Instead of Advertising by HVG Kiado Zrt.

INSTEAD OF ADVERTISING Promotional Copy

Copyright of all materials in this document is held by Csaba Mรกnyai. None of the material may be copied, reproduced, distributed, published, translated, downloaded, displayed, posted, communicated to a third party or transmitted in any form including, but not limited to, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Csaba Mรกnyai. Permission is granted to display, copy and download this document only for personal, non-commercial use, provided you do not modify the document and that you adhere to all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in this document. This permission terminates automatically if you breach any of these terms or conditions. Upon termination, you are to immediately destroy any copied, downloaded and printed materials of this document. Any unauthorized use of any material contained in this document may violate copyright laws, trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity, and communications regulations and statutes. All rights, title and interest are reserved.

CSAB A MÁ

YA a I mar guide kete to w rs s houhat ld d o

inst adv ead ert of tisin g

INT E FOR RACT IO M A N ARKE N DES IGN EW TIN AG BREE G AND ENC D O F IES

CSAB A MĂ NY A

a I mar guide kete to w rs s houhat ld d o

inst adv ead ert of tisin g

INT E FOR RACT IO M A N ARKE N DES IGN EW TIN AG BREE G AND ENC D IES OF

al Speci dition E 8 0 20

commercially available from Spring 2009 before that time copies may be ordered at www.21idea.hu

I owe thanks to Attila Bujtás for his inspiration and invaluable contribution, to Zoltán Szénási for all his help and dedication, to Zsófia Szommer for her greatly appreciated support and to Paul Garrison for his guidance through my formative years. Cover Design: Zoltán Réczey Graphic Design: Ildikó Petrók © 2008 by Csaba Mányai Notice of Rights All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

CSAB A MÁ N

YA a I mar guide kete to w rs s houhat ld d o

inst adv ead ert of tisin g

INT E FOR RACT IO M A N ARKE N DES IG EW TIN G A N B R AG ENC EED O ND F IES

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Table of Contents Intro - Don’t Fight Clutter With More Clutter An Emerging New Reality While Marketers Have Been Busy Reacting… 4 Pillars of Change Evolution, Not Revolution 10 Principles of Success in a Network Reality 1. Get Used to Less Control 2. Focus On Business Value. Everything Else Is Just For Show 3. Don’t Let Customer Value And Truth Out of Your Sight 4. Change Is a Constant. Adapt Your Ways 5. Turn Data Into Active Information 6. Just Because It Is Digital, It Is Not Necessarily Better. But Be Prepared For a Digital World 7. Understand the Power of Now 8. Engage, Don’t Interrupt 9. Harness the Power of Networks 10. Integrate Based on Impact

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In s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

∙ 10 ∙ ∙ 14 ∙ ∙ 16 ∙ ∙ 22 ∙ ∙ 26 ∙

∙ 30 ∙ ∙ 32 ∙ ∙ 36 ∙

∙ 40 ∙

∙ 46 ∙ ∙ 50 ∙ ∙ 54 ∙

∙ 58 ∙ ∙ 62 ∙ ∙ 68 ∙ ∙ 74 ∙

What Marketers Can Do About All This ∙ 78 ∙ Free Your Mind ∙ 80 ∙ - Adjust Your Mindset to a Different World A New Breed of Agencies ∙ 86 ∙ - … is Called For to Tackle Old Problem Focused on How to Connect with Customers ∙ 90 ∙ - Stones and Pillars of Interaction Design for Marketing Goals, Targets and Understanding ∙ 98 ∙ - The First Chance to Lose Your Way Customer Touchpoint Management ∙ 104 ∙ - See Your Advertising Through Your Customers’ Eyes Creative Engagement ∙ 124 ∙ - Don’t Just Talk Creatively. Engage. ∙ 136 ∙ Living Brands and Active Branding - a Word On Strategy In a Changing World An Agent of Change and Hope ∙ 142 ∙ - Interaction Design For Marketing At Work The Process of ∙ 148 ∙ Interaction Design for Marketing A Lesson From Diving ∙ 150 ∙ Glossary

∙ 152 ∙

Table of C onte nts

∙ 9 ∙

Global advertising

spend in 2008 equates

to more than $105

per inhabitant

of the planet

∙ 10 ∙

In s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

IDC’s Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast

Introduction Don’t Fight Clutter With More Clutter

Traditional advertising approach – though not dead yet – is in a death spiral. Advertising has become too much, too intrusive, too artificial for people who are faced with one-way, sales pitch conversations they don’t like and information they don’t trust any more. In a world of ‘faster’ and ‘more’ customers are faced with more products, more – often irrelevant – features per product, more choices, more messages, more channels. More stuff, more tasks and more within a given time frame means faster. But there is a human limit to faster and more beyond which it all becomes too much, and we are way passed that limit. We are bombarded with tens of thousands of messages per day, while the number of messages we can take in is still estimated to be less than a hundred. Too many, too fast has become an intrusive, all-consuming blur, the only way to deal with which is blocking it out. We don’t hear any more. Even if we hear, we don’t listen. As a result, the competitive playing field has changed. A new, formidable competitive force has emerged beyond direct and even indirect competitors: the overwhelming noise and clutter of the marketplace. At the same time, media

Introd u ction

∙ 11 ∙

consumption has become so fragmented, it is increasingly impossible to reach large audiences cost effectively through buying attention. This way the toughest barriers for business success have moved from manufacturing efficiency, access to capital and intellectual property to the mental walls customers erect to keep the clutter out. Barriers that are – for the first time – controlled by customers, not companies. Yet, as people turn their backs on intrusiveness, the advertising industry fights back with more of the same. If there is too much noise, it shouts louder to be heard. To break through the clutter it overpromises and produces more empty claims. It is hardly surprising that a 1998 Gallup poll about honesty and ethical standards in various professions brought up advertising people near the bottom, right between lawyers and car salesmen. All of this, however, only reinforces mistrust and evasion – the death spiral of diminishing effectiveness. Is there an alternative to advertising? Can the industry reinvent itself? How do you break through the new barriers? Because customers can in fact hear and they do listen. When they want to. When they feel there is value in it for them too. When they trust someone. When they really connect. So the solution to the new riddle is finding ways to genuinely connect, to engage, to build dialogues and trust. Interaction Design for Marketing shifts the focus precisely to this: how to create competitive advantage by meaningfully connecting with customers in a new reality using both old and new tools with a new approach. In stead of just advertising.

· 12 ·

I n s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

Bus

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Gl o

“There is nothing that is a more certain sign of insanity than to do the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different.” Albert Einstein

, 20 08

hold more years will The next 5 ising rt ve r the ad did. change fo evious 50 pr e th an nsumindustry th co ed er w ly empo s Increasing advertiser self-reliant ers, more logies no ch te g volvin and ever-e vertising ing how ad are redefin ed and um ns co ted, rtisis sold, crea al on adve ..] Traditi di , tracked. [. asters ss – broadc ing player ing agend advertis tributors an unless ed ez ue sq get cies – may plement im ccessfully they can su model and , business consumer tion. sign innova business de

“The End Of Advertising As We Know It” by Saul J. Berman, Bill Battino, Louisa Shipnuck and Andreas Neus, based on an IBM global survey of more than 2,400 consumers and feedback from 80 advertising executives worldwide collected in conjunction with Bonn University’s Center for Evaluation and Methods. (2008)

Introd u ction

· 13 ·

New Reality

While Marketers Have Been Busy Reactingâ&#x20AC;Ś ... to a multitude of new channels, technologies, social and psychological phenomena over the past 15 years, they have largely failed to grasp the fundamental nature of the change that has gradually taken place. It is all too understandable, however, given the sheer force of the deeply rooted, well accustomed advertising precepts and the phenomenal pace with which new challenges keep surfacing. It is not an easy task to embrace fundamental changes when you are immersed in fighting everyday battles conducted by the old rules. Still, time is up. Reacting is just not enough any more, if you want to make your numbers. Simply recognizing that internet, blogs, social media are becoming mainstream and jumping onto the bandwagon will not help you get ahead of your competition. Everybody is doing that by now. What only few are doing though, what generates competitive advantage, is having a profound understanding of how the marketing environment has really changed: grasping and implementing the new principles of a fundamentally new reality.

â&#x2C6;&#x2122; 16 â&#x2C6;&#x2122;

In s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

Mobile Phone penetration » 1992: 18 million mobile phone subscribers worldwide » 2007 November: 3,513,594,956 mobile phone users worldwide

» » » »

Outsourcing US tax returns done in India » 2003: 25 000 2004: 100 000 2005: 400 000 British Telecom has approximately 8,500 workers who work flexibly via broadband from home

Blogs » 1994: Justin Hall starts the first blog » 2007: more than 112 million blogs exist. Social network » Social network site NetLog has 34 million registered users Google » Launched only 10 years ago Wikipedia » 2001 Januar: Wikipedia launched » 2008 April: the 10 millionth article was created Media » 1960: 8400 magazine titles, 440 radio stations, 6 TV channels in the US » 2007: 12000 magazine titles, 13500 radio stations, 85 TV channels, 25000 Internet broadcast channels » 2005: 40 billion product catalogues published in the US) finance » 2005: more financial transactions in a day than in the whole year of 1965

Blog Marketing Memetic Marketing Viral Marketing Digital Marketing Interactive Marketing Social Marketing Online Marketing Experience Marketing Active engagement

In today’s new world, old tools and techniques seem to be working ever less effectively. Continuing to use them means wasting an increasing portion of the money spent on advertising and only contributing to rising competitive pressure, not finding solutions to it. Management expectations, meanwhile, keep rising. No wonder, marketers are searching for answers and are provided with an increasing number of buzzwords. Yet, it is not all that easy, as you no doubt have figured out already. Quick fix solutions, new tools and buzzwords, although attractively convenient, are worth next to nothing without getting the approach right. All your efforts with new tools and channels will be wasted if you keep using them with the old mindset. If you don’t master change, you will not break out of the trap.

A n Em e rging Ne w Re ality

∙ 19 ∙

Who has the philosopher’s

stone? ∙ 20 ∙

I n s te ad o f A dvert i si ng

It takes guts to face fundamental changes. You either have to want to do something different and better, or you have to be in a position where you have no other choice than trying. If you want to set out on the journey, however, you cannot allow yourself the seemingly convenient shortcut so many “buzzword providers” are offering you. Solution only comes from real transformation: first from understanding the nature, the implications and the dynamics of change; then from mastering the new reality by grasping and embracing the new principles of success; and finally from reinventing the basic methods and approach to fit the new challenges. Then and only then will you be able to use the new tools and channels to their full potential. So let’s start with getting a grasp on what change at the beginning of the 21st century is all about…

An Em e rging N e w Re ality

∙ 21 ∙

The 4 Pillars of Change Information Highway Internet penetration

Growing informational pressure and competition

HIT brands and shorter brand cycles

Mobile penetration

Ever easier to change

Intensity

Interconnectedness Media proliferation Startegic partnership

FOMO: fear of missing out

2001 internet traffic = 2007 YouTube Market of Desire

Constantly in touch. Anywhere. Everywhere. CRM

Brand Affiliations

Mobile internet No. of messages sent and received each day

Globalization Google

Outsourcing

Consumer Generated Content

Anybody can be an influencer

Interdependency Global Challenges Specialization

â&#x2C6;&#x2122; 22 â&#x2C6;&#x2122;

Wikipedia

Organizational Pressure

GPS

Digital TV

Interactivity Active Participation

tion and tasks we are amount of stuff, informa Intensity refers to the e with which we do so. tud s and the pace and atti squeezing into our live iprocal connections rs to the network of rec er Interconnectedness refe ely connected with oth ctiv effe and y iall ent pot through which we are ple. and peo places, organizations party cess or survival of one rs to the idea that suc and cooperae Interdependency refe anc form per the n depends on is influenced by - or eve ers. tion of one or more oth active, participative, phenomenon that open, processes. Interactivity refers to the ingly replace one-way eas incr tion nica mu two-way forms of com

In s te ad o f A dvert i si ng

This is what we call Network Reality. In a world increasingly characterized and dominated by digital platforms, networks change the way we live, think, interact and make decisions. They permeate every aspect of our personal lives and business environment. Networks spread, control and enhance messages. There is no escaping them. In the 21st century, how you manage the Network will decide your fate.

Look around you, it’s everywhere. » Technology We are already in the digital age. Digital TV, mobile communications and GPS are here, increasingly interconnected, and only more of this is to come. » People We increasingly rely on digital sources of information and live, form opinions, decide and behave within the context of our extended social networks. » Information Information is created (Wikipedia), searched (Google) and processed (CRM) in a different way. » Business Businesses cannot survive without moving to digital platforms, while globalization and specialization bring an enhanced role for business networks (outsourcing, strategic partnerships etc.).

An Em e rging N e w Re ality

∙ 23 ∙

Networked Readiness Index The Networked Readiness Index is a comprehensive framework developed and researched by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD in order to effectively assess the state of ‘information and communication technologies’ of various countries around the world. It has been repeatedly shown by numerous studies that NRI bears a close relationship with a nation’s economic growth and potential. The study investigates the combined effects of environmental factors, the attitude and readiness of the most important players and actual usage. As results show, Hungary and other countries in Central Eastern Europe, though not leading the list, rank high enough to take the challenges of the digital world and Network Reality quite seriously in 2008.

Networked Readiness Index

Environment

Market environment

Readiness

Political and Infrastructure regulatory environment environment

Individual readiness

Usage

Individual usage

Business readiness

Government readiness

Business usage

Government usage

NRI 2007-2008 Economy

Rank

Score

Denmark Sweden Switzerland United States Singapore Finland Netherlands Iceland Korea, Rep. Norway Hong Kong SAR United Kingdom Canada Australia Austria Germany Taiwan, China Israel Japan Estonia France New Zealand Ireland Luxembourg Belgium Malaysia Malta Portugal United Arab Emirates Slovenia Spain Qatar Lithuania Chile Tunisia Czech Republic Hungary Barbados Puerto Rico Thailand Cyprus Italy Slovak Republic Latvia Bahrain Jamaica Jordan Saudi Arabia Croatia India South Africa Kuwait Oman Mauritius Turkey Greece China Mexico Brazil Costa Rica Romania Poland Egypt Panama

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

5.78 5.72 5.53 5.49 5.49 5.47 5.44 5.44 5.43 5.38 5.31 5.30 5.30 5.28 5.22 5.19 5.18 5.18 5.14 5.12 5.11 5.02 5.02 4.94 4.92 4.82 4.61 4.60 4.55 4.47 4.47 4.42 4.41 4.35 4.33 4.33 4.28 4.26 4.25 4.25 4.23 4.21 4.17 4.14 4.13 4.09 4.08 4.07 4.06 4.06 4.05 4.01 3.97 3.96 3.96 3.94 3.90 3.90 3.87 3.87 3.86 3.81 3.74 3.74

NRI 20072008 rank (among 2006 countries) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 n/a 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 n/a 47 48 49 50 n/a 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61

NRI 2006-2007

NRI 2007-2008

Rank

Score

Economy

Rank

Score

1 2 5 7 3 4 6 8 1 10 12 9 11 15 17 16 13 18 14 20 23 22 21 25 24 26 27 28 29 30 32 36 39 31 35 34 33 40 n/a 37 43 38 41 42 50 45 57 n/a 46 44 47 54 n/a 51 52 48 59 49 53 56 55 58 77 65

5.71 5.66 5.58 5.54 5.60 5.59 5.54 5.50 95.14 5.42 5.35 5.45 5.35 5.24 5.17 5.22 5.28 5.14 5.27 5.02 4.99 5.01 5.01 4.90 4.93 4.74 4.52 4.48 4.42 4.41 4.35 4.21 4.18 4.36 4.24 4.28 4.33 4.18 n/a 4.21 4.12 4.19 4.15 4.13 3.89 4.05 3.74 n/a 4.00 4.06 4.00 3.80 n/a 3.87 3.86 3.98 3.68 3.91 3.84 3.77 3.80 3.69 3.44 3.58

Uruguay El Salvador Azerbaijan Bulgaria Colombia Ukraine Kazakhstan Russian Federation Vietnam Morocco Dominican Republic Indonesia Argentina Botswana Sri Lanka Guatemala Philippines Trinidad and Tobago Macedonia, FYR Peru Senegal Venezuela Mongolia Algeria Pakistan Honduras Georgia Kenya Namibia Nigeria Bosnia-Herzegovina Moldova Mauritania Tajikistan Mali Tanzania Gambia, The Guyana Burkina Faso Madagascar Libya Armenia Ecuador Albania Uganda Syria Bolivia Zambia Benin Kyrgyz Republic Cambodia Nicaragua Suriname Cameroon Nepal Paraguay Mozambique Lesotho Ethiopia Bangladesh Zimbabwe Burundi Chad

65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127

3.72 3.72 3.72 3.71 3.71 3.69 3.68 3.68 3.67 3.67 3.66 3.60 3.59 3.59 3.58 3.58 3.56 3.55 3.49 3.46 3.46 3.44 3.43 3.38 3.37 3.35 3.34 3.34 3.33 3.32 3.22 3.21 3.21 3.18 3.17 3.17 3.17 3.16 3.12 3.12 3.10 3.10 3.09 3.06 3.06 3.06 3.05 3.02 3.01 2.99 2.96 2.95 2.91 2.89 2.88 2.87 2.82 2.79 2.77 2.65 2.50 2.46 2.40

NRI 20072008 rank (among 2006 countries) 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 n/a 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 n/a 94 95 n/a 96 97 98 n/a 99 100 101 102 n/a 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119

The Networked Readiness Index 2007â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2008 and 2006â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2007 comparison

NRI 2006-2007 Rank

Score

60 61 71 72 64 75 73 70 82 76 66 62 63 67 86 79 69 68 81 78 n/a 83 90 80 84 94 93 95 85 88 89 92 87 n/a 101 91 n/a 98 99 102 n/a 96 97 107 100 n/a 104 112 109 105 106 103 110 113 108 114 115 116 119 118 117 121 122

3.67 3.66 3.53 3.53 3.59 3.46 3.52 3.54 3.40 3.45 3.56 3.59 3.59 3.56 3.27 3.41 3.55 3.55 3.41 3.43 n/a 3.32 3.18 3.41 3.31 3.09 3.12 3.07 3.28 3.23 3.20 3.13 3.25 n/a 2.96 3.13 n/a 3.01 2.97 2.95 n/a 3.07 3.05 2.87 2.97 n/a 2.93 2.75 2.83 2.90 2.88 2.95 2.82 2.74 2.83 2.69 2.64 2.61 2.55 2.55 2.60 2.40 2.16

Evolution, Not Revolution

Bus

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Gl o

Contrary to what you may have heard, the emergence of this Network Reality is not about revolution. There is nothing sudden and violent in its nature. It is much rather about gradual, pervasive and unstoppable change, a multitude of small changes building on top of one another, fundamentally altering our environment. In marketing this means most tools and most methods we have used in the past are still valuable. But the emphasis changes. We need some new tools and solutions for sure, but what we most need is a new perspective. If the world changes around us, we need to evolve to meet the new challenges ourselves. For a new context, for a different reality, we need to redraw our maps and evolve the way we do marketing and , m lis pu communications. creative po ity, ds toward

路 26 路

iv The tren ts, interact measuremen r conte ea gr personalized d s an y platform or nt ge ve an in ch open rate more rol will gene ing is rt ve sumer cont ad e an th xt 5 years th over the ne e last 50. rienced in th pe ex s ha ills and caindustry sk e th at many of th ns ea success m This mainstay of at were the sforan tr t, pabilities th en finem will need re st pa t. e en th in replacem en outright mation or ev

I n s te ad o f A dvert i si ng

OK. Now what? What do I do about it? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to draw a new map!

When studying children, Piaget has identified two distinct phases of learning. Underlying our perception and interaction with the outside world, we all have a map or scheme which helps us make sense of what is happening around us. When this map works fine, we gather and organize information, learn and integrate new things and solve problems by relying on this basic map. This is called assimilation and we spend about 90% or more of our lives in this phase. Sometimes, however, we are faced with situations that do not fit nicely into the system. Situations that force us to admit that the old map does not explain everything as well as it used to and it does not help solving problems as well as it once did. When this happens a lot, it exerts a certain pressure which leads to a point where the old map – however close to our hearts – will have to be torn, transformed and a new one has to be created to take its place. This transformative phase is called accommodation. Transformation is never easy though, especially if you are not a child any more. But there is no way around it, if you feel the pressure rising, so in today’s marketing, it is precisely the thing you need. The upside of going through with it though is the invigorating sense of being in controll and effective once again.

A n Em e rging Ne w Re ality

∙ 29 ∙

10 Principles o f 1. Get Used to Less Control 2. Focus on Business Value. Everything Else Is Just For Show 3. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Let Customer Value and Truth Out of Your Sight 4. Change Is a Constant. Adapt Your Ways 5. Turn Data Into Active Information 6. Just Because It Is Digital, It Is Not Necessarily Better. But Be Prepared For a Digital World 7. Understand the Power of Now 8. Engage, Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Interrupt 9. Harness the Power of Networks 10. Integrate Based on Impact

CSABA M ÁN

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advstea ert d o isin f g INT FO ERA R M CT A N ARK ION D EW ET ES AG BRE ING A IGN EN E CIE D OF ND S

etwork Reality

Get Used to Less Control

21st century customers exercise ever greater control of how they view, interact with and filter advertising in a multichannel world. They continue to shift their attention away from linear TV, adopt ad-skipping, ad-sharing and ad-rating tools. They have a choice and they want to participate. Be it asking, sharing, commenting, recreating, you see the evidence wherever you look. Topics of conversation are increasingly controlled by the Network, not by marketers.

hange”

mate c

for cli ologize

“We ap

∙ 32 ∙

I n s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

Customers can double-check practically any information that reaches them from a couple of other sources, and it takes virtually no cost and no time for them to do so. Just think of mobiles, social networks, or the Internet with Google, blogs and the like. On top of this, anyone may say

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P rinciple 1

∙ 33 ∙

anything about anyone, distort and change anything, so you won’t be able to control the information spread about you in a way you used to be able to. Customers have learned to screen and evade traditional advertising, and will be even better at it as technology will continue to help them. People watch TV and use their remote to switch away from advertising. Customers armed with internet, mobiles and PDAs are much more powerful and well connected players in the marketplace than before. And that, of course, is before On-Demand TV. Networks powerfully enhance or diminish the power of your messages. In other words, word spread through networks may decide your fate.

The Network Has Its Own Voice The voice of the people, if you will, but this combined voice of all people is a voice onto itself. When you search, Google answers your query. When you question, Wikipedia provides the answer. When you’re unsure, blogs, comments or social sites help you find direction. For fun, you turn to YouTube. For connecting with others, you have MySpace and countless others. And how easy it is to share! Look elsewhere and you find word of mouth, opinion leaders, etc. as other, non-digital agents of the network. You have to get over it. The network has its own, powerful, multi-faceted voice over

∙ 34 ∙

In s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

which you have very little control, and it exerts an enormous influence on customer decision-making. The bad news is that you can’t outspend it any more, however much money you devote to the task.

P rinciple 1

∙ 35 ∙

Focus on Business Value. Everything Else Is Just For Show

It sounds like a no-brainer. Of course, everybody is focused on business value! But mainly at the beginning, as targets, and at the end, as results. Transformative thinking comes when you challenge how focused you can be on business value while creating your campaign or communication tools.

Setting Goals Right Is Paramount Be very careful and conscious of how you set your goals. It is not only about setting targets. Be very clear about what you need to achieve: who should change in what way, how they need to think, feel or act in order to achieve the change that will produce tangible business value for you?

Think and Plan Impact Routes How exactly will what you do achieve the impact you need to reach for your business goal? Think of how you create a process, a conversion channel as a result of not only sales, but marketing, PR and sales integrated together. Look to use cost per action metrics where You define what actions are actually valuable to you relative to your goals. If you do so, you will be able to measure real impact and the way to conversion.

â&#x2C6;&#x2122; 36 â&#x2C6;&#x2122;

In s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

More Information Is Not Necessarily Better

Which of the above seems easier to use? Focus on what matters!

Challenge Conventional Wisdom What is awareness really worth to you? Would you significantly increase your chances for a date by standing in the middle of a university campus, yelling your name out loud repeatedly? Sure enough, you’d generate awareness. But what about conversion? Shouldn’t you rather think in terms like purchase intent? See beyond separating media, search marketing, PR or CRM. Think in terms of Customer Touchpoint Management.

Why Are We Not Measuring Things We Know We Should? You can say there is not enough money and not enough resources to really make it valuable. But is it possible that

P rinciple 2

∙ 37 ∙

information and understanding are not good enough investments in today’s business environment? I challenge you to think about whether the reason is not somehow closer to being unconsciously afraid you will uncover things which make the need for change impossible to ignore.

i How To Tie Communication To Business Value When setting your goals for any communication, think about where tangible business value is coming from: • Increased brand value • Valuable and actionable leads • Direct or indirect sales • Building or nurturing valuable relationships - Increasing loyalty or preventing defection - Building attention capital and trust • Increasing customer value by meaningfully improving… - ...service or support functions - ...content and branded utilities • Operational effectiveness

∙ 38 ∙

I n s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are not in the business of keeping media companies alive. We are in the business of connecting with consumers.â&#x20AC;? Trevor Edwards, Vice President, Global Brand&Category Management Nike, October 2007

Don’t Let Customer Value and Truth Out of Your Sight

Customers like being treated as people as opposed to customers. They are concerned about their lives, not your products or communication goals. Anything is important only if it fits in their life in a way that solves their problems or worries, or helps them make their life more enjoyable. Customers also like when they are listened to and even more when they are really heard. They think of themselves as individuals. So they want interaction, conversation and personalization and try to ignore what is uniform or being pushed. Customers increasingly value their privacy. They are concerned with how much you know about them, and what you will do with that knowledge. And for good reason. So ask customers only for information which is valuable to you and always think in fair value exchanges. They are increasingly aware that their information is valuable, so they are not willing to give it to you for free. Localization means more than translating. Localization means communicating the same brand essence well adapted to the local cultural and business context for maximum success.

∙ 40 ∙

In s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

So connect with them based on this understanding • Show them how you can make their life meaningfully better • Be prepared to listen to, cope with and learn from criticism • Respect their privacy • Build trust and relationship

. After one of the customer critique oduct born from pr a hed New Coke in is nc sic lau as ola Cl Coca-Cola or nducted, Coca-C co er ev es rch inferior to Pepsi be sea largest market re of nal Coke flavor to es igi nc or re the efe ed pr ow ste tests sh cording to the ta ac d ge 1985. Blind taste an ch d ly cte du e recipe was ly and unexpe Royal Crown. Th way to an unseem d sales Coke was on its w ay from them an Ne aw d n an ke rs ta me ing l be custo na igi y. or eg the at str ted rs resis d reverse the disaster. Custome n was to listen an g. The only optio were fast declinin

P rinciple 3

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;In a world where it is so easy to gain personal experience of an event, brand or product - and to swiftly share this experience with all those connected to the internet - advertising as myth-making is doomedâ&#x20AC;?. Nick Emmel and Toby Harry, Planning Directors, Dare

Customers talk talk to to each each other other and and will will find find you you out out

Look Beyond Advertising Use marketing to deliver real value. In other words, build marketing into your product and add value through content. Customers do not separate marketing experience from product experience. Use marketing to deliver real value. In other words, build marketing into your product and add value through content. Apple for example is thinking abuot how to make its iPhone into a full “lifestyle companion” device that can monitor your health condition, act as a fitness trainer or a diet consultant, even shape your shopping habits.

orth markable is w “Something re g. in tic Worth no talking about. It’s a g. in st re te In ew. Exceptional. N ring stuff is Purple Cow. Bo own Cow. Br invisible. It’s a g is the art of tin ke ar m e …Remarkabl ticing right no th wor building things ” uct or service. into your prod , 2002 w Co le rp Pu Seth Godin,

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What we sell is the ability for a 43 year old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him. Harley Davidson

Simplicity Is the Art of Complexity Your business is complex, no doubt about that. But it will not do you much good to hide behind that fact. Instead, understand its complexity, yet - to be able to get through to your customers - face the challenge of remaining clear and simple. The key words here are focus, focus and focus. Let customer value be your compass! It is the engine that drives your car. As a first step, try seeing yourself through your customers’ eyes. Translate your product features to benefits for your customers and work with the full range of benefits from functional through emotional to inspirational. Use branding as a tool if you want to find your way out of the labyrinth.

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Change Is a Constant. Adapt Your Ways

We are not living in a stable environment, so you should stop planning as if it was one. As an example, web 2.0 is here with all the hype about it. But web 3.0 and 4.0 are coming, and they will be even more interesting and more effective. As needs are increasingly fulfilled, the main motivator behind decision making gradually shifts from “What do I need ‘for my survival’” towards “How can I make my life more enjoyable?”. New is exciting and - as the FoMo (Fear Of Missing Out) ‘epidemic’ keeps spreading and getting stronger - ever shorter cycles of novelty create demand for constant innovation, new and entertaining ways of communication, short-life hit products and brands. Our environment is changing faster than we can plan, faster even than we can respond. So we need strategies of change. We need to anticipate and need to plan for constant evolution based on meaningful understanding on one side and feedback on the other.

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Madonna accepted and mastered a changing world

And one who needs to

Source: Zyman Group

“Oth the p er playe r u is go ck is. I s go to w g ing t o be o where here .” W t ayn he puck e Gr etzk y

Think Biological Think of demand as an evolving, interconnected ecosystem based on your customers’ lives, not as a function of your product.

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Shift Happens • China will soon become the number one English speaking country. And the most popular blog all over the world in 2006 was Xu Jinglei’s chinese actresses blog. It reached 50 million page views. • During the next 40 minutes 300 babies will be born in the USA, 1220 in China, 1755 in India. • The top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004 • There are about 3 billion searches performed on Google each month. • More data will be generated this year worldwide than in the past 5000 years. • The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.

Popu latio n

BUD num A ber o IWIW PEST f hab debrecen 1, 69 itants mi freemail 3,5 m llion ill 0,20 4 mi ion l tok 1,7 m lion yo illion myspace new 35,7 yor m k 185 m illion illio 18,8 milli n on

Turn Data Into Active Information

You cannot manage a changing environment without data and information. Luckily, in the digital age, you can gather lots of data. So you should. But most times, one - or a few - key pieces of information, properly concentrated on in time, are much more useful than a lot of data.

It Is Not Data You Actually Need Data has to be processed and turned into relevant information. Even relevant is not enough. What you’re looking for is active information, screened, relevant data delivered in time to people in places where and who are capable and willing to act upon it. In other words you need information which helps meaningful understanding or triggers effective action.

Active Information Is Your Lifeline data » relevant information » active information

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8 Steps to Active Information 1. Decide and plan what data to gather. How, where and when. 2. Be aware that the act of measuring itself may influence the result. 3. Make sure you have clean and accurate data. 4. Look for insights • The gist is hiding in 20% or less of your data. • The goal of analysis is to find simple, actionable insights. • Insight is what induces meaningful understanding and/or triggers relevant action. 5. Focus on behavioral and motivational patterns • Build more on what people do than what they say. 6. Never forget about context. 7. Weigh carefully what your intuition suggests • That is, if you are in living contact with what you are analyzing. 8. All the above is only worth anything if you are consciously planning on how it will prompt effective action (who, when and where based on capability and willingness).

TESCO In England Is a Rare Good Example Just to provide a glimpse into the sophisticated system at work: a card based CRM system operates building on lifestyle segmentation and behavioral monitoring. Using this system, quarterly off and online Direct Mails with highly targeted discount offers based on personal likes and needs of the

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targets are delivered to nearly 10 million active users in more than 1 million mutations. Coupon redemptions are also traced back to the database and new personalized offers are created based on these data. As a result, Tesco overtook Sainsbury’s as market leader. Basket value of cardholders exceeds average customer basket values by 20% and voucher redemption is around 90%.

Tourism Is an Industry Relevant to Everyone Thus everyone understands the significance of attractions which lie at the heart of the market potential of every destination. As a consequence, considerable time and effort is devoted to gathering data and creating attraction inventories. As things go, however, we have vast pools of data containing little churches, statues and small, indistinct folk art museums in every village. We have lots of data, but what can you do with it? The little church which seems special from inside the village has absolutely no appeal or motivating force from the outside. But what about a marginal piece of data, like one village, about a 40-minute drive from Budapest (with a nice little church and ambient atmosphere), called ‘Happiness’? Add to it a development strategy based on hosting weddings and anniversaries and you have created a differentiating, far more motivating, well targetable, actionable attraction.

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# Observe and Listen “We don’t ask consumers what they want. They don’t know. Instead we appl y our brain power to what they need, and will want, then make sure we’re there, ready.”Akito Morita, Co-Founder, Sony Corporatio ns “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’ t know what they want until you show it to them .” Steve Jobs, Co-Founder Chairman & CEO, Apple, May , 1998

is ment anage m mation y success . Infor e k century ? the f st o 1 2 e it on the about rs of oing d u facto o are y What

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Just Because It Is Digital, It Is Not Necessarily Better. But Be Prepared For a Digital World

The digital age is not solely about digital communication tools. Digital platforms may become ever more dominant, but all communication channels will still have their advantages and disadvantages. Smart marketers change their ways and consciously use channels and tools for what they are best for with the target, the communication process and the end result in sight.

“[Digital] is the centerpiece of a broader campaign. I think that’s become a real integral part of how we use the web, moving beyond just promoting web addresses in TV spots or print ads to really making them a critical part of the storytelling for the brands.” Rob Master, Media Director, North America, Unilever, March, 2008

Yet, you cannot afford not to be aware of what the digital age can offer you. Among others...

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• Search marketing is unique in connecting with customers based on need, in other words when they are actively searching for what you offer. It does not yet know who you are, where you are and what really drives you. But it will soon! Yahoo Mindset, for example, is a very interesting experiment in that direction, trying to factor intent into the search results. • Digital monitoring makes individual and behavior based targeting, mass customization and personalized Customer Relationship Management possible as well as cost effective. • Mobile Internet and on-demand TV are coming, so keep your eyes open.

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☛

As a result of the economic downturn at the end of 2008, the trend toward digital seems to take another impetus: Epsilon CMO reports that 65% of Chief Marketing Officers admit their “ad budgets will decrease because of the troubled economy, but more of their money will go toward digital/ interactive marketing than before”.

ave an’t S You C mpty E n In a Souls h Churc e of the r a w a Be hat ons of w limitati rks and o really w lly is ea what r band . Broad w le b a il ne ava d n ility a availab ften do not o gadgets rfectly or e work p le do w peop o h e m so em th te gra not inte ves. li ir e into th s not blic ha The pu mms in d adopte astern lE a tr n Ce tant and ins Europe are not as es messag d in the US use ly e id w ecause urope b not as in E a ans c n Americ xt their te be sure the to e gets messag ded inten ss nt acro s. recipie darie n u o b k networ

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And remember, at the end AOL bought Time Warner, not vice versa.

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“Futurology ha s a built-in di stortion towar technological ds novelty, while ignoring the continued appe al of what ha s gone before It cannot reco . gnise what th e historian David Edgert on of Imperial College has dubbed “th e shock of the Our demands old.” rarely change over time, on way in which ly the the market su pplies them.” Simon Jenk ins, Times O nline

Books outsell every product on the internet

Nielsen Online

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â&#x2C6;&#x2122; 57 â&#x2C6;&#x2122;

Understand the Power of NOW

A sad fact of life for marketers (and a more happy news for customers): Changing, now, is easy. Think about the Internet. Your alternative is barely a click away and the BACK button is the king. Think about TV and you need go no further than 60 cable channels and a remote control. Think about shopping and you find hyper and supermarkets offering a variety of brands and products for any given need. Quality is cost of entry and traditional loyalty, across most product categories, is down.

The Perceived Cost of Waiting It is rapidly rising. Stimuli and information are abundant. We are used to getting what we want instantly and do not like waiting around for it anymore. So be it information or product, making your customers wait will reduce your success rate significantly. Just think of how many more letters we send when we can do it instantly through e-mail and sms, versus writing and mailing letters via post.

Convenience and Impulse Are Great Motivators There is a much greater demand for things that can be had NOW. Or put another way: you want less of what you have to wait for. Find ways to make whatever it is your offering easy and available.

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Source: Zyman Group

On the strategic level…

Bill Gates

Robert Woodruff

Sam Walton

wanted ‘a computer in every home’

wanted ‘a Coke within an arm’s reach of desire’

wanted to be ‘everywhere we are not’

... and on the tactical side • Impulse decisions are increasingly relevant from tourism to FMCG • Think of how many times you are deterred by queues or having to go for it somewhere else • However good that flash looks, your customers will not wait around to find out if it takes too long to load • YouTube is designed to be simple to include users with less than perfect connections as well

Engage, Don’t Interrupt

We live in an era of information overload. Also, we have a limit to our ability to process information and there is a limit to how many fields of awareness we can handle simultaneously. So we adapt by evading, screening and resisting disruptive information (unless, of course, that is what we are looking for). When too much information is competing for our attention, we simply, consciously or unconsciously, ignore or dismiss irrelevant things. If they persist, we may even start resisting and disliking them. The traditional way of looking at advertising is trying to interrupt and capture the customers’ attention. But this approach is exactly what becomes increasingly ineffective as customers change their ways while adapting to information overload. Your solution is to change the approach and engage rather than interrupt. That, however, works according to a different logic.

Buying versus Earning Audiences Marketers are used to buying the attention of their customers and audiences. It’s simple. You pay the media and they deliver. Sadly, this is not the case any more! At least it is far from what it used to be. Customers have a choice and they

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choose not to watch if they are not interested. They have to want to hear what you have to say. So you have to earn their attention by delivering something they want. At the opposite end, unwanted, irrelevant and intrusive messages not only don’t work most of the time, but also irritate customers.

media

➜

Banner

TV Billboard

➜

ADVERTISER

CUSTOMER

∙ 0.2-0.4% click-through rate ∙ 6% active viewers ∙ 80% fast forward ads on Digital TV ∙ 7 out of 10 don’t remember

Channels You Thought You Could Control When advertising comes on traditional TV channels, out of 100 people watching 50 start switching channels, 25 leave the room, 11 stop paying attention, 8 start doing something else and only 6, 6% of who you pay for, watches your advertising actively. It has been shown to be as bad as 7 in 10 people not being able to recall a billboard, even when prompted, which they have previously passed by. This, however, does not mean you should stop spending on TV or billboards, but you certainly should know what exactly you are using them for.

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g logic dvertisin t how a dia people u o d in F e out n you (M works o banners are ab y a s might ions) impress en on ently be you rec 1. Have rnet? ou saw… the Inte anner y b a e m 2. Na ing logic advertis w o h is t Tha n you works o

Even banners used with the classic advertising logic produce only about 0,2% click-throughs. But when you use the web in an interactive way, users are in control and they actively choose to watch. So if you calculate backwards, you should compare the reach you have on the web with roughly 6% of the reach you have been sold on TV.

Key Words For the Future: Relevance & Credibility

Understand where, when and how you fit into your customer’s life and understand what makes something credible for your customers. Everybody talks to them. The question is who they will listen to. So build trust and credibility with your targets and map what their most important information sources are. In a world of information and product overload, they are dependent on them. What are their sources? Google, Facebook, YouTube, Mammut, Tesco, CNN, someone’s blog - a different media landscape requires a different attitude to prosper in it.

Be Where and When They Are Ready For You Think about your customers’ life situations. Understand them in the context of their daily lives. Target the situations when they are ready for you, when they are in the right mindset. Be aware, it changes from day to day, season to season, even from morning through the day.

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g not sendin Pontiac is k m in co th c. u a o ti Why do y www.pon directly to customers ad? V T r of thei Amazon at the end .com doe s it

When IK E selling c A is thinking a b astle be ds for k out affluent, ids to middle class ‘ba parents lan in would b the suburbs, th cer’ e right to ey people u assume se their these cars to work in go to th the radio e city and liste n to on the w does ma ay. But tte it them. In r when you ta lk to the mor ning, on way to wo th their da rk, thinking ab e y and ch out a office? O llenges at r thinking on the way hom the e, about th thinking e kids, e ven about h o up to th e family w to make it for bein once ag g late ain?

well

Farm Your Existing Relationships It is rich soil. But a relationship with a customer is just like any other. The most expensive customer is a new one, and the hardest sell of all is the first one. So treat your relationships with customers as partnerships based on real value exchange. Smartly managed they can last a lifetime - and continue to grow.

Wunderman’s research shows that about 4 out of 5 people would not leave your brand if only their problems and grievances were listened to and

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Which of the following is more likely to yield the greatest result if you are a church looking for donations?

• Go on a mission and convert new people • Ask more people to come to service • Ask more from people already attending your church

Are you managing your marketing at the right balance?

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were asked not to leave. So are you wasting money through loyalty programs to talk to people who are not even thinking about leaving? Even worse, is it possible that you are not using the money spent on these programs to target situations where it really makes a difference? If yes, you are losing customers and wasting money simultaneously.

Think of how you communicate after you have made the sale. Are you building a relationship? Do you know anything about him or her? Are you using your credibility and knowledge to sell more?

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Harness the Power of Networks

If information spreading through the network is so influential, you should try to harness its power. The increasing importance of consumer generated content and social networks on the Internet opens up an important new way of effective communication and marketing. Network Enhanced Messaging, though less controllable, intrinsically carries relevance and credibility with customers. Word of mouth, both digitally enhanced and traditional, viral marketing, blogs, social media like IWIW, FaceBook or Tripadvisor provide a challenge and an opportunity to marketers at the same time.

An industry relevant to everyone Information search in tourism

Family and friends

The Web

TV show or movie

Article in newspaper or magazine

Special package offer

Travel agent

Advertising

35%

18%

13%

10%

Other

THE TOP EIGHT WAYS SOMEONE INITIALLY BECOMES INTERESTED IN A DESTINATION: Network is responsible for 75% Source: Future Brand 2007

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Search marketing, memetic marketing, network based PR and using the power of listening through opinion panels, for example, are also ways to break out of the traditional, pushy, thereby mistrusted and resented advertising mindset.

Find Your Primary Influencers and Opinion Leaders Go beyond demographics and transcend even psychographics. Reveal and understand the ‘network positions’ of your segments. Who influences whom and how? When a publishing company asks opinion leaders of a certain segment to share their opinions about book cover alternatives, experience shows they value being listened to, like being insiders and will act as proud, credible advocates when the book finally comes out.

authentics alternatives balancers actualizers

Source: Garrison Group

fulfillers

revitalisers

How do Travel trends spread in a network

chardonnay girls

givers

peacocks

graspers

nesters

breakout guiders

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chardonnay girls alternatives

authentics balancers

peacocks

fulfillers givers

guiders actualizers

graspers

nesters revitalisers

breakout

How do Fashion trends spread in a network Source: Garrison Group

Apple plans to boost iPhone product development by launching a $100 million venture capital fund which will invest in companies with market-changing ideas and products that extend the iPhone and iPod touch platform. Fiat involved fans of the brand in the development process of the New Fiat 500 worldwide. It was the first direct opinion panel program in the car industry. Today, Fiat cannot produce enough of this model to satisfy needs.

When the Company Is the Customer Probably one of the most striking examples that listening and collaborating may produce business results is provided by Threadless, a company making T-shirts since 2000. Threadlessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; business model is simple enough. The innovative genius in it comes from simply disregarding the basic

â&#x2C6;&#x2122; 70 â&#x2C6;&#x2122;

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business precept that ’employees make stuff and customers buy it’. It runs design competitions on an online social network. Members of the network submit their ideas for T-shirts – hundreds each week – and then vote on which ones they like best. Hundreds of thousands of people have come to use the site as a kind of community center, where they blogged, chatted about designs, socialized with their fellow enthusiasts – and bought a ton of shirts at $15 each. Revenue has been growing 500 percent a year, despite the fact that the company had never advertised, employed no photographers, had no sales force, and enjoyed no retail distribution. As result, costs were low, margins were above 30 percent, and – because community members told them precisely which shirts to make – every product eventually sold out. The company had never produced a flop.

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The Right Partnerships Can Save Millions In today’s world every brand is a medium in itself. Finding the right partnerships can multiply the power of your voice through mutual advantages and without costing a fortune. So find your perfect partners and save on media. Google became known throughout the world mainly through partnerships, and it did not cost a dime. But partnerships only work when they are the right fit: Google did it with AOL, Häagen Dazs with Baileys, Real Madrid with Beckham, Intel with IBM. Partnerships with no fits and misfits may do nothing at all or even worse, cause damage could Mercedes work with McDonald’s or Santana with Britney Spears?

Dove Evolu tion g $150 ene m adver illion worth rated over tising . Do Y of free engag ou in (a quic g advertis have ing? k test f 1. Wo uld pe rom Ogilvy ople c ) your a ome d 2. Wo vertising o to watch nlin uld to spr people like e? ead it it eno ? ugh 3. Wil l it spoof inspire the it? m to

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Plan a Message That Travels Dove Evolution, Mac versus PC, the gorilla ad for Cadbury’s (look it up in Google if you don’t know) travelled and generated huge, actively watching audiences. A classic example, Hotmail’s message of easy and free e-mail accounts travelled in a credible and experiential way by each mail subscribers sent. Doritos, when launching a new line of chips, instead

In s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

of introducing one new flavor, decided to come out with two and ask customers to decide – over a given period – which one they liked better and would prefer to keep on the shelves.

The Long Tail Phenomenon Understand the power and significance of niche markets which are now, in the digital world, possible to reach effectively. Use channels for effective targeting to their full potential. People are more likely to screen mass massages without specific relevance. The Long Tail phenomenon shows that if you can target small niches cost-effectively, the combined effect of small sales may outweigh even the results from the most robust-selling products of your portfolio. Amazon sells more copies of the books sold in small numbers than the best selling ones.

57% of Amazon’s book sales are in the Long Tail, defined as beyond the 100,000 books available in the typical Barnes and Noble superstore.

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10.

Integrate Based On Impact

Convincing customers is not a one-time effort. Not even the combined result of many one-times. It is an integrated process, much like a conversation or a dating game. So integrate based on the process of customer information gathering, opinion forming and decision making. Integrate based on impact, not visuals. Think about what happens after the first “click” (on an ad or a search result or any other first touchpoint for that matter). Much more money is spent on attaining the first “click” than on how to capitalize on it. Does that not sound like wasting expensive attention? If you are already talking, think about how you build a conversation, how you will build up your case? But think also carefully about what happens before the last „click”. Measurements trying to focus on conversion often fall into that trap. Sure enough, it is easy to see the connection there, but the last specific action that led to conversion may not tell you the whole story. Your customer had to get to that point somehow. Different phases in the decision making process require different solutions. Branding and generic keywords in search marketing (like ’travel’) may serve just as important role for propelling customers past the earlier phases as packaging, shelf placement or specific keywords (like

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Dialogue as a process adjusted to the decision making scenarios

follow through

customer

listen

interest

consider

decide

bond

task of marketing

open

engage

convince

convert

care

key factor

attention

relevance

value

does

importance

relationship

*Open as opposed to disrupt or capture, refers to opening a platform of communication and finding/ creating situatinons where costumers are open to what you have to say

mallorca-hotels) for direct conversions. Learn how you can integrate them, think in conversion funnels and try adjusting your measurement tools too. From traditional CPM metrics (cost per thousand impressions), we are already passing the idea of CPC (cost per clicks) and entering the domain of thinking in CPAs (cost per valuable action). Of course, for the latter to make sense, you have to plan impact routes and think in conversion channels not only relative to sales, but also to PR and marketing.

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Even for packaging one should think of a process based on the dialogue logic. The hardest working packages follow a natural reading sequence. The shopper… Notices the package » Asks “What is it?” » Wonders “Why should I care?” » Wants to be persuaded » Needs proof

ROPO effect

Research Online » Purchase Offline

Get Experiential Experience overrides any other form of communication. So explain what you have to say through involving your customers in an experience. On the other hand, everything communicates. The combined effect of all the little interactions customers have with your brand (and share with others) adds up to an overall experience. So think in terms of the entire experience of the customer with your brand as one, and ensure Ever wondered how everything delivers and the entire come Google has become this big and you don’t experience works the way your remember much brand promises to. Google advertising?

It’s those little interactions, every time you searched, and sharing with others through the network.

Thinking in terms of customer experience will help you shift the focus from the seller to the user, to find the most effective customer touch points and come up with new ways to add value. Domino’s Pizza configurator and Harley-Davidson’s trip

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ou...

ise y

what

rom hey p

... what you re

ally get

Source: Zyman Gro

planner are both great examples for this and the idea behind Nike+ is also the result of thinking in the whole experience surrounding running. After all, experience is what you really sell.

‘Customize’ Is Just As Important As ‘Synergize’ An integrated campaign is important, but so is offering customized ways for customers to reach you. They are increasingly looking for and expecting personalized and customized offers and communication. If you are not doing it, someone else will pretty soon.

And remember, boring

may not be boring at the moment of truth. P rinciple 10

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What Marketers Can

n Do About All This Interaction Design for Marketing and a New Breed of Agencies

Marketers can accept that consumers and networks are much more powerful now and allow them to control their prospects

â&#x2C6;&#x2122; 80 â&#x2C6;&#x2122;

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or they can spend their money in smarter ways.

Free Your Mind Adjust Your Mindset to a Different World So what can you do if customers are bored with your brand or what you are saying? What if they talk to each other and you lose control? What if competitive pressure is rising and you are the one responsible to do something about it? The idea is to get results, not just to use a wider variety of communication tools. The first step, as any psychologist will tell you, is accepting and facing reality: the world has already changed around us. The second is to draw the new map - your own map - of the new world by grasping how the new principles of success apply to you, your industry and challenges. But even if you have come so far, the most important question still remains. When 9 a.m. Monday morning comes, how do you translate the new approach into how you actually do your job? How can you adjust your everyday working logic?

Fre e You r M ind

â&#x2C6;&#x2122; 81 â&#x2C6;&#x2122;

Reverse Your Thinking Instead of focusing on communication channels and activities, focus on relationships and experience. Instead of channels, think about touchpoints for building and nurturing relationships. Instead of customary activities, think of what you should do this year to involve your customers in a meaningful experience. In this sense, integrated communication does not simply mean using - or at least considering - all communication channels, but seeing and managing the communication landscape as one integrated and continuously evolving system that may connect you with your customer. Instead of total control, learn to collaborate with your customers. Earn attention when you can, instead of buying it. Instead of just reaching your audiences,  create messages that are able to travel and survive in a social context largely independent of you. Find ways of involving your customers in improving yourself and spreading your message. Instead of placing product or service at the center, start with your customers. Instead of art and copy, put insights into customer behaviour and media environment at the core of the campaign.

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Old marketing with advertising logic

New marketing with interaction logic

product

packaging

distribution

crm

advertising

interactions

customer

The Age of Advertising Is Coming to an End You have to start doing marketing: listen to and observe your customers; understand them; think of how you can engage them and how you can find ways to create valuable forms of interactions; gather data and turn it into active information; and based on this understanding, build marketing into your product through innovation.

Instead of setting budgets first and planning your projects on that basis, identify the drives and projects that you need to make the greatest impact and allocate available budgets accordingly. So instead of locking yourself in the advertising mindset, consider the alternative.

Fre e You r M ind

â&#x2C6;&#x2122; 83 â&#x2C6;&#x2122;

The best way

to deal with

changeâ&#x20AC;Ś â&#x20AC;Ś be

the one

making the

change

A New Breed of Agencies … Is Called For to Tackle the Old Challenges One of the most important difficulties in reversing your thinking for a more effective marketing logic is that it usually doesn’t fit the system of how advertising agencies work. Even if lately traditional boundaries between agencies have started to blur. Fortunately, however, this time marketers are the clients, so they have the power to call the shots if - and that is the key - they know what they really want. So what should you expect, as a client, from an advertising agency in the 21st century. The basic answer is the same as ever: competitive advantage. What has changed though is how that competitive advantage is achieved. Good advertising is not the answer any more, for competitive advantage is not rooted in advertising itself, but, simply put, in how you connect with customers. So in a different world, instead of doing “killer advertising”, it is time agencies started focusing precisely on just that: how the brand can meaningfully connect with customers for competitive advantage and business results across all possible touchpoints. The problem comes from the advertising industry not being traditionally built for that. It has been built around doing

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advertising, around various executional capabilities such as event organization, creating TV ads or web pages, which carry an intrinsic bias to the strategic level. Sure enough, a lot of agencies talk about integrated planning, but if you look at what they do, where their money actually comes from, you will see where their bias lies. You should justly be surprised if an ATL agency doesn’t somehow find producing films or magazine ads as one of the best touchpoints. So will BTL agencies take you towards events, promotions and Direct Mail, while digital agencies will always arrive at the power of the internet. In the real world, however, that is not how customers connect. They are not focused on consuming advertising and they are

Does ATL and BTL mean anything for you? What line are we talking about when we say above the line or below the line? Originally, it was the agency profit line above which ATL made profits, and BTL, below, did not. Obviously, times have changed and BTL is making good money too. But does it make any sense to you, if you are a client, to think along these lines. Break out of the conventional categories and start focusing on what matters to You.

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not as easily formed by advertising as they used to be. They have become better connected, more powerful and more suspicious. They connect to you and form opinions – ever more consciously – through various, direct and indirect interactions between them and your brand (ranging from product experience through advertising and word-of-mouth down to all sorts of micro interactions). They channel all of these into one overall experience they base their decisions on. Anything and everything you do - or not do for that matter communicates and builds or hurts your brand, together with the relationship to The your customers. Significance of Micro Interactions

In the 21st century the right David Armano defines micro interactions as follows: questions to ask go beyond „We live in a world where little traditional advertising things really do matter. Each encounter no matter how brief is a micro interaction which thinking. What interaction makes a deposit or withdrawal from our rational and emotional subconscious. The points or touchpoints are sum of these interactions and encounters adds the most impactful and costsignificantly to how we feel about a particular product, brand or service. Little effective for what you want to things. Feelings. They influence our achieve? And what kind of everyday behaviours more than we realize.” interactions or experiences do you need at these touchpoints to stay focused, but best build your brand and drive your sales? Interaction Design for Marketing is an approach and methodology developed to provide the most effective, unbiased answers for these questions. Hence I call this new breed of agencies an Interaction Design Agency. chnique.” ks of the te t to e art is no nciple of th r ri p t rs fi e “Th schola uzuki, Zen Daisetz S

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rely on tr

Don’t Mistake Design For Decoration Too many of us in marketing do not consciously make the important distinction between the two concepts and regard design as Interaction Design for Marketing something you I have borrowed the term ‘interaction design’ spread on the from technology and product development and applied it to the concept of marketing. The surface, like icing original meaning is defined by Wikipedia as follows: “Interaction Design is the discipline of on a cake. It may be defining the behavior of products and systems nice, it is a must, but it that a user can interact with. The practice typically centers around complex technology is not mission-critical. systems such as software, mobile devices, and That, however, is what other electronic devices. However, it can also apply to other types of products and services, Garr Reynolds calls in and even organizations themselves. Interaction his book “Presentadesign defines the behavior (the “interaction”) of an artifact or system in response to its users.” tion Zen” decoration, Interaction Design for Marketing thus refers to rather than design. the approach which views, plans and manages marketing communications as the complex web “Decoration, for better of interactions between a brand or a company and its customers (or any other constituents). or worse, is noticeable – sometimes enjoyable, sometimes irritating, but it is unmistakably there.” The best designs, on the other hand, are so well done that “the design” is never consciously noticed by the observer. It feels natural. You know when it works by finding yourself concentrating on the message, not the messenger. Good design comes in the beginning, not at the end. It is not a visual afterthought. It is the clear vision of the form and the fabric of the message that is rendered through various forms of execution like visual expression.

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Focused On How To Connect With Customers Stones and Pillars of Interaction Design for Marketing The single idea behind Interaction Design for Marketing is keeping a tight focus on meaningfully connecting your business goals with the right customers. By customers I mean whoever you want something from. It may be their money, their support, their vote or their agreement, the truth of the matter is it all depends on their decisions. That is why your customers are the basic and most important foundation you build your business on. At the other end, you find your business goals, the things you want to achieve. Fittingly enough, both of these may be characterized by a “Why” question. Your business goals describe why you are in business, while the most important question with respect to customers is why they should care. Connecting these two, ranging from strategic to tactical, are three levels of activities, all of which may be improved by applying the Interaction Design approach. A deep understanding of branding is key in 21st century marketing whether it is about activating a brand strategy or developing

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one. Branding and positioning are about finding clear and focused answers to the questions of who you are, where you compete, who may be your customers, why you matter to them, what is different, special and valuable about you from your customers’ perspective. Interaction Design promotes active branding which views brands as living entities and provides strategies for a multi-faced, constantly changing environment. Active branding is not about stamping a trademark on anything that moves and not even simply finding some well-put phrases to fill in the blanks in one of the ingenious brand system tools. It is first about finding your zag when others zig - as Marty Neumeier outlines in his book “Zag” - by building on a powerful trend, by radically differentiating yourself through finding a way to be the only one who offers that particular value to customers,

Business Goals & Strategy (Why?) Applied at the strategic level

Active Branding Creative Engagement (What and How?)

Applied at the tactical level

Integrated Advertising and Communications Interactive Communications

Customer Touchpoint Management (Who and Where?)

Customers (Why?)

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and finally, if you have found your spot, by not letting your focus slacken. Second, it is about managing all relationships between the company and its constituents by conducting an on-going conversation among many people over many channels. The next level is that of communication strategy. Interaction Design makes integrated communications and advertising mold all classic and all innovative tools and channels of communications (from TV to the internet, including even PR, research or CRM) into one integrated system focusing on how it creates a complex web of interactions with customers while always keeping a close eye on how to reach maximum impact and business value. Finally, the most tactical level is that of the individual pieces of communication. Any time, any place where brand and customer get in touch is an act of communication. Interaction design views these occasions as interactions: an action and a corresponding reaction or the lack of it. Although nowadays the term ‘interactive’ is generally associated with digital, interactive is not limited to the digital world. Almost any piece of communication can be approached and enhanced by the interactive mindset. Naturally, no one suggests that a traditional television ad can regularly make viewers jump from their sofas right away to pick up the phone, but it may motivate them to visit the website and continue the conversation for instance. Interaction Design focuses on interactive communications in this sense. Still, it is

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worth keeping in mind that we are in the digital age when ‘digital’ (internet, mobile, on-demand TV etc.) is rapidly becoming the most important communication platform - a virtual world onto itself - which, by its very nature, offers an environment characterized by a complex web of interactions. This way digital communication tools require the interaction design approach to an even greater extent than others.

Business Goals & Strategy (Why?) Applied at the strategic level

Active Branding Creative Engagement (What and How?)

Applied at the tactical level

Integrated Advertising and Communications Interactive Communications

Customer Touchpoint Management (Who and Where?)

Customers (Why?)

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According to Interaction Design, your success depends on the same two factors at all three levels: how well you perform with respect to Customer Touchpoint Management and Creative Engagement. The former provides answers to the questions ‘Who’ and ‘Where’, the latter is about finding solutions to ‘What’ and ‘How’. When branding, it is for whom - and where in their lives - you may be valuable and what you need to be, how you should deliver to fulfill that potential. In case of a single piece of communication the questions sound like whom you are talking to, where they are when you reach them (location, situation, time of day), what your message is and how you say it. In other words Customer Touchpoint Management identifies the most valuable target customers and comes up with the most impactful customer touchpoints - aligned with the decision making process - across the whole spectrum of opportunities (from PR and media through research, CRM, events, internet, search marketing or TV advertising even to product experience or network-based communications like word-of-mouth, social, viral or opinion panels) and builds them into an integrated, synergic system. As a complement, Creative Engagement provides the most impactful creative content and ways of interaction relative to those customers and touchpoints which goes beyond, but naturally includes traditional, advertising-minded creative. Thus, with the combined power of Customer Touchpoint Management and Creative Engagement, you can look

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beyond what ATL, BTL or digital agencies can offer. An Interaction Design agency works with a different structure than traditional advertising agencies to overcome the problems of bias and cost-effectiveness. It keeps its focus on Customer Touchpoint Management and Creative Engagement, where competitive advantage is vested, while working with a web of best-of-breed specialist partners (much like how the Hollywood movie industry is organized) - so you won’t be limited by its intrinsic bias and it is able to find the most cost-effective and reliable executional solution to each and every challenge. Your competitive advantage does not ride on execution. There are plenty of those able to provide good executional solutions, whether it is PR, media, film, IT development or event management. What matters is knowing what you need to do, finding the right people for the job and making sure they work in synergy. The Working Logic of Interaction Design for Marketing Goals, Targets & Understanding

Customer Touchpoint Management

Creative Engagement

Coordinating Execution

Network of Best-of-Breed Specialists Media & Search

Production

Research

PR & Networking

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If a man does not

know to what port

he is steering,

no wind is favourable to him.

Seneca

Goals, Targets and Understanding The First Chance to Lose Your Way Being in business is much like going on a journey through a specific, but clearly jungle-like terrain. You may just wander around trying to find some fun or make some money, but if you want to be effective you have to know where you are going. Keeping an eye on your destination renders focus to everything you do. So setting your goal right is vital. You can run into all sorts of problems later in the process if you don’t. Yet, these issues generally get far less time, effort and attention than they deserve based on how great an impact they have on success. The first and most important, yet often overlooked challenge is differentiating between goals and targets. Whereas targets are measurable numbers based on expectations, such as profit, market share or visitors, goals refer to a clear idea and a tangible description of where and what you need to be to succeed, based on a profound understanding of what is meaningful and possible, even if it seems improbable at one point. Goal is winning the game; target is gathering 3 points. Goal is playing well with the right tactics; target is winning by 4 goals. Goal is the ball over the line; target is the points you get for it.

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The second is recognizing you need both at the same time. Goals and targets go hand in hand. Whether you talk about strategy or tactics, they are two halves of the same thing and work best together each playing its own role. Targets represent the expectations derived from why you are in business (or embark on that particular activity), thereby provide the necessary focus on results and business value. Therefore goals may be too vague and unmanageable without clearly defined targets. Yet, when you look at the big picture, targets alone - though easier to manage - are not enough either. They are not compatible with real life situations. Targets do not inspire, targets do not foster collaboration based on a shared idea of the future. They serve as a means for pressure rather than orientation, because they are less focused on growing or creating than on harvesting. Goals, on the other hand, are the design of a future state that will make reaching your targets possible. In a sense, making your targets is the byproduct of setting and accomplishing the right goals. Couple of decades ago Bangkok needed to be the cultural, economic and transportation hub representing a new, dynamic region South East Asia in order to achieve, for instance, tourism income target numbers. Google at first needed to have the best search engine to reach its profit numbers. Then it moved on to be the best platform for information management “outside the office” (information search, personal e-mails, Google Earth, You Tube etc.) - as information management “inside the office” has already been taken by Microsoft.

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This same logic applies at every level of marketing communication, from strategies to tactics. A clear vision helps to navigate the company to a situation which makes paying the expected dividends, building the expected brand or company value possible. Also, making your profit, market share or any other target numbers rests on what market position you occupy, what brand experience you can deliver, what workflow you use and so on. In case of a campaign or an individual piece of communication, your goal should be centered around the definition of the impact you need to make, the change you need to inspire in order to bring about the intended results. Generally speaking, you need to have a clear idea on who should change in what way, how they should think, feel or act differently as a result of your communication with them.

Examples for goals and targets at different levels

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Goals

Targets

Vision

Dividends, Brand Value, Company Price

Market position, Brand Experience, Workflow, Organizational Model, Customer Value

Market Share, Revenue and Profit Numbers, Cost Effectiveness

Impact on customer (purchase intent, purchase behaviour, brand perception & associations, relationship)

Number of Leads, Visitors etc., Sales Numbers, Key Brand Indicators, Customer Retention etc.

I n s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

The problem comes if roles are confused or any of the two receives less attention than needed. All too often companies set targets without clearly defined goals. Understandably so: setting targets is relatively easy. You just need to define your expectations. Setting the right goals, however, is rather difficult. It is a creative process for which you need a good grasp of who you are, what you are capable of, who your customers may be, how you may be valuable to them and a good understanding of the circumstances, the trends and the environment. Yet, the lack of clearly defined goals generally result in a lower level of inspiration, orientation and collaboration, while causing constituents rather to follow customary routines, divergent or copycat tactical ideas and self or department interests. All in all, it may effectively cause lower levels of drive, synergy and loyalty inside an organization. Only when you really know where you are heading and you can rally your forces behind it should you move on to the challenges of what you should communicate, how, where and to whom.

“Your vision of where and who you

want to be is the greatest asset you

have.” Paul Arden

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Compete only at

touchpoints

where you

can win.

Where you can’t

win, don’t

compete.

Customer Touchpoint Management See Your Advertising Through Your Customers’ Eyes

Bus

i ne s s

Gl o

The traditional approach of advertisers is to think in terms of communication channels like TV, Internet, events and so on. The same logic characterizes traditional media planning as well: find the greatest number of impressions through available media options. It is only the customers who don’t think like that any more. This logic does not help connecting to them, because they gather their experiences M IB through a variety of smaller and larger, direct and indirect interactions with your brand, all of which serve as communication. Anything “We will see ‘neutral’ from product experience through word-ofevaluation of all media formats. There is no mouth to advertising, even how your primary role for linear employee picks up the phone. All of these TV any more.” little experiences are channeled and molded into one overall experience that is the basis for making decisions. So if you want to break out of the clutter and connect, you better reverse your approach and align your thinking with that of your customers’. That is the way they read you, so it is high time you started thinking and writing in their language. Customer Touchpoint Serv

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Management is about understanding and managing all customer touchpoints in one integrated system. It is also about identifying and building high-impact touchpoints in a synergic way.

In a Network Reality...

“Technology is merging the real and virtual worlds to create a new space. People live there so we should learn how to interact with them in that landscape.” Jeroen Matser Senior planner, Tribal DDB London

Interconnectedness

Interdependency

Intensity

Interactivity

“One of the things our grandchildre n will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real... In the future, that will become literally impossible” William Gibson

But how can you integrate all potential customer touchpoints into one system where they all strengthen each other, where the impact and cost-effectiveness of all touchpoints are comparable to one another? You need to think not in terms of channels through which you transmit your message, but in terms of environments in which you create focused, meaningful and multi-faced experiences for customers. Channels are only your execution tools. Start with three types of environments: 1. the physical: everything

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connected to first hand experiences with brand delivery (buying and retail experience, shelf placement, product and service experience, website, packaging, customer or vendor relationship management etc.); 2. the virtual: everything connected to brand promises and messages which create a virtual brand presence around customers (how you talk about yourself through all kinds of media, events, Direct Mail etc.); 3. the social: the voice of the network and what others are saying about you (PR, search, viral, social media, brand associations, opinion leaders, employees). When you start thinking in environments, experiences and what touchpoints within those environments are most impactful in building your brand and driving your sales, then you have turned the corner and are on your way to elevating your marketing to the next level. But using this model can also help uncovering structural problems in your marketing. Had they used this approach, it would not have taken the marketing team responsible for the Unicum brand two

ial

h a soc point wit cal touch outh si y h p a : ord-of-m ew York to stir w ore in N Apple st l enough ia c e sp it is twist as

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years to understand that it was not only advertising where they had to tackle the Jaegermeister challenge. It was product experience. A new generation of consumers has grown up which has not warmed to the peculiar bitter taste of the traditional Hungarian liquor, especially when they had another, sweeter option. Once they got that, it didn’t take much time to come up with Unicum Next, a new, less bitter, cooler version and an instant success.

hen they perience w stage an ex ay.” “Companies ers in a memorable w om ore: st m cu il G ge . enga l, James H el in P h p B. Jose nomy ience Eco The Exper

Physical Environment First hand experience through brand delivery

Touchpoints

Brand Experience

Virtual Environment Experience through brand messages and promises

Social Environment Experience through the voice of the network

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Bus

i ne s s

Gl o

Thinking in terms of environments and experien-ces helps you understand, identify and build touchpoints - but comparing their effectiveness is another trick. You need to M IB think along two lines: 1. You need to understand the decision making process and structure your communication ew igrate to n As users m ntent and co r accordingly. Different touchpoints work ng and screens fo , advertisi n o ti a t rm if info better or worse at different phases of the d to sh g will nee t marketin importan re o m is decision making process. The Internet as well. It nsumto reach co hen than ever w t, n a may be an extremely effective touchpoint they w ers where they t and how n a w g for consideration, but may be less n ey th vertisi d with ad t n ca ifi want. An n g effective in engaging or making the nding a si t dollars fu tertainmen en f o n io port conversion. TV may work well in the e world around th mated ti es n a g n engagement phase, but is next to (sponsori ion in t of televis 50 percen useless in the consideration phase. It r rkets, fo major ma m, iu ed m e th all depends on the target group and example), sing nd adverti . p content a u ch the decision making process for that must syn spending particular product/service category. 2. You need better criteria for comparing touchpoints than what you probably have now. You need to dig deeper. You should not be satisfied by less than target reach * impact. No doubt, it may be hard at times to attach an exact number to all impact factors. Still, in most cases, making a well-grounded judgment is possible, and even if you fall short of having exact measurements at all times, it is far better to have rough answers to the right questions, than to have exact and detailed answers to the wrong ones. Serv

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CDM* Phase

Customer Touchpoints

Target Reach

Touchpoint Impact Factors (%) Credibility Proximity to Involvement of Source Conversion

Degree of Customization

TIPs (Touchpoint Impact Points)

Open & Engage Convince Convert

Care

* Customer Decision Making Process

With respect to target reach, make sure you are not falling into the trap of going by the seemingly impressive numbers of absolute reach. What matters is reaching your target group. As for impact, you need to identify the relevant impact factors you can judge or measure at various touchpoints. Involvement refers to the context of communication and the customer’s state of mind: the more involving, relevant and focused the communication context, the more impactful your message can be. A billboard will usually come with low levels of involvement: the context is lots of visual noise, the state of mind is everything but focused and interested. The opposite is true for search results, product usage or word of mouth. Credibility refers to the messenger: the more credible the source, the more impactful your message can be. It is the reason why Pontiac pointed to Google as opposed to their own website at the end of their TV commercial. Proximity to

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Conversion refers to the time and place relative to a conversion possibility: the closer it is to conversion, the more impactful your message can be, since there is less time for the impact to fade. This factor is why packaging and service personnel are as important communication tools as they are. Degree IBM of Customization refers to how personal you can be: the more customized the communication, the more impactful g in d n a your message can be. dem and rs are obal Busi Gl n

s es

e s S tu vic dy

c se Adverti ividual-specifi d in e r d mo ase ment b g involve , puttin nal ts n e m e r io u it s d a a e tr m e wore on th pressu rket model. T a g m in mass dvertis of the a polled expect s d ir th g ves IBM executi t of advertisin en c m o fr 20 per t e to shif revenu n-based to hin sio s e r ats wit imp d form e s a b timpac ] It is ears. [â&#x20AC;Ś singly easy a three y e r , c ing in wership becom tual vie nse. c a e r u s o to mea ent and resp m engage at accurate alter th y Having on will greatl ati is m r g fo in in rtis y adve isseminated the wa nd d a d e c imately produ it is ult w o h d an r. paid fo

Having determined these impact factors, you can then map and weigh the impact potentials of various touchpoints relative to their costs.

How to Activate Customer Touchpoints: Keep It Simple

Whatever touchpoint you look at, there are three basic things you may do: Talk, Listen, Act. Advertising is mostly about talking. But people are becoming bored with being talked at, so you need to broaden your perspective and think in all three. Talking of course is important, but a more balanced approach is called for. In fact customers want less talking, less promises from brands, but more action and listening.

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You’d be surprised not only by how much you can learn, but also how effectively you can build relationships and create indirect promotion through listening. And acting becomes part of the mix too, when you think about how you can build marketing into your product and service. Even a communication tool can become a means of your brand delivery. Remember Threadless, the innovative T-Shirt company? (Flip back a couple of pages to Principle 9, if you don’t.) Using the power of listening and collaborative action, Threadless has built an operation where customers are involved in almost every aspect of the business, where in effect ‘the customer is the company’. This way Threadless was not only able to achive fast growth, but also - at the same time - save on virtually everything from product design to modelling, advertising, sales and retail distribution.

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Fiber Integration Instead of 360º Communications When you face the challenge of how to integrate your communication efforts, you’d be better off approaching it as

weaving threads into a fiber than a circle with segments indicating various channels. First, the fiber represents that your communication is a process connecting the brand with the customer. Second, it suggests that you only need the right number of the right threads to create the fiber, not all possible ones. Third, it allows you to think creatively about touchpoints and does not lock you into a given number of options displayed on the circle. Fourth and probably most importantly, it shows that you have to weave the threads together, not just use the same visual on all of them. A good illustration for this approach is consciously building on the phenomenon of multitasking and multiple channel consumption. It is becoming a way of life for 21st century customers: “Google moms” at home keep the internet on and always available while they do their tasks around the house; people increasingly watch TV and use their laptop simultaneously; companies have cited ‘mobile phones under the table’ as one of the biggest obstacles to conducting coherent meetings.

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You Need to Know Who You cannot communicate meaningfully with a general audience. When you really talk to someone, you are not talking to somebody else. In other words, meaningful communication means different conversations with different people. If you try talking to everyone, however, or if you don’t know who you are talking to, you have to resort to talking about yourself. The only problem with this is that customers are not interested in You. They are only interested in what they want and how you can help them. So you have to know where you fit in your customers lives, tailor your communication to specific targets and focus on benefits instead of features. There are three things you should concentrate on when you try identifying your target groups: the need state, the decision making profile and purchasing power. All three underscore the need for psychographic segmentation: people need and want things and make decisions mostly based on who they are, not what they are. Demographic factors like gender, age, sex, ethnicity, income level tell you little about how people may feel and what their desires may be. Their greatest advantage is that – being available in the form of statistical data – they are easy to handle. Psychographic factors, such as lifestyle, values, personality, hobbies, life stages and situations, profession hit way closer to what matters. One is much more likely to think of himself as a divorced, liberal teacher with an interest in extreme sports than as a white male aged somewhere between 30 and 45 living in Budapest.

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Need state Decision making profile • Who they are • What they want • What they do • What they think and feel

How they... • gather information • make decision • communicate • realate to your product or service category

Purchasing power • How many they are • How much they are likely to buy • How influential they are • Who they influence

In fact a 25 year old black woman in Vienna with the same psychographic credentials could be very similar to our guy with respect to her needs and wants in a number of cases, while the same cannot be said about someone who has a similar demographic profile, but is married, conservative, runs his own grocery store and is crazy about classical music. To go even beyond psychographics you should consider states of minds. They change throughout the day, the week or the year according to context and occasions. Balancer parents are much more likely to be open to thinking about their home and family in late afternoon on their way home from work than in the morning on the way in.

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“People read particular magazines because of the life stages and events which currently involve them: from teenager to golfer, from having a baby to coping with retirement.”

Treat Research As a Genuine Touchpoint With Customers

Getting to know who your customers really are, what they want and how they behave Henley Center, Delivering means research. Using Engagement 2004 research, however, can be tricky: too much of it, especially quantitative - the seemingly most secure and scientific - can lead you astray. The results may be long on numbers - but the further detached you become in the forest of numbers from customers, the shorter you will be on insights, those little epiphanies that lead to breakthroughs. A lot of numbers may cover your butt as a manager, but will easily generate information paralysis, as opposed to meaningful initiatives. Lots of numbers are at best turned into small, measurable improvements which do not require a lot of courage and do not make much difference in the end. To fare better, to build on the power of heart pounding insights, to uncover the true motives behind customer behaviour, you need to dig deeper. Even deeper than asking people what they like, or how they would behave. They cannot tell you. They do not know or they will not say. One of the reasons for this is called the Hawthorne effect - the tendency for people to act differently when they know someone is watching. To find real gold, you have to go out into the wild. Consider something called ethnographic research. Go to your customers in their

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natural environment. Simply create or observe real life situations and look for behavioural patterns. Gather and analyze behavioral data, but don’t underestimate the power of your intuition either. If you are short on time or money, go quick and dirty, then validate where you need to. It can be cheaper, faster and very meaningful.

From Advertising Space to Engagement Platforms - How to Approach Media In the New World In a communication landscape where attempts at buying attention through media become increasingly ineffective, we also need to rethink how we approach media. If customers screen, evade and mistrust advertising, what actually are marketers paying for when they buy traditional media? Impressions without impact. Doesn’t sound too good, does it? But what are the alternatives? Of course, you may try to circumnavigate the problem by using exceptional creatives or using the media itself creatively, but these solutions are short term bandaids that work only occasionally. Another way to approach the problem is changing the traditional equation a bit. What media has or could have to offer to marketers are knowledge of and relationship with customers. It would truly be valuable, if they knew their audiences well enough to know when someone is open to a conversation or message in a certain topic, so could provide the platform and the occasion for engagement. Google in fact has started providing that value. It happens automatically when you type in what you are looking for. No wonder budgets are moving towards search. But Google performs in the other

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important aspect as well. It has developed a special relationship with its users. Google is generally perceived as an unbiased and credible source of information; at least way less biased and more credible than advertising (and it is for precisely the same reasons why a lot of blogs also perform well as engagement platforms). Google has found a model in sync with the new world which traditional media companies have a hard time to compete with. But the task is clear. To catch up, media companies have to find ways to develop intimate knowledge of and meaningful relationship with a commercially viable audience and find ways to capitalize on that. If that happens, it is worth paying for.

Spreading Word Through the Network The obvious solution to this riddle, according to many, is to find the opinion leaders, the so called ’influentials’, convince them and let the ride begin. Unfortunately it seems a bit more complex then that. To be sure, ideas spread faster when they tap into the power of word-of-mouth – be it digital or non-digital. But it takes more than just finding a group of well connected individuals and use them as a kind of megaphone. You will find a couple of tricky challenges along the way. First, in most cases it is virtually impossible to start a trend. Network effects in society are too complex and random for companies to control. What you need to do instead is to try and catch a wave you can ride by finding a trend that is ready to be tipped. That, however, will be much like searching for cracks in snow covered ice over a lake, then trying to wedge a spike in one of them to start a crevasse.

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The cracks you should be looking for in our case are psychological, sociological, economic or technological tensions. Such tension between industrial development and habitable environment spurred the green trend. Another particular form of tension – that gave rise to so many trends like retro – occurs when the hitherto new and different becomes mainstream while new generations want to be just as different as the ones before. Second, you need an engaging idea that will stick in the social context and will start a life of its own. A classic example for this is what Donny Deutsch did for British Knights in the early 90’s on the ‘be different’ theme: ‘Your mother wears Nike’ – no more needs to be said. Third, you need to find a way to inject it into the social network. Put your message out through communication hubs (people or platforms) and look for those large numbers, but also try identifying and targeting psychographic segments that influence others in your particular field. Instead of just repeating a message, become part of the conversation.

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Cracking the ‘Social Media’ nut Probably the question with the most hype around it these days is how to capitalize on social media. The first thing, however, you must do to find answers is to stop treating social media as just a new tool or channel which you simply have to figure out how to put your advertising on. What you need to realize is that social media is not actually the blogs, social sites, podcasts and mash-ups. Social media is simply the conversation among customers, employees and investors, in other words people, which is powered by technology like blogs, social sites and so on. And guess what! It is not organized, not controlled and not on message. You can be part of it, you can use it, but you can’t control it. It is not the place to sell. It is a place to start a conversation. It is not a place to make them want you. It is the place to make them try and experience you. It is a place to induce trends. But it only makes sense if you think in the whole decision making process. The key words for using social media effectively are participate, appreciate, engage, challenge and empower. Be content not to have full control and adjust your strategy. Appreciate the time, energy and effort people devote to you by listening or providing real value in exchange. Engage to involve them in a meaningful experience. Challenge their curiosity and sense of adventure and empower them to act on their own initiative. Ok, but what can you actually do, if you want to go ‘social’? It’s not just about being popular. Focus on creating business

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value. Four ways you can do that are the following. 1. Build a hub where people can talk about you and interact with you. Create branded utilities to create a relevant, involving and attractive experience. Business value here can come from spreading the experience to more people in a genuine way and from learning a lot about how customers relate to the experience. ‘My Vegas’ for Las Vegas or ‘Ballers Network’ and ‘Nike+’ for Nike are good examples. 2. You can work with your fans if you have them. Lots of brands do from Google or sports teams to universities, high tech gadgets and clothing lines. The task is to identify and activate them. This is the point where appreciating, challenging and empowering by, for example, asking for their input, giving them inside information can make all the difference. Business value in this case comes form creating credible advocates who independently spread your message in the most appropriately personalized way through their own social networks. 3. Gather insights – both within the company and in the larger community. It is all about the art of listening: finding already existing conversations about what matters to you, creating new ones, making ideas available for development, making sure you have a process to filter the relevant information and finally ensuring that you act upon what you learn. The source of business value here is insights and understanding, making innovation and product development cheaper and more effective and building or strengthening relationships with customers. 4. Create new value people want in sync with your brand through content or applications. Look for gaps where you can deliver. A good example for this is how FedEx found its place

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on FaceBook. Users could not attach documents or images to messages on FaceBook the way they could in e-mails. So FedEx created an application called ‘Launch a Package’ that made it possible. The application, an experience in sync with the brand, was an instant success with over 100 000 installs in the first 48 hours. But before you dive head first into social media, consider a couple of issues. Do you have the character? Are you prepared to face what an uncontrolled environment may generate? Do you have the story? What will be genuinely interesting, relevant and valuable to your target audience in what you are planning to do? Are your customers ready? Are they really present in the social media world? Do they value peer opinions in your product category? Finally, do you have the experience, the tools and the resources to really make it work?

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Reason

leads to

conclusion

emotion

leads to

action Donald Calne, Neurologist

Creative Engagement Don’t Just Talk Creatively. Engage. That Is the Real Creative Challenge. Creative Engagement is a breed of creative thinking and execution that is focused on interactions and experiences the very things customers are ultimately concerned about. In this sense, creative is simply the means of bridging the gap, making the connection between what a brand is or has to say and the consumers’ minds and lives. It means anything and everything that achieves that. It may just be good traditional advertising ideas and design. But it may be more, if needed, for the boundaries of interactions and experiences stretch beyond the realm of advertising. By focusing on these, creative engagement is able to break out of the trap and limitations of thinking in “just” advertising. It also means that creatives have to be multi-talented talk to eople alled p n e “Wh it’s c people, linking right and left elves, thems . When y it brains, understanding through insan ies talk to d an lle comp it’s ca elves, logic and empathy the lives and thems ing.” et mark ista, minds of those they are talking to, Baut Steve riter w capable of thinking creatively in copy terms of customer value, simultaneously being rational and intuitive, serious and playful and seeing details

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and the big picture at the same time. These are indeed a new breed of creatives whom David Armano, VP of Critical Mass, has called the ‘Renaissance People’.

Creative Engagement Breaking Out of the Traditional Advertising Mindset Keeping the focus on experiences and interactions as opposed to just doing great design or advertising can really make the difference. A good illustration for this from Michael Conrad, former Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett Worldwide, is the case of a shopping mall, built on the tip of a peninsula in Hong Kong with a picturesque view of the city center. Needless to say, such a location ensured good business… until someone built another great shopping centre at the base of the peninsula, a far less picturesque location, yet directly on the way towards the original mall. As we all now, the Power of Now is a force not to be neglected, so customers - on their way to the original mall - duly veered off at the first one, never making it to the tip of the peninsula. So the management of the original mall put out a creative pitch for advertisers to turn the tide. Among the many advertising concepts, there was one in the spirit of creative engagement. The idea was simple, but an ingenious solution to the problem: build a bridge so customers can get there quickly and easily.

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“Engagement is all about making it relevant to the customer.” James Speros, Chief Marketing Officer, Earnst & Young

Provide Added Value Through Creative Don’t just advertise. Make your communication part of your brand value. Show how your brand may be a relevant and valuable part of your targets’ lives. Deliver. Think of creative and communication also as a potential agent of brand delivery, not only of brand promise. The Nike brand is all about inspiring weekend athletes to move, and a lot of their advertising does just that: helps and inspires. Nike+ Human Race was designed to connect about a million people in 24 cities to run 10 km simultaneously. Ballers Network is a tool to help basketball players hook up with others in their area to organize a game. They meaningfully connect; both to those who have and those who have not already bought their products.

“The greatest thing by far is to be master of the metaphor.” Aristotle

The Language of Feeling We live in an information rich, time poor society. Similar products, too much information and too little time to process it all create an environment where people increasingly rely on feelings more than information to make their decisions.

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The old method of judging products through comparing features and benefits simply does not work any more in a lot of cases. So if creative is your tool for connecting with customers, it has to be a master of emotions and empathy. That is why design is not just about looking good. Aesthetics is the language of feeling, capable of expressing what you have to say and engaging customers in a meaningful experience. Do not settle for less. Quick tests for meaningful creative from Marty Neumeier (Brand Gap)

The Swap Test Swap your brand icon – the name or the visual element – with that of a competing brand or even a brand from another category. If the result is no worse than your original, there is room for improvement. Original Trademarks

With names swapped

The Hand Test Take any piece of visual communication and cover up your trademark with your hand. Can you tell whose piece it is? If the communication piece in question could have come from another company, it is less than it could be. It does not have your voice to it, or you do not have a distinctive voice to begin with.

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Separate Good Creative and True Creative Innovation From Mere Trendiness You cannot be truly different or creative without embracing innovation. The problem is that no innovation comes without some measure of uncertainty. To minimize this risk, companies often turn to testing and research. But when research means asking people what they want, you are not doing yourself a service. They will invariably say they want more of the same, only with better features, at a lower price or both. Different, on the other hand, makes them uneasy at first which produces comments like ‘weird’, ‘ugly’ or ‘crazy’ that in turn make companies shy away from ‘different’. While this may effectively kill innovative initiatives, it does not help at all in deciding whether the innovation in question would fly or not, if introduced. So what can you do? Instead of asking, try looking at “Making the simple complicated people’s lives, their behaviour patterns is commonplace; making and find a fit which is different from the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s everybody else. Try not to be paralyzed creativity.” by your knowledge and methods, rather Charles Mingu look for the empty space between existing solutions and combine hitherto unrelated ones in new and meaningful ways: music with walking, jeeps with metropolitan driving, cold water and washing. Think not so much about the unbuilt product or the undesigned ad, but of the unserved need or the disconnected people.

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Which sign makes you want to give more?

I am blind. Please help m e.

It is a beautiful day today. I cannot see it.

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The Creative Vortex - how to judge creative

Disruptive Idea

Practical Development

Inspiring Action

This creative process is applicable whether you face a conceptual or an executional challenge, from brands to individual ads. Disruptive Idea refers to insight driven, fresh, out-of-the box thinking. It is finding the touch and the magic which connects with customers. It is often counterintuitive, but always based on customer understanding.

Practical Development refers to embracing and developing the idea with practical concerns in mind: focused on 1. interaction and experience (which means useful, useable, desirable) 2. being on brand and message 3. having depth and extendibility, if needed. Inspiring Action refers to executing in a way that inspires – not just calls for – meaningful change or action in the target audience.

Conversations and Interaction Loops Engage, but engage meaningfully. Create reasons to interact with You, to talk about You, not just your ad. Create interaction loops and develop them into a process of meaningful dialogue. Forming an opinion or making a decision does not just happen. It usually is the result of a process. Complying with this, creative engagement always thinks in dialogues, be it

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An engaging creative during the 1998 French World Cup from Coca-Cola

within the framework of just one communication channel or in an integrated, multi-channel environment. In this sense, reaching your target is only the start of a conversation. It is only the first half of the loop. Whatever you do, it should inspire some relevant change or action in your audience to close an interaction loop which provides an opportunity for you

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to go on and start another loop. The task, in other words, is to create a series of loops, a spiral towards conversion. Such an interaction spiral better describes how potential customers advance towards making a decision than the often used linear conversion funnels. It is worth keeping in mind at this point that a conversation is mostly about quality, not quantity. For instance, you may have often heard experts talk about how people do not like clicking on the Internet. But it may very well be that the opposite is true. Most people in fact like clicking. They would not be doing so much of it if they didn’t. It is a dialogue and they treat it as such. What they do not like “Tell them and they is confusion and irrelevant, will forget. unnecessary clicking. Show them and they will remember. Involve them and they will understand.” Confucius

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Somebody Else’s Phone: Engagement and Interaction Loops by Nokia In the fall of 2008, Nokia created a fictional branded entertainment campaign, based on the idea of you finding someone else’s phone, filled with personal text messages, contacts, diary entries, photos, voicemails and private video clips, offering a virtual window into somebody’s entire life. The lives in question belonged to three hip and trendy youths, Anna, Jade and Luca who, like most youths in Europe and the U.S. these days, lived their lives on their cell phones. As well as traditional TV, print, outdoor and radio, each character’s story was told in real time through the website, where the audience could access the characters’ new, ‘to-be-introduced’ Nokia handsets through over 3750 different pieces of mobile media content over the campaign period. You could even check out their Facebook pages, find their phone numbers and call or text them directly. At the end of the six-week campaign the characters’ stories all ended on crucial decisions that had a major effect on their future. These questions were shared with the audience, giving them the opportunity to influence the storylines themselves.

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Perception Is

Reality

Living Brands and Active Branding A Word On Strategy In a Changing World A deep understanding of branding is key in 21st century marketing. But branding also changes in the new millennium, where the main challenge has become adapting to a continuously changing environment. In this new world, as Marty Neumeier explains in his book The Brand Gap, successful brands behave more like organisms than organizations, shifting, growing, dividing and combining as needed. And while the old corporate identity paradigm prized uniformity, perfection and consistency, the new one requires brands to be alive, authentic and dynamic. Consistency in fact does not come from appearance. It’s like with people. What makes you “you” is deeper than looks and moods. You may wear a suit with a serious face in the morning, put on shorts and be all smiles in the afternoon, others still recognize you. It is because your personality has depth. It is three dimensional. It is a pattern of behaviour that grows out of character. It is the very thing that may inspire trust and will be consistent as long as it remains genuine and does not abandon its defining attributes. Don’t Act. Behave. Only brands weak on personality have to resort to the illusion of consistency gained from unchanging appearance and tone of voice.

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“If your brand looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck and swims like a duck, then it must be a duck. If it swims like a dog, however, people start to wonder.” Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap

What Is a Brand? It is not a name, a product, a logo or a corporate identity system. A brand is the overall, stereotypical impression of people - rational and emotional combined - about a product, service, organization, place or person. Neumeier simply puts it as “a person’s gut feeling” about any particular one of these. It is a tool we unconsciously use to make sense of an overly complex and overcrowded world around us: an easy-touse container for all our experiences and impressions related to a particular thing, name or concept. This way branding is nothing else, but the company’s effort to shape and influence this impression in people’s hearts and minds in a way most advantageous to its business.

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Spread the Experience, But Keep the Focus Tight It is people who create brands. Companies initiate them, influence them, but in the end people define brands in order to bring order out of the overwhelming clutter around them. They create and recreate them every day, so the only way to effectively manage a brand is by focusing on all its interactions with customers, on all the experiences people have with the brand. This, however, means that branding needs to permeate every aspect of your business and you constantly have to be conscious of it. No decision, big or small, should be made without an understanding of how it will affect the brand and its relationship with the customer. So make your brand into a personal compass for everyone in your company which helps them focus on what the brand stands for and why it is special and valuable for customers. When that fails, your brand value and competitive edge suffers. Amazon lost 31% of its brand value in one year when it diluted its focused online bookstore identity into a store offering everything from music to baby furniture.

Lose Control, But Gain the Initiative Surrendering total control doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean giving up on selling. Think of building the brand more as nurturing and raising a child and less as programming a computer. Create a brand with depth and let it live, connect, interact, breathe, be human, even make mistakes. Let go of artificial perfection and be authentic. Brands unable to project depth and humanity tend to create suspicion among customers. Those who try to

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control just the “look” of an organization create cardboard figures, not three dimensional characters.

Keystone Strategies For a Changing World A keystone is the architectural piece at the crown of a vault or arch and marks its apex, locking the other pieces into position. One simple stone, yet, due to its central location, it holds the whole construct together if, and only if it is placed exactly at the right spot. When you plan a strategy for a changing world, it is also “keystones” you need: a strategy of no more and no less than an in-depth and actionable understanding of who you are, what you want to be, why that matters to customers and what the key success factors and barriers are towards your destination. Action plans in a changing environment, however strategic and well worked out they are, cannot perform one of the main tasks of strategy: being the source of stability and consistency. This is precisely the reason why important strategic plans end up on shelves soon after they have been completed. The world changes and the action plan devised at a certain point in time becomes outdated and inadequate, thus cannot serve as a compass at decision points. Action plans need to be kept flexible to adapt to change, while consistency may come from keystone strategies which keep your ever changing tactics and actions focused on what you want to achieve.

Satisfaction Is Not the Opposite of Dissatisfaction When you dig deeper into what your brand may mean to

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customers, you may realize, as Hertzberg has demonstrated, that the opposite of satisfaction or motivation is not necessarily dissatisfaction or demotivation. Take the example of lighting at your workplace. Bad lighting will make you dissatisfied, but good lighting will not produce satisfaction - it will simply not cause dissatisfaction. The same applies to customer value and benefits attached to brands. Cold for soft drinks, snow for ski resorts, cleanliness for hotels are simply cost of entry to the category. They are expected. They can hurt you, if you don’t provide them, they may even eliminate you, but they alone will not make you successful. Real satisfaction and motivation, on the other hand, are always derived from people’s emotions and desires, therefore are more difficult to get a grasp on: they come from factors that promise or produce emotional benefits and experiences like adventure, bonding, belonging, indulgence, fulfillment, acknowledgement, status and so on. So be conscious and clear on what your motivators and demotivators are. Chances are they will not be the same factors.

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An Agent of Change and Hope Interaction Design For Marketing At Work Probably the best example so far for the ‘interaction design’ approach and technique being applied to the marketing challenge as a whole is Barack Obama’s 2007-2008 U.S. presidential campaign. Naturally, a presidential race is decided by a large number of factors. For now, however, let us focus on one of them: marketing. Examining the competitive landscape, Obama started out as a relatively unknown black man with limited experience and a bad – or at least strange – sounding name. He came up against the best-known woman politician with an extremely rich political pedigree, excellent connections and fund raising power and a well-known war hero with a long, distinguished record as a U.S. senator. What did Obama have to counter the disadvantage? How could he turn liabilities into assets?

Eyes On the Destination First, he had a clear goal and vision which provided passion and focus to everything he did. He had a

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target in mind, the presidency, but had also a clearly defined platform which – if successfully accomplished – would make reaching that target possible. The platform was becoming the credible agent of change who could inspire much needed hope in a time of crisis upon crisis. And he also had a firm conviction he could deliver.

The Power of Positioning Second, with ‘Change – We Can Believe In’, he built on an awesomely simple and relevant, thus powerful positioning, even recognizing and incorporating the vitally important credibility aspect. The idea of change was relevant at both the national and the most personal levels. He kept it consistently at the focus throughout his campaign while his opponents were trying to either be better (not different) at his game, or changing their positioning (or slogan) with every new wind to stay interesting. Change was the only original, consistent and relevant underlying theme of the campaign and it was owned by Barack Obama. At the same time, he did not shy away from becoming personal, showed his different faces, even let himself be seen “weak” at times. He did not strive to look perfect. As a result he became genuine, not inconsistent in the eyes of most people. His consistency came from another source. Through every single theme, issue or interaction point, he strengthened, demonstrated and delivered that basic underlying promise

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of change towards a better future: not only through what he said, but how he said it, who he was, how he looked and how he behaved. He filled the idea of change with content and style and translated what it means for various issues and constituencies from veterans to health care. For many, he managed to become a symbol of change.

Experience Through Touchpoints Third, he understood and embraced the concept of customer touchpoint management. He was not solely focused on pushing messages through various Obama on IPhone channels. He consciously planned and created a unified, overall experience through a whole host of touchpoints. He designed the experience and engagement strategies for all three relevant environments: physical (what he did), virtual (what he communicated) and social (what others said about him). His campaign almost flawlessly and creatively integrated digital and non-digital platforms, network, social and direct communication efforts, built on personalization and collaboration where it could and used the virtual space and technology to its full potential.

Engage, Inspire, Empower Fourth, he did not just talk to voters trying to lure and convince them. He engaged, challenged, inspired and empowered them. He always focused on generating interaction loops. If you flip a few pages back to where the creative vortex is described, you will find that he performed extremely well along those lines, whether you talk about his

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Difference in banners

convention speech or get-out-the-vote viral messages. In the first case you find plenty of ideas aiming out of the box and based on insights, like the notion that ‘instead of red states and blue states, Americans should think of the united states’, his oratorical performance or that tickets were provided in exchange for contact details so that he could try to gather as many activists as he can. An example of the latter is the personalized viral video of a short fictitious news excerpt on how Obama’s opponent, John McCain won the election by one single vote because someone, the recipient of the message, did not make the effort to

“I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington... I’m asking you to believe in yours.”

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Barack Obama • YouTube Subscribers • Friends • MySpace friends • Twitter followers

101,318 23,817 711,524 99, 121

John MCCain • YouTube Subscribers • Friends • MySpace friends • No official Twitter account

25, 322 Not stated 172,953

actually get out and vote. Another example is how every single one of the videos on Obamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s YouTube channel linked to a Google Donate button. On the Obama website, people could get involved and campaign on his behalf, with drag and drop code that allowed those people to fund raise on their own sites. The list is endless. He also understood that making a decision is a process, that intent and behaviour are not the same. He consciously built and developed relationships, paid attention to not letting go as soon as he got what he wanted, used associations effectively and tried talking to voters as people as opposed to voters.

Bringing It All Together Finally, while positioning or individual communication tools are important, the most important lesson from the Obama campaign is how he integrated all these into a unified, synergic and customer focused system. And the results? They speak for themselves.

Get involved

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The Process of

Interaction

Design

for

Marketing

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In s te ad o f A d vert i si ng

Who you are talking to:

Who you are:

In what context:

Customer Understanding

Brand & Product Understanding

Environment Understanding

• Who they are • Why they should care • Where you fit in their lives

• What it can do for customers • How it is special/different • Relationship with customers

• Competitive • Socio-political • Economic • Technological • Media

Brand Experience Design • Find, define & structure the brand experience which will drive satisfaction, loyalty and growth • Define and plan what the experience means for all 3 environments: physical, virtual and social

Engagement Concept • Creative Engagement planning • Identify existing and potential high impact customer touchpoints • Integrated touchpoint strategy (touchpoint comparison, impact routes, customer scenarios, creative synergy)

Creative Planning for Touchpoints • Creative concept for all relevant touchpoints • Content and design for all relevant touchpoints

Execution • Coordination and control • Production

A Lesson From Diving You are under great pressure … Your survival is at stake … Your resources are depleted … You have to act fast, no time to really think it through, otherwise...

Sounds familiar? But take a lesson from a place where all this is truly real. You are 20 meters deep under water and you have a problem! Now that is real … And your best chance to survive is the rule they hammer into you:

Stop, Think, Act. In that order. Whatever your instincts tell you, you cannot allow yourself to act first. And it is precisely because the consequences of your actions will catch up with you very fast. It is exactly in these situations when you cannot allow yourself to make the wrong move.

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But to think is not just having an idea, even a good one. Not just looking at what others do. That does not take you far. Nor it is simply a detailed analysis of numbers and charts. It is rather a clear understanding of what best drives survival and success relative to your circumstances.

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Glossary Active Branding … is an approach to branding that views brands as living entities, as the sum and container of all experiences and interactions customers have with the brand, and provides strategies for a multi-faced, constantly changing environment. It is about managing relationships between the company and its constituents, conducting an on-going conversation among many people over many channels. Brand … is not a name, a product, a logo or a corporate identity system. A brand is the overall, stereotypical impression of people - rational and emotional combined - about a product, service, organization, place or person. Neumeier simply puts it as “a person’s gut feeling” about any particular one of these. It is a tool we unconsciously use to make sense of an overly complex and overcrowded world around us: an easy-to-use container for all our experiences and impressions related to a particular thing, name or concept. This way branding is nothing else, but the company’s effort to shape and influence this impression in people’s hearts and minds in a way most advantageous to its business.

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Classic Advertising … is the approach to marketing communications that is based on one-way promotion of a brand/product/service, interruption and buying customers’ attention. Creative Engagement …is a breed of creative thinking and execution that is focused on interactions and experiences - the very things customers are ultimately concerned about. In this sense, creative is simply the means of bridging the gap, making the connection between what a brand is or has to say and the consumers’ minds and lives. Customer Touchpoint … is any setting or experience where any representation of the brand touches, meets or interacts with the customer thereby leaving a rational and emotional impression. Customer Touchpoint Management …is a methodology designed to identify and create the most impactful customer touchpoints - aligned with the decision making process - across the whole spectrum of opportunities (from PR and media through research, CRM, events, internet, search marketing or TV advertising even to product experience or network-based communications like word-of-mouth, social, viral or opinion panels) and build them into an integrated synergic system.

Glossary

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Design Too many of us in marketing regard design as something you spread on the surface, like icing on a cake. It may be nice, it is a must, but it is not mission-critical. That, however, is what Garr Reynolds calls in his book Presentation Zen decoration, rather than design. “Decoration, for better or worse, is noticeable - sometimes enjoyable, sometimes irritating, but it is unmistakably there.” The best designs, on the other hand, are so well done that “the design” is never consciously noticed by the observer. It feels natural. You know when it works by finding yourself concentrating on the message, not the messenger. Good design comes in the beginning, not at the end. It is not a visual afterthought. It is the clear vision of the form and the fabric of the message that is rendered through various forms of execution like visual expression. Fiber Integration … is a term and analogy to describe an approach to integration as weaving threads into a fiber rather than the usual segmented circle of 360º communications. Impact Route … is a term to describe the process and mechanism of achieving meaningful impact on customers by any marketing communication effort through various touchpoints and interactions.

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Interactive Communications Although nowadays the term interactive is generally associated with digital, interactive is not limited to the digital world. Almost any piece of communication can be approached and enhanced by the interactive mindset. Still, it is worth keeping in mind that we are in the digital age when ‘digital’ (internet, mobile, on-demand TV etc.) is rapidly becoming the most important communication platform - a virtual world onto itself - which, by its very nature, offers an environment characterized by a complex web of interactions. Interaction …simply means an action and a corresponding reaction. More precisely, with respect to communications, it means a dialogue, a two-way communication where both parties actively participate in the process. Interaction Design for Marketing I have borrowed the term ‘interaction design’ from technology and product development and applied it to the concept of marketing. The original meaning is defined by Wikipedia as follows: “Interaction Design is the discipline of defining the behavior of products and systems that a user can interact with. The practice typically centers around complex technology systems such as software, mobile devices, and other electronic devices. However, it can also apply to other types of products and services, and even organizations themselves. Interaction design defines the behavior (the “interaction”) of an artifact or system in

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response to its users.” Interaction Design for Marketing thus refers to the approach which views, plans and manages marketing communications as the complex web of interactions between a brand or a company and its customers (or any other constituents). Interaction Loop … is a term to describe an interaction where engagement induces a meaningful change or action which creates the basis for further interactions. Micro Interactions David Armano defines micro interactions as follows: „We live in a world where little things really do matter. Each encounter, no matter how brief, is a micro interaction which makes a deposit or withdrawal from our rational and emotional subconscious. The sum of these interactions and encounters adds significantly to how we feel about a particular product, brand or service. Little things. Feelings. They influence our everyday behaviours more than we realize.” Network Reality … is a term to describe the fundamentally changed 21st century marketing, communication and business environment based on its most defining features and the drivers of change: interconnectedness, interdependency, intensity and interactivity.

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Author: Csaba Mรกnyai Marketing strategist and consultant Born in 1974. Economist and historian. Graduated in Budapest and Toronto. 10 years in strategic marketing. 5 years in interactive. Founder and strategic director of 21idea, an interaction design agency based on the principles outlined in this book. Father of one baby girl and passionate about travel and discovery. To comment on the book or to find out what others thought about it, visit www.21idea.hu.