,” vertelt pr-specialist Rick Frishman van Planned Television Arts (New York). “Publiciteit en reclame zijn immers niet hetzelfde en niet elk bedrijf moet beide doen. Voor sommige ondernemers is reclame zelfs weggegooid geld, waarbij er beter aan gedaan zou zijn ervoor te zorgen dat er in de plaatselijke krant een verhaal verschijnt waarin het bedrijf aan bod komt.”
Frishman voegt er aan toe dat er, ongeacht welk soort marketing er gevoerd wordt, voor gezorgd moet worden dat de boodschap kort en eenvoudig is. “Daarvoor moet men zijn product of dienst echt door en door kennen en moet men in staat zijn om een potentiële klant in een bijzonder korte tijdspanne te interesseren. “Dat mag niet langer duren dan een verplaatsing met de lift,” merkt hij op. Bovendien moet de ondernemer volgens Frishman voorbereid zijn om overal en altijd aan marketing te doen. “Hij moet het product altijd bij zich hebben,” benadrukt hij. “Men weet immers nooit wie men zal tegenkomen. Een ontmoeting op een vliegtuig of de luchthaven kan een leven veranderen.”
Ed Paulson, auteur van ‘The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Business’ stelt dat ondernemers ook het onderscheid moeten kunnen maken tussen marketing en sales. “Ook dat zijn heel verschillende dingen,” zegt hij. “Sales is het daadwerkelijk naar buiten komen en de verkoop afsluiten. Marketing zorgt ervoor dat het verkopen gemakkelijker gaat.” Hij voegt er aan toe dat de ondernemer zich vooral moet richten op de mensen die het meest waarschijnlijk klanten zullen worden. “Marketing helpt die groep beter te bepalen.”
De beste manier om dit laatste te realiseren, is uiteraard het marktonderzoek. Maar ook dat vinden kleine ondernemingen dikwijls een dure en ingewikkelde aangelegenheid. “Ook dat hoeft echter niet,” merkt Paulson op. “Op het internet en in bibliotheken vindt men genoeg demografische informatie die nuttig kan zijn voor ondernemers die bijvoorbeeld willen uitzoeken of er voldoende belangstelling zou kunnen zijn voor hun product. Ook organisaties zoals vakbonden kunnen handige informatie aanreiken.” Paulson is verder van oordeel dat ook netwerking heel veel kan bijbrengen tot het marktonderzoek. “Men kan daarbij terugvallen op de ervaring van andere ondernemers,” meent hij.
Schenck merkt op dat bij het prospecteren in eerste instantie echter moet gedacht worden aan de bestaande klanten. “In veel gevallen liggen daar nog heel wat verkoopsmogelijkheden,” stipt ze aan. “Dat is de gemakkelijkste manier om de onderneming te laten groeien. Men moet immers goed beseffen dat het vijf keer goedkoper is een bestaande klant te houden dan een nieuwe klant te winnen.”
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Het opzetten van een marketing-campagne wordt dikwijls beschouwd als een complexe aangelegenheid. Dat is één van de belangrijkste redenen waarom kleinere ondernemingen er maar zelden aan beginnen. Maar volgens Barbara Findlay Schenck, mede-auteur van het boek ‘Small Business Marketing for Dummies’ kan het ook anders, op voorwaarde dat de campagnes herleid worden tot de basis en het proces eenvoudig gehouden wordt.
“Marketing-campagnes vergen een diepgaande research, waarna ook nog onder meer een reclame-campagne moet opgezet worden en mailings moeten worden verstuurd,” schrijft Joyce M. Rosenberg in The Seattle Post. “Daarom schrikken kleinere bedrijven er meestal voor terug dergelijke campagnes op te zetten.” Schenck stelt echter dat dit probleem perfect kan opgelost worden door een exacte bepaling van de doelstellingen. “Zo moet de ondernemer goed voor ogen houden hoeveel activiteit hij door de campagne wil genereren en hoeveel potentiële klanten hij wil bereiken,” benadrukt ze.
Het bepalen van juiste doelstellingen vermijdt volgens marketing-consulente Schenck dat de marketing-campagne te gecompliceerd wordt en zorgt er tevens voor dat de beste doelgroep wordt benaderd. “Zo moet een accountant uitzoeken hoeveel klanten hij wil en vervolgens gaan lunchen met die mensen die zijn diensten wellicht zouden kunnen gebruiken.”
Ook moet de ondernemer goed het onderscheid tussen publiciteit en reclame voor ogen houden. “Dit kan de marketing veel eenvoudiger maken,” vertelt pr-specialist Rick Frishman van Planned Television Arts (New York). “Publiciteit en reclame zijn immers niet hetzelfde en niet elk bedrijf moet beide doen. Voor sommige ondernemers is reclame zelfs weggegooid geld, waarbij er beter aan gedaan zou zijn ervoor te zorgen dat er in de plaatselijke krant een verhaal verschijnt waarin het bedrijf aan bod komt.”
Frishman voegt er aan toe dat er, ongeacht welk soort marketing er gevoerd wordt, voor gezorgd moet worden dat de boodschap kort en eenvoudig is. “Daarvoor moet men zijn product of dienst echt door en door kennen en moet men in staat zijn om een potentiële klant in een bijzonder korte tijdspanne te interesseren. “Dat mag niet langer duren dan een verplaatsing met de lift,” merkt hij op. Bovendien moet de ondernemer volgens Frishman voorbereid zijn om overal en altijd aan marketing te doen. “Hij moet het product altijd bij zich hebben,” benadrukt hij. “Men weet immers nooit wie men zal tegenkomen. Een ontmoeting op een vliegtuig of de luchthaven kan een leven veranderen.”
Ed Paulson, auteur van ‘The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Business’ stelt dat ondernemers ook het onderscheid moeten kunnen maken tussen marketing en sales. “Ook dat zijn heel verschillende dingen,” zegt hij. “Sales is het daadwerkelijk naar buiten komen en de verkoop afsluiten. Marketing zorgt ervoor dat het verkopen gemakkelijker gaat.” Hij voegt er aan toe dat de ondernemer zich vooral moet richten op de mensen die het meest waarschijnlijk klanten zullen worden. “Marketing helpt die groep beter te bepalen.”
De beste manier om dit laatste te realiseren, is uiteraard het marktonderzoek. Maar ook dat vinden kleine ondernemingen dikwijls een dure en ingewikkelde aangelegenheid. “Ook dat hoeft echter niet,” merkt Paulson op. “Op het internet en in bibliotheken vindt men genoeg demografische informatie die nuttig kan zijn voor ondernemers die bijvoorbeeld willen uitzoeken of er voldoende belangstelling zou kunnen zijn voor hun product. Ook organisaties zoals vakbonden kunnen handige informatie aanreiken.” Paulson is verder van oordeel dat ook netwerking heel veel kan bijbrengen tot het marktonderzoek. “Men kan daarbij terugvallen op de ervaring van andere ondernemers,” meent hij.
Schenck merkt op dat bij het prospecteren in eerste instantie echter moet gedacht worden aan de bestaande klanten. “In veel gevallen liggen daar nog heel wat verkoopsmogelijkheden,” stipt ze aan. “Dat is de gemakkelijkste manier om de onderneming te laten groeien. Men moet immers goed beseffen dat het vijf keer goedkoper is een bestaande klant te houden dan een nieuwe klant te winnen.”
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Bijna één op drie softwareprogramma´s in België illegaal
Bijna één op drie softwareprogramma´s (31 procent) die in België worden gebruikt is illegaal. Voor de software-industrie (fabrikanten, ontwikkelaars en verdelers) betekent dat wereldwijd een verlies van meer dan 13 miljard dollar per jaar, zo stelt de internationale beroepsorganisatie Business Software Alliance (BSA) vrijdag.
Bij tien recente gerechtelijke acties van de BSA tegen Belgische bedrijven werden volgens Het Laatste Nieuws meer dan 850 illegale softwarekopieën in beslag genomen. Bovendien werd in alle gecontroleerde bedrijven illegale software aangetroffen. De betrokken firma´s betaalden een totale schadevergoeding van 700.000 euro (vergoeding plus licentie), of zowat twee keer de kostprijs van de gepirateerde software.
Toch begrijpen meer en meer ondernemingen volgens BSA dat software een productiviteitstool is, die een goed beheer vraagt, net zoals de andere bedrijfsmiddelen zoals firmawagens, hardware of kantoormeubilair. Om zulke bedrijven te helpen, biedt BSA België op zijn site www.bsa.org gratis auditing tools aan en een handleiding voor correct softwaremanagement. Daarnaast geeft BSA ook een voorbeeld van een bedrijfsrichtlijn. In 2004 zal de BSA samenwerken met lokale ICT-verdelers om eindgebruikers voor te lichten over wat legaal is en wat niet en hoe te beginnen met softwaremanagement.
Inmiddels heeft een Brusselse rechter gezegd dat het maken van een muziekkopie voor eigen gebruik strafbaar is. De uitspraak viel in het kader van een zaak met Test Aankoop, die de kopieerbeveiliging op muziek cd’s wou aanklagen. Test Aankoop diende klacht in tegen de platenfirma’s Sony, BMG, EMI en Universal. Volgens Test Aankoop hebben de mensen recht op een privé-kopie, zolang die niet aan derden wordt doorgegeven. Ze meent dan ook dat systemen die het kopiëren tegengaan, illegaal zijn.
Maar het draaide anders uit voor het consumentenmagazine: de rechter oordeelde dat consumenten geen recht hebben op een kopie voor eigen gebruik. De auteursrechten laten nochtans een kopie voor eigen gebruik toe, maar de rechter oordeelde dat deze wet nog niet spreekt van een ‘recht’.
Fair Use, zoals kopiëren voor eigen gebruik wordt genoemd, staat steeds meer onder druk in Europa. Ook in Frankrijk oordeelde een rechter in een gelijkaardige zaak in het voordeel van de muziekindustrie. Test Aankoop zegt ontevreden te zijn met de uitspraak en zal in beroep gaan.
Bijna één op drie softwareprogramma´s (31 procent) die in België worden gebruikt is illegaal. Voor de software-industrie (fabrikanten, ontwikkelaars en verdelers) betekent dat wereldwijd een verlies van meer dan 13 miljard dollar per jaar, zo stelt de internationale beroepsorganisatie Business Software Alliance (BSA) vrijdag.
Bij tien recente gerechtelijke acties van de BSA tegen Belgische bedrijven werden volgens Het Laatste Nieuws meer dan 850 illegale softwarekopieën in beslag genomen. Bovendien werd in alle gecontroleerde bedrijven illegale software aangetroffen. De betrokken firma´s betaalden een totale schadevergoeding van 700.000 euro (vergoeding plus licentie), of zowat twee keer de kostprijs van de gepirateerde software.
Toch begrijpen meer en meer ondernemingen volgens BSA dat software een productiviteitstool is, die een goed beheer vraagt, net zoals de andere bedrijfsmiddelen zoals firmawagens, hardware of kantoormeubilair. Om zulke bedrijven te helpen, biedt BSA België op zijn site www.bsa.org gratis auditing tools aan en een handleiding voor correct softwaremanagement. Daarnaast geeft BSA ook een voorbeeld van een bedrijfsrichtlijn. In 2004 zal de BSA samenwerken met lokale ICT-verdelers om eindgebruikers voor te lichten over wat legaal is en wat niet en hoe te beginnen met softwaremanagement.
Inmiddels heeft een Brusselse rechter gezegd dat het maken van een muziekkopie voor eigen gebruik strafbaar is. De uitspraak viel in het kader van een zaak met Test Aankoop, die de kopieerbeveiliging op muziek cd’s wou aanklagen. Test Aankoop diende klacht in tegen de platenfirma’s Sony, BMG, EMI en Universal. Volgens Test Aankoop hebben de mensen recht op een privé-kopie, zolang die niet aan derden wordt doorgegeven. Ze meent dan ook dat systemen die het kopiëren tegengaan, illegaal zijn.
Maar het draaide anders uit voor het consumentenmagazine: de rechter oordeelde dat consumenten geen recht hebben op een kopie voor eigen gebruik. De auteursrechten laten nochtans een kopie voor eigen gebruik toe, maar de rechter oordeelde dat deze wet nog niet spreekt van een ‘recht’.
Fair Use, zoals kopiëren voor eigen gebruik wordt genoemd, staat steeds meer onder druk in Europa. Ook in Frankrijk oordeelde een rechter in een gelijkaardige zaak in het voordeel van de muziekindustrie. Test Aankoop zegt ontevreden te zijn met de uitspraak en zal in beroep gaan.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Europese tv verliest kijkers aan internet
Tv-zenders in heel Europa verliezen kijkers omdat consumenten steeds vaker de avonduren op internet doorbrengen. De BBC kiest daarom voor de aanval. Meer dan de helft van de internetgebruikers zegt minder tv te kijken ten gunste van het aantal uren dat ze op internet doorbrengen (56%). Met name ADSL of kabel is daarbij belangrijk, aldus Planet Multimedia. Het Engelse onderzoeksbureau Strategy Analytics komt tot deze conclusie.
De onderzoeker meent dat speciaal voor het internet ontwikkelde interactieve programma's weglopende tv-kijkers vast kunnen houden. Als voorbeeld worden spelletjes en toepassingen van interactieve tv genoemd. De Britse BBC gaat in de tegenaanval door onder een licentie delen van zijn audio- en videoarchieven te publiceren. Dat is volgens het principe van Creative Commons, een project dat copyright in een omgekeerde vorm propageert. Het beschrijft welk gebruik van creatieve uitingen is toegestaan in plaats van gebruik te verbieden.
Tv-zenders in heel Europa verliezen kijkers omdat consumenten steeds vaker de avonduren op internet doorbrengen. De BBC kiest daarom voor de aanval. Meer dan de helft van de internetgebruikers zegt minder tv te kijken ten gunste van het aantal uren dat ze op internet doorbrengen (56%). Met name ADSL of kabel is daarbij belangrijk, aldus Planet Multimedia. Het Engelse onderzoeksbureau Strategy Analytics komt tot deze conclusie.
De onderzoeker meent dat speciaal voor het internet ontwikkelde interactieve programma's weglopende tv-kijkers vast kunnen houden. Als voorbeeld worden spelletjes en toepassingen van interactieve tv genoemd. De Britse BBC gaat in de tegenaanval door onder een licentie delen van zijn audio- en videoarchieven te publiceren. Dat is volgens het principe van Creative Commons, een project dat copyright in een omgekeerde vorm propageert. Het beschrijft welk gebruik van creatieve uitingen is toegestaan in plaats van gebruik te verbieden.
België kent meeste breedbandgebruikers
In België heeft bijna 30 procent van de gezinnen een breedbandverbinding, wat meteen de hoogste breedbandpenetratie binnen Europa is. Andere kleine landen zoals Nederland, Denemarken en Zweden volgen op de voet. Het is geen toeval dat er in kleinere landen meer breedbandgebruikers zijn: de internetmarkten in die landen is immers veel competitiever.
Volgens de marktonderzoeker Stategy Analytics komt dat omdat de dominante speler, zoals Belgacom, daar eerder zijn greep op de markt verloor. In landen als Duitsland, het Verenigd Koninkrijk en Italië hebben slechts 13 tot 15 procent van de gezinnen een breedbandaansluiting. In België heeft 29,5 procent van de huishoudens de snellere internetaansluiting, voor Nederland is dat 27,2. In Denemarken, Zwitserland en Zweden heeft minstens één op vijf gezinnen een breedbandverbinding.
De verwachting van Strategy Analytics is dat tegen 2008 60 procent van de gezinnen in België de breedbandaansluiting zal hebben, tegenover een Europees gemiddelde van 41 procent. Het belang van breedband blijft toenemen, niet enkel voor internet, maar ook door nieuwe telefoon- en videotoepassingen.
In België heeft bijna 30 procent van de gezinnen een breedbandverbinding, wat meteen de hoogste breedbandpenetratie binnen Europa is. Andere kleine landen zoals Nederland, Denemarken en Zweden volgen op de voet. Het is geen toeval dat er in kleinere landen meer breedbandgebruikers zijn: de internetmarkten in die landen is immers veel competitiever.
Volgens de marktonderzoeker Stategy Analytics komt dat omdat de dominante speler, zoals Belgacom, daar eerder zijn greep op de markt verloor. In landen als Duitsland, het Verenigd Koninkrijk en Italië hebben slechts 13 tot 15 procent van de gezinnen een breedbandaansluiting. In België heeft 29,5 procent van de huishoudens de snellere internetaansluiting, voor Nederland is dat 27,2. In Denemarken, Zwitserland en Zweden heeft minstens één op vijf gezinnen een breedbandverbinding.
De verwachting van Strategy Analytics is dat tegen 2008 60 procent van de gezinnen in België de breedbandaansluiting zal hebben, tegenover een Europees gemiddelde van 41 procent. Het belang van breedband blijft toenemen, niet enkel voor internet, maar ook door nieuwe telefoon- en videotoepassingen.
Thursday, May 27, 2004
E-commerce definitief uit de startblokken?
In de beginperiode van het internet was e-commerce één van de magische woorden. Na jaren van min of meer aanmodderen, lijkt de sector echter pas nu eindelijk voorgoed uit de startblokken te komen. Dat is alvast de mening van The Economist.
E-commerce lijkt nu toch de verwachtingen te gaan vervullen die het eind jaren negentig heeft opgeroepen. Sommige branches - bijvoorbeeld de reisbranche - halen al een groot deel van hun omzet uit online-verkopen. Zo behaalde InterActiveCorp (IAC), eigenaar van expedia.com en hotels.com vorig jaar al een omzet van zo`n 10 miljard dollar. Op de internetveiling E-Bay werd vorig jaar voor 24 miljard dollar aan goederen verhandeld en ook voor B2B-zaken wordt steeds meer gebruik gemaakt van het internet.
Internet heeft ook grote invloed op het consumentengedrag. Alvorens een bepaald product aan te schaffen hebben veel consumenten zich met behulp van het internet reeds uitvoerig geinformeerd over dit product en over de prijs die zij zouden moeten betalen.
Steeds vaker vindt ook het omgekeerde proces plaats: de consument loopt een winkel binnen om een camera uit te testen en bestelt deze camera vervolgens via internet - voor een lagere prijs. Sommige insiders verwachten dan ook dat winkels op den duur zullen veranderen in een soort showrooms voor producten die uiteindelijk via internet worden aangeschaft. [The Economist]
Ook binnen de handel in kantoorartikelen begint de online distributie een steeds belangrijkere plaats in te nemen. Een aantal aanbieders is inmiddels actief op deze markt. The Knowledge Factory ontwikkelde een totaalconcept dat het volledige distributiekanaal voorziet van elektronische product- en marketinginformatie. De Digital Channel Solution verbetert de communicatie tussen website en eindgebruikers. Voor 750 euro per jaar verzorgt The Knowledge Factory hosting, direct mail-faciliteiten en ondersteuning van marketingactiviteiten.
Ook Microsoft biedt bedrijven mogelijkheden een webshop te bouwen. De Commerce Server, die speciaal voor het mkb in een standaardversie verkrijgbaar is, biedt inzicht in de informatie die een websitebezoeker opvraagt, welke pagina`s hij bekijkt en wat zijn voorkeuren zijn. Aanbieder e-Buzz levert het online bestelsysteem Easy Order. In de loop van 2004 komt eBuzz met de EasyCatalog, waarmee dealers zelf stamgegevens vanuit een centrale database bij kunnen werken. Quantore levert online bestelsystemen voor de kantoorvakhandel. Bedrijven kunnen kiezen uit drie systemen, afhankelijk van hun automatiseringsgraad.
In de beginperiode van het internet was e-commerce één van de magische woorden. Na jaren van min of meer aanmodderen, lijkt de sector echter pas nu eindelijk voorgoed uit de startblokken te komen. Dat is alvast de mening van The Economist.
E-commerce lijkt nu toch de verwachtingen te gaan vervullen die het eind jaren negentig heeft opgeroepen. Sommige branches - bijvoorbeeld de reisbranche - halen al een groot deel van hun omzet uit online-verkopen. Zo behaalde InterActiveCorp (IAC), eigenaar van expedia.com en hotels.com vorig jaar al een omzet van zo`n 10 miljard dollar. Op de internetveiling E-Bay werd vorig jaar voor 24 miljard dollar aan goederen verhandeld en ook voor B2B-zaken wordt steeds meer gebruik gemaakt van het internet.
Internet heeft ook grote invloed op het consumentengedrag. Alvorens een bepaald product aan te schaffen hebben veel consumenten zich met behulp van het internet reeds uitvoerig geinformeerd over dit product en over de prijs die zij zouden moeten betalen.
Steeds vaker vindt ook het omgekeerde proces plaats: de consument loopt een winkel binnen om een camera uit te testen en bestelt deze camera vervolgens via internet - voor een lagere prijs. Sommige insiders verwachten dan ook dat winkels op den duur zullen veranderen in een soort showrooms voor producten die uiteindelijk via internet worden aangeschaft. [The Economist]
Ook binnen de handel in kantoorartikelen begint de online distributie een steeds belangrijkere plaats in te nemen. Een aantal aanbieders is inmiddels actief op deze markt. The Knowledge Factory ontwikkelde een totaalconcept dat het volledige distributiekanaal voorziet van elektronische product- en marketinginformatie. De Digital Channel Solution verbetert de communicatie tussen website en eindgebruikers. Voor 750 euro per jaar verzorgt The Knowledge Factory hosting, direct mail-faciliteiten en ondersteuning van marketingactiviteiten.
Ook Microsoft biedt bedrijven mogelijkheden een webshop te bouwen. De Commerce Server, die speciaal voor het mkb in een standaardversie verkrijgbaar is, biedt inzicht in de informatie die een websitebezoeker opvraagt, welke pagina`s hij bekijkt en wat zijn voorkeuren zijn. Aanbieder e-Buzz levert het online bestelsysteem Easy Order. In de loop van 2004 komt eBuzz met de EasyCatalog, waarmee dealers zelf stamgegevens vanuit een centrale database bij kunnen werken. Quantore levert online bestelsystemen voor de kantoorvakhandel. Bedrijven kunnen kiezen uit drie systemen, afhankelijk van hun automatiseringsgraad.
Fahrenheit 9/11 geniet veel interesse van filmdistributeurs
Nu Michael Moore op het filmfestival van Cannes de hoofdprijs, de Gouden Palm, heeft weggekaapt, staan Amerikaanse filmdistributeurs aan te schuiven om zijn anti-Bush-film "Fahrenheit 9/11" in de Amerikaanse bioscoopzalen te krijgen. Productiehuis Disney weigerde eerder de film onder het label van dochteronderneming Miramax uit te brengen. Volgens kenners zou die beslissing het bedrijf meer dan 100 miljoen dollar kosten.
Entertainmentgroep Walt Disney verbood Miramax in april Moore´s documentaire te verspreiden, naar eigen zeggen omwille van een politieke sperperiode in dit verkiezingsjaar. Volgens Moore vreesde de reeds felgeplaagde Disney-baas Michael Eisner echter dat het Witte Huis de belastingsvoordelen die het bedrijf in Florida geniet, teniet zou doen als het de film uitbracht. Gouverneur van Florida is ene Jeb Bush, jongere broer van.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" is immers een politiek pamflet dat de Amerikaanse president regelrecht aanvalt. Zelf zou Moore de film symbolisch willen uitbrengen op 4 juli, de dag waarop Amerika zijn onafhankelijkheid herdenkt. Eerst moeten echter de onderhandelingen om de distributierechten tussen Disney en de topmannen van dochterbedrijf Miramax rond zijn. Met de gesprekken zou een som van ongeveer 6 miljoen dollar (5 miljoen euro) gemoeid zijn. Ook andere distributeurs zouden interesse hebben.
Nu Michael Moore op het filmfestival van Cannes de hoofdprijs, de Gouden Palm, heeft weggekaapt, staan Amerikaanse filmdistributeurs aan te schuiven om zijn anti-Bush-film "Fahrenheit 9/11" in de Amerikaanse bioscoopzalen te krijgen. Productiehuis Disney weigerde eerder de film onder het label van dochteronderneming Miramax uit te brengen. Volgens kenners zou die beslissing het bedrijf meer dan 100 miljoen dollar kosten.
Entertainmentgroep Walt Disney verbood Miramax in april Moore´s documentaire te verspreiden, naar eigen zeggen omwille van een politieke sperperiode in dit verkiezingsjaar. Volgens Moore vreesde de reeds felgeplaagde Disney-baas Michael Eisner echter dat het Witte Huis de belastingsvoordelen die het bedrijf in Florida geniet, teniet zou doen als het de film uitbracht. Gouverneur van Florida is ene Jeb Bush, jongere broer van.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" is immers een politiek pamflet dat de Amerikaanse president regelrecht aanvalt. Zelf zou Moore de film symbolisch willen uitbrengen op 4 juli, de dag waarop Amerika zijn onafhankelijkheid herdenkt. Eerst moeten echter de onderhandelingen om de distributierechten tussen Disney en de topmannen van dochterbedrijf Miramax rond zijn. Met de gesprekken zou een som van ongeveer 6 miljoen dollar (5 miljoen euro) gemoeid zijn. Ook andere distributeurs zouden interesse hebben.
MTV start met roze homozender
De Amerikaanse muziekzender MTV start met een nieuwe zender voor homo´s en lesbiennes. Het kanaal krijgt de naam LOGO en zendt vanaf 17 februari 2005 uit via de kabel en satelliet. Doelgroep van LOGO worden alle homo's en lesbiennes tussen 25 en 49.
De zender zal volgens Het Laatste Nieuws zowel originele als gekochte programma´s brengen. Volgens MTV Networks zijn er ongeveer 15 miljoen homo´s en lesbiennes in de Verenigde Staten die samen een potentiële koopkracht van 402 miljard euro vertegenwoordigen.
"Een tv-zender oprichten speciaal voor de lesbische, homoseksuele, en biseksuele gemeenschap is iets wat we al lang wilden doen," aldus bedrijfsleider Tom Freston van MTV Networks. "Ondanks de vooruitgang van onze natie inzake burgerrechten en de steeds toenemende aanwezigheid van holebi´s in de zakenwereld, samenleving en zelfs in tv-programma´s, ontbrak er nog een kanaal voor deze belangrijke en invloedrijke doelgroep op de televisie".
De Amerikaanse muziekzender MTV start met een nieuwe zender voor homo´s en lesbiennes. Het kanaal krijgt de naam LOGO en zendt vanaf 17 februari 2005 uit via de kabel en satelliet. Doelgroep van LOGO worden alle homo's en lesbiennes tussen 25 en 49.
De zender zal volgens Het Laatste Nieuws zowel originele als gekochte programma´s brengen. Volgens MTV Networks zijn er ongeveer 15 miljoen homo´s en lesbiennes in de Verenigde Staten die samen een potentiële koopkracht van 402 miljard euro vertegenwoordigen.
"Een tv-zender oprichten speciaal voor de lesbische, homoseksuele, en biseksuele gemeenschap is iets wat we al lang wilden doen," aldus bedrijfsleider Tom Freston van MTV Networks. "Ondanks de vooruitgang van onze natie inzake burgerrechten en de steeds toenemende aanwezigheid van holebi´s in de zakenwereld, samenleving en zelfs in tv-programma´s, ontbrak er nog een kanaal voor deze belangrijke en invloedrijke doelgroep op de televisie".
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Namaak-CD's financieren terrorisme
Profits from fake CDs and car parts and other counterfeit goods are used to finance terrorism, Interpol said Tuesday, urging governments across the world to stop ignoring the multi-billion-dollar crime. "Interpol believes there is a significant link between counterfeiting and terrorism in locations where there are entrenched terrorist groups," the international police network's secretary-general, Ronald Noble, told reporters in Brussels.
"What I find absolutely amazing is that there is this multi-billion-dollar crime problem that affects the safety of people, the security of governments, that is connected to organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. And no one, no one pressures me as secretary-general of Interpol to say what I am doing to fight this problem. No one," he said at a first Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting.
Trade in counterfeit goods was estimated at $450 billion in 2000. Products targeted range from car and airplane parts and medicines to clothes, cigarettes, music and movies. Billions of dollars are lost annually in tax revenues and profits for companies whose products are being faked. According to European Commission figures, the illegal trade is responsible for the loss of up to 100,000 jobs a year in Europe.
Noble said Interpol had found links between terrorism and counterfeiting in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. In an operation involving fake car brakes, Lebanese law enforcement authorities shared information with Interpol, which found some of the suspects had links with terrorist groups. Militants in Northern Ireland were known to be involved in organized crime and traded in a whole range of counterfeit products from cigarettes to music CDs. Rebels in Colombia have also been linked to counterfeiting, Noble said.
Interpol officials said they hoped increased publicity about links between terrorism and counterfeiting would deter consumers from buying cheap fake designer handbags and other accessories. "I hope it will mean members of the public do focus on that and think about what they are doing before they purchase these products," said Crime Intelligence Officer John Newton.
But governments also needed to get involved in the fight against counterfeiting, Noble said, adding only a handful of nations were paying sufficient attention to the problem. "I want governments to care about the problem of intellectual property crime. I want governments to demand that law enforcement agencies account for how their resources are deployed to fight this problem," he said. (Marie-Louise Moller - Reuters)
Profits from fake CDs and car parts and other counterfeit goods are used to finance terrorism, Interpol said Tuesday, urging governments across the world to stop ignoring the multi-billion-dollar crime. "Interpol believes there is a significant link between counterfeiting and terrorism in locations where there are entrenched terrorist groups," the international police network's secretary-general, Ronald Noble, told reporters in Brussels.
"What I find absolutely amazing is that there is this multi-billion-dollar crime problem that affects the safety of people, the security of governments, that is connected to organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism. And no one, no one pressures me as secretary-general of Interpol to say what I am doing to fight this problem. No one," he said at a first Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting.
Trade in counterfeit goods was estimated at $450 billion in 2000. Products targeted range from car and airplane parts and medicines to clothes, cigarettes, music and movies. Billions of dollars are lost annually in tax revenues and profits for companies whose products are being faked. According to European Commission figures, the illegal trade is responsible for the loss of up to 100,000 jobs a year in Europe.
Noble said Interpol had found links between terrorism and counterfeiting in the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. In an operation involving fake car brakes, Lebanese law enforcement authorities shared information with Interpol, which found some of the suspects had links with terrorist groups. Militants in Northern Ireland were known to be involved in organized crime and traded in a whole range of counterfeit products from cigarettes to music CDs. Rebels in Colombia have also been linked to counterfeiting, Noble said.
Interpol officials said they hoped increased publicity about links between terrorism and counterfeiting would deter consumers from buying cheap fake designer handbags and other accessories. "I hope it will mean members of the public do focus on that and think about what they are doing before they purchase these products," said Crime Intelligence Officer John Newton.
But governments also needed to get involved in the fight against counterfeiting, Noble said, adding only a handful of nations were paying sufficient attention to the problem. "I want governments to care about the problem of intellectual property crime. I want governments to demand that law enforcement agencies account for how their resources are deployed to fight this problem," he said. (Marie-Louise Moller - Reuters)
Technologie- marketeers vergeten ROI
Technology marketers are coming up short on measuring marketing performance and its return on investment, according to a new survey by the Chief Marketing Officer Council. More than 80% of the respondents do not have formal marketing performance measurement (MPM) systems in place, despite spending as much as 25% of their revenue on marketing.
In addition, nearly 80% of the senior marketing executives polled were dissatisfied with their ability to demonstrate their marketing programs' business impact and value. These are among the key findings of the Council's Measures+Metrics audit, an online survey of more than 315 senior marketing executives at global technology companies between January and April. (Direct Newsline)
Technology marketers are coming up short on measuring marketing performance and its return on investment, according to a new survey by the Chief Marketing Officer Council. More than 80% of the respondents do not have formal marketing performance measurement (MPM) systems in place, despite spending as much as 25% of their revenue on marketing.
In addition, nearly 80% of the senior marketing executives polled were dissatisfied with their ability to demonstrate their marketing programs' business impact and value. These are among the key findings of the Council's Measures+Metrics audit, an online survey of more than 315 senior marketing executives at global technology companies between January and April. (Direct Newsline)
DVR geen vijand van televisie?
Digital video recorders (DVR) typically are seen as the ultimate threat to TV advertising, giving consumers unsurpassed control over what they choose to watch or not watch on their TV sets, including TV commercials. And while it is true that most DVR subscribers do fast-forward through TV commercials when watching programming in replay mode, new research indicates that the net effect of DVRs actually increases the likelihood that viewers will see a TV commercial not decrease it.
The report, "Demystifying Digital Video Recorders," jointly published by InsightExpress and MediaPost, was based on multiple online surveys of DVR and non-DVR adopters, and finds that DVRs create incrementally higher opportunities for viewers to watch TV advertising than those viewers who do not use DVRs. The main contributors to this incremental boost are the fact that DVR subscribers have a higher satisfaction level with TV and typically spend 24 percent more time watching TV during an average week.
Most importantly, the research concludes that DVRs "recapture" TV commercial exposures that otherwise would have been "zapped" by non-DVR viewers. The study estimated that 51 percent of non-DVR viewers zap TV commercials, usually by using their remote control to change the channel when they come on. However, 96 percent of those viewers actually watch TV commercials when they become DVR subscribers, albeit in fast-forward mode.
While such fast-forwarding clearly diminishes the communications effectiveness of TV commercials, the study found that most fast-fowarders "notice" TV commercials either "always" (15 percent) or "sometimes" (52 percent) while zipping through the spots. Moreover, some big ad agencies and digital TV developers are exploring methods that would digitally compress commercials in such a way that would enable an abbreviated real-time version of the spots to be viewed during fast-forwarding.
As a result, the report concludes that DVRs actually recapture ad exposures or opportunities to see ads that would otherwise be lost from channel surfing in a non-DVR environment.
The report also suggests some interactive upside for advertisers, noting that "DVRs provide the unique opportunity to expand today's broadcast advertising model. Interestingly, 37 percent of DVR users stated they would like to be able to request information form advertisers when viewing a commercial for a product or a product category of interest to them. Such an approach would be received twice as favorably as the current 15- or 30-second broadcast advertising model." (By Joe Mandese - MediaPost)
Digital video recorders (DVR) typically are seen as the ultimate threat to TV advertising, giving consumers unsurpassed control over what they choose to watch or not watch on their TV sets, including TV commercials. And while it is true that most DVR subscribers do fast-forward through TV commercials when watching programming in replay mode, new research indicates that the net effect of DVRs actually increases the likelihood that viewers will see a TV commercial not decrease it.
The report, "Demystifying Digital Video Recorders," jointly published by InsightExpress and MediaPost, was based on multiple online surveys of DVR and non-DVR adopters, and finds that DVRs create incrementally higher opportunities for viewers to watch TV advertising than those viewers who do not use DVRs. The main contributors to this incremental boost are the fact that DVR subscribers have a higher satisfaction level with TV and typically spend 24 percent more time watching TV during an average week.
Most importantly, the research concludes that DVRs "recapture" TV commercial exposures that otherwise would have been "zapped" by non-DVR viewers. The study estimated that 51 percent of non-DVR viewers zap TV commercials, usually by using their remote control to change the channel when they come on. However, 96 percent of those viewers actually watch TV commercials when they become DVR subscribers, albeit in fast-forward mode.
While such fast-forwarding clearly diminishes the communications effectiveness of TV commercials, the study found that most fast-fowarders "notice" TV commercials either "always" (15 percent) or "sometimes" (52 percent) while zipping through the spots. Moreover, some big ad agencies and digital TV developers are exploring methods that would digitally compress commercials in such a way that would enable an abbreviated real-time version of the spots to be viewed during fast-forwarding.
As a result, the report concludes that DVRs actually recapture ad exposures or opportunities to see ads that would otherwise be lost from channel surfing in a non-DVR environment.
The report also suggests some interactive upside for advertisers, noting that "DVRs provide the unique opportunity to expand today's broadcast advertising model. Interestingly, 37 percent of DVR users stated they would like to be able to request information form advertisers when viewing a commercial for a product or a product category of interest to them. Such an approach would be received twice as favorably as the current 15- or 30-second broadcast advertising model." (By Joe Mandese - MediaPost)
Is televisiereclame wel renderend?
TV advertising doesn't work for most mature package-goods brands, and the industry's increase in ad spending over the past three years has accelerated waist, concludes a sure-to-be-controversial study Deutsche Bank report. The study, released on the eve of the TV buying upfront, examined 23 household, personal-care, food and beverage brands using customized marketing-mix analysis from Information Resources Inc. It found only 18% generated a positive return on investment (ROI) in the short term (a year or less) from TV advertising. Less than half (45%) saw their TV investment pay off long term.
Though the research jibes in many ways with previous research by academics and research firms, it appears to be the first such extensive Wall Street examination of whether TV advertising works in the industry and could increase pressure on marketers to make their ad dollars work harder. The lackluster returns come as the industry has stepped up ad spending after a long decline. Package-good brands' share of U.S. ad spending slipped to an all-time-low 14% in 2000, but bounced back to 20% in 2003, the same as 1997, according to the report. Home and personal-care brands, the biggest and fastest-growing ad spenders in the industry, showed a particularly strong negative correlation between increased TV spending and ROI. Their ad outlays outpaced sales growth 8% to 4.5% over the past three years.
"I think the marketing line is going to be the next cost bucket all these companies look at," said analyst Andrew Shore, who authored the report. "For the past 50 years, the media industry has been extracting a sort of value-added tax from [package-goods] companies. And right now I think they're in the early throes of this revolution saying ... 'It's not working anymore.' "
Mr. Shore attributed most package-good brands getting poor returns in large part to the rising cost of TV combined with declining and fragmented viewership and lack of adequate measurement systems, such as commercial ratings. Indeed, that was the theme of a speech by Procter & Gamble Co. Global Marketing Officer Jim Stengel to the American Association of Advertising Agencies Media Conference in February.
Mr. Shore acknowledged his analysis may understate ROI, since it bases TV spending on syndicated data that package-good executives say overstates actual spending by as much as 100%. But the study also didn't include costs for things such as agency fees, production, celebrity talent, copy testing and other items that can account for 25% or more of ad costs. Even if syndicated data overstate TV costs by 50% to 100%, many of the brands still had negative returns.
But newer brands or brands with substantially new products, including P&G's Crest Whitestrips and Swiffer, Gillette Co.'s Mach 3 and PepsiCo's Aquafina, ran counter to the findings, all getting strong positive returns. Even some mature brands, such as PepsiCo's Gatorade, P&G's Tide and Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light, also had strong ROI, which Deutsche Bank credited to strong creative or good copy strategy.
David Poltrack, executive vice president of research and planning for Viacom's CBS, said the Deutsche Bank findings are similar to those of "How Advertising Works" studies of the 1980s and early 1990s that the TV industry commissioned with IRI, noting that TV ROIs are lower for mature brands and declining categories. "In flat or declining categories," he said, "to the extent advertising works, you have to take business from someone else, who is also advertising. So ineffective advertising is not going to work in a mature category."
The last "How Advertising Works" study in the early 1990s concluded about half of brands get positive returns from TV, he said. But Mr. Poltrack acknowledged that payback for package-goods brands may have declined since then, as TV rates have been pushed up by marketers of price-sensitive brands, including movies and pharmaceuticals, where ROIs are clearly stronger.
Indeed, other industries did fare better in the report, which cited IRI data showing ROI for pharmaceutical TV advertising averaging six to 10 times better than for package-good brands. "Looking for advertising effectiveness in package-goods is like the drunk looking for his keys under a lamppost because that's where the light is," said Erwin Ephron of the media consulting firm Ephron Papazian & Ephron. Researchers have focused on the industry because it has better data to draw on, he said, but it also has weaker ROI because of its many mature brands.
ROI is generally stronger for magazines and radio than TV because marketers spend less on those media, Mr. Ephron said. Marketers are getting diminished returns from TV in part because an ad has less incremental effect each viewing, he said, adding: "The simple answer is [package-goods marketers] are spending too much on TV."
The Deutsche Bank report also said package-goods marketers may be poisoning the TV well themselves with escalating trade promotion. Data from the 23 brands studied indicated heavily promoted categories, including snacks and carbonated beverages, had some of the weakest consumer response to TV. Couponing, however, appeared to improve TV-ad effectiveness.
Some marketers are already using marketing-mix modeling to try and reverse spending mistakes, Mr. Shore said. Long-term ROI for Clorox bleach advertising plummeted when it hiked spending in 2002 and 2003 amid declining sales, according to his report. This year, Clorox shifted money from TV to trade promotion while running harder-hitting ads from Omnicom Group DDB, San Francisco. Both sales and share rebounded. (Jack Neff - AdAge.com)
TV advertising doesn't work for most mature package-goods brands, and the industry's increase in ad spending over the past three years has accelerated waist, concludes a sure-to-be-controversial study Deutsche Bank report. The study, released on the eve of the TV buying upfront, examined 23 household, personal-care, food and beverage brands using customized marketing-mix analysis from Information Resources Inc. It found only 18% generated a positive return on investment (ROI) in the short term (a year or less) from TV advertising. Less than half (45%) saw their TV investment pay off long term.
Though the research jibes in many ways with previous research by academics and research firms, it appears to be the first such extensive Wall Street examination of whether TV advertising works in the industry and could increase pressure on marketers to make their ad dollars work harder. The lackluster returns come as the industry has stepped up ad spending after a long decline. Package-good brands' share of U.S. ad spending slipped to an all-time-low 14% in 2000, but bounced back to 20% in 2003, the same as 1997, according to the report. Home and personal-care brands, the biggest and fastest-growing ad spenders in the industry, showed a particularly strong negative correlation between increased TV spending and ROI. Their ad outlays outpaced sales growth 8% to 4.5% over the past three years.
"I think the marketing line is going to be the next cost bucket all these companies look at," said analyst Andrew Shore, who authored the report. "For the past 50 years, the media industry has been extracting a sort of value-added tax from [package-goods] companies. And right now I think they're in the early throes of this revolution saying ... 'It's not working anymore.' "
Mr. Shore attributed most package-good brands getting poor returns in large part to the rising cost of TV combined with declining and fragmented viewership and lack of adequate measurement systems, such as commercial ratings. Indeed, that was the theme of a speech by Procter & Gamble Co. Global Marketing Officer Jim Stengel to the American Association of Advertising Agencies Media Conference in February.
Mr. Shore acknowledged his analysis may understate ROI, since it bases TV spending on syndicated data that package-good executives say overstates actual spending by as much as 100%. But the study also didn't include costs for things such as agency fees, production, celebrity talent, copy testing and other items that can account for 25% or more of ad costs. Even if syndicated data overstate TV costs by 50% to 100%, many of the brands still had negative returns.
But newer brands or brands with substantially new products, including P&G's Crest Whitestrips and Swiffer, Gillette Co.'s Mach 3 and PepsiCo's Aquafina, ran counter to the findings, all getting strong positive returns. Even some mature brands, such as PepsiCo's Gatorade, P&G's Tide and Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light, also had strong ROI, which Deutsche Bank credited to strong creative or good copy strategy.
David Poltrack, executive vice president of research and planning for Viacom's CBS, said the Deutsche Bank findings are similar to those of "How Advertising Works" studies of the 1980s and early 1990s that the TV industry commissioned with IRI, noting that TV ROIs are lower for mature brands and declining categories. "In flat or declining categories," he said, "to the extent advertising works, you have to take business from someone else, who is also advertising. So ineffective advertising is not going to work in a mature category."
The last "How Advertising Works" study in the early 1990s concluded about half of brands get positive returns from TV, he said. But Mr. Poltrack acknowledged that payback for package-goods brands may have declined since then, as TV rates have been pushed up by marketers of price-sensitive brands, including movies and pharmaceuticals, where ROIs are clearly stronger.
Indeed, other industries did fare better in the report, which cited IRI data showing ROI for pharmaceutical TV advertising averaging six to 10 times better than for package-good brands. "Looking for advertising effectiveness in package-goods is like the drunk looking for his keys under a lamppost because that's where the light is," said Erwin Ephron of the media consulting firm Ephron Papazian & Ephron. Researchers have focused on the industry because it has better data to draw on, he said, but it also has weaker ROI because of its many mature brands.
ROI is generally stronger for magazines and radio than TV because marketers spend less on those media, Mr. Ephron said. Marketers are getting diminished returns from TV in part because an ad has less incremental effect each viewing, he said, adding: "The simple answer is [package-goods marketers] are spending too much on TV."
The Deutsche Bank report also said package-goods marketers may be poisoning the TV well themselves with escalating trade promotion. Data from the 23 brands studied indicated heavily promoted categories, including snacks and carbonated beverages, had some of the weakest consumer response to TV. Couponing, however, appeared to improve TV-ad effectiveness.
Some marketers are already using marketing-mix modeling to try and reverse spending mistakes, Mr. Shore said. Long-term ROI for Clorox bleach advertising plummeted when it hiked spending in 2002 and 2003 amid declining sales, according to his report. This year, Clorox shifted money from TV to trade promotion while running harder-hitting ads from Omnicom Group DDB, San Francisco. Both sales and share rebounded. (Jack Neff - AdAge.com)
Reclamecritici onderschatten consument
Kritiek op reclame leeft weer op. Maar op het uitgangspunt van de critici valt ook nu heel wat af te dingen. Want de macht van reclame moet niet overschat worden: consumenten zijn geen tuinkabouters. We kunnen niet zonder reclame. Media hebben hun reclame-inkomsten nodig om te overleven, voor consumenten is het een belangrijke bron van informatie en bedrijven zouden zonder reclame heel wat moeite hebben om nieuwe producten en diensten te lanceren.
Maar dat betekent niet dat iedereen blij is met al die advertenties, billboards en commercials. Reclame, zo zeggen de critici, draagt bij aan allerlei kwalijke ontwikkelingen. Het is er mede verantwoordelijk voor dat kinderen van nu te dik worden en dat volwassenen teveel roken en drinken en zich in de schulden steken. De kritiek lijkt de wind mee te hebben, en dat komt mede door het gure economische klimaat. Dat voedt de onzekerheid over de toekomst van de welvaartstaat en vestigt de aandacht op de schaduwzijden, zoals de ongezonde levensstijl van veel mensen en het al te uitbundige consumptiepatroon. Ook politici hebben er een handje van om reclame te bekritiseren en direct met beperkende maatregelen te schermen.
Maar dat mensen in financiële problemen komen, is niet de schuld van de reclame. En dat kinderen te dik worden, ligt niet aan de reclame van McDonald’s. Wie dat wel denkt, houdt er een oppervlakkig mensbeeld op na. Mensen zijn geen tuinkabouters. Reclame is slechts een van de vele invloeden die we ondergaan en is niet in staat het gedrag van de consument te manipuleren. Dat is eigenlijk jammer. Stel dat reclame wel zo machtig was als veel critici veronderstellen, dan zouden we heel wat problemen de wereld uit kunnen adverteren. (Werben & Verkaufen)
Kritiek op reclame leeft weer op. Maar op het uitgangspunt van de critici valt ook nu heel wat af te dingen. Want de macht van reclame moet niet overschat worden: consumenten zijn geen tuinkabouters. We kunnen niet zonder reclame. Media hebben hun reclame-inkomsten nodig om te overleven, voor consumenten is het een belangrijke bron van informatie en bedrijven zouden zonder reclame heel wat moeite hebben om nieuwe producten en diensten te lanceren.
Maar dat betekent niet dat iedereen blij is met al die advertenties, billboards en commercials. Reclame, zo zeggen de critici, draagt bij aan allerlei kwalijke ontwikkelingen. Het is er mede verantwoordelijk voor dat kinderen van nu te dik worden en dat volwassenen teveel roken en drinken en zich in de schulden steken. De kritiek lijkt de wind mee te hebben, en dat komt mede door het gure economische klimaat. Dat voedt de onzekerheid over de toekomst van de welvaartstaat en vestigt de aandacht op de schaduwzijden, zoals de ongezonde levensstijl van veel mensen en het al te uitbundige consumptiepatroon. Ook politici hebben er een handje van om reclame te bekritiseren en direct met beperkende maatregelen te schermen.
Maar dat mensen in financiële problemen komen, is niet de schuld van de reclame. En dat kinderen te dik worden, ligt niet aan de reclame van McDonald’s. Wie dat wel denkt, houdt er een oppervlakkig mensbeeld op na. Mensen zijn geen tuinkabouters. Reclame is slechts een van de vele invloeden die we ondergaan en is niet in staat het gedrag van de consument te manipuleren. Dat is eigenlijk jammer. Stel dat reclame wel zo machtig was als veel critici veronderstellen, dan zouden we heel wat problemen de wereld uit kunnen adverteren. (Werben & Verkaufen)
De wetten van web-marketing
WHAT are the foundational principles of Web marketing? I've come up with five that form the backbone of present-day Web marketing lore, so I'll share them with you. They are: the law of the dead-end street, the law of giving and selling, the law of trust, the law of pull and push and the law of the niche.
1. The law of the dead-end street. Setting up a Web site is like building a storefront on a dead-end street. If you want any shoppers, you must give them a reason to come. You've heard too many times, "If you build it, they will come". We know that doesn't work on the Internet. But why do novices again and again build Web sites without the least thought to a viable marketing plan? The most wonderful site in the world is wasted unless people stop by to admire and purchase. It's the same reason that most great craftsmen aren't millionaires; they've learnt to make a great product, but don't have a clue about marketing.
So the first question you need to ask yourself, even before you build your company's site, is: How will we get people to visit? Perhaps your marketing plan will look like this: banner ads for two months to boost name recognition, search engine positioning on HotBot and Excite in the first quarter, to include Infoseek, Lycos, and AltaVista in the second quarter, reciprocal links with our industry organisation and a paid listing in their directory, a newsworthy contest in the third quarter for which we'll try to get full media coverage through Press releases and calls from a PR agency and a company newsletter that carries industry news rather than just company drivel, to begin in the fourth quarter. Decide which of these activities to carry out in-house and which to outsource, attach a dollar value to each, and provide for them in your marketing budget.
Your marketing plan may look much different than this, but you must give visitors a reason to come. What compelling content can you put on your site that will make someone want to return? Content is primary. With excellent content, when you ask for a reciprocal link, you don't have to plead "link to us because we're the greatest". You can say, "Link to us because we offer everything a buyer needs to know to select the right lighting fixture". When you offer a public service, you suddenly become newsworthy. Trade journals and magazines begin to mention you, and traffic follows. Give visitors a reason to come, and they will.
2. The law of giving and selling. An important element of Web culture is "free stuff". The law of giving and selling says: Attract visitors to your site by giving away something free, and then try to sell something additional to those who visit. Here's how we used this strategy. We launched our Web site design business with a goal of attracting business nationally via the Web. At that time even local Web site designers were considered oddities. How could we succeed at a national level? First, I identified our most likely customers: small to medium- sized businesses. Second, I asked: What do they want to know? Of course, they wondered how to construct a Web site. But that's what I wanted to sell them. They also wanted to know how to market their business on the Web, I reasoned.
So I scoured the rather sparse offering of articles on Web marketing available at that time, and began a link list of about 20 articles and resources. Then every month, without fail, I would scour the Web again looking for more materials. The Web Marketing Info Centre (http://www.wilsonweb.com/ webmarket/) has grown into a major resource containing links to more than 2,000 articles and resources, the largest collection of information of its kind on the Web. In addition, I began to write articles explaining to small business people how to market their site. Some of those articles were linked to by major sites and brought many visitors.
The law of trust. Assuming your products or services are priced competitively and are of good quality, your most significant sales barrier is trust. Trust is the essential lubricant of Web business; without trust, business grinds to a halt. An established store brand name comes from hundreds of positive impressions built by expensive advertising campaigns. These ads purchase brand trust. But if you're a small business, you can't afford such advertising.
Nevertheless, you can build trust by means of your Web site in multiple ways. First, anchor your business in time and space by giving a full address and phone number. If you have an office or brick-and-mortar store, show a photograph. Better yet, show photos of yourself or your staff. Now your customers view you as real people rather than some faceless entity who-knows-where. You build trust by selling well-known brand name products, by displaying clear shipping and return policies, by joining nationally respected organisations, and by offering guarantees. You build trust with a customer-friendly navigation system and intuitive interface, and a secure sockets layer (SSL) secure server for credit card transactions. You gain credibility by having a professionally designed site rather than something your teenage son cooked up on the weekends. Once you've established trust, sales result. You also build trust by repeated contact with your visitors.
The law of pull and push. The fourth mutable law of Web marketing is: Pull people to your site by your attractive content, then push quality information to them regularly via e-mail. Web sites, by their very nature are passive creatures like fireside dogs. They just lie there wagging their tails listlessly and smiling wanly until someone enters the door. E-mail messages, on the other hand, are active animals like St Bernard - always ready to go where you send them and deliver a refreshing cask of information, and an invitation to return to your Web site to see the newest thing you have to offer.
Most businesses can't survive on one-time sales only. The cost of customer acquisition is too high for just a single sale. They need to draw satisfied customers back again and again for repeat sales. The law of pull and push accomplishes this vital task. Getting an invitation to send e-mail to your visitors is key to this strategy. Include a form that will collect their e-mail address. To convince your visitor to give you his e-mail address, however, you need to promise two things - that you'll e-mail him something of value, and that you won't sell or rent his address to another company, hence the need for a clear privacy policy.
But once the visitor has given you permission to e-mail additional information, you have wonderful marketing leverage. How do you use it? If someone in your company has writing skills, you might develop a monthly newsletter. It takes real commitment and self-discipline to send out the newsletter regularly. But a regular newsletter will give a tremendous boost to your business, and will build your trust level with customers as well as bring them back to your site again and again. All of a sudden your company has top-of-mind position. Do this month after month and your brand recognition grows.
If you're not a writer, you can send out monthly specials, or news blurbs you garner (with permission) from other sites. Whatever you do, do it with excellence. Anything less than that will cause your business to lose the confidence you've already gained. This law, too, has its own rhythm. Pull the customer to your Web site by attractive power, then push good content and offers to the customer via e-mail to draw them back to your site.
The law of the niche. Big businesses like Amazon.com and Wal- Mart have the money and clout to "own" whole segments of the marketplace. Small businesses succeed by finding niches that are either unfilled or only partially filled, and filling them with excellence. For example, justballs.com (http://www.justballs.com) saw an unfilled niche in selling sports equipment. Instead of trying to bite off more than they could chew selling the whole range of sports equipment, they looked for a single slice - balls - and set up "The Biggest Ball Store on the Net". If it's a ball, they have it. When you think "balls", they want you to remember them and come to their site.
The key to this kind of savvy niche marketing is to carefully write a business plan that defines your unique selling proposition. This is best stated in a sentence or two. It defines what makes your business unique from every other competitor in your field. It spells out the precise niche you seek to fill, and how you aim to fill it. The law of the niche isn't any more or less important than the other immutable laws of Web marketing. They're all important. Together they offer you a path towards creating a successful business on the Web.
(New Straits Times - Shiv Prasad)
WHAT are the foundational principles of Web marketing? I've come up with five that form the backbone of present-day Web marketing lore, so I'll share them with you. They are: the law of the dead-end street, the law of giving and selling, the law of trust, the law of pull and push and the law of the niche.
1. The law of the dead-end street. Setting up a Web site is like building a storefront on a dead-end street. If you want any shoppers, you must give them a reason to come. You've heard too many times, "If you build it, they will come". We know that doesn't work on the Internet. But why do novices again and again build Web sites without the least thought to a viable marketing plan? The most wonderful site in the world is wasted unless people stop by to admire and purchase. It's the same reason that most great craftsmen aren't millionaires; they've learnt to make a great product, but don't have a clue about marketing.
So the first question you need to ask yourself, even before you build your company's site, is: How will we get people to visit? Perhaps your marketing plan will look like this: banner ads for two months to boost name recognition, search engine positioning on HotBot and Excite in the first quarter, to include Infoseek, Lycos, and AltaVista in the second quarter, reciprocal links with our industry organisation and a paid listing in their directory, a newsworthy contest in the third quarter for which we'll try to get full media coverage through Press releases and calls from a PR agency and a company newsletter that carries industry news rather than just company drivel, to begin in the fourth quarter. Decide which of these activities to carry out in-house and which to outsource, attach a dollar value to each, and provide for them in your marketing budget.
Your marketing plan may look much different than this, but you must give visitors a reason to come. What compelling content can you put on your site that will make someone want to return? Content is primary. With excellent content, when you ask for a reciprocal link, you don't have to plead "link to us because we're the greatest". You can say, "Link to us because we offer everything a buyer needs to know to select the right lighting fixture". When you offer a public service, you suddenly become newsworthy. Trade journals and magazines begin to mention you, and traffic follows. Give visitors a reason to come, and they will.
2. The law of giving and selling. An important element of Web culture is "free stuff". The law of giving and selling says: Attract visitors to your site by giving away something free, and then try to sell something additional to those who visit. Here's how we used this strategy. We launched our Web site design business with a goal of attracting business nationally via the Web. At that time even local Web site designers were considered oddities. How could we succeed at a national level? First, I identified our most likely customers: small to medium- sized businesses. Second, I asked: What do they want to know? Of course, they wondered how to construct a Web site. But that's what I wanted to sell them. They also wanted to know how to market their business on the Web, I reasoned.
So I scoured the rather sparse offering of articles on Web marketing available at that time, and began a link list of about 20 articles and resources. Then every month, without fail, I would scour the Web again looking for more materials. The Web Marketing Info Centre (http://www.wilsonweb.com/ webmarket/) has grown into a major resource containing links to more than 2,000 articles and resources, the largest collection of information of its kind on the Web. In addition, I began to write articles explaining to small business people how to market their site. Some of those articles were linked to by major sites and brought many visitors.
The law of trust. Assuming your products or services are priced competitively and are of good quality, your most significant sales barrier is trust. Trust is the essential lubricant of Web business; without trust, business grinds to a halt. An established store brand name comes from hundreds of positive impressions built by expensive advertising campaigns. These ads purchase brand trust. But if you're a small business, you can't afford such advertising.
Nevertheless, you can build trust by means of your Web site in multiple ways. First, anchor your business in time and space by giving a full address and phone number. If you have an office or brick-and-mortar store, show a photograph. Better yet, show photos of yourself or your staff. Now your customers view you as real people rather than some faceless entity who-knows-where. You build trust by selling well-known brand name products, by displaying clear shipping and return policies, by joining nationally respected organisations, and by offering guarantees. You build trust with a customer-friendly navigation system and intuitive interface, and a secure sockets layer (SSL) secure server for credit card transactions. You gain credibility by having a professionally designed site rather than something your teenage son cooked up on the weekends. Once you've established trust, sales result. You also build trust by repeated contact with your visitors.
The law of pull and push. The fourth mutable law of Web marketing is: Pull people to your site by your attractive content, then push quality information to them regularly via e-mail. Web sites, by their very nature are passive creatures like fireside dogs. They just lie there wagging their tails listlessly and smiling wanly until someone enters the door. E-mail messages, on the other hand, are active animals like St Bernard - always ready to go where you send them and deliver a refreshing cask of information, and an invitation to return to your Web site to see the newest thing you have to offer.
Most businesses can't survive on one-time sales only. The cost of customer acquisition is too high for just a single sale. They need to draw satisfied customers back again and again for repeat sales. The law of pull and push accomplishes this vital task. Getting an invitation to send e-mail to your visitors is key to this strategy. Include a form that will collect their e-mail address. To convince your visitor to give you his e-mail address, however, you need to promise two things - that you'll e-mail him something of value, and that you won't sell or rent his address to another company, hence the need for a clear privacy policy.
But once the visitor has given you permission to e-mail additional information, you have wonderful marketing leverage. How do you use it? If someone in your company has writing skills, you might develop a monthly newsletter. It takes real commitment and self-discipline to send out the newsletter regularly. But a regular newsletter will give a tremendous boost to your business, and will build your trust level with customers as well as bring them back to your site again and again. All of a sudden your company has top-of-mind position. Do this month after month and your brand recognition grows.
If you're not a writer, you can send out monthly specials, or news blurbs you garner (with permission) from other sites. Whatever you do, do it with excellence. Anything less than that will cause your business to lose the confidence you've already gained. This law, too, has its own rhythm. Pull the customer to your Web site by attractive power, then push good content and offers to the customer via e-mail to draw them back to your site.
The law of the niche. Big businesses like Amazon.com and Wal- Mart have the money and clout to "own" whole segments of the marketplace. Small businesses succeed by finding niches that are either unfilled or only partially filled, and filling them with excellence. For example, justballs.com (http://www.justballs.com) saw an unfilled niche in selling sports equipment. Instead of trying to bite off more than they could chew selling the whole range of sports equipment, they looked for a single slice - balls - and set up "The Biggest Ball Store on the Net". If it's a ball, they have it. When you think "balls", they want you to remember them and come to their site.
The key to this kind of savvy niche marketing is to carefully write a business plan that defines your unique selling proposition. This is best stated in a sentence or two. It defines what makes your business unique from every other competitor in your field. It spells out the precise niche you seek to fill, and how you aim to fill it. The law of the niche isn't any more or less important than the other immutable laws of Web marketing. They're all important. Together they offer you a path towards creating a successful business on the Web.
(New Straits Times - Shiv Prasad)
PR nog altijd op zoek naar ROI?
The issue of PR evaluation has always been a matter of contention, and last week the IPR released its latest research on the subject and called for traditional ROI methods to be scrapped. It is time for the public relations industry to stop having to jump through credibility hoops, according to IPR president Anne Gregory, who last week sent out a strong message to PROs about the way PR should be measured.
A report, 'Best Practice in the Measurement of Public Relations and ROI', was unveiled at the Communication Directors' Forum last week, urging PROs to shun return on investment methods in favour of evidence-based measurement. The IPR and the Department of Trade and Industry teamed up to carry out research on the PR industry last October, and it was the DTI's recommendation that more research be carried out in the area of media evaluation. This report, compiled by Metrica Research, surveyed 100 senior PR practitioners, using website and desk-based research.
It concluded that ROI is a notion borrowed from the general business community that cannot be used as an effective measurement tool for PR because, according to Gregory, good-quality relationships and reputation cannot be gauged on a financial scale.
She says: 'ROI is something PR has appropriated because it is the language of business, but the way PR operates is different from other forms of business. How do you put ROI on a good relationship?'
Gregory says HR managers do not have to justify the cost of taking on an employee in terms of ROI and that PR professionals should not have to use ROI measurements either. The Association of Media Evaluation Companies (AMEC) chair-elect, Giselle Bodie, supports the notion that evidence-based research is more beneficial than ROI methods. 'It is very difficult to put numbers on non-tangible factors and it is not just an issue for communications but for the business community at large,' she says.
'There is a big danger if you put a financial value on reputation and relations. It is better to monitor them with indicators such as establishing who your relationships are with and how important they are. Using numbers is just a quick fix,' she adds. ROI is a ratio of how much profit or cost saving is made compared to the cost of a project and is expressed in a percentage. However, ROI is a term rarely used correctly, says the IPR, which recommends using the term 'evidence-based PR', defined as the difference made as a result of a PR activity.
Examples include increasing the number of telephone calls to a help-line, driving visitors to a website, increasing the number of direct sales enquires, increasing a message's reach and frequency, succeeding in influencing parliamentary decisions and legislation, and raising awareness among target audiences.
The IPR's report concludes that the PR industry should work closely with advertising and other marketing communications disciplines. But it should not allow itself to be compared with them through measurement systems such as advertising value equivalents (AVE), which fail to assess whether media coverage is positive or negative and to what extent, according to the IPR report. 'The coverage could be infinitely valuable with a crucial message, but that is meaningless if you do not put it into context,' says Gregory.
Although the IPR admits that AVE can be used to benchmark volume of media coverage against competitors, its more general dismissal of the measurement system is criticised by Thomson Intermedia business development director Jon Shepherd. He says: 'There is a desire and need to measure ROI but no one standard method is appropriate and therefore efforts need to be made at the campaign outset to decide what constitutes success. AVE is a measure of media coverage - not PR ROI. It is described as "discredited" in the report, but this is not true. AVE is maligned by some of those who seek to sell more expensive forms of media measurement, but it has its place. It is the application of AVE by some that should be discredited.'
Brian Moore, chairman of evaluation company Mantra International, criticises the IPR report as a missed opportunity to promote ROI and accuses it of unnecessarily repeating previous investigations into evaluation methods. 'While I am sure that we all agree with many of the findings, it is disappointing that this report seems simply to reiterate many of the points that have already been made, obviously to limited effect, over the past few years. This should be regarded as a missed opportunity to move the industry forward,' he says.
Media evaluation and monitoring is still seen by some companies as an unnecessary additional spend, according to Euro PR managing director and PRCA international committee chairman Richard Price. Nonetheless, the media evaluation industry has grown in recent years. 'We have noticed over the last two years that in-house people are being asked increasingly what they are using an agency for and this has led to greater attention on evaluation and measurement,' he says.
While there continues to be discord in the industry over the most effective way of measuring PR and justifying its existence and spend, the IPR report is unequivocal in its criticism of traditional ROI measurements. Whether the industry will agree on applying a universal approach remains to be seen. (PRWeek - Sarah Robertson)
The issue of PR evaluation has always been a matter of contention, and last week the IPR released its latest research on the subject and called for traditional ROI methods to be scrapped. It is time for the public relations industry to stop having to jump through credibility hoops, according to IPR president Anne Gregory, who last week sent out a strong message to PROs about the way PR should be measured.
A report, 'Best Practice in the Measurement of Public Relations and ROI', was unveiled at the Communication Directors' Forum last week, urging PROs to shun return on investment methods in favour of evidence-based measurement. The IPR and the Department of Trade and Industry teamed up to carry out research on the PR industry last October, and it was the DTI's recommendation that more research be carried out in the area of media evaluation. This report, compiled by Metrica Research, surveyed 100 senior PR practitioners, using website and desk-based research.
It concluded that ROI is a notion borrowed from the general business community that cannot be used as an effective measurement tool for PR because, according to Gregory, good-quality relationships and reputation cannot be gauged on a financial scale.
She says: 'ROI is something PR has appropriated because it is the language of business, but the way PR operates is different from other forms of business. How do you put ROI on a good relationship?'
Gregory says HR managers do not have to justify the cost of taking on an employee in terms of ROI and that PR professionals should not have to use ROI measurements either. The Association of Media Evaluation Companies (AMEC) chair-elect, Giselle Bodie, supports the notion that evidence-based research is more beneficial than ROI methods. 'It is very difficult to put numbers on non-tangible factors and it is not just an issue for communications but for the business community at large,' she says.
'There is a big danger if you put a financial value on reputation and relations. It is better to monitor them with indicators such as establishing who your relationships are with and how important they are. Using numbers is just a quick fix,' she adds. ROI is a ratio of how much profit or cost saving is made compared to the cost of a project and is expressed in a percentage. However, ROI is a term rarely used correctly, says the IPR, which recommends using the term 'evidence-based PR', defined as the difference made as a result of a PR activity.
Examples include increasing the number of telephone calls to a help-line, driving visitors to a website, increasing the number of direct sales enquires, increasing a message's reach and frequency, succeeding in influencing parliamentary decisions and legislation, and raising awareness among target audiences.
The IPR's report concludes that the PR industry should work closely with advertising and other marketing communications disciplines. But it should not allow itself to be compared with them through measurement systems such as advertising value equivalents (AVE), which fail to assess whether media coverage is positive or negative and to what extent, according to the IPR report. 'The coverage could be infinitely valuable with a crucial message, but that is meaningless if you do not put it into context,' says Gregory.
Although the IPR admits that AVE can be used to benchmark volume of media coverage against competitors, its more general dismissal of the measurement system is criticised by Thomson Intermedia business development director Jon Shepherd. He says: 'There is a desire and need to measure ROI but no one standard method is appropriate and therefore efforts need to be made at the campaign outset to decide what constitutes success. AVE is a measure of media coverage - not PR ROI. It is described as "discredited" in the report, but this is not true. AVE is maligned by some of those who seek to sell more expensive forms of media measurement, but it has its place. It is the application of AVE by some that should be discredited.'
Brian Moore, chairman of evaluation company Mantra International, criticises the IPR report as a missed opportunity to promote ROI and accuses it of unnecessarily repeating previous investigations into evaluation methods. 'While I am sure that we all agree with many of the findings, it is disappointing that this report seems simply to reiterate many of the points that have already been made, obviously to limited effect, over the past few years. This should be regarded as a missed opportunity to move the industry forward,' he says.
Media evaluation and monitoring is still seen by some companies as an unnecessary additional spend, according to Euro PR managing director and PRCA international committee chairman Richard Price. Nonetheless, the media evaluation industry has grown in recent years. 'We have noticed over the last two years that in-house people are being asked increasingly what they are using an agency for and this has led to greater attention on evaluation and measurement,' he says.
While there continues to be discord in the industry over the most effective way of measuring PR and justifying its existence and spend, the IPR report is unequivocal in its criticism of traditional ROI measurements. Whether the industry will agree on applying a universal approach remains to be seen. (PRWeek - Sarah Robertson)
Nieuw CRM-tijdperk?
Now that there are signs of life in the technology industry, is the time ripe to purchase that long-delayed CRM software system? Many organizations apparently think so. More and more enterprises are feeling the love and are buying new CRM applications, as well as spending money to improve their current systems, Gartner vice president and research director Joe Galvin told CRM Daily.
While Galvin would not call it a resurgence, there most definitely is a "re-interest" in CRM, he said. But this go-around is a bit different than the unbridled enthusiasm -- and spending -- that was the hallmark of CRM implementations during the dot-com heyday. Organizations are focused on their specific needs and problem areas, such as improving customer retention, and are requiring that their CRM spend address a particular challenge they may be facing.
If organizations were anxious to spend their technology dollars on CRM prior to the dot-com bust, the last few years have been a period of restraint. Many organizations that did invest in CRM were more interested in cost containment than in improving customer service. But that has changed, as organizations feel more bullish about the future. "Enterprises are asking, 'Where can I make investments today that will fuel that future growth state?' -- besides just trying to drive more for less, more for less," notes Galvin.
Much of the growth in CRM is a direct result of an improving economy. Although the CRM market had been affected by a "jobless recovery," which caused enterprises to "squeeze more blood out of the stone they already have," organizations now are ramping up their sales forces and looking for CRM products that can be implemented quickly, explains Dan Starr, chief marketing officer for Salesnet.
"You are seeing an economy and business outlook that is geared more toward revenue growth, rather than the intense focus on expense reduction," Galvin told CRM Daily. "When you look at where you are going to grow across the enterprise, you have to look at growing your client base by servicing them well, identifying and marketing to them well, and executing well with your sales force," he explained.
"The challenge now is to move quickly to beat the competition -- the market has learned over the last two years is that CRM deployments do not need to be lengthy and difficult," says Starr. "There has been a significant shift in how companies invest in CRM," Starr contends, arguing that vendors that provide a hosted CRM application, such as Salesnet, are providing the market what it wants -- fast and inexpensive implementations.
But the improving economy, while a definite factor in increasing CRM sales, is not the only explanation, says Steve Roop, vice president of CRM marketing for PeopleSoft (Nasdaq: PSFT - news). "Some of what we are seeing can be attributed to the upturn, but some of it is attributed to the need for companies to modernize their CRM systems, he told CRM Daily.
The need to modernize systems is driven by the increasing expectations of customers, many of whom have been wowed by the online services offered by financial institutions. "Banks put out great Internet banking and account-management systems, and that raised expectations of customer service," explains Roop. "The net effect is that it raised consumers' expectations of how modern business should be engaged with them."
Customers are no longer satisfied contacting an organization by telephone, but also want the option of Internet self-service and the ability to send e-mail and get a high-quality response. To meet these expectations, organizations need multichannel CRM solutions that provide the same high-quality, branded customer-service experience across phone, e-mail and Web self-service, says Roop.
While there is an uptick in the number of organizations deploying CRM for the first time, others are looking at a second- or even third-generation CRM solution. And the second or third go-around tends to be the charm, as these organizations are smarter about their needs and how CRM will address those needs, both today and in the future. "There is more focus by organizations on what they are going to do next. They are looking to optimize what they have, and when they do upgrade, they are smarter about it," explains Galvin. For example, optimizing existing CRM systems is driving the growth in analytics applications, which by definition need to sit on top of an active, meaningful CRM system, he says.
Since organizations are clearer in their objectives for using CRM, the result is that vendors have created programs that solve specific business problems and make them quick to implement for immediate value. "Organizations have no appetite for at-risk solutions with long-term implementations," says Roop. "They want CRM that is in quickly, adopted quickly, and can drive short-term business benefits."
It is a good time to invest in CRM; vendors learned from their lean years what organizations want, and how to best deliver on those needs. "The vendors learned that CRM is more than a feature/function PowerPoint sell," says Galvin, and a one-size-fits-all-approach simply does not work. "When you implement a generic solution, you will get generic results," he says.
However, there is a law of diminishing returns, in that "the further you go down the path of expense customization or extensive business process automation, the more fixed you become and the more difficult it is to move to another arena," says Galvin. But organizations and vendors alike have learned their lesson and are getting better at balancing customization with off-the-shelf wares for the best results -- by focusing on vertical industry needs and workflow, for example.
Yes, it appears to be a good time to invest in CRM, if only because I.T. budgets have loosened, organizations know more clearly what they need from a CRM system, and the vendors are more willing to provide it. "The feature/function race is over. How much more functionality do you need?" asks Galvin. (Lisa Valentine, www.crm-daily.com)
Now that there are signs of life in the technology industry, is the time ripe to purchase that long-delayed CRM software system? Many organizations apparently think so. More and more enterprises are feeling the love and are buying new CRM applications, as well as spending money to improve their current systems, Gartner vice president and research director Joe Galvin told CRM Daily.
While Galvin would not call it a resurgence, there most definitely is a "re-interest" in CRM, he said. But this go-around is a bit different than the unbridled enthusiasm -- and spending -- that was the hallmark of CRM implementations during the dot-com heyday. Organizations are focused on their specific needs and problem areas, such as improving customer retention, and are requiring that their CRM spend address a particular challenge they may be facing.
If organizations were anxious to spend their technology dollars on CRM prior to the dot-com bust, the last few years have been a period of restraint. Many organizations that did invest in CRM were more interested in cost containment than in improving customer service. But that has changed, as organizations feel more bullish about the future. "Enterprises are asking, 'Where can I make investments today that will fuel that future growth state?' -- besides just trying to drive more for less, more for less," notes Galvin.
Much of the growth in CRM is a direct result of an improving economy. Although the CRM market had been affected by a "jobless recovery," which caused enterprises to "squeeze more blood out of the stone they already have," organizations now are ramping up their sales forces and looking for CRM products that can be implemented quickly, explains Dan Starr, chief marketing officer for Salesnet.
"You are seeing an economy and business outlook that is geared more toward revenue growth, rather than the intense focus on expense reduction," Galvin told CRM Daily. "When you look at where you are going to grow across the enterprise, you have to look at growing your client base by servicing them well, identifying and marketing to them well, and executing well with your sales force," he explained.
"The challenge now is to move quickly to beat the competition -- the market has learned over the last two years is that CRM deployments do not need to be lengthy and difficult," says Starr. "There has been a significant shift in how companies invest in CRM," Starr contends, arguing that vendors that provide a hosted CRM application, such as Salesnet, are providing the market what it wants -- fast and inexpensive implementations.
But the improving economy, while a definite factor in increasing CRM sales, is not the only explanation, says Steve Roop, vice president of CRM marketing for PeopleSoft (Nasdaq: PSFT - news). "Some of what we are seeing can be attributed to the upturn, but some of it is attributed to the need for companies to modernize their CRM systems, he told CRM Daily.
The need to modernize systems is driven by the increasing expectations of customers, many of whom have been wowed by the online services offered by financial institutions. "Banks put out great Internet banking and account-management systems, and that raised expectations of customer service," explains Roop. "The net effect is that it raised consumers' expectations of how modern business should be engaged with them."
Customers are no longer satisfied contacting an organization by telephone, but also want the option of Internet self-service and the ability to send e-mail and get a high-quality response. To meet these expectations, organizations need multichannel CRM solutions that provide the same high-quality, branded customer-service experience across phone, e-mail and Web self-service, says Roop.
While there is an uptick in the number of organizations deploying CRM for the first time, others are looking at a second- or even third-generation CRM solution. And the second or third go-around tends to be the charm, as these organizations are smarter about their needs and how CRM will address those needs, both today and in the future. "There is more focus by organizations on what they are going to do next. They are looking to optimize what they have, and when they do upgrade, they are smarter about it," explains Galvin. For example, optimizing existing CRM systems is driving the growth in analytics applications, which by definition need to sit on top of an active, meaningful CRM system, he says.
Since organizations are clearer in their objectives for using CRM, the result is that vendors have created programs that solve specific business problems and make them quick to implement for immediate value. "Organizations have no appetite for at-risk solutions with long-term implementations," says Roop. "They want CRM that is in quickly, adopted quickly, and can drive short-term business benefits."
It is a good time to invest in CRM; vendors learned from their lean years what organizations want, and how to best deliver on those needs. "The vendors learned that CRM is more than a feature/function PowerPoint sell," says Galvin, and a one-size-fits-all-approach simply does not work. "When you implement a generic solution, you will get generic results," he says.
However, there is a law of diminishing returns, in that "the further you go down the path of expense customization or extensive business process automation, the more fixed you become and the more difficult it is to move to another arena," says Galvin. But organizations and vendors alike have learned their lesson and are getting better at balancing customization with off-the-shelf wares for the best results -- by focusing on vertical industry needs and workflow, for example.
Yes, it appears to be a good time to invest in CRM, if only because I.T. budgets have loosened, organizations know more clearly what they need from a CRM system, and the vendors are more willing to provide it. "The feature/function race is over. How much more functionality do you need?" asks Galvin. (Lisa Valentine, www.crm-daily.com)
Text messaging manier om jongeren te bereiken
Newspapers have been crying in their beer over the loss of young adult readers. So in an effort to grab that ever-elusive demographic, one newspaper decided to stop sobbing and go where the young and hip go. Last week, The Boston Phoenix rolled out a program with two lures sure to snag the under-30 set: chat, and the chance for romance.
Called txt2flirt, it's essentially a text-messaging application. The alternative weekly runs ads in sections like horoscopes, weather or lottery results, enticing readers to sign up for txt2flirt. A person then registers by phone or the Web by entering information like age, sex, zip code and desired content. Once in the database, the person can ask to be matched with someone else who is in the area. The application can even drill down to a specific place, like Bob's Bar, for example.
It's double-blind though, and completely opt-in, meaning a person reveals their name and identity only if they choose to do so. "This is a big opportunity to start a database around a younger demographic," said Monte Burris, director of business development for g8wave, the company that develops and handles the technology. (It's also a division of Phoenix Media Communications Group, which owns The Phoenix.)
And the application is more than just a cool thing. It also brings in revenue. Unlike the Internet, where there is an expectation that content should be free, people using text messaging pay for the service. In this case, each text message sent and received costs 50 cents. After the carrier gets its cut (which varies from carrier to carrier), the revenues are split 50/50 between the paper and g8wave.
Text messaging can also be used in other areas, like circulation promotion. g8wave is about to roll out an application called live-text, which can be used around promotional campaigns. It allows a paper to start a marketing campaign around a prize or giveaway that will require readers to pick up the paper and enter a special code via text message. The paper can then push content and alert the reader if they win.
Though popular in Europe and Asia, text messaging has been slow to catch on here in the United States, mainly because carriers couldn't talk to one another. That changed a year-and-a-half ago. The next sticking point was finding a way to charge for content. Since January, all carriers can now track micro-payments. David Dinnage, president of g8wave, says that at a minimum text messages cost 30 cents each.
Dinnage was in Europe when text messaging was just about to take off. "I'm guessing it was in 1997 or 1998, and by that measure we're five years behind Europe. However, if you look at the adoption rate, compared with Europe and Asia, the U.S. is matching that curve," he noted. The company rolled out a similar program for a paper in the U.K. three years ago. Now 75 million messages a year are sent through the application, said Dinnage. (Jennifer Saba - Editor and Publisher)
Newspapers have been crying in their beer over the loss of young adult readers. So in an effort to grab that ever-elusive demographic, one newspaper decided to stop sobbing and go where the young and hip go. Last week, The Boston Phoenix rolled out a program with two lures sure to snag the under-30 set: chat, and the chance for romance.
Called txt2flirt, it's essentially a text-messaging application. The alternative weekly runs ads in sections like horoscopes, weather or lottery results, enticing readers to sign up for txt2flirt. A person then registers by phone or the Web by entering information like age, sex, zip code and desired content. Once in the database, the person can ask to be matched with someone else who is in the area. The application can even drill down to a specific place, like Bob's Bar, for example.
It's double-blind though, and completely opt-in, meaning a person reveals their name and identity only if they choose to do so. "This is a big opportunity to start a database around a younger demographic," said Monte Burris, director of business development for g8wave, the company that develops and handles the technology. (It's also a division of Phoenix Media Communications Group, which owns The Phoenix.)
And the application is more than just a cool thing. It also brings in revenue. Unlike the Internet, where there is an expectation that content should be free, people using text messaging pay for the service. In this case, each text message sent and received costs 50 cents. After the carrier gets its cut (which varies from carrier to carrier), the revenues are split 50/50 between the paper and g8wave.
Text messaging can also be used in other areas, like circulation promotion. g8wave is about to roll out an application called live-text, which can be used around promotional campaigns. It allows a paper to start a marketing campaign around a prize or giveaway that will require readers to pick up the paper and enter a special code via text message. The paper can then push content and alert the reader if they win.
Though popular in Europe and Asia, text messaging has been slow to catch on here in the United States, mainly because carriers couldn't talk to one another. That changed a year-and-a-half ago. The next sticking point was finding a way to charge for content. Since January, all carriers can now track micro-payments. David Dinnage, president of g8wave, says that at a minimum text messages cost 30 cents each.
Dinnage was in Europe when text messaging was just about to take off. "I'm guessing it was in 1997 or 1998, and by that measure we're five years behind Europe. However, if you look at the adoption rate, compared with Europe and Asia, the U.S. is matching that curve," he noted. The company rolled out a similar program for a paper in the U.K. three years ago. Now 75 million messages a year are sent through the application, said Dinnage. (Jennifer Saba - Editor and Publisher)
Europese downloader heeft geen schrik voor gerecht
De Europese downloaders lijken niet onder de indruk door de dreiging van rechtszaken tegen hen. Terwijl in de Verenigde Staten het ruilen van muziek- en filmbestanden langzaamaan afneemt, blijft het peil in Europa even hoog. Dat blijkt uit metingen van het Canadees onderzoeksbureau Sandvine. Het uitwisselen van muziekalbums, films en televisieprogramma’s neemt ongeveer 80 procent van al het internetverkeer in Europa in.
De Internation Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) dreigt volgens Het Laatste Nieuws nu ook met rechtszaken tegen muziekruilers in Europa, net als de Motion Pictures Association tegen de gebruikers die films downloaden. Daarmee hopen de organisaties het aantal downloaders en de welige groei van piraterij terug te dringen.
Dertig procent van alle breedbandgebruikers in de VS en Europa gebruiken peer-to-peer netwerken voor het uitwisselen van bestanden. Europeanen downloaden meer grotere bestanden, zoals films, via ftp-servers zoals Bittorent of eDonkey. De muziekindustrie hoopt dat met de komst van Napster en iTunes ook in Europa meer gebruikers op een legale manier aan hun muziek zullen geraken.
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
De Europese downloaders lijken niet onder de indruk door de dreiging van rechtszaken tegen hen. Terwijl in de Verenigde Staten het ruilen van muziek- en filmbestanden langzaamaan afneemt, blijft het peil in Europa even hoog. Dat blijkt uit metingen van het Canadees onderzoeksbureau Sandvine. Het uitwisselen van muziekalbums, films en televisieprogramma’s neemt ongeveer 80 procent van al het internetverkeer in Europa in.
De Internation Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) dreigt volgens Het Laatste Nieuws nu ook met rechtszaken tegen muziekruilers in Europa, net als de Motion Pictures Association tegen de gebruikers die films downloaden. Daarmee hopen de organisaties het aantal downloaders en de welige groei van piraterij terug te dringen.
Dertig procent van alle breedbandgebruikers in de VS en Europa gebruiken peer-to-peer netwerken voor het uitwisselen van bestanden. Europeanen downloaden meer grotere bestanden, zoals films, via ftp-servers zoals Bittorent of eDonkey. De muziekindustrie hoopt dat met de komst van Napster en iTunes ook in Europa meer gebruikers op een legale manier aan hun muziek zullen geraken.
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Merken hebben een emotioneel voordeel
Bij de aankoop van merkproducten laten klanten zich eerder door hun gevoel dan door hun verstand leiden. Dat zijn de conclusies van onderzoeken van een groep neuro-economen, een samenstelling van radiologen, bedrijfseconomen en neurologen, van de universiteit van Münster (Duitsland). De beslissing om om iets te komen op het gevoel of op verstand wordt blijkbaar bepaald doorbloedingsprocessen in die delen van de hersenen die instaan voor de emotie en de rationaliteit.
"Sterke merken laten een emotioneel gericht vuur op de hersenen los," citeert Gazet van Antwerpen Dieter Ahlert, directeur van het Instituut voor Handelsmanagement en Netwerkmarketing. "Daarom grijpen de klanten sneller naar de portemonnee voor merkproducten dan voor onbekende producten."
Het doel van de neuro-economen is om beslissingen in de hersenen, en zo ook de werking van producten op het consumptiegedrag, te verstaan. Volgens Ahlert werd de voorbije jaren ongeveer 36 miljard euro in reclame geïnvesteerd. "Een groot deel daarvan wordt inefficiënt besteed," zei de wetenschapper. De reclame-industrie zou daarom in de toekomst een levendige interesse in de neuro-economie moeten kunnen tonen.
Anderzijds lijkt in de supermarkten het huismerk op te rukken. Sinds het begin van de prijzenslag tussen de grote ketens is er bijvoorbeeld in Nederland sprake van een echte groeispurt. Tussen september vorig jaar en afgelopen maart steeg de omzet van eigen merken met 12 procent. Over het hele jaar 2003 was de groei slechts 0,3 procent. De stichting merkartikel (SMA), belangenbehartiger van A-merkfabrikanten, spreekt van 'een verontrustende ontwikkeling'. "De investeringen van merkfabrikanten komen onder druk te staan," geeft een woordvoerster toe. "Dat is zonde, want het zijn juist de A-merken die een voortrekkersrol spelen wat betreft nieuwe of vernieuwende artikelen."
De opkomst van het huismerk is pas zichtbaar sinds de prijzenslag tussen de supermarkten. Afgelopen maart kwam 19,3 procent van de omzet in de supermarkten voor rekening van de huismerken. Dat was voor het begin van de prijzenslag, september vorig jaar, nog 17,2 procent, zo blijkt uit cijfers van het markt-onderzoeksbureau ACNielsen.
De invloed van de prijzenoorlog is volgens commercieel directeur Han Eisma van AC Nielsen in het AD zo groot omdat supermarkten 'zich zijn gaan herbezinnen op hun positie'. "Sinds de prijzenslag focussen su-pers zich op een goedkoop imago en geven extra ruimte aan hun eigen merk ten koste van A-merken," aldus Eisma. "De consument heeft dus minder keuze aan merkartikelen en zal sneller een huismerk kopen. Daarnaast is de van oudsher merkentrouwe Nederlander veel prijsbewuster geworden."
"De consument wil prijs en kwaliteit en dat is iets dat wij met onze eigen merken kunnen bieden," vertelt een woordvoerder van Laurus, de moederorganisatie van Konmar, Super de Boer en Edah. "De producten zijn zo'n 30 procent goedkoper dan het A-merk en van vergelijkbare en soms zelfs betere kwaliteit. Daar komt bij dat we veel minder verdienen aan de verkoop van A-merken. Aan het begin van de prijzenslag werden vooral de merkproducten fors in prijs verlaagd. Veel van deze pro-ducten worden nu onder inkoopsprijs verkocht. De SMA gaat er vooralsnog niet van uit dat de positie van A-merken definitief wordt aangetast. De huismerken zullen A-merken altijd nodig hebben, alleen al om prijsvergelijking mogelijk te maken."
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Bij de aankoop van merkproducten laten klanten zich eerder door hun gevoel dan door hun verstand leiden. Dat zijn de conclusies van onderzoeken van een groep neuro-economen, een samenstelling van radiologen, bedrijfseconomen en neurologen, van de universiteit van Münster (Duitsland). De beslissing om om iets te komen op het gevoel of op verstand wordt blijkbaar bepaald doorbloedingsprocessen in die delen van de hersenen die instaan voor de emotie en de rationaliteit.
"Sterke merken laten een emotioneel gericht vuur op de hersenen los," citeert Gazet van Antwerpen Dieter Ahlert, directeur van het Instituut voor Handelsmanagement en Netwerkmarketing. "Daarom grijpen de klanten sneller naar de portemonnee voor merkproducten dan voor onbekende producten."
Het doel van de neuro-economen is om beslissingen in de hersenen, en zo ook de werking van producten op het consumptiegedrag, te verstaan. Volgens Ahlert werd de voorbije jaren ongeveer 36 miljard euro in reclame geïnvesteerd. "Een groot deel daarvan wordt inefficiënt besteed," zei de wetenschapper. De reclame-industrie zou daarom in de toekomst een levendige interesse in de neuro-economie moeten kunnen tonen.
Anderzijds lijkt in de supermarkten het huismerk op te rukken. Sinds het begin van de prijzenslag tussen de grote ketens is er bijvoorbeeld in Nederland sprake van een echte groeispurt. Tussen september vorig jaar en afgelopen maart steeg de omzet van eigen merken met 12 procent. Over het hele jaar 2003 was de groei slechts 0,3 procent. De stichting merkartikel (SMA), belangenbehartiger van A-merkfabrikanten, spreekt van 'een verontrustende ontwikkeling'. "De investeringen van merkfabrikanten komen onder druk te staan," geeft een woordvoerster toe. "Dat is zonde, want het zijn juist de A-merken die een voortrekkersrol spelen wat betreft nieuwe of vernieuwende artikelen."
De opkomst van het huismerk is pas zichtbaar sinds de prijzenslag tussen de supermarkten. Afgelopen maart kwam 19,3 procent van de omzet in de supermarkten voor rekening van de huismerken. Dat was voor het begin van de prijzenslag, september vorig jaar, nog 17,2 procent, zo blijkt uit cijfers van het markt-onderzoeksbureau ACNielsen.
De invloed van de prijzenoorlog is volgens commercieel directeur Han Eisma van AC Nielsen in het AD zo groot omdat supermarkten 'zich zijn gaan herbezinnen op hun positie'. "Sinds de prijzenslag focussen su-pers zich op een goedkoop imago en geven extra ruimte aan hun eigen merk ten koste van A-merken," aldus Eisma. "De consument heeft dus minder keuze aan merkartikelen en zal sneller een huismerk kopen. Daarnaast is de van oudsher merkentrouwe Nederlander veel prijsbewuster geworden."
"De consument wil prijs en kwaliteit en dat is iets dat wij met onze eigen merken kunnen bieden," vertelt een woordvoerder van Laurus, de moederorganisatie van Konmar, Super de Boer en Edah. "De producten zijn zo'n 30 procent goedkoper dan het A-merk en van vergelijkbare en soms zelfs betere kwaliteit. Daar komt bij dat we veel minder verdienen aan de verkoop van A-merken. Aan het begin van de prijzenslag werden vooral de merkproducten fors in prijs verlaagd. Veel van deze pro-ducten worden nu onder inkoopsprijs verkocht. De SMA gaat er vooralsnog niet van uit dat de positie van A-merken definitief wordt aangetast. De huismerken zullen A-merken altijd nodig hebben, alleen al om prijsvergelijking mogelijk te maken."
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Consument centraal in btob-campagne?
Led by a management team packed with engineers, James Hardie was the only manufacturer in the world that maintains an R&D center devoted to fiber cement technology for siding. The resulting products were revolutionary. Unfortunately American builders couldn't have cared less. Despite Hardie's running ads throughout the trade press for a half dozen years, sales were stagnant. "We didn't make any appreciable impact on the siding industry," admits Marketing Manager John Dybsky.
The building trade is one where personal relationships matter far more than advertising. So, none of Hardie's competitors had focused much energy on their ads. Their creative wasn't inspirational -- and anyway, copycat campaigns rarely work. So, the team were forced to look outside of the siding industry for ideas -- and found it from b-to-c campaigns run by Corian and Intel. Why not invest in a campaign targeting the end-consumer? While consumers wouldn't buy siding directly because the builder is the gatekeeper of the account, consumer demand could pressure builders into offering Hardie siding.
What sort of campaign would work best? Management's initial idea was to take the technical info to the consumer -- explain about the fiber cement technology and put a big fat picture of a siding-covered house in every ad. But the marketing team worried. If you focus on tech specifics, then you open the door to a competitor coming along singing the same song. "What's Corian made of? People don't know. They just know they want the stuff and it's the greatest stuff ever." How do you convince millions of consumers that your brand is the greatest stuff ever, and they should demand it from their builder?
The budget would only go so far -- advertising to every possible homebuyer in America was impossible. So, Hardie's marketing team started with a research effort to pick a specific consumer niche. Turns out the most influential consumer for Hardie was a 42-year old woman actively seeking to purchase a "step-up" home. It wasn't an audience the mostly male engineers and sales reps had gut-level knowledge about. So before working on creative, they launched a multi-pronged research program.
(Investigating overarching consumer trends of the future) No one on the team expected the campaign to result in dramatic sales growth overnight. It takes years to grow a consumer brand. So, the brand's key messaging would have to have emotional impact for years to come. To find out what would be hot years from now, they turned to research from Faith Popcon's Brain Trust. Dybsky says, "I didn't know Faith Popcorn from a bucket of paint, but the research was brilliant."
Popcorn's research said that home buyers would soon be deeply interested in "neotraditionalism." Women would want to buy new homes that felt slightly historic and filled their soon-to-burgeon need for safety, security, and low maintenance. However, only 2% of the current homebuyer market was purchasing neotraditional homes. Would Hardie be limiting its sales by advertising to this small group? "I got a tremendous amount of push-back from management," says Dybsky. "I heard, 'It's too niche, it's too narrow.' We said 'No way. That aging baby boomer may not buy a home with neotraditional front porches, but they will still aspire to it. If we can take a little of it and put it in our siding ads, we'll show those desires manifested through our brand."
(Proving assumptions by talking directly to consumers) To convince themselves and management the brand direction would be on track, the team hired a market research firm specializing in one-to-one consumer interviews via phone and in-person. Why not a focus group instead of one-on-one? A group can be dominated by a few members, so you may not get as true a result. Also, if you're videotaping results to show to management back home, it's a lot more powerful to show consumer after consumer saying the same thing over and over again, than to just show one person saying it and everyone else chiming in with a "me too" or a simple head nod. The team started with telephone interviews to get a quick lay of the land, then ran in-person interviews, and then doubled-checked results with a final round of telephoning. This combined the power of qualitative and quantitative research somewhat.
(Checking with builders themselves) The team didn't forget their end-customers during the research process. They asked builders what they thought consumers were looking for, and asked builders how they would feel about a radical new advertising campaign.
Interestingly they found builders' marketplace perception didn't always match reality. So the videotaped interview results were very handy to help soften the ground for the campaign. "When you have a builder saying, 'My customers will take whatever siding I give them, and you play the tape with consumer after consumer saying 'vinyl siding looks cheap, cheap, cheap,' the builder goes 'Wow.'"
Next the creative team got busy developing both consumer campaigns and new b-to-b campaigns to support them.
(Key elements of the consumer campaigns)
The ads were designed around emotions. Instead of focusing on product features the copy addressed consumers' feelings about the concept of home. Instead of picturing nothing but siding, photos featured people with houses in the background. The ads felt more like warm and fuzzy wine commercials than ads for siding. Sample headline from Hardie's consumer Web site: Someday we'll commute across oceans to work, we'll take our vacations on the moon, and we'll still love the feeling of coming back home.
"The ads were anything but typical. You see a little girl with her wagon walking down the street from her home.... That took a big leap of faith for us. We struggled to mix the emotional versus the rational message. We continue to struggle," notes Dybsky. "If you had a pie chart to articulate it, you'd want 50/50 emotional versus rational in an emerging market where they won't understand the promise delivered. It's an 80/20 percentage in a mature market. But, you have to reach out and grab them - there has to be an emotional element regardless of where you are advertising."
The creative team adjusted ads to match geographic regions, because home buyers in different places are used to different types of siding -- stucco, wood, brick, etc. About 20% of the space ad spend was in national media, with 80% going to local to optimize impact.
60% of spend was conducted as a co-marketing campaign with local authorized builders. Initially this was a tough sell -- how do you convince a builder they have to change the way they advertise in their market? Dybsky went on the road to meet with as many builder customers as possible, a practice he continues to this day.
Aside from magazine space ads, Hardie began to sponsor as many dream home contests as possible on both the national (such as HGTV) and regional level (such as Southern Living), hoping that contestants would be in the perfect frame of mind to consider siding options.
Each contest was run differently, but whenever possible, Hardie requested some lead generation as part of the media buy -- such as receiving a list of consumers who'd checked a special box to indicate specific interest. Since Hardie never sells direct, they set up a Web-based system to funnel leads to authorized builders quickly and efficiently.
During the market research stage, the team had noticed whenever a consumer was handed a sample siding chip during an interview, the consumer wanted to hold on to it. "They would become transfixed by the chip," says Dybsky. "So I asked, 'How often do we include a chip with the model kit to help builders sell our products?'" Turns out the company didn't -- so he quickly instituted that change. (Now four years later, sample chips are one of his biggest budget line items.)
Every chip and magazine ad featured both the Web URL and phone number for Hardie Siding.This was a boldly unorthodox move for a b-to-b company that doesn't sell direct. However, Dybsky felt it was critical because consumers research major purchases online these days, so you have to make sure your Web matches your offline presence anyway. And if they are going to get to your site, they'll find your phone number and use it. Also, authorized builders would be thrilled to receive even more sales leads. And monitoring in-bound calls not only helps you measure campaign impact, but also serves as an ongoing market research effort to supplement knowledge gained from the initial research campaign. So Dybsky's been able to cut back on the consumer research budget.
(Key elements of the trade b-to-b campaigns) Hardie's new trade ads also included an element of emotion, rather than simply factual information. Dybsky explains, "The only time you don't need emotion is when you're selling to robots. There's got to be an emotional position in everything. However we have a different brand execution in trade press. It's all about how we make their jobs easier." As the consumer campaign took off, the ads trumpeted how well-known the Hardie brand was in the marketplace. To make the campaign feel personal, accompanying photos showed siding close-ups, but also included part of a carpenter's body as they presumably installed the siding.
(Tactics to measure impact) The team rolled out the consumer campaign very carefully one region at a time and invested in measurement every step along the way. "We did a rather extensive, expensive qualified study on what reaction to the initial ad campaign was." But in the end what really mattered was what the field sales team thought. "Our president got on the phone with the our regional sales manager where the test market was and said, 'I'll give you two options - either lower our price or maintain the ad campaign. The manager said, 'Keep the campaign!'"
RESULTS
James Hardie's siding sales went from 400 million board feet per year in 1997 to 1.8 billion board feet in 2003. Dybsky says catching the right trend helped. "Everything came together in a perfect storm. I just saw an article in a trade magazine that neotraditional homes will be over 55% of the market in 2010." However, the emotional impact of the ad creative also played a significant role in sales. Hardie saw sales growth and significantly increased builder interest within three-to-six months of the test campaign's launch.
And, just two years after launch a Sunset Magazine tracking study ranked James Hardie ads being the third most effective ads the magazine carried (only ads from Dodge Cars & Trucks and Land Rover Discovery has greater impact.) In 1998, only 7% of builders chose James Hardie over its entrenched competitors such as Alcoa and Georgia-Pacific. By the end of 2002, Hardie had the largest slice of marketshare at 28%.
Could marketers from other tech-driven companies copy this success? Dybsky says getting buy-in from your management team is critical. "I give all credit to my senior management to allow us to break out of the mold and to take a long-term perspective on things."
It's not enough to have the most technically advanced product on the marketplace, you have to have the most powerful marketing campaign too.
Led by a management team packed with engineers, James Hardie was the only manufacturer in the world that maintains an R&D center devoted to fiber cement technology for siding. The resulting products were revolutionary. Unfortunately American builders couldn't have cared less. Despite Hardie's running ads throughout the trade press for a half dozen years, sales were stagnant. "We didn't make any appreciable impact on the siding industry," admits Marketing Manager John Dybsky.
The building trade is one where personal relationships matter far more than advertising. So, none of Hardie's competitors had focused much energy on their ads. Their creative wasn't inspirational -- and anyway, copycat campaigns rarely work. So, the team were forced to look outside of the siding industry for ideas -- and found it from b-to-c campaigns run by Corian and Intel. Why not invest in a campaign targeting the end-consumer? While consumers wouldn't buy siding directly because the builder is the gatekeeper of the account, consumer demand could pressure builders into offering Hardie siding.
What sort of campaign would work best? Management's initial idea was to take the technical info to the consumer -- explain about the fiber cement technology and put a big fat picture of a siding-covered house in every ad. But the marketing team worried. If you focus on tech specifics, then you open the door to a competitor coming along singing the same song. "What's Corian made of? People don't know. They just know they want the stuff and it's the greatest stuff ever." How do you convince millions of consumers that your brand is the greatest stuff ever, and they should demand it from their builder?
The budget would only go so far -- advertising to every possible homebuyer in America was impossible. So, Hardie's marketing team started with a research effort to pick a specific consumer niche. Turns out the most influential consumer for Hardie was a 42-year old woman actively seeking to purchase a "step-up" home. It wasn't an audience the mostly male engineers and sales reps had gut-level knowledge about. So before working on creative, they launched a multi-pronged research program.
(Investigating overarching consumer trends of the future) No one on the team expected the campaign to result in dramatic sales growth overnight. It takes years to grow a consumer brand. So, the brand's key messaging would have to have emotional impact for years to come. To find out what would be hot years from now, they turned to research from Faith Popcon's Brain Trust. Dybsky says, "I didn't know Faith Popcorn from a bucket of paint, but the research was brilliant."
Popcorn's research said that home buyers would soon be deeply interested in "neotraditionalism." Women would want to buy new homes that felt slightly historic and filled their soon-to-burgeon need for safety, security, and low maintenance. However, only 2% of the current homebuyer market was purchasing neotraditional homes. Would Hardie be limiting its sales by advertising to this small group? "I got a tremendous amount of push-back from management," says Dybsky. "I heard, 'It's too niche, it's too narrow.' We said 'No way. That aging baby boomer may not buy a home with neotraditional front porches, but they will still aspire to it. If we can take a little of it and put it in our siding ads, we'll show those desires manifested through our brand."
(Proving assumptions by talking directly to consumers) To convince themselves and management the brand direction would be on track, the team hired a market research firm specializing in one-to-one consumer interviews via phone and in-person. Why not a focus group instead of one-on-one? A group can be dominated by a few members, so you may not get as true a result. Also, if you're videotaping results to show to management back home, it's a lot more powerful to show consumer after consumer saying the same thing over and over again, than to just show one person saying it and everyone else chiming in with a "me too" or a simple head nod. The team started with telephone interviews to get a quick lay of the land, then ran in-person interviews, and then doubled-checked results with a final round of telephoning. This combined the power of qualitative and quantitative research somewhat.
(Checking with builders themselves) The team didn't forget their end-customers during the research process. They asked builders what they thought consumers were looking for, and asked builders how they would feel about a radical new advertising campaign.
Interestingly they found builders' marketplace perception didn't always match reality. So the videotaped interview results were very handy to help soften the ground for the campaign. "When you have a builder saying, 'My customers will take whatever siding I give them, and you play the tape with consumer after consumer saying 'vinyl siding looks cheap, cheap, cheap,' the builder goes 'Wow.'"
Next the creative team got busy developing both consumer campaigns and new b-to-b campaigns to support them.
(Key elements of the consumer campaigns)
The ads were designed around emotions. Instead of focusing on product features the copy addressed consumers' feelings about the concept of home. Instead of picturing nothing but siding, photos featured people with houses in the background. The ads felt more like warm and fuzzy wine commercials than ads for siding. Sample headline from Hardie's consumer Web site: Someday we'll commute across oceans to work, we'll take our vacations on the moon, and we'll still love the feeling of coming back home.
"The ads were anything but typical. You see a little girl with her wagon walking down the street from her home.... That took a big leap of faith for us. We struggled to mix the emotional versus the rational message. We continue to struggle," notes Dybsky. "If you had a pie chart to articulate it, you'd want 50/50 emotional versus rational in an emerging market where they won't understand the promise delivered. It's an 80/20 percentage in a mature market. But, you have to reach out and grab them - there has to be an emotional element regardless of where you are advertising."
The creative team adjusted ads to match geographic regions, because home buyers in different places are used to different types of siding -- stucco, wood, brick, etc. About 20% of the space ad spend was in national media, with 80% going to local to optimize impact.
60% of spend was conducted as a co-marketing campaign with local authorized builders. Initially this was a tough sell -- how do you convince a builder they have to change the way they advertise in their market? Dybsky went on the road to meet with as many builder customers as possible, a practice he continues to this day.
Aside from magazine space ads, Hardie began to sponsor as many dream home contests as possible on both the national (such as HGTV) and regional level (such as Southern Living), hoping that contestants would be in the perfect frame of mind to consider siding options.
Each contest was run differently, but whenever possible, Hardie requested some lead generation as part of the media buy -- such as receiving a list of consumers who'd checked a special box to indicate specific interest. Since Hardie never sells direct, they set up a Web-based system to funnel leads to authorized builders quickly and efficiently.
During the market research stage, the team had noticed whenever a consumer was handed a sample siding chip during an interview, the consumer wanted to hold on to it. "They would become transfixed by the chip," says Dybsky. "So I asked, 'How often do we include a chip with the model kit to help builders sell our products?'" Turns out the company didn't -- so he quickly instituted that change. (Now four years later, sample chips are one of his biggest budget line items.)
Every chip and magazine ad featured both the Web URL and phone number for Hardie Siding.This was a boldly unorthodox move for a b-to-b company that doesn't sell direct. However, Dybsky felt it was critical because consumers research major purchases online these days, so you have to make sure your Web matches your offline presence anyway. And if they are going to get to your site, they'll find your phone number and use it. Also, authorized builders would be thrilled to receive even more sales leads. And monitoring in-bound calls not only helps you measure campaign impact, but also serves as an ongoing market research effort to supplement knowledge gained from the initial research campaign. So Dybsky's been able to cut back on the consumer research budget.
(Key elements of the trade b-to-b campaigns) Hardie's new trade ads also included an element of emotion, rather than simply factual information. Dybsky explains, "The only time you don't need emotion is when you're selling to robots. There's got to be an emotional position in everything. However we have a different brand execution in trade press. It's all about how we make their jobs easier." As the consumer campaign took off, the ads trumpeted how well-known the Hardie brand was in the marketplace. To make the campaign feel personal, accompanying photos showed siding close-ups, but also included part of a carpenter's body as they presumably installed the siding.
(Tactics to measure impact) The team rolled out the consumer campaign very carefully one region at a time and invested in measurement every step along the way. "We did a rather extensive, expensive qualified study on what reaction to the initial ad campaign was." But in the end what really mattered was what the field sales team thought. "Our president got on the phone with the our regional sales manager where the test market was and said, 'I'll give you two options - either lower our price or maintain the ad campaign. The manager said, 'Keep the campaign!'"
RESULTS
James Hardie's siding sales went from 400 million board feet per year in 1997 to 1.8 billion board feet in 2003. Dybsky says catching the right trend helped. "Everything came together in a perfect storm. I just saw an article in a trade magazine that neotraditional homes will be over 55% of the market in 2010." However, the emotional impact of the ad creative also played a significant role in sales. Hardie saw sales growth and significantly increased builder interest within three-to-six months of the test campaign's launch.
And, just two years after launch a Sunset Magazine tracking study ranked James Hardie ads being the third most effective ads the magazine carried (only ads from Dodge Cars & Trucks and Land Rover Discovery has greater impact.) In 1998, only 7% of builders chose James Hardie over its entrenched competitors such as Alcoa and Georgia-Pacific. By the end of 2002, Hardie had the largest slice of marketshare at 28%.
Could marketers from other tech-driven companies copy this success? Dybsky says getting buy-in from your management team is critical. "I give all credit to my senior management to allow us to break out of the mold and to take a long-term perspective on things."
It's not enough to have the most technically advanced product on the marketplace, you have to have the most powerful marketing campaign too.
KMO-sector steeds meer online
Zeventig procent van de KMO-bedrijven zullen tegen het einde van het jaar op één of andere manier aanwezig zijn op het internet. Dat is een enorme sprong vergeleken met de resultaten van een studie in oktober 2002, toen hun aantal op amper 35 procent lag. Onderzoekers van Yahoo! Small Business stelden dat daarmee duidelijk is dat ook de kleinere ondernemingen de belangrijkheid beseffen van online activiteiten en het nut van het medium om nieuwe klanten aan te trekken.
Voor 35 procent van de ondervraagde bedrijven blijkt een eigen website daarbij het belangrijkste te zijn, terwijl dertig procent vooral e-mail activiteiten belangrijk vindt. Een even groot gedeelte legt de nadruk op online reclame. De studie tekende ook op dat de meeste online bedrijven eerder een groei verwachten dan de offline bedrijven.
"Elk klein bedrijf is ergens ook een consument," aldus de bezoekers. "Zij worden dus ook met online campagnes benaderd. Ze zien marketing-campagnes, ze krijgen e-mail, ze zien internet-reclame en ze kopen allerlei producten online. Bovendien zijn al die instrumenten ook voor hen beschikbaar. Ze moeten er niet terecht bij een leverancier van grote toepassingen, maar bij de zoekmachines van Google en Yahoo! of bij eBay."
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Zeventig procent van de KMO-bedrijven zullen tegen het einde van het jaar op één of andere manier aanwezig zijn op het internet. Dat is een enorme sprong vergeleken met de resultaten van een studie in oktober 2002, toen hun aantal op amper 35 procent lag. Onderzoekers van Yahoo! Small Business stelden dat daarmee duidelijk is dat ook de kleinere ondernemingen de belangrijkheid beseffen van online activiteiten en het nut van het medium om nieuwe klanten aan te trekken.
Voor 35 procent van de ondervraagde bedrijven blijkt een eigen website daarbij het belangrijkste te zijn, terwijl dertig procent vooral e-mail activiteiten belangrijk vindt. Een even groot gedeelte legt de nadruk op online reclame. De studie tekende ook op dat de meeste online bedrijven eerder een groei verwachten dan de offline bedrijven.
"Elk klein bedrijf is ergens ook een consument," aldus de bezoekers. "Zij worden dus ook met online campagnes benaderd. Ze zien marketing-campagnes, ze krijgen e-mail, ze zien internet-reclame en ze kopen allerlei producten online. Bovendien zijn al die instrumenten ook voor hen beschikbaar. Ze moeten er niet terecht bij een leverancier van grote toepassingen, maar bij de zoekmachines van Google en Yahoo! of bij eBay."
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Esteé Lauder samen met P. Diddy
Esteé Lauder Cos. has signed a worldwide licensing agreement with Sean John, the maker of contemporary clothing founded by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Plans call for a new line of fragrances under the Sean John label. "This is an extraordinary opportunity to partner with one of the fastest growing and most dynamic young fashion brands in the market, as well as with a man who has built a phenomenal reputation as a tastemaker in music, in fashion and in business," William P. Lauder, COO of Esteé said in a statement. "We look forward to collaborating with him and the Sean John team as they apply their vision and creativity to fragrance."
The development of the new fragrance line will be overseen by John Demsey, president of the contemporary M-A-C line. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sean John, a privately held company, made its fashion debut with a men's sportswear collection in 1999 and has annual sales of more than $350 million. Combs is a successful record producer, recording artist and actor, as well as the CEO and founder of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group.
In other news, Esteé Lauder last week said it would sell 11.3 million shares of common stock to pay estate taxes and other obligations in the wake of the death of company founder, Esteé Lauder, in April. The family will still hold 45.5% of the company's outstanding stock.
Esteé Lauder Cos. has signed a worldwide licensing agreement with Sean John, the maker of contemporary clothing founded by Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Plans call for a new line of fragrances under the Sean John label. "This is an extraordinary opportunity to partner with one of the fastest growing and most dynamic young fashion brands in the market, as well as with a man who has built a phenomenal reputation as a tastemaker in music, in fashion and in business," William P. Lauder, COO of Esteé said in a statement. "We look forward to collaborating with him and the Sean John team as they apply their vision and creativity to fragrance."
The development of the new fragrance line will be overseen by John Demsey, president of the contemporary M-A-C line. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sean John, a privately held company, made its fashion debut with a men's sportswear collection in 1999 and has annual sales of more than $350 million. Combs is a successful record producer, recording artist and actor, as well as the CEO and founder of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group.
In other news, Esteé Lauder last week said it would sell 11.3 million shares of common stock to pay estate taxes and other obligations in the wake of the death of company founder, Esteé Lauder, in April. The family will still hold 45.5% of the company's outstanding stock.
Tabaksindustrie moet investeren in anti-rookcampagnes
Een rechtbank in het Amerikaanse New Orleans heeft geoordeeld dat sigarettenfabrikanten 590 miljoen dollar moeten meebetalen aan programma's van de staat Louisiana voor mensen die willen stoppen met roken. Dat geld dient voor de financiering van antirookcampagnes, medicijnen en ander ontmoedigingsbeleid. Altria heeft al laten weten een beroepsprocedure te overwegen.
De uitspraak leidde op Wall Street tot een koersval van meer dan 8 procent van Altria, dat eigenaar is van Philip Morris (Marlboro). Analisten vrezen dat 's werelds grootste sigarettenproducent ook in andere staten zal moeten opdraaien voor pogingen van rokers om te stoppen met roken. Hetzelfde geldt onder meer voor Reynold's Tobacco (Camel).
Louisiana doet er misschien wel goed aan om zijn antirookcampagnes heel negatief te houden. Dat blijkt volgens een studie van een Nederlandse universiteit mensen het meest te raken. "Om mensen te stimuleren geld te doneren, kiezen veel hulporganisaties voor armoedebestrijding tegenwoordig voor een positieve invalshoek in hun advertenties," merken de onderzoekers op. "Maar een foto van een treurig hongerig kind werkt beter."
In het kader van een rapport ‘Framing Helpt! - Invloed van framing van advertenties voor armoedebestrijding op de intentie tot doneren' werd een onderzoek uitgevoerd met respondenten tussen 18 en 35 jaar, een groep die weinig reageert op geldinzamelingen. Ieder kreeg vier advertentites te beoordelen en daarbij kwam naar voor dat de emoties verdriet, schuld en woede een grotere impact hebben. Ook bleek dat een advertentie het vooral moet hebben van de foto, die een zielig karakter moet hebben. Maar ook met de tekst zijn mensen te beïnvloeden.
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Een rechtbank in het Amerikaanse New Orleans heeft geoordeeld dat sigarettenfabrikanten 590 miljoen dollar moeten meebetalen aan programma's van de staat Louisiana voor mensen die willen stoppen met roken. Dat geld dient voor de financiering van antirookcampagnes, medicijnen en ander ontmoedigingsbeleid. Altria heeft al laten weten een beroepsprocedure te overwegen.
De uitspraak leidde op Wall Street tot een koersval van meer dan 8 procent van Altria, dat eigenaar is van Philip Morris (Marlboro). Analisten vrezen dat 's werelds grootste sigarettenproducent ook in andere staten zal moeten opdraaien voor pogingen van rokers om te stoppen met roken. Hetzelfde geldt onder meer voor Reynold's Tobacco (Camel).
Louisiana doet er misschien wel goed aan om zijn antirookcampagnes heel negatief te houden. Dat blijkt volgens een studie van een Nederlandse universiteit mensen het meest te raken. "Om mensen te stimuleren geld te doneren, kiezen veel hulporganisaties voor armoedebestrijding tegenwoordig voor een positieve invalshoek in hun advertenties," merken de onderzoekers op. "Maar een foto van een treurig hongerig kind werkt beter."
In het kader van een rapport ‘Framing Helpt! - Invloed van framing van advertenties voor armoedebestrijding op de intentie tot doneren' werd een onderzoek uitgevoerd met respondenten tussen 18 en 35 jaar, een groep die weinig reageert op geldinzamelingen. Ieder kreeg vier advertentites te beoordelen en daarbij kwam naar voor dat de emoties verdriet, schuld en woede een grotere impact hebben. Ook bleek dat een advertentie het vooral moet hebben van de foto, die een zielig karakter moet hebben. Maar ook met de tekst zijn mensen te beïnvloeden.
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Meer marketing online voor financiële sector
Het Nederlandse bank- en verzekeringswezen gaat dit jaar meer aan online marketing uitgeven dan vorig jaar. Uit een benchmarkstudie van FX.nl komt immers naar voren dat eenderde van de ondervraagden in 2004 meer dan 250.000 euro besteedt aan internetmarketing. Verder blijkt dat internet inmiddels structureel wordt ingezet voor marketing, communicatie en verkoop.
"Online advertising is een vast onderdeel van de communicatiemix geworden," schrijft Adformatie in dat verband. "Vrijwel alle online mediavormen (banners, zoekmachines, e-mail marketing, zoekmachine marketing) worden hierbij ingezet. Er wordt niet alleen campagnematig gewerkt. Ruim veertig procent hecht er belang aan om duurzaam op internet te worden gevonden."
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Het Nederlandse bank- en verzekeringswezen gaat dit jaar meer aan online marketing uitgeven dan vorig jaar. Uit een benchmarkstudie van FX.nl komt immers naar voren dat eenderde van de ondervraagden in 2004 meer dan 250.000 euro besteedt aan internetmarketing. Verder blijkt dat internet inmiddels structureel wordt ingezet voor marketing, communicatie en verkoop.
"Online advertising is een vast onderdeel van de communicatiemix geworden," schrijft Adformatie in dat verband. "Vrijwel alle online mediavormen (banners, zoekmachines, e-mail marketing, zoekmachine marketing) worden hierbij ingezet. Er wordt niet alleen campagnematig gewerkt. Ruim veertig procent hecht er belang aan om duurzaam op internet te worden gevonden."
Reacties: Gazettenpraat@yahoo.com
Nieuwe citymarketing voor Boston
Susan Hartnett is beaming. Boston's new director of Arts and Cultural Development has a new office on the eighth floor of City Hall with a terrific view of Faneuil Hall, Boston Harbor and the soon-to-be-created Rose Kennedy Greenway.The vista is symbolic of the challenge Hartnett has taken on: branding the city of Boston as a cultural destination, and finding ways to bring together the arts, tourism and economic development. "I think this is a great moment for the arts in this city," Hartnett said in an interview this week. "The challenge will be if we can capture it."
In addition to responding to the daily needs of cultural organizations around the city, she's responsible for tourism, filmmakingand the Fund for Boston Neighborhoods. Since Mayor Thomas M. Menino created the job last month by merging the city office of Special Events, Tourism and Film with the Cultural Affairs office, Hartnett's first priority has been to improve communication both within her new offices and in the general public.
At her first staff meeting, Hartnett said, even people working at City Hall discovered events and programs of which they were unaware. "You wouldn't believe the number of feasts, festivals and concerts the city's involved in, in one way or another," Hartnett said. The staff's first task was to put together a calendar of all the scheduled events throughout the summer "so that everyone knows what everyone else is doing," Hartnett said. "The next step is to find the best way to get that information out to the public, and that will be a combination of printed calendar and the Web. We're also preparing information on how to sponsor a piece of public art, get a permit for an event, apply for a lottery grant, get support for what's already happening - information that will make the nuts and bolts of working with the city easier."
Arts groups cheered Hartnett's appointment -as former director of the Boston Center for the Arts, she knows the needs of cultural groups. And after spending two years as the director of economic development for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, she has honed a pragmatic approach to integrating the arts into city development projects. But she also lands in the job at a pivotal moment. The Democratic National Convention arrives in just two months, and Hartnett is eager to help the city's cultural groups piggyback onto the monthlong Celebrate Boston program, organized by the official convention host committee, Boston 2004 Inc. (About 450 arts groups already are involved in Celebrate Boston, she said, which culminates with the convention's opening July 26.) "If we get this right," she said, "it will have implications for the city for the next five years."
Hartnett is working in an environment of budget cutbacks and limited funding for the arts. But she answers directly to Mayor Menino, giving her more access than her predecessor, former Cultural Affairs Commissioner Esther Kaplan, had. And Menino is absolutely bullish on Hartnett's ability to do the job. "It's a great feeling when people are excited about the person you've chosen," Menino said. "She's already reenergized the staff."
But Menino admitted he doesn't have a "master plan" for the arts. "I'm not an expert on art," he said. "I couldn't tell you the difference between a watercolor and a pastel, but I know people, and when I see people in neighborhoods getting excited about a concert or theater performance, or open-studio event, that's something I want to encourage.
"I'm proud of our efforts to get the Opera House, the Modern and the Paramount (theaters) going again," he said, "but I'm also proud that arts doesn't just happen in one place anymore. There are open studios, concerts, theatrical productions going on in Hyde Park, Charlestown, Dudley Square and everywhere in between." But Menino does have big ideas about encouraging creative partnerships: between businesses and arts organizations, between foundations and events, and between larger and smaller arts organizations in a kind of mentoring program. "In the current economic climate, we have to think about ways to do business differently," Menino said. "We used to be able to give individual grants. We can't do that anymore, at least for now. But if we can help promote some events or help get audiences, that's important."
By the fall, Hartnett said, she plans to have a series of strategic meetings to see what arts organizations and neighborhoods want from the city. "It's important to bring people together and listen to what they have to say," Hartnett said. "But we have to figure out how to work together in a way that serves tourism, the neighborhoods and business, but most important is to validate the work and the artists." (Boston Herald)
Susan Hartnett is beaming. Boston's new director of Arts and Cultural Development has a new office on the eighth floor of City Hall with a terrific view of Faneuil Hall, Boston Harbor and the soon-to-be-created Rose Kennedy Greenway.The vista is symbolic of the challenge Hartnett has taken on: branding the city of Boston as a cultural destination, and finding ways to bring together the arts, tourism and economic development. "I think this is a great moment for the arts in this city," Hartnett said in an interview this week. "The challenge will be if we can capture it."
In addition to responding to the daily needs of cultural organizations around the city, she's responsible for tourism, filmmakingand the Fund for Boston Neighborhoods. Since Mayor Thomas M. Menino created the job last month by merging the city office of Special Events, Tourism and Film with the Cultural Affairs office, Hartnett's first priority has been to improve communication both within her new offices and in the general public.
At her first staff meeting, Hartnett said, even people working at City Hall discovered events and programs of which they were unaware. "You wouldn't believe the number of feasts, festivals and concerts the city's involved in, in one way or another," Hartnett said. The staff's first task was to put together a calendar of all the scheduled events throughout the summer "so that everyone knows what everyone else is doing," Hartnett said. "The next step is to find the best way to get that information out to the public, and that will be a combination of printed calendar and the Web. We're also preparing information on how to sponsor a piece of public art, get a permit for an event, apply for a lottery grant, get support for what's already happening - information that will make the nuts and bolts of working with the city easier."
Arts groups cheered Hartnett's appointment -as former director of the Boston Center for the Arts, she knows the needs of cultural groups. And after spending two years as the director of economic development for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, she has honed a pragmatic approach to integrating the arts into city development projects. But she also lands in the job at a pivotal moment. The Democratic National Convention arrives in just two months, and Hartnett is eager to help the city's cultural groups piggyback onto the monthlong Celebrate Boston program, organized by the official convention host committee, Boston 2004 Inc. (About 450 arts groups already are involved in Celebrate Boston, she said, which culminates with the convention's opening July 26.) "If we get this right," she said, "it will have implications for the city for the next five years."
Hartnett is working in an environment of budget cutbacks and limited funding for the arts. But she answers directly to Mayor Menino, giving her more access than her predecessor, former Cultural Affairs Commissioner Esther Kaplan, had. And Menino is absolutely bullish on Hartnett's ability to do the job. "It's a great feeling when people are excited about the person you've chosen," Menino said. "She's already reenergized the staff."
But Menino admitted he doesn't have a "master plan" for the arts. "I'm not an expert on art," he said. "I couldn't tell you the difference between a watercolor and a pastel, but I know people, and when I see people in neighborhoods getting excited about a concert or theater performance, or open-studio event, that's something I want to encourage.
"I'm proud of our efforts to get the Opera House, the Modern and the Paramount (theaters) going again," he said, "but I'm also proud that arts doesn't just happen in one place anymore. There are open studios, concerts, theatrical productions going on in Hyde Park, Charlestown, Dudley Square and everywhere in between." But Menino does have big ideas about encouraging creative partnerships: between businesses and arts organizations, between foundations and events, and between larger and smaller arts organizations in a kind of mentoring program. "In the current economic climate, we have to think about ways to do business differently," Menino said. "We used to be able to give individual grants. We can't do that anymore, at least for now. But if we can help promote some events or help get audiences, that's important."
By the fall, Hartnett said, she plans to have a series of strategic meetings to see what arts organizations and neighborhoods want from the city. "It's important to bring people together and listen to what they have to say," Hartnett said. "But we have to figure out how to work together in a way that serves tourism, the neighborhoods and business, but most important is to validate the work and the artists." (Boston Herald)
Interactieve video games steeds belangrijker reclamemedium
Nick Kang is the ultimate action hero. Taking on the Russian and Chinese crime syndicates in the City of Angels, Kang drives, fights and shoots his way across 240 miles of Los Angeles area real estate. Crime in progress? Kang is on the way. It's a Puma truck heist at the 3rd Street Promenade flagship store in Santa Monica. Nick Kang kicks butt and heads back to the streets for more adventure. Kang is the virtual hero of "True Crime: Streets of L.A.," a video game from Activision. And Puma is one of Activision's marketing partners. Kang wears Puma clothing and occasionally drives past Puma billboards or benches in the virtually real L.A.
Players were able to watch video-game trailers on the Puma Web site and even buy Kang's clothing or footwear on a co-branded site when the game was released in November. Promotional winners could pick up Puma merchandise, and pre-release copies of "True Crime" were available at Puma stores. "Companies are starting to understand the power of this medium," says Dave Anderson, Activision's senior director for business development. "They're realizing video games are not only mass-market entertainment that reaches an elusive male demographic, but can be done in an integrated ... way without bludgeoning the consumer with message."
Forward-thinking marketers playing in this field include Levi Strauss & Co., Nike, Coca-Cola Co., BMW of North America, Nokia, Callaway Golf Co., Kraft Foods, DaimlerChrysler's Jeep and Sony Ericsson. While it's true that product placements have been included in several generations of video games, new advances in graphics and online connectivity, as well as the ongoing desire to reach ever more elusive consumers, are pushing game advertising even further.
Interactive gaming has become its own ad-supported mass medium. Interactivity ranges from a gamer being able to compete against the game itself to several players competing against one another to the new world of games that are inspired by the initials MMO -- for massively multiplayer online -- which have the potential to link thousands of players on the same game.
While any true mass medium must appeal to both genders, video games have been traditionally associated with young men. The Electronic Software Association, however, says women account for 39% of computer and video-gamers. Industry insiders maintain that many women have already immersed themselves into online gaming. "It's not just the boys' territory anymore," says Geri Gordon Miller, festival director of New Orleans Media Entertainment, an annual convergence conference for the advertising, gaming, film and music industries. "Video games are starting to steal time and attention from other media. Advertisers want to be where the viewers are," says Michael Goodman, a Yankee Group senior analyst.
Tim Harris, vice president and partner at SMG Play, the year-old game-focused unit created by Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest Group, adds: "At every single client we go to and say, 'You should be in this space,' there are always lots of nodding heads. We're just on the cusp of people ready to throw down real dollars for it." As in any mass ad medium, the ability to measure popularity will be crucial to interactive games, though Julie Shumaker, director of ad sales at Electronic Arts, points out that video games represent a technology leap and the metric will eventually be there. What's more important is finding marketing partners that want to be involved in games and get the right fit, she says. Think outside the product-placement box. Beyond tactics such as simple contextual product placement, advertisers can build an entire level for a player to pass or create a whole game around one product. "Signage and product placement are certainly valuable executions of advertising, but that's not the whole story," Mr. Harris says. "The silver bullet is really doing custom solutions for clients."
One way to take the well-traversed idea of product placement further is through dynamic brand placement. Similar to product placement, but with connectivity to the Internet, this emerging technique can be used to update, change and add messages with any frequency desired. Connecting to the outside "real" world is another popular developing idea. On There.com, gamers can try on Levi's jeans or Nike shoes; on Ubisoft's console game "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell," players can use a Sony Ericsson phone or camera. But the use is limited to the confines of the game or online environment. Breaking through to the sale or offline use is still limited.
One tactic is to reward players with product or points. General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac ran a game that rewarded the winner with an Escalade SUV. But as gaming expert Marco Brambilla says, that concept is more of a lottery approach. It should really be "more about creating an award that everyone can attain," says Mr. Brambilla, creative director of Medium, a venture between commercial and music production house HSI Productions and Immaterial focused on innovations in gaming and advertising. For example, a wireless marketer might run a downloadable game contest on its phones in which the top 10 scorers for the month win free phone minutes. "When this thing matures, there will be the opportunity to launch products in video games," says Craig Rechenmacher, director for global brand management at THQ. "I don't know if it'll be songs or music videos or clothing lines, but it will happen."
As the video-game medium evolves, both software publishers and marketers will have to be wary of the fine line between advertising that makes sense and advertising that alienates gamers. "We're never going to overblow the advertising opportunity, because the last thing we want to do is annoy our consumers," says Carolyn Feinstein, vice president of marketing and communications at EA. "Our philosophy is very much about the integrity of the gaming experience. If we stick to that, we're not going to oversaturate."
Mr. Brambilla has put the priority on game before advertising by coining the term "game-vertising." Unlike the commonly used "advergaming," game-vertising denotes that the entertainment experience comes first. Mr. Brambilla believes the next step in advertising and gaming will focus on original games tied closely to specific consumer brands. His company is currently working with a wireless carrier, a sports company and a retailer on doing just that. "What if you could download a video game and play in a universe that's very much about the attitude and style of the brand?" he says. "It's very much akin to what BMW did online with BMW Films-branded entertainment as part of the experience." (Beth Snyder Bulik - AdAge)
Nick Kang is the ultimate action hero. Taking on the Russian and Chinese crime syndicates in the City of Angels, Kang drives, fights and shoots his way across 240 miles of Los Angeles area real estate. Crime in progress? Kang is on the way. It's a Puma truck heist at the 3rd Street Promenade flagship store in Santa Monica. Nick Kang kicks butt and heads back to the streets for more adventure. Kang is the virtual hero of "True Crime: Streets of L.A.," a video game from Activision. And Puma is one of Activision's marketing partners. Kang wears Puma clothing and occasionally drives past Puma billboards or benches in the virtually real L.A.
Players were able to watch video-game trailers on the Puma Web site and even buy Kang's clothing or footwear on a co-branded site when the game was released in November. Promotional winners could pick up Puma merchandise, and pre-release copies of "True Crime" were available at Puma stores. "Companies are starting to understand the power of this medium," says Dave Anderson, Activision's senior director for business development. "They're realizing video games are not only mass-market entertainment that reaches an elusive male demographic, but can be done in an integrated ... way without bludgeoning the consumer with message."
Forward-thinking marketers playing in this field include Levi Strauss & Co., Nike, Coca-Cola Co., BMW of North America, Nokia, Callaway Golf Co., Kraft Foods, DaimlerChrysler's Jeep and Sony Ericsson. While it's true that product placements have been included in several generations of video games, new advances in graphics and online connectivity, as well as the ongoing desire to reach ever more elusive consumers, are pushing game advertising even further.
Interactive gaming has become its own ad-supported mass medium. Interactivity ranges from a gamer being able to compete against the game itself to several players competing against one another to the new world of games that are inspired by the initials MMO -- for massively multiplayer online -- which have the potential to link thousands of players on the same game.
While any true mass medium must appeal to both genders, video games have been traditionally associated with young men. The Electronic Software Association, however, says women account for 39% of computer and video-gamers. Industry insiders maintain that many women have already immersed themselves into online gaming. "It's not just the boys' territory anymore," says Geri Gordon Miller, festival director of New Orleans Media Entertainment, an annual convergence conference for the advertising, gaming, film and music industries. "Video games are starting to steal time and attention from other media. Advertisers want to be where the viewers are," says Michael Goodman, a Yankee Group senior analyst.
Tim Harris, vice president and partner at SMG Play, the year-old game-focused unit created by Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest Group, adds: "At every single client we go to and say, 'You should be in this space,' there are always lots of nodding heads. We're just on the cusp of people ready to throw down real dollars for it." As in any mass ad medium, the ability to measure popularity will be crucial to interactive games, though Julie Shumaker, director of ad sales at Electronic Arts, points out that video games represent a technology leap and the metric will eventually be there. What's more important is finding marketing partners that want to be involved in games and get the right fit, she says. Think outside the product-placement box. Beyond tactics such as simple contextual product placement, advertisers can build an entire level for a player to pass or create a whole game around one product. "Signage and product placement are certainly valuable executions of advertising, but that's not the whole story," Mr. Harris says. "The silver bullet is really doing custom solutions for clients."
One way to take the well-traversed idea of product placement further is through dynamic brand placement. Similar to product placement, but with connectivity to the Internet, this emerging technique can be used to update, change and add messages with any frequency desired. Connecting to the outside "real" world is another popular developing idea. On There.com, gamers can try on Levi's jeans or Nike shoes; on Ubisoft's console game "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell," players can use a Sony Ericsson phone or camera. But the use is limited to the confines of the game or online environment. Breaking through to the sale or offline use is still limited.
One tactic is to reward players with product or points. General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac ran a game that rewarded the winner with an Escalade SUV. But as gaming expert Marco Brambilla says, that concept is more of a lottery approach. It should really be "more about creating an award that everyone can attain," says Mr. Brambilla, creative director of Medium, a venture between commercial and music production house HSI Productions and Immaterial focused on innovations in gaming and advertising. For example, a wireless marketer might run a downloadable game contest on its phones in which the top 10 scorers for the month win free phone minutes. "When this thing matures, there will be the opportunity to launch products in video games," says Craig Rechenmacher, director for global brand management at THQ. "I don't know if it'll be songs or music videos or clothing lines, but it will happen."
As the video-game medium evolves, both software publishers and marketers will have to be wary of the fine line between advertising that makes sense and advertising that alienates gamers. "We're never going to overblow the advertising opportunity, because the last thing we want to do is annoy our consumers," says Carolyn Feinstein, vice president of marketing and communications at EA. "Our philosophy is very much about the integrity of the gaming experience. If we stick to that, we're not going to oversaturate."
Mr. Brambilla has put the priority on game before advertising by coining the term "game-vertising." Unlike the commonly used "advergaming," game-vertising denotes that the entertainment experience comes first. Mr. Brambilla believes the next step in advertising and gaming will focus on original games tied closely to specific consumer brands. His company is currently working with a wireless carrier, a sports company and a retailer on doing just that. "What if you could download a video game and play in a universe that's very much about the attitude and style of the brand?" he says. "It's very much akin to what BMW did online with BMW Films-branded entertainment as part of the experience." (Beth Snyder Bulik - AdAge)
